LeftHandShake's page

In addition to the issues noted above:

- Ezren speaks Undercommon, which no longer exists

- Ezren's wayfinder will fail when activated (due to illegal targeting), like all remastered wayfinders. This is more of a "please fix with errata" than a pregen issue

- Ezren has a wayfinder, but has no way to access it

- text of prestidigitation has typos on Lem's sheet

- Feiya speaks Aklo, but has no way to access this uncommon language

- evil eye is listed as a focus spell in the spell section, but it is a cantrip (admittedly, the rules about "focus cantrips" are somewhat contradictory)

(Internal quotes removed) That's not correct, per the bolded text in the quote. Nothing requires you to be sanctified to choose a Cause of Good.

Page 106: Replace the tenets of good with the following text:

The Tenets of Good
You gain the holy trait and add that trait to any Strikes you make.

Is there a difference between being sanctified and being (un)holy? Is there a difference between taking a cause of good and accepting the tenets of good? I thought it was required.

LeftHandShake wrote:

...

The new monster abilities (Grab, Knockdown, Push, etc) are available on Archive of Nethys.

Now I'm extra confused. I did miss that the monster ability rules were actually published in RoE (in the Abilities Glossary, not mentioned in the Updated Rules sidebar), not merely previewed in the web pdf, but the monster abilities page on AoN still links to the original Bestiary version of Grab (etc). I've been using legacy Grab even after RoE was published; have I been running it wrong for three months?

Various issues in the current language of the PFS Remaster Rules linked above:

1) Game Rules 1.3 says (as an "example") that monster abilities such as Grab are no longer automatic, instead allowing a free skill check. There is no such rule in Player Core nor GM Core. The rules were published in the (unsanctioned) Core Preview, and it will apparently appear in Monster Core, but does not exist yet.

2) Game Rules 1 says that GMs should start using the remastered rules "immediately". The only mentions of November 15 pertain to character options, not rules. I *think* you mean for the remaster rules to apply from November 15 onward, but that's not what it says.

3) Specific Rules 1.2 describes what to do with good and evil *traits*, but not what to do with good and evil *damage*. The Remaster Core Preview (released alongside Rage of Elements) says (p4, left column), "[Spirit damage] will replace alignment damage ([type list]) in many situations," but a rule for replacing/changing the damage type does not appear in PC1, GMC, nor the PFS document.

4) The current phrasing of the holy/unholy conversion rule is ambiguous, incomplete, and gives unwarranted discretion to the GM:

....a) The current phrasing gives the GM discretion to replace the good/evil traits with holy/unholy on *abilities*, but not on creatures themselves, nor on items (unusual, but exists).

....b) Giving GMs discretion to decide whether a good/evil trait should be converted to holy/unholy is completely unnecessary and generates table variation without reason. The given example says that a "GM *may* choose to give them the unholy trait". Why or why not? Is there any situation in PFS in which a member of the leadership team would look at the evil trait on a pre-remaster monster and say, "huh, I wouldn't make that unholy"? In the spirit of (a) above, is there any fiend in PFS that (in the opinion of any OrgPlay leadership member) should *not* get the unholy trait?

....c) The language in the example is inconsistent: the GM *may* give the quasit's Strikes the unholy trait, but *should* treat its weakness to good as a weakness to holy. Why the difference in tense / imperative? Confusingly, the second sentence begins with the word "likewise", as if it's giving a second example of the same concept, but the plain meaning is different.

....d) The conversion rule says nothing about handling aligned damage on *player* abilities. I *think* you intend it to be spirit damage, but nothing actually says that. E.g., a good champion's Divine Smite, which deals persistent good damage. Is this now spirit damage? Should it have the holy trait? The current conversion rules are silent, as they only speak to *enemy abilities*.

I'm currently wrapping up running this PbD, at the end of the final encounter. The PCs have defeated all of the undead (including wights spawned by the commanders), but are in rough shape. Do they need to get off the battle map to end the encounter and stop taking 8d6 fire each round?

