Today we are looking at In the Halls of the Maneater by Laurin-David Weggen, a level 1-3 monster hunt through an 18 room dungeon. This adventure was written for the Soulblight: First Cycle setting, which is set “during a time between the Stone and Bronze Age of its world”. But it would not be hard to adapt to your own setting, and the author helpfully included a list of tools, equipment and weapons so it’s not necessary to have First Cycle in order to run Maneater.

The setup is a classic, with a few twists. A man-eating monster is terrorizing the local communities, and someone needs to go into its lair and put a stop to things. But of course it’s not a simple cave – the maneater makes its home in the former dwelling of an extinct tribe that worshipped a dead nautiloid. Only their half-crazed shaman remains, along with some brain-sucking nautiloid vestiges  There’s a nice helping of weirdness and secrets to uncover. We also get a nice list of hooks related to the alignments and possible motivations of the PCs. No rumors, though.

There are also a handful of other groups stalking the maneater’s lair with their own motivations and tactics. We get an outline of each of them along with mechanics for how they move through the dungeon and what happens when they encounter the maneater, with results varying from being completely wiped out to getting a few licks in of their own. But crucially, they will never completely defeat the beast. That is left to the PCs. Still, it serves to provide a palpable dynamism and vitality that will drive a lot of emergent gameplay.

The maneater itself has 6 possible stat blocks ranging from the lean and hungry lion to a giant reptile to a pair of telepathic troglodytes. Each has its own tactics and abilities. Beyond that, there is a table of mutations that occur whenever the maneater devours a humanoid victim. This includes the possibility that it will have a baby that rapidly grows into another fully-fledged maneater. Good luck, PCs. 

It’s also worth noting that rather than using public domain art like previous Soulblight books have done, In the Halls of the Maneater features art hand-drawn by the author. And it looks fantastic. 

Before we get to the dungeon proper we get some basics like environmental features, random encounters and an order of battle. Random encounters are nicely varied and provide enough detail to get the GM started. An entry like “Three cave-monkeys swing and climb across the ceiling, snatching at the PC’s torches” will provide fuel for some memorable shenanigans.  

Page layout is ⅓ monter stats and map and ⅔ room key. That includes a tiny copy of the entire map on each page. So tiny that it’s probably useless. Perhaps zooming in on the current room and adjacent areas would have been better. The keys themselves are well-constructed and easy to follow. And each room in the dungeon has something going on. Mostly in the form of NPCs to chat with and environmental hazards that clever players will use to their advantage. We have salamanders with extractable venom, highly flammable vegetation, deadly tar pits, fragile columns, etc, etc. There are myriad ways to deal with the maneater and other potential foes beyond a pitched battle and countless schemes that can be cooked up to gain an advantage. 

And that’s where the bulk of the gameplay will come from. The rooms themselves are interesting and somewhat varied, but most of the interactions are focused on negotiating with the other hunter groups and figuring out how to deal with the eponymous monster. In the hands of a lesser designer that might result in a boring or one-note adventure. There are no puzzles here. Not really much in the way of secrets. But what is here makes sense, and supports the themes of the adventure. Between the mutations, factions, and traps and tricks available to the PCs, it should be very compelling. There are more than enough tools here to keep players engaged in what is, on its face, a simple monster hunt.

So I guess the lesson is, not every kind of interactivity is needed for every adventure. Decoding a cypher or posing statues to unlock a door would seem out of place here. Sometimes your HOTTness will be a little lopsided. That’s ok. Beneficial, even. The trick is being creative enough to create a nice variety of interactions within the tropes of whatever genre your adventure occupies. And that’s where In the Halls of the Maneater shines.

The NPCs are nicely fleshed out with different secrets and schemes. The GM probably won’t be left wondering what to do with them, but they may get lost trying to keep track of everybody. I would recommend going through the text and highlighting a few that you want to focus on while diminishing the importance of others. There will be a fair bit of flipping around trying to remember who’s who and what the hell they want.

One miss might be the lack of specific weaknesses for the various maneaters. Learning the monster’s weakness is a key part of the monster hunt genre and would have added some dimension here, but everything will die when stabbed or bonked or set on fire. Beyond that it would add some intrigue to NPC interactions – perhaps they know its weakness, and are willing to trade for the information? This isn’t a deal-breaker, but definitely an opportunity for improvement.

Besides all the maneater stuff there is also a b-plot going on with the nautiloid/brain-eater/mind flayer things. Although the nautiloid is long dead, there are still several of its slug-like progeny kicking around, hiding in skulls, waiting to latch onto someone’s head until they suck enough brain juice to grow into a full-fledged daddy nautiloid. These are being tended to by a cadre of aborted nautiloid transformations with goals of their own, adding another layer to the onion.

So there’s a lot to handle here, and it will work best with a GM that can make the most out of the NPCs and creative players that can make the most out of the environment. I wouldn’t plan on running this sight-unseen, but with a little prep and the right group, In the Halls of the Maneater will absolutely sing. It’s also nicely modular and could be dropped into just about any campaign. 

On a scale of 2-12, In the Halls of the Maneater gets 10 stingbats.  

Look I got through the whole thing without making a Hall & Oates joke.

https://laurin-david-weggen.itch.io/soulblight-in-the-halls-of-the-maneater