Warlords of the Accordlands RPG Review (Part 4 of 4) : The Campaign Adventure Book

By Stephen Wark, Staff Reviewer

Available at FRP Games
Warlords Of The Accordlands RPG: Campaign Adventure
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Initiative Round
The Campaign Adventure Book is the fourth and final volume of the four-volume Warlords of the Accordlands RPG setting based on the popular Warlord: Saga of the Storm CCG published by Alderac Entertainment. Campaign Adventure is a collection of 24 inter-connected adventures designed to take characters from 1st to 20th level, and reveals the major plots of the Medusan Lords - a group of villains who are the secret powers in the world. The gorgeous full-color cover is by artist William O'Connor, and the lead writer is Allison Medwin.

Background
After the reading all about the rules, geography, history and monsters of the world of the Accordlands in the first three volumes of the set, I was more than ready to pay a visit to the world itself in The Campaign Adventure Book. I wanted to see what kind of epic quest for the characters the authors had structured over the course of 24 adventures and how that experience of the Accordlands gained from the Warlord CCG.

The Campaign Adventure Guide weighs in at a hefty 512 pages, but that didn't intimidate me. I had read and reviewed every chapter of The World's Largest Dungeon, which is 840 pages long, and survived. So, I grabbed the book, a notebook, my CCG collection for reference, and started reading.

You can follow the links to read my reviews of The Master Codex, The World Atlas, and Monsters and Lairs

Campaign Adventure Guide
The Campaign Adventure Guide is the concluding volume of the four-part Warlords of the Accordlands RPG. It is designed to take a party of 4-8 characters from 1st to 20th level, crossing the length and breadth of the Accordlands in the process, and bringing the characters face to face with the mightiest Medusan Lords.

The cover depicts a massive Nothrog named Malrog Iron-Face, who is the leader of the Medusan Lords.

Two map inserts are included. The first depicts the Corpse of the Great Dragon, and the second represents Nassiral Hate's temple in the city of Baraxton.

Unlike the other three books in the series, The Campaign Adventure Book is printed in black and white, and the art is not taken from the CCG.

The Introduction outlines the basic goals of the campaign, offers advice on using the book, and describes the basic theme of the campaign as "the last heroes in the world." The Accordlands are full of evils that the PCs must oppose, no matter how greatly the odds are stacked against them.

The second chapter wastes no time in revealing the major villains of the Accordlands. The Medusan Lords describes the history of a collective of individuals who have decided to rule the Accordlands in secret. Their name is taken from the Medusan civilization, a race that lived in the Shattered Lands and which was destroyed by the Lords in a single night.

The chapter goes on to describe the major Medusan Lords appearing in the campaign, who are not all the Lords that have appeared in the CCG: Cassica Moonseed, a summoner; Cear Adinerach, an Elven assassin; Majeral, the Ghoul Lord; Tiberius Blackthorn, a Deverenian paladin of the Black Sun; and Malrog Iron-Face, the most powerful of the Lords, who killed a dragon from the inside-out and made armor out of its bones!

Clearly, the PCs would be better off never attracting the attention of the Medusan Lords, but what fun would that be?

The individual adventures appear next. The adventures are divided into 10 tiers, each suitable for different levels. In general, the adventures in a given tier can be attempted in any order. DM notes are given in each adventure to account for running the adventures if the PCs have chosen a "creative" path through the campaign; for example, if the PCs have killed a major villain too early, haven't picked up the right clue or made the right ally, or have played through the adventures in the printed sequence.

Each adventure follows roughly the same format: a short Introduction; an Adventure Background that sets up the story; an Adventure Synopsis that outlines a typical resolution of the adventure; Area, Location and Encounter descriptions; plot developments that can result from encounters with NPCs; Concluding the Adventure descriptions, which outlines the consequences of the PC actions and suggests how the party can be guided towards their next adventure; the readings from the Stone of Fortune (more on that later); secondary Adventure Hooks that arise from the adventure; and, finally, descriptions of the new items, spells and monsters introduced in the adventure. Important information in each adventure, from major NPCs, important historical events, to rumors, are highlighted in sidebars.

The adventure chapters are structured in such as way that the GM can easily assimilate the story and find the important information quickly.

However, maps are a problem. The maps for each adventure are collected at the back of the book, they do not appear in the same order as they are referenced in the body of the book, and there are no references to the adventure to which they belong. You can only find a map from the cross-reference in a specific adventure, and that reference can appear pretty much anywhere in the chapter. There's no designated location for the map reference.

