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Pathfinder Modules
GameMastery Module D1: Crown of the Kobold King
The Crown of the Kobold King will be Anointed in Blood
Five children from the town of Falcon’s Hollow have gone missing, dragged off into ruins underneath a cursed dwarven monastery. Soon they will be sacrificed to the crown, all to the glory of the twisted King of the Kobolds. If they are to be saved from this gruesome fate, brave heroes must follow their trail to the monastery and plumb the depths of its trap-laden and monster-infested halls.
This dungeon adventure, compatible with the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game, includes details on the town of Falcon’s Hollow and the deadly dungeons underneath a nearby ruined monastery. There are terrible dangers waiting for your players in the halls of the king, but they must be overcome if the player characters are to save the children.
This adventure can also be run as a sequel to GameMastery Module D0: Hollow’s Last Hope.
Cover art by Matt Cavotta
Five children from the town of Falcon’s Hollow have gone missing, dragged off into ruins underneath a cursed dwarven monastery. Soon they will be sacrificed to the crown, all to the glory of the twisted King of the Kobolds. If they are to be saved from this gruesome fate, brave heroes must follow their trail to the monastery and plumb the depths of its trap-laden and monster-infested halls.
This dungeon adventure, compatible with the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game, includes details on the town of Falcon’s Hollow and the deadly dungeons underneath a nearby ruined monastery. There are terrible dangers waiting for your players in the halls of the king, but they must be overcome if the player characters are to save the children.
This adventure can also be run as a sequel to GameMastery Module D0: Hollow’s Last Hope.
Cover art by Matt Cavotta
- GenresRole Playing Games
32 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2007
32 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 10, 2012
This is the first of the Paizo written modules that I have run. Organization was decent, flavor was top-notch, and editing/layout was up to par. I would have liked to have the monster stat blocks collected in the back of the module for easy reference, but that's hardly a deal breaker in the age of computers and printers. :)
I'm going to do my best to stay away from plot spoilers, though I won't avoid meta-plot spoilers, since I want to say a few things about how the module flowed.
I played this module with three players of 3rd level, and one NPC cleric. Though D1 is written for D&D 3.0, I ran it more or less verbatim using Pathfinder. I did swap out a few monster stat blocks to better match Pathfinder's stats, but that shouldn't impact the story.
We went through the whole thing in one "game day" (that is, no stopping to rest and recharge), though actual play time was more like a half dozen sessions. Since two of my players are young children, play sessions were generally 2-3 hours, so you can adjust accordingly.
The author has a very distinctive style that permeates the module. He balances between horror and absurdist comedy. There are a few parts that are "Lovecraftian" (not in the "Cthulhu! WooooOOOooo!" sense, but in the peculiar writing style Lovecraft himself used) and a few that seem more Terry Pratchett. I used the comedy to try to break the tension, and though I found the "creepy" stuff mostly harmless, one of my players got creeped out. (The youngest one.)
The encounters were fun and more flavorful than "a room full of Kobolds attacks you". Some of the foes (Slurks in particular) required creativity to defeat, and the penultimate boss was VERY tough. The final encounter was almost a disappointment after that, but the players were so savaged that anything harder would likely have taken them out.
There are a few rooms that are "kill the party" rooms, but they're fairly adequately marked, like being filled with dead bodies and blood or the like. Completist parties will get themselves in trouble, so if you're running this module, you might want to occasionally remind your players that they're on a timetable.
D1 is listed as being for 4 players of Level 2, but unless your players pause to rest, they'll get chewed up. And given that the plot has something of a time-critical nature about it, resting is risky. I had to drop a number of healing potions into some of the side-room encounters, and that was with Level 3 characters with a cleric. By the end, the wizard and cleric were completely dry, the party was out of potions and none of them had more than 1/2 of their hitpoints left. Everyone agreed that the module was brutally tough to play through in one "game day", and that it was plenty challenging enough for their levels.
The only thing I can think of that I wouldn't rate positively is the "dismount" - what happens after the players complete their mission.
This is a fairly treasure-poor adventure, with the only seriously valuable items (which are very valuable for players of this level) being things that the players are neither going to be able to use nor easily sell. Consequently, my players were expecting some form of reward, which is not provided by the module. DMs will need to either give the players a good way to dispose of their "winnings" or come up with their own reward system. For my game, the players already know a Pathfinder Chronicler who will help them convert their haul into usable cash and/or items.
