godbox extended review notes

 I tried posting a review for the (well done in my opinion) godbox adventure... and found that it got cut off by drivethru rpg because it's simply too long :P .. I'm sorry I couldn't help myself I really love Torg Eternity :) ... so here's my review in case this helps anyone out (I had a LOT of suggestions and ideas which is why it's so long) 

 (it's worth noting before I begin this review that the torg eternity folks at one point generously made this adventure available.. along with the living land cosm sourcebook, the nile empire sourcebook and it's extended adventure "the fires of ra", and the asyle sourcebook and it's extended adventure "revenge of the carredon" .. available for the amazingly low price of $25 (or $15 one of the two I forget which but it was a great deal).. if you haven't already I urge you to sign up for the humble bundle email list)

Is “the godbox” worth the $18 purchase price?  I would say yes given the sheer amount of content and no doubt as the publisher promises months of gaming material presented here.. as well the amount of exposition provided not only for details of the Living Land but things described in greater detail like the dimthread trees also makes it a worthwhile purchase despite my 4 out of 5 star rating ... however I was disappointed both in the lack of statistics and background/personality writeups  for  (not ALL mind you but certain - they're in the minority, for the most part important NPC's get their own write up but there were some exceptions that surprised me) NPC's who clearly play an important role in the adventure ... for example Scarlett the teenager girl who serves as either a rescuer or would be damsel in distress in the first part of the adventure for example.... I was also surprised at the lack of battle maps provided for every possible combat scenario though see my suggestions below on (surprisingly enough) reddit and the battlemaps free to use you can dig up with a google search.    Still I would strongly recommend that you not only purchase this but that you run this early on near the start of your Torg campaign, say after running the pay-what-you-want Day One Torg Eternity adventures (see below for some thoughts on that) .. the adventure does a great job of not only letting the players adventure through the Living Land which is a FUN place to have adventures in (please, purchase the Living Land cosm sourcebook you won't regret it, it's one of the best Torg books whether 1990's Torg or modern day Torg Eternity publications I've ever read) but also introducing key concepts like darkness devices, eternity shards and reality storms.

The (at times) lack of stats could be a problem for a large part of the intended audience.. an enthusiastic working mom or dad who has kids to take care and a job who stil wants to "scratch the itch" in terms of running a torg eternity adventure for enthuastic players but who simply isn't going to have the time to write up stats for these NPC's ... or on the other end of the age spectrum enthusiastic college students busy with their studies working part or full time who still want to run a torg eternity campaign for themselves and their buddies-as-players... a gamesmaster in that scenario could simply "hand wave it" and declare what happens to the NPC's without rolls but to me that seems like a bit of a cheat and will certainly be disconcerting to the players (or not, depends on your gaming group)... I do find myself hoping someone using the open license torg eternity infiniverse permissions will take note of this and come up with a prewritten list of ord, non reality rated NPC's including not only their stats but also a background and personality write up that can be dropped into any prewritten adventure as necessary ... "core earth plucky teenage girl" would be an example here as well as "cyberpapacy plucky teenage girl" (variant of core earth with cyberware who quietly "dodges" the oppressive requirements of the cyberpapal religion without being so obvious as to be dragged away for "re-education"), "nile empire plucky teenage girl" and so forth.. followed by "core earth scientist", "orrosh scientist" (like the core earth scientist but obsessed with the science of victorian era technology instead), "pan pacifica scientist" (something that would come up very frequently in pan pacifica adventures, with variants for ones willingly - or fearfully - working for Kanawa ,brave rebellious scientists leaking information to the delphi council)... members of the various criminal elements in core earth like the Yakuza, your stereotypical American mafia member, the Bratya or other Russian mob elements, "core earth housewife or househusband" followed by the cyberpapacy , nile empire and so forth versions of this and so on.

On the other hand the writing in the adventure is excellent in terms of the flavor text and setting the mood for the Living Land and the adventure does a great job of capturing the constant adrenaline rush, adventure around every corner, fight for survival context that is at the heart of Living Land adventures ..  it also does a great job of "humanizing" the plight of the average NPC, whether it be your day to day ordinary civilians or the beleaguered military doing their best to fight the "lizard menace" of the edeinos in a way that will allow the PC's to interact with said NPC's in a way that really brings the "flavor" of the Living Land home to the players.   

While my intent isn't to start a "flame war" with other reviewers and I respectfully agree that they absolutely have a right to their opinion that goes without saying ... however I always find myself puzzled when someone gets upset over the adventure basically "railroading" you along a predetermined adventure path or having to rely on NPC's who give you your mission goals... this is the nature of EVERY single prewritten adventure I have read, ever, over the course of my decades of reading and/or gaming in RPG's... while it's true there are more "open world" concepts which give you a variety of NPC's, their stats and background and personality (and thus motivations), things that are going on in that corner of the campaign world, suggested "adventure seeds" and then the players and GM are "let loose" to come up with their own adventures "on the fly" as it were, if you're looking for that just pick up any one of the torg eternity cosm sourcebooks and it  has all of that stuff right in there.. I suppose you could have the torg eternity publishers write up a "city sourcebook" like the original torg 1990's publishers did  with that wealth of information ... and honestly I do find myself hoping the torg eternity folks do that some day.. but there's a huge advantage to the way adventures like this are written.. there's already a plot ready and waiting for the PC's to follow and for the aforementioned busy with work/kids GM this is of enormous value... if you're a GM in this scenario all you have to do is flat out tell the players " Look this is a pre-written adventure which will probably railroad you in a certain direction at times.. I don't have the time to write my own original adventures so we're playing this.   Is everyone okay with that?"  My experience with players is that they simply make the best of it with good natured jokes that "the plot is thicker in that direction" knowing full well the limitations of a pre-written adventure.. and if you object that strongly to railroading do something about it !   Write your own material such that you have the flexibility to account for it when players have their PC's "jump" in a direction you didn't account for as any experienced GM knows players can and will do.    If you're unable or unwilling to do that then much as I hate to be blunt, I have to say:  stop complaining and be satisfied with prewritten adventures and the limitations that go with it - as well as the potential fun. Honestly speaking I really enjoyed the areas where the adventure didn't go into as much detail as it could have as it gave me a chance to engage my creativity something I greatly enjoy doing as a GM for adventures while at the same time being able to enjoy that the framework of the adventure - the vast majority of the plot, NPC's and monsters and their stats - had already been done for me, effectively letting me tweak it however I liked and fill in the gaps where I felt necessary.. which is why this review is so long and my apologies for that but hopefully you will find my meanderings below helpful in terms of at least giving you ideas for parts of the adventure that I felt could use a little more depth.

Apologies, that rant aside let's get on to the review of the adventure.. standard warning applies here, if you are a player you want to stop reading this review now given that this sort of thing is best enjoyed as a surprise.. if you're buying this as a present for your GM and just can't resist reading your intended purchase then I'm assuming you have the maturity and grace to separate your real life player knowledge from your PC's knowledge when running through the adventure (and indeed I know some players who will subtly encourage their fellow players to go along in the "path" the adventure intends to take you in having read a prepublished adventure before or maybe they've played through it).. sorry to sound condescending , I know most players aren't going to "cheat" that way but you'd be surprised at the players I've encountered who can and will act on in-game knowledge they shouldn't possess.  Anyways.. 

page 6 … happy to see a more detailed description of the dimthread trees not only in terms of their physical description but also the crunchy game mechanics of how they work (update orrosh and torg eternity core rules to reflect this)  … also happy to see a more detailed write up of the Land Below from the Living Land cosm sourcebook (more on that later).

page 9 mentions the adventure is meant for beginning, alpha clearance PC's though one would assume given the length of the adventure it's possible the PC's may level up to beta clearance by the time they complete it... but what to do if the PC's were already beta or higher level?   This is where the beta clearance GM's primer (a pay what you want title i.e. GM's should not feel guilty paying less than the suggested price to grab it , see my review of said title) comes in handy as it suggests ways to scale up the challenge of the foes although, as that title states, there's nothing wrong with occasionally  stroking the players' ego and letting them breeze through opponents that normally would have been a challenge for them at the beginning of their storm knight career that is not every encounter needs to be "leveled up".

The adventure does state that acts are longer than normal and players have to play through far more content before they finally get the 5 experience points they're no doubt looking forward to at the end of each act.. while on the one hand the last thing I want to do is to complain about the large amount of gaming content that has been provided here , I could see players getting annoyed at this.. if it was me personally as a GM I would announce to the players that given how long the acts are, I will award half an experience point at the end of each Scene as well but this is NOT how things normally go and the players shouldn't expect this to be the case for ALL adventures put out by Torg Eternity (explain to the players the acts are much longer than normal which is why you are doing this)... if players grumble and/or are confused about why half a point, explain that this nets the players a total of 8.5 experience points which you will round up to 9 xp total .. added to the 20 xp they would normally get for the five acts this nets the PC's 29 experience points total for their efforts .. this will result in your players being  more powerful than normal at the end of the entire thing but as the GM beta clearance primer pay what you want torg eternity book states there are ways of racheting up the challenge in future adventures if necessary if players start to get bored/steamroll their opponents all the time as a result.  I would also explain to the players if they play through similar extended adventures (Revenge of the Carredon for Asyle, Fires of Ra for the Nile empire, a Trifling Matter for Orrosh, some name I can't remember for Tharkold but there's an extended adventure there too) you will do something similar but only for those adventures given they once again have rather lengthy acts (or I assume they do anyways at the time I write this review I admit I have not yet gotten around to reading those lengthy adventures but I am eagerly looking forward to it)

My usual warning follows here ... if you intend to be a player in this adventure reading this review will spoil your enjoyment of the game... on the other hand I know of players who can't resist purchasing and reading pre-written adventures but who then have the maturity to keep player knowledge separate from PC knowledge except insofar as they will subtly "push" towards the preordained plot the adventure pushes the PC's towards in an attempt to help the gamesmaster out without giving their PC any undue advantage due to knowledge the PC wouldn't possess.   

Right from the very start in the "overview of the entire adventure" section that starts the book off I enjoyed the political aspect explanation of and consequences for/to Barak Kaah's rule over the edeinos tribes depending on whether the PC's succeed or fail in the final goal of the adventure, failure cementing Kaah's control over his tribes, meaning tribes that were formerly friendly or at least neutral to other storm knights and/or delphi council members turning hostile as they ally with Kaah making life much more difficult in the fight against the invaders, whereupon PC success further fragments Kaah's control over the uncommitted edeinois tribes making life difficult for Kaah and thus easier for the delphi council resistance against Kaah... in my opinion either aspect should be highlighted in future adventures in the Living Land so the PC's can see the consequences of their success or failure..  

...if I was a GM running this adventure assuming the PC's succeed, at the very end of the adventure I would even go so far as to let the more prophecy inclined (PC's with the faith skill and/or capable of casting miracles,  arcane spellcasters, psionic characters or simply just the PC the GM feels is best suited to this sort of thing) go so far as to have a dream inspired by their encounter with Barak Kaah's darkness device (see below for more info on that), this particular PC acting as a "locus" connecting the other PCs so it's a shared dream ... the clouds crackling with red or blue energy showing the PC's on a path... the path splits, somehow the PC knows the PC's on the "successful path" are the PC's themselves.. whereupon the PC's on the path where they failed are from an alternate reality .. the alternate reality portrays a grim scene where one or more of the alternate PC's (to be clear exact same as the PC's the players are playing, just a different dimension so to speak - not at all unusual as a concept in Torg) die during the final battle , the final confrontation against the "big bad" of the adventure Malacryx results in PC failure (although in this case the GM could also show a reality where the PC’s ignored Malacryx, faced off against Kaah instead, a triumphant Malacryx continued her plans for Lanala with no opposition whatsoever and Kaah killed let’s say at least half the PC’s as opposed to Malacryx killing at least one PC right there on the spot.. either way the rest of the PC’s should flee only to be hunted down later .. assume in this scenario the PC’s didn’t bother to start a reality storm like Lanala begged them to do, the GM could describe the look of distrust on the PC’s faces as they listen to Lanala’s words making it clear the PC’s refused to believe her).. all edeinos unite under Kaah, Kaah steamrolls over and destroys every last portion of the delphi council resistance achieving total control over all of the USA, Canada and Mexico , and as the final part of the nightmarish vision Kaah and his new bride Malacryx hunt down and eliminates the surviving PC's one by one, taking their time, gloating as they kills each remaining PC one by one in a savage hunt throughout the Living Land despite the PC’s desperate attempt to correct their previous mistakes and bring Kaah and Malacryx down... despite this horrific dream the PC wakes up feeling oddly reassured, knowing that in her/his reality these events did not take place.. this is admittedly a recap of stuff I would already recommend happen in the adventure (see below) but I would still do this and just go into greater detail than the GM might have done right in the middle of an adventure, tailoring horrific death scenes to each individual PC either on the spot 

The start of the adventure features the typical NPC "info dump" that has traditionally signaled the start of most prewritten adventures but the writers in my opinion make it interesting, clearly highlighting the scope and scale of the delphi council's military-style resistance efforts against Kaah's forces and introducing the concept of fellow Storm Knight characters either transformed to or having originally travelled over from one of the invading cosms... the torg eternity gm screen and archetypes, a pay what you want title (i.e. GM's shoudn't feel too guilty about paying less than the suggested price given the publishers clearly intend it to be a "gateway drug" into the world of torg eternity  :)   and also this lets you save your money for the very important and very helpful torg cosm sourcebooks) comes in handy .. if the PC's want to interact with one or more of these fellow storm knights the GM can simply pick an archetype from that aforementioned pdf and role play it out.. this is where those torg cosm sourcebooks come in handy .. 

….say for example the PC's pick one of the storm knights whom the adventure describes as looking like they're straight out of a pulp comic book complete with cape to converse with ... the GM can make up a dialogue on the spot where in true campy corny nile empire fashion the nile empire storm knight dramatically recounts one particular fight against nile empire shocktroopers led by let's say Baron Insidia page 137 nile empire sourcebook (the pulp hero shakes his/her head and says " that scoundrel thinks he's a vampire.. for all I know maybe he IS a vampire I've seen crazier things than that in the Nile !" ... or detail any of the "walking gods" (pages 132-134 of the nile empire sourcebook) allied with an anaamatist priest/priestess (pages 126-127 nile empire sourcebook), some hapless "guy" or " dame" was kidnapped with the intent of being used in a mystic ritual sacrifice at one of the pyramids that have popped up in the nile empire and the nile empire storm knight and his/her fellow storm knights had to rescue this unfortunate would-be victim.    As I mention (pretty sure I did) in my review of the torg eternity core rules the gamesmaster’s screen for torg eternity is a pay what you want title that includes these character archetypes as well – you shouldn’t feel guilty about grabbing it for below the recommended price, remember this is one of many gateway drugs the torg eternity team has cleverly offered to get you hooked on torg  : )  .. so save that money for buying cosm sourcebooks like the excellent Living Land or Orrosh books (see also my reviews for those two books).

Similarly if the PC's pick a cyberpapacy archetype to talk with the conversation could turn much more grim with the cyberpapacy storm knight recounting their battle against Cartagras, humans who have had their souls ripped from their bodies and who are now controlled with cyberpapal technology , much like a still living zombie, ten of them controlled by a single cyberpriest who ganged up on and nearly killed the cyberpapacy storm knight when they caught the storm knight alone in a trap the storm knight walked into (pages 136-137 of the cyberpapacy cosm sourcebook).. the storm knight's french accented voice breaks a little bit as the storm knight goes on to to say the bait for trap was his/her lover... the storm knight was too late, his/her lover's soul was already ripped from his/her body ... and the storm knight was forced to kill his/her lover lest the storm knight be killed instead, meaning the lover's soul is now lost in the godnet.. and NO soul has ever come back out of the godnet intact .. even so where would the soul go to in the "flesh world" now that the body is dead... " That's the price you pay when you defy the cyberpope.. it's not an uncommon story in the France of today" says the cyberpapacy storm knight quietly.

