High level review: Halls of Lidless Shabbath

[Adventure]
The Halls of Lidless Shabbath (2016)
Stuart Marshall & Joseph Browning
Lvl 12 – 15

A treat today. An adventure for level 10+ And its legit, as in, fully runnable.

A hook that does not involve the cataclysmic destruction of the entire multiverse: You find a treasure map to what looks like it might be a gateway to other planes, said to lie in the legendary Halls of Lidless Shabbath. The adventure, not without justification, assumes that a party of level 12-15 adventures will figure out a way to broadly locate the damn thing, and we are off.

This is about as close to a ‘standard’ high level adventure as I have seen so far. Someone took S4 and maybe G3, bumped up the Monster Encounters until they were firmly in the VII/IX tier, and went and made himself a dungeon. And thats kind of it, no hard or soft counters to all of the fancy extra maneuvers high level characters possess (for you newcomers that’s Teleport, Clairvoyance, Passwall, Etherealness, Summoning, Divination, Wizard Eye, Anti-magic sphere and so on). We are going to run a standard dungeon ah la Gygax for characters of level 12-15 and if you want to try some tricky shit you go right ahead, there’s not much to stop you. The dungeon that Elric, Beowulf, Gandalf and Corwin of Amber plunder in between battles for the fate of the multiverse.

25 pages, 5 levels, 113 keyed encounters. Multiple pathways down, light sprinkling of secret doors. Occasionally the dungeon will throw a little overlapping danger at you, like earseekers in most of the doors on level 1 or evil runic writing on the walls which, if deciphered, will have a positively negative effect but for the most part, it plays it straight and you will get a fine-tuned mixture of standard monsters, specials (troll shaman with knives embedded in his chest and arms hilt first trying to grapple you), tricks and traps and assorted oldschool goodness, delivered in a writing style that is not quite boring but feels a bit generic, despite its imaginative contents, particularly in the later levels.

So we don’t use any sort of fancy time-constraint, nasty regenerative ability, punishing depletion of resources or otherwise limit the players. How then do we challenge them?

I hope you like systematically exterminating 6-8 HD enemies. If the adventure would just throw all those trolls at you in some sort of gigantic mobilization if the alarm went off this would be a different adventure altogether but for the most part you will be painstakingly destroying these motherfuckers peacemail without all too much risk of interference, given the generous 1 in 6 chance of an encounter every 3 turns. And even here, it is the Trolls that are ultimately finite. Given a tough and capable party, this giant first level should be managed relatively easily.
There is some counterplay and effective use of monsters. Vampires are encountered but have their coffins concealed elsewhere in the dungeon for example. A room filled with magical darkness also contains several chained basiliks. Catlopebli on a platform at the end of some stairs. Straightforward punches are thrown effectively, and genuine knockout punches are rare. Is that enough? There is something about filling the complex up with trolls, and taking into consideration that fireball can destroy treasure, something that is alluded too in the description of Shabbath herself, who is reluctant to use these magicks for this reason.

Later on Lidless Shabbath does begin switching it up. It really does pull most of the tricks in the book. There’s an evil NPC adventuring party that you can fuck up, a Lich that, if alerted, will be quite horribly prepared for the characters (and have at his beck and call, 6 spectres and a gated demon following a wave of skeletons to soak up the turn attempt), Derro with an order of battle etc. Intersperse this with red herrings, nasty traps like a gem with a magic jar in it etc. The deeper levels tend to be more organized. The information presentation tends to be a little clunky. In case of the Shrieker, it mentions surrounding monsters will be drawn, but only the Behir is referenced as an actual key, despite a nearby Purple Worm. Later on in level 3, you get something similar, it is not always clear what combatants will be drawn by sounds of the fighting and the information could be better organized.

The standard dungeon fare of monsters lairs and tombs gets switched up a bit with the third level, which contains an embassy for extraplanar creatures, guarded by bound devils and currently occupied by Efreeti and Fire Giants. Here too you see echoes of G3, there’s prisoners that can be freed (or in some cases raised from the dead) to gain information about possible treasure, there’s even a disgruntled Type V demon that you can ally with. We also get a few set pieces that mix it up a bit: Including the planar gateway that is guarded by a spider-like demon prince, cursed to dance forever, and a bizarre menagerie. These are welcome additions, giving the dungeon a more rounded feel. It might even go a bit too far: Lidless Shabbath’s Portal allows a single character to travel to other planes (with a bounded accuracy based on intelligence), a not inconsiderable advantage!

Levels are varied despite a rigid adherence to gygaxian practices. The Chittering haunts is a web-covered, movement-impeding hell-hole of random encounters with poisonous vermin, of which there are hundreds. While a set up like this would absolute grind down level 5-7s, for 6-10 characters of this size this is largely an interesting hindrance, something that can be overcome with proper preparation. The adventure deciding to then throw in the odd GHOST and to further treat the lair of the ghosts as one of the fallback positions of the BBEG, a subtle conceit, penalizing characters that evade everything and just make for the ending while leaving a considerable threat at their backs. The confrontation with Lidless Shabbath proper is appropriately brutal if she is forewarned, and has extensive precautions even if she is not, appropriate for a centuries old genius level antagonist.

The creativity is present and does come out despite its very standard trappings. Medusae factotums, a sorceress seeking to escape her damnation by implanting her soul in the body of a Stone Golem, plentiful magic items, one of which is a gem-powered lantern reminiscent of Tsojcanth, a new tome and 3 new monsters alongside the varied roster of powerful threats, it is ultimately something that looks a bit stuffy but probably plays very solidly.

Treasure feels like something you would get if you used the AD&D treasure tables, touched it up a bit, added some choice pieces of your own and then left it as is, neither entirely bland nor described in excruciating detail. Some shoutouts to older modules. The blade Whiterazor, a gem-powered lantern, the Necklace of Protection from Arthropods. Treasure is properly trapped but the bulk of the traps feel weak for this level. 3d6 fire damage is not going to get anyone to take pause. I estimate the total is somewhere on the far side of a million gp, with magic items to boot, very respectable for this range.

I’m trying to estimate this one and I’m reminded of something like Ship of Fate, which had very tough encounters but added the complication that it had to be completed in a single segment, forcing you into a format where you had to conserve resources. Halls is a straightforward dungeon, keyed for a level range where the straightforward method starts to get rickety. Expect experienced players with the proper equipment to wreak havoc on many of the challenges after being able to scout most of it at their leisure. The main problem I see is that there are few genuine knockout punches and the PCs will have a fairly easy time retreating after clearing out several chambers. Then again, the complex is extensive and well stocked enough so that there is still plenty of opposition that will have to be faced in the conventional sense once the initial advantage wears off.

Halls of Lidless Shabbath has good fundamentals but I am lacking a bit of the exploratory element. The weird to interact with, possible factions to exploit, obstacles to bypass or turn to your advantage, hidden factors to discover. It is not that these elements are entirely absent, but the bulk of the module will still likely consist of fighting packs of disorganized enemies that are tough and time-consuming to destroy. Probably fun but I hope you like combat.

***