Pathfinder Society Scenario #43: The Pallid Plague (PFRPG) PDF (based on
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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st to 7th level characters (Tiers: 1–2, 3–4, and 6–7).
Reports from Andoran's Darkmoon Vale indicate that a new plague is causing the deaths of untold fey. The Pathfinder Society sends you there to aid the nymph queen in stopping the plague and finding and destroying its source. When the plague spreads to the human population of Falcon's Hollow, the need to find a cure grows more frantic. Can you save the many denizens of Darkmoon Vale from certain death?
Written by Mark Moreland
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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This was an ambitious and panic-driven adventure that carries off an original story quite well within a limited time frame. The concept of the adventurers battling an insidious threat that cannot be taken out with a high bab and str bonus to a two-handed weapon is wonderful, and the focus on skills and knowledge in this adventure perfectly shows off Society's respect for skillful and well-rounded characters. This is a must-play for a party of smart players who want to get away from the hack & slash.
As you can see, the pros definitely outweigh the cons in this adventure.
PROS:
-Original, inventive concept for an adventure that escapes the dungeon yet is still packed with increasing danger to the characters.
-A brilliant 'Pathfinder: Emergency Department' scene whereby creative skills and knowledge are responsible for saving the day, not a greatsword. I would like to see more of these situations in future seasons.
-Immersive backstory for the origins of the evil.
-Simple, easy to use disease resources that lets the GM keep the threat foremost in the players minds.
-Suitable faction missions that don't feel 'tacked on'.
CONS:
-Maps drawn are too large for the medium sized gaming table.
-Combat seemed to be the norm for Pathfinder Society (easy), which means it really needed a formula for GMs to add more creatures to challenge the party. Front-line party members boasted they hadn't taken any damage at the end of the session.
-Fey presence:
Perhaps not enough of a Fey presence in the module. The fact that the Society client is a nymph queen, yet the PCs only stumble across one of her agents in the woods by accident keeps the fey out of the spotlight. Perhaps more could be discussed about Laurel's links to the good fey of the vale?
I rather enjoyed this adventure as a player, and the skill challenge made it more interesting than the usual fare. However, it's possible that our GM allowed us to take some liberties with it; I know we each were allowed to make quite a few skill checks, as long as we could rationalize how that skill check would help the search for a cure. We certainly let our imaginations run free! :-)
I agree that the enemies were fairly weak, but I don't consider that to be a big flaw; as long as the story is memorable, everything else is secondary to me.
I'd give this module 3.5 or 4 stars (assuming 3 stars is average), based on my single play experience (tier 1-2).
This is yet another scenario that relies heavily on the GMs ability to convey a story and change the details of the scenario so that it makes sense. Also, if your PCs are unskilled (Fighters, Clerics), things will go badly and there's not much you can do about it.
”Worst part”:
The worst part of this scenario is that you can fail (part of the scenario) based on skill checks alone. Groups of 4 PCs will have a harder time than groups of 6 PCs, since 6 PCs will have more skills (and more opportunities) to add to the skill challenge. In addition, the skill challenge is especially difficult for level 1 PCs because many level 1 PCs haven’t had the opportunity to get a more diverse set of skills.
I have no problem with skills checks being important in scenarios; I think it's a good thing. However, if the PCs successfully make the skill check test, I think the PCs should be allowed to complete the task "the easy way". If the PCs cannot make the skill check, you can still complete the scenario, but with some kind of penalty (take damage, more opponents, more people are dead, etc). That's my view on good scenario design, because failing the scenario based solely on a skill check just isn't fun imo.
Another problem with skill checks making or breaking the scenario is that it causes (crappy and spineless) local GMs to fudge it for their home PCs. This actually happened with us, our GM waved the entire cure process (even though we made maybe 3 skill checks). What should have been an epic fail (and I would have preferred that), turned into an easy win. My GM hand waved the entire cure process and made a 100% cure for us. Yay for cheating (that's sarcasm btw)!
