Pathfinder Playtest Flip-Mat Multi-Pack [RPG]

I usually don't write reviews of flip-mats until I've used them several times, but as I've dropped out of the playtest just over halfway through and don't know when/if I'll get to use them again, I'm going to go ahead and give some early comments.  The Pathfinder Playtest Flip-Mat Multi-Pack contains two double-sided flip-mats, so math experts among you will know that means four maps in total:

* One map is what the sleeve calls an "arcanist astronomer's subterranean workshop."  It's weird to think of an astronomer having an underground workshop, but I'm sure it makes sense in context.  Just looking at it though, it's hard to make sense of exactly what's going on here.  The workshop part is reasonably clear (comprised of several well-detailed desks), but after that I just don't know what I'm looking at--a huge green circle, some sort of galaxy-shaped magic portal, some containment vessels for creepy creatures, and a part of the night sky?  It probably all comes together in the Doomsday Dawn adventure, but I have to conclude that it's so specific and weird that it's not something that would be of much use after the playtest is finished.

* The other side is a "ruined temple in the demon-infested Worldwound," and it's much better.  The artwork is gorgeous, it's very clear what's going on, and although it's detailed enough to be attractive, it's generic enough to serve many purposes.  I especially like the little statutes, the altar, and the graveyard.  I would not complain in the least if future PFS/SFS scenarios reuse this one.

* The next mat has "a burnt-out crypt under the city of Magnimar" on one side.  This is a fairly generic subterranean area, with a mixture of carved stone passageways and vaults alongside a few natural-looking caves.  It lives up to Paizo's usual high-quality, and although it's not particularly exciting it serves the purpose well and could definitely be used for other adventures.

* The other side of that is "a wizard's tower beside a remote mountain pool."  I can definitely see the pool, but there's no reason this scene needs to be near a mountain or needs to be the remnants of a "wizard's tower"--there's just the barest ruins of some kind of structure.  For the purposes of going forward, that's good--it could be the ruins of an old fort, a country inn, a hunting lodge, or pretty much anything else outside of an urban environment.  I have to admire how much work must go into scenes like this, with detail down to the pebble.

Overall, this is a pretty impressive collection.  Apart from the weird one, they're really good and potentially useful for far more than just Doomsday Dawn.  With a little imagination, a good GM could get a lot of use out of these--there's no need for them to be forgotten in a few months' time.

Pathfinder Playtest Dice Set [RPG]

According to the back of the box, these dice will allow me to "memorialize [my] participation in this historic playtest for years to come."  I thought the playtest pretty much sucked, but I have to admit I like these dice.  I'm terrible with colour, but the advertising blurb describes them as "sand beige as papyrus" with the engravings "dark green paint as old ink from the giant octopus."  Okay, whatever.  I like them because the numbers are very readable, the design is cool, and I like that the Paizo golem is the highest number on each die.  They really stand out, and I've had a couple of people at PFS compliment me on them.  I'm not sure what I'll use them for now that the playtest is over (I've got a lot of dice sets), but they are a nice little collectible and a very solid set of dice.

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 57 [RPG]

[30 Kuthona 4707 continued]

Despite the remoteness and perils of Hook Mountain, the disastrous attempt by a group of adventurers to defeat the Kreeg ogres has not gone unobserved.  In a hidden campsite nearby, an unusual trio of spellcasters—a grippli, a ratfolk, and a half-elf--had spent the day watching the entrance to the Kreeg clanhold and planning their own assault.  But now, having just witnessed the death of three adventurers and the lucky escape of two others, the watchers decide to extend a lifeline.

Saan

Kang and Jinkatsyu are preparing to dig in for a cold, miserable night with a plan to descend in the morning, but then they hear movement coming towards them from above.  Too exhausted to flee, Jinkatsyu draws his rapier, ready for a last stand against what he presumes are ogres.  But instead, he sees a trio of humanoids approaching!  The newcomers call out that they can offer healing and introduce themselves: there’s Ava, a female grippli grasping the holy symbol of Sinashakti, the empyreal lord of joyful travel; Salma al-Khashramyah, a tall and attractive female half-elf; and Saan, a ratfolk wearing dirty, threadbare robes holding the hand of a ghostly child!  Kang and Jinkatsyu are understandably suspicious at first, but, given the circumstances, quick to accept aid.  The two explain they’ve come to Hook Mountain on the trail of the missing commander of Fort Rannick, while the newcomers explain that Saan is a professional ghost-seeker and has been led to this place.  Tomorrow, the last day of the year, is the Night of the Pale, she reminds everyone, when the borders between the world of the living and that of the dead are at their thinnest.  The two teams agree to work together.

