The Sigil of Jerusalem

Historica Arcanum #3.5

by Sarp Duyar (Project Lead), Doğa Can Sayılkan (Project Lead), Mehmet Onur Kart

The Sigil of Jerusalem is a massive Adventure Module, spanning levels 1 to 10, filled with massive dungeons, legendary NPCs, immersive handouts and soundtracks, and a deep and branching storyline.

The year is 1182, and the Crusades came to a halt as an unexpected truce was struck between Baldwin and Saladin. Hidden behind this peace is an occult war, against an eldritch threat, awakening deep below in the catacombs of Jerusalem and the dunes of Cairo.

The adventurers must carve their path to fight back against the eldritch forces, corrupted knights, accursed beasts, and mythical creatures - To survive, to thwart, or to usurp the dark powers of eons past.

“Uncalled by name, their destinies
undetermined…
…Then it was that the gods were
formed within them.”

Enūma Eliš

237 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2024

Reviews

[Redsteve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm still a big fan of the Historica Arcanum 5e campaign books, although this particular installment seemed the weakest so far. As always, I love the combination of real history (in this case, 12th Century Jerusalem, Cairo and parts between) and (secret) fantasy. Historical details are well researched and, when the creators deviate from the historical record, they cop to it (see the section "Lies We Told"). THE SIGIL OF JERUSALEM is the second book of the ERA OF THE CRUSADES boxed set and covers an overarching plot and individual adventures, taking characters from levels 1-9 (assuming they don't get killed in the meantime). The overall plot was excellent, blending the real history of conflict between the Crusader Kingdoms and the Islamic Kingdoms of Syria and Egypt leading up the the Battle of Hattin and Siege of Jerusalem, real historical figures including Sultan Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub (AKA Saladin), King Baldwin IV ("The Leper King"), and Guy of Lusignan, holy war (treated sensitively - Metis Creative is a Turkish company that does an excellent job of not soft-pedaling period religious conflict while at the same time not dwelling on whose beliefs are "right'), with eldritch horror, sorcery, and conspiracy with connections to the First Crusade and further back to ancient Persia and Babylon. Note: this campaign setting has connections to the EMPIRES OF THE SILK ROAD/HERALD OF RAIN campaign books (Historica Arcanum #2) though use of the "Satraps" and the Hashashin, which provides some nice worldbuilding continuity. As always, high quality hardcover books with lovely art and links to a downloadable 'soundtrack.' On the other hand, I was annoyed that this book is about 25% reprinted material from the first book; this is especially irritating as the two books are part of a boxed set. In places the editing was a bit sloppy, and, as with some of their previous publications, in parts readability was sacrificed for art (e.g. white text on black pages - something that Metis always does for major characters - and in others "highlighted" text in gold print on off-white paper). Overall I liked the plot, but some of the settings felt a little too "dungeon-crawly" to me and transitions between adventures were rather sketchy. I'm going to average this out to a very low 4 stars (and 3.75 for the two books combined).

[Sean Malone · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very creative imagining of a decisive era of the Crusades by Metis Creative. I wish it wasn't tethered to 5e and was just its own module, but it still made for an intriguing and colorful read. I doubt I will ever run a campaign based off of it, but I was inexorably fascinated by the premise. The artwork is a major draw, and I think the narrative is well balanced and mostly avoids cultural centrism.