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A1: Crypt of the Sun Lord (PFRPG) PDF

4.50/5 (based on 4 ratings)
PZOPDFAAWA1E-A

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A Pathfinder Roleplaying Game/3.5 Compatible Adventure for 4-6 PCs of level 1

Adventureaweek.com PDFs are fully supported by Hero Lab files (included in download), minimum requirement: Pathfinder Roleplaying Game core system.

The adventurers travel across Serpent Lake with a group of Rybalkan soldiers. The group camps for the night adjacent to the ruins of Ka'Teek. As they sleep a goblin steals a precious keepsake from one of the PCs and disappears into the ruins. The party pursues and finds themselves confronting undead guardians of the Sun Lord while avoiding dangerous traps.

Will the PCs find the goblin and retrieve their precious keepsake or stumble upon something much more sinister?

Also included in "Crypt of the Sun Lord":

  • The first adventure ever launched on Adventureaweek.com Exclusive locations in the Adventureaweek Campaign Setting fleshed out in great detail and accompanied with high resolution maps
  • Maps and Illustrations by 3x ENnie Award winning Cartographer Todd Gamble
  • The Life Ring, a new magical item which bestows the wearer with extra HP
  • A new minor artifact with hidden powers which unlock as the PCs increase in level

Product Availability

Fulfilled immediately.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

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4.50/5 (based on 4 ratings)

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EASY & FUN! Great one-shot, easy to adapt to Golarion

5/5 —

The thing I like most about this product is that the content and feel of the adventure was super digestible. I read it once, and I was ready to go! They players loved it too. I dropped it into the game as they were traveling between cities. When reading box text, I replaced the word lake with river and soldiers with sailors. So easy!

How I adjusted for our campaign:
The PC's didn't have anything super valuable or sentimental items, but one PC was saving all of his gold to buy a big ticket item, so the goblin stole his bag of gold. I was running two level 2 PCs through this 1st level adventure made for 4PCs, it was perfect difficulty level. I also replaced the 3 goblins with the goblin PC's from we be goblins. This made it a little more difficult, but more importantly, super flavorful. When they searched the goblin corpses, the things they found were hilarious.

An RPG Resource review

4/5 —

Set in Adventureaweek.com's own campaign world, this adventure begins with some historical background... far enough in the past that it could be tweaked to work with a different setting if required. Winding forwards swiftly to the present, an adventure hook is provided to get the characters to go visit the Crypt of the Sun Lord (if they know what it is, and know their history, they probably want to go there anyway!). For those who are using the campaign setting, there are some more links and notes to embed the characters into the setting from the outset (complete with hyperlinks to the relevant part of the Adventureaweek website, where the campaign world is detailed in an ever-growing section... which you can only access if you take out a subscription!), and there's a fine opening that sets them in the middle of the action from the outset, sailing across a lake on a Viking-style longboat!

The depth of background, skilfully recounted for you to insert into your descriptions and explanations as the game progresses, suggest that using the intended setting will be worthwhile as you seek to immerse yourselves in the shared alternate reality of your game. There's also plenty of advice on running the game in general, especially useful for new DMs but handy nevertheless however experienced you are at running games - and not too intrusive even if you reckon you need no help!

You may find, however, that the adventure is rather scripted: there is little scope for characters to do other than what has been laid out for them. Provided that they do, the tomb they are to investigate is laid out in lavish detail, complete with lush maps and copious atmospheric description - peppered with notes at the appropriate points to remind you what die rolls to call for, monster stats and combat tactics and so on, everything just when you'll need it and colour-coded so that you will not miss anything. Neat! Monsters are hyperlinked to both the D20 and the Pathfinder SRDs, so if you are running the game from a computer that's connected to the Internet, you can check up on the details from your chosen ruleset - and if you are not, there are also links to full statblocks for both rulesets at the end of the PDF.

