As well-described by earlier reviewers, this world-segment can be slotted-in readily to many fantasy campaigns, with its nicely-detailed history, town maps, hidden history, and fascinating new creatures, the latter especially a reminder of the dangers of the wild outdoors. This is a setting that another Ancient Awakenings product, "Dryden: Hero or Horror" could be quite easily added to, as a similarly untamed, largely instinctive, race of beings. Sadly though, the promised supplementary materials on the variant elf race of the Valley, the Eldalar or Ice Elves, seem never to have been published, and the Ancient Awakenings website has now apparently vanished (mid 2013).

Perhaps a little more might have been made of the Valley. Some variant architecture could have been used to help better deal with the temperature extremes suggested (typically below -20° F/-30° C on a winter's day, the winter season lasting six months), and the presumed, if unspecified, level of snowfall resulting from an average 40% precipitation-days year-round. Its location in the far south of a continent provides the climatic situation, yet no mention is made of the extremely variable day-length such a location should create, around or polewards of 60° latitude - assuming, as seems the case, the real-world Earth as its basis. The vegetation and options for arable and pasture farming during the four-month summer seem inconsistent with a sub-arctic region as well, along with - rather contrary to the book's title - the never-freezing 100 miles/150 kilometres-across inland sea, the Lake of Tears. Although this freshwater Lake has a small salt content, this would not be enough to stop it at least partly freezing in a typical Valley winter, given that coastal-bay seawater can start to freeze over below about 10° F/-12° C. Of course, such "problems" can always be overcome in a fantasy land by invoking a magical effect, or even a subterranean heat-source, but this has not been done here, which seems something of an oversight.

Overall though, these quibbles do not detract too substantially from this otherwise excellently-presented work, and its astonishingly low price.

A fine location sourcebook for a starting level campaign. Well detailed descriptions of each of the settlements in the area, with information on important people and the politics of the area. Plenty of pre-generated encounters and some new critters that are well suited to the setting. This is NOT an adventure module, but a generic setting book that can be dumped into just about any sort of fantasy game world. I like these sort of supplements, because the background information can be used across multiple game systems. So even if you aren't running a d20 style game, you want to pick this up just for the maps and the source material (and at the current price (ten cents), why wouldn't you pick this up?)

"Not intended for the callow youth."

This product reminds me of way back when in the feral days of junior high school, when boys drools because girls rules, and because teenage hot-headiness droves them up the tree!

I will try to keep it in an optimistic light, even though to be honest with you all, this book leaves me quite shaken...

1) This book is obsessed. It had mother-eating babies, intra-marital cannibalism, atypical homicides, nudity, bestiality, and a mythopoetic-derived history. It even has insanity. Yes, I know we all have some of those dark thin in us; I just am not in a mood for this Freudian stance everyday. I mean that this book is distrubing and haunting.

2) This book contains alternate acts of lust -- in all the wrong way. The few mortal female characters are married, at one time or the other in their own story arc. And if they are miraculously spared (by being fey), then they are a victims of love, or their mothers were. Also, to tops, I had not yet found any stats for any generic mortal women in this book. Probably that last was because all the generic mortal?s stats were all male. It is also sooo difficult to read.

3) This book does not have an index, and the .PDF is not easily searchable. Which may make it very hard for anyone to make any substantial claims and write reviews of any scholarity. In fact, the whole book sounds sort of as poorly worded this review you are reading now. However, if anyone does have any question about the outrageous claims I have made, please contact me (mitchelle wongchaowart).

The antithesis, though, is that it does make for some wild fancy for perhaps some... nihilistic rpg fantasy, eh (?)

However? TO be completely open and fair to the production team of the book: half of my main interest is on games really are in are in the relms of the constructablity of sets, group theory, and other mathematical adventures. So my entire review should be seen in that light. And no, I never play using ad&d or d20 systems.

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The interplay of the poetic mythologeme was its genius. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: The inherited senseless violence and Freudian sexual undertone of this module seems excessive.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Disappointing<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Disappointed<br>

Overview: This product describes a valley and the places, people and creatures within it. It is designed to be added to any campaign setting. The product is generic in some areas, NPCs are not named, there are no references to places outside the valley and so forth, so that it can better fit into any whatever setting you are using.

There are 3 files. A JPG cover. The standard version of the product and the Print version which has no shaded backgrounds.

CR: The valley appears to be a challenging area for characters between 1st and 8th level, or higher, depending on the number of players. A few simple additions could continue to make the area challenging for higher level characters.

Art: The art is classic ink drawings which are simple to print and well done. There are some really neat snow pictures which make tremendous use of the white spaces.

Monsters: Every monster is stated out, meaning there are blocks of information for them. Most of the monsters are taken straight from the SRD (from the Monstrous Manual) but some are new and a number have minor variations ? such as the arctic versions of animals.

NPCs: Writing NPCs is a lot of work and there are a lot of NPCs in this book. Each NPC is detailed from CR 1/2 up to CR 6. This gives the game a lot more flexibility and allows the DM to build mixed groups of opponents or allies.

Mixed in with the NPCs are ?rules to remember?, reminders on how to use skills especially for the NPC these rules are next to. This is very important because it points out to the DM potential strengths of the DM that might go overlooked. A lot of NPCs are built to perform a certain task very well and may have skills, abilities and feats which synergy that the DM might miss otherwise.

I am undecided if it is a good or bad thing, but there are no unique NPCs. Each NPC is a generic woodsman, merchant and so forth. This is the theme for the product to better allow it to be added to any setting so perhaps it was the best choice. With the stats all done, a DM only need make a few notes to flesh out these generic NPCs into unique ones.

Maps: There are ten pages of maps. I always like to see maps because it gives the players places to go and allows them to better visualize where they are going.

Equipment: There is a list of the standard equipment from the Player?s Handbook but there is availability. This is a nice touch and adds a theme to the setting. Some items are more easily available and others may be very hard to come by. This helps maintain the setting. For example, while it is possible to get oriental weapons, it may be too hard or time consuming for the players to bother pursuing them. This cuts down a little on the min/maxing.

Cold: This book has new cold rules. There are several levels of cold and the appropriate saving throws required to endure them without taking damage. Wearing clothing improves the cold level. The better the clothing, the less severe the weather affects that player. This makes it well worth picking up a masterwork winter cloak made from a creature that had cold resistance ? such as a winter wolf. I like this because it gives mundane equipment importance without resorting to making them magical.

Standard Fare: There are no classes, prestige classes, feats, spells or even many new magic items to distract from what this product is ? a well detailed location. There is nothing here to min/max players or make them more powerful. It is an interesting place where which you can explore and enjoy adventuring in.

Bookmarks: There are no bookmarks in the PDF. I rarely use them so this has little impact on my impression of the product. I use the Find command and depend on the Index and Table of Contents. The table of contents is clear and organized. There is no index but the product is short enough that creating one is not absolutely necessary.

• Edit: Since writting this review it has come to my attention that I have worked with the writer, John Bowden. We worked together on the charity book Heroes of Hope. I have not changed the review, only added this notice. -

<br><br><b>LIKED</b>: Rather than an entire adventure, this is a location you can insert into a campaign setting. It is fleshed out with a lot of NPCs, new monsters, locations and even new rules regarding the cold.

Cost: At 68 pages and with the amount of work put into the book I was expecting it to cost considerably more than it does. <br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: About my only complaint is that the animals have no descriptive text. DM?s not familiar with them will have to refer to the Monstrous Manual. I would have liked to have seen a paragraph or two describing the creature in brief and its role in this setting.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br><BR>[THIS REVIEW WAS EDITED]<BR>