RPG Accessory: "Combat Tier: Extension Pack" [RPG]

 This little pack is meant to provide further flexibility when using the 3D Combat Tier pack (for flying or underwater combat).  Essentially, it's just a pack of four extenders.  It never hurts to have extra, but the price ($ 9.99) and the misleading packaging (which claims it also includes six extenders) means it's not good value for money.  I'd pass unless your campaign does a *lot* of 3D combat and you really feel you need more than the base set has to offer (and even then, you might just be better off investing in a second base set).

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 8 [RPG]

[22 Gozran, 4708 A.R. continued]

Yraelzin, Goldcape, Takota, and Ralph reunite in the abandoned fortune-telling shop that serves as a combination meeting place and safe house.  The others explain to Ralph about what happened when they met the Harrower again, and how they helped lay to rest a haunting of the Green Market.  Goldcape shares a plan to capture Yraelzin’s stalker, and the others agree.  But first, they decide to walk to nearby Citadel Volshyanek to collect their promised reward for capturing Verik Vancaskerkin and the other deserters.  But as they walk near the docks, a trio of cutpurses emerge to bar their path.  “Pay the toll or get the knife!” one of them growls.  But the Harrowed Heroes have faced worse threats, and a short but brutal battle begins.  Ralph gets hit by a vial of acid before crushing one of the cutpurses with his new battle-maul, while Goldcape sends a screeching Rocky to handle a second foe.  One cutpurse, circling around to the rear, threatens Takota before realising there’s no profit to be had here.  He turns and flees through a series of narrow alleyways, but his would-be victims give chase and soon capture him.

At Citadel Volshyanek, the gate watchman, Sergeant Clenkins, happily takes the cutpurses to the building’s cellblock.   But when he leads the group to Field Marshall Cressida Kroft’s office, they see she’s not alone.  A handsome man sits in one of the chairs at her desk, and as the others enter, he rises and bows.  Kroft introduces the charming man as an old friend named Vencarlo Orisini, and explains that he’s been a useful advisor about the temperament and morale of the citizens of Korvosa in these dark times.  Vencarlo has heard of some of the group’s exploits to date, and praises their results.  Kroft also thanks the group for their excellent handling of the Vancaskerkin situation, and provides the promised reward, before bringing up a delicate task she has in store for them if they’re willing to keep assisting the Korvosan Guard in an unofficial manner.

Vencarlo Orisini

Kroft explains that the city’s ambassador from Cheliax (a powerful empire from which the original settlers of Korvosa came) risks becoming a serious problem.  According to Vencarlo’s sources, the ambassador, Darvayne Gios Amprei, plans to use the recent unrest in the city as an excuse to recommend Cheliax impose sanctions or even a full trade embargo.  But the ambassador’s motivations are selfish ones, as he plans to then buy up large portions of the city from desperate landowners before profiting once he arranges for the trade war to end!  But Vencarlo has also learned that Ambassador Amprei has been making monthly visits to a place in Old Korvosa called Eel’s End—a notorious den of vice run by a dangerous man named Devargo Barvasi—the “King of Spiders.”  Kroft says that if they can find out what the ambassador is doing in Eel’s End, it might provide just the leverage they need to “persuade” him not to recommend sanctions after all.  But as Barvasi is not likely to be forthcoming with uniformed members of the Korvosan Guard, a group of private citizens who can handle themselves in a tough spot might just do the trick.  Kroft places a hundred platinum pieces on the table and says the group can keep whatever’s left over after bribing Barvasi for the information—though if “negotiations” turn violent, no one will shed a tear over the King of Spiders.  Vencarlo says that the fencing academy he runs in Old Korvosa is near Eel’s End, and he could escort the group there on his way back.

The group asks for some privacy to talk it over amongst themselves, and end up agreeing.  They decide that the best course of action is for Ralph to try to infiltrate Barvasi’s operation while, potentially, Goldcape and Yraelzin trail the ambassador during his next visit to Eel’s End (which regularly occurs on the first of every month—in about a week’s time).  For now though, the group decide to focus on capturing Yraelzin’s stalker.  When they return to Kroft’s office, they agree to the mission, promise they’ll be in touch, and politely decline Vencarlo’s offer of an escort.

[23 Gozran, 4708 A.R.]

In the morning, Goldcape’s plan is put into effect.  With his teammates hiding (somewhat clumsily, in Takota’s case) on a rooftop nearby, Yraelzin walks alone into a dead-end alleyway.  Some seconds later, a nondescript gnome follows him in.  “I’m not going back!” the diminutive figure growls, brandishing a weapon.  Yraelzin’s allies spring and quickly overwhelm their foe, but The Reckoner is still learning the sheer power of his battle-maul and accidentally kills the assassin outright!  It seems like the mystery of why Yraelzin was targeted may never be solved, but Goldcape hits on the idea of seeing if the Temple of Sarenrae can assist.  She rushes over there and nearly drags Wiquita back to the scene.  Wiquita is shocked that she recognises the body—it’s one of the temple’s groundskeepers!  The ratfolk priestess channels benign necromancy to force the corpse to answer two questions.  Although the answers are vague, it seems most likely that the gnome thought Yraelzin was searching for him to drag him back to Razmiran!  For his part, Yraelzin says he knows nothing about the matter, and that gnomes aren’t particularly common in the god-ruled nation.  Wiquita arranges to have the body taken for burial in the Gray (the city’s graveyard district), but is clearly angry with the group—she says what they’ve done wasn’t immoral, but was definitely reckless.

With one problem solved, the group turn to the next.  Ralph says he’ll begin his infiltration of Eel’s End, and makes a plan to meet the others at the Burnt Honey Inn in two days’ time.    When he makes his way to the last pier of Old Korvosa, Ralph sees that, even during the daytime and in a period of martial law, the vice business is booming!  Five elegantly-painted barges are moored together at the end of a single pier, with planks lashed between their decks to make it easy to move from one to another.  A quick survey of the scene shows that four of the barges have clear purposes—a gambling hall, a narcotics den, a brothel, and a flophouse.  But the fifth and largest vessel bears no signage at all.  Ralph spends a couple of hours in the gambling barge, The Twin Tigers, betting on games like knivesies, where one player tries to grab coins off the table while the other plays stabs at him!  The operators of the ship, two dark-skinned brothers wrapped in red Vudrani veils, keep an eye on things.  From the garrulous brother, Anpugit, Ralph learns that the King of Spiders is currently recruiting for the omnipresent ranks of enforcers who make sure the customers don’t get out of hand.  After leaving the gambling ship and heading toward the fifth ship that must be Barvasi’s headquarters, Ralph is turned away from entering the aft deck by armed guards.  He says he’s come looking for work and wants to get hired on as a pier guard, but they laugh at his middle-class accent and silk shirt and turn him away.

