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Stephen Yeardley

C04: The Play’s the Thing

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(1 customer review)

A Pathfinder/3.5E Compatible Adventure for 4-6 PCs of levels 4-5

Naytella, a goddess of revelry and relaxed pleasure, had few shrines. Authorities feared what they couldn’t control and her belief in freedom of spirit worried many, causing them to drive her scattered followers underground. So when the bard Villeim Teatteri discovers an ancient site dedicated to Naytella, he knows what he must do; convert an entire town to her calling! But how to do that, and where to start? Everyone likes to see a good show and have a chance to share a drink or three with new friends, so Teatteri and his theatrical troupe set out to ensure both of these happen. But more is going on behind the scenes than meets the eye, and a voice of dissent asks the PCs to help restore order. It’s time to step forward and face the music for the party, as they find out that the play’s the thing to catch the conscience when adventuring!

Also included in “The Play’s the Thing”:

  • Cartography by 3x ENnie award winner Todd Gamble
  • A new prestige class – the Companion of Naytella
  • New Spell: Influence
  • New Magic Items; Flyers of Influence and Posters of Influence
  • New Monster: Material Golem
  • “At your finger tips” NPC information on one page per level
  • VTT (Virtual Tabletop) files included
  • All Adventureaweek.com adventure modules contain GM, Player, and VTT maps!

Original price was: $8.99.Current price is: $5.99.

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1 review for C04: The Play’s the Thing

4.0 Rating
1-1 of 1 review
  1. This module is 59 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 56 pages of content, so let’s check this out!

    This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players may wish to jump to the conclusion.

    All right, still here? Good! Naytella is a goddess of relaxed, pleasure-driven life and one of her adherents, a man named Teatteri is finally settling down, has managed to ingratiate himself within the town of Bankside. Unbeknownst to most, their secret allegiance to the goddess made them clash with conservative authorities before and in order to secure permission to create the theatre, they have allied themselves with doppelgangers seeking the goddesses capability to provide joy and revelry.
    Said shapeshifters have since replaced parts of the council and flyers that are charmed do their part in securing the steady flow of audience members to the theatre – after all, the goal is to convert a whole town to the worship of Naytella! The powerful men and women of the town may act as hooks for the PCs and the doppelgangers as foils, presenting us with a concise depiction of their agendas, ways to use them etc., providing a nice framework to set up a complex, smart investigation before entering the (still) closed theatre, where a gamut of theatre-themed, clever traps await enterprising PCs.

    Before they can reach the cellar of the building, they will also have to best the first group of NPCs. First group? Yes! A total of 4 different NPC-groups are part of the module, each coming with essentially “party-sheets” that include all the necessary pieces of information to run the parties on one page – supremely comfortable for the DM – I approve!
    Now the cellar and dungeon below are interesting and highly chaotic in theme, including skulls chanting a litany that confuses the listeners (without deadly effects – the results are hilarious, after all, the servants of Naytella are chaotic and not evil!). The tactics of the servants of Naytella mostly reflect that as well – if the PCs get beaten, it’s not necessarily their end. Now, when they find the intoxicated council alive and well, the PCs will have a tough decision at their hands – free the council? Join the adherents of Naytella? Help them escape the wrath of the citizenry? The options are there and the result up to your players.
    It should be noted that the module also includes clothing-material golems as well as 4 pages of maps of the complex, both in a keyed and a keyless version.

    The pdf also features the new companion of Naytella PrC, which grants d6, 6+Int skills per level, comes with a wide variety of potential means of entry, good ref and will-saves, 3/4 BAB-progression. The Companions gain the option to use multiple skills (like sleight of hand) at range, their cha-bonus to saves and even a sonic-based breath weapon and attribute boosts. They may also choose from 6 special abilities at 8th level. Solid PrC.

    Conclusion:
    Editing and formatting have already been done better by AaW – I noticed a couple of minor glitches like a zero for an o etc. – nothing too hampering, though. Layout adheres to the backgroundless 2-column standard and the module’s 4 maps in full color are neat indeed. The bookmarks are glitchy, though, missing the bookmarks for the first section of the module. Herolab files have not yet been added as per the writing of this review, but will be part of the deal as soon as they are done.
    Make the primary antagonists Calistraeans or extremists of Cayden and this module will work perfectly in Golarion. The module’s antagonists for once not being evil is a cool change of pace, as it makes the PCs ponder their own moral choices and honestly, the sheets to track the NPC-groups are extremely useful to run what would otherwise be very complex encounters. Kudos for the good idea! The location in which it is set as well as the (potential, but mostly optional) investigative backdrop in the beginning adds also a nice touch. Stephen Yeardley has crafted a neat module indeed and overall, I did enjoy reading these pages. The amount of content provided is also appropriate and overall, the module is a fun, thankfully different romp. The issues with the glitches and bookmarks do keep me from rating this higher than my final verdict, though, which will clock in at a solid 4.5 stars, rounded down to 4 for the purpose of this platform.

    Endzeitgeist out.

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