The Eight Kings (semi-final)

The Eight Kings is the 4th part of the Maze of Zayene series for D&D/d20. The series has sort of a twisted history, originally being set in Greyhawk, which the author used to help develop and DM in, but published in the mid 80s after he left TSR as sort of a "generic" module (for copyright reasons). I believe the originals were somewhat rare, and sought after by collectors, along with "Garden of the Plantmaster".

The first 3 in the series were published by Necromancer games (presumably to help burnish their "Old School" adventure credentials), but apparently due to delays in getting the manuscript, they didn't publish the last in the series, this book.

In the last d20 adventure review I wrote, I discussed the various "feels" of modules. This does very much have an old-school feel to it, but the feel is perhaps more like a tournament module.

Basically, in this module, the PCs have to enter the private dimension of Zayene (formerly Xaene) and kill him and rescue King Ovar (nee Ivid), whom Zayene kidnapped in order to rule the kingdom in his place (via a very convolutated manner, creating a new clone every day).

If you don't have the first 3 modules and haven't run your PCs through them, why they would want to do this is a lot less clear. But the module suggests they simply be hired to do so, for 200,000 gp. I myself don't have the first 3 modules. (I actually had the 3rd, Tower Chaos, which I got as part of a lot of Necromancer games modules. But I gave it away to someone.)

The module itself is pretty much an exploration based dungeon crawl. There really isn't all that much combat involved (except with Zayene himself, a 16th level wizard). Essentially, the PCs must go from room to room, encountering weird magic items and trying to figure them out without killing themselves. There are 42 keyed entries, probably about half as many rooms.

Unfortunately, in some of the cases, it's hard to figure out how these gizmos work, so you're going to have to help out your players a lot with subtle (or not so subtle) hints. Though not touching anything would actually seem to be the best course of action in most cases, since many either have negative effects, or don't have anything to do with the PC's mission (to kill Zayene and rescue the King), basically just really really complex table dressing.

For instance, as an example, there is sort of a mausoleum with 4 different coffins in it, one in each section (it's shaped like an + ). Nothing happens unless one of the PCs decided to lie in a coffin. I know, I'm sure some people can't resist lying in an open coffin when they get the chance, but I think most people won't think of it. And once they do, 3 of the 4 coffins basically have negative side effects, including one possible case of instant death. The last may have a small positive benefit, imparting some information, but only maybe.

Or another example - one room has a magical orrery (basically a mechanical representation of a solar system - little globes on metal rods that can spin around). It's wonderfully detailed, and an interesting object. But it takes 6 pages to describe it fully, and it basically has no bearing on the plot. And again, you probably don't want to touch it. Not everything is negative, but most are.

So actually, if the characters don't touch much, this does have the potential to be a fairly short module. They can pop in, rescue the king, and pop out pretty quickly, if they get lucky.

In that case, a lot of the devices and such would only come into play if they do suceed in killing Zayene, and decide to take a close look at the dimension (which they could take as part of the reward for killing him, along with a cool 1.2 million gp).

Actually, this brings me to a point - while all the real traps and such have proper ratings and DCs, I would have liked to have seen some Challenge Ratings for the various devices/puzzles, and maybe some DCs for hints. I mean, part of the thing about role-playing, while it's easy to play a character that is stronger or tougher than yourself, it can be tricky to play a character smarter than yourself. If you're not good at figuring out magical devices, then your character won't either. Unless you use the skill system to give hints.

And speaking of having to figure things out, the author, much like Gary Gygax, has a somewhat unusual style of writing. The terminology and sentence structure is sometimes a bit arcane, which can take some getting used to. For instance, "he will assist the characters in no way". Most people would say "he will not assist the characters". A couple other cases make me wonder if the so called "Gygaxian" style of writing should really be "Gygaxian-Kuntzian". Again, not bad, but just takes a bit of getting used to (or shaking off the rust, if you haven't read any old 1e stuff lately).

An appendix contains several new magic items, and there are a few more in the text of the adventure itself, like the "Crate of Wonder". Many of these are weird, but they are also fascinating. I wouldn't mind seeing a whole book of them from the author.

You also get a couple new spells and monsters, and one of the last pages of the book reprints the cover of the original version.


I liked the artwork in it, not as good as the previous in the series (which was done by one of my favorite artists, Brian LeBlanc), but pretty good. Semi-retro looking. Also a nice touch is that the same four characters were depicted in each picture, presumably a party of characters going through the module. The layout is okay, but it would have been nice if the map of the place had been in a handy location, like the back.

As a note, the first 3 in the series had some 3e stats problems/quirks. This module seems to be much better in terms of 3e stats than the first 3, presumably thanks to the help of Merric Blackman (who is semi-famous for having a very good web site on the D&D collectible mini game. At least I think that's the same Merric Blackman).

The spells memorized for Zayene also seem fairly well thought out, including the use of metamagic. I did a couple test combats between Zayne and 4 12th level characters (which is the recommended party) and it's a pretty even battle. The 4 12th level characters can generally beat him, but not before he teleports away (he has a teleport tied into a contingency spell). (Smart PCs will have memorized at least one dimensional anchor spell to keep him from going anywhere).

Also, despite the name of the module, I didn't find any Elvis references.

http://www.moreenergy.com/the_real_elvis_presley.html

This is hard to rate. Basically, if you have the first 3 in the series and liked them, then you should definitely like The Eight Kings. But if you didn't like the first 3, then you definitely won't like this. If you're a big Greyhawk fan, you'll also probably enjoy this, if not as an adventure, maybe not so much for background material on Greyhawk itself, but for a look into the creative mind one of the main people originally behind it.

The Eight Kings

The Eight Kings is the 4th part of the Maze of Zayene series for D&D/d20. The series has sort of a twisted history, originally being set in Greyhawk, which the author used to help develop and DM in, but published in the mid 80s after he left TSR as sort of a "generic" module (for copyright reasons). I believe the originals were somewhat rare, and sought after by collectors, along with "Garden of the Plantmaster".

The first 3 in the series were published by Necromancer games (presumably to help burnish their "Old School" adventure credentials), but apparently due to delays in getting the manuscript, they didn't publish the last in the series, this book.

In the last d20 adventure review I wrote, I discussed the various "feels" of modules. This does very much have an old-school way, but the feel is perhaps more like a tournament module.

Basically, in this module, the PCs have to enter the private dimension of Zayene (formerly Xaene) and kill him and rescue King Ovar (nee Ivid), whom Zayene kidnapped in order to rule the kingdom in his place*.

If you don't have the first 3 modules and haven't run your PCs through them, why they would want to do this is a lot less clear. But the module suggests they simply be hired to do so, for 200,000 gp. I myself don't have the first 3 modules. I actually had the 3rd, Tower Chaos, which I got as part of a lot of Necromancer games modules. But I gave it away to someone.

The module itself is pretty much an exploration based dungeon crawl. There really isn't all that much combat involved (except with Zayene himself, a 16th level wizard). Essentially, the PCs must go from room to room, encountering weird magic items and trying to figure them out without killing themselves.

Unfortunately, in some of the cases, it's hard to figure out how these "puzzles" work, so you're going to have to help out your players a lot with subtle (or not so subtle) hints. Though not touching anything would actually seem to be the best course of action in most cases, since many either have negative effects, or don't have anything to do with the PC's mission (to kill Zayene and rescue the King), basically just really really complex table dressing.

For instance, as an example, there is sort of a mausoleum with 4 different coffins in it, once in each section (it's shaped like an + ). It basically doesn't do anything, unless one of the PCs decided to lie in a coffin. I know, I'm sure some people can't resist lying in an open coffin when they get the chance, but I think most people won't think of it. And once they do, 3 of the 4 coffins basically have negative side effects, including one possible case of instant death. The last may have a small positive benefit, imparting some information, but only maybe.

