Description
A Collection of Dark and Daring Adventures
What happens when adventurers become the owners of a brothel? When a roguish associate asks them to attend an oligarch’s masquerade in his place? What lurks in the Cartways besides kobolds? And what will you say when another thief tells you the only way to find a treasure is to become hunted by the Praetors?
Dark dealings, my boys, and a knife in the guts might be the price. Whose guts? Might be yours if you cross the wrong one of the Nine.
This 94-page supplement and adventure anthology is set in the seedy underbelly of Zobeck, and on its mean streets you will find:
- Seven adventures dealing with underhanded themes, shady locations, and double-crossing deals gone wrong
- Six locales including the Cartways Market Gallery or the Old Stross Municipal Baths.
- A dirty dozen NPCs: kobold gearsmiths, failed Arcane Collegium students, barge captains, fey and undead ambassadors to use as rivals, patrons, peers and foes
- A sampling of new clockworks, street magics and odd enchantments that make Zobeck the distinctive jewel of the River Argent!
You probably shouldn’t bring the paladin along on this one…
This official Midgard adventure anthology is easily portable to any setting. Designed by Ben McFarland, Matthew Stinson, Christina Stiles, Mike Franke, and Richard Pett.
Winner, Gold ENnie Award, Best Adventure of 2012
Interested in a little Lust domain and the Rampant Roach? Check out Alleys of Zobeck, the filthy-but-amusing supplement with more grit, grime, and characters for the back streets!
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Pathfinder and associated marks and logos are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC, and are used under license. See paizo.com/pathfinderRPG for more information on the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Megan Robertson –
If you like adventures grim and gritty, enjoy the odd heist, and are not too particular as to which side of the law your characters might be on, this collection of adventures set in the Free City of Zobeck may be just up your street. Set in the underbelly of the city, the characters will need to be cunning, tricky, ruthless and smart to survive… but if they do, who knows, they may end up rich!
This is more than a collection of adventures, however. It starts with some beautifully-detailed and colourful characters and fascinating locations for use both in these adventures and ones of your own. Each NPC comes with notes on their motivations and goals, their long-term activities, and on ‘schemes and plots’ – ideas for how they might be incorporated into or even spawn an adventure here and now. The location entries also have adventure ideas as well as floorplans and notes on the folk that you might find hanging around. Standout here is the Silk Scabbard, a fight club/brothel… the entry even has suggestions for the party taking over and running it. There’s also a collection of feats, traits, spells and gear that might come in handy for adventurers in Zobeck or indeed those who enjoy city adventuring in general.
Then we get to the adventures themselves, a full seven of them, catering to characters of levels 1 to 10. Run them as a loose sequence, pick an appropriate one when the party comes to town, mix in your own adventures in Zobeck or the surrounding area, the choice is yours. The characters will be caught up in the dark underbelly of Zobeck from the outset, with memorable encounters with people who may prove a help or a hindrance in the future (assuming they survive the encounter, that is). It’s a fascinating exercise in how to embed adventures in the very fabric of the setting, creating an harmonious whole that gives the impression of a city buzzing with life never mind what the party gets up to, yet enabling them to become movers and shakers in their own right if that’s what they desire.
Each adventure stands on its own as an exciting series of events, taking the party around the city as they seek to complete a mission or find something out. The first is ‘Everyone Lies’ by Ben McFarland, which sets the characters to look for a local thief’s missing girlfriend. Naturally all is not as it seems and a massive web of deceit underlies this seemingly simple task… oh, and they are not the only people looking for the young lady in question… and this is the adventure for 1st-3rd level characters!
Next is ‘Rust’ by Richard Pett. This 4th-5th level adventure sees the party asked to deal with a plague of demented animated metallic creatures that prowl by night. Who made them, where, and why? Finding the answers may give clues as to why competing merchants are taking an interest. This is followed by an adventure from Christina Stiles called ‘The Fish and the Rose’, billed as suitable for 5th-level characters. The title is the name of a painting, coveted by many but one thinks she knows where it is – and is willing to hire the party to acquire it on her behalf… an ideal adventure for those who dream of pulling off an epic heist. Then comes ‘The First Lab’, written by Mike Franke, which is for 7th-level adventurers and delves into the very origins of the gearforged as they are hired to retrieve a diary stolen from a senior professor at the Arcane Collegium.
Matthew Stinson is author of the next adventure called ‘Rebuilding a Good Man’ and appropriate for 9th-level characters. Someone has acquired (read: stolen) a gearforged body for rather dubious purposes, but perhaps if it was stolen back it could be put to better use… there’s an exercise in morality as well as one for the swordarm here. Next, Mike Franke is back with ‘Ripper’ for a 10th-level party who rapidly get embroiled in the search for a serial killer whether they are interested or not. Finally, there’s ‘Flesh Fails’ from Christina Stiles. Also for 10th-level characters, well it’s billed as 9th-11th actually, it involves dark goings-on at the Arcane Collegium and murky dealings amongst the political elite of the city. Successful characters could even use this adventure, if concluded successfully, as a stepping-stone to political power for themselves.
If the Free City of Zobeck features in your game, this book is well worth a look… and if you don’t, reading it will make you want to run a campaign set in and around Zobeck forthwith.