The Agents of Edgewatch Adventure Path continues! Armed with the identity of a powerful Norgorber cultist belonging to the so-called Twilight Four, the agents infiltrate a soiree of alchemists and poisoners in order to apprehend the sinister Infector in his underground hideout. But before they can get their high-ranking criminal back to headquarters, foul weather and bureaucratic obstructions force them to hole up in the abandoned Hunting Lodge Seven, where they must barricade themselves against mysterious assailants and assassins intent on getting at their prisoner. Can the heroes stave off the assault long enough to see the Infector put behind bars? And what occult mysteries will they uncover when they pursue their next lead, a foray into the haunted old amusement park called Harrowland?
“Assault on Hunting Lodge Seven” is a Pathfinder adventure for four 12th-level characters. This adventure continues the Agents of Edgewatch Adventure Path, a six-part monthly campaign in which players take on the role of city watchdogs and dole out justice to Absalom's most nefarious criminals. This volume also includes new rules and inspiring details about the legends of the mysterious Harrow, tales of some of the countless mortals aspiring to divinity via the Test of the Starstone, and a mob of new monsters and villains for urban fantasy campaigns.
Each monthly full-color softcover Pathfinder Adventure Path volume contains an in-depth adventure scenario, stats for several new monsters, and support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the world's oldest fantasy RPG.
ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-277-8
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
So hmm. This book has a kinda weird trend of starting with in media res in chapter 1, later on being in chapter 2 being like "if players felt cheated by chapter 1's start, you can soften things a bit here" and then in chapter 3 being like "if you players are very skeptical about the direction of adventure, convince them to trust you". Like there are multiple iterations of adventure being aware that it's involving something players might hate and then kinda being mixed on whether you should change things or stick to as written. It's kind of "Now listen, I know players usually hate mandated failure scenes, but trust me, it's going to be great this time!" energy.
It kinda feels like adventure has a tendency to use railroading to ensure the scene happens as cinema intended if that makes sense?
Anyway, as previously, I have to go to spoiler tags to explain further, it's going to be like this for the rest of the adventure as my main criticism is more or less about the plot itself:
So chapter 1 starts with important clarification of how Infector is proceeding with setback to this plans and how Rumormonger is responding to Infector going awol.
This clarification also confusingly seems to create a plothole. Though that might be part of it never being clarified super well what the exact pact was about since ap lacked an outline article. But okay. So to my understanding, Twilight Four made pact to Norgorber where they need to offer something grand to each of Norgorber's aspects to be empowered by the aspect's divine gift. The overall plan was for Rumormonger to frame Wynsal, Infector to create mass poisoning incident, and for Gray Queen to claim Primarch's throne. Rumormonger and Gray Queen were the main plotters of plan with Infector and Skinner being brought in, but Skinner was even less part of the plan since they decided the only thing she needed to do was a mass offering of blood from sacrifices to Norgorber, probably because they didn't trust Skinner to not put rest of plan in jeopardy somehow. So to my understanding, even if they don't work together(so technically they don't need to have synergy at all, presumably Rumormonger's offering doesn't have to involve primarch at all), once each of them has completed their offering, they all get the reward(and any member who died becomes daemonic servant of remaining ones). It is never clarified if specific member of twilight four needs to do the offering or not, but it makes less sense if one member can perform all offerings.
The plan overall is interesting because if I understood it right, it incentives each of members to let each other live until they have fulfilled their offering, then kill off each member who fulfilled their part first, so that the dead members become servants to surviving ones once all offerings are complete. If they all work together without betrayal, they all get empowered, but if they win over each other, they both get empowered and three powerful servants. So whoever has to fulfill their part of plan last has biggest advantage over others(I was impressed with this part of the plan, more on this on book 5 review).
So in the start's info, it implies Infector never actually got to do his mass poisoning offering because PCs stopped him. So umm... There isn't mention of this in the latter two books, so it kinda seems like plot hole how they got the pact fulfilled in final book. And if the pact's victory condition was only for one of them to become primarch, then what was up with Skinner's part? It can't be that pact only required blood sacrifice and one of them to become primarch? That'd be kinda weird since it puts two of the members as completely expendable.
