3-19: The Icebound Post Feedback Thread! (Spoliers are totally inside.)


GM Discussion

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Silver Crusade 4/5

Greetings all!

So since no one has said anything about it yet, I am making a thread about the new episode 3-19 The Icebound Post! So after reading it multiple times and running it this weekend, I have my review. Remember though, your mileage may vary so please don't flame me.

Story: C-

Story:
You are going through to the Hao Jin Tapestry which was recently won by the Society through the Ruby Phoenix Tournament. You're mission put very, very simply is to go in there, kick the Aspis Consortium's butt for somehow getting into secret demi-plane and find out as much as you can about how they got there in the first place while not ruining relics that we won. Now the whole story is good and all. But when executed, it's kinda feeling lost and you never find out how in the heck they got there.

Also, if you have players that have never played The Ruby Phoenix tournament, they kinda look at the GM and go "huh"? Or they go "Yeah I figured we won". Which makes it a little less enticing to play the tournament to some. Although Paizo has learned to not release an epic climatic conclusion module HALF-WAY THROUGH THE SEASON. >.< It is kinda a killjoy. Especially to those of us who haven't even played it yet! Furthermore, once the adventure gets going, many of my party members forget why they are even there to begin with. Faction missions were a lot better put together than most, everyone was co-oping each other because many of them shared the same goals but each in their own specific way. If this is the theme were are moving towards with faction missions, then this a good start.

Location: B

Location:
The fact that I only had one map to draw out was awesome. But it was such a pain to draw out and make sure that everyone understand what is going on. Overall though it was a nice, but I would have liked to work more with the terrain and utilize the cold rules a little more.

Combat: B

Combat:
The combat was exceedingly simple. But it was fun to sneak the heck out of people. Also, the scroll-master with scroll blade and scroll shield, is definitely a character I would like to create in PFS somehow, someway. It definitely took our tank by surprise, when he took 1d8+4 damage that overcame his armor, from a small scroll of parchment. :) The party had fun overall, especially since they liked to do non-lethal damage and try and interrogate them. Only for them to accidentally kill the boss, and they didn't get to ever find out how they got there to begin with.

Just Overall: B-
This is just a simple, no fuss/no must dungeon crawl, that doesn't take place in a dungeon. The story will get lost, if players haven't run in The Ruby Phoenix Tournament, or the first part of Rats of The Round Mountain Series. But it's level appropriate, not too insane combats, and room for some light RP so the players will still have loads of fun.

Personally: C
I personally, prefer adventures that have more RP than dungeon crawling. The RP is the whole reason we're in society, and although my table had a good time in RPing with a Gen-Con Tiefling, who liked Pesh(See Inner Sea World Guide). I just feel like the RP was just the filler between combats instead of part of the combating. But it's not a *terrible* module. It's just great for those who prefer heavy combat. Which is not quite me.

That's what I think. Let me know what you guys think! Don't forget your spoiler tags!

Sovereign Court Contributor

Thanks for your insights, Lady Ophelia.

The Icebound Outpost (as you mention) is part of a series of adventures, all designed on the previously mentioned event already happening. I can see how that can be frustrating, myself. It's mainly a stepping stone to #3-20, storyline-wise.

I'm glad you liked how the faction missions operated. This adventure is more of caper/action plot rather than a complex drama; if you're looking for interaction with NPCs and an elaborate story - there are several PFS missions that take that route. I believe #2-13, #2-21 and the upcoming #3-24 are prime examples.

Thanks!

Silver Crusade 4/5

Jeff Erwin wrote:

Thanks for your insights, Lady Ophelia.

The Icebound Outpost (as you mention) is part of a series of adventures, all designed on the previously mentioned event already happening. I can see how that can be frustrating, myself. It's mainly a stepping stone to #3-20, storyline-wise.

I'm glad you liked how the faction missions operated. This adventure is more of caper/action plot rather than a complex drama; if you're looking for interaction with NPCs and an elaborate story - there are several PFS missions that take that route. I believe #2-13, #2-21 and the upcoming #3-24 are prime examples.

Thanks!

I figured there was more to it that I hadn't played or read yet. The review is just based on the standalone module. You are on a good starting point for your launch into pathfinder society scenario career so I am looking forward to seeing.your future scenarios.

Sovereign Court Contributor

Lady Ophelia wrote:
Jeff Erwin wrote:

Thanks for your insights, Lady Ophelia.