[24 Gozran, 4708 A.R.]

Ralph spends the day in The Twin Tigers masquerading as just another resident of Korvosa looking for a way to pass some time during the city’s lockdown.  His real goal is to wait for the occasional fights that break out when a large wager goes poorly for someone, intervene, and show that he can handle himself.  Meanwhile, Takota spends the day in Skaldwood trying to craft some jewellery while Goldcape purchases a large guard dog.

[25 Gozran, 4708 A.R.]

At their appointed meeting time, Ralph enters the common room of the Burnt Honey Inn and tells his allies that he hasn’t had much luck yet.  Still, he intends to stick with the infiltration plan and arranges a signal to inform the others if he gets in over his head.

The "King of Spiders"

Later that day, Ralph again approaches the gang of enforcers guarding the aft deck of Barvarsi’s ship.  When Ralph tries again to get hired on, they laugh and insult him.  Ralph challenges one particularly obnoxious man to a bare-knuckle fight, and when he holds his own (and bloodies his opponent’s nose for good measure), they decide to let him through to where the day’s other new recruits are.  Past a pair of large double doors bearing a complex painting of a spider, Ralph finds himself in the captain’s cabin—though it’s clearly been converted into a throne room of sorts.  The walls are thick with spider webs, in which scuttle dozens of spiders.  Several rough-looking recruits sit at sturdy oaken tables enjoying a raucous feast, while in an iron birdcage hanging from the ceiling like a chandelier sits a tormented house drake.  A narrow door hanging ajar reveals a flight of stairs leading below.  Sitting in a large, leather chair atop a platform is a tall, muscular man with shaggy black hair and a fierce glare.  His black leather armor is hand-crafted to form the shape of a spider on his chest, and real spiders constantly crawl along his skin.  Obviously, this is Devargo Barvasi, the self-styled King of Spiders!

Ralph joins the day’s other recruits as they finish their welcoming meal.  But then things get down to business, as Barvasi starts randomly picking recruits for a variety of cruel tests, such as remaining still while a fist-sized spider crawls on them, or refusing to flinch when asked to put their hand in an open flame.  Ralph’s test is a game of knivesies, and it’s clear that the loser will be thrown overboard to sink or swim on their own!  When the game starts, Ralph’s hand is a blur as he grabs the knife and starts stabbing as the other recruit frantically tries to scrape all the coins into his belt pouch.  Although a glancing blow leaves him temporarily deafened, Ralph wins the game.  Given a sap and told through pantomime to come again the next day, Ralph tracks down Takota for treatment and reports his good news: the infiltration is a success!

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

GM's Commentary

This was supposed to be time to introduce Vencarlo Orisini (a major NPC in the campaign), but the PCs' decision not to accept his "escort" kept his "screen time" to a minimum.  I couldn't have him insist without giving away too much.  Fortunately, he reappears later in the campaign and no harms seems to have been done.  One of the things I appreciate the most about these early Paizo APs is that they're resilient in the sense that the writers don't make everything hinge on groups doing exactly what is expected.

The stuff with the gnome assassin was a homemade subplot I started just to give Yraelzin his own story and make him a "real PC" even though I had to run him as a GMPC.  I don't think I expected the group to be so decisive about capturing the assassin, and I had to make up his motivation on the fly.  I think it worked okay though, and led to some interesting developments with the Church of Sarenrae.

Approaching Eel's End as a one-person infiltration job was a surprising move, but I was happy to roll with it.  It did have the effect of "splitting the party" (something I think gets more opprobrium than I think it should).

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 4-18: "The Veteran's Vault" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

I played The Veteran's Vault via play-by-post with one of my favourite Iconics, Quinn the Investigator.  As I'm currently running Curse of the Crimson Throne, it was especially exciting to play a scenario set in Korvosa.  Although from one perspective this scenario is a pretty straightforward dungeon crawl, the author did a great job incorporating setting lore and some role-playing opportunities to put this one up a notch.  It's not a "must-play" by any means, but it's a solid scenario overall (and a good, speedy introductory scenario for new players).

SPOILERS!

The backstory to The Veteran's Vault centers around an NPC, Sascha Antif-Arah, who has made appearances in some other scenarios and (I think) one of the early Pathfinder Tales stories.  Sascha is a former Pathfinder and adventurer who retired from the business some years back.  She got caught up in some business involving Eando Kline and drew some very unwelcome attention from the Order of the Nail Hellknights and has had to lay low in Korvosa ever since.  In a previous scenario, agents of the Pathfinder Society saved Sascha's life, so to repay the organisation she's offered up the contents of a hidden treasure cache from her adventuring days, currently concealed in an old shrine to Zon-Kuthon in the sewers under the city.  All Sascha wants from the cache is a locket that bears purely sentimental value.  I think it's fair to wonder why an adventure that takes place purely in the city's sewers is likely to attract the attention of Hellknights, so maybe it would have made more sense for her to come along with the PCs.  Anyway, all of this exposition is delivered by the rarely-seen male half of the Heidmarch husband & wife team, Venture-Captain Canayven Heidmarch.  There are good pictures of him and Sascha, and excellent interior artwork overall.

Apart from the briefing, the entirety of the adventure takes place in the sewers, with encounters using the excellent Sewer System map pack.  First up, and perhaps best, is an encounter with an otyugh (sewer beast) named Togg.  Togg isn't quite as memorable as Hats, but role-playing with him could still be lots of fun with the right GM and the right group.  There's a fair chance this becomes a combat (Togg is pretty hungry!), but the encounter can also be resolved peacefully if the PCs share some food and make a good Diplomacy check.  

Next up, there are a couple of stolen-good-traffickers from the Cerulean Society that are on the run and lost in the vaults.  Although these two wouldn't necessarily attack normally, they'll be deceived by a sneaky gremlin (a jinkin) into believing the PCs are hostile, so a fight is inevitable.  Still, in a battle of 5 or 6 against 2, the PCs will win this fight pretty easily.

