Crown of Shadows

[JoeGKushner]

Crown of Shadow is an ambitious book that takes characters from 1st to 5th level while giving them a tour of the physical and emotional feel of the Midnight campaign setting.

Note, as always with an adventure, spoilers follow. Players, go reread your Midnight book or something.

Broken up into seven chapters, the book covers a wide variety of adventure and themes. It strives to showcase how isolated the demi-humans are while adding terror and hopelessness to the mix.

For example, the meeting of the characters can have some players as allies of Wendell from the elves, or citizens of Durgis Rock. This automatically builds up tension as the characters hail from different areas. The players must learn to trust one another. Other twists are specific for dwarves like having to deal with the vast open plains or with the wild river.

Another theme present is don't slow down. There are several instances where the players have to keep moving. There are notes on using starvation and food rationing to insure that the players never forget that they don't have the luxury of waiting for things to get better. They have to stay on the move. In several instances, they'll find themselves either moving slower or quicker as the agents of evil are everywhere and attacks are always in progress with the players seeing several stages of this on the road.

Another interesting theme is that of action. There are several times when the players will have the option of not helping someone else and this has repercussions from not getting bonus experience points, to how others in the world deal with you. Inactivity is not a reward in and of itself. For example, at the Pardrum Holdfast, if the players haven't saved Golan, a dwarf of some importance to Pardrum, their reception is much different than if they had saved him and were returning with him.

The book doesn't hold back on any issues though. There is a sneaky switch at the end which could, if the party's not careful, result in a TPK and unfortunately, even though there are other powers about, not all of them believe in interference.

One thing that the book does is focus on insuring that players know about the setting. It doesn't always do this in a logical sequence however. For example, while players may not know about the Followers of the White Mother, a non-violent orc cult, they are supposed to know about the terrors of the dead raising. Now take this knowledge, and ponder why the players are assumed not to have done this in the first encounter with the goblins who come back as Fell. Why wouldn't the party take care of them if they know about the horrors of the undead?

Some may be looking at the size of this adventure and wondering, how do players get from 1st to 5th level in a book this small. It is very generous with story based awards. This is good for a few reasons. One, this is a different setting and the handling of experience points reflects that. Two, it severs as a good example of how to base your own awards for experience points. For example, at the start of the adventure, goblins are controlling a stone golem and if the players are smart enough to avoid trouble with them, they get an encounter worth 500 experience points. Latter on, if they fight in the pits at Pardrum, they'll earn experience points just for having the stones to fight in the pit in addition to experience points.

Crown of Shadow is written a little too friendly for the GM. I think that FFG's goal here though isn't necessarily to engage GMs like me with this adventure though so it doesn't effect the grade, just something experienced GMs should know beforehand. Another important note, not a problem with the adventure itself, is that this is fully a Midnight adventure. It's set deep into the roots of that system and will represent some challenges when putting it into another setting.

Art is handled by Anthony Hightower, Anneth Lagamo and Tyler Walpole. The material is good but doesn't match some of the work found in other FFG products. The layout is standard two columns with lots of sections for the GM's eyes.. Editing is good with typos and other issues minimized. Interior covers are not used. Maps are done by Ed Bourelle, known for his work at Necromancer, Mystic Eye and Skeletonkey Games. This means that the maps are high quality but lack a map key. Some of the maps are larger than standard dungeon scale so lack an easy way to keep tabs of whose where but in those situations, it most likely won't matter.

If you're looking to jump start a Midnight campaign, Crown of Shadow is perfect.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

An adventure for 4 to 6 characters that takes them from 1st to 5th level.

No one race or culture has the might to stand against Izrador and his foul legates. The dwarves are valiant, but caged in their mountains. The elves are skilled, but have neither the numbers nor the resources to fight off the orc hordes forever. Yet there are some few who would join their knowledge and skills, the better to fight the Shadow that has fallen over both peoples.

And those few are hunted.

Crown of Shadow is a desperate quest across Eredane, ranging from the depths of the Kaldrun Mountains, across the grim expanse of the occupied plains of Erenland, through the secretive underground of the Eren River, and finally into the heart of the Whispering Wood itself. The players, inexperienced rebels in the fight against Izrador and the Night Kings, become the unintended recipients of a valuable prize, the unwilling charges of a deadly quest. The forces of the Shadow have uncovered a prize of their own, however, and have given it to one f their most devious champions. The party must elude this tireless pursuer and reach sanctuary a continent away, lest they fall prey to the Crown of Shadow.