You could use this as an exciting start to a campaign, or drop it in as a side adventure for characters going about other business in a suitable part of your campaign world... there's suffcient but not overwhelming challenge so that starting characters will feel that they have accomplished something. And there are a couple of neat low-level magical items to discover, too!

The revised edition V.4 is Better with a capital "b"

4/5 —

This adventure is 28 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages SRD, leaving 24 pages of module, so let's check this out!

The default of this module is set in the adventureaweek-campaign setting and this fact is evident from the very start - while generic enough to fit into just about any setting, a sense of being entrenched in the place, being truly part of a greater world is almost immediately evoked.

That being said, this is an adventure review, you know the drill: From here on reign the SPOILERS. Players are advised to jump to the conclusion.

Still here? All right! Hailing from the Klavekian kingdom, the PCs venture forth to the lands of the Vikmodere, which essentially correspond to the stereotype of pillaging, evil vikings with longboats etc. Whether these stories are true or just a product of xenophobia remains unclear. The PCs travel on the vast Serpent Lake en route to the village of Rybalka. As they reach shore and camp, though, a goblin makes off with a valuable family heirloom and thus forces the PCs to follow him into the crypt of the sun lord, where the little bugger and his 2 brothers have set several traps.

Unfortunately for the PCs, the crypt is also the resting place of the Sun Lord's guardians and skeletons and undead animals as well as the goblins will make up for the resistance in the short dungeon crawl to follow. Finally, the PCs may not only reclaim their heirloom, but also the fabled blade of the sun lord. The blade has been nerfed in the updated version and now only gradually unlocks the rest of its abilities. However: I'm still not a fan of parts of the blade's fluff: Vampires will flee from the light that emanates from this blade, attacking only if no other options are available." I still feel like the blade is a powerful reward for a rather easy module and should be guarded by a kind of boss battle.

Another problem is the "steal-from-the-PCs"-angle. It works. Almost always does. But it works because they have worked for it. The PCs here are 1st level. They have no attachment or sense of accomplishment to tie them to their characters or loot and thus make this hook with a thievish goblin to guide them into the tomb a very bad one. Not to mention the fact that any group of PCs worth their salt will have a) guards and b) the means to quickly track down and kill the thief, perhaps even in the act. A Goblin can't stand up to the combined wrath of a well-rested group - the casters and ranged fighters will CRUSH the bugger.

Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are good, though not perfect - I did notice some glitches like missing blank spaces, but most have been taken care of. Layout per se is beautiful with a used parchment look. With the revised layout, the icons and boxes are much more smoothly integrated into the text, thus offering a more concise overall impression. I'm still not a fan of the boxes, but they have been shrunken to a point where they still serve their intended purpose and don't feel as jarring anymore.
I'm happy to report that statblocks now adhere to standard PFRPG-formatting.

But there are also bright points: The cartography is AWESOME. I'd recommend the download for these alone - a map of the peninsula, of the whole lake etc. is provided and the map of the crypt is neat as well, although I would have loved a player-friendly version sans the secret doors/numbers etc. The artwork is also neat.

And then there's balancing. This adventure still is a cake-walk. Seriously. It's not only easy, it's ridiculously easy. The opposition faced is laughably incompetent, most of them wait in their rooms to get destroyed and there is no true boss. If the PCs get off track, they can fight a black bear. WITH a lot of backup. That's the toughest adversary herein. I don't want meat-grinders, don't get me wrong. (Though I sometimes enjoy them.) But players need to feel CHALLENGED by a module to enjoy beating it. I wager that my group could complete this whole module without taking damage. Seriously. The reward has thankfully been slightly nerfed, but I think the module might still have need for some kind of boss. Not even the clichéd ogre or shadow make an appearance at the end of the 1st level dungeon (thank goodness), but any kind of boss or final trap to end the module on a high note would have been great. As written, it feels like it peters out.