The scenario says, "Once the PCs defeat the wights, they can move away from the area to escape the wildfire. When they’re out in the open..." It's not clear whether that means, "The PCs are able to leave the area," or "The PCs automatically and instantly leave the area."

In two of the three images of them in the book show them without feet, but instead a trunk that extends to the ground; the third is not bipedal. I should have said they "likely" or "usually" don't have feet. The sourcebook only provides those three examples, so it's what we have to go on.

Creature type traits aren't usually capitalized in the rules; see, e.g. Vengeful Hatred (https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=6). Likewise, creature types are not always referred to explicitly as having that trait; see e.g. Favored Enemy (https://2e.aonprd.com/Feats.aspx?ID=503). That refers simply to "an enemy that belongs to the chosen category". Do you think there is any reasonable interpretation of "belong[ing] to the chosen category" that is *not* "has the corresponding trait"?

Saying there's a difference between "creature type" and "type of creature"-- when the rule explicitly refers to one of the creature types-- is quite a stretch.

Once Impossible Lands is sanctioned, can I (as a PFS GM) rule that sacred nagaji cannot wear equipment with "worn footwear" as its usage entry, even though they have the humanoid trait? Can I rule that conrasu can't wear footwear because they definitely don't have feet, nor do they have the humanoid trait, in no way resemble a humanoid, and don't even reason like humans?

And you can't refer to the humanoid trait rules to label something as humanoid that doesn't have the humanoid trait.

This is a rules problem with an easy fix. Why shouldn't it be fixed?

I'm not sure this is the place for it, but I just noticed something that needs PFS clarification, and probably eventually errata for several ancestries (or the CRB). CRB p535 says:

It’s assumed that items are meant to be worn by humanoids; any item that can or must be worn by a different type of creature either states this in its description or has the companion trait.

The following ancestries (at least) don't have the humanoid trait: automaton, leshy, conrasu, poppet, skeleton, and sprite. No (or few) items are listed as being for undead, constructs, fey, plants, or aeons. By the plain English meaning of that sentence, worn items cannot be used by these ancestries; that's a problem.

This is a "rule [that] seems to have wording with problematic repercussions" (CRB p444), so maybe it's meant to be papered over by table GMs. But can we get an official ruling or clarification to fix this?

Oh, huh. I was interpreting "the labyrinth" as the necromancer's catacombs, but I guess that's not intended. I implied it to my players, so I should probably clear that up.

My table is nearly done with the duergar combat in the Temple Route, and has already set off four of five pillars, so we *should* report a location success before the timer goes off.

So we will have ten days to do *one combat*, and the scenario ends after 10 of 16 tables finish that encounter? It really feels like we're moving on from the main part of Act 2 too quickly-- and the rug will get pulled out from under 40% of tables during the finale.

My players just dispatched with four elite abrikandilus in under 3 rounds. Because these are the Bestiary 3 version, which has updated / clarified language, their Wreck ability is essentially unusable unless they Disarm a PC... and Disarm only works on a crit. And attempting a special ability that destroys valuable PC weapons on a crit and does (essentially) nothing otherwise seems made for Feel Bad Moments.

Prior to that, the party was summoned out of the Sunken Halls by a messenger. Six PCs were fighting four (large) giant eels in a 5x5 room. But for it being underwater and thus 3D combat (whee?), it would have been pretty close to a sliding block puzzle. The gunslinger was informed that his dueling pistol won't work, and then was thrilled to learn that his backup crossbow wouldn't do much either, due to piercing resistance.

Ack, I forgot about Pathfinder Reinforcements. And I missed the schedule change; only 5 days left, not 8. Whoops.

My players finished their second of three areas a little while ago. We have 8.5 days left, and are at 5 of 10 success on the Sunken Halls (7 of 10 if the House GM chooses to apply excess Labyrinth success to the Sunken Halls).

Should my table forgo starting the Sunken Halls? There's very little chance they'll be one of the next 3 (or 5) tables to finish it, but they'd likely complete it within the time allotted. With the structure of this special, starting this area is trading the private fun of "play more Pathfinder" for the public cost of "raise threat meter" due to an extra required rest.

