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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2009596" data-attributes="member: 1129">In need of a site based adventure where the characters are looking to solve a mystery?  The Hall of the Rainbow Mage, a module for 7th to 9th level characters, may be right up your alley.The module starts with the party traveling through the village of Hampton Hill when they discover that one of the locals of the town, Londar Brightrain, the Rainbow Mage, has missed his niece’s wedding and that locals of the Hill can’t get into his mansion.  Can they party discover his fate?  For most players, the chance to look around a mage’s manor are too great to resist.After a brief stint through the wilderness, where there are several encounters that the GM can utilize to start laying the seeds that all is not what it seems.  What did those empty vials contain?  Why did these attackers need master work crossbow bolts?  One of the more interesting encounters that can happen is Byorik, a druid troll whose origins are simple and who seeks peace with nature.  Between him and Ilariak, a lammasu, the party can learn a little more, just enough to wet their appetite for mystery.After those encounters, the party gets a chance to look into the mage’s manor.  What they find inside however indicates that this particular mage wasn’t just a humble student of the arcane arts, but rather, a power mad mage whose alliances with other factions, including a local baron and the thieves guild, lead not only to his death, but perhaps to the unleashing of a force too powerful for mortal hands.  Of course the characters aren’t the only ones interested in the mage’s secrets and they’ll have to battle a rival party as well as several tricks and traps within the manor itself.Of course they don’t just stumble across this information in his desk journal.  “Hey, would you look at this guy’s 401K!”  No, instead, as the party moves through the manor, they discover that Londar’s office is an entrance into his real ‘manor’, a place where his darker studies are contained.  These details are covered in another part of the module, Beneath the Mansion and pit the characters into a jungle terrain where they discover that Londar keeps dangerous creatures about like aboleths, chuuls, and even a djinni.  Some GMs who enjoy role playing strange situations, will enjoy the chrystone, a race created by Londar where some serve and some seek freedom.  Players may find themselves in a strange moral dilemma.  Can these creatures be trusted?  All of this leads the players to discover the final fate of Londar in his laboratory.  One of the more interesting aspects is that Necromancer Games has provided a way for the players to interact with the mage, despite his present condition.  Even with the knowledge of the wizard’s fate though, things aren’t over.  Seems that back in Hampton Hill, events have been progressing while the player’s were busy.  Worse, seems that someone in town is willing to kill the characters to get ahold of Londar’s spellbook.  These events lead the players on the hunt for Londar’s ally, Baron Kurell. Seems that Kurell is a demon worshipper (give you three guesses which Demon Lord) and is seeking an artifact, the White Eye.  With the help of one of the townsfolk, the players learn where the item is.  Now all they have to do is find and deal with the White eye least the Baron get hold of it.  This leads the party to the second ‘dungeon’ in Arn’s Mountain, guarded by three powerful couatl who allow adventurers entrance provided they don’t seek to bring evil out to the world.  The couatl figure that as long as the characters are killing evil within the Horgrim’s Temple, that everything is good in the world.  The temple itself consists of numerous encounters that’ll test the party’s endurance as they must endure not only traps and monsters, but intelligent adversaries, some of whom the party is better off bartering with then actually attacking.  The book makes excellent use of outsider sources from the Swrod & Sorcery Creature Collection line, as well as introducing several new monsters.In the end, the party should be able to turn the White Eye over to the guardians for destruction.  They’ll have friends in the town, and may have unfinished business with Londar who is raised by his niece.  The plot lines allow the GM to easily expand one adventure into several.Outside of the adventure, the module introduces several new monsters, spells, and a new feat.  Stats are included for the race, chrystone, the wood golems, and the lead skeletons.  The Dark Warden template uses the soul of the creature to provide more power for its attacks.  The new magic items included several magical books, Rainbow based items like bracers, crossbow, and ring, as well as The White Eye itself.  This intelligent item is a master of numerous spells and is quite potent.  The new spells include Rainbow Spear and Rainbow Staff, both of which create weapons of rainbow energy whose damage inflicted depends on what color the staff is when the attack hits.  Targets may get touched by Indigo and be stunned for 1d4 rounds or by Blue and take electrical damage.Art is all done by Brian LeBlanc and is solid.  Because it’s all one artist, it has an excellent consistency.  I particularly enjoyed the cavern scene on page 25.  LeBlanc’s art tends to be better, in my opinion, when he goes for the charcoal look as opposed to the pen and ink look.  Editing is good but needs just to be done one more pass.  There is a tendency to repeat the same information a paragraph or two after it was just introduced like at the start with it being unusual that Londar would miss his niece’s wedding, and with the djinni’s tactics.Is there anything I’d like to see change in future Necromancer products?  Yes.  I’d like to see some new borders.  The skulls are getting boring and don’t have the flair that Necromancer games is capable of.  I’d also like to see better layout at the ends of the chapters.  It’s not that there is a problem with white space, but to my eyes, too much white space is indeed wasteful.  I’d also like to see the interior covers used all the time.  Lastly, I’d like to see less advertising.  I know that White Wolf is the parent over the Necromancer line, but 4 pages?  At least it’s not five this time around as it has been in other products.The Hall of the Rainbow Mage provides the party with a romp through an evil mage’s manor and his hidden caverns, as well as a crack at a fallen evil god’s temple and does so in the 1st edition style that Necromancer Games is famous for, while providing the GM just enough goods to keep the players guessing.</blockquote>

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