Pathfinder Module: "Into the Haunted Forest" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Into the Haunted Forest is a sixteen page adventure that was originally designed to be bundled into Paizo's "Treasure Chest" product along with a deck of item cards (Elements of Power), a flip mat (Woodlands), and a map pack (Inns).  All of these products (which were also sold separately) are used heavily in the module.  My conclusion is that the need to incorporate all of these elements into a short adventure is part of the reason why it's just not a very good module.

I ran this for a group of two level 1 PCs and two PCs that were a little higher.  The plot barely holds together and relies heavily on events that are either contingent and simply may not trigger for every group or on some heavy-handed GMing to force recalcitrant groups to take part. The background and some story elements come across as more cheesy than I think they're intended, and there's a poor use of Golarion and the tone of the setting.  Last, as an adventure designed for four level 1 characters, there are a lot of encounters that could be quite deadly and they occur in a short duration with a "race against time" element that means taking rests is not optimal--the cumulative effect could easily be a sad TPK.

Paizo was putting out some *really* good modules during this time period, and I've liked some of the author's other work, but Into the Haunted Forest can be safely skipped.  It doesn't add to setting lore in a significant way and there are a lot better adventures for level 1 characters out there.

SPOILERS

The backstory involves a druid named Willowroot recovering the magical regalia of Narven, the last forest king of Arthfell (in Andoran).  In the spirit of respect, Willowroot then scattered the five parts of the regalia in different parts of the forest so that each would be in a context that best matches its elemental affinity.  But soon after doing this, the druid was murdered by a tribe of goblins, one of whom has now come back to the forest (with new companions) hoping to find the Panoply of Narven and become powerful.

The adventure starts with the PCs on a road somewhere in the Arthfell--no rhyme, reason, or possible adventure hooks are given as to why they're there or where they're going.  I think the way adventuring parties form is one of the most interesting parts of a campaign (the group's "origin story" as it were), and that adventures for level 1 PCs should at least offer the GM some ideas.  Anyway, the PCs come across a murdered hobgoblin on the road being torn apart by a pack of wild dogs.  After defeating the dogs, the PCs can examine the scene.  The key thing here, and the entire rest of the adventure depends on it, is that someone in the group has to make a skill check to spot a dagger in a nearby bush.  The dagger is pretty cool in appearance and has a name, Brightflame, but if no PC sees and takes the dagger, then the GM really has their work cut out in figuring out how to continue the plot.

The PCs next reach a place to rest just before sunset.  The Travelers Stop Inn is nicely described in the module and served well by the Inns map pack.  Shortly after the adventurers settle in at a table for some drinks or a meal, they're accosted by another (evil!) adventuring group called the Company of the Black Banner.  The Black Banners were responsible for killing that hobgoblin in the woods earlier, and although they were scared off, they recognize Brightflame on one of the PCs and claim it as their rightful possession.  Inevitably, a big tavern brawl starts in which everyone is supposed to use nonlethal attacks--because if they draw weapons or cast spells, the sheriff will use lethal force in apprehending malefactors.  The sheriff is a level 4 fighter, and one crit from his longsword could insta-kill any low Constitution spellcaster types in the party.  During the brawl, a lantern gets knocked over and sets aflame a scroll being read by a travelling scholar--this detail becomes important shortly.

As an aside, although I'll be complaining about plenty of things in Into the Haunted Forest, I should say the interior artwork is really good--the sheriff, the rival adventuring party, the magical items, and more receive high-quality artwork.

As I mentioned above, finding and having the dagger is key--without it, there's no brawl.  And if there's no brawl, then the sheriff can't seize Brightflame and arrest both the PCs and the Black Banners and tell them they're confined to the inn overnight while he figures out what to do next.  There are no guards or locks keeping the PCs from fleeing in the night, so although the module says the sheriff will put up wanted posters throughout his "shire," I imagine a lot of groups might happily go on the lam and seek adventure elsewhere.  I think the module assumes Brightflame is the lure to keep PCs involved, but many groups might not have the right makeup to tell it's magical to begin with.

Anyway, sometime in the night, the dagger is stolen from right under the sheriff's pillow!  The next day, he assembles the PCs, the Black Banners, and five other NPC suspects in the common room of the inn to hear the testimony of four different NPC witnesses.  This is way too many named NPCs to introduce in a short period of time (fourteen if we include the sheriff, the Black Banners, the suspects, and witnesses).  The idea is that the PCs will undertake an investigation to clear themselves of the theft.  Clues on the windowsill to the sheriff's room will, hopefully, lead them to the barn, where they're attacked by an owl.  The owl turns out to be the familiar of a traveling gnome sorcerer who is revealed to be the real thief, but he confesses and returns the dagger.  I think the concept of PCs investigating to clear up a mystery can be a really good one for low-level adventures, but it's poorly handled here because there's way too many NPCs for players to wrap their heads around in a short period of time and success in figuring out the culprit all comes down to finding one clue.

The next phase of the adventure involves some forced plotting.  The sheriff introduces the PCs to Professor Krane, the scholar whose work was accidentally destroyed in the previous night's brawl.  The work was extremely valuable, so to avoid debtor's prison the PCs have to agree to a deal: undertake a search for what Krane explains are five magical artifacts scattered about the forest.  If they do this, the sheriff offers to throw in Brightflame as well.  However, he's also offered the same deal to the Black Banners, and whoever gets back first gets the dagger (and if both groups appear with some of the artifacts, the sheriff keeps the dagger!).  An adventure hook is an adventure hook and I'd guess that most groups would grumble but swallow it to keep things moving, but, in-character, they could be rightly incensed by all of this--after all, the PCs are the ones who were assaulted by the Black Banners and there's nothing they could have done to stop Professor Krane's work from being destroyed.  If they were just to "accept" the deal and leave the forest to seek adventure elsewhere, I wouldn't blame them.

The Black Banners have an hour's head start on the PCs, so the latter will need to hurry if they want to catch up.  The first thing they'll need to do is follow directions from Professor Krane to a druidic altar in a grove in the woods.  There, if they can cleverly avoid an assassin vine (another hefty threat to Level 1 PCs!) they'll be able to read a series of riddles, each of which contains a clue to the location of the five parts of the Panoply of Narven.  (regarding the backstory, I have no idea why Willowroot did things this way)  The riddles aren't too hard, and, indeed, the PCs can find one of the five items sitting atop the monoliths they're presently reading.  The Black Banners missed it, and have already moved on.

Finding a second artefact requires battling a black bear in its cave, the third requires making a deal with a nixie, and the fourth is reached by climbing a tree and defeating a giant bombardier beetle.  I don't think these encounters are necessarily bad on their own, but the cumulative effect on level 1 PCs is going to mount pretty quickly given the urgency of their mission.  Each of these encounters uses the Woodlands flip-mat, though the GM is instructed to fold it so only a 1/4 of a side is visible at a time--a weird idea that doesn't work so well in practice because it's hard to keep it flat.

The search for the fifth artefact leads to the big climax, and I have to admit it is pretty cool.  The item is hidden at a (now long-abandoned) inn built at the center of the forest and guarded by a new plant monster called a Wooden Protector.  Once the battle begins, the Black Banners (who had been hiding nearby following the classic gambit of letting someone else do the work and then robbing them afterwards) joins in the fight, but one of their members (the goblin from the backstory) wants everything for himself and attacks both the PCs and his former allies!  So there's a crazy four-way fight between the PCs, the Black Banners, the goblin, and the Wooden Protector.  It's a battle-royale, and only one side can win!

Assuming the PCs return to the Travelers Stop Inn afterwards, they'll be cleared of their crimes and debts.  They'll definitely have earned a lot of XP--at least those that survived--and be in good shape for whatever adventure comes next.

