A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 7–11.
In Kaer Maga, the mysterious and dangerous cliffside City of Strangers in untamed Varisia, the Pathfinder Society will come face to face with a sect of the cult of Lissala who prey upon the city's most vulnerable denizens to increase their own power. To what end do they conduct the ancient Feast of Sigils ritual, and can the Pathfinders stop them before their evil plans come to fruition?
Written by Dennis Baker.
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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Played this tonight. Four characters of levels 10-11 (Cavalier, Fighter/Cleric, Fighter and Gunslinger).
I don't really know how I feel about this scenario. We had fun to be sure but it was perhaps a tad too tough even for the levels we were playing. Here are my thoughts and there are spoils involved.
Firstly, this is a combat scenario from start to finish. Roleplay is at a minimum. It sets itself up as being an investigation and it isn't. Two roleplay moments and the wall to wall combat.
Second thing that really bugged me, especially playing the big strong fighter type was how often I was screwed over by strength damage effects. It pretty much made my character pointless throughout the scenario. Once, sure. Twice was getting annoying and by the time we beat the BBEG I was in negative modifiers. It got on my nerves putting it politely.
The middle encounter would have killed us if the Gunslinger had not had the right alchemical gear. A little overkill if you ask me.
Even with those in mind we had fun but the scenario needed just a little tweaking. Then it would have been better.
While I think the author has done everything in their power to make the combats challenging and scary, just like the other reviewers I am really disturbed at the power level of the boons being handed out here. Is it really a good idea to give boons of this power? I haven't done Waking Rune, so time will tell, I guess.
I think a little more could be done to make the moral implications of the ritual choice important to the PCs. Perhaps if Miss Feathers had been implicated and there was a chance that the PCs damaged her in the ritual? Or the consumption?
Still, the final combat basically taught me how to make a high level divine caster be able to blast an enemy party to bits! And the second combat is rendered harmless with one spell, it's either an off or on switch. If it's off, the monsters are harmless, if it's on, you're guaranteed death.
This is a good shorter high level mod if you want to challenge your team. Good, but not great. It can't scratch Cultists Kiss.
Potential Spoilers: This was a nasty one for me. I don't get to play much anymore because of life. Spent pretty much the entire scenario KO'd(from failed saving throws). I had to retreat from the wisp battle, and the party didn't come and get me before the final battle so I participated in exactly 2(running, and then DDoor, so nothing even fun) rounds of combat the entire scenario. The wisps may have been fine, but I never thought they'd float away, and the 40 damage per wisp per turn was to much for my PC. The beginning part was slow as I think the party faces were a little slow in the RP department. All in all it was almost 6 hours of boredom and pain, and being my first play in over a month was highly disappointing.
Note: And whats up with this Boon...I got it,but its pretty OP'd...I hope Paizo tones these season 4 boons down some. Boons should be nice small little bonuses, not crazy power increases, especially if your a monostat character.
This adventure has some great characters, interesting and challenging encounters, and really rewards a well prepared party! The final map is amazing, but takes a bit of prep to draw correctly.
Love this one! I'm looking forward to running it again soon.
EDIT: In response to some of the other reviews::
The AC 30+ magic immune monsters can be dealt with without killing all of them. They simply want their feeding ground and will defend their food source. If the players choose to escape into the next area, they shouldn't follow. If the players decide to leave with the food source, that's another thing altogether. BBEG does not have a pact with them, and they are not guards to the BBEG lair so-to-speak.
The un-dispellable effect only happens once, when you walk into it. This can get worse if you enter the area more than once, but once you're in it the damage does not continue. A good description can allow the players to get a hint at the mechanics even without a high Spellcraft check. Casters and ranged support may never even enter the area, and still be effective. When the first or second melee character enters the effect, the players should have a good idea of who should enter and who should not.
This is a 7-11, and players should be well versed in combat tactics. Likewise, GMs should be well versed in likely strategies and how exactly the spell effects work.
Whilst the roleplay opportunities were well written and the background and plot fantastic Im forced to give this 1 star to make a point.
Stacking all the EL into two areas sucks for players, particularly where you use monsters at AC30+ and Magic Immunity at CL7, and place a spell effect that cannot be dispelled and requires 2 burst healers to allow party survival regardless of EL.
Challenging ecounters are great, ones that make you think, that force you to act tactically and punish the players for mistakes, but these encounters were more like a power trip. For those who remember greyhawk this is one of those `Arnt I Clever with templates and Encounter EL Manipulation I can TPK players' rather than a well designed combat encounter set.
Hooray for another adventure in Kaer Maga! Should be very cool. And even if she's not written in it, Miss Feathers will make an appearance every time I run this scenario.
I've just read the City of Strangers campaign setting front to back, no mention. Did you mean Madam Rose?
I really tried to capture the spirit of Kaer Maga in this one. If you don't have the City of Strangers book, I highly recommend it. Kaer Maga is a place thats a little tough to get your hands around.
Also, I wrote too much for this one and had to cut an encounter. I'm considering writing it up as a truly optional encounter.
Spoiler:
Of course I know who Miss Feathers is. You'll have to wait and see if she makes an appearance though
Also, those Will-o'-Wisps... That fight was glorious. I had the archer and the gunslinger both pulling their hair out, and the party was considering a full retreat.
What I cut doesn't relly make sense in the current incarnation. It was an encounter which happened before the scenario actually starts. It was quite a bit longer.
Glad you liked that encounter seems like its either easy or really hard depending on prep.
On page 11, under where B6 starts, the Creatures paragraph says that the higher subtier has 3 war wisps and 1 ancient war wisps, however the stat blocks on pages 12 and 13 say there's 2 of each.
Also on page 12, the higher subtier's greater glyph of warding trap has the same CR as the lower tier, despite being more powerful.
Contributor, RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
