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Monasteries, Monuments, and Mysteries

Wednesday, September 19, 2018


Illustration by Tadas Sidluahskas

Gen Con lands a little earlier each year, and while that ambitious publication schedule means there's tons of new material that arrives in early August, it means nearly two months before the next scenarios arrive in late September. The long wait is nearly over! The team's been working on a variety of Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild scenarios that highlight northwestern Avistan in dramatically different ways. Let's hear from the developers who worked on each one.

Linda Zayas-Palmer (Organized Play Developer): What better way to celebrate the approach of Halloween than with some spooky scenarios? This month, we're kicking off a new Tier 3-7 two-part series with Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-05: Mysteries Under Moonlight Part 1: Testament of Souls, by Alex Augunas. The city of Magnimar is well known for its monuments and the blessings they provide to those who perform the proper rituals before them. Now, however, several of the monuments have been corrupted by necromantic energy from an unknown source. Out-of-control flames and the eerie moans of lost spirits haunt Magnimar's people. Magnimar's Lord-Mayor Grobaras has hired an investigator—illustrated below by Tadas Sidluahskas—but with the situation worsening rapidly, the Varisian Council has asked the Pathfinder Society to step in and put an end to the corruption. If the PCs succeed here, they'll receive a unique blessing that they can use to be particularly awesome in Mysteries Under Moonlight, Part 2!


Illustration by Dion Harris

Michael Sayre (Organized Play Developer): I'm really excited to talk about this month's Tier 7-11 adventure Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-04: Reaver's Roar from Steven Hammond. Reaver's Roar takes the PCs to the town of Roslar's Coffer in Lastwall, where local legend has it a magical helm blessed by Sarenrae lies in the heart of an ancient temple known as the Bastion of Light, guarded by a fearsome beast. Will the PCs survive the Reaver of Roslar's Coffer, or will someone beat them to the prize? And who exactly is this individual illustrated by Dion Harris, and what does he have to do with the mysteries hidden within the Bastion?

John Compton (Organized Play Lead Developer): Normally we'd have just two Pathfinder Society scenarios per month, but with the ongoing Pathfinder Playtest, we wanted to ensure that there would be plenty of playtest material. This month we release the fourth and final Pathfinder Playtest scenario: The Frozen Oath, a Tier 10 adventure written by Ron Lundeen. The Pathfinder Society's increasingly reached out to freelance explorers to map areas, survey regions, and perform other long-term studies. Although goblins aren't renowned for their scholarly rigor, an increasing number of them have sought out work with the Society. A group of Frostfur goblins recently set out into the chilly Crown of the World, and only one has returned, carrying a stone tablet that suggests the group found a large monument tied to the legendary explorer Aganhei! With the summer solstice over, the PCs need to move swiftly to reach the site while the warm weather lasts.


Illustration by Tom Ventre

Unlike the previous three Pathfinder Playtest adventures, this scenario DOES NOT include pregenerated characters. As you schedule this scenario, it is important that you either include enough time for your players to build characters or have them create characters ahead of time.

Speaking of pregenerated characters, the team's been continually revising the pregenerated character format with the help of our senior graphic designer Emily Crowell. She's created several different styles that prioritize different features, such as grouping similar information together, presenting an overview of a character's abilities on the front page, using a vertical or landscape format, and more. Our aim's to get the pregenerated character survey done soon, including some of these pregenerated character formats as visuals to get your feedback on the current formats, the changes we've explored, and what else you'd like to see.

In the meantime, be sure you're continuing to playtest Pathfinder's second edition and provide us your feedback through the surveys.

John Compton, Michael Sayre, and Linda Zayas-Palmer
Organized Play Developers

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Tags: Dion Harris Organized Play Pathfinder Society Tom Ventre
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Grand Lodge 4/5
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Huzzah!
Dark Archive 1/5 * Venture-Captain, Texas—Houston

... include enough time for your players to build characters.

You do know that the process could be an entire gaming session.
Scarab Sages

I’ve found the character creation process to be a quick and painless one, although I shamelessly cheat and use Hero Builder. That said, just have them prepare their PC ahead of time.
Paizo Employee 4/5 Organized Play Lead Developer
Souphin wrote:

... include enough time for your players to build characters.

