A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 5th- through 8th-level characters.
On the border of Numeria and Ustalav, there sits an abandoned manor filled with strange technology and shuffling undead named the Crushed Meteor. Once a stronghold of the Technic League, it has fallen into the hands of the Whispering Way and the Pathfinder Society has successfully lobbied with Kevoth-Kul to finally handle the building and exterminate those within. However, a leader of the Whispering Way sits inside the building, considering its many secrets and offers the Pathfinders a choice: let her finish her research and gain information on an enemy, or perish. It's up to the agents within to make a choice that may sacrifice the values of the Society for valuable knowledge!
Written by Chris Bissette
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:
Pathfinder Society adventures should be written to maximize opportunities to participate. This scenario stalls or completely fails early on if you don't have a very narrow list of mental skills. And the only payoff for success is advancing the plot. More effort needs to go into translating good stories into good adventures. This has been an ongoing problem which is underlined by the truly great scenarios that don't fail on this point.
Worse yet, immediately after that is an encounter where the map prevents most of the party from participating. It's not quite as bad and frustrating as Lions of Katapesh, but it's close.
A real decision is nice, one of the enemies a potential problem
(Played the adventure at 28 CP, then read through parts of it)
Summary: I like the fact that there is a real decision to be made. Though it can lead to kind of a huge diagreement at the table, since the choice is one of unknown consquences and based on morals and goals.
The rest of the adventure is more or less a dungeon crawl and a research part. The enemies are, despite being modified, nothing really all too special. One of the final ones, though, is of a type that can be extremely problematic if certain abilities are used.
More in-depth:
The good:
- The adventure tells you that you will go up against undead. And that is exactly what you do. They have a couple of special abilities, but if you prepare for / against undeads, you will be able to use that quite often
- There is a real, impactful choice to be made. Compromise your morals for information on a potentially biggger / more immediate threat
The bad:
- There are some fights in really tight hallways. We had one with 6 PCs and one Animal Companion against 5 or 6 enemies in a hallway of 5 feet width. Fortunately enough we had one melee with a reach weapon and a lot of ranged options, but I can see this being a problem for some groups
- The adventure contains four fights plus two optional ones. Since fights start to take longer at this level range anyways, that can lead to the adventure running pretty long. We skipped on of the optionals and the GM sped things up near the end (and didn't use one particular ability - see below) and we still needed the full five hours!
The ugly:
- The research has no "failing forward" - if your group doesn't have the right skills, you might be stuck at 30% into the adventure. Or you can just keep rolling since
- The research part is missing urgency. There is no maximum number of turns and no consequences for failing until you have everything. If you don't do that, you will lose treasure bundles. And the harder two rooms only allow for one general skill each. So it might take a lot of rolls to finally get there
- One of the enemies has an ability that can completely break a fight. There is no counter available at the level range of the adventure and a critically failed save (or even a few failed ones) can lead to VERY dire situations in a fight that is already pretty tough
Spoiler:
PLEASE stop putting vampires in scenarios! The Dominate Ability is just AWFUL to play with / against!
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, LO Special Edition, Maps, PF Special Edition, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Cover for this scenario has tags for Metaplot (Immortal Influence), Grand Archive, and Vigilant Seal, but those tags aren't present here on the product page. Should they be ignored on the PDF? For what it's worth there aren't any faction specific missions in the adventure, though the reporting website asks for the results of extra missions for both.
(based on 3 ratings)