The GM should be prepared for compassionate PC's and/or players who seem to think this is where the adventure's direction is supposed to go offer to travel with the storm knight they're talking to and help the NPC storm knight out.. depending on how grim the situation is with that NPC the storm knight could give a heroically stalwart laugh (nile empire) or a pained smile (cyberpapacy) and say that each storm knight has their own battle to fight, the NPC has his/her own... the NPC is interrupted by military personnel showing up and requesting the PC's come with them.. and, continues the NPC, the PC's have their own personal battles to handle like the one that's probably come up for them... the possibility raiders are everywhere on earth and the PC's can't be everywhere at once ... but, adds the NPC (stalwartly or with a wan smile again depending on if it's nile empire or the cyberpapacy) .. the NPC appreciates the thought ... and offers the thought that maybe the NPC will meet up with the PC's in the future (which the GM should definitely arrange to have happen at some point in the future, maybe make the NPC a hostage that needs to be rescued the next time the PC's find themselves in that NPC's particular cosm-conquered part of earth).

While I really enjoyed how the "real" that is action infused part of the adventure as far as the first action sequence starting  with a bang.. a lakten (winged dinosaur) carving a slit into the airplane carrying the PC's towards their destination, resulting in the lakten and the PC's plane crashing into one of the gigantic trees now dotting the Living Land overgrown part of Washington DC the PC's were flying into - with the lakten now stuck inside the plane and attacking the PC's who are upside down and belted into their chairs (meaning the PC's could on a Mishap result of their dice rolls tumble through a hole in the plane out of it into the gigantic tree foilage) .. I was a bit surprised that a lakten with the strength score of 12 as described in the adventure.. even with the damage score rising to 14 thanks to it's claws and teeth (admittedly one point past human maximum 13 strength at that point) .. being able to tear a slit into the side of the airplane... personally I would say this happens to be a particularly strong and large lakten who has been particularly affected by the Living Land's law of savagery or perhaps during it's flights it wandered into one of the lost worlds of the Living Land and the mystical properties of some artifact in it boosted it's strength score permanently ... I would give it a strength score of 14, meaning it now inflicts damage 16 with it's claws and teeth and just make it harder for the lakten than it normally would be for the lakten to attack (the way the adventure describes it, the way it's stuck inside the plane still gives it's  one claw/talon and beak easy access to the PC's .. while the adventure does state that the lakten gets a -4 on all attacks/skill rolls due to it's awkward situation, while retaining the -4 on skill checks if I was the GM personally I'd say for attacks  on an odd numbered roll of the 20 sided dice the plane shifts with the lakten's struggles causing the lakten to automatically miss in it's attack.. but also forcing the PC's to make a dexterity check (let's say DC 10) or suffer a -2 on the skill\check roll  of whatever it is they're attempting to do).

While I absolutely loved the well written "flavor text" as far as what the PC's see and encounter during the adventure, there are a few places where I would make corrections.. players can take umbrage at the GM dictating the actions of their PC's unless some sort of extreme circumstance .. the PC is frightened by some supernatural, psionic et cetera force, PC is being mind controlled in some way .. even then generally speaking it's good practice for the GM to declare to the PC " You're terrified/mind controlled and not in control of your actions your new motivation is X " and at least give the player a chance to role play it out on his/her own.... so as far as the PC's spotting their destination at the time as the plane flies through the air and the flavor text stating a PC is about to point it out to their fellow PC and the gasp of surprise the PC's are supposed to have as the lakten rips a hole in the plane.. I would reword that to " before you have a chance to point out that your destination is in sight" and leave out the gasp of surprise thing completely .. minor quibbles I know but there are players who will get annoyed, even upset, over this sort of thing… there are similar flavor (narrative) texts later on in the adventure I would also similarly reword or at least say “an ordinary person might very well be tempted to” (insert gasp or whatever else the writers felt the PC’s would do in that scenario) 

The adventure does a great job of capturing the day to day difficulties of navigating - and surviving for that matter - the Living Land .. as far as the PC's being penalized right from the get-go if no one thought to bring a machete as far as their survival skill check rolls being a GM that tends towards the merciful side I would have the military encampment that is their original destination have that and other necessary gear readily available should the PC's ask for it ...I would even go so far as to have the chief  military officer they're dealing with flat out ask if they have any gear requests bearing in mind players who are doing what they should - truly playing their PC as the sort of hero that the torg eternity core rules makes it clear you should -may be reluctant to take away what the PC considers to be essential gear from a military encampment clearly under (albeit periodic if not constant) siege with the military officer flat out declaring how important the PC's mission are and given the PC's ability to retain their own.. the military officer scratches his head, pulls out notes from his pocket, looks at it and "hanging on to your own , um, ' reality ' like the eggheads - excuse me the scientists - say" makes the PC's invaluable assets to the fight against the "lizards" ... if the PC's need gear to help the PC's save innocent civilian lives they shouldn't be shy about asking for it (I would have the military officer then grin apologetically and say " You'll have to excuse me for not being familiar with this "reality" and " possiblity energy" and " eternity shards" stuff.. sure Quinn Sebastian and the egghead-er, scientists told us all about it but... this  quantum physics stuff isn't part of our regular training in the army." .. if the players forget to do so I'm sure enough survival checks once again at the -2 for not having a machete will eventually cause them to remember/not be shy about asking for gear.

It’s true the most convenient thing for a GM would to be to simply "hand wave" it and tell the players Quinn Sebastian explained "off camera" the concept of invading realities, axioms, possibility rated people like the PC's and certain opponents they will face and their "reality bending" in a sense abilities i.e. standard game uses of the reality skill including the ability to hold on to their own reality and spending possibility energy to change the course of events in their favor by eliminating wounds they would normally suffer or granting successes on skill checks, and the important of hardpoints - such as those of core earth grouped together here that the military encampment has made their stand in as a result .. .and the concept of "mixed zones" such that edeinos can still walk around retaining their own reality at least for a while but core earth technology works here too.. and perhaps most importantly for the purposes of the adventure the concept of eternity shards and the possibilities within it that can be tapped in the fight against the invaders - or that can be harvested by the invaders for their own nefarious purposes.   I know players like mine who emphasize the role playing side of things will want to role play this out including the PC's confused reactions to it as Quinn Sebastian patiently explains these concepts to them as they hear about it for the first time in their lives... personally given that I enjoy running a forum devoted to my gaming campaigns... proboards is one option I'm sure there are many other free-to-use boards for this sort of thing if the GM wants to stage the narrative/introductory part of this adventure on said proboards... I imagine a lot of GM’s and players would rather just role play it right out there around the gaming table however. 

One possibility if you'll excuse the pun prior to even running the Godbox adventure is to have each player come up with their “permanent” (see below as to what I mean by that)  character concept and what cosm the character transformed over to assuming that the player is running a former core earth character transformed over to an invading cosm.. players who prefer to play a hero immigrating from an invading cosm who's come to help the beleagured earthers could have their PC show up a bit later on in the adventure say when the first fight breaks out to aid the core earthers and/or transformed core earthers under attack, said immigrant disclosing or not disclosing the fact they're from another cosm - easy to hide if you're say from the home cosm of the cyberpapacy and don't have obvious cyberware or even a victorian monster hunter from Orrosh who just "dresses funny", much harder to disguise if you're say an elf, dwarf or edeinos ) .. in any case one or more of the PC's play through the events of the "day one" adventures set up that pay-what-you-want torg eternity publication ( see also if you like my review of it but given it’s a pay what you want this is a no brainer, buy it for a penny if you have to but just buy it).. with the rest of the players playing the pregenerated PC's included for that adventure or coming up with their own PC's with the understanding that they aren't going to be the "permanent" PC's those other players play.. play through the day one adventures accordingly cosm by cosm for six adventures total,  though in the case of day one adventures more dark in nature that result in total party kill at the end like say the Pan Pacifica scenario the GM is going to need to adjust events accordingly ... say in the Pan Pacifica situation the PC's that are meant to survive dodge for cover, are the last ones standing who are about to be killed and then the Kanawa corporation agents are shot down by Quinn Sebastian showing up with his forces in a helicopter shooting down the Kanawa agents with their own copter mounted machine gun.. so using that example further players intending to run a Pan Pacifica PC as their "permanent" character are basically "adopted" by Quinn who explains all the aforementioned reality, mixed zone, hardpoint, eternity shard concepts to the PC , let's say on a proboards forum where each individual player can role play this out with the GM in a play by post format such that other players aren't sitting around waiting impatiently at the gaming table while the GM engages in a lengthy discussion with each individual player.   Then move on to the cyberpapacy day one adventure and same thing... the PC's who are meant to be the "permanent" ones from Cyberpapacy reality survive , the other PC's may or may not survive (Quinn takes them with him either way and the "temporary" PC's go their own way possibly as new agents of the Delphi Council chapter Quinn is setting up in the Cyberpapacy region) , later on Quinn  has a talk with the "permanent" PC's meant to be of the Cyberpapacy reality and so forth... by the start of the Godbox adventure, being particularly impressed with the PC's who are meant to be the "permanent" PC's the players want to play,  Quinn assembles those specific PC's for their initial mission at the start of the godbox , Quinn wanting to see how his hand-picked team of "elites" work together and how effective a tactic this is going to be.

Obviously the PC's are going to want to know just HOW it is Quinn knows all of this stuff about realities and stelae and so forth.. the torg core rules book makes it clear Quinn is mysterious about how he's come across this knowledge though a generous GM might make a suddenly tired and haggard looking Quinn rub his eyes wearily and just say in a heavy voice " Let's just say I've been through all this before..  maybe you could say in a prior lifetime."  Quinn forces a smile in the PC's direction.    It's understandable that Quinn might hesitate to tell his core earth allies that he is in fact from another reality itself - that of the Torg world of the original 1990's rulebooks where he fought against the high lords of that reality decades ago - lest they lump Quinn in with the same dimensional invaders he's come to help them fight against.

It’s worth noting that there’s a bit of a typo in the godnet.. page 9 says the godbox events are meant to take place 8 months after the start of the possibility wars but there are two references to the events of the adventure taking place six months after the invasion (pages 4 and 10) .. I would go with six months.

As one might expect Survival and Tracking skill checks are a common occurrence in the Living Land and should the PC's not have anyone with this skill , I would have one of the NPC's they PC's come across strike up a friendship (maybe even a romance) with one or more of the PC's who just happens to have a single skill add in Survival ...Scarlett being an enthusiastic teenager who flat out follows the Pc's into danger when she's not supposed to as detailed later on in the adventure might be a good choice though obviously as a teenager the romance option is not even a possibility for her - on the other hand Meghna, the 43-year-old policy analyst for the US Department of Education, could be a good option for either friendship or romance, just make sure she has at least one add in survival - or GM's who have the time could write up a friendly civilian used to foraging outwards into the living land and coming back with status reports that, as stated in the adventure, the military makes use of, and use him/her..heck you could even use the friendly edeinos I mention below for this purpose with the edeinos unable to restrain their laughter and even rolling on the ground in peals of obvious sibulant hilarity when the PC's fail a survival check, getting up, wiping obvious tears of laughter from his eyes as the PC's fail miserably in (from the edeinos's point of view) things even a five year old edeinos child would know (the edeinos probably says this out loud unable to contain his laughter) and commenting out loud on the "poor earthersssss.. you did not have parentsssss who knew to teach you the wayssss of Life.. do not worry.. you will know by the time I am done with you" ... 

….for let’s say one act in the adventure the NPC should make a point of explaining to the PC's what s/he is doing and why every time the NPC makes a survival or tracking skill check (declare that the NPC makes such checks in day to day or even hourly travel through the Living Land if no such checks are called for though they definitely will be in  the first act of the adventure ) and then as GM I would flat out warn the PC's this is their chance for one or more of them to  spend experience points to pick up at least +1 (more if they want) in Survival and tracking, both crucial skill to have in the Living Lands.. to make things easy on the gamesmaster I would then have the NPC at some point either return the military base the PC's are expected to escort the first group of NPC civilians they encounter or simply have the NPC stay behind at the next "safe NPC headquarters/camp" place the PC's come across later on, the NPC insisting that the NPC is needed there to help the other NPC's in their efforts... besides which the NPC points out with a smile the NPC has already done his/her job and the PC's are no longer as the NPC smilingly puts it "helpless babes in the wilderness."   

It should be noted that if the players are absolutely dead set against spending the 2 experience points for one skill add each in the two skills - see the "advancement" section page 71 core rules book .. even after the GM explains the PC's are getting 5 experience points at the end of each act and that the adventure spans multiple acts... that both skills can be used without any training though the PC's will only be able to roll again on a die roll of 20 not die results of 10 as well (see pages 77, 108 core rules) which I imagine will hamper the PC's success in the Living Land.. it should be pointed out to players as well that the Living Land frequently pops up in other Torg Eternity published adventures (Delphi Council Rising Storm for example) making the skill adds worthwhile , especially given that the current adventure will span 5 acts - or 20 experience points total for the players if the GM doesn’t follow my suggestion and awards xp as the adventure is written (this might convince players to "give up" 10 percent of their xp totals which - understandably - are a precious resource to pretty much any player.)

Also as one would expect the Living Land cosm sourcebook is an invaluable resource when running this adventure, if nothing else because the adventure frequently mentions the GM should throw some hostile encounter - a band of edeinos warriors that attack the PC's, a dinosaur or even herd of dinosaurs - at the PC's should they fail a survival check... the "threats" chapter of the Living Land sourcebook gives statistics for plenty of these kinds of threats and lest a GM think the writers of this adventure are being too harsh, a read of the Living Land sourcebook will reveal having to fight for your life on a regular basis is very much in keeping with the Living Land reality (although stats for your average edeinos warrior are given in the Torg Eternity core rules book and this adventure includes stats for creatures not detailed in the core rules like the flying lakten dinosaur that tore a gash in the PC's plane at the start of the adventure - meaning you could simply "recycle" threats the PC's have come across before should they fail a survival skill check - personally speaking as a GM I would want to throw more variety at the PC's in terms of the dangers they face).

