Pathfinder Adventure Path #47: Ashes at Dawn (Carrion Crown 5 of 6) (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Adventure Path #47: Ashes at Dawn (Carrion Crown 5 of 6) (PFRPG)
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Chapter 5: "Ashes at Dawn"
by Neil Spicer

A killer stalks the streets of Caliphas, a murderer whose victims are already dead. Something is preying upon the ancient vampire clans of Ustalav’s capital, a mysterious foe who threatens the centuries-old truce tenuously held by generations of both the living and the undead. Into this madness enter the heroes, closing in on the death cultists of the Whispering Way. What role do the deadly necromancers have in the undead murders plaguing Caliphas? What secret grudge exists between the cult and the rulers of the night? And will the heroes be able to save the capital without sacrificing their very souls?

    This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path includes:
  • “Ashes at Dawn,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 11th-level characters, by Neil Spicer
  • A gazetteer of fog-haunted Caliphas, the mysterious and deadly capital of Ustalav, by F. Wesley Schneider
  • A terrifying look into the blasphemous church of Urgathoa, goddess of gluttony, disease, and the undead, by Sean K Reynolds
  • Laurel Cylphra’s attempt to steal a soul stealer in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by F. Wesley Schneider
  • Six new monsters by Crystal Frasier, Patrick Renie, and Sean K Reynolds

Each monthly full-color softcover 96-page Pathfinder Adventure Path volume contains an in-depth adventure scenario, stats for several new monsters, and 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: 978-1-60125-312-5

Ashes at Dawn is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheet are available as a free download (561 KB zip/PDF).

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

Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

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

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Horrible installation

1/5

I've been a GM for the entire Carrion Crown now, and this stands out as the thorn in an otherwise good Adventure path.

Book 1 + 2 was very good, book 3 a bit week, book 4 a bit off to a side, but good. Book 5 horrible, and book 6, ok, but a bit too much dungeon crawl. Since it's basically one big dungeon.

*****************SPOILER WARNING**************

So book 5 starts out with the characters having to go to Caliphas, so far so good.
They are confronted with an enemy they have to kill, with a magic item they now have to find a reason behind.
The scenario now presumes that the PC's will investigate this, not too big a leap, with the Order of the Palatine Eye (OotPE), a big assumption but reasonably.
To find out anything, they have to succeed on some very high DC knowledge checks, and not just 1 but 3. DC 27 spellcraft, DC 30 knowledge arcane, dc 40 knowledge history. If any are failed, the story stalls without a bit of fiddling.

My players were actually very brilliant here, they remembered from book 3, that the guy giving credentials to the whispering way was Advion Adrissant, and he was from Caliphas. But there is no mention of him in this book 5, especially not if players actually look him up.

They find the Whispering way HQ to be gone, and gain an ally, claiming they can get info from vampires. This bit is fine. Now they have to go talk to vampires.

But to get there, they have to kill a vampire?! Ok, my players got around that. They talk with the head honcho vampire, who claims to have information, if they help solve the murders. The thing is, he doesn't know anything, or the scenario has no knowledge he has... ok so he is manipulating the PC's? Fine.

They talk to the vampires, which apparently are incredible dense, especially the inquisitor. 30 min. used on talking with all vampires, and they have enough clues to solve the problem.
After a fight with some drug dealers, who hangs out approximately 50 meter from the head honcho....

They find that the documents are false and/or that the stakes are table legs bought by the vampire tailor. And here the chain jumps off again. Instead of going in and killing the vampire, like good little sociopaths, my group just went back to the head honcho and gave him the evidence.
I could have forced them to kill the tailor, but no, their method seemed more logical. So let the vampires duke it out, and gave them his diary.
They get the Nosferatu freed, which only happened because he promised them information, for hey, vampires killing vampires, who cares.
He didn't have any info (Well until the end of the scenario)

After this they have to go to the Abbey, because of some slim chance it has anything to do with the Whispering way.
Kill a bunch of people, and a demon.
But it has nothing to do with the Whispering Way, it just a crazy countess wanting to be younger. Evil perhaps, but in the grand scheme of things, a lot hoo-ha over nothing really.
What really bugs me here? The abbey has a great story, but the PC's have no way to discover the story. Or gain any real insight into why there are spider swarms everywhere.
At the end of the dungeon, they have to fight a bloodknight, and then the boss. The fight is basically in the same room, but is described as two seperate fights. Really bad.

