Pathfinder Adventure Path #97: In Hell's Bright Shadow (Hell's Rebels 1 of 6) (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Adventure Path #97: In Hell's Bright Shadow (Hell's Rebels 1 of 6) (PFRPG)
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The rebellion begins!

The city of Kintargo has long been a safe haven for artists, freethinkers, and those marginalized by the oppressive Chelish government, but now the city has been placed under martial law by inquisitor Barzillai Thrune. When a protest turns into a riot, a new group of heroes comes together to form an organized resistance against the devil-binding government and the church of Asmodeus—but can they survive long enough to establish allies? Or will they become the latest victims of the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune?

This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path begins the Hell's Rebels Adventure Path and includes:

  • "In Hell's Bright Shadow," a Pathfinder adventure for 1st-level characters, by Crystal Frasier.
  • A double-sized gazetteer of the freewheeling coastal city of Kintargo, by Crystal Frasier.
  • A plague doctor from Khari searching desperately for a cure in the Pathfinder's Journal, by Stephanie Lorée.
  • A collection of monsters both dangerous and beneficial, by Crystal Frasier, Eric Hindley, and Michael McCarthy.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-768-0

Bring your campaign to life!
The In Hell's Bright Shadow SoundPack from Syrinscape is a complete audio solution when playing through the first chapter of the Hell's Rebels Adventure Path.

"In Hell's Bright Shadow" is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheet are available as a free download (723 kb zip/PDF).

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

Hero Lab Online
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SoundSet on Syrinscape
Archives of Nethys

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The Revolution Begins!

5/5

After a delightfully flavorful opening scene, this book delivers on one of the central promises of this AP almost immediately by making the players take charge of creating a revolution. Every step of the way, I felt like our characters were making progress towards building our resistance in ways that made sense considering our strength and influence. The challenges are varied and good, and the characters are memorable. There's also a satisfying minor villain that is set up at the beginning and dealt with at the end, making this book have an ending that feels significant, but not too much for a book 1.

As a side note, Hell's Rebels is an AP about rebelling against repressive authority SHOULD have girl (and trans) power, so idk what the hells people were expecting. Anyone who disagrees is free to go find people that agree with them more in hell's vengeance (and is also free to stay the hells away from me).




Solid Start

4/5

This is a solid start to an adventure path. It does a good job of gathering together PCs from different backgrounds and making them invested in accomplishing the objectives of the adventure path. The villains are remember-able and easy to hate and the plot does a good job of encouraging the players to go to places and do things, but doesn’t make them feel railroaded. The only reason I am not giving this book five stars is because some of the fights were unfair for lower level PCs and because the NPC backgrounds that were provided seemed to not-sych with the main plot and sometimes directly contradict the main plot’s themes (see spoilers for more information). This adventure path will go downhill in future books (see my review of other books for more details), but this book is solid and a good start.

Fights:

There are three problematic fights in this book. The first fight in the book gets harder and harder until the PCs flee, which is an interesting idea, but since the adventure path makes it clear that running is abandoning innocent people to arrest there is a serious change of one or more PC continuing to fight until they are arrested or even killed in the first fight. Later there is a fight with a flying sorceress that can cast scorching ray, and not only is it hard for low level characters to do serious damage to a flying creature, but if one of them gets high by a scorching ray critical, they will likely die. The final boss fight has a creature that has regeneration 5 that is overcome only by holy damage. She will run if damaged enough, but it is almost impossible for low lever PCs to do holy damage which makes a hard fight almost impossible.

NPC Backgrounds:
This adventure path provides stat blocks for notable NPCs and includes character backgrounds for them. The problem is that these backgrounds feel like they were written by a completely different person. The kind Halfling baker has the background of a hedonist with a voracious sexual appetite. The everyman who was thrust into this rebellion by chance has the background of a being an absolute saint who wants to save the world and who needs regular expensive alchemical items to prevent from turning back into a woman (an obvious transsexual analogy … which doesn’t work in a world with multiple relatively cheap magic items that permanently change people’s sex). This is a problem that is going to continue and get worse in the books to come.


The best Paizo AP?

