Pathfinder Module: Realm of the Fellnight Queen (PFRPG)

3.90/5 (based on 12 ratings)
Pathfinder Module: Realm of the Fellnight Queen (PFRPG)

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A wilderness adventure for 7th-level Pathfinder Roleplaying Game characters.

Stay Out of the Woods

Deep in the forest, something is stirring. An evil fey sorcerer, cast out of the First World millennia ago by her own kin, has found a way to break through the ancient walls of her prison, and carries with her a vengeance too deep to be sated. For the quiet Andoren town of Bellis, busy celebrating a long-awaited marriage, it's a time for joy and laughter. Yet the forest that's always sheltered it is growing dark, and things are moving in the heart of the woods...

Realm of the Fellnight Queen is a wilderness adventure for 7th-level chararacters, written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and compatible with the 3.5 edition of the world's oldest RPG. Inside you'll find a possessed druid, a drunken treant, an insane beekeeper, shape-changing forest warriors, and the dark mistress of the Fellnight Realm herself.

This module is the result of Paizo Publishing's RPG Superstar contest, which allows unpublished authors to compete before a panel of celebrity game designers and legions of their peers for the chance to write a Pathfinder Module.

Written by Neil Spicer, the winner of Paizo’s RPG Superstar™ 2009 contest.

Pathfinder Modules are 32-page, high-quality, full-color, adventures using the Open Game License to work with both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the standard 3.5 fantasy RPG rules set. This Pathfinder Module includes four pre-made characters so players can jump right into the action, and full-color maps to enhance play.

ISBN 13: 978-1-60125-224-1

Bonus! We have additional free content for use with this module in the Paizo Blog. Check out Arvormeigh, Nixie Rogue and Random Encounters in the Fellnight Mist!

Realm of the Fellnight Queen is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. Its Chronicle Sheet and additional rules for running this module are a free download (221 KB zip/PDF).

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

Archives of Nethys

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

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Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

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3.90/5 (based on 12 ratings)

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2/5


Interesting characters

4/5

Just ran this (in much shortened form) as a one-shot for my regular group. The various NPCs that the PCs interact with were a blast to read about and play. Both the villains and the people who needed help felt unique. Most of the roleplaying encounters are concentrated in the first half of the adventure, though. Since we were playing as a one-shot, I had to cut or modify most of the fights, but the outdoor terrain was a nice change of pace and the fight that started the adventure had some great tactical elements.

I had to make Lumi more head-strong on the fly - my players were insistent that she had to be more than a damsel in distress. This was mostly my fault, though, since I focused on her as the hook for the start of the adventure. Most importantly, the players had fun and are looking forward to a sequel. A solid adventure.


A dark fairy tale with good mix of roleplay and combat

5/5

I recently finished running this module as a Play by Post campaign. Both me and my players found it highly entertaining.

The adventure has a good mix of roleplay and combat, with interesting NPCs and challenging fights. Neil Spicer does a terrific job of building up tension, while still including opportunities for comic relief.

The module does benefit from some adaptation, and as such I would not recommend it for an inexperienced GM. For anyone running the module, I strongly suggest listening to the Pathfinder Chronicles podcast and visiting the podcast forum for extra materials, as well as using the extra material provided in the paizo blog. Implementing the suggested changes from the blog and podcast goes a long way towards meeting the main critiques of the module, namely the lack of variation in enemies and the potential lethality of the final fight.


Coud be way better

3/5

I prepared this module lended by my FLGS, and I was disappointed. AS pointed out elsewhere it suffered badly from editing and cutting, with lots of iterative monsters.

Spoiler:

Played for PFS, it's of course way too long, but removing the pointless spriggan armies mostly solves this issue.

My main gripe is good-old railroading, lack of failable plot points, and fuzzy encounter setup.

