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   Okay, all done. The only thing that needs to be changed is that the lore skill is to Willowshore. Build:  Human (Tien-Sing) Cleric of Lady Jingxi 1
 Medium Folklore enthusiast background Attributes
 Senses
 Defense
 Offense
 Feats
 Deception (*) +4
 Magic
 Cantrips (4+1) - Daze, Divine Lance, Guidance, Shield, Stabilize
 Background:  Kanita was not born in Willowshore, but in the far off island town of Waunomani. A natural artist, she displayed talent in performative dance as well as in the written word in the form of poetry. It was only inevitable that she was drawn to the local shrine of Lady Jingxi, The Poet of Dawn and Dusk. That said, she had an unusual knack for more haunting poetry involving spirits, which did not always match what most of her clergy would focus on.
 One day, she overheard crew speak word of a town that was haunted by undead that attacked woodcutters. The mixture of undead spirits and lush greenery intrigued her to the point that she made it her mission to live there some day. When she had come of age and had enough coin, she sought the long and treacherous journey to the small town. Once she had arrived, it felt as if it was meant to be her new home. Finding a house to settle in, she made a living selling art and poems made by herself. She also established a small shrine dedicated to Lady Jiangxi for those who wanted to provide offerings. She is a shapely Tien-Sing woman in her late 20s usually adorn in lightly colored dresses though she is not above wearing the occasional trousers. Despite the periodic foray into the occult, she maintains a cordial and friendly attitude towards most people. She especially likes to discuss matters of religion to the other priests in town such as Elizeth Candora, Mother Otis, Jubei, Ba-Ming Ouh, and Kim Gu-won.  
   JeremyK wrote: 
 The original source of the Starstone was from the alghollthus who had originally wanted to destroy the Azlanti empire for nearly discovering them. Tar-Baphon could simply decide to finish the job. A rock that can make a god out of anyone can be used to destroy life.  
   Jaekblighter wrote: 
 With this NPC in particular, I can see her initially seeking help for her nightmares. She may or may not have known that he follows Hastur from the start. The main antagonist offers some remedies for her nightmares on the condition that she helps him in certain activities. The remedy helps initially, but it turns out to be addictive so she's more inclined to do more diabolical activities for a fix. For example, you could say she was sent to take care of a certain someone that leads to a certaint revenant in part 2. Eventually she becomes fodder for his own goals, kickstarting the adventure. You could make it that Hastur was responsible for the nightmares in the first place in order to corrupt her to the deities cause.  
   Diablo2970 wrote: 
 Judging from her interactions in Return of the Runelords, she would likely test things out to see the PCs' opinions on Nualia first. Depending on their answer, she would gently but firmly nudge them towards not going so hard on her. She's careful not to draw people to anger, but she isn't going to keep her opinions to herself like she would during her rough period. That said, if PCs remain adamant about going hard on Nualia, she would leave them to their devices. Ultimately, she acts like a wallflower but does love to get into debates with the right topic (eg religion) and is willing to agree to disagree.  
   CorvusMask wrote: Its extra weird if Naderi is still in supplemental table. Maybe they wanted to provide alternate theory or disconnect Naderi from Shelyn/Urgathoa thing? After all there isn't it was never explicitly canon just an in universe theory Naderi iscalso associated with Zyphus who is trying to push her towards the exil alignment and he managed to get a page himself. Would have been nice to have notes on all the Inner Sea Faiths from 1e.  
   Scrip wrote: 
 Is that the PDF that will be available le on the 20th or will that one have additional information?  
 
   Dtmahanen wrote: 
 It was the Godsrain panel on Friday.  
 
   I asked if there would be an inquisitor class in one of the panels... and I actually got an answer! It turns out there are plans to making it a new archetype of the ranger class: the vindicator. Imrijka will return under this. I think it's a cool way to rework it since 1e had builds where you can get feats based on your favored weapon.  
 
   I personally don't have any of the core 20 I hate. Just those that could use some more love. These will be in order of most to least liked. S Tier Spoiler:  Desna:The mixture of domains involving luck, travel and the stars end up being the perfect mix for a deity that sets herself apart from others. She's also the most proactive of the core 20, someone who gets things done and more likely than not will clap back if provoked. She's basically an eldritch abomination in the form of a fairy who's pretty cool to hang out with if you're on her good side. And one wherevher impulsiveness can lead her to mistakes. A great choice for adventurers as they often involve traveling all over the place.
