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Throne of Night Book Two: The Earth's Wound
by Carl R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/04/2020 19:40:02

Book 1 and 2 of the Throne of Night adventure are, on their own, perfectly good entries. However, they do not stand on their own, but are supposed to be part of a six book series. Books 3 through 6 have never been published and, five years after they were supposed to be done, there has been nothing but radio silence from the author. The only reasonable conclusion -- after 5 years of silence -- is they never will be published. I cannot in good conscience recommend purchasing these books.



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[1 of 5 Stars!]
Throne of Night Book Two: The Earth's Wound
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Throne of Night Book One: Dark Frontier
by Mirko H. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/20/2016 02:38:26

Don´t waste your hard earned money on this one. You´ll just end up with 1/3 (provided you´re throwing another 10 bucks out of the window for Book 2 also, else 1/6) of an adventure path. McBride has not produced anything for this AP in over two years (and if you ask me personally the sound of the winds blowing through the smoking ruins of what once was Fire Mountain Games sounds suspiciously like "vaporware, vaporware") and he has refused any communication with people who already payed money to get this AP in his train.wreck of an kickstarter. Don´t support his fraud. You´ll just end up burned as several hundred others already have. Ye have been warned!



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Way of the Wicked Book Seven: Tales of Talingarde
by Thilo G. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 06/09/2015 03:47:07

An Endzeitgeist.com review

This is the bonus book for the critically-acclaimed Way of the Wicked AP - and yes, I am aware of the delay of the sequel AP and yes, I am a KS-backer of it, waiting for my print copies of both this book and Throne of Night, but that does not influence my review of this book.

So, what does this book provide? well, for one, it's 102 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, 1 page back cover, leaving us with 97 pages of content, so let's take a look, shall we?

So, what do we get? Well, first of all, we receive allcaps HANDOUTS. Massive arrays of papers, including a very important contract, now receive lavish, beautiful renditions - Michael Clarke is definitely a gifted graphic artist and the numerous mugshots for secondary characters for the AP (spanning multiple pages!) are downright gorgeous. Extremely helpful would also be the handouts of common knowledge about Talingarde, provided for the players and the excessively better-detailed introduction on how the PCs got caught and what they saw on the way to the predicament, with which the AP kicks off. Beyond those, advice on making key props can be considered welcome. Everyone's favorite pet ogre NPC/cohort receives his fair share of love - with various, hilarious and well-written pieces of read-aloud text to be inserted throughout the campaign. This section can be considered pretty awesome indeed.

A gazetteer of the town of Aldencross, including an interesting creature the PCs may unleash upon the unsuspecting populace of the fully statted town and its inhabitants (including stats, again) and a certain naval-based journey in #1 also gets an optional, nasty encounter.

Thereafter begins the section of Minionquest - three interlude modules, wherein one may play the misadventures of the minions of the big bad PCs for a hopefully humorous change of pace. From here on reign the SPOILERS. Potential players should jump to the conclusion.

All right, still here? Minionquest I happens in Farholde, MQ II in Farholde and MQ III in the capital of Talingarde. And yes, the minions are sent on pretty brutal, suicidal quests for their merciless, dark masters. Oh, and yes, they get grumblejack assigned - who promptly tries to bully them into submission, steal their money, begin barfights - you know the deal. With no proper capabilities, taking on a fanatic street preacher and his acolyte may seem hard - just wait until they realize the guy is a werewolf. Yeah. They better be smart. Same goes for the follow-up quest of MQ I, where they are tasked to capture a hydra (the beauty on the cover!) alive - a task which Grumblejack btw. will happily push on the PCs alone.

MQ II can be considered an utterly hilarious scavenger hunt of liquors (provided in a handout with art!) for the hiding place of the Duke Daeveryn - from exploding alchemist's shops to cheating goblinoids also in the race (of COURSE Grumblejack has a vested interest in the matter - and all the subtlety of a blood-coating, thundering sledgehammer...) for a magical sword, the second task is no less deadly than the first, but imho not as curvebally as the first. Still, a fun diversion from all things truly evil and important.

MQ III then deals with this one luxury manor that has not yet been pillaged...and oddly, no minions have returned from it. Strange, right? Well, turns out that a) the place is crawling with traps, b) haunted by the ghost of the place's last owner and c) is patrolled by an old stone golem who receives commands from the ghost. Have I mentioned that minions have 3 levels of an NPC-class? Yes, these quests are deadly, and hilariously so.

