In the cosmopolitan trading city of Kibwe, at the edge of the Mwangi Expanse, innocent people struck by a terrible curse known as the slithering are melting into malevolent oozes. The heroes are at the epicenter of this slimy curse and might be the only ones capable of recovering the ancient magic required to break it. Tracking the course of the slithering through Kibwe's colorful markets and shrines, the heroes must untangle the curse's origin and discover the role the nefarious Aspis Consortium plays in the unfolding conspiracy. The mysteries the heroes uncover might usher in a new era of plenty and prosperity for Kibwe, if the heroes can survive the slithering to experience it!
The Slithering is a deluxe adventure for 5th-level characters written by Ron Lundeen. Featuring terrifying new monsters, repulsive new rules and magic items, and an in-depth look at one of the most exciting cities in the jungle-choked Mwangi Expanse, The Slithering provides a wealth of secrets and dangers!
I completely agree with pauljathome's first sentence (see below). This is a decent module, but it is exactly as much fun as you make it. The module starts strong, but after the first part only becomes straight up fights with little to no RP. And even in the first part, there are just too many oozes. At some point, they aren't interesting enemies anymore.
I wish I had more to say about this, but it's a straightforward module. There's nothing wrong with it, apart from some painful fights, but there also isn't anything that really stands out.
just here to offset the guy 1- & 2-starring all the PF2E products
I ran this module for a group of four in a Play-By-Post format. The team consisted of a Redeemer champion, Evil Eye witch, Storm druid, and Dragon summoner.
To open, I do like this module. It has a very interesting story and makes the stakes feel quite real, it’s just that the execution and the meta-mechanical aspects makes it just fine rather than great. To open, oozes are perhaps my favorite enemies in PF2, but they’re also quite difficult to balance. What I mean is, a group of players could approach with a clever strategy for defeating them, such as stacking their turns through the Delay action and then split the oozes as much as possible before taking them all out with a single fireball. Just as likely, however, is a group that knows very little about oozes accidentally putting themselves in an unwinnable situation. If a single ooze represents a Severe encounter, splitting it once or twice easily bumps it up to an Extreme encounter and can lead to some swift TPKs for the unprepared.
That aside, the entire adventure is not ooze, which is good. As a schitck, it gets old rather quickly. Chapter One is incredibly strong, with plenty of investigation (though I’m not personally a fan of the “tug-of-war” mechanic that public debate has). A rushed GM, or perhaps cynical GM could run Chapter One in its entirety and rewrite the ending for a lovely one-shot game. The game really begins with Chapter Two, as does the gauntlet of encounters. This isn’t necessarily bad, but it can wear on groups going from one fight to the next, especially when they’re nova encounters that can be quite difficult. I wish that perhaps the journey to the encounter site in Chapter Two could have shown off a bit more of Holy Xatramba, perhaps with some sneaking or other mechanics. Aspiring GMs could cut out some encounters and replace them with the GMG’s Heist mechanics to make their way into the city safely. Chapter Three is really the resolution and sadly where things fell apart a bit more for me. More encounters leading up to the final romp through the dungeon - these are actually fantastic and give a feeling of just what is at stake if the heroes fail. It shows that things have gotten bad and I really love it. The last dungeon itself has a clever idea that unfortunately feels a bit wasted. It’s the same location as one they visited in Chapter One, but slightly different as it’s been reinforced by the enemy. That said, there are only a few opportunities for the PCs to use what they learned before to great effect. While some things have changed, it very much just feels like going through the same setpieces but with new encounters.
Finally, and perhaps this is me being nitpicky, but the final encounter doesn’t feel like there’s much weight to it. The culprit behind the curse has already died before the game’s beginning, which leaves a hole for a mastermind or someone for the characters to oppose. It ends up being that the final enemy (while they can make a rather interesting encounter with their skillset) is someone from out of left field. Importantly, this person has very little incentive to actually follow through on their orders. Again, this is another opportunity for a GM to potentially introduce a non-combat encounter as an alternative to ending the module.
At the end of the day, this is an adventure with a lot of good ideas, but ends up falling short of expectations.
I just finished running it with a group of 4 (cleric, paladin, wizard, monk), and it was an enjoyable romp. The party sliced through all encounters with ease, in fact, and they seemed to have enjoyed the story well enough. Granted, I had to do a bit of retuning, and I made chapter 3 shorter cause running the same dungeon with different enemies is not very fun (hence 1 star off). Overall it's a solid adventure as long as GM makes a few adjustments.
Well it at least starts at level 5 so I don't see why PCs couldn't be either local or foreigners .-. It'd be kinda weird for level 5 ap to assume it either way.
And Sargava doesn't exist anymore, so kinda hard to see it being colonial story.
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CorvusMask wrote:
And Sargava doesn't exist anymore, so kinda hard to see it being colonial story.
And Sargava doesn't exist anymore, so kinda hard to see it being colonial story.
Um, what? When and how did that happen?
