Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

A year later... resurrect thread...

Realm of the Fellnight Queen
I put this one in the "pretty good" but not great category. It's got a long going on that seems Ravenloftian, but I'd be hard pressed to find a spot for it in my campaign. Maybe others might have better luck. There's a fey queen who's been banished to what could easily be seen as a domain of dread, perhaps in the 4e-era Shadowfell sense. But it's not Dark Powers that have trapped her, but her own kin, the good fey. She's being punished for mixing forbidden shadow magic with faerie glamor, which, as darklord crimes go, doesn't seem all that bad. But the stones that form the barrier between her domain and reality have been disturbed, and she's planning an invasion, starting with a forest full of good fey, and the small lumber town therein. The PCs start at a wedding in town, first have to fight the Queen's minions who disrupt the wedding, make their way into the forest and convince the good fey to take up arms against the queen's forces while the PCs enter the domain and fight the Queen to get the MacGuffin that will restore her prison. In a way, the basic structure is kind of like I6 with a fey Queen instead of a vampire and a much smaller scale (and no randomization). Of course, Queen Rhoswen doesn't have nearly the personality or backstory that Strahd does, which keeps this adventure from being really great.

There are some neat enemies, like a scorned gnomish beekeeper who became a druid with a bee theme. There's a drunken Treant to be reasoned with, a druid who holds vital info but is possessed by a will o wisp who doesn't want it revealed. The queen's domain is basically a dungeon crawl through her weird castle, but not a terrible one. Overall, a decent adventure. Does it fit into Ravenloft? Well.... I could see it happening along the Shadow Rift in Darkon, or (with some demihuman to human conversions) in Tepest. These fey aren't really Shadow Fey-like, but could be tweaked a bit to be. Maybe Rhoswen could be a relative of Maeve and Loht or somesuch. I guess the real sticking point is the almost-but-not-quite domain. The mission to re-lock the Queen's prison is a pretty big part of the story. If you don't like your demiplanar fabric so easily manipulated by mortals, and prefer the Dark Powers' imprisonment to be absolute, and for a standard domain to be uniquely the only form of demiplanar imprisonment in the demiplane, then it doesn't really fit. But if you don't mind either letting your PC's help the Dark Powers a bit, or letting something very much like a domain that isn't a domain exist, and also don't mind a bit high-fantasy/fairy tale sort of feel for a campaign, or for an interlude at least, then maybe this is the module for you. 3.5/5 blood drops.
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Hangman's Noose
Excellent concept. Might need a bit of polishing in execution (heh.. "execution"), but nothing major. In general, a superb Ravenloft-y low-level adventure. The PCs are drugged and kidnapped; they awaken in an abandoned courthouse, along with 8 NPCs. (Two alternate entry points are given, but this bit of railroading is the default start). Turns out that 10 years ago, those 8 NPCs and 4 of the PCs' dead relatives wrongly convicted the local executioner of murdering his wife and son. The executioner's ghost haunts the courthouse, and has compelled an accomplice to abduct the jury (or their next of kin) so he can have his revenge. As the PCs explore the courthouse looking for clues to the identity and motives of the ghost, the jurors are picked off one by one. Eventually the real killer arrives, and the PCs must prove his guilt and hang him instead to appease the ghost.

All in all, an excellent combination of ghost story, social challenge, and murder mystery. The quibble I have is that by the time the real killer (the prosecutor) arrives (along with a red herring NPC, the judge), the pool of suspects will have dwindled to the point where it's downright obvious. Maybe that's OK, as mysteries are notoriously hard to run, but it seems a little clunky to keep the real killer away that long to avoid his discovery. Or maybe he should have been there from the start. If I ran it, I might have had the prosecutor and the judge collected also, and maybe the incompent/colluding public defender too. (Unless I missed it, there's no mention of a defense attorney, but I might add one for one more red herring option). As is, the adventure fits perfectly in any major Ravenloft city IF (and this is a big IF), you don't mind a bunch of demihumans. The jurors include a lineup straight from the Race chapter of the Player's Handbook: A halfling, a dwarf, a half-orc, and a gnome, plus a hobgoblin for good measure (no elves, at least). With only 3 humans, this group definitely comes from Golarion, not the Core. One could of course always replace them with a "slim, slight woman", "gruff, stout man," "a caliban", "a little person" and "another caliban". But with so many NPCs, the odd races probably help to keep them straight quite a bit. Also, you'd need to find new pictures for a few, and the pictures probably help immeasurably to remember who is who. Alternately, you could put it in Martira Bay, include the odd races, wave your hands and say "oh, that wacky Darkon!" or use it an intro adventure for a "campaign in hell", starting in Golarion and having the courthouse sucked into Ravenloft as an island/pocket domain with either the ghost or the murderer as darklord. Again, my nitpicks are just minor, and mostly a matter of taste. Overall an excellent adventure. 4.5/5 blood drops.
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