Stats are provided for the chief military officer in charge of the military encampment, Major Jeff Chandler, on page 81 of the godnet book and stats are provided for the world-weary doctor Sheila Mxwell on page 80 as well as her assistant Billy "hot shots" .. since he isn't listed as a doctor I'm assuming he must be a nurse or some other person (medical assistant?) who's stepped up since the invasion and has enough first aid and medicine skill adds to be an asset in his own right - billy also gets kidnapped later on in the adventure making it useful to have his stats available though curiously enough individual stats are not provided for Maghda and Scarlett (see below) despite them being the NPC's most likely to be in a combat situation when they are attacked by hostile edeinos later on in the adventure… technically they’re covered under a set of stats that's intended to cover everyone in the apartment complex where the PC's are sent to rescue said residents and bring them back to the military encampment but I still feel Maghda and Scarlett absolutely described their own individual write up not to mention scarlett's parents.. see below for my suggestions and musings on how the provided stats can be altered to better suit Maghda and Scarlett as well as a proposed background story for these two and possible ways they can advance later on in a way that makes them valuable assets to the storm knights in future adventures and even possibility ascend as storm knights if the PC wants to go that route for these two).  I do wish the writers had noted the page number close to the stats listed for the apartment residents (page 21) but see also page 86 for suitable stats for "primitive humans" you can use for the two apartment residents who have transformed over to the Living land reality (see below)

The adventure also states that curiously enough certain edeinos have wandered into the military encampment the PC's initially are directed to at the start of the adventure, are interrogated and deemed not to be immediately hostile, and are then actually allowed to stay with the civilians at the military encampment.. PCs may understandably want to stage their own investigation of these edeinos though as a GM I woud be prepared for PC's jumping to the wrong conclusion and attacking these friendly edeinos... I would make a point of the edeinos simply dodging and not making a counterattack hollering in his sibulant voice all the time " Not the enemy! Not the enemy! " (see active defense combat option page 119) .. the following round if a PC is still attacking I would have a non-combatant civilian (preferably one the PC's have already had a peaceful interaction with) run into the room having heard the edeinos hollering and then have the NPC do their best to interpose themselves in between the attacking PC and the edeinos adding her shouts to the  edeinos's own pleading with the PC to stop... if that doesn't work following round I would have the military soldiers at the encampment come running into the room, assess the situation.. and then , perhaps shockingly to the PC's, have the soldiers point their guns at the attacking PC instead of the edeinos and shout at the offending PC to stop, one of the soldiers getting on their radio and warning the military officer in charge what's going on .. eventually the head military officer should show up (hopefully by then the trigger happy PC(s) have stopped attacking though a particularly stubborn player may continue their assault on the obviously non-hostile edeinos .. at this point all soldiers on base having been briefed on the importance of the storm knights towards military goals and seeing their bluff has been called I would have let's say all six of the soldiers who came running in engage on a grapple attack on the hostile PC(s) as per pages 123-124 of the torg rulebook).    The civilian and/or soldiers should report the PC's actions .. the hostile PC's continous attacks on an edeinos who wasn't fighting back hollering that he's not the enemy... to the chief military officer whom, with obvious disgust on his face and in his voice saying  "Look, we were worried too at first when they started wandering into camp... other lizards, er, sorry, ' edeinois ' "  the cheif military officer nods an apology at the edeinos " who look just like them trying to kill you?  Who wouldn't be suspicious?  BUT " and here the chief commanding officer's voice turns hard as he looks at the offending PC's "No soldier.. NO soldier.. in any branch of the US military would open fire on someone hollering he's not the enemy who refuses to engage in hostilities even when attacked... and if I saw any soldier who was cowardly .. or stupid .. enough to do such a thing I'd have them locked up and stand trial for war crimes"  the military officer pauses for a moment to let that sink in then continues.  "We've talked with some of these edeinos and we believe their story - not all of them are happy about their boss-man, Barak Kaah's, invasion of Earth... there are entire tribes of them who want nothing to do with these sorts of hostilities towards Earth... a lot of them like this guy"  the military officer nods towards the edeinos " were just curious about what all the fuss was and came here to see for themselves... could they be spies for Kaah?  Sure they could.  But " and here the military officer's voice hardens again " If we're no better than the enemy what's the point of fighting them in the first place?  You get me?"

It's possible that very stubborn players.. or players who have simply written up a bloodthirsty PC who will absolutely not fit into any of the pre-written adventures the torg eternity writers have published.. continue to insist that their assault on the edeinos was justified.. whether this happens or not I would call a break to the game and have a real-life talk with the players and flat out tell them that the adventures as written by the torg eternity people simply aren't going to work if the players don't take the "high road"..  I would also point out page 220 of the torg core rulebook and talk about how the moment of crisis for a storm knight involves a heroic act, the high mortality rate for storm knights given their quote "selfless inclinations" as well as page 182 the storm knights' role in the possibility wars quote "protecting the innocent" (prepare yourself for arguments that they are "protecting the innocent" by eliminating every single possible enemy of earth like the "edeinos spy" and patiently explain that part of taking the moral high ground is putting yourself at risk for the sake of lofty principles lest you become like the enemy invaders who would have no qualms about taking such "moral shortcuts") as further evidence of what the torg eternity writers originally envisioned for player characters in said prewritten adventures....   expect arguments fron the players of the PC's attacking the edeinos about the nature of morality, what qualifies as "good" or "evil", how "bad things" are necessary in a time of war and so forth and then patiently reiterate what you said before... putting all of that aside the adventures simply aren't going to work if the PC's don't take what the writers consider to be the moral high ground... is this something the players are willing to do?   

Personally I can remember at least three situations I witnessed either as a dungeonmaster or a player all in  D&D campaigns where the GM/DM made it clear that the PC's were expected to be of "good alignment" only to have a player take a clear "moral shortcut" for the sake of convenience towards achieving "game goals" then indignantly declare " My PC is Chaotic Good! "  .. these players tended to have a not pleased reaction when they realized their concept of "good" wasn't on board with that of the GM and even that of other players in the group so the GM should be prepared for players to be at least initially disgruntled as well.  Having gone through this on more than one occasion as a GM with certain players I've personally gone so far as to write up a questionnaire for the players to fill out regarding their PC write up prior to a campaign starting with things such as " Is there any situation in which you would attack an NPC who is making an obvious attempt not to attack and continues to not attack despite your PC's continued hostilities?" or " Is there any situation in which you would kill a helpless and unarmed NPC?"  " would you kill a mind controlled NPC forced to attack you against their will if you stand an excellent chance of disarming or restraining the NPC instead without hurting them?" ... doing this right after character creation can head off potential problems hopefully before they start and hopefully prompting a player to come up with a brand new PC concept if they're open to what they  might consider to be a more "goodie two shoes" sort of character...  though you should be prepared for players who conveniently ignore this line of questioning and/or give the answers they think you want to hear only to resort to more bloodthirsty tactics once the game starts.   

Hopefully all of this will be unnecessary and the players will be running PC's who are more in tune with that the torg eternity writers envisioned in the first place - true heroes in every sense of the word.   Going back to the friendly edeinos .. again this is where the Living Land cosm sourcebook is invaluable.. the write up of Barak Kaah includes the things he's doing that have caused certain edeinos to turn on Kaah (Kaah's use of gospog for example.. or even as detailed in the start of the adventure the law of wonder making certain edeinos start defying Kaah behind his back , speculating that Lanala does not approve of Kaah's actions - otherwise why would Lanala be preserving remmants of conquered cosms Kaah has previously invaded? ) .. 

….the same living land sourcebook also gives a detailed write up of the tribes other than the redjaw ones who are not all loyal to Kaah to give the GM more background info for the non-hostile edeinos.. I would go so far as to have the edeinos tell the PC's that after having come to see for himself what " all the fusssss is about" with the earthers that the edeinos has been impressed with the human soldier's bravery in battle and their sense of honor and the edeinos , with the military officer's permission, plans to go back and convince the rest of his tribe (who are currently undecided as to where they stand with Kaah) that Kaah is wrong , this invasion of Earth is wrong, and he will do his best to convince his tribe that while the poor misguided earthers rely too much on "dead things" his tribe should nonetheless help the Earthers fight Kaah, even if secretly lest the tribe be afraid of Kaah's admittedly greater numbers in terms of the kaah allied edeinos.   The edeinos shyly admits that while he knows it is "forbidden" he has come to enjoy things like earth ice cream and watching dvd's of old kung fu martial arts movies that one of the civilians happens to have a collection of  (not surprising when you consider the edeinos way of life is a constant struggle for survival - again see the living land cosm sourcebook for a detailed writeup of edeinos culture and outlook - so tales of fierce kung fu warriors might sit well with certain edeinos or this one anyways)  " Bruce Lee was an edeinosssss at heart" says the edeinos.  " I love the .. what do you earthersss call it?...  fight sssssscenessssss.   Chuck Norrisssss and Jean Claude Van Damme are good too... and the Terminator and Terminator two?   Very ssssscary... issss to an edeinossss what you earthersssss would call a ' horror movie ' ... walking dead thing chasssssing the humanssssss"  (in other words a terminator... a relentless construct that was never living chasing humans who despite their love of dead things at least having the benefit of still being alive... is, ,to this particular edeinos anyways, a true nightmare.).. for added humor and hopefully to drive home that this edeinos is not a threat the PC's might even first encounter the edeinos munching on fruit-roll ups scavenged from the base watching a bruce lee movie on dvd... perhaps have a clearly unafraid four year old run up, tap the edeinos on the soldier and without taking his clearly enraptured eyes from the screen the edeinos absent mindedly hands the four year old a fruit roll up, the four year old then scurrying off with her treat.

This might also raise the question in the PC's minds how is it that the edeinos can speak English in the first place?    This is a question I've had myself which I don't recall being answered in the torg core rulebook or any of the cosm sourcebooks... I do remember in the torg fictional novels of the 1990's that a friendly edeinos warrior allied with the protagonists of the novels explained that the edeinos were simply gifted with the ability to pick up the language of the cosms they invaded quickly after enough exposure to said language... I would have this edeinos offer the same explanation if the PC's (hopefully) engage in friendly conversation with him.   " No one truly knowssss why"  says the edeinos.  " Perhapsssss it issss a gift from Lanala" ... it's worth noting that in adventure collections like say delphi council rising storm you have edeinos speaking to storm knight player characters... I suppose the GM could simply go with the explanation given on page 57 where a particular edeinos learned english from human slaves and declare edeinos need to be taught english by someone ... but personally as a GM just for the role playing potential (again if you read the Living Land sourcebook there are entire tribes of edeinos who are potential allies to the PC's - but it's a lot harder to pull this off if communication is impossible ! ) I would just go with the original explanation from the 1990's torg books... the edeinos learn English astonishingly quickly simply from listening to the humans they encounter, even if it's humans screaming in terror or begging for their lives after being taken captive to serve as a sacrifice to Lanala later on by the edeinos loyal to Barak Kaah (and obviously in the case of less hostile edeinos who are potential allies they simply listened to realm runners or other NPC’s who travelled through their area looking to trade - see the section on bartering under the gear section in the Living Land sourcebook).

Surprisingly there is not a battle map provided for the edeinos assault on the PC's and the refugees from the apartment complex they are expected to escort back to the military encampment ... a google search for "Post apocalyptic battle map Highway Toll  Amatsu Maps reddit" or "Cross roads battle map - Post-apocalyptic Highway Amatsu Maps reddit"  will turn up what I thought were two  particularly well done highway maps complete with foliage surrounding a highway full of non-functional cars (which could provide cover for  PC's with firearms taking shots at the attacking edeinos - this isn't specifically mentioned in the adventure which seems to assume the highway is clear but that would be a fun addition in my opinion).. otherwise a google search for 'reddit post apocalytpic map rpg  highway/road" should do it .. edit and update, here are some links to the two amatsu maps I mentioned but you can do the google search mentioned above too if the links don't work

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/s58368/post_apocalyptic_battle_map_highway_toll_amatsu/

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/ruxjxw/cross_roads_battle_map_postapocalyptic_highway/

worth noting - when you copy and paste those search terms and put them into google do not include the " "  quotation marks or google will turn up nothing and will be unable to help you

While I'm on the topic a google search of say "reddit jungle maps rpg" also gives some great results too for the random encounters the adventure says the PC's could have on a failed survival check... 

Also enjoyable was the dilemma the PC's are faced with as far as arriving at the apartment complex full of people they need to escort back to the military base.. two of them have already transformed over to the Living Land reality and stubbornly refuse to leave despite it being explained to them that the edeinos under Barak Kaah's command will not particularly care if they have converted over to the Living Land reality and said edeinos will probably kill them on sight simply on the grounds that they're still human (worth noting that the cheif military officer previously described points out to the PC's that he calls the transformed humans "Tarzan's" and that they don't transform into "stupid cavemen".. they retain their intelligence, their outlook has just changed.. the military officer also points out that such transformed individuals eventually become a danger to the untransformed humans around them in his experience and bringing them back to the military encampment is not a good idea ) ...  the question is how it is that Meghna, who is the one who points this out, knows this in the first place?  

 Given she's a policy analyst for the US Department of Education she no doubt has connections with other government officials who in turn have been speaking to military personel who are "in the know" about this sort of thing (bear in mind the writers say the events of the godbox take place 8 months --- see page 9 of the godbox... after the start of the possibility wars/dimensional invaders first day of invasion of earth meaning that the military personnel would now have hands on experience about the invaders to work with).. let's also assume that Meghna, given the calm in control demeanor she exhibits, insisted on staying in her apartment complex to assist her fellow apartment complex residents until military personnel (or somewhat to her surprise the storm knights who show up instead) arrive to get her and her fellow apartment complex residents out of there safely - well as safe as you can get in the Living land anyways.. .also let's say by some miracle there's a very minor core earth hardpoint she's unaware of - given she's of Indian ancestry maybe her beloved great grandmother's simple looking coral necklace from India, passed down lovingly from generation to generation in her family.. that allows core earth reality to function without restriction in an area limited to just her apartment... up to the GM if s/he wants to make this a mobile hardpoint or just a temporary one that fades the moment Meghna leaves her apartment.. but it would explain how Meghna is able to say stay in radio contact with her fellow goverment officials ... 

….note that this is all stuff I'm coming up with off the top of my head which isn't officially stated in the adventure and while it's true that an experienced GM could make this up on the fly it would have been nice for the writers to give Maghda a more detailed write up from the start.   While it is possible to use the "standard" stats for a resident of the apartment complex provided for Maghda, I feel like she deserves her own individual stats at the very least, same for Scarlett below though I imagine a GM could use the provided stats as a starting point and just bump certain ability scores accordingly...give Magdha a higher Mind , let's say 11 for reasons I'll go in in a bit, and a Spirit score of 8 .. two points above average - to represent her calm controlled demeanor as well as two skill adds in Persuasion, Scholar (Education), Scholar (pick area of study she started out in as let's say a teacher before working for the government... Biology could be useful in the Living Land) .. and if she's intended to teach the PCs the survival skill let's say one add in Survival... let's say her beloved mother was an anthropologist who would take her teenager daughter with her on her expeditions to let's say the tribes of the more wilderness type areas (deep forests and what not - yes that's a thing in real life google search it ) in India and mom made a point of teacher her daughter the basics of surviving in the wilds.. even if that's not an intended use for Magdha I would make that part of her background anyways making her even more invaluable to her apartment community.   

The GM may or may not make Magdha a storm knight candidate given my suggestion that Scarlett going with the theme "the youth are our future!" transcends into a Storm Knight in adventures with the PC's later on (or not, GM's call) ... given that per the torg eternity core rules storm knights are, despite a larger number of them are popping up on Earth compared to other cosms given Earth's abundance of possibility energy, still comparatively rare in proportion to the rest of core Earth's population players may wonder why both Maghda and Scarlett become storm knights later on ... still if you want to go this route (or just have Maghda transcend into a storm knight instead of scarlett) you could have Maghda transcend "off camera" back at the military encampment when the storm knights leave, she could find that her access to digital textbooks on flora and fauna allows her to absorb the information much more quickly than she was able to before in pre-storm knight days (remember that storm knights get 5 experience points per act completed, presumably this happens off camera for NPC storm knights too) and she quickly leverages that bachelor's degree in biology into self taught advanced studies granting her scholar skills in the living land's flora and fauna thanks to going out and exploring said flora and fauna making her an invaluable asset to the military encampment.. meanwhile the military teach her how to be a crack shot and how to defend herself in armed hand to hand and unarmed combat (firearms, unarmed and armed combat skills go up in rank).. by the time the PC's encounter her months or years later in a Living land adventure let's say due to a connection card or the GM just brings her in as a friendly NPC asset regardless she's a strong resource for the PC's.    

Likewise for the teenager girl Scarlett Edmunds, while her stats aren't going to be as advanced as say an adult's let's give her two adds in the survival skill, two adds in tracking, and give three adds in survival and tracking to both her mom and dad, both of whom have taught their beloved daughter the basics of getting by in the wilderness due to family hunting trips in the (American) deep forest prior to the invasion .. I would have the parents complain worriedly to the PC's about how their daughter makes a point of foraging away from the rest of the apartment complex to explore with the typical fearlessness of youth (this is after all how she meets the PCs in the adventure as written) .. I would give Scarlett a score of 10 in Dexterity (she's showing the potential to be a crack shot even at a young age and later on the sharp reflexes of a future fighter pilot), a Mind score of 10 (she's very smart like her mom)  and one adds in firearm instead of two like her parents (I would even have her parents go so far as to fight along the PCs when the edeinos attack later on unless the PC's order them not to -  of course a stubborn Scarlett insists on fighting alongside the PC's regardless in the edeinos fight and angrily declares that she's " 17 years old ! " if the PCs confront her on endangering herself after the fight ) ... 

