I am finally getting around to posting my review of the game I played at GenCon. First I would like to say that I got to meet Francesco and speak with him when I bought the game (and got to be a fan boy and he signed my Loremaster Book) and I spoke with him after playing the game. It was a pleasure to meet him in person and great to talk with him about the game.

I played in the Saturday morning session run by Will Hindmarch. Of the 6 pre-registered only 4 players showed up. Myself, two of my friends and another guy we did not know. When we started Will stated that he had only received the adventure a few days in advance but had something else prepared that he was more familiar with if we were interested. Will seemed like a good guy and we said, what the heck. So this review is NOT of the one other groups played.

The characters we selected were a Hobbit Treasure-Hunter (myself), a Beorning Slayer, a Barding Warden and a Dwarf Wanderer. There was also a Woodsman and a Wood-Elf that were not used.

The adventure was pretty simple and straightforward. The characters, with the exception of my Hobbit, were the survivors of an Adventuring Company that had been on a recently failed adventure. They had rested at a Beorning town, the home of the Beorning PC, where they met the Hobbit and were getting prepared to set out again. The leader of the Company was the Dwarf. He had been given a large ancient gold torc covered in runes and ending in two dragon heads that appeared to, at one time, be holding something in their mouths that was now missing.

The adventure began with a verbal confrontation between a young up and coming Beorning and the Beorning PC. Apparently he saw the PC as a threat to his leadership. The antagonist accused the PCs of endagering the settlement by drawing the wrath of local orcs and threatening the safety of the people. The encounter ended with an INCREDIBLE Awe or Inspire (honestly I don't remember) roll by the Beorning Player and a phenominal bit of role playing on the player's part (he was the only player I did not know at the table) and an incredible description of the scene by the Lore Master. After that encounter, the party had a brief discussion about what their goal was. It would be to discover the source of the torc, which the Dwarf informed us had been found in a stream and indicated that it probably had washed down from the Misty Mountains. At that point my Hobbit had an equally incredible roll on his Singing and recounted an ancient tune that told of a Dwarven hall in the general the direction the Dwarf indicated.

The Company set out at this point on a Journey (probably a week or two, don't remember, I think we rolled two travel rolls). We encountered one hazard, which turned out to be a river that my Hobbit fell into after blowing an Athletics roll to hop across the stones. That night we were attacked by Orcs and got to see how the combat mechanics worked.

The next day we continued on our way and eventually found a waterfall where the stream started and headed up. It was late in the day when we reached the source. A stream running out of a mountain cave onto a large ledge. We could here two booming voices from inside of what turned out to be a carved hall, they were arguing and refused to come out into the light. as the sun began to set they sent out what appeared to be a horse-sized dragon creature with a chain on it's neck. It appeared curious so my Hobbit stepped forward threw it some food and began to try to coax it out. At this point the Dwarf or the Barding spotted a small golden bar that fit into the mouths of the torc. They also realized that it would fit the wyrm. At this point a lot was happening. My Hobbit had a prolonged encounter with the lizard and then lured the lizard close and the Dwarf slipped the torc/collar onto the lizard. This seemed to displease the beast but apparently allowed the Dwarf to control it. At the same time the Trolls (turned out it was a two headed troll that got to act twice) emerged from the cave and the big fight was on. After 3 or 4 brutal rounds of fighting unfortunately we were running out of time to finish the game. The Loremaster narrarated the remainder of the fight and the Beorning player narrarated his death.

After the fight we discovered a great horde of treasure, my Hobbit spoke with the dragon creature and asked if we freed it and since we had beaten it's masters if it would allow us to take a token piece of treasure. It seemed to agree, but the Barding said he could not suffer a dragon and demanded the beast be slain. My Hobbit stepped aside and began playing a dirge in honor of the creature as the Dwarf and Barding slew it. The Loremaster described the closing scene as panning back from the battle with the Hobbit singing a lament and the last bit of sun dissapearing on a mountainside that looked like the head of a dragon.

I can not tell you what a wonderful game it was. I felt very lucky to have gotten Will, whom I had never met or heard of before (turns out he was a guest of honor), as a GM and will actively seek out games he is running at future GenCons. He did a phenominal job capturing the tone of the genre and running a very fun and engaging game.

Hopefully in the future we can see this adventure published for the game. It was the highlight of my GenCon. Additionally, another one of our friends and my wife played in the official game on Thursday and said the GM was great and they really enjoyed playing. Out of the 7 people I traveled with to the convention 6 of us bought the game. I am very much looking forward to future releases.

Ed G.