Pathfinder: "Pathfinder Society Year of the Sky Key T-Shirt" [RPG]

I got this shirt for my kid because I was either too big or too small for the sizes left.  I have only a vague idea of what the Sky Key is, and he has absolutely no idea, but he told me to give the shirt 10 out of 10.  I've used my mastery of fractions to change that to 5 out of 5 stars for the Paizo website.  To me, the symbol is pretty forgettable compared to other Pathfinder shirts, but, it's not my opinion that counts!

Pathfinder Module: "Entombed with the Pharaohs" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

 

Entombed with the Pharaohs is a 32-page entry in the D&D 3.5-era line of Paizo modules.  Set in the Egypt-analogue country of Osirion, the module involves some classic tomb-raiding in the pulp Indiana Jones’ vein (not the more culturally sensitive, quasi-archaeological approach taken in some more recent Paizo adventures).  But there’s a depth and richness to the story and setting here that really turns this into a memorable adventure, not a forgettable dungeon-crawl.  There are plenty of surprises and

dynamic elements to keep players on their toes, and plenty of opportunity for quality role-playing.  I ran this several months ago, and although I do think it’s a higher difficulty than may be fair for an average Level 6 group, I really enjoyed it.

 

SPOILERS

 

For an adventure hook, the module assumes the PCs are either members of the Pathfinder Society or are hired by them to explore a pyramid that has recently been unearthed in Osirion.  But this is no ordinary pyramid—it’s reputed to be the tomb of the Four Pharaohs of Ascension, a legendary group of powerful, magically-inclined rulers who bound themselves together in both life and death for eternity. 

 

Part 1 is “Hidden Secrets of the Malhitu Bazaar.”  The module proper starts with the PCs attending an antiquities auction to meet their secret Pathfinder contact, a woman known only as the Mithral Scarab (great artwork).  She’ll signal the PCs at some point during the auction, but the auction isn’t just background.  There are several Osirion relics up for sale, many of which hold some clues or value for the adventure to come.  The module details several other potential bidders for each item, and this segment could be an interesting role-playing (and financial strategy) opportunity for the PCs.  Crucially, also in attendance at the auction are the members of Her Majesty’s Expeditionary, a Chelaxian-backed group of mercenary tomb robbers who are also planning a venture to the pyramids of the Four Pharaohs of Ascension.  This group becomes a major rival to the PCs at various stages throughout the module and add some dynamic tension.  Indeed, one member tries to infiltrate the PCs in the guise of a freelance translator—a move that worked perfectly on my group.

 

After the auction, the Mithral Scarab takes the PCs to the only living person to have previously visited the pyramid tomb of the Four Pharoahs of Ascension.  In a well-done scene, the man, Raegos, explains that he keeps himself perpetually blindfolded to avoid succumbing to a terrible curse.  Inside the pyramid, he says, are four mystical runes—anyone who sees all four transforms into a terrible, mindless monster, which is what happened to one of his fellow explorers.  Raegos saw three of the runes, and lives in terror of someday seeing the fourth.  He explains that the pyramid normally exists on another plane, but can be summoned back through the use of a special mask—though the whereabouts of this item are unknown.  The rest of this part involves the PCs making Gather Information checks or using other means to try to figure out where the mask is currently located.

 

Part 2 is “Pursuit of the Mask”, and it really has two distinct segments.  The first segment involves stealing the Mask of the Four Pharoahs from its current owner, an antiquities collector named the Crook Bearer.  But if the PCs aren’t diligent with their sources, they may think the mask is actually at a museum called the Exhibitory—but that one’s a fake!  The module provides layouts and content for both places—PCs could try a lazy smash-and-grab or plan a full heist (and stealth isn’t a bad idea if they don’t want the entire city guard after them).  It’s handled really well, and I imagine a lot of groups could get quite creative with their planning.  I especially liked that Her Majesty’s Expeditionary is also after the mask, and the module plays fair-and-square with their own chances of figuring out which location has the real mask and then details their heist plan.  It’s perfectly possible for the PCs to be too late and for their rivals to get the mask first—which means the PCs are the ones trailing behind in the second segment, which is the trip to the Valley of the Pyramids.  A regional map and a couple of encounters are provided here (one against Chelish legionnaires and one against a hieracosphinx), and there’s also some risk from sand-slides.  It’s only a two-day trip from Sothis to the valley, so just enough time to give the PCs a little flavour of desert travel before the real adventure begins.

 

Part 3 is “Into the Tomb”, and it constitutes the bulk of the adventure as the PCs enter the pyramid in search of lore and treasure.  Although, yes, this is technically a dungeon-crawl, you can really see the difference a skilled writer can breathe into the template.  Each room in the pyramid has a rich connection to the backstory lore and there are tons of little details that flesh things out further for those players who are really paying attention.  An overall theme of this part of the adventure is what was foreshadowed by Raegos back in Part 1: the Curse of the Encircled Runes.  There are four of these runes hidden in various places within the pyramid, and a PC who happens to see all four risks transforming instantly into an undead abomination!  The runes are hidden in some really clever and surprising places, and some players will curse (pun intended) the fact they gave their characters such high Perception scores.  When I ran it, fear of the curse was a constant source of apprehension for the group, and it worked perfectly. 

 

Apart from the lore and the curse, there are some stand-out encounters, such as a gloriously gross swarm of embalmed organs.  My favourite encounter is a little hard to explain, but it involves a sort of Strength challenge over several rounds with the PCs needing to effectively out-muscle a golem or find themselves crushed to death between the ceiling and a rising floor.  It was really satisfying for my group when it was the golem who got slowly crushed instead, and a much more memorable victory than a traditional combat.

 

On the other hand, it’s also fair to say that there are some encounters that just aren’t fair for an average group of four level 6 PCs.  In particular, there’s a battle against a CR 9 undead dragon with an AC of 28 and six attacks a round!  When I ran it, this encounter killed half of the PCs and the others were forced to flee the pyramid entirely, leading to a downbeat ending to what was otherwise a really fun experience.  It’s a pretty tough foe for what’s essentially a treasure-less side room, not even a boss encounter.

