In Old Korvosa, nightmare-spawned horrors begin stalking the district's shiver addicts, sparking a manhunt to bring those responsible to justice. What role does the strange cult known as the Brotherhood of the Spider play in the mysterious deaths, and why is the veil between the dreaming and waking worlds so thin? To solve these mysteries and others, the heroes must walk the unseen paths of Bridgefront's occult underworld, and even enter the Dimension of Dreams itself to unravel the web of intrigue concealing the cult's deadly machinations. But what will happen when the heroes' own dreams turn against them, and what becomes of those who uncover esoteric secrets too terrible to know? Beset by dangers from their own minds, the heroes must race against time to save Korvosa—and their sanity.
Designed for use with Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Occult Adventures, this adventure is packed with terrifying thrills! Written by fan-favorite author Brandon Hodge, The House on Hook Street is a deluxe adventure for 6th-level characters, and includes 64 action-packed pages of engaging combat, urban investigation, and a new monstrous foe, plus a gorgeous double-sided poster map featuring an overview of Korvosa's Bridgefront neighborhood and a miniatures-scale battlemap.
Players can expect to reach 9th level upon completion of this adventure—if they can survive the nightmares of a menacing dreamscape!
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-790-1
The House on Hook Street 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 (344 kb zip/PDF).
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
The House on Hook Street is a phenomenally good adventure. I’ve recently started running it as part of my Curse of the Crimson Throne campaign (it’s actually relatively easy to modify it to take place during the adventure path instead of several years after), and my players and I have been enjoying it immensely so far. I highly recommend it!
I ran this Memorial Day weekend for PFS at Kublacon in the Bay Area. We finished the whole PFS sanctioned module in a run that took about 21 hours. And to do so I had to skip some encounters and simplify others. For a home game this would have easily been 30-40 hours of play over many long sessions.
With that context - this was among the most fun I have had as a GM. It took the most prep I have ever done (I would guess about 20 hours of prep) and even with that there are still encounters and items and combinations of powers and effects I would need to revisit for any future run.
As a module this is atmospheric with tons of opportunities for a creative GM to engage with the party as they conduct an investigation and as they explore the strange environs. It will have moments for all types of characters and players to shine. Though it will reward (and really require) a party with solid damage dealers (close and ranged) and it is best with a party without any gaps in roles. In PFS play I would encourage the party to be closer to the max than the minimum levels. In a home game I would be sure to level as indicated.
If I run this again I would probably also prefer a four or five player group (I ran for a group that was six players with three companion animals which could bog down combats).
If you are unfamiliar with the Occult Adventures rules much of your prep time will be in learning the ins and outs of those rules (PCs do not need to be Occult classes though a party with one PC that has Occult Adventure classes and skills might come in handy)
I also agree with the criticism of how the ending leaves a key NPC in an unclear state. For a home game following up on the loose threads this adventure leaves could spark a lengthy campaign. For a group that has played through Curse of the Crimson Throne this also has some great call backs to that AP and is set years after the conclusion of that AP.
Strong flavor and a consistent theme - great story!
I like adventures that have a strong flavour and explore a defined theme and this one fits the bill perfectly. The atmosphere throughout is creepy and threatening in an unusual way. Conventional characters will be challenged in ways to which they are unaccustomed. The occult theme owes a lot to Dennis Wheatley, Fritz Leiber and H P Lovecraft. Many of the "monsters" are of a particular type and that creates a threatening focus. The clues lead the players through the mystery, step by step but they will need a notebook to keep track of the evidence. I had to make a timeline for myself in order to get to grips with the back story, the cast, and the likely train of events. This is probably the most complex module I have every had to prep, as a GM, but it is well worth it. It is a masterpiece.
Please sanction it for PFS soon. I have a waiting list of players and it has been out since Autumn 2015.
Wow. This is a fantastic adventure but it took me ages to get the GM prep sorted out. I've uploaded it to GM Prep along with a digest of the complex timeline. You're welcome to share.
Question for people who have run this sanctioned. How long would this take to run at a convention? 4 slots or 6?
Interested to know this as well... the adventure length appears highly dependent of player focus (i.e. adventure is investigative in nature).
Ok, this might be spoilerish, so to be on the safe side...
Spoiler:
I just finished running this for my group and there's just no way you could complete the first chronicle sheet within a four hour convention time slot. the investigation part of it is entirely too sandboxy and the only way would be for the GM to put you on rails and spoon feed the players clues.
