# Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave



## Olgar Shiverstone (Mar 23, 2007)

I recently picked up WotC's newest adventure release.  I hope this sets a trend ... I think it's the best adventure they've released since Red Hand of Doom (equal to Slaughtergarde, probably better due to better production values).  Overall, I rate it a B+.


Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave by Richard Baker, Bruce Cordell, David Noonan, Matthew Sernett, and James Wyatt

*** WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS ***

Overview:

The adventure is a 160-page, full cover hardcover, designed for four characters starting at level 4 and advancing to level 7 or 8 by the end.  of the 160 pages:

- 2 are title/credits
- 1 is advertising
- 4 are player handouts
- 9 are an appendix with background info and new monsters and magic
- 86 are the now-standard two-page expanded encounter formats (43 encounters)
- 58 are the adventure areas, descrptions, background, and maps

The product shows the high production values of the rest of the Forgotten Realms line, and is lavishly illustrated.  All of the maps are full color.  Paper quality and binding are quite good, especially compared to other recent WotC adventure releases.

The adventure is set in the town of Wheloon in Cormyr in the Forgotten Realms, with continuing adventures to several sites in a swamp, and then to another plane.  The adventure could be adapted to another campaign setting with some work (see Cons, below).  The adventure is planned for use as a trilogy with three following adventures (though it clearly stands alone on its own ... I'm not even certain what the link to th enext adventure will be).

The basic plot outline has the party investigate strange events at a new temple in town, which then has them pursue cultists and intermediaries until they learn the real power behind a plot which threatens much of Cormyr.

Pros:

- Good variation in adventure sites and encounter locales.  There are a number of evocative and interesting locations.
- Though primarily site-based, the individual sites are spread out to allow the party to pace their approach, as well as use different approaches.  Frontal attacks, stealth, trickery, and diplomacy all work as means to attack different challenges in the adventure.
- Good variety in NPCs encountered.  There are a healthy number of encounters that are clearly not intended solely as combat encounters, which allow the party to gain information and allies along the way.  While this could be approached as a hack-and-slay adventure, it clearly isn't intended that way and will reward players who like variety in encounters.
- There are opportunities for characters of all classes to shine.
- Good organization.  Though I'm personally a little frustrated by the encounter format, as it puts information about a given location in  two spots, the encounter sections follow each major adventure segment (instead of being grouped at the end, or in another book), and a page reference is given for each encounter making cross-referencing easy.  If WOTC retains the encounter format -- and despite my personal misgivings they should, as it is quite usable -- this is the way to organize it.
- Complete stat blocks included for all creatures.  Note: I did not check stat blocks for mechanical consistency or proofreading errors.
- The adventure has deep plot that should keep players intrigued.  It even contains some novel options - -for example, the players can be captured for a significant part of the adventure, but the adventure plans for and even makes that a way for the players to get even more out of their time.  Getting captured _doesn't_ mean the game is over.
- Though the major adventure sites are accessed in a sequential fashion, there is some non-linearity within the individual sites and some of the minor sites.  The players aren't predestined to hit each encounter in a strictly predictable sequence.
- Different player approaches are considered, and pointers and tactics given to the DM to handle them -- whether players decide to negotiate or attack.
- A moderately detailed town is included, for interludes, restocking, and potentially added city-based adventures.

Cons:
- Despite using lots of new monsters, there's still no reference to the monster sources.  What book are shadar-kai from, for example?  I want to see a picture without having to cross-reference online.
- The basic plot is still a fairly common one, with almost too many twists for its own good.  The bad guys are the ... wait, they're working for ... who is working for ....  One fewer front organization would have been OK.
- Because one of the organizations *



Spoiler



the Church of Shar, with its Shadow Weave, and the Plane of Shadow


*, and the related planar adventure which accounts for 2/5 of the module, is tied to a Forgotten Realms-unique deity/power group/magic mechanic, it is a little more difficult to port out of the FR campaign setting. It takes a bit more thought than just filing off the names and sticking your own campaign setting's on.  If you hand-wave away the magic mechanic -- easy to do -- you still have to have an organization with the right motivation to pull off the link to the planar adventure.  No problem for an experienced DM, but perhaps a bit of a challenge for a newer DM to pull off with consistency.
- The adventure hooks presented are a bit weak for an adventure of this magnitude ... but that's also an easy fix for an experienced DM.  The city setting detailed in the appendix provides lots of fodder for plot hooks.
- There could be a little more non-linearity in the plot, just to allow for a few more options (though really, this is a minor gripe).
- A table of contents would be nice -- there isn't one.

