Pathfinder Module: "Blood of Dragonscar" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

 

I ran Blood of Dragonscar a couple of years back as part of my Magic Mirror/Roots of Golarion campaign of 3.5-era Pathfinder adventures.  The adventure is designed for fairly high-level PCs (15^th level) and does a pretty good job of planning for the impressive array of abilities they may have at that level (teleportation, divination magic, and so forth).  It’s an adventure that contains really good atmosphere and a fair amount of role-playing, with relatively few encounters compared to many of Paizo’s 32-page modules.  The end sequence will scratch an itch among many old-school gamers looking to tick off a classic element of the game in its oldest form.  The main challenge I had in GMing it is that the adventure text is laid out in a counter-intuitive order and was a bit cumbersome to run despite my unusual preparation.  It also doesn’t make the best use of the space available, being rather wordy on inessential topics.  That being said, I can’t quite put my finger on why it didn’t really land well—not every adventure fits every group, of course, and it might have just been a question of timing or our mood.

 

I’m not a big fan of the cover; it has classic D&D elements that *should* work (a big red dragon immolating adventurers charging towards it), but the dragon and figures are a bit too cartoonish and I prefer Wayne Reynold’s hyper-realistic art when I think of Pathfinder.  The inside front cover is divided into two maps.  The first is of a city in Taldor called Dalaston; the map is nicely drawn, though there are few noted locations (which, I guess, could make it more useful as a player handout).  The other map is the interior of a Temple of Abadar; I found it way too large with way too much unused space, and very bland, with nothing in particular that seemed to make it a Temple of Abadar as opposed to any other temple.  The inside back cover is the reproduction of a particular flip-map that I won’t name in this section as I suppose it could be a spoiler if one weren’t paying attention to the title and cover art for the module.  The interior art is, as I often say for 3.5-era modules, a real mixed bag; the NPC headshots are strong, but a lot of the other art is pretty mediocre.

 

In terms of back-matter, the module essentially has three appendices.  Appendix 1 is a new magic item, a minor artifact called the Necropyre Crystal.  It’s honestly pretty forgettable as artifacts go, having neither an interesting history nor interesting powers.  It makes a bad guy tougher, but not even in an interesting way, and can’t be used by the good guys.  Even what it takes to destroy it is pretty bland (a bit of old-fashioned smashing).  Although not labeled as such, what we’ll call Appendix 2 is the bestiary.  A new type of undead, “bloodless vessels”, are introduced.  They have a host of spelllike abilities (depending on variation) and the ability to take an extra standard action each round!  For those of you, like me, running the module under PFRPG rules, note that the Host to Many ability is premised on a 3.5 understanding of turning undead that no longer applies.  (I also have to call out the awesome artwork for the bloodless on page 7—one of the best things in the module!).  The section also introduces a new monster template: “necropyre”, that essentially just adds a flaming aura to an incorporeal undead.  Last, what I’ll call Appendix 3 is a collection of four Level 15 Iconics—Harsk, Ezren, Seelah, and Kyra.  Always handy to have these in a pinch.

 

Now, on to the show!

 

SPOILERS!

 

We’ll start, like the module, with Background.  About 225 years ago, legend claims a massive dragon named Horranath burst out of Blackpeak Mountain.  Molten lava rained down on the nearby Taldan city of Talamir, and those residents not burned to ash had their souls consumed by the dragon before it returned to its slumber, leaving only ruins in its wake.  But recently, more danger has come to the region.  In the nearby industrial town of Dalaston, the selfish and hedonistic Count Saleno Dalassenos made a very bad bargain.  Desperate to secure his rule in the face of a rival family (the Irinis), Saleno accepted the offer of a mysterious stranger named Eldran Tesh.  Tesh claimed he could create what looked like a dire threat to Dalaston to rally everyone around Saleno, but then dismiss it before any harm was actually done.  And in return, all Tesh would need is blood: specifically, human sacrifices!  Saleno paid in the form of drunkards, beggars, and other undesirables.  Tesh, who in reality is a powerful undead necromancer spawned with the destruction of Talamir, proceeded to wake the dragon Horranath.  At first, the plan worked well: Horranath swooped down and destroyed the mines near Dalaston, and everyone turned to Saleno for help.  But then Tesh told Saleno he wouldn’t banish Horranath unless another blood price was paid: 24 virgins!  Saleno made the necessary orders, and the townspeople felt they had no choice but to go along with it.  Unfortunately, only 23 of the 24 were actual virgins, so not only did Tesh say the ritual would not work, but he had the 23 transformed into undead (“Bloodless”) and told Saleno he would need to do the whole ritual again with 24 more victims!  As the adventure begins, black smoke fills the sky, people huddle terrified, Saleno drinks, Tesh works blood magic, and Horranath plans further attacks.

 

All of that just to get to the Introduction!  The adventure hook is pretty feeble.  The GM needs to have one of the PCs receive a wedding invitation from an NPC named Marita who is marrying Baydon Irini in Dalaston.  Obviously, it’d be great if the GM was able to plan ahead enough to plant this NPC in a PC’s backstory earlier, as otherwise Marita’s entire existence will come out of nowhere.

