Varisia, Birthplace of Legend [RPG]

Varisia, the rugged wilderness that contains only a few scattered city-states and several small settlements, is home to five (soon to be six) adventure paths; so it’s only fitting that it receive a sourcebook.  Oddly, instead of appearing in the campaign setting line, Paizo decided to make Varisia, Birthplace of Legend a Player Companion book.  This means it’s shorter (32 pages) and more focused on options for PCs.  Still, it’s a great addition to the canon: full of gorgeous artwork with clear, accessible introductions to the peoples and places that make Varisia a great place to adventure.

The fantastic artwork starts with the cover, the best representation we’ve seen of the Sandpoint Devil to date.  The interior front cover is all about Shoanti tribal lands, explaining how the various nations (“quahs”) have different totems and traditions.  As it provides cleric domains and oracle mysteries for each quah, it’s quite useful for a player hoping to add some depth to their Shoanti PC.  The inside back cover features something about the other indigenous people of the area, the nomadic Varisians.  The focus here is on Varisian caravan routes, but the feature most useful to GMs is a grid showing how far (in miles and travel days) it takes to go between most of Varisia’s major settlements by land.  I often forget this is here, and I wish I wouldn’t.

The interior has a really fresh, bold art layout that sets this Player Companion apart from previous ones in the line.  After the usual table of contents, there’s an overview of which classes get special attention in the book and which options can be made use of by all PCs.  Then, after a rules index (perhaps oddly placed near the beginning instead of the end of the book), there’s a two-page overview of Varisia that includes a paragraph on each of the core races and (my favourite) a sidebar on “Five Things Everyone Knows About Varisia.”  This last bit is the sort of thing GMs can pass around to new players without overwhelming them with world-lore.

The next two pages focus on the Shoanti.  The Shoanti race traits are great, and the section on common Shoanti sayings are quite evocative.  My favourite part of the new Player Companion design was the introduction of the idea of “roles”.  Roles are essentially flavourful build-suggestions that help a player focus around a key concept—here, it’s “Shoanti Outrider” and “Shoanti Totem Shaman.”  The roles include suggested classes, class features, personality traits, and preferred equipment.  The nice thing about the roles is that they help players create well fleshed-out characters without simply adding more mechanical bloat.

The following two pages are on the Varisians, and follow a similar format.  I’d say the race traits aren’t as useful, but the roles are still interesting: “Varisian Bravo” and “Varisian Fortune-Teller.”

“Battle in Varisia” (two pages) introduces two new feats and two new archetypes.  One of the new feats, “Thunder and Fang,” is pretty cool—it allows a character to use an earthbreaker in one hand!  The archetypes are “Kapenia Dancer,” a flavourful magus archetype that only comes online at high levels, and “Thundercaller,” a more offense-oriented bard archetype.

“Magic & Faith in Varisia” (two pages) provides short, one-paragraph long overviews of the various arcane schools in the land.  I didn’t find this particularly useful, as the information provided is cursory and appears elsewhere.  There’s an overview of common faiths in Varisia that includes the mystery cults of Magnimar and the totemism of the Shoanti, but again it’s only the briefest of introductions.  A “What is Thassilon” paragraph is nice in answering the “what does my PC know about Thassilon?” question that can easily come up in some APs.

“Equipment in Varisia” (two pages) is a bit odd, as it provides descriptions and stats for weapons (like starknives, bladed scarves, and klars) that have already appeared in the Core Rulebook or Inner Sea World Guide.  I guess it’s worth emphasizing them as common Varisian weapons for players unfamiliar with those sources though.  Some minor alchemical and spellcrafting items are also introduced here, though they’re all pretty minor and niche in terms of usefulness.

Perhaps the best thing about Varisia, Birthplace of Legend is the pull-out map in the center.  The map, which is drawn as an “in-world” artefact, is a gorgeous representation of where major cities and geographical features lay.  In addition, it’s quite useful as it provides the distance in miles between each set of landmarks.  I’ve happily let my players use this, and I’ve used it myself as the GM when I didn’t have a more detailed “zoomed-in” map available.

Next up, each of the three major city-states in Varisia (Korvosa, Magnimar, and Riddleport) gets a two-page spread.  Each of the entries provides the full settlement stat block for the city, a page of general description, two roles for characters from that city, and a couple of new regional traits.  Understandably, these entries are just brief overviews, but they’re well-done and give the reader a good taste of how each of the three cities is very different than the other two.  Two of the smaller cities in Varisia (Janderhoff and Kaer Maga) receive a similar one-page treatment, with one role and one trait apiece.  Finally, Sandpoint and many of the smaller settlements in the area are covered in a single two-page spread; with so many communities to cover, each tends to get only a line or two of coverage.