 

Her Majesty’s Expeditionary remains a wild card during the whole thing, and the module details when and where that group will be at different points in the PCs’ exploration.  The rival group could easily continue as antagonists (fighting or trying to steal from the PCs’), but, could potentially team up with the PCs in a short-lived joint venture.  There are a lot of possibilities there, and I like how the module keeps things flexible.

 

If the PCs manage to defeat all four of the pharaohs, the curse is broken and they’ll be able to escape the pyramid with some quality loot and intriguing clues.  My favourite bit is about the Aucturn Enigma, which ties into the Dominion of the Black and a sort of “Doomsday Clock” in the temple.  I think some of this connects to another module, “The Pact Stone Pyramid”, and I know the storyline gets resolved in the Pathfinder Playtest adventure.

 

The last eight pages of the module are devoted to three appendices and some level 6 pre-gen Iconics.

 

Appendix 1 introduces five new magic items.  I like the (perhaps poorly named) “Tomb Guard”, which is a magic ankh affixed to a weapon; if the weapon’s wielder falls dead or unconscious, the ankh magically animates the weapon and defends the owner.  There’s another magic item, a “Wracking Rod” which is good in concept (a torture device that heals the victim to keep them conscious as it simultaneously inflicts pain) but the actual mechanics of it could be improved.

 

Appendix 2 has artwork, backgrounds, and full stat blocks for the five members of Her Majestrix’s Expeditionary, the rival group of tomb robbers I spoke of above.  They’re a well-developed and interesting group of NPCs, and it’s clear the writer spent some time on them to make them a plausible rival group, not just single-battle fodder.  One of the members wields a “wand rifle”, a cool idea that would take just a bit too long to explain.

 

Appendix 3 is the bestiary, but there’s only one new monster: the Osirion Mummy.  This template doesn’t carry the mummy rot disease/curse of the traditional mummy, but does have a cool “Dust Stroke” ability that turns opponent’s bodies to dust if it kills them.  It’s perhaps not the most original idea for a monster, but the artwork is cool.

 

Overall, Entombed with the Pharoahs is a stand-out module.  It has a great backstory, cool NPCs, a fun heist element, original encounters, and some great ominous connections to future adventures.  It might be a touch too difficult for many groups—though, come to think of it, exploring the resting place of the legendary Four Pharaohs of Ascension should be pretty deadly!

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 106 [RPG]

[24 Pharast 4708 continued]

 

Ava decides to try one final spell before giving up completely on her own ability to remove the dread wendigo curse that has taken a deep hold on Jinkatsyu,  With a fervent prayer to Sinashakti, she throws wave after wave of divine energy into the swashbuckling kitsune.  The curse resists almost as if it were sentient, and for a moment, Jinkatsyu’s fate teeters on a knife’s edge . . . but Ava’s will is strong enough to overcome the curse, and she tears it out of Jinkatsyu by its roots!  Although freed from its malign influence, the kitsune is drained and exhausted by the ordeal.  Kang mixes a powerful, foul-tasting restorative for him.  The adventurers decide to rest for the night.  Ava explains that she’d still like to teleport to Magnimar sometime the next day in order to buy some clothes and armor that fit her new body.

 

[25 Pharast 4708]

 

The heroes spend the morning traversing the rough trail to the wide ledge where the bones of Karivek Vekker remain, still frozen to the earth.  It takes some effort to break it free of the ice, but the body is successfully transported back to the cabin.  Once taken to the part of the cabin at the bottom of the cliff-face where Morgiana first encountered the spirit of Silas Vekker, the ghostly figures of both brothers manifest again in a strange, spiritual struggle!  Unsure of whether or how to intervene, the adventurers wait and watch.  

Jinkatsyu decides to get started in digging a grave for Karivek’s body, but has the awful luck to pick a spot under the decayed pine tree that stands nearby.  But the tree is far more than it seems—once a treant, it died decades ago from the arsenic polluting the soil, only to persist as an undead creature—a Horror Tree!  Its roots lash out at Jinkatsyu, crushing him while sending filaments of strange fungus

through his bloodstream.  But Kang hurls an explosive right into the monster’s gaping maw, and blows it apart from within!  Jinkatsyu regains his footing and finishes off the remnants of the abomination with his rapier.

 

After almost ten minutes of struggle, the ghost of Karivek Vekker suddenly sighs and stops struggling.  The spectral ghost’s teeth return to normal and his feet grow back before the entire apparition fades away into nothingness.  The ghost of Silas Vekker turns to face the Heroes of Varisia and speaks, fading away more and more with each word:  “You have saved my brother.  You have saved me.  I would reward you by simply taking the path to Xin-Shalast with me into the beyond, yet I sense that you would still harbor a desire to see those golden ruins.  Very well.  Look to the pages of my ledger for the way, and may Torag watch over you in the darkness to come.”  As the spirit fades away forever, several parchment pages manifest in thin air and float lazily to the ground.  Kang examines this carefully and explains to the others that they must continue heading north, following the Kazaron River until it branches, then follow the western branch to the end.  There, they must fast and wait for a night with a full moon, and then (this part is maddeningly vague) the path to Xin-Shalast shall be made clear.  With some hours of daylight still to burn, and a promise from the taiga giants to escort them out of their territory, the adventurers decide to leave the tragedy of the Vekker Brothers and the wendigo behind, and get started on the next leg of their journey.

 

[26 Pharast 4708]

 

The journey north is difficult, even with the giants choosing the easiest way forward through the trackless mountains.  Jagged rock, slippery ice, steep ascents, and a general lack of mountain-climbing training or gear bedevils the adventurers, and they make only slow progress.  But, hour after hour, they forge ahead, and soon reach the edges of the giant’s territory.  As thanks for their aide, and as a makeshift celebration of how far the adventurers have come, Ava magically conjures a feast fit for a king’s coronation.  At sunset, the giants give their solemn farewells, and are not seen again.

