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Pathfinder Module: The Harrowing (PFRPG)

4.80/5 (based on 25 ratings)
Pathfinder Module: The Harrowing (PFRPG)
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An adventure for 9th-level characters

Varisian fortune-tellers from across Golarion use the mystic harrow deck to read fate and predict the future, but few have ever mastered the mysterious harrow to such a degree as Sonnorae, a long-dead bard from the Age of Darkness. Fearing her collection of stories would be lost when she died, she created a demiplane within her own harrow deck to contain them. Over time, these stories took on lives of their own, and melded with the images on the cards themselves. But not all stories have happy endings, and the storykin who inhabit the Harrowed Realm have their own motivations and plots for power or even escape into the real world. When the PCs find themselves drawn into the Harrowed Realm in search of a disappeared scholar, they must use all their wits and steel to navigate the landscape and politics of this strange wonderland and make it home again.

The Harrowing is an adventure for 9th-level characters, written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and compatible with the 3.5 edition of the world’s oldest RPG. It features an entire plane of fanciful locations and characters inspired by the popular harrow deck of the Pathfinder campaign setting. In addition, you’ll find a brand-new monster and an optional rules subsystem allowing players to bend reality to their wills by using all 54 cards in the optional Pathfinder Campaign Setting Harrow Deck to manipulate the strange demiplane in which they adventure.

Written by Crystal Frasier

Pathfinder Modules are 32-page, high-quality, full-color, adventures using the Open Game License to work with both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the standard 3.5 fantasy RPG rules set.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-355-2

The Harrowing is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. Its Chronicle Sheet and additional rules for running this module are a free download (225 KB zip/PDF).

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

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

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

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This product is non-mint. Refunds are not available for non-mint products. The standard version of this product can be found here.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

PZO9532

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4.80/5 (based on 25 ratings)

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Hands down the most fun mod I've played

5/5 —

Though I've not read through the module yet or run it as a GM, this game was the single most fun I've had playing a Paizo Module.
The world is colourful and well thought-out. The motivations of NPC's are clear and not everything is black and white. The social situations are heaps of fun and the combats are challenging.
Whether you play this module as a one shot, part of a campaign or part of PFS (like I did) I recommend that you play it.

4/5 —

Not bad

3/5 —

My Carrion Crown group played through The Harrowing as a prequel of sorts. We played different characters that would be somehow related to the CC characters and saw the game as a chance to meet Lorrimar and get to know each other as a gaming group.

The game was only supposed to last for two to three sessions but it took us about two months of playing once every other week. The game wasn't bad at all and we had some great moments (and that last fight felt like an accomplishment) but it's still not as good as Carrion Crown.

My favorites:
1) The set-up of this game as a Harrow deck come to life is unique and colorful. The players are forced into many wildly different situations within a single module.

2) The module seems like it would be a great into to several different APs, especially Carrion Crown.

3) Some of the encounters had high stakes.

Least favorites:
1) The game kind of dragged on. We had fun playing together as a group but we were sick of the Harrowing before we finished.

2) Though unique this was not one of the more memorable games I've played, at least not as written. My group did create our own memories independently of the text, however. I will always remember a confused/a~$$*$@ Orc adept skinning the pre-reincarnated corpse of my druid in dire tiger form and making it into a cloak.

Overall this was a fun module but since many of the encounters and creatures aren't distinct in my memory I can't rate it much higher than 3 stars.

Best of all worlds -story-roleplay-mystery-combat-adversaries

5/5 —

This one has it all! I have played and run several "Tarot" themed adventures over the years but this is certainly the one that carries this through most successfully. They tend to be a bit random but this one has wrapped the surreal card images together into a single coherent plot that builds to a climax. Crystal has done a brilliant job of using the powerful images on the card to evoke a weird world of folktales gone mad.
The people and things you meet will engage you, fascinate you, and sometimes do their best to kill you, or worse. But this is definitely not a combat/combat/combat adventures. You need your smartz.

