Shrouded Agendas: The Purifiers
Shrouded Agendas: The Purifiers is an organization book that expands the Shroud setting created under the GSL by One Bad Egg. Written by Lee Hammock, this book examines the crusade of Wilhelm ark-Trasser and his Purifying Horde. This group works to end the threat of undead and pre-undead inhabitants that have been tainted by the Shroud region. Designed for the heroic tier, The Purifiers presents gamers with background information, motivation, statistics, and adventure hooks for a dangerous military force operating within the Shroud.
Though this book provides an interesting depiction of the Purifying Horde, I can’t help but feel that the mechanical interpretation of the Horde is not consistent with the supporting background. I think this is mainly due to an overspecialization toward Horde support, in which some characters have only have the power to boost others instead of having powers that provide them with direct personal benefits. That issue aside, Shrouded Agendas: The Purifiers provides a wealth of campaign ideas, and is a good supplement for injecting non-traditional villains into your Fourth Edition game sessions.
Shrouded Agendas: The Purifiers is a 20 page PDF that clocks in with 16 pages of useable content. The Purifiers is the third book I’ve recently looked at from One Bad Egg. Previously, I’d reviewed Gods of the Shroud and The Shroudborn Multiclass over on the Grand OGL Wiki, so the concept of the shroud is one that I’ve been reading about a lot lately. If you are unfamiliar with the Shroud, it’s a region of the yet-unnamed world in which a number of One Bad Egg releases are set. The frozen northlands have been blanketed with a thick fog that corrupts those it touches and wakes the dead. In this expansion of the Shroud concept, readers learn the tale of a paladin named Wilhelm ark-Trasser who chased a necromancer into the Shroud only to lose his way and lose his faith.
Whereas once Wilhelm once served as a champion of justice, his time within the Shroud has altered his understanding of evil. Once obsessed with the eradication of the undead, Wilhelm now suffers from a willful blindness that justifies his destruction of all undead and any who may be undead in the future (also known as “the living”). To allow the Purifying Horde to grow, and for Wilhelm’s quest to expand, opponents to the cause have been transformed into loyal monsters called the Reborn.
There are four types of Reborn depending on the role for which they are needed, and all are clustered around five. The inclusion of the Reborn template will allow GMs to customize their hordes more, mixing in monster as well as humanoid units. The base Reborn are Legionaries (minions), Fury-breakers (reborn ogres that scatter multiple targets on a hit), Plaguewalkers (reborn that infect others) and Flamebearers (fire-using controllers that confine opponents and limit movement).
Beyond the Reborn, ark-Trasser also has two somewhat loyal lieutenants and a number of men that have survived thus far within the Shroud. Vorrok is one of Wilhelm’s lieutenants, and once a former enemy. Vorrok is a local shaman who joined the Purifying Horde to further his goddess’ goals (The Bone Witch) and his own. He is the one who has developed the tools necessary to convert others more quickly into the Reborn. His other lieutenant is Alsha Torenus, a necromancer who hides within the horde seeking to eventually take over the horde one day or discover greater secrets that may lie hidden within the Horde’s lair – a lair that we unfortunately don’t get to know anything about.
The product’s most disappointing character is that of Wilhelm ark-Trasser. Though his background and motivations are interesting, ark-Trasser’s statblock is rather drab, having a single normal melee attack, a number of minor powers and an encounter power that is a minor action with no personal benefit. As a major opponent, ark-Trasser has no abilities that improve his person – most of his abilities focus on enhancing allies instead. So when he is in combat the he’ll “attack with sword” and spend two minor actions boosting Reborn members of the encounter. At the end of the book there is a better version of Wilhelm built using the Shrouded Paths: The Unbroken book that allows him to function a bit better on his own.
The book provides us with statistics for the leaders of the horde – Wilhelm ark-Trasser, Vorrok, and Alsha Torenus – as well as four soldier types that make up the horde and the four different types of Reborn. There were some minor issues with some of the statblocks, such as the Reborn Flamebearer’s Fire Seeds having no range, the Manhunter’s net attack that deals damage and slows the target instead of having the net be a grab effect (immobilizing opponents until they escape), or a plaguecloud that is more likely to kill than convert opponents to Reborn (as the disease doesn’t activate until after the encounter, and in my experience most opponents are dead after encounters). Though there are other things I like a lot such as the persistent regeneration of the Legionnaires (allowing minions to get back up) and the Fury-breaker’s sweeping strike to clear a path on the battlefield.
Shrouded Agendas: The Purifiers provides an interesting take on the fallen paladin of the fantasy genre. The book has a few mechanical issues, and some of the characters seem a bit overspecialized. However, The Purifiers is a good book to pick up if you are looking for a tainted hero-type character to serve as a recurring villain in your heroic-level campaign. The inclusion of seven adventure hooks at the end should help you move the Purifying Horde quickly into your campaign.