Well anyway, Rumormonger's part also has slight issue. I like that Rumormonger is supposed to be this mastermind who predicted how other people are going to act(like clockwork) but it feels bit "tell, don't show" in this case since apparently Infector is that predictable, but if it was, then how exactly IS infector playing along to the plan by choosing completely random moment and target for the bombing? Its not like Rumormonger really needs PCs to be heroes or exist at all to continue with his main plan, so there is really no benefit of letting Infector's "ruin plan by bombing early and then Norgorber will totally reward me" plan from book 3 go of. Book 6 makes it sound like Infector's part of the plan was completely unnecessary, so that just creates more confusion. Like was that what Rumormonger was predicting "we don't really need Infector, so let him create confusion when he tries to betray us"
Like I could believe him engaging contingency plan, but its kinda funny how book 4 seems to claim Infector is mastermind as well(even with his plan not making sense in book 3) while also claiming he is predictably to greater mastermind. So which is it, is Infector an intelligent schemer or just a chump? Jury will decide as I get back to this later.
Anyway so after this part the adventure itself starts with in media rest scene where informant Starwatch informs pcs of at end of last book gets killed mid sentence. Then after a severe fight there is flashback to how they got to this scene and what informant had time to tell them.
This is something I could see as great opening to start of standalone adventure, but in campaign it feels kinda like taking players' agency away for scene that is supposed to be cool. And it doesn't help that this ap has kinda issue of making it feel like players' agency matters(even before this there are moments of mandated plot failure and ap is fairly linear without having opportunity for players' own investigation lead clues on how to proceed. And by that I mean that most of time players get lead on next place to go after previous combat encounter. So while its in a way good that Starwatch provides use to PCs investigation wise as well, it is basically taking away PC agency to continue the investigation as well until plot says they can proceed. And then the plot provided hook gets killed mid sentence without players having chance to do anything.
It basically feels like an unnecessary risky scene for the sake of a surprise start. I think my GM realized it would anger our table due to previous experiences in casino so this didn't happen to us for good reason :'D Well anyway starting with severe encounter followed by extreme encounter (with optional post-fight moderate) feels bit cruel after end of last book but at least players will at this point survive without tpk risk. It just increase's aps tendency to be meatgrinder, since once again, pcs have no back up or safety. At least adventure assumes pcs can runaway, but players often forget that option.
Neither they do next since its time for another infiltration mission.(at least Ollo got cameo here, Lavarsus hasn't really gotten cameos much since players become starwatch) Like don't get me wrong, its cool to have another infiltration, but this ap could really use the "pc super agents go alone" as exception rather than as the norm. It would kinda make sense to have black finger temple be "when you have evidence of crimes, call us for raid while you go ahead" thing at least. Once players get to lower temple, they are once again expected to run entire dungeon on their own in single day without much of rest(at least it doesn't make sense if they can retreat and come back, but can't come with retinue)
It gets ESPECIALLY harsh when it turns out that Lower temple doesn't have emergency exit that Jonis could even move out of.(it kinda feels like if there needs to be excuse of "we need you to infiltrate without backup so Jonis doesn't run away" that there would need to be actual possibility of him getting away. As it is right now, they are cautious for right reasons, but it results would be same if mission was "okay, when you have reached lower floor, call us to start raid, we will make sure the upper temple won't join lower temple as you make sure Jonis doesn't retreat, we will join you on lower floor when we can".
But yeah so after many moderate encounters(the dungeon itself isn't THAT bad at least compared to previous time it would have been nice to allow pcs allies, at least by these levels. You are still likely going to be tired by time you reach the boss though) there is grueling severe boss fight with Stabbing Beast. After which Jonis Flakfatter just surrenders. Despite being level 15, another solo severe encounter and PCs are at this point exhausted not just from hard boss fight but also from any other encounters they had on their own. As written they have no backup. Jonis is fine with stabbing them if they seem to be about to be defeated by his remaining servants. He isn't even afraid of PCs because they defeated his god's herald. He just surrenders, smugly.
