Pathfinder #8—Curse of the Crimson Throne Chapter 2: "Seven Days to the Grave" (OGL) (based on
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Paizo Publishing, LLC
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Chapter 2: "Seven Days to the Grave"
by F. Wesley Schneider
The civil unrest in Korvosa has been dealt with, only to be replaced by a far more deadly and insidious threat. A horrific disease that leaves its dead deformed and faceless sweeps through the streets of Korvosa, death borne on the wind and steeped in the stones. Mass graves crowd the outer walls and plague doctors stalk the streets in a desperate attempt to prevent the sickness from spreading, yet is there something more to the plague than meets the eye?
This volume contains supplementary rules for handling large-scale urban disasters such as plagues and famines, and also presents a detailed exploration of Abadar, the god of cities and wealth. Several new monsters associated with sickness and disease round out the bestiary.
For characters of 4th to 7th level.
Pathfinder is Paizo Publishing's 96-page, perfect-bound, full-color softcover Adventure Path book printed on high-quality paper that releases in a monthly volume. Each volume is brought to you by the same staff which brought you Dragon and Dungeon magazines for over five years. It contains an in-depth Adventure Path scenario, stats for about a half-dozen new monsters, and several support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Because Pathfinder uses the Open Game License, it is 100% compatible with the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game.
Seven Days to the Grave é uma aventura complexa, ela tem uma história bem amarrada mas ao mesmo tempo tenta dar liberdade aos personagens de conduzir a história ao seu modo. Eu diria que ela consegue até certo ponto (o que por si só é um mérito incrível), mas isso dilui um pouco a aventura fazendo com que ela pareça um pouco incompleta. Mesma assim é preciso admirar o esforço da Paizo de fazer isso justamente com um tema tão complexo e de difícil aproximação quanto uma epidemia. Essa aventura é um exemplo de narração e tem muito a ensinar em vários níveis (desde como conduzir tramas com problemas realistas num mundo de fantasia com magia, até métodos alternativos de condução de eventos. Mais uma vez a Paizo se superou conseguindo algo que julgava impossível. Com certeza um clássico que influenciou bastante o futuro do pathfinder (ver que mais tarde eles criaram campanhas inteiras com esse conceito, como Kingmaker e Serpent´s Skull).
The plot was well written and a real joy to run. The plague in the city and how it was handled in the campaign makes this one of the best written adventures I have run and read.
Now that CoCT has ended looking back I'd say Seven Days was the high point of the AP and one of the best put out in the Pathfinder series. The plague plot is executed with style and overall the adventure has a good cut and thrust to it. The Queen's Doctors are wonderfully creepy opponents with their ibix masks (though an abundance of masked villains run thru the campaign, Grey Maidens, Red Mantis). There are very few slow parts aside from some of the XP fodder such as Racker's Alley and the Wererats. Seven Days also goes deeper into fleshing out the feel of Korvosa particularly after the opening EdgeofAnarchy.
This is the best adventure I have ever read. I can't wait to GM this one! The story is fantastic and it is the most original presentation I have seen. Disease and plague are presented with startling realism. The characters and villains are excellent. The Nosferatu in the bestiary was stellar, but the story behind the Nosferatu in the adventure tops it! Even if this adventure never gets played it is worth the read...
In a world where magic can cure diseases, plague-based plots are hard to create. This adventure fixes that with explanations for why it can't be cured backed up by the rules. After that, the plot is great.
I have never run a "pest" adventure and this one really does the trick. I think it captures the whole idea really nice, thou I would have loved to see double the encounters with "pest" related issues to have my players running to wash their hands and not sharing their snaks in the course of the adventure. I will have to add more of these into it, as well as more antagonistic-creepy encounters with the plague doctors to involve more those creepy-cool NPCs. These kind of "milestone" large-scale events bring up top star in the APs review. Magnificent!
this adventure is truly one of the best iv'e ever encounterd.
the begining of the plot is well done: there are many seemingly un-realated events taking place, so the players will not be able to know when does the plot realy starts, so they may even be surprised when the plug begins.
and then comes the adventure itself- a true masterpiece.
the plague spreads with frightning speed among the citizens of the city, and bodies are piled high as no solution presents itself: but the plug is not the only factor for the chaos all around.
from the dark corners of the city, many scums and abbrations take adventage of the situation, praying upon the helpless sick: and brave, vigilant man and women (the PC's, if you haven't got the clue) are requierd to stop them.
as the plotline advavnce, the PC's will start to unravel the true face byond the horrible pluge.
i think that the only problem i had with "seven days to the grave" was the fact that to many of the challengs were hack n' slash- tiny dungeon crwals with to much monsters squized in.
plus, the "body count" machenic, while cool, was sometimes totaly unrealistic.
bottom line: i can't wait to run this one to my playrs: they would love it at least as i do (hopefully!)
This is really something I have been waiting for for some time now. I have tried to bring elements of plague into my previous d&d adventures, but have never had the success of this one, well done Paizo this is the ONLY truly great adventure dealing with the spread of plague i have seen in a published module.
I had a single problem with Seven Days to the Grave, and that's the encounterless effect of bringing Trinia out of the city. Technically, you can't expect me to believe that there isn't a single cleric capable of casting Locate Creature and wandering around town until they find her. Are NPC's REALLY this dumb? Other than that, it's a great adventure, but I just wish people would actually take the game rules into account when they write these stories.