A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1-2.
A Pathfinder Society initiate goes missing on their Confirmation mission to become a fully-fledged field agent. With no update on the initiate’s whereabouts, the Society assembles a group of initiates into a rare group Confirmation in order to spearhead a rescue. It’s up to a new generation of heroes to save one of their own, and potentially make a few big discoveries along the way!
Written by Thurston Hillman
Scenario tags: Repeatable
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
This one is tough, but the variable foes should provide different kinds of fun for different kinds of parties. (I.e. the oozes will be fun for casters, though may prove slightly tougher for martials and downright annoying for rogues and swashbucklers, so adjust based on needs!)
The Second Confirmation provides both a suitable challenge and some fun RP opportunities between the various situations they're placed in, whether it's picking which boat to set sail on and why, or the ancient ruins. Although I do have to try and explain away why a LG shopkeep is selling rooms for such an egregious price per night. Still, the players face proper challenges, get a variety of social encounters to RP through, and a nice little dungeon at the end, uncovering a bit of post-Earthfall Azlanti history. You can flavor it a bit as well based on certain interpretations of events.
For instance, going for an undead theme, one can imagine that the ghouls and festrogs could be related to the pleas to Zura which are mentioned as being inscribed onto the pillar.
If you don't play the characters, you and your players will be missing out. Rain quickly stole the hearts of my party, who had VERY nearly instantly booked a trip on the Opportune after a very lively in-character sales pitch. Followed by a change of heart after I allowed them some checks to note the obviously rickety nature of the ship, though the turnaround was 100% in character too. Give your players opportunities, and they'll reciprocate. The scenario does very much give you the guidelines to RP these characters though, what with giving their backgrounds and alignment, so thumbs up in that regard.
I feel that as an intro, a bit more of a description of Absalom City could be nice, especially since it's where the Grand Lodge is, though describing the walk from the Foreign Quarter to the Docks. Something like:
"Sticking to the main road, the trip from the Foreign Quarter, where the Grand Lodge is located, to the Docks District is quite easy. In the bustling City at the Center of the World, all manner of goods are being shipped from the docks to elsewhere in Absalom, for trade is its lifeblood. To that end, many notices are posted beside criers who are happy to inform the nearby crowds of open spaces aboard vessels set to travel across the Inner Sea region and beyond."
It might be a bit nitpicky, but my players very much enjoyed the extra worldbuilding I gave here and in some other places. At the end of the day, I see this scenario as a rite of passage for PFS players, and given that it has been an excellent vehicle to introduce the players as its intended purpose, I'll give it the five star rating. At the end of the day, TRPGs are about creativity, and this one offers a lot of room for that.
I much appreciate the lovely ending where the players are given a warm welcome back, especially after the somber affair in the ruin, what with the pillar and all. Make sure Rain keeps everyone in good spirits! And at the end of the day, my players felt like heroes. Can't go wrong with this one.
Confirmation is a mix of investigation followed by a dungeon crawl.
The best part about Confirmation is the main NPC, Rains. He is cute, unwise, and can add fun to the party.
Paizo needs to understand what make a good renewable story. It’s not about changing monsters necessarily, it’s about subtle changes to the story, or what needs to be done.
”Examples”:
For example, at the end, the runes were resolved with Thievery. But what if they weren’t runes, what if they were faces engraved into the column and we needed to talk to it? What if we needed to fix the column with Crafting to stop it from malfunctioning? What if approaching the column causes the dungeon to collapse and we just needed to escape? You see, that’s an interesting change. Changing a ball python to a giant frog isn’t a meaningful change.
The main problem I have with this scenario is that there is no theme around the encounters. It's just random creatures, thrown together. I really dislike this. The repeatable nature of this scenario doesn’t add anything for the player and makes it more inconvenient to prepare for the GM, adding word count where it's unneeded.
”I tried to fix this by”:
I tried to make it an elemental theme (because of the summoning runes), by picking the Living Boulder, Mudwretch, and Snapping Flytrap. None of the other “themes” made any sense.
The Necrophidius should not have been included as a summons, it’s a construct.
There was also some redundancy that added to the word count.
Spoiler:
The stat block of the ANCIENT SUMMONING RUNE didn’t need to be added again and again.
One last comment. If you want your scenario to be found, put it in a season. For months I missed this one because it’s at the bottom of the main page, uncategorized. Or perhaps put it in both a season and at the bottom of the main page, like you do with other introduction scenarios.
I ran this module twice in a Play-By-Post format and had great success with it. It introduces what the average Pathfinder experience will be like. There's a small bit of gold management, downtime investigation, careful use of exploration mode, traps, and - of course - encounters.
The hazards feel very fair and there are plenty of opportunities for players to anticipate and counteract them. The encounters introduce some interesting elements to combat that can be interesting for players new to PF2. If there's a weak point, it's just that The Second Confirmation does what it says on the tin incredibly well. It's an introduction - one with a lovely and fun NPC - but it feels like a very curated experience. Very color in the lines. It's not bad, and I actually recommend this to anyone trying out PFS for the first time. If you're a GM looking for a one shot game around your home table, there are much more exciting modules to try.
The chronicle references an addition reward for completing the adventure but it is not listed on the Boon page. Where do we find the details/stats for it?
A question about the monsters in the final combat:
GM eyes only:
The Ancient Summoning Rune says following:
"The trap summons one of the creatures previously encountered from area B with the weak adjustment."
Since the base monsters have different CLs, is the summoning list:
weak ghoul/weak weak living boulder/weak sun-scorched shadow drake (CL 0) OR
ghoul/weak living boulder/sun-scorched shadow drake (CL 1)?
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps Subscriber
I got this as part of my subscription, looks like a cool module! But trying to find it myself on the Paizo website? Impossible. I think this is not categorized correctly.
I asked this in the GM thread as well, but is there supposed to be a section on bribing people with gold for information? The scenario hints at gold being used to loosen tongues, but there's no explicit (or implicit, even) rules for it.
Also, I agree with stese, finding this on the website is horrible.