…let's say .. as the adventure makes it clear Scarlett (and let's say her parents) are basefall fans and particularly like the Washington Nationals team given that Scarlett is wearing a baseball cap with their logo... a quick google search shows that aerospace and construction are big industries in Washington where the adventure takes place so let's say both parents are retired former military, air force, and Scarlett's mom went on to become an aeronautical engineer designing aircrafts while her dad is an office manager at the same business - they met and fell in love at work... and Scarlett had every intention of joining the air force herself and becoming a military pilot like her mom was , prior to the invasion.. this sets her mom up (let's call her Kathy Edmunds, dad is Bob Edmunds) as a potential pilot called back into duty the PC's encounter later on in future adventures who is responsible for giving them a ride to their destination and the PC's may also encounter a cheerfully perky Scarlett later on who's just turned 18 and (against her parents' wishes given this is wartime! ) promptly enlisted in the air force and given her high grades and obvious intellectual prowess is now a cadet in the united states air force academy who is being fast tracked towards becoming a pilot.    This could lead to amusing future adventures where Scarlett is forced to fly a plane for the first time for the PC's " Well we covered this in training.. did I mention I've never flown a plane in real life before?  Hang on guys it's going to be a bumpy ride"  (starts the plane before the PC's can object or try to jump off).   If you want to make Scarlett a future storm knight which I would suggest on the "the youth are our future!" trope I would have her transcend right in front of the storm knights in some adventure she shares with them in the future.

If you want still more info on what Scarlett enjoys (other than baseball and hunting) you can do a google search for "most popular anime" or "most popular youtubers" or "most popular online first person shooter multiplayer games" to come up with some random things Scarlett points out that she wistfully used to enjoy prior to the invasion of the Living Land ... obviously these all rely on internet coverage that's been more or less torn to shreds (see references to the internet in the Living Land sourcebook) though an interested PC who likes "the kid" and develops a maternal or paternal instinct towards Scarlett could stumble across an anime DVD of her favorite anime (the GM will probably have to remind the player who Scarlett is and that this is her favorite anime) resulting in Scarlett squealing in joy and giving the PC an enthusiastic hug if this is presented later on as a gift in future adventures. 

Going back to the transformed humans who refuse to leave the apartment complex .. the problem for the PC's is that the two transformed humans remaining (there were others too but they've already left the apartment complex to quote " be with Lanala" ) have nine family members who are (presumably) in tears and/or obviously upset at the thought of leaving their beloved transformed family members behind - and personally speaking as a GM I absolutely loved the fact that the writers present this sort of moral dilemma to the players and expect the PC's to do something about it, again it really drives home the effect the Living Land is having on earth) .. 

…a successful persuasion roll should the PC's bother with it (this might require some prompting, with Magdha and Scarlett the blonde teenage girl trying and failing to convince the non transformed family members to go then pleading with the PC's to try and reason with them , reminding the PC's that they will certainly be killed by Barak Kaah's forces when they inevitably overrun the apartment complex) will convince the family members to  ….no doubt tearfully this should be role played out by the GM in my opinion to drive home the real human impact the possibility wars are having on the humans of core earth ... not as difficult as it might sound just imagine some real life earth family or a fictional one off the top of your head and imagine their reaction if beloved dad or beloved aunt mary transformed over and they had to say goodbye to those family members knowing they're going to be killed by "lizard men" - and what's worse your beloved family members didn't CHOOSE to be transformed it just happened ... role play out children, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews tearfully embracing the stubborn transformed humans who are refusing to leave, small children crying and wailing that "dad/grandpa/uncle/aunt" is being left behind and begging the transformed humans to come with and so forth) ..

… the GM should be prepared for (hopefully non lethal) combat if some PC sees all this and decides to try to bludgeon a stubborn transformed human into unconsciousness.   The GM should point out to players who choose to force stubborn transformed humans the non-lethal combat options on page 125 of the torg eternity core rulebook for unarmed combat or blunt weapon attacks .. given that even the transformed humans aren't much of a threat compared to the storm knights based on their stats (gain see page 86 of the godnet book - although I'm surprised the writers didn't give the transformed humans one add in the faith skill keta kalles given their fervent worship of Lanala which is something I would recommend doing.. see below on some more thoughts about that) .. and also given that as a GM I would have the transformed humans out of a sense of honor realize the PC's aren't striking to kill and respond in kind, fighting back in a non-lethal manner (make a VERY clear point of pointing this out to the players so they don't think their PC's lives are in danger) with nothing more than fists and feet, grappling maybe and not bothering to use say the clubs they would have access to even if the PC's are using clubs in a non-lethal fashion in the combat.     Do bear in mind that on an (albeit outstanding meaning you'd need a really good result total on the skill check) even transformed humans will agree to come along.

But what about the chief military officer's grim prediction that transformed humans are a danger to those inside the military base?  obviously the chief military officer shouldn't be happy to see the transformed humans brought with even if the PC's explain the alternative was certain death for the transformed humans... to begin with, it should become painfully clear to the transformed humans , who, as the adventure describes, are likely to shout " my jakatt brother" once combat begins with the edeinos (the adventure states that, not surprisingly, edeinos tribes who follow Barak Kaah attack the PC's and the apartment residents the PC's are escorting when the PC's leave the apartment complex, they're taken up positions around the boat the PC's took to the apartment complex and that the PC's will presumably want to use to get back to the military encampment.. it should be pointed out to the players who want to abandon the boat that bringing the apartment complex residents on foot back through the Living Land is just as dangerous as fighting the edeinos as the PC's travels on foot have made painfully clear - at least if they fight the edeinos and win they have a boat and they can always tell the apartment complex people to stay hidden while the PC's fight )  - only to discover the edeinos are trying to kill them and ignore all of the transformed humans' frantic attempts to convince them that they too are fellow Lanala worshippers  … I would role play this out right in front of the PC's with the edeinos sneering " You are humansssss unworthy of Lanala'ssss blessssingssss... you mussst die ! "  followed by one of their family members saying grimly " I told you so Uncle Joe! (or fill in whatever name for the transformed human you came up with)   .. 

....at the GM's option the GM could declare one of the transformed apartment dwellers was particularly religious (Christian springs to mind only because it appears to be the most popular religion in the USA) and when the apartment dweller transformed to the Living Land reality than turned let's say their 3 adds in Faith from Christianity to Keta Kalles ... it's worth noting page 20 of the living land sourcebook which states that faith is so persuasive in the Living land (see also core rulebook section on axioms and how the spirit axiom is high enough to support this sort of thing) that persons with adds in faith can attempt casting a miracle even without the miracles perk for spellcasting them that is normally required... see also page 201 of the torg eternity core rules for a description of the healing miracle .. given that transformed humans have a spirit of 7 per their write up in the godnet book, the 3 adds in faith would let the one particularly religious primitive human attempt to cast the healing miracle spell on one of the PC's after the battle (see below as to why) ... personally as a GM even if the transformed apartment dweller fails the difficulty number 10 roll modified by the target's wound penalties I would make it blatantly obvious the attempt was made -  the transformed apartment dweller is obviously straining, calling out loud to Lanala, sweat streaming down the transformed apartment dweller's  forehead, the PC sees the wound start to close.. then open again returning to it's previous state.. then I would have the transformed apartment dweller hang his or her head in obvious shame and say " Lanala says no... I tried... I am sorry.   Please, let me try later."   And sure enough next scene (remember the description of the healing miracle can only be attempted once per character per scene) have the transformed apartment dweller stubbornly try again next scene when accompanying the PC's back to the military encampment.

This eye opening event  …their "fellow" worshippers of Lanala, the edeinos loyal to Kaah trying to kill them) in combination with a respect for the PC's (either due to that spectacular persuasion roll mentioned earlier on out of respect for the "mighty warrior" PC's who defeated the transformed humans in non-lethal combat .. and now the same "mighty warrior" PC's are fighting to save the lives of the transformed humans!  Truly the PC's are not only mighty warriors/skilled diplomats but they are also men/women of honor !  …  should, in my opinion, cause the two transformed humans to pick up a fallen tree branch or rock as a makeshift club and fight alongside the PC's (though this could result in more wailing and tragedy from their family members if the transformed humans die in combat).   I would have surviving transformed humans if any are present walk right up to the obviously not happy chief military officer, recount in detail the PC's "honor"  by explaining what they saw the PC's do, and then declare that they are joining the military officer's "tribe"... they will forage through the Living Land outside the headquarters, looking for information on " what these poisonous tribes who do not follow Lanala's will are doing... human, edeinos does not matter, ALL races are beloved to Lanala who follow her way" .. and then report that information back to the chief military officer.   An obvoiusly stunned military officer should look at the PC's and declare " You've earned that reputation the top brass gave you all right.. not only did you bring the civilians back alive from the apartment complex, you turned enemies into allies!" 

Unless the PC's order them to do otherwise the transformed humans should then take that as their cue to leave, declaring they'd rather not stay in these "dead buildings" that make them uncomfortable even if their beloved PC heroes order them to do it... though if it was me as a GM I would write up updated stats for these transformed humans as they continue to "level up" in the Living Land and show up later on in future Living Land adventures (joining a roving tribe of edeinos not loyal to Barak Kaah who aren't prejudiced against humans for example) to help the PC's  say on the result of some favorable result to the players that shows up on the drama deck or a played destiny card by a player .. I say updated stats such that they're not immediately killed the moment they enter combat say if the PC's are now at alpha or above clearance with their experience point totals.

I also really enjoyed how the writers provided a detailed description of dimthread trees - and their sinister requirement as far as feeding off the life force of some hapless NPC victim... as far as the one rescued victim Mikalah .. I got curious and looked up the name by the way, it would seem to imply she's of Greek or Hebrew (maybe both?) origin? .. while the writers describe her as a Storm Knight and say to use the Realm Runner template for her, the narrative text seems to imply she's either a "green" just transformed storm knight or she has no idea she's a storm knight... personally if I was the GM I would make this decision ahead of time and flesh out the character with more of a background story than what's provided in the adventure... particularly given that as part of her NPC role providing an info dump that leads the PC's to the next part of the adventure it mentions that she's been studying and learning the edeinos language in order to start posting youtube videos about them ,  a little touch that I really enjoyed given the prevalence of youtube in today's culture .. although it's worth noting that the military chief officer earlier on mentions that the two things he misses most are starbucks and netflix .. so how is it netflix doesn't work but youtube does?  One possible explanation is that the chief military officer simply hasn't gone back yet to a larger core earth dominated zone with a big city within where the internt still works (sort of, if you're VERY lucky,  see the Living Land sourcebook pages 10, 95 for more details on that).. the other explanation is this poor storm knight has no idea just how bad off the internet is and someone has to explain to her that unless she posts her youtube videos in some place where the internet is more likely to work (say countries like Spain or Germany) she's not going to reach her target audience.   

This brings up an interesting question here .. how is it that this storm knight is able to learn even the basics of a language as alien as that of the Edeinois native tongue?  (see above for my thoughts on how it is that the Edeinois are able to speak English in the first place).. the game mechanics clearly allow for the PC's to advance quickly with new skills, perks and the like being readily available at least for beginner level alpha clearance characters like the PC's (5 experience points per act will do that - not that I'm complaining in the slightest, one of the biggest joys for a player is watching their PC "level up" and in my opinion it was wise of the Torg Eternity writers to account for that).    But "realistically speaking" this quick leveling up is something that your average NPC just isn't capable of whether in torg eternity, dungeons and dragons or most other various RPG's out there you would care to name.    The obvious explanation is the storm knights are heroes in every sense who just learn faster much like their hero counterparts in TV shows like say Buffy, Angel, or Arrow ... 

Torg Eternity provides an interesting possible explanation in my opinion however.. the PC's have already demonstrated their control over reality itself (see the torg eternity core rulebook) to a certain extent.. a GM could simply declare (though if it was me I would check to see if the players object to this - I imagine most wouldn't) that the PC's notice they're learning things and picking things up faster much more quickly than the PC's ever did in their normal day to day life.. and this is occurring right at the same time they've discovered their reality bending powers ....say whether it's a successful reality check not to disconnect - as a GM I would go so far as to say out loud to the players  on a successful check where they don't disconnect the PC feels their equipment start to "phase" out of existence as the torg core rulebook states might happen.. and the PC instinctively, without even intending to do so, focuses on "willing" the equipment back into existence.. and it phases right back into solidness again.. in game terms this has no negative impact on the PC's actions but makes it very clear that the PC's can literally force things to happen.. or , a possibility spent on a successful action.. again as a GM I would go so far as to say the PC mentally sees two futures ahead of the PC.. one where the PC fails at their intended action or the PC succeeds at their intended action.. and the PC instinctively picks the result that the PC wants , watching as said result comes to life.. 

But if it was me as a GM personally, to really blow the PC's minds I would make these two alternate futures appear to ALL the PC's and NPC's as witnesses, not just the single PC alone, momentarily , furling out in front of the PC kind of like the Matrix movie (the first one) and then see one "solidify" in front of everyone's eyes, the one the PC picked... imagine how disconcerting this will be for the PC's when they then see a reality rated opponent do the exact same thing .. likewise when the PC's make a reality check and spend a possibility to resist taking a wound like the torg eternity core rulebook says I would make it obvious either subtly to the PC per that PC's individual vision of the two futures unfolding and instinctively picking the one where the PC gets less hurt.. or overtly (my personal favorite) where everyone can see what just happened.   If you have stuff like that going on you can then tell the players that it would appear to the PC's that if they can bend reality like that it makes sense they're going to "learn stuff" faster than normal... which gives an explanation as to why Mikalah is able to pick up on even the basics of the language so quickly ....I would go so far as to have Mikalah haltingly, in a confused manner, talk about how she was able to avoid being killed in the edeinos initial assault like a lot of her fellow humans were and how she somehow seemed to instinctively "choose" the future where she didn't get killed and she watched it happen.. .the PC's should realize she's describing the exact same thing at least one PC has been through already assuming at least one player has opted so far to spend a possibility to avoid taking a wound so far in the game .. or in previous adventures the PC might have played through prior to the godbox.  

Apologies in that I'm going to digress further from the review like I often do but..I notice no illustrations have been provided for most of the NPC's the PC's come across.. which is more than forgivable, it's the rare prewritten adventure that supplies that sort of thing whether it be torg eternity or other rpg games... however this is where google search is your friend along with the fact that torg eternity is set in an alternate version of our "real world earth".. GM's interested in doing so can do a google search for say  " middle aged indian woman stock photo " (note that you should NOT include the quotation marks that I have used in that keyword search or google won’t be able to help you – I use the quotation marks only to mark off the words you should be searching by don’t actually include the quotation marks themselves)  and no doubt come up with at least one picture of a person to display to the PC's for say the aforementioned Meghna or "stock photo blonde teenage girl" (though I'm going to go right ahead and state the obvious here, while my google search turned up family friendly suitable for work pictures be prepared for results that don't fall into that category - sadly such is the nature of google search results though you could turn safe-search on to avoid that sort of thing or use the "filter explicit images" option).. my google search for "us military sergeant stock photo African American" turned up a suitable number of images any one of which could be used for the aforementioned chief military officer (the godnet book describes him as African American)  ... though much as I hate to suggest this, a hilarious result using the google search terms " us military sergeant stock photo worried dreamstime" turned up a hilarious result from the dreamstime website with the description " us army soldier, sergeant,isolated" where he's holding his hand to his head in obvious consternation - a perfect photo for a military officer under seige by the edeinos except he's white .. I'd prefer to keep the chief military officer african american as per his original description in the adventure but I have to admit that photo is priceless!

