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GameMastery Module D1: Crown of the Kobold King (OGL)

4.70/5 (based on 26 ratings)
GameMastery Module D1: Crown of the Kobold King (OGL)
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A dungeon adventure for 2nd-level characters.

The crown of the kobold king will be anointed in blood.

Five children from the town of Falcon’s Hollow have gone missing, dragged off into ruins underneath a cursed dwarven monastery. Soon they will be sacrificed to the crown, all to the glory of the twisted King of the Kobolds. If they are to be saved from this gruesome fate, brave heroes must follow their trail to the monastery and plumb the depths of its trap-laden and monster-infested halls.

This dungeon adventure, compatible with the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game, includes details on the town of Falcon’s Hollow and the deadly dungeons underneath a nearby ruined monastery. There are terrible dangers waiting for your players in the halls of the king, but they must be overcome if the player characters are to save the children.

This adventure can also be run as a sequel to GameMastery Module D0: Hollow’s Last Hope.

Written by fan-favorite author Nicolas Logue, Module D1 will be the backdrop for a huge, three-dimensional "delve" event premiering at Origins 2007.

GameMastery Modules are 32-page, high-quality, full-color, OGL-compatible adventures for use with the world's most popular fantasy RPG. All GameMastery Modules include four pre-made characters so players can jump right into the action, and full-color maps to enhance play.

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Excellent Adventure (but wait until Level 3!)

4/5 —

NO SPOILERS

Man, that cover art really catches the eye! Crown of the Kobold King was the first adventure (apart from a Free RPG Day offering) in Paizo's GameMastery line of modules. Designed for Level 2 PCs, it involves wilderness and dungeon exploration centred around the town of Falcon's Hollow and the ominous forest known as Darkmoon Vale. I ran this last year as part of my "Roots of Golarion" campaign and I can't say it was a huge hit. There are a *lot* of encounters in close succession, and because the plot is on something of a timer, it was far more than an average party of Level 2 PCs should be expected to handle (even for Pathfinder RPG PCs, which tend to be tougher than the D&D 3.5 PCs the module was written for). That being said, the module is engaging and well-written, and this is far from an average dungeon crawl. It introduces several interesting NPCs and sets up what could be a memorable "Falcon's Hollow" mini-campaign (using other modules in the line set there). I just think it should be run for higher level PCs.

SPOILERS!:

In many modules, the "Adventure Background" section is kind of dull, but it's surprisingly entertaining in Crown of the Kobold King. A tribe of kobolds living under an abandoned dwarven monastery (a place once devoted to the dark god of toil, Droskar) has met with a streak of bad luck recently. The tribe's shaman has determined that a sacrifice of human children will turn things around, so the tribe promptly kidnapped five adolescents from nearby Falcon's Hollow.

This is where the PCs come in, as Part One of the module is set in Falcon's Hollow. The reasons the PCs are in the town and how they hear about the missing kids is left fairly undetermined, which is fine for experienced GMs but perhaps not the best direction for new GMs. But in any event, after finding out some information about the kids and what direction they headed, the adventure leaves Falcon's Hollow behind. This is primarily a traditional "trek through the wilderness to get to the dungeon" type of adventure, and there's not a lot of town-based role-playing. That being said, I don't want to give the impression that this module was lazily written. The town itself is well-detailed with a gazetteer in an appendix, and all of the missing kids receive pictures, backgrounds, and personalities. A lot of groundwork is laid here that can be developed in either future modules or homemade adventures.

In Part Two, the PCs follow the trail of the missing kids to the ruins of a burned-down orphanage several miles out of town (the kids went there to camp on a dare, which is where they were abducted by the kobolds). This orphanage has a dark and grisly history, and the PCs will be able to learn about some of it through exploration (the spiders streaming out of a corpse is a classic horror moment!). The group will encounter what seems like a young girl who survived the fire, but turns out to be a werewolf who attacks the group when they're engaged with other foes--a very nasty surprise for do-gooder Level 2 PCs! Anyway, the PCs will pick up the trail of the missing kids and realise it leads into Darkmoon Vale proper. There's an interesting mix of random encounters in the forest, and not all of them are combat-based.

