A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 3–7.
Agents of the Pathfinder Society have discovered the location of a back door into their private demiplane that puts the entire realm at risk of plunder and exploitation at the hands of the Aspis Consortium. Rather than close the access point into their adventuring paradise, however, the Decemvirate sends a crack team of Pathfinders to secure the gate for future Society use... at any cost.
Written by Larry Wilhelm.
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 felt like everything prior to the boss fight was kind of lame, but man alive, what a fantastic boss fight. That required a lot of strategy and some seriously hard work. I adored it.
The scenario had an interesting premise, but needed refinement. I was a player (level 4 Sylvan sorcerer in low tier) and haven't read it. I will say that the other players liked it better, but they weren't as totally boned in the final encounter.
1. Our group captured and questioned one of the outside guards, but the scenario had no imformation on what he would know.
2. The puzzle was confusing and needed an illustration/handout to make things clear. It took too much time in an already long scenario.
3. The random tablets in the hallway were another big time waster, but since they were potentially a faction mission, they couldn't be ignored.
4. The final encounter was totally ridiculous.
Final Encounter:
It's bad enough that the party had to wind their way across a number of rickety rope bridges to get to the bad guys who were raining death on us the entire time along with multiple armies of summoned creatures, but when a fireball automatically destroys a bridge, what is the point?
Then you top that off with the BBEG diemsional jump at will makes it a long, frustrating finale to a long, painful module. Our four person table had two people make it past the original blocking monsters (aided by Glitterdust) and two people trapped behind the first bridge.
The fireball seriously damaged those two and one barely avoided falling 100' to his death when the bridge collapsed (And I think the Reflex DC 13 was very generous on the part of the DM.) My tiger evaded the fireball and made a DC 23 Reflex save to scramble onto the rock when the bridge collapsed. It spent the rest of the module fighting three lemures and an imp.
The sorcerer and Samurai (medium armor) had no chance of making the Acrobatics check to leap the 15' gap. If the foe had cast Fireball right off the bat, the party would have been bottled up. I think one character could have made the jump, but that would have been it. And there really was no reason for the BBEG to show himself when he could move freely about the cavern.
And this is at the end of the module when resources have been spent. The wisdom of including Fireball in tier 3-4 is also debatable. I'm not sure of the caster level, but the rolled damamge was 22 points.
Overall, this was a fun and flavorful module. As a player, I was a bit worried going in that this would be an overwhelmingly combat-focused slugfest, but it turns out that the setting is very flavorful, and the puzzles were entertaining.
My only real complaint is that it's a fairly long scenario, and the end battle is complex enough that it will take a *long* time to run. Our group ended up running out of time in our Gen Con slot before reaching the end. If you GM this module, you will need to push your players and keep up the momentum of the game in order to avoid running long, particularly if you have 6 or 7 players.
This module is yet another boring dungeon crawl which recycles statblocks over the course of its fights. There's a puzzle in there, but it's very poorly-described, and needs a rewrite.
I've seen this from both sides of the table -- playing it first, then running it.
The scenario has a straightforward premise, and the early going is unremarkable. Then a fun NPC crops up along the way, and the scenario culminates in one of the most memorable battles I've encountered in PFS.
I like the inclusion of a custom item. However, this particular item is far too expensive for what it does.
Spoiler:
The scenario uses Flip-Mat: Desert, but otherwise relies on custom maps -- which GMs are well advised to draw ahead of time.
I'm scheduled to run this Saturday at our local store, so I would like to snag this as soon as they go for sale. I have never bought a scenario on launch day before, so is there a specific time in the day that scenarios go up at the store I can look for? Thanks!
I wasn't able to get in on this table at Paizocon but I'm thinking about running it. A friend of mine who was able to play absolutely raves about it, saying it was the best PFS game he has ever played period. That's a lot to live up to. Is there any advice anyone has that could help me make this a memorable experience?
I wasn't able to get in on this table at Paizocon but I'm thinking about running it. A friend of mine who was able to play absolutely raves about it, saying it was the best PFS game he has ever played period. That's a lot to live up to. Is there any advice anyone has that could help me make this a memorable experience?
Spoiler:
Make sure you understand the gate mechanism.
Have the final map carefully predrawn/printed.
Make sure you understand all the terrain and lighting effects for the final battle (eg dim light and difficult terrain where appropriate).
Have minis or paper minis for the horde.
Brush up on your energy damage and objects rules - and jumping rules.
If you haven't played a god wizard before, then practice, and read/know casting times, durations.
Not knowing how to get word to the author, I'd just like to comment and say as a new player, this was a fun scenario. However, and I am not saying this is bad, but... Stargate much? Thanks.
I enjoyed playing this, and am looking forward to running it tomorrow.
A heads-up for prospective GMs: there is a mistake in the stat block for the BBEG at the low subtier.
BBEG:
Aglorn Desimere, (only a 5th-level sorcerer at subtier 3-4), is incorrectly show as having Dimensional Steps. This is a class ability he only gets at 8th level.
According to the scenario's author the appropriate correction is to remove this ability from the low subtier stat block (and, therefore, from the listed tactics)
