A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 5th- through 8th-level characters.
King Estrid of the Ironbound Islands has put out a call for Pathfinders to explore the Island of the Ancestors, but first the Society must earn her approval. Gorm Greathammer, a prince, warrior, and the leader of the Grand Archive faction, has traveled to Halgrim to meet with King Estrid—and her crag linnorm companion, Boiltongue—and forge a new allegiance for the Society. Talks have been going well, but the arrival of Boiltongue’s children in the city has thrown everything into chaos! Gorm senses that the negotiations are about to collapse, and sends for a team of Pathfinders to help keep an eye on Boiltongue’s children while he wraps up talks with King Estrid. Babysitting five rambunctious linnorm siblings is about as easy as it sounds (which is to say, not at all), and the Pathfinders are about to have their hands full!
The story is pretty straightforward: It reminds greatly of the PFS1 Frostfur Captives adventure. Needless to say that the scenario works best with a GM that hams up the distinct linnorms in order to make them come across as different.
There are a lot of skill checks (I like those!), and I think they're generally done in a good and rewarding way. Under the hood the skill checks seem decent, and this finally seems to be a scenario that
Spoiler:
has victory conditions that reflect the possibility that not all checks will be made without completely punishing the players
.
Setting wise, I liked the Ulfen descriptions.
My only disappointment is that the combats felt a bit easy. I don't think our party was extremely overpowering, yet combats were over really quickly (under 3 rounds).
This could have been a very good scenario. By there is too many skill checks. Each interaction must have a skill check.
Skill check are the bane of roleplaying especially in pfs 2 where you have almost no way to control the dice. And everything is a stress, you don't have the control of it.
At the same time. you have 5 NPC which is different to keep track off. Since you need to interact with them each of them everytime and because you need to skill check everytime, you don't care about this individual. It would have been better that one linorm at a time or reduce them to three.
I was just hoping this adventure was finished, because of how many skills check we needed to do.
Spoiler:
I am also angry that you cannot send the Martyr shield to any of your pc.
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EDit: gm 11 december in pbp (french)
Now that i have gm, i see that a part of the problem was on the gm (and myself as a player). Most of my complains are the same. The number of linnorms, The need for the players to interact in a specific way individually.
I double down on the numbers of skill check.
Spoiler:
Especially since the result of the adventure is three skills check and a battle, all the other just serve to lessen or augment the difficulty of those skill check. I almost feel like those pouchs would have been used at the end to "convince" the leader but showing the society using corruption is a no-no. The last event is just a time killer.
Also, the last fight has a problem... You can kill by mistake the Ulfens, The reflex is really low and you can have an elemental socerer.) In my table, everyone except one ulfen warrior crit fail. If i didn't suggest him to not go full blown. Everyone one except the bard would have died.
That why i keep the 3 stars. The idea is great, but the leading is too direct and there is too many skill checks!
Our GM indulged us with great linnorm roleplaying. Bring your social skills, they will be useful. A martial-focused party would not do well. I too, would like to see a return of these kids.
I played this scenario during Gencon 2022, and out of all the games I played over my 4 days of gaming, this scenario was hands-down the greatest highlight of the con (and honestly, it might be my favorite PF2 scenario ever produced to date). It helped that I played with a GM who was good at roleplaying and fleshing out each of the unique Linnorm kids in all their goofy, Frostfur Captives-eque glory (and if you play this scenario – which I highly recommend – I also recommend getting a GM that’s good at RP. With an experienced RP GM, this scenario is golden). The scenario has tons of RP opportunities with a lovable cast of quirky characters, some fun (but fairly easy) combats, and a couple of skill challenges that are engaging and rewarding. If you’re looking for a challenging scenario, head elsewhere – but if you want a wholesome roleplaying experience with just a few slightly dark undertones, this is your scenario! I foresee it becoming a classic of PF2.
