Pathfinder Tales: "Lord of Penance" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

Lord of Penance is a four-part Pathfinder short story available as free web fiction or as an ePub download here.  Set in the Puddles District of Absalom, it's a grittier tale--there's no epic quests or dragons here.  But the story is really well done and enjoyable.  It's hard to say much more without spoilers, but I'd recommend it.

SPOILERS

The main characters in Lord of Penance are Sefu, a Wave Rider of Absalom, and his best friend, a gillman named Olhas.  Sefu's sister has fallen in with a stereotypical cult, and has started worshipping a would-be new god named Domitian, "The Lord of Penance", by engaging in begging and prostitution.  When Sefu tries to pull his sister away from the cult, it's seen as a veritable kidnapping and bystanders intervene--a nice twist.  Sefu and Olhas confront Domitian, and the story has an excellent depiction of how charm magic (and resistance) "feels" in an in-universe sense.  Sufficie it to say, the cover art is a major spoiler.  Overall though, it's a solid, fun tale.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: "Aquatic Adventures" [RPG]

 It's fair to say that aquatic combat is complex and cumbersome to handle in Pathfinder: dealing with the shift to three-dimensions is hard to track on a grid, there are special rules for different types of weapons, the constant need for Swim checks to maneuver (or avoid sinking), tracking of how long a character can hold their breath, and much more.  If it's a situation that only pops up on isolated occasions (diving to the bottom of a pool in a dungeon, for example), many GMs will just handwave it.  But for campaigns set in or around rivers, lakes, and oceans, hand-waving the aquatic combat rules makes aquatic encounters less special, aquatic monsters less threatening, and character options designed for such a situation irrelevant. 

Aquatic Adventures does a great job explaining and supplementing the rules for aquatic encounters as presented in the Core Rulebook.  I'd consider it indispensable for adventures set in places like the River Kingdoms or for something like the Ruins of Azlant adventure path.  Only about a third of the book is rules "crunch", with most of the chapters devoted to crunch-free (but extremely flavourful!) descriptions of the different oceans and seas of Golarion.  I'll go through the chapters one by one, but first, we have to give praise to that amazing cover--that's the sort of thing that should be a poster.  The art is reprinted on the inside back cover, while the inside front cover is a sort of "in-game" map showing the different oceans and seas in the game world (it's startling to remember just how small the Inner Sea region is compared to the rest of Golarion we rarely see).  The overall layout and interior art of the book is very well done.

INTRODUCTION (2 pages)

This is a short, lyrical overview of oceans and their dangers.  There's nothing wrong with it, but it's inessential.

ANTARKOS OCEAN (4 pages)

This is the great southern ocean of Golarion.  The name is a bit too much on the nose, because the "Antarkos Ocean" has freezing waters, the danger of icebergs, fog, and so forth.  The description is very well done, and makes the prospects of exploring the ocean and the ice sheet of the south pole the sort of thing to fill PCs with dread.  There are some great bits of setting lore, like a mysterious race of dream-powered giants and a colony of kalo.  In addition, there are tons of great adventure hooks to explain why the PCs would want to come here in the first place.  

ARCADIAN OCEAN (4 pages)

The Arcadian Ocean separates the continent of Avistan (where most Pathfinder adventures are set) from the rarely-seen continent of Arcadia.  The ocean here is filled with pirates, submerged ruins, and lost magics.  This is where Ruins of Azlant takes place.  Again, a lot of great adventure hooks to explain why PCs would try to cross such treacherous waters.

EMBARAL OCEAN (4 pages)

The Embaral Ocean is a "marine desert", which I didn't realise was a real thing.  There's no aquatic life at all, nor is there any wind or currents to make journeys easier.  It's an interesting idea in concept, though I'd have to see some adventures using it to really get a sense of whether it would work in practice.

OBARI OCEAN (4 pages)

The Obari Ocean borders Casmaron (and Vudra), and features occasional terrible storms.  At this point, I notice that it's hard for the writers to make descriptions of different oceans sound interesting--"water be water", after all.  There's something about an ice forest which sounds like a cool concept.

