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The second
tome of Matt Finch's massive subterranean sandbox clocks in at 250 pages, 1
page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 2 pages of SRD, 1 page back
cover, leaving us with a massive 244 pages of content, so let's take a look!
Well,
before we do, let me reiterate for a second what this is and what it means:
Well, on the obvious side, this is the second part of the massive Cyclopean
Deeps-mega-adventure-sandbox, which, per default, is situated even below the
dungeon of Rappan Athuk in the Lost Lands campaign setting - but, quite
frankly, there is no place in any given campaign setting you conceivably
couldn't plug this into without any hassle whatsoever. Why? Simple: Cyclopean
Deeps takes place in an area almost never explored in any given setting: In the
unfathomable, lightless depths beyond even the civilizations of drow, duergar,
etc.
You know,
the place perpetually hinted at, where surface-dwellers are but intruders into
a world so strange and different in morality, their minds might fracture; the
place, where tentacled horrors abound and odd deities rest in uneasy slumber; a
place so weird, it makes some outer planes look cozy and familiar by direct
comparison. Here, demon lords and the forces of abyss and hell rank among the beings
that still may be considered understandable...normal even. Beyond this deep
horizon lies an endless cascade of the deadly and weird, one that rendered the first book in this two-part-saga a worthy part of my Top Ten of 2014...but can
this remain on par with its predecessor?
Before we
answer this question, let me explain something: While Part I could conceivably
stand on its own, it did sport the city of Ques Querax, odd and wondrous beyond
belief - and this book with its plots, quests and content does make ample note
of said place. While the individual components of this book can be scavenged
and taken apart, to properly get the full experience, you should definitely own
the first Cyclopean Deeps book and run them in conjunction.
All right,
finally, it should be noted, that this is a massive sandbox, complete with
really big maps, hex-crawling through the dark and chapters upon chapters of
wholly distinct environments that would make good individual mini-dungeons,
should you prefer running this in bite-sized chunks as opposed to as a massive
sandbox.
All right,
and this is exactly as far as I can go into this adventure-review sans
SPOILERS. So, please beware that from here on out, SPOILERS reign. Players
should definitely jump to the conclusion.
...
..
.
All right,
still here? Great! After we have established basic power-dynamics within and
around Ques Querax, we now delve into the respective, unique environments and
take a look at the more complex and possible endgame scenarios for excursions
throughout the Cyclopean Deeps - but before I go into the details, let me
emphasize something: The Cyclopean Deeps may be weird, but they are concise in
an almost uncanny manner. Much like the best offerings of the Lost Lands, the
Cyclopean Deeps breathe a sense of antiquity, with empires upon empires fallen
by the wayside, ruins reappropriated throughout time...and not even the inhuman
cyclopean deeps are exempt from the eternal waltz of revolution, war and
rebirth - but unlike in quite a few modules with storied backgrounds (like a
significant array of society scenarios...), there is no requirement for either
captain exposition to throw a wall of text at the players, nor is there a
strict requirement for the PCs to know it all - instead, much like in the
exemplar Sword of Air mega-adventure, what we have here is, ultimately,
indirect narrative.
If you're
like me, you will, for example, shudder as the PCs explore the narrows of
Braath and find the remnants of a strange aberrant culture whose mantid
servitors, created to embalm their master, took a disturbingly logical step
towards "improving" the holiness of their masters - by cutting out
unimportant things like living and turning their erstwhile gods into a species
bred for death by embalming, fulfilling their task in the most gruesomely
efficient manner imaginable - and yes, this and a wicked plan concocted by a
demon prince can be unearthed as the PCs explore the mortuaries of the mantid
priests - if the PCs avoid death as it lurks around every corner.
Speaking of
which: The very utterance of a death god may summon the soul-consuming, fickle
godling from its aqueous realm and power-struggles, degenerate things and worse
abound and interlace perfectly with the narratives already established in Part
I of this saga...just remember, don't speak the name of CHOA-THOOM as you
traverse these grottos...or he may take notice of your petty mortal
existence...
As much as
I utterly the adore this beautifully exhibited mastery of horrific tropes,
though, as much as I love the wizard that seeks to recruit the PCs here, it is
his devious arch-rival, legendary Jupiter Kwan and his hidden worlds that truly
set my mind aglow with possibilities. You see, at one point, the PCs can find a
strange artwork of rhizome-like strands that remind you of synapses or worse -
turns out that this is the map for his hidden worlds, a kind of
demiplane-conglomerate of chaos, stitches together from stillborn realities,
crumbling demiplanes and the like - and exploration of this gruesome place
within the endless void of Ginnungagap remains my absolute favorite environment
in quite a while - not only due to tables upon tables of environmental
peculiarities, but also due to the fact that Dark Souls-like mist gates with
devious properties find a glorious rendition here, one I'm so going to steal
the hell out of. In this chapter, Matt Finch's massive imaginative potential
seems to have peaked beyond its otherwise already utterly impressive level.
