A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–4.
A new year dawns for the Pathfinder Society. For the past several years, Pathfinders have explored the edges of the Iobarian wilderness, making new allies and discovering hints at a long-forgotten past. Now, the Decemvirate has decided that it is time for the Pathfinders to do what Pathfinders do best: explore, report, and cooperate! In an ancient cyclopean ruin, the Society seeks to stake their claim with both a new lodge and, hopefully, new insights into Iobaria's remote history. Some secrets are best left buried, however. Will the PCs make a name for themselves as modern day explorers, or will the evil lurking at the heart of the Iobarian dig site consume their hopes and dreams?
Written by Scott D. Young
Scenario tags: Metaplot
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
I've played and GMed much PFS1 scenarios and play and GM few PF2. And this scenario just try to kill 1-2 level characters JUST BECAUSE.
DCs and NPCs very tough, 1 level paladin and ranger just died with 2 and 4 jn savev to Massive damage.
Then NPC , that gives battle disantavnteg ONLY to low level charaters, that dont have resourses to gain advantage.
And - then skill spamming challenge - who roll more times good result on D20 vs who roll bad on d20.
Worst scenario balance on both editions of Pathfinder. Even then you're munckin, as I.
As I understand, this was supposed to serve as an introduction to season 2. And while the first part is ok it doesn't have many meaningful NPC interactions compared to Absalom initiation (1-01). The map exploration is basically one check per zone, with fairly high DCs too. The haunt would be good if it wasn't in an open area where it can easily be avoided. Finally, the library as mentioned before is just a bunch of same skill checks over and over which got my group bored pretty quickly. The final boss fight can easily tpk the group if the GM uses the swipe attack liberally.
Overall, it's just too uneven to recommend imo.
If you ever want to spend 4 hours rolling the same skillcheck over and over (lots of them in turn order even to make it more fun I guess) and fight a lame monster at the end, then this is something for you. Otherwise you better avoid it. I certainly don't plan to run it. It would require lots of extras to make it even acceptable.
The start feels a bit like the single players version of one of the interactives you usually play in sync with a lot of other tables - and I feel that this approach does help the first part significantly. Unfortunately, the interactions with various Society personalities before the actual briefing is... underdeveloped, they really do not have that much to tell you.. if this was one of the older interactives you likely could have picked up a couple of rumors or could helped out somewhere and earned maybe an extra potion or something like that. In this scenario, they are just there, and players can roll to earn an invite into a faction, that does not really do anything - and I would hate to see players spending a hero point on this pointless check.
If you are considering the experience for new players, honestly there are too many NPCs at the start, since after that you are also meeting some members of the Society's masked leadership. Personally, I am not a huge fan of the concept in general, since it is really hard to make the players care for the wellbeing of some masked faceless person. One of the NPCs feels kinda antagonistic, and I am not sure why, If I had to guess it'S to make sure that the players remember that NPC, but since for all we know the people wearing those masks could switch at any moment....
Exploring the top level of the city is honestly pretty interesting, though I feel like an encounter with the haunt is a bit awkward since the whole encounter gets very underwhelming if the players disarm it or trigger it from a distance. Unfortunately, while the players liked investigating that dragon story, the scenario does not really dive deeper into it, though this might be setup for a future experience.
Of course, once you are done researching the top layer of the city, you are likely kinda done for the day since it does take a fair number of hours, I am not entirely sure if the scenario had expected that, but worst case the players push on and find the lower chamber when they are very close to exhaustion, which just ends up making things harder.
The various area descriptions are pretty nice, and the encounter with the mushrooms actually plays quite well, particularly once you make of their movement options. Every time I have run this fight, the players kinda liked it.
Unfortunately, after that the scenarios gets worse, the Library system used meant that usually only a select few players actually rolled checks that mattered - if you do not have a decent intelligence and ideally some training in those skills, the Mural really is a big problem, particularly since spending more hours here can have additional negative effects.
I have to stress the fact that I felt that 1-00 did something like this so much better, and while using the library system can work, in this case, only a few skills are truly relevant, and it still ends up as a truly unpleasant number of rolls the players have to make. The fact that the Ocularity also has the potential to make the surprise encounter even harder really does not work in favor of this setup.