5/5

*DISCLAIMER*: This is a single review for all adventures in this AP.
Hell’s Rebels is the best Paizo Adventure Path. Of all the AP, it is the one that’s most coherent, approachable and GM-friendly. This review applies to all 6 books because their quality and style are so consistent that you don’t even notice the fact that they were written by 6 different authors.

Let me quickly list some of the most important things which Hell’s Rebels gets right:

1. It has a clear, believable and complex plot which goes from point A to point B to point C while at the same time allowing for multitude of side treks, optional quests and player-driven initiatives.
2. It goes full on Golarion. It touches upon core themes of the setting and is heavily nested in its history. It provides the much-anticipated opportunity to punch one of the biggest evils of the setting in the face. One warning: you can’t just lift HR and drop it into other settings without massive amounts of work.
3. The BBEG is front and center, introduced in adventure 1, encountered and fought against several times across the campaign. He’s evil, callous, quirky, nasty, brutal, amoral and good at being bad. He’s right up there with Ileosa from CotCT.
4. The campaign starts in one city and mostly stays there, with some small side-treks and one bigger detour which, fortunately, is also urban.
5. There is a cadre of sympathetic, recurring allied NPCs to play second fiddles to the PCs. There are also enemies whom you can interact in ways other than roll for initiative. The RP opportunities are plenty.
6. The cast of both allies and opponents is diverse in every sense of that word.
7. The players get opportunity to discover some of the setting’s secrets and, to a limited yet satisfying degree, reshape it without causing a Realm-Shattering Event.
8. The ending is epic to the core and fitting for a campaign of this scale and magnitude.
9. Episode 4 is a special issue with extra page count, longer adventure, more support material, an excellent article on Aroden and much, much more!
10. I love the blue colour theme for this AP AND Wayne Reynolds did the cover art. Double victory!


Story of Rebellion in Adventure Form

5/5

My first review on Paizo. I felt as I needed to for this path. The path is, overall, my favorite that I've read. On a personal level I classify it as the 'BEST' path for me as a DM. On to In Hell's Bright Shadow...

Points of Praise
- Interesting Villains (Use mint at your peril!)
- Interesting NPCS in General (Venseldek and Rexus are both beloved by my party)
- The confined setting (that continues throughout the path for the most part) allows the ability to give your PCs very deep story based roots.
- The sections laying out the city of Kintargo and the major players there give a lot of ground for those roots to dig into.

DM Recommendations
- The beginning can be clunky (something I didn't notice until my group started). Either find a way to get them together when the shoe drops or be sure that they know each other previously. It goes without saying but I'll stress, "Make sure they want to start a revolution!"
- The game plays out over weeks so be on the look out for players who build crafting munchkin characters and maybe try and steer them away from it.
- Stress silver weapons. The campaign trait of the Kintargo Nobility can get you a good silver 2 hander.
- Flesh out the weeks with personal story elements to give the passage of time weight.

Not my favorite book in the path but still a 5. I'm pretty sure book 3 or 4 are easily my favorites.

Enjoy!


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TRDG wrote:

Could anyone give us a heads up on the location types of maps one might need (flip, map packs) and and anything one might find on a Google search as I may be running this on Roll20 as well sometime soon.

I won't get this first book til Sep 2 when it hits the hobby store so any advanced prep I can do would help me out quite a bit.

I get this is a urban city Adventure but I am betting there will be more than a few specific and not some generic (city) areas in this, LOL

Thanks

:)

Haven't fully read yet but I was very pleased with the urban maps provided in this module, I giggled in delight at having options to use in any urban setting in future games of mine. I do not believe there are many situations where a generic map is required, aside from doing random encounter stuff. I'd probably go for streets and outdoor urban options, and I believe most buildings with significant encounters are mapped. Though generic buildings are never bad either. Can never have too many maps


Sounds good, thanks Carter, good to hear this aspect of the campaign is rockin as well, can't wait to get mine and start running it.

So no flip or Map packs are specifically made or upcoming yet for this campaign as far as you know, just to make sure here bud.

Thanks

Liberty's Edge Assistant Developer

No flip mats are specifically required, but Flip-Mat Slum Quarter could be useful for at least one of the side encounters in this adventure.


Thanks Crystal, I was eyeing up that map and now that clinch's it's purchase in September!!!

