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Pathfinder Adventure Path #40: Vaults of Madness (Serpent's Skull 4 of 6) (PFRPG)

2.80/5 (based on 4 ratings)
Pathfinder Adventure Path #40: Vaults of Madness (Serpent's Skull 4 of 6) (PFRPG)

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Chapter 4: "Vaults of Madness"
by Greg A. Vaughan

The PCs are now the masters of the lost city of Saventh-Yhi—or are they? For no sooner is the city won than the mighty Gorilla King and his simian followers come to take it for their own. At the same time, the PCs learn of a missing Pathfinder imprisoned in a subterranean city beneath their new holding. Before they can rescue him, however, the PCs must venture into seven ancient vaults to find the entrance to the hidden city. Can they survive the dangers of these strange constructions, or will they succumb to madness first?

    This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path includes:
  • “Vaults of Madness,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 10th-level characters, by Greg A. Vaughan.
  • A dozen deadly new traps, by Gareth Hanrahan.
  • An ecology of the terrifying ape-men known as the charau-ka, by Gareth Hanrahan.
  • Demon birds and enraged apes in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Robin D. Laws.
  • Five new monsters of the jungle, by Jesse Benner and Jason Nelson.

Pathfinder Adventure Path is Paizo Publishing's monthly 96-page, perfect-bound, full-color softcover book printed on high-quality paper. It contains an in-depth Adventure Path scenario, stats for about a half-dozen new monsters, and several support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the standard 3.5 fantasy RPG rules set.

ISBN–13: 978-1-60125-275-3

Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Sanctioned Content
Vaults of Madness is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild.

Download the rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheets — (495 kb zip/PDF)

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

Archives of Nethys

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Not Bad, But Not Good Enough to Save this AP

3/5 —

After two volumes that could charitably be described as "lackluster", the Serpent's Skull AP really needed a strong entry here to make the campaign worthwhile. And this book was... fine. Not bad at all, actually! But also not good enough to get the AP back on track.

The conceit is that this book is a giant fetch quest that has the PCs going through a number of mini-dungeons to collect maguffins to get to progress the story. This means that this AP volume is very light on story. If it feels like filler, that's because it absolutely is filler. That's a problem for an AP that really needed to start to kick its story into gear by this stage. You don't really learn much about Savith-Yhi, or about the impending danger from the serpentfolk, or much about the plot at all, really.

However, this volume did have the advantage of actually being fun to play without a monumental amount of GM work, which sets it apart from the previous two books. The mini-dungeons are pretty fun, for the most part. And they can each be cleared in a session or two. This makes this module a good, old-school set of casual dungeon crawls. There's not much story or RP to be had, but the actual dungeons are pretty fun.

In all, I think this is a module that's more fun to play than it is to read. It's a few sessions of low-key dungeon romps. It's clearly filler, but it's not bad filler. However, with the weakness of the previous volumes in the AP, you really don't want a filler volume in the AP. This book needed to do a better job of setting up the plot for the rest of the AP because the previous volumes didn't. I'm just picturing a campaign that slogged through poor books 2 and 3 only to find that book 4 is mostly filler. I imagine many groups would just drop out of SS by this point. However, this book is still worth getting for a collection of mini dungeons for a high-ish level range.

The Gorilla King says...

1/5 —

So I was thinking of running this adventure path as an extension of my Sargavan game. the first two seemed interesting, but then I got to three and four. Three has been strongly criticised and does have its serious weaknesses, but four takes the failure cake for me. I will explain why.

In this book, the players have secured a bit of space for themselves, battling many of the factions of the hidden city and emerging victorious. A king of the gorillas arrives before you can venture below the city and things start to go pear-shaped if you accept his forceful hospitality. There is awful food which can sicken the party and he imposes challenges which the players must complete before he will allow them to venture forth. Yes, this outsider will come in, block the adventure proceeding, impose tests and if the players win, he will move on and accept their authority (how quaint).

To the tests, a DC 25 strength check, which many players in games I've run or been in, would fail. Even a barb may not be able to pull it off if he isn't a typical massive strength build.

