Pathfinder Adventure Path #196: The Summer That Never Was (Season of Ghosts 1 of 4)

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Pathfinder Adventure Path #196: The Summer That Never Was (Season of Ghosts 1 of 4)
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The Season of Ghosts Adventure Path begins!

A terrible curse descends upon the town of Willowshore! Located in haunted Shenmen in the heart of the sprawling continent of Tian Xia, this horror-themed campaign pits the heroes against supernatural threats and the harsh realities of facing an upcoming winter when all contact with the outside world has been cut off by a mysterious wall of fog. What fiendish menace might be behind the Willowshore Curse, and can it be stopped before everyone in town is lost? The Season of Ghosts Adventure Path is a four-part series of connected adventures that form a complete Pathfinder campaign for characters of 1st to 12th level.

In the campaign’s opening adventure, the heroes awaken disoriented and alone in a forest clearing after taking part in a traditional festival on the last day of Spring. They soon discover their hometown of Willowshore has been invaded by monsters and has fallen under a sinister spell. Yet defeating the monsters is only the first step in discovering the frightening nature of a supernatural curse that has gripped the land, and as the days of a summer plagued with rain trudge on, the grim reality facing the people of Willowshore will need true heroes to confront!

The Summer That Never Was is a horror-themed Pathfinder adventure for four 1st-level characters. This adventure begins the Season of Ghosts Adventure Path, a four-part monthly campaign in which a group of adventurers fight to protect their home town from monsters and mysterious events that have isolated them from the rest of the world. This adventure also includes a detailed look at the small town of Willowshore, a selection of new magical items to discover, and several new monsters ready to bring a dose of fear to your table!

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.

Written by: Sen H.H.S. and James Jacobs.

ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-544-1

The Season of Ghosts Adventure Path is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle Sheets are available as a free download (860 KB PDF).

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscription.

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A Wonderful Start with an Excellent Mystery

5/5

I just recently finished running the main scenario of this book, and it really is a fantastic time. I heartily recommend this adventure path to any GM looking for a great story to share with their players.

I don't have many chapter by chapter notes as by and large this book is just excellent across the board, but there are a few minor issues to note:

- The combat encounters are simply too easy for most groups. Beginners will have a good time but anyone experienced in this system will breeze through it all like the enemies aren't even there. Luckily, this is a pretty easy fix thanks to how easy it is to dial encounter difficulty up or down in PF2E.
- Players are likely to be pretty light on gold during this book, and GMs might want to consider either dropping a lot more fundamental runes or upping the amount of gold they give away.
- One of the first things the book expects you to do is cross the river, but crossing bodies of water is also in the list of things you're not supposed to do so you don't anger ghosts. Very minor thing but it caused some confusion among my players near the start of the campaign.

Both the author and the Paizo developers/editors did a fantastic job with this book, and between this play experience and my reading of the upcoming volumes this may well be my favorite AP when all is said and done!


5/5

Excellent product from start to finish. Shenmen's Willowshore is sandboxy enough to be different for each group. The twists are spectacular. There is no filler content here. Pacing and guidance is on point. Love the writing and GM advice. My small nitpick about a lot of these adventures is they are not shown as points of interest on a regional map so I have to use precious time digging in the 4 volumes to find which towns neighbor Willowshore to the north, west and south, or where exactly is Willowshore and Karahai.

One last small criticism is I wanted more Jorogumo rulers to fight. Shenmen is very cool and we only got a small peek at it in this adventure.

I would love a 3rd adventure in Tian Xia, after we've had a couple war themed ones in Cheliax/Geb to pair with the Battlecry rulebook.


5/5


So well done!

5/5

This is by far the best AP I've read. The first adventure has a nice variety of encounters, full of surprises and foreshadowing. A colourful and well rounded set of NPCs offer multiple options for meaningful interactions and conflict resolutions. It uses a wide variety of P2e's mechanics, all done in a way to move the story forward.

Much like the structure of the greater AP, the first book is written using Kishōtenketsu narrative structure. It's a fun read, and does an excellent job of getting the PCs engaged while laying the foundation for future plot twists and revelations. "The Summer That Never Was" offers a fantastic setting and story. I can't wait to fill it out even more with information from the Tian Xia World Guide. This campaign is the top of my wish list for AP's to run.