 

[27 Pharast 4708]

 

With the guidance of the giants no longer available, the adventurers make even slower progress than before, sometimes spending hours just to scale a few hundred feet of cliff-face.  Pessimism starts to set in.  Ava continues to conjure stone bunkers for the group to rest in each night.  On this night though, she sets her bunker at the base of a tall outcropping that just happens to be the roost of a massive, roc-sized avian called (in a translation from the original Shoanti) a “thunderbird.”  Bolts of lightning and heavy winds surround the thunderbird, forcing the adventurers to flee their original campsite and set up another one several hundred yards away.

 

[28 Pharast 4708]

 

In the morning, Ava thinks deeply about the vast array of magicks she can draw upon to speed the group’s journey towards Xin-Shalast, and realizes that one in particular will make the trip a trivial thing: by turning everyone lighter than air, they can float along magical winds at tremendous speeds!  No longer need they be hampered by difficult terrain or limited visibility.  An experiment with the spell proves incredibly successful, as the adventurers cover more distance in a single hour than would have with days of laborious climbing through the rugged Kodar range.  The western branch of the Kazaron terminates in a vast, icy swamp.  As the adventurers get closer to it, both Kang and Ava feel an uncanny sense of dislocation, as if they’re venturing into an area only loosed moored to the material plane.  The group decide to retreat outside the swamp and set up camp for the night.

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

Director's Commentary

The DC to break the wendigo's hold on Jinkatsyu was very high, but Ava persisted with multiple castings of the necessary spell until she finally made it.

I thought the ghosts' spiritual struggle was a bit cheesy and fell flat, and there really wasn't much for the PCs to do besides watch.

I was wondering when or if that horror tree would ever get triggered!

Ava discovering wind-walking sped up this portion of the chapter dramatically.  I just don't know how groups without high-level full casters would make it through the extreme terrain and weather hazards.  It would definitely take a lot of preparation and patience!

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 4-11: "The Disappeared" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I played through The Disappeared via play-by-post with my go-to Iconic, Quinn the Investigator.  Season Four PFS scenarios have a (well-deserved) reputation for really ramping up the combat difficulty, but I didn’t find that an issue at all in this one.  It’s fair to say that combat itself takes a back seat in The Disappeared, and instead characters who specialise in deception, stealth, and smooth

talking get their time in the spotlight.  The plot’s interesting and original, and the gameplay experience is very different than the norm.  I really enjoyed it, and I strongly recommend it.

SPOILERS

Zarta Dralneen, the very . . . memorable . . . Chelish liaison to the Pathfinder Society has disappeared!  Or, perhaps more accurately, she has been disappeared.  Worried about the fate of the secrets she has about the Society, Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin calls on the PCs to discover what happened to her, where she is, or if she’s even still alive.  It’s clear the government of Cheliax knows something, as they’ve taken to denying she ever existed in the first place!  So Valsin tasks the PCs with infiltrating the Chelish Embassy in Absalom during an evening gala to search for clues.  Their cover will be as “Pathfinders with information about Sargava to sell to the ambassador,” and that should get them as far as the waiting room.  Valsin explains that he’s been able to get Amara Li an invitation to the gala, and she’ll be able to keep the ambassador busy for an hour, and that’s all the time the Pathfinders will have to slip out of the waiting room, search for clues to Zarta’s fate, and return to the waiting room before the ambassador turns up and starts getting suspicious.

How this works mechanically is that the PCs are, quite literally, on the clock.  They have sixty minutes in-game for their search, and various actions take different specified amounts of time, with the GM given discretion to account for PC actions that haven’t been accounted for.  Drawing the attention of embassy staff by being clumsy with stealth or disguises results in one “strike” each time it happens, and the group only gets a certain number of strikes before the gig is up and they’ve been discovered.  The GM is encouraged to be transparent with the PCs about how much time they have left and how many strikes they’ve accumulated, as this encourages some great risk vs reward role-playing about how to proceed because there’s often a cautious but slower option compared to a faster but more noticeable option on how to proceed.

This may all sound a bit abstract, but it all works well in practice.  For example, after they’ve slipped out of the waiting room, the PCs need to traverse a long hallway bustling with servants without being noticed.  They can take their time and wait for a pause in activity (a Perception check, with each attempt taking 2 minutes) or just stride down like they belong there (a Bluff check that only takes 1 minute).  Failing either check lands the group a strike.  Not every option is as binary as that, and there’s lot of fun to be had with the various ideas PCs might come up with to get where they want to go—Zarta’s personal quarters.

The description of Zarta’s quarters is perfectly lascivious, fitting the character to a T.  One of the only two mandatory combats in the session takes place here, as the rooms are guarded by summoned devils.  Zarta had some brief notice that she was about to be taken into custody by Chelish internal security, so she arranged for some clues to be left for anyone coming to help her later.  The clues take the form of some messages encoded in a basic substitution cipher, and I like the added touch that if players attempt to decode it, every minute they take in real time is deducted from the sixty minute total they have in game! 

The clues should lead the PCs into embassy’s ventilation system which, as we all know from myriad spy movies, are the perfect way to travel.  The vents then exit into the embassy’s records room which is full of filing cabinets arranged by subject matter.  Various skill checks are used here to pinpoint what happened to Zarta, with each attempt taking a certain amount of time.  By putting together various pieces of evidence, the PCs can conclude that Zarta was framed for espionage by a Chelish rival named Tancred Desimire, arrested, and imprisoned at the Hellknight fortress of Citadel Vraid outside of Korvosa! (there’s a sort of silly fight against animated chairs in the records room, which I think was inserted just to satisfy some notion of a minimum number of combats per scenario).

 Armed with the information, the PCs then need to reverse course and see if they can make it back to the waiting room in time.  If they fail, or if they accumulate too many strikes, they then have to battle successively difficult waves of Chelish security forces until they either get captured, surrender, or make a dramatic escape by something like crashing out a window!

As I said, the plot of The Disappeared is certainly an original one.  I like that some rarely-used skills (like Disguise) really get a chance to shine, and the ticking-clock mechanism keeps things exciting. I really enjoyed the scenario, and I imagine there’s a follow-up where the PCs have to try to rescue Zarta from Citadel Vraid.  This is definitely one worth playing, especially for PCs who are more than just hack n’ slashers.

