Orphan of Agony Isle - Review

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Miranda wakes up in a strange laboratory without a single memory in her brain. Looming over her is the doctor claiming to have saved her life. A doctor that claims her state is so delicate even observing her own wounds would endanger it, but doesn't exactly treat her with the best bedside manners. Who presents a logical, calculated facade, but bursts in anger whenever her will is defied. Who claims to be Miranda's only defense against a mysterious villain, but shows little evidence to that villain's existence or intentions.
Sounds suspisious?

This is how the plot of 'Orphan of Agony Isle' by Casey Gilly (And a ton of other people cause it takes a village to raise a comic book) starts. I wasn't aware this book exists, but earlier this week I entered a comic book shop for the first time in my life, naturally gravitated towards the DND section, and found this little guy between all the Critical Role graphic novels.

The artwork is a thing of beauty. Everything about the angle and colour schemes serves to amplify the gothic atmosphere. The 'memory' scenes each has a slightly different style compared to the frame story, really fitting that story's vibe. My only complain is the character design: I feel like Miranda's face looks a bit too cute for her

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species. I think it's a little hypocritical that even in works that try to say that dark isn't always evil and looks don't determine everything, monstrous protagonists are still drawn with their inhuman features toned down compared to those of monstrous villains or side characters. I want to see if readers can sympathise with a hero that looks geniunely disfigured or alien.

, but that's just my opinion.

The plot is mid, in my humble opinion. It felt simple and predictable - but maybe it's simply because I was spoiled it. The story exposes no secrets that weren't already revealed in VRGtR, while hiding some that were, so I think it would be a lot more fun for players who are about to play in Lamordia and haven't read sourcebooks on it than for lore-savvy DMs. It was still a fun read, but not mindblowing.

However, I think a lot of DND fiction is written with the goals of brilliant plots or immersive storytelling as mere afterthoughts - their main purpose is to examplify the things you and your party can do at your table, and that's what they should be measured by.

So what does Orphan of Agony Isle examplify?

Well, it examplifies Viktra Mordenheim's character.
Viktra says right from the start she's not a good person. She's a villain that knows what she's doing and just doesn't care. Her interaction with Miranda makes her seem at times misunderstood or too harsh with herself, not the irredeemable villain she's supposed to be - until the next time she violently grabs her arm, or turns out to have kept another secret. She will likely never see people as more than her creations, her experiments, and there's something tragic about it.
I like how for all her icy characterization, Viktra also has a hair-trigger temper. She isn't more rational than other people, just less aware of her emotions. From my common knowledge, I think it's a lot more realistic the perfectly calm and emotionless genius psychopath we usually see in media.
Viktra is an interesting deconstruction of the 'mad scientist' trope. She clearly isn't neurotypical (as in, her brain doesn't work 'normally'), but she isn't delusional either. Her disorder doesn't magically power her experiments in any way other than that her emotional disconnection allows her to dare and experiment with things most people would see as disgusting and immoral.

I wish it exaplified more of 5e Lamordia itself, which could really use some fleshing out (no pun intended), but the plot happens almost entirely inside Viktra's castle, allowing for little worldbuilding opportunities.

But I think the best example the story gives is how to roleplay a

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Reborn.
The 'Reborn' lineage is a poorly-defined racial option presented in VRGtR, meant to represent a variety of undead and constructs. I think it suffers greatly from being too 'one size fits all' - maybe in a less heavily mechanical RPG you can use the same stat block for a ghost and a straw golem and get away with it, but when I play DND, I want the mechanics to match the flavour.
I think the Reborn fits best as a zombie or flesh golem that has a more humanoid psychology than most, and anything else should use different stats.
But the Reborn actually has one really good piece of flavour, and the creators know know what it is: Reborns' memories of their past lives are faded at best when they just come back from the Grey Realm, but return bit by bit. There's a table you can roll during downtime to see what memory you recall tonight, and I think it's a really cool roleplay experiment - you can come to the table with a character that has little to no backstory, and make it up on the spot according to the prompt you rolled.
I might be wrong, but I think Miranda is specifically written not as a normal (or dread) flesh golem, but as a flesh-golem-style Reborn. Each night, Miranda dreams of the death of one of the people from whose' organs her own body was built. All have died in the hands of monsters (which again demonstrates this being a DND book, aspiring to provide plot hook ideas. Otherwise, why not let at least one story be just a guy who got ridden over by a wagon?), but as character, they're suprisingly diverse. Each feels like an interesting character on its own right. It shows the potential of what you can do with your reborn PC's background(s).

Overall, Orphan of Agony Isle is a nice comic, not a masterpiece but a fun entry to the dread realms.
7/10