The Pact-Stone Pyramid
An archaeological dig in Osirion (Golarion's "Egypt") aims to unearth a Pyramid containing the Pact-stone, an artifact that allowed four ancient pharaohs to form a bond that let them rule over a legendary period of prosperity. The noblewoman funding the expedition aims to use the stone to break that bond, bring three of the pharaohs back to life and install herself as the fourth member of their pact. The PCs are sent to prevent her from succeeding. There's a bit of sabotage fun around the dig site, but ultimately the PCs obviously have to go inside the pyramid themselves. From there, it becomes a nice little dungeon crawl, with some clever (albeit deadly) traps. What I found especially refreshing is that it's an Egypt-style pyramid delve with nary a mummy anywhere. (There is a weird golem dressed like a mummy, but no actual ones.)

Now, the clever twist is that the pact-stone can't be removed from the pyramid at all, as it's actually the foundation that the whole thing is built upon. But while that's a nice addition, it ultimately makes the ending a bit anti-climactic. There's a boss fight with a devil bound to protect the place, but while the devil has a nice backstory, there's not much room for the PCs to discover it, so it may seem like a random addition just to give the adventure an artificial climax. Also, the devil itself is really silly looking (as many fiends admittedly are, in their natural forms). A crocodile-headed humanoid with a cobra's hood and scorpion claws and tail might sound cool on paper, but it's hard to imagine any artist doing it justice, and the module's artist gave it a good try, but certainly didn't get there.

So, could you plunk it down in Har'akir? Well.... the expedition itself relies on a lot of magic. probably too much for the average Ravenloft campaign, but that could be toned down. The history regarding the four ancient pharaohs of Osirion could be jammed into Har'Akir's history fairly easily. You'd probably need to expand the canon population of the domain to fit in nobility and the sheer numbers of slaves for the expedition, but a lot of people already do that anyway. The real trouble would be the deadliness of the traps. It's easily a TPK if the players aren't both smart and lucky. So I'd recommend it as a stand-alone adventure, not as part of a campaign, unless it became central to the story of that campaign. Losing a bunch of PCs on what amounts to a side-quest isn't going to make most groups happy. 3/5 blood drops
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Feast of Ravenmoor
What do you get when you cross The Village with The Wicker Man and turn it into a 3rd level adventure? Feast of Ravenmoor, that's what. And it seems to work fairly well. The PCs are sent to find a missing tax collector and stumble upon an isolated town about to celebrate a monthly festival. The town has some weird customs, like keeping stirges for pets, and eating giant ticks. But they seem a harmless lot, until investigation turns up a cult dedicated to Ghlaunder, mosquito-themed god of parasites and disease, who are secretly warping the town's worship of Desna, butterfly-themed goddess of freedom, luck, and travel. One of the PCs or a friendly NPC are next up for ritual sacrifice unless the party can infiltrate the cult's headquarters in a disused farmhouse, and interrupt the ritual in the corn-maze out back. I'm not sure if the investigation part is too obvious. (Surprise, the friendly mayor is the cult leader!) But maybe that's OK, as it's not really the focus of the adventure. I might have made the weaver, his aranea subordinate, the real leader instead, but to each their own. Also, the final battle with the mayor's "evolved form" seems quite deadly, but I suppose it should be, to some extent. I'm also not sure if the town of 135 could really support a secret cult of 30, which performs regular human sacrifices, for long, but that's the motif, so we go with it.