Part Three has the PCs reaching Droskar's Crucible (the long-abandoned dwarven monastery) and exploring its first subterranean level. This is a high-quality, professionally-written dungeon that has a dynamic environment (it's not just a series of monsters hanging out in rooms for the PCs to kill) and a well-developed backstory (about the fall of the monastery, as well as previous adventurers who tried to explore it). I've seen plenty of mediocre dungeon-based modules where I felt I could do the same thing just as well with a couple of hours' writing, but that's not the case with Crown of the Kobold King. There was clearly a lot of time and effort put into the place to make it a cohesive, interesting environment. I should note that this dungeon is *big*. Level 1 alone has nineteen rooms, with threats ranging from the expected kobolds to a gelatinous cube to multiple traps to various types of undead. The PCs will encounter (scattered about the level) most of the missing children here as the kids are in the midst of an escape attempt but got split up. The urgency of the PCs' mission (rescue the kids before they become living sacrifices!) is one of the reasons the difficulty of the module is probably higher than it should be. It's not the situation where most groups will feel comfortable resting for a night to get back hit points and spells. In addition, the sheer number of encounters and the Challenge Rating of some of those encounters (CR 4 and CR 5 encounters aren't uncommon) makes me think the intended difficulty is just too high for an average group. GMs should also prepare carefully, as there's a lot of moving parts to manage. It's very well-written though!

Part Four has the PCs' exploring the second subterranean level to rescue the last missing kid. They'll have to confront the kobold king himself, and rescue that kid seconds before he's about to be sacrificed by the tribe's shaman! It's a very exciting conclusion as written (my group didn't get so far, as they had to make an ignominious panicked retreat long before after encountering a dozen or more kobold warriors in a single chamber). And again, it's an adventure not for the faint-hearted (there's a classic Indiana Jones-style heart-removal scene) or the weak (the king is CR6!).

Assuming the PCs are successful and return with the kids to Falcon's Hollow, a brief conclusion wraps things up tidily. The PCs will probably be quite wealthy, as the module includes four custom magical items each priced in the 10,000 to 15,000 gp range. I have to make special note of a "Campaign Seed" sidebar that talks about the future of these kids--man, is it bleak! (I'm not complaining, just . . . ironically amused, I guess)

I've already mentioned the brief gazetteer of Falcon's Hollow in the first appendix. The town reminds me of an Old West frontier town in a lot of respects. A second appendix details two new monsters that appear in the adventure: a "forge spurned" and a "slurk." The former is an undead blacksmith sworn to Droskar who adds souls to the chains that wrap around its body and is very cool; the latter is an underground giant fanged toad and is forgettable.

I've harped on the difficulty of the module a lot--I don't see a Level 2 group being successful unless they're particularly min-maxed, a very large group (perhaps bolstered by animal companions, etc.) or have a *lot* of consumable instant healing resources. But this is a problem easily solvable by instead waiting until the group is Level 3 or even 4 before running it. It's also an adventure that involves some heavy dungeon exploration, which isn't going to be to every player's taste. But with those caveats, Crown of the Kobold King is an excellent module. It has an engaging plot, a setting with depth, and some very memorable encounters. I definitely recommend running it--just give a little thought to when and for whom.

Cool Adventure and Town Setting

5/5 —

This module was my introduction to Nicholas Logue's work. The adventure outline has a lot of cool content and there are designer notes about why things are the way they are in the adventure. The encounters can be insanely dangerous. That's a design feature of Golarion and adventures written for that setting. The town of Falcon's Hollow is well-detailed and is a nasty, downbeat place. It's grim, but I feel that motivated player characters could make a difference and make it a better place.

Bring your healing supplies and wits

5/5 —

A very good well aged starting adventure, everything in moderation, with room for player buffoonery and game master experimentation. We had lots of fun with it, even though I had to park the random encounter manticore on top of the exit to keep the players from running away. Looking forward to try out the other two correlated D modules.

There were only two minor issues. 1) There is no picture of Jeva as a girl, so good luck making that miniature. 2) The three bosses of the dungeon (Forge Spurned, Kobold King and Jekkajak) were all overpowering for my 2 member party, so we ended up watering down their weapons and spells.

5/5 —

Great adventure. The quest to rescue the chidren was interesting as was the info on Falcon's Hollow and some of it's residents. Fun touches like the drunken hill giant, the encounter with Jeva, and the intro story about the kobold make this one of my favorite adventures.

Great Fun!

5/5 —

The reasons why this is such a good module have already been described in detail by other reviewers so I will cover only personal highlights:

First, and most importantly, my players had a blast playing this adventure and I had fun DMing it.

Second, the story of the Kobold King Merlokrep that serves as the introduction of this adventure is some of the best and most entertaining writing that I have read in all of the paizo modules.

Third, the adventure also features some of the most memorable characters and magical items in the adventure modules line -> Jeva the werewolf orphan girl, Kardoblag the drunken hill giant, the grasp of Droskar, the "ghost" of Glintaxe, etc...