* The setup wedding is pointless. Whatever you do, it has no bearing on the following. You can't even get worthy information, or even gear, for what follows. Might as well skip to the ceremony. It's striking that the fate of the wedding couple is totally unimportant. If they die, nobody cares.
* The romp in the forest is bugged. How are you supposed to actually meet Vinroot? And why would you need to? And what if you fail to make the encounters?
* How are the spriggan patrol in the Realm to act? What group is NOT going to go directly through to the tower?
* The drunken treant encounter is very obscure as to how it's supposed to work (if you use Diplomacy, you're going to get whacked repeatedly by animated tree attacks while doing so. Is it really the idea?)
* What if you do NOT manage to convince the conclave of fey? Adventure ends there?
* What if you fail to make the final arcana check. Adventure fails?
* And of course, prepare for a party wipe in the final fight.

All in all, GREAT maps, but they're very poorly used. For the above reasons, the wedding map is useless, the forest map is useless (if the players actually navigate it, they're going to spend hours doing nothing), the Realm map is useless (they're going to go straight for the kill) and the Fortress map, though alright, is just way way too big for PFS.

Also, for PFS: several magic items found are useless within the module.


So. It's got fine elements, but need tons of work, re-inserting the original monsters (from the podcast), fixing the encounter schema, designing an alternate final dungeon, giving meaning to the wedding part... But it still has good moments.


Not bad, could be better

3/5

The three star rating I'm presenting here is a combination score - four stars for story, and two stars for the adventure's content.

I ran this last night for a group of experienced Pathfinders playing under the Pathfinder Society organized play rules. By the middle of the module our Paladin was ready to start killing "good" fey, and by the end several players commented that they considered the module "one big advertisement for owning a fey bane weapon" (and not in a good way).

From a story perspective the concept was well thought out and interesting. The players really did begin to hate fey at the end though.

From a mechanical content we noticed a couple of issues. First the whole module feels disjointed. The three acts do not flow that well, and the group was pretty fatigued by the time they hit the dungeon crawl at the end. Encounters included only four worthwhile encounters that provided a moderate challenge to the group followed by page after page of creatures that couldn't even hit the AC of a level 8 character and creatures without enough hit points to survive a single hit at this level; just speed bump after speed bump. The "main" bad guy type was an example of this - players were hit for a total of roughly 20 points over the adventure. Conversely, when the fights were tough, they were TOUGH. I think a lot was hit by the page count on this one.

Spoiler:
I'm getting really tired of seeing this. The four combats that actually were worth playing out were: The drunk treant that nearly murdered the entire party, the fight and escape from Dead Man's Drop, the fight at the fayenguard (which happened because the two fights ran into each other), and the fight with the fellnight queen herself. The fight with the fellnight queen should have ended in a TPK - her powers and the terrain mechanics are absolutely brutal.

Just as an FYI - for Pathfinder Society this is a longer one. It's linear nature means you're looking at about 14 - 16 hours of play. This is after removing a couple of the speedbumps...I mean encounters AND saying "you have the strange sensation the other direction would be faster" while they were exploring the queen's keep.


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Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

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Yay Neil! Congrats on the big win. I will start prepping my players for this immediately.

Liberty's Edge

Well done, and good show chap.

Dark Archive

Good work Neil really looking forward to see your work in print.

(As a side they so need to make Lini one of the iconics for this one.)


Congrats, Neil, you earned it.

So is this where the line forms for you running the PbP? If so, I'd like to reserve a spot now.


Cool. I like the concept of a bleached-out gnome inadvertently stumbling onto doom.

I wonder where Bellis is.

The Exchange RPG Superstar 2009 Top 8

A 2E Floppy-Eared Golem wrote:

Cool. I like the concept of a bleached-out gnome inadvertently stumbling onto doom.

I wonder where Bellis is.

Bellis is in the Verduran Forest on the Sellen river in between Taldor and Andoran. It's a pretty cool location, actually, if your characters want to joust in Taldor and fight kobolds in Darkmoon Vale all in the same month. Has Bellis been fleshed out in any other products or will this be our first glance at it?

