Revenge of the Carredon extended review

I've read reviews from some Torg Eternity fans that say this is their favorite mega-length extended prepublished adventure and I can see their point... the adventure does an excellent job of capturing the essence of the mythic quest across a fantasy land while deftly interspersing the elements of our "real world" Earth and it's interaction with said fantasy land, Aysle.. the written descriptions of the scenes the PC's see are startlingly beautiful 

(though, as I've mentioned in my review of the godbox, I would caution the GM against reading the parts where it goes on to say for example " You reluctantly tear your gaze away from the sight before you" amending that to something like " Any normal person would find themselves hard pressed to tear their gaze away from the sight before them" and let the player decide how their PC reacts.. players are (understandably) touchy about a GM dictating how their beloved creation.. their player character.. acts short of some sort of supernatural mind control or something to that effect and this unfortunately is a mistake the Torg writers are prone to making (see also my comments/suggestions on the Torg Eternity core rules about how to handle creatures and foes that are supposed to inspire fear "just because" without the fear being obviously supernatural, psionic, and so forth in nature) ...


On the other hand the adventure suffers from a startling lack of detail at times which can make it difficult to get the players to adhere to the plotline that they need to follow simply for the adventure to take place ... I admire how much action and adventure that the writers have packed into this publication and I would argue for that alone you'd definitely get your money's worth and that this is worth the purchase price... indeed it should be viewed as the other half of the Torg eternity aysle sourcebook, one book being basically "incomplete" without the other and serves as a prime example of how to make Aysle come to life in the Torg campaign... however this is one of the few occasions where, unless a GM is very good at coming up with stuff on his or her own at the spur of the moment when there's a "blank" in the adventure the GM is forced to address, I would argue that my lengthy (if you can stay awake through it that is :P ) blogspot entry below is not optional, but rather required at least for the first and third acts of the adventure simply to give the GM ideas on how to get the adventure back on track ..or even to get the adventure to function in the first place.. and if nothing else the blogger link below gives links to several maps and possibilities for pictures of NPC's which the writers have left out.

Which is another thing.. while I had criticisms of the godbox and fires of ra for areas where the writers left out a battlemap for conflicts that would have been helpful, I was very surprised by how few maps were put into revenge of the carredon in comparison to say the godbox or the fires of ra.    Fortunately in this day and age of the modern internet a google search will turn up a wide variety of maps that could work for you with some modifications especially with the use of the free download infranview's paint dialogue tool/function.

My usual criticism of the lack of stats for NPC's applies here too but I was very surprised at the lack of statistics for crucially important NPC's like say Ardinay or to a lesser degree her chief arch magus .. 

For the first act of the adventure I would argue that the torg eternity aysle sourcebook simply does not give the GM all the information s/he needs to run the courtly intrigue part of it properly ... I address this as well in my upcoming review of the Aysle torg eternity sourcebook but I would argue, even more so than the similar argument I made for the torg eternity version of the cyberpapacy sourcebook, that the original 1990's aysle sourcebook originally published by west end games is an absolute requirement , not only for Ardinay's stats but also for the much more in depth look it gives into the world of Aysle, the political factions that make up the various noble houses (important for act one of the adventure), the corsair sea faring folk  (important for act five of the adventure)  a much more in depth look at the deities of Aysle and some fascinating ideas about how intelligent "monsters" from Aysle adapt to their new Aysle conquered earth surroundings and even take advantage of it .. the "giants" (honestly more like the ogres of the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game but slightly more intelligent) acting as an enforcer for hire (giant bruiser template) in a three piece business suit is nothing short of hilarious.   Armed with all three books.. the torg eternity aysle sourcebook, the original aysle sourcebook from the 1990's for it's wealth of information on the "home cosm" of Aysle itself, and the revenge of the carredon the GM can really make this adventure "sing" and have it live to it's fullest potential.

On the other hand more casual GM's and players may not need the original 1990's Aysle sourcebook at all .. it may be a situation like this

players:  " so tell us again why we have to impress all these stuck up nobles?"

GM:  " Because the adventure says so"

players:  " Oh , okay " (players proceed to stay put at the dinner and insult the nobles back who are insulting the PC's)

 ... though admittedly the adventure doesn't require the PC's to impress the nobles for the adventure to proceed along it's established plotline .. but for GM's like myself and the players I prefer to game with who are big on the whole world building/detailed role playing aspect of RPG's we're definitely going to need more background information.. a LOT more.. than what the adventure provides.   

Also worth noting is that GM's may actually enjoy the "blanks" the adventure leaves for the GM to fill in and simply fill in those blanks spontaneously, on the spur of the moment, in a manner that the GM feels suits his or her particular gaming group and expand on those ideas later on as the campaign progresses.. this is a time honored tactic GM's have used over the years in which case the adventure would not be viewed as lacking as all in terms of areas it leaves unaddressed and more so of a very large "skeleton" of many, many scenes and multiple acts with many areas the GM can happily fill in on his or her own.. in which case my extended blogger post below may be of no use whatsoever :)   but I'd still encourage you to skim it just for the suggestions of battlemaps and their links on the internet if nothing else in case such a battlemap should become necessary or desired by the players or GM.

Despite all of these many criticisms.. which means I can only at most give this a 4 out of 5 star rating compared to say the godbox or fires of ra.. at the end of the day it's still a beautifully written adventure jam packed full of the epic adventures and sagas that are at the heart of any fantasy themed epic quest that a GM and players alike can have a lot of fun with if the GM is willing to put in that additional work.. or simply if the GM and players don't care in the first place and just "wing it for the sake of the story" where appropriate.   If you have the patience to read through my admittedly incredibly (sorry :)  )  long blogger post link listed below I have a lot of ideas about how to fill in the missing blanks including links to various maps generous mapmakers have made free to use on the internet a GM could use.

I was pleased to see that this adventure, given that it takes place in the second half of the first year of the possibility wars, was written as an adventure for beta clearance player characters, that is PC's who have accumulated at least 50 experience points (see the pay what you want torg eternity beta clearance player's primer).    This allows you to run this adventure despite the PC's having played through say the godbox or fires of ra longer published adventures (see if you like my review of the godbox and the fires of ra) or even if the PC's went though all the adventures in the delphi council rising storm (all three of these are recommended and worthwhile purchases but as far as bang for your buck delphi council rising storm gives you a lot of adventures for the money you pay for it - I'll be writing a review for that one too soon).   As the beta clearance player's primer states the PC's have to get to the 200 experience point mark before you start running Gamma clearance adventures for them so conceivably PC's could have gamed though the godbox, fires of ra and all the delphi council rising storm adventures and still play through this one although if you go that route you'll have Gamma clearance PC's at that point and, as the pay what you want beta clearance primer gamesmaster's guide states, want to start using the suggestions in there to ratchet up the challenge level for future published material you run the PC's through.

As I've been saying in all of my Torg publication reviews, in order to fully enjoy a Torg campaign to it's maximum potential you need to buy the torg cosm sourcebooks and with certain adventures like the Fires of Ra it's mandatory... which isn't necessarily a bad thing, they're well written sourcebooks that are a joy to read... try either the Living Land or the Orrosh sourcebook first , in my opinion the two best written torg cosm sourcebooks (see my reviews for them if you like).. while the Aysle sourcebook is admittedly the one I gave the lowest rating to for basically being an ambitious, noble attempt that is just too broad reaching to be properly addressed in a 160 page book (see also my upcoming review of the Aysle sourcebook later on), it's still definitely a worthwhile buy given the number of times the PC's are going to end up in Aysle if you run the Torg prewritten adventures - including of course this one. 

Also enjoyable was the detailed look at Oxford presented in the adventure - this appears towards the end of the book but GM's should definitely read up on it prior to running the first scene of the first act of this adventure.    The detailed look at the Carredon should also be read (also appearing at the end of the book) prior to running the adventure.... not only due to it's importance to the adventure but also due to the secrets revealed in general about the Gaunt Man, Utherion, Aysle and the Gaunt Man's end goals as far as the invasion of Earth, all of which are of critical importance to any Torg campaign.. the information there ties in neatly to the relevations in the Aysle and Orrosh sourcebooks which, again, I would argue are essential to being able to run a Torg campaign along with all the other cosm sourcebooks for that matter (the Orrosh sourcebook in particular is a very enjoyable read packed with lots of resources for a gamesmaster and absolutely worth the purchase price).

My criticism of the godbox and fires of ra applies here too in terms of a lack of NPC statististics for NPC's who are clearly intended to be plot devices or who are simply deemed too unimportant to be worthy of a stats write up ... which can nonetheless be a disadvantage for the gamesmaster if an annoyed PC targets said NPC (particularly the ones written up in sucn a way as to antagonize a PC) with a spell or attack or what not... also there are situations where a battle map is not provided for certain conflicts though as I mention in my other reviews there are GM's and players who don't bother with maps at all and favor a purely narrative approach for whom this probably won't be a problem at all... for gaming groups who prefer battle maps however I've found, surprisingly enough, reddit to be a valuable resource online if you do a google search using say the words "reddit modern rpg map trenches" for example.

Not only would I say that the Aysle Torg Eternity sourcebook (not to mention the original 1990's Aysle sourcebook) are requirements to run this adventure properly, I would also say that the gamesmaster absolutely should re-read the "warzones" section of the Aysle torg eternity sourcebook prior to running this adventure .. worth noting as well are the specific-to-the-Aysle cosm Aysle possibilities and the Aysle torg eternity note (page 63) that said possibilities are awarded for either role playing and choices that reinforce the Light or Darkness in the realm... in other words making a moral choice for good over evil (the reverse, making a choice for evil over good, will as I mention in my review of the Aysle torg eternity book lead to a world of headaches for the GM and definitely should not be encouraged unless the GM is willing to put in the time and energy to write up all sorts of "evil PC" scenarios that go beyond the original scope and content envisioned by the torg writers for their prepublished adventures) ... or the aysle specific possiblities could be awarded as a result of Aysle cosm cards played from the drama deck.   I find the wording a bit confusing here although it's identifical in pretty much every cosm sourcebook at the beginning of the gamesmaster section.. however given the wording .. " Between acts, when you refresh Possibilities, you may keep the same number of Aysle Possibilities (up to the maximum refresh) or reset them to standard Possibilities."... I'm tempted to say that this means players have a separate pool of Aysle possibilities that get reset to three when the PC's proceed from one Act to the next in addition to the standard pool of three possibilities each PC's pool resets to when going from one Act to the next.   While technically the players could simply convert them into regular possibilities for a total of six if I'm correct given there's no real limitation on the effectiveness of them (as opposed ot say for example the Living Land cosm possibilities which don't give a minimum 10 result when spent on skills that exceed the axioms, nature and reality of the Living Land like say Land Vehicles) I don't see any reason for players to convert them into normal possibilities.

As with the godbox and fires of ra reviews I had so many suggestions that it was impossible to put them all in within the space constraints of reviews here on drivthru rpg so if you like see the blogger link below for my many, many ideas as far as potential battle maps and links to them found online, thoughts on areas of the adventure where I felt the writers could go into more detail and my suggestions and so forth... even if you don't have the patience to read the whole thing (I wouldn't blame you :)  ) at least skim it for the links to various rpg maps the mapmakers have generously made free to the public to use.

My usual warning follows if you do read that blogger post... if you're a player not the GM reading that blog could spoil your enjoyment of the adventure on the one hand.. on the other hand if you've purchased this with your hard earned money and simply hand it over to the GM without reading it I can see how that would be a bit annoying.. as well I know players who are mature enough to keep player and in character knowledge separate from each other during a game session and who even go so far as to subtly aid the GM by having their PC wander over to "wherever the plot is thickest" knowing already the overall plotline the adventure is expected to follow.. a helpful tactic as other players tend to follow suit if nothing else as so not to "divide the party" and an enormous boon to the GM.    

I'll go into this in more detail in my upcoming review of the torg eternity aysle sourcebook too but one disadvantage a lot (not all .. the Living Land is a noticeable exception to this) of the torg eternity cosm sourcebooks have is that they don't go into the same loving detail with regard to the original invading cosm's world history and culture the same way the original 1990's torg books did.. the torg eternity folks have done a great job of cleaning up the original 1990's torg rules, improving it and making it more widely accessible to players and GM's alike but for GM's and players like myself who are a huge fan of in depth detailed lore regarding campaign worlds the original 1990's torg books are a worthwhile purchase .. as well they provided starting stats the GM can use for important NPC's that are left out of the torg eternity publications sometimes like say Pella Ardinay's stats (while she's intended primarily as a plot device I was very surprised to see a lack of stats for her in both the aysle torg eternity cosm sourcebook and the revenge of the carredon book) but you can find a starting baseline for her stats in the 1990's aysle sourcebook.. honestly I would just lift her stats entirely from there with appropriate changes introduced in torg eternity like ignoring the copmlicated spells rules structure in 1990's torg, give Ardinay the spellcaster perk multiple times to give her a wide array of spells and so forth.   

As with other torg eternity prepublished adventures the writers assume  (or I think I do for the revenge of carredon adventure book anyways, there's some startling scenarios the writers account for that in my opinion would send the PC's veering into the full on evil fallen to Darkness category)   PC's are the good guys who will adhere to a higher standard of morality than your average person.. for example the moment of crisis section in the torg core rulebook states that the PC makes an active choice for good in service to some higher cause (not mentioned in the rulebook but could be as simple as defending innocents who can't help themselves, actively fighting people who are obviously the bad guys intent on hurting innocents, supporting some larger and more dangerous goal like getting food to starving people affected by the possibility wars and so on ) whereupon simple "stormers", not storm knights like the PC's, make a selfish choice.. either one is rewarded by becoming possiblity rated but the book makes it clear that the PC's made a choice for good, not evil.. further reading of the torg rulebook under the role of the storm knights in the war flat out states "protect the innocent" making it obvious that there should be no question that the PCs are the good guys in any given scenario.

Point this to the players quoting the page numbers from the torg core rulebook if necessary then on top of that outline how the forces of light and darkness work in Aysle.. the torg core rules go into this to an extent but pages 88-89 of the Aysle sourcebook go into more detail on this as well.. while Torg Eternity attempts to present a more nuanced view of light and darkness and tries to account for "good guys" who have darkness perks and who are more like say the punisher or wolverine from marvel comics, that is they have no problem taking moral "shortcuts" and killing say a helpless unarmed opponent , the big problem with this kind of character is it's not a very far fall from that to more morally grey and murky things like " We don't have time to save those innocents, we have bigger concerns we need to get to instead" or " Bad guys have a hostage?  I shoot the hostage in the head, problem solved .. poor hostage was going to die anyways."   I've seen this sort of thing unfold time and time again in campaigns where the hapless gamesmaster who asked for "good aligned" characters in his or her campaign watches players do this exact thing knowing that it will result in real life conflict between the players and gamesmasters .. in situations where I'm a gamesmaster who calls a player on thi sure enough you wind up with a surly player on your hands not happy that they can't play their character the way they've probably always played said PC and long arguments about the nature of morality, good and evil tilted towards the player justifying their actions.   Furthermore as a player in such campaigns who does try to take the moral high ground as the gamesmaster and campaign asks it's incredibly annoying to watch other players take moral shortcuts and get away with it ... as a gamesmaster in such campaigns I've had players who are taking the moral high ground threaten to quit over other players who can't be bothered to take the moral high ground and quite honestly I couldn't blame the indignant players who were thinking of leaving the campaign.

As I've mentioned in my reviews of other torg eternity adventures the writers assume that the PC's will take the moral high ground and if they don't it derails the entire adventure... as a GM in addition to reviewing the expectations the torg eternity rulebook makes clear, I would review just how easy it is to gain a darkness perk in Aysle and if you acquire three or more of them you become a non player character lost to darkness and on top of that review the game rules about how a character's appearance literally changes in a way that will attract hostility from the followers of the Light in Aysle, that is PC allies, and I would describe how even core Earth forces who have seen a fellow soldier succumb to the forces of darkness automatically regard such a person as an enemy and will open fire on them, assuming with regret that such a person has been lost to the axiom wash transforming citizens of Aysle (and even if the PC who gets a darkness perk insists " I'm still a good guy" I would have the core earth soldiers answer " I know bloke I know, you really do think you are the good guy.. I'm so sorry" and then proceed to attack anyways ... in Aysle,  any time a PC takes a morally questionably action (for example complain about why they have to rescue the innocent villagers and genuinely mount an argument as to why they shouldn't , even if they end up eventually doing it however)  even if it doesn't result in a darkness perk I would describe how the PC's visage literally changes for a moment, becoming a more monstrous version of his or herself, before going back to normal and have any PC allies clap their hands to weapons and angrily demand an explanation as to what the PC is doing .. 

I'm going to have to risk some minor spoilers at this point to address the personality conflict the adventure seems to have with itself... on the one hand the adventure clearly assumes that the PC's will go on the quest Ardinay tasks them with for the good of Aysle which in turn implies they are doing it because they're the good guys... but the adventure gives more than one situation where the PC's are given a choice as far as whether or not to abandon hapless persons who will most likely die without the PC's help so the PC's can concentrate on their quest .. I understand that the writers might be trying to establish a grim and darkly dramatic tone here.. the problem is you can't have your cake and eat it too.. in other words you can't use "save the innocents!" as the motivation for the PC's that has clearly been the case in other published adventures (godbox, fires of ra, delphi council rising storm) and then make the situation morally grey .. hopefully your players will react with confusion at the choice presented to them then simply do the right thing .. if not you're definitely going to have a problem on your hands with future adventures where the players are now of the opinion they can take "moral shortcuts" and the entire adventure gets derailed from what the writers have set out as a result.    It's nice of the writers to address the possibility of the PC's (possibly regretfully) ignoring the innocents and/or allies in favor of their larger goal but it's going to create all sorts of problems and quite honestly I don't know why the GM wouldn't be tempted to inflict a darkness perk on PC's who take such moral shortcuts.

I think one big problem is how Darkness and Light are written up in Torg Eternity .. in the original 1990's Torg it was a lot more simple, they threw in a paragraph with giants who are followers of the Light in that they were honorable opponents but for the most part  PC's were automatically assumed to be followers of the Light by default and if a PC started leaning towards the moral "blueprint" of the Dark... morally corrupt choices, taking "the easy way out" even if technically "in service to the greater good"  the PC was considered to be lost to the forces of Darkness effectively becoming an NPC ... in Torg Eternity PC's are presented with the option of taking Darkness perks and being heroes who walk a morally grey area while still aiding the greater good.. which is great in theory , it just means that a GM can't reasonably expect a PC or group of PC's with darkness perks to be able to follow the prewritten adventures  in Torg Eternity ... it's mentioned on more than one occasion in the Torg books (Torg core rulebook, Aysle cosm sourcebook) that persons marked by the Darkness are regarded with suspicion and distrust once found out as having Darkness perks in Aysle and as mentioned in the Torg Core rules (page 31) and Aysle cosm sourcebook under world laws have the potential to physically corrupt a PC leaving a distinguishing mark on him or her.. 

....somehow I have a hard time believing Lady Ardinay, no matter how desperate her situation, would willingly task any PC known to have Darkness perks with an important quest like the one detailed in this adventure.. the bad guys in Aysle, not surprisingly, will probably have Darkness perks  or at the very least be physically transformed in appearance and/or race when they fall to Darkness as is the case with at least two potential foes the PC's encounter as the adventure goes forward .... if I was a typical NPC British soldier and I saw a PC with fangs and red eyes thanks to being marked by the Darkness perks, having learned from previous experience that the bad guys in Aysle can and do look like monster I would probably open fire first and ask questions later lest I be killed like my fellow soldier buddies who stopped to ask say a group of lurks " Are you friendly or hostile?" before being ripped apart.    

 The writer's attempt to portray Light and Dark as morally nuanced.. mentioning in the torg eternity aysle sourcebook that followers of light have been seen to commit terrible atrocities while followers of darkness have been seen to perform tender acts of kindness.. is interesting but ultimately simply muddies the waters too much... I would ignore the part about followers of Light committing atrocities.. they're the good guys, period.... the torg core rules flat out state on page 91 "A person’s appearance tends to reflect her alignment with Light or Darkness (though it can be hidden by various abilities). A knight of Light appears noble and genuine to those who meet her.  Her armor shines, her clothes are clean, and her voice is pleasant and calm." ... imagine how confused the players are going to be when you have the same knight with Light perks shrug their shoulders, say " Oh well" and launch a catapult at the enemy gloating that they're holding innocent civilians hostage, killing the enemies and civilians alike and calmly saying it was "for the greater good".. sure you have the followers of Light committing atrocities just like the Aysle torg eternity sourcebook says but you're going to make the situation hopelessly muddled and confusing for players who are expected to be "the good guys" in order for prewritten torg eternity adventures to function as written. 

....as I mention in my godbox review a GM who has the time to do so should come up with an actual questionnaire for their players prior to running them through their first torg adventure.. what would the PC do if faced with a helpless prisoner they had an opportunity to kill?  Would the PC risk his or her life to save an innocent even if the odds of dying were very likely?  Will the PC react with deadly force if insulted by someone they're not currently engaged in lethal combat with?    This is one way of weeding out character concepts that just won't work and warning players who like to run murky morally grey characters that the adventure won't run properly with that kind of character in mind.. as far as the indignant players who angrily oppose this or players who let your warnings go in one ear and out the other then try to play their morally grey character anyways, I would listen patiently to their arguments then repeat your earlier point.. the adventure, any torg adventure, simply isn't written in a way that supports that kind of character and the character will derail the entire adventure though the PC's actions.   

At this point I'm going to direct you to my blogger link below 

It's probably worth reading the section on Lurks pages 106-107 of the aysle torg eternity sourcebook as the PC's end up fighting them .. it mentions that the lurks have only been in Aysle's home cosm for a few decades , something the friendly noble Riley mentioned below would probably know about if asked and she can volunteer any other information given on the page numbers above except for how lurks are spawned as she may not know that they are artificially created using abomination engines (pages 108-109 aysle torg eternity sourcebook)... page 106 says the Asylish call them "goblins" and the description given of them in the torg eternity core rulebook seems to match that of goblins so one picture possibility for when the goblin, that is lurk,  mob attacks the PC's is this one (second picture down in the link)


https://coinsandscrolls.blogspot.com/2018/04/osr-class-many-goblins.html 


The GM not only should have the torg eternity aysle sourcebook in his/her possession, the GM absolutely positively should re-read the "warzones" section as well as the section on Utherion as high lord in terms of his strategy of conquest of the Aysle transformed areas of earth ... while the PC's may not necessarily be aware of all of Utherion's plans at the GM's option Ardinay and her court could be grimly aware of Utherion's ability to freely summon reinforcements from his armies of Darkness from the home cosm of Aysle.... unlike say Ardinay's people who had to make the dangerous trek through the Land in Between and since then have failed to summon reinforcements from followers of the Light from the Aysle home cosm since then, something Ardinay and her followers would of course be keenly aware of.  The secion on axioms and world laws is also worth re-reading given they are equally in force on Aysle conquered earth as much as they are in the Aysle home cosm so the GM can better role play NPC interactions and the Aysle conquered realm of Earth as a whole.

Act one scene one begins with the PC's alongside core earth soldiers in a trench repelling an assault by the ever present lurks of Aysle... I would have a woman dressed in a core earth soldier's uniform but no helmet next to the PC's grin at them and wink at them as she pulls out a glowing bow, nocks an arrow to it, closes one eye as she looks with the other eye towards the battlefield clearly sighting down the scope of the bow as if it was a rifle, nodding in satisfaction then putting it away... this same woman is noblewoman Riley Haleye, member of a minor house (house Haleye) made up primarily of hunters and rugged folk who live in the wilder forest parts of Aysle who normally just mind their own business but are considering allying themselves with Ardinay given the troubles they've heard about her,    whom will give the PC's an educational talk about the situation with the nobles she hopes the PC's will help out with later on (see below) .... here's a picture of her though you'll have to explain that shows her later on in her noblewoman garb , right now she's wearing a core earth uniform clearly for laughs judging by her mischievous grin

https://www.dreamstime.com/fantasy-medieval-woman-archer-protecting-mystery-forest-bow-arrow-d-render-image189008046

the adventure lays a trap in a sense for players who simply want to charge ahead out of the trenches towards the enemy in terms of magical bombardments that do a (soakable) 3 wounds of damage to the PC potentially killing them off right at the start of the adventure though the PC's do benefit from the core earth soldier and major in the British army who warns the PC's not to do that .. as GM I would emphasize and repeat that deafening, bone rattling sound of the explosions launched by Utherion.. the enemy's.. forces that are stopping short of the trenches the PC's are in and also emphasize that the cannons of the core earth tanks despite their better range appear to be mostly detonating against the Utherion castle launching the explosives in the distance with no real effect.. an apparent stalemate in other words (this may need to be made clear to players who may not necessarily pick up on this from the description given in the adventure)... if necessary have the patient major chuckle grimly and tell the PC's "We've been through this many a time before lads.. trust me, if we stay here long enough the action will come to us... the enemy only has so much ammo they can launch our way."  The major points his chin towards another explosive launched from Utherion's castle that lands with another bone rattling shriek a fair distance from the trenches.  I really enjoyed how the writers encourage the GM to award a possibility to any PC's who give a rousing speech or performance to get the spirits up of the soldiers around them but the problem is the PCs may not be aware that the core earth soldiers could use encouragement to begin with, something the writers left out.. I would comment as GM on how some soldiers are visibly nervous, pale faced and sweating.   


The adventure at first appears to be frustratingly vague on the details of Utherion's fortress simply referring to it as  " Utherion's castle" , only mentioning how far away it is from the PC's at the start of the adventure (which becomes relevant given it's lobbing catapult type attacks at the PC's) in the "secrets of Oxford" part towards the end of the book and I do wish the writers had referenced this part of the book , just a simple "see page 103 Dark Fortress" would have been sufficient - the GM can and should read the "secrets oxford" part of the book at the end of this adventure before running this scene.... 


....to go into a bit further detail.. on the timeline in the Aysle cosm sourcebook it mentions that on day one of the invasion a maelstrom bridge crashes into Liverpool, England from Aysle and forms the Dark Fortress, presumably at the base of the bridge (page 9).   The same book also says on day 8 of the invasion Towlyn shows up and frees Ardinay from her possession by Utherion which basically means Utherion was able to direct the invasion of earth eight days from it's start from Ardinay's body before Tolwyn freed Ardinay which becomes important later on (see below) but also mentions Ardinay and Tolwyn arrive on earth on day 24 of the invasion with the Aysle forces still loyal to Ardinay to help earth, indicating that Utherion must have been directing the invasion from the safety of Aysle.. and also making it clear that persons who went along with this invasion in support of Ardinay would clearly be upset and/or angry at the change in plans even with the explanation that Ardinay was possessed this entire time.  


The adventure also states that the PC's begin the adventure in the trenches in Oxford relatively close to Ardinay's base of operations in England.. a google search indicates that it's 136 miles from Oxford to Liverpool and that the Utherion fortress is shooting bombardments from a distance so extrapolating from all this I think it's safe to assume the castle in question is the Dark Fortress.. still it would have been nice for the writers to come right out and say this in the adventure (in the secrets of Oxford part at the end of the adventure the writers do say that the Dark Fortress of Utherion's is 250 kilometers from Oxford's defensive lines) 


Finally an hour later after the bombardments started (and finally come to an end)  the PC's get to have a rather satisfying first fight ever in the adventure in that, given they are beta clearance, they can easily mop the floor with the lurk mob that runs towards the trenches to attack even with four lurks per PC given how wimpy the lurks are based on their statistics.. the real battle takes place when a hapless giant humanoid monster comes lumbering towards the PC's, hands full with an Aysle hardpoint.. part of Utherion's castle.. held behind it's back allowing it to effectively project an Aysle pure zone and thus rendering the core earth soldiers' weapons useless.. this part of the adventure really gives the PC's a chance to shine and highlights just how necessary the PC's presence is in the possibility wars compared to your average Ord who has no hope of enforcing their reality in an area where another reality holds sway.. I would specifically mention soldiers' faces going pale as they raise rifles and point it at the giant monster only to hear nothing as they pull the trigger, grenades that are thrown at it - of course the soldiers make a point of not doing this while the PC's are around it just in case, let's say when the monster is at a distance.. simply thumping on the ground not exploding as they should... then have the soldiers cheer when they see that the PC's abilities are clearly still working regardless of whether or not the PC's succeed in their attack action (I would explain to players confused as to why the soldiers are cheering if say the PC makes their attack roll that the soldiers are just happy that the PC is still able to attack and thus have a chance of success , in comparison to soldiers who are firing their rifles only to see that said rifles don't work in the pure zone the monster is projecting )... clever players will attack the contraption on top of the monster's head enslaving it causing the monster to flee if the contraption is broken.   Riley of course fights by the PC's side.