Is it bad etiquette if they want to go ahead? How much should they know about the cost to the house?

Also: Location Successes and Rests continue to diverge: 27 Location successes vs 21 Rests.

Oh, hm. I didn't think the "round down" rule applied to a calculation like this-- there's no in-game effect of the number of accumulated successes / you don't "need" an integer. So I figured it was "has the number of successes reached two-thirds of the number of tables?"

For PFS scenarios with a success conditions of, "if at least half of the PCs succeed on the check", and there are five PCs, does the group need two successes or three successes?

I repeat my question from above: Are we using the correct reporting thresholds for area successes, etc? We have 16 tables, so to get to 2/3, we need 11 successes, not 10.

In the future, I'd suggest instructing table GMs to only report a rest if it's *not* after immediately completing an area. I think that will lead to fewer accounting discrepancies (we're currently at 20 location successes but only 18 rests, an impossibility).

Is another rest forced on each table at the end of Act 1? I *think* so, but I'm not sure.

Also: The tracker spreadsheet doesn't seem to have the right goal thresholds set. We have 16 tables, but the location success thresholds are set at 10 each. 10/16 is less than 2/3, so I think the threshold is supposed to be 11 successes. I think there are other "round up" issues on the sheet.

Mine are still working on the first area, Unsealed Way. They dealt with the skeleton combat in 3 rounds and the Aspis fight in under 2, but the social encounter plus **four** additional exits to explore has just bogged us down.

Ah, I see. That is strange formatting.

Also, by "latter" I totally meant "former". I expected the House GM to post the House GM text, and for me to post the blue Table GM text.

I haven't started because I'm waiting on confirmation one way or the other.

Will you (GM Numbat) be putting the House GM red boxed text into our channels, or should individual table GMs do that? I was expecting the latter from previous experience, but either is fine.

Has anyone run subtier 5-6 before with high CP? Some of the encounters look like they're just too crowded for the space. For example, one encounter starts with four ochre jellies, and there isn't enough space for PCs to engage all of them-- they're spilling out into adjacent passages. Those ochre jellies are decently likely to split and spawn more... which also can't be engaged. The combat just looks like a long slog of fighting one or two jellies at a time.

Four giant moray eels in the sunken chamber is a little tight, but at least it's a 3D space. Two empress bore worms take up 30% of the space in their chamber, so combat will be pretty static. Any thoughts?

Also, the left column on p7 (Location Successes) says, "Once the House
reports a number of successes equal to the number of tables, that location is considered fully explored." However, each of the three instructions to the GM refers to "successes equal to two-thirds the number of tables".

For planning and expectations, which of these is correct?

I did my prep for Roll20 for this today (subtier 5-6). I upscaled and trimmed the maps and (mostly) fixed the aspect ratio problem-- but not entirely, because Roll20 can just snap to grid. I made tokens for the non-Bestiary creatures.

Let me know if any of you want files, or even a full R20 copy game.

Heyo, checking in.

I don't think I'm making a judgment call. Here's the second paragraph of the CRB rules entry for "Conditions" on p453; it's the first "mechanical" paragraph after a brief, general definition of a condition.

Conditions are persistent; when you’re affected by a condition, its effects last until the stated duration ends, the condition is removed, or terms dictated in the condition cause it to end.

It is explicitly stated that "conditions are persistent" until they are ended in one of those three ways. There are other monster abilities that inflict conditions on a PC with no duration or terminal condition, and they're assumed to be permanent until removed by some other means. This is why I said in both prior posts that there isn't any ambiguity. In this case, the rules are clear on what happens.

So the allowance for GM discretion with respect to "[u]nclear rules, or situations or player actions not covered by the rules" doesn't help. Likewise, consider the strength of the language in these sentences:

"This does not mean you can contradict rules or restrictions outlined in this document, a published Pathfinder source, errata document, or official FAQ on paizo.com. What it does mean is that only you can judge what is right for your table during cases not covered in these sources."

and

"GMs should run Pathfinder Society adventures as written, which means: no change... no addition... no changes... no alteration... nor banning"

versus...

