Let No Savior Go Unpunished

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Heading into the fifth adventure in the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, we've already saved Sandpoint (again), discovered and solved some disturbing problems with a variety of giants (hill, stone, -kin, undead, etc), cornered and defeated a pair of lamia cleric twins what seemed like a dozen times, and met the stone giant necromancer Mokmurian (and hopefully taken his club)! Looking around the ancient library lair, you find important-looking references to a lost storehouse of Thassilonian magic known as the Runeforge.

Meanwhile, back in Sandpoint, a mysterious sinkhole has opened up a new area of the ruins underneath the unassuming coastal town. Suspiciously close to the area where you found your "old friend" Tsuto Kaijitsu delving for trouble back in the first adventure, we finds signs of recent activity, along with a pack of nasty braying beasts befitting the moniker of the Mother of Monsters. You're sure to hear their maddening howls before you see the Hounds of Lamashtu, but even if you strike one down, you'll still need luck or mettle—or both—to close the location.


Bad Doggy!

These hounds don't have a keeper, but that doesn't mean that they're on their own. Caught between the Thassilonian masters of Wrath and Greed, the thaumaturge once known as Xaliasa fled the consequences of his treachery and swore eternal devotion to Lamashtu. With the resurgence of the runewells, the Mistress of Insanity has raised her late cleric and bound him to the runewell. But Xaliasa is no more—instead we find the broken thaumaturge endlessly scribing Lamashtu's wisdom on the walls, floor, and ceiling of his shrine, and also on the flesh of its visitors. Are you ready to receive the wisdom of the Demon Mother?


Whatever shall I use for ink?

If you do manage to corner the Scribbler—a couple of times, at least, since he keeps Word of Recall and Heal ready—you might be able to discern from his scattered writings an ancient secret. In his former service to two different Runelords, the Scribbler managed to discover an entrance to the Runeforge, a secret library, laboratory, and foundry of Thassilonian magic — the same place mentioned in Mokmurian's library at the end of Adventure 4. Here and there among the maunderings covering the Scribbler's shrine, you piece together the location of an entrance to this lost foundry. In a cold, remote place known as Rimeskull, you seek an ring of ominous, carved stone monuments.


I wonder what these things do?

Before you can harness the power of the Sihedron Circle, you'll have to master the standing stones. Incredibly old but still bearing powerful enchantments, each stone head much be disabled, broken, or appeased in turn. Not the simplest task anyone has ever attempted, and probably not the safest. Your reward for success? You get to meet Arkrhyst, the Freezemaw. Lucky you!


Apparently, they shoot lightning. And summon dragons. Yay?

While that's quite a bit of bad news, it's not all bad news in Adventure 5: Sins of the Saviors. I've showed you the first few threats, but there are also plenty of new boons to help you out. On the combat side of things, we have a nasty crossbow that can inflict massive damage, as long as your target cares about things like circulation and respiration. It's good against most creatures you might happen to trip over, and it can be downright lethal to fleshy targets like The Scribbler.

Meanwhile, Disintegrate packs both utility and destruction into one glowing green package. Whether you want to blast your way through locks and walls, or dust a pesky dead, undead, or about-to-be-dead creature, this spell is for you. It's useful in the scroll-tube of a collector or dabbler like Merisiel or Harsk, and it can be devastating in the hands of Ezren, Lem, or Seoni—and even if you don't manage to finish it off before it can get to you, the beastie will trouble you no more.


Those two don't look friendly.

Shooting and blasting are all well and good, but what about those of a more… material mindset? Put another way, killing the bad guys and taking their stuff is good, but maybe we can optimize away that first step? If this interests you, I have a card for you: the unassuming but unbelievably tasty Wand of Treasure Finding. Some people will want to use it to increase the odds of finding the key boons in a scenario, while others will be more interested in examining the location deck. I say "Why choose, when you can have both?"


Knowledge is power, and loot is awesome.

Finally, I have one more little helper for your adventures into the ruins of the ancient magical empire of Thassilon. Whatever you think of her size, shape, or various movie appearances, I assure you that she is indeed a very clever girl. On top of all that, she's Gaby's favorite card in all of the Rise of the Runelords: Velociraptor!


RAAAAAAAAWWR! Velociraptor!

These are a few of the denizens and delights waiting for you as you begin Adventure 5: Sins of the Saviors. Starting underneath the normally quiet, currently battered town of Sandpoint, you'll end up exploring ruins of Thassilon lost almost a hundred centuries earlier. If you're brave, clever, and lucky, you will explore the lost halls of the Runeforge and survive—and perhaps learn how to harness rune magic yourself, to turn it against its former masters.

I assure you, you're going to want every advantage you can get.

Thanks for playing!

Chad Brown
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Developer

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Rise of the Runelords

Not a big deal, but the tag for Rise of the Runelords is incorrect, just to let you know.


OH SNAP!!! Lini gets her own dinosaur!!!!

Pathfinder ACG Designer

gkhager wrote:
Not a big deal, but the tag for Rise of the Runelords is incorrect, just to let you know.

Muchas gracias -- fixed.


Seoni is going to like that Wand.


Hey. How does the Velociraptor already have the errata applied to its powers?

Sovereign Court

I love the banes. I gotta say though, I was really looking forward to the Wand of Treasure Finding. Without a character with Arcane to be able to charge it, I'd give it a 6 at best. With Arcane though? I must have it!

Oh, and DINOSAUR! I want that thing so bad.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Hawkmoon269 wrote:
Hey. How does the Velociraptor already have the errata applied to its powers?

We have already prepared the second printing. (I believe that the additional letter "s" on this card is the only change in the entire set.)


So, if I've pre-ordered from Amazon, am I likely to get a first printing or are we getting to the point where the subscriptions themselves are almost accounting for the entire first printing?

I'm switching to subscribing for Skull and Shackles, but if I got the last two promo cards and didn't have them all, I'd go crazy and feel pressured to spend too much money on ebay to complete the set. But I also want to make sure I complete the Adventure Path with all first printings.

Congrats on the excellent sales that necessitate preparing a second printing before the first has even shipped, by the way.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Looking forward to it! Now, if I could just overcome a certain haunted manor, I would be well on my way.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Subscriptions alone aren't accounting for the entire first printing, but the combination of subscriptions, paizo.com preorders, and initial retail orders are. I can't make any guarantees about what Amazon might send you.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Vic Wertz wrote:
Subscriptions alone aren't accounting for the entire first printing, but the combination of subscriptions, paizo.com preorders, and initial retail orders are coming close to that. I can't make any guarantees about what Amazon might send you.

I can, though, tell you that the first shipment we sent to Diamond (the distributor Amazon buys from) contains only first printing decks, while the second shipment, which we have not yet sent, will likely contain only second printing decks.


I so can't wait for you guys to take my money and send this already


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Thanks for being a wealth of knowledge Vic. And for sharing all that info. It is most appreciated.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

I love the blog, but I really feel it deserves a spoiler warning. A lot of people might be just getting to book 3-4 in the Anniversary Edition.

Also... disintegrate *drool*


The blog posts like this are great. I like them a lot. They give a nice little preview of what you might see in the next set, but are not too bad with the spoilers.

My Lem cannot wait to get back into the action, though. Hello new spell and item, and maybe even a weapon if Merisiel don't snatch it up.

Lini will love running around with a brand new pet as well. Now I will just need to add some scouting to her deck so that I know I will hit a villain or henchman on the explore. Velociraptor seems extremely good if you have any scouting in your deck.


Erixian wrote:
Lini will love running around with a brand new pet as well. Now I will just need to add some scouting to her deck so that I know I will hit a villain or henchman on the explore. Velociraptor seems extremely good if you have any scouting in your deck.

I'm going to use it on Lini without any scouting. This is one animal ally that I'll actually use for the discard effect and recharge it with Lini with some frequency. It's an explore that, should a monster come up, I can kill without spending any cards, as it should make me strong enough to kill with just a punch and maybe a weapon (2d4 + 2d6 + feats is solid). And since it's Lini discarding an animal, it'll be recharged and can come up again sooner.

Granted, it's better if you can use it to explore into something tough, but I'm not going to be stingy with its use.


I'm confused. Chad refers to the Velociraptor as a *she* but the FAQ refers to the Velociraptor as a *he*. Which is it?


Maybe there is more than 1 and so there is a male and a female. Or maybe the first printing Velociraptor was male, but the second printing is female.