Then they get a letter from the nosferatu telling them where to go... which is basically where they thought they have to go to stop the Whispering Way, e.g. Gallowspire.

So let’s sum up what the PC's did this story? The talked/killed (to) some vampires, perhaps killed a tailor, killed a bunch of people, thing and witches at an abbey.
Hindered exactly 1 whispering way agent, who did not work on the Carrion Crown.

The whole scenario feels like a bad placeholder.


Ashes to Ashes

5/5

Questions of morality versus ethics, good and evil, right and wrong, about when to sacrifice one for the others, about the end justifying the means to achieve a goal, about striving for personal power for oneself above even one’s own family, perhaps even about the true meaning of family and loyalty pervade this 5th installment of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path. Just how evil is evil enough to cause a person devoted to the cause of good to sacrifice the goals of the group he or she is bound to protect? These are difficult questions for any good-oriented party, whether they include a paladin or no, to deal with as they try to uncover the cause behind the murders of those who are seen to be deeply heinously evil by the standards of most good oriented gods. Some may think that this adventure would test the vow of a paladin too severely. Once the paladin chooses to help the unabashedly evil vampires is he or she on the slippery slope to damnation?

I love adventures which force players to play their characters making real choices and have real (within the game) consequences. Paladins have great rewards of power for the cause of good but also carry a heavy burden. Should the Game Master make light of this burden or should he force the player to really think about the meaning of running such a character? I would say this really depends on the GM and his or her players. My own players are all old grognards for the most part and have dealt with such questions on more than one occasion. I know they would love the role play opportunities this adventure provides.

But some groups are not able to handle such ethical and moral decisions. This is where a good GM has to know his players. Some groups are all for the mechanical aspects of the game and care little for role playing. Rather than tell them they are not playing the game right, which is at best subjective and at worst elitist and condescending, I would say to them, ignore the questions and let your players hack and slash or work with the vampires as they decide. Of course I am of the opinion that it is never the GM’s job to tell the players how to play their characters or play through an adventure. You defiantly have to gage the maturity level of your players. In the hands of a good GM, this adventure can become a pivotal and memorable one for the players whether or not you are running the Carrion Crown AP as a whole or just want to dip into the vampiric underbelly of Caliphas.

It would be relatively easy to alter this adventure to stand alone. Simply remove references to the Whispering Way and alter the ending such that it ends when the PC’s find out who is murdering the vampires and dealt with them and perhaps the vampires too, if they so choose. Though I would expect some retribution of the part of the leader of this clan, who may or may not be at home depending on the individual GM. Alternatively the GM can use this adventure to start the PC’s on the path of the Whispering Way at a later level than the path assumes, particularly if other adventures in the vicinity have been run which are located fairly nearby and not directly related. What this means is that this adventure is highly portable with some minor work and of even greater value to GMs who, like me, run their own campaigns rather than the strict Adventure Paths.

To Neil in particular, I think you did a masterful job of creating an adventure that delves into these questions spoken above without forcing any particular group or GM to HAVE to play a certain way.

As for the remainder of this AP, there is an always helpful article on a location in Golarion, in this case the city of Caliphas, which is directly relevant to the adventure and includes some interesting personalities the PCs may encounter in the city. Next is a continuation of the deity articles, this time the featured deity is Urgathoa. Then there are the standard AP articles, the fiction piece and the Bestiary with some useful and some strange monsters. Now the bestiary also includes an odd page, a short piece on PCs as vampires and a town stat block with a paragraph on travel TO Caliphas as well as an encounter table for the slums and sewers of Caliphas. This might have been better placed elsewhere, at the head of the AP perhaps, so it could be noticed by the GM easier while he or she is preparing for this adventure. Given the constraints of the placement of text in the introduction and Part One of the adventure I can see why this wasn’t placed there. I am very glad it wasn’t simply left out, though I do question its placement at the head of the Bestiary.

