Pathfinder Module: Crypt of the Everflame (PFRPG)

4.30/5 (based on 45 ratings)
Pathfinder Module: Crypt of the Everflame (PFRPG)

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The young heroes of the town of Kassen are ready for their coming-of-age ceremony, an old tradition in which they retrieve a piece of the eternal flame burning in the tomb of the town's founder. Yet when they arrive there, they find only the corpses of their fellow townsfolk, dead bandits, and mysterious animated skeletons. The novice heroes must brave the traps and perils of the Crypt of the Everflame, discover the source of the corruption that has awakened an ancient evil, and defeat a menace that seeks vengeance against Kassen and its people.

Crypt of the Everflame is a dungeon adventure for 1st-level characters, written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and compatible with the 3.5 edition of the world's oldest RPG. The adventure map uses the same layout as the 2009 edition of Paizo's Flip-Mat: Dungeon.

This adventure is set in the forested land of Nirmathas in the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting, but can easily be set in any game world. It can be used on its own or combined with its sequels, Masks of the Living God and City of Golden Death to create an even greater campaign arc.

ISBN 13: 978-1-60125-186-2

Crypt of the Everflame is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. Its Chronicle Sheet and additional rules for running this module are a free download (217 KB zip/PDF).

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4.30/5 (based on 45 ratings)

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5/5


Mediocre, Over-Lethal Dungeon Crawl

2/5

NO SPOILERS

I ran Crypt of the Everflame for a group of Pathfinder Society characters via play-by-post. The adventure ended in a TPK, the details of which would be spoilish. But suffice it to say, the encounters in this module are numerous and some of them are quite deadly. It's odd because the module is set up as an introductory experience (there are plenty of sidebars to help the GM with basic rules, the maps are flip-mats, and the adventure is stylised as the PCs' first). Crypt of the Everflame was Paizo's first module to use the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game rules, and it's fair to say they may not have realised how difficult it could be. In terms of story, it's a bit mediocre, essentially devolving into a standard dungeon crawl. I don't want to make it sound like it's terrible, but I will say I don't understand the nostalgia many fans have for it.

I'll also note the artwork is far from the high-quality standard that Paizo would later set, though some individual pieces are pretty good.

SPOILERS!:

Crypt of the Everflame is set in Nirmathas and begins in a small village called Kassen. Kassen's history is important to the adventure, as its eponymous founder's crypt is the main adventure site. The premise is that the PCs are residents of Kassen who have been mentored by local NPCs to take part in an important annual ritual called the "Quest of the Everflame"--a journey to the tomb of the town's founder to light a lantern which symbolises the town's survival through another winter. An appendix at the back of the module provides a map and brief gazetteer of the town, and longer descriptions of several NPCs who could serve as mentors. There's nothing wrong with Kassen, but frankly it's a run-of-the-mill fantasy village with little that distinguishes it from the thousands of others in D&D's history.

The adventure itself is divided into three parts.

Part 1 involves the journey to the crypt. The PCs encounter some illusory orcs conjured by the town wizard (the villagers traditionally provide minor traps and challenges during the Quest of the Everflame to make it more memorable for those who take part), spend their first night out in the wilderness (driving away some wolves in the process), and navigate a treacherous descent to the opening of the tomb. I think if the GM and players really got into the idea that this is the PCs "coming of age" and going on their first adventure out of the village, that helps add some flavour and role-playing opportunities to this section of the module. I also like that the module plays it straight with things like rations, finding campsites, etc.

Part 2 covers the upper level of the crypt. What neither the PCs nor the villagers back in Kassen realise is that this will be no ordinary Quest of the Everflame. Bandits recently looted the tombs of Kassen and his rival (Asar), which resulted in Kassen arising as a (friendly) ghost and Asar as a skeletal champion! Undead are now all over the crypt, and most of the villagers sent in advance to plan the tricks, traps, and puzzles have been slaughtered. There are twelve chambers on the upper level, and threats include things that a Level 1 party should be able to handle (skeletons, pit traps) along with things that could easily prove lethal to one or more party members if a roll or two goes poorly (like a CR 3 shadow and a CR 3 golem). There's also what turns out to be an incredibly nasty trap called the Pillar of 1,000 Arrows--it was responsible for the TPK in my game (the author of the module may have overlooked the fact that enough nonlethal damage can become very lethal under PFRPG rules). Not everything is dire on this level, as the PCs can discover a room with supplies customised just for them and meet a villager named Roldare who (if calmed down and made friendly) can describe what's been happening. Roldare explains that his sister has been taken below by an undead fiend, and her rescue is the extra incentive some PCs might need to keep going.

Part 3 covers the lower level of the crypt, and although I prepped for it, I haven't actually run it. Here the PCs need to deal with giant frogs, bat swarms, more skeletons, and then the skeletal champion Asar himself (a CR 4 challenge!). I suppose a really clever, cautious party of PCs could defeat the foes and survive the module, but I really think the number and severity of encounters is a bit unfair, especially for an introductory module. There are some clues in the lower level that could lead the PCs into a sequel module, Masks of the Living God, which I haven't read or played yet.

