The following review was originally posted at Roleplayers Chronicle and can be read in its entirety at http://roleplayerschronicle.com/?p=36610.

A dandy who is more than they seem… nothing new, a dandy who is not what they seem who makes clothes that feel the maker’s blood hunger if blood is spilled on them or while wearing them, now that is dandy. But Vhulgus Sangrevorro is more than just a blood drinking haberdasher, he is a well traveled prankster who remains ready for anything and will do everything in his power to avoid combat.

OVERALL

This product is Rite on target. The folks over at Rite Publishing have listened to the people and have honed their latest products from the Tales of the Tarnished Souk into very sharp and deadly products that won’t kill a GM to use. Some of the aspects of Vhulgus Sangrevorro, the Endless Dandy are predictable, but of most of the information about this blood sucking trickster is fresh, not scabbed over.

RATINGS

Publication Quality: 10 out of 10 Rite Publishing has tweaked their format just enough to put them on par with the bigger companies that can afford to throw money at a project until it is tops. These guys have done it by listening to their customers and working smartly. The format is standard and will not surprise anyone familiar with RPGS. The cover art by Nicholas Cloister, while not originally created for this character, fits well. Not perfect, but really well. The interior is minimal, but in good taste. Rather than pushing a bad angle, the folks over at Rite Publishing have finally chosen to minimize what I have long considered their weakest area: artwork. It isn’t that they always choose bad art work, it is more that some of their choices of stock art are disjointed from the rest of the product. Well done Rite Publishing, you are proof that a willingness to listen to your customers can take you a long way.

Mechanics: 10 out of 10 This is another aspect of Rite Publishing’s products that are becoming a given. I will say that because their concept for this character and his special abilities are so unorthodox, they had to create several very specific magic items. I applaud their willingness to do this rather than trying to trash the rules just to suit their needs for a single product.

Value Add: 10 out of 10 With a few name changes, several of the magic items and the bloodthirsty raiment spell is really devious and I can see it being used my many a clever GM in many, many settings. If you use the picture of Vhulgus Sangrevorro, the Endless Dandy on the cover of this product, then sans an extra planar setting or a high magic setting he might stick out much more than you normal monstrous humanoid.

Overall: 10 out of 10 This is a great example of what gaming companies can do with creative, open minded staff. Rite Publishing is using their resources in what I believe to be the best way possible. The concept behind Vhulgus Sangrevorro, the Endless Dandy is really innovative and while I’m not a fan of the eternal template, it is used really well in this case. Vhulgus Sangrevorro, the Endless Dandy is bloody brilliant!

The latest installment of the FoTS-series is 25 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of advertisement and 1 page SRD, leaving us with 20 pages of content - quite a bunch, so let's check this out!

Adhering to my format for reviews of this series, I'll kick off with telling you something about the supplemental information for this NPC, to be precise, first the templates. The Verminoid-template allows you to create humanoid beings from vermin via a template and also provides a sample spell to create further verminoids. The trickster-creature template and rune-carved creature template are also used in the builds of Vhulgus and finally, we get the rather complex eternal creature template , but the supplemental material doesn't stop there:

A total of 6 magic weapon qualities and 6 general magic items are provided to ensure you have everything to run the NPC in one book and we also get Vhulgus custom magic items and oh boy, they are interesting: While e.g. his amulet is a nice enhancer/stealth-item to prevent scrying, his belt not only enhances str and dex, but also teleports unused weapons of yours back into the respective loops. He also sports a unique circlet, a cloak that allows the casting of a ridiculous amount of spells, arrow-snatching enhanced gloves, a superb headband, two unique rings, a robe that helps with casting expensive spells, slippers that help versus falling and difficult terrain and a vest that can store potions. Better yet, his weapon is the bane of style-less clothing and armors and is not for nothing called "Stripper". This can lead to some rather cool scenes indeed...

We also get 3 feats to enhance crafting, caster-levels and metamagic to trip foes as well as the Bloody Raiment-spells (included in a regular and a greater version): This spell allows bloodstains of raiments to be soaked and teleported to predetermined containers to be used/consumed by e.g. blood-drinking creatures. If verminoid, product description etc. were not ample hint, then let me tell you about the character behind the stats: Vhulgus is the fashion-mogul of the Colisuem Morpheuon - winning is not enough, it also requires panache and style and champions need to look good - that's where the immortal humanoid giant leech dandy ((!!!!) comes in: Armed with extensive spellbooks (the high-level one taking up a whole page!) for each iteration as well as an alternate version, each of the three incarnations of Vhulgus is interesting. The character's concept, though, and its implications are smart: Born from the lowest of the low, Vhulgus is a consummate trickster and combines his ample capabilities of potential foppish behavior with the intelligence and panache to properly back up his facade of superficiality. Beyond that, the product also constitutes a smart take on the term "dandy", which is per se defined as an androgynous existence that parasitically lives on other people, having them sin/experience things by proxy. As such, a dandy is sine nobilitate and leeches off the nobility. See what the character does there? Brilliant! Dreamburning information and tipps for the DM are of course included as well.

Conclusion: Editing and formatting are top-notch, I didn't notice any glitches. Layout adheres to RiP's old rune-covered two-column standard and the artwork is disturbing and sophisticated and also provides some neat pieces for some of Vhulgus' items. The pdf comes fully bookmarked.

The FoTS-series has turned into one of my favorite, if not the favorite NPC-book by any publisher - while other pdfs provide one-shot NPCs, statblocks etc, FoTS goes further and provides you creatures beyond what you could create on the fly: Highly complex, smart and full of options, these characters blend Justin Sluder's excellence in the crunch-crafting department with Matt Banach's gift of creating truly evocative character-background serves the series well and Vhulgus is yet another clever, interesting character I'll love to introduce into my game. Speaking of Matt Banach: If you want more of his writing, I'd like to point you to Rite Publishing's Adventure Quarterly #3, where he provides a stellar module as well as the kickstarter for a novel set in dream currently running.

I forgot my final verdict? 5 stars + seal of approval - one of the best in the series, this installment has " nothing to declare, but its genius."

Endzeitgeist out.