Pawn, Deception and Sacrifice is an interesting short story That I feel only scrathces the surface of What Shadowsfall has to offer. While the story here could be used as an interesting moral dilemma for a plot twist; the aspect of death, decay and demonic taint is not so uncommon in normal Material Realm Pathfinder Adventures. While it can be argued that this story is as vague as it is to avoid giving away too much about Shadowsfall; it is my opinion that such stories exist to reimagine and give life to the grim truths about such worlds. Even for a cliffhangar of a short story, I feel this book is somewhat undercut from what Shadowsfall has to offer. The actual characters were given distinct, if not cliche' personalities that made the story sound more of a copy-cat circumstantial cardboard cut out from pretty much any additive that came anywhere from videogame fetch and go missions to good old D&D misdirection. That being said; Pawn, Deception and Sacrifice {while being somewhat underdone} shows that it has the promise to evolve into a proper Shadowsfall novel given the right creative process that allows more and more of the denizens of Shadowsfall to find their way into the story.

I am not very good at writing book reviews, but I enjoyed reading it. It was a nice introduction to the kind of stories that would fit well in a shadowsfall game. Kind of short, but very enjoyable.

This short story is about Valdia, a half-vampire trying to protect the village of Sheol. Sheol is located on the Plane of Shadow, an opposite of the normal world inhabited by undead and other creatures that shun the darkness. She has been hired to rescue an infant kidnapped by ghouls. Unfortunately, she has fallen victim to a plot to separate her from her chosen wards (thus the Pawn and Deception).

Here we have a heroine who is conflicted about her heritage who is trying to fit in with the human population of the town that she has chosen to defend. The townspeople don't trust her because of her heritage. She does not get along with her vampire father, who takes an interest in her activities for undisclosed reasons of his own. There is some fighting and mild horror violence. The words themselves are strictly PG on the MPAA rating scale. However, on film there are scenes that would push it firmly into the realm of PG-13. The story is dark, but not inappropriate for anyone 13 or up. Would definitely be enjoyed by any adult who is a fan of dark fiction (Valdia's father offers to take the infant off her hands, presumably as foodstuffs. No sparkly vampires here).

My only complaint is two spelling errors (incorrect homonyms used). I would rate this a 3.75, rounded up to 4 stars. A bargain at the price.