Secrets Hidden in Stone! The Field of Maidens, an eerie stretch along the nation of Geb's southern border, lies studded with the petrified remains of invaders from centuries past. Long neglected and largely abandoned, the area takes on new significance when a traitor claws her way back from the dead and races toward her master concealed in the statue-filled badlands. At the same time, foreign invaders have infiltrated the stony sentinels to move against Geb. The player characters must piece together clues, unravel tangled motives, and bring to light machinations that threaten to destabilize the nation from the Field of Maidens.
"Field of Maidens" is a Pathfinder adventure for four less-than-good-hearted 8th-level characters. The adventure continues the Blood Lords Adventure Path, a six-part, monthly campaign in which the characters rise from skilled troubleshooters to join the Blood Lords who rule a land of the dead. The adventure also details the celestial matriarchy of Holomog and examines the undead shadows that plague the world's dark places. New items, spells, monsters, and more await your examination in "Field of Maidens"!
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: 978-1-64078-462-8
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I really liked the first two books of this AP, but this book was a little disappointing. It has some nice parts, but the plot tying it together felt a little shaky.
The Good:
—The Shadow Cottage seems like a nice creepy call-back to the previous leg of this AP.
—The town of Thornheath is great — it’s an unusual premise that makes perfect sense in Geb, and it has the promise for some great (and creepy) role-playing for the party.
—The back-matter on Holomog and Shadows is good.
The Bad:
—The first part of the AP guides the plot by having the party find an important note, but the existence and location of the note seems inconsistent with the events described in the book.
—The party is supposed to spend the first half of the adventure accompanied by Seldeg Bhedlis, who could easily handle all of the obstacles the party encounters without breaking a sweat. And the reasons provided for why Seldeg fails to do so seem strained. (Fortunately, there’s little reason for Seldeg to be present, so the GM can have him depart once he tells the PCs what to do.)
—Although the main antagonist of the book is an interesting character, their motivation for fighting the PCs at the end doesn’t make a lot of sense.
Spoiler:
(They demand that the PCs give them all of the magical items the party collects from a random place because they think that these items might be relevant to their project. But there doesn’t seem to be any reason to think that anything from this location would help with the antagonist’s project, or any reason why standard and clearly irrelevant equipment would be something they would think might help them with this project.)
—Much of the book after the first chapter seems fairly generic content that you could more or less transport into any AP. This is a shame, and misses out on highlighting the weirdness and coolness of adventuring in such an exotic locale.
The Ugly/Pretty:
—As usual, the maps and art are good.
So I originally wanted to gush about expansion further into southern garund, but I am giving my honest impressions on adventure itself though I can't talk about practical experience of running the adventure of how it works mechanically in practice. TLDR, its 3.5, but wheel archon rounds it up for me that I'm overally feeling positive. I wouldn't round it up though if I felt adventure was more meh, its flawed but solid for me.
This adventure has bit of railroading problem despite having lot of opportunities for freedom and choices. Some of it is clearly on purpose, like cheeky nod at how evil tyrants don't really give you real choices(it might annoy parties though if they feel like this isn't first railroad), but some of it is very much "And this is now time for climactic final boss fight, there aren't options unless you really want to surrender". I'll get to what I mean later on.
So first thing I'll comment on is Seldeg thing in the start. He is written as quest giver who is with you to force a time pressure to move on so players don't have extra time to deal with sidequests. Thats it, he isn't even written like a evil villain delegating his minions(you, the party), he is doing his job and he is given twice flimsy excuse to not enter combat sections with PCs. I get that writer doesn't want Seldeg to steal player spotlight and make things too easy, but it doesn't really work. First time he investigates second lead, but nothing is mentioned about it afterwards so apparently that lead was complete waste of time and second time he doesn't come with PCs because of legal reasons. When he really doesn't care about players methods or prevent them from entering the grounds themselves.
I think Seldeg should have either been played more antagonistically so that party would be happy whenever he leaves them alone or that it should have been presented as choice: Have him come along and help you out or try to impress him by doing it on your own. Latter would alone make it much more reasonable as written to me.
