I remember the first hallway of the Ravenous Sphinx having a ludicrous amount of traps. At some point I exclaimed, "Is there a trap every 10 feet here?!". There was. Yet somehow we persevered and pushed onward. Encountering the Ravenous Sphinx's creator in spirit form and having him egg us on to complete the tasks at hand or taunt us for our failings in the latest test we passed. The riddles for each test were cleverly written so that they seem exciting and cryptic yet younger players or those who don't excel at solving puzzles can usually take them quite literally to proceed.
Now for some inconsistencies/issues with the scenario. It was somewhat odd that a famed Pathfinder should study the Ravenous Sphinx for ten years and arrive whole at its entrance, only to be impaled by the first trap he encounters. If one with extensive early knowledge about the structure and its creator is killed the first moment he enters, what chance should a group of level-1 adventurers such as us have of prevailing? There were a few minor issues with the three tests. In the "Shifting Crucible of the Evoker", I felt that the Viper was shoehorned in to add another encounter, I don't think that room needed a combat encounter, especially one that straightforward. In the "Bloody Chains of the Necromancer" room, if our cleric wouldn't have succeeded landing a Channel Energy on the Shadow, I don't know if we would have made it through. It's supposed to take 8 rounds to pull the Shadow's chain taut and drag him back to the fountain in the center of the room. In said 8 rounds, a flying incorporeal creature who moves at high speeds and causes heavy Strength drain can cause no end of trouble to a group of mostly melee attackers. The zombies in the room felt quite pointless, I'm sure the creative genius of Clinton Boomer could have devised something more unique and cunning than them.
Posts