The Adventures

Reviewing the adventures poses a challenge: I don't want to spoil the surprise for the players, so I can't be thorough in my descriptions, but I do want to talk about the highs and lows of each adventure, which means some detail is necessary - otherwise, I might as well retype the "Adventure Synopsis" section of each chapter and leave it at that.

That won't do.

So, I'll adopt a compromise position and offer this semi-spoiler warning: I'll limit my discussion of each adventure to an informal overview, and only go into details about the interesting or disappointing parts if they don't really spoil the point of the adventure.

Unless otherwise noted, the players can pursue the adventures in each tier in any order.

Tier 1 (Level 1)

1. The Ghostwood Treaty gathers the players at a peace summit between all the warring nations of the Accordlands: Deverenian, Dwarf, Elf, Freekingdom and Nothrog. Of course, the Medusan Lords have a different outcome in mind for this event than a signed charter.

This offers the GM and the players all the flexibility the players need to assemble the party despite the possibly disparate backgrounds of the characters, and to give the party initial contacts among the five nations.

As a player of the CCG, I enjoyed this adventure immensely, because it reflect the storylines from the earliest days of the game and because the major NPCs were characters I had seen from the game that are no necessarily the best-known characters, such as the Son of the Clouds (an ambassador) and Sir Erik Kaisen ( a Freekingdoms fighter).

At the end of the adventure, the party acquires the Stone of Fortune, wherein they receive messages and visions from Cassandra, the wife a Freekingdoms noble, Sir Robert the Vigilant. The visions of the Stone of Fortune are used to guide the party to their next adventure, no matter how they succeeded or failed at their current adventure.

Tier 2 (Levels 1-3)
Both the adventures in this tier spin directly out of the contacts made in The Ghostwood Treaty.

2. The Temple of the Undying Flame brings the party to the aid of the Dwarves. A Dwarven cleric skilled in the creation of gargoyles has been kidnapped by the Nothrog, and the party is charged with rescuing the artisan from the recently uncovered Temple of the Undying Flame (also called the Temple of the Eternal Flame in some of the cross-references).

This is a fairly straightforward adventure that can bring the players some surprising allies or persistent enemies, depending on how the events unfold. The traps and encounters seem nicely balanced for a low-level party.

3. The Church of the Storm sends the party to Deverenia, where they must investigate the disappearance of a Cardinal after an assassination attempt. This introduces the party to the complexities of Deverenian religious and secular politics, and requires some old-fashioned detective work to resolve.

The mystery is pretty interesting, and I was surprised to see how deeply it cuts into the heart of Deverenian conspiracies. This is hardly the well-ordered society it appears to be.

Tier 3 (Levels 4-6)
This tier contains the only instance where two adventures are mutually exclusive. The party cannot attempt The Shattered Lands and The Black Forge, because both events happen simultaneously.

This is an interesting facet to the design of the campaign as a whole, but I would have liked to have seen it pursued further.

4. Shadow of the Black Tower has the party investigating the sudden influx of monsters in the Shattered Lands and brings them to Sorcha's Black Tower - a mechanical fortification that is part engine and part edifice.

Sorcha, to those familiar with the CCG, is one of the Warlords of the game. Sorcha is also revealed as the only surviving Medusan in the Accordlands, which means she has undying enmity towards the so-called Medusan Lords. She also has her own plan to defeat them, but her vengeance is perhaps a little too…all-encompassing…for the rest of the Accordlands.

There are two aspects to this adventure that I like: one, is that the party will encounter many Accordlands monsters, which are always neat; two, the Black Tower is full of moving parts, sliding doors and random effects that are a cartographer's nightmare (and also a headache for the GM to track as time progresses). The only thing missing is a tesseract right in the middle of it.

5. The Shattered Lands sends the party in search of an artifact in a lost city in the heart of the Shattered Lands. This is the area of the world that was twisted by the chaotic magic of Bascaron, one of the three moons in the Accordlands sky.

Bascaron mutates, warps and destroys everything in its path. The moon is worshipped by a cult of mutates known as Bascarites. They are uniformly insane.

However, Bascaron is also responsible for creating the Jackals of Mourn, who are good-aligned and will serve as guides through the Shattered Lands to those in need.

No matter how powerful the party, they'll be in need. Even the vegetation in the Shattered Lands is crazy.

