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Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-21: The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment (PFRPG) PDF

4.50/5 (based on 41 ratings)
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-21: The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment (PFRPG) PDF

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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–5.

In order to learn about the esoteric faith of the Empyreal Lord Korada, the PCs are sent by the Pathfinder Society to explore an abandoned aasimar temple to the benevolent deity. But what they find there is anything but an opportunity for peaceful reflection and enlightenment.

Written by Ron Lundeen.

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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4.50/5 (based on 41 ratings)

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Player perspective: simply awful

1/5 —

I played last night in the 1-2 tier, and was so either bored or alternately frustrated that I'm taking the time to write a review. I originally typed a lengthy review which got "eaten", so I'll settle for this adventure is god-awful terrible for most players.

It's boring, gimmicky, and has very little to find in what's supposedly an "investigation" sandbox adventure. We all survived - which apparently is an abnormality, because unless you have a paladin in your party or are able to somehow solve one of the particular mysteries (see: gimmicky) the BBG is pretty much impossible to kill at this tier. The only saving grace to this is that you don't actually have to do so to complete the mission, but many players won't be able to complete their Faction mission.

The GM of my table, and all the other GMs, were continually exclaiming how wonderful the scenario is and how much they love it and it's the best scenario for PFS ever. If that's the case I'm done with PFS because I absolutely couldn't stand it and the only reason I didn't walk out on the table after three hours was because I didn't want leave the other players with even less of a chance of successfully completing it.

Outstanding scenario - more of this, please!

5/5 —

I played through this scenario a week ago at a convention, and I must say it was without any doubt the best PFS scenario I've played so far. For reference, I played it at tier 1-2.

What I liked about this scenario is how open it is for the players. There's no railroading, and players can spend most of their time leading the investigation about the temple the way they wish. I deeply appreciated this, as well as the roleplaying experience that is available here. Less encounters also mean more time to do that.

Addendum after GMing this scenario: The heresy points mechanics were interesting as well.

The only (very minor) disappointment I've had concerned my faction mission (Grand Lodge), which was nothing more than an incentive to explore the temple further - which we would have done anyway.

As a conclusion, I'd like to convey my thanks to Mr. Ron Lundeen, and say that more scenarios like this one would be most welcome.

Story: 4/5
Roleplay: 5/5
Encounters: 3/5
Mechanics: 5/5

Total: 5/5

Brilliantly subversive

5/5 —

This is one for my collection of favorite scenarios. Creepy and mysterious, the scenario evokes a sort of paranoia that few PFS experiences can achieve. This is a rather taxing scenario on the GM, though, as certain events and encounters can leave players confused and angry at getting punished for no apparent reason, unless they are explained properly.

A few GM tips:

Spoiler:
1) I recommend playing nice with the haunt in the kitchen. It's really there to scare players, not to kill them. Give the team multiple turns to try to prevent their teammate from killing them. Go overboard with description, talk in a hurried and hushed tone...really play it up.

2) Roleplay a lot with the characters before the haunt is discovered, or any of the subversion. It makes it all the more surprising when bad things happen. Remember, you can put almost all of the characters in the dining room for dinner at the start of the scenario - my groups have both made a beeline for that room, too.

3) Prepare yourself well for the final fight and stick to the tactics. The final fight can be brutal if you depart from them - going all out with the final boss will result in a TPK, even with a well-optimized party. Remember, these tactics are figured into the difficulty level of the scenario and its appropriateness for the level of character playing them.

1/5 —

Player Review (lower tier)

Let me start by saying this one's intro sounded so great. Probably my most disliked scenario yet. The DM suggested mechanic was terrible. It left our entire group not understanding at all what the heck was going on the entire game. This is the first scenario we have rested multiple times in to just be able to move along, and that is not counting the overly brutal BBEG fight or 1 other that nearly TPKd that party before we could really even act.

It has all kinds of great story and flavor, for the DM, but players just dont get to see most of it, which at least for our group led to the DM having a blast and everyone else, not. Some of the faction missions where very wonky, and it kind of felt like some where just handed to you on a plate while others required a Nat 20 on a one time only roll.

Spoiler:
In the end, I think everyone was down except me (Cleric) with no more healing left (and I guess we misundersstood NEA, so most of the damage we did from my Channeling every single round didn't actually happen), and the NPC guards came to save us. This is after we devised a (what should have been) great plan to finally set up and corner the BBEG away from it's allies.

delightful

3/5 —

This is an absolutely fantastic scenario; one of my favorites so far. It's slow-building, and roleplay intensive, which can turn off a lot of Society players, but this is just FUN. The absolute confusion, especially if characters don't have certain knowledges, is just a treat. The final fight is horribly gruesome, and brutally demoralizing--everything I could want in a BBEG.

