Continuing and concluding a series of adventures that has 'epic swashbuckling' written all over them, The Arrow of Heaven lives up to the preceeding two adventures with more high excitment and high stakes. If for some reason you haven't played the preceeding adventures, not to worry - notes are provided to help you sweep your party straight into the action (although if this is the sort of adventure that they like, go and grab the first two adventures for them and run the whole series).

Like the preceeding two adventures, you are provided with a series of encounters that give freedom to navigate your way to the climax via whatever route works best for you and your players. Careful preparation and planning repays itself as you will be able to respond to whatever the party chooses to do yet keep them on track to accomplish their mission.

The adventure will take the party from where they left off the previous scenario and take them via war-torn Castille and assorted university campuses to the darker corners of Vodacce... and all under the time pressure of a 30-day window before the stars are right for what their adversaries are plotting. There's also plenty of opportunity to get involved with the Explorers' Society too - giving ample potential for further adventures if you want to use this to kick-start a campaign. There is a lot of atmospheric description and opportunities for action within the encounters making this a fine finale to the adventure series... and you (and the party) even get to find out what the Erebus Cross actually is!

There are hints for changing things to personalise the adventures, and to accommodate characters with lots of experience. A comprehensive list of NPCs with plenty of background detail as well as their stat blocks is provided, ample resources to help you bring them to life. Finally there's a section on the Explorers' Society, including some 'for the eyes of the GM only' stuff that even the Society doesn't know! Perhaps you can weave it into adventures so that your party make these fascinating discoveries... There are also some artefacts to play with and rules for designing your own artefacts. Other new rules include skills and templates, especially for budding explorers.

Overall, a fun adventure that has me itching to go and round up some players... what better recommendation can I give?

Return to The Erebus Cross III: The Arrow of Heaven page.

Reviewed: 23 November 2016