Salma

The sound of drums and shouted celebrations echo down the mountain from the cave entrance above as the sun goes down.  Salma suggests everyone move down to the base of the mountain to rest and recover, but Kang is insistent that if an attack is going to be made against the ogres, it should be sooner rather than later—the arduous climb down and then back up Hook Mountain would only leave them worse off than before.  Sighing, Salma murmurs an incantation and a roomy igloo suddenly appears nestled in a nearby hollow: inside, it’s cozy and warm, the perfect place to talk strategy.  A consensus is reached for an assault, first thing in the morning, that combines magical spells of silence (to avoid alerting the entire clanhold) and stone-shaping (to create a chokepoint to defend against counter-attacks).

[31 Kuthona 4707]

Dizziness, headaches, and nausea afflict the inexperienced mountain climbers.  Fortunately, Kang and Ava have planned for the eventuality and pool their resources to cure the worst effects of the altitude sickness.  The adventurers emerge from the magically-constructed igloo into a clear, bright day.  Kang drinks an extract to turn invisible and flies up to scout the entrance to the clanhold.  He hears snoring coming from inside and can see several ogres, passed out after a night of revelry!  Empty casks are all around, as are some of the blood-spattered and partially eaten remnants of his companions.  Kang flies back down and everyone ascends, magically silenced by Salma’s spell.  But when Ava recites a prayer to conjure a wall of stone, she realizes too late that she’s within the field of magical silence, and her attempt fails.  Jinkatsyu, however, takes advantage of the silence to sneak up on the ogres and kill some of them in their sleep!  He might have been able to finish them all, but Salma evokes a massive explosion that wounds some of the ogres, wakes them up, and alerts the rest of the clanhold!  Ogres and a hill giant charge forth in a veritable repeat of the previous night’s doomed battle: but this time, even in the absence of the planned chokepoint, the adventurers prevail.  Jinkatsyu’s thin blade somehow deflects the attackers’ massive weapons, Kang hurls bombs with unerring accuracy, and Saan manifests a bolt of lightning.  The battle is over quickly and the invaders are barely scratched.

The adventurers cautiously advance deeper into the cave.  Along one wall of a domelike cavern, an enormous figure stands against the wall: a 40’ tall giant with black skin covered by fissures and cracks.  The giant wears majestic armor, gilded and encrusted with gems, a ferocious full helm, and, around its neck, a seven-pointed star medallion that Ava discerns is magical.  Kang and Salma recognize the figure as Gargadros, a legendary general in ancient Thassilon that became one of the first of the so-called Dread Kings.  But, startling, the figure is not a statue: it’s a preserved corpse!

Annis Hag

A side cavern contains a pit wafting decay, and the adventurers happily pass by it.  The main passageway leads to a junction of sorts, with four exits.  Kang’s excellent hearing detects whispering from one of the passageways further on, and he returns to tell the others what he’s found.  They decide to lure the enemy out, and Saan has the perfect spell for the job.  A cloud of poisonous vapors appear at her command and drift towards their hidden assailants.  A trio of choking, gasping figures appear: hunchbacked crones with leathery skin that Salma identifies as annis hags.  Jinkatsyu instantly recognizes the witches who kidnapped and murdered his family!  The kitsune charges into the fray and strikes one of the hags down, terrifying the other two.  They split up to flee, with one disappearing down a corridor and another shouting for assistance to an unknown protector.

Jinkatsyu chases the shouting hag and is taken aback to see that her protector is a frost wight!  The walking corpse, whose body is caked in ice and has a claw of icicles for a hand, begins shooting arrows at the kitsune from an enchanted longbow.  Kang joins in the fight, while the others stay back and take cover.  The shouting hag is blown to pieces by an alchemical bomb, and additional firebombs devastate the frost wight before Jinkatsyu destroys the unliving abomination forever. 

The adventurers carefully search the rooms that branch off the junction.  One large chamber is filled with hammers, anvils, fire pits, and half-forged blades and axe heads.  Tunnels from the chamber wind down hundreds of feet before eventually terminating in a gallery overlooking a massive mine in which dozens and dozens of ogres can be seen mining ore.  The adventurers realize their quest must lay elsewhere, and return to the central part of the clanhold.  The hags’ foul-smelling chamber is cluttered with an appalling amount of body parts, dead animals, spoiled food, and filth, but nothing of value.  The chamber the hags’ “protector” emerged from is clearly a shrine to Lamashtu, the Mother of Monsters.

