Pathfinder Society Scenario #15: The Asmodeus Mirage (OGL) PDF (Retired)

I wish to add my input to Chad's. I played at the same table and we were expecting a blood bath. We prepared accordingly. We spoke to everyone who didn't immediately try to bash us to paste (and we were surprised to find such denizens weren't all that rare), used our strengths to counter or neutralize those of our enemies, and found good success on this adventure. I wish to reiterate that we ONLY found good success BECAUSE we prepared and used our collective experience as players. This is NOT a suitable mod for the inexperienced. A poor table mix could cause problems as well. Play, but play with caution.

Most of the Pathfinder Society scenarios I've played to date have not needed extraordinary measures to complete. Having been warned of its difficulty, our group listened to the material, took appropriate precautions, and used coherent tactics. We did very well at the highest tier (at a table with 2 bards no less). This will be difficult for pick-up style convention games with players that are unfamiliar with each other.

I would like to state that I only gave this scenario a 1 because there is no 0 star option.

I played this mod this last Saturday and a few things that happened to me and my friends that played.

1) The fighter/rogue with nearly 24 AC (normally) almost got killed in the first encounter.
2) The ulfen fighter was inches away from being slain due to the last encounter.
3) Our ranger/rogue/druid buddy got hit really hard a few times and had his little bear cub companion turned into a rug in the last encounter.
4) My sorcerer nearly died twice, once in one of the encounters where we got swarmed by the critters shown on the cover, and the guardian of the crystal skeleton.

If you are a person with a good heart and don't want what could end with a near or full TPK...never run this mod. If however you are sadistic, cruel, and love making players squirm then feel free to run this mod.

Apologies to Christopher Self. This is the worst PFS scenario I’ve played. It makes almost no sense. The encounters are a pushover at the low tier and rapidly ramp up at the higher tiers. Opportunities for interesting environmental effects in the desert are missed. It encompasses too many combats to come near to finishing in four hours. Creatures with immunities like hardness, DR and fast healing cause almost every fight to drag on and eat up precious time. There’s no plot, there’s very little role-play and it amounts to the same thing in the end. I played this and then ran it once and I don’t look forward to doing it again. The maps were very hard to draw because there were scant guidelines given. Campaign world flavor was absent, this could have been set in any campaign. Faction missions were forgettable. The only positive thing I can say is that the author’s next submission has to be an improvement over The Asmodeus Mirage.

I played this adventure at tier 3-4 with my 4th level ranger. It perfectly suited my dunewalker character as well as my spell selection. :)

I actually picked this adventure as a filler to end my GenconOz 2009 experience but I was really surprised. There is a real threat that the party will be trapped in the mirage. The hot sun and heat does strange things to travellers and it is hard to believe that you can finish this adventure with a tribe of lost gnolls as your prize.

The travelling is very confusing but is designed to be as it is part of the challenge. This is not a good adventures for inexperienced players and demands respect... it has a dragon in it. :)