You do know that the process could be an entire gaming session.

Use the exact process that works best for your group. Some folks might be happy to set aside (for example) two hours before the game to build characters, take a short break, and then jump into the action. Others might determine that they need more time to peruse options and want to build characters.

Our goal is to put a reminder as often as possible whenever we mention The Frozen Oath that there are not pregenerated characters available, giving players, GMs, and organizers as much warning as possible.
Silver Crusade 5/5 5/5 **
3 people marked this as a favorite.
John Compton wrote:
Souphin wrote:

... include enough time for your players to build characters.

You do know that the process could be an entire gaming session.

Use the exact process that works best for your group. Some folks might be happy to set aside (for example) two hours before the game to build characters, take a short break, and then jump into the action. Others might determine that they need more time to peruse options and want to build characters.

Our goal is to put a reminder as often as possible whenever we mention The Frozen Oath that there are not pregenerated characters available, giving players, GMs, and organizers as much warning as possible.

Ok. Let's crowd source this :-). We should be able to create a gaggle of 10th level characters in pfsprep.

I'll build a druid
Liberty's Edge 3/5

Really looking to more PFS playtest!
Second Seekers (Roheas) 4/5 5/55/55/55/5 ***** Regional Venture-Coordinator, Appalachia

Mysteries under Moonlight sounds sexy as hell. Glad to see proper multi-part adventures are back after a year off last year.
Grand Lodge 4/5 ** Venture-Agent, Colorado—Denver

I am soooo looking forward to the Mysteries Under Moonlight two parter -especially in time to play it around Halloween. Season 10 scenarios have been just amazing so far. Kudos to all the authors, illustrators, cartographers, and developers!

It would be nice to see some 2e PC's on pfsprep. I'd like to see how others build their PCs and have the chance to use them.

Cheers!

One of the link in the article is wrong and need a correction. In fact the one in Michael Sayre's comment does not redirect to the store page of 10-04 Scenario, but to the store pagine 9-24 Scenario. Instead, the other links are correct
5/5 *****
Paul Jackson wrote:

Ok. Let's crowd source this :-). We should be able to create a gaggle of 10th level characters in pfsprep.

I'll build a druid

I created four for some independnt testing I was doing. People are free to use or amend as they want. I wasnt particularly careful about how much uncommon content they used as it wasnt for a PFS scenario so you may want to be alert to that.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vN1fbriX12-WrIYdcx1jTIbTppdbaXeslUB7326 uyCM/edit?usp=sharing
Scarab Sages Organized Play Developer
Alarian Sunlance wrote:
One of the link in the article is wrong and need a correction. In fact the one in Michael Sayre's comment does not redirect to the store page of 10-04 Scenario, but to the store pagine 9-24 Scenario. Instead, the other links are correct

Not sure what happened there, I'll look into it. In the meantime, this link should work.

Sovereign Court 4/5 * Organized Play Manager
Michael Sayre wrote:
Alarian Sunlance wrote:
One of the link in the article is wrong and need a correction. In fact the one in Michael Sayre's comment does not redirect to the store page of 10-04 Scenario, but to the store pagine 9-24 Scenario. Instead, the other links are correct

Link fixed in main text.

4/5 5/5 * Contributor

Squee!

I can't wait to hear all of the stories from the Mysteries Under Moonlight storyline!
Silver Crusade 5/5 5/5 **

I've got my level 10 druid "pregen". Hopefully accurate (ish).

As an experiment he is a druid who both wild shapes AND has an animal companion.

Didn't take all the skill feats or spend all the gold. This is absolutely because I wanted to let people customize them a bit and not at all that I found nothing at all worth taking :-(

Note - Old character sheet. Untrained is still -2 and not -4. Doubt it will matter much

I can't put these up at pfsprep so I've put links to files on my google drive

L10 Raptor Companion
L10 Druid
Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Netherlands

Hooray! A two parter! I'm really looking forward to it :)
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