A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for Levels 5–9.
When the Pathfinder Society failed to obtain a valuable artifact from a wealthy Druman noble using diplomatic means, the eccentric collector challenged them to take it through skill from one of his well-guarded manors throughout the world. You are sent to Ghenett Manor in Katapesh with the hopes of surviving long enough to return with the prize—assuming it’s there at all.
This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can easily be adapted for use with any world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
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The Ghenett Manor Gauntlet is a really good example to me of how different we might judge a scenario from a player perspective vs a reader/GM's perspective. I played it via play-by-post with my Oracle of Grossness/Groetus, Makras Vekker, and thought it was a lot of just wandering around, waiting for something to happen. But a lot of that negative experience may be attributed to an unmotivated character, the time dilation of play-by-post, or the GM's style. When I read the scenario for the purposes of this review, it looked great! A bit sandboxy, which is unusual for PFS, a great backstory, some good role-playing opportunities, interesting NPCs, and more. Plus, it contributes nicely to the Season 3 "Year of the Ruby Phoenix" theme.
One of my biggest regrets about PFS is having been unable to start it from the beginning and keep up with scenarios as they were released, as playing them in essentially random order (based on whatever someone offers) means I don't get to appreciate story arcs and NPC development over time. I got to experience that with Season 1 of Starfinder Society, and it was great (but then my gaming got derailed in Season 2). Anyway, that's all an aside. My verdict is that this scenario has a lot of potential for the right GM and the right group.
SPOILERS!:
The backstory to The Ghenett Manor Gauntlet feels like it could have been a short story or fun scenario in itself! As the Pathfinder Society gears up to compete in a world-class martial arts competition (the Ruby Phoenix Tournament), it decides it could use an edge in the form of the Mutani Manual of Martial Mastery, an extraordinarily rare and exhaustive compendium of the fighting styles of distant Tian Xia. The problem is that the only known copy in the Inner Sea region is owned by Temel Passad, a prickly Druman merchant (and Prophet of Kalistrade). The Society sent envoys to Passad to negotiate the book's purchase, but various missteps led to them grossly insulting the man! Passad detained the worst of the ham-fisted negotiators (a scholar named Harmidio Besai, who unwittingly compared Passad's wife to a prostitute) and kicked out the others, angrily vowing that the Pathfinder Society would never get the Mutani Manual unless they could prove their worth by taking it from him. Because Passad owns extensive holdings throughout the Inner Sea, the Society has sent teams to twelve different locations to find the book and rescue Besai. And the PCs just so happen to draw the lucky straw sending them to Katapesh . . .
At Farseer Tower in Katapesh, Venture-Captain Wulessa Yuul gives the briefing. Wulessa sums up the backstory and tells the PCs they're going to Ghenett Manor, a luxurious property owned by Passad that lies about 50 miles west of the city. She emphasizes that the Pathfinders are *only* to retrieve the book and Besai if either or both are there, and are not to steal anything else--after all, the Society doesn't want to offend the powerful Kalistocrat any further. This bit is important, as during the adventure, the PCs will come across an awfully tempting array of treasures, but if any are pocketed, they face severe reprimands (including the potential of negative boons) when the mission is over.
The journey to Ghenett Manor is uneventful. The map of the place is excellent, and could certainly be used for other purposes (it could be a flip-mat, but I think the grounds would be too large to be accurately reflected). The scenario also provides excellent details about mundane but important-in-gameplay details like walls, windows, etc. Upon arrival, the Pathfinders will face their first surprise: they're welcomed inside by a very friendly caretaker! Gamaradim Po, and his demure wife Domitilla, have strict orders from Passad to be courteous to all visitors, even Pathfinders who have come intent on violence or theft. The scenario does an excellent job portraying the scope of information Gamaradim will provide as he and his wife serve tea to the Pathfinders. I was going to write about how there will surely be paranoid players who refuse to have their characters drink the perfectly-innocuous tea, but it turns out the tea is indeed drugged with a sleeping draught! It doesn't lead to harmful consequences at all, but is apparently Passad's way of making a point. It would be interesting to see how many groups try to bully and threaten the perfectly-nice and innocent caretaker and his wife.
From this point (or really even prior to this point, if the PCs decided to sneak over the wall and enter the manor stealthily) the adventure is open-ended. The manor is large, and the PCs are unlikely to visit every chamber. There are some clever traps that might catch-out even experienced dungeon-crawlers, and an assortment of guardians like hell hounds, flesh golems, and chaos beasts. The kidnapped envoy, Besai, is indeed being detained here, in a secret room under the kitchen (the trapdoor has a stinking cloud trap whose sole purpose is to heap a little more indignity upon the rude man). Besai is extremely cantankerous and verbally abusive towards the PCs, no matter how efficient they are, and I think many groups might regret having rescued him!
