Cursed Scroll 3: Reactions

This will be out of order from the other Shadowdark zines, but I don’t care because I love Vikings, and that’s what this one is about. 

But first, I would be remiss for not first providing some context. The Cursed Scrolls are Shadowdark supporting products from Arcane Library. Each one essentially provides a mini-setting, and they clock in at about 68 pages, so not an insubstantial amount of content either. Cursed Scroll 3: Midnight Sun is focused on a group of Viking-themed isles, beautifully illustrated by cartographer Cameron Maas.

The first content even before the credits and the table of contents is the hex map and a lovely reference sheet with rumors and random encounters I can only assume is meant to be a GM aid for the setting. Points for presentation on this, giving a GM actionable info to drive a hexcrawl across this map! Every rumor acts as a hook and inspiration for a cool quest, and the tables for hexes are easy to use.

The setting is called the Isles of Andrik, and the intro really invokes a Northern, Viking feel. Then we get two more classes appropriate to the setting—the Sea Wolf and the Seer. The Sea Wolf art is stunning, but it’s unclear which of the artists credited provided it. The Sea Wolf class feels like a fighter with fewer martial capabilities to avoid treading on its toes, but lots of interesting flavor that supports the setting. I rolled up a Sea Wolf because I want to try out this setting in my own Solodark game. The Seer is a cool class too, but I especially love the penance that they need to do to recover spells, which feels straight out of the TV show Vikings—for fourth tier, ritualistically sink a burning longboat, and for fifth tier, ritualistically sacrifice nine humanoids. That’s metal.

The Nord backgrounds are cool and flavorful, while the old gods are really interesting too. Nothing groundbreaking here. Odin, Freya, and Loki follow their historical (and even their comic book) depictions. No Thor though. There are also new weapons (the handaxe and stave) and new armor (the round shield lets you choose to break it to negate all of the damage from a hit). 

The boat rules are also great—simple and easy to use! Kelsey understands that boats are basically cool set pieces, but mounting siege equipment on them and giving them turns makes the whole thing more complicated. You can actually be a Northern Jarl with a longship or two with these rules. I’d consider potentially marrying them up with the raiding rules from Ghostfire Games Valika Clans sourcebook (I haven’t done a deep dive on that system yet to see how viable it is to port to other RPGs than 5e). 

Oaths are dope story tools and provide an awesome way to mechanically reward your players for setting their own story goals. 

The section on reinforcements seems a bit distinct from the rest of the setting material, but I think that’s because you can use it for any zero-level gauntlet that you are running in Shadowdark, regardless of the setting. It simply provides interesting explanations for random new characters to be in a dungeon. 

Wortwick Monastery provides an awesome two page dungeon location for a sea wolf raid you can use in your game. Mythic Mountains RPG channel actually starts their campaign in the Cursed Scroll 3 setting using this dungeon. The description is spare, but I appreciate how so much info is able to be communicated so concisely. 

The next section that impresses me this way is the hex key. In all of three pages, a complex setting with dungeons, epic monsters, and political intrigue is outlined. 

The Horde of the Wolf King is set up as a level zero gauntlet, but there’s no reason you can’t take this lovely dungeon and use it as part of a longer campaign. There’s also lots of cool lore in the descriptions that can be mined for the setting.

Overall, I think Cursed Scrool 3 is a great offering. I always wish there were more content and setting info, but for a relatively small setting you can use as a sandbox for Shadowdark play I think it hits the spot. The other point I wanted to highlight is that this, like everything I’ve encountered from Arcane Library, is outstandingly well written. It was easy to get through this page count, and everything made sense, unlike other denser tomes. Love the flavor and I think a lot can be pulled out of Midnight Sun.