A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 3rd- through 6th-level characters.
Using a rune-encrusted dagger discovered in the vaults of the Grand Lodge, Pathfinder Society agents have tracked down an ancient automaton buried in the remote deserts of Thuvia. As the Society hastens to free the automaton, other forces converge—many want to witness the wonder of this discovery, while others come with ill intent! Can the Society fend off these sinister foes, allowing the automaton to choose its own fate? Or will the ancient war machine fall into the hands of a powerful nemesis?
This adventure is the second part of the two-part “Calamitous Dagger” metaplot arc in the Year of Boundless Wonder.
Multiple development/editing issues, references to nonexistent conditions, unclear reward conditions.
Weird railroad in the middle of the adventure to a weak encounter that's hours away from the important location you really should be staying at.
Cool encounters at the beginning and end but final one has some issues. Also really need some notes on the terrain to keep from being a giant featureless wasteland.
I generally like influence rounds in scenarios when they are focused on 1-2 npcs. This scenario throws 4-5 at you without making clear that some of them are a priority.
This makes the party go all over the place. Our party lost VS rep because apparently we needed to focus a particular npc but did not.
The encounters were fun, with creative use of **low level** (thank the maker!) hazards. Only issue was that last hazard was inaccessible without flight. Not the best idea at those levels.
So one star off for lack of clarity and questionable hazard placement.
...influence scene was over too fast for my tastes. Not because of the whole "5 npcs you need to do well with to get treasure bundles" thing, but because I was having with with it and then it was over in 3 rounds before anything really had time to happen :'D It felt like it should go long enough for party to have chance to at least max one of them while spreading around influence or having to roll crits every round.
Like yeah story wise and otherwise its fun, but my -1 int leshy sorcerer could have used more "demonic murder pinecone befriends people" time :'D
Low Tier mit 15 ACP (3 Bards and Amiri as Pregen).
I like the idea of the influence rounds. This kind of variety in game mechanics should be used more often, but please be a bit more thoughtful.
In this scenario, however, it is difficult to get at least a decent influence for the evaluation of all 5 NPCs at the end, especially since the players do not know how important influence is. On the other side of the coin, though, it's good that you don't spend half the scenario gaining influence on Cramp. It's also a pity that in my opinion the wrong NPC is taken into account with 4 out of 5 in the evaluation. Yes, it's good if you don't get the full treasure bundle in every scenario. But it's not good that it's almost impossible. You also have to be lucky that the PCs have the right skills to generate a good portion of influence. Because you have to use the influence rounds to find out what the NPCs are good at (Discover).
All in all there are great roleplay options to shape the influence rounds, but maybe another influence round and an exchange with the 5 NPCs which 4 affect the evaluation would be useful.
The fights were consistent with the scenario and varied enough. I personally really liked the finale in particular. There are different sources of danger here that have to be approached differently, which generates a little variety in the blunt "hit it and bye".
In my opinion one of the better scenarios in Season 4, but unfortunately with compromises in implementation.
Wait...there is a specific magic dagger associated with this likely large automaton based on a watery creature. Hopefully someone will be trained in Performance with playing a flute to summon it into battle.
I haven't read this scenario, so I don't know the context in which is was used, but the Shaken Condition was in Kingmaker:
"The army's morale has begun to falter, be it fear in the face of a powerful enemy, a supernatural effect such as a dragon's frightful presence, or simply the result of ill fortune in the tide of battle. Shaken always has a numerical value. The army's Morale checks take a circumstance penalty equal to its shaken value, and whenever the army takes damage, it must succeed on a DC 11 flat check or its shaken value increases by 1. An army that becomes shaken 4 is automatically routed. An army reduces the value of this condition by 1 each Kingdom turn that passes during which it does not attempt an Army activity or engage in a war encounter."
I suspect that they meant Frightened, but once again, haven't read it.
Yes, I think so, too. But I would like more accuracy.
||All combatants are shaken during the first 3 rounds of combat.||
the line from the adventure, it doesn't spoil anything
Replace "shaken" with "frightened 1". In cases where the condition lasts for 3 rounds, add the stipulation that the condition's value does not decrease at the end of each turn until the 3 rounds have passed.
Replace "shaken" with "frightened 1". In cases where the condition lasts for 3 rounds, add the stipulation that the condition's value does not decrease at the end of each turn until the 3 rounds have passed.
Please see the thread in the GM forum for more spoilery questions.
Ah. Star appeared in 4-04, which looks like it might run too long for Dreamer's run time. Rats. So I can't GM the first part of this adventure for my group.
Does anyone know what the run time on this one might be?
FYI - the scenario references an additional map that's not listed above or in the front matter of the scenario. Should probably be added to the front matter and above as a minor errata.
Additional map (spoiler):
On page 13, the scenario references Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classic: Desert
