Pathfinder Society Quest #1: The Sandstone Secret

4.50/5 (based on 15 ratings)

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A Pathfinder Society Quest designed for levels 1–4 (Subtiers 1–2 and 3–4).

When the Pathfinder Society receives word of a promising, unexplored ruin in Osirion, the PCs set out to uncover the site's secrets. Yet upon arriving, the PCs learn that a different group of Pathfinders has already entered the ruins. Has there been some mistake, is the site's magic playing tricks on everyone, or is there something more nefarious afoot?

Written by Linda Zayas-Palmer.

Scenario Tags: Repeatable

Note: Pathfinder Society Quests are not included in the Pathfinder Society Scenario subscription.

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop

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Are there errors or omissions in this product information? Got corrections? Let us know at store@paizo.com.

PZOPFQ0001E


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Average product rating:

4.50/5 (based on 15 ratings)

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A far too lethal scenario

3/5

I proposed this scenario twice, once in the lower tier on Foundry, and again in the upper tier on PbD. The first session went very well, with a great 'Indiana Jones' atmosphere, a good puzzle and an interesting battle (against the mummies)...
For the game in the upper tier, I chose to play the animated statue instead of the mummy, because of the mummy's curse (who thought it was a good idea to put this curse on a scenario that doesn't specify how many days it takes the PJs to get to their destination and back? Guys, you can't be serious...)

The statue literally annihilated the PJs. With a list of (divine) spells ill-suited to dealing with a mindless enemy with very low reflexes, their options were quickly reduced to "try to survive and do a 20 nat to blow up his hardness". In the end, out of 4 PJs (two level 4s, one level 2 and one level 1 with double mentor boon + level bump), I knocked two of them out in 4 turns even though they had only inflicted 7hp on the statue.
They wanted to leave it at that, the guards intervened, the scenario failed: I'm giving back a chronicle with no bonuses to PJs who've been roleplaying for 2 weeks.
The first part deserved 4 stars, the second barely two: so I'm giving it 3, the average.


Classic, straightforward fun!

4/5

I ran this for a couple of friends, on the fly, while we were on holiday. Had to change and rearrange the challanges to make it doable for 2 players + a friendly player "bot" (healer). We had a blast. Very classic ancient tomb exploring action, short and sweet. I'm giving it 4.5/5 because I would have loved to have a bit more story woven into the delve, instead I had fun filling the blanks of the backstory with some horror/mystery elements to help drive the scenes forward. Loved the traps and the monsters!


Review

5/5

Nice variety in the replayable elements.

Durvin Kline makes me laugh every time.

Fun adventure.


Nice Intro to PFS

4/5

I played and ran this one multiple times now. The backstory is flavorful and interesting. New PFS players will definitely profit from all the information given about the Society. The only problem I have is with the scaling of the different variations.

Spoiler:
The mummies will be extremely scary for low tier while the statue will be a walkover.


The Perfect Introduction to Pathfinder Society

5/5

Sandstone is a mix of roleplay, investigation, and combat.

It has great Pathfinder flavor and teaches players about what it means to be a Pathfinder. It's quite witty as well.

I think one of the encounters is too difficult at subtier 1-2. If the GM can avoid that, you've got a great session on your hands.

Full props to Linda on this one. I’ve run this three times at subtier 1-2.


1 to 5 of 15 << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | next > last >>

3 people marked this as a favorite.

This is for Second Edition, right? There should be something in the description (maybe even in the season name) that says so.

Grand Lodge

3 people marked this as a favorite.

It is listed under "Season 1: Year of the Open Road" which is PF2E.

Dark Archive

The Ruby Prince closed exploration of Osirions tombs in Second Edition.
So this scenario as presented makes little sense.

Scarab Sages

Adventure Path Charter Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Maps Subscriber

Is that the price of the new quests? It seems to be the same price as a quest pack of 4 quests, or a full scenario, which seems expensive

Grand Lodge Developer

15 people marked this as a favorite.
Marco Massoudi wrote:

The Ruby Prince closed exploration of Osirions tombs in Second Edition.