The people at adventureaweek.com are obviously listening to what you tell them - this revamp of the layout and the whole pdf, in fact, is superior to the first one I reviewed in every way. Seeing that, while most assuredly not perfect, this module is free and with its improvements, I'm adding a star to the final verdict for a score of 4 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

5/5 —

The freshman offering from this company, acting as both an adventure and an introduction to the inhouse setting for a continuing line of weekly adventures. Well thought out story based dialogue from NPC's sets the ground work for the feel of the environment adventure takes place within. Classic dungeon delve with a twist, the undead are not evil this time out, but rather willing guardians, watching over their lord in his death. Cartography is fantastic, offering multiple viewpoints of the tomb leaving no grey areas in regards to depth and locations of rooms. This map simply further illustrates why Todd Gamble is amongst a small collection of cartographers I truly enjoy.

For a group of first level characters, the adventure is perfect. A small group of opportunistic goblins, a random encounter with a bear, traps and a few encounters with skeletal guardians just strong enough to challenge low level characters, with a few nice goodies to reward a group. Even ignoring the price of free, this adventure would be a welcome addition to a GM's toolbox either as a kickoff point for an adventure path, a one off for an evening, or played as intended being an introduction to a fully realized campaign setting.

As the first offering from the adventureaweek.com camp, it shows serious potential, and that merits a download. Giving this adventure a five star rating as it is a perfect example of complexity through simplicity, and reminds us that sometimes brilliant design is in fact the least complex. Very clean, very to the point, and well written.

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1 person marked this as a favorite.

AdventureAWeek.com on Paizo.com? Huzzah! And hey, look, it's FREE!
1 person marked this as a favorite.

So happy to see the AaW material here on Paizo...
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Liz Courts wrote:
AdventureAWeek.com on Paizo.com? Huzzah! And hey, look, it's FREE!

Hey thanks Liz! ;) It is free thanks to the hard work of our amazing team! Thank you Todd Gamble, Tim Tyler, Stephen Yeardley, Joshua Gullion, Will Myers, Nathan Land, and Cory Vickruck.

Ha! I totally almost bought this the other day, too. Can't wait to read it. @Liz whoever had this idea should get a raise!
Contributor
meatrace wrote:
@Liz whoever had this idea should get a raise!

I'm Liz Courts, and I approve of this plan.

Spoiler:
Totally not my idea. >.>
Dark Archive

SWEET!! WE ARE LIVE!
oh btw its Cory

CORY!!!!!!!!!!
Shadow Lodge

Thank you Miss Liz. :)

I have two basic questions after downloading A1.

Question 1 are all of the adventures similar in layout ???

Question 2 are you including hero lab in all your products ??

Thanks.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'll answer this one as Jonathan and Todd are off locked away working on the next batch of goodies.

The layout is undergoing some tweaking, and will include the addition of an NPC index at the back of each adventure module, and further changes to layout and look will depend upon feedback.

And all PDF's are planned to be released with Hero Lab file support.

Thanks for the interest and the questions!
Dark Archive
1 person marked this as a favorite.

IMO the layout and look of the book is amazing, very easy to read and look at. I like the different symbols for the boxed text, or skill challenge, its a cool concept.

That's exactly what we like to hear! Thank You bigkilla, am glad you're liking what you're seeing! The icons are one of my favorite things, makes it very easy at a glance to know what everything is for.

Any chance I could talk you into doing a review??
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Thanks for the great comments guys! We too love the little icons on each page. All of our ideas were implemented to make a GM's life easier. I run games myself and wanted to leave the huge hiking pack of books at home and run games with my iPad and a bag of dice (I must have real dice!)

I like to be mobile and keep my games moving. Anytime we stop to look something up in a book wastes precious time at the gaming table. Everything we have implemented in our PDFs and on our website is designed from a GM's perspective with the artistic genius and skills of 3x ENnie Award Winning artist Todd Gamble.

Todd worked on the Forgotten Realms maps, D&D 3.5 Core books, as well as hundreds of other products. He also has a site mapaweek.com where you can get quality RPG maps every week as well as access to the archives.

