 
Sign in to create or edit a product review. Very fun and engaging haunted house scenario. 
Falgaia
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Keeping it short for now, I'll edit once I'm done with both my player and GM run in about a week from now. Pros:
Cons:
Overall rating would be a 4.5/5; choosing to round down my rating due to the encounter difficulty descriptors being misleading, but otherwise I'd recommend the module. Compared to Slithering and Plaguestone, I think Malevolence has the strongest overall setting and story and is a great scenario for those that are looking to run straight from the module. Or, if you'd prefer, it can be a great foundation to build a Haunted House experience from for GM's looking for one. Just make sure you adjust the difficulty of the encounters for your players or warn them that the module is incredibly dangerous ahead of time. One last note: As the module is structured like a mystery, I recommend running the scenario in long sessions, that way it is less likely for players to forget important details of the mystery over gaps between sessions. Playing the Adventure out over the course of a few months means that players will likely not be able to engage with it as effectively, but it can still be engaging if you inform your players to take notes during the game play. First off, a caveat for my 5*s: I am rating this scenario for what it is, and not what it does not try to be: a challenging and unique combat experience. This scenario has barely any roleplay at all, and little to no world building; however, if you evaluate the scenario on what it is trying to be rather than trying to evaluate it using a standard rubric, I believe the scenario is one of the funnest pure combat scenarios this season has had so far. This scenario contains a unique mechanic mechanic to aid the party that, although a little hard for players to understand at first, makes for a unique set of combats with a twist not normally seen in PFS. After a brief explanation and tactics period, the mechanic runs smoothly and added a lot to the encounters when I was both playing and GM'ing the scenario. The mechanic skews the encounter balance upwards due to the additional support for the players, which allows for combats with higher encounter levels than normal. That said, the encounters all feel well balanced (at least at high tier) and come off feeling tactically complex rather than unfair or easy. Additionally, the objective for the scenario adds an additional stress point to the fights, which both helps push the intensity of the situation and gives GMs an out to fall back on to avoid outright killing players if any PC is dropped. In both of my runs of the scenario as a player and a GM, I (or the party I ran for) had a blast and found the scenario perfectly balanced for tough combats that were fair to the players in spite of their challenging setups. It may be the most tactically dense scenario in all of published Pathfinder Society 2e so far, so if you're looking for a scenario with engaging and unique fights, there aren't many that do that job better. That said, I do object to this scenario being called Part 1; it does little to advance the Metaplot as a whole through its non-existent roleplay, and I can say with absolute certainty without having read Part 2 that nothing in Part 1 that is relevant couldn't be easily recapped in a single sentence. Implying it needs to be played before the rest of the three parter feels a bit misleading at best, but that small gripe aside, I find the scenario to be one of the best from this season. Additionally, I'd like to address some concerns raised by user P.B.'s run, as it feels like their experience may have been helmed by a bad GM rather than any fault of the scenario. Potential GMs, take notes:
Encounter 1: For a party of 4 with Average Party Level 6, there is no feasible way they should be facing 5 level 5 enemies. Assuming the number was not rounded up or down, APL 6 should be 12 Challenge Points, which is 3 CR5's and 1 elite CR5. My best guess is that the GM either miscalculated the group's CP (14-15 would have had an additional CR5) or was treating the challenge point adjustments as if they were cumulative. This is not how the scenario is intended to be played.
