Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.
Price: $16.95
Page Count: 96
Price per page: About 18 cents per page, slightly above average for this size of product.
Designed for Character Level: 8-10
Format: Softcover
External Artwork: An average piece of artwork, not up to Atlas Games' usual standards - a slightly cartoony image of a female warrior in front of a mirror.
Additional Page Use: Both inside covers are blank. The first two pages contain the OGL, credits and contents. The last page is an ad.
Internal Artwork: Most of the sketched internal artwork is excellent in quality though there are one or two average or merely good pieces.
Maps: The maps are fairly average, with a 5ft-to-1-square scale, though there are some nicely drawn representations accompanying the map of the tree village.
Layout & Design: Margins and text density are slightly above average, and this is somewhat compounded by the large font used for the section titles. There are fairly large areas of white space at the end of each chapter, and many of the drawings are fairly large. However, the design and layout is clear and easy to read and different types of information are presented as clearly different.
Text Style: The adventure is well-written, bringing NPCs to life, clearly defining game-orientated information and plenty of options within the plot. Editing is good.
The Adventure:
Chapter One: Into The Ebon Mirror, explains the background to the adventure - the soul of a half-orc sorceress (Charra Lyn) has become trapped in a mirror world where standard PC races such as humans and elves have become evil whilst orcs and other humanoids are good. Also, magic has become twisted. The module gives plenty of advice for the GM on preparing for these changes before running the scenario, plus a sidebar with advice on scaling the adventure for parties from level 4 up to 12. There is also some advice on running the scenario with evil characters though it is recommended for good or neutral characters.
As the story begins, the party are recruited by a group known as the Crucible of Osai, elves who seek to destroy cursed or flawed artefacts. The Crucible wish the PCs to deliver some cursed artifacts to an elven sage to be destroyed whilst she continues in her mission to track down a cursed gem. A group working for Charra Lyn attacks the group as they negotiate with one of the Crucible's members. Options are given if the PCs decide to attack the Crucible member as well as the more obvious route. The cursed artifacts are all detailed fully as are the NPCs.
Chapter Two: The Road To Shareth-En-La, details some of the scenarios the PCs face as they travel to the elven seer with the cursed artifacts. They include a meeting with a dubious salesman and his bodyguard and a wagon containing the ruins of Charra Lyn's experiment which created the twisted mirror world. The PCs enter the mirror world unknowingly if they investigate the scene, before continuing on their journey.
Chapter Three: Through A Mirror, Darkly, egins with an explanation of the changes to the standard races in the Mirror World: orcs are wizards, goblins are craftsmen, and ogres are commoners whilst humans are xenophobes, elves are bloodthirsty barbarians, halflings are grim fighters, gnomes are feral rangers, and dwarves are drugged-up shamans. The cursed artifacts change in the mirror world and these changes are also detailed. Characters' magical itms also change including turning weapon and armor bonuses to penalties. As the story continues, the PCs come across evil elves, halflings and blink dogs raiding a peaceful goblin farm (though the PCs may be hard put to identify this). The PCs are then invited to help a cleric defeat some guardian undead - again, the twist is that the cleric is evil and the undead in the mirror world are good. These 'sacred undead' are given full description and stats, including detail on sacred skeletons and sacred ghouls.
Chapter Four: Off To See The Seer, deals with the hamlet of Shareth-En-La, the destination of the PCs. The PCs meet further good undead including a sacred wraith and a sacred paladin vampire. The PCs are confronted by the village elders, a conglomerate of peaceful orcs, goblins and ogres. The elders, fearing the PCs to be trouble, refuse them access to the seer. The PCs must also deal with a disguised human assassin (actually the paladin vampire's sister) before finally getting to meet the seer, a half-orc diviner/loremaster in the mirror world. Options are given for dealing with alternative party actions, such as joining in with the human assassin.
Chapter Five: A Time For War, deals with an endless attack by human raiders on the village of Shareth-En-La. The PCs are forced to flee. As they do, they come across the raiders camp, which is being run by evil mirror-world versions of the PCs themselves. Advice is given for the GM to develop mirror-world evil twins of the players' characters. After battling their evil twins, they should finally get hold of a missing half of an artifact and placing the two parts together transports them instantly to a strange chamber.
Chapter Six: The Second World, the PCs find themselves in a chamber where the two halves of Charra Lyn's soul (human and orc) battle for supremacy. The PCs can use clues given in a prophecy by the seer of Shareth-En-La to solve the puzzles put forward by a new creature - the Antisphinx - which gives answers and expects the PCs to give her a riddle to fit the answer. In addition, she says the opposite of what she means and has the ability to stop time and cast temporal stasis at will. Finally, the PCs come across a symbolic chess match between Charra Lyn's dark human side and her good orc side. The PCs can influence the outcome of the match. Various options are given regarding Charra Lyn's reaction to the PCs - depending on who they help win the match, Charra Lyn may transform into a human, an orc or remain a half-orc. They escape from the mirror world and finish their journey to the real Shareth-En-La, where they should hand over the cursed artifacts to the elven seer, and reap their rewards. Some ideas for further adventures are given, and there are sidebars detailing the character of Charra Lyn and a large table giving ELs and XP for the various encounters throughout the adventure.
Appendix One: Who's Who In Shareth-En-La, gives detailed description and stas for the various NPCs in the mirror world Shareth-En-La plus details on a couple of new magical items.
Appendix Two: Mirror World Magic, gives full details for a GM to understand and make use of the twisted magic of the mirror world - spell reversals, domain reversals, class feature changes, changes to prestige classes and the transformations undergone by magical armour, weapons and items. All this appendix is Open Game Content, and OGC is clearly defined throughout the rest of the module. The section concludes with an index of D20 material.
The High Points: This seems to me to be one of the most thorough, well-presented and original adventures I've come across. There is plenty of advice for amending the adventure for PCs of different level, different alignment, and different motivations. Options are regularly given for dealing with non-standard PC actions. The NPCs are very well-detailed, interesting and original, the artwork is mostly excellent and the style is engaging. There are a variety of aspects to the adventure - investigation, fighting, puzzles, and roleplaying - which make it rounded and entertaining.
The Low Points: This adventure, to my mind, is best suited for a mature and intelligent group of players. Though there is plenty of opportunity for fighting, the best parts of the adventure require some lateral thinking. In addition, the unusual effects of the mirror world require a reasonable amount of preparation before the game, and a solid understanding of the plotline (and the options within it). There are some elements of the plot that are dependent on some thought being put in by the players, and it could get a bit messy for the GM to run without some intelligence from the players and their characters.
Conclusion: Well worth the money for any GM wanting to add a real spark of originality to his campaign. The nature of the mirror world might not be so suitable for a party used to hack'n'slash only, but there is advice for the GM to run it this way if necessary. Some great roleplaying opportunities mixed with a strong plot and excellent GM advice in an original setting, which should challenge even the most experienced players makes this adventure a real winner.
