Marauding Stone Giants are swarming down from the mountains, raiding every town they find. Can Valeros, Harsk, Merisiel, and Ezren return in time to protect their new-found home?
Rumors that the attacks are the first of many spread like wildfire. Are the giants truly rallying for war under the command of the warlord Mokmurian? What horrors lie beneath his unholy fortress?
With Valeros in the clutches of a vengeful dragon, and harpies ready to feed on their bones, the adventurers must risk all to travel to the stone giant fortress of Jorgenfist. Karzoug is rising and no one is safe.
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!
In pretty much every respect, the fourth volume of this series shares the pros and cons of earlier volumes. On the negative side of the balance sheet, it's expensive, has a short run time, and has action scenes that are difficult to follow in the mind's eye because there's not enough narration. On the plus side, the voice acting and sound effects are really good, it's clear that the writer has paid close attention to the background and details of the story, and it's a fun, fresh way to see how the four Iconics (Harsk, Valeros, Merisiel, and Ezren) fared. Even when you've GM'd the chapter and are intimately familiar with the plot, the audio adaptation manages to surprise in what it has left out, what it has changed, and what it has added. More on that below.
SPOILERS!:
The story picks up with the heroes arriving at Sandpoint just as the stone giants are making their assault. The giants are given oafish, almost Cockney voices, which I'm not sure I like, but there are some really funny lines of dialogue by Harsk and Valeros. Valeros gets kidnapped by Longtooth and taken all the way to Jorgenfist, forcing the others to follow (once Ameiko, in a nice touch, charms a giant prison to learn about the base). In Jorgenfist, a subplot develops of a rivalry between Mokmurian and Longtooth, with Valeros temporarily turned over to the suitably creepy harpies for safekeeping. This chapter of the adaptation has some narration by Ezren, and it's really helpful when it's there. As an aside, the listener gets a much better explanation of why the giants attacked Sandpoint than players of the AP are likely to get!
Once Valeros' companions reach Jorgenfist, they're almost entranced by the harpies but are rescued by Longtooth in an exciting twist. There's a great battle between Longtooth and Mokmurian, with the former getting the wrong end of a disintegrate spell! Conna, the stone giant elder who wants Mokmurian overthrown, aids the adventurers in penetrating to the library for the final big battle. The possession of Mokmurian's body by Karzoug is done quite well, and the chapter ends on a foreboding note.
"It was good, I enjoyed it" say my notes, and I can't disagree with myself. These adaptations are what they are, but if your expectations aren't too high I think most listeners will get something good out of them.
These really are a very special offering from Paizo: all thoroughly enjoyable. This one has a particularly fine cast of actors expanded to take on a larger (literally) set of characters. Like its predecessors, but more so, it cleverly picks a way through the AP plot highlighting many of the key moments but adding drama and connecting stories to tie it together to make a story.
We are at episode 4 so am hoping that very soon we'll see what comes next after Rise of the Runelords. Can't wait: encore!
I'm enjoying these so far- makes the drive into work less of a chore. I was under the impression that this was a trial run, to test the waters so to speak. So how is that going? Is the Pathfinder Legends something we'll see more of after this series is done, or has it failed to produce and be discontinued? I'd certainly like to see more of this stuff and would hate for it to stop.
I'm enjoying these so far- makes the drive into work less of a chore. I was under the impression that this was a trial run, to test the waters so to speak. So how is that going? Is the Pathfinder Legends something we'll see more of after this series is done, or has it failed to produce and be discontinued? I'd certainly like to see more of this stuff and would hate for it to stop.
Truly. I can't wait until they get to Curse of the Crimson Throne, and I would love to watch the iconics be switched out (especially considering it wouldn't make sense to have Valeros, Merisiel, Harsk, and Ezren a second time when in the adventure before they would have presumably reached level 14 or something like that.
I would like a party of Seelah, Lem, Sajan, and Seoni. That would be incredibly fun to watch.
I think a lot of the download stuff has to be manually turned on. The same is true of the Lost at Sea PDF for the card game, which is scheduled for release today.
I'd assume it will only happen after the office opens at 10:00 PDT.
Does anyone have an iPhone app they can recommend for downloading these directly and listening to them without connecting to a PC and using iTunes to manage my files?
I currently use iZip to open the file after downloading, however it does not allow my to open and play it using the standard music app. Instead I play it directly in iZip using it's QuickTime player. Unfortunately it doesn't have much in player controls. Only next, pause, and previous. No way to skip ahead in a current track, so if I have to stop a track in the middle or near the end, when I go to play it again the next time, I have to start from the beginning of that track. I listen to these in small gaps during commute and at one point had to listen to Mammy Graul play with her kitty cat about three times
