It's unclear to me how much of this I can explain given I purchased this module from Paizo . . . is all of the content under the OGL?
There's a new material in the module called "Middenstone" explained in a sidebar in the Appendix as a mix of brick, bone, gravel, and crushed up bodies on this local roach insect. In explaining why one would do this, they say this creates a material they can pour and mold into shapes for building material and it is "relatively resistant to fire and rot".
Then later in the sidebar it is explained that the disadvantage of the middenstone is that it "weathers badly and thus buildings incorporating it need more upkeep than those of stone." I realize there can be other types of weathering than rot and fire, but this material doesn't really gel to me as something special.
Oh, it's also hard as wood and have a sickening violet hue from the cockroaches (lol) and smells of tar, oil, and graveyards (lollol).
The module encourages that an engineers guild might send someone to Carrion Hill (as a means of getting the PCs to the module) to seek out this material. Other than wondering why people would use such a peculiar building material, I can't see why an engineering guild would be interested in it.
Can anyone shed some light on the material and perhaps give me better motivation to make one of my PCs interested in retrieving a sample of it?
Thanks!
Creative Director
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Middenstone is essentially a form of brick or adobe. It's relatively cheap to produce, has resources that are in great supply, and is MUCH easier to work with than stone or even wood. It's basically a great substance to use if you want to build a lot of buildings fast, but you'll need to upkeep those buildings more often than normal because the middenstone is prone to swifter erosion (particularly from rainfall, which tends to dissolve the stuff over time). But since it's cheap to make, and since breaks are easy to fix (you just spackle in new middenstone to fix holes), it remains a handy building material despite its disadvantages. Think of it as a fantasy version of cheap, kinda crumbly concrete.
So basically... it's main attraction is the combination of its cheapness and its ease of use and repair.
wood < middenstone < stone < modern concrete
And feel free to discuss any Paizo products here... the OGL only sets up what you can PUBLISH, it doesn't restrict what you can talk about. :)
Thanks for the replies, guys! It makes a bit more sense to me now. Living in the southwest where a lot of adobe is used I realize that if it rained here more that material wouldn't be super useful . . . which I guess is kinda what the citizens of the swampy Carrion Hill are dealing with. The city is described as in pretty bad shape and reading more into the module I realize how much a part of the Filth (district) the Middenstone adds to.
I am really looking forward to running this campaign. This'll be our 3rd concurrent campaign going on but this one we'll be experimenting with using Google Wave and remote role playing (folks from around the US). I wanted to try a canned module this time as well and the HPLovecraft match was too good to pass up.
I saw a previous comment by someone that the horror path was in the works and I would second a vote for that. I've been a longtime fan of Ravenloft and one of the other campaigns I run is Ravenloft so I'd love to see aspects of horror, fear, and madness (maybe in Carrion Hill this is covered), brought into the Pathfinder universe officially.
Once upon a time WoTC orphaned off the Ravenloft property to Swords but if I recall they have taken it back, even though they haven't brought it into 4th ed (not that I'd play that anyway). It'd be cool if it were possible for Pathfinder to "officially" possess Ravenloft. So many good pieces of work in there.
and you can be sure the freelancer's are hungry to be let loose on it anytime we're summoned...
Is there a map of Carrion Hill available, with the DM notes removed?
I'm not positive, but I think you might be able to remove that layer with the PDF before printing...
