Re: Reviews of Pathfinder Modules
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 1:25 pm
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.
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.