So, does this have anything fitting for Ravenloft other than a similar name? I think so. The cultists-infesting-sleepy-town trope is no stranger to Ravenloft, and this version is more fully executed than "The Rite of Terror" from the Book of Crypts, or other examples in the Ravenloft canon. And the flavorful touches of this particular cult are very creepy. If any of your players have an insect phobia, this one will have them itching uncontrollably. (The one that almost made me retch was the description of the cult's "baptismal pool," which is a stagnant pond with a coating of wriggling mosquito larva, and a dead ox rotting in it. They submerge themselves in it before the ritual, and I just threw up a little in my mouth typing that.) If you keep the initial hook, it would need to be set in a domain that has the government infrastructure for tax collecting. Something more like Darkon, Nova Vassa, or Dementlieu, and less like Tepest, Verbrek, or Mordent. Barovia, Invidia, or Falkovnia would probably be out, as their leaders wouldn't send PCs to collect missing taxes, they'd go personally or send troops, to kill those responsible and make an example of them. But all you really need is a sleepy little remote village, and a central government elsewhere in the domain. The more major problem is the deity issue. Neither Desna nor Ghlaunder are likely to be known in Ravenloft. You might get away with swapping Desna for Ezra or Hala, but you'd lose a bit of resonance with the deliberate confusion spread by the cultists between aspects of butterflies and aspects of mosquitoes. (The talk about the "blessed gossamer wings" protecting them and the like, and the detail that the effigies of Desna in the town all have wings.) So maybe if you find an area where you can spread a pocket of Desna worship beforehand, it would be one way to make it work. The adventure itself is certainly solid and Ravenloftian. It's just a few details that aren't a perfect match. If I had a Golarion-based horror campaign, I'd run this in a heartbeat. 4/5 blood drops.
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Brandi »

Making Ghlaunder a heretical aspect of Zhakata the Devourer might be interesting. You'll have to decide if it's something that would attract Yagno Petrova's attention...

The other possibility is just ditching the tax collector hook and having this place be an Island in the Mists, where the inhabitants are quite happy to evangelicize about their beliefs to outsiders.
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Brandi wrote:Making Ghlaunder a heretical aspect of Zhakata the Devourer might be interesting. You'll have to decide if it's something that would attract Yagno Petrova's attention...
Interesting, but putting this one in G'henna would require some major changes.
The other possibility is just ditching the tax collector hook and having this place be an Island in the Mists, where the inhabitants are quite happy to evangelicize about their beliefs to outsiders.
True. Setting any adventure as an island in the Mists solves a lot of the problems of fitting with the established domains, but I'm not sure anyone in this story qualifies for Darklord status. Maybe as a small part of a larger island domain, where the real darklord is back in the capital....
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Deewun »

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:Feast of Ravenmoor
What do you get when you cross The Village with The Wicker Man and turn it into a 3rd level adventure? Feast of Ravenmoor, that's what. And it seems to work fairly well. The PCs are sent to find a missing tax collector and stumble upon an isolated town about to celebrate a monthly festival. The town has some weird customs, like keeping stirges for pets, and eating giant ticks. But they seem a harmless lot, until investigation turns up a cult dedicated to Ghlaunder, mosquito-themed god of parasites and disease, who are secretly warping the town's worship of Desna, butterfly-themed goddess of freedom, luck, and travel. One of the PCs or a friendly NPC are next up for ritual sacrifice unless the party can infiltrate the cult's headquarters in a disused farmhouse, and interrupt the ritual in the corn-maze out back. I'm not sure if the investigation part is too obvious. (Surprise, the friendly mayor is the cult leader!) But maybe that's OK, as it's not really the focus of the adventure. I might have made the weaver, his aranea subordinate, the real leader instead, but to each their own. Also, the final battle with the mayor's "evolved form" seems quite deadly, but I suppose it should be, to some extent. I'm also not sure if the town of 135 could really support a secret cult of 30, which performs regular human sacrifices, for long, but that's the motif, so we go with it.