The second chronicle could possibly be defeated within a four hour slot, but it would require a seriously focused group with min/max'd characters to do it. There's a lot of fights...
If memory serves, it took my group about eight to ten 3 hour sessions to complete this module from cover to cover. that's a lot of content to squeeze into a four hour convention time slot.
hope this helps!
One thing I should mention for those that plan on running this online, the maps in the pdf do not line up properly with a grid. I tried three different methods that i know of to get them to work and they all failed. it's like the squares get distorted going from one side of the map to the other. I ended up having to recreate all of them myself.
I'm scheduled to run this over two days at an upcoming convention - so about 12-14 hours (perhaps a bit more) for the first two chapters (first chronicle sheet) and then about 8-9 hours (possibly a bit more) for the third chapter (second chronicle sheet). Hopefully with the same set of players for both days (but it is a convention so who knows). I'm also hoping that it ends up only being 4-5 players to keep things moving along quickly.
That said, I am truly worried that we might still not have enough time to really do this justice - seems like a LOT of encounters (and in some parts a lot of combats) as well as a bunch of other interactions that we will need to have on top of investigations and lots and lots of roleplaying opportunities.
What have other people's experiences with it in PFS sanctioned play been so far?
and I asked this on the PFS GM boards as well - but seeing that the developers often reply here - what are the rules for PFS for content in this module that is not normally PFS legal? (Dimension of Dreams and other content from Chapter 6 of Occult Adventures as well as the rather key thing that the PCs have to learn, cast and then cast again over the course of the third chapter... which isn't usually legal either for PFS characters.
Running this in a total of 12-14 hours certainly sounds challenging. The best way to ensure that you can get through it all is to keep the PCs on the trail, even if that means you have to feed them some clues if they're wandering blindly or missing things. The narrative is very much driven by the PCs, and since it's an urban setting rather than a remote dungeon, the PCs can go pretty much where ever they want, which could side track the adventure depending on their choices.
I'm unfortunately of little help in regards to PFS sanctioned play. I'm glad that you already posted in the PFS section of the boards, because that was going to be the best advice I could give on the topic. Rest assured, plenty of skilled Venture Officers and the PFS developers check those threads regularly, so hopefully you can get an answer to those question soon.
Best of luck and I hope you and your players have a great time!
Running this in a total of 12-14 hours certainly sounds challenging.
As the lead organizer for the convention in question, I have to point out that it's not 12-14 hours total; it's 12-14 hours for parts 1 & 2, and another 8-9 hours for part 3.
That's based on feedback from one of our regular convention GMs (who has already run this), and the information from this thread.
thanks - to be clear the 12-14 hours is for just the first two chapters (and I may have 2-3 more hours perhaps a bit more - I suspect we'll stay late) and for chapter 3 I'll have 8-9 hours at least but we can probably stay later if all the players are agreeable (assuming the convention doesn't kick us out).
I plan on having a cheat sheet for myself of the clues and some pre-thought out ways to feed additional ones to the players if they seem stuck (probably using the Lamplighter or another named NPC as needed). I'm also trying to think about the right Pathfinder Society hook to start the module with - one that still allows for the amazing open to the module (which I love - I far prefer this type of start to an adventure than the more traditional - and almost always seen in PFS scenario - character intro/quest giver gives the PC's their mission etc. But without spoiling it - this isn't that type of open...
But that said, I think I will think about how to frame this with the Pathfinder Society to give the PC's some guidance and perhaps some hints if needed.
thanks - to be clear the 12-14 hours is for just the first two chapters (and I may have 2-3 more hours perhaps a bit more - I suspect we'll stay late)
I suspect you won't ...
We have to close down the room (and be there bright and early the next morning to open it up again), so at the very least you'd have to find somewhere else to play. And unless every one of your players really wants to put in that extra table time (without coercion) you'll have to abide by the announced schedule - some of them may have other commitments.
Played this at a local convention for PFS. We skipped a lot of battles to get 1 & 2 done in one day (3 slots). We also skipped a few to get part 3 done in 2 slots. And that was with skipping meals (eating while playing instead). I could see this going 8 slots if you didn't want to skip anything.
