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Rise of the Runelords #4
Pathfinder Adventure Path #4: Fortress of the Stone Giants
The Giants are on the March!
The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path continues! Driven to battle by a maniacal warlord, the once-peaceful stone giants of the Storval Plateau threaten to destroy the sleepy town of Sandpoint. Will fast action and quick wits be enough to save the defenseless community?
Yet, even if the giants' initial raid can be repelled, only by striking at the heart of their titanic war machine—the black-towered fortress of Jorgenfist—can the menace be quelled. But who knows what mysterious bloodlust spurs the usually peaceful giants to war, or what mysteries lie beneath their ancient fortress?
This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path continues the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path and includes:
- "Fortress of the Stone Giants," an adventure for 10th-level characters, by Wolfgang Baur.
- A study of the ancient history, harsh life, and nuanced society of stone giants, by Wolfgang Baur.
- Details on the dragons of the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting, revealed for the first time by Mike McArtor.
- The fourth installment of the Pathfinder's Journal, by Mike McArtor.
- Seven new monsters by Wolfgang Baur.
Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
The Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path continues! Driven to battle by a maniacal warlord, the once-peaceful stone giants of the Storval Plateau threaten to destroy the sleepy town of Sandpoint. Will fast action and quick wits be enough to save the defenseless community?
Yet, even if the giants' initial raid can be repelled, only by striking at the heart of their titanic war machine—the black-towered fortress of Jorgenfist—can the menace be quelled. But who knows what mysterious bloodlust spurs the usually peaceful giants to war, or what mysteries lie beneath their ancient fortress?
This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path continues the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path and includes:
- "Fortress of the Stone Giants," an adventure for 10th-level characters, by Wolfgang Baur.
- A study of the ancient history, harsh life, and nuanced society of stone giants, by Wolfgang Baur.
- Details on the dragons of the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting, revealed for the first time by Mike McArtor.
- The fourth installment of the Pathfinder's Journal, by Mike McArtor.
- Seven new monsters by Wolfgang Baur.
Cover art by Wayne Reynolds
94 pages, Paperback
First published December 26, 2007
37 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 26, 2020
Even with all the game-changing mechanics, delightfully unexpected horror leanings, and groundbreaking combination of adventure and world-building in the past issues, Fortress Of The Stones Giants wasn't a release I was particularly looking forward to grabbing. This will be blasphemy to many, but I'm actually not a big fan of the classic adventure modules like Against The Giants, Tomb Of Horrors, Isle of Dread, and all those. If you played 'em way back when and had a fabulous time then that's awesome, I'm glad you had that, but I'm just not into the older modules that tended to be all hackfests with room after room of traps and monsters.
Fortress Of The Stone Giants draws its inspiration from Against The Giants, but isn't a direct remake, and I'm very glad for that. Although there would be better mass combat scenarios in later issues, the opening siege of Sandpoint can be a lot of fun, and its the first time the Sandpoint Heroes get to come face to face with the savagery of a dragon in all its aerial superiority. Many of the connections the players have made in the previous adventures get strained or exploited here, and there's plenty of room to hit the PCs where it hurts as villagers are kidnapped or killed. Of course, its easy to switch the siege to occur at Fort Rannick instead of the party has outgrown Sandpoint.
After the frenzy of staving off a giant attack and trying to understand what they were seeking, there's some time taken to really impress the passage of the giant army on the PCs when they go on the hunt for the fortress, and that was a nice touch to put some world-building and flavor in without endless combat.
The assault on the various giant camps and the fortress itself isn't my favorite when it comes to Pathfinder modules, but there are some gems hidden in here. The Black Monk for instance is one of the most interesting enemies in this adventure path, and its almost a waste to have him just be a single room monster. His 10,000 year defense of a scroll tube he's never even opened and will never let loose from his grip is immensely interesting and could be the seed of its own adventure path.
When our group was playing through Rise Of The Runelords we used Orik Vancaskerkin in the first module Burnt Offerings as a character for a visiting player who wouldn't take part in the campaign permanently. The high level kobold barbarian Enga Keckvia who appears here in Fortress Of The Stone Giants is another great option for someone to join the group if you've had a character death or someone new is at the table, and its frankly a tragedy to let her die at the PC's hands beneath the fortress. She's the stuff adventuring groups are made of -- tiny, angry, homicidal, and always bites off more than she can chew.
Those two characters aside, the adventure itself is fairly by-the-numbers, but of course Pathfinder includes extras at the end to round out those 96 pages and that's where the real goods are in this issue. The look at stone giant society and dragons of Golarion are both incredibly fascinating, and very strongly set the world apart from Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, etc.
The new monster segment is also firing on all cylinders, with one of my favorite Paizo creatures of all time: the shining child of Thassilon. Its the backstory to these odd creatures that has the most intriguing implications. Several possible origins are given, but the one I dig the most is the notion that they come from a far future where morality has advanced by leaps and bounds so that ALL creatures in the current time -- even the most upright paladin -- are considered monstrously evil and in need of cleansing.