...Yeah this is really the part that mind boggles me on what exactly is Jonis' masterplan. This character profile implies this is just step one, but plan seems to be "Surrender without fight you could win. Have your allies break you out. ???. Profit". Like it would be something if his plan was "Get sent to the highest security prison so that I can outlast my ex cohorts". But nah, he is perfectly fine with finishing PCs off if it seems like they are about to lose anyway. So he doesn't really NEED them to capture him, he just doesn't want to put effort because he assumes they would capture him anyway and he wants to make them think everything is going along the plan. I think adventure wanted to ensure that Jonis can't die in combat accidentally(even if pcs are supposed to use nonlethal weaponry) so that next part would happen. So is he a mastermind or not? Because it is weirdly consistent with his illogical plan in book 3 as well.
Then the next part, name sake of volume, starts with making Starwatch look rather incompetent again. So not again they don't have backup to give you(this is ONLY adventure in entire ap where they assume there is opportunity of other guard members helping you in combat and its volunteers from sleepless suns as thank you for before), they also happen to coincidentally choose obviously haunted house they apparently weren't aware of. Honestly the haunted house mysteries are cool, but while it is cool complication, it also seems bit much in this case? It at least results in there being oh so many encounters since there are both norgorberites, assassins and then mini dungeon with deadly encounters.
Jonis Flakfatter does have impressively high chance of dying yeah, especially when it turns out final boss of segment is Lesser Death. If he somehow survives, well you don't really get any intel or other rewards from it and he disappears completely from story (I didn't realize our GM including him in Blackwhale was his addition) until he gets off screen executed in final book by Gray Queen. I'll get back to that in book 6.
Well at least segment is fun enough, but it doesn't really erase how grueling, stressful and exhausting ap feels overall. Still it was nice to actually get help as written, even if it still feels weird that you got level 6 volunteers rather than any official help from starwatch for the super important suspect. While basement is cool, I do kinda feel section would actually be better off without it even though it works as the "unexpected complication" and bit of humiliation for Flakfatter. Since again it just makes starwatch look bad and kinda emphasizes how AP is less mystery solving and more endless amount of action scenes. Like I don't mind twist of house being haunted if it was more of subtle less murdery combat mystery to solve and causing more complications than "enter mini dungeon to solve it". Like maybe layout of rooms could change or etc.
But yeah so after surviving all this its time for Harrowland! Aka cool segment but kinda random. It really isn't connected to much of anything plotwise besides bad guys picking it randomly. Anyway uh so about the final railroad... It kinda feels off that Wynsal sent letter to heroes about how they should just accept being framed for the greater plan? Because it really would be smarter to warn them so they could try to avoid being framed themselves. That's why I think our gm ultimately made it being fake letter sent by Rumormonger, because it really makes sense for Rumormonger to lure pcs to frame location rather than Wynsal himself. Wynsal taking the bait on purpose in vain hope that his friend is alive and so that mastermind exposes himself works for me yeah, just not summoning pcs part. There is another reason why I kinda dislike the scene besides "trust me, failure will be great" factor.
Anyway, about harrowland first: So uh there were ten potential encounters there? Yeaaah I'm glad our gm cut it down. This ap loves making you encounter more than 3 encounters in day. While rabbit king comes out of nowhere without foreshadowing, it is cool location, I kinda wish the mechanic of breaking cards to affect Rabbit king was telegraphed better. As it is, its basically only comes as option to players if GM directly tells it. Also the part about gently telling players to not go to tent... Uh.. yeah it feels weird players can willfully just skip entire thing on accident.
So anyway, final plot criticism: So it turns out Rumormonger's masterplan to frame Wynsal Starborn is... Steal extra dimensional excavation machine, hide it in haunted circus tent, fill it with canisters of blackfinger poison, Stealing dagger, stabbing Primarch's friend with it, place his friend next to excavation machine, summon Primarch and edgewatch.