Or another example - one room has a magical orrery (basically a mechanical representation of a solar system - little globes on metal rods that can spin around). It's wonderfully detailed, and an interesting object. But it takes 6 pages to describe it fully, and it basically has no bearing on the plot.

Actually, this brings me to a point - while all the real traps and such have proper ratings and DCs, I would have liked to have seen some Challenge Ratings for the various devices/puzzles, and maybe some DCs for hints. I mean, part of the thing about role-playing, while it's easy to play a character that is stronger or tougher than yourself, it can be tricky to play a character smarter than yourself. If you're not good at figuring out magical devices, then your character won't either. Unless you use the skill system to give hints.


Gary Gygax had a unique way of writing, mostly using a lot of weird words and unusual sentence structures. This shares the somewhat arcane writing style. For instance, in describing the reaction of a Djini King, "...but he will assist the characters in no way unless they offer him sacrifice." While that might not be wrong grammatically, it's clearer to say something like "He won't help the characters unless...". "He will assist in no way unless" is the long way to state something. The book is full of things like that.

Another example. One line in an entry says "Read that key number for amplification.", referring to another map entry. Using the word "amplification" in that context is actually correct, just not the usual use of it.


I liked the artwork in it, not as good as the previous in the series (which I believe were done by one of my favorite artists, Brian LeBlanc), but pretty good. Semi-retro looking. Also a nice touch is that the same four characters were depicted in each picture, presumably a party of characters going through the module.



This is hard to rate. Basically, if you have the first 3 in the series and liked them, then you should definitely like The Eight Kings. But if you didn't like the first 3, then you definitely won't like this. If you're a big Greyhawk fan, you'll also probably enjoy this, if not as an adventure, maybe not so much for background material on Greyhawk itself, but for a look into the creative mind one of the main people originally behind it.

As a note, the first 3 in the series had some 3e stats problems/quirks. This module seems to be much better in terms of 3e stats than the first 3, presumably thanks to the help of Merric Blackman (who is semi-famous for having a very good web site on the D&D collectible minis).

Also as a note, for a book named "The Eight Kings", I couldn't find any references to Elvis.






* He does this by magically creating a simulacrum of the King every day, then sending him off to the throne room to rule. It's a very painstaking process and it's detailed minutely in this module. I do have to wonder, isn't there an easier way to rule by proxy? Enchant the king or something? The way he does this, by producing a simulacrum of the King every single day (and it's not an easy process), seems inefficient at best.

Valus (take 2)

What? Another d20 campaign setting? Aren't there enough of those already? While I actually would answer "No" (You can never have too many, if only to borrow ideas from), Valus is a lot different in feel than any other d20 fantasy setting I've seen, and it's exquisitely done. And other than the tone, it's generally not too hard to integrate into any other fantasy setting, as it's mostly set on a 600 mile or so island (though it will take some doing to reconcile the background mythology).



If it's one thing that d20 doesn't have for fantasy, it's gritty, dark settings. How gritty is Valus? Well, the tag line for it is "A World Born Without Love". Okay, that (at least the last 3 ords) might sound like a Lifetime TV movie, but the tone, combined with the extensive mythology (which explains the tone), is a far cry from any other d20 setting I've seen.

Yes, there's Midnight, which is sort of Tolkien if Sauron had won. But that's almost cartoon-ish grimness. This has "realistic" grimness, the world is grey instead of black and white. Some would say it's presumptous of me, but I would put in Valus in the same group of worlds as Harn and Glorantha in terms of "realness". Besides the feel, it has a long history as a gaming world, going back to the mid 80s. So it's fairly old and established, and has had a lot of history take place in it.

