A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st- through 4th-level characters.
Silvertree Village is a small settlement within the Forest of Spirits, not far off the Spirit Road, the trade route tracing the southern coast of the forest. It's a smaller river crossing, but often used when the larger Ohira's inns are full, and some travelers even prefer using it. Or they did, until the found access to it cut off by a mysterious fog. Word has reached the Pathfinder Society of this strange phenomenon, and they have resolved to investigate and resolve the issue, as the Society has also had cause to use Silvertree when transporting relics between Hongal and Minkai.
The PCs are tasked with finding out the cause, and before they'll done they'll face challenges put for by a kami themselves, and must learn what has upset this being, and in so doing uncover something much more dangerous.
Written by Hilary Moon Murphy
Scenario tags: Repeatable
Content note: This scenario contains themes of ritual sacrifice and murder. Before you begin, understand that player consent (including that of the Game Master) is vital to a safe and fun play experience for everyone. You should talk with your players before beginning the adventure
and modify descriptions of the narrative as appropriate.
[Scenario Maps spoiler - click to reveal]
The following maps used in this scenario are also available for purchase here on paizo.com:
One of the best "repeatable" adventures we've seen in years, this scenario allows the GM to customize a mini dungeon and adapt it (on the fly, if you wish) to the play-style of the party. It has roleplay, investigation, balanced combat, and regional lore all rolled into a package that all fit in a 4-hour time block.
As both a GM and a player, I call that perfection.
Minor Lore Quibble:
Given that the major crux of the adventure hinges on a discarded godly weapon, I think that should be a bit of a bigger deal than just "here's a hazard to disable or destroy and then we go back to the lodge to report," but that's clearly beyond the purview of the adventure author and isn't figured into my rating for the scenario itself!
Ring Side Report- RPG review of Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-05: Silver Bark,
TL; DR- More variety at the cost of a bit of story. 95%
Basics- What’s happening in the Forest of Spirits?! A mist has rolled in and people just can't pass through the forest. Someone has angered the spirits. Who or what has caused this problem?
Mechanics or Crunch- This adventure has some serious crazy changes! This adventure starts with the players or GM rolling several D4s. These COMPLETELY change the adventure. And I don't mean small things, but the entire last map! The adventure has different final bosses, different maps,and different encountres depending on what the rolls are. This is crazy fun, but it works! If you want variety, this is the adventure you want. My one issue is the differences mean you don't really know where to put the encounters as this is pretty much left up to the GM to decide where the encounters happen. Good, but if you are used to the adventure deciding where the fights happen, then you might forget to put the encounters in! I’d like a bit more guidance, so I can better run this adventure. 4.75/5
Theme or Fluff- This is a fun adventure, but the big issue is the variety means you can’t build too much direct story around it. There is some, and it works, but I'd like more story of who the bad guys are. The major story beats don’t change, so that is good. I would just like a bit more flow with this adventure as a whole. This is the major issue of American RPGs vs JRPGs-choice and story vs freedom and railroad. 4.5/5
Execution- It’s Paizo. I almost never have anything bad to say with they way they set up their books, and this is no exception. Solid production all around. 5/5
Summary- If this is the future of most of the PFS scenarios, then I’ll be happy. I can’t be as spoon fed as I was before with complete ease to run an adventure out of the box, but at the same time I also get new variety for my players. I love what’s here even if the story is less forward. I would like a bit more story, but the adventure as a whole works well. 95%
:Edit: Sorry mixed up scenarios
GM'd
6-05 I had a blast "Designing" my own adventure in this one. The dungeon crawl was nice to see in PFS scenario that lately too often just present with a map to fight only.
However I had a lot of fun when preparing to run as a GM. It basically gives you tools to customize your own minidungeon, tailor contents to a tone and style you prefer, without needing too much extra prep. I think my players enjoyed my work in the end.
Worth to mention that the optional encounter, though narrativelly fitting, is impossible to fit in a 4 hour slot.
Story wise, this is a worthy successor to Lost on the Spirit Road. The situation and feel of the situation are alien (slightly creepy) and well-described.
Even though the combats are somewhat on the easy side (to be expected in a 1-4 tier scenario nowadays), they are interesting and varied. It's easy enough to setup the encounters to be challenging, without immediately becoming utterly deadly.
The skill challenge subsystem used is easy to understand for the GM, and doesn't require sharing any mechanics with the players. This gets a huge "Thumbs Up!" from me.
All aspects regarding replayability are thought out well and very well implemented: I honestly experience this as a breath of fresh air compared to more recent replayable scenarios.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, LO Special Edition, Maps, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Society Subscriber
This one also may be missing it's content warning on the cover:
This scenario contains themes of ritual sacrifice and murder. Before you begin, understand that player consent (including that of the Game Master) is vital to a safe and fun play experience for everyone. You should talk with your players before beginning the adventure and modify descriptions of the narrative as appropriate.
This product page has been updated to add its content warning.
Quote:
This scenario contains themes of ritual sacrifice and murder. Before you begin, understand that player consent (including that of the Game Master) is vital to a safe and fun play experience for everyone. You should talk with your players before beginning the adventure and modify descriptions of the narrative as appropriate.
? Ye did read the CW right, so ye should know what is going on? I'm confused because its not like repeatable are danger free, so what do you mean with that?
Though if I try to be funny for moment, almost all adventures could have CW for murder just because of typical PCs behavior when combat situation starts.
I keep it vague to avoid spoilers (but also keep the spoiler button):
Scenario Encounters:
The -1 level creature is print as 0 of them, but it should be 1.
It is clear reading the first step of the scaling box where it says "the" creature (if there were 0 of them, that line wouldn't have any effect), and also checking the encounter budget if compared with the previous page.
Organized Play Coordinator
