In the cosmopolitan trading city of Kibwe, at the edge of the Mwangi Expanse, innocent people struck by a terrible curse known as the slithering are melting into malevolent oozes. The heroes are at the epicenter of this slimy curse and might be the only ones capable of recovering the ancient magic required to break it. Tracking the course of the slithering through Kibwe's colorful markets and shrines, the heroes must untangle the curse's origin and discover the role the nefarious Aspis Consortium plays in the unfolding conspiracy. The mysteries the heroes uncover might usher in a new era of plenty and prosperity for Kibwe, if the heroes can survive the slithering to experience it!
The Slithering is a deluxe adventure for 5th-level characters written by Ron Lundeen. Featuring terrifying new monsters, repulsive new rules and magic items, and an in-depth look at one of the most exciting cities in the jungle-choked Mwangi Expanse, The Slithering provides a wealth of secrets and dangers!
This may well be largely a result of "With the right group, ANYTHING can be fun" but I've found myself quite enjoying my run (I'm the GM) through this scenario.
The scenario has a lot going for it. Lots of exploration, a fair bit of interesting roleplay, an interesting setting, some interesting and varied combats.
But it has 2 major, major flaws.
1) Many of the encounters are just too hard. Even using deliberately poor tactics on more than one occassion I nearly TPKed the party a couple of times and actually DID TPK them once in book 2 (which is where the group currently is).
2) In part 1 especially there are just too many Oozes. Yes, they're thematically perfect for this scenario but they just essentially shut down some character types (rogues and swashbucklers especially). I was lucky that the player of the swashbuckler was an incredibly good sport about how almost useless his character was and was obviously having fun
being so incompetent. I have no issue with a character being largely locked out of PART of a scenario but it was almost 2 whole sessions :-(
Unlike the other reviewer, my group actually loved the Boggards. They suddenly became kick ass adventurers again :-).
And the players were all playing lovingly made characters, NOT pregens. The pregens wouldn't have had a chance without extreme luck or extreme GM assistance.
I think that this module actually makes a good framework for an adventure. If a GM is willing to put in the work to reduce the power level and come up with some solution to the too many oozes problem it would be 4 or 5 stars.
But as a "play it as written" adventure its just too hard.
Especially since its still fairly early in the PF2 life span. The TPK was with 2 monsters
Spoiler:
spectres
that I arguably should have recognized as very overpowered, especially for its level. But (not too surprisingly) I had never seen that particular monster before and just (foolishly) trusted Paizo that they knew what they were doing when they threw 2 of them at the party. I'd like to think that if I ran this a couple of years from now I'd have realized up front how broken some things are.
But it really shouldn't be my responsibility to do that. The group was a quite well built and well balanced group covering all the bases. It is far more difficult than it should be for such a grou
Major point: My players (a dedicated group who love roleplaying) played part one and then unanimously declared "We love our group but don't give a toss about the storyline". So we finished at the end of part one. Having read the rest I honestly couldn't tell them it got any better, apart from having less oozes.
Taking part one in a little more detail...
The very first fight was brutal. Shopkeeper becomes ooze - pretty cool, all the players are suitably WTF! Then they confidently step forward and deal 60 points of damage to the ooze. With piercing and slashing weapons... Suddenly there are four black puddings...
They nearly died, three times over. It was only because I deliberately didn't target the healer, and one of the oozes mysteriously got out of the enclosed tent and wandered off into the crowd to be beaten up there, that the module lasted beyond the first fight. Maybe it shouldn't have done.
The information gathering part was a great concept. The debate with Baat'sulan was good fun for everyone and really played up the "non-humans" element of the module. Good stuff, although there wasn't much to work with from a GM point of view beyond generalised slurs. The medical section however was awful. It boiled down to "how many people are trained in medicine"? In my party it was one person. To let them do it by themselves made no sense, because if they can do it then why can't the NPC that you're helping, so where is the time saved? I said that it was one person per tent, but then the only way to 'win' was to spend a load of money because it was all medicine skills or use up purchased items... so the player's were going to be hit in the pocket for not all being medics. It seemed unfair so I let the one character roll it all and we all promised not to think too hard about it.
The repentant half-orc was a great character and I was pleased to see him reappear when I read part 3. The fight annoyed me though. Two infected people turn into oozes just as they meet the PC's? Wait a minute, you did that already, two pages ago! I changed it (since my PC's all had the Slithering by now - which is inevitable by the way since the Fort save is mathematically impossible for all but the most optimised barbarian) so that they only transformed when they were first hit by a PC - I felt that made more sense, the last dose overwhelmed them and triggered the change immediately. I just ignored whatever damage they took before that and ran the oozes as written - no mechanical difference and it made more sense... so why couldn't it just have been written like that?
By the time they'd tracked down the clues people were still involved. A bit annoyed with bits (the medicine checks!) but involved. The Caravan House was a reasonable mini-dungeon, with some variety (golem, invisible stalker - who was murdering the party but only lasted 3 rounds. Good thing too, with twelve they'd have died. Again.) The mystery was solved! Inside a biting book that they couldn't figure out how to open! I had one of them accidentally prick their finger on it. It worked.
