The ancient Runelord Karzoug, Lord of Xin-Shalast, rises! From his city fortress of Xin-Shalast, high in the mountains, he is directing his minions to harvest souls so that he might reclaim his lost power.
If they are to prevent Karzoug's rise to dominance, Ezren, Merisiel, Harsk, and Valeros must search for the haunted vaults of the Runeforge . Only there will they be able to empower their weapons so that they may strike true against Karzoug. Yet in order to master the magic of the ancient forge, the heroes must embrace the dark forces of Thassilon as their own.
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!
Now that I've listened to several of these Pathfinder Legends audio stories, I have a much better idea what to expect and I find myself really enjoying them. I know that I won't find a faithful reproduction of everything that's in the corresponding part of the written adventure path, a lengthy description of setting, a clear narration of action scenes, or a feeling that the high price was necessarily justified. On the other hand, I know that I will find great voice acting, several laugh-out-loud moments, an impressive amount of well-written backstory exposition, and quality sound effects and design. Pathfinder Legends--Rise of the Runelords # 5: Sins of the Saviors fits these expectations. If you go into it expecting a professionally-made, 1 hour audio play instead of a 15 hour audio book, you'll likely be happy.
SPOILERS!:
The audio version of Sins of the Saviors starts with the discovery of a sinkhole in Sandpoint. The four Iconics who have been with us since the beginning (Merisiel, Harsk, Valeros, and Ezren) are asked by Mayor Deverin and Sheriff Hemlock to investigate. Ezren often serves as the narrator in the tale that follows, bridging the gap for listeners when there's a large amount of travel to be summarised or exposition to share. The search of the catacombs under Sandpoint receives a lot of attention, and the audio version does a great job with the Scribbler's voice and personality. This part of the story also includes a good explanation of the Runelords' link to Runeforge, and why it is important for the Iconics to go there. I was impressed.
The next part of the tale has the Iconics (accompanied by Ameiko, in a nice surprise) travel to Rimeskull. There's an exciting scene of Ezren trying to figure out how to get the keys to open the portal to Rimeskull while the white dragon Arkrhyst is attacking; the way they defeat the dragon is a fun twist and perfectly justified by the text of the AP.
I knew the audio version would have to cut content from the AP somewhere, and it does. There is absolutely no exploration of any of the various wings of Runeforge, any search for the components needed to make dominant weapons, or any interaction with the various inhabitants of the wings. Instead, the weapons are made simply by dipping them into the central pool, after which the massive statue of Karzoug attacks. There's a fairly exciting action scene as the heroes try to escape before the portal closes. I can't really begrudge the lack of exploration of the wings of Runeforge, though there is some great material there that would have been fun to see adapted in story form.
Overall, like I said in the introduction, I found myself enjoying part 5 and satisfied when it was over. I'm looking forward to seeing the big finale!
This was to be the defining story in the series, where much of the mystery was revealed and the payoff for character and story development emerged. In many respects, the writing did exactly that. Karzoug becomes a more tangible villian, Valeros and Amekio shine brightly, and Ezren and Merisiel feel more human than ever.
Unfortunately, the story has a serious flaw, after which you can't actually believe that anyone is actually going to die in the next installment. A perfect moment for a heroic sacrifice presents itself, one which would have been satisfying and heartbreaking in equal measure and the author cannot bring themselves to do it. Ultimately, I feel that the failure to let that character stay dead made this the weakest of the stories up to this point.
This hour of the production was very well produced, suspenseful, fun, and used some of the most intriguing ways that the story can move forward (based on the original adventure). Five stars all the way by those measures.
I just had to take one star off for the vastly untouched swath of the last section of the AP. There was no time for it, but I missed it still.
I think that, from what I can tell, in the days before the download is available, there is a bit of code basically counting down to the release date. But that on the actual release date, someone has to still actually set the product to be available for download. So, even though it should be available today, no one has activated it yet. Paizo doesn't technically open for another 30 minutes I think. I'm hopeful someone will notice it quickly so it can be downloaded.
Is the download going to have the same sale price as the previous parts?
The price is different when you add it to your cart then what is listed. It displayed the download price for me as $12.99 and with the discount it was $12.79.
Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
balakus01 wrote:
Gorta wrote:
Is the download going to have the same sale price as the previous parts?
The price is different when you add it to your cart then what is listed. It displayed the download price for me as $12.99 and with the discount it was $12.79.
Yes I know, but when the previous four were released the downloads were on sale for 10.39. It would be nice to know if that is supposed to be the sale price of the download or if they have for some reason stopped having the sale price for downloads. However, it seems fairly obvious that no one at Paizo is paying attention to this thread since there have been no responses and the display price for the download hasn't been corrected.
The price has been corrected for the download. Something was flagged incorrectly and it took some time tracking down precisely what it was. I apologize for the delay, folks—if you purchased it before the correct price was entered, the difference has been added to your account in store credit.
I downloaded this and it wont play in anything except for windows media player and even then I have to select each track separately in the music folder.. the first three worked fine for me in all players
