Pathfinder Module: Plunder & Peril (PFRPG)

4.30/5 (based on 9 ratings)
Pathfinder Module: Plunder & Peril (PFRPG)
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Legendary Treasure!

Tall tales of hidden riches are common in the pirate-infested taverns of the Shackles, but when Captain Varossa Lanteri claims to know the location of the secret treasure hoard of legendary Captain Jemma Redclaw, it seems she may be telling the truth. Captain Lanteri hires the PCs on as crew to help her assemble the magic key that will open the door to Redclaw’s treasure... and the ancient cyclops stronghold in which it’s hidden! Can the PCs survive long enough to claim their share of the lost loot, or will their enemies—or their allies—send them to a watery grave?

Plunder & Peril is a collection of three adventures that link to form one deluxe super-adventure for 4th-level characters, and includes 64 action-packed pages filled with aquatic predators, marauding dragons, cyclopean horrors, and more! These tales parallel and elaborate upon the swashbuckling excitement of the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path and the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Skull & Shackles Base Set. Plus, chart your course through pirate plagued seas with a full-color poster map featuring the most detailed view of the Shackles ever released. Players can expect to reach 7th level by the time they complete the third adventure and claim their share of Redclaw’s treasure—if they can survive the ancient terrors that guard the hoard!

Written by Matthew Goodall, Alex Greenshields, Ben McFarland, Steven Helt.
Cover Art by Kiki Moch Rizky.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-680-5

Pathfinder Modules are 64-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 new monsters, treasure, a double-sided poster map, and a fully detailed bonus location that can be used as part of the adventure or in any other game!

Pluder & Peril is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. Its Chronicle Sheet and additional rules for running this module are a free download (807 kb zip/PDF).

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

Hero Lab Online
Archives of Nethys

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

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4.30/5 (based on 9 ratings)

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Great start, disappointing finish but overall a neat swashbuckler tale

3/5

This is simultaneously one of the most interesting and most frustrating modules I've used. At a glance, it's a fun, rollicking swashbuckling sea adventure, with a good mixture of intrigue, skill challenges, and good old fashioned dungeon crawls to keep players on their toes. NPCs are well-developed and fun to flesh out. But as one digs deeper into the story--and the workings behind it as a GM--a bevy of inconsistencies, both mechanical and narrative, and poorly prioritized information plague the module and make it frequently difficult to run.

I recommend this module for experienced GMs who need a decent seafaring story but are able to adapt on the fly--and time on their hands to do so--and for those who can make use less of the module itself but would benefit from the appendices, e.g., the excellent Shackles map, the map of Lilywhite, the mini-guide to the Shackles in the back, the map of the Magpie Princess, etc. I do not recommend this module for those looking for ease of use or timesaving.

I should note I am judging this module as a GM, and I believe modules should first and foremost exist to make life easier for the GM, and evaluate modules primarily on this factor. While of course narrative and fun factor are important--after all, it's no fun to run a boring story--my key criteria for a module is that it saves time and eliminates--not creates--frustration factors of being a GM. People who purchase modules solely for narrative value will not find much use in my review.

In short, while there is a lot I admire in the module, that I found it frequently and deeply frustrating to run lowers its score quite a bit.

One of the advertised bonuses of this module is that you can use it as a substitution for Skull and Shackles part 2: Raiders of the Fever Sea. I purchased this module for this purpose, unsure my players would find Raiders as fun. Unfortunately, the module's introduction and guidelines provide far too little advice for how to insert the module into the AP, and barely address the key challenge to adaptation: at the end of Skull and Shackles' first part, the party has just gained its own ship, a huge and hard-won prize after a grueling and difficult adventure. The premise of Plunder and Peril, however, requires you join a different captain's ship and submit to a new captain's orders--not something very fair to ask of your players when they've just gained their own captaincy and own ship. There absolutely are ways to work around this--but it is nowhere near as easy to "slip" the module into the AP as the marketing and early product chatter suggested. By sheer chance, some of the choices my players made led this to be easier for me (their encounter with Hyrix and Mother Grund went poorly, and I had them wake up "rescued" by Varossa). Some of the changes I made to adjust to the AP also made more work for me down the line, though some of this was how I was trying to create some open ended options for my players. I accept any changes I made that caused things to be more difficult were MY choices, and the effect of my choices are not part of this evaluation. Regardless, using this module as a substitute for S&S part 2 is not as easy as implied.

