Where are the Swords of Sin?

[Jeramiahh]

I just got my third volume today, and I love it - I'm definitely looking forward to this conclusion, as someone who's played through the entire Runelord saga, and am leading not one, but two groups into this campaign simultaneously (one that came up through Rusthenge and Seven Dooms, and one that is composed of veterans of previous Runelord campaigns), I'm loving the chance to see this true finale play out.

But one question was on my mind during the first two books, and sadly, remains unanswered with this third volume - where are the Alara'hai, the Swords of Sin? Some of them are definitely spoken for in other campaigns; Baraket and Chellan likely end up in the hands of the Sihedron Heroes, but, especially with Belimarius' survival of Return, presumably Tannaris (and its wielder, Xoxl) would have survived as well, but there's no mention of either anywhere in this campaign. In addition, we obtain multiple artifacts associated with Sorshen during this adventure... but no sign of Asheia.

I'm definitely disappointed we don't get to see full-power versions of the swords of the still-living Runelords, in this Second Edition! I'm definitely planning to bring those aspects forward, myself, but I'm curious why they weren't even mentioned.

[vornn]

there is a module called the Seven Swords of Sin (https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Seven_Swords_of_Sin) which does have them all in a dungeon under Kear Maga.

now this was published way before Return of the Runelords, so yeah.

In Return, as you have said, Xoxl, one of the characters in Xin Eddeseril has one.

:)

[Jeramiahh]

Oh, I know, I'm familiar with both of those! I *like* the Swords! I wanted to see them appear in this campaign - and I'm disappointed they didn't!

[James Jacobs]

We've got other stuff in the works for the Swords of Sin that weren't fully baked at the time I started outlining "Revenge of the Runelords," and rather than potentially cramp the style of those "other stuffs" I opted to just not include anything about the swords in this Adventure Path. This choice also helped wordcount as well, which was already pretty tight in the three Adventrue Toolboxes!

Anyway. Stay tuned. We'll get there eventually.

[Jeramiahh]

Thanks! I appreciate the candid response and the tease!

[The Shifty Mongoose]

It always seemed to me like the Swords of Sin were more for homebrew adventures in Varisia, or for a Runelord to have a bodyguard to keep the wizard out of hand-to-hand combat. Having them and a potential Collect Them All goal in an AP would take up a lot of its word count.

That's why I put them in Rise, even adding a smaller chapter partway through so that PCs could collect them all and even Reforge them to potentially become Virtuous. They're showing up again in Return, and Sorshen got to hold conversations between her Sinuous Guisarme and Asheia, Sword of Love before giving the latter to one of the PCs.

I'd like to see the Alara'hai get 2e rewrites, but considering my instance, wherein four of them are Virtuous and Baraket might end up destroyed, it might be tricky for me to use the eventual hypothetical adventure with them in it.

[James Jacobs]

We have for sure included the Swords of Sin in official adventures with cause. The third standalone adventure we EVER published was about all seven of them, after all. And they showed up in Rise of the Runelords and Return of the Runelords.

As I mentioned upthread...

Spoiler:

... them not showing up in Revenge was 100% a "now that Runelords content is so well established and such a powerful tool for nostalgia and brand building, let's use Runelords stuff in more than just Adventure Paths" situation, and rather than overcomplicate everything to an already overly-complicated situation... no swords of sin appear in Revenge of the Runelords. This isn't meant as an indication we're shelving them or no longer planning to do things with them. It just means that what we ARE planning to do with them isn't and wasn't part of the specific story told in Revenge of the Runelords.