I think some of the problems with Into the Haunted Forest would be ameliorated if it were designed for characters who were level 2 or 3.  The problems with the plotting still remain, as there's not a lot of incentive for the PCs to go on the adventure since the sheriff comes across as a jerk and the lure of a (potentially unknown) dagger may not be enough.  The backstory is bland and not wholly sensical.  Simply put, this one is for completists only.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 6-98: "Serpent's Rise" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Sometimes it's good to be bad!  Serpent's Rise is a one-of-a-kind scenario, in which you get to play members of the Aspis Consortium and punish those annoying Pathfinders for years of their self-righteous interference with free trade and good business.  It's not offered that often (only 4- or 5-star GMs can run it), so definitely jump at the chance if you get one.  I got into a game at a play-by-post convention and it was a really interesting and memorable experience.  This review is based on playing in that game and then reading the scenario afterwards.

SPOILERS

This is a big scenario, and it's clear a lot of time and effort went into it.  The gist of Serpent's Rise is that the Aspis Consortium is ready to strike back at the Pathfinder Society for decades of meddling in its affairs.  The PCs play pre-generated, 7th level members of the Consortium as they undertake a daring (and risky) plan: infiltrate the Society's annual Grand Convocation, penetrate Skyreach, rip a hole in the Hao Jin Tapestry to set free Consortium forces trapped inside, and then steal a legendary artefact called the Sky Key!  It's a really cool way to see things from a different perspective.

One of the things that makes the scenario work so well is the pre-generated characters.  Each has a  distinctive personality and motivation for undertaking the mission, different skill-sets, and some cool artwork.  Just look at that guy on the cover!  In addition to the character sheet, each player receives a special handout at the beginning of the scenario that details their PC's personal mission(s) during the adventure.  This is somewhat like the old faction missions from early PFS scenarios, but the ones here all require some significant time and attention and tie in well to the pre-gen's backstory.  Each of the pre-gens has a particular role on the team, so there's not even a briefing in the traditional sense: instead, a particular pre-gen (Rataji) is the leader of the group and the handout for his player contains the mission goals and plans he's to share with the others however the player running him wishes.

The first portion of the adventure takes place during the Grand Convocation, an event where hundreds of Pathfinders from all around the Inner Sea assemble to discuss policy.  The PCs have to wait until the keynote speech is given at an outdoor parade ground before they can infiltrate Skyreach, so until then they have preparations to make and personal missions to complete.  For example, one of the PCs is tasked with stealing a set of keys from Janira Gravix, while another PC (the one I played, a brawler named Zurnzal) needs to steal a Pathfinder's identity and frame them for the heist to sow confusion.  There's a lot of open-ended possibilities on what will happen here.  The scenario is actually a really good introduction to the Grand Lodge, as PCs may visit the statue of Dervin Gest, the Wall of Names, the on-site menagerie, and more.  There will be a lot of plates in the air for the GM to keep spinning as the PCs will likely need to split up to accomplish their various tasks.  Success in this phase of the scenario makes the later parts easier, and I thought it was an interesting and exciting way to begin.

When it comes time to infiltrate Skyreach, the PCs have to sneak or bluff their way past various guards and patrols.  The scenario handled this intelligently, as one bad roll wouldn't sink the entire team's efforts but blindly attacking everything isn't likely to succeed either.

The Consortium agents first task is to slip into the vaults below Skyreach to steal Aram Zey's (the PFS's Master of Spells) notes on the Hao Jin Tapestry (an entrance to a magical demiplane).  The vault is protected, of course, by both traps and guardians (foo creatures, which are like giant animals capable of replicating stone statues).  With the notes in hand, the PCs know the ritual to tear a rift in the tapestry--but first they have to get to it.

Reaching the tapestry requires getting past a trio of Pathfinder guards forced to miss the Grand Convocation as punishment for a previously failed mission.  The three Pathfinders have surprisingly detailed (and interesting) backstories which, unfortunately, the PCs will probably never get to learn.  I especially liked Ralirio, a Kalistocrat who uses firearms because he hates the thought of getting dirty from fighting "filthy miscreants" and because guns are so expensive they're an obvious sign of wealth.  I might have to make a Ralirio for regular play sometime!

Assuming the PCs get past the Pathfinder guardians, performing the ritual is easy and the tapestry rips open to disgorge a veritable army of Aspis agents and native inhabitants that have been misled into believing the Pathfinder Society is their enemy.  This all ties into previous scenarios and storylines.  As the armies pour out to wreak havoc and destroy at will, there's a surprising twist.  One of the tapestry's inhabitants, a young green dragon named Gazwyr, wants to join the infiltration team on the last leg of their heist.  How this works is that one of the players can set aside their pre-gen and run Gazwyr, which is pretty cool--one doesn't get to play a dragon very often!

The big finale takes place when the PCs breach the remaining fixed defences separating them from the Sky Key.  This artefact is a pretty big deal (there's a whole season named after it), though I have to confess I haven't played any of those scenarios and don't know exactly what it does.  Anyway, the Society has one last trick up its sleeve:  Aram Zey himself has caught wind of the heist and is going to personally fight, to the death if necessary, to protect the Sky Key.  This was a really tough fight, as Aram Zey is an 11th level wizard, has time to prepare defences, has some clever tactics, and the GM is allowed to use any PFS-legal spell once during the battle through the character's arcane bond.  It was an exhilarating encounter when I played it, with Aram Zey flying around invisibly, mocking us with dry condescension, and blasting us with chain lightning, fire snake, and more.  I was running Gazwyr (the green dragon) at this point, and he got killed!  But I figure, if you have to die, getting killed by the Master of Spells is a pretty good reason.  In fact, we came very close to a TPK and only managed to pull out a victory by surviving the initial onslaught of high-level spells and then wearing Zey down when he only had the low-level stuff left.  Interestingly, one of the PC's special missions is to trap the dead wizard's soul in a magical lantern so he can't even be brought back from the dead--I'm not sure whether/how this plays out in later scenarios.

With Zey dead and the Sky Key in Aspis hands, the PCs are successful and the scenario ends.  There's not much of a written epilogue, which usually annoys me, but this is clearly a set-up to a big storyline, so I understood why.

I could quibble with a detail here or there, but really, I only have positive things to say about Serpent's Rise.  Even speculative faults like players embracing getting to be evil to do gross things is headed off with good advice to the GM on how to remind players that these are serious professionals on an important mission.  This scenario is a special treat for PFS players, and the writer really came through.  Play this one if you can!

Pathfinder: "Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition Poster" [RPG]

Since I spent a few years of Sunday nights running the adventure path, I figured I earned the right  to prominently display the Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition Poster in my gaming room.  It's a big, movie-sized poster proclaiming "The Runelords Rise Again!" (really just one in this campaign, but a bit of hyperbole is understandable)  It's obviously a marketing poster designed for game stores, but I think the image of Karzoug fighting Valeros and Seoni is a classic bit of fantasy and I'm happy to show it off.

Pathfinder Flip-Mat: "Museum" [RPG]

I've played or GM'd on the Museum flip-mat a surprising number of times in PFS and SFS.  It's been the Blakros Museum in Absalom, the Museum of Natural Philosophy and History in Azir, a garden outside a tavern in Axis, a manor house, and at least one or two other things--Paizo scenario writers really like this flip-mat!  But I have to admit, it's a really handsome and well-designed mat.  Although a double-sided map, it cleverly contains three floors of exhibits, paintings, statues, a curator's workshop, an outdoor garden (complete with benches and a fountain!), latrines, a lecture hall, a cool room of taxidermied animals and monsters, and more.  The interior rooms are diverse and well-detailed, with plenty of room for all sorts of encounters; but I appreciate there's just enough exterior to handle encounters breaking in (or spilling out) of the museum.  The gridlines are clear but not distracting, and it of course features Paizo's patented formula of allowing pretty much any sort of marker to work.  This is a flip-mat you're bound to get a *lot* of use out of in organised play, or in any urban-focused homebrew game.  The only tiny caveat I'll mention is that the layout of the museum isn't 100% consistent with that of the Blakros Museum in some early PFS scenarios, so you may need to make some adjustments.  With that detail to one side, this is a sure-fire winner.

