A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 7-11.
For millennia an order of scholars known as the Jeweled Sages catalogued the wisdom and lore of northern Garund's greatest minds within crystalline artifacts. Though these sage jewels have recently resurfaced, so too has the new generation of sages learned that something else dwells within besides ancient memories. The entire order gathers where the Jeweled Sages truly began in order to confront their hidden past, purge an ancient evil that has haunted them for ages, and define the future of the Scarab Sages faction.
Contents in Salvation of the Sages also contribute directly to the ongoing storyline of the Scarab Sages faction.
Might be my favorite scenario of all time, and I’ve played Eyes of the Ten and All for Immortality. Feels like a real payoff for the Scarab Sages faction.
This scenario is incredibly epic. Epic storyline, awesome NPCs, epic battles, great RP opportunities, all wrapped up into one scenario. The story is easy for the players to understand while still being amazing, and I can't rave enough about the battles here. Plus there's tons for skillful characters to do as well! This is truly worthy of being a 7-11 scenario.
Amazing, amazing scenario! Played through under a terrific GM, he really showed us what it means to be focused on the fun without letting up on the heat. I also read it in expectation and excitement to run!
The fluff is awesome and the set-up super smooth. The skill portion is without a doubt the hardest I have ever seen in any 7-11 game, although most of it is more like "good to know" rather than "you die if you dont".
Unlike most other scenarios, where story wise failing the skill challenge (chase, rush, exploration, finding the ruin) will bring the game to either a grinding halt or the GM has to deus ex machina to keep the scenario moving, this scenario makes absolutely no bones about this - the events move forward, and for a perfectly in character good reason. Listen very, very, very carefully to the NPCs giving instructions - you are adventuring with high powered NPCs and they are there for a reason.
That said, dont mistake this fluff/skill story for a walk in the combat park. The combat is meticulously designed so skill characters can contribute, but nonetheless the enemies can be extremely brutal. We had 5 optimized characters (including 3 Lv11s and 1 Lv10) plus 2 more normal characters, and even so the finale really would have handed us our asses completely if not for generous GMing. All I can say is, whatever happens, if you remain true to the spirit of the Scarab Sages, dont leave the table, if nothing else it is worth watching to the end.
Ultimately, this intricately crafted and beautiful story ends up much like an exquisite gem adorning the head of a sage, a fitting tribute / mega finale for the Scarab Sages. And it is a mega finale, don't mistake that. At high tier, this is probably up there with the hardest of hardest scenarios so far, Ive GMed hard mode Weapon in the Rift, The Sealed Gate, played The Waking Rune on hard mode, done 3/4 of EotT and read portion of All For Immortality - and this scenario takes the cake.
Do yourself and everyone (including the GM who prepped the scenario) a favor, and field only your best character, that you would unhesitatingly push for Seeker progression if you still had the option available. Give the scenario your best shot, and if by ill fortune you still go down, at least you went down swinging, fought the good fight and tell yourself, no regrets. Yes, this is the scenario we build characters we are proudest of for, to test them against this sort of set up and see how they fare.
Beautiful, awesome scenario, worthy of the best of best! If there could be a scenario hall of fame (not infamy), I would definitely vouch for this scenario to be in it!
Oh and for GMs who are longing to kill players, don't run this. If you do run it, remember it is for the experience of the game we enjoy.
Ancient tombs, archeological excavation, massive battles. This scenario has it all.
Bring your A game. This is up there with the waking rune. As it should be. Its the culmanation of 10 years of scarab sages story line, its going to be epic.
Actually knowing the history of the place mattered. The background events (both for the location/baddie and the NPCs) were integrated into the mechanics of the scenario and not just background that the DM reads before running it. I cannot tell you how happy I am that this is the case.
When I first read through this, I was blown away. This is one of the most elegantly designed dungeons I've ever seen. The combat sections of this don't feel forced. Many scenarios have a combat (or more than one) that feel like they're just there so that players who don't play particularly social characters can have something to fight. This didn't have that. There were some thoroughly hilarious moments at our table because of the design of this dungeon, which were all in-character reactions to the elegant danger present. Everyone had fun, nobody felt slighted, and a good time was had by all.
If I have one critique, it would be the first encounter felt overly complicated, but after that, it was smooth sailing all the way.
I prepped the better part of three weeks for it, reading it over during breakfast coffee, preparing nice icons to represent certain mobs, etc.
Unfortunately or fortunately, it really isn't geared for a random pile o' pathfinders -- this requires players who have at least worked with each other before, characters that have team synergy and can adapt on the fly.
Not all tables are capable of this.
Despite having a competent team, on my playing of it, the party healer went down during the first fight and had to be brought back with Breath of Life, and then my barbarian went down in the last fight, first to one cause (BoL'd back up) then to massive damage after other things happened.
My review says EPIC, and it's there for a reason. Our GM did not pull punches, and thankfully, thankfully cooler heads did not listen to my barbarian about some of the pre-preparations to make.
It was a nerve-wracking run, but it was a good scenario and I was fully prepared to have perma-retirement of my character going into it (which is not something I'm psyched up for usually).
I'm not normally a big fan of difficult nerve-wracking scenarios, but this one hit the mark, and anyone conversant with the Sage storyline should recall that during one particular scenario, the PCs were much more powerful than normal.
So anything that would have beings of that tier of power *worried* is going to be BAD.
