Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-09: Star-Crossed Voyages

3.10/5 (based on 9 ratings)

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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.

Written by Lu Pellazar.

Scenario tags: Faction (Horizon Hunters)

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

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3.10/5 (based on 9 ratings)

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Good combat heavy adventure with some weird issues

3/5

I GMed this adventure today in high tier for a group of 6 (5/5/5/5/5/4, so 23 CP), comprising of three fighters, one cleric of Nethys, one rogue and one druid.

The adventure overall was pretty straight forward and linear, with tough fights, that never fealt unfair, just a bit repetitive in the end. But everyone was enjoying the time, so I would usually have given the adventure 4 stars, if not for a few really weird mistakes / issues we encountered, and which I will talk about in the spoiler section below.

Without giving away any spoilers, I can say that this is a combat heavy adventure with not many decisions to be made by the players. And even the one point were a decision is presented, one option just seems to be utterly atrocious, so I wonder if any group will take that path. So if you are looking for a combat adventure that isn't a pure dungeons crawl, and that doesn't feel as unfair as 1-04 did, this might be the right choice for your group.

But now for the issues we had:

Spoiler:

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...


4/5

It was interesting.

Spoiler:
but they were too much of the same fight. I feel there a link with 1-04 but that me.


could be worse could be better

4/5

it's neat. could be worse for a tier 3-6. not really much of a challenge unless you're playing the absolute HIGHEST tier, THEN it feels like a real 3-6. the beginning is nice, the middle could be worse, the end is good but only if you're playing at highest difficulty. otherwise it has a lot of chances for roleplaying and ingame conversation. Could be better, but definitely could be worse.

For society scenarios, we hope they start making things a little harder in general. Such as a 3-6 should be a little hard even on the lowest difficulty. With the new medicine system and there usually being a lot of time inbetween combats to get away with complete party heals (most of the time), combats should be a little harder. I believe there was an optional encounter, i cant remember if it was optional, in a small building with a lot of...i think they were boggards, while it was optional, it was pretty easy for tier 5-6.

It is absolutely lovely that almost all statblocks for creatures are included in the scenario AND matching pictures, however scenario structure could still use some more efficient organizing. Instead of placing all the statblocks and pictures at the end, just put them in the middle of the scenario where they belong? For those using the pdfs to conserve paper, it's extremely inefficient, and even those using printed out scenarios still have to flip around constantly.


OK . . . but

2/5

This scenario seemed to be mostly about product sales, introducing the new lizard-folk society. The Iruxi were presented in a spotlight as something so very new and exotic -- but were just a "normal" scale fantasy spin. Adding more spotlights didn't help.

I felt like the PCs were not invited to roleplay *with* this new society -- but to be a trigger point for descriptions *of* this new society.

The challenges were fun, but not particularly challenging.


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Second Seekers (Luwazi Elsebo)

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Huzzah!!! Sailing and iruxi! I can't wait to play this, exciting to see how the game plays out outside of low level encounters.

The Exchange

Can't wait to play a 3-6 scenario! WOOT!

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

Do we know what map(s) this will be using?

Verdant Wheel

When will this be available for hard copy purchase?


Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
rainzax wrote:
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.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber

Unofficial map listing:

maps:

Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Ship (though only shows top deck and open water)
Starfinder Flip-Mat: Jungle World
GameMastery Map Pack: Shrines
Pathfinder Flip-Tiles: Forest Perils Expansion
Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Bigger Temple

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Oh hey, pathfinder tales novel character cameos :D Nice!

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