Pathfinder Society Scenario #4–24: Glories of the Past—Part II: The Price of Friendship (PFRPG) PDF

2.50/5 (based on 16 ratings)

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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 5–9.

The Pathfinder Society has discovered the hint of a monumental revelation, but in order to confirm their find, they must send a team of agents into the dangerous and unwelcoming orc-ruled Hold of Belkzen. While an expedition could easily be dispatched to the orc capital of Urgir, the Decemvirate urges caution to ensure success. Thus, a team of Pathfinders must seek out a guide in the Varisian orc city of Urglin. Can they navigate the treacherous city of denizens who wouldn't mind seeing them dead, or will the orcs' Second Home be the site of their final mission?

Written by Christina Stiles.

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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Average product rating:

2.50/5 (based on 16 ratings)

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Surprisingly good

4/5

Having ran the previous adventure in this series, The Halls of Dwarven Lore, I was coming into this not expecting a very good scenario. I was pleased to see that it was actually pretty good. Certainly, it's not the most memorable of scenarios, but it's not at all bad either.

The scenario opens with some good roleplay - I really enjoy the investigative scenes like the one at the start, where the PCs are gathering information. The follow-up fights are nice, although I agree that the environmental effects are a bit much. The biggest downside, though, is the final encounter - the finale is extremely weak.

Overall, a good effort with an interesting premise. For the GM who is willing to dive into the setting and put in a bit of effort, it's a solid adventure.


Horrible, Uninspired Adventure

1/5

This was one of the worst railroads I ever was forced on. The story was NOT interesting and didn't make a whole lot of sense. There was only one way to complete the scenario but there really needed to me multiple paths for characters who would have problems dealing and interacting with evil NPC's.


3/5

I really liked this scenario, but it has some issues. It has solid roleplay opportunties and interesting combats.

The investigative roleplay is nice, because it can be changed to be suited towards your players. You get to hunt down magical beasts that should really put the fear into someone and then end with a gladiator fight.

The hazards are nice touch. Making it so you get to see how nasty it is in the cinderlands, however, rolling once every hour is wasting unneccesary resources. If it was evey other hour it would be a huge improvement. I ran it 3 seperate times. The first time it took 13 hrs and the second and third it took 12 hrs. That is alot of channels and CLW that were wasted. This is the section that most of my players did not like about the scenario. If I was running this for anything other then Pathfinde Society, I would be altering this.

The gladiator fight was very underwhelming. There is too much time for players to prepare for battle. Then battle ends almost as soon as it begins. The cows are hilarious, if the dont win initiative, and get to trample. Vroth goes done like a sack of potatoes. This combat lasted no more then 2 rnds tops for me. I would want a gladiator fight to a least last more then 2 rnds.


Lousy

1/5

Nearly killed myself trying to make this interesting for my players. The monsters aren't threatening, the roleplaying is belaboured, and the environmental hazards are a straight-up resource tax. Honestly my least favourite scenario of this season.


Potential ruined by environmental encounters

2/5

I have run (but not played) this scenario for a group of four. My feelings are mixed, as I think the story has merit, as does some of the way things play out, but that good is pummeled to death by completely unnecessary second act.

Roleplay (3/5): Solid roleplay opportunities exist, with a story that's moderately well fleshed out. Unfortunately, the trek through the border town makes little sense when you actually start to think about how long it's been since your target has passed through, and the fact that none of the clues actually lead to the next clue, they're just random statements of fact (or potentially lies as the case may be). It takes a good GM to take the nonsensical statements and try to put something together where the players know where to go.

Combat (2/5): Combat runs the gambit. I had my group fearing all of their lives in the major combat encounter of the scenario with one nearly dead in the surprise round and a final outcome of the deaths of an animal companion and one PC (different than the one nearly killed in the surprise round). On the other hand, another fight was quickly ended by one of the standard save or suck spells.

The X-Factor (0/5): The environmental encounters of Act 2 are nothing more than a completely unnecessary resource drain. It served no purpose other than to drain the group of a total of nearly 2 cure wands. I had thought that scenario authors had realized that slogging through an arbitrary set of "random" encounters with no real chance of avoidance is absolutely not fun (as experienced by a number of other scenarios with similar mechanics). This scenario almost made a 1/5 for this alone.

Overall? Potential, but ruined. My group was not having fun, even though I tried to GM the hell out of it.


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Webstore Gninja Minion

Announced for June!

Contributor

Wow, this is being run so many times at PaizoCon that I'm going to have to go hide somewhere during the show.

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.

1. Extremely curious about where this is going, both in this scenario and what looks to be following it. :D

2. This title sounds like an exceptionally dark episode of My Little Pony.

Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I've played in a dark episode of My Little Pony, actually. It was called the Ponyville Horror, and the ponies were in search of the Equinomicon. Erica Balsley ran this at MACE: West. :)


My wife just got asked to GM a few slots this year, two of them is this Scenario. She is so excited.

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber

You know, I'm sad that I'm locked in to just The Disappeared and In Wrath's Shadow for PaizoCon. So many great scenarios have been announced since then.

