Pathfinder Adventure Path #109: In Search of Sanity (Strange Aeons 1 of 6) (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Adventure Path #109: In Search of Sanity (Strange Aeons 1 of 6) (PFRPG)
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Waking Nightmares

The Strange Aeons Adventure Path begins with "In Search of Sanity," a mind-shattering foray into horror where the heroes awaken within the walls of the eerie Briarstone Asylum, their minds wracked and memories missing. Working together to recover their missing time, they soon learn that their amnesia is but a symptom of a much greater cosmic menace. As they struggle to retain their sanity, the heroes must ally with other asylum residents and fight against the monstrosities that have taken over the building and plunged it into nightmare. Can the adventurers defeat the terror that stalks the halls and free themselves from their prison of madness?

This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path launches the Strange Aeons Adventure Path and includes:

  • "In Search of Sanity," a Pathfinder adventure for 1st-level characters, by F. Wesley Schneider.
  • A double-sized article that peers into the dangerous realm of the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods who make up the Elder Mythos, by James Jacobs.
  • A dollmaker's macabre secret in the Pathfinder's Journal, by Jason Keeley.
  • A collection of weird and frightful new monsters, by Eric Hindley, James Jacobs, Jenny Jarzabski, and F. Wesley Schneider.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-882-3

Bring your campaign to life!
The In Search of Sanity SoundPack from Syrinscape is a complete audio solution when playing through the first chapter of the Strange Aeons Adventure Path.

"In Search of Sanity" 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
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
SoundSet on Syrinscape
Archives of Nethys

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

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A great start

5/5

This part of the Adventure Path sets the perfect start for a Lovecraftian horror setting. It is very clear cut who is good and who is evil, making the Players believe it is always very clear, which is where we want them, so we can surprise them later!
It is one big dungeon crawl, which can be a bit tedious, but otherwise an amazing adventure and a great start. Not too much prep-work needed, so you are able to focus on stuff like soundscape, handouts etc.


One of the best openers to an AP I've ever been in

5/5

To put it simply, I absolutely adored this book. I will never, ever forget the bizarre surreal experience of exploring the asylum and having no idea what was going on, the desperate struggle for survival, the dreamy, jaundiced quality to everything... just absolutely 10/10 on atmosphere.

I was a player, so can't comment on anything behind the scenes.

I want to give huge kudos to Paizo for setting a book in an asylum and not making mental illness the real terror, or making the place terrifying because of its mentally ill inmates. The place was beset by real monsters, which made the challenges faced by the staff who were trying to protect the patients all the more upsetting. The patients were handled sensitively and some were truly tragic, and none were monsters simply because of their afflictions. In a setting often beset by lazy, ignorant writing this was a real triumph.

It's not easy to tackle cosmic horror in a game where the players are accustomed to being empowered and are assumed to be able to kill everything they face. I think this book handled it admirably. The encounters seemed a little harder than I'm used to in a first book (perhaps subjective) and the things themselves were horrifying enough that even defeating them wouldn't exclude us from the psychological trauma of facing them down. It rewards thoughtful roleplay with a thought to real psychological consequences.

After reading other reviews of this entire AP, I realize that it holds much greater delights for those who are extremely familiar with the source material and perhaps comes across as bizarre or underwhelming for those who don't know it, or who have a very limited or stereotyped idea of what weird fiction and cosmic horror should be. That's a shame, but I want to add my voice to say that I think this AP was (largely) a unique and wonderful experience, and an excellent way to bring cosmic horror themes to a combat-oriented role playing game.

One minor point of note - I don't think we'd have made it through this AP if we'd used the sanity system out of the box. Too many things would be utterly ruinous to the point where we'd have been gibbering idiots before even the halfway point. We just ran a houseruled version which worked neatly enough, though I'd be interested to hear how it went for anyone who just went for it as is!