OKAIYO OCEAN (4 pages)

This is a pretty standard ocean, distinctive only by the presence of a mighty sahuagin empire.

GOLARION'S SEAS (18 pages)

This section includes two pages each on the following seas: the Castrovin, the Fever, the Inner, the Ivory, the Shining, the Sightless, the Songil, the Steaming, and the Valashmai.  Each entry includes a brief summary, then longer passages on characteristics, denizens, treasures, and a notable geographical feature.  It might sound bland, but there's a lot of exciting ideas here like the Razored Labyrinth of the Castrovin Sea (a maze of rocks sure to sink any ship that tries to pass through without a map) or the epic kaiju (and more) of the Valashmai Sea.  Devotees of the Inner Sea will find a bit on different countries' navies.

AQUATIC RULES (22 pages)

As I mentioned in the opening, this section is indispensable.  It contains clarifications and additions for things like buoyancy, fighting underwater, how various types of spells function, Perception and Survival checks, drowning, pressure and temperature, and more.  If you want to do underwater combat well, this section will answer most of your questions.  It contains some advice on "thinking in three dimensions", though I'd suggest this may be a trial-and-error thing for most groups.  The section also includes several new archetypes and class options--most of them are really good at making underwater exploration and combat more feasible for PCs.  For example, there's an "aquanaut" archetype for fighters, an "underwater" combat style for rangers, lots of good mundane equipment, the "aquadynamic focus" feat, and some great spells like free swim and lead anchor (potentially really nasty!).  Melee characters will appreciate the underwater special weapon ability.  There's a ton of new options here, and the vast majority are solid in terms of power versus cost.

And that's Aquatic Adventures.  It's one of those books that's easy to overlook until some goober falls off a bridge, tips over a canoe, or decides to become a pirate--but when you need it, you really need it.

Pathfinder Tales: "Crusader Road" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

Bearing the Goblin Works logo, Crusader Road was a novel designed to tie-in with Paizo's attempt to launch the Pathfinder Online MMORPG.  The book is set in and around the location for that (ll-fated) game, Thornkeep--a small holding in the River Kingdoms.  Novelistic tie-ins to other media projects can be real mixed bags, but Crusader Road is legit!  The book really sets the atmosphere for Thornkeep and the mysterious forest around it, Echo Wood.  The plot is interesting and intriguing--definitely something different than a traditional Pathfinder story.  It is fair to say that it's so different it doesn't always feel very "Pathfinder" in terms of bringing gameplay mechanics into the story or involving other bits of setting lore, and could have been almost a standalone fantasy novel.  But despite that, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the novel.  I also *really* wish I had read it before running the Thornkeep adventure module as it would have helped to flesh out several NPCs.

SPOILERS

The novel starts out strong, telling how a disgraced noblewoman from Ustalav named Lady Tyressa has been practically exiled by being sent to found a new community called Silverlake in the wilderness near Thornkeep.  But Thornkeep's ruler, Baron Blackshield, is a classic jerk and isn't going to make things easy.  The novel is told from different points of view: Lady Tyressa herself and her son Jerrad, who starts to develop sorcerous powers linked to the fey of Echo Wood.  I love the book's treatment of Echo Wood--the fey haunting it ensure it's creepy, terrifying, confusing, and occasionally whimsical all at the same time.  The evolution of Lady Tyressa and her family from courtly sophisticates to rugged wilderness survivors is told well.  Other elements from the Thornkeep modul
e's description of the town make appearances, including a Muldoon, goblins, and the Wolfmane barbarians.

The book also features some great action scenes, with a great scene of fragile Silverlake rallying to stave off a goblin and ogre assault.  Behind the attack is another novel from Ustalav, Baron Creelisk, who pretends to be helpful while secretly scheming to steal everything out from under Lady Tyressa's feet.  Baron Creelisk has a plan (admitted far-fetched and convoluted) to raise some sort of undead army from the nearby haunted village of Mosswater to attack Silverlake.  I got a bit confused on that plot element, but didn't mind overall because the conclusion is also downright exciting.

Crusader Road does a lot with its main characters, allowing them to grow naturally through their experiences.  I wasn't really expecting much from the book--after all, both Pathfinder Online and the Thornkeep module weren't exactly stellar.  But this novel is definitely worth reading.

