I just wanted to say that the art of Sajan on this, and on the cover of Guide to the River Kingdoms has really impressed me - his iconic picture is neat but a bit 2D, and the art in Second Darkness (while generally cool) didn't seem to work for him. I really like these.
Congrats, Neil, you earned it.
So is this where the line forms for you running the PbP? If so, I'd like to reserve a spot now.
Heck Yeeah! Sign me up! :)
Gratz one more time! I am proud to say that THIS will be my first PF module purchase! Can't wait to get my grubby lil' hands on it!
And I LOVE the artwork! Even better than I imagined when I read your proposal!
I was looking this over in the context of being an example of a RPG Superstar module..
And it it suddenly stuck me, the professional cartography of this adventure is amazing.
I flipped to the credits to see who did it.. and its Jared Blando.
That doesn't ring a bell, but let me tell you- Blando is not bland! These maps are gorgeous!
He did a pretty good job. I really liked how he translated the three-dimensional map for the waterfall gorge at Deadman's Drop. And, I thought the wedding festival map came out nice, too. My biggest worry was how he'd handle Rhoswen's Fellnight palace. That's a pretty "busy" map...and it had to be to do the palace justice.
He did a pretty good job. I really liked how he translated the three-dimensional map for the waterfall gorge at Deadman's Drop. And, I thought the wedding festival map came out nice, too. My biggest worry was how he'd handle Rhoswen's Fellnight palace. That's a pretty "busy" map...and it had to be to do the palace justice.
Yes. Maybe I was over-enthusiastic with my praise, I dunno. Or maybe he really does deserve a lot of credit.
The three-dimensional map really sold me on all of the maps, because it's not only functional but really attractive. And.. I can't see anybody else doing a better job on the palace because of the amount of detail required.
I'm going to have to err on the sign of generousity. I think they're fantastic.
I really like this module.
One question though (and this is something that has come up in a couple of the modules).
Where exactly does this take place? I know it starts near the Sellen River, but where?
It would be nice in the PF Modules if there was a little "you are here" map showing part of the Map of the Inner Sea with an Adventure Location arrow. (Don't have to show the whole map, but maybe the country in question...)
This is especially useful because I don;t carry my Campaign Guide or Gazetteer with me everywhere I go.
anyway, fun Module, I can;t wait til the players reach 7th level.
Where exactly does this take place? I know it starts near the Sellen River, but where?
It takes place in the nation of Andoran, but instead of the Darkmoon Vale, it's set within the Verduran Forest where the Sellen River passes the town of Bellis, which is situated on the border between Andoran and Taldor.
Hope that helps,
--Neil
It would be nice in the PF Modules if there was a little "you are here" map showing part of the Map of the Inner Sea with an Adventure Location arrow. (Don't have to show the whole map, but maybe the country in question...)
That's a good idea, I'll mention it to Rob. Thanks! :)
Where exactly does this take place? I know it starts near the Sellen River, but where?It takes place in the nation of Andoran, but instead of the Darkmoon Vale, it's set within the Verduran Forest where the Sellen River passes the town of Bellis, which is situated on the border between Andoran and Taldor.
Hope that helps,
--Neil
Thank you. Even that much of an explanation in the introduction would have made this even better.
Still, its a great adventure. (My players love the interactive encounters, so the Wedding is going to be lots of fun.)
Thank you. Even that much of an explanation in the introduction would have made this even better.
Hmmm...you're right, of course. Does the back cover text mention the Andoren town of Bellis? I know the flavor text here on the product page does. I just don't recall where the nation of Andoran got mentioned in the actual print product.
...it's a great adventure. (My players love the interactive encounters, so the Wedding is going to be lots of fun.)
Awesome! Let me know how it plays out. Or write a review for the adventure. If it seems like I'm craving feedback to prop up my fragile ego...well, that's just pure coincidence, of course. ;-)
Thank you. Even that much of an explanation in the introduction would have made this even better.Hmmm...you're right, of course. Does the back cover text mention the Andoren town of Bellis? I know the flavor text here on the product page does. I just don't recall where the nation of Andoran got mentioned in the actual print product.
...it's a great adventure. (My players love the interactive encounters, so the Wedding is going to be lots of fun.)Awesome! Let me know how it plays out. Or write a review for the adventure. If it seems like I'm craving feedback to prop up my fragile ego...well, that's just pure coincidence, of course. ;-)
Well, my two groups are 3rd and 2nd level, respectively, so it might be a while. (group 1 is 11 weeks into Burnt Offerings and so it's taking them about 5 weeks/ level, so it'll probably be another few months. And group 2 meets every couple of weeks or so...)
