A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 11th- through 14th-level characters.
Strange earthquakes have been rocking the small town of Pimatsih in Sarkoris, and it seems to coincide with the arrival of Hesla Embersplitter and her newest acquisition: Riftcarver, the scythe that once wielded by Deskari, the demon lord who ripped open the Worldwound. As the PCs arrive to investigate and help secure the town, a demonic incursion begins, and they must work to help bring the Sarkorians together to keep the town and its inhabitants safe. However, lurking behind the horde, the Split Ember has made the Lord of Locusts walk again and he turns his hungry gaze and maw toward the Pathfinders.
When I played, our GM was not super prepared, and this ran 6 grueling hours.
When I GM'd this, I made the 2nd combat mandatory and the 3rd combat optional (swapping them from how they're written), kept the group on-task, didn't allow for any dawdling, and we finished in exactly 4 hours.
This is a combat scenario, flat-out. No roleplay, no nothing. It's challenging. If that's what you're looking for, you've come to the right adventure.
Overall, it's good. It's not *great*, so I'd give it 3.5 stars. Because this season has had so many downers, and there were no egregious errors, I'll lean on the positive side here with a 4 rather than a 3.
Having played a lot of the higher level games I truely enjoyed this one. We had a great GM, and only 4 players 3 11s and 1 12. Alchemist, Fighter,Barbarian and Sorcerer. The task were easy to do with our different skills we just needed to double up on them for faster results. At this level most of us were Masters of our chosen skill. Thought the fights went really well. We supported each other so well. As far as the treasure bundles, that kind of sucks the way it works but at this level if your characters don't have the Boon "Treasure Bundle insurance" then that's on you. Still I though I was great.
Preface: I played this with 6 players in low tier and then prepped the adventure to run it as a GM this saturday, also in low tier (are there even characters without AP chronicles for high tier yet?)
TL;DR: While the continuous combat is an interesting change of pace, the frankly broken treasure bundle allocation for the skill section as well as just not much being there overall made for a lackluster scenario
The Good
- I really like that the approach to combat is different here. You have multiple (up to three) combats in VERY quick succession, followed by one more with a 10 minute break. That makes for an interesting experience and changes the usefulness of short term (1 minute) buffs as well as the value of Focus Points since there is barely a chance to get them back.
The Bad
- You have multiple (up to three) combats in VERY quick succession, followed by one more with a 10 minute break. That makes for an interesting experience and changes the usefulness of short term (1 minute) buffs as well as the value of Focus Points since there is barely a chance to get them back. (Yes, this is both good AND bad - depending on how you want to play and what you character is. E.g. Psychics will probably not like it, while pure Martials will be in their element)
- Some of the abilities of the BBEG don't work properly / are worded in a way that doesn't make sense. One of his strongest abilities would RAW damage / eventually kill all CP adjustments (they have only a 10% chance to make their save every turn and there is no rule allowing them to ignore the effect - though there probably should be one)
- This is one of the series of adventures centered around Hesla Emberspltter. Since I haven't liked her story (nor do I think it makes a whole lot of sense overall), this is a negative point for me. Your milage may vary.
The Ugly
- Once again we have maps that DO NOT WORK with the monsters presented! There are up to four huge and one gargantuan creature supposed to be placed in a 6x6 grid, with the only exit the building has being a 10 ft wide door (though the door might be a Foundry Module issue - the adventure states that the building is fully collapsed). Another encounter has up to three huge and one large creature, all supposed to be in a 3x6 rectangle. This one at least doesn't have a choke point in the form of a door.
- The treasure bundles. Who, boy. What wen't wrong here? The adventure flat out TELLS the GM that it is "very likely" (an understatement if there ever was one - look in the GM Thread in OrgPlay Forums if you want to have a look at the number of successes needed) that groups won't be able to finish all the tasks. Yet to get full TB rewards for this section you HAVE to succeed at all of them. And it isn't even completely clear what is ment by "completing a task" - two of the tasks CANNOT be completed. You can just continue to do them for Morale Points. Another one for the pile of adventures that don't really work as written :(
Walks is a combat scenario that starts with a long skill challenge section.
I think what most players will like the least about this scenario is how hard Paizo works at making sure you lose 2-4 treasure bundles. Why?? Especially at high level where they represent a lot of gold. I’m not someone who gets upset at missing the odd treasure bundle, but the way it was done in this scenario was unfair. We had a highly skilled team, and we still missed 2 bundles from the skill challenge (after using significant hero points for re-rolls). And then, through no fault of our own, the demons ate another 2 treasure bundles before we could even act in combat. It doesn’t make sense that Paizo is so determined that PCs don’t get all 10 treasure bundles knowing that’s what the fans want unless the PCs really screw up.
