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This thread is for everything related to scenario 4-11 The Disappeared.
I had a real love/hate relationship with this scenario. Story wise it is amazing, technically it is a mess. Allow me to explain.
My group was 2 fighters, paladin, ranger, cleric and sorcerer. Half my party never engineered a way to get past the first hallway and were stuck in limbo while the sorcerer did all the heavy lifting. The sorcerer had a high disguise check and effectively had free reign over 3/4 of the scenario. There are no mechanics in place in most of the high traffic areas to address this so while he ran amuck most of the party couldn't get past the first hallway; The perception DC was too high to go to the courtyard, and they sure as hell didn't want to go into the room with all the dignitaries (they would be able to make the checks anyways).
Anyways, the items you get at the beginning don't help too much since the scrolls are self target only. 3 out of six of my party made it to Zarta's room and at a certain point after my other 3 players had sat out for most of the adventure I teleported them to the rest of the group and they finished it up together. Using the sorcerers bluff they blitzed back taking a few strikes and got to the room with 60 minutes on the dot and most of their strikes used up.
The DC's for the checks don't scale between 1-2 and 4-5 so expect a big discrepancy between running the two. The some faction missions are impossible for some classes. I'm looking at you grand lodge (and others). There are a couple of pass/fail the scenario mechanics so be careful about those.
Your party makeup is going to play a huge role in this scenario, and expect a couple to be sidelined and impotent.
That looks like a lot of negativity, but we still had a great time! I am simply trying to give people fair warning. The puzzle is great and the story is good; even with one of the worst groups you could have for this we still passed through and got the boon too.
GMs you need to prep extra for this one by contemplating strange possibilities your party might take (like giving keys back to guards as a distraction!). Be flexible, and include everyone as best you can.
I guess that is all.
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You got to do it sooner than I. :)
I'm actually only half-way reading the scenario, but already have a question ... is there an alternative way if the PCs botch their diplomacy checks at the beginning? I can imagine giving 40gp to Vanius Gestanian to let the party through, as the bribe lowers the DC by 5 per 10 gp.. at least that's how I read it.
But Ailena... you can get the diplomacy DC to 10, but I can imagine a bunch of dwarven pathfinders failing at that too. Is their only alternative at that point to break out their best tool, violence? And Anstrella requires a diplomacy of 15 at best.
What also makes me ponder are these static DCs that don't change between tiers. Playing subtier 1-2 this is going to be hard to get past them with some meager +5 to +10 bonuses opposed to +15 to +20 you get around level 5. This applies to pretty much every situation in the scenario. So playing this scenario should always be done on subtier 4-5?
And I assume the Staging Area (A9) doesn't require a stealthy roll or anything like that, although it is bustling with activity? I guess the servants are busy with their work they ignore some pathfinders roaming about.
That's all for now.
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I wrote a review on this scenario, and I had some issues with it is as well.
With the right group this would be great, and it encourages creative play... but if you try to do something creative the scenario hamstrings you in a couple of places.
at 1-2 you can't get into the kitchen, and there is a guard room it basically says the players will not be going into. So that leaves you with, essentially, only the options that are in the scenario to get around.
The problem that this causes is that: for the players that are well built for this encounter (Rogues, Bards, Sorcerers to an extent, and a few others) will be SO useful its ridiculous. If, however, you don't have one of the ideal characters then you will either be substantially less useful or totally useless.
at the 1-2 if you have a character with a very good bluff (bard or sorcerer) then that character will be doing all the heavy lifting and the rest of the party will be riding his coat tails.
In general the scenario feels a little too lop sided. I appreciate the idea, and I like the concept of sneaking around- but this ends up swinging too much to that side and leaves the more combat focused characters in the dust.
Like in the OP, I could easily imagine the party getting very split up here and some players sitting out of this thing for more than half the scenario. If you have half the table uninvolved for half the scenario without even combat to engage them, it has the potential to be a very disappointing session.
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Running this next Saturday, so thank you for the cyphers right off hte bat.
