Blood Bayou is a 96 page perfect bound book for Sword and Sorcery's Scarred Lands setting, done in 3.0 rules. The cover has a fairly unappealing picture of the Jack of tears (his face half covered) and a Dark Harlequin, and a half-exposed alligator warrior and Heron Priest in the background. Perhaps the cover would have been better if so much of it wasn't obscured the normal border of Scarred Lands books and the title, which effectively hide two out of the four people in the picture.
Unfortunately the book's cover is indicative of shoddy art throughout the book. The style represented on page 3, 17, 30, 46, and 71 could only be described as hideous. It's so bad that it stick out more than the crisper, and more evocative art elsewhere in the book. Certainly whoever compiled the book was aware of this; none of the artwork of major NPCs are done in this style, yet it just makes you know better artwork probably was available.
Introduction:
We get a half page introduction by Anthony Pryor. I normally dislike introductions, but as this one didn't give me useless information I didn't need to know and was written by a man who's writing I enjoy It didn't bother me.
Chapter I: History of the Bayou
Here's the story about this book and me, I got it come Christmas time and finished reading it on the day I wrote this review. For those of you keeping score at home that means it took me nearly three months to read this book and this is the chapter I kept stopping at.
To add to the atmosphere surrounding the Blood bayou we don't receive a traditional history lesson, instead we learn bits and pieces about the Blood Bayou through fractions of text from all over Scarn. To add to the mystique of the Bayou these texts actually have an effect on those who interact with them. An interesting concept and I like how it's implemented here.
So what does the book do after giving us several of these texts? They hit us head on with the complete history of the Blood Bayou and the true origin of the Laughing man. In a book that's trying to build mystique printing everything in black and white, with little ado (it's not even at the end of the chapter!) is just as good as driving a stake through the book's heart, filling it's mouth with garlic, and cutting off it's head.
..after knowing the truth the book can't possibly measure up....
Chapter II: Geography of Blood Bayou
So in late February I pick the book up again and decided to finish it. The first stop on this quest in this chapter detailing certain areas within the Blood Bayou, and they are....
Bloodport: This unique port city is the hub of the Blood Bayou's more humanoid navel power. Oh yeah it's also a huge pirate hang out. It's a barely controlled anarchy, breaking down to several captains holding their turf with a great deal of zeal.
The Shambling Tower: An undead construct, both undead, and barely intelligent, is the home to a very very unfriendly lich. She dismembers her victims and makes her tower more powerful through incorporating their body parts into it.
Shambletown: This is the main "town" in Blood Bayou, it's a bit more subdued than Bloodport and is also the waiting area for those people drawn to the Bayou in hopes of becoming a member of the Laughing Man's followers. In all this had the biggest potential to be boring reading material, but it turned out to be a rich and exciting settlement.
Laughter Castle: This fortress, surrounded by camps of the meanest beasts in the Bayou, is where everyone believes the Laughing man and his lieutenants dwell. In reality it's a giant death trap forged for the singular purpose of killing off any skilled monster / treasure hunters.
This chapter rounds out with a very in-depth discussion of the type of insanity one is likely to run across when traveling through the Bayou, and they do a good job of showing you that there is no such thing as a routine trip into the Blood Bayou. Everything can and has a fair chance of going wrong, even time and space (it makes sense when you read the true history of the Blood Bayou).
Chapter III: The Carnival of Shadows
This chapter details the Jack's major tool of recruitment, terror, and all around fun. It rolls into town and the people come out in droves to enjoy the show. They have everything, a Bazaar, selling you whatever you need, in exchange for a favor to be named later, a feat, where the food causes you to drink more and more until you pass out, or if you're drinking the blood rum, become a monster. A fortuneteller who will predict your future for a contract signed in blood, and finally a bordello where a night of passion will cost you your next child. Throw a colorful collection of NPCs in there and this chapter becomes a pleasure to read.
Chapter IV: The Court of Chaos
This is the chapter detailing the Laughing man and his coherts, complete with stats and current schemes.
The Good: Lord Quick.... Beautiful art, honestly I believe they pegged him perfectly not just in art, but when it came to stats as well.
The Bad: Baron Mirth.....well he must have been busy compensating for all the coolness of Lord Quick. The Original (and the revised for that matter)creature collection describes Baron Mirth as a warrior figure, a general of the undead in black and red armor. What we get here instead is a Lich of unknown origins who seems to have a connection to Hollowfausts' necromancers. Considering we already have one lich in this book I felt the Baron's being one too was quite a let down.
My fix?: Make Baron Mirth a warrior type and undead, possibly an unhallowed warrior, or a vampire with access to his Altar of Padrah. He'll use said altar to make liches (that he controls) and leaves the bulk of the Undead animation grunt work to them he can still use the Altar to create specialized undead.
The Ugly: The picture of the Laughing man, while it's not done in the horrible style that I've seen elsewhere in the book it's simply substandard next to the picture of him in the original creature collection and the one of him in the Termana campaign setting.
Chapter V: Gamemastering the Bayou
This chapter tries to drive home the atmosphere they so effectively killed in the first. Including something that many GMs will desperately need, a discussion on how to use Bayou's more unique features and not ruining the game for your players in the process. This is simply because you WILL be tempted to go overboard with all the environmental factors.
Chapter VI: Horrors of the Bayou
This is your chapter with new monsters, and as such some are better than others are.
Mirth Jack: A morbidly obese giant these creatures act as the Carnival's muscle.
Silken Parasite: A shape shifting monstrosity that takes the form of whatever "does it" for a victim.
Bayou Spawn Template: Turning monsters into even deadlier monster's since 0 AV
Mad One Template: The madmen who wait in Shambletown waiting to be swept away by the carnival to their new life as a member of the krewes.
Final Verdict: This was a good book, but some of the mistakes in it drove me up the wall. It was hindered by shoddy art in places, continuity farts, and one mystique killing secret revealed like it was the goat on "Let's make a deal". Another thing that bothered me was how this book interacts with the Termana campaign setting book... the campaign setting rather heavy handedly tries to connect the Blood Bayou with the Nameless moon. Of course now that we know the "true history of the Blood Bayou" those references make absolutely no sense at all. As much as I wanted to give this book a better score it firmly places itself at a 3.
