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Mechanically a fine scenario that doesnt have any major glaring issues.

But ugh. This plot direction. Please stop.

The Knights of Lastwall come off as being a kind of griftery chariry organization and the Society runs afoul of the HOA.

What happened to just....a sense of adventure. You play Intro 1 and Intro 2 and get the promise of an organization going to interesting locales and discovery.

Then the season intro is local politics with the HOA. I can (and DO) get that at home.

This scenario had a lot of promise on the page but as written, having the journey up the mountain that makes up the thrust of thd adventure all be combats puts a lot of pressure on those combats to be demonstrative of the effects of the Godsrain.

I do not feel this was really accomplished at all outside the first combat.

The use of setting here was also really disappointing. I was excited to return to the Mountain of Sky and Sea and to see its themes expanded upon and that simply did not happen. This could have been set anywhere with nothing lost.

Overall its not a BAD scenario but this was seemingly a slam dunk to be a GREAT scenario, so I cant help being a bit disappointed.

I review a lot of wrestling matches as well and when one really fails to make an impression but was solid i always say "it was two professional wrestlers having a professional wrestling match" and thats how I felt about this scenario too.

Getting the first thing out of the way - I dont think this story with the noblelady-disguised-Fortune-Dragon thing is working. The intrigue isnt really there and no one cares enough about Absalom politics to be interested.

Next - for a scenario about a carnival its really really light on carnival flavor and becomes the weakest Dacilane scenario in disguise instead.

Finally, there is not a single interesting or engaging encounter in this one.

Its all competently done - but a real snoozer. Skip it if you can.

The plot of the scenario is pretty atrocious on its own, but the title says it all

I love this adventure from a vibe standpoint, even if I thought the depiction of Orc culture was a little difficult to understand. The combats were also very challenging in a way that took advantage of the unique setting.

Unfortunately things like missing DCs, chase rules that were clearly copy and pasted incorrectly and some key mechanics presented in less than obvious places (such as the mechanics for the scene with the body that needed protecting).

Not a whole lot to say about this one. The location is pretty dull and if youre not enamored with the monster here there just isnt a lot to sink your teeth into.

There were two combats, the first of which was so dull and uninteresting it barely registered until i opened the scenario again to do this review.

The chase scene was fine but really punished party members with low skill pools like clerics and champions.

The 2nd combat was pretty solid but not the most engaging. Even with the party struggling a bit in the second combat they were done in 2 hours. A little more meat on the bone please.

So on the plus side

- Good Varied combat encounters finally! There were 3 very good fights in here and one which i had to cut for time and thats okay because it was wholly unnecessary anyway. Big props for finally doing good combat design work!

- Tone and setting - it feels like a fun romp because its supposed to be. It raises a LOT of setting related questions specifically on the nature of this island, ghouls, undeath in general. Its really really weird. Hopefully we eventually get answers because the mystery of the island was way more interrsting than the actual mystery the adventure was about and doesnr get resolved.

Downsides

- The mystery itself...isnt a mystery. You get told who the suspect is and then every single piece of evidence supports that theory. If a GM really tries and reaches for it you can loop in a red herring but its tough sledding.

- Pacing its ALL mystery and then ALL combat which just isnt good pacing. Something more varied (and there were opportunities for it in this story) would have helped

- The setting and tone are VERY light hearted regarding topics which are typicslly quite heavy. If a player brings a champion or a cleric of pharasma or Iomedae or just...is from Last wall, there is a lot of cognitive dissonance the scenario does NOTHING to smooth.

So good combats, good humor and memorable npcs but it can run long and the mystery itself is simply a dissatisfying conclusion

There are times when a subsystem, despite seeming appropriate, is actually a very poor fit for a scenario. This has to be the most extreme version of that I have seen.

The NPCs this time are actually decently well differentiated, an improvement on previous influence based scenarios. But there are significant problems. First, this scenario is structured in such a way that you don't actually learn anything valuable from anyone. Its all light rumors that are largely inconsequential. Also each NPC needs 6-8 points of influence to close out. Given that there are only 5 real rounds of influence and 2 of those get eaten up by discovery, that is essentially requiring pcs to critically succeed on a reliable basis to learn everything. Its just bad design and thats before you realize most NPCs top 2 influence skills are typically Lores, which are effectively useless meaning it takes 3 discoveries to get anything useful.

