Faces of the Tarnished Souk: Smiles-Under-the-Bed
Faces of The Tarnished Souk: Smiles Under the Bed is an epic fantasy supplement for Coliseum Morpheuon and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game written by Matt Banach and published by Rite Publishing.
By Cape Rust
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Now they’ve done it! Rite Publishing has statted out the Cheshire Cat. Well not exactly the Cheshire Cat that you would expect interacting with Johnny Depp, gracing a classic Disney movie, or even in the twisted pages of Mr. Carroll’s novel. I mean at no time were the versions of the Cheshire Cat that Hollywood and literature have given us described as a mangy grey feline that is always hacking and mewling, appearing old and sick. Yes That famous Cheshire Cat and Smiles-Under-the-Bed are both unhinged, but Smiles-Under-the-Bed crushes dreams and ushers in nightmares of the highest order!
CONTENT
This 14 page supplement has 9 pages that include Smiles-under-the-Bed at CR 19, 13 and 8. Variants of Smiles-Under-the-Bed at each of those CRs include the Air-infused, Smoke creature, element-Infused and Exemplar templates. There is a new magic item, four templates and two traits.
OVERALL
Minus the gimmicky (completely Cheshire Cat) magic item, this was a concise, well done product. Smiles-Under-the-Bed is a bit limited in use outside of the Souk, but still makes for a nasty NPC that will make you feel like you’ve stepped on a cold hairball with bare feet in the middle of the night.
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 9 out of 10
This series is well branded and established and Rite Publishing is smart to stick with that formula. My gripe as usual is their use of stock art when there are thousands of artists out there looking for publishing credits. The cover looks original, but I feel like the cover art for Smiles-Under-the-Bed could have broken the traditional cover format and showed her in either form or transitioning between the two. The rest of the book minus the stock art is top notch and has progressed in quality well beyond the size and budget that Rite Publishing has.
Mechanics: 10 out of 10
Still complex and deadly; anything with a CR 19 is going to be hard to run. Smiles-Under-the-Bed is much more manageable at her lowest level but the addition of several templates can fade into the background and be overlooked in the heat of battle if a GM is not careful.
Value Add: 8 out of 10
Because Smiles-Under-the-Bed is so dream focused, her use outside of the Souk is more limited than some other Faces that Rite Publishing has produced. Smiles-Under-the-Bed has a reclusive nature that, if not played properly, could cause her to become a “break only in case of high level encounter” kind of NPC. To be honest I don’t think I would like to deal with Smiles-Under-the-Bed in any situation.
Overall: 9 out of 10
It is good to see the Cheshire Cat statted out and made into an Emo, Grunge, highly deadly, nightmare of a creature. If they hadn’t made a new magic item that creates a floating smile, I don’t think I would have rated this higher. I understand the homage, but it came off a little cheesy. Smiles-Under-the-Bed is the last thing you want to run into in a dark alley in the realm of dreams!
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