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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!

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Dark Archive
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Dragon78 wrote:

So what does Ithaqua look like?

Is there any art for the other Old Ones/Elder Gods? If so then who/what?

Mythos Deity Art:

Ithaqua looks like a gaunt, pale-blue-skinned giant wearing hides and bones, pushing a tree aside with one of its long-clawed hands as it stalks through a frozen woodland. Its eyes glow bright red, and its entire lower face is a big, toothy mouth.

Art also appears for:
* Cthulhu (in an article header)
* Abhoth
* Azathoth
* Chaugnar Faugn
* Hastur
* Mhar
* Nhimbaloth
* Nyarlathotep (as the Black Pharaoh)
* Rhan-Tegoth
* Xhamen-Dor
* Yig
* Ithaqua gets a second art piece fighting the Iconic Psychic and Cavalier

Paizo Employee Developer
3 people marked this as a favorite.

Mhar has the Chaos, Destruction, Earth, and Fire domains.
Dark Archive
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Regarding Mhar:

Page 63 has him as CN. Page 68 has him as CE. That's where I picked up the Evil from. I think I just assumed 'Evil' as a domain as a result of that while quickly looking things over. It looks like he has Chaos, Destruction, Earth, and Fire as his domains, which means the CN is probably right, and the Evil domain is probably wrong.
Dark Archive
4 people marked this as a favorite.

Regarding how much the PCs do/don't remember:

Extent of Amnesia:

It's fairly complete to start out with:

"The PCs awake in a cell beneath Briarstone Asylum with no memory of how they got there or who they are."

"each PC realizes that he also doesn't recognize anyone in the room, including the other PCs. Even if the characters have interwoven backgrounds or intimate connections, they have no memory of those experiences or relationships."

The preview blurbs for future adventures in the path indicate that they'll be experiencing stuff related to their past in module 2 and will be working to get back their lost memories as the goal of module 3.

Major PC Background Spoilers:

The PCs were agents of Count Lowls. He sacrificed their minds in a bargain with a being called the Mad Poet in exchange for forbidden lore and then pawned their memory-free bodies off as a gift to one of his allies.

The PCs used to be terrible people, but the mind-wipe combined with Dreamlands-related effects give them the chance to sculpt themselves into new, better people (who still have to deal with the fallout of what they did before, particularly during Part 2, where they go to a town where they were acting as Lowls's agents).

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Gah, this is taking forever to download! I have never anticipated an AP more!
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Lord Gadigan wrote:

Regarding how much the PCs do/don't remember:

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Oh man, now I'm even more excited, which sucks because my PDF (on my sub account) still hasn't arrived. At least I have a better idea now of how much I should have my PCs leave out of their backstories. Thanks!

Spoiler:
Does it give a specific amount of time (months, years, etc.) where they were dirtbags working for the count?

Gad,

Where exactly does Briarthorn reside?
Axial wrote:


Bestiary 4 wrote:
Hastur is the most mysterious of the Great Old Ones. In fact, the entity known as Hastur might actually be an Outer God. The physical manifestation of this entity is known as the King in Yellow, and though most consider this creature—a vaguely human-shaped figure draped in a yellow cloak—to be synonymous with Hastur himself, many scholars believe that the King in Yellow is nothing more than an avatar used by the true Hastur to move among the denizens of the physical world. Hastur himself is said to dwell upon a distant world called Carcosa on the shores of the monstrous Lake of Hali, and his power on a planet is strongest when the baleful light of Carcosa's star is visible in that planet's night sky.

Yes, I'm well aware of the hints in Bestiary 4 that the King isn't all there is to Hastur.

Dark Archive
1 person marked this as a favorite.

PC Background Spoilers Responding to Captain Battletoad:
It doesn't specify so far as I see. Lowls was researching relevant topics for 'months', so I'd probably pick a few months as a reasonably safe bet that material in the adventures could likely be adjusted to match if it turns out to be different in part 2.

=================================================

Thomas Seitz wrote:

Gad,

Where exactly does Briarthorn reside?

Briarstone is on an island in Versex County (with the island in question being named Briarstone Isle).

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Lord Gadigan wrote:

Regarding how much the PCs do/don't remember:

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Amnesia:
So, effectively, my players creating backstory for their characters is pointless? That's disappointing.
Paizo Employee Developer
Lord Gadigan wrote:

Regarding Mhar:

Page 63 has him as CN. Page 68 has him as CE. That's where I picked up the Evil from. I think I just assumed 'Evil' as a domain as a result of that while quickly looking things over. It looks like he has Chaos, Destruction, Earth, and Fire as his domains, which means the CN is probably right, and the Evil domain is probably wrong.

