A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 5–9.
A recent assault on the Pathfinder Society has renewed hostilities with the Aspis Consortium, and clues left behind point to one of its masterminds: the gold agent Maiveer Sloan. By infiltrating one of the Consortium’s artifact-smuggling operations, the PCs can sabotage their rivals’ criminal operations and send a clear message: No attack will go unanswered.
Written by Matt Duval.
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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I played this at a con recently and wanted to flip the table over when it ended. I am a PFS addict and I like all types of scenarios but this thing is linear, corny as hell, and has an absurd game mechanic that makes zero sense to the lore of PFS .
We had a good group that carefully took notes and collected a mountain of evidence for our mission. We played it very carefully and at the end we were stripped of 5pp even though we conducted a thorough investigation.
The GM apologized to the group and told us to submit a review on the website because she hated the scenario herself and was only running it for the con's sake. So here is my review: Avoid it at all costs. Worst PFS scenario I have ever played by a landslide.
I cant believe Paizo would put their name on something so poorly written.
I'm not going to go into too much depth since Zoomba's review mimics my thoughts exactly, however I do hope the authors give this adventure style another try. I feel like many of the problems stem from the amount of things going on required many pieces of the scenario to be boiled down into a short list of skill checks at several points, all of which put a major damper on the investigation if failed. This type of investigation could result in a very unique and fun adventure, but the scripted skill checks kept pulling me out of the role and made for an extremely awkward finale. I do not recommend this scenario, however I do think that with some lessons learned a gem could be written in the future.
GM'd this for a party of 4 in the low tier (Rogue 8, Monk 6, Paladin 6, Brawler 5?) Would be 1 1/2 stars if possible, but 1 star since its not.
I really like the idea of a social-infiltration mission. And parts of it work: the opening exploration of a smuggling expedition was nice and the multiple avenues of 'assault' for the final act feint at a sandboxy -style experience. The problem comes down to the execution of the Bronze House and the final encounter however which sadly needed another pass or two.
Our experience:
My players discussed several ways they might present themselves to the Bronze House. While they briefly discussed sneaking in, they ultimately decided that the rogue would try to present himself as a teamster while the other three went in the front as merchants a few minutes afterwords. On the one hand, I was partially glad they didn't try to sneak in: the scenario arbitrarily punishes that tactic by saying it fails unless 'the PCs take pains to conceal their approach', without giving any detail as to what amount of stealth or maneuvers would qualify. On the other, splitting the party turned into a tracking nightmare, as you'll soon see...
Despite being warned about magic, the rogue kept most of his gear on him and only slightly hidden, and was thus immediately noticed by an adept. When she broke off to alert the manager, the rogue followed and tried to knock her out. Failing to do so in one hit, the alert was sounded and an extremely awkward combat was joined.
For about twenty rounds, the rogue used smokesticks, stealth, and invisibility to try and avoid the manager and the guards while the rest of the party gamely kept up their facades and played the part of confused merchants. In most scenarios this, while irritating to manage, could have been done with general combat and the players jumping in when they felt enough was enough. However, due to the ticking clock and specified times on investigation aspects, pretty much the whole thing, including some roleplay, had to be done on a round-to-round basis, which dragged the whole thing to a crawl. By the time combat was eventually joined and won, we were already pushing up against hour 5 and as a result, some of the investigation aspects (the main draw of the scenario) needed to be rushed to even get the mission done before our location closed.
Then came the last social encounter with Sloan. Which basically boiled down to a combination of skill checks and reading the scenario writer's mind. At most two of the party had played in the 6-97 Special, and so players and characters alike only had a vague knowledge of what was being referenced-never a good start for what is meant to be a cutting back and forth of remarks. The limited options the scenario encourages as 'counting' as clues or revelations are even more frustrating. Some are high checks in semi-obscure skills, while other **cough, Spymistress, cough** have never even been mentioned before and I cannot fathom why any Pathfinder would possibly pick up on, much less note, comment on, then make a DC 18,25, and 25 skill checks in a row to rub it in.
And to top it all off, because a PC non-lethally attacked a worker at an illegal operation to which the had a writ to search, the scenario rewards them by throwing them in jail, taxing everyone 5 Prestige, and prevents them from achieving any PP or boons for this mission. (I gave them each 1 PP on their chronicle not realizing until later that they do not even get that if they are arrested. I do not mind making that mistake in the slightest.)
In short, while I would like the see more of this type of scenario in the future, I hope we don't get one again until Paizo does a lot of development work to make sure it runs smooth. Conceptually its a nice change from the norm, but between the massively long run-time, very specialized character expectations, and a situation that seems designed to trick players into getting a debilitating punishment I cannot recommend Bronze House unless you have few other options.
Played this one last night in about 4,5 hours.
The background is nice and there is SO MUCH going on, it's vaguely impossible to find and do everything unless you skip the roleplaying.
The scenario is composed of two parts: A mini-dungeon and an infiltration.
The first part is nice and has a fun mini-boss in an even more fun room.
The execution of the second part is quite okay and less clunky than in
Season 5 scenario:
Port Godless
, but as I said before: There is so much going on that is nigh impossible to find everything.
All in all I enjoyed myself enough to give this 4 stars.
This is easily in my top 5 scenarios, and was a fantastic play experience (despite having s GM who admitted halfway through that he was high as a kite). It's inventive, and forces the players to think outside of the usual "stroll down the railroad, murder the things that make you pause" mentality. All of the complaints I've heard are solely due to GM's not prepping and trying to run this cold.
Is this going to be Severing Ties Part 2, or are people who played Scions of the Sky Key going to see a lot of usefulness from a certain sword?
Answering that is a minor spoiler so...
Spoiler:
The objective is not like Severing Ties p2, but I think a group could approach it in a similar manner and have a fun adventure. The objective and challenges should hopefully allow for a lot of discretion in your approach to solving them.