Pathfinder Adventure Path #56: Raiders of the Fever Sea (Skull & Shackles 2 of 6) (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Adventure Path #56: Raiders of the Fever Sea (Skull & Shackles 2 of 6) (PFRPG)
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Chapter 2: "Raiders of the Fever Sea"
by Greg A. Vaughan

Bound for adventure upon the pirate vessel they’ve taken as their own, the heroes face a sea of dangers as they chart a course to become true Free Captains of the Shackles. But life as a pirate doesn’t prove any easier now that they’re in command, as deadly sea monsters, the corpses of drowned scallywags, and raiders from the deep rise to oppose them. When a most unusual map falls into the adventurers’ hands, they have the chance to change their fate in a single daring raid. Is it the heroes’ destiny to be the next victims of the merciless waves, or will fortune smile upon them and spur their rise as the newest and most infamous pirates of the Shackles?

This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path includes:

  • “Raiders of the Fever Sea,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 4th-level characters, by Greg A. Vaughan.
  • A gazetteer of Golarion’s many oceans and seas, and an exploration of the various aquatic races that inhabit them, by Adam Daigle, with Patrick Renie, F. Wesley Schneider, and James L. Sutter.
  • A journey to Butcher’s Rock and deadly cyclopean prophecies in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Robin D. Laws.
  • Six new monsters, by Jesse Benner, Mark Moreland, Steven D. Russell, and Greg A. Vaughan.

Each monthly full-color softcover 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 world’s oldest fantasy RPG.

ISBN–13: 978-1-60125-409-2

Raiders of the Fever Sea 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 (479 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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This product is non-mint. Refunds are not available for non-mint products. The standard version of this product can be found here.

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4.30/5 (based on 8 ratings)

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Fun, open-ended pirate adventure. Solid "A".

5/5

After the somewhat brutal first book which allowed for little freedom, this was a major breath of fresh air. My players have long wanted to play with their own ship. Having the freedom to explore, visit towns at will, and set their own pacing is lovely. The NPCs in the early and middle portions of the adventure are intriguing and memorable, and the combats are mostly better scaled difficulty-wise than in the previous installment.

This book is also stuffed full of iconic pirate-themed goodies, and some creative and memorable encounters as well. Nothing in this book is mind-blowingly bizarre or original, but it gives the players lots of room to forge their own story while progressing toward some more challenging encounters.

Definitely in the better-half of the AP books I've run, and worth every penny.


A Slightly Overstuffed Sandbox

4/5

Raiders of the Fever Sea can be described as a non-traditional adventure, but in a very different way from The Wormwood Mutiny. Much like the previous volume in this path, it is an event based adventure with a mid length dungeon crawl finale. Unlike it, it is extremely open form and loosely defined. Players are given almost unlimited freedom to roam the Fever Sea and do as they see fit (though not to head into the Shackles, leaving my copy of Isles of the Shackles to languish for another adventure). Whatever direction players choose to go, the material could be trivially adapted, allowing a very free form experience while still staying within the confines of the adventure. The writing, art, and layout are all top notch, but I think that can be assumed of Adventure Paths at this point.

The only complaint I would have is that, with so much material to present, some of the scenarios leave little space for alternate approaches. Ships to plunder appear only at GM fiat, and the only system for dealing with them is fighting the captain (no offering of terms, no overwhelming the crew, no forcing a surrender). There is an event that hand waves an obvious option as simply "too difficult," despite enemies easily accomplishing the same thing later. There is little explanation of the main plot to the PCs, leaving GMs to craft their own way to make it seem like anything other than a series of coincidences. None of this breaks the adventure, and I'd rather have more material than long lists of "What if" scenarios and information dumps, but I feel the balance could have been better.

Despite this, I whole heatedly recommend the adventure for anyone interested in a pirate sandbox. Perhaps not an excellent choice for those that want a more traditional adventure, or one that presents options for anything other than straight piracy, but even then it could be an interesting read with some useful ideas.


Great but it has a couple of snags for me...

4/5

Let me say, this is a fantastic continuation of the Skulls & Shackles Adventure Path. The adventure itself is well written and should seamlessly move the players along the intended path without the players feeling railroaded. It has plenty of different encounters to separate it from the Wormwood Mutiny and yet maintains the story thread for excellent continuity.

One snag for me is that I only own the three Bestiaries and Corebook. There are references to a number of books that I don't have. This won't be a problem for folks who have these other materials.

Another snag is that Paizo puts out so many good maps, I wish the encounters took place for use with their premade flip maps and map packs.

The last and least of the snags, is that I wish all monster stat blocks were included rather thn referencing their page number in the Bestiaries.

All in all, I highly recommend this adventure. I've really enjoyed reading it and look forward to running it!


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Chris Lambertz wrote:
Aaron Scott 139 wrote:
Wait a sec, do you have the PDF for part 2?
Subscribers, as part of their subscription, get access to the PDF when their subscription shipment goes out. This occurs prior to the street date indicated in the product above.