Fourth, the town of Falcon's Hollow, an ideal base for low-level campaigns, is detailed within. This section also describes Falcon's Hollow most important organizations and NPCs, including Thuldrin Kreed, who is possibly the most universally hated villain in the paizo modules line.

All that to say that this is definitely one of the best modules that paizo has ever released.

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This reminds me, did Jeva survive in anyone's game? In my campaign, they didn't find out what she was, so I'm going to put her in Carnival of Tears, as hinted there. I'm thinking that she is caged in carnival grounds and asking players help to free her. Of course they will find out what she is, but maybe they will free her anyway. I'm curious if anyone else has the same situation, and what are you going to do with it.

Oh, I also started this with another group, mixing this and Hollows last hope together, but they didn't survive in the forest. Cauldron took one, dragon-thingie in the tree another and the rest of them were foolish and engaded to battle with the drunken hill giant... End of story =).
Contributor
Salama wrote:

This reminds me, did Jeva survive in anyone's game? In my campaign, they didn't find out what she was, so I'm going to put her in Carnival of Tears, as hinted there. I'm thinking that she is caged in carnival grounds and asking players help to free her. Of course they will find out what she is, but maybe they will free her anyway. I'm curious if anyone else has the same situation, and what are you going to do with it.

Oh, I also started this with another group, mixing this and Hollows last hope together, but they didn't survive in the forest. Cauldron took one, dragon-thingie in the tree another and the rest of them were foolish and engaded to battle with the drunken hill giant... End of story =).

Ha! Never mess with a drunken giant!!! :-)

Yeah, made him sickened and everything, wiped them all out =). Happily this was a one shot game with people I don't get to play with so often. In my actual campaign the players were much smarter, they searched the ring and were sooooo kind to ol' giant. Just love this encounter. Best random encounter EVER.
Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I just finished running this for one of my groups, and I have a question. Is Hollow on the same continent as the Pathfinder Chronicles? I can't find it on the big map (not even an arrow pointing in the general direction), and the god who the mountain is named for is not one of the Pantheon listed in the Player's Guide.
Please let me know.

PS. My players "LOVED" Jeva (4 out of six with negative HP)!! :-)

Oops, my question has already been answered. For some reason on the early 2007 posts appeared when I was looking at the discussion.

PSS. In response to Salama's question, Jeva did survive.

Are the handouts downloadable anywhere? I've got the module, but would like to print out the aids if they're available. Thanks.

Thread necromancy for Nicolas:

The group ended up making it to the start of level 2, down the well in area 17, but they made a big tactical error by letting the kobolds from 17 retreat down the well and set up their defenses.

The party made the mistake of separating into two groups too, though to be fair, they technically had no choice because they were trying to destroy the Forge Spurned and realized they couldn't, so instead of being killed, three of them fled down the stalagmite hole.

That separation probably cost them their lives. The end result was a TPK, in combination with far too many natural 20s for the kobolds and natural 1s for the group. They were doomed. For a group of kobolds I would have only given about a 20% chance of defeating the party, they did very well!

Hey can anyone tell me what level you'd expect the PCs to be at by the end of the Module?

Well, I do not see a listing yet for the new Free RPG Day product, but it is a sequel of sorts for this one and I will be running it this Saturday at Games Plus 847-577-9656 in Mount Prospect, IL. Call and talk to Curt about reserving your spot. It is a fifth level adventure that picks up where the Crown of the Kobold King leaves off, sort of third in the series, I suppose. There should be enough of the adventures for each participant to have their own copy after we play, for those who sign up early enough.

As always,
Mark Clover
CreativeMountainGames.com

I have yet to look at this fully since I'm actually playing through it in a few different games. But I've been handed the maps by my DM and given the job of making them player friendly so I figured i would give the environs to the board.

This is a wonderful map originally done by Christopher West whom does a crack shot job on these.

More to follow if wanted.

So, what other adventures and gamebooks besides Hollow's Last Hope, Crown of the Kobold King, and Carnival of Tears are in the 'Falcon's Hollow' series?

I like the setting (miserable as almost everyone in it is!) and would like to get the whole set.
Eric Hinkle wrote:
So, what other adventures and gamebooks besides Hollow's Last Hope, Crown of the Kobold King, and Carnival of Tears are in the 'Falcon's Hollow' series?

Let's see, there's:

D1.5: Revenge of the Kobold King - a free PDF
D4: Hungry Are the Dead - expected in late Oct / early Nov.
Liberty's Edge
Rauol_Duke wrote:
Eric Hinkle wrote:
So, what other adventures and gamebooks besides Hollow's Last Hope, Crown of the Kobold King, and Carnival of Tears are in the 'Falcon's Hollow' series?