As a standalone module, it will of course be much easier to use. Each of the three sections are also designed to be used separately if a GM needed a shorter adventure, and I would say that, with some adjustment, the first and last sections especially can be easily adapted to shorter adventures. If the GM is willing to do the (relatively minor) work of removing Varossa from chapter one and presenting the challenges within as simply activities available at the Rum Punch Festival, section one can also provide an excellent "shore leave" adventure for a low to mid-level party. Chapter 3 feels like a dungeon crawl designed for an entirely different adventure with Plunder and Peril shoehorned in, so it of course would be easy enough to extract and use as a standalone adventure--again, just remove Varossa and give the PCs a different hook to explore the island.

I found section 1 most fun to run--the town of Lilywhite is well-realized, with the Rum Punch Festival a refreshing backdrop to adventure compared to more gritty or typical spooky dungeon crawls and the like. Its lighthearted tone was especially welcome after the often dark and malevolent feel of the first book of Skull and Shackles--the PCs needed some respite and this provided it (and in a much better way than Rickety's Squibs would have offered). There is a lot of story potential for developing the town further, and the town's features are provided in just enough detail without distracting from the actual narrative. I enjoyed the variety of challenges offered in this section, from some fairly standard combats to some unorthodox skill challenges, including a race that uses a variation of Pathfinder's chase scene rules and a drinking contest, crucial for any pirate campaign worth its salt.

The only--but rather outstanding--flaw in the first section is the poor setup for the two "bosses" that challenge the PCs at the end of the story. Firstly, the narrative makes clear that one of the "bosses" is spying on the party, but it isn't clear how he is doing it, or if the PCs should notice (I think the presumption is that the PCs shouldn't, but I'm not sure why). Secondly, and more mechanically problematic, the second "boss" is described in detail about her actions, motivations, and ways of approaching combat---and then her statblock is for a creature that does not have any of the abilities described in the narrative. Per the product discussion thread, this was a development error: this "boss" was originally given a unique stablock, but it was removed for space reasons. Unfortunately, her narrative was not updated to match the new stats she was given. This is a glaring editorial error that absolutely should have been caught prior to publication--especially since verbiage is now wasted describing actions she could not possibly take. Personally, I would have gladly sacrificed any number of things--artwork, other statblocks, descriptions (especially much of the useless dungeon descriptions in chapter 3)--to have kept the creature's original stats, for as described, she had a lot of narrative potential. I opted to create new stats to reflect the story rather than use the stats listed in the module. This worked much better me, but it was work I was forced to do just to make sure mechanics and narrative matched, and should have been unnecessary.

The second section is solid series of sea adventures. A combat-heavy chapter, I wish some of the fights had offered the GM more tactical guidance--particularly in Blackwarns Gallows, where the players can approach the treacherous situation in numerous ways, and one has to navigate a potentially incredibly diffficult fight between land, rough waters, and high up terrain with almost no guidance as how to do so. Another encounter, with a ghost on a shipwreck, also needed more details--particularly, there is a potential fight and a hazard, but depending on how you enter, you might be able to avoid the fight/hazard entirely which makes the whole scenario anticlimactic. How to time events and manage the encounter (whether diplomatic or hostile) seemed very vague. I could have used less of another NPC's backstory there and more tactical guidance for what was an unusually set up scenario. At the same time, I liked indeed that there were several encounters and challenges that could be managed by skill, diplomacy and cleverness, counterbalancing some of the combat focus. My players seemed to really enjoy negotiating with the dragon in particular.

My only concern about chapter three was the final encounter. As written, the game presumes characters escape a situation by riding some creatures provided them. However, you have to interact with a certain NPC and navigate a fight a very specific way in order to be able to gain the new mounts. There are a number of missteps the PCs could take--or they could simply opt to avoid the NPC or situation--that would as written leave them stranded, with zero suggestions for alternatives. Because I was using the adventure as part of Skull and Shackles, I found a way out using characters and resources from that AP, but standalone, it would have been a challenge to find other solutions. The other problem with the mounts being the only presented solution to the PCs problem is Ride is seldom a skill most PCs prioritize having on a seafaring adventure. As written, this was a glaringly annoying railroad solution in a story that up to this point usually accounted for a few ways to resolve challenges.