(sidenote on something about previous book that irks me but isn't fault of this book: I don't mind it that book generally assumes all party members are living in order for full undead parties to gain advantages on certain encounters, but its very clear that book 3 and onward writers weren't likely consulted about book 2 sneaking in free ritual to give players negative healing for year. There aren't many of them but there is at least one encounter trivialized by immunity to negative damage)
Anyway, Seldeg part of the book feels most easy to cut off as it is mostly just getting players the clues to continue, while I do like the Shadow Cottage and intro and real playhouse near end contrast, the latter half of chapter 1 feels like sidequest made mandatory for progression. Though I do like all the reputation boost choices this ap has even if so far faction interaction hasn't been major part of it yet. Like I don't dislike chapter 1 content wise, but Seldeg feels weirdly used and lot of it seems like minor busywork to get players to the Holomog border.
I like chapter 2 much more due to its free form "You can diplomatically solve this or make factions fight each other or etc" factor, I do wish though there was bit more guidance on npc reactions to undead pcs, but there are lot of fun stuff there, like the undead ghast warren being surprisingly reasonable due to them being Gebbites outlaws. In general I always like it when story sections allow pcs to complete them with minimal combat, but admittedly this chapter is more of roadblock to prevent players finding their target and there is no reason to believe choices here will be super important in future of campaign itself.
Now Chapter 3 has thematic stuff to it but its source of two major railroads. Let's get into the first one: WHY exactly is Iron Taviah trying to kill party after telling them the whole story and warning about big bad? Like, sure, she might be feeling vengeful sure and its in character for her to have friendly chat pre murder, she did that in previous book too, but her motivations feel off to me. She is noted to wanting to kill pcs to drain their memories to be useful to said big bad... Who she is currently hating for accidentally turning her into undead and who doesn't currently realize she is undead because he just left her for dead.
Like, its very clearly "this section is exposition to bring players up to speed before boss fight" section, but if that is really just it, I think it should have played up more her vengeful nature "And now dearies I shall kill you for killing me before dealing with that nasty man for giving me this cursed existence!" or something like that. Because as written it made me think "So how come one it isn't option to make truce with her?" Even if it would be incredibly hard, it feels like trying to team up with her vs Kemnebi should be option for any morally questionable parties going through this.
Now in vacuum, that would be okay for me, books rarely allow non violent solutions to big bads of the book and that's why if players think of them I allow them creative solutions myself even if it is hard. However the thing that bothers me is that she ISN'T the final boss. Which leads us to the second major railroad: Why the only way to deal with the "Lonely Maiden" is to either fight her or give up all treasure from final dungeon of book? The book doesn't even really say what happens if players actually agree to it(it wouldn't honestly harm players much besides getting less money)
Reason why that is such a railroad to me is that while "Lonely Maiden" is motivated by her obsession, the said obsession is primarily motivated by her loneliness and needs for friends. Even if party is bunch of LE undead, they have had multiple chances to interact with her (and at least once rescued her from broom closet :P), so how come on book doesn't assume possibility of "What if PCs convince her that they are truly her friends"? Even if she is dangerously obsessive and unstable CE legendary being, for LE undead party(without real friends ;P) that might still seem worth it to manipulate her like that to be their minion.
Like it would be one thing if she wasn't given so many chances to interact with PCs, or there was heavier emphasis on her only considering stone statues her friends(that could lead to good scene of her being angry at party for letting Holomog groups steal her friends if they solved it previously diplomatically), but even if latter was case, it would kinda come across as "she is mandatory boss because we need final boss fight and she is crazy so no negotiation. Unless you want to give up gold like true non friend you are"
Overall, I would give adventure itself 3/5. It has solid base to build up from as GM and there are lot of good and fun ideas, but execution wise there are big question marks for me and it doesn't flow as well as I would prefer as it end ups feeling bit of like filler book in cool location with cool diplomacy encounters.
Now the thing I wanted to talk about, the extra articles!
Holomog: So besides the very fascinating interpretation of celestial mandate(I guess Tianjing is thematically similar, but considering how much celestials dislike taking part in mortal affairs, nation that managed to negotiate contract with them is fascinating), I find it fascinating that Drooni is trade language/common of southern garund since that implies lizardfolk empire of Droon is one of most influential nations in the South.(considering everywhere else human empires seem to be the most influential ones) Interestingly Holomog article itself doesn't seem to mention the matriarchy thing.