Stone Giant

The last chamber off of the junction proves to be the most interesting—and potentially the most dangerous!  A gigantic chamber, hundreds of feet long, contains a long sloping ramp that terminates from of an immense stone throne.  A massive giant that looks like he was carved from stone himself sits on the throne, with a massive earthbreaker hammer to his right and a slightly smaller stone giant to his left.  “Deal with these mites.  They’ve caused enough problems for me,” the figure on the throne instructs his bodyguard.  The stone giant advances, swinging a massive stone club, but the adventurers are ready for him.  Once again, the team of Kang and Jinkatsyu prove unstoppable, with the others aiding the cause through a barrage of spellcasting.  The enthroned figured stands up when his minion falls, and announces that he, Barl Breakbones, will lay the broken bodies of the adventurers before his master, Mokmurian, Lord of Jorgenfist, as together they prepare for the return of the land’s true ruler.  But the great stone giant doesn’t even lay a finger on the intruders before he’s blasted, burned, and stabbed to death in a flurry of attacks!

A search of the throne room thousands of gold pieces worth of coins and jewels, along with a plethora of enchanted magical items.  But of more pressing concern is a message written on mammoth hide in the Giant tongue:

Barl—

Latest contact with Teraktinus indicates he has narrowed the search—he believes a human town called Sandpoint could hide what my lord seeks.  Teraktinus will lead several of the people, as well as the dragon, on a raid into the town on the night of the first new moon of the new year.  When they return, they may be pursued, and I may need your ogre slaves to aid in Teraktinus’s retreat to Jorgenfist.  Be ready to return at my command!

M

The people of Fort Rannick and Turtleback Ferry have been avenged, though not without cost.  Another chapter of an epic story draws to a close, leading tantalizing questions to be resolved in the next.  Who is Mokmurian?  What “ruler” was Barl Breakbones referring to?  And, most importantly, can the adventurers reach Sandpoint in time to save it from an invading army?

----------------------------------------------------------
Director's Commentary (October 28, 2018)

In this session, we see the three new PCs for the players whose characters were killed in the previous session.  Salma is a wizard with the spellsage archetype, that basically allowed her to cast almost every spell in the game if it was done out of combat--overpowered, in my opinion.  Saan was a spiritualist (I think), but only ended up last a session before the player decided to introduce a new PC.  Ava has been the most enduring character and although it took a bit for her personality to come online, she's become a mainstay of the group that has kept everyone else alive many times over.

The new combination of PCs (with a high level wizard and a high level cleric) made combats much easier, and nothing really gave the group a hard time--even the "boss" of Chapter 3, Barl Breakbones, was a real pushover.  I might normally have been disappointed, but it was the last session of the year before the holidays so it was great to end the chapter and have the awesome cliffhanger of "Sandpoint is about to be invaded" to think about for the start of Chapter 4.

Next Recap

Pathfinder Society Quest: "Ambush in Absalom" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Ambush in Absalom is a free, standalone "Quest" for Pathfinder Society.  In this context, a Quest refers to a short adventure with a little role-playing and a little combat designed to be completed in just an hour.  Participants do receive a Chronicle sheet for playing it and (if their characters are successful) a boon, but there's no gold, experience points, or Fame/Prestige to be gained.  Ambush in Absalom is a very simple, straightforward adventure that would serve as a good introduction to the rules for someone brand new to Pathfinder.  Its story is fairly bland and unoriginal, however, so I'd make it clear that Paizo has much more to offer in that department.  For the purposes of this review, I ran it at low tier for four PCs (though there is no four-player adjustment).

SPOILERS

As the title indicates, the adventure takes place in Absalom.  The PCs are asked by Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin to enter the sewers under the city to track down a missing Pathfinder novice named Derris Jerval who failed to return from a mission to deliver a package to a curiosity shop near the city docks.  Apparently Pathfinders often use the sewers to travel quickly (and unobtrusively) through the city, but on this occasion something may have gone wrong.

Once in the sewers, the PCs automatically pick up Jerval's trail, and it leads them into an ambush.  There's a pit trap and a handful of kobold warriors waiting to attack interlopers.  The location of the pit trap is actually pretty clever, because (once open) it blocks anyone who didn't fall in from rushing to engage the kobolds.  Still, 5 hp kobolds are 5 hp kobolds, and this encounter shouldn't provide a real challenge to the party.

