Messageboard Golem
First Post
On the outset of hearing about a city of Necromancers being the next focus for looking at some of the areas around Ghelspad in the Scarred Lands, I was a bit nonplussed, as I didn't know what to expect nor what to think of a city of necromancers living in relative peace while ANOTHER near by city, Glivid Autel, was apparently fighting them! Needless to say I wasn't sure whether I'd like this product or not.
However thankfully I can say, Hollowfaust: City of Necromancers IS a good book. I was first assured that by the cover. It's really chilling cover in my book, the necromancer and his Unfailing trying to defend themselves against a horde of undead. For me, this is probably a better cover than some I've seen in other books dealing with Necromancy (I wasn't THAT impressed with Mongoose's cover art, even if what people describe to me from the book sounds great).
What really intrigued me about this book, as the preface started was this book was out to shatter notions that all necromancers are power hungry, world dominating, manicial soulless masters of death magic and it's creatures. I'm going to quote this for you since I think it's appropriate to give everyone a REAL bird's eye view and idea about what Hollowfaust IS and what Hollowfaust is not.
"Hollowfaust's necromancers are a breed apart; erudite, sophisicated, learned, and only occasionally evil. If you enjoy messing with your players' head and their shattering pre-conceived notions, we're proud to help. If, on the other hand, the notion of sensible, neutral-aligned necromancers who view death from a scientist perspective and who have no ambitions of world conquests messes with YOUR head, then we are even proud" - from the preface of Hollowfaust: City of Necromancers
So as you can see, we already dealing with a very different animal than the usual megolamanic "kill em all" type of necromancer we usually hear and read about. This book, after the initial introduction, divides itself Five separate chapters, each dealing with a different aspect of both necromancers as well as the city itself.
The introduction is given by two different people, one a guest, a scribe from nearby Lokil, the other a resident, a priest of Madriel. Both are of interest but nothing of great substance.
Chapter 1 gives the history of the area, along with the reason the Seven Pilgrims (the Necromancers of various stripes), came to found this place. Apparently it had been the site of a city called Surma, now thanks to the Divine War, it got shelled when the volcano erupted. Thus it now possesses a kind of magnetic draw of necrotic energy. Really this is pretty meaty stuff but I won't draw it all out. Suffice to say, this city has repelled numerous invaders from ALL walks of titanspawn life. Also there is some good detail about the OTHER city, Glivid Autel but no maps of it.
Chapter 2 gives us a very detialed look at the life, lifestyles, and general FEEL for the city. Understand folks, LAW is necessary here, since many of them understand chaos equal total destruction and that's the last thing the ruling body of necromancers want. That isn't to say there isn't crime, but things like murder, theft, rape and assaults, are swifty and STIFFLY put down. Usually by having an Animator take the newly made corpse and make it apart of the defenses of the city. So for you devious DMs out there, I'd suggest STRINGENT attention to Hollowfaust's laws. They are there for a reason. One interesting feature about the city is it being built near the now dormant volcano called by many as Vangal's Throne, (Vangal being the SL god of destruction, earthquakes, volcanoes, pestilence and bloodshed). It's also home to the necromancers, at least inside. Outside, the city is called by many of the necromancers as the Upperfaust (Faust meaning volcano), while the inner part is called the Underfaust. There's no map for the Underfaust, since they have decided to let the GM/DMs handle this one point. One of my laws though deals with what's called final fortiture. This is where a living or no longer living corspe is given over the one of the seven guilds of necromancers, to be expermented on. One final thing to note, unlike other city states in the Scarred Lands, the populace has no FAVORED diety, unless you count Nemorga. But even he gets only a few favors. The rest of the gods, get their due, but no one god or goddess holds sway, since the necromancers and the populace at large generally deal only with the dead, what matters the gods then? That isn't to say this isn't a thriving town, it's a large city (around 22,000 people) that has a need for rare bones, and other exports and houses a vast collections of works, both mundane and magical.