Stats for the soldiers and the officer in charge of said soldiers is given in the index of threats and allies at the end of the adventure but it would have been nice if the writers had specifically mentioned this and given the page numbers lest an overeager GM take it upon him/herself to write up the "missing" stats only to find them already published at the end of the adventure.. generally speaking whenever an NPC is mentioned in the adventure the GM should immediately skip to the aforementioned threats and allies index given at the end of the adventure to see if there are stats for said NPC.. of course the stats for many NPC's are also given throughout the book as they appear for the first time in the adventure instead of being in the index at the end.    


There are no battlemaps provided for this battle in the adventure, but I found two options online , though this first one assumes that the adventure takes place in winter , the second map doesn't have any such weather indicated on it


https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/u6sa9d/wartorn_trenches_snowy_40x50/


https://www.reddit.com/r/Roll20/comments/ogu3au/steampunk_trench_warfare/


The writers assume that the PC's don't follow up with a counterattack against Utherion's forces... if they start moving towards Utherion's castle, while the adventure is vague about exactly how many forces are in the opposing army, I would have the major clap a hand to the PC's shoulder and gently advise him that there's tens of thousands of those "lurk things" out there around the castle if the PC's go far enough towards it and he can't send his men in aftr the PC's to support them without permission from his higher ups.  " Believe me lads I'd like to crush them once and for all as much as you would" sighs the major " But .. that's what war is a lot of the time, a waiting game.. strategy."   I would also have Riley encourage the PC's not to attempt what she calls certain suicide.  


At this point the GM should have read the secrets of the carredon section at the end of this book if s/he hasn't already given it's impact on both Tolwyn and Ardinay (for example it mentions Tolwyn was gone for a century which implies Ardinay was possessed by Utherion for a century on Aysle as well before Towlyn freed Ardinay.. the adventure states later on that Ardinay tells the PC's she and Tolwyn have lived many years far beyond what they should have which seems to confirm this theory).


Given the importance of Tolwyn later on in the adventure, I would have her meet the PC's now and (hopefully) make a good impression on them before the dinner.. I would have Tolwyn bump into the PC's just after they enter the gates of the compound Ardinay's forces are in and have Tolwyn come across as a serious, no nonsense woman who stops the PC's and takes the opportunity to openly praise them in her serious way, quoting and recapping heroics the Delphi Council would know about based on their past adventures.. for example if the PC's played through the events of the godbox saying something like " And you saved a goddess.. a goddess by the Light itself!   Granted not one of the gods we worship here in Aysle but still, even as afar as here in Aysle.. erhm, excuse me, I mean ' Britain ' , my apologies .. word has spread of your victory.. I can only imagine what enormous good will you garnered amongst the edeinos people of the Living Land.. good will that has undoubtedly made it easier for your fellow storm knights and delphi council warriors.. no, apologies, what's that word you Earthers use?  Right, 'agents'.. in the Living Land."  and then have Tolwyn specifically praise the most heroic action the GM can remember each PC accomplishing during the events of the Godbox.. if the PC's express surprise that Tolwyn knows this say that the Delphi Council asked for a full report of the PC's actions after the events of the godbox recording every detail and explaining such detailed reports are necessary given the strange and unexpected events that occur every day in the dimensional invaders' assault on Earth and any detail, no matter how minor, could play a crucial role in the future.. or if stubborn players for some reason state they were close mouthed on their PC's actions (I would flat out tell players who want to remain "private" on their PC's actions that the delphi council made it clear PC's who didn't give a full report were potentially putting other storm knights and/or delphi council agents in danger and cited specific examples say in Orrosh where storm knights who left out details that could give the final death of a horror in Orrosh resulted in different storm knights who went there dying later on due to ommissions the first group of storm knights in that area felt were unimportant or simply refused to share) ...PC's who still insist on being close mouthed should in turn prompt a GM to player discussion on how the players are expected to be heroic good guys in torg per the examples I cited in the earlier part of my review about the core rules and the writers have assumed the players will do this ... or alternately if the players ran through the Fires of Ra or any of the adventures in Delphi Council Rising Storm or PC's who survived the events of the Day One torg Eternity adventures or events from original creation adventures the GM wrote and ran for the players , any of that should be cannon fodder for Tolwyn's praise.. 


Advise the players as well that they've all heard about Tolwyn who is practically Ardinay's second in command, Ardinay herself being considered head of the Delphi Council here in the Aysle invaded area of Earth despite herself not being of Core Earth origin which would technically make Tolwyn a high ranking Delphi council agent , although if asked about it ... or even if she isn't asked .. Tolwyn simply shrugs and says " Certainly it's an honor to be knighted as a member of the Delphi Council circle of heroes, heroes such as yourselves but honestly" Tolwyn shrugs again " Knighthoods, honorifics, titles... they never mattered to me so much as the eternal battle, good versus evil, Light versus Darkness.. I count as staunch allies villagers humble of birth but noble in spirit .. and certainly they were granted knighthoods and honors once their heroics became known to the people but in private they tended to laugh such things off much as I do.. though sadly our way of thinking is the exception not the norm.. no matter how many times I try to explain to your average villager I'm no better than them they don't listen.. such is the way of Aysle."  Tolwyn sighs again then adds " I am pleased to see that in this Earth of yours the average citizen doesn't automatically bow the knee to those of noble birth or expect them to rule... I admire this ' democracy ' and ' elections ' you people of Earth have..but even if Lady Ardinay tried to introduce this in our home world of Aysle this would result in nothing more than confusion from the masses and accusations of Lady Ardinay abandoning her duties, outrage from the ruling noble famlies and open rebellion on their part.. " Tolwyn shrugs sadly.. " I admire what I see here but.. Aysle simply isn't ready for it yet.. I hope this changes some day."    As far as GM's who feel that Towylyn is evincing behavior far beyond what her social axiom allows I'll admit it's a bit of a stretch but on the other hand given the world laws of Light versus Darkness I would argue a celebrated storm knight and hero like tolwyn should recognize equality and democracy as a form of the virtue of justice and protecting the well being of the populace held so important to the Light in Aysle.


If the PCs ask where Tolwyn is headed to she grimaces, shows the PC's a bag she has slung over her shoulder and says " I must visit the village tailor to have this dress" Tolwyn spits the word "dress" angrily " Cleaned and repaired if necessary for tonight's dinner to impress the nobles instead of wearing battle armor as any good warrior should do.. and for what?  To try to win the favor of those cowardly noble houses who refuse to commit even a portion of their armies to our queen.. our QUEEN, Lady Ardinay, champion of Light in the realm of Aysle... because they feel the invasion of Earth by the forces of darkness from OUR realm is of no importance to said noble houses.. spineless, every last one of them!"   Riley the friendly noblewoman gently clears her throat and Tolwyn makes a visible effort to control herself then forces a smile and adds "Except for House Haleye of course" nodding to Riley who nods back.  


I would have the conversation with Tolwyn end with Tolwyn massaging her temples and murmuring " No, no time for a headache now" ( a precursor and sign of her inpending possession.. during the dinner party I would have Towlyn massage her temples again obviously experiencing the same headache before looking enraged as the dinner party continues) before bidding the PC's good day and taking her leave.   If Tolwyn vented her rage towards the "cowardly noble houses" Riley murmurs to the PC's after Towyn leaves " I've never seen lady Tolwyn like that before - normally she's more restrained."


The next part of the adventure is where things get a bit iffy... the problem is that the adventure assumes the PC's bother to attend the dinner with tne nobles that Lady Ardinay is hosting in honor of the PC's triumph... not only that the adventure assumes that there are nobles present who snicker at and otherwise belittle the PC's if they show up say not properly dressed (something potentially beyond the PC's control if they fail the appropriate streetwise or persuasion tests to acquire said clothing) or are simply not behaving the "right" way.. while I understand.. and this should be explained to the players too.. that the nobles are acting in the same way depicted in TV shows and movies the players have probably seen in real life where royalty puts far too much emphasis on manners, proper breeding and decorum, nonetheless the dinner is being held in honor of the PC's.  I understand that there are cosm cards that can be played saying the PC's are the subjects of vicious rumors that undermine their reputation and so forth in Aysle and even a world law to that effect but still, I had a hard time wrapping my head around why the nobles would look down upon the same PC's the dinner party is being hosted for and who clearly just engaged in some extreme heroics at the trench battle.   


Rather than having the nobles directly snub the PC's.. unless the PC's, understandably, decide this whole thing is complete nonsense and start to deliberately antagonize the nobles... I would have the sympathetic noble who has been impressed by the PC's heroism earlier on in the trenches battle, Riley,  show up before the dinner party and fill the PCs in on the Ardinay situation  ... Pella Ardinay, queen of Aysle,  was possessed by the high lord of Aysle, Utherion, for a long time, decades, supernaturally prologing her life (I don't think either the Aysle or the Core Rules book states this - see the Aysle cosm and Aysle secret of the wars info from the torg core rules book for where I'm getting a lot of this info from)  and allowing Utherion, undetected in Ardinay's body, to wreak havoc on the home world of the Aysle cosm that both Ardinay and Utherion's forces come from with Ardinays' confused mages and priest-healers underneath her simply assuming it was some strange magical side effect of her epic battle with Utherion earlier on .. Utherion , in Ardinay's body, ushered in a rule of darkness and corruption that while subtle in nature.. oppressing villagers for example but not outright adopting the religion of evil Aysle deities by the government, a rule marked by deceit and betrayal that was disgusting to the virtous families formerly loyal to Ardinay.. Utherion made sure his lieutenants, still in command of the vile monster armies under Utherion's command albeit not openly allied with the possessed Ardinay  virtually decimated the elven and dwarven kingdoms with the possessed Ardinay not lifting a finger to help... was still enough to drive away angry , pure and virtous noble families who were enraged by Ardinay's changed attitude.  



Eventually Ardinay's champion, Towlyn Tancred, showed up, also many decades afterwards and freed Ardinay.. by then however, even with Ardinay desperately trying to explain that she'd been possessed, certain former allies disgusted if nothing else by what they viewed as her failure to stop the forces of evil from literally seizing control of Aysle's government, gave her the cold shoulder.. Ardinay was able to march to earth with some allies that accepted her invitation and forgave her, but she desperately wants the support of other former allies who haven't forgiven her yet, hoping they will commit a portion of their armies through the tunnels in the Land Between connecting Aysle to Earth to her efforts to aid the people of Earth.. indeed Ardinay views the situation in Aysle as being 100 percent her fault despite the fact she was possessed by Ardinay and not in control of herself, blaming herself .. as many of her former allies do.. for not stopping him.  Still, Ardinay has finally managed to convince still angry envoys from what remains of the dwarves and noble families who were once allies of hers to show up at the dinner.. which makes the PC's making a good impression vital, emphasizes the noble.    The PC's are seen as knights who fought in Ardinay's behalf and acheived an impressive victory on her part - all eyes will be on the PC's and if the PC's can impress the visiting nobles it will go a long way towards Ardinay being able to win back their trust.


recap of what I mentioned above " I would have a woman dressed in a core earth soldier's uniform but no helmet next to the PC's grin at them and wink at them as she pulls out a glowing bow, nocks an arrow to it, closes one eye as she looks with the other eye towards the battlefield clearly sighting down the scope of the bow as if it was a rifle, nodding in satisfaction then putting it away... this same woman is noblewoman Riley Haleye, member of a minor house (house Haleye) made up primarily of hunters and rugged folk who live in the wilder forest parts of Aysle who normally just mind their own business but are considering allying themselves with Ardinay given the troubles they've heard about her,    whom will give the PC's an educational talk about the situation with the nobles she hopes the PC's will help out with later on (see below) .... here's a picture of her though you'll have to explain that shows her later on in her noblewoman garb , right now she's wearing a core earth uniform clearly for laughs judging by her mischevious grin


https://www.dreamstime.com/fantasy-medieval-woman-archer-protecting-mystery-forest-bow-arrow-d-render-image189008046                      "


as you can see from the picture Riley is a beautiful woman with cream colored skin and dark hair.. let's say she's 20 years old, a known storm knight albeit one just recently transcended during a battle with lurks that took place just before the PC's arrived where she threw herself in front of a child the lurks were trying to eat here in Britain triggering her moment of crisis and obviously marking her as a follower of the Light in Aysle.. like the rest of her noble family, house Haleye, she's a worshipper of Dunad and house Haleye is a staunch ally of the much larger and more powerful (in comparison to house Haleye) House Gerrik and indeed is related to them in a minor "cousin" sort of way if you trace their ancestry back far enough.. House Haleye borders Gerrik's eastern holdings on the kingdom-island of Aysle (this is where the original 1990's Aysle cosm sourcebook will come in handy for GM's , a strongly recommended purchase as I mentioned in my initial review above) but finds itself farther inland closer to the center of the kingdom of Aysle.. note that the name "aysle" serves as both the name of the kingdom where the majority of Aysle's political, economic and military might is concentrated and the name of the cosm as a whole despite Aysle itself being only one (albeit a rather large) island within the "globe" so to speak (really more of a disk shaped world with the sun coming up and down  through a hole in the middle of the world )... given that they're further inland house Haleye doesn't have as many sailors among their ranks as house Garrik but thanks to Garrik's influence and the strong mutual support between the two houses, Garrik's sailors have taught the always practical and eager to learn people of Haleye the profession of sailor to the point where the people of Haleye are known not only for producing impressive archers but also for being competent sailors - the combination sailor-archers they produce are in high demand throughout Aysle's seafaring elements as a result.    


House Haleye, like House Garrik, are rugged, simple folk who live in rural villages in the forest.. even the "noble castle" of House Haleye is an entirely wooden structure albeit huge and with several levels , House Haleye being expert carpenters as well who make full use of every element of their forest homelands whether it be the trees or the game or vegetation found within - they're also known for their non magical healing arts through the use of knowledge of the human body passed down from generation to generation and their use of the various plants found in the forest of Aysle (in game terms having the Aysle verion of medicine and first aid skills).  House Haleye are looked down upon by some of the more pretentious larger noble houses for their rugged nature, being a small House but also for their lack of pretension as far as physical intimacy.. like the woodland creatures they respect, House Haleye doesn't make any attempt to hide or be ashamed of physical attraction (much like say the Netherlands or Sweden compared to other more conservative countries), something Riley gleefully confirms in terms of not being afraid to flirt with male or female PC's alike and comments on that compared to the "prudishness" she's seen in core Earthers here in Britain that seems to match certain attitudes in Aysle.


the torg eternity writers, perhaps understandably given it's sensitive nature, do not address the topic of birth control in Aysle nor sexually transmitted diseases.. however the aysle sourcebook does mention in it's description of the magic axiom that mentions peasants have quote "the ability to mix herbs together to form basic alchemical medicines but not to diagnose and treat cancer and other maladies" ... still , given that birth control would be a commodity very much in demand and that, also on pages 84-85 of the aysle torg eternity sourcebook, it mentions  " More than anything else, Aysle is demarcated by magic. It is not just spells and enchanted swords but a mystical presence, which is instantly obvious to any Possibility-related character who enters this realm. It’s not a life force, like the Living Land, but a supernatural energy that makes every mundane object a possible source of wonder." and " Through spells and potions, it essentially replaces medical technology in nearly every facet—even the bandages are coated with salves and mystic runes" ... and the law of enchantment page 89 " Magic is so powerful and wild in Aysle that it can imbue nearly any object in a time of crisis or discovery. " .. we can infer from all of that that something far more "pedestrian" and "normal" in nature like say naturally occurring plant life that is commonly found and grows everywhere in Aysle can be harvested, one breed of which prevents pregnancy in females, another breed of plant life prevents males from impregnating females, and a third breed is a cure-all that instantly eliminates STD's, all three plants having minor magical properties inherent to them... so House Haleye, including Riley, has easy access to said plants given their familiarity with their forest home and every village and city alike has trained herbalists who make this available for an extremely modest fee or even simply accept items in trade (say am apple pie for a month's worth of birth control plant based doses) given how cheap and readily available all this plant life is and many, many people throughout Aysle know how to identify and harvest this plant life simply by going out and looking for it in the forest... the plant life is so abundant of these three types that it's impossible to exhaust it's supply (much like say dandelions of core earth).    Assume Riley has at least a year's supply of birth control and STD herbs and also assume anyone who came over from Aysle stocked up on the same though a year into the invasion of Earth some brave Aysle heroes might need to lead a caravan back through the Land In Between to "stock up" on this and other Aysle "essentials" from home.   Let's give this plant life a minimum of magic axiom 13 to function.


Her father, Crawford Haleye and leader of the House of Haleye (her older sister Annice Haleye is expected to take control of the House eventually) is a cautious and prudent man who made a point of withdrawing House Haleye even further from Pella Ardinay's rule when she was possessed by Ardinay, encouraging - but not requiring - the famed sailor-archers of House Haleye who were recruited by Ardinay's armies to desert (many did in fact desert Ardinay's armies in disgust without even getting word from Crawford seeking employment elsewhere as armed guards for hire to defend other boating crews, a common profession for them that they have never had any difficulty finding employment in) ... Crawford is aware of his close ally, Duke Augustus Gerrik, believing Ardinay's story that she was possessed and committing many of his soldiers to Ardinay's quest here on Earth but was reluctant to get House Haleye involved given the cruelties and vile tales he'd heard of taking place under Ardinay's rule which strongly offended his Dunad-based religious beliefs.. what if Ardinay got possessed again? Thanks to the arguments of not only Duke Augustus but his daughters Riley and Annice (Riley and Annice are firmly in favor of supporting Ardinay) Crawford has finally agreed to journey to Earth to see the non-possessed Ardinay for himself ... after seeing possessed Towlyn at the dinner party Crawford reacts in shock .. but surprisingly this prompts Crawford (Riley gleefully says that her father was impressed with her tales of the PC's heroics too which also was a major factor in his decision) to support Ardinay regardless of whether or not the PCs win over the other noble houses in question... Tolwyn is known throughout all of Aysle for her heroism and her role as head of house Tancred so if even she can fall prey to possession this makes it clear to the always practical and level headed Crawford that in the Aysle of today this is sadly a risk the ruler of any house or kingdom can fall prey to ... clearly Utherion needs to be stopped and Crawford finds himself agreeing with Riley that the best place to stop Utherion is here, on Earth, before Utherion possesses someone else and does more damage to Crawford's beloved home , Aysle, the same way Utherion damaged it when he controlled Ardinay.   Crawford's archer-sailors will be of enormous use to Ardinay's naval forces in the future against Utherion's vikings.  Depending on if the PC's were successful at their persuasion checks (see below) the other noble houses who were invited might follow suit behind Crawford and pledge their allegiance as well but I would have Crawford pledge House Haleye's allegiance regardless of the success or failure of the PC's persuasion rolls at the dinner party. 


Regarding Riley's bisexuality, I'd like to venture some opinions on this topic that the Aysle torg eternity sourcebook..not even the original 1990's torg aysle sourcebook which normally goes into such loving detail on Aysle.. has appeared to neglect.. page  66 of the torg eternity aysle sourcebook mentions that "prince Eddie" aka Prince Edward, heroic military officer and member of Britain's royal family, is in a relationship with Sir Kyle Braiden of Aysle's army of Light.. let's extrapolate from this and assume that unlike the more bigot-minded view that sadly still is held by far too many people in "real life Earth", Aysle has no discrimination whatsoever against the "LGBT" community .. Riley not only comments on Edward and Kyle's relationship, she mentions how confused she is when she hears of certain Earthers making fun of the relationship between the two men.  " Why do they laugh?" says Riley in confusion.  " In Aysle there are men who only lay with women and women who only lay with men this is true... but there are also women who lay only with women, men who lay only with men, men who lay with both women and men and women like myself who lay with men and women alike in the bedroom or wherever the urge strikes us... we don't differentiate between any of this on Aysle, it's all one and the same to us... so why do you people of Earth make jokes at the expense of this "prince Eddie" of yours and Sir Kyle Braiden? "   ... Riley then recounts with an obvious sense of quiet joy and pride the story of her older sister, Annice, initially born a man, Anthon.


Annice's story is not unusual at all in Aysle.. in situations where a man feels he should be a woman or someone born a woman feels they should be a man, even the humblest village does not mock persons born male who dress or act as women or persons born female who dress and act as men... it's understood that this is an accident of birth and virtually all such persons once they are old enough to quest, go on the time honored tradition even those of the lowest birth can perform.. seek out one of the many, many wizards or wizardesses of Aysle and offer their services in exchange for magics that transform a woman to a man or visa versa, somewhat challenging but not impossible for most trained in the magical arts and a very commonly known spell... typically such persons go on a quest to fetch something of great value to the wizard or wizardess, and if they die on the quest they are mourned as heroes.. but if they succeed not only are they transformed to the gender they would have preferred to be born as, they are regarded as heroes.    Even for those born to wealthier families who could simply pay a wizard or wizardess to perform the magic it has become a tradition for such persons born to a gender that they feel doesn't suit them to go on such a quest for the respect they garner afterwards though no shame is given to those who would prefer not to go on the dangerous quest and who can afford to simply have the magic performed instead.    This was the story of her former older brother, now older sister, Annice who, being one of the most skilled warriors of House Haleye whether male or female, tracked down and killed a griffon who had developed a taste for human flesh and whose body parts were of enormous value to the wizardess-who-lived-in-the-forest Annice sought out some distance from House Haleye.. 


Assume that the spell to turn a male to a female or female to male is a difficulty 10 alternation spell that requires the alternation magic skill at 10 or higher to cast .. this results in a permanent change from man to woman or woman to man in a manner such that the target appears as they would if they had simply been born as if that gender, obviously now more masculine or feminine in appearance but not automatically handsome or beautiful unless they were good looking to begin with (in which case a handsome male becomes a beautiful female or a beautiful female becomes a handsome male as part of the spell).   There are alternate versions of the spell quest goers will prefer to have cast which result in a quest more epic in nature... the difficulty 14 version of the spell results in a permanent boost to the good looks of the target (often sought by those of average appearance the result being they are now more attractive than the average person of their gender), and the difficulty 18 version of the spell resulting in someone of jaw droppingly beautiful or handsome visage when the spell is cast though the Charisma score doesn't necessarily increase (at the GM's option for PC's who want to benefit from this spell the GM might allow players who want to do so to spend experience points to increase Charisma based solely on physical looks at this point but bear in mind previous  Torg publications have featured NPC's before who are described as very attractive but not necessarily having super high Charisma... Charisma accounts for personality as well not just looks) ... Riley says with pride that her sister went for the most difficult version of the spell making her sister now jaw droppingly beautiful to the point where suitors are showing up from other Houses that previously ignored House Haleye to ask for her hand in marraige.. as proudly stubborn as the rest of House Haleye her sister rejects them all and threatens them with her bow and arrow should they become outraged at her rejection... her sister ( Annice) remains in Aysle safeguarding House Haleye in her father's absence. 


For those who feel I am making fun of the transgender community I would like to assure you that this is not the intent.. bear in mind the nature of Aysle as described in the Aysle cosm books... magic, not technology, is used on a day to day basis to perform things we'd do using technology on Earth.. as well epic quests by even the most humble villager are the nature of things in Aysle.    See pages 90-92 Aysle cosm sourcebook world law of legends which flat out states a person in Aysle can engage in an epic quest with tangible after effects , the law of heroes page 90 which states that people who do heroic things advance and become powerful more quickly than the rest of the masses, page 86 social axiom and the notes on the founder of House Tancred herself a peasant who became a hero due to her questing against Utherion's hordes and founder of one of the most powerful aysle houses of today House Tancred,  and as well as the notes on the magic axiom pages 84-85.


As far as whether or not this magical effect ends outside of the axioms of Aysle, for simplicity's sake let's say that this particular male to female or female to male spell targets the individual on a genetic level making the changes permanent as if the target was born that way.. in other words the effects (including any boost in appearance) stays permanent even if the target disconnects and/or is transformed.


Bearing all this in mind, riley has been written up as an alpha clearance  storm knight but with the benefit of 30 experience points from previous adventures she's been on (not many so far) all spent on skills  and  she's only recently transformed /had her moment of crisis as per the torg eternity core rules..  like all the noble members of House Haleye she has a bow, cloak and quiver passed down from family member to family member though as the youngest of Crawford's two children her longbow is "only" +1 on damage to all arrows fired from it, her cloak gives "only" +1 to her Dexterity rolls though she does have a quiver of endless ammunition much like the pouch of endless ammunition described in the gear section of the aysle cosm sourcebook, leather armor that provides "only" +1 to her armor value and 

a longsword of "only" +1 damage versus the +3 versions her father and older sister sport, something she humbly accepts.   


charisma 8, Dexterity 8, Mind 8, Spirit 8, Strength 8


shock 8, wounds 3, possibilities 3, 


beast riding 1 skill add (9), dodge 1 add (9), faith (dunad) 1 add (9), find 1 add (9), first aid 1 add (9), medicine 1 add (9) ,  melee weapons 1 add (9), manevuer 1 add (9), missile weapons 3 adds (12), persuasion 4 adds (13), profession (sailor) 1 add (9), reality 2 adds (11), scholar 1 add (emphasis on the history of aysle , asylish nobility, plant life , animal life and zoology of aysle and so forth) (9), stealth 2 adds (11), survival 4 adds (13), tracking 4 adds (13), water vehicles 1 add (9), unarmed combat 1 add (9) 


perks - prodigy (1 extra possibility added to pool), radiant (light perk, draw additional card and add to pool at start of fight versus supernaturally evil foe)


longbow damage 12, 13 with enchantment on bow, longsword damage +3, +4 with enchantment, leather armor , armor bonus +1, +2 with enchantment.


As far as whether or not riley accompanies the PC's throughout the adventure that's up to the GM..on the one hand it could be a headache for an already busy GM (though the GM could simply write up a character sheet and hand it over to the player advising the player that s/he is responsible only for running Riley during combat or action scenes with the GM still handling role playing as far as Riley's personality ) ... on the other hand if Riley strikes up a friendship and/or romance with one or more PC's it could be a great role playing opportunity that could be fun for the players.    Make it clear to the players that as a follower of the Light they're inviting a goodie two shoes along who can and will protest if the PC's engage in morally "murky" behavior and who will desert the PC's ending her relationship with them if they don't change their ways - hopefully as GM you've already made it clear the PC's are clearly supposed to be the good guys in any given scenario and this won't be a problem. 



In addition to the relatively small house of Haleye that friendly noblewoman Riley belongs to I would have the following entirely made up minor Houses not found in the Aysle cosm sourcebook at all lead by sir Brock Denmane, Lady Irvette Yoxalle, and Sir Braeden Warwick be the other three houses Ardinay is trying to impress.. some members of Houses aleady committed to Ardinay.. Tolwyn stands for house Tancred at the dinner, ranking members of Houses Liandar and Gerrick   (see pages 110-111 and page 68 for info on Houses Liandar and House Gerrick as far as their motivations despite being technically loyal to Ardinay) also being present albeit more diplomats than warriors, the actual heads of those Houses being off fighting Utherion's forces in some other part of Aysle conquered Earth .. still the PC's can overhear these diplomats talking with the uncommitted houses desperately trying to get them to make a firm commitment to Ardinay... let's say Houses Denmane, Yoxalle and Warwick all live on smaller islands off the coast of the larger island-kingdom of Aysle (the kingdom not the cosm) and while smaller in comparison to larger Houses either not committed to or actually opposing Ardinay, it's clear listening to the conversation that any and all help is welcome and warriors from these three Houses would definitely be an asset to Ardinay's army of Light here in Aysle conquered Earth.  Let's say that given that their houses and lands are on islands, all three of these houses can also commit much needed sailors to help with the boats used to fight the vikings of Utherion's army, an asset Ardinay would very much like to have.


