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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Simon Collins" data-source="post: 2008658" data-attributes="member: 9860">Beware! This review contains major spoilers.This is not a playtest review.Page Count: 96Price: $12.95Cost per page: About 13 cents per pageDesigned for Character Level: 5-7External 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 getthis 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 ontheir 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.</blockquote>

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