The next two pages are especially relevant to anyone playing in the Rise of the Runelords, Curse of the Crimson Throne, Second Darkness, or Jade Regent Adventure Paths: new campaign traits!  It’s pretty cool to see older APs get support, and I wish this trend would have continued more.

Last up is a two-page player’s guide for the then-new Shattered Star AP.  It includes the usual (but important) tips on what sorts of characters are appropriate for the campaign, as well as several campaign traits.

All in all, this is a nice, clear, colourful overview of Varisia.  As far as I’m concerned, it should be distributed to everyone playing in a campaign set there.

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 41 [RPG]

[6 Kuthona 4707 continued]

The Dark Lady of Wartle demands payment.

In a small dingy tavern in the riverside hamlet of Wartle, three members of the adventuring party that set out from Magnimar suddenly face a nightmare come true.  A spectral apparition in the form of a solemn woman wearing a water-drenched gown appears, and holds out her palm as if expecting payment.  Goragar and Kang realize that the “Dark Lady” is a bodiless incarnation of dark spiritual energy known as a spectre, the remnant of a murdered or evil creature bound to the material plane out of hatred of those that remain. Goragar enchants a coin with magical light and drops it on the ground so that, even with the lanterns snuffed, everyone can see the creature.  Kang puts a coin on the table and crouches down, but Artemis bolts out of the tavern and starts applying a rare alchemical blanch to his arrows.  The Dark Lady nods to everyone in the tavern who has paid her obeisance by leaving a coin, and then glides after Artemis.  He fires a modified arrow that tears away part of the Dark Lady’s spectral form, causing her to shriek in anguish.  Artemis runs to the far side of the tavern, but the spectre follows by passing straight through walls!  Her soul-draining touch ages the Magnimarian years in mere instants.

Goragar runs out after the two, draws his blade from an enchanted scabbard, and shouts for Artemis to bring it back in his direction.  Kang begins preparing a blanch similar to Artemis’ for his crossbow bolts and whispers to Goragar that perhaps they can talk to the Dark Lady and discover a way to cure her state of spiritual limbo.  “We’ll cure it by killing it!” growls the half-orc, ready for battle.  Meanwhile, at the water’s edge aboard the Pinkeye’s Comeuppance, Briza and Kozen hear the sounds of a disturbance coming from the center of Wartle.  They advance cautiously and see Artemis menaced by the ghostlike figure of the Dark Lady.  Briza runs to stand next to Goragar as Artemis leads it back in their direction.  The Dark Lady stops before Briza, holds out her hand, and moans the words “all must pay.”  Briza nervously takes out a coin and drops it through the spectre’s intangible hand, and it nods at her.  But Goragar has determined that the Dark Lady must be destroyed and he launches an attack on the creature, trusting that his greatsword can vanquish her.  Although he too is aged some years by the spectre’s touch, his magic-infused blade tears through the Dark Lady again and again until, with the coming of a strong wind, she vanishes with a long, low moan of agony.

Artemis has picked up enough knowledge of spell lore during his time on the streets of Magnimar to know that a powerful spell of restoration will be needed to heal him and Goragar of the effects of the spectre’s touch if the premature aging doesn’t wear off by itself.  He tells the others that the town of Ilsurian, further downriver, contains a priestess of Erastil who may be able to help.  The residents of Wartle slowly emerge from hiding and return to their previous activities, mostly pretending that nothing has happened.  When questioned, the bartender of the Lean-To grudgingly reveals that the Dark Lady was a beggar whom tavern patrons mocked with hurled copper coins.  Kang suspects there’s more to the story, but decides not to press the matter since the Dark Lady has been destroyed forever.  Later that night, back at the ship, Tillia is aghast at word of the spectre’s attack.  Captain Othlo passes word to Kang that his would-be assassin Skivolo has been told to leave his crew and never return.

Giant black widow spiders can deliver a powerful toxin through their fangs.

[7 Kuthona 4707]

Dawn arrives and preparations are made for departure.  Briza has excellent luck fishing, Goragar is the victim of a veritable snipe hunt when he asks a local if a magical scroll of restoration is available, and Kozen uses a handy transmutation spell to clean the rust off a back-up sword purchased by his friend Briza.  The sudden appearance of a black widow spider the size of a horse skittering out of the swamp startles the crew and passengers of the vessel, but Artemis sinks an arrow into it, Kozen magically manipulates the spider’s own shadow to fix it in place, and Kang’s hurled bomb reduces it to a smoking husk.  The ship soon leaves Wartle behind and the day’s journey upriver is unremarkable.

[8 Kuthona 4707]

The first day of Winter Week, a time for feasting and exchanging gifts with friends and families, is punctuated by the appearance of nearly a dozen stirges dive-bombing the boat.  One of the oxen, Tillia, Kozen, and her dog Taz are victims of the mosquito-like creatures’ blood-draining bites before the attackers are dispatched.  Fortunately, no one is seriously hurt.