Now,
admittedly, I have not been 100% honest in the beginning of this review: You
see, there is a humanoid culture down here - a whole holdfast of duergar mines
can be found within the pages of this tome and its concise depiction of a
ruthless ideology and the hints towards the malachite city (city of brass for earth,
if you need an analogue...) are tantalizing indeed...but there is so much more
going on here...and yes, this ties together with the at this point nigh
obligatory demon lord that is a part of this area's power-dynamic, obviously
constituting another exceedingly powerful evil to play against the vileness
found herein...or simply try to vanquish or die trying.
This is
ultimately me and my preferences, but surpassing even the grisly narrative
shared before, the Orchard of Yiquooloome is, shudder-factor wise, very much
the apex of the whole cyclopean deeps for me - a creature of primordial chaos
that makes elder brains seem kind, it is here that PCs finally find out the
truth behind elder ambergris...much like the origins of the fabled darkmist are
explained in another chapter - but I'm not going to spoil that for you. Why?
Because I could keep on babbling about the vast imaginative potential herein
for ages without truly managing to depict how brilliant this one is.
For your
information: We actually do get player-friendly versions of all maps herein and
yes, there are ample new creatures, artifacts and the like to be found within
these pages.
Conclusion:
Editing and
formatting are top-notch, I noticed no serious issues in this massive book.
Layout adheres to Frog God Games' elegant b/w-standard and the pdf sports A LOT
of great b/w-artworks that capture perfectly the weirdness and sheer
jamais-vu-level of wonder the Cyclopean Deeps require. The pdf comes fully
bookmarked for your convenience, though I'd very much recommend getting the
absolutely stunning hardcover of the book - as always with FGG-books, it is
made to last and features great production values.
Matt Finch,
with assistance from Bill Webb, Skeeter Greene and Greg A. Vaughan has crafted
a book that not only transcends book Vol. I in scope; in fact, the Cyclopean
Deeps, as a collected entity, ranks among the best dungeon sandboxes I've ever
read, regardless of the system. Book I was brilliant, Book II may actually be
even more refined: There are less old-school-y relic in the rules-language
here; the builds are more complex...in short, this is brilliant. I read this
book back to back, while revisiting some of my sword and sorcery
favorites....and if I'M honest, I found myself reading more CD. The prose of
this book, its vast imaginative potential, bespeaks a mind that not only is
capable of weaving disturbing and brilliant concepts with short hints, it also
exemplifies a journey of exploration while reading it: As a GM, you explore the
Deeps while reading this book, and I was not bored for a single second. Beyond
being a milestone in imaginative potential, this book is sword and sorcery
gold, perfect weird fantasy material for everyone with even a tiny soft spot
for weird fantasy, for lovecraftiana, for fantasy that dares to deviate from
the established concepts to provide something raw and gorgeous.
A word of
warning - this book is very detailed and not for the faint of heart - when a
sidebox explains in pretty grisly detail what happens when a PC's body in gaseous
form, spread over mile-long in millimeter-thick tunnels, meets a magic-dead
field and has his body extend through the caverns, I found myself shuddering
and remembering one of Junji Ito's lesser-known, brilliant horror-manga. The
Cyclopean Deeps are a place of eldritch beauty, but each and every part of its
drives home that this is the place where "man was not meant to
tread," combining a superb sense of the exploration of the unknown with a
constant, disturbing sense of uncanny displacement and existential wrongness.
That being
said, as easy as all of this sounds or may sound to you, finding a final
verdict for this book was nigh impossible to me: You see, I can't really fathom
and abstract my knowledge of Part I, separate it from Part II. Unlike other
such sagas, they BELONG together...but Part I already received its accolades on
my Top Ten of 2014 and I have a policy of not awarding spots to the same
components twice (otherwise, you'd see Ultimate Charisma, for example, in my
Top Ten of 2015 once that hits sites...). At the same time, this is a perfect
example for my thesis that Frog God Games has surpassed the roots of 3.X Necromancer
Games by leaps and bounds - no matter how you look at it, Cyclopean Deeps ranks
among the best old-school modules/sandboxes out there. With intricate attention
to details of not only formal criteria, but also regarding the prose, it ranks
among the finest, most unique (and horrific!) sandboxes I have ever read.
How good is
Cyclopean Deeps? The collective of both books is so good, even among FGG's
mega-adventures, I'd only consider it second to Sword of Air, which makes it
one of the best mega-adventures out there - PERIOD. My final verdict will hence
clock in at 5 stars + seal of approval...and, I will retroactively bestow the
grace of the Top Ten spot of 2014 Part I scored also on this beast, since it is
a crucial extension of the first volume.
If my ample
gushing was not clue enough: I'd strongly recommend getting this masterpiece;
in my humble opinion, the Cyclopean Deeps are absolutely mindbogglingly good
and transcend Rappan Athuk, which kind of gave birth to these, in their superb
environments by leaps and bounds.
You can get this awesome book in eitehr Pathfinder or S&W here on Frog God Games' homepage!
Alternatively, you can get this masterpiece on Paizo:
Here's the link for Pathfinder!
And here's the link for old-school S&W!
Frog God Games, master of massive, glorious books, are currently
kickstarting Richard Pett's magnum opus THE BLIGHT, a book that may well
surpass even these brilliant tomes! The KS has only 9 days left and
already is the biggest book the Frogs ever made, so don't miss out on
that wonderful monstrosity! Here's the link!
Endzeitgeist
out.
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