DMs Guild Review – Wrath of Zuggtmoy

This review has been sponsored by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.

Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.

Designed by: Scott McClintock, Marc Altfuldisch, Buck Wev, Billy Middleton, Daniel Kahn, Isaac Minarik, Chris Martin

Doomed Forgotten Realms has been one of favorite series on the DMs Guild, showcasing a uniquely apocalyptic world where all the villains won in official 5e campaigns, masterminded by Vecna.

Then we ventured into the Underdark with last year’s spinoff Reign of Rot, a unique twist on Out of the Abyss featuring rampaging demon lords in an apocalyptic Underdark.

The sequel, billed as Doomed Underdark Vol. 2, takes a rather abrupt turn. The unholy union of the demon lord Zuggtmoy, and the gigantic sentient fungus Araumycos continues to be the big bad, but defeating her will require leaving the Realms altogether, and venturing into the Astral Sea.

As a sequel to Reign of Rot, Wrath of Zuggtmoy begins at 7th level, and ends around 11. The story begins with the newly cleansed myconids of the Underdark tasking the party with defeating Zuggy once and for all, by sending them into the Astral Sea.

If the party hasn’t played the first volume, they’re simply asked by the friendly myconids of Neverlight Grove to destroy this grave threat to the world.

How the party is supposed to defeat this extra-upgraded demon lord in space at 7th level is not exactly clear.

Of course, things go sideways right away. After begin magically transported, they witness Zuggtmycos’ interstellar form, that of an asteroid-size skull, infect dozens of planets.

When the party is noticed, she flicks them to one of the planets, where they crash-land in a fungal apocalypse.

On Krynn.

That’s right, we’re doing Doomed Dragonlance!

For a few chapters, anyway.

The party runs afoul of fungal monsters and meets up with Tasslehoff Burrfoot, one of the most famous and beloved characters from the original Dragonlance series.

In Chapter Two, they delve into a crashed fortress (which I’m pretty sure is from the Dragonlance 5e campaign book, Shadow of the Dragon Queen) to recover a magic chair that Tasslehoff needs for his ship, in order to leave this continent.

Chapter Three sees the party transporting the ship across fungus-infested swampland, arriving at Tass’ ship, just before Lord Soth arrives.

The chair is a spelljamming helm, and the ship leaves the planet behind for good. Get ready for Spelljammer!

I admit, I’m shocked to see fallen Krynn used in such a rushed style. The Doomed Forgotten Realms is a neat idea, but to infect Krynn with an apocalyptic fungus is bit too jarring. I’m a big Dragonlance fan and seeing major characters like Lord Soth and Tasslehoff smashed into this much bigger series just feels like checking boxes for the sake of featuring all the 5e campaigns and characters.

In fact, chunks of Chapter Two’s dungeon crawl involves uncovering Lord Soth’s backstories and motivations (a very complex, classically tragic villain), only to have show him up for a single big action scene right when the party is leaving the entire planet.

Thankfully the Spelljammer half of the book is nothing short of amazing.

In Chapter Four the party’s spaceship runs into Admiral Krux (from 5e Spelljammer campaign, Light of Xaryxis), and the deposed prince from the Rock of Bral. They’re forming a coalition against the dreaded Death Skull, the manifestation of Zuggtmycos, and gathering some exotic allied factions, including autognomes, mind flayers, and thri-kreen.

After securing allies, the party explores an abandoned space station to recover a weapon capable of destroying Zuggy. Chapter 5 is blatantly called “Aliens,” because it’s a fantastic homage to the Alien franchise, with creepy environmental storytelling, exploding & evolving xenomorphs, and lots of keycards and dead bodies.

As a big Alien fan I adore this dungeon design, and can easily recommend the adventure just for this slice of sci-fi horror alone.

(Shameless plug: watch us play through the Alien RPG!)

Speaking of blatant chapter titles, everything comes together in Chapter 6: A New Hope.

It’s Star Wars time, baby!

Specifically the third act, which has our forces assault the Death Sta — er, Death Skull.

This is a complicated task for a tabletop RPG, but I love how it’s designed in stages and rounds.

First, we have to navigate through a dangerous mine field of wormholes and space beholders, then begin our bombing run of the Death Skull while enemy forces attempt to board. Finally, the party has to land inside the skull to fight the weakened demon lord herself.

It’s an awesome ending that’s much, much better than the whimpering end to Light of Xaryxis.

The adventure includes eight full color battle maps, in DM, player, and non-gridded versions, over 20 statblocks (including three stages of xenomorphs), and an appendix full of “Friendship Quests.”

Don’t let that silly name fool you, Friendship Quests feature social scenes and quests starring the various NPC allies aboard the spelljamming ship, whom the party meets at Chapter Four (further cementing that the real campaign doesn’t begin until the Spelljammer section). It’s an awesome resource to bond PCs with NPCs, reminiscent of Fire Emblem, Persona, or your favorite Bioware RPG (or any modern party-based video game).

Wrath of Zuggtmoy may leave the Underdark behind, but it still features much of what I love about this series: cinematic moments, clear story-telling, exotic locations, and interesting dungeon designs.

Pros:

• Sequel to Reign of Rot, or a stand-alone story.
• Chapter 5 is an amazing Aliens-flavored sci-fi horror-lab dungeon crawl.
• Epic space climax is a big improvement over Spelljammer 5e adventure, Light of Xaryxis.
• Optional friendship quests and social scenes build meaningful relationships with NPC allies.
• Eight detailed, full color maps in DM, player, and non-gridded versions.

Cons:

• Doomed Krynn, an entirely new setting, is squished into two and a half chapters.

The Verdict: The sixth release in the Doomed Forgotten Realms and the direct sequel to the Doomed Underdark boldly goes beyond both series in a wild mash-up of Dragonlance, Aliens, and Star Wars, while maintaining the series’ action-packed story-telling and high quality production.

A review copy of “Wrath of Zuggtmoy” was provided by the publisher. Find more DMs Guild Reviews on my website and YouTube channel.

Support my work by using my affiliate links and pledging via Patreon.