”Encounter Story Links”:
The second problem are the story links between encounters. They don't make a lot of sense (especially if they are conveyed by an average GM). The PCs basically go from encounter to encounter slaughtering everything without knowing why.
For example:
Why are the lumberjacks attacking the druids? If lumberjacks found druids in the forest tending a grove, I doubt they would attack.
Why would the druids try to kill the lumberjacks given that they're diseased and nearly dead? (ACT 1)
Why can druids now control undead?
Why would the NPCs give away the entire plot before its been implemented? And so easily? Does the pox make you retarded as well?
Why wouldn't some fey communicate with the PCs early, like at the lumberjack camp? (We never spoke to one fey the entire scenario).
There's no mystery or investigation needed, we just stumble blindly from act to act (ACT 3).
Why would the NPCs tell the PCs where to find his friends?
The final act itself makes no sense; they're celebrating and committing suicide without even making sure the town is infected? Stupid!
I'll read the scenario first, but to me a lot of the story links between encounters needs to be tweaked. Right now the PCs are lead by the nose from location to location, killing whatever they meet, without any of it making sense (to the PCs anyway).
The third problem is that the back story is quite compelling; however, it's very difficult for the GM to convey to the PCs. So it's just wasted.
There was almost no interesting roleplaying (except insane bad guys being... insane), but I think that was the fault of the GM (he skipped the optional encounter).
Finally, the last major problem with this scenario is that the combats are too easy. When I played this with six level 1 PCs, we took a grande total of 6 damage the entire scenario. 6 damage! This scenario didn't even begin to challenge us. I believe we could have played up to subtier 6-7.
We finished the scenario in a lightning quick 1.5 hours.
I might change my mind if I GM this, but as far as player experiences go (with an average GM), "the plague" was my worst experience yet with PFS.
While the story is sound, there are numerous problems with the execution. The timeline of the scenario is downright impossible, which requires minor modifications (not affecting the overall experience really) to make it logical. It doesn't matter all that much in the first place, but doesn't bode well.
This scenario is very easy regarding combat. A party of 4 1st-level characters can easily stomp over all the foes they meet. At one point there isn't even a good reason to lay out a map with figures, just ask what the PCs do and it's probably over after that.
The Pallid Plague was a good module with a single stumble I've seen in a lot of PFS modules. There are some fun mechanics early on that sets up a challenge that really keeps the game moving. This is one of the defining, and fun parts of this module; it's one of the first PFS modules I've played where there is a real sense of urgency to the game. The encounters are fun, fairly challenging, but not overly difficult and set up a story that puts the players front and center as an integral part of figuring out what is going wrong.
The problem with this module though is that the ending is not terribly exciting. It could have been so much more, but in comparison with the rest of the encounters it's just nowhere near as difficult. There are some changes that can be done with a good GM (help is available on the forums), but in all the ending is just a little flat compared to the excitement of the rest of the module (which is where the 4-star review comes from).
The module is absolutely worth playing though and a fine choice for any PFS table.
I knew it would be a fun mod to run from the beginning. Only thing that seemed to be missing was an area map that would have been helpful to the players and DM alike. Everywhere you go seems to be this vague over there which makes it loose some of it's race against time element. You don't know how far apart places are so you don't know how long it takes to get to them. Pretty important when you are dealing with time frames in the hours and days. I liked the scene in Falcons Hollow when the players actions are much more free form. The blank looks on their faces when the story doesn't tell them what to do was priceless. Really messes with the meta gamer.
The concept was good. The setting and flavor of the story was good. The problem with this scenario is that while the main bad guy in the final scene has some punch, most of the monsters or enemy cannot stand up to a party of PCs built by serious and experienced gamers. I ran this module for a party of 5 with a cleric playing up from 4th level with two fighters at 6th and 7th level and a 7th level wizard. These PCs were all designed by experienced RPGA players. They were never really challenged. The plague zombie dire bears were useful in infecting them but none of the creatures that they faced after the first encounter were that much of a threat. I have found that I have to increase the abilities of the minions to make them a serious speed bump in the way of the PCs in most cases.
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