Think it would be fair to suggest the players think of Mission Impossible or Leverage?
I think for the players to approach the scenario fairly you need to give them a clear idea of what the strikes are and that not every fail is a strike.
I'm not saying tell them what they can and cannot do, but let them know that there are more punishments that simply the strikes.
Mission impossible would be a good way of thinking of it, if you can avoid playing this as a 1-2 I think the players would have more fun, or at least a better opportunity to be engaged.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Fortunately, we'll likely use the higher tier. One funny part though.
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They'll probably come up with that comparison on their own. My 16 year old was comparing it to Mission Impossible and James Bond without prompting. Our group loved it. They wound up splitting the party (in spite of chanting "don't split the party!" on a regular basis in other scenarios). The diplomats made it to the waiting room with a minute to spare while two sneaks wound up staying in the room to finish gathering clues. The diplomats failed their rolls and fought their way out while the sneaks had to jump through the window in back. Very cinematic and ooh did they get a tongue lashing from Ambrus at the end!
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Hm, the Osirion faction mission can be easily completed by placing the figurines in an extradimensional space. Which brings up a question: how big they really are? Some might have a pathfinder's pouch or a handy haversack, which have volume and weight limitations.
Also the Shadow Lodge faction mission seems counter-intuitive. Why must they memorize it? What logic is in that? Utterly, utterly stupid. Then again I can imagine someone sneaking out with the paper, memorize them outside with ample time (taking take 20 or so) and then burn it.
I feel it's my job to figure out all the ways players are trying to do their faction missions ...
Yet another insert; the archive room has animated chairs there, but these are marked as medium creatures. PRD gives chair as a sample object for small-sized animated object. I assume the chairs are REALLY BIG, but at least there's something to note.
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Yet another insert; the archive room has animated chairs there, but these are marked as medium creatures. PRD gives chair as a sample object for small-sized animated object. I assume the chairs are REALLY BIG, but at least there's something to note.
The way I figure it, they are like high-backed, throne-like chair(s) and not a standard kitchen table fare. The backs ornately hold the things listed in the loot section.
My notes are:
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Your party makeup is going to play a huge role in this scenario, and expect a couple to be sidelined and impotent.
That looks like a lot of negativity, but we still had a great time! I am simply trying to give people fair warning. The puzzle is great and the story is good; even with one of the worst groups you could have for this we still passed through and got the boon too.
GMs you need to prep extra for this...
If players dump cha and don't round out their characters, that's their problem. Cha should never be dumped, Diplomacy is just too important as a skill.
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If players dump cha and don't round out their characters, that's their problem. Cha should never be dumped, Diplomacy is just too important as a skill.Your party makeup is going to play a huge role in this scenario, and expect a couple to be sidelined and impotent.
That looks like a lot of negativity, but we still had a great time! I am simply trying to give people fair warning. The puzzle is great and the story is good; even with one of the worst groups you could have for this we still passed through and got the boon too.
GMs you need to prep extra for this...
What if you don't dump charisma, but rather only have 10. And what if you only have 2 skill points per level. And what if diplomacy isn't a class skill. Seems like there are a lot of ways not to be good at diplomacy. To be fair, I don't think there is a problem with occasionally having a character with a low CHA. Obviously any stat you dump is going to be a weakness for your character, but that doesn't mean that your character is an instant fail as a result.
The problem is not someone dumping Cha, the problem is that if you don't have someone who is good at bluff and diplomacy in your group there is a better than even chance that the party will fail.
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Let's not forget there are other means to bypass the obstacles than just diplomacy or bluff. Stealth plays a high role in this, and there are numerous creative ways to give yourself an advantage. Silent Image can create wonderful diversions and covers, Disguise Self in itself gives you a +10 bonus, Ghost Sound and Mage Hand can create distractions, Open/close can work wonders if you need to seal a room from a distance, Hold Portal can stop servants or others to move about, Unseen Servant can do a lot of things, Charm Person ... oh, don't get me started! The list goes on and on!
