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Pathfinder Adventure Path #133: Secrets of Roderic's Cove (Return of the Runelords 1 of 6)

3.20/5 (based on 6 ratings)
Pathfinder Adventure Path #133: Secrets of Roderic's Cove (Return of the Runelords 1 of 6)
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Wrath Shall Reign!

When one runelord rose from his slumber, the frontier nation of Varisia shook with his power, and it took a band of heroes to save the world. Yet there remained six other runelords, and now the most wrathful of them all has woken! As the runelords waken one after another, the dangers and perils faced by past heroes pale in comparison. When a mysterious and fearful ghost manifests on the streets of Roderic's Cove at the same time the town's gangs use the runes and legacies of ancient Thassilonian tyrants for their own ends, a new band of heroes must rise to save Varisia, and perhaps the world, from the return of the runelords!

This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path begins the Return of the Runelords Adventure Path and includes:

  • "Secrets of Roderic's Cove," a Pathfinder adventure for 1st-level characters, by Adam Daigle.
  • An exploration and gazetteer of the town of Roderic's Cove and its inhabitants, by Adam Daigle.
  • An extensive timeline of the history of Thassilon, revelations about the methods used by each runelord to avoid destruction during the apocalypse of Earthfall, and notes for Game Masters on the roles each runelord plays in this Adventure Path, by James Jacobs.
  • A bestiary of monsters lurking around Varisia, including the child-stealing nochlean and the innocuous-looking warpglass ooze, by Mikko Kallio, Luis Loza, Jacob W. Michaels, and Conor J. Owens.

ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-062-0

The Return of the Runelords Adventure Path 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 (1.5 MB PDF).

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Roll20 Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscription.

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Fun Adventure Path for Your Varisian Legacy Characters!

5/5 —

A Strong Start to an Epic Campaign

4/5 —

Secrets of Roderic's Cove serves well as the start of the Rise of the Runelords adventure path and is strong enough in its own right to serve as a stand-alone adventure if desired. Since it covers a level 1-5 range, it could even serve as an entire campaign for somebody using the Beginner's Box if desired.

The town of Roderic's Cove has many problems, from a mini-gang war to the appearance of the ghost of the town founder. The order in which the PCs solve these problems depends on their choices. All told, the adventure features several dungeons, a monster-filled wilderness, a haunted house, and a mansion whose infiltration calls for stealth and guile. This is in addition to several encounters in the town itself, from monsters that attack in the night to the chaos caused by a renegade grimple.

Secrets of Roderic's Cove is much more of a sandbox than most other 1st-level adventures, and it serves well to establish the PCs as individuals with their own agency. The adventure path calls for a group that is willing to be proactive and solve problems in their own way, and this adventure sets that tone nicely.

It would have been nice to see more guidance in certain areas - the aforementioned mansion could be difficult to run for a GM who doesn't handle infiltration missions well, for example. I also miss certain adventure path features such as the foreword and the fiction, but I understand that certain sacrifices have to be made for the line's first 1-20 non-mythic adventure path. Overall, this book is a strong start to a campaign and a good adventure to have even if you don't plan to run the full path.

Third Time's the Charm

4/5 —

First, let me qualify this review. This is not a read-through review; our group has played this adventure and it’s not all that different from any of the other introductory modules of which we've played in nearly half of the APs Paizo has published over the past decade. It is quite serviceable and, as advertised, disposable pulp fantasy, complete with the requisite tropes. If you're looking for award-winning prose or groundbreaking character development, it is in short supply, but this seems to be standard and the norm for monthly canned modules like these. Even so, there's a lot for GMs to work with: a fleshed-out location with ample NPCs, a clear tie in to the next module, and enemies who, if played with nuance, skirt the line between ally and enemy. The encounters are appropriately difficult for a system that's now so bloated with exploits. Groups looking for cheap thrills and plenty of them will be satisfied as the module trends towards quick advancement and steady, generous treasure acquisition. Does it need some extra love from the GM, well yes – show me a module that does not. Does it live up to the previous installments in the Runelord franchise, I'd say, yes, close. We lack singing goblins in this one, but, memory has a funny way of making those past installments better than they actually were and it's challenging to go up against that type of nostalgia in a world increasingly suffused with critics.