So, does this have anything fitting for Ravenloft other than a similar name? I think so. The cultists-infesting-sleepy-town trope is no stranger to Ravenloft, and this version is more fully executed than "The Rite of Terror" from the Book of Crypts, or other examples in the Ravenloft canon. And the flavorful touches of this particular cult are very creepy. If any of your players have an insect phobia, this one will have them itching uncontrollably. (The one that almost made me retch was the description of the cult's "baptismal pool," which is a stagnant pond with a coating of wriggling mosquito larva, and a dead ox rotting in it. They submerge themselves in it before the ritual, and I just threw up a little in my mouth typing that.) If you keep the initial hook, it would need to be set in a domain that has the government infrastructure for tax collecting. Something more like Darkon, Nova Vassa, or Dementlieu, and less like Tepest, Verbrek, or Mordent. Barovia, Invidia, or Falkovnia would probably be out, as their leaders wouldn't send PCs to collect missing taxes, they'd go personally or send troops, to kill those responsible and make an example of them. But all you really need is a sleepy little remote village, and a central government elsewhere in the domain. The more major problem is the deity issue. Neither Desna nor Ghlaunder are likely to be known in Ravenloft. You might get away with swapping Desna for Ezra or Hala, but you'd lose a bit of resonance with the deliberate confusion spread by the cultists between aspects of butterflies and aspects of mosquitoes. (The talk about the "blessed gossamer wings" protecting them and the like, and the detail that the effigies of Desna in the town all have wings.) So maybe if you find an area where you can spread a pocket of Desna worship beforehand, it would be one way to make it work. The adventure itself is certainly solid and Ravenloftian. It's just a few details that aren't a perfect match. If I had a Golarion-based horror campaign, I'd run this in a heartbeat. 4/5 blood drops.
I love these reviews, as more good content is always good, and fell enamored with this adventure. I just bought it for my upcoming campaign. I had some thoughts I figured you'd be the best to ask/share with:

- Reading this, Nova Vaasa felt like a really excellent place to have a little hidden village as well as the tax collecting as such. That make sense to you, having already read it?

- My plan is to include Tidhare (referenced in the Carnival as the god that Hermos worships) as a campaign god from this point forward, and though that Tidhare could be used as a replacement for Desna. Thoughts?
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Deewun wrote:I love these reviews, as more good content is always good,
Thanks! Glad they are proving useful.
- Reading this, Nova Vaasa felt like a really excellent place to have a little hidden village as well as the tax collecting as such. That make sense to you, having already read it?
Yes, although you'll have to explain how this whole town gets away with worshipping someone other than the Lawgiver. The remoteness could explain it, but at least some lip service should probably be paid to the fact that their god is already an outlaw god, even before it's corrupted.
- My plan is to include Tidhare (referenced in the Carnival as the god that Hermos worships) as a campaign god from this point forward, and though that Tidhare could be used as a replacement for Desna. Thoughts?
Could work, sure. But you'll have to rework a bit. And you'll lose the insect connection, but maybe a "nature" connection is good enough. If you followed the example of the module, a rabbit god would have been corrupted by some sort of rat god or something. But with some work, you could rearrange some of the blessings and such to apply to both Tidhare and Ghlaunder. Tidhare being a pretty blank slate helps (the novel Carnival of Fear is the only other reference to him, I believe). Eager to hear how it goes.
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Rule of Fear
OK, this one's not a module, but I'm out of modules other than the Carrion Crown series, and I figured I'd read the setting book first before diving into that. So, this is a 63-page book detailing the land of Ustalav, Paizo's Gothic Horror setting. It's got a map, it's got a section on each of the counties that make up the land, including blurbs on their leaders and other prominent NPCs, it's got a timeline, it's got a section on each of the major cities, it's got a section on the noble bloodlines, and a section on various "hauntings" or possible adventure sites. So it would seem very thorough, but for me it fell kind of flat.

So maybe I'm spoiled. We all know we have the great Gazetteers for Ravenloft, and this product, while ambitious and well-crafted, pales in comparison. It's got splashy cover art, and well-made maps, glossy pages and beautiful character portraits in color. But all that production value isn't what's important. The Gazetteers made do with cut and paste maps from the campaign setting book, nearly blank covers, plain paper stock, and black and white (albeit beautiful and haunting) art, but the content was collectively the best RPG material I've ever read. So it's very difficult not to view Rule of Fear through that lens and take it on its own merits. But I'll try.