So this scenario as presented makes little sense.

I see you've been paying close attention to the blogs! All I'll say on that for now is that the Ruby Prince's strong restriction on exploration sure does sound like an interesting plot point for our Osirion adventures in Second Edition.

Lantern Lodge

Very excited to see how that plot point turns out! Does this use a flip-mat or flip-tiles?

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

As a quest, does that mean this is just a short 1 hour one-shot or 4 to 6 one hour quests?

Lantern Lodge

2 people marked this as a favorite.

This is the first of the new monthly one hour-ish quests.

Paizo Blog wrote:

You may have seen us talking about quests in previous blogs, but in case you haven't, we're going to be releasing more of them going forward. We're adding one quest to each month's releases starting with the launch of the Second Edition campaign, in addition to two Pathfinder Society scenarios. Having more quests allows us to explore more locations and stories, and it gives more content for times and places where people can't sit down to play for hours at a time.

However, quests in First Edition were a little challenging to handle because there were two forms those quests took: either a bundle of 4–6 quests that required players to play the whole series to earn the full rewards, or stand-alone quests that granted no XP, GP, or Fame. In Second Edition, we're building the campaign so that quests are a rewards-granting entity from the very beginning, even for stand-alone quests. With each being worth 1 XP, it should be easier to track their rewards—including no need for fractional XP.

Verdant Wheel

roll4initiative wrote:
As a quest, does that mean this is just a short 1 hour one-shot or 4 to 6 one hour quests?

the quests are basically designed to be short 1hr adventures you can play, kinda one of the parts from something like Honors Echo


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I've got a couple of questions:
1) Any organized/official way to play this at GenCon?
2) Will this be included in the Pathfinder Scenario Subscription?

Grand Lodge

michaelane wrote:

This is the first of the new monthly one hour-ish quests.

Paizo Blog wrote:

You may have seen us talking about quests in previous blogs, but in case you haven't, we're going to be releasing more of them going forward. We're adding one quest to each month's releases starting with the launch of the Second Edition campaign, in addition to two Pathfinder Society scenarios. Having more quests allows us to explore more locations and stories, and it gives more content for times and places where people can't sit down to play for hours at a time.

However, quests in First Edition were a little challenging to handle because there were two forms those quests took: either a bundle of 4–6 quests that required players to play the whole series to earn the full rewards, or stand-alone quests that granted no XP, GP, or Fame. In Second Edition, we're building the campaign so that quests are a rewards-granting entity from the very beginning, even for stand-alone quests. With each being worth 1 XP, it should be easier to track their rewards—including no need for fractional XP.

Hooray for quests granting 1xp now!

Paizo Employee Webstore Coordinator

9 people marked this as a favorite.

Price has been updated from $4.99 to $1.99, as quests are shorter and have less content than a full-length scenario.


Thanks! It was looking pricey for a Quest. Now, I may consider it for a Con that is happening in Montreal.

Grand Lodge

First World Bard wrote:
Any organized/official way to play this at GenCon

No. We normally offer quests in a free to play area in the Sagamore ballroom, but due to the low volunteer (GM) response this year, we had to cancel that area. The only place this scenario is being offered is as a supplement in the Academy area for the games for kids.

Grand Lodge Developer

5 people marked this as a favorite.

This quest uses one map.

The map is:
Flip Mat Classics: Ancient Dungeon.


4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Any reason quests aren't a part of the PFS subscription?


No tab for leaving a review?


First World Bard wrote:
Any reason quests aren't a part of the PFS subscription?

Can anyone confirm that this module is not part of the PFS subscription? I was already surprised to get module 10-22 in a recent auth e-mail.

Sovereign Court

Looks great! The chronicle sheet seems to have a "2" stuck in the Character Number field. Intentional or artifact?