Shadow Lodge

A few issues I'm noticing.

Spoilsy Stuff:
So, as far as I can tell, Kintargo is probably Cheliax's most important port city, having access to not only Varisia to the north, (which looks to be cut off from most other Cheliax ports), but also fairly easy access to, well, the entirety of Garund, Tian Xia, and the rest of the northern continent. Maybe it's just that I really don't care for Cheliax, but how is it possible that this absolute jewel or mercantile and naval power is so outside of the nation's control? I mean it's a CG populated area that up until a week and a half ago seems to have basically free reign within the empire, and even having a scandalously outspoken lord-mayor. That seems more than just a little off. And then House Thrune just allows their (in their view), simple and undesirable cousin to go rule on a whim?
-
It's a bit telling that 3/5 players took Ex-Asmodean. (They also took Reactionary for Init. . .)
-
I find it extremely odd that it seems Andoran doesn't even get an honorable mention, particularly in the motivation area. It's ok, because in my campaign the Silver Ravens are actually another secret society/branch of the Eagle Knights that focus on educated and diplomatic means of spreading the way, and I'm probably going to swap them for the ones in the book, but it just seemed like a huge oversight.
-
I'm also a little bit unclear on the time lines. Assuming that the start of the adventure is day 0, so 10 days ago, a lot of the "hidden" Chaoticish, Goodish faiths in the are where burned to the ground, and many of their leading members murdered. Why is Rahadoum not even mentioned here? Number 1 suspects one would rationally think. The notably outspoken (ex-)Lord Mayor abandons the city. At the same time, the Glorious Reclimation basically retcons the one cool Hellknight order of the Godclaw out of existence way off in a galaxy far away.
3 days later, the legitimate arrives, disbands the local city guard to be replaced by his own loyal agents, as well as replaces the missing Hellknights. I get this nagging feeling like there was some sort of chaos and disorder the BBEG used to ease his way in, but I don't actually see it locally. He then issues 7 edicts, (which I understand are intentionally, well dumb), (issue is, it make shim li=ook like a chump that will get killed by his own <wo>men, not an actual threat that needs taken care of). And all of this leads to the Day 1 public protest in the park, which no one things is, you know, a bad idea that will lead to mass beatings and arrests/exocutions under Thrunite law? Huh???

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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"Devil's Advocate" wrote:

A few issues I'm noticing.

Spoiler:
So, as far as I can tell, Kintargo is probably Cheliax's most important port city, having access to not only Varisia to the north, (which looks to be cut off from most other Cheliax ports), but also fairly easy access to, well, the entirety of Garund, Tian Xia, and the rest of the northern continent. Maybe it's just that I really don't care for Cheliax, but how is it possible that this absolute jewel or mercantile and naval power is so outside of the nation's control? I mean it's a CG populated area that up until a week and a half ago seems to have basically free reign within the empire, and even having a scandalously outspoken lord-mayor. That seems more than just a little off. And then House Thrune just allows their (in their view), simple and undesirable cousin to go rule on a whim?
-
It's a bit telling that 3/5 players took Ex-Asmodean. (They also took Reactionary for Init. . .)
-
I find it extremely odd that it seems Andoran doesn't even get an honorable mention, particularly in the motivation area. It's ok, because in my campaign the Silver Ravens are actually another secret society/branch of the Eagle Knights that focus on educated and diplomatic means of spreading the way, and I'm probably going to swap them for the ones in the book, but it just seemed like a huge oversight.
-
I'm also a little bit unclear on the time lines. Assuming that the start of the adventure is day 0, so 10 days ago, a lot of the "hidden" Chaoticish, Goodish faiths in the are where burned to the ground, and many of their leading members murdered. Why is Rahadoum not even mentioned here? Number 1 suspects one would rationally think. The notably outspoken (ex-)Lord Mayor abandons the city. At the same time, the Glorious Reclimation basically retcons the one cool Hellknight order of the Godclaw out of existence way off in a galaxy far away.
3 days later, the legitimate arrives, disbands the local city guard to be replaced by his own loyal agents, as well as replaces the missing Hellknights. I get this nagging feeling like there was some sort of chaos and disorder the BBEG used to ease his way in, but I don't actually see it locally. He then issues 7 edicts, (which I understand are intentionally, well dumb), (issue is, it make shim li=ook like a chump that will get killed by his own <wo>men, not an actual threat that needs taken care of). And all of this leads to the Day 1 public protest in the park, which no one things is, you know, a bad idea that will lead to mass beatings and arrests/exocutions under Thrunite law? Huh???