Continuing on, there's an encounter with a "fungus leshy" (also potentially solved through diplomacy) and some patches of harmful fungus and then an (optional if time permits) encounter with an ooze.  A couple of traps can weaken an unwary party further.

The big climactic encounter is against a jinkin sorcerer and its darkmantle pet who have taken up residence in the vault where Sascha hid her treasure.  I remember this fight as actually being reasonably challenging purely because of the darkmantle's darkness ability, even though on paper it should be a real cakewalk for the PCs.  Afterwards, the PCs won't have any trouble finding the treasure cache and making it back out of the sewers with a locket for Sascha implying that perhaps she and Eando Kline had a past romance.

So it's a pretty basic dungeon crawl railroad plot: hit the sewers, fight (or potentially talk) past a series of encounters, get the treasure, the end.  It's really the incorporation of setting lore that makes this scenario work for me, with elements like the Cerulean Society, Sascha, and some good faction missions making it more than a purely dry exercise in hacking and slashing.  

Pathfinder: "Sihedron Medallion" [RPG]

 I bought a couple of these to give to the players who had made it through the entire Rise of the Runelords AP from beginning to end.  They don't come in any custom packaging.  They're nice, solid, palm-side disks with the Sihedron star clearly visible on each side, and well-detailed runes.  In the center of one side is a little faux-gem.  A decent-looking chain could allow someone to wear it around their neck, though I haven't tried that.  To me, it's a really cool collectible and a nice way to remember the campaign.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: "Tombs of Golarion" [RPG]

 Tombs of Golarion presents six fully-fleshed out adventure sites featuring lost, buried, or otherwise hard to access complexes.  Each of the sites gets ten pages of coverage in the book, broken down into sections like "History", "Description", a room-by-room overview, adventure hooks, and then some new gameplay elements like magic items, new monsters or NPC stat blocks, and so forth.  The great part is that everything a GM needs to run an adventure is in one place (unlike some earlier books that required GMs to populate maps with monsters and treasure themselves).  The book features quality interior artwork and clear (though not beautiful) maps.  The inside front and back covers are capsule descriptions of the six tombs covered in the book, and I'll summarise each of them below.  But before that, I have to give a shout-out to the two-page preface, written in-character from a member of the Aspis Consortium, that features brief notes of other sites of interest not covered in the book.  It's really fun to see something written from the Aspis point of view instead of all that goody-goody Pathfinder Society nonsense!

CAIRN OF ATTAI HORSE-SPEAKER

This is the tomb of a Kellid chieftan named Attai Horse-Speaker who died a good ten thousand years ago!  Existing now as a wight, there's a backstory involving a nereid wanting her shawl back and a lot of interesting story detail throughout, though I imagine much of it would be hard to convey to PCs.  I'd peg the adventure as around CR 9 or 10, and the chapter includes a lot of good adventure hooks to start things off.  New additions include a magic item called the horse-speaker's saddle (allowing communication and even the magical awakening of animals) and a new monster named an equine bone golem.  Overall, it's a solid adventure site.

CLOCKWORK VAULT

This is a really cool vault that doesn't have an undead theme.  Instead, it's the burial vault of a clockwork genius in Rahadoum who died hoping that someday his descendants would carry on his work--if they proved themselves worthy by solving his tests and riddles.  The map is pretty neat (it carries on the clockwork theme), and the setting is original.  It's probably around CR 6, and perfect for players who are into problem-solving challenges.  Three new/variant monsters are introduced: Golden Defenders, Mechanical Efreeti, and a Toy Golem (awesome pic!).  I could definitely see using this tomb in a campaign.

EVERFORGE

This tomb has an awesome backstory.  Under a dwarven sky citadel named Kravenkus lies an ancient temple to Magrim, the dwarven god of the underworld.  The temple holds an incredible artifact called Soulforge, which allows petitioners in the afterworld speedy judgment by Pharasma and a place in Magrim's afterlife.  But now, the temple is infested by duergar seeking to corrupt Soulforge to serve Droskar, the evil dwarven god of mirthless toil.  The tomb is, in a sheer geographic sense, *huge*.  I don't know how many flip-mats it would take to draw it all, but I'd estimate at least four or five of the bigger-sized ones.  I'd suggest it for PCs around Level 12 or 13; there are some nasty traps inside. It's a great dungeon that could become the centrepiece of a mid to high level campaign.

GOLDEN OSSUARY

This is an original concept for a dungeon.  The Golden Ossuary is a gold-covered boneyard for wealthy Kalistocrats in Druma.  An annual lottery is held, giving adventurers 24 hours to loot as much as possible from the place!  It's a fun idea, though it's too small to really take 24 hours for a group to cover exhaustively.  I'd say it generally presents challenges around CR 10.  A new monster, an animate hoard, is introduced (I would have done it as a swarm instead), and there's a new magic item (an ossuary mask) that's pretty forgettable.

PRISMATIC LANTERN

Another original concept, the Prismatic Lantern was a magical defence tower in Nex that had a cataclysmic explosion that someone connected it to a demiplane.  Magic users will have a field day uncovering all the strange phenomenon within, though other PCs may find it a bit less interesting.  This is probably for characters around levels 14 or 15. A new magic item is a force casket (designed to protect a corpse for eternity), and there are a couple of new constructs: a gravitic globe and a prismatic orrery (the latter of which is functionally an artifact if the user has the matching control rod).  

TOMB OF THE NECROPHAGE

Man, you do not want to get captured by the creepy cultist cannibals (and their undead minions) that reside in the Tomb of the Necrophage!  This is perhaps a more traditional adventure site than some of the others, but it's really good and quite gruesome.  An interesting feature is that this tomb is in the Sodden Lands, so there are some partially- and wholly- submerged chambers.  It's probably for characters around levels 7 or 8.  The artwork for the juju zombie brute is nightmare-inducing.

Overall, Tombs of Golarion is a great package.  It's easy for a GM in need to drop one of these locations into campaign, altering some backstory and details if necessary.  I haven't really used the book yet, but it's something I'll keep in my back pocket for a rainy day when the PCs go off the beaten track and I need a well-crafted adventure site in a hurry.

