Pathfinder Adventure Path #19: "Howl of the Carrion King" (Legacy of Fire 1 of 6) (OGL)

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Chapter 1: "Howl of the Carrion King"
by Erik Mona

Hear the cry of war!

In the exotic nation of Katapesh, a land of fortune and wonders, heroes are those with the courage to command their destinies. Such wisdom leads a daring band to the abandoned village of Kelmarane with the hopes of reestablishing the once prosperous community. But buzzards still feast upon the secluded settlement’s corpse: a savage tribe of gnolls and their bestial allies hold the town in the name of a merciless master known only as the Carrion King. Can the PCs retake the village from its feral conquerors, or is Kelmarane but the first bastion of civilization to fall before the hordes of the mysterious warlord?

    This volume of the Pathfinder Adventure Path begins the Legacy of Fire, and includes:
  • “Howl of the Carrion King,” an adventure for 1st-level characters, by Erik Mona
  • An investigation into the savage gnoll tribes of the Brazen Peaks, their brutal culture, and their merciless members, by Eric Haddock
  • Ruins once sacred to the god of magic have become the lair of a living curse in “The Refuge of Nethys,” a Set Piece adventure by James MacKenzie
  • The adventures of druid Channa Ti begin in “Dark Tapestry,” a new chronicle in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by New York Times bestselling author Elaine Cunningham
  • Five new monsters by Adam Daigle, James Jacobs, and F. Wesley Schneider

For characters of 1st to 5th level.

Pathfinder Adventure Path is Paizo Publishing's monthly 96-page, perfect-bound, full-color softcover book printed on high-quality paper. It contains an in-depth Adventure Path scenario, stats for about a half-dozen new monsters, and several support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Because Pathfinder uses the Open Game License, it is 100% compatible with the 3.5 edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game.

ISBN–13: 978-1-60125-159-6

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscription.

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The pugwampi ruined this adventure

1/5

The encounter in the monestary with the pugwampi is so incredebly unfun, that it completely ruined the whole evening for our whole group.

Does not live up to the standard ive gotten used to from Paizo.

I will not reccomend this to others


One fantastic beginning

5/5

This is probably the best first-level module, and first Adventure Path installment, that I've run. I loved it, the players loved it, they still talk about it today.

The characters are hired to meet up with a trade caravan and reclaim an Arabesque city from gnolls, in order to restore it to a functioning trade hub; while the path goes to bigger and greater things later, here, it's low-level town reclamation and gnoll slaying. In fact, the module is kind of a low-level guerrilla assault on the gnoll-occupied village, where the players have the freedom to choose how and where they strike. Likewise, there's a lot of room for gnoll counter-attacks, or an assault on the PCs' monastery base.

And not just gnolls; there's a great variety of monsters at play, leading to some interesting and memorable combats. Best of all was the introduction of some gremlins as introductory villains. These little guys are pushovers stat-wise, but exude an aura of unluck which makes them really tough to deal with. Plus, they have a habit of hiding out in areas that have dangerous terrain features---cactus patches, for one---that has great synergy with their aura.

Granted, there's a lot more than just killin'. There's a lot of places to explore, including some interesting adventure seeds, and a set-piece mini-dungeon later in this book. The module introduces a batch of NPCs with the caravan, with plenty of opportunities to roleplay; on top of this, there's options for several of the "bad guys" to be talked/bribed into the PCs' side. And there's several locations, including the entire town, for the PCs to reclaim and occupy.

All in all, a very memorable module with a lot of grit and detail. The enemies are challenging without being overpowered, the setting is great---the art design in these books is simply stunning---and the plot is interesting and engaging. Add in the standard Path features---a bestiary, an overview of the gnoll tribes in the area---and you have a lot to work with adventure-wise. I highly recommend this Path; even alone this module is worth it.


Portuguese (br) review

4/5

Howl of the Carrion King é uma excelente aventura inicial, completa, cativante e com uma trama instigante, de uma forma como não se via desde Rise of the Runelords. Infelizmente ela tem uns probleminhas de ter de pausar a estória para os personagens irem ganhar XP, mas nada que um mestre habilidoso não já tenha aprendido a lidar. Os artigos suplementam muito bem a aventura, sendo indispensáveis ao sucesso da mesma. Os monstros novos são muito divertidos e criativos. Realmente uma edição recomendada. Parabéns Paizo.