To GMs out there though, I would warn you that the scenario looks like it has a lot of moving pieces. The biggest challenge is juggling a lot of unique NPCs and doing them all enough justice to make them memorable (and potentially endearing even). Also, the skill challenges looked a bit complicated – but not too unwieldy. To sum it up, I’d recommend giving this scenario the prep time it deserves so you can really make it shine – but it can definitely shine (perhaps blindingly so) if you put in the effort.
SPOILERS AHEAD!
For a more in-depth explanation of my experiences, I’ll first state that going into the scenario, I knew I wanted to play my fairy bard. I figured she would be the perfect character to herd a bunch of unruly little monsters, and I figured her performance and diplomacy skills would be super useful with kids. I was not disappointed! Surprisingly though, I don’t recall performance and diplomacy being the end-all, be-all solution to every interaction we had. Since each of the Linnorm kids had their own interests and values, our party was able to make good use of a number of skills in order to impress our charges. For instance, one of the kids wanted to be a great warrior – so I think martials would’ve had the easiest time impressing her. Likewise, there was this one nerdy know-it-all Linnorm that liked to start every sentence with, “Well, actchually…” who knowledge monkeys would probably get along well with.
Of all the kids though, my favorite was… I believe her name was Brullivex? The little sister of the group! She was THE bestest best Linnorm EVER, and my bard made it her calling in life to boost little Brulli’s confidence whenever she got the chance. I even bought that little Linnorm a stuffed bunny with my character’s own money – something I never do in PFS play (but I just loved Brulli sooooooo much!).
All the Linnorm kids were great though, and I for one cannot plead Paizo enough to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE GIVE US MORE LINNORM KID SCENARIOS IN PF2!!! PLEASE!
One other thing I’ll note, but this scenario took a surprisingly dark turn when the crybaby Linnorm got kidnapped. I loved it personally, although I was not expecting such a seemingly happy-go-lucky scenario to go that route. When it happened, I really got a kick out of roleplaying my fairy bard going ballistic. Also, after we resolved the kidnapping, my bard had a long chat about stranger-danger with the Linnorm kids – which was also great!
I also liked the foreshadowing for bringing the Runelord of Envy into the foreground, and am really looking forward to wherever that goes in the future!
As far as combats went, while the first fight with the manticores was fun and slightly challenging, the fight with the ulfen warriors near the end was laughably one-sided. I typically like to have challenging fights, but in a scenario this goofy, it didn’t bother me at all (since we were trying to impress the kids, after all!).
Overall? Amazing stuff. Again – Paizo, we need more of the Linnorm kids! PLEASE BRING THEM BACK! BRULLIVEX 4-EVAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!
Same, I've wanted to know more about Estrid and Boiltongue for awhile.
I do not pay much attention to the Ulfen Lore, preferring Cheliax and Kyonin, myself. I do love this picture.
White Estrid is one of the newer Linnorm Kings, having controversially recruited Boiltongue to her service after besting him in battle, rather than killing the wyrm as all other Linnorm Kings do when they earn the title.
Great story, charming narrative connective tissue, and the artwork is excellent. That said, mechanically it's very heavy on the skill check challenges, and among the skill check challenges, its specifically VERY heavily weighted towards the Charisma-based skill checks. Make sure you bring multiple face characters if you can.
Heads-up: the PDF for this adventure was updated today. Nothing changed about the adventures, but initially there were only five player slots on the sign-in sheet instead of six. This has been corrected!
My players all agree: we must protect Brulivex at all costs. Though the combats were a little thin (especially the justification and development of Event 5), they mostly got out of the way and left more room to explore the charming village of Halgrim. Overall, this scenario was very well written. Highly recommend
The scenario offers a chance for PCs to make a Profession (instructor or teacher) check. Looks like someone was thinking PF1 for a bit there - what should the check be?
When I saw the title and location I was hoping for some Ulfen(or viking) Lore and adventure. Instead we get Nightmares in babysitting - babysit 5 spoiled brats. Not my thing that's for sure. I 'll defiantly have to keep a much closer eye on what scenarios I want to play after this one.
