Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-21: "The Eternal Obelisk" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

The Eternal Obelisk is another of the PFS Season 0 scenarios that was retired from play.  The reasons aren't hard to guess, as there is an opportunity for a TPK or (or at least some permanent negative conditions that can't be easily cleared).  I recently ran it "just for fun" as part of my Roots of Golarion campaign that ties together a bunch of 3.5-era Paizo stuff.  The scenario is a straightforward dungeon crawl and not particularly memorable.  It has a really engaging backstory, though, and would be easy to insert as a side-quest in any desert-themed campaign.  I also didn't think the difficulty was unfair to the players, as they know almost exactly what to expect from the very beginning and have plenty of opportunity to prepare for it.

SPOILERS!

The backstory involves a sixteen-year-old Qadiran princess named Khalida al-Mushabe.  With a thirst for knowledge and adventure, she pores over old copies of the in-world Pathfinder Chronicles until, one day, she discovers an apparent opportunity: a map and notes said to lead to an ancient temple with the secret of eternal youth to anyone who finds it.  Khalida secretly hired a team of mercenaries and snuck off to find the place, only to walk right into a trap.  The ancient temple did indeed exist, and really did contain the secret of eternal youth--but only for those with paralyzing gaze attacks like medusae!  The current occupant of the subterranean temple, a medusa named Ophiope, plants clues to the temple on her occasional brief forays into the outside world to lure explorers in.  For her next trick, Ophiope ensures Khalida's head (turned to stone) is returned to her father, a powerful Qadiran trade prince, knowing he'll surely assemble an expedition out of revenge and hopes of finding the rest of his daughter's body.  It's a pretty cool story, and I probably don't do it justice.

From the PCs' perspective, they come into the picture when Venture-Captain Esmayl ibn Qaradi conscripts them for a mission.  Having just been chewed out by Khalida's father for filling her head (pun) with terrible ideas from the adventure journals, ibn Qaradi has promised the man he'll send a team to discover exactly what happened.  The PCs, of course, will be that team.  This is also the opportunity for the players to guess they're probably up against a medusa, basilisk, or something similar, and to prepare themselves accordingly with protection against gaze effects and the means to remedy being turned to stone.  Or, they can just venture out into the desert and see what happens!

There are no encounters or skill checks involved in the PCs travelling from Katheer to the temple site.  Once there, the straightforward dungeon crawl begins.  Opponents include earth and salt mephits, animated statues, grimlocks, a xorn, and Ophiope (plus another medusa if the PCs are playing at high-tier).  Although Ophiope will do some classic villainous taunting, there's not really any other NPCs to role-play with.  The PCs will have the opportunity to find a text explaining the history of the temple, but that's about it.  Faction missions can provide a little additional intrigue for groups that use them.

Although this is a dungeon crawl, I wouldn't recommend it for new GMs.  The descriptions of each room are listed in a separate section from the encounters that occur there, which could be confusing.  In addition, running things like medusae and grimlocks (with their tactics) might be a bit more than a beginning GM should take on.

This one was obviously retired for the risk that a few poor saves could see the entire team turned to stone.  I get that, but like I said, the group does have plenty of warning it could happen so I didn't consider the risk unfair.  That being said, of course, there a million adventures out there, and nothing that makes The Eternal Obelisk particularly distinguishable from the run of the mill dungeon crawl.