Pathfinder Module: "Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale was the first Paizo wilderness-themed adventure in its GameMastery series of modules using the D&D 3.5 rules.  As the title indicates, the adventure takes place in Bloodsworn Vale: a largely "untamed" wilderness claimed by Korvosa.  I know some GMs integrate it into a run of Curse of the Crimson Throne, but I ran it as part of my "Roots of Golarion" campaign that ties together scattered pre-Pathfinder RPG adventures.  Anyway, the long and short of it is that Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale was a blast and proved the favourite of everyone at the table.  The structure of the module encourages a lot of free-form exploration and influence over the setting, but with a larger overall story so it's not a 100% sandbox.  It's a style of adventure that was popular in the early days of D&D but that we don't see so much in an era of heavy railroading.  I definitely recommend this one, especially if your players have gotten tired of dungeon crawls or feeling like they're just acting out the plot points in a novel someone else wrote. 

SPOILERS

The premise of the module is pretty straightforward: King Arabasti II of Korvosa has decided to exploit the potential of Bloodsworn Vale by establishing a trade route through it.  He's charged a trusted knight, Sir Tolgrith, with oversight of a permanent encampment called Fort Thorn and a single goal: get a road built.  As the adventure begins, Fort Thorn has been built and about half of the road has been constructed, but recently, construction has been delayed due to various problems.  With the king expecting the road to be finished in sixty days, Sir Tolgrith has decided to advertise for adventurers to help deal with some of the obstacles his work crews have faced.  The PCs' adventure hook is the oldest around: solve problem, get rewarded.

The issue Sir Tolgrith needs immediately help with is the mysterious murder of an entire work crew and its guards.  Searchers later found the bodies, and all were missing their ears and pierced with dozens of small arrows.  Assuming the PCs take up the mission, they'll find the site of the attack and could find a couple of different clues leading them to the culprits: a group of evil fey, created for this module, called roseblood sprites.  There's a full write-up of these fey in an appendix, and I think they're really well done, with their special abilities matching their flavour and lore in a smart package.  The roseblood sprites reside in a glade and live partially underground, and, to meet with their Rose King, the PCs will have to deal with animated trees, giant bees, poison, and more.  These roseblood sprites are vicious little fey, happy to feast on human flesh.  They've been attacking the work crews to collect ears as tribute to the evil wizard on the far side of the valley who has threatened to burn down the glade (more on him later).  It all serves as a grisly, but memorable series of opening encounters, and gets the module off to a strong start.

After dealing with the Rose King, the adventure really opens up.  Sir Tolgrith has a small laundry list of problems he needs help with: a pack of owlbears living south of Fort Thorn, large spiders that have dragged a member of a work crew away, bugbears that make constant hit-and-run attacks to stymie construction of the road, a lake that mysteriously turns putrid but only for a single day each month, and more.  The PCs are also encouraged to serve as surveyors and locate a few different types of valuable resources that can be mined or harvested, and if they're successful, Fort Thorn begins to thrive and offers more goods and services for sale.  Later on, the PCs may need to negotiate with lizardfolk who feel threatened by Fort Thorn and, if diplomacy isn't successful, enjoy a mass combat against almost 100 enemies!  

The GM is given a timeline of events that starts with the PCs arrival on Day 1 and ends with King Arabasti II's emissary arriving on Day 60 to inspect the progress of the road (ending the adventure).  Although certain events trigger on particular days, for the most part the PCs are left to their devices to deal with various problems, get to know Fort Thorn, and explore the valley as they see fit.  Bloodsworn Vale is a big place, so there's lots of opportunity for wilderness encounters in the days spent away from Fort Thorn.  It all builds to classic, free-form emergent gameplay, where different groups may experience the adventure in very different ways.  Some may really take to the openness of the valley and decide to build a stronghold, others will be very devoted in seeking out every threat to Fort Thorn to make sure that road gets built on time, others will just wander around and see where each day takes them, etc.  My group, for example, loved exploring with the goal of finding particular natural resources, but also spent a couple of days of "vacation" at the lake (after clearing it of the undead responsible for its periodic putridness!).  Feeling free to go about things their own way and tackle what they want when they want can really empower players to connect to a setting.