 Asmodeus: For an evil deity, it's important to have someone who's despicable but also one you'd love to hate. Asmodeua fits that build perfectly. Built from the main antagonistic country, his history goes back to almost the beginning. He sees himself as the protagonist, ranging from his arguments against free will to betraying his best friend and building an entirely different society set to his own ideals. Yet on occasions he almost seems amiable enough to trust... to an extent. This allows for a wide range of characters from brutal dictators to an evil PC you can't help but admit to being an ally. Yet ultimately, he and his followers believe in one mantra above all: Amadeus always wins. He is the Xanatos of Golarion. No matter which way you think he's won, he will find a way to turn it to his benefit. This makes for an infuriating villain, and one that makes their unraveling all the more satisfying. Urgathoa: She is whatsoever else would build into a boring villain hell bent on turning everyone undead and clips it on its head. More than anyone, she and her followers would deny that she is evil. All she wanted to do was live forever and live out her life to the fullest. Bringing out Pharasma's wrath was only a subject of hurt feelings. She's the person who would argue necromancy is a noble cause and other practices such as enchantment are the truly bad spells [strikethrough]even if it involves the unwilling entrapment of souls[/sktrikethrough]. Yet she also has room for those who do want to kill and subjugate the living. Ultimately, she calls for the benefit of undead-kind, regardless of the consequences on others. This also leaves a good variety of villains as well as a cooperative PC under the right circumstances. Cayden Calien The archetypal adventurer God who lucked his way into goodhood. He is the embodiment of a player's tendency to devise wild and wacky adventures and bullrun their way with a chaotic smile. There are some negative aspects players may pick up as brazen drunks who hit on anything that moves and others may feel like that is what he's about, but information emphatically rejects those assumptions. He's just fun to play as and it's pretty easy for anyone to make a character with him to mind. A Tier
 Spoiler:  Pharasma: For a well-worn trope of fantasy, Pharasma does a great job in that. She sets herself apart from the start by being he oldest and potentially most powerful deity of the core 20. She's impartial, meaning you could have many different interactions with her. Thay said, she still had her bias', mainly her hatred of the undead. She can have a presence on basically any place. While she has a typical look and personality in her followers, clever players can twist things around fairly well.Se can work as a PC, ally and even an antagonist that PCs may have to deal with. She fills an important niche in Pathfither and has a nice group of characters to help her out.
 Calistria: What could have been seen as an unfortunately immature look into sexuality has evolved into some of the most complicated and interesting deities out there. While the most people focus on her lust aspects, she also has other distinct aspects in trickery and Revenge. And followers can follow any combination they want. You can also have them in various fews with other groups... and their own. Add in the element of being the head elven deity and you have one of the most diverse range of followers of the core 20. I do think the other aspects of her portfolio should be used, but I don't want the first one to go away. Norgorber: A God who's so secretive not only no one knows what he looks like we have not 1 but 4 different groups of followers. How's that for complication. The possibilities as antagonists are endless from corrupted officials to thief guild and poisoners to straight up serial Killers. Ans imagine all these groups either helping each other... or fightingamong themselves. I also liked that the aspects had different alignments back when that was a thing so they could technically play as a PC spy. Other than that or your typical loner rogue, the choices for PCs can be limiting though not impossible. Lamashtu: Chaotic evil deities can be harrowing as they can be the most disturbing ones to handle. Yet the top demon has wnough wriggle room for any setting. You can go from generic priestess that wants to destroy a city to some truly heinous acts depending on whether your group is okay with that. It also makes sense that she's the most sensible out of all the demons even if there's still tention among them. Shecalso has some classic rivalries with the likes of Desna and Asmodeus. And she might be amiable enough as an evil PC with some builds. Sarenrae: The archetypal Big Good of the Core 20. Her history as being one of the first students of the old gods and dealing with his death at the hands of Asmodeus as well as that has shaped hwr thinking over time is just fascinating. She is quick to forgive yet can passionate strike down those who refuse and it makes for some of the most interesting dynamics with all the other gods. As for her aspects and followers... I'm not quite as interested in them. Despite the varied range of her domains of healing and the sun, it doesn't leave as much room for variety. I guess it would more depend on the individual rather than the goddess they worship. Part of it was hope for bringing back the Cult of the Dawnflower... just without the slavery. Abadar: One look at Abadar and you might see him as a money-obsessed greed-dog that does whatever it takes to be rich... and yet Abadar himself does seem boring at first glance. But that's only scratching the surface. His followers can have the full range of doing what's needed to advance civilization and maintain settlements. Sure you can have greedy followers, but you can also have generous ones who want citizens to excel and thrive. It leaves players with many paths on how to build a follower as well as create different kinds of conflict. We just need more to do for him. Shelyn: As others said, it's nice to see a deity of love that's not vain in that sense. As such, her followers can try and do the same with helping others deal with love (and not just typical monogamous love) as well Las seek it themselves. They also have the chance to have a number of professions as a goddess of the arts and beauty. She also holds hidden strength, wielding a non-typical weapon and her relationship with her fallen brother. She and her followers do tend to be a bit one note, but it's fun seeing creative ideas on how her followers help others. She also has a cool rivalry with Calistria and likely trade followers between love and lust. I'll miss that if either of them get offed. Zon-Kuthon: He gets the most of his praise from Nidal, a truly bizarre and brutal theocracy with like-minded folks. You'll know what when you see one... which can be an issue when trying to think outside the typical follower (Laori aside). His nation also mirrors his enemies such as Deana and Sivanah as his sister Shelyn with whom he has a fascinating relationship. I guess another issue is that he doesn't leave as much room for cooperation as much as Asmodeus would imo. I know he probably has the most number of non-evil followers out of the evil ones in APs and it does allude to his relationship with Shelyn, but it doesn't feel like there's much room for budging. B Tier Spoiler:  Irori: Irori on his own doesn't seem like such. Though he's one of a few number of mortals who achieved godhood on his own, there's not much else to talk about him besides his brother. And if you play his clergy as it is, it can feel flat. Thankfully, it's not the only way to play it out. He can range from a traveling monk doing what he can to help others to an arrogant kung fu guy who rules with force. And that can come in conflict with someone who worships him. So you're not too limited in thinking of a followerer.