Right now we're offering a FREE TRIAL on adventureaweek.com so hop over there and register! You'll get access to a few different areas, an adventure, a free PDF download, the forum, blog, and more! Please remember to tell your friends about us and join in the discussion. We are building worlds together!

We also take adventure submissions like the old school Dragon Magazine! You don't have to be a game designer to hop on board, just a creative and driven GM! :)
Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

As a DM who is a user of Hero Lab (I no longer run adventures without it), I can tell you that your included pre-made HL files are a HUGE selling point for me. I can only hope that my other two favorite publishers <cough>Paizo and Frog God Games<cough><cough> follow suit and start to offer the same sort of support HL files, even if it was at a cost. It is a massive game-prep time saver!

One question though. When I tried to copy/paste a map from the Crypt of the Sun Lord .pdf into Paint it brought over the room numbers, traps, secret doors, etc. For those of us who run our adventures online using software such as d20Pro that is an extra time sink (scraping that stuff off in a tool such as Paint) that we really could do without.

Any plans to layer your maps so that those details don't come across on a copy-paste?

Other than that one item I want to say that you guys are off to a great start and I'm going to be signing up at your site immediately.
Dr. Johnny Fever wrote:
As a DM who is a user of Hero Lab (I no longer run adventures without it), I can tell you that your included pre-made HL files are a HUGE selling point for me. I can only hope that my other two favorite publishers <cough>Paizo and Frog God Games<cough><cough> follow suit and start to offer the same sort of support HL files, even if it was at a cost. It is a massive game-prep time saver!

Am happy the files are helpful! It is our goal to be able to continue to offer the Hero Lab files with each and every adventure, so we love to hear that folks are using them!

Dr. Johnny Fever wrote:


One question though. When I tried to copy/paste a map from the Crypt of the Sun Lord .pdf into Paint it brought over the room numbers, traps, secret doors, etc. For those of us who run our adventures online using software such as d20Pro that is an extra time sink (scraping that stuff off in a tool such as Paint) that we really could do without.

Any plans to layer your maps so that those details don't come across on a copy-paste?

I'll talk with our cartographer (Todd Gamble) to see what his thoughts are on this, as it would make sense to give a player's map for usage in virtual map programs and for handouts. Thanks for the suggestion.

-edit- just fired off an email to Todd & Jonathan to bring the question of the maps to their attention. As soon as I know something, I'll post back here.

Dr. Johnny Fever wrote:


Other than that one item I want to say that you guys are off to a great start and I'm going to be signing up at your site immediately.

Excellent, feel free to dig through the site's forum, the behind the curtain guys have got all kinds of goodies scattered throughout, kind of a view of the process as things were developed. Glad you like what we're up to! Anyway I can talk you into giving a review???

vick293 wrote:

SWEET!! WE ARE LIVE!

oh btw its Cory

CORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Hey there Dr. Johnny Fever! Thank you very much for all the great feedback! I must give a massive serving of credit to our all around jack of all trades and HERO LAB/PDF guru: KTFish of House Gullion! He truly is a genius and has assisted us in integrating HERO LAB into Adventureaweek.com!

I have been talking with John Ryan over at HERO LAB for the past couple months. He is a great guy and we're sure to feature more HERO LAB content on the site and in upcoming downloads. I now use the program almost as much as Photoshop (which is saying a lot, I'm a PS addict!)

I have also spoken with our ENnie award winning cartographer Todd Gamble about providing the maps in a format that will work better for GMs.

Our ultimate goal is to feature the best website on the net FOR GMs with everything you could possibly need to run a game. We want to make it easier for you to provide the absolute best experience for your players. Why waste time digging through books and modules when you could be playing!? That's why we decided to build this website in the first place!

ENJOY! We'll see you on the AaW Forum! ;)

Your adventures all look great but you need to also include a printer friendly version. As this product is right now it looks like it would use up a lot of ink to print it. I would buy your other 5 adventures but I like to print out products and these would use up more ink than the adventure costs. Please consider adding printer friendly versions. The addition of Hero Lab support is great!
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Reviewed here, on DTRPG and sent to GMS magazine. I hope my criticism doesn't rub you the wrong way and offers a guideline to improve. Cheers!

