The young heroes of the town of Kassen are ready for their coming-of-age ceremony, an old tradition in which they retrieve a piece of the eternal flame burning in the tomb of the town's founder. Yet when they arrive there, they find only the corpses of their fellow townsfolk, dead bandits, and mysterious animated skeletons. The novice heroes must brave the traps and perils of the Crypt of the Everflame, discover the source of the corruption that has awakened an ancient evil, and defeat a menace that seeks vengeance against Kassen and its people.
Crypt of the Everflame is a dungeon adventure for 1st-level characters, written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and compatible with the 3.5 edition of the world's oldest RPG. The adventure map uses the same layout as the 2009 edition of Paizo's Flip-Mat: Dungeon.
This adventure is set in the forested land of Nirmathas in the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting, but can easily be set in any game world. It can be used on its own or combined with its sequels, Masks of the Living God and City of Golden Death to create an even greater campaign arc.
ISBN 13: 978-1-60125-186-2
Crypt of the Everflame is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. Its Chronicle Sheet and additional rules for running this module are a free download (217 KB zip/PDF).
DriveThruRPG: This product is available as print-on-demand from DriveThruRPG:
Everflame is a coming of age story which features some travel and a classic dungeon crawl. The story behind Everflame also makes it a great introduction to Pathfinder Society (because it's assumed you'll get recruited afterwards).
Unfortunately Everflame is too deadly in a few encounters, especially if the players are new to Pathfinder.
Deadliness details:
Shadowy Shapes was too deadly (new players might not run), as was Second Catacomb (running won't help and swarms don't have correct stats in PF imo, swarms in real life are easy to hit, not hard), and the last encounter is especially difficult (depends on GM).
I ran a group of mostly veteran players, 6 players total, and two of them were 2nd level clerics of Sarenrae (everyone else was 1st), and they did well until the last encounter and then got smushed. The last encounter was too difficult after I factored in Power Attack (1d8+11 damage). I was dropping PCs left and right and it came down to the last player to get the win (and it forced me to fudge the 1st time in 2 years).
I suggest that if you're not running PFS and your party doesn't have high DPS, you should consider either not using Power Attack or perhaps use Kassen's ghost to lend a helping hand, by using telekinesis to give 2 magical items (from his loot) per round to PCs, to give them a boost.
Although (mostly) irrelevant to PFS, Everflame also contains a detailed description and map of the town of Kassen, including many NPCs as well as your mentors/trainers. The town can easily be used as a springboard for an entire campaign.
For PFS, loot on the chronicle was relevant and useful, which is rare.
I found that the story link between Everflame and the next module, "Masks of the Living God", was weak. It wasn’t a storyline that my players were excited to pursue.
Detailed Rating:
Length: Medium. We finished in 2 sessions (9 hours), but we definitely took our time and had lots of extra roleplay.
Experience: GM with 5-6 well built PCs (1 pregen), two were level 2. I didn't allow wands of CLW, since virtually unlimited healing would unbalance a 1st level module.
Sweet Spot: A few of the encounters were more appropriate for level 2 PCs.
Entertainment: Some of my players love classic dungeon crawls, others were bored by it. (8/10)
Roleplay: Some limited roleplay at the start and middle. (4/10)
Combat/Challenges: The puzzles were simple but my players enjoyed them. At least three of the encounters could easily TPK a 1st level party. This scenario is more appropriate for level 2 PCs. (7/10)
Maps: I didn’t have the flip map, but I wish I did. (9/10)
Boons: n/a. (n/a)
Uniqueness: Classic dungeon crawl. (8/10)
Faction Missions: n/a (n/a)
It's been a long time since I DM'd a game and found this module an easy fix to run after the BB. All my players had a blast, it was fun to run for a returning DM and extremely well created. The big meanie at the back of this book is pretty tough, but other then that... 5 stars! Don't hesitate on adding this one to your collection!
I just ran this a few times for some local groups, and everyone found it very enjoyable. The map is setup in a way where there is a logical break between gaming sessions. As it was a crypt, most people guessed correctly about what they would be seeing inside, but that didn't take any of the fun away. From slaying baddies to dealing with traps, the players had fun.
The only reason why this wasn't a 5 star is there were a few effects that weren't easily fixable, especially since the party was made of level 1 PCs. Also, I'm sick of swarms. They only slow things down.
I ran this adventure in combination with Hollow's Last Hope (HLH) as the start of a new campaign and the players and I really enjoyed it.
Spoiler:
I had the people of Kassen contract Blackscour taint just as the festival of the Everflame was starting. I added the Elder Tree and Ulizmila's hut encounters from HLH to the overland travel part of the adventure and had the players find the ironbloom mushrooms in the lower level of the Crypt.
I found the adventure itself to be a good introduction for my players who had never used Pathfinder rules (CMB, CMD, changes to the new feats, etc...). The dungeon was a bit linear and I had to remove one or two encounters so that it didn't become too much of a slog, but overall the players had a good time. The story of Kassen and Asar also serves as a good start for any far reaching campaign plot as the nature of it is left fairly open.
I'm planning to follow it up with the Falcon's Hollow modules as I wasn't really impressed with the Masks of the Living God adventure.
I ran this adventure for a mixed party which included first time roleplayers, long time gamers who had never played pathfinder before, and one person who played pathfinder before, and they all really loved it. It does a great job of explaining rules/concepts to the DM, while providing a immersive experience to the players. I ran this with the dungeon flip map which turned out great. Can't wait to start Masks of the Living God!
I'm looking for some modules to run for a school RPG club. Can anyone tell me how Crypt of the Everflame is for content? Is there anything here that I shouldn't really let 13-year-old GM's read? (P.S. I teach in a fairly conservative community. Not extremists...but conservative.)
It is about as violent as your typical crypt-crawling rpg... so very violent.
It has a traumatised person who has been trapped near terrors for a while and is a bit shellshocked.
I don't recall any torture or stuff like that.
I'm thinking of running this over the weekend for some friends, as a couple of people will be out of town and we won't be able to run our regular game. Roughly how many hours would it take to burn through this particular adventure?
I downloaded the chronicle sheet to use this as an intro to PFS for my nephew and there seems to be some info missing. Is it supposed to only be 1 page?
I would settle for a rebadging of the cover with the newer Pathfinder Module logo - to make it look like it belongs with the newer modules. No need to reprint; just update the pdf.
Why not dredge up a post from just over 5 years ago...
Part 1: Journey to the Crypt Question/Spoiler Within:
On page 7 of the adventure under "Unfortunate Bandit" it says the bandit was killed by a gigantic serpent that lives in the Gray Lake.
It does not say what it is and I know the party couldn't handle the fight now, but I was just curious of what others might have used for the gigantic serpent.
We are making Pathfinder First Edition out of print materials available on Pathfinder Infinite via print-on-demand, as our capacity allows. This Adventure is available, use the button above.
Why not dredge up a post from just over 5 years ago...
** spoiler omitted **
Thanks!
I honestly didn't prepare anything for it. You could go with something relatively minor (a normal snake with the amphibious subtype) or have fun with a massive sea serpent that you don't actually stat out but just scare the players with.