The most screwed classes are undoubtly heavily armored fighters with no skills whatsoever. Their loss, I guess. :)
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or clerics
They're easily not bad off on the sole fact that they can USE those scrolls handed out at the beginning (with the Personal range issue.) Sure, no spell prep time does hose them a little bit, but it's not horrible with the gifts they get from Ambrus. They're not in the greatest position, but they're still better off than Paladins and Fighters that don't take Intimidate (or other social skill via trait.) Every other scenario IS good for those folks, though, so I am quite enamored by the variety in this one. At least it doesn't spring the "Armour is gonna be bad to be wearing" thing on them, so it's not like it wasn't their choice to not have that ACP.
Edit: Unless I'm confusing the "doesn't need UMD to use" rules between wands and scrolls. I do that a LOT.
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Has completed her preliminary reading. I look forward to running this adventure as well. Finally! Adventures where fighting is NOT the answer. And all the plot twists? *gasps* I am so looking forward to it! Finally some real Society Drama..
Poor Paracountess. I guess all those late night parties, are coming back to haunt her.
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There are no mechanics in place in most of the high traffic areas to address this so while he ran amuck most of the party couldn't get past the first hallway; The perception DC was too high to go to the courtyard, and they sure as hell didn't want to go into the room with all the dignitaries (they would be able to make the checks anyways).
Just to note, for that particular check (the perception check in A5 North Gallery), only one character needs to make the check. In fact, only one character CAN make the check; the scenario reads, "Only one PC can time the break (make the perception check), but she can attempt her perception check as many times as she wants." The way I read (and ran) this was that one person was watching the hallway, and as soon as they saw an opening, they lead the rest of the party to their destination.
Anyway, I ran this on Saturday and our group had fun with it, for the most part. I did advise them before we started that it was role-play and skill heavy, so a few people switched which characters they played, including one player switching from a witch to a rogue, which was a good move since he ended up doing a lot of sleight of hand checks that no one else could make, since SoH can't be made untrained. One of the players was playing an Osirion and was pretty upset that his faction mission required a SoH check; the rogue was able to make it for him, but he still thought it was stupid that it was required in the first place. I can understand this (especially since there's really no in-game reason for why the check was required; it's not like they were searched on their way out), but on the other hand, characters are only supposed to gain an average of 1.5 prestige per scenario. So sometimes, you will fail.
The fight against the chair in the records room was actually pretty tough for them. It does have hardness 5, and by using grab and constrict it managed to knock the rogue out (and probably would have knocked more than one person out if our oracle hadn't blown all of his spells on CLW to keep the rogue conscious while he was being grappled.)
One thing I did was print pictures of all of the images that are in the vents (crown, spear, centaur, etc.) and then show them to the party when they encountered them, rather than just saying "you find an image of a crown to the left and a spear to the right, which way do you want to go?" I thought it made it a little less obvious what they were supposed to do, although my group still got it easily. They actually had the most trouble actually figuring out that they needed to go into the vent in the first place; they thought that the capital/bolded letters on Zarta's note corresponded somehow to the seal codes note. I had to read the description of the room again, with an emphasis at the end that there was a vent in the corner, after they had read Zarta's note, and then they got it.
I had a lot of fun with this one, myself. Can't wait to actually play it, and run it again.
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Anyway, I ran this on Saturday and our group had fun with it, for the most part. I did advise them before we started that it was role-play and skill heavy, so a few people switched which characters they played, including one player switching from a witch to a rogue, which was a good move since he ended up doing a lot of sleight of hand checks that no one else could make, since SoH can't be made untrained. One of the players was playing an Osirion and was pretty upset that his faction mission required a SoH check; the rogue was able to make it for him, but he still thought it was stupid that it was required in the first place. I can understand this (especially since there's really no in-game reason for why the check was required; it's not like they were searched on their way out), but on the other hand, characters are only supposed to gain an average of 1.5 prestige per scenario. So sometimes, you will fail.
