Pathfinder Module: Carrion Hill (PFRPG)

4.70/5 (based on 19 ratings)
Pathfinder Module: Carrion Hill (PFRPG)
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A dark urban horror adventure for 5th-level Pathfinder Roleplaying Game characters.

The strange city of Carrion Hill has long loomed over the surrounding swamps in eastern Ustalav, yet its rulers have shifted many times through the centuries. Often enough that only a few sinister scholars and curious minds know the true nature of the hill’s original inhabitants—vile and depraved cultists of the Old Gods. Yet this morning, a dreadful recrudescence rises from the depths of buried nightmare in the vaults below Carrion Hill. A monster stalks the twisted alleys of the city, spreading panic before it and leaving destruction in its wake. Can the Carrion Hill Horror be stopped?

Carrion Hill is an adventure for 5th-level characters, written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and compatible with the 3.5 edition of the world’s oldest RPG. The adventure features a mix of urban and dungeon sites, and draws its inspiration from the popular writings of H. P. Lovecraft.

This adventure is set in the sinister country of Ustalav in the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting, but can easily be adapted for any game world.

Written by Richard Pett

Pathfinder Modules are 32-page, high-quality, full-color, adventures using the Open Game License to work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the standard 3.5 fantasy RPG rules set. This Pathfinder Module includes four pre-made characters so players can jump right into the action, and full-color maps to enhance play.

ISBN 13: 978-1-60125-206-7

Carrion Hill 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).

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Adventure Subscription.

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4.70/5 (based on 19 ratings)

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One of the very best!

5/5

Carrion Hill is a 5th level adventure for the Pathfinder d20 roleplaying system. Written by the notoriously-evil Richard Pett, Carrion Hill plunges players into the depths of urban horror that is immediately recognizable as an homage to H.P. Lovecraft’s classic “The Dunwich Horror.” Expect plenty of cultists, insane citizens, and tentacles. Oh yes, there will be tentacles.

The plot gradually ramps in tension, as players are tasked with initially tasked with investigating a home that has been utterly decimated by something monstrous. The only problem is that witnesses claim the house imploded all by itself; there were no monsters or creatures present that were wrecking the home. As the mystery progresses, adventurers find themselves in the middle of an ancient cult’s cabal that may or may not involve the Old Gods themselves. It becomes a race against the clock to track down a mysterious yet powerful nightmare that is stalking the streets of Carrion Hill.

Again, in typical Richard Pett fashion, the adventure can be absolutely brutal. If you are a Game Master running this module, make sure you know the full capabilities of your party before launching them into it. But then again, a real fear of death might be the best way to portray the horrors of this book. Regardless, it remains one of the best that Paizo has released to date and is highly recommended for any group that can embrace a little horror into their lives.

(Full review found at: http://www.nerdrepublic.net)


Brilliant creepy fun

5/5

I ran this as an all day game for 3 of my usual group earlier this week. We all had a great time and the game ran into the early hours of the next day as we wanted to finish it in one go. Easy to run, and with very good maps and flavour text that really sets the mood, this is one of the best modules I've ever had the pleasure of DMing and I would highly recommend it, even to those who are not fond of horror-themed adventures (none of my group are fans, I am though).

We used the pre-generated characters, and poor Seltyiel didn't get chosen, so his magic items got divided up amongst the other 3 so as to partially compensate for them being a man down. Used the fast track xp system, so they all gained a level before facing the endboss beastie, and even then it nearly wiped the floor with them, and it all came down to a few good dice rolls and some clever tactics on the players part... as it should.


Wonderfully creepy!

5/5

I'm not a good horror-GM, I'm not good at scaring my players. But this module makes it easy to atleast repulse them a little :D

This is probably my favourite module to have GM'ed so far, possibly with the exception of "The Skinsaw Murders" also by Pett.

The only negative I have, is that the BBEG is a bit hard to identify as such, not that it matters :>


Carrion Hill

5/5

We have been playing this over a series of evenings and it has been really good fun. The descriptions and the atmosphere give the GM plenty of opportunity to build a creepy, threatening backdrop to the story. The adventure can run down several different paths after the first encounter, although the printed running order is, in my opinion, the best to build up the tension.

This is a wonderful adventure for those who like hamming up the roleplaying. I encouraged my players to take twisted and dysfunctional characters and that was a big help in keeping the atmosphere.

My players took a unusual route to the finale but the adventure still works brilliantly.

I recommend GMs to use the D20 rules for Sanity loss to add another layer of menace. [Sanity Points = Wisdom x 5. Roll percentile below that to avoid losing Sanity Points. Succeed = 1d3. Fail = 1 d6 or 1d8 or 1d10. Losing more San points than half your Wisdom Ability = temporary "nauseated" and gain a phobia for tentacles / undead / sharp objects / dark places etc.]