The third section, the big finale, was sadly most disappointing. After two sections featuring a wide variety of challenges and creative scenarios, the third section moves into an uninspired, bog-standard dungeon crawl. What is worse is, as mentioned above, the dungeon feels very much like it was designed for an entirely different adventure and then shoehorned into the module---complete with hundreds of wasted words on background lore of the dungeon that has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the adventure itself. The not-too-spoilery gist is the PCs are chasing someone who has run into an old cyclops fortress, which was repurposed at some point by a long-dead pirate queen, who is relavant to the plot. We get almost nothing on what the pirate queen did with the fortress, but paragraphs upon paragraphs about what some cyclops did there millennia ago that provides no information or insight upon the present story. Not to mention half of the information is translation of ancient runes that the PCs have a very small chance of actually being able to translate (and they gain absolutely nothing of value by doing so). If I want to read information on an ancient Golarion empire, I will purchase the appropriate campaign setting guidebook. For a module, I want material that helps me and the players tell the PCs' story in the best and most dramatic way. This section of the module utterly failed in this regard.

Here's what we do NOT get in section 3, that would have been far, far, far more helpful to have:
- Enough guidance on the approach to the area (which may vary considerably depending on how the PCs leave the ending of section 2) and different ways the PCs may deal with an enemy ship they approach, save from who might or might not attack them.
- Information on how to run an encounter with a bard NPC who could be friendly but whom the PCs may equally see as an enemy and attack immediately. We are given full stats for the NPC--but in the scenario he is supposed to be badly wounded after a fight, and it's not clear, for example how many spells or rounds of bardic performance he has left. Further, the stats provided show the bard can cast cure light wounds but the scenario describes him at zero hit points and thus helpless--but if he has spells left, wouldn't he heal himself? Yes, as GM I can make this call, but it is very unclear as to what his status would be--and how to respond if the PCs attack him and how difficult an encounter that should be.
- Information on the following NPC encounter, where a possibly-formerly friendly NPC is now hostile and insane. The too minimal text on the encounter seems to assume the encounter will turn into a combat to the death, and yet the party could very much want to try to subdue or talk down the NPC (and indeed, my PCs wanted to talk him down). There is NO guidance on if he can be talked down, how, or what to do with the NPC if he is subdued and captured (or how the other NPC interacts with him). We know what the goddamn cyclops runes say, but no clue what to do with two extremely major NPCs whose presence could dramatically alter the PCs experience and challenge level in this dungeon.
- For the very crucial boss fight, additional guidance on placement and starting tactics. Especially given the big boss has telepathy and would likely sense the PCs coming, the module needs to provide some approaches both the PCs and monsters might take to the end game. There is SOME advice offered here, but not enough for how important and challenging the fight should be.

The boss fight also illustrates a distinct flaw in how Paizo overall chooses to organize its modules in general, which is that they put "lesser" enemy statistics in the adventure text, "important" NPC statistics in one appendix, and other "important" and additional monster statistics in a different appendix. This means in general the GM has to constantly flip through the book or .pdf to get different combat stats, which is very time consuming and frustrating. In this module's final fight, there are three enemies in the final combat. One enemy's statistics are included within the module's narrative text. Another enemy's statistics are in the Bestiary appendix. And to make things extra confusing, there are two sets of statistics for the third enemy, one in the NPC appendix and one in the Bestiary appendix (the latter of which is the correct one to use, but the module directs you to the NPC appendix). So to run the fight straight from the booklet, you need to be constantly flipping between separate sections of the module--the last thing you want to be doing while running an intense boss fight. I had to make my own combat sheet to make the thing runnable, which took time a module should not have to make me take. Personally, I think all enemy statblocks should be put in one place--a single appendix--that GMs can pull out or print separately from the running adventure text, so they can have all the stats they need in one place and can place it side-by-side with any relevant adventure text or maps. This alone would make the entire module line easier to use and, for me, I would purchase more of them were they organized in this fashion.