[9 Kuthona 4707]

Another clear, cold morning greets the adventurers.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Director's Commentary

This will be a terrible Director's Commentary because I can't remember where the inspiration for the Dark Lady came from--I don't know if I adopted it from a Pathfinder product or just made it up.  I think the motivation behind it was to add a little something of substance to the night's stay in Wartle and something more deadly than the random encounters that the PCs had been tromping over.  Anyway, it was interesting to see their varied reactions to it and I thought the encounter was successfully creepy.

Next Recap

The Illusionist [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

The Illusionist is a standalone short story, part of the free Pathfinder web fiction available here.  Written by Elaine Cunningham, it's a fantastic, gripping look at what life is like for a new student in Korvosa's famed school of magic, the Acadamae.  It's hard to say much else without spoilers, so I'll just say here that the artwork that accompanies the story is also great and that the story makes a perfect introduction to life in the Acadamae (or perhaps Korvosa more generally).

SPOILERS

Bonali Kwazeel, an apprentice magician from the Mwangi Expanse, has come to the Acadamae at the behest of his master in order to expand his horizons.  Kwazeel's roommate, Jamang, persuades him to attend another student's attempt to summon a minor devil, and when things go wrong and that student is killed, everyone suspects sabotage!   There's a twist so clever (and ultimately so petty) that explains perfectly how cutthroat the Acadamae is that I don't want to ruin it here.  Suffice it to say that this little story packs a punch and is definitely worth reading.

Guide to the River Kingdoms [RPG]

In the official Pathfinder campaign setting of Golarion, the River Kingdoms is an area intentionally underdeveloped to give room for the GM and players to create or import their own fictional creations without clashing against established canonical countries.    The River Kingdoms are really a couple of dozen small, independent nations that range from small city-states to bandit fortresses; all they have in common is dependence on the River Sellen.  One of the River Kingdoms, the Stolen Lands, is the site of the Kingmaker Adventure Path, a campaign that sees PCs carving out their own state.  The Guide to the River Kingdoms provides short descriptions of 22 different areas, and although it’s certainly not comprehensive in detail, it provides enough of an introductory overview to get creative GMs on the right track.  Interestingly, each of the areas is written by a different author, and Paizo was able to get some big names (like China Mieville and Elaine Cunningham) to contribute.

The inside front cover is a map of the River Kingdoms, showing the different branches of the Sellen, notable settlements and ruins, and the wavy borders between the different kingdoms. 

The book starts with a nine-page overview that talks about life in the River Kingdoms, with a focus on the Six River Freedoms, an unwritten code that binds the people of the disparate kingdoms together.  There’s also a good discussion of how those countries that border the River Kingdoms interact with it.  The section concludes with a brief entry for two minor deities widely worshipped in the River Kingdoms: Gyronna (hag goddess of hatred, extortion and spite) and Hanspur (god of rivers and river travel).  I thought this section was really well done, and gives the River Kingdoms a unique niche in Golarion.

The entire rest of the book are entries for the River Kingdoms.  The entries are either 1 page, 2 pages, or 4 pages long for each kingdom.  Each entry includes a brief introduction, a settlement stat block (not the full version from the Game Mastery Guide, unfortunately), and then paragraphs on Government, Notable Sites, Resources, Adventurers, and (for the longer entries) Adventure Hooks.  The entries are in alphabetical order, and it’s not necessarily clear why some countries got very short entries and others got longer entries.  The kingdoms covered are:

·        * Artume (1 page): Thug-ruled kingdom—forgettable.

·         *Cordelion (1 page): Xenophobic kingdom deep in the forest with elven ancestry—also forgettable.

·         *Daggermark (4 pages): Apparently the largest of the kingdoms, despite having a well-regulated system where anyone can legally hire assassins to kill anyone else (except military personnel)!  I don’t know why anyone would live there, but the entry is interesting.  Five new poisons are introduced, but they’re pretty boring except for Shamweed (which gradually buffs the recipients Constitution for a week before turning incredibly nasty)

·         *Gralton (4 pages): An interesting country formed by refugees from the inquisitions in Galt, with nobles forced out of necessity to take up trades while dreaming of returning to their homeland.  I could imagine using Gralton in a storyline.

·         *Heibarr (1 page): A cool ghost city.

·         *Hymbria (1 page): An elven community with a dark side—not too shabby.

·         *Lambreth (4 pages):  Great backstory of a kingdom rescued from Razmiri encroachment by a savior who was too good to be true.

·         *Linerthane (1 page): Nice little story of idealist paladin with a fortress and big dreams of someday fixing Galt.

