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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Canada_K" data-source="post: 2009024" data-attributes="member: 3735">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!</blockquote>

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