Additionally, the chances of the CR5's destroying the trees with their opening volley seems suspect at best. The CR5s are not supposed to actively target trees with their spell and are explicitly told to prioritize targeting the players, only including trees in the AoE if it would not interfere with targeting players. Additionally, if the trees were placed that closely together, there is no arrangement of trees where no fewer than 2 trees would have resistance 5 to the damage caused by the spells, assuming there is at least one blue tree in the mix. (Any GM should assume that their Routine has activated at least once in the rounds directly prior the combat, as their routine goes off in every 6 second interval.) The trees can pass their saving throws on 40% odds vs an average damage per spell of 21 (16 for resistant trees) or 10 on a successful save (5 for resistant trees). Trees without resistance would require 2 failed saves and a third hit to be completely destroyed, while those with resistance can successfully tank average damage from 4 or 5 AoEs if they only fail two saves. The likelihood of any trees being blasted by this many fireballs is already unlikely due to their combat tactics unless the GM opted to use Block Initiative for the assailant and rolled well, and even then the chance of this happening without going against the creatures' combat tactics seems unlikely at best. This seems to me like either very bad player tactics, very bad GM preparation of the scenario, or a mix of either and absolute garbage luck, none of which I feel comfortable blaming the scenario for. As a result, this turbobotch of an encounter effectively destroys the balance of the scenario by removing the mechanic it was balanced around entirely in the first round of the first combat. No wonder your experience was terrible. Any GM's looking to run this scenario, do not make this mistake. Lastly, the idea that the scenario doesn't heap the energy required to deal with the final fight onto the players before hand implies that either A) your party has trash skill selection, or B) your party never bothered to recall knowledge on the monsters and didn't piece together WHY the scenario opted to give you an absurd number of Sound Burst scrolls and Acid Flask vials beforehand. Again, not something I can blame the scenario for here, considering passing Dragbog's skill check gives each PC that passes it 3 Sound Burst scrolls and passing Jaldans checks give each passing PC 4 moderate acid flasks. Lastly, keep in mind this scenario will run long. Having to explain the mechanic and plan tactics for the first combat will eat time, and the tactical complexity will likely take this scenario to the 5+ hour mark easily. That said, I find the time spent well worth it. Props to the Mr Wasko, after this scenario and the absolute banger of an repeatable that is Lost on the Spirit Road, I'll be definitely looking forward to the next scenario you put out. Gonna keep this short as this review is being added mostly because its current store reviews are being held back by uneditted reviews of the old printing. Writing this as a GM that has ran the original printing once and the rewrite twice as of this past weekend's Paizocon. The scenario itself has a good mix of encounters for a low tier party, and with a bit of legwork or improv on the GM's side can be an engaging replayable. More customization options would be nice, especially with the Scrolls trial, but as is its already more varied than plenty of existing PFS2e replayables. The challenges are either joke-tier or incredibly deadly, but the scenario has checks in place in case anything goes south. Some players might not be a fan of this, but I like it as a compromise to allow for more difficult Level 1 fights than players would typically see in PFS. The rewrite fixes most of the questionable story decisions of the original while also adding some fun added details to one of the encounters and re-adjusting parts of the Spells section to remove an easily exploitable item from the run as well as allowing more diverse parties to have additional avenues to complete its last trial, which is a nice addition that the negative reviews hadn't been asking for that was great to see. That said, I am slightly disappointed that one of the encounters for the finale had a companion creature removed in the rewrite, but, barring that minor gripe, the rewrite on the whole is a fun jaunt and introduction to a range of PFS challenges that will prepare players for a variety of situations if ran as written, which is what I'd hope to see from a scenario like this. I've enjoyed running it on all of my runs and players seem to also have enjoyed it on the whole as well. My actual review score for this scenario is 4 stars, but considering the old printing reviews are still here dragging it down, I wanted to help course correct that for people seeing the scenario on the store page for the first time. If those reviews are cleared out or editted, I'll edit my review back to its original 4-stars. Scenario was a blast and I'd rate it 5/5 despite a few minor issues. Everyone at the table I ran it for enjoyed it a ton, but our table did consist of experienced PF2'ers who knew how to work together as a party, so I will cede that less challenge-averse/more casual groups may not have as good of a time. If you're considering running it, get a feel for your group ahead of time and make sure they're aware of what they're getting into before facing the Finale, as it is not for the faint of heart. Spoilers incoming! Thoughts on the scenario:
The obstacle course is fun especially if you play up Jackpot throughout it, the opening fight is a good pre-workout stretch, and the scenario has some nice flavor in between combatswhile on the road. The second encounter could use a bit more buildup IMO, but it makes up for it with a sick concept. We mostly handwaved the cliff puzzle with decent rolls and prior exceptional rolls. Finale is a good payoff and feels like it pushes the metaplot forward meaningfully rather than leaving it to meander, and gets me excited to run Breaking the Storm. Thoughts on the finale:
No one died in my all-level 6's 4-man-run, but my dice were admittedly cold as a GM (at least three Rot first strikes rolled a 2). That said, the party was not well optimized for the fight with 3 melee fighters (Grappler Barbarian/Druid (Its a weird support build); Intimidate Rogue, and a Mountain Stance Monk kicking at AC 26-28) and one caster (draconic sorcerer with Oracle Multi for limited healing access) meaning most of their healing was through Battle Medicine, and even with more average dice I think only one player would have been realistically dropped. That said, most players left the engagement with remaining hero points and no one was even Wounded by the end of it.
