Now Parlainth: The Forgotten City (1994)? This is the stuff.

OK, so, magic in Earthdawn is sort of tidal, for lack of a better word. At high tide, the borders of reality grow thin and the Horrors come to rampage. This is called a Scourge and it happens periodically, to the point that societies have safeguards, like the kaers — subterranean, magically sealed cities that populations hole up in for the duration, which often last several centuries. Parlainth was a massive city that didn’t want to ride out the Scourge in the usual way. Rather, their mages transported the whole city to another dimension, then magically erased all memory of the place from the world in hopes that the Horrors wouldn’t find it. But the Horrors did find it, and killed everyone there, but then found that they too were trapped. They got bored and angry and created servants to amuse them until one day, Parlainth reappeared in the regular world. Full of monsters. But also full of treasure.

The city has been explored to the point that a walled settlement has been established at its entrance (similar to the way Pavis fronts the Big Rubble). A meaty portion of the book details this settlement, Haven. Rather than exhaustively detailing the ruined city and its catacomb system, the purpose of each district is broadly sketched, with encounters, traps, adventure hooks and other points of interest explained but the execution of scenarios involving those pieces left to the GM. A lengthy section dedicated to adventures doesn’t provide adventures, but rather a methodology for creating adventures using the pieces laid out in the city section. It’s a novel approach, and exactly the sort of think I’d expect a young Robin D. Laws to tinker with.

The box is full of amazing art — Joel Biske, Steve Bryant, Liz Danforth, Newton Ewell, Earl Geier, Alex Heller, Jeff Laubenstein, Larry MacDougall and Mike Nielsen are all present. Geier, again, inks out some nightmares. There are a lot of examples of architecture, statuary, murals and friezes throughout, almost always with sinister aspect. In their boredom, the Horrors re-decorated during their imprisonment, using their auras to corrupt existing Theran art. Nice, creepy touch. Cover by Led Edwards, which is always a good decision. It oozes mystery and danger.