Played this at a local convention for PFS. We skipped a lot of battles to get 1 & 2 done in one day (3 slots). We also skipped a few to get part 3 done in 2 slots. And that was with skipping meals (eating while playing instead). I could see this going 8 slots if you didn't want to skip anything.
Do you happen to know what you skipped? (if you were playing - have you gone back and picked up the module and read what your GM skipped?) Due to the nature of the adventure - being highly investigatory and with a large house to explore (not being too spoilery - it is the title of the module after all...) I'm sure any given run of the module will deal with encounters in different orders and different groups may skip some things. However one challenge for PFS play (running this in a few days) is what to handwave in the interest of attempting to finish on time - from my prep this is going to be very challenging to complete on time especially for the first Chronicle sheet (parts 1 & 2 of the module) - lots of key set piece encounters I can't skip (and most I don't anticipate being combat options) - but also lots of flavorful encounters and interactions. Starting to make a list now with an eye towards identifying which encounters I could narrate or otherwise handwave to keep things moving faster. Likely will also have to try to avoid the party going down too many wrong paths in the investigation - but ideally doing so in a way that isn't too railroady... )
Overall really looking forward to running this but I agree with others that the prep involved for this is immense - the PFSPrep content is great however I would note that the monster prep set of cards has at least one that doesn't print correctly and many others that are missing some key abilities of some of the monsters - so worth checking them carefully - very useful but missing some key things.
We skipped most of part 2, so we could start the next morning on part 3. We skipped the first few encounters in part 3 as well so we could finish on time without missing the final battles at the end. We were given the 'story mode' version of what we discovered and who we fought without actually playing it out. We were also very tired and worn down at that point as there were four deaths in part 1. The guy who said none of his PCs ever died in all his years of PFS was killed twice. We were literally one bullet away from being party wiped. Part 3 seemed more manageable (I think almost everyone going up a level helped a lot!)
A question that has occurred to me as I finalize my prep. I'll put them in spoiler tags as they are both spoilers and specific to maps and rooms (locations of where things are that don't seem to correspond to the maps)
A question about maps:
In room G9 Myra's Bedroom on the map there is a secret door leading to a hidden room, however the room description never mentions this and instead talks about a hidden panel on the desk which appears to hide a rather large amount of treasure. Would it be a reasonable fix to move that treasure to the hidden room and not in the desk at all?
I didn't even pick up on that! I somehow read it as the desk having a switch that opened the panel into the secret room, and ran it as such.
I wonder if "at the back of the desk" means the wall behind the desk, and the initial map turnover had the desk at the east side of the room instead of the south near G8?
I'm currently running House on Hook Street, and one of the PCs in the group has the Lucid Dreamer feat.
spoilery questions...:
What happens to such a character? does he/she never gets to sleep normally and *always* appear in the dreamscape version of Bridgefront when within the dreamstone radius? I've so far ruled that unless they *want* to be lucid, they can only be forced to be lucid 10% of the time like the module suggests on the top left of page 53. Let me know if this appropriate, you know, for GM sanity purposes of not splitting the party every time they go to bed... oh, and follow up question: would it be appropriate to apply the 10% chance to the whole party instead of only one by one if they relatively all sleep at the same inn?
I'm currently running House on Hook Street, and one of the PCs in the group has the Lucid Dreamer feat. ** spoiler omitted **
Hey there! I think both are fine solutions, particularly if you think that's best for your group. Another solution is to...
Spoiler:
have them sleep outside of Bridgefront so they aren't subject to the nightmare plague every night, and can choose when they might want to risk immersion (not exactly a known option for the poor and uninformed citizens). You could also introduce Madame Carrington's sanctuary ASAP to help mitigate the fact that you've got a PC who should technically be lucid dreaming every night, and have that be a place where they can rest easy without inadvertently slipping into the Dream Realm, with the lucid dreamer appearing there (and staying put/not exploring) every time, so that they aren't randomly appearing and having to deal with major threats solo. I think it would be wise to impart just how deadly their circumstance would be, otherwise, so that they comprehend just how screwed less privileged citizens are, which is a great motivator. But maybe let them slip up a time or two and have some great encounters before they arrive at these solutions! ;-)
Salutations Mr. Hodge. I have a question regarding something fairly late in the module...
Spoiler:
How does Nahum cast dominate on Maynard without access to 5th level spells? A scroll? Was it an artifact from a previous draft where he was an arcane caster or psychic rather than occultist?
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