The Witchfire Trilogy, Collected Edition

by J.M. Martin (Editor)

Set your next adventure in the world of the Iron Kingdoms. The Witchfire Trilogy provides the perfect entry point to the popular and award-winning Iron Kingdoms campaign setting. This standalone campaign adventure for characters of levels 1-7 (or higher) contains monsters, locales, magical creations, firearms, and intriguing characters to introduce players to western Immoren. The Witchfire Trilogy Collected Edition brings together the original award-winning trilogy of The Longest Night, Shadow of the Exile, and The Legion of Lost Souls, updates them to the d20 3.5 revision rules edition, and includes two additional bridge adventures to keep players adventuring in and around Corvis, the City of Ghosts.

Genres: Fantasy, Steampunk, Dungeons and Dragons, Games, Role Playing Games

32 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2005

About the author

Joe is a multi-talented creative with a background in the comic industry. He worked at Caliber Press in the mid-90s where he contributed to various projects including a collectible card game based on Todd McFarlane's Spawn universe, designed covers and advertisements, managed the company's art archives, lettered comics, and wrote a 17-issue run of a fantasy comic series. From 2001 to 2005, he was the managing editor of Privateer Press, where he edited and wrote RPG game supplements, illustrated maps, and managed a team of writers. He served as the managing editor for syndicated magazine YOUnique from 2006 to 2008, interviewing local personalities and guiding the direction of articles. Joe is the author of the Dead West series and has written several short stories, and is also the editor of the award-winning Blackguards: Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues. From 2013 to 2017, he served as Creative Director and later Publisher at Ragnarok Publications, where he edited for various indie authors and companies such as Simon & Schuster and Procter & Gamble.

Reviews

[Taddow · Rating 4 out of 5]

When my gaming group isn't playing Dark Heresy, our back-up game is Iron Kingdoms, and we just finished the Witchfire trilogy (with five total adventures if you include the two short ones) that our Game Master (GM) converted for Iron Kingdoms 2nd Ed. Here is my review with some minor spoilers.

Based entirely in the Cygnar city of Corvis and the surrounding areas, this adventure campaign has the player characters (PCs) assist city officials by investigating a young girl named Alexia who is upset about the death of her mother and other family members in years past by an individual (who is now a ranking city official) and she is now seeking revenge by acquiring a powerful magical sword, called the Witchfire, that can control the dead. With her undead army, Alexia plans to destroy the city and slay all within. Of course the PCs must stop Alexia's plans, but they also find that there is something more going on regarding the deaths of Alexia's family and the persons responsible, who are equally unscrupulous and have ties to the ruthless, now officially disbanded, Inquisition of the deposed king of Cygnar, King Vinter Raelthrone. The PCs are able to stop Alexia's plans to sack the city but that's one part one.

There is a short loosely linked (mainly because it takes place in Corvis) adventure where the PCs get hired by a gang to do some work to hinder a rival gang.

Part two of the main adventure story arc has the PCs learning that Alexia intends to use the power of the Witchfire to raise her mother, and her dead witch coven, from the dead by using the power of the sword and the magical contraptions located in an ancient temple dedicated to clockwork gods that lies hidden in the vast swamps outside of Corvis. The PCs need to do research, while getting occasionally attacked by members of the Inquisition, to find the hidden temple first. Once that is completed, there is an overland trip by riverboat with the occasional battle with swamp creatures before they arrive at the temple and explore the inside. The temple is dedicated to the Cult of Cyriss and the PCs get to battle theses mechanical cultists while looking for Alexia. Once they do find her, there is a battle against her and the coven to stop the ritual and she is seemingly defeated. When the PCs return to Corvis with the Witchfire they find that things have gone serious wrong for the City of Corvis- the deposed King Vinter has returned, with a strange army of beings called the Skorne, to take back his crown and Corvis is the first city to fall (partly due to his Inquisition agents) and the base of his campaign.

There is a short loosely tied (only because it happens in Corvis and the has some of the occupying Skorne as enemies) adventure where the PCs must evaded the forces of the deposed king in the city and help a Infernal-possessed man free himself from the dark entity's control by securing an ancient magical text from the university and conduct a rite of banishment. In order to get the book, the PCs must search the university and battle Skorne who are also searching the area.

The last part of the trilogy has the PCs joining forces with Alexia to free the city from Vinter's control by giving the Witchfire to Alexia so she can use its power to control a vast army of undead soldiers that have been locked away in an ancient burial vault. After researching the location of the vault, the PCs find out they have to break the vault seals with a magical hammer that was wielded by a giant who was a defender of the city in ages past. The hammer was buried with the giant in an ancient church that has since sunk into the ground and is located in what is now the gang-controlled undercity of Corvis. The PCs must gain access to the undercity, negotiate with the shady folks within for assistance, find the hammer and get out back to the city proper. Once outside, they must travel overland (battling creatures along the way) to the burial vault, enter and defeat the dangers within before they can unleash the undead army. With the undead army under Alexia's control, the PCs enact a plan to go back to Corvis ahead of the army to secure one of the city's main gates to allow the army to enter the city. Successful in that, the undead army enters and an epic battle ensues against Vinter's forces. The PCs fight in several small battles (including one against King Vinter) while the main battle rages about them. In the end Corvis is saved and Vinter retreats.

In this campaign, there are definitely areas where the PCs are very "railroaded" to the next sequence but there are many opportunities (especially with an experienced GM) where the PCs can go off the rails a bit and still participate in the main storyline. The variety of encounters (some originally in the adventure and some added by the GM) with the various types of enemies to be fought is quite exciting- Skorne, Farrow, gangers, Convergence of Cyriss, and more. The history and atmosphere of Corvis is very fleshed out and helps set the mood- there is the upper city, the undercity and the surrounding countryside. Overall this was a great adventure campaign. If you're interested in reading about the adventures of the 'Jacks of All Trades mercenary group in the Iron Kingdoms, you can on Obsidian Portal: https://for-profit-and-glory.obsidian...

[Pheonix Skye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great world. And a great adventure for a new or seasoned DM to send her adventurers on.