A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st to 7th level characters (Tiers: 1–2, 3–4, and 6–7).
You are sent to Aspis Consortium-infested Bloodcove to gather supplies for a nearly doomed Pathfinder mission nearby. Disguised as ordinary merchants, you have little time to gather what you need and get out before the Consortium discovers and destroys you.
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 Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
Product Availability
Fulfilled immediately.
Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at
store@paizo.com.
An adventure in an unfriendly town which forces players to role-play as well as combat. A nice mechanic that simulates how much "heat" they are attracting works well and contributes to the atmosphere.
Some investigation and negotiation as well as measured violence required to pull together several different threads (in any order) to successfully complete the mission. A couple of bar scenes should leave most players feeling right at home ;-)
Not difficult to prep or run and gives a sandbox feel with atmosphere. A good beginner GM scenario.
Not one for you if you just want to cause mayhem. Other than that a nicely rounded scenario.
Point of view: Player and GM who prepped but didn't run for players.
I agree with other reviewers that the sandbox part of it lacked what I think would make this a "5 star" dynamic reaction. Instead of just being able to do each encounter that the PC's desire. Have some kind of dynamic shift based on what order they did them. That would make this great
The combats were average, and only became interesting when a GM used an unorthodox tactic, but otherwise would be forgettable.
The roleplay points were a huge saving grace to this encounter. I really enjoyed them.
Bloodcove has some decent roleplay in it, but the combat encounters are very average. This is a 3 star scenario with an average GM, and a 4 star with a good GM that can really bring it to life.
The sandbox nature of this scenario is vastly overestimated; to me it was the same as picking door number 1, 2, or 3. The reason it wasn’t completely sandbox is that you just want to get in and get out of Bloodcove. In real life, we have only 5 hours to finish the scenario. In the game, roaming around the city attracts unwanted attention. So it's not sandbox at all, you go from point A, to B, to C.
I wish the scenario emphasized the fact that the PCs are likely not Mwangi (black) and they don't speak Polygot. That makes things much more challenging and allows for interesting situations (and humor). More importantly, it allows PCs with language, disguise, and illusion spells to shine.
The awareness system (which is really a 4E skill challenge) was interesting and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again in the future.
I thought many of the combat encounters were too easy and could have been removed. I was especially disappointed with the lack of creativity in one encounter in particular
”House Cartahegn”:
The encounter with the ants was disappointing, trivial, and a waste of time. To stop House Cartahegn, you would need to kill dozens of mercenaries. As a player I expected a LOT of ants, something really challenging, or at least someone to come up with a really interesting plan to get the poison into the tunnel. I think we killed the ants in 1 round.
I’d rather they made the encounter at Senzer’s optional and made the ant encounter interesting. See the thread for what I did and for how messed up the CR system is concerning ants. Doing this however makes the scenario too long.
Maybe the best option is to handwave either the ant or Senzer encounter, so you can focus on roleplaying and the more interesting encounters with Lura and Xeanja.
Length: Very long. When I played it we took 4.5 hours, when I GMed it took 5.5 hours. Both times the optional encounter wasn’t used. You really have to move this scenario along.
Sweet Spot: From what I can tell, this scenario plays well at all subtiers. Perhaps the 6-7 subtier is too trivial, since the encounters don't seem to be scaled well for this subtier (and it wouldn't make sense to have level 7 "thugs" as well).
Experience: Player and GM subtier 3-4.
Entertainment: Depends heavily on the GM and could be much lower. (8/10)
Roleplay: Using a fake Jamaican accent all session long can be fun. There are good opportunities to roleplay, almost every encounter. (8/10)
Combat/Challenges: Too many easy filler encounters. Lura/Xeanja can be good. (7/10)
Uniqueness: It's something different. (8/10)
Faction Missions: I liked the Osirian mission, but the rest are average. If you get lucky, you'll get Cheliax and Andoran in the same party, but that's unlikely. (7/10)
Overall: This scenario is somewhere between 3 and 4 stars, a solid 7 out of 10. (7/10)
This scenario holds much of those things I hope for. An open sandbox with lots of elements you can use, logical sidemissions and intriguing encounters. The possibility of actually screwing up if you're stupid is a reality which heightens the sense of danger.
This scenario was creative and challenging with opportunities to test roleplaying, creative skill and equipment use, and combat tactics.
Spoiler:
The big encounter in the bar with people making bets on a battle between summoned creatures in an aquarium was fantastic! I am constantly trying to come up with creative activities for bars in my own game and have to congratulate Crystal for coming up with something truly novel that I will definitely imitate in some form in my own scenarios.
Running this adventure in five minutes here at Gen Con. You need flip mat water front tavern.
You will also want map pack inns, cities, waterfront, and jungle.
OMG. In addition to being one of the funniest beings on this planet, Crystal Frasier can write scenarios. Good ones. "Sandbox in Mwangi with APG content and Lizards named Omb" good.
Paizo ! Immediately redirect Crystal to scenario writing duty ! Halve the food rations ! Triple the workload ! Threaten to have Jason B eat an alive octopus in the middle of Paizo office unless more Crystal modules are written ! And if all else fails, RELEASE THE KRAKEN !
