Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-04: Bandits of Immenwood

2.80/5 (based on 29 ratings)

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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–4 (Subtiers 1–2 and 3–4).

The Pathfinders are sent forth to aid their own! A Pathfinder mission returning from a long sea voyage ran aground on the Isle of Kortos and were forced to leave behind many of their discoveries so they could press on to Absalom and receive much-needed medical care. The PCs are sent to the site of the wreck to retrieve the relics and charts their peers were forced to leave but the relics have drawn the attention of some of the Immenwood's most volatile inhabitants. Will the PCs be able to return the documents and relics to Zarta Dralneen, the Grand Lodge's Chief Archivist? Or will they fall prey to the unusual bandits dwelling within the coastal reaches of one of Kortos's most infamous forests?

Written by Scott D. Young.

Scenario Tags: Faction (Grand Archive)

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Society Scenario Subscription.

Product Availability

Fulfilled immediately.

Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

PZOPFS0104E


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Average product rating:

2.80/5 (based on 29 ratings)

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Good premise ruined by poor design decisions

2/5

The scenario presents an intriguing mystery in a series of encounters involving the protection of a wagon. While some of the encounters are creative, the interesting premise is marred by:

1) Lack of variety of encounters. The entire scenario is just a linear sequence of combats that gets tiring very quickly.

2) The mystery neither develops nor provides ways for PCs to interact with it. Even characters with special abilities relevant to the mystery and the encounters will find their expertise completely useless as the scenario does nothing to let such characters use their background and skills to solve the mystery.

3) The plot is nonexistent with the "answer" coming out of nowhere because of points #1 and #2 above.

4) The final encounter is a boring, unfair slog. One of the worst I've seen in society.

Spoiler:
On the first round of combat, the big bad uses chain lightning to blow up the wagon (despite the spell not being able to target objects) in order to create an 8th level weather spell effect that absolutely cripples mobility and outright disables ranged attacks. Meanwhile, the bad guy is free to cast spells on you that aren't hindered by this while he sits far away on the other side of the map. There's no way to stop the enemy from doing this, and there's no way to resolve the encounter other than killing the bad guy.

It's an unfun situation that shuts down every type of character. The weather completely stops ranged fighters from attacking. Melee fighters can do nothing but hope they succeed at enough Acrobatics checks to move 1 square per action. The encounter provides no way for skill characters to help the situation with skill checks. Almost all spellcasters and alchemists would be out of spells and resources by this point because the scenario has many encounters with flying enemies and swarms and has punishing consequences if you sleep to regain resources. Player choice is meaningless.

My group took two hours to complete this encounter because we wasted 5-6 rounds doing nothing but moving 1 or 2 squares.

A huge disappointment.


Fun Scenario, but a Railroad

4/5

I actually really liked this scenario. It was simple and a slugfest, but it allowed me to really test out the combat of the new system and get a feel for how it all works. Things were well thought out and interesting.

It's a little too simple for my tastes with very little story and RP elements to speak of (with is what knocked off a star), but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. It's fun to sometimes get a combat-heavy scenario!


A fun walk through the woods

5/5

This adventure delivered on the premise of a combat heavy scenario with many ambushes, while the amount of detail put into the cargo gave a sense of greater depth to the story. We enjoyed the twist that was a dungeon dive on the run, and we got to throw lots of dice.

The Good: This in a dungeon dive by a different name and delivered on that experience.
The Bad: I feel like there are still some growing pains in the formatting and structure of the scenario layout.
The Ugly: See the spoilers.

Discussion with spoilers:

The Good: The sense of mystery with unknown magic feels improved with the new system. My group failed to identify several items, so they had this anxious feeling the entire trip of transporting unknown magical artifacts with unknown powers.

It was really fun to find a wagon mini and fill it with barrels and boxes and chests and books!

The cargo and the horses being something to protect added an extra dynamic that really shaped the encounters. In most the fights the players first priority was to protect and not to attack, which made the encounters for more interesting.

The rhythm of the encounters allowed the players to make plans, then see those plans succeed. The rogue traveled 30 ft ahead of the wagon searching for traps. The Cleric drove the wagon while the Monk(a) walked with the horses to soothe them. The Barbarian and the Monk(b) traveled 20 ft behind the wagon keeping a lookout. And everyone got to see their plans succeed as the Rogue spotted traps, the Horse crew were in position to control/protect the horses, and the lookouts were able to give the team an initiative bonus while being in a favorable position for some of the fights.

The last fight felt intense! They were sure happy to have Kyra with several scrolls of healing. Poisons were fun to run and didn't bog down the game.

I was worried during prepping that this scenario would be punitive on the gold rewards, but by taking the mission seriously the group was able to protect all the cargo. (I did forget that the first roll of every encounter was downgraded and only remembered when we started the boss fight. That made the earlier encounters easier and may have saved them some rewards, but it did make the boss fight hard by ruining their alpha-strike.)

I'm really liking the new formatting. Having a separate encounter sheet is saving a pile of flipping between sheets, and it often has the room for me to write down extra notes during prep.

