A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 3-6 (subtiers 3-4 and 5-6).
The Pathfinder Society is called upon to aid the fledgling nation of Vidrian! As the PCs sail beyond the edge of the Inner Sea and into the waters off the coast of southern Garund searching for new trade routes to connect Vidrian with new allies, the PCs find themselves amongst the iruxi, a civilization of lizardfolk astrologists. While the iruxi themselves seem to be likely allies, other forces stir in the nearby jungles, and if the PCs hope to return north with news of a newly charted route, they will need to first face an ancient evil whose presence complicates navigating the treacherous ocean ways.
Each part of this scenario works in isolation, but it just doesn't form an interesting story. I played this at a convention and had a hard time hearing the GM over all the noise; I thought I was missing something that made the whole thing feel disjointed.
It's an unmemorable but fine scenario, I plan to GM it as a two-parter with #1-23 and try to tie everything together (as much as a Society GM is allowed to).
I really found this one kind of strange. The combats range from filler to optional to making a cohesive story sense. Two of them combats make no sense to me to have in the game other than "it's a regional thing!". Combat could have used a bit more refocusing as to why it is in the story.
It's suppose to be an exploration one but it doesn't really feel like it. It does one thing of putting a treasure bundle in the exploration that you must be doing a specific search action to find and if you do not have someone that can do it, you miss it. While I'm not saying players deserve ever bundle, this is one that can be missed because you don't have one character that can cast one specific spell that must take one specific exploration action. Missing an treasure bundle because of something too specific is silly. Missing cause of rolls is okay to me. But being so narrowed down to one spell and one action is not fair.
I feel that the temple area at the end could have been used more. It's interesting and I liked the enemy choices there as it made sense for the story. The end monster was fun too, though I have to point out if you are going to have real world physics affect things in a game, you need to take it out the whole way. Certain metals are not magnetic and if you are using those metals, why are they being affected? It led to a discussion of magnetic properties of metals that kind of derailed the game for a bit. Perhaps a short note in the module would be useful.
this is 3.5 stars for me, but I'm a harsh critic. I *really* enjoyed playing this scenario, because the GM had a really strong way of evoking the exploration and travel.
As-written however, the boggard encounter is pretty bland, and overall it's just "go do some stuff for me Pathfinders, cheers!"
The final boss is very swingy depending on how ruthless the GM is.
Why it can be ruthless:
The final boss is a flying enemy, so can do Fly-attack-fly spring attack style to keep out of reach, and he has an extremely high AC with the scenario effect.
Recent adventures seem to drop into this repetitive formula of:
• Arbitrary ambush by random monsters.
• Meet a new tribe/race/allies who need a favour done.
• Token diplomatic encounter.
• Irritating "Exploration Mode" skill check.
• Avoidable moderate fight.
• Final tough fight.
Box ticking to get 10 "Treasure Bundles".
Our GM did a great job of doing his best to navigate through the plot holes and inconsistencies that previous reviewers have listed in full. Our enjoyment came from good company and his GM'ing skills and not a lot from this adventure.
Too many adventures so far have felt like mechanical exercises that players have to suffer in order to get their 1XP, 2PP, 10 Treasure Bundles and then grind through the admin of "Downtime" to scrabble up 2 more gp. We deserve better.
When will this be available for hard copy purchase?
Likely never. Society Scenarios (one-shots, playable in about four to five hours) generally only come out as PDFs, unlike longer adventures such as Modules or Adventure Paths.