Thank You for the review Endzeitgeist...as usual you are to the point, lol. I would never have approached you about a review if I had wanted a sugar coated review.

Ah, if only this had been tomorrow, I just uploaded the revised version of this PDF to Jonathan not even a few hours ago, lol. Some new art, the stat block index, a few minor layout changes (including the icons shrinking drastically, as well as the colored boxes dropping to an 80% transparency). We're getting mixed opinions on the icons, some folks love them, obviously, you are not so much a fan, fair enough.

Knowing the need for player maps Todd has been working on getting us player maps for the module coming out later this week to support our GM maps, and I want to say that player maps are being looked at retroactively throughout the PDF's...but I will state that that's an "I want to say" I am not sure.

I do appreciate the feedback though, as all feedback helps the process

And, for clarification...for anyone reading these. I won't be posting anymore reviews for AdventureaWeek.com as I am building these PDF's for them now, and that kind of makes me biased, lol. The review that is here of mine was written a while ago for their store site, and I copied and pasted it here without thinking of how that might come across.
PathfinderFan64 wrote:
Your adventures all look great but you need to also include a printer friendly version. As this product is right now it looks like it would use up a lot of ink to print it. I would buy your other 5 adventures but I like to print out products and these would use up more ink than the adventure costs. Please consider adding printer friendly versions. The addition of Hero Lab support is great!

I will bring this up with Jonathan and Todd, I honestly don't know if talk of printer friendly versions have been discussed or not at this point. Originally this was all planned for website access only, and grew into PDF's. I'll have to bring this up and see where their thinking is on it, it is definitely something I think we can look into easily enough, and I thank you for bringing it up.

In the end, you might want to consider looking into the website and the subscription service they offer, as it would be a much better value cost wise if you are looking at possibly purchasing everything in the AaW catalog :)

Am glad you are liking what you're seeing, and am thrilled that the Hero Lab files are helpful. I'm determined that every adventure will have Hero Lab support, as I run everything through mine, and know how useful it is as a tool for the GM.

You're welcome! I'll be happy to take a look at the revised version as well and update my review accordingly - sugar-coating, though, won't happen there either. *lol*

With regards to the icons - I don't object to the idea, but I don't like how they feel like they are out of place in the overall layout.

My main gripes were the fluctuating quality in writing, the lack of a final boss, the reward that is out of all proportions for the level and finally, that statblocks and other crunchy bits don't adhere to the standard format used in PFRPG-publications.

Edit: And the steal angle works MUCH better at higher levels, when you can take something from the PCs they rightfully earned...

Generally, I see A LOT of potential here and I really hope you guys can tap into it.

Trust me, I want honest opinion, no sugar-coating required, lol.

Will have to look through the statblocks closer, I knew I had changed some things in the layout for the 3.5 statblocks, but I will take a second look at the PFRPG ones to correct them as well.

Thanks again End!

Updated my review to reflect the changes made to it here and on DTRPG. Cheers!

Thank you for taking another look at the adventure Endzeitgeist, 'peciate that.

You're welcome! If/when Jonathan decides to include a boss/revise it again, I'll be happy to revise the review again. :)

And: The new layout is MUCH better. Just finished reading "Champion's Rest" and that one was actually quite nice - especially the swarm!

lol, I haven't actually started the rebuild on Champion's Rest yet. The plan is to bring the entire series of PDF's in line with the layout format we're using now, Its just taking me longer to get done than I thought it would, lol.

'peciate the comments End!

Any word yet on the printer friendly versions?

The latest adventures (A9 +) have printer-firendly versions!

Thanks.

Also you may print ANY adventure in printer-friendly format by removing the background and any graphics in the settings of Adobe Acrobat or whatever PDF program you use. You will be surprised how flexible those PDF viewing programs are! :)
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