This is actually to the detriment of the writing of the npcs which is fairly good but whose actions might seem completely incomprehensible if your dice were cold. The scenario also boldly states thst it should be clear who the person who is off is at the end of influence rounds is and I have to declare it was not.

The transition from this scene to the little mini exploration section was clunky and the mystery not especially engaging. The fact that this scenario has one combat and a 2nd combat you have in character reasons to avoid is also unacceptable. This is still a rpg system that is primarily about fighting things. Please let us fight. The motives of the npcs involved in the climax are pretty incomprehensible from the outside and form a sour taste for the ending.

Just...messy messy messy.

It also needs atated - the art orders in this scenario were truly atrocious, especislly the new Safa art and the Tisbah art.

There have been a lot of changes very rapidly to the setting this game takes place in and these changes have been underexplored in favor of simply presenting what the changes are.

Here instead we see what a society that does suddenly embrace that which was previously monstrous might look like.

This scenario is primarily an investigation and as a whodunnit it is very successful. The clues are evocative and interesting without resorting to the old subtlety hammer. Its a fine line to walk but they walked it here.

The combats and environmental challenges were fun and level appropriate. Tonewise this does feel a bit like an adventure for junior pathfinders but it all works out in the end.

The thing I compliment the most is the serious tone. So much of pfs lately is dripping in irony or humor and runs away from the gravity the setting could have if you let it.

This was an anticipated continuation of the years metaplot and I am a little weirded out that this is now the 2nd one in a row where basically our mission is to murder all the members of the Organization.

That said, Ulumbia is a legitimately interesting bit of plot thread that I wish we had been able to flesh out more. Freyan seemed redeemable with his passion for the subject and I am a little disappointed that there was no mechanic or story beat for that possibility.

The building itself had some very strong setting detail.

But that final fight is so overtuned and brutal, with the terrain turning an already hard fight into a situation that was just one bad roll away from tpk.

The setting detail givennin this scenario was almost distractingly poorly presented. Two of these three quick hitter missions designed to introduce us to the candidates involved weeklong jaunts to other planets. Players pointed this out and their investment was visibly diminished by it.

Abadarcorp presented as being evil and soulless corporation when their lore is the exact opposite undercut the presentation of the entire 2nd mission.

The combat in the 2nd quest lacked vital details on how the encounter was supposed to work, making it difficult to give the players agency in an exploration scenario.

The environmental exploration and dungeon exploration in missions 2 and 4 were too shallow to be memorable. Mission 3 was a standout and was good. Mission 1 was also good.

The NPCs are mostly well presented and that is the main point of this adventure but everything else was sloppy and uneven.

Im not sure why this is repeatable. It has absolutely no repeatable elements.

I have to say the use of the influence system in this scenario is truly puzzling. The NPCs are only loosely detailed and the characrization of Star is really child-like and not super in keeping with his prior appearances which had portraydd star as wise and old. But having influence to start the scenario cold with npcs in rounds before the players have really gotten warmed up is so hard. Not only did it have timing that made things difficult but with the lack of a true player-facing objective for the scene the players really didnt even know what to say or do or why they were doing it. This lent itself to largely awkward and unrewarding roleplay outside of Stars portion. I appreciste that this scene was trying to pay off the season and the friends we made along the way but I do not think it landed.

Then we get to the combats and I am so puzzled at some of the decisions

There are also some really weird things with the connective tissue of the scenario. Aslynns plan doesnt make any sense to me. I tried. Andnthis made it really hard for me to convey Aslynns motivations and activities to the players. This meta plot has not been my favorite but I was surprised at the extent to which this just did NOT come together.

And then as others have said when you do finally get to go one on one with the big bad of not one but TWO seasons...she just isnt a big deal and the combat is the least interesting of the three written in the scenario.

There were some great and clever ideas in here but theyre inrefined pr misapplied and it was disappointing in the end.

