Pathfinder Legends: Rise of the Runelords: The Skinsaw Murders

Pathfinder Legends #1.2

by Cavan Scott (Adaptation ), John Ainsworth (Director), Trevor Littledale (Performer)

Sandpoint used to be such a safe place to live – until the scarecrows started to walk.

A series of grisly murders points to an undead killer. With Merisiel missing, Valeros, Harsk and Ezren must track the mysterious Skinsaw Man back to his haunted lair. Can they survive vengeful spirits, necrotic guardians and assassin cults to discover the secrets of the ancient rune carved into each of the corpses? Or will death find them as they explore the dangerousstreets of Magnimar?

Genres: Fantasy

Audiobook

First published May 1, 2014

About the author

is a freelance comic writer and author. He is best known for his work on a variety of spin-offs from both Doctor Who and Star Wars, as well as comics and novels for Vikings, Pacific Rim, Sherlock Holmes, and Penguins of Madagascar.

Cavan Scott, along with Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, Daniel Jose Older, and Charles Soule are crafting a new era in the Star Wars publishing world called Star Wars: The High Republic. Cavan's contribution to the era is a comic book series released through Marvel Comics titled Star Wars: The High Republic.

Reviews

[Filip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Common knowledge has it that you should never turn a D&D campaign into a novel. So this one was turned into an audio-drama. I wonder how it would be like a novel. The drama was really good, with great voice acting and production values, however there were some problems that came with the medium. First of all, since this is an RPG campaign there was plenty of fighting which, in the drama, took form of a lot of shouting (plus some really enjoyable banter). Secondly, in order to inform the reader (listener?) of the plot, each villain had to provide extensive monologues explaining their plans.



I am familiar with the Rise of the Runelords campaign and I must say that the drama did really good with keeping to the storyline, while cutting out most of the unnecessary exploration and filler combat. What is more important it made the Pathfinder iconics into really enjoyable characters through the use of snappy and witty dialogue. Especially Merisiel, a character I haven't cared about much before, quickly became my favourite.



All in all, this was really enjoyable.

[Jamie Revell · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, while the first release in this series wasn't bad, it didn't inspire me to listen to any more. As it happens, though, I bought the set of six together at a discount, and it seems a waste not to try the other five. And it turns out that this is rather better than its predecessor.

Without having read the original on which this is based, I'd guess that the reason for the improvement is that the adaptation is freer with the plot. (The Goodreads entry currently states it has the same scriptwriter but the credits say it doesn't; it's by Cavan Scott, not Mark Wright). This time around, the party's rogue, Merisiel, is the main viewpoint character, and we don't have the narration by the wizard. For much of the story, she's separated from the rest of the party, making the story rather more personal, with the kind of emotional drama that audio is better suited for. There's also some decent characterisation of her companions, although the fighter really doesn't come across as very likeable.

Having said which, some of the problems of the basic concept are still on display. None of the central characters have a backstory here, so that we know more about the villains than the heroes, and the fight scenes still tend to be difficult to follow. Even so, the more character-based story that forms the core of this would have inclined me to give it a higher rating... were it not for the final segment.

The problem here is that the main plot - the investigation titular murders - is basically resolved about three-quarters of the way through with what should have been the story's big climactic scene. But the original scenario, which presumably wasn't as much based around the travails of one particular PC, continues on after that, with the heroes following a clue to find and fight the level boss who's behind it. This part reads much more like a typical D&D encounter, moving on to a more powerful villain (one assumes the PCs are supposed to have gone up a level and need something tougher to fight). That would work in the context of the original, but here it feels tacked on, an extra bit after the real story has concluded.

[Joseph B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following their triumph in Burnt Offerings, our heroes are reveling in their victory while a new sinister evil lurks in the shadows. They are soon thrust into a murder mystery that they must solve in order to save one of their own. There was a predictable yet still enjoyable twist towards the end; but the story still clings to the cliches of the genre. The production quality remains as good as the first; at times the noise makes it hard to hear the dialogue but aside from that it's definitely one of the better full cast fantasy audio dramas.

[Lio Leeuwerink · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Same review as for part 1) This is an amazing audio drama. It not only has a thrilling story, amazing voice acting and immersive sound effects, but the dialogue is witty and never outstays its welcome. For people who love D&D, fantasy in general or old school radio plays, this is a must listen!

[Jennifer Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've played this campaign a few times, so I was familiar with this story, but I enjoyed the audiobook of this a great deal. It reminded me of listing to a radio-drama with the way it is performed in the audio.

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun story. It does get a bit dark at times, but that’s half the fun.