I think that the calling of the Velociraptor as a she was meant for the Jurassic Park quote, since in the movie, they were all females. But looking at the picture, I would say it is a male. In most reptiles, it is the males that have the plumage and coloring to attractive the females. So, based on that, I would say the the Velociraptor in the picture is a male. I could be wrong however. I mean, what am I going to do, go around pulling up all the dinosaurs' skirts?


You mean the Velociraptor is not iconic (which would give it enough backstory to determine)? I demand an iconic Velociraptor! (j/k) :)

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
zeroth_hour wrote:
I'm confused. Chad refers to the Velociraptor as a *she* but the FAQ refers to the Velociraptor as a *he*. Which is it?

Hmm. The interns we sent in to check haven't returned yet.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Majuba wrote:

I love the blog, but I really feel it deserves a spoiler warning. A lot of people might be just getting to book 3-4 in the Anniversary Edition.

Also... disintegrate *drool*

Sins of the Saviors was originally published in 2007—how long a moratorium do we need?

Spoiler:
Rosebud was his sled!


Vic Wertz wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

Thank god I finally watched that film last night. (Although that was one of the many spoilers on the T-shirt I was wearing.)

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Designer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Hawkmoon269 wrote:
Maybe there is more than 1 and so there is a male and a female. Or maybe the first printing Velociraptor was male, but the second printing is female.

Given that this entire card concept is based on a Doubleclicks song called "Clever Girl", she's rather definitively a she.


That sounds much more plausible and sensible than my suggestions.


Mike Selinker wrote:
Hawkmoon269 wrote:
Maybe there is more than 1 and so there is a male and a female. Or maybe the first printing Velociraptor was male, but the second printing is female.
Given that this entire card concept is based on a Doubleclicks song called "Clever Girl", she's rather definitively a she.

Wow! My geek fandom has just again EXPANDED! I just watched like 6 straight songs by these guys, if I weren't supposed to be heading somewhere I might have spent most of the morning listening to them!

Thanks Mike for the introduction, and I'll definitely be thinking of them now whenever I do get a velociraptor!

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Designer

I might have some connection with those two.


As a Seoni player, I must have that Disintegrate. It's only downside is the recharge, which doesn't really matter for her.

The wand of treasure finding should also be fun!


I am a bit disappointed by the Velociraptor, can't help on other explore except the one he provide, not usefull if you dont draw a fight... A tiny bit too circumstancial to my taste.
Disintegrate is very nice for Seoni, the wand could be if she manage to get it.


Wait, the Doubleclicks + Adam Warrock?

My mind is officially blown.


Nathaniel Gousset wrote:

I am a bit disappointed by the Velociraptor, can't help on other explore except the one he provide, not usefull if you dont draw a fight... A tiny bit too circumstancial to my taste.

Disintegrate is very nice for Seoni, the wand could be if she manage to get it.

I believe Velociraptor was clarified to help on ALL explores during remainder of the turn. Going off memory but I thought that was the errata or FAQ on it?

EDIT: Helps on all combat checks of its free explore. I think I misinterpreted the FAQ... it's meant to help both times on multi-combat monsters. It does NOT help out on further explores. My mistake!

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Designer

zeroth_hour wrote:

Wait, the Doubleclicks + Adam Warrock?

My mind is officially blown.

I *know*. Pretty cool video to be in, sez me.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Nathaniel Gousset wrote:
I am a bit disappointed by the Velociraptor, can't help on other explore except the one he provide, not usefull if you dont draw a fight... A tiny bit too circumstancial to my taste.

Come now, my friend... it's set 5—surely you have some ways to figure out when monsters are a'comin'!

Sovereign Court

Vic Wertz wrote:
Nathaniel Gousset wrote:
I am a bit disappointed by the Velociraptor, can't help on other explore except the one he provide, not usefull if you dont draw a fight... A tiny bit too circumstancial to my taste.

Come now, my friend... it's set 5—surely you have some ways to figure out when monsters are a'comin'!

It's why I love Harsk being in the group with my Sajan. He says there's a monster on top, I go there and recharge my whole hand for 7d10+4 w/ Magic Fire

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Developer

Majuba wrote:

I love the blog, but I really feel it deserves a spoiler warning. A lot of people might be just getting to book 3-4 in the Anniversary Edition.

Also... disintegrate *drool*

This is a good point; I'll try to be more careful about this in the future. Thanks!

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