The Icebound Outpost (as you mention) is part of a series of adventures, all designed on the previously mentioned event already happening. I can see how that can be frustrating, myself. It's mainly a stepping stone to #3-20, storyline-wise.

I'm glad you liked how the faction missions operated. This adventure is more of caper/action plot rather than a complex drama; if you're looking for interaction with NPCs and an elaborate story - there are several PFS missions that take that route. I believe #2-13, #2-21 and the upcoming #3-24 are prime examples.

Thanks!

I figured there was more to it that I hadn't played or read yet. The review is just based on the standalone module. You are on a good starting point for your launch into pathfinder society scenario career so I am looking forward to seeing.your future scenarios.

Thanks!

Shadow Lodge 5/5

Regarding the one specific character you mentioned.

Spoiler:
I killed a barbarian today by following up a lightning bolt with beaning him on the head with a level 3 scroll.

Silver Crusade 4/5

Ryan Bolduan wrote:

Regarding the one specific character you mentioned.

** spoiler omitted **

I had to stay in the low tier. So the character in question couldn't do all of that


It was a simple scenario, and a quick one too.

Although, interesting to say:

Spoiler:
We screwed up at the end. Our only fighter got knocked unconscious (and the undead lord's skeleton, he killed himself). So as we went to fight the slavemaster, the escaped rogue, and the scrollmaster, we derped, and had to run away. Then we are hit by the ambush at the end, so we essentially fought another adventuring party with better levels and more fighters. (Lineup: Valeros 1, Debuff Witch 3, Undead Lord Cleric (not a fighter) 1, Wizard 1, and a Rogue 1)

(I played the witch, whom does not like personally killing people, but rather providing the tools for her "minions" (Party) to deal with threats. Except for Vomit Swarm, but it was the spiders that hurt someone, not her.)

Tier 1-2 by the way

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I played at Ryan's table. This scenario was pretty fun, despite me accidentally killing several slaves. O.o

Sovereign Court Contributor

Spoiler:

Well, one of the things I was trying to avoid was making it a kick-in-the-door adventure. The "twist" at the end was part of that. Of course, a metagaming party will realize that there should be something left over in terms of encounters by the end.

Earlier drafts did have even more complications, ranging from guard dogs to hostages.

Speed and quiet are your friends here. It's possible to take on the slavemaster separately from the temple denizens, and keeping a few things readied for surprises really helps at the end.


Jiggy wrote:
I played at Ryan's table. This scenario was pretty fun, despite me accidentally killing several slaves. O.o

The poor slaves. I vomited a swarm at the enemies, and the slavemaster just threw the slave into the swarm. Ruined my plans of going to cure mod the unconscious fighter.

Shadow Lodge 5/5

Jiggy first decided to burning hands directly on one slave followed by casting create pit on a group of four of them. Poor slaves :-(

Scarab Sages 4/5

Ran it this weekend at 4-5

Two things I loved about this scenario:

SPOILER!:
The Osirion Sand Panther

and

SPOILER!:
My players jumped right into the portal without asking how to get back - the Blue Mote became a big area of RP and was highly entertaining.

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Ryan Bolduan wrote:
Jiggy first decided to burning hands directly on one slave followed by casting create pit on a group of four of them. Poor slaves :-(

Something like that. ;)

But hey! It was a bloody adventure all around; no fewer than six crits at that table yesterday, by my count. It's possible I've even forgotten one or two.

Sovereign Court Contributor

Delbert Collins II wrote:

Ran it this weekend at 4-5

Two things I loved about this scenario:

** spoiler omitted **

and

** spoiler omitted **

Thanks. In my head, I imagined like a few games I ran, where everyone kept up the Pulp-style wisecracks and banter and there were constant "oops" moments. Of course, it's also good to hear about mayhem and realize I helped make it happen. I can see where some authors really enjoy these threads.

Shadow Lodge 5/5

Looks like I'll be running this this weekend at a local games day ... Ive yet to get my hands on it ....

it was mentioned to be part of a series .... what are the other pieces of it ?

Sovereign Court

Delbert Collins II wrote:

Ran it this weekend at 4-5

Two things I loved about this scenario:

** spoiler omitted **

and

** spoiler omitted **

It was a great session Del.

