Nearly every nation has contributed to the Mendevian Crusade, but few are willing to send additional aid to assist the Pathfinder Society directly. Owed a favor the elves cannot refuse, Pathfinders travel to Kyonin to secure a force of some of the finest demon-hunters in Avistan only to find that the hunters are missing in action. Can the Pathfinders extract the lost elves from the depths of Tanglebriar, or will they become the latest casualties of Treerazer’s domain?
Written by Ryan Costello, Jr.
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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3.75 stars.
Perspective: Played once, GM'ed twice.
It's no surprise that this scenario is going to get its fair share of bad reviews by murdered players who felt they were flung into the Abyss itself. This is because that's exactly the brief the author was given. Tanglebriar is a Gehenna that fired it's gardener, and as soon as the scenario kicks off the players are picked up and roughly shaken while an enormous screaming demon flings a pair of big kid pants at them. This is not for anyone with CON 10 or lower.
You are effectively flung into a situation where you have two rounds to adapt or die. At 7-11 play you should have a number of options at your disposal for dealing with a range of life-threatening circumstances. If you do not think your character's specialized trick will not function in the context, for Calistria's sake DO NOT DO IT, or you will quickly end up demon chow. You are playing 7-11: think advanced tactics. Nova capabilities, teleportation, expensive magic consumables. Some liberal applications of Breath of Life wouldn't go astray either. Think like the enemy: what would you do? How can you make sure that this won't work?
Once you are past the initial encounter, congratulations. You can hold your head up high and know that whatever comes next can't be anything as bad as what just happened to you. There's another scar and another war story for the Grand Lodge back home.
What comes next is a sort of Season 5 evolution on the old Sarkorian Prophecy style mission. There are a number of beasts in the Tanglebriar and just about everything is carnivorous. There is some creepy roleplay, some ruin raiding, some classic monsters with both hunger and sexual desires and a tough final boss. I'll be honest - this is gonna hurt. But once you push through, you'll find a satisfying rescue story with a number of intriguing metaplot consequences at the final flag.
Some GM notes:
-Be very familiar with the first encounter and tactics written. You want to give your players a fair chance to show their stuff.
-The ground visibly surges from the direction of the Tanglebriar. A surprise round should *not* be given to the Titan.
-The Uprooter survivors are suspicious, but not suspicious to the point of ignoring a creature that can kill them all with a standard action.
-If you are running this at low tier, do not forget the Poor Diction ability at the end.
I played this with 4 PCs at subtier 7-8; we had a barbarian-7, bard-8, fighter-9, inquisitor-10, and a 5-star GM. I was very excited about the scenario intro - tie-ins to a novel I had just read, an area of Golarion I'd never been to, lots of Season 5 plot potential. Some good RP at the beginning sent us on our quest, and our allies were even kind enough to teleport us to where we were going.
Spoiler:
... which turned out to be within reach of the largest creature I have ever seen in PFS, who gets a surprise round and uses an area attack that deals an average of 45 (max 60) damage, to the entire party, that really couldn't be avoided (there was a Reflex save for half, but I failed it with a 27). Our GM rolled in the open and rolled low, so we survived the surprise round. (If you manage not to be surprised, this is delayed slightly.
Things were looking grim. Luckily, there were some allies to help...
Spoiler:
... but they had to be convinced we were on their side. A 38 Diplomacy check by our bard wasn't enough to convert them all, and so a bunch of them attacked us as well in Round 1, doing another 10-15 points to half the party.
Then it was our turn...
Spoiler:
... although, since the creature was across a river, terrain was a problem (not for it, just for us). Some ranged and spell damage to the beast ensued. Then the allies (on higher ground and unreachable) shot us again, and then the creature used its area attack again, doing another 80% damage to three of the four party members. The bard managed to stay far enough away that he still had 7 hit points, but the other three (including both above-tier PCs) were dead. At this point, a second insanely high Diplomacy check by the bard converted the rest of the allies to our cause, and they concentrated fire on the beast and took it down. (Probably due to our GM taking pity on us.)
So, after spending enough Prestige to get raised and remove 1 negative level (there wasn't time to wait a week to remove the second one), we were able to start the actual mission.