In short then, I believe this installment of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path does everything it set out to accomplish and more, thanks to the skill of the author in particular. I have trouble giving this a perfect score due to the strange additions to the Bestiary. But the main adventure was so masterfully done that I have to award this five stars as well.


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Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Just DLed it, haven't looked at it yet though. Just thought I would share that the emails are going out today and of course make all of you jealous who doesn't have it yet. :)

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

I'm not jealous at all. :->

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Neil Spicer wrote:
I'm not jealous at all. :->

You don't count you wrote it. ;p

Contributor

Yeh, back to your pit Spicer - work, work damn you!


Dark_Mistress wrote:
Just DLed it, haven't looked at it yet though. Just thought I would share that the emails are going out today and of course make all of you jealous who doesn't have it yet. :)

*shakes fist* You... you... you evil minx!

Guess it worked, eh?


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

I am not jealous, as I have mine already as well.

Owner - House of Books and Games LLC

Justin Franklin wrote:

I am not jealous, as I have mine already as well.

(eyes empty inbox sadly)


Dark_Mistress wrote:
Just DLed it, haven't looked at it yet though. Just thought I would share that the emails are going out today and of course make all of you jealous who doesn't have it yet. :)

Curses! How can someone else have this when I don't? Doesn't Paizo know that I'm super important?!

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

Generic Villain wrote:
Curses! How can someone else have this when I don't? Doesn't Paizo know that I'm super important?!

You're a generic villain! How important could they possibly view you? ;-D


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
gbonehead wrote:
Justin Franklin wrote:

I am not jealous, as I have mine already as well.

(eyes empty inbox sadly)

Sighs... Looks at the email that got me excited that I'd be reading about vampires on monday (until I remembered that was the 4th). Still waiting for my shipping notice so I can download. Waiting.


I have it too! :)
Having just had a quick look, there is some amazing art in here, guys! :)


Neil Spicer wrote:


You're a generic villain! How important could they possibly view you? ;-D

You'll just have to trust me on this one. I mean only a loser would call himself super important if he wasn't actually super important, amiright?


Generic Villain wrote:
Neil Spicer wrote:


You're a generic villain! How important could they possibly view you? ;-D
You'll just have to trust me on this one. I mean only a loser would call himself super important if he wasn't actually super important, amiright?

alright! I agree. Uncle! :D


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Hm, I notice that Caliphas seems to have nowhere one of the new stat blocks for cities. Is this an oversight or has Paizo abandoned this new mechanic?

Also, a little paragraph about Ramoska Arkminos, erm, duality as an character would have been nice. ^^


There's a city statblock for Caliphas in Rule of Fear. I'm guessing they just needed the extra space. ;)


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Kajehase wrote:
There's a city statblock for Caliphas in Rule of Fear. I'm guessing they just needed the extra space. ;)

Well, I don't think I can be expected to buy supplemental books outside of the "core" rulebooks, just to get that. :p

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
magnuskn wrote:
Kajehase wrote:
There's a city statblock for Caliphas in Rule of Fear. I'm guessing they just needed the extra space. ;)
Well, I don't think I can be expected to buy supplemental books outside of the "core" rulebooks, just to get that. :p

Well, it can be expected that a reasonable person who runs an AP based in a country gets his hands on the sourcebook about said country. :PP


Rule of fear is a nice one - just grab the pdf.

Waiting for my PDF of Ashes of Dawn - hehe.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Sorry, gotta save up for GamesCom next month. ^^


Gah, I just now realized I triple posted. How embarassing...

