E.N. Critters Volume 3 - Tulenjord: Land Of The Fallen One
E.N. CRITTERS VOLUME 3 - TULENJORD: LAND OF THE FALLEN ONE
By Joshua Courtney, Robert Lajoie, Rich McCarthy, and Jim E. Vilandre
E.N. Publishing product number ENP 791
56-page PDF, $7.95
E.N. Critters Volume 3 - Tulenjord: Land of the Fallen One is the third in the series of monster-based PDFs by E.N. Publishing, and I'm pleased to say that everything's starting to fall into place nicely. Despite some initial "growing pains" in getting this series off the ground, the creators are starting to hit their stride -
E.N. Critters Volume 3 is the best one to date.
The cover artwork, once again by any or all of the following (Allen Kerswell/Jeffrey LeBoeuf/Mike McMenemey), is a simple but effective piece, this time managing to focus on not one but three of the monsters detailed within: a ram-horned, yetilike creature (a dyravul) is fighting off not only a bunch of humans that are trying to capture it with ropes, but also a giant crablike monster (a surrissa), while three aquatic humanoids (delphine) approach the scene from the foreground. Coloring is predominantly whites and blues, hinting that this time, the focus is on an arctic environment.
It's quite a different setup than your standard arctic background, however:
Tulenjord: Land of the Fallen One is about a dead god who fell into the Prime Material Plane from one of the Outer Planes, and whose body immediately formed the center of what is basically now an island-sized, free-floating iceberg. The magical energy emanating from the Fallen One's body warped many of the creatures in the area, resulting in the wide variety of creatures discussed in the PDF (although some followed the Fallen One through the planar rift to the Prime from their original plane).
The interior art is by the same team (the three listed above, who together form Guillotine Studios), although Tammy Lajoie also provided some artwork as well. The art is all full-color, and with one notable exception (the dyravul from the front cover, which should be more of a shaggy oxen than a humanoid yeti) match their written descriptions nicely. As has become the standard for this series of PDFs, each monster also comes with one or more double-sided counters at the back, so you can print them out, cut them out, and use them in your game. This is definitely a handy feature, and one that helps the
E.N. Critters line "stand out from the crowd" of monster books.
Proofreading and editing, I'm pleased to say, has taken a rather large step in the right direction. There are still a few instances where size categories, skill names, and languages aren't capitalized, and the apostrophe still sees some rather...creative use here and there, but at nowhere near the levels of the previous PDFs in the series.
And then there are the monster stats. You know that I'm going to mention the monster stats, right? Well, here's my comprehensive list of "unofficial errata" (which, judging by Robert Lajoie's previous behavior, will be incorporated into the PDF lickety-split):
- p. 8, Delphine: As this is a humanoid race of evolved dolphins, and since they have a +4 racial bonus to Swim checks, they should probably have a swim speed in their "Speed" line.
- p. 12, Dyravul: Gore damage should be 2d6+7, not 2d6+10 (+7 Str bonus, but this isn't its sole attack, so it shouldn't get the 1.5 times Str bonus). Bite damage should be 1d8+7, not 1d8+3 (this time, it's a primary attack (followed by claws), so it gets the full Str bonus (while the claws get half the Str bonus)).
- p. 15, Fissure Fisher: HD should be 8d10+16, not 8d10+40 (+2 Con). Average hit points should be 60 hp, not 84 hp. It has 8 HD, yet Advancement starts at 7-16 HD. Rake attacks should be at +12 melee, and deal 1d6+2 points of damage, based on its other attacks.
- p. 20, Medium Frystkalma: Slam damage should be 1d6+3 plus 1d6 cold, not 1d6+2 plus 1d6 cold (here it gets the 1.5 times its +2 Str bonus for being its sole attack). Under Full Attack, slam attacks should be at +5 melee, not +6 (+3 BAB, +2 Str).
- p. 21, Greater Frystkalma: It has 21 HD, yet Advancement starts with 21-23 HD.
- p. 26, Herjalti Eggs: Grapple should be at -16, not -17 (+1 BAB, -12 size, -5 Str).
- p. 38, Small Snow Spirit: Incorporeal touch attacks should be at +5 melee, not +4 (+1 BAB, +1 size, +3 Dex).
And that's it. Sure, that's 7 monster stat blocks (out of 32 total) that have something wrong with them (a 22% error rate), but it's a significant improvement over the (original version of) the first book. Plus, it's a PDF, which means they're easily (and speedily) fixed. I get the feeling that as time goes on, Robert's stat-checking skills are going to be honed to the point where my reviews of his work won't include "unofficial errata."
As for the monsters themselves, I have to say they are a varied bunch, and rather imaginative. The CRs ranged from 1/4 to 15, and we get 2 aberrations, 2 animals, 1 construct, 2 dragons, 1 elemental, 1 fey, 1 giant, 3 humanoids, 4 magical beasts (one of them a swarm), 1 ooze, 1 outsider, and 2 undead. Of those, my favorites are the fireheart golem (a very practical creation of a wizard spending any amount of time in a frozen wasteland) and the fissure fisher (although the name's just a little too "cutesy" for my taste), which specializes in attacking prey when it's clinging to the side of a mountain crevice - definitely an experience that any band of PCs will not soon forget! (And full credit to Rich McCarthy for designing a monster that focuses on such a little-used combat environment! Which reminds me, once again they've given credit to the author and artist of each monster in the back of the PDF, a very nice touch.) Even some of my least favorite creatures, like the fleshite (animated hunks of the Fallen One's flesh - not a bad concept; I think I'm mostly turned off by the rather silly-looking illustration) and the arctic sea dragon (my biggest turn-off here is that I think they made it too much seal/walrus and not enough dragon), are nicely tied into the overall background of Tulenjord. In fact, this batch of creatures is the most tightly-knit group I've seen thus far, with everything pretty much tying into the Fallen One's plummet into the arctic seas and erstwhile "life" as a floating glacier. There are creatures who worship the Fallen One (delphine, diggers, morns) and the creatures they summon (fleshites, frystkalma), those who were warped into their present forms by the surge of magic emanating from the dead god (surrissa, mursigla, skytes), and those who are now based on the floating island of ice (arctic sea dragons, herjalti, halsingdrek, glacial ooze), plus some generic arctic creatures like wooly goats and snow spirits thrown in for good measure. All in all, there are 21 different monsters detailed within
Tulenjord: Land of the Fallen One, although since some of them have multiple stat blocks (the frystkalma, like most elementals, has 6), you actually get 32 separate stat blocks.
Of course, just because the authors wove a tight storyline to keep the majority of these arctic creatures interlocking with each other, you don't have to use the Fallen One plotline in your own campaign; the PDF works just fine as a collection of monsters that all have an arctic theme, and in fact this PDF would be a welcome companion to WotC's recent
Frostburn book. I can recommend it to anyone looking to run an adventure in a frozen wasteland, whether that be something as mundane as an arctic wilderness or as exotic as a plane of frozen ice. I give
Tulenjord: Land of the Fallen One a rating of "(4) Good," and look forward to the next in the series.