The undead cyclops is a nasty surprise particularly since the players are very likely to be spread unfavorably over the entire room, and that his attack bonus and Swipe attack do have a significant chance to drop 1-2 players in the first round of combat.
This really is a great example of why adding the Elite template is often a blunt tool and should ideally not be used on enemies that are already significantly above the party as far as their level is concerned. The base damage is already in the danger zone of being able to kill a low-level character in one crit, and adding the elite adjustment makes it harder. Maybe we are in dire need of some better adjustments, but in this case, it makes the fight quite deadly, and even if people survive it feels unfair.
I can totally see groups dying in this encounter since the enemy does have significant resistance. Every single instance of the party fighting a Level +3 enemy has been pretty negative and while those encounters can work if the group has more time to prep or prepare, that is absolutely not the case here.
This is not a bad scenario, and the start is quite nice, but resolving the final part really drags it down.
EDIT: The Hazard really is beyond the pale, it has a pretty good chance to kill many characters with massive damage on an average damage roll. I did the math and if Ezren and Seoni get affected by it, if their roll20 ends up rolling a 5 or lower, they are likely just dead.
After I realized that, I kinda had to reduce the score from 3 to 2 stars.
Good story, Good action, very poorly executed exploration segment
Overall, this was an enjoyable romp that set up the incoming metaplot in ways that hooked me, so I can't completely kill this one.
I got the overall concept of exploring the area and getting a feel for what the complex was like. Moreover, I was excited to do this exploration given this is a new culture we as players don't know much about. However, I think the way the author went about executing this was a bit clumsy and could be improved. It was the part of the adventure that most hooked me during the briefing and which most let me down during the adventure itself.
The time spent researching the surface for instance left very little in the way of detail to give to the players and the way the skills section was written here felt like it was originally written with one set of rules and them clumsily partially switched to a second set halfway through development. While I understand such revisions are part of the process, it left the section a bit of a confusing mess to navigate. Worse, even when it was navigated successfully the detail given by successful checks was truly pretty minimal and on-failure there was often no detail that could be given at all.
It would have been nice if these things were more detailed to enhance the experience of exploring the ruins even if you had to condense the number of locations.
Combat:
The combats with the Haunt/undead was pretty cleverly executed and was definitely one of the highlights of the adventure, though again it would have been nice if the fact that an ancient silver dragon clearly died here featured more prominently into the locations overall lore.
The speedbump with the fungus needed a little something because with no surprise rounds in this edition the combat always initiates a bit awkwardly. Maybe some sort of combination environmental hazard/encounter? Though using that tactic twice in one adventure would have probably been overkill.
Finally, the final combat with the Cyclops Wraith is TERRIFYING and very well done, always confronts the players with legitimate fear of death.
However, my biggest complaint in this scenario has to do with the library
Library Skill checks:
With there being no set time limit that I could see, the only real bit of this that can swing your level of success and information is how quickly the party realizes the mural is breaking down and whether or not they have the skills necessary to capture that information in a timely basis. The library mechanics combined with the positively prodigious number of successes required is a bad combination. I don't know how exactly I would fix this but again - it leads to an awkward encounter with endless rounds of checks that usually lose the player interest. Also the way the eye works is just asking for player death considering the exceptionally difficult encounter that gets triggered during your exploration.
All in all I still enjoyed my time with this adventure, but I was left wanting so much more from it than it was capable of delivering.
This, along with 2-02, is supposed to be released at GenCon, correct? Why the available date of 8/26 then?
I believe 8/26 is the date they're available for purchase by the general public, after having been initially exclusive to GMs running at the convention. Same reason 2-00 won't be available for purchase until August 4, 2021, but with a much smaller exclusivity window.
So this is in a "folder" named "Year of Corruption's Reach." Meanwhile, the cover art says "Year of Corruption's Grasp." Just curious: Which one is correct? I'm guessing Grasp -- not only because it is art rather than text, but also because it's better -- but confirmation would be appreciated.
