Pathfinder Adventure Path #33: The Varnhold Vanishing (Kingmaker 3 of 6) (PFRPG) (based on
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Paizo Publishing, LLC
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Chapter 3: "The Varnhold Vanishing"
by Greg A. Vaughan
The Stolen Lands consume many wanderers—the perils of its rugged wildernesses and hidden mysteries prey upon even the wariest of travelers. Founded upon one of the most savage frontiers, the colony of Varnhold defied the many dangers of this harsh region. At least, it did until all the residents of the fledgling community completely disappeared. Now it falls to the PCs to discover what became of their eastern neighbor, a secret steeped in generations-old hatreds and the mysteries of an empire long crumbled to dust. Can they uncover the terrible secret behind this shocking disappearance before the same calamity befalls their own land?
This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path includes:
“The Varnhold Vanishing,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 7th-level characters, by Greg A. Vaughan.
A gazetteer of Iobaria, frigid land of savagery and fallen empires,
by Steven Schend.
Six new sites of adventure and mystery to expand your Kingmaker campaign, by Ed Greenwood.
A new Pathfinder’s Journal in which Pathfinder Ollix Kaddar and Phargas discover the price of gallantry, by J. C. Hay.
Five new monsters, by Ed Greenwood, Colin McComb, F. Wesley Schneider, and Neil Spicer.
Pathfinder Adventure Path is Paizo Publishing's monthly 96-page, perfect-bound, full-color softcover book printed on high-quality paper. 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. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the standard 3.5 fantasy RPG rules set.
ISBN–13: 978-1-60125-234-0
A free web enhancement including a map and timeline of Iobaria was feature on the Paizo Blog.
A good dungeon crawl can be a nice break form the daily grind of administering a kingdom. And the lair of this lich is a top notch adventure site.
My main complaint is that the encounters seem a bit easy. I frequently found myself applying the advanced template to almost everything in a struggle to keep players entertained. Also the final encounter would be much improved by the presence of a few zombie minions to tie the party up for a round or two. Watching your big bad go ka-splat in less than two rounds is a bit disheartening as a DM.
It would have been nice if the scripted kingdom events from part two had continued to appear as well.
Beware the invisible railroad tracks, they lead to death!
The third installment of Kingmaker has been my first disappointment with the AP.
The exploration, diplomacy and wilderness taming aspects of the first two adventures were subordinated to a mystery and it suffers for it. The wilderness encounters lack the depth and detail of the previous adventures and aside from the Centaurs there is only one NPC that the players can form a bond with. And besides the big boss lair there are no ruins to explore! What kind of Stolen Land is that?!
The mystery itself is quite good, but it belongs to another adventure. The threat that the disappearance of the villagers presents to the PCs and their kingdom is seemingly too great to ignore and be put on the backburner. Persistant PCs who follow the clues straight through will wind up in the boss lair a level too soon and probably die for their trouble.
Just as James Jacobs says in the foreword to this part of the Kingmaker AP, it's about time someone got around to giving us a good reason for all those colonists in Roanoke disappearing. And I also agree that they couldn't have found a better writer to pull it off...
Though I tend to be biased when it comes to Greg's work... Since my dad actually taught Greg how to play :)
Hopefully I'll be able to get Greg to sign this one too next time he's in town! :D
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