"Beyond the above, GMs are encouraged to make choices..."

The first quote is from the table variation appendix, and is very clear and direct about what *cannot* be violated. The second quote lists the things we can't change, specifying what it means to "run as written" (and my understanding is that "should" is meant as an imperative). The third quote immediately follows that list, and it qualifies itself as subordinate to it: "beyond the above".

This is what I mean by the GM lacking the clear authority to fix some problems with PFS scenarios. I'm aware of other problems that have come up, as mentioned above by albadeon. If someone from the OrgPlay team is reading this: please change the table variance document to allow GMs to make *any* adjustment that they believe to be reasonable and fair, even if it would clearly violate the scenario text, Pathfinder rules, or OrgPlay guidelines.

Also: I renew my question about what has primacy: the boxed rule on p444 about "problematic repercussions" or the OrgPlay guidelines about what can't be altered by GMs.

Thanks. I'm aware of that rule from the box on p444, but my understanding is that the OrgPlay table variance rules qualify what can and can't be adjusted by appealing to that rule. That is, the specified list of what can't be changed under the "run as written" OrgPlay specify elements of the adventure that cannot be changed by the GM, period. Is that not actually the case? Does p444 override even the OrgPlay table variation rules?

I don't think any author *intentionally* made an effect with this outcome. The creature is *almost surely* written incorrectly: I think its designer meant for the -2 penalty to stack with frightened, and for it to either expire when frightened does or to last (say) 1 minute. There are abilities that work like that (e.g. "frightened 2 and fleeing as long as it's frightened"), but it's not written that way.

That's why I specified in my post that there's no ambiguity or lack of clarity-- things that the OrgPlay guide lets you fix. I really wish the guide would clearly give GMs authority to fix *anything* that's problematic. Instead, we get this statement (in the Table Variation Appendix):

"As a Pathfinder Society GM, you have the right and responsibility to make whatever judgments, within the rules, that you feel are necessary at your table to ensure everyone has a fair and fun experience. This does not mean you can contradict rules or restrictions outlined in this document, a published Pathfinder source, errata document, or official FAQ on paizo.com."

To me, the very plain meaning of that passage is that GMs can fix anything to make it fair *unless* it would violate the OrgPlay or Pathfinder rules. Those include the prior list of what it means to "run as written". They should be more clear about what has primacy: the CRB, OrgPlay rules, or fairness & fun.

I understand that no one's going to come hunt me down if I don't mark this player as dead due to a badly written monster ability. But I'd like to not have to feel like I'm breaking the rules when doing that.

It doesn't look like there's a thread for this adventure yet; apologies if there is.

The cairn wights in the first combat have a critical failure outcome for Funereal Dirge of: "The creature is frightened 2 and takes a –2 status penalty to saving throws against drain life." This is problematic on a couple levels.

First (and less problematic), it doesn't do much: the status penalty from the crit fail doesn't stack with the status penalty from frightened, so it does very little in the short term.

Second (and potentially quite problematic), the status penalty has no listed duration. As written, the effect is permanent. Moreover, the ability lacks any relevant traits, so there's no way to remove the effect: a PC who critically fails this save takes a permanent -2 status penalty against Drain Life.

By the rules of OrgPlay, that's a permanent negative condition that isn't cleared at the end of the adventure, and thus the PC must be marked as dead. This is *almost surely* not intended, but it's the scenario as written.

I have read the table variance rules very, very carefully and repeatedly. There is no ambiguity or lack of clarity in how Funereal Dirge works, it's just (probably) written incorrectly from what the designer intended it to do; it has the same phrasing in the Bestiary.