Yup. As a subscriber I just wanted to know if they started rolling out yet. My group is almost done with the first one.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Mark Moreland wrote:
Jeff Erwin wrote:
The paper model from Worldworks (the Maiden) is best I've found that's affordable, but it looks like a small nightmare to put together, and costly to print out.
That's the one Rob uses in our office game. Whatever it cost, both in money and time, was well worth it from a player's perspective. The model does wonders in increasing the immersion in the environment and helping with tactical situations involving the masts and various decks.

Is it better to use this model for the Wormwood in the first adventure or will it see more use as the Man's Promise for the rest of the campaign?

Sovereign Court Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.

For some reason I couldn't find it before on the Paizo site, but here's the Maiden.

Purchased.

Sovereign Court Contributor

Zaister wrote:
Mark Moreland wrote:
Jeff Erwin wrote:
The paper model from Worldworks (the Maiden) is best I've found that's affordable, but it looks like a small nightmare to put together, and costly to print out.
That's the one Rob uses in our office game. Whatever it cost, both in money and time, was well worth it from a player's perspective. The model does wonders in increasing the immersion in the environment and helping with tactical situations involving the masts and various decks.
Is it better to use this model for the Wormwood in the first adventure or will it see more use as the Man's Promise for the rest of the campaign?

Well, looking over the model instructions, it actually can be customized, and walls and interior stuff can be swapped out. So it'll work for both...


Greg A. Vaughan wrote:
Ice Titan wrote:

Is the similarity of Lady Smythee and B. Jenet from King of Fighters intentional? Because I found myself laughing pretty hard when I saw her picture.

EDIT: Even their backstories are similar. This has to be intentional.

I can't speak for the art, but I wasn't familiar with B. Jenet, so any backstory similarity is coincidental.

It was pretty funny for me because I'd run across her image a lot during searches to find pirate imagery for my Skulls and Shackles tumblr. Jenet's supposed to be a noble who got bored doing noble things and went out to steal things, and Lady Smythee is a noble who married a pirate (it's vague). It's just like, I flipped the page, and she looks, well...

Just thought it was funny.

Also, this adventure does a great job writing from a neutral standpoint, and I liked the random encounters not being all random. S&S is better and better.


Can't wait to see how this one is handled now that the characters have a ship and after reading how dangerous these islands can be.

Liberty's Edge

This is a good one! It's very open and sandboxy and deadly!


Good I like "sandboxy".

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Downloading mine now.

Liberty's Edge

The really cool thing is you can have it occur as slowly or quickly as you want.

Frog God Games

Ice Titan wrote:
Greg A. Vaughan wrote:
Ice Titan wrote:

Is the similarity of Lady Smythee and B. Jenet from King of Fighters intentional? Because I found myself laughing pretty hard when I saw her picture.

EDIT: Even their backstories are similar. This has to be intentional.

I can't speak for the art, but I wasn't familiar with B. Jenet, so any backstory similarity is coincidental.

It was pretty funny for me because I'd run across her image a lot during searches to find pirate imagery for my Skulls and Shackles tumblr. Jenet's supposed to be a noble who got bored doing noble things and went out to steal things, and Lady Smythee is a noble who married a pirate (it's vague). It's just like, I flipped the page, and she looks, well...

Consider it my unintentional homage then. :-)


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

Thank You Paizo for bringing back the Seacat!!

Thank you for doing a tentative Gazetteer of the Oceans!!! (Please do more)

And as always still hope to see Racial Stats for Aquatic Elves :-)

Brine


MALENTI!!

Shadow Lodge

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Maps, Rulebook Subscriber

My copy arrived today (shipped two days ago, on my birthday no less!).

Now that's a treasure map I could spend some time with ...


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

After reading the "Oceans of Golarion" article I can't help but see a similarity in the budding rise of a Sahuagin Empire and that of the Serpent Folk Empire.

The Serpent Folk are a race prone to mutation, rose to rule large portions of Golarion,and were finally set low by the rise of Azlant.

The Sahuagin are a race prone to mutation, are slowly rising to rule over large portions of Golarion, and may one day have to contend with the rise of Suken Azlant (in the form of a consolidated Gillmen Empire aka the true heirs of Azlant.)

Also the rise of Azlant above the waves birthed a god (Aroden), and whose to say that in 10,000 years with the rise of Suken Azlant we wouldn't see a rebirth of that very same god.

On that same line of thought, whose to say that Suken Azlant wont suffer a similar fate as Azlant, but instead of sent crashing to the ocean floor, Suken Azlant is thrust once more above the waves.

Then again all of this wouldn't take place for about 10 to 20 thousand years so, it's just something fun to think about.


I got this one and it is great. My only complaint is the picture of the Matron on page 44. Why does a female sahaugin have breasts? It's completely clear that Sahaugin reproduce like fish and they don't breast feed. There just isn't a good reason for it. Drives me crazy.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Two questions-

1) Who/what is the blue lady in the middle of the sahuagin entry on p.85? She don't look like a sahuagin to me!

2) How is it that Giant Sea Urchins and Ravenous Urchin Swarms and both non-intelligent yet neutral evil?


The Blue lady is a type of sahuagin called a Milenti, they look like sea elves but are just as evil as there more fish like kin.

