This adventure provides a great introduction to the twisted nature of the Mournland as well as the titular item of the whole campaign. I had a fun time building out the details of the mall and my players enjoyed exploring the setting searching for clues.

I'll keep it short and to the point. I ran this twice over the weekend and both groups loved it, I had a blast running it Thank you for the great adventure!

In EB-01, players got introduced to Salvation and the Mournland. Here in EB-02, things get real, and the true momentum of the campaign begins to form. Players are faced with a rescue misison which will challenge their survival skills, while simultaneously setting them up for a fantastical, high-stakes, third act getaway! As a DM, this was an absolute joy to run, and I can't think of any other adventure that has made level 2 this exciting!

My advice to DMs: Running that third act can probably overwhelm a novice DM with its numerous moving parts and the improvisation afforded the players, but if you prep ahead, the payoff is huge. Take inventory of the various stat blocks and factors that could come into play, be ready to quickly mix creatures into your encounter tracker of choice, and remember to empower your players' creativity. The momentum of the adventure should do the rest for you.

I loved this one, both running it and DM'ing it. It was the first adventure to get me really excited about the Eberron setting. There are more great ones further down the series.

Ring Side Report-RPG Review of EB-02 Voice in the Machine

Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea every day!

Product- EB-02 Voice in the Machine System-DnD 5e Producer- DMs Guild Price- $ 4.99 here https://www.dmsguild.com/product/299680/EB01-Voice-in-the-Machine?affiliate_id=658618 TL; DR- Solid rescue adventure! 93%

Basics- ONCE MORE INTO THE BREACH! Continuing the Oracle of War storyline (or maybe starting it), the players are asked to go on a rescue mission into the Mournlands. Will they find the missing salvage crew, survive the warforged separatists, and understand what’s up with the crazy talking box?

Mechanics or Crunch- This adventure is a bit higher level for the players. It's written for tier one, but one wrong step or even a few bad rolls can tank this quickly. The adventure forces stealth, which for a party of pure beatsticks isn’t as much fun as they hope. Overall, it's doable and not too far outside of expectations, but I think toning down the challenge as written would help with this. 4.5/5

Theme or Fluff-This is a really fun adventure setting the tone for the Oracle of War story as the players finally get into the main event. It’s actually a dungeon crawl. Which is always nice to see, but it's set in a town. So why don’t they go around? That’s the one part that kind of puts a damper on the situation. Otherwise, it’s a good intro to the meat, story, and setting of this campaign. 4.75/5

Execution- PDF? Yep! Hyperlinked? no... I really like what’s in this with two versions of the adventure for the pretty version and the simple printer version as well as the newspaper that you can hand out. I still like hyperlinks as it will help me hop around between parts of the adventure! But amazing art, font, and layout make this a dream to read. Aside from my love of hyperlinks, this is a really well done adventure. 4.8/5

Summary- I love Eberron. I love playing in the Mournlands. I also love a good dungeon crawl. This is all three. The missteps are minor and if you look at your group and see a bad mix for some parts, then as a GM a few changes will help. Also, you may have to add pieces to keep your players from skipping the adventure. “Voice in the Machine” is a solid start to the real campaign of Oracle of War. 93%

I'm running this in a non-AL setting, but playing it by the book. Players are enjoying the campaign so far. Narratively, I really enjoyed this a lot. The animated items add a very strong sense of danger and the twisted nature of the Mournland. My players were reticent to walk into a store after the first half hour!

Players definitely loved the Oracle itself and the puzzle component. I let them figure it out, and they loved it. Highlight of the session.

The only negative is a significant one. Because of the layout of the map with the grouping of enemies in one store and the allies in the other store and the path required to get to the allies, it felt like a fight was inevitable. It was. To get my players to try to sneak around to the allies was a stretch as they had no easy way to get there. They went right for combat, not knowing how many combatants were in the room. They survived, but it led to a second BIG problem. I had to REALLY push them into the room of the allies, which is required to set up the required moment of the cave-in which leads to the necessary item that is central to the campaign. I had a very tenuous moment where they stepped in to meet the Gray Dogs and then quickly wanted to leave. I had to rush the cave-in, and one of the players had already committed to not being in the store. So it split the group in a pivotal moment for the campaign. It worked but I was really frustrated by it. And it was all set up by a poorly conceived map. Railroading happens here and there, but this module requires a LOT of it without making it easy to do.

Overall the module was good and even had some really great points but at the same time it is very brutal to players. At one point you are faced with 12+ enemies. Yes you have allies and yes the enemies are weak but 12 attacks is still 12 attacks and that is enough to down a bunch of the party if not outright kill them. If you are DMing this be very careful it doesn't become a TPK.

THe second in the Embers of War Organised play campaign, this scenario attempts to use a still tenous connection to an npc that the characters have possibly interacted with (due to some clever background on the fly work or some random rolls). I think this connection could be better built up first before being activated so quickly into the relationship. That aside, the premise of the scenario is that the characters are asked to rescue the Grey Dogs, a salvage team lead by this npc from a location deep into the Mournlands known as the Fireweave Bazaar.

THe trip of 80 miles! is made via a seriels of ability checks in which the party will suffer some mostly good effects from being in the Mournlands (personally I felt the table a little too much in the pcs favor).

The Fireweave Bazaar itself could be considered a small dungeon. It has some interesting locations (The Hall of Illusions was a standout for me) and I think so far is the best example of the magic as technology feel of Eberron. The salvage team itself consists of a variety of others . One is found fairly early on dead with an interesting combat encounter with a Rug of Smothering.

As the party progresses ,the party can meet some interesting characters. However I didnt feel like there was much there for the party to interact with. A PseudoDragon runs a lantern shop, and could be an interesting character but needs more fleshing out. The party can stumble upon a maintenance closet and a possible fight with some Animated Brooms.

In a later part of the dungeon, there is an encounter with a Warforged who is siding with the Lord of Blades. Perceptive parties can fairly easily stop him from informing his cohorts about these new Adventures. In the final areas of the Dungeon, there is standoff between the remaining Scavengers and Warforged Raiders (who fastly outnumber the scavenger.s.. which made me wonder why there was a standoff)

In a nice scene, a Warforged transport breaks through a wall and deposits even more troops.. much more.

Then we get a slightly jarring floors falls out from beneath the players and the introduction of the Oracle of War a magical device designed to analyse combat situations and suggesting ways of defeating them. This was an interesting premise, but one I dont think my players fully comprehended. Lots of trial and error.

Time was getting away from me, so my party used the hole in the wall made by the entering transport to escape without really tangling with the enemy forces.

Personally, I think thats how many groups will go as the forces arrayed against the party are fairly immense.

In all, Id recommend this scenario but I'd be prepared for the players to um and arr about actually siding with the Scavengers. I think it was waaay too early in the adventure process to use the 'friend you just met last adventure to go missing story' but it is what it is. While there are some social encounters, so far in both scenarios Ive found the Social aspect a bit lacking in respect to the combat aspects.