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The book serves as a mini-sourcebook for Glissom as well as a scenario. Those familiar with the Dragon Warriors books will be happy to know that this book is not a 100% reprint of the old gamebook information. There are about 30 pages of new text covering Glissom and its surrounding lands...very useful for a GM looking for somewhere new to set a campaign. The information provided is pretty extensive while still leaving enough blank spaces for the GM to fill in with his own creations.
Let’s take a look at the book chapter by chapter.
Chapter 1: Introduction
The introduction is short and to the point. It offers good ideas for the GM on how to dovetail Prince of Darkness into the previous campaign books; "Sleeping Gods" and "The Elven Crystals". The ideas struck me as being more practical and thoughtful than some of the campaign-linking ideas that I've seen before in other products.
Chapter 2: Glissom Fife and City
This chapter is nearly all new material, about 99% I'd say without going through the old book again line-by-line. There is a lot of interesting information on the small city of Glissom, the fife (yes I know it's technically a kingdom but the reasons behind the name are explained in the book :)), and it's hinterlands. Major NPCs are mentioned and details given about laws and local power groups. The chapter includes local color like tavern games and includes lots of potential conflicts. Locations of interest from taverns to villages are covered and hardly a line goes by without an adventure idea or two springing up. I was surprised that the author didn't make a little more of the potential conflict between the druids and the new faith but considering Glissom's isolated nature I'm guessing that this conflict has yet to become a real issue.
Chapter 3: Adventure hooks
Once again this entire section is all new. There are a lot of nice plot hooks with a goodly number of them intended to ease your characters into the main scenario. None of the plot hooks are your standard dungeon crawl fare (there is enough of that in the core scenario to satisfy your “crawl-craving”) but instead focus on the conflicts that fuel life in the Kingdom. The author makes good use of the conflicts from chapter 2 and running 2-3 of these mini-scenarios before the main adventure will give the players a sense of what they are risking their necks for later on. A fair number of the hooks feature Prince Doron (the heir to the throne) and make nice campaign starts. The hooks are broken down as follows:
- "Getting There" Hooks
These are intended to help get the players to Glissom from their normal stomping grounds. They expand on the ideas from Chapter 1 and I found most of them to be really nice set pieces.
- Glissom City Hooks
The meat of this chapter these hooks give players a taste of day to day life in Glissom city and one or two could make excellent one-shot games in their own right..."Scraping the Barrel" in particular made me think of all manner of horrible ideas.
- Glissom Fife Hooks
These hooks focus on the wider area of Glissom Fife and can be used to build the character's fame and fortune. Adventures include tourney shenanigans, protecting a village from deadly raiders, and getting pressed into service as Wardens for the most dangerous town in the Fife.
- The Wild Hooks These hooks cover the wild lands and those living at the edge of civilization. Crazed priests and bloody raiders both feature. I particularly liked the "Ancient Bodies" hook which reminds of me of the start of Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness".
If you intend to play this adventure stop reading now!
Chapter 4: The Prince of Darkness
This chapter begins the adventure proper. The opening text is very flavorful and really helps to set the tone for the rest of the adventure. Part one opens with some double dealing and a simple mystery. The end result of this section has the players sent on a mission to recover a stolen "Hearthfire" before it can be used to free the dark god Balor. I can see a group spending 10 minutes or an entire session on this part depending on how active and roleplay-oriented they are. Once again the characters get to work with Prince Doron (the “wild-child” heir to the Throne) and given the expected outcome of the adventure the heroes could end up as his trusted advisors.
The second part of the adventure involves a straightforward ambush. The idea is rather simple and might require a little bit of work to "modernize" it so that savvy players don't spot it immediately. I think the innkeeper, Chang could use a little bit of work, as it stands he's been left without a background that could be expanded upon. He sounds like a native of Khitai or Yamato and there seems to be a missed chance here to turn him into a recurring villain. Perhaps this information will appear as a download at some point?
Part 3 sees the characters enter the enchanted Siren Woods in hot pursuit of an unknown party that seems to be trying to beat them to their objective. This section offers the heroes a chance to battle Fay from the woods and if they play their cards right they could end up with a lot of background information that will serve them well later on in the adventure. The heroes can side track from here to part 4 or continue to part 5.
Part 4 is a short dungeon crawl enabling the heroes to test their skills against some interesting puzzles and traps before moving on to the last section of the adventure.
Parts 5-7 take the heroes from the mountains of Brack, through a frost giant liar, and into part of a lost city that houses the trapped body of Balor himself. An overly curious party can get themselves killed very easily here and knowing when to leave well enough alone is a good idea.
The aftermath of the scenario leaves Doron (or one of the players) on the throne which could lead to a whole series of new adventures…especially considering Doron’s lack of “kingly aptitude”. I found myself wanting a little more from the Aftermath section. A few extra lines on follow up adventures and such would have been nice. But overall the adventure ended quite nicely and gives a lot of satisfaction.
A special mention goes to the artwork and maps. The maps are clear, visually pleasing, and "interesting" to look at. The artwork is grim and very appropriate. I'd recommend showing the images to players during the game to enhance the atmosphere.
Summary
I would highly recommend this book to veteran and new Dragon Warriors players alike. The book doubles as a sourcebook and scenario making it an invaluable reference that you can refer to again and again.
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