EDIT: You are also a few days from Galt, Kyonin, and Druma. Bellis would be a great place to set up a home base for DMs wanting to play in any of these regions.


Tarren Dei wrote:
A 2E Floppy-Eared Golem wrote:

Cool. I like the concept of a bleached-out gnome inadvertently stumbling onto doom.

I wonder where Bellis is.

Bellis is in the Verduran Forest on the Sellen river in between Taldor and Andoran. It's a pretty cool location, actually, if your characters want to joust in Taldor and fight kobolds in Darkmoon Vale all in the same month. Has Bellis been fleshed out in any other products or will this be our first glance at it?

EDIT: You are also a few days from Galt, Kyonin, and Druma. Bellis would be a great place to set up a home base for DMs wanting to play in any of these regions.

Thanks for the info. I am about to run Hollow's Last Hope/Crown of the Kobold King, set in Darkmoon Vale, and I'd also be interested in learning more about Bellis, if there is more to be learned. I'll have to check my PFC Campaign Setting.

Liberty's Edge

Congrats on the win, I think I'll pick this up when it's out.

Silver Crusade

Very much looking forward to this!


Am I the only one reminded of this recent Penny Arcade comic by the word "Fellnight"? Is that worse than the Shadowfell, the Shadowdark, or the Darkbad? :-)


Adventure Path Charter Subscriber

Congratulations on the win Neil, now if I could get the adventure by say....next Wednesday???? This adventure will fit perfectly into the campaign I'm running in Andoran, looks like I'll be scaling it.

Sovereign Court RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

Cool, I know one player who will like the gnome love.

Liberty's Edge

Neil, awesome news, congrats to a deserving author!

-DM Jeff

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

Thanks, guys! I appreciate all the well-wishes.

Jeffrey Koons wrote:
...now if I could get the adventure by say....next Wednesday???? This adventure will fit perfectly into the campaign I'm running in Andoran, looks like I'll be scaling it.

Ummm...yeah...I'll get right on that. As long as your idea of "next Wednesday" is a Wednesday somewhere in January 2010, I should have it to you right on time. ;-D

--Neil

Liberty's Edge

excellent location i can't wait for this adventure

congratulations Neil


Hmm.. wouldn't be too hard to switch Bellis with Falcon's Hollow... maybe the gnome can be the gnome proprietor of Goose and the Gander. Although, after Carneval of Tears, does Falcon's Hollow really need more trouble with fey?

Liberty's Edge

After that, I would think Falcon's Hollow is due for a little down time in regards to the wave after wave of evil coming upon them!
But then again Thuldrin Kreed's time is due... hmmm, idea! ;)


Yay. Well done!

The Exchange

Cheers Neil!

And here is a drink for you toooooo!

Zuxius


That sounds awesome. I hope it is as good as it sounds. I hope that my group will be in that level range when the module comes out.


Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Will my most-famous DM have copies to share with his bestest player, I wonder?

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

If you mean share as in "give"...I'm not certain I'll receive anything more than a personal copy myself. If you mean share as in "share"...well, I'm assuming you might want to play in the adventure rather than read through it beforehand, right? Right. ;-P

--Neil


I am running the "Price of Immortality" modules and this would be a great next chapter. Where in the world is Bellis planned though. I am sure i can adapt it, but just curious.

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Plotty Fingers wrote:
I am running the "Price of Immortality" modules and this would be a great next chapter. Where in the world is Bellis planned though. I am sure i can adapt it, but just curious.

According to the Campaign Setting, Bellis is located in eastern Andoran, in the Verderun Forest.

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

Plotty Fingers wrote:
I am running the "Price of Immortality" modules and this would be a great next chapter. Where in the world is Bellis planned though. I am sure i can adapt it, but just curious.

