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Pathfinder Society Scenario #5–01: The Glass River Rescue (PFRPG) PDF

3.60/5 (based on 22 ratings)
Pathfinder Society Scenario #5–01: The Glass River Rescue (PFRPG) PDF

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A Pathfinder Society Scenario for characters of 1st to 5th level (Tier 1–5).

A Pathfinder leading a diplomatic envoy from the dwarven holds of the Five Kings Mountains has gone missing, and the balance of power in a time of war hangs on her rescue. The Pathfinder Society's divinations indicate the agent was waylaid in the theocratic nation of Razmiran, when one of her escorted diplomats failed to pay a requested tithe. Now it falls to the party to enter Razmiran, locate the missing Pathfinder and the dwarven diplomats, and escape with their lives.

Written by Mike Shel.

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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PZOPSS0501E

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Rollicking Rescue Mission

4/5 —

This is a great start to the new season. I have GM'ed this once, my players seemed very happy with the new faction mission system and the preference to remain loyal to the primary mission (even though the same players used exhausted unarmoured dwarven prisoners as cover...)

PRO:

-Great 'cover your tracks' prerequisites for Secondary Prestige success. This is coupled with a great Razmiran atmosphere of investigation and subterfuge. Oh, and great use of a Prophet of Kalistrade NPC character too! Great use of Golarion flavour.

-Great cinematic fantasy battle with River Drakes and the Accuser Devil. Monsters often make such better combatants than humans in PFS. Especially when all the humans are ranged.

-Dwarven Bickering. It needs to be in more scenarios. It's wonderful.

CON:

-I feel like Paizo is still trying to find the right mix for the adjustments for a table of four players. I had four players and the adjustments seemed to cut plenty of the challenge out of the fights.

-Casters need melee combatants to defend them. Crossbowmen are not melee combatants. Therefore I was kinda annoyed with my Razmiran thugs constantly having to ignore their feat preferences to make sure the Big Baddy wasn't in line for about three charge lines at any given time.

Great module

4/5 —

This module was designed very well with a care to ease the GM's burden. The plot is straightforward and the buy-in from PCs is easy (you don't say "no" to a rescue mission! :) )

The stats are laid out very nicely and the NPC tactics are clear. I found no errors in the stats.

The whole table very much enjoyed the "evil empire" feel of this adventure as they entered Razmiran and their ship got boarded for inspection! :)

Poor execution

2/5 —

I carefully prepared this scenario and was the GM for 6-players last night at subtier 4–5.

One of my players put it nicely: "This felt like a season 0 scenario." The PCs are confronted with choices that don't matter. The NPCs are bland with simple, non-negotiable objectives that make them feel more like mechanical encounters than people with their own will (despite coming from culturally interesting locales). The optional encounter feels slightly more related to season 5 than any other encounters and the others feel too repetitive, except for one that seems out of the blue random. None were very challenging for my players with an average party level of four.

I have maps printed, pages highlighting the important content, color prints of NPCs so we can keep them straight and encounters conveniently prepared on sheets with templates already added. Despite all this, a telling part of this experience for me is that despite how easy it would be to run this cold in a few months after so much prep work—I don't know that I'd really want to. #5–01: The Glass River Rescue falls flat on its face and just isn't as fun as so many other tier 1–5 scenarios available.

Sadly, a disapointing start to Season 5.

3/5 —

I was part of a group who played this scenario this past week. We had fun, but several things in it just frustrated us.

Spoiler:

The lack of options: The GM let us know afterwards that every time we thought we had a choice, we hadn't chosen wrong... he'd just been supposed to give us the illusion of choice. What was the point of that?

The River Drake fight: I (a level 1 paladin) almost died at this point. I was the first person to be hit by the Drake's breath weapon, which kept me stuck there for the rest of the fight, and after, since there was no duration on the effect. It took the entire effort of the party to get me out before I died from a monster that had died 8 rounds before.