As far as larger Houses not committed to Ardinay .. this is where the original Aysle 1990's cosm sourcebook comes in with a more detailed look at the Houses though the GM will have to decide for his or herself how much of the 1990's content holds true for Torg Eternity... for example given that the Torg Eternity Aysle cosm sourcebook says Tolwyn is in charge of House Tancred we can assume that even if the events of the evil ursurper who fell prey to Darkness and took control of House Tancred came to pass in the 1990's Torg Aysle sourcebook, upon her return Tolwyn promptly dealt with the ursurper , probably killing him when she found out what he was doing to her beloved family and house and once he was exposed as a follower of Darkness House Tancred welcomed their beloved and famous warrior Towlyn back with open arms.. the 1990's aysle book lists House Daleron and House Bendes as either openly or secretly opposing Ardinay so the GM will have to decide if that's the case in Torg Eternity as well although since the Aysle Torg Eternity sourcebook makes no mention of House Daleron traveling down Utherion's maelstrom bridge and trying to overthrow Ardinay in Britian I would leave that part out - maybe they're agitating to overthrow Ardinay in Aysle instead.   As written in 1990's Torg Aysle, neither of these large Houses seem to be that interested in supporting Ardinay so it wouldn't make sense to have them in attendance at the dinner for Ardinay to sway them over to her side.   The corrupted dwarven house Vareth could perhaps be ignored completely since the torg eternity core rulebook section on Aysle states Utherion's forces wiped out most of the dwarves and elves.. perhaps in torg Eternity the former House of Vareth remained uncorrupted and were followers of the Light (or at least Balance) prior to being largely wiped out by Utherion and the dwarves that remain still remember the albeit possessed at the time ardinay not lifting a finger to aid the dwarves during their time of need.   



At the dinner the PC's have been invited to I would have the nobles vent any disdain towards Ardinay, not the PC's given their clear distrust of the recently (in their eyes) possessed Ardinay and their lack of faith in her ability to be a "strong" ruler who can fight off Utherion's possession in the future not to mention their disdain for the dark and sinister aspect possessed Ardinay's rule took on when she was possessed (let's say ironically enough all three smaller houses are devout followers of Dunad, just the kind of people ardinay would want by her side  but they haven't forgotten nor forgiven the tales they've heard of what possessed ardinay did) ... for example if the PC's  show up in attire not suited to a noble dinner party I would have the nobles coldly eye Ardinay and say " I see you can't even muster the resources to clothe your champions properly, these same people who risked their life for you Lady Ardinay.. and yet you say you're competent enough for us to trust a portion of our armies to you?" then have Ardinay wince visibly at the noble's words.   


Likewise I would have the snickering pair of young noblewomen snicker at Ardinay, not the PC's , with comments like " Oh look I'm Utherion the dread lord.. why am I wearing a dress?" uttered by one noblewoman with the other noblewoman giggling in response and looking over at Ardinay who hears this as well , winces but doesn't respond.. with every such comment "Tolwyn" should become more and more visibly angered, the PC's seeing the veins cording at Tolwyn's neck and so forth.   Also when Ardinay approaches them to talk to the PC's but mention that the PC's can clearly see the weight of guilt and sadness on her face and in her body language as she approaches the PC's with the same forced smile the writerss mention but for different reasons ... she obviously and bravely tries to put on a happy face when talking to the PC's... on a failed persuasion roll rather than smiling tightly at the PC's she heaves a sigh seemingly from the depths of her being clearly still depressed and wallowing in guilt, smiles sadly at the PC's and thanks them once again for their heroics at the trenches earlier on then moves on to talk to the other nobles.. as the adventure mentions various degrees of success on the persuasion roll have varying effects as far as snapping her out of her funk, but if the PC's are invited directly to her table rather than being jealous the nobles simply watch the proceedings with intense interest... the PC's can feel the nobles' eyes on the PC's, judging their every word and action  as well as that of Ardinay's, while Ardinay , obviously more cheered up now, asks the PC's about their backgrounds, life stories and so forth.    


Of course it's entirely possible the PC's may stand up and angrily address the nobles in Ardinay's defense.. I would have a seemingly dazed Ardinay look up at the PC's then smile sadly, clearly pleased by their words yet still obviously blaming herself for what happened....  of course give any PC's who make such comments persuasion rolls , the difficulty modified by how well they role played out their impassioned speech.    I would also have the friendly noble Riley who brought the PC's up to speed earlier on (but who sadly, earlier on before the dinner,  says supplies are stretched so thin at the castle that she can't find a proper outfit for the PC's much as she'd like to and strongly encourages the PC's to go out and find one) stand up and angrily give her own speech in support of the PC's after the PC's make their speech... even if the PC's are more gentle and persuasive in their attempts I would still give them that persuasion roll.   On a standard success or better I would have shame appear on several of the nobles' faces .. one noble should stand up and declare " Perhaps we've been too hard on you Lady Ardinay.. my house will have a talk with you tomorrow morning on the possibility of committing our forces to your aid of these Earthers of yours "  the noble gives a gracious nod in the PC's direction " But rest assured that it is, at least now, a possibility whereupon it was not before."  Another noble stands up and says " My house will do so as well"  " As will I " says another noble standing up... Ardinay looks dazed with surprise before shooting a brilliant, happy smile at the PC's making it clear that she considers this to be a huge diplomatic victory the PC's just pulled off.


This makes the sinister machinations of the noble who has fallen prey to the forces of darkness Kale Liander all the more clear as far as his motivations... the adventure doesn't say so but assume he's been approached by Utherion's lieutenants based on the whispers of Utherion's darkness device who sensed Kale's dark nature coming to the fore.. an expert at deceit, manipulation and trickery even before falling prey to Darkness, prone to selfishness, greed and having decided that putting himself into a position to arrange Ardinay's downfall will net him enormous returns from Utherion later on, Kale still makes a point of appearing loyal to Ardinay as so not to be banished from her side, snarling at the PC's if confronted that while his lady Ardinay wastes her time with the people of Earth, the people of Aysle suffer in his home world... Ardinay committed too many forces from her army to Earth, snarls Kale, and now his home world is at a disadvantage fighting the forces of darkness left in Aysle they still have to contend with... " If Lady Ardinay abandoned you Earthers, as she should, then her combined forces could crush the armies of darkness at home on Aysle.. instead she wastes time on you lot!"   On top of that make Kale openly contemptuous of the PC's especially the one he's chosen to snub on the basis of them not being from Aysle.. if a PC is from Aysle  he hates that PC for being a traitor " Why aren't you at home in Aysle defending IT instead of this Earth?"  snarls Kale - of course if he's aware the aysle PC is "simply" a transformed core earther he's as contemptuous towards that PC as he is towards the others and is similarly contemptuous to say a pulp hero who hails from Terra of the Nile Empire not Core Earth or a Orrosh monster hunter who hails from the home world of Gaea in Orrosh not core earth , spitting his contempt at the " non Asylish outsiders"... in short Kale gives every pretense of being a xenophobic bigot when in truth he couldn't care less and simply wants to subtly undermine Ardinay.


As far as stats for Kale which strangely enough were not provided in the adventure .. despite him being a plot device who is either killed or not killed by Tolwyn I would argue stats are necessary for Kale given the role he plays in the scene.. I was rather surprised to see that there were no "typical nobleman / noblewoman " stats given in the aysle cosm sourcebook or this adventure but here's some stats I came up with off the top of my head for Kale.. bear in mind he's more of a deceiver than a combat expert given how quickly Towlyn (admittedly a veteran warrior even in her berserk state) kills him off as stated in the adventure if the PC's don't intervene.



kale liander.. see page 15-16 of original Aysle sourcebook and note that house Liander is noted as one of the Houses that has come to Ardinay's aid and is present here in Britain on page 68 of the torg eternity aysle sourcebook.. assume Kale is one of the younger nephews of Duke William Liander who has been promised control of House Liander should Utherion succeed in overthrowing Pella Ardinay.   


Here's a picture of a handsome nobleman (which Kale is when he's hiding his frightening aspect .. let's say his teeth have become pointed when he's not able to use his smiling deceiver perk .. .) 


https://www.dreamstime.com/painting-style-illustration-handsome-medieval-noble-particularly-suited-to-historical-romance-fantasy-design-book-image138446362 


... Charisma 10,  Dexterity 6, Mind 10, Spirit 8, Strength 6, shock 6, wounds 1, no possibilities (he's an Ord ), skills beast riding 1 skill add (7), evidence analysis 2 skill adds (12), faith 1 skill add (same evil deity Utherion worships) (9), Find 2 skill adds (12), Language 3 skill adds (english, elven, dwarven), persuasion 5 skill adds (15), profession (noble) 1 skill add (11), scholar 2 skill adds (12), streetwise 2 skill adds (12), taunt 2 skill adds (12), trick 2 skill adds (12)


perks (all Darkness) Frightening Aspect, Smiling Deceiver (thus the physical abnormalities of the frightening aspect perk are hidden from the average person), Shadow step (see torg eternity core rules), linguist, wealthy (see social perks torg core rules for those last two)




For the next part a battlemap is not provided by the writers but here's one map you could use generously provided by angelamaps ... you would have to declare at which part of the map the fight is taking place but my first guess would be the big room in the center of the map.. the players may or may not notice there are no tables indicated on the map in the larger room in the middle but given the high quality of the map and that it indicates a room large enough to house the numerous nobles that are implied to be present I would use this map anyways


https://angelamaps.com/2020/11/02/grand-ballroom/


this map might be another possiblity but it's much smaller resolution - it does however have a dinner of banquet dinner tables


https://i.imgur.com/5mdi5G2.jpeg




The players may need to be reminded of Tolwyn's growing fury every time a noble said something bad about Ardinay at the dinner when possessed Tolwyn tries to rip Kale apart .. it's entirely possible that the PC's may want to simply stand by and let Tolwyn do just that ... remind the players that, especially judging from Ardinay's horrified expression, given that Tolwyn is closely allied with Ardinay a red eyed clawed and fanged Tolwyn is going to do enormous damage to the impression that Ardinay is desperately trying to make on the nobles she is hoping to impress and have Ardinay shout to the PC's "Stop her but please, please - don't kill her!" (this is a good time to remind the PC's of the non lethal attack options for unarmed combat or certain melee weapons , say the hilt of a sword rather than the edge, from the torg eternity core rules ) ... as far as the innocent bystanders she tries to kill next I would clarify this to Tolwyn glaring, blood dripping from her mouth and fangs, at one of the now terrified nobles who was insulting Ardinay earlier on " And YOU .. WHAT did you say about Ardinay earlier on?" before launching herself at that noble as well.. I would have Tolwyn not lift a finger to attack the PC's at all, instead snarling at them to "leave her alone" and after their first attack on her whether successful or failed for her next attack have her rear up at the PC's hissing eyes red, fangs and claws bared .. then stop, closing her eyes and holding her head moaning " No.. don't kill the heroes.. "  she opens her eyes , now not red, looks at the PC's and moans " What's happening to me?!?".. then her eyes go red again and she goes after either Kale or another noble.   As far as Ardinay .. and again this is where the lack of her stats being provided is a real weakness.. assume she has the alteration magic skill at a score of 29 and have her attempt to cast Peak Performance on each PC each round of combat from pages 31-32 of the Aysle cosm sourcebook, desperately repeating her plea to the PC's not to kill Towlyn.. 


Honestly I would recommend purchasing the original 1990's version of the Aysle cosm sourcebook in addition to the torg eternity version given that the 1990's version not only goes into more detail on the history and culture of Aysle including info on visitors from the noble houses who didn't come with Ardinay (see the Aysle cosm sourcebook for info on members of the houses that did come with Ardinay to Earth) and perhaps most importantly right now stats for Ardinay herself.


Towlyn has to survive for the adventure to proceed further... given that she still has possibilities to spend in her crazed state I would have her save those possibilities until and if she has to test for defeat should enough wounds be inflicted on her... testing for defeat rules mention you roll spirit or strength, whichever is lower, and she has a spirit of 12, spending a possibility raises a roll of say 1 to 11 at the least but at that point she's probably taking a -3 on that test for defeat and all other rolls due to wound penalties and of course a roll of 1 always fails per the torg rules.. honestly, as much as it might gall a GM who prefers to let the dice rolls stand where they fall, you're probably going to have to "fudge" the roll if necessary to Tolwyn's test for defeat resulting in at least a standard success even if it normally wouldn't go that way ... the adventure appears to hand wave this as well, stating that Ardinay rushes forward and stabilizes a dying Towlyn 


Afterwards the PC's are expected to defend a now unconscious Tolwyn, Ardinay's arch-mage and Ardinay from assassins that the mage (correctly) feels will come to attack the PC's while the ritual the mage and Ardinay intend to conduct jointly are taking place, a spell that will give them a glimpse as to where the components are needed for a spell to free Tolwyn of her possession.. as it turns out a possession of the Corredon's spirit, the dragon-like thing that Tolwyn killed as mentioned in the Aysle write up of that cosm in the torg eternity core rules.. another battle takes place as desperate assassins weeping and apologizing for their actions whose loved ones are being held captive attack , marked with explosive spell runes scratched into their heads thanks to Utherion that kill the would be assassins (nothing more than the ordinary servants of the castle) after 5 rounds of combat.. the adventure does mention the entire battle takes place in the pitch blackness of a mage dark spell  while an occupied and unable to help Ardinay and her cheif magus cast their ritual so players may understandably question why a battle map would be necessary in the first place.. still here are a few possibilities especially if the PC's find a way to end the mage dark spell prematurely, perhaps attacking the magical item (presumably a one time use item with a single "charge" lest you be handing the PC's something that makes them overly powerful) the assassins are attacking with .. note that the adventure says "everyone" suffers from the effects of the mage dark spell including the assassins but from Utherion's point of view it probably wouldn't matter anyways since he's turned them into hapless bombs set to kill the PC's with the resulting explosions.


https://i.imgur.com/EWTdM1E.jpeg


that map is impressive in my opinion but low resolution, another possibility is this map once again generously provided by angelamaps for free but you'd have to specify which level the battle is taking place in (probably the second) 


https://angelamaps.com/2020/11/10/wizard-tower/



I enjoyed the wonderfully evocative description of the four elements of the ritual needed to free Tolwyn from her possession as well as the adventure allowing for some flexibility in that the writers account for the PC's going after said four elements in no particular order.. I also enjoyed how the writers give a peek into the "woman behind the throne" so to speak as , while her chief magus prepares for the ritual, Ardinay quietly talks to the PC's about how Tolwyn is her rock, her best friend, and generally speaking the person who keeps Ardinay going.. while this also serves as an information dump that repeats and reinforces was friendly noblewoman Riley told the PC's earlier on it also humanizes Ardinay in a way that I appreciated although given that, like pretty much all Torg adventures, the writers take the (understandable) approach of packing as much action and events as possible into each adventure even if it means not being terribly narrative as far as PC speeches at the time, the writers simply mention the skeleton of Ardinay's exposition and leave it up to the GM to come up with the actual words that come out of Ardinay's mouth.. not necessarily a bad thing as GM's can tailor the speech to their particular gaming group based on how much role playing/getting into character the group enjoys.   


I should point out that there is an illustration of Tolwyn and Ardinay in not only the Aysle cosm sourcebook (if memory serves me correctly) but definitely in the Torg Eternity Core Rulebook... some cropping and/or use of the clone tool in the paint dialogue box in say infanview ( a free download I've been using for over a decade now, no spyware or viruses) could edit out the surrounding text (not necessary if you use the pics from the core rulebook obviously) so you have something to show the players though you'd have to make it clear that Tolwyn is not wearing her armor but rather a dress suited to a noble dinner party despite what the picture shows (Ardinay is no doubt wearing the same outfit in the picture minus the sneakers - dinner parties unfortunately probably don't allow for sensible footwear).


As far as a picture of ardinay's cheif magus, archmagus Wyrwind, while this picture doesn't really match the Aysle cosm sourcebook description of his beard that looks like a bail of rusty razor wire here's one picture possibility though the GM will have to alter the official description of Wyrwind if the GM goes with this pic


https://www.deviantart.com/gaudibuendia/art/Old-wizard-537023415


or possibly this picture more geared towards the "ornery old coot" personality Wyrwind is described as having though again no brown wiry beard which is something I've found is impossible to find on google along with someone in a wizard like outfit


https://fineartamerica.com/featured/alchemist-with-scale-johannes-weiland.html?product=greeting-card


technically there is a map provided of the room where the assassins attack at the very end of this adventure act seven in it's dramatic conclusion but I would save that map until the very end given the map clearly indicates all sorts of strong magical effects ... a magical force barrier around the room, red washes of energy... that are probably lacking in this particular scene... the adventure seems to imply that map indicates a different floor of the archmagus's tower anyways so you can probably get away with a map like the one below... take a look at the map on page 91 of the adventure and note that it is square not shaped as one might expect a tower to be (of course square towers are possible it's just that we're used to mage towers being circular or me anyways :)  ) .. so if you don't like the map below and want to come up with your own just bear in mind you're looking for a square room not a circular one.. as far as the map below and why there's a gap in the middle with stairs leading upwards that could simply be the way the lower floors of the tower are designed with  the top floor of the archmagus's tower the PC's find themselves in at the dramatic final combat-scene that serves as the finale to the adventure could be simply different in structure, a fully constructed floor with only the one staircase serving as any form of "gap" in it's construction as shown on page 91.  


as far as the link below ignore the rather complicated download instructions given in the post and just click on the picture.. this will let you download a picture that is probably high enough resolution for your needs anyways


https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/ld366r/oc_3floor_mansion_and_foundryvtt_pack_free_for/





The one thing the adventure doesn't make clear is how to rescue those unfortunate family members who are being held hostage to motivate the would-be (explosive) assassins... which is an oversight on the writers' part since the PC's, who are expected to be heroic good guys per the torg eternity core rules and the Aysle cosm sourcebook rules of Light vs Darkness on top of that, are going to want to rescue said family members... the GM can always just shrug helplessly and say with the would-be assassins dead there's no way to rescue the family members but players may insist on searching for them anyways... I suppose if forced into making something up on the spot the GM could have the players, with enough searching of the castle, find notes in say the deceased Kale Liander's room detailing the plot of the assassins which Kale obviously from the notes had full knowledge of and mentioning the location of the family hostage members , then just put them at an Act of the GM's choosing bearing in mind that this will probably influence the Act the PC's choose to undertake first in their quest for the four mystic elements to rescue Tolwyn.. for example the GM could declare that the family members are being held hostage on a boat somewhat close to land on the journey by sea to Olso in Act One where the PC's need to retrieve the acorn.  The bandits on page 139 of the aysle cosm sourcebook and/or the listing of threats and foes towards the end of this book where the same bandit stats are given again .. say two bandits per PC .....could be an easy enough foe to quickly overcome .. the GM could then declare that one of the captives knows how to pilot a boat and promises the PC's she'll get herself and the others they rescued back to safety on land though the GM should be prepared for PC's who insist on bringing the family members with them sailing along the PCs own boat until the PC's feel they've reached a place where the NPC's will be safe (you could give the PC's a very easy say difficulty number 2 Mind roll to remind the PC's it's probably safer to send them back home, potentially unfriendly seas and all, than it is to bring the NPC (former) captives with the PC's to end up facing the dangers the PC's will no doubt encounter along the way .. if the PC's insist you could have one or more NPC's dragged underwater screaming by the tenacle of the kraken the PC's encounter later on ... there are sailor stats listed towards the end of this book along with the stats for other persons and creatures that the GM could use for the sailor NPC but no stats given for your average helpless villager or citizen .. it might be best to just treat them as very minor plot devices who live or die based on how successful the PC's are.



Act two has an exciting encounter with a kraken that can potentially sink the boat (again look towards the end of the book for stats for the sailors crewing the ship the PC's are on ) and it's friendly (to the PC's) crew that the PC's start out in but where the adventure really shines.. and actually made me laugh out loud, in a good way, as I was reading it.. was the peek into the culture and minds of the Viking warrior culture where the acorn has landed and a close examination of Viking diplomacy at the "Thing" as the Vikings call it, what anyone else would call a summit meeting among the Viking tribes... the part where the PC's are considered to be representatives of the Delphi Council "tribe" and asked to present the case for Vikings who are considering joining the Delphi Council... what can the Delphi Council offer in the way of booty and plunder?  ... was, to me absolutely hilarious.. stats for your typical viking can be found, again, towards the end of this book as well as in the aysle cosm sourcebook for that matter.  


Four important Viking chiefs ... Trofastr, bastard son of the body Utherion is currently possessing (not that the Vikings know that) Thorfinn, Ingarta and Hekkr appear in this adventure and the GM can and should review the notes for them on pages 77-79 of the torg eternity aysle sourcebook... as well the GM should look up the notes on pages 103-104 on the "king" (a contested title according to giants in the home cosm of aysle but apparently not giants who came with Utherion to Aysle conquered areas of earth) of the giants Heidrek who enslaves giants who he's made enemies out of with (I would assume magical) chains and presents them as slave labor to Utherion... this becomes relevant given that there is a giant present whom you would have to assume is an enemy of Heidrek given that this giant, Naddodd, wants to secure the freedom of chained giants in service to the Vikings, something Utherion's vikings are of course not interested in at all.. this becomes relevant to the PC's in particular when Naddodd decides that the acorn the PC's are questing after as part of the ritual to help tolwyn is his "ticket" to freeing at least some of his enslaved brethren.   


This presents an interesting moral dilemma for the PC's who no doubt .. if they're being played as the paragons of virtue they're supposed to be in the first place.. may be troubled at the knowledge that the giants are unhappy about being enslaved and are seeking their freedom ... on the other hand I would make it clear to the players how important Tolwyn is as a battle commander and overall source of hope and inspiration in the Aysle conquered area of earth (I would simply advise the PC's they've heard so many tales about Towlyn since entering the Aysle conquered area of Earth in Oxford at the start of the adventure it's impossible NOT to know this) and that her loss.. not being able to complete the ritual.. would be a terrible blow to the Aysle forces of Light as far as their fight against Utherion... honestly if it was me as the GM I would make persuasion rolls against the giant very easy (difficulty number 2) despite the giant being listed as quote a "terrible diplomat" to be talked to , out of earshot of any other vikings, and let a quietly earnest storm knight convince the giant that the storm knight sympathizes and that the storm knight's "tribe" (to put it in terms the giant can understand) will show up under the guise of stealth one day and free the giant's enslaved brethren , provided the giants do something they'd no doubt be interested in doing anyways - take revenge on their former viking masters.    Of course this assumes that the GM has the time and inclination to write up some sort of stealth adventure later on (players should be reminded of the vunerable towynl back home and the possibility of further assassination attempts like the one they foiled recently should they want to undertake such a quest right away) but the GM could always say that should they succeed in their quest and rescue Tolwyn they definitely have enough political "pull" in the Aysle conquered area of earth at that point to have Ardinay sent a stealth strike team of elves, dwarves and human wizards under the guise of let's say an invisibility spell or potion who promptly liberate as many chained giants as they can find (let's say if the PC's succeed in negotiating with the giant as described above the giant warns his chained brethren to "be ready to kill those vikings my brothers, soon you shall be free!" earlier on) who promptly turn on their viking captors, with gleeful reports from delphi council agents coming to the PC's later on (no matter what cosm conquered area of earth they're in at the time) letting them know how much trouble the rampaging giants created for Utherion's vikings and seriously hampering Utherion's timetable as far as attacks and conquest.   


From what I've read of the Aysle cosm sourcebook not even Ardinay knows that Utherion is possessing the chief of the Vikings , and the Vikings certainly don't know this themselves.. while the adventure makes it clear "Thorfinn" (remember it's actually Utherion in his body) laughs off any suggestion that he's really Utherion and none of the Vikings take it seriously, I would flat out ask any players who make that accusation how it is that their character came across this information .. admittedly I would make it clear to the players that a lot of what's mentioned in the Torg Eternity books is potentially common knowledge for PC's who have had first hand encounters with or or information that's been brought to light by fellow storm knights reporting their findings back to the Delphi Council.. however there are a few things that are still not commonly known like whose body Utherion is in right now or the physical location of the Gaunt Man's darkness device (beating within the Gaunt Man's chest according to the Orrosh sourcebook but it is highly unlike the PC's would know that)... this may annoy players if you just got through telling them earlier on that the Delphi Council made it clear that if the PC's without any details no matter how small of their adventures to the Delphi Council that it can literally kill other Storm Knight NPC's who need that information... however I would use this revelation (or lack thereof) to highlight just how important it is that the PC's report everything no matter how small  back to the Delphi Council.. perhaps reports of how "Thorfinn" is acting can be cross referenced with reports of say disgruntled Vikings who actually defect and work alongside the Delphi Council to eventually expose Thorfinn as not being who he says he is.  


The PC's are given some opportunities to take the honorable Light leaning or dishonorable Darkness leaning options as far as two dilemmas they face when they have to beat three different factions... a viking warrior woman, a viking warrior man and a frost giant ... to the acorn in a race for it's possession.. the first dilemma .. deliberately triggering an avalanche on the viking warrior woman to kill her or at least slow her down as far as the race for the acorn .. gives me a moral dilemma in turn as GM in terms of whether or not deliberately triggering the avalanche calls for a PC to gain a Darkness perk... page 89 of the Aysle cosm sourcebook states "Committing an act which is clearly against the tenets of Light, such as killing innocents for pleasure or personal gain, activates the Law of Light & Darkness, and

the character gains a Darkness Perk.".... the viking woman warrior presumably is not an innocent and like the Vikings in general no doubt robs hapless innocents of their treasure and possessions... on the other hand the second moral dilemma.. 


....ignoring the signs of what appear to be gospog (actually undead viking warriors that Utherion routinely reanimates to fight side by side with his uneasy at the sight living Viking warriors) in order to press ahead towards the acorn and just hoping they will leave a village they are passing alone would, to be, immediately force all PC's to take on a Darkness perk with the resulting social consequences (their physical image becoming marred or twisted somehow as per page 31 of the Torg core rulebook ) unless a PC loudly protested leaving the villagers to their fate and only reluctantly tagged along behind the other PC's...as the Aysle cosm book states on page 89 the PC's will gain a Darkness perk as a result... warn the players they're going to gain a darkness perk with all the potential consequence... making enemies of the forces of Light the PC's are normally allied with in Aysle, losing their PC entirely to darkness if the PC acquires 3 darkness perks total the PC becoming an evil NPC under the GM's control and so forth.. hopefully the players will opt to save the village.   


Alternately the players may argue that they're in the right in that much as they regret not being able to save the village, saving Tolwyn is more important given her importance to the war against Utherion... I would be careful about allowing this argument.. it creates a slippery slope where the players can use it for pretty much everything and before you know it you have borderline or flat out evil PC's who are going to have problems in future prewritten torg adventures that assume the PC's will act like good guys.