As I said, it's not a complete sandbox, however.  The adventure formally ends after sixty days, and the PCs' are judged according to "accomplishment points" for doing different things.  The more accomplishment points they have, the more progress is made on the road and the more (or less) rewards they'll receive from Sir Tolgrith at the end.  This is not one of those modules that only plans for a happy ending--the PCs could get everything from a prison term for utter ineptitude to a knighthood for great success (and various things in between).  I like it when success or failure isn't judged by a single thing (like winning a big battle at the end) but by the cumulative evaluation of what's happened throughout the adventure.

There is a major villain in Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale--an evil sorcerer named Lord Vardak.  Vardak considers Bloodsworn Vale his domain and, several weeks into the adventure, begins sending flame drakes to raid Fort Thorn each day.  (I hadn't realised flame drakes were created specifically for this adventure; they've proved a very useful addition to the game's bestiary.)  Vardak threatens to destroy Fort Thorn utterly by unleashing the power of a (new) magic item called a seed of fire.  If the PCs want to stop that from happening, they'll need to confront Vardak in his fortress.  I thought this section of the adventure was fine, though Vardak is a pretty cliched villain and we're not offered any backstory or interesting distinguishing characteristics.  Still, I guess it's good to offer a more traditional climactic sequence (even if it need not come exactly at the end of the module).

The back matter of the module consists of the excellent write-ups I mentioned for flame drakes and roseblood sprites.  There's also a two-page description of Fort Thorn.  I wish this had been longer because, apart from a hermit, the inhabitants of this camp are the only NPCs the PCs will have to interact with throughout the entire module.  Sometimes even a little can go a long way (my group got very interested in the mention of thefts and uncovered the culprit), but more would still be better here.  As for art, I think the cover's pretty cool; the interior art is a more mixed bag, though always serviceable.  Maps are strong.  The overall design of the module is great, with plenty of sidebars, charts, and "designer notes" (tips from the writer on how to handle particular things that might arise; I love these things, and wish Paizo hadn't dispensed with them).

Although it's now almost fifteen years old, Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale really holds up.  Each group can make their own adventure, and there's plenty of room for the GM to insert new encounters and NPCs.  It's also easy to see how the campaign can continue after the module is formally completed.  I'd place this module at or near the top of the list of ones I've run, and definitely recommend it.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 5-06: "You Have What You Hold" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

I played You Have What You Hold with my Oracle of Groetus, Makras Vekker.  It features a couple of interesting story elements that don't really fit together well.  It's also not particularly challenging.  That being said, it's certainly playable, and most participants should still have an enjoyable time.

SPOILERS

You Have What You Hold ties into the Season 5 "Year of the Demon" storyline, which involves the Pathfinder Society trying to support the containment of the Worldwound.  Apparently, in earlier scenarios, the Pathfinder Society has skirmished with Razmiran, which has responded by secretly hiring bounties on all Society shipping along the Sellen River.  Several Society supply runs have been intercepted as the scenario begins, and something has to be done about it or attempts to support Mendev in containing the demons of the Worldwound will fail.  This is where the PCs come in, with a briefing by dwarf Venture-Captain Holgarin Smine in the River Kingdom's city of Tymon.  The mission is a simple but logical one: the PCs will be the bait, and when pirates attack their ship, they both repel the attack and figure out who's behind the attack and where the attacks are being launched from.  The first bit of the scenario is a (potentially) really fun and open-ended role-playing/skill exercise where the PCs try to make themselves look as inept, drunk, or otherwise harmless as possible so any lurking spies will feel encouraged to attack once the journey starts.  Best of all, the better the PCs are at looking harmless, the more they'll be underestimated and the easier it will be to survive the ambush because fewer enemy preparations and resources will be used.