... of course, I'm speaking as a GM. As a player I probably would have hated it. ;p

Edit 6/16/14: I ran this at high tier this weekend and WHAT is going on ON with that crypt encounter? Who called that a CR3? That's insane! If that's a known issue, it needs to be fixed in the download, not just posted somewhere that people aren't going to see it. I have to adjust my rating from 5 stars to 3 because of how blatantly awful that is.

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Announced! Cover image is a mockup.
Lantern Lodge

Curious... Is this in the Tian Xia Region ?
Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Sort of. The temple is of Tianjing origin, but beyond that I don't want to give anything away.

Now available!

Congrats Ron!
Larcifer wrote:
Congrats Ron!

Thanks, Larry! I'm excited about this adventure. Some people remarked that my ” Tide of Twilight” was a bit linear in the combats and light on the roleplay/investigation. This adventure is sort of the opposite of that.

Lantern Lodge

Just ran this for a group of five the other day and had a few questions if you're willing to answer them.

Spoilers within!:

1) When it comes to how the Heresy Points act during the encounter with Dakang, can I get some clarification on that. That one description stated 'for every Heresy Point a PC has, he must reroll twice.' That doesn't mean that if one of the PCs participated in all four heretical practices, he has to reroll the attack 8 times in the first round? The paragraph does mention 'at the beginning of combat' so does that just mean for the first round or what? I modified it during playthrough because I was slightly confused by it, and I put each Heresy representing a different trait. Herey #1 (as I'm calling it) applied to Attacks, #2 to saves, and so on. Anyways, what was your original intention with that?

Secondly, I want to compliment you on the scenario. I absolutely and 100% loved it, but being a more heavy roleplay scenario, it really pushes the boundaries of the time standards that PFS has, and as such, might easily be ran by less experienced folk. Hopefully not, but its a possibility and I just wanted to throw that out there, so people now.

Other than those two quirks, I want to compliment you one last time on an outstanding experience - for both my players and for me as GM.
Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
4 people marked this as a favorite.
Severed Ronin wrote:

Just ran this for a group of five the other day and had a few questions if you're willing to answer them.

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:

Let's assume Valeros, a fighter PC, has 3 Heresy Points. In the final conflict with Dakang, Valeros would need to roll twice on his first 3 d20 rolls of the encounter.

  • In round 1, he charges Dakang, and thus only gets a single attack, He rolls two d20s and takes the lower of the two rolls, to which he adds his normal attack bonus. This accounts for 1 of the 3 Heresy Points.
  • When Dakang's turn comes up, he channels negative energy, requiring Valeros to make a Will save. Again, he rolls two d20s and takes the lower of the two results. This is Heresy Point number 2.
  • On the next round, Valeros makes a full attack with two weapons. Since he's already used 2 of his 3 Heresy Points, only his first attack in the round requires two rolls. So with his main hand, he rolls twice and takes the lesser of the two results, then rolls his off-hand attack normally. Now he's used up all 3 of his Heresy Points.
  • All remaining d20 rolls during the encounter are handled normally, with only a single roll.
Lantern Lodge

Without quoting a thousand spoilers, I'll simply say thank you for te clarification. I feel more confidant running it this next time.

When presenting evidence to the guards of the corruption, does the DC drop by a certain amount per piece of evidence presented?

I'm running this tomorrow and going to go with a +4 bonus per piece. If they gather everything, it should be a gimmie.
Lantern Lodge
Wraithcannon wrote:

When presenting evidence to the guards of the corruption, does the DC drop by a certain amount per piece of evidence presented?

I'm running this tomorrow and going to go with a +4 bonus per piece. If they gather everything, it should be a gimmie.

When I ran it, I gave everyone a +2 bonus per piece.

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
2 people marked this as a favorite.

It should be a +4 bonus. This detail got lost in development, and is on my todo list to get edited back into the PDF.
Lantern Lodge

Thank you for clarification, Mark. Appreciated.

What terrain type is Temple? Forest, Urban, other?
Liberty's Edge

Demi-plane? just ran this and dont think any terrain types fit. It is another plane.

Is there a reason, beyond what looks like an error, that some encounter areas have CR differences in the main entry and the subtier entries that do not match?