Starfinder: "Alien Archive 2" [RPG]

With the Alien Archive 2, Paizo introduces another 65 species (plus variations) to the Starfinder universe.  The book is very similar in nature to the first Alien Archive.  Each species gets a two-page spread with some gorgeous, full-colour artwork, and many entries include little bonus gameplay elements such as new pieces of technology that PCs might get their hands on.  Because Starfinder stat blocks are relatively short, there’s a lot of room for background and description of each of the species.  Obviously, I can’t go through them all here, but there’s a lot more I found interesting and fun than there were ones I thought needed work.  Things like bodysnatcher slimes, dreamers, glitch gremlins, plupex demons, and velstracs are all worthwhile additions to the game in different ways.  GMs who liked the first Alien Archive will likely be happy with what they find in this one.

Players, of course, will be most interested in the sixteen new playable races.  Ready?  There’s aasimar, bolide, damai, embri, ghoran, hobgoblin, kanabo, orc, osharu, pahtra, phentomite, quorlu, tiefling, trox, uplifted bear, and vlaka.  Some of these are familiar to fantasy fans (aasimars, hobgoblins, orcs, and tieflings), some are brand new concepts (embri, phentomites, etc.), and some are Starfinder versions of “animal people” (pahtras are cat people, uplifted bears are . . . bear people, vlaka are wolf people, etc.).  The last category in particular will thrill a lot of fans, even though it’s not really my thing.

We shouldn’t overlook the appendices, as they help define the characteristics of the different species and give GMs some room to play.  Most of the appendices here reprint and supplement the appendices from the first Alien Archive, but there’s one important new one.  Appendix 3 presents eight pages of rules on polymorphing and introduces it as a spell option at each level for mystics and technomancers.  The rules are very detailed, but I *really* like how the shape has to be predetermined (when the spell is selected by levelling up) so there’s not a ton of recalculation in the middle of a session.

My recommend would be that if you’ve run or played Starfinder for a while and are getting pretty familiar with what it has to offer, buying Alien Archive 2 would be a good way to introduce some fresh characters and threats.  Like the first one, it is pricy for the relatively-slim page count, and that should be a factor to consider.

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 105 [RPG]

[23 Pharast 4708 continued]

 

Disaster has struck the Heroes of Varisia!  Two of their group are dead, killed by the explosive death throes of a frost worm.  And now, swirling winds, heavy snow, and an unearthly keening presage the coming of the wendigo!  The survivors—Erik, Jinkatsyu, and Morgiana—rush back towards the comparative safety of the Vekkers’ cabin.  But before they get far, they see two massive shapes in front of them, looming out of the blizzard.  The desperate adventurers know they’re not capable of surviving another fight, and decide to try to dodge past them.  But as they get closer, a booming voice calls out in the Giant tongue—a language that Morgiana happens to speak—and the menacing shapes resolve into a pair of taiga giants: a younger female named Cirdassa and an imposing shaman named Tanaq Mammoth-Eater.  Tanaq explains in his stilted way that his tribe’s ancestral spirits have foreseen the coming of the wendigo on this day, and that there is a chance it can be destroyed forever.  There’s little chance for conversation, however, as the wendigo keens again—and this time, it’s so close that panic sets in and the adventurers flee headlong for the cabin.

They’re lucky to find their way through the harsh terrain and limited visibility, and duck inside just as the wendigo is ready to set upon them.  The roof suddenly falls in as a hideous shape with the head of a feral elk and legs that end in blackened, burnt stumps crashes through.  The flying creature sweeps Erik into its claws and hurtles up into the sky, releasing him from great height!  But Erik’s angelic wings allow him to glide down to safety.  Back on the ground, Tanaq calls out a challenge, but the wendigo ignores him, crashing through another part of the roof to land next to Jinkatsyu.  But instead of attacking, the wendigo only stares deeply into the kitsune’s tortured soul and delivers a promise from mind to mind: “You are me.”  Too large to fit into the cabin, Tanaq jumps onto the roof and stabs down into the hole created by the wendigo, striking deeply with his enchanted spear.  The other giant, Cirdassa, tries to get an angle from the doorway, and with the adventurers joining in, they seem to have it surrounded!  It claws and bites in a vicious fury before suddenly turning into mist and floating away on the winds.

The sudden winter storm quickly dissipates.  Tanaq, who barely survived the onslaught of the wendigo’s attacks, takes one look at Jinkatsyu and says “The wendigo has marked him with its curse—he will be dead by dawn with the creature unslain—and it will not return once driven away.”  Jinkatsyu, exhausted from lack of sleep and another gruelling battle, takes the news bitterly and isolates himself from the others.  Erik asks the taiga giants if they can help return the deceased Kang and Ava to life.  Tanaq says that their valiant souls deserve a return to mortal life, but that the journey back from

Few dangers in the north

 compare to the dread wendigo . . .

the beyond may find them in a new shell.  Erik opines that Kang certainly wouldn’t want to be anything other than what he was, but that Ava probably wouldn’t mind.  Tanaq says the ritual can be conducted at the new day’s dawning.  He and Cirdassa disappear into the distant treeline to commune with the spirits, while the others rest after their day’s ordeal.

 

For Jinkatsyu, it is the longest, darkest night of his life.  The fate that awaits him should he succumb to the curse is one far worse than death—as he’ll become a monstrous thing akin to the wendigo, constantly hungering for sentient flesh.  But Morgiana and Erik offer no comfort, callously trading routine quips with each other as their companion is left locked in a storage room.  Somehow, though, the swashbuckler finds the inner fortitude to survive for one more day.  But he knows that, without a miracle, it will be his last.

 

[24 Pharast 4708]

 

The adventurers wake with headaches, nausea, and fatigue.  Without Ava’s or Kang’s magicks, the mountain altitude has taken its toll overnight. The survivors stumble out into the cold to meet with the taiga giants, camped nearby.  After a lengthy ritual, Tanaq calls upon the spirit world to return Ava’s soul for another journey in the mortal realm.  Her deceased grippi body seems to melt and reform into that of a living half-elf, and Ava is back!