About all that separates this from an A grade in my opinion is making the adventure slightly more portable with just a tad less hackneyed plot. 

After the last couple of WotC adventures which were mediocre at best, its good to see them return to form.  This is a solid adventure that I'd be happy to run and I think it would provide tremendous fun to all involved for some time.

Here's to hoping the sequels live up to it!


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## Wrathamon (Mar 23, 2007)

I heard it desnt have the same FR spine treatment so it doesnt flow with the rest of teh books on your shelf.

minor but some people are picky


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## Nightfall (Mar 23, 2007)

Olgar,

What monsters are in this and maybe you could PM/email me the plot in more detail.

I only ask because a) I'm curious how this is a Realms shattering event and b) I read Dragon 354 and am now confused how this one relates to Scourging of Shadowdale.


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## Olgar Shiverstone (Mar 23, 2007)

Nightfall:

I'm not sure how this relates to the Scouring of Shadowdale, either.  Realms-shattering event is going a bit far ... it's really only a potential Cormyr-shattering event, though that doesn't become obvious until near the end.

Spoilers:



Spoiler



A new temple of Mystra has been set up near Wheloon, but it is actually a sham, run by clerics of Cyric and Shar to kidnap people for a four ritual.  After investigating the temple, the party will follow the trail of the dominated kidnap victims into the Vast Swamp.  There, they encounter a tribe of shadow-touched lizardfolk who receive the victims ... but they aren't the power behind it all.  The party follows the victims' trail through a rift to the Plane of Shadow, where cultists of Shar, lead by a Shar-touched black dragon, are conducting a ritual that will open a tear in the Weave and create a gigantic dead magic zone where the Shadow Weave will reign supreme.

While there's a pretty wide range of monsters (to use a lot of D&D minis), the recurring ones are humans, lizardfolk, and various shadowspawn and shadow-touched creatures.  There are some new shadow templates in the appendix.




@Wrathamon: The spine is the same as the other FR books except without the words "Forgotten Realms" in white text on the upper brown bar.  It doesn't look out of place to me -- same colors, patterns, and fonts.


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## Kae'Yoss (Mar 23, 2007)

I guess this ties into the Twilight War novel series (Book 1: Shadowbred has been available for some time) featureing Erevis Cale.

**NOVEL SPOILERS AHEAD**


Spoiler



In the novels, the Church of Shar and the City of Shade intent do so something big. So far, they have incited a civil war in Cormyr so the Shadovar can "come to their aid". 

In the book, it is mentioned that with the events in that novel, Shar's ultimate plan enters its final stages (And Shar's ultimate plan is, of course, to annihilate all creation).


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## Thomas Percy (Mar 23, 2007)

Olgar Shiverstone said:
			
		

> Richard Baker, Bruce Cordell, Matthew Sernett



My favorite designers (among a few others). 
Cormyr is my favorite FR place because of sentimental reasons. 
Probably I will buy this trilogy.


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## Razz (Mar 23, 2007)

Kae'Yoss said:
			
		

> I guess this ties into the Twilight War novel series (Book 1: Shadowbred has been available for some time) featureing Erevis Cale.
> 
> **NOVEL SPOILERS AHEAD**
> 
> ...




No, in _Shadowbred _ it's just the *



Spoiler



Church of Shar that incites a civil war in Sembia, not Cormyr.


*


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## Imruphel (Mar 23, 2007)

I just go this today and am rather happy with it. Now to try and think of a small series of adventures to lead into it (my players and I prefer to start at 1st level).

A couple of questions:

- Where is the ephemeral hangman from?
- Does _break enchantment_ reverse the effects of petrification in 3.5E?


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## Kralin Thornberry (Mar 23, 2007)

Bought mine yesterday, probably won't have a chance to run it til I move in June though.


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## Arnwyn (Mar 23, 2007)

I have it, and have only skimmed it. It looks decent, and I think Olgar's review is very good and has everything one should know.



