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Same as for part II, I figured this requires its own thread. As before, this thread contains spoilers all the way regardless of spoiler tags.
First up is a minor question regarding Nester Rees. In the initial description he's said to be an expert of level 5, yet the stat block says 3. I assume it' the latter; after all, it's much more work to fix an entire statblock than replace one numeral.
Also the travel times seem to confuse me a little. From Absalom to A (centaur encounter) it takes only 3 hours, while the next leg takes one day. Assuming the party leaves in the morning they'd have 5 hours of traveling left. It totals to 3.75 miles travelled (or just 4 miles to make it simple). Regardless, this would force to create a whole new travel time table.
Anyway, this isn't a real problem, it might just confuse other GMs as well. According to my calculations if the PCs leave in the morning they arrive at the frozen wagon after about 3 hours of travel on the fourth day. Of course the solution is to move the frozen wagon forwards, which I will.
Oh, and the centaurs are described to be a bit lame. I know people on these boards keep telling it makes new players leave tables and never come back if their characters die and yadda yadda, but if the PCs are really foolish enough to attack the centaurs, I won't have any qualms using the centaurs to teach the PCs a lesson.
I don't know why there's a map for B. If someone spots the krenshar, it runs off. The map is a waste of ink. As an encounter though, it's nice. This is probably done to spot who in the table are the true metagamers.
Then comes E, the Hero's shrine ... I don't like this encounter as it's written. It's easily identifiable as a shrine to a great person, and thus taking money from the shrine should be punished permanently (as a curse, so remove curse or some would remove the affliction). Similarly just putting a coin and gaining the favor should be in place of the money gained; presently this encounter rewards characters who are good, and punishes those who are evil. While in a moral way this is right, I won't impose penalties on characters who have been roleplayed accordingly. Again, this is a really stupid encounter.
Encounter G, the Bog Mother. Are the PCs supposed to just slaughter or attack the kobold? Is the kobold supposed to attack the PCs just because? I could imagine the kobold demanding the PCs to take another route (a few hours extra traveling) and beginning as unfriendly. That way this can be converted into a roleplaying encounter rather than a typical "lunatic monster attacks PCs for no good reason at all". I've seen that happen way too often.
The Grindylow's Goblet fight is intriguing. I'm assuming Ulionestia drop the glass (free action), and readies an action (pyrotechnics, standard action) which will happen once Shoalo and Ahrmisa get the artifact from the table and turn away from the blast (effectively closing their eyes). On Shoalo's and Ahrmisa's next turns either of them runs to the door and opens it, allowing the other to run outside. A very elaborate plan that requires the PCs some good saves and quick thinking. This holds a real possibility of failure (on PCs part), and that's good. A victory tastes dull if you get too used to it.
I'm hoping to run this adventure next week.
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I ran this at Dragonflight over the weekend...
Also the travel times seem to confuse me a little. From Absalom to A (centaur encounter) it takes only 3 hours, while the next leg takes one day. Assuming the party leaves in the morning they'd have 5 hours of traveling left. It totals to 3.75 miles travelled (or just 4 miles to make it simple). Regardless, this would force to create a whole new travel time table.Anyway, this isn't a real problem, it might just confuse other GMs as well. According to my calculations if the PCs leave in the morning they arrive at the frozen wagon after about 3 hours of travel on the fourth day. Of course the solution is to move the frozen wagon forwards, which I will.
The travel chart is totally confusing. I tossed it. My players and their little train of donkeys was well provisioned and so travel times really didn't matter much as long as they didn't dawdle or get distracted.
Oh, and the centaurs are described to be a bit lame. I know people on these boards keep telling it makes new players leave tables and never come back if their characters die and yadda yadda, but if the PCs are really foolish enough to attack the centaurs, I won't have any qualms using the centaurs to teach the PCs a lesson.
I had a lot of fun role-playing the centaurs. The party was very respectful and the encounter went very well. Given that most PFS modules are a bit combat heavy, it was nice to have a spot of RP.
