Review & Commentary On 'White Wolf: Temples, Demons, & Ships of War' By Stewart Wieck, Kevin Freeman, & Sandy Petersen ... For The Stombringer Rpg 2nd Edition Box Set

"Explore Three Deadly Temples! Enter the Accursed Realm of Zhortra, Lord of Chaos.

White Wolf, a supplement for the Eternal Champion series of roleplaying games, presents many items of interest to gamemasters, particularly those wishing to run high-level campaigns. The book contains:

Complete information, stats, and maps for three powerful temples of the Young Kingdoms. DARKSPIRE: Temple of Chaos is a mysterious and sinister place, with many dooms for the unwary adventurer. From this dark abode the twisted worshippers of Mebelrode, the Faceless God, bring fear to all who fail to bow down to the power of Chaos! The Temple of the Eternal Flame lurks in the fiery heart of an ancient volcano. This remarkable temple is dedicated to the worship of Kakatal, Lord of Fire Elementals. The mighty fortress of HAVEN: Temple of Law stands defiant against the minions of Chaos, and offers refuge to all who flee their wrath. Its courageous guardians worship four great Lawful deities: Donblas, Goldar, Arkyn, and Callandus. They stand ready to battle Chaos whenever called upon by the faithful.

Escape from Yellow Hell, a high-level, ultra-magical scenario the will challenge even the most powerful adventurers. The adventurers must rescue a priest trapped on the Yellow Hell, a x5 Chaotic plane of the damned ruled by Zhortra, Lord of Chaos.

White Wolf also contains naval rules for the Eternal Champion series, suitable for any campaign, and new data on Elric of Melnibone (the "White Wolf").

Any adventure created for an Eternal Champion game will function without flaw in any scenario in the series. The strength of Law or Chaos on a plane may affect a character's magical ability."

Coming out of the ether in '87 is one of the more unusual early books for the Stormbringer rpg 'White Wolf ' from the pens of Stewart Wieck, Kevin Freeman, & Sandy Petersen. The page count seems unimpressive at fifty six pages but these early books are unusual in that they set the Sword & Sorcery tone for later editions , push forward the Stormbringer rpg universe, & bring to the table experimental early Chaosium rpg  ideas.  You can think of 'White Wolf: Temples, Demons, & Ships of War' as a supplement that occurs later in the career of both Elric & the PC's. There are rules straight out of the gate here for dimensional travel, war, and more. You can think of this book taking place right around the time of the 'Weird of the White Wolf era or much earlier;""We must be bound to one another then. Bound by hell-forged chains and fate-haunted circumstance. Well, then — let it be thus so — and men will have cause to tremble and flee when they hear the names of Elric of Melnibone and Stormbringer, his sword. We are two of a kind — produced by an age which has deserted us. Let us give this age cause to hate us"
Imrryr, the dreaming city; Yyrkoon, the hated usurper; Cymoril, the beloved... all had fallen to the fury and unearthly power of the albino prince and his terrible sword. And Elric faced at last the fate that was to be his in this haunted era — that he must go forth, sword and man as one, and havoc and horror would be forever at his forefront until he found the Purpose that was yet obscured to him.
THE WEIRD OF THE WHITE WOLF is the authorized, revised and finally complete novel of the third book of Elric."

'White Wolf: Temples, Demons, & Ships of War' brings the fire of high end & PC level Stormbringer rpg action to the table top level. You can compare the feel of this Stormbringer book to T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil by Gary Gygax & Frank Mentzer. How so!? This is the high end promised middle to upper teir adventure promised in the Stormbringer rpg line. You've got three different temples of Law & Chaos in 'White Wolf'. According to the Elric/Stormbringer rpg entry in Wayne's Books;" DARKSPIRE: Temple of Chaos is a mysterious and sinister place, with many dooms for the unwary adventurer. From this dark abode the twisted worshippers of Mabelrode, the Faceless God, bring fear to all who fail to bow down to the power of Chaos! " What this actually is the first of three temples of Law & Chaos, its a deadly affair. I can honestly say that this temple has made me hate & loath Mabelrode, the Faceless God because I lost three PC's to this place. Thrown into the deep end this is a temple that belongs in both Stormbringer & the Dungeon Crawl Classics rpg. Yes its that deadly! 
"The Temple of the Eternal Flame lurks in the fiery heart of an ancient volcano. This remarkable temple is dedicated to the worship of Kakatal, Lord of Fire Elementals." This is one of those elemental rulers temples that I've used numerous times as a dungeon master with players. Since Elric called on various animal rulers from half worlds to the various elemental rulers. This temple has appeared in Runequest, as a Call of Cthlhu Dreamlands adventure location, and even as a D&D elemental temple its that well thought out & serves its purpose well! Next! There didn't used to be a lot of detail on the temples of Law in Stormbringer until 'White Wolf: Temples, Demons, & Ships of War' detailed out this location;

"The mighty fortress of HAVEN: Temple of Law stands defiant against the minions of Chaos, and offers refuge to all who flee their wrath. Its courageous guardians worship four great Lawful deities: Donblas, Goldar, Arkyn, and Callandus. They stand ready to battle Chaos whenever called upon by the faithful." My god has this adventure location gotten a work out. This was the adventure headquarters for the Knights of Donblas & the bastion of Law for Stormbringer. Towards the end of the campaign this adventure location was the perfect location to have the PC's make a stand against the wave of undead & Chaos at the end of the world.  But the icing within the White Wolf supplement has to be the adventure 'Escape From Yellow Hell; "Escape from Yellow Hell, a high-level, ultra-magical scenario the will challenge even the most powerful adventurers. The adventurers must rescue a priest trapped on the Yellow Hell, a x5 Chaotic plane of the damned ruled by Zhortra, Lord of Chaos." 

'Escape From The Yellow Hell' is a mini campaign within its own right, its brutal, nasty, & an excercise in high end thinking & actual slogging through the adventure location & plane. Its well done but its really dark & nasty Hell. My players hated me for using this adventure. 

'White Wolf: Temples, Demons, & Ships of War' is a naval warfare supplement as well that has a nice set of Young Kingdom ships, naval combat rules, and even other planar travel rules. It presents itself as a universal supplement for the Stormbringer rpg but its really high end set of options for the 2nd edition Stormbringer box set. 

And in point of fact I've used these rules sets & tool box found within this book to run a complete 'A Sailor on the Seas of Fate' campaign upon which the player's PC's signed up for. Yes its a solid supplement & one of the best in my opinion that was published.