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 7 [RPG]

[20 Gozran, 4708 A.R., continued]

As everyone’s heading out the door to respond to The Harrower’s request for a meeting, Ralph receives another message: one of the street urchins in his intelligence network has come up with an important lead.  He excuses himself to go investigate while the others proceed.  As they get closer to the riverside docks, Yraelzin, Goldcape, and Takota can see that hundreds of people have filled the street, protesting against what they view as the illegitimate ascension of Queen Ileosa to power.  On-going labor strikes by dockworkers add to the atmosphere of impending violence, leading Goldcape to suggest the group travel via rooftop as much as possible.  Soon, the ominous marching of a Hellknight legion coming to break up the now-illegal assembly can be heard.  But the real danger comes not from the Hellknights or the angry protesters—instead, it comes from below!  The ground starts to rumble, and a moment later the city street cracks apart and long fissures run across the bricks.  The road bursts upward, casting chunks of rock into the air and raining bricks on the surrounding area.  The stench of sewer filth and garbage belches forth, heralding the approach of a freakish sewer beast!

Tentacles lash out wildly, stunning many of the protestors, as the hungry beast looks at the moving feast before it.  But from a nearby rooftop, Takota conjures a roiling ball of fire and hurls it at the beast, distracting it!  The Shoanti shaman isn’t prepared for the sewer beast’s response, which is to slither a tentacle up the side of the building and yank the man down by the ankles!  Yraelzin and Goldcape launch arrows and crossbow bolts that gradually weaken the monster, but the situation looks dire when it seems they’ve only driven it to drag the unconscious and nearly dead Takota toward the hole it emerged from.  Fortunately, Rocky blocks the path and the aberration finally releases Takota before fleeing into a maze of alleys.  With the sound of marching coming closer and closer, the Harrowed Heroes get Takota to his feet and hurry towards the safehouse.

Inside, the fortune-telling shop, lit by candlelight, looks comfortable and well-maintained.  The veiled woman known only as The Harrower sits on the far side of a round table, shuffling a deck of cards.  When Yraelzin, Goldcape, and Takota take seats, The Harrower begins by congratulating them on finally bringing Gaedren Lamm the justice he had long evaded.  She goes on to say that with the recent turmoil, the city could very well teeter into anarchy—but that the cards foretell a chance to avert that fate, if heroes arise.  She says that only if those assembled around the table are truly unified will they have a chance to stem the tide of darkness that is coming, but that secrets breed mistrust.  She invites the trio to forge a stronger bond by trusting each other with something they’ve been keeping hidden.

Perhaps surprisingly, Yraelzin is the first to respond.  For the first time ever in their company, he removes his mask!  Revealed to be a blond-haired, nervous-looking man in his early twenties, Yraelzin goes on to say that he needs help.  For the past week, he’s had the feeling of being watched . . . hunted!  A few days ago, he says a brick fell from a building ledge and almost crushed him, and other “accidental” near misses have occurred as well.  For her part, Goldcape shares that vanara normally have more fingers on each hand—but that Gaedren Lamm once cut some of hers off!  When his turn comes, Takota explains that he was born a boy named Mato who wished to be a warrior, not a shaman.  The Harrower then spreads her deck of cards and looks at them carefully before revealing their cryptic import.  She says that the evil legacy of Gaedren Lamm is not finished—that “the son is worse than the father”; that soon the Hellknights will depart, but in their place will come a much worse threat—the “women in grey”; and that when she next meets them, there will be but “seven days to the grave”.

As she finishes, there’s a loud knock on the door.  The candles flicker for a moment, plunging the room into momentarily darkness, only to then reveal that The Harrower has disappeared—and that the fortune-shop looks like it has been abandoned for months.  Goldcape answers the door to reveal a fashionably-dressed young woman.  She introduces herself as Zeeva Foxglove, and shows them a Harrow card with the address of the fortune-telling shop and a promise that her troubles will be solved scrawled on the back.  She explains that she’s the owner of the Green Market, a large space in South Shore where vendors from in and around Korvosa set up stalls to sell fresh produce, jewellery, crafts, and more.  Two days ago, she explains, the Hellknights violently enforced the dusk curfew in the Green Market and, since then, inexplicable phenomena has been taking place!  Objects seem to move on their own accord, tables upend themselves, wagons roll without being pulled by horses, and howling winds almost sweep people off their feet.  She says she’s had to close the place until the problem could be dealt with, and that’s when she found the Harrow card.  She offers a small reward for help, and the listeners agree to assist if they can.

After Zeeva Foxglove has left, the trio make a plan to research the Green Market to see if they can find any clues about what might be causing the problems.  Takota talks to some residents of the area, and although some are unwilling to talk to an “uncivilised barbarian,” he does meet one recent customer who claimed to hear a voice carried on the swirling winds inside.  Goldcape and Yraelzin decide to do some historical research and head toward the Jeggare Museum, one of the city’s oldest private institutions of history and culture.  The curator, Mercival Jeggare, is happy to point Yraelzin in the direction of some relevant records but the priest runs out of time before the museum closes to examine them fully.  Goldcape hires a private scholar to look into The Harrower’s mysterious reference to “the women in grey”, but, unfortunately, the researcher doesn’t turn up anything useful.

[21 Gozran, 4708 A.R.]

Dark clouds threaten rain as Yraelzin finishes his research in the museum’s archives.  He learns that the Green Market was built just under three decades ago in the city’s newest area of expansion.  But, almost three centuries ago, before Korvosa was founded, the land was the domain of the Sklar-Quah—the Sun Clan of the Shoanti peoples.  A respected shaman named Galdron Greenheart embraced the way of peace and dedicated a shrine to his people nearby before he was persecuted and murdered by the Chelish colonists who soon came to occupy the land.  When Yraelzin shares this information with the others, Takota surmises that the recent violence in Green Market has awakened Galdron Greenheart’s long-dormant spirit!

[22 Gozran, 4708 A.R.]

In the morning, on the way to Green Market, Goldcape decides to stop in and check with Old Lady Cloggins, her land-lady.  Old Lady Cloggins is not best pleased that a small number of Hellknights are still billeting in her house, but admits that, if nothing else, they are a tidy bunch!  Goldcape hears a scream from outside and rushes to see that Yraelzin, has been impaled by a crossbow bolt!  No assailant is visible.  With magical healing, the bolt is removed, though he still seems weak and suspects it may have been poisoned.  Perhaps his tale of being hunted is true after all!  Goldcape insists on reporting the attack to the Korvosan Guard, and they say that when time allows, they’ll look into it—but that they have more pressing matters at the moment.