Well, that's an unfortunate typo. The alignment on page 68 is incorrect, and the table on page 63 is correct.

Paizo Employee Developer
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Alec Keeler wrote:
Lord Gadigan wrote:

Regarding how much the PCs do/don't remember:

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
The PCs regain their memories part way through the campaign, so they can make up whatever backstories they want, but they won't have access to the bulk of those memories until later on in the Adventure Path. The amnesiac fugue is worse off at the onset, but gets better as the PCs explore their condition.

I do have to mention as well that later on in the Adventure Path the PCs learn that they did some not so nice things, which takes a bit of agency away from the PCs (but overall isn't terribly detrimental to them).

Silver Crusade

I'm imagining a Leonard Shelby style character now...
Rysky wrote:
I'm imagining a Leonard Shelby style character now...

Who?!

Also I don't mind. I picture this a lot like Dark Matter only with more Lovecraftian influence and you know, fantasy.
3 people marked this as a favorite.

Man, this is great. I'm really glad I read NanQuest, because that is going to help a ton in setting the tone. In no small part by providing a full soundtrack.

That IS a good soundtrack for this Quid.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

An idea that comes to mind:
What if, during the endgame in Carcosa, Hastur generates evil, mind-forged clones of the PCs to send against them. They are created from the memories and personalities of the PCs while they were working for Count Lowls and before their minds were wiped. These clones would probably resemble the PCs except with deathly pale skin, yellow, tattered versions of their outfits and glowing yellow eyes.

When I brought the idea to one of my friends, he suggested having the PCs roll for or construct alternate personalities based on what their characters would hate the most; then having the GM bluff and say that it won't be implemented in this campaign
Dark Archive
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Response to Axial's Idea:
Interesting idea. I'd consider potentially putting them in part 3 instead. It takes place in the dreamlands, and there's already an alt-Lowls created from a splinter of his psyche gone-Yellow-King. It also involves the being Lowls traded the PCs minds to and the PCs hunting for their memories (and would probably be a place in the AP that'd jive more with the PCs levels before they lost their memories, as opposed to the end, which'd be for much higher-level people).

One more question Gad,

Is Briarstone Island on Lake Avalon or Lantern Lake?
Liberty's Edge
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Briarstone Island's location:
I can't find any explicit reference to Briarstone Isle's location, but it's implied to be in Versex near Thrushmoor, so unless it's on the river, it should be in Avalon Bay. The very last paragraph of the adventure implies that Briarstone Isle is within rowing distance of Thrushmoor.
Paizo Employee Developer
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Thomas Seitz wrote:

One more question Gad,

Is Briarstone Island on Lake Avalon or Lantern Lake?

Briarstone Isle is in the Danver River where it empties into Avalon Bay.

Thank you Mister Daigle. :)
Dark Archive
6 people marked this as a favorite.

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet:

Monster Art from Adventure:
The Attic Whisperer with the outfit made of the child's drawings managed to get a 'd'aww' from me and is quite well done. Kudos to whoever made that creepy thing so cute.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Ah, I can't believe I missed the subscription time on this. Oof, silly me. Some pretty great stuff in this thread. Unfortunately, the plot revealed thus far probably won't leave a whole lot of content for me to stealborrow for my home game, but still looking forward to trying to "incorporate" parts of the adventure into my game.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Xethik wrote:
Ah, I can't believe I missed the subscription time on this. Oof, silly me.

You can still start a subscription with book 1 of Strange Aeons up until Strange Aeons #2 ships in September.

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Joana wrote:
Xethik wrote:
Ah, I can't believe I missed the subscription time on this. Oof, silly me.
You can still start a subscription with book 1 of Strange Aeons up until Strange Aeons #2 ships in September.

I was tempted to get the subscription only to get an early copy of the book, but since I missed that I'll probably just grab the PDF on the 31st. I don't use physical books often and since I probably won't be running the adventure, I'm not going to miss having it at the table when playing. The main draw for me was the early copy (I know, shame!).

Thanks for the heads up, though!
Thomas Seitz wrote:
Rysky wrote:
I'm imagining a Leonard Shelby style character now...
Who?!

The main character in Memento, played by the ever amazing Guy Pearce. (Can't believe it's been 16 years since that movie came out...)

I really hope that Tsathoggua gets a stat block treatment.

Ah thank you Deep One named Udrew.

I'm also pretty sure we'll see it since I think Frog God Games would love to have other people stat their mascot. :)
4 people marked this as a favorite.

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?

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!".

Woooot?
Just received my email about the shipment being finalized and I'm already able to download? Praise the Great Old Ones!

*starts drooling*

Ruyan.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
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?

I use the product page to see if it is downloadable.

The Exchange
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?

All the time...