Within the bounds of the OrgPlay rules, am I allowed to not run the ability as written? If so, what gives me that permission? Is it the dictum to "provide a fun, engaging, consistent experience", and being marked as dead due to a badly written ability isn't "fun", and wouldn't be "consistent" with how most GMs would run it (because they overlooked the problem)? Is it that this sentence doesn't include the word "abilities", so the GM can change monster abilities: "No changes to armor, feats, items, skills, spells, statistics, traits, or weapon"

I'm asking for guidance on the OrgPlay principle that gives the GM permission to not "run [the] Pathfinder Society adventures as written".

I'm having the same problem, but it *didn't* happen last month-- or at least not for very long. Un-pend me, please?

As a heads up, the OrgPlay guide still says/implies that only human PCs get an ethnicity, but other ancestries also have mechanical ethnicities (and options locked behind them). FLite seemed to say that this issue would be fixed back on Sept 24, 2020, but the language hasn't been changed.

The conclusion is scheduled for October 21st.

The scheduled end has been changed to the 17th because the house finished Part 2 so quickly; see the newest post in the main campaign thread.

Speaking of being done, please make sure you report your successes in this section. I'd like to make sure every table gets a chance to finish one encounter here, and your reporting helps me do that.

Is this a change to the schedule, or just a hope/preference? I have players asking when their characters are free (to join another game).

**AID TOKEN: Provide Knowledge**
**Original Source**: LeftHandShake
**Aid Character Name**: Ian Caine
Effect: Gain the benefits of an automatic success on a check to Recall Knowledge.
**Boosted?** No

We heard you guys needed a hint. With love and kisses from Salia Team Six.

**AID TOKEN: Burst of Healing**
**Original Source**: LeftHandShake
**Passing To**: efildam
**Aid Character Name**: Thane
Effect: A fellow Pathfinder heals all the PCs by 3d8 (boost is included)
**Boosted?** Yes

Thane has been busy on this adventure, but he had some time to spare you some healing. With love from Salia Team Six!

What's the reporting procedure / outcome in Part 2 if an objective is met, but some tables are still working on that track? Part 1 has language explicitly saying that "extra" successes are applied by the House GM to another objective (and Dennis did that), but as far as I can tell, there is no such instruction for Part 2.

The house is 1 success away from completing the Defense objective, but the Ritual still needs several. What should tables in a Defense encounter do when that objective is achieved?

Question: When can the party use the Mushroom Ring benefit? I think "at the beginning of combat" means "before enemies are revealed an initiative is rolled". That is, the benefit can't be used to "poof" monsters into other monsters by lowering CP once the battlefield is revealed.

Is that correct?

Quote:

Okay, they've finished encounter #7. I will hold off on reporting.

I don't think that's in the spirit of interactive specials. The point is to accrue successes to trigger the conditions that they bestow to make subsequent challenges easier.

You're withholding a reward from the rest of the house by doing that.

Above, it seemed like another GM asked me to *not* report a success on encounter E so that they could run it for their table; I was trying to respect that. By "hold off", I mean to wait to see if that table is successful; if not, I would report on E. If they are successful, I would report in another category to finish it off.

My concept of "in the spirit of an interactive special" might be off, so let me pose this question: Are tables *required* to run the 7th and 8th encounters if they have time? My table agreed to do the 7th, and it got a bit dicey. One player has voted against running the 8th encounter. They're not sure whether they'll get an overnight rest at the end of part 1; one caster is tapped out on spells, another has half their slots left, and the magus has cast only one spell (of 4), convinced they will fight 9 or 10 encounters in one day.

Do I have to start the 8th encounter, even if a player votes against it?

Okay, they've finished encounter #7. I will hold off on reporting.

With about 5 days, 3 hours left, the house needs:

2 more successes in encounter A (mushroom ring)
4 more successes in encounter B (talking animals)
2 more successes in encounter C (befuddled Pathfinders)
3 more successes in encounter D (scary plants)
1 more success in encounter E (chart the course)
3 more successes in encounter F (disguised forces)

Let's make a final push and see how many objectives we can wrap up.

