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I played this scenario last night and I didn't really know what to expect. All I knew beforehand, is that it is supposed to be a scenario that should serve as an introduction to the Society. To me this means a mixture of interaction, fighting and solving puzzles. When I look back, I have to say that this scenario not only delivers on all these fronts, but also completely and utterly blew me away. It far surpassed each of my expectations and, above anything else, was rather enjoyable too.

There was plenty of opportunity for interaction, be it with friendlies or with potentially hostile NPC's. New players should be shown there is a wide variety of social encounters as well as the fact that there are numerous ways of going about those particular instances. This scenario easily provides that lesson, while not being too 'easy' for veteran players either.

In my case one of the NPC's offended my character, a worshipper of Calistria, a few times too many. Needless to say, this quickly escalated out of control since neither wanted to back down, but it also made everyone on the table smile and laugh. It helped us crawl into the skins of our characters and showcase their personalities. In other words: this scenarios provides enough potential to role-play.

The fighting was pretty fun and challenging as well. In fact, I would say the optional fight is pretty lethal and should definitely not be underestimated. The other encounters are a bit of a mix and will look a bit random. Normally I would say this is a bad thing, but in this case it makes sense. You as a party go to completely different places, so naturally you'll meet different opponents. Seeing as this scenario is more or less an introduction for new players, it's a good representation of different ways you can end up in a fight. It also showcases that there is a wide variety of opponents you can potentially face, and that every fight can (and most likely will) be different. Seasoned players might find it a bit too random though.

Lastly there's the puzzle-solving. It's hard to comment on this topic without giving away too many spoilers, but I did like the puzzle. Instead of solving one puzzle at a time, you literally spend the majority of the session gathering (vital) clues to solve a single puzzle. It's not too hard, but also not too easy. I personally rather enjoyed it. It's nice having to go multiple places in order to find the solution to a problem you're facing. It's not as straightforward as is the case in other scenarios.

I do believe that this scenario is a good way to introduce new players to Pathfinder and more experienced players will still feel tested by the puzzle. It is an enjoyable scenario, but I'm not quite sure how much replay value it has. That is mostly due to me not knowing how much variation the scenario offers when it comes to puzzles and opponents, but I've been told there is some. I guess the only way for me to find out is to play this again at some point. While I now know what we're supposed to be doing, I also know that I'll certainly be having fun as well. And isn't that what a scenario should be all about?

I played this scenario last night on the lower tier. The arcanist, the warpriest and my summoner were level 3, the magus and fighter level 5. Let me start by saying that we all had a lot of fun, but that most of it was because of the interaction between our characters. Rarely have I played with a more insane group of characters. It made everyone else look boring and dare I say sane, even though Ignizi and Riddywhipple are a lot of fun on paper and simply excellent characters.

That, however, brings me to my biggest criticism: there's a lack of roleplaying. I know there's a whole section dedicated to talking to Ignizi and the other gnomes and I'm sure that it can be a lot of fun, but that instantly gets thrown out of the window the moment you hear someone has been abducted. Which group of pathfinders could casually spend a night in a cottage when someone's life is in danger? My group couldn't and so we instantly skipped the whole roleplaying section as a result. I can imagine other groups acting similarly and that's a real pity. I consider that a gigantic flaw with this scenario and have to lower my rating for this scenario. There's a huge potential, but depending on how the party feels about an abduction, you can easily miss out on it.

The encounters were better though as there were some rather unique creatures to deal with. In other words: the setting in which this all this takes place is a lot of fun. Again, however, I have to be honest and say that there were things I didn't like. I'm disappointed by the fact that two fights are extremely similar to each-other. That simply is no fun. To make matters worse: one of those two fights was basically over in two rounds, whereas the other one took a bit longer since one of fighter was just swimming around without any issue. I can't say those two fights were particularly challenging either. They were just uneventful to be honest. Again I have to lower my final rating.

Luckily the last fight makes up for this and can be really dangerous without proper preparation. It is pretty lethal due to the special rules and our frontline took a severe beating, with one of them even got close to death. It honestly was one of the better and more interesting final encounters I've played thus far due to all the mechanics around it.