Finally, I must note that the third chapter ends on a bit of a disappointment--the whole point of the adventure is the hunt for a legendary treasure horde, which in the end turns out is not very much of a treasure hoard at all. I understand wanting to make the treasure level-appropriate, but I had to find some creative ways to bolster it (and explain why there wasn't more). (The in-game explanation for where some of it went doesn't make any sense--it says a dragon in the backstory stole most of it, but the whole way the adventure begins is that a background NPC killed said background dragon and found the key to this treasure in its hoard. If the dragon already had most of the hoard to begin with, then the background NPC would have already had it and there would be no point to looking for the treasure!) The larger "treasure" is really the ship and the cyclops fortress that the PCs can move into, but the narrative itself downplays this. I up-played it. Since I WAS indeed running this for Skull and Shackles, gaining an extra ship and fortress for establishing credibility in the Shackles was valuable. If this had ended as a standalone adventure, however, I think the ending as written would have been a considerable let-down for the PCs.

In the end I don't regret running this module--and I'm even glad I chose it over Raiders of the Fever Sea. But it did demand a lot more work than I had hoped, and the inconsistencies between chapters and chapter quality speaks to the fact that having three different people write three different sections of a module is a bad idea. Still absolutely the module was worth it for the first two sections, and a great set of NPCs on a ship crew that is usable for many seafaring adventures. I really loved the backdrop of Lilywhite and Captain Varossa and her loyal (and not so loyal) crew, so whoever was responsble for those developments especially deserve kudos. I hope the PCs can return to Lilywhite later and I can play more in it as a sandbox.

I like the idea of modules serving as possible "alternate routes" for APs and I also like the idea of developing modules in chapters that can be broken down to standalone. However, I'm not sure Plunder and Peril in particular succeeded in those areas. I hope Paizo tries the idea again, but is careful to develop it consistently and have one main writer for all three


Some good, some bad, overall mediocre

3/5

Read my full review on Of Dice and Pen.

I like much of Plunder & Peril, but I feel it fails in certain key areas. It’s an interesting experiment to present three short adventures in a Pathfinder Module. However, I think trying to make them both linked and workable as stand-alones was not necessarily the best decision. It has resulted in three adventures that don’t work well on their own (except maybe “Rum Punch”), but as linked adventures, have many ways in which the PCs can go drastically off-script. I also feel it was a poor decision to conclude the three adventures with a dungeon crawl. It loses the style and flair of the other adventures and doesn’t have the opportunity to regain them that it might have if the dungeon crawl happened in the middle. In the end, Plunder & Peril ends up as a mostly mediocre module.


5/5

first off, I dinot play this module yet. I have just read this module.
All I can say its a must-have module for someone who realy like corsair storys / enviroment.


5/5

We had so much fun with this!

Its everything you want from a pirate adventure and more!

From a GM perspective, its has a good build up, the information is where you expect it to be, and if you want, you can easily expand on this.

It was an awesome ride!


Great high seas adventure!

4/5

After finishing this module last night, I have to say I will miss it. It has been an enjoyable time with my group and I wanted to say well done to the creator. There is variety here, and although the end may seem a little dungeon crawlish, it pays off in the end with a very interesting encounter. Each chapter has a different feel, with chapter 2 being the longest of the three. If I had to knock off a point for anything it was the lack of a ship to ship battle. I felt any pirate adventure on the high seas should include at least one ship battle. However, the way the game is designed you can easily create your own encounter and insert it as a "random" encounter, since you can roll for those anyway. If ship combat doesn't appeal to you, you can skip it and the module runs fine as is.

The only other criticism I got from the players was how the game really doesn't reward the players until the end, which is a huge haul to be sure. However, they felt some better rewards should have been sprinkled along the way more often. This could also be fixed by not following a strict path and allowing the players to sandbox more. It will just take more work from the GM.

Overall, if you are looking for some high seas adventure and want to see exotic locals and meet interesting NPC's while roleplaying or rollplaying your way to a hoard of treasure, look no further than Plunder and Peril.


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A Mite Excessive wrote:
Uh, why the release date push back?

November release thread.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:
Steven T. Helt wrote:
I can't wait to hear back from fellow players when this ships. I aimed for a very high degree of creepiness in the finale.
Well, I'm not a player, but I just received my physical copies of my November subscriptions yesterday & I can say, for me at least, target locked...

Thanks, Irnk! Hope you like it!

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions, and of course we'd all appreciate a review!

Shadow Lodge

Anyone care to spoil the new creatures list from this one? I'm interested to see what's coming out.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

Haven't received my subscription PDF yet.


