A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 7th- through 10th-level characters.
The Pathfinders travel to the demon-torn Sarkoris Scar in search of more information about Hesla Embersplitter, who's been rumored to have connections to a cult in the area known as The Cult of the Screaming Grub. The agents in the area will need to explore the desolate wasteland to find Deskari's Gullet, a cave system filled with strange connections to other planes. It's there that the Pathfinders will find Hesla's treasure and maybe catch a hint of her ultimate goal, while frosty eyes watch them from afar, counting on their success.
Basics- The demons are gone, but very much not forgotten. The Pathfinder Society hunts for a lost cultist who might restart the Worldwound. Will you stop her in time?
Mechanics or Crunch- I love a good hex crawl. You have some crazy side events, some social, some skill, and a few combats. The math all works out. Also, this has probably my favorite event in a PFS scenario: IF YOU STEALTH, YOU AVOID A COMBAT! It’s not an “it happens later" thing, it's “you bypass a combat.” Everyone has something to do in this adventure and the math is solid. 5/5
Theme or Fluff- This is a hex crawl, so there are lots of things that can happen. The issue is there are LOTS of things the players might miss or can happen. As a GM, you have a lot to run in a higher level PFS adventure. And as a GM you have keep the players on task to get this done within four hours of a con! It's REALLY easy for this one to run off the rails if the players go in the wrong direction, miss hints, or even just don't get all the pieces. More direction would be nice and even a bit more variety of things to encounter for fights. I love the story and the idea, but this one you have to keep a solid watch on for time. 3/5
Execution- It’s Paizo. The adventure reads fast has its own map for the players and the GM, and is organized well. This is the stuff I want in an adventure for an organized play. 5/5
Summary- The main issue I and a lot of people will have here is the length of the adventure. It's solid, and I WANT more hex crawls in PFS. But, direction and time are lacking in this one. Players can easily go off on crazy chases, and that eats precious time off the four hour PFS adventure clock. But, the other pieces are fantastic. Maps, monsters, things to do, and even new friends to meet make this a fun adventure for higher level characters. Make more hex crawls, but maybe provide more directions in the future ones. 87%
I don't want to be a broken record, but the reviewers before me really hit all the major points with what's wrong with this adventure. The elements of a great scenario are here, but maybe they were put together wrong?
Scenario wants to do a lot but fails on the execution
I played and ran this recently, it went overtime in both cases. While playing I got a feeling that the hexploration made no real sense and reading the scenario afterward confirmed this, as apparently it doesn't really change anything on the ritual if the party checks hex by hex on the map (even though the scenario insists on tracking the days ? ). Otherwise I think it's also quite punishing to lose TB for not finding locations on the map to which the players had no inkling of. Even without all the locations the main story line has 3+1 encounters, and we need to assume they do 1-2 of the side quests. That's quite a lot for a L7-10, even without the hexploration chore.
I liked the story itself however, and appreciated the backgound information on Hesla.
Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Really excited to run this one for my local lodge, just have a question regarding the hexploration: if the party reconnoiters a hex with no encounter but it happens to be bordering another would it be fair to draw attention to that hex? (I mean all but a certain one of course)
Also the scaling adjustments for final part levels 9-10 seems to be incorrect, would it be the same adjustment as is in levels 7-8?
Hey looking at the creatures in this scenario on Foundry and a few things stand out that seem really strange?
Spoiler:
The Derakni (underlevelled based on it's 1e self) feels like a 1e demon, with no Sin Vulnerability, three resistances to acid, cold and fire like an old demon, and only one weakness to cold iron and none to holy? Not to mention Abyssal Venom, isn't that based on the OGL terminology for demon stuff? Also, the Retriever is here, I was under the impression those are OGL, is it somehow not?
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
smitty22 wrote:
** spoiler omitted **
Exploration Question Answered:
So the reason to explore is that the party can lower the massively high DC to search for the actual final Dungeon.
So I ran this, and as a GM that sometimes finishes early, I would need an extra entire extra session to finish this scenario on time. The Exploration Portion could have been it's own scenario length wise, and the final encounter area is likely on the "Extra Long" Season 2 Quest side of things... So easily three hours if you're Running As Written.
I started the post exploration climax at the end of the allotted session time, and did an ultra-speed run through it to fit the scenario into six hours.
Individually, the encounters are great, and I loved the NPC's introduced. It's just that the added logistics of the Hex Crawl when most parties can afford a spacious pouch and enough rations to last plus the higher level combat makes the added administration too time consuming.
Speed Run to finish in 5 hours - for a convention slot or zero flexibility retail table.:
So I'd ask the party's permission to waive the hexploration rules entirely. I'd skip the animal combat encounter and TPK hazard encounters entirely and combine those Treasure bundles with the remaining combat, I'd basically do all of the NPC encounters & the one combat related to one of the NPC's former village. Hexploration encounters are severe by default because it's the only encounter that day, and at this level they can run super long - particularly if the melee PC's can't deal with Flying in a reasonable manner. After that, I'd start the final dungeon as written or making the first encounter a skill check with no combat option. With the briefing and epilogue, this might just allow a GM to finish on time.
