Pathfinder Society Special: Race for the Runecarved Key (PFRPG) PDF

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A Pathfinder Society Special designed for levels 1-12+

An ancient Thassilonian artifact has been unearthed in Magnimar and is to be auctioned off by the city government. In order to maintain good relations with those in power in the City of Monuments, the Pathfinder Society must obtain the relic without simply stealing it, although employing any other means necessary. It falls to the PCs to infiltrate the auction, sabotage the other bidders' efforts, and call in favors from those in the Society's debt to ensure the Runecarved Key (and the secrets it unlocks) belongs to the Pathfinders when the adventure draws to a close.

Written by Kyle Baird and Tim Hitchcock.

Note: Race for the Runecarved Key is designed for play in the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. It may be run anywhere by anyone, as long as there are 4 tables playing the scenario simultaneously and are in contact with each other. To inquire about access to this scenario, refer to the Organized Play Convention Support Policy.

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Breaks the Mold of Interactive Specials

4/5

NO SPOILERS

Race for the Runecarved Key is one of those scenarios I really wish I had been able to play at a convention. Normally, I'm perfectly happy with play-by-post, but Race for the Runecarved Key is clearly designed as a big live event--it features props, actors (real or conscripted amateurs) to depict major NPCs, a competitive environment, call-outs to individual players for particular achievements, and more. As one of the very early multi-table interactive specials, the scenario definitely doesn't have the more formulaic template that Paizo later adopted for Pathfinder and Starfinder. It's not perfect by any means--characters of good alignment in particular may find it problematic--but it's definitely fun and worth playing.

SPOILERS!:

Unlike modern specials, Race for the Runecarved Key doesn't have any mustering activities. It just starts with a main briefing once all the players are seated. The scenario takes place in and around Magnimar, as Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch explains that the Pathfinders have been assembled to help the Society obtain an intriguing artifact at a public auction. It seems that, while dredging stone in the harbor, laborers for the city's Golemworks discovered what looks like a giant key etched with ancient Thassilonian runes. The city has decided to auction it off, and Heidmarch believes that purchasing it would help the city accept the relatively-new Pathfinder lodge and, of course, potentially pave the way to some amazing discoveries. Heidmarch, however, doesn't intend to play fair at the auction. She wants the Pathfinders to find out everything they can about potential bidders and then undermine them so that the Society's bid is more likely to succeed--and she says she'll disavow knowledge of their activities if they get caught!

Act One takes place at a pre-auction gala hosted at the Cathedral of Abadar (which is running the auction). The PCs are charged with learning the identities of potential bidders, how serious they are about bidding, and what resources they have at their disposal. Through skill checks, PCs can try to peek at the guest ledger (with a limited real-time duration to look at it depending on how high the roll is!) and then scope out the crowd to see who the serious competitors might be. There's a lot of role-playing potential in this part of the scenario as the PCs interact with various NPCs, and the scenario gives the GM plenty to work with in terms of each NPC's motivations and personality. I wish there had been artwork for each of the major NPCs, as I find that always makes these "chat to five NPCs in quick succession" sections of an adventure run much more smoothly. (our group split up to talk to different NPCs simultaneously, which probably did not make life easy on the GM--especially with play-by-post) I liked that one of the NPCs, an agent of the Aspis Consortium, tries to insult the PCs and provoke them to violence so they get kicked out--I imagine that wouldn't be too hard for some characters. The scenario makes excellent use of setting lore by tying many of the NPCs to established Magnimar organisations and institutions. As an aside, one of the fun things that is supposed to happen in a live running of the special is the reveal of a giant prop key--I don't know how such a thing was made, but it's certainly a fun idea.