I don't know why there's a map for B. If someone spots the krenshar, it runs off. The map is a waste of ink. As an encounter though, it's nice. This is probably done to spot who in the table are the true metagamers.
I was wondering about this as well. I played it as a hazard encounter with the natural bridge and rushing water. The party had a lot of fun trying to cross the river without getting dunked and getting their donkeys across safely. They really planned it out and were successful with only very minor mishaps. I would call it a good team building exercise. But, yes, probably a waste of ink to print the whole map in the mod. They failed to notice the krenshar and it followed them to attack in the night.
Then comes E, the Hero's shrine ... I don't like this encounter as it's written. It's easily identifiable as a shrine to a great person, and thus taking money from the shrine should be punished permanently (as a curse, so remove curse or some would remove the affliction). Similarly just putting a coin and gaining the favor should be in place of the money gained; presently this encounter rewards characters who are good, and...
I ran this encounter pretty much as written. Some of my players dropped coins in the offering bowl, some didn't. No one was tempted to steal from the shrine though.
RE: Bog Mother
Snapjaw did take a chunk out of one of the PCs (he bites hard for a small alligator), but I ran this as a RP encounter. Other than wanting to keep the party from trampling her "children", she doesn't have a big interest in fighting them. It was also fun to role-play the crazy old kobold druid lady.
RE: the battle at the Grindylow Goblet
This ended up being a pretty long combat. Between pyrotechnics, web, and multiple grease spells -- it got pretty confusing. The two gillman warriors weren't much of a challenge, the thaumaturge was a bit more of one.
I had a couple additional problems/issues with this adventure.
1. What does the Azlanti artifact from the Pathfinders' vault look like? How big is it? Is the party supposed to carry it, or is it in the care of Master Rees?
2. How long has the Island of Kortos been settled? If so, why would the interior be largely unexplored and uninhabited? Is there some aspect of the character of the people of Absalom that makes them incurious and unable to inhabit the rest of their island? Maybe extreme agoraphobia or something? This place has been settled for 4000 years!! And it is the largest city in the known world! The entirety of Kortos would need to be given over to food production to support such a population. So, why is there trackless wilderness?
3. What is up with the Pier's End encounter? The Pathfinder Society has given the party a valuable artifact, hired Nester Rees, and placed false transport manifests to insure the Aspis Corp. agents are looking elsewhere. Yet they failed to hire a boat to transport the party the final leg and are relying on their haggling skills to find transport? Who was the planner for this project? I totally skipped this encounter. (I also tend to run long, so it was just as well.) In most other PFS modules the party doesn't have to pay their own way to complete the mission -- I assumed the same held true for this module.
4. What does the fake artifact look like?
CJ
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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I've run this adventure a few times.
I ran the centaurs as mysterious, and possibly more than the players could handle. Moreover, I never made it clear just how many there were, standing in the shadows of the forest deep. They did well.
I had the one member of the party continue to see hints of the krenshar, leaping across the path, high in the trees behind the party.
I kept forgetting that Rees is pretending to be lame, which slows the party considerably as they try to make good time in the mountains.
I ran Bog Mother as written, with initial condition hostile. Sometimes, you run across mean people. My players mostly tried to parley, but couldn't overcome the Diplomacy DC.
I like Deussu's take on the final encounter, and am planning on stealing it the next time I run the scenario.
1) The real artifact, for my game, was a hemisphere made of some transluscent material, sheared off sharply and irregularly at its base, as if it had been sundered by an axe, long ago. It didn't radiate magic, I had plans in case anyone were to attempt to cast identify.
2) I've been assuming that there are political difficulties with Absalom cultivating more of Kortos. Also, some of those siege engines and towers are still active; they act as a barrier between Absalom and the rest of Kortos.
3) Something in the Taldan ambassador's plan has gone wrong. There's supposed to be a ship here, but it's not shown up. No explanation is ever given: did the gillmen scuttle it? Did the captain just turn tail? In any case, you need to make do with an emergency substitute.
