In the Belly of the Beast (Penumbra (D20)) [Paperback]

Mike Mearls (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 4, 2001

It is a cancer thriving in the midst of a bustling city, a shadowy conspiracy bent on driving House Mezzia, a once proud and noble merchant family, to its knees. Forced to turn to outsiders for aid, a young scion of the Mezzia clan needs heroes to stand with him against encroaching darkness - heroes who are willing to follow him through the dark heart of the underworld.

A fantasy adventure in the top-selling Penumbra line for the D20 System!

Product Details

• Paperback: 32 pages
• Publisher: Atlas Games (January 4, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887801960
• ISBN-13: 978-1887801966
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,222,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A compelling low-level adventure with mystery and excitement, June 15, 2001

By 

Arthur Milliken (Culver City, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In the Belly of the Beast (Penumbra (D20)) (Paperback)

One of the first "d20" (Dungeons & Dragons compatible) modules in the Penumbra line, IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST does a good job of providing a short, compelling adventure which can be inserted into any D&D campaign.

Dungeon Masters, are well advised to compare the teaser on the back cover with the climax of the adventure. This scenario has some surprises!

What impresses me about this scenario is the story. Players are introduced to dangerous characters with rich backgrounds, and then are plunged into a deadly conflict between rival factions, where their ability to negotiate and role-play will spell the difference between fantastic victory and overwhelming defeat.

The scenario is open-ended, and leaves many seeds for future adventures.

IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST is designed to be truly "modular," meaning it can be inserted into any campaign; and IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST gives clear, explicit instructions on how to do just that. Not only does it not interfere with an existing campaign, it can go far to enhance it!

My only criticism with this module is its short length, weighing in at only 32 pages. But if you're a Dungeon Master who prizes quality over quantity, be sure to pick this one up.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very cool but not for beginning DMs, August 26, 2002

By 

Shane Tiernan (St. Petersburg, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In the Belly of the Beast (Penumbra (D20)) (Paperback)

I just finished running this adventure for my group and I agree with just about everything the last reviewer said. It's a cool situation and definitely able to fit into almost any campaign world. There's enough fighting to keep it interesting, a lot of room for role-playing, and some great horror elements. My party ended up each allying with a different faction, almost to the point of fighting each other.

My only problems were that although the npcs were detailed well, with sections on background, current agendas, and even sketches, none of them said what they were carrying other than basic armor and weapons. No equipment, no treasure, no magic items. It was really kind of inconsistent that Ofec killed his high-level necromancer master but didn't take any magic items off his corpse and that later the corpse (returned as a zombie) didn't have anything on it. But that's easy to fix.

Like the other guy said, it is short and because you have to run a large number of NPCs at the same time I wouldn't recommend it to beginning DMs.

Overall a very cool adventure, I'll be picking more modules from Mr. Mearls when I get a chance.