Chapter 3 deals the necromancers in general. Understand that the city itself is subdivided by the necromancers. Thus there are the regular citizens and those the work for or are necromancers. Necromancers are themselves subdivided into basically three catagories, apprentice, journeymen and masters. Of course there are the Guilds themselves, where a necromancer may choose to join. Those outsider wizards who pratice necromancy may apply...but only AFTER very careful scrunity. Many of the necromancers here remember the rift inside their city when a group of their own when outside their laws for their own benefits. There's also a good deal about the seven guilds and their guild leaders. I'll be breif and just list them here:
The Anatonists (they deal with the body, corruption (physical not moral), and rot)
The Animators (they raise, create and mold the bodies that become part of the defense of Hollowfaust)
The Chorus of the Banshee (These are the bardic side of necromancy, dealing with ghosts and putting them to rest, as well as telling their tales)
The Followers of Nemorga (while more clerical in nature, they deal with all forms of undead since their gods is the Lord of Underworld and the dead that go there)
The Speakers of the Dead (like mediums they deal with restless spirits and also talk to the dead for guidance)
The Sowers of Fear (deal more with fear like effect. While they enjoy putting on macabre performances for the locals, they can be quite brutal, especially when dealing with convicted personages)
Chapter Four talks about the adventures. While they vary as to pluggability, they do offer some great challenges and ideas for how to implement Hollowfaust as a base, as a challenge, or just for kicks.
Chapter 5 deals with magical items, spells, pr-classes and monsters/creatures closely associated with Hollowfaust and their necromancers. Monster wise, the obvious choice has to be the Bonewrack dragon, even though the Risen have some interesting capabilities. The art for the monsters is subpar, and certainly not what will draw a lot of people. Pr class wise, the Unfailing, while having an editing problem in the HD (it should read d12 not d1), is still an interesting class. I also think for DM/GMs out there, the unfailing's blades will be of some interest.
Finally there's a map of the city that corrsponds with what's been talked about in chapter 2. It's not a pull out and that, quite frankly is ashame.
Overall, there were some glaring editing/devoloping problems such as one section that they had been writing about on the sewers on one page didn't show up on the next, and as mentioned the Unfailing problem. That plus the mishandled columns on the spells, detracted a good bit from my inital enjoyment. But even so, what Hollowfaust offered to me as a GM/DM was far more than I expected. So while it's not perfect folks, it damn good product to get and I heartily recommend it to those wanting to see what else is out there for necromancers.
However thankfully I can say, Hollowfaust: City of Necromancers IS a good book. I was first assured that by the cover. It's really chilling cover in my book, the necromancer and his Unfailing trying to defend themselves against a horde of undead. For me, this is probably a better cover than some I've seen in other books dealing with Necromancy (I wasn't THAT impressed with Mongoose's cover art, even if what people describe to me from the book sounds great).
What really intrigued me about this book, as the preface started was this book was out to shatter notions that all necromancers are power hungry, world dominating, manicial soulless masters of death magic and it's creatures. I'm going to quote this for you since I think it's appropriate to give everyone a REAL bird's eye view and idea about what Hollowfaust IS and what Hollowfaust is not.
"Hollowfaust's necromancers are a breed apart; erudite, sophisicated, learned, and only occasionally evil. If you enjoy messing with your players' head and their shattering pre-conceived notions, we're proud to help. If, on the other hand, the notion of sensible, neutral-aligned necromancers who view death from a scientist perspective and who have no ambitions of world conquests messes with YOUR head, then we are even proud" - from the preface of Hollowfaust: City of Necromancers
So as you can see, we already dealing with a very different animal than the usual megolamanic "kill em all" type of necromancer we usually hear and read about. This book, after the initial introduction, divides itself Five separate chapters, each dealing with a different aspect of both necromancers as well as the city itself.
The introduction is given by two different people, one a guest, a scribe from nearby Lokil, the other a resident, a priest of Madriel. Both are of interest but nothing of great substance.
Chapter 1 gives the history of the area, along with the reason the Seven Pilgrims (the Necromancers of various stripes), came to found this place. Apparently it had been the site of a city called Surma, now thanks to the Divine War, it got shelled when the volcano erupted. Thus it now possesses a kind of magnetic draw of necrotic energy. Really this is pretty meaty stuff but I won't draw it all out. Suffice to say, this city has repelled numerous invaders from ALL walks of titanspawn life. Also there is some good detail about the OTHER city, Glivid Autel but no maps of it.