What *is* provided is a "what happens down the road" box for important characters. I found most of these to be way too dark or adult-themed for my players, but in the right group, they would work.
In summary, this was a fun module that is probably a bit tough for the listed level of characters unless they play very cautiously or will consider taking rests. There are plenty of opportunities for both horror and comedy, and a number of seemingly incongruous plot elements fit together nicely. A DM running this adventure will probably need to make adjustments to the treasure as they go along however, so it's probably not ideal for a complete novice.
I'm going to do my best to stay away from plot spoilers, though I won't avoid meta-plot spoilers, since I want to say a few things about how the module flowed.
I played this module with three players of 3rd level, and one NPC cleric. Though D1 is written for D&D 3.0, I ran it more or less verbatim using Pathfinder. I did swap out a few monster stat blocks to better match Pathfinder's stats, but that shouldn't impact the story.
We went through the whole thing in one "game day" (that is, no stopping to rest and recharge), though actual play time was more like a half dozen sessions. Since two of my players are young children, play sessions were generally 2-3 hours, so you can adjust accordingly.
The author has a very distinctive style that permeates the module. He balances between horror and absurdist comedy. There are a few parts that are "Lovecraftian" (not in the "Cthulhu! WooooOOOooo!" sense, but in the peculiar writing style Lovecraft himself used) and a few that seem more Terry Pratchett. I used the comedy to try to break the tension, and though I found the "creepy" stuff mostly harmless, one of my players got creeped out. (The youngest one.)
The encounters were fun and more flavorful than "a room full of Kobolds attacks you". Some of the foes (Slurks in particular) required creativity to defeat, and the penultimate boss was VERY tough. The final encounter was almost a disappointment after that, but the players were so savaged that anything harder would likely have taken them out.
There are a few rooms that are "kill the party" rooms, but they're fairly adequately marked, like being filled with dead bodies and blood or the like. Completist parties will get themselves in trouble, so if you're running this module, you might want to occasionally remind your players that they're on a timetable.
D1 is listed as being for 4 players of Level 2, but unless your players pause to rest, they'll get chewed up. And given that the plot has something of a time-critical nature about it, resting is risky. I had to drop a number of healing potions into some of the side-room encounters, and that was with Level 3 characters with a cleric. By the end, the wizard and cleric were completely dry, the party was out of potions and none of them had more than 1/2 of their hitpoints left. Everyone agreed that the module was brutally tough to play through in one "game day", and that it was plenty challenging enough for their levels.
The only thing I can think of that I wouldn't rate positively is the "dismount" - what happens after the players complete their mission.
This is a fairly treasure-poor adventure, with the only seriously valuable items (which are very valuable for players of this level) being things that the players are neither going to be able to use nor easily sell. Consequently, my players were expecting some form of reward, which is not provided by the module. DMs will need to either give the players a good way to dispose of their "winnings" or come up with their own reward system. For my game, the players already know a Pathfinder Chronicler who will help them convert their haul into usable cash and/or items.
What *is* provided is a "what happens down the road" box for important characters. I found most of these to be way too dark or adult-themed for my players, but in the right group, they would work.
In summary, this was a fun module that is probably a bit tough for the listed level of characters unless they play very cautiously or will consider taking rests. There are plenty of opportunities for both horror and comedy, and a number of seemingly incongruous plot elements fit together nicely. A DM running this adventure will probably need to make adjustments to the treasure as they go along however, so it's probably not ideal for a complete novice.
May 27, 2015
This is one of the first modules that Paizo released and it is still a really good low level one. The town of Falcon's Hollow is great for a new party, and the NPC's there can add a lot more drama or realism to the game. The main part is two levels of a dungeon which for the most part is neither overwhelming or disappointing. There are some creative encounters and some pretty memorable characters. Overall, a good game for a low level party and with some tweaking, a GM could build a campaign around the Darkmoon Vale area.
March 26, 2020
This is much darker than its prequel. I feel like elements of the module contradict themselves over time. While I might pull some details from it to run in another game, I don't think I would run or play this "out of the box."
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews