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Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-22: The Rats of Round Mountain—Part II: Pagoda of the Rat (PFRPG) PDF

3.10/5 (based on 13 ratings)
Pathfinder Society Scenario #3-22: The Rats of Round Mountain—Part II: Pagoda of the Rat (PFRPG) PDF

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A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for Levels 7–11.

In the hollow center of Round Mountain, the Pathfinder Society's crack team of special agents must navigate the so-called Pagoda of the Rat, where the influential ratfolk of the region hold court. Can they break up negotiations between the ratfolk and the sinister Aspis Consortium, or will the risks taken to reach this point have been in vain? The future of the Pathfinder Society's viability in the region lies in the PCs' hands.

"Pagoda of the Rat" is the second and final scenario in the two-part The Rats of Round Mountain campaign arc. The story begins in Pathfinder Society Scenario #3–20: The Rats of Round Mountain—Part I: The Sundered Path. Both chapters are intended to be played in order and consecutively; PCs who do will receive a special reward at the arc's conclusion.

Written by Russ Taylor.

This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can easily be adapted for use with any world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

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3.10/5 (based on 13 ratings)

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Interesting combat encounters, but really lacks lore

3/5 —

My level 7 Ratfolk investigator continued her attempt at becoming friends with her longlost relatives in the Round Mountain. Considering we had just bested a particularly nasty creature in the first part on high tier, I was a still a bit worried. After all, it was high tier once more and I expected some more nasty surprises.

I was right, to some extent. Once more we had the whole ‘deeper darkness’-combat surprise, which we instantly got rid of. I have to say that our main meatshield did take around 150 damage. Suffice to say ratfolk can hurt, especially when there are some casters backing them up. It had the potential of being a very rough combat, but we managed quickly neutralize half of the problems.

Following that, we ended up finding the BBE. THat's right, we stumbled upon her lair within two hours of playing. Since we still had some buffs active, the undying empress was quickly spotted and taken care of. I honestly felt a tad disappointed, but I suppose that’s what happens when you have a level 11 paladin with five attacks and a level 10 dragon disciple with five attacks standing on top of her in round two. I believe she managed to cast only two spells, both ineffective. Considering I was level 7 and played high tier, I shouldn’t complain that much.

The rest of the pagoda had some interesting encounters, as well as combats, but I honestly expected more. It feels like we didn’t really learn much more about the ratfolk society there. It is a bit generic and, dare I say, bland and unimaginative. I, at no point, felt like I was in a ratfolk stronghold. Newer scenarios, such as Dead Man’s Debt and To Seal the Shadow do a much better job and bringing those places to live.

The focus in this scenario is on combat and it does provide some challenges. The first fight is particularly scary if you don’t have the right tools, but the boss seems to be very hit or miss. Either she’ll murder you, or just gets dealt with without her leaving any real impression. I was disappointed since for me it was the second of the two option. I wanted this scenario to be memorable for my ratfolk, but it didn’t really deliver, which is a shame after a really great first part. I can't say I can really recommend it, though if you played the first part, you might as well keep going in order to get a lovely boon!

5/5 —

I've GMd this several times now.

I think most people's bad experience comes from a bad or under-prepared GM. This scenario has a lot of things happening in it, with several complex rules. If you dont know those rules, encounters can easily be a pushover, or incredibly deadly, depending on how you interpret them.

I would advise that you play part one, but its not necessary to understand what is going on in this scenario.
There is a lot of lore hidden in it, which you can find if you look for it. There are also several good roleplay opportunities.

All in all, you will miss a lot if you just go murderhobo trough it all. An experienced GM is advised.

Truly, a poorly written scenario

1/5 —

I am going to avoid spoilers, but it won't really matter because you don't really get much for lore in this scenario. At the beginning, you are put in a no-win scenario. Whether you win the guards over or not, you are punished. This leads to incredibly awkward scenarios where you won over the original guards and your fight with others spill into their room. They have no written tactics for this, even though it is *incredibly likely* for this to take place.