Look at this take from Sleight of Hand:
An untrained Sleight of Hand check is simply a Dexterity check. Without actual training, you can't succeed on any Sleight of Hand check with a DC higher than 10, except for hiding an object on your body.
(Emphasis mine) Thus you can make a sleight of hand check untrained as a dexterity check when hiding an object on your body. :)
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I'm getting ready to run this scenario on Wednesday, and I had a couple questions I hoped people could help me with.
1) In area A1, what happens if the PC's cannot overcome the checks to get past Vanius or Ailena? Would they have to resort to "beating up the bad guy," and if so how would this affect their strike count?
2) If the PC's did resort to the smash and grab technique, would they even have to deal with going to room A2? How would this affect their strike count and dealing with the hour time limit?
3) During Part Four, do the PC's have to deal with making all of the checks from the earlier parts, or is it just "traveling back to the waiting room from Zarta's study takes 15 minutes."
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I'm getting ready to run this scenario on Wednesday, and I had a couple questions I hoped people could help me with.
** spoiler omitted **
1) If they utterly fail their initial diplomacy checks, I think they need to get creative. I'd let them bribe anyone, thus lowering the DCs.
2) If they'd start smashing up the place, guards should probably start appearing throughout the scenario at the alarming pace. Basically impossible to succeed.
3) I read it in two ways; you can fast-forward the escaping and just make it 20 minutes, or run it like you should. As it reads there, if they acquired servants' outfits and such they get to run right through the main foyer (which normally would warrant a strike).
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We just played this tonight and it was ok. As the party Cleric, I spent practically the entire combat (S-T 4/5) healing, and failing much of it. Couldn't beat the SR, so I was basically sidelined the whole time. Somehow the entire point of the mission got botched up, so I'm not sure what happened wit that (or whose fault that was, honestly).
I know our party nearly died in the first (only?) fight which we fled from finally, having risked a lot to try and loot the desk, just to find out that it was useless. We essentually had 30 mins left, but autofailed the main mission. For a lot of us, that was a first time thing, and I don't think it's ever happened when there wasn't a poor party choice to cause it. Out Rogue and higher level Monk enjoyed it until the last half hour where we where all lost and couldn't do anything to succeed), but I think this had a lot of potentual. The other Monk (lower level), myself, and a Fighter couldn't really contribute, (outside of both of us maxing Diplomacy and inadvertantly screwing each other up).
The thing that broke the scenario for us was that we couldn't advance past the encounter, and thus missed a significant part of the puzzle, (yet had plenty of time to do it). We talked with the DM afterwards, and a note that the <things we faught> would vanish after a certain time like a Summon Monster spell would have been a really good thing to include, or an alternate way to get past that room. A it turns out, we basically just released them, blew through our resources, and then essentually unleashed them on the embassy to slaughter everyone, (but hey it's just Cheliax ha ha ha).
As a DM, I might rerun this, but I would really need to read, reread, and then reread again. Seems like a really easy scenario to miss or misunderstand things. I would also go with just the the lower tier if possible.
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My biggest question - where's the front door to the embassy?
The place is an old Cathedral previously devoted to Aroden before his demise. Thus I'd imagine the double doors at the garden are the front entrance, and the Chelish people erected the fence there afterwards.
It's possible they rebuilt nearly everything in the cathedral though. It is said to be full of extra walls and bad quality refurbishment.
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As DA's DM, I will say the main mistake was to play up in Tier 4-5 with a party that barely qualifies. I will remember to veto such situations in the future, especially in Season 4. I will post more thoughts later today when I have time.
I was wondering what the issue was because my party was level 4 and had no trouble at all with the fight. I actually was expecting it to be much harder than it was.
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My biggest question - where's the front door to the embassy?The place is an old Cathedral previously devoted to Aroden before his demise. Thus I'd imagine the double doors at the garden are the front entrance, and the Chelish people erected the fence there afterwards.
It's possible they rebuilt nearly everything in the cathedral though. It is said to be full of extra walls and bad quality refurbishment.