Could be so much better. Poor quality books

2/5

Legacy of Fire has a good story but the encounters fall short because the adventure path series waste too much space on non essential material. Like fiction that has nothing to do with the series except it take place in the region. Monsters that are not used in the adventure path. A "extra" filler adventure that is in most of the books is lower level then the actual book that is should be played in. Pretty much all the encounters are basic thug attacks with underpowered opponents and no variety. Some encounter are good and can be deadly but most are just a waste of space. The party quickly adapts to these basic thug attacks. These thug attacks turn into a exercise in dice rolling with hardly any challenge. If Paizo spent more time on the adventure and less wasting the extra space on non essential fluff and rules this series could have been so much better.

This adventure path series tries to do too much. Paizo needs to focus more on the adventure then adding a bunch of extra fluff and rules. Save that stuff for the rule books and regional books.

The paper in the books is really nice but the bindings are poor quality. After one use the pages start falling out. Almost all of the six books lost some pages after one use.


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Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber

This is most assuredly a little off topic but has anyone noticed some of the confusion in "The Refuge of Nethys"? In section 1 it mentions a shaft that medium creatures can't get through but small ones can make an Escape Artist check to get through, my question is what shaft? On the map there is no shaft and there's not one described for that room. Down stairs in room 4 in mentions 3 arches leading from the room I'm going to assume that it is including the way they just came in that total, however it has a small path leading to the west out of the room. My gut instinct is to treat that as the shaft mentioned in the first room but if that's the case how are medium characters supposed to get in there without going through room 10 (where Haidar is probably encountered), the writing of the rooms lend themselves more to having room 5 be investigated and then progressing from room 6 onwards. I'm just not sure how that's supposed to work with a link between room 5 and 10 cutting out 6-9. I know this is probably the wrong place to ask these questions but the Set Piece is in this book so....


Robert Jordan wrote:
...has anyone noticed some of the confusion in "The Refuge of Nethys"? In section 1, it mentions a shaft that Medium creatures can't get through but Small ones can make an Escape Artist check to get through: My question is what shaft? On the map there is no shaft and there's not one described for that room.

A line was dropped from Area 1: A narrow shaft lies hidden among the rubble west of the site, found with a DC 18 Search check in the area. This narrow chimney leads to Area 7. Too tight for Medium creatures, even Small creatures must make a DC 12 Escape Artist check to navigate the shaft.

In room 7, "narrow vents lead into the ceiling..." That shaft is one of them.

Robert Jordan wrote:
Down stairs in room 4, it mentions 3 arches leading from the room. I'm going to assume that it is including the way they just came in that total, however it has a small path leading to the west out of the room.

The map scale should be larger: Please treat each square as ten feet across. That hall should be about 6 feet wide.

Robert Jordan wrote:
How are medium characters supposed to get in there without going through room 10 (where Haidar is probably encountered)? The writing of the rooms lend themselves more to having room 5 be investigated and then progressing from room 6 onwards. I'm just not sure how that's supposed to work with a link between room 5 and 10 cutting out 6-9.

Spoiler:
Your concern about the pacing of the adventure is well-considered. Don't let your players encounter Haidar until the time is right. If they make a beeline for his probable location, send him off hunting small game or wandering lost in delusion.

I've always disliked "linear" dungeons where everything is laid out in a straight and unavoidable path. The original drafts of the Refuge featured several additional chambers and secret passages, most of which were empty. These were eliminated to avoid wasting words (Who wants to search lots of empty rooms?), but made it more credible that Haidar might elude the party among the Refuge's passages.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber

Thank you very much for the clarifications! I didn't want to seem like a pest but I admit to being easily confused when I can't piece things out for myself, I agree if my players made a beeline for his likely locale he would not have been there to greet them simply so they wouldn't miss out on the rest of the really cool areas. Thanks again for the swift response :)


Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
Free the 5,000!

Here here! I'm running it this weekend, so free them quickly!!!


I've just got to say this: I can't believe that noone has done d20 stats for a Chupacabra or Gremlin before! They're awesome and the adventure itself, while I have not run it for a group yet, seems very good.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Waspinator wrote:
I've just got to say this: I can't believe that noone has done d20 stats for a Chupacabra or Gremlin before! They're awesome and the adventure itself, while I have not run it for a group yet, seems very good.