Then we got to the Archive of the Sun and the fun died. It was dull. Lots of boggards, no variety and no real reason why anything was there. They killed the boggards because well boggards... but that was it. Then they got to the central chamber and... here have two more dungeons.
Players said "meh." I said "meh." We went for a new game.
Having read parts 2 and 3 I think there are some nice bits. The encounter on the road with the sisters that signposts the captives later in part 2 is nice. But the rest of it just isn't. I thought re-using the dungeon was potentially clever, but it added to the "same-ness" feel which put my players off it the first time, and the fact that the Apsis Consortium just pops up out of nowhere again didn't help. The big boss being turned into an ooze early on was a nice price for hubris but deprives the players of any satisfaction because they kill him (or what's left) without even realising that they're doing it. He's just "ooze number 8" by that point.
Overall some good ideas - a great attempt at exploring an underdone part of the world and a 'non-human' module, unfortunately let down by bad execution and a lack of imagination. It was just too much of the same thing over and over again. My players wanted to enjoy it, but there was nothing to latch onto: only one major NPC and a quest to save a city they weren't even from. Great idea, bad execution.
This is probably the least enjoyable module I have ever played, filled with ridiculous, over tuned encounters. I see no way in which the pregens provided have any chance of surviving at all.
Town gets cursed by the Slithering curse which turns humans into Oozes. The spell originates from a bad guy at the Aspis Consortium that accidentally activated it and gets turned into an Ooze as well.
You investigate a bit to find out where the dungeon lies. Investigation includes arguing with a cleric why non humans add to the diversity of the city using victory points; the other encounters are a few skill challenges. Regardless of what you do you will get to the first dungeon.
You go through a dungeon to find out that a statue has been stolen.
You go to another dungeon in the Jungle to defeat a cult and fetch the statue.
You go through the first, slightly altered dungeon again to return the statue.
If you find that to be a compelling story, by all means this adventure is for you. The fights are ok to good. Every encounter has some thought put into it but the maps are rather boring and also not illustrated that well and don't allow for any other tactics than hit and run.
If you want to run this well you probably need to switch out the maps and connect the encounters better. The cult in chapter 2 should make its appearance beforehand and you should probably also weave the BBEG into the storyline before he gets turned into an Ooze
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
TOZ wrote:
So you knew the answer and still asked the question?
This is not an uncommon part of dialogue. It's often used when one suspects the other person hasn't given much consideration to their position. Giving them an opportunity to answer a question about it might stimulate critical thinking.
A recent example: I was in a discussion with someone about recent riots across the US. She made a comment that the CDC said it was OK to riot. Obviously the CDC did no such thing, so I basically asked her a question that was her own statement: "The CDC said it was OK to riot?" knowing the answer is of course no. This caused her to reconsider what she said, that the CDC did not in fact say it was OK to riot, but instead that groups of people up to a certain size could gather and not necessarily cause a problem, and she was interpreting it in the worst possible manner. It's a form of conversation that is less in your face than flat out telling someone they're wrong, as it gives them an opportunity to gracefully revise their position. In a way it is a version of the Socratic method, and it's a shame it isn't used more in our society. Of course some people will double down without a second thought, but that's human nature I suppose.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
CorvusMask wrote:
Like, sure, new edition so monster abilities might be different, but saying trolls don't like fire or skeletons don't like bludgeoning is a spoiler is really weird :P Its usually something gms tells to players as tutorial on how weaknesses and regeneration and such work.
That's a shame, because that GM is robbing those players of the chance to encounter such a thing organically in-game, as their character would, which is a wonderful experience. It may be hard for us seasoned players to remember what it was like to be completely new, but I feel we should all try. I have a new player joining my Age of Ashes campaign that has never played an RPG outside of a few Xbox games, and I am asking the other players to let him discover such things on his own as we play. Denying him that opportunity is cruel in my eyes. If I need to explain how vulnerabilities and resistances work I will make something up as it is extremely simple to do so.
Like, sure, new edition so monster abilities might be different, but saying trolls don't like fire or skeletons don't like bludgeoning is a spoiler is really weird :P Its usually something gms tells to players as tutorial on how weaknesses and regeneration and such work.
That's a shame, because that GM is robbing those players of the chance to encounter such a thing organically in-game, as their character would, which is a wonderful experience. It may be hard for us seasoned players to remember what it was like to be completely new, but I feel we should all try. I have a new player joining my Age of Ashes campaign that has never played an RPG outside of a few Xbox games, and I am asking the other players to let him discover such things on his own as we play. Denying him that opportunity is cruel in my eyes. If I need to explain how vulnerabilities and resistances work I will make something up as it is extremely simple to do so.
And I think you are getting dangerously close to "wrongbadfun" territory of saying what you think everyone prefers :p
Yeah, to follow up on my last comment, DO NOT PLAY A SWASHBUCKLER! especially not the pregen version. There are waaay too many oozes in this that are immune to all your damage types. Ordinarily I wouldn't spoiler in the open, but this is too important.