In addition to the Jackals of Mourn, the party encounters Kerebrus, the renowned leader of the mercenary band called the Dark Horsemen. Kerebrus is another fan-favorite Warlord from the CCG.

One downside to this adventure is that there doesn't seem to be any consequence to the party not completing it.

6. The Black Forge is an adventure in the Dwarven World Below. The party's aid is requested in resisting the Abyssal siege of the small village of Black Forge. The party will have to learn about Dwarven customs, which evolved out of their centuries-long war against the Abyssals below-ground as part of the Accord.

This is a straightforward combat adventure, enlivened by its setting and the presence of Abyssals.

This is the only adventure in the campaign that is a pre-requisite to a later adventure, Abyssal Attack.

Tier 4 (Levels 6-8)

7. The Dragon's Lair brings the party face-to-face with their first dragon. Since the world was created by the Great Dragon, and both the soul and body of that dragon continue to be forces of evil in the Accordlands, you can be sure that any encounter with a dragon will be deadly and memorable.

The village of Stony Vale has been suffering from mysterious attacks in the night. The party is charged with investigating the problem. They discover that a dragon is responsible…because the dragon attacks them immediately. If the party survives, they can take the fight to the dragon's lair, where they encounter a detachment of Nothrog who search for something hidden below the dragon's lair.

There is surprise after surprise in this adventure, and discovering the history of the dragon and the connection between the lair and the Nothrog is the fun part.

Tier 5 (Levels 8-10)
At this point in the campaign, the party has brought itself to the attention of the Medusan Lords. The party's elevation to the status of nuisance is not something that should bring them peace of mind.

With the exception of Abyssal Attack, the adventures can be played out in any order.

8. Condor Pass is named after the pass which connects the Deverenian Empire with the breakaway kingdom of Denska. The pass is guarded by a huge fort called the Aerie, which controls vital trade in the region. Recent bandit activity on the Deverenian side of the border has been blamed on the Denskans, who claim that these "bandits" are just a pretext for a Deverenian attack.

The party is caught between the arrayed forces. This adventure is structured fairly loosely, giving both the players and the GM considerable latitude as to how to approach and resolve the conflict. Despite the flexibility, there is an inevitable sequence of events that occurs if the party doesn't intervene. This gives the GM a good framework for building the tension and action in the adventure.

Fans of the CCG will be pleased to see Sorceress Ygraine, a fighter-mage and one of the more Warlords, in this adventure. She's just as tough on the RPG table as she is on the card table.

9. Dythanus' Disciple brings the party into Elven territory for the first time. A group of Deverenians are excavating ruins in search of a precious artifact from the Church of the Storm. That these ruins are within Elven territory is of little importance to them, but it does matter to the Elves.

The excavations have uncovered the Bonespire - an Elven fortification - at the bottom of a chasm. Clearly, the artifact must be inside, but the Bonespire is haunted, even by the standards of the undead-worshipping Elves. Once inside, the party discovers just what abides within the Bonespire, and they also learn that the Deverenians isn't the only party interested in the lost artifact.

10. Abyssal Attack brings the party back to the World Below to defend another village from the Abyssals. If Stoneheart falls, then the Abyssals will gain access to the World Above.

While there is lots of combat in this adventure, there are also other opportunities for the party to bolster the defenses of the village: the party can aid the Blackstone Raiders, mighty Dwarven barbarians who are the fiercest foes of the Abyssals; build fortifications for the siege; search for powerful items to aid the defense; help construct gargoyles and other weapons, or try to take the fight directly to the enemy.

This adventure has the strictest timeline of any adventure in the campaign. Literally every second counts, so the party must choose and plan their actions wisely.

The name of this adventure is taken from the first Overlord event in the CCG. Tournament winners would face a specially constructed Abyssal deck as part of the Abyssal Attack challenge. This was part of the tournament- and convention-spanning series of storyline events that have players challenging Overlords, then a Dragon Lord, and, finally, a Medusan Lord.

It's good to see this familiar pattern from the CCG represented in the RPG.

11. The Terror of Sharn Keep is a name that players of the CCG are familiar with - Sharn Keep is a Deverenian fortress that has been conquered and occupied by the Nothrog. The party notes that the Nothrog in the Keep behave uncharacteristically, and they also discover evidence of another party of outsiders within the keep.

This adventure doesn't have much in the way of justification. The GM must construct a pretext to bring the party to this isolated area, but, once there, the party is in for a series of mysteries and challenges as they encounter the other outsiders and unravel the mystery of Sharn Keep.