 Iomedae: Her journey into being the newest deity of the Core 20 is rife with interesting stories. And her followers do allow for a little more wriggle room personality wise. It just feels like she's been given a bad hand in Golarion. None of it has been her fault, but there's been too many instances where the actions of she and her followers have blown up in their faces. I think it's gotten more to do with the world where there's just been so many stories of her followers failing to live up to the ideal... including Iomedae herself eyes Wrath of the Righteous it makes me wish we had more instances of pure heroism from her followers. Keeping up with the typical paladin isn't a bad thing. Nethys: dhow he became God by way of being a literal. God-emperor is cool. His dual nature is also nice as well as how they rank their followers by the amount of magic they wield, setting the tone for some arrogant bad guys. But it feels like he should be more of a big deal than he actually is. Not everyone who uses magic should worship him, but he doesn't seem to command as much of a presence as you'd think for casters. GorumYou can say the same with the God of War, except he doesn't have a cool backstop to go with him. He also took a hit when clerics couldn't be CG anymore (thankfully it won't matter anymore in the remaster version or he would be in C tier). I just think there's a lane for Gorum fighters who fight evil for the challenge rather than for the greater good (hence his presence in Elysium and the late nation of Vigil). Otherwise he merely fights to instigate war... which doesn't leave much for creativity. C Tier Spoiler:  Torag: Torah had potential if there was more of a focus of his other aspects such as creating armor and defenses as well as construction. But as it stands he's only been used as the Dwarven God. I think that pantheon is interesting, but he should be more than that.
 Erastil: He's been pegged as the stubborn guy who'd close down the dance hall for the ruckus it causes. While there's more aspects of that for him, it doesn't offer more for him than that. Both Ketephys and Jaidi end up being more interested than him as a result. Gozreh:As others have said, they fulfills their role as the nature God and not much else in that regard. The dual nature ends up being less interesting than Nethys. People aren't restricted in what they can be, but there's not much to talk about besides interactions with other deities. D Tier Spoiler:  Rovagug Now the backstop and how he's the greatest threat to the universe? That's cool. Yet it makes creating an NPC without being an antagonist almost impossible. And the ones that are end up being unexciting bringers of chaos. It may be why we haven't really had a Big Bad worshipper of Rovagug in an AP. Despite his importance, this would be the only deity I wouldn't miss at all. Either him or maybe Goezreh if no one could replace him. Honorable Non-Core Deities Grandmother Spider- for being the perfect main got for the expanse and troll against Asmodeus.
  
   SilverDingo wrote: 
 It would depend on how he interacted with the PCs. I don't think he would be the type to be immediasuspicious as long as Bartleby believes they're legit, but if they were rude to him or showed clearly chaotic behaviors he wouldn't take kindly to them. He's not the biggest fan of Bartleby either and if the PCs seem like they're capable of running the area he wouldn't pay too much mind. If they told him they lied he may get upset at them though.  
 
   Another issue I can see if that the nature of Urgathoa's followers being more pro-undead than anti-living. She's pretty lackadaisical with people and only has enemies to those who call her out for her horrific habits. Do any new deity of death may end up being worse as they'd be more pliable to being more proactive in converting people to unhealthy like The Whispering Way.  
   I hope we get some notable missing deities that didn't make the cut the previous time around as well as some new artwork for those who don't have one yet. Reposting those I put in the Gods & Magic thread: Ssila'meshnik (for Il'setsya), Ceyannan, Set, Abhoth, Mhar, Cthulhu, Arqueros,Reymenda, Shemhazai and Kelinahat as well as a revised Hadregash. An inquisitor class would be nice too.  
 
   Kobold Catgirl wrote: Ooh! That's very, very interesting! I will need to figure out what, if anything, I want to do with that. The Sandpoint, Light of the Lost Coast module, Shayliss went by as a woman by day but was a male zeolot vigilante of Calistria by night. Spoiler:  My theory is that Shayliss ended up loving both the idea of being coveted while during that time in the basement but also the idea of coveting which they tested out under a more masculine look.  
 
   Scarablob wrote: I think that Shalelu was one of "those" rangers for which "favored ennemy" meant "racist against". I remember that in Jade Regent, one of the thing that made you lose romance point with her was "pro goblin comment". All this to say, I'm pretty sure her hatred of Bruthazmus is simply because he's a bugbear that she faced but haven't managed to kill yet. I'm pretty sure it's because Bruthazmus killed her mom and goes after elven people in general. At least for him.  
   Laclale♪ wrote: 
 Neither. I was talking about narrative. I'm leaning on that it does, especially since we seem due for a new person to achieve divinity through the Starstone.  