The swashbuckler is an awesome class, the pregen is a well-built character and I really like this module. However, IMO it is incredibly bad design to release an adventure with the intention of featuring the four new classes from the APG when nearly all of the creatures in the first Chapter of the adventure are immune to virtually everything you do. During the first chapter of the adventure, the swashbuckler is essentially nothing more than a an NPC class, punching with their first and hoping (very unlikely) to win the battle of hit point attrition.
What's up with the open spoilers? That's pretty inconsiderate.
TwilightKnight's statement was not a spoiler. It was a public service announcement. I couldn't agree more with every word that was written. The fact that a pregen swashbuckler was published for this adventure has to be some sort of cruel joke. I shudder to imagine a new player handed the pregen swashbuckler to play for this adventure.
No, I didn't ignore you justifying being inconsiderate. I'm pointing it out whether you like it or not.
Fair enough. Given that I prefaced my comments that it might be considered a spoiler, it appears that I don’t care if someone thinks it is. IMO the information to future players and GMs outweighs any minor consideration of spoilers in this case. The point of playing is to have fun and bringing a swashbuckler to this adventure is very likely to negatively impact that fun. This is an incredibly challenging adventure if run “correctly” so players should be cautious about having characters that will be significantly gimped through at least a third of the action.
Besides, telling you not to play a swashbuckler is no more/less spoilery than telling you not to play a human.
And as others have said, it’s not much of a spoiler when the published summary for the product clearly indicates that oozes are present.
I think this adventure does show that there needs to be greater variety in oozes of this level range :p
Also while ooze part of the adventure is the nastiest part, did anybody else get feeling that for ooze themed adventure this adventure lacks... Ooze themes?
Like besides lack of setpieces(I do like the thing they did with flip mat, but it would have worked better if adventure started with said map so there was longer period time before pcs return to it), after oozes its
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
FlorianF wrote:
Will there be a Roll20 version as there was for Plaguestone?
The back of the book synopsis didn't mention anything about this being a non human adventure so I bought it for a particular adventuring party in mind (that has two humans in it). If I had seen that I wouldn't have purchased it at this time. Kind irritated.
The back of the book synopsis didn't mention anything about this being a non human adventure so I bought it for a particular adventuring party in mind (that has two humans in it). If I had seen that I wouldn't have purchased it at this time. Kind irritated.
Quote from the back cover..."The Slithering is a stand-alone adventure for Pathfinder Second Edition, designed for 5th-level non-human characters."
*emphasis mine
The back of the book synopsis didn't mention anything about this being a non human adventure so I bought it for a particular adventuring party in mind (that has two humans in it). If I had seen that I wouldn't have purchased it at this time. Kind irritated.
It's not like you can't Mac'Guffin some excuse for the transformation taking longer on them. Like the a slither of power from the Cursebreaker getting into them the first time they get to Temple of Sun. Then the slow effect makes their organs change somehow eventualy granting them the Oozemorph Archtype and some feats.
Yay! With almost no work you turned something bad into something your players are going to think is awesome.
So on the now nerfed originally potentially tpk causing encounter depending on how you run it:
spectre encounter, now that spectres have been nerfed in errata they are much less over powered and thus would be completely useless in sunlight... But I wasn't aware of the errata, so when I run this module second time for non pregen party(first time it was pregens), I run them as originally written (and still assuming sunlight since nothing in encounter states its during night or cloudy day) x'D
So first time I run this for pregens, party recognized pretty fast that they could (and should) kite them to death since they had only one action. I think one of them might have gotten hit once, but realized to avoid it once they realized what spectral corruption did and nobody got dominated.
Second time I run this for non pregen party, they were confident enough to take multiple hits and actually get dominated :'D They still won since they had good melee line up even though champion got crit fail dominated, but it does lean me to assume that encounter really was originally designed for "use over powered spectres in sunlight" since as long players make mistake of not avoiding them, fight is still semi tough even in sunlight due to how op pre nerf spectres are.
Content Note:
While Pathfinder Adventure: The Slithering contains typical Pathfinder action and adventure, it also includes themes of contagion and quarantine. Before you begin, understand that player consent (including that of the Game Master) is vital to a safe and fun play experience for everyone. You should talk with your players before beginning the adventure and modify descriptions or scenarios as appropriate.
Almost wasted my money to buy Bestiary 6 for Pathfinder 1e, as on page 29 of the adventure I am directed to "Bestiary 6, 97" for Deinonychus stat block. Which is insane, as Bestiary 6 was for PF 1e, not 2e. Turns out (thanks to my deep search), it was in the Bestiary 2e simply.
Fun fact tho, on pages 94-95 in Bestiary 6, there are also Dinosaurs as well. Not cool, guys! Some errata would be nice for the adventure.
It's hard to notice that the words "Pathfinder Bestiary" are italicized and the number "6" is not.
This means the book is Bestiary 1, and the pages are both page 6 (to get info on the 'elite' adjustment) and page 97 to get the normal statblock.
This happens alot when there is a template added to a normal creature that you get 2 page numbers.
Marketing & Media Manager
