![RPGNow.com RPGNow.com](http://www.rpgnow.com/themes/rpgnow/images/affiliatebanner3.gif)
Hey everybody!
Today, we'll dive back beneath the waves of the Cerulean Seas and take a look at arctic underwater adventuring with
Cerulean Seas: Indigo Ice
The second expansion-supplement for Alluria Publishing's critically acclaimed, stellar underseas-campaign-setting Cerulean Seas is 114 pages long, 1 page front cover, 2 pages editorial/Kickstarter-thanks, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page list of KS-contributors, 1 page back cover, leaving us with107 pages of content, so let's check this out!
The
introduction makes one thing clear: You have not read a book like this before.
Ever. This sourcebook is about the arctic clime, yes, but not on humano-centric
cultures, though it lends somewhat from Icelandic, Norse, Inuit etc.
traditions), but on recent realizations of how much the world beneath the waves
shapes the polar regions. Combine that with the fact that in Cerulean Seas,
there is not much dry land and we have an interesting base assumption. More
interesting yet, at least imho, would be the fact that logical assumptions have
been taken: In order for any culture to thrive in a land of few resources and
extremes, the resulting culture developing from it would require a sense of
progressive-mindedness and war-like aspirations. Against this backdrop merging
progress and tradition, arcane and technological and the struggle for survival,
we are introduced to this book's core
concepts.
A special
mention deserve here the artworks - the "City that never thaws" and
most of the other artworks herein follow a cohesive, extremely high quality
style that is not only consistent in itself, but also with the high quality
artworks Alluria Publishing has featured in their other Cerulean Seas-products.
In fact, some of them may even surpass them due to feeling more iconic, but
more on that later in the conclusion. The pdfs begins with environmental
undersea environments, glaciers and slush swamps as well as hazards for the
respective areas, which include e.g. acidic slushes, catabatic winds, wind
chills and cohesive rules for breaking through ice. All in all, a cool chapter
that is useful for any cold climate, not just those in the Cerulean
Seas-setting.
The second
chapter is all about races and kicks off with a revisit to the classic races of
the Cerulean Seas setting as well as Waves of Thought before including new
races - which, of course, all come with the trademark pieces of information on
buoyancy, types etc. The first new race would be the Aglooik, small feykith
(only two and a half page) and they get +2 to Dex, Int, -2 to Con, 30 ft.
speed, get +1 to ref saves versus electricity, steam and acid, +2 to Knowledge
(engineering), Profession (engineering), Craft or disable device as well as
proficiency with any aglootech-weapon, but more on that later. The second new
race would be the arctic, cold, charming and professional Crystolix, who get +2
Int and Cha, -2 Str, must take skill focus (diplomacy), +2 to appraisal, cold
resistance 10 as well as +2 to saves against spells and effects that would
result in negative conditions. Interesting race that can be played as creepily
friendly. The transparent Ice Elves get +2 to Dex and Wis, immunity to cold and
fire vulnerability, +1 to AC when touching water and at a depth of 300 ft. or
less as well as a spell-like ability to use ice water-jet and +1 DC to saving
throws against cold spells they can cast.
The
Talilajuk Ningen are special fishfolk: Based on Belugawhales, they can breathe
air and get +4 Str, -2 Str, are fast, must take Skill Focus (Stealth) as their
merfolk-bonus-feat and gain blindsense while in water. The coolest new race,
perhaps would be the Squawk - mechanically, these beings get +2 to Str and Con,
-2 to Int, are small at a fast movement rate of 30 ft., get +1 dodge bonus to
AC and CMD, +2 to saves versus poisons, spells and spell-like abilities and
always count as wearing cold weather outfits and proficiency with skiths. What
are they? They are a race of deadly
warriors living in a martial society of penguin-like humanoids. And yes,
the artworks actually manage to make that work - squawks are bad@ss! The Thanor
are a race of walrus-like humanoids who get +4 to Con + 2 to Str, -2 to Dex, -2
to Wis, are large and have lungs, +1 natural AC, only a speed of 30 ft., always count as wearing cold weather outfits
and natural attacks with their tusks.