   Time to answer the questions. Background Questions:  1. What is your character’s name? Lily Le. Like the flowers. 2. How old is your character? 21 years 3. What would somebody see at first glance (i.e. height, weight, skin color, eye color, hair color, physique, race, and visible equipment)? A Tian human woman of average height, slender physique and black, straight hair that extends to her shoulders. Likes to wear dresses, but settles for pants when adventuring. 4. What additional attributes would be noticed upon meeting the character (i.e. Speech, mannerisms)? She's highly friendly and it shows in most conversations. She's also excited about many things, including being in combat. 5. Where was your character born? Where were you raised? By who? In Almas, capital city of Andoran alongside her parents. 6. Who are your parents? Are they alive? What do they do for a living? Both are alive and well. They both work as herbalists at their homes. Their daughter... did not take up that profession well. 7. Do you have any other family or friends? She is an only child, but she made many friends back in her own home, just none that stand out. 8. What is your character’s marital status? Kids? Single with no kids 9. What is your character’s alignment? CG 10. What is your character’s moral code? 11. Does your character have goals? 12. Is your character religious? Not particularly, but she does take a liking to Sun Wukong, Kofusachi, Cayden Calien and Desna 13. What are your character’s personal beliefs? Bring happiness to others to those who need it, make sure to stand up for what you believe in and don't be afraid to chase your desires. 14. Does your character have any personality quirks (i.e. anti-social, arrogant, optimistic, paranoid)? She's generally an optimist with a bright personality. Gets excited whenever there's combat unless it gets bad where that may turn to anger. 15. Why does your character adventure? Why did your character accept the job? The job she currently took up is as a counselor so that she could help people adjust to the new world. As for herself, she was seeking a change of pace from the city life as well as a hint of danger to keep things exciting. That and helping others where she can. 16. How does your character view his/her role as an adventurer? She will provide damage-dealing spells as a caster as well as control with telekinesis and psychic spells to disrupt her opponents' tactics with either area control or debuffing spells. 17. Does your character have any distinguishing marks (birth-marks, scars, deformities)? She has a slight underbite. 18. How does your character get along with others? Very well actually. She maintains some degree of friendly relationship if possible. 19. Is there anything that your character hates? People who seek to control and manipulate others draw her ire particularly. In generally, she would prefer people to make their own choices over others who may force it on them. 20. Is there anything that your character fears? Despite her unthusiasm, she gets spooked pretty easily. Character relations: She would likely love talking with Eamon Caranth. Erastil may not be her favorite deity, but she would happily argue faith with someone like him. Luetin Calewick seems like the person that thinks he's slick with people. She may follow along at times, but she sees through the facade. She may try to ask Lyra Heatherly to join in on surveying the island if only to experience the thrill of the island. Most concerning may be with Ramona Avandth as she'd seek out to schedule times to talk to see how she's faring mentally while on the island. Everyone's free to counsel with her but it seems like Ramona will need it more than anyone else. Sign in to create or edit a product review. I feel like this could have used one fewer combat - with the number of things going on and just how higher level combats can run longer, it would have helped the run time. I do like the fights, it's a lot of interesting abilities, even if the party I ran it for managed to trivialize a lot of it with a strong party composition. That said, the social encounters are pretty threadbare and I feel they're also a bit flawed. 
 Spoiler:  Chiefly, having the big "talk to the council" list Diplomacy and only Diplomacy as an option for the check feels unusual. In general the lists of skills being asked for felt unusually short. The investigation was left very open ended, but the clues provided are really well done for hinting at the culprit. I do think it was perhaps too obvious whodunnit, however. Or perhaps I had a very genre-savvy table. The one big thing I think could have helped dealt more with the combats.
 Spoiler:  This scenario has a lot of possession effects around on enemies, and those are both somewhat obscure rules and very important, so a sidebar probably would have been good for the GM. If I run this again I'll absolutely be preparing a handout for the players on it. Also, the boss feels somewhat unfair. He has a (nonmagical, so it can't be dispelled - it makes sense in context but it removes one of the options for dealing with it) possession ability that takes only a single action, works at range, and can be used at will? I'm pretty sure that barring a critical success this is going to be utterly miserable for a party to deal with if played to its full potential - nothing stops the boss from just spending all its time between turns inside a PC. If the party lacks anti-possession effects they're basically forced to beat each other up to whittle away at the boss while hoping nobody ever crit fails when it can fish for failures without limit. It probably should have had a cooldown or other restriction applied.
 The final encounter in high tier is perhaps the single most difficult enemy to hurt I've ever come across in a scenario. Spoiler:  A level 6 creature with 26 AC is only technically within bounds, as 27 AC is the extreme value for that level going by the GMG guidelines. Simultaneously, his reflex save is his best save at a high value of +17. But since he also has Evasion, this is enough to render reflex saves nearly useless against him as a level PC's DC is at most 22 at level 6, so a roll of 5 or more (so 80% of the time) completely negates. Having excessively high AC and near immunity to reflex saves makes this an incredibly infuriating slog of an encounter. The one saving grace is that while +18 is a rather high to-hit (again, the guidelines for level 6 are +17 as a high to-hit, and +19 for extreme), his actual damage is very low without sneak attack. But overall, this is an encounter that can quickly become a very unenjoyable slog as the party struggles to deal any damage at all while he freely chips away at them.
