Sinister Scientist's page

I know high level scenarios take more time, but this took ~6 hours to run where my players found the hidden entrance after only exploring 3 other hexes. The author put way too much content in this scenario. It should have been broken into two parts: the hexploration and the dungeon. The Scourge of Sheerleaf had it right for a high-level scenario with only 2 combat encounters plus a Hazard.

A hazard was a near TPK and then really boring because one Quickened PC ran in, 2 actions to disable the hazard, then ran out while everyone else did nothing because of how deadly it was. Another fight, few of the players had a way to deal with flying enemies, so I took pity on them and landed (well, more to keep the session from running another hour or more longer). They never found the two social encounters even after I told them certain encounters might not be listed on the map. No one wanted to do the chase after the final combat. I am unsure how the unmarked encounters were supposed to be discovered without GM guidance or exploring every hex.

I would like to see better proof-reading. One part mentions keeping track of time, but the time has no effect on the scenario. Rather, the number of encounters survived does. This, and the large number of encounters could easily have been fixed to make this a great pair of scenarios.

Overall, it definitely needs improvements for me to recommend, but I liked the hexploration to make things feel different.

Overall, a solid scenario. I GM'ed this in the upper tier with 4 level 6 characters. I really enjoyed GMing the final encounter. I was able to give my players a real fight by moving around and forcing them to trigger the hazards. I refused to end a turn in a spot where anyone could make 3 attacks in one round. I kept the PCs running from place to place as they chased the final "boss" around the boardwalks. No one got the dying condition in the final encounter, but I did do 126 points of damage through haunts and Strikes to a level 6 champion.

The other encounters weren't nearly as exciting. The Carnival activities didn't present much of a challenge. The bears were Commanded away in 2 rounds (players got the secret action info quite easily). I could have used the zombie hulks to kill a PC as they knocked the sorcerer out in one turn after penetrating the front line. Unfortunately the map doesn't allow for them to really use their reach effectively.

The scenario took just over 4 hours to complete.

A fun scenario, but it had several things I had to work out myself. I enjoyed running the "chase" scene, but wish it was clearer that it didn't truly follow the chase rules (like how they added the sidebar for underwater combat). Editing missed several typos too. All of the challenges were on the GM side. The DCs and monster stats for the upper tier seemed low for my players as they easily handled most skill checks and combats. We finished in 4 hours, just barely peacefully resolving the last encounter. Despite the difficulties on my end, my table had fun and I wish I could play this one!