Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-6: "Black Waters" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

The good thing about Season 0 scenarios is that they tend to be short, straightforward, and easy to run with limited prep.  So when the planned GM for a Season 10 scenario cancelled, I was able to step in and run Black Waters at relatively short notice (it helped that one of the players was late, giving me some extra last-minute prep time!).  The main thing I've learned and tried to implement about these early scenarios is that, as written, they're really only the skeleton of an adventure and require the GM to flesh out the description and role-playing to make them come alive.  Black Waters has a wonderful, dark atmosphere if done right, and I think that's the reason it's one of the more memorable Season Zero adventures and led to a sequel later on.

I ran this at low sub-tier.

SPOILERS

Famously eccentric Venture-Captain Drandle Drenge makes his first appearance ever in PFS to deliver the briefing.  Ten years ago, an earthquake struck Absalom and sheered off much of a neighbourhood called Beldrin's Bluff, sending it plummeting into the sea.  An elite private school in the area stayed on the mainland but fell into a sinkhole that quickly filled with water, drowning the students and staff inside.  Since then, the Pathfinder Society's archaeologists have surmised that the school fell through an ancient necropolis.  The entire site, now known as the Drownyard, has remained off-limits . . . until now!  Drenge wants the PCs to delve into the necropolis and explore, paying particular attention to a ruby salamander ring said to be on one of the bodies interred there (the ring is apparently valuable as a divination focus to recover a fabled treasure horde elsewhere--I don't know if this plot thread was ever followed up on or not).

Act 1 starts with the PCs leaving the briefing and receiving an invitation to attend a formal dinner with a noblewoman named Lady Miranda Dacilane.  As written, this provides a brief role-playing opportunity as the noblewoman explains that her daughter, Junia, was one of the students lost during the sinking of the school.  She asks the group to inform her if they find her body, foreshadowing the climax of the scenario.  As an aside, it's also an opportunity for members of the Cheliax faction to try to steal a broach from around the old lady's neck!  I miss the faction missions--they really stir the pot.  Anyway, knowing this scenario has a very short run time, I made a lot of this dinner and really pushed the role-playing (using some suggestions in the forums, including a menu for the stated ten-course meal).  I think it worked out well.

Act 2 starts with the PCs arriving at the Drownyard.  I think it's important to play up the atmosphere here: dark gray clouds, cold rain, gusting winds, and an almost silent landscape of dead trees and derelict buildings.  (A little additional description of this area (along with a map) can be found in the module Hangman's Noose.)  Here the group will encounter a man named Deris Marlinchen, a completely delusional man who thinks his daughter (who died in the sinkhole) will be walking out of the school any minute  now.  In the meantime, he tends to the grounds.  If the PCs ask about the necropolis, Deris will lead them to a classroom where the spirits of dead students and their teacher continue re-enacting a lesson.  Deris can be threatening if angered (he has stats as a sorcerer), but really this is more of a way to build on the dark, tragic tone of the scenario.

Act 3 covers entry into the necropolis.  The directions to the necropolis are in journals locked in the desk in the Act 2 classroom, and I was a bit confused when running Black Waters about the geography of the Drownyard--it's clear that only part of the school fell into the sinkhole, but why do the PCs need to locate a particular entrance to the necropolis?  Wouldn't there be a huge depression in the ground where the buildings on the surface crashed into the caverns below?  In any event, the entrance is suitable creepy: a gently bubbling black pool has the shoulder of a severed arm jutting out of it, with the fist still gripping the handle of a heavy, iron plug.  A giant water bug is concealed by the pool and attacks those who get to close, and there's a fun bit where pulling the plug drains the pool and risks pulling the PCs into the hole to tumble into the necropolis below.  (it's one of those hazards that's perfectly logical, so especial fun to inflict on PCs!)

Act 4 begins with the PCs in the necropolis proper.  It contains chilling bits of text like "On the floor of the east recess, the perfectly preserved body of a young boy lies in a puddle and stares silently upward."  This is the body of a boy named Grishan Maldris, the younger brother of Colson Madris, the head of the Andoran PFS faction.  At low tier this chamber is guarded by a bugbear zombie, which is out of place and doesn't make a lot of sense--why would bugbears be buried in this necropolis?  At high tier, two allips are in the chamber, and they make much more sense and fit the tone thematically.

Act 5 features a vaulted chamber containing another ghostly reenactment--this one of schoolchildren huddled up hearing a story.  Three ghouls gradually converge on this room, which is a very unfair challenge for low tier PCs--I was pleasantly surprised my group emerged without any deaths.  (As an aside, these early Season Zero scenarios sure did like ghouls!)  I should add that the groundskeeper, Marlinchen, has a whole little subplot if he accompanies the PCs into the necropolis and I appreciate the added detail (he got torn apart by the water bug when I ran it, so I didn't actually get to use it).

Act 6 has the big climax.  It has a cool conceit, as the chamber is right at the edge of the cliff-face so that sea water surges in periodically, threatening to temporarily blind PCs with foamy spray.  A ghast wearing rotting finery and a golden crown is here, and he makes for quite a battle after what the PCs have already been through.  When I ran it, he defeated everyone but one PC (a Gunslinger), who ran for it, only to get cut off; the gunslinger had one shot (and one chance) to live: he rolled a critical hit, and it was one of those memorably awesome endings that can only take place in RPGs.  Although my group missed it (those who survived being happy to escape with their lives), hidden in a sarcophagus here is Junia Dacilane, daughter of the noblewoman the PCs had dinner with earlier.  Somehow, Junia is still alive--just comatose!  It turns out the ruby salamander ring (which she found and put on) is a ring of sustenance!

The Conclusion allows the return of Junia to her mother, with suitable rewards and prestige for the PCs.

As a Season Zero scenario, there's some extra work to get Black Waters up and running today, like updating stat blocks from 3.5, adding CMB/CMD, looking up the new success conditions, etc.  You can't expect much in terms of artwork, and the Chronicles tend to be pretty bland.  There's no four-player adjustment, and the skill check DCs aren't usually changed depending on what sub-tier is used.  It's runs heavy on the (sometimes unfair) combat and light on the role-playing.  But all that being said, I really like the feel of this one, even if it doesn't quite live up to its potential.  With a little work by the GM, it can be creepy and memorable as hell.