With their memories once again intact, the adventurers continue their pursuit of Count Lowls. But first they must visit Cassomir, where they believe the wayward noble is meeting with an old associate, but find only danger in his absence. Next, they travel to Katheer, capital city of Qadira, to track down a blasphemous tome in a hidden library, only to discover Lowls has stolen the vile book. They then venture to the slave-trading city of Okeno to pick up the count's trail again and encounter the mysterious and alien entity that has been haunting their dreams. If they can't stop their crazed nemesis before his plans come to fruition, doom will come for all!
This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path continues the Strange Aeons Adventure Path and includes:
"The Whisper Out of Time," a Pathfinder adventure for 10th-level characters, by Richard Pett.
A gazetteer of the dangerous slaver city of Okeno, by Richard Pett.
A look into the inscrutable ways of the alien beings known as yithians, by Paris Crenshaw.
A diva has a fateful meeting in the Pathfinder's Journal, by Jason Scott Aiken.
A bestiary containing a new Great Old One and other loathsome monsters, by Ed Grabianowski, James Jacobs, Richard Pett, and Greg A. Vaughan.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-908-0
"The Whisper Out of Time" 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 (723 kb zip/PDF).
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
The cities of Cassomir and Katheer are rather bland, at least for how they are presented in this book. You can make them bigger and greater with the additionally ressources, but that is not what I'm rating here.
The dungeon crawlers were nice, except for the boring infirmary. I really enjoyed the library, although the puzzle at the end was..... sad. Honestly, reading that, it would've been a better campaign if you deleted that part all together, it was a huge disappointment of a puzzle.
Otherwise I adored the RP potential in the slave city, but the dungeon was rather forgettable again. The thing that pushed it over the edge to 4 stars for me was the Yithian, I loved the little messages she kept sending, gave it a great vibe all around.
Part 1 (Cassomir) has a good mix between Cthulhu Mythos and Pathfinder atmosphere.
Part 2 (Katheer) is the part where the Mythos atmosphere is strongest.
The "Ecology of the Yithian" article is excellent!
The Bestiary section is good.
BAD:
The battle-maps are disappointing, they are very plain and unevokative and the last one is too big to fit even on a "Bigger Flip-Mat".
The Okeno gazetteer doesn´t offer enough information.
UGLY:
There is no clue where to place the "Old Infirmary" anywhere in Cassomir and the location of the "Blossoming Thorn" in Okeno is not given either.
You ABSOLUTELY need Pathfinder Chronicles: Cities of Golarion and Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Qadira, Jewel of the East, both excellent books, if your players decide to visit some other locations in Cassomir and Katheer and if you don´t want to pretend the encounter locations exist in thin air.
The CR of the opponents in part 3 are way below the group, there is not a single enemy that won´t be taken down in 1 round.
A level 12 party can take on the whole fortress at once and lose not a single PC.
I was really torn between giving 2 or 3 stars for this, i wish i could have given 2.5
The GM has to invest lots of extra time into this part to flesh out the three cities and to replace EVERY opponent in part 3 (lots of low CR creatures DON´T add up to a high CR challenge).
This adventure would have been better if it took place in only 2 cities.
People who expect to have a pleasant and friendly time visiting lovely and friendly places should probably not play Strange Aeons. It is, after all, a horror themed Adventure Path! :-P
People who expect to have a pleasant and friendly time visiting lovely and friendly places should probably not play Strange Aeons. It is, after all, a horror themed Adventure Path! :-P
I'm okay with Eldritch Horror (I like Bloodborne just as much as you!)
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
James Jacobs wrote:
Rysky wrote:
We... have to go to Okeno...
;_;
People who expect to have a pleasant and friendly time visiting lovely and friendly places should probably not play Strange Aeons. It is, after all, a horror themed Adventure Path! :-P
People who prefer to travel via ruby tuning fork, however, appear to be in for a wild ride!
Some how I'm not surprised that moron Count Lowls is involved in this...
Gets boring being a being a pretentious, arm-chair scholar. ;3
Now we know where some of his foreign assistants come from.
Hmm, curious about him. In his writeup for Rule of Terror it mentions "spends considerable resources patronizing fields of arts and science, including metaphysics".
Does this mean he spends those resources being a patron of them? Or the other meaning of patronizing?
Some how I'm not surprised that moron Count Lowls is involved in this...
Gets boring being a being a pretentious, arm-chair scholar. ;3
Now we know where some of his foreign assistants come from.
Hmm, curious about him. In his writeup for Rule of Terror it mentions "spends considerable resources patronizing fields of arts and science, including metaphysics".
Does this mean he spends those resources being a patron of them? Or the other meaning of patronizing?
The former. Though he also likely comes off as the latter, too. What with that one book he wrote was more-or-less entitled "Esteemed Professor is an Idiot."