Essentially, it's a fantasy world, but it has no "good" gods in it. The line "A World Born Without Love" isn't just a tagline, it's literally true in this case. The gods of this world don't feel love. For anyone or anything, including their worshippers. They view them pretty much only as tools or pawns.

The mythology is a bit complicated and this explanation ended up a little longer than I like, but I think I have to explain it to give you a feel for the world. Basically, the universe started out with one super-powerful god-godess. Then for some reason, she had children. However, this didn't turn out like she planned, so much like Eric Cartman's mother-father, wanted to perform a post-birth abortion. Unlike Cartman's mother-father, this god-goddess actually ended up killing her children, but in the process, lost her capacity for love.

The corpses of her children turned into the world. But the corpses weren't completely dead. The various bits of it somehow turned into lesser gods, called the Drimm, and crawled out from within the body. There were a lot of these. They eventually started fighting amongst each other, and over the course of time, whittled themselves down to about 100 or so. Then the god-goddess intervened, not wanting them to destroy themselves completely, moving some of them to the Moon, while leaving the more peaceful ones (she thought) still on the world.

However, this didn't quite work out either. The ones remaining on the world got bored and belligerent, but couldn't fight each other directly (they promised not to, and were afraid of getting smacked by the god-goddess if they did). So they figured out how to use their magical powers to create monsters to do their fighting for them. (Most of them. All except 12, who were too dumb/idiotic to do so). So, this fighting of created monsters goes on for quite some time - the monsters that were made were horrible, essentially demons and devils and the like.

This doesn't last forever. Once again, the god-goddess gets annoyed at all the fighting (it wakes her up), so she smacks down all those Drimm that created all the monsters. And then sticks all the created monsters in hell and heaven.

Except for the 12 loser Drimm that couldn't figure out how to create monsters. Because they behaved, the god-goddess took mercy on them, and essentially gave them god-like powers, including that of creation. But not trusting them, either, she gave them perfectly balanced powers, and decided to lock them far away in a dimension, and made the Sun as a portal to it. Then she went back to sleep.

The first thing these 12 did, was to create a race of guardians, beings that would watch over the demons and devils that their breathern had created. Because before they were given powers, they were picked on by their breathern. And so developed a fear of their fellows, and the creations - the demons and devils. These guardians were Angels/Archons.

Eventually though, the 12 did start to quarrel among themselves, and start fighting. But because they were so evenly matched, they could never win or lose, and actually gained and lost power/influence, on a regular basis.

In the meantime, life had evolved on the planet below. From the seas, much like on earth. Eventually, humans finally showed up. At first intensely curious about the world and it's creation and their role in it, when they eventually learned the truth, and their "gods", they were apalled.

My recap really doesn't do it justice - the book takes 20 pages to explain it. I really found this part fascinating. Rarely in RPGs do you see much of a connection between the tone of the world and the mythology of, which is sort of a disconnect from the real world.

There's not a general feeling of heavy opression, or impending doom, just a resignation to a fate. The feel reminds of Brian Aldiss's Malachia Tapestry. Or maybe Jack Vance's Dying Earth (the first novel, not the rest, which are silly). Or if you're old enough, the Jimmy Carter presidency, aka the era of Malaise.


Valus has a fairly long history (15+ years in the real world) and was originally developed for a game that wasn't D&D. So when it comes to classes and races, it's not 100% D&D, though the changes aren't huge.

Gnomes are quite different, they are called "Pems" and are sort of magical and reclusive and can change color. Elves are called "Drel" and are more aloof and arrogant than good. A bit Tolkien-ish, but not overly so. Dwarves are called "Durven" and are greedy and crude.

Because it's sort of a grim world, you get a lot of non-consential crossbreeding. Besides the normal Half-Orcs and Half-Elves, there are Trulls, which are half-troll, half-human, and Roven, which are half-gnoll, half-human. Though the latter two actually now breed true, and so are now proper species.