Bellis is a forest town, basically, situated right along western bank of the Sellen River where it drains down out of the River Kingdoms. It's right on the border between Andoran and Taldor. And it serves as an established presence to safeguard against future aggression by Taldor, though its nothing more than a small, out-of-the-way frontier town, really.

I particularly like Bellis as a prime location in the Golarion campaign setting, because of the access it has to so many places of major importance to the standard races. For instance, to the northwest, you can trek just a few miles and reach the Five Kings Mountains, which is a major dwarven stronghold with a storied past (see the upcoming Dwarves of Golarion for more on that). You can also get into Kyonin, the most powerful nation of elves, by going upriver from Bellis. In Taldor's part of the eastern Verduran forest, there's a major community of gnomes at Wispil. There's also a sizeable population of half-elves and half-orcs that can come down from the River Kingdoms. And, on the human front, you've got two of the major bastions for mankind in Andoran and Taldor, including whatever traffic goes up and down the Sellen.

So, Bellis is a location that's "not too big" while being connected to a lot of other big places. It's got a population of 4,800 according to the writeup in the campaign guide. So that puts it at about 4 times the size of Sandpoint in Rise of the Runelords. To me, it makes for a perfect launching point and homebase for a group of adventurers, because there's lots of surrounding locations and events to draw from when creating a character's background. And the town also lies among some of the more untamed wilderness than say, the Darkmoon Vale, where the Lumber Consortium has engaged in such major logging there.

Hope that helps,
--Neil


NSpicer wrote:
Plotty Fingers wrote:
I am running the "Price of Immortality" modules and this would be a great next chapter. Where in the world is Bellis planned though. I am sure i can adapt it, but just curious.

Bellis is a forest town, basically, situated right along western bank of the Sellen River where it drains down out of the River Kingdoms. It's right on the border between Andoran and Taldor. And it serves as an established presence to safeguard against future aggression by Taldor, though its nothing more than a small, out-of-the-way frontier town, really.

I particularly like Bellis as a prime location in the Golarion campaign setting, because of the access it has to so many places of major importance to the standard races. For instance, to the northwest, you can trek just a few miles and reach the Five Kings Mountains, which is a major dwarven stronghold with a storied past (see the upcoming Dwarves of Golarion for more on that). You can also get into Kyonin, the most powerful nation of elves, by going upriver from Bellis. In Taldor's part of the eastern Verduran forest, there's a major community of gnomes at Wispil. There's also a sizeable population of half-elves and half-orcs that can come down from the River Kingdoms. And, on the human front, you've got two of the major bastions for mankind in Andoran and Taldor, including whatever traffic goes up and down the Sellen.

So, Bellis is a location that's "not too big" while being connected to a lot of other big places. It's got a population of 4,800 according to the writeup in the campaign guide. So that puts it at about 4 times the size of Sandpoint in Rise of the Runelords. To me, it makes for a perfect launching point and homebase for a group of adventurers, because there's lots of surrounding locations and events to draw from when creating a character's background. And the town also lies among some of the more untamed wilderness than say, the Darkmoon Vale, where the Lumber Consortium has engaged in such major logging there....

Do we get to know Bellis through Realm of the Fellnight Queen? Is as much space given to that as there is given to say Falcon's Hollow in D1?

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

Tarren the Dungeon Master wrote:
Do we get to know Bellis through Realm of the Fellnight Queen? Is as much space given to that as there is given to say Falcon's Hollow in D1?

Falcon's Hollow is a town about the same size as Sandpoint. Somewhere between 1,200 and 1,500 people, basically. Bellis, on the other hand, is 3-4 times larger than that at 4,800 citizens. So, devoting space to fleshing out Bellis (where only a small part of the adventure takes place) wasn't as big of a design priority, unfortunately. Still, I think you'll get a good bit of insight into the town...especially through its NPCs. I know what's in the manuscript, of course, but Sean gets to decide how much more gets included on Bellis, itself. Who knows, maybe eventually there will be a Guide to the Verduran Forest and a town like Bellis will receive a much bigger writeup? :-)

Dark Archive

Any idea when we will be seeing the front cover of this one?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Kevin Mack wrote:
Any idea when we will be seeing the front cover of this one?

