First of all, there is mention of Parvaaxes influence making the compasses go haywire. Is that the same as his aura? If so, do the penalties (Clumsy 2) apply for the whole adventure? The dude can extend his aura to up to 100 miles. Did he do that? Or did he just leave it at 30 feet?
Then, while we are at the aura, what does "wearing metal" mean? Are only people in metal armor affected? Or anyone wearing any kind of metal on their body?
OK, back to the beginning of the adventure: What happens if the players go into the water to fight the Sea Devils? Animal Form and Waterwalk were both available in my group, but there is no mention if the damage the ship takes is from the sea devils and could be prevented (thus possibly completely missing the adventure) or if the have sharks with them, etc.
Then they come to shore and have to talk to the Iruxi. All good and well, but the languages listed are Iruxi and Mwangi. Is Mwangi the same as Polyglot? The Core Rulebook lists Mwangi as a language, the player basics list Polyglot. Probably the same language, but we missed that while playing and so the ship's Iruxi was needed to translate. It struck us as strange that he could not be taking along as a translator later as well, making the interactions with Lumki fun and weird on the one hand, but very limited on the other. A lot of things in the observatory just weren't understood by the characters since Lumki couldn't tell them about it. And that was a missed opportunity in some cases.
Then there was the second encounter. The sod hounds. On a giant map, that shows neither a village, nor a shore. And no indication as to where players and creatures should be positioned. Weird for a map of that size. And weird map, by the way. That doesn't look like a natural jungle to me. But back to the encounter itself:
For high tier, there are conflicting numbers: 3 are listed on page 8, 4 on page 28. Which one is correct? The encounter is listed as moderate, which would indicate 2, which doesn't fit either number. Also, the Creatures are listed as level 4 on page 8, with a perception of +11 and level 5 with perception of +12 on page 28. Furthermore, page 8 says one can find them on page 27, not 28. There seems to have been some serious editing mistakes here!
Since we tend to run long, I skipped the optional encounter. But looking at the stats, it would have been a walk in the park anyways and wouldn't have offered any interesting texture to the adventure, either.
The skill challenge in Area D was another thing that is absolutely baffling - there is nothing to prevent the players from just using the basic action "leap" to reach the island and then continue to the other shore. Also, there wouldn't even be enough room on the island for 6 characters plus Lumki, so the suggested tactic of the adventure wouldn't even work!
We decided that the map actually shows 10' squares, which solved both issues at once, and continued with the challenge as it was probably intended.
Reaching the observatory included another weird thing: The adventure states that if you have Lumki with you, you just get there. So, do the players miss the chance to find the potions and the trap door? Or does Lumki just prevent them from having to pass the survival check?
Now we were finally at the observatory and the first encounter were some Mephits. Straight forward fight, but why do they have fast healing listed there? That was the point were I realised that Parvaaxes aura probably is extended at least somewhat and decided, that the observatory was completely under the influence of the aura. But I have no idea if that is correct or if the aura should have affected the characters all along (see above).
The players proceeded to the Summoning Pool. None of them had the earth trait, so it wasn't possible to activate the pool there. But there is no guarantee that players at some point won't have access to that trait and then might be able to activate it. Yet the adventure does just state that the summoned creature is not under the control of the summoner, not what it would do. Or for simplicities sake just state that it was already used that day, completely circumventing the issue.
Finally, the players reached the main chamber and Parvaax was roused from his slumber. He delivered his offer to just eat Lumki and leave. And I have several issues with that offer:
1. The adventure states that Lumki is shocked by that offer. But she and the Gargoyle don't share any language. So how could she have understood it in the first place?
2. Why does the adventure waste so much space on what happens if the players actually take that offer? Who would ever do that? They would gain Infamy, and thus would have to be warned about getting Infamy according to the rules of PFS. Which group would then still go ahead and take the offer? That just baffles me!
Oh, and last and probably least: Did I say finally above? Yes I did, and the fight with Parvaax SHOULD be the final encounter. But regardless of the way you took in, there is still a room with mephits left to kill. And if you took the normal way, not the secret door, there are even treasure bundles yet to be found. There shouldn't be any minor fights to fight after the climactic battle. That just felt off!
Wow, that was a bit more than I wanted to write, but the adventure had so many things that just felt wrong or weird, that I had to put that frustration somewhere...