The Bad: It feels like there is still kinks in the formatting of the document to polish out.

A few times I found myself looking back and forth between the scenario and the encounter appendix trying to find a specific piece of information (for example: creature moral and tactics, or what was difficult terrain).

And there was a few points I got confused about scenario mechanics; What changes if someone claims the scale? And Schrodinger's ambush where the Centaur sets off the trap, unless they get spotted, then it was a different druid.

The Ugly: We had a frog-totem goblin barbarian. They rolled max damage against the frog swarm with the tongue attack. The frog swarm was not resistant to bludgeoning damage. So we got this mental image of the goblin with an oversized tongue licking up and swallowing most of a frog swarm.


Worst experience ever - If I could give 0 stars, I would

1/5

Wow. We just played this scenario (high tier) and it is hard to find words that accuratly describe the experience with being vulgar. This honestly is the worst adventure of PFS I have EVER played! Five (or six if you do the optional one like we did) encounters without ANY roleplay opportunity or interesting questions / conundrums to solve. And the encounters themselves are pretty terrible as well. Why I will explain after the spoiler-tag

Why the encounters aggravated me:
Out of the five encounters we had two with swarms, one with flying opponents, one with a teleporting opponent that also flies, and one with an opponent that harasses you with ranged spells while ignoring all the conditions that make movement hard/impossible.
Almost all of the encounters have difficult terrain, the very last one adds in some more debilitating effects. The experience of playing this with a champion / paladin was just spectacularly horrific. And the best/worst thing: I didn't even have the worst time. We had a druid in our group, that constantly tried to pacify the animals, or at least understand what was happening. But the adventure didn't account for that, so there was practically nothing he could do to determine wether we were even doing the right thing.
Whoever wrote this adventure must have had a bad day. And a deepseeted hatred of melee characters.

Phew. It feels good to articulate atleast some of the bad emotions this experience has created. Honestly, that adventure just aggravated me. And near the end, even the GM just wanted it to finally be over. I don't think anyone at the table has had a good time at all.


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Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Rulebook Subscriber

Huzzah?!

Looks interesting. I like the idea of exploring Kortos (and working for Zarta too).

Scarab Sages

1 person marked this as a favorite.

ZARTA

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Woo for (not!Dark) Archive :D

Grand Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Can we get a map requirement list under spoiler so we can prepare to run this in October? Thx

Paizo Employee Organized Play Developer

4 people marked this as a favorite.

Bandits of Immenwood uses

Grand Lodge

Thank you Michael!

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps Subscriber

Do we have an anticipated release date?

Thanks!

Horizon Hunters

Nice cover! And I’ve really been loving this season so far!

Shadow Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Michael Sayre wrote:

Bandits of Immenwood uses

** spoiler omitted **

Map Errors/Questions:

"Flip-Mat: Tavern Multi-Pack" is listed in the scenario as "Flip-Mat: Tavern" - which isn't really a big deal. However, instead of using "Flip-Mat: Forest Multi-Pack" the scenario appears to have two custom 30x20 maps instead.

Were the map notes posted on Sept 5th intended for a different scenario, or did something else happen in the interim?

I ask in part because tomorrow I have to explain to a local GM that he may not have needed to spend money on the Forest Multi-Pack two weeks ago, and I cannot predict what his reaction will be to finding out that the maps posted here were not correct.

Thanks in advance.


so dose this happen to everyone who orders the subscription that its not in your downloads on day of release even though you paid the day before?


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Braxton stormflower wrote:
so dose this happen to everyone who orders the subscription that its not in your downloads on day of release even though you paid the day before?

Yes, the scenarios don't necessarily appear in your account at the beginning of the day.

Grand Lodge

The Map C. High Coast Road in the appendix on page 38 is not clean. There is an "R" still printed in the map. If we have to give these maps to a printing shop as these are not Flip-Mats it would be great if you can offer a version of this map without the "R" in it.

Dark Archive

So after reading and prepping this game I need to ask. Is it just me or is this game super tough? This game seems extremely brutal especially at level 1-2. Between weather mechanics and misfortune, you can easily one shot low characters on accident


Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Alvarious "Alfred" windrunner wrote:
So after reading and prepping this game I need to ask. Is it just me or is this game super tough? This game seems extremely brutal especially at level 1-2. Between weather mechanics and misfortune, you can easily one shot low characters on accident

It hasn't worked out to be super lethal in my playthrough or run.

Don't forget the hero points.


I didn't like the combats in this one at all. The initial fights are all basically trivial encounters that feel like filler content because there is no real threat at all, but then the last fight is quasi-difficult in a way that's also very frustrating due to the special rules that it applies, with no warning, that can render many characters next to useless.

I'd imagine depending on your party makeup that last fight might be trivial if you've got a bunch of buff melee types who can just run in and clobber the guy, or feel next to impossible if your damage is mostly ranged. The ranged players at my table were left with not much to do, but as usual the boss went down in a heap once a melee got into his face and did the whole crit with a magic striking weapon and do 30+ damage.

