Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-13: What Sleeps in Stone (PFRPG) PDF

So I liked this scenario well enough, but it brought in a mechanic that's been in at least one other scenario that I've had a big problem with, Favor points.
I have no issue with the concept, BUT I've had 3 GM's who ran either this or the other one and completely missed the little box that says you start with 10 favor points. Thus all 3 of them thought that the table only had gained 9 favor points and thus had to suffer the consequences for not having 10 or more.
My big question is why start off at 10? Why not start at 0 and say if they have less than 0 points they have the bad consequence? That or really make it clear and in like 3 places that the party starts off with 10. Like maybe when it says, if the party has 10 or more (they started with 10) ...
That's been my biggest issue, try really hard to be a good pathfinder, and feel punished cause you weren't good enough to later find out that you should have been super in the clear.

I was really excited to play this sequel to Ward Asunder. And the story really delivered. While skills play a role, how you actually play your character also matters a great deal. People who played Ward Asunder will guess what I mean.

While I really dug the flavor of the place and story we were playing (which is why I'm giving four stars), I do have a quibble with the scenario. It's just a little too "brainy" - most of the fights can be avoided, and the big fight that you can't avoid is more of a puzzle-fight than a straight brawl (if you approach it as a straight brawl you're going to be creamed). That means that if you brought a warrior sort of PC, you can end up feeling a bit useless.

I feel like this is a trend in the recent seasons; a move from simple dungeon crawling towards more brainy games. I feel like this one ended a bit too far on the brainy side where normal combat is never a good answer.

I played this last night with a group of 5 PCs in low tier.

We all had a great time! The group was fairly mixed between combat-optimized and good Knowledge and Diplomacy proficiency. There are many different ways that this scenario can go and apparently we made all the important checks and managed to bypass all combats except the last one, which is hard in low tier, but sound ridiculously hard to impossible in high tier.

In summary, I recommend this to players who like to roleplay and have characters with a decent amount of ranks in Knowledge skills and Diplomacy, but make sure that you end up in low tier. It will save your PC's life!

I played this one a few days ago, and while it's a decent scenario it's not one of my favorites. The main problem I have is that based on the initial description you can wind up picking a character who doesn't have much to do, mainly because it can be much lighter on combat than you might expect.

That said, it's nice to see a short scenario like this one sometimes, especially at a higher tier. That probably makes this a good one to use for conventions where you have to keep to a tight schedule.

This is one of my favorite scenario's so far.

There are things to be figured out by cerebral players/characters. Troubles can be lessened by diplomatic groups. But they aren't necessary. It can be muscled through by a martial party.

The boss fight is tough enough to give most parties at least a bit of a scare and can be a lethal threat to some.