Things get a little more interesting afterwards once the PCs pick up Jerval's trail again.  The map is very compressed here, so literally thirty feet away from the site of the initial ambush the PCs will run into a kobold chieftan and his bodyguards.  Battle is inevitable.  There's nothing fancy or special about the encounter, but if you're using it for new players then simplicity is a virtue.  If the PCs think to search the corpses/prisoners, they'll find all of Jerval's possessions.  I think they are supposed to infer from that that Jerval took a wrong turn and was killed by the kobolds, but I can also see some groups remaining unconvinced--the adventure doesn't really deal with this issue.  The players I ran it for didn't think to check the kobolds at all and failed the mission.

Assuming the PCs recover the package that Jerval was to deliver and take it to its intended destination, it turns out it's a book of Varisian recipes--and the recipient already has a copy!  So it turns out that Jerval died for nothing.  It's an ironic twist, and one that I guess has something to say about life as a Pathfinder.

Overall, there's not much that's particularly memorable about Ambush in Absalom.  Its short length and simplicity means it has a role to play, and it does that role well.  For experienced players, it's not really worth running through unless there's an hour to kill with nothing else to do.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 7-05: "School of Spirits" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

School of Spirits is a strong, well-written scenario that rewards good role-playing.  It's not a difficult scenario in terms of combat, but it's a very interesting, satisfying scenario that ties in brilliantly with a previous scenario while advancing the storyline of one of the Society's factions.  A good group of role-players can get a lot out of this one, while the average "when's the next encounter?" group will probably complete it quickly and be a bit disappointed.This review is based on playing through it via play-by-post at Subtier 1-2, and then reading it afterwards.

SPOILERS

Way back in Season Zero, there was a scenario titled Black Waters (# 0-06) which had to do with Pathfinders being sent to explore ruins on the edge of Absalom that collapsed during an earthquake years before in an area now known as the Drownyard.  While there, the Pathfinders discovered the remnants of a school for children of the wealthy that had been submerged and buried--but within it, thanks to a ring of sustenance, was a survivor!  Comatose but alive, eleven-year-old Junia Dacilane was returned to her mother Lady Dacilane, and the Pathfinder Society gained an influential friend.  But that wasn't the end.

School of Spirits picks up the story seven years later.  The scenario begins with a "walk-and-talk" briefing by the eccentric and always-entertaining Drandle Dreng.  Dreng explains that young Junia has just turned eighteen, but her mother has become exasperated with the girl's insistence on being allowed to visit the Drownyard.  Lady Dacilane has finally relented and given permission for her daughter to go, but only if escorted by Pathfinders.  That's where the PCs come in, of course.  The introduction to Lady Dacilane and her daughter, who now calls herself "J." and dresses in the style of an Eagle Knight of Andoran, is handled well.

The PCs have a couple of different routes to take when escorting J. to the Drownyards, but either route they take will find them encountering a group of toughs who take offense at J.'s appearance as an Eagle Knight (they're either Chelish marines or Qadiran hotspurs).  The toughs are actually scared away pretty easily and aren't a challenge to defeat, but they're the trigger for a surprising revelation: a spectral apparition lurks inside J., and emerges to defend her!  J. grudgingly reveals that the spirit of her deceased classmate, Grishan Maldris, lives on inside her (in game mechanics terms, Junia Dacilane is a spiritualist and Grishan Maldris is her phantom).  In fact, Grishan has also been urging for a return to the earthquake's area because he has vague and incomplete memories of having left something important there in the magically-enhanced gardens of the Aboretum Arcanis.

Assuming the PCs agree to check out the Aboretum, they find it guarded by a tiny plant creature (a mandragora) calling himself Majordomo Pip.  Pip can be persuaded to allow entry if the PCs are willing to each give up a drop of blood (something fairly creepy, which, disappointingly, did not tie into anything else in the scenario) or he can be fought (alongside some "corrupted cockroaches" at high-tier).  Once they get past Pip, the PCs have one last obstacle before they find what Grishan has left behind.  A ghoran (humanoid plant creature) druid named Khaya has recently taken up residence in the Aboretum after fleeing Nex, and thinks the PCs are gardeners who have come to harvest her!  Again, this encounter can be handled diplomatically or result in combat.  Either way, afterwards, the Pathfinders can retrieve a packet of notes written and then hidden by Grishan.  It turns out that, when he was barely eleven years old, Grishan was recruited by his brother (a member of the Pathfinders) to spy on the aristocratic parents of the other kids in his class and report his findings to the Society.  The notes take the form of three handouts and there's several links to what are (I assume) storylines from other scenarios, but the crucial bit is the discovery that Grishan's father was not an Adoren freedom-fighter like everyone always believed, but had assumed that guise in Absalom because he was really one of the nobles overthrown during that country's revolution.  But even more vexing, Grishan's older brother knew of the deception--and that brother is none other than Major Colson Madris, the leader of the Liberty's Edge faction!