![RPGNow.com RPGNow.com](http://www.rpgnow.com/themes/rpgnow/images/affiliatebanner3.gif)
Pinniparian
and Seafolk-crossbreeds are also covered and the vital statistics like age,
height and weight tables are part of the deal as well. In chapter 3, the roles
of the different classes (including psionic ones) in the cold waters of
Isinblare are covered. The chapter also features new classes, the first one
being the Angakkuq base-class, who get 3/4 BAB-progression, d8, 4+Int skills
per level, proficiency with light and medium armor, prepared divine
spellcasting of up to 6th level via Cha as key attribute and get the option to
create a Tupilaq: Somewhat similar to eidolons, these creatures are created
from either flora, fauna or frost and can share spells with their masters and
be enhanced etc, learn tricks à la
animal companions etc. - a great
alternative to the druid base-class with its fetishistic creature.
The chapter
also includes new PrCs: The Conulair is singular among PrCs in that is requires
a cool oath as well as is based on an interesting concept - mechanically, the
class gets d10, 2+Int skills, full BAB, medium fort-saves and several
cold-adaption powers. The cool thing about the PRC, though, is that entry
actually bonds the applicant with a semi-conscious symbiote that grants the
creature the respective powers and allows them not only to create deadly
rimefire powers and may also choose frostboons. An excellent, iconic PrC! The
second class is just as awesome and is imho the best rules-take I've seen on
the concept: The Cyrokineticist, a psionic class who gets d8, 2+Int skills, 3/4
BAB-progression, medium fort-and ref-saves as well as a variety of abilities
that include rimefire weaponry, flash-freezing etc. - analogue to the
pyrokinetist a warrior-style class. Nice to see some psionic support beyond the
Waves of Thought supplement. There is also the Cryomancer-PrC (d6, 2+Int
skills, 9/10th spell-casting progression, 1/2 BAB-progression, medium will-saves),a nm arcane specialist of
cold-based magic.
In chapter
4, we are introduced to the art of Frostcraft, but what is that? Well, first of
all it's about arctic materials, bartering and how economies work in the polar
context, including compressed air, ice rubber etc., which make a whole new
class of item possible: So-called Aglootech. Unsurprisingly pioneered by said
race, the class of items includes new weapons (by the way, all of which are
rendered in gorgeous full color) that use this fizzling to create rifles,
pistols etc. that propel nail-like projectiles through the waves, pneumatic
blades and spears can be found in this chapter alongside the
skitch-battle-scythes of the Squawk, ice blades. Also rather extremely cool
regarding artworks: How exactly such rifles work is shown in a neat schematic
that also provides enlarged and named components for the respective weapons.
When harpoon-like rifles are possible, it should come as no surprise that there
also are massive harpoon-cannons based on this technology to be found.
![RPGNow.com RPGNow.com](http://www.rpgnow.com/themes/rpgnow/images/affiliatebanner3.gif)
The arctic
"lands" of Isinblare are also rich in a material called Ancient
Crystal, which can provide an array of interesting qualities to benefit from or
be hindered by. 3 new magical items,
also with gorgeous, perhaps even above-paizo-level artworks, complete the
package of the chapter.
Chapter 5
is where the setting-specific pieces of information for the region of Isinblare
in the context of the Cerulean Seas-setting can be found. (And yes, that means until
now, the book was all about material just about any campaign could use). In
tradition with the Cerulean Seas-setting, we get what amounts to essentially
short racial histories of the respective races, each of which comes with a
fluff-only write-up of a famous personality of the respective race. Beyond the
main playable races, though, we also get pieces of information on the
civilization of races from the bestiary. Languages and their speakers are part
of what is provided, as are 6 deities and write-ups of the nations and big
cities to be found in the realms of indigo ice, though the latter lack city
statblocks. The maps provided do their job, though they admittedly fall far
behind the quality of the artworks and feel slightly out of place.
