A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st- through 4th-level characters.
After ensuring that Fasiel ibn Sazadin saw Qadiran justice for his crimes, the Pathfinder Society received a mysterious letter from his benefactor detailing that she now sees the Society as a formidable opponent. After receiving this, Venture-Captain Safa spent quite some time traveling and researching across Qadira and Nex, only to find that the benefactor resides in Jalmeray and is a rakshasa with fine tastes. In order to find out more information about her, Safa and Rashmivati are sending a small crew of Pathfinders to attend a local auction in order to do some reconnaissance. However, while attending the formal event, the Pathfinders can't help but notice that it looks like one of the guests might have some sticky fingers!
The influence was pointelss - as it did not really clicked with the rest of the scenario and none of the rewards (bar one) affected the scenario - and dragged on far too long.
And the part after the influence felt disjointed - if I was not in org play why would i do research if the host of the party tells me everything is fine, the expert tells me it is fine... etc...
And asking players to bid in an auction starting with a minimum bid of more than their total wealth seems like a very well thought out idead (not).
Good part the battles were not botched that much (but scaling led to very crowded rooms)
The influence mechanic unfortunately falls flat. Dragging things out for 8 rounds feels tedious, even with intervening events. Plus, there's barely any benefit to invest in it, seeing as neither the rewards nor the outcome seem tied to your influence score. Honestly, I wouldn't blame anyone for speeding through it after a while.
The second half throws etiquette out the window and has us personally pursue the boss. Low on time because of the influence section, we were rushed. We were swept into the final battle without understanding the story or getting a chance to negotiate with the boss. Only reading the scenario afterwards revealed that we had the opportunity, and I can see how a GM might get confused.
Despite the intriguing premise and creature design, the actual gameplay experience was poor. This scenario needs an organized GM to make it fun.
(Bumped up from 2 to 3 stars because of good writing/creativity elsewhere in the scenario. And back to 2 because of the incongruities / plot errors in the 2nd half.)
The influence section has well defined NPCs with distinct personalities which created fun RP moments as we went through the rounds. The way the rounds were broken up with events was nice and the party was pointing their finger at a different NPC each time they hit a new influence threshold and received information.
Fine exploration and the combats had a nice variety of creatures.
Only complaint is the map which had north pointing to the west, but not a big deal overall.
