Pathfinder Adventure Path #103: The Hellfire Compact

Hell's Vengeance #1

by F. Wesley Schneider, Adam Daigle (Development Lead), Rob McCreary (Development Lead & Author)

All Hell Breaks Loose!

The Hell's Vengeance Adventure Path begins with "The Hellfire Compact," an exciting new adventure in which the players take the roles of evil characters in the diabolical empire of Cheliax! A paladin of Iomedae and knight-errant of the Glorious Reclamation comes to the town of Longacre, inspiring the citizens to join the uprising against the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune. First as amoral mercenaries, then as retainers of the wicked archbaron of Longacre, the evil adventurers must move quickly to put down the insurgency and keep the town from falling to the knight's rebellion.

This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path launches the Hell's Vengeance Adventure Path and includes:

- "The Hellfire Compact," a Pathfinder adventure for 1st-level characters, by F. Wesley Schneider.
- A gazetteer of Longacre, the small town in Cheliax that serves as the setting for this adventure, by F. Wesley Schneider.
- Details on the Glorious Reclamation, a knightly order dedicated to Iomedae that sparks the events of this campaign, by Rob McCreary.
- Magical mayhem and ill tidings from afar in the Pathfinder's Journal, by Josh Vogt.
- A bestiary of frightful new monsters, by Paris Crenshaw, Mikko Kallio, and Jason Keeley.

Cover art by Wayne Reynolds

Genres: Role Playing Games

92 pages, Paperback

First published February 24, 2016

About the author

Editor-in-chief at Paizo Inc. and co-creator of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, F. Wesley Schneider is the author of dozens of Pathfinder and Dungeons & Dragons adventures as well as several dark fantasy and sci-fi tales.

His first novel, Pathfinder Tales: Bloodbound, debuted from Tor and Paizo Inc. in December 2015. Watch for his story, "Stray Thoughts," in Eclipse Phase: After the Fall - The Anthology of Transhuman Survival & Horror, coming in early 2016.

Find more from Wes at wesschneider.com, on Tumblr at wesschneider, or on Twitter at @FWesSchneider.

Reviews

[Taddow · Rating 2 out of 5]

In my experience (my 40 years), the evil RPG campaign is a unicorn. Something that some folks talk about being interested in running and/or playing in, but the actual execution never happens or is lackluster. I think that this is in part because most people tend to be uncomfortable with being evil (and that's a good thing) and most "evil" campaigns end up being more anti-hero, Punisher/Venom-style campaigns where not necessarily good things are being done to evil people to justify the bad behavior, but even this is a limited specific type of evil, and one could even argue is actually a "good" campaign because of the noble goals being sought. I'm not trying to get into a philosophical or moral debate about what is "evil," but I would hope that there are certain things that most people would agree are evil acts.

I only bring this up because the Hellfire Compact is the first module of what Paizo calls an "evil" campaign. This is a rare and intriguing undertaking, and I appreciate the attempt to make such a campaign. Without giving away any specific spoilers, this first step on an evil campaign starts the Player Characters (PCs) out as low-level thugs working for the "bad guys." Most of the jobs they take on are only evil because they are working for the bad guys. You could swap the bad guys for good guys and change a couple of themes, and you would have a "good" module. I'm not trying to diminish some of the themes and acts in this adventure, because the PCs will be doing bad stuff, but none of it would be that bad unless the PCs really want to push the envelope on doing some evil acts. I understand that evil could be seen on a spectrum and that having an evil adventure doesn't always require diabolical war crime levels of atrocities but are you an evil guy because you uphold bad laws, rough up (and maybe even kill) a few dissenters. Maybe? I guess, what I'm saying is that I felt this was pretty tame for an evil adventure.

I realize that this is the first adventure of an evil campaign, and the PCs are just getting started. With that in mind, I am hoping the evilness increases as the campaign progresses.

[Ty Arthur · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oof, when I heard Paizo was doing an evil adventure path, this is NOT what I had imagined. You really aren't getting a chance to play actual fantasy evil here, you are basically just playing jackass lawful cops who hassle people to maintain the status quo.

The adventure itself really doesn't even make any sense. Despite being agents for the most lawful evil country in Golarion, the adventure starts with you engaged in breaking and entering to rob a tannery? Story experience awards are also consistently handed out for... not taking the evil path and handling things with no violence. This is an adventure that is constantly at odds with itself, and nowhere is that more apparent than the rebellion point system. The goal is to clamp down on the rebellion, but new events only take place when points accrue, so you get rebellion points for doing anything to stop the rebellion. It's a pointless and wildly counter-intuitive system.

Even if you ignore the adventure's clear bent towards handling everything in the most restrained, least evil way possible, the segments that steer the party towards nefarious activities are pretty damn mild. This is most definitely not Book Of Vile Darkness territory. There are significantly more evil and twisted things in Rise Of The Runelords, better portrayals of infernal pacts and maneuvering in Curse Of The Crimson Throne, more interesting options to play evil characters in Second Darkness, and just on and on.

The worst sin committed here though? It's boring. Playing an all-evil party should never be this pedestrian and un-interesting. The party ends up being message gophers and middle managers for a regime that's strongarming its citizens in the least entertaining ways possible. If it weren't for the typically high quality Paizo stuff after the adventure -- like the character spotlights, Longacre gazetteer, history of the Glorious Reclamation, and fun new monsters -- I'd honestly just chuck this one in the trash, and I have no interest in reading the rest of this path. If you want to do an all evil campaign, make up your own or just play a different adventure path with no alignment restrictions.

[R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good start to the Adventure Path. It seemed to provide more opportunity for L than E, but I expect that will change in subsequent volumes. My players need a little time to switch gears from the normal anyway.