Zynete's page

I have just played and prepped for this scenario so maybe it will play better than it did for me and will be a lot more fun, but this scenario was a bit of a disappointment for me.

I've been looking forward to this scenario for the longest time and it was the main reason I was pushing so hard to play through scenarios (unsanctioned or not) just to see how the adventure played out. Of all the locations that the series takes the party to, this was one that I absolutely was looking forward to.

In the end though, there was little interaction to be had from the scenario to make me feel like it was it was set on this location rather than any other. Maybe due to the restriction on length, but it didn't feel like there was really an opportunity to explore or play on this world, but that may be because I was hoping for a larger adventure here that the scenario couldn't support.

Barring that, the encounters came on pretty strongly, maybe I was unlucky to be hit with a crit but it killed my character right in the first encounter followed by another player's character. Since I was the only healer in the group and the scenario throws the party in such a place that they can't get any real options for raise dead, it would have been the end of the scenario if were playing this as a sanctioned scenario. The adventure just jumps to the next encounter and into the next. After losing two PCs in the first or second encounter, the game can't continue and the scenario doesn't give any way to recover from that aside from quitting.

Since we were not playing a sanctioned game, the dead character were brought back at a penalty and the game continued. The second encounter starts as soon as the first ends. If the party was having trouble with the first encounter, the second would finish them off given they have no time to heal between battles.

The adventure continues with a rush and gives high DCs to near impossible DCs to actually complete the adventure. While in our case this made it feel somewhat of a challenge that we had to do awesome to beat, if we replaced one character in the party it would have meant the end of the adventure.

It feels like there are too many abrupt ways this adventure can just end as well as there doesn't seem to be as much interaction with the world as I hoped.

This adventure was entertaining, but lacked some of the strength of the prior scenario. This adventure takes place in two very disparate parts of Golarion and have little to do with one another aside from a couple of the friendly NPCs having a connection to one another.

Because of that, it almost feels as if this is two smaller two encounter scenarios connected into one. The major villains seem somewhat disconnected from the overall plot of the retirement arc and while the final villain is entertaining, there is very little build up for them within the scenario causing them to come nearly out of nowhere right before the party drives him off.

This was an entertaining scenario, but left me wanting more. I would been happier if the scenario was a bit longer in each section and gave more of a feel of each of the areas than what could be seen with a couple encounters. The first half was significantly better if only for the additional NPCs to interact with, but the second half felt more like a series of skill checks that you had to pass in order to get to the next encounter.

For difficulty, two encounters were very easy for the (five person) party two deal with, while the other two were somewhat threatening, but never really put the party in incredible danger.

I've both played and run this scenario and have a mixed opinion on in. When I played it we had a four person party that wasn't optimized. The first encounter was hard and caught the party off guard leading the group to being forced to fight on multiple fronts and losing. It then jumped immediately into another encounter (which a player had to set out of as his character was killed in the first encounter). Following that was an incredibly hard fight for our group in particular, but I think that other groups would have similar experiences.

Running it for my own group went a lot better. The party was five players with a lot better character builds as well as covering a broader range of party roles. They were challenged by the encounters, and threatened, but didn't feel that it was something they couldn't handle. They seemed specifically happy for the challenge which felt perfect for them.

I like the plot of this scenario a lot. I think the largest issue that I have with this scenario is that it doesn't scale. It is built exclusively for the greatest and most powerful parties and you find this out in the first encounter. It can easily come out of nowhere and kill off a few characters without trying too hard. The scenario does give advice against the adventure ending with a TPK, but with the creatures in play, it is very easy for a PC to quickly get killed. So it is an adventure that will be well balanced and fun for some and completely outrageous for others. If I knew about it beforehand, I would have never have wanted to play in this scenario, in this table's case it wasn't fun and just felt unbeatable.

The scenario seems to presume the party accomplishes the entire run in a single day, which with the level of the encounters, I can't see how it is reasonable to do so without an incredibly optimized (and full) table. Even the second party that made it through the adventure had a difficult time and couldn't do it without resting. Maybe if they had another character, it would have been different.

As the first scenario of the series, it really set the tone for the rest. For one group it was an exciting start and for the other, it really just killed any immediate desire to play through the rest of arc.

I would run it again, but I wouldn't do so for less than six players.

This would be a good scenario if for the fact that it did not claim to support 1st level characters. This is the deadliest, most unbalanced scenario I have seen.

Every puzzle battle was an EL 5 battle fight where every resource available had to be spent just to avoid a TPK.

I liked the plot and concepts that were there, but I can never recommend the scenario, especially for 1st level characters.