A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st- through 4th-level characters.
A talkative skull with glowing eyes was among the many wonders that recently turned up in the Pathfinder Society's vaults. Thanks to the Society's efforts in the magic-rich city of Quantium, the skull has rediscovered her identity as an influential wizard and magical researcher, whose spirit came to reside in her bony body after a magical mishap. She had been attempting to ritually protect herself from dangerous forces, and while her efforts did allow her to evade her pursuers for a time, they also left her true name in tatters. Can the Pathfinder Society help her piece together the mysteries waiting in her magical home before these forces return to steal her secrets?
I ran this with perhaps the most unlucky party of all time, sorry again guys.
Despite being the upteenth scenario to use this exact map (and it is far from the last), the exploration is fun and silly, it somehow manages to feel low stakes while also being a rather dangerous dungeon crawl with strong monsters and hazards (in high tier). The flavor is evocative and interesting, players seem to enjoy poking around in the manor, but it could use a little more differentiation from other museum map adventures.
As should come as no surprise, the trap (you know the one) is really not fun for the players, and it provides no fun to the gm either because it doesn't make the situation more interesting for the PCs because it just locks them down. My party TPK'd against it essentially, and even though the punishment wasn't severe (other than their hit points), it still felt incredibly bad, worse than losing treasure bundles as I imagine. But I don't think this ruins the scenario as some people think, there is something to be learned from it, it's rare for there to be a hazard trap or haunt in society that isn't either too easy or too dangerous.
Other things like the final encounter being much easier than the one that immediately precedes it bring this scenario down a bit. Of all Aslynn's children, Liaskra doesn't command the most presence and I imagine many players forget her. Additionally as has been said before, No art of our Arclord friend at the end is a tad bit disappointing, and her overall presense in this scenario is somewhat diminished compared to the last one.
Lastly, some of the box text is a little too much, I love reading but when I'm talking out loud to a group of semi strangers and stuttering all over the place in a description that covers half the page it makes me anxious. I think my general feedback for the future would be that briefings and primers should be more succinct, I've seen a lot of players complain about the info dumping, and as someone with ADHD I do find it difficult to keep up with them as a player.
I was really looking forward to this one as part I is one of my favorite society scenarios. However, nothing stands out in this one, just a very standard dungeon crawl. There’s really nothing to be said.
The lore is cool, even if some of the flavor gets ruined a bit with the Remaster's reimagination of magical schools. The encounters are interesting, and meaningful since they all manage to convey a story. The skull has been amazing in every scenario so far, and the scenario is not afraid to show its power without overshadowing the players. The skull's background and personality lends itself to casual ridiculous ostentatious displays of magic, and I love it.
Skill wise, this one is fun: The skills are reasonably varied (within the range that you can expect) and DC's are right.
My only gripe is with the boss encounter: Once more the BBEG stats are disappointing, suggesting they lack any will to live (though that may be an issue limited to the low tier, as its stats are somewhat more reasonable in the high tier). If all the other encounters have more survivability than the boss fight, then what's the point of a boss fight? This seems to be a constant for the lower level "part 2" scenario's of Season 4: Smug bosses without any real capabilities, which makes you wonder how they even managed to get this far with their plans.
Abode had a silly puzzle that didn't seem solvable by players (perhaps it was presented poorly by the GM), but it was basically skipped by a skill check and didn't ruin the scenario.
Authors should know that if puzzles are too complex or not easy to solve, they will likely be skipped or bypassed when the scenario is run.
I ran this scenario twice for Paizocon, and found it to be a lot of fun! The skill challenges are unique and well-paced, and the difficulty feels right on target (aside from the last encounter feeling a bit short depending on the scaling). I felt the narrative flowed better than 4-05, and players seemed to find it more gratifying as well.
My one gripe (spoilers for conclusion of the scenario):
Spoiler:
I really wish we had art for Alyreha's human form to show at the conclusion of the scenario - I recognize that it takes time/effort, but it feels anticlimactic to complete the entire arc and never get to see Alyreha outside of her skull form and statue. There's even a blank spot in the game aid appendix that another piece of art could've fit!
