I'm about five sessions in to running the Raven's Purge, and we've just been getting settled in the the game and system having explored Weatherstone and The Hollows. I am starting to look at what legends and rumors I will feed to the players next to start them out on their next quest, and I've been reading through a few possible options, one of which is Stoneloom. The first paragraph in that Adventure Site says "the adventurers should be equipped with some form of magical protection, preferably something like the emerald Gall-Eye or the face of the sorcerer Zertorme from the Amber’s Peak adventure". Alright, I say, cool, they're giving me some guidance on how to order things. Where can I send them to get one of these items; obviously Amber's Peak for the face, but where is Gall-Eye. A quick search through the PDF tells me that Gall-Eye is set in to the sword Maligarn (Raven's pg 36), which is recommended to be found in ... Stoneloom (Raven's pg 26, and again in the Stoneloom adventure site, pg 158). Oooook.
Well, that's stupid, let's see what the face from Amber's Peak is all about. Sure enough, there's a face there... and it has zero mechanical effects that I can find. There's nothing listed in the room where his face is found, nor in the NPC section of the adventure site, nor in Zertorme's entry under the "Key Player's" section of the book (though that's the only place his stats are listed, which is a super inconvenient design choice). It's just an interesting, cool McGuffin. So why would the players need it to "protect them" in Stoneloom?
Alright I say, what does the sword or Gall-Eye do that might be helping to protect them? Turns out, it's a decent magic sword that makes you go berserk if you use it. Doesn't sound very helpful as a protective item at all! This is just the most recent example of this kind of problem I am having with the Raven's Purge. I am *this close* to telling my players that we're not doing it and just use the map to make up a campaign story that has some sort of sense to it.
Edit: I see buried in the NPC section of the adventure site there's an implication that the adventurers might be protected from Marga if she thinks that the adventurers are her brother, which is why the face could be useful, if the PCs wear it as a mask, though it doesn't really get in to that at all. It's literally just one sentence that says she would want to play if she thinks they are Zertorme, but doesn't really discuss it in any detail, and it does't explain the sword at all.