·         *Loric Fells (1 page): Monster infested.

·         *Mivon (4 pages):  Cowards who fled Brevoy while maintaining the Aldori sword-dueling ethos.  The entry includes a good codified list of rules for Mivoni duelling.

·         *Mosswater (1 page): A good adventuring locale: a town long overrun by merrow.

·         *Nystra (1 page): A concept very similar to Mosswater, but this time the culprit is yellow musk creeper and strange insect-like gargoyles.

·         *Outsea (4 pages): My personal favourite of the bunch.  Written by China Mieville, the backstory to this place is just crazy-ridiculous-cool.  I have an Undine PFS character from Outsea, aided by a regional trait in Blood of the Elements.

·         *Pitax (4 pages): Interesting, politically-divided town that is infested by thieves.  A good place to start a campaign, as it could support various themes.

·         *The Protectorate of the Black Marquis (2 pages): Pirate despot town with interesting backstory.

·         *Riverton (1 page): Theocracy with a great cult leader.

·         *Scrawning Crossing (1 page): Classic “all villagers mysteriously disappeared one night” hook.

·         *Sevenarches (4 pages): Original kingdom ruled by druids, with fey support, with no elves allowed due to mysterious disease.

·         *The Stolen Lands (4 pages): As I mentioned, this is apparently where Kingmaker takes place.  From the description here, it’s hard to imagine why anyone would *want* to make a kingdom in this sh#*hole.

·         *Touvette (2 pages): Harsh, lawful kingdom.

·         *Tymon (4 pages): Lisa Stevens’ baby, a gladiatorial kingdom with a constantly reincarnated leader who has been running the joint for 2,700 years!

·         *Uringen (4 pages): Adam Daigle’s baby, a fun concept of a town partially “unstuck” in a pocket dimension.  Great place for adventures that players haven’t seen before.

As indicated above, the quality of the entries varies, with some really great ideas and some fairly generic ones.  Although the cover art is great, the interior art is very much a mixed bag.  The bullet point on the back cover about “New feats, spells, class abilities, and poisons” is literally true but hyperbolically misleading—this is *not* a crunch book, with only a handful of player options throughout.  In one respect, however, this is good: with the launch of Pathfinder Second Edition, this book is just as valuable as it was in First Edition.

All in all, I’d say this was a solid, average Paizo book.  I wouldn’t rush out to buy it, but I certainly don’t regret owning it either.  Obviously, those running something like Kingmaker or other campaigns set in the River Kingdoms will find it indispensable.

Starfinder Scenario # 1-08: "Sanctuary of Drowned Delight" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I ran this at Subtier 3-4 using the four-player adjustment.  There’s a really nice mix of combat, role-playing, and investigation in this one.  It’s a darker story that’s told really well and opens up some new possibilities for future SFS storylines.  And although it is a more complex one to run as a GM, it’s definitely worth it.

SPOILERS

During their initial briefing with Fitch, the Wayfinders Faction leader, the PCs learn that their mission involves the ocean-planet of Arniselle, located in the Vast.  Over a century ago, the Starfinder Society set up a lodge on Arniselle as a staging area for further explorations, but eventually decided to withdraw and abandon the base.  Now, however, the Starfinder Society is in desperate need of a mineral called clophirium in order to rebuild its flagship, The Master of Stars.  Arniselle was known to have extensive clophirium deposits, so, several weeks ago, the Society sent its special aquatic-operations team, the Manta Corps, to Arniselle to reopen the old lodge (it's submerged underwater).  However, the Manta Corps haven’t reported back, so the PCs’ job is to find out what happened to them and if the lodge is salvageable. 

It’s a classic adventure hook (“we sent in a team; they never returned, so now we’re sending you!”) with the nice twist that the PCs need to prepare themselves for an underwater mission.  I do think it’s kind of funny that a random assortment of PCs are sent to discover what happened to an elite aquatic special forces team, but I can suspend disbelief—these things happen all the time in fiction.  The Manta Corps appear briefly in # 1-04 (“Cries From the Drift”), so having players who were in that scenario adds a bit to the story here.  As an aside, I really liked how Fitch’s briefing kept getting interrupted by her kids (who just won’t go to bed)—it added a nice touch of humor and most working parents will sympathize.  The more personality and depth the NPCs have, the better.

The journey to Arniselle through the Drift is interrupted only by the appearance of a Xenowarden ship broadcasting information about endangered flora and  fauna.  There’s some info about renkrodas that I assume is a hint for an upcoming scenario, much the way the encounters with the Manta Corps back in # 1-04 was for this one.  Unfortunately, there’s not really any way for the PCs to interact with the Xenowarden vessel or this information, so it just kind of sits there.  I think the writers need to do a better job with Drift travel in order to bring out just how weird the dimension is and to avoid the “5d6 days pass and nothing happens” syndrome.  It doesn’t need to even be space combat—perhaps a skill challenge to repair part of the ship, talking down a passenger with cabin fever, etc.