Spoiler:
The Osirion Sand Panther has given my PC a hearty respect for all things feline. She will not be turning her back on any cats in the future. Any cat who can down a 4th level fighter AND three rogues of 3rd-5th levels deserves respect. ;)

and

Spoiler:
definitely a "D'oh!" moment when we realized we were told how to get there but not how to get back.

Sovereign Court Contributor

Wraith235 wrote:

Looks like I'll be running this this weekend at a local games day ... Ive yet to get my hands on it ....

it was mentioned to be part of a series .... what are the other pieces of it ?

Spoiler:

It follows:

The Ruby Phoenix Tournament, which is a standard module with rules for use with PFS.

The Wonders in the Weave series 3-12 and 3-14 precede it.
& The Rats of Round Mountain Series follows it (that's 3-20 and 3-22).

Since it's a part of the whole Ruby Phoenix metaplot, there's probably more links as well.

Dark Archive 4/5

I ran this 4 times this weekend all at sub-tier 1-2.

Observations:

It runs short with regular players - between 3 and 3.5 hours.

Parties tend to not realise when they have finished the mission and want to go off elsewhere. Possibly partly because they are metagaming the time taken. After this happened the first 2 times I ran it I restated the main goals in different wording at the end of the intro which seemed to fix it next time.

On encounters and tactics:

The first three combat encounters can easily run into each other, I had one run through out of 4 where the combat lasted over 20 rounds. Careful reading of tactics and careful GMing is required to avoid overpowering the PCs (maybe - see below).

The first encounter is the hardest. One PC death in 4 run throughs.
All the other encounters have weak or ineffectual tactics leading to CR overstating the challenge.
Graestos is totally ineffectual.
Isehkta is the best combatant by far in the scenario, which consistenly caused table amusement and comment.
The last encounter is too easy.

Silver Crusade 4/5

I played this on Saturday at tier 1-2. Our group was slightly overpowered for that tier, but we would have gotten our butts kicked at 4-5. We had 6 players, mostly level 2, but I think one level 1, and one or two at level 3. So we were clearly average level 2 before you add in the +1 for having 6 players, and we didn't have enough HP to even think about playing up. But just having a couple of normal powered level 2 melee characters with greataxes and such can take down most tier 1-2 enemies in a single hit, which is why it was pretty easy for us.

The cat was definitely the most challenging enemy of the adventure. We heard about the scroll woman later from another group that played the same adventure, but when we ran it, she died before she got a chance to act in the first round. I'm wondering if the noise of our fight with the slaver and cat should have alerted her and had her come check to see what was going on. As is, we encountered her sitting at her desk, and a few of our guys got a couple of good rolls, so that fight lasted less than a round.

The whole thing took us less than 3 hours to run. Luckily, we did ask about getting back before going in, so we were good with regard to that.

Sovereign Court Contributor

What I'm hearing is very informative...

Earlier drafts did have a much more complex and difficult first and final encounter; Graestos was more formidable as well. Both got adjusted in the interests of time.

The scrollmaster is too busy working to bother with the noise outside; it's quite noisy even without a battle, since the slaves are cutting out the temple from the ice.

Sczarni 4/5

When I ran it the tiefling used the darkness in round 1 rather than to escape (mostly because I was running cold, and it allowed me to read over the tactics better while the PCs floundered around) That made the first fight much more difficult than as written.

personally, since I was running this cold, It would have been easier to have cut some of the haunt's back-story to give a little more on how to make it not seem like a trap. When all they feel is cold, its hard to reveal all of the backstory presented to the players.

Scarab Sages 1/5

It looked like an interesting adventure, but the group I was in was not well run.

I ran it in sub-tier 1-2 and did not see any of the interesting encounters.

The scrollmaster was run as an idiot who was bluffed into providing the group full information on all objectives after it became obvious nearly all characters had dumped Int down to 7 and had no skills available to solve faction missions.

2/5

Fromper wrote:
...We heard about the scroll woman later from another group that played the same adventure, but when we ran it, she died before she got a chance to act in the first round. I'm wondering if the noise of our fight with the slaver and cat should have alerted her and had her come check to see what was going on.

I ran it at Tier 4-5 and had the "other group" that Fromper mentioned in his post. I gave the rogue and the "librarian" perception checks to hear noise in the courtyard from the fighting (we had hot cat-on-cat action going on right on the doorstep of the tower and an enlarged, raged barbarian/alchemist (I now believe that combo to be incredibly broken based on my experiences from this game) wailing away as well as called lightning coming down... quite a ruckus being raised out there.

The rogue was one-shotted by a magus who spotted her trying to sneak up to the battle. The scroll wiz tore up the group pretty good, taking a magus down to negative twice and bringing the barbarian/alchemist (named "Dr. Adonis", btw) down to 8 points... enough to have him ask for healing. She was finally subdued and captured for later interrogation by the society (she was taken back as a prisoner).

The other fights were anti-climatic mainly due to the enlarged/mutagenated Adonis taking people out with one or two shots max... the half-orc at the end lasted one melee round with him.

Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy

Whiskey Jack wrote:
She was finally subdued and captured for later interrogation by the society (she was taken back as a prisoner).

Just a note on taking prisoners: the tapestry specifically doesn't allow you to escape unless you entered through the tapestry. Since the Aspis Consortium agents and their slaves came through the consortium's back door, they can't go through any of the PCs' extraplanar eddies.

Silver Crusade 4/5

Mark Moreland wrote:
Whiskey Jack wrote:
She was finally subdued and captured for later interrogation by the society (she was taken back as a prisoner).
Just a note on taking prisoners: the tapestry specifically doesn't allow you to escape unless you entered through the tapestry. Since the Aspis Consortium agents and their slaves came through the consortium's back door, they can't go through any of the PCs' extraplanar eddies.

Our GM got that wrong, then. We brought the slaves home with us after freeing them. He said that as long as they were touching us when we returned, they would be transported with us. My character, who was born a Chelaxian slave and now works to fight slavery as part of the Andoran faction, was quite happy to be able to help them.

2/5

Mark Moreland wrote:
Whiskey Jack wrote:
She was finally subdued and captured for later interrogation by the society (she was taken back as a prisoner).
Just a note on taking prisoners: the tapestry specifically doesn't allow you to escape unless you entered through the tapestry. Since the Aspis Consortium agents and their slaves came through the consortium's back door, they can't go through any of the PCs' extraplanar eddies.

So the Pathfinders are essentially forced to kill them all. Interesting.

I understand your point- and my bad for missing that technicality re: the planar travel, but it seemed my group really enjoyed the idea of capturing one of the "silver" agents alive as a trophy. I am now picturing me telling them "you can't take her back" (after returning to the eddies) after she was pleading for her life earlier and they had already promised her that she would not be killed (at least for now).

It's hell to be LG in a situation like that... or any kind of good for that matter.

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

How did you conclude that you have to kill them all? If you want to let them go, they can still leave through Aspis' back door. You just can't take them with YOU.

2/5

Jiggy wrote:
How did you conclude that you have to kill them all? If you want to let them go, they can still leave through Aspis' back door. You just can't take them with YOU.

Technically you are correct. They could have untied her bonds and told her "Now, be a good little Aspis agent and leave through your door after we are gone, ok?" Or I suppose you could have had the PCs escort her to whatever the Aspis agents were using to get into this dimension and force her through, but then how do they shut that down? (Let's face it, at this point we are bogged down over minutia of background of the scenario... letting the players escort a prisoner and the freed slaves out didn't harm anything, imho, and sometimes a GM should be allowed leeway to tailor a bit if it makes the game more enjoyable for the players without modifying encounters.)

EDIT- Just had a thought... could we hear from the designer if bringing the freed slaves and a prisoner back would break the continuity to the next scenario in the series... if it would, then I regret allowing the players to do so.

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

I was only commenting on the "must be hard for LG folks" part. Being unable to take them back as a prisoner really isn't an issue in that respect.

4/5 ****

When I played it we had captured some Aspis and freed some slaves. Unable to take anyone through the portal with us we left the Aspis (now prisoners) in the guard of the freed slaves. We returned with a crate of supplies to help the freed slaves as best we could and suggested that after we left they free the Aspis, since holding them prisoner indefinitely would be more trouble than it's worth. Figuring the now armed and fed slaves could take on a few "stripped to their skivvies" Aspis.

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Pirate Rob wrote:
When I played it we had captured some Aspis and freed some slaves. Unable to take anyone through the portal with us we left the Aspis (now prisoners) in the guard of the freed slaves. We returned with a crate of supplies to help the freed slaves as best we could and suggested that after we left they free the Aspis, since holding them prisoner indefinitely would be more trouble than it's worth. Figuring the now armed and fed slaves could take on a few "stripped to their skivvies" Aspis.

So am I seriously the only one who accidentally blasted all but one of the slaves into oblivion?

Seriously, it wasn't my fault! That stupid Aspis druid cast obscuring mist! I couldn't see where I was blasting!

Dark Archive 4/5

I liked the GM option to take a certain stat potion (eg Bull's Strength, Cat's Grace, Fox's Cunning etc) or not on one of the NPCs if a certain open-to-interpretation condition happened.

Perhaps this is a good way to deal with the table size problem. Give NPCs an appropriate stat potion to take if the table size is larger. (I assume that it was put in to test the general approach)

Scarab Sages 1/5

Mark Moreland wrote:
Whiskey Jack wrote:
She was finally subdued and captured for later interrogation by the society (she was taken back as a prisoner).
Just a note on taking prisoners: the tapestry specifically doesn't allow you to escape unless you entered through the tapestry. Since the Aspis Consortium agents and their slaves came through the consortium's back door, they can't go through any of the PCs' extraplanar eddies.

We captured the prisoners and took them back with us as well.

Killing unconscious prisoners was never an option for me, though one of the other characters was actively looking for an excuse to do so.

Shadow Lodge 2/5

Eh, we left the aspis consortium agents tied up, and the slaves freed.

After returning to the lodge, we told the venture captain what we'd done and suggested the agents would be ripe for interrogation by the Society's best.

Solves two issues: the good people don't have to kill if they don't need to, and the Society finds out how the back door was made in the first place.

Dark Archive 4/5

Jiggy wrote:
So am I seriously the only one who accidentally blasted all but one of the slaves into oblivion?

I think all 4 of the games I ran the PCs attacked at least one slave before they figured it out. One party dropped two. No outright deaths, though it was close in one case. I think had it been higher tier with blast spells they would have blasted some slaves.

For the author: What is meant to happen if you try and take a dead body back? Is it an object and therefore transportable? What if you have a dead PC? Does the dead PC exit point still exist even though you can't see it and they have to wander around with the body until it goes ping? I said the latter when it happened, but later I would have allowed carrying other dead bodies back as objects (slaves/Aspis) had they tried.

Mostly the just killed all the Aspis once they realised they couldn't take them back alive.

It did occur to me that the whole plane is technically Pathfinder property and that anything they do there is the law.

Sovereign Court Contributor

ZomB wrote:
Jiggy wrote:
So am I seriously the only one who accidentally blasted all but one of the slaves into oblivion?

I think all 4 of the games I ran the PCs attacked at least one slave before they figured it out. One party dropped two. No outright deaths, though it was close in one case. I think had it been higher tier with blast spells they would have blasted some slaves.

For the author: What is meant to happen if you try and take a dead body back? Is it an object and therefore transportable? What if you have a dead PC? Does the dead PC exit point still exist even though you can't see it and they have to wander around with the body until it goes ping? I said the latter when it happened, but later I would have allowed carrying other dead bodies back as objects (slaves/Aspis) had they tried.

Mostly the just killed all the Aspis once they realised they couldn't take them back alive.

It did occur to me that the whole plane is technically Pathfinder property and that anything they do there is the law.

Well, the rules of how the Tapestry worked were determined by Paizo, not me.

AFAIK, a dead body is indeed an object; and since objects of any size, if hefted by individuals that got into the demiplane, leave with them (otherwise, why pillage the place at all?), a body could be taken out with someone as long as the person carrying them left via the same method they came themselves. There is no rule against resurrecting someone outside of the plane they died in, after all, so that's not a bad plan. It's expensive, however.
Once (or if) the PFS figures out where the Aspis portal is, of course, they can try to force them out and intercept them as they leave. Or the Society can just imprison them as long as they like within the demiplane; it's essentially an extension of the Grand Lodge, now.
Personally, I think arming the slaves and tying up the agents is probably the best move; it leaves them alive for further interrogation by experienced PFS questioners. But the society's Neutral; and if the party thinks the slaves can't control the prisoners, then they are empowered to use their judgment.

Liberty's Edge 1/5

Jiggy - I ran this last night and our Alchemist missed with a bomb and smoked out 3 of the 4 slaves in that area. The Cat proved to be one of the most dangerous foes to the group. It helped that I crit with his bite three times.

Overall it was a good, fast scenario. I pushed a few roleplay potentials to make it seem a little less of a "kill em all" mission.

Dark Archive 4/5

One thing that I have belatedly noticed is that a demiplane is an extra-dimensional space: "Effect: Extradimensional demiplane"

By RAW you cannot access an extra-dimensional space while within another extra-dimensional space. So no Handy Haversacks, no Bags of Holding, no Create Pit.

PFSRD: "A number of spells and magic items utilize extradimensional spaces, such as rope trick, a bag of holding, a handy haversack, and a portable hole. These spells and magic items create a tiny pocket space that does not exist in any dimension. Such items do not function, however, inside another extradimensional space"

Am I reading this right?

2/5

ZomB wrote:
By RAW you cannot access an extra-dimensional space while within another extra-dimensional space. So no Handy Haversacks, no Bags of Holding, no Create Pit.

Wow. Since almost all these recent adventures take place within the tapestry, these RAW requirements could really mess up characters' who rely on those items to get around weight requirements.

Sovereign Court 2/5

Oh dear, I played this just under a month ago and it went as wrong as it could have.

We bungled the trap on the tree so the guards were alerted to our presence. Then somehow we managed to combine all three encounters into one, and with some truly epic rolls we ended up with two PCs dead and the rest captured by the Consortium. The humiliation....

Dark Archive 4/5

GMs need to prepare for what the folk from the first three encounters know, should they be taken alive and questioned. As this isn't covered in the scenario.

It's a fine line about what info to give without spoiling what they are supposed to find out from the final encounter for a faction mission.

Sovereign Court Contributor

ZomB wrote:

GMs need to prepare for what the folk from the first three encounters know, should they be taken alive and questioned. As this isn't covered in the scenario.

It's a fine line about what info to give without spoiling what they are supposed to find out from the final encounter for a faction mission.

While the various agents and guards in the first part of the adventure aren't completely in the dark, they aren't informed of the location (or name) of Round Mountain, or of the Consortium's general plans. Mostly, they know they are supposed to help loot the Tapestry and where the portal is where they came into the demiplane. They do know that the commander left on a diplomatic mission a day or two ago.

Sczarni 3/5

Fromper wrote:
Mark Moreland wrote:
Whiskey Jack wrote:
She was finally subdued and captured for later interrogation by the society (she was taken back as a prisoner).
Just a note on taking prisoners: the tapestry specifically doesn't allow you to escape unless you entered through the tapestry. Since the Aspis Consortium agents and their slaves came through the consortium's back door, they can't go through any of the PCs' extraplanar eddies.

Our GM got that wrong, then. We brought the slaves home with us after freeing them. He said that as long as they were touching us when we returned, they would be transported with us. My character, who was born a Chelaxian slave and now works to fight slavery as part of the Andoran faction, was quite happy to be able to help them.

When I ran this, I told the players that the Pathfinder Society would figure out what to do with the captured Aspis agents and slaves. That perhaps they would secure the place, bring in supplies to help nourish the slaves until they could find a way to return them to Golarion.

Shadow Lodge 4/5

Mentally exhausted GM who just ran this. Ran and done in a shade over 3 hours.

Played low tier with a table of 6 (4 L1s, 1 L2 and L3 buff bard playing down).

Ran the encounters as written and the 3 combats combined into one long running battle--Skell bolted to Graestos & Isehkta, Graestos bolted to Neevindi & Cathixia.

Isehkta was the biggest threat on paper and as a GM I was ready for a PC death, but everyone's favorite Osirion Sand Panther traded misses with one player's animal companion for a couple of rounds and then was grappled/pinned by a monk.

The ambush was a walkover--Yashi missed his shuriken and vanish/climb down sneak attacks, the monk slapped a grapple and pin on Leska and Tzzizan was the non-entity he was written to be. (I am interested in seeing how this plays out with a normal 4-person party where Yashi actually connects as opposed to my 6-person party where he missed.)

3 Aspis were taken alive (Neevindi, Cathixia and Yashi). After some debate, since the party knew they couldn't take folks back out with them and to forestall the burgeoning moral debate on killing them, the party decided to leave them under watch of the slaves and promised to send a follow up Pathfinder party back through the tapestry.

LIKED:
The specific tactics with options utilized by the NPCs.

Simple, compact, "one and done" map.

The look on my player's faces when they realized Cathixia was using scrolls as weapons.

DIDN'T LIKE:
Opening scrawl--the exposition hammer critical hit with almost 500 words. My table had 6 people, 5 of whom who had not played the related scenarios and 2 who were brand spanking new to PFS. Imagine sitting down to the hear following in short order over 4 minutes of monologue:
Aram Zey
Hao Jin Tapestry
Ruby Phoenix Tournament
Goka
Golarion
Aspis Consortium
Vudran
Vanaras
Vimada Forest
Khiben-Sald
Bahmenu
Ragdya
Vudgrani

While I absolutely understand exposition is a necessary evil, this one felt particularly brutal. I concede that this is part of the series and you have to get folks up to speed, but is there a less info dumpy way to do it?

Also, didn't like Yashi's sneak attack set up with shurikens--he's 20' up the wall, even if there was someone directly below him, that's already a -2 range penalty, any further away and that range increment penalty piles up quickly. It's a cool visual and set up in theory, but does it pay off in actual execution?

MINOR ERROR:
Page 5, column 1, paragraph 5:
"...the walls are 1-foot-thick, 30-foot-high masonry. The bottom 30 feet of the walls are clear of ice..." and "...while the top 10' of any given wall are coated in a thick sheet of ice..."

So, I believe this is supposed to say the bottom 20' are clear of ice and the top 10' are coated in ice as that totals 30' (and would jive with Yashi perching 20' up for the ambush).

Scarab Sages 5/5

I ran this twice over the weekend and it's probably my least favorite scenario so far. Due to the open nature of the temple it's really easy for someone with flight to quickly map out everything and identify the first 3 encounters.

The fallen tree is such an obvious trap that people can easily find it. As written the encounters will never run together. The druid can't hear the guard battle over the slaves working. The scrollmage apparently refuses to acknowledge the party until they're killing her. Her bodyguard is a wimp with a sap. I used the final surprise encounter to make the last fight last longer than 3 rounds.

All the fights are small against 1-3 opponents (all normal race/class combinations) the only tactic that is pretty good is the ninja, but that's all dependent on him hitting which due to shurikens having a 10' range increment is a little tricky.

I almost forgot the haunt. That was the most harrowing part of the scenario, but there were no other threats in the area so it was contained.

Both sessions ran about 3 hours, but I made sure to have a break 2 hours in so we didn't end super early.

2/5

Sammy T wrote:
Also, didn't like Yashi's sneak attack set up with shurikens--he's 20' up the wall, even if there was someone directly below him, that's already a -2 range penalty, any further away and that range increment penalty piles up quickly. It's a cool visual and set up in theory, but does it pay off in actual execution?

I felt the same way about that... the range to the PCs, resulting in a -3 range penalty. Yashi was the only Aspis agent to escape in my scenario, though.

Sovereign Court Contributor

The height of the wall and the ice issue - not having my draft handily - seems best resolved as Sammy T suggests.

Exposition - well, the setting is an unfamiliar one, and the scenario did need to stand partially on its own without the rest of the Tapestry saga.

The issue with flight confuses me a little, as only the slavemaster and his cat (and his captives) are outdoors at the beginning of the scenario. Flight is more likely, afaik, to affect a higher tier adventure, though witches with the flight hex seem to be more numerous in PFS than usual... Did more than one character have flight?

Scarab Sages 5/5

Jeff Erwin wrote:

The height of the wall and the ice issue - not having my draft handily - seems best resolved as Sammy T suggests.

Exposition - well, the setting is an unfamiliar one, and the scenario did need to stand partially on its own without the rest of the Tapestry saga.

The issue with flight confuses me a little, as only the slavemaster and his cat (and his captives) are outdoors at the beginning of the scenario. Flight is more likely, afaik, to affect a higher tier adventure, though witches with the flight hex seem to be more numerous in PFS than usual... Did more than one character have flight?

Druids, animal companions...The game/map is not actually all that thorough about what is covered by a roof other than the dome. Regardless, there are 3 outbuildings so it's not really a huge challenge to figure out. The only GM I know who enjoyed running this scenario did so by ignoring the tactics as stated. Really, this entire scenario is just kinda mindless. As a player it's probably fine to just run around and bulldoze Aspis. As a GM it was boring.

*edit* I hadn't realized you were the writer Jeff. I'm not looking at making a personal attack, but I ran this scenario Friday evening then Saturday morning and it just didn't work for me. I recently playtested a PFS scenario and I understand how tough it is to convey the story as you've envisioned it in the space you're allotted.

Grand Lodge 2/5 RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32, RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

My GM appeared to have fun...

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