Incutilis lord (aberration - CR 8) - Curved shell with eyes holding mass of tentacles
Karkinoi brood swarm (monstrous humanoid - CR 4) - Baby karkinoi
Onwu azu (animal - CR 1) - predatory fish

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
Heine Stick wrote:
Onwu azu (animal - CR 1) - predatory fish

HERE'S my inspiration for the onwu azu.

Shadow Lodge

Heine Stick wrote:

Incutilis lord (aberration - CR 8) - Curved shell with eyes holding mass of tentacles

Karkinoi brood swarm (monstrous humanoid - CR 4) - Baby karkinoi
Onwu azu (animal - CR 1) - predatory fish

Wait wait wait, an INCUTILUS LORD?! You're telling me they are making a greater version of the incutilus? Care to elaborate on it any more? Is it an actual superior to Incutili or is it some sort of weird creation or offshoot of theirs?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

The pirate lady with the big, red clockwork claw...has she been in something else before? I swear I've seen her in another product. That claw left an impression.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
doc the grey wrote:
Heine Stick wrote:

Incutilis lord (aberration - CR 8) - Curved shell with eyes holding mass of tentacles

Karkinoi brood swarm (monstrous humanoid - CR 4) - Baby karkinoi
Onwu azu (animal - CR 1) - predatory fish
Wait wait wait, an INCUTILUS LORD?! You're telling me they are making a greater version of the incutilus? Care to elaborate on it any more? Is it an actual superior to Incutili or is it some sort of weird creation or offshoot of theirs?

Well, I have not read the Incutilus, but the Incutilus Lord manages to scare the bejeezus out of me...

Incutilus Lord:

A curved shell protects an unsightly mass of barbed tentacles,
ringed by numerous inhuman eyes.
INCUTILIS LORD CR 8
XP 4,800
NE Large aberration (aquatic)
Init +3; Senses all-around vision, darkvision 60 ft.;
Perception +20
DEFENSE
AC 22, touch 12, flat-footed 19; (+3 Dex, +10 natural, –1 size)
hp 104 (11d8+55)
Fort +9, Ref +6, Will +12
Immune disease, mind-affecting effects, poison; Resist cold 10, electricity 10
OFFENSE
Speed 10 ft., climb 10 ft., jet 120 ft., swim 40 ft.
Melee 4 tentacles +14 (1d6+2 plus calcifying sting)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 15 ft.
STATISTICS
Str 20, Dex 17, Con 18, Int 15, Wis 16, Cha 15
Base Atk +8; CMB +14; CMD 27 (can’t be tripped)
Feats Alertness, Combat Reflexes, Great Fortitude, Iron Will, Toughness, Weapon Focus (tentacle)
Skills Climb +18, Intimidate +13, Knowledge (arcana) +6, Knowledge (local) +6, Knowledge (nature) +10, Perception +20, Sense Motive +12, Spellcraft +12, Stealth +11, Survival +11, Swim +21
Languages Aklo, Aquan, Common; telepathy (100 ft.)
SQ amphibious, black coral secretion, calcified minion


Nate Z wrote:
The pirate lady with the big, red clockwork claw...has she been in something else before? I swear I've seen her in another product. That claw left an impression.

You might be thinking of Nualia of Rise of the Runelords fame.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Nate Z wrote:
The pirate lady with the big, red clockwork claw...has she been in something else before? I swear I've seen her in another product. That claw left an impression.

She has a card in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Skull & Shackles Base Set.


And showed up in the Skulls &Shackles player's guide to the dismay of at least one Paizo staffer who feared it'd send the wrong signals as to the type of AP we were getting.

Shadow Lodge

Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
Heine Stick wrote:

Incutilis lord (aberration - CR 8) - Curved shell with eyes holding mass of tentacles

Karkinoi brood swarm (monstrous humanoid - CR 4) - Baby karkinoi
Onwu azu (animal - CR 1) - predatory fish
Wait wait wait, an INCUTILUS LORD?! You're telling me they are making a greater version of the incutilus? Care to elaborate on it any more? Is it an actual superior to Incutili or is it some sort of weird creation or offshoot of theirs?

Well, I have not read the Incutilus, but the Incutilus Lord manages to scare the bejeezus out of me...

** spoiler omitted **

That's pretty sick, what the hell do its special abilities do?

