A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st to 5th level characters (Tiers: 1–2, 4–5).
Skelg the Ripper, envoy from the Land of the Linnorm Kings, lies wasting in his villa on the outskirts of Absalom. A frigid curse followed Skelg from his northern homeland and grips his bearish heart in its frosty embrace. As the bizarre freezing ailment pushes Skelg to the brink of death, the Society dispatches you and your fellow Pathfinders to uncover the secrets of the freezing curse before Absalom falls to its icy grip.
Written by Craig Shackleton
This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can easily be adapted for use with any world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the 3.5 edition of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game.
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I have played this adventure but I have neither ran nor GMed it.
This has cool stuff going on and some of the more memorably NPCs from a PFS scenario. The time ticking down is a real worry, and the setting and atmosphere is nicely done.
The beginning can be a bit weak but the adventure as a whole is awesome.
(GMed)
A lot depends on the way a GM connects individual parts of the adventure. The atmosphere of each encounter can be really interresting for PCs and the middle encounter was a lot of fun because players got to plan their actions and then execute (more or less) succesfully.
The end itself was a bit weird (I didn't quite get the end NPC) but it worked out OK.
Post monster ate my post. (Whenever that happens here I curse the gods and promise myself I won't ever try to post again. It doesn't last long, though, and Craig deserves the review.)
I give it 4 stars for the module (good mix of combat/RP, good pace, interesting locales), 4 stars for our GM (would've been 5 stars but he was a little late, and needed to build some NPCs; it worked out because I helped some new MapTool users in parallel), and 5 stars for our platform (MapTool and Vent worked great, although Windows did have a technical glitch for our GM).
The module was combat, RP, RP, combat/stealth, RP, combat, RP. We did the "stealth" thing when a frontal assault would probably have been just as effective. But we were a bunch of newbies (bard1, rog1, monk1, wiz2, wiz4) and without a cleric or meatshield we were trying to be careful. :)
As you can see though, a good mix in the module of combat and RP. We picked up on a couple of things that smoothed the way for us, and the GM did a great job of keeping things moving as well.
It's certainly worth the $4, although I don't know if the graphics were easily used in MapTool or whether some work was required on the GM's part.
(Disclaimer: I'm the site admin for RPTools.net and a part-time code contributor to MapTool.)
This adventure kicks off as a down-to-earth mystery and degrades into a strange, very high-fantasy-style mini-delve that seems strangely inappropriate for low levels. My players had glaring "WTFs" floating above their heads halfway through and were really stoked when they entered the mini-dungeon. Only to easily slaughter everything in their way. The opportunities were there, but it feels like this one would have been better off as three or four scenarios, gradually building up the suspense and the mystery. the solution is anti-climatic and simple.
Not bad, but...strange.
I can't wait until I have Internets at home so I can pick these up. Does anyone know approximately how many pages each of these adventures are? Either way, $3.99 seems like a pretty affordable price!
I can't wait until I have Internets at home so I can pick these up. Does anyone know approximately how many pages each of these adventures are? Either way, $3.99 seems like a pretty affordable price!
this one's 16. but three pages are dedicated to cover, small print and socitey submission form. and 2 pages are the faction handout, so 11 pages of adventure. and it's worth every last penny.
I can't wait until I have Internets at home so I can pick these up. Does anyone know approximately how many pages each of these adventures are? Either way, $3.99 seems like a pretty affordable price!
this one's 16. but three pages are dedicated to cover, small print and socitey submission form. and 2 pages are the faction handout, so 11 pages of adventure. and it's worth every last penny.
Excellent, thanks! I can't wait to run these scenarios. I am incredibly envious of all the people that got to play at GenCon! I'm going to have to try to make it out next year for sure.
Also, Craig, will you be writing more scenarios for PFS? Or is this the only one for now?
I hope to be writing more of these, and I hope I've made a good impression on the folks at Paizo with this one. I'm not sure how far ahead they have writers working already, but as of right now I am not scheduled to write another one. There are a lot of them coming out this year though, so maybe I'll get the chance!
I had an absolute blast running this adventure at GenCon. Don't forget that the adventures are tiered for levels 1 & 2 and levels 4 & 5. :)
i still don't get the tier 4 and 5 part. is it for people who choose not to run it now, but come back later when they're a higher level? or can people choose to start higher? since they get 1xp per adventure and level up in 3xp, they can only be level 2.33 assuming they run all 4.
All of the adventures for the next while will be tier 1-2 or 4-5. you can play them in any order, so theoretically, someone could play the upcoming adventures first and then these ones later, allowing the to play the higher tier version.
I played this on Friday at Strategicon's Gateway 2008 in Los Angeles, and it was FUN! I played a bard, and was worried beforehand that I would be underpowered and wouldn't be able to do anything useful because I wasn't a "core class" (Ft, Wiz/Sor, Cl, Rg), but I needn't have worried. Our group rocked!
Overall, these PS adventures are the perfect length, with just the right number of encounters. Our group played two (Frozen Fingers and Silent Tide) and there were no "dull spots" where the action bogged down or we had no clue what to do next. Excellent writing all around! And atmospheric too!
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Played this at GenConUK and had a blast (although that might have been due to having an Ulfen character and so being able to come up with all sorts of weird Nordic curses and insults while talking to Skeld). Very well done adventure (although they all were).
I hope to be writing more of these, and I hope I've made a good impression on the folks at Paizo with this one. I'm not sure how far ahead they have writers working already, but as of right now I am not scheduled to write another one. There are a lot of them coming out this year though, so maybe I'll get the chance!
Needed to do a bit of story editing- Skelg wrote a letter to the Adril asking for help, but failed to mention he was being held captive. Since that makes no sense, I mentioned that the letter went out before Bengierr's men came back to make sure he died in bed.
I played this in 2008 with Craig as DM at GenCon. I lost the character after the con and just found it. I'm going to use it and I cant find the chronicle sheet. Can someone tell me how to acquire a chronicle sheet from 8 years ago OR how much gold I would have earned at 1st level?