A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–5.
Rival explorers have beaten the Pathfinders to a valuable site in Katapesh, but fortunately most of the riches—including the obscure text the Society sought in the first place—have ended up in the capitol’s extensive bazaars. What is at first a routine shopping trip spirals out of control as the PCs uncovers the writing’s secret past—and secret messages.
Written by Sean McGowan.
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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Fulfilled immediately.
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Other reviewers are spot on below. I was looking through scenarios and thought "hey I should review some of these that I've seen" and it took me several minutes of remembering this one to wrap my head around it again. It's a good/fascinating read for a GM, a lot takes place in a mindscape, so it's best suited for a group of people who will appreciate it versus a bunch of people perhaps at a con at 8am after playing until 2am who may get frustrated and make statements like "huh, I don't get what's going on? where am I again? what do I see?".
With the right GM and right players, this could be 4 stars. With the wrong GM or one or more pesky players who won't invest, it could end up 1.5 stars.
A moderate challenge with lots to do for skilled investigators and the knowledgeable. Some unsavory tasks. Thematically makes no sense and the uneducated and unwashed must slog through it. Really a stylistic and mood driven Dark Tapestry/Psychic mystery. A good read for the GM and a unique ride for the PCs.
GM eyes only!:
Engagement: Low to Moderate. Very difficult key skill checks and moderate skill checks throughout. Generally confusing and more difficult for the unskilled in the Arts.
Plot Development: Clear and clueless then unclear and clueless... lol... it starts easy enough then goes crazy... it's like a Lovecraft tale, A-B-C-P-WQXZ-A plotline. Never a good thing leaving artifact like items laying about in a home game. A similar item(s) underlies a faction...
Roleplaying: Low to Moderate. Depends on how much the GM engages the party in the first half. The second half can get very descriptive but low on interaction... depends on the GM.
Challenge: Moderate. Key skill rolls very difficult. Some distasteful tasks. Second half is harder for the non-educated <wink>.
Complexity: Moderate. It is very descriptive and relies on setting a mood and that's a hard sell in PFS. GMs have to ask for a lot of Skill Checks and saves... if they forget it can get naSTY!
This scenario has a lot going on, story-wise, and there are many moments for fantastic RP. This is a big chance for all characters to really decide "who they are" and "what they truly value."
It uses elements from Occult Adventures, so GMs will want to have access to that book or the relevant sections of the PRD during prep and possibly while running the table. Because of that, this scenario can get a little "heady" for murderhobo type PCs. Though... I found with a little coaxing you can pull out threads of character from even the most combat-minded player.
This ambitious scenario has some excellent moments. The second half, in particular, is unique. However, it doesn't fully execute on its ambition--not all parties are well suited to it, but more notably, many players aren't going to enjoy the particular type of adventure this provides. There are places where the mechanics for moving between areas are just inconsistent enough to create confusion.
When I was prepping to run this, I was excited--it's really really cool. But when I ran it, my party just couldn't wrap their heads around what was going on at all. Some of that is surely me, but I've had success running weird scenarios before, and some of it is also due to the scenario.
If you've got a group that likes to think, this is definitely for them. I wouldn't recommend it for a group of murderhobos, though, or for a group that hasn't gotten enough sleep.
Lines is a combat and investigation based scenario.
Several reviewers have said the scenario feels too long and this would be especially true if your GM uses heavy roleplay for the introduction (instead of playing it as an introduction). My GM moved it along quickly. The introduction was unfortunately the best part of the scenario.
I like strange and mysterious things to happen in scenarios, but the mystery in Lines felt annoying, grindy, and made the scenario feel long. Unfortunately, I think the weirdness is the main selling point of the scenario.
Detailed Rating:
Length: Medium (Felt long at 3.5 hours. It's possible that we did the optional encounter).
Experience: Player with 6 good PCs at subtier 4-5, some playing up.
Sweet Spot: TBD.
Entertainment: Start was OK, then slogging through each room was grindy. (6/10)
Story: The story was unknown for most of the scenario and irrelevant when we found out. (6/10)
Roleplay: Very little and overdoing it is a mistake. (5/10)
Combat/Challenges: I can imagine weirder things happening. The demon at the start was good. (6/10)
Maps: So convoluted that my GM didn't even bother. I'm sure the maps could and should have been a good feature of this scenario. (7/10)
Boons: One of the better boons I've seen, in terms of use and balance. (9/10)
Uniqueness: Unique within PFS. (8/10)
Overall: The mystery elements of this scenario were annoying and grindy leaving the scenario to feel only "ok".
When is this scenario expected to be available for purchase? The status jumped from 'available tomorrow' to 'unavailable' 24-48 hours ago, and hasn't changed since.
None of the product descriptions of the first 3 season 7 scenarios mention which factions they grant boons for / advance the storylines of. Is that no longer a thing in season 7, or has that information been left out by mistake?
None of the product descriptions of the first 3 season 7 scenarios mention which factions they grant boons for / advance the storylines of. Is that no longer a thing in season 7, or has that information been left out by mistake?
Not every scenario has something that relates to a particular faction. Several season 6 scenarios were like that, too.
I remember Compton said they won't arbitrarily force a faction thing into every scenario.
Yeah, that's an obvious typo on the chronicle sheet.
I had so much fun playing this at GenCon that I signed up to GM it in two weeks at a local store. Just a warning, though: this is definitely NOT a scenario to run cold.
Out of curiosity, this does seem like it's very likely to run long. Is that everyone else's experience, too? I don't think it was just my table at GenCon - we actually finished in a reasonable time, but there were a ton of other tables around us still going in the same scenario. This just seems to have a lot more encounters (some combat, some not) than most.
If you are going to run this you need to be prepared. Had trouble getting a seated at GenCon (a recurring problem for my Core group) and ended up with a GM that had never seen this scenario. She did her best but it was a brutal grind.
I ran this 5 times at GenCon. I had a blast. It was awesome. It usually ran 3.75-4 hours. It takes a lot of prep, but is so much fun for everyone. Great scenario.
The page numbers are referencing those pages in the scenario itself.
Furansisuco:
Page 14 has the Shadows of the Mind sidebar explaining what the shadow conjurations are meant to be, and page 22 has the actual stat block in the appendix of the scenario.
When in the PRODUCT REVIEWS section for this scenario, clicking on Page 2, 3, 4, or 5 takes me into this PRODUCT DISCUSSION section. This is happening to me in both MS Edge and in Google Chrome.
