Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-07: Echoes of the Overwatched (PFRPG) PDF

3.80/5 (based on 15 ratings)

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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for Levels 1–5.

When a Pathfinder agent working in the famed Blakros Museum in Absalom falls victim to a terrible, ancient evil, if falls to the PCs to hunt down the released terror before it can retrieve a relic of the mad astronomer Ralzeros the Overwatched.

Written by James F. Mackenzie.

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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Average product rating:

3.80/5 (based on 15 ratings)

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I expect more depth

3/5

Mix with investigation and combats. However, the first half can be confusing without GM's guidance, my PCs just don't know where to go at first. Some roleplays but useless... get all the same plots everywhere. I'd like Godmarket or Third Crusade much better.

The combats can be tough, and the statue is quite deadly. But I'd prefer more investigations, not just kill monsters like the Fallen Fortress.

Not bad at all, but not as good as expected. Lack a real storyline.


Untapped potential strikes again

3/5

I played this scenario last night on the low tier. Truth be told, I'm still a bit on the fence about the whole ordeal. Let me start with saying that it is always interesting to venture to a certain museum where we all know something always goes wrong. This time is no different and you as player will soon learn of an interesting plot involving a portal and an evil returning called 'the Devourer of Reason'. So far, that's solid enough for a scenario and allows your imagination to run rampant.

But then disappointment struck, at least for me. Due to it being low-tier, every single creature, except for the BBEG and one other encounter, was in lack of a better description a baby version of something else. I'm not going to lie, but that makes me feel like this scenario was originally written for tier 4-5 only. Since a different tier was needed to make it an official scenario, the writer just took the easy way out and used younger versions of the creatures instead of finding a suitable alternative. It just doesn't sit right with me. Where are the mommy and daddy? Why are they not protecting their offspring? The answer is 'because this is not high tier' and that just ruins the immersion a bit.

At the same time, you're required to find certain components to progress through the building. You have to place them into some mosaic and the parts are made out of different metals. That's basically all there's to know about that puzzle and the trinkets involved. I'm going to be honest and say that's just too little information for a GM or player to work with.

When I play a scenario, I want descriptions of what I look at, how things fit together into a single thing, what it then looks like and what it could mean. Having it only be 'it fits into the relief of the mosaic' is simply not enough and honestly quite lacking. A similar comment could be made for statues: what do they look like? What do they depict? It's information like that brings a scenario to the next level in terms of experience. Sadly, it's missing in this scenario.

Like I said, I'm on the fence about this scenario. The plot has potential and the locations too, but it lacks the means of immersion. A good GM can easily fix that, but it's a little disheartening to know it's not already in the scenario itself. Furthermore I'm a bit disappointed in the creatures on the low-tier, though I'm sure that situation is better on the high-tier. In the end, I can't really say this scenario was memorable for me. It's not something I'd like to play again or would like to run for others. It's not bad, don't get me wrong, but it's not good either. It's just somewhere in the middle of the pack.


Fantastic

5/5

Very well put together. My players enjoyed this immensely.


Excellent Scenario

4/5

GMed this for the higher tier and we had a real blast with this one.

The scenario is simple. A pathfinder working for the Blakros museum has gone a bit wiggy and disappeared. Find him and whatever ancient horror he may have unleashed and stop it.

The combats were tough but fair (a rare combination in PFS) and we all had a fun even when characters were taking heavy hits. Thumbs up to the author for a good choice of encounters.

There are just two small things that stop me giving this five stars. Firstly, although it fitted nicely into a four hour time slot had there been just a little more investigation it would have been spot on. Lastly, if you have an animal companion that doesn't fly, you lose your companion. Otherwise really good scenario.


Very enjoyable

4/5

We played this last evening with a party of 6 in the low tier.

partysetup:

Hunter 2 (with mammoth companion who spend the entire game as a carry animal statue), Witch 2, Inquisitor 1, Cleric 1, Fighter 1, Rogue 1.

