A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st to 7th level characters (Tiers: 1-2, 3-4 and 6-7).
The mastermind behind the Shadow Lodge incursion on the Pathfinder Society has been revealed—a mysterious figure known only as The Spider. Your journey to discover the traitor’s whereabouts and identities will take you throughout the streets and underground of Almas, even to the floor of the People’s Council itself.
Written by Patrick Renie.
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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I've both played and run Web of Corruption, and though I had fun both times I don't think it's a terribly well-written scenario. There were at least a couple of times during the investigation that I simply had to say to the players, "yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a plot hole you've just uncovered".
Spoiler:
For one thing, the Spider depicted here is hardly the criminal mastermind she's built up to be. Her notes clearly reveal her identity for no discernable reason, and her tactics in the final encounter are downright stupid given that she could just run for it, especially if you have six PCs instead of four.
There are other questions too. Why is the Sailswift still in the harbor now that the slaves have been delivered? It's clearly stated that there's only one shipment a month. By the same token, why does Jarovar wander around every night when he usually has no deliveries to make?
Basically, this is another fun-with-the-right-group scenario - there's a good mix of stuff to do here as long as your group can get into it and overlook of the details. But there are many other scenarios that offer the same thing without these drawbacks.
Better with a group willing to roleplay, otherwise it's kind of meh.
(I GMed this and played this under Magabeus below.)
As Magabeus said, combats are on the easy side, even for a party of four. Single-enemy encounters aren't that interesting, especially if those enemies are built to work well with others.
The sandbox felt a little clunky, but it works well. There's enough character descriptions on the NPCs to make them interesting and there's lots of room for roleplay if people want to. I wasn't that enthused about the scenario when preparing it, but it was a lot more fun than I expected. I think that's mostly due to an engaging party that wanted to explore; this is a really "make your own fun" scenario. The adventure offers some stuff, but the players need to make it engaging.
Bottom line: more fun than its predecessor, but it could use a little more polish.
This is a solid scenario that works great if the table likes to roleplay. The combats are rather easy, but they all make sense within the scenario (if you ignore the optional encounter). It is a nice sandbox scenario and I had a lot of fun running it.
I played this long ago, but recently GMed it for the first time. I'll start off with my one complaint, the combat was easy. We probably only spent a half hour in initiative order.
As much as I love combat, I had a marvelous time role-playing the varied characters in Almas. My players were investigating intelligently and without nose-leading, and put me in unexpected situations calling for my inventing NPCs on the spot. I had a blast doing that. Unlike most 'investigation scenarios' I've played, this really puts the players behind the driver's wheel. I never even had to use the provided hints per se, the players were capable of following leads using their own inferential logic to arrive at the appropriate locations.
In other words, this scenario is more than a few Diplomacy rolls and the subsequent encounters (though those mechanics exist for those that need to use them). It is a story going on with or without the players, and the PCs have the opportunity to change how it ends. I really had a blast, and my players seemed to have a great time too.
Does this mod use any GameMastery maps or map packs? I am considering running this for an upcoming convention, and would like to cut down on prep time if I can.
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meta4one wrote:
Does this mod use any GameMastery maps or map packs? I am considering running this for an upcoming convention, and would like to cut down on prep time if I can.
All the maps are flip-mats or map packs it uses
Flip-mats
Flip-Mat: Ship
Flip-Mat: Theater
Flip-Mat: City Streets
(based on 10 ratings)