Beyond that, further options are provided - take Eiramanthus' library - well, now the kingdom of Talingarde (Asmodean edition) may go for advanced artillery, handguns, arcane theorie, clockwork soldiers - whatever your diabolical villains may research! Speaking of research - if technology isn't to your liking, rules for establishing Talingarde's first Wizard collegium and the research that can be done there (including the research of clockwork dragons!) should fit your tastes. If you were going for the vampiric version of WotW, the modified information for plunging Talingarde into eternal darkness, including builds for Adrastus and Sir Richard, all modified to reflect the change in emphasis.

Speaking of supplemental material - what if your PCs are as powerful and smart as mine? If they win the final battle? (Or are fanatics?) - Well, there is an alternate ending, wherein the PCs doom all of Talingarde, fusing it and everyone on it with the 9 hells. And yes, the massive ritual has an incredibly steep price to pay for in the final moments. Which one? I won't spoil THAT for you, only that one of the maps in the book provides for a nice visual representation here as well.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no significant glitches. Layout adheres to WotW's beautiful full-color two-column standard and the pdf comes with copious artworks by the exceedingly talented Michale Clarke. The number of handouts and artworks provided herein make this book a massive increasing factor in the overall aesthetic department for all of WotW. The pdf comes fully bookmarked, with a printer-friendly version and a handy 16-page pdf that collates bookmarks and maps, the latter in full-color glory as well, of course - and rendered player-friendly. Two thumbs up!

Reading this book has been an excellent reminder why I love Gary MCBride's writing - this campaign is a stroke of genius, beautiful and is aptly enriched in every form by this pdf. Gaps are closed, fun is added and overall, this can be considered what one needs to get the Director's Cut of the AP -as such, I consider it non-optional, should you choose to run WotW.

At the same time, however, this supplement is not truly required. What do I mean by this? The new art and Minionquest-modules are fun, yes, but they in no way are required for the AP and the reward-ratio for the Minionquest-interludes is rather conservative. While they do have benefits that are tangible, in the end, they do not really reflect the challenge they pose. This may be intentional, yes, but it may result in a bit of disappointment by the players. Conversely, the Minionquest modules aren't conventional modules - they very much could be considered more akin to old Sierra adventures or the Quest for Glory-series in that they are exceedingly lethal and at times, by design, unfair even. For some groups, this may be a welcome change of pace; for others, it will annoy them like crazy. While personally, I love this type of challenge, one of my players was exceedingly annoyed by this type of design. What also remains is the simple fact that this very much is the director's cut of WotW - not everyone will enjoy the fact that the crisp story has been embellished; much like the Lord of the Rings director's cuts are not everyone's cup of tea. On the one hand, this brings more detail, options etc. - on the other hand, it does add in quite a bunch of material that is not crucial by any means, which may result in impatient players.

That being said, at the same time, this pdf is probably not enough to warrant running the AP again, should you have already finished it. Still, we have a stellar expansion to the AP IF you like the notion of the uncommon adventure design. If you do, this is well worth of a final verdict of 5 stars. If not, you may wish to detract a star. My final verdict, hence, will clock in at 4.5 stars, rounded up to 5.

Endzeitgeist out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Way of the Wicked Book Seven: Tales of Talingarde
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Throne of Night Book One: Dark Frontier
by Christopher R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/13/2014 13:08:38

Gary McBridge refuses to communicate in a timely manner with his customers, and ignores them entirely on the issue of providing print products. We paid for print books a year and a half ago, and he refuses to answer our questions about what is going on!

Please, DriveThruRPG, do not support someone with such terrible business practices!



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[1 of 5 Stars!]
Throne of Night Book One: Dark Frontier
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Throne of Night Book Two: The Earth's Wound
by Christopher R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/13/2014 13:06:38

Gary McBridge refuses to communicate in a timely manner with his customers, and ignores them entirely on the issue of providing print products. We paid for print books a year and a half ago, and he refuses to answer our questions about what is going on!

Please, DriveThruRPG, do not support someone with such terrible business practices!



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[1 of 5 Stars!]
Throne of Night Book Two: The Earth's Wound
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Throne of Night Book Two: The Earth's Wound
by Shawn P. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/24/2014 22:38:42

Don't buy this product with any expectation of Gary McBride or Fire Mountain Games producing anything past the second book. Already missing his completion date for the entire run by 7+ months, Gary McBride refuses to communicate with anyone regarding the product he promised to deliver. Honestly, I'm just sad that what could've been a great product is run by such a terrible company.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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Throne of Night Book One: Dark Frontier
by Shawn P. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/24/2014 22:38:19

Don't buy this product with any expectation of Gary McBride or Fire Mountain Games producing anything past the second book. Already missing his completion date for the entire run by 7+ months, Gary McBride refuses to communicate with anyone regarding the product he promised to deliver. Honestly, I'm just sad that what could've been a great product is run by such a terrible company.