Tier 6 (Levels 11-13)

12. Ichaerus Rising is an adventure of rescue and betrayal involving the Elves. Ichaerus, an Elven Warlord who would be King, approaches the party and invites them to save a village of humans who have been captured by an Elven necromancer. If the party tarries or refuses, the humans are turned into undead soldiers for the undead army.

The rescue mission constitutes the bulk of the adventure, but there's a coda, which embroils the party deeply in Elven politics. After all, rescuing human slaves from Elves, even at the behest of Ichaerus, is not going to earn the party any acclaim from the ruling Elven Houses.

This is by far the more interesting part of the adventure, because the party's actions could unwittingly lead them to be seen as affiliated with a specific faction. This, in turn, earns them enemies among rival Houses that should have significant consequences for the party.

However, these consequences do not play out in the main body of the campaign, but are left for the GM to fill in during side-adventures.

13. Siege of Kcal'den Fortress is another RPG plot taken from the Overlord Attack tournament model in the CCG. In that tournament, the Nothrog Siegemaster, Kcal'den, is hidden behind five ranks of defensive fortifications, catapults, trebuchets, and other siege engines of war. The player has a limited number of turns to break through Kcal'den's defenses.

In this adventure, the situation is pretty much the same. Kcal'den has declared himself independent of the Nothrog nation, as embodied by the powerful albino Nothrog seer, Nassiral Hate, and sits in his fortress while armies are arrayed against him.

The GM has quite a number of choices for the Warlords of the besieging army, depending on the progress of the campaign. The party may encounter Ichaerus of the Elves; Kerebrus of the Dark Horsemen; Lord Kestrel, Modred of Cacius, Sorceress Ygraine or Sir Rhawn d'Ilchant of the Deverenians; or Sorcha. The motivations and armed complement for each potential Warlord are listed.

This adventure requires the party to break into the most highly defended fortress in the Accordlands, and that fortress is controlled by the most brilliant military strategist. This adventures is a highly tactical combat exercise for the party, as they must proceed through outer keep into the inner keep. Traps and guards are everywhere.

Along the way, the party learns of the connection between Nassiral Hate and the Medusan Lords. (Fans of the CCG already know the connection: Nassiral Hate was the first Medusan Lord to fall.)

14. Believers returns the party to Deverenia and its religious intrigues as they are granted an honor they cannot refuse: Modred of Cacius, the Hierophant of the Storm and stormwraith, has decided to elevate the party to the status of Saints of the Storm.

This will kill the party and turn them into stormwraiths, but Modred won't take "No" for an answer, but only as a sign of humility that further reinforces his high opinion of the party.

Refusing the honor is one of the more interesting roleplaying challenges I've seen in print because swordplay is the very last thing that will save the party members from their predicament.

While the clock ticks down to the moment of the ceremony, there's a mystery and a conspiracy afoot to keep the party busy. Not every faction in Deverenia is happy to see the party win Modred's favor…and not every Deverenian worships the Storm. Some remember the old gods. Some of the old gods remember them.

15. Dragon Keep Festival returns the party to the seventh adventure in the campaign The Dragon's Lair. The dragon's lair was built over a lost shrine to Kor, and the party is invited to participate in the feasts and games that accompany the celebration.

Of course, not everything is as festive as it seems, and the party may soon find itself ridding the shrine of yet more unwanted occupants.

This type of adventure is a fine diversion from the usual dungeon crawls, and gives the party a chance to revel in their status as heroes in a world with far too few of them.

16. Lord of Baraxton is the first and probably final confrontation between the party and Nassiral Hate, the Nothrog seer who captured the Freekingdoms city of Baraxton in a coup and now rules it as an example of Nothrog…benevolence.

Business proceeds as normal in the city, but anyone can plainly see that all is not well. The players must find their way into Hate's Temple and challenge the Nothrog directly in order learn more about the plans the Medusan Lords have for the Accordlands.

This the first adventure in the campaign that explicitly requires another book to run: The World Atlas contains the full map and description of the society and economy of Baraxton. The adventure itself contains the details of buildings, sewer systems and other useful architectural information for whatever the party has in store.

What was immediately clear is that attacking a powerful figure in an "open" city is quite a different proposition for attacking somebody locked away in a keep. When besieging or invading a keep, the environment is relatively stable and certain. Not so in a city, which makes the city adventure seem more tense and dangerous than a typical dungeon crawl.