No battlemap is provided for fighting the undead vikings which in and by itself would require some explanation.. perhaps they are victims of the same gloom storm the PC encountered earlier on and as enthusiastic followers of Utherion were spontaneously resurrected as undead given the ambient magic in Aysle's high magic axiom (for an explanation like that you might want to have the villagers tell tales of the undead vikings ... living at the time...who have already struck against the village once .... then sneering left things mostly intact as they left rather than burning the place down warning they'd be back for "tribute" on a repeated basis... have the villagers specifically describe the appearance of some of the vikings and the PC's recognize the description of the undead they just fought, the cold having preserved their bodies and slowed down rot)


here's one battlemap possibility 


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/inign2/snowy_mountain_wilderness_battle_map_22x30/


The third dilemma involves a "gloom storm" that literally sucks the possibilities out of those caught in it who fail a successful Spirit test.. alternately the PC's can opt to stay with friendly villagers (regardless of whether or not they rescued said villagers who obviously wouldn't know the PC's had an opportunity to stop the village's attackers and chose not to do so) .. but of course this slows down the PC's as far as getting to the acorn ahead of the other factions


Depending on how many opportunities the PC's take to speed things along for themselves or not any one of a variety of scenarios play out but even the worst case scenario ends with the PC's having an opportunity to fight or alternately try to reason with whoever got a hold of the acorn (PC's with no conscience who started the avalanche, ignored the villagers plight and who pressed on through the gloom storm simply get to the acorn first).    


there's a picture of the leaders of the two factions and the giant battling each other the GM can crop and show the players though the GM will probably want to save this for the confrontation with said factions later on .. and of course how long the PC's took to get there determines whether or not the picture accurately depicts what's going on (a three way fight) or not but at least it shows what they look like .. pictures of the leaders of the two faction leaders alone are present as well and could be cropped using infranview.


No battlemaps are provided for any fights that might result against any of these factions.. here's two possibilities and a search on google for " rpg map snow reddit" will turn up many more options though if you use those search terms leave the quotation " "  marks out or google won't be able to help you


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/inign2/snowy_mountain_wilderness_battle_map_22x30/


https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/dtez6r/snowy_forest_battle_map_22x30/


of course the son of the body Utherion is inhabiting (said son having no idea it's Utherion in his father's body) shows up to fight the PC's and claim the acorn for himself.. here's one possibility although you'd have to explain to the players he has a sword not an axe (he does have a shield as depicted in the picture) and he's wearing chain mail not leather armor


https://www.deviantart.com/ilkerserdar/art/Viking-414558826


The GM should pay particular attention to the notes on Utherion's stalkers not only on page 30 but also the notes on how Utherion deploys them in the "threats and villains" index towards the end of the book... the notes about how the stalker doesn't show up if this is the first of the four elements for the Tolwyn ritual should be taken into account but also pay attention to what I missed before lest you accidentally create a fight too deadly for the PC's to fight through... normally one of the four stalkers mentioned in the index at the end of the book is supposed to show up per Act in the adventure, with the appropriate number of Howlers per PC, one if the PC's are adventuring through this book at alpha clearance for some reason despite it being written for beta clearance characters (and sure the book offers suggestions for how to downgrade the difficulty of the encounters if you want to do this but why not run the PC's through say the godbox or fires of ra or delphi council rising storm adventures and level them up that way first?) , two howlers if the PC's are beta clearance like they're supposed to be .. unless this is the fourth and final element the PC's are about to acquire in which case the two remaining stalkers that are still alive (because they haven't fought the PC's yet) show up instead of one stalker.. the GM decides which stalker to send after the PC's in any given Act.


No picture is given for the mutated Howlers (former lurks changed by blood magic) though they are described as looking similar to normal lurks... so you could use the mob picture of lurks I suggested above or if you like tell the player they look different (purely cosmetic change that does not affect their stats ) and use a pic say like this one (click on the 3 dots for a download link)


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/662381057678101682/




again no battle map is provided (now that I think about it we've been through two acts in this adventure so far without a single map ! ) but here's two possibilitie and a google search using the words "dock rpg map reddit" will turn up many other options ... with the link below hit the arrow on the picture on the right side to navigate to the dock map that you want (and advise the players to ignore the tenacle monster there ..  or if you want to have fun have another kraken and/or the kraken the PC's may not have killed from Act One show up represented by the tenacles)


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/ljhkah/dnd_random_battlemaps/


though you'd need a webp to say jpg converter (note that the author says he does not have a patron account you can donate to he's quote "doing it out of love" , in some cases the image is just posted in webp format for some reason instead which  you can't use "as is" ).. convertio is one online option



https://convertio.co/webp-jpg/


or in the option below you'd need to tell the players that despite the green grass there's actually snow there


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/bncrcx/village_docks/


hard to find a library matching the written description in elven act two here's one possibility


https://i.redd.it/paryhq063cs91.jpg


and another though in both cases especially the second one the written description will need to be altered to match the map shown


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/ouhaos/royal_library_3_levels_with_legend_56x115/




Prior to reading the second act I would revisit page 72 of the torg eternity aysle sourcebook for a brief but useful section about Ireland or as the elves are calling it "Elfame" since the elves have felt a spiritual pull towards the Aysle axiom wash transformed woods of Ireland which are described as having spiritual properties long lost to the woods of the elves' home cosm in Aysle .. to the point where the majority of elves who accompanied Ardinay across the Land in Between to Earth left Ardinay on day 147 of the invasion of earth by utherion's forces (compared to day 24 when the elves presumably showed up along with ardinay see page 9 aysle torg eternity book) and took up residence in Ireland aka  "Elfame" though to the elves' credit their arrival is described as being quote "disastrous" for the Utherion allied forces in Ireland... you'll also want to re-read the entry on elves under the storm knight chapter in the torg eternity core rules to suss out information on elves in general and the difference between high elves and wood elves both of which are found in this act.



The second act involves a visit to the land of both elves and fae to recover the scroll that is the next part of the ritual to restore Tolwyn  ... see also the writeup (in personality at least if not statistics which, once again, are sadly lacking despite them being noteworthy NPC's) of the elven brother and sister on page 73 of the torg eternity aysle sourcebook... there's a high ranking high  elf Ellefaine who is openly friendly to the PC's and who generally speaking feels it is elven duty to assist in the fight against Utherion...  and her brother Uryafaine who definitely does not agree with his sister and who wants to focus simply on the welfare of the elves and forget everybody else  .. while the brother and apparently high ranking elf is openly angry towards any human PC's (and though the adventure doesn't say so is shocked at any elf PC no doubt asking incredulously " Why do you demean yourself associating with these scum?!?" ) it would be helpful if the writers mentioned why the elf is so angry right away (I would make the hostile elf aware of the events below in the human vs elf/fae conflict in addition to just plain not liking humans to begin with even if the elf doesn't know specifically about Rory)  or at least reference the GM to the page number later on (pages 38-39) although in all fairness the writers could be just going with the elven brother's dislike of humans in general although it would have been nice for the writers to clarify that at least...  since no artwork is provided for Ellefaine or Uryafaine, the following two pictures are possibilities or you could just do a google search for "elf noble female" and "elf noble male" 


ellefaine possibilities


https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/702913454320426871/


or


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/493073859201450379/


click on 3 dots in link above for download link 


or


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/493073859200838114/


as for uryafaine you could try 


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/597430706794246094/


or 


https://www.deviantart.com/dreeadraws/art/High-elf-noble-897309275


or


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/AdQVtQfkg0nB3h_AOIM-y74nMv9S1Psm2Cg3WETOEpWXbSKimVFvqsg/ 


A GM desperate for stats for the elven brother and sister could use the stats for an elven "dragon rider" from the original 1990's Aysle sourcebook and simply declare the pair are both former expert elven warriors who have been "promoted" as a result to leadership positions (the Aysle 1990's book stats would give a high Mind score) and give them the appropriate perks from the Torg eternity aysle sourcebook involving "drake riding" ... of course they would have more skills than the "any three skills at +1" listed in the 1990's aysle sourcebook... maybe give them profession (noble) at 3 adds, beast riding 3 adds, dodge  two adds, evidence analysis two adds, faith in the elven deity     at two adds, find two adds, first aid two adds, intimidation two adds, maneuver two adds, melee weapons 3 adds, missile weapons 3 adds, persuasion 3 adds, scholar two adds, streetwise one add, stealth 3 adds, survival 3 adds, taunt 1 add, tracking 3 adds, trick 1 add, unarmed combat 2 adds, willpower 3 adds... with that impressive list of skills they would be highly decorated former warriors of the elven court and probably what passes for elven nobility at birth.   


A greedy villager, Rory, who killed another villager for the second villager's magic pot gifted to the second villager by the fae though the angry elf knows nothing about Rory being a murderer, the elf knows only of the current human vs elf/fae conflict as described below .. 


I find it confusing that the fae who crept into the village to take revenge on Rory was described as "wicked" by the writers (sure the type of fae specifically mentioned is one corrupted by darkness in the aysle cosm sourcebook but why would such a fae be upset at a good natured soul being murdered in the first place? .. I would amend this to "just a fae")  - it sounds to me like the fae was just avenging his good buddy the villager dead by Rory's hand.. the attempt at revenge-murder failed and Rory led his fellow villagers on a counter-attack on the fae in general killing several fae in the very same cabin where Rory slew the hapless villager who the fae befriended, the fae struck back, Rory and the villagers struck back again angering the elves allied with the fae who struck back in turn, and things escalated to the point where the human baron in charge of the humans of this area is now practically at war with the wood elves allied to the fae.. of course Rory hasn't mentioned the fact he murdered his fellow villager for this pot to anyone so far ... 


as far as a picture of Rory here's one possibility


https://www.deviantart.com/katorius/art/Medieval-concept-A-vagrant-533375411


one possibility for the picture of the human noble and leader of the human village the PC's encounter could be


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/62/df/9e/62df9e3c6ae6901a0fe70761740e1829.jpg



and for the elven warden Wymark here's another possibility


https://www.deviantart.com/artastrophe/art/Kivan-571246531


....the adventure doesn't state why the murdered villager was so beloved by the fae he befriended.. perhaps his ancestors from centuries ago have been passing down tales of the fae who were friends of his family.. the villager hasn't forgotten the stories his grandmother told him before she died and followed the fae customs of politeness that his human ancestors practiced centuries ago on Earth presumably in some area where the magic axiom was much higher at the time fueled by the beliefs of the village ancestors in this area .. in the aysle axiom wash said fae returned to life with perfect memories of their lives of old and recognized the villager as a descendent of the human family that befriended the fae ages ago (leaving food out for the fae, speaking kindly to the fae when seen and obviously showing love and affection for them, using his "giant status" to do things for the fae in their woodland home like say wheelbarrow an inconvenient rock out of the way gigantic by fae standards  that sort of thing).. the aysle sourcebook doesn't give any statistics for fae but  the original Aysle 1990's sourcebook gives stats for fairies and confirms my suggestion that the faeries existed "for real" centuries ago on (Torg) Earth and have been brought back by the aysle axiom wash so if you have access to that book I would just replace the fae with fairies instead (fay according to the 1990's book apparently being the Aysle "native" version of fairies born and raised in Aysle's home cosm who migrated over to Earth and who are currently at war with the faeries... whether or not you want such a war taking place between the two in Aysle is up to the GM)


The PC's first become aware of the humans versus elves/fae conflict when the PC's see elves assaulting the human baron's castle that the villagers have retreated to .. see below for details on that.. but the common plot device that ties the whole thing together is the elven warden  Wymark .. see below for page numbers from both the torg core rules and aysle sourcebook that a GM can and should review to refresh their memory on elves in the Torg campaign world ... after the elven attackers on the human baron's castle are dealt with (peacefully or not see below) the human baron mentions warden wymark went to the elven leader's camp in an attempt to broker peace with the elves an attempt that as the PC's find out was unsuccessful though between that and the fact that the attacking elves need to be dealt with one way or another it's clear the elven camp should be the the PC's next destination.   After the PC's speak with the elven leader the adventure states that the elven leader directs the PC's to the home of an "old recluse" that the elven warden has left to visit but the adventure makes it unclear how the elven warden found this out.. I would personally say that the fae who have realized the "error of their ways" so to speak at the home of the murdered villager (see below) sought the elven warden out at the elven camp, tugged on the warden's sleeve, put on a mini-play showing only the kindly visage of the villager who was the fae's friend then urgently beckoned for the warden to follow, not re-enacting rory's theft and the events involving rory thereafterwards until it was just that particular group of fae and the elven warden at the home of the murdered villager (so all the elven warden knows at that point is the fae want him to go to the home of the murdered villager.. let's say the elven warden knew the murdered villager well as a friend of the fae the elven warden is on friendly terms with as well ) ... also while the adventure doesn't state this, since the villager friendly to the fae is described as a "recluse" assume that Rory was somenow able to quietly kill the poor villager with the cudgel seen at the murder scene later on (let's say it shows the hapless villager's head bashed in from behind, a treacherous sneak attack) ... and Rory simply left the villager's body in the dead villager's home , events taking place afterwards as far as the human-elf conflict distracting people enough such that nobody thought to go check on the murdered villager who, remember, is a recluse that tends to ignore his fellow villagers so they're not likely to check on him either knowing the recluse prefers to be ignored plus the adventure seems to hint that the old recluse's hut is some distance away from the main part of the village.. in other words the warden is the first one to find  out about the murder.   As far as how Rory found out about the pot let's say the old recluse got drunk at an inn one day, and wandering outside to relieve himself of urine, sung about his magical pot of never ending soup.. Rory was also outside at the time and was the only one who overheard (let's say this was late at night when not a lot of people were around to begin with but this inn was famous for being open 24 hours a day seven days a week in order to be able to attract customers no matter what the hour)... 


As you can probably guess from my meanderings above , this is one of those situations where, sadly, the adventure as written doesn't really go into enough detail given that the ideal solution is a diplomatic resolution to the conflict between humans and elves... sure the adventure makes it clear the wood dwelling elves are allied with the fae but if this is the case why haven't the fae simply told the wood dwelling elves the entire story of Rory's murder of their beloved villager?   Although the adventure doesn't state this clearly, I would just assume that even the wood elves don't speak fae , presumably the secret of fae language is not taught to anyone outside of the fae community.. the fae can and will put on a play (complete with costumes they sew on the spur of the moment, let's say it's a minor magical ability of theirs given how magic is a persuasive force within Aysle as mentioned in the Aysle cosm sourcebook under the axioms section) and the fae put on a play-reenactment of the humans storming the home of the villager friendly to the fae and killing the fae there , the fae responding in kind with, as the adventure states, setting horses free from their stables, spoiling food and breaking windows resulting in a literal angry villager mob attacking the forest the fae make their home in and killing any fae they find, all things the elf leader is happy to tell the PC's in order to advance the story's plotline (that's the GM's motivation here of course not the elf leader's  :)   ) ... presumably these fae know of Rory's involvement but choose to leave that part out, hoping that the wood elves will kill ALL the humans in the village who are left in retaliation for their beloved human villager's death... if this omission comes to light the elven leader angrily questions the fae with him who hang their heads and buzz their wings contritely.. the elven leader sighs and uses a finger to pat a fae on the head stating " I understand.. you were angry because they killed your friend.. one of the few humans wise enough to understand you unlike the rest of ignorant human kind, a rare thing.. no wonder you wanted them all dead.   And then when this ' Rory ' and his human allies killed all those other fae.. you wanted blood for blood."


... this assumes of course the PC's follow the hint that's dropped in their path when they flat out spot, without the need for even a find roll, two elves walking towards the makeshift headquarters the elves have set up in the forest.. but one would assume the elves are VERY good at blending into the forest so why was no find check required?  The adventure also states the elves respond with violence if confronted and this might be appropriate if the PC's attacked the elves besieging the human castle (see below ) prior to their encounter with the elf leader ... one could always just annoy the players by hand-waving it and simply saying the PC's spot the two elves allowing the PC's to follow them back to their headquarters (and I would give players who want to attack immediately a very simple, let's say difficulty number 2, Mind roll , to realize that simply following the two elven warriors back to their headquarters would be the better option if nothing else to gather information on the elven camp).... but what if the PC's sought a diplomatic solution with the elves during their previous assault on the human village's castle-home of it's baron?   I would in a situation like that have the two elves who are spotted have made the decision to deliberately let the PC's spot them hoping that the PC's follow them and if the PC's don't they see one of the elves sigh, look up at the sky in obvious frustration, point at the PC's then point in the same direction the elves are going in and throw his hand forward in a "follow me " gesture before continuing along his path shaking his head in obvious annoyance at what the elf considers human idiocy... in this situation the elf leader wants to talk with these mysterious new arrivals and see what their role is if any in terms of his attack on the humans in the village.


a map isn't provided for this encounter and hopefully the PC's aren't foolish enough to try a suicidal assault on all the elves (see below) but a map could be helpful if the PC's want to try to sneak up on the camp and simply ignore the elven warriors who are basically beckoning the PC's to come with them , although as described below given there's let's say hundreds of elven warriors around most of whom are hidden, hundreds of find checks against the PC's would result in many successful find checks against said PC's, the elves making the find checks passing the knowledge on through say their silent sign language from elf to elf until every elf including the leader is aware of the PC's presence .. in that situation I would have an elf make a symbol using his hands to the elven leader who simply nods and the scene with the fae plays out as described below.   Still, here's one map you could use for the elven camp for the PC's initial attempt to sneak up provided by the talented jacktannery of deviantart


https://www.deviantart.com/jacktannery/art/Madness-Encounter-11-Bell-Tower-interior-view-395549661


See also pages  76 and page 89 (description of elven wardens on page 89) torg eternity core rules and pages 13 and 72-76  aysle cosm sourcebook for more information on the elves in general and their relationship with the fae .. the GM should definitely read this over prior to running the encounter with the elf leader and probably should read it even before this act begins given the PC's encounter with elves from the very start of the act.   As far as the elven warden the PC's encounter later on page 89 of the torg core rules lists him as being one of the "warden" order of elves that scouted through Aysle even previous to Utherion's assault on aysle looking for dangers to the elves and most of those who survived Utherion's assault on the elves coming to Earth over their secret shame at their inability to stop Utherion before he came to earth.. or so is the story they tell non elves.. as page 238 of the torg core rulebook states the elven leadership brokered a deal with the gaunt man for him to halt utherion's attacks on the elves (basically preventing the elves from total extermination, as the aysle and core rulebooks state most of the elves were killed off before that by Utherion) in exchange for giving the Gaunt Man information on the Akashan cosm leading the Gaunt Man to arrange for the destruction of that cosm instead (see the orrosh sourcebook for more information on that) and for the gaunt man's powers to increase dramatically including the use of the gospog and nightmare trees the gaunt man could now use as weapons in his reality wars (again see the orrosh sourcebook), the gospog and nightmare trees being corrupted versions of originally akashan invention... more specifically the elven high council came to that decision without bothering to inform the rank and file elves or even the highly respected warden society of their decision, the wardens in particularly disagreeing vehemently to the point where they left Aysle and travelled to earth out of a sense of guilt hoping to make up for the "crime of the elven race" so to speak.   As the torg and aysle books say however even elves who disagree vehemently with the elven high council's actions won't tell non-elves this secret.   


as far as a picture of the wood elf leader here are two possibilities though in the first case the GM will have to decide if wood elves have facial hair or not (to the best of my knowledge the 1990's torg books did not depict even male elves with facial hair) 


https://www.deviantart.com/rob-joseph/art/Wood-Elf-421375382


https://www.deviantart.com/dreeadraws/art/Wood-elf-857459751



What if the PC's decide they simply want to attack every single elf in the camp?   The adventure doesn't state this but let's assume that there's ten wood elves that can be seen for every PC in the group and a difficulty mind 2 roll informs the PC's that while this alone is overwhelming odds given the elves' famous ability to blend into the forest and shoot from cover without being seen (something the PC's would have heard about back at Ardinay's headquarters let's say), it's almost a certainty that still more elves are hiding in spots unseen in the trees or throughout the forest making it practically suicide to attack even if the PC's try a sneaky assault on the entire elven headquarters  (hundreds of elves if the Pc's choose to find out the hard way by attacking anyways though I would have the hundreds of elves rise from their hiding places all with bows pointed at the PC's but not yet firing and advise the players that the PC's aren't dead.. yet.. but will be from hundreds of arrows flying their way if they don't leave right now) ... whether or not the PC's want to attack the elves I would tell the players that not once since entering Aysle have they heard a story of "evil elves" who have gone over to Utherion's side and remind the players of friendly noblewoman Riley's history of Aysle that she recounted to the PC's (Riley herself if present reminds the PC's of this) ... given that Utherion practically decimated both the elves and the dwarves , both elves and dwarves are far more likely to target the monsters that make up Utherion's forces... lurks, undead, giants and the like.. than humankind.    Or to put it another way one cannot automatically assume the elves are working for Utherion.. such a thing would be extremely unlikely in fact.   If Riley isn't present have the PC's remember this as they are contemplating attacking the elven base.. as a matter of fact I would have the PC's remember this while the elves are attacking the human baron's castle (see below) so it occurs to players to at least try to attempt a diplomatic solution.    


On top of that while the PC's are say surveying the elven camp to attack, I would have the fae put on the exact same play mentioned above showing angry humans murdering fae in the home of the villager who was friendly towards fae and then going on to attack and murder fae in the forest with the elven leader patting one of the fae on the head gently with his fingertip and saying.. oddly enough in English not elven.. " I know little one I know.. we shall avenge your fallen fae friends and family.".. then the leader calls out to the PC's " So now you know what happened.. yes, we saw you sneak in here quite some time ago... there are hundreds of us hidden in the trees around you, did you really think you could sneak by ALL of us?"  tell the players that the signs the elf made to his leader that they saw earlier on must have been sign language telling the leader of the PC's arrival.. " come out so we can talk about how you were misled by those human villager scum."  says the elven leader.    


What if the PC's simply attacked elves in defense of the humans earlier on when said elves were besieging the castle walls instead of trying to reason with them? (or if such attempts at reason failed)...  I would still have the elven leader order his two elven warriors to let the PC's see them and hopefully follow the elven warriors to the elven camp, with the warriors reacting as above with weary irritation if the PC's don't pick up on the hint.. in this case the elven leader despite the attack on his people is willing to give the PC's the benefit of the doubt in that the PC's don't know the entire story and, from the elven leader's point of view, have been lied to by the treacherous humans of the village which is how the elven leader portrays things, something the elven leader flat out tells the PC's " You've been misled by those treacherous humans".   If the PC's simply follow the elven warriors to the elf leader's base he still tells the PC's they've been lied to by the villagers as described above and unlike the human baron gives the PC's the complete story as far as he knows it (the elven leader knows nothing of Rory and his actions or else Rory would have been taken care of by the elves a long time ago and the elf-human conflict never would have happened), first gesturing at the fae and telling them to put on their play for the PC's , then advising the PC's that the fae came to the elves crying and begging for help using their plays as a method of communication, smiling gently at the fae and adding 


" They do not teach even us, the wood elves their ancestral allies from as far back as both races can remember, the fae language.. apparently it is forbidden.. it matters not, the wood elves are committed to the defense of the fae just as the fae help us in our times of need.. such has it been for centuries first on Aysle.. and now here on this Earth where fae from Earth flitted through the Land in Between to the wood elves... and some of us answered that call to see this ' Earth ' of yours for ourselves, wondering why Utherion had taken such an interest in it."   The elven leader's face darkens.. " One day the elves shall wipe Utherion from existence for what he did to elves, ALL elves , murdering more of us than we can count ... until then though.. some of us have come to Earth.. and we wait... and we watch.. and we gather information.   Speaking of which .. .anything you can tell us about Utherion would be welcome news."    This is an opportunity for the PC's to say anything they know about Utherion and advise the PC's they can if they choose to recount the story of the giant bearing the Aysle hardpoint who attacked the PC's in the trenches along with Utherion's lurches and the attack by the weeping assassins with their explosive ruins whose families were held hostage by Utherion.. the elven leader listens grimly though his face softens at the story of the weeping humans forced into the role of assassin saying simply " Family is important to the elves as well.. more proof that Utherion needs to die."    If the PC's choose to recount their exploits and/or any other actions against Utherion's forces they've participated in lower the persuasion test against the elven leader to difficulty 6  the elven leader appreciating any info given on Utherion or DC 4 if any PC displayed sympathy towards the fae who were killed as well (see below).    If asked about the "land in between" the elven leader blinks in surprise then shakes his head " That's right I'm dealing with Earthers.. you'll have to be excused for your ignorance" then discusses what the Torg Eternity core rulebook  and the aysle cosm sourcebook states.. that the Land In Between is a series of mystical tunnels connecting the caves and tunnels underneath Aysle to the same tunnels and caves underneath the Aysle conquered areas of Earth "How this land came to be I do not know" says the elf leader shrugging his shoulders " I only know that it is dangerous.. many of us lost our lives coming through it to this Earth of yours.  Who knows how our fae friends from Earth survived the journey?"  the elf leader looks quizzically at the fae who simply shrug their shoulders causing the elf leader to smile at them.


If asked about how the fae of earth came into existence, the elven leader says " From the plays they've put on for us, the fae existed centuries ago here in this ' Ireland ' and ' Britain ' and other areas of your Earth .. the stories you heard about them on your Earth were true.. magic had not yet been stamped out by your absurd disbelief of it - strange what the fae tell us yet we choose to believe it, if enough people stop believing in magic then magic itself weakens.. why you people of earth would voluntarily deprive yourself of magic I'll never know"  the elf leader shakes his head in increduolous amazement then continues " When the world of Aysle transformed these earth areas of yours over to Aysle , the fae came back.. what's more they remembered everything from their past lives on Earth, as if waking up from a long sleep.  They are just like the fae of our world, Aysle..what's more they know of Aysle, they have for hundreds of years now... we think that the original fae must have somehow come from aysle to  your Earth ... how we do not know and " smiles the elf leader at the fae " The fae aren't telling us which is fine.. all we know is that the fae have aided the wood elves again and again in our times of need on Aysle and so we come now to their aid." 


If asked how the fae helped the elves the elven leader replies " they make perfect spies, even more so than the wood elves.. we can certainly hide in the forest to be sure but what if you need information from the human cities?  Or you need information from the snowy wastes or the desert regions of Aysle?  There are many different types of fae, each suited to their own individual regions who all talk to each other, share information with each other.. and pass it on to all elves."   It's worth noting as well that the elfame section in the torg eternity aysle warzones chapter mentions all fae .. even fae on "oppposing sides" some following Light, some Darkness (and of course the fae beholden to neither) .. feel an instinctive bond with each other to the point where even a fae of Light may aid a fae of Darkness or visa versa and the elves are counted as fae in terms of their connection to other fae though I imagine the elf leader would be unlikely to feel the need to explain this to non-fae "outsiders".. though if there's an elf PC in the group I would remind the player of this.. and of course as the adventure states in the original written description the elven leader is more warmly disposed towards elven PC's in the group than other PC's.


if any PC's express sympathy towards the fae as far as the fae who got killed have some of th fae with the elf leader flit towards the sympathetic PC and land on the PC's shoulder and hair chittering excitedly to each other in their language - of course the PC doesn't understand a word of it.. the elven leaders'face softens as he says " They like you .. the fae can be surprisingly child like sometimes.. it's why the wood elves are so protective of them."   This drops persuasion rolls down to difficulty number 4 against the elf leader if the PC's already shared information with Utherion with the elf leader, DC 6 otherwise.


No matter how well the PC's end up getting along with the elves short of discovering the story about Rory and giving him over to the elves, the elven leader will not agree to stop assaulting the human village.  " Look you seem like nice enough people " says the elf leader uncomfortably " But these humans of yours slaughtered many of our ancestral allies, the fae.. we can't turn our back on that.  Just look at them!"  the leader gestures at the tiny fae.  " What kind of scum would murder beings that tiny?" asks the leader angrily.  "No, I'm sorry my friends, if all the humans were like you they never would have engaged in this .. EVIL.. slaughter to begin with.   We shall leave the women and children alone as we said to this human ' baron ' before, but the human men will be made to pay for their crimes."   Note however what the original written adventure states.. that the elven leader directs the PC's towards the elven warden investigating a human villager's hut and that said elven warden has already visited the elven leader and his warriors (no doubt trying to arrange a peace treaty much like the PC's) and that the elven leader points out that the warden was investigating the hut on a suspicion that it played somehow into the current hostilities between elf/fae and human... it's obvious the elf leader views it as far more clear cut than that right now given his lack of information about Rory... the humans launched what the elven leader consideres an attack on the fae out of proportion to the "non dangerous mischief" the fae were committing towards said humans (bear in mind the fae speaking to the elven leader don't tell the entire story , wanting the elves to assist in killing as many humans as possible in revenge for the murder of their hapless beloved villager, until a PC shows up with information about Rory that the PC presents to the elven leader ... if you follow my suggestion on this matter that is.)