Glad you like the monsters! They have been done before, though; I believe both, actually, appeared in various volumes of the Tome of Horrors, among other locations. We had some different ideas on how we wanted these critters to work in Golarion though, so rather than adopt the stats for these mythological critters from there, we decided instead to build the new versions that appear in PF 19.


Huh. I might have to look at the Tome of Horrors again. There definitely doesn't seem to be any official, Wizards of the Coast version. There's a monster search thing here for 3.5 stuff:
http://wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/lists/monsters
No Chupacabras or Gremlins. And the Pathfinder versions are awesome. I love the item-cursing and unluck aura abilities and how the Chupacabras self-buff via blood drinking.

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

We did the Chupacabra (albeit a different version) in Dragon magazine.


Huh. I guess that search doesn't cover those magazines, just the actual books.

Eh, whatever. This chupacabra is still awesome.

Contributor

And another version of the chupacabra (by yours truly) under the name vampire beast. :-)


Great campaign so far. Good mix of role-playing, combat, and other elements. Ongoing journal can be found at:

http://lof.vonski.com/tiki-index.php?page=Hesrin+Journal

Some spoilers of course but can give perspective DM's a good idea of how the first few sessions might go.


Wow. You gotta be freakin kidding me.


Worst adventure ever is spot on. My copy didn't come with $100 bills falling out of it.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Is there a post missing that you guys have been responding to?

Silver Crusade

Zaister wrote:
Is there a post missing that you guys have been responding to?

Looks like it's in response to the latest review for the product.

And I have to admit, I was frustrated during the beginning of this campaign path because all of my Profession(sailor) ranks went to waste, my dolphin animal companion died, and it was hot outside. Shame on you, Erik Mona! Shame on you!

(but srsly, the caravan has been a fun base of operations so far)

Scarab Sages

Admittedly, I'm late to the table for this, but is there a errata file for this AP? I'm running into all sorts of errors between the map and the text for the monastary.

For example, the window in A3d is said to face north towards Kelmarane, except that the map shows that as West. A20 is described as running North/South, but again A12 is west of A18 according to the map. I can find more issues like this. Is there an official errata?

A thought that occurs to me that as this is a Monastery of Sarenrae, the Dawnflower I would have expected the window to face the rising sun, not to the North or the West... but that's just me noodling.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Unseelie wrote:

Admittedly, I'm late to the table for this, but is there a errata file for this AP? I'm running into all sorts of errors between the map and the text for the monastary.

For example, the window in A3d is said to face north towards Kelmarane, except that the map shows that as West. A20 is described as running North/South, but again A12 is west of A18 according to the map. I can find more issues like this. Is there an official errata?

A thought that occurs to me that as this is a Monastery of Sarenrae, the Dawnflower I would have expected the window to face the rising sun, not to the North or the West... but that's just me noodling.

We don't generally compile errata for books that aren't getting reprinted, but you may want to check out this thread, which is just about the next best thing.


I recently just finished running this AP for my gaming group - I love how this flows so cleanly together and yet pulls the PC's to almost-random locations. It keeps things interesting for the players while still keeping a fluid story going to tie everything together.

I also greatly enjoy stories like this where the main villain of a campaign is only slowly revealed to the players, in the sense that they are seeking something entirely different than what they are getting into.

Love the flavor throughout, as well.


Do gnolls stay prevalent throughout this AP? If a player selects Gnolls as a Favored Enemy, will it still be effective later in the AP?


Gnolls will be rather reoccurring throughout the first three books, and will still be relevant in book 6 (less so in book 4 and 5).


Pounce wrote:
Gnolls will be rather reoccurring throughout the first three books, and will still be relevant in book 6 (less so in book 4 and 5).

Thank you! Just what I needed to know. : )


Is this adventure workable as a standalone (maybe along with House of the Beast)?

I'm planning to introduce my players to Pathfinder with a wide-ranging campaign built on the premise of explorers in the Pathfinder Society. Not an AP. Not a complex, involved story. Just exploration and Pathfinder missions across Golarion.

The idea is to use some Pathfinder Society adventures, some AP chapters , and some homebrew content.

Just wondering if there's sufficient content in this chapter that would be useful for that kind of campaign.

Silver Crusade

Well this AP issue is mostly concerned with liberating a town, so yes it works fine as a solo or add on adventure.

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