Of six ap’s this is the worst

1/5 —

Into book three of this ap; have played six other ap’s and this is hands down the worst ap. The story is extremely underwhelming and feels like it was written as a “where are they now” tour of previous ap’s. If you want to take a tour of previous ap's NPCs and locations then this is the ap for you. If you want a good story I’d try any number of other ap’s.

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1 person marked this as a favorite.

Look what is hiding here...
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Here we go, boys and girls...
17 people marked this as a favorite.

♬My boyfriend's back and you're gonna be in trouble,
hey na, hey na...♬
Silver Crusade Contributor
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Excellent! ^_^

at last the runelords are back
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Sweet! The AP that will keep on giving! ;)
Silver Crusade
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Sleepy coastal town in Varisia ... Runelords ... sinspawn ... count me in!
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

"world-impacting"
Silver Crusade
1 person marked this as a favorite.

OOOOOOOOOOoooooooo!!!!

I sense a mythic game in the making, considering we already know where Sorshen is hiding and both her and Xanderghul are specifically stated to be mythic. Currently Karzoug and Krune are confirmed dead.
Silver Crusade Contributor
2 people marked this as a favorite.

I would be extremely shocked if the PCs actually go mythic, given previous developer experiences. More likely, there'll be some sort of benefits granted or artifacts acquired that bring the PCs up in power without granting mythic tiers. Don't forget that the Rise of the Runelords PCs and the Shattered Star PCs - complete with Sihedron - will affect this AP as well.

Pathfinder Society:
Also, I'm not sure that Runelord Krune's defeat by the Pathfinder Society "counts". PFS is kind of its own plotline. That said, it might be factored in.

Additional Speculation:
Given the title of the final module, I'm not sure that this will end with all of the Runelords' defeat, at least in the traditional manner...
Dark Archive
5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Based on James Jacobs' comments about five runelords, yeah PFS defeating one of them is in the continuity.

(also yeah confirmed to be level 1-20 ap without mythic. Makes sad since I would like to see more mythic aps, or at least partially mythic, tier 3 is sweet spot from what I heard for Wrath of the Righteous?)
Dark Archive

Could yet be all 7 runelords still since James has confirmed time travel elements in this Ap.
Silver Crusade
8 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I wouldn't be surprised if there were several mythic foes there though, WotR taught us that a regular non-mythic party of PCs can handle those just fine. In fact, mythic makes for great system for spicing up encounters without artificially inflating HD or doing the dreaded "It's an advanced dire celestial shadow divine guardian fighter boar, you better either have HeroLab or an hour of spare time for statting this up" thing.
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Now with the rumors of time travel I might actually be interested in this one:)
Dark Archive
19 people marked this as a favorite.

Given the Runelords we haven't seen yet, I'm intrigued by the idea of facing Belimarius, the Runelord of Envy/Abjuration. I've seen tons of necromancers, evokers, conjurers, etc. so that's kind of 'been there, done that,' but an Abjuration specialist? Part of me wants her to be all 'blue deck' from Magic the Gathering, all about shutting down and denying others magical effects, while her minions actually inflict the damage. Another part of me wants her to roll up her sleeves and beat you to death with her halberd (and non-magically potent minions), from inside an anti-magic field...

"Yes, yes, I'm sure you have unique spells and amazing magical tactics that you've developed over decades. Let's see how well you fare when I take all that away..."

I am SOOOoooooo looking foreword to this :P

This is definitely on MY list! I can't wait. Can't we switch Return and Crown?

Personally I am really sick of necromancers in general.

I have to agree Set, an abjuration specialist would be different and interesting.
Silver Crusade
8 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
nighttree wrote:
I am SOOOoooooo looking foreword to this :P

You like forewords that much? I mean, they're fun and all, but I buy AP for adventures and support material, forewords are rather low on my list.

9 people marked this as a favorite.

I love the forewards to be quite honest, they're the first thing I read. :-)
Gorbacz wrote:
nighttree wrote:
I am SOOOoooooo looking foreword to this :P
You like forewords that much? I mean, they're fun and all, but I buy AP for adventures and support material, forewords are rather low on my list.

LOL....and the spelling Nazis strike again :P

Silver Crusade
15 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
nighttree wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
nighttree wrote:
I am SOOOoooooo looking foreword to this :P
You like forewords that much? I mean, they're fun and all, but I buy AP for adventures and support material, forewords are rather low on my list.
LOL....and the spelling Nazi's strike again :P

It's NAZIS. The apostrophe is redundant, because it's not a possessive.

Gorbacz wrote:
nighttree wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
nighttree wrote:
I am SOOOoooooo looking foreword to this :P
You like forewords that much? I mean, they're fun and all, but I buy AP for adventures and support material, forewords are rather low on my list.
LOL....and the spelling Nazi's strike again :P
It's NAZIS. The apostrophe is redundant, because it's not a possessive.

Thank you kindly ;)

captain yesterday wrote:
I love the forewards to be quite honest, they're the first thing I read. :-)

that's unusual. the first thing I read is the cover.

Silver Crusade
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I never read the cover, I fear the

Spoiler:

EXPLOSIVE RUNES
Advocates
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Gorbacz wrote:
nighttree wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
nighttree wrote:
I am SOOOoooooo looking foreword to this :P
You like forewords that much? I mean, they're fun and all, but I buy AP for adventures and support material, forewords are rather low on my list.
LOL....and the spelling Nazi's strike again :P
It's NAZIS. The apostrophe is redundant, because it's not a possessive.

"Nazi" is not an acronym, so spelling it in all capitals is incorrect.

Also, more to the point, what does it matter if someone spells something wrong? You're on an internet forum. So long as you understood the idea being expressed, it doesn't matter. Language exists to communicate ideas, and I honestly fail to see the point of "correcting" how an idea was communicated when it was still communicated.
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Gorbacz wrote:

I never read the cover, I fear the

** spoiler omitted **

DAMMIT! Got me!

*shakes*
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Lindley Court wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
nighttree wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
nighttree wrote:
I am SOOOoooooo looking foreword to this :P
You like forewords that much? I mean, they're fun and all, but I buy AP for adventures and support material, forewords are rather low on my list.
LOL....and the spelling Nazi's strike again :P
It's NAZIS. The apostrophe is redundant, because it's not a possessive.

"Nazi" is not an acronym, so spelling it in all capitals is incorrect.

Also, more to the point, what does it matter if someone spells something wrong? You're on an internet forum. So long as you understood the idea being expressed, it doesn't matter. Language exists to communicate ideas, and I honestly fail to see the point of "correcting" how an idea was communicated when it was still communicated.

In my case I actually appreciate it....

I am very phonetic in my spelling patterns, so especially if I'm not paying strict attention, I tend to use the wrong form of similar sounding words (there, their, etc....) and those are not often caught by spell check either. Punctuation rules are often confused by my autism as well....so it's good for me to see corrections.

At least after a while some of them tend to stick ;)
Silver Crusade
13 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Yeah, nighttree did appreciate being corrected a while back, so I kind of followed up on that. After all, some people come to Internet forums to Polish their English, like I do.

Sounds like a lot of fun!
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Me fail English, that's unpossible;)
Dragon78 wrote:
Me fail English, that's unpossible;)

Hey! I'm watching you...

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

...could there have already been hints of this in one of last season's PFS scenarios?

Pertinent Plot Points/potential spoilers/Theory conjecture:

Riddleport has the Cyphermages faction.