All-in-all, it's a scenario that is enjoyable with a lot of potential, but that ended up being just mediocre for me. Some things were repetitive and we missed out on a lot of fun role-playing. Again I want to stress out how much of a pity that is since that is arguably the biggest selling point of this scenario. As a result I cant justify recommending this, unless you're just after the rather interesting boon you get as a reward.

Just like Avatar-1 below, I too played this scenario on the higher tier while adjusted to fit a party of 4, though with a different group. With a level 3 fighter, a level 3 summoner, a level 3 sorcerer and a level 5 witch who was wearing heavy armor – don't ask me why – we set sail to our destination. First things first, the location and the atmosphere during the entire scenario were outstanding. It literally felt like a real exploration, one where danger literally lurks around every corner. I initially had some issues seeing it as a 'Gloomspire' and honestly still do, but the description of the dungeon and its many rooms easily made up for that.

The encounters were lethal. I struggle to find a better word to describe just how dangerous they were. Luckily my eidolon was expendable and was left standing with 1 hp a few times, just so I could dismiss her before it was too late. If it wasn't for some lucky roles, a stupidly tanky eidolon and witch we would not have succeeded in this scenario. I'd even go so far as saying that if the witch hadn't rolled above a 14 eight times in a row and successfully dazed the BBEG, we would probably have flat-out died in the last fight. Challenging would be an understatement.

The secondary objective of this scenario though was a bit disappointing. Don't get me wrong, it's something pathfinders should all do, so that aspect makes sense. The execution however, feels more like the players are tasked to do so instead of their characters. It breaks the immersion and not every player avidly takes notes. Luckily I'm one of those people, so that never was an issue for our party. That and the GM literally pointed out it had to be done, but that he'd be lenient to some extend: I didn't have to draw every map. A few words were enough.

Overall, this was a great dungeoncrawler with a lot of tough fights. The role-playing is a bit lacking, but the encounters and scenery make up for that more than enough. Even though our party wasn't exactly ready for this and I missed the role-playing aspect, I still had fun. It wasn't the best scenario I've ever played and based on the difficulty I would like to warn relatively new players to either stay away or to bring a very well-prepared group. As for me personally, I can't wait to return to this location and to continue exploring where we left of, though I would prefer to see a bit more role-playing next time around.

I ended up playing this scenario last weekend and I had a great time. Not only was there a good mixture of role-playing and fighting, with a clear emphasis on role-playing, but there was also a unique, yet perfect chase-scene except for the swimming part. The only downside was the plot. It wasn't exactly difficult to figure out who the bad guy eventually was. Anyway, allow me to break this scenario down to role-playing and encounters though.

As for the role-playing, it indeed is the most important portion of the scenario. If you just want to kill things, you should stay clear of this scenario. However, I disagree with some of the reviews below that this scenario is hours of just talking. Don't get me wrong, it is indeed possible should you choose so, but it's not a fundamental issue with the scenario. Instead it's something that comes down to the GM and players. The GM has to feel the mood at the table and should adjust the amount of talking to it, whereas the players can speak up as well. Together they should find the sweet spot. Without proper out-of-game communication, I can see how this could drag on and cause issues for individuals.

In my case our GM said he'd give 5 to 10 minutes per conversation and all of us did our best to make the conversations fun and interesting. Not a single one of us was bored at any moment in time, nor felt left out. Everyone of us also liked the chase-scene. I consider it to be quite innovative and far less annoying than other similar situations I've encountered. You are provided with limited options and you can actually go through the process of getting from A to B rather quickly, while still having a lot of options open to you to decrease the DC's. It simply works really well.

The encounters were fine too. They weren't particularly special, but I don't believe that's needed for this scenario. Thematically it's fine and I'm sure the first encounter can give a fair amount of a parties a run for their money. My party was lucky at the BBEG as they got the drop on that particular individual, but from what I've heard, that fight can be quite annoying as well. In other words, the fights can be quite challenging.

This scenario is role-play heavy, but the fights aren't walkovers either. If you like the previous sentence, you should consider playing this scenario as you're likely to find it quite enjoyable. Be sure to bring a balanced party though!

I am not surprised that people either really like or really dislike this scenario. This is indeed a scenario that you'll either love or hate simply due to the way it's set up. While you will certainly end up in a few fights, the majority of this mission is to role-play. If you don't role-play, you can easily be done in about 90 minutes, something our GM pointed out at the start of the game. I personally love portraying my character through interactions with others and luckily for me, I was sitting a table with like-minded spirits who had brought a wild variety of characters.

But instead of glorifying my party, which to be honest would be fair to do, I should talk about the scenario itself. The plot, for starters, is fairly straightforward and then you more or less have three different segments. The first is some role-playing, the second one is primarily fighting, and the third one can be both, but is likely to be 90 percent role-play. I'd also like to point that the third segment is by far the most time-consuming of the three. To get back to the plot: the primary objective is more or less a given, but you have to be quite aware and diligent to figure out what the secondary objective is. It is, in my opinion, easy to miss out on and thus your second prestige point is at risk.

The fights were rather challenging. We took a severe beating and we could have had a few casualties if my mesmerist hadn't been able to completely shutdown the BBEG with some powerful spells. Out of the five rounds of battle we found ourselves in, the evil boss was unable to do anything in three of them and took severe penalties in another. Getting some form of crowd control is mandatory, unless you have a person that can actually tank above average. She really can be quite lethal to low tier parties. You best be on your guard when facing her.

And then there's the role-playing aspect. Let me start by saying that it would appear as if my mesmerist was made for this scenario and as such I have to admit I'm a fair bit biased. The NPC in question you have to deal with can be a gigantic pain in the ass, even moreso if your GM portrays him very well. If you dislike having to talk to NPC's, you're going to cry and get incredibly frustrated by this scenario. Even if you do like role-playing, chances are you're going to get frustrated by this particular person anyway. It's an understatement to say he has a way of getting under your skin. One thing is for sure though: this individual will certainly leave a lasting impression on you.

But instead of getting annoyed at him, I would recommend people to use his personality against him. So he wants to proof his worth and martial prowess? Well, convince him to wrestle with the large-sized half-orc barbarian in your party! What better way to show people how strong you are – and to get slapped in the face by reality? Is your character good at bluffing? Then you can insult him to the face while making it seem like a compliment! My character, who is extremely proficient in bluffing, was constantly subtly insulting him, much to the amusement of the others at the table.

So yes, talking to that NPC can certainly be annoying and taxing, as well as drag out, but you can easily spin it to something everyone can enjoy. There's a great opportunity to be creative and use skills you normally would never get round to use. Creativity really gets rewarded. One of the players at my table used Profession: Cook to great success. This scenario is very rewarding in that aspect as it allows you to showcase sides of your character you would otherwise never get to really act out. From a role-playing perspective, that makes it an amazing scenario and as such I would recommend it. If you're just in it for the fights, you should definitely stay away and look for something else to play. Considering this only caters to a certain group, I can't give it 5 stars, but it does deserve the 4 I gave it in my opinion.

I've played this scenario at the lowest tier and as I'm writing this, I struggle on what to make of the scenario. I have to admit that my first experience with the Blackros museum did leave quite the impression. The fact that some more experienced players had their characters instantly facepalm and sigh at the first mention of the museum, says a lot. Clearly there's always something going on at that place and apparently they're always in need of assistance. That really sets the tone for the scenario in a good way. It is relatively easy to feel immersed in the situation.

I, as a character, did struggle with rating the encounters. There are quite a few of them, but it can not be said they're repetitive. Some, however, are clearly harder than others. There's a blatant lack of balance in difficulty in this scenario. My party in particular had issues with one of encounters, but that is to be expected from opponents with damage reduction at the early levels. The fight immediately after that one, however, really put a smile on my face. It was far less challenging, but the opponent itself was hilarious - albeit in part due to the excellent portrayal by our GM. To summarise: the fights are varied, both in opponents faced as well as difficulty.

For those less keen on fighting and more on role-playing, I'd have to say this scenario falls short. There are some opportunities, but they're not exactly worth mentioning. You can certainly interact with some NPC's, but the emphasis is clearly on fighting. On the topic of role-playing: the very last portion of the scenario is pretty subpar. You really need at least one character that's more or less magic-savvy. To make matters worse, you will most likely a lucky dice-roll to understand what you're supposed to do in that situation. Alternatively you can take a wild guess and follow the old saying of 'when in doubt, hit it with a stick', but you won't have any clue to what you're exactly doing. It can make for a rather anti-climactic ending, something that clearly is no fun at all. As someone who favors role-playing and interaction above fighting, I'm inclined to advise against playing this scenario.

