A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 5–9.
The dwarven sky citadel of Janderhoff in eastern Varisia is one of the least visited settlements in the land, at least by non-dwarves. Nevertheless, the Pathfinder Society has been invited to assist in the excavation of a forgotten ruin within the large underground complex. What the fearless adventurers stand to find within could be the greatest discovery of the Age of Lost Omens, something sure to immortalize all involved in the pages of the Pathfinder Chronicles for ever more. But the ruins under Janderhoff aren't the end of the Pathfinders' journey; rather they illuminate a treacherous path ahead, from the familiar land of Varisia into much more dangerous territory.
Written by Tork Shaw.
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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This scenario is purely a dungeon crawl, with little to no RPing. The only part of the scenario I even remotely liked was the first floor. I like that there is an assortment of traps throughout the first floor, but after the first floor traps were forgotten about completely.
The first fight is long and monotonous. Sure the nubglub with its high AC is fine, but at least give it some buddies that can do more then 1d3-2 dmg and 1d6 for SA. I have GMd this 3 times and played once and this fight takes at least 1 hr and its ends with the PCs take very little or no dmg.
The water fight is ok. The idea behind it is nice, the execution is poor. The unaltered aquatic ghouls are very under powered for a 5-9. The statues take penalties when they are in the water, so had it be given a piercing weapon would have been a huge improvement.
The party fight is dumb. The cleric is completely screwed over making this fight a complete cakewalk.
The puzzle is just confusing to understand and after you figure out what is going on, it makes no sense to even try to play through this.
I would have rated this 2 stars, but the absolutely terrible maps make this a 1 star. Not only is there the same circular room over and over, but they entire map is done on a 10 ft scale. Making ALL of the maps a b@%+# to draw and forget about printing because of the 10 ft scaling.
I have played this scenario in a group of 6. While certainly not a bad scenario, it (like most of Season 4) has at least one encounter that borders on the hard end of things without a well designed/optimized group, but otherwise is fairly straightforward and easy.
Roleplay (2/5): Don't expect much except that which you make for yourself. This is a dungeon crawl, plain and simple. So while there is some here and there, it's on the light end of things.
Combat (3/5): Oddly, encounters range from trivial to difficult (depending on your group composition and tactics). There is one interesting combat, otherwise the rest are really nothing to write home about.
The X-Factor (4/5): A really cool dungeon with an equally cool story really props up everything though. The puzzle at the end surprised me, and it was fun to come up with something of a solution that was more than simply solving the puzzle itself.
Overall it's certainly not the most exciting scenario I've played, but the story is interesting and the elements it puts in motion are worth trying to pay through.
I found it to be a pain to run, it had lot of traps to play with but with a rogue in the party and the perception checks required were so low that they were almost not worth the time. The puzzle at the end was confusing to understand, and really just a waste. If it was clearer and earlier in the scenario if might of been more fun.
The flooded chamber was silly, you have to go through several hoops just to have an encounter that would of just slowed the game down and offered nothing in return. If there was a chance at some role playing or some lore (flavor) in the room then i could see it worth it.
The encounters were ok but over all this scenario failed to live up to a Dwarven setting. The rooms were small and cramped. I expected more from an ancient Dwarven society.
The scenario it self was poorly written, information was tossed throughout it and required to much flipping back and forth. The trap at the end was hard to picture with how the description was written and i had to hit the forums for clarification. (thank you Mike Brock for clarifying it for us).
This was a definite 1 star until the puzzle, then shot up to a 3.5. It had 4 star potential with very excellent writing, lore, 600 year old plots tied in... I pray that parts 2 and 3 deliver.
I honestly give the last 1/3rd of it a solid 5 star. Its just the fist 2/3rd are THAT BAD
This one receives threes stars only because of the story and lore focus. The combats involve little danger and simply serve to extend the amount of time you need to play. The puzzle is quite nice with open ended solution and a nice tie in to the lore. It advances a rarely seen race ( dwarves ) and gives it it's own nice little metaplot. I am really hoping for more from the remainder of the series.
Spoiler:
First boss is nothing but status effects. There is no threat here, it is fairly incapable of damage output. The next challenge is the obvious water trap on the door, but there are too many enemies in the next room. Their ranged attacks are weak and a party can bottleneck them in the doorway quite easily and slaughter everything. Third combat involves a cleric who became a ghoul using illusions to pretend to be a vampire who pretends to be human. Confusing? She is also trapped under rubble, and her placement in the room seems to be GM fiat. Her placement can greatly affect who can hit her via ranged combat, since her not being able to move means ranged attacks from a distance past her channel radius are instant victory. She is backed by two other ghouls with little combat effectiveness in the days of zen archers and shocking grasp scimitar magus's; with a less optimized group this combat may actually be a challenge indeed. Placement of the boss will be key in difficult the scenario becomes.
