This installment of the epic Slumbering Tsar series is 54 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page of SRD, leaving 50 pages of content, so let's take a good look at the very first part of the epic Slumbering Tsar saga that had never been released under any other system, introducing the dark and dread temple city of Orcus!

This being an adventure review, the following contains massive
SPOILERS
so please, potential players, stop reading NOW.

Having survived the manifold and dread dangers of the Desolation, the PCs, at the beginning of this module, finally start to delve into the legendary temple-city, which is introduced via both an interesting background information and a nice idea that ensures the PCs won't get respite from the dangers of the Desolation or the City - the true citadel of Orcus is hidden between the planes and to explore it and end the sinister threat, they'll have to find 9 statues, the so-called 9 disciples while avoiding the alignment-warping effects of the city. But to enter the city, the PCs will have to brave the black gates of Tsar, i.e. Kirash Durgaut and the tower of weeping sores or find some other way into the city.

And wow, the Black Gates are not easily penetrable - the PCs will be assaulted by several siege undead (and we're not talking 6, we're talking about quantities of 50+) as well as a deadly "boss"-fight against a new creature, the dokkalfoer, which is essentially an intelligent animated tower that contains deadly yet illusory defenders and is HARD to destroy, even without other enemies. Alternatively, the PCs might try to use the sunken gates, gates to the city that have been submerged in a swamp-like environment, featuring not only plenty opportunities to drown, die by the hands of bog mummies and even a living swamp. Finally, the PCs might try to scale the walls or enter via the broken gates, both of which are not truly better options, as the walls are patrolled by undead and the broken gates still contain the remains of another potential boss battle with a battle hulk. However, if they act smart, the PCs might use this hulk to their advantage. We get an 1-page overview map of the city and 2 detail maps of 1 page respectively, one for the black gates and one for the sunken gates.

There is a reason, though, why the black gates never fell to the onslaught of the army of light - the siege castle Kirash Durgaut! The legendary siege castle features three floors of the castle, its maps spanning 6 pages, 2 per floor and one page of maps for the upper floors that make up the tower of the weeping sores. A quick glance at the maps shows you the siege weapons and details that will make the fortress hard to infiltrate, even for the PCs - they better have magic, good plans, stamina and their dice on their side, otherwise e.g. animated portcullises, iron maiden golems, strategically planted siege and regular undead (if you consider e.g. Athach-skeletons or Grey Render fast zombies regular...) will get the better of them. They can also meet a devilish thief and catch him in the act and will have to fight their way through the demonic/undead troops left in the fortress up to the tower of weeping sores and its torture chambers where they'll have to defeat General Myrmac, the deadly skeletal host general of the tower and his diabolical seneschal.

The pdf closes with two monsters ( both get their own artworks) and a magic item.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to a clear and printer-friendly b/w-two-column standard and the maps are nice, have a parchment-look and come with grids. I would have loved key-less player-friendly maps to cut up and show to your PCs, but oh well. The b/w-artworks spread throughout the book are beautiful, often disturbing and capture the feel of Tsar. The encounters are cool and old-school, featuring some the PCs will easily walk over and some where the PCs will have to play it smart to prevail. In a nutshell, this installment of ST continues to provide the excellent quality and iconic locales we've come to expect from Greg A. Vaughan's magnum opus and Frog God Games. The pdf is extensively bookmarked, making it rather easy to use on screen. In the end, I don't really have any good points of criticism, this installment of ST keeps the excellent quality of the series and for people who don't want all of the books/don't have a subscription: If you need a dread siege castle or some ideas how to make your villain's evil fortress more impenetrable, you are at the right place. My final verdict subsequently has to be 5 stars.
Endzeitgeist out.

Slumber Tsar: Temple City of Orcus, Part 1: The Tower of Weeping Sores by Frog God Games

This product is 54 pages long. Cover, credits, ToC, and introduction with adventure background, summery and hooks take up (7 pages)

Chapter 1 – Black Gates of Tsar (8 pages)
This section deals with all the other gates into the city beyond the main gate. There is 5 encounter locations, 2 of them are mini dungeon style encounters.

Chapter 2 – Kirash Durgaut (25 pages)
This section deals with the main fortress gate into the city. There is 38 location encounters it all take place within or on the main fortress gate.

Monster/Magic Item Appendix (3 pages)
There is 2 new monsters and 1 new magic item.

It ends with 1 page of OGL and 10 pages of maps. Including one map of the over all city. Each map is full page, brownish in color like old parchment and a grid map.

Closing thoughts. This is much like the previous adventures in the series. It is very sandbox and there is low CR encounters near high CR encounters. Some of them might be very easy or very hard depending on the order they are hit in. Though in this one it is less of a problem as the main area is the fortress, which is more like a typical dungeon. The encounters range from normal ones to several clever and or amusing ones. Several of them could be very challenging to deadly if played smart and the PC's aren’t careful. The production values have steadily gotten better. The art is fair to good. I am giving this one a 4.5 star review. Another thing I would like to add the bulk of the adventure the fortress gate could very easily be adapted to be a stand alone dungeon making this one more valuable to those not looking to run the whole series.