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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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.
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.
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
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.
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.
Nope. It will be available only to event organizers who want to offer it at conventions or large game days for the entirety of Season 4. When we launch Season 5 at Gen Con 2013, we'll make this one available to the general public.
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Michael Brock wrote:
No one has noted that 12+ in the levels? Nice and shiny!
We already knew... You gave that info out a long time ago.
Mike, memory problems at your old Age?
Mark, maybe you should keep a closer eye on him, you don't know what he might forget next!
We already knew... You gave that info out a long time ago.
Mike, memory problems at your old Age?
;)
Oh, I know I mentioned it before. But, no one said anything so I wanted to reinforce it. By the way, I'm not old. The Core Rulebook, page 169, advises old for a human is 53. I've got a decade to go.
We already knew... You gave that info out a long time ago.
Mike, memory problems at your old Age?
;)
Oh, I know I mentioned it before. But, no one said anything so I wanted to reinforce it. By the way, I'm not old. The Core Rulebook, page 169, advises old for a human is 53. I've got a decade to go.
Just make sure you stay off my lawn when you visit the bay area!
We already knew... You gave that info out a long time ago.
Mike, memory problems at your old Age?
;)
Oh, I know I mentioned it before. But, no one said anything so I wanted to reinforce it. By the way, I'm not old. The Core Rulebook, page 169, advises old for a human is 53. I've got a decade to go.
Just make sure you stay off my lawn when you visit the bay area!
You must be rich. Only rich people can afford a lawn in the Bay area. I guess drinks are on you at Kubla Con!
We all figured you'd abused haste a bit too much in the AD&D years.
But it helped get my AC down to -4 and increase my Thac0
Ah the good old days! When we lied about kissin' girls behind the bleachers and exactly how many 18's we really did roll. Along with psionics.
I got 8 years to go. I better hurry up and make 12th level so I can build a castle to retire in.
If I hadn't said, look forward to meeting you at GenCon Mike!
**********************
Kyle! Double congrats!
I *really* rolled all those sixes like four times. I promise. Oh, and I really did roll 00 on my strength check. I *really* promise. And can we just say I have the levels in all the classes (fighter, thief, and Druid) so I can be a bard? Oh wait, I went back too far.......
We already knew... You gave that info out a long time ago.
Mike, memory problems at your old Age?
;)
Oh, I know I mentioned it before. But, no one said anything so I wanted to reinforce it. By the way, I'm not old. The Core Rulebook, page 169, advises old for a human is 53. I've got a decade to go.
Just make sure you stay off my lawn when you visit the bay area!
You must be rich. Only rich people can afford a lawn in the Bay area. I guess drinks are on you at Kubla Con!
Sorry - all my disposable income seems to be going on rulebooks, adventure paths, flip-mats, miniatures, scenarios, ...
Anyway, Azmyth's already said the first round is on him.
We already knew... You gave that info out a long time ago.
Mike, memory problems at your old Age?
;)
Oh, I know I mentioned it before. But, no one said anything so I wanted to reinforce it. By the way, I'm not old. The Core Rulebook, page 169, advises old for a human is 53. I've got a decade to go.
Speaking as someone who turned forty in Deceber, that table needs a serious errata.
When I pointed that out to my wife (who is a year older than me), I didn't get a very nice look back. She then requested to know who wrote that chart up. I haven't told her, and for the safety of ******** ***********, I hope she doesn't find out because the next company party could get ugly ;-)
How do the tiers break down for the Special? We've got some slightly disparate levels in our group, all have tickets for the Special, and we'd like to try and end up at the same table.
How do the tiers break down for the Special? We've got some slightly disparate levels in our group, all have tickets for the Special, and we'd like to try and end up at the same table.
Usually the specials are tiers 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 8-9, and 10-11. This year there's also a 12+ tier.
I really hope the tiers don't break down that way. I will be 2nd level by the time of the event Friday night (at GenCon), but my friend will be 3rd. We were hoping/planning on playing at the same table.
The tiers will be that way, however, you should be fine. It can accommodate a mix of levels as long as no one is more than 1 subtier away from their "natural" subtier after the table APL is calculated.
We will likely be seating "groups of 6" first at Gen Con. For smaller groups, just muster with the most likely subtier. At 2/3 you should muster with the 3-4. You should, however, be open to playing 1-2 if that's how the tables end up breaking down.
Actually, just calculating, I should be 3rd level by Friday night, as I am only 1 Exp. away from 2nd level. And my friend just cracked 3rd level in our last PFS session. So by Friday, I am guessing we will be 3 and 4, respectively (assuming neither of us dies). So by that time, we should be in the same tier, anyways.
Just remember that you cannot go more than one "sub-tier" away from your level. So a level 2 should not be playing in a Sub-tier 4-5 game, but would be fine in a sub-tier 3-4 game.
Are we referring to just ‘special’ events on these tier rules? We’ll be ok for the special event, as I should be in the same tier (3-4), but the first event we will be a couple levels apart from one another (1 and 3).
Also, the events had a large range of levels listed. It varied from 1-5, 5-9 or even above. We signed up for the 1-5 timeslots.