As far as the elven assault on the human "castle" (a tower actually) that the PC's see before their encounter with the elven leader, it's true that the elves may not give the PC's any choice but to attack the elves besieging the tower although the adventure does allow for a difficulty number 16 persuasion test to get the elves to stop the attack for now ... again I would remind the players of what they've been told about elves and their hatred of Utherion and how they're far more likely to target the lurks, undead and giants that make up Utherion's army than humans, or at the very least Utherion's viking warriors - the humans in this village are definitely not Vikings.      


No map is provided for the elven assault on the tower or more specfically the walls surrounding the tower hoping to clamber over said walls but here's a map that jacktannery of deviantart has kindly provided 


https://www.deviantart.com/jacktannery/art/Madness-Encounters-14-17-Watchtower-overview-map-394925902


https://www.deviantart.com/jacktannery/gallery



Whether the PC's are forced to fight the elves besieging the castle or not, I would initially have the human baron leave out how his villagers took to the forests murdering fey in retailation for the fey causing problems, presenting only fey and elf aggression and painting the humans under his rule as innocent and only recounting the parts where the fae released horses, spoiled food and created similar problems in the village followed by an attack on the village by "those elven thugs who are friends of the fae" .. I would however give the PC's an easy (difficulty number 4) Mind roll to figure out that the timid (as the adventure describes him) baron... towards fae that is, the adventure also states he was knighted for service to Ardinay in presumably heroic combat before so perhaps he's fine against human opponents like vikings but supernatural things like fae bring out the fear in him? ...  is squirming even more than usual as he recounts this story leading the PC's to believe he's hiding something and if confronted reluctantly tells the entire story as he knows it .. he of course doesn't know Rory killed a fellow villager nor does he know that Rory led an attack on and killed the fae inside the house of the villager who was the fae's friend , but he does know (and admits at that point) that after the fae made such serious problems in the village that the villagers led an attack on the fae in the forest killing many of them (an attack that the baron was unaware of until after it happened) the baron indignantly maintaining that the fae had it coming.. of course since the baron doesn't know that rory is responsible for all this if asked why the fae would attack he spits " Because that's the nature of the supernatural .. they hate humankind!"  making his racial bias against supernatural beings clear.   


Afterwards the PC's encounter Rory with his magical pot of never ending self replenishing hot soup and the anger it is generating from fellow villagers low on food thanks to the elven siege of the village (presumably Rory isn't sharing)... canny players might immediately deduce that while they don't know exactly how this figures into the scheme of things yet a magic pot is a pretty big clue that presumably has to be involved somehow.. while the adventure states Rory only reluctantly gives up the pot I wouldn't have him actually fight the storm knights - killing tiny fae is one thing, killing well armed people like the storm knights who are Rory's size is another thing entirely... the scene  (and other scenes that would normally take place afterwards as far as the encounter with the elf leader and the encounter with the elven warden Wymark might never take place)  could end earlier right here if the PC's lean on Rory and use say successful Intimidation skill checks (assume persuasion rolls are automatically doomed to failure right now since Rory knows they have no hard evidence against him) ... I would set the difficulty number extremely high, say 20 , since Rory knows the PC's have no proof yet and Rory knows it's certain death for him if his guilt is found out (see below) but I would also say a sufficiently terrifying PC can scare the truth right out of Rory followed by Rory revealing his darkness taint and trying to flee as detailed below... of course when the PC's bump into the fae at the home of the hapless murdered villager that Rory killed that the warden is investigating and the fae enact their play showing how their beloved villager was killed, if the PC's let Rory know that they know what he did Rory tries to flee exposing his darkness taint as mentioned below knowing full well that his cause is now hopeless (the adventure as written simply declares Rory admits his guilt which I find highly unlikely - someone as selfish and  evil as Rory obviously is would at least try to flee ) - his human baron won't support rory's murder of another villager and will gladly hand him over to the elves especially once rory's darkness taint is revealed (see below).. when found out  I would have Rory get an obviously guilty yet terrified look on his face and try to run away from the PC's screaming as he runs away " You'll never catch me alive!" his face changing to a more demonic visage as described below showing his darkness perks more clearly now  ...don't bother with a chase scene just let Rory get caught automatically given how underpowered he is compared to the PC's or at least make it easy for the PC's if you want to resort to dice rolls .. use the bandit stats given in the Aysle cosm sourcebook for Rory but, again, he knows better than to try and fight the PC's in terms of attacking them, he flails around screaming for help wildly but if nothing else is restrained by the baron's guards who recognize all too well a darkness perk when they see one (it being a sadly common enough thing in Aysle given it's world laws) followed by the guards sending for the baron..  the baron  orders Rory be handed over to the elves, the Baron being clever enough to realize handing over the guilty party that started this whole mess should help clear the air with the elves ... if the PC's simply kill Rory on the spot then explain to the stunned Baron what happened (the guards immediately alert the baron who comes running over to the PC's and demands an explanation), assume the Baron takes the PC's word for it as the whole thing abruptly comes clear to the Baron given the angry villager eyewitness reports of rory's darkness-demonic visage, rory's refusal to share his magic soup pot with his fellow starving villagers and eyewitness accounts of Rory being a cruel and selfish man even before that according to his fellow villagers.. I would even go so far as to have the Baron grumble a half hearted apology to the elven leader who comes to collect Rory (or Rory's body which the Baron gladly gives over) and have the elven leader graciously nod his head in acknowledgement. 


Another possibility is that the PC's simply drag Rory away and carry him along with them .. I would have the other humans protest mildly but not much given they already dislike greedy Rory not sharing his soup during a siege ..confused human guards at the gate asking the PC's what they're doing with Rory should then immediately be confronted with angry villagers shouting about how Rory isn't sharing his magical never ending soup bowl with his fellow starving villagers .. the still obviously confused human guards shrug their shoulders and say " Doesn't sound like he wants to help us out then does it?   Hoarding food for yourself while we starve - we're well rid of you !  Take him with you."  a frantic Rory starts begging to stay put saying he'll start sharing his food but assume by then it's too late, as far as the humans are concerned Rory is now the enemy ... even if the Baron is brought into the picture he should also react with puzzlement then the same anger as the villagers and the guards when told of Rory's selfishness and give the Pc's his blessings to do what they will with Rory.   The moment the fae surrounding the elven leader see Rory they should huddle among themselves talking excitedly in their language obviously trying to come to a decision.. and then, deciding that while wiping out the entire human village would have been the best outcome (these fae are feeling particularly bloodthirsty againt the human aggressors), having the ringleader present and punished is just too strong of a temptation to resist.. the fae then re-enact a play as detailed below just like the play the fae at the home of the murdered villager would have put on, right in front of a frantic Rory screaming " that's not true !  That never happened! " ...a grimly triumphant elven leader then informs the PC's that they can tell " the human Baron" that the elves will be ending their siege of his village and the elves drag away a screaming Rory shouting " No.. NOOOOOOOOO ! " ... I would have Rory's visage change to that of a demonic snarling version of himself and remind the PC's of the world law of Darkness and Light in Aysle.. rory has fallen prey to the forces of Darkness through his actions and was obviously protected by the Smiling Deceiver darkness perk from the Torg Eternity Core rules (let's say he got the Frightening Aspect first but explained away his pale and sickly skin as a curse upon him by the fae, something the superstitious villagers believed... that perk was acquired for killing the hapless villager who befriended the fae, the second darkness perk..smiling deceiver.. was granted when he attacked and killed the fae in the human villager's home given it was a merciless slaughter, and his pale skin "vanished" after that thanks to the smiling deciver perk.. see torg eternity core rules for both perks).


.....assuming the PC's don't successfully lean on Rory and get the true story of what happened from him right away, the adventure leaves the storm knight PC's to figure out the mystery themselves as to how the human-elf hostilities started .. hopefully if they investigate the clue leading to the elf warden Wymark,  Wymark drops a major clue when he says that he thinks the magical pot, whose existence the warden is aware of, has something to do with the entire conflict (how or why he arrives at this conclusion the adventure doesn't state, if asked Wymark could just say he calls it a "hunch", or " gut feeling" )..if they PC's haven't found this out yet Wymark idly comments on how the fae have never in recorded history taught anyone, even their good friends and allies the wood elves, the language of the fae .. but the fae are very good at putting on plays..  this would be a good time to remind the players of their encounter with Rory earlier on and his pot  .. or even if the Pc's ignore Wymark completely I would have the fae just show up anyways when scene three is almost over if the players are having a hard time piecing together that rory is behind all these problems.. and fly in front of the PC's waving their tiny hands around clearly trying to get the PC's attention.. if the PC's are willing to pay attention I would have the fae put on an actual play as they flit through the air complete with costumes, one putting on a beard and villager outfit and a face mask of a kindly looking old man.. the second fae has a costume of a cruel looking younger man who tries to pull a pot away from the old man who frantically shakes his head no .. the younger man pulls out a club ( a tiny stick carved as such anyways) and strikes the old man until he falls to the ground unmoving... the young man shakes his club triumphantly and makes off with the pot .. fae gather around the body of the old man, weeping, then run after the younger man to attack.. the younger man gets away and comes back with more young angry looking men like himself who attack the fae ... the play ends but a fae tugs on a PC's sleeve pointing at other fae drawing a tiny picture in the dirt at the PC's feet... if the PC's bend down and examine the picture they realize it's a perfect drawing of the human villager with the pot he was fighting another villager over they encountered earlier on ... Rory.     As far as why this group of fae flat out tells the PC's what happened as opposed to the fae the PC's encounter earlier on at the elf camp, assume that this particular group of fae are able to take the long view.. sure, the wood elves could conceivably kill all the humans in the village including Rory.. but it has now occurred to this particular group of fae (albeit belatedly after the elven siege already started) that their beloved villager might have had friends other than the fae among the villagers and said friends could get wiped out too as part of the elven raid, something their beloved villager friend would never have wanted  (and indeed although this departs from the original description of the murdered villager as a loner I would have small children villagers present who start crying and wailing when it becomes clear who Rory murdered when Rory is confronted amongst his fellow villagers.. let's say the murdered loner villager had a soft spot for human children as well as fae and made a point of carrying candies with him for fae and children alike .. of course the distrustful parents would tell their children to "come along" and not entirely trust an old man who doesn't have the decency to interact with his "neighbors" and go live by himself on a hut on the outskirts of town but said villagers certainly wouldn't condone the murder of the same man though, antisocial as they might have considered him to be, was not guilty of any crimes as far as they know... maybe even build this into the play they put on with fae chidren even tiner than their parents playing the role of human children the fae playing the role of the murdered villager gives a friendly pat on the head to and gives out candies to) .. warden Wymark, who watches the play intently the fae put on, comments on this very same thing as the thought occurs to him and sighs saying " If the fae had just thought of that earlier on ... just point out the one wrongdoer instead of trying to get the elves to kill off the entire human village .. we could have avoided all of this."   The fae hang their heads in obvious guilt, the warden absent mindedly patting a fae on the head and saying softly " I understand... you were hurting and upsetting that your friend was killed , you wanted all the humans to pay.. but now you know better."  The fae nod their heads looking miserable.     Of course if asked the fae gladly flit along with the PC's and re-enact their play in front of a panicked Rory and all the other witnesses though the PC's will have to order humans who want to kill the fae on sight to stand down before the play is enacted... once the play happens the humans immediately turn on Rory shouting about how beloved the villager was to the community that Rory killed, the mess the village is in now is all rory's fault and so forth.   


Of course it's possible a GM may simply not want to drop all of these hints and simply run the adventure the way the writers planned, with appropriate consequences in the area as far as human versus elf and fae tensions if the PC's don't discover Rory's involvement in the events that led to the conflict ... the problem with this is the adventure assumes the elven warden Wymark gives the PC's directions to the next part of the quest, dealing with the hag Jinny Greenteeth (a corrupted dryad) to find the scroll that is part of the ritual needed to restore Tolwyn .... it's possible that even if the PC's didn't side with the elves in the inevitable elf-human battle that will take place at the baron's castle and attacked the elves that the warden may still help the PC's but I would  definitely make the elven warden not friendly at all towards the PC's as he imparts the information, commenting grimly on his comment that he was sure the magical pot was stolen and asking why the PC's didn't follow up on this - at that point I would have the warden grimly reveal that he did follow up on it since the PC's didn't and found out about Rory's guilt and actions that led to the conflict.. but the warden found out too late after the PC's had already killed the elves attacking the humans.. the warden grimly points out that the PC's might have been able to broker a peace simply by handing Rory over to the elves, sighs and then says that technically he's a member of the Delphi Council too like the PC's and if they're looking for the scroll it must be for important Delphi Council business as it typically is for storm knights (if the PC's told him about Tolwyn's plight then he mentions that too of course as being a valid reason to help) and gives the PC's the location of Jinny Greenteeth.


The next part of the adventure could very well result in total party kill ... Jinny is clearly described as positively dripping with evil , trophies from her previous victims all over the place outside of her hut... given that the PC's are expected to not only be good guys but champions of good, it's extremely likely they will attack Jinny despite her initial attempts to bargain with the PC's .. but she's described by the writers as being as powerful as a dragon (!!) and too powerful for the PC's to defeat.. here's how I would approach this bearing in mind you're going to have some very upset players on your hands... have Jinny scream at the PC's to "stop" during the entire fight, stating that she needs the PC's to do something for her and she's sure they can come to an "arrangement".. the PC's will no doubt continue to attack but given Jinny's immense strength she can easily make her final blow on a PC an unarmed attack for non lethal damage as per the torg eternity core rules but GM's who are willing to do so may have to "fudge" her damage such that she doesn't immediately kill a PC with any given physical or spellcasting attack .. once all the PC's are defeated (or for GM's who aren't willing to fudge dice rolls, once all the PC's are knocked unconscious and/or killed) I would have a PC dimly regain consciousness one after the other, the PC's seeing out of cloudy vision (but unable to rise due to their weakness) a screaming maiden Jinny was keeping unconscious for desert later on dragged out of Jinny's hut crying and begging for help.. Jinny screeches in her loud voice to the maiden  " You know I was like you once.. young.. pretty.. a dryad actually.. but I traded that all away for power.. SO much power.."  the hag cackles and the maiden says desperately " So .. you and I .. we were alike at one point then.. so .. you'll let me live because I remind you of who you used to be.. right?"  the maiden smiles desperately at Jinny through her tears.. Jinny smiles back at the maiden, says " Wrong", slits her throat and then wrings the maiden like a sponge dripping her blood on the PC's incanting words of magic the entire time .. ironically thanks to the combination of orrosh and aysle magical axioms and the power of corruption due to the nightmare tree (and sure it makes Jinny more powerful but she's still distrustful of any strange magic she's not familiar with , that is Ororsh in nature, and she's fully aware there's no such thing as a "free lunch" and wants that strange tree gone) Jinny can now enact a powerful magical ritual that heals PC's and even brings them back to life, something she explains to the PC's though she has no idea what Orrosh or a nightmare tree is she only knows that a tree that sprung up nearby has been giving off magic that she doesn't like since it's strange and different to her.. magic that was responsible for her bringing the PC's back to life as well as healing all their wounds and shock sure, but , snarls Jinny, she knows full well that nothing comes for free and she just wants that tree gone, period.  " Now" snarls Jinny " I need you to do something for me and I'm sure I can do something for you.. what would you like?"  Jinny crosses her arms glaring at the PC's .. 


At this point before the players can declare something like " I attack again !" I would temporarily stop the narrative , put on your most sympathetic GM voice and explain to the players that the writers state right there in the adventure, literally, that Jinny is too powerful for the PC's to defeat and they are expected to bargain with her and then immediately follow that with assuring the PC's that they will not gain any darkness perks or otherwise be victim of Aysle's power of Corruption given that their hand is being forced, Jinny is simply too powerful to defeat.. expect enraged upset players, be sympathetic, agree with them that an obviously evil foe that's still too powerful to be defeated should not have been inserted into the adventure.. then shrug your shoulders helplessly and say that while you completely sympathcize that's just how the adventure was written.. suggest to the players that after they "level up" at the end of this and other adventures .. tell the players the adventure states Jinny is an Omega level threat meaning the PC's need about 200 experience points total to be able to take her down .... they can come back and deal with Jinny and promise to the players you will remind them of this when they hit the 200 experience point mark.. by that point in the campaign I would have Jinny's appetite for helpless villagers and elves alike reach the point to where the PC's are lauded as heroes in the area Jinny lives in when they kill her, a parade is thrown in their honor, gifts are bestowed upon them (that may or may not help PC's who are at omega level clearance given these are mostly just villagers and wood elves but hopefully the players appreciate the gesture) and so forth.   


There is a picture provided of Jinny to show the players though you'll have to use a program like irfanview to get rid of the text surrounding the picture.. alternately I think simply taking a screenshot and using the crop function in Microsoft Windows paint program (that comes free with every PC running windows) should be enough to crop out the text and leave you with a picture of Jinny to show the players though obviously you'll have to explain the storm knights she's talking to are not the PC's or NPC's just "generic" PC templates that have been written up for various torg adventures mentioned in the "storm knights" chapter in the torg core rules.   The same picture appears in page 72 of the Aysle torg eternity sourcebook if you have a physical copy of that and simply want to hold it up to show the players.


When the PC's almost certainly attack Jinny here's one potential battle map since the writers have not supplied one complete with the swamp waters Jinny is written as rising out of to talk to the PC's


https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/jl3l49/witchs_hut/


The adventure differs from the orrosh cosm sourcebook in that the PC's don't have to face the same difficulties that they would in uprooting an orrosh stelae as far as what Jinny wants.. uprooting the nightmare tree.. this could be explained away as a result of the mixture of Aysle and Orrosh axioms though the nightmare tree itself does animate and attack much like it's described in the orrosh sourcebook.. also the orrosh sourcebook says that the nightmare tree is powered by the nightmares of the still living and helpless victim trapped within the pod in the tree yet the adventure states the victim slides out of the pod "long dead" according to the adventure.. I would amend this to "the victim slides out of the pod, moans " thank you !  The nightmares.. they're over now!" and closes his eyes apparently lifeless (and sure enough the victim is dead , another side effect of the mixture of aysle and orrosh axioms , immediate death once the victim leaves the pod)... as far as the PC's encountering Utherion's stalkers (it would have been nice if the writers mentioned specifically the page number the stalkers stats can be found on here but see the index of threats and allies towards the end of the book) I would make a point of assuring players that PC's who reach a deal with the stalkers won't have to worry about acquiring aysle darkness perks.. give the PC's a rather low (difficulty 4) mind check and advise the players who pass the check that they could always let the stalkers help in the fight against the tree and it's raven-swarm and animated statue minions .. then turn on the stalkers and kill these obviously evil servants of Utherion after that fight is done (I would make the stalkers aware of this too and try to flee with the hapless now dead victim and the pod the moment the fight is over ).


No battlemap has been provided for the fight at / with the nightmare tree but here's one possibility


https://www.reddit.com/r/DungeonsAndDragons/comments/eran0b/great_tree_2016_battle_map/


with the nightmare tree obviously being the big tree with the skulls surrounding it in the center of the map 


this to me is a very impressive map given that the battle is described as taking place on top of a hill


https://www.reddit.com/r/Roll20/comments/gehyp3/battle_on_a_lonely_hilltop_battle_map_30x30/


but you'll have to do some work in irfanview to insert the creepy nightmare tree at the center of the map .. here's a token for a creepy tree you can download


http://www.imarvintpa.com/Mapping/Terrain/Plants/Trees/Dead/CreepyTree_SB-c.png


and then using irfanview as per their help file log you can do this


https://www.irfanview.com/faq.htm#PAGE5


Q: How can I insert another image into the current image?

A: First copy a picture (which should be inserted) to clipboard, e.g. in another IrfanView instance. Now open the right image, use mouse to select a rectangle (or use: Edit->Create custom selection) and if you now use: Edit->Paste, the image from clipboard will be inserted into selection. In Properties->Editing, you can set to fit or stretch a pasted image into selection.  Hint: use the hotkey "CTRL + SHIFT + Mouse click" to create a rectangle selection based on clipboard image dimensions.


The next act involves the PC's retrieving a crystal as part of the components for the quest for the ritual to help Tolwyn... by default the PC's end up being put into contact (presumably by Ardinay's people although the adventure doesn't state this out loud) with a NPC Seeker named Oona who accompanies the PC's throughout the quest and, as the adventure mentions, can be handed off to a player to run her actions in combat to ease the burden on the GM .. there's a recap of the seeker perk pages 16-17 aysle sourcebook, but basically seekers like Oona have an automatic sixth sense that somehow (presumably magically since this is an aysle based perk) leads them to whatever they're looking for "underground" aka "the land in between"  ... and see also pages 82-83 of the aysle sourcebook for a description of the land in between ... as far as a picture of Oona here's one possibility



https://www.pinterest.com/pin/142778250675419498/


https://i.pinimg.com/564x/ba/ad/c6/baadc6975ec8abb2ac3091bb540ccf83.jpg


If you have access to it (and again I would strongly recommend it as a purchase and companion piece to the torg eternity version of the aysle sourcebook) see pages 18-19 of the original 1990's aysle sourcebook for info on corsairs and freetraders Oona probably hails from .. as mentioed in the 1990's version of the book, the  warmer temperatures in the area of Aysle those two factions live in would probably result in a darker colored folk just as persons who live in warmer areas with more sunlight tend to be darker here in "real life" Earth (with of course obvious exceptions due to heredity, genes and so forth) ... though a google search for pirate woman artwork will easily turn up a greater variety of "woman pirate artwork" which were the search terms I used if the GM wants a different picture of Oona to use.


the PC's end up getting dumped through a slippery naturally formed rock "chute" to an underground river going through a cave  ... no battlemap has been provided for this encounter but one possibility is this where you could just say the river narrows to a small stream going forward off the top of the map before widening back into a river again and also forms a lake/pool as shown in the map below 


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/c0knu7/underground_lake/


While the fight with the crazed edeinos makes for an interesting encounter this is another situation where the torg eternity writers in an attempt to cover as much ground as they could for an exciting mega-module adventure (which overall I will say I think they've done a pretty good job of doing) end up skimping on details players might be curious about.. the adventure simply says the edeinos ended up being trapped here after investigating a "blue hole" in the Bahamas but how did this blue hole come into being in the first place?


One possibility comes to mind if you examine the relationship between Utherion and Barak Kaah, high lord of the Living Land, from the Aysle sourcebook on page 96 .. they don't like each other but for no apparent reason other than instinct and prejudice.  Page 69 of the Living land sourcebook states that while Kaah isn't too concerned with events going on outside of North America yet (in order words the areas of Aysle Utherion has established on earth) that Kaah will also act to spoil any of Utherion's plans Kaah becomes aware of ...  also let's assume Utherion views Kaah as a savage barbarian and less of a threat than other high lords accordingly .. The first scene in the first Act of the adventure makes it clear Utherion is capable of having large hardpoints of Aysle reality created if nothing else through his darkness device (more than likely a combination of the darkness device aiding Utherion's wizards to create such a thing if I had to guess) ... what if Utherion commissioned the creation of a large Aysle hardpoint much like the one we saw earlier on?  Not a part broken off Utherion's Dark Fortress but rather .. let's say a stone throne carved with Asylish looking sigils clearly meant to enrage Kaah when his edeinos warriors see it and report the sight back to Kaah (assume from his conquest of previous cosms Kaah knows what a throne is and what it symbolizes, rulership ) ... the throne was accompanied by some of Utherion's finest agents aboard a Viking ship with the orders to establish a "beachhead" of sorts in the Living Land from which said agents could gather information on the Living Land and transmit it back to Utherion via magical means ... the secondary goal of course being to effectively give the finger to Kaah .. 


At the risk of not sounding original I'm going to steal an idea that pops up in other torg eternity prepublished adventures like say the fires of ra in this case.. the viking ship had the unfortunate luck of hitting a reality storm close to the Bahamas (and if you look at page 3 of the Living Land cosm sourcebook you will see that Kaah has in fact conquered a large portion of the Bahamas converting it to Living land reality) which interacted with the  Aysle hardpoint in unforeseen ways, killing all of Utherion's agents, leaving the boat miraculously still afloat but wrecked to the point where it could no longer set sail .. and also establishing a swirling blue hole of water in the waters off the coast of the Bahamas.. coincidentally and no doubt related to this, page 64 of the adventure book states that once the PC's sail to the Isles of Scillly off the coast of England, now transformed by the Aysle axiom wash into a series of islands called " The Gemstones", that quote " The warm waters here well up from a huge blue hole just off the north shore of St. Mary’s island, smack dab in the middle of the archipelago. The blue hole, known locally as “The Pit,” tunnels straight through the Land Between to the hot inner seas of Aysle, which pumps a constant upwelling of heated water through the Pit. As a result, these islands enjoy a subtropical micro climate that extends a couple dozen kilometers in any direction.  .. in the case of the blue hole near the Bahamasa, as it turns out the mix of Aysle and Living Land realities that occurred thanks to the interaction between the Living Land axioms of the reality storm around the Bahamas and the Aysle hardpoint resulted in a portal being created to what the axioms recognized as the "closed equivelent" to the Living Land's Land Below .. .Aysle's Land in Between ... as well as being an approximation (and probably physically connected to ) the blue hole "pit" in the Gemstones.


The edeinos the PC's encountered trapped in the cave, knowing Kaah would want this investigated and using the canoes they've begun to experiment with no doubt constructed from the wood and animals of the Living Land conquered areas of earth (see bluespine edeinos and canoes comment page 42 living land sourcebook) 

hopped off their canoes, swam out to investigate the wreckage of the viking ship .. and found themselves sucked into the blue hole..  the hapless edeinos found themselves sucked into the pond area in rock cave which ,oddly enough the edeinos wouldn't have a problem with since unworked naturally occurring stone is considered to have it's own "spirit" in edeinos religion (see "the living and the dead" pages 80-81 living land sourcebook) .. but still, away from their beloved Living Land, deprived of the constant presence of Lanala every edeinos can feel thanks to the high spiritual axiom of the Living Land, deprived of the lush plant life and foliage they're normally surrounded by, deprived of (one can assume even in the waters the bluespine clan these edeinos belong to favor the plant life is still lush and vibrant in response to the influence of the Living Land)  properly challenging sea-prey to hunt (sharks perhaps as well as the plesiosaurus aquatic dinosaur mentioned below)  to make the edeinos feel alive and enjoy the sensations they so desperately need.. anger, fear, triumph, and so many others ... see the page numbers of the living land sourcebook given below for descriptions of the bluespine tribe these edeinos belong to but but basically any edeinois stuck in a pond in a cave with only fish to hunt and survive on (and where's the challenge in hunting fish) .. no wonder they're insane. 


As far as the PC's finding out what Utherion's plan was later on (players might be understandably curious as to where this blue swirling hole in the waters came from and the edeinos shrugging their shoulders should the PC's befriend the edeinos - more on that later - doesn't provide a satisfactory answer... to avoid player frustration the GM should inform the players they don't know the answer to this yet but it will come up in the future), maybe they come across some person in Aysle playing a dangerous game, a spy in Utherion's forces, more concerned with selling information he gathers to the delphi council than any loyalty to Utherion ... utterly corrupted by the Darkness of Aysle of course but tolerated by the Delphi Council for the information he provides .... perhaps the PC's come across this spy later on, directed to him or her by the Delphi Council , and the agent discloses this "valuable information" according  to the spy including Utherion's rage when Utherion's mages uses their magical scrying spells to seek out the hardpoint and see only a swirling blue pool in the Bahama waters and the wreckage of the Viking ship it was supposed to be on .. perhaps Utherion even blames Kaah for this not knowing of course a reality storm was responsible.. 