Pathfinder Society Faction Pin: "The Exchange" [RPG]

I've only gotten to use this pin a couple of times, since my "Venture-Supply Agent" character, Tallossin Trailmarker, died and got zombified in The Mists of Mwangi early in his career.  Still, I like the design for the Exchange--it's very clear what's being symbolized (unlike the designs for others).  The pin comes with a clasp that will definitely keep it secured, though as a collector I keep mine in the original baggie and on the card.  The back of the card contains a capsule description of the Exchange as well.  It's a nice little product and the price is right.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-13: "The Prince of Augustana" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I just finished running The Prince of Augustana through play-by-post at subtier 1-2.  It has an interesting premise/backstory and a couple of good NPCs to role-play with.  Most of the scenario is a fairly standard dungeon crawl, and there's not much in the way of creativity with the encounters or antagonists.  This isn't one that's going to tax a GM's prep time or a player's comprehension of the story.  I had fun running it though, and, despite its age, it remains a very playable scenario.  It'd be a good choice for groups looking for a fast, relatively straightforward experience.

SPOILERS

The briefing is delivered by an irritated Venture-Captain Wallace at the Pathfinder Lodge in Augustana (a major port and Absalom's second-largest city).  Wallace explains that a dirty, dishevelled, and probably quite mad individual arrived at the lodge clutching a wayfinder and telling a ridiculous story.  But the link to the Society means an investigation is necessary, so the group is introduced to the individual, Gandros.  The man, obviously stinking of the sewers, raves about being the "Prince of Augustana" and of a "portal to the demon lands" that drove him from his "palace."  The PCs' mission is to track Gandros' trail to its origins and figure out if there's really a portal and how he obtained the wayfinder.  V-C Wallace warns the group that the sewers under Augustana are the territory of a street gang called the Steel Wyverns, but that there's also a group of beggars living underground in a sort of safehouse run by a priest called the Almsman.  It's certainly an original premise for an adventure, and Gandros can be a really fun and memorable character if the GM goes whole hog in portraying his particular brand of ostentatious ego-driven delusion.

The entirety of the rest of the scenario takes place in the sewers--yuck!  Contracting filth fever is a constant risk, but given its 1d3 day onset time it's not likely to impact gameplay (though it might make for an annoying condition to clear afterwards).  The first encounter is against a few Steel Wyvern gang toughs, one of whom is an alchemist.  As originally written, this encounter was both harder and more interesting because the toughs' weapons had reach but they were across a channel of sewage, so they had the advantage.  But when spiked chains were made non-reach weapons in Pathfinder, this becomes a more conventional brawl.  If the PCs are smart, however, they'll grab some of the alchemist's splash weapons because the next encounter is against something many players dread: swarms!  I'm as guilty as the next player in usually forgetting to swarm-proof my characters, and these things can inflict a lot of damage (plus, the swarm attacks in the vicinity of a pocket of trapped sewer gas that explodes if open flame is nearby--a fun touch!).

The PCs will inevitably come into contact with the Almsman, a masked priest of Abadar, and his Sanctuary for the city's downtrodden.  Some good role-playing can be done here (as well as some of the faction missions).  It turns out that the Steel Wyverns are on their way to attack the Sanctuary because the Almsman is refusing to help them, so this is one of those fun encounters that the PCs know about ahead of time and can be the defenders (and set an ambush).  It's a good opportunity for players to exercise some creativity and use some game elements they rarely get to, like setting traps, location-triggered spells, etc.  I only wish the scenario had made some better underground terrain and debris/junk for the PCs to work with.

The finale takes place when the PCs reach Gandros' living quarters--the (now sealed off) basement of a store that use to cater to the nobility in Andoran before the People's Revolution.  There, the PCs will learn that the "demonic invasion" was really just an accidental summoning of some dretches and that the"portal to the Abyss" is really just a painted pattern on the wall.  Still, the story here is tragic, as Gandros has been living for decades with the corpse of his father (the owner of the store before it went out of business) and, in this light, his madness becomes more tragic than hilarious.  The scenario is open-ended about how the PCs deal with Gandros on their return to the surface, with one good option (that my PCs came up with by themselves) to have the Almsman serve as his caretaker.

Unlike some early season scenarios, The Prince of Augustana isn't particularly deadly.  Level 1 PCs serve at the will of the dice-gods, of course, but for the most part the encounters here are certainly manageable.  Depending on how much role-playing takes place, this might be one of those scenarios that some optimized groups race through in two hours.  Nonetheless, I liked the scenario--it has a good feel, and a change of pace from the sometimes very-dense and complex later season scenarios can be healthy.  And who knows--maybe someday we'll see Gandros again!

PaizoCon 2011 Pint Glass [RPG]

I've just spent about five minutes of my life trying to think of something non-obvious to say about the PaizoCon 2011 Pint Glass.  But . . . nope, I've got nothing!  The design looks like the picture, it really is dishwasher safe, and it really will hold a pint of liquid.  So if you think goblins are cute, want to celebrate the year 2011, or just like to drink beer and don't have enough glasses, this could be the one for you!

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-07: "Among the Living" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I ran this scenario at low subtier.  Among the Living is one of those scenarios that presents very specific threats in a very specific (and admittedly artificial) context.  I think it's a scenario that could be very exciting if players get into the spirit of it, but if they don't, it could seem repetitive and boring.  I enjoyed it, however.

SPOILERS

If you needed to sum up Among the Living quickly, the phrase "zombie apocalypse at the opera" would be a good start.  It all starts in the backstory, when a cult of Zyphus (a fairly obscure god of unexpected tragedy) figures out that the lost Zyphus Stone (a powerful magical artefact) has been buried for the last six millennia underneath an opera house in Taldor's capital city of Oppara.  The leader of the evil cult, a cleric named Fel Bustrani, tricked a Pathfinder named Bodriggan Wuthers into helping him excavate the bedrock under the opera house to find the artefact.  Once the discovery was made, Fel Bustrani promptly murdered Wuthers and started planning a way to feed souls to Zyphus.  By using the Zyphus Stone to turn anyone murdered in its vicinity into zombies that can then spread out and circulate their infection, Fel Bustrani hopes to turn all of Oppara--and perhaps beyond--into a charnel house.  And the date set to spark this event is the night a new opera premieres--an event that the PCs will be in attendance for!

The PCs get a quick "flashback" briefing (a method used sometimes in Season Zero that we don't really see anymore) explaining that they've been charged with finding out what happened to Wuthers, the missing Pathfinder.  Wuthers had written letters saying he was working on a dig at the opera house, so it's a natural place to start the search.  The problem for the Pathfinders is that the opera house, a converted temple to Aroden known as the House of the Immortal Son, is tremendously exclusive.  Although Wuthers spent months of cajoling to gain access to enter and permission to dig, there's no time to replicate his strategy.  Instead, the PCs are given tickets to the premiere of a new opera and instructed to slip away at some point to search the basements and see if they can discover any clues about Wuthers' fate.

If handled well by the GM and the players, this can be a really fun "fish out of water" experience for many PCs used to blood and fire more than dressing up in elegant formalwear and trying to make small talk with the upper crusts of Taldan nobility.  There are even some (very minor) penalties to social checks if the PCs don't splash out the cash to buy proper attire.  The scenario doesn't say whether armor or weapons are allowed in, so I'd expect different tables may make different decisions on the question.  It would have been good if the scenario presented some capsule NPCs and little vignettes to help with the role-playing.

The action starts near the end of the show in a scripted moment when a horde of zombies flood into the hall and start tearing the crowd into pieces.  Strangely, the module gives the GM absolutely no guidance on what to do if the PCs try to slip away earlier in the performance to investigate--which is exactly what they've been instructed to do.  Anyway, there's definitely an exciting and cinematic backdrop to this first encounter as the PCs (who may be unarmed and unarmoured) have to fight off several zombies and try to regroup and figure out what's going on.

The next three encounters can happen in any order and at the GM's discretion as to location within the opera house (which, it should be noted, is extremely large and difficult to draw!).  The PCs will encounter a group of nobles being attacked by zombies and potentially rescue a fun NPC in the form of the clingy, self-absorbed Magistros Sebastus Hustavan.  They'll also have their first encounter with clerics of Zyphus and, from subsequent interrogation or letters found on bodies, get a sense of what the cult's plan is.  These three encounters are pretty similar in nature, so it might come across as repetitive but (hopefully) feeds into the "there's so many--what do we do!" panic of zombie movies.  I should note that at low tier the battles are against "normal" zombies and clerics, which makes sense within the story, but that at higher tiers the combats can include battles against monster zombies, like zombie bugbears or even a zombie megaraptor!  These were apparently smuggled into the opera house by the cult (for . . . reasons?), but they must seem pretty random to PCs who encounter them.