 I think there's a lot that was handled well in the first half of the scenario, but the issues with the last two encounters (the issues with the primary success condition and the penultimate encounter have been addressed in other reviews) leave a sour taste in my mouth. For the most part, I found this enjoyable to run. I enjoyed the characters, this continues nicely from previous adventures (but should perhaps more explicitly say that in the scenario blurb, as it has callbacks to many previous scenarios). The genies and subverting their orders was a great idea, though I feel it's a bit stretched for the first one (Works great on the second, though). But there are real issues with the scenario's challenge level.
 Spoiler:  The first encounter is brutal and definitely not "Moderate". While diplomatic PCs will get the hazard helpfully pointed out, the numbers on it are punishing. DC 26 is nasty even for level 6 PCs, and the hazard's damage is vicious - I'm very glad the players already had a success by the time someone inevitably got a critical failure. There doesn't feel like a great way to organically guide the PCs to the lower DCs (and the only really easy target being very specifically performance with a flute, which drops the DC by 4). The fact that the DCs are increased by challenge points did not help at all when there was a level 4 playing up (and they would have otherwise been the obvious choice for a crafting check). By rough calculations... a level 6 PC can only get even a 50% success rate by essentially maxing out their relevant skill against this. The PCs managed to avoid combat with Farah (I did struggle to resolve the separate rolls for Safa there - I have to assume time spent on those doesn't count against rolls on Farah, because otherwise getting just +2 points isn't even worth rolling on it when it requires two checks already). Looking over the stat block I have some concerns about Combat Grab with bonus damage from Burning Grasp, but absent seeing it in play I'm uncertain of exactly how threatening it is. The other aspect I find troubling is the final encounter. The reflections feel really bad. "I'm sorry, you dealt too much damage, so now you deal nothing and the boss gets another minion" is just extremely mean to players I feel. I did not feel good at all telling the fighter that their crit meant they got nowhere. The high tier version bumping his rant to dealing Frightened 2 instead of 1 is troubling as well, because as noted - 1 action, no cooldown, hits the entire room? That's a very powerful ability.
 I really like some of the descriptions of stuff in this scenario. The forest in particular is really evocative. There's some interesting lore in the sidebars that I really hope gets expanded on with a proper Lost Omens: Arcadia book. I will agree the scenario overall feels very tame after both playing and running it at high tier. The final encounter does have an interesting twist applied to it that I think is engaging, but I had to re-read the map and section multiple times to try and parse it (and I'm still not sure I got it the way it was intended, but it worked out). Into more spoilery bits:
 Spoiler:  I liked some of the use of skill checks to drop bits of lore to PCs, especially at the river crossing. I think there were a few too many random perception to notice interesting details? Probably could have dropped one or two. I'd have liked an explicit way to avoid the combat for the second Verdant Wheel sample? Though I liked my players just knocking one out and running off with it thanks to high initiative rolls. Runt and Suhko's monologues were fun.
 Overall, I think my biggest issue is just the confusion on the last encounter, and I generally enjoyed both playing and running this one. I'm not entirely sure this lives up to the promise of involving a star gun? I think it's mechanically sound, but not as interesting as it could be narratively. I feel like there's a couple areas that could be improved on, some that other people have already mentioned. Spoiler:  Being told to keep the Star Gun secret and immediately after being more or less forced to talk about it feels very awkward. I think there need to be options that don't involve telling her, or have her just already know about it (I mean, there's already a leak somewhere)? The second thing is more general - the scenario introduces a lot of people right at the start and it feels hard to keep them straight. This isn't really unique to this scenario, but getting five names dropped on me at once quickly leads to me mentally filing them as just Person #1, #2, etc because there's no time to process them all. This isn't terribly uncommon in scenarios though, so... That said, I do think the back half of the scenario worked well (once the cultists bumble into the party). The dream trap bit was neat. The scenario feels like it has a lack of any actual "boss" encounter, but I don't think that should be required. Enemies redirecting damage was something that I don't know if I've ever seen come up (and becomes amusing when they die to it). I'd have liked to see that with a stronger enemy being protected, but that's not a strike against the scenario so much as it giving me ideas for interesting encounters.
 The premise of the scenario feels good, and the actual flow works, but after playing it I'm feeling like the encounter design is problematic. In particular, the second encounter feels especially nasty.
 Spoiler:  Incapacitation trait effects are very un-fun for players for obvious reasons. Multiple enemies capable of causing a long-lasting incapacitation effect with the spore cloud before moving in to attack feels excessive, especially as the cloud is invisible. Our monk rolled bad on his first save. Then he was essentially removed from combat for three rounds as a result of the single save (fleeing, then the second result meant he couldn't make it back to the fight on the second round). An additional obstacle here is that this is combined with a trap disarming situation - getting ambushed by this effect is awkward and the shrieker mushrooms inhibit the party's movement more. The other issue loops back to the incapacitation trait - the enemies are level 5, so it feels like this has potential to be extremely swingy based on party levels - four level 5 PCs could easily get completely destroyed by the effects while four level 6 PCs probably shrug it off entirely. 