Here are the issues that I see, though. First, the organization is confusing. After a little mood-setting vignette, we launch right into a dense timeline, and coming into this setting as a relative n00b (I've read Prince of Wolves long ago, and played a campaign elsewhere in Golarion, and also read Jester's Ustalav gazetteer from QtR), it's hard to tell which events are important and which aren't. I'd rather have had a bit of text description of the major historical points and then a more concise timeline. Then we go into the counties and hear a lot about major NPCs that refer to family histories that don't become clear until the later bloodlines section, or about societies that I don't know about until the society section. I would have rather read those parts first. Again, an outline of the scope before the details would have helped pull it together.

The next issue is that there's a lot of florid prose to set the mood, which is fine, but in some cases it overwhelms the content. I had to read some passages several times to figure out what it is trying to say. Even though the text isn't "in-character" like the VRGs or Gazzes, it often feels like I'm the player, getting only half the story. It feels like the DM sidebar to explain what's really going on is missing. As such, there are plenty of adventure hooks, but all of them feel incomplete. Bait and a hook, but with no line attached to it. This is especially apparent in the "hauntings" section, but also in the "rumors" section of the cities, what we'd call "Dread Possibilities." Now, a good DM can take any of these and flesh them out into an adventure. Heck, with the help of this forum, I made a whole weekend session out of two sentences in Gazetteer II. But nearly every hook in the book is this way. Almost none of them have the history or reason behind what's happening, just a spooky setup.

Lastly, and maybe again this is a personal preference, the setting just doesn't resonate with me. I didn't expect it to replace my first love, of course, and I'm thoroughly happy that Ustalav exists, but a few of the design choices don't work for me. As much as Ravenloft gets criticized for its sometimes sloppy pastiches of real world cultures, I love that aspect of it. Having a cultural touchstone for an area, even if it's not exact or even accurate gives something to hold onto in your mind. Beyond that, having each domain based thematically on a darklord gives each one a default genre for stories there. Of course there's more to Lamordia than "Swiss Flesh-golem land," but that's a starting point you can sum it up with to cement it in your mind. In contrast, all of Ustalav's counties sound the same to me. Yes, this one is a war-torn wasteland, and that one is a bustling capital, but most of them I couldn't tell you what's going on there, or how it differs from its neighbor across the way. Now, maybe that's more realistic. It gives more opportunities for varied play in a given location, it avoids the artificial barriers of technology, culture, and climate in the small spaces of Ravenloft, and I love that Ustalav is big and expansive with room to explore. But for me, it makes a lot of that area into generic flavorless D&D-land. (OK, Pathfinder-land).

Going hand in hand with this is the naming. Without real-world analogues to fall back on, a lot of Ustalav's names don't sound like names to me, but random strings of letters. And they certainly don't stick in my memory. Aericnein Neska? Ristomaur Tirac? Ammanal Urlheinz? What's wrong with a Jacques? or a Dmitry, or even something fantastical, but easy to pronounce and spell, like Raknar or Barlin? (OK, there's an Alison, I'll give them that one. The female names seem to fare better, some being combinations of real names that work, like Zoenessa.)

There are also a few editing issues, like saying Carrion Hill would be covered in Chapter 4, but it never is. (That's OK, I have the module that covers it.) But what RPG product doesn't have any such issues? So I'll give it a pass there.

So, I guess I've been rather hard on this book, but overall, it's pretty good. I just see potential where it could have been a lot better. Can you use it in Ravenloft? Well, if you make Ustalav a domain, as Jester did in QTR, here's your Gazetteer. (Well, Jester's article is really your Gazetteer, but this will fill in the gaps) Even if you don't use Ustalav at all, you can use most of the adventure hooks anywhere. Several of the NPCs and secret societies will fit right in as well. I'm particularly fond of the Saffron House, which gets a full map, and a spooky description (though again, no solid backstory or explanation), and also the Barnabas Collins-esque vampire Ristomaur Tirac. As I get into the Carrion Crown books, maybe some of the stuff I'm looking for will be filled in. For now, I give this a tentative 2.5/5 blood drops.
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

