The adventurers now have their own island and port, but they’ll need more than one ship to defend it. When a past rival sends a fleet to attack them, they’re forced to pull out all the stops to defend their island home, scouring the harbors and docks of the Shackles in order to
recruit more ships and crews to their flag. Yet when they sail to the attacker’s own island to get their revenge, the adventurers discover a traitor—one whose betrayal threatens not only their own fleet, but the very islands of the Shackles themselves.
This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path includes:
“The Price of Infamy,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 11th-level characters,
by Tim Hitchcock.
Fleet battle rules that allow players to stand as admirals and commodores directing their own armadas against enemy fleets in large-scale naval warfare, by James Jacobs.
A glimpse behind the gray veil of Norgorber, Golarion’s most secretive deity, by Sean K Reynolds.
Lock-breakers and sea-devils in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Robin D. Laws.
Four new monsters, by Savannah Broadway, Ryan Costello, Mark Moreland, and Sean K Reynolds.
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: 978-1-60125-421-4
The Price of Infamy 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:
Product- Pathfinder Adventure Path-Skull and Shackles- The Price of Infamy
System-Pathfinder
Producer-Paizo
Price- $20
TL;DR-Not pirates, but fun! 88%
Basics-The plot thickens! In the previous adventures, the players have gone from scrappy slaves to pirate lords of the Shackles. At the start after a council meeting, the players receive a secret note telling them that they will soon be attacked by on old rival who has amassed a fleet to destroy them. Can the players get enough help and ships to save themselves? Will they put an end to an old rivalry that's been plaguing them since the beginning? This book also contains fleet battle rules, more monsters and NPCs, another piece of the fiction for this adventure path, and background on Norgorber.
Fluff or Story-This one has a fun story. It goes back to the sandbox approach that has dominated all the really fun parts of the AP. The players don't get to be excessively pirate-y, but they do get to be adventurers as this part is several small requests for help tied together. This adventure is fun if a little scattered, but your players will mostly feel catharsis as they get some revenge. Also, the fiction story and Norgorber give great background on the world. 4.5/5
Crunch or Mechanics-There is good and bad here. But, the good is great, and the bad can't be helped. The bad is Pathfinder has the 3.X problem of players becoming a little too godlike at around ~11 compared to the monsters they are facing. Having only one monster in a fight will result in the players somehow locking that monster down too quickly for it to damage them. To have more than one monster in a fight, the CR of each monster has to be two less, and the problem intensifies as you add more monsters. Thus, the players are not threatened by piles of CR 3 monsters, since the players can't be hit on anything less than a natural 20. So, if you want to challenge your players, you as a GM will need to change things on the fly quite often! However, what is awesome in this book is the fleet rules! The fleet rules give a great way for Pathfinder players to have a massive ship battle without having to have massive amounts of ships. Again, any smart pathfinder group will break them quite easy as the main skill that the fleet rules use is profession(sailor) (which most players will have maxed out by now!). So battles tend to be a bit one-sided, but they are still somewhat tense. Overall, I liked what I saw in this one except for the problems that can't really be helped or fixed. 4/5
Execution-This is well done. Paizo again delivers an excellent product that was fun to read. I would have liked a few more ways to break up text as there are a few pages that are two columns of text next to one another, but nothing is perfect. But, it's not bad, generally laid out well, and an easy read. 4.75/5
Summary- This was a fun one. Still not my favorite as the second part of this adventure path is my favorite since that one is the most pirate-y by far, but this is a good one. It features MASSIVE navel battles, raids into long forgotten tombs, see-through wizards, and an event your players have been looking forward to since the very first day the Skull and Shackles Campaign started! It's a blast from start to finish. 88%
This module has a lot of good things going for it. For one, its plotline feels very well integrated in the overall AP plot. This is a really positive change compared to others but it may also be due to the fact that this is one of the final modules and near the conclusion so things are unwrapping fast.
For a high-level module, it provides the PCs with a pretty decent amount of variation, choices and role-playing opportunities. The opening act with the Pirate Council is a great idea to set up the stage, meet fellow pirates and establish ties - positive and negative - with some of them.
The black tower has a very indiana-jonesque vibe to it that I find refreshing plus the surprise at the end is brilliant. The fleet combat is also interesting, as is the infiltration mission at the end, which can be tackled differently, allowing the group to create their own strategy. Overall, this is a brilliant adventure.