I guess I'll spoiler my replies...

Spoiler:
Kintargo is an important port for Cheliax... but nowhere NEAR the most important one. The vast majority of trade for Cheliax comes from its southern coastal cities, which trade with Katapesh, Absalom, Osirion, and so on. There's really not a lot significant to trade with to the north, frankly, compared to the south and east. Cheliax is MUCH more focused on their southern front, their border with Andoran, their situation with Sargava and Isger, and their alliance with Nidal than they are with Kintargo... and it's because of that that Kintargo is so radical and free-spirited for a Chelish city. Not the other way around.

Andoran is very far away and more interested in southern/eastern Cheliax than it is with the boonies up to the north. Furthermore, Andoran's role is larger in the next Adventure Path, and we wanted to try to keep the "crossover" elements to a minimum because otherwise we'd run the risk of people being frustrated that in order to run one of the two APs they'd think they need to buy both and wait an extra six months. That's not the case. Hell's Rebels is very much designed to be a VERY local AP, and Andoran is in no way local to Kintargo. It's not a huge oversight at all. In fact, if Andoran had a larger and more vocal/visible presence in Kintargo, then Cheliax would have been paying much more attention to it anyway. The fact that Kintargo's gone ignored mostly by Andoran (again, because it's so far away) is one of several reasons why Cheliax has been focusing its attention elsewhere and is one more reason why Kintargo has been able to develop into the city it is now.

Only one of the "hidden" good faiths got their stuff burnt to the ground, and that one wasn't Chaotic; that was the faith of Sarenrae. The churches of Desna and Cayden Caliean don't have a big presence in the city, and the church of Milani has always been hidden and survived the Night of Ashes more or less intact. The other two things that burnt down were a tavern that catered to rebels and a noble house that had links to the Sacred Order; neither are specifically "chaotic faiths."

Rahadoum isn't mentioned at all because it, like Andoran, is very far away and has other interests; they're primarially concerned with the southwest of Cheliax, particularly the area around the Arch of Aroden. They pretty much don't really care at all about something as far away as Kintargo.

A lot of your concerns seem to rise from the mistaken assumption that Kintargo is a big deal for Cheliax. It's not. It's a pretty backwater region that has in large part been ignored by the government, and when things go bad in the nation, they send one of their least favorite Thrunes up there to deal with it... to the Queen, if Barzillai manages to keep Kintargo under control, that's a win for her, but if he ends up getting in over his head and gets killed, that's also a win for her because she doesn't really trust him since he's got one foot equally in Thrune and in the church of Asmodeus. It's really a win-win for the queen, regardless of how things work out with Barzillai in Kintargo.

As for why the locals do their protest despite the fact that they do realize that it might be a bad idea? It's because that protest IS the first bit of chaos and disorder that results from Barzillai's arrival in town. Kintargo basically took about a week to realize what was really going on, and that allows you to play out how the city reacts in your game rather than have a lot of that growing rebellion and resentment play out in read-aloud text before the AP begins.

Hope that clears some concerns up!

Shadow Lodge

Spoiler:
It helps some. I'm mostly coming from jut going off of what the PG and the 1st part say, and the impressions I'm getting as I read it. I guess I'm just seeing it a little differently. Just based on the maps, it looks like Kintargo has significantly easier access to a lot of places the southern Cheliax wouldn't, but also a pretty reasonable access to a lot of the areas southern Cheliax does. The fact that, being somewhat cut off from the rest of the mainland also means that invaders could use it as a major staging ground without being detected, which to me seems very odd that someone so interested in utter domination of the political sphere of the nation (Thrune and Church Asmodeus) would simply allow to do as they please.
-
I'm also kind of seeing it as a lose/lose for the Queen. I mean on one hand, if he does the family proud, it kind of puts all the "proper" Thunes to shame, and if he fails, it shows, publically, that both the Church of Asmodeus and the Thrune name are weak. I mean it's absolutely clear from the DM's perspective that this guy is exceptionally competent and ambitious. He's risen in the ranks of BOTH the Church and the nobility of <well in their heads at least> the greatest empire in the world. And no one had any Red Flags go off? And if he succeeds <at what they think he is doing any way>, he suddenly rockets up to a rival, who has both the backing of some of the family and most of the Church. Might be looking a bit too hard at things, here, but this is the impression I get from just reading the AP <part 1>.