Given the importance of the building and other plans we have for it down the road, we decided that a PDF-only Pathfinder Society Scenario wasn't the place to define the entire building's floorplan. When we do a larger-scale adventure set there, we'll provide the necessary maps as required by the adventure. It just didn't make sense to use up word count and map allotments in this scenario for parts of the building that are beyond the adventure's scope or that might paint us into a creative corner down the road when we want to use other parts of the embassy.
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Okay, I strongly agree that party makeup will have a huge effect on how this runs. Had my player taken his 5th level barbarian in instead of his 2nd level fighter, I think that first combat would have been winnable. As it was, our party consisted of the following.
1st level Monk (Elemental Fist) - Sczarni
2nd level Fighter - Taldor
3rd level Rogue - Sczarni
3rd level Cleric - Silver Crusade (Devil's Advocate's character)
4th level Monk (Maneuver Master) - Cheliax
I thought that since it was heavily skill based, they would have a decent shot at it. Not having run bearded devils before, I didn't account for their melee abilities.
The start of the scenario was very upbeat, exciting, good diplomacy rolls and roleplay getting the party in. Once the timer kicked on, things became very stressed and tense.
DA's cleric stepped into the north hall and accosted a servant about the ambassador. This was my first hint that he had misunderstood the mission, and I tried to quickly explain the confusion. We moved on and thanks to good standard bonuses enhanced by the elixirs, traversing the gardens and servants quarters was a breeze. No one needed to enter the ballroom for faction missions, so they quickly entered Act 2.
The exploration of the private chambers progressed quickly, with the players falling over each other trying to perceptify the rooms. I believe I should have taken a moment to remind them that they were not being timed in realtime at the moment and could pause to consider without being penalized. Future runs and other DMs should keep this in mind. Emphasize the timed nature of the mission without causing the players to rush and all try to talk at once.
Turning the key in the lock set off the downward spiral. The three lowest level characters were bunched in front of the door when the summoned devils appeared in the squares behind them. Combat ensued and the rogue was downed with the first devils full attack, while the 1st level fighter was heavily wounded. It was only thanks to the poor positioning for reach attacks that more characters were not dealt with. (Possibly should have spread the two attacks around, but my d20s were rolling high either way.)
The infernal wounds turned out to be extremely dangerous, as characters could not stabilize, and DA's cleric was unable to make the caster level checks to overcome their resistance to healing regularly. (Do you add casting stat to caster level checks? That might have been a factor if he was not when he should have.) He was also unable to exclude the devils from his channel energies, which I didn't realize at first and just added trouble when I did.
The DR was hampering the lower level characters, and the MM Monk was doing his best to keep the enemies prone, but defensively cast Greater Teleports made it harder. (He did however keep the battle from becoming a hopeless TPK.)
The party managed to retreat into the study and close the door behind them with the 2nd level fighter bleeding to death as well as other characters heavily wounded. With little to go on for alternate options, I decided the summoned monsters would not chase intruders beyond the room, and indeed would be unsummoned after a few rounds. (No duration is given, nor any tactics beyond 'fight to the death', so I could have had them pursue and end the scenario with a TPK. I chose not to as the 1st level character's player is just starting out.)
At this point, the party had snatched the note and portrait from the secret room and were healing up, barely avoiding losing a party member to the infernal wounds. They decided to head back to the waiting room and review what they gathered. (I ruled the 1st level Monk had not had enough time to thoroughly scan the room, and missed the vent they needed to enter. Had they known about that, they may have tried going back in. Alternatively, they may not have retreated and ended up TPKing themselves.)
I attempted to drop hints as they progressed and reviewed the cipher. Some time was spent working on breaking the code, but then abandoned with the logic that they should get back to the room and then work on it. (I tried to hint that they did not have what they needed, asking "What do you have?" when they stated they had the intel they needed. I perhaps should have come out and said 'You have not found the information VC Valsin directed you to find." Other DMs should possibly be more explicit when their players are mistakenly failing the mission.)
Once the party made their rolls to cross back to the room, I knew it was a bust. I allowed them to work out the code for the remaining time, which they realized was not enough intel. As it was too late, they attempted to secure what other faction missions they could, thinking the Sczarni mission required entry to the security office. The DC 30 locks frustrated the Rogue immensely.
The scenario ended with the party turning over the packet to the ambassador when he arrived and departing in defeat.
Over all, the party expended resources purchasing formal outfits and extra elixirs, and only earned Day Job gold. 0XP, 0PP, 0GP from the mission, save for the Taldor and Silver Crusade faction missions.
I was incredibly excited to run this scenario, and horribly disappointed by my execution. I believe my own failure to properly explain the mission to all players as well as the choice of playing up led to the downfall of the session. It was overall a downhill slide into a bitter fun-less disappointment. Had we played Tier 1-2, I think a better result would have been had.
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We played Tier 4-5 with a party consisting of:
Level 3 Bard
Level 4 Fighter 1/Rogue 3
Level 3 Ranger 2/Inquisitor 1 (Me)
Level 2 Wizard 1/Rogue 1
Level 3 Bard 1/Cleric 2
Level 4 Paladin 2/Rogue 2
This scenario was a blast! After hearing the briefing, our party all bought Elixirs of Hiding, Potions of Disguise Other, and Potions of Invisibility (as we assumed we might need to sneak around). We apparently guessed right, and were able to easily pass most of the skill checks. We didn't have much trouble with the combats; after hearing "Chelish Embassy," we made sure to buy silver weapons. We were also easily able to punch through the DR with Power Attack, as it was only DR5.
Our GM told us to bring our "skilled" characters before we sat down, which helped a lot. I loved the "Mission Impossible" feel of the scenario, and am hoping for more like this. We managed to find all of the required information, but we barely made it in time.
The DR was hampering the lower level characters, and the MM Monk was doing his best to keep the enemies prone, but defensively cast Greater Teleports made it harder.
Just a heads up; summoned creatures often can't use teleportation abilities. Granted, I haven't yet read the scenario text (as I'll be judging this scenario later this month).
A summoned monster cannot summon or otherwise conjure another creature, nor can it use any teleportation or planar travel abilities.
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I ran this today and ... well, hm, let's recap.
The fights are tedious and frankly unnecessary. The team consisted of 4 PCs, so there was only one hasted imp. And the fight took 31 rounds.
Kajal, Elf Rogue 1/Wizard 1 (Osirion)
Sael, Aasimar Bard 2 (Andoran)
a pregen Hayato samurai, one player messaged me he's sick and can't attend
They got underway and everything went quite smoothly but ... it felt like I had to constantly tell the PCs their options, draining the creativity from them. It could have been because the players weren't the most talkative players in this region, I don't know, this isn't to say they are bad, not at all. With all the minutes to count and strikes to watch if began to feel more like a board game where I gave them options what to do.
Thus the scenario demands a very strong self-esteem from the players, who believe in what they are doing and explore the possibilities. The hallways and everything must be detailed in excellent precision in order not to correct them all the time.
Anyway, they eventually got to Zarta's chambers and the imp ... oh why, they tried to search for traps and even detected magic but there isn't any. This fight is not bypassable by any means and it's so DULL. Tier 1-2 with DR 5, fast healing, and moderately good AC. THIRTY-ONE FRIKKIN' ROUNDS!
Okay, they got the grapple/pin method going and killed the imp and proceeded. More problems. Here in Finland I run games in Finnish, of course. Fortunately the cryptogram created no big problems EXCEPT the damn font has nearly identical q and g. I honestly feel like I need to do the whole handout all over again because that irritates me so much. I pointed it out early on so they wouldn't get stuck. Moreso, I had to point out and read the description of the room again so they'd hear the word "air ventilation shaft" instead my "ilmanvaihtoluukku". Maybe they imagined a considerably smaller air vent...
The junction puzzle is utterly useless. Nothing more to say about that.