One aspect of the module that is necessary from a gameplay perspective but comes across as rather forced in terms of story is that Fel Bustrani is able to use the Zyphus Stone to erect an impenetrable force field around the opera house, meaning there is (quite literally) no way for the PCs to escape short of finishing the adventure.  I'm not sure why the thought that an ancient magical artefact could turn corpses into zombies is fine to me but that having the same artefact also make force fields is the point where my disbelief has been stretched too far, but there you go.

The big finale takes place in the basement as the PCs confront Fel Bustrani and his minions.  It's a tough battle, as the PCs have to cross a greased cavern to attack, Fel Bustrani uses cause fear to send melee-types with low Will saves fleeing, and he has a couple of minions to protect him.  I remember it being a near-thing when I ran it, and I was relieved it didn't degenerate into TPK territory.  I should also mention that the cultists are armed with heavy picks, and x4 crits can be nearly instant death to low-level PCs if the GM's dice are hot.

After defeating the cult's leader, the PCs will discover that the Pathfinder they were sent to rescue died weeks ago and was one of the zombies destroyed earlier.  Not all stories have happy endings, but the PCs can console themselves that they stopped a zombie apocalypse from erupting.

Overall, I liked Among the Living despite its flaws.  It cleverly puts a classic horror trope in scenario form and having everything happen at the opera was a fun twist.  PCs who specialize in battles against undead (Paladins, for example) will have a field day, while those who are mind-affecting specialists (like Mesmerists) will find extra challenges.  Everyone may have to muddle through with improvised (or smuggled in) weapons, adding an extra layer of challenge and necessary creativity to the mix.  It's definitely not a deep or meaningful scenario, but it's a fun, memorable way to spend a few hours.

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 79 [RPG]

[8 Calistril 4708 continued]

After the defeat of Mokmurian and the ominous speech from Karzoug, a shocked silence fills the vaulted chamber.  But then the silence is broken by the mechanical speech of the ancient library’s caretaker, a millennia-old clockwork construct: “Which volume of lore would you like me to retrieve for you? There are currently 24,491 volumes, scrolls, pamphlets, and unbound manuscripts available.  Please indicate your wish by author, title, subject, or date of acquisition by the Therassic Monastery.”  Salma is able to understand the creature’s mostly-forgotten language, and asks if it has info on Xin-Shalast, a place mentioned in Karzoug’s mocking speech.  The clockwork librarian affirms that indeed the library has several useful volumes on the subject, and that it is ready to assist in retrieving them.

The decision is made that research can wait, however, as there are still several tribes of stone giants on the surface getting ready to march!  After quickly stripping Mokmurian’s body of powerful magickal artifacts, the adventurers hurry to where they last saw Conna the Wise.  They find her at the bottom of a massive ramp that connects the surface to the first subterranean level of Jorgenfist.  Conna is proclaiming Mokmurian’s death to the assembled stone giant leaders around the rim above, saying that the spirit of Vanderrac has told her the time has come to return to their ancestral homes.  The giants above are sceptical until Yuzo runs to the library, severs Mokmurian’s head, and returns with it to stand next to Conna.  The tribal leaders slowly nod in acceptance of the truth, and the forces assembled around Jorgenfist begin to disperse.  Conna thanks the adventurers, stating that they have earned her gratitude for helping to spare the lives of so many of her people.

The adventurers discuss what to do next, with various possibilities raised: returning to Hook Mountain to find the hag who escaped Jinkatsyu’s revenge; seeking out the cave of Longtooth (the dragon slain in the attack on Sandpoint) and looting its hoard; teleporting to Magnimar to sell the spoils of war; or heading for Sandpoint to see that Nerissa receives a proper burial.  The Heroes of Varisia justifiably decide to rest on their laurels for the night, and decide in the morning.

[9 Calistril 4708]

Gripplis rarely leave their 

homes in the swamp.

In the morning, the decision is made to teleport first to Sandpoint.  When they arrive in front of the Rusty Dragon, Ava suddenly remembers that she’s been legally exiled from the town!  She starts to panic until Salma turns her invisible and Yuzo promises to escort her across the river via the nearby bridge.  As the two start walking, they realize that the most incredible thing has happened: Sandpoint has become almost overrun by gripplis!  On almost every street corner, groups of Ava’s racial kin are laughing, hopping, and chattering noisily with each other in their native tongue.  She’s overjoyed by their presence, yet still wary of getting them or herself in trouble by being caught within the town’s borders.

Salma, Jinkatsyu, and Kang notice the same thing as they head towards the Sandpoint Cathedral with Nerissa’s body wrapped in a blanket.  Jinkatsyu says that the Scarnettis must be at wits end with so many “freaks” about, and when the trio ask one of the gripplis what’s going on, they learn that their tribe has come from the Mushfens because their Elder Chief Cragpawmpum had a vision that Big Hero Ava would slay the most dangerous threat to the land and establish a new shrine to their god, Sinashakti, here in Sandpoint.  The grippli explains that they arrived only yesterday, just in time for the big earthquake that rocked the town and was a sign of Ava’s impending arrival!  Salma explains that Ava has indeed arrived, but isn’t allowed in the town because its leaders exiled her.  Elder Chief Cragpawmpum arrives to investigate why his people have started congregating around the newcomers.  When he hears about the situation, he sends scouts across all of the bridges to find Ava and then leads the rest of the gripplis towards the town hall to get Ava’s order of exile revoked!  The trio of adventurers look on with amusement as the little frog-like humanoids hop towards Sandpoint’s center of power.

When the trio reach the Sandpoint Cathedral, Father Zantus is saddened to hear of Nerissa’s death.  He affirms that he can, of course, arrange a proper burial, and that surely Sister Giulia would wish to attend.  He says it will take a couple of days to arrange everything, but the adventurers persuade him to plan a ceremony at sundown this very day, explaining that they have important business to attend to elsewhere.  When they ask about the gripplis’ mention of an “earthquake,” Father Zantus nods and explains that it was only a minor one, but it did open a sinkhole just outside the garrison’s northern wall on Tower Street.  He says that no one was hurt, but that last night, strange howling and bloodcurdling screams came from the hole.  Early this morning, Sheriff Hemlock sent some guards led by Bosk Hartigan into the hole to investigate and they haven’t yet returned.  Salma cleverly notes that the time the earthquake occurred matches precisely the moment in which Mokmurian was slain.

Meanwhile, a pair of gripplis sent by their elder to find Ava come across Yuzo, failing to realize that the object of their search is standing nearby, completely invisible.  When the gripplis explain why they’ve come to Sandpoint, Yuzo gets swept up in the moment and starts proclaiming Ava’s many “divine” qualities and even coins the appellation that spreads like wildfire through the tribe: “Ava, the Light of Sinashakti!”  When Ava starts talking (while invisible), the two gripplis think they’re in the presence of a divine being and one of them faints while the other, filled with religious fervour, starts marking the spot where their empyreal lord first sent his emissary to their people.  The grippli then speeds off into town to tell Elder Chief Cragpawmpum of Ava’s manifestation.

Back at the Cathedral, the other adventurers make their way to the town hall, curious to see what’s happening.  They find that the gripplis have, en masse, interrupted a meeting of the town executive and are hopping all over the chamber.  Titus Scarnetti is obstinate at first, but after repeated pressure by the heads of the other noble families (and the aggravation of dozens of gripplis everywhere), he begrudgingly votes to lift Ava’s ban from Sandpoint.  The gripplis cheer and holler with joy, and Kang unfurls his dragonfly wings to fly to Yuzo and Ava’s position to tell them the good news.  Ava makes a grand entrance on her return to the town, crying with joy, to the great acclaim of the other gripplis.  She is greeted warmly by Elder Chief Cragpawmpum, and he enjoins his people to give the Light of Sinashakti both reverence and some space.

