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FlorianF
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If you're going to run this, here's a few tweaks I would suggest. ** SPOILERs *** ** I MEAN IT *** * The Delay idea is very good and sorely lacking from all other modules... But:
* The Deer hazard looks like it was a fight that was shortened. As is, it's meaningless (just flee). Either turn it into a trap (one attack then it's gone, which is what it amounts to), make fleeing a challenge (Athletics?), or run it as an easy fight * Entering the candle shop lacks consequences. What happens if they fail, or if the guards are called?? Instead, just increase Delay. * Ignore the Roll20 version's homunculus 2d10 rule, which makes the fight too easy. * I suggest you pimp the 4 leshy defenders and make them more different from each other. * Having the PCs rest fully sucks any challenge out of the module. The last fight is not very hard, considering every enemy that dies heals the PCs 2d8 (except the fungus, remember) and makes their movement harder (none have ranged attacks). * Hence, for a short game I suggest you turn the deer into a trap and disallow this resting. For a longer game, make the deer a fight, allow the rest, but add Constance as a sorceress into the last fight (maybe just flinging low-level spells to prevent escape). Nice adventure, if you set aside the fact that level 1 PCs are recruted for this crucial task. The end is the weak part. It's a space dungeon. Fine with that. But it's horribly designed, as if casting aside decades of dungeon design. The rooms are barren, minuscule (go fit a sniper in a 25' room!), and often bypassable. Also, it's just fight after fight with no interesting way to affect them - eventhough some are ripe for social, mystical or technical interaction; would have been a good way to mitigate their difficulty. Also, as usual, zero effort put to mitigate repeated rests. There's basically nothing that prevents the heroes from sleeping it out after each encounter. Loot is also very weird. There's salvageable stuff in unexpected places (e.g. a bar), and none in others (a filled cargo hold). Very much recommended as well-timed, rather easy to prepare game. Interesting and varied monster, good fight and amusing (if deadly) traps. BUT... Spoiler:
The angel The deva's a nice original idea but... setting aside the complexity involved in the wizard convincing an angel to its bidding (Cha contest, anyone?), his behaviour is quite odd. Why in hell when he does allow the "tomb robbers" inside he asks them to leave their stuff outside? It makes sense that he asks to leave the shrine's stuff inside, but not the other way around. And no players would accept the former, so they would need to fight it... which a Good PCs should not do in conscience. Same if they fail the very high diplo check(*). So, change his behaviour, cause it makes no sense. Faction missions issues
Andoran have to find a "local contact"... which is actually a Taldoran in Varisia. Duh. Mission Failed (for paying too much attention to the NPC!). (*) At least the writer did a good job using decently high DC, but I pity the fool trying this at Level 7! Why oh why don't scenario always have varying DC per subtier??
Played at tier 10-11 with 4PCs. Took about 5h, but could run longer. Refreshing plot with a story that makes sense and is accessible to the players, for once. Fights are tough but the players have no excuse to not come fully prepared.
GM comments below.
Spoiler:
Good stuff: Rather easy to prepare. Final map prints well. Issues:
2) as with The Disappeared, it makes no sense that the Society would send any random PC on this mission. Paladins and other faithful PCs are a no-go on this, unless they're taking their faith *very* lightly, or not taking the main mission seriously and going to storm the cult HQ. 3) Repetitive monsters. 4) The tattoo seems very cheap for what it is. Its evil nature is really understated, especially if a future GM is not aware that you bear it. For that reason, it shouldn't have been allowed. Normally, you can expect your PC be checked with Detect Evil from time to time, at which point you would register as evil and probably come under *close* scrutinity from the Society. And "Well it's just a tattoo from Lissala, no worry!" wouldn't work so well...
I prepared this module lended by my FLGS, and I was disappointed. AS pointed out elsewhere it suffered badly from editing and cutting, with lots of iterative monsters.
Spoiler:
Played for PFS, it's of course way too long, but removing the pointless spriggan armies mostly solves this issue. My main gripe is good-old railroading, lack of failable plot points, and fuzzy encounter setup. * The setup wedding is pointless. Whatever you do, it has no bearing on the following. You can't even get worthy information, or even gear, for what follows. Might as well skip to the ceremony. It's striking that the fate of the wedding couple is totally unimportant. If they die, nobody cares.
All in all, GREAT maps, but they're very poorly used. For the above reasons, the wedding map is useless, the forest map is useless (if the players actually navigate it, they're going to spend hours doing nothing), the Realm map is useless (they're going to go straight for the kill) and the Fortress map, though alright, is just way way too big for PFS. Also, for PFS: several magic items found are useless within the module.