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[1 of 5 Stars!]
Throne of Night Book One: Dark Frontier
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Throne of Night Book One: Dark Frontier
by Michael W. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 08/28/2014 16:09:42

I am driven to agree with other reviewers. Gary McBride is either a very clever thief or an incompetent publisher. Regardless of the quality of anything Fire Mountain Games release, I will not be supporting this author in any way,shapeor form ever again and encourage others to think twice before supporting this fraudster.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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Throne of Night Book One: Dark Frontier
by Guild F. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/02/2014 08:04:52

Gary McBride and Fire Mountain Games are a scam! They funded these products with KIckstarter, are now making money on them here, but have not provided their backers with the rewards they promised! Don't buy anything from these thieves and lairs!



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
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Way of the Wicked Book One: Knot of Thorns
by Steven W. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/26/2014 19:52:44

Best written adventure that I have run in over a decade of GMing. It is great to actually be prepared for the PCs when they go outside the box and/ do something really stupid. I will definitely be purchasing anything else from Fire Mountain.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Way of the Wicked Book One: Knot of Thorns
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Creator Reply:
Gary McBride and Fire Mountain Games are a scam! They funded these products with KIckstarter, are now making money on them here, but have not provided their backers with the rewards they promised! Don\'t buy anything from these thieves and lairs!
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Way of the Wicked Free Preview: Prison Break!
by Christian B. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/17/2014 05:18:11

Very well written. Nice and simple drawings. The game complexity is - even thou this is an evil campaign - kept at a very low level, which makes it fast and fun. A very fast and direct entry into a astonishing campaign.

This preview is really a good starter into the campaign "Way of the wicked". It helps you to understand and set up the campaign. It also gives helpful advice to your players to set up the evil charakters. even though ther are a lot of information in this document the author manages to keep it easy to read.

Only drawback: The PDF is not very printer friendly. If you prefer to game without looking at your tablet at the table this might not be the best choice.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Way of the Wicked Free Preview: Prison Break!
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Throne of Night Book One: Dark Frontier
by Luca L. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 11/04/2013 09:22:15

The new AP from Fire Mountain Games is possibily even more ambitious than the first one, which (succesfully!) dealt with managing an evil campaign all the way up to the 20th level. This time we are offered both an evil campaign (as wicked drow upstarts), and an heroic one (as brave and honor-bound dwarves), both of them integrated in a sandbox style tale of exploration, war and empire-building. In future installments there is hint of other thematic races to use, which is something I actually look forward to.

This first issue deals with a rather large but nonetheless limited area, with some excellent suggestion on how to deal with a campaign set underground right from the start (travelling, resource gathering, etc.), a number of very different places to explore, factions to fight or to ally with, tasks and quests, and a rather clear overall mission to tie everything together. It just works, and it almost constantly has you eagerly wondering what's next. Being a sandbox campaign, be prepared to have the adventurers take every wrong turn in the map, waste time following red herrings they almost made up from thin air, step ahead of their abilities with the worst enemy available, and such problems. But it's also the best part of a sandbox campaign, so roll with it and have fun. Unfortunately it seems that the product was originally written with the dwarven heroes in mind, and the drow faction developed later; thusly some pieces do not fit perfectly together for our dark-skinned subterranean elves - they must be retro-engineered by the GM after a careful and complete reading of the whole adventure. Also, there are no custom tables for encounters in the sprawling tunnel complex that crisscrosses the area map. The patron system in the appendix is a very nice atmsphere piece, which helps a lot creating a tight group. Moreover some of the ideas proposed for dwarves or drows are just genius, and ooze future epicness even at these low levels.

Art and layout: art by Michael Clarke is even better than what I've seen in WotW, and that was very good. Maps are great, portraits characterful, illustrations inspiring, and page layout on par with the best big-time publishers out there. Outstanding.

Writing and editing: Gary McBride is good at writing stuff, and it shows in the original NPCs, weird subterranean races and exotic places he describes. There are some really fresh ideas, and the GM will always have a rather clear idea of what to describe or use, even when the characters will take an unexpected turn (like they always do). A few typos creep up here and there: none of them are an obstacle in reading or understanding the problem/location/NPC at hand, nor they are the usual it's/its, than/then or the dreaded rouge/rogue, but they are still there.