We haven't run through it. I know my table would be good at it but they got scared about nature/survival skills after the mushroom rings. I'd love to give them the chance to try after they finish with this combat.

It looks like they must be in Encounter F right now, for about 3 days. How far along are they in that? We have about 5.25 days left in Part 1. Do you think they can finish this combat *and* do Encounter E (three skill checks from each PC) in that time?

The house is at at 10/11 successes on encounter E. My table finished their sixth encounter two days ago and-- after a bit of discussion-- opted to try one of the optional encounters. Assuming they don't TPK (estimated prob: 10%; it's not going great), should I put this success into E to finish it off?

I don't want to lock anyone out of the encounter, but it's one of only two "failable" encounters without a TPK. I'm not sure whether the other 3 GMs (efildam, DougH, and Sedoriku) have tried and failed at it, or if they've yet to run it. Thoughts?

The kelpie's Lure ability overrides the usual ways to get out of fascination (and yes, they critically failed). Relevant failure clause: "If the creature is attacked by the kelpie, or if it can’t breathe water and enters an area of water, the creature is freed from captivation at the end of the kelpie’s turn." For critical failure: "If it is attacked by the kelpie or starts to drown, it can attempt a new save at the start of its next turn, but it isn’t freed automatically." Both of those seem intended to override the usual way to get out of being fascinated, as it changes a) what triggers it, b) when the effect ends when triggered, and c) how it ends (additional save).

Option 3 from GM Blake is a plausible ruling, and how it worked out. The PCs killed all of the enemies in a single initiative block. But more generally, re-reading the OrgPlay rules on table variation and what is and is not within GM discretion, statistics and traits can't be changed (as well as numbers of monsters), but the document is silent on other aspects of monster and hazard statblocks. So wording problems like this *can* be fixed, even with the "run as written" rule.

Aha, OrgPlay table variation rules don't specify monster abilities as being unmodifiable. Statistics and traits can't be adjusted, but abilities are not mentioned. Ok, this is fixable within PFS rules.

In subtier 3-4, RAW failing a save against a kelpie's Capitvating Lure and then killing that kelpie before the effect ends means that the effect persists until counteracted with *dispel magic*. That is, the PC only gets freed from the effect (or can attempt a new save) if the kelpie attacks it, and the kelpie can't attack once it's dead. Is this right?

If my party doesn't have *dispel magic* prepared, is this PC out for the remainder of Part 1? Or the whole adventure, because they're "left behind" as Part 1 represents overcoming obstacles during overland travel, and the PC refuses to move on?

**AID TOKEN: Timely Inspiration**
**Passing From**: LeftHandShake
**Passing To**: GM Ben
**Aid Character Name**: Salia
Effect: A fellow Pathfinder grants the benefits of a bard’s inspire courage focus cantrip to all PCs for 1 round (a +1 status bonus to attack rolls, damage rolls, and saves against fear effects).
**Boosted?** No
---------------------------------------

To Ben with love from Salia Team Six.

---------------------------------------
**AID TOKEN: Allied Offensive**
**Passing From**: LeftHandShake
**Passing To**: Sharanjit
**Aid Character Name**: Faran
Effect: Other Pathfinders assist your attack, increasing the damage you deal by the listed amount.
**Boosted?** Yes
**Boost Effect**: Increase damage by 1d6
---------------------------------------

I think this means the damage boost is 3d6 (subtier 3-4 boosted).

The reporting tracker says that the target number of successes for each encounter in Part 1 is 8, but I think it should be 11. In the top right of p8 of the tier 3-6 PDF, it says, "If the house has 10 or more tables, they need a number of successes equal to four-fifths (4/5) the number of tables." There are 13 tables, so we should need 13*0.8 = 10.4 --> 11 successes on each encounter. I think?

What is / is there a mechanism for requesting help in this format? Or should tables just distribute their Aid Tokens in advance?

I have a few questions about the scenario:

1) The Adventure Background section includes the following history of Gregaro Voth: "...the Monarch spun an illusion of Voth's death. The guides witnessed Voth being torn apart by Fey and dragged off into the Jungle. And so, according to the Pathfinder Society's Official Records, Voth died that day." This seems to contradict the text of the other metaplot scenarios for season 1.