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, you aren't. I mostly rely on the shipment email, but if it takes more than a couple of days for that email to appear, I start occasionally checking the My Downloads section.

I do this because it actually happened to me once. A week passed with no shipment email and when I looked in My Downloads, the PDFs were available.

Most likely a technical glitch, and this happened a few years back.
Heine Stick wrote:
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, you aren't. I mostly rely on the shipment email, but if it takes more than a couple of days for that email to appear, I start occasionally checking the My Downloads section.

I do this because it actually happened to me once. A week passed with no shipment email and when I looked in My Downloads, the PDFs were available.

Most likely a technical glitch, and this happened a few years back.

Just happened to me last month with Horror Adventures. On the other hand, I received my copy last night if anyone has some questions, I can try to answer. Though I am never quite sure how much I should talk about in these things.

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Feel free to discuss Horror Adventures all you want in its product thread. We are now well past its general release date of August 4.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Based on the information that you have all shared (Thank you very much), I have a question for GMs regarding character creation:

Spoiler:
If the PCs were bad people who did bad things (before the memory loss), but are now going to become redeemed "good guys", how limiting does that make their character choices?
For example, a Paladin wouldn't work, because he/she would have been bad in the past AND a Cleric to a Mythos deity wouldn't work, because when they turn over a new leaf and go good, they would be cut off from their power.
I'd really like to get your opinions on this.

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Firstbourne wrote:

Based on the information that you have all shared (Thank you very much), I have a question for GMs regarding character creation:

** spoiler omitted **

Character Creation Thoughts:
This is something I was thinking about, and the Player's guide will help as well, but so far from what I understand the player's are pretty much blank slates. They have their stats, and muscle memories. So, if one of my player's wants to be an alignment restricted class that wouldn't meld with them being bad people then I will just 'Mix up' there gear a bit. Let's use a cleric of Torag for example. Obviously they weren't a worshiper before, but maybe someone else was, so that dead person's holy symbol and holy book end up in the party's loot. The amnesiac player decides he likes the word and devotes himself to Torag, I feel like that should be enough in these circumstance. When the truth starts to come out, it will be a great rp moment of questioned faith, I look forward to it.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Firstbourne wrote:

Based on the information that you have all shared (Thank you very much), I have a question for GMs regarding character creation:

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
I luckily won't have to deal with that in my campaign, but that's a good question. I can't say with a whole lot of confidence since we obviously only have one module on which to go for the time being, but since the PCs are starting at level 1 (it's entirely possible that they were higher level back when they were baddies) they are considered reformed in their deity's eyes, but back at square one as punishment, or simply as a result of the memory loss. Maybe in the intro section as the PCs are realizing that they have no memories, have the cleric or paladin find a holy symbol in their pocket or something, and nudge them into just assuming that they are whatever class.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
2 people marked this as a favorite.
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.

Cool. I look forward to seeing who the 5 Great Old Ones are.

Can anyone who has the PDF tell me about Atlach-Nacha?

I'm thinking of having a cult of Atlach Nacha consisting of NE Drow, giant spiders and Ettercaps.
Silver Crusade
1 person marked this as a favorite.

The page 6 art of Lowls makes him look EXACTLY like Gendo (does he constantly steeple his fingers?).

... which makes so much sense it ain't even funny.
Liberty's Edge

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?
Silver Crusade

He was depicted in Rule of Fear, the Ustalav book, I'm pretty sure.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

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.
3 people marked this as a favorite.
Rysky wrote:

The page 6 art of Lowls makes him look EXACTLY like Gendo (does he constantly steeple his fingers?).

... which makes so much sense it ain't even funny.

Okay, now I'm going to play as Count Lowls' teenage son and be angry at him.

Axial wrote:
Rysky wrote:

The page 6 art of Lowls makes him look EXACTLY like Gendo (does he constantly steeple his fingers?).

... which makes so much sense it ain't even funny.

Okay, now I'm going to play as Count Lowls' teenage son and be angry at him.
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?

Paizo Employee Creative Director
15 people marked this as a favorite.

Part of why we're able to do Strange Aeons the way we're doing it, with the monsters and themes we're featuring, is because of the kindness and generosity that Chaosium has extended us in exploring the Mythos using some of their creations and interpretations of things. Running advertisements for the new edition of Call of Cthulhu (which is EXCELLENT!) is the least we can do to thank them! They rock!!!
Paizo Employee Developer
2 people marked this as a favorite.

What James said!
Silver Crusade
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Axial wrote:
Rysky wrote:

The page 6 art of Lowls makes him look EXACTLY like Gendo (does he constantly steeple his fingers?).

... which makes so much sense it ain't even funny.

Okay, now I'm going to play as Count Lowls' teenage son and be angry at him.

DO EET.

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