A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 5th- through 8th-level characters.
An escalating series of vampire attacks in the woods near the Exalted Lodge threatens to dismantle the tenuous allegiance between the Pathfinder Society and the Church of Razmir. Venture-Captain Narsen tasks a group of Pathfinder agents with hunting down the gold-masked vampire to prevent further deaths.
What secrets might the agents uncover? Is there more to this string of murders than meets the eye? Who can the Society trust?
Can they find the killer in the golden mask?
Or will the killer find them first?
Written by Michael Sayre
Scenario tags: Faction (Envoy's Alliance)
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
Killer in the Golden Mask is an adventure for levels 5-8 set in the enigmatic kingdom of Razmiran. Written by Michael Sayre, Killer in the Golden Mask sees a group of Pathfinders embark on a woodland voyage to track down and slay a golden-masked vampire whose attacks threaten the newly-forged relationship between Razmiran and the Pathfinder Society.
This is a scenario that promises a lot, but doesn’t really manage to crystallize around its themes. On paper, it’s a fraught expedition at the behest of a cagey ally into a land that few outsiders know anything about. But in execution, it feels like an underwhelming third act we never saw the build up to. The NPCs have strong (if simple) motivations that we don’t learn anything about, and the scenario might have been better served with one or two scenes that sets up both the vigilante Shattermask and the golden-masked killer before delving into the Exalted Wood. Instead, the PCs are handed a lengthy letter as exposition and don’t really explore the topic further.
On Narsen:
Narsen is a compelling character in the story because he is both an ally and a threat. The PCs are cautioned against mentioning their mission to recruit Shattermask in Fola’s letter, but the risk of betraying this mission is practically non-existent. Narsen’s instructions regarding Shattermask don’t carry any weight if disregarded, and there’s no point in the adventure where the PCs have to disguise their intentions with Shattermask to Narsen. This, to me, is a missed opportunity to highlight the high wire act the Society faces in managing its alliance with Narsen while simultaneously trying to explore deeper into Razmiran.
As far as combat goes, I found most of it unexciting. Combat maps are, for the most part, small and unexpressed, with few tactically-interesting features. The exception to this is the final map, which has several movement paths which allows both enemies and PCs to move around, break line of sight, and so on.
First Encounter Critique:
A nighttime ambush is always an interesting event for PCs, but the scenario does not handle this scenario well. The encounter budget does not accommodate for the added difficulty of being unarmed and unarmored when it starts, which one would think should increase the difficulty somewhat. The encounter also does not give guidance on how much time the PCs have to prepare themselves should the vampires’ ambush be thwarted by the camp shroud. This scene might have also benefited from a sidebar on setting watches, as it’s a rule that exists but doesn’t come up often in Society play.
Second Encounter Critique:
This was probably the least interesting encounter to me. It’s on a flat, open field without any interesting features and at high tier features several huge-sized monsters. The shriekers don’t really contribute anything beyond triggering combat earlier.
Third Encounter Critique:
Probably the most interesting of the encounters, and at low tier I imagine it’s nearly perfect. The problem I had was that at high tier, nearly every spawn is replaced by a full vampire, meaning that I had numerous enemies constantly spamming dominate (because why not use an at-will ability). Upscaled spawn probably would have been a better idea, and lent some much-needed variance to the enemy composition, while keeping Trusk’s spellcasting as an interesting focal point to play around.
Nit-Picks:
The scenario mentions that none of the vampires can use Misty Escape due to their supernatural fog Trusk conjured with his ritual. Yet, every vampire stat block was printed with Misty Escape still included. This seems like an important omission, and GMs might miss this detail during their preparations.
Overall, the scenario feels like a series of combats separated by some light hiking, far from the suspense and mystery promised in the product information. The killer’s true identity doesn’t matter within the context of the story, and the vampire’s presence isn’t felt through most of the scenario. At no point do the PCs ever feel hunted by their quarry, and the trustworthiness of the PCs’ allies is never called into question in a meaningful way.
Killer in the Golden Mask is a straightforward, low-complexity mission which is serviceable, but underdelivers on most of its promises. Groups who enjoy combat encounters will still probably find entertainment in facing off against iconic undead monsters, but for players and GMs such as myself who prefer more narrative-driven content, this will probably not satisfy.
Perspective: I ran this today for a 4-player high tier party (20 CP).
From the way everything is setup, to the way the PDF is written, everything about the scenario brings back early-ish PF1 scenario memories, in a good way. But when prepping, a GM should be careful that the editing to delimit encounter sequences is somewhat unclear. This is likely the reason for some of the negative reviews below. A GM should be very careful when
Spoiler:
parsing the sequence on pages 8 and 9: The To the Lair passage should not be run as part of encounter B. Run the To the Lair part in Exploration mode, and switch to Encounter mode when reaching encounter B. That encounter is terrifying enough without adding any other damaging potential.
The story felt old school PF1, though a little bit more information about the NPC the party is trying to convince, would have been nice: My players were asking for more information, and I just couldn't give any. I was also missing some background information about the BBEG, because this felt like a bit of a random guy having a beef with the Society for some unknown reason. I don't mean a whole story arc like we got for GMT or Thurl in PF1, but at least something to be able to improvise some roleplaying.
On the mechanics side, I like how simple everything was to run. It's almost fresh to see regular mechanics instead of the complexer mini-games we often get in so many of the scenario's.