Anyone wanna delete those for me? ...Please?

Owner - House of Books and Games LLC

Generic Villain wrote:

Gah, I just now realized I triple posted. How embarassing...

Anyone wanna delete those for me? ...Please?

Ah, don't worry about it. Besides, with no avatar, it's not very noticeable.


gbonehead wrote:
Generic Villain wrote:

Gah, I just now realized I triple posted. How embarassing...

Anyone wanna delete those for me? ...Please?

Ah, don't worry about it. Besides, with no avatar, it's not very noticeable.

It happens to most of us. Sometimes the messageboards hiccough and make us think it didn't take our post, when it did.


Hmm, so it seems subscribers are already receiving emails about 1.) the print edition shipping and 2.) being able to download the .pdf. Is there some reason I haven't received any emails about either of these? I'm not complaining: I just don't know how this works. (I signed up last week.)

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Fuzrum wrote:
Hmm, so it seems subscribers are already receiving emails about 1.) the print edition shipping and 2.) being able to download the .pdf. Is there some reason I haven't received any emails about either of these? I'm not complaining: I just don't know how this works. (I signed up last week.)

The do subscriptions in lots of the same order. So if X number of people are superscriber's like me then they will do all those first. Then the next largest group of similar orders and so on. It seems to take them 3-4 days from when they do the first order till they get to the last orders. With Monday being a holiday in the US, they started on Tuesday. Which means they will be doing orders all day today and likely finishing them some time tomorrow. If you don't get a email by tomorrow night then you might want to ask about it, by email customer service.

Just letting you know from what I have read how I "think" things work, just to give you a idea on what to expect. :)

Lantern Lodge

Fuzrum wrote:
Hmm, so it seems subscribers are already receiving emails about 1.) the print edition shipping and 2.) being able to download the .pdf. Is there some reason I haven't received any emails about either of these? I'm not complaining: I just don't know how this works. (I signed up last week.)

EDIT: Looks like somehow no address was set on your subscription. Shoot me an email (customer.service at paizo.com) with the address you want it shipped to and I'll get it straightened out.

If you ever have questions or concerns about your order, please feel free to let us know by creating a new thread in the customer service forums or by sending us an email (customer.service at paizo.com).

thanks
sara marie


Dark_Mistress wrote:
Just letting you know from what I have read how I "think" things work, just to give you a idea on what to expect. :)

Thank you very much. I appreciate the clarification. :)

Owner - House of Books and Games LLC

Fuzrum wrote:
Hmm, so it seems subscribers are already receiving emails about 1.) the print edition shipping and 2.) being able to download the .pdf. Is there some reason I haven't received any emails about either of these? I'm not complaining: I just don't know how this works. (I signed up last week.)

This thread talks about that, but if you haven't even gotten a "we're going to ship soon" email, you might want to post a message in the Customer Service forum.

EDIT: Wow, double-ninja'ed. Of course, I did have to dig out that URL ...

And now you see why people rave about Paizo customer service :)


Sara Marie wrote:
Fuzrum wrote:
Hmm, so it seems subscribers are already receiving emails about 1.) the print edition shipping and 2.) being able to download the .pdf. Is there some reason I haven't received any emails about either of these? I'm not complaining: I just don't know how this works. (I signed up last week.)

EDIT: Looks like somehow no address was set on your subscription. Shoot me an email (customer.service at paizo.com) with the address you want it shipped to and I'll get it straightened out.

If you ever have questions or concerns about your order, please feel free to let us know by creating a new thread in the customer service forums or by sending us an email (customer.service at paizo.com).

thanks
sara marie

Done. Thanks!