Would it be possible to get some spoiler free, practical and common knowledge info on the Order of the Torrent? I realize they will be coming up in part two, but it really seems like a group that players will be interested in asking about, (as far as common local knowledge), but I can't seem to really find out anything about them aside from the fact that they might be interested in finding missing people. More specifically, outlaws? Collecting bounties? America's Most Wanted? Escaped slaves? I really have no idea what this faction does, or rather did? Ace Ventura?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

There's a lot more information about what's going on in the adventure in the adventure itself. The Player's Guide is deliberately vague and spoiler free and may even have some deliberately misleading inforamtion, in fact. And while Kintargo does have quicker access to Varisia and Nidal than the rest of Cheliax... Cheliax isn't actually all that super interested in lots of Varisia contact these days, or what's north, with the exception of Nidal, who doesn't have a lot of interest in Kintargo themselves. This isn't to say Chelaix is uninterested in Kintargo... just that it's not super high on their list for "best" anything. It's actually one of the smaller cities in the nation.

There'll be more information about the Order of the Torrent, as you know, in part two... but at this point I don't have access to that information (I'm posting this from home). I can tell you this—they are the Hellknights most likely to cater to lawful good, and focus on ALL missing people, but specifically those who have been abducted or captured by enemies. They're sort of like the FBI in that regard. They also have some nautical themes as well. But basically, if you think of them as the Hellknights who would be the best at rescuing abductees and kidnap victims and would often do so out of the goodness of their heart and often won't charge for their services, you're heading in the right direction.

Liberty's Edge Assistant Developer

If you want a good in-world explanation for Kintargo being a backwater despite being close to Varisia, then it's probably a combination of geography and politics. Kintargo has an okay ahrbor, but not an incredible one. Even with the efforts to enlarge the harber, the area just isn't large enough to accommodate vessels of real size and value. And yes, it has relatively easy access to Varisia, but how much does Varisia, but any goods imported to Kintargo still need to be shipped over-land through the Menador Mountains and then the Barrowood to be of any use to the rest of the empire, and simply sailing around the continent to a larger southern port (especially Corentyn) is usually faster and easier.

Politically, Kintargans are a terrible combination of divisive, politically active, and opportunistic. The city likes secrets and graft and efforts that could eventually make the city more valuable to Cheliax at large are usually stymied by the Court of Coin and other clandestined organizations and have been for decades. Each of the city's secret powers wants to make sure than any major developments int he city benefit them and their ideals, and to outsiders that makes any large-scale projects in Kintargo a frustrating morass.

And Kintargo goes out to publicly protest because that is what--up until this point--they have always been free to do in the past. That's how they expect to react to problems with the city. Never before has a lord mayor turned the guards loose on protesters, so why would they imagine it would happen this time.

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 8

The thing is, Varisia itself is kind of a back-water. It may the place where a lot of adventures take place, but that's due to its general lawlessness, high population of monstrous humanoids and melting pot characteristics. There are easier places to trade with, with less chance of losing investment to ogre attacks, goblin raiders, etc.


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Crystal Frasier wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:

Having been thoroughly miffed by Giantslayer, I am happy to say this campaign looks freaking awesome.

Also, I am delighted by the fact that the "outlawing mint" is actually in the adventure. Well played Crystal, well played.

I guess you could say Barzilai is... confection-wary

:D

*sets up a table in the middle of the main town square*

*unpacks Harsk's tea set and starts brewing*
*pours*
Mmmm... Mint tea.


Fourshadow wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:
I LOVE shrikes! Now we have rules for them being animal companions?! Paizo is so wonderful!
Any chance we could get more info on the impaler shrike?! Please?!

P-P-P-P-P-Puh-leaze?! September 2nd is sooooooo far away!

Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Fourshadow wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:
I LOVE shrikes! Now we have rules for them being animal companions?! Paizo is so wonderful!
Any chance we could get more info on the impaler shrike?! Please?!
P-P-P-P-P-Puh-leaze?! September 2nd is sooooooo far away!

Well, it's a CR 3 large animal. It can move creatures that are grappled in its beak and impale them on nearby spikes or broken tree limbs. As a companion, it begins as a small creature. At level 7, it advances to medium and gains the impale ability.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Demiurge 1138 wrote:
The thing is, Varisia itself is kind of a back-water. It may the place where a lot of adventures take place, but that's due to its general lawlessness, high population of monstrous humanoids and melting pot characteristics. There are easier places to trade with, with less chance of losing investment to ogre attacks, goblin raiders, etc.

Exactly. Varisia is a frontier, and as such it's relatively self-sustaining. In time, it will likely grow into a much more important trade region, but for now it's nothing compared to trade with the southern regions, and as such hardly important enough to make Kintargo a subsequently important port for Cheliax itself.

Liberty's Edge Assistant Developer

2 people marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
Demiurge 1138 wrote:
The thing is, Varisia itself is kind of a back-water. It may the place where a lot of adventures take place, but that's due to its general lawlessness, high population of monstrous humanoids and melting pot characteristics. There are easier places to trade with, with less chance of losing investment to ogre attacks, goblin raiders, etc.
Exactly. Varisia is a frontier, and as such it's relatively self-sustaining. In time, it will likely grow into a much more important trade region, but for now it's nothing compared to trade with the southern regions, and as such hardly important enough to make Kintargo a subsequently important port for Cheliax itself.

Especially with Vyre--a city with deep harbors and loyal citizens--just across the bay.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

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Crystal Frasier wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Demiurge 1138 wrote:
The thing is, Varisia itself is kind of a back-water. It may the place where a lot of adventures take place, but that's due to its general lawlessness, high population of monstrous humanoids and melting pot characteristics. There are easier places to trade with, with less chance of losing investment to ogre attacks, goblin raiders, etc.
Exactly. Varisia is a frontier, and as such it's relatively self-sustaining. In time, it will likely grow into a much more important trade region, but for now it's nothing compared to trade with the southern regions, and as such hardly important enough to make Kintargo a subsequently important port for Cheliax itself.
Especially with Vyre--a city with deep harbors and loyal citizens--just across the bay.

Actually... Vyre has worse harbors that Kintargo, and even less to trade. Vyre's kind of the Vegas of Cheliax; a place where folks can go to relax and engage in things that they can't elsewhere, which makes it into a sort of weird necessary "evil" for the Chelish government, but not one that they'd ever admit openly that they want. More details on Vyre are coming in Pathfinder #99.


donato wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:
Fourshadow wrote:
I LOVE shrikes! Now we have rules for them being animal companions?! Paizo is so wonderful!
Any chance we could get more info on the impaler shrike?! Please?!
P-P-P-P-P-Puh-leaze?! September 2nd is sooooooo far away!
Well, it's a CR 3 large animal. It can move creatures that are grappled in its beak and impale them on nearby spikes or broken tree limbs. As a companion, it begins as a small creature. At level 7, it advances to medium and gains the impale ability.

It is CR 3 and large to begin with? Yet advances to medium? Is it really the other way around--starts medium and advances to large? Just a bit confusing, but thank you very much for the info!


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Animal companions do not have to "work" like monsters from the bestiary (usually due to balance reasons, e.g. see the bear).

Ruyan.

Shadow Lodge

Thanks, I'll keep all this in mind as I continue to read.

Dark Archive

Read through the adventure and initial impressions are positive. I like the flow of the adventure and foreshadowing. The set pieces were pretty cool, especially part 3. Not the biggest fan of subsystems but understand in a complex rules system everything needs to be codified.

The Bestiary had 3 very cool monster. Nice design work on Gambling Devil, Scrivenite, and Slithering Pit. Some very creative monsters.


4 people marked this as a favorite.

My subscription copy arrived yesterday from across the Atlantic. I hadn't yet downloaded the pdf as I'm so focussed on running Mummy's Mask at the moment and there's a good chance I'll end up as a player of this AP rather than running it.

However!

I just wanted to say that this is one beautiful book. The new logo is lovely and clean looking. The stained glass window graphics on the standard page layout is stunning and the new location indicator showing clearly which section you are in is v useful.

Please pass huge kudos to those responsible for improving an already excellent product design.

Silver Crusade Contributor

Folkish Elm wrote:

My subscription copy arrived yesterday from across the Atlantic. I hadn't yet downloaded the pdf as I'm so focussed on running Mummy's Mask at the moment and there's a good chance I'll end up as a player of this AP rather than running it.

However!

I just wanted to say that this is one beautiful book. The new logo is lovely and clean looking. The stained glass window graphics on the standard page layout is stunning and the new location indicator showing clearly which section you are in is v useful.

Please pass huge kudos to those responsible for improving an already excellent product design.

Seconding this. The design here is one of the most gorgeous yet! ^_^

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Rather enjoying this, thirding the Window designs. I'd say the gazetteer alone is worthy of getting this volume; quite a bit you can use without even running this campaign.

Also, the backpage with future NPC's (similar to WotR) is a great touch.

Minor thing about the Scrivenite...:
..regarding the entry about using Charisma for the save DC's for the spell-like abilities. I think Intelligence as the base ability was intended, as spell-like ability DC's normally run off of Charisma?


I want to thank the guys who designed the Pit Ooze creature, the gambling devil and the guy who made the magic book creature for the bestiary.

Those 3 new monsters made it in the large group of my Paizo favorites pretty fast! Awesome abilities, design, picture and description/fluff! Bravo!

The giant birds are nice too, but i'm sad that the Raven got the picture, and not the other two which I can't picture in my mind, sure everybody can picture a giant raven, but the other two sound more special. Rather seen Boobrie here, would suit perfectly among the giant birds.


Three-Legged Devil has got to be one of, if not the best name for a Dancehall yet!

I really love the details Crystal Frasier includes in her Gazetteers, really well done!


I do like the magic book creature though considering the oozes abilities and concept I would have thought it would have been a higher CR.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

DeciusNero wrote:

Rather enjoying this, thirding the Window designs. I'd say the gazetteer alone is worthy of getting this volume; quite a bit you can use without even running this campaign.

Also, the backpage with future NPC's (similar to WotR) is a great touch.

Spoiler:
..regarding the entry about using Charisma for the save DC's for the spell-like abilities. I think Intelligence as the base ability was intended, as spell-like ability DC's normally run off of Charisma?

Spoiler:
I believe that's a weird sort of holdover from the stat-block generator that should have been excised; it's not technically incorrect to list this information about spell-like ability save DCs, but it IS clutter. In any event, Intelligence was NOT the base ability intended.
Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Ah, alright.


Is there a good source for maps for this campaign available?


The PDF version comes with a separate maps file and its pretty nice.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Has anyone else not received their subscription copy? Mine shipped on the 18th and I'm worried I missed the delivery now that we are well out of the 11 business day window.


Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

There should be a tracking link in your shipment email. I got mine Wednesday.


Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I got my book last week. I got the shipping e-mail on the 18th, but it was several days after it reached my regional post office (where the tracking ended).


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Ed Reppert wrote:
There should be a tracking link in your shipment email. I got mine Wednesday.

Unfortunately, shipping to Canada disqualifies me from that. But if people just got their's it should still be en route.


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Is it just me, or does the quality of the physical book seem much higher than it has been for previous adventure paths?


A small typo - in Part 3 of the adventure, you've described the scrivenite encounter on page 46. Then, under the stat-block, there's no entry but it refers me back to page 46, when the Bestiary entry is on page 86.

Other than that, loved it! So much detail, I'm still reading it over and finding new stuff to use for my upcoming game.


Got it last week, just started reading today - my first Pathfinder AP :D Well, other than the RotR anniversary edition.

Only up through Part 1 so far, small thing - right at the start with the map of the square outside the opera house, it says that the squares marked as such are densely crowded by protesters and are thus difficult terrain, but there doesn't seem to actually be any crowd on the map? I don't tend to use maps anyway so not a problem for me, just an odd thing I noticed. Unless the idea is that the GM mark the crowd themselves? Anyways.