Fortress Of The Stone Giants draws its inspiration from Against The Giants, but isn't a direct remake, and I'm very glad for that. Although there would be better mass combat scenarios in later issues, the opening siege of Sandpoint can be a lot of fun, and its the first time the Sandpoint Heroes get to come face to face with the savagery of a dragon in all its aerial superiority. Many of the connections the players have made in the previous adventures get strained or exploited here, and there's plenty of room to hit the PCs where it hurts as villagers are kidnapped or killed. Of course, its easy to switch the siege to occur at Fort Rannick instead of the party has outgrown Sandpoint.
After the frenzy of staving off a giant attack and trying to understand what they were seeking, there's some time taken to really impress the passage of the giant army on the PCs when they go on the hunt for the fortress, and that was a nice touch to put some world-building and flavor in without endless combat.
The assault on the various giant camps and the fortress itself isn't my favorite when it comes to Pathfinder modules, but there are some gems hidden in here. The Black Monk for instance is one of the most interesting enemies in this adventure path, and its almost a waste to have him just be a single room monster. His 10,000 year defense of a scroll tube he's never even opened and will never let loose from his grip is immensely interesting and could be the seed of its own adventure path.
When our group was playing through Rise Of The Runelords we used Orik Vancaskerkin in the first module Burnt Offerings as a character for a visiting player who wouldn't take part in the campaign permanently. The high level kobold barbarian Enga Keckvia who appears here in Fortress Of The Stone Giants is another great option for someone to join the group if you've had a character death or someone new is at the table, and its frankly a tragedy to let her die at the PC's hands beneath the fortress. She's the stuff adventuring groups are made of -- tiny, angry, homicidal, and always bites off more than she can chew.
Those two characters aside, the adventure itself is fairly by-the-numbers, but of course Pathfinder includes extras at the end to round out those 96 pages and that's where the real goods are in this issue. The look at stone giant society and dragons of Golarion are both incredibly fascinating, and very strongly set the world apart from Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, etc.
The new monster segment is also firing on all cylinders, with one of my favorite Paizo creatures of all time: the shining child of Thassilon. Its the backstory to these odd creatures that has the most intriguing implications. Several possible origins are given, but the one I dig the most is the notion that they come from a far future where morality has advanced by leaps and bounds so that ALL creatures in the current time -- even the most upright paladin -- are considered monstrously evil and in need of cleansing.
January 29, 2019
Basic Plot: PCs must invade the stone giant lands to prevent an all out invasion.
Note: This is book 4 of 6 in the Rise of the Runelords adventure path written for D&D 3.5 rules, based in the Pathfinder world.
Not as horrifically disturbing as the previous installment of this series (vaguely disappointing from the GM's perspective), but the scale of the campaign significantly changes in this book. The characters are starting to find out what's really driving all of the events from the previous parts of the adventure.
One of my favorite parts of the book had nothing to do with the actual adventure, though- it was the section on the dragons of Golarion (the world of the adventure). The history and ecology of the dragons of this world are described in detail. There's also a section that gives great detail on the ecology/history of the stone giants of this world. I love it when RPGs incorporate actual story and motivation behind why characters and monsters do what they do. There should be a purpose behind what's happening in any given adventure. These entries provide the personalities and possible reasons for these monsters to act.
Note: This is book 4 of 6 in the Rise of the Runelords adventure path written for D&D 3.5 rules, based in the Pathfinder world.
Not as horrifically disturbing as the previous installment of this series (vaguely disappointing from the GM's perspective), but the scale of the campaign significantly changes in this book. The characters are starting to find out what's really driving all of the events from the previous parts of the adventure.
One of my favorite parts of the book had nothing to do with the actual adventure, though- it was the section on the dragons of Golarion (the world of the adventure). The history and ecology of the dragons of this world are described in detail. There's also a section that gives great detail on the ecology/history of the stone giants of this world. I love it when RPGs incorporate actual story and motivation behind why characters and monsters do what they do. There should be a purpose behind what's happening in any given adventure. These entries provide the personalities and possible reasons for these monsters to act.
November 16, 2008
When working at a game store, I used to wonder why so many people bought the Pathfinder books. Having picked one book up and run it, it seems obvious now; each of these books is packed with information. The pathfinder book doubles as an adventure for 3 levels, then switches into a gazateer. While I have had fun playing in a few of the Pathfinder adventure paths up to this point, I must woefully admit that after the initial assault on Sandpoint, this game turns into a very stereotyped adventure. Maybe it's my own bias - I rarely have any fun when the players start kicking into tenth level land - but this book does a good job making me long for 4th edition. The monsters have a terrible tendency to switch between "only punching" to "5 million spells". I'm going to be very happy when we are done this series...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews