A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 3-6.
With a member of the Pathfinder Society’s leadership missing, the Society begins sending several groups of agents into the wilds for clues. To ensure the safety of the Pathfinders’ base camp in the distant lands of Iobaria, a group of heroes must uncover the truth behind what is happening around the ruins of a cyclops city, and begin putting a stop to a plan set in motion thousands of years ago!
This scenario features the Hexploration subsystem from the Pathinder Gamemastery Guide.
Written by Dennis Muldoon
Scenario tags: Grand Archive, Metaplot
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
I have run and played this at high tier. Overall I enjoyed it a lot, it has a mix of stuff to do, is suitably challenging across various types of play and, potentially, has a big reveal at the end.
Having said that I do have a couple of quibbles.
1. The exploration part potentially involves an awful lot of dice rolling. Checks for finding game trails, checks for finding food, checks for events. There are a huge number of hexes to explore and I can see the dice rolling becoming a bit of a grind. Oddly, this makes the scenario a really good choice for PbP. I am not sure I would want to run this in face to face games. For VTT I provided the map and covered each hex with a marker for the Glyph of the Open Road. As they explored hexes I moved them aside.
2. When I played it we negated a lot of the dice rolling with create food, a rather low level and easily accessible option. When I ran it I did away with foraging after half a dozen hexes when it became obvious the group would never run out of food.
3. I think this could have made a brilliant repeatable. It has an excellent set up, there could have been a choice of 2 out of 4 fixed encounters (maybe one for each element) and then a mix of extra encounters to pick from scattered across the map. I know its part of the metaplot which would mitigate against this but it struck me as a missed opportunity given how well this format lends itself to being repeatable.
Ran this for a group of 5 in the 5-6 subtier, as the other reviews have said overall its a pretty good scenario with a good tie-in to the other metaplot scenarios of this season. One of the players had the PFS1 legacy boon to get the extra bit at the end as well which had a great effect.
My only complaint is the river encounter, the intention is solid but the creatures were completely nullified with minimal effort outside the danger zone of the hazard due to abilities which don't work as well together as needed. If I was to make a change I would have the hazard extend its routine area to the bank and have it push the PCs into the river where the danger is.
The hexploration system worked great and I would love to see more scenarios with it in the future, lots of potential (especially for repeatables).
With the caveat that, based on reviews of #1-18, I must have a higher tolerance for resource management subroutines than other players, I think this scenario was superb.
1. At the end, it feels like the characters accomplished something besides kill the BBE.
2. The tie-in with the other scenarios feels natural and unforced.
3. Combat was perfectly balanced - challenging, but doable.
I had the advantage of playing it with Dennis as the GM, but the disadvantage of bringing the completely wrong character. Still had a blast, and mentally committed to GMing it even before the scenario ended.
I concur with the other reviews that mention the GM has to be really prepared.
I played this yesterday during Bahlicon. It's a very good implementation of the hexploration rules where Nature- and Survival-based characters will truly shine (we had a druid and ranger in our group, so we were covered). However, any group can undertake this scenario, provided they prepare properly -- getting extra rations and supplies, having the right gear, etc. It also helps if the GM is willing to spend a bit of time at the beginning to see how you're set up to handle the exploration routine, otherwise I can see this scenario becoming tedious and frustrating with some groups.
The encounters featured an interesting mix of opponents, including an obscure classic from first edition, and they were set up in dynamic locations with difficult terrain and other environmental hazards.
All in all, if you like exploration and blazing a path through the wilderness, this is the scenario for you!
I played this yesterday during Bahlicon. It's a very good implementation of the hexploration rules where Nature- and Survival-based characters will truly shine (we had a druid and ranger in our group, so we were covered). However, any group can undertake this scenario, provided they prepare properly -- getting extra rations and supplies, having the right gear, etc. It also helps if the GM is willing to spend a bit of time at the beginning to see how you're set up to handle the exploration routine, otherwise I can see this scenario becoming tedious and frustrating with some groups.
The encounters featured an interesting mix of opponents, including an obscure classic from first edition, and they were set up in dynamic locations with difficult terrain and other environmental hazards.
All in all, if you like exploration and blazing a path through the wilderness, this is the scenario for you!