Overall: the adventure is very good, the campaign is promising, the concept is a bold move after WotW. I'm not really fond of gnomes, but Knivy Ivy may easily be the most interesting NPC I've seen in a while. The war between intelligent fungal gatherers and intelligent spider hunters - and the survival problems each faction is facing - is simply great. Having to rework some elements for the drow campaign (eg. it's not really clear where in the map drow characters start, while it's really obvious where dwarven characters do), the missing encounter tables, and the necessary work a GM has to do with a sandbox campaign to customize it for his/hers group of players, detract a bit from the otherwise excellent and tight product.

A solid four stars, and looking forward for the new installments.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Throne of Night Book One: Dark Frontier
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Throne of Night Book One: Dark Frontier
by Carl R. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 10/21/2013 09:47:50

When FMG announced it was going to begin work on Throne of Night ("ToN"), there may have been a little concern it would be a rehash of their first AP, Way of the Wicked ("WotW") or that it would fail to measure up to WotW's incredible standards. Adding further tension was the decision to essentially put two different campaigns into ToN -- a traditional "good"-themed campaign as well as an evil, drow-oriented campaign. Well, at long last, the first book of ToN has been released. It is certainly no rehash of WotW. It is an adventure with its own style and themes, and it is an excellent product. If FMG can maintain the quality through the other five books in the AP (yet to be released as of this review), they will have struck gold a second time.

Structure/Concept Throne of Night essentially includes two campaigns (one good, one evil) set in the labyrinthine caverns found beneath the surface of the world. In ToN, the adventure is set in the Azathyr, but it is functionally the upper-most layer of what is called the Darklands in Pathfinder or the Underdark in D&D. The game can be run from the perspective of a good (or neutral) party from the surface, coming to find a way into an old dwarven fortress. The adventure assumes this party is composed primarily of dwarves, but other races could also work (provided they have darkvision). The other perspective is that of the drow, who are stationed at a backwater outpost and tasked by their mistress to attack a svirfneblin village in order to take control of its rich marble quarry.

And... it works. The adventure is mostly sandbox in nature; this is both its strength and a possible weakness. The author takes the necessary time to setup the adventure and goals for both types of groups, and then details the environment into which the party will be adventuring. NPCs and villages will react differently to the two types of parties, and the author gives enough detail and guidance to guide the GM through the process (more on this below).

Although the author breaks up the book into a series of Acts (as was done in WotW), this style of reference probably doesn't work as well for ToN precisely because it is a sandbox. The party is given a general goal or task and a few NPCs are placed along the way to help guide them in accomplishing it, but there are no tracks or fences to keep the party moving in a singular direction. There is a lot of space for the party to explore, villages and strange races to encounter (and with which to ally, subjugate or slaughter), locations to discover where the party might be able to build mines or fortifications in future books, and so on. When and how the party goes about accomplishing its primary goal is left to the discretion of the players. This necessarily introduces some ambiguity and I can see it posing problems for groups that are indecisive or have become used to being guided by the nose in highly railroaded adventures, but this approach will be an excellent fit for groups and GMs that want a less confined experience and room to create their own stories.

And this is where I have to make one comparison to WotW. WotW had a lot of richly detailed NPCs, with detailed backgrounds, personalities and motivations. Frequently there would be half or even full page suggestions as to how the NPC might respond to questions or statements by the PCs. It made it easy for me (as a GM with an impaired imagination) to put all the pieces together with minimal pre-game prep. However, this was also necessary for that kind of campaign, driven by personal hatreds and desires for revenge. Perhaps because it is more free form, ToN does not go into this level of detail. Brief descriptions are provided for the major NPCs and, for the most part, they are helpful but do not provide the level of detail I became accustomed to with WotW. For a GM who decides to run ToN, I would suggest spending some time before the campaign to further flesh out the major NPCs.

That said, the book clocks in at 112 pages, including front and back covers and many beautiful maps. I can't think of anything I would cut, and as a sandbox, ToN presents a fantastic environment in which a GM can use what is provided to great effect or even plug in his or her own side-adventures, characters and even modules. The point is, as a sandbox, a GM is going to need to do a little more work tailoring this adventure to his players but also has a good deal more flexibility in doing so than is found with most other adventures. As future books are released and continue to provide more details about the environment and personalities, this task will likely become easier.

Art Done by Michael Clarke, the art in ToN is excellent. The maps are simply beautiful, and the character and monster artwork is very well done. I strongly encourage GMs running this campaign to print the images in full color and share them with the players -- artwork like this needs to be shared with the players.