Many of the stat blocks have "before combat" portions, but don't calculate in any of these bonuses. This means the GM has to do it herself, which slows the session and hurts the flow of the game. Depending on the subtier, the boss is either a monster who overpowers you or a total pushover who cannot harm you at all.

Finally, and the biggest and most egregious error in my opinion, was the fact that a lot of your success here depends on you killing a creature in a past scenario. This creature has a very low morale and a very high mobility, meaning s/he will run for most groups and will almost always get away.

This had a great atmosphere and a good vision, but the execution was so poor it felt like a chore to play.

4/5 —

1/5 —

Played this at high tier.

After the first part this was rather disappointing. It is basically a slew of all too easy encounters that led to an overpowered final villain.

I expected a bit more from it.

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Announced! Cover image is a mockup.
Paizo Employee Director of Game Development

Yay! A Russ scenario!
The Exchange Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6

Ack! I've been outed :)
Liberty's Edge
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Russ Taylor wrote:
Ack! I've been outed :)

Good to see Russ get a scenario, hopefully this will lead to more and a Module in the future!

Grand Lodge

I was wondering why there is an Unavailable tag on this? Instead of "Available Today"?

I am planning on running this this weekend and my players have already made plans to attend to the point of breaking some vacation plans to play it. Because of the boon they have been prevented from playing their characters for over a month now and really want to play this! :)

Please let me know as soon as possible so I can let my players know and hopefully not tick them off if it is not going to happen?

Thank you.
Deanoth wrote:

I was wondering why there is an Unavailable tag on this? Instead of "Available Today"?

I am planning on running this this weekend and my players have already made plans to attend to the point of breaking some vacation plans to play it. Because of the boon they have been prevented from playing their characters for over a month now and really want to play this! :)

Please let me know as soon as possible so I can let my players know and hopefully not tick them off if it is not going to happen?

Thank you.

I've confirmed that both scenarios will be available today.

Deanoth wrote:

I was wondering why there is an Unavailable tag on this? Instead of "Available Today"?

I am planning on running this this weekend and my players have already made plans to attend to the point of breaking some vacation plans to play it. Because of the boon they have been prevented from playing their characters for over a month now and really want to play this! :)

Please let me know as soon as possible so I can let my players know and hopefully not tick them off if it is not going to happen?

Thank you.

Wait. They survived Part 1? Nooooooooo!

Grand Lodge
Kyle Baird wrote:
Deanoth wrote:

I was wondering why there is an Unavailable tag on this? Instead of "Available Today"?

I am planning on running this this weekend and my players have already made plans to attend to the point of breaking some vacation plans to play it. Because of the boon they have been prevented from playing their characters for over a month now and really want to play this! :)

Please let me know as soon as possible so I can let my players know and hopefully not tick them off if it is not going to happen?

Thank you.

Wait. They survived Part 1? Nooooooooo!

\Yeppers they did.. It was well done though enough to make them excited for part two hehe :)

Oh and it was one of the toughest they have ever played too!
Grand Lodge
Chris Lambertz wrote:
Deanoth wrote:

I was wondering why there is an Unavailable tag on this? Instead of "Available Today"?

I am planning on running this this weekend and my players have already made plans to attend to the point of breaking some vacation plans to play it. Because of the boon they have been prevented from playing their characters for over a month now and really want to play this! :)

Please let me know as soon as possible so I can let my players know and hopefully not tick them off if it is not going to happen?

Thank you.

I've confirmed that both scenarios will be available today.

Thanks!!

Shadow Lodge

Told you that you'd probably get a quicker answer here. ;)
Deanoth wrote:

Yeppers they did.. It was well done though enough to make them excited for part two hehe :)

Oh and it was one of the toughest they have ever played too!

Awesome! Strange how your review isn't showing up on the product page. ;-)

Now available!
Dark Archive

Chronicle sheet is showing an error...

Subtiers for loot are listed as "1-2" & "4-5".
Joe Jungers wrote:

Chronicle sheet is showing an error...