The cleric of Sinashakti is stunned by everything that’s happened since the battle against the frost worm.  Not only are there giants around, the wendigo has been permanently dispatched, and Kang is deceased—but she herself is suddenly taller and with unwebbed fingers!  Before she has time to compose herself, Erik tells her about Jinkatsyu’s curse and asks her to remove it.  She calls upon her divine magicks, but the curse of the wendigo is just too strong.  But, there is something else she can do: bring Kang back to life!  The tiefling returns to life in a spray of vomit.  After some initial confusion over Ava’s new form (and an off-the-cuff remark that “slimy skin was Ava’s whole personality”), he promises to make it up to her.

Tanaq is a savage shaman among his clan and wields

 his father's enchanted spear, the bloodstone impaler.

 

Later that day, as the group prepare for a return visit to the isolated mountain shelf to the north where the bones of Karivek Vekker lie, Tanaq gets Erik’s attention.  The giant says he has performed a ritual divination and the future is clear: Jinkatsyu will succumb to the wendigo’s curse at midnight.  The giant suggests Erik and his friends kill him first, and spare Jinkatsyu and everyone else the horror of an irreversible transformation into a cannibalistic spirit of pure evil.  But magic and money are always cause for optimism, and the adventurers instead decide to see if Magnimar might offer a cure for what ails Jinkatsyu .  . .

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

Director's Commentary

This was a really exciting, dark session with the desperate return to the cabin, the wendigo crashing through the roof, and Jinks honestly getting *this* close to dying and turning into a wendigo.  Not everyone in the group was on the same page with the role-playing, but overall I was happy with how the session turned out.

Cirdassa and Tanaq Mammoth-Eater were the temporary replacements for Ava's and Kang's players.  I wanted them to be able to participate in the session while waiting to see if their regular PCs could be brought back to life.  Cirdassa was a "stock" taiga giant from the Bestiary, but Tanaq Mammoth-Eater was from Giants Revisited.  He was a level 10 druid with a really cool magic spear, and (although I didn't pick him for this reason) had the ability to cast reincarnation.  I had Ava's player roll on an expanded table of possibilities to see what Ava would come back to life as, but it ended up on a pretty mundane result--half-elf.  That's dice!

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 9-10: "Signs in Senghor" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Ok, the caffeine has kicked in so it’s time to write a Pathfinder review!  I played Signs in Senghor online through play-by-post.  It didn’t make much of an impression on me, but reading through the scenario, I can see it has all the elements for a solid adventure.  It has an interesting plotline, great artwork, interesting NPCs, strong attention to detail, and some exciting bits.  Perhaps playing it a little bit at a time over the course of several weeks kept all these elements from coalescing for me.

SPOILERS!

Signs in Senghor is set in the Mwangi Expanse.  The backstory is really interesting, as it ties into the ancient cyclops empire of Ghol-Gan.  Apparently, a type of powerful evil spirit called an asura was imprisoned by the Ghol-Gan.  Now, millennia later, the seals keeping the prison intact have started to weaken and blasphemous tablets called the Twelve Rites detail a way to set the asura free.  It’s a very trite plot in a way (great evil is about to be set free and the good guys need to stop it!), but the scenario gives it an interesting spin at least.  I think the scenario must tie into some others in the season, but I haven’t played much Season 9 and can’t confirm one way or the other.

The scenario starts in the city of Eleder with a briefing by Venture-Captain Finze Bellaugh.  Bellaugh explains that the Pathfinder Society would like to expand its activities in the region.  But this is difficult due to the Aspis Consortium’s stronghold in nearby Bloodcove.  If the Society could gain influence in the city of Senghor, however, the Aspis grip over trade in the region would be weakened.  Reports have recently come in that the Aspis is conducting operations in the forbidden ruins of Boali, a city across the bay from Senghor.  So V-C Bellaugh wants the PCs to travel to Boali, find proof of Aspis activities there, and use that proof to persuade the leaders of Senghor to ally with the Pathfinder Society against them.  It might be slightly convoluted, but it all holds together.

A cool-looking Pathfinder named Mirian Raas provides the group with transport to Senghor and tells them that from there, they can take a fishing boat across the bay to Boali.  Why Raas doesn’t just drop the PCs off there, I don’t know.  A variety of skill checks allow the PCs to speed up the trip across the bay, and although they don’t know it at the time, the time it takes them impacts the difficulty of later challenges in the scenario.

Once in the ancient, ruined city of Boali, the Pathfinders will quickly pick up the trail of the Aspis Consortium.  The city is overrun by boggards, and they present the first combat encounter in the game.  Afterwards, the PCs will find a member of the Consortium named Gideon Wren who has been left behind by his fellows (in a vault containing some of the tablets of the Twelve Rites) because he’s stuck in a cunning and ultimately deadly trap!  The PCs presumably extricate Gideon from the trap in exchange for information, but how long it takes them to get him free (and how wounded he gets in the process) affects the difficulty of the next encounter.  I thought having an enemy member trapped and in need of rescue was a clever and original plot point.

But just a few minutes after getting out of the vault with Gideon, the Pathfinders encounter an enormous three-eyed winged frog beast called a mobogo (the pic verges on the silly).  This is supposed to lead to a chase scene (with the PCs getting chased), though I think the scenario needed to do a better job explaining that this was not the sort of thing that should be fought.  Anyway, there’s a good variety of skill checks and a good array of consequences depending on how well the PCs do in the chase.  The scenario incorporates a lot of attention to detail which I appreciate, but there might even be too many little bonuses and penalties to keep track of.

Once back in Senghor, Gideon can provide the name and location of his boss in the consortium—a woman named Shinri Dells.  She’s an aasimar monk/sorcerer, and fights the PCs with several low-ranking Consoritum members.  I don’t recall this fight being particular difficult or memorable.  There’s also an optional encounter if the scenario is running fast that involves a fight against some tripurasuras (a type of shapechanging lesser asura, I guess).  We didn’t do this encounter, but it’s nice for the GM to have options depending on how the game is going.