Scarab Sages

I'm fairly certain there are wind environment effects, but the scenario doesn't make it entirely clear if it's just for the one effect in the last combat, or through the entire last combat. I read it as describing the one, localized effect. That made archers feel less useless.

Also, telekinetic projectile is hilarious.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber
Alvarious "Alfred" windrunner wrote:
So after reading and prepping this game I need to ask. Is it just me or is this game super tough? This game seems extremely brutal especially at level 1-2. Between weather mechanics and misfortune, you can easily one shot low characters on accident

Played this as my first non-quest PFS2 session, and I've gotta say, if I let this set the tone for how PF2 plays, I wouldn't play it. I didn't see the stat blocks, so I can't say for certain where the blame lies, but according to the GM,

Spoiler:
the swarm of perfectly normal squirrels has DR 6 against all physical damage types.
Makes it a little hard for a character to have literally any effect in that encounter if they're not a mage or a beatstick.
Silver Crusade

Spoiler:
Swarms simply resist physical damage, rather than being outright immune (for fine or diminutive, half for tiny) like they were in P1. Which is a bit more manageable.


Michael Sayre wrote:

Bandits of Immenwood uses

** spoiler omitted **

One of those maps is listed as a "classic", yet it is unavailable as a physical product.

Will it be reprinted?
Do maps from the relevant multi-pack replace it?
Can you replicate it using the map tiles?

It would be helpful if maps for the current season were actually available to use.

Paizo Employee Organized Play Developer

2 people marked this as a favorite.
CrystalSeas wrote:


It would be helpful if maps for the current season were actually available to use.

Our general priority for maps in organized play adventures is-

1 (Preferred)- Currently in print flip-mats, map packs, or flip-tiles

2 (As necessary)- Custom maps (no print version exists) or PDF-only maps (maps that are appropriate to the encounter but which we no longer sell a print version of)

While we prefer to use maps that we have available in print, PDF-only maps that are appropriate to the encounter still provide more options to the consumer than custom maps and lower our development time (since we don't need to review new maps and send them off to a cartographer when that work has already happened), so there are still going to be situations where that's preferable for everyone. And again, the work on the GM's side between a custom map and a PDF-only map is literally identical, except they also have the option of buying the PDF for printing and/or exporting.

Grand Lodge

Anyone else notice the issue with the Frog Swarms in high tier being small? Is this a typo? Cause the frog swarms in low tier are large...


Also, the halfling druids in Tier 1-2 have

"lesser bottled lightning, club, minor elixir of life, halfling
slingstaff (10 bullets), leather armor, mistletoe and holly,
12 sp" for items

while Tier 3-4 halfling druids have

"club, halfling slingstaff (10 bullets), holly and mistletoe,
leather armor, 22 sp"

and the higher tier aren't that much harder.

Grand Lodge

I have got a question.
What is a "tjerbute" (from the handout). I can't find this in any pathfinder book I own, nor does google or translation tools hint me to it.

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Terbutje

Vigilant Seal

We just finished running this adventure for Society play. A very fun gauntlet of struggles and fights against the environment as well as the creatures about. It does a fantastic job of making you feel the progression of the storm and just the circumstances and bad luck affecting your characters as you make it deeper and deeper into the woods. Highly recommend although make sure you have someone trained in nature or... hire someone to drive the carriage or you are gonna have a bad time.


Also cross posted in the GM discussion, did we ever get a CP adjustment for 16-18 low tier?

Paizo Employee Organized Play Developer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
NicoleH wrote:
Also cross posted in the GM discussion, did we ever get a CP adjustment for 16-18 low tier?

No. The 16-18 low tier scaling option didn't exist until well into the season and we have not had an opportunity to go back to the scenarios that predated the update. We've got it on our schedule to go back and update the early wave adventures, but it's unlikely that will happen before the end of the year.

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Extra Fame and Rep from this only available to Grand Archive Faction members? It could be A) No, any party member who fulfills the conditions; OR B) only if you have Grand Archive Champion boon?

Which?

Liberty's Edge

Pathfinder Rulebook, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Can anyone answer my question above?

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Sliska Zafir wrote:
Can anyone answer my question above?

Answered by Linda Zayas-Palmer in the GM Discussion thread: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42s73?PFS-104-Bandits-of-Immenwood

Quote:

With that in mind, please strike out the phrase "If any of the PCs are members of the Grand Archive faction," in the faction notes section at the beginning. Have Zarta talk to the PCs regardless of their faction affiliation (if none are representing the GA, you'll probably want to paraphrase the boxed text a bit).

Then at the end of the scenario, if the PCs meet the conditions listed in the faction notes section, every PC gets the bonus Reputation with the Grand Archive faction.

Horizon Hunters

I have a question about one of the encounters.

Spoiler:

In Encounter B2, the Squirrel Swarm. The stat block says they are small, however, on the map that shows their starting location, they are shown as taking up 4 squares, which would make them large.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Mark Stratton wrote:

I have a question about one of the encounters.

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
The swarm as a whole is a Large creature, the individual creatures it is composed of are Small or Tiny.
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