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.