M5: Talons of Night

M5 "Talons of Night" (1987) by Jennell Jaquays is a D&D adventure for four to eight players of levels 25 to 30.*

*the banner on the cover states 20-25, an editorial error

M5 "Talons of Night" (1987) by Jennell Jaquays.  Cover illustration by Daniel Horne (possibly based on early concept art, rather than the actual adventure).

A remarkable feat of the imagination, Jaquays engineers a fittingly epic, grand finale to the overarching clash of empires metaplot introduced in CM1 "Test of the Warlords", and continued in CM2 "Death's Ride", CM3 "Sabre River", M1 "Into the Maelstrom", and M2 "Vengeance of Alphaks".

Creative Team:

M5 "Talons of Night" was designed by Jennell Jaquays and edited by Gary L. Thomas.

Jaquays is better known for her Judges Guild classics "Dark Tower" and "The Caverns of Thracia".  She freelanced for TSR in the late 1980s/early 1990s.

The project came to me as I was in the process of moving my family across the country to be closer to where I grew up and my child's grandparents.

TSR gave me a the product description and what they wanted the product to accomplish: a climactic event between Thyatis and Alphatia, suitable for very high level D&D characters, that took place on an undeveloped land mass, the Isle of Dawn.  With that came a reasonable amount of freedom to take ownership of that space.  And I did.

I wrote an adventure to challenge players and their characters, offer a variety of play challenges, give some "Holy Shit" experiences to players and characters alike (who may have been jaded by then), turned the powerful leaders of two nations into relatable people, change everything in the world, and then like a good episodic television show, reset it all back to status quo at the end.  I created the playable characters and did the interior illustration (including the painted game board).

... prior to writing this adventure, I had never played in or run a Master Level D&D game (or even played in or run this edition/version of the D&D rules).  I never play-tested this adventure.  Balance was based on best guesses and analysis of scenarios in other Master level games.  This was NOT an uncommon practice for me.  Very few of my adventure scenarios in the 70s and 80s were ever play tested prior to publication.

Jennell Jaquays on Facebook (January 19, 2017)

For more on Jaquays' recollections designing this adventure, check out this interview on Wandering DMs (season 03, episode 14) from 13:19 to 20:07 (April 10, 2021)

The cover illustration is by Daniel Horne, with black and white interior illustrations by Jaquays.  Cartography is by Dennis Kauth and Steve Sullivan.

Dedication: Special thanks to Jay Belsky for his impromptu seminar on negotiation, and to play-testers  Bruce Jaquays, Patrick Ryan, Tobin Davenport, Joe Davenport, William Phillips and Todd Lang.

The Isle of Dawn:

Map of the Isle of Dawn.  Scale marked as 24 miles per hex, although is actually closer to 33.7 miles per hex (as discussed, here)

The adventure includes a mini-gazetteer on the Isle of Dawn (appendix III, pg 44-46), with short descriptions for the neutral city of Helskir, the Confederated Provinces of Dunadale, the Grand Duchy of Westrourke, East Portage, West Portage, the City-States of Ekto and Trikelios, Kendach, the Kingdom of Thothia,* and Caerdwicca.

*based on ancient Egypt, the Thothians are described as descendants of colonists from the ancient Nithian Empire, which had recently been described in GAZ 2 "The Emirates of Ylaruam" (1987)

The southern tableland hides the Lost City of Aran, within the Lands of the Aranea.

An island within Lake Avernus, a subterranean lake two miles beneath the Lost City, contains a gate into the world of Thorne, an outer plane.

The Immortals:

Koryis, Patron of Peace and Prosperity, a Lawful celestial from the sphere of Thought.  He opposes wars and violence.

Night, the Immortal ruler of the Sphere of Entropy.

Alphaks the Dark, Patron of Chaos and Revenge, a Chaotic temporal from the sphere of Entropy and Death.

The Night Spider, a temporal from the sphere of Entropy.

Rathanos, the ancient Thothian sun god, a minor Immortal from the sphere of Energy in the pantheon of the Magian Fire Worshippers.

Outer Planes:

Illustration by Jennell Jaquays, used for the cover of Dragon #175 (November, 1991) from this Facebook post (December 19, 2014)

Thorne -  a world beyond the Astral Plane, one of the so-called outer planes on the fringes of the Sphere of Death's primary influence

Chasm - a world of steep cliffs "that fill your vision as far as you can see in all directions", location of the Tower of Night

Tower of Night - a location accessed through Chasm, but with gravity at right angles, containing the means by which to access the Isle of Night

Isle of Night - a miniature version (1 mile/hex) of the Isle of Dawn.  The small plane is a personal but minor project of Night, the Immortal ruler of the Sphere of Entropy.

The Peaceful Periapt of Pax:

The legendary Immortal peacemaker Pax once imbued her pacifying abilities into an alabaster dove as a passive defense against the forces of Entropy.  A clever mortal discovered that it could be made into a mace head with serious damaging effects against mortal and immortal creatures aligned with the Sphere of Death.

"Talons of Night" pg. 44

The Peaceful Periapt of Pax is a Greater Artifact, as described in the Master DM's book (1986).

Powers include A2: Calm Others (PP 30); A2: Mass Charm (PP 75); B2: Lore (PP 70); B2: Truesight (PP 50); D1: Cure Serious Wounds (PP 25); D1: Cure Critical Wounds (PP 35)

New Monsters:

Aranea and Phanatons, introduced in X1 "The Isle of Dread", are given a backstory:

Ages ago, planar spiders exiled to the Prime Plane for their evil founded the city of Aran on the Isle of Dawn.  Here they created the only known works of that arachnid civilization (using the enslaved race of phanaton that accompanied them here).  Mighty webs intertwined with pearlescent pillars of magical stone to create a lustrous city that scintillated in the rising dawn.  Yet the planar spiders' Chaotic descendents soon interbred with lesser giant spiders and so formed the degenerate intelligent spider race known as aranea.

"Talons of Night" pg. 42

Dusker (goblin-like constructs created by the Immortal Hierarch of Entropy); Hunakoi (red-skinned stone giants)

Prerolled Characters:

Kavva Lindenelm, Neutral 10th level Elf

Blind Wooster, Lawful 31st level Cleric

Knolimer Knolin of Yskelb, Neutral 27th level Magic-User

Ethendril h'Caramore, Lawful 30th level Paladin

Unice, Lawful 27th level Fighter

Shebb Woolsey, Neutral 30th level Thief

The pre-rolled characters were loosely based on players in the AD&D adventure that Lawrence Schick (of White Plume Mountain fame) DM'd.  Eunice was my partner's character, and she indeed worshipped a god of pink socks.  The wizard Knolimer was Jay Belsky, one of the engineers who worked with me at Coleco (he was a technical wizard in real life and the co-designer of the product specifications for the ColecoVision game console) and the character's name was originally Nonamer (which meant "No Name'r, jay couldn't think of a name at the time, so Nonamer stuck).  TSR made me change it to something else.  Shebb Woolsey was a thief played by the husband of one of my partner's co-workers at a fabric store).

May be worth noting that that same adventure group included former TSR designer Kevin Hendryx and his wife Mary (both worked for Coleco as well), and Dr. B. Dennis Sustare, the co-author of Bunnies & Burrows, the creator of the Druid class for D&D, and the person for whom the 7th level clerical spell Sustarre's Chariot was named.  We had a good game group.

Jennell Jaquays on Facebook (January 19, 2017)