 


The players have no way of knowing the edeinos are insane as the adventure mentions, why they are insane, or how the heck the edeinos got here in the first place and players may understandably be puzzled as to what the heck edeinos are doing in Aysle so far away from the Living Land to begin with ... personally speaking I would have one of the edeinos, first round of combat, lose a potential attack on a PC , stopping to stab himself with his own spear instead ... observing this the other edeinos laugh that, despite it's sibilant non-human fashion, clearly has the tone of hysteria and a generally feeling of being unhinged - manaical laughter.. followed by all the edeinos sobbing and saying in English " trapped .. alone... no way out."    If any PC stops to try to reason with or talk to the edeinos diplomacy is possible unless, in the sadly time honored tradition of certain gaming groups, one player gets impatient with the time spent on diplomacy and attacks mid-peace talks in which case of course the edeinos respond with violence and the fight continues no doubt to the death (which is why I mentioned earlier on it should be made clear to the PC's that there should be no doubt they are the good guys in any given scenario).



The edeinos should relay what they know if peace talks start .. " We sssaw the wreckage of a ssship floating in the water the head carved into the front of the big wooden floating thing  (just because they know how to make canoes doesn't necessarily mean the edeinos KNOW earthers call it a canoe - assume these edeinos refer to their canoes as "small wood and animal skin things we float on and use sticks to move it " ) had " a head carved out of the wood in front that looked just like the mighty ... you eartherssss call it a ' t-rex ' for some reasson ... but the sship was mostly broken, just floating in the water.. we came out in our sssmall-wood-and-animal-skin-thingsss-we-float-on-and-use-sticksss-to-move-it thingsss because we knew Ssssaar Kaah would want to know about it .. and then we ssaw the big ssswirling blue hole in the water .. sssaw it too late.. it sssucked us into the water and we travelled far, so so far... until we were here, in this cave."  The edeinos who is speaking gestures around himself... from the description of the larger boat the edeinos mentioned it sounds like a Viking longship, the type of vessel Utherion's Viking warriors are famous for... but why would it be so close to the Living Land when that area is so far away from the Aysle conquered areas of Earth (tell this to the players that is as part of the description). 


"We have been here for so long... we cannot even sssay how many times the sssun and moon has sset for we cannot see the sssun and moon".. an edeinos who sounds female in comparison to the first speaker continues, higher pitched in voice at least.   " So long... away from the presence of Lanala... you Earthersss do not understand, we FEEL our goddessss in the very air around ussss.. we take joy in the giftsss she gives usss.. the lusssh plant life of the watersss that we gather for food and decorations.. the thingsss you humans call ' sssharks ' that we ssswim after and kill, the thrill of the hunt... all of this is lossst to uss now... LOSSSST ! "   the female edeinos starts wailing in agony and the other edeinos follow suit.


One edeinos stabs downwards into the water with his spear and comes up with a fish... " Prey?  You call this prey?!" spits the edeinos in disgust.   " Prey is sssupposed to be able to kill you!  Where isss the excitement, the thrill of not knowing if you will live or die?  This ' prey ' is all we've had to eat!"    


" No way out " moans another edeinos holding his head... the edeinos says this despite a trail you can clearly see in the distance leading out of the cave.    


If the trail is pointed out the edeinos moan and shake their heads " No it issss a trick.. not real, we are sssseeing thingssss.. we've sseeen thingssss that aren't real before." .. and that's no lie, the insane edeinos are starting to suffer from hallucinations. 


If the PC's .. who hopefully decide to be the heroes they should be.. try to convince the edeinos that it's not a hallucination and there really is a path leading out of the cave.. point out that the PC's are taking insane edeinos who are seeing hallucinations with them which is risky - but on the other hand definitely a heroic thing to do, it's up to the PC's.. I wouldn't necessarily punish the PC's with a darkness perk if they decide understandably to leave the edeinos to their fate (in which case the edeinos don't attack they just stand there sadly watching the PC's walk away ) ... but if they decide to guide the edeinos out of there anyways I would immediately award two bonus possibilities to each PC on the spot .. they'll need it for the fight against the insane deity Gorm later on (see below) .. despite the threat of insane hallucinating edeinos attacking the PC's I wouldn't have them do so even if the drama deck indicates a setback or some other problem for the PC's.. maybe instead of helping the PC's attack their foes like they should be doing that combat round the edeinos hold their heads moaning and saying " No you're not Barak Kaah.. you're not the Saar" despite the fact the foe attacking the PC's is clearly not the Saar (the mad edeinos should be looking at the foe as they say that) 


The edeinos should tell the PC's to wait a moment and swim out then come back with the sapphires they have that are mentioned in the adventure that they gladly give to the PC's if the PC's try to rescue the edeinos from their captivity.


On the way out of the cave the grateful edeinos should also give up a wealth of information on the bluespine tribe of edeinos (advise the PC's they don't know this yet but if they pass this info on to the delphi council the council is very grateful as a lot of this is new information not known to them of potential help to storm knights in the Living Land) ... see the following pages in the Living Land sourcebook.. 

pages 76, pages 127-128 plesiosaurus acquatic dinosaur, pages 134-135 their champion   Silithar Tuy (not to be confused with their leader Manathar Tuy), pages 14-15 bluespine clan perk ... the GM should point out the blue coloration of the edeinos' scales, the webbing between their finger and toes... some key points from those pages


 (I came up with the part as to why the edeinos don't like bluespines  since the Living Land book is vague on this) .. " The other tribesssss don't like ussss becausssse they think we are cowardsssss... that we ssssspend too much time in the water not hunting prey or tessssting ourssssevles againssst the dangersss of the Living Land."


" Liessss  ! " spits another edinos angrily.  " We come out and hunt other prey not in the water too ... but there'ssss so much to do in the water that can be dangeroussss.. they don't throw themsselves over a waterfall to ssssee if they can sssurvive hitting the sssstones at the bottom.. they don't hunt plessssssiosssssaurussssss like we do - " 


" Plessss's are big .. what you humanssss call dinossssaurssss.... who live in the water... ssssome we hunt.. very dangerousss, good prey! Otherssss we make friendsss with , tame inssstead of kill and ride " interrupts another edeinos.


" And they don't hunt the.. what do you earthersss call them?  Yessss, ' sssharksss ' .. sssharksss are good prey, very good prey" says another edeinos enthusastically.


" And we are sssso good at being in water too.. can ssstay in it for hoursss without breathing , can move through water assss fassst asss on land ... " 


"And the beauty" sighs another edeinossss happily.  " Ssssooo beatiful in the water.. we dive deep, sssseee so many beautiful plantssss.. may good to eat !   Sseeee pretty rockssss under the waterssss too that we collect"


"Other tribessss know nothing " spits another edeinos angrily. " We not cowardssss.. they jusssst don't know how beautiful the watersss are.. " 


Clever PC's may suggest that if the other tribes dislike the Bluespines so much that why haven't the Bluespines defected from Barak Kaah?  The edeinos look at each other uneasily then one says


" In truth humanssss.. and thissss is ssssomething that would get ussss banned from our tribe but... you are helping usss so we tell you"  the edeinos shrugs then continues... " There are many edeinosss... bluespine, other clanssss.. who have a problem with Kaah's rule.. you have sssseeen the gossspog yesss?   Yessss fine plantss are put in the dead bodiesss of you eartherssss to make them walk and attack even after dead .. but issss not good plantssss.. issss not life .. isss death!  Death issss part of life in the Living Land yesssss.. but you let body decay, feed the plantssss, return to the cycle of life.. you don't make the dead body walk around!  Isss wrong!   Many edeinossss feel thisss way, more than Kaah knowsss.. ssssome leave Kaah."


"Leaving Kaah very dangeroussss " interjects another edeinos.  " Issss certain death if Kaah catches you.. even if he doesssn't Kaah hassss many, many edeinossss still loyal to him ... ssssso is dangerousss.. we like danger yesssss, makesss usss feel alive.. but certain death when there'ssssss sssso much we can experience , live for... ssssensationssss... pain, pleasssure, love, anger, hate, fear... thessse are all important.. we want to experience assssss much for asss long asss we can"


"But to experience fear we mussst put ourssselvess in dangeroussss ssssituationsss sssso there isss that too."  says another edeinos with the rest of the edeinos nodding in agreement with the statement. " But how much danger isss good?  Thiss is for each edeinosss to decide."


 "Sssstill, we shall tell Sssssilithar Tuy  .. our champion... and our leader, Manathar Tuy .. what you did for ussss" 


" Sssssilithar Tuy issss great warrior.. crushed plessssssiosssssaurussssss dinosssaur neck with bare hands in combat."  declares an edeinos the others nodding approvingly.  


If any bluespine edeinos survive , sure enough after a friendly realm runner in England ferries them back (they are of course tearfully grateful to the PC's the moment the PC's lead them out of the cave back to the surface world though some explanations will be required for astonished English soldiers who have never seen an edeinos in their lives), they report what the PC's did for them back to the Tuy champion and chieftain.. impressed with the PC's sense of honor in helping the bluespine warriors out, but loyal to Kaah at the same time, , the Tuy's consult with their priest and eventually rule that the bluespine warriors the PC's helped must be banished from the tribe.. but will always be remembered for their great adventure surviving the "torture" of being trapped in a cave for so long away from Lanala and the Living Land - fortunately the edeinos find their sanity coming back to them once back in the welcoming embrace of the Living Land and feeling the presence of their deity Lanala once more ... the chieftain speaks privately with the bluespines and shares the location of a bluespine tribe not loyal to Kaah but which doesn't actively oppose Kaah either and suggests the bluespines seek said tribe out.. the next time the PC's are in the Living Land with an appropriate result on the Drama Deck (connection card played or just if the GM feels like it ) the now completely sane and very grateful  Bluespine warriors the PC's helped show up if there's an appropriate water source within walking distance at least (not hard to find at all in the Living Land which presumably has a lot of ponds and streams as part of it's makeup) who help the PC's out.. 


Should the PC's bring the edeinos with them I would play up the encounter between the edeinos and the dwarves just for fun...


dwarf:  " By the deities-we've-turned-our-backs-on what are you?  Did some wizard curse you?"


edeinos sounding confused " What?"


dwarf:  " By the lands above and below lad you look like a lizard had a baby with a human!"


edeinos sounding angry:  " I have sssssseen thessse lizardssss you ssspeak of human... they are tiny and weak.. We are not tiny and weak!"


dwarf rubbing his chin " Well you're not tiny that's for sure... are you sure you're not cursed?"



I was pleasantly shocked at the map of the dwarven fortress built within a stalactite though it's clearly meant more to help the GM visualize what the writers are saying about the fortress than presenting an actual battle map for conflict ... still it's an unexpected and helpful asset to the GM given (I'm not trying to be snarky I swear) the constant lack of maps in this adventure even more so than say the godbox or fires of ra.


The PC's can clearly see an undead dwarf.. a wight.. on the other side of the chasm upon which the stalactite fortress hangs ... no picture is provided of said wight dwarf but here are a few possibilities though they do not have the pitch black eyes wights are supposed to have (GM may or may not want to tell the players to imagine this picture with pitch black eyes instead)


https://www.deviantart.com/texahol/art/Ironhide-584918531


https://www.deviantart.com/wyndagger/art/Dwarf-Undead-837817074


of course if you google search "dwarven warrior" there are a ton of artwork possibilities but here's one of them for the dwarven captain 


https://www.deviantart.com/shonensan/art/dwarf-32958157

 Of course this features an exciting fight scene as most scenes in this adventure do.. 


but no battlemap is provided for the scene in the vault where the lurks burst in and start fighting the dwarves (and no doubt the PC's) for control of the magical lightforge, 

an enchanted item that imbues magic to the things it creates out of metal .. here's one possiblity for a map though the GM will have to explain the "passage" leading out of the room is actually a set of stairs


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/581949583084101735/


click on the 3 dots shown for a download link


otherwise there's


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/60446819979201282/


or


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/134334001364115129/


(that last one could be an interesting alternative where the GM declares that the pit is where the Lightforge is normally kept with the lurks trying to haul it out with chains ... the same chains could be used by the dwarves and PC's to lug it out of the pit or for humor's sake have the dwarves actually help the surprised lurks lug it out of the pit then fight the lurks for it) 


with the last two map options the GM will have to use the paint function toolbar in infranview to draw an arrow or something showing where the stairs are leading .. infranview will also need to be used to paint a "hole" in one of the walls somewhere showing where the troll burrowed a passage through.


there is a picture of a troll on page 133 of the Aysle torg eternity sourcebook though the GM would need to use infranview to crop out the other creatures shown in the illustration or just "paint" over them with a black paintbrush from the paint toolbar


As far as the PC's being doomed to failure as the adventure states if they try to help the dwarves get the Lightforge out of there as the fortress collapses around them.. the problem with this is that it can be rather depressing for players to be told " Nope you were doomed to failure no matter what" especially if the PC's are trying to be heroic as the torg eternity publications expect them to be.. I would amend that to the following... make it a dramatic skill resolution using one of the two drawbridge maps provided below (the second map can actually double as a map for the PC's to fight the undead dwarven wight at the end of the chasm which the PC's need to get onto anyways to exit the fortress and continue their quest though you'll have to explain with the second map that the drawbridge connects to the crumbling dwarven fortress on the left hand side and the dirt floor/tunnel pictured is not there.. or just paint over it with a black paintbrush using infranview to wipe it out ) ... simply put, steps A, B, C, and D are any combat action whether it be a straight up attack, interaction (trick, taunt and so forth) or what have you against the lurks and possibly the troll if the PC's decided to simply beat a hasty retreat rather than fight the lurks and troll mentioned above, and if the PC's get through all four steps (remember the last ditch effort option) they succeed in getting the Lightforge out of the fortress before it collapses, the dwarven warriors and captain being busy pushing the Lightforge down the drawbridge in the meantime (so in other words just the dwarves pushing is enough the PC's don't have to help despite what the adventure says as written).. of course if the edeinos warriors are with the PC's and still alive they help the PC's fight too and can possibly even succeed on a step A, B, C or D check if the PC's fail one of their combat checks... setbacks and so forth can involve PC's nearly falling off the drawbridge and hanging on for dear life until another PC can help them climb back up (assuming the other PC's simply don't leave the hapless PC there to struggle up on his or her own.. I would strongly hint this is a bad and selfish thing to do, describe how the PC's faces momentarily turn demonic and twisted and remind them of the Law of Light and Darkness in Aysle and warn them they could be facing acquiring a darkness perk if they don't help their fellow PC out) .. 


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/1266706136303075/


https://i.pinimg.com/originals/79/3c/12/793c123875cb8b899db91cd79423caa2.jpg


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/ew9fib/fortress_entrance_42x42_free_to_use/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf


if the GM wants or prefer a different map for the dwarven "village" (remember the adventure describes it as stone buildings) where the fight with the dwarven wight takes place here are a few possibilities 



dwarven village maps 


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/ptrmjp/battlemap_of_an_underground_dwarven_city/


first option, second option


https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/qw1kkp/underground_city_gurdhul/


Should the PC's get the lightforge out of there make sure to role play out the positive consequences both now and in the future .. as for now while the dwarven captain apologetically states he needs to take 8 of his warriors (minus however many were killed) and himself out of the Land in Between to the surface world there to meet with his fellow dwarves and find a better hiding place for the Lightforge though the captain does send two of his dwarven warriors to aid the PC's until they exit the Land In Between .. but the dwaven captain swears that the Lightforge will be used to create magical armor and weapons for the PC's made of metal (the only kind it can make says the captain though he can't imagine why one would want anything else making his dwarven outlook on the world apparent).. advise the players it will take at least a month of game time in between relocating the Lightforge and crafting the items which is very labor intensive and time consuming even if the dwarves make it their top priority which they fully plan on doing - however this will result in the same as if the PC's had been given a "wealthy" perk from the torg eternity core rules page 104  giving them either ten thousand dollars worth of money per PC they can spend on gear if they ask the dwarves to simply sell the items made for that PC and give the PC's the money or they can have magical armor and/or weapons worth ten thousand dollars fashioned for that PC per the gear rules in torg core rules or the aysle sourcebook.    


the adventure gives no reason why the dwarven wight turned traitor and was consequently corrupted by the Aysle world law of darkness turning him into a wight... one possibility off the top of my head given he was once a decorated dwarven officer is that he was put in a hopeless position, overwhelmed by enemy forces and assured of certain death .. then Utherion's darkness device reached out to him, whispering that he could save himself if he only turned to the Darkness.. in a moment of weakness the terrified officer said yes.. and was corrupted into a wight, realizing too late he'd suffered a fate worse than death .. sentenced to eternal undeath, the bitter wight has dedicated himself to killing every dwarf he comes across as they are painful reminders of all he has lost.. in true dramatic fashion perhaps the anguished living dwarf captain cries out " Why ?  Why did you turn on us?  We were all raised on tales of your heroics!"  followed by the dwarven wight intoning his tale in his hollow unliving voice.     


if the PC's have been heroic as they should be the GM may now have to contend with NPC edeinos and dwarven warriors and the PC's all versus the mad deity described below.. to simplify things as far as Gorm's skitter swarms i would simply rule every two friendly NPC warriors "cancels out" a skitter swarm for that combat round , the friendly NPC's keeping a skitter swarm busy such that the PC's can focus their attack on Gorm.    If the GM likes he can roll a single attack combat action on behalf of the friendly NPC's and the skitter swarm as per the mob rule attacks in the torg core rules treating each as a mob against another mob.. of course the advantage the skitter swarm has is that unlike the friendly NPC's they don't take shock damage and can simply keep going.. perhaps on an outstanding success skill roll the friendly NPC's shatter a swarm entirely taking it out of action whereupon a good result means they inflict one wound on a skitter swarm.


Alternately a dwarven warrior if present .. and this works only if the PC's bother to tell the dwarves at any given point that they need a crystal and also if the PC's aren't trying to do this already (no need to steal the PC's thunder) .. can attack a crystal , lowering the toughness to 15 from 25 as far as damage that needs to be done given that dwarves spend their long lifetimes doing things like harvesting crystals, gems and precious rocks (marble, onyx) and the dwarven warrior lowers the attack difficulty number from 6 to 4 .. if a dwarven warrior succeeds he shouts " I have it storm knights" triumphantly holding the crystal aloft.. " Do you wish to flee now that we have our goal?"  Of course an enraged Gorm screams " Give that back!" forcing the PC's to beat a fighting retreat.   If they were told of the PC's goal here in the Land in Between an edeinos warrior could also busy himself freeing a crystal though the edeinos faces the standard difficulty 6 number to attack a crystal and has to do the full damage 25 to free it but resulting in the same action and speech as a triumphant dwarven warrior with the sibulant "sssss" thrown in there of course.


But what caused Dunad to become angry at Gorn and "destroy" him anchoring him to the Land In Between?  The adventure doesn't go into detail on this which seems to be a rather large omission on the writer's part... off the top of my head I can think of the following.. Gorn was a deity of Balance, neither Light nor Dark, originally a minor deity or demideity in charge of commerce and finance among humankind.. he became obsessed with money as did his priests and created the concepts of undue and unjustly high interest fees inflicted on the poor and the desperate and the concept of monopolies such that larger businesses could bully smaller businesses out of existence.. enraged at these new and horrific concepts entering Aysle for the first time Dunad destroyed Gorn or thought he did, the priesthood of dunad afterwards preaching against these horrible concepts and warning of Dunad's disfavor .. indeed merchants who practice either concept are subject to the forces of Darkness and gain a Darkness perk .. driven insane as the adventure mentions by his long imprisonment, gorn is (suitably) imprisoned among the same precious crystals that served as the holy symbol to his (now long dead) priesthood which a disgusted Dunad threw into the Land In Between after "destroying" Gorn... I would have an anguished Gorn announce this if the dice roll mentioned in the fight against the insane gorn results in a "penitent" or " deceitful" Gorm (deceitful meaning Gorn uses his tragic story as a tactic to try to get the PC's to lower their guard for an interaction attack then laughs with obvious insane glee if he succeeds... advise the players it's' clearly obvious gorm is insane and is acting like no rational being would .. hopefully players won't feel "burned" and refuse to be merciful towards NPC's in the future .. on top of that I would award the PC's a possibility for trying to be merciful and getting "burned" by gorm in the process)


There is no battlemap provided for Gorn though there is a cool looking picture of him you can present to the players.. here's my first pick for a battlemap though I think it's going to be impossible to find a map that is exactly like the adventure describes, the entire wall covered with crystals everywhere (so just tell the players this is the case I guess even if it doesn't seem like it on the map) 


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/xz6ykl/a_small_crystal_cave_with_a_very_special_very/


or this is a possibility too


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/xvi4jp/day_4_of_maptober_miners_dream_i_did_a_cave/


or this one 


https://inkarnate.com/p/Rpzrjr-stolzegalli/maps/qAAZoA-crystal-cave/ 


or this map which is spectacular but the GM would have to amend the written description to being a room with stairs, might be worth it though 


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/y2yn0i/crystal_grotto_22x33/



Tbe next act has the PC's off to sea with a wonderfully naval themed swashbuckling adventure, albeit one that will require the GM to read up on the Torg core rulebook regarding the vehicles rules specifically combat, in this case between boats and the environmental hazards rules on drowning.


I'd personally find it helpful as a GM to have a map of where isle of man and isle of scilly is is in the waters separating England, Scotland and Ireland so here's one below .. note that isle of man and isle of scilly are two different locations, the PC's start out in isle of man in the earlier part of act five then later in that ac sail to the  isle of scilly 


https://geology.com/world/united-kingdom-satellite-image.shtml 


Depending on where the PC's decide to go to search for the next item required in the ritual to help tolwyn.. a living skull... they'll end up recruiting either "Black Charlotte", the original captain of a boat that she lost in a bet to her second in command (now her enemy since she's convinced said second in command, a man named de villiers and now a captain in his own right (but who's also been jailed and will need to be broken out by the PC's .. the adventure doesn't state this but if I was the GM and the PC's say " forget this we're going to that other place you mentioned instead of this one " I would let them do that in which case they recruit Black Charlotte instead... again this is where the original Aysle sourcebook from the 1990's comes in handy as far as it's discussion of the Corsairs and where they live in the original home cosm of Aysle .. the adventure doesn't give pictures of Black Charlotte or De Villiers  but here's a few possibilities 


Black Charlotte



https://skulls-and-shackles.obsidianportal.com/characters/aretta


or


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/814799757553905988/




De Villiers


https://www.deviantart.com/sharandula/art/Captain-Henry-Hartgold-Silence-is-Gold-500497798


but honestly doing a google search for "female pirate artwork" or "male pirate artwork" will come up with a lot of potential pictures for you ... I find the deviantart website in particular is an excellent resource for chaacter illustrations.   Bear in mind that Black Charlotte was originally an actress (see below) so I would imagine that artwork showing a woman attractive enough to be "in the pictures" (shallow but true, if you look at both male and female actors alike in "real life Hollywood" or even India's "bollywood" they tend to be attractive either way).


The adventure notes that Black Charlotte was originally  a movie star in terra, the cosm dr. mobius originally came from in the nile empire, who left to become a real pirate when she could no longer find work acting as a pirate in Terra's movie industry as per page 62's description in the book ... the book doesn't mention what reality she's currently operating under and whether she's been transformed to Aysle reality so the GM will have to decide if she still operates under Nile empire axioms or transformed to Aysle axioms,  bearing in mind that as the introductory text to the Aysle cosm sourcebook infers that transforming to Aysle axioms would mean her memories of her life on Terra start to get "foggy" albeit still there if she concentrates hard enough or they just "pop out" sometimes (although I'm sure a GM could just "hand wave" this and say she has an incredibly strong sense of "self" that lets her keep perfect recollection of her past life on Terra despite transforming to the Aysle reality - an actress, albeit one who's very good at fighting with swords as the adventure states, who successfully manages to reinvent herself as an actual pirate instead of just playing the role "on screen" has to have a strong sense of personality and willpower) ... on the other hand if she keeps her nile empire axioms she can't benefit from the higher magic axiom rating in Aysle that lets her more freely employ say any magic items she comes across.


At some point the adventure states that the PC's see a grim reminder of what happens to lawbreakers in the area of Aysle they're now in .... players may or may not know what a gibbet cage is so here's a website where you can find a picture showing a "skeleton" (fake) in a gibbet cage to give the players an idea of what it looks like


https://allthatsinteresting.com/gibbet


Whichever captain, Black Charlotte or De Villiers, the PC's pick to set sail with ... the adventure doesn't make it clear at first so you'll have to explain to the players that the captain and his/her crew would be motivated by a share of the "booty", that is Fortunato's treasure, that the PC's set off in search of hoping to find the " living skull" required for the ritual to help Tolwyn... at some point the Aysle version of the "police" here shows up (more specifically a captain appointed by the parliament of captains.. see pages 80-81 of the Aysle torg eternity  sourcebook ... to enforce their laws) either to return De Villiers to prison (if he's with the PC's that means they broke him out of jail) or to arrest Black Charlotte since she used the opportunity of De Villiers being jailed to steal back the ship she's now convinced was stolen from her in the first place.. . 

no picture is provided for the elf and it was hard to find a serious looking (as the character is described)  elf sailor picture this was the best I could do  except it's a female serious looking elf captain not a male ... you could try genderbending the elf and making "him" female (the elf's name, Sundamar, to me seems to be "gender neutral") and making sure she has an asylish pistol to match the artwork picture as described in the torg eternity core rules under gear ... I didn't look for a picture of the drake sidekick that s/he has backing her up


https://www.deviantart.com/tamikaproud/art/Rue-Asmodeus-849966491


Although the adventure doesn't state this I would assume that as the "police" in this area the elf captain and his/her crew would be equipped with the magical version of a core earth police "megaphone" the elf uses to loudly and clearly demand the surrender of everyone on the boat the PC's are on along with listing the crimes of the captain the elf is after. 



This could lead to an interesting moral quandary for the PC's, something that the writers of the adventure has not addressed... if the PC's, as I've stated many times, are acting like the good guys that Torg Eternity publications generally expect them to be, they could feel like their hands are tied essentially fighting a "police officer" simply trying to do his or her duty .. I would give the PC's a very easy (difficulty 2 ) Mind roll such that it occurs to at least one if not most PC's that given the importance of Tolwyn to the Asylish forces on Earth .. a stalwart champion of the Aysle military and the head of a noble House that is a key part of Ardinay's soldiers who work side by side with core earth English soldiers to fight Utherion's forces .. that the PC's could simply explain this to the elvish captain, pointing out to them as well that if the elvish captain gives the PC's no choice they may be forced to take him down for the good of the Aysle realm .. then let the PC's make a standard (difficulty 10) persuasion check.. if the PC's had enough foresight to get some sort of written letter or decree from Ardinay herself authorizing the PC's I wouldn't require a persuasion check at all ... if the elvish captain is convinced s/he simply lets the PC's go while grimly warning them that s/he will come looking for either Black Charlotte or De Villiers once they've ferried the PC's to their destination and this is nothing more than a " stay of sentence" given the extraordinary circumstances.. for GM's who feel like this makes things a bit too easy the elvish captain goes on to grimly declare s/he normally would have one of his/her own boats sail the PC's to the location of Fortunato's treasure (with the understanding of course that said treasure is seized and returned to it's rightful owner.. this is assuming the PC's tell the elvish captain they're after the treasure to begin with, otherwise any mention of treasure is left out) .. but , honestly, the elvish captain's forces are stretched thin right now simply trying to maintain order in these "lawless waters" (the elvish captain gives a hard look to the captain ferrying the PC's as s/he says this) and she can't spare the manpower much as she'd like to help out.


