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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 6259497" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Issue 358: August 2007part 5/6Savage tidings: We've made it into the abyss, and now the savage tide sweeps us along the river styx, trying desperately to find people willing to help you foil demogorgon's insane plans. Not an easy task, as while they may hate him, why should they listen to some ragtag bunch of primes who were novice adventurers less than a year ago? They're probably pawns of some other outer-planar schemer.   And even if they're telling the truth, demon lords trying to take over or destroy the universe is pretty much par for the course. They rarely actually get anywhere serious. This is basically a quick tour of the lower planes, focussing on the things and people you might run across as you sail the styx. Most of them will be pretty familiar if you remember your planescape, and even the cartography is very much in the style of the old gameline. Again, this seems more focussed on people who've never bought a planar product, and need a quick primer just for this adventure rather than old hands like me who've seen the whole thing evolve through years of real time and get added to by many writers along the way. Still, it's another good example of the strong respect the paizo writers have for the old stuff, bringing it out again and developing it using modern tools and rules tricks, while trying to maintain the spirit of what made it cool in the first place. It's certainly a far more respectful treatment than they got by the official development team. Another solid entry here that I'd probably appreciate even more if I weren't so jaded by this point. Volo's guide: Another bit of metaplot follow-up here. The Realms keeps changing, and Volo keeps following interesting stories, wherever it may take him. (preferably far away from the last people he reported on. ) Unther has been an unstable place for the last couple of decades, and Gilgeam has finally got his comeuppance for his millennia long tyranny. Course, since the new god in charge is Tiamat, this seems like a case of out the frying pan, into the fire for ordinary people. To make things even more interesting, and ensure adventurers have plenty of options, they're also having to deal with Mulhorand trying to conquer them while they're weak, Hoar and his priests being an <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /><img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />, Thay trying to make the conflict as lossy for both sides so they profit in the long term, bandits and thieves flourishing, and all the other neighbouring countries casting uneasy eyes at the whole thing. Like Myth Drannor, this feels like a conscious attempt to make sure things stay interesting for adventurers, packing in a few pages what could easily be expanded out into an entire book. Still, don't forget you can ignore this stuff too. Your players could have done the killing instead and be in the middle of this mess. Still, it's better than the way they handled this stuff in the 90's. There are definitely showing the benefit of experience here. Dragonmarks: The Draconic prophesy gets some attention this month. It's fragments are everywhere, taking the strangest of forms, and conferring strange effects as well. Here's 5 more examples of this. The Eldeen sections are cross-sections of a darkwood tree that have rings in the shape of a mark of warding. The poachers who discovered this must be punished and the pieces retrieved! The marks of the obsidian flow are runes on a frozen waterfall that only appear when another fragment of the prophecy approaches, and give clues on where to find yet more fragments and tie the whole thing together. The ant runes are formed by giant ants leaving the remains of their prey in the shape of runes. This has not been realized, as it's such an obscure method of communication, and people are trying to clear them out, thinking they're a message from the evil ones instead. Lhesh firegems explode when you try and divine their purpose, revealing clues to the prophecy, but also presenting a serious health hazard. The Sulerred calling tree forms runes by the twisting of it's roots, and reincarnates people placed underneath it. Very strange. But really, were the makers trying actively to be obscure? If you don't make a prophecy solvable, then you are, quite frankly, not going to get much benefit from making it. Definitely an entertaining bit of reading this month, with the join between fluff and crunch feeling more naturalistic than is sometimes the case with these. Definitely a shame that this series never really had the chance to hit it's stride.</blockquote>

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