When you put James Jacobs and Greg Vaughan together and toss in some Cthulhu Mythos for spice you come out with the most sanity-bending awesome tools any H. P. Lovecraft loving GM can use, nay, MUST have. Now Wake of the Watcher is the fourth installment of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path, but I can’t talk about the adventure's place in the path, how this fits in with the rest, or how it flows with them. I can say that the adventure within these pages is easily the most portable of the adventures in the paths I have observed in a while. All a GM needs to do is place Illmarsh in the path of players on the way to someplace else, take out any direct references to following Whispering Way operatives and, Whammo! Adventure.

Taken alone the adventure is useful for a GM seeking to fit in to his own campaign, whether you run the Adventure Path as a whole or not. Combined with the support articles, you have pure Cthulhu-esque gold. Now what I hoped for, and happy enough to recieve, was a conversion of ALL of my personal favorite Cthulhu monsters. (Color Out of Space!!) But Mr. James Jacobs went and converted all of my old favorite Outer Gods and Old Ones to Pathfinder godhood status. Not only can I use these to terrify my players, but they can’t even touch them because they are treated as gods. Pardon me while I giggle to myself a little bit.

I realize I haven’t spoken of F. Wesley Schneider’s contribution. This is because I haven’t read it (yet). When I have additional funds I will make every effort to purchase the first three contributions to this adventure path and catch up on what I missed.

Gold, Messrs. Jacobs and Vaughan, Wake of the Watcher is pure gold for Lovecraft lovers. This gem scores a full five elder signs from me.

I like this one the most of the carrion crown Aps so far especially the beastairy and the article for the elder gods, for this stuff alone made it worth it for me. I am not much for using modules/adventure paths for I like home brewd adventures when I DM but I love ideas and tools so that is why I buy them, well that and I love monsters and magic items. The adventure itself is chock full Lovecraftian goodness that oozes out of every pore just like a lot creatures in there would do if they had the chance.

So far this AP has been really great, the previous three in the AP have had some really original and engaging bits.

Almost all the AP's have had that one part that i did not much care for. Kingmaker was the first and so far only AP that did not have a bad egg in it. I thought Carrion Crown was shaping up to do the same.... until this one.

Now as a stand alone adventure this one would have been better, but it just does not seem to fit with the rest of the AP. Sure it fits the horror aspect, but not the general feel of the rest of them that came before it.

I think though that one of my problems with this one is the Lovecraft aspect. I personally think that Lovecraft is getting way overused lately, and not just by Paizo. I work for a company that sells games, and so i have to be familiar with them before they come out, and it seems like every forth game or so that comes out has something to do with Lovecraft. So i am a bit burned out with Lovecraft and think that is coloring my view of this one.

Now there are some really neat parts to this adventure though, namely the inventor and his invention and the insanity rules, but i just think it could have been better suited to a stand alone adventure.

Wake of the Watcher does a masterful job of continuing the Carrion Crown adventure path and retaining the themes presented throughout the previous adventures even as the theme transitions from the classic horror of Frankenstein, ghosts, and werewolves to the alien horror of the Dark Tapestry. Fans of Lovecraft, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and the D&D adventure The Last Breaths of Ashenport will enjoy this adventure to its fullest.

Wake of the Watcher takes a large step forward bringing the characters much closer to the Cult of The Whispering Way combining mystery, horror, and adventure all the way. However, the real shining star here is the bonus content. Wake of the watcher includes expanded rules on sanity that can be applied to many situations. The details presented on the beliefs and practices of the Cults of The Old Ones have planted the seeds for a new generation of antagonists, secret societies and mad prophets (be they PC or NPC) in future adventures. The bestiary is a true tome of horrors that provides many new monsters who desperately needed official stat blocks and is sure to tantalize any summoner, wizard, and cleric with an interest in the Dark Tapestry. My only regret is that we did not have access to it sooner.

All in all Wake of the Watcher is a fantastic adventure and addition to Carrion Crown. The blend of horror and adventure sets a mood that only a Lovecraft inspired adventure could manifest and provides an excellent array of new content that any DM can utilize making this product worth it to anyone who needs a new element of arcane horror to antagonize their characters whether they are utilizing the Carrion Crown adventure path or not.

There is a lot to like about Wake of the Watcher, the new monsters and Lovecraft addendums are excellent. The module itself, in terms of combat, is very well done as well. The problem is that the adventure, as a whole, feels rushed if not outright harried, and as a result it lacks some of the lore and depth of story evident in the earlier modules. A Lovecraft-inspired AP especially should have had at least the depth of story of Haunting of Harrowstone. What story there is honestly feels tacked on.

Entertaining so far but the adventure here is only very good in comparison to how bad its predecessor was. I was expecting a lot more aberrations thrown in here and in that respect I am disappointed. But the article and the expanded bestiary more than compensate.

The article on the old cults is something I have been wanting since I first saw a mention of them in the first Inner Sea Guide. I can run a campaign on just this article. Not as many pages as the adventure itself but the sheer volume of information here is worth at least half the cover price alone.

The bestiary is the other darkly shining star of this book. I am not going to spoil anything but any Lovecraft fan who wants to run a Pathfinder game session or campaign in homage to the man needs this book. This one is the best of the series folks, it's just that good.