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Maps, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Aduaitam wrote:
Looks great! The chronicle sheet seems to have a "2" stuck in the Character Number field. Intentional or artifact?

Pathfinder Society 2nd Edition character numbers start at 2001.


Who would bother to drive anywhere or do the work of getting set up and everything, for a 1-hour game?

This makes no sense to me.

And they don't fit into convention time-slots either.

What was wrong with 4-6 quest packs?

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

1) plenty of people as all those numbers are variable.

2) They’ll probably increase the number as time goes on, but this is the first season of the new system.

Sovereign Court

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Loving this adventure. So many different ways to run it, perfect for a repayable scenario!! <3

Paizo Employee Starfinder Senior Developer

8 people marked this as a favorite.
Kataclasm wrote:

Who would bother to drive anywhere or do the work of getting set up and everything, for a 1-hour game?

This makes no sense to me.

And they don't fit into convention time-slots either.

What was wrong with 4-6 quest packs?

There are several big reasons for standalone quests at this time.

1) Each location has different needs. A 4–5 hour slot works great for a typical game store on a Saturday, but local traffic might mean that a community can't realistically run a full scenario on a weeknight. This provides more casually paced content, as well as more flexibility in how event organizers manage their areas.

2) Standalone quests are a solid option for recruiting, as one hour of gameplay provides a nice taste of the system without requiring a lot of commitment.

3) Standalone quests are solid options for when a game at a convention falls through or time is otherwise tight. "Okay, our two tables only had a few players show up. How about we combine tables, run a quest, and then grab dinner before the special?"

4) Quests are an excellent way to try out and train up newer authors. The monthly quests provide us an ample outlet to bring in new talent on smaller adventures.

5) Standalone quests are much more straightforward to outline and create, compared to linked quest series. A series often needs flexibility built in so that people can play adventures out of order, and the series needs a story that accommodates lots of little quests in place of a single scenario. The org play team's creative and has ample series ideas yet to see the light of day, yet creating standalone quests allows the developers to explore a much wider range of quest content than series alone would enable.

Lantern Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

I’ll add a couple more.

I’m regularly running 1-A at the tail end of regular scenarios when the players have time to stick around for a little longer. I did that in two slots at Gen Con and I’ve done it two more times with our regular game days.

I’m also planning to run some game days where we run a bunch of the quests in a session. This will be perfect for our traditional Super Bowl Sunday Quest Game Day. With the old format quests, you didn’t want to stop between quests because you had to put the character on ice and get everyone back together. So, people usually had to bow out after the second set of quests because they didn’t have time for a 3rd. Now, people can pick their own cutoff and they can always come back and do the ones they miss later.

I would like to see as many of them as possible be repeatable. This is a great format for repeatable adventures.

We will also use them for John’s 1st two reasons. They are perfect for weeknights and my Pop-Up Gen Con GMs ran 1-A over and over to get people started with PF2.


roll4initiative wrote:
As a quest, does that mean this is just a short 1 hour one-shot or 4 to 6 one hour quests?

It can use either. I will be using flip maps when I run it.


michaelane wrote:

This is the first of the new monthly one hour-ish quests.

Paizo Blog wrote:

You may have seen us talking about quests in previous blogs, but in case you haven't, we're going to be releasing more of them going forward. We're adding one quest to each month's releases starting with the launch of the Second Edition campaign, in addition to two Pathfinder Society scenarios. Having more quests allows us to explore more locations and stories, and it gives more content for times and places where people can't sit down to play for hours at a time.

However, quests in First Edition were a little challenging to handle because there were two forms those quests took: either a bundle of 4–6 quests that required players to play the whole series to earn the full rewards, or stand-alone quests that granted no XP, GP, or Fame. In Second Edition, we're building the campaign so that quests are a rewards-granting entity from the very beginning, even for stand-alone quests. With each being worth 1 XP, it should be easier to track their rewards—including no need for fractional XP.

