The Legion of Lost Souls

[Morrus]

In this review I have attempted to avoid spoilers; however, I would not recommend that you read this review unless you are likely to be the DM as some mention of plot was unavoidable.

The Legion of Lost Souls, the third and final installment of the Witchfire Trilogy is somewhat larger than its predecessors. At 96 pages, it closes an massive 224 page adventure (the previous books were 64 pages each).

Appearance-wise, the book is as lavish and eye-catching as the first two installments. Beautiful colour cover art and attractive black-and-white interior art and maps make The Legion of Lost Souls a pleasure to behold. When it comes to presentation, Privateer Press are there at the top of the heap.

But that's not the important thing. What is important is the content of the book. Is this a good adventure? Well, it's no secret that I have liked Privateer's previous work - and I like this installment too. But the high scores that I have given these products carry a conditional modifier, as described at the end of this review.

Of course, this is part 3 of a trilogy, and the nature of the adventure is such that it does not sit well as a standalone module. Sure, with some work it could be fitted into your own camapaign, but it is designed to be used in conjunction parts 1 and 2 of the same trilogy. So, with that caveat at the forefront of our minds, let's take a look:

We begin with, as in previous Witchfire books, a background section. This section sums up the adventure for the DM, and presents material on the origin of the 'Legion of Lost Souls', a fallen army who, it is said, will rise again to keep the forces of darkness at bay. The background section also provides information on the Church of Morrow, the primary 'Good' faith in the Iron Kingdoms; this information is useful, providing detail on organisation, ceremonies and history; unfortunately, it is good information too late, as I had to make up alternative details way back when my gaming group played through The Longest Night'. This harkens back to my point earlier that this is part of a trilogy, and the trilogy is best utilised by buying the whole thing first and reading it all before running the first adventure - something possible only now, unfortunately. Should this trilogy ever be produced as a single-volume mega-adventure, with all the background material included, I feel that people would get more from it.

Things have changed greatly since the adventure began back at the beginning of The Longest Night. Corvis is in a state of martial law, now ruled by the evil Vinter Raelthorne IV, and the PCs are now renagades; during the adventure, the young witch Alexia (their adversary up until now) will join forces with them in order to battle the greater threat.

It turns out that the artifact of evil fought over in the previous instalments of this adventure, the Witchfire blade, can be used to awaken the Legion of Lost Souls and battle the current invaders. This forms the PCs primary goal in this adventure, by way of obtaining an ancient artifact capable of opening the Legion's legendary tomb - an artifact which rests deep beneath the streets of Corvis; obtaining this artifact also requires that the PCs deal with the organised crime families of the city introduced in Fools Errand, the optional pdf side-trek adventure set between parts 1 and 2 of the trilogy. After travelling to and exploring the tomb, The PCs will then need to lead the undead legion back to Corvis in order to liberate the city.

At the back of the book, appendices deal with monsters, NPCs, languages and details of the Witchfire blade itself. Looking through this section, it appears that Privateer have addressed many of the criticisms of their previous works - rules errors, incomplete NPC information (i.e. spell lists) and so on. Everything appears to be thoroughly dealt with and rules-compliant (at least to my cursory reading of the appendices). The 'language' section is interesting, although not really necessary, and provides details of 15 languages (both living and dead), alphabets and dialects.

All in all, I have to give this book a score of 5/5 - as I did the previous installments. This score is given conditionally though - it assumes that you have all three books before you begin play so as to make the most of them, and play through the entire trilogy with no break between them (due to Privateer's release schedule, I was forced to abort this campaign after the second episode; had I had all three books when I started this would not have been necessary and earlier books would have been improved by information found in later installments). I apply this condition to my ratings of the other books also - the Witchfire Trilogy, as a whole is a 5-star epic adventure (if slightly expensive overall); but in segments I would revise my previous scores to between 3 and 4 for each episode.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

The third and final part of the epic Witchfire Trilogy. Corvis is under the rule of the invading Realthorne IV and only by awakening the legendary Legion of Lost Souls can the PCs liberate the city.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

The following is a review of the "Legion of Lost Souls" by Privateer Press. It is not a play test review.
This review contains spoilers. Please feel free to make any pertinent comments.

Production Values:

The "Legion of Lost Souls" (LLS) is a soft cover that weighs in at a hefty 96 pages priced at $12.95. The margins are approximately an inch long. There is absolutely no wasted space. The product is divided into three acts. The table of contents is well organized and useful. There are five appendixes in the back; namely, Creatures (unique monsters etc), Characters (NPCs), Kugans Wares (a shop which is relevant in game), Languages (not really relevant- perhaps included here as a preview for the setting which is coming out soon) and Witchfire (which details the infamous blade the trilogy is named after).

