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"Very Good!"
Veiled Denizens

Author: Steve Russell



Veiled Denizens by Steve Russell of Rite Publishing is a 17-page PDF that contains five mid-level monsters to utilize in your Arcana Evolved, Ptolus, or d20 fantasy campaigns. Rite Publishing is an imprint dedicated to PDF adventures and supplemental material that "Requires the Use of Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved." though in my opinion this monster book could be used outside of AE.



The monster entries are quite extensive with a description of the monster's background in the monster's own words, round-by-round tactics, lore DC checks for knowledge and akashic... More > checks, designer's notes, and even variant rules sidebars for some of the more popular house rules such as "armor as DR." After reading the entry, you will have a firm grasp on why each became monstrous, the psychology of the monster, and how to utilize the monster in your campaign.



Three of the monsters are themed upon corruption and temptation, hence the name Veiled Denizens. Steve Russell does a good job of describing how they became corrupted and how they continue to corrupt. Regalia of the Regal is an animated cloak; the Red Harlot is a shape-shifting temptress; the Dark Trickster is a master of domination. Two of the monsters are simply bent upon destruction. This isn't your "I want to destroy everything, muhahaha!" type of destruction. The Unsighted, with an anguishing history of how it lost its eyes, is bent upon taking the eyes of other creatures.



Overall, the monsters and their abilities are different enough to be a surprise to long-time players who have "seen it all" and memorized most monster abilities and statistics. They play different than typical CR 5 to CR 8 monsters and this should provide an interesting challenge to your players, if not frustrate them as they figure out how to defeat them.



The presentation of Veiled Denizens is very strong. The layout of the entries is interesting in that each monster entry includes the above-mentioned bundle of information which is given in logical order. The formatting of the PDF is even tweaked for a monster or two to reflect their overall theme. The art is plentiful and quite good. There are ten pieces of art for five creatures, two of the creatures have one art piece and the other three have multiple pieces.



It retails for $7 on lulu.com which seems like a high price for the length, but the monsters are written in a way that makes Veiled Denizens a delightful read. You could easily center an adventure around at least three of the five monsters and two of those three could play prominent roles in a campaign arc. The price is a bit high though Veiled Denizens represents high utility in a small package.



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Bradford Ferguson
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