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

You can find the incutilis in Bestiary 4, and then just imagine an older, craftier, scarier version. But I think you should play the adventure first so you get the full effect!

Shadow Lodge

Steven T. Helt wrote:
You can find the incutilis in Bestiary 4, and then just imagine an older, craftier, scarier version. But I think you should play the adventure first so you get the full effect!

I'm actually using them in an adventure I'm currently working on and was wanting to know more about how the lords fit into their whole structure.

Scarab Sages Modules Overlord

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Kajehase wrote:
And showed up in the Skulls &Shackles player's guide

Yep, that was her first appearance, and at the time she didn't have a name. She got picked up in the card game, and since we now have rules for clockwork limbs, I used her as an element of this adventure set in ways the original authors couldn't possibly have known we'd be okay with, which is one of the reasons we have developers. :)


Their is also a template for a calcified creature in the Incutilus Lord write up.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Cool trick that might interest a lot of Pathfinder GMs: the calcified creature template is a great way to represent mindless undead without them actually being dead or having a negative energy connection. It was the first thing I thought of when I read the Bestiary 4 incutilis.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Kajehase wrote:
And showed up in the Skulls &Shackles player's guide to the dismay of at least one Paizo staffer who feared it'd send the wrong signals as to the type of AP we were getting.

Huh? I can't find her there.


Yep. Looks like my memory is going. She's on page 67 of The Wormwood Mutiny.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

I received my contributor copies today, so please ask any questions if you'd like a word from the authors.

Shadow Lodge

Steven T. Helt wrote:
I received my contributor copies today, so please ask any questions if you'd like a word from the authors.

Can you say anything about the incutilus lord's special abilities? I'm interested to see what a super incutilus gets compared to its average kin.

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2013

Well..I hope this entices you to get at least a .pdf copyof the adventure, but I'll give you a little info on the incutilis lord. : )

The lord is a much larger, cleverer version of its Bestiary 4 counterpart. Its victims become stronger versions of the living zombies, and the bestiary entry actually includes a rapid rebuild scheme for making non-undead slave versions of its hosts.

The incutilis lord's suite of special abilities includes the ability to incur a horrifying transformation in its victims, and I think sadistic GMs will really enjoy dropping one of these in home campaigns.

Lords are really great swimmers and strong physical fighters in the water.

More details than that and I risk breaking open some spoilers, which I won't do so close to the release of the adventure. But once you get your copy and see him (including some great art work), you'll be glad you did.

Dark Archive

any ETA on PFS chronicle sheets?

the map is AMAZING by the way. i never say this, but if you are playing skull and shackles, you may want to buy a physical copy just for the map. it has *everything* from all sources in one awesomesauce map

Paizo Employee Developer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
strangepork wrote:
any ETA on PFS chronicle sheets?

The most recent word on that appeared in today's blog.

You might need to click on a link or two.

Dark Archive

haha! it took me a minute to read between the lines. woohoo!!

Liberty's Edge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

I'm not sure how I feel about this mod as a replacement for Raiders of the Fever Sea - it feels weird to me that the PCs, having just gotten their own ship, would choose to sign up with and sail away on a completely different one - but I keep coming back to the idea that it might work really well to redirect Souls for Smuggler's Shiv into the Skull and Shackles AP instead of Serpent's Skull. Replace Jask with Sandara on Smuggler's Shiv, and maybe make Ieana an agent of either Cheliax or Harrigan (or both), and I think you could nicely segue from the one to the other. I know a lot of people went into Serpent's Skull with the wrong kind of impression about what it was going to be about, and I think Plunder and Peril might actually serve nicely to address those concerns...

Dark Archive

CHRON sheets in about a month? So... beautiful... should have sent a poet...

Paizo Employee Developer

strangepork wrote:
CHRON sheets in about a month? So... beautiful... should have sent a poet...

I hope you have fun with it. Also give the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game's organized play program a try, as these are the first Chronicle sheets that also provide a benefit in that game.


Looking to schedule these for an upcoming con, does anybody have any insight into how many 4 hours slots each part needs?

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

Part 1 (my part) shouldn't take more than a slot. Not sure about the others. Sorry, Rob.


Thanks Alex,
i glanced over them and scheduled them for 2 slots each. I suspect part 1 will run short, with part 3 being about right and part 2 coming close to the line.


