Pathfinder Society Scenario #5–25: Vengeance at Sundered Crag (PFRPG) PDF

I agree with a lot of the other reviewers negative points but none of them lead to me not LOVING this scenario. I loved the amount of depth the scenario had. Yeah, it had a lot of what some players would consider extra content, but I had a blast in this scenario. My whole table did, we loved all the role playing and really had fun in the combats.

The storyline of this scenario only works well when your character has a connection to the villains. Without that you'll probably be left wondering why you are forced to chase down these random individuals that apparently are really dangerous, but that you have never heard of. But even if you have that connection, there might still be a chance you do not care that much about those two BBEGs. The plot, therefore, can be hit or miss and I can understand why some people didn't fully enjoy the scenario.

As for me, well, my cuddly, cheerful summoner is of a kind and forgiving nature, but when she was offered to opportunity to hunt down a certain individual in this scenario, she immediately accepted. That particular individual has done gruesome things and deserves to be punished in her mind. That individual is the only one she wants to die, so I as a player enjoyed the story a lot and felt immersed instantly.

The fights were challenging and at times rather rough. On multiple occassions I was wondering if we were going to survive this ordeal. Thankfully we managed to stay alive and even to get revenge. This was mostly due to some great teamwork and I have to admit that a big portion of how much I enjoyed the scenario was due to the other players.

If it wasn't for the other players, or for the fact that I had a connection of sorts with one of the evil guys, I think the scenario would have been rather plain. The fights are fine, and the atmosphere can be amazing, but it misses a plot that speaks to everyone. As a result, I'm hesitant to recommend this scenario.

We played this on the low tier with a 4-PC party due to some no-show players. We brought a L8 artillery alchemist, L8 support cleric, L7 archer and L7 paladin pregen. This turned out to be a reasonably good party for it.

This adventure has some environmental effects in it which can be really brutal. Next time I'm going into the worldwound, I'm bringing a wilderness survival expert. It's good the fights were number-wise not too tough because the adverse environmental effects had the potential to really nerf anything other than melee beatsticks into the ground.

The adventure is straightforward; chase down bad guys, beat them, chase down more bad guys, beat them. Sadly, the second target escaped because his tactics say he'll do so if sufficiently wounded. Irritatingly, this cost us quite a few of the rewards.

I didn't find this adventure to be the massive pileup that other people complain about. Part of that is group size I think; with three players and a pregen, and the 4-player scaling removing some enemies, the whole thing is much easier to oversee.

I did find it to be a bit heavy on the denial side of tactics, especially the (apparently optional) environmental effects. I'm not a fan of fights where all half the party can do is trudge through 2 squares of super-difficult terrain per round.

I do like the way this adventure is set up to give some closure on long-term opponents of the society. Even if one got away, grumble grumble.

Another point in favor is the choice of monsters; there were some original ones in there with some tactics I hadn't run into before.

I think the "big" combat is a little easier if the GM plays the "sides" correctly (not to go into any spoilers). Given the number of variables involved, dice can play a bigger role in this one than in many other events. The prep is a little bit heavy but not overloaded and I enjoyed the story. The end of the event seemed a little anticlimactic though. We finished in about 4.5 hours.