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today I'm taking a short break from fantasy-rpg civilization and bring to you my review of a very particular wilderness:
Intrepid Expeditions - The Island of Life
This pdf is 51 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page
editorial, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving 47 pages of content.
So what exactly do we get here? We are introduced to
the fabled island of Kawa'lea. On the mundane side, we start our exploration of
the island with a discussion of the climate and the peculiarities of the
monsoon weather there. The interesting component about Kawa'lea, though, is the
non-mundane aspect of the island - due to the abundance of life-energy on the
island, death is far from final on Kawa'lea - if you die, you make a will-save
depending on your level. If you succeed, you are reincarnated and get mutations
that might be benevolent or unpleasant. There are 3 basic categories of
mutations, ranging from hump backs to backwards bent knees. You might even get
tentacles, reflective spells etc. Polymorph also tends to result in mutations
on Kawa'lea.
That's not all, though: The very vegetation on the
island of life is infused with magic and life and might reproduce a wide
variety of magical effects. The waters of the island offer enough adventuring
as well - underwater politics, a graveyard of ships wasted upon the dread reefs
surrounding the island. There is a secret war being waged beneath the waves -
the sea serpent wizard, the self-styled serpent king has problems with
revolutionaries and the magical pearls make for powerful incentives to join
either side.
The plains of Kawa'lea contain the only true speck of civilization
left - after a settlement of people mysteriously disappeared and left their
home Roanoke-style: Pennar, a wizard is
studying the strange effects of the island and has a (very unreliable)
teleportation circle. The herd of horses, unicorns and pegasi as well as awakened
horses make for another rather interesting faction on the island.
The Western Forest of the Island has more in store for
you - a village of awakened animals where rabbits live in harmony with
carnivores. Hidden in this forest, we also find Nathrigaeus, the immortal tree
that guards the orchard of enlightenment and seeks to expand his influence via
his dryad slaves. The primitive gorilla-like humanoid uktans make for another
potential threat in this part of the island. In the eastern forest, which is
more swampy, the PCs can find an abandoned temple, which alongside the
Uktan-base contains the puzzle-pieces for one of the island's greatest
mysteries. Oh, there also are demons here, mysterious standing stones....and
the fountain of youth.
Finally, mount Kawa'lea features deadly foes, even more
iconic locations and potentially even the secret behind the island's mysterious
properties, which I'll exclude from this review.
A unique island like Kawa'lea also spawns unique
critters - from arcanum birds with magical plumes to mutated island behemoths,
deadly fish, crab jellies etc., the critters uniformly come with unique
signature abilities. Have I mentioned Forgebelly Fishes and Megastirges?
The product also comes with a 15-page player's guide,
1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page SRD and 1 page back cover, leaving
11 pages of content. The player's guide comes
with a wide array of rumors to lead the PCs there. There's also the
Devotee of the Sacred Isle-10-lvl PrC that comes with d10, 4+Int skills per
level, full BAB and medium fort-saves. The PrC focuses on rejuvenations,
special mutations like gaze attacks etc. and, of course, the power to transcend
death even easier.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice
any glitches. Layout adheres to the 2-column standard and artwork is stock,
which, while not great, makes for the only gripe I have with this pdf. Both the
regular guide and the player's guide come with printer-friendly b/w-versions
and are bookmarked. The island is iconic in mechanics, ideas and
content, there is a lot of content for the moderate asking price and in the
end, just have to applaud the creative guys over at Necromancers of the
Northwest. The exploration is by far the best pdf they released since Advanced
Arcana. Fluff, writing, crunch - everything is stellar. my only gripe is that I
would have enjoyed stats for the NPCs, but i guess that's ok - we already get
more than 60 pages of content. Seeing that I don't have any true gripes apart
from minor nitpicks, my final verdict will be a hearty recommendation alongside
5 stars and the Endzeitgeist seal of approval.
I hope you enjoy this detour, next time I'll be back in civilization - a seedy type of civilization! See you then and as always - thanks for reading my ramblings!
Endzeitgeist out.
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