The briefing was interesting, with us being kept waiting before we finally got it, then a sense of urgency was impressed on us. So we're like, if it's so urgent, why make us wait?

The museum was a lot of fun, the rest of the party used a grappling hook and rope to swing across a broken walkway, however my hunter didn't trust it to hold her so give it a good tug before swinging, which resulted in me tearing down part of the roof the grappling hook was lodged in creating an extra mess down in the exhibits. For some strange reason the witch had learned an obscure language so we could decipher the text we found up there.

Gathering the information on the streets we needed resulted in an almost arrest warrant for the fighter for intimidating an addict, and the rogue being told her fortune which made her near paranoid (because someone around her was not who they appeared to be).

The fights were fairly hilarious and ended quick because of action economy

Fights:

The Merrow got a few hits in on the rogue before being quickly dispatched
The animated statue proved to be the worst opponent of the day, with it's hardness. We fought it on the water level however, since it kinda fell down the hole. I had climbed up, failed my perception check and rolled miserable on initiative, resulting in getting hit by a full attack and taking me down to 1/4th of my hitpoints before I could act. I withdrew behind the hole and the statue followed me, toppling down the hole falling on top of the rogue. We managed to destroy the statue, but not before it knocked the cleric into the negatives. (1st bad thing to happen to the rogue at the hands of her party, as she was standing beneath the rope to catch my hunter if she should fall, as I had caught her before when she was climbing up and failed her check at the top, she wanted to return the favor)
Then we encountered a bunch of walking hands who started to strangle the rogue. The witch's companion (a tiny dinosaur) was send to kill one of the hands so it "went for the rogue's throat" (it failed on killing the hand however). The fighter then used his kukri to slash the hand away from the rogue's throat (See! He's trying to cut my throat)
The final fight started with the casting of a web (by the enemy), the rogue tumbling through the web, the witch burning the web down and us pouring into the room not seeing anyone. During the fight the fighter and the cleric both got paralyzed, while the rest managed to kill the enemy.

The only reason I'm not giving 5 stars is because this adventure is very unfriendly for classes with animal companions of a non-flying variety.


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Contributor

Announced, and it's back to Blackros Museum for you Pathfinders!

The Exchange

Typo in the description:

Spoiler:
Musuem is not a word.

More Blakros Museum, yay. Also, I'm amused that the title echoes Echoes of the Everwar.

Contributor

LeadPal wrote:
Typo in the description.

Fixed!

Silver Crusade

More Blackros Museum? We should just burn the place and be done with it...

Shadow Lodge

FallofCamelot wrote:
More Blackros Museum? We should just burn the place and be done with it...

It was built by an ancient wizard, so it's fireproof. Besides, maybe it's not all in the museum.

Still, we need an adventure path with relationship mechanics in them with them so they can have our kids. That way, they'll be too busy to open interdimensional gateways two seasons out of four.

Silver Crusade

Heh,

Reading this again I came off a little more hostile to Blakros museum adventures than I intended.

FWIW I actually like the museum adventures. I just think (more or less IC) that the place is just jinxed. :)

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16

FallofCamelot wrote:
I just think (more or less IC) that the place is just jinxed. :)

I hope that the scenario lives up to your every expectation.

Silver Crusade

My animosity towards the place comes from:

Voice in the Void spoiler:
Being eaten by a Gibbering Mouther

Kind of spoils your day...

Seriously though I look forward to this one. :)

Shadow Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Now that we have 4 Blackros Museum modules...I demand a Museum flip mat!

And monkeys.

That is all.

Liberty's Edge

I just realized I scheduled to run this for my group after Mists of Mwangi by pure coincidence. I hope it turns out to be awesome.

Silver Crusade

BTLOTM wrote:
I just realized I scheduled to run this for my group after Mists of Mwangi by pure coincidence. I hope it turns out to be awesome.