Let's see, there's:

D1.5: Revenge of the Kobold King - a free PDF
D4: Hungry Are the Dead - expected in late Oct / early Nov.

TC1, LB1 and LB2 aren't very far away from it either.

Thanks to both of you gentlemen.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Rauol_Duke wrote:
Eric Hinkle wrote:
So, what other adventures and gamebooks besides Hollow's Last Hope, Crown of the Kobold King, and Carnival of Tears are in the 'Falcon's Hollow' series?

Let's see, there's:

D1.5: Revenge of the Kobold King - a free PDF
D4: Hungry Are the Dead - expected in late Oct / early Nov.

You'll also want to check out Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Darkmoon Vale, which covers the area in detail.

Dark Archive

Found this review on-line.

I have had this for some time, but am just about to embark upon running it.

I was wondering - with most of my modules I received a free PDF of module, but not this one. Any reason for that?

Cheers, C
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Connors wrote:

I have had this for some time, but am just about to embark upon running it.

I was wondering - with most of my modules I received a free PDF of module, but not this one. Any reason for that?

Cheers, C

Were you a subscriber when it shipped?

Grand Lodge

S
e
o
n
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Is there any plans to make this module free? as the D0 and D1.5 are free already.

doesnt hurt to ask. ^^
Paizo Employee CEO
Portella wrote:

S

e
o
n
i

Is there any plans to make this module free? as the D0 and D1.5 are free already.

doesnt hurt to ask. ^^

Nope. D0 and D1.5 were part of Free RPG Day, and that is why they are free and will remain so. D1 is our way to make back the money we spent making the other two free. :)

-Lisa
Grand Lodge

S
e
o
n
i

No win no fee ^^

thank you Lisa... I will give you some of my money then.
Liberty's Edge
Lisa Stevens wrote:


Nope. D0 and D1.5 were part of Free RPG Day, and that is why they are free and will remain so. D1 is our way to make back the money we spent making the other two free. :)

-Lisa

Worked for me. What're the next ones set in the area?

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
Xuttah wrote:
Lisa Stevens wrote:


Nope. D0 and D1.5 were part of Free RPG Day, and that is why they are free and will remain so. D1 is our way to make back the money we spent making the other two free. :)

-Lisa

Worked for me. What're the next ones set in the area?

E1: Carnival of Tears and D4: Hungry Are the Dead both take place in Falcon's Hollow. LB1: Tower of the Last Baron, LB2: Treasure of Chimera Cove and TC1:Into the Haunted Forest all take place in other parts of Andoran but are easy to get to should your PCs decide to leave Darkmoon Vale.

Liberty's Edge

Thanks! Always looking for a campaign to prep in reserve. Those first two modules were on my want list on account of the awesome names.

Any chance Paizo will offer PFPRG conversions for the statblocks?

I just bought and read this adventure. There's a lot of good things to be said about this adventure, all of which have already been said - the encounters and NPC's are flavorful and well-designed (independently speaking)...I imagine players will enjoy this adventure.

However, there are flaws I see right away. As someone already mentioned, there is a serious problem with the layout of the dungeon and encounters...

*SPOILER ALERT*

For instance, there are predatory creatures, like a gelatinous cube inhabiting pathways between kobold tribemembers. There's one part where four ghouls are eating a kobold in one room and there are six kobolds on the other side of the door, seemingly unconcerned about the fact that there are four ghouls who could easily devour them as soon as they open the door.

Someone mentioned a typo with the new "Forge Spurned" (pretty neat new monster btw). I'm not so sure that's a typo - either way, the thing seems too overpowered to me - I don't see a party of four 2nd level characters surviving 40 hp beastie that has two attacks dealing 1d8+6 and 2d4+10+1d6 fire damage (plus special abilities!). I guess I haven't play-tested it, but my instinct says there is no way - the DM would have to engage in party protection and I hate doing that.

Finally, I really dislike one of the new monsters - a sabertooth giant toad/kobold steed. It's just too ridiculous. I can't stomach allowing such silly creatures into my campaign.

As a DM, I would recommend removing some of the encounters - creatures hostile to one another are just too packed-in to make sense. And it's nice to have just an empty room every now and then to let the PC's know that sometimes there is nothing to be encountered or found...this builds up suspense and excitement when they do actually encounter or find something worthwhile. Besides that, the adventure seems too tough for 2nd lvl characters as it is.

