A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 5th- through 8th-level characters.
The PCs are tasked with escorting a valuable item slated to be gifted to a powerful potential ally of the Pathfinder Society, but as they are being briefed on their mission, an unknown thief is pulling off a heist within Heidmarch manor, and the item the PCs were to escort has been stolen just as Venture-Captain Shiela Heidmarch goes to show them the item. The PCs much pick up the thief's trail in a race across Magnimar to recover the treasure they haven't even had the opportunity to see, much less guard.
Written by Hilary Moon Murphy
Scenario tags: None
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
The opening investigation was kind of weird, but everything after that is fine. Although the end fight can be a bit too easy if you reach the villain soon enough. He rolled high on initiative, but his penalties were so big that 3 of us went before him and he died on his first turn from persistent damage.
Spoiler:
Even though we could tell from behavioral cues alone who the thieves were, we weren't allowed to Coerce them into fessing up because the adventure didn't give enough information for anything other than "The players spend the entire first hour of the adventure gathering evidence and then present it when accusing the thieves."
I really enjoy this one. The investigation at the top is open-ended enough to allow for a bunch of different approaches without being too undefined that the PCs could veer out wildly on unconnected red herrings or misinterpretations, and there is a good variety of types of clues to be discovered so that every type of PC should be able to contribute something.
The chase is well-executed here. It's both a logical 'chase' situation where using that subsystem makes sense, and all of the different locations you race through give a nice overview of some of what makes Magnimar special.
The encounters - especially the last one - actually make good use of the terrain in a way that's all too rarely done.
Overall a very fun one to play and that I would eagerly run myself.
There have been a lot of changes very rapidly to the setting this game takes place in and these changes have been underexplored in favor of simply presenting what the changes are.
Here instead we see what a society that does suddenly embrace that which was previously monstrous might look like.
This scenario is primarily an investigation and as a whodunnit it is very successful. The clues are evocative and interesting without resorting to the old subtlety hammer. Its a fine line to walk but they walked it here.
The combats and environmental challenges were fun and level appropriate. Tonewise this does feel a bit like an adventure for junior pathfinders but it all works out in the end.
The thing I compliment the most is the serious tone. So much of pfs lately is dripping in irony or humor and runs away from the gravity the setting could have if you let it.
Great investigation, interesting fights, Good all-round
Perspective: Ran this high tier for 6 players (20CP).
Mechanics
I thought the investigation part was well-written: It included a good amount and variation of skill challenges (not all of which need to be succeeded at). The players caught on rather quickly on what was going on, but they had to make sure that they were correct. The chase was fun, again with a good variation of skills: It felt like running through the Magnimar version of Lonely Planet, which was pretty cool.
Combats
The combats were surprisingly resilient and fun: The enemies packed quite a punch, and the positioning game felt different than many combat encounters I've experienced so far. Slight caveat: When I looked at the low-tier version of the first combat I though "ouch", though players should be able to have a solution for that at this tier.
Lore
Apart from what you get to see of Magnimar, the lore doesn't stand out (and it doesn't need to), yet there are a few nods towards old PF1 scenarios, which I liked. It does help to show a picture of Magnimar to put the scale on which the city is built into perspective: New players just don't know about it, and experienced players can use the reminder.
Ran it twice, one low tier and one high tier.
Investigation. a bit too obvious but then it is well structured and laid out in the scenario.
Chase: easily dealt with, efficient enough. I was concerned but it went ok.
combat: low tier was really easy. high tier was tougher, but not really that challenging.
if the GM does not prepare enough supporting material, might lead to losing player's attention, given the proportion of investigation and chase.
the reason for the adventure is somewhat dumb. Totally agreed with another comment that it feels like a low tier scenario.
Unimpressed
Thanks to my amazing developer, Josh Foster, this mystery adventure turned out so well. I GMed three author tables of it at SkalCon last weekend, and it was so much fun watching my players try to figure out what was going on.
Speaking of useful handouts, I wondered if there was a map of Magnimar available online for a scene in the adventure, and I found this map here. It dates back to the 2nd Pathfinder adventure ever, so it might be a little out of date, though.
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