 
Sign in to create or edit a product review. I quite enjoyed this little adventure. While some of the encounters felt a little bit random they were for the most part quite interesting and though I haven't run it yet I'd imagine they'd be quite challenging. The city of Diobel is one of the best things about this scenario as even though it is very short you really get a feel for its semi legitimate ways. The seedy underdocks were a particularly cool place to set the adventure. While not my favourite of the scenarios it is a good short adventure. Great but with some small issues.
Gavin Findlay
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I while not my favourite adventure released by Paizo this is a cracking wilderness adventure. There are a fair few things that could have been tweaked just a little bit to make it better. Personally I didn’t mind the whole make your own hook approach. It may not suit some DM’s but with Bloodcove being such a great city I will have no trouble getting the PC’s there. The encounters while somewhat disparate worked for me. I can’t go into real details without spoiling anything but I felt it all hung together well, with a couple of really cool flavourful encounters. I also like the open ended nature of the final event although I think they really should have explained the options a bit more clearly. So what are it’s issues? For one the monsters, the two new monster are both quite unimpressive. Worse neither of them is used in a particularly interesting way one is in fact just a random encounter. Also I felt Bloodcove needed more detail as it is amazing sounding city. I know it is due to the limited page count but still I think it could have done with further detailing. All in all a real good module just unfortunately lacking in a couple of places which is the only thing that robbed it of a real classic. Still a great module that I recommend. A new kind of horror (in D&D at least)
Gavin Findlay
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Excellent. This pathfinder is far from perfect but it is none the less an excellent product. The problems with it have already been mentioned. I will add that I thought the worst of these was the Magnimar article. It was so well written that I still like it I just wanted more detail. Having said this Magnimar is roughly the same size as Korvosa and that is getting an entire 64 page book dedicated to it so maybe there was just no way to go into the level of detail I wanted in such a small article. Still the adventure was top notch. The haunt mechanic is solid and really made the whole adventure. Normally I find haunted houses don’t seem to work in adventures as they end up just being undead infested houses instead. The haunt mechanic really gave the adventure a true haunted house feel. It works because the haunt take combat out of the equation, you can do things to stop the haunts but you can’t physically kill them. Anyway a great module that I highly recommend. Good Adventure Exceptional Articles
Gavin Findlay
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A really solid adventure it lack somewhat of the sparkle of some of the previous pathfinder adventures. I won’t rehash the plot and the blow by blow details. The only bit of the adventure which bothered me was the final level of the dungeon beneath Jorgenfist Spoiler:
I feel that the bottom level was just a bit of a hodge-podge of various monsters and encounter and it just didn’t work for the area. I liked the idea of it being protected by weird ancient creatures summoned long ago but I felt there were too many different creatures and it just felt jumbled. When I run it I think I will only use the Hounds of Tindalos. I felt the strongest part of this pathfinder was the other articles. The dragon article in particular was great. I really love the Golarion take on dragons. The art is particularly good as I really like the re-imagining of the dragons. The whole article was great. I also liked the Stone Giant article as it really made an otherwise dull monster come to life. I like the fact that the way they were described made them seem generally peaceful and established their culture rather than making them into some evil villain that must be slain on sight. It made them more than just a CR 8 giant. The bestiary also deserves a mention. The deathweb is a really nice impressive looking undead monstrosity with a low challenge rating. I really liked it. The bestiary also includes three weird alien outsider type monsters all of which I liked and thought had a genuinely creepy alien/weird vibe going for them. All in all a great pathfinder but not their best. In fact the only reason that I haven’t given it five stars is because of the incredibly high standard Paizo has set itself. Good but not epic is the most condensed review I can give of the module. While the module is a good read (I must confess I haven’t run it) it just lacked the epic feel I was expecting. The Dragonfall in the title is a dragon graveyard, but not just a dragon graveyard, THE dragon graveyard. Somehow I just didn’t get that epic feel from it. Spoiler:
The Dragonfall just didn’t feel epic. Firstly the construct that guarded it just seemed to weak to me. They are supposed to have kept this legendary dragon graveyard safe for millennia against powerful adventurers, mages etc and they are only challenge rating 8 and 9? Also their look and concept as flying construct snakes really did nothing for me. The art for them did not help. I am aware that this is very subjected but as monsters they left me cold.
The whole adventure lacked this feel of epic-ness. While the villains where cool, the various dragons in particular, I didn’t really believe that they could have infiltrated and overthrown the worlds only dragon graveyard. The locations in the module were awesome but I didn’t feel they were used well enough. The Paragon Hall has an amazing list of all the most powerful dragons that ever lived and you end up fighting an unrelated dragon. I also was want desperately wanting to know more about the graveyard rooms. I also had trouble believing that these rooms would be enough to contain all the dragon skeletons from each colour. It was little aspect like this that really brought down my enjoyment of the module.
Having said the negative many of the encounters where individually great. And if I don’t use the entire module I will definitely lift some of the encounters from it. Lost city adventuring at its finest.
Gavin Findlay
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An excellent adventure. I was rather worried having read Spires of Xin-Shalast that there was no way one 32 page module could live up to the high standard set by it. I was happily proved wrong. The module is full of atmosphere the valley the adventure is set in is well detailed, it feels like a realistic isolated environment. I like the way this valley is isolated enough that it could be placed anywhere in a homebrew campaign. I do wish that they had made some mention of where in Golarion the adventure is supposed to be set. Spoiler:
The city itself is really well designed with a feel of exotic strangeness. The tribe of isolated lizard folk who have not seen “softskins” before I particularly liked. The Shoggoth, a chaotic ooze that is at the centre of the module, is a great way to keep the adventure moving. Every time the PC’s start to drag their feet you can have this creepy nigh un-defeatable blob of evil chase them. It also explains nicely why this city has stayed unexplored.
Final the Dehrii are one of my favourite part of the module. They are a race of tribal winged ape that were allied with the original citizens. Between the way they are described and the evocative art I just really liked them. I’m sure at some point one of my players will want to use one as a character. All in all this is a great module. The writing is really good, it can be easily dropped in to any campaign and the art. I feel I should make special mention of the art as it is exceptional. I think Ben Wootten who does a lot of the interior art may be my new favourite artist at paizo. His work in this module is great. To conclude a must have module. This is in my opinion a fantastic module. Few adventures I have picked up have ever made me want to run them near instantly but this module did. It is instantly captivating. Warning Spoilers Ahead Even the very first section is captivating. Starting in an auction house the PC’s instantly hit with the flavor of Osirion and the adventure. The PC’S are allowed to bid on a wide array of exotic items pilfered from ancient tombs and sold on the black market. Their company includes museum curators, shady collectors, wizened sages and a rival band of state sponsored adventurers on the look out for clues leading to the mother-load of Osirion tomb robbing. From there it only gets better with several climatic set pieces, a multi planar pyramid and a host of interesting NPC’s both friend and foe. The dungeon is really well designed with interesting and unique challenges and the rival adventure party adds a whole extra level of depths to it. As other have said this really feels like a pulp adventure film, I personal think it has the feel of Indiana Jones crossed with a little bit of Tomb Raider (games not films). The only downside of this module is that due to its 32 page format the background material is necessarily brief. It gives an interesting taster of Osirion but sadly doesn’t go into enormous depths and really leaves you wanting more. In short this is a great module that should be a blast to run and is a joy to read. |
