In Review: Pathfinder Vol 1.4 Rise of the Runelords: Fortress of the Stone Giants

Synopsis: A sudden assault on the town of Sandpoint by stone giants and a dragon brings the looming threat home. Ezren, Merisiel, Harsk and Valeros learn that attack was just a scouting party, that the stone giants are massing for war. The only way to disrupt their advance is to strike at the Jorgenfist, the fortress of Warlord Mokmurian, the sinister giant responsible for gathering his people for war.

Review: The adventures of Ezren, Merisiel, Harsk and Valeros continue and the plot has thickened to included massive stone giants, a cave guarded by a few bears and a dragon by the name of longtooth.

In this fourth chapter of ‘Rise of The Runelords’ our heroes are put in the position of having to take the battle to the big bad, but the journey there is riddled with all manner of problems. Not least of which is the capture of their warrior friend Valeros by Mokmurian.

Director John Ainsworth is multitasking several plot points in this episode and seems to flit between scenes pretty flawlessly.

The acting performances by the four leads are as good as ever, but special mention should go to Harry Myers and Steven Wickham who do excellent work doing the voices of MokMurian and Longtooth respectively.

You have to pay attention to this particular episode though because the action is frantic and there is a hell of a lot going on in the course of the battles and the quieter scenes.

Hark gets plenty to do in this episode, which is brilliant because he seems to have been the least used of the main characters in the series until this point.

There is a splattering of humor as well. For example near the beginning Merisiel is in battle with a stone giant and is not fairing well. The giant has his foot on her windpipe – and seems to expect her to answer his mocking taunts.

A less fun moment in the hour is a bit of conflict between Harsk and Ezren, which could resurface in future stories, and I hope it does because it makes the characters more believable.

The battle sounds in this particular chapter are aplenty and it seems to have surpassed what was done in the previous three episodes.

I’m not sure how well Pathfinder sells for Big Finish, but I hope it is one of the titles they have that is doing well because with only two more chapters of this particular story to go. I’m hooked.

• You can buy you own copy of ‘Pathfinder Vol 1.4 Rise of the Runelords: Fortress of the Stone Giants’ at: www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/rise-of-the-runelords-fortress-of-the-stone-giants-968