Thats really goofy plan. Like so far players unless they did something on their own have no clue what graveraker really is, how it was stolen so I can see it just being really goofy "wait how it got here?" thing, but also, that's only reason they stole it? It kinda turns graveraker into weird red herring that still becomes relevant later on.
BUT the greatest problem with this frame up lose your reputation scene? Lavarsus. Lavarsus is really done dirty here. The AP really assumes PCs should hate Lavarsus even though he never really wrongs them besides being grumpy and mean and AP really assumes PCs never form same dynamic with Lavarsus as he has with Bolero and Ollo(then Bolero never shows up again after book 1 and Ollo just briefly makes cameos, so does Lavarsus. Really there isn't enough screentime in AP for PCs to even hate Lavarsus).
On our table we did have good relations with Lavarsus, so Lavarsus ended up saving us from the scene (at cost of being shelved by the conspirators) and I feel like that worked much better than AP as written treating Lavarsus as non evil non hostile antagonist to the end that we should laugh at.
Sooo yeah. This book has lot of good to it as do all edgewatch books, but its really insistent on its ideas.
I do not write reviews often, but I had to for this one.
This module is just so bad in general.
- It railroads the party very hard. It even has a warning in it to the DM saying your taking away player agency and that they just needs to get over it and trust you. Its on page 53.
- Has set pieces that make no sense what so ever (there is a "safe-house" the players use to hide a villain for 72 hours that is so unsafe its laughable). One of the monsters in the safe-house literally has no reason to be there other then filler for the party to fight (which makes no sense since the creature has a super high intelligence.
- This story would be okay if it was a novel. As a interactive medium such as a tabletop game it is really badly done.
- One of the "major" NPCs (the primarch of Absalom) that the party will be working with gets introduced in this module and the party is just suppose to blindly follow his plans that make no sense at all. My players thought he was a villain and not a helpful NPC because of the way he is written. When I explained things to my party above the table they came to the conclusion that the NPC is the biggest moron in existence and they never would help him ever. If the series had started with this NPC being a face they knew and grew to like, I could see them maybe helping him, but most definitely changing the plan because it is insanely stupid.
This module is bad. I only ran this to the end because my players want to see the end of the AP. It was rough but we finished this book. It was a horrible experience for most of the book. I am hoping this AP gets better because this is the worst module I have ever run.
NOTE: For the purposes of this review, I’m going to put aside the awkwardness through the AP that others have noted, where it assumes that the agents will be collecting bounties and/or rewards or bribes at various points. (This is easily fixed by just having the watch provide the PCs with level-appropriate gear as they advance.)
This book is a great addition to this urban-focused AP. A couple things make this book stand out.
One thing that stands out is the attention given to making the narrative and environment plausible. For example, in the first part of the AP involving the temple, the room layout and occupants are natural and plausible; it *feels* like a living, occupied temple. Likewise, in the second part of the AP, the author goes out of their way to spell out why the enemies are coming in the waves as they do (instead of all banding together), and each wave is given distinctive tactics and behavior to give them each a different feel.
Another thing that stands out is the ways the book livens up what would otherwise be a series of dungeon-crawls. For example, the first part of the book consists of about 50/50 social and combat encounters, and the second leg flips the script by having the players defend a dungeon from various kinds of invaders, instead of the other way around.
If I had a complaint about this book, it would be that it isn’t immediately apparent how to set things up so that the final scene is plausible. But with a little work, this is something the GM can flesh out or tweak in various ways (I suggest looking at some of the suggestions in the resource thread for this book, which I found helpful).
Might be the best book of this adventure path so far
So first of all I like that the book throws players directly into the action. It feels fresh and allows you to narrate their accomplishments until things get dicey. Infiltrating the alchemists convention is also done really well. The haunted house is fun and even the finale is great. If it wasn't for the absurd opening in chapter 2 and the very linear story, I would have rated this adventure 5 stars.