 

[gambler1650]

Good Low Level Midnight adventure with some problems.

As always with an adventure review, there will be spoilers and as such this is much more geared towards the DM than the players. If your DM may use this adventure, then stop reading... NOW!

Please note that I have not played or run this adventure.

This adventure or mini-campaign aims to do three things:
1. Provide an introduction to the world of Midnight to the DM and the players.
2. Establish the PCs as fledgling heroes of note.
3. Move the characters from a first level party to a fifth level party.

The basic adventure synopsis is that the party is composed of two groups: members of a dwarven clan that's been contacted by Aradil and agrees to give her vital information, and an escort for the elven emissaries who are coming to collect the information. Things go wrong almost from the start and the party is convinced to carry out the mission themselves. After being chased around the mountains for awhile, the rest of the adventure is a gazeteer of sorts as the party moves across the plains of Eredane, has encounters with halflings, a gnome village, humans (in Baden's Bluff), gnome vessels and finally the Caraheen. Oh yes, and lots of orcs and goblins and the occasional nasty creature. The party then deals with a betrayal from the inside (sort of) and the survivors complete the mission by giving the secret information to Aradil.

There are a lot of things to like here. There's a lot of variety (pure roleplaying encounters, dungeon style crawls, wilderness encounters, moral dilemnas, hiding, combat, puzzles, etc). Almost every player should find something to do. The 'gazeteer' feel of traveling in every land means each PC should get a chance to take center stage at some point (until they reach the Caraheen, and then because there are probably no elves in the party - a restriction suggested in the adventure) they have to rely on their guide. Almost all of the unique elements of Midnight are touched on: The Fell, the dangers of being Fey or using magic, the darkness of the setting, the lack of easily obtained resources, etc. There's a lot of advice for the DM, seeming geared towards someone new to the setting. The adventure itself is pretty straightforward with a simple goal. The writing is clear, easy to read and entertaining. The villain of the piece has a more subtle goal than simply to kill the party. There are some simply wonderful roleplaying scenes built in to make the world come alive.

There are a few problems though. My first problem is that this feels more like an adventure that should only move the characters up a couple of levels. I understand the concept of story awards, but even so, the mission itself seems relatively low level in spite of the importance of the information being delivered. My second problem is that the villain is a bit inconsistent. He's portrayed later on as following, gaining information and then infiltrating the party to achieve a goal within the forest of Erethor. In the early scenes though, he's much more direct, having attempted to capture and interrogate the emissaries from the elves, which would of course have eliminated much chance of his mission succeeding. My third problem is with the gazeteer nature of the adventure. I know the characters are moving quickly, but every area is only briefly described, with the assumption being that the DM can flesh it out from the Midnight sourcebook. My fourth problem is with the portrayal of Aradil. The upshot is, she knows that the party's been infiltrated and is using them to find out more about the infiltrator's plans, considering the party as acceptable losses due to her alien (8000 year old) way of thinking. That's fine. But then when the party succeeds she's all smiles and gentleness and bestows great honors and compliments on them. The end scene with her just felt so out of place with the rest of the adventure. It feels like the authors wanted to make up for the darkness of the rest of the adventure by giving the characters a truly happy ending, instead it just felt jarring to me.

Finally, some elements seemed forced. The characters' charge at the beginning to take on the mission comes when high level member NPCs from each group are mortally wounded (along with anyone else who could complete the mission) and have just enough time to get a promise from the party that the mission will be completed, but no chance of being healed. At one point the characters are encouraged to plan out their entire route to the Erethor, and then funneled very blatantly into one possible path. Finally, the villain's infiltration is done in such a way that the characters will probably be suspicious, but at one point the adventure says "There is enough truth in his words that 'Sense Motive' checks won't reveal the deception." or similar. Um, as far as I know, 'Sense Motive' isn't quite that restrictive.

Problems aside, many of which are common in adventures (railroading to some extent always happens), this is a solid first adventure for characters. Personally, I would lower the XP awards as the challenges overcome simply don't seem commensurate with the rewards, but the characters and DM will have had a good introduction to the world of Midnight.