A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 12–18 (Subtiers 12–13, 14–15, and 17–18).
For more than a decade, the infamous information broker, former Pathfinder, and thoroughly controversial mastermind Grandmaster Torch has pursued vengeance against the Decemvirate and the Society as a whole. Yet for all the Society's countermeasures, Torch has consistently procured seemingly unattainable intelligence that makes his schemes ever more dangerous. At last, the Society has identified his chief accomplice and informant who has evaded Society scouts by hiding out where Pathfinders are forbidden on pain of death: Mediogalti Island, home of the notorious Red Mantis Assassins. Yet Grandmaster Torch's imminent endgame threatens the whole Society, if not Absalom itself, and if the PCs are to uncover the plot and avert disaster, they must infiltrate one of the Inner Sea's most deadly cities and neutralize a powerful threat.
Who Wears the Mask is the first of two seeker-level adventures in the Passing the Torch series that concludes Season 10, and these adventures take place in parallel with the events of Pathfinder Society Special #10-98: Siege of Gallowspire. This adventure is followed by Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-23: Passing the Torch, Part 2: Who Speaks for the Ten. These two scenarios are intended to be played in order.
I have run this once so far and am due to run it several more times over the next few weeks including two PbP games. This is a great start to the (hopeful) resolution of the Torch storyline. The location is suitably atmospheric and dangerous, the combats look challenging but nothing a suitably well prepared high level party should not be able to handle, the hard mode adjustments add some interesting twists and the reveal at the end sets up Part 2 very nicely.
I have two potential niggles which make this a 4 star rather than 5 star review.
1. There are a number of mechanical issues with two of the combats which could have been caught in editing. Its difficult to keep everything straight when you are putting together three different tiers of high level opponents but some information is missing or incorrect. Hopefully these will be dealt with soon enough.
2. There is a lot of combat in this one. On its own that isnt necessarily a bad thing but expect this one to take a long time. One encounter is optional and potentially bypassable even if you run it but otherwise people need to bring their A game to get through this in a regular 4-5 hour slot. I would not want to run this at a convention and I really wonder just what people running it at Gencon will do.
Lastly, while I appreciate the range of opposition used some of them do make running this in face to face games a bit tricky. GM preparation is required.
Here be minor spoilers:
Paizo needs to start producing more larger bases, having multiple gargantuan or colossal creatures in multiple encounters is a bit of a pain to prep for in physical games. Fortunately I mostly run online or via PbP but even so, be prepared to put some arts and crafts time in.
Who Wears the Mask is the first of two seeker-level adventures in the Passing the Torch series that concludes Season 10, and these adventures take place in parallel with the events of Pathfinder Society Special #10-98: Siege of Gallowspire.
So, does this me we can't use the same PC in this two-part series that we use in 10-98? I only have one level 12+ PC.
At the very least, it's being run at PaizoCon (Seattle) and Gen Con (Indianapolis) between May and the beginning of August. It might also be at Origins (Columbus, OH) and UK Games Expo (Birmingham, England), though I'm not as familiar with those shows' scheduled Pathfinder Society events. After Gen Con, I anticipate it will be be available at numerous other events worldwide in 2019.
Does this act like ol 1-7s, where 16s cant play with the 12-13 tier, and bottom and top tiers don't mix?
The PFS Roleplaying Guild Guide has rules for that. See page 11 in the current guide, left column, under "Tiers and Subtiers"
Tiers and Subtiers wrote:
For scenarios with more than two subtiers, characters must be in adjacent subtiers to play together.
So unless a special exception is given specifically for this scenario, 13s and 17s don't mix.
I don't know off the top of my head what the rule for 16s would be, since they're not actually in a subtier. I think there was a ruling on that, but I'd need to do some digging.
I don't know off the top of my head what the rule for 16s would be, since they're not actually in a subtier. I think there was a ruling on that, but I'd need to do some digging.
Thank you for looking. Running it in our local lodge and some players wanted to know. I imagine that they can't go down, to the lowest tier, since it skips over the 14-15 tier.
I don't know off the top of my head what the rule for 16s would be, since they're not actually in a subtier. I think there was a ruling on that, but I'd need to do some digging.
Thank you for looking. Running it in our local lodge and some players wanted to know. I imagine that they can't go down, to the lowest tier, since it skips over the 14-15 tier.
That would be my interpretation as well.
That said, I can't find any official rulings on this. There's a thread from 2015 asking for a ruling, plus a couple of otherthreads discussing the matter. The most common view seems to be that a level 16 PC would be one tier away from both 14-15 and 17-18, since he's not actually in either one. That would make 12-13 more than one subtier away, and forbidden. This was never officially confirmed, and it's not universally agreed-upon, so take that as you will.
I see no reason why it would not fall under that rule. ' For scenarios with more than two subtiers, characters must be in adjacent subtiers to play together.' Passing The Torch has more than two subtiers, so it counts.
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