The writers pointed out something I didn't know before... contrary to what one might expect, you don't necessarily have to have two dimthread trees planted in the two areas you want to travel between using the dimthread trees.. instead each individual dimtread tree once planted can be used to set up a certain number of (they don't say how many) portals to various locations that once "set" remain permanent unless the darkness device they connect to - the Gaunt Man's own - exerts special effort to change where the portal leads to.   This basically makes the dimthread trees inherent plot devices that can easily move PC's from one stage of the adventure to the next , which is no doubt what the torg eternity writers planned for in the first place... although this in turn could prompt another discussion with the more bloodthirsty players about expected PC morality if someone actually suggests leaving an unfortunate victim in the pod belonging to the dimthread tree that the tree feeds off of in order to continue being able to use the trees as a portal in the future to the PC's benefit .. to drive home how unpleasant it is for the victim I would have Mikalah start to shiver after her info dump exposition and, hugging herself , tell the PC's " I remember now.. nightmares.. so many nightmares... while I was trapped in there... and I couldn't wake up from them.. it had to be the worst experience of my life.  Promise me if you find anyone like me trapped in these trees later on" Mikalah gives the tree a savage kick abrupt hate and fury on her face as she vents her wrath on her tomentor ... " Promise me you'll get them out of their pods too.. trust me.. they're suffering."   While the adventure doesn’t state this it’s assumed that the dimthread tree has enough “juice” left in it even after the pod victims are rescued to “power” a PC trip through the tree.

This moves the PC's on to the second act of the adventure where, in true Edgar Rice Burroughs fashion (as the Torg Eternity writers note his novels were a huge influence on the Living Land and GM's familiar with even descriptions of his work whether or not you read his novels should act accordingly when running living land adventures) , the PC's journey to  "the land in the center of the earth" or as Torg Eternity calls it the “Land Below” of the  Living Land conquered area of earth  ... an absolute impossibility yet the very nature of reality has been changed to make it so.. the problem is that there's not enough descriptive text to make it clear that the PC's are in the center of the Earth the text just flat out informs the PC's without observations that would back that up - and given that there's sunlight (or the center of the earth version of it) and , judging from the illustration presented to the GM by the writers (nice touch in my opinion) that the GM can in turn present to the players (if you're like me and you only have the pdf version of the book just use the print screen function on windows, copy and paste the captured image to the paint program crop accordingly and away you go)  , it would be understandable if the PC's came to the conclusion they've emerged in some other part of the Living Land..

…. the GM could handle this one of two ways.. the GM could add to the descriptive text something like " Impossibly enough, beyond the sky you can see a circular dome of rock enclosing the entire area" (and indeed if the GM skips to the very end part of the godnet book which explains this geography in greater detail the writers state this is indeed the case, just not immediately apparent to the PC’s the way the writers have presented the adventure) .. hopefully at least one PC is at least a transformed former Core Earther who still retains memories of his/her core earth life who will understand the reference to the "world at the center of the earth" concept from the Edgar Rice Burrough novels  …. the GM could declare that even if the player states their PC would never in their life touch, read or be associated with said novels since it's just not the PC's thing, the PC perhaps got dragged along to some movie by a friend/family member/lover based on said novels prior to the invasion.. the GM could also declare knowledge of this particular novel from Burroughs simply falls into the "common knowledge" category all PC's who retain core earth memories would know about.. alternately the GM could let the players think they're still on the surface, only to have the core earth human explorer Spencer they need to rescue start asking questions of the PC's about " news from the land above" , he's worried about friends of the family - him and his two kids - in Washington DC (see pages 39-40 of the Living Land sourcebook for more info on the current status of Washington)  and asks specific questions about the military encampment the PC's arrived at in scene one (coincidentally enough he has friends who retreated there as well as let's say his dead wife's family members whom he remains close to)  - if asked to clarify the prince looks surprised and then points out where the PC's truly are.

While there’s an absolutely wonderful write-up of the   Land Below that can absolutely come in useful to a GM for future adventures (it comes complete with adventure seeds) that does a great job of describing the society and structure of the tribes of the Land Below, it would have been useful if the writers had immediately mentioned that this writeup existed and directed GM’s to the page number where said write up starts (pages 100-114 though of course the GM will also want to look at the stats and brief personality write ups of the NPC’s on pages 80-99) … I wince at the thought of enthusiastic GM’s with time on their hands coming up with their own invented background and cultural outlook for the tribes assuming that the writers left this out, only to be disappointed later on when they read further and say “Oh, the writers already covered that.”    Granted any GM running an adventure should read the book cover to cover before they even think of running said adventure but .. well I can see how an enthusiastic and creative GM might “jump the gun” too soon.    

Having said that I do appreciate the writers giving the tribes such a detailed write up in terms of their culture and also statistics to the point where interested players could even play one of the tribe members as a player character.. the write up of the wasp worshipping tribe was.. INTERESTING… in that it states the wasp worshipping tribe that the PC’s ally the leopard prince (see below) enters into a diplomatic alliance with via marriage – said wasp worshippers think nothing of eating the humans (or human-like beings) of other tribes and consider it to be perfectly natural.. while on the one hand I can see how the leopard prince would view this marriage as absolutely necessary so the wasp warriors will stop, oh let’s say eating his tribe members.. and while it’s possible he’s convinced the princess of the wasp tribe not to eat sentient beings… if the PC’s ever find out that this is what the wasp worshipping tribe does I can see serious problems as this is downright evil behavior of the sort the storm knights would be expected not to tolerate given they’re clearly intended to be the good guys per the Torg Eternity core rules write up as mentioned above.. the language barrier helps sure but a character who has access to say the psionic mind reading ability could be in for a big surprise that will create problems later on given that the wasp tribe is expected to literally fly the PC’s to the next stage of the adventure after the leopard prince and his new wasp worshipping bride order the wasp tribe to quit it and stop attacking the PC’s (see below).. I could even see morally outraged PC’s attacking the wasp tribe despite overwhelming odds (see below) not willing to let this sort of thing stand..

… personally as a GM I would take pains to make this knowledge NOT available to the PC’s until they have no choice but to move on to the next stage of the adventure .. perhaps the leopard prince shows up with his new bride and communicates to the PC’s through the little girl prodigy translator the PC’s rescue (one of Spenser’s children see below) , happily telling them “Thanks to you my bride’s people will no longer try to eat my people!”  The happy couple beams at them as an obviously uncomfortable Spenser reveals “Erhm, yes, the wasp  tribe is known to eat it’s captives human or otherwise.. though there’s every hope my good friend” (claps the leopard prince on the arm) can wean them away from that!  His wife has sworn not to eat any more humans out of love for her new husband so that’s a start!”    Cut to the PC’s being drawn through the portal back to the surface world (let’s say it’s a somewhat drawn out process at first that takes some time to fully go into effect ) before they can attack the wasp worshipping princess .. and it quite possibly gives them a motivation to return to the Land Below .. or the players could just laugh it off with the typical “cannibal tribe”  jokes we’ve all heard before.   

But I’m getting ahead of myself as that stuff happens later on in the adventure.. there's a fight scene right from the very start as soon as the PC's descend the stairs into the Land Below    with a carnivorous plant - yep, in the Living Land even the plants want to eat you.   As I mentioned previously there is, once again, no battle map presented for this.... for players and GM's who want a map a quick google search on my end turned up the excellent "Precipitous Stairs Battlemap" by a user named alcem on deviantart (just do a search on google using those words) but if his map is not available by the time you read this review a simple google search using the words "stairs map rpg" should turn up something you can use.. I was impressed with the neat looking map giving the overall topography of the " center of the earth" area the PC's find themselves in , in terms of providing a broad overview of where the PC's need to travel.  Again here's the link in case it actually works

https://www.deviantart.com/alecm/art/Precipitous-Stairs-Battlemap-847368011 

Once again there's no battlemap provided for the spiders attacking from the trees the PC's have to deal with next when rescuing the "leopard prince" (it would have been helpful for the writers to immediately reference page 87 of the adventure as soon as the prince is mentioned not only for his stats but also to make it clear he's not really some sort of leapord-human hybrid as one might expect in the fantastical world at the center of the earth, but rather a member of a tribe that dresses like and reveres leopards).. I was surprised to note there were a large number of results if you do a google search for "forest map spider web rpg" on google.. in particular if you do a google search using the words "reddit np3b8c forest spider encounter JonathanWantsToDie" it turns up a battlemap that I thought would serve particularly well (and yes that really is Jonathan's username on reddit it looks like - no judgment here he makes great maps! )  .. and here's the link

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/np3b8c/forestspider_encounter/

I enjoyed the write up of the adventures the PC's will face in this middle-earth world .. the player handout in the form of the child Kathy's journal is a nice touch (though players may justifiably wonder how it is that a child is so good at decoding languages , something that seems to be a common theme in this adventure see the notes on the storm knight captured in the dimthread tree above)... I suppose as a GM you could just hand wave it and say the child is naturally just really, really good with languages and picks up on understanding them very quickly a sort of natural prodigy.    

There's another fight scene dramatically enough on the river the PC's end up paddling down in their canoes ... a google search for "jungle river battle map" turns up a variety  of maps you can pick and choose from, or using the search term "river battle map" yields still greater results .. the problem with said maps is that the carnivorous plant life that wants to eat the PC's this time is described as dangling from treetops above which can't really be clearly represented on the map without blocking the view of what's going on below given the typical "overhead view" of maps so the GM will have to ad lib here to a certain extent (though I would imagine PC's tangled in the tentacle's plant life's clutches until they break free would result in the PC simply being "frozen" on a part of the map so the GM could just say the PC's happen to be stuck wherever the GM or players put the canoe at the start of combat).. I found myself very confused by the plants stats and description which states they attack from the trees overhead but then goes on to say part of the plant attacker's body is submerged underwater .. while I suppose it's possible the plant is REALLY long and has extended it's tentacles from below the water up around and through the trees above , though if this really is the case I wish the writers had done a better job of explaining this... in which case you'd want to do a google search for "jungle river narrow gorge rpg map" for a suitable "thin" stretch of river where the PC's canoes are forced to come up alongside the trees these plants have intertwined themselves in .... here's a link to one map that might work as long as you can convince the PC's not to disembark the boats and follow the paths indicated on the map (which worst case scenario as GM you could simply declare eventually dead-end to some statue erected to any one of the animals the tribes around here hold sacred.. leopard statue for the leopard tribe, wasp statue for the wasp tribe, serpent statue for the serpent tribe, volcano statue for the volcano tribe .. you could explain the statues of tribes that are normally far away from this part of the Land Below where the PC's are at right now as being signs of aggression erected by persons of that tribe that the leopard tribe hasn't gotten around to demolishing yet ) 

https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/dxlqfr/river_crossing_jungle_battle_map_30x30/

another possibility is to just ignore the submerged body part entirely for simplicity's sake and to avoid possible player confusion   .. given that the canoes will obviously move from place to place on the map you would next want to do a google search for "canoe map token rpg" so you have a canoe token you can move around on the map (there's two canoes the PC's can split themselves up amongst)... if he still has his post up at the time I write this review a google search of "limithron patreon posts 50429946 boats rafts and canoes" turns up some boat tokens including a canoe he has thoughtfully made available as a free download.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/boats-raft-and-50429946

Once the PC's finally get to the adventuring explorer, core earther spencer, they are meant to rescue there's a wonderfully politically tangled scene which one probably wouldn't see coming (I certainly didn't) given in mind the leopard prince and his people are described as as tribal, almost primal, in nature .. the PC's are expected to first engage in non-lethal ritual combat with champions of the wasp-worshipping tribe that has captured the explorer (it's made clear that given the literally thousands of people in the wasp worshipping tribe - all present , watching the PCs - that the PC's come across that they will be overwhelmed if they simply try to use brute force to overcome their foes - I would if necessary let the PC's make a ridiculously low Mind roll , difficulty number 2, if a player states they're going to use such strong-arm tactics in order to point out the obvious - stating the DN number out loud for the players should drive home the point they are outgunned)..

 …an apologetic leopard prince then stands next to the apparent princess of the wasp worshipping tribe making it clear that he's cemented peace between the two tribes in a marriage .. but also making it clear he can no longer openly help the PC's who have come to rescue Spenser given that Spenser is clearly meant to be a sacrifice to the giant wasp the wasp tribe worships... yet the honorable leopard prince has made it clear he won't abandon the PCs completely .. he has already quietly whispered to the PCs that they need to make for the cliff wall behind the temple when "the time comes" ... the PC's are presumably prompted to do this when .. personally speaking as a GM I would change the description from "dozens" to "hundreds" of villagers chasing the PC's lest the players think " it's only 24 villagers we can take them" ... howl in outrage and start chasing the PCs when the PC's make off with the intended sacrifice, spenser... ready and waiting are the leopard prince's men hiding in foliage growing on the cliff wall who urge the PCs into wicker baskets intended to drag the PC's up the cliff face to safety (no doubt the leopard prince will explain it away as "rebellious factions within his tribe" to the outraged priestess of the wasp worshipping tribe - given it's made clear that the leopard prince's new bride already know and are probably in love with each other no doubt she'll not only forgive him but also eventually appeal to her people to "make peace with my new husband's tribe" - not that this does the PC's any good right now ... 

Of course the champions the Pc's fought earlier respond with anger flying at the PC's on their wasp mounts .. on top of which the gigantic (even more so than the already big wasp mounts the attacking wasp tribe warriors are using - the adventure describes the queen wasp as the size of a double decker bus meaning the "normal" giant wasps are - let's say horse sized? )  queen wasp the tribe obviously worships joins the battle after a few rounds... at this point the writers of the adventure seem to assume that the players will stop and wonder " If I kill this giant wasp will this create problems with the political alliance between the two tribes, leopard and wasp worshipping?  Could this break up the peace that's just been cemented between the two tribes?".. I would give the PC's a low (difficulty number 4) Mind roll for this to occur to them but honestly, between leopard prince's recent betrayal (although you might want to point out to the players that he DID arrange for an escape for the PC's .. no doubt small comfort to the players given the PC's still have to run AND fight for their lives in the process) and the fact the PC's are in a life and death combat the political situation they are leaving behind might be the last thing on their mind not to mention taking down a giant wasp with non lethal combat could be an impossible demand.. while the adventure does make it clear on a successful science or scholar skill check for anyone who actually expresses concern about this  …..personally as a GM I would just automatically make the roll for any such intellectual PCs within the group regardless of whether or not they express concern …  that one of the other giant wasps (like the mounts along with their riders the PC's are fighting right now!) will within a month's time morph into a new queen wasp solving the problem ... honestly speaking as a GM I wouldn't truly expect even the most heroic minded PC's to be worried about this at the time although if any PC actually tries to engage in non lethal conbat with the wasp or otherwise non lethally shoo it away I would immediately award that PC at least two possibilities on the spot for his or her effort (s/he's going to need it during the queen giant wasp fight scene) 

Here's one map possibility for the cliff battle though the GM will have to adjust the narrative text description to state that the thousands of wasp tribe people are spread between the two cliffs in this map and of course some PC will no doubt get the bright idea of cutting the bridge to prevent some of the villagers from attacking.. in that case I would point out to the PC's that half of thousands of villagers still leaves thousands of villagers. 

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/368802657000509137/

and here are some other possibilities

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/3096293483421312/

https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/7v7wp3/art_camp_on_the_cliff_battle_map_free_to_steel/

While the players might be annoyed at the PC's having to do a retreating battle instead of simply clobbering the offending wasp warriors and queen and standing their ground, hopefully the players will immediately come to the same conclusion I did.. being on the run from overwhelming numbers of an angry howling tribe out for your blood is a classic staple of the Indiana Jones movies and the edgar rice burroughs novels the living land draws it's inspiration from and I thoroughly enjoyed the write up of this part of the adventure speaking from a GM perspective.    Even as a player I would appreciate it.  