The PCs are going to have some hard choices to make, but first they still have their main mission to accomplish in escorting J. to the Drownyards.  Inside one of the ruined school buildings is a haunt that forces PCs to relive being inside it when it collapsed.  Haunts are good story-telling devices, and this one does its job nicely if the GM is willing to add some energy to it.  But another menace lurks further in: the restless spirit of another of J.'s classmates, Cassiel, who has taken on the form of an allip (incorporeal undead whose ceaseless babble can drive listeners mad).  Cassiel can be mollified to disperse, or destroyed: the choice is the PCs'.

The last encounter occurs as the Pathfinders are on their way back to Lady Dacilane's mansion.  They're stopped by Major Colson Madris, who has heard of the mission, and wants to know if anything relating to his deceased brother was found.  In other words, Madris knows his family's secrets might have been found.  If the PCs admit having recovered Grishan's notes, Madris tries to persuade them to hand them over to preserve his (and Liberty Edge's) reputation.  The scenario does a good job accounting for various possibilities here, and weaving those outcomes into the story (and the reporting conditions and boon sheet).  I don't know how this storyline played out, but I have to assume the scenario was a major turning point in the fate of the faction.  I especially like how the scenario instructs GMs to make sure any Liberty's Edge PCs are given priority in discussions about what to do.

Overall, the scenario has a nice, tragic feel with a really interesting moral decision to make at the end.  I'm not sure about the plant creatures in the Arboretum, as they can come across a bit cheesy if not handled carefully.  The writer did a great job with the personalities of J. and Grishan so that this isn't a "escort the annoying NPC around" type of mission.  As I said at the beginning, it's not a combat-focussed scenario, but the plot and writing are very good.  Following up on earlier scenarios helps avoid the "one and done" forgettable nature of some PFS adventures, and I think School of Spirits should be considered a success.

Starfinder Society Scenario # 1-20: "Duskmire Accord 9" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Duskmire Accord 9 is one of those scenarios that have a great premise but just don't quite come together because of some flaws in execution.  I played through it at Subtier 1-2 with my "Stephen Hawking" PC and finding it rather boring.  It's a very low (possibly no) combat scenario, so if you're looking for something RP-heavy, this could be a reasonable choice.  It does advance the Salvation's End storyline and has some value from that perspective. 

SPOILERS

Duskmire Accord 9 takes up the ball from Live Exploration Extreme!! and runs with it.  In that scenario, Starfinders discovered that several vaults in the artificial moon of Salvation's End were self-contained experiments run by an unknown intelligence.  In this scenario, the Society has established a new lodge on the moon run by a drow Venture-Captain named Kunoris Vex.  I like how Vex's personality is established immediately (though it would have been even cooler if he had been foreshadowed in earlier scenarios).  Vex's briefing explains that one of the vaults, labelled only "Duskmire Accord", is the source of strange energy readings and that neither technological nor magical means have allowed outside surveillance.  Thus, a team has to be sent in, and that's of course where the PCs get to step up and shine.

Once they get inside, the PCs realize that this particular vault replicates a natural setting with a river, a waterfall, and swampland.  A holographic projection immediately appears and tells the PCs that their goal is to "achieve dominance" over the other "resident powers" within the area and then "enter the temple and be released."

While exploring, the PCs will discover that the three "resident powers" are made up of gnolls, yetis, and (perhaps the most odd) a unicorn.  But expectations of these races' behavior are dashed, because the gnolls are peaceful farmers, the yetis are lazy and intoxicated, and the unicorn is a vicious murderer of anything that trespasses into its swamp.  The heart of this scenario is the PCs making contact with each of these races and either entering peaceful negotiations with them or combat.  When I played through the scenario, we had a "Diplomancer" in the group with a Diplomacy score high enough that he couldn't realistically fail any of the DCs.  This meant that we essentially watched as he worked out a treaty between the three groups, which was a fairly boring experience.  The problem is that the DCs were too low, the consequences of failure (and subsequent retries) were either not severe or not spelled out, and there wasn't a lot that others could do besides Aid Another.  The unicorn was the hardest to win over in a peaceful fashion, but even then I never felt any real risk or danger.  (I will confess that a unicorn with a grenade launcher is an awesome idea!)

Other groups, of course, may have very different attitudes and start combat with some or all of the groups, which would lead to a very different experience.  But for the session I was in, there was no combat at all except a quick one-round (optional) capture of a drone.

While the PCs are traipsing back and forth across the vault to make contact with the residents, they'll realize that a forcefield has sprung up across the entrance to the vault.  This force field has the "power of plot", so the PCs aren't getting out until they succeed on the mission.  In addition, the PCs will sooner or later find a large temple in the center of the vault.  However, it's completely sealed from top to bottom, and there's no way in until the mysterious intelligence determines that "dominance" has occurred.

What's really going on here is an experiment to see which of the three different alien races brought into the vault (with no real memories of their prior lives) will kill or enslave the other two.  Once that's done, the vault "resets"--and it's currently on the ninth iteration!  I like high concept, classic science-fiction storylines like this one (it reminds me of a Star Trek episode).  I just wish the PCs' role in the story had been more fun.

Anyway, when the PCs subdue or make peace between the groups, they gain admittance to the temple.  There's a weird bit at the end where the temple exits seal and a countdown to "Duskmire sterilization protocols" starts.  This is a final experiment that I guess is to see what the PCs will do if they think everyone they've just met is about to be murdered, but it falls flat because there's nothing for them *to* do.  Unless they are *very* bad at skills, they'll realize it's a hoax and that everything will be fine.  And from a metagame perspective, there are no consequences for anything the PCs say or do while in the temple.  Again, an interesting idea (placing the PCs in some sort of dilemma to see what they'll do) that fails in execution.

I've been a bit harsh in this review, but that's only because I can see the potential just underneath the surface.  Add in a couple of combat encounters to spice things up, require more PCs to participate in the negotiations in order for them to be successful, have something riding on what the PCs do at the end in the temple, and then there's an exciting, interesting scenario.  But as it currently stands, Duskmire Accord 9 just doesn't get there.  I am still looking forward, however, to seeing what's next in the Salvation's End storyline.

Starfinder Society Scenario # 1-18: "The Blackmoon Survey" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I played through The Blackmoon Survey with my infamous self-medicating Solarian, and I didn't have high expectations going in.  I'm not sure exactly why, but the description of the scenario made it sound kind of bland and generic.  I was pleasantly surprised, however, and really had a blast.  There's a solid mystery (complete with red herrings), a very original encounter, and fantastic integration of world lore.  With its excellent mix of combat, investigation, and role-playing (plus a good setting), this one has it all.

SPOILERS

The scenario begins with the usual mission briefing from Venture-Captain Arvin.  He explains that the Starfinder Society has begun an excavation on a geological anomaly on the planet Eox (a planet of undead!).  The anomaly is called Blackmoon, and it is the surprisingly-intact portion of a moon that crashed into Eox when its ruling bone sages inadvertently triggered an ancient doomsday weapon left in orbit by a race of creatures called sarcesians that live in a nearby asteroid field called the Diaspora.  The problem is that several members of the excavation team have gone missing, so the PCs are dispatched to investigate and put things right.  It's a classic set-up, but the setting makes it work: this is the first SFS scenario to take place on Eox, one of the most memorable planets in the Pact Worlds, and the use of Blackmoon is a great location drawn from the recent hardcover book that talks about the planets in the system.

When the PCs arrive on Eox, they're ferried from the spaceport to the dig site by an imposing Vesk named Berchta Deepdelver.  Waiting for them at the dig site is the excavation's overseeer, a kasatha named Taylehm.  Taylehm is a boroi (a sort of partially-undead living creature that still has its soul), and she gives the PCs more information about what's been going on: the disappearances started at a particular dig site removed from the main excavation, some bodies have turned up, and several pieces of excavation equipment have been wrecked.  At this point, the PCs have several options for investigation, such as examining the bodies, questioning the archaeologists, looking at the site where the disappearances occurred, etc.  Some clues point to perhaps feral undead being involved, while others hint that the whole thing may be an inside job.  I won't go into detail on the clues, but on the whole I was satisfied with their variety and ultimate consistency.