The production values are superb for this product. The text is well organized and the boxed text within is very relevant. The maps and art is very relevant and readable. The art is superb. The only complaint is that the module does not include a map that is given to the PCs that is important if not necessary. There are very few errors in the writing and the production values over all are probably one of the best I have seen.

Rating: 5/5

Content:

This product picks up where "Shadows of the Exile " left off. The introduction of LLS starts off with an overview of the trilogy so far. This summary is concise and useful. Then the entire adventure is summarized. The summary tells us of the fact that Raelthorne the elder has taken over Corvis and plans to invade the rest of Cygnar. He is planning to take full control of the city within a few weeks by having a Skorne (new creature/playable race?) Armies take over the city and thus solidify his rule. The PCs, being the heroic sort that they are, have to stop this and raise the Legion of Lost souls - namely a mercenary company that was buried in a tomb after they were wiped out. The introduction now gives us the background information on the legion through a narrative. The narrative is poignant and excellent in style and relevance. It gives the GM a good feel for what happened before and even can be used as plot hooks for future adventures. Further, the church of Morrow, which is central in the trilogy is detailed and expanded upon. This information is very useful. The only complaint I have is that the information should have been in part 1 of the trilogy. Nevertheless, it adds a lot more depth if a GM picks up all three of the books and runs the adventure (Which I recommend).

Act 1:
To get into the tomb of the Legion, the PCs require a powerful artifact called Duteous (which is a 12 foot long warhammer) which is buried in the under city. The PCs will also have to ally with their antagonist from the prior modules- Alexia (the PCs need the ability of the sword to raise the dead to raise the legion). The area in question ties in to “ A Fools Errand”, the E-Module published by Privateer. Once again, it is the continuity that might be the greatest strength and weakness of the module. The area itself is well detailed and the map is adequate. The background story, once again, is very well written. If played properly, this section can be challenging and even deadly for the PCs. The PCs also get ample opportunities to role-play their way into and out of the undercity and it might be to their benefit if they do so (hefting around a 12 foot warhammer, undetected, is no easy task).

Act 2
The PCs travel overland to the tomb of the legion. The map for overland travel is not provided. This is a major issue with me. Further, there is some redundancy with some of the creatures involved. It gets a little funky when pcs keep running into pig men, crocodile men etc. There is a very Indiana Joneseseque feel to the whole trip. The tomb itself has an incredible, larger than life, feel to it. There are some issues with it though. The Pick lock DCs for the traps are incredibly high (36-38) and the only way seems to be to break these doors down. I think it a good idea to reduce the difficulty a little rather than have the PCs smash all the doors down. The unique feel of the setting might also be a hindrance to many GMs because of the Warjacks that are here plus the large amounts of money. It might be a good idea to have the money be of some outdated coinage. There are also two very powerful weapons here that GMs may consider replacing. It seemed a little out of place considering the fact that the setting had very little powerful magical items “lying around” so to speak.

Act 3

This involves the confrontation between The Skorne army and the Legion. This section is very well written as the adventurers are given a few important tasks that might well determine the final outcome of combat. Further, some of the recurring antagonists are dealt with here as well. The Grand finale is not without twists and turns and suffice it say that the fate of Corvis might well be decide by the PCs.

Rating: 4/5

Overall Impressions

The trilogy is one of the finest I have seen. It is not without its fault; the setting might be too specific to attract a large audience and since it is a trilogy, the target audience decreases as the story line progresses. But it is exceptional in value and quality. The NPCs might be given too much relevance in the first two parts of the trilogy and it would require a good GM to run this whole series without making the PCs feel like they are being railroaded. Yet, the end product is well worth the time and effort. The recurring and well thought out NPCs, detailed background to the story, and climactic /cinematic feel all make it more than worthwhile. (ps- no Goat men or Cat men in the Monsternomicon ok??). I wish it were possible for more companies to do involved and detailed adventures. But the market might dictate what is fiscally viable in many ways.

Overall Rating: 5/5

 

[PrivateerMatt]

We have provided the much-requested overland map on our web site.

Cheers,
Matt
Privateer Press

 

[Simon Collins]

Beware! This review contains major spoilers.
This is not a playtest review.

Page Count: 96
Price: $12.95
Cost per page: About 13 cents per page
Designed for Character Level: 5-7

External Art: An excellent piece of art showing one of the characters from the module seated
on a fiendish-looking mount at the head of an undead army.

Additional Page Use: The back cover provides an introduction and overview of the adventure.
The inside covers are blank. The first three pages are credits, the OGL, and contents.

