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NO SPOILERS
This is the sixth and final instalment of the Rise of the Runelords audio plays. You’ve no doubt memorized my reviews of each
of the previous five instalments, but I’ll give a capsule overview anyway. Each of these is a relatively short (45 minutes
to an hour) adaptation of one chapter of the adventure path. The voice acting, sound effects, and music
are top notch. The audio plays dramatize
the key moments of the adventures, but this isn’t anything like a novelisation
or an audio book in the traditional sense, so you shouldn’t expect to find a
room-by-room account of each dungeon or that every fixed or random encounter
will be depicted. Because there’s no
third-person narration, what’s happening in the combat scenes can be rather
vague and confusing. And, they’re pretty
pricey considering their length. This
adaptation of Spires of Xin-Shalast
has all the strengths and weaknesses of the other chapters. It’s a satisfying conclusion to the series,
and if you enjoyed the previous entries you’ll enjoy this one as well. I wouldn’t complain, however, if someday this
epic story received a true novelisation like it deserves.
SPOILERS
The audio version of Spires
of Xin-Shalast starts in media res, with the adventurers in the frozen
Kodar Mountains fighting yetis and looking for the Vekker Brothers’ cabin. Valeros, Merisiel, Harsk, and Ezren are the
protagonists for this chapter, with Harsk getting a starring role and Ezren
providing excellent narration to tie scenes together and provide background
exposition. I thought the haunting of
the cabin was extremely well done—quite effective (and ghastly!) in portraying
the cannibalistic horrors that befell the Vekkers. In fact, I like how it’s handled here better
than the more scattered and inferential presentation in the actual written
version. On the other hand, the attack
of the wendigo falls flat and doesn’t amount to more than “just another
monster.”
I was really curious to see how the audio version would
portray the legendary Xin-Shalast, City of Greed. Unfortunately, I don’t think it does the
setting justice. I knew it would be hard
to try to describe the exotic cyclopean wonders of such a lost city of gold,
but most of the city itself is skipped past in favour of battles against some
generic giants. If you’re keeping track,
you won’t see anything about the Hidden Beast, Ghlorofaex, Shahlaria, or any
other elements in this adaptation. Even
in the depicted battle against Leng Spiders on the slopes of Mhar Massif, the
creatures don’t receive the creepily uncanny description they deserve.
Karzoug is depicted as the nearly the lone inhabitant of the
Spires of Avarice (there’s no Khalib, Ceoptra, Viorian, etc.), but the battle
against him is exciting and suitably epic.
The voice acting for Karzoug is strong, and there are enough elements of
the final fight (like his using wail of
the banshee and the vulnerability of the soul lens) to make it
recognisable. And after the battle,
there’s a nice little epilogue in Sandpoint.
And a coda that reminders the listener that Karzoug was just one of the
seven Runelords—and the others are stirring!
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