As for the Mutani Manual, an unpredictable factor in the scenario is that the Pathfinders aren't the only group who have come to steal it! A team of Aspis Consortium agents breached the manor some hours prior to the PCs, and have lost two of their number in scouring the place. They've found what they think is the real book (though it's actually only a decoy) and will encounter the Pathfinders at some point depending on how events proceed. The PCs might think the Aspis agents have the real book and attack them (which might lead to a running battle as they try to escape with it), the two groups might just stumble into each other, or the Aspis agents might overhear the PCs' discovery of the real book and attack them (leading to a pitched battle). The Aspis agents are interesting and well-characterised, which is good (though makes me feel sorry for them when they're inevitably dispatched in a single encounter). It's also perfectly possible that the PCs will get the decoy book from the Aspis agents, assume it's the real one, and travel all the way back to Katapesh for certain mission failure! I appreciate that it treats the players as grown-ups and is willing to levy some consequences for their actions, as I hate scenarios that feel obliged to ensure everything is happy ending all of the time.
As a scenario that's a bit more open-ended and could resolve in various ways, The Ghenett Manor Gauntlet is best for a GM who is flexible and can improvise, and a group that doesn't need to be led around by the nose. Assuming those two conditions are met, I think this excellent scenario should provide a fun experience.
So this scenario makes Temel Passad's pettiness/"mercurial nature" really come through :D Though Temel Passad when he came back looked nothing like his description in this scenario and we haven't seen his wife again yet.
But yeah, had fun time running this and players had fun time bantering with Harmidio Besai aka mr. biggest jerk aka "is this guy SERIOUSLY our best tian expert?" Man that is a wizard scholar you love to hate :D
But yeah, pretty basic by nowadays' standards for scenarios and it has weird insistence with trolly "GOTCHA" moments, including several attempts to goad players into stealing stuff which at modern day seems silly since you don't get rewarded for cleaning doorknobs out of mansions in use in later scenarios anymore :p
I find myself face-palming constantly at some of these scenarios. Don't know how some of these writers get away with these ideas.
Spoiler:
Tea is stupid BS, if you do the "make a toast" thing, you can be gone with that. I don't care what you say, it is a poison. Purposely writing things to circumvent established rules is bad writing. Don't want to be bothered with things like Detect Poison or Poison Immunity, well write some "vague" substance that supposedly isn't a poison, but works exactly like a poison except with an undefeatable DC. My opinion of this matter is mine, I will not engage or respond about it.
It’s not often that the owner of a valuable item challenges you to break in and steal it from him. Or rather, invites the Pathinder Society to do so. It's not as if we got the best reputation when it comes to those things. Regardless, you’re literally invited to go to a booby-trapped mansion, deal with its challenges including guards, fierce competitors, traps and tricks in order to acquire something other agents completely failed at earlier. It’s like Home Alone, but with the thieves being the good guys.
There’s fighting, puzzling, social interaction in this somewhat sandbox scenario, so every character should have his or her moment in the spotlight. I will, however, say that you need someone who can deal with traps. That shouldn’t be a surprise or a spoiler if you’ve read the description of the scenario or, I don’t know, the reference to Home Alone.
While it was certainly enjoyable, and at times challenging, I did feel like some things were a bit too random and out of place. Let me put it this way: I feel like there were a lot of interesting ideas and concepts that are all great fun on the individual level, but don’t really mesh well together to feel like a ‘complete package’. It lacked that little something that really made it all come together. Still, it’s a fun scenario and I can recommend it to basically everyone.
This was a bit of an interesting scenario for our group. Running with 7 people it was a bit bogged down during times, so it ended up taking 4.5 hours instead of our typical 4 and we didn't face the hell hounds.
The start involved the alchemist trying to poison Po while he was waiting at the gate by stabbing him while invisible. But, he failed the poison and I let him remain friendly though really playing that up. This is the same one that almost killed Besai because he was annoying and a giant prick. (Great NPC because it basically made a majority of the table want to kill him)
Having played up we had one death in the atrium. But that was also due to the fact that there was no melee fighters.
Only problems I had with this scenario were some clarifications
spoiler:
It wasn't entirely clear on which parts of the atrium set off the Chaos Beast. I originally thought it was just the raised spot surrounding the pool, but the thief specifically used spider climb to avoid the floor.
And lastly, a tip for all GMs, really study the Aspis stat blocks. That slowed a lot of the game down was trying to figure things out on the fly.
I've seen it mentioned by people on the boards a few times that parties running through Ghenett Manor have failed the overall mission. While I knew that this was a real possibility that I actually wrote into the scenario, I'm curious to know:
A) How often are groups failing the scenario objective?
B) What is the reason they fail?
Spoiler:
(e.g., they bring back the false tome, Besai doesn't come back alive because they don't find him/they kill him/he gets killed/they leave him behind because he's an annoying a**hole, etc.)
C) Does failing the mission have a big impact on their overall enjoyment of the scenario?