Once the adventurers are reunited, they decide it would be worth helping out the town and investigating the sinkhole to see if they can find the missing guards.  A quick stop is made at the markets for some fresh food and other supplies.  Kang learns that Nisk Tander has leveraged “Nisk Tander’s Elixir of the Peaks” into a profitable new business in Magnimar and has even given Bimmy Beems a Sandpoint “franchise.”  Jinkatsyu is recognized and teased by some of the patrons at the Rusty Dragon who saw his ignoble “duel” some weeks ago, while Yuzo looks nervously at the ocean and keeps muttering about something looking for her.

When everyone is ready, they find Sheriff Hemlock and offer their services.  He’s grateful for the help, and notes a detail that hasn’t been made public yet.  Tracks were found leading *out* of the hole at dawn this morning, which is why he sent the guardsmen in to investigate, simultaneously asking Daviren Hosk to follow the tracks.  With neither the guards nor Hosk yet returning, Sheriff Hemlock is concerned that the sinkhole may have opened up ancient chambers full of monsters, like those other adventurers once found under the Glassworks.

An examination of the sinkhole shows that it’s almost thirty feet wide, and has partially consumed the outer walls of the basement cells of the town’s garrison.  However, it’s only fifteen feet deep, and the adventurers have no trouble climbing down.  A narrow opening along the northern wall of the sinkhole allows access to a short tunnel leading further downward into darkness.  The adventurers soon realize that they’ve gained access to the so-called “Catacombs of Wrath” via a different entrance.  A quick search shows that stairs that were once blocked by rubble have been recently cleared, and it seems like as good a lead as any.

When the adventurers reach the bottom of the cleared staircase, they find themselves at a dead end covered in webbing.  Clearing the webbing isn’t difficult, but finding the extremely well-concealed secret door is.  Once the adventurers push their way through, they find themselves in an antechamber of sorts whose walls, floor, and even arched ceiling are covered in Thassilonian writing: some of the writing is in tiny, spidery script, while other words are nearly three-feet high, and the medium varies as well, from blood to dark ink to words etched into the stones themselves.  Kang and Salma are able to discern that much of the writing consists of prayers and scripts to the demon-goddess Lamashtu, but Kang finds a verse that seems completely out of place from the rest: “If magic bright is your desire, to old Runeforge must you retire! For only there does wizards’ art receive its due and proper start.”  As Kang reads the rhyme to his companions, a strange, whispery voice speaks in Thassilonian from a hidden position to the north.  “Who are you?  Where are you from?  “What was the fate of Thassilon?” The adventurers are reticent, with Salma answering only that Thassilon sleeps.  Kang, in turn, asks the voice what “Runeforge” is, and the voice grows coy, describing it as “a place of learning created by Runelords but grown beyond their control.”  The voice describes it as the one place in Thassilon over which the Runelords could not exercise direct influence for fear of enraging the other six and causing an immense war, adding that if there are any secrets that exist to defeat them, they’re within Runeforge’s walls.  But the voice eagerly brags about discovering Runeforge’s location and hiding its map and key within the writings on the walls.  The voice then asks about the fate of the Runelords, the most powerful king and wizard in the realms, etc.  Suspicious that an invasion of the surface might be planned, the adventurers give poor, opaque answers, and in a fit of pique, the voice doesn’t return.

Glabrezu demons are capable 
of granting wishes to mortals.

Heading deeper into the underground complex, the adventurers see what is clearly an ancient shrine of Lamashtu, some of the walls of which have collapsed over the ages.  Standing in front of a partially-broken stone pulpit is a massive four-armed demon, its eyes shining with a mix of intelligence and cruelty.  It smiles as the adventurers approach, but before it can even get a word out, Kang hurls a bomb at it and knocks it to the ground!  “I could have given you your greatest heart’s desire!” the demon shouts.  “But now you have earned my wrath!”  But the demon has never tangled with the Heroes of Varisia before.  Jinkatsyu activates the magic in his strange, insect-like mask and it flies through the air and bites out the demon’s throat!

Seconds later, the distinctive sound can be heard of someone teleporting into the chamber.  An immaculately-dressed courier appears wearing the livery of a Korvosan noble house.  The courier delivers an invitation to Salma to attend and take part in this year’s Breaching Festival at the Acadamae, Korvosa’s premier institutional of magical learning.  The Breaching Festival is an annual event in which competitors vie to enter the school’s Hall of Wards and exit from the other side, thus proving themselves worthy to win a prize that exceeds 15,000 platinum pieces.  However, the competition is known as extremely dangerous, with a winner not being named in over a century and a half.  Given just five minutes to decide via hourglass, the adventurers consult with each other quickly.  Salma says it’s high risk, high reward.  In the end, everyone agrees and they accept the invitation.  The courier reads a magical scroll and teleports everyone away!

-----------------------------

Director's Commentary

This session was the big kick-off to Chapter 5.  I knew that this would probably be the last time the adventurers would spend any significant time in Sandpoint for the rest of the campaign, so I wanted to continue the PCs' connection with it.  I started a new subplot--a tribe of gripplis coming to Sandpoint to worship Ava--and just played it by ear to see how the PCs would react and what would happen.  By this time, the PCs were getting pretty high level and I thought it would be really fun and interesting to bring back the old-school concept of a high-level cleric getting followers and a shrine (whether she asked for it or not!).

The beauty of adventure paths is that they're meant to allow for an open-ended setting customised for each group, but with a through-line to keep things going.  APs aren't like Pathfinder Society or Starfinder Society scenarios which are very much on rails, have to be finished in a set time-frame, and drastically limit GM discretion.  Both styles of adventures have their place, but I think it's important not to run APs like PFS/SFS scenarios where it's just encounter, encounter, encounter.

The earthquake and sinkhole are of course the adventure hook that properly starts off the investigation into the Scribbler's domain.  I'll be writing more about this soon.  Interestingly, the PCs never followed up on what happened to Daviren Hosk, so the ranger's fate remains a mystery.

The ending was my attempt to see if the PCs would bite on an adventure hook that offered major cash rewards but would distract them from the main quest they'd committed to (and further shorten the dwindling timeline to stop Karzoug before it was too late).  The adventure in Korvosa  was the module Academy of Secrets, and we'll quickly see next session what ultimately transpired with it.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 6-10: "The Wounded Wisp" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

The Wounded Wisp is one of the most played PFS scenarios, and it's easy to see why: it's fantastic!  Perfect for newcomers to PFS but fun for veterans, the scenario is designed for low-level PCs who may be on their first or second adventure.  It reveals some intriguing history of the Society, has great NPCs to bounce role-playing off of, and has a strong story.  As a repeatable, it also has several randomised elements.  I played this a long-time ago via PbP, and had an enjoyable experience.  This is one to put high on the "to-play" or "to-run" list.

SPOILERS

The introduction is fun.  The PCs are directed to a particular street corner to receive an urgent mission briefing.  In the middle of pouring rain, a beggar approaches--but it's Dreadle Dreng in disguise!  Apparently, all he wants the PCs to do are walk to a nearby tavern, the Wounded Wisp, and get  a particular vintage of wine for him from the cellar.  Dreng is a notorious eccentric (and one of my favorite V-Cs), so although it's an odd request, it's not unprecedented.

Inside the Wounded Wisp, the PCs are told by the owner that she can lead them into the cellar once things quiet down, but for now they should have a drink and relax.  This is an opportunity for the PCs to do some role-playing with any of a quartet of well-described NPCs--a couple of whom (Janira Gravix and Yargos Gill) appear in previous scenarios.  The Wounded Wisp is the place where the Pathfinder Society was founded four centuries previously, and it has remained a favorite watering hole for members of the group.  The NPCs all have some useful skills that the PCs could drawn on later in the adventure if they need help, but for the most part this is role-playing just for the sake of role-playing--and that's a good thing!  I think, too often, recent scenarios "gamify" every role-playing encounter by making it a skills challenge.  These conversations with NPC Pathfinders really help portray the PCs as part of a long tradition and a warm fellowship of (mostly) like-minded seekers.

