Ancient Evil Awakens
In a long-buried tomb, a grave robber restores a death-cult leader to life, and his cloud of evil spreads across the land. Left behind are the broken Scepter of Faiths and a litany of shrines to restore the weapon. But the evil one and his minions wait to destroy any who try...
Temples of faith, bastions of evil
Splinters of FaithTM is a collection of 10 adventures for characters of levels 1 to 15 that can be played individually or as part of an epic campaign to restore the Scepter of Faiths. Adventure in 10 fully detailed temples such as the Shield Basilica of Muir or the dwarven city of Anvil Plunge, and conquer the nightmarish Nether Sepulcher to restore the balance of good.
Splinters of Faith 5: Eclipse of the Hearth (Levels 5 through 7)
- Ten complete adventures for low- to high-level characters, usable separately or as a massive linked campaign.
- Eighteen unique temples (10 fully detailed) ready to drop into any campaign world.
- New monsters and magic items to discover, and ideas for further adventures
The Necromancer and MeThe pyramid Seraph, once a holy temple, now lies under the sway of darkness. Breaking into the temple is hard enough, but braving the sinister twists awaiting in the dark catacombs will test the strongest PCs
My mid 3.x years, is when I first started using modules. I ran Rappan Athuk, as the tent-pole mega-dungeon, for my longest running 3.x campaign. The party never descended into the lower levels, wisely leaving it behind, after finding what they were looking for, therein. Great Stuff! If you're running a version of 3e, I Highly recommend Rappan Athuk!
For my last 3.x campaign, I ran The Vault of Larin Karr. Karr is a mini-sandbox, with lots going on and the ultimate goal of finding and looting the Vault. It's a large module, giving the PC's plenty of non-linear adventure and several levels of gaming, before they finally find what they're looking for. Great Stuff!
As you can see, the common element is that both are Necromancer Games products. With one exception, the only adventure modules I purchased for 3e, were made by Necromancer Games. By the way Bill, I would buy a Swords & Wizardry version of Rappan Athuk or The Vault of Larin Karr, in a heartbeat! :)
Of Swords, Wizards and Frog Gods
Which, brings us to Frog God Games and their Swords & Wizardry Line.
Bill Webb, as most of my readers are no doubt aware, was one of the Principal's of Necromancer Games. After forming Frog God Games, Bill teamed up with Matt Finch to bring us the Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules edition, along with a slew of support products. When the announcement was made I had some concerns, but the prospect of FFG getting behind S&W, was certainly an exciting one. As I've said before, Matt Finch is my favorite living designer. Would Mr. Webb bring that old Necromancer magic to the table and how well would that compliment S&W? The Complete Rules, showed that the answer to those queries was Yes and Very Well! Eclipse of the Hearth provided me with my second opportunity to answer the same questions.
OK! Time for the Actual Review!
Ok. Eclipse of the Hearth is part 5 of a series of interlocked adventures. An Epic Quest, no less. It's also designed to be usable on it's own as a site based adventure. As I understand it, this is true of all the modules in the series. Matt Finch sent me a copy for review and this is the only one of the series I've seen. While I can't review it from looking at its place in the over-arching adventure, I can certainly do so, treating it as a stand-alone adventure module for whatever your gaming needs.
Let's Get This Out of the Way
Let's Get This Out of the Way
First, the production values are top notch, as one would expect from FGG. Formatting, layout and style all pretty much match the S&W Complete Rules book. Meaning it's snazzy as all hell. Rick Sardinha's art is always welcome. I liked Char Reed's interiors. Nice cartography, with a greyish background, which should go easy on your printer (and if I like a PDF module enough to use it, I'm gonna make myself a nice home print-out copy.) I noticed no typos, etc. The only conversion issue relating to proofing I noticed, which Matt pointed out when he sent the module, was on page 13 where the Encounter Area headers have a (CR #) notation. No big deal, there.
A few paragraphs gives the background and tie-in for those using the whole series. A couple of hook ideas are given for those not using the other modules. From what I've gathered, the various adventures in the Splinters of Faith series all involve site-based adventures at various temples.
Part, The First
Part, The First
The temple in SoF5 was originally dedicated to a LG deity named Arden, who takes a lot of his style from ancient Egyptian religious symbolism. Several pages near the beginning of the module, detail Arden's Ziggurat Temple in a time either long ago, or after the temple has been cleansed, with Clerics and Paladins of Arden, as well as a few other denizens occupying the Ziggurat. A map of the land where the Temple resides is also provided. The temple is well detailed, giving a full picture of life in Arden's Ziggurat and plenty of useful information about the god and his cult. Most of those details are provided in the area keys, so there's a nice economy of space and design. I liked the cult and it's familiar yet different symbolism. I'll use this!