I just picked this up to work into my Skull & Shackles game (finally have a group who think they want to be pirates :) ).

Is there any way to get high-res copies of the blank maps? I'd like to import them into Realm Works so I can show the players where they've been, and link all of the information they have about each location they're aware of.


How much conversion would it take to jump from book one of S&S to this? From there I would likely go off on my own.

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
Nohwear wrote:
How much conversion would it take to jump from book one of S&S to this? From there I would likely go off on my own.

Very little. There are also notes within the module to help you with this process as well.


Ah, thank you.

Grand Lodge

I'll be starting to run this Saturday night with my home game group and was wondering if there's a rough estimate on when this will be reportable for PFS?


I believe it already is.


Yes, they have a chronicle for this one ready and waiting.

Paizo Employee Developer

GM NMP wrote:
I'll be starting to run this Saturday night with my home game group and was wondering if there's a rough estimate on when this will be reportable for PFS?

Take a look toward the bottom of the product description on this page. You should see a link to the Chronicle sheet download.

Grand Lodge

John Compton wrote:
GM NMP wrote:
I'll be starting to run this Saturday night with my home game group and was wondering if there's a rough estimate on when this will be reportable for PFS?
Take a look toward the bottom of the product description on this page. You should see a link to the Chronicle sheet download.

Thanks for the quick response, guys! I'm sorry I was probably unclear. I meant any estimate on when will it be reportable as a session on-line? I thought I saw some of the unreleased Season 6 scenarios listed but didn't see this module.

Thanks again and happy new year everyone!

Paizo Employee Developer

GM NMP wrote:
John Compton wrote:
GM NMP wrote:
I'll be starting to run this Saturday night with my home game group and was wondering if there's a rough estimate on when this will be reportable for PFS?
Take a look toward the bottom of the product description on this page. You should see a link to the Chronicle sheet download.

Thanks for the quick response, guys! I'm sorry I was probably unclear. I meant any estimate on when will it be reportable as a session on-line? I thought I saw some of the unreleased Season 6 scenarios listed but didn't see this module.

Thanks again and happy new year everyone!

Ah, I follow. I'll forward this to our website team to get these three module parts added.

Liberty's Edge

We played Plunder and Peril over this weekend and had a great time. It is a wonderful mix of different challenges and it manages to incorporate just about every pirate theme possible. I would score it a certain 5 star adventure and a good improvement of Raiders of the Fever seas. The first adventure seemed a little short and we played that in a long evening until 1.00am in the morning. It set the scene very well. Part 2 was a very long haul and took all Saturday. It was pretty challenging for the players. Part 3 took us about 8 hours and I had to miss out a couple of arbitrary encounters so that people could get home.

The whole story hangs together very well and it would be a real shame to break it up. These adventures are not three separate part they are one tightly scripted long saga.

Please help. The final bonus 4th chronicle for playing all three is ambiguously word and nearly led to bloodshed around our table. The last paragraph "Shackles Paragon", seems to offer the choice between taking an extra 3XP and an extra 6 PP and extra 11,787 gold (total 12XP 18PP and gold for the whole module) or else taking 2pp the three boons above listed it on the sheet. One player read it as literally as award all boons on the sheet including the extra XP, PP and gold. Surely that can't be true.
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Shackles Paragon: When you earn this Chronicle sheet, you may choose to receive 3 XP, 6 Prestige Points, and 11,787 gp (1.5 XP, 3 Prestige Points, and 5,893 gp for characters using the slow track method of advancement). Alternatively, you may choose to gain no XP and gold, but you earn 2 Prestige Points (1 Prestige Point on slow track) and still qualify for all of the boons on this sheet.
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This seems an overgenerous reward and need a little clarification.

Paizo Employee Developer

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Rob Silk wrote:

Please help. The final bonus 4th chronicle for playing all three is ambiguously word and nearly led to bloodshed around our table. The last paragraph "Shackles Paragon", seems to offer the choice between taking an extra 3XP and an extra 6 PP and extra 11,787 gold (total 12XP 18PP and gold for the whole module) or else taking 2pp the three boons above listed it on the sheet. One player read it as literally as award all boons on the sheet including the extra XP, PP and gold. Surely that can't be true.

