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

Woooooot!

Dark Archive

Heathansson wrote:
Woooooot!

Aren't your players damaged enough?

Liberty's Edge

They're too high level for it. I'll just get new ones.


Ustalav, here we come!

Dark Archive

Heathansson wrote:
They're too high level for it. I'll just get new ones.

Yeah, Texas is a big state right? :)

Liberty's Edge

The biggest.
Cept for Alaska.

Dark Archive

You should be able to run this atleast a dozen times before you have to move then :)

Liberty's Edge

Then I'll just move to Oklahoma.


Alaska's a state?! It's bigger than Texas!? Heathy'd move to Okieland!?
Big Tex starts stamping around the thread, cussin' a blue streak.

Liberty's Edge

Maybe even Coloradder.

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Modules no longer have letter/number designations? Interesting...


I'm hoping they just haven't been assigned yet.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
I'm hoping they just haven't been assigned yet.

Nope... they're gone. We think we confused people with them.

Now, when modules are designed as part of a series, they'll have some graphical info to tell you that, but it won't be in the title.


Now I'm confused...

Spoiler:
Not working, huh?

Edit: Shakes fist at Yoda for deleting before he could get back.

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Mairkurion {tm} wrote:

Now I'm confused...

** spoiler omitted **

Edit: Shakes fist at Yoda for deleting before he could get back.

For deleting what? What did I do?!


Gothic Horror, Lovecraft, Ustalav and Richard Pett. All mentioned in the same product description. OMG.

I just realized that's where I'm going to place my next campaign.


Yup. I was thinking earlier that maybe I don't need to buy modules for a while, with two Paths going on and all that. Well, maybe one more won't hurt...

The Exchange

Heathansson wrote:
They're too high level for it. I'll just get new ones.

and so doth the doom and ruin spread :)

Dark Archive

Richard Pett in Ustalav. Downright scary. Do want.


PATHFINDER MODULE: CARRION HILL wrote:
Carrion Hill brings Lovecraftian horror to the game table and irreparable psychic damage to your player characters.

Does this perchance mean that sanity rules will be included?


"....irreparable psychic damage to your player characters..."

I was hoping it would psychically damage my players....

Still, it's Pett's. Might be good.


Yoda,

Spoiler:
It showed you had a post after mine, so I rushed over and...nothing. I figured you deleted...but maybe it was weird server stuff?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

T'Ranchule wrote:
PATHFINDER MODULE: CARRION HILL wrote:
Carrion Hill brings Lovecraftian horror to the game table and irreparable psychic damage to your player characters.

Does this perchance mean that sanity rules will be included?

Perhaps! Sanity rules ARE open content, after all!

But what it really means is that fans of the Lovecraft mythos will be seeing a few familiar names and creatures in the adventure.


James Jacobs wrote:
T'Ranchule wrote:
PATHFINDER MODULE: CARRION HILL wrote:
Carrion Hill brings Lovecraftian horror to the game table and irreparable psychic damage to your player characters.

Does this perchance mean that sanity rules will be included?

Perhaps! Sanity rules ARE open content, after all!

But what it really means is that fans of the Lovecraft mythos will be seeing a few familiar names and creatures in the adventure.

Nice. Definantly getting it, then.

Dark Archive

golem101 wrote:
Richard Pett in Ustalav. Downright scary. Do want.

I'm glad they didn't give this to the Logue -- my players just couldn't have handled that! ;P


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Asgetrion wrote:
I'm glad they didn't give this to the Logue -- my players just couldn't have handled that! ;P

I'm sure Pett will do honourable damage sir.

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Nicolas Louge wrote:
Asgetrion wrote:
I'm glad they didn't give this to the Logue -- my players just couldn't have handled that! ;P
I'm sure Pett will do honourable damage sir.

I'm gonna write this down for future reference. Honourable damage. Love it.

Liberty's Edge

Big Tex wrote:
Alaska's a state?!...

I heard that! In fact, Alaska is twice the size of measly Texas, and equivalent in land mass to the entire Eastern Seaboard, from Maine to Florida and west of Tennessee. Yes, I am proud of my big honkin' country, er, state, I mean...

Alaska is sooo big, that when I drive from Fairbanks (my home) to the next biggest city, Anchorage, it's like a Seattelite driving to Eureka, CA, or a New Yorker driving to Raleigh, NC. That's right, think BIG.

Dark Archive

Nicolas Louge wrote:
Asgetrion wrote:
I'm glad they didn't give this to the Logue -- my players just couldn't have handled that! ;P
I'm sure Pett will do honourable damage sir.

