A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 7th- through 10th-level characters.
In the conclusion of the Year of Boundless Wonder, the Pathfinder Society and one of the members of the Decemvirate have pieced together a careful plan. Using one of the mysterious items from the vault, the draught of dreams, the Society will lay a trap for Aslynn, catching her via her own greed and desire to control dreams. The plan requires bait though, and Zarta Dralneen has stepped up to prove her loyalty to the Society yet again and finally finish off Aslynn. However, despite their secrecy, she's caught wind of the plan and is ready to overturn it and finally be done with the Pathfinder Society once and for all!
Those Pathfinders are such busy bees,
Thinking they’ll finish Aslynn in a breeze.
Oh ho, but she has so many tricks,
Let’s try them all, see what sticks!
Written by Lysle Kapp
Scenario tags: Metaplot (Boundless Wonder)
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
Overall a solid higher-level adventure with a good variety of elements in play.
While a bit odd the have an 'Influence' event in the climax to a multi-season arc, I actually liked how it was done here: all the NPCs have history with the Society so there are things for your characters/players to base their RP and skill guesses around, and you are influencing through assisting their prep for the mission which gives a strong sense of 'we're working towards a concrete goal' instead of 'why do our bosses care so much we get this random merchant to like us?' like Influence setups can sometimes feel
The fights seemed well-balanced and the 2nd one especially had some interesting enemy variants and terrain elements that spiced it up. though the PC's 'starting place' can leave the battlefield feeling cramped - I would remove the wall between their area and the larger room to the north to give more chance for the fight to breathe and not get choked in by narrow doorways.
Completely inappropriate use of the influence system and weird encounter design
I have to say the use of the influence system in this scenario is truly puzzling. The NPCs are only loosely detailed and the characrization of Star is really child-like and not super in keeping with his prior appearances which had portraydd star as wise and old. But having influence to start the scenario cold with npcs in rounds before the players have really gotten warmed up is so hard. Not only did it have timing that made things difficult but with the lack of a true player-facing objective for the scene the players really didnt even know what to say or do or why they were doing it. This lent itself to largely awkward and unrewarding roleplay outside of Stars portion. I appreciste that this scene was trying to pay off the season and the friends we made along the way but I do not think it landed.
Then we get to the combats and I am so puzzled at some of the decisions
Combat Spoiler:
There is this combat in a dreamscape with this mirror gimmick and all of these dream powers and then the biggest threat in the encounter is a largely stationary plant? You wrote a ferrari and used it as a civic. Its weird. This could have been EPIC but it wasnt
There are also some really weird things with the connective tissue of the scenario. Aslynns plan doesnt make any sense to me. I tried. Andnthis made it really hard for me to convey Aslynns motivations and activities to the players. This meta plot has not been my favorite but I was surprised at the extent to which this just did NOT come together.
And then as others have said when you do finally get to go one on one with the big bad of not one but TWO seasons...she just isnt a big deal and the combat is the least interesting of the three written in the scenario.
There were some great and clever ideas in here but theyre inrefined pr misapplied and it was disappointing in the end.
Normally Id give a scenario like this 3 stars but since this was meant to be the payoff for two seasons of plot and REALLY needed to deliver I knock off a star.
Big final fight! HELL YEAH!!! Finally!!!! And than... that...
I won't rate the scenario that badly, but I was also a little disappointed in the final fight considering how well the villain was built up so many scenarios before...
Alright, my bard hit her with Roaring Applause, which she couldn't save, and our group has two or three attacks of opportunity, so that was pretty lucky. But for the grand finale I actually expected at least "severe" encounters.
The scenario wasn't bad at all. I only like influence in private rounds, the organized play scenarios didn't convince me of the system (I like the pursuit much better), but whatever, at least it wasn't that unfair, but there is a group that is 100% here that didn't consist of nothing but Skillmonkeys?
Nevertheless, the flair was given at least until shortly before the final fight. More than three stars is not possible from my side from a player's point of view. I will lead it on Friday and if the round turns out differently, I will edit the evaluation again afterwards.
Positiv: I find the handling that certain scenarios played by the participating PCs have meaningful and understandable effects on the finale very good!
There are two reasons I rated this scenario so harshly.
1. The Influence subsystem can be really fun when well-written, but Paizo typically does not put in the effort to truly make the subsystem shine. This scenario is another example of how Paizo puts too many characters into these encounters and doesn't try harder to make them fluid and interesting - possibly with various talking points or scene transitions.
2. The final boss battle was an absolute letdown. For the finale of the season, and the culmination of years of build up, facing off against a villain who's been a thorn in the Society's side since Season 5 of PF1, I was hoping for a battle that would be challenging, memorable, and rewarding. Instead, I got a MODERATE ENCOUNTER?!?! Why Paizo? It was the finale of an entire season, darn it! In the future, please have more challenging boss battles. PLEASE!!!!
