A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 5–9.
When the Golemworks in Magnimar starts reporting some “problems” with their most recent batch of golems, the PCs are sent to investigate in the hope that the Pathfinder Society can get on good terms with the influential arcane organization.
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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Roleplay, investigation, no pushover, fun setting, and dark and twisted in a fun way. It just works. My favorite season 4 scenario so far for the background and madness of it.
Golemworks is an excellent horror scenario. It's really sick and twisted in parts, which I enjoyed! It can also be toned down for more sensitive players, and I'm sure the horror theme can be cranked up as well.
The horror aspect is going to depend heavily on the GM of course, but the framework is there, and it should be decent with most GMs.
I have the following criticisms of this excellent scenario:
A) The difficulty level of one of the encounters is too hard if the GM is prepared.
B) This is a very complex scenario and needs a lot of preparation to run PROPERLY. More of a criticism of most GMs than the scenario.
C) The encounters are not scaled properly for 4 person groups, some of them still seem too difficult (in particular the final encounter).
Regarding 'B', my GM didn't run this scenario properly (which is why I rated the scenario lower previously). However, this might have been done on purpose since it could have been too deadly otherwise.
Story issues:
The 1st relates to the main story itself. For a bad guy to be truly memorable, we need to understand the bad guy. Before reading the scenario, I didn't understand the motivations of the BBG. Was he just crazy? Was he Aspis Consortium? Was he both? I didn't know, it was just confusing. I think the problem is that GMs often don't create (extra) hand outs for complex story elements, and complex stories get lost at noisy locations (most big conventions).
Also, it wasn't logical that the BBG would destroy his entire life (with the Golemworks) just to have a low percentage chance of killing some Pathfinders. That just doesn't make sense to me. For someone so smart, why was his plan so stupid? And for a few gold?
I'm not sure I like the Aspis Consortium as an enemy in season 4. There's just not enough reason to be passionate enough about killing them, or for them to put much effort into killing us. I hope season 4 will evolve into fighting a more ancient and sinister evil.
Previously I wrote that the BBG fight was anti-climatic, but the issue was with my GM, not the scenario.
Finally (and I hate to have an alignment debate), but CN doesn't mean crazy. That dude was clearly CE, as a matter of fact he's the very definition of evil. You can be insane and evil you know. He was not the Diet Pepsi of evil! Anyway, his 'neutrality' ruined Protection from Evil and in a party of 4 it was nearly devastating. Off topic, but I don't think neutral should get a free pass, they should be affected by BOTH Protection from Good and Evil.
Detailed Ratings:
Length: Medium. We finished in 4 hours (including the optional encounter).
Experience: Player with 4 well built PCs at subtier 8-9. I also read the scenario and plan to GM it soon.
Sweet Spot: Both subtiers are deadly.
Entertainment: The creepiness, horror, and roleplay elements are fantastic. (10/10)
Story: I didn't feel the story was conveyed very well to the players without the GM creating his own hand outs. I left Gencon knowing nothing about the background story. (5/10)
Roleplay: There were strong roleplay elements. (8/10)
Combat/Challenges: Golemworks had some great horror encounters. Two of the encounters are potentially too challenging. (8/10)
Maps: The maps and locations were also great. The final map looked great, especially in color. (10/10)
Boons: There is a unique flavor item in the chronicle. Not 100% useful but funny and appreciated. (8/10)
Uniqueness: I liked the sick horror theme. The enemy was truly twisted, I wish he had a recurring appearance and more to say. (8/10)
Faction Missions: Overall nothing stood out, but they were all very solid. (8/10)
Overall: Golemworks is a sick and creepy scenario worth playing. (9/10)
The story delivers the setting in game is dark and dreary. This will be my go to scenario on A cold October night. The chance to role play is really ingrained here, in a great way. The combat scenes were very memorable. This is suited for PFS as well as any home game.
I've been fascinated by the concept of the Golemworks since 2007! I thought they'd remain forever an obscure footnote (like the magesmiths). It's awesome to see this idea explored!
I like this module. It has a unique flavour and feel with some good RP opportunities.
A little bit of pedantry, though. I noticed a typo. On page 16: in section C4 I think the word "allies" should read "alleys". Also the first paragraph on page 19 seems to contain a superfluous sentence fragment, likely an artifact from an earlier draft.
Played this yesterday with a really talented GM. Loved it, we ran out of time so ended up skipping the optional encounter. We played up and I thought the last fight was great and really challenging. The last map is exceptionally cool and well geared to the BBEG.
We nearly had a TPK in this scenario, playing with four players at the low end of the module. As it was two characters (levels four to five witch and wizard) were killed by a spell that is pretty much a death sentence at that level for those types of characters (and it is the first spell out of the gate for the BBEG at the end).
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