Illustration by Jean-Baptiste Reynaud

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

With the Carrion Crown Adventure Path finally unleashed, this seems like a perfect time to give folks bold enough to venture into Pathfinder's most frightening campaign just a hint of what's in store.

To start off, let's take a look at the volume that kick-starts the terror: Pathfinder Adventure Path #43: The Haunting of Harrowstone. Of course, you have Mike Kortes's foray into dread with the adventure itself, wherein the PCs are all that prevent a spectral prison riot from spilling out from the fire-scarred ruins of Harrowstone Prison and overwhelming the sleepy Ustalavic village of Ravengro.

Beyond the adventure, Kortes takes us onto the shadowed streets and into the clustered homes of Ravengro, as peaceful and quiet a community as you're likely to find in the Ustalavic county of Canterwall's rural countryside (which you learn all the secrets of in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Rule of Fear). This gazetteer gives GMs everything they'll need to bring the adventure's setting to life, with all the details and insights necessary to bring dread into the homes and hearts of the PCs and their newest allies.

Next up is Brandon Hodge's treatise on the horrifying traps-meet-the-supernatural threats known as haunts. Originally introduced all the way back in Pathfinder Adventure Path #2: The Skinsaw Murders and refined in the GameMastery Guide, this has been our first opportunity to give sadistic GMs a whole library of some of fiction's and film's most horrifying unnatural effects. Fact is, Brandon gave us WAY more menace than a single article could contain... but I'll get back to that in a few.

In a new series in the Pathfinder's Journal I get to explore my favorite corner of Golarion from a different vantage. This time around, Laurel Cylphra, a wastrel on the streets of Ustalav's decomposing former capital, gets dragged into a tale of revenge, wronged spirits, and terrors that could drive even a Pathfinder into retirement.

Finally, Adam Daigle and intern-turned-author Patrick Renie unleash denizens of dread with the first in a horrific series of Pathfinder Bestiaries, with creatures of classic terror like Spring-Heeled Jack, old monsters given terrifying twists, new rules for haunted animated objects, an option for accursed characters with the changeling, and others like the beheaded and ectoplasmic templates that still leave me with a sinister smirk—I can't wait to use some of these guys!

So, that's what's in store if you haven't already checked out Pathfinder Adventure Path #43: The Haunting of Harrowstone. Now, for those of you who were patient enough to stick with me this far, check out what's below. Like I said, Brandon's article on haunts ran over the space we had allotted for it, but rather than trash that awesome content, I've kept it safe and plan to dole out new haunts as each volume of the Carrion Crown releases. So, for those of you looking for more menace to throw into Harrowstone, here are a couple of new low-level haunts.

Fool's Flare (CR 2)
Many spirits resent the intrusion of lights brought by the living into their dark domains, and exert a supernatural influence on torches and lanterns to show their objections to the trespass of torchbearers.

Fool's Flare CR 2
XP 600
CE haunt (10-ft. radius)
Caster Level 2nd
Notice Perception DC 15 (to feel a cold, unearthly draft)
hp 4; Trigger proximity; Reset 1 day
Effect This haunt triggers a pyrotechnics spell on torches or lanterns brought into its area. In some instances, torches flare brightly with a blinding light before plunging the area into darkness, as per the fireworks effect, but in others the light sputters and dies, the extinguished source giving off a smoke cloud effect (save DC 13 versus secondary effects).
Destruction A daylight spell cast in the area permanently drives out the haunt.

Rolling Fire (CR 4)
Also known as a faeu boulanger, rolling fire is a trapped soul that was lost in a tragic fire fatality. The haunt manifests as a spectral sphere of ectoplasmic fire that seeks to scorch and burn the living in a grisly reenactment of the conflagration that created it.

Rolling Fire CR 4
XP 1,200
CE persistent haunt (30-ft.-radius open area or marshland)
Caster Level 4th
Notice Perception DC 15 (to smell burning flesh)
hp 18; Trigger proximity; Reset 1 day
Effect The haunt appears as a large ball of spiritual flame emitting agonizing screams. The haunt attacks the first creature that enters its area as a flaming sphere spell (save DC 13).
Destruction Turning one's coat inside out confuses the faeu boulanger and prevents attack. A knife must then be stuck blade-up in the ground of the haunt's area; when the roaming spectre rolls over the blade, it impales itself and is destroyed.

Watch this spot in the coming weeks for more haunts and other Carrion Crown previews. But if you're still craving more info on the new campaign, be sure to check out the free Carrion Crown Player's Guide and the discussions constantly going on in the Carrion Crown Messageboards. There's already a ton of great stuff in those threads for folks who want to make this campaign as horrifying as possible, and for those less interested in turning up the terror in their adventures. But you won't know until you take the first step, so knot up your courage and click any of the links above to learn all about our newest terror... if you dare.

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor