The Longest Night is the first book in the
Witchfire Trilogy and
Privateer Press’ introduction to its
Iron Kingdoms setting and is designed for 1st-3d level characters. The second book in the trilogy is now available. All of the spoilers have been saved for the later part of the review, so read on until you get to the warning.
The Iron Kingdoms features an intriguing blend of high Renaissance and steampunk. Steam power and firearms are both present in the setting, only with an alchemical spin that both minimizes their presence in the setting and provides a fresh perspective on including these items in a fantasy game. Rules are provided for both, including new skills such as Craft (gunsmith), Knowledge (firearms), Profession (steam engineer), and Knowledge (steamworks). Additional rules for firearms are available at the Privateer Press web site.
One of the most distinctive aspects of Corvis is the presence of the steamjacks. Large construct of magic and steam that do the heavy lifting at the docks and that assist in law enforcement and that closely resemble the steam golems from Mage Knight. However, no stats are provided for steamjacks. An unfortunate oversight that Privateer claims will soon be corrected by providing information on their web site.
The Longest Night is set in the City of Corvis, a river city in the Kingdom of Cygnar. Corvis sits among the marshlands at the divergence of the Black and Dragon’s Tongue rivers and thrives on the river trade to the north, south, and west. The first nine pages of The Longest Night describe Corvis and its surroundings, providing a general overview of points of interest, governance, merchants, and guilds.
Now you may be thinking, didn’t he mean “convergence” rather than “divergence”? No, I didn’t. I am not aware of any rivers on Earth that diverge the way Corvis’ rivers do, but diverge they do. Corvis is also built along the three corners of the diverging rivers, despite the fact that most prudent folks in our world built their cities upstream of convergences in order to avoid flooding. Luckily, Corvis seems to be in a fairly cool climate, so disease shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
One of the few other flaws in the setting, apart from the distinctive geography, is that the folks at Privateer Press have both made steam power too accessible and underestimated its impact. By making steam power primarily a technical art, it is free from the alchemical constraints that they placed on firearms. This can easily be patched, though, by requiring more magical training for the construction and maintenance of steam boilers (i.e. Craft Wondrous Item).
Furthermore, although steam power has been available in the Iron Kingdoms for more than a century, it apparently has had only a slight impact on the society, culture, and economy of the Iron Kingdoms. The folks at Privateer also seem to be laboring under the mistaken assumption that steam power was the determining factor in the development of the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution began in England in the late 18th and early 19th centuries with the construction of water powered mills where great leather belts carried the energy from the water wheels to looms and other machinery. The Industrial Revolution spread to the United States as trained millwrights immigrated, selling their knowledge to proto-industrialists. Steam power began to be harnessed in the early and mid 19th Century, and it wasn’t until the late 19th Century (at least until after the American Civil War on this side of the Atlantic) that the dark, satanic mills with their plumes of coal ash became the signifiers of industrialization. But, enough with the history lecture, let’s get to the fun stuff:
HERE THERE BE SPOILERS
The Longest Night is the first volume of a three volume campaign, and the events detailed in this volume are intended to take place over several weeks, if not months, leading up to Corvis’ celebration of the Longest Night, a rowdy carnival on the night of their regular lunar eclipse. Only this year’s festival will be one everyone will be talking about for years to come.
The adventure begins in the tried and true manner of having the PCs employed as caravan guards on their way to Corvis. As they near the city, the caravan is ambushed by crafty little monsters that should impress upon the players, as they slip and slide in the mud, that they are not in Greyhawk anymore. Once the PCs enter Corvis, a series of encounters begins that lead the PCs along a path of grave robberies and the discovery of a plot to avenge a past injustice through vengeance upon the living. Along the way, the PCs get to explore several dungeons before racing to defend the citizens of Corvis from the assault of an army of undead.
The Longest Night concludes with an appendix of creatures (several of them new), an appendix of generic NPCs, and an appendix of prominent NPCs.
One of the real strengths of The Longest Night is that a GM is given the flexibility to structure and space out the events required for the adventure as appropriate for an individual campaign. A GM could lead the PCs straight through the adventure from scene to scene, or a GM could allow the PCs to explore and settle into Corvis, developing the campaign at their own pace, slowly accumulating the clues and information that lead them to uncovering the conspiracy.
One of the real weaknesses of The Longest Night is that it makes two of the classic mistakes. First, it puts the chief adversary on the cover surrounded by an army of undead and carrying a big, black, magical sword. This gives away several of the major plot points that the PCs are supposed to work to uncover. Still, the picture of the barefoot girl in the tattered white dress with the big black sword appropriately captures the feel of the adventure and Corvis’ distinctive nature. Second, the title of the adventure gives away another important plot element. “Let’s see, it’s called the Longest Night, do you think that the Longest Night festival might be important to the adventure?”
Still, with all of my quibbles and caveats, The Longest Night is a moody, distinctive adventure and certainly well worth the low price of $10. I am not a big fan of prepublished settings or adventures, but The Longest Night made me seriously think about running a campaign set in the Iron Kingdoms.
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