Once the PCs arrive on Arniselle, they have no trouble finding the sunken lodge.  The entire rest of the adventure takes place there.   This scenario has a structure that is different than most in that it combines room-based exploration with an overlay of events that trigger in sequence.  This requires additional preparation by the GM, because the necessary information to run a given encounter may be scattered in different parts of the scenario (I’d suggest preparing a flow-chart of some kind to keep track of when different events trigger).  Anyway, the lodge is now occupied by a race of sentient walrus-like creatures call morlamaws.  The morlamaws are a religious sect that worship a local deity of endurance named The Weeping Knight.  They’re friendly and allow the PCs to come in and look around, saying that the Manta Corps did visit but then left without explanation.  One room contains an encounter with some old, malfunctioning Starfinder Society security robots.  In a really nice bit of writing, the robots will stand down if any of the PCs can show them the SFS ID hologram they could have implanted during # 1-01 (“The Confirmation.”).  Making little things like that useful instead of forgotten about is what allows boons to feel worthwhile.

After doing some exploration of the lodge, the PCs will start to gather some clues that point to a more suspicious explanation of what happened to the Manta Corps.  And during triggered events like a dinner and a sermon on The Weeping Knight, the PCs may start to realize what the rank-and-file members of the sect  don’t know: the The Weeping Knight is actually Zon-Kuthon, the evil god of pain, suffering, and darkness!  An attack by sea serpents gives the PCs their first taste of underwater combat, and one of the things I really liked about this was that what’s at stake isn’t just the usual winning or losing but that one of serpents is thrashing and will destroy a display case containing sacred objects (and a datapad with clues to clophirium deposits) unless the PCs act quickly to stop it.

An event then triggers soon after the battle that involves the sect’s leader, Oshessa, inviting the PCs into her private quarters.  Oshessa knows full well that the Weeping Knight is really Zon-Kuthon, and she wants to convert the PCs.  But her attempt is interrupted by her senior lackey bursting in through a secret door shouting “The Starfinder is dying!”  It turns out that Oshessa poisoned three of the four members of the Manta Corps (feeding their bodies to the sea serpents) and is now torturing the fourth to try to get her to convert!  Obviously, a battle breaks out and it’s a pretty good one that could go either way (Oshessa’s poison glove is particularly dangerous).  What the players I ran this for didn’t realize was that “The Starfinder is dying!” was a literal statement (not just cinematic fluff), and that if they don’t get to the Manta Corps member within ten rounds, she dies—and that’s just what happened.  Again, I’m in favour of anything that adds a sense of urgency to combat.

Assuming Oshessa and her flunky are defeated, the PCs have a chance to convince the other morlamaws (who didn’t know what their leader had done) to assist the Starfinder Society in finding the clophirium.  If they do, the morlamaws become a playable race, which is pretty cool.  They’re not going to knock anyone’s socks off mechanically, but players who are in to the RP aspects of gaming have earned another interesting option.

All in all, I really liked this scenario.  It has a nice feel to it, as the PCs gradually realize what’s really going on in the Lodge.  I like darker storylines, and those kalo getting murdered and fed to sea serpents is pretty nasty!  There’s a really nice mix of role-playing in this one as well, as several morlamaw NPCs are given distinct personalities.  I think my only critique is that the way the events cascade tend to take away PC agency: no matter what clues they do or do not gather, Oshessa’s flunky is still going to burst into the room contrivedly shouting “The Starfinder is dying!” and give up the whole charade.  It removes that interesting dilemma for players of when/how/where to confront the cultists with what they think is the truth.  Still, this is a great scenario with a satisfying story.

Queen of Thorns [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Radovan and Varian return for their third book-length tale in David Gross' Queen of Thorns.  Having previously set books in Ustalav and Tian Xia, Gross continues to keep things moving by setting this tale in Kyonin--the forest homeland of the elves of Golarion.  There isn't a lot of Pathfinder fiction about Kyonin, so this novel is indispensable for players and GMs who want better insight into it.  The story itself is fantastic, full of strong characterisation, clever story beats, fantastic integration of world lore, and plenty of humour.  I did find the ending a bit of a let-down, but all in all this is a worthy entry in the chronicles of Radovan and Varian, and there are plenty of nice threads set up for the next book in the series.

