Infernal Insurgency is an adventure for level 5 to 10 characters set in Avernus and part of the official DDAL line of scenarios. It continues the story from Faces of Fortune. The characters, now they have a base in Avernus, must scout a nearby research and weapons facility run by goblins and lesser devils and then cause enough damage there to draw away forces from a stronghold that their leader, Dara, wants to infiltrate.
The adventure gets away from the strict linear plotting of many DDAL adventures to provide an experience where the players’ choices make a lot more difference to the course of play. You’ve got a setting – the weapons facility – its inhabitants, and a goal. It’s up the characters to determine how they approach it, and the DM to use the material they have to make it all work.
As a result, there’s a much higher load on the DM than in most scenarios in determining the reactions of the monsters to the characters’ actions and trying to provide a challenge while not making the mission impossible.
One aspect I very much enjoyed was the plethora of subquests available, either discovered during preparation for the mission or from things found during its execution. The players have to prioritise what is important and how to accomplish these quests.
So far, so good. Unfortunately, the presentation of this material has a lot of problems. The most obvious are the maps, which are nearly indecipherable due to poor colour choices and contrast. They are very challenging to read on a computer and nigh impossible when printed. The text, in that time-honoured S8 fashion, also often obfuscates what’s going on. The information is there, but you have to dig for it. It needs a better overview.
Likewise, the mission briefing’s presentation is overcomplicated. It’s not that difficult a concept, but somehow the one portion of boxed text is for the end of the briefing and doesn’t describe what’s going on. The actual point of the adventure is also missing. It’s in the blurb of the adventure, but at no point in the actual Call to Action does it bother saying “We think the plans of the original Hellrider assault on Hell are stored in Plaguepoint Keep. We won’t be able to get in normally, so we’d like you to cause a distraction at a nearby weapon facility – that’ll draw soldiers away, and you’ll be able to infiltrate Plaguepoint Keep afterwards.” And given that there’s a lot of talk about OTHER plans for war machines in the weapon facility, it’s no surprise many DMs are confused by this section.
I must give a special shout-out to the Terror Troop, who have different names in the text than in the appendix.
The entrance to the facility is also confusing. It has lots of options, which is excellent, but you have to decipher the map, wonder why the boat pictured isn’t described, and then put together everything together. It’s very challenging.
The descriptions of the facility itself are better, and – though some may find it relies a bit too much on random rolls to determine where patrols are – contains much that is good. It’s a nice touch that the maps the characters have are missing a level, but the text indicates it’s a different level than what the handouts show.
The adventure that makes good use of the bonus objectives, as they provide additional subquests for the characters, which make a lot of sense within the structure of the adventure. However, putting the bonus objectives in appendices that are separated from the main text and challenging to find remains a poor formatting choice.
This is a messy, poorly presented adventure, but there is so much invention and material here that, if you can work out what’s going on, you can enable an entertaining session. I certainly did, but, for an adventure with three editors, you’d expect better.
My experience with this adventure was that it was confusing and went too long. We had 3 DMs run it. We all used 2 four-hour long sessions and none of the tables finished the 6 hour long adventure without skipping almost half the battles and ignoring the random encounters entirely.
I’ve ran it and I’m still confused about where all the entrances are to the Dump. One appears to be in the dome but the description of the dome and the map of the dome both don’t show or mention any entrances.
The second half of the adventure insinuates that PCs should be sneaking through the place and avoiding most of the combats so they all aren’t run. But the side quests are to find things somewhere in the building without any guidance on exactly where they are. So it requires the PCs to open every door and fight every encounter to find them all.
I had the same issue as you described here. I ran this adventure and was under the impression that Dara was sending a different team of people at the same time to attack this Plagueshield Point. When we played the next part and I told the PCs “you need to attack it now” everyone was confused because they thought someone else was already doing that.
It seems to be an issue with this entire season. Vague references to the overall plot without explaining anything. My players asked “ok, so we need the original attack plans for the Hellriders. What are we going to do with them? How exactly are at planning on saving their souls?” but the only answer written in the adventure is “I have no idea, I think I’ll explain that in another 2-3 adventures.”
This aventure is the one that got me thinking that DDAL might be well served, if the adventures won’t give enough info, by having “cut-scenes” explaining the things that happen off stage (Dara learning about the plans, say). I liked these in LG when I played. Maybe the issue is we don’t have as many volunteers to do all this stuff anymore in official capacities.
So what I’m taking out of this is if I want to fit it into a four hour tight time slot, I’m going to have to make some Captain’s Picks about elements of content and presentation – just chopping out the Bonus Objectives won’t suffice. I’m so glad I read this before running it! Your reviews have been a godsend for S9.
Yes, you need to keep an eye on the time for this one. Your players might walk past a lot of content, but if they don’t, you’ll need to adjust.