Weird, Wild Fun

4/5 —

This was a delightfully unconventional adventure, written with a flair for the dramatic and a (mostly) light tone. My players were a bit bemused at first, but soon they came to embrace the setting's rules and Wonderlandian logic, and ended up having a grand time.

I chose to use the Harrow Deck in a different way than the module describes, so I can't speak to its use in the adventure. I changed it because I felt the PCs needed more help navigating through the Harrowing (that is, getting from place to place) than they did resolving the encounters themselves. However, my changes didn't work out that well, so I won't describe them here; instead, I'll recommend that GMs use the NPCs to lead or direct the PCs through the plane's geography -- not necessarily in a linear way, but more in ways that reflect the Storykin's ongoing stories. If the PCs get a sense that there are many stories going on all around them, they will start to eavesdrop and follow characters to the places they need to be.

Speaking of stories: although I love the fact that these NPCs all behave according to certain narrative scripts, I would have liked more written information about the stories themselves. My players quickly realized they could resolve most encounters without resorting to combat, usually because the NPCs were "pre-programmed" with specific needs. So they got the party's bard to start making Knowledge checks about Sonnorae's legendary tales...which led to a LOT of awkwardly improvised details from a frantic GM!

Of course, other parties may choose to hack and slash their way through the Storykin (and I LOVE the fact that both options are consistently detailed). But they would be losing out on a rare opportunity to explore a self-contained, fully-realized fantasy world -- the sort that players will remember and reminisce about long after their characters have been put out to pasture.

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Grand Lodge

I was working this up for a VTT and I pulled the maps and noticed all the secret doors are still marked on The Manmolds map. Is there any chance this could be remedied or is it something already flattened to the image?

Thanks,
Andrew
Digital Products Assistant
Andrew Betts wrote:

I was working this up for a VTT and I pulled the maps and noticed all the secret doors are still marked on The Manmolds map. Is there any chance this could be remedied or is it something already flattened to the image?

Thanks,
Andrew

After reviewing the PDF, those tags are flattened in the image. It looks like this product was created before we started enforcing that those tags be their own text element. It is our standard to make sure those tags do not get flattened now, however. I'll take a look and see if we can get that remedied. An email will be sent automatically when the file is updated.

Grand Lodge
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook Subscriber

Just started running this, been sitting on it for a while because I wanted to stream it into my Carrion Crown Campaign in the middle of Broken Moon. Finally sunk my teeth into it last night, and am having a blast, I hope my players are as well. One thing I would love to see is some paper minis or (I know this won't happen but I will ask) pawns for this module. Many of the story kin would make awesome pawns, especially

Spoiler:
the bears on unicycles.

The module or the concepts of the module play so well in an Golorion based Alice in Wonderland kind of adventure, paper minis/pawns may have more broad reuse for GMs.

Anyways, hopeful idea, but mostly just here to say great module!
Sovereign Court
Galnörag wrote:

One thing I would love to see is some paper minis or (I know this won't happen but I will ask) pawns for this module. Many of the story kin would make awesome pawns, especially...

If enough people people make requests for that, you never know what might happen...

Sczarni RPG Superstar 2014 Top 16
Callous Jack wrote:
Galnörag wrote:

One thing I would love to see is some paper minis or (I know this won't happen but I will ask) pawns for this module. Many of the story kin would make awesome pawns, especially...

If enough people people make requests for that, you never know what might happen...

I think I already have requested it, but I would still definitely buy these if they were offered!

I can't seem to make a review of this, so I'll put it here:
Thank you for making this module.

It has to be the most fun I've had at the table, ever. The deck element harkens back to the days of good old graphic adventures on the computer, figuring out what goes where and frequently allowing us to bypass fights entirely (Though I'm sure groups that are fans of many battles will be more strict on just buffing and not bypassing!)

I have trouble imagining how an adventure could be more awesome than this.

Very well done, Crystal. This is the sort of module that I'd imagine would turn my GMs from homebrew only to running a select few modules.

I was thinking about picking this up for more group, but the Harrow Cards can't be purchased anymore? Any solutions to this?
Liberty's Edge
Pexx wrote:
I was thinking about picking this up for more group, but the Harrow Cards can't be purchased anymore? Any solutions to this?

