A Review of the Role Playing Game Supplement Faces of the Tarnished Souk: The Dark Lady Ninyantë, Mistress of Venom (PFRPG)

Faces of the Tarnished Souk: The Dark Lady Ninyantë, Mistress of Venom (PFRPG) by Matt Banach and Justin Sluder is a role playing game supplement published by Rite Publishing for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. As such, it is covered by the Open Game License and some parts are considered to be Open Game Content as a result. This is a single NPC at three different CRs.

The supplement is available as a 15-page PDF from DriveThruRPG for $2.95 but was purchased at a reduced price as part of a special bundle. One [age is the front cover, one the front matter, one the Open Game License and two are ads.

The Dark Lady Ninyantë, Mistress of Venom gives some background on the NPC, who can be found in the Tarnished Souk of the Coliseum Morpheuon setting. They are a member of high society, because no-one dares not to invite her to things, and the premier supplier of poisons. How Dreamburning affects her is followed by lore known about her and some suggestions on using her.

The CR 8 version is an amalgam human dark naga shadow assassin 4; dangerous, but not the worst. (The shadow assassin comes from The Genius Guide To: The Shadow Assassin from Rogue Genius Games.)

The CR 14 version is a spellpowered amalgam human dark naga shadow assassin 11, now significantly more deadly.

Finally, the CR 17 version is a spellpowered amalgam human dark naga shadow assassin 17. Worth not making angry. And she’s very easy to make angry.

There are two new feats related to poison use, and three new magic items. Two are interesting but the third, which is a consumable, is perhaps the most so. And a serious problem for enemies. This is the elixir of healing, which heals 150 points of damage. Twice. Yes, a simple potion can easily undo all damage done to a creature in combat.

Two templates are next. The Amalgam Creature is an acquired or inherited template that combines two base creatures. This is a thoroughly complicated, and dangerous, template. The Spellpowered Creature is also acquired or inherited and allows a creature to have more inherent spell-like abilities than normal.

Faces of the Tarnished Souk: The Dark Lady Ninyantë, Mistress of Venom (PFRPG) in Review

The PDF is well bookmarked; if there’s a problem here, it’s that the bookmarks aren’t in the same order as the sections in the supplement. Navigation is decent. The text maintains a two-column black and white format and appeared to be free of errors. Bar the main NPC illustrations, there are several black and white stock images. Presentation is decent.

The Dark Lady Ninyantë is a thoroughly nasty potential opponent; this is not a being PCs would be wise annoying, and she’s very easily annoyed. And bears a grudge. Until the person causing it is dead. There are a couple of suggestions as to how to use her with adventures in the Coliseum Morpheuon book, which means characters could easily end up encountering her. Faces of the Tarnished Souk: The Dark Lady Ninyantë, Mistress of Venom (PFRPG) covers an interestingly nasty piece of work and it can be found by clicking here.