A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 5th to 9th level characters (Tiers: 5–6 and 8–9).
Life in Taldor is fraught with peril, especially for the crumbling noble houses of the Taldan countryside. One such house, the Bourtze Family, has fallen on hard times and they've informed the Pathfinder Society that, in exchange for a small sum of money, they'd be willing to part with a treasure trove of lore about Qadira's Grand Campaign, the 300-year invasion of Taldor. On your arrival, things quickly turn for the worse and instead of evaluating the worth of a few scraps of historical paper, you must instead retrieve one of the most dangerous artifacts in the empire.
Written by James F. MacKenzie
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 love these backwater Taldor adventures (Decline of Glory also comes to mind). Crumbling nobility that needs your help to keep its head above the water
This adventure scores very strongly on mood and setting. While not very complicated, the plot holds together well enough.
When we played it the fights felt a bit easy. I recommend playing with the 4 players the adventure was balanced for, rather than the 6 you're allowed to have.
I enjoyed this scenario as a player. There was some investigation, some roleplaying, challenging faction missions that didn't feel too contrived, and some good encounters. I think the encounters would have been very difficult with a weaker party, but we played up and steamrolled everything. I enjoyed the twists and turns as we searched for the villain. The final fight was pretty tricky, even for our party, and the guy got away at the end (disappointing) but we still did what we came to do. I've heard from other players that this scenario was confusing and boring but I don't agree at all.
To add to the above, this is a very well-balanced scenario, with interesting RP and combat. There is a big problem, however, with the first of the fights - the printed tactics are illegal. The creatures cannot do what they are instructed to do. The author of the scenario has written a smashing alternative tactics set which my party absolutely loved - I normally wouldn't advocate departing from printed tactics, but this was just that good. This also requires a lot of work from the GM - expect a lot of unorthodox solutions and some extra homework on creature abilities. It pays off very well, however, for the time invested.
I need to add another five star review.
This is a rich and complicated module with so many great things going for it. I had a blast running this session in a home game that went overtime. Major spoilers ahead.
Pros and Cons:
PROS:
- The first fight is an explosive and horrifying ordeal for the party. In my game, the adventurers allowed both the wounded guards into the Devil’s Fork. The party witch was then cinematically ripped apart by an Annis Hag, and was left bleeding out, saved only by her False Life Spell (teaching a valuable lesson about the power of this spell!) She was saved by the plucky Halfling bard as a magical fog cloud descended and the two party archers struggled in vain against the fog, missing their targets completely. These glass cannons were rendered inert by the hag superior tactics, and one of the rangers was killed outright by the fearful wrath of Rend, before persistence and a revived witch ended the hag threat.
- The layered importance of “Find the True Heir” faction mission works wonderfully. Multiple Pathfinders are initially wary of each other’s faction missions, but once they realise they are all looking for the heir, they were lulled into believing they were working with allies. They scoured the village, dropping inappropriate questions to serving girls, until they forced a confession. Great RPing to be had.
- It’s hard to measure, but this module kind of had it all. It has tricky social situations for RPing. It has epic, challenging combat straight out. It has bizarre icky gonzo threats (what’s that coming out of the lake?) it has villains that you despise (Sabas in my game was snivelly and rude while Gaunt Blackfist was an utter psychopath that the adventurers were thirsty to kill). It ticks so many boxes it gets full marks from me.
CONS:
- There’s so much going on that the potential for overtime play is high. Maybe don’t slot this in for a time limited convention?
- Requires a flexible GM. With the word count, you need to be able to hold the hand of the party through much of the RPing and the discovery of clues. But really, all modules have this issue.
One of the best PFS modules that I have played. Lots of historical background on Taldor, an interesting plot, and challenging combats. If possible, you should allocate extra time because it is likely to run long.
I have a question and am not familiar enough with these 'boards' to know where to post, as my comment actually covers more than just this one scenario.
Question: Why do scenarios, modules often 'railroad' the party into specific things with NO alternatives?
Spoiler:
1. To infiltrate the temple, you have to go rough up an innocent baker and wreck his shop (the people we are trying to infiltrate are with us, watching,and we 'lose the scenario/[no prestige]' "if we do not do as they say".
What about the Paladin in this action? What if my character doesn't WANT to abuse an innocent? Why is a scenario telling me to do that (or I'm not successful), when PFS says my characters 'can't be evil', 'can't coup de grace', etc etc.? This is one-sided! And unfair.
2. One was an opera house. GM told us point blank, "you have to have expensive outfit, or you won't be let in. you have to have no weapons or armor/ If you even TRY to bribe the guards/sneak in/ etc etc etc. (any alternative we came up with)--- you will NOT I REPEAT NOT succeed, you won't get in, this game [scenario] effectively ends".
So then we get in with fancy clothes and no weapons and armor to have the doors slam shut and get ganged up on by hordes of zombie undead and nearly everyone dies. Dropping like flies. Only had 1 wand of curing smuggled in [we were all 1st level or so]; that person went around healing back those who droppped while the others ran around perimeter in circles leading zombies in a chase to give that guy time to reach the dying ones... That SUCKED! And we were told that was only way to get in. Period.
3. RE THIS SCENARIO: "Jester's Fraud"- You have a cursed item that only a 13th level character can combat, that kills permanently, immediately. NO SAVES!!!! Only can be stopped by the LOWEST spell level of 7th; meaning a 13th level Wizard. um- this is Tier 5-9.
Why do you guys do this? I disagree STRONGLY. Very wrong.
This is answered in general comments; the necklace was found at a battle site-> so nobody 'told' us about "some necklace that chokes people'. this seemed just a monetarily punitive action to screw with a character/drain money from that character- for the raised dead, restoration--- since at that level there is NO way a player can combat the item... [sorry- in someone's reply post @ general discussion thread: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2rhle?Why-do-scenarios-railroad-players-into#1
you cannot cut a cursed magic item with adamantine, I dont believe.....
Ah. Well, no. And that is good point. But during any scenario, don't you always drink the 'potion of cure light wounds' at some time?... The DC's for stuff on this were like in the 40's. I had Perception 22, 'naturally'- and BARELY made the roll to follow tracks to where we found this stuff. But my guy is a freak; no one else could come NEAR the 50+ DC needed to find out exactly what this necklace was: I was told (with a 28 result) 'You think it's either wound closure or proof against poison. So since we took nearly an hour and a half on just the FIRST fight, getting our butts handed to us, I figured- hey, why not use this in case it gets nasty again. But then the only way to combat those 'results' (ugly death) is the point I made- on a 5-9 tier scenario, they have an item that only a 13th level caster could POSSIBLY remedy, recover from, whatever. In other words- it is a guaranteed death of someone, PERIOD. Or, if you choose to look at it: a punitive 'more than a quarter of the character's accumulated wealth at 8th level [TOTAL wealth of ALL scenarios ever played!!!!]'- "penalty" to let your character continue to live. NO OTHER RECOURSE. That, to me, was a little harsh I think.
Did you listen to the Tribune when he told you 'those items are CURSED'? Or when the Venture Captain warned you that anything given to the society would likely be dangerous?