When the trio arrive outside Green Market, Takota explains to Zeeva Foxglove his theory of what’s causing the disturbance.  As he’s trying unsuccessfully to get the nearby Hellknights to depart, Goldcape decides to take a look around inside.  She’s almost crushed by a wagon wheel that somehow breaks off an axle and comes rolling towards her!  Takota enters and can hear a Shoanti voice carried on the wind, warning against war being brought to this sacred land.  With his spiritual magic, Takota confirms that the Green Market is haunted by the awakened spirit of Galdron Greenheart, and is able to formulate a ritual that could put the spirit to rest.  He walks south to nearby Skaldwood and speaks with Telmayne Fire-Eyes, a young shaman, and she helps him collect seven broken klar blades.  Takota returns to Green Market, finds the specific site where Galdron Greenheart was buried, and, although battered by the winds and hurled objects, ritually places the broken blades on the ground in a symbol of tribal unity and peace.  With a whisper in the wind, Takota knows he has been successful and that Galdron Greenheart will rest once more.

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

GM's Commentary

The player running The Reckoner wasn't able to attend this session, the only one he's missed in the campaign to date.

The sewer beast encounter comes right from the AP, and I pretty happy with how it turned out--very exciting!

I worked in some background flavour about protests and how trade unions are illegal in Korvosa, something mentioned in the Guide to Korvosa.  I never really developed the idea further, but if there wasn't so much else going on, I might have.

The Harrower encounter was good for role-playing (opportunities to get PCs to talk about their backgrounds are valuable) and also for foreshadowing Chapter 2 with nods to the Gray Maidens, Rolth Lamm, and more.

The side-quest in the Green Markets was derived (with some alterations) from Pathfinder Society Scenario # 4-06: "Green Markets."  Especially with a Shoanti PC and knowledge that Shoanti would be a big part of Chapter 4, I just couldn't pass up the chance.  I thought it went really well and helped introduce the PCs to a different part of the city.

Starfinder Society Scenario # 2-08: "The Stumbling Society, Part 2: Sangoro's Gifts" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

I played The Stumbling Society, Part 2: Sangoro's Gifts with my Steward, Officer Swizzers, with the same PBP crew as in the first part.  The scenario offers a lot more opportunities for role-playing, especially if the GM gets into the NPCs.  There's also a chance to showcase some skills and, of course, some combats along the way.  The scenario does a really strong job of introducing a new alien race, and it also continues the main Season 2 meta-plot.  Interestingly, there's not that strong a connection between this scenario and part 1 (apart from some background), so a player shouldn't feel like they *have* to do both in order.  Anyway, I enjoyed the scenario and would rate it as 4 out of 5 stars.

SPOILERS!

In The Stumbling Society, Part 1: Sangoro's Lament, the PCs discovered that Datch has stolen crates full of military equipment from a Starfinder Society installation called the Arsenal.  In The Stumbling Society, Part 2: Sangoro's Gifts, we learn what she's doing with them: dropping them off on low-technology worlds for the locals to fight over, filming the results, and making it look like the Starfinder Society is responsible!  In the mission briefing, Fitch plays one of the anti-SFS propaganda vids filmed on a jungle planet called Stabrisis-14, home to strange, moth-shaped creatures known as kiriintas.  The SFS has avoided making first contact with the kiriintas so as not to interfere in their developing civilisations, but Fitch says it's now unavoidable: the SFS has to get those weapons back before the situation turns even worse.  In a departure from the norm, however, the PCs won't be travelling alone to their mission site; Fitch has assigned another agent, a maraquoi named Saivessa, to trail them in a second ship to help pick up the supplies.  Saivessa isn't really integral at all to the plot, but they have a great pic and an interesting personality, so a good GM could make them memorable.

After a short jaunt through the Drift (broken up only by a brief cameo from Captain Winks of the Clutter Collector, a nod to # 1-03), the PCs emerge near Stabrisis-14 only to find it protected by drone starships launched from a (cloaked) orbiting base.  The ensuing starship combat has an interesting twist in that more drones get launched until the PCs figure out that they're coming from a cloaked launch base, scan to locate it, and then destroy it.  Like almost all SFS starship combat, it's still not great, and in my game the GM called it once it became obvious we were (eventually!) going to win.  The interior artwork for the scenario is really strong, as the launch base also has a cool pic.

The PCs have no trouble locating a recently-dropped and unopened crate of weapons on the surface, but their timing could hardly be worse because two rival groups of kiriintas arrive at the same time!  The PCs are thus caught in the crossfire, and have to quickly decide what to do.  The scenario provides a fair amount of backstory into the two groups, explaining that they were once all part of the same kiriinta community but split when the weapons started dropping from the sky, with one group (the Builders) believing the weapons are a gift from the gods and meant to be studied and used, while another group (the Reflectors) also believe they're gifts but that tampering with them would be a type of blasphemy.  The PCs, of course, won't know any of this when they have to decide to fight back against one group, both, or try to stay out of the battle entirely.  (Oddly, the scenario provides information on what happens for the first two choices, but doesn't seem to contemplate the third.)

Whichever side prevails in the battle invites (with some language barriers that the PCs should have prepared for) the newcomers back to their camp, believing they're agents of the same divine authority that has been dropping the crates of weapons.  The fact that the crates bear the symbol of the Starfinder Society and the PCs probably do as well makes this a reasonable inference.  There's a lot of room for role-playing in this part of the scenario, and the author did a good job developing the kiirintas as a whole as well as particular NPCs from each faction.  Presumably, the PCs will try to persuade the kiirinta group they're with to abandon use of the weapons, in which case the kiirintas will put the PCs through a series of hastily-improvised tests to gauge whether they're really acting with divine sanction. The tests including drinking a local beverage, an athletics or debating contest, and (my favourite) what the PCs are told will be "Death Match."  But even jaded players should smile when they learn that "Death Match" is actually a local card game and completely harmless.

