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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tuerny" data-source="post: 2008326" data-attributes="member: 674">ISBN# 0-9706970-0-7Written by Matt StaroscikPublished by Privateer PressOriginally reviewed by Jesse Dean on AtFantasy.comThe Longest Night, written by Matt Staroscik, is the initial module in Privateer Press's Witchfire Trilogy. It is an event-based adventure designed for three or four first level characters and is set in and around the city of Corvis in the Iron Kingdoms setting. The Iron Kingdoms differs from most settings in the presence of some steam technology. There are steamjacks, steam-powered golems, steam ships, a limited amount of guns, and other, similar items. The Iron Kingdoms campaign setting, which hasn't been published yet, is not required to run the module. Plot Outline The adventure starts with the PCs serving as guards for a caravan led by a man named Gunner Wadock. After fighting off an attack by swamp gobbers, the group arrives in town and is introduced to Father Dumas, a local leader in the Church of Morrow. He has a request for the PCs: He wants them to investigate recent grave robberies that have been going on around Corvis in the last month. Through the investigation of the disturbed grave sites, a tomb built to house the bodies of four of five witches that were executed years ago, a ruined fort the PCs, and eventually the battleground that the streets of Corvis become, come to find out what is recently going on. Ten years ago the five members of a coven of sorcerous witches were executed by the city for practicing black magic. One of them was Father Dumas' niece, Alexia Ciannor, who has instigated a plot to gain revenge on Ulfass Borloch, the man responsible for their deaths, and the city of Corvis itself.To do this she has worked to focus her rising powers as a sorceress towards the mastery of the necromantic arts. Her plan, at least for this portion of the trilogy, has three parts. First she plans on animating the four members of the coven as powerful forms of undead capable of retaining much of their magical power. Secondly, she has perfected the art of creating a form of undead known as Thralls, and plans to use an army of them to attack Corvis. Using the army she plans to seize the body of her dead mother, and the sword Witchfire, from the grounds of her uncles temple while simultaneously gaining vengeance on the city.The adventure ends with this attack on the temple and the arrival of someone only hinted at previously, the wizard who served as the executioner of the witches. This battle is the final culmination of the plans of the wizard, Vahn Oberen, as well. He first backed Ulfass Borloch in his plans for ascension just so he could gain the opportunity to kill the witches with Witchfire, draining a portion of their power. He lost Witchfire in some confusion after the executions and it was buried with the body of Alexia's niece. In response to this he began subtly influencing Alexi towards her current actions so that he could recover the sword. Through his attack the sword ends up in the PCs hands, with both individuals demanding that he give them the sword. Regardless of whom the PCs give to the sword ends up in Alexi's hands and the first part of the trilogy ends.Presentation The module, a standard laminated, stapled perfect bound booklet, is sixty-four pages long. The margins are ends of a fray scroll and are generally 1.5" wide.The cover illustration, by Matt Wilson, depicts Alexi walking in a subterranean location with the sword Witchfire on her shoulder and a horde of undead surrounding her. The interior artwork, by Brian Snoddy and Matt Wilson, is composed of black and white drawings that are suitably dark for the setting, and often show unique aspects of the setting, such as illustrations of the main characters and unique creatures like steamjacks and swamp gobbers.The maps are informative, including a grid and scale where necessary, and including major furniture and physical features.Overview The Longest night is divided into an Introduction, three Acts with multiple Chapters in each Act, an Appendix, and a section About Privateer Press, which is basically an Advertisement. The OGL/d20 System License appears at the start of the book. The Introduction discusses the conventions used in the module, a plot summary, and an overview of the setting. The conventions are standard, detailing what is required to play, the format of the adventure, and where the monster stats are located. The setting overview is mostly focused towards the City of Corvis itself, but there is some information on the Iron Kingdoms in general and the Kingdom of Cygnar in particular. The information on Corvis details the layout of the city, points of interest, law and order, the merchants of Corvis, and the guilds of Corvis. After the information on Corvis there is some information on the Widower's Wood that surrounds Corvis and some locations within it.The three Acts form the meat of the adventure, detailing the events that happen within it. Act One details the player's arrival in Corvis and the events that set them along the adventure's path. Act Two details the investigations of the Witches' Tomb and Alexia's subterranean hideout. Act Three details the Watch Captain Julian Helstrom's insistence that the PCs investigate Fort Rhyker, where he believes Alexia is, that investigation, and Alexia's attack on the city, ending with the finale at the church.The Appendices detail the new monsters introduced in The Longest Night, detail generic NPC foundations, and detail the prominent, named NPCs in the adventure. The new monsters are mostly interesting variations of existing monsters. They are bog constrictor, cavewort, devil rats, gorax, pygmy boar, razorbat, swamp gobber, swamp shambler, swamp squid, and thralls. The generic NPCs are 1st and 3rd level variations of NPC types found in the adventure, namely Thugs, Rogues, Merchants, and Watchmen. The details of the prominent NPCs include their motivations and current status as well as their stats. Analysis The Longest Night has only a few flaws that might discourage its use. First of all none of the NPCs provided have spells listed. Suggestions are given for the overall theme of an individual’s spell lists, but if a GM wants to know what a particular PC has than he is going to have to make them himself. Secondly, there are some inconsistencies in regards to Alexi. She is listed as neutral in her statistical write-up, but in other instances it refers to her being hedged out by a protection from evil effect. This is also at odds with her status as a human, because protection from evil does not keep out humans. Her actions are also rather extreme for a neutral individual. Also, despite her exceptional intelligence and respectable wisdom, she is willing to divulge information about her plot during one point in the adventure, almost to the point of following the classic formula of the "Bond Villain." Finally, there are a few flaws in the rule-knowledge of the producers of the module. In several instances characters are provided with less feats than they should have, and an important point in the plot, when the PCs are supposed to be captured by a hold person spell from Alexia, the writers seem to forget that in d20 hold person only affects one individual per spell. For some of the generic NPCs they seem to have made up stats for them rather than rely on the NPC classes found in the DMG.These flaws are minor, however, when compared to the positive points that are found in the module. It would have been very east to make this module linear, and in some ways it does retain traces of that, but in almost every instance the module provides details of the results of multiple directions on the PCs part, and encourages the GM to allow the PCs to go their own way and learn about the city rather than forcing them down any particular path. Corvis, and the setting itself, drips with atmosphere and is a nice change from settings that are slightly more traditional. If you prefer more traditional settings, it is not too difficult to remove the steamwork items that make the adventure different. They have no major relevance to the plot. The plotline itself is interesting, and, with 64 pages, the module allows the players to deal with a variety of settings, dungeon, urban, and wilderness, before it ends. Conclusion The Longest Night is an overall good adventure that is well worth the $9.95 it costs especially since it weighs in at 64 pages. Its use is optimized if you use the Iron Kingdoms setting, or at least steam-based technology, but this is not required.</blockquote>

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