 

Part One (“A Town of Ash”) is laid out in a pretty confusing way that I found made it challenging to run.  There’s a bit of general flavour text about Dalaston (good for what it is), then some description for the GM about how the townsfolk are under a strict curfew and will be very reluctant to talk to strangers like the PCs (and worried about attracting the attention of the Bloodless), then there’s two pages about the “Secrets” of Dalaston that the PCs won’t initially know to even ask about (the dragon, Count Saleno, the Bloodless, Tesh, and so forth), and *then* there’s the actual initial flavour text and encounter when the PCs arrive in Dalaston—which assumes they arrive at the front gates instead of flying in, windwalking, or doing whatever high-level PCs might do.  The initial encounter is solid (it introduces the Bloodless, which are pretty cool).  The module then proceeds to introduce a sort-of gazetteer of Dalaston.  In sum, the material isn’t bad per se—just arranged in a really unhelpful order.

 

Anyway, the major thrust of Part One is for the PCs to gather information and start piecing together what’s happening in Dalaston.  The location descriptions do an excellent job of giving concise summaries of various NPCs, including the DCs for different types of influence checks to get information.  When they go to the Day’s Inn where the wedding is supposed to take place, they’ll learn that Marita was taken by the Bloodless earlier in the day (she’s slated to be one of the second set of 24 sacrifices!).  Other important locations the PCs might enter include a brothel called The Blind Eye (where Count Saleno is busy neglecting his people), a ruined quarter of the city from Horranath’s last attack (where the PCs can learn about the dragon), and more.  The module does a smart job of realizing that high-level PCs may have divinations like legend lore, and includes sidebars to help the GM resolve them.  Three siteless encounters, which need a different font or layout to better differentiate them from the location descriptions, include “The Harvesters” (three Bloodless try to kidnap a virgin off the street; the description of who each of the undead was when they were alive is nice), “The Mad Priest” (Jolar Loran, a former priest of Abadar driven insane by being blamed by Saleno for the dragon’s awakening, spouts cryptic but genuinely useful information), and “The Worried Patriarch” (Gath Morian, influential head of a prominent dwarf family, gives the PCs magical treasures from his vault to help stop Tesh and the dragon).

 

When the PCs enter the Temple of Abadar (having learned that Marita has been taken there or that that’s where Tesh is), Part Two (“The Blood Cult”) begins.  Despite the huge map, it’s a straight shot from the entrance to the only two encounters in the building: versus a hungry fog and versus Tesh himself.  When I ran it, things turned out pretty funny because Tesh failed on his Knowledge check to realise that one of the lead PCs was a dhampir, so following his listed tactics to channel negative energy royally backfired!  Speaking of Tesh, as far as I can tell neither this part of the module or any other part really explains his relationship to Horranath or what his motivations are (or where he’s been lurking for two+ centuries).

 

Part Three (“The Dragon Strikes”) begins with Horranath returning and making another pass at Dalaston to wreak flaming destruction.  It’s intended to be about the PCs dealing with the fallout, as the module describes how the key locations and notable NPCs from Part One are affected (or destroyed) from the dragon attack.  It’s not meant to be a direct confrontation against Horranath, but I can’t really imagine high-level PCs not at least *trying* to intervene.  If they do, however, they’ll realise that Horranath is almost invincible.  This is because the dragon has swallowed the Necropyre Crystal (the artifact discussed above) and gains tremendous powers when flying.  The point is for the PCs to realise they need to track the dragon to its lair: classic dragonslaying!  Well, it *is* called Dungeons & Dragons, after all.  Just before immolating, the Mad Priest from Part One will return to provide the PCs with clues about the crystal and how to find the dragon.

 

Part Four (“The Dragonscar”) has the PCs tracking Horranath to the burnt and barren wasteland that is all that remains of Talamir today.  I appreciated the comprehensive discussion of the various ways high-level PCs might travel to the area and how it may affect the dangers and timing of what happens next.  There’s also two pages on the interesting natural hazards of the area, as well as some necropyre undead, but the module doesn’t really give any advice on when, where, or how often to deploy these threats.  A map of the Dragonscar would have been great too.  Horranath’s underground lair is best reached through a series of lava tubes, and there’s a chance (if the PCs are careful) that they can catch the dragon asleep.  The module has an excellent description of her lair and the various tactics Horranath will employ in each area of it.  It was neat that the adventure has Tesh (if he survived the temple attack earlier) intervening in this big final battle to try to get the Necropyre Crystal for himself, as that’s exactly what happened when I ran it.

 

The Conclusion assumes that Count Saleno died in the second dragon attack and that the citizens of Dalaston will be hard pressed to rebuild.  I liked the suggestion that the PCs could at least contribute the tens of thousands of copper and silver pieces in the dragon’s hoard towards the reconstruction effort.  It also mentions Dalaston as a potential retirement town for the PCs if they’re ready to settle down.  I frankly think Golarion offers a lot nicer places to enjoy one’s golden years, but to each their own.