Act Two is one of the problem sections of the scenario. Having realised that the Aspis Consortium plans to bid, Heidmarch instructs the Pathfinders to effectively knock them out before the auction even starts by raiding a caravan that is transporting their funds into the city. In other words, the PCs are essentially asked to become highwaymen. The fact that this is not only illegal but likely to lead to the death of hired (and neutrally-aligned) mercenary caravan guards and potentially even Varisian wagon drivers makes it, to me, a clearly evil act. I know in later seasons that scenarios sometimes go too far in the *other* direction of making Pathfinders into "Golarion world police", but a better balance has to be struck. Maybe if it had been characterised as a non-lethal heist of clearly ill-gotten gold, the gist of the premise could have been maintained. Anyway, I had my character sit out this part of the scenario for alignment reasons.

Act Three gives the players a lot of options and takes up the bulk of the special. Each table is offered one of eight missions to complete to try to disrupt other potential bidders (and if they finish the mission with time left, they can go on to another one). For example, they might try to trick a superstitious bidder into thinking he's cursed so he runs away, impersonate debt collectors so another potential bidder turns over his money, blackmail an aristocrat with proof (or forgeries) of an illicit affair, etc. The missions are all designed well with plenty of flavour, and I especially like the range of skills that can be used and that player creativity is encouraged. There's still some moral issues with many of the missions, but at least the PCs are instructed by Heidmarch to "try not to kill anyone important".

Act Four is the auction itself. It has a fun competitive element, as each table will have accumulated a certain amount of "auction notes" depending on their performance, and the table that wins the auction receives special acclaim from the auctioneer (role-played by the Overseer GM). I imagine it's a moment with a lot of clapping and good-natured booing from the losing tables. (although not obvious to the players, the auction is rigged so that none of the NPC rivals can win.) Of course, things are never that easy for the Pathfinder Society, as the Runecarved Key is snatched by cultists of Lissala who crash into the cathedral! There's a short battle and then a Chase through the streets of Magnimar using the GameMastery Chase Cards deck. I know a lot of players don't like Chase scenes, but I always find them a nice change of pace from normal encounters and a way to make skill challenges exciting. Even once the key is recovered, however, the cultists don't give up that easy, as they summon waves of demons. Tables can "tap out" at anytime between waves, otherwise they keep fighting higher and higher CRs of demons until they die! (or the Overseer GM has to call time) I've never seen escalating waves like that used in a scenario before, and I wonder how many groups quickly got over their heads.

For the Conclusion, Heidmarch acknowledges the victory that comes with obtaining the key, but observes ominously that dark forces have surfaced in Varisia. I imagine this leads into the Season Four meta-plot. Back in the real world, the table that amassed the most "Key Points" (which have been secretly tracked during the entire session by table GMs) in each subtier gets a special Chronicle. There's really a lot in Race for the Runecarved Key that I think would make it a blast to play in-person that just can't be replicated online. Although it displays a skewed morality that makes certain PCs challenging to play within its framework, I still had a good time with it.


High-level scenario, except not

2/5

Several times I've heard RftRK touted as one of the rare scenarios for level 15 or even level 18 characters.

While this is technically true, what it means here is that its highest tier is designed for level 12, and you're allowed to play this as any higher level. That means that if you're 15 or up, everything is a pushover and you can just trounce the opposition without raising a sweat.

That can certainly be fun, but it's probably not what players expect. If you're looking for a level-15 scenario that's a decent challenge for level-15 characters, this ain't it.


Good close of season 4

4/5

I ran this scenario yesterday for The Degraded at a tier 5-6 table. And I agree with both him and Ascalaphus that this special is fun and is not as bad as some reviewers want you to believe.

Yes, there is some moral shadiness in the beginning of the special, but the table with the Paladin solved that admirably. After that there are several encounters that the players can either choose from or select randomly. At my table the players choose randomly and we had a good mix of role-playing, investigation and combat encounters.

The auction stays weird in my book: it took us GM's a bit to figure out how to do this and we choose to let the GM's portray the NPC's. I think that did not work as well as it could. After that there is a load of fighting. Since we might have spend too much time on the previous acts the fighting did not last very long, which is a good thing. If we had allowed for enough time for all the fighting at the end the RP parts would have been much shorter (and therefore less fun).

The scenario as written is a good closing of season 4, fitting with the theme of the season. It could have explained more regarding the involvement of certain factions.