The team was somewhat clueless in the archives, and after defeating the chair searched maybe all the other shelves before getting to the Internal Security: Receipts (which is typo'd recipets in the handout). They didn't even check for the Internal Security: Evidence (they thought the receipt was enough), and I even made Amara Li ask "Have you gotten everything? Evidence even?", but they left without it, not realizing they are missing one thing out of the three. If I ever run this again, I need to concentrate on bringing these THREE things: WHERE? WHO? WHY?
Okay, so they had something like 45 minutes left when they were back to Zarta's chambers. They got to the kitchen's side of the garden when the 10 minute mark came, and Amara Li informs: "The ambassador has excused himself. He'll be there in a matter of minutes."
I stuck with my idea of not telling the players the exact minute count. Why? Well, if they already know they have one hour to do the gig why not buy an hourglass? Anyway, this announcement made them hurry, so they opted to have Sael bluff their way through the way, and ...
Oh no.
I just read the part from the scenario again and seems like I made a big mistake. I made them return to their starting point, and they felt like they need to get to the waiting room and rushed there pushing all the servants out of their way. I figured this would get them a strike ... per PC. To be fair, the scenario is ambiguous about whether you get a strike per PC or per team.
I'll do what's right, so I contact the players and give them a revisioned ending, saying that the failure was merely a bad dream of Ambrus Valsin screaming at them.
So what's the story? When it seems the PCs are failing, reread ALL the crucial parts. Twice. Word by word.
So instead of a total failure they ... managed to know WHO did this (not within the scenario, they took the papers though) and WHERE, but not WHY. No PP from that, but would that still be considered a success in order to get an expedition to Fortress Vraid...
This brings another issue. I just noticed the scenario reporting tool has this tickbox for "Scenario mission accomplished". I *REALLY* don't want to leave it unchecked, as I want Zarta to be saved. I do, however, assume that without the evidence it must be left unchecked. :( When are these outcomes relevant, though?
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Given the importance of the building and other plans we have for it down the road, we decided that a PDF-only Pathfinder Society Scenario wasn't the place to define the entire building's floorplan. When we do a larger-scale adventure set there, we'll provide the necessary maps as required by the adventure. It just didn't make sense to use up word count and map allotments in this scenario for parts of the building that are beyond the adventure's scope or that might paint us into a creative corner down the road when we want to use other parts of the embassy.My biggest question - where's the front door to the embassy?The place is an old Cathedral previously devoted to Aroden before his demise. Thus I'd imagine the double doors at the garden are the front entrance, and the Chelish people erected the fence there afterwards.
It's possible they rebuilt nearly everything in the cathedral though. It is said to be full of extra walls and bad quality refurbishment.
upon reading the scenario further, i realized that the map didn't cover the entirety of the embassy. still, seems like there should be a big set of double doors on the western edge of the map... :)
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Just played this. Had a fun time.
Some notes: After the initial box text, and knowing I play with a group of people who ZONE OUT during long box text readings because they're never set up for question-and-answer:
1) I wrote down the names of NPCs and stopped the cold read to get them spelled correctly.
2) I summarized for my fellow players: "Don't mention Draleen, give the packet to the Ambassador as the cover story, don't resort to combat where anyone can see or hear you, try to be sneaky. Don't set off bombs, don't set off guns, don't set off loud spells. Don't mention we're Pathfinders."
I had the clever idea of buying two scrolls of Silence. They made fighting the barbed devils much less likely to generate a "strike." My character also went "Chelish Embassy - check: Oil of Bless Weapon it is."
Our highest Stealth and Diplomacy were on the same character - who used the Elixir of Hiding. The rest of us tried to run this scenario with Bluff/Disguise/Diplomacy modifiers ranging from -2 to +4.
We more or less made it up on clever play.
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@ TOZ, I think you did fine, honestly. I'm not sure what happened with the main mission confussion, and I can only guess I was distracted by trying to help the new player (or my daughter), but will admit that was a bit embarrasing. Somehow it got translated to me that we needed to find the guy asap, and then use our time there after talking to him as a front to try to get the other info before we left and party/meeting ended. I will say this new season seems to much more be catering to the more power-gaming playstyle, and that might be part of the "play-up" issue we are encountering. I don't know, random thought.