The finale is a skills challenge to try to persuade the leaders of the city to back the Pathfinder Society over the Aspis Consortium.  This plays out in a familiar way, with each leader having a distinct personality and set of skills that are useful in persuading them.  Still, I thought it was handled well.

Overall, the scenario makes use of all the core elements of gameplay: skills, role-playing, and combat.  The storyline is solid, and the setting is interesting.  It’s perhaps not outstanding, but definitely worth playing.

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 104 [RPG]

[22 Pharast 4708 continued]

 

The Heroes of Varisia continue their exploration of the Vekker Brothers’ haunted cabin, hoping to find clues as to the whereabouts of the legendary city of Xin-Shalast.  Kang uses a couple of vials of liquid fire to burn a hole through the wall of a chamber containing a mound of dwarven bones.  The master alchemist then enters to examine the bones, only to find that some of them appear to be wearing his own equipment!  An instant later, Kang believes himself surrounded by a whirling storm of shadowy forms as the cannibalized dead arise to gnaw at his flesh.  He stumbles out of the room, alive but bleeding from mysterious wounds.

 

Just as he returns, a strange knocking sound starts to echo through the cabin, seemingly to come from the lower entrance.  The adventurers huddle near the top of the shaft, taking up defensive positions, but are startled when the entire cabin seems to groan and shake!  The hammering sounds continue as spectral images of starving dwarves can be seen flittering about.  Jinkatsyu is suddenly possessed by an overwhelming hunger for sentient flesh, and tries to kill Ava with his rapier!  She makes a run for it and is badly hurt, but buys enough time to channel divine power to drive the haunted remnants away.  Jinkatsyu returns to his senses, having been spared the torment of actually feeding on an ally, but it’s clear the detrimental effects of the possession remain.

Morgiana opens the door to check on the blizzard and is startled to see a single ghostly dwarf manifest.  His facial features are curiously indistinct, and although he speaks, his lips barely move:  “You . . . you are alive?  You do not hunger?  Ah . . . this is what I sense in your blood.  Greed.  You seek the City of Greed.  You should abandon your quest, lest you end up like me.  Cold.  Dead.  Eaten.  But I suspect you cannot be swayed.  Know then that I know the way to Xin-Shalast.  I can show you the way, but
only if you bring me my brother.  He died on a ledge in the mountains a mile’s walk north from this cabin.  I can feel his soul out there, still hungry, still insane.  Bring his bones to me so that I might reconcile with him.  Once he is at rest, I will show you the way so that I might rest as well . . .”  The vision fades, and Morgiana rushes back inside to share what she’s seen with her teammates.

 

Although Jinkatsyu argues that the group shouldn’t rest in such a cursed place, the others are insistent that it’s safer inside than out in the blizzard.  They fortify the bunkroom and everyone tries to sleep.  Jinkatsyu, however, tosses and turns as terrible nightmares of feasting on Ava’s flesh wreaks havoc on his state of mind.  Strangely enough, Ava has a corresponding dream—of being Jinkatsyu’s victim.

 

[23 Pharast 4708]

 

 Morning finds Jinkatsyu sweaty and bedraggled, having gained little rest.  Ava shares the contents of her dream, saying it’s best to have everything out in the open.  Jinkatsyu says he’s dangerous and can’t trust himself, but Ava promises that the fiend in their nightmares is not the real Jinkatsyu.

 

The group set off through the rocky, snowy terrain, glad that the previous day’s blizzard has subsided.  Erik spots an old, disused trail that matches the ghost’s directions.  Even a mile’s journey across the treacherous landscape takes much of the morning, though Morgiana’s harness of magical wings allows her to soar effortlessly above the others.  Following the trail requires ascending a difficult cliff face, and more magicks are brought to bear to get everyone to the top.  Although natural wilderness competence is often lacking in the Heroes of Varisia, sheer magical power allows them to overcome most obstacles.

The trail ends at an uneven shelf of rubble and rocks covered with ice and packed snow.  A thin fog hovers just above the ground, but the adventurers notice the tops of about a dozen gravestones protruding out of the mist.  Kang’s excellent vision allows him to spot the remnants of an old fire pit, and, laying near it, a corpse frozen solid and preserved by the cold mountain air: broken and mangled as if it had fallen from a great height, its legs end in charred, blackened stumps.

But before further investigation is possible, everyone can feel a great rumbling underneath them.  Instants later, a huge, gaping maw pushes its way out of the packed snow, followed by a tubular body almost 35 feet long, exhaling a punishing gust of freezing cold!  And somehow things get worse, as almost simultaneously, a spectral image arises from the frozen body on the ground, its ghostly mouth filled with fangs that drip streamers of blood that fade away to mist before striking the ground!  The first creature, known in the north as a frost worm, almost cuts Jinkatsyu in half with a terrible bite

before tossing him aside like a rag doll.  It breathes out a storm of hail that nearly batters Erik to death.  But the adventurers rally and focus all their efforts on the worm, killing it only to pay a terrible price: in its death throes, the worm literally explodes and levels everything around it.  Although Jinkatsyu somehow manages to dive for cover and Erik and Morgiana endure the blast, Ava and Kang are killed instantly.

And the ghostly presence of Karivek Vekker still lusts for flesh!  It attacks Erik, and only through the superhuman efforts of the aasimar and his surviving allies is the ghost temporarily dissipated.  But now that they’re at their weakest, a final horror emerges: the clouds darken, the wind begins swirling with hints of a new blizzard, and the keening of the wendigo cuts through the mountains like a knife.

 

Only during the first assault on the Kreeg Clanhold in Hook Mountain has this epic quest to stop Karzoug been so close to utter failure—will the remaining heroes yet find a way to survive?

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

Director's Commentary

Swashbucklers have few weaknesses, but low Will saves can be one of them.  This session we see Jinks possessed, and things get dark!  Some really good role-playing by both him and Ava though.

The ghost plot (needing the bones to be returned in exchange for info on Xin-Shalast) was a bit trite in my opinion.