The description of the scenario does it no justice. While it is accurate for the first parts of the scenario, it also omits a portion of the scenario. Of course that's to prevent giving the plot away, but by doing so it also makes the scenario appear more boring and uninteresting than it actually is. Behind this stale façade is an action-packed thriller of a roller-coaster, a ride that is more than capable of entertaining a group of adventurers whether they're experienced or not, even though the plot itself is a little predictable.

From the moment you embark on this adventure, you will find yourself on a journey that takes you from one scenic place to the next. Each of these places differs from the others and this in turn makes sure that every encounter is unique, while still allowing for different ways of solving certain situations, be it diplomatically or not. The fights can certainly be rough, especially the last one can be quite unforgiving, but they're still fair.

What I in particular liked and would like to point out, is the way the various locations are described in the scenario. In my opinion this is masterfully done and helps places seem alive and real, as if they're characters in their own right. Simply put: the descriptions in this scenario are superior to most other scenarios.

Combining all the various aspects, I would certainly recommend this scenario to players.

Similar to Damanta, Ascalaphus and Monkhoud below, I participated in this 8 table special, though I myself was playing at the lowest tier. I think we were also the table with the first player death that event. During the first fight, our level 2 cleric got a little cocky and ate a critical hit of 31 damage, dropping him down to -14 health instantly. Thankfully the GM's took mercy upon our soul and arranged an emergency teleport /raise dead just so he could continue to participate in this event. I doubt we would have been able to get through it all with just a group of 4 players. In hindsight I'd say the death was his own fault, but also that the first encounter was the hardest for us to deal with.

That is not to say that the rest of the scenario was a walkover or not challenging; we just realised we were lacking on the damage and tankiness front and debated, in character, on how to deal with that in the future. In the end we settled on using the enviroment in our advantage. We hid in narrow corridors and used my eidolon block the path. Buffing my lovely eidolon to silly amounts of AC meant we had a fighting chance. Or rather: we would not get crushed instantly, but it would still take us a long time to take the enemy down. Given the fact we were also the only table that actually looted the enemy corpses, we ended up with more than enough potions to close our wounds with.

While fights were not our strength, we had few problems with the plethora of puzzles. The puzzles themselves were great. There was plenty of variation and luckily we as a party more or less had all our bases covered when it came to knowledge checks. We were rather blessed in that aspect, though the dice often disagreed. It did allow us to come with out-of-the-box suggestions to solve issues, which made the journey rather enjoyable. Then again, the scenery and storyline was simply excellent with a couple of really nice twists thrown in as well.

All in all this was a scenario I am extremely proud of to have participated in. There was an amazing amount of diversity in encounters and every character is guaranteed to have a moment to shine. I do think that a party with more brawn than brains will have a slightly easier time overall than a party of know-it-alls, but they will struggle gaining any information about their surroundings. Perhaps they'll even flatout get caught off guard by something evil.

Moral of the story: get a balanced party, grab a few drinks and snack, and simply enjoy the amazing ride that is this scenario.

This scenario promises a dangerous plot of deception, which likely is Cyphergate related. Like others have pointed out, you are left to expect cyphermages and tough diplomatic choices, with some puzzlesolving along the way. I'm sorry to say that if you are going to play this scenario with those expectations, you'll be disappointed.

What's worse, in my opinion at least, is that the storyline is simply lacking. To me it seemed as if the writer thought of some interesting encounters and just threw them all together. They're not really linked story-wise and it is the GM's job to somehow make it seem like a logical and plausible progression. It is doable, but it shouldn't have been left to the GM's imagination. Mind you, my GM did a great job regardless.

If anything this lack of logical storyline made it hard for us a party to follow the path the scenario wants you to take. Instead of going from A to B to C to D to E, my party went from A to C to a made-up, yet perfectly logical F to D. This means that the scenario is flexible, but does need a GM who is flexible and who can improvise well.

The fights in this scenario are okay. It's nothing special to be frank. I do however have a problem with the final fight. Where you would normally expect an epic showdown of sorts, this one can actually be completely lacklustre. Don't get me wrong though. The premise is really great and in theory could be pretty epic, but it's almost too easy to defuse the situation. I could elaborate more, but Ascalaphus summed it up below in such a way that I don't see a reason to echo his sentiments.

