PFS2 Quest 17 Escorting a Mirage - stat block concerns

[eardianm]

Hi! Love quest series 2, enough that I like to run them immediately and do the manual data entry into Foundry. For quest 17 though, I saw a bunch of weirdness in the stat blocks that I'm unclear if was planned or editing error, or just normal things I miss by using premade VTT or PDF importers.

Called out on store page elsewhere - Page 3 states The Swordlord's Challenge instead of Escorting a Mirage. Also the updated pdf from 2/29 lacks a table of contents

NPC quirks
- All elite and weak tags appear to have creature level +2/-2 (Foundry implementation is +1/-1)

- Foolhardy Merc - low tier have shortswords in their inventory but only use dagger attack. This appears to be the only merc statblock that has shortsword in the inventory

- Elite Foolhardy Merc - all stats change as if elite tag was applied except for AC (stays static vs gaining 2) and HP (gains 15 instead of 10 from the tag, level -1 base)

- Angry Foolhardy Merc - uses shortsword attack but only has daggers in inventory

- Elite Trained Vulkariki Eidolon - all elite stats appears to be applied except AC only gains +2 vs expected +3 with elite tag

- Weak "Enlightned" Div Worshipper - weak tag reduces hp by 10 instead of 15 (base create is level 3)

- Angry Merc Squad - Get'em ability damage scaling goes from base d6 to d8. But standard/low tier version one action version is 1d6+2, while Angry/high tier is 1d8, which seems like a weird damage loss. Two and three action versions scale higher than low tier version.

- Empowered Shadow of Sezruth - HP is the exact same as low tier version while the rest of stats have scaled appropriately. This seems like the biggest oddity and could make this encounter much easier than planned.

[eardianm]

Only other question/concern is with Encounter B, as it is very unclear to me what stealing the crates entails for B1 or B2. I guess a successful roll/interact and they melt into the crowd since the wagon is still supposed to be moving? I was expecting to see some sort of counter/skill check here, while B3 is very clear since they are trying to burn the books instead.

[Sebastian Hirsch]

You caught a lot of the issue (entering NPCs into a VTT is a good way to catch them) I very much agree that unfortunately the interaction in the first encounter (crates) really lacks information on how it is supposed to be handled as far as actions etc. are concerned.

B2 also suffers from the descriptions that the NPCs do not attack, allegedly do not have attacks (the stat blocks disagree), and are supposed to use unclear skill actions.

D2 it sounds like Tanazar just collapses as soon as combat starts, he is allegedly the summoner of those eidolons, it is rather peculiar.

[logsig]

The end text states that the PCs earn 1 Reputation, but this should be 2 Reputation, as for all Series 2 quests.

In B2, I think the intent of "Skill Actions" is combat maneuvers, i.e. grapple/shove/trip/reposition. The vulkariki (a.k.a. squox) has no Strikes and would only be doing Acrobatics in place of Athletics to grapple/shove/etc. The existence of the tentacle Strike of the sharktopus and that being a requirement to do its faceglomph does indeed contradict the text, but whatever. If you're running B2, it would be a crime not to use that ability.

[eardianm]

logsig wrote:

The end text states that the PCs earn 1 Reputation, but this should be 2 Reputation, as for all Series 2 quests.

In B2, I think the intent of "Skill Actions" is combat maneuvers, i.e. grapple/shove/trip/reposition. The vulkariki (a.k.a. squox) has no Strikes and would only be doing Acrobatics in place of Athletics to grapple/shove/etc. The existence of the tentacle Strike of the sharktopus and that being a requirement to do its faceglomph does indeed contradict the text, but whatever. If you're running B2, it would be a crime not to use that ability.

I think the sharktopus also gets attacks because it's included in the final scene.

I decided to do some DC17 (high tier) checks for both the party and the eidolons trying to push off/keep crates on. 2x with either or a clean push off/on with a crit success. This allowed the eidolons to push one crate off before the party crit their athletics to get the crate back up. Since the cart is supposed to be moving I explained they had 1 round to get it back up before the cart moved too far away. No idea if I was over complicating but wanted something that seemed to make sense for some tiny slow moving creatures to run away with crates.

Players called out the starting point for the cart in B2 is weird considering the constant movement, as it's headed directly for a tent. I will probably adjust starting spot to an area with a relatively clear path and add in a 10'x5' cart NPC that can be moved each round to add some dynamic to the scene.

Overall everyone at the table still enjoyed this but hoping it can have a quick improvement pass before running it regularly.

[sanwah68]

In the adventure background Pallomar is described as a male Dromaar Bard, which fits the art. But, elsewhere throughout the text Pallomar is described as a Dwarf.

[The Seldon Plan]

sanwah68 wrote:

In the adventure background Pallomar is described as a male Dromaar Bard, which fits the art. But, elsewhere throughout the text Pallomar is described as a Dwarf.

While the art doesn't lend a lot of credibility to Dwarven ancestry, strictly speaking there's nothing preventing a Dromaar from being a Dwarf.

[Merisal The Risen]

And there was me thinking he was adopted dwarf like carrot in the discworld city watch