			
				Imruphel said:
			
		

> - Where is the ephemeral hangman from?
> - Does _break enchantment_ reverse the effects of petrification in 3.5E?



- From Tome of Magic (it's a Shadow Magic monster).

- In theory, yes.


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## Nightfall (Mar 23, 2007)

Olgar,

Thank you for that lovely insight. While it might not be for me, I'll wait for the second half to come out to see how it ties in AND how Anaroch(sp), turns out.


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## ericlboyd (Mar 23, 2007)

It's a three-part supermodule. Cormyr is part 1. Shadowdale is part 2. Anauroch is part 3. All three can be played standalone or linked together.

--Eric


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## Nightfall (Mar 24, 2007)

Thank you Eric for clearing that up. So can I ask, since you do write for Dragon as well, can we expect to see more info about Anauroch in an upcoming FR article for Dragon? Or that expecting too much?


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## Kae'Yoss (Mar 24, 2007)

ericlboyd said:
			
		

> It's a three-part supermodule. Cormyr is part 1. Shadowdale is part 2. Anauroch is part 3. All three can be played standalone or linked together.




I guess you can't talk about how the story goes on. 

But can you tell me what level ranges the other adventures will be for?



			
				Thomas Percy said:
			
		

> My favorite designers (among a few others).
> Cormyr is my favorite FR place because of sentimental reasons.
> Probably I will buy this trilogy.




Funnily enough, the group I used to play with had several members who hated Cormyr because one of their old DMs portrayed it as a nation of bureaucratic nitpickers.

Too bad I can't run that adventure for them.   



			
				Razz said:
			
		

> No, in _Shadowbred _




Must be losing my mind, to get the two nations mixed up. Still, the Sharrans seem to be about.


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## Nightfall (Mar 24, 2007)

Sharrans are always about Kae'yoss. Thing is they are apparently becoming more involved and less "shadowy" than before.

I dunno if Eric can say but I thought that it was listed when WotC put out the catalog...


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## Razz (Mar 24, 2007)

I personally can't wait until *Anauroch: The Sundering of the World*...

Because it means the FR designers can write some _real_ FR books and not anymore FR adventures for awhile. Sucks I have to wait until 2008 to see what they have in store and I really do miss regional books.


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## Kae'Yoss (Mar 24, 2007)

Nightfall said:
			
		

> Sharrans are always about Kae'yoss.




I knew it. Those damn nihilist lunatics are always about me!


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## ericlboyd (Mar 24, 2007)

Nightfall said:
			
		

> Thank you Eric for clearing that up. So can I ask, since you do write for Dragon as well, can we expect to see more info about Anauroch in an upcoming FR article for Dragon? Or that expecting too much?




I'm unaware of any plans, but I might propose something.

--Eric


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## ericlboyd (Mar 24, 2007)

Kae'Yoss said:
			
		

> I guess you can't talk about how the story goes on.
> 
> But can you tell me what level ranges the other adventures will be for?




Too early to talk about it unless WoTC puts it on the website.

--Eric


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## Nightfall (Mar 24, 2007)

Eric,

Well I'm looking forward all your articles in Dragon, regardless of if they have Anauroch in it or not. 

Kae'yoss,

Sorry I meant to put a comma in there, between about and Kae'yoss. But hey, if it makes you happy, it can't be that bad.


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## The Grumpy Celt (Mar 25, 2007)

What is the title of the middle chapter? The first chapter is Cormyr, the Tearing of the Weave. The final chapter is Anauroch, the Sundering of the World. What is the title of the middle chapter? Shadowdale, the Breaking of the Stuff?

I thought Shadowdale: the Scourging of the Dale was the title of the novel, not the title of the game module.


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## MerricB (Mar 25, 2007)

The Grumpy Celt said:
			
		

> What is the title of the middle chapter? The first chapter is Cormyr, the Tearing of the Weave. The final chapter is Anauroch, the Sundering of the World. What is the title of the middle chapter? Shadowdale, the Breaking of the Stuff?
> 
> I thought Shadowdale: the Scourging of the Dale was the title of the novel, not the title of the game module.




Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave (Now)
Shadowdale: The Scouring of the Land (July) 
Anauroch: The Sundering of the World (November) (aka The Empire of Shade)


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## Razz (Mar 26, 2007)

I don't agree with the Con about it not being easily portable to a non-FR campaign.

