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Message: <blockquote data-quote="IronWolf" data-source="post: 2293200" data-attributes="member: 21076">Lost Empires of Faerun ReviewThe Lost Empires of Faerun is a Forgotten Realms source book that delves into the ancient times the Realms and the ruins that are all that remains in the present day land.  The book is a hardback and 192 pages long and retails for $29.95.  Richard Baker, Ed Bonny and Travis Stout get front cover honors.The book begins with a brief introduction that touches on running a ruins based campaign or a campaign that can make use of the long lost histories detailed in the book.  The introduction also outlines the next eleven chapters in the book.  The section ends with a table of monster substitutions for DM’s that may not own all the other sources used in this book.Chapter One is titled Ancient Secrets.  Within this chapter is an array of feats, prestige classes and spells.  The sixteen feats start this chapter off.  Most appear to be focused to on increasing knowledge of history, magical ability or languages.  One exception to this is Trapmaster, a feat that is geared on helping one find and disable the many traps one is apt to encounter in any ancient ruin.Then we get to the prestige classes.  There are only five of these, but each appears to be well thought out and a fair amount of background information instead of just a lot of numbers and special abilities.  It was refreshing to see.  The Cultist of the Shattered Peak was my favorite.  Members of the cult are said to be direct descendants of the Netherese and are scattered about Faerun.  This is a five level prestige class and offers things such as sneak attack abilities and smite mage.The chapter closed with twenty-nine new spells.  These spells are all classified as ancient spells.  The bulk of these spells are for sorcerors/wizards.  While these are supposed to be long lost spells, they would be great ones to use on ancient scrolls, spellbooks or even for use in some ancient trap a hapless party of adventurers is bound to encounter in long lost ruins.Chapter Two is titled Dreams of the Past.  It starts with describing the fall of an empire and how over time those once great cities turn into the dungeons of present day Faerun cities.  It also touches on the roles of castles and keeps, temples, burial grounds and towers – each of which can play a role in ruins based campaign.Sprinkled in with this section is a sidebar with twenty ancient adventure ideas and the random ruin tables.  The tables help populate the ruins in question with residents and quickly fill in prominent features for castles, cities, towns and more.  It does appear that it would be a quick way to generate ruins on the fly or even as a base for filling in with additional details.Following a brief section on Ancient Deities the chapter moves to a short section on Epic Magic.  Closing the chapter is four pages on Mythals.  This section covers the definition of a Mythal, how to raise a Mythal, the components involved and closes with breaking down the wards of Silverymoon.  For those that have always been interested in the Mythals of Faerun, this section is a very enjoyable read and it is quite interesting to see the Silverymoon Mythal broken down like they did.The next seven chapters maintain a similar format and cover The Crown Wars, God-Kings of the East, Realms of the High Forest, Fallen Netheril, The Imperial South, The Dream of Cormanthyr and The Old North.  These chapters each have brief history followed by a timeline, songs and stories, important sites in the region and adventure seeds to help the DM.  These history chapters are the meat of the book and are full of great information.  With the information contained within one can really add depth to their Forgotten Realms campaign or just borrow bits and pieces for their own.Do not let the fact that they include an adventures seed section at the end of each chapter fool you into thinking those are the only adventure hooks present in each chapter.  The Important Sites sections also have plenty of ideas for an enterprising DM to build off of for a campaign.Two of the chapters also include a detailed Adventure Site, or mini-adventure.  The first one in God-Kings of the East details an abandoned wizard’s tower now inhabited by a drow sellsword.  It is written for 11th level adventurers.  The second is in the Old North chapter and based on a Keep on the Frontier.  Complete with maps this mini-adventure appears geared into a similar level – 10th or 11th.Chapter 10 is called Artifacts of the Past.  This is of course where the new magic items and artifacts are detailed.  It is a little on the short side at only eight pages long.  It includes your typical array of magic items – rings, staffs, weapons and minor and major wondrous items.  They also include a scepter described as a wand or rod and often forged from metal.The final chapter, Monsters of the Ancient Lands, includes twenty-nine new monsters.  Ranging from Giant Arachnids to Giant Velvet Worms, they also include monsters such as the Phaerimm and Dread Warrior.  There are plenty of monsters to help spice up your adventures into the ruins.Overall, I was very impressed with this book.  I DM most of my games in the Forgotten Realms and I am always looking for useful material.  This book seems to show Wizards of the Coast is turning back to more realmslore in their books and a little less in the lines of raw game mechanics.  Even the Prestige Classes show some thought and detail behind them, which I find refreshing.  The vast amounts of ancient history will surely help any DM detail out their Forgotten Realms game a little more or provide a basis for a ruins focused campaign.Even if you do not play a Forgotten Realms campaign there is still a good portion of information one could use.  The random ruin generator tables could be used in any campaign setting.  Once could easily borrow from the history portions of the book and use parts for historical purposes in their game.  It certainly warrants at least a flip through to see just how much.In closing, even if you are not a Forgotten Realms DM you may want to at least take a look through the book for pieces you could use in your campaign.  If you are a Forgotten Realms DM, then this book will most likely prove most valuable to you and your campaign.</blockquote>

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