That exploding worm was a real shock!  And it was amazing the survivors managed to fend off the ghost that ambushed them afterwards.  Things got really dire, and I was pleasantly surprised it didn't end in a TPK.

Pathfinder Compleat Encounter: "The Liberation of Prince Thorgrim" [RPG]

SPOILERS

I recently ran The Liberation of Prince Thorgrim for my "Roots of Golarion" campaign.  This product hails all the way from 2005 and is part of the short-lived "Compleat Encounter" line that consisted of a short adventure, stats for three NPCs, double-sided gridded tile cards, and three unpainted pewter miniatures.  (Apparently, they were also sold in a variation that didn't include the miniatures, and that's the version I have for this one.)

The story is a simple one: a corrupt sheriff has pinned a murder (that he himself conducted) on a completely innocent dwarf ambassador from a nearby kingdom.  The dwarf has been locked up in the sheriff's jail, guarded by a powerfully obese gaoler.  The PCs' mission is to sneak or break into the jail, free the prisoner, and (ideally) find proof of his innocence.  The adventure is pitched at Level 8, but there are instructions on how to scale it up and down for different groups.  A few basic adventure hooks are included to explain why the PCs could get involved, and I really like a variation that has the prisoner be a PC whose player has to be absent for the session--a great way to the players who do show up something important to do while providing a natural pause to whatever ongoing storyline they're involved in.

The gridded flip-tiles are designed that one side shows a nice, clean jail, and the other shows a filthy, squalid place.  This adds a bit of reusability to them.  It's only four cards though, so don't except something like a full Pathfinder Map Pack.

Regarding the NPCs, stats are provided for the sheriff, the gaoler, and the dwarf prisoner.  The sheriff is fine (and is given some background), but the gaolor is my favorite--the artwork is great, and he has a memorable personality.  There's probably not much value in having the dwarf's stats, and I think it might have been better to conceptualise him as a character more suited to being a cohort or follower.  I can't speak to the quality of the miniatures, as mentioned above.

Overall, I thought this was fine.  It probably provided more like an hour's diversion than an entire session's gameplay, and I always find it cumbersome to flip through the cards to figure out which ones I need (the numbering is often confusing).  On the whole though, it does what it sets out to do, and it is handy to have these little encounters ready to run right out of the box.

The Shadow War of Hawkman (Ltd. 1985) (DC Comics) [COMICS]

Hawkman is one of those characters that somehow work even though it’s not immediately apparent why.  After all, his only super power is flight, and that’s a dime a dozen.  His costume is red shorts, green tights, and funny chest straps.  He’s a policeman from another world with access to futuristic weapons, but mostly hits bad guys with a medieval morningstar.  It’s easy to imagine the character having made a couple of appearances during the Silver Age and then being largely forgotten.

Yet although he’s never become a top-tier DC super hero, Hawkman’s second-tier status has endured for decades.  He’s been a long-standing member of the Justice League, appeared in the Super Powers cartoon, and even made the team in the Legends of Tomorrow tv show.  And all despite being saddled with one of the more convoluted backstories (at least in the 1980s-1990s; things have probably smoothed out nowadays with the New 52, etc.).

Hawkman has never been one of my favourite characters, but I’ve always liked his 1985 limited series The Shadow War of Hawkman.  It’s an attempt to take the best version of the character, discard some Silver Age baggage, and set the character on a new course for the future.  The timing, though, is unfortunate, as Crisis would soon come and Hawkman would go through all sorts of complications.  But as a standalone series, these four issues are really solid, helped by clean, colourful artwork and a real love of the character displayed by the writer, Tony Isabella.

Issue # 1 sums up Hawkman’s backstory: Katar Hol and his wife Sheyara are police officers from the planet Thanagar who have come to earth and lived with a local police commissioner while “undercover” as museum curators named Carter and Shera Hall.  The story starts with a local cat burglar named Mousey is forced by aliens to steal anti-gravity devices from the Hall’s secret storeroom.  When Hawkman and Hawkwoman intervene, Mousey tries to confess but then he and Hawkwoman are seemingly disintegrated!  It’s a good cliffhanger.  The banter between Carter and Shera is charming, and Carter is very different than the right-wing jerk he’s sometimes portrayed as in later stories.

Issue # 2 reveals that the aliens behind the theft are fellow Thanagarians who are engaging in secret acts of sabotage to pave the way for earth’s invasion!  Grieving over his wife’s apparent death, Katar reveals his real identity to Captain Frazier of the police.  A really good text page by Tony Isabella tries to make sense of (by-then) twenty-five years of Hawkman continuity, keeping (if re-interpreting) most of it, while frankly discarding some of it.  As much as I hate setting resets in general, you could really see how much Crisis was needed for the DC Universe.

Issue # 3 really shows off how great the colouring works on the type of paper used in the mid-1980s.  I’m nostalgic!  The invading thanagarians want the anti-grav tech they had stolen because Thanagar itself has had a precipitous decline in technology—I didn’t get all of this, but it sounds like a sort of “Dark Ages” situation.  Anyway, it turns out that Hawkwoman is alive!  Another woman at the museum, Mavis Trent, had donned her costume as a joke or something and she’s the one who got disintegrated.  Katar and Sheyara decide they need to keep the madness on their homeworld secret, but also need to stop the invaders.  So, they infiltrate JLA headquarters to erase some data (I’m fuzzy on this part) and fight Aquaman and Elongated Man.  They succeed, but the bad guys have stolen their spaceship!

In Issue # 4, the invaders have used an important device in the Hawkman stories, the absorbacon, to blackmail all sorts of people in key leadership positions on Earth.  But Hawkman and Hawkwoman teleport to their own commandeered ship to repel boarders and, to save Detroit(!), self-destruct their own ship.  Some would wonder if it was a worthwhile trade.  I kid because I love.  There’s an ominous ending: “The war has just begun.”

Overall, it’s really good, and makes me like Hawkman.  Someday, I’ll have to see what else I can dig out featuring the character from this time period.