Overall I could see the combat being an issue if any of the following is true: 1. The party is made of players who are either challenge-averse or are running subpar builds with little thought for synergy; 2. The party is unwilling to modify their tactics to meet the demands of the combat, or 3. The GM is purposefully brutal with monster spawn locations due to the scenario's vagenuess as to where creatures spawn in. In regards to point 1, I think it may be a good idea for GM's unsure of where their party falls to emphasize that they have completed the mission at this point, and that this will indeed by a DANGEROUS CHALLENGE and not a "dangerous" fight in boxtext only. For point 2, this can easily be remedied by GM's reminding players to consider the encounter layout and perhaps attempt to Recall Knowledge. For point 3, there was a point in the scenario where I could have dropped the Round 3 monster directly adjacent to the Grappler (assuming they can spawn in anywhere in the ritual zone), and it had rolled high enough initiative to theoretically strike thrice before he could react. Don't be that guy as a GM unless the party clearly is handling the fight well. Generally, I'd recommend spawning the waves near the center of the ritual site after round 1 as that is at least something players can account for to some extent. Compliments to the author for one heck of a ride; I'll be keeping an eye out for more of their work in the future. Writing this as a GM, currently about to start the final dungeon. Spoiler free pros-cons here, spoilers after. Pros: Interesting concept, has a decent mystery angle. A few of the plot points can be good story beats, but mostly built for fight-centric groups. As long as your party isn't geared out to fight with a specific weapon, and knows there will be Ooze aplenty, the fights are pretty enjoyable and tense with mild tuning for the group's preferences. Cons: Story makes a very questionable decision in creating its plot that I think, if corrected, makes for a much better plot. Not a whole lot of interesting roleplay opportunities unless you put in the legwork as GM. One encounter in particular is likely to be a TPK unless you seriously pull punches as GM; my powergamer party of 5 only won by spamming hero points I gave in the moment for "good in-character roleplaying." Spoiler-ridden detailed thoughts start now. Spoiler:
Plot: Despite building an entire 3-part module around a single high-ranking Aspis member's plan, the scenario makes the glaring issue of killing him offscreen before the module even starts. I cannot fathom how this was deemed appropriate, especially considering the final boss of the Module is literally a nobody that knows nothing. In my run, I rewrote the scenario with the help of the new rituals from the APG, saying that a heartbonded member of the Cult of Angazhan Reincarnated him after his death to the Slithering, allowing him to return to see his plan to fruition. In order for the story to be at all satisfying, I feel like a change of this sort is almost necessary, but the story works well with that gap fixed. Just have the villain return in a non-human body (Something that is already a tenet of the Cult of Angazhan, coincidentally) and re-assert dominance over the Aspis on his return, and suddenly the final dungeon makes much more sense. That said, credit where its due: we had an excellent roleplay segment when the players learned they were contagion vectors; don't think I'll ever get another reveal quite as good as that one in some time.
EDIT: To those reading this and considering GM'ing the Slithering, I made a full writeup of the modifications to the scenario in this thread, feel free to use and adapt as you see fit. Fair warning, I was very thorough and the post that contains it clocks in at roughly 4000 words. https://paizo.com/threads/rzs435a2?SPOILERS-Slithering-rewrite-to-fix-a-per sonal Fights: Spectre fight is insane and feels like it wasn't properly playtested. My assumption is that an earlier draft of the scenario merged the Spectre fight with a Will-o-wisp before splitting it into two encounters for page count. Two enemies with the ability to effectively dominate party members should not be pitted against a party of 4, especially when their ability is not explicitly limited to only one target AND they have incorporeal resistances. That aside, I recommend combining fights together in some of the easier dungeons if players are getting bored with the level of difficulty: the boggard dungeon could have been very boring, but our group had a massive knock-down drag-out brawl where the Scouts from the first room were gradually drawing support from the neighboring rooms, turning it into a multi-round combat arena with new mooks jumping in every few turns as they mobilized. Final dungeon has not been done yet, but the high density of Severe encounters feels promising. Overall my group has had a decent time with the fights, and I think with the story adjustments mentioned in the spoilers that I'll be able to have them walk away from it viewing the experience as a 4* despite its flaws. I'd recommend the scenario on the whole for those looking for a decent combat module, but just know you'll probably need to put in some work to make the roleplay enticing through to the end.
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