Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-15: Cleansing the Flame

Played at high tier.

For the first ~2/3rds of this scenario our party was really vibing with this. There's a bit of a mystery in what's going on, an investigation that leads to an interesting reveal of the culprits and their motives, and then some combats which include 'win/lose' conditions that are more than just 'who kills who first'. Though the second and third encounters, at least at our tier and scaling, seemed to have virtually identical sets of combatants which was less interesting

And then the last bit of the scenario comes in. Where all of our actions and choices seemed to be swept aside so Paizo could lay lore track for a plot they want to do - a plot they sort of already did the very last time PFS engaged with the Burning Orcs. Our party found the NPCs' request at the end to be fairly nonsensical and bizarre as something Pathfinders would be expected to do. And when we finally agreed mostly because it was very clear the scenario was directing us to do it anyway, the addition of other combatants to the fight due to CP scaling made the entire situation even more absurd.

The meat of the scenario is good. But the end really brought the mood down and left a sour impression. This and 4-15 feel like things Paizo in a few years will point to as a case of 'PFS missions affecting the world!', when in reality the 'important' parts of it play out just like a 'press X when prompt comes up' QTE level of 'affecting' things.

I love this adventure from a vibe standpoint, even if I thought the depiction of Orc culture was a little difficult to understand. The combats were also very challenging in a way that took advantage of the unique setting.

Unfortunately things like missing DCs, chase rules that were clearly copy and pasted incorrectly and some key mechanics presented in less than obvious places (such as the mechanics for the scene with the body that needed protecting).

Will update the review once I had the time to transcribe all of my notes, but it is one of the experiences in this session that appealed to me.

Epic, emotional, and easy to run in a 4-hour time block. Both when playing and each time I GM'd this scenario, this was a really great time for all players involved, especially those who remember the NPCs who were introduced as far back as Pathfinder 1st edition.

One of my GM tables had a little bit of a slow-down when multiple waves of similar enemies turned into a slog due to bad dice, but that's not on the scenario. Easily my favorite scenario of the season so far.

Again, the rules for chases are incorrect. This time they copied an entire block of text from 5-13 wholesale, including referencing the Incandescent Terrace. At least this time the results of the chase actually make sense. The scaling of the chase is completely terrible as well, having it scale off number of players vs challenge points is never the way to go for scaling. You just had copy the same scaling from 2-10, which is in the same tier as this scenario. Start with 3 points, and increase the DC or chase points required based on the challenge points.

The Hazard after the chase doesn't have a hazard type at all. It is mentioned as a Trap in the reaction, so I went with that, but the hazard type matters for things like Trap Finder, so it really should be included. Also please stop making hazards that do damage to everyone on the initial reaction as well as on their turn.

When the PCs enter Mahja's house to check it out, they somehow don't hear all the fighting outside. It's also assumed that they close the doors for some reason. I don't like how it essentially forces the action of closing the doors on the PCs, and assumes they wouldn't notice the huge fight breaking out just outside those doors.

They also included a 5th rank spell in the boss's 4th rank slots. I replaced it with another Fireball, but a mistake like this is super easy to notice and fix. If you want an NPC to have more spell slots, you can just give them more slots, you don't have to cheat that hard.

Also speaking on cheating, having someone cast from outside combat left a sour taste in the mouths of my players. It's not that the boss got free buffs, it's that it was pitched as an honorable combat, then someone goes and cheats from the stands and the boss says nothing about it.

The addition of a Huge creature on a map that has a 10ft wide hallway was also a huge mistake. There should have just been more Orcs instead of animals.

I'm also severely disappointed that the Red Reaver claws were completely ignored, despite having a significant meaning to Uirch. He claimed the claws after fighting the Reaver and losing his arm, and when we see him next in 2-10 he's proud of them, and even shows how the claws match the scars on his arm. Then they were completely forgotten about just to give him a shield.

The addition of Uirch also getting a crucible mark was kinda predictable, I just hope something interesting happens there, rather than him just helping Mahja out.

Overall it was fine. At least we had a fight against an intelligent enemy who had good spells and tactics for once. We need more bosses like this. However, this boss could totally have just been a Cleric of the "bad guy" who kills Uirch in front of the party, and have literally the exact same spells and abilities. Nothing about Uirch's stat block was special to him, and it would have been more memorable if we were avenging a fallen ally, instead of pity killing him.