Pathfinder Legends - Rise of the Runelords 1.1 Burnt Offerings

By: Mark Wright

Narrated by: Ian Brooker, Trevor Littledale, Stewart Alexander, Kerry Skinner

Sandpoint. An ordinary town on the Lost Coast of Varisia. When Ezren, Merisiel, Valeros and Harsk arrive, seeking rest from their adventures, it seems the town’s annual Swallowtail Festival will give them what they need - until goblins attack during a ceremony to consecrate the town’s rebuilt church.

After defending Sandpoint, the adventurers discover a sinister plot to return an ancient evil to Varisia. Can they discover the sinister connection between the goblin attack and the removal of mortal remains from a crypt in the town’s graveyard?

This is just the beginning of a new quest for the iconic Pathfinder characters Ezren, Merisiel, Valeros and Harsk. The Rise of the Runelords begins with burnt offerings - and only four heroes stand against it.

©2014 Big Finish Productions (P)2014 Big Finish Productions

great story but pricy and lots of filler

fun and enjoyable. voice actors were wonderful. the 10 mins of music at the end seemed out of place though and was kinda boring yo listen to. also could we not make it 15 dollars a book?

Really a Hard Sell

The voice acting is well done, and what works works well, but there are several issues with this. Other reviews have mentioned the length of the production, and I know that even a short production was likely to be expensive. Still, it's hard to feel satisfied, especially when you realize that that 70 minutes is actually about 55 minutes with the really long intro and outro.

Having played through the original story, there are some key points missing (I'll hit the spoilers in a minute). One thing that I think would have helped is more of Ezren's journal entries, which did a good job framing the scenes where they were used, but aren't used nearly enough.

Since this ties into later chapters of a wider story, some of the omissions would have worked better if they had been expanded. For example, Aldern Foxglove is briefly mentioned, but his closeness to the heroes is important in the next chapter, and even a brief nod to the boar hunt (and the unusually proportioned boar, tied to omens of Lamashtu) would have helped.

Some other omissions aren't needed as much for the ongoing narrative, but would have made the events of the story less sparse, rushed, or unfinished. For example, there are a pair of mercenaries in the final location that would have been a good "twist" to help out the protagonists instead of the abrupt "this was too much for us before, but now that we've been captured, we can handle it."

There was also a rather significant mutant goblin that felt a little more important than Bruthazmus, and no reference to what was "in the basement" of the old fortress. I wouldn't have minded the goblin druid guarding the maze leading to the bridge either.

In the end, I'm not sure this is worth the price, even though I really appreciate the effort that goes into even a short production. At best I would hope there is a slightly higher price point that tips over the profitability line and allows for a better developed story.

Too costly for what you get

While I really enjoyed the story (having played through RuneLords myself)! That said it's simply not worth the cost. @ $13/episode - nearly $80 for the full story. With each episode being around 70 minutes (of which 10-15m is music filler at the beginning and end) the full story (all 6 books) is maybe 6hrs long. These should be offered as a single Audiobook (single credit). Until then - I'm going to ask for credit back as it simply isn't worth it.

Ben

Amazing

Buy this on sale or get it on the Big Finish website bundled with the other two stories! Plus audible doesn't have Curse of the Crimson Throne yet. Apart from several minutes being wasted on background music, the rest of the production is absolutely movie like. Totally worth it but really wait for a sale. It's far too brief for the cost, which there are six parts so it adds up. But it's pretty great. I also highly recommend Realmslayer of Warhammer with Brian Blessed. Now that's a production.

Too short for cost... but still excellent!

The above sums it up. The story was excellent, and it was superbly performed. Yet for 1 credit, it was definitely too short. It did have multiple voice actors so the main cost of production probably went towards that. Overall not too bad.

very entertaining

Great voice acting and the story did a really good job of respecting the source material.

the time length is a lie

last 10 and first 5 minutes are just music good but it's not entirely long so if 1/5th of it is theme music it's kinda disappointing

Only issue is the length of the audio book

I wish this came with 3 chapters of the rise of the runelords story rather than one then u would have been worth the money.

Wish it were a little longer

I play the Pathfinder RPG and have also played through the Rise of the Runelords campaign, so I did rather enjoy this story but I did seem a little rushed. It could have done with more character and story development, and there's soooo much opportunity to do that with the story as it's presented in the source material. So overall I thought it was okay but a missed opportunity to be really great.

Entertaining

Fun little romp, wouldn't have minded if it was a tad longer though.

As a game master whos run this story 4 times before I enjoyed this fresh take, very different from my sessions.