5/5


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Samy wrote:
I could swear I've seen the Lowls image before. Has it been used in some preview blog article somewhere, or is it recycled art from somewhere?

As Rysky said, he appears in Rule of Fear. He also appears on the cover of the 4th installment of this AP so that might be where you've most recently seen him.

Liberty's Edge

It's not the latter because it's the *exact* image from book 1 that I've seen before. If it's pre-existing art from Rule of Fear (which I don't have), is it maybe in avatars? Does someone prolific use it as an avatar?

Silver Crusade

JMD31 used it but he hasn't been on in a long while :(

Paizo Employee Developer

The illustration of Lowls on page 6 of the adventure is new, but I used his portrait in Rule of Fear as an art reference to make him recognizable.

Liberty's Edge

Now that I look at the image again...yeah, I must be thinking of the Rule of Fear image instead, because I recall him touching his glasses.

Silver Crusade

Samy wrote:
Now that I look at the image again...yeah, I must be thinking of the Rule of Fear image instead, because I recall him touching his glasses.

Gendo!

Silver Crusade

Mr. Nice Flumph, PLLLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAASSSSSEEEEEE tell me there's artwork of Lowls steepling his fingers somewhere in this AP.

Please pretty please?

Liberty's Edge

Hey Adam, is there a chance of getting a "Player View" interactive map of Briarstone Asylum?

Paizo Employee Developer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Rysky wrote:

Mr. Nice Flumph, PLLLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAASSSSSEEEEEE tell me there's artwork of Lowls steepling his fingers somewhere in this AP.

Please pretty please?

As far as I can recall there is not.

Also, I don't get your Gendo references, and I'm kinda happy that I don't. I hate when stuff we do here gets compared to other properties.

Paizo Employee Developer

Samy wrote:
Hey Adam, is there a chance of getting a "Player View" interactive map of Briarstone Asylum?

I haven't played with the interactive maps before, but I think that they have an untagged setting. Someone else might be of more help with this question.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Axial wrote:
Zaister wrote:
I think this book marks the first time a Pathfinder product contains an advertisement for a product that is neither a Paizo product nor a licensed Pathfinder product.
Which product is that?

As James already indicated. there's a full page ad for the new Call of Cthulhu edition. This is of course entirely fitting.

Liberty's Edge

Adam Daigle wrote:
Samy wrote:
Hey Adam, is there a chance of getting a "Player View" interactive map of Briarstone Asylum?
I haven't played with the interactive maps before, but I think that they have an untagged setting. Someone else might be of more help with this question.

Usually the interactive maps have two or three buttons. At least two, one to toggle off the map tags (A1, A2 and so on) and a second one to toggle the five foot grid. Sometimes, if there are secret doors/secret rooms, there is a third button called "Player View" that hides those from the map.

Silver Crusade

Adam Daigle wrote:
Rysky wrote:

Mr. Nice Flumph, PLLLLLLLEEEEEEEAAAASSSSSEEEEEE tell me there's artwork of Lowls steepling his fingers somewhere in this AP.

Please pretty please?

As far as I can recall there is not.

Also, I don't get your Gendo references, and I'm kinda happy that I don't. I hate when stuff we do here gets compared to other properties.

Sorry.

Sovereign Court

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Zaister wrote:
I think this book marks the first time a Pathfinder product contains an advertisement for a product that is neither a Paizo product nor a licensed Pathfinder product.

Technically not. There's a pathfinder society scenario that has that ad.

Answer underneath:

7-20 All for Immortality 1 has it. Mostly to preview part 2 which is very much horror themed.

Paizo Employee Developer

Samy wrote:
Adam Daigle wrote:
Samy wrote:
Hey Adam, is there a chance of getting a "Player View" interactive map of Briarstone Asylum?
I haven't played with the interactive maps before, but I think that they have an untagged setting. Someone else might be of more help with this question.
Usually the interactive maps have two or three buttons. At least two, one to toggle off the map tags (A1, A2 and so on) and a second one to toggle the five foot grid. Sometimes, if there are secret doors/secret rooms, there is a third button called "Player View" that hides those from the map.