As the tests are winding up, the PCs receive a message from Saivessa: one final crate is on it's way to the planet.  When the PCs head to the drop site, they'll find whichever faction of kiirintas they didn't bond with there, but under attack from a huge burrowing monster called a tiraka.  Not-so-nice PCs will wait for the kiirintas to wear down the tiraka before joining in, but if they don't wait to long, they'll have a better chance of convincing the opposing kiirinta leader to renounce using the new weapons and mend fences with the other leader.  When I played, we did a really fast run and the tiraka only lasted a single round.  Anyway, that's the end of the scenario, apart from a brief epilogue.  The scenario has a nice boon (assuming  Part 1 has also been played): the opportunity to have a kiirinta character.  I liked the kiirintas, and I hope we get a chance to see more of them in future scenarios.

Pathfinder Map Pack: "Palace" [RPG]

 I've used the Palace map pack a couple of times in my "Roots of Golarion" campaign, and I really like it.  Unlike most map packs designed to be completely customisable, this one really only has tiles for three configurations: a massive throne room (complete with dais, thrones, statues in alcoves, and a long red carpet), a reception chamber (with chairs, tables, etc.), and a treasure vault (packed with loot, including a blue dragon skull!).  Admittedly, it's not a map pack that I have frequent occasion to pull out, but I really like the design of it--and it does add a nice feel of pomp and circumstance to any "talking to the queen" scenes that do come up.  

Pathfinder Tales: "Reign of Stars" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

This is such a great book, full of action, great characters, a memorable setting, and lots of genuinely laugh-out-loud moments.  I've been a huge fan of Tim Pratt's writing (such as the excellent Marla Mason series), and he 100% "gets" Pathfinder.  Reign of Stars features the same main characters that appeared in Pratt's previous Pathfinder Tales novel, City of the Fallen Sky: the exiled Numerian alchemist Alaeron and his unsavoury, knife-wielding companion Skiver.  The book is branded as a tie-in to the Iron Gods adventure path, and certainly adds a wealth of color and lore to the area of Golarion where that AP is set.  I could rave more, but the gist of the matter is I enjoyed this book from start to finish.  It was a genuine pleasure to read.

SPOILERS!

In Reign of Stars, Alaeron, who has long been living in Almas since his hasty departure with stolen tech from Numeria, receives a surprising invitation.  His mentor, the Techno League captain Zernebeth, is alive and wants him to come back to Numeria for a special project--with all past misdeeds forgiven.  An obvious set-up for a trap, as Alaeron and Skiver well know, but the incentives provided are enough to persuade them to take the risk.  The novel is a great way to learn about the history of Silver Mount and to get a feel for present-day Numeria, and there are some great scenes that only that particular geographical setting can provide.  There are hilarious bits throughout, like a cleric worshipping the Holy Fundament, the Black Sovereign's feast that I can't even begin to describe, and so much more.  Pratt always plays by the rules of Pathfinder, so descriptions of things like Alaeron using a mutagen are both fun and "realistic" in terms of effect.  There's also some fun little easter eggs, like references to Gad, Rodrick, and Hyrm from other Pathfinder Tales stories.  Anyway, I definitely recommend this one.

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 6 [RPG]

 [18 Gozran, 4708 A.R. continued]

Is Verik Vancaskerkin a hardened
criminal or unwilling dupe?

The operation to arrest deserter Verik Vancaskerkin is underway!  The Reckoner carefully opens the window to what looks like a break room and moves stealthily toward where Verik sits in the adjoining office.  At the pre-arranged signal, Goldcape fires an arrow from across the street, hoping to pin him down, but the shot goes awry and thunks harmlessly into the window sill.  Still, Verik hears the sound, and the battle begins!  He jumps to his feet, grabs a spear leaning against the desk, and is ready to exchange blows when The Reckoner rushes in to confront him.  Grau Soldado crashes through another window, but as Verik shouts for help and footsteps can be heard running below, the Korvosan Guard Watch-Captain decides to guard the top of the stairs.

The fighting is furious.  The Reckoner manages to land a couple of blows with his warhammer, but Verik’s training in the Guard makes him a formidable foe.  All it takes is one mistake, and The Reckoner is battered to the ground, unconscious!  Arrows fired by Goldcape and Yraelzin through the window rarely manage to hit, but fortunately Goldcape has brought his erstwhile friend, Rocky!  The young roc crashes through the window to score several deep gashes on Verik’s face and arms.  Verik tries to stab the roc with his spear, but the weapon goes flying, forcing the desperate deserter to grab the silver dagger stuck into the top of the nearby desk.  It’s a bloody battle of man versus bird, and it’s unclear which will emerge triumphant!

Meanwhile, Grau is forced to dispatch one foe after another as the violent deserters-turned-mercenaries known as the Cow Hammer Boys rush up the stairs in single file.  Grau’s training under master swordsman Vencarlo Orisini pays off, as he manages to hold his own until three of the foes have fallen and the fourth, a sadistic murderer named Parns, turns and tries to flee.  Grau gives chase as the man races down the stairs and towards the front shop area of the slaughterhouse.  But then, the battle takes an unforeseeable turn!  Waiting just outside the front window is an old Shoanti man who, with a mere glance, sends Parns fleeing right back into Grau’s arms, utterly terrified!

Back upstairs, Verik is badly wounded and has realised the fight is unwinnable: not only is he cornered, dodging multiple archers, fending off an implacable bird, but his reinforcements have been defeated as well.  Verik sighs and drops the dagger, surrendering.  Grau marches Parns upstairs and secures the surviving Cow Hammer Boys and Verik.  When Goldcape comes into the room, he tells her about the strange Shoanti.  After using some primal magics learned in the jungles of Casmaron to bring The Reckoner back to consciousness, Goldcape makes a quick search of the rest of the building.  She makes a sickening discovery—at least some of the meat in the slaughterhouse is from humanoid, not animal, origin!  When Grau confronts Verik, he proclaims his innocence, saying he knew nothing about how the meat was obtained.  He says he just thought feeding people during the riots was a good idea when his girlfriend, Meliya Arkona (a member of the influential aristocratic House Arkona), suggested it.  Grau, however, doesn’t buy the story, and dismisses out of hand Verik’s claim to be secretly dating an Arkona.

