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This thread is for everything related to scenario 4-11 The Disappeared.
I had a real love/hate relationship with this scenario. Story wise it is amazing, technically it is a mess. Allow me to explain.
My group was 2 fighters, paladin, ranger, cleric and sorcerer. Half my party never engineered a way to get past the first hallway and were stuck in limbo while the sorcerer did all the heavy lifting. The sorcerer had a high disguise check and effectively had free reign over 3/4 of the scenario. There are no mechanics in place in most of the high traffic areas to address this so while he ran amuck most of the party couldn't get past the first hallway; The perception DC was too high to go to the courtyard, and they sure as hell didn't want to go into the room with all the dignitaries (they would be able to make the checks anyways).
Anyways, the items you get at the beginning don't help too much since the scrolls are self target only. 3 out of six of my party made it to Zarta's room and at a certain point after my other 3 players had sat out for most of the adventure I teleported them to the rest of the group and they finished it up together. Using the sorcerers bluff they blitzed back taking a few strikes and got to the room with 60 minutes on the dot and most of their strikes used up.
The DC's for the checks don't scale between 1-2 and 4-5 so expect a big discrepancy between running the two. The some faction missions are impossible for some classes. I'm looking at you grand lodge (and others). There are a couple of pass/fail the scenario mechanics so be careful about those.
Your party makeup is going to play a huge role in this scenario, and expect a couple to be sidelined and impotent.
That looks like a lot of negativity, but we still had a great time! I am simply trying to give people fair warning. The puzzle is great and the story is good; even with one of the worst groups you could have for this we still passed through and got the boon too.
GMs you need to prep extra for this one by contemplating strange possibilities your party might take (like giving keys back to guards as a distraction!). Be flexible, and include everyone as best you can.
I guess that is all.