Well, in that case since we do interactive maps for all of our other Adventure Paths, I assume that we're doing them for this one. That's not part of my normal responsibilities, so it's not something that I can comment on reliably nor do I know when those are available.


Adam Daigle wrote:
The illustration of Lowls on page 6 of the adventure is new, but I used his portrait in Rule of Fear as an art reference to make him recognizable.

You will know him by his poofiness. That is a very poofy man.


Generic,

No you'll know him by the self-righteous smug SOB smile he has.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Thomas Seitz wrote:

Generic,

No you'll know him by the self-righteous smug SOB smile he has.

Lowls never smiles. Ever. He is the poster child of resting b@$%h face - not unlike a certain creator of the Cthulhu Mythos himself, in fact. HPL wasn't half as poofy, though.


Mmm. Still like to rub his face in the dirt. There's just something about him I REALLY don't like.


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Axial wrote:

Awww, man. I wish Atlach-Nacha had art...because spiders are scary.

Speaking of which, for those who have the PDF: What information is revealed/explained about Atlach-Nacha? Besides "It's Spider-Cthulhu!".

Have patience.

It may just be that the ones we chose not to give art in that article, since we could only illustrate 10 of the 20, are ones that either had art in previous books (aka Bestiary 4) or may have art in an upcoming volume. Note that we didn't illustrate Ithaqua in the article, because he's illustrated in the bestiary. There are 5 more great old ones to come.

So we are probably looking at

Spoiler:
Atlach-nacha, Ghatanothoa, Orgesh, Tsathoggua, and Mordiggian based off of the art that hasn't been included. How convenient that there are exactly 5 more Great Old Ones who haven't been illustrated? Although I could have sworn that someone said the other diety article was on Mhar...


1 person marked this as a favorite.

After reading through the adventure, I have to say, with all the little details and hidden information, this is one of the most terrifying adventures I've read in a long time!

Definitely needs to be played with the lights dimmed, and at night!


I'm still relatively new to Pathfinder (played through Council of Thieves, in the process of playing Carrion Crown and Legacy of Fire, and DM'd a standalone module as prep for this) but I'm still fairly confident in saying that this is definitely the coolest opening sequence I've seen so far.


Well it's in my top 5 for sure, Captain B-Toad.


B-Toad should be a rapper name.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.
FallenDabus wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Axial wrote:

Awww, man. I wish Atlach-Nacha had art...because spiders are scary.

Speaking of which, for those who have the PDF: What information is revealed/explained about Atlach-Nacha? Besides "It's Spider-Cthulhu!".

Have patience.

It may just be that the ones we chose not to give art in that article, since we could only illustrate 10 of the 20, are ones that either had art in previous books (aka Bestiary 4) or may have art in an upcoming volume. Note that we didn't illustrate Ithaqua in the article, because he's illustrated in the bestiary. There are 5 more great old ones to come.

So we are probably looking at

** spoiler omitted **

Close but not 100% exact.


So...

For those that have the PDF, what exactly do the PCs see upon waking up in the asylum?

Silver Crusade

3 people marked this as a favorite.

Each other.


Axial wrote:

So...

For those that have the PDF, what exactly do the PCs see upon waking up in the asylum?

Spoiler:
They see another person getting tortured by one of the doctors. But that's also not actually how it starts. There's another scene prior to that.
Editor-in-Chief

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Nezzmith wrote:

After reading through the adventure, I have to say, with all the little details and hidden information, this is one of the most terrifying adventures I've read in a long time!

Definitely needs to be played with the lights dimmed, and at night!

Nice. Thanks, Nezzmith!


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
FallenDabus wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
Axial wrote:

Awww, man. I wish Atlach-Nacha had art...because spiders are scary.