Apart from a hazard called a Glass Cyclone, the first dangerous encounter the PCs will stumble into is when they try to find a security force that Taylehm dispatched earlier.  The encounter is a controversial one in the forums, but I love it.  The set-up is that the PCs enter one end of a narrow canyon and, on a rise at the other end of the canyon, nearly a *1,000* feet away, a team of snipers open fire on the PCs!  The map has a scale of thirty feet per square, and the encounter is designed to give sniper weapons a chance to shine (something long requested) and make range increments meaningful.  I thought it was a great change of pace from the standard encounter where everyone starts within charge range of one another, and even though my melee-only PC got blasted several times, I had a lot of fun with it.  Running the encounter required a little abstraction by our GM (30' squares don't always play nicely when someone moves 20', for example), but on the whole I think it was worthwhile and I'd like to see more encounters that put Starfinder's emphasis on ranged combat to good effect.

The snipers turn out to be sarcesians (the cover is an unfortunate spoiler), and a datapad allows them to be traced back to a hidden, abandoned outpost of a group called the Wings of Damiar.  The Wings of Damiar are a sect of sarcesians who have been monitoring the bone sages of Eox for signs of treachery against the Pact Worlds, but recently there was a schism and an off-shoot of the group decided to take a more violent approach.  It's this off-shoot that was responsible for the disappearances and sabotage of the SFS excavation team, as they were seen as willing accomplices to the bone sages' attempts to uncover the secrets of Blackmoon.  The PCs will be able to track the dangerous sarcesians down and confront them.  The battle isn't particularly memorable, but it's solid.

However, the scenario doesn't end there, as the PCs have to make an interesting moral decision: should they reveal to the Eoxians that the sarcesians have been watching them (and thus gain favour with the dominant species on the planet), or should they keep the existence of the sarcesians secret (and risk damage to the Society's reputation if the bone sages discover them later)?  The choice isn't an easy or obvious one, and it's quite significant for the boon the players earn: either the right to play a sarcesian in the future or, if their PC ever dies, to have them come back as a boroi!  Very cool.

I really enjoyed the writing on The Blackmoon Survey, and I feel like I understand the dicey relationship between the sarcesians and bone sages much better.  One of the best things about SFS scenarios is how they allow a player to experience so many different places in the campaign setting, and this is exemplified here.  The investigation aspect was solid, and the long-range encounter was refreshing.  All in all, I'd play this one again--if I could!

Pathfinder Flip-Mat: "Winter Forest" [RPG]

There aren't a lot of options available for winter scenes, so I've used the Winter Forest flip-mat several times in both campaign and PFS/SFS play.  One side features a frozen river and lake, complete with a small island in the middle.  The other side features the snow-covered cliffs of a boulder-strewn hillside and a couple of paths winding their way through the trees.  There are some little touches, like fallen logs, but overall the designer has avoided making the scene too busy (a plus in my book).  My tip for GMs would be to plan ahead of time how the trees affect movement and cover, to think about whether special rules will be used to represent movement through the snow and ice, and finally to think about how tall and difficult to climb the boulders will be.  There's not really much else to say about this one--it's a good, attractive flip-mat that does its job well and that I expect to use frequently in the future.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 10-02: "Bones of Biting Ants" [RPG]

SPOILERS

I was a player in this at low tier, and afterwards read it for this review.  Bones of Biting Ants has a lot that on the surface makes it seem like it'll be reminiscent of a Season 0 or 1 type of scenario, but it actually has a much deeper spine.  It involves a player-facing sub-system that was a bit jarring at first but I can now see and appreciate (in retrospect) what it was trying to accomplish.  It's not a perfect adventure, but there's enough interesting and original features in it to make it one worth seeking out.

NO SPOILERS

Bones of Biting Ants starts at the Pathfinder lodge in Eleder, a town in Sargava that borders the Mwangi Expanse.  Venture-Captain Finze Bellaugh (who doesn't have much description or personality in the scenario) starts telling the PCs about a former field agent named Stuinvolk who had a disastrous journey into the Mwangi interior a decade previously.  Stuinvolk's company recovered some ancient artifacts (pertaining to a sorcerer from millenia ago named the King of Biting Ants), but on their way back were ambushed by local tribespeople named the Mzali.  The rest of Stuinvolk's party were slain one by one during a harrowing attempt to escape the savannah, until Stuinvolk himself was captured and staked out to die in a field of ants' nests.  However, a strange type of gremlin called a nuno set Stuinvolk free after leaving him with a permanent disfiguring curse as a reminder never to trespass into the area again.  In the decade since, Stuinvolk has been a shattered figure, suffering from nightmares and what today we would call PTSD.  The Pathfinders are to escort Stuinvolk back into the Mwangi interior to retrace the steps of his escape.  (based on the backstory, I wondered then and still if this scenario was a sequel to an earlier one?)