I also anticipate adding kobold "markings" of some sort to indicate danger zones for the kobolds. Kobolds are intelligent enough to do this and seems an absolute must for the kobolds' survival. Plus, it would be fun to have the PC's figure out what these markings mean.

Finally, I would replace the laughable sabertooth giant toads with a kobold companion that isn't quite so ridiculous...maybe a regular giant toad, giant lizards, or dire rats (I believe rats were kobold companions in 1E).

With that said, I give the adventure barely 4 stars for it's flavor and well-developed encounter. I'm just disappointed I'll have to do so much tinkering to make this adventure "realistic" for my campaign.

I just picked this up as my group is starting a pathfinder campaign. I haven't finished reading it yet, however when I saw the part about the Kobolds being sent out to steal pink-skinned babies - I couldn't help but flash to Kobolds Ate My Baby!!!

I can't help it - I'm renaming the king to King Torg! (All Hail King Torg!) - this is sure to be a lot of fun.
Sovereign Court
Leper wrote:


*SPOILER ALERT*

Someone mentioned a typo with the new "Forge Spurned" (pretty neat new monster btw). I'm not so sure that's a typo - either way, the thing seems too overpowered to me - I don't see a party of four 2nd level characters surviving 40 hp beastie that has two attacks dealing 1d8+6 and 2d4+10+1d6 fire damage (plus special abilities!). I guess I haven't play-tested it, but my instinct says there is no way - the DM would have to engage in party protection and I hate doing that.

Finally, I really dislike one of the new monsters - a sabertooth giant toad/kobold steed. It's just too ridiculous. I can't stomach allowing such silly creatures into my campaign.

It is a typo. According to the text, the enhancement on the chain from 30 links should be +6 Armor and +3 attack and damage. Assuming the chain gets regular strength, it should be 2d4+7. It looks like the double bonus given to armor was accidentally applied to the chain damage as well.

As for silly creatures, I don't think there's anything particularly silly about slurks. They certainly don't look any sillier than some artists' renderings of actual prehistoric creatures(not to mention the truly bizarre ones that existed in the earliest days of evolution. Most of those look like something out of the Far Realm.

I have not bought an adventure module yet from Paizo, and I've just finished the beginner box. I was wondering if the modules come with full sized maps to play on or simply the art within the book? Been trying to figure this out =)
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
laughmask wrote:
I have not bought an adventure module yet from Paizo, and I've just finished the beginner box. I was wondering if the modules come with full sized maps to play on or simply the art within the book? Been trying to figure this out =)

Our adventures don't include minis-scale maps.

Your modules are great. As a DM with no skills in map-making I would appreciate a player map (without numbers, secret doors and stuff) and a DM map in the PDFs.
That would make my work much easier.

Hello fellow GMs, I'm looking for some advice on running D1.

I'm about to put my players through D1, though I'm worried that they might be too high level. Right now, they're just on the edge of hitting APL 3. (3 adventurers and 1 NPC Cleric, all likely to turn 3rd level at the end of their current adventure.) I can hold back some xp to make sure they arrive in town as Level 2, but they're only going to be a few hundred xp short, so will probably hit Level 3 on a random encounter or at the first "stop".

I figure I have a few options:
* Just don't let them get enough xp to level up yet. I don't like this one because I feel like I'm cheating them out of their hard-fought xp.
* Have the NPC cleric get called away so that there are only 3 characters, which would lower APL to 2. I worry because they're getting pretty dependent on the cleric for healing and luck. Maybe it would be useful to have them develop new tactics though.
* Throw in a few extra enemies in lower EL encounters to keep things exciting, but don't worry about things too much.

Does the module assume that players level up to 3rd or even 4th level during this adventure? If that's the case, I can just reinforce the first level encounters some and not worry about it too much.

Thanks,
/hdan
Dark Archive

Just started with Hollow's Last Hope, but I already introduced Sithmuck. Ofcourse, the wizard lovingly adopted the wounded falcon, while the investigator hates the infernal beast.

I ran part of this module a couple years ago. The animated goblet remains a running joke at my table, as the rogue's player completely panicked when it attacked him ... and the goblet got an attack of opportunity.
Liberty's Edge

any plans to update this to Pathfinder?
Grand Lodge
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber
Qstor wrote:
any plans to update this to Pathfinder?

Doubtful. I don't think ever updated any of their 3.5e Modules to PF. The Runelords and Crimson Throne APs are the only ones to get such treatment.

However, it's pretty easy to convert from 3.5e->PF on the fly.

-Skeld
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