I have played Year of the Shadow Lodge and GM'ed Legacy of the Stonelords and would rank Race for the Runecarved Key behind Legacy of the Stonelords and before Year of the Shadow Lodge. Paizo has improved their specials over the years!

A more detailed opinion on the acts, contains spoilers:

Act 1 (opening in the cathedral) is nice, but more exposition on the Key would have been nice. The characters are obviously interested why this macguffin is important, so give the GM something more to work with. I liked the sandbox nature of this act

Act 2 (ambush the aspis): I loved the look on my players faces when first the wizard appeared and a round later there suddenly was a charging bulette! (and I picked this tier because I had just the right miniature). At the paladin's table one of the characters made a forgery that stated that the consortium owed the Temple of Abadar a considerable sum.... (the Paladin did not know this)

Act 3 (weed out the opposition): great act, enough choice.

Act 4 (auction, chase and fights): auction is weird and we as GM's should have given more OOC explanation. The cultists in the cathedral are tough while they should have been a speedbump.

The chase was good, especially the advice to the GM's to be flexible with the skills used and that it is better not to tell the players what skill they can use

The assasin is tough, but she should be. We ran out of time because the speedbump took too much time, causing the focus not to be at the epic end fight but at the speedbump. I narrated the opening of the gates and explained that behind them the charging Heidmarch's came to the rescue


Lower your alignment expectations, then go wild

4/5

I too was one of the Dutch players who played this yesterday. I'd read the previous reviews and brought my "moral vacuum" investigator; in fact, our party was morally questionable. (Inquisitor of Gorum, Gorumite barbarian, Urgathoa cleric, Urgathoa investigator, "I can't believe you're lawful" LN bard that thought he followed Sarenrae.)

So, at first I was surprised at the amount of RP included; that's a tall order for a Special due to all the time constraints. In our case we'd planned for this to run in a much longer slot so that actually wasn't a problem. There was enough time to talk to NPCs but not to talk about everything; the adventure gives plausible reasons why you need to move on.

Then we come to the first mission, and we were all a bit surprised at just how ruthless this adventure is set up. Despite the party I just mentioned, we're not used to being quite this murderous, but we were on a "no witnesses" mission.

Afterwards, there were a variety of missions to choose from. We did several and had fun with them; many of them allowed us to pick an approach that suited us. A huge difference from the video-gamey way Blood Under Absalom was written. In many cases, you didn't actually be as evil here as some other reviews suggest.

Then we come to the auction. It was entertainingly acted out between the NPCs, but the mechanics were obscure and we didn't feel like we had any real way to influence the outcome. Besides;

Spoiler:
After someone won the auction; I'm not quite sure who; cultists burst in and steal the Key, you chase them down and take the key; so all the maneuvering before that is voided

The fight that came after was rather weird;

Spoiler:
At our 8-9 tier, it seemed the cultists only had battlefield control spells, but not really anything to do once they had some control over the battlefield. So we got hit with a cloudkill, sleet storm, glitterdust, stinking cloud and web, all in 2 rounds, but after that they didn't really bring anything to do with it.

The chase was over quickly because we could trivially overcome the obstacles and the GM was being sensible about them; but that's what you get with level 7-8 characters with haste and flight available. Fruitcarts aren't going to stop them. Then we came to the final fight and that was quite interesting too.

---

All in all it was fun, but with some flaws. What is missing most is a bit of exposition on why this key is so important. We're being told to set aside all morality to get it; why is it worth that? A halfway decent explanation would go a long way towards compensating for the forced "evilness" of this adventure.


An enjoyable and role-play-heavy Special

4/5

The Dutch Pathfinders ended up playing this special this Sunday with 7 tables. It always surprises me to see so many people show up and Explore, Cooperate and Report. Oh and have fun. That too is important. For me this was my third special. I had previously played Blood under Absalom and the Legacy of the Stonelords. For the purpose of comparison, I will quickly recap my opinion on those two. Blood Under Absalom was just a meatgrinder and that I don't consider fun in the slightest. The Legacy of the Stonelords, on the other hand, offered a wide variety of everything and this made every character feel useful.