Shadow Lodge

hey anyone care to give me an idea of what the bestiary for this ap looks like? I haven't been running these ones with my party but have been using their bestiary to build adventurers that have more of a dark horror feel (Waking the watchers bestiary still has one of my players dreading an adventure near the water or any lonely mysterious mountain ranges) and was wanting to know what kinds of creatures we are getting with this one so I can decide if I should pick it up or not.


doc the grey wrote:
hey anyone care to give me an idea of what the bestiary for this ap looks like? I haven't been running these ones with my party but have been using their bestiary to build adventurers that have more of a dark horror feel (Waking the watchers bestiary still has one of my players dreading an adventure near the water or any lonely mysterious mountain ranges) and was wanting to know what kinds of creatures we are getting with this one so I can decide if I should pick it up or not.

Just in case these would spoil anyone's campaign ..

Spoiler:

Living Topiary (Medium Plant, though it also has Construct-like rules for characters creating them)

Mother's Maw (giant flying skull undead)

Phantom Armor (undead empty suits or pieces of armor; 4 types + creation rules)

Psychopomps (2 types, 1 of which can be an Improved Familiar)

Wax Golem (2 types, the second being sentient, with construction details)


There's the herald of Urgathoa, an extraplanar undead; two new outsiders tied to Pharasma's faith, the Vanth and Nosoi psychopomps; a Living Topiary monster (beware the bush that rustles in the dead of night); an undead armour type of monster (the Phantom Armour); and a Golem made of wax.


I just finished reading through Ashes, and let me say: wow. Neil did an amazing job here, and this may be my favorite entry yet in an AP that has repeatedly blown me away. Kudos to everyone involved with this one (including its two support articles, the bestiary, and Wes's gothic horror tale).

RPG Superstar 2011 Top 16

doc the grey wrote:
hey anyone care to give me an idea of what the bestiary for this ap looks like? I haven't been running these ones with my party but have been using their bestiary to build adventurers that have more of a dark horror feel (Waking the watchers bestiary still has one of my players dreading an adventure near the water or any lonely mysterious mountain ranges) and was wanting to know what kinds of creatures we are getting with this one so I can decide if I should pick it up or not.

Kindof an odd critique, but I thought the art in this Bestiary was atrocious. Which is weird, because the art in the rest of the AP issue was top-notch. It was a jarring juxtaposition.

I thought the special abilities on the Herald of Urgathoa were really creative and would lead to a memorable combat. The rest of the stuff in this bestiary was decent, but if you're using Wake of the Watcher's bestiary as your standard, well, that's a tough standard to beat!

Shadow Lodge

Erik Freund wrote:
doc the grey wrote:
hey anyone care to give me an idea of what the bestiary for this ap looks like? I haven't been running these ones with my party but have been using their bestiary to build adventurers that have more of a dark horror feel (Waking the watchers bestiary still has one of my players dreading an adventure near the water or any lonely mysterious mountain ranges) and was wanting to know what kinds of creatures we are getting with this one so I can decide if I should pick it up or not.

Kindof an odd critique, but I thought the art in this Bestiary was atrocious. Which is weird, because the art in the rest of the AP issue was top-notch. It was a jarring juxtaposition.

I thought the special abilities on the Herald of Urgathoa were really creative and would lead to a memorable combat. The rest of the stuff in this bestiary was decent, but if you're using Wake of the Watcher's bestiary as your standard, well, that's a tough standard to beat!

Indeed, I have been waiting for a pathfinder/d&d treatment i could be amazed by for a long time and was not disappointed (and the fact that i got it the week of my birthday didn't hurt either). Will say though surprised that we didn't get an update to the nasferatu from curse of the crimson throne was really looking forward to seeing what tweaks it got if any. Will say though wax golem sounds interesting though maybe not for this group.

P.S. slightly off topic anyone here know why they gave starspawn fire as the thing to beat regen or a swim speed, the fire seems off and cthulhu can't pass through water so i would assume his spawn can't either.

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

Generic Villain wrote:
I just finished reading through Ashes, and let me say: wow. Neil did an amazing job here, and this may be my favorite entry yet in an AP that has repeatedly blown me away.

Cool. I'm glad you liked it. Hopefully, there should be some pretty memorable characters and ideas in there for a GM to hang his hat on.

