"Carved in Stone" is an adventure for Columbia Games Harn fantasy role-playing setting, written by Matthias Janssen.

For those not familiar with the setting, Harn is a Madagascar sized island, loosely based on 11th/12th century Britain. It is a place of mystery and strange happenings, on the island are nine states, seven human (Chybisa, Kaldor, Kanday, Melderyn, Orbaal, Rethem & Tharda) and two non-human (Azadmere & Evael).

Set in and around Tharda, a nation inspired by the Roman Republic and located in the west of Harn. "Carved in Stone" sees the PCs following rumors of ancient dwarven treasure, from Shiran, Tharda's second largest city, north onto the wild shores of Lake Benath. Of course they are not the only ones to have heard the rumors...

The adventure is freeware and available as a 3.41MB .zip file containing a 30 page .pdf file from:

(http://www.harnmaster.net/download.php)

HARNWORLD: CARVED IN STONE, OVERVIEW.

The adventure uses the standard Columbia Games format. It consists of a series of indedepenently numbered articles, each focused on a single topic. The articles are preceded by a one-page introduction that outlines the background to the adventure and provides the GM with suggestions on how to bring the players into the scenario. The four articles that contain the information needed to run the adventure follow, they are:

Sirion (9 pages): The first article covers the rumored location of the treasure, a wooded hill located near the site of a great battle between Dwarf and Orc, providing not merely a description of the terrain encountered by the PCs, but wildlife encounter tables and ideas on how to convey eerie nature of the site.

Characters (2 pages): As the title suggests, this second article covers the major NPCs of the adventure. HarnMaster stats are presented for potential opponents and descriptions provided of three fishermen who before the adventure began, discovered a place where they believe dwarven treasure lies. It is these fishermen who will carry the PCs to Sirion.

Dumonea (5 pages): A small Thardic village, Dumonea is home to the fishermen who discovered the treasure site. It is also the place from which the PCs will set out on their journey. Dumoneas' small size means that the author was able to provide a complete description of the village and its inhabitants, which means that this article could be used independently of the published adventure as the setting for other scenarios.

Adventure (6 pages): The final article deals with the adventure proper; it outlines the course of events once the players reach Sirion and the consequences of successfully completing the adventure.

HARNWORLD: CARVED IN STONE, COMMENTS.

Fans of the Harn role-playing setting have always prided themselves on the high quality of the material they produce and "Carved in Stone" is no exception. The creators of this adventure have aimed to produce something that could stand comparison with any of the official products released by Columbia Games and they have succeeded.

The text, maps and diagrams are clear and readable. Artist Richard Luschek was called upon to supply illustrations and again shows why he is a more than worthy successor to Eric Hotz. The plot emphasizes mystery rather than swordplay; furthermore the GM is given plenty of advice on how to run the adventure and is provided, not only with possible side plots during the course of the adventure, but with plenty of ideas for follow-up adventures.

Even more admirable is that "Carved in Stone" is not simply presented as a collection of articles, but as if it were an actual adventure released by Columbia Games. It features a minimalist cover similar to the one used on the adventure "100 Bushels of Rye" showing a Dwarven sarcophagus on a plain red background, while the last page of the file contains a well written summary of the adventure. It is also as far as I can tell free from errata and spelling mistakes.

One minor flaw, at least to me, is that there is not overview map showing the adventure locations in relation to one another, but this can also be seen as an advantage, because it means that a GM will have little trouble in adapting the adventure to fit whatever setting they are using.

HARNWORLD: CARVED IN STONE, VERDICT.

In conclusion, "Carved in Stone" is well worth downloading. It is a well written, professionally presented adventure that is superior to many products that are on sale at full retail price. The almost stat free nature of the product means that it can be adapted to any role playing system with the minimum of trouble. Finally I would like to congratulate the author on his work and express my wish that this will not be the last adventure to come from his keyboard.