Normally Id give a scenario like this 3 stars but since this was meant to be the payoff for two seasons of plot and REALLY needed to deliver I knock off a star.

This was an adventure that was significantly more unwieldy than it had to be because of the sheer number of people the scenario is asking us to introduce and make both memorable and different for the players.

The rest of the adventure was good enough though parts of it were a bit more opaque than they had to be, for example the variable portion of the maze and what differences the different lodges actually made to the story.

The final battle was very creative but in my experience

There were a lot of good ideas here but the execution was messy and left a lot to be desired. I would look elsewhere for a memorable first scenario for a new gm or player.

PS PLEASE do not make us use elements from 3 different tile sets again for the same map. That really sucked.

I had so much fun with this adventure as a player. It felt great to be rewarded, playing a wizard water elementalist in this adventure allowed me to make good use of spells like create water (to remove some of the time crunch and to allow us to use the camels for a purpose other than carrying water) and a wand of purify food. It was great fun exploring the various hexes and the care put into each stop made each stop really pop. It has been a trend lately to pack an absurd amount of disparate elements in PFS adventures and instead this adventure knows its vibe and hammers it home with incredible guile.

I also have to throw props for the trollish but fair combat composition. I felt all clever prepping spells based on some hints laid by the adventure only to get blindsided by something totally unexpected. I howled with delight at how well the author tricked me. The hazards presented some unusual scenarios and allowed me to use some under-used abilities.

I enjoyed that the adventure actually presented a clear, easily articulated choice and allowed us the ability to make a meaningful decision regarding the future of the campaign without there being a clear right side and long side. Just head and shoulders above the rest. Go out of your way for this one.

I want to start by saying the germ of the idea for this scenario is a very good one - going to investigate an alien intelligence which is inadvertently causing disrest amongst the peasants is a really cool story hook.

An easy skip, play literally anything else instead.

These intro adventures are always very tricky. Having to be structured on sich a way that rhey can ease a new player into the plot, the current plot drop was clever but maybe is a good bit of proof thst the current plot is a bit on the heady side because there was a lot to ease everyone into while still having to get people to see whats so great about organized play.

The scenario has a good balance of skill challenges that dont form gates for progress, and combats.

I wish it had been a lot more consequential and that the skills checks had resulted in a bit more discovery that invited more...boubdless wonder.

As was this one gets the job done, but very skippable for established players. But its pretty forgettable and I wont ever have a desire to revisit.

So obviously with the title of the adventure, it was an expectation wandering into this one where you would be running into the Lands of Linnirm kings and dealing with a Linnorm or its treasures and getting a chance to fight dragons and roll with vikings.

When the reality is quite different and you are playing babysitter to a bunch of bratty dragon princes, more akin to the classic first edition adventure The Horn of Aroden. But in this sort of scenario less is definitely more. Seven dragons to placate across multiple situations of them causing mischief is pretty amusing st first but thrice its a little...dull. the seven of them havw not enough in terms of distinct personae to make this work and the three scnearios arent interesting enough to justify having all three.

And it doesnt really go anywhere either. The villains plan doesnt make a lot of sense and the resolution of the plotline and the Pathfinder Society's stake in it all is a very tight fit. Overall taken for what it is, the scenario is fun enough but with logs of room for improvement.

I love any time we get to really dig into a locale that breaks out from the normal quasi medieval-renaissance-steampunk feel that the setting has, instead bringing to life the almost comedically high fantasy feel of Nex and its commonplace rarity.

The city itself is the center piece of this one and the author does an excellent job laying down the details as the adventure feels like an excuse just to go tour this under-represented city. Unfortunately, a lot of the word count that could have gone to making each stop on the tour really pop went instead to writing a unique pun for the NPC the PCs are accompanying on their tour; this had the effect of making each stop on the tour feel a little sparse. Each stop was like a very small scene fragment and the players were left feeling dissatisified at each turn. I was able to fluff these stops out using background detail from the paragraphs at the start of the adventure but a little more guidance on how to connect the muscles to the bones of this one. Lesser GMs will reduce that section to a very chunky mechanical series of skill rolls.

