A group of new adventurers traveling through the village of Etran's Folly—also known as Plaguestone—must come together to solve the murder of a friend. What starts as a simple investigation quickly turns sinister with the discovery of forbidden alchemy, mutant animals, and a nearby forest rotting away due to a mysterious blight. It becomes clear that if these heroes don't intervene to stop whatever evil is brewing, the fall of Plaguestone is all but certain!
The Fall of Plaguestone is the first standalone adventure for Pathfinder Second Edition, designed for 1st-level characters. It tells the story of how a group of strangers band together to form a group of adventurers while saving the town of Etran's Folly from a terrifying fate, serving as a perfect introduction to a new Pathfinder campaign!
"Fall of Plaguestone" is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure and Chronicle sheet are available as a free download (1.5 MB PDF).
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The caravan leader traveling with the PCs is mysteriously killed, raising suspicions among everyone. Additionally, the animals in the nearby forest are acting erratically and seem to be unwell. Can the PCs unravel the mystery of the murder and discover the cause of the animals' peculiar behaviour?
This marks the inaugural adventure for the newly released second edition of Pathfinder. Spanning 64 (+4) pages, it is designed for first-level characters. It targets seasoned players and dungeon masters who are familiar with tabletop RPGs, but are new to the second edition rules. While it is loosely set in Golarion, it can be easily adapted to fit any other fantasy setting.
Story Synopsis: (Spoiler)
An outcast and powerful alchemist seeks vengeance against the village that exiled her. She is concocting a unique alchemical plague, and the caravan leader has unwittingly transported the lethal ingredients for her. When receiving the final shipment, she eliminates the merchant to ensure his silence permanently. After the PCs uncover the identity of the murderer, a ranger approaches them for assistance: wildlife in the nearby forest is behaving oddly, and both animals and plants are showing alarming symptoms of a mysterious illness. Following their investigation, the PCs discover the laboratory of an orc alchemist responsible for poisoning the water supply. However, they learn of a second lab where the outcast is scheming her revenge. After overcoming the challenges of that dungeon as well, the PCs must rush back to the village to prevent a time delayed poison/plague outbreak.
Review:
The layout, editing, and readability are outstanding, it couldn’t be better. The artwork is excellent, plentiful full colour, and highly relevant. The maps are excellent as well and could easily be incorporated into a homebrew adventure.
The storyline is compelling, featuring several roleplay opportunities, including a small fun bar brawl, and it's designed so that players can complete the adventure without resorting to lethal force, allowing for subduing and arrest instead, which is greatly welcome in my campaigns. While the plot is fairly linear — which is beneficial for a beginner adventure, in my opinion — the book also includes a gazetteer for the small village, populated with several intriguing NPCs. Additionally, there are four mini-quests alongside the main adventure, providing plenty of motivation for players to engage with the characters.
There are a few notable traps, (like a spear launcher, falling debris, a poisoned lock, and an icefall trap), alongside a diverse array of monsters (including wolves, a bee swarm, bloodseekers, a wild boar, guard dogs, a giant lightning serpent, bloodlash bushes, mutant wolves, vine lashers, orc brutes, a stone horse, icy rats, an orc alchemist, blood ooze, zephyr hawks, a homunculus, brine sharks, alchemical drudges, cinder rats, giant bats, and a vampire bat swarm), as well as a handful of named "bosses".
It features 5 new backgrounds, four of which come with a unique mini quest. Additionally, there are several new magical items (6 rings and 3 alchemical items), 2 new feats, a new magical animal companion (a fiery leopard), and 3 new monster statistics.
For those who are new to tabletop role-playing games, almost everything here can be reused, including maps, encounters, and monster and boss stats. The local village contains enough information to facilitate a mini campaign. If you prefer not to run the adventure but wish to utilize the art, maps, and stats, there is plenty to take away.
As previously mentioned, the adventure follows a linear path and is easy to manage, but it is not specifically designed for brand new players, or DMs. The combat encounters are quite challenging and can often even be deadly. For newcomers, starting the adventure at level 2 may be advisable. For DMs, the adventure is straightforward and offers many engaging elements (like a bar fight, a murder mystery, the four mini side quests, and the various village NPCs). While it might be a bit challenging for a first-time DM to coordinate everything smoothly, it's nothing that couldn't be adjusted with a supportive group of players.
Lastly, I want to emphasize that this adventure is ready for immediate play. After a thorough read-through, the DM should be well-prepared and ready to run it immediately. Although some stat blocks can be found in the Bestiary, page numbers are always provided for easy reference.
Overall, it’s a fantastic adventure — perhaps a bit on the lethal side — with excellent artwork, storytelling, maps, and encounter design. For me, it serves as a benchmark against which I measure all other adventures.
Seems like the zip archive is corrupted. I can't open it. I've re-downloaded other products from my Digital Content and they all open without an issue.
I have emailed customer service on your behalf. Ticket # 168481
This is not a true review, just a overview of the condition of the non-mint version. I picked one of the non mints up.
It had a crease about one inch from the open edge of the book. Which causes the cover to curl up a bit and not sit flat. About 25% of the pages inside suffer from the same thing. I am putting a lot of heavy books on top of it and see if I can get it to flatten out to make it stop curling up at the edge. Though the crease on the cover will always be visible even if I mange to completely flatten it back out.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Will a print version of this adventure ever be available again? (I'm looking to start up a new PF2e game and I'd really like to run this module for my players. (Lots are long-time friends/gamers) others are new to it (and most/all) are new to Pathfinder 2e.
(Worst case scenario I realize I could buy and download the PDF) but I'd really like to have a print copy.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
So just an update, I did manage to get a copy of the Fall of Plaguestone (it's a little beat up, but that's okay).
Anyway ... I might have 7 players!!! So ... I'm definitely going to need to beef up the encounters, but I'm not sure if I need to increase every encounter in the adventure. (Obviously adding enemies/creatures is easiest) but with certain encounters (boss encounters) would increasing their HD and abilities be smarter?
I'm still somewhat new to PF2e and I'm not sure what I should do to keep the adventure challenging for a larger group.
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
7 will be difficult. I'd find ways to add minions.
Spoiler:
Some of the final chapter combats, like the blood ooze, are really tough. Applying elite will boost AC and be frustrating and possibly deadly. Hallod is really the only completely solo encounter. It wouldn't be particularly weird to add some minions there.
And every time I've run this, the party has charged Hallod and someone has gotten downed, or nearly so, by that trap. I'd add extra combatants in almost every case.
