So, this adventure has interesting ideas, but requires a huge amount of patience and flexibility on the part of the DM.Grim fantasy combined with thunderous naval combat in a vibrant, monster-saturated world! Captain an Orc, Dwarf or Human warship and sail the turbulent Abyssal Ocean to play online multiplayer, in free-for-all or fleet based matches. One of the sky kingdoms has a fleet of flying 'phaseships', decked out exactly like German submarines. There's an impassable space barrier of 'wandering rocks', unclear how thick it is and a map of the central Great Sea Spiral, clearly shown with arms that could be used to bypass the central danger, and yet the text assumes that the center must be navigated. There's a new 'roaring demon' monster at the back, described there as Alphaks himself, but re-used at another point in the adventure. In the Star Kingdoms, it's very unclear how sky-ships are required or manage to land on the seas of the various mini-worlds (or how thick the seas are, etc.) The PC fleet keeps running out of food automatically just when a world requires it as a plot point.

If they do so, a time warp is created such that the original invasion never actually occurred, and their fleet is safe back in its original port.Īs usual with the M-series, there are some very interesting ideas and mechanics, but often a very slipshod and rushed, non-playtested execution.

They must then personally penetrate the island, the underground port, pass the huge and deadly vortex to the Sphere of Death, and defeat Alphaks himself in the final chamber. They engage a fleet of undead-crewed magical ironclads (basically designed to automatically destroy their fleet). The PCs will almost certainly have to conquer one or two of the Star Kingdoms to cross the space to the magical exit on the far side.Ĭhapter 4, 'Back Into the Maelstrom', sees the PCs arrive with their fleet back at the island fortress of Alphaks off the coast of Norworld. Each is detailed briefly with one planet, capital, leader, and military force. In Chapter 3, 'For the Glory of the Warlords', the PCs deal with 3 star-kingdoms in the northern part of the space (plus a merchant city and pirate port). (For example, instead of a cyclops island, there is an asteroid with a gargantuan beholder keeping his sheep in a cave.) They are blown through the southern region of the space, in a series of high-level encounters directly inspired by Homer's Odyssey. The fleet now flies through a peculiar region of starry space that is magically filled with air. (In actuality this is a trick by Alphaks.) On the trip back, a huge whirlpool sucks the fleet into a far part of the galaxy (!).Ĭhapter 2, 'Flight to the Star Kingdoms', is the longest chapter. The War Machine (and Sea Machine extension) is heavily used.Ĭhapter 1, 'Into the Maelstrom', is provoked by a toxic plague on Norworld the PCs are mustered with a war fleet to attack the island barony of Qeodhar, thinking they are responsible. The unique mechanic in the adventure is that the immortals score points after each encounter based on PC actions, thereby determining who has power to intervene in other scenes. The action is set in motion by three competing immortals, as pictured on the module cover: Koryis (lawful god of peace), Vanya (neutral goddess of battle), and Alphaks (chaotic god of death).

Maelstrom game review