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Gonzoron of the FoS wrote:
Brandi wrote:Making Ghlaunder a heretical aspect of Zhakata the Devourer might be interesting. You'll have to decide if it's something that would attract Yagno Petrova's attention...
Interesting, but putting this one in G'henna would require some major changes.
It could have always been some rogue faction that fled into a nearby domain and caught on with the locals there, like a backwater region of Tepest (or backwater even for Tepest.).
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

Carrion Crown Dice Set
OK, again, not a module. But I finally splurged on these to complete my Carrion Crown collection, and they just arrived today. They're dice. Really nice dice. With cool, creepy chain designs on them. I like them. I'll use them. Not much else to say, really. :) I can't see how they could be much better at what they are meant to do, so ... 5/5 blood drops.
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Gonzoron of the FoS »

The Haunting of Harrowstone
OK, here we go - Carrion Crown adventure path #1/6. This was the first PFAP that I'd read. (I've been a player only in Council of Thieves.) I may be repeating what most people already know here, but I'm late to the party: The six adventures in each adventure path are all tightly coupled, but it appears that they could also be run on their own. The concept really is a thing of beauty. I wish the Grand Conjunction series had been as well thought out! :) I did have some small familiarity with this one coming in, having read our own Joël's campaign journal in which he ran it. I can certainly see why, as it's quite good!

The product is packed with material. I didn't realize that the APs were essentially a magazine, not just a module, and that's really cool! The book includes the titular adventure, followed by a mini-Gazetteer for the town of Ravengro where it's set. (That alone wouldn't be too surprising. It could be seen as part of a well-written module, as in Feast of Gobyns or The Evil Eye.) But then, it also includes expanded rules and examples for pathfinder's "haunts" (some of which feature in the adventure, some don't), a little short fiction piece, a few new monsters (again, some of which feature in the adventure, some don't). Then it ends with a summary of the rest of the adventure path. In addition, there are four short blurbs on the inside cover of random adventure hooks (including one about that mysterious Saffron House from Rule of Fear. (yay!) but without really any new info (boo!). I still want more...). Based on this format, I'm excited to see what other "extra material" shows up with the remainder of the modules in the series.

On to the adventure itself: years ago, a prison riot was led by 5 notorious criminals. The guards' attempts to quell the riot backfired (literally) and resulted in a blaze that consumed the prison and killed everyone inside. Since then the ghost of the Warden has been holding the ghosts of prisoners at bay. But an undead-loving cult has captured the warden's spirit and removed it for their own purposes, allowing the prisoners to influence the nearby town. Enter the PCs, who are called to the funeral of a friend there. As it turns out their friend was killed by the cultists after he stumbled on them. Eventually they must venture to the prison and destroy the 5 worst spirits and return the warden's badge of office to his wife's ghost, who will take his place and keep all the spirits at rest. There's some cool investigation parts leading up to the prison part, which is essentially a dungeon crawl, albeit a spooky one. There's also a nice crunchy system of "Trust Points" that measure how much help the locals will give the PCs. I might steal that for elsewhere. As is right for a ghost story, there is plenty of backstory for all the spirits, though as is typical of backstory, some of it will have to be info-dumped on the players for them to find it out and make use of it. But there are ample ways provided in the module for that info dump to happen. (I'm especially happy to see the "spirit planchette," i.e. Ouija board, as a magic divination item.) It's meant for the PCs to start at 1st level and work up to 4th by the end, but of course that could be adjusted.

The artwork ranges from really cool ("The Mosswater Marauder" is especially evocative) to downright silly ("The Lopper," I'm looking at you. Sorry, I don't see that guy moving with "a calm grace" as he's described in the text.) Maps are excellent. I do worry that without multiple clerics/paladins that the huge amount of haunts would be super-deadly. The only real flaw I see is that I have trouble beliving such a prison would exist in the time of Ravenloft. I would expect most of these heinous prisoners would simply be executed swiftly. But if you let that go as the necessary suspension of disbelief to get the adventure going, I can get past it. There's lots of Ustalav references here, and it would be easiest just to run it there, either on Golarion, or as a domain. But for Ravenloft proper, this could easily be placed in Darkon, as Joël did, or perhaps Nova Vaasa, or a few other domains. It would have to be somewhere with a strong government, but not too strong. (Drakov wouldn't put up with keeping these prisoners alive in the first place, for example. And in some place like Verbrek or Tepest, "frontier justice" would probably take over instead.) Maybe even Nidala? I could see Elena, in some of her more lucid moments, maybe trying to get criminals to confess and repent, via torture, of course, before eventually executing them. There are a few demihumans, but not enough to require removal. That town name has to go, though. "Ravengro" would have my players giggling the whole time. :/

