#9-12 Shrine of the Sacred Tempest

[TriOmegaZero]

Just finished playing this one and will be running it next week. Can't find any complaints from the playthrough, although the naivety of the country bumpkins wore a little thin. That may have just been a perception issue rather than the material itself.

[The Great Rinaldo!]

Still doing my first read through before running this next week, and I am concerned that part of the party's gold comes from looting the shrine's office. I wonder if Justin or John might chime in on that particular choice. Given that the theme of this adventure is being Good People and fighting Bad Things, I would expect a lot of parties *not* to take stuff from the shrine.

I'm sure I'll have more questions and comments when I'm done, but that really struck me as I was reading.

[Linda Zayas-Palmer]

As it turns out, the PCs don't have to actually loot the office to gain the gold.

Page 15 of the scenario wrote:

"Rewards: If the PCs do not search the shrine’s administrative building, reduce each PC’s gold earned by the following amount."

[Ascalaphus]

So they have to find but not necessarily take the temple's treasure? That's splitting it a bit fine.

As a player these situations make me uncomfortable. "Did the author intend for us to take the gold/special item belonging to [someone we don't have a beef with, and who might even be a good guy], and will we lose out on scenario rewards if we don't? Or is it the other way, will we be punished if we do?"

It's a very meta kind of worry and I don't like it.

[CanisDirus]

As a GM, I try to put players' minds at ease in these sorts of situations by putting things in context. The Pathfinder Society (on Golarion, that is) is an organization with the motto - "explore, report, and cooperate." While exploring, pathfinder teams don't need to take everything that isn't nailed down (except in those rare instances when they are literally told to do exactly that) in order to present the society with a detailed report of their findings. This is especially the case when they are cooperating with local (or in this instance, heavenly) agents towards mutually beneficial goals.

When I ran this yesterday, one of the Silver Crusade characters at the table brought up a similar concern. Before I even had to say anything, a Scarab Sages player noted that they would only be taking the item temporarily towards helping purify the site, after which it would likely return to Mitoko (or the village's) custody. All I had to do was smile and nod, and we moved on.

Hope that helps, maybe?

[Thes Hunter]

I did really like this scenario.

Playing as a Tengu who is from Tien, it was very fun. Though I think the author could have given some guidance to the GM on what would happen for this particular edge case.

My one remark is, both playing it, and running it, it felt like the monks and the shrine were all a big lead up to a big Abyssal outsider showing up as the final boss. I felt most of the fights were light.

Spoiler:

Note, both when I played, and when I ran the scenario we played up. Both times most people were level 3.

For instance, in both run throughs, Chosen Migari was taken down before her turn in initiative. Thereby, never getting a turn herself. And the both parties made short work of the guards.

The boar fight was similarly over in less than a round, and a round and a half, respectively.

The monk fight went a few rounds, but the tide of battle had pretty much turned by the 2nd round. Which would have been perfectly fine if that was the setting for a big outsider to pop up after they were defeated.

The cube fight was harder when I played because none of us could make a 15 perception roll to save our lives, but the party I ran, almost all of them saw it.

So in my opinion that makes the cube fight the best fight in the game.

Other than the combats feeling too easy, I really like the scenario. I liked the flavor and the feeling. I as a player with a Tengu, really enjoyed being able for her to return 'home'*

*(Kwanlai is not really where she grew up, because her parents fled Kwanlai during the ripples of upheaval that continued years after the fall of Lung Wa to the land of Quain. Where she was unfortunately orphaned at a young age and raised in a monastery that worshiped Pharasma, Qi Zhong and Desna.

[TheBigBlueFrog]

Is it just me, or is the key missing from the list of treasure found at the well? When my players got to the dance stage, I had to retcon them finding a key.

[TheBigBlueFrog]

Jacquelene Steele wrote:

My one remark is, both playing it, and running it, it felt like the monks and the shrine were all a big lead up to a big Abyssal outsider showing up as the final boss. I felt most of the fights were light.

My players were also confused. They thought they were going to get to fight the Storm Prophet at the end.

Spoiler:

Megari never got to use any of her spells. One of my players jumped up on the stage and got in her face quickly. The cube had one player engulfed and nearly suffocated. The Fist of Hei Feng did put down two players before the fight was over. No deaths, but both were unconscious.

[TriOmegaZero]

You are right about the key being missing from the well encounter. Something to keep in mind for future play-throughs.

TheBigBlueFrog wrote:

My players were also confused. They thought they were going to get to fight the Storm Prophet at the end.

Yeah, he is a little CR inappropriate. :) If they can level up in time, they can face him in a later scenario.