Crisis of Faith [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

One of the things I quite liked about Crisis of Faith, a four-part series of free Pathfinder fiction written by Michael J. Martinez (available here) is how its main character is definitely not a professional adventurer.  Instead, Jeddah Cailean is a happily-married, somewhat overweight brewmaster at a tavern dedicated to the God of Drunkeness, Cayden Cailean, in the Andoran city of Augustana.  Jeddah is forced to pick up his holy symbol (a tankard) and help in a quest against evil.  I can't say a lot without giving more away, but I thought the title theme was handled well and that Jeddah was an interesting character.  His companions on his quest were more forgettable, but the combat scenes and cliffhangers kept the story moving.  Oddly, a major incident in the first part of the story remains unexplained in the final part, which seems like poor plotting.  Still, Crisis of Faith was a solid story that should prove especially interesting for anyone running a cleric of Cayden Cailean, as there's some good insight into the faith's worldview.


SPOILERS

Awesome illustration of a Burning Skeleton

The story begins when one member of a trio of adventurers is mysteriously murdered right in the common room of Jeddah's tavern-temple.  Jeddah faith compels him to help the dead man's friends in stopping a Hellspawn from Cheliax establishing a base of operations at the Norgotha Necropolis several days away from Augustana.  The character arc of Jeddah doubting his abilities in the beginning before coming through dramatically in the end is a well-established (some would say cliche) one, but it worked well in context.  The oddity I mentioned above is that it's never explained how/why the original murder took place.