Goldcape heads outside and speaks to the Shoanti man, learning that his name is Takota Lies-Dreaming and that he is a shaman of the Shriikirri-Quah—the Clan of the Hawk.  Takota explains that he received a mysterious message on the back of a Harrow card indicating that Parns could be found here.  When Parns was a member of the Korvosan Guard, he used his station to corruptly protect Gaedren Lamm’s criminal enterprises.  Because Takota’s daughter, Shonsana, died from a Shiver addiction fuelled by Lamm and her missing boyfriend Varujan, Takota wishes to ask Parns if he knows Varujan’s current location.  After first channelling spiritual healing to further help The Reckoner, Takota places hand on Parns’ brow.  In the course of just seconds, Parns mind is almost overloaded with images of Shonsana, Varujan, and the pain that the man’s actions have caused others.  Parns breaks down, and sobs that the last he heard, Varujan was still visiting a place called Eel’s End for his nightly Shiver fix.

Grau thanks the other members of the assault team for the quality work, and says that Field Marshall Croft will be pleased that Verik was captured alive.  He arranges for other members of the Korvosan Guard to help him escort the prisoners back to Citadel Volsyhanek.  Takota is about to head off into the night to return to his tents in Skaldwood (a small forest just south of the city where many Shoanti clans have campsites), but he’s persuaded that travelling through the city at night during martial law is a good way to get in trouble with the Hellknights—especially because they’re known to hate “savages” like the Shoanti.  Instead, the group walk to the nearby Burnt Honey Inn.  The Reckoner slips away to resume his civilian identity as Ralph Blackfeather, while Yraelzin, who had been waiting on the rooftop across the street from the slaughterhouse, arrives quite miffed at having been forgotten sometime later.

[19 Gozran, 4708 A.R. continued]

Incredibly strong winds from the harbor, channelled through the city’s narrow streets, make walking a chore for the residents of Korvosa.  With most of the shops closed on a Sunday, and martial law casting a pall over the city, it seems like a good idea to mostly stay inside.  Ralph spends some time subtly spreading rumors about The Reckoner to enhance his alter ego’s fearsomeness with the criminal element, while Goldcape watches some patrons gamble in a dice game called Twentybone and Yraelzin shares the “glories” of Razmir with an unimpressed Takota.  During the long day, Goldcape hears an interesting rumor that King Eodred was murdered by the castle seneschal, Neolandus, with the asserted “proof” being that Neolandus allegedly fled the city after the king’s death.  Although Ralph presses the man for any evidence, it seems like there’s not necessarily anything more to it than idle speculation.

After hearing enough from Yraelzin, Takota decides to endure the howling winds and return to his campsite in Skaldwood.  His well-staked tents remain intact.  It’s not long before he is visited by a brave of the enigmatic Skoan-Quah (Skull Clan).  The young man, Ghaeken, explains that he has come seeking advice from another shaman in his father’s absence.  Ghaeken explains that he has fallen in love with a Chelish woman in the city, but is torn about whether to pursue it given their respective cultures.  Takota advises the heartsick youth to be cautious, trusting both his heart and his head.

[20 Gozran, 4708 A.R. continued]

In the morning, Takota returns to the Burnt Honey Inn to find the others enjoying the city’s best porridge.  Ralph asks Takota about whether he could arrange for him to obtain an earthbreaker, a well-known Shoanti weapon that consists of a large maul with blunt spikes.  Takota expresses pessimism, stating that a test of worthiness would be required first.  As the conversation continues, everyone feels tremendous heat emanating from the pocket or container where they’ve stowed the Harrow card chosen for them by The Harrower: the cards are warm to the touch, and scrawled on the blank side of each is the same message: “The time has come, return to where it all began.”

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

GM's Commentary

I had completely forgotten The Reckoner got dropped by Verik.  Nowadays (toward end of Chapter Four), The Reckoner is such a combat beast, it's hard to remember that took some time to develop.

Folks familiar with Curse of the Crimson Throne will know that the "silver dagger" on Verik's desk is actually a raktavarna rakhasa spy reporting to Meliya Arkona.  I was really curious to see how it would play out; they detected magic on the "dagger" but couldn't identify it, and so just assumed it was a +1 dagger.  Goldcape held onto it (without using it) all the way until the big reveal at the end of Chapter Three!  Speaking of Meliya Arkona, this is the first mention of House Arkona until the campaign.  (and we also get the first mention of Neolandus through a rumor).  I'm really impressed how the story integrates so many NPCs so well.

A new player joined the campaign in this scenario, running a Shoanti shaman.  He only stuck with the campaign for a few sessions, but came at a good time because it allowed me to naturally introduce the NPC Ghaeken who (as a corpse) becomes very important very soon.

Doctor Fate # 21-30 (DC Comics) (1988) [COMICS]

 In this set, one writer wraps up their time on Doctor Fate and another writer, whom I like a great deal more, begins.  For some reason, people remember J.M. DeMatteis' vapid spirituality as somehow groundbreaking, while forgetting William Messner-Loebs truly original work on the series.  But here, in Post # 2005 of Jhaeman's Detritus, I set people straight!

Issue # 21 has Kent/Nabu sending Petey & Jack Small into the amulet to get the dead (real) Kent & Inza out--but they find Joachim Hesse trapped in there!  Kent/Nabu wants to be just plain Nabu again.  Meanwhile, chaos is being unleased by Anti-Fate--whatever that means.

Issue # 22 is a gag-inducing story where Linda and Kent join together to form a 4-armed Fate to fight Anti-Fate at a special holy site ("The Tomb of the Avatar"), where the cosmic smile that transcends order and chaos with love allows Anti-Fate to find peace.  Hurl!  New Age-y proselytising is as annoying as any other kind.  And in a similar vein, the Phantom Stranger takes Eric/Eugene to the "Land of the Helpers" because he needs to help humanity with the next stage of evolution.  Do we really need another reminder of the New Guardians debacle?

Issue # 23 makes me *really* hate the Sonny Bono-esque "Smiling God" (I think Welcome to Nightvale has something on this too).  Nabu and Linda come back to consciousness in the The Tomb of the Avatar with Wotan taking care of them.  Meanwhile, inside the amulet, Fate attacks Petey, Jack, and Joachim, so they use the power of imagination to each become their own Fate.  Special spiritual message: "Trust your heart."  You heard it here first!