The second prestige point: We nailed the first condition (the bluff check, due to a very deceitful gnome), but we missed the second one, the Perception Check, because we decided to use our Take 10 Perceptions, and it required higher. That was all us, but the third condition is the one that frustrated us. Before we left the boat, we were told by both merchants to avoid violence, so we took that to heart. When we fought the "priestess," we stabilized her, woke her back up, explained that it was all a misunderstanding, and brought her back inside the inn. We then found out that since we didn't cut her throat or kidnap her as she lay there, we lost the point. We still haven't figured out why we were advised by our passengers to not get the point.

Overall, we enjoyed it, but we think that was more because we enjoyed playing with each other than the scenario itself.

- Dave

no options

2/5 —

without going into details to spoil the scenario, it doesn't provide meaningful choices to players, in how to get through the scenario. Every action leads to the same outcome. The NPCs are bland and robotic, asking the players to do things for no sensible reason.

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Webstore Gninja Minion

Announced for GenCon 2013!

Sounds like a great start for season 5 :D
Shadow Lodge
1 person marked this as a favorite.

Its nice to finally know what it is that I'm running at GenCon... ;D
Dark Archive
Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Its nice to finally know what it is that I'm running at GenCon... ;D

Same here; and it's written by Mike Shel. GenCon keeps looking better and better.

Sovereign Court
Eric Clingenpeel wrote:
Its nice to finally know what it is that I'm running at GenCon... ;D

Same. Just hoping I have more than 12 hours to download, print, and prep it...

Silver Crusade

We're going back to the wilderness! It's like going back to Season 0 adventures all over again! But not quite. Cause they are in Pathfinder RPG now. :D

I'll be running this at GenCon as well. I'm getting super excited about Season 5!
Liberty's Edge

It is getting close to release, when are we going to see the final cover art updated on the website?
Contributor

For those running this scenario at GenCon:

With your permission I'll be sitting in on several sessions and would be happy to answer questions for you, especially if you don't get lots of time for prep. Feel free to private message me here if you don't mind me sitting in to watch the action.
Shadow Lodge RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8
Mike Shel wrote:

For those running this scenario at GenCon:

With your permission I'll be sitting in on several sessions and would be happy to answer questions for you, especially if you don't get lots of time for prep. Feel free to private message me here if you don't mind me sitting in to watch the action.

Thanks for being available Mike! I'll let you know if I have any questions once I get it in my downloads. :)

Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Mike, Hope to see you sitting at my table again this year!

That said... what are the chances we will see this (and the other scenarios we are wiaitng on) given to the GenCon GMs today?

Because of odd situation I am going through right now, if I don't get it today it will be very difficult for me to be able to prep this before Gen Con.
Liberty's Edge

I got 5 sessions of this to run at GenCon - cant wait to bring the awesome!

Feel free to sit in on my games and see how its done! ;-)
Paizo Employee Developer

It's my first day back after Gen Con, and I've caught up on reading reviews. I appreciate the feedback—especially for it being predominantly positive.

Mildly spoiler response to Thamius' concern:

Thanks for pointing out the difficulty of tying in the optional encounter and making the full Prestige award. I'll be certain to keep an eye out for that in the future.
Sczarni

Small point, but I was reviewing this scenario to get an idea what secondary success conditions would look like (running #13 tomorrow). I really like the addition of boons to the chronicle for faction goal advancement.

The small point I really wanted to make was that the chronicle lists gear rewards for all subtiers and subtler 8-9. I'm sure this was a layout/cut paste over sight as the scenario is level 1-5.

Just thought I would point it out in case no one has said anything yet.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Played it today.

Kind of meh...in the end it seemed just like any other have this one skill or fail scenario.

On the plus side, I did enjoy the story. Pretty nicely written, thanks.

minor spoiler:
One player was a meta and power gamer who was socially challenged (repeatedly interrupted and used a lot of cursing) and another player who decided that breaking (destroyed their bedroom door, used intimidate) into the peaceful npc's bedroom was a good act.
Since the rest of the party at Tier 1-2 decided 1) not to slaughter everyone and 2) could not beat a +37 sense motive with bluff we failed the mission. Also low tier has limited options in dealing with an invisible boss.