In
tradition with other Alluria Publishing-releases, the final chapter provides us
with a bestiary-section, which includes fiskheim akhluts, domesticated huge
versions of the regular akhluts, aquatic bears, the fish-humanoid Brothers of
Frost , a new song dragon, the riding penguins called Kairaku, two new types of
ningen, a wicked fey of frozen glaciers, seal variants (both mundane and
partially represented as the sunhunter as a deadly glacier-predator and more:
Take e.g. living ice-float constructs,
ice-breaker whales, AWESOME-looking ice leviathans, ice kraken, orcoths and
tizheruks and even ice liches. Alluria books are usually beautiful. These
monster-illustrations, though, transcend even some of the offerings I've seen
by WotC and paizo - mind-boggling and awesome. Also, each of the creatures gets
some kind of interesting (sometimes even multiple) signature abilities.
Arctic/Aquatic mounts and war-beasts are also covered, with e.g. animal
companion stats.
Beyond even
this content, we get an index of aquatic polar monsters by CR(including up to
Bestiary 3, Creepy Creatures and all Cerulean Sea-books), pronunciation
guidelines, a table that lists all tables, an art-index, 8 card-stock minis and
a small poem on the last page.
![RPGNow.com RPGNow.com](http://www.rpgnow.com/themes/rpgnow/images/affiliatebanner3.gif)
Conclusion:
Editing and
formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches - quite a feat at this
length. The pdf comes fully bookmarked with nested bookmarks and its layout
adheres to Cerulean Seas' two-column full-color standard and is, still, among
the most dazzling out there. The artworks deserve special mentioning: Where
Waves of Thought and even Cerulean Seas had an odd one out here and there,
Indigo Ice goes above and beyond: These artworks are so beautiful, I honestly
can't recall having EVER seen such a beautiful book by any 3pp - this ranks,
presentation-wise, among the very best and in fact, at least imho, surpasses
even multiple paizo-books. The supplement
unfortunately comes sans printer-friendly version and if you can, I suggest you
get the full-color print. If the print is half as beautiful as the pdf, you'll
still have a drop-dead gorgeous book.
When I read
the premise of the book, I was honestly doubting whether this would interest
me: Cerulean Seas is a peculiar set of rules/setting and combining them with
the frozen north seemed problematic to me at best: Especially with Kobold
Press' Northlands already doing a great of Norse-themed fantasy, albeit above
the waves. Indigo Ice thankfully takes a different approach: Blending Norse
themes with a large dose of Inuit-myth (something seen all too rarely) the
setting is something different altogether from the sum of its component parts: Flavor-wise,
the vibe that best describes the indigo Ice is imho a pulpy underlying theme of
a harsh land of harsh people coated with more than a fair share of original
ideas (Spartan penguins actually are much more badass than you'd think!) and
mixed up with technology that creates a combination of themes both in line with
traditionalist mythologies and a sense of ancientness as well as with the
throes of progress and a feeling of being on the dawning of a new age.
The weapons
with their details (and especially the extremely detailed schematic that
depicts it) make what would otherwise be a ridiculous concept feel believable.
In fact, that's pretty much the crowning achievement of Indigo Ice: Many
concepts may sound ridiculous when paraphrased in a review such as this, but
the unity of stellar artwork, superb rules and excellent writing combine to
make them work: To the extent where even usually gun-less campaigns can
probably use these weapons sans breaking the suspension of disbelief. Now the
fact that neither class, nor feats or any other component of the pdf can be
considered broken or unbalanced further serves to boost the overall impression
of excellence that withstands even closer scrutiny.
![RPGNow.com RPGNow.com](http://www.rpgnow.com/themes/rpgnow/images/affiliatebanner3.gif)
Beyond the usefulness of the book as a whole, I feel obliged to mention that the races, items and ideas herein can enrich campaigns in any northern setting, not necessarily only ones beneath the waves: If your PCs only plan sojourns into the frozen depths, then this pdf will still provide extremely fine critters, feats and intriguing civilizations for you to scavenge and add.
To cut a
long ramble that gushes about artworks, monsters and weapons, the potential
usability for underwater-steampunk-adventures (if you emphasize Aglootech
further) and the quality of the writing short: This book is a truly excellent
addition to Alluria's oeuvre and its quality stand up to the highest standards
you could demand, the one shortcoming being the maps in the campaign setting-section
and the lack of city statblocks, but which in no way would justify rating this
superb, surprisingly consistent book down: My final verdict will be 5 stars +
seal of approval.
Endzeitgeist
out.
No comments:
Post a Comment