To answer you diectly, this is meant to be a one-hour quest.


Pathfinder Adventure, Lost Omens, Rulebook, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I am thrilled about standalone quests and can't wait to see more of them. Finally I have content I can run for some friends on a weeknight!


Does this quest use any flip-mat?

Scarab Sages Organized Play Developer

Gaulish wrote:
Does this quest use any flip-mat?

It's up the thread a bit.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Michael Sayre wrote:
It's up the thread a bit.

I would find it very useful going forward (and going backward as well, for that matter) to have the list of maps included in the product description.

In fact, I'd find it useful for all product cross-linkages to be shown in the original post for every scenario, quest, and adventure.


Michael Sayre wrote:
Gaulish wrote:
Does this quest use any flip-mat?
It's up the thread a bit.

Thank you. Sorry I had missed it.

I bought it so for anyone interested, it uses the Ancient Dungeon flip-mat.


Scenario spoiler:
In encounter A5, for scaling in tier 1-2 it says to add one or two hidden pit in a corner of the room.

Hidden pits are 10 feet x 10 feet, right? So 2x2 squares on the map.
And I assume you can't put an hidden pit halfway under a color bowl, right? Wouldn't make much sense.

That means you can only put the two pits in the rightmost corners. But isn't that where the monster come from (it says "the piles of rubble on the eastern edge of the room..."). So that means the monster falls directly into the pit? Or since it can climb it walks on the walls?

Sorry for the very specific question about a minor detail, but I am just trying to see if I am missing something here.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

Now that Quest #2 is out, I'm wondering, why is this PDF labeled as "Quest #1A" instead of just #1?

Scarab Sages Organized Play Developer

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Zaister wrote:
Now that Quest #2 is out, I'm wondering, why is this PDF labeled as "Quest #1A" instead of just #1?

We ended up changing to a flat numerical system. Initially we thought it would be the season number (1) followed by an alphabetical designation, but for various reasons we ended up changing to a flat numerical identifier.


Question for running pf2 tables. Is there a hard limit of 6 players, or can there be 7 players like in pf1. Ive not been able to find anything on that.


Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
nick gray 117 wrote:
Question for running pf2 tables. Is there a hard limit of 6 players, or can there be 7 players like in pf1. Ive not been able to find anything on that.

Legal Table Size

The minimum table size for a Pathfinder Society session is four players. The recommended maximum is six players. In cases where you simply cannot seat four players, the GM can run a table of three players, and can play an appropriately leveled pregenerated iconic character (or deputize players to do so) in order to meet the minimum table size of four PCs. Pregenerated iconic characters are available for 1st level and 5th level. Pregenerated characters of more levels will be available in the future.

If seven players show up to an event, rather than turning someone away, the GM can consider adding a seventh person to the table. She should check with the players to determine their preferences before running a seven-person table, as seven-person tables often overpower otherwise challenging adventures and limit the amount of time each player gets to shine in the given scenario.

Tables may not have eight or more players. If eight players show up to an event and there is more table space, see if one of the players can GM a game instead.

This information can be found in the Pathfinder Society Guide to Organized Play(Second Edition)


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Thanks a bunch. I just wanted to double check since i originally couldn't find this info. Plus someone had told me there was a cap of 6 pcs. Again thanks so much


I am new to Pathfinder 2 and to PFS. Our local con, in November, is running:

1-01 - The Absalom Initiation
1-06 - Lost on the Spirit Road
1-07 - Flooded King's Court
1-04 - Bandits Of Immenwood

These are all listed as T1-4 here on the website. As I understand it, T1-4 means there is a Lvl 1-2 mode and a lvl 3-4 mode of these.

1) If I start a brand new character in these, starting with 1-01 - The Absalom Initiation, can I play in all of them?

2) Do they have to be played in order?

Even playing all of these, I think I can only get to Level 2 with my character.

Sovereign Court

Nitehood wrote:

and it, T1-4 means there is a Lvl 1-2 mode and a lvl 3-4 mode of these.

