A dark urban horror adventure for 5th-level Pathfinder Roleplaying Game characters.
The strange city of Carrion Hill has long loomed over the surrounding swamps in eastern Ustalav, yet its rulers have shifted many times through the centuries. Often enough that only a few sinister scholars and curious minds know the true nature of the hill’s original inhabitants—vile and depraved cultists of the Old Gods. Yet this morning, a dreadful recrudescence rises from the depths of buried nightmare in the vaults below Carrion Hill. A monster stalks the twisted alleys of the city, spreading panic before it and leaving destruction in its wake. Can the Carrion Hill Horror be stopped?
Carrion Hill is an adventure for 5th-level characters, written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and compatible with the 3.5 edition of the world’s oldest RPG. The adventure features a mix of urban and dungeon sites, and draws its inspiration from the popular writings of H. P. Lovecraft.
This adventure is set in the sinister country of Ustalav in the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting, but can easily be adapted for any game world.
Written by Richard Pett
Pathfinder Modules are 32-page, high-quality, full-color, adventures using the Open Game License to work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the standard 3.5 fantasy RPG rules set. This Pathfinder Module includes four pre-made characters so players can jump right into the action, and full-color maps to enhance play.
I ran this as an all day game for 3 of my usual group earlier this week. We all had a great time and the game ran into the early hours of the next day as we wanted to finish it in one go. Easy to run, and with very good maps and flavour text that really sets the mood, this is one of the best modules I've ever had the pleasure of DMing and I would highly recommend it, even to those who are not fond of horror-themed adventures (none of my group are fans, I am though).
We used the pre-generated characters, and poor Seltyiel didn't get chosen, so his magic items got divided up amongst the other 3 so as to partially compensate for them being a man down. Used the fast track xp system, so they all gained a level before facing the endboss beastie, and even then it nearly wiped the floor with them, and it all came down to a few good dice rolls and some clever tactics on the players part... as it should.
We have been playing this over a series of evenings and it has been really good fun. The descriptions and the atmosphere give the GM plenty of opportunity to build a creepy, threatening backdrop to the story. The adventure can run down several different paths after the first encounter, although the printed running order is, in my opinion, the best to build up the tension.
This is a wonderful adventure for those who like hamming up the roleplaying. I encouraged my players to take twisted and dysfunctional characters and that was a big help in keeping the atmosphere.
My players took a unusual route to the finale but the adventure still works brilliantly.
I recommend GMs to use the D20 rules for Sanity loss to add another layer of menace. [Sanity Points = Wisdom x 5. Roll percentile below that to avoid losing Sanity Points. Succeed = 1d3. Fail = 1 d6 or 1d8 or 1d10. Losing more San points than half your Wisdom Ability = temporary "nauseated" and gain a phobia for tentacles / undead / sharp objects / dark places etc.]
I'm a huge fan of Richard Pett's work throughout Paizo's history, so I was delighted to see his name appended to a Lovecraft inspired adventure set in a decaying old town that seemed a sister city to his beloved Styes from the Dungeon Magazine days. Let's break it down.
The Good: I very much enjoy the non-linear aspect of Carrion Hill. It's got a set beginning, an established final boss, but the middle can be accomplished in any order. One of the three set-pieces is rather larger and more detailed than the rest, and the assumption is that that will end up being the finale, but it certainly doesn't have to be that way.
And speaking of the final boss, the Spawn of Yog-Sothoth does not disappoint. The illustration is pitch-perfect, the abilities fittingly eldritch, and the mechanics for weakening him to be a suitable opponent are clever and seem like they'd work well in play.
The Bad: I never like it when the DM cheats on behalf of his monsters, so I would like at least a sentence of explanation as to why the zombies in the mud-pits aren't quickly scalded to death when a PC that falls in takes 1d6 fire damage a round.
The Nit-Picky: The character of Yarresh the ghoul doesn't do it for me. He might end up being fun in play, but he strikes me as rather unmemorable compared to the rest of the NPCs on display.
Final Thoughts: I very much enjoyed Carrion Hill, and am currently looking for an excuse to run it.
Excellent adventure; be sure to read and tailor to your group!
This is a really good module with an engaging storyline, good use of Mythos themes, and well integrated into Golarion. It is also quite well suited to other game worlds or homebrew games -- just replace the god references, adapt the Dark Tapestry references to the Far Realm or whatever spooky area you use, and you're set.
There are many different ways for this adventure to play out, so be sure to read it all through before running this. I had issues with how much the starting point for the adventure was on rails, but you can easily add hooks that draw in your players, and once they are hooked it flows nicely. Encounters can be deceptively easy or tough here too -- be ready to tweak if the players seem to be missing that sweet spot. Again, a good read-through and some small customizing for your group is best, but the setting, flavor-text, and basic plot is all quite solid.
Overall, a great module with very engaging adversaries and good Lovecraftian flavor.
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