Second the statements about the prettiness though, gorgeous book!

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Hnnggghhh, heard this has giant raven in bestiary which would be good since I would finally know tengu raven form's stats/attacks, but I don't want to spoil this one D: I wonder if I could play this in roll20 game or something, otherwise I'd probably have to wait for at least year so that both this and hell's vengeance are finished, I think lot of people like idea of running both at same time so the teams can be pitted agaisnt each other at the end...

Silver Crusade Contributor

CorvusMask wrote:
Hnnggghhh, heard this has giant raven in bestiary which would be good since I would finally know tengu raven form's stats/attacks, but I don't want to spoil this one D: I wonder if I could play this in roll20 game or something, I'm not sure if I can avoid getting this for that reason for year

In time, you might be able to find the stats elsewhere, if you're looking to avoid spoilers. (Otherwise, I'd say buy it, because it's amazing.)

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I guess so. Well can't take too long for it to pop up somewhere..(also, dang, I edited message too slowly xD)


Maddy Tallbird wrote:

Only up through Part 1 so far, small thing - right at the start with the map of the square outside the opera house, it says that the squares marked as such are densely crowded by protesters and are thus difficult terrain, but there doesn't seem to actually be any crowd on the map? I don't tend to use maps anyway so not a problem for me, just an odd thing I noticed. Unless the idea is that the GM mark the crowd themselves? Anyways.

Third post of the GM Reference Thread:

donato wrote:

In regards to the map of the encounter at Aria Park:

James Jacobs wrote:
donato wrote:
The map for the protest is noted to have an area outlined showing where the crowd is placed. However, looking at the PDF map, it doesn't seem to have that marked. What is the approximate size of the area so I can note that for my home game?
We decided to not clutter the map with additional tags, but alas, didn't adjust the text properly. The exact size of the crowd can be adjusted as you wish, but I"d suggest putting in at least three dozen protesters, if not more. Fill up the plaza and the street to either side if you can, but don't use up EVERY square.

Sovereign Court

FallenDabus wrote:
Ed Reppert wrote:
There should be a tracking link in your shipment email. I got mine Wednesday.
Unfortunately, shipping to Canada disqualifies me from that. But if people just got their's it should still be en route.

Ditto. Mine shipped around the same time as yours and still hasn't arrived.


Are any of the APs not so city centric? I keep waiting for something wilderness based or exploration based to come out, and nothing... Maybe something with a small town as the hub or even a series of small towns. Something with a sense of adventure.

City based adventures are just not interesting to me (or my group). I am hoping something interesting comes along to get us to try playing pathfinder again. And the next AP series sounds even worse... an evil party? Ugh.

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

Kingmaker would probably be the best bet, but Skull and Shackles doesn't really have a lot of cities, and neither does Reign of Winter.

Dark Archive

scrivenite stat block on page 46:
XP 1,200 Scrivenite (see page 46) hp 37

What should be the correct reference?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Chris Ballard wrote:

** spoiler omitted **

What should be the correct reference?

Page 86.

Liberty's Edge

DM Dad wrote:
Are any of the APs not so city centric? I keep waiting for something wilderness based or exploration based to come out, and nothing... Maybe something with a small town as the hub or even a series of small towns. Something with a sense of adventure.

Have you played Rise of the Runelords? Because apart from one chapter which spends about half its length in a large city, it's all smaller towns, wilderness and dungeons.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

It finally made it to me! Good timing too, I was seriously getting worried and was going to email customer services tomorrow. Good things come to those who wait!


3 people marked this as a favorite.
DM Dad wrote:

Are any of the APs not so city centric? I keep waiting for something wilderness based or exploration based to come out, and nothing... Maybe something with a small town as the hub or even a series of small towns. Something with a sense of adventure.

City based adventures are just not interesting to me (or my group). I am hoping something interesting comes along to get us to try playing pathfinder again. And the next AP series sounds even worse... an evil party? Ugh.

Wasn't Kingmaker, Giant Slayer, Wrath of the Righteous, Reign of Winter, Skull & Shackles, Jade Regent, Serpent's Skull, and Second Darkness all not really very urban?


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Carrion Crown was a road trip, too

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