Overall, I'd suggest PFS GMs set an expectation that the PCs will be Level 2 before running this module, and other GMs run some background adventures to get the group up to Level 2 before using this. Starting a campaign with Crypt of the Everflame looks to be a harrowing experience unless there are a lot of PCs or the players are very experienced. As the story is pretty unremarkable, there are a lot of better adventures out there for starting a campaign.


4/5


Needs a bit of work

3/5

The quintessential dungeon crawl, and a very excellent one, but basically let down by little intrigue. It would have been much better if the dungeon bad guy has some major link to the town. For example, the big bad guy could be the mysterious wizard who lives in the town who has recently become a cultist and he may have wanted to challenge Mayor Uptal, and so to ruin Uptal's mayorship he decides to ruin the festival. That would have been much better. Although CotE links in to "Masks of the Living God," which is a superb scenario, itself with a good dungeon plus ample role-playing opportunities. Best to buy Crypt, masks and ALSO Fangwood Keep and with a little work and extra intrigue you get a brilliant start to a campaign. That's what I did and 18 real months into my campaign and the party are still being hunted by vengeful Razmir assassins even while they are in "Curse of the Crimson Throne" over in Varisia (via the also superb "Fangwood Keep.")


Tough combats, loose pace

4/5

Tradiction dungeon crawl, all fights with little roleplay. Many of them are challenging,swarms,incoporeals,constructs,poisons,and the BBEG, all of which can kill low level PCs.

However I wish for more roleplays... perhaps with time limit, we just keep taking long rest. I don't think that makes much sense.


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Sovereign Court

Wildebob wrote:
I'm looking for some modules to run for a school RPG club. Can anyone tell me how Crypt of the Everflame is for content? Is there anything here that I shouldn't really let 13-year-old GM's read? (P.S. I teach in a fairly conservative community. Not extremists...but conservative.)

It is about as violent as your typical crypt-crawling rpg... so very violent.

It has a traumatised person who has been trapped near terrors for a while and is a bit shellshocked.
I don't recall any torture or stuff like that.


I'm thinking of running this over the weekend for some friends, as a couple of people will be out of town and we won't be able to run our regular game. Roughly how many hours would it take to burn through this particular adventure?

Designer, RPG Superstar Judge

I haven't read through it in a while, but probably 4 or 5 sessions of 4–6 hours each.


I ran it in 2 sessions, I think, but I don't remember how long each one was.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps Subscriber

I ran this in one very long session. Probably about 16 hours.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Any chance Paizo will reprint Crypt of the Everflame? Always seems to be one of the top-selling modules.

Webstore Gninja Minion

TikiBar wrote:
Any chance Paizo will reprint Crypt of the Everflame?

Unlikely.

Paizo Employee Publisher, Chief Creative Officer

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I wouldn't say never.

It's sold out.

It does a good job introducing the Pathfinder game.

The entire series is on the list of the 10 best-selling Modules we've done.


Grabbed a Non-Mint edition that was just made available during the Great Golem Sale... Fantastic deals! Picked up 21 other products to go with it.

Sovereign Court

I downloaded the chronicle sheet to use this as an intro to PFS for my nephew and there seems to be some info missing. Is it supposed to only be 1 page?


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
TikiBar wrote:
Any chance Paizo will reprint Crypt of the Everflame? Always seems to be one of the top-selling modules.

here's another vote for a reprint. "crypt of the everflame" is available on ebay and amazon, but waaay too expensive.

Dark Archive

messy wrote:
TikiBar wrote:
Any chance Paizo will reprint Crypt of the Everflame? Always seems to be one of the top-selling modules.
here's another vote for a reprint. "crypt of the everflame" is available on ebay and amazon, but waaay too expensive.

I would sell my left nut (not like I'm using it for anything) for a reprint of the book and map.


Where is the sanctioned content document for pathfinder society? I only see the chronicle sheet.


I would settle for a rebadging of the cover with the newer Pathfinder Module logo - to make it look like it belongs with the newer modules. No need to reprint; just update the pdf.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Why not dredge up a post from just over 5 years ago...

Part 1: Journey to the Crypt Question/Spoiler Within:

On page 7 of the adventure under "Unfortunate Bandit" it says the bandit was killed by a gigantic serpent that lives in the Gray Lake.

It does not say what it is and I know the party couldn't handle the fight now, but I was just curious of what others might have used for the gigantic serpent.

Thanks!

Director of Marketing

1 person marked this as a favorite.

We are making Pathfinder First Edition out of print materials available on Pathfinder Infinite via print-on-demand, as our capacity allows. This Adventure is available, use the button above.


Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Dm Joseph Rauel wrote:

Why not dredge up a post from just over 5 years ago...

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks!

I honestly didn't prepare anything for it. You could go with something relatively minor (a normal snake with the amphibious subtype) or have fun with a massive sea serpent that you don't actually stat out but just scare the players with.

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