Armed with magical weapons, Ezren, Merisiel, Harsk, and Valeros travel across the icy wastes of the World's Roof to find the lost City of Greed.
With ghosts, wendigos, and giants standing in their way are they already too late? The Rise of the Runelords has begun and a terrible sacrifice must be made.
Pathfinder Legends audio dramas adapt the world and characters of the best-selling Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Each episode runs about an hour and features a cast of professional actors, sound effects, and music that immerse you into the dangerous and exciting world of Pathfinder!
This is the sixth and final instalment of the Rise of the Runelords audio plays. You’ve no doubt memorized my reviews of each of the previous five instalments, but I’ll give a capsule overview anyway. Each of these is a relatively short (45 minutes to an hour) adaptation of one chapter of the adventure path. The voice acting, sound effects, and music are top notch. The audio plays dramatize the key moments of the adventures, but this isn’t anything like a novelisation or an audio book in the traditional sense, so you shouldn’t expect to find a room-by-room account of each dungeon or that every fixed or random encounter will be depicted. Because there’s no third-person narration, what’s happening in the combat scenes can be rather vague and confusing. And, they’re pretty pricey considering their length. This adaptation of Spires of Xin-Shalast has all the strengths and weaknesses of the other chapters. It’s a satisfying conclusion to the series, and if you enjoyed the previous entries you’ll enjoy this one as well. I wouldn’t complain, however, if someday this epic story received a true novelisation like it deserves.
::SPOILERS!::
The audio version of Spires of Xin-Shalast starts in media res, with the adventurers in the frozen Kodar Mountains fighting yetis and looking for the Vekker Brothers’ cabin. Valeros, Merisiel, Harsk, and Ezren are the protagonists for this chapter, with Harsk getting a starring role and Ezren providing excellent narration to tie scenes together and provide background exposition. I thought the haunting of the cabin was extremely well done—quite effective (and ghastly!) in portraying the cannibalistic horrors that befell the Vekkers. In fact, I like how it’s handled here better than the more scattered and inferential presentation in the actual written version. On the other hand, the attack of the wendigo falls flat and doesn’t amount to more than “just another monster.”
I was really curious to see how the audio version would portray the legendary Xin-Shalast, City of Greed. Unfortunately, I don’t think it does the setting justice. I knew it would be hard to try to describe the exotic cyclopean wonders of such a lost city of gold, but most of the city itself is skipped past in favour of battles against some generic giants. If you’re keeping track, you won’t see anything about the Hidden Beast, Ghlorofaex, Shahlaria, or any other elements in this adaptation. Even in the depicted battle against Leng Spiders on the slopes of Mhar Massif, the creatures don’t receive the creepily uncanny description they deserve.
Karzoug is depicted as the nearly the lone inhabitant of the Spires of Avarice (there’s no Khalib, Ceoptra, Viorian, etc.), but the battle against him is exciting and suitably epic. The voice acting for Karzoug is strong, and there are enough elements of the final fight (like his using wail of the banshee and the vulnerability of the soul lens) to make it recognisable. And after the battle, there’s a nice little epilogue in Sandpoint. And a coda that reminders the listener that Karzoug was just one of the seven Runelords—and the others are stirring!
This finale was one of the prime examples of why extended universe literature merits so little respect: decisions have no consequences. Every big decision, every pitfall, every parting ends up being meaningless. Even points that were built up end abruptly, as if the writer suddenly remembered there were loose ends to tie up. And the final battle is so utterly disappointing, I was convinced it was a false ending until the credits rolled.
I will admit there were points that worked very well. The beginning was suitably terrifying, and the development of Harsk's character was interesting. Prior to the anticlimaxes, the deep and heavy moments really tug at your heart-strings. It makes me wonder if the whole thing was rushing too hard to tell all that needed to be told.
A delightful finish! Lots of elements from throughout the series all came back around in this one. Plenty of 'new' to the interactions and story as well. Also it was particularly nice for me as we skipped the first section (of the module and CD) in my actual game, and this filled in the gap nicely.
Just finished listening to this - a delightful finish! Also particularly nice as the first section was skipped in my actual game, and this filled in the gap very very nicely.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber
So....any word on the next Series and what it may be? I really enjoyed listening to these, but my group is still playing the game and can't actually listen with me.
Big Finish is in preproduction on another story, but they have not yet announced details.
Does this mean the chosen story is already set? I was hoping that paizo would kinda like get inputs from their fans just like playtests in rulebooks. In any case, if only APs would be the basis of the next legends series, I would really, really love the carrion crown to be in the pipeline. My take's that horror/creepy stories have always been the perfect genre for audio dramas; that's the reason that my personal favorite in the audio ROTRL was the second one.
According to rumour on the big finish site, the second series is going to be double disc releases too. Presumably the price will go up, but the cost per minute down.