Let's dial back the tone on the thread please. It's okay to question scenarios and mechanics and critique the adventure, however it is not okay to insult the community, including other posters, authors or developers. One easy way to make comments less antagonizing is to say "I feel X" instead of "X is this way." There are enough people playing that table variation can mean that experiences can vary. Please don't assume that yours is the only, best or average experience.
Played this twice, once high tier, once low tier (using replay a few months later), was difficult but there were no deaths. The comments here are mostly from the low tier game. Both games were very different as both groups took different paths to victory and chose different NPCs.
Yes at one point we said 'oh no, no one has disable device!' but experience as a Pathfinder taught us that normally there is more than one way to solve a problem (as there was here). Choosing the 'right' NPC also made it alot easier. Many of the characters tried assists during the ritual which probably the reason we took only minor damage from that. I thought we were toast in the final battle but eventually we turned things around. Although I see how just one failed save could have changed things drastically for us.
What I loved was the BBEG who was very memorable with its evil maliciousness. We had a Paladin who was in absolute terror. We played this in a 6 hour slot, I can see trying to rush this could cause problems. Also if you don't complete the investigation it will make things really tough (almost impossible?) as well.
You know, a WHOLE lot of this could have been solved if the PCs actually listened to the ritual leader.
And the language in the beginning of the first encounter does NOT need to be edited. A player could INFER something that was not IMPLIED. Critical thinking skills could be necessary here. There was an assumption made--which wouldn't even be detrimental, although I could see how it could be frustrating.
I just think this adventure didn't fit preconceived notions (one poster has repeatedly written as much), so some folks didn't know how to handle it.
Mr. Duval, excellent adventure! I can't wait for more from you!
I've run this twice and played it once. One GM session and my play-through were at low-tier, and my other GM session was at high-tier. When I played it, one PC went down early and hard in the final battle, but didn't die. After that, the fight was actually pretty quick.
When I ran it at low-tier, several PCs went down throughout the fight, but they had enough designated healing with a merciful healer and a life oracle that nobody stayed down permanently. Once they beat the final encounter, everyone was still standing, though many were at single-digit hit points and were out of spells.
When I ran it at high-tier, I table-wiped. They didn't get to the final encounter. Rather the ritual just before it dealt them 165 damage. Everyone died.
What I take away from my experiences is that people should play the low-tier, rather than the high-tier. We didn't have trouble with the low-tier version.
I've both run and played this scenario (both with Disciple of the Void above), and I greatly enjoyed both, even though I was one of the PCs that took 165 damage and died.
While I don't recommend this for a con, it's a great scenario. It has a very interesting and satisfying story, and feels every bit as epic as the culmination of a faction's story should.
That being said, its incredibly difficult on both sides of the screen. Personally, I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. Some of the mechanics are different, and may run counter to what we have come to expect. For me, that's a feature, not a bug. I like when experienced players are thrown for a loop and can't just assume how things will play out.
Ran this to close out a con last night. 4 out of the 6 players were Scarab Sage characters, had a lot of familiarity with the feel of Osirion delves, and were very excited for the culmination of the story.
It is, as many people stated, long. Especially if you enjoy the RP. As a GM, conversing with the party as so many different, intricate NPCs with a lot of deep history with the society and providing insight into their personalities, (as well as the few who were introduced in this scenario) was an absolute joy.
This scenario is challenging, and it WILL run long. We played for 6.5 hrs and I think we could have played for 8 hours easily, exploring more of the interactions between characters.
My group, though they didn't all play together frequently (this being a con), took the time to get to know each other and figure out how to support each other. I gave them that when we sat down. No one knew much about each other's characters until we sat down.
Matt has done an amazing thing with this scenario. It FEELS as difficult as it should considering the stakes and the amount of emotional and temporal investment the players and characters it is geared towards have invested in it.
I love Golarion, and I love the Pathfinder Society. Scenarios like this one need to happen more. I prepped for a month, and I still could have improved my live performance. I really want to run it again, for another group of people who love these characters as much as I do.
I think there are some aspects of the mechanics that as GMs we need to make sure we telegraph earlier on. I like to build suspense and paranoia, and I don't like to "prompt" for rolls as I feel it breaks the flow of the game. There were a few places that I as a GM needed to plant the seeds of what would become future mechanics. There are promptings within the scenario for how to do this - but planning out how to do this well is a lot of work. There were a few places where I needed to reconsider my plans on how to frame a specific event, and I'm glad I knew enough about the world and context to make that make sense within the scenario.
This is certainly a challenging scenario for players. It is a very challenging scenario for GMs, too. Purely prepping the mechanics is NOT going to do the trick. Figuring out how to help your players come to the right conclusions, infer what steps they should and shouldn't take, will take some time and seat-of-the-pants work. I've never felt more rewarded as a GM as I watched my players reign victorious, even after setbacks (over half the party were full or partial casters, and there was some real deduction by the players in order to figure out what was happening to them). One of the potential "scenes" at the end brought more than one person at the table to tears. I've never felt so good playing a scenario.
Q1: In PFS, the conclusion says all the dead PCs can come back to life.
However, my PCs defeat the Boss, and almost all the Sages are dead except SINUHOTEP, THE AMETHYST SAGE. Err... 3 PCs are dead, can they come back to life?
Q2: Can they still get 2PP ? All Sage jewel are intact.