People who expect to have a pleasant and friendly time visiting lovely and friendly places should probably not play Strange Aeons. It is, after all, a horror themed Adventure Path! :-P
What about people who derive enjoyment from unpleasantness? erm... Asking for a friend? ;)
Got to cut a deal with one of those dang Men of Leng, I'm guessing? Perhaps its off to the Dreamlands in #5.
Even though the name Count Lowls makes me lol, I'm looking forward to this entire AP sooooo much.
Part #5 is called "What grows within" which makes me think more of body horror and the seeds of a Great Old One inside the PCs.
Maybe a template out of "Horror Adventures"?
And part #6 is "Black Stars Beckon" which should include a journey into space, probably to Carcosa on Hali in Aldebaran.
** spoiler omitted **
Out of curiosity - how did you come by this information? I'm asking in earnestness because we're looking for a follow-up for our group in Kingmaker and this is high on our suggestion-list. Kingmaker ends this month and we're trying to figure out if its worth it to wait until August-Sept to run this. Our big questions are "where is this going" and "how important / well done is the lost memories part?" (I know the latter is a matter of subjective judgement ;)
Some how I'm not surprised that moron Count Lowls is involved in this...
I am. He's low-level and portrayed as a bit of a loser in Rule of Fear. Granted, levels change and I could be getting the wrong interpretation of him - that he's a sputtering idiot man child - but would be surprised if he ends up as the BBEG.
Though I have to say, in many ways he's like the Golarion version of Lovecraft himself. So I can't hate on him too much.
I meant that even as a low level loser, he's always messing with stuff beyond his understanding. So to see him involved in this, not that surprising.
On that I agree entirely. He's custom-made for, as Adam Daigle said, doing something just incredibly stupid on a Lovecraftian scale. I'm just surprised he'd be a villain this late in the AP. I figured he'd have met a gruesome end much sooner. Guess he's "lucky."
I meant that even as a low level loser, he's always messing with stuff beyond his understanding. So to see him involved in this, not that surprising.
On that I agree entirely. He's custom-made for, as Adam Daigle said, doing something just incredibly stupid on a Lovecraftian scale. I'm just surprised he'd be a villain this late in the AP. I figured he'd have met a gruesome end much sooner. Guess he's "lucky."
Regardless, very much looking forward to this AP.
I would guess some sort of possession/mind swap, and whatever is running around in his body IS high level.
I meant that even as a low level loser, he's always messing with stuff beyond his understanding. So to see him involved in this, not that surprising.
On that I agree entirely. He's custom-made for, as Adam Daigle said, doing something just incredibly stupid on a Lovecraftian scale. I'm just surprised he'd be a villain this late in the AP. I figured he'd have met a gruesome end much sooner. Guess he's "lucky."
Regardless, very much looking forward to this AP.
I would guess some sort of possession/mind swap, and whatever is running around in his body IS high level.
Got to cut a deal with one of those dang Men of Leng, I'm guessing? Perhaps its off to the Dreamlands in #5.
Even though the name Count Lowls makes me lol, I'm looking forward to this entire AP sooooo much.
Part #5 is called "What grows within" which makes me think more of body horror and the seeds of a Great Old One inside the PCs.
Maybe a template out of "Horror Adventures"?
And part #6 is "Black Stars Beckon" which should include a journey into space, probably to Carcosa on Hali in Aldebaran.
** spoiler omitted **
Out of curiosity - how did you come by this information? I'm asking in earnestness because we're looking for a follow-up for our group in Kingmaker and this is high on our suggestion-list. Kingmaker ends this month and we're trying to figure out if its worth it to wait until August-Sept to run this. Our big questions are "where is this going" and "how important / well done is the lost memories part?" (I know the latter is a matter of subjective judgement ;)
The titles for parts 5&6 i got from Pathfinderwiki.
I'm kind of leery for this one. The last travel all around AP volume was in Serpent's Skull and I thought it was weak. Might have to wait for the review of this one. "Ecologies of" also turns me off. I haven't read an inspiring one yet.
I'm kind of leery for this one. The last travel all around AP volume was in Serpent's Skull and I thought it was weak. Might have to wait for the review of this one. "Ecologies of" also turns me off. I haven't read an inspiring one yet.
Reign of Winter was more recent and was a pretty awesome travel AP
Well, Reign of Winter was more telporting than traveing. But there was also Jade Regent.
Serpent's Skull did have its problems, but traveling wasn't one of them in my eyes.
The problems that vexed Serpent's Skull have long-since been addressed (we no longer assign adventure path installments to authors we have never worked with before—if you want to write an adventure path installment for us, you have to prove you can hit deadlines and understand Pathfinder first by writing lots of other products for us), and have not been a significant issue since.