As it stands, we solved the situation with a single spell and with that the fight was already over. I believe two people didn't even get to act in that 'fight'. You could say we were lucky, but we really weren't in my opinion. As a result that final showdown was pretty disappointing and left me as a player wondering if that was really the end of the scenario. Looking back, I'm still not really satisfied with how the scenario ends, but I want to stress the fact it's not the GM's fault, but rather a problem that lies at core of the scenario itself.

Truth be told, I got mixed feelings about this scenario. Let's start with the parts I liked. I appreciated the whole stealthy infiltration part of the mission. It's always nice to roleplay that out. Then there was the fact that there is a really interesting NPC in this scenario. Not just that, it's a rather unique and memorable one in a good way and that deserves a star by itself. I'm not sure if this was my GM doing an amazing job portraying this individual or not, but his performance made this an interesting scenario.

However, there were also things I didn't like that much. Solving puzzles is fun and are always challenging, but at some point I had decipher a code as it was part of the faction mission. I don't mind doing that, but it so happened to be that I was the only member of that faction in the party. So while I was puzzling, my character just sat on her eidolon and blindly followed her friends. It made me feel like I wasn't really participating or contributing at times since I was preoccupied. While that actually fits the personality of my character, for me as a player I felt a bit excluded from the action.

I just mentioned the word 'action'. I'd honestly have to say that's another issue I have with this scenario: most of this scenario is the party going into a room, doing a skill check, rolling some dice and then moving on to the next room. It more or less boils down to a reliance on skill checks and, as we all know, not everyone is into that sort of thing. I personally don't have any issue with making a check often, but I got the feeling two other players were quite frankly bored and disappointed a little by the way the scenario developed.

To add onto that, there is also a certain time sensitivity that has been build into the scenario. As a result we felt a bit too rushed to roleplay those chambers and our skill checks out as well. I suppose, and this is just a guess, that it would have been a more fun experience if we had done so. But then again, I wouldn't have been able to in the first place due to having to crack a code.

Conclusion: the idea behind is the scenario is fun, but the mechanics behind the scenes are a bit lacking I'm afraid.

The first time I heard of this scenario, I was told that this was for 95% a roleplay scenario. Turns out, this was no exaggeration. The amount of roleplay for this scenario is far more than I've seen in every other scenario I've played thus far. This itself makes it a challenging scenario, but at the same time the options and opportunities to get the job done are endless. No playthrough will be identical, even though certain events will always happen. As a player this means you can be more creative than ever, while at the same time making it challenging and fun for the GM as well. If you're just in it to smash and kill things, you'll likely not enjoy this scenario.

Does this mean combats are boring? No, it doesn't. In fact, certain one-trick-ponies will feel useless in one encounter, whereas the second encounter is flatout brutal and can even be a TPK. It's pretty lethal, unexpected and honestly quite original in my opinion. I have not played the 'optional' fight, but based on what I've seen and heard, it's not a walkover either. In short: the few fights you might find yourself in are rather challenging.

That said, this was one of the most enjoyable scenarios I've played and I highly recommend it to others.

If I were to describe this scenario in a few words, I would have to go with 'a straightforward dungeoncrawler at a simply amazing location'. That might actually seem pretty boring, but the opposite is true. While the plot is fairly simple and standard, it is the atmosphere and scenery that really makes this scenario stand out from the rest. The aesthetics and lore behind the Citadel of Flame really give it that extra bit of flavor that it needs. I could continue on how fond I am of the location, but that would make for a boring and long review with me going on tangents just like I am already doing right now.

So lets move on to the combats. I feel like there was a nice amount of diversity and I found it to be not repetitive in the slightest. This keeps you as a player on edge and constantly worrying what's around the next corner. It's also nice that creative thinking is rewarded in a few of these fights. Especially the second encounter offers a plethora of options, which I'd assume makes this a fun scenario to DM by itself. All-in-all, the fights were rather challenging, but there are enough ways to make the foes easier to handle.

As for roleplaying opportunities, I'd have to say that it's not the main focus of the scenario. There are some occassions where you can put those social skills into practice with some NPC's, but most of the interacting will be based on the location you find yourself in and how you, as a character, react to your surroundings. Given the scenery, this can be a lot of fun to act out, but at the same time it's also something that can easily get ignored if some players are not into that sort of stuff. You can obviously play this scenario just by going on a rampage and just kill things, but I dare to say that actual roleplaying can really make this a more than memorable scenario. This is especially true if you're a paladin or cleric of a good deity, or if you're going to do the Cheliax faction mission.

