Lost Books 4: The Heart of the White Star

[arwink]

Written By: Peter M. Ball
Page Count: 8 pages of content + OGL

The Knights of the White Star were devoted to opposing the evil of demons and undead in the mortal world, an order to steadfast in its opposition of evil that the hordes of chaos banded together to ensure their destruction. In order to preserve their magic and legacy, the knights hid their greatest lore in a tome known only as the Heart of the White Star. The Heart contains a dozen new spells for your cleric or paladin, ranging from levels 1 to 9 and ready to be dropped into your campaign. Uncover hidden evils with the holy light of truth, free the possessed with the purging flame, or protect the innocent with the steadfast holy wall. The Heart of the White Star comes complete with details about the tome's history, appearance, complete contents and value.

 

[MonsterMash]

Heart of the White Star

Heart of the White Star
Peter Ball
Clockwork Golem Games

PDF 9pp $1.20 pdf

Complimentary review copy of pdf recieved.

This is part of a series of 'lost books' published by Clockwork Golem games, being number four. This is a concept I like, as it was always a feature of my Call of Cthulhu games and has crept into my D&D campaigns as well.

Content
There is a mixture of rule content and description (crunch and fluff for those that use those terms) with the ratio being about 80% rules. The description is the history of the book and why it is hidden, which can generate a plot hook for a party to need to seek out clues to find it at various sites with the details of this left up to the GM. As this would tend to bring the party into conflict with demons, they would need to be of fairly high level.

The pdf story is based on the lost book 'The Heart of the White Star' containing the knowledge of the Knights of the White Star Chapel, an order fighting against evil. The knights were destroyed by the forces of evil, but one cleric survived to smuggle the book away and hide it, with it being noted that the evil forces will seek to destroy the book and its owners if it is found.

Rule content is a number of divine spells, largely for Clerics, but two also have Paladin levels as well. There is also the bardic knowledge for the existence of the book and clues to its location. A GM will need to create his own setting and actual clues to find the book and this could give a number of sessions of play.

• Aura of the White Star Clr5
• Burning Halo Clr3
• Burning Ward Clr2, Pal1
• Eyes of Fire Clr3
• Holy Wall Clr6
• Light of Truth Clr4
• Mark of Light Clr4, Pal4
• Purging Flame Clr5
• Purify Weapon Clr0
• Quiver of Light Clr4
• Radiant Form Clr9
• Radiant Orb Clr2

The spells seem to be balanced with the core cleric spell lists. There are 13 spells in total the majority being level 2, 3, 4 and 5, with only one ninth level spell.

Appearance
The layout is clear with minimal wasted space, probably about 80% of each page is text. There are 8 pages of content and one page of OGL

Pluses:

• Balanced spell lists for cleric
• Useful concept for an adventure hook
• Low price

Negatives:

• Spells aimed at good and lawful casters

Downloads:
None at present.

Overall
I give it an eight out of 10 rounding to four stars. I like the concept and the recovery of this tome provides a lot of potential hooks for a mid or high level adventure.