Pathfinder Society Scenario #50: Fortune's Blight (PFRPG) PDF (based on
8
ratings)
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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 5th to 9th level characters (Tiers: 5–6 and 8–9).
You're sent to the wild River Kingdoms to find and kill a green hag who holds the last fragment of a powerful ancient sword called Passion's Edge, sundered into three pieces a decade ago. Things aren't as simple as they seem: the last creature to control the fabled sword wants it back at any cost, ghosts of the sword's past seek revenge for wrongs committed by former wielders of Passion's Edge, and the Pathfinder Society wants the sword whole again before being returned to Absalom. Madness, murder, and mayhem await you in the River Kingdoms!
Fortune's Blight was partially outlined at PaizoCon 2009 during the "Design a Pathfinder Society Scenario" seminar.
Written by Adam Daigle
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 Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
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Fortune's Blight was a short straightforward scenario. The scenario was simple, it didn't involve any sandbox play, and you are pretty much lead from encounter to encounter.
Blight can be a challenging scenario. It's especially deadly if the PCs have the wrong group composition or make the wrong decisions. The challenge level of the encounters can vary dramatically, depending on the tactics the GM uses and if he runs the NPCs correctly.
Imo, the story aspect of this scenario is overrated (the 'novelty' of homosexual themes is overused), but the story could also get lost depending on the storyteller. I found that it was very easy to get confused with regards to the story, especially if the GM reads the box text only.
There were noticeable stat block errors in Blight (in Sevenarches, on beach), as well a story inconsistency (the reason to kill Tylaca). If I saw this much with my naked eye, there are surely plenty more.
Regarding the recovery of magic items. If Pathfinders are going to recover magic items/artifacts, could they please be more powerful than +2 items? Sometimes it hardly seems worth the effort (1-3 months of travel, time wasted). Especially when several of us were using much more powerful 'artifacts' ourselves.
Length: 3 hours. Could take less/more time, we took our time, didn't have a lot of roleplay, but we finished combat quickly.
Sweet Spot: Both subtiers seemed appropriate for the story.
Experience: 6 players at subtier 8-9 (2 pregens). I also read the scenario afterwards.
Entertainment: Slightly entertaining. (7/10)
Roleplay: It's really up to the GM to add roleplay and liven it up. (6/10)
Combat/Challenges: Definitely challenging but not unique. A PC died even with 6 players at the correct APL. (8/10)
Maps: I didn't like the maps. Also, map packs and flip maps could be used. (5/10)
Boons: Best "boon" I've seen so far. Finally, something that makes sense. (10/10)
Uniqueness: Average. (7/10)
Faction Missions: Average. (7/10)
Overall: Short, simple, straightforward scenario, with a touch of deadliness. (7/10)
I think it's really up to the GM to liven this scenario up, convey the story in a simple and straightforward fashion, and play these deadly opponents to the best of their ability (especially for optimized groups).
The creatures in this scenario are fantastic. A thrill to run and the players enjoyed besting them and the trials it took to do so. They were let down by the story though. Since Pathfinder is all about the story I cannot suggest a GM pick this adventure as written.
This is no reflection on Adam’s work over-all which I enjoy.
Great story
Dennis Baker
(RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16, Contributor)
—
The story in this scenario is a lot of fun and the scenario does a great job bringing it to life. There are a few mechanical issues which made the final encounters a bit of an anti-climax, some due to the encounter design and some due to our party mix.
Overall, I highly recommend the module, particularly if you can play the higher tier which I think offers more challenge and a more interesting final encounter.
The encounters:
The first encounter is a bit strange because it's a creature that is disguised but the characters are specifically warned about the disguise. So it's a weird role-play where the hag is pretending and the players are pretending they don't know. Further, the characters are instructed they should keep the hag alive... so in our group they wound up bringing the hag along which was good because it led to the most exciting encounter of the adventure...
The second encounter the party is attacked by a ghost. Since the party brought along the hag from the first scene she joined into the chaos also which made this the most difficult and fun encounter of the evening.
The encounter with the Pathfinder was a bit of a mess because he got hit with grease in round 1 and fumbled around and was killed before he could grab another weapon. The big challenge here is not killing a fellow Pathfinder.
The next encounter was a major mess for us, in the lower tier it's a room with three harpies, only the players are forewarned about their nature which made them fairly trivial to counter at the level we played it. So it was an encounter with three flying creatures with fairly weak attacks. This encounter appears much better at the higher tiers as they have class levels which could make it quite interesting.
For our group the final encounter was a huge letdown due to party mix. The witch in the party got high initiative and the final bad-gal failed her will save versus the sleep hex... I'll save my rant about an at-will ability that is a save or die for another place. It appears like this could have been a fun encounter but in our case it was a cake walk.
I have extraordinary mixed feelings about this module. This module breaks a cardinal sin I have in good module writing - the ability to make people sit around and do nothing for more than a few rounds.
Early on the encounters were moderately interesting and the group enjoyed both the role-play and hack-and-slash fights presented. There was a pretty descent story and we were moderately pleased with the module. I do though need to mention that like a lot of mediocre modules, the module as-written does not do an adequate job telling the creative backstory involved, a good GM is required to set the elements of the story that make it as unique as it is. Then came the climax, and in one set of dice rolls, half the players stopped playing the module. I don't care if the mechanics are legal, that does not make for fun for the table.
I wish I could have given the module a better review, as it did start out on a good foot, but the end was just so non-entertaining for a number at the table I cannot in good conscience give it a positive review.
I have had to edit my original review of this scenario.
I still feel that this scenario has a great story. I had talked with many players who had experienced this scenario and I was expecting a couple knock-down and drag-out fights. What I got was a cake walk that let me down.
Part of the blame goes to a poorly planned encounter. A fighter should have at least one back-up weapon. Part of the blame goes to a player using a witch that was able to put the last two encounters to sleep which resulted in no fun on my part.
I would recommend that anyone looking to judge this scenario should take into account your player's spell DC's and plan accordingly.