SPOILERS

Radovan and Varian have come to Kyonin in the hopes of having Varian's once-exquisite carriage repaired.  A gift from his long-departed father, the carriage is a masterful piece of worksmanship but was wrecked during the events of Master of Devils.  Varian, as a half-elf, receives a chilly reception in Kyonin, but the elves allow him to proceed in search of the craftsman along with an escort: a Paladin of Iomedae, an Inquisitor of Calistrae, and a ranger.  Finding the craftsman turns out to be easy, but a revelation is far more interesting: Varian's father is alive!  The makeshift adventuring party set off through the forests of Kyonin to find him, and eventually track him to a lost city shielded from intruders by illusions.  Only, Varian's father isn't alone, as the true power in the city is an ancient dragon.

My summary probably isn't doing a great job of making the book sound interesting and appealing, but it's definitely worth reading.  Gross has a smooth, wry writing style that makes great use of the different perspectives of his two main characters (each chapter alternates between their points of view).  Each member of the group is characterized well, and there's some great insight into how a Calistrian thinks and acts, for example.  Varian's father and the dragon are full three-dimensional personalities.  There's strong continuity with Gross' previous Pathfinder novels and with Pathfinder lore in general, but it's quite readable and exciting.  My only complaint is that the book culminates in a big battle against invading demons that, although done well, felt jarring and unnecessary.  Sometimes big isn't always better, even in sword-and-sorcery fiction.  Still, there's so many exciting things set up in this book: a return to Cheliax, Radovan having a son(!) and a new devil in his body, etc.  I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next one.

Pathfinder Adventure Path # 3: "The Hook Mountain Massacre" (Rise of the Runelords Part 3 of 6)

NO SPOILERS

The Hook Mountain Massacre is the third chapter in the Rise of the Runelords adventure path.  In this “No Spoilers” section of the review, I’ll give just a very general comment about the adventure itself and then talk about the articles, fiction, bestiary, etc., that form the back matter of the issue.  Below, in the “Spoilers” section, I’ll get into the nitty-gritty and explain how, at least for my group, there really *was* a massacre on Hook Mountain!

As a whole, I thought this chapter was solid, with some memorable set-piece encounters.  It definitely reminds the PCs that reading the Player’s Guide is a good idea because it warns them that surviving the wilderness and fighting giant-sized creatures are two things they better be prepared for!  There are, however, some crucial parts of the adventure that need more detail, and I also would have liked better integration of the meta-plot from the players’ perspective.

The back matter consists of four main articles:  a guide to operating castles, a gazetteer of Varisia, another part of the ongoing short story featuring Eando Kline, and a bestiary.  The section ends with Level 7 stats for four pregenerated Iconics (Kyra, Merisiel, Valeros, and Seoni).

The first article, “Keeping the Keep: Running a Fortress in Varisia and Beyond” is headed by really good artwork of a small keep built into a rock wall: it’s easy to dismiss this as just background art until closer inspection reveals it’s exactly a location featured in the main adventure and makes describing that location to the PCs *so* much easier.  The article starts with a brief overview of the history, architecture, and personnel of castles in the real world.  One could find this information easily online or in the library, but it is a nice, concise explanation of, for example, the difference between a Barbican and a Bastion.  The rest of the article is then a fun 1d20 table and corresponding description of “Weekly Fortress Events” such as “Collapsing Tower,” “Secret Chamber,” and “Snake Oil Salesman.”  It’s a really simple and practical way to liven things up if the PCs in any campaign take over an adventuring locale in the wilderness and make it their headquarters.  Even though some game mechanics are included, this is a more “rules-light” approach and it’s not a substitute for a full “kingdom-building” simulation like you might find in Ultimate Campaign or Kingmaker.   Still, I don’t think this part has ever been reprinted anywhere and it’s a nice option for GMs. 

The second article, “Varisia: Cradle of Legends” is a very matter-of-fact but quite thorough and useful overview of dozens of locations in the area.  In essence, each location gets a one-paragraph summary, and everything from geographical features like the Stony Mountains to towns like Roderic’s Cove to potential adventuring sites like The Sunken Queen are included.  A lot of this material was copy-and-pasted into the RotRL Anniversary Edition Player’s Guide, but it’s invaluable to GMs, especially since many of these places have never had their lore expanded on elsewhere and PCs have a habit of going “off-script” in APs.  The article includes good artwork of Riddleport and Viperwall, and a full detailed map of Varisia which I used extensively when the players in my game started travelling away from Sandpoint.  Finally, the section includes a wandering monster table broken up by different terrain types: it has the typical problem of allowing an encounter of CL1 and CL14 for the same band of adventurers, so I wouldn’t use it as written, but as a starting point for inspiration it would be fine.

The short fiction for this volume is “Hand of the Handless,” continuing Eando Kline’s quest for an ioun stone.  This chapter of his story takes him to Kaer Maga, my favourite city in all of Golarion after reading James Sutter’s City of Strangers.  Sidebars provide a brief overview of the city’s districts and factions.  I don’t want to spoil much about the story, so I’ll just say it involves nagas, bloatmages, and has an ending that really hits you in the gut.