All told, I have to admit...this was a pretty tricky adventure to write (as indicated in Wes' foreward). I came into it with a lot of trepidation, mainly because I immediately started operating under the assumption that people would come at this adventure from many different angles and preferences. Both in terms of their preferred style of play for their specific games and gaming groups, as well as how vampires are portrayed (or not portrayed) in the adventure itself.

Ultimately, this was my personal take on it for Paizo's world of Golarion. Thankfully, I received plenty of guidance from Wes and Rob, as well...both of whom served up plenty of inspiration and worked hard to develop the initial turnover into the final product. My hat's off to them for a job well done. And I hope this adventure pays off for those who run and play it.

Next up: Something about a Jade Regent and an Empty Throne. ;-)

My two cents,
--Neil

Contributor

Whichever artist did the portrait of Abraun Chalast on page 11 of this AP deserves some sort of medal/award. Evokes the character's personality wonderfully. Hats off.


Quote:

Perhaps... but MOST of our APs have points where paladins will be faced with some tough decisions. That's a huge part of what being a paladin is—being faced with tough choices and managing to hold the faith and your honor anyway.

There's SOME "ally with the monster" elements in this AP, but when you get right down to it, that's EXACTLY the type of rol play grist a paladin player should look forward to. Because if there's never a chance to test your faith and devotion... what's the point?

Temptation is one thing James. Absolutely forcing a paladin to compromise his ideals for the sake of allowing the party to continue on with the adventure is another. It's a poor DM that doesn't plan in advance some more difficult but still NOT IMPOSSIBLE way for a party with a paladin to overcome the bad guy without having to ally with another bad guy.


Berselius wrote:
Quote:

Perhaps... but MOST of our APs have points where paladins will be faced with some tough decisions. That's a huge part of what being a paladin is—being faced with tough choices and managing to hold the faith and your honor anyway.

There's SOME "ally with the monster" elements in this AP, but when you get right down to it, that's EXACTLY the type of rol play grist a paladin player should look forward to. Because if there's never a chance to test your faith and devotion... what's the point?

Temptation is one thing James. Absolutely forcing a paladin to compromise his ideals for the sake of allowing the party to continue on with the adventure is another. It's a poor DM that doesn't plan in advance some more difficult but still NOT IMPOSSIBLE way for a party with a paladin to overcome the bad guy without having to ally with another bad guy.

Actually, the adventure does detail how to get through without having to ally with the vampires. It makes it far more difficult, but it doesn't stop the players dead. It also discusses paladins and clerics and Pharasma and why they might make (temporary) alliances with the vampires.

This is a really well done AP. It will make for lots of great roleplay, and it doesn't stop dead if the party puts their principles above what is easy. It's good to see these hard situations added, rather than avoiding them for fear of what the Paladin might do.


Quote:
Actually, the adventure does detail how to get through without having to ally with the vampires. It makes it far more difficult, but it doesn't stop the players dead.

Good to here but how far is "FAR MORE" difficult? What I consider "impossible" for a party of four PC's is facing a challenge that is +4 or higher than their average party level.


Berselius wrote:
Quote:
Actually, the adventure does detail how to get through without having to ally with the vampires. It makes it far more difficult, but it doesn't stop the players dead.
Good to here but how far is "FAR MORE" difficult? What I consider "impossible" for a party of four PC's is facing a challenge that is +4 or higher than their average party level.

The PC's start the adventure at level 11 and the highest CR that a "KILL THEM ALL" group is going to have added to their plate is CR 14 against a single creature.

Most of the "extra" vampire encounters are between +1 (CR 12) or +2 (CR 13) above the party average (again, assuming Level 11).

Difficult, not impossible.


Quote:

The PC's start the adventure at level 11 and the highest CR that a "KILL THEM ALL" group is going to have added to their plate is CR 14 against a single creature.

Most of the "extra" vampire encounters are between +1 (CR 12) or +2 (CR 13) above the party average (again, assuming Level 11).

