Pathfinder Adventure Path #146: Cult of Cinders (Age of Ashes 2 of 6)

Editor's Note: This was personally a 4/5 for me, but that was because we had a Dragon Instinct Barbarian with the group that really sank her teeth into the dragon-related stuff. I think if you're not really into the premise, the hexploration slog and overtuned meat-grinder encounters make it a 3/5.

Age of Ashes part 2 has some weird narrative quirks in the first portion that remind me of how Rise of the Runelords has some parts that people view as cringeworthy today. Only this time it was done in the name of 'allyship' instead of to take a 'dark and mature' tone to distinguish it from D&D.

Chapter 1 - So Dahak is advertised early on, that was a nice intro, going through the tunnel tube and AHHHHHHHH TRAP THAT BURNS YOU TO DEATH.

Everything in this AP is overtuned and insta-kill traps are common. It's so ubiquitous I'm not even going to call it out. There are CR 8 enemies written for this AP that have a +19 fort save you can meet as soon as you step out of Akrivel when your skills can only give you a spell DC of 23. THAT'S FREAKING CRAZY! You mean I have maybe a 15% chance for my spell to work? The GM might as well just say "Don't even bother, it's not going to work". The whole thing is overtuned - learn to ignore set DC's and/or fudge them or else you're going to have a PC graveyard. Another example - why is ingesting PURE arsenic a DC 19 fort save to not get poisoning from, but ingesting arsenic from gold ore that just rubbed off in this AP is a DC 22 check to avoid poisoning ? Into the trash it goes. I swear I saw more crit fails from the group on this AP than I have ever seen in anything other than maybe Hellknight Hill.

So you go to Akrivel and it's a perfect society of Mwangi elves who live in harmony and just need foreigners to stay out, blah blah blah, yay noble savages. I'm not sure where a previous reviewer got the idea that the Ekujae are strong, independent proud Mwangi elves that don't need no adventurers, because they are instantly blinded if they get within 50 miles of the Fortress of Sorrow as long as these dragon totems are up.

I appreciated that Eleanor Ferron just said "roleplay through this stuff if you want, it's not that important" because man there is a lot of social stuff here.

The highlights -

The Leopard twins
Harriet
The Storyteller's Circle (one of my players got up and basically summarized the tale of the Frozen Flame because she was a barbarian from the Realm of the Mammoth Lords)
The Pepper-Eating Contest

The ugh stuff -

Akosa - This guy is a psychopath who just can't stop talking about all the Avistanis he's scalped. I get that we're supposed to be respectful and appreciative of other worldviews and he was an escaped slave and all, but both the Paladin and the LG Cleric were both creeped out by him.

Matchmaking - Okay, so...you want to match your dad, who was married to your mom, and has not shown any interest in being hooked up, with a guy whose hobbies involve scalping and race war, even though they have shown zero interest in each other so far. And her rationale is incredibly stupid. "The elder elves say I should mind my own business, but I'm a half-elf so who cares!?" What's Elven for 'barge right in, the door's wide open'? Both my Paladin and my LG Cleric said No thanks, highly unethical. Is this the minority representation that people are so proud of? Skip.

Just throw the Ekujae influence wheel in the trash. Some of the things in it don't make sense. Didn't know that temple was super important when a crazed explorer blew it up? Lose karma. Didn't know the alligator that tried to eat you was important to them? Lose karma. Dying of Dysentery because of some bad rolls and need to take some time, so you don't hack down a totem in time? Lose karma.

Into the trash it goes!

Chapter 2 - TOO MANY TOTEMS!

"Dear President of Paizo, there are too many totems in Cult of Cinders. Please eliminate 3. I am NOT a crackpot."

Rolling for dysentery like it's the Oregon Trail gets old after about a week of in-game time.

Soooo many friggin' tooootems. And there's only 4 that are interesting encounters: Red, Blue, Indigo, and Black. (Purple I'm not including because it's at the mine). Skip the others if you value your sanity.

The other encounters (A6, A10) are cool. I don't get why people were mad about Gerhard Pendergrast. I played him like Lord Roderick Ponce Von Fontlebottom (the Magnificent Bastard) from Jade Empire for laughs. Just an incredibly condescending foreigner out of his element. Maybe they got mad because his 'twin' appears to force the encounter at A10 or A7 depending upon what you did. First of all, he's pretty frickin' tough as nails, he SHOULD have a chance to run away, but second, who cares. That's actually pretty funny, and this guy is a caricature, not worth being taken seriously as a villain.

A4 is a red herring that just pulls you off the path for no real good reason. Thanks Nketiah!

Point of order - do you have to "destroy" the totems to bring down the Dahak's Shell, or just disable them? Handwave the destruction of the totems, except with the Griplis because that's the only part where it becomes concerning.

Chapter 3 - The Mine - - What a meatgrinder if you're not careful. It's possible for the group to stumble on this place without being level 7 yet, and if they do, Sarenrae help them because they're going to get MAULED. Luckily my group had a Witch with a Raven familiar so it went and reconned the entire mine. Otherwise this has the potential to turn into a TPK. Make sure you emphasize to the group three things: That the miners are scared of the Vrock, that they should unleash the Plesiosaur in the beast pen, and to befriend Hezle.

Even then, there's a lot of killing involved here. The CR 1 and CR 3 enemies are no big deal, and the Butchers (separately) aren't a huge issue. I PERSONALLY ruled that the purple totem was not a threat because it was 50 feet in a hole and there was no way it could have line of sight on the group as long as they fought around the pit mine. But that might trip up a novice GM. If your rolls go poorly this chapter could take an entire session of ONE BATTLE. I started having some of the CR 1 guys (who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn anyways) just take off after awhile, demoralized at seeing 20 of their pals get chewed up.

Speaking of which, screw the voidworms and screw the Naunets in the settling pool. By the point you deal with them you will be so tired of this and just want it to be OVER already.

Hezle deserved an extra page of exposition/text block/questions and responses. It seemed like she should have known more than the brief summary of what she's able to deliver to the group.

On that subject, it's never made clear in the text: So the Scarlet Triad just want GOLD? Mwangi gold? Or is it the arsenic-tainted gold specifically that the Scarlet Triad needs? Is the arsenic the corruption of Dahak? Or is it just coincidental? How is Hezle "testing" the gold for the qualities that the Scarlet Triad want in the gold as an alchemist? I have to assume she knows what arsenic is, what it's doing to the miners, but that they want the arsenic tainted gold for some reason. Anyways, more context needed! Maybe could have been taken from the wordcount devoted to all the fancy schmancy elves in their tree-city!

Chapter 4 - Fortress of Despair

Now we're talking. A good storm-the-fortress scene! Other than the crocodile you can't kill at the beginning, this is pretty fun. I think the DC's on the hazards are still overtuned, and I think that there should have been a bit more explanation about who's liable to mob you if you assault the front gates indiscreetly, but other than that it's just...okay. Again, watch the hazard DC's.

Sidenote: Elokos using Size Alteration in these TINY TINY rooms is a recipe for hilarity.

A word on Loot - This AP really can be hit or miss with loot. There's almost none until you reach the Mine (And then it showers you in +1 tridents). I basically gave the group all the nice Ekujae tschotchkes (including the Ring of Elemental Resistance that is a top tier reward for maxing out rep with the Ekujae) up front. Granted, we also roleplayed most of the interactions with the Ekujae. And you can miss the Bag of Holding if you don't encounter Gerhard Pendegrast and defeat him, which is not necessary for the plot at all!

This book gives the players their first real view of the threat they're facing down, and provides a wonderful introduction to the Mwangi Elf culture and history which are unique and compelling, especially in the context of the threat the players are now learning that they are facing down. The one of the two "dungeon"-type areas also provides a wonderful array of approaches to solving it through non-combat means such as subterfuge and sabotage, but can really punish unwary players that attempt to simply come in guns blazing. The locale of the final dungeon-type setting and its history also make for a unique experience for a party that is engaged with the broader arcs of the story.

The main shortcoming of this book is that the majority of the activity is jungle hexploration, and it's quite a slog.

The first chapter takes a little getting used to. I can imagine that groups who want some action get bored quite quickly at first. Dear DM, talk to your group if they want action or role play! My group went for the RPG and we really enjoyed having the entire first book without a real fight.
But then came Chapter 2. What I really like is the exploration mode. Revealing the map piece by piece is always a nice game idea. But some challenges are pretty deadly, to say the least. Although the group always has full resources, it has had to withdraw here and there. The problem for us is that my group is not a 1A perfectly coordinated group. Unfortunately, this is particularly noticeable in this part of the campaign, which can lead to frustration again and again.
Part 3 is also really quite challenging, since you only have limited rest periods when the fortress wants to be invaded. It doesn't actually make any sense, but a complete march through is also not possible. And then the finale. I'm not sure if it was me, the dice, or the design. But the final fight was just plain boring, which somehow didn't go with the previous threats.
Anyway, looking forward to the third book.