There's something of an undercurrent of racism between the various races. Most non-human races aren't especially liked (except maybe the Pems) and many human races don't like each other much.

Classes get tweaked a bit, most notably clerics. Basically, each god is more powerful for one month, and less powerful for one month. This also effects the cleric. When their god is more powerful, they get some minor bonus powers, when it is weakened (and their god's rival god is winning), the clerics suffer from some minor problems.

Paladins are an interesting sort. Mechanically they are similar to normal D&D paladins, but they are generally outcasts, because instead of worshipping any of the proper gods (not being good, they aren't worth of a paladin), they have sort of a special connection with an Angel or Archon. Sort of like Joan of Arc heard voices from one of the Marys, the Paladin hears the voice of their specific guardian/patron angel.

Bards are tweaked a bit - they can take a subtype, Skald, Minstrel, or Troubadour. This doesn't affect them much, each subtype is better than the regular bard at something, but worse at something else. Good for flavor.

There's only one prestige class, the "Covenguard", or member of the "Order of the Covenant". Basically, they hate all outsiders, both Demons/Devils and Angels, and do their best to expel them from the world.



Pretty much every site or terrain feature or town on the island gets at least a paragraph of description. Most important places get more detail, a few get a whole lot of detail, including a map of a city with keyed locations.

It makes good use of small bits of prose to set the mood.

Valus is sort of shaped like Crete, only a bit crooked. There are a couple of kingdoms on the west side, one called the Empire of Carrik, the other the Kingdom of Rhelm. Despite the name, the Empire of Carrik is not especially big, but it used to own other parts of the isle (including Rhelm) before losing them in a civil war.

Carrik is ruled like an Empire, though, it's got a triumverate running things (that is, 3 people)

There's something of a "Cold War" situation between Carrik and Rhelm. Not an out and out war, but most people expect it, and there is a fair amoung of espionage and tension between the two sides.

The middle section of Valus is somewhat desolate. The south part is called the "Loamlands" where there are only a few independant towns and villages. There are 3 Scottish or Celtic like "clans" that live here, the Larrens, the Calahens, and the Cormicks, which are mostly nomadic.
Two of the clans don't get along, and have each sided with one of the west Valus countries (though the text is a bit unclear on who has allied with whom).

To the north of the middle section is a large, imposing mountain range, which has some dwarves living in it. 7 different clan of dwarves, actually. They aren't unified, which each clan having very different personalities.

The eastern section of Valus is one kingdom, at least in theory, and is ruled by a fairly competent Queen, but some of her dukes are not the most loyal of vassals. One completely ignores her. Two others are essentially at open war with each other. And one Countess, which is only supposed to give out Letters of Marque to privateers who prety upon enemies of the country, actually pretty much lets people get away with piracy. There's also a burgeoning drug trade, which claimed the life of the Queen's niece (though she was raised form the dead).

Also complicating things is that that area doesn't completely belong to the kingdom. There is one Free City, which is essentially a city of thieves. And one city used to belong to a somewhat neutral power on the main continent, but was invaded by the Queen. This irked the neutral power a lot. Added to this mix is a fairly powerful subterrenean dwarven kingdom which is ruled by a fairly stern and fairly amoral tyrant.

So there's a fair amount of intrigue in this kingdom.



While the setting is not low magic per se, powerful magic isn't very common, especially clerical magic. For instance, the raise dead spell does work, but it essentially needs the personal approval of the god of the cleric who casts it.

I really really like this. I apreciate the complex mythology. But I do think even if you don't want to use it (I probably won't, since I have my own campaign world I use), you pretty much can still use Valus, the island at least, as a mini-setting. It's very well done.

I think I would have liked more hard detail in some things. For instance, physical descriptions of some of the NPCs, and I would have liked to have known the exact size of some of the smaller towns/villages. Nothing major.

A-

Also, while it is a d20 product, I do think it could easily be adapted to another fantasy rules system pretty easily. HARP for instance.