Pathfinder Society Scenario # 4-S: "Ruins of Bonekeep, Level One: The Silent Grave" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I imagine anyone who's played Pathfinder Society for a while will have heard of the legendary Bonekeep scenarios: a series designed to test the most experienced character optimisers around!  Famously lethal (but with higher-than-normal rewards), these scenarios are not for your average, run-of-the-mill PCs.  It was thus with a great deal of trepidation (but with plenty of Prestige Points for a raise dead) that I entered my completely-randomly-generated-multiclass character Jilla into a play-by-post game of The Silent Grave, the first of the Bonekeep scenarios.  It was very exciting to play with a real sense of fear (usually absent from most scenarios), though I think the scenario wasn't as hard as rumour has it or the GM was taking it easy on us (or perhaps both) because we all made it out in one piece.  I'd certainly like to play the next one with a no-holds-barred vibe and see what happens!


SPOILERS!

The in-game premise behind the scenario is pretty simple: a crumbling white-stoned siege castle outside of Absalom named Bonekeep is ripe for exploration, and Pathfinders are the ones to do it.  Two hundred years ago, Bonekeep was the fortress of a necromancer named Volzaras who planned to open a portal to the Negative Energy Plane under the siege castle, command an army of undead, and take over City at the Center of the World (Absalom).  Of course, Volzaras' plan went awry; he was destroyed and his keep was razed.  Various expeditions in the years since never turned up anything of interest in the ruins of Bonekeep, until two Pathfinders recently discovered a secret staircase to its lower levels.  One was decapitated by a trap, and the other ran for help.  The PCs are assigned by Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin to explore the place.  Out of game, the PCs can only explore the first level of the dungeon, as other scenarios in the series are for deeper levels.  This first level was home to the laboratories of Volzaras' apprentice, and have since been taken over by a ratfolk alchemist named Korsan.  

The scenario is pure dungeon-crawl, with no NPCs, skill challenges, wilderness travel, etc.  It's classic, old school, check-every-square-for-traps gaming that can feel very nostalgic to those of us who played in the era of graph-paper maps.  The scenario definitely has some appropriately ruthless features: multiple creatures like caryatid columns and grey oozes that can destroy equipment (this happened early in the game I played and really limited one of the PCs who until then had the modern luxury of never needing to carry a backup weapon), combats that can get out of hand quickly with poor tactics or bad luck on the dice (an alchemist that buffs for five rounds can be scary), and some great traps (I love one trap that is armed only by the PCs adding their weight to a pedestal to disarm a more obvious trap).  Disease seems to be a special theme of this particular scenario, as there are multiple ways to catch one and the scenario even includes a special GM handout to keep track of who has one and their progression!  (and there's a negative boon associated with disease as well)  

The Pathfinder experience it reminds me of the most of is Thornkeep, which came out after this, but that was also pure (and sometimes pretty tough) dungeon crawling.  There must be some rules for running the adventure that are outside the scenario itself, as there's some references to time limits in the text (and for PBP, we were limited to a route of about half the rooms, chosen by the GM)

I certainly had fun with The Silent Grave.  I wouldn't want hard old-school dungeon crawls to be the only type of Pathfinder adventure, but as a change of pace, it was great and escaping the first level came with a sense of accomplishment.