--since originally writing that, I've done more research on the subject and have gone back to the book... only to find more errors! Some are trivial (but would have been easy enough to get right) and some are significant.

The late Patrick O'Brian had no peer when it came to sea stories. This is another in his series with Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr. Stephen Maturin as his protagonists. The two, although dissimilar in every way, are great friends and sail together, Aubrey as commander, and Maturin as ship's physician--and intelligence agent for the Admiralty.

The period is the Napoleonic wars, the ship is His Majesty's hired vessel, the Surprise, a brig, and this story begins in Australian waters, having just left the penal colony there. Shortly after leaving, the Surprise is overhauled by a packet with orders to proceed to the Hawaiian (Sandwich) Islands, to protect British whaling interests there. Oh, and an ex-convict stowaway (Clarissa Harvill) is discovered in the cable-tier, hiding in the anchor rope. It takes Stephen Maturin to discover her past.

Thus the story begins, and O'Brian, with his usual brisk narrative pace maintains your interest throughout.

Patrick O'Brian had few, if any equals when it came to knowledge of square-rigged vessels and their history in battle. Many of his stories reflect actual actions, taken directly from British Admiralty history. Not only is his nautical terminology accurate, but he also uses period expressions that lend reality to his tales. I cannot find it in my heart to award anything he has written with less than 5 stars.

Let me suggest that the reader would do well to start with the first book in the series, Master and Commander, and take them in order. The series is a saga that provides untold hours of pleasure.

Joseph H. Pierre
Author of The Road to Damascus, Our Journey Through Eternity

As these priest tell their stories, we are educated in a number of ways.

One, we learn a great deal about Roman Catholic Church theology, including the Mass, confession, justification, etc.

Two, we are provided fascinating insights into the various trainings, practices, duties and obligations of priestly and monastic orders. Some of these practices seem barbaric by our contemporary sense of spiritual awareness. It is appalling, for instance, to think we have Roman Catholic orders of monks who still practice medieval, physical forms of cruelty upon themselves (like flagellation) and their fellows (blows to the face) in an attempt to be right with and pleasing to God.

Since the spiritual journeys of these priests are internationally and ethnically diversified, we are also educated in terms of the Roman Catholic Church's role in various countries and cultures. In some countries, it is apparent that the RCC has a power that is every bit as dominant politically as it is religiously. Many of these priests feared for their personal safety as well as their future careers when they entertained notions of leaving the priesthood, because of the Roman Church's vindictive representatives in government, in the police forces and in the business community. Some of these priests, after having left the priesthood, were forced to leave their countries to find hospitable refuge elsewhere. Evidently, in some parts of the world, leaving the priesthood is not like quitting a job.

For these reasons, and the fact that many faced the potential of a cultural stigma as well as intense disappointment of friends and family, we learn that leaving the priesthood required a good amount of courage. The fact that all the ex-priests in this book left because of a crisis of conscience or belief, as opposed to yearnings for worldly or physical desires, make their stories even more compelling and credible.

We also learn the extent to which the Roman Catholic Church, despite calling Protestants "brothers," in actual practice in various locales considers Protestantism its number one enemy. Many of these testimonial conversions are remarkable considering the fact that the priests relating them were raised and educated to hate Protestants. Many actually were led to believe that Protestant Bibles were radically different than Catholic Bibles. Protestant literature, in one man's story, was kept in a forbidden, locked closet in a church library.

When reading this book, anyone who considers himself a serious Christian will be shocked by how little the theological training of Roman Catholic priests involves the study of scripture. One man testifies in this book that in thirteen years of training to be a priest, he had twelve hours of studying the Bible. Another stated that he was not allowed to even read a Bible until after he had turned 21, despite the fact that he had been trained to be a priest since he was a ten. One is left with the impression that since so many Roman Catholic Church dogmas (like the sacrifice of the Mass, the Marian dogmas, confession, transubstantiation, purgatory, the priesthood itself) have questionable or no scriptural basis, the Roman Catholic Church prefers to train its future priests with literature on what they say about the Bible, rather than risk having seminarians question Church teaching by reading the Bible itself.

Despite this effort, the constant thread throughout many of the narratives is how God brought the truth to anguished, confused, and troubled souls in spite of Roman Catholic "brainwashing" as one ex-priest phrases it. Many times the seed of God's truth was sown as priests were required to perform actions that in their hearts they knew only God was capable of, such as absolution. Many more times conversion occurred as a result of studying the Word of God and learning that the Gospel message of God's love and forgiveness, and Christ's one time perfect sacrifice blatantly contradicts the Roman Catholic view.

We cannot simply dismiss the conversions of these brave and intelligent men as being a result of ignorance. In some cases, these men experienced decades of training and learning in Roman Catholic teaching. An objective reader, regardless of denominational affilliation, must conclude that there is something wrong with a Christian church that shields not only its laity, but its clergy from the Bible...but when one sees how a thorough grounding in the Word of God can lead to exodus from that church, we can at least understand why.

A quick read: informative and surprisingly entertaining as well.

I had mixed feelings about this module. From my description, the story obviously follows a mystery theme. And as a concept, the plot is interesting and creative. However, I don't think this adventure is well written. The major gripe from my players is that there is not enough action at the beginning of the adventure. Events seem to take too long to develop.

From a dungeon master's standpoint, I had some additional concerns. My main problem is the lack of good continuity with the rest of the modules in the series. The forces of the enemy will be fought several times throughout the series; however losses to the enemy is not addressed well. In fact, the second module in the series actually suggests that if some of the enemy leaders are defeated in the first module that you should tell the players that they killed a stand-in instead. This along with most of the setup of the adventure is poor. To make this a good adventure that the players will enjoy the DM will need to spend a considerable amount of time fleshing out the adventure. Now if you have the Greyhawk City Boxed Set most of the necessary color for the city is taken care of, but the encounters are just skeletons that need additional detail.

The other problem is the main conflict at the end of the adventure. It just doesn't seem to be balanced well (too difficult for the players). And some of the actions that are suggested are not feasible without spoon feeding the players and dragging them around by the nose so they don't screw up the plot for the rest of the modules. All I can say is prepare for this encounter extra carefully.

My recommendation is if you have players that like roleplay and mystery this module has great potential with DM rework. Hack and slashers should stay far away. Also use the module for its general plot line and locales, but change the story to make it flow better. If you have the Greyhawk City Boxed Set use it to add more life to the city. Basically be prepared to spend more development time than usual.