When they walk down to the cellar to obtain Dreng's bottle of wine, it turns out that the exact bottle he wants is actually a lever that opens a secret door!  The secret door leads to the private sanctuary of famed Pathfinder Selmius Foster and his assistant, Adolphus, members of the Society who were part of the founding generation.  However, the sanctuary was compromised in an earthquake a decade ago, allowing some of Absalom's subterranean monsters to enter.  The exact nature of the threat is one of the randomised elements of the scenario.  After the battle, the group can look around the sanctuary.  The big find is that Foster and Adolphius left various notes indicating their belief that another of their contemporaries, Eylysia, was hiding some of her discoveries.  Adolphus compiled various clues he found as to where Eylysia might have hidden this cache (all of this is conveyed via handouts), and it looks like the PCs have a mystery to solve!

One of the leads left by Adolphus directs the PCs to the Wall of Names, a curving wall of black glass where fallen Pathfinders have their name, date of death, and greatest accomplishment (or how they died) recorded.  Eylysia recorded some false names on the wall (a pretty crappy thing to do!), but the false names contain vital leads to help the PCs get on the track of her secret vault.

One of the clues leads the PCs to a mausoleum where the bones of Arkath, a stonemason who had worked closely with Eylysia, are stored.  In a really well-done randomised element, the necropolis is patrolled by a cleric of one of four different faiths.  Each cleric is given a distinct personality, motivation, and reaction to the PCs.  Combat is possible but not inevitable, which is a good way to allow different groups to achieve their goals in different ways.  Once the PCs access the right vault and find Arkath's bones, they'll uncover a hidden Pathfinder's Coin that contains a secret message.

Another clue leads to the house of a gnome illusionist named Fimbrik, a long-standing member of the Arcanamirium and friend of Eylysia.  There's a bit of fun to be had with programmed illusions and a summoning circle before the PCs find some more clues towards discovering the location of Elyysia's secret vault of records.  I find it a bit far-fetched that Fimbrik has had the same house for nigh-on 400 years, but I guess that's not a big deal in the grand scheme of things.

In the final sequence, the PCs travel to the Starstone Cathedral and visit the Shrine of the Failed, where those who took the Test of the Starstone (to attain divinity) and biffed it are memorialized.  As the last clues are deciphered, somewhere nearby, a Mendevian crusader named Sir Reinhart is charging his steed toward the great chasm only to fall to his doom!  It's a lovely touch.  Anyway, the clues are enough for the PCs to find a secret door that leads to Eylysia's hidden vault of discoveries she didn't think the world was ready to know.  But it turns out that the Pathfinders aren't the only group after these secrets--in another randomised element, another group (either Aspis, Devil's Claw mercs, Harbingers, or Norgorberite cultists) has followed the PCs and launches an ambush.  It's a fun and original setting for the big ending.

After surviving the ambush, the PCs can return the files they've discovered to Dreng.  And unlike some scenarios, the group get to find out details of what they've worked so hard to find!  In a clever touch, they letter receive a letter (in handout form) from Ambrus Valsin explaining one of Eylysia's big secrets, and alternate letters were made for Season 6, Season 7, and Season 8 because each leads into a season-specific story arc.  It's rare to see conscious attention to updating scenarios for later seasons.

There's a lot to love about The Wounded Wisp: it has several excellent opportunities for role-playing with well-developed NPCs, it reveals intriguing details about the history of the Pathfinder Society, it involves interesting settings like the Wall of Names and the Shrine of the Failed, and the combats provide a nice break from the mystery/puzzle solving.  It's a model for how to do a repeatable scenario with randomised elements.  This scenario was an instant classic, and it's easy to see why.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 10-11: "The Hao Jin Hierophant" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I played The Hao Jin Hierophant a few months back and, unusually for me, I can barely remember doing so.  This points to either a) I was drinking too much rum during the session or b) the scenario is pretty boring.  Even reading it for the purposes of this review, I still only get the vaguest recollection of what happened during the session.  There are some worthwhile and admirable themes in the story, but unfortunately they just didn't come together in a way that made for interesting or memorable gameplay.

SPOILERS

The Hao Jin Hierophant is a scenario that tells one of the unintended side effects of the epic conclusion of # 10-00, The Hao Jin Cataclysm (Aram Zey's merging with the Phoenix Spirit to become the new guardian of the tapestry demiplane).  It seems that at least one community within the tapestry, a village named Onhae (originally taken from Tian Xia centuries ago) has discarded its traditional religion and come to worship Aram Zey as a god!  It's an interesting and plausible twist that the PCs won't know about when they're sent into the tapestry by Zey's successor as Master of Spells, Sorrina Westyr.   The tapestry is still (more slowly) unravelling, and several teams are being inserted to find and preserve as much of the contents within as possible.  The PCs' particular mission is twofold: 1) visit Onhae and gather as much information as possible about its local culture; and 2) retrieve a sample of a rare purple flower said to bloom only once every 144 years.  The briefing is actually pretty exciting (it starts with an appearance by members of the Decemvirate!) and has the feel of the entire Society working together to accomplish an urgent task that usually only comes during the yearly Specials.

The villagers of Onhae are the descendants of people taken from the Sunsu Godae ethnic group in Tian Xia, and they're extremely distrustful of outsiders.  Once the PCs enter the tapestry and approach the village, they have a limited amount of time to snoop around and ask questions before the villagers get annoyed with them and kick them out.  Mechanically, this exercise in amateur ethnography is handle by giving the PCs three "phases", each lasting about 20 minutes of in-game time, to either visit specific places in the village, gather general rumors, or look around for more subtle clues about what the village is like and what's going on there.  Each choice essentially involves a particular skill check that, if successful, gains the table a "culture point"--and the more culture points the group gets, the better they've done in learning about Onhae and its peoples (and the more rewards they'll get at the end of the session.

This exploration of Onhae is a major part of the session.  On the one hand, I appreciate the attention that went into the writing here (there's some detailed incorporation of setting lore from Tian Xia) and the overall theme (that the Pathfinder Society can help preserve cultures--or at least information about those cultures--rather than just being Indiana Jones' style tomb-robbers).  I think it takes a really good GM to make this part of the session come alive, however.  When I played it, and reading through it I can see why, it was a lot more in the vein of "visit a kitchen this phase; roll a skill check related to cooking; you learn unspecific information about Onhae cooking practices; you've earned 1 culture point".  I do understand how hard it must be to try to "gamify" something like anthropology, but I just don't think it's handled successfully in The Hao Jin Hierophant as the entire process comes across as bland and somewhat tedious.  As an aside, I'm also not convinced that "you've visited a village for an hour and have now understood and recorded its culture!" is how anthropology really works.  A storyline involving the PCs needing to perhaps extract a member of the Pathfinder Society who has been embedded in the village for some years to learn about the residents of Onhae and their customs might have worked better.

During the exploration of Onhae, several villagers will point to the need to speak with Lin Fen Hai, the village's leader.  However, she's not in the village as she's off praying at holy spot.  When the PCs go to find her, a battle ensues because she's being psychically manipulated by an evil plant creature called an etheroot into believing the PCs are evil spirits.  There's more backstory to the situation than that, but the first combat of the session is along a jungle path against Fen and two of her followers.

Either by following Fen's backtrail, or by seeking out the rare purple flower, the PCs will stumble directly into the clearing where the etheroot lives.  There's another battle here, but it must be forgettable as I have only the foggiest recollection of it!

The last encounter of the scenario is frankly bizarre: a "silver squall" appears, described as "a planar tide of aggressive, competing ideas."  This violent psychic storm somehow . . . argues . . . about the village relying on shame, pride, fear, and faith, and the PCs are supposed to defeat it by presenting . . . counter-arguments?  Even having read the scenario, I'm very fuzzy about the whole thing, and I think perhaps the writer was trying too hard to get the players to really pay attention and use the information they learned during the investigation part of the scenario.  But in practice it just turned out to be a weird, abstract, semi-metaphysical event that (thankfully) was over quickly.

Having learned about the village's culture and obtaining a sample of the purple flower, the PCs can exit the tapestry.  There's a solid conclusion and plenty of information about different ways the village may move forward depending on the PCs' actions.

Overall, I almost feel bad that I don't like The Hao Jin Hierophant more.  It's well-intentioned, allows for open-ended gameplay, and makes room for an academic approach that I normally love.  Somehow though, it just falls flat to me.  Onhae never really "clicked", mind-controlling plant monsters aren't really that interesting, and some of the content was just too vague and abstract to really get a handle on.  I don't think it's a bad scenario, just a somewhat boring one.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-9: "Eye of the Crocodile King" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Although Eye of the Crocodile King was officially retired from PFS play years ago, I recently ran it at Subtier 1-2 in my homebrew "Roots of Golarion" campaign that integrates Paizo's pre-Pathfinder modules, retired PFS scenarios, and other odds and ends.  The scenario has an interesting (if not exactly original) backstory, but (like most Season 0 scenarios) a plot structure that is very much in the "follow A to B and then B to C" vein.  Simply put, at its core, it's a very straightforward dungeon (sewer) crawl.  But, that being said, it has some good flavour and characters, and there are worse ways to spend a couple of hours.

SPOILERS

The backstory to Eye of the Crocodile King involves a journeyman academic named Maren Fuln who works at the Arcanamirium (a prestigious school of magic) in Absalom.  A week before the game starts, Fuln found an old amulet in storage and put it on, not knowing that it contained the soul of Lord Corgan--a docent of the school fifty years ago who was executed (with his soul to be forever trapped in the amulet) for involvement in foul necromancy!  The soul of Lord Corgan started influencing Fuln and led him to step up experiments on some sort of man-crocodile aberration.  After a lab explosion, Fuln was knocked unconscious, his experiment escaped, and the amulet was found by a dim-witted animal handler named Lemedor.  Lord Corgan's soul exercised control over Lemedor and drove him deep into the sewers underneath the city.  There, Lord Corgan has taken over the experiment and taken physical form as a sort of vicious reptile-man (think Killer Croc or perhaps the Lizard) and is planning to organise an army of troglodytes to wreak havoc on the Arcanamirum.  For his part, Fuln realises he needs help and calls an old friend, Venture-Captain Adril Hestram.

This is where the PCs come in.  In a surprisingly curt "briefing", Hestram quickly summarises the gist of this background and sends the Pathfinders to the Arcanamirium to meet with Fuln.  Fuln is in a big hurry to get the amulet back, but also terrified of the sewers--there's no way he'll go himself.  The scenario has a good list of Q&As that might arise when the PCs interact with him, and I like how he's written (and it's cool to see he appears in a couple of subsequent PFS scenarios in later seasons).  

The rest of the scenario takes place in the sewers, a favourite setting for writers in Season Zero.  It's essentially combat-combat-combat from this point on, though there is a chance for a little role-playing.  Depending on the group, this could be a very fast scenario to run through.

The first encounter takes place when a troglodyte in Lord Corgan's employ activates a simple but effective trap: knocking over a big box of rats!  Rat swarms can be dangerous for unprepared low-level PCs, but the scenario does provide the GM with an out here as Fuln might just poke his head into the grate and use his wand of burning hands.  Still, it could be a bracing start!

The second encounter involves a wounded otyugh sitting atop a pile of trash.  Some of the faction missions require PCs to trawl through the trash after the battle, which is exceedingly unpleasant to imagine.

Next up is an ambush by a couple of troglodytes and Lemedor (the mind-controlled dim-witted animal handler from the surface).  It's a decent challenge for an average group.  The good news is that Lemedor, once he shakes off Lord Corgan's mental domination, is happy to talk and can fill the PCs in on the villain's plans.  The bad news is that Lemedor only shakes it off if he's "staggered", which means getting him to exactly zero hit points (or knocking him out and healing him back to consciousness, I guess).  When I ran this, he got knocked down and stayed down.

The penultimate encounter is versus (at low-tier, at least) a crocodile and three more troglodytes.  Crocs can be fairly deadly, and I think most groups are going to be fairly worn down and low on resources at this point.

Now we get to "Lord Corgan the Crocodile King"!  I think the concept is fun.  Assuming the PCs can defeat him in his lair, they can  . . . extract (yuck) the amulet that is inside him.

A brief conclusion has an ecstatic Maren Fuln offer to always be available if the Pathfinder Society needs his aid (represented by a boon on the Chronicle sheet).

I don't read other reviews before writing mine, so I'm not 100% sure why this scenario was retired.  There's no objectionable content or plot discrepancies, and I don't think any single encounter is crazy-hard.  My best guess is that the cumulative effect of the encounters may have led to a lot of TPKs.  There were no casualties when I ran the game, though it got very close in that last battle.  In my mind, Eye of the Crocodile King is perfectly playable with just a nip and tuck of (for example) a troglodyte here and there.  It's not a great or memorable scenario (and the idea of someone accidentally freeing the trapped soul of an ancient threat is pretty cliched in fiction), but it's an average representation of what Season 0 has to offer.

Starfinder Module: "Skitter Crash" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Skitter Crash was Paizo's Free RPG Day offering for 2019.  It's a sequel to the 2018 offering (Skitter Shot) and follows the same group of salvage-crew skittermanders on a new adventure.  Four fun and well fleshed-out pre-gens are included, but I got to play my own skittermander, Steward Officer Swizzers.  I really enjoyed the adventure, and its impressive how much is cleverly included in a relatively short product.  There's a lot here to like, and I'm geared up to see what happens next in 2020!


SPOILERS

Skitter Crash starts off with a bang (almost literally).  The skittermander crew of the Helping Hand are returning from a salvage job when they're confronted by a pirate starship crewed by Captain Anga Silazi--the sister of the pirate captain they confronted in the previous year's Free RPG Day module!  Silazi is out for revenge, of course, but before she can open fire, both vessels are caught up in a vortex of planar energy called a "Drift cyclone."  Instead of starship combat, the skittermanders realize they're no longer in the Drift, that their ship is about to crash into an unknown planet, and that somehow their vessel has been  somehow magically fused together with the pirate ship!

The skittermanders have to rush into the cargo bay to reach a small lifeboat, but some of the pirate crew are already there and a firefight is inevitable.  Assuming the PCs win and jump in the lifeboat, they have a hard and chaotic descent through the atmosphere and a crash landing in an unknown swamp.  It's a fast and exciting beginning, and a classic set up for an SF adventure: marooned!

After salvaging some supplies from the wreckage of the escape vehicle, the skittermanders will get a couple of leads on what to do next (if they can make an Engineering or a Mysticism check, respectively).  The module intends that PCs will follow one of these two leads and then has an event happen to progress the adventure, but if folks are having fun and time isn't a problem, the GM can delay the event until after both leads are investigated.  Groups could also split up to investigate both leads simultaneously--the realistically logical thing to do--and thus follow my dictum: always split the party!

One lead is the discovery that some strange interference emitted nearby is disrupting local communication signals.  If the PCs investigate, they find a semi-hidden automated monitoring station being assaulted by a trio of small earth elementals.  If the skittermanders drive off the elementals and repair the station, they'll learn that it's broadcasting information to a point within 10 miles--confirmation that this planet is inhabited!  When I played this module, this is the lead my group followed.  I thought it was okay, but a bit awkward for a team that's all about "helping" to figure out how to approach the issue with the earth elementals.  In addition, from an encounter-design perspective, there's not really anything riding on whether the PCs do or do not repair the monitoring station--everything will play out the same.

The other lead is that mystically-inclined PCs might sense a "disturbance of planar energy" about a mile away.  Investigation reveals it to be a dangerous side effect of the Drift cyclone: a small tear to Hell has been ripped opened, and bolts of hellfire are shooting out!  Apparently, the PCs are supposed to realise this could set fire to the swamp and try to close the tear (by very abstract uses of the Mysticism skill) despite the likelihood they will suffer severe burns.  I don't think there's a lot of motivation for PCs to get involved with this encounter.