Going to see if it runs a bit different, maybe it was our GM and group.
Sovereign Court
Rerednaw wrote:
** spoiler omitted **

I do apologize for my part in not keeping people on track and shutting them up so others could play. I also apologize for mis-speaking.

Spoiler:
It was a 27 Sense Motive which I rolled (Nat 19 plus skill bonus), but a 37 like I said at the end. I even went back just now to check the roll. It was rolled properly, and the bluff check was still did not beat it, and thus not altering what happened. Also, I will let you know that the final fight would have happened regardless of that check, just been a bit easier. That said...
You lot absolutely trounced the final fight. I was left in the dust trying to catch up. Not much I could have done different with those tactics.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path Subscriber

Any flip maps or map packs required for this scenario?

or are the maps easy to create on a blank map?
Grand Lodge

Map Pack: Waterfront and Flip-mat Country Inn. They are pretty complex.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Sior wrote:
Rerednaw wrote:
** spoiler omitted **
I do apologize for my part in not keeping people on track and shutting them up so others could play. I also apologize for mis-speaking. ** spoiler omitted **You lot absolutely trounced the final fight. I was left in the dust trying to catch up. Not much I could have done different with those tactics.

@Sior

Did we play the same session? As I recall, we basically popped cover and fled. :) I don't consider fleeing and module failure a big success. On the other hand nobody died which was a nice plus.

I thought your GM style was fine, BTW. That other stuff wasn't your fault.

I still have a fundamental issue with "one skill check or fail" but that's just how it's written is all. I prefer something along the lines of make at least 3 out of 4 or similar. That way when the dice pulls a Han Solo Stealth/Bluff check we can make it up. Also if it is a round of such rolls it encourages more player engagement out of combat something PFS still has some difficulty with. I guess more like the way skill challenges are done in 4th DND. :)
Silver Crusade

Played this about a month ago. 2nd level greatsword paladin > river drake, apparently.

Sadly the local PFS group has a few people who basically play murderhobos and made a hash out of the whole inn infiltration (you'd think it would be the paladin screwing up the bluffing, but nope, it was the rogues), but we managed to rescue the prisoners and destroyed the final encounter; I wasted smite because the cleric (I guess not a cleric from the discussion? She died too quickly to say) got completely gibbed before I could get a second turn.
2 people marked this as a favorite.

Spoiler:

This is an actual exchange from tonight's running of this scenario.

"So what's her AC? I got a 19?"
"She's a grandma...so her AC is 9 - you hit her for nearly all her HP, and she screams and begs for mercy."
"Her AC is 9?"
"She's a grandma."

Luckily the party got the hint that while the sisters MAY be evil, hell, they may be involved in some awful things, they're NOT combatants -- I only had to explain to them one time that they were bordering on evil actions when it came to these three women.

Night Hag, witch, demons, ghosts, they were none of those things. But two members of the party assumed they were.

The Urban Ranger Tiefling with HUMAN as his Preferred Enemy - took this to mean he hates humans and so therefore felt NOTHING about beating on a defenseless elderly woman. Attempted to justify an evil act by saying 'But my character HATES humans.'

So? She's a grandma. That was my only response.

Maybe in future -- we don't put something like 'If someone from this land treats you with kindness, it's cause for suspicion.'in our scenarios, then have defenseless elderly women be kind to the PCs. Or, we actually MAKE THE EVIL WOMEN EVIL. Ratting people out to the authorities is not 'punch the grandma in the face' level of evil needing thwarting. But if you plant that seed of 'If they're kind, be suspicious' with Murder Hobos -- bear in mind they will IMMEDIATELY punch a grandma.

Liberty's Edge
2 people marked this as a favorite.
Quote:
The Urban Ranger Tiefling with HUMAN as his Preferred Enemy - took this to mean he hates humans....

Sigh.... "trained to fight against" is not the same as "hates", but it's a pity folks don't realize that.

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
rknop wrote:
Quote:
The Urban Ranger Tiefling with HUMAN as his Preferred Enemy - took this to mean he hates humans....
Sigh.... "trained to fight against" is not the same as "hates", but it's a pity folks don't realize that.

Unfortunately, the mechanics of the class can be argued to favor the player's interpretation. When the only way you can take your own race as a Favored Enemy is be being of an evil alignment, it rather implies an antagonistic relationship with said Favored Enemy...

Sovereign Court
Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Irnk, Dead-Eye's Prodigal wrote:
When the only way you can take your own race as a Favored Enemy is be being of an evil alignment, it rather implies an antagonistic relationship with said Favored Enemy...

[citation needed]

Ranger class wrote:

Favored Enemy (Ex): At 1st level, a ranger selects a creature type from the ranger favored enemies table. He gains a +2 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks against creatures of his selected type. Likewise, he gets a +2 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against them. A ranger may make Knowledge skill checks untrained when attempting to identify these creatures.

At 5th level and every five levels thereafter (10th, 15th, and 20th level), the ranger may select an additional favored enemy. In addition, at each such interval, the bonus against any one favored enemy (including the one just selected, if so desired) increases by +2.

If the ranger chooses humanoids or outsiders as a favored enemy, he must also choose an associated subtype, as indicated on the table below. (Note that there are other types of humanoid to choose from—those called out specifically on the table below are merely the most common.) If a specific creature falls into more than one category of favored enemy, the ranger's bonuses do not stack; he simply uses whichever bonus is higher.
Shadow Lodge

It's kind of a throw back. In 2E, a Ranger had to attack their favored enemy to the exclusion of others unless it was completely impractical. In 3.0, you had t be evil to select your own race as a Favored Enemy unless they where normally evil (like Drow), (I think it was something like that). In 3.5 that mostly went away and a bit more social effects where added in. It still retains the Favored Enemy rather than something like Favored Target/Subject.
Grand Lodge

This question was put up on Facebook's PFS page. Putting it here to see if anyone can help this person out.

"I'm looking the old Pathfinder Society module, Glass River Rescue, and I've noticed Passad, Metella, and Amauhak don't have stat blocks. Do those stat blocks exist elsewhere?"
Grand Lodge

I see that 5-21 has stats for Passad and Metella as experts (merchants). Still nothing on Amauhak so far.
Paizo Employee Developer

There are not stat blocks for any of these three NPCs at this time. It's possible that a future scenario might provide them full stat blocks.
Grand Lodge
John Compton wrote:
There are not stat blocks for any of these three NPCs at this time. It's possible that a future scenario might provide them full stat blocks.

Okay. So nothing in 5-01. This is how it reads right now in the 5-21 adventure:

TEMEL PASSAD
LN male human expert/prophet of Kalistrade

METELLA RAUGER
LG female dwarf expert/fighter

Tier 1-2
TEMEL PASSAD OR METELLA RAUGER CR 1
Shopkeep (Pathfinder RPG Gamemastery Guide 284)
hp 13

Tier 4-5
TEMEL PASSAD OR METELLA RAUGER CR 5
Traveling merchant (Pathfinder RPG Gamemastery Guide 285)
hp 31
Paizo Employee Developer

Yep, noted. The NPC Codex reference is very useful for approximating their statistics in that adventure, but that sample expert does not reflect their exact class mixes. Likewise, the differences over the subtiers (important for the adventure) make the substitution a little less satisfying in the long run. I would want to provide a definitive character level before saying that something is the canonical stat block for one or the other. Any one of them is probably in the level 5-8 range.

Might I ask why it is important to have their exact stats? Is there a compulsion or charm spell involved?
Grand Lodge
John Compton wrote:

Yep, noted. The NPC Codex reference is very useful for approximating their statistics in that adventure, but that sample expert does not reflect their exact class mixes. Likewise, the differences over the subtiers (important for the adventure) make the substitution a little less satisfying in the long run. I would want to provide a definitive character level before saying that something is the canonical stat block for one or the other. Any one of them is probably in the level 5-8 range.

Might I ask why it is important to have their exact stats? Is there a compulsion or charm spell involved?

Apparently it makes it easier to run. I've never ran the adventure myself, but it's been brought up a few times in the reviews, and someone on FB was in need of it for their game. Apparently a number of people required it for one reason or another.

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