4) The fake artifact in my games was a set of cuneform tablets with a weak magnetic field, that fit together in certain orientations. In each game, one of the PCs would cast detect magic, and I'd report that they radiated moderate transmutation and divination auras.
A Spellcraft check (DC 20) or Knowledge (arcana) (DC 15) check would remind the caster that before the Thassalonians quantified different arcane schools, the Azlanti didn't differentiate those specializations as precisely. The artifact is radiating magic, but magic from a modern theory of spellcraft.
If the PC relays this to Rees, he'd be astonished. "I was about to give this a passing grade. I would never have thought to analyze it through a magical lens. Are you sure about the dwoemr being off?"
At which point, the jig is up, glassware gets dropped, and we're in initiative.
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4) The fake artifact in my games was a set of cuneform tablets with a weak magnetic field, that fit together in certain orientations. In each game, one of the PCs would cast detect magic, and I'd report that they radiated moderate transmutation and divination auras.
A Spellcraft check (DC 20) or Knowledge (arcana) (DC 15) check would remind the caster that before the Thassalonians quantified different arcane schools, the Azlanti didn't differentiate those specializations as precisely. The artifact is radiating magic, but magic from a modern theory of spellcraft.
If the PC relays this to Rees, he'd be astonished. "I was about to give this a passing grade. I would never have thought to analyze it through a magical lens. Are you sure about the dwoemr being off?"
At which point, the jig is up, glassware gets dropped, and we're in initiative.
This is excellent. A mistake on the writer's part, really, not describing the artifacts in any way. And I should remember this annoying cantrip, detect magic... it's getting used constantly, and it makes identifying and appraise useless.
Though I'd make it a Knowledge (arcana) DC 18 (15 and 20 are too common!). After all it's not an easy bit of knowledge, and bonuses even on level 1 are often around +8.
And I try to make Nester Rees look a real professional. He does have +11 to Appraise after all, and if he succeeds in his check I'll have Nester show appreciation towards the PCs for discovering such a good clue.
Good points from both of you. I'll probably try to read up something about the isle of Kortos (much isn't documented, intriguingly) and find clues as to why it would be inhabited. Didn't think about that until thelesuit mentioned... after which it does feel mind-boggling.
Hi, I am the author. I get the feeling you guys are not looking for replies, just discussing the scenario. However, it is official cannon that the interiror of the isle of kortos is wild, untamed, and remains a mystery. It is full of cntaurs, harpies, and other humanoids. This info is found in guide to absalom, and the inner sea world guide, so I was following cannon, and the instructions I was given to write this scenario. If you guys are looking for answers, let me know and I will get back to ya, I am however, on vacation, so it may take a bit.
Happy gaming,
Larry Wilhelm
Hey Chris,
I wanted to keep the artifacts vague. All I had in stone was that the Society artifact looked to be a piece of many, and without the others it was useless. The gillmen's artifact I wanted to radiate magic, and be of interest to the Society. My hope was to save word count, and have creative GMs, much like yourself, to come up with evocative descriptions tailored to nurture their group's imaginations. I loved what you came up with, so kudos to you!
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Hi, I am the author. I get the feeling you guys are not looking for replies, just discussing the scenario. However, it is official cannon that the interiror of the isle of kortos is wild, untamed, and remains a mystery. It is full of cntaurs, harpies, and other humanoids. This info is found in guide to absalom, and the inner sea world guide, so I was following cannon, and the instructions I was given to write this scenario. If you guys are looking for answers, let me know and I will get back to ya, I am however, on vacation, so it may take a bit.
Happy gaming,
Larry Wilhelm
No worries Larry. It is canon I have a problem with in this case.