The next section of the adventure... volcano/fire worshipping humans ... left me (no pun intended) a bit cold and I can see how players might start to get annoyed at the "part two" as far as having to get through the stated goals to get out of the Land Below (or as I've been calling it so far "the land at the center of the earth - technical Torg Eternity term though is Land Below) though once they've played through enough of this part of the adventure I can see them having a change of heart and (hopefully) enjoying it ... though I did like how they fleshed out the personality of the explorer, Spenser, the PC's have successfully rescued - of course Spenser needs to rescue his kids and, as mentioned previously, while this hopefully alone would be enough motivation for the PC's who are supposed to be the good guys, it's also the only way to get a hold of various mystical/spiritual items that will open a portal leading the PC's back to the land above (the surface world of Earth where they PC's came from in the first place) ... the part about the slave uprising was pretty neat although I can see players possibly getting annoyed at once again being outnumbered by far too many hostile tribal humans if they try to simply bash their way in ... sneaky PC's who specialize in disguise, acting and so forth however will definitely have players who appreciate this moment to shine.   

Of course sneaking only gets you so far and there's the inevitable battle which (of course) takes place on a temple literally suspended next to the edge of a volcano (while the priestly tribal human inhabitants can cast miracles that help them resist the heat on themselves, possibly their followers if memory serves me correctly, the PC's may very well have no such advantage which poses an additional challenge) ... the description of the metal bridges leading to this area of the battle between the PC's and the volcano worshipping priestess/champions of the tribe was to be a bit confusing, at one point the metal bridges are described as too hot walk over, at another point described as cool enough to walk over.. as a GM I would just hand wave it and say that through some miracle spellcasting type thing the priestess of the volcano (interestingly enough a thoroughly evil individual that Barak Kaah's darkness device has it's eye on as a possible successor to the darkness device should Kaah fail) can do in order to cool the bridges enough for her and her minions to walk on it which would make sense given it's a holy area for them... as it turns out the volcano really is alive in a sense and can spawn beings made of fire which the PC's, of course, will also have to fight.    

 

I was both surprised and disappointed that there are no stats provided for Spenser nor his children which seems like a big oversight and I'm still scratching my head wondering why stats were provided for the doctor the PC's encounter at the military encampment at the start of the adventure but stats for NPC's who can and will probably be involved in combat/dangerous situations alongside the PC's were neglected... at this point I would direct GM's to the pay what you want Day One Torg Eternity adventure and use the professor provided among the pregenerated characters in the Living Land portion of that book as a rough template which the GM will have to further adjust ... the writers don't make it clear if Spenser is reality rated or not though I'm inclined to say that he is not, just a highly skilled Ord who has been lucky enough not to disconnect so far... while it's obvious Spenser and his kids are really meant more as plot devices stats for them would still have been very helpful. 

The next part of the adventure where the PC's emerge from the portal back onto the "surface world" was both fascinating and frustrating at the same time.. I absolutely love the concept of the PC's having to travel along a series of wrecked boats that have literally being turned on their side in Lake Michigan given the wake of destruction in the possibility wars/invasion of earth... but this is the kind of thing where a map provided by the writers would REALLY have come in handy especially for the surprise attack launched by the savage fish-people of another cosm Kaah subjugated in an earlier conquest ... as one might expect even a google search with the search terms "wrecked boat on it's side rpg map" makes it difficult to turn up anything useful so the GM might be forced into simply explaining to possibly disappointed/annoyed players there is no battle map for this fight ... this becomes particularly troublesome when you get to the point where you say the fish folk were hiding in ambush to attack the PC's and you can't say exactly WHERE the fish folk were hiding on the map because there is none and I can see player (justifiably) getting annoyed when they ask for a map that better illustrates what happened only to be told there is none.   If you're lucky enough for his post to still be up by the time you read this review and (hopefully) purchase and run this adventure, if you do a google search for "limithron capsized galleon prg map" this should turn up the free preview limithron thoughtfully provides which includes a ship that appears to be lying on it's side .. even this map doesn't really depict the scenario described by the writers in the adventure which is a wonderfully written battle scene - if only there was a map to go along with it!  (honestly I consider myself fortunate that there was even a single capsized boat map available online I could find never mind one that's close to the scenario the writers are describing - thanks again Limithron)

https://www.limithron.com/capsized-galleon

look for the download free version red button in the link above

I should point out as well that while I've been making a big point of maps I do realize not all GM's and players need a battle map and some are just fine with it being "purely narrative" not having to know the exact location of PC's and enemies alike during combat - a large number of GM's and players do however find this useful, especially if you're taking advantage of the many wonderful online tools for gaming - like say Roll20 which Torg Eternity has partnered with or Fantasy Grounds which has it's own Torg Community section and so forth .. combined with skype, discord or what have you voice chat options it's more than possible for gamers to leverage the power of their computers for game night.. of course this means you miss out on the fun of being together in person at the gaming table if that's an option for you and I do realize there are GM's who can and will pay to have a print copy of a map made that's hopefully high enough in resolution to work for players or who simply have a wipe-down grid map with erasable marker that they use possibly with detailed terrain pieces they buy - mind you given the nature of torg eternity and the many areas you'll be fighting in you will spend a minor fortune on said terrain pieces ...... honestly I think online gaming instead is more the wave of the future but that's a whole another discussion.

The PC's next run into the owner of the removed edeinos tail they stumbled across earlier after defeating the fish folk.. an angrily defiant and dying edeinos warrior who serves as the next "info dump" , happily telling the PC's everything they need to know to move on to the next part of the adventure .. interestingly the writers have accounted for the possibility of sympathetic and kind hearted PC's befriending her... GM's could go with the account of her written here where even if she's healed whether through miracles or more mundane means or even just has her wounds attended to that she's so "hardcore" in her fanaticism that it's very unlikely (though possible) she will become an ally of the PC's.. personally as a GM I would have her moan and complain and initially refuse help from the "weak humans" snarling she'd rather die than accept their help, try to get up snarling she's going to go somewhere else where they can't bother her.. then scream in pain and fall down obviously having made her wounds even worse by the effort... I would follow this by a confused warrior asking exactly why is it they're trying to help her, listen thoughtfully to the answer, follow with the angrily defiant exposition dump.. but have her hesitate before she says it obviously confused by the PC's actions then obviously hesitate confused again when she gets to the part where she says she's eagerly looking forward to the PC's downfall because all humans are weak.. " but then " I would have her add in confusion " You survived... you survived the ones who have killed me, just more slowly than I would like.. and you killed them yes?  The fish-faced ones?"  she weakly gestures beyond the PC's.. " then .. you fear me so little that you try to heal me?   Instead of killing me?   That is bravery unlike any I have ever heard of.... but.. humans are weak.... you are .. not human perhaps?  Just look human?"  she gazes questioningly at the PC's..

This is also a great opportunity for the GM using the edeinos as a mouthpiece to go into more detail about her  and the adventure in general as well as edeinos society, enthusiastically recounting how the "weaklings" from many other worlds have fallen prey to Barak Kaah's forces, the weak devour the strong, many of her people have become "weak" and question the mighty barak kaah's rule and this simply will not do, she can sing the praises of her beloved leader Malacryx the priestess and how she will marry Kaah and together they will conquer earth and many worlds to follow.. of course she should say all of this before she obviously starts to question herself and her motivations in life thanks to the PC's efforts,  starting out with hatred for the “soft” humans then winding down with confusion and uncertainty.   Again the Living Land sourcebook comes in very handy here and the GM should read the write-up of Barak Kaah, edeinos culture and the information on the various edeinos tribes presented there, using the dying edeinos as a way to convey this information to the PC’s.

I absolutely loved the next part of the adventure.. crazed human death cultists who, while they haven't yet transformed to the Living Land reality, are influenced enough by it's law of savagery (detailed in the Living land sourcebook) to the point where they think it's perfectly sane to blast heavy metal music by way of worship to the "thing beneath the deep" that the fish folk - and apparently now the crazed human death cultists - worship .. I got a huge chuckle out of how the writers even have a "heavy metal" (they strike me more as alternative music but I thought it was a great choice well suited to the adventure) band Dokken they suggest that the GM can use to blast music at the players in real life around the gaming table when the PC’s have to scale the building the cultists are on for a rooftop fight if the players go the "sneaky" route and respond to the obvious hints of climbing the balconies of adjacent buildings until they get to the part where they can climb up the roof from behind the cultists who appear to be looking towards the front of the building overlooking the water ... no doubt due to the human sacrifices they have dangling towards the water (tied up by a hodgepodge of electrical cords, ties and rope) screaming for help - I would assume the cultists are hollering above the sound of the music they are blasting " Great lord of the deep come to us!  Take your sacrifices from your devoted worshippers!" or something to that effect... although this isn't mentioned in the adventure I would go so far as to say through trial and error the cultists have discovered what living land plants they can get high off of (after the deaths of several cultists who experimented with the wrong plants) and are stoned out of their mind .. describe their bloodshot glazed eyes , drooling mouths and how they spout and gibber nonsense as they attack the PC's - give them let's say a -2 penalty on their attack rolls and have the PC's discover the foul smelling stash of plants that smells just like the breath of their presumably now dead attackers (let's assume their leader," cheddar" has enough presence of mind not to get high however).. 

(see also my upcoming review of the fires of ra where I briefly mention the possibility of  streaming youtube music on skype or discord voice chat programs .. but a google search of how to do this should turn up suitable options for your gaming group should you be an online group)

There is of course no battle map for the rooftop but a google search for "reddit Bobourstoutcool rooftop in city modern " will hopefully turn up a wonderful rooftop map that said user has thoughtfully provided for free .. though the GM will have to use some sort of drawing tool as I could find no maps online that depict a rooftop scenario and show it right next to the waterfront worst case scenario the GM can download irfanview and use the crude paint/draw tool - click on edit then show paint dialog .. irfanview is perfectly safe by the way I've been using it for over a decade with no problem  .. and use the paintbrush function to paint one side of the map blue for a clumsy depiction of the waterfront. 

https://www.reddit.com/user/Bobourstoutcool/comments/mqv5tm/rooftop_in_city_modern/

The battle comes to an abrupt and darkly humorous end when the tentacled horror from the deep shows up and devours the very same cultists that were trying to worship it before taking off and leaving the PC's alone.. for now, the Pc's may or may not have to fight it later on.. curiously enough the adventure doesn't say if the unwilling sacrifices were also taken by the tentacled horror though given the adventure makes it clear it takes a darkly comedic turn I would assume the horror leaves it's "meal" the unwilling sacrifices alone (maybe it gets full on the cultists? There are a lot of them) .. 

…the adventure doesn't go into any detail whatsoever on the unwilling sacrifices which was something I found annoying but I'm sure a GM can ad-lib off the top of his or her head real life versions of core earthers... bob the garbage collector, martha the accountant and ed the paper company salesman for example who are no doubt tearfully grateful ....GM's who have the time can write up background stories where they tearfully recount the stories of friends and family members - all dead - either drowning by flooding, heroic friends and family members pushing the surviving NPC's  ahead of them up a staircase before being overwhelmed by the flooding waters.. only to have more of the NPC's that were alive at the time die at the hands of either the fish folk or the tentacled horror from the deep ... GM's who have enough time could google something like " what's it like living in Chicago" and probably find some quora answer that can help add some more "flavor" .. the grateful NPC's could also mournfully talk about taking loved ones/friends up to Willis Tower and how it's now obviously flooded even to a casual observer from the outside along with the rest of chicago (the lower parts of buildings anyways)... obviously the NPC's should have nothing but bitter hatred towards the "lizard men and their dinosaurs" that let's say they caught footage of on TV before satellites and internet alike went down - see page 10 living land sourcebook .. and the NPC's equally curse the "fish folk that the lizards brought with them" 

(PC's who bothered to ask the dying edeinos they encountered earlier on should be aware that the fish folk are apparently not allied with Barak kaah and his invaders given that they killed one of his warriors the edeinos - not that this would make much of a difference to the shell shocked and grieving survivors)...

…  of course this raises the question as to what to do with these survivors ... to make things easier for the PCs the GM could simply declare that the crazed human cultists stockpiled enough supplies for the NPC's to survive for now at least.. even if the players remember to ask the delphi council if rescuers can be sent to collect these NPC survivors the delphic council may come to the cold hearted but practical conclusion that it's simply not worth the risk of rescuers dying at the hands of the tentacled horror below unless a helicopter can be flown in to land on the building the survivors are at (if the PC's insist later on the delphi council may very well give in despite it's limited resources given the huge victory the PC's - hopefully - pull off at the end of this adventure)... this is also an opportunity for romantic interest and/or NPC friends the PC's can make depending on how much time the GM wants to spend writing them up - or GMs who don't have the time can simply say the NPC sacrifices get eaten along with the death cultists but this undermines the humor of the tentacled horror going after just the cultists and will no doubt annoy players who enjoy the role of rescuing hero  .. the adventure mentions the unnamed building where all of this takes - not that the PC's haven't reached willis tower yet see below that’s a different building - is a core earth hardpoint but gives no reason why this is the case except for perhaps the reality storm it mentions having previously taken place (though the PC’s aren’t going to be aware of that at the time unless the GM wants to make it obvious.. left over storm clouds crackling with blue and red energy still floating around here and there though even this may leave a PC clueless who doesn’t know yet red and blue are the signature marks of possibility energy) ... the torg core rules book does clearly state that things like the loch ness monster or bigfoot are alive and real on core earth even prior to the possibility wars and the dimensional invaders changing the axioms of conquered areas so I guess the tentacled horror from the deep would be able to survive in even a core earth hardpoint area.   

I absolutely loved the inclusion of willis tower ("sears tower") - normally a landmark and popular destination for persons living in or visiting Chicago in "real life".. becoming a partially ruined, swamped, version of itself filled with rot and debris that floated in from the flooded area that Chicago has now become, which I also thought was neat and given that the players can at least visualize what "real life" Chicago - or any major city - is like it should, hopefully, make an impression on them ...I enjoyed how there's so many of the tentacled horror's spawn in willis tower that climbing the tower through the pile of debris that's been pushed into a makeshift "staircase " becomes a dramatic skill check since fighting the spawn is impossible.. and then things get confusing ... the book refers the GM to page 86 for their stats, you go to their stats and .. no stats for the spawn just the monster... while I admire  enjoy and tremendously appreciate the torg eternity writers and the books they've created this is the first time in any prepublished adventure I've ever read Torg or otherwise where stats for a monster the PC's may have to fight are simply not included.. a workaround is to just give the spawn the same attack and damage as the tentacled horrors tentacles but this is still a huge oversight in my opinion.. 

From here the storm knight PC's need to fight - and possibly encounter for the first time - the edeinos death-worshipping followers of Tharkmoss ... the fight with the Tharkmoss avatar as far as one of it's three skeletal heads staring at a wound suffered then reconstructing it ("healing" it if such a term can be used for the undead) seems a bit unfair in that it may not occur to players to target all three of it's heads in order to "kill" it.. if the players don't figure this out after say the first round of combat I would simply state on the next successful combat attack the damage strikes one of the heads - and point out to the PC's that they notice the damage to the heads does not automatically "heal" itself.   

As far as the potential info dump provided on the ustannah… while I understand the need to make PC's with the scholar skill actually be able to benefit from that skill - indeed players who take this skill should be rewarded with useful info on a regular basis in my opinion as it's a great way for the GM to drop plot hooks/hints in the PCs path.. .players may, understandably, be confused that their use of the scholar skill as stated in the adventure at this point turns up info on the Living Land that one might argue would be known only either to some natural inhabitant of the Living Land cosm (edeinos for example) or known only due to long exposure to said inhabitants ... if I was the GM here I would declare to PC's who successfully make that scholar check that they recall documents written on this that they encountered based on interviews with the friendly edeinos who wandered into the military encampment the PC's went to at the start of the adventure ... this is where the living land cosm sourcebook comes in handy particularly page 73 where it mentions that bloodthirsty rabid edeinos preists incited hatred towards the other race, the insectoid ustannah, that used to live in the cosm Kaah and his edeinos come from (Takta Ker) before the edeinos wiped them out due to the ustannah's use of "dead things" despite the ustannah having no wish to fight the edeinos nor take any hostile action against them ... I would have a sorrowful edeinos who is aware of not only this but Kaah's hostility and plundering of other cosms and the edeinos declares in the military encampment report s/he's simply had enough .. especially given that a lot of edeinos, like this one, believe that Lanala's preservation of lost pockets of conquered civilizations (the law of wonders referenced in the living land sourcebook) represents Lanala's sorrow over the extermination of an entire race (ustannah) that did not seek war with the edeinos to begin with... see also pages 73-74 of the living land cosm sourcebook which flat out states that many edeinos want nothing to do with Kaah's possibility wars, attacking other cosms for their possibility energy and so forth and whom simply want to live peaceful lives following the tenets of lanala's religion.