From this point the scenario was very good - a mix of combat and roleplay, some really cool environmental and terrain effects, and a great sense of what may be to come from other Season 5 scenarios. It was still hard, with a negative level and environmental effects that were quite hard to avoid completely, plus other encounters that tried to delay you and make you spend more time in the harmful environment. Still, I loved this part - really hard, thought I was going to die, but just made it through.
If the first encounter hadn't happened, this would be a 4-star scenario for sure, maybe higher. Unfortunately, as-is, I suspect the first encounter really can't be handled by most in-tier PCs (at least at the low subtier).
Alas, we're going to think long and hard about offering this one again in our Lodge. I still have hope - there hasn't been a lot of feedback yet, so maybe there are ways for the scenario to be "run as written" without requiring a TPK in the first encounter. It really is a great scenario story-wise, but my fear is that only the uber-combat builds will survive to see the story unfold.
I've never played Pathfinder Society, probably won't get the chance to for the foreseeable future, but I think I'm going to buy this anyway. After listening to all of "Know Direction" over the summer, I'm really curious to read some of Ryan's writing.
While no motivation to buy this is unwarrented, Nate, I recommend you give PFS a try. Heck, if you're buying this scenario anyway, offer to run The Elven Entanglement at your FLGS. Most regions have a core group of veterans begging for higher tier scenarios.
Give it the Wild Speech feat. People so rarely expect an otyugh to talk; it would blow their minds to hear a bear talk and then find out that the bear is an otyugh...that can also talk.
I think I'm gonna buy this and work it into my home campaign -- the PCs just happen to be in the Tanglebriar right now, and in need of building some trust with the elves of Kyonin.
EDIT: And I am a Know Direction/Private Sanctuary fan, and want to throw some business Ryan's way!
Does this scenario have any recommended factions? I haven't seen any mentioned anywhere...yet.
If not, does this mean that Season 5 Tier 7-11 scenarios will follow a slightly different paradigm than the lower tiers have so far, or does this fall under the category of "one does not constitute a pattern"? :P
Does this scenario have any recommended factions? I haven't seen any mentioned anywhere...yet.
If not, does this mean that Season 5 Tier 7-11 scenarios will follow a slightly different paradigm than the lower tiers have so far, or does this fall under the category of "one does not constitute a pattern"? :P
TIA!
Not every scenario will have a faction-related opportunity. It so happens that #5–05 does not have such a faction goal, and I'm sure that there will be others—not all of them Tier 7-11—that will similarly have no faction association.
Does this scenario have any recommended factions? I haven't seen any mentioned anywhere...yet.
If not, does this mean that Season 5 Tier 7-11 scenarios will follow a slightly different paradigm than the lower tiers have so far, or does this fall under the category of "one does not constitute a pattern"? :P
TIA!
Not every scenario will have a faction-related opportunity. It so happens that #5–05 does not have such a faction goal, and I'm sure that there will be others—not all of them Tier 7-11—that will similarly have no faction association.
Except, of course, for those of us with Lantern Bearer characters who see this entire scenario as one big glorious opportunity to do some work for their true faction. ^w^
Thanks lastblacknight. And thanks to everyone who has reviewed the scenario so far. Sorry for those who fell victim to an early encounter, although from one of the write-ups, I can see an error or two the GM made that increased the lethality of the encounter exponentially. I’ve posted some advice for GMs thinking of running this scenario in the thread in the Pathfinder Society GM Discussion forum.
I'm running this tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to it. I think I might bring a copy of Queen of Thorns to lend to anyone who seemed incredibly into the setting.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Typo
Spoiler:
The Briarborn Juggernaut (a not quite advanced version of the Titan Centipede) Didn't have the fact that it can not be tripped in the CMB/CMD section. I assume that the same would apply as it did in the lower tier monster.
Animate Dead on Briarborn Juggernaut. It's a horsey!
You may need to consider how to handle that. Our GM had to take a break to figure out what would happen. And we still ended up effectively ignoring a large part of the module. Official ruling may be necessary.
You may need to consider how to handle that. Our GM had to take a break to figure out what would happen. And we still ended up effectively ignoring a large part of the module. Official ruling may be necessary.
Not official, but...
Spoiler:
Given how many reviews mention that the first encounter led to a TPK, I think this is a just reward for a well fought encounter.
I have personally witnessed that tactic once and read about it happening on two other occasions. It's not a tactic available to every party, and just happens to make a few parts of the scenario easier.
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