This scenario is one in which what the players take away as their goals from the initial mission briefing could be something different than what the author assumes, and that can lead to some major problems. The Venture-Captain's final words to the players are "Find the treasures, compel the nuno to lift the curse, but most of all, help Stuinvolk find peace."  The mistake I made as a player was in thinking that the first two things (recover artifacts, lift curse) were the "real" goals of the mission, and the "help Stuinvolk find peace" bit would be accomplished through getting the curse lifted.  However, it turns out that the opposite is true.  The scenario assumes the PCs make multiple attempts each day of the expedition to gain insight into what Stuinvolk is going through and to try to connect with him on a deeper level.  This is represented by a fairly elaborate mechanical sub-system drawing on the Influence rules from Ultimate Intrigue.  The PCs need to accumulate "empathy points", and the number of successes they get determine Stuinvolk's mood, how easy or hard it is to influence him further, how much he helps the party (in quite specific ways) in later encounters, etc.

It's a situation that's original and compelling, and I can definitely see how it enables quality role-playing at the table.  However, I think the concept came across as forced and intrusive to me for a few reasons.  First, as I mentioned earlier, I originally took something very different away from the mission briefing.  Second, Stuinvolk has been dealing with this for a decade and is stated to have had a counsellor during this time, so it felt a bit far-fetched and also presumptive to try to get him to have some sort of cathartic release with us strangers.  Third, my PC just wasn't the type for deep soul-searching talks and so (on his behalf) I felt resentful of the mechanism.  But I'm sure my experience won't be universal, so I'll chalk it up as a good idea that maybe isn't implemented quite as seamlessly as it could have been.

The first real encounter on the journey is portrayed well.  The Pathfinders run into a Mzali patrol and either have to persuade the leader to give permission for a trespass into the tribe's territory, or fight their way past.  A little detail I *really* liked is that the patrol leader seems to speak only Polyglot, but secretly understands Common (something she puts to advantage by hearing the PCs talk amongst themselves).  I also like that the negotiations here don't boil down to a single Diplomacy check, but are a real series of offers and requests, with multiple checks and modifiers involved (so much so that careful prep on the part of the GM would be important).

During the journey, the Pathfinders often find themselves hearing strange howling at night and the sense of being stalked.  Eventually, they're attacked twice by a supernatural manifestation of Stuinvolk's guilt in the form of a mngwa (a nightmarish jungle cat).  The trick is that the mngwa can be defeated only if Stuinvolk delivers the "killing" blow, and he may or may not be in a condition to do this if the PCs have earned enough empathy points.  It was an interesting and unusual situation to be in as a player (setting an NPC up for the kill), and I like encounters that deliver surprises.

As the PCs get closer into the hills where the nuno gremlin resides, there's a completely filler encounter against hyenas.  The nuno, named Bujune, presents another solid and interesting choice for the PCs.  He can be killed (which will lift the curse) or he can be negotiated with.  If the latter option is chosen, he offers the PCs a deal: he'll lift the curse on Stuinvolk if the Pathfinders investigate what's going on inside some giant anthills nearby where the ants have become sickly and deranged.

The final portion of the scenario has the PCs navigating underground ant tunnels.  A series of skill checks determine whether they find their way or get lost and face multiple encounters of giant undead ants.  I think most groups will have the skills to avoid too many extra encounters, but if they have too much bad luck I imagine they could be worn down before the big finish: a battle against several more undead ants and their queen, "She Who Devours" (a deathweb).  It turns out that the artifacts that Stuinvolk left behind had the effect of releasing necrotic energy which turned the normal inhabitants of the area into soulless abominations!  It was a good, reasonably tough and satisfying climax.

Two miscellaneous points: 1) the scenario does a really good job incorporating rules and options from Occult Adventures for characters with psychic abilities, something I don't see very often; 2) the scenario didn't do much with the Mwangi environment--the heat dangers were nerfed substantially, and there weren't any other of the classic hazards presented (insects, disease, etc.).

Overall, although I had some qualms at the time, I can see that Bones of Biting Ants is a really good scenario.  It has an interesting goal that asks the PCs to be more than just killing machines, and to actually help an individual on a personal, emotional level.  I'm impressed by that, and I would like to continue to see more scenarios that stretch the boundaries of what PFS scenarios can involve.