Other factions are at work in Baraxton, either against or on behalf of Hate, and these groups can provide additional challenges to the party. I was pleased to see a cadre of Dwarven assassins led by Trespass included in the adventure. There are two reasons for this: one, Trespass is a fairly recent addition to the Warlord CCG, which means that the writers were working on the Warlord RPG constantly through the nearly three-year delay between its first announced release date and its actual release date.

The second reason also relates to the CCG. Nassiral Hate was killed by King Xod, the ruler of the Dwarves. The Trespass card wasn't included in the winning deck, but the Dwarven connection brought a smile to my face.

Tier 7 (Levels 14-16)

17. Sir Tython's Last Stand is another adventure taken from the Overlord promotion. In the CCG, tournament winners fielded their deck against a single opponent: Sir Tython, the mightiest warrior in the Freekingdoms. The Sir Tython deck contained nothing but weapons, armor and support cards, and posed a terrific challenge for a while.

This adventure closely recreates the CCG scenario. The party is called upon by Sir Robert the Vigilant and his wife, Cassandra, to stop the mad Tython from single-handedly invading the Elven territories, thereby bringing more conflict upon the Freekingdoms than Sir Robert can handle.

When the party catches up with Sir Tython, they can see that he won't listen to any peace overtures, but they can't figure out why.

This is the shortest adventure in the campaign collection and, as such, it's a little disappointment. It's more of a tactical exercise than anything else, but there's no description of Tython's preferred tactics. From his stat block, the GM can clearly see that Tython is a formidable fighter, but there's nothing to suggest how Tython differs in fighting style or behavior from any other pre-generated high-level fighter.

18. Sceth Hellbringer's Dragon Keep returns the party to the Shrine of Kor in the old dragon's lair for a third time. The occasion of their return is a Nothrog army led by Sceth Hellbringer. They seek more treasures that they believe to be lost in the catacombs beneath the shrine.

Again, the party must hold a position against a siege (assuming they played the Black Forge and Abyssal Attack adventures), and they will not have a moment's rest. The attacks come in waves of ever-increasing ferocity and variety, which should let the GM present lots of cinematic mass- and personal combat.

Returning to the scenes of previous adventures is a great way for the GM to establish rhythm and theme in the campaign. The party can see their importance in the Accordlands increase as each new visit brings a greater challenge.

The Stone of Fortune vision that concludes the adventure is a scene taken once again from the CCG tournament structure: The Nothrog, Krun, has killed a Medusan Lord named Lady Bhaine. Lady Bhaine was indeed the second Medusan Lord to fall in the tournament program, and Krun was the victorious warlord.

While this reference to the history of the CCG is interesting to fans of that game, it serves no purpose in the RPG. This is the only reference to Lady Bhaine anywhere in the four volumes of the RPG, and so it's a matter of little interest who killed her or if she existed at all.

Tier 8 (Levels 16-18)

19. The Dragon Lord represents the second stage in the Medusan Lord tournament structure for the CCG. Once a player has defeated an Overlord, they may then challenge a Dragon Lord to a duel. The Dragon Lord plays with a custom deck that includes dragons. Many dragons, in fact, that can be played with ease.

Only when the Dragon Lord is defeated may a player challenge a Medusan Lord directly.

And so it is in this campaign. The Dragon Lord is the most powerful servant of the Medusan Lords because he controls one of three magical dragon orbs that allow the bearer to dominate and control any dragon in the vicinity.

The party will encounter a great many dragons throughout this adventure. At the conclusion, they will learn the locations of the five major Medusan Lords who have dispatched the Dragon Lord against them.

The Dragon Lord in this adventure is the Deverenian noble Al'drich von Grossynkiir, the first Dragon Lord from the CCG (there have since been four more Dragon Lords introduced in the game).

The adventure begins when the party encounters a dragon who has lost her young to von Grossynkiir. She makes the most unusual request of asking the party for their assistance. She offers to take the party as close to von Grossynkiir's castle as she can without falling under the influence of the Dragon Orb.

Tier 9 (Levels 16-18)

The adventures in this tier represent the home stretch in the campaign. The players will confront the four less Medusan Lords before a final showdown with the leader, Malrog Iron-Face. This is not to say that Tiberius Blackthorn, Cear Adinerach, Cassica Moonseed and Majeral are anything less that the worst threats the party will face…it's just that fighting them seems less impossible than fighting Malrog directly.

