Kingbeast's Lair

-== What is it? ==-

Batman:Gotham Knight is a collection of 6 animated shorts which are connected via an overarching story thread. It was released in July 2008 and was produced by Toshi Hiruma and Bruce Timm. Bruce Timm has a long history of fantastic animated features including Batman:The Animated Series. Each short was written by a different person and animated by a different company. In all case voice acting for Batman was done by Kevin Conroy who has voiced Batman for many of his animated tales.

Batman:Gotham Knight is comprised of 6 short films written by some excellent folks and animated by some amazing Japanese houses. Each short will be discussed in the detailed review below. The result is a film that in many way reminds one of Highlander:The Search For Vengeance.

There is no nudity in the movie but there is some strong violence. Some bloodletting is present in a couple of shorts but it is not excessive. This is not a Batman movie that you want to show young children. The movie is rated “PG-13” and I think that rating is accurate.

I was gifted the single disc standard edition version of the DVD. The version I have has only a few extras. One nice extra is a voice over by Greg Noveck, Kevin Conroy, and comics legend Dennis O’Neil. It was neat hearing the three compare notes on what they liked in the film, writing for Batman over the years, and voice acting for the various shorts.

-== What I Like ==-

The first short is called Have I Got A Story For You. It was written by Josh Olson and animated by Studio 4C. Studio 4C has done some fantastic anime work on titles like Tekkon Kinkreet and The Animatrix. This might be my favorite story of the bunch. The story revolves around a group of kids telling a story about how they say they encountered Batman. The storytelling on this one is masterful. The animation on this piece is very different and downright fantastic. It has a loose style that reminds me of Tekkon Kinkreet or maybe Beck. This one is a 10 out of 10.

Crossfire is the second vignette. This one was written by Greg Rucka and animated by Production I.G. Greg Rucka is a favorite of mine ever since a friend showed me his graphic novel Whiteout. Production I.G. has a long history of great anime including titles like Blood:The Last Vampire, Ghost In The Shell, and Le Chevalier D’Eon. (Watch this blog for an upcoming review of Le Chevalier D’Eon.) This story follows two detectives who have been recently added to Gordon’s hand picked crew. The pair get caught in the middle of a terrible gang war. The story and art style remind me a lot of the animated Spawn stories. This one is a 9 out of 10.

The third story is called Field Test. For this tale Jordon Goldberg does the writing and the animation is done by Bee Train. Bee Train is responsible for the .hack anime as well as Immortal Grand Prix. Field Test has a clean style of adult anime animation that I enjoy. It reminded me of the Basilisk series animation. This story involves a new Batman gadget that ends up putting others at risk. This one is an 8 out of 10.

In Darkness Dwells is the fourth story. This one is penned by David Goyer of Batman Beyond fame and animated by Madhouse. Ninja Scroll, Metropolis, Trigun, and Black Lagoon are just a few of the masterpieces from Madhouse. This segment has a fantastic art style that reminds me of work by comic great Mike Mignola. The shadows have a sharp quality that really brings them alive. This story involves Batman going into the sewers where he meets Killer Croc and Scarecrow. After Batman gets bitten by a toxin the story twists into that of a distorted madman’s dream. Brilliant. This one is a 10 out of 10.

The fifth story is called Working Through Pain. Brian Azzarello did the writing and Studio 4C did the animation. Brian Azzarello is most famous for his wonderful work on 100 Bullets. The art style for Working Through Pain reminds me a lot of Wagner’s Black And White. The lines are clean but soft. Nice. The story is out of this world. After being wounded the Batman wanders the suers trying to control his pain. All the while he is having flashbacks to times in his past where he learned about controlling his pain. The flashback scenes are telling and fun. The story with Cassandra in India is fantastic. Even though the flashbacks are so great the last scene in this segment is iconic. It shows Batman holding a handful of guns looking up out of the sewers. He is a hero burdened by violence. The image is one of the most powerful images of Batman I have had the joy of watching. Powerful. Another 10 out of 10 for this one.

The final story in the set is called Deadshot. This one is animated by Madhouse and written by Alan Burnett. Alan Burnett did many of the memorable Batman:The Animated Series episodes. Madhouse gave this story a great animation style. The shadows are angular and the technology is steampunk in design. The story involves the master sniper Deadshot trying to kill Gordon. The story really makes use of earlier events and characters in a wonderful way. I give this one a 9 out of 10.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

The story in Field Test is a bit simplistic and rubbed me as being a bit naive. If the gadget worked that well except for this flaw maybe you could perfect it instead of canning it…I dunno. This is a minor gripe.