Subtiers for loot are listed as "1-2" & "4-5".

Perhaps I can trick a few players into playing this at tier 1-2... >:)

Dark Archive
Kyle Baird wrote:
Joe Jungers wrote:

Chronicle sheet is showing an error...

Subtiers for loot are listed as "1-2" & "4-5".

Perhaps I can trick a few players into playing this at tier 1-2... >:)

You're a mean one, Mr Baird.

Congrats Russ!
Paizo Employee Director of Brand Strategy
Joe Jungers wrote:

Chronicle sheet is showing an error...

Subtiers for loot are listed as "1-2" & "4-5".

I'll correct that first thing in the morning. Thanks for pointing it out.

I was overly eager to get my hands on this, I forgot to say one really important thing:

Congrats Russ!
Dark Archive

Picked this up right away and in the process of ripping apart the combat encounters to get prepped to run this. There are a few spoilered comments I need to clarify so far, don't peek if you aren't running it, I'd hate to spoil the suprise.

spoiler 1:

5 9th level Melee Inquisitors !!! as the first encounter !!!
Just keeping track of all the buffs, teamwork feats and various Banes is going to be a paperwork nightmare for the GM.
90% of parties aren't going to make it past the front door, I approve.

spoiler 2:

The Carnivorous Crystals Crystallize ability is a bit confusing. Based on the wording it seems if you ever fail the initial fort save for the entrap (DC 22 so many will fail this save) you then have to make that save again for the next 1D10 rounds or become helpless and STILL have to keep making that save for the rest of that 1D10 rounds or die.

That's brutal and a bit different from the usual Entrap ability where the target has to be hit with the entrap ability twice and fail twice before you go helpless.
Or am I reading it wrong?

spoiler 3:

Durriya and her 2 10th level ranger companions....
the rangers only have a 10 wis so they can only use their Hunter's bond bonus for 1 round each time they turn it on. I get it but that's kinda weird also as 10th level Rangers they should have spells even though they have that horrible wis score. A 10th level ranger who can't cast spells (I can't believe we can't use instant enemy in this fight) and hasn't swapped spell casting for hunter's tricks just seems wrong.

Anyway, as soon as this fight starts we're looking at 10-16 attacks a round (between them + haste) with every one of them backed by a serious favored enemy bonus with massive DC Dominate Person, Fears and 8D6 Scoorching Rays raining down on them.
This just screams TPK to me.

Kyle, your module was mean but this one just seems... vicious to me.
The Exchange Contributor, RPG Superstar 2008 Top 6

Spoiler:

10 Wisdom means you can't even cast a first level spell. They took hunter's bond to avoid needing an animal companion in the fight (stat block) and I avoided an archetype for them just to keep the stat blocks simpler, word count was already running long. So basically, hunter's bond is rarely a good choice for them to use.

Mathwei ap Niall wrote:

Kyle, your module was mean but this one just seems... vicious to me.

In my defense, we tried to make it so at least *some* of the PCs make it to the Pagoda.

In Russ's defense, would you expect anything less?
Dark Archive
Mark Moreland wrote:
Joe Jungers wrote:

Chronicle sheet is showing an error...

Subtiers for loot are listed as "1-2" & "4-5".

I'll correct that first thing in the morning. Thanks for pointing it out.

The sub-tiers for this are still showing at 1-2 & 3-4. Now I'm a hateful individual and would love to run some 2nd and 4th levels through her for giggles but I think they might take it the wrong way. :P

Scarab Sages

@mark moreland. i am not sure how to go about getting updated chronile sheets with the fixes. both for part one and part two. this was released in season 3. are the fixes already applied?
Community Manager
YashaVienne wrote:
@mark moreland. i am not sure how to go about getting updated chronile sheets with the fixes. both for part one and part two. this was released in season 3. are the fixes already applied?

It looks like the PDF was updated on June 13th, 2012. It's possible you have a Chronicle Sheet that wasn't the latest version.

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