The infamous Red Mantis assassins are feared throughout the world for their ruthlessness and legacy—those they slay stay dead! Yet they are not without honor, so when a group of assassins sent on a dangerous mission are met with unexpected treachery, they must clear their own names while remaining true to their murderous calling, even as greater plots and shocking truths reveal themselves.
Prey for Death is a deluxe hardcover Pathfinder Second Edition adventure for 14th level characters, and gives players the chance to play members of the world's most notorious assassin's guild. The adventure also includes new items, lore, and character backgrounds, as well as a several powerful monsters ready to threaten high level characters!
Written by: Vanessa Hoskins
ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-600-4
Prey for Death 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 (639 KB PDF).
I've been wanting to play as Red Mantis for a long time, so of course I was going to jump at this opportunity. Add in high level action and the writing of Vanessa Hoskins, who did such an incredible job on Abomination Vaults, and I knew we were in for something special. The fights were challenging but fair, giving us plenty of chances to use our higher-level feats and abilities. Treasures were legitimately valuable and came in very handy many times. The story was everything it promised to be, with a truly epic finale.
I'm not exaggerating when I say this is one of the best adventures I've ever played.
Prey for Death is, perhaps with a bit of hyperbole, the culmination of what I believe to be everything 2nd edition has grown to be loved for over these past 5 years. While it may not be a direct celebration of its history, mechanics, and lore (see 7 dooms for that!) I see, hidden in the pages, everything I’ve loved about pf2e to date. The adventure is wonderfully written with excellent plot, maps, and art. The villain seems believable and the narrative deliberately nuanced. The adventure is high stakes at appropriate levels and you won’t be seen fighting level 18 thugs. The narrative paints a picture we haven’t seen before of the Red Mantis and Achaekek. We do get to indulge in the expected assassinations we would want in this adventure but also get to hear about history we haven’t before and reckon with hypocrisies throughout the adventure.
On top of being really well written, this may be the first piece of pathfinder fiction I feel can be run cover to cover with absolutely no other supplements or books (besides the Core Rules of course). Many other adventure paths have had me delving into 1e lore books or other Lost Omens books to paint the full picture of the story going on. Prey for Death includes enough preamble and information in the toolbox that I never felt that way while reading.
The adventure makes great use of the pf2e subsystems (something I have always thought to be one of the system’s great strengths). It rewards well thought out and immersive play (thinking and acting like an assassin) while not overly penalizing those who want to get to the action. The adventure also respects the table’s time, never overstaying its welcome in one place or leaving the party wondering where to go next and why. This brisk pace may make some tables feel rushed but overall, I feel like erring on the side of a quicker pace and letting tables slow it down to their comfort is better then the inverse that can leave tables feel like cutting through a slog.
The ending is satisfyingly epic and that’s all I will say. Vanessa did an amazing job bringing this story together and doing the justice it deserves.
I go more into detail about my opinion on each chapter in the first impression thread here. Il try to keep my review updated as my group starts this in a few weeks and runs through the adventure.
not too surprised there are couple typos, but here is funny non impactful one:
So there is one npc ally that pcs don't fight, but fights on their side for one combat that is directly creature from bestiary with several tweaks. The NPC is listed as level 16 even though all their stats match level 17 creature from bestiary AND they have additional long list of spells on top of that. It doesn't matter since npc fights on side of pcs, but its funny observation that 17 creature has been typoed as 16, that or stat reduction was never edited in xD