Next an oratory or similar check of DC 35. You are meant to impress the court, that is nice, but 35 isn't impressive, it is magnificent. Also many parties I know couldn't get 35 at around 11th level. Even a bard would fail on a low roll.

The last is combat. One party member against the king. He is a fourteenth level fighter and dire ape. He could be taken, but it would be rather hard.

If you fail two, you lose, the king blocks the tunnels that go deeper. If you win, he threatens the party and implies he will murder them in the jungle. Well that is just swell and honourable isn't it?

So I told a friend and dnd player why I wouldn't be running this adventure path and told him of the above scene. He said, the players should say fine, leave the ridiculous tests and tell the dm well the adventure path is a failure since we now can't proceed. If you refuse the very hard quests then the gorilla king becomes angry, offers them one more time (oh how generous) and may attack with his small army. A mid level party would have very little chance against this small army of ape-variants and nasty combatants.

There are some good monsters, but the necromancer hunt was stale years ago and the gorilla king encounter begins the book. It is worse than the imposed Shoanti quests in The Crimson throne, and they seemed out of place and very demanding then.

Interesting, but quickly becomes templated

3/5 —

This module has the adventurers going into Saventh-Yhi's Vaults of Madness, seeking out a way to follow up on plot hooks discovered at the climax of the last book.

This book is definitely a step up in content from the last, with each mini-dungeon containing a number of interesting encounters. The problem comes when you finally have the hindsight to realize that each dungeon has about three encounters in it, and many of them aren't really hyped up a lot with story. The ecology also feels strange. You kind of go from one encounter to the next, hitting themed streaks, but a lot of the monsters don't feel like they really live in, or have a reason to live in, the vaults they're encountered in.

It's strongly written, the roleplaying is solid, and the trademark Paizo "information the party will never learn" is fascinating. If you're coming out of City of Seven Spears, this will be a breath of fresh air.

Fine crawling to be found

—

This module is filled with several solid, short crawls. I did not like modules 3 and 5 of this AP (6 is not out yet by the time this is written), but this one is a great addition to 1 and 2. It's not one of those "Man, I want to run this NOW and see the expression on my player's faces" adventures that Paizo so often comes up with... but it's obvious from reading this that there is lots of fun to this one.

Preliminary review on only a couple points - Grimtooth's traps & Mwangi

4/5 —

This is *only* a review on a couple points - things for which I was searching or which I just sort of noticed.

Overall, looks like a really interesting module with lots of action. Not much contact with Mwangi culture (for which I was looking) but a little bit. Huge pulp feel.

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Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Richard Pett wrote:
Dark_Mistress wrote:

For those that are big fans of Greg A. Vaughan might want to check out my review of The Slumber Tsar.

Forum review here.

Ah, but Dark Mistress - what about those many people out here who aren't his fans - what about us eh?

Where's the vaughn-hate-love? erm, something.

Moist moors out.

Wow I wonder how I missed you calling me out for all these months. So since you hate nick as well. i have to ask is there anyone you don't hate? I mean other than me of course. :)

Silver Crusade

Why am I getting John Locke vibes off the cover guy? :D

That was exactly my thought.

The cover image with the heroes stumbling into a series of traps (?) looks great!
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

I'm assuming the main person on the cover is

Spoiler:
Dargan Etters, the leader of the Aspis Society forces
?
Julian Neale wrote:
Richard Pett wrote:


... - blades or pistols sir - blades or pistols I say!

The fact that you'll do a fine job is irrelevant, to arms sir, come come!

Only *girls* fight with swords. Real men duel with cannons! Mnarrrrr!

Sod cannons. Real men duel with flamethowers!

Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Is the AP falling behind again? I looked at my orders and the late oct order has issue 39 in it but then Nov will have a shipment with no AP and 40 will ship in Dec.
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Dark_Mistress wrote:
Is the AP falling behind again? I looked at my orders and the late oct order has issue 39 in it but then Nov will have a shipment with no AP and 40 will ship in Dec.

A lot of November's stuff slipped when the Bestiary 2 fell behind.

Paizo Employee Creative Director
Erik Freund wrote:

This artist is amazing and needs to be kept around for a long time.

