Pathfinder Legends--Rise of the Runelords # 2: The Skinsaw Murders

NO SPOILERS

The second chapter of the audio adaptation of the Rise of the Runelords adventure path contains the same strengths and weaknesses as the first chapter.  On the downside, it's rather short for how much it costs (just over an hour, and then 10 minutes of inexplicable music) and the battle scenes are hard to follow because there's no narration.  It's not an "audio book," it's more of an "audio play" and there are some things that are very hard to describe without a narrator.  On the upside, I enjoyed the voice acting (there's some genuinely funny moments through good delivery) and I thought the script was really well done; although some parts of the adventure path were cut, the changes were done elegantly and everything flowed together nicely.  The music and sound effects were appropriately creepy when necessary, and several scenes were exciting even if hard to picture.  I think I would sum this one up as I did the first chapter: worth getting if you are a hardcore Rise of the Runelords fan, or if you can find them cheap (like as the free sample on an audiobook streaming service).

SPOILERS

In the written adventure path, The Skinsaw Murders is a fantastic and memorable piece of RPG writing.  The PCs have to solve a series of grisly murders, brave a truly haunted house, do battle with the grotesque and downright scary murderer, then travel to the metropolis of Magnimar to do battle with a whole cult of serial killers before a final battle against the cult's master atop a crumbling clock tower.  The audio adaptation cleverly intertwines the early parts of the written adventure, by having Merisiel investigate the rumors of "walking scarecrows" terrorizing the countryside while Valeros, Harsk, and Ezren investigate the grisly murder at the saw mill.  Merisiel is the target of the Skinsaw Man's obsession in this version, and she gets kidnapped and taken to the Misgivings.  Much of what the written version has in store for the characters in Foxglove Mansion is omitted (including most of the haunts, the stuff with Iesha, etc.), but the big confrontation with Aldern Foxglove/The Skinsaw Man/The Hurter is fantastically done.  The split personalities are each given a distinct voice, and new listeners will be surprised at the revelation that all three are part of the same person.

The audio version skips most of the heroes time in Magnimar, which is disappointing because I would have liked to see its take on characters like Mayor Grobaras, the cool monuments, the Irespan, etc.  Instead, the audio version jumps directly to the Shadow Clock (placing Justice Ironbriar there) and the confrontation with Xaliasa.  There's very little description of the clocktower or the dangerous ascent the heroes would have to face, and there's no Scarecrow (flesh golem) at all.  It's okay, but not nearly as cool as it is in the written version.  The audio version does end with a nice lead-in to chapter three, however.

All in all, it's good--there just needs to be more of it.  It's like reading the Cliff Notes version of a great novel--you get the gist, but it's not entirely satisfying.