Chapter 2 gives us a very detialed look at the life, lifestyles, and general FEEL for the city. Understand folks, LAW is necessary here, since many of them understand chaos equal total destruction and that's the last thing the ruling body of necromancers want. That isn't to say there isn't crime, but things like murder, theft, rape and assaults, are swifty and STIFFLY put down. Usually by having an Animator take the newly made corpse and make it apart of the defenses of the city. So for you devious DMs out there, I'd suggest STRINGENT attention to Hollowfaust's laws. They are there for a reason. One interesting feature about the city is it being built near the now dormant volcano called by many as Vangal's Throne, (Vangal being the SL god of destruction, earthquakes, volcanoes, pestilence and bloodshed). It's also home to the necromancers, at least inside. Outside, the city is called by many of the necromancers as the Upperfaust (Faust meaning volcano), while the inner part is called the Underfaust. There's no map for the Underfaust, since they have decided to let the GM/DMs handle this one point. One of my laws though deals with what's called final fortiture. This is where a living or no longer living corspe is given over the one of the seven guilds of necromancers, to be expermented on. One final thing to note, unlike other city states in the Scarred Lands, the populace has no FAVORED diety, unless you count Nemorga. But even he gets only a few favors. The rest of the gods, get their due, but no one god or goddess holds sway, since the necromancers and the populace at large generally deal only with the dead, what matters the gods then? That isn't to say this isn't a thriving town, it's a large city (around 22,000 people) that has a need for rare bones, and other exports and houses a vast collections of works, both mundane and magical.
Chapter 3 deals the necromancers in general. Understand that the city itself is subdivided by the necromancers. Thus there are the regular citizens and those the work for or are necromancers. Necromancers are themselves subdivided into basically three catagories, apprentice, journeymen and masters. Of course there are the Guilds themselves, where a necromancer may choose to join. Those outsider wizards who pratice necromancy may apply...but only AFTER very careful scrunity. Many of the necromancers here remember the rift inside their city when a group of their own when outside their laws for their own benefits. There's also a good deal about the seven guilds and their guild leaders. I'll be breif and just list them here:
The Anatonists (they deal with the body, corruption (physical not moral), and rot)
The Animators (they raise, create and mold the bodies that become part of the defense of Hollowfaust)
The Chorus of the Banshee (These are the bardic side of necromancy, dealing with ghosts and putting them to rest, as well as telling their tales)
The Followers of Nemorga (while more clerical in nature, they deal with all forms of undead since their gods is the Lord of Underworld and the dead that go there)
The Speakers of the Dead (like mediums they deal with restless spirits and also talk to the dead for guidance)
The Sowers of Fear (deal more with fear like effect. While they enjoy putting on macabre performances for the locals, they can be quite brutal, especially when dealing with convicted personages)
Chapter Four talks about the adventures. While they vary as to pluggability, they do offer some great challenges and ideas for how to implement Hollowfaust as a base, as a challenge, or just for kicks.
Chapter 5 deals with magical items, spells, pr-classes and monsters/creatures closely associated with Hollowfaust and their necromancers. Monster wise, the obvious choice has to be the Bonewrack dragon, even though the Risen have some interesting capabilities. The art for the monsters is subpar, and certainly not what will draw a lot of people. Pr class wise, the Unfailing, while having an editing problem in the HD (it should read d12 not d1), is still an interesting class. I also think for DM/GMs out there, the unfailing's blades will be of some interest.
Finally there's a map of the city that corrsponds with what's been talked about in chapter 2. It's not a pull out and that, quite frankly is ashame.
Overall, there were some glaring editing/devoloping problems such as one section that they had been writing about on the sewers on one page didn't show up on the next, and as mentioned the Unfailing problem. That plus the mishandled columns on the spells, detracted a good bit from my inital enjoyment. But even so, what Hollowfaust offered to me as a GM/DM was far more than I expected. So while it's not perfect folks, it damn good product to get and I heartily recommend it to those wanting to see what else is out there for necromancers.
