A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 3rd- through 6th-level characters.
Using a rune-encrusted dagger discovered in the vaults of the Grand Lodge, Pathfinder Society agents have tracked down an ancient automaton buried in the remote deserts of Thuvia. As the Society hastens to free the automaton, other forces converge—many want to witness the wonder of this discovery, while others come with ill intent! Can the Society fend off these sinister foes, allowing the automaton to choose its own fate? Or will the ancient war machine fall into the hands of a powerful nemesis?
This adventure is the second part of the two-part “Calamitous Dagger” metaplot arc in the Year of Boundless Wonder.
I enjoyed this one as a player, but a few things required some consideration and care when I ran it. For one thing, I told my players to pay special attention to the influence section because they might not have many chances to influence people. I also told them to "remember your mission(s)" when deciding who to influence.
When I played it, we didn't really have a problem with the final encounter. But when I ran it, my players were not as fortunate and it dragged a bit. They eventually got through it though!
One thing my players noticed was that the most natural way of handling one part of the final encounter didn't really have the damage output to actually get the job done. They still managed, just not in that way.
All in all, a scenario with interesting characters and a few cool innovations. I hope we see at least a couple of the characters turn up in the future.
Battle is a scenario that extensively uses the influence system and has some combat.
I think Battle really illustrates how the influence system doesn't work. The influence system is non-organic, restrictive, and most importantly, not fun. When you finish speaking to an NPC, it's not fulfilling, you're always wondering if there's more to do.
With the influence system, it kills creativity by restricting your approach, your roleplay is NOT important, what's important are your dice rolls. And getting enough check marks. And that... is boring.
The scenario starts off with the PCs riding a cart to the site of the golem. For some reason, we need to use the influence system and engage the cart driver (really?) and a merchant. This process was forced for several rounds, and had no (known) impact whatsoever. It felt like we were fishing for information, but all we got was a backstory of a random NPC.
We then continued using influence at the dig site, for no apparent reason, on a wider variety of NPCs, for several rounds. The golem was the only one where it actually made sense to speak to, and we certainly didn’t need the influence system for that.
The "boss" combat at the end was extremely disappointing.
Based on the description:
Based on the description of a giant black flying galleon opening a portal in thin air (it was actually a great description, well written), I thought we were dead and that the only reasonable reaction would be to run and hide.
Then, two low level shadow orcs came down from the ship, we killed them in less than 1 round, and the "cannon" from the ship hit me for something like 1d8 damage at level 3 (I had almost 60 hp). We easily disabled the cannons somehow (no other creatures were onboard??), and that was pretty much it.
A situation that should have been completely overwhelming, turned out to be one of the easiest combats I've had in PFS. Afterwards, it was hard to take Aslynn seriously as an opponent.
Overall: Pointless roleplay followed by underwhelming combat encounters. (2/10)
Multiple development/editing issues, references to nonexistent conditions, unclear reward conditions.
Weird railroad in the middle of the adventure to a weak encounter that's hours away from the important location you really should be staying at.
Cool encounters at the beginning and end but final one has some issues. Also really need some notes on the terrain to keep from being a giant featureless wasteland.
I generally like influence rounds in scenarios when they are focused on 1-2 npcs. This scenario throws 4-5 at you without making clear that some of them are a priority.
This makes the party go all over the place. Our party lost VS rep because apparently we needed to focus a particular npc but did not.
The encounters were fun, with creative use of **low level** (thank the maker!) hazards. Only issue was that last hazard was inaccessible without flight. Not the best idea at those levels.
So one star off for lack of clarity and questionable hazard placement.
Wait...there is a specific magic dagger associated with this likely large automaton based on a watery creature. Hopefully someone will be trained in Performance with playing a flute to summon it into battle.
I haven't read this scenario, so I don't know the context in which is was used, but the Shaken Condition was in Kingmaker:
"The army's morale has begun to falter, be it fear in the face of a powerful enemy, a supernatural effect such as a dragon's frightful presence, or simply the result of ill fortune in the tide of battle. Shaken always has a numerical value. The army's Morale checks take a circumstance penalty equal to its shaken value, and whenever the army takes damage, it must succeed on a DC 11 flat check or its shaken value increases by 1. An army that becomes shaken 4 is automatically routed. An army reduces the value of this condition by 1 each Kingdom turn that passes during which it does not attempt an Army activity or engage in a war encounter."
I suspect that they meant Frightened, but once again, haven't read it.
Yes, I think so, too. But I would like more accuracy.
||All combatants are shaken during the first 3 rounds of combat.||
the line from the adventure, it doesn't spoil anything
Replace "shaken" with "frightened 1". In cases where the condition lasts for 3 rounds, add the stipulation that the condition's value does not decrease at the end of each turn until the 3 rounds have passed.
Replace "shaken" with "frightened 1". In cases where the condition lasts for 3 rounds, add the stipulation that the condition's value does not decrease at the end of each turn until the 3 rounds have passed.
Please see the thread in the GM forum for more spoilery questions.
Ah. Star appeared in 4-04, which looks like it might run too long for Dreamer's run time. Rats. So I can't GM the first part of this adventure for my group.
Does anyone know what the run time on this one might be?
FYI - the scenario references an additional map that's not listed above or in the front matter of the scenario. Should probably be added to the front matter and above as a minor errata.
Additional map (spoiler):
On page 13, the scenario references Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classic: Desert