Internal Art: There are numerous black and white pen sketches within, all of which are of
excellent quality and remain relevant to the text.

Maps: Maps are a little dark but clear. Some of them have a scale to them but on most the
scaling is not made clear.

Page Layout: The text density is good, there is little white space. There is a fairly wide
margin on the side of each page but this is often overlain by sidebars.

Style: The style is relatively informal, often engaging, although the background history
(written as a legend taken from a book) fails in attempting to use a pseudo-historical style
("..but never one to dally was her mother...). There are also a few anachronistic terms used
such as 'punk' and 'cement' which interfered with my suspension of disbelief. I guess if
you're already mixing steam and gunpowder with swords and sorcery, anachronistic terms are not going to be top priority! There are infrequent but regular typos.

The Adventure:

The module begins by outlining some conventions used throughout the adventure, mentioning the freebies to be picked up on the privateerpress.com and ironkingdoms.com websites, and
giving an adventure summary.

The Background section gives the legend of the Legion of Lost Souls (an ancient mercenary band now entombed west of Corvis), outlines the important role of mercenaries in the Iron
Kingdoms, and details The Church of Morrow (organization, shrines and ceremony, allied
organizations, and Ascendants and Archons of Morrow - both types of avatars).

At the beginning of the adventure, some advice is offered to the GM for hooking in
adventurers new to the Iron Kingdoms, as well as an overview of the current state of the
city, Corvis (currently on the edge of invasion by the cruel Skorne, employed by the
ex-ruler of Cygnar Raelthorne the Elder; Raelthorne has already taken near-complete control
of Corvis with his Inquisitors, aided by the Watch who are controlled by the traitorous
mayor of Corvis).

Alexia Ciannor, the PCs nemesis from the previous two parts of this trilogy, now approaches
the PCs to help her raise the Legion Of Lost Souls as undead to head off the Skorne invasion
and defeat Raelthorne. Her true goal is to defeat the head of the Inquisitors, the wizard
Vahn Oberen, who killed her mother ten years ago. After the PCs have had a chance to discuss the offer with their ally Father Dumas, they discover that they need a magical hammer to open the doors to the tomb of the Legion of Lost Souls. The hammer lies in the Undercity of Corvis, in an old mausoleum now fallen to evil. The PCs must traverse the danger of the Undercity (dealing with the roguish residents along the way) before entering the mausoleum.
The building contains a number of evil creatures, nasty traps and magical items. The hammer
is held by a gargantuan skeleton and the PCs must face the skeleton wielding the
12-foot-long hammer before they can recover it. Even then, they have to find some way to get
this weapon out of the mausoleum and the Undercity.

They then have to get the hammer to the tomb of the Legion, which lies in the Dragonspine Peaks - the adventure offers an opportunity to use a steamjack (a mechano-magical
steam-powered giant robot) to achieve this. They encounter a bloodthirsty band of boarmen on
their way to the tomb. They then enter a petrified forest surrounding the tomb and can gain
some clues to dealing with the perils of the tomb. The PCs then enter the trapped and
guarded tomb. Once they reach the heart of the tomb, Alexia arrives and draws on the powers
of the necromantic Witchfire blade to bring the lost mercenary legion to unlife. The legion
marches towards Corvis, looking to the PCs to lead them into battle.

The climax of the adventure is the battle between the Skorne and the Undead Legion. Before
this happens, the PCs must secure some of the defensive positions of Corvis from enemies
within the city. In the battle itself, they face a gigantic Skorne warbeast and Raelthorne
the Elder himself. At the end of the battle, they can deal with the traitorous mayor of
Corvis. In the finale, Alexia attempts to destroy the wizard Oberen by destroying the sword
Witchfire. This would be catastrophic, the resulting magical explosion destroying Corvis.
Its up to the PCs to stop her. The adventure ends with some thoughts on wrapping up and some ideas for future adventures.

The Appendices contain stats and descriptions for new creatures (boneswarm, crypt spider,
farrow (boarmen), the ghost of Father Cappus, undead legionnaire, saqu (flightless bird),
Skorne warbeast, Skorne hound, Skorne warrior, archaic steamjack, basic steamjack, and tomb maiden (construct)) and important characters, description and pricing for products from
'Kugan's Goods and Wares', some notes on the languages of the Iron Kingdoms, and stats and description of the sword Witchfire.

High Points: An adventure of epic proportions, well-balanced and fascinating, full of twists
and turns and original ideas. The setting is even more richly portrayed in this adventure,
and the NPCs are engaging and possess a depth of character. The storyline is paced well and,
for the most part, manages to keep the PCs in the centre of the plot, despite its epic
style. Information and advice on running the adventure was exemplary.