It's a Forgotten Realms adventure book, hence it's specifically tailored for a Forgotten Realms game. No one should ever buy this adventure intending to use it for a homebrew or an Eberron game. It's not worth the work tailoring it and it's not written to be tailored. If you want an adventure to port around, use general adventures that have no ties to any specific world or campaign.

Also, can you tell me the brand new creatures in the appendix? They might or might not be new, they might just be reprints of creatures from previous game products but I'd like to know because _*City of the Spider Queen*_ had brand new monsters not printed elsewhere (though a few were reprinted in future products, like the abyssal ghoul and maurhezi tanar'ri)


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## diaglo (Mar 27, 2007)

mine is still on my wish list from amazon. along with the other new release.. MIC.


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## delericho (Mar 27, 2007)

Razz said:
			
		

> I don't agree with the Con about it not being easily portable to a non-FR campaign.




I dunno about this.

On one hand, I think it's no bad thing to have a series of FR adventures that are strongly tied to FR-isms, and really build on the world.

On the other hand, a person who might have considered buying the adventure for the purposes of porting it (incidentally, including myself), would be well-advised to look elsewhere. As such, I'm well served by having this detail called out... though not necessarily as a 'con'.

(Perhaps it should have been listed as just a fact about the adventure, in the same way the level range was noted.)

Compare with "Sons of Gruumsh" which, though branded as an FR adventure, was easily adaptable for use in a non-FR campaign.


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## Kae'Yoss (Mar 27, 2007)

Razz said:
			
		

> I don't agree with the Con about it not being easily portable to a non-FR campaign.
> 
> It's a Forgotten Realms adventure book, hence it's specifically tailored for a Forgotten Realms game. No one should ever buy this adventure intending to use it for a homebrew or an Eberron game. It's not worth the work tailoring it and it's not written to be tailored. If you want an adventure to port around, use general adventures that have no ties to any specific world or campaign.




While it's always good if they make Modules that really belong to the setting they're written for, I think if someone wants, he can make it its own.

Spoilers ahead:
In this adventure, 



Spoiler



Vecna might work at a secret ritual that would turn a large area into an antimatic field, but one where necromancy still works. The temple of Mystra which is really a temple of Shar becomes a temple of Wee Jas (really Vecna). You could also go ahead and use the shadow magic aspect (maybe with Shadowcasters, and instead of a just religion, it's really shadowcasters and maybe clerics of some deity of shadow who go maintain this temple.

It shouldn't be too hard to put the locations into your own world.





> Also, can you tell me the brand new creatures in the appendix?




Unless I overlooked something, there's just two templates in there: Dark Creature (From Tome of Magic; a streamlined shadow creature template) and Shadowslain (created from living creatures that have no access to the Weave - so they either have no spell-like abilities or are Shadow Weave Users - the shadowslain's main effect is that they drain Weave users' magic if they're near enough)

There might be new critters in the tactical write-ups, though. Do we know of gloom golems yet, and shadowscales?


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## Shroomy (Mar 27, 2007)

Kae'Yoss said:
			
		

> There might be new critters in the tactical write-ups, though. Do we know of gloom golems yet, and shadowscales?




Gloom Golems are from MMIII, but I'm not sure where shadowscales are from.


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## Razz (Mar 27, 2007)

Shroomy said:
			
		

> Gloom Golems are from MMIII, but I'm not sure where shadowscales are from.




Shadowscales sound completely new, I don't recognize that name at all unless it's the name of an altered existing monster.


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## Nightfall (Mar 28, 2007)

*agrees with Razz* Shadow scales are new unless they are some kind of new shadow dragon hybrid or something else.


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## Bacris (Jul 4, 2007)

I was just about to post a thread asking about this AP, as I'm thinking about running it as an off-weekend game when the other campaign's DM starts to get too busy to work on the game.

Thanks for the excellent review, Olgar, as I was concerned with picking this up, not having run any of WotC's FR adventures, especially a mega-adventure trilogy.

Anyone else have feedback on this AP?


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## John Cooper (Jul 4, 2007)

Olgar Shiverstone said:
			
		

> - Complete stat blocks included for all creatures. Note: I did not check stat blocks for mechanical consistency or proofreading errors.