I haven't run it yet, but I have a few thoughts on the matter:
Spoiler:
It seems that the sonic trap has a sporting chance of killing Besai. He has terrible fortitude and reflex saves, so chances are he blows them both. The average damage from the shout and chandelier is 28, which would reduce him to -1; however, if the trap rolls high, there goes the mission success. I also think that DC 30 to notice the true book location might be a tad high; the only pregen able to even achieve that number is Merisiel.
While I do think that failure should be an option for scenarios, this one seems especially hard and I could see that leaving a bitter taste in one's mouth at the end of a four-hour session.
I haven't run it yet, but I have a few thoughts on the matter:
** spoiler omitted **
While I do think that failure should be an option for scenarios, this one seems especially hard and I could see that leaving a bitter taste in one's mouth at the end of a four-hour session.
Mergy:
I think that's a fair criticism, though...
Spoiler:
...I'd hope players would do a better job protecting Besai. The parties I've seen in the scenario kept him out of the library or far enough away to avoid the chandelier damage.
Also, truth be told, it was Mark Moreland who added the Perception check to notice the scuff marks. I hadn't even given players that much of a clue!
I would like to add that the map is way too big. The full thing is around 4 feet by 7 feet. When I run it, I condense the size down to about 3x5 feet. I say the boarder of the map are the walls and shrink the size of the gardens in the back. A bunch of these rooms are unused in the adventure.
I have only run it once so far and the group succeeded. Maybe 30 is high for 5th level but not bad for 9th.
a) My group decisively failed to retrieve the tome.
b) I'd attribute the failure to a couple factors.
One, by the time we had finished the final encounter we had both exhausted our spells and health and hit the four hour mark. We figured the tome was our capstone reward, and it never occurred to us that it could be a counterfeit.
Two, the tome's actual hiding place is a bit irregular. We failed our broad perception checks and never looked back.
Three, there are so many potential hiding places for the book that we simply got tired of making perception checks and singling out specific shelves, dressers, safes, etc.
c) Failing to find the tome was really just a final kick in the pants. What makes this scenario unenjoyable is that the NPCs are allowed to get away with murder, but the players get browbeat for standing up for themselves. In my mind, if an NPC arranges for a amorphous tentacle monster to attack you, you shouldn't have to worry about keeping his house tidy anymore. I've never felt more suffocated by Pathfinder Society alignment requirements than I did in this scenario.
I think the scenario would be more effective if either:
a) The master of the house was cast as a clearly benevolent figure who wished to test the mettle of the heroes. The challenges could be less lethal, and the tome could be offered as a reward at the end. This would make adhering to the "do not steal or break anything" restriction more palatable.
b) The master of the house was cast as a clearly malevolent figure who was actively trying to kill the heroes. The stipulation of leaving his house in one piece could be waived, and confronting and slaying/capturing him could be the final encounter. This would add a satisfying payoff that the original scenario is lacking.
As it stands the scenario skirts the line between these two binaries and consequently makes the players feel jerked around.
The biggest threat to our characters when we ran through it was the Chaos Beast - 4/5 of the party wound up as puddles of goo before we could return to civilization for a Remove Curse. During the scenario, for ease of play, the GM ruled to only have us save for stability once between encounters otherwise we would have been bogged down by rolls of minutia. Only the party sorcerer didn't get infected, so he could escort our puddles to get help.
Not sure if any other players considered this, but our group escorted Besai to the Manor's front gates and told him to wait for us down the road and away from the dangerous house.
I was unaware the Perception DC was so high! 0_0 My character saw the empty book stand, thought the Aspis Consortium had beat us to the book due to our saving Besai, so I threw the podium in a fit of rage... which revealed the secret hiding spot.
...those who ended up with the false tome, didn't Besai insist on seeing it? He's written to actually demand keeping it, inspect it at minimum. At a glance Besai identifies it as a false tome. How are parties ending up with the fake Mutani Manual? I watched 8 different tables play this scenario at GenCon 2011 and not one ended up with the false tome. Each party also located the Manual either by making the Perception check or moving the podiums on their own, though the latter method was most common...
Besai is not only a giant prick but also worthless in a fight. Since saving him is one of the objectives, the group decided to avoid a major headache and have him hang back. Like Licidy, we basically tried to remove him from the equation.
As for the podium, again, it's a weird place to hide the tome and requires a very high perception check for a party that skews lower level.
H'okay, here's a quick question about a certain encounter in the manor.
Spoiler:
Exactly what kind of illusions are the flesh golems in the banquet hall? The description in the module only states that they are "intricate illusions."
I put the golems in initiative order when my players enter the room, so they had potential to get up and attack them (reacting to aggression). But if I don't know what type of illusion they are (figments, shadows, etc.), I don't know how to treat their damage.
I know they poof out of existence after a round, but there is still potential for interaction beyond "hey look, weird things are coming."
Also, are they all individual illusions or is the room one large illusion?