Chapter 2 starts out like this:
After the players arrest the main villain, you are told to keep him in an abandoned and *haunted* villa for 72 hours until the police stops arguing with itself because this guy is so important. Furthermore if you didn't make any allies you are on your own (Why? Isn't this guy really important?). The police informs you that the house was home to a murderer. Players can find out that the villa is haunted right at the very start (crit Occultism check). The police even warns you, that the cultists are going to try to free their leader so you better try to create barricades. Oh, and there's bad weather coming up.
Wat? How on earth can this setup even remotely work if your players aren't potatoes?
IMHO swap that sh*t out completely. The weather forces you to detain this guy in the nearest villa that is luckily abandoned. If you go on in this weather, chances are high that you'll be attacked by cultists. The weather and a more important lead keeps the police from sending reinforcments (this hints at the finale in chapter 3).
Yeah, this is what I'm wondering. Please give us a full and comprehensive rundown of how many amusement parks are in Golarion, so I can put an incongruous one in the middle of Ustalav.
Yeah, this is what I'm wondering. Please give us a full and comprehensive rundown of how many amusement parks are in Golarion, so I can put an incongruous one in the middle of Ustalav.
Must direct Luis and Eleanor to this post so they know there's a demand for Lost Omens: Amusement Parks. You should see the "water slide" in Oprak...
Yeah, this is what I'm wondering. Please give us a full and comprehensive rundown of how many amusement parks are in Golarion, so I can put an incongruous one in the middle of Ustalav.
Sounds like a fun idea. Let us know how it turns out.
So far this is the best P2 AP I've read. Can't wait for new the release of the next part. I presume since the 3rd part was released less than a week ago we won't see this one until the end of October, right? Though I've been wrong before.
PDFs are usually available for purchase on the street date. That's Oct 14, 2020, for this product
Yes, but if you go look at the 5th AP of this adventure, it lists a date. Why is there no date for this one?
The date listed for the 5th module in this AP is a preorder date, not a PDF date. Its actual street date in November isn't showing yet.
Some of the other products releasing in October are not showing PDF dates yet either. The ones that are showing PDF dates so far are the Pathfinder Society Guide, the Advanced GM Screen, the NPC Battle Cards, and the City Starter Set for Starfinder Flip-Tiles. Since the street date for October products is October 14th, we should see the other entries updated soon.
I have a question about my order of this product. I have the subscription for this and received a order confirmation and a shipping confirmation, yet I don't see the PDF version available in my downloads page. Is there another email that i need to receive to also receive the pdf? I'm a bit confused as usually in the shipping confirmation email i get a link to view a pdf version as well
I have a question about my order of this product. I have the subscription for this and received a order confirmation and a shipping confirmation, yet I don't see the PDF version available in my downloads page. Is there another email that i need to receive to also receive the pdf? I'm a bit confused as usually in the shipping confirmation email i get a link to view a pdf version as well
Joan mentions on the October shipping thread that they are aware of the problem and are working on it.
Hopefully by the end of today or early tomorrow we'll have them.
Just downloaded my pdf version of this one and the interactive map doesn't have the 'hide secret doors' option. Think it got missed on this one as the previous maps had it. Plus one of the maps looks like the art will need a redo to hide the doors as the secret doors are done the same as regular doors (in the middle of a 5 foot square when the walls are depicted as 5 feet thick), kind of a givaway that somethings there.
As noone spoke about it yet, let me tell you about new stuff from the toolbox of this part of the AP!
This month's toolbox is pretty poison themed. We got 10 new (divine!) poisons. That's 2 and a half pages of new poisons! We got some new items (including a new stuff - poisoner's) and new poison spells (in the format of <monster> sting). So we have stings from imp's to linnorm's!
Monsterwise we have a clockwork assassin, a jorogumo, a shatterling, and a fiendish, norgorberish scorpion called The Stabbing Beast.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
GGSigmar wrote:
As noone spoke about it yet, let me tell you about new stuff from the toolbox of this part of the AP!