This is my exact question, although I may be able to stretch my campaign out to delay the Harrowing for a while. Depending on how fast they move through the earlier modules I've strung together. Or maybe I'll just skip this one.

It be awesome if I could find a pdf version of the deck since I am running this completely online.
Forthepie wrote:
Pexx wrote:
I was thinking about picking this up for more group, but the Harrow Cards can't be purchased anymore? Any solutions to this?

This is my exact question, although I may be able to stretch my campaign out to delay the Harrowing for a while. Depending on how fast they move through the earlier modules I've strung together. Or maybe I'll just skip this one.

It be awesome if I could find a pdf version of the deck since I am running this completely online.

Well that timing worked out well.

Liberty's Edge

Yes, that's what I was referring to about delaying it a bit. I am hoping the have a pdf of it, as well. My group has experienced a deck of many things and a deck of GM is crazy, one of our guys ended up being a one-eyed, werefrog. Of course there were some bonueses, but no one remembers them.

I lost a 10th level paladin to a deck of many things back in the day...lost to the void somewhere.
Silver Crusade

Hi Everyone,

I'll brush on some in-game information in my question so please see the SPOILER below.

Question:
I get the opportunity to run this on Friday and I am looking for some input from those that have either played or developed this module. I've established how the party will obtain the harrow deck, but I'm not sure how they should discover that the deck has powers in the demiplane.

Should they be told that they can play cards at certain events or should they just figure it out like going "Hey, this card looks like a blue dragon and that is a blue dragon...I wonder what happens if I lay it on the table."?

What I'm currently thinking of doing is when they land on the demi-plane in game I'll throw the harrow deck on the table in a haphazard fashion so they have to pick it up, much as they would on the demiplane, and see the pictures and inscriptions on it, hopefully piecing together the events unfolding and the faces of the cards. Using this method may take them a while to get it but I think would be more rewarding.

Again, looking for any input. Thanks!

At $13.99, this is more than worth the money. At $3.50 it's a steal! Buy this now.

Note to Paizo: I want more modules like this one. Can you get Crystal to write more?

I'll go on the record as requesting paper minis for this module as well. If you make them I WILL buy them because I will be running this module as part of my Carrion Crown Campaign.

Also, I think that this was the most fun module I have read! It will be a challenge to run, because it seems as though a lot was left up to the DM due to word count, but that just gives me room to flex my evil creative muscles!!

I fully support minis (I personally would even buy a set of plastic minis from it)for this module and even more so support Crystal writing more! I have been gaming since '83 and count this module as my all time favorite.
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Waw, Crystal! This adventure turns out to be every bit as good as I imagined it.

Our Curse of the Crimson Throne party just launched into the Harrowed Realm for an extra long session. We tackled a few locations, like the Midnight Circus and the Prophet's Garden, and are currently stuck in the Demon's Fen. The party also encountered the gnome from the Hidden Truth (I placed him in the forest as a first encounter, to give more insight on this demiplane), the Rabbit Prince and the Owl.

You can find pictures of our miniature set-up on my deviantart page and a full journal report on these boards.

Thanks for writing such an inspiring tale.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I'm curious if this would fit well thematically immediately following The House on Hook Street. We're about to enter the dream house in the latter, and we may be finished in two or three sessions. Thoughts?
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Chris Lambertz wrote:
Andrew Betts wrote:

I was working this up for a VTT and I pulled the maps and noticed all the secret doors are still marked on The Manmolds map. Is there any chance this could be remedied or is it something already flattened to the image?

Thanks,
Andrew

After reviewing the PDF, those tags are flattened in the image. It looks like this product was created before we started enforcing that those tags be their own text element. It is our standard to make sure those tags do not get flattened now, however. I'll take a look and see if we can get that remedied. An email will be sent automatically when the file is updated.

This issue still exists eight years after it was brought to your attention

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

If anyone is interested in running this as a prequel or lead-in to the new Stolen Fate AP, DM me. I have created a full 2E conversion in Foundry VTT with maps, creatures, and loot all set up. Happy to share it.
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