Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-09: Beyond the Halflight Path PDF

I've run this once, at high subtier for a party of six. I plan to run it again enough times that I'm making map tiles out of the flip mat PDFs and some props and terrain to go with it. It really is a great scenario.

First, the setting: Kaer Maga is one of the best settings in Golarion. We spent a lot of time in the investigation phase, and each "travel" segment can discover another cool aspect of the City of Strangers. For groups that want to roleplay, there is enough material to replay a bunch of times and still meet new people. I'm glad the troll augurs appear, but there's also room to have the party chat with gargoyles or a naga, filling ut the NPc roster and breathing life into those "gather information" rolls.

Once the investigation completes, the dungeon crawl begins - although even here there is some room for negotaiation. Despite being on a bigger map, there are enough encounters that it can be easy to trigger more than one, if the party is breezing through them. There are also some terrifying encounters that will challenge every the most powerful damage-dealers. I prepped my list based on the characters and players who signed up, choosing ones that would challenge them. In a convention game, I might leave one of the foes near the back of the map undetermined, so that it could be adapted to the party at hand. Given the range of foes, it would be easy to prep a set of encounters and then wipe the floor with an underprepared party.

The choice of encounters is excellent. There are horror encounters, and funny encounters, and could-be-roleplaying encounters. The are certain combinations that make a hilarious amount of sense. There are devious traps and hazards, and there are encounters with lots of creatures as well as single monsters. There are encounters that are straightforward, and some that are challenging (including one at APL+4!).

Particularly nice is that the goal itself changes each time, not just the monsters you fight. This really helps make each run seem like its own scenario. The only drawback is the use of the same map a bit too often - I understand why, but once players have seen the map once or twice they know a lot about the "dressing" and it loses its impact. I'd love to see some method of randomizing map tiles and/or assigning descriptions to rooms, to help make this part different each time as well.

I love this scenario. It sets the bar for evergreens in the future.

Very RP light, which i like, the monster can be hard, so it seems this is meant to go kill stuff, which I also like. I though it was fun, but depending on the rolls and party I can see this becoming deadly

I ran this online for a party of 5 experienced high tier players.

I found this one much easier to run than Tome, but maybe because I knew what to expect this time. I managed to cut the prep time down, but it was still about 6 hours, some of that making sure I had only the pages I needed rather than flipping back and forward. I recommend culling out pages you don't need.

I picked a harder path than Tome, but my players managed to easily succeed, albeit running well over time. Don't spend too long on the investigation, the combats can take longer than you think.

I preferred the Tome map for dynamic lighting and fog of war, but this map made placing encounters easier. I would have preferred more doors though, my players could see for miles with their dark vision, so I had to take that into account when placing encounters.

The investigation wasn't overly well thought out, if you did them in a particular sequence you where fine, otherwise it cost you just because you randomly picked the wrong sequence.

I would, and probably will, run this again.

I am surprised and pleased!
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Let's face it, most PFS scenarios are walks in the park, designed to grind through levels, where the worst disaster to befall most parties is the loss of a second prestige point (gasp), or maybe the use of expendable slightly more resources than the 1/4 the gp reward. The greatest scenarios are, of course, the ones that pose challenges; eg Bonekeep, The Haunting of Hinojai, The Waking Rune.
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Well, this isn't that tough, but -- at least with the foe we faced -- it was tougher than the bulk of PFS scenarios. And it's evergreen! If the other enemies are equally challenging (or more challenging) this will be an awesome replay!
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Yes, the pretext for the adventure is weak. But it's a reasonable excuse for a dungeon crawl. It's hard to make a replayable scenario in which NPC interactions and character motivations change; it's doable, but I wouldn't count on it.

I ran it with a party of 5 using many of the "difficult" options, despite having an unoptimized party (Including a core Rogue, core Monk and a disguise-focused Vigilante). The party was able to breeze through the investigation, but the colorful cast and open-endedness of the rumors allowed for some great roleplay opportunity that really let me customize the experience on the fly for each of my players and their play styles. They used the map and their brains to great advantage in the dungeon. I will admit this is a biased review; I have a wonderful group, and playing it during Hanukkah with 75% of our encounters involving monsters from Jewish Qabbalism really made me appreciate the customability of the module. It was a challenge, for sure. In fact, one of my players said it was one of the best games they'd played in recent memory!

As a GM, you have to pick the route that most appeals to your style of roleplay. There are lots of options here to play enemies you don't commonly get to encounter in Pathfinder Society. And, at least in my prepared story route, there is an unmistakeably creepy vibe that really resonates with the players exploring the wonderful location of Kaer Maga.