We want lots more adventures from Rich please!


Mr. Pett Delivers Again

5/5

I'm a huge fan of Richard Pett's work throughout Paizo's history, so I was delighted to see his name appended to a Lovecraft inspired adventure set in a decaying old town that seemed a sister city to his beloved Styes from the Dungeon Magazine days. Let's break it down.

The Good: I very much enjoy the non-linear aspect of Carrion Hill. It's got a set beginning, an established final boss, but the middle can be accomplished in any order. One of the three set-pieces is rather larger and more detailed than the rest, and the assumption is that that will end up being the finale, but it certainly doesn't have to be that way.

And speaking of the final boss, the Spawn of Yog-Sothoth does not disappoint. The illustration is pitch-perfect, the abilities fittingly eldritch, and the mechanics for weakening him to be a suitable opponent are clever and seem like they'd work well in play.

The Bad: I never like it when the DM cheats on behalf of his monsters, so I would like at least a sentence of explanation as to why the zombies in the mud-pits aren't quickly scalded to death when a PC that falls in takes 1d6 fire damage a round.

The Nit-Picky: The character of Yarresh the ghoul doesn't do it for me. He might end up being fun in play, but he strikes me as rather unmemorable compared to the rest of the NPCs on display.

Final Thoughts: I very much enjoyed Carrion Hill, and am currently looking for an excuse to run it.


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Liberty's Edge

heh heh....

Spoiler:
those guys over there.....I think they've got the Illmarsh look......

Liberty's Edge

my embellishment, if you will:

Spoiler:
whelp, Carrion Hill is sortova gnarly name for a town and all....so, like the theory of Eric the Red naming the place "Greenland" instead of "Bleak windswept tundraland" so people would actually move there, the mayor has currently come up with a plan: he's recently fathered a little girl who he has named "Carrie Anna" and has decided to rename the town "Carrie Anna Hill," to encourage mercantilism from abroad, if not tourism, to clean up the town's image a bit.
Members of the Crows typically correct those who refer to "Carrie Anna Hill" as "Carrion Hill" regardless of the fact that they don't realize that, a mere one sentence agone by, they themselves referred to their city as "Carrion Hill." Old habits die hard, after all.

The Exchange

So... does anyone have something to say about this module? does it actually feel lovecraftian? is it a Carnival of Tears gore feast, or a Hangman's Noose macabre? just cause no one reviewd this yet...


Same here, Lord Snow. I'm pretty close to finalizing my holiday order, and I'd like to have my choice of this confirmed. The cover calls to me, insistently.

Liberty's Edge

Mair, it's definitely a keeper.


I surrender to its tentacular charms.

Dark Archive

Heathansson wrote:

Mair, it's definitely a keeper.

Har har! Nice play on the word 'keeper'! Yeah, it's a solid adventure with a well-written backstory, and the maps are *really* good -- not surprisingly, mr. Pett delivers once again! :)

Liberty's Edge

I sit back, and think about where in Ustalav to place a Miskatonic University analog etc....etc.....

Dark Archive

There is something I noticed yesterday that bothers me:

Minor nitpick:

Namely that the stat block for the Chaos Beast still refers to claw attacks in several places; I know it was the same in 3E, but the illustation seems to indicate (and to be honest I've always felt it would have been a more "natural" fit for this monster) it uses tentacles and not claws. Was there any particular reason (other than backwards compatibility) why the Chaos Beast still uses claws instead of tentacles, especially as the new art seems to be missing them?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Answers for Asgetrion:

Spoiler:
While the chaos beast has tentacles... it doesn't grab and grip with them. Note how in the illustration its tentacles are covered with spikes and teeth and stuff; THAT'S what it's using to attack. It's lashing and scratching with those.

And now that Pathfinder quantifies natural attacks as specific types, it's less elegant for us to list a monster's attack as, say, "toohy tentacle" or "slashing tendril" or something like that; if we did, we'd need to add a few lines of description to let you know what kind of damage the thing does and whether its normally a primary or secondary attack.

And of course, there's the fact that it's always tricky getting artists to ride the line between doing what you ask them to and letting them do what they want to do.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Heathansson wrote:
I sit back, and think about where in Ustalav to place a Miskatonic University analog etc....etc.....

That would likely be found in our Arkham analog: the town of Thrushmoor.

Contributor

Also, tentacles are secondary attacks, which means the chaos beast would have -5 to all of its listed attacks. Claws are primary, it can use them without a -5 penalty. Also, its shape changes all the time, it's "claws" may be claws, jagged bony barbs, spiked heads, razor-blade covered tentacles (as James said), and so on... "claw" is just an approximation.