Speaking of which, for those who have the PDF: What information is revealed/explained about Atlach-Nacha? Besides "It's Spider-Cthulhu!".

Have patience.

It may just be that the ones we chose not to give art in that article, since we could only illustrate 10 of the 20, are ones that either had art in previous books (aka Bestiary 4) or may have art in an upcoming volume. Note that we didn't illustrate Ithaqua in the article, because he's illustrated in the bestiary. There are 5 more great old ones to come.

So we are probably looking at

** spoiler omitted **

Close but not 100% exact.

Interesting. I shall wait semi-patiently to see who it ends up being. Very cool that you are doing this. I'm writing plothooks for Ithaqua in Planescape as we speak. I love the ways that you can just use him as a plot device if you want. Sure the trend will continue!


FallenDabus wrote:

So we are probably looking at

** spoiler omitted **

Well let's see. We know for a fact that Xhamen-Dor will be featured, most likely in the fifth adventure. That leaves us with four of the following:

Parade o' Madness:

Atlach-Nacha
Chaugnar Faugn
Ghatanothoa
Mhar
Mordiggian
Orgesh
Rhan-Tegoth
Tsathoggua

Mhar and Orgesh are both Paizo originals which I'd say that makes it more likely they will be statted up. Then again, Mhar hasn't technically been "born" yet, so perhaps not it. I would rule out Ghatanothoa b/c of its similarity to Cthulhu, and guess only Chaugnar Faugn or Rhan-Tegoth will get a full treatment. Again, because of similarity. So my guess for the next five Great Old Ones:

Chaugnar Faugn, Orgesh, Xhamen-Dor, Mordiggian, and Atlach-Nacha. Shot in the dark there.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I don't know...with the deal with Chaosium deal they might hold up statting up the "Paizo originals", other than Xhamen-Dor.

Rhan-Tegoth and Chaugnar Faugn get artwork which suggests they might not get selected?


MMCJawa wrote:


I don't know...with the deal with Chaosium deal they might hold up statting up the "Paizo originals", other than Xhamen-Dor.

Rhan-Tegoth and Chaugnar Faugn get artwork which suggests they might not get selected?

I can see your point with the Chaosium deal.

But regarding illustrations, consider: Hastur is illustrated for a second time instead of Ghatanothoa. Also, Xhamen-Dor instead of Tsathoggua, when again - we know Xhamen-Dor is going to be statted and receive a second mugshot. Thus, I would say that the gods who receive an illustration in the Elder Mythos article is not a factor in which will be statted up in the next few volumes.

*Also, whoops: I forgot to include Yig in my previous post of possible candidates. I could see him being statted, as the outlier of the Elder Mythos. Which is to say, the only one who could even kind of be considered benevolent.


Pathfinder LO Special Edition, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Generic Villain wrote:
Am I the only subscriber who occasionally checks their "My Downloads" page, just in case the good people at Customer Service forgot to send my email telling me my stuff has shipped and is now available for download?

No. :-)


Generic Villain wrote:
MMCJawa wrote:


I don't know...with the deal with Chaosium deal they might hold up statting up the "Paizo originals", other than Xhamen-Dor.

Rhan-Tegoth and Chaugnar Faugn get artwork which suggests they might not get selected?

I can see your point with the Chaosium deal.

But regarding illustrations, consider: Hastur is illustrated for a second time instead of Ghatanothoa. Also, Xhamen-Dor instead of Tsathoggua, when again - we know Xhamen-Dor is going to be statted and receive a second mugshot. Thus, I would say that the gods who receive an illustration in the Elder Mythos article is not a factor in which will be statted up in the next few volumes.

*Also, whoops: I forgot to include Yig in my previous post of possible candidates. I could see him being statted, as the outlier of the Elder Mythos. Which is to say, the only one who could even kind of be considered benevolent.