This month's toolbox is pretty poison themed. We got 10 new (divine!) poisons. That's 2 and a half pages of new poisons! We got some new items (including a new stuff - poisoner's) and new poison spells (in the format of <monster> sting). So we have stings from imp's to linnorm's!
Monsterwise we have a clockwork assassin, a jorogumo, a shatterling, and a fiendish, norgorberish scorpion called The Stabbing Beast.
I am super hyped! I was mentioning in the Arcane Mark discord that I had high hopes for more poisons, and boy did we get some.
Would love to hear more about how the divine poisons differ than normal if at all, and more about the items/spells. Are the spells just piercing damage and then Fort Saves like Spider and Purple Worm Sting? Are the items mundane or magical? Any new runes?
They are poisons that are not only alchemical, but also magical, they have 'divine' trait. They are also pretty high level, the lowest is 9. Can't see any new runes.
So I'm curious about the harrow and tales on failed starstone attempts, are there any curious interesting funny lore bits there? :O
Some of the failed entries made me chuckle.
The harrow was interesting, as it describes some cards that aren't part of the standard deck.
Were all of them funny or were some of them also mysterious or ominous? :O
The failed entries are a lot shorter than the entries for living aspirants. One I found weird was the failed god of Sacrifice crossed the chasm after his brother sacrificed himself to make a portal. Kinda sucks for him.
Two of the failed gods utterly failed to cross the chasm and fell to their deaths. On the same day.
As for mysterious, one of the failed god's dead body showed up in one of his temples three days after entering the Starstone Cathedral, only to vanish afterward.
I was really glad to see magical harrow throwing cards in this adventure, but alas, no non magical weapon block for them and the lack of a Harrower or Card Caster archetypes in the Harrow piece were disappointing, but I'm sure time can fix that.
The titular part of the adventure looks like a lot of fun though. I'm less sure of the amusement park but I'm sure it'll play well.
So I'm curious about the harrow and tales on failed starstone attempts, are there any curious interesting funny lore bits there? :O
Some of the failed entries made me chuckle.
The harrow was interesting, as it describes some cards that aren't part of the standard deck.
Were all of them funny or were some of them also mysterious or ominous? :O
The failed entries are a lot shorter than the entries for living aspirants. One I found weird was the failed god of Sacrifice crossed the chasm after his brother sacrificed himself to make a portal. Kinda sucks for him.
Two of the failed gods utterly failed to cross the chasm and fell to their deaths. On the same day.
As for mysterious, one of the failed god's dead body showed up in one of his temples three days after entering the Starstone Cathedral, only to vanish afterward.
Cool :) Bit late to ask, but were any of the living aspirants particularly interesting to you?
I would also love to hear what you all thought of the living aspirants. I tried to make some that would be easy to fit as plot hooks into GM's campaigns.
Mechaliber wrote:
As for mysterious, one of the failed god's dead body showed up in one of his temples three days after entering the Starstone Cathedral, only to vanish afterward.
That would be Oggo of the 16 Poses, my personal favorite of the failed, and one of the only two whose cult is still going strong. He always taught his followers that 'failure was only the first step on the path to enlightenment,' so his followers were not as dismayed by finding his body -- then losing it -- as you might expect. Years later his followers still teach the poses, feed the hungry, and await Oggo's next step. It's clearly just taking him a while.
I really should make a character who studied at the Ogoda and still follows the path of Oggo. There's something to be said for dogged determination.
Just downloaded my pdf version of this one and the interactive map doesn't have the 'hide secret doors' option. Think it got missed on this one as the previous maps had it. Plus one of the maps looks like the art will need a redo to hide the doors as the secret doors are done the same as regular doors (in the middle of a 5 foot square when the walls are depicted as 5 feet thick), kind of a givaway that somethings there.
I’ve just reached this part of the adventure and this is really frustrating. That map is too large for me to draw on a flipmat, and event with the tags turned off I can’t just share a copy with my players without revealing every secret door in the joint.
Organized Play Developer
Contributor
