A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 3-6.
With one of its masked leaders missing, the Pathfinder Society continues a desperate search of the forests in northern Iobaria. Urwal, leader of the Verdant Wheel faction, approaches a group of Pathfinders to assist him in travelling through the forest at the behest of some unknown force that beckons to him through dreams and visions. The end of this fanciful march could reveal where the Society’s leader has gone, but it could also lead the Pathfinder Society to uncovering more of the mysteries of distant Iobaria.
Written by Hilary Moon Murphy
Scenario tags: Verdant Wheel, Metaplot
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
the start is light and fun, as long as players accept that it is meant to be light.
The encounters are quite fun to run, interesting creatures to meet. That said, the encounters can be severe and the risk of TPK is indeed not insignificant, as noted in various reviews.
I very much liked it, and in particular the balance between skill checks (which are less boring than in many occasions) and combat (tough, but then, where is the reward in easy fights?).
The scenario was enjoyable overall but the final encounter was within one round of a TPK for our upper level low-tier party. All of the PCs went down at least once and two PCs were still down (stabilized with Hero Points) and the remaining four each had 5 HP or less when we finally defeated the last opponent.
Strong overall, but way unbalanced final encounter
We played upper tier with a party that was regrettably overweighted towards spellcasters. The final combat was flagged as severe, but as written it was really almost impossible for us to avoid a TPK. Severe should not lead to over half of the party being down for most of the encounter.
I have played this in high tier and have prepped it to run it.
Overall this is a great addition to the Season 2 metaplot. It has a slightly goofy start but the rest of it is very solid. You have an escort mission with all of the funky troubles of escort missions you will be familiar with from pretty much any video game with annoying NPCs who run themselves into trouble.
There is a good mix of exploration and combat with some challenging combat encounters. There is limited social stuff so I wouldn't bring a diplomancer to this one.
This would be 5 stars but it loses a star due to editing issues. In particular treasure bundles are wrong. The scenario lists 8 or 9 depending on if you look at the boxes or the text. This really shouldn't happen and should be a simple thing to spot. I wouldn't mind so much if editing issues were infrequent but they seem t crop up with every scenario.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
I have always loved anything by HMM! Can't wait for this one!
Any chance of getting a map list? (trying to make one large map purchase for Paizocon games I'm running, rather than a bunch of little ones as the scenarios are released).