 The other encounters have some unpleasant aspects to them, but it's the second encounter that was particularly frustrating as a player, and having that added to them compounds it?
 Spoiler:  The night ambush on its own would have been fine I think, it's perfectly valid. The party starts at a disadvantage, but the enemies aren't deadly enough that the party can't rally and win. It's following that with the second encounter that starts to make the scenario feel like it's really out to get the PCs. The final encounter wasn't terrible, but when the boss opens with mind control magic (yes, this is totally thematic for a vampire boss) after the other stuff it feels like perhaps too much? I doubt I'd have even given it much thought without the mushroom fight though.
 I love everything about the linnorm children and it was a blast to run this scenario. There's a lot of bookeeping for the GM to track however, which is a pain, especially in the third event. There's also a couple pain points from the GM side of the table:
 Spoiler:  In the third event, my players managed to complete everything I had for them to do before round 5 thanks to very good rolls. The scenario doesn't really account for this. It also could have had some explicit handling for "what if the PCs are trying to talk down Crookscale" - he has nothing given, since his rolls are all for after he falls in (which is scheduled for after my players had cleared everything else... I just had him fall in right then but). In the fourth event... I was at a loss at how to lead my players into confronting Efrith. In the end they just kept talking to Crookscale to ask him to leave and I couldn't think of a way to lead them to the investigation without just telling them it was there.
 That said, my complaints are basically entirely under the hood/behind the screen. I think this is a wonderful scenario and I look forward to further antics of these kids. (Clearly they're going to accompany the expedition, right? Right?) Jackpot is great. The first section of the scenario is delightful. Open ended skill challenges are always nice to have and adding an adorable character and delicious hazards makes for a good time. On to the combat encounters...
 Spoiler:  Spider fight worried me, but went fairly smoothly. Multi-day treks make it much easier to handle these fights as casters can go nova on them, and our party was very well balanced. The mechanic of having to have someone keep Urwal from wandering into the fray was a good touch, and it plays nicely with the action economy, especially of spellcasters (easy for someone ranged to hang back to handle it) The fires encounter. Trample is scary, but this was probably the one that went fastest of the night due to brutally effective martials. The second trample provoked two AoO and took him down, the remaining enemies were mopped up easily. I like the constant threat of the fires, I'm slightly concerned about that plus the trample but as they only hit one PC per turn it didn't prove too dangerous. The final (and optional) encounter. This is the big one, and I think there's a risk of heroism getting people killed here, as some people will assume the scenario expects them to do the heroic thing as a default and it's hard to make it clear enough that this is an optional challenge? This isn't anything against the scenario so much as it's a difficultly in putting this kind of fight in at all. (Perhaps it would be easier if it wasn't clearly the end of the scenario - PCs may be more inclined to bypass and avoid risk) The monsters are relatively simple for a good party to put down, though the metaplot up to this can discourage preparation of big fire spells. Thankfully, the ritual option makes short work of the dragon rot, and martials can cut down the oozes in short order with a focused assault (it's a rare enemy where third attacks are reliable, but this encounter has them). But this absolutely calls for a smart party with balanced roles, as the continual onslaught of enemies requires constant damage output to keep up. There is definitely a risk of TPK here if the dice turn nasty though with breath weapons and other area attacks flying around, but both enemy types also have glaring and exploitable weaknesses to exploit. It absolutely meets the goal of being a hard but winnable fight... but some parties are stronger than others.
 If I could I'd mark this a 3.5 - it's right on the edge for me. I like the Farheaven clan and that part of the setting, and this does some neat things, but I feel it also misses a few steps. Spoiler:  First... the secondary success condition is a single roll. By a single PC. At the very end of the scenario. No retries. It's far too easy for a bad roll to cost the party the secondary condition here. I feel like it should have been a bit more lenient, and it's disappointing to come into it having nailed everything leading up to it, all the bonuses... and then the die shows a 3. Kind of ended on a downer from that. Second, I feel like condition riders on attacks were excessive - the party was 5 level 5s, so in the middle of high tier. But in the second and third encounters basically everything required you to make a save if it hit you, which slows things down, leading into my third downside. The fights feel like they run a bit too long - mainly on account of it feeling like everything's a big pile of HP, combined with needing lots of saving throws. This one could be partly on the party, definitely a group with a cleric is going to have an easier time of it. I both liked and disliked the first encounter. The radius on the difficult terrain when the leshies died was far too big - we dropped one and basically now the whole area is difficult terrain for the rest of the fight. The explosions were interesting since it did friendly fire, but... also kind of big? I did like the main enemy having entangle and wall of thorns, and the GM played them smartly using the wall to cause problems for us (but entangle was pointless because of the mushrooms). If the other fights hadn't dragged I think I'd be less annoyed with the everything is difficult terrain. The mists sequence was very cool, and I love how it played into the following encounter with buffs and debuffs based on the result. The various skill challenges in the barrow were nice. The last boss gets points for having a non-AoO reaction, grabbing is a nice variation over straight damage.