1) If I start a brand new character in these, starting with 1-01 - The Absalom Initiation, can I play in all of them?

2) Do they have to be played in order?

Even playing all of these, I think I can only get to Level 2 with my character.

1) Yes!

2) They do not need to be in order. Though 1-01 Absalom Initiation is a great scenario to start with, as it teaches you a bit about the Pathfinder Society.
3) Yeah sounds about Right. Should be around Level 2 , if you play all of these.


Jib916 wrote:
Nitehood wrote:

and it, T1-4 means there is a Lvl 1-2 mode and a lvl 3-4 mode of these.

1) If I start a brand new character in these, starting with 1-01 - The Absalom Initiation, can I play in all of them?

2) Do they have to be played in order?

Even playing all of these, I think I can only get to Level 2 with my character.

1) Yes!

2) They do not need to be in order. Though 1-01 Absalom Initiation is a great scenario to start with, as it teaches you a bit about the Pathfinder Society.
3) Yeah sounds about Right. Should be around Level 2 , if you play all of these.

Thanks! They really dont give a level on the Event sign up. And I am playing 1-01 - The Absalom Initiation first, then 106, 107, and then 104

I just didn't want to get there and the GM say, "oh you have to be Level 4 to play" or "you have to play 10x first"

Another question.. Did the factions change in PF2?


We've run into a bit of a balance issue here:

Monster Stats:

The Centipede Swarm (Subtier 1-2, Level 3 Creature) has a DC20 poison that deals 1d6-1d8 damage per round.
The Scorpion Swarm (Subtier 3-4, Level 4 Creature) has a DC18 poison that only ever deals 1d6 damage per round.

This has made the Centipede Swarm very difficult for a party of level 1s to reliably clear the poison from in less than the maximum duration (which can be lethal), even after combat is over.

It certainly feels like the poisons were transposed here. Can someone from the Paizo side confirm that the lower tier, lower level encounter is supposed to have the higher DC and damage poison?


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Toshimo wrote:

We've run into a bit of a balance issue here:

** spoiler omitted **

Those stats look correct. Take a look at the Bestiary. As for level challenge, centipede is 3 and scorpion is 4. So, for a 1st lvl party the centipede swarm is a moderate to severe threat. They definitely have to take ot very seriously.


"Take it seriously" isn't really a thing. You get poisoned. You try DCs to stop it. The DCs are much more difficult at low tier than high tier, and the penalty for failure is larger. If they are straight Bestiary imports, then it certainly seems that the Bestiary flubbed the numbers, then. Either way, it's not a great intro encounter.


Pathfinder Starfinder Society Subscriber
Nitehood wrote:
Another question.. Did the factions change in PF2?

Yes. The old "geographical" factions have been retired and PF2 has new factions that focus more on the goals of the Society itself.

Read about them here:

http://www.organizedplayfoundation.org/encyclopedia/pathfinder-2-0-factions /


Linkified


@Paizo: HELP!!! I bought the Quest "PZOPFQ0001EE - Pathfinder 2 RPG - Pathfinder Society Quest #1: The Sandstone Secret" on Fantasy Grounds. I sync'ed the account and showed the Quest was sync'ed. But now I can't seem to download the PDF content from Paizo Web Site like other Fantasy Ground purchases. What's up?


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Katina Davis wrote:
Price has been updated from $4.99 to $1.99, as quests are shorter and have less content than a full-length scenario.

Where can I find the $2 version of the quest? Wanted to run some old ones before maybe taking my group into season 5.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
BionX wrote:
Katina Davis wrote:
Price has been updated from $4.99 to $1.99, as quests are shorter and have less content than a full-length scenario.
Where can I find the $2 version of the quest? Wanted to run some old ones before maybe taking my group into season 5.

I don't think $2 quests are a thing any more (which is unfortunate, as $5 is way too steep for a quest imo).

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