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:
This is an great heroic adventure. Not fussing over how to get the society into the graces of this- or that- dignitary. No neurotic worry about the history of the Society itself. A dig into an unknown past to uncover its secrets. With real danger – a great “oh-my-G-d-we're-all-going-to-die” fight. Yes, yes, yes!
Nothing surprising (beyond an amazing heroic battle) - but nothing disappointing!
Avoid this module unless you have to play it then look below for a fix for it
This mod is a fun killing mod. I have played and ran this mod and each time, I saw players get table slapping angry at it. Why, you might ask. It's because of the end Research Project.
Who ever did the DC's for that project really needs to go back and edit this mod to fix them. They are so high that unless you have a person that specializes in all those skills of rank expert or higher, you will fail this module. You will lose out on treasure bundles. This means if you do not have a character that is highly focused in Society, Occultism, Arcana, Religion, AND perception, you will fail.
It got so bad at the tables I was at, that over half of the table just sat there watching someone else hopefully roll 20's on their dice for over an hour. That is half the table sitting there doing nothing but getting angry and, if they tried to help, the DC's were so high that they often got crit fails which took away all the hard work the others were doing.
That is not how a society play game should be. You should not have people getting angry cause they have literally no way to succeed. That is not fun. That makes people hate society play. I had to talk one player into wanting to keep playing society.
I don't think this is the authors fault. He has written one of my favorite mods "Bandits of Immenwood" but who ever did the math for the DC's, might need an editor to double check their work in the future.
Since this is a first scenario of Year two, here is what I can recommend to fix the last part. Drop the DC's by at the very least 5. Then you might succeed.
I help run some conventions in the area and I'm going to tell the people there, this mod is not allowed to be played at them. After seeing players get angry and lose all their enjoyment, I am not going to let that happen for conventions or games days I've worked to build up.
I suspect this mod was rushed out the door for the start of Season 2. I was hoping Society Play would fix this before release after Gencon but they have not.
The end Research Project, while a fun idea and I do think is great to put in, needs it's DC's fixed to be more accessible for groups of players that just come together to adventure. Pre-made tables where you power game, this will be a cake walk with some of the players getting bored.
Overall, the story is fun. The exploration is good. There are some elements of suspense, but they are ruined by unattainable hurdles. Thus costing you treasure, reputation, and most importantly, the FUN OF THE PLAYERS.
I'd say avoid this one but there is word that it will tie into 2-03. So if you have to run it or play it, get the DC's at the end dropped by 5 at the least. Your players will have more fun and feel less useless.
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.