The bestiary for this issue has six monsters.  Many of these, or variations of them, appear in the adventure itself, so it’s best for RotRL players to avoid reading the entries.  First up is a “Smoke Haunt,” which is basically a small undead that takes up residence in campfires to hypnotize and drain the life-force of those around it: a perfect foe to liven up another routine trip through the wilderness.  Next, “Totenmasks”, are a clever twist on the notion of undead monsters: they’re creepy as hell and illustrated fittingly.  “Skull Rippers” are constructs from ancient Thassilon that are scorpion-like guardians of tombs and ossuaries; they are nasty customers and there’s more background on them here than anywhere else.  “Argorths” are giant deadly worms—this was the only entry that fell flat for me, as it wasn’t particularly creative.  “Mother of Oblivion” is a gargantuan octopus-like aquatic monster with some great world-lore and the best ability ever: trans-dimensional tentacles!  Last up are “Ogrekin,” the degenerate, deformed, and grotesque offspring of an ogre and a smaller humanoid; they kidnap people for fates far worse than death.  Not all of these monsters made the RotRL Anniversary Edition, and the entries here provide additional lore and background that was often left out, so a current-day GM can still get value from this bestiary.

Now, on to the adventure!

SPOILERS

One of the strengths of the RotRL AP is that it keeps things moving and covers all the bases of traditional adventuring.  Chapter I had the PCs as heroes defending a small town, Chapter II moved things to the complication of the big city, and now Chapter III forces them out into the rugged wilderness of Varisia where they don’t have civilization to fall back on.  After being sent to investigate a mysteriously-silent fort, the PCs then need to save a dam from collapsing before taking the battle to the home of the malefactors responsible: a clan of brutish ogres.  The entertaining preface by James Jacobs says that this chapter was inspired by movies like The Hills Have Eyes, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Deliverance, and other horror stories of degenerate backwoods monsters.  Well, it delivers! 

Part One sees the PCs hired by the Lord-Mayor of Magnimar to journey to a remote outpost in central Varisia to find out why Fort Rannick, a keep manned by rangers defending the area, has gone silent.  It’s a very generic adventure hook that only coincidentally continues the PCs involvement in the overall story of the AP.  The weeks-long journey to the Hook Mountain region is left for the GM to detail, whether the traditional day-by-day and random encounter approach or the hand-waving “boom, you’re there” approach.  I like flexibility, but I would have appreciated some more content to support the first approach (even some minor RP encounters along the way would have been great).  The PCs are expected to stop at Turtleback Ferry, a small town near the silent keep, to gather some clues about what may have happened.  Turtleback Ferry is not described in nearly as much detail as Sandpoint, so again the GM is going to have to do some work if players are expecting fully-fleshed out settings.  Everything above is handled in three pages, so it’s sketchily drawn.

When they do set out for the fort, the PCs may swallow an adventure hook that lures them to a farmhouse full of ogre-kin named the Grauls.  These are basically mutated hillbillies, and this whole section of the adventure is hilariously, awesomely twisted in the vein of classic 70s horror movies.  If a “Skin Shucking Room” makes you smile rather than run away, this is the adventure for you!  Apparently this is as extreme as Paizo ever allowed its writers to get, so enjoy it while you can.  Anyway, the Graul farm encounter is important because the PCs are expected to rescue a trio of rangers from Fort Rannick and will thus gain both information on what happened and allies that can assist them in retaking it.  (there’s also a subplot with Shalelu tied to one of the rangers.)  The only problem when I ran it is that the adventure hook that leads the PCs to the Graul farm is one that can be easily ignored by a group who may just think it’s another random encounter on the road.  So my group bypassed this whole part of the adventure, did things the hard way, and made me scramble to get the next part prepped on time!

Part Two, “Retaking Rannick,” covers exactly that.  The PCs learn that Fort Rannick is now occupied by a couple of dozen of ogres and have to figure out how to oust them.  The premise is that a frontal attack is obviously suicidal, so this is meant to be a test of the players’ ability to be creative and strategize.  The writer of this chapter, Nick Logue, intentionally created several ways in which the PCs could infiltrate the fort, trick the ogres, etc.  It’s good scenario-design.  My group, of course, just marched right up to the front gates and attacked!  Somehow, in their shining moment of awesomeness, they won two pitched battles against the ogres and recaptured the fort that way.  But I digress.  PCs are given the option to make Fort Rannick their new headquarters in the region, which explains the article on running a keep in the back matter.

