Beyond the Veil (Penumbra/D20) [Paperback]

Monte Cook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 5, 2001

Stories about dragons rampaging across the countryside are almost always false. The creatures are just too intelligent, too crafty, and too strategy-minded to "rampage." Rampaging brings the wrath of oath-bound knights, powerful mages, and divinely-protected priests. Why would a dragon want such attention, unless it had some special secret, or unless it was insane?

Or both.

The northern reaches of the Derideth Swamp were once plagued by a rampaging dragon. This black dragon, named Storamere, took a mad glee in attacking human villages, wiping out orc camps, driving off the lizardfolk, and decimating farmland. He met his untimely end, though, in an ambush devised by the monks of the Order of St. Chausle. Storamere died with a curse upon his draconic tongue: "you could not have defeated me in my lair," he told his slayers. "I am forever invincible in my lair."

Now Storamere is back, with a horde of his misshapen half-dragon offspring, to have his vengeance. All that remains of the once-heroic monks are two old men driven mad by their last encounter with the black dragon, so it falls to a band of adventurers to again defeat the mighty dragon -- this time in his palace, where the boastful Storamere claims he is at his strongest.

Beyond the Veil is a D20 System adventure designed for characters of 9th level and up. It includes:

* Stats for the deviant Storamere's half-dragon progeny, including a monstrous stone giant, umber hulk, giant constrictor, manticore, carrion crawlers, and dark elves, all with dragon parentage.
* New D20 rules for dragon bloodspawn -- those creatures with a quarter dragon blood in their heritage -- and stats for a bloodspawn vampire.
* Maps and damage rules for navigating Storamere's lair, a semi-solid palace made of a dangerous, corrosive liquid five feet thick and located in another plane.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Monte Cook has been in the game industry for a long time, but you probably most care that he was one of the 3rd Edition designers and wrote the DMG and the Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Monte owns his own d20 imprint, Malhavoc Press, that puts out adventures and sourcebooks on his website. When he isn't working on RPG projects, Monte writes fiction like the novels The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels.

Product Details

• Paperback: 48 pages
• Publisher: Atlas Games (December 5, 2001)
• ISBN-10: 1589780086
• ISBN-13: 978-1589780088
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,435,246 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

The game designer
Monte Cook started working professionally in the game industry in 1988. In the employ of Iron Crown Enterprises, he worked with the Rolemaster and Champions games as an editor, developer, and designer. In 1994, Monte came to TSR, Inc., as a game designer and wrote for the Planescape and core D&D lines. When that company was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, he moved to the Seattle area and eventually became a senior game designer. At Wizards, he wrote the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master's Guide and served as codesigner of the new edition of the Dungeons & Dragons game. In 2001, he left Wizards to start his own design studio, Malhavoc Press, with his wife Sue. Although in his career he has worked on over 100 game titles, some of his other credits include Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Book of Eldritch Might series, the d20 Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game, The Book of Vile Darkness, Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, Monte Cook's World of Darkness, and Dungeonaday.com. He was a longtime author of the Dungeoncraft column in Dungeon Magazine. In recent years, Monte has been recognized many times by game fans in the ENnies Awards, the Pen & Paper fan awards, the Nigel D. Findley Memorial Award, the Origins Awards, and more.

The author
A graduate of the 1999 Clarion West writer's workshop, Monte has published two novels, The Glass Prison and Of Aged Angels. Also, he has published the short stories "Born in Secrets" (in the magazine Amazing Stories), "The Rose Window" (in the anthology Realms of Mystery), and "A Narrowed Gaze" (in the anthology Realms of the Arcane). His stories have appeared in the Malhavoc Press anthologies Children of the Rune and The Dragons' Return, and his comic book writing can be found in the Ptolus: City by the Spire series from DBPro/Marvel. His fantasy fiction series, "Saga of the Blade," appeared in Game Trade Magazine from 2005-2006.

The geek
In his spare time, Monte runs games, plays with his dog, watches DVDs, builds vast dioramas out of LEGO building bricks, paints miniatures, and reads a lot of comics.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great idea but...., February 16, 2004

By 

John D. "john-d8" (Farmington Hills, Mi. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beyond the Veil (Penumbra/D20) (Paperback)

Yet again it seems Monte Cook has no idea what power levels he is writing his modules for. This is the second one I purchased written by him and it claims to be designed for 9th level characters. Well I and my fellow players didnt think so. Well maybe if you consider loosing half the party without any real ability to respond to be a good challenge then this might be for you. On the third attempt at the meat of the module we finally stumled across a "loop-hole" that would allow us to claim victory. The story premise is good however.