My only other complaint of Batman:Gotham Knight is with the voice acting. I LOVE almost every animated incarnation of the Batman especially the older Batman:The Animated Series. Even though Kevin Conroy does a wonderful job on these older series the dark nature of the Batman:Gotham Knight tales didn’t always fit his lighter tones. Maybe it is because I am used to hearing Kevin with lighter versions of the Batman but it was a distraction…albeit a minor one.

-== Summary ==-

Sometimes a collection of things combine to make something great. Batman: Gotham Knight is one of these times. Each time a short started to roll I marveled at the art style. By the end of each short I was in awe at the storytelling. This is a complete package that deserves a complete score.

You can get the single disc edition at Amazon.com at this URL for $7.99. For $8 this is a friggin’ steal! 😀

I give it 10 out of 10 paws.

-== What is it? ==-

Dungeon Crawl Classics #5 – Aerie Of The Crow God (DCC#5) is an old school D20 adventure for characters from levels 7 to 9. It was written by Andrew Hind and is published by Goodman Games as part of their Dungeon Crawl Classics series of adventures.

I have purchased print and PDF copies of the revised version of the product. (To be specific I am reviewing SKU GMG5004R.) The revised version includes a follow on adventure called Seed Of Evil and updated stats for D20. Both the print and PDF copies will be reviewed as part of this article. There are some spoilers in this review so stop reading here if that is a concern. 😉

The book has color covers and an entirely black and white interior. It is 8.5? x 11? and is 64 pages in length. There is a 1 page table of contents and a half page OGL statement but the rest is content. I have converted the adventure to Fantasy Hero and run it for a group of players as part of my ongoing Spirit Storm campaign. Please keep the fact that I have not run the adventure using D20 in mind when reading this review.

-== What I Like ==-

The thing I like most about DCC#5 are the encounters. Each encounter is different but they hang together on a strong theme. The theme involves the invasion of a powerful forge by an evil crow goddess and her minions. The characters must scale a desolate rocky island to gain access to a tower then a hidden temple. Encounters are scattered along the ascent, in the tower, and in the temple. The temple encounters are my favorite as they vary in flavor and type of opponent. 🙂

DCC#5 was a perfect fit for my campaign. It required little to no rewrites for me to use the encounters as they are laid out in the module. I needed a raven themed big baddie with a magical forge…um…needless to say I was shocked when I discovered DCC#5. That said I do think this adventure could be easily adjusted to fit any campaign. The basic themes are ones that are not hard to integrate into any story and the adventure does provided several hooks for the GM.

Front and back cover artwork by Chuck Whelon and Brad McDevitt respectively are not great but the interior work is actually quite good. Interior pieces were done by Jason Edwards, Brad McDevitt, Stefan Poag, and Brian Tarsis. The maps are good except for the tower map. I had trouble figuring out how the tower levels connected and was forced to draw pencil arrows as aids.

-== What I Don’t Like ==-

One aspect of the story for DCC#5 is around a collection of intelligent weapons. I did not like that part of the story as it does not fit my campaign world too well and the PC were not ready for items like these to appear. The good news is that this is not fundamental to the plot and I did not have a problem removing them entirely.

Although I did not run Seed Of Evil it did not feel as polished after reading Aerie Of The Crow God. As a follow on to Aerie Of The Crow God it might be fine. There was also an extra dimensional aspect to the adventure that is not to my taste. If you are hip to running adventures where part of the dungeon is in another dimension then it might work just fine.

One minor issue with the modules is that they could have picked different things for player handouts. For example, one of the handouts is a stack of skulls. There is nothing special about it at all. Why the handout? There are several handouts that struck me in the same fashion. I would have much rather had a handout of the cool chain shrouded ghast encounter! 😀

The PDF copy of DCC#5 has a few broken links to the maps for Seed Of Evil but other than that it worked great for me. Note that I contacted Goodman Games about the issue and they fixed it almost immediately.

-== Summary ==-

DCC#5 was a 2004 ENnie nominee for Best Adventure and I think it deserved it. The encounters and theme are very strong and the adventure can easily be molded into most campaigns. The price point is also wonderful at $7 to $9. Cheap and fun…what else do you want!?! 🙂

You can get a copy of the module from DriveThruRPG at this URL for $8.99. Goodman Games OFTEN has sales on DriveThruRPG so if you wait and watch you could probably score a copy even cheaper. 😉 Noble Knight has copies at this URL for $7.95. Several sellers have the module for sale at Amazon for around $6 at this URL.

I give it 8 out of 10 paws.

Date At Start Of Game: 10/21/206

[Author’s Note: This is the log for the 17th session. Note that the order of the events in this record may not be in the exact order that they occurred during play.]