So. It's got fine elements, but need tons of work, re-inserting the original monsters (from the podcast), fixing the encounter schema, designing an alternate final dungeon, giving meaning to the wedding part... But it still has good moments. Played at tier 5-6 with 5 players, took us 4h30 without optional enc. A well-made scenario, well-timed, interesting, with unsettling, but good flavour. The fights are varied and interesting as well. Also, unlike many scnearios, it makes use of map packs (though the chosen map do not always fit closely with the location)
Plot tweaks:
Spoiler:
To fix the issue that Jason S points out, make sure that the Angelic Guardian attack the bearer of the wayfinder (supposedly, Sheila). It makes for a more interesting fight AND it explains why this attempted assassination could have been worth it. Why oh why would Black spend TWO HOURS casting spells while the PC *wait in his office*. They won't. But most important, he *knows* when the golems are delivered, so he ought to use his scrying on the manor at this point. Then, knowing his plan failed, he creates the simulacrum and everything's ready when the PCs arrive at his office! Remember to give the PCs all the journals to help them understand the story. Absolutely skip the optional encounter at tier 5-6. Those soulbound dolls, same as Frostfur captives, are absolutely dumb creatures. Or if you use them, mix them in the final encounter. How are the pathfinders in the cylinders suriving *being immersed in acid*? The PCs were actually disappointed (and so was I) that the final mutli-head golem did NOT attack them. Also, what was it, anyways?
Issues, the usual suspects
Spoiler:
* As usual, the plot is done and gone when the PCs come in. I would like to see a scneario where the PCs actually witness the events going on. This could actually encourage the players to care about the story. Otherwise, why would they care so much about something that's over? * As usual, the BBEG is built with no relation to its theme and has the usual bland magic missile / lightning bolt / meh. Why? There's umpteen UM spells that fit his "madness/disfiguration" theme and make for a more memorable encounter. * for a man who can build golems for a living, everyone wonders why the boss does not have dozens of minions to, you know, shield him from grappling PCs (relying on difficult terrain and tentacles instead).
other tweaks
Spoiler:
I re-skinned the wood golem as an animated furniture piece, which turned out great. Players are now deathly afraid of chairs and chests. I couldn't resist adding an old pink sleeping robe of (somewhat) useful items in the basement. Also tweaked Black's spells to make them more thematic. The final map does not fit the descriptions well: what's the pool at the back? Where's the sarcophagus? Played in 4h30 with 6 level 4 PCs, inc. optional encounter.
Overall
The good
Plot issues
Spoiler:
Lots of “future stuff hints”. Strong mentions of the Aspis Consortium at the mission start, but none whatsoever afterwards.
Teleporting mask piece thing is very contrived, so is the secret bypass corridor to the boss room. Same for the falling block trap rigged to… a makeshift bricked wall? This kind of stuff discouraging players from trying to figure things out – or encourages them to over-rationalize. Why did the boss split up the mask except to push PCs to explore his temple? As said above, trying to understand the cult(s), its fate and the aims of its leader is pointless. As in other scenarios, the boss is built using straight templates and levels, with baseline spells, with almost no tie to the story theme. I.e., in what way is Tholrist any wrathful-er than some other random evil cleric? Even the 100% theme-appropriate wrathspawns suffer from their monster write-up being lackluster: besides their rather useless wrath scent, their sinful bite feature is not tied to wrath in any way. Why do wrathspawns torture people? They’re not painspawns… Why did the spawns emerge from the temple to start with? Who’s depicted on the masked statue? (I guess it’s Tholrist) Is the cult that of Lissala, Alaznist, or its fiendish master ? Editing issues
Design issues
Spoiler:
With 4 PCs, a single harpy’s captivating song is pretty useless as there’s no dangerous terrain around and it ties up her actions. Lack of tracking skill check DCs to follow the spawns, eventhough the PCs are likely to try it. Haunt obstacle lacks DCs for other means of traversing. Placing treasure as gems set on statues is risky: many careful or pious PCs will not try to remove them. Should we punish this? Rage is not casteable on undeads (how does the cleric get this spell anyways?). Because the boss has time to cast before the PC break down the wall, his stats and his ghouls’ should include the spell, that would save tons of prep time. Not restricted to this scenario, but skill checks DCs are often too low and not scaling. No team can miss a DC10/12 check. Result = trivial to succeed at, and don’t reward skilled PCs. This is a general comment on scenarios layout, but description scattered throughout the text is really nor helpful. Also, complex bosses with spells definitely should have simplified combat sheets with some precomputed stats, and removing useless stuff (cantrips, touch of evil…). Suggested tweaks Spoiler:
The consortium One of the archeologist is from the Aspis (I actually used Nester Rees from First Steps), and betrays the dig team, tying them up with the help of Riemme Batelle (a shadow lodge pathfinder who trusts PFS little) and a few fellow workers, broke the temple wall and stole the statue’s mask (thinking it to be the real thing. Also they left the belt because they got hit by the trap already) then fled on the diggers’ ship (before the PCs’ arrival). In the process, he woke up the spawns who then climbed up and slaughtered the bound-and-gagged laborers. Riemme also ended up backstabbed by Nester, and carried away by the spawns. The mask
Four temples, four powers
Wrathspawns
Harpy tactics
Tholrist tactics
A nice, straightforward and pretty solid dungeon. The good
Regrets
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