Sovereign Court

1) The blue lady is a Malenti, one of the sahuagin mutants.

2) The urchin swarm should be neutral, but the black spot urchin is a magical beast, and should remain neutral evil.


I had a question on the Malenti entry. Are the stat modifiers cumulative with the base Sahuagin ones?

The stat block seems to indicate so, but I wanted to be sure.

Paizo Employee Director of Narrative

You are correct. Both the four-armed sahuagin and the malenti use the stats of sahuagin from the Bestiary with the modifications noted in the entry. The statblocks make it simple by putting all the relevant pieces together.


I began dm'ing the first module last month and I ordered the second module today. The Pc's need to refit the Man's Promise. Where do they get the $$ from? Reason I asked is b/c I developed a "side quest" for them to find treasure that will provide enough pieces of 10 to actually custome made their own ship (same dimensions as the Man's Promise). This quest involves talking to dragons for help, going to churche's and libraries and do research in terms of Astronomy, liberating a cursed pirate crew, and finding the gold. In doing so, their ship gets destroyed and they have to build form scratch whcih will give mor flavor and a bette sense ofplace in terms of: THIS is our ship.

Couls someone share were the PC's get the $$$???

THX

Sovereign Court

Cojonuda wrote:

I began dm'ing the first module last month and I ordered the second module today. The Pc's need to refit the Man's Promise. Where do they get the $$ from? Reason I asked is b/c I developed a "side quest" for them to find treasure that will provide enough pieces of 10 to actually custome made their own ship (same dimensions as the Man's Promise). This quest involves talking to dragons for help, going to churche's and libraries and do research in terms of Astronomy, liberating a cursed pirate crew, and finding the gold. In doing so, their ship gets destroyed and they have to build form scratch whcih will give mor flavor and a bette sense ofplace in terms of: THIS is our ship.

Couls someone share were the PC's get the $$$???

THX

The PCs can use treasure they got on Bonewrack Isle in the first adventure. If they don't want to use that or don't have enough, page 9 of this volume details alternate payment methods Rickety Hake will accept to refit the PCs' ship.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Rob McCreary wrote:

1) The blue lady is a Malenti, one of the sahuagin mutants.

2) The urchin swarm should be neutral, but the black spot urchin is a magical beast, and should remain neutral evil.

Thanks. I've had more time to read the entries now. Wow, Malenti, that's one hell of a mutation.


Still waiting for this to arrive at my LGS. Hopefully it will be there tomorrow...

Liberty's Edge

Good job on the second part. Just one thing I think is missing from the PDF/Maps PDF:

A copy of the actual treasure map!!

Any chance we'll be seeing this in a supplement?


Love the AP so far. One thing that keeps bothering me is the map on page 33 of Tidewater Rock. The staircase does not seem to match from floor to floor. Anyone else troubled by this?

Otherwise, great continuation and I too enjoyed the cover art!

Sovereign Court

danmasucci wrote:

Love the AP so far. One thing that keeps bothering me is the map on page 33 of Tidewater Rock. The staircase does not seem to match from floor to floor. Anyone else troubled by this?

Otherwise, great continuation and I too enjoyed the cover art!

Stairs are notoriously hard to depict on maps, but I'm not sure where they don't match up. The staircase at B6 connects to B7 (it turns to the right at the end of B6 to join B7, but that turn is not actually shown on the map, which may be the source of confusion. The B7 stairs continue spiraling clockwise to join the northernmost stairs in B11. The second stairway in B11 (leading north, just south of the first stairs) leads up to the roof (B13).

Does that help?


The Tiberolith looks to have a few errors in its stat block.

1) It lists has a Huge construct so it should have a hp bonus of 40 not 30 (thus having a total hp of 111)
2) The AC breakout is not listed. However assuming a natural AC bonus of +16 and a size AC bonus of -2 the AC looks like it would be 24, touch 8, flat-footed 24, not touch 10.
3) Also I think the Will save should be +4 not +3


I just got the book, and it looks great, but I'm confused. Wasn't there supposed to be an article on Torag in this?

Though admittedly, I had a hard time seeing how he'd fit into an AP about piracy.

Paizo Employee Director of Narrative

The Torag article hit a snag and ended up getting bumped to another volume of the Adventure Path. It will appear in Pathfinder #62.


Thanks for the explanation, Mister Daigle.


I love this episode, really like the Seacat, Urchins and the PLant creature, not really into yet another beautiful-woman monster tho so the Malenti (ala Undine, Nereid, Triton, Rusalka) isn't something I would use/like.

Otherwise its very good! So glad with the Seacat!


Sincubus wrote:

I love this episode, really like the Seacat, Urchins and the PLant creature, not really into yet another beautiful-woman monster tho so the Malenti (ala Undine, Nereid, Triton, Rusalka) isn't something I would use/like.

Otherwise its very good! So glad with the Seacat!

The Malenti are not "woman-monsters".. Paizo just chose to illustrate a female in this case. They can be either gender. Their menace is that they look just like Aquatic Elves. If you encounter a group of Elves swimming about, there's a chance one (or more!) of them is actually a Sahuagin Malenti spy.

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