The haunts and the bestiary could be mined for elsewhere in Ravenloft, of course. You get some weird alchemical ooze swarms for use in any mad scientist's lab, flying undead heads, variant animated objects, an ectoplasmic undead template for low-level undead, and the Changeling race (by which they here mean children of hags, not part-doppelgangers or shadow fey-kin). Also included is "Spring-Heeled Jack", the real life myth from England, which works for Ravenloft-proper or Masque.

Overall, really well put together. But, it doesn't make me excited enough to want to run it right away, for some reason. I can't put my finger on what it's lacking. That's the only thing stopping it from being a 5/5. But it's very solid, and I would certainly run it if and when it made sense for my campaign. 4.5/5 blood drops.
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Joël of the FoS
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Joël of the FoS »

Great review!

I agree with your domain propositions for Harrowstone location.
Gonzoron of the FoS wrote: But, it doesn't make me excited enough to want to run it right away, for some reason. I can't put my finger on what it's lacking.
Interesting comment. When I read it, I was more like "wow, I really really need to put this IMC, NOW!" ;)

And as you know, when the rest of the APF came out, I used many elements to create something with the Whispering Way cult that worked IMC. I'll read your reviews of the rest, but didn't like these 5 as much as the first. Took some cool parts from them, of course, but I didn't love them as much as to DM all of it.
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by Zilfer »

If i recall correctly the end boss at the end of the Path comes out of right field or so. I feel like that's a common complaint for a good number of the AP's though. :)
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Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules

Post by The Lesser Evil »

Gonzoron of the FoS wrote: There's also a nice crunchy system of "Trust Points" that measure how much help the locals will give the PCs. I might steal that for elsewhere.
I think I got the feeling from a lot of folks on the Paizo boards that the trust point system was poorly executed and went down automatically too quickly without nearly enough opportunities to build trust. It's especially bad when the module assumes you hang around in town to gain some levels before going into the prison and the people automatically become more and more hostile merely by the passage of time.
I do worry that without multiple clerics/paladins that the huge amount of haunts would be super-deadly.
There's some ghostbusting like equipment to be found to help mitigate this, but yeah bring out your channelers of positive energy and divine spellcasters. OTOH, paladins would render a lot of the direct effects of a haunt ineffective, as they are all considered fear effects. (And being magical fear, paladins are still immune.)
The only real flaw I see is that I have trouble beliving such a prison would exist in the time of Ravenloft. I would expect most of these heinous prisoners would simply be executed swiftly. But if you let that go as the necessary suspension of disbelief to get the adventure going, I can get past it.
Actually, I can think of a pretty good reason why they wouldn't just execute them: fear of them coming back as the undead. A violent death with public awareness might be a lot more reason for the spirit of one of the murderers, etc. to come back as a spirit or some such they couldn't deal with than if they just lived out the rest of their lives and died in relative obscurity. The emotional impact of going out with a bang vs. fading way with a whimper. Based on what happens in the module, it would seem like this belief would have merit.
There's lots of Ustalav references here, and it would be easiest just to run it there, either on Golarion, or as a domain. But for Ravenloft proper, this could easily be placed in Darkon, as Joël did, or perhaps Nova Vaasa, or a few other domains. It would have to be somewhere with a strong government, but not too strong. (Drakov wouldn't put up with keeping these prisoners alive in the first place, for example. And in some place like Verbrek or Tepest, "frontier justice" would probably take over instead.) Maybe even Nidala? I could see Elena, in some of her more lucid moments, maybe trying to get criminals to confess and repent, via torture, of course, before eventually executing them.
It might work in some podunk community away from the main cities in Borca or Richemulot. The criminals might have had money, connections, or information to reduce their sentences to life instead of executions. (Perhaps dispensed over a period of time so as to make sure they don't get executed.)
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