I recently got a chance to develop an adventure written by my good friend Brandon Hodge. It also turns out I got to develop an updated version of an adventure that Brandon ran for our group nearly 10 years ago.
Brandon has a solid background as a scholar of the esoteric and occult, and after he was brought on as a consultant for Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures, we knew that he'd be the best fit for an adventure that would tie in to that book. After running the idea past him, he immediately had an idea for the adventure pitch—one he knew well from years back. Since I've been friends with Brandon since high school and since I'd been a player in that adventure, it made me the best choice to develop it... and that adventure is Pathfinder Module: The House on Hook Street.
Of course, the adventure has changed from when I was with my home group back in Texas, and I think it's even better. I'll let Brandon get a few words in about the history and process.
I remember that I sent a really disturbing nursery rhyme to my players a few days before the first House on Hook Street sessions, and that it was sometime around 2007. A few weeks previously, our group had one of those typical post-game "the thrill-is-gone/I've-seen-it-all/memorized-the-bestiary/bought-the-tshirt" laments that we've all felt at some point, and I recall another player boldly challenged me for something truly fresh and surprising, but using existing materials. So, I picked up the gauntlet.
And that's how The House on Hook Street was born. The original adventure predated the Pathfinder RPG by a couple of years, but it was still set in Golarion, though in the recently debuted streets of Riddleport rather than Old Korvosa. Back then, my longtime pal Adam Daigle and I were just enthusiastic players in a couple of weekly games in Austin, and Daigle was just beginning to sniff around the industry, and trying to drag me along with him. With his encouragement, I wrote this new adventure in the Dungeon Magazine format with the intention that maybe—just maybe—I'd get it published.
And because the re-write shifted the original plot enough that it isn't spoiler material anymore, the mechanic I used to 'file off the serial numbers' of monsters involved a bloodthirsty thieves' guild using tainted potions, with transmogrifying results that let me use some of my favorite creatures in new and horrifying ways, keeping my players guessing at every turn even as I was peering menacingly from the other side of an open Monster Manual. It was part of the challenge, after all, and I just went wild: thieves who "overdosed" on tainted elixirs of hiding essentially used the stats for shadows but dragged their discarded corpses behind them, while tainted potions of gaseous form let other thieves exhale their souls as weird belker-things. Just don't ask me about the poor sap that overdosed on a tainted potion of tongues—it's way, way worse than you think, and, yes, the horrifying legacy of that encounter made its way into the final product. See if you can spot it!
My players went crazy trying to figure out what was happening, and I loved the results enough to keep the adventure in my back pocket. When Occult Adventures came along and Erik asked me to write an adventure using those materials, I knew I finally had the perfect tools to bring the greater story to life. And by shifting the setting to Korvosa, I got to revisit some of my favorite material from my friend Nick Logue and the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path, and I think you'll appreciate the results!
I recently ran the rewritten adventure again as a playtest, with two members of that old group getting to revisit The House on Hook Street. Sadly, Daigle couldn't join us, and just had to deal with my constant updates and pictures of the action, some of which I've included here. I'm happy to say my players were blown away with the adventure's latest incarnation, and just as surprised with the twists and turns as their first time through. That, and there's about 50 hours of gameplay packed in between these covers, so I think you're getting your money's worth.
The occult has strange effects on some people—beware the streets of Old Korvosa!
Merisiel finds herself in a sticky situation.
Ezren drools at the prospect of plumbing the secrets of this occult library.
The Pathfinder Battles Locus Demon makes a great stand-in to bring the adventure's cover illustration to life.
What secrets lurk below?
It turns out that the cult has some nightmarish allies... but have we seen this guy somewhere before?
The inner sanctum of the house is awfully quiet... but why's Valeros so on-edge?
So, it'll be yours now. You'll get to revisit Old Korvosa and witness its transformation yourselves, and I know you'll have as much fun with it as we did. And how cool is it that after all of our years of friendship, that I get to work right alongside Daigle as my developer on an adventure he actually played in nearly a decade ago, before we even got into the biz? Pretty damned cool, if you ask me!
Brandon Hodge
Contributing Author
One of the things I remember from that adventure long ago, aside from being creeped out by Brandon's description of his reskinned antagonists, was getting frustrated with getting to an enemy and just hacking through the floor. (I think something might have even been on fire.) One of the things that I'll remember about this adventure is getting to work on cool and creepy material from Brandon while he sent me the aforementioned "constant updates and pictures of the action." I swear I got at least one email or text per page of adventure during the process.
Illustrations by Tomasz Chistowski
It was fun setting this in Korvosa, as it was a great way to show that occult elements are always lurking in the shadows, waiting for intrepid adventurers to peel back the layers and discover the esoteric bits hiding beneath. Pick up The House on Hook Street, gather your friends for adventure, and let us know how it went!
Adam Daigle
Developer