All hail the Smiling God, Issue # 24 is the end of the DeMatteis time on the series.  Okay, try and stay with me here.  Eric/Eugene's daughter Raina (hideously illustrated to look extremely creepy) faces the tragedy of her mother (Wendy) dying; but Linda dies and takes over Wendy's body to help look after the girl, because Raina will be the "seed of a new generation."  I'll lay odds we never hear about Raina again.  Nabu becomes an infant in the womb of the new Linda/Wendy.  It's all so dumb.  Kent and Inza escape the amulet.  The long and short of it is that all of DeMatteis' characters are safely off-screen, and the new writer will have the classic Doctor Fate main characters to work with starting next issue.

Issue # 25 is better in so many ways, from the artwork to the writing and everything in between.  The issue is more fun and Bill Messener-Loebs makes better use of Fate's power array.  The tower mystically merges into modern day New York and Inza, who has been stuck inside the tower for 40 years (but remaining perpetually the same age) is shocked how much has changed.  Although the Lords of Order plan to leave Earth (because they're annoyed with Fate), one of them, Shat-Rui, vows vengeance and attacks, only to be trapped in Nabu/Kent's old body.  Still a bit hard to explain, but trust me, it's a lot better.

I like the solid cover to Issue # 26.  While Inza is exploring her powers as Fate and even flies into space, Kent becomes over-protective as he's used to being the only one in the marriage with super powers.  We see the neighborhood in New York start to become a major part of the story, with some fun supporting characters.

Issue # 27 really enmeshes Kent and Inza in an urban Black community with poverty and drugs the major issues to contend with.  In a subplot, the mask itself can talk and is starting to act up.  In another fun subplot, Kent can't an archaeology job because he's been out of commission for 50 years!  There is a cringey scene where Fate pulls out the addiction from a drug addiction and battles it like it were a demon.

Issue # 28 has people from across the neighborhood's history popping into the present as an evil god named Tgiian is defeated.  Meanwhile, Kent pretends to be his own grandson in order to get a job teaching archaeology.  The issues are much more enjoyable to read, and the theme is interesting, as Inza uses Fate to intervene in street-level problems but Kent is concerned about the ramifications of people relying on her for everyday issues.

Seeing pilgrims and pirates interact with modern-day New Yorkers is pretty amusing in Issue # 29.  The debate between Kent and Inza continues to be interesting, with each side making some valid points.

Issue # 30 introduces a new supporting character, a local cop.  Fate tries to intervene in stopping a huge tower from casting a shadow over the neighborhood, but when the cop is accidentally killed, Fate realises there are limits even to her power--she's able to bring the woman back to life, but only by hurting everyone around.

That's it for now--we'll wrap up the entire series in the next post.  I do find it really interesting to see a super hero take a sort of broad scale public health approach to helping their community, instead of focussing on super villains all day long.  Bill Messner-Loebs does a good job showing how much that could improve people's lives, without getting Pollyanna-ish about it. 

Starfinder Flip-Mat: "Hospital" [RPG]

 I've used the Hospital flip-mat in some Starfinder Society adventures, and really like it.  One side is a futuristic hospital that has everything from little over-ambulance vehicles in the parking lot to really surgical theatres, hospital beds and some kind of stasis pod, and more.  Both the interior and grounds of the hospital are laid out well, and everything is clear and colourful.  One might nitpick and say that, capacity-wise, it's a really *small* hospital (only about ten beds), but I just imagine future doctors are really talented!  The flip side of the mat is a "sinister, abandoned infirmary."  It doesn't really look that bad at first glance, though close inspection shows blood on the floor of the surgical theatre and an overgrown garden.  Still, I imagine a lot of real-world hospitals are a lot creepier than this one.  Overall, I'll give Hospital four out of five stars.

Starfinder Flip-Mat: "Ghost Ship" [RPG]

 I don't remember in exactly which scenarios, but I've played on the Ghost Ship flip-mat a few different times in Starfinder Society games.  The "front" of the flip-mat is the "derelict hulk of a science research vessel", and it's clearly a ship that has been through the wars!  Huge cracks are visible in the deck plating and large chunks of the exterior has been torn away.  It definitely has an air of foreboding around it, and really serves the well the "ghost ship" idea of the PCs coming along a mysterious damaged vessel drifting in space.  It's also very well detailed, down to commodes, beds, first aid kits, computer keyboards, and more.  The "back" of the flip-mat is a "deserted tramp freighter".  I don't understand the purpose of this side, as it's just an ordinary starship interior with no damage and absolutely nothing spooky about it.  In fact, it'd serve perfectly well as the PCs' own ship.  Maybe at the time the flip-mat was released, there weren't many others depicting starships, but there's certainly no "ghost ship" vibe about this side.  To me, that means only half the concept brief is met.

Starfinder Society Scenario # 2-06: "The Stumbling Society, Part 1: Sangoro's Lament" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

I played The Stumbling Society, Part 1: Sangoro's Lament via play-by-post with my skittermander Steward character, Officer Swizzers.  The scenario is an important part of the Season Two metaplot, but also ties up a nice loose end from a very early SFS scenario.  It's fair to say that it boils down to a (space) dungeon crawl with limited role-playing opportunities with NPCs.  However, the scenario is atmospheric and the background story is integrated well into the action and exploration.  The result is a solid (and reasonably difficult) scenario.

SPOILERS!

Jump with me back in time, if you will, to a simpler world!  The year is 2017, no one has ever heard of Covid-19, and in the first wave of SFS scenarios is # 1-04: Cries from the Drift.  Although at the time discussion of the scenario focussed on how difficult it was to kill an incorporeal monster if the party lacked the right weapons, an important SFS story element was introduced in the adventure's background.  Prior to the Scoured Stars Incident, the Exo-Guardians maintained a massive fortress-armory called Sangoro's Bulwark (after the faction's founder, who discovered it).  But when so many of the faction's members were lost in the Scoured Stars, the few remaining members of the Bulwark were overwhelmed by a mysterious threat and all contact (and even the location) of the base was lost.  In Cries from the Drift, the PCs collect data from the sole ship to escape the Bulwark and return it to Lorespire Complex in the hope that somehow, the location of the Bulwark can be reassembled.

Now, that time has come!  After intensive work, the Dataphiles have managed to learn the location of the Bulwark: a planet in the Vast called Mazdrun.  In the scenario briefing, Zigvigix (leader of the Exo-Guardians) