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.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber
How long is it taking most GMs to run this adventure? Most of my players enjoy the Role-Play aspect of scenarios, so I'm planning on a long session (7hr) just for Chapter 1.
I figure heavy RP, lots of game mechanics questions, rules look-ups, maybe some character construction, it would likely be a long session.
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Michael Sayre wrote:
I don't have a date for you on the sanctioning docs (yet), but this is one of the first things I'm going to be following up with Linda about on Tuesday when everyone's back in the office to make sure we finish getting the Chronicles and play docs up ASAP.
We'll have the typical grace period where if you've already played this before the sanctioning docs hit the site, your GM will still be able to issue Chronicle sheets for you.
Will the Sanctioned be announces on Paizo or the OPF Web site? or will i just check on the Module Product page and look for the Download Link beneath it?
We'll have the typical grace period where if you've already played this before the sanctioning docs hit the site, your GM will still be able to issue Chronicle sheets for you.
How long has "the typical grace period" typically been in the past? A week, a month, half a year?
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I ran the first part in a 9-hr session and finished with about 30 minutes to spare. My group took a decent amount of time to role play, and we ended up having 2 encounters at the same as the group split up to explore the town. They did it, but it could have ended horribly. Overall if you do decent role play throughout the first part it will be either two sessions or a long first session.
Encounters:
The Party split up during the mystery investigation to explore a farmhouse outside of town and go on a walk with the mayor.
First fight= Boar
2 party members- This one almost downed a PC on a crit from the charge.
Second fight- 4 Bloodseekers
2 party members + Mayor- Bloodseekers couldn't attach to mayor, nat 1's, but crit the PCS to attach.
I figure the last 2 parts should go faster, with two 5-hour sessions to finish each one. Possibly a third depending how much role play happens.
So just to check, how exactly does it work reporting this if I manage to run it completely before its sanctioned to players interested in getting chronicles? Like do I try to remember the dates we completed each part, or do I just report all of them on same day?(I mean it is three part module so I would assume that means three chronicles?)
The amalgam has trip attached to its tail attack. It doesnt look like a trait giv en where it is in the stat block. Is it supposed to be knockdown or improved knockdown?
Thanks for getting this sanctioned for society play!
One question, are there plans to make this repeatable or is it already and I just missed it?
It is not repeatable, and we don't currently have plans to make it so. Pathfinder Society in Second Edition has a lot more repeatable scenarios than Pathfinder Society First Edition, and we're looking to see how well those meet the needs of the community before exploring other replay options.
Quick note - at the current time, the reporting sheet included in the sanctioning docs PDF is using the 1E format (Prestige + 1E factions listed on it).
Not a huge deal, as 2E GMs can always just use a generic 2E reporting sheet, but it might be momentarily confusing to see that.
The sanctioning docs left out Fame. It states 12 Reputation, but left out Fame. The sheet has the Fame boxes in place, so I think there is just an omission.
So, I am planning to run this at an upcoming convention. I have Parts 1, 2, and 3 each scheduled for its own slot. I was originally thinking that Part 1 would be played by level 1 characters, Part 2 by 2nd level characters, and Part 3 by 3rd level characters. I think part 1 would be too easy for 3rd level characters and likewise, I think part 3 would be too difficult for 1st level characters. I think I would need to have players level up between each part. However, at the end, are my players each earning one chronicle sheet for all three parts? Is this correct?
So, I am planning to run this at an upcoming convention. I have Parts 1, 2, and 3 each scheduled for its own slot. I was originally thinking that Part 1 would be played by level 1 characters, Part 2 by 2nd level characters, and Part 3 by 3rd level characters. I think part 1 would be too easy for 3rd level characters and likewise, I think part 3 would be too difficult for 1st level characters. I think I would need to have players level up between each part. However, at the end, are my players each earning one chronicle sheet for all three parts? Is this correct?
Yeah. The way I think about it is "like PFS1 campaign mode by default". Whatever shenanigans happen during the module stay outside the org play boundary. The characters playing the module may well (and are definitely intended to) level-up through the course of the module, but this "in-module character leveling" has no effect on the players' actual PFS2 characters, which only level up by receiving the Chronicle with 12 XP, at the end.
Thank you for the Chronicle sheet. How exactly does the Herolab Code in the box work?
The code is included on all Chronicle sheets for PF2 and is basically laying the groundwork for a potential Hero Lab enhancement that is not currently available.
I just wanted to pop in for a quick update on a fairly relevant thing-
There is a fairly significant error in the Chronicle sheet that went up, primarily due to the fact that it was using the unmodified scenario template instead of a modified module template. There should not be Subtiers listed alongside the two loot columns; what is currently tagged as Subtier 1-2 is available to everyone with the Chronicle sheet, and what is currently listed as Subtier 3-4 should be the Keepsakes section, which is comprised solely of uncommon (and one rare) items. I've had an update pushed to correct the template, clarify that Fame is one of the resources completing the adventure grants you, and implement the excellent suggestion from Dustin Knight earlier in the thread to break up the Treasure Bundles so that characters on the verge of leveling up don't suffer a drop in wealth.
If you have already received a copy of the Chronicle for playing through this module and your GM is not available to sign a corrected version, you can print off a copy of the corrected Chronicle sheet and keep it with your original signed sheet, updating your gold received as appropriate to this change.
Note: You may need to clear out your cache/cookies or open up a new browser window to download the updated file.
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Great job on getting this fixed so quickly, Michael!
Thank you very much!
I have to thank Tony on the art team and our webstore coordinator Katina for swapping the templates out and getting the corrected file uploaded so quickly. My part of the process was mostly tapping on shoulders and presenting my friendliest "I need something" smile :)
I'm very happy you went with Dustin's idea about the treasure bundles, that fits very well with the PFS2 approach to giving people exactly the treasure they should be getting. PFS1 treasure had a lot of edge cases and some exploits.
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Thank you guys for getting this done for us. It is tremendously appreciated.
I have one issue that I'd like some clarification on, in regards to how this is being applied to PFS characters. As mentioned before, the CS is granting 1 level of XP, along with appropriate treasure and fame for 3 scenarios. I'll admit, I like the Keepsakes rules and how that is applied. But, it does seem like the players' PFS character gets short-changed with only 1 level of XP even though the players play through 3 levels worth of adventure. Is this due to some kind of balancing issue? Or is it just that PCs may level up too fast for the available playing options right now?
I'm asking because I know my players will want to know when we do part 2 this Saturday.
Thank you guys for getting this done for us. It is tremendously appreciated.
I have one issue that I'd like some clarification on, in regards to how this is being applied to PFS characters. As mentioned before, the CS is granting 1 level of XP, along with appropriate treasure and fame for 3 scenarios. I'll admit, I like the Keepsakes rules and how that is applied. But, it does seem like the players' PFS character gets short-changed with only 1 level of XP even though the players play through 3 levels worth of adventure. Is this due to some kind of balancing issue? Or is it just that PCs may level up too fast for the available playing options right now?
I'm asking because I know my players will want to know when we do part 2 this Saturday.
I am sure this has been answered already but is this module a replay worthy scenario. Evergreen I mean. I wanna run it for some players and I personally have run and played it once.
In 1665, a plague swept through the English village of Eyam. The residents of Eyam selflessly self-quarantined themselves and depended upon food and medical supplies from outsiders. To safety facilitate trade, villagers would leave vinegar-soaked coins in the holes of the village's "boundary stone". (It was believed vinegar would make the coins sterile) Outsiders would then take the coins and leave food and supplies, thus minimizing the plague's effect on the town's people. The Eyam Boundary Stone still rests in it's original spot,
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.