Bellis is mentioned very early in the adventure background. Andoran is mentioned later in the book in several places but it's not called out that Bellis is *in* Andoran. The design turnover had a Knowledge (local) table that said the govt of Andoran founded Bellis to keep an eye on Taldor across the border, but that was cut for space. The back cover also mentions the "quiet Andoren town of Bellis."
So the info is in there, but it could be presented more clearly.
Bellis is mentioned very early in the adventure background. Andoran is mentioned later in the book in several places but it's not called out that Bellis is *in* Andoran. The design turnover had a Knowledge (local) table that said the govt of Andoran founded Bellis to keep an eye on Taldor across the border, but that was cut for space. The back cover also mentions the "quiet Andoren town of Bellis."
So the info is in there, but it could be presented more clearly.
I figure it was in there somewhere. (And I only skimmed the back cover before jumping into the adventure) but its nice to have it clarified.
Thank you.
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Where exactly does this take place? I know it starts near the Sellen River, but where?
When my group finishes our Star Wars Saga campaign, I'm planning to run the Price of Immortality trilogy modules (or whatever it's called: Crypt of the Everflame, Masks of the Living God, & City of Golden Death).
I think Realm of the Fellnight Queen would make a really good follow-on to that if Bellis is relocated to Kassen and a few things modified.
-Skeld
Dead Tree copy arrived today..skimmed the pdf and I have to say I'm pretty impressed Neil..
This makes me hunger for more First World information
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Damn Neil, I loved your introduction to this module. To be more specific, I was pulled into the country feel of Bellis within a minute of reading the intro and continued through A6, giggling to myself at some of the visuals your descriptions provided.
I cant say a module has done this to me in quite a while.
I have been pulled in by other module's "themed content" and the promise of certain aspects of a module providing me with some material to use. But my fellnight purchase was entirely to support you and your success in this business, and I must say that I am so glad I bought this module. It has been a pleasure to read.
A curious question to you Neil, "Are you from a small town?" <insert Jon Cougar Melencamp song here>
CC
...I must say that I am so glad I bought this module. It has been a pleasure to read.
Awesome, awesome feedback, Curt! I'm glad the writing drew you in...and I'm really glad you picked up a copy and posted your assessment of the adventure.
A curious question to you Neil, "Are you from a small town?" <insert Jon Cougar Melencamp song here>
Actually, yes...I am indeed. A small town in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. I grew up exploring lots of backwoods country, hills, creeks, and 'hollers' as a kid. So, lots to fuel the ol' imagination by the time I got into RPGs. :-)
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...I must say that I am so glad I bought this module. It has been a pleasure to read.Awesome, awesome feedback, Curt! I'm glad the writing drew you in...and I'm really glad you picked up a copy and posted your assessment of the adventure.
A curious question to you Neil, "Are you from a small town?" <insert Jon Cougar Melencamp song here>Actually, yes...I am indeed. A small town in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in North Carolina. I grew up exploring lots of backwoods country, hills, creeks, and 'hollers' as a kid. So, lots to fuel the ol' imagination by the time I got into RPGs. :-)
another funny thing...
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I finished reading through the pdf over the weekend and will be running this module for our group starting tomorrow. I loved everything about it, from the variety in scenarios (roleplaying before the wedding, wilderness encounters, site-based romp through the Queen's palace, diplomacy while organizing the army to fight the Queen). Realm of the Fellnight Queen and Entombed with the Pharaohs, are my new favorite Paizo modules. I think it stacks quite well with the old Dungeon classics.
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I finished reading through the pdf over the weekend and will be running this module for our group starting tomorrow. I loved everything about it, from the variety in scenarios (roleplaying before the wedding, wilderness encounters, site-based romp through the Queen's palace, diplomacy while organizing the army to fight the Queen). Realm of the Fellnight Queen and Entombed with the Pharaohs, are my new favorite Paizo modules. I think it stacks quite well with the old Dungeon classics.
Avemar, I totally Agree with you. Entombed with the pharohs is also my other favorite module. If they could have fit that damned monk from the Stone Pact pyramid (Master Soan I believe) into Entombed, I would have crapped my pants in extacy.
I have used Entombed in three different groups I have DM'd, and every one of them have loved it.
I now will use Fellnight in the same fashion. The wedding, a bleached gnome, wasp swarms, and a drunk treant are more than enough to keep my games going. The actual fellnight realm is just icing on the cake. :D
CC
I'm not sure if any of you noticed, but Sean put up a blog entry with the stats for Arvormeigh, a nixie guardian that had to be cut out of the adventure for space reasons. She would normally have played a part in the Dead Man's Drop encounter alongside her water elemental allies.
As long as Paizo's okay with it, I'll also mention a couple of other things that didn't make the final module:
I tried to include some extra flavor in the palace of the Fellnight Queen by doing a new take on "haunts" but from more of a fey angle. Basically, I recast them as "impulses" that messed with your emotions. Throughout the palace, there were these "impulses" in certain rooms where PCs would be faced with an overwhelming emotional compulsion left behind as a powerful fey psychic residue similar to a haunt. To non-fey, they could prove quite debilitating.
Also, the satyr brothers in the kitchen were supposed to have been aranea. But, since the Bestiary didn't include stats for them, they got changed to satyrs instead. In their encounter, the aranea sisters were the "cooks" of the castle. And, as shapechanging spidery magical beasts, they had a very unique approach to the fare they prepared. And, in their humanoid form, they just looked like fey elves, so it was a little hard for PCs to anticipate what kind of threat they might pose.
When and if I ever run this module for anyone, I know I'll include those two elements in the "director's cut"...
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Ooohh...
The behind the scenes stuff feels like extras on a DVD. Great for fans of the product!
If Paizo is ok with it I'd love to see more.
You and I both. Thats' why I posted my 'how we got here' stuff this year and read blogs like Bear McCreary's to find out behind the scenes stuff.
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I'm not sure if any of you noticed, but Sean put up a blog entry with the stats for Arvormeigh, a nixie guardian that had to be cut out of the adventure for space reasons. She would normally have played a part in the Dead Man's Drop encounter alongside her water elemental allies.
As long as Paizo's okay with it, I'll also mention a couple of other things that didn't make the final module:
** spoiler omitted **
Yea Neil, I like knowing what you were thinking for this module. They cuts didnt seem to be to horrendous, although I would have liked to see what those shape changing spidery thingies would have done. :D
Well, the other larger elements that got cut were two separate wandering monster tables with 2-3 lines of explanation for each encounter. I tried to inject as much flavor as possible into each one...and they all related back to the underlying story. The first set of wandering encounters covered travel in the Verduran Forest. And the second covered the Fellnight Realm.
I thought they were kind of cool. But, when trimming things down, it's quite clear none of them were necessary to the adventure itself. So, if anything would hit the cutting room floor, it made sense to drop that first. For instance, I also had a 250-word sidebar explaining how to play out the horseshoe tournament at the wedding in Act One. That too wasn't vital. So it made for an easy trimming, too.
The reason a lot of these things had to go is because it turned out several of the creatures I used in my encounters didn't have a reference to the Pathfinder Bestiary...and that's because I was designing a Pathfinder module without only the SRD to go by. Only after my manuscript turnover did it become evident how many of my creatures would require full stat-blocks rather than a simple page reference. So, Sean implemented a number of measures to rein everything back in. Some creatures got swapped out for stuff that could be referenced in the Bestiary. And, other sections (like the stuff I've mentioned here) got cut to make room for creating a new stat-block for the creatures that needed to stay.
Yep, the aranea became satyrs not because of plot or game design issues, but merely because including a full stat block for them ate up space, and it eventually came down to "replace the aranea stat block with a satyr, or cut that many lines' worth of plot." Thus, the spider-ladies had to go. Which made me sad, as I'm a fan of that monster.
I'm guessing the aranea will eventually make an appearance in the Bestiary 2, though, right?
Well played, sir.
I'm looking forward to purchasing this at my FLGS. Since it sounds like some good stuff had to be trimmed from the module, any chance of seeing a write-up of these extras somewhere? Kind of like the articles in Dragon magazine for players + the free downloads from the Paizo website for the adventure paths in Dungeon (they were a boon when I ran the Age of Worms).
Hi, Anthony. The most significant piece is in this blog post by Sean. Once you have the adventure, you should be able to easily tell which encounter to update. Aside from that, I don't expect Paizo will release any further bonus material. But I'd be pleasantly surprised if they do. :-)
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This type of thread is really fantastic! I'm currently running this module and plan to switch the satyrs back to araneas with a bit of work.
Thanks to all involved!
Post how that works out Avemar. I have a bit of time before I use this module and I would love to hear how the araneas performed in your game.
If someone from Paizo (i.e., Sean or James) gives the go-ahead, I could post the wandering "monster" encounters and tables from the original manuscript. That, too, would help widen the overall gaming experience for the module, I think. But I won't post anything further unless Paizo's okay with it. Messageboard posts are a lot easier to put up than web enhancements, so maybe they'd be open to it.
