Shadows of a Forsaken Past is a lengthy 297 page pdf product for the Arcanis, World of Shattered Empires, campaign setting. This product is intended to be played as part of the Living Arcanis campaign, although it can be played as a standalone adventure in Onara or if need be in another campaign world. Shadows of the Forsaken Past is a d20 adventure for characters of any level from 4th to 16th, and provides APL figures for Living Arcanis between 5 and 15, including a Glory Tier (APL 17) for those parties looking for a challenge. The adventure sees the Wall of the Gods, a mountain range used to seal the infernals from the rest of Onara, fallen and this has opened up the Sealed Lands to the rest of Onara once again. The PCs get a chance to journey into the bowels of the Sealed Lands and discover the hidden secrets of an ancient tomb.
This product comes as a zip file containing 14 files for the product. These files include the adventure, certifications for Living Arcanis, stat block files for each APL, and player handouts. Maps are not included in the product, although these are available for download from the Living Arcanis website. Given that the map files aren't that large, I'm not sure why they weren't included in the product. The large number of files is another slight annoyance with this product, but, like the maps, I suspect this has to do with the fact that this product was intended for Living Arcanis. For other non-Living Arcanis players, a single file would've been much more useful without all the superfluous details.
As a Living Arcanis product, the overall presentation is not great. There is no artwork, for example, the maps are decent but not great or particularly detailed or complete, and the organisation of the adventure and the general adventure flow leaves much to be desired, particularly if you're not playing this adventure through Living Arcanis. While this adventure can be played in Arcanis or another setting outside of Living Arcanis, it will require some work as there is a lot of Living Arcanis specific material in the product. I generally found the layout and organisation of the product disappointing and at times difficult to use, particularly because of the length of the adventure. Editing and writing is excellent as usual for Paradigm Concepts' products, but it's difficult to appreciate it within the disjointed organisation and layout of the adventure. It is in its essence a very large text file with a lacklustre layout. Overall, the presentation was not great.
The adventure itself is generally very good, although with the organisation and disjointed flow it has its ups and downs. The details of the ancient tomb, a demiplane, are fantastic, and that part of the adventure stands out as very good and highly enjoyable. PCs will have to play both the thinking game and be prepared for the unexpected. The adventure sees the PCs travel towards the Sealed Lands to find the ancient tomb and discover its secrets. This travelling takes them through several regions, each with their appropriate encounters. At times it looks like this travelling time has just been added to extend the length of the adventure, as one would imagine that for the most part, barring perhaps Living Arcanis, this travelling is really not required as all the wandering encounters serve little purpose within the overall plot (although they mostly do within the overall scope of Living Arcanis).
Within the pages of the adventure the PCs will find themselves facing border patrols, the servants of Ymandrake, the infernals of the Sealed Lands, the maze-like lands of the broken Wall of the Gods, the ancient tomb of Hilur, and finally a climatic battle as the PCs escape the sealed lands and the infernals tracking them. There is a lot of action and excitement within this adventure, and a lot of novel and interesting encounters that will make for thoroughly enjoyable gameplay. Arcanis is a very detailed and intriguing setting, and this adventure exploits a lot of the finer aspects of the setting. Towards this end the product uses a lot of material from other Arcanis products, although most of the material used is included in this product where required in the numerous appendices.
By far the longest and most enjoyable part of the adventure is the tomb of Hilur itself. There the PCs will face many tasks and challenges to uncover its secrets, and will probably find there a lot more than they would've expected. The balance of roleplaying and combat is excellent throughout the adventure, and there's a great deal of creativity in a lot of the encounters. This is certainly a must-play product for those fans of Arcanis and particularly for Living Arcanis players hoping for a lengthy home game. The tomb of Hilur is one of the more enjoyable locations I've seen, and while it may sound like a dungeon crawl, it's certainly not anything like one. PCs and players should have a splendid time with this part of the adventure, although I can imagine that other parts of the adventure can quickly become tedious or drawn out.
Shadows of a Forsaken Past is both a great adventure and also a poor one. Aspects of it are tantalizing, intriguing and very creative, while other parts looked like they've been stuck on with tape. The adventure is not as streamlined as it could be, particularly because single encounters have been used to 'fill' the weeks long of travelling for the PCs. Parts of the adventure will run like travel, encounter, travel, encounter, etc. While the logistics of this make sense in-game, it's something I can't imagine working very well at the table as it seems so disjointed. Encounters in the adventure also don't seem to flow very well from one to the other.
However, despite all this I was really pleased with the adventure. A DM can create a really exciting adventure for his players with this material, and sculpt it into something that can be thoroughly enjoyable. The tome of Hilur is great, and the detail of the Arcanis setting is utilized well and comes to life in the product. Presentation and organisation was disappointing, but if you can look past that, then there's a great adventure underneath.<br><br>
<b>LIKED</b>: Shadows of a Forsaken Past is a excellent adventure with an eclectic mix of encounters and great balance. It's innovative and creative in places, and combines the various elements of Arcanis well into one grand adventure that breathes the setting.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Disappointing presentation and organisation, including the lack of artwork, detail and number of maps, the layout and general look of the product. While a lot of this can be attributed to the fact that it was designed for Living Arcanis, I'd have expected a smoother product.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Very Good<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Satisfied<br>
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