Where Sargava was is now Vidrian (Wiki Link), and while I don't know the full details, it gives some of the info on the page. I don't think it was 'on-screen' in any adventures, but I wouldn't know, since I mostly pay attention to the APs.
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Thanks, that's interesting.
"native Mwangi natives" seems like an awkward construction. :-)
Well it at least starts at level 5 so I don't see why PCs couldn't be either local or foreigners .-. It'd be kinda weird for level 5 ap to assume it either way.
And Sargava doesn't exist anymore, so kinda hard to see it being colonial story.
Colonial as in “outsiders who are probably white come to Africa and solve a problem the natives can’t handle,” not as in one tied to a colonial government in-setting.
Well it at least starts at level 5 so I don't see why PCs couldn't be either local or foreigners .-. It'd be kinda weird for level 5 ap to assume it either way.
And Sargava doesn't exist anymore, so kinda hard to see it being colonial story.
Colonial as in “outsiders who are probably white come to Africa and solve a problem the natives can’t handle,” not as in one tied to a colonial government in-setting.
No, there's no assumption that you're outsiders or of any particular color. You could be from Kibwe, even. It just matters that your heroes are in the right place at the right time...for danger!
Great to see the Adventures (formerly Modules) line continue so regulary!
Also great to see that there will be a The Slithering Flip-mat, even if i don't like that both sides seem to depict the interior of two different buildings instead of some cool jungle outdoor locations. ;-p
I like that there is more Mwangi-adjacent content. I'm looking forward to running this after the APG hits and the adventure is sanctioned for Organized Play.
Well it at least starts at level 5 so I don't see why PCs couldn't be either local or foreigners .-. It'd be kinda weird for level 5 ap to assume it either way.
And Sargava doesn't exist anymore, so kinda hard to see it being colonial story.
Colonial as in “outsiders who are probably white come to Africa and solve a problem the natives can’t handle,” not as in one tied to a colonial government in-setting.
Since the Aspis consortium is involved, this is more likely to be "Outsiders who are probably white came to Africa, and couldn't handle what they found. Now the natives have to clean up the mess."
And Sargava doesn't exist anymore, so kinda hard to see it being colonial story.
Um, what? When and how did that happen?
Sargava became Vidrian after a slave revolt ignited into a full fledged rebellion against the colonial government with native born Mwangi joining alongside Taldan citizens who had been raised for generations in Sargava to overthrow the corrupt government.
They have allied with Senghor to hold off the Pirates from the Shackles because they also stopped the payment that was robbing the nation of its wealth believing it would be better to find their own footing without a debt to brigands and privateers.
Looking forward to it. Please some more standalone Adventures, for those with limitets on time and participants (and their regularly attendance), they are much more useful than APs.
I'm rather curious about the large statue in the background.
The city of Kibwe is filled with mysterious statues called the "pillar watchers," which depict anthropomorphic animal warriors. What are those things all about, I wonder...
I'm rather curious about the large statue in the background.
The city of Kibwe is filled with mysterious statues called the "pillar watchers," which depict anthropomorphic animal warriors. What are those things all about, I wonder...
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Gorbacz wrote:
ClanPsi wrote:
Why only one level? Can we get a full Adventure Path?
Because there's a market for one-off adventures.
Also 5th level is when the module starts, it does not mean that the adventure is all at that level, you may well level up within the book (you may not, I don't know, but adventures have always only had their first level mentioned, whatever length they are)
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Vic Wertz wrote:
Ron tells me "It has 3 chapters, each with 1 level of play. So you'll end at 8th level."
This looks neat, but the skipped product number reminds me that Eric Mona's Dead God's Hand doesn't yet have a product page. Or at least not one that's as easy to find as the softcovers'.
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up top there's a link to the adventure sub page. on that page, there's a link to "dead god's hand". That adventure is apparently directly under "products" instead of under adventures.
Well it at least starts at level 5 so I don't see why PCs couldn't be either local or foreigners .-. It'd be kinda weird for level 5 ap to assume it either way.
And Sargava doesn't exist anymore, so kinda hard to see it being colonial story.
Colonial as in “outsiders who are probably white come to Africa and solve a problem the natives can’t handle,” not as in one tied to a colonial government in-setting.
No, there's no assumption that you're outsiders or of any particular color. You could be from Kibwe, even. It just matters that your heroes are in the right place at the right time...for danger!
Really, that's the focus I'd be explicit about. Blatantly focus on the "right place at the right time" angle above any and all concerns of mighty whitey-ness.
Is this the next adventure after Fall of Plaguestone? Or did I miss one?
"The Dead God's Hand" was originally slated to be released in March, but got delayed due to Erik Mona's schedule and their need to focus on the Absalom hardcover (which, due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, also got delayed). Both don't have set dates anymore, so we'll just have to wait and see.
But to answer the question, this is the next standalone adventure after Fall of Plaguestone. I don't believe it is a sequel. Just a new standalone adventure to try with your players.
