Jonril: Gateway to the Sunken Lands (1982) is another settlement in the same world as Carse and Tulan of the Isles. It is far inland and has a bit more of a frontier feel than the others. There aren’t a lot of surprises here in terms of the city itself, but we do get quite a bit more history and detail on the wider region. That’s because the titular Sunken Lands are a vast wasteland created in a magical accident, ripe for exploration. Much of the economy of the town is arranged around expeditions into the Sunken Lands.
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That was more thoroughly covered in Heart of the Sunken Lands, which is essentially a big wilderness campaign — I unfortunately don’t own it (but if you do and you don’t want it anymore, lemme know!). I’m kind of dying to see how Midkemia handled a hex crawl!
Unfortunately, Jonril didn’t get the Chaosium treatment, which seems like a missed opportunity. This book uses elements that make it explicitly compatible with Flying Buffalo’s first Citybook, though, which I think is an interesting RPG city synergy. I also really enjoy this Richard Baker cover.
Finally, a quirk of my copy: the previous owner scrawled the word “Dead” in pencil over a number of entries. There are a lot of them, and most of them just details shops and shopkeepers, which makes me a little concerned for the moral compass of those long-ago characters.
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