A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 3rd- through 6th-level characters.
A demonic cult recently performed a ritual to great success, part of its leader's grander schemes. Her work near Nerosyan complete for now, she left a token force to guard the site, no longer needing it, and prepared to travel elsewhere for grander plans. This activity, though, has been noticed. The ritual site was supposed to be completely abandoned, but a group of traveling merchants noticed the strange activity. This was reported to the Nerosyan leadership, who in turn have pressured Venture-Captain Jorsal of Lauterbury to get involved. Jorsal has decided to send the PCs, to investigate the site itself, assuming that a place so near the city likely isn’t much of a threat.
Written by Michelle Y. Kim
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:
I love me a good dungeon crawl scenario. They've always been some of my favorite scenarios. But this one....Oh man.
The scaling is just completely and utterly wrong here, and there's at least one, if not two, too many combats for a "single day" of adventuring. Especially for the low tier. At higher tier, I could see spellcasters still having something big to use in the later combats, but all the spellcasters in my party were completely out of slots by the time we made it to the final combat.
The scaling is absolutely what ruined this. Running the numbers, with the scaling we had, the scenario turned into, essentially, 5 severe encounters in a row, with a hazard or two sprinkled in.
And, uhh, what was up with the plot in this one? "Go collect evidence" very quickly and suddenly turns into "Defeat the cult", and it seems the initial premise is completely discarded once we get in. I'm all for subverting expectations, but discarding them is another thing entirely.
This was an absolutely miserable experience for my entire table. Please stop making the scenarios have 5 encounters plus multiple hazards and multiple roleplay segments.
Too much going on and really bad for more than 4 players
The scenario was simple and easy to understand, but the PLs were drawn in, and there were scenes of lively conversation with NPCs, and the balance between combat and skill challenges was well received by the PLs.
It was also well received by the PLs because it was a story leading up to the 6th season and they could feel the flow of history created by Paizo.
One complaint is that there is one battle encounter with no MAP.
Perspective: Played this at high tier (bard 6, oracle 4, summoner 6, psychic 6, Valeros 5 and Ezren 5)
Combats & hazards
Most combats and hazards went pretty easy due to a few good rolls on our side and a well-working party composition. Our BBEG fight was very challenging and had us scrambling with Valeros cutting through the party like butter.
Skills
The skill challenges are nice and varied, without any mechanics that shouldn't have been there.
Flavour & Lore
The theme is communicated very clearly and very quickly: This used to be the Worldwound, and the descriptions and lore remind you of that in a good way. Make of that what you will. Don't miss out on the warning for season 6!
All-in-all, this scenario reminded me of the PFS1 scenario Thralls of the Shattered God, which is one of the best dungeon delves I've played. This scenario does a very good job and feels like a worthy spiritual successor of that one. Kudos on this scenario!
This is a very solid 'delve'-type scenario. The rooms and location are nice and flavorful (including several fun hazards that are easy to understand but feel creative), the plot is fairly straight-forward, and the layout and editing is pretty good With one major exception: there is not a specified map for the first encounter. I don't think this is inherently a bad thing - it gives GMs like myself a lot of leeway into coming up with an interesting map - but I sincerely doubt it was intended.
Many of the combats felt a bit on the easy side (though at high tier the final fight has an enemy where the results of a single save will cause the encounter's challenge to vary wildly), and I feel the first bit of 'evidence' the PCs stumble across is so revealing to established players that it would be better found later in the scenario, but overall a well-done scenario.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable and (from a player's perspective at least), well written adventure. The rooms and exploration had so much detail and flavor, the encounters were interesting and varied, and the combats had interesting characters and mechanics. Tons of fun and sets a high bar, looking forward to more adventures like this.
Giving a hazard encounter just one possible skillcheck and that at expert is just rude honestly. if you dont have that you can whack a hazard for half an hour
(based on 7 ratings)