Of course it's possible the PC's would fail the persuasion roll in which case the elven captain grimly states that lying to an elvish captain is punishable by jail time or death.. and aiding and abetting a known felon like the captain the PC's picked to ferry them is punishable by death regardless to set an example to other lawbreakers.. and regardless the elf doesn't believe the PC's story.    This of course is immediately followed by the combat the adventure seems to assume simply takes place.. no map is provided for the battle between the two boats and indeed the PC's may simply attempt to flee rather than risk killing a police officer simply trying to do his/her duty at the end of the day but if it comes to a fight here's one map possibility 


https://www.deviantart.com/hassly/art/Ship-Battle-Battle-Map-872380435


though given how close the ships are to each other the GM would have to declare the elvish captain's ship drew close enough to get right next to the PC's ship and attack via boarding the other ship, assuming using the vehicle chase rules this happens to begin with and the PC's simply don't outrun the other ship.. the GM will also have to decide which ship belongs to the elvish captain and which to the captain the PC's have recruited.   




picture of Barnabas, former crewman of thanatos


https://www.deviantart.com/daniellieske/art/A-Pirate-s-Life-for-me-144405580 


and picture of Thanatos himself 


https://www.deviantart.com/artofty/art/Crazy-Eye-and-Scrambles-155573618 


This is completely unrelated but as a minor point there is some absolutely stunning artwork in here that presents an unexpected bonus to persons reading this adventure.. I particularly enjoyed the picture of the adventuring scholar of Orrosh Anishaa on page 65 and while I've seen it before on a smaller scale in other torg eternity products the picture of the mage hunters vs viola the cyber witch on page 35 was also stunning



The mermaid notes can be  rather confusing if you don't read them carefully  ... they say there's a  shell above her reach in the well forcing her to fight the PC's but also say her soul is hidden in a conch shell that can be used as a beacon such that the mermaid guides the PC's to their quarry for the "living skull" element of the ritual to help Tolwyn .. the first shell hanging above her is described as "linking her to Fortunato" while the second shell is in his possession and actually contains her soul .. as further clarification I would rule something to the effect that the first shell contains magics reinforced by the possession of her soul that control the mermaid's mind forcing her to fight the PC's to defend fortunato's treasure lair... shattering the first shell hanging above her frees her to the point where she stops fighting the PC's ... however the adventure assumes the PC's will do just that - what if they simply kill the mermaid?  In which case the adventure is derailed and grinds to a halt.... the mermaid can sense where her soul is being held captive and can guide the PC's and their corsair captain's ship to their goal, fortunato but that won't work if the mermaid is dead.. 



The adventure notes that the PC's are accompanies to the island at least by whichever one of the two corsair captains they ended up going to the island with (said island being where the  living skull could potentially be) and the crew they have to recruit as well as the former crewman (named Barnabas Dunn)  of their quarry, pirate and necromancer Fortunato ... the GM could simply have Dunn accompany the PC's stating that his familiarity with his former employer Fortunato could come in handy as far as spotting the areas Fortunato would be most likely to hide his treasure.. the PC's might question why Barnabas Dunn is willing to turn on his former employer.. I would have Banabas shrug and simply say " Life of a corsair my boyo's, it's expected.. we're only as loyal as your money can buy.. it's worth it for me right now because I know I'll get a share of Fortunato's treasure, as will the lot of you .. if Fortunato was in my position he'd do the exact same thing... nobody, and I mean NOBODY" Baranabas favors you with a gap toothed grin " Is as mercenary as a corsair.. but for now you can trust me thanks to my lust for Fortunato's treasure."




On the other hand while the players may view this speech as, while quite possibly honest, not that reassuring, and refuse to let Barnabas come with the PC's despite his protests and the captain's reassurances that Barnabas's love of money will keep him loyal to the PC's.. indeed the PC's may not even want the captain going with them though the captain whether it be the female captain Black Charlotte or the male captain Sebastien will give the same speech about how they're quite interested in Fortunato's treasure.. besides which , assures either captain, the Corsairs do have their own sense of honor once you hire one as a captain.. they have to at least make an attempt to serve the needs of the person who hired them to the best of their ability - if word gets out that a corsair betrays his or her employer no one will hire that Corsair in the future whether the corsair be a captain or ordinary crewman .. as long as that particular mission is taking place that is, once the mission is completed and the employer is dropped off safely at shore by the corsairs all bets are off after that.    Hopefully the PC's will insist on bringing the captain along with them so the captain doesn't set sail without the PC's (which again the captain will insist they have no intention on doing given they are looking forward to a share of Fortunato's treasure ) .. if the PC's refuse to bring Barnabas with them the captain could sigh and say " Normally a captain's place is on his/her ship... but you need SOMEONE to go along with you who thinks like a corsair does so you can better find this treasure.. Barnabas would have been the best choice since he's most familiar with fortunato but if you're dead set against him going then I guess I'll go instead."  The captain shrugs his/her shoulders and insists on accompanying the PC's unless they relent and send Barnabas and goes so far as to quietly follow the PC's if the PC's insist on going alone.


Why the emphasis on an NPC accompanying the PC's?   Walking plot device basically.. assume the NPC makes their find skill test, sees part one of the two shells the mermaid's soul is trapped in, points it out to the PC's and shouts "I've heard legends of this before - the mermaid's soul is trapped !  Must be in that shell !  Look at her eyes and face lads and lassies she's miserable ! Do you think she WANTS to fight you?"    .. and later on have the NPC shout  " shoot the shell maybe that will free her soul" if the PC's make no attempt to climb up the walls or otherwise try to get the shell have the NPC corsair fire his or her gun at the shell breaking it open.. whoever breaks open the shell I would make it blatantly obvious what happens.. the PC's see a pulse of blue and green colored light that reminds them of the sea erupt from the shell and fly towards and into the mermaid jolting her back and the mermaid starts crying tears of joy saying in her beautiful musical voice " Free.. I'm free !" .. tears stream down her face as she clasps her hands in front of her .. "I'm so sorry .. I didn't want to hurt you.. but fortunato has my soul!  That first shell you destroyed"  the mermaid points at the shell " Was one of two shells ..that one was used to control me... but my soul is in the second shell, fortunato still has that one.. BUT "  and here the mermaid smiles sadly " I can sense my soul, feel it.. I can lead you to him.. "  the mermaid clasps her hands in front of her beseechingly " Please.. PLEASE.. come with me, help me find him.. help me get my soul back".. remind the players of how miserable the mermaid looked as she was fighting the PC's and how her eyes kept flickering up to the now destroyed shell every time she made eye contact with a PC (assume said eye contact  happened every time a PC tried to land a hit on her and/or take some action targetting her and likewise occurred when she attacked a PC) .. also remind the players that they want fortunato to begin with to get the "living skull" from him as an element in the ritual to help Tolwyn... for some strange reason the adventure doesn't state the climb difficulty for the PC's to climb up there and 

just grab the shell so I would just assume the standard difficulty 10 Strength check for a rock wall since the mermaid is inside a cave (see page 136 core rulebook)


As far as a picture of the mermaid a google search for "artwork mermaid" will turn up many, many results but here's one possibility though you'd have to tell the players to ignore the flaming ships in the background - the mermaid does look very sad in the picture  as the adventure states 


https://www.wallpaperflare.com/artwork-fantasy-girl-fantasy-art-long-hair-mermaids-battle-wallpaper-ytqpy


this one is another mermaid image possibility - there are multiple mermaid images here look for the sad looking one on the rock next to the small treasure chest


https://www.fanpop.com/clubs/mermaids/images/39899343/title/sad-mermaid-photo


and as far as a map for the underground cavern the well drops the PC's into where the mermaid is forced into fighting the PC's here's one possibility 


https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/c0kl0u/underground_lake/



The PC's do have an opportunity should they take it to come to the rescue of a poacher and stormer who is victimizing the exotic animals of Aysle by capturing them and selling them to the highest bidder, though of course she lies to the PC's and tells them she is part of a rescue effort to "save" said animals ... it's up to the GM if s/he wants to do this but personally speaking every time an non player character lies to a PC I like to make a roll on the PC's behalf... evidence analysis in this case or simply Mind if the PC doesn't have that skill.. contested by the persuasion dice roll result of the lying NPC ... if the PC scores higher I give the player clear clues the NPC is not being forthright.. like the poacher not being able to quite make eye contact with the PC and shifting uneasily as she speaks, and then I flat out inform the player that the NPC is definitely hiding something.. other GM's may consider this "spoon feeding" and simply leave it up to the players on any given moment whether or not to believe an NPC but I think it's worth pointing out that if the PC's run into too many lying deceitful NPC's who prey on the PC's heroic nature they're going to start distrusting ALL NPC's which can really put a damper on the GM's ability to run this or other torg prepublished adventures.  


As far as my google search of a "shipwreck modern boat rpg map " since no battlemap is provided for this encounter, the search  turned up this as one possibility 


https://i0.wp.com/www.fantasticmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Shipwrecked.jpg


No picture was given for the poacher and it was very difficult to find a picture of a female poacher in khaki that doesn't look like "cheescake artwork" as far as the morally corrupt stormer .. this was the best I could do and unfortunately it's still painfully obvious that it's intended for a male heterosexual audience (don't get the wrong impression she's fully clothed) ... if this is a problem for a GM hopefully you can have better luck 


https://www.deviantart.com/clayscence/art/Commission-Claudia-490202908


though given the sadly skintight nature of the outfit the GM will have to add that the jacket is much more bulky than described in the picture.. this becomes important when the poacher (core earth cosm by the way) produces a machine gun pistol from under her jacket 

though I would personally give the PC's a difficulty 10 Find skill check for them to notice a gun-like bulge in the jacket when they first see her.


The highlight of the captured animals is the winged horse ... interestingly enough their are statistics for it under the "gear" section of the Aysle torg eternity sourcebook pages 61-62  and the description for it (page 61) appears to suggest that such winged horses are not native to the Aysle home cosm but rather are transformed formerly "ordinary" horses affected by the Aysle axiom wash of the Aysle conquered areas of earth... a PC from Aysle or a PC who simply has spent so much time in Aysle conquered areas of Earth that they are familiar with these things may be aware of this though PC's who are in the know would be aware too that the journey through the Land in Between from Aysle's home cosm to Earth (see the Aysle cosm description in the Torg Eternity core rules) was dangerous enough such that winged horses may not necessarily have flown in all by themselves... unless they were brought as mounts by Asylish forces?  (which as mentioned above is not true this is a transformed formerly core earth horse but a PC might think that) ... 


In any case I would have the winged horse whinny in fear, eyes wide, looking helplessly at the PC's ... then have it show affection towards PC's who rescue it , nuzzling the PC's  hand .. while the adventure calls for a beast riding skill check (and obviously PC's who have that skill should get a special advantage ... I would argue they should automatically befriend the winged horse without the need for a skill check such that the horse allows the PC to ride the horse as a mount for the remainder of the Act before affectionately nuzzling the hand of the rider and flying off into the sunset at the end of the Act ) personally I prefer an approach that caters towards and rewards kindness on the part of the PC's  ... while this isn't stated in the adventure I would add that PC can now see puncture wounds on the horse's legs much like a bear trap if the PC's befriend the winged horse indicating the horse now lets the PC's examine the horse more closely making it blatantly obvious what happened to the PC's  ... while the adventure as written does state that trick or intimdate skill checks work versus the poacher-stormer to force her to tell the truth I would add an evidence analysis check into that mix as well...the classic sherlock holmes bit where a PC calmly discusses how the evidence clearly shows she's capturing these animals against their will (PC smoking a pipe as s/he calmly confronts the poacher optional). 


the next scene features a fight against the real goal of this Act, Fortunato and his "living skull", said living skull being one of the four items the PC's are tasked with finding for the ritual to help Tolwyn.. not trying to be snarky here I swear but I was pleasantly shocked to see a battlemap provided of Fortunato's ship when the PC's inevitably board it trying to pry Fortunato's skull off Fortunato once he's revealed as an undead monster (though as GM you may have to flat out tell the players, given they've no doubt forgotten that they're after a "living skull" at this point, once they land a hit that causes a Wound result and Fortunato's "living man" facade is dropped to reveal the skeleton-being underneath , that Fortunato's skull must be the element that they're after) ... having said that the adventure does state that Fortunato lets the ship run aground into reef-rocks and the battle continues on the wreckage of Fortunato's ship between the PC's and Fortunato which is wonderfully dramatic writing (truly, no sarcasm I really do mean that as a compliment) writing on the part of the writers for this adventure... except that no battlemap is provided for "part two" of that fight where the PC's are fighting aboard that wreckage.. here's one map possibility for that 




https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/vtw820/what_lurks_beneath_the_shipwreck_oc/


but note that battlemap already provided for fortunato's ship 



again here's a possibility for a picture of Thanatos himself 


https://www.deviantart.com/artofty/art/Crazy-Eye-and-Scrambles-155573618 


though you'll have to tell the players there is no raccoon mascot perched on fortunato's' shoulder unlike the picture.. unless you want to include a raccoon anyways in which case jsut assume the raccoon has no effect "in game" and is just the image fortunate portrays in his guise as a living man albeit a raccoon that's revealed as an undead parrot as you can see in the suggested image below you can present to the PC's once they get their first wound result in on Fortunato 


https://www.deviantart.com/vegasmike/art/Skeleton-Pirate-Revisited-24193251


another possibility is when the PC's  land their first hit on him (whether it causes a wound or shock or even  no damage at all - bear in mind as undead technically he can't take shocki damage) is to have his visage switch to an animated skull for a head chattering away with a clacking of it's teeth making it clear that this could be the "living skull " the PC's need as an element in the ritual to help tolwyn ..


the adventure also states that Fortunato immediately seizes control of the mermaid the moment he sees her.. in order to have the players , who are quite possibly distracted by all the incidents that take place at this point... whatever captain they didn't recruit, either black charlotte or de villiers, shows up with her or his own ship intending to recapture the ship being piloted by the captain currently in the PC's employ as well as the PC's having to deal with fortunato and his crew.. in order to make it quite clear the mermaid suddenly hasn't turned traitor as they might assume with everything going on .. during the first round of her action in the combat round I would have the mermaid visibly struggle against the conch shell when fortunato orders her to attack and simply not take any action pointing this out to the PC's as well.. I would have  fortunato shrieking he told her to attack as he holds the conch above his head pointing at the mermaid  and the mermaid, veins corded in her neck, every inch of her body stiff , shouting no she won't attack the PC's such that the PC's can hear her (and shaking her head no as well on top of that if some player declares that s/he feels there's no way they'd hear the mermaid amidst the sounds of combat given the mermaid's all the way out there in the sea - hopefully players aren't this nitpicky however) .. 


....hopefully the pc's take the hint and attack the conch shell .. remind the players of the called shot rules in torg eternity but point out the attack is at -6 given they're shooting through a melee at a figure on a ship across the waters, reduce the penalty to -2 for being in melee combat if pc's board fortunato's ship and if it was me personally I would flat out tell the players that on any attack on fortunato without an attack roll penalty but that results in a player's call result can result in the conch shell being destroyed regardless, the goal being here to highlight in shriekingly bright neon letters that the heroic thing to do is to save the mermaid during the combat .. of course should they do this I would have  mermaid give a shriek of joy and fights on the PC's side beguiling first the captain AND all crew members (note the description of the siren song for the mermaid says it captivates all living folk who can hear it)  of the rival captain the pc's didn't recruit (either black charlotte or de villiers) , neutralizing them if given enough time... 


....as far as why the chattering skull on the boat is revealed as an obvious enchantment since the writers don't make this clear, assume the skull stops chattering and when the PC's grab it they feel no magic coming from it.. which is unusual in that every other element they grabbed (acorn, scroll, crystal) they could feel the magic pulsing from it in waves given the magic-rich nature of aysle reality .. clearly something is amiss here.


The next act, act six, is a quest to get to the Carredon's home cosm which has the PC's meet up with the Asylish version of a "dwarven scientist"... since magic replaces technology for all intents and purposes as discussed in the torg eternity aysle sourcebook under the axioms and world laws section, this means the dwarf uses magical means for "science" though given the wonderfully creative and jumbled gobbldy-gook nonsense that the writers have come out of the dwarf's mouth it's obvious that he takes a scientific approach to the whole thing ... 

... no picture given for the dwarven scientist the PC's talk to in order to gain entry to the carredon's home cosm but here's one possibility 


https://ar.pinterest.com/pin/800937114968519182/


or 


https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/0e55649e-5a4b-4c74-8559-a365100f6ca7/d7zweja-bcbb714c-e107-451d-a2e7-d747d085f1dc.jpg/v1/fill/w_794,h_1007,q_75,strp/dwarven_alchemist_by_captdiablo-d7zweja.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJpc3MiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwic3ViIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS5vcGVyYXRpb25zIl0sIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiIvZi8wZTU1NjQ5ZS01YTRiLTRjNzQtODU1OS1hMzY1MTAwZjZjYTcvZDd6d2VqYS1iY2JiNzE0Yy1lMTA3LTQ1MWQtYTJlNy1kNzQ3ZDA4NWYxZGMuanBnIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTc5NCIsImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTAwNyJ9XV19.1vCqN-AmX5Zg_lKfmbWAIavcGQH22d6mhbS1YBVmZF8


https://www.reddit.com/r/gameideas/comments/p4gzql/a_rpg_where_youre_a_dwarven_scientist_using_your/


or


https://www.deviantart.com/serg-natos/art/Dwarf-Alchemist-2-0-final-186785608


Or a simple google search for "dwarven alchemist" will turn up a wide variety of science-minded looking dwarves you can use instead.


The dwarven scientist had the eterinum core stolen that he needs to power the device that lets the PC's enter other cosms.. like the Carredon's own... but let's pause and consider that for a moment.. a device that can let the PC's enter other cosms... while the battle that takes place at the end of this act wrecks this device presumably to the point where the PC's can't use it right away or even prior to the end of this adventure, given that the dwarf is clearly described as an obvious genius it seems clear that he should be able to repair and reconstruct the device... so what happens if the PC's want to use it to say go to  say the Aysle or Nile Empire home cosms to have adventures there?  While it's definitely an intriguing possibility this presents a problem for GM's who don't have the time to write up adventures that take place in said cosms not to mention that the only material available to help a GM in that venue was written in the 1990's torg books (the 1990's Torg sourcebook on Terra for example or the 1990's aysle cosm sourcebook ) and even then there are no prepublished adventures from the 1990's era set in those cosms away from Earth... the easiest solution would be for the GM to simply copy and paste various nonsense phrases the dwarf uttered in the wonderfully evocative flavor text the writers came up with and end awkwardly with " erhm, that is to say given the extensive damage done I still estimate I can have the device up and running again in.. oh, let's say five years."   This gives plently of in-campaign time for the players to hopefully forget about said device although the GM should account for players who make a note of this and who remember to ask after five years of game time has gone by .. at which point for all we know the torg eternity writers might have come up with a dramatic adventure that lets the PC's defeat all the dimensional invaders of Earth from the various cosms once and for all... obviously GM's who have the time and ability should use this as an excuse to write up adventures in other cosms for the players to happily game in but if it was me personally I would have bad things happen to Earth while the PC's are gone to drive home how important the PC's presence is in particular to the war effort (though of course any actions the PC's take creating problems for that high lord's invasion efforts should be noted as well in the campaign).


The eternium core has been stolen that the dwarf needs to power the device needed for the PC's to gain entry into the carredon's home cosm... the investigation that follows probably leads the PC's to an encounter with Dennis, the leader of core earth paramiliary group "the irregulars" .....unfortunately I found it surprisingly impossible to find artwork/illustrations of paramilitary soldiers so I had to use pictures of real life people .. one possibility of a picture for Dennis is


https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/front-view-young-soldier-camouflage-with-gun-white-wall_17530899.htm#query=bulletproof%20vest&position=18&from_view=keyword


and as far as his soldiers you could use pics from here


https://www.freepik.com/photos/bulletproof-vest


The PC's end up in a three way fight between Dennis and his Irregulars, clankers (a picture of it is provided in the adventure you can show to the players) and the PC's.. here's one map possibility for that


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/ez8i2h/city_streets_battle_map_30x30/


given that the area is described as a core earth hardpoint where this battle takes place... which is worth taking note of, the GM should probably have the clanker disconnect on a roll of "1" on any of it's actions or possibly even a roll of 1 to 4 if the GM takes the view that not only does it exceed core earth's axioms due to it's magical nature but it also is using "tools" (it's bite/claw attacks) that are magical in nature and also in excess of core earth's axioms.. on the other hand the GM might feel that given the clanker's description.. that car wrecks spontaneously combine together into a magical being born of the interplay of magic from Aysle and large metal items of core earth's reality from both it's description in the adventure and the description in the Aysle torg eternity sourcebook.. the GM might very well rule that the clanker is a creature of both world's axioms and is therefore not subject to disconnection.   


One problem with the adventure as written is that it assumes dennis and his soldiers survive long enough for the PC's to intimidate or even persuade them into giving the PC's the information they need to get to their eventual goal, the thieves' guild that has made off with the eternium core .. should Dennis and all his men die in the three way battle, a very likely scenario, I'm afraid the GM will have to resort to the old cliche of " you find a map in the dead man's pocket" routine.



The PC's could also end up talking to a sorceress who, if made aware of the PC's asking about her through a failed streetwise roll on the PC's part (apparently even a failed streetwise roll gets them to her place but also tips her off), magically disguises herself to look like an old woman - sorceress who (presumably) doesn't even look like an older version of her "real" self.. here are a few possibilities for the old woman guise as far as pictures


old sorceress image


https://www.artstation.com/artwork/Jlke1a


or


https://www.deviantart.com/nightblue-art/art/The-Old-Witch-wip-191832008

 

and as far as the "real" sorceress picture , of her actual, younger self perhaps


https://www.deviantart.com/anotherwanderer/art/Legend-of-the-Cryptids-Laylanne-reg-644903274



despite no stats being given for sorcereress, whose name is Della,  the GM could simply use the wizard stats in the threats section towards the end of the torg eternity aysle sourcebook and substitute one of the spells listed there for the disguise spell  ... but there really isn't a personality and background write up for the sorceress which could be a problem if the PC's take an interest in her and want to interact with her further.


Here's one possibility that ties her into the events of the adventure as a whole and also gives the PC's an insight as to how the cosm of Aysle suffered under the possessed Ardinays rule thanks to Utherion.. as I've mentioned earlier on Utherion possessed Ardinay's body for a very long time and allowed all sorts of corrupt and evil things to happen under her rule, alienating followers of the Light and endearing her to followers of the Darkness (touched upon in the torg eternity rules and greatly expanded on in the original 1990's aysle sourcebook, another reason you should pick up the original 1990's aysle book as well).. 



Leor Caulfielde (strange name I know, look online for a medieval name generator if you'd like a better one ) was a knight and hero in every sense and had already been on many adventures that have made him famous.. intelligent as well as strong and handsome, in game terms 10 in Mind, Strength, Charisma, Spirit and Dexterity, several Light perks and well known throughout the realm .. and thus automatically marking him as an enemy by Utherion in possessed Ardinay's body... started to train as a scholar of history and eventual future professor of such to teach future generations but decided his skills were needed directly in the fight against evil as the forces of Darkness reared their heads with greater and more alarming frequency under possessed Ardinay's rule.. having grown up on stories of the heroic and presumably dead in battle Tolwyn, married into house tancred through his brief marriage to a grand-cousin of Towlyn's .. only to end in tragedy a few years prior to him meeting the sorceress  Della when his wife "mysteriously fell ill and died", the knight.. Sir    .. convinced that the death was magical in nature given his wife had been in perfectly good health up until then (in truth Utherion-in-Ardinay's-body cruelly arranged for the poisoning of the knight's wife, scrying upon the grieving knight afterward and drinking his pain like fine wine but also secretly hoping the knight would become bitter enough to turn to the Darkness.. Utherion's plans never got a chance to come to fruition as detailed below when the Knight abandoned his post and "Ardinay"'s court).


Praying to Dunad, the hero was granted a vision that led him to Della's village where he declared he was taking an "extended leave of absence" from Ardinay's court.. and indeed in an alternate universe where Leor and Della fought back to back overcoming the horde of lurks Utherion sent after Della's village, the pair routed the lurks, went into hiding, aided Towlyn and Ardinay in setting things right and overcoming the former allies-now-enemies of the possessed at the time Ardinay, and were key figures in maintaining the defense of Ardinay's castle from the forces of Darkness when Ardinay and her entourage left for Earth.. in this alternate universe Leor and Della got married, had children and led a long happy life.


But just because Dunad can see one probable outcome in the future doesn't mean said outcome is guaranteed to happen and it depends on the actions of the persons involved.. when a well meaning Leor sent the first woman he'd come to love in years after his wife's death fleeing to safety he took the "wrong" action instead of letting her fight back to back with him and in the process transcending, becoming possibility rated and a storm knight, just as Leor had transcended long ago ... sadly even a single possibility rated hero was no match for the overwhelming odds against him.


Prior to that tragedy however, Leor stayed in Della's village.. a small rustic area where Della led a content life , tending to the needs of the villagers through magical means (at this point I'm going to say amend the list of spells in the wizard entry for Della in the Aysle cosm sourcebook further, let's say Discern Lies from page 27 of the torg eternity sourcebook (divination 12 skill required) making her invaluable to the judge and magistrate of the village, Grow (alteration 14 skill required) from the same page which made the work of laborers performing crucial work (rescue a child trapped in a cave-in for example) all the more easier as well as Shrink (page 32 same alteration 14 skill required) to help other laborers get past an area they normally couldn't in the same cave-in for example, Messenger Hawk (page 30 same book apportation 10 skill required) which was crucial in terms of rescuing villagers who had gone missing to help bring them home should they still live, and energy shield from the aysle torg eternity sourcebook (to protect the single villager most skilled at putting out the occasional fire)... as well (and if I understand the description of cantrips correctly) she can cast the following cantrips without the need to spend a spellcasting perk on them since anyone with the appropriate magic skills can cast them... Booming Voice (apportation 10) to help call for persons lost in a forest for example... detect fake currency (divination 8) which of course is helpful for a never-do-well passing through the village hoping to deceive it's merchants (routinely cast on the coins of merchants on the village said merchants carefully keeping notes of any strangers who passed through and paid and setting said currency aside so they knew to boot said strangers out of their shop should these strangers come along again as well as sending word to the authorities in larger cities along with a physical description of said criminals) , find things (divination 8) and water breathing (alteration 10) to help villagers looking for some hapless suspected drowned person.   Let's get rid of the magister perk since she's not really a combat caster adn replace that with the spellcaster perk again as per the torg eternity core rules allowing her to exceed the number of magic spells listed for the wizard stats by one .. let's also drop "insidious " since she really isn't intended to be an enemy of NPC's nor doe she see herself as being "tricky" like the wizard stats say in the aysle torg eternity book.


Also let's increase her Charisma to 8 from the 7 given for the wizard description ... she's normally intent on her studies and not a "people person" but she's learned to put on a pleasant front for her "customers" the villagers ... it's only until Leor comes along (Della having decided a long time ago she's happy just by herself and needs no one , only her magic and diligently studying said magic to increase her powers) that Della starts paying attention to persons other than her own cloistered life... let's say she went to one of the many magical schools established in Aysle, learned her spellcraft trade, worked long enough to pay off her school dues in terms of being an assistant to her instructor, ignored his long shouted anguished tirade when she said she was going back to the village she grew up in instead of putting her sharp mind and keen intellect to use joining the prestigious wizard academies in the capital city of Aysle, and moved back home to take care of her already elderly parents who died only a few years ago of old age (they had her, an only child, late in life) and then elected to stay in the village thereafter... having heard rumors of Ardinay's court taking on a more dark and sinister hue she wanted to stay far away from such things despite her anguished mentor's shrieks that she was wasting her potential (the wizard stats given in the Aysle torg eternity sourcebook under threats give a Mind score of 12).


