Pathfinder Legends: Rise of the Runelords: Sins of the Saviors

Pathfinder Legends #1.5

by Mark Wright, John Ainsworth (Director), Kerry Skinner (Performer)

The ancient Runelord Karzoug, Lord of Xin-Shalast, rises! From his city fortress of Xin-Shalast, high in the mountains, he is directing his minions to harvest souls so that he might reclaim his lost power.

If they are to prevent Karzoug's rise to dominance, Ezren, Merisiel, Harsk, and Valeros must search for the haunted vaults of the Runeforge . Only there will they be able to empower their weapons so that they may strike true against Karzoug. Yet in order to master the magic of the ancient forge, the heroes must embrace the dark forces of Thassilon as their own.

Genres: Fantasy

Audio CD

First published November 1, 2014

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

The threats and the stakes keep rising, but our heroes keep fighting. Lots of D&D style fun for sure. Looking forward to a spectacular conclusion with the next chapter.

[Jamie Revell · Rating 3 out of 5]

So far, I've been critical of Mark Wright's offerings in this series, which seem to stick more closely to the plot of the original scenarios (with its different dramatic requirements) than those of the other author. But I have to say that this is the best of his three. Whether that's the nature of the particular scenario being adapted here or the sign of a different approach, I don't know, but I'm inclined to the latter.

That's because there's not so much fighting in this story as in the previous ones, although there is some (notably with the white dragon shown on the cover). Instead, much of it concerns the heroes trying to piece together clues as to where they should go next and then exploring a largely abandoned ruin. This results in more dialogue than fighting, and the scenes in the darkened sinkhole at the beginning work particularly well, especially when the fighter comes under the mental influence of an evil force.

The villains are less effective here than in the previous instalments, but this does at least leave more room for characterisation of the leads. It's not particularly deep, being pared down at the end to a consideration of which of the seven deadly sins each of them is most driven by... which may be going somewhere in the final instalment but here is little more than (for example) the wizard saying "yes, I suppose I am a bit envious" without it being otherwise apparent from his actions.

Once again, the story is more about moving from A to B (which a pre-published RPG campaign typically has to be, in order to work) than it is about the characters doing the travelling. But this one at least makes an effort to try and put things in context and give the heroes something to do other than hitting things with swords.

[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.

[Joseph B · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Heroes of Shearpoint come face to face with their ultimate enemy, the Runelord in this penultimate installment in Rise of the Runelords. The threat of Karzoug has loomed over the series so far, and now the heroes must engage him. This entry was my favorite so far; because of the stakes and story. Harsk in particular had some great moments. If you have enjoyed the series, you won't want to miss it as this continues to be a high quality audio production worth listening too.

[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.