If someone from Paizo (i.e., Sean or James) gives the go-ahead, I could post the wandering "monster" encounters and tables from the original manuscript. That, too, would help widen the overall gaming experience for the module, I think. But I won't post anything further unless Paizo's okay with it. Messageboard posts are a lot easier to put up than web enhancements, so maybe they'd be open to it.
I think a Web Enhancement Link would be great.
(EDIT: Scraatch that I just read the explanation of what it takes to do a WE, so lets just see more Sticky Forum threads!)
I can;t wait until my players are high enough level to play this!
If someone from Paizo (i.e., Sean or James) gives the go-ahead, I could post the wandering "monster" encounters and tables from the original manuscript. That, too, would help widen the overall gaming experience for the module, I think. But I won't post anything further unless Paizo's okay with it. Messageboard posts are a lot easier to put up than web enhancements, so maybe they'd be open to it.
Thanks for the reply Neil. Wandering Monster tables would be nice. :)
You'll see the Mist Random Encounter Table on Monday's blog. :)
Great! I'm also looking forward to picking this module up this coming week. :) Bonus material is always great to have. Thanks!
I just had a chance to read through, quickly (I'll need to give it a more in depth look later). It looks like a lot of fun, and on top of that, this has been the most "Golarion-y" RPG Superstar adventure so far.
This isn't meant to be a shot at previous winners, just something that I noticed and really liked about the adventure. Perhaps its because the setting has been around longer at this point, but it was a definite plus for me.
You'll see the Mist Random Encounter Table on Monday's blog. :)
A question for Neil or indeed, anyone: How easy would it be to transplant this adventure into another setting?
It seems to rely on a lot of Golarion elements from what I've heard.
My one gripe is that whenever I see "Fellnight" I think "Shadowfell" and want to cry. In the words of Strong Bad, it's not a good commando name.
-The Gneech
A question for Neil or indeed, anyone: How easy would it be to transplant this adventure into another setting?....It seems to rely on a lot of Golarion elements from what I've heard.
Personally, I don't think it would be that hard. The most Golarion-esque elements are really the Bleaching that serves as the catalyst for how Tenzekil ultimately comes to serve the Fellnight Queen. And, of course, the notion of the First World fey as a separate realm in the first place.
To me, you can afflict the gnome antagonist with whatever magical ailment you care to adapt...and then just say the Fellnight Queen offered to relieve it for him in exchange for his service. Meanwhile, the otherworldly location of the First World and the Fellnight Realm can be explained as fey-specific planes separate from whatever homebrew campaign you wish to airlift the adventure into...
Everything else is fairly non-specific in its reliance on Golarion lore. Where possible, I tried to indicate where in Golarion certain NPCs or creatures came from...such as Devarre the archdruid or Viviana Albercroft back in Bellis. But that information could easily be set aside for a different explanation of their origins if a GM wanted to have them be from somewhere else.
So, bottom line, I don't think it's too tied to Golarion to make un-portable. A clever GM shouldn't have too much difficulty making it work.
My two-cents,
--Neil
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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I just had a chance to read through, quickly (I'll need to give it a more in depth look later). It looks like a lot of fun, and on top of that, this has been the most "Golarion-y" RPG Superstar adventure so far.
This isn't meant to be a shot at previous winners, just something that I noticed and really liked about the adventure. Perhaps its because the setting has been around longer at this point, but it was a definite plus for me.
I would think that has a lot to do with it. After all, after Christine won the first Superstar, it was AFTER that victory that Mike McArtor brought in her, Rob, Boomer, and I to the crew writing the Campaign Setting book, and our turnovers on that were through the two months after the contest. At the time she concepted the adventure, there WAS no campaign setting book and a shelf full of Companions and Chronicles! There were a bunch of modules and the first Gazetteer.
We have a lot more world info to include now. The biggest quantum jump for that would be between those first and second years, but one would think that going forward we would continue to have fairly Golarion-heavy Superstar pitches.
After all, after Christine won the first Superstar, it was AFTER that victory that Mike McArtor brought in her, Rob, Boomer, and I to the crew writing the Campaign Setting book ...
Where IS she these days?
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Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 4, Legendary Games
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After all, after Christine won the first Superstar, it was AFTER that victory that Mike McArtor brought in her, Rob, Boomer, and I to the crew writing the Campaign Setting book ...Where IS she these days?
Busy with school, I believe. She did contribute to either the Gnomes of Golarion or the Cheliax Companion recently, but that's the only Paizo thing I can think of lately.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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After all, after Christine won the first Superstar, it was AFTER that victory that Mike McArtor brought in her, Rob, Boomer, and I to the crew writing the Campaign Setting book ...Where IS she these days?
if memory serves, she's not one for posting on message boards.