A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 3–7.
Someone in the city of Magnimar is committing crimes and leaving evidence implicating the Pathfinder Society. It falls to the Pathfinders to get to the bottom of it, and what they find may signal the resurgence of an enemy thought long defeated.
Written by James Olchak, RPG Superstar 2012 finalist.
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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Just got back from running this at the low tier... overall it's not a bad scenario. Lots of great roleplaying opportunities and a chance for knowledge skills to shine, but also some potentially challenging combats for the combat folks. It also has one of the coolest-described rooms I've seen in a dungeon (one of the players even mentioned this after the game).
Despite the investigative beginning and dialog options, the players are very much on rails through the entire thing, and it shows. There's also not much the PCs can do to affect any sort of outcome aside from making one fight a little easier.
Spoiler:
The last fight was a letdown for us, but that was mainly on me... completely forgot about the natural attacks on the alchemist that let him threaten adjacent squares. Can't dock the scenario for GM mistakes.
I'd say a solid 4 stars, (I'm very picky about giving a 5 star). It was pretty good, and I enjoyed it almost the entire time. Of all the more RP investigatin scenario's I've played in, I think this one did it right, (with the exception of the door).
The Door <includes partial answer>:
This was really our only big hang up, where the entire party was sitting there about 10 mins straight and just not knowing what to do. Essentually its in the basement of an abandon temple of the wind and wave, sort of a burial temple chapel for sailers. The door has an inscription (in ancient varisian that apparently no one in the entire gang up above can translate, which gives the only clue. (Our DM missed that you can try to uMD it, too), but otherwise you essentually have to figure out that the potion of rage you found earlier is required to be drunk, (assuming you didn't drink it in a previous fight or turn it in as some evidence or something), AND also be able to remove an Arcane Lock on the same door. That's it, if you don't get all of that, and misng any one part is the issue, means you simply can not proceed. Period. If my character had been a level lower, we simply could not have made it, as I just happened to have Dispel Magic'd the Arcane Lock, but I bombed the Linguistics roll, and no one else had the tained only skill. We literally spent about 10+ minutes trying to find a solution (after all that), even going as far as to try to 5th Element the door with wind and water.
I really really liked the alleyway "encounter", as it is a great way for the more good and heroic characters to show, as well as a way to build up the PFS I loved that it shows to most people, Pathfinders are not heroes at all, and generally not well liked by the common man, (appropriately). The traps in the later parts sound amazing, really adding to the fluff, and really incorporating the map lagistically. I'm kind of sad that we completely bypassed one in particular, as seeing it actually go off would have been worth it. Masterfully done.
Other than that, the combats where fun, the story was interesting, and although I really don't care much for the AC/PFS/rogue SL main plot for this season, it was interesting in spite of that. In my opinion it gave the area a much better sense of ambient flavor throught the various NPCs and set up than basically any there scenario set there so far. This one, in my opinion, stands out as a good one for season 4, from a player perspective. It actually reminds me a lot of some of the earlier scenario's, in a good way, so if your a fan of those, you'll likely like this one. If your a fan of season 4, there is still a lot in this one for you, too. If your looking for a combat heavy/brutal scenario, it's probably not for you.
@ Jason S, I'm sorry you had a poor time with this one. I don't mean to argue or put down, but it sounds more like the issue was your DM than the scenario itself. Most of the time, scenarios do not include all the possible ways that could work, but rather hint r guide the GM to what should not, and leave it up to them to decide. With the spoiled portion above, I had nearly the opposite experience.
So, my party really enjoyed this. It's a great little investigative romp, and it provides some interesting characters. Spoilers below for a few suggestions to GMs and a few words of warning.
My Enemy's Enemy Spoilers:
This scenario requires a lot of GM prep. First, I do recommend seeing if you can find some way for the party to not accidentally outright kill Antois. My parties have both felt really bad for his owner, and had they actually killed him instead of making him retreat, I imagine that it would have been a very sad moment. The guy's been through enough trouble - do you really need to kill his cat too?
There are a few points where this scenario can ground to a halt. There is a very difficult door to get through, and if clues are missed in the investigative phase, it may require GM intervention to get the party back on track.
I should also warn about the last encounter. Up until the final battle, this scenario is pathetically easy. The final encounter has killed somebody both times that I've ran it. I've only ran it at 6-7, and it looks as if the 6-7 is significantly more deadly than the 3-4. Any time you have a hasted Alchemist, you should be prepared for party death. Depending on your tactics, it's possible to take out a PC before they really have much time to do anything about it.
Overall, a great scenario, but a docked rating due to some difficulties with the investigation and an extremely, extremely deadly encounter.
I found this scenario very average and unmemorable. It's an investigation scenario that wasn't sandboxy at all.
Creative solutions in this scenario were not rewarded. GMs need more direction if alternative solutions are going to be allowed, especially if they bypass encounters. My GM felt that since nothing was written, that the course of action we selected wouldn't help.
Unlike the previous reviewer, we didn't find any of the encounters challenging at all, even playing up. (I'm not trying to say that challenging is fun, I'm just saying it as a matter of fact).
Detailed Rating:
Length: Maybe 3 hours? I think we skipped the optional encounter. The time went by slowly.
Experience: Player with 6 well built PCs playing up (APL 5) to subtier 6-7.
Sweet Spot: TBD.
Entertainment: This scenario didn't engage me at all. (4/10)
Story: Predictable from the 1st minute. (5/10)
Roleplay: Very little and it was shortlived and uninteresting. (3/10)
Combat/Challenges: There was one interesting and unique challenge. There was one decent puzzle. (7/10)
Maps: Nothing special. (5/10)
Boons: Interesting remark that provides no benefit, but may provide story elements in the future. In my experience, these remarks are either ignored by GMs or forgotten by players, or both. (6/10)
Uniqueness: Only one encounter was unique, storyline was blah. (4/10)
Faction Missions: Honestly, can't remember. Nothing stood out. (6/10)
Overall: It was solid but unmemorable. This scenario probably deserves 3 stars, but I just wasn't entertained at all. (5/10)
I quite enjoyed this scenario. It has some great flavor in regards to the underworld of Magnimar and how some of the Sczarni gangs hustle for position. It also had 2 very fun RP scenes, one more serious than the other. I also enjoyed that the in one of the combats, how well or bad it went could be influenced largely upon how clever the party was. The BBEG fight was very much a challenge and we ended up losing a party member… RIP Rajlyn!
All said and done I found it clever, challenging and both light and gritty. Overall a wonderful combination.