Beloved by her village, they took keen interest in and gossipped about the handsome knight who showed up and paid well to stay for a month in said village... the knight did his best to convince her that he had in fact had a dream-vision granted to her by Dunad (in quiet conversation on walks through the forest where the knight hoped others were not listening) and that he needed her help.. the help of a brilliant magus.. to use their magical expertise to determine if his theory was true.. if in fact Ardinay was possessed... while no sorcerer himself, Leor had studied among other things the role of wizards and sorcerers throughout Asylish history including the telltale signs of someone being enchanted by mind altering magics (Leor of course had no idea Ardinay was in fact possessed by Utherion, his theory was  simply that she'd fallen victim to the powerful magics of some other evil wizard given Utherion was supposed to be dead who had taken up Utherion's mantle ... not true but close enough such that an alarmed Utherion who was scrying magically on Leor at the time decided to take decisive action)... very reluctant at first to get drawn into the very type of thing she wanted to avoid in the first place, a flustered Della nonetheless found herself drawn not only to Leor's physical beauty but , even more daunting for Della , the beauty underneath, the warmth and noble spirit of his soul.. Leor didn't set out to "seduce" Della nor did Della want it to happen, she in fact fought against it.. .but much to their surprise the two of them fell in love.


This of course led to a passionate night together where Leor , who had already confessed he'd been with no one intimately since the death of his wife years ago and who had told Della of his suspicions that his wife had been poisoned, clearly informed Della this was no one night stand and asked her if he could court her further... with the eventual hope that she would one day marry him.. overcome with joy, Della was about to gladly agree despite Leor's desperate plea for her to come with him back to Ardinay's court (Leor loathed the idea of putting another woman he loved at risk but weighed that against the suffering of Aysle as a whole should the problem of Ardinay not be dealt with).. and then the lurks struck.


Utherion sent a wave of lurks led by wights to the village, enough to overwhelm the villagers there.. a not uncommon occurrence in Aylse under Ardinay's rule with frantic pleas for help to Ardinay's castle when this happened frequently going unanswered... and that's where Leor made his mistake, shouting for Della to flee instead of asking her to fight by his side, no doubt still traumatized by the death of his wife years ago and not wanting someone else he'd fallen in love with to share the same fate.. understandable but not the action a paragon of the Light should take when the fate of Aysle at whole is at stake.. Leor was , without realizing it, sent a trial by Dunad.. and failed.    Della fled in tears realizing only belated she'd much rather had died at Leor's side, not realizing how deep her love was for him until it was too late.. tentatively, a week later, Della returned to find Leor's body hideously broken twisted and disfigured and nailed to a post, the village in smoking ruins, and everyone who had lived there dead.


Numb, Della went into hiding and noticing her spirit had been utterly broken, Utherion nodded in satisfaction and simply left her alone, realizing she was too afraid to come to anyone with what she'd been told by Leor and relishing the thought of his final vengence on Leor.. his new love living in emotional turmoil and anguish.. death would have been a mercy to her that of course Utherion refused to grant.


A year went by ... Della was now 26 years of age.. and then she heard of Tolwyn's return and freeing of Ardinay.. and her heart grew bitter, not enough to fall prey to the forces of Darkness but she cried out silently why couldn't the heroine her beloved Leor had grown up idolizing shown up just one year earlier?   Her beloved Leor would be alive and things would be.. different.     Laughing bitterly at herself at the irony of following the two women, Ardinay and Towyn, she now resented, having lost any desire to stay in Aysle a long time ago , she joined them on their trip through the Land in Between , using her magical spells with no real enthusiasm to help the troops she ended up joining (she never laid eyes on Towlyn nor Ardinay directly) to the point where it became clear she didn't care if she lived or died and brushing off concerned comments from said troops, she set up shop in an Aysle transformed area of Earth .. a skilled artist at drawing portraits, she tearfully rendered a portrait of her beloved Leon then framed it and kept it under a cloth , taking the cloth off once per day to gaze mournfully at the loss of the love of her life... irritated by one too many Ayslish and core earther's alike trying to ask her out on a date she used her disguise spell to adopt the guise of an old crone then explained away the sudden change in appearance as her having used magics to "appear young and beautiful" (when in fact she actually was), her clients shrugging their shoulders and being far more concerned with what she could do for them.


If the PC's at any point declare the nature of their quest and what they're up to, Della hesitates for a long moment.. then drops the disguise spell showing her true self (not necessary if the PC's made their streetwise check in which case they come across a depressed Della who has forgotten to put up her disguise spell ) .. pulls the cloth away from the drawing of her beloved Leor and tells the PC's the entire story, tears dripping down her cheeks.. she says that while she still resents Ardinay or Towlyn's for "too little too late", she's come to realize over the year and a half now it's been since Leor's death that given how much he idolized tolwyn (she points out with a small sad smile that Leor made it clear he was never in love with Tolwyn and would have considered the very idea blasphemous he just idolized her as a paragon of all a knight of the realm should be) her beloved Leor would absolutely be behind any attempt to rescue Tolwyn and she'll help however she can... she lists the spells she can cast and points out that sadly she doesn't have much that would be of any help in a fight... grow and shrink perhaps, the lie detecting spell only works if she has something that belongs to the target ... but she adds with a shrug of her shoulders it doesn't matter much to her if she lives or dies regardless and she'll accompany the PC's if they wish... 


....attempts to romance her are met with either a contemptuous look "Didn't you just hear me talk about how devastated I am at the death of the love of my life?" or if a more gentle approach is taken " I will wait as long as you want me to but in the meantime I'm here for you" sort of thing.. this is met with a sad smile and an assurance she'll never love again.. whether or not this is true is something I'll leave up to each GM to decide but if she accompanies the PC's I would have her find her inner hero,  become possibility rated in the process becoming a storm knight in some fight where she bravely tried to come to a PC's aid (suicidal or not it's still a noble gesture and she's doing what her beloved heroic Leor would want which in and by itself is a choice for good) right in front of the PC's in full dramatic fashion (flashes of red and blue energy, see also if you like my suggestions for the cinematic matrix the movie style method that makes it very clear someone is using possibilities on their actions in my blogger post for the godbox review) and if she's taken to meet Ardinay (and Tolwyn if Tolwyn survives the ritual at the end of the adventure) then one (or both) women welcome her with open arms.. either or both women are familiar with Leor's heroics and speak warmly of their admiration of him causing Della to break down and start sobbing, Ardinay hugs Della.. and afterwards Della becomes a storm knight for the Delphi council in Aysle , gaining additional spellcaster perks to let her cast more offensive/defensive combat oriented magic.   



As far as pictures of the thief "sub-commanders" and the thieves themselves, fortunately given how popular the concept is a google search for "medieval thief artwork" will turn up a huge array of results particularly on pininterest.. here are four possibilities for pic's nonetheless


https://www.deviantart.com/medok81/art/Thief-117770130


https://www.artstation.com/artwork/ybXax5


https://www.deviantart.com/metalratrox/art/Last-Breath-760926530


https://www.deviantart.com/capprotti/art/The-Thief-150551544



The thieves' guild finds out that the PC's are after them and launches an ambush of sorts where the sub-commander or "sergeant" of the theives' guild if you will does his best to intimidate the PC's without actually fighting and actually goes so far as to retreat if a fight breaks out (or try to , the PC's will almost assuredly try to chase the sub-commander and his minions down no doubt resulting in a use of the chase rules from the torg core rulebook) .. here's one map possibility for said ambush 


https://www.deviantart.com/foundryatropos/art/Old-City-Alleyways-752840311


other possibility 


https://angelamaps.com/2021/09/06/alley/


Eventually the PC's end up at the headquarters of the thieves' guild which in "real world" core Earth is located at the isle of dogs in London and is also where the  eternium core is being sold ...  truth not an island and more so of a peninsula jutting out of London and surrounded apparently by a river on three sides ... here are some links with more information that may be helpful to the GM


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Dogs


https://wharferj.wordpress.com/2012/03/18/a-walk-through-the-heart-of-the-isle-of-dogs/


A picture is  given for the transformed demon who heads the thieves' guild, appropriately enough a demon of greed and a former cyberpapacy demon before transforming over to the Aysle axioms.   The GM should pay attention to the sidebar on page 78 that details exactly what crimes the guild is involved in as well as the info there on the transformed demon "mother" in case a PC slams a captured thief up against the wall and demands to know what evil activities the thieves' guild is involved in.. the GM will also have to decide if the fact that mother is a demon is known to all thieves’ guild members (technically they call themselves "the Unseen") or if that's something known only to her most trusted lieutenants who carry out orders in her name... 


....as well the players may have their PC's ask about or simply assume that the Unseen traffics in the darker crimes that sadly exist here in "real world Earth" that the torg eternity team perhaps in an attempt to keep things PG rated do not touch upon in the book.. drugs and prostitution.. the GM is the one best suited to evaluate his or her individual gaming group and decide if this is something the Unseen is up to ... if not simply have the thief give the PC's a confused look and say " more trouble than it's worth why would we even bother to get involved in that?" (given that the morally corrupt Unseen shake down beggars for a portion of their alms as they're described in the book I strongly doubt the Unseen avoid those two crimes out of a sense of morality)... 


.....if they are involved in those dark things however off the top of my head I can think of some really bad ways they would intersect with Ayslish reality/axioms as thoroughly intermixed as they are with core earth's in London as described in the aysle torg eternity book and the revenge of the carredon as well... "normal" earth drugs , opium based for example , will work just fine in say one of the many core earth hardpoints that dot London but if you stray too far away the poor hapless drug user will find their "fix" not working as Ayslish axioms take hold and the advanced tech axiom that created the drugs lets the drugs become inert... let's assume drugs aren't a problem in the "home cosm" of Aysle so when one of these SOB Unseen drug pushers offers some broken hearted denizen of Aysle who lost everything to the forces of Darkness in their home cosm "something to make you feel better.. for free, just because I'm so nice" .... the hapless average Aysle citizen would be particularly vulnerable to this kind of tactic never having experienced illegal drugs before and once hooked becomes a slave to the Unseen doing whatever they ask in exchange for the "fix" they desperately need.. all the more desperate at that because they have no way of known if any given dose of drugs is going to work for them or not (maybe this results in clusters of desperate ayslish citizens eventually figuring out what core earth hardpoints are most likely to get them "high" and congregating around that area resulting in some truly tragic sights the PC's see as they traverse the streets of London).. as far as prostitution sadly either a core earth or desperate aysle citizen who lost everything of material worth on the trip to Earth (let's say there are aysle citizens who lost everything to the forces of darkness in the home cosm of aysle and came to earth hoping things would be better here only to find out that's not the case) , either male or female, would work here in that role.  

Reports should make their way back to the PC's after a while of both the (sort of) good.. most of the former drug addicts forced to overcome their addiction since their supply of drugs was cut off when the PC's presumably kill Mother and shatter the Unseen as an organization as a result though sadly alcohol specifically brewed to function under Aysle and Core Earth axioms could be used as a substitute drug.. bad enough but arguably not as bad as say something opium based and a bartender can always cut off an imbiber saying s/he's had enough.. and the bad.. former prostitutes now working for themselves, still a tragic state of affairs to say the least but at least now they're not giving 90 percent of their income to those Unseen SOB's... I would go so far as to say the PC's should enjoy a permanent bonus to streetwise skill checks or just flat out have them succeed automatically while in London , the grateful persons who were victimized by the PC's knowing what happened (that is assuming any bad guys got away and survived who can spread the news of the PC's exploits and/or if there were witnesses who saw the PC's roughing up and/or killing Unseen members).



The PC's will eventually find themselves at the entrance to the thieves guild where the PC's are attacked by a scythe-trap, gas and so forth .. no map is given for this entrance but here's one possibility , you can just use the top portion of map and use infranview to crop out the bottom part


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/fqx2m1/dragonsfall_guildhall_30x20x3_multilevel/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&utm_term=link


Below is one possibility for maze of rooms PC's have to navigate through to find and fight the Unseen with members in the various rooms launching surprise attacks as mentioned in the book, but you'd need to change the written description in the book to say that in the map given above the staircase depicted on the right hand side leads downwards to the Unseen's hideout, an underground area transformed by the Aysle axiom wash into the kind of underground thieves' guild hideout so commonly found in the Aysle home cosm yet adjacent to the core earth  sewer tunnels as depicted on the map (giving desperate Unseen members a slimy and dirty yet possible alternate entrance and exit to the headquarters with perhaps locked and/or hidden doors as mentioned above at parts of the sewer tunnels closer to the surface allowing entrance and exit this way as well)  .. .as far as the map given above and the stairs to the right of the map let's say they lead to a , perhaps locked, perhaps a secret door at the GM's option requiring either a lockpicking or find roll ... which in turn leads to tunnels and rooms depicted in the map below... 


https://i.imgur.com/T4JwhMC.jpg


the original post is listed below but use the link above the original poster generously made available above so you can download it as a jpg rather than a wepb file 


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/8r4oz2/sewerslaver_hideout_battlemap/


As far as the room where the PC's fight the demon leader "Mother" and possibly Kanawa agents as well whom Mother hopes to sell the eternium core to ... again you will have to amend written description in the book to say that tunnels of some sort must exit to the surface above letting light come in through the stained glass windows or perhaps it's some sort of magical effect negating the need for tunnels to begin with  ... possibly PC's who climb up to the windows can smash through them to see what appear to be rough crude rock tunnels - created by the Aysle axiom wash - leading up above ground but the climbing skills to climb them all the way up to the ground would be difficult, difficulty number 14  .. originally the whole complex was described as connected above ground buildings with the exchange taking place in an abandoned church but sadly no battlemaps have been provided for any of this.. so here's a suggestion below for the fight with Mother

.. 



https://old.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/jhtmx2/the_school_of_sorcery_part_03_21x35/



or if that link doesn't work here's a smaller resolution version


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/86764730313201987/


No picture is given for the kanawa agents.... here's one pic possiblity but  you'd have to warn the players 4 agents present not the 3 shown in the picture (let's say the fourth agent not pictured is keeping watch but you could just hand wave it and say the PC's successfully sneak past him into the room ... of course if the PC's burst in ready to fight you can still use the picture but describe how the Kanawa agents leap up from their couch pulling their guns) ... for humor's sake given they are all reality rated you could really have them playing a video game in the corner of the room while they patiently wait for the demon to show up.. to encourage the PC's to try the sneaky approach you could say that they clearly hear of all things video game sound effects and dialogue should any PC's be familiar enough with core earth technology (like video games) to make that determination.. the artist of the picture below described it as "Yakuza playing Yakuza (the video game)"


https://www.deviantart.com/jnkboy/art/Suntory-time-183370519


The kanawa agents all reality rated but not much else given in terms of background... you could say that they are all elite agents of Kanawa corporation hailing from the Pan Pacifica home cosm with poison "fillings" in their teeth.. knowing full well that an incredibly painful and torturous death awaits them if they are captured, at their first opportunity when they wake up they bite down on the poison tooth killing themselves with the stereotypical green foam erupting out of their mouth as they convulse.. better that than to give away the ultimate secret... that they are invaders from another cosm only pretending to be Japanese.


If the PC's burst into the room and start fighting immediately then you can assume Mother and her agents are tipped off, sneak into the room and get a surprise attack against the PC's... otherwise you could describe Mother slithering into the room along with her Unseen agents and describe how she begins to negotiate the terms of the sale with the Kanawa agents trying to ream them for the highest price possible (she is a greed demon after all) with the agents coldly stating Mother has already been paid say one thousand bars of gold and the price was already agreed upon (which raises an interesting question if the PC's decide to try and capture Mother and get the gold from her... given she's a demon of greed she could simply snarl that she'd rather die than give up her gold and mean it.. naturally Mother didn't tell her minions where the gold was either).. 


The PC's will presumably emerge from the fight with Mother and the Kanawa agents triumphant which in turn leads them back to the dwarven inventor which in turn leads them to the goal of this entire Act, the Carredon's home cosm... of course once they get there there's a fight and while the area is beautifully described in the narrative there is, of course, no map and given how detailed the written description was it was impossible for me to find a map matching it online.. here's one possibility nonetheless though you'd have to explain to players the "walls" are decorative stones easily stepped over perhaps three inches tall at the most 


https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/oyf7dj/fountain_plaza_battlemap_12x15_oc_dhakaani_ruins/


or another other possibility as a map


https://www.reddit.com/r/dndmaps/comments/nmle0g/crypt_of_the_crow_prince_22x36_town_battlemap/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share


There's a typo in that page 82 skeletons listed as having 7 shock but the notes in the description say skeletons do not take shock damage (they're undead) so ignore shock entry (see also page 137 entry for skeletons in the aysle torg eternity sourcebook and see also page 177 torg eternity core rules).. something worth clarifying here ... since the skeletons are listed as having no wounds as an entry , it doesn't mean they're immune to wounds despite being undead it simply means a single wound result is enough to dispatch a single skeleton, something mentioned in the torg eternity core rules but which is easy to forget about especially when you're dealing with undead whom on some unconscious level you'd assume would take no wound damage to begin with (they do and are "killed" as easily as other minions in a sense although as the adventure notes new skeletons keep arising from the mass of bones making them impossible to truly defeat, only fought off long enough for the PC's to get their hands on the heart from the carredon's long dead body) .. 


The adventure mentions an attack by Utherion's stalkers on the hapless dwarven scientist who desperately tries to keep the gate between cosms open such that the PC's aren't stuck in the Carredon's home cosm ... there's some different possibilities here...  the PC's might have went through this adventure in order and gathered the four elements of the ritual before attempting to get the heart of the Carredon.. or the players could decide to go for the heart first then gather the four elements, gather some elements first then go for the heart or what have you ... in any case the stalkers the adventure refers to are the remaining named  Utherion stalkers listed in the threats section at the end of the adventure that choose that time to attack the hapless dwarf and his golem servant trying to keep the gate open to the cosm for the PC's if this is the final "component" of the quest , that is the PC's have already completed acts two through six already ... as mentioned in Act Seven , if the PC's have already dispatched all the named Stalkers then the GM can assume that the Stalkers mentioned here are simply the modified lurk howlers  (maybe throw a wight in there too who's in command of the lurks saving the modified assassin-lurk-howlers for Act Seven) since all four named Stalkers are all dead at this point.


Assuming the PC's make it back out of the carrdon's home cosm (and the adventure does allow for the possibility of the PC's being trapped there for a desperate few days and gives them a way back to earth after a while) they could find themselves in possession of the magic sword tolwyn originally used to defeat the Carredon .. stats for towylyn's vanquisher blade are  given on pages 58-59 of the aysle torg eternity book but the description of the blade far as "repels evil" appears to be lacking at first until you go back and look at the Aurel blade description earlier on in that sectino of the book which is an oversight on the Torg eternity aysle sourcebook writer's part... a busy GM who isn't going to remember that an explanation of the game effects of the repel evil property might find him or herself confused when they check those page numbers.   Note that as far as requirement that wielder be beta clearance that the PC's should be beta clearance already simply to be in this adventure.   Assuming the PC's are successful and save her at the end of the adventure, consider having a grateful Tolwyn offering to trade the PC's 15,000 dollars worth of magical gear for her sword, the listed item value for a Vanquisher blade, and  insists on giving it as a reward even if PC's insist they need no reward pointing out that they can use such assets in the "fight against Darkness" and insisting on at least giving them 15,000 dollars worth of gold they can trade for the appropriate currency to buy gear ... if any PC attempted to refuse payment I would give all PC's one additional experience point on the spot as a reward .. the adventure as written doesn't account for that and states that Ardinay asks for Tolwyn's blade back given it's a family heirloom of great importance to the Tancred house which may be true but still comes across as rather ungrateful given what the PC's just accomplished for Ardinay and possibly Towyn if they're successful in their mission.. 


The final act involves the PC's needing to return to Ardinay's castle to perform the ritual .. I enjoyed how the adventure covers a wide variety of scenarios depending on how the PC's choose to get back to Ardinay's castle in England whether through the tunnels in the Land In Between, air dropped from an air vehicle, or travelling on land (presumably after a water vehicle drops them onto said land) in that it  gives flexibility for the PC's actions and choices...I loved how the captain of whatever core earth air vehicle is flying them into England warns them that air vehicles flying into Aysle have turned into barges (and not the flying kind to quote the writers) and sure enough when they fly into Aysle the air vehicle turns into a barge... and not the flying kind.. complete with half the crew immediately transforming from core earth to Aysle reality, all sorts of panicked confusion and PC's forced to grab a parachute to get to the ground safely (fortunately the parachutes didn't transform) and , hopefully acting like the heroes they're supposed to be, grabbing one hapless soldier from the plane to bring down to the ground safely with them on the parachute ride..


.... of course if the PC's are heroic as they are supposed to be they'll want to save EVERYONE on the plane.. I would give all the PC's a difficulty 2 Mind roll to let them figure out that it's simply impossible.. there's no technology present they can jury rig to let the barge fly or even land safely since it's now basically all wood , the PC's don't have any magical, psionic and/or spiritual miracle casting abilities strong enough to capture an entire barge and bring it down to land .. this is just one of those situations where the best the PC's can do is each save one single life and try to be content that they were at least able to do that .. an extremely merciful GM can have the winged horse from Act four if the PC's befriended him/her (the writers never declared what gender the winged horse is I think so up to the GM) and frantically neigh at any PC's to climb onboard and strain heroically (or not depending on how many PC's the horse has to fly) to carry the PC's weight just before the PC's see the ground rushing up at them in what's certain to be a deadly collision .. the horse, if carrying too many PC's, could manage to bank and break it's impact in tree foliage resulting in enough shock damage to knock everyone including horse unconscious followed by everyone waking up and seeing everyone, horse included, in the foliage but otherwise unharmed... otherwise if the PC's stubbornly refuse to leave the barge and try to save everyone this could be a total party kill scenario .. hopefully not.   


The adventure refers to Stalkers attacking the PC's in this final act but the PC's may have already killed off all the Stalkers given that all the remaining Stalkers still alive were supposed to show up to stop the PC's from gaining the fourth and final element (acorn, scroll, living skull, crystal) for the ritual to help Towlyn plus the Carredon's heart the PC's obtained in Act six,  which can be confusing in that all the named Stalkers may all already be dead.. page 87 of the book clarifies this to indicate that it's the Stalker's henchmen the Howlers (lurks, or to use another word goblins, modified by blood magic) if no Stalkers are still alive but it would have been helpful to have this mentioned instead the moment the Stalkers were mentioned in Act Seven ... and then there's that strange reference to the " Barrungs" which clearly indicates that the well intentioned writers in an attempt to pack as much action and adventure into this book to give you the most bang for your buck were clearly forced to leave certain things out ... like a description of exactly what Barrungs are given that there's no mention of them in the Aysle sourcebook or the Torg Eternity core rules... I even looked in the original 1990's Aysle sourcebook and found no mention of them.. the only possible explanation I can think of is that "Barrung" is simply a name for a more "advanced modification" of the howlers-formerly-known-as-lurks-aka-goblins given that the Barrung have more powerful stats than a Howler and I would describe them as such to the players pointing out that they are stealthier and sneakier than the howler lurks from their graceful movements and lack of noise they make (they're described as "assassins" at one point)...


No picture is provided for them but going on the assumption they are former lurks changed by blood magic to become better assassins you could try a picture like this 


https://www.deviantart.com/jamhardt/art/Goblin-Assassin-824482022


or this


https://kalvinlyle.com/projects/09gmE


As usual no combat map is provided but given that this battle takes place on the battlefield close to Ardinay's castle a search for "battlefield rpg map" turns up one possibility 


https://i.redd.it/ctwbxpm1kpu81.jpg


though for that one the GM will have to explain it's raining at the moment (at the GM's option the rain can stop when the fight is over... the rain and the chaos of combat would definitely make it more obvious to the PC's how the assassin-Barrungs were able to get a surprise attack in on the PC's if the PC's fail their find check) 


or 


https://www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/xpfuuk/old_battlefield_caravan_40x40/


with the caravan tents explained away as belonging to Asylish soldiers fighting alongside the core earth troops and explaining the dry areas where a river is supposed to be as a victim of the Aysle axiom wash or some kind of malicious act by Utherion's forces to deny their foes water 


I was surprised by how the writers accounted for the possibility of the PC's giving a "fake version" of an element of the ritual that was required which in my opinion should absolutely result in an immediate Darkness perk, maybe two, if the GM warns of the potential consequences of such an action and the players insist on doing it anyways... as I mentioned above this is where the adventure really seems to have a personally conflict with itself totally at odds with the nature of Light versus Darkness.. hopefully the players did what they were supposed to and obtained all four elements (acorn, scroll, crystal and living skull) plus the carredon's heart so the ritual can be run as it's supposed to be ... regardless the ritual results in the PC's having to fight some terrifyingly powerful spirit remnants of the Carredon and finally a reconstituted albeit weaker version of it (still very powerful) and I get the feeling that this final dramatic conclusion to the adventure seems more like an effort for the PC's to survive than it is for the PC's to defeat even this weakened version of the Carredon though of course where the unpredictable nature of players and RPG campaigns alike are involved anything's possible.   While you might have annoyed players on your hands if the Carredon gets away which it most likely does if enough combat rounds go by and it's not killed (it simply flies off to be a threat to the PC's later on in the campaign having now been exorcised from Tolwyn) the PC's can at least content themselves with knowing they saved Towlyn and bask in Ardinay's heartfelt thanks including being made Knights of the Aysle realm/cosm.    The adventure accounts for a more tragic turn of events too like Tolwyn not making it out of the ritual alive if the players decided to skip bringing any of the four elements or the heart (why I have no idea and I would assume most players would , if nothing else wanting the experience points and the sense of completion of the quest, carry out all the tasks in front of the PC's anyways) and/or Ardinay's arch magus sacrificing his very life in place of the acorn element should it be missing from the ritual and Ardinay's reaction and forthgoing battle strategy against Utherion should any of these more tragic plotlines take hold.  


The fight with the Corredon is tainted by the nature of Orrosh reality which, on the one hand, totally makes sense when  you consider the nature of Orrosh's "evil never dies" situation especially if you've read the Orrosh sourcebook... on the other hand the curse bestowed on the PC who struck the final death blow... a seemingly inevitable descent into madness and becoming a minion of the Gaunt Man possessed by the Carredon's spirit .. is something that not only may seem unfair to the players but an event that could very well provoke understandable howls of fury from players familiar with the Orrosh sourcebook who say " But we're in AYSLE!".. and sure enough, although darkness can seize the land and prevail for a while like it did as written in the description of Aysle, the forces of Light would , at least from the player's point of view, inevitably triumph at some point just like they do in every other major fantasy mythos (lord of the rings , most dungeons and dragons prewritten campaing settings and even game of thrones) the players are no doubt familiar with and would be using even unconsciously as a source of reference.. what's worse the conditions that need to be met to free the PC from the curse.. seek out the home cosm of the Carredon and destroy it , which is only possible with the use of a darkness device.. appear to be all but impossible to meet.. honestly speaking if it was me as a GM I would introduce another epic quest ... how to come up with a quest more epic than the one the PC's just went through which only resulted in at best the curse being transferred from Tolwyn to a PC is something that I honestly would have no idea how to address as a GM - perhaps the writers of torg eternity will address this in the years to come as part of some epic adventure meant to conclude the events of the torg campaigns in general.. alternately if the GM wants to be merciful and declare as the adventure states as a possible outcome that a part of the corredon's body survived unbeknownst to the PC's, returned to it's home cosm and regrew the carredon within a year.. but at least that way a PC isn't cursed with the carredon's spirit... of course players might be understandably annoyed at having gone through the entire adventure and still not having been able to kill the carredon for good ....


Having said that, and despite my many criticisms and comments, overall I still think this would be a fun adventure for the GM to run for players and well worth the purchase price.





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Pan Pacifica sourcebook extended review

Tharkold sourcebook extended review notes

godbox extended review notes