For those who missed the incredible first entry in the Throne of Night Saga, I would point you to Book 1: Dark Frontier. However, for those of us eager to continue our deep adventures into the alien world of the Azathyr, finally we have in our hands Book 2: The Earth's Wound.
Those familiar with the work of Gary McBride will not be disappointed, he reprises himself again with an altogether too-human understanding of what kind of writing provokes drama in this world where there are few humans residing. I have only begun to run this module with my gaming group, but already I can tell you that the impact has been a roller coaster of emotions for them: without spoiling anything, the arrival of certain characters left my group absolutely torn as to what decision to make. Gary understands that the key to a great adventure is giving the party a good dilemma to chew on and seeing them squirm as they try to figure out the least painful answer.
By the way, I meant every word of the title of my review. This module, as all others from Gary, live up to the high production values, organization, and quality that we have become used to. There are more than a share of typos, but they do not detract from the experience. Really, the only thing that I wish was that I could see more of Michael Clarke's work: I want more maps, more monsters, more everything from this talented artist. This Adventure Path continues to be more ambitious than ever with (finally) the introduction of the long-awaited Kingdom Building rules. My only complaint is that these should really have been included in Book 1 (wherein our party first settles their own town), but that can only be a minor complaint because really kingdom rules can be found in the Ultimate Campaign book which I ended up using when I ran Book 1.
Few modules dare to dream on the scope that Throne of Night continually reaches seemingly without effort: my campaign regularly included several epic, massive battles between fantasy armies with climactic twists, turns, and conclusions between factions fantastical enough to break the mold of the everyday D&D drudgery of fighting the same old orcs and goblins. Throne of Night has the one thing all other Adventure Paths lack: imagination. I wish I could give you an example I am thinking of about a certain dinosaur with a certain magical item, but I do not want to spoil anything from your experience.
There is, as usual an incredible amount of value packed into this book, taking your party up to level 10. As before, you have the choice of running it with the spry dwarves or the wicked drow, and this time around the organization of writing seems much improved in this regard. As opposed to Book 1, which gave drow the short end of the stick a little bit, in Book 2 both races are given equal due. Really, though, no matter which faction you end up running with you are guaranteed to have outright the best roleplaying experience you have ever had, and if you don't then trust me your DM is running it wrong.
Before I conclude, I have a small request regarding the maps. In Book 1 we received an Overland Map that was character-free and just contained the hex artwork. However, in Book 2 we did not receive the same equivalent (i.e. the hex map is littered with character symbols A, B, C, D, etc. that can't be erased): I would suggest this be easily fixed as a small supplemental download from the FMG website.
To summarize, here's what Throne of Night provides for its players: exploration of strange worlds, challenging encounters, unique monsters, interesting factions, kingdom building, and above all great roleplaying dilemmas for you to puzzle over. Do you ally yourself with a race of these creatures or those? Do you explore this direction or that? What was up with that weird creature you ran into in that one cave? Worse, which one of your loyal advisors will betray you first? This city stands in your way, do you attack it or isolate it? Do you plan a siege? How do you plan to conquer it? What will you do with the citizenry once it's yours? Will you rule with religious fervor, with fear, or with justice? The Throne of Night is yours to construct in your image.
Here's to clutching our seat waiting for the next installment.
I have been cautiously awaiting the release of this book ever since Way of the Wicked, FireMountainGames first product. The long wait did not disappoint, I have to say thinking back I am floored by the amount of value you get for only USD$10. In fact Throne of Night Book I: Dark Frontier is better even than Knot of Thorns (Book I of Way of the Wicked) because it explores an environment that is familiar to gamers, and yet holds many new interesting, unfamiliar elements as well.
Writing is absolutely top notch, not wasting a single sentence and written with Gary's usual flair for the dramatic, mysterious, and often humorous. FireMountainGames Adventure Paths are always better than Paizo's Adventure Paths because there is only 1 writer for all six books, so you get to see a (great) writer's holistic vision fulfilled, instead of reading through 6 different writers having their personal take on the same adventure - often lending Paizo Adventure Paths a schizophrenic feel.
Illustrations are gorgeous and really make this world, the underground cave system called the Azathyr, come alive and eat your adventurers. The maps are so beautiful, that I had to sit down and think why they really stand out from other products: the answer is asymmetry, unlike most adventures the maps here are of caves and strange underground structures which don't conform to the usual grid, yet the grid is present for utility nonetheless. An outstanding achievement by the artist, Michael Clarke. The only issue I have with the illustrations is that there is just not enough of them, specifically monster portraits. There are a lot of strange monsters found in the Fungle Jungle which don't have illustrations yet. Thankfully, the key figures are all drawn with a pen which feels like a fusion of old-school and new style of adventure artwork.
This Adventure Path is a Sandbox, meaning that it can be played out of order, especially the Middle Act. However, it does not mean this adventure is not structured. The First Act helps to set up the adventurers, the Middle Act really lets them explore the frontier environment, while the Third and final Act delivers a satisfying conclusion after working long and hard to reach the principal villain of this book.
I have to commend FireMountainGames for fully coming through on their promise to make this Adventure Path playable by two entirely different parties: good-aligned Explorers and evil-aligned Overlords. The difference isn't just a redressing, great effort has been put into place to make sure each party has its own unique experience: they start in different parts of the Azathyr, exploring all the same locations but often in different order compared to each other, each location might have slightly differing contents for each party, and often Overlords have the option of recruiting a lot of the minor villains they meet, while the Explorers have more opportunities to save some NPCs who are in peril by said minor villains. My only issue with the dual-campaign nature of this book is that while the Explorer campaign is written out clearly in order from cover to cover, the Overlord campaign is not as clearly described and often written out of order necessitating a lot of page flipping. In addition, and perhaps as a consequence of the above, the Overlord campaign is not as well written (even though it is more fun to play) leaving a lot of things open to GM interpretation to fill in gaps.
Overall, an amazing book, with an amazing value, filled with two amazing adventures, for an amazing price. A breath of fresh air in the stale cavern of adventure writing. And there are 5 more books on the way, starting with Book II which will introduce Kingdom Building elements, can't wait!