But yeah writers did good job of fleshing out Holomog and giving it really good internal conflict and philosophical disagreements that seem fascinating to explore more of. Cover picture for article is weirdly extremely generic though, like I don't think it contradicts art of Anuli from distant shores per say, but something about it seems like generic disney castle.
I haven't read the shadow article in detail, but I love how it's art and article runs with 2e alien looking bestiary shadow design instead of going for more standard "moving shadow" pictures.
Bestiary section this time has lot of new monsters that didn't actually show up in adventure, makes me wonder if they were cut because devs didn't want fighting good aligned creatures after all? Either way I LOVE wheel archon and we having now pathfinder version of alien biblical angels as its clear ophanim reference :D new agathion and azata is nice too.
But yeah I do think extra material is enough to bumb this up to 4/5 overall for me.
Anything that reaches beyond the borders of the Inner Sea is incredibly exciting to me, and this book gives us fascinating insights into an ancient celestial-backed monarchy where things are not as utopian as they might prefer to be. Super cool stuff supporting a very fun adventure; I can’t wait to see more of Southern Garund!
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
I think the thing I like most about this adventure is that, unlike Hell's Vengeance:
Field of Maidens SPOILERS!:
The PCs are given latitude to deal with the problem they're tasked with solving as long as it's solved. You're not REQUIRED to do war crimes in order to progress the plot, but the option to do a war crimes is still there for players who want to lean into Blood Lords as a full-on evil campaign, while still leaving room for those who just want to be amoral and gritty.
I might gently recommend anyone who enjoys this volume or the Holomog material leave a positive review, as this one's gotten thrashed in the ratings. I don't begrudge anyone an honest bad rating, but it's always harder to get positive feedback.
Do I have an agenda here? Of course - I want more Southern Garund material almost as badly as I want central Arcadia, so it's in my best interests that this book do well :p
I haven't played it yet (waiting on part 4) but I would personally be offended by a no-effort 5 star review by someone who hasn't actually played it pushing an agenda just as much as I would a no-effort 2 star Rip Tanner review for the same reason.
While I do personally buy AP's for esoteric info about obscure topics, I don't think that's the main reason that people purchase them and reviews should not be based on it alone.
It's 3 stars adventure to me so good extra content pushing it to 4/5(3.5 rounded up accurately speaking. I might edit score to 3 stars if something sours my opinion afterwards) was fair in my mind. Might be pushed up or down if it turns out to be frustrating in practice or much more fun than I initially assumed. Honestly my favorite thing is the Wheel Archon, Holomog article is nice but its mostly 0.5+ score at best because its mostly small treat to make you hungry for more, still good one but you couldn't run Holomog campaign with gazetteer alone really.
(honestly though biggest thing bringing Holomog article down is that cover picture looks oddly generic medieval disney castle to me. I do like the dragons and flying creatures on background, but while it doesn't really conflict with Anuli picture, something about Anuli's picture feels MUCH less generic in comparison. Yeah art is BIG part of getting me excited for something unfortunately, so while Holomog stuff is philosophically fascinating, I'm not hyped yet for it since Holomog wasn't one of my personal interest nations previously)
I think adventure itself is good base to build up from, but it suffers from railroading(why exactly is this boss fight mandatory), presentation issues(Seldeg) and lot of it seeming disconnected from main plot(it ends up feeling like filler book where none of three chapters are strictly related to each other even if stuff you do is cool).
it ends up feeling like filler book where none of three chapters are strictly related to each other
This was my problem with it. You could have a clue dropping Kemnebi's name at the end of Graveclaw and the PCs immediately summoned to Mechitar for their efforts against the hag coven, and skip this book entirely. I buy the AP books for the adventure and don't factor the back matter into my reviews, and Field of Maidens was (IMO) a pointless slog.
I did finish reading the book after submitting my 1 star review. The doll house was a tonal U-turn that had me rolling my eyes, but Gristlehall was fine. The medusa villain semed poorly conceived and hard to take seriously. Her dialogue when she's first introduced reads like it was written for Berline Haldoli, then she gets locked in a cupboard by her own minions, before the inevitable betrayal at the end of the adventure.
I also find it hard to swallow that two good aligned tribes from Holomog would just give a group of ghouls and goblins the run of their camp/s and offer them cooking lessons (or why a party of undead would give a flying F about getting involved in their business). Admittedly, I did not read the Holomog article, because it did not interest me.
