A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 7th-level pregenerated characters.
Years of political maneuvering, espionage, smuggling, and diplomacy have set the stage for the Aspis Consortium's most ambitious attack on their Inner Sea rivals: the Pathfinder Society. All that remains are several key preparations that only an elite team of Aspis agents can arrange, and once the fireworks begin, these same agents must strike quickly and mercilessly to secure objectives—some shared and some connected to deeper plots—and escape without the Society being any the wiser.
In this adventure the players portray agents of the Aspis Consortium using 7th-level pregenerated characters. The events in this story also connect to and expand upon those in Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-97: Siege of Serpents.
Written by John Compton.
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This was an absolute blast to play. The premise is great: you may have just played/GMed Siege of Serpents and now you get to ensure in the villain flashback that that's what happened. It's not your fault the rest of the Consortium couldn't finish the job properly.
Clearly, this scenario should be played after Siege of Serpents. Also, what another reviewer said, you really need The Leader (wizard) as one of the pregens chosen. That said, from across the table it looked like a really solid pregen. The divine caster is also good to have. I think the martial pregens are slightly more interchangeable; they're all fine but none of them indispensable.
The rest of the pregens are also well done. Each of them is competent at his/her job. Nobody feels like the Lump that is blocking the rest of the team from a successful stealth mission. Conversely, no single pregen can do everything, so everyone gets some spotlight time. While some of the pregens are evil, not all of them, and there are no strong incentives to sabotage the rest of the team. All the hate and bitterness is focused outwards. I think that's a good design to pull off an "evil" adventure without hurt feelings.
The PCs are all effective at their job, but also relatively balanced with each other. Good use of pregens, that. There's also been some thought put into the question of how to keep the adventure moving if a PC dies, which is entirely possible. The Pathfinder opposition may be NPCs, but some of them are quite dangerous.
It should also be kept in mind that while decently-built, these pregens are far from the optimized-to-the-gills PCs we normally see running around. I think they're slightly behind the ACG pregens but ahead of the CRB pregens. And with a much more coordinated set of abilities as a team. I think that again is a decent design choice: it limits the amount of information to digest before you start playing, but leaves you with someone you can still take seriously.
The boss fight in particular was impressive: this is what it feels like to be on the receiving end of an arrogant controlling caster with a suite of spells and tactics to really make you miserable. Just like our PCs do to the Aspis every other time. It's a welcome change from all the sad mad cultists just waiting in a dank basement for the pathfinders to come and kill them; this one intends to make a stand and win.
I thought nothing could top Traitor's Lodge as my favorite scenario to run. Serpent's Rise is proof that I was wrong.
My only quibble (and it's a minor one) is the four-player adjustment — I think it tones the final encounter down too much. But aside from that, this one is first-rate.
This scenario was fantastic in every sense. The roleplaying was vibrant and dynamic (mostly because of the table I was playing at, but still). There were a number of open-ended situations that called for ingenuity on the players' parts, but could also be solved straightforwardly. The combats were diverse and exciting, offering some nice atmospherics and mechanical crispness. And finally, the pregens were absolutely fantastic. I played 322 and used all of her resources perfectly. I can't wait to run this.
11 days until Paizocon, any idea on when the GMs who have this in their downloads will be able to access it and the other specials so we have ample time to prepare/purchase supplies for it?
11 days until Paizocon, any idea on when the GMs who have this in their downloads will be able to access it and the other specials so we have ample time to prepare/purchase supplies for it?
As has been the case in past years, the adventures go live for convention GMs on the Friday before the convention (May 15th this year). There are a few that might be ready earlier than that on a case-by-case basis.
For this adventure, you'll want the following map products:
Spoiler:
Map Pack: Fortress (out of print, yes, but it ended up being a good fit)
Map Pack: Temple
11 days until Paizocon, any idea on when the GMs who have this in their downloads will be able to access it and the other specials so we have ample time to prepare/purchase supplies for it?
As has been the case in past years, the adventures go live for convention GMs on the Friday before the convention (May 15th this year). There are a few that might be ready earlier than that on a case-by-case basis.
For this adventure, you'll want the following map products:
** spoiler omitted **
Thanks John! Any chance of getting the list of maps needed for the other specials too?