The ambush encounter takes place at a bend in the river as the PCs' barge travels slowly upstream.  The pirates consist of a few CR 1/2 mooks, one or more low-level fighter/rangers, and (potentially the most dangerous threat) a druid and his alligator animal companion.  It's still a pretty easy encounter, and I think in my group the enemies were defeated before the two ships were even within "repel boarders!" range.  It's okay, but I think river piracy was handled better and more flavourfully in # 0-17: Perils of the Pirate Pact.

The location of the pirates' base can be learned through interrogation, or (conveniently) a map found aboard their ship.  The base is the manor house of an abandoned plantation in a swamp a few miles away.  I like that a variety of options and consequences are given for different ways the PCs might approach (stealth, disguise, full frontal assault, etc.).  There are several rooms in the manor house, but only a handful of occupants--more mooks plus a cleric of Besmara named Deremin.  An average group of PCs shouldn't have any troubles.  Here, they'll learn what's really going on.  Deremin is a gladiator-turned-pirate who works for one of the Blooded (elite gladiators from Tymon) named Helkit Silverbane.  Helkit has hired Deremin to target Pathfinder shipping.  Although the PCs don't yet know why Helkit is out to get them (because they don't know the connection with Razmiran), they do know something has to be done about her because she could easily hire more pirates to continue the attacks.

When the PCs get back to Tymon and discuss the matter with Venture-Captain Smine, he says there's only way one to proceed: the PCs have to publicly challenge Helkit to a gladiatorial contest in the arena and defeat her to prove to everyone that messing with the Pathfinders brings consequences.  When the PCs find Helkit, she accepts their challenge immediately and sets the terms: she and her trainees will take on the PCs as a group in the arena.  The resulting match has some potentially interesting elements (sand pits and a very stripped-down version of performance combat for small bonuses), but for the most part it plays out like any other combat wherein beating the bad guys is the only goal.

There's a lot about this "gladiator match" story element I didn't like.  First, Helkit has retired from fighting and middle-aged.  Does the law of Tymon really require her to accept a challenge from any goobers off the street no matter what?  You'd think the PCs would at least have to work their way up through the ranks to become "Blooded" themselves in order to challenge her.  Second, V-C Smine is taking a pretty huge risk in having a recently-assembled group of Pathfinders challenge what's supposed to be one of the best gladiators in all of Tymon.  It blurs the idea that Pathfinders are primarily "seekers of secrets" and not necessarily the biggest and baddest warriors around.  Third, by making victory against Helkit so likely, the aura of "The Blooded" in Tymon sort of falls apart.  If a group of random PCs with little to no teamwork can win in the gladiatorial arena, why have those schmucks been training for years?  And finally, I think if the gladiatorial nature of Tymon was going to be be a part of the scenario, it should have been the major element.  The scenario tries to mix a pirate theme with a gladiator theme, and the effect is that neither is handled well.

All in all, You Have What You Hold isn't a terrible scenario--it manages to do some interesting things.  Still, some of the storyline elements don't work and a really interesting part of the River Kingdoms (Tymon) isn't used well.  I guess I'd conclude that it's fine as long as you don't think too hard about it.

Pathfinder: "Seoni, Iconic Sorcerer T-Shirt" [RPG]

 I've had the Seoni t-shirt for a couple of years now, and one of the things I really like about it is that the color of her robes really pops against the black background.  It's a really cool illustration, with all of the usual Wayne Reynolds' detail.  The only thing I find a bit odd are Seoni's hands.  All in all though, a pretty cool shirt for a pretty cool character.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-17: "Perils of the Pirate Pact" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

I ran Perils of the Pirate Pact on its highest sub-tier for a group via play-by-post.  It's a fun, fast-paced adventure that is very much a product of the lore-light, rough-and-tumble, not-always-going-to-have-a-happy-ending missions of the early seasons.  If you like the River Kingdoms or pirates (no spoilers, given the title), this might just be the one for you.

