Tales of the Demon Lord by Robert J. Schwalb is a role playing game supplement published by Schwalb Entertainment for use with Shadow of the Demon Lord. This is a collection of adventures set in the Northern Reach of the Urth setting that combine to create a campaign.
The supplement is available as a 49 page PDF from RPGNow for $8, a print on demand softcover book $20.99 or as both PDF and book for $20.99. It can also be purchased as a printed book from sites such as Amazon. The PDF is the version reviewed and it was purchased for the reduced price of $5.60 during a sale. The PDF comes in two versions, one with a page background and one without. Of the PDF, one page is the front cover and one the front matter and Table of Contents.
The two page Introduction explains where the adventures are located and that they tie together into a campaign, if desired. There are also details on the relic around which the campaign is based. There are also suggestions of hooks to get characters involved and introducing replacement characters.
Chapter 1: City in Shadow describes the city of Crossings in the Northern Reach. Briefly outlined are the city’s government, police and military, notable NPCs and people in general. A map of the city is followed by overviews of the various districts and some notable locations in these.
Chapter 2: Harvester of Sorrows is a starting adventure set in Crossings. The characters are asked to look for a priest who has disappeared after looking into some disappearances himself. They will need to visit a house which some cultists recovered a relic from, and accidentally released a creature that is preying on the people nearby.
Chapter 3: Born to Die is a novice adventure and has the characters asked to find a merchant’s missing daughter, who has been kidnapped and held for ransom by a street gang involved in the previous adventure. They are not the only ones looking for the daughter though.
Chapter 4: The Curious Case of the Errant Swine is set outside the city. Some adventurers released some monsters from an elvish building and these have been preying on a farmer’s pigs. The characters will need to explore the small complex and defeat the creatures. The farmer is hiding a secret of his own.
Chapter 5: Temple of Shadows is the first expert adventure and returns to Crossings. Cultists clashed with the agents of a vampire and a plague was released in the process. Its victims die and then return as animate corpses. The characters will need to deal with the item that is causing the plague.
Chapter 6: The Moon Spire leaves Crossings again for the village of Carbuncle. The village is known for the oddities of its inhabitants, oddities caused by the Moon Spire, an elvish tower usually shifted to another dimension. The characters will need to enter the tower and deal with a relic inside it.
Chapter 7: Mines of Madness has the characters sent out of town by a dwarf to investigate why shipments have stopped coming from his mine. Excavations accidentally released some undead and then trying to block these off brought some insectoid creatures to prey on the miners.
Chapter 8: In the Name of Love visits the now nearly desolate settlement of Verge. A woodcutter accidentally killed his betrothed near to a tree in which a demon was imprisoned. Now, he seeks another victim to free the demon. To further muddy things, tear thieves have settled into the well to prey on the townfolk.
Chapter 9: Shadows in the Mist is the first Master level adventure. A hag, on learning that the end of the world will start in Crossings, has decided to prevent the end by instead killing everyone in the city. The characters must travel to a new island on the lake and stop the hag.
Chapter 10: Off the Rails starts with some iron titans, huge mechanical men intended to be more reliable than the now-revolting orcs, have been stolen. The orcs are going to use the titans against a local settlement, with bad consequences for both sides due to demon cultists living in the settlement.
Chapter 11: Prince of Darkness has a demon take possession of a demonologist’s former stronghold. The demon has ripped open a rift to the Void which is now slowly devouring the fortress. The former demonologist’s soul wishes to prevent this, and if the characters fail and the rift completely devours the stronghold, the gate to the Void is fully open and the end of the world begins, unless other forces can stop it.
Chapter 12: The End is Near sees the demonologists encountered first in Chapter 2 start a ritual to bring the Eternal Darkness into the world. If the characters fail, the Demon Lord will enter the world and the end begins. Game Over.
Appendix: New Creatures has six new monsters, four of which are different types of the insectoid race encountered in Chapter 7.
Tales of the Demon Lord in Review
The PDF is well bookmarked with major and minor sections linked. The Table of Contents only covers the chapters. Navigation is good. The text maintains a two column format and there was one noticeable error, The Moon Spire doesn’t state what path the adventure is aimed at (it’s Expert). The layout is full colour with many custom illustrations and maps. Presentation is very good.
When it comes to NPCs and monsters, only a few have stat blocks listed, and these tend to be the most unusual or important ones. The others just have a name in bold, which refers to a creature or character type from the Bestiary of the core rulebook, with notes as to any customisations that need making to them, as per the core rules. On the plus side, this means the supplement isn’t hugely padded out with lots of stat blocks. On the minus side, it does mean the GM will need to have the needed stats on hand in some form or other; copying them out with needed modifications before playing is probably the best course.
What this campaign does is show just how games for Shadow of the Demon Lord go. The players are campaigning in what can easily be the last days of their characters’ world – the last two chapters both have literally world-ending failure options. That is not something you would find in most games. There is also no information as to what to do after the final adventure is successfully completed. Possibly some other Master adventures could be played next. The individual adventures that make up a campaign are also a lot shorter than would be found in other systems, each only taking up a few pages. They are essentially a single major encounter or location with some prep work around it.
Tales of the Demon Lord is a good introduction the Shadow of the Demon Lord and it can be found by clicking here.
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