Contributor

Gary Allen Green wrote:
My wife just got asked to GM a few slots this year, two of them is this Scenario. She is so excited.

Yay! I hope it goes well.

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'm set to run this one as well at GenCon...twice out of my eight slots if I remember right. Plus I'm running it a couple times for the local PFS chapter. I look forward to the wickedness... the surprise after they accomplish the trial is just plain funny...and evil :)

Silver Crusade

Just got it! Wondering though:

What is Gulros' alignment?

Contributor

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Hey, I'm sorry I didn't think to give him an AL. I'd say CN.

Contributor

Squirrel King wrote:
I'm set to run this one as well at GenCon...twice out of my eight slots if I remember right. Plus I'm running it a couple times for the local PFS chapter. I look forward to the wickedness... the surprise after they accomplish the trial is just plain funny...and evil :)

Funny and evil--yeah, that describes my general adventure-writing tendencies. Check out Kobold Press' Beyond the Ghostlight Reef for another example of that.

Contributor

Gary A Green wrote:
My wife just got asked to GM a few slots this year, two of them is this Scenario. She is so excited.

When will she be running them? I love to hear that there are lady GMs out there!

Silver Crusade

Christina Stiles wrote:
Hey, I'm sorry I didn't think to give him an AL. I'd say CN.

fistpump

Thanks!

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
the price of friendship wrote:

if the guards succeed at a DC 25 Intimidate check, they laugh and escort the PCs to Ploog with a successful DC 25 Intimidate check. Half-orcs receive a +2 circumstance bonus on these skill checks.

Ok, what?

Liberty's Edge

I have a question regarding the abilities of the BBEG in the last encounter...

spoiler:
He's an ettin, and ettins come with Superior Two-Weapon Fighting. There doesn't seem to be any consensus regarding just how many attacks ettins are capable of in a round, taking the full-attack action. Here's a breakdown of the options for the 5-6 tier:

Option A: 2 mwk flails, +16/+16/+11
Option B: 2 mwk flails, +16/+16/+11/+11

I read that superior two-weapon fighting allows the ettin to essentially make a full-attack with each arm, thereby favoring option B. However, I would rather not get into an argument with my table tonight...

To top things off, the BBEG has both CLeave and Great Cleave. Cleave is a standard action...but if the ettin can make a full-attack with each arm, you've got:

Option A: Cleave at +16, additional attack at +16.
Option B: Cleave at +16 with one arm, Cleave at +16 with the other arm.

I'm really leaning towards option B...players in my neck of the woods tend to lean towards optimization, and even the season 4 scenarios haven't been posing too much of a challenge, and I like giving players a challenge. However, again, I would rather avoid an argument from whiny nerds.

Suggestions?

Liberty's Edge

Does anyone know where a good close city map to represent Urglin would be? Back when I ran Curse of the Crimson Throne I found one in Dungeon Magazine that worked great, but I have forgotten the issue.

Paizo Employee Developer

GTSamurai wrote:

I have a question regarding the abilities of the BBEG in the last encounter...

** spoiler omitted **

Suggestions?

Answer about the BBEG:

Each hand gains the full suite of attacks, meaning he gets two swings at +x/+y for each hand for a final result of +x/+x/+y/+y. This is not technically a full attack action with each arm (that would mean he has more actions than a typical creature); it is that he can attack more often when he actually takes a full attack action.

His superior two-weapon fighting ability does not, however, grant him additional standard actions. As a result, he only makes a single attack when using Cleave, just as would any other creature. His reach makes Great Cleave rather potent, and it also gives him a solid option when reduced to a standard action to attack.

Contributor

Sorry you didn't enjoy the environmental bits, MisterSlanky. I thought that was one of the coolest things the developers included in the outline, and it certainly proves the dangers of the Cinderlands! I mean, why would anyone in their right mind want to be traveling out there? Taking on the task to get the bullete is really risky--and this proves it. I'm the type of GM who enjoys messing with characters, though, so this is fun stuff in my book.

Thanks for running it, though, and I appreciate the feedback, especially as this was my first time writing one of these.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
thaX wrote:
the price of friendship wrote:

if the guards succeed at a DC 25 Intimidate check, they laugh and escort the PCs to Ploog with a successful DC 25 Intimidate check. Half-orcs receive a +2 circumstance bonus on these skill checks.

Ok, what?

To clarify, who is making the Intimidate check, the Guards or the PC's.

Obviously, it is supposed to be the PC's, but the sentence isn't sure.

Contributor

This is running at Firefly Games in Lexington, SC, on the 9-14-13. I plan to be there to see it run and to play some PFS.

Scarab Sages

The players I ran through this absolutely loved it and so did I. Great job.

Grand Lodge

I find the Roleplaying to be fantastic in this adventure.

Spoiler:
Our party bought a cage and bait and my alchemist's pseudodragon familiar got really lucky with the poison sting. we ant hauled the bulette [further paralyzed by our other alchemist's wasp poison] and had to explain to the gladiator lord why his Bulette couldn't move and had Roc wounds in it.
The excellence of the scenario depends on the GM I think. (ours was fantastic)

Contributor

Thank you for posting. Send up a review, too!

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