Dark Archive

Good points, James and Sean! Thanks for your answers! :)

Grand Lodge

any ideas on miniatures for the main baddie in this adventure?

main baddie spoiler:

here is a list of some nice cthulhu minis ... all unpainted, alas

or the SOTA statues, all affordably priced at 230$ USD, ugh

Paizo Employee Creative Director

The main bad guy in the adventure...

Spoiler:
...is a spawn of Yog-Sothoth. The same bad guy who's the star of Lovecraft's story, "The Dunwich Horror." I know for a fact that there's been minis made of this monster by many different companies. I own one of them, but it's kind of a mess of a mini. Alas... I'm not sure who created it. Ral Partha maybe?

Dark Archive

Been tempted to grab this. Any reviews?

Contributor

sozin wrote:
any ideas on miniatures for the main baddie in this adventure?

spoiler:
Lacking a true mini for it, I'd take a Large octopus and stick a human or ogre head on it with putty!

Curious about how much info there is on Ustalav in the adventure [notably the Hungry Mountains]?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Black Dow wrote:
Curious about how much info there is on Ustalav in the adventure [notably the Hungry Mountains]?

The adventure's pretty tightly focused on Carrion Hill and its county; there's a LOT of info on those topics, as well as some info about Ustalav's ancient history, but nothing about the Hungry Mountains.

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:
Black Dow wrote:
Curious about how much info there is on Ustalav in the adventure [notably the Hungry Mountains]?
The adventure's pretty tightly focused on Carrion Hill and its county; there's a LOT of info on those topics, as well as some info about Ustalav's ancient history, but nothing about the Hungry Mountains.

And that history about cults in the Carrion Hill region is written really well -- there's Lovecraftian feel to it (and not just because of the main adversary), and I found it to be very inspiring. :)

Dark Archive

B_Wiklund wrote:
Been tempted to grab this. Any reviews?

I already posted my comments about this module on this thread. In short, I really liked this module; the whole adventure and the background lore are well written, although the hook is pretty generic and "railroad-y" and I recommend tailoring the beginning of this adventure for your group (on the other hand, the hook(s) in published adventures *need* to be generic, so it wasn't surprising). The maps are *very* interesting and well-designed, in my opinion.

If you like Lovecraftian horror, you just can't pass this up. However, if you or your players absolutely hate his works, this adventure isn't for you.

Shadow Lodge

sozin wrote:
any ideas on miniatures for the main baddie in this adventure?

Eh, just use a generic placeholder, and tell the players that if the miniature was accurate, it would ruin the session as you would all go insane.

Contributor

Yes, I think it's another one of these paizo bravely taking chances with new stuff, it won't be for everyone but, if you love HP stuff like me, it may be right up your narrow alley filled with tentacled abominations.

Tekeli-li.

Scarab Sages

I just have to say, after buying this, and reading it, I love this module! I love the Lovecraftian vibe from it, and I must find a group to run this for...although no one in my group has read Lovecraft :(

Excellent work as always!


Today was another day where mine didn't come. :(

Liberty's Edge

enjoy sanity while it lasts.

Dark Archive

Heathansson wrote:
enjoy sanity while it lasts.

Your comment shows you don't know Mairkurion at all...

Scarab Sages RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

C'mon Heathy... I'm still waiting for you to run it as a PbP! ;)

Shadow Lodge

DitheringFool wrote:
Toon? Wow, I'd forgotten about that one. ...what would it be like to catapult pies at The Great Race?

I have house-ruled the fact that Hideous Laughter is not magical at all...it is simply the natural reaction to seeing someone throw tiny tarts at you and then waving around a feather.

Liberty's Edge

flash_cxxi wrote:
C'mon Heathy... I'm still waiting for you to run it as a PbP! ;)

March is a mess.

Contributor

Heathansson wrote:
flash_cxxi wrote:
C'mon Heathy... I'm still waiting for you to run it as a PbP! ;)
March is a mess.

C'mon Heathy, stop making excuses


It came yesterday! I love that horrific cover even more in person.

Spoiler:
Keepers! Nice touch.
God, I hate cockroaches. How do they catch them in such large numbers?

Contributor

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

It came yesterday! I love that horrific cover even more in person.

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
Although it's a while since I wrote this, I recall imagining not just a few cockroaches, or even lots, but carpets of them. There's a town somewhere I saw on TV that gets inundated with crabs once a year, that influenced it. I think the town may even have been in America. I'm sure some kindly soul out there on the boards knows the place I mean.

So just pick up handfuls of them and stop being scared. Gosh that place must smell bad. Huzzah!

Rich


Richard Pett wrote:
Heathansson wrote:
flash_cxxi wrote:
C'mon Heathy... I'm still waiting for you to run it as a PbP! ;)
March is a mess.
C'mon Heathy, stop making excuses

Shall I throttle him, milord?