Can you save a terrorized town?

5/5

Quick caveat; I've read through the adventure, but not yet run it for my players.

Willowshore is a quiet, remote village in Tian Xia with deep ties to the natural - and unnatural - world around it. The players awake after an annual festival to find the town has been seized by horrific monsters; they must defeat the invaders, rescue what citizens they are able to, and restore the protections of the village before investigating where the monsters came from and why. Many of the village locations (shops and features, etc) are quite detailed, as well as the non-violently opposed factions of the town; we get extensive summaries of the two village elders and shorter ones of other notables, plus more detail and history about the region where Willowshore is located. There's also a handful of thematic magic items, a good helping of new fulus, and quite a few neat but very creepy monsters.

Note that there are quite a few significant plot twists and secrets in the adventure path, so if you are interested in playing through it fresh, I'd recommend you avoid reading it ahead! Otherwise I'd say it's an excellent adventure, either for running it as-is or for harvesting bits for your own campaigns.


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Grand Lodge

Will a Player's Guide be released before the adventure is released?


1 person marked this as a favorite.
roll4initiative wrote:
Will a Player's Guide be released before the adventure is released?

Given that they’ve done one for every single other PF2 AP, I don’t see a reason why they’d stop.

Grand Lodge

keftiu wrote:
roll4initiative wrote:
Will a Player's Guide be released before the adventure is released?
Given that they’ve done one for every single other PF2 AP, I don’t see a reason why they’d stop.

I didn't ask if there will be a Player's Guide, I'm asking if it will be released/available before the AP is.

Grand Archive

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Yeah they are usually released a couple of weeks before; it’ll be after the last book of current AP Sky Kings Tomb is out

Director of Marketing

4 people marked this as a favorite.
roll4initiative wrote:
Will a Player's Guide be released before the adventure is released?

Yes, we are targeting early October.

Verdant Wheel

Excited for this, and intend to run via PbP!

Will there be any advice or codification on what constitutes "common" and "uncommon" and "rare" options across the continent for this AP?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

7 people marked this as a favorite.
rainzax wrote:

Excited for this, and intend to run via PbP!

Will there be any advice or codification on what constitutes "common" and "uncommon" and "rare" options across the continent for this AP?

Not in this adventure, although when we created it, we did skew the treasures and contents toward what would be appropriate for a campaign set in Shenmen and not elsewhere in the world, so once you're playing the campaign it'll all be handled.

Beyond that, for character creation and the like, the concept of what is "common" and "uncommon" and "rare" is beyond the scope of an adventure anyway, and the original idea was that this would be part of the Tian Xia hardcover books that originally were going to come out at about the same time as this Adventure Path. Alas, the OGL disaster back in January and the resulting remaster made that impossible and we had to shift the two hardcover books to next year.

As a result, there'll be a "band-aid" to fix this for "Season of Ghosts" in the meantime in the form of the Season of Ghosts Player's Guide. We don't recategorize everything into new rarity categories, but instead we specifically spell out what uncommon items are unlocked for PCs to choose from when they create their characters. So, those items remain uncommon and rare but we do, for example, state in the text of the Player's Guide that you can get a katana or a fighting fan or a daikyu when you're creating your character.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

If anyone's looking for a more asian-sounding name for Willowshore, Google Translate gives me the following:

Chinese: Liǔ àn
Japanese: U~irōshoa (sounds like ee-ROW-shee-a, not sure if the "U-" is a mistake or not)
Vietnamese: Bờ liễu

The other asian languages I could think of just sounded like "Willowshore"; I don't think it could handle the translations.

For my part, I like "Irōshoa". I might use that in my game.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

9 people marked this as a favorite.
Qualidar wrote:

If anyone's looking for a more asian-sounding name for Willowshore, Google Translate gives me the following:

Chinese: Liǔ àn
Japanese: U~irōshoa (sounds like ee-ROW-shee-a, not sure if the "U-" is a mistake or not)
Vietnamese: Bờ liễu

The other asian languages I could think of just sounded like "Willowshore"; I don't think it could handle the translations.

