Review: The Adamantine City of Tarondir

CZ RPG, creator of the Isle of Endless Fog adventure, has just released their most recent book, The Adamantine City of Tarondir. It features a detailed city, along with an adventure for 4th level characters. Grab your magnifying glasses, and dawn your Sherlock Holmes hat, cause we’ve got a mystery on our hands!

The Adamantine City of Tarondir

The Adamantine City of Tarondir is looks great. This 76-page PDF is in full color, with a beautiful mix of artwork and layout space.

The maps for the city are absolutely wonderful. From maps of the city itself and the surrounding areas, to detailed battle maps for specific locations within the city, you will not be disappointed. 

The Setting

This lore on this city is extensive. The It’s form of government and laws are simple to run as a Game Master, yet expanded enough to give quite a bit of flavor to the characters. Different factions from law enforcement to criminal organizations creates a city filled with secrets, waiting to be discovered.

There are 21 unique locations mentioned in the book. Each with their own distinct lore, characters, and  a collection of plot hooks to help your players explore the city to their hearts desire. These plot hooks are absolutely amazing jumping off points for improvisation GM’s. Each plot hook has the potential to be a session in itself. Or, just a small combat depending on party investment. Or, they can be skipped entirely. 

One thing that I loved about the Isle of Endless Fog was the emphasis on divergent story paths. Giving the players the agency of the story. Having the adventure expand into what they want is a strong suit of the Adamantine City. Characters that don’t outstay their welcome in the city of Tarondir can spend quite a few sessions just exploring what the city has to offer, if they so choose.

The Adventure

The included adventure, called “An Unforeseen Fate”, is one of intrigue and secrets. It is up to the adventurers to rescue the Oracle from the clutches of a criminal organization. The Oracle is a divination expert working with law enforcement, à la Precog from Minority Report, and I love it. 

The players will need to investigate crime scenes and individuals throughout the city to determine what happened to the Oracle. One thing that stands out, is the rhythm to this adventure. Each piece of information that’s given is crucial, and given at exactly the right moment. Driving the players forward to the next logical step naturally. 

The template given in An Unforeseen Fate is a masterclass in how to run an adventure investigation at the table. The driving force is still with the players as they discover the secrets of the Adamantine City, with enough of a clue to provide them with an obvious next step. At no point will the players be saying “I’m not sure where to go from here”, but on the flip side, they will not feel like there’s a giant neon sign forcing them to another location. There are a lot of different paths that the players can take to accomplish their goal.

Final Thoughts

Overall, this adventure is solid. It’s got a great momentum, with tons of player agency. One inclusion that really makes this adventure great is the epilogue. Depending on how the players do, there are some other plot hooks that will dangle out there and can still be picked up by the players if they’re not ready to leave Tarondir yet.

However, speaking to me personally, the greatest part in this book is the city itself. There are a number of great plot hooks for players to knock around in for a while before they even uncover the adventure itself. Honestly, this would be a great place to start a campaign. Starting out at level one, there are more than enough plot hooks around the city to get the players through their first few levels, and making a name for themselves before the included adventure.

The included adventure is one of intrigue and secrets, with the surrounding city having a lot of plot hooks and potential for low-level campaigns.

You can find your copy of The Adamantine City of Tarondir on DM’s Guild for $14.95.