The puzzle is interesting in that one person is sent inside and that without serious thought, cannot communicate with those outside to report. Group came up with nice solutions after a few tries
Conclusion? Only run it if you intend to do the full arc, hopefully it gets better.
More dwarven stuff at last. Perhaps finaly that boon from The Beggar's Pearl back in season 1 will actualy be useful in one of the three upcoming dwarven scenarios.
Us dwarfs have been waiting a long time for stuff like this :).
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Looking forward to your first PFS Scenario Tork Shaw.
I am prepping this scenario for my local PFS. Can someone explain the part in the spoiler to me?
Spoiler:
How exactly is the lock at the end meant to work? I understand the moving up and down of columns. Do you assume all colums are down in the beginning? Also, do the PC's become stuck in the pit once they failed three times? These are unclear to me. Thanks.
Hrm. By the looks of it I think this took a bit of an edit from my original so this is purely what I intended for this device -
Spoiler:
you may want to wait for an official PFS ruling... It looks like the passageway locations have been mislabelled in the text: the SOUTH EAST passageway in fact leads "across a short bridge over a deep trench before terminating in a small recess just large enough to accommodate a fully armored dwarf", while the NORTH WEST passageway "winds gradually to the south and is littered with but not blocked by rubble", leading back to the other chambers.
If players fall into the pit beneath the vault lock they can use the trench to return to the circular room (F3a) as per the description (with the directions fixxored).
"The trench extends 30 feet into a vaulted open space beneath the SOUTHERN room, and its walls are fairly smooth, requiring a successful DC 25 Climb check to scale."
The southern room in this case is the vault lock.
Likewise the whole trap description has had a wee bit of an edit too, but yes the original intention is that ALL the columns but that in the single entrance square are down. Only 1 column can be raised at any time, so as soon as a lever is activated to raise an adjacent column the currently raised one drops.
"...causing one to rise to create a new open space and the previously raised column to fall, closing off a previously open space. This movement happens quickly, but an attentive individual can easily step into a new space before a column drops into the vacated space."
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Tork Shaw wrote:
Hrm. By the looks of it I think this took a bit of an edit from my original so this is purely what I intended for this device -
Spoiler:
you may want to wait for an official PFS ruling... It looks like the passageway locations have been mislabelled in the text: the SOUTH EAST passageway in fact leads "across a short bridge over a deep trench before terminating in a small recess just large enough to accommodate a fully armored dwarf", while the NORTH WEST passageway "winds gradually to the south and is littered with but not blocked by rubble", leading back to the other chambers.
Actually the intermediate directions in the scenario are correct. They might have changed the Compass North point on you after turn in.
North is not straight up and down, but right and left. Right being North, left being South.
Spoiler:
Therefore as the scenario states the vault lock is northeast across a short bridge over a deep trench and the way back is southwest
I've been part of Tork's gaming group for several years and he ran this module for us on Saturday.
We're all experienced players but none of us generally plays in PFS and we had new characters for the occasion. Due to our unfamiliarity with PFS modules, having only four PCs, drinking too much, roleplaying too hard, and a litany of terrible dice rolls we had quite a lot of trouble with the encounters and ultimately a TPK. We didn't even make it as far as the puzzle the other reviewers are raving about.
All that aside, I really enjoyed the adventure, particularly since I haven't actually played in years (I'm the GM). It was frustrating, ridiculous, energetic, confusing, and ultimately a lot of fun. That's Tork.
Can anyone tell me if this book contains a map of the town of Janderhoff itself? I'm searching everywhere for one and I can't find one. I would really like to have my all Dwarven group based in Janderhoff, but don't want to make the whole town from scratch.
Can anyone tell me if this book contains a map of the town of Janderhoff itself? I'm searching everywhere for one and I can't find one. I would really like to have my all Dwarven group based in Janderhoff, but don't want to make the whole town from scratch.
It does not contain a city map of Janderhoff. The closest thing we have to such would be the map of Highhelm that appears in Castles of the Inner Sea.
The description of the puzzle maze makes no sense in context of the map provided. I'm frankly disappointed and confused. I know i'm a bit late to the review party here but this alone is enough to give it a huge hit to stars. Im trying to prep this for a con and frankly it's absurd that something that is such utter nonsense made it into a scenario.