A very nice touch, here. I can use the temple as a bastion of Law and Good, or, as a former center of Light, now fallen to dark forces. This is the kind of thing I want out of a module. Utility, options, time-saving tools and ideas, ideas, ideas.
Yeah, I can think up cool details myself. But, give me a few pages of this sort of thing and I can then, generate a whole slew of accompanying, quality stuff and not only save a bunch of time, but imagine things I would never have thought of, otherwise. Bonus: It's fun to read, as well!Kali-Shar uses the golem as a walking “notepad,” pushingclay against its body and then writing “notes” until she can record theinformation. Patches of hardening clay decorate the golem’s chestand back.
Part, The Second
The module then moves on to the desert area where the temple is placed. A map is provided, showing several keyed area, in addition to the temple, providing some additional, small encounters. I liked these. There's a flavorful take on a classic monster. Some other interesting types, to meet. More ideas I can Yoink for my campaign.
Part, The Third
We then get back to the temple. This time, the location keys provide the details of a desecrated holy site, filled with a nice variety of critters, which are all fitted together very well. The before and after effect is pretty cool. There's quite a bit going on and I think it would prove really fun to adventure through. Our old buddy, Set features into what's going on in the depths of the place. Overall, it's a cool, very well thought out Dungeon. The Temple has six levels. The real danger is on level five and if the party uses too many of its resources getting through the first four levels, they might find themselves completely boned once they reach the really dangerous areas. I would expect at least one or two PC deaths, regardless, unless they're very smart and very lucky.
More Info
Seven new monsters! I liked these guys, overall. Technically, that revamped classic monster I mentioned might qualify as new. He's given his own name, but not a separate boxed off, New Monster description. I couldn't find him in my copy of S&W Complete. Also, the New Monster box entries are given when the monsters appear in the text. I like that!
So, How Does It Stand By Itself?
By itself, it's a site-based adventure, well done, conducive to Yoinkage, either wholesale or in parts. If the Frog God removed any references to the rest of the series and just put this out there for sale, it would stand on its own, quite well. The material suggested many uses to my mind, fired my imagination and gave me exactly what I want out of a good module.
Another Conversion Issue?
My only nit to pick, is that I think there are too many magic-items in the desecrated temple and the surrounding area, for the greedy PC's to get their hands on! I counted ten, +2 weapons or armor and one +3. Along with Misc. Items, Potions and the like. Maybe the series has been really stingy, up to this point. I would suspect it's a d20 design choice thing, as this is a conversion from a Pathfinder module.
No, I Can't Review How It Fits Into the Rest of the Series, But...
OK. Let's talk turkey. I suspect that more than a few of my readers have little love for the whole Epic Quest, Adventure Path Scavenger Hunt aspect of the series. The FGG Team have done an admirable job of making that aspect of the module irrelevant and unobtrusive, for those not interested. The material tying things in to the larger arc, probably amounts to about a quarter of a page, so you're not really paying for stuff you're not going to use, if you don't plan on running the whole series. As a stand-alone, site-based adventure this is good stuff, which I could find all sorts of use for. Another quick quote:
As a series of interlocked adventures, from what I can glean, it looks very, very linear and while I have no doubt that all the temples are individually detailed and in general, are probably as good as this one, I would think some more variety would be wanted, if trying to sustain a long-term campaign. Going to Temple A, to then go to Temple B, so that Temple C... etc.From the blistering heat of the desert, the PCs next travel to the icywastes of the Wailing Glacier in Splinters of Faith 6: Morning ofTears. Inside the melting glacier, they’ll have to find a massive statueand return it to the temple from which it was stolen.
But, a huge supplement full of fleshed out, creatively imagined Temple Adventure Sites, would be right up my alley and at least, in the case of Eclipse of the Hearth, surely is!
In trying to please both S&W and Pathfinder fans, FGG has done quite well by S&W players. But, if I were running a Pathfinder Adventure Path style campaign, I'd probably feel the need to throw some Chaos and variety into the set-up. Ok, even when I ran Epic Quest stuff, it was non-linear as all hell with breaks and side-issues taking center stage, at times. Please do remember that I haven't actually seen any of the other modules in the series. I'm just going off the blurbs and what I've gleaned from the current module. Also, I don't play Pathfinder. That may be exactly what Pathfinder gamers would want.
Bottom Line
Epic Quests aside, I can think of a zillion uses for the material in SoF5 and if the other parts of the series are of similar design (which I gather they are) and quality, they would all be worth picking up to supply me with a few campaign's worth of temple sites, both malevolent and benign. Not to mention the cool new monsters and inspiring ideas.