Undoubtly, sir, but I don't think they could have handled the work of your twisted and deranged -- if absolutely brilliant -- mind. I already dread the day I'm going to start running the Council of Thieves AP... in a sick way, I'm glad that you're aboard the Pathfinder bandwagon, even though it would cost my players their sanity. ;)


James Jacobs wrote:
But what it really means is that fans of the Lovecraft mythos will be seeing a few familiar names and creatures in the adventure.

Just wondering here -- how and when did the Lovecraft Mythos go out of copyright? I seem to recall that TSR got in some legal trouble with Arkham House back when they did the first edition of the 1st Edition Deities & Demigods for including various Lovecraftian horrors.

That said, I love horror, so I'll be getting this when it comes out.

Liberty's Edge

Pett...gothic horror....nuff said!

Contributor

I'm sorry everyone, I can't bring myself to talk about, mention, hint at or admit to the existence of the CH place as it will cost me san, and I have very little left...

Yogtastic.

Ia! Ia! Na fhtagn! Headquarters out.

Contributor

At long last Mr. Mnaaaaar writing a Pathfinder Module! Huzzah! This will no doubt be very cool and an immediate-must-run adventure. Can't wait to read it. :)

Spoiler:
Rich, if you need a second set of eyes to check your draft, I'd be delighted to be that set of eyes! You know how to reach me, mate.


I'm counting the minutes with my rosary of Bratz Doll heads.

Dark Archive

Steve Greer wrote:

At long last Mr. Mnaaaaar writing a Pathfinder Module! Huzzah! This will no doubt be very cool and an immediate-must-run adventure. Can't wait to read it. :)

** spoiler omitted **

He has *several* sets of eyes of his own... *shudder*


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Andrew Turner wrote:
Big Tex wrote:
Alaska's a state?!...

I heard that! In fact, Alaska is twice the size of measly Texas, and equivalent in land mass to the entire Eastern Seaboard, from Maine to Florida and west of Tennessee. Yes, I am proud of my big honkin' country, er, state, I mean...

Alaska is sooo big, that when I drive from Fairbanks (my home) to the next biggest city, Anchorage, it's like a Seattelite driving to Eureka, CA, or a New Yorker driving to Raleigh, NC. That's right, think BIG.

Grrr, Anchorage, all spread out and with a Pi$$poor public transit system... Though I hear you Fairbanks people have it even worse when it comes to busses. Granted you actually drive so... :P


Eric Hinkle wrote:


Just wondering here -- how and when did the Lovecraft Mythos go out of copyright? I seem to recall that TSR got in some legal trouble with Arkham House back when they did the first edition of the 1st Edition Deities & Demigods for including various Lovecraftian horrors.

Some of it is in public domain, some of it isn't. Even the stuff that is might have sufficiently Golarion specific names, descriptions and traits and still be able to be used.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

frozenwastes wrote:
Eric Hinkle wrote:


Just wondering here -- how and when did the Lovecraft Mythos go out of copyright? I seem to recall that TSR got in some legal trouble with Arkham House back when they did the first edition of the 1st Edition Deities & Demigods for including various Lovecraftian horrors.
Some of it is in public domain, some of it isn't. Even the stuff that is might have sufficiently Golarion specific names, descriptions and traits and still be able to be used.

TSR didn't really get in trouble with Arkham House OR Chaosium, as far as I heard the story. It was more of a case of TSR management not wanting what was effectively a free advertisement for a competing company's games (Chaosium's "Call of Cthulhu" and "Elric" games) in one of their products, and so the later printings excluded this content and focused purely on mythological stuff or on the Newhon myths, which at the time time TSR did have the license for.

All of Lovecraft's writing is now in the public domain, as far as I can tell. It gets a little trickier when you realize that so much of his stuff is intertwined with content created by other writers, some of whom AREN'T in public domain as much. But the content in the actual Lovecraft stories is publicly accessible.

It also gets a little more complicated when you do game content based on Lovecraft, since Chaosium has the license to the "Call of Cthulhu" game (but not all of the actual ideas, since many of those are in the public domain). Nonetheless, we make sure to give callouts to Chaosium whenever we do something Lovecraftian; I for one LOVE their games, and they're an EXCELLENT source for GMs to go to if they want to inject more Lovecraft stuff into their game, be that game Pathfinder, D&D, Mutants & Masterminds, Toon, or whatever.

Carrion Hill will contain specific Lovecraftian elements, in any event, and is very much inspired by Lovecraft's writing.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

1 person marked this as a favorite.

The actual state of Lovecraft's writing re: public domain is, of course, murky. Basically, it's unclear if his copyrights were ever renewed, and no one seems to have any paperwork to prove it, and/or those who MIGHT have a claim are dead or have no interest. Basically, the majority of his writing I believe firmly entered the Public Domain just a few years ago, which is why when you go into a bookstore these days, you'll see so many different editions of his stories for sale, particularly in editions published by big bookstore chains.

Lovecraft himself certainly encouraged other writers to use his inventions, so using them to develop new stories is absolutely in keeping with Lovecraft's wishes, I suspect, were he still alive today. His writing certainly does still show up in modern writers' work today in this manner.

Liberty's Edge

nice
really some rules for sanity would be nice, but we can handle them :P

at long last something about old Ustalav... excelent..


Montalve wrote:

nice

really some rules for sanity would be nice, but we can handle them :P

http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/campaigns/sanity.htm

Contributor

James Jacobs wrote:
TSR didn't really get in trouble with Arkham House OR Chaosium, as far as I heard the story. It was more of a case of TSR management not wanting what was effectively a free advertisement for a competing company's games (Chaosium's "Call of Cthulhu" and "Elric" games) in one of their products, and so the later printings excluded this content and focused purely on mythological stuff or on the Newhon myths, which at the time time TSR did have the license for.

Exactly. It also meant TSR could take pages out of the book (8? 16? However many the Lovecraftian and Moorcock sections added up to) and still charge the same cover price. Clever girl....

Contributor

Steve Greer wrote:

At long last Mr. Mnaaaaar writing a Pathfinder Module! Huzzah! This will no doubt be very cool and an immediate-must-run adventure. Can't wait to read it. :)

** spoiler omitted **

Cheers Steve old boy - will do matey on the spoiler - I can think of no one more twisted to do so.

Huzzah!

Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Hang on...

This adventure is all about the Fluffy gnome tribe who go to magic enchanted Goodwood to try to rescue Silky the Unicorn from the clutches of the quite bad wizard Misunderstood Quentin.

Who's this lovecraft fellow and what does the word 'carrion' mean?


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Sean K Reynolds wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
TSR didn't really get in trouble with Arkham House OR Chaosium, as far as I heard the story. It was more of a case of TSR management not wanting what was effectively a free advertisement for a competing company's games (Chaosium's "Call of Cthulhu" and "Elric" games) in one of their products, and so the later printings excluded this content and focused purely on mythological stuff or on the Newhon myths, which at the time time TSR did have the license for.

Exactly. It also meant TSR could take pages out of the book (8? 16? However many the Lovecraftian and Moorcock sections added up to) and still charge the same cover price. Clever girl....

Cunning... like a fox! Only in the evil way that FOX is for getting good shows canceled on a regular basis.

RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, 2011 Top 32, 2012 Top 4

Richard Pett wrote:

Hang on...

This adventure is all about the Fluffy gnome tribe who go to magic enchanted Goodwood to try to rescue Silky the Unicorn from the clutches of the quite bad wizard Misunderstood Quentin.

Must...nuke...Goodwood. It's the only way to be sure.

Silver Crusade

James Jacobs wrote:


Carrion Hill will contain specific Lovecraftian elements, in any event, and is very much inspired by Lovecraft's writing.

That's why I want to get my hands on it.

Sovereign Court

Vic Wertz wrote:
Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
I'm hoping they [add.: the designators]just haven't been assigned yet.

Nope... they're gone. We think we confused people with them.

Now, when modules are designed as part of a series, they'll have some graphical info to tell you that, but it won't be in the title.

Hhm... I must have missed this.

I am very disappointed by this decision. The character/ number designation was a nice bow to the game's history and also from my point of view a better means of orientation than either the product titles themselves (which grow more and more numerous and hard to keep apart) or TSR's past titling schemes.

If there was anything confusing about the designators, then it was the increasing number of them which was partly in conflict with the original designators (--> LB, S, P for PFRPG modules). There wasn't anything confusing about D, E, U once you explained their meaning.

And then: What is easier to understand about a product number? ;-)
But then you must know which feedback you received from other customers.

Cheers,
Günther

Sovereign Court

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
It also gets a little more complicated when you do game content based on Lovecraft, since Chaosium has the license to the "Call of Cthulhu" game (but not all of the actual ideas, since many of those are in the public domain). Nonetheless, we make sure to give callouts to Chaosium whenever we do something Lovecraftian; I for one LOVE their games, and they're an EXCELLENT source for GMs to go to if they want to inject more Lovecraft stuff into their game, be that game Pathfinder, D&D, Mutants & Masterminds, Toon, or whatebver.

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

Sovereign Court

Richard Pett wrote:
This adventure is all about the Fluffy gnome tribe who go to magic enchanted Goodwood to try to rescue Silky the Unicorn from the clutches of the quite bad wizard Misunderstood Quentin.

I'd actually quite like to see Paizo make this.

I've got a mental image of an adventure you can happily play with quite young kids but which has enough allusions, oblique references and clever in-jokes to keep adult players laughing, and roleplaying, to the end.

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