Pathfinder Adventure Path #28: The Infernal Syndrome (Council of Thieves 4 of 6) (PFRPG)

I'll say this on the outset: this rating might be unfair to this module. As a standalone dungeon to run through, there's a lot to recommend. I liked the sense of urgency that permeates the story. The set pieces at the beginning to a good job of setting the stage for a dungeon that is a ticking time clock. The book is a cross between a dungeon crawl and a disaster movie, where you have to solve the problem before the whole thing blows. And it's a fun enough dungeon overall.

However, this is a lot of big dungeons in a row from the AP. They ended Book 2 with a long dungeon crawl. The last half of Book 3 was one long dungeon. And now about 80% of this book is a dungeon crawl. I was pretty bored with long dungeons by the time I got to this one.

On its own, this volume is probably better than the 2-2.5 stars I'm giving it. But in the context of the AP, it's not the what the story needed at the time.

The premise of this adventure is straightforward. The energy source of major Arvanxi's mansion is an imprisoned pit fiend. An accident in the power plant's engine collapsed the whole building and might allow the demon to break loose. The PCs need to enter the dungeon below the ruins of the mansion and make sure the danger is contained.

I believe the intention of the authors was to create an atmosphere similar to an old nuclear plant about to explode. The module is hit and miss for me. Even though the idea is not terrible, the execution seems a bit rushed. The dungeon map doesn't quite make sense for a nuclear-ish plant and the motivations are sloppy to say the least. This one didn't quite make it for my taste.

Overall, a pretty average module. I wouldn't run it as is but I'd pick up a few ideas to add to my own campaign or enhance another one. The idea of the nuclear plant about to explode is really neat, though, so fixing the adventure is very tempting. The most obvious fix would be to get rid of the videogame section in-between the energy plant section and the final room. If you do this, you shorten the module for sure but then if you let the PCs start at a higher level, you can time it so that they fight the pit fiend with the right level. This might be a good place to put a mythic tier in your campaign, for instance. In any case, you probably will need to fix the motivation part of the adventure. As written, it's extremely weak.

My rating: 2 stars. I like the idea but the execution is lacking. This is one to skip.

Read my whole review here

Not a well-rounded adventure. Admittedly, it was an epic dungeon with some very fun elements, but the flow of the book was a little awkward and there wasn't much room for decision-making. Also, there is no way to do the whole thing without resting, and given that the whole point of the adventure is the ticking-clock, it was awkward for the players to have to sit and wait 8-hours or leave mid-action to replenish their resources and continue.

That having been said, it was fun because the encounters were memorable. The cinematic beginning to the book was also one of my favorite Council moments. Play it up for drama, because it's worth it!

This adventure path proved quite all right and I had a fun time GMing it, and my players also liked it. We did however find some areas of the path that was annoying.

1) The side quests are lacking. They are presented as something that happens after the main plot starts, but my players went straight to the dungeon so the side quests seemed quite strange to include as no one presented them with these quests. This could be done much better than I did it, and I find that a way should have been included in the adventure path.

2) The entire adventure is based on one place, so it feels like one long dungeon, something that can be good if done right. You need some exploration, some social encounters and some awesome fights along with some good resting opportunities. While it is not without these, there is little exploring and far too many of the encounters cannot be avoided, and those that can are a shame to waste. The dungeons is build much like: encounter -> encounter -> encounter -> encounter which makes some of the encounters seem quite dull and repetitive. I especially think of some of the later encounters where it feels like each room have a guardian you need to defeat and there is no other way to get to the end goal without going that way. All the optional encounters are hidden with an extremely high DC on the search check and doing those encounters only award xp and loot (I would have liked shortcuts to ignore encounters). The dungeon has a “long” rather than “big” feel to it, as there is little chance of getting lost and taking encounters in a random order.

3) There was a problem with the expected level progression as it was expected that the players would be level 8 before entering the dungeon. This was however not the case in my run, but it sorted itself out in the end. It might have resulted in some of the 4 deaths and two almost worse than death for the party, but that was alright.

4) I would however have enjoyed that the adventure path had included some more optional stuff, like the side quests from bastards 1 of 6 CoT where they included some random do it yourself side quests as those they did where poorly implemented.

5) Some of the encounters seemed almost too lethal and was placed poorly at a point of no return. In one of the late encounters two players were taken out without any options to come back unless the players left the dungeon. Luckily we found a solution, but having to leave the dungeon for the 4th time right before the big climax robbed it of some of its urgency and awesomeness.

6) Might not feel like the logical step from finding an item that can end the threat of shadow beasts. A little Monty Python with “and now for something completely different”
Now for the good things, because naturally there where good as well.

1) The social encounters -> awesome. In one encounter the players where all scared enough that our good cleric toasted with devils, and the “human female” dragon disciple ate a virgins hart just to please them. In another, they all ended up feeling abused (in the good way) by a powerful being they did not dear attack but had to deal with.

2) The reoccurring villains - > awesome. One of these, they ended up fighting twice, but being attacked by 8ish times, and they see him as a constant treat. They have yet to kill him and now fear going out at night (to some extend).

3) Some of the fights where memorable like when the dragon disciple where kicked into a pool of boiling gold. The one where the two of the players are now forced to use a new favorite awful improvised weapon instead of the awesome weapons they used feats to maximize. Sadly the crossbowman did not get this awesome item. The final encounter was memorable to but might have been a little too easy for a group of 8th level guys, and mine are far from optimized.

4) Cool settings – the dungeon had some memorable places such as the hall of mirrors and some of the environmental traps where loads of fun. Everyone thought it was awesome when they tried to run down a flaming hall and I pulled out the dice to determine where explosions happened. Another was when the first fire resistance guy walked through a room that looked suspiciously explosive, nothing happened and he yelled back, Don’t worry, its safe. Two of the players then walk into the room and then imidiatly the whole room blew up. Good fun was had.

To finish it up, worth a run, but so far the worst of the CoT adventure path, and after this long dungeon, we are looking forward to some wilderness fun in the next one.