Pathfinder 1E [Tales of Parsantium] Whispers of the Dark Daeva adventure coming in 2016

Hi there,

It’s been a while since I’ve posted an update on Parsantium: City at the Crossroads on ENWorld so I thought it was high time I did!

For the last couple of months, I’ve been working on Whispers of the Dark Daeva, a new 1st level adventure set in Parsantium’s Dock Ward, to be published in PDF in 2016 by Ondine Publishing. If things go to plan, this will be followed by a second adventure that can be played as a standalone, or the two can be used together in a Tales of Parsantium mini-campaign.

As the boat town of Flotsam gets ready to celebrate the Festival of Flowers, a series of violent murders threatens to spoil the upcoming festivities. When the PCs delve into what’s been going on, they uncover an ancient evil lurking below the city streets in the Hidden Quarter that must be stopped before more innocent people die.

My original plan was to write a short adventure of around 10,000 - 12,000 words, playable with Pathfinder, D&D 5e and 13th Age. Following on from some very helpful feedback, I’ve decided to write and publish separate versions of the adventure for each edition. Since then, I have been hard at work on the Pathfinder version and have been enjoying building some fun, crunchy NPC villains for PCs to battle in the adventure. So far, the introductory section (adventure background, synopsis and hooks) and the first seven scenes/encounters are written, with the manuscript clocking in at nearly 9,000 words. I’ll definitely be honing my prose on the second draft, but I've still got around seven to eight scenes to write, so it looks like the adventure will run longer than I initially expected.

The plan now is to get a playtest draft written by early January, before working on the 5e version. If you’re interested in running the adventure and providing playtest feedback, please let me know below.

More news to follow...

Any questions, please shout

Cheers


Rich

Hi there,

Happy New Year! I thought I would take this opportunity to update you all on what I’ve got planned for Parsantium this year.

Top priority is to finish and publish Whispers of the Dark Daeva in both Pathfinder and D&D 5e versions.

I am hoping to finish the first draft of the Pathfinder version in the next few weeks. The manuscript currently stands at 12,000 words with only the final climactic battle scene, the “Concluding the Adventure” section, and a few brief room descriptions left to write. I don’t think these bits will take too long to do, but I have a freelance project to complete for Raging Swan Press by the end of this month too.

Once the first draft is complete, I will do a revised draft before sending it out for playtesting. Then, I’ll start commissioning the cover and interior art, and also begin work on the 5e version.

If you are interested in playtesting the Pathfinder version of the adventure, please let me know in below or email me at parsantium@gmail.com

Depending on how it takes to write, edit, lay out and publish Whispers of the Dark Daeva, I may or may not get the chance to go back and finish writing Flotsam and Jetsam, a second adventure for 3rd-4th level characters which follows on nicely from Whispers. Quite a bit of this is already written as I worked on it on and off in 2015 before deciding I needed to publish a 1st level adventure first!

Please do let me know your thoughts, and if there is anything else you would like to see for the setting.

Thanks to everyone who bought Parsantium: City at the Crossroads or Icons of Parsantium or wrote to me with questions and feedback in 2015. I really do appreciate it

Cheers


Rich

Hi there,

I've been busy this Easter working on Whispers of the Dark Daeva, converting the adventure from Pathfinder to 5e. This has involved rebuilding most of the NPC and monster adversaries from scratch and also remembering which skills exist in both editions, which have different names, and which need replacing with an ability check! The first draft is done - the next stage will be incorporating learnings and feedback on the story structure and roleplaying encounters from the Pathfinder playtesting.

Last Monday I ran a Pathfinder playtest session for our Monday night group which was very useful, and gave me plenty to think about in terms of making the adventure more enjoyable. We got through about half the adventure in a single 2.5 hour session, so should finish it next time we meet in April. I also had some very useful feedback from veteran GM Paul Baalham on the scenario, and am eagerly awaiting playtest reports from several other groups.

Once this is all in I'll revise incorporate the relevant feedback into both versions of the adventure and get a revised 5e draft ready for playtesting. If you're interested in running the 5e version in late April/May for your gaming group and giving me playtest feedback, please email me at parsantium@gmail.com


In other news, Joe Shawcross is working on the painting for the cover and Matt Morrow is doing initial sketches for the interior art. Hopefully I'll be in a position to share these soon. In the meantime, you can check out the colour cover sketch here.

I'm very excited about how this first Parsantium adventure is shaping up and am looking forward to seeing it out there in the next few months

Cheers


Rich