You should really play the whole set before it:

Mists- Season 0
Voice in The Void- Season 1
The Penumbral Accords - Season 2

But I agree, I love running the museum, but as a player.. I hate the place.

Shadow Lodge

Hmmm... I'm wondering how well this will work for a Halloween scenario... We play every monday, and it looks like we'll all be able to play next monday...

Shadow Lodge

Any info on why this was pushed back two weeks? I was really hoping to run this Monday for Hallowe... I mean Jestercap... :(

Contributor

Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Any info on why this was pushed back two weeks? I was really hoping to run this Monday for Hallowe... I mean Jestercap... :(

We'll have it up as soon as it's ready! In the meantime, don't forget to check out the Beginner Box Bash events that are taking place this weekend.

Sczarni

Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Any info on why this was pushed back two weeks? I was really hoping to run this Monday for Hallowe... I mean Jestercap... :(

Yeah I have this scheduled to run on the 5th for a group that's 1/2 newbies and 1/2 people who have played all the other 1-5s... looks like I'm figuring something else out....

Shadow Lodge

Liz Courts wrote:
Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Any info on why this was pushed back two weeks? I was really hoping to run this Monday for Hallowe... I mean Jestercap... :(
We'll have it up as soon as it's ready! In the meantime, don't forget to check out the Beginner Box Bash events that are taking place this weekend.

I'd love to, if there were any in Michigan, but sadly there are not.

Sovereign Court Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds

So, this was originally scheduled for October release. I know it got pushed back, and was listed as coming out today. Now it simply says "Unavailable."

What happened? Is this not coming out this month? I have it and #3-08 on the schedule for the middle of the month, and thought that would be enough time to get things sorted out. Now I'm worried...


Drogon wrote:

So, this was originally scheduled for October release. I know it got pushed back, and was listed as coming out today. Now it simply says "Unavailable."

What happened? Is this not coming out this month? I have it and #3-08 on the schedule for the middle of the month, and thought that would be enough time to get things sorted out. Now I'm worried...

It is going up later today. :)

Sovereign Court Owner - Enchanted Grounds, President/Owner - Enchanted Grounds

Chris Lambertz wrote:
Drogon wrote:

So, this was originally scheduled for October release. I know it got pushed back, and was listed as coming out today. Now it simply says "Unavailable."

What happened? Is this not coming out this month? I have it and #3-08 on the schedule for the middle of the month, and thought that would be enough time to get things sorted out. Now I'm worried...

It is going up later today. :)

Yay! Thank you.

The Exchange

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Drogon wrote:

So, this was originally scheduled for October release. I know it got pushed back, and was listed as coming out today. Now it simply says "Unavailable."

What happened? Is this not coming out this month? I have it and #3-08 on the schedule for the middle of the month, and thought that would be enough time to get things sorted out. Now I'm worried...

As far as I've seen this happens somewhat often on the day that a scenario is supposed to come out.

Contributor

Now available!

Grand Lodge

To me it's quite appropriate that

Spoiler:

the most dangerous encounter in the module is the defence old Beldrin left in his tower, which has already defeated the bad guy and one party of Pathfinders.

They probably decided to play up.


If a party has no cleric at tier 3-4

Spoiler:
how do they get past the haunt?

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16

To address some gamemasters' frustration about the difficulty of drawing the scenario's maps, I have uploaded some revised maps on the Cartographer's Guild site. While they're laid out as closely as possible to the originals, I shifted the grid. I hope that people will find them helpful.

Echoes Maps

When running this adventure, I also keep a cardboard jig cut out to match the tower's curved walls. With it, I can draw the maps much more quickly.

RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16

DMFTodd wrote:
If a party has no cleric at tier 3-4, how do they...

Spoiler:
Some parties need to just get the heck out. Others have used cure light wounds on the haunt's apparent focus, the scholar's corpse. THat seemed reasonable, so I allowed it to wprk when I was GM.
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