Final signoffs are happening soon; the final image for the site should be along not too long after that, I should think.

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

I've seen the art for the final cover. And, in my shamelessly biased opinion...it ROCKS!

Dark Archive

If I may be so bold to ask are any of the iconic on it and if so which ones?

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

Kevin Mack wrote:
If I may be so bold to ask are any of the iconic on it and if so which ones?

Yes...there are... :-)

That's all I'll say for now.

Dark Archive

Curse you handsome devils. Seriously though really hoping for Lini on the cover (Since she hasn't been on a module cover far as I know)

Contributor

Bellis is on the Andoran/Taldor border.

This book just went to the printer, so we should have an updated cover image soon. And it is SWEET. :)

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Sean K Reynolds wrote:

Bellis is on the Andoran/Taldor border.

This book just went to the printer, so we should have an updated cover image soon. And it is SWEET. :)

How soon? My F5 key isn't working anymore, but I can still repeatedly click refresh with my mouse.

Paizo Employee CEO

yoda8myhead wrote:
Sean K Reynolds wrote:

Bellis is on the Andoran/Taldor border.

This book just went to the printer, so we should have an updated cover image soon. And it is SWEET. :)

How soon? My F5 key isn't working anymore, but I can still repeatedly click refresh with my mouse.

I saw the cover today and it is SWEET! Hopefully it will be updated on the web soon.

-Lisa

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

Any chance the cover gets updated on the product page before Christmas? Or, will the reveal happen sometime during RPG Superstar?

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

NSpicer wrote:
Any chance the cover gets updated on the product page before Christmas? Or, will the reveal happen sometime during RPG Superstar?

Bump! We want the cover! We want the cover!

bangs silverware on table

Dark Archive

So uh any chance of the new cover appearing up soon?

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Kevin Mack wrote:
So uh any chance of the new cover appearing up soon?

Yeah! What's the deal?

Paizo Employee CEO

yoda8myhead wrote:
Kevin Mack wrote:
So uh any chance of the new cover appearing up soon?
Yeah! What's the deal?

We are just trying to torment you since you constantly ask for the cover to be shown. By now, we will be showing the new cover sometime in 2013!

-Lisa

Paizo Employee Director of Game Development

You guys should remove the cover of the one that's going into yoda's shipment. Ya know, just 'cause. ;)

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Adam Daigle wrote:
You guys should remove the cover of the one that's going into yoda's shipment. Ya know, just 'cause. ;)

I know where you live.

Paizo Employee Director of Game Development

yoda8myhead wrote:
Adam Daigle wrote:
You guys should remove the cover of the one that's going into yoda's shipment. Ya know, just 'cause. ;)
I know where you live.

Texas is a big state with a lot of places to hide.


Adam Daigle wrote:
Texas is a big state with a lot of places to hide.

Daigle, lemme know if you need a safehouse. My mom might be able to help. ;)


Daigle, I'm usually there for ya, but Y8MH's pestering for images is an important part of the ecology here. *Starts setting mantis traps in his yard.*

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

I decided to stop asking about it and just trust that Paizo has a plan to reveal it at the appropriate time. They're always crafty like that...and always seem to have a plan.

Spoiler:

That...or they're way behind schedule again and don't have anyone available to work on putting up the new cover art! ;-)

Contributor

NSpicer wrote:
I decided to stop asking about it and just trust that Paizo has a plan to reveal it at the appropriate time. They're always crafty like that...and always seem to have a plan.

Much like the BSG Cylons, we *seem* to have a plan, but we're hung up on the kooky idea that love is the key to having babies....


If the Paizo staff were more like cylons, we'd all be moving to Seattle...

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

I've updated the product description and image to reflect the finished product.

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