That's fun and all, I can hear you say, but I'm not here to read your opinion about that. So how does this special compare to those two? Compared to Blood Under Absalom, this special is far, far better, but I'd say it's a bit weaker than the Legacy of the Stonelords. The thing is that this special, like others have pointed out before, requires your party to do some things that certain alignments would simply not do. And while a lot of skills can be useful, it's really centred around diplomacy and a bunch of talking to solve things.

Now I personally enjoy that – I was happy to play my mesmerist as she's build for these sort of things – but it is not to everyone's liking. If you're not into talking a lot and prefer to outwit your opponents in terms of martial prowess and tactics, this is maybe not for you. The few 'you have to fight these' encounters are pretty challenging though and can easily cause some casualties if you're not careful.

That said, the variety of encounters and 'quests', really was a pleasant surprise to me. At the end of the day, I felt like every small thing we did, had a significant impact on the development of the auction. Speaking about the auction: that was the weakest part. While it was a nice touch, the mechanics didn't feel easy enough to wrap my head around and it doesn't really help if there are 7 tables and 7 'NPC's' shouting at the same time. It's just too messy for my taste.

All things considering I can only say that at the end of the day, a lot of facets came together into a nice story and that I personally had a great time. Objectively, I rate this as a solid 4 stars since there are some aspects that are a tad problematic for certain players and groups.


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Webstore Gninja Minion

Steel Forged Games wrote:
This product comes out in August of 2013 how is it being discussed and reviewed?

This product is an exclusive available to Paizo staff and Venture officers, and was the Special played at GenCon 2012. The 2013 date is when it will be available to everybody—right now it's on a limited basis for other events and conventions.

Liberty's Edge

Thanks Liz you are amazing as always!

Liberty's Edge

Care Baird wrote:
Eight days from now I'll be feasting on the tears of nearly 500 dead PCs!

You should be ashamed. I hated this adventure and everyone at my table survived.

Liberty's Edge

Dragnmoon wrote:
Care Baird wrote:
C'mon guys! You don't want to play at my table for part 2? :(

Was I not specific enough?...

NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

;)

I agree. I will not be playing part 2 of this adventure. Even if the rewards for it are actually worth it next time.

Liberty's Edge

Tim Hitchcock wrote:
Mark Moreland wrote:
I'm developing Round 2 right now, and not everyone will die. I'm tuning down the evil a little bit because Kyle and Tim combined is worse than anything we've ever published in terms of lethality, and I want at least a few survivors to tell the horrific tale...

Bah!

First off, Night Two is never going to be published.
Second, its only as lethal as the monsters in the Bestiary.
and Third...

PYGON has pleaded to learn the art of TPK, that and he also complained Ruby Phoenix was TOO EASY. Night 2 should be the event, you wish you hadn't won your way into.

The slogan for Night 2 should be:
"Welcome To the PFS Saturday Night Special. We Make Gamers Cry."

Come one heros... chime in. Tell Mark not to work so hard to make things easy on you.
Tell him, you want to be champion. Tell him not to water down they deadly. Tell him you only want one Pathfinder survive round two (which of course will be you, and you alone)

No. I dont want to be a champion by your terms or his. Ill do it by mine.

Liberty's Edge

Could someone please tell me how to add an review to this module? I cant seem to find that function.

Scarab Sages

Damalon01 wrote:
Could someone please tell me how to add an review to this module? I cant seem to find that function.

On the reviews tab, directly under the rating, there is a link to "Write a review".

They don't look good....

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Played this today. Not bad, brutal fights, lots of opportunities for players to shine.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
TriOmegaZero wrote:
Played this today. Not bad, brutal fights, lots of opportunities for players to shine.

Although I did not get the opportunity to kill -- erm, play with TOZ today, I did get to GM for his wife. Classy lady, way too good for him. ;-)

Shadow Lodge

bugleyman wrote:
Classy lady, way too good for him. ;-)

Who you tellin'?

RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32

1 person marked this as a favorite.
hmarcbower wrote:
Damalon01 wrote:
Could someone please tell me how to add an review to this module? I cant seem to find that function.

On the reviews tab, directly under the rating, there is a link to "Write a review".

They don't look good....

Sadly, I did not get to play it last year, but from the reviews...

This would have been a great scenario if the Pathfinder Society Organized Player allowed evil characters. Both Seekers of Secrets and The Field Guide imply that there are "dark" pathfinders - this would have been a good scenario for them.

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

While my bard was CN, and the party involved a rogue, bard, fighter, and barbarian, very little of what we did was evil. Not nice, certainly, and except for one of the first encounters, ended with no actual deaths.

Shadow Lodge

Why u no available for purchase?

Webstore Gninja Minion

TOZ wrote:
Why u no available for purchase?

It will be available at 6pm. :)

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Woo! *spends money*

Vigilant Seal

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Hey, all.

This is single-round scenario, right? Some mentioned in the reviews that it took eight hours. I'm running this at a game day and sent to accommodate it so nothing is lost because of time.

And, any suggestions for adventures at a couple of different tiers that leads up to this? Not necessarily a prequel, but something at least in the same city or close by.

Happy gaming,
Don (Greyson)

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Greyson, there are a few Season 4 scenarios in Magnimar, including #4-01: Rise of the Goblin Guild and #4-03: The Golemworks Incident.

Vigilant Seal

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Thanks for the reply, TriOmegaZero. We're gonna go with the Rise of the Goblin Guild. Sounds fun.

Now that the Race for the Runecarved Key is out there for public consumption, does the four table minimum still apply? It seems like it does not, but I don't want to guess at it.

Happy gaming!

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Generally speaking, running the specials with less than the minimum tables listed is not going to be successful, as victory conditions usually require multiple tables to achieve. You'd likely find the players doing everything right and still failing the mission.

Grand Lodge

At our convention, the Venture Captains were given special permission to play this, but apparently there's a second part to this that was only allowed to be played at PaizoCon, where the boon allowed winning players to use goblins as PCs. Is the second part made public as well?

Grand Lodge

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
kevin_video wrote:
Is the second part made public as well?

Sadly, no. Part 2 was a GenCon exclusive one-shot and will never be released. Which is a shame as I'd love to read it and see what those lucky few faced.

Grand Lodge

TriOmegaZero wrote:
kevin_video wrote:
Is the second part made public as well?
Sadly, no. Part 2 was a GenCon exclusive one-shot and will never be released. Which is a shame as I'd love to read it and see what those lucky few faced.

Ah, GenCon. Fair enough. Still, it really sucks to not be able to play the second part. My group was supposed to because we'd gotten the most points out of all of the groups, but the Venture Captain retired so now we'll never get to experience it. We knew that we wouldn't get the goblins because that was exclusive to the con, but just to play it and finish the quest would have been nice.

Shadow Lodge

The scenario actually had an in-game explanation for the one-shot nature. The portal to the pocket dimension could only be opened for a few hours, and the key only worked once. Characters who did not make it out in time were permanently trapped and declared dead.


Be warned, there is a lot for a judge to keep track of. Ours wasn't up to it, and we had a terrible time.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

I don't play PFS (there's not really an opportunity here anyway), but I'll want to read up on the scenarios. Is this part of Season 4 (it looks like it), and if so where does it fall in the general time line of the season?

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Officially, I believe this happens near the beginning of the season. However, the only reference to Race happening in Season 4 is in Waking Rune, so really you could stick it anywhere without too many consequences.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Thanks, Iammars. I'm just putting together a good reading order.

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Pg. 25 - Scaling Encounter 3C sidebar

In the sidebar on page 25...:

...the trap's text gets cut off. It seems to be identical to the trap found in Pathfinder Comics: Hollow Mountain #6. If so, then the effect line would be:

"Effect spell effect (empowered disintegrate, +9 ranged touch, 30d6 damage plus 50%, DC 19 Fort save reduces the damage to 5d6 plus 50%)."

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