Editing On the whole, the editing for ToN is thorough and well done. I didn't notice any "XX"s in place of page numbers or stats and typos (though they do happen) are infrequent and certainly do not detract from the content. (I have not yet gone through any of the statblocks.)

Conclusion Like Way of the Wicked (a decidedly evil and wicked campaign), this may not be an adventure for everyone but for very different reasons. Yet, if what I described above sounds like the right fit for your table, you must pick it up. It is very well done and a strong first-entry in the second adventure path from Fire Mountain Games.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Throne of Night Book One: Dark Frontier
by Megan R. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 10/19/2013 12:04:44

Amazing adventure awaits in these beautiful pages (with printer-friendly alternative). Here is an epic tale of underground exploration and adventure, with plenty to engage characters in a diverse range of activities far beyond mere brawling. Moreover, there is enough of a 'sandbox' feel to enable the party to feel somewhat masters of their own fates, combined with sufficient direction for the GM such that the plot will not flounder whatever the characters decide to do.

The introduction lays out some of the thoughts behind this adventure, and the entire adventure path of which this is the first volume. One delight is the way in which two completely different plotlines weave through the whole, sharing some locations and notable NPCs. You can follow one or the other as you please and as the choices your players make dictate. This adds to the realism, the feel that this is something taking place anyway, and that whilst the presence of the adventurers will have great effect, if they went home events would carry on regardless. The fundamental choice you - and they - need to make is, are you good(ish) adventurers exploring the depths or are you a pretty nasty bunch of Drow hell-bent on dominating them?

The background is equally impressive and sweeping in scale. Two hundred years ago, the greatest dwarf city of all fell in spectacular black flames, and since then dwarvenkind as a whole has been in decline. In a quest to reestablish themselves the dwarves seek to reclaim their lost city, Dammerhall... and it is to the party that they have turned. This makes at least one dwarf character useful, indeed an all-dwarf party could be run with considerable justification... this is, if you have decided to be the Good Guys.

A full second background is provided for groups interested in becoming Drow overlords, with a mistress who has been 'promoted into obscurity' after losing a power struggle seeking help as she rebuilds her fortunes.

This parallel approach continues once you reach the adventure proper. Separate introductions are provided to lead the party into essentially a common situation: a deep gnome settlement struggling to remain free from Drow influences. Help them or take them over yourselves are the basic options depending on which track the characters have chosen to follow. Whatever they are doing, they have vast trackless wastes of underground labyrinth to travel through, complete with a massive fungal jungle - home to unimagined horrors, of course - and the dearth of anything much to eat, even if you do like mushrooms! It is an unfamiliar environment, an alien place where fine marble and metals are commonplace, firewood is rare and sunlight is never seen.

The adventure comes in three main stages: the deep gnome village, the fungal jungle and a Drow outpost. Each event is approached in parallel with notes aimed at both styles - tagged Explorer and Overlord for ease of reference. Once the scene is set it is up to the party how to reach and what they decide to do. All the details you'll need are provided in the event descriptions, making the adventure very easy to run. There is a tremendous amount to see and do down here, it should keep any party, Explorer or Overlord, occupied and entertained for several sessions at the very least, and there are wonders to be seen and surprises galore.

Given the sandbox nature of the adventure, there are some notes to aid in troubleshooting should the party depart completely from what has been intended... although in many ways, they cannot really go off the rails whatever they decide to do.

Map support is excellent. Players are provided with a virtually blank 'map' to chart their travels on, whilst the GM has copious maps and descriptions to aid in keeping everything straight. There's even a bunch of 'random map elements' you can throw in as appropriate. The illustrations are awesome and some will work well to show the players what their characters can see... and all the maps (unlabelled) and some images appear in a separate 'handouts' file for ease of use.

Adventure done (for the time being) there are appendices. One covers playing dwarf characters, including how to build an all-dwarf party that works coherently within the scope of the game. A second covers drow in much the same way, because if you have chosen the Overlord track, the party will be of necessity drow. Finally there is a fascinating Patron system to aid in creating a divine patron for a group of characters. Whilst aimed at creating some measure of party cohesion for a bunch of self-seeking drow, it works equally well for more conventional good-intentioned groups. A neat idea is that it is designed as a collaborative exercise for players and GM together.

Overall, an exciting start to what has potential to be an epic campaign.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Way of the Wicked Book One: Knot of Thorns
by Yannick G. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 07/04/2013 17:31:00

Great adventure from the beginning to the end. My player had a lot of fun running, we lost a pc but it was worth it. I can't wait to start book 2 next week, keep up the good work.



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[5 of 5 Stars!]
Way of the Wicked Book One: Knot of Thorns
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