I enjoyed the first and last combat very much: It's nice that you actually get supplies to deal with the specific type of enemy, and that it's absolutely worth it to use them. If the party fails to ask how to use them, remind them about the existence of Recall Knowledge. As to the BBEG fight specifically, I loved
Spoiler:
seeing a BBEG caster that can actually suffer punishment from the party long enough to show what he can do and dish out powerful magic for multiple rounds.
The second encounter encounter on the other hand was brutal and had my players fearing for their lives. These monsters seem Apex-level creatures for their tier, which makes the encounter quite overpowering. There is also some unclarity about how different rules interact with one another, which resulted in a few GM calls. I'm not entirely sure how people get to 6 combat encounters as mentioned in an earlier review though.
I've run this three times, and it's been a blast each time; interesting NPCs to give voice to, genuinely challenging combat, and a good smattering of (but not over-reliance on) skill challenges.
I have a new contender for worst PFS scenario ever.
First off, 6 encounters. None optional. Starting off with one of the classic 1e to 2e transition blunders. Combat is not fast in 2e. Even when you try to make it fast.
Second, multiple enemies that full on disable players, directly triggered by a rather damaging trap that isn't even factored in to the Challenge of the encounter.
And then...once again, like most of season 4, the numbers on these bad guys means that the FIGHTER is struggling to hit. And that's just the mooks! And that's before taking into account how much these things debuff players.
This really feels like a scenario designed by somebody who only knows 5e or PF1e. And the encounters are designed as such. Random monsters for no good reason, tricks and traps for the players to fall for, and interesting roleplay that's thrown to the side because there's too many encounters to fit into a 4 hour session.
And to add to that, the story really doesn't make any sense. I was expecting something interesting, and instead got random plot threads that really don't work together.
Mask is a short combat scenario with some interesting lore for follow-up scenarios.
I actually really liked the lore in this scenario and where they are taking upcoming scenarios involving Razmir.
I also like vampires as enemies, although they can be some of the toughest opponents in PF2. Subtier 5-6.
What I didn’t like, is how the scenario starts off with the leadership and box text expecting the enter a vampire forest at night. Our GM did not give us any agency to change this other than to bail out of the carriage. I cannot think of a more stupid way to start the scenario or approach this problem.
”About Shattermask”:
The story of Shattermask doesn’t make any sense. How could a fat, overweight emotional farmer be assassinating a bunch of elite gold mask Razmiran priests? (Especially without PF1 coup de grace rules, heh). While I’m rooting for the underdog and his story, it makes no sense.
He didn’t even help us at all, even after being healed, in combat. He is this epic figure, yet "protects the entrance". I’m sorry, epic heroes, that are not villains in disguise, don’t protect the entrance, they help.
About forest:
I agree with the other reviews in that it made no sense to booby trap the entire forest with scroll of fireball.
Maybe this aspect of the scenario was easily forgotten since we had a good Rogue.
I’m not sure if my GM made a mistake or whether vampires were intended to be fought like whack-a-mole, but this aspect of combat was ridiculous. The scenario could have been over in 2 hours but this not only made the combat more deadly, but it also dragged the scenario out to 5 hours.
There are several incapacitation effects in this scenario and it's quite deadly.
The last combat was very swingy because of a certain spell, which made it overtuned because our dice were cold. I still liked it, but we came within one die roll of TPK. I’m not sure the GM had us in the right subtier, because the encounter as written would be listed as Extreme.
Having said that, this scenario was enjoyable and refreshing because of the lack of a skill gauntlet.
Overall: A OK story (albeit short) but it just doesn’t compare to scenarios like "The Cultist's Kiss". (7/10)
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps Subscriber
Should this be under the Unavailable tab or the Preorder tab? Just curious why it's here. I guess in 2 days it won't matter, right? Right? I'm running it on Friday, I hope there's not a delay. Thanks for all you guys do!
Should this be under the Unavailable tab or the Preorder tab? Just curious why it's here. I guess in 2 days it won't matter, right? Right? I'm running it on Friday, I hope there's not a delay. Thanks for all you guys do!
When I upload the PDF it moved the product from "preoder" to "unavailable." No idea why it does this, as we don't allow preorders on PDFs anyway, but I can confirm that the scenario is ready for release on Wednesday!
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Maps, Rulebook, Starfinder Maps Subscriber
YIPPIEEEE!!! And I love this one! Already read through it and got my Highlighting and Handouts done. Tomorrow is Maps and Monsters. Friday is presentation. So excited to run this one. Excellent job folks!
Pathfinder Maps Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Alex Speidel wrote:
RobertTHEPerylous wrote:
Should this be under the Unavailable tab or the Preorder tab? Just curious why it's here. I guess in 2 days it won't matter, right? Right? I'm running it on Friday, I hope there's not a delay. Thanks for all you guys do!
When I upload the PDF it moved the product from "preoder" to "unavailable." No idea why it does this, as we don't allow preorders on PDFs anyway, but I can confirm that the scenario is ready for release on Wednesday!
Sadly, it didn't add to my digital content even though it says it's purchased. I contacted customer support, so will hopefully have it in my hands soon.
I really like that maps are being included in the downloads. However, I use Roll20 and they have a limit of 20MB for an upload. One of the maps was about 21MB and it was not an overly large map.
So PLEASE pay attention to the size of the maps. Back down on the resolution or something to keep the size of the files down.
This is the second time I have ran into this problem.
Organized Play Coordinator
