The secret to the Ironfang Legion's unstoppable conquest lies buried in myth and legend! To uncover their enemy's weakness, bold adventurers must confront degenerate morlocks, journey through the deadly Darklands below the world's surface, and explore an ancient dwarven vault lost to history. But a dark legacy stands in their way. Can the PCs survive the ghosts of Ironfang betrayal and return to the light of day with the key to the Legion's defeat—or will they join generations of the dead in the cold embrace of stone?
"Siege of Stone," a Pathfinder adventure for 11th-level characters, by Thurston Hillman.
A gazetteer exploring the ancient dwarven Sky Citadel of Kraggodan—an underground city now besieged by human forces—plus its diverse denizens and locales, by Thurston Hillman.
An ecology of the enigmatic nagas, serpentine masters of magic and intrigue, by Patchen Mortimer.
A bestiary packed with new beasts of the Darklands and beyond, by Paris Crenshaw, Crystal Frasier, Thurston Hillman, and Kalervo Oikarinen.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-940-0
"Siege of Stone" 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 (2 MB zip/PDF).
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AP # 118, "Siege of Stone," is a good solid continuation of what may be the best Paizo Adventure Path in recent memory. Taking a slight change of tact, this leg of the campaign takes players out of the wilderness frontier and plunges them deep into the Darklands, possibly creating a bit of a 'fish out of water' element for your player characters. Needless to say, the underground setting in "Siege of Stone" is chock full of adventure set-pieces hearkening back to old-school tunnel crawls and dungeon runs. A copy of Paizo's 'Monster Codex' might be useful when running this part of the story, since several of the fixed encounters in this part of the campaign are lifted from that book, but full stat blocks are provided, so not having a copy of the Codex shouldn't be a deal-breaker. About two-thirds of the way in, players have a terrific roleplaying opportunity-- something which later plot elements will hinge upon-- so the hardcore roleplayers in your gaming group will have a blast with this part of the story. This roleplaying encounter is incredibly well-written, with clear objectives and outcomes, so that DM's will have no problem staging the encounter or determining the party's degrees of success/failure. Finally, the story culminates with another dungeon exploration scenario, and this time the stakes are raised so that it's an unusually high-risk, high-reward proposition. This is a really nasty scenario, offering the very real prospect of a character death or two, but it's not an automatic TPK by any means. My only major criticism of this volume, and the reason that I docked AP # 118 one star when writing this review, is that the first leg of the adventure feels like it ought to be longer, with more preplanned encounters, as if perhaps it had been trimmed a bit out of page count concerns-- but that isn't anything that can't be fixed with a little DM creativity and elbow grease! The "Heroes of the Darklands" Pathfinder Player's Companion and the "Darklands Revisited" Pathfinder Campaign Setting will probably come in handy for DM's wishing to flesh this part of the adventure out a bit. Of the first four installments in the "Ironfang Invasion" Adventure Path (# 115-118), "Siege of Stone" is definitely the one which will benefit most from a little additional DM planning and prep time. On the plus side, the gazetteer for Kraggodan, the ancient dwarven sky citadel, is really interesting, painting one of the clearest portraits yet of what dwarven civilization and daily life are like in Golarion. Four out of five stars.
I wonder if the the Russians in Call of Duty: MW 2 and 3 were using the Stone Road. That would explain how they were able to ignoring the logistics of invading Washington D.C and then London/Paris. ;)
Anyway, videogame references aside I'm interested in the Stone Road and how it works, what it's limitations are et cetera. Can they literally tunnel directly into Absalom, Korvosa, Egorian etc? It's a miracle they haven't just taken over the entire world yet.
Thurston Hillman is the perfect pick for this volume.
Everything Darklands related is rightly placed in his capable hands.
Instant buy!
Always with the high pressure! I'm gonna get a complex or something.
Seriously, while I have a great interest in the Darklands, you should also be super excited for Crystal's development work. She's been contacting me with some of the changes, and they're going to make this adventure shine like... like... like some kind of super attractive (likely radioactive) Darklands gem! :D
Marco Massoudi wrote:
PS: I hope there is at least one drow in this. ;-)
I can't officially speak to the final product, but I can give a tidbit...
Spoiler:
The drow had their time in the Darklands sun way back in Second Darkness, though I'm sure they'll someday return. Alas, while I tried to work some drow connection into this adventure, it (rightly) didn't feel appropriate for the final product.
A big push for my work on this adventure, and the associated Kraggodan gazetteer, was to try and make the dwarves a people that the PCs would immediately like and want to work alongside. Having GM'd the entirety of the Second Darkness AP, I know there were a lot of frustrations as to how the elves were portrayed as unsympathetic. I wanted to spend a lot of time really making the dwarves be people the PCs could interact with, both in this AP and in other homebrew GM campaigns.
Next up on my list of 'Darklands Races Redeemed' would be Svirfneblin...
When can we see new art work for this one plus the others of the AP. SO far I have LOVED all of the art work that was done on the covers and hope that the others are just as good!
Hey, isnt' Kraggodan where one of the seals that hold back the Whispering Tyrant is?
Maybe I'll have a few Whispering Way cultists and their undead thralls show up and make an offer to ally with the Ironfang Legion so they can get the seal.
Oh and for the record the last time I used a ghost medusa on my party it was a TPK, very clearly so in fact. So I'm a little scared for the PCs in this one.
So, what are the monsters in the bestiary section? ;-)
I have been informed that I am a monster, but I assure you I do not appear in this book's bestiary. Rather, you will find the inspired creations of Paris Crenshaw, Crystal Frasier, Thurston Hillman, and Kalervo Oikarinen.
So, what are the monsters in the bestiary section? ;-)
I have been informed that I am a monster, but I assure you I do not appear in this book's bestiary. Rather, you will find the inspired creations of Paris Crenshaw, Crystal Frasier, Thurston Hillman, and Kalervo Oikarinen.
Well, yeah, you're obviously way too high a CR for a non-hardcover Bestiary entry.
So, what are the monsters in the bestiary section? ;-)
I have been informed that I am a monster, but I assure you I do not appear in this book's bestiary. Rather, you will find the inspired creations of Paris Crenshaw, Crystal Frasier, Thurston Hillman, and Kalervo Oikarinen.
I still find myself amazed to see my name next to such talented folks.