Part Three, “Down Comes the Rain,” starts with a surge of floodwaters sweeping through Turtleback Ferry.  It’s a bit contrived, but one way or another the PCs are supposed to be present when the flooding starts so they can help rescue the townspeople from not just the water but a truly massive (well out of their CR-range) monster called Black Magga that gets swept into the town along with the flood.  The PCs aren’t meant to defeat Black Magga, but just survive for a few rounds until she decides to leave.  Still, I’m not sure if it’s a fair encounter for the players, and my group saw two PCs die quite inauspiciously from it.  The sudden flooding is supposed to lead the PCs to realize that an ancient Thassilonian dam to the north, Skull’s Crossing, must be damaged and in need of repair.  The logical chain here frankly isn’t very good, as there’s little reason for PCs to think the dam is just damaged or that they, as adventurers rather than emergency structural engineers, could do anything to stop it from collapsing.

Anyway, assuming the PCs do somehow get to Skull’s Crossing, they’ll find a really cool site for a memorable cinematic battle: the slippery, narrow walkway on top of the dam with precipitous drops on either side.  Alas, the actual encounter on top of the dam with a few exhausted ogres is completely forgettable, and the real battles take place inside a more traditional dungeon-like complex.  The gist of the matter is that the dam is failing because a pair of trapped pit fiends whose magic has powered the dam’s floodgates for millennia are failing (one has already died, and the other is very weak).  The PCs are expected to negotiate with the pit fiend to help save the dam, which is an interesting challenge.  However, I found the mechanisms of how the dam operated quite unclear, and there’s not much provided on how PCs are supposed to figure out how the magic of the pit fiends/summoning circles relates to the dam.  In other words, crucial details are left out of a crucial scene.  And worse, although there’s a timeline given as to *when* the dam will collapse if not repaired, there’s no information provided on what exactly *happens* if it collapses (as in my game).  Presumably Turtleback Ferry is destroyed, but it’s unclear how far down the devastation goes or what the ramifications are for the larger story-arc with the big bad guys behind the scenes that I haven’t touched on yet.

Part Four, “The Haunted Heart,” struck me as a very weird section to include in the AP when I first read it, and I think I’m going to stick to that view now despite it having some interesting ideas.  In essence, at some point in their adventuring in the region, the PCs are led by a pixie (who was a joy to role-play, I’ll admit) into the mysterious, trackless swamps called the Shimmerglens.  There, the spirit of a murdered nymph named Myriana demands the PCs recover the bones of her lover, the commander of Fort Rannick.  There are a lot of evocative, haunting little encounters in the Shimmerglens that aren’t combat-oriented.  Still, the problem is that this element of the story is very poorly integrated into the plot and seems to come from almost out of nowhere when the PCs have a lot of other, more important things to do deal with.  Another issue is that the PCs have been dealing with the very visceral, gory horrors of ogres and ogrekin, and the sudden change in tack to the sombre, ghostly hauntings of the Shimmerglens is quite jarring.  I was able to incorporate this part and it was okay, but it’s certainly not necessary.

Part Five, “Harrowing the Hook,” concludes the chapter.  Either the residents of Turtleback Ferry or Myriana’s pixie tells the PCs that they need to oust the Kreeg ogres from their stronghold near the top of Hook Mountain if the region is ever going to be safe.  I think my PCs will best remember this section of the AP for the gruelling challenge they had with the environment rules (cold weather and altitude sickness) combined with the climbing rules.  They eventually made it up Hook Mountain, but then, exhausted and suffering from hypothermia, they (nearly) TPK’d at the entrance! It definitely demonstrated why having characters prepared for the rigours of a wilderness adventure (as detailed in the Player’s Guide) is worthwhile.

I thought the Kreeg Clanhold itself was fine but fairly average.  It’s filled with the requisite ogres along with some hags, a frost wight, and this chapter’s “big bad”, a stone giant named Barl Breakbones.  By this point, players should be pretty familiar with battling creatures larger and stronger than themselves, and should be prepared to take advantage of their weaknesses.  The chapter ends with the defeat of Breakbones and the discovery of a note indicating that stone giant armies are headed for Sandpoint!  Can’t argue with that as a cliffhanger.

I haven’t talked yet about how any of these relates to the larger story-arc of the AP as a whole.  In part this is to avoid spoiling any of my players reading this, but in part because the connection with much of what happens in this chapter is only indirectly related to the meta-plot.  The behind the scenes storyline is really complex, but it’s also very opaque to the players and could understandably leave them wondering whether there *is* any larger story that each chapter is building towards.  Indeed, if I had one criticism of the AP as a whole so far it’s that there’s not a gradually increasing involvement of the characters in the plot but instead (apart from a recurrence of Sihedron runes) a largely disjointed series of really cool but largely independent chapters.

That general note aside, I really enjoyed running The Hook Mountain Massacre.  It has some great encounter locations, challenges the PCs to be prepared and creative, and sets things up nicely for the next chapter.