The PC's get temporarily waylaid on their next trip through the dimthread tree,  resulting in another exposition info dump, this time by kaah's darkness device itself gloating at the PC's .. .the problem is the writers assume the PC's are familiar with what a darkness device is and it's role in the possibility wars.. personally as a GM I would add more to the narrative depicted here.. here’s what I would propose instead…

… the PC's should have a vision of Kaah finding the darkness device in the form of a spear (see the living land cosm sourcebook for Kaah and the darkness device's history), the spear increasing Kaah's power considerably making him stronger and faster than before, Kaah literally becoming taller and practically bulging with muscles in front of the PC's eyes as the vision unfolds  ... I would go so far as to show Kaah single handedly tearing apart a triceratops with his bare hands .. if you go with my suggestion as to how everyone can literally see the different paths unfolding before a possibility rated character the PC's see two versions of Kaah branch out from before him, one where Kaah is bitten in half by the triceratops, another where kaah dodges - obviously kaah lunges towards the path where he dodges getting bitten in half, followed by another two branching paths where kaah fails to grab the triceratops horns and the triceratops bites his face off.. and the other path where kaah grabs the horns and literally rips the triceratops head apart in two halves thanks to his grip on the horns.. the PC's can see the spear strapped to Kaah's back crackling with energy as he does this making it obvious the spear is adding it's own force (spending possibilities on Kaah's behalf in addition to the possibility  Kaah spent - see page 219 of the torg core rules book which states a darkness device can spend a possibility on it's high lords behalf at the same time the high lord is spending a possibility from his own "stockpile" of possibilities ) which you could depict as the darkness device sending waves of visible energy tinged with blue and red sparks that the PC’s somehow sense are bolstering Kaah’s reality bending powers even further ... note as well kaah's strength score of 18 on page 67 of the living land cosm sourcebook  … even if you say the darkness device bumped it up from say 13 to 15 at this early stage in Kaah's career, in combination with 2 possibilities being spent on a single attack roll  I would argue this could easily allow for Kaah to savagely kill the triceratops with a single attack especially if the darkness device temporarily loaned Kaah it's own unarmed combat skill as per page 219 of the torg core rules - let''s say something ridiculous enough to get kaah's unarmed combat total up to 24 even before spending the two possibilities ... show in the vision how Kaah rips the rest of the triceratops head off the hapless dinosaur and shakes it triumpahantly in front of his fellow edeinos who howl in triumph and start to chant Kaah's name,the beginning of Kaah's rule... 

…after that show Kaah invading a cosm/world disturbingly similar to earth's but with more advanced technology - lets say all electric cars, no pollution, no hungry starving children or homeless on the streets, fabricators in every home that produce any item the inhabitants need like food, clothing, and so forth, money has been done away with entirely as a concept and people do the jobs they enjoy out of a desire to contribute to society not out of a need for the money that no longer exists as a concept.. yes I  stole that from star trek but let's go with that anyways.. in the vision have the PC's see an earlier past  of this alternate world much like earth with it's corporate greed and war before the "rise of the young people"... that world's youth mobilized in a spirit of cooperation and empathy, wily older politicians tried to capture the voting block of the young people only to discover to their dismay skilled hackers and technology specialists within the young people's ranks recorded and exposed said politicians hypocritical double dealings with corrupt money hungry businesses, publishing their double dealings on the internet... young people were elected into office more and more frequently until they dominated this world's politics ... perhaps most tellingly the PC's can see the crackle of red and blue energy .. the same possibility energy the GM should have manifest around the PC's whenever they have spent a possibility in the past.. the difference is the young people seem unaware of this red and blue colored energy but still, every time the young people take actions like this.. the world literally evolves into a better place thanks to the young people's belief that it can be that way .. and it's then that the PC's realize that this is what creates possibility energy - the ordinary person's belief that things can and should work a certain way, said energy channeled by ordinary people into ways that literally shape the world – in this case a highly socially and technologically advanced world that makes the best use of both assets in a compassionate manner.   The principles established by these young people live on centuries later as technology advances to the point where the fabricators, electric cars and so forth are constructed.

Of course given this vision is being granted by a darkness device the PC's should sense the darkness device's hatred of this optimistic and hopeful world.. the PC's should see Barak Kaah and  his edeinos warriors land bridges of living vegetation just like they did in earth except in this new world... as the warriors spread through the world planting their primitive stelae, the PC's should see the darkness device - Kaah's spear.. hungrily soaking up the same possibility energy  that let this world evolve into a better place from the planted stelae.. the people of the invaded world fight back with the emergency stockpile of laser weapons they have kept in storage - and lose.   The PC's should see an edeinos standing sorrowfully over the bodies of the humans-of-this-other-world women and children he killed,  the mother having begged for her children's lives just moments before, reluctantly killing them on the orders of his leader (not Kaah the oldest edeinos with them that all the other edeinos defer to since he is also the mightiest warrior among that particular group).. and when the edeinos complains that this was a dishonorable fight against ones who couldn't possibly cause one to live for the thrill of the hunt the way edeinos are supposed to the sorrowful edeinos is backhanded and left sprawling on the ground by his leader , his fellow edeinos laughing sibilantly at the one they now call "weakling".. realizing too late how corrupted his people have become, the sorrowful edeinos deserts the war, comes home and tells his story to the gathered children and elderly of his tribe (assume the warriors of the tribe are all gone fighting with Kaah) .. the elders of his tribe comfort him and declare they will have nothing to do with Kaah's further invasions.. that moment spreads and evolves into  a movement of edeinos who , while willing to cross the bridges kaah establishes into other realities, refuse to attack those they encounter in such worlds.. an enraged Kaah wants to exterminate them but his darkness device soothes Kaah, pointing out that their mere presence enforces the reality of the Living Land in the worlds being invaded whether his peace loving dissidents realize it or not.     Besides, points out the darkness device soothingly to Kaah, such rebellious edeinos are a minority .. the  PC's can feel the darkness device smirking in their minds and abruptly realize the darkness device is lying to Kaah, there are far greater numbers of these rebels than Kaah realizes.  Again see page 74 of the Living Land sourcebook where it states Kaah would be shocked if he realized how many edeinos question his rule although as the godnet adventure book states at the beginning Kaah's would be bride Malacryx appears to be fully aware of this and tells Kaah prior to the events of the adventure taking place.

While the PCs wouldn't know this page 213 of the torg core rules states that darkness devices can and will abandon their high lords if they feel they can find a better candidate elsewhere and persons who have read the darkness device write ups in the various cosm sourcebooks will note that the darkness devices in those sourcebooks sometimes are written up as eyeing various candidates other than their current high lords should the darkness device decide that the current high lord isn't up to snuff (indeed the godnet book mentions the evil priestess of the volcano worshipping tribe in the Land Below was one potential candidate Kaah’s darkness device was eyeing should it become displeased with Kaah – though note also in the darkness device’s writeup in the Living Land it states that so far it’s not displeased with Kaah – something that might change if the PC’s successfully complete the final goal at the end of this mission? Up to the GM on that one).... see also  the tharkold sourcebook where that high lord's darkness device not only abandoned him, the darkness device offered itself up as "up for grabs" to either Thratchen, Jezabel or Volkov gleefully noting the destruction and misery the resulting three way war started - something the darkness device feeds on.. if the GM likes the GM could have Kaah's darkness device flat out show a vision of all these going ons in the Tharkold portion of earth  to the PC's to make it perfectly clear to the PC's that the darkness device's true allegiance is to despair and destruction, not it's current high lord..which is one reason why the darkness device is showing all of this to the PC’s.. the darkness device is smugly certain the PC’s couldn’t foil the darkness device’s plans anyways and lets the PC’s know this but, says the darkness device with a mental shrug of it’s shoulders, if the PC’s succeed by some miracle anyways.. well, maybe the darkness device should start looking to transfer itself to a high lord other than Kaah.. like it’s done many times in the past centuries.  

Follow this up with a modified version of the vision presented in the book by the writers where Kaah and his bride Malacryx succeed in capturing Lanala herself, the goddess all edeinos revere, in the godbox.. the shaken edeinos who used to rebel against Kaah come to the conclusion that if the goddess they've worshipped their entire lives is now subservient to Kaah then Kaah must effectively be their new god  - Kaah was right all along .   Edeinos tribes who were "on the fence" neither supporting nor opposing Kaah align themselves with Kaah, the peace loving edeinos who try to protest and fight Kaah nonetheless are slaughtered by the many formerly undecided edeinos who flock to Kaah's side and the newly united army under Kaah steamroll over America, Canada and Mexico converting the entire area to the Living Land reality and murdering every last human in those countries - it's complete and utter genocide.   

… the vision should end with the  PC's feeling the darkness device's smug certainty that it shows this to the PC's being fully convinced there is nothing the PC's can do to alter this course of events.. Lest the players become too discouraged give each PC a Mind roll with a ridiculously low difficulty number, let's say 2 .. upon passing this Mind check the PC's realize there's something the darkness device left out, something Quinn Sebastian briefed them and every other storm knight on.. refilling the conquered areas of earth with tales of hope... hope being another form of belief, belief now being what the PC's realize are a form of possibility energy ... and then ripping stelae out of those conquered areas, resulting in the transformed citizens of earth not dying as they transform back to core earth reality (something else they remember Quinn going over with them) ... cuts off the flow of possibility energy to a darkness device.. if the PC's can pull this off enough times they can remove Kaah's hold over the areas he's invaded completely simply by doing what they're doing right now... being good guys, saving the day... and making sure their tales get spread, refilling the people of earth with hope and preparing them for the day when Kaah's stelae are ripped from the zones they've been planted in lest the possibility energy get ripped out from them a second time when the stelae are removed resulting in certain PC death (the darkness device is VERY smug about this, showing the PC visions of horrified storm knights who had no idea this was going to happen and who doomed all the people they were trying to rescue in the process).  

Everything "goes black" for the PC's after that .. they wake up in Mexico and have to rescue a Mexican village - this by the way gives a wonderful insight into the reaction of somewhere other than the united states to Kaah's invasion and how the people are suffering as a result.. there’s a cartel leader who is exploiting the sad state of affairs following the invasion to his own ends... and there's a wonderful scene with an eternity shard literally calling the PC's mentally/spiritually to war much in keeping with the Mayan warrior culture of Mexico from centuries ago - albeit a big possibility shard, making transportation of it doable but difficult  yet necessary - that the PC's can  potentially tap possibilities from to help them fight the bandits.. the writer's assume that the PC's go to the trouble of lugging this big eternity shard statue with them on a truck to the final fight against Kaah's bride to be at the dramatic conclusion of the adventure, particularly given that after the PC's rescue the villagers from the criminal cartel boss and his henchmen the grateful villagers - and several police officers held hostage by said cartel boss - volunteer to fight along the PC's, basically creating the distraction the PC's will need later on (see  below) .. the eternity shard is also capable of creating a mixed core earth zone/other reality (living land in this case) area allowing the helpful villagers/formerly captive police force to not transform over to the living land and lose their access to those useful guns, vehicles and other technological implements they have

….  note page 224 of the torg core rules which states the 3 possibilities the eternity shard provides for the PC’s to tap are "reset" at the beginning of each act and the final fight against Kaah's would be bride represents a different act in and by itself .. while   3 possibilities makes sense compared to the more powerful eternity shards that have more possibilities (see pages 223-227 of the torg core rulebook) , if i was the GM here I would increase that to possibilities equal to the number of PC’s as a one time situation for the sake of this adventure (see below) ... although the core rules don't state this one way or the other specifically for drama's sake I wouldn't  limit the possibilities being tapped to one attempt per PC per round for the entire party of PC’s, rather letting all interested PC's make an attempt to tap a possibility each round - I would go so far as to make the statue "mark" each PC with his/her own possibility and the PC somehow knows they can't call on a second possibility for the rest of that act - it's been earmarked for another PC (unless the PC voluntarily surrenders it to a particular PC, say the PC who has to engage in a reality storm with kaah's would be bride at the dramatic conclusion of the adventure) .. although the PC’s should technically only be able to tap the eternity shard’s possibilities once after encountering it before the adventure is over since the final, dramatic scene that ends the adventure is part of the same act I would be tempted to , should the PC’s tap a possibility earlier than this (which players might understandably do if presented with this “shiny brand new toy” for the first time), I would let the statue “refresh early” for the final fight against Malacryx and her warriors (see below) bearing in mind it’s crucial for the chosen Storm Knight to succeed in that reality storm against Malacryx – that storm knight is going to need those possibilities!

I would also say that after the adventure the PC's can sense the statue "going to sleep" and have a vision the statue communicates to them of not "waking up" again until it's tapped by a brand new set of heroes .. other than the PC's... this prevents headaches for the GM in terms of having to deal with PC's who want to lug this statue-sized eternity shard around on ALL their missions in the future (and yes I know the PC’s are supposed to surrender all found eternity shards to the Delphi Council so it can be given to other NPC storm knights who need it even more.. somehow based on my previous experience as a GM I have a hard time believing the players will be happy about this and I would personally use this excuse for ALL eternity shards the PC’s come across in future adventures.. players may grumble but you can explain given the forces the eternity shards serve and that the shards are more or less sentient it would make sense that the shards would want to travel to wherever they’re needed and may feel that’s not going to be a place where the PC’s are all the time every time). 

At the risk of repeating myself, again I particularly liked this part of the adventure ... again it showcases the reactions of persons invaded by the Living Land and, in this case, how they are determined to fight back against the invaders... there's also a great scene after that where the PC's come across members of the edeinos goldsun tribe that follows Malacryx's orders mounted on triceratops literally herding transformed humans they intend to capture and use as slave labor ... a scene very much in keeping with the savage reality of the living land... the PC's presumably (and hopefully) rescue these transformed humans allowing them to add still more forces to the distraction effort that will let the PC's accompany their real goal... I was rather confused however at the speech the leader of the transformed humans, Deena, gives in that she say she was a  "ooh-enn" worker .. while I appreciate the writer's efforts to make it clear Deena is having a hard time holding on to her core earth memories I have no idea reading this what her core earth life job was though the part about her making medicine from the jungle offers a possible clue .. she was an " RN " worker maybe as in registered nurse in her former core earth life?   Or maybe “ON” for oncology?  

Again a more fully detailed write up of Deena would have been nice here - while you can use the standard transformed human stats given on page 86 for her, given the description of her in the adventure I would bump her charisma up from the standard 6 to 8 since she clearly takes a leadership role among her fellow transformed humans, give her two adds in persuasion and give her two adds in both first aid and medicine.  Incidentally if you’re looking for a picture of a blonde athletic “savage” woman or blonde cavewoman like the adventure describes her to be you may be out of luck .. google image search found results for “Mexican policeman” and “Mexican villager man” and “Mexican villager woman” without any problems but was totally lost trying to find an image that particular.  You might be better off going with “cavewoman stock photo” as a google search term and just adjust Deena’s stated appearance to suit the photo. 