The (slight) negatives I see are the cheesy excuses behind each of the missions and the menu-like way of delivering it. "Go look for something over there, it might be cool but maybe not" is not the greatest reason to go to the island. "Go find a McGuffin, it might be good to have when you meet the villain" suffers from the same problem. Perhaps the author should have integrated those two missions better with the main plot.
My rating: 5 stars. This is a fun one to read and play.
The Scallywags now have the chance to settle the score with Captain Harrigan. Of course, Harrigan intends to settle the Scallywags into a watery grave as well. This adventure has to be one of the most deeply satisfying I have ever played. It is well constructed, but more importantly, tells a great tale. Check out my full review: The Price of Infamy
UPDATE: This is the LONGEST adventure path module by far. We have been on this module twice as long as any other AP in the series. Very fun, but it maybe could have been broken into two.
I have to say, this adventure path is probably the most fun of all of the Skull and Shackles Adventure paths to date.
The PC's have a solid mission and have a great motivation to seek out and complete each of this module's challenges. The AP starts with the Pirates gaining status and being able to take part diplomatically in pirate matters in the Shackles. The mechanics for this arrangement work well, and the case being made for each is interesting to Role Play. A page with all of the NPC portraits on one page would have added visual props.
The onus on the PC's to build a fleet is exciting, although the amount of money the Pirates need as opposed to what they have found across the last four modules is insufficient. I luckily read ahead and planted some extra plunder among the various wreckage's on the Island of Empty Eyes. The pirates COULD just spend a couple of weeks grinding away on pirate ship encounters from module one and two, but that tends to be anti-climatic and the group would rather do new stuff.
The quests and places for adventure are well thought out, difficult and exciting. The various challenges and the rewards for completing each give a sense of accomplishment. There is also some final closure to the PC's longstanding rivalry with a competing free captain of the Shackles.
The overarching storyline about warring nations is almost not needed in the AP as it adds little in the way of motivation for pirates, they could have had the rivalry be somewhat more local instead of geopolitical.
That aside, the adventure path is outstanding and the players are having a blast with it. They are excited to finish up in module 6.
I am still waiting for giant starfish, giant sea cucumbers, giant sea slugs, giant clams/ousters/scallops, giant seahorses, and giant cuttlefish/nautilus.
Aw, so nice to see my baby out in the world...eating people. Well, I don't think he'd be terribly effective at it, but goodness knows he tries ^_^
Which one is that?
I did the bakekujira--he's my first stab at monster creation for Paizo. Sadly, I think if he did try and swallow someone, it would be rather straightforward to swim in between his ribs ;>> Poor dear...
Thank you. And perhaps he could... I don't know... flex the ribs so you couldn't get out?
The Galvo sounds like something from D&D second edition elemental book, where some strange creature made up of eels with the head of a big eel was in... I forgot its name!
Also what does the art for bakekujira (I prefer ghost whale) looks like?
I have a question, in 1st edition if you put one holding item inside another you get a big boom.
But the heroes find the Cheliax papers inside a bag of holding that is inside a glove of storing...
My cranky 1st edition gamers have called foul...and I did a rewrite that had the papers inside a locked chest.
Anyway...have they changed the rules for 3.5 for storing hoolding devices inside each other?
I would think that a bag of holding was like folding up a burlap sack, and that just wouldn't be capable of being shoved inside a non magical cuffed glove...
I have a question, in 1st edition if you put one holding item inside another you get a big boom.
But the heroes find the Cheliax papers inside a bag of holding that is inside a glove of storing...
My cranky 1st edition gamers have called foul...and I did a rewrite that had the papers inside a locked chest.
Anyway...have they changed the rules for 3.5 for storing hoolding devices inside each other?
I would think that a bag of holding was like folding up a burlap sack, and that just wouldn't be capable of being shoved inside a non magical cuffed glove...
The relevant rule you're looking for is here, I believe. In the future, you may want to head over to the Rules Question forum, instead of the product discussion thread. :D
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Why on earth wouldn't the PCs have a fleet already by the time they get to this module? I'm running my players through S&S and now that we've just started Island of Empty Eyes, they are already sailing around with 4 sailing ships, a junk, and two warships.
One of them is already calling themselves "commodore."
Why is it assumed that pirates, who have successfully attacked and captured numerous ships well before this module, would only have one ship???
I can't help but think that when our group gets to this module, the whole premise is simply going to fall flat on its face--just like when they were sent to find water in Raiders of the Fever sea, EVEN THOUGH the module had long since established that there was an NPC CLERIC CAPABLE OF CASTING CREATE WATER ON BOARD!
Please, please, please help me to keep that from happening again.