Also, the way the 7 vaults are described makes me hopeful that this can be interlaced with the previous installment for a 2-book-combo uber-sandbox. Probably not, but that's where my dreams are at right now.

Actually... you can indeed combine not just parts 3 and 4 to make a giant "explore the lost city" sandbox, but also parts 5 and 6, which detail a second lost city under the first. The whole thing has a pretty sandbox feel to it.

Kvantum wrote:
I'm assuming the main person on the cover is ** spoiler omitted **?

cover speculation:

Darn. I described him as Alan Rickman / Hans Gruber from DIE HARD.
well. still gonna go with it. maybe he got lice?
...
ew. nevermind.

Scarab Sages
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Is he supposed to have spent time in Varisia? All those rings remind me of that runelord who didn't bother with his polearm.

I just can't wait till it gets in my paws. I saw the illustrations for this one. The flying monkeys from Crucible of Chaos will be in the Bestiary! Which means I don't have to convert them! Let there be dancing in the streets.

Is there any idea whether this issue will ship during the third or fourth week of December?

I know the folks at Paizo do their best to get these volumes out as quickly as they can. That said, the staggered release schedule for this AP has been difficult to manage as a GM.

If it won't be out until the fourth week, I'll need to come up with some filler for my group. Probably something juju zombie-related...
Paizo Employee Creative Director
Generic Villain wrote:

I know the folks at Paizo do their best to get these volumes out as quickly as they can. That said, the staggered release schedule for this AP has been difficult to manage as a GM.

It's been even MORE difficult to manage as a Creative Director.

And I'm not sure when it's going to ship. They don't let me see those numbers. ;-P
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
James Jacobs wrote:
And I'm not sure when it's going to ship. They don't let me see those numbers. ;-P

We never know for sure until it's here, but the last week of December is probably more likely.

Thanks for the replies James and Vic. I was hoping it'd come the third week, but oh well. I suppose we could take a session off for the holidays.
Paizo Employee Creative Director
Greg A. Vaughan wrote:
Erik Freund wrote:

This artist is amazing and needs to be kept around for a long time.

Also, the way the 7 vaults are described makes me hopeful that this can be interlaced with the previous installment for a 2-book-combo uber-sandbox. Probably not, but that's where my dreams are at right now.

I have not seen the finished previous volume, but I actually think what you are describing might work quite well.

Ayup; that's exactly how these two books work.

Vic Wertz wrote:


We never know for sure until it's here, but the last week of December is probably more likely.

Any new info on the shipping date?

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
doppelganger wrote:
Vic Wertz wrote:


We never know for sure until it's here, but the last week of December is probably more likely.
Any new info on the shipping date?

We're currently hoping for next week.

Mikaze wrote:
Why am I getting John Locke vibes off the cover guy? :D

Really? Looks more like Andy Serkis than John Locke to me. I wish more British philosophers would show up in my fantasy rpg, though. ;-)

I know you're trying to appeal to your audience through meme-usage paizo, but apes are not monkeys.
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Ben Crick wrote:
I know you're trying to appeal to your audience through meme-usage paizo, but apes are not monkeys.

There is a monkey in this volume. It even has an illustration, on page 20.

Spoiler:
It's really not the monkey's best day, I'm afraid.
Vic Wertz wrote:
Ben Crick wrote:
I know you're trying to appeal to your audience through meme-usage paizo, but apes are not monkeys.

There is a monkey in this volume. It even has an illustration, on page 20.

** spoiler omitted **

Awesome.

I was planning on running Serpent Skull #1-3, just thinking I'd make them a bit more Indiana Jones-ishness to them and cap them off myself.

Then you pop that on me; that looks like it's destined to be a classic game.