 Overall I think it's a solid scenario, but there's room for improvement on some of the encounters, which generally felt like a slog. This ran very short for my group, as the encounter ended very quickly and the skill challenge was basically a single batch of rolls. Coming off of playing bounty 5 beforehand it feels like there's not a lot of meat on the bone here. That said, I would say the length would make this a good way to show new players some of the systems (even if the skill challenge could really have done with another step) except the enemy has high potential to be unfun. Not really deadly (I think? It died before attacking anyone), but unfun. Spoiler:  The issue is that it has a 30' cone blind attack, with a 1d4 round duration on fail (and basically the rest of the fight on critical fail). At level 1, blind is crippling. We were fortunate that 2/3 blinded players could get around it to still fight (animal companion that wasn't blinded and share senses with a familiar). Being forced to make DC 11 flat checks on every attack will result in a lot of misses and doesn't lead to having fun, and I can think of only one way to cure the issue at level 1 (Hyperfocus from the Delirium domain). I feel there's also a real risk of a GM misplaying this and requiring Seek checks at -4 to even find it. Depending how the fight goes there's a lot of ways this could lead to some players not being able to participate at all. This was a fun little bounty, with a fun little song. An unexpected fight that rewards some stuff that isn't always taken. All told I'll definitely play this one again in the future. It's been noted already - but this throws out another boss enemy that's far too strong. This is a shame, as the other two trials are solid encounters. Scrolls rewards knowledge checks. Spells rewards problem solving. And then... swords. It starts promising, and then oof. There are going to be parties who get TPK'd before being able to move on that, I would put money on it. This was a great scenario to play with a party full of knowledge skills. It often feels like knowledge checks are somewhat superfluous in scenarios - either you're mainly just getting background information or it has physical or charisma alternatives. I also appreciate that knowledge skills can outright clear encounters on their own as a nonviolent approach. This is normally the domain of charisma skills, so again, it's a welcome alternative. That said, it does feel like this devalues the charisma stuff too much? At least one of the mysteries should have allowed diplomacy or the like to be the center of attention. A music room or theater for performance to shine (as a knowledge check) perhaps? Still, it was a great time. I wish this was repeatable, I'd absolutely play it again. All it would need is to have a list of possible mysteries that could come up before the final encounter. Between that and different possible explanations there would perhaps be good room for variety. I love how this deviates from the formula of prior bounties. The skill challenge section is very enjoyable. The combat is unexpected, and left me unsure how the rest of the bounty would play out. I'm told there's a factor we didn't reach (due to well-suited party) that makes sure party composition won't inflate the difficulty excessively. As a final note, the riddle the author wrote for this is excellent and thematically appropriate. This one offers more room for player decisions I feel than the first pair, which were more straightforward search and destroy affairs. I like the setup of the final fight. More like this, please. I greatly enjoyed this run. Arcadia is uncharted territory as a setting, and this really delivers on making me interested in what's going on there. I do feel that one of the skill challenges was a bit rote (the negotiations), but I really appreciated the characterization of the parties involved. The last of the freeform sections my party tackled may have been the best though. Spoiler:  The party's bard walking across the ice singing along while jumping clear of collapsing areas... that was great to watch. I love that you have a negotiation section with hazards like this. The final encounter I am unsure of - the enemy mix for a party of 4 level 3s is possibly nasty for some compositions. We had a reasonably balanced group of fighter, rogue, witch, and bard. But the difficulty of this encounter is potentially very swingy based on a single question of party composition. Spoiler:  How much fire do you have? I had no fire spells prepped on my witch (in retrospect, I can't recall if the topic of "trolls" had come up, and I left myself with a default spread of electric arc and telekinetic projectile). The scenario provides a fair amount of fire and acid weapons for the three troll type enemies, but this party only had one person proficient in them, since rogues and bards aren't proficient in martial weapons by default. On the other hand? Once the fighter started lobbing the bombs (at point blank!), the enemies started dying fast thanks to their very high weakness value making the splash devastating to them. If the fighter had gotten hit more though, we might have been in real trouble, since I'm not sure anyone else could have reliably avoiding critical misses on the bombs. As is he did go down once, but the enemies missed a lot too. In general I enjoyed this scenario a lot. I actually wish it was replayable (switch out the squad members and skill challenges maybe?). My only complaints come in the final section.
 Spoiler:  As has been noted, the one treasure bundle is perhaps a bit too hard. My bigger concern is the DC on the spider venom. I think I ended up needing a 14-15 on the die for a success and I was playing a barbarian. I am very glad nobody else got poisoned by them and that poisons have a max duration. Because that DC is definitely too much, especially when it ends at paralysis.
 Overall a solid scenario and one I'd recommend most players find time for. The boss fight in particular is a standout, though it does have a couple things I'd nitpick.
