A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–5.
In the port of Senghor, it is taboo to even speak of the accursed ruin of Boali that sits on the other side of the bay, let alone to set foot in its rubble-strewn streets. Yet rumors have reached the Pathfinder Society that the Aspis Consortium has sent agents to search through this forbidden city. Although few people willingly travel to its shores, Boali is far from quiet. It falls to a small group Pathfinder agents to get the bottom of the Aspis plot without falling prey to the ruin's dangers. Can the PCs bring the Consortiums' true motives to light?
Contents in Signs in Senghor also contribute directly to the ongoing storyline of the Exchange faction.
This is a great scenario that is a spiritual successor to some earlier adventures in the Mwangi Expanse. A lot of fun that keeps the pace and action high. More details in the spoiler.
Spoiler:
This is effectively part 4 of the Bloodcove series that includes, 2-01: Before the Dawn part 1, 2-02: Before the Dawn part 2, and 6–09: By Way of Bloodcove. This is best enjoyed if the PCs have recently played the previously mentioned scenarios first.
This was a pretty decent scenario (not great, but a solid 3-4 star scenario) except for one Glaring Flaw.
There was a fair bit of roleplaying, some exploration, some interesting encounters, a new place to go. All good things.
Minor spoiler:
The Chase scene was fun but definitely inferior to a very similar scene done in an earlier scenario
Some of the roleplaying was more or less impossible unless the characters spoke a quite obscure language. Low level characters very rarely have a way of getting past the language barrier (comprehend languages was not enough). It made PERFECT sense that this barrier existed, though, so I'm fine with this. World making sense is about equivalent value to a lost fairly minor roleplaying opportunity.
And then we come to the
Glaring Flaw:
Paizo decided to insert a ticking clock that the characters have absolutely NO way to know about. A badly and confusingly written ticking clock (See GM thread for details). Giving the timing involved it is a coincidence of the highest order that there was any kind of time limit. And the characters knew that. Why on earth would they be expected to act as if there was a time limit absent GM hints at the meta level?
I played this today and thoroughly enjoyed it. It has a nice mix of social, intrigue, combat and exploration elements as well as having a great call back to a season 6 scenario.
I would recommend playing it.
I have now also run this. If I could I would knock off half a star due to issues with editing. I would not run this cold, make sure to read, reread and then go back over it again. Once you are done scratching your head go over to the GM thread and decide from the various options there how it is supposed to run.
Overall though still a very enjoyable scenario. Please however use a more readable font for your handouts, the Exchange letter is rubbish.
I jumped with excitement when I saw that we are going into Boali! This was one of the most fun pieces that I added to our Skull and Shackles campaign. Can't wait!
I enjoyed playing the module, except for the numbers and DCs for low tier seemed like they were for min max +2. I mean, an 18 save at first level means: 18 stat, +4. Best save, +2. So that is a 60% chance of failure straight away. Pretty ridiculous. Asked my vo for a copy so I could analyze the numbers and change this review. But I'd say a module that only gives min max characters a 40% chance of survival is designed to kill characters. Especially of the normal variety. We played with a group of 5, and three went down (one was due to critical). I shook the hand of the new player at the table (who would have been dead if not for the die hard bonus from buying stuff at the game shop) and said "Welcome to PFS."