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Shackles Paragon: When you earn this Chronicle sheet, you may choose to receive 3 XP, 6 Prestige Points, and 11,787 gp (1.5 XP, 3 Prestige Points, and 5,893 gp for characters using the slow track method of advancement). Alternatively, you may choose to gain no XP and gold, but you earn 2 Prestige Points (1 Prestige Point on slow track) and still qualify for all of the boons on this sheet.
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This seems an overgenerous reward and need a little clarification.

The fourth Chronicle sheet does not change the values on the three preceding Chronicle sheets. It only grants two options of what rewards a character can receive for the fourth Chronicle sheet. Here are the two ways it could play out using the normal XP progression rate:

Method 1
Part 1: 3 XP, 4 PP, 4800 gp
Part 2: 3 XP, 4 PP, 6756 gp
Part 3: 3 XP, 4 PP, 8712 gp
Bonus: 3 XP, 6 PP, 11787 gp

Total earned over the entire adventure: 12 XP, 18 PP, 32,055 gp

Method 2
Part 1: 3 XP, 4 PP, 4800 gp
Part 2: 3 XP, 4 PP, 6756 gp
Part 3: 3 XP, 4 PP, 8712 gp
Bonus: 0 XP, 2 PP, 0 gp

Total earned over the entire adventure: 9 XP, 14 PP, 20,268 gp

So why the two different methods? Both methods' boon is intended to "correct" the slightly lower-than-average Prestige Point earnings associated with playing modules. Method 1 rewards those who want to play the whole module on one character and are also interested in advancing to higher levels quickly—either because they want to participate in higher-level play or because they have earned credit for most scenarios and want to maximize their XP earnings for each published product. Method 2 rewards those who want to keep their character in a particular level-range's sweet spot, don't want to have a beloved character level up too quickly, and/or just want to have Prestige Points that match what they might expect from scenario play.

Chronicle sheet wrote:
Shackles Paragon: When you earn this Chronicle sheet, you may choose to receive 3 XP, 6 Prestige Points, and 11,787 gp (1.5 XP, 3 Prestige Points, and 5,893 gp for characters using the slow track method of advancement). Alternatively, you may choose to gain no XP and gold, but you earn 2 Prestige Points (1 Prestige Point on slow track) and still qualify for all of the boons on this sheet.

The "still" word emphasized above is intended to show that even by taking the reduced reward, one does not lose the other boons.

Grand Lodge

Sorry if I missed this in the Guide to Organized Play but if PCs are going to play through the entire module with non-PFS legal characters (but they are going to apply the credit to their PFS characters), would they or would they not get day job rolls?

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

This is a wonderful adventure and I am just limbering up to run it for the second time but
I've just reported the first game of Plunder and Peril that I ran a month ago. The players did all three parts which entitles them to 12XP and 18PP but the online reporting system only allows them 4PP. I thought there might be three different places to report it. i.e. Plunder and Peril I; Plunder and Peril II; Plunder and Peril III. Am I missing a trick or is the technical department still working on this long term issue?

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
Rob Silk wrote:

This is a wonderful adventure and I am just limbering up to run it for the second time but

I've just reported the first game of Plunder and Peril that I ran a month ago. The players did all three parts which entitles them to 12XP and 18PP but the online reporting system only allows them 4PP. I thought there might be three different places to report it. i.e. Plunder and Peril I; Plunder and Peril II; Plunder and Peril III. Am I missing a trick or is the technical department still working on this long term issue?

Rob, if you haven't already, I'd post about this over on the PFS boards.


Shouldn't Jemma Redclaw have 8 feats? I only counted 7.

Lantern Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Did I just miss this in the module or has anyone calculated how many days elapse between each of the set pieces in Part 2?

Scarab Sages

Is there a way I can report errors for this? Like errata? Or are there errate somewhere already? (couldnt find it). I found several small mistakes with the monsters.

For example, the Racers in Rum Punch are described as human pickpockets with 14 HP, but the actual stats in the NPC codes makes them Thugs (figher1/rogue1) with 16 HP.

But bigger is Mother Grund. She is called an advanced green hag in the module, but in her tactics section uses horrific appearance ability and evil eye. That would make her a sea hag, nog a green hag.

This is of course easily remidied in a home game, but does give some interesting conundrums for Pathfinder Society, where everything has to be RAW.

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