Speaking of which: you (as a party) should really look into doing the Cheliax faction mission, even if you're normally not aligned with them. This closing comment may sound very awkward and strange but trust me when I saw that it's a really unique experience and well-worth getting sidetracked for. You may insert evil laughter here.

I played this scenario with Damanta, Ascalaphus and Woran (read their reviews below) as the summoner. I can only more or less echo their sentiments about this scenario. The setting was great and I enjoyed meeting fey for the first time as this character. What I disliked was the timer. It wasn't really needed and more or less forced us to rush from one fight to another, not really allowing us to properly interact in character with each-other. Especially given certain effects there's a huge potential for all sorts of fun interacting, but you feel rushed to the end.

Don't get me wrong, we did have some nice dialogues and situations occur because Woran allowed us to act out silly ideas – hey, my childish summoner got to fly with the roc animal companion for no reason other than that my summoner thought it was fun to do – but it could have been more. Woran really made the scenario more enjoyable than it's written on paper. At least, that's how I perceived and experienced it.

As for the encounters, well, they were certainly challenging. The final encounter can be really brutal and we did take a severe beating. It was closer than we probably would have liked, but we managed to somehow stay alive, albeit some of us barely.

All-in-all it's a great scenario with lots of potential, but it really comes down to the GM to use that potential to its full effect. Thinking outside the box and improvisation are always handy, but this scenario really flourishes with it.

The best part about this scenario is the variation in the encounters. Not only is there a nice plethora of creatures to face, but also the environment is quite varied and impacts gameplay quite well. Just trust me when I say the combination of 'creatures' and 'terrain' makes this a fun scenario. They're all significantly different, which means that you will find yourself utilising different strategies every single time.

Oh and the big bad evil guy is really not a walkover and can dish out a significant amount of pain. You really want to be careful. Our cleric made the mistake of walking off on his own for a single round and instantly dropped down to -2 health. I know evil guys are supposed to do that, but this one is particularly daunting to face.

The downside to this scenario is the lack of interaction with NPC's. Though at least one fight can be solved diplomatically, it's not as obvious as is the case in other scenarios. Roleplaying is not really encouraged as a result, which might feel a bit disappointing for some people. It doesn't mean they should stay away from this scenario though: there's enough hooks to base PC to PC interaction on, but it clearly isn't the focus of this mission.

Final verdict: great encounters and great scenery make for great fights, but it's also combat that's the main focal point of this scenario. If you strictly want to solve things diplomatically, you should reconsider partaking in this one.

This was the first scenario I've ever played and I quite enjoyed it. It has a nice atmosphere and the setting is pretty nice. However, it's also a scenario that really needs a GM that's good at telling a story, and I was lucky to find myself in a situation just like that. Especially the whole chase scene needs good descriptions in order to not make it feel like simply rolling a dice. The way he described every step we took, made the environment come to live and drew us in closer and closer. It encouraged us to interact a lot in character, which is always nice.

Even though it was quite enjoyable, I can't really give this more than three stars. Due to our composition and size, the first couple of combats were pretty much non-existant. We had 6 mostly damage-heavy players, 2 animal companions and an eidolon, so fights were over in less than a round. I often didn't even get a chance to act before they were dead. Considering I was still getting used to how combat works, this wasn't a big deal for me. For more experienced players though, that can be quite disappointing.

I also can't really comment on the last fight. We were extremely lucky with our rolls and out of the four times we hit him in the first two rounds, three of them were crits. It was over before we knew it. That said, given the description and GM notes, I'm convinced he can actually be rather challenging if he gets going. Fortunately for us, we avoided that danger. Admittedly, it was rather anticlimactic, especially after the penultimate encounter, which I may add is enough on its own to make this a memorable scenario.

Final verdict: it's a fun scenario, but it needs a good storytelling GM. I think it's also best played in smaller parties of 4 or 5, to make it more challenging. Players need to really enjoy roleplaying in order to like this scenario as the combats are relatively easy. If you don't like that, you should consider staying away as you'll likely be disappointed.