Difficult, not impossible.

Very good then. It's too James and the rest of Paizo's staff credit that they'd make this able to work with a Paladin in the PC's party. ^_^


Reviewed.

Contributor, RPG Superstar 2009, RPG Superstar Judgernaut

Thanks so much for the review, Dawn. Very nice.

Also, with regards to the "PCs as Vampires" addition to the issue's bestiary, that was something that originally appeared as a sidebar in my manuscript turnover. I assume Rob or Wes felt it was a little out of place...or they didn't have room for it...in the adventure writeup. Yet, they salvaged it by making room for it in the bestiary.

As for the encounter tables, that's something each AP has started doing in the bestiary section. They're each tailored to present GMs with material they can use to "round out" their adventures. That not only includes the encounter tables, but also the monsters in the actual bestiary itself.

Thanks again,
--Neil


Neil Spicer wrote:

Thanks so much for the review, Dawn. Very nice.

Also, with regards to the "PCs as Vampires" addition to the issue's bestiary, that was something that originally appeared as a sidebar in my manuscript turnover. I assume Rob or Wes felt it was a little out of place...or they didn't have room for it...in the adventure writeup. Yet, they salvaged it by making room for it in the bestiary.

As for the encounter tables, that's something each AP has started doing in the bestiary section. They're each tailored to present GMs with material they can use to "round out" their adventures. That not only includes the encounter tables, but also the monsters in the actual bestiary itself.

Thanks again,
--Neil

You're welcome, Neil. I felt the encounter table was the only thing on that page that actually belonged there at the head of the Bestiary.

Also thanks to Rob or Wes for keeping the "PCs as Vampires" article. As I was reading the adventure I kept thinking along those lines myself and came up with similar thoughts. So when I came across it I had a little laugh. I think some of my players would love getting to RP a character who becomes a vampire.

Sovereign Court

Yep. There wasn't room in the adventure for the "PCs as Vampires" sidebar, but I felt it was important, and more importantly, COOL, so I convinced Wes to let me slide it into the Bestiary section. And since vampires *are* monsters, the Bestiary's not the worse place to put it... ;)


Finally got around to reading this one this week. Leave it to Neil "The Forest King" Spicer to drop a woodlands garnish (Nature-Bonded Druid Vamp in a greenhouse awesomeness) on a gritty urban vampire tale. I see an Anne Rice fan in there too (the name Merrick, some witches too). ;)

Job well done again, Neil.

Between this and Blood for Blood, it seems you can do urban as good as your wilderness romps. When I first read the blurb about this part of CC, I was worried about this part of the adventure path being just repetitive with fighting vampire after vampire. While it's still possible with one-sided groups, the lairs themseleves were not filled with wall to wall vampires, and in most cases it seems like some of them wont be even fought with (Evgenya, Ramoska, Luvick, etc). The NPC vamps personalities are very well done and dont feel like they were carbon copies of the same vampire, which was another fear. Impressive.

Looking forward to your Jade Regent submission.


Eric Hinkle wrote:
Reptilian wrote:
Eric Hinkle wrote:

Yeah, that's what elder vampires ought to look like.

And is it just me, or do all the monsters in this AP seem to be focusing on Seoni in the cover art?

Well, it's a known fact that horror monsters go after 'sexual' female characters first :D. Oh and here's the obligatory TVtropes link.

Thanks for the link.

And I was wondering less the obvious "the monsters like sexy women" and more the fct that the less armor an adventurer wears, typically the more ways they have of blasting you to kingdom come with a snap of the fingers. You'd think that even the dimmest beasts would eventually learn to avoid the sexy half-naked sorceress after she incinerates a few dozen of them.

Using the various Pathfinder covers as rolling desktop images has kinda made me wonder Seoni's spine might now be snapped in this image, though.

Dark Archive

Why is this not sold out?

It is a great atmospheric vampire murder mystery adventure and there are less than 25 in stock!

I'm glad that i have it.

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