Alaznist had a research lab that the Pathfinders found.

Fiery wrath is specifically noted, so the Runelord of Wrath sounds prominent.

There is a rumor that she created the reefclaws, which show up in a PFS scenario in Riddleport.

It may also make part of this an aquatic adventure, as well?
9 people marked this as a favorite.

Man, the game of “Hardy Boys novel or Pathfinder AP title” gets harder every month.
Lantern Lodge Customer Service Manager
8 people marked this as a favorite.

Let's not get to carried away with spelling or grammar derails in product discussion threads.

9 people marked this as a favorite.
Sara Marie wrote:
Let's not get to carried away with spelling or grammar derails in product discussion threads.

HRNGH!

Ok... *slinks off dejectedly*
The Exchange

checks calendar, nope not yet. checks again, nope. this is going to be a hard wait.

I can't wait to see what Adam Daigle does as an adventure writer!

In fact, is this his maiden voyage writing adventures...
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

All of the Runelords? Levels 1-20?! Time travel?!!

[Head Explodes]
Dark Archive
1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'm looking forward to get a map and gazetteer of Roderic's Cove (pop 1,100), as it's comparable to Sandpoint in size (pop 1,240).

From the titles of the other AP parts, i also wonder if and how the face of Varisia may change during the storyline.
1 person marked this as a favorite.
Kevin Mack wrote:
Could yet be all 7 runelords still since James has confirmed time travel elements in this Ap.

But also, alas, no plans for Alderpash. Though I suspect if I get around to running this I will try to shoehorn him in somewhere.

Paizo Employee Creative Director
18 people marked this as a favorite.
the nerve-eater of Zur-en-Aarh wrote:
Kevin Mack wrote:
Could yet be all 7 runelords still since James has confirmed time travel elements in this Ap.
But also, alas, no plans for Alderpash. Though I suspect if I get around to running this I will try to shoehorn him in somewhere.

There are nearly 50 runelords who existed over the course of Thassilon's run, of which the majority we've said nothing about. More than the seven last ones will have roles to play in Return of the Runelords, I suspect. Alderpash included in perhaps a small way. We'll see!

8 people marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
There are nearly 50 runelords who existed over the course of Thassilon's run...More than the seven last ones will have roles to play in Return of the Runelords, I suspect.

*debeverages*

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Wait 50?!! Holy crap on a stick! I mean I knew there were more than the original seven but...50?!!
5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Thomas Seitz wrote:
Wait 50?!! Holy crap on a stick! I mean I knew there were more than the original seven but...50?!!

Their positions must have had high turnover...

;)
Dark Archive
5 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Now I'm starting to hope we will learn identities of all of the original ones :D Like learning more about original Runelord of Greed Kaladurnae besides the name would be nice too

There and back again !!!
Let it come to papa !!!

On the other hand, hopefully Pathfinder is not going the same way as Dungeons & Dragons. Where almost every great adventure got is sequel... (see temple of elemental evil and etc.)

But like Star Wars sequels can be better ...
Dark Archive
4 people marked this as a favorite.
quibblemuch wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
There are nearly 50 runelords who existed over the course of Thassilon's run...More than the seven last ones will have roles to play in Return of the Runelords, I suspect.
*debeverages*

The Runelord of Wrath position probably had a pretty high turnover, as Alaznist slaying Thybidos to take the job was referred to as a 'quite traditional' method of succession. (Not that several of the Runelords didn't get their jobs the same way...)

But yeah, *fifty* is an eye-opening number. :)

Interesting that the Runelord of Envy never actually killed her predecessor, keeping his still-living body in a coffin of force in her throne room as a trophy. So, technically, there could be *two* Runelords of Envy available to face...
19 people marked this as a favorite.
Set wrote:
So, technically, there could be *two* Runelords of Envy available to face...

Wait--the ancient Thassilonians had TWO Runelords of Envy? I'm so jealous...

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