For Duty & Deity

For Duty & Deity is Dale Donovan's late-2e (1998) Forgotten Realms crossover with Planescape content, here Tales from the Infinite Staircase. (Although not as bad as that sounds.) The extremely stupid ex-goddess Waukeen has been kidnapped, by Graz'zt no less (making his own way from Greyhawk); your 15th-level party has to get her out of the Abyss and back into Faerun's theology.

Michele Carter is claimed to have edited this module into its 64-page state. A better job seems to have been done in playtesting. It's already Wizards of the Coast; You Know Who is no longer around to limit that sort of thing. So: on to the backstory.

Donovan starts the module with a load of tl;dr starting with the Time of Troubles which we doubt you'll care about; you can read it in Waukeen's article here. Waukeen herself is a macguffin to the plot. Suffice that this (almost-)damned fool tried to cut corners on her quest to restore her divinity by (1) passing her Divine powers to Lliira, (2) dealing with a literal demon tanar'ri. Now Waukeen must luxuriate in the finest accommodations Azzagrat can offer, Samora one day and the Argent Palace of Zelatar the next.

Your party gets word in Athkatla (Amn), wherein one Halanna Jashire some priestess of Waukeen has now become her prophetess. If you're Planewalkers then don't worry; this module will get you into Athkatla anyway. Tharundar Olehn the local pope, called the Holycoin here, somehow immediately knows Graz'zt's involvement. But his church can't get to the Planes; that's a job for the church of some other goddess, here Selûne, whose "House of the Moon" hosts that Infinite Staircase portal waaayy over in Waterderp. Teleport it is, then. Then the train rolls through the Staircase.

We're later (p. 17) told that on Faerûn they call it the "Celestial Staircase" but Selûne's church doesn't. We do get some summary of this transdimensional pathway's rules: lillendi, the Nowhere Inn (more like a roving caravanserai), other local-color which points toward that Planescape module/anthology.

Now: the spoilers.

This article contains spoilers! You have been warned.

All that intro and product-placement done with, we now get Azzagrat's three layers. Hooray no more linearity! Start with a rule-summary, which Realms DMs/players who haven't bought all that Planescape stuff will need. The DM'll also need the monster-definitions of Viper Trees, lillends - and Graz'zt himself; although if the party actually meets this guy they're boned beyond hope.

Instead this story's main villain is his alu-fiend daughter Thraxxia with nalfeshnee stats... no wait, the party will probably not meet her either. Nah, the party's recurring annoyance will likely be Gildaar (a Cyric follower) who appears in Athkatla's Promenade and follows them, Gollum-style, to resurface at the city Samora. But Gildaar is handled in optional "Opportunities" such as to make him peripheral to the plot.

There's a summary of that city Samora but Waukeen's not going to stay there forever. Next we're treated to Zrintor the viper forest along the River of Salt, finally the planespanning city Zelatar. The PCs have to plan how to rescue the princess goddess. A few in-jokes about Sigil cant show up here just to wink at those PCs who are here for the Realms and not for the Planes.

This rescue (says the module) is easiest-done before the caravan even starts out. In-transit is also possible. Once in Zalatar matters get difficult because that's the capital city; this is the "DM punishes the players for wasting time" option.

Once the heroes have Waukeen there can be a "running battle" against demons back to the Staircase, but the module (now at p. 56 of 64, and having wasted our time with introductory faff) skims over how best to run this. And the Staircase is safe, especially now the goddess is getting some of her powers back. Finally: Outlands, home-base. Now Thraxxia shows up, wanting revenge.

To sum up we have a story clearly edited at the last minute, with Thraxxia (probably) playtested as too powerful and well-connected to serve as a functional villain, and that ridiculous stalker Gildaar foisted in her stead. Also contrived, and taking up too much space, is the Forgotten Realms angle; costing space which could have been used for that flight out the Abyss. And did we need the Infinite Staircase at all or couldn't we just have gone through the Abyssal parts of the Outlands and the First Layer, to get here?

WotC's marketers must own most of the blame for this; they needed to undo a bad metaplot so, here was their vehicle to do it. Ah well. There's a good adventure in here.