SPOILERS

Perils of the Pirate Pact is set in the River Kingdoms.  Venture-Captain Istivil Bosk, the elderly leader of the Society's Daggermark lodge, has received an intriguing offer.  The Black Marquis (leader of a band of brigands known as the Pirate Pact) has offered Bosk an incredibly rare text called The Memoirs of the Silver Brotherhood.  But in exchange, the Black Marquis wants the Society's help.  When the PCs arrive at the (briefly described) rundown hamlet of Deadbridge, the Black Marquis explains that the text contains information about an Azlanti treasure vault deep within the Echo Wood.  He sent his most trusted lieutenants after the treasure, but only one came back alive: Lady Riverbane.  She explains that the party was beset by spiders and other abominations, and she was lucky to escape with her life.  The PCs task: accompany Lady Riverbane in retracing her steps and discover what happened to the Black Marquis' men.  

What the PCs don't know is that Lady Riverbane's responsible for the deaths of the Black Marquis' lieutenants!  She forged the "rare text", knowing the Black Marquis would send her and his other trusted men out after the treasure.  But she also arranged an ambush with a small number of ettercaps who worship at a shrine to Mazmezz (the demon lord of vermin).  Riverbane's goal was to strip the Black Marquis of his protectors so she could make a move on him, but she wasn't expecting the Pathfinder Society to be brought in--so now she has a complication (the PCs) to deal with.

There's some good descriptive text about the lazy Sellen River the PCs travel down aboard The Scrag Fisher, Lady Riverbane's ship.  It's no fun having an adventure involving pirates without a boarding action, so the first encounter starts when another band of pirates launch a surprise attack.  It's a simple premise, but handled well, with lots of opportunity for swashbuckling leaps between the ships and so forth.  One of the things I really appreciated is that there are a *lot* of enemies in the encounter--12 at high subtier.  In most Pathfinder Society scenarios, the PCs always outnumber the villains in every encounter.

After another day's journey down the river, the Pathfinders spot the Hanspur's Luck--the ship that the ill-fated expedition of the Black Marquis' men took.  No one's aboard, but there are several monstrous spiders in the partially-flooded hold.  It's a decent encounter, though CR 2 spiders (no matter how many of them) aren't going to be a challenge for a normal group of PFS PCs.  The group might find some evidence aboard that makes them suspicious of Lady Riverbane, but she should maintain enough plausible deniability to get by.

The next logical step is for the PCs to head into Echo Wood, hoping to follow the trail of the doomed expedition.  Lady Riverbane pretends to stay behind on the slip, but secretly follows the group from a distance--knowing she'll have to finish the Pathfinders off if her arachnid allies can't.  The next bit is handled a little unusually for Pathfinder Society--an unmapped labyrinth with a certain number of traps depending on how good the PCs are at making Survival checks to navigate it.  I thought it worked fine, though the traps hardly scratch at high sub-tier.  One of the traps is clever though--it covers a PC in special pheromones that attract spider swarms!

Multiple ettercaps are hiding in the shrine to Mazmezz.  Again, web-slinging ettercaps aren't really much of a threat, as any foe that can't drop a PC in a couple of rounds is likely to get squished in my experience.  The ambush by Lady Riverbane could be interesting if it really takes the PCs by surprise, but she doesn't have much firepower to back it up.  The PCs can collect The Memoirs of the Silver Brotherhood from her corpse--and probably won't even realise it's a fake! (since few PCs are going to invest in the Appraise skill).  Speaking of the book, it makes for a pretty poor Macguffin, as there's no detail in the scenario about who wrote it, what it's supposed to contain, and why it's important.  Over a decade on, I don't think there's even been any explanation of what the "Silver Brotherhood" was.  Anyway, after the final battle, there's a very brief epilogue.

One potential complication in the scenario is what to do if the PCs figure out early that Lady Riverbane is behind everything.  She's given some magical protections against divination spells, but presumably she still needs to make Bluff checks at key points (especially if the PCs ask if they can roll Sense Motive).  The scenario doesn't have anything to say on the point, and some guidance would have been a good idea.

The scenario does have a good feel--a little like Pirates of the Caribbean--as the PCs hack their way through a dark forest in search of ancient treasures, with monsters and cutthroats all around them.  I would suggest that GMs limit the PCs to just 4 or 5 to help make it more challenging.  Overall, I'd say Perils of the Pirate Pact is a good scenario--but like a lot of these early PFS scenarios, a GM should add some flesh to the skeleton.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 4-17: "Tower of the Ironwood Watch" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

I played Tower of the Ironwood Watch via play-by-post last year, using my character the Shining Knight.  It's fair to critique the scenario as a true dungeon crawl, with very little role-playing.  But that being said, it's a *good* dungeon crawl.  And a quite challenging one, as were many of these Season Four scenarios.  This isn't the adventure for everyone, but if you know what you're getting yourself into, it should prove an enjoyable experience.