Don't worry, Olgar - I've got your back.    I'm reading _Magic Item Compendium_ right now, but _Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave_ is in my to-be-reviewed pile.


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## BlackMoria (Jul 4, 2007)

Hey Nightfall,

I don't see the **numbers** in your posts so congrats on getting off parole.   

As for the topic, I just picked up the book and my quick thumb through shows it has top notch production values and seems 'solid' for its content.  I need to read though it further to confirm that initial impression.

Also, I am of the camp that a FR adventure should (note - 'should', not 'must') have FR elements in it.  I rather dislike the notion of making a generic adventure that fits any campaign and allows wordsmithing out the names of religions and localities and slapping a 'Forgotten Realms' sticker on it and then selling it as a FR adventure.  Any DM worth his/her salt can do. Therefore, the inclusion of the Shadow Weave and other FR elements is a big selling point for me.

YMMV.


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## Nightfall (Jul 4, 2007)

Moria,

I'm still on parole. I just stopped counting for now.  

I'm managing to keep track by counting to five and stopping.

*has nothing more to add since Olgar did a nice job and now John Cooper will soon be on the case.*


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## John Cooper (Sep 8, 2007)

For those interested, I just posted my review of _Cormyr: The Tearing of the Weave_ in the reviews section.  (Here's a link: http://www.enworld.org/reviews.php?do=review&reviewid=3761627).  Come see the "unofficial errata" for yourself; it almost needs to be seen to be believed.


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## Olgar Shiverstone (Sep 9, 2007)

Wow, that's a lot of errata.  Some of it really doesn't matter -- personally I could care less if all skill points are spent -- but it is an indication of attention to detail.  One wonders if part of the motivation behind 4E is to keep from getting beaten up by John Cooper!

As an aside: some time I should really post the reviews I've posted in General to the reviews section (and I could probably port over the 90+ reviews I did for d20 Magazine Rack that don't carry my name here).  But on second thought ... why bother?


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## John Cooper (Sep 9, 2007)

Olgar Shiverstone said:
			
		

> Some of it really doesn't matter -- personally I could care less if all skill points are spent....



Oh, I agree - skill points are the most trivial of stat block errors, because 9 times out of 10 they won't even come into play during an encounter.  I only include them in the interest of completeness, and because you never know when somebody might want to swipe a given stat for another adventure, where a given skill might be more important.


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## Nikosandros (Sep 9, 2007)

Olgar Shiverstone said:
			
		

> As an aside: some time I should really post the reviews I've posted in General to the reviews section (and I could probably port over the 90+ reviews I did for d20 Magazine Rack that don't carry my name here).  But on second thought ... why bother?



Well, it's up to you of course, but a thread will soon be submerged and disappear, while a review will remain useful also in the future.


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## Felon (Sep 10, 2007)

I thought Corymyr: TTOTW was mediocre at best. Few good monster encounters, and a lot of fights with boring mooks that can't do anything that take place in cramped areas with lots of choke points.

The plot is also pretty questionable. I don't think the big con that the bad guys pull off would succeed in such a heavily-populated, high-traffic area. Somebody, somewhere is going to get the news, questions will be asked, spells will be cast, and the jig will be up.


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## Bacris (Sep 10, 2007)

That's... a whole lot of errata.  Yowch.


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## hamishspence (Sep 10, 2007)

*Zombie dragon turtle*

I checked the errata and realized why it appears so messed up: its not a "zombie" dragon turtle, it's a "zombie dragon" dragon turtle. Zombie Dragons appear in Draconomicon. Among other things, they use the base HD of the creature, and get many of the creature's base abilities, including a weakened breath weapon, if the original dragon had it, movement modes like flight, immunities, etc. It also explains the apparent error in OOTS: Paladin Blues of Xykon animating a ancient silver dragon: using the zombie dragon template it is possible.

Now it would require the DM to houserule that all attempts to animate dragons produce Draconomicon zombie dragons, if the HD is below double character level. Draconomicon zombies are a bit better than normal ones, so this would be a boost t animate dead, so might not be suitable for some campaigns.


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## Whizbang Dustyboots (Sep 10, 2007)

I hear they're simplifying skills in 4E simply to stop John Cooper from beating them up for screwing up NPC skill point allocations in every product.


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