The Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path launches with "Trail of the Hunted," a tale of desperate survival set against the invasion of a ruthless hobgoblin army—the Ironfang Legion! As the Ironfang Legion begins carving out an empire of monsters, the heroes must flee their hometown of Phaendar as it burns, saving any lives they can. The heroes guard their band of survivors in the wilderness, challenge a troglodyte tribe for safe haven, and face the brutal bounty hunters dispatched to end their flight to freedom!
"Trail of the Hunted," a Pathfinder adventure for 1st-level characters, by Amber E. Scott.
A detailed overview of the Ironfang Legion, including its history, membership, and tools, by Ron Lundeen.
A gazetteer on the expansive Nesmian Plains, a rugged wilderness of breathtaking vistas and tangled histories, by Crystal Frasier.
A bestiary containing new regional threats and allies, by Crystal Frasier, Amber E. Scott, Tonya Woldridge, and Linda Zayas-Palmer.
ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-926-4
"Trail of the Hunted" 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 (2 MB zip/PDF).
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
I thoroughly enjoyed going through this issue in preparation to run Pathfinder Adventure Path 117: Assault on Longshadow. This issue is packed with info on the Ironfang Legion, new troop types, wereraptors, leshies and a gazetteer on the Nesmian Plains.
It reminds me of the classic Paizo published Dungeon magazines in that they are packed with material that is not only integral to the adventure at hand, but useful to GMs and players outside of the context of the adventure.
What an excellent and brave way to start an AP. Lots of player freedom, and an endless supply of baddies to throw at the PCs. Make sure your players have family etc. in the starting settlement. This really suits a mounted and martial party.
My favourite AP by far was Kingmaker. Until now. May be a close call by the time we get to the end.
If you like lots player freedom, GM freedom, and adventure landscape style play this is for you.
GOOD:
The art really shines: from the cover over the interior full body illustrations, to the headshots and half page scenes.
Also all encounter battle-maps are designed really evocative and fun to play on.
Lots of possible player decisions are covered.
Very informative sidebars.
Players can get their hands on a lot of cool gear.
The NPCs are solidly designed.
The two new Leshy and the Wereraptor.
BAD:
Managing the refugees and assigning each one a daily duty seems bothersome and most players i know won´t like it.
A "Refugees character sheet" would have been useful for an overview.
A bigger map of Phaendar on the inside front cover would have been more useful than the smaller than 1/4th page one on page 22 - it certainly is a nice map and the place where the entire first session takes place.
The "Southern Chernasardo" map on page 22 is much too small and would have been so much better as a hexploration map. At the size it is, it´s pretty much guesswork where the characters are going exactly.
"Part 2" is a little jumbled and would have benefited from a clearer structure or at least a timetable sidebar.
There is no mention of the settlements "Ecru", "Redburrow" or "Radya´s Hollow" from the inside front cover in the Nesmian plains section, which otherwise is solid.
UGLY:
The inside front cover map doesn´t line up with the one on page 66 in all details, especially #8 "Cavlinor" is in two different places.
This really feels like a classic fantasy adventure!
This adventure path gets back to the basics, and has a healthy dose of wilderness encounters. Lots of hobgoblins to fight, but there are other critters too. I like the art for the hobgoblins and bugbear, very nice.
So what if I decided to play a Hobgoblin in this? I recall that Second Darkness flat-out tells the player to not roll a Drow; but I think that Hobgoblins are a lot different and playing as one could be pretty interesting here.
Extracting anything of note from fiction (which varies greatly in quality) is much more time-and-energy consuming than lifting a statblock or information from a support article. I'm paying stupid big money for my APs, I want my buck to give me a bang, ads and fiction don't give me the bang - I can live with ads (but honestly, print ads in 2016?) but fiction makes me grind my teeth since Burnt Offerings.
If I want to read quality prose, I have a massive backlog of great books from cool authors (including PF Tales!) waiting for me. I don't want to wade through some sometimes stellar, sometimes less so short stories stretchered over 6 months in order to perhaps find some nugget that might be relevant to the game I'm running.
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Gorbacz wrote:
Extracting anything of note from fiction (which varies greatly in quality) is much more time-and-energy consuming than lifting a statblock or information from a support article. I'm paying stupid big money for my APs, I want my buck to give me a bang, ads and fiction don't give me the bang - I can live with ads (but honestly, print ads in 2016?) but fiction makes me grind my teeth since Burnt Offerings.
If I want to read quality prose, I have a massive backlog of great books from cool authors (including PF Tales!) waiting for me. I don't want to wade through some sometimes stellar, sometimes less so short stories stretchered over 6 months in order to perhaps find some nugget that might be relevant to the game I'm running.
Die, fiction, die.
I hate to say that, because it's Gorbacz, but 100% agreed.
I completely disagree, and find great value in the fiction as a DM. In Mummy's Mask the fiction is what gave me the description and atmosphere of the Tooth and Hookah, which the players loved so much they ended up spending the entire first session there instead of starting the adventure, and it ended up being their base for the rest of the AP.
In Giantslayer, the individual tales of fighting giants became a couple of different extremely flavorful encounters that had no combat at all.
Flavor and ambience are what I get out of the fiction, and I think that is a very valuable contribution that is distinct from what you get from stat blocks and gazeteers, which of course I find valuable in their own ways.
I completely disagree, and find great value in the fiction as a DM. In Mummy's Mask the fiction is what gave me the description and atmosphere of the Tooth and Hookah, which the players loved so much they ended up spending the entire first session there instead of starting the adventure, and it ended up being their base for the rest of the AP.
In Giantslayer, the individual tales of fighting giants became a couple of different extremely flavorful encounters that had no combat at all.
Flavor and ambience are what I get out of the fiction, and I think that is a very valuable contribution that is distinct from what you get from stat blocks and gazeteers, which of course I find valuable in their own ways.
Maybe I should read some of it before trashing it then.... :0