SPOILERS

Tower of the Ironwood Watch has a pretty involved backstory, but it's an interesting one that adds to the setting's lore.  Long before refugees from Azlant came to Varisia and built the empire of Thassilon, the elves had a flourishing civilization.  But when humans began to spread throughout the land, the elves built watchtowers at the borders of the Mierani Forest.  When Earthfall devastated the land, many of the Mierani elves were driven underground and, over millennia, became drow.  Today, most of the ancient civilisation's watchtowers are forgotten even by the elven nations on the surface.  But a contingent of drow have (after some complications) found their way to the tower and have been using it as a staging area for attacks in the region.  The PCs are dispatched by Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch to investigate the tower, the location of which was recently discovered by cross-referencing Thassilonian records obtained elsewhere (perhaps even in a previous scenario--I'm not sure).  As Pathfinders, the PCs know to expect danger when they explore the tower, but they have no idea what's really lying in wait.

After the briefing, the scenario fast-forwards to the tower.  Two levels remain accessible on the surface, but there's also underground areas (excavated by the drow, who are trying to find a path back to the Darklands).  One of the first encounters is a real surprise, as a trap triggers something akin to an anti-magic field (though less powerful), which the PCs probably won't even notice until they're already in combat with fungal monsters called basidironds.  I remember this battle vividly, because the hallucinogenic spores wreaked havoc on the party (with multiple PCs, including mine, dropping their weapons or fleeing in panic).  Another trap is really clever--it's simply a teleportation circle that takes you to what used to be an upper level of the tower that has long since collapsed, meaning PCs appear in mid-air and have a long, painful fall ahead of them!  On these surface levels, PCs with the right skillset might start to see signs of drow involvement (handled in a really flavourful way).

In the basement, the PCs face their first ambush by drow.  It was really something, at least on the group I was with.  Drow sleep arrows shouldn't be underestimated, nor should mundane things like sneak attack and magical darkness fields.  Thanks to a raging barbarian on our side, we eventually fought through, but it certainly wasn't easy.  There are further encounters on the level against demons, plant monsters, and more.

It all serves to wear the group down before they get to the big climax, which makes great use of the Darklands flip-mat.  Here, the PCs fight a drow priestess of Shax and her multiple demonic allies.  In my group we all learned how poor we were at ranged combat when she started flying and raining down spells on us.  One PC died, and again it was a near T
PK.  But, it was also completely fair and great fun.

Assuming the PCs win the day, they'll succeed in the mission and have discovered valuable information about the pre-Earthfall elven culture as well as hindering a mysterious plot the drow had for the Worldwound (I'm not sure what this was all about, but perhaps it's answered in a later scenario).  There is a small opportunity for role-playing with a freed captive, but as I said in the intro, there's no denying this is a primarily a dungeon-crawl--but it certainly isn't a lazy one.  There are plenty of great details in the rooms, the NPCs are given interesting tactics and personalities, and the interior artwork is fantastic.  It is what it is, but it's really good at it.

Pathfinder Map Pack: "Camps & Shelters" [RPG]

 The Camps & Shelters map pack is one of those products I pull out anytime I'm GMing for PCs that are travelling from place to place.  The premise is very simple: the cards show temporary campsites (a camp fire, several bed rolls,a cook pot, etc.) layered on top of various types of terrain, including plains, a desert, a mountain cave, a generic dungeon, a jungle, a back alley, and more.  All of the campsites are designed as two-tile scenes, but if space (on a surrounding flip-mat, for example) is an issue, can work with just one tile.  I'm a big believer in keeping the PCs on their toes (and wearing them down) through random
encounters, so being able to just lay one of these downs and starting the encounter is a real time-saver.  To my mind, it's one of the most useful instalments in the map pack line.