The_Minstrel_Wyrm's page

Since it was a lucky happenstance that I had an order pending (and I was in the midst of running "Varnhold Vanishing" for my Sunday group) I decided to add Vordakai to my order and I am pleased that I did. I haven't unpacked him yet, and a friend of mine who is a mini painting enthusiast has agreed to provide advice/assistance this coming weekend. It is my sincere hope to have him put together and painted by the time they reach his "inner sanctum". I notice the previous reviewers have comments regarding the size of the mini and the base, and I agree with one of them who guessed it was done to illustrate the "atrophied" nature of this lich. I also see the attaching of the hands has a small issue mentioned, and I'll watch for that as well. I'm pleased overall with this mini, and will likely grab some of the other "unique" villains from "Kingmaker" to have during their respective parts/encounters.

~Dean

I've actually never heard of Howard Andrew Jones before this novel. But I instantly LOVED his writing. I really enjoyed how he wove the past and the present into a cohesive, and engaging story. Throughout the beginning of the story I was "hating" and "damning" the villain, but as more background comes to light, I actually changed my mind about the 'obvious' villain, and began to empathize with him. This is the third in the Pathfinder Tales novels, but the first that actually features a true adventuring party. (One that could easily be any Game Master's group of players, chronicling their exploits and capturing their moods, behaviors, and personalities). This is very easily my favorite of the Pathfinder Tales novels (and its hard for me to say that, and not feel like I'm "dinging" Dave Gross or Elaine Cunningham... and believe me I'm not. This novel just resonated with me more than the first or second "Tales" novels). If you haven't read any of the Pathfinder Tales novels, you owe it to yourself to begin... with THIS one. It's really good, and I'm doing my best not to "SPOIL" any of the great moments in reading this story.

More from Howard Andrew Jones please. (With new characters and places, or revisit these characters if you have more story to tell).

~Dean; The_Minstrel_Wyrm

As my title may indicate, I used Crucible of Chaos to begin my weekly Monday night game (and the game group call themselves the Monday-Knights). This was one of those modules (like another reviewer had said) a few pages into it and you WANT to run it, it's that good. I had a slightly larger adventuring party (mostly 6, sometimes 7) players. I did kill about half of the original party at one point or another.

I have really enjoyed reading and looking through this latest in the "revisited" series of books for Paizo's Pathfinder Chronicles line. I especially enjoyed the variant abilities, the sample monsters, and the opening from Ailson Kindler (a sort of female Van Helsing I gather).

I would recommend this to any Fantasy RPG gamer, not just a Pathfinder player or v.3.5 player. This is great stuff.