CR Issue?:

A5. Kitchen (CR 1 or CR 4)
Subtier 1–2 (CR 3)
Subtier 4–5 (CR 6)

A13. Garden (CR 3 or CR 6)
Subtier 1–2 (CR 2)
Subtier 4–5 (CR 6)

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Because sometimes we change how hard things are in development and the changes don't get implemented everywhere and then slip through editing. Luckily, I have a small adjustment I need to make to one of the encounters in this document anyway, and can adjust these when I do that. It should be sometime next week after PaizoCon's over that I have a chance to get those implemented.

I am wounded to see my first less-than-five-star review. Wounded, I say!

Seriously, though, I'm very pleased to see this adventure received so well!

Faction Mission Question:
Can I assume the Brass Scales weigh more than 5 lbs? Or do you want a simple Mage Hand to be able to get them?
Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Spoiler:
They can weigh less than 5 lbs. if a player comes up with the creative solution of using magic to retrieve them instead of Escape Artist. Given that the party has to survive a pretty tough battle to get access to them in the first place, I think that allowing this sort of use of a class ability in place of a skill check is fine.

This scenario sounds interesting. I'm not going to read the spoilers, but I will be participating in this module here soon. It's funny because this involves exploring an Aasimar temple (as it said in the description), and Albireo Renos, my Aasimar Cleric, should feel right at home lol. And just to clarify, at Genghis Con earlier this year, I won a boon sheet that allowed me to create an Aasimar ^^. Either way, Albireo should be just fine. It'll definately be interesting. Can't wait! =)

-Patrick.

I'm having some trouble with the big picture.

Spoiler:
The people in the tapestry - how did they get here? The stated reason seems to be that they wandered here from other sites within the tapestry. So Hao Jin put things in her tapestry that contained living people? That sounds - capital E - Evil.

And Hao Jin disappeared 300 years ago? Wouldn't the tapestry be crawling with multiple generations of people at this point? Not the temple itself - i see how the population would stay in control there - put the countryside should be thick with people at this point.

Has anyone come up with descriptions on how the other folks got there? That seems like the first thing players would ask.

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
1 person marked this as a favorite.
DMFTodd wrote:

I'm having some trouble with the big picture.

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
Hao Jin rarely intended to move people unwillingly into her realm, at least not when she wasn't collecting creatures specifically. In this case, Dakang was rooting around in the dirt in a battlefield she collected; the inhabitants in the Wonders in the Weave series were accidentally collected when the cave network they lived in was brought along with an old ruin adjacent to it; the inhabitants of Round Mountain were brought along when she pulled a whole sphere of earth from the Darklands into the tapestry to seal off invasion tunnels from below and save a nation under attack. Where the specific folks who appear in this adventure came from isn't defined, but when you're collecting whole ruined cities, ancient temples, and geographical wonders from across the world, there are likely to be a l few people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And whether or not this fact would be considered evil, Hao Jin was certainly not good-aligned. She was, after all, a devout follower of Abadar.

One more question:

Spoiler:
Is Dakang supposed to have an unholy symbol hanging on his neck (which the players fond of doing so will try to sunder) or does he need one at all to channel and cast spells?.
Grand Lodge

I've seen this run twice, and both times the players have been confused for the reasons DMFTodd mentioned.

Spoiler:
One gets the impression that the world of the tapestry should be deserted save for a few other explorers. Being greeted at the door of the temple and finding that it was in use was confusing. My table assumed it was some sort of time shift, while another table thought it to be phantasms or some other type of sinister illusion. In both cases the adventure slowed to a crawl because the players were afraid to trust anyone.
Grand Lodge
Zathow wrote:

One more question:

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
Since he wears it painted on his face, I say no.
Grand Lodge

It wont let me leave a review but this is a fantastic PFS module. Highly recommended.

I know this is four years late but I have to say in response to Radiostorm:

I played through this module at SCARAB many years ago and had a blast, and as you mentioned, we did slow to somewhat of a crawl! The GM role played the whole scenario perfectly though. Looking back, because of the expectation of finding nothing, our characters where very wary. This lead to hilarity and unspeakable dread. It reminded me of a mix of Scooby-Doo, Benny Hill and The Ring. Which may not sounds great to some, but believe me, we could not stop laughing at the absurdity that was fear the entire scenario!

I mean come on, when has the PFS ever sent Pathfinders to a safe "abandoned" local? :-)
Grand Lodge

Pg. 8 - Suicide compulsion haunts

Both of these haunts describe the weapon used as a jagged length of wood. Should this be considered an improvised weapon? This won't matter on the coup de grace attempt, but when attacking someone trying to prevent the suicide attempt, an attack roll would be made.
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