The second installment in the Echoes of Heaven line is The Last Free City. Felric?s Redoubt is a melting pot of humans, elves and dwarves coupled with various human cultures from across Belkanath. But with all large cities you also have a dark underside just beneath the surface.

You are given a brief history of the city that also includes several adventure seeds and world threads (an aspect of the other products from Final Redoubt I like very much). From there a detail of the city itself with various NPCs, organizations (the Campaign Setting is needed for the initial descriptions of these), churches, governmental bodies, the military and how they all react within Feldric?s Redoubt. Again Seeds and Threads are sprinkled about along with notes about the attached module Festering Earth.

Overall the book is well written and I second the opinion on the author?s expertise with Campaign Cartographer. The map of the city and surrounding area is quite detailed. Enough detail is included to give a good backdrop but not too much to make it read like an encyclopedia.

The accompanying module Festering Earth is a little different than other publications. It is a murder mystery yet the results of which can lead to complete catastrophe with world affecting changes. The crimes are well described both in what the party originally sees, what really happened and how that fits into the greater scheme of things. My group can be really dense at times so it may take some tap dancing to keep them on track. One caveat is that if the party fails, basically they all die when Felric?s becomes an Ulcer and generally really bad things happen in all of Belkanath. As such you might want to have some contingency plans just in case. However the scene descriptions and dramatic purposes give a good idea as to how things should be progressing and if you need some GM intervention to prevent this.

One thing I did is that Throne of God is for 3rd level characters, Festering Earth for 6th and the next installment seems to be 9th. Simply put there isn?t enough exp. in these modules to be running them concurrently so you will need some fillers. There are however numerous adventure threads listed that could be used.

Also - one of the NPC's is a paladin. This class does not exist in the base HARP book but is in the Harper's Bazaar Annual from ICE. It really isn't necessary and the NPC could be replaced by a combat oriented cleric without affecting gameplay.

Overall though I found the style and quality of these products is excellent. You are given a lot of info along with an intriguing adventure. I eagerly await the next one. <br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: Format and style of writing. Easily readable with good content.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>

The Echoes of Heaven is one of the best deals you will find in PDF gaming. Each product comes with a campaign sourcebook, a module, and detailed supporting Campaign Cartographer maps. Also, each product can be purchased in one of four versions (HARP, Rolemaster, HERO, and D20) so you can play in your favorite game system. (I am writing one review for the product but posting it under all 4 versions)

This is the second installment in the series which is supposed to run 10 products with each one continuing the story to create a campaign that takes your characters from 1st to 20th level (30th level for HARP and RM; 300 points for HERO) . If you haven't bought Product 1 (The Throne of God) I highly recommend that you purchase that first. If the campaign milieu appeals to you then you will be back for Product 2.

The campaign sourcebook in this product details the greatest city-state in the campaign world, Felric?s Redoubt. It begins with a history of the city and then continues with descriptions of the people and the culture within the city. Like most sourcebooks, there are descriptions of important organizations and people, the government, the military and the economy. These sections are well-written and provide a general description of the city-state.

The following section details the different areas. The author has given population statistics to include not only a listing of the major NPCs, but also a count of every generic figure in the area (e.g. bankers, merchants, priests). Also included are maps that have color-coded buildings to tell what type of business takes place there. The author is obviously proficient with Campaign Cartographer and loves to detail every inch of his city (though I not sure how he did so without going blind).

The last section of the sourcebook gives an overview of how the city relates to the surrounding area and to the religions of the world. It ends with an index.

The strong points of this product are the same things that made the first product great. It is well-written and the author obviously has a detailed vision of his setting. The text is interspersed with what the author calls world threads and adventure seeds. The world threads give you an idea of what is a major theme within the world that may be detailed later. The adventure seeds give ideas on possible scenarios for those GMs with the time and imagination to take the setting and develop their own modules. There are several of these within the sourcebook.

The Festering Earth is the module included with this product. It is a murder mystery in the city of Felric?s Redoubt that is documented in the sourcebook. Like many modules The Festering Earth has encounter summaries with the stats for the encounters and parts in boxes that are to be read aloud to the players. Since it is a murder mystery the encounters are more loosely connected that your average dungeon crawl. I think there are 2 things that make the Echoes of Heaven modules standout:

First is the inclusion of paragraphs entitled ?Dramatic Purpose?. The author gives a description of why the encounter is even included and what the players should learn from it. I think in this way the module doesn?t just feel like a series of encounters strung together just to get the players some XP. It also gives the GM an idea of what the author was thinking when he wrote so the GM can determine what value it has for his/her specific players. Having that knowledge allows the GM to tailor the encounter to his/her players, if necessary, to make sure that the players get what they should out of the encounter.

Second is that the author gives advice on how to keep the adventure on track without removing the free will of the players. He has an understanding that the players don?t want to be led around by the nose but that there is a story arc to the module. Thus, he often covers a few scenarios of how the encounter can go bad and how the GM can put it back on track without making the story feel contrived.

As I noted in the opening paragraph, I think that this product is a fantastic purchase. If you are looking for a good vs. evil fantasy campaign the Echoes of Heaven series is the way to go.

<br><br> <b>LIKED</b>: The in-depth story.<br><br><b>DISLIKED</b>: Some of the filler art repeats, though the art overall is good.<br><br><b>QUALITY</b>: Excellent<br><br><b>VALUE</b>: Very Satisfied<br>