CJ
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Hey Chris,
I wanted to keep the artifacts vague. All I had in stone was that the Society artifact looked to be a piece of many, and without the others it was useless. The gillmen's artifact I wanted to radiate magic, and be of interest to the Society. My hope was to save word count, and have creative GMs, much like yourself, to come up with evocative descriptions tailored to nurture their group's imaginations. I loved what you came up with, so kudos to you!
I made it sort of vague as well -- it was a glowy thing in a stout reliquary box (Repo Man). My creative players asked if they could take 3 spare boxes with them -- which they packed with rations. So when they got to the Grindylow Goblet things got interesting. The gillmen never stood a chance. They ended up dying for an half-empty box of rations.
CJ
Hey Deussu
In my original turnover Nester Rees was a CR 3 5th level expert. The original had him stealing the artifact, and a whole other chase scene.
As for the travel times did you take into account the different types of terrain. It was a bit tricky to calculate, so I can see there being minor differences.
I actually agree with you about the centaurs. If the PCs want to test them, they should face the music, but if I did not include the tactics and sidebar, I bet I'd have 2x the amount of people angry for doing so. I cannot please everyone I guess. For example, I frustrated a lot of people in Fingerprints of the fiend, as many thought it was too hard.
The map in area B serves 3 purposes: 1) in the rare event the PCs actually fight the krenshar here, or at least take pot shots at it. 2) If any PC falls into the water. 3) to build tension, that the krenshar could attack here. Aslo, like you guessed to keep the metagamers guessing (oh out comes a map, get ready for a fight.
As for the shrine, fair enough. This would have been a good place to add an affliction. I never thought of that, I guess I am too soft :) While you thought it was "stupid" I had 2 goals: 1) to throw in some history about the Isle of Kortos and make it feel like a real place you can visit, and 2) to have a skill challenge (climb) because it was a intro scenario, I did not want to have damage from falling like I did in an earlier version. I do agree about the inclusion of a consequence, and will be mindful in the future.
Encounter G, the Bog Mother. I felt I already had 2 RP encounters (centaurs and the folk at Piers End) so I wanted something for the hack and slashers. I did miss out on a cool RP moment, but I like to think GMS can create this as the rule of "reward creative solutions" should always be at the forefront. If the PCs can talk their way out so be it, but I had snap jaw and bog mother as a typical fairy tale villain, straight up mean. Bog Mother is crazy and she thinks the PCs are there to hurt her children (the thistles) that is why she straight out attacks (much like a mama bear) But making it a RP encounter would be cool. In all instances we as authors are up against a tight word count, and sometimes some encounters are just straight hack and slash to appease that segment of gamers.
In this encounter I had Reese drop the glass and signal to Ulionestria to start the spells, due to the change, Ulionestria now signals the attack. I wanted this to be a tough fight for the PCs, and reward their ability to react fast, glad you saw this too.
I hope this helps. Thanks for the feedback, this really helps me as an author grow, so I do appreciate it. Please write a review when you are finished running it. Thanks for the time you take to read, comment, and run my adventures I really appreciate it!
Happy Gaming,
Larry Wilhelm
Hey other Chris J.
1) I followed what was already known about the Isle of Kortos.
2) I wanted the 2 artifacts vague (maybe a mistake) lets the Gms make it up, save word count, allows u to use props or gamemastery cards to represent them. (maybe I shoul dhave used gamemastery cards....
3)Piers End, I wanted a roleplay encounter, and for the PCs to have to pony up some money for their sea voyage
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An answer from the author is always the best one.
I do understand where you are coming from, especially on the Bog Mother encounter. I'll also allow the characters to spot her further away (granted they succeed in their perception check) and sneak past or take a longer route. Of course these options would mean they'd miss out the reward.
Something that bothered me (and many of the players and other GMs in the region) was the lack of choices. Especially in a dungeon there's little chance for a GM to improvise and create different ways to approach a situation. In an open terrain though, they can either engage in combat, negotiate their way through, sneak past, or avoid the kobold altogether.
The shrine bugs me because it rewards those who put coins in it. They lose maybe a few gold pieces, but gain it all back with extras, while the devious stealers merely lose everything. Then again in a campaign environment like this just one character couldn't take it all... there should be completely different rule sets. That'd be too much hassle.
The travel times table is confusing in one particular day; it seems the terrain changes after each encounter. The table is helpful, but some external layout of distances and travel speeds would have been sufficient, with a list of events that should happen on certain times. Centaur encounter once the PCs have reached the denser part of the forest, river crossing on the following morning, krenshar in the next night, frozen wagon the next night, hero's shrine on midday, leeches at any time during the first leg in the swamp, bog mother at the last stretch of the swamp, and the rest an uneventful journey through some rural area.
Larry, did it feel odd to you that the isle of Kortos is inhabited? I haven't read Guide to Absalom throughoutly (I know I should), but I assume the only logical explanation would be the hostile monsters that inhabit it ... or the minotaur tribes. Maybe Paizo will be kind enough as to present a detailed map of Kortos at some point.
Oh, and since I can run this scenario as a home game with no time limits, I'll include all kinds of small events along the way, and more importantly a thing nearly all GMs and scenario writers seem to forget; weather effects. The only instance in PFS I've seen weather have an effect, not to be the whole event (like a storm), is in Decline of Glory.
Have you ran no plunder, no play...I have weather effects in there...
I knew going in that the interior of Kortos is inhabited by humanoids, so it did not phase me as I had no assumptions, but after Chris J stated how does Absalom feed itself, ya I began to wonder, "Why put the largest city in the continent on an Island whose interior was never cleared of threats..." Ah well this continent also has spaceships, gun foundries, Gothic horror, and many other strangeness that it all does not have to make sense to me.
Anyway I appreciate the feedback you offer it helps me to analyse my design choices. As to the option of choices, I think that is important and will try to offer more. At any rate I enjoy telling a story, and I hope in all my scenarios the story comes through, as that is important to me. Thanks again!
Happy gaming, and please let me know how it went!
Larry
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One more thing:
I began thinking about weather effects (random weather) and the altitude. Nowhere can I read how tall the Kortos mounts really are. Arazlant Mox, the tallest mountain on the isle of Kortos is over 5 miles (26,400 feet) tall, but the PCs aren't going near that. I'm just wondering if the smugglers' trail ever reaches an elevation of 5,000 feet. After all, the Guide to Absalom states the mounts are among the tallest in the known world. This would lead me to believe the area is overall very elevated.
Nevertheless I'll use the altitude rules. They are so little used I wish to see them in use (and surprise the players).
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'Aight, got to run this yesterday. It was a fun scenario, although it was a very long one.
None of the characters really paid attention to Nester Rees, so I practically dropped his whole "shady side" of him. I did mention that he limps, but after no reactions I figured additional perception checks and sense motive checks would be unnecessary. To be honest does Nester Rees need such a shady side? I think not.
I didn't notice until now that the centaur encounter is supposed to reward you with money. What for? They receive nothing, only a word of warning.
As a side note, I'm trying to decrease the number of required diplomacy rolls. Only if the target would be unwilling to share some information with the PC or such would I ask for a diplomacy roll. The centaurs have absolutely no reason to hold back this information.
River crossing was dealt with ease. The characters were smart enough to make one go over the river and tie a rope to the tree on the other side. They did notice the red eyes in the bushes, but shrugged it off and continued to travel (no, the group wasn't very roleplay-heavy. What gave you off?)
Krenshar ... was soloed by the ranger who stood watch. Tried to wake others up, but they slept tight or woke up right when the beast fell. Unsure whether this encounter would be too easy in other cases. We'll see next week, I'll be running this again.
Frozen Wagon felt like a hassle, while it would have been sensible otherwise. I had some really, really hard time explaining you could roll Survival to increase your chances against the cold. What's the reasoning behind that?
Hero's Shrine ... now, in my previous posts I've been harsh towards this encounter, and I continue to be so. Only two characters put money in the bowl, the rest uninterested to go up and see the statue up close. No money was taken from the bowl. After the scenario I explained what they were supposed to get by putting money in the bowl (the favor and the money), but the players agreed with me that they should not get the money. So I deducted 98 gp from their reward. They didn't seem to be upset about it.
The swamp was tiresome. Let's see... 8 Acrobatics checks from each player, for each check under 12 the player rolls a fortitude check, and I roll a d4 (25% chance), after which the players roll a perception check. Each perception check under 10 resulted in me rolling d2 (# of leeches) and the player to roll said amount of fortitude saves. And remember that you have Nester Rees with you, and possible animals/animal companions. So let's say there are 5 character, Nester, and a donkey. That means 56 acrobatics rolls. If 50% of these rolls fail, that makes 7 to 28 rolls against disease, 28 rolls of d4 (leeches), 28 rolls of perception, followed with possible 28 rolls of d2s and fortitude saves.
So much dice rolling! And eventually I just forgot the disease altogether. With an onset time of 1-3 days they can only suffer a few wisdom damage... might affect bit, sure, but since it's not life threatening the characters eventually survived the disease. One went into a coma, but there were people taking care of him (I figured they have means to feed him. Heal skill, yay!)
Bog Mother was alright. The party's angry gnome blasted the kobold with a fire bolt the instant it showed its face. Much combat ensued. Provided an alright encounter, but not a dangerous one.
I personally would have liked Pier's End a lot more, but it was skipped a bit too hastely. Also, I've always wondered do NPCs immediately recognize the PCs as pathfinders. If so, why? I figured Darice needs to roll good enough sense motive to deduct something like that. She asked whether they were pathfinders, and the group said no.
The last encounter worked like a charm. I ran it as I described in my initial post, having all kinds of readied actions. I made the characters roll a sense motive check against Ulionestia's bluff to realize the dropped glass was a signal, allowing successful characters to act during the surprise round. Only one character succeeded. With this Shoalo and Ahrmisa used their standard actions to pick the artifact and run to the door, after which Ulionestia cast Pyrotechnics. This blinded all PCs, but luckily for only 2 rounds. The gillmen were close to getting away, the door was open and if Shoalo's turn would come, he would run for it and escape. All the PCs were still blind when this going on. The last PC before Shoalo saved them all, as he blindly shot color spray towards the door. Both Shoalo and Ahrmisa failed their saves, and the two friendly PCs within the area weren't effected since they were blinded. So, good times.
And btw I absolutely hate the Web spell. Overcomplicated.
I want to run this another time; then I can accurately review this. For now A Vision of Betrayal gets 4 stars from me.
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'Aight, got to run this yesterday. It was a fun scenario, although it was a very long one.
None of the characters really paid attention to Nester Rees, so I practically dropped his whole "shady side" of him. I did mention that he limps, but after no reactions I figured additional perception checks and sense motive checks would be unnecessary. To be honest does Nester Rees need such a shady side? I think not.
I didn't notice until now that the centaur encounter is supposed to reward you with money. What for? They receive nothing, only a word of warning.
As a side note, I'm trying to decrease the number of required diplomacy rolls. Only if the target would be unwilling to share some information with the PC or such would I ask for a diplomacy roll. The centaurs have absolutely no reason to hold back this information.
River crossing was dealt with ease. The characters were smart enough to make one go over the river and tie a rope to the tree on the other side. They did notice the red eyes in the bushes, but shrugged it off and continued to travel (no, the group wasn't very roleplay-heavy. What gave you off?)
Krenshar ... was soloed by the ranger who stood watch. Tried to wake others up, but they slept tight or woke up right when the beast fell. Unsure whether this encounter would be too easy in other cases. We'll see next week, I'll be running this again.
Frozen Wagon felt like a hassle, while it would have been sensible otherwise. I had some really, really hard time explaining you could roll Survival to increase your chances against the cold. What's the reasoning behind that?