I also feel as though the conflict with the gang could have used a little more flesh too - the gang had a very specific gang sign but not a name. And even the backstory had a very touchy bit of non-specificity where Id have liked a little more detail to avoid tossing my foot in my mouth.

I know this review sounds critical but I still really enjoyed it; I was just frustrated because its a masterpiece in the rough.

This is the sort of scenario that made Starfinder Society the greatest org play campaign ever. We saw a lot of this sort of thing in season 1 and this was a really clever way to leverage the Drift Crisis into creating some sort of "First Contact" scenario without adding any new aliens or creating any new planets and instead putting a new coat of paint on a planet as familiar as Akiton.

The scenario had just enough open ended roleplay to make the players feel some real agency which pays off big time by the end of the scenario by emboldening players to approach the moral quandary of the scenario wi5h their own set of ideas and ethics.

Just the perfect starfinder romp and insant member of the canon of the campaign.

I ran this scenario 6 times at this years gen con and I have to say it was an incredible experience every single time.

This scenario features the society slowly but surely choosing a side in the civil war on Vesk 6 aka Pulonis and dealing with the repercussions of the SFS earlier actions in the Veskarium back when we were desperate for help during the fallout from the Scoured Stars incident.

This is a really thick and heavy scenario despite being the normal length.

It has it all, travel adventures, a detailed look at previously unexplored locales, intrigue and a mystery to solve (there is a traitor after all) and of course super cool plot reveals and our first foray into mech combat.

Highly recommend but give yourself an extra hour to finish up.

The Year of Apologizing for Existing kicked off in earnest in this scenario and boy what a doozy of a thing to be apologizing for. I cannot express strongly enough how much the table absolutely positively despised being put in the position of having to defend and apoligize for such villainy that they had absolutely nothing to do with.

One player was so uncomfortable that they actually left the table.

As for the adventure design itself...the method of apology felt very very odd and frankly while the tasks were set up to encourage roleplay the morale of the table was in the tank to the point where it became a pretty lifeless series of dice rolls.

The final part of the scenario saw the players rally but perhaps too late. Being asked to place the artifact [spoilers=major spoilers for scenario] back into a monster infested dungeon and to resist the allure of trying to protect another such artifact, just felt odd. It didnt make any sense. [/spoiler]

In the end, the scenario felt disjointed, the crime being apologized for so heinous and over the top that the method of apology felt alkost cartoonishly goofy.

I have no problem with going dark or grey - in fact I usually prefer it. But this scenario is so far out of left field, so cartoonishly evil, that I honestly prefer to pretend this whole happening never took place.

This scenario felt as though it was aiming for a similar feel to 1-01, which introduced the original 4 (non second seeker) factions and even made some tongue in cheek callbacks to that scenario.

But the direct comparison begged here was not flattering. The nuts and bolts were there. Solid mix of combat and roleplay but the roleplay set pieces were truly underwhelming and there really is only so much you can do to spice up low level starfinder combat.

In the end, I cannot see myself running this again or as part of a routine intended to introduce new players to SFS and for that reason I must rate it below average.

This is one of those cases where the plot hook was entirely unrelated to the actual content of the adventure is a way that was pretty disappointing.

I have been so jonesing to see Envar again only for him to...not really be in this. Just weird. But to the content of the ACTUAL adventure we did go on I really liked it. The choices made for the aliens from this one were interesting - picking up on the "prey species" vibe we have seen cropping up in sci-fi and doing a pretty good job with it.

I will say my one and only complaint is that with the influence scene there weren't sharp enough contrasts between the three NPCs which made it difficult to have a truly great scene.

Hmm I wonder what's going on with the drift beacons? Can't be that there is about to be some sort of crisis?

Honestly, I love the very star trek "our heroes are vaulted into a tense situation and have to play mediator" start to the adventure. Its unique and the situation was tense and I think a roleplaying encounter at the start of the scenario is absolutely key in getting people engaged.

From there, there is a lot of nice locale exploration and exposition which I appreciate. I always like when we get to see what, precisely, some of these things that are so important to the lore actually look and function like.

And then the twist ending gives a second or third perspective on what the Data Scourge looks like. All told, just a really fun experience.