Main reason I consider it fine for toolbox to increase score by 0.5 or rounding it up is that its still almost 40% of book as the adventures are about 60 page of 100 pages.(not exactly since covers and mix of adventure items/npcs in articles and etc) Though obviously its pretty your mileage may vary thing since these are primarily adventure modules
I haven't played it yet (waiting on part 4) but I would personally be offended by a no-effort 5 star review by someone who hasn't actually played it pushing an agenda just as much as I would a no-effort 2 star Rip Tanner review for the same reason.
While I do personally buy AP's for esoteric info about obscure topics, I don't think that's the main reason that people purchase them and reviews should not be based on it alone.
I bought this book for the info in it, not to run. I feel I got my money’s worth. Why shouldn’t I leave a review?
One has to imagine the bulk of purchased Pathfinder content never actually gets to the table. I think it’s silly to demand only the hardest-core practical experience justifies a review.
We produce adventures as much to be read and enjoyed as we do to be played. Reviews from folks who "just" read an adventure are as important as those from folks who play the adventure, and in some cases are even more useful, since...
1) A review from someone who reads an adventure can go up far more quickly than waiting for it to be played, and thus gets feedback or good feelings to us sooner, and...
2) A review from someone who reads an adventure is potentially more insightful than a review from someone who just played an adventure, since that review is as much (if not more) a review of their GM's presentation of the adventure as it is the adventure itself.
ALL reviews are welcome... as long as they're honest! And reviews that give actual feedback, be it criticism or admiration, are always orders of magnitude more useful to those of us who create adventures than ones that just give stars with no context.
That all said, please don't gatekeep who should or shouldn't write a review. It's tough enough to get reviews for adventures as it is!
To me a so-so adventure with a good adventure toolbox is 3/5.
A bad adventure with a REALLY GREAT adventure toolbox is 2/5, and I'd wonder why it wasn't just put in a core/Lost Omens book instead.
Most of my favorite AP articles would've been too niche for any larger release to include them in any reasonable time; what Lost Omens release would this gazetteer of Holomog go in, or the writeup of Vudra in Agents of Edgewatch? Oftentimes, an AP volume is the only feasible place for content to wind up - which is why I've bought several, despite not running any PF2 campaigns any time soon. If my options are "get an adventure I won't read" or "wait however many years for Paizo to get around to a Southern Garund book," I'm gladly doing the former, and happily leaving a positive review if I got what I came for.
I'm not sure that Tyrant's Grasp #5 is a perfect adventure, but that doesn't stop it from being one of my favorite Pathfinder things ever published, because it had a Xopatl gazetteer and showcased the people and culture of Jolizpan. It earned a high rating from me that I feel pretty good about. The same is true here.
Looking back at book 1 reviews, I think there might be misunderstanding.
Like in book 1, there are multiple reviews that explains their views, then at one point there are three five stars reviews where two first ones don't comment on it and third one says directly its to counter Rip Tanner's wordless review. Then there is Leon's review that seems annoyed at those three reviews
Like maybe I'm misunderstanding it, but I read that as "hypothetically I'd accept it if I knew the person giving 5 or 1 stars at least experienced or read the adventure first even if I actually can't know it", like they were more annoyed at lack of detailed review than score itself? Sorry if I misunderstood ^_^;
(personally I normally prefer to review books only after running them, but I have gotten feeling that if I wait that long, writers might not have chance to learn from feedback if I really do have a strong opinion on stuff I read or I might not see my favorite map artists again if I don't give positive feedback in time x'D)
Can a developer please convert the Wheel Archon to PF1e? That'd be great. So many PF2e new monsters I wish they did in 1e, an the Ophanim (wheel archon) I've been waiting years for, it'd be very nice if one of you at Paizo could give us PF1e fans the stats for it? Especially after being loyal customers throughout all of 1e. Thanks.
Can a developer please convert the Wheel Archon to PF1e? That'd be great. So many PF2e new monsters I wish they did in 1e, an the Ophanim (wheel archon) I've been waiting years for, it'd be very nice if one of you at Paizo could give us PF1e fans the stats for it? Especially after being loyal customers throughout all of 1e. Thanks.
I can do it for you, Luis. 5 bucks per conversion, I take PayPal.
Can a developer please convert the Wheel Archon to PF1e? That'd be great. So many PF2e new monsters I wish they did in 1e, an the Ophanim (wheel archon) I've been waiting years for, it'd be very nice if one of you at Paizo could give us PF1e fans the stats for it? Especially after being loyal customers throughout all of 1e. Thanks.
I can do it for you, Luis. 5 bucks per conversion, I take PayPal.
Cool so those of us who don't have time to play every single AP should never leave reviews for the content that we get from them?
Yes. And if James Jacobs is offended at that opinion, he can have it moderated for all I care. The usual suspects in this thread were so mad about Rip Tanner that they created an entire thread about it (how's that for "gatekeeping" reviews, Jacobs?), but comment-less 5 stars are totally cool?
I'm sorry, I can't accept that kindergarten logic.
It gets so tiresome seeing the same 5-7 people trying to wag the dog on every single subject and book this company puts out. Thankfully money still talks and forum posts walk.
it ends up feeling like filler book where none of three chapters are strictly related to each other
This was my problem with it. You could have a clue dropping Kemnebi's name at the end of Graveclaw and the PCs immediately summoned to Mechitar for their efforts against the hag coven, and skip this book entirely. I buy the AP books for the adventure and don't factor the back matter into my reviews, and Field of Maidens was (IMO) a pointless slog.
I did finish reading the book after submitting my 1 star review. The doll house was a tonal U-turn that had me rolling my eyes, but Gristlehall was fine. The medusa villain semed poorly conceived and hard to take seriously. Her dialogue when she's first introduced reads like it was written for Berline Haldoli, then she gets locked in a cupboard by her own minions, before the inevitable betrayal at the end of the adventure.
I also find it hard to swallow that two good aligned tribes from Holomog would just give a group of ghouls and goblins the run of their camp/s and offer them cooking lessons (or why a party of undead would give a flying F about getting involved in their business). Admittedly, I did not read the Holomog article, because it did not interest me.
Interesting, that was the whole reason I bought this volume, I haven't even read the actual adventure yet.
Reviews without any information are less useful to me when it comes to improving products, and reviews that don't have information and are low reviews are not only not useful but are demoralizing. I have no interest in gatekeeping reviews, since that leads to the exact opposite of what I want to see—reviews with words attached (be they good or bad) so that we as the creators of the content can use feedback from those who the products are created for to make them better.
But that doesn't change the fact that no-text reviews are less useful than those that do have text. Not only does even including a single line of text provide more feedback, but they make the review seem more "legit" in the same way a written letter carries more weight than an e-mail. The more trouble someone goes through to communicate, the more weight that communication carries.
I do give the way people treat each other on the boards here (reviews included) into consideration, even though I don't actually have moderator access to the boards. I work at Paizo and I want these boards to be a welcoming and friendly place for gamers to chat, and it's unpleasant and depressing when folks use the platform to spread sadness and hate and discord.
Please be kind and patient to and with each other.
Cool so those of us who don't have time to play every single AP should never leave reviews for the content that we get from them?
Yes. And if James Jacobs is offended at that opinion, he can have it moderated for all I care. The usual suspects in this thread were so mad about Rip Tanner that they created an entire thread about it (how's that for "gatekeeping" reviews, Jacobs?), but comment-less 5 stars are totally cool?
I'm sorry, I can't accept that kindergarten logic.
It gets so tiresome seeing the same 5-7 people trying to wag the dog on every single subject and book this company puts out. Thankfully money still talks and forum posts walk.
Did ye need to resurrect conversation from month ago though? Like I can get being annoyed when you realize post you missed annoys you, but it also just has risk of restarting the conversation all over again.
But yeah, my opinion? If someone has positive opinion on something and they can explain why they have it, its okay. If somebody has negative opinion on something and they can explain why, then its okay. Its okay for people to discuss why they disagree with other opinions. If somebody wants to review something but not explain why, its frustrating but okay since site wouldn't allow it if it wasn't okay. I find it annoying when people review bomb each other without lines either to counter low scores or high scores because I actually want to hear what other people's opinions were as well and its hard to tell difference between "I genuinely liked this book" and "I feel like that score is unfair so I shall counterbalance it"