After investigating the leads, the PCs will hear panicked shouts for help followed by the roar of a wild animal.  Rushing to help, the group will see a member of the intelligent sluglike osharu species being attacked by a large predatory swamp animal called a nilothera.  This encounter was fun and exciting, as there are clear stakes (rescue the osharu before the nilothera kills him), a tough foe (maybe a bit too tough!), and an interesting setting (a broken bridge over a deep bog).  Assuming the PCs survive and succeed, the osharu introduces himself as Ponatia and explains that he's part of a scientific research base called the Helix Lyceum and that the skittermanders have crash landed on the planet Varkulon 4.  Ponatia and his fellow scientists set up the research base here to study the periodic Drift storms that ravage the planet.  He's happy to take the group back with him to the Helix Lyceum in gratitude for the timely rescue.

It turns out that communications off-planet are jammed by the Drift cyclone, but the scientists did pick up the signal of a starship landing a few miles away; a strange starship that seemed to be fused together!  (apparently, the skittermanders could have stayed on board!).  What comes next is a skills challenge of the type familiar to players of PFS and SFS.  There are five osharu "Headteachers", and the PCs need to interact with and persuade (through skill checks) a majority of them to get them to help.  I like the description and feel of the Helix Lyceum and its scientists, but I always find these encounters a bit clunky in practice as the mechanics often impede organic role-playing.  In addition, the osharus aren't being asked for much (helping refugees from starship disaster).   In another thing that annoys me, it doesn't really matter from a plot-perspective whether the PCs do or do not manage to persuade a majority of the headteachers: either way, they'll be lent a land-cruiser to take to the starship.  (success does result in some gifts, but that's more of an awkward loot dump than anything).

When the PCs arrive at the starship, they see that the pirate Captain Silazi is hard at work trying to get it repaired and ready for lift-off.  She has no interest in talking however, and attacks immediately with the help of a couple of security robots.  Silazi is a solarion, which isn't a type of foe PCs get to fight often.  When Silazi is defeated, the PCs can board the strange fused vessel and try to repair it enough for lift-off.  The next sequence is interesting and original: Silazi's mob of space pirates returns to the scene (apparently they were out scouting the swamp or something).  The skittermanders have to either talk them down, hastily repair the ship while it's under fire, or blast them with starship weapons!  The pirates are represented abstractly--this isn't a true tactical combat encounter--but it was a clever way to present an exciting climax.

The module provides a short but satisfying epilogue, and I like the idea of the skittermanders continuing to pilot a crazy vessel inexplicably fused together from two others.  After the adventure, each of the skittermander pre-gens gets a full page with background, stat block, and full-colour artwork.  They're really fun and fresh characters, and kudos to the writer for making them all fit the skittermander theme while still being very different in tastes and personality.  Speaking of artwork, it's really good throughout, though I might say the space pirates and Captain Silazi look a bit too clean-cut to be scum of the earth.  But that's a minor critique, and the cover is very cool.

I think I've included more nitpicks above than I expected or that the module really deserves.  I had a great time playing Skitter Crash, and most of its flaws are apparent only upon reading the module afterward.  It's really impressive how much adventure and different types of encounters the author was able to pack into ten pages.  Overall, it's a fun and memorable module and definitely one worth playing.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: "Undead Unleashed" [RPG]

Undead Unleashed is a pretty straightforward book.  Essentially, it's a collection of fifteen four-page entries on (mostly) high-CR named undead NPCs.  Half of each entry is made up of a picture, full background, and stat block for the NPC.  The other half of each entry is a map and room-by-room layout of the undead's lair.  The creatures and lairs are situated in the Inner Sea, but most could be easily adapted to other settings.  I wish they would have included an adventure hook section.  Given how powerful these undead are, I assume most would be used as campaign "bosses".  Some of the entries also include a new magic item, disease, or some other crunch.  Six different writers are credited on the book so there are definitely some differences in approach.  Here's a brief rundown on the creatures included:

* Arantaros (CR 20 ravener): A dragon alchemist who failed in an attempt to replicate the Sun Orchid elixir for immortality, and thus decided to bargain with a demon lord to achieve eternal "life" another way.  It's an intriguing backstory.  Arantaros' lair is high-level indeed, though they ran out of room to describe the treasure in Arantaros' horde.

* Arnlaugr the Fearless (CR14 draugr): A famed Ulfen adventurer who got in over his head and now serves in death as the guardian of a powerful witch.  The lair is pretty mundane, apart from being mostly underwater.

* Erum-Hel (CR23 mohrg):  You know Erum-Hel is tough, as he makes use of Mythic rules!  This guy could easily be the big-bad for an epic campaign or a new antagonist after PCs finish an AP by roughing up some CR 20 wimp.  His backstory is tied intimately into Iomedae and Tar-Baphon, and his lair is very cool and memorable.  One of my favourite entries.

* Imaloka Ghalmont-Neverhome (CR22 banshee): There's a fantastic backstory for this banshee, though it would be hard to bring out most of the flavour into an adventure involving her.  As a resident of Sarkoris/The Worldwound, she would make a surprise non-demon foe for adventurers to face in that area.

* Jolanera (CR17 nightwing): Another backstory tied strongly into Tar-Baphon.  Unfortunately, this nightwing doesn't have much of a personality.  Its lair has some interesting foes though.

* Meyi Pahano (CR13 lich):  This lich has a cool backstory tied into both Lirgen (the drowned lands beneath the Eye) and Eox (the planet of undead).  She's a diviner wizard, and thus a different type of combat threat than many others in the book.  Her lair is sound.

* Mirik the Drowned (CR3 ghast): One of the very few low-level threats.  Mirik is nicely integrated into Absalom's Siphons district and could be the base of a good little story arc.  I like the sewer gator zombie!

* Mother Comfort and Poor Eledia (CR3 allip and CR 4 attic whisperer):  A classic haunted house location with a really said origin story.  A new magic item introduced here, the ghost mirror, looks really good.

* Ordellia Whilwren (CR10 ghost): A good-aligned undead!  This violates one of the "rules" of Golarion.  Nonetheless, I like the character's integration into the history of Magnimar and the really interesting story seed of what it would take to set her spirit free (getting a Varisian elected leader of the city).  There's even a Season 10 PFS scenario that uses her lair from this book.

* Prince Kasiya (CR12 vampire): I wish I had read this entry before reading the Pathfinder Tales novel King of Chaos--it explains so much!  This vampire sorcerer has a fun backstory as an (evil) former member of the Pathfinder Society.  Stats are included for his flying chariot.

* Razinia (CR7 ghul): I could see a good story arc set up around Razinia and her domination of an important oasis (and caravan stopover) in Qadira.

* Rudrakavala (CR15 devourer): Great, creepy artwork for this guy along with a cool premise for his existence that creatures a natural adventure hook.  His lair is nestled into an extremely difficult environment to traverse, so adventuring parties that focus too much on combat proficiency may die before they even get to him.

* Seldeg Bhedlis (CR17 graveknight): One of the six Knights of Ozem twisted by Geb and sent to steal Arazni's body!  Now serves as a general and spymaster.  The lair is pretty bland, unfortunately.

* Walkena (CR16 mummy): Divine undead child-god and ruler of Mzali in the Mwangi Expanse.  Walkena kills all foreigners and tolerates no dissidents, and I like the idea of the PCs having an entire city as their enemies.  This entry has the only new feat in the book, but it's really just for NPCs.

* Wight Mother of Isger (CR19 daughter of Urgathoa): This big-bad murdered the entire town of Finder's Gulch in Isger and now uses it as her headquarters.  As a growing threat in the region, she could make a good campaign villain.

Some general thoughts:  1) The cover art is really cool, as Kyra tries to fend off a lich and its minions--I hope Sarenrae comes through!  2) The interior artwork of each villain is very good--maybe not Paizo's best, but definitely strong; 3) The cartography on the maps is mostly pretty bland.  Overall, this book definitely adds to setting lore.  However, I think it would probably really only be useful to homebrew GMs who need inspiration for a high-level undead antagonist.  Even those GMs wouldn't make use of the vast majority of the content in the book, so I wouldn't consider it an important purchase.