For my part, I like "Irōshoa". I might use that in my game.

Those are all good suggestions! I went back and forth on whether to call the town something like "Willowshore" and something that was more "Asian-sounding" but decided to stick with Willowshore for two reasons:

1) It'll be easier to remember for most of our readers.
2) Shenmen isn't meant to be exclusively inspired by any one real-world region; it (and the themes and names throughout Season of Ghosts) draws inspiration from all over Asia, including (but not limited to) Japan, China, Korea, and more. By naming the core town that is at the heart of the entire Adventure Path, I avoid the implication that any one inspirational tradition or history was more favored than another.

Liberty's Edge

Quick question, since this is out around the same time as the Remastered books. Will this be written as Remastered, or as 2E?

Paizo Employee Creative Director

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Ashe Ravenheart wrote:
Quick question, since this is out around the same time as the Remastered books. Will this be written as Remastered, or as 2E?

Season of Ghosts is an OGL 2nd Edition Pathfinder Adventure Path. The adventure path line will be running "behind" the rulebook line when it comes to remastering by a few months; none of the adventures or Adventure Paths we've announced so far will be written as Remastered products.

They'll still be fully compatable and usable with the Remastered rules; you as the GM will just need to understand the differences when they crop up is all if you wanna run Season of Ghosts or others using the Remaster rules.

Why? Because we're developing and writing Season of Ghosts before and during the time that the Rules team is doing the remaster work, so the remaster rules simply wern't available for us to use in a finalized form during writing and development of Season of Ghosts. It's not ideal, but again... it's still 2nd edition Pathfinder so it'll still work.

Dark Archive

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Its nice for me since it means alignment is still present for now yay :'D

(hey, its genuinely useful shorthand for npcs where only small amount of info exists about them...)


5 people marked this as a favorite.
Qualidar wrote:

If anyone's looking for a more asian-sounding name for Willowshore, Google Translate gives me the following:

Chinese: Liǔ àn
Japanese: U~irōshoa (sounds like ee-ROW-shee-a, not sure if the "U-" is a mistake or not)
Vietnamese: Bờ liễu

The other asian languages I could think of just sounded like "Willowshore"; I don't think it could handle the translations.

For my part, I like "Irōshoa". I might use that in my game.

Be advised that Japanese one is just the English name Willowshore transliterated into kana. That's why the weird U- and the unlikely sounding 'shoa' ending.

Yanagi seems to be a Japanese word for willow and kaigan for shore. Probably better ways to combine those than I can find right now


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I'm back and I've got some names for you which might almost pass as vaguely Japanese but please don't take for being actual or plausible.

As mentioned 'yanagi' seems to be the best translation for 'willow'. 'Shore' has a dozen synonyms (much like coast/beach/shore in English) but I don't know enough to know their different meanings so I'm going to pick only the ones that sound best to me.

Yanagi-no-Kaigan or Yanagi-no-Kishi would be something like "Willow's Shore" or "Seashore of the Willows", so probably too wordy and likely too long for many groups.

Yanagiriku takes another synonym for shore. In a pinch 'yanagi' might shorten to 'yagi' for Yagiriku.

Yagikaigan and Yagikishi on the same line of thought.

Yanagibe or Yagibe omits the shoreline for a more 'place name' sounding ending.

Finally, I notice that 'nagisa' (another water's edge word) shares two syllables with yanagi, so Yanagisa might be a cheeky way to put in a portmanteau.

Oh, and while I'm at it, 'ryuu' is the sound-reading of willow, (no surprise given it's probably based on the Chinese liu above) so if you don't like the way yanagi rolls off your tongue, Ryuukaigan/Ryuugan are probably your best bets.

Liberty's Edge

5 people marked this as a favorite.

To the people who live there, it is Willowshore anyway, no matter what language they use. For them, the meaning is clear.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
The Raven Black wrote:
To the people who live there, it is Willowshore anyway, no matter what language they use. For them, the meaning is clear.