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 103 [RPG]

[20 Pharast 4708 continued]

The adventurers’ journey to find the mining camp of the Vekker Brothers, dwarves who disappeared decades ago, continues.  Although the journey won’t be easy, the Vekkers’ claims to have discovered the path to Xin-Shalast is the best lead the Heroes of Varisia have found.  Having teleported to Urglin, crossed the Cinderlands, and found the Kazaron River, the adventurers camp in the foothills of the Kodar Mountains.

That night, Erik and Jinkatsyu are on watch when they suddenly realize that someone is watching them!  A muscular giant with dark grey skin and fiery red hair, dressed in furs and carrying a spear, stands like a statue and silently gazes upon them.  The two sentinels awake their companions, and Kang remembers reading an old entry in a Pathfinder’s log about encountering so-called taiga giants: nomadic hunters and gatherers who have a strong spiritual connection to their ancestors and to the land.  Kang

addresses it in the Giant language, as does Morgiana.  The two adventurers receive only curt replies, indicating that the taiga giant perceives that the adventurers have intruded into its tribe’s territory.  The adventurers ask for permission to traverse the land, but Kang’s arrogance does the negotiations no favour, and the giant makes it clear that the adventurers must turn back or face violence.  To avert hostilities, Ava uses minor teleportation magic to carry everyone several hundred feet away.

[21 Pharast 4708]

The party continues marching, with Morgiana and Jinkatsyu finding it difficult to keep up through the harsh terrain and thinning air.  But magic keeps them from flagging, and by nightfall the adventurers reach a point where the river splits into an eastern and a western branch.  A quick spell allows Ava to ask Veznutt Parooh which branch to take, and they receive an answer: the eastern.

[22 Pharast 4708]

At midday, the party’s progress is halted by the appearance of another taiga giant in their path.  Whether it’s the same one or a different one, they can’t tell.  The giant solemnly calls upon the travellers to turn back, lest they incur the wrath of a malevolent spirit that haunts the area ahead.  According to the giant, the evil spirit flies on the wind, howls in the night, feasts on the flesh of all living things, and turns kin against kin.  In the Giant tongue, the spirit’s name is synonymous with a dread curse . . . “wendigo”!

But the group has come too far to turn back now, despite the ominous portent of what lies ahead.  Ava again uses spellcraft to teleport the group past the taiga giant.  The group follows the Kazaron for a few more miles, and then they spy their goal: the Vekkers’ cabin.  Sitting in a low valley, the cabin is perched on the edge of a 60’ high cliff, with a small shed at the base of the cliff connected to the cabin via an enclosed wooden shaft.  The profusion of lichens growing on its timber walls make it clear the cabin is decades old, but it still looks sturdy—dwarves craft things to last.  Near the shed at the bottom of the cliff is a pile of fine black sand underneath a chute, and, apart from a dead, sagging pine tree, the whole area is devoid of plant life.  Even from a distance, the cabin has the look of a place long abandoned.  As the rugged adventurers take in the sight, they hear, for the first time, an awful, uncanny keening carried on the wind.

The adventurers waste no time in descending to the valley.  The door to the lower shed is burst open, and most of the adventurers go inside, with Morgiana watching the perimeter outside.  Much of what the adventurers see is what they expected: a plank floor, rusted mining tools, decaying garments, and dust everywhere.  Erik pokes his face through a curtain and is startled to see a figure hunched over in the corner of the room!  It looks like a balding dwarf with gold dust thick in his beard, stuffing fistfuls of the stuff into his mouth!  “You!” he shouts at Erik—“You have to try this . . . It’s so delicious!”  Erik feels an unnatural urge to join the dwarf, but he snaps out of it and shakes his head to clear his vision.  The dwarf and the pile of gold dust are gone.  Instead, there’s only a pile of black sand next to the chute that projects through the wall to another pile, outside.

Morgiana suddenly comes inside, pulling the door shut behind her.  She explains that a blizzard is moving in on the cabin at an incredible pace!  Meanwhile, Kang identifies the black dust as containing high concentrations of arsenic, and warns everyone to be careful around it.  Alerted by Erik’s experience that the cabin is probably haunted, the adventurers decide to climb the stairs quickly and hope there are clues about the brothers’ discovery of Xin-Shalast in the portion of the structure that lies at the top of the cliff.  But once they near the top, the stairs suddenly tip over to the side!  The cunning dwarven trap sends Morgiana plummeting almost fifty feet to the bottom of the shaft, though the others manage to grab handholds and hang on.  But the danger isn’t over, as a chain and bucket is animated by dark energies to become a lethal weapon!  Ava channels the light of Sinashakti to drive the evil spirits away, and the chain goes limp.

The upper portion of the cabin contains a bunkroom, a small living area, storage closets, and more.  From the personal items still present, it’s clear that the place was not abandoned with foresight.  As the search continues, disturbing visions and feelings infiltrate the minds of the adventurers: hunger pangs as if on the brink of starvation, mild paranoia that the others have become cannibals, and more.  Using a magical ring that allows her to see through walls, Morgiana discerns that in one room is a pile of bones.  As the storm begins raging in full force outside and the whistling of the wind carries through the cabin, the adventurers decide they have no choice: they’re going to have to enter the room and investigate.

Having found this forlorn cabin in windswept mountains far from civilization, will the Heroes of Varisia survive the terrors that await and discover the path to legendary Xin-Shalast?  Or do the warnings of the taiga giants and the unearthly keening foretell a far worse fate?

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

Director's Commentary

The taiga giants were just a random encounter, but they actually ended up being pretty important.  In this session, they give the warning about the wendigo and help establish a feeling of dread, and in later sessions they take on even greater importance.  Kang's attempt at diplomacy failed miserably, as the player intentionally kept the arrogant character from being good at social skills--a nice touch.

We start to see some of the effects of altitude and cold weather come into play, but Ava had the spell resources to keep the party moving.  Without her, they would have had to invest in some magical items to proceed, I think.

We get the first taste of the haunts in the Vekkers' cabin.  I thought this part of the adventure path told a good, creepy story and I was really happy with how it turned out in gameplay.