Pathfinder Society Scenario #28: Lyrics of Extinction (OGL) PDF (based on
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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 7th to 11th level characters (Tiers: 7–8 and 10–11).
The fabled ruined city of Dokeran, deep inside the heart of the Mwangi Expanse, has been found and it's your job as a Pathfinder to explore it and discover how it fell. After fighting through fiends, enslaved warriors, and the damned spirits of Dokeran's dead, you find that the ruined city has a dark secret—one you might not survive.
Written by Elizabeth Leib
This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can easily be adapted for use with any world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the 3.5 edition of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game.
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Ran this for my local group yesterday and I have to say that it was more than disappointing. The story had a decent plot hook, but the execution was incredibly dull.
We ran at the 10-11 subtier, and nothing was really a challenge. I used the PFRPG stats for the monsters that warranted it, but all the enemies with class levels were just mowed down. There were map and spacing issues as well, with one encounter calling out for three huge-sized creatures who would not even fit in the room they were placed.
The final act was also not a real challenge. Sadly, the whole party beat the BBEG on initiative, and he was down before he could cast a single spell. For the level he was he had too few hit points.
I know this is a season 0 adventure, but I think this one suffers a great deal due to the 3.5 to PF conversion.
So, I recently ran this scenario for players. Here are some issues with the module:
Spoiler:
1) At high tier, the encounter with the beetles. . . either they don't fit in the allocated room (5 foot squares) or the diagram of where they are standing is incorrect because they clearly don't take up a 4x4 grid spot. Why are there basic map errors in scenarios?
2) Speaking of the beetle encounter, huge creatures stand 15' tall. The basement floor is only 10' below the main level. So. . . these creatures' "heads" are actually sticking up from the basement into the main level and the PCs can clearly see them. One wonders how they even got there.
3) Ok, beetles again. They can't climb or otherwise challenge a party on the main level. Why wouldn't a party just rain death from above and be done with the encounter in 5 minutes? Is it intended to be a freebie?
4) Yet another "single bad guy" with virtually no supporting mooks who gets to do almost nothing cool before being murdered mercilessly due to action economy. And I only ran it with 3 + a pregen. Sigh.
5) It would have been fun if the boss had tactics to actually *use* the Song of Extinction during the encounter. So you know, it felt unique and fun. This would have been an excellent encounter to have triggered effects from the environment, say falling rock and such.
6) Listed damage for corrupting touch of the ghosts is wrong. It can't possibly be 1d6. If that's intentional, then the enemies provide no challenge at all and it's a bad encounter.
7) I do have to give props to the first encounter. It's the only thing saving the review. Using updated stats for the howler creature from bestiary 2(?), it is a fun encounter. The stats in the mod provide little challenge, and this would be a weak encounter using those stats. Entangle + spike stones is good.
8) Why provide stats for the Song of Extinction if it is literally never used?
This adventure was poorly assembled. The maps are a mess, making no sense. The party is told to travel northwest, yet in the first encounter they are traveling east. The layout of the first encounter on the map is nonsensical, and for some reason, they've got north pointing to the left, which just confuses things. In the second encounter, the map legend states one square is 10' when a look at the map shows medium creatures taking up only one square...so they must have decided that the "temple" wasn't nearly big enough and tried to switch the scale at the last minute without adjusting the actual map. They say the temple treasure is hidden in the north wall...right where the door is according to the map. I could go on... There is so much sloppiness here that signficant editing will have to be done to make any of it make sense.
This is not a playtest review. It also concerns itself with running the scenario as a “normal” adventure outside the requirements of organised play. It also assumes that where it contradicts the Pathfinder Chronicles supplement Heart of the Jungle then HotJ will take precedence.
Overall, this is a solid scenario, but the end part shows signs of being written as a “generic” adventure conclusion and then ported to the Mwangi expanse afterwards. If (as I did) you buy it because of the Mwangi Expanse connection, then the end will either be a disappointment, or an opportunity to have a bit of fun converting the inappropriate elements.
The introduction, in Kibwe, has a Pathfinder representative giving the characters information about the Song of Extinction that the Pathfinder probably had no way of knowing. Hopefully, the players won’t think to ask him where he gets his information from.
The characters then head off to the ruined city of Dokeran. The subsequently published “Heart of the Jungle” has since seen fit to change city’s location (and spelling, but that isn’t an issue). Any players familiar with the geography of the Expanse may raise an eyebrow at travelling all the way from Kibwe to the Defaka River without incident.
The characters are then attacked by one of the few creatures in the Monster Manual but not in Bestiaries 1 or 2.
The next couple of encounters are pretty interesting, and then the PCs encounter the main bad guy, the renegade Mwangi witch doctor who brought the city to its knees. This is the bit I didn’t think was appropriate for the Mwangi Expamse.
Spoiler:
They meet him in a cathedral. And he’s a bard. And he wears a chain shirt. And he uses a rapier. And he owns a magical music box. Yuck!
If I ever run this adventure, the guy can stay as a bard, but he’ll have some custom spells (bestow curse, insect plague, entangle – and the “cathedral” will be a cave overrun with tree roots, so he can use entangle) to give him a completely different feel. The rapier is gone (he uses a staff or something) and the music box is a drum made from human skin that beats out a rhythm by itself.
The music box artefact effectively has no role to play here, which is a shame.