I guess #4 is on the menu. So to speak. :)
Dark Archive
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Only skimmed it so far, but I liked the section on traps.
Liberty's Edge
Mairkurion {tm} wrote:
Mikaze wrote:
Why am I getting John Locke vibes off the cover guy? :D
Really? Looks more like Andy Serkis than John Locke to me. I wish more British philosophers would show up in my fantasy rpg, though. ;-)

If that isn't a very, very thinly veiled John Locke reference on the cover, then you can call me the smoke monster :-)

Greg A. Vaughan wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
EKAJ, THE TRUE STROY
Thank you you, Gorbacz. :)

This story is a hoot. Thank you Gorbacz

How come Mwangi natives don't speak Mwangi languages other than Polyglot? What am I missing?

Just perused this one on PDF. Some of the deathtraps seem familiar from the old Grimtooth's Traps book from waaaay back. Is there a connection? It was eerie...
Mazym wrote:
How come Mwangi natives don't speak Mwangi languages other than Polyglot? What am I missing?

EDIT: I retract this. Polyglot is like Common.

After reading this one more carefully, I have questions and concerns about how some features work out in play. Has anyone played it yet?
Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer
Mazym wrote:
After reading this one more carefully, I have questions and concerns about how some features work out in play. Has anyone played it yet?

You might want to check the Serpent's Skull forum and see if your question is already being discussed.

My question on this scenario is a spoiler:

Spoiler:
What is the design point of the active Midnight Spores? Just to mess with players? To reduce the number of allies the PCs bring into the Vaults (otherwise they'd bring tons of troops)?As a player, the Spores would seem an obvious meta-game device - not a poison, not a curse, not a disease, can't be avoided, etc. designed to "get me" - why? If it is to explain what happened to the citizens, that's fine, but after thousands of years, maybe they have decayed or gone inactive? Or maybe there should be a good way to avoid them. It just seems like one more thing to make it nastier for the PCs and make the GM rely more on the railroading to get the PCs to go into each Vault with limited backup.
Vic Wertz wrote:
Mazym wrote:
After reading this one more carefully, I have questions and concerns about how some features work out in play. Has anyone played it yet?
You might want to check the Serpent's Skull forum and see if your question is already being discussed.

Thanks for the tip. I didn't see my question.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

In the meantime, a brief response to Mazym's question...

Spoiler:

We included the midnight spores for 4 reasons:

1) To justify using the word "madness" in the adventrue title.

2) To give a solid reason for why Saventh-Yhi collapsed—it was too far away from Azlanti to be totally destroyed by Earthfall, after all, and if there hadn't been some similar tragedy, it would have survived as a civilized location, perhaps to this very day. By having the midnight spores ruin everything, we not only get to depopulate the city (conveniently at about the same time the Age of Darkness begins) but they also give the city some interesting flavor and some believable in-world reasons why the connection between Saventh-Yhi above and Ilmurea below is relatively unknown and unexplored.

3) The theme of dangerous fungus plays throughout Serpent's Skull. It's not a MAJOR theme, but it's there a lot, in the form of the Silent Island of Smuggler's Shiv, the vegepygmies of Saventh-Yhi, the midnight spores of the vaults, and in a few other ways still upcoming. We try to put minor themes like these into our adventure paths as a way to further bolster the feeling that the six adventures are all interconnected, even beyond the main plotline.

4) Finally, the game mechanic reason—"Vaults of Madness" is a dungeon crawl. And the higher level characters get, the easier the dungeon crawl plot gets for them. At low level, a dungeon works almost as a flowchart or a railroad—you really have no choice as to where to go and in what order to experience the encounters. As you get higher level and you gain access to things like teleportation, passwall, wind walk, potent divinations, and other magical effects that can be used to bypass dungeon content, the dungeon crawl adventure model starts to be less effective of a model for an adventure. So we try to mix things up when we do higher level dungeon crawl adventures—simply saying "This whole dungeon is blocked from teleportation" is cliche and overused, so we always try to look down different routes to increase the difficulty of higher level dungeon exploration. The midnight spores are one such attempt. And finally, by discovering the magic fountain in the Vaults, the midnight spore afflictions give that magic fountain a really good thing to cure, and makes the discovery of the fountain feel even more of a triumph and victory for the PCs.

And by "brief," I apparently mean "long and exhaustive and detailed." ;-)
James Jacobs wrote:

In the meantime, a brief response to Mazym's question...

** spoiler omitted **...

Thanks, James.

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