It's possible for the party to confront Malrog too early, before the essence of the Medusan Lords' plans have been revealed. All the Medusan Lord strongholds are connected to Malrog's base in the Pit, a fortress at the center of the Shattered Lands, and it's possible for an overly curious (and incautious) party to discover Malrog well before they should, if survival is their plan.

But more on that later.

20. The Darkness of Castle Blackthorn brings the party alongside Sir Rhawn d'Ilchant, the Deverenian paladin, as he attempts to roust Tiberius Blackthorn from his stronghold. Sir Rhawn has charged Blackthorn with treason and dishonor against the Black Sun paladins, and wants him to face justice.

Along with Sir Rhawn, the party encounters Kerebrus and General Lund of the mercenary Dark Horsemen, and Anton Cyldragen, the head of the Wizard's Guild. Rhawn has hired the Dark Horsemen to help him apprehend Blackthorn, thereby sparing the paladins under his command from the difficulty of fighting one of their own number.

As for Cyldragen, he claims he is only present to observe the conflict.

The players may join Sir Rhawn in his mission and attack Castle Blackthorn direction, or they opt to infiltrate the castle themselves. Either way, there will be a large, sweeping battle between Sir Rhawn's army and Blackthorn's personal army.

Inside, the party will faces Blackthorn in person. As goes their battle inside, so goes the war outside. Blackthorn is a formidable foe, but, as in Sir Tython's Last Stand, there are few guidelines for running combat with Blackthorn, or, even for revealing a considerable surprise about Blackthorn's nature (which I'm not going to spoil here.).

For all that isn't said in this adventure about Blackthorn, a great deal of important information is given about another Medusan Lord - Master K'Hallaek. This is another Medusan Lord from the CCG, and one of the few to be retired undefeated. K'Hallaek is the secretive master wizard behind most of the defenses of Castle Blackthorn, and a spellcaster of unparalleled power. However, he is not a full member of the Medusan Lords and he does not even appear in the campaign. Yet, the writer of this adventure chose to dedicate a complete sidebar to this character.

Not that I mind, because, as a fan of the CCG, I want to know the secrets about this character. Because K'Hallaek's story in no way affects the progress of the adventure or the campaign, I don't mind spoiling it: K'Hallaek may be the last living Emperor of Deverenia before Signon took control of the Empire and converted it to the worship of the Storm.

That's a pretty heady and exciting revelation. Too bad it has no relevance to the campaign.

21. A Touch of Power is another Elven adventure. This time, Adoramus Te, a fairly good Elf by Elven standards, finds the party with a desperate request: Members of the exiled and renegade House Tansiq, worshippers of the Spirit of Flesh and the only Elves so desperate for longevity that they murder other Elves, are near the end of an abominable plan.

House Tansiq is the House of Cear Adinerach, the lead assassin of the Medusan Lords and, supposedly, immortal thanks to an arcane ritual.

The ritual that Adoramus Te wants to stop involves the deaths of an entire Elven settlement. The death of a single Elf is the highest possible crime in this society, so imagine the horror of a ritualized mass murder.

For the necromancer who seeks to conduct the ritual, the prize is worth the price: immortality to a degree enjoyed by only a select few - a select few that includes Cear.

Cear does not appear anywhere in this adventure, even though, according to the pattern of the other adventures in this tier, it should involve him. Instead, the party is given access to a possible means of defeating Cear, but that climax must be orchestrated by the GM on the spur of the moment.

That's a shame, because Cear is the Medusan Lord who has had the closest contact with the party throughout the campaign. He deserves his moment of glory.

22. The Traitor is the final chapter in the story of Sir Robert the Vigilant. Both he and his wife, Cassandra, have gone missing from their estates in Toris Kelt. The party is called in to investigate.

Sir Robert's disappearance is likely a cause of personal concern for the party, given their past involvement, but it's also an event of significance for the Freekingdoms entire, as Sir Robert is the charismatic glue that binds together the disparate fiefdoms against the Elven invasions. The longer Sir Robert is missing, the more fractured the Freekingdoms become, and the more likely the Elven armies will overrun them.

This threat looms over the party as they investigate the disappearances.

At this late stage in the campaign, it may seem strange to have what would seem to be a purely investigative adventure, but it provides a nice break from the non-stop combat action without sacrificing any sense of menace or sense of foreboding that the Accordlands are spinning out of control.