Well I will guess we will find out when we find out :)

Although Ithaqua was one of the Chaosium mythos entities I was personally most hoping for, so glad that got in.

RPG Superstar 2013 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.

In the one file per chapter version of the PDF, do the page numbers of the adventure section just cut out on page 26 for anyone else?

Win 10 with Acrobat reader if that matters.


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

Yes, the page numbers cut out for the rest of that chapter/file and resume with the next chapter around page 56.

Oddly enough, the exact same problem can be found in the single file version. Evidently the single file version is simply a merging of the files in the one file per chapter version.


How necessary is Horror Adventures to running this AP?

If it's not necessary, how useful would it be?


Johnico wrote:
How necessary is Horror Adventures to running this AP?

Not sure since I haven't read the adventure...

Johnico wrote:
If it's not necessary, how useful would it be?

I'd imagine VERY useful since it has Sanity rules, fear rules and *gasp* horrific creatures! :D

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.

MORDIGGIAN (the Charnel God by Clark Ashton Smith)is in the next book (part 2)!


Johnico wrote:

How necessary is Horror Adventures to running this AP?

If it's not necessary, how useful would it be?

Not necessary. The sanity rules aren't used, and you'd be adjusting fear levels yourself if you wanted to use the new fear system. (Extra subsystems would just be clutter in my group, but others might want some more mechanics representing the impact on their characters.) Not as useful as Occult Adventures, but it has a lot of fitting archetypes.


So hastur is really an outer God, not a great old one?

Dark Archive

Nick O'Connell wrote:
So hastur is really an outer God, not a great old one?

No, an Abberation of the creature group known as the Great Old Ones.


Marco Massoudi wrote:
Nick O'Connell wrote:
So hastur is really an outer God, not a great old one?
No, an Abberation of the creature group known as the Great Old Ones.

Yeah but isn't that creature just an avatar of Hastur?


All I know is Hastur isn't something you screw with.

Also thank you Quid for clarifying that this doesn't use sanity rules.

(Though I might if I run this!) :)

Dark Archive

Nick O'Connell wrote:
Marco Massoudi wrote:
Nick O'Connell wrote:
So hastur is really an outer God, not a great old one?
No, an Abberation of the creature group known as the Great Old Ones.
Yeah but isn't that creature just an avatar of Hastur?

Some scholars believe that the creature known as Hastur, the King in Yellow, is just the physical manifestation of an Outer God.

The rules say it's a CR 29 Abberation.


Marco Massoudi wrote:
Nick O'Connell wrote:
Marco Massoudi wrote:
Nick O'Connell wrote:
So hastur is really an outer God, not a great old one?
No, an Abberation of the creature group known as the Great Old Ones.
Yeah but isn't that creature just an avatar of Hastur?

Some scholars believe that the creature known as Hastur, the King in Yellow, is just the physical manifestation of an Outer God.

The rules say it's a CR 29 Abberation.

Alright thanks

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Marco Massoudi wrote:
Nick O'Connell wrote:
Marco Massoudi wrote:
Nick O'Connell wrote:
So hastur is really an outer God, not a great old one?
No, an Abberation of the creature group known as the Great Old Ones.
Yeah but isn't that creature just an avatar of Hastur?

Some scholars believe that the creature known as Hastur, the King in Yellow, is just the physical manifestation of an Outer God.

The rules say it's a CR 29 Abberation.

In fact, as it will become clear after reading all six parts of Strange Aeons...

Spoiler:
It's a little of both—exactly WHAT Hastur is, be it the CR 29 Aberration or be that merely the King in Yellow avatar is part of the mystery explored in Strange Aeons and in its Continuing The Campaign article and in the Hastur article.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

what is the red destiny?


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
zergtitan wrote:
what is the red destiny?

Red Destiny:
It's a +2 short sword in a crimson scabbard and a pommel shaped like a cardinal. It has no special powers other than having its name written on an etched gold band and looking cool.

:)

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