This point should not be overlooked. As fun as it msy be coming up with a name by cobbling together some east Asian phonemes, at the end of the day, neither Daggermark nor Carrion Hill are likely named that in English in the setting, either; the same holds true for Willowshore.


Given the proximity to Hwanggot, I might reach for a Korean name before a Japanese one… but Willowshore works just fine, especially as a place where a Nagaji or Samsaran might call home.


Qualidar wrote:

If anyone's looking for a more asian-sounding name for Willowshore, Google Translate gives me the following:

Chinese: Liǔ àn
Japanese: U~irōshoa (sounds like ee-ROW-shee-a, not sure if the "U-" is a mistake or not)
Vietnamese: Bờ liễu

The other asian languages I could think of just sounded like "Willowshore"; I don't think it could handle the translations.

For my part, I like "Irōshoa". I might use that in my game.

For Korean, there are a lot of options. My personal choice would be Boedul Haean.


Still a bit out of sorts that we won't get the book with the new Tian races until AFTER this AP is out, seems like an odd choice...

BUT I'm still looking forward to grabbing this~


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Draven Torakhan wrote:

Still a bit out of sorts that we won't get the book with the new Tian races until AFTER this AP is out, seems like an odd choice...

BUT I'm still looking forward to grabbing this~

I mean, we've already got Kitsune, Nagaji, Tengu, Vanaras, Vishkanya, and Ysoki. The Small Fetchlings can serve as Wayangs until we get them properly, and a Duskwalker's mechanics can passably emulate a Samsaran until they come along.

Things are a lot better-scaffolded than they could be!


9 people marked this as a favorite.
Draven Torakhan wrote:

Still a bit out of sorts that we won't get the book with the new Tian races until AFTER this AP is out, seems like an odd choice...

BUT I'm still looking forward to grabbing this~

These books were supposed to be out now, but the sudden need to put Remaster out threw the publishing schedule in disarray.


I'm hyped! It's been a couple of years since I ran an AP and I hope they put out some interviews or teaser content for this. I ran Extinction Curse and some of the interviews with the developers gave some interesting insight. Since we're after Gencon and right before the remaster I'm not sure we'll get it though. There's some interesting things going on with this being a four part adventure and taking place in the past. Additionally it would be good to know some guidance or thoughts for running a horror story in a heroic system. Regardless I'm excited.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

8 people marked this as a favorite.
Coulibaly wrote:
I'm hyped! It's been a couple of years since I ran an AP and I hope they put out some interviews or teaser content for this. I ran Extinction Curse and some of the interviews with the developers gave some interesting insight. Since we're after Gencon and right before the remaster I'm not sure we'll get it though. There's some interesting things going on with this being a four part adventure and taking place in the past. Additionally it would be good to know some guidance or thoughts for running a horror story in a heroic system. Regardless I'm excited.

We'll for sure have more to say about Season of Ghosts SOON.

Grand Archive

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Will the Players Guide be coming this or next week by any chance?

Director of Marketing

10 people marked this as a favorite.
Calcryx666 wrote:
Will the Players Guide be coming this or next week by any chance?

The harrow deck indicates next week.

Verdant Wheel

Nice

Radiant Oath

When will the Season of Ghosts Player's Guide be available?


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Max Da Mage wrote:

When will the Season of Ghosts Player's Guide be available?

Take a quick peek two posts above you.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
SnowBeast90 wrote:
Will this come out on Foundry pre-built at the same time?

Yes, Sigil has been contracted for the conversion work and the plan is to release on street date.

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Given that there won’t be a set of pawns for the AP, I’m trying to decide if it would be worth the shelf space to pick up the pawn set for Fists of the Ruby Phoenix to get some Tian Xia-based creatures and NPCs. Would anyone who has seen the art on those pawns care to comment?

I’m planning to buy the Jade Regent Bestiary paper minis set (PDF only) for the same reason, although I suspect that most of those creatures ended up in one of pawn sets for the 1E Bestiaries, all of which I already have. At $3.99, it’s worth it even if I only use a couple of them.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Looking forward to this AP, but I do have to ask what's going with the download sizes? The PDF for this is over 150 mb and the last two chapters of Sky Kings were over 100 mb.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Typo on page 4: "season of shosts"


1 person marked this as a favorite.