The party's investigations involve Sir Robert's principal aide, Maximillian and, through twists and turns and perhaps a lucky break, their enquiries lead to the lair of Cassica Moonseed: summoner, Bascarite, keeper of elaborate records, and Medusan Lord.

That second-last point mentioned above will solidify the party's knowledge of the Medusan Lords' plans.

In addition to the plot developments, this adventure is noteworthy for introducing the most new magic items and spells of any of the adventures in the book. There's quite the treasure trove to be found by the survivors of the encounter.

23. The Ghoul Lord is Majeral, a fearsome undead who lives somewhere in the Markappal swamps. The swamps are dotted with small villagers and bands of brigands. Life on the swamps dangerous and short, as the different warlords, called the March Lords, fight over territory and tribute rights from the fishers and frog-catchers from the villages.

At the center of the swamp and its conflicts lies Majeral in his home, conducting experiments and biding his time until Malrog's plan is nearly ready.

The GM must create a reason for the party to journey into this part of the world, but when they do, the party can soon find itself caught between the different March Lords. Each March Lord claims dominion over the entire Markappal swamps, which leads inevitably to conflicts and raids. The March Lords put their own disputes aside only in rare instances, and fighting some of the creature that appear in the swamps is one of those instances.

There is a primary plot involving the March Lords in this adventure. Should the players wander to close to Majeral over the course of that plot, then they attract his attention.

Majeral is a terrible creation - terrible in the sense of terrifying, rather than ill-conceived. No monster in the Accordlands is as impressive a creation as the Great Dragon, but I would easily place an undead necromancer with a dozen ghouls chained about his waist as the second-most fearsome figure.

When the Majeral plot begins, the tone of the scenario changes from fantasy adventure to survival horror, with good reason. The members of the party could easily find themselves chained to Majeral, and his embrace is

Tier 10 (Levels 19-20)

24. The Final Showdown is truly a grand finale. I've never read anything like it. The party travels to the Pit to stop Malrog and the Medusan Lords from completing the plan set in motion from the Ghostwood Keep adventure and developed over the course of the entire campaign.

Their plan? Nothing less than stealing divinity from the body of the Great Dragon itself.

The designers of this campaign have certainly lived up to the credo "Go big or go home." The stakes of this adventure are nothing less than the potential creation of a new pantheon of evil gods and failing to stop this process completely brings the risk of a resurrected Great Dragon, who will almost certainly complete the destruction of the reality it created.

Wow.

The final conflict brings the party to the Pit of Malrog in the Shattered Lands into the very corpse of the Great Dragon. If the party has been diligent and lucky, they will have disposed of the other Lords before fighting Malrog. If the party has been unlucky, the other Medusan Lords fight alongside Malrog.

There is nothing that I don't love about this concluding adventure of the campaign. One way or the other, the Accordlands are changed irrevocably.

Critical Hit
As an adaptation of a CCG, The Campaign Adventure Book succeeds in bringing the Accordlands to life. Characters and storylines that were only hinted at in card titles and flavor text are revealed throughout the book, answering some long-asked questions and posing more.

I was particularly pleased to see the structure of the campaign reflect the Overlord-Dragon Lord-Medusan Lord challenge structure of the high-level CCG tournaments.

Of the four books in the RPG series, The Campaign Adventure Book is also the most current when compared to the state of the RPG. Players can meet characters that were introduced long after the basic set and first few expansions; Warlords like Adoramus Te and Trespass spring to mind, but also supporting characters like Iam Hotelen and the ambassadors at the Ghostwood Keep.

Reading about characters that exist only in the RPG makes me wonder how and when they will appear in the CCG. The stories of the Accordlands are enriched by being told in two different gaming genres.

As an RPG, The Campaign Adventure Book succeeds by managing the difficult trick of having a strong overall plot that remains sufficiently flexible to accommodate the unforeseen player actions. Almost every adventure can account for missing critical NPCs and items, and for parties who have triumphed, failed or skipped previous adventures, and provides hints for the party about where to go next without making them feel railroaded.

The overall plot is not sprung upon the players at the last minute, but is slowly built up among the different adventures. This gives the GM plenty of opportunity to foreshadow future events, and for attentive players to pick up hints and surprise the GM with their insight.

The overall plot can even be side-tracked indefinitely if the players lead the game to focus on one of the particular nations in the book - there are exciting dangling plots in all four corners of the world, from Deverenia to the Elves to the Freekingdoms to the World Below - and the adventures are sufficiently modular in design to allow that short of campaign to take place.