PaizoCon GMs, we have sent the adventure to everyone signed up to run it at PaizoCon. You might not have received an email informing you that this is the case, but it should be updated in your downloads.
Customer service has nobly gone through the list of GMs set to run this adventure at PaizoCon and manually added the file to those individuals' downloads. It looks like most people on the list already had the file, and about half of those who did not receive the file had provided an email address other than their paizo.com email address (the one used for your account on paizo.com).
PaizoCon GMs who do not have this adventure yet: We cannot add this file to your downloads until you tell us what your paizo.com email address is. Please let both Mike Brock and customer service know ASAP, and we will endeavor to have this added to your downloads on Monday.
John, this is one of my favorite PFS scenarios ever. My GM was woefully unprepared and I could tell how excellent it is through that challenge. Kudos and thanks!
I have to say, the scenario was quite fantastic! There was quite a bit of nail biting in certain spots, but for good reason. Congratulations of a very entertaining and difficult scenario that was enjoyable. If I get the chance, I would gladly GM this at some time once it's available to my VO.
According to Mike the 6-98 and 6-99 will need 4 or 5 stars to run after GenCon, even for VO's.
EDIT:This will be the 4 star special and 6-99 will be the 5 star special scenario.
Darn. My region has a couple 4-star GMs but that's the city while I'm out in the burbs, which has its own pool of GMs and players. I think the highest we have is 2-stars.
Wait, so newer areas without high star VO's won't be able to get this at all? That's sort of lame. Super exclusive club things like this tend to sour audiences quickly.
Wallie, I think I'm the only four star (currently!) in Columbus, and I don't know if we've any five stars yet. Seems to incentivize running events. (I know I'm trying to get my specials in)
I played this scenario at Gen Con, and it was great. Considering its ties to Siege of Serpents, and having played it a few nights previous, it was especially fun.
Not sure if this was a mistake or not but on 322's character sheet:
For people who want no info going in about abilities:
322's Interstellar void ability does not have the rules restriction text on it from the void mystery stating that it can be used once per day plus an additional time at 10th level. As such it became an ability which dealt a big chunk of damage, that could be used every turn, so there was almost no reason to use other damaging spells, since it could be used infinitely.
We eventually had to rule that the void mystery text took precedent, because the Oracle was just blasting everything. It might have been intentional, but it lead to a bit of imbalance.
Played this Sunday morning at Gen Con. Everyone's character got special show-case time, and it was a perfect compliment to 6-97 Siege of Serpents.
Our GM, Chris, was extremely well-prepared and turned in a spectacular performance. I've been gaming since 1978 (37 years) and this is easily among my top 3 favorite gaming experiences in all that time.
My character was 322. Chilling! Role-playing her even creeped out the other players at the table. I cannot wait for her (and all the other Aspis agents) to show up in future scenarios.
Had a blast with this at GenCon, however I thought I read that the chronicle would be updated after Paizocon to be a tier (6-8 I believe) and not just level 7. I applied it to an 8th level character thinking this was the case. Is there clarification on this?
So as a 4 star gm... how do i go about getting this to run now that Gen con has ended.
We've started to add those to qualifying GMs' downloads. I would expect the process to be done within a week or two.
As a more recent 4-star GM, I expect I'm further down the list for that, so shall be patient. Don't need it till next month anyway. Thankfully, PbP has little lead time needed =)
It seems that the halfling pregen, Joliryn, has an inconsistency in her statblock. It says everywhere that she has a scimitar, including her weapon focus feat and her art, but the offense section lists a +1 flaming kukri, with a +12 attack bonus, which seems to include the weapon focus feat.
Any word on the availability of this one for four stars yet? I imagine with the shakeups in VO positions and bringing on a new coordinator that things get pushed back. But I know my players are dying to play this one, so I'd hate to see it forgotten.
Any word on the availability of this one for four stars yet? I imagine with the shakeups in VO positions and bringing on a new coordinator that things get pushed back. But I know my players are dying to play this one, so I'd hate to see it forgotten.
I just mailed customer services and I received it in about 3 days.
Scenario-6-98-Serpents-Rise
http://paizo.com/products/btpy9lzy
http://paizo.com/products/btpy9mbd
all this links show "unavailable" text under price, not