Siege on Ebonring Keep for Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed (PDF)

[Messageboard Golem]

Human forces near the Floating Forest have finally taken the ancient, mysterious keep on its border, driving off the secretive race that had held it for decades uncounted.

Now they seek the "Ebonring," an artifact taken from the keep by the fleeing enemy. Their hold on the keep is shakey at best, and they cannot send out forces to retrieve the Ebonring—and here comes your party. So follows a quest through the forest, into mountains and deep caverns: a beginning of exploration into Arcana Unearthed.

Charles Plemons III(MEG, TG, SSS, Bastion, GR) Stefon Mears (Heart of the Machine, author), Becky Glenn ("Bluffside, "Sands of Pain", "Foul Locales: Behind the Gates", "Dry Lands", "Netbook of Classes"), and Ken Shannon ("Right Beneath our Noses" and "Guilds and Adventurers" Cover artist is Jason Engle, and cartographer is award nominated Ed Bourelle-Skeleton Key Games.

This adventure set in The Diamond Throne is 144 pages and will take characters from 1st to 5th level.

 

[Crothian]

Siege on Ebonring Keep

It seems that modules need to be generic for people to be able to use. That at least seems to be the trend I have seen since we have few setting specific modules these days. Personally, I would prefer to see more high quality modules then just generic ones. I do not know if that would help modules to sell but I know what I like. And I like Siege on Ebonring Keep. It is not generic as it is tied into a specific setting; Diamond Throne for Monte Cook’s Arcana Unearthed.

Siege on Ebonring Keep is a very well put together module by Mystic Eye Games. Modules are really not what the guys at Mystic Eye are known for. But if they keep putting out modules like this, they will be. Most people know Mystic Eye Games because they have Bluffside, a very famous and popular city setting. Siege was originally put out as a print book and has recently begun distribution as a pdf. This review covers the pdf specifically, but the differences between the two are only is format. The adventure itself is unchanged between the two.

The pdf comes in a zip file a bit over nine megs in size. Inside the zip one will find a pdf of just the cover, a full colored picture done by Jason Engle, and the modules in another pdf. The cover is a bit off 200 kilo bytes, the main module pdf is a bit over nine megs. The module is one hundred and forty four pages in length, so it is a very good sized module. The price is not bad, but it is more then half of what it would cost to get the bound version. I have no idea how cost of bound books that become pdfs effects things, but I just thought I would mention how they compare here. The book is well book marked, a very good thing for any pdf and something that does not always happen when books go from bound to pdf.

The module is designed for the Diamond Thrones setting which is linked directly with Arcana Unearthed. Because of this the classes and races are not the usual ones people know from the Players Handbook. While using this without Arcana Unearthed is certainly possible, the races and classes would make little sense without the book. So a lot of rewriting may be in order. But the basic plot and ideas would work for any fantasy game. The modules can also be linked to Fiery Dragon’s Plague of Dreams, a module also designed for this setting. One does not need that module to run Siege on Ebonring Keep, but there are notes provided for those who have run it.

The modules is for low level characters taking players from first or second level all the way to fifth and perhaps even sixth. Besides the three main parts there are about a dozen small interlude adventures that can be used as side treks or diversions. I really like they way they handled that giving the Dungeon Master a great amount of flexibility and options. Also, each encounter also has advice for how party composition could make the encounter harder or easier. For instance some encounters will be easer if one has a group of mostly fighter type characters. So the book suggests adding a creature to make the fight more challenging. This is a great little detail that really should help the DM challenge the group he has in front of him more accurately.

The encounters are a good mix of fighting, problem solving and role playing. Some of the encounters can even have different outcomes depending on what the party decides to do and also based on what classes and races the party has in it. There are some very interesting NPCs presented as well as a well described town. This module ha a lot to offer and makes a great introduction into the Diamond Throne setting.