A Pathfinder Society Quest designed for levels 3–6 (subtiers 3–4 and 5–6).
The Pathfinder Society has sent an expedition to a previously uncharted island! The island contains a door sealed with a type of magical technology thought lost with the ancient Azlanti empire. What secrets lie behind the door, and what dangers may lurk beneath the island's surface? To find out, the PCs will first have to solve the magical "puzzle" sealing the door and preventing contact with whatever lies beyond.
Written by: Dustin Knight
Scenario tags:Repeatable
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
The first set of skill checks is designed to be nearly impossible. Even if this does not stop you from progressing, it is annoying and generally feels like a waste of time
The "puzzle" was a fun little diversion but the actual mechanism involved with it made basically no sense beyond "it's a level 1 quest what did you expect".
Requiring skill checks where a specific lore - and ONLY a specific lore - can be rolled to address an obstacle is a bad decision and shouldn't have seen print.
The fight itself was pretty silly but fun.
Left me with more questions than answers.
A cool glimpse into the Wayfinder's...er...well, origin.
Ok yeah, so the name of the quest pretty much sums it up there. For reference, I played the "blue" option.
Most quests boil down to a kind of simple equation of 'it's a skill check thing and then a fight', and for what quests are meant to be I think that's perfectly fine. I personally feel the trick of a quest is to take that equation and make it feel like there's still a story happening, and Wayfinder Origins does exactly that, and does it really well.
Without going into any spoilers the 'ticking clock' is a really cool aspect of the first half of the adventure, and it definitely gave my poor drunk Champion the ol' nervous sweats when he poked at an old Azlanti gizmo he had no business poking at.
The combat was fun and used hazards I hadn't experienced yet in 2e, and just when we thought we had everything handled, it spiraled out of control (thanks, previously unexperienced hazards!) and led to a pretty slapstick ending overall.
This is a top notch quest and I definitely think you can find it to be a great hour or so of gaming time spent.
It was an interesting scenario and plotline, particularly for a repeatable. There are two major elements to the plot -- a puzzle, and a combat.
The combat was scaled about right for a "regular" scenario encounter - but not for the only combat in a quest. We never brushed even close to a sense of foreboding or danger.
The puzzle was nicely challenging, though it would have been nice if *player* action had been part of solving it rather than just dice action and skill checks. It's also anti-climactic when losing a skill test has such a very very minimal effect on the rest of the scenario . . .
I understand that Paizo is calibrating things, and doesn't want to drive people away in Season 1. But scenarios that are not threatening will also drive people away.
Hi! For those of you running this, there's an error in the challenge point sidebars for Subtier 5-6 for encounters A1 and A2: they should use the standard high-subtier categories of 19-22, 23-27, 28-32, and 33+ instead of the ones from the low subtier. The scaling instructions are otherwise correct.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps Subscriber
Is there a type of check missing from the West Actuator in opening the workshop section.
In the descriptions, it only gives the players an option of two lore checks. With the other actuator that gives us the lore checks, it also provides a non-lore skill.
In the Society GM discussions, some believe it should be
Organized Play Lead Developer