The Temple – Level 1

After unlocking the concealed door the PC carefully enter a set of underground chambers. The walls are carved but roughly hewn. The first room is a large natural cavern with a stone bridge. The drop is quite far so Bilby climbs to the roof with a rope. He ties one end to himself and the other to Cillian. When Cillian gets part way across Po notices something shadowy moving under the bridge and alerts the PC. Cillian runs back seconds before a monstrous centipede attacks! When the centipede closes Oren dishes it a blow. Bilby jumps down on it’s head killing it with a deadly strike. When the insect dies it changes into a shadow and dissipates. The PC have seen this effect from creatures that Narduhl has summoned.

With that the PC head down the rough hallways. They venture into one room where they find a strange onyx dais and a statue of a woman with a raven head. In the room is a horrific looking chain golem. The PC are lucky that the golems first strike misses them. When Cillian and Oren strike their blows glance off! Po’s curse spell also seems to have no effect! Bilby strikes the golem with an assassin’s blow dealing some damage but is then grabbed by chains and is quickly knocked unconscious. Leaving himself open after the grab Oren strikes home felling the foul creature. After destroying the creature the PC examine the statue and find that the head has been recently carved onto the statue.

In the next area they PC discover a stairway with a strange raven head rune on the stairwell entrance. Po detects that it is magic and that there is a command word to bypass it. He tries several Dark Lord chants and one of them turns the rune another color and he is allowed to pass. The other PC repeat the chant and are also allowed to pass.

The Temple – Level 2

In the second level of the temple the hallways are constructed of fitted stones. Carefully Cillian investigates the area using his stone sight. He finds a room with strange ferns and many ravens, a room with a strange cesspool channel, a small library, a mess hall, and a small room for prayer. The prayer room concerns Cillian as it is filled with 8 to 10 rooks. Venturing further down one hallway he finds a large room with a forge and a Pit Bull Kin smith! Once he finds the room the PC sneak down the hall and walk into the room. Oren takes the lead into the room. Once the party has entered the room Po closes the door. Oren begins to speak to the Pit Bull Kin smith explaining the situation. The Pit Bull Kin is immediately put on the defensive but eventually starts to listen to Oren. Oren explains that they have a magic sword that must be destroyed. Upon hearing the story of the sword the Pit Bull Kin smith asks how they were able to get Crimson Tears. He eyes Po and seems surprised when the PC tell him that they are NOT minions of the Dark Lord. The smith then asked to see the sword. Bilby comes out of the shadows and displays the blade. The Pit Bull Kins eyes widen and he tells the PC that instead of destroying it that they should sell it to Malotoch! He will arrange the deal for a 50% cut. The PC rebuff the Pit Bull and again confirm that they want his help to destroy it. The Pit Bull Kin smith eyes the sword one more time then blinded by greed swings his mighty hammer at Bilby. Bilby dodges out of the way. Next the smith calls forth flaming dogs from the furnace! The four dogs all process to move towards Bilby so that they can attack him. Using dodges and masterful two sword fighting techniques the cagey Bat Kin spy avoids his attackers while the rest of the PC move in to help. Cillian and Po start using ranged attacks while Oren closes and swings his hammer. Oren takes a blow from the hounds and finds that their teeth are very painful! The Pit Bill Kin smith then calls forth the power of Granite Head forge which causes his maul to alight in flames! When things start to get rough for the party Po calls for the power of the Dark Lord and throws several surged heals at Oren. Cillian who is standing next to Po seems to be affected by the power from these spells as well. Eventually the Pit Bull Kin falls after a pulled blow from Oren strikes home. The dogs attack one more time then retreat to protect the body of the smith. When they attack one nearly rips into Bilby but Oren manages to ball him up to take the blow. In the effort Oren is knocked unconscious with Bilby rolled up inside of him. With only Po and Cillian to face the dogs Cillian decides to act. He utters for power from the Dark Lord and a huge earthquake rocks the entire temple complex! The dogs, Oren, the smith, and Bilby are now unconscious but not dead. (Note that only Po and the dogs saw what Cillian actually did although Bilby swears that he heard Cillian NOT Po call for the power of the Dark Lord moments before the earthquake hits.)

Before healing their friends Po and Cillian looks down at the body of the Pit Bull Kin smith. If they kill him now then they may not have to destroy the sword. Po draws a knife and nears the body but Cillian stops him at the last moment. Cillian reminds Po that their friends would think ill of them if the Pit Bull Kin was found dead. This taint of evil has cursed Po and Cillian in a very potent and powerful fashion…the pair can only hope that they will soon find a cure to their dangerous sickness…

Date At End Of Game: 10/21/206