A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st to 5th level characters (Tiers: 1–2, 4–5).
When Pathfinder Colm Safan entered the Nethys-linked heart of the fabled dungeon known as the Ravenous Sphinx, the Pathfinder Society expected to solve one of Osirion's greatest riddles. Months passed with no word from Safan, and you and your fellow Pathfinders find yourselves dispatched into the desolate wastes of Osirion's notorious Parched Dunes to find the sphinx, find Safan, and uncover the mystery he sought. With a band of cloaked riders on your trail and a trap-filled dungeon ahead, will you solve the third riddle before time runs out?
Written by Clinton J. Boomer
This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can easily be adapted for use with any world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the 3.5 edition of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game.
This scenario was retired from Pathfinder Society Organized Play on November 15, 2010. After November 15, 2010, it will no longer be legal for Pathfinder Society Organized Play and will no longer be available in the Pathfinder Society Organized Play reporting system.
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I have read this scenario and considered it to sure work awesome... until I ran it.
Some of the rooms are confusing to describe to the players, albeit not nearly half as bad as the town in "Hydra Fang".
What kind of broke this adventure for me were two separate issues:
The first would be the already mentioned "Video-gamism"-feeling.
The second issue I had was one of suspension of disbelief: The puzzles were too simple. Perhaps my players and I are total nerds, but I really thought that any experienced treasure hunters who failed to solve them must have been utter idiots.
I am so longing for adventures with REALLY hard puzzles in some future release(at least as a web-enhancement or something like that). My players long to use their brains and this adventure, in spite of its name, unfortunately fails to provide that.
This scenario started out with great promise, but quickly turned into a trap ladden tomb that seemed to lose steam as the adventure progressed.
The chambers were different and unique, but the traps did not require a rogue. Will someone please write an scenario that shows the necessity of a rogue? My party just did it the old fashioned way. They took it on the chin.
The group took a lot of damage, but with a cleric and a druid it did not matter much. The adventure threatened the party, and they were nervous, which is great.
Still, the descriptions of the rooms and the mechanics of the rooms should be TOGETHER. I found it annoying and unnecessary to flip back and forth throughout the module for each room.
Combat 4 stars
Enjoyment 4 stars
Playability 1 star
(A better layout would have been greatly appreciated.)
AWESOME! I played this adventure Genconoz 2009 with a party of 4 tier 1-2. The party consisted of a 2 rangers, a fighter and a sorcerer. Some how we managed to survive!
This is a thinking adventure. If you want to be challenged than this is the adventure for you. I would not recommend this adventure for players new or inexperience to PFRPG/D&D.
I ran this one at a convention. On paper the adventure does actually sound pretty cool, but in execution, several of the room descriptions are confusing, with key parts of the descriptions in two different parts of the adventure.
On top of that, while it seems like the forshadowing chase scene in the beginning will be a nice way to add some depth, without any follow up, my players really felt that it was just thrown in so that the whole thing wouldn't be a dungeon crawl, especially since there was no follow up.
Finally, many of my players were immediately making fun of the "video gamisms" that were part of the scenario, which overshadowed any "Indy" feel that the traps had.
In the end, when I read through it, these things didn't jump out at me, but in practice, I can see where problems arise in this.
I just didn't run this scenario, I only played as a PC but it was a great one. The build-up to the dungeon dive was epic, with a caravan journey and desert bandits and the dungeon itself didn't disappoint.
Spoiler:
I remember the first hallway of the Ravenous Sphinx having a ludicrous amount of traps. At some point I exclaimed, "Is there a trap every 10 feet here?!". There was. Yet somehow we persevered and pushed onward. Encountering the Ravenous Sphinx's creator in spirit form and having him egg us on to complete the tasks at hand or taunt us for our failings in the latest test we passed. The riddles for each test were cleverly written so that they seem exciting and cryptic yet younger players or those who don't excel at solving puzzles can usually take them quite literally to proceed.
Now for some inconsistencies/issues with the scenario. It was somewhat odd that a famed Pathfinder should study the Ravenous Sphinx for ten years and arrive whole at its entrance, only to be impaled by the first trap he encounters. If one with extensive early knowledge about the structure and its creator is killed the first moment he enters, what chance should a group of level-1 adventurers such as us have of prevailing? There were a few minor issues with the three tests. In the "Shifting Crucible of the Evoker", I felt that the Viper was shoehorned in to add another encounter, I don't think that room needed a combat encounter, especially one that straightforward. In the "Bloody Chains of the Necromancer" room, if our cleric wouldn't have succeeded landing a Channel Energy on the Shadow, I don't know if we would have made it through. It's supposed to take 8 rounds to pull the Shadow's chain taut and drag him back to the fountain in the center of the room. In said 8 rounds, a flying incorporeal creature who moves at high speeds and causes heavy Strength drain can cause no end of trouble to a group of mostly melee attackers. The zombies in the room felt quite pointless, I'm sure the creative genius of Clinton Boomer could have devised something more unique and cunning than them.
In conclusion, although The Third Riddle had a few minor setbacks, they were mostly very technical. The plot, background, NPCs, encounters, and puzzles were well thought out and designed and very enjoyable to play through. I highly recommend this Scenario.
Thank you ahead of time for a great Friday night's entertainment. The PDF is downloaded; the popcorn's buttered; and I'm curled up with my laptop, ready for some Boomer brilliance.
