A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 5–8 (subtiers 5–6 and 7–8).
Open Decemvirate member Eliza Petulengro is looking for a handful of intrepid Pathfinders to accompany her on an interdimensional journey throught the Maze of the Open Road! Eliza is traveling from the Grand Lodge in Absalom to the Woodsedge Lodge in Galt, but the Maze of the Open Road has become unstable and unpredictable in recent years. Eliza hopes that with help of her fellow Pathfinders, she can secure the road and prepare it for regular use by the Society once more.
Written by Christen N. Sowards
Scenario tags: None
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
Where we in a hedge maze? I couldn't really tell by the maps. It felt like we absolutely had to visit an entire map pack and meet some random elemental opposite monsters - most of which should be highly intelligent, but little conversation was possible. It felt just... dumb. Lacking in any interesting plot or things to think about as players. Such a wasted opportunity. And a tired old "surprise" plot that we've seen multiple times already.
I never played any of the eyes of the ten and often I would just hear a number of the players from 1e talk about it at this table. A bit too much at times.
This mod is written as, I'm guess, a ode to the past or to let old players see what happened to a area they are nostalgic for. But as a newer player, I just saw a odd mess.
The use of the tiles map pack made it feel like someone was just told to write an adventure to use up these random tiles that made little to no sense in their layout or encountering. And I'm not talking about how the author used them, I'm talking about the actual tiles themselves made no sense and I can see why they got so little use before this mod.
The overall story isn't bad. Though apparently, this NPC you have to be escorting has a trope of getting betrayed and apparently it happens often to her.
Mechanically, it was fun in a number of rooms for combat but sometimes, it made little sense at how easy they were to bypass or difficult to get through. It's obviously designed for the most balanced party you can have with one person from each class doing what that class is designed for. Sounds good in theory since some classes can do things others do but it can also make this one frustrating.
It relies a lot on skill checks which can leave non skilled players screwing over the party even with out them indenting to do so and costing everyone resources in spells, extra combat, and lose of treasure.
The escorting:
Spoiler:
The NPC you have to work with is so frustrating being immune to everything. This just makes her pointless to have on the field and sucks all the tension out. There are fun parts where you get tossed around the map and you worry she's going to be distracted from her spell that she needs to cast. But then you quickly realize she never takes damage or gets interrupted, so why have her on the field, why care? Why try to put tension in it if there is none?
The Boon on the Chronicle:
Spoiler:
The boon on the chronicle is completely useless to most everyone. Making it required to be master in survival to get when it's on a chronicle is just pointless. I could see trained or maybe expert but Master? Sorry no, that just feels like I'm not good enough for all the hard work I did.
It might sound like a lot of negative and it is, but it's not a bad modules really. Combat is not broken, you are not left helpless, you do progress forward, and to those that are not new to this eyes of ten thing, it can be surprising.
If you are a fan of that eyes thing, I would say you might find more in it than I did. For me, it was a simple journey through the planes that was a little messy.
A random hodgepodge of monsters with no explanation
Apparently a place that's lasted hundreds of years completely falls apart by letting it sit for a year and a half. And then goes through and picks planer monsters out of a hat to populate it without any explanation of what happened or how they got there. None of them are willing to talk to you and explain anything, and you just bounce from one to the next. Oh, and don't fail any of the random skill checks along the way or you loose gold.
And then there's
The Reveal:
Your guide the whole time has been a shapeshifter (yet another random monster with no explanation) posing as your guide. While you've got the writer of Petulengro's Validation right there the whole time and not suspecting anything. You know, the Decemvirate member who's a mistress of Divination who should have seen this coming?
Our GM tried very hard to make this enjoyable, but didn't know 1st Ed lore. And two of the three other players at the table were players I took through Eyes of the Ten myself. It was such a let-down to see such a nostalgic place reduced to what felt like a bunch of random encounters between skill checks.
Alright, my group just played this scenario. It was fun and all, but at the end, we discovered that it is impossible for anyone to free the statue while playing in this tier. It requires a spell or item that cannot be used at level 8. We had brought back his statue to the Pathfinder Society to get him help if that was appropriate.
Why would you include this as a checkbox for reporting this scenario if it isn't able to be done?
