Before the Dawn—Part I: The Bloodcove Disguise from Paizo

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st to 7th level characters (Tiers: 1–2, 3–4, and 6–7). I ran this in Savage Worlds Pathfinder for a bunch of Novice adventurers, and made some changes to the flow and storyline. My players really enjoyed it, and as part 1 of 2, I knew I could string along a second part and form a short story arc. We got a ton of mileage out of this adventure and the sequel. Not running it as Pathfinder Society allowed for free-form story and play, unconstrained by Organized Play rules and timing.

Play Time: About six 2-hour sessions.

General Thoughts: This was good when run for Savage Worlds Pathfinder outside of Organized Play’s limitations. The players engaged with the plot hooks, storyline, and NPCs, make it less of a one-shot event. Adapted somewhat cleanly into Savage Worlds Pathfinder, most creature and hazard stat blocks were readily available in the Savage Worlds books. Some elements use the Pathfinder Companion book, which is poorly designed.

Running this in Savage Pathfinder made this a pleasure. I was able to improvise and go off the cuff for a lot of scenes, get into a situation where the party’s summoner had a summoned creature duel against the NPC villain summoner. The party’s pixie snuck in and stole the curatives and Lura’s favorite emerald hairpin from her room while the group engaged in shenanigans below. The alchemist and his son were sympathetic NPCs, the party undertook efforts to make things better. Even the giant ant fight was entertaining while being challenging.

Summoners as a class are covered in the SW Pathfinder Companion, which I like far less than the SW Pathfinder core book. Pathfinder Companion is more slapdash and poorly balanced, I really had to cherry-pick material from it. I don’t recommend the Companion, the core book + bestiary is sufficient for 95% of Savage Pathfinder play.

Bloodcove Disguise is one of the highest-rated Pathfinder Society adventures that leads into a jungle chase to part 2, the encampment beset by sentient gorillas. I skipped the end fight in this part, because I knew I was going to have a chase scene opening up part 2, and I also planned on using the chase deck from Paizo.

Part of adapting Society adventures to Savage Pathfinder is removing pointless fights and allowing non-traditional resolution. Savage Worlds as a system shines when the PCs are put front and center. Many of my players built non-martial characters, focusing on social elements and Edges that benefit from a deeper story. Society adventures as written are formulaic: a few fights, a skill challenge or two, an end boss fight. Boring, but the best Organized Play adventures have strong foundations to build on.

Again, I’m an avid Savage Worlds Pathfinder fan. The emphasis on whole character concepts and less powerful PCs and NPCs allows me to run a broad range of Fast! Furious! Fun! adventures.

Available on Paizo.com: https://paizo.com/products/btpy8g1n