For example, 1-20 p5 says, "...[Voth's] last mission aimed at finishing the Pact [he] had once failed at. However, he failed again and died a year later in Absalom in disappointment." ... p1 of that scenario says, "Gregaro Voth returned from the expedition defeated and dispirited and died a year later of unrelated natural causes." Similarly, p3 of 1-00 has the (mistaken) history as, "...Gregaro quietly filed away his notes and never published the group’s findings. He died of old age a year later, and the Open Road Pact was forgotten."

Which is the correct false history?

2) Can the GMs be given a rough/approximate schedule of the adventure's parts? Dennis' original email said the timing is "generally 1 day for every 6 minutes allotted in the scenario", so that the schedule would be:

Intro: 2.5 days
Part 1: 20 days
Part 2: 8.33 days
Part 3: 13.33 days
Conclusion: 2.5 days (nothing happens here, I think)

That's about 45 days to reach the conclusion, or roughly Oct 20 or 21. Is this correct?

3) Does the Allied Offensive aid token affect only one attack by one PC? When is it used: before or after the attack roll is made? I.e. does the player get to know the attack is a hit before using the aid token?

4) Does the Provide Knowledge aid token's benefit mean, "Rather than roll the check for a Recall Knowledge action, you get a [critical] success instead," or "As a free action, you Recall Knowledge and get an automatic [critical] success"? I.e. does the PC using it still spend an action to RK? The scenario says that no actions are spent by the *giving* party.

Can we get errata for the daikyu (APG p248), which was mistakenly listed with "Reload -" rather than "Reload 0" like other bows? CRB p279 says that weapons with "Reload -" must be drawn before they are thrown (like the dart and javelin), but a daikyu is a bow and needs to be reloaded, not thrown. As written, the daikyu is unusable.

In Society play, this issue can't be corrected by a GM who infers what the intent is from the description of the weapon as a bow, because the Org Play guide (GM Basics, Table Variation, bullet 3) says specifically, "No changes to armor, feats, items, skills, spells, statistics, traits, or weapons."

I know this scenario has been out for a long time, but I just noticed that the primary objective is even more broken than discussed here. In short, if the party fails to find a path through the steaming fields or stops in Torch, they fail the primary objective *no matter what*.

The bottom of the right column of page 5 says, "The horse-drawn wagons in the caravan can move up to 32 miles in a day over standard terrain (base speed of 40 feet). However, the Numerian wastelands are difficult terrain, which halves their travel speed." The caravan can travel 160 miles in the ten allotted days. Just above that, the route is described as being 150 miles from Hajoth Hakados to Gorum Pots.

The rest of the paragraph discusses how the party is likely to slow the caravan down. Nothing in the text suggests that the caravan moves faster if the PCs do, but instead emphasizes that the PCs are the limiting factor for the caravan.

The right column of page 8 says that if the party travels around the steaming fields, it adds 20 miles to the route. The top left of page 9 says that the consequence of not attaining the required successes is that the party has to go around the fields.

150 miles base + 20 miles penalty is 170 miles, more than the caravan can travel in ten days. Likewise, if the party stops in Torch, then there are only 9 days of travel, and the caravan can only go 144 miles in the 10 allotted days.

I really think this scenario needs errata or official clarification.

The numbers for the haunt align with what's in the GMG section on designing hazards for a level 2 hazard. The damage is exactly what's suggested, but the save DC and disable DCs are both on the high side (between the High and Extreme values). What the GMG provides no guidance on is how many successes it should take to disable a hazard, how that trades off with DCs. This haunt has fairly high disable DCs and (with CP scaling) takes a bunch of successes to beat.

Maybe the saving grace is that it's easy for the party to escape: any PC should be able to run back out of the area in one turn, and any PC with 25' speed can run to the far side in one turn. The haunt being active only blocks an investigation of the island area.