Hero's Shrine ... now, in my previous posts I've been harsh towards this encounter, and I continue to be so. Only two characters put money in the bowl, the rest uninterested to go up and see the statue up close. No money was taken from the bowl. After the scenario I explained what they were supposed to get by putting money in the bowl (the favor and the money), but the players agreed with me that they should not get...
I ran this mod yesterday and I tend to agree with most of what you've said. The trouble with Nester is that he's lawful evil, fakes a limp, has a sword cane...but *is* loyal to the Society, does what he's paid to do and doesn't try to screw you over, jack the artifact or extort more money for his services, even. He's basically a pointless red herring with no real conflict potential, since if you confront him about the limp etcetera he just says 'Good eye, dude! Guess I'll stop doing it then.'
The swamp was tiresome in the extreme. 8 Acrobatics checks in a non-combat situation with no impending threats or combats? Pointless. I was describing the journey up to the fourth check, but I just got so fed up at that point that I just said 'aaaand make 4 more checks. OK? Done.'
I was looking forward to Piers End and the sea captains, but my party heard about Crazy Old Tanner, made a beeline for him and just accepted his first offer, which didn't give me all that much to do.
For the fight in the tavern, I had characters that made the Appraise check to see that the artifact was a fake able to act in the surprise round - Nester and one of the characters had a moment of looking at each other and exclaiming simultaneously 'But the Azlanti didn't use silver in their constructions!' and then the crap hit the fan.
It was all over very fast, though; only the alchemist failed vs the pyrotechnics, and he then bombed the gillmen thugs and his 7 splash damage dropped one outright. The other gillman grabbed the artifact and went to flee, only to get pasted by an earthbreaker. That left the caster, who lasted a couple more rounds before getting beaten down. 6 hp is just a joke against a 1st level party; I reckon they could have made the gillmen 1st level fighters to up them to 11 hp (possibly 12 hp due to the elite array) and it would have been fractionally more challenging.
All in all, the mod's ok, but Nester's a bit of a loose end with nothing to do, and the swamp is boring as all get out. Piers End is fun. Nothing in the mod is that hard combat-wise, so it's a pleasant softball to finish out the series. This mod gets 3 and a half stars from me.
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My PCs decided to hire horses for the journey. This made the river crossing somewhat more challenging to get all the animals across. But it slowed the swamp toa crawl as the made acrobatics checks for the horses, then ride checks if they failed, then fort saves for horse and rider. The swamp is written as an optional encounter and I will probably skip it entirely if I run the scenario again.
Regarding Nester Rees, they recognized his limp was a fake after the second day, but never called him out on it. A fun but of RP wasted.
They spotted and engaged the hungry hungry krenshar after the river crossing. After frightening the fighter away, and knocking Rees to 1 HP it went for the juicy defenseless pack animals before being dispatched.
The party sorcerer passed out from the cold winds, but revived enough to travel by dawn. I was left wondering why cold was only a hazard the first night in the mountains.
2 PCs donated at the shrine and got the boon.
Having a PC that spoke Draconic and hearing the Bog Mother babbling about "children" they decided to take her alive and turn her over to Pier's End authorities. When it turned out Pier's End had no jurisdiction over the swamps she was let go to return to her ruined garden. They never thought to identify her wand.
They took time to interview all 3 captains in Pier's end before convincing the human woman to carry them.
Rees spotted the fake at the tavern, denying the Gillmen their surprise round. The Gillmen warriors died like 1HD mooks trying to escape with the artifact (in this case, a fragment of a giant fossil bone). Ulionesta was more of a challenge, blinding 2 PCs with pyrotechnice, then shattering the aquarium and soaking up 2 AoOs to make her escape into the bay.
The number of non-combat encounters in this scanario was nice, but combined with the combat encounters it made for quite a long runtime compared to the rest of First Steps. It might still fit into a 4 hour session with the optional encounter, but our store only really gives us a 3.5 hour session to play with.
4 stars, with a warning to skip the optional encounter.