Wasn't our Fighter level 3 or 4, though? Failure happens, so I'm not worried about that. Still, I think you did a good job.
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Thanks for the vote of confidence, I just had to put out the things I may not have handled well enough so other GMs can learn from my experience.
And no, he was 2nd, because he had just gotten his 4th chronicle from We Be Goblins. We were trying to figure out if that disqualified him from the 1st level retraining since he hadn't actually played at 2nd level at the actual character yet.
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Off Topic, my understandng is that as long as they have not actually leveled up and played as a 2nd level character. We had the same issue with my other guy, but it's really not a big deal. Honestly at that level, it's not a huge deal to start a new character, taking into account things he has learned in RL from playing,a nd he plays often enough, ha ha ha. Maybe someone could actually clarify this for us though? So if a 2 xp characcter gets their 3rd xp, are they still allowed to 1st level rewrite after that game, but before the next game?
But like I said, I think you did a great job. I honestly think it's more an issue with some of the newish 4.2 Guide's and Season 4's general (and unofficial) assumptions. I don't think playing up really mattered. A +2, I do not think, would have mattered to any of my rolls. I would have still burned through all my healing without effect, except we would be down even more HP we couldn't get back, the Fighters damage, if he managed any would have all been healed back faster than he could deal it, and the Monk's still wouldn't be able to do anything significant to that DR. I don't think the 1st level character really even counts too much. It would have been essentually the same without him, and we where also a healer down, (something I think we have all sort of become used to). It just wasn't for half of our group.
One of my initial thoughts was that it was really really odd that a timed in game puzzle would basically be a one person handout, (and at the time that was getting really annoying), but it dawned on me that if it was, there would be a lot more checks involved. Kind of metagaming, but that's when I realized it wasn't really important (yet). A bit off topic again, but it really did seem to imply/encourage the party to split up a lot, which seems like it wuld be exceptionally difficult to DM, and probably a very bad idea in retrospect. Might just be me, but I would really suggest that DM's go out of their way to try and prevent this, especially with a group that some players are shining (Roguey types) and others are not (not Roguey types).
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Didn't realize to mention this before, but the cryptogram bases on player intelligence. That sort of thing got some bad response back in season 0 when Silent Tide came along.
I've got a good "knack" for substitution cyphers, but the character I played (an INT 12 Barbarian with the Scholar trait) should've been worse at this than I was.
On the other hand, the scenario does point out - "get the data out" as the objective; decode-in-place is against the modus of the Mission Impossible theme.
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Didn't realize to mention this before, but the cryptogram bases on player intelligence. That sort of thing got some bad response back in season 0 when Silent Tide came along.I've got a good "knack" for substitution cyphers, but the character I played (an INT 12 Barbarian with the Scholar trait) should've been worse at this than I was.
On the other hand, the scenario does point out - "get the data out" as the objective; decode-in-place is against the modus of the Mission Impossible theme.
They actually need to decode at least a few of the letters to retrieve the proper evidence. Not I23, but A23.
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RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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One thing a player asked and I didn't have the answer ... what's the ambassador's name? I had to make up one and named him Hugen of Senara. :P
If he really doesn't have a name, I'll have to name him Wilhelm Armitage, for thematic reasons.
Edit: Evil laugh. My paracountess hating gnome player just signed up! OH I'm going to enjoy this.
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I've been wondering, where is the archive map handed out? Its mis-labeled identical to the other handout on the page. I can't find where players get that handout.
EDIT: Nevermind, saw it described in the description text. :)
For other folks benefit, it is "On an easel in one of the aisles is a map of the room," with "the room" being the Record Archive. Took me a few readthroughs to find it, too. I blame the cypher, though; if I were to play in this, I'd be zero help whatsoever. I'm so bad at actually thinking, I like play barbarians and other "HIT STUFF WITH STUFF" characters.