 Spoiler:  A haunt activating with the boss fight is... potentially really, really bad. Haunts are not nice. Not sure if this is just how it was run though, considering point 2. Sanctuary is a bit of tricky spell - though I think this is more a lack of an explicit "this is the definition of a hostile action", and I think this definitely ends up more an issue of how it was run vs written for my experience. But why sanctuary is on an enemy who is going to take hostile action every turn once people get anywhere near him confuses me. Now, that aside? The dancing zombies are great. I absolutely love the mechanic of them all stepping in sync. I also like how their size works against them here - it's easy for them PCs to be in the entryway where they end up with a couple unable to fit in. And too dumb to do anything about it. I like the pipe organ being weaponized against the party (the free action may have been too much).
 But despite the issues, it's definitely something to point to as an example of strong encounter design. First, I like the setting of this. It's a straight up unexplored ruins. It's go in and work on things. And Iobaria is a fun region.
 Spoiler:  The initial overworld travel type phase should have been more of the meat of the scenario I think. It's been noted that aside from one area it's basically just walk to point A and roll a skill check, and I think that squanders it a bit. I'd have put most of the encounters in this area, basically a mix of minor skill check points and major areas with encounters and a map. Also, dear god that trap. 30 damage to the whole party. I don't know how much it hits for in low tier, but taking 150% of max HP as a level 2 paired up (...19 or 20 CP iirc) is unpleasant! That still seems excessive as that can easily drop a level 3 outright, so having it hit the whole party is a bit much. (I feel like party-wide traps need to be used very, very judiciously because of the impact on party resources. An encounter directly after one has real potential to take multiple party members out before they can act, which is very un-fun. More single-target traps, seriously. This isn't as ridiculous as the other scenario I ran yesterday, but still) The fungus encounter isn't particularly memorable to me... but our GM had his macros really messed up (flat 3 damage per hit) the whole time. So... yay us? Some of the other reviews raise some real concerns about it - Darkness is a nasty spell to throw out. Poison should be used in moderation because it's brutal to low fort chars (don't think this was particularly significant there - as I said, I'm not really remembering much of this part a day later) The research section. The party was fortunate to have multiple int characters. But I have two qualms here. First, stone tablets and some ancient machinery degrading rapidly really doesn't make much sense. Second... it's a lot of complication for little gain I think. The concept of the encounter (including the surprise boss fight) is sound. I can't judge the boss itself much. It was a lopsided party (2,2,4,4) and we were fortunate enough to have a level 4 fighter who rolled well to hit. Having it surprise you and smash out of the mural was a nice touch.
 First, I did like the start of the scenario. The first two maps I have no complaints about. If the scenario had continued like that this would be an easy 4-5 stars. Then it runs into some difficulties. Spoiler:  The third room was a mixed bag. I thought it was very cute that the obvious blade trap was actually broken and instead a fight occurred (so much for mage hand). But the fight felt a bit rough. Primarily the reaction of the severed hand was extremely punishing, and I think the scenario overdid it with inflicting sickened. The real issue with the scenario is the fourth room. From what I can tell, there's nothing written in the scenario about using skill checks to solve the puzzle... which resulting in my party having to reason it out ourselves. Needless to say we failed. This is a problem for a couple reasons. First and foremost, I am of the opinion that nothing should ever rely on players figuring it out - characters should always be able to roll something to puzzle through. From a later discussion with the author it sounds like this was not the intent, so I'm putting this down to unclear writing and a lack of the scenario explicitly stating that skill checks are usable (and taking this as a lesson for myself to try and look for ways to use skill checks anyways) Second, I think the failure penalty is very steep - the scenario up to this point had gotten very damaging due to the difficulty of the hand encounter (in retrospect, it's basically the boss fight in terms of alloted difficulty). Party-wide damage from traps is punishing, so having it happen repeatedly is rough, especially given the prior issue. I think scenarios should be careful with this, as it's easy to burn through tons of the party's resources quickly this way. As is, we basically had to take a healing break after each failure. Third, the trap springing right into a fight is rough. Since it's party wide damage there's a real risk of people getting further dropped if the monsters roll high on initiative. I'm not a fan of combining the two - it would be significantly less problematic if it was a single-target trap that hit whoever was working the puzzle alone.
 I can say that the last part of the scenario was well done and I appreciate the ambiguity of the final choice. I legitimately have no idea how either choice could play out in the future, which is a positive. Playing with 5 players and this utterly brutalized our group. And the GM was going easy on us. Got the numbers from the GM after and I'm pretty sure this is stronger than 1-10's boss. The damage is just too high. This book has a wonderfully satisfying amount of lore in it. I love the various short stories given for major personalities, as well as how it ties all these different people together. I would love to get more books like this mixed into the Lost Omens line. Just finished playing this. Absolutely a blast, the descriptions of the main event are wonderful and really evoke "yes, this exactly what I expect a party to be like for these people". I loved the revelations about the history going on here and the perspective of the local culture, and that there's room for PCs to interpret it. Would absolutely play it again if I could forget everything. GM made it decently creepy without going full horror (I mean, besides body horror, there was some gross s&~+, and a lot of creepy stuff). There's a lot of questions still unanswered at the end and a sequel would be great at higher levels (or after a certain class is added). | 
 
	
 
     
     
     
	
							

 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							 
	
							