It's worth noting there are no stats given for the core earth villagers/formerly captive policemen who end up following the PC's but given that they are meant to serve as a distraction while the PC's take care of the real threat - Malacryx - this is understandable though a GM could use the police officer and soldier (for the villagers) stats from page 266 of the torg core rules book.  Sadly there are no stats provided for Lupe and Eduardo..  Lupe is a child so perhaps that could be forgiven but Eduardo is described as a police officer who just transformed into a storm knight.. the GM screen and archetypes and the Delphi Council day one (both pay what you want titles) both give stats for a New York reality rated police officer that could with some modification work for Eduardo’s stats.

I'm mentioned the PC's new followers acting as distractions a few times now.. this could be a problem for the more conscientious PC's .. it’s obvious in the adventure that the PC’s new followers are meant to act as bait to draw away Barak Kaah himself so the PC’s can deal with the really dangerous threat, Malacryx, and rescue Lanala the goddess of the Living Land that Malacryx has managed to trap (in my opinion the writers really needed to go into more detail on WHY the godbox is powerful enough to trap a goddess .. I have some thoughts on that I’ll go into below).   While the writers try to contend with the possibility of the PC’s wanting to fight Kaah (which is suicide for the PC’s at their current experience point total/level ) , the writers advising the GM that s/he should advise the players that they need to deal with the captured Lanala first, I could easily see players – running their PC’s as the conscientious good guys they’re supposed to be – wanting to fight Kaah alongside their followers instead which results in adventure defeat as the triumphant Malacryx with no one to oppose her completely enslaves Lanala, word spreads and a united edeinos people under Kaah becomes even more dangerous than they were before.

At this point , if I was the GM, I would tell the PC’s that they can feel and sense the darkness device – Kaah’s spear – watching the PC’s despite the fact it has no eyes.. the same vision the PC’s had before that the darkness device assaulted them with should play clearly through the PC’s heads (hopefully the players remember enough of it such that a quick summary should jog their memories but it should be clear that the darkness device is smugly looking forward to Kaah cementing his rule over all the edeinos tribes and steamrolling over all American/Canadian/Mexican opposition in the process)… at this point I would give the PC’s another vision (yes I know lots of vision exposition dumps but I can’t think of a better way to make it clear to the PC’s what’s going on and.. hopefully.. keep this adventure from going completely off the rails).. the PC’s should feel the darkness device’s sudden anger and rage as it’s mental presence is pushed from the PC’s heads by another presence, one that radiates love, warmth and a general feeling of being nurtured, of living passionately and enjoying every sensation around you to it’s full extent… 

“Many, many years ago” says the voice.. “ So long ago even I do not remember… one of my children prayed to something.. anything.. that could hear her.. her children were about to be eaten, just like there father was…” the PC’s see an edeinos crying out to the sky above in the lush tropical jungle of the Living Land, shielding her frightened children – two smaller cowering edeinos- with her body as a vicious looking dinosaur finishes eating the body of another edeinos then turns it’s gaze onto the mother and her children… 

“There had been so many pleas before, crying and begging for help.. but this plea.. this was the final one that was needed .. for my children, however unknowingly at the time, to WILL me into being.. up until then I was some nameless creative force that had spawned them and the world around them but I had no mind, no personality .. until that very moment.”   The PC’s see the dinosaur stiffen .. then it’s attention turns to a smaller dinosaur in the distance that has stopped eating plants doing it’s best to creep away through the foliage .. despite the fact that the edeinos family would have been far easier prey the larger dinosaur roars and bounds after the smaller dinosaur and attacks it, clearly intent on devouring it.. the edeinos mother and her children run away.

“I named myself Lanala and made myself known to this mother.. I let her know that her prayers, and all the prayers before her, had created me.. for without the belief of my people in me I could not exist. She became my first priestess.”  The PC’s next see the mother excitedly telling her fellow edeinos what happened – quickly all the edeinos begin to worship Lanala.. the PC’s see Lanala growing stronger with their worship .. with loving care she grants them miracles to make them faster and stronger in combat or to heal their wounds or other miracles that help them survive better in the Living Land.

“Sometimes my children survived… sometimes they did not.   And though it grieved me every time one of them fell to the predators of the Living Land I knew that the balance was necessary.. without it my children would overrun even the vast resources of the Living Land.. much like your people of Earth seemed to be doing  to your ‘nature’ as you call it with your ‘deforestation’ and ‘depletion of the ozone layer’”.. the PC’s sense not disapproval.. but sorrow… from Lanala as she says this.   “But more often than not” continues Lanala “My children thrived, overcame their predators .. this went on for countless years.. we were happy.”

“And then IT came.”  The tender feeling of love vanishes for a moment replaced with bitter anger.. the PC’s see the darkness device fall to the ground in the Living Land in front of Kaah in the form of a spear.. they see again the vision before of Kaah using it to strengthen himself, to rob world after world of it’s possibilities.. the PC’s feel Lanala weeping as Kaah murders countless millions of inhabitants unable to muster a proper defense, growing stronger as he feasts off their possibility energy then contemptuously leaving their bodies behind to rot.   “The cycle was broken right there and then… if they had died as food for predators at least there would have been the balance .. but their was no balance .. only the destruction that IT craved.”  Again the PC’s feel Lanala’s hatred , clearly directed towards the Darkness Device.

“I tried .. I tried to hard to fight him.. but there are rules even I am powerless to fight .. to prevent… remember, my people’s belief in me willed me into being.. this means they can force me to answer their call, even when I don’t want to.”  The PC’s see Kaah standing in front of the city of Seattle, Washington on day ninety one.. five months ago.. of the invasion screaming his orders to Lanala.. the goddess weeps, does her best to resist, shouts “No!” to Kaah.. Kaah hesitates for a moment, confused, cups his hand to his earhole as if trying to hear something..  shrugs, clearly dismissing it…  then points at Seattle.. a earthquake of tremendous proportions rips through Seattle utterly destroying it.. then the PC’s see Kaah’s edeinos forces roaming through the debris , pulling dead bodies and planting them in the new areas converted to the Living Land’s reality .. and Lanala weeps anew as the dead bodies rose from the grave as undead monstrosities, gospog, fighting alongside Kaah’s forces.. “This is heresy” sobs Lanala “What he was doing was bad enough before.. but now he uses the dead … the dead of your people.. to do his will.   I am a goddess of LIFE.. and what he’s doing is..”  Lanala sobs uncontrollably for a while then the PC’s sense her force herself to calm down.. she continues to speak.

“There have been others.. from other ‘cosms’ as you call it.. who came centuries before Kaah.”  The PC’s next see organic looking spaceships that look like they were grown rather than manufactured land.. beings who look not only human but undeniably Mayan-like in appearance walk out of the spaceships, teaching the Mayans of Earth many things, and then leaving but not without leaving several parting gifts behind… one of which was the box-like thing Lanala is now imprisoned in.  “They called it ‘ the godbox’ .. it was meant to contain beings of great spiritual power who threatened the Mayan people of Earth.. if you had discovered it first you could have used it to capture, for example, this ‘Pope Malraux of the Cyberpapacy’ or even this ‘Gaunt Man’  that I have seen in Kaah’s thoughts.”  Lanala’s voice is filled with sorrow again – this time clearly for the PC’s, that the godbox was not used in the way it’s creators was intended, to help the humans.

(breaking the Lanala narrative here but – for persons wondering where the heck I got these space visitors who look like Mayans from.. this is my homage to the “space gods” torg sourcebook of the 1990’s .. the “space gods” .. not really gods at all just really, REALLY advanced humans compared to us ordinary core earth people… had some ridiculously high axioms, tech axiom 30, social axiom 26 as well as spirit axiom 13 and magic axiom 7… I would hand wave this as overwhelmingly tech and social – social encompassing psionic – biotechnology with hints of the 13 spirit axiom combined over centuries of research by dedicated “space gods” who, predicting that invaders not friendly towards the humans from other cosms would come, left this, one of their most treasured creations, behind hoping their human  Mayan ward’s descendents would one day use the “godbox” to capture a particularly potent leader of said invading force.. obviously it didn’t work out as planned).

Lanala’s voice takes on tones of bitter anger as she goes on to say “That .. THING”.. the PC’s can sense her hatred of Kaah’s darkness device.. “spoke to Malacryx.. told her where to find the godbox.. and told her the godbox could be used to trap a being of even immense power.. a being like me.

Lanala goes quiet for a moment… then says softly  “There are those of my children who listen to me..” The PC’s next see edeinos tribes who quietly slip away from Kaah’s rule in the middle of the night, disgusted by Kaah’s perversion of the worship of Lanala … the PC’s see Kaah snorting in disgust at the “weaklings” and “cowards” as he puts it, confident he is doing Lanala’s will and also confident in that he still has more than enough edeinos loyal to him to win the war.. until the female edeinos, Malacryx, approaches him with the godbox  and convinces Kaah that a united edeinois race under Kaah could win the war on Earth even faster.. and then destroy the other high lords of Earth, claiming all of Earth’s possibilities for Kaah and Kaah alone.. Kaah exerts the tremendous force of will the darkness device has allowed him to sharpen over the years – a sense of will fed by the possibilities he’s drained world after world from  .. Kaah forces a screaming, wailing Lanala to Earth in her physical form .. and Malacryx traps Lanala in the godbox.

“Please” Lanala’s voice turns desperate.  “Free me.. I have watched others like you, other ‘storm knights’ as you call yourselves.. you may not know yet how powerful your hold is over reality, the reality that you yourself can enforce on your surroundings.. one.. and only one.. of you can do this, I don’t know why it works this way I just know that it does.. fight Malacryx in this way.. BELIEVE in your reality, not hers’, not that of the Living Land.. and one of two things will happen in the resulting conflict.. she will either transform you to the Living Land’s reality .. or you will transfer her to your own .. and in the process.. I hope..” Lanala’s voice turns hopeful.. “destroy the godbox.. the ‘reality storm’ this fight creates.. is a strong destructive force,  one unlike any I have seen before.  

“Please …  I beg of you.. free me.. or else once my people see that Kaah commands me.. their goddess.. they will all bow to Kaah.. and Kaah will do to your entire world what he did to your ‘Seattle’ ..”

The vision should end at that point having clearly taken less than a second in the PC’s heads even though it seemed much longer, with the various human leaders of the factions now following the PC’s shouting to the PC’s they will divert Kaah – they clearly get his attention shouting about what a “weakling” and a “coward” Kaah is who kills the elderly and children so why not fight them instead -  and an enraged Kaah pursues them ignoring the PC’s completely.    This way even players who are really into role playing their character’s knowledge out (the way my gaming group is) who have never summoned a reality storm before in their life will know what to do.   As the adventure states the other PC’s will be kept busy fighting the hand picked champions of Malacryx’s tribe while the reality storm invoking PC does his/her thing so they won’t lack for something to do… though lest the other PC’s try to help the followers out in the (quite possibly suicidal) task of distracting Kaah I would have Malacryx’s champions get in the way of the PC’s and surround and attack them forcing the PC’s to fight them instead.

The adventure doesn’t specifically state this but it’s worth noting the adventure assumes that the PC’s engage Malacryx in a reality storm without stating the PC needs the perk that they would normally require (see torg eternity core rules) to do this – I would make clear to the players this is a dramatic, exceptional circumstance due to the intervention of Lalana herself.. obviously the dialogue I suggested above works only if a PC not from the Living Land engages Malacryx in a reality storm but I’m sure there will be at least one PC who falls into that category .. while the adventure does state that Malacryx disintegrates into nothingness should the PC (hopefully) win, I would add the following.. Malacryx should look down, see herself transform from her beloved edeinos body into a human version of whatever cosm the PC is from who won the reality storm fight … and shriek in horror as she gazes down at herself .. then lunge teeth bared towards the PC ready to attack.. only to disintegrate as the adventure dictates as the godbox (the GM should describe it cracking and rending under the force of the reality storm) shatters and Lanala emerges.

The PC’s should feel a wash of gratefulness directed towards them by Lanala but also anger – anger the PC’s  realize is directed at Kaah and his forces.. “ Thank you my friends” says Lanala quietly in their heads.. “ I will not forget this.. now , for your own sakes.. please.. RUN!”  Follow this up with the scene the adventure describes with the PC’s running away from the reality storm that grows to epic proportions,  a vision of an enraged Lanala filling the sky as Kaah and his forces swirl in the whirlwinds that erupt.. the PC’s should see their human followers racing along behind the PC’s and some of the said followers (in my opinion) should make it out alive with the PC’s … the ones who survived the fight with Kaah anyways… 

I would personally just give the PC’s the “chosen of Lanala” perk automatically after this instead of telling the PC’s “well you qualify for it but you still need to spend the experience points” like the adventure states which could justifiably result in players outraged over Lanala’s lack of gratefulness.. and I would absolutely do what the writers suggest.. edeinos who have a chance of being friendly to the PC’s in future adventures should tell the PC’s they saw the PC’s in the vision Lanala granted to ALL edeinos showing what the PC’s did and what Kaah tried to do to Lanala and said edeinos should go out of their way to help the PC’s – as the adventure states thousands of edeinos should feel Lanala’s sorrow quite clearly and should go so far as to not only inform the PC’s of this but to tell the PC’s that more and more tribes have started turning away from Kaah as a result .. while the edeinos loyal to Kaah should immediately recognize the PC’s and start screaming “Enemies of our Saar !  Enemies of Kaah!  Kill them for the glory of Kaah!” – make it clear that these loyalists really, REALLY hate the PC’s and will quite literally fight to the death to take down the PC’s (remind the PC’s of previous situations in the adventure where forces loyal to Kaah withdrew if too many of them died.. apparently not anymore)… 

….on the other hand satisfied persons in the Delphi Council months later (possibly Quinn himself if the PC’s are in his proximity, otherwise a senior official in the Delphi Council branch that fights in the Living Land.. see the Living Land cosm sourcebook) should show up personally and congratulate the PC’s, telling them that the war is easier than before given that all Delphi agents have to do is mention the PC’s names and edeinos who are potentially friendly become far more likely to help any Delphi Council agents undertaking missions in the Living Land.. I would go so far personally as to have the grateful Delphi Council give the PC’s an “IOU” for ten thousand dollars worth of gear they can keep that can be cashed in at any of the Delphi council branches in any of the conquered areas of Earth (so a PC from the cyberpapacy could get say that amount of cyberware installed or a monster hunter transformed to Orrosh reality could stock up on alchemical gear, weapons and so forth.. or the PC’s could pool their resources together for one big purchase though I would emphasize to the players that PC’s transformed to other cosms are best off using those funds the next time they’re on an adventure in that cosm .. or simply have the PC’s go to the various cosm conquered parts  of Earth to spend their funds and drop in an appropriate adventure from say the Delphi council rising storm adventure,  which I will also be writing a review  of in the future).

I would also, for months after the adventure ends, let the PC’s enjoy a small blessing from Lanala.. the food they eat is a wonderland of flavors and sensations.. if the PC’s engage in any amorous relations with some other character the relations are likewise the best the PC’s have ever experienced.. basically anything that’s pleasurable of any sort is, for a time at least, heightened in sensation for the PC’s.. just like that of Lanala’s followers… I would have this effect follow the PC’s regardless of what cosm they’re in for a while.

And that brings me to the end of my review and my many, many suggestions for areas that I feel the writers could have gone into greater detail on… however I freely admit I am far more into the “role playing/world building” part of RPG’s than many players are.   At the end of the day I’d still argue this is worth the purchase price for several reasons.. a large amount of material for game play to keep players busy for probably at least months.. the adventure does a great job of capturing the spirit and atmosphere of the Living Land.. and the PC’s can enjoy the feeling of knowing they rescued a goddess and bask in the gratitude of certain edeinos in the Living Land and the Delphi Council afterwards…. Also in my opinion the adventure offers additional insight into the Living Land in a way that “brings it to life” from the role playing point of view the way Torg Eternity published adventures often do.    So yes, despite my four out of five star rating I would say buy it.   Thanks for reading all of this if you made it this far!