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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This scenario has a great mix of roleplaying and combat. It story takes advantage of the history of Taldor as a backdrop and places the adventurers right in the middle of the action. Bring your best roleplaying to the table and hope your dice don't go cold at the wrong time!
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?