The other thing that was disappointing about this scenario is that Walks felt exactly like every other scenario. Does Paizo use skill challenges as a filler for word count and time at the table? Because that’s what it feels like. There was nothing special about this scenario, it was the same as a lower-level scenario except it had bigger numbers. Go do some skill challenges and help the village, which took a very long time and was a boring way to start the scenario. Good, now fight some creatures. Then fight the boss. Done. Perhaps I’ve been spoiled by other high level scenarios, especially in PF1, but they have always been special and memorable.
The other problem is with this season itself. Embersplitter is an enemy that literally no one cares about. Unless you play every scenario in season 6 (like Heart of the City), you won’t even know her full backstory. And even if you know her backstory, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense, and you still don’t care. She wants revenge on her cult. GREAT! You don’t need a demon lord to do that, just ask and we could have helped, for free. If she hates the cult so much, why is she acting exactly like them, even after they are gone? If she wants to rule a region, how is killing everyone in the region going to help? Who are you going to rule over? Also, why did she get so powerful from the Godsrain? My character was also rained on in Carnival, why am I not permanently mythic as well? Why isn’t most of Absalom mythic? They were also rained on. I’m sorry, but to me Embersplitter doesn’t make sense and PFS players are just apathetic towards her. We don’t care. We cared about Runelord Krune, 322, and even the hag Aslynn, not her.
The scenario also suffers from a lack of narrative tension before facing Deskari. Initially we are there just to check out some earthquake activity, and before we know it, we’re on a conveyor belt of skill checks and creature encounters and then Deskari is there. There is no time or space to think, just react. When Deskari went down, there was just indifference at the table.
Lots of things didn’t make sense:
The earthquakes did at least 90 damage to me. And I was outside (being inside is worse)!!! And I made most of my saving throws.
How is there anyone alive in the town after the earthquake that did 90+ damage to level 11 heroes? Why am I giving villagers first aid in a medical tent? Everyone should be DEAD. Yet here we are, saving townspeople and stopping demons from eating them. This made absolutely no sense.
Of all of the encounters we could have had, why infernal fire giants? To me, thematically, it wasn’t good, making something infernal is just lazy writing. And why are triceratops allowing them to ride? You might as well make them infernal triceratops, at least it would have made sense. I would have preferred something more unique, or at least demons. At high level, there should be lots of options. Steal an idea from Wrath of the Righteous.
The final encounter against Deskari did not work. Deskari's design was to produce an AE effect, but this effect killed all of the swarm creature around him, greatly reducing the challenge of the final combat. I don’t think that’s what was intended, but that was the ruling at the table. He went down pretty fast as well, flying into us. So even the final encounter was a letdown.
There was no roleplaying at all. There was no story, lore, or any reveals.
Thanks to the white owls, it should be nearly impossible to lose any combat encounters. We never used a single owl, we had 4 owls left at the end, representing around 264 HP of healing for each member of the party. Lately I’ve been noticing that there are several mechanics (owls, edge points, allies) that make it impossible to lose in scenarios. I hope this isn’t a trend because it's getting annoying.
Detailed rating:
Length: I can’t remember. Between 4-5 hours.
Experience: Player, level 11, at subtier 11-12.
Sweet Spot: ?
Entertainment: It felt like every other scenario. I was surprised I wasn’t milking a cow or taking care of children in the village. (3/10)
Story: No story, no lore, no setting, no NPCs. (1/10)
Roleplay: No roleplay. (1/10)
Combat/Challenges: You cannot lose in combat thanks to the owls. You’re setup to lose bundles. The boss was a letdown. (2/10)
Maps: The flip maps made sense in this scenario. (7/10)
Boons: I can’t see us ever using mythic again, so this boon is useless and just marketing purposes. (2/10)
Uniqueness: The attack on the village was very generic. (2/10)
GM Preparation: I could be wrong, but this should be easy to prepare. It’s all combat with straight forward creatures.
Overall: Certain elements of this scenario made it annoying and unrealistic. High level scenarios should be memorable. The worst part is that we just felt apathy towards the entire experience. And to season 6 in general. (5/10)
Wow!! This is the first level 12+ adventure in pfs 2nd edition. There's a decent amount of content now for 10-12 that I may well dust off the chronicle sheets for my original barbarian.
My druid is going to be prepping some metal (cold iron) spells for this. To bad my leucrotta (awakened animal) champion will be to low level, she would love to kick a demon lord's butt.
Hello,
I am preparing this scenario for an upcoming convention. I understand that it is primarily combat-oriented.
Hesla Motivation:
However, can someone explain to me what motivates Hesla Ambersplitter to destroy the village of Pimatsih? The only “explanation” given is that she wants to honor her title of “Breaker of Cities.” That seems a bit thin...
When I ran Wrath, not only did my party kill Deskari, they double tapped him.
Mythic Shenanigans:
Mythic Time Stop (just PCs and BBEG)
Destroyed him in like 3 rounds.
During the SAME CASTING OF TIME STOP, opened a Gate to his personal realm.
Destroyed him again (taking longer as he had his full near-divine power).
Closed the Worldwound.
Cast Gate again to get home.