Low Points: As with the rest of the trilogy, the adventure would need significant work to
transplant it from its setting into a more generic campaign, though not as difficult as Part
2 of the trilogy. One of the things that was most lacking in this and the other parts of the
trilogy was highlighting of the creatures in each encounter. Other important aspects of the
text would have benefited from being highlighted too. I'm not entirely happy with the repeat
of the deus ex machina to save the main villain for another story at the end of the
adventure (as in Part 2), though there are benefits to the idea of a returning nemesis.

Conclusion: Another excellent adventure from Privateer Press and great value for money
compared to other publishers. I would recommend the trilogy as a whole be run in the Iron
Kingdoms as I feel it would be very difficult to relocate into a more generic fantasy
setting without losing its more unique and interesting aspects. Some minor style and clarity
issues do not detract from the overall quality of this product and the entire trilogy.

 

[crunchy_d20_bits]

This review is after running the Legion of Lost Souls module by Privateer Press.

The size of the book is impressive for the price of the module.

But overall, my players didn't enjoy it at all. Too much of the module relies on things occuring in previous parts of the trilogy, but since we bought this book after running the first two, some things didn't jive at all because the repeat characters had interacted with the players in fashions that made them unable to continue with their roles in this module (the players wouldn't cooperate with the key NPC since this same NPC was an antagonist in the previous module).

Also, partway into the game, I discovered a key map is missing in the module, which made for some clumsy game play. Only a few minutes ago did I discover that the map is now available for download from the corporate website - far too late to save the module from my players....

 

[Canada_K]

Bottom Line: The best installment of the Witchfire trilogy. A truly entertaining climax to the series. Still burdened by inflexibility and forced endings, but unquestionably worth the money.

The Nitty Gritty Review: As usual, the artwork, presentation and appearance of the book are exceptional. Privateer Press obviously takes their products seriously. In this aspect I put them among the best of the best.

The Witchfire trilogy really comes to its best with "The Legion of Lost Souls", in both the quality of the writing, the excellence of the encounters, and the presentation of the final product. The monster stat blocks are thorough and complete, a major annoyance of "The Longest Night".

My favorite part of the entire trilogy is Act III where the players run about the city of Corvis completing missions while the battle between the Skorne and the Legion rages on around them. Instead of fighting directly on the front lines, the players must secure key defensive positions, eliminate enemy cannon towers, and prevent the Skorne from flanking the Legion by destroying a bridge. I thought this was an ingenious way to both involve the party in the battle and make them "movers and shakers", without the tedium of them having to actually become foot soldiers. Their actions truly affect the outcome of the battle, and this is the greatest reward most players can ask for.

The best encounter in the book is the Skorne War Beast on page 80. I particularly liked it because it requires creative thinking, it puts intense time pressure on the players, and it requires some true heroics to overcome. A HUGE thumbs up to the designers for this one!

I still have a few complaints. It may be overly picky, but having been put through the editorial wringer by the editors over at Dungeon these are things I know can be corrected.

(1) The characters have increased in level from 1st to about 6th by the end of the trilogy, but the major NPCs haven't changed at all. Alexia starts the trilogy as a 10th level sorcerer and never gains a level, despite raising an undead army, mastering the hidden powers of a magical artifact, researching the means to destroy the artifact, and numerous other impressive achievements that should have earned her more than a few XP. It doesn't make sense.

(2) The adventure allows the players to encounter and even do battle with the deposed King Raelthorne, but doesn't provide his statistics. The DM is supposed to let them fight for a few rounds "because that kind of personal contact really builds up the personal relationship that powers the story". However, the DM must also invent a circumstance which takes Raelthrone out of the picture before he wipes out the party: the fighting carries him away, a stray cannon blast knocks him into the river, or some such idiotic thing. Once again leaving open the possibility that he survives (of course) to get his revenge another day. This sort of thing is just stupid. Any game designer who thinks players aren't sophisticated enough to tell when the DM is deliberately manipulating events, and who thinks they won't be irritated by it is deluding himself. There are better ways to encourage the players to hate the bad guy than this.

(3) Like its predecessors, "The Legion of Lost Souls" is very linear. And once again, getting from one scenario to the next usually involves running to either Father Dumas or Captain Haelstrom for information and advice. I'll say again, it's better if the players can at least contribute something to the segue.

If you are going to invest in "The Legion of Lost Souls", and you deinitely should, I highly recommend getting the entire trilogy. I think each book is stronger when taken in context of the whole story. The three books cost me $50 Canadian, which is a pretty good deal given how much material you get. This adventure in particular is an incredible value, considering it is 96 pages long!