Richard Pett wrote:
Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

It came yesterday! I love that horrific cover even more in person.

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Great gibbous moon! XP

Liberty's Edge

Richard Pett wrote:
Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

It came yesterday! I love that horrific cover even more in person.

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
I once saw some National Geo/nature photo show......a bat fell from his lofty perch in a cave; the poor fledermaus plummeted to the guano below, to be immediately rolled by a mob of cockroaches......guess they got sick of guano and wanted to try out the straightup carnivorous routine.

I hate the particular creature in question with a purple passion...no pun intended.

Liberty's Edge

re:

Spoiler:
theirs is an ancient survival wisdom, like that of sharks. They've survived since before the dinosaurs. Since before the first mammallike reptiles.
they'll survive humankind's tenure as master of this ball.

And so, when the karma of their durability is mingled with brick, should not the building made from that brick last forever?


Well, the

durability:
of the stuff did not reflect this karma. And let me just go out on a limb here and say your reflection proves the existence of evil karma. Stomp! Stomp! Stomp!

Liberty's Edge

Richard Pett wrote:
Heathansson wrote:
flash_cxxi wrote:
C'mon Heathy... I'm still waiting for you to run it as a PbP! ;)
March is a mess.
C'mon Heathy, stop making excuses

et tu, Brutus?

It's a mess.


I've loved reading through this module the past week or so. Maybe I'll get to run it as a one shot for my daughter and her boyfriend during spring break.


This looks good and I think I'm going to run it next week. My only complaint is the lovecraftian misogyny; I don't think there's a single female in the whole module. I guess that might actually be a good thing.


I’m very impressed by this module, and am looking forward to run it as GM in two weeks or so. My only major concern is that my players are all fond of The Mythos on their own ways, so there might be some gap in liking this module’s way of interpreting The Mythos. But even this concern gears me up as a challenge. It should be a memorable session. Thank you, Mr. Pett.

A tiny question.

Spoiler:
In page 25, Keeper Crove’s data states he has dimensional steps(90ft/day). My understaning about wizard’s school power is that it is defined by wizard level, not by character level. Keeper Crove’s wizard level is 3(so 90ft/day, I believe) though his character level is 9(Conjurer3/Cleric3/Mystic Theurge3). Still he has dimensional steps, which is 8lvl Conjurer school power. I think dimensional steps is one of key elements in his escape plan, so if it’s a typo, I can give him a scroll of dimension door, and it’ OK about this module’s play. But I’m still on way of understanding PFRPG rules, so this topic matters me much. Sorry for nitpicking.

I’ve searched forums for PFRPG rules discussion threads, but couldn’t find any mentions about this problem. If anyone can shed light for me, thank you beforehand.


I had a wonderful time running this module several weeks ago, and more importantly my players loved. It was a one off for a friend and his son. This was their first PF anything, and the son's first non 4th ed event. The boy was totally hooked on the virtues of PF over 4th ed.


walter mcwilliams wrote:
I had a wonderful time running this module several weeks ago, and more importantly my players loved. It was a one off for a friend and his son. This was their first PF anything, and the son's first non 4th ed event. The boy was totally hooked on the virtues of PF over 4th ed.

If this was Facebook, I would click "like"! :D

Contributor

AGITIGA wrote:

A tiny question.

I’ve searched forums for PFRPG rules discussion threads, but couldn’t find any mentions about this problem. If anyone can shed light for me, thank you beforehand.

I'm pretty sure you're right. And I'm pretty sure that error stems from how my stat block spreadsheet handled the mystic theurge prestige class at the time (i.e., a kludge). Basically, if the user manually changed his caster level on the wizard and cleric tabs, all derived values (like school powers) come from that modified value. That has since been fixed (the actual level and the effective caster level are tracked separately).


Sean K Reynolds wrote:
AGITIGA wrote:

A tiny question.

I’ve searched forums for PFRPG rules discussion threads, but couldn’t find any mentions about this problem. If anyone can shed light for me, thank you beforehand.
I'm pretty sure you're right. And I'm pretty sure that error stems from how my stat block spreadsheet handled the mystic theurge prestige class at the time (i.e., a kludge). Basically, if the user manually changed his caster level on the wizard and cleric tabs, all derived values (like school powers) come from that modified value. That has since been fixed (the actual level and the effective caster level are tracked separately).

Thank you for your reply. And it's a great module, again.


Richard Pett wrote:
There's a town somewhere I saw on TV that gets inundated with crabs once a year, that influenced it. I think the town may even have been in America. I'm sure some kindly soul out there on the boards knows the place I mean.

That'll be the red crab migration on Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean.

Sorry, late.

Liberty's Edge

For those that have this ...

The adventure is for 5th level characters. How easily would this scale down to, say, 4th level? Maybe even 3rd level?

Thanks!

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