For anyone with this one, mind sharing the beasties within?

Paizo Employee Front-End Engineering Lead

1 person marked this as a favorite.
SnowBeast90 wrote:
Will this come out on Foundry pre-built at the same time?

I'm over six months late with this reply, but yes. Yes, it will.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
synthesse wrote:
Typo on page 4: "season of shosts"

Should be "Season of Shorts" since it starts in summer.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Benjamin Tait wrote:
For anyone with this one, mind sharing the beasties within?

Toolbox Creatures:
Noppera-bo (Grunt 0, Trickster 1, Occultist 2) Aberrations

Shingami, Level 17 Monitor
Stone Spider, Level 5 Celestial
Thatchling (Normal 0 and Red-hooded 2), Undead

Grand Lodge

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Man, got the PDF yesterday and I love the twist in this one. I think I'm going to wait for the Tian Xia Lost Omens books to come out before I run this one, but I can't wait to see what my players say.


7 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
NerdOver9000 wrote:
Man, got the PDF yesterday and I love the twist in this one. I think I'm going to wait for the Tian Xia Lost Omens books to come out before I run this one, but I can't wait to see what my players say.

Yup, that shot it right to the top of my list for "must play" APs.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

20 people marked this as a favorite.

Eager to hear how folks enjoy this Adventure Path! And as folks are seeing, there's some BIG plot twists in this one, so please let's all try to keep a lid on them as long as we can so that potential players can discover the surprises in play. Thanks, all!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
FallenDabus wrote:
NerdOver9000 wrote:
Man, got the PDF yesterday and I love the twist in this one. I think I'm going to wait for the Tian Xia Lost Omens books to come out before I run this one, but I can't wait to see what my players say.
Yup, that shot it right to the top of my list for "must play" APs.

Thirded.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Yeah, I'm very impressed. This seems exceptional.

Liberty's Edge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

That all sounds awesomely great. Here is hoping I can play it one day, preferably before the twist becomes common knowledge on these boards.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

What I love most about The Twist is that it gave me what I had suspected in a manner that I did not see coming until I read it. Well done!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Hi, I was curious how people were already able to read the adventure path already. I don't mind waiting but I've been super excited for this adventure for a while lol.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
PeePaw wrote:
Hi, I was curious how people were already able to read the adventure path already. I don't mind waiting but I've been super excited for this adventure for a while lol.

I suspect they were subscribers who got access to the PDF once their order had been shipped.

Silver Crusade

12 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Just got my subscriber copy of the PDF and I haven't been able to stop reading it!

What an incredible Adventure Path concept. This is the first Adventure Path that I feel is better served by PF2E than 1e.

The setting is incredible, the pacing is probably some of the best I've seen in a low-level Pathfinder adventure, the theme tone and sense of place really shines through in every encounter and location. Downtime rules are integrated really well.

Then the plot! Wow! I read the introduction and immediately told my players to avoid all spoilers for this adventure path because it's been added to the "Run It" List. Which outside of Kingmaker 2e, is the first 2nd Edition Adventure Path I've read which I want to run.

I have a strong feeling Season of Ghosts is going to become one of those All-Time Classic APs that join the ranks of Kingmaker, Skull & Shackles and Hells Rebels for all-time excellence.


6 people marked this as a favorite.

I'm a bit late to the whole naming thing, but when I ran Fists of the Ruby Phoenix, I simply declared Common to be Tien, and that, although we as players were speaking English, the characters were speaking the equivalents in Tien.

Unless all the players speak the same real-life East Asian language to roughly the same proficiency, translation is over-roleplaying, IMO. I found a few words sprinkled here and there (I do speak a real-life East Asian language) to be sufficiently immersive. For the most part, I as a player say the English word "Willowshore," and my characters hear and say it in whatever language they speak, and that's fine, IMO.

Grand Lodge

Can't wait to run this. Finally an adventure revolting around single location and hexploration.

When can we expect FoundryVTT modules being released?

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

The Foundry modules typically release on release day at about 11 AM Pacific.

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