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The book starts off with the obligatory Introduction, detailing what the book is about and pointing out what other books it refers to. No fiction or anything, and a really skippable chapter. It does point out that this is an Abyssals supplement however, and you really need it, the core rules, and Savant and Sorcerer to understand everything.
Chapter One: Stygia details the politics and personalities of the greatest city in the Underworld and perhaps the only rival to the Deathlords’ power. While it started a bit melodramatic for my tastes, it rapidly became a very fun and engaging read. This really feels like an alien city ruled by the spirits of the dead, and each page was dripping with story ideas. My only beef with this chapter is that it mentions 13 city districts but only describes 5 of them. Granted each is given a decent, if small, write-up, with notable places, rules, and so forth. But I would have liked at least a bit more information on some of the others. It’s mentioned the districts reflect the state of the entire Underworld in specific, occult, ways, but not developed at all. I understand space constraints limit how much could be devoted to any one thing, but I think space in other chapters could have been trimmed for more here. Not sure if that’s because more info is truly needed on Stygia, or if I just wanted more.
In Chapter Two: the Arts of the Dead we get two new types Arcanoi for ghosts. Common Arcanoi are powers any ghost can develop on his own, while Uncommon Arcanoi are those abilities unique to a specific group of the dead and not taught outside that group. Uncommon Arcanoi are listed for the Lintha ghosts, those who serve the Dual Monarchy as judges, and so on. They didn’t seem particularly broken or unbalanced, but I may have missed something. Fans of player character ghosts will be quite happy with this chapter as it gives them new powers to play with, but others may be as indifferent as I am about it. Overall, these powers feel like a rehashing of powers from Wraith: the Oblivion, which never impressed me with its Arcanoi either. I know that’s not the case, but nothing just out and grabbed me as I read this chapter. Chalk my problems with it more to reviewer bias than quality of the work.
While the problems in the last chapter were due to my bias, the problems in Chapter Three: the Wonders of the Dead have more to do with the writers. Using the Artifact rules from Savant and Sorcerer, the chapter has a collection of interesting and morbid magical items. The problems come when one considers two things. First, Artifacts may be mechanically sound, but don’t feel right for their rating. Should a stone buried under a staircase that makes it infinite to those who don’t know its name really be a 4-dot Artifact? Especially if someone can deactivate it by making five successes on an Intelligence+Lore roll, or simply bypass it by going another route? This is a magical world after all, and stairs aren’t the only way to scale a building. Should an artifact that can, as stated, make enough snakes to fill the Underworld in half-an-hour, be considered worth 3-dots? Some of these Artifacts feel over- or underpowered, and while part of that is due to conflicts in personal taste, not all of it is. The other major problem I had with this chapter is the number of Artifacts powered by blood. Some times, lots of blood. I understand blood is a valuable and powerful commodity in the underworld, but it’s also supposedly scarce. Who’s making all these seemingly “common-use” Artifacts for people who can likely never power them? All that said, there’s over 60 items listed here, and a reader is bound to find some he’ll truly like.
Chapter Four: Creations of Bone brings the book back up. It covers the war machines and constructs of the Deathlords, as well as a few of the more unique tools of the First and Forsaken Lion. It covers zombies, nemessaries, siege engines, airships, special weapons, customization of corpses, and more. And the Warstriders of Oblivion make an appearance here, including the First and Forsaken Lion’s custom suit of ebony and bone. Not really much for players, unless their characters are busy developing new ways to mobilize the dead for war, but lots of evil goodies for GMs. If the chapter on Stygia gave you ideas for setting, this chapter will give you ideas for scary things to throw at your players. The only beef I had with this chapter was the Artifacts listed here don’t use the ratings from the Savant and Sorcerer rules… last seen 13 pages ago in Chapter Three. I personally don’t like those ratings, but I do like consistency in a product.
Chapter Five: Necromancy will be the selling point for many. Almost 60 spells are listed, and several of those have more powerful versions detailed in their descriptions. It’s good. For example, while there are three spells for summoning a Warstrider of bone and essence, there’s another spell for turning into a pyre-elemental. Who needs to be twenty feet tall when you can hurl balls of napalm doing aggravated damage, while sheathed in protective flame. Some of the spells do feel a bit underpowered for their Circles, but not too bad.
Finally we have Chapter Six: Creatures of the Underworld detailing the oddities and beasties which haunt the lands of the dead. Since these creatures have no single point of origin, and since ecology doesn’t mean much when you don’t need to eat or reproduce, many of them are very odd and unnatural. Which is fitting for the Underworld. What bothers me is that some of the most interesting creatures aren’t statted out, while other creatures are flat-out boring. Monkey’s that prefer “to cause chaos by stealing equipment from one individual and placing it with another” aren’t new and original when you make them undead. Meanwhile I’m wondering how much of a challenge four hura would be for a Dragon-Blooded since their stats aren’t listed anywhere. Finishing out the chapter are four different ideas about what to do when the maggots in Juggernaut finish eating the dead behemoth. My own advice would be to keep Juggernaut and use the four different beasties as new tools for Mask of Winters or some other Deathlord.
In terms of Style, I’ll give this book a solid 4. It’s good, and it’s appropriate for the setting and the material. And Ross Campbell’s piece on page 71 lacks any nipples, but there is a lot of piercing; it’s also my favorite piece in this book. He also did my least favorite piece, with a demonic fetus crawling out of a zombie-like woman’s belly. Not as bad as “that one piece” in Dark Reflections: Spectres though. The writing varies, but is always decent. Occasionally things feel a bit monotonous, but then again how many synonyms can you use in a 160 page book for corpse?
In terms of Substance I’ll give it a conditional 5. If you’re heavily using the Underworld or the Abyssals or the undead, you need this book. If they’re just occasional adversaries, this book isn’t that necessary. It’s full of stuff you might want to use, but you don’t need it like you do Dragon-Blooded, or Savant and Sorcerer.
Who should get this book? Fans of Exalted for starters, and those playing in games dealing with the forces of Death especially. However, despite some slumps here and there, the book is a treasure trove of ideas, and not just for Exalted. Any game using undead and necromancy could handle almost any of the ideas and material in here. Granted, the mechanics wouldn’t cross over well, but the concepts would. Put another way: I’ve seen giant undead constructs in D&D before, but nothing like the Weapon of Mephitic Desolation.
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