Fires of Dis
Fires of Dis is Edge of Edgy, the debut of Gen-X in such modules carrying themes in which Planescape specialised. 4-6 characters, 5-9th level.
Steve Perrin started this one ("Original Design"); Ray Vallese finished it and published it in 1995. As late-stage TSR there's nobody credited as "author" and you have to go past the inserts to see the credits. Often these modules were wrapped in shrinkwrap so (the Internet being very young then) most of us had to buy the thing to find out.
Luckily for those who rolled the dice: Vallese was more Moldvay than Williams. Vallese knew how to find good original content, and how to get the best out of said content.
In a leaf taken from X13: Crown of Ancient Glory, someone Bad has stolen a MacGuffin and the party is tagged to get it back. Here the MacGuffin is paladin Daneel's +12 Hackmaster Holy Avenger. The Bad guy is... literally, almost the worst guy, in all the aeons. It's Dispater himself, mayor of the second layer of "Baator". (Second Edition, man.) "Back" would be the city Fortitude in the northwest quadrant of Concordant Opposition, where the paladin's wangsword is needed for some ritual which will boost Fortitude off the Outlands into Arcadia proper. Arcadia being the not-quite-good-enough version of Heaven, whose holy warriors tend to compensate by being better at the "warrior" thing than at the "holy" thing - although Daneel, himself, seems truly L.G..
 This article contains spoilers! You have been warned. |
The story starts in the Great Bazaar, Sigil. Some devi... sigh, baatezu attack Daneel and divest him of his mighty manhoodsword. The party is present, so the Harmonium faction buttonholes them to get it back. Since baatezu did the deed, the likeliest start is Ribcage in the Outlands... if not, beyond. The party goes through Avernus and then to Dis.
This all was sparked by the Anarchist faction in the first place; via the classic "let's you and him fight" move, "you" being Arcadia and "him" being Dis. The Revolutionary League had tipped the legions of Dis that Daneel might be found where he was found. Although this isn't really expanded upon in the module we got.
The plot is linear up to Dis, as it has to be, but chapter IV (in Exocet font) at last offers some room for the DM and his players to breathe. Dis is a highpoint of this module: a sendup of bureaucracy and bad city-design. The party here has multiple ways to get into Dis' presence and to negotiate the return of this blade.
Aaand there is where the party has a problem. Did all the above seem a little too pat for a 7th Level band of intruders? Like, that a senior Lord of Hell just... didn't notice that some "Expert"-level murderhoboes were storming the place? Weeeell.... let us just say that, like Dispater, Perrin and Vallese aren't retards.
On the way to Gracie Mansion the Mayoral Palace, the party meets the eventual antagonist of the module - who cannot be Dis himself at 7th Level, so is a pit fiend. He has a keyword - "flaggo". SO MUCH EDGE
So off the party goes to Fortitude to restore to Daneel his thingy in time for the ritual. The "restored" sword is, of course, possessed; by the aforementioned fiend. Soon Daneel will face a crisis of the soul - and so will the party.
Overall opinion will vary for this one. On the way to Dis the module is railroad, as it must be; although some DMs might wonder if some of the tracks could have let the train run faster than they do. The social satire is on-point and, Planescape being what it was, relevant to the setting. The cant is annoying as ever, but at least we're not in Sigil longer than we have to be. Fortitude (like, it is implied, Arcadia herself) looks a lot like Reagan-era suburbia as seen by a Clinton-era edgelord.
Product Of Its Time. Although oldflaggos still like it.