A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 5th to 9th level characters (Tiers: 5–6 and 8–9).
When a Pathfinder team in the godless nation of Rahadoum disappears, the Pathfinder Society sends the PCs to investigate. Deep beneath the sands of the small village of Wadi al-Hesr, a long imprisoned evil—responsible in part for the destruction of an ancient empire—now stirs and threatens the entire region with a deadly plague. Can the Pathfinders survive a sinister game of cat-and-mouse and escape with their lives?
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.
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I can be very brief with this review: this scenario is a lot of fun. There's a bigger emphasis on puzzles and there's a bit of a weirdness going on, which is something I really appreciate. But it's not forced down your throat if it's not your cup of tea, which is even better. The location feels exotic and enemies seem initially quite dangerous, but sadly never really live up to their potential.
In the end, this is a fun dungeon romp with some really cool elements. The fact that combats aren't that interesting is more to blame on Season 2 in general than on this scenario in particular, I feel. Still, recommend if you want a fun dungeon to run through.
Again I found myself sitting at Magabeus’ table (see the review below). I’m also the player who brought a character with Eerie Sense. I love that feat and thanks to Magabeus, it really made the place come alive and keep us in constant suspense as to what would happen next. I myself ended up being utterly paranoid.
That said, I really enjoyed this scenario. Compared to the first part, this one has aged fairly well. The combat encounters are still a bit on the easy side of the spectrum, but the puzzles and layout were still okay. Mind you, I can see why a few TPK’s have happened here in the past, but I think that the average party will have a way of dealing with the BBEG.
All I can add is that part 2 is better than the first part. I hope this trend continues with the next (and final) part, but I’ll find that out later today. I would recommend the scenario if you’re looking for a creepy dungeon crawl with some puzzles. If you’re purely looking for challenging fights, I’d recommend looking for a different scenario.
I GMed this in the standard campaign at low tier for a six person party.
Starting with a 3 score I adjust that for
+1: What the F is going on!
I managed to have the players at full alert with the things that are happening. It helped that one of the players has the feat Eerie Sense. The party managed to deduce what was going on, but the NPC also figured out what they were doing thanks to spellcraft. Therefore the final showdown was still where it is supposed to happen. Note that the scenario specifically addresses the situation where the PC's confront him earlier, which is a good thing!
+1: It gets explained
Luckily the NPC has a diary in which he has written everything down. This is an important part of the scenario as I can understand that players otherwise would feel left out of information if the GM skips this.
-1: Encounter strength
For a regular party in season 8 this scenario should not be a challenge. All combats where walkovers. I did not roll well and think I did less than 20 damage in total. For people that want to be challenged in combat: don't look at this scenario. I can understand that a certain situation with the BBEG might cause a TPK. However at level 5 all parties should have a way to deal with that situation, even if you did not figure it out during the dungeon.
Before I go on, there was a TPK when I played, so it might colour my opinion of this module somewhat.
Played at the lower tier.
The concept for this story is interesting, but in practice it just isn't very exciting or fun.
There is quite a lot that is known to the GM only - and may never become apparent to the players.
The combats range from being manageable to being unbalanced - one in particular leans heavily on the side of unbalanced.
There is just a few things in this scenario that scream 'cheap' or 'unfair' to me.
I would say play this if you want your characters to have a decent chance of dying.
Dennis, part 3 follows the pattern. Sets up some great possibilities, but in the end it gets lost.
I'm still contemplating a comprehensive review of these three, but it's hard finding the time right now. I've played the first two, GM'd them all at least twice now.
To sum it up to anyone else reading:
I don't enjoy running them unless the players are cocky and wanting to push the limits and aren't interested in a story or role play.
These three are all difficult, but not challenging. All three depend on a single ability (different for all three). If your party can't deal with that ability, you're hosed and it's an extremely difficult mod. If they can deal with it, they're not challenging. In neither case are the encounter interesting.
I will say this though. They are not what I would consider "over powered." They just implement good tactics on well built NPCs and monsters. I want to see more well built NPCs in all tiers of PFS, and I hope the out-cry that elements of these scenarios have received don't jeopardize that.
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Kyle Baird wrote:
Dennis, part 3 follows the pattern. Sets up some great possibilities, but in the end it gets lost.
I am looking forward to trying this scenario. I sorta wish a scenario would kill me :)(not that it is a big deal you just lose some gold.)
I find most pathfinder society modules a little weak on story and difficulty compared to Living Greyhawk. Which surprises me because the adventure paths are very good. I think the biggest limiting factor on the quality of these mods is the size. I would love to see some Adventure paths or other modules produced by paizo converted to pathfinder society.
@Kyle - I think some of the blame for the TPK is in the player's hands, some on the GM, and some on the adventure. If I felt the module was an outright death trap I'd have rated it one star.
Just as a note - there was a TPK in our game, so it would affect my opinion of this module a little, but I played and then read it,
and I can say that I don't think this module is entirely fair.
spoiler:
I mean, DR10/cold iron AND good at level 5? With Greater Invisibility (And therefore a basically permanent miss chance) and 3 attacks a round dealing pretty insane damage (Adding in it's special abilities). It's ridiculous. The 'last boss' of the scenario is the most unfair this about it. The other encounters were manageable (We didn't set off the snakes, but they could be crippling)
Basically I would say - avoid this scenario unless you WANT to kill your characters.
I was also in Ronano's party and it was also my first TPK/character death, and I'd have to agree with him about how unfair it ultimately felt. It was my character's first time dealing with a creature with so many gimmicks.
Spoiler:
DR is nothing new of course, but a double DR plus other shenanigans?
Now I can admit that it was our own fault that we had no answer to our fighter getting blinded, which effectively left us with a 3-person party, but I feel that ultimately it would have made very little difference against the boss monster.
Seeing Greg defend it as being for the sake a fun adventure is a pretty weak excuse for a highly lethal scenario. When asked afterwards how we were best meant to defeat the boss, our GM told us flatly that we just had to be over-prepared, which sadly we were not.
There's nothing fun about a fight where the only solution is being over-prepared.