Finally, I was pleased with the variety of roleplaying styles permitted in the adventures. Not everything is a dungeon crawl or a courtly intrigue, which means that there is generally more than one way to resolve the adventure. For those adventures that follow the familiar patterns of the hack 'n slash or siege, they're designed with enough of a twist to subvert the expectations of experienced gamers and remind them way those play styles became prominent in the first place.

Critical Fumble
As an adaptation of a CCG, The Campaign Adventure Book simply doesn't have enough Medusan Lords, and those that do appear in the adventure aren't really given enough to do, if they're relevant at all.

Of the main five Lords, only Cear, Nassiral Hate and Cassica have much direct contact with the party before the final confrontation. There's no suggestion that the other Lords are moving events behind the scenes to hinder the party in the other adventures; for example, Malrog just stays in his Pit, Blackthorn doesn’t influence the Deverenians against the party; and Majeral does nothing at all. That's disappointing.

What's equally disappointing are the references to two Medusan Lords from the CCG who really have no place in the story: Lady Bhaine and Master K'Hallaek.

But what's more disappointing are the missing Medusan Lords. There's a reference in The Campaign Adventure Guide to the existence of other Lords who are not involved in Malrog's secret plans, but there's no sense of who they are or what they do. I know from paying attention to the CCG news that there are least a dozen other Medusan Lords, including Death (a Dwarf), Eaiel Darkfeather (an other-dimensional being), The Terror of Ithan Spire (a Reaver) and Far Um Far (a Giant).

There's certainly space in a book this size for a little more background on the Medusan Lords and what they do.

As an RPG, The Campaign Adventure Book suffers from layout and consistency issues that affect the book's usability.

Like The World's Largest Dungeon, AEG's other massive adventure tome, this book suffers from many cut-and-paste errors that include misnamed chapter titles (e.g., the "Temple of the Eternal Flame" is also referred to as the "Temple of the Eternal Flame), monsters (one of the Dragon Lord's dragons alternates between Glimmerscale and Flametongue, suggesting name changes between drafts), stat blocks (the stat block for a Mountain Troll is full of references to a "Forest Troll" that were missed by the search-and-replace software and the editor) and formatting errors, such as not italicizing spell names and magic items in the main text.

The use of sidebars in each adventure doesn't seem to follow any rhyme or reason. Sometimes, the major NPCs are statted out and described after their first appearance, and other times they are listed in the New Creatures section at the end.

These errors may seem small, but they are repetitive and do detract from the book, because the GM has to be sure that what is being read at on the page is what was supposed to be written there.

The biggest usability problem lies in the placement of the maps at the back of the book. As I wrote earlier, the maps appear out of order and do not identify the original adventure by name or page reference. Any GM running this adventure will need a lot of photocopies or bookmarks.

From the point of view of content, the biggest weakness of The Campaign Adventure Book, is that, as the campaign progresses, the GM has to do more heavy lifting to build the plot hooks that bring the party to where the action is. The higher the tier, the less plausible and compelling the reasons for the players to get involved in the adventure. I was specifically disappointed with The Terror of Sharn Keep and The Ghoul Lord with having only the flimsiest of excuses to get the party's attention.

Coup de Grace
The Campaign Adventure Guide is as grand and ambitious a campaign setting as the World of the Accordlands itself, and makes for a fitting conclusion to the four-volume RPG set. The twenty-four adventures in the campaign touch upon nearly every element mentioned in the three core rulebooks and create a satisfyingly epic story.

There are only two downsides to this book. The first are the consistency errors that make the book less usable than it must be, while the second is actually a compliment:

It leaves you wanting more. More Medusan Lords, more characters, more adventure.

I've waited three years for The Warlords of the Accordlands RPG set to be published, and, after reading The Campaign Adventure Guide, I have to say that it was worth the wait. This is a complete RPG product that will keep gaming groups busy for a long time…and that time will fly by because they're having so much fun.

Review Scores
Game Mechanics Rating: 9 (60%)
OGL Open Content Rating: 12 (75%)
Originality Rating: 19 (83%)
Playability Rating: 13 (59%)
Presentation Rating: 25 (78%)
Value Rating: 20 (83%)
Reviewer Opinion: 9 (90%)

Overall Total (Does not include OGL Rating): 95 (75%)
Final Grade: C+