The current version of this file has got an error on the Chronicle Sheet.
The sector "Boons" on the Chronicle Sheet states information from the Special King of Thorns. This should be removed.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber
So, we're running this online Friday night. I scheduled it that way because I was told it could be run anytime after the 26th and that it would drop then. Any chance I can get some clue as to what actual tiles are being used so I can at least get them uploaded to Roll 20? Any other clues so I can start the prep work?
Thanks!
Also, is this going to be the new regular release schedule? Meaning the last Friday of the month instead of the last Thursday. This means our venue no longer gets first crack. If a new scenario drops on Thursday, I have time to prep it before running it Friday evening (EST). If it's not going to drop until sometime Friday while I'm at work, it becomes very difficult to impossible to run it that night. Just my pair of coppers.
does the pdf come with separate VTT friendly maps?
Not even close.
How is it at all reasonable with the pandemic pushing the majority of games to VTT that these new scenarios are still not providing VTT friendly maps in the PDFs? This goes beyond being unfriendly, because it's all dungeon tiles, but there's no unmarked single image of the full map, so to do it properly you have to copy all the tiles individually and then line and orient everything by hand. This makes what should be a five minute task into a half hour of drudgework.
Now getting to play this scenario, it seems the DCs are too high, and getting players to roll against a time limit is just designed to punish players, especially as critical failures happen far too often with the high DC, and just remove research points. Overall, I really liked the story, but absolutely despise how difficult the DCs were made.
Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Rysky wrote:
The map file was likely made before the recent decision and focus to make the maps be VTT friendly was put into place.
This framing....
They already have the electronic files. I can add a page to a pdf in <30 seconds.
It doesn't have anything to do with the pandemic. But if it did... the pandemic Started shutting down society ~6 months ago. And the product release was delayed by a month. It's a decision.
The following seem like possible contributing reasons to me:
Paizo is busy, they produce a lot of adventures on a very tight schedule. There is no meaningful competition (there is extremely high product lock-in and loyalty of the customer base). They have some very expensive map products that they sell separately.
But it doesn't have anything to do with the pandemic.
It's not the end of the world. But it is a decision.
I agree the map files should be more easily imported into VTT. I'm sure Paizo is listening and it looks like the later society PDFs do have map files that are able to be imported easily.
Help.. Does anyone know if there is an Errata for the Chronicle Sheet?? For some reason it states under Boons..
"Congratulations on completing King in Thorns!...."
There are also no items listed..
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Brian Raivel wrote:
Help.. Does anyone know if there is an Errata for the Chronicle Sheet?? For some reason it states under Boons..
"Congratulations on completing King in Thorns!...."
There are also no items listed..
Since the second season, all boons have been moved online in the ACP system. After the GM registers your game, you get access to the scenario boon for free, IF the scenario has a boon.
As for the Items, I don't think the adventure has any uncommon or important items that would warrant access or a price reduction, so I think it's normal. But it has been a while since I played.
This has been the most lack luster game i've played to date, would strongly not suggest playing it, a lack of basic understanding of game rules as a level 1-2 has DC's that are nearly impossible to make. Creating a senario that literally asks if we are new society members only to throw large dc numbers at us is not a fun experience. Disliked the use of map-tiles on all the combat maps, only map i liked was the over-view of the main map area.
This has been the most lack luster game i've played to date, would strongly not suggest playing it, a lack of basic understanding of game rules as a level 1-2 has DC's that are nearly impossible to make. Creating a senario that literally asks if we are new society members only to throw large dc numbers at us is not a fun experience. Disliked the use of map-tiles on all the combat maps, only map i liked was the over-view of the main map area.
2/10.
Ran this this past weekend.
Fully agree concerning the DC numbers. Not only are they too high for a 1-4 adventure, there is also no adjustment between low and high tier. However, even without the adjustment, the DC's are too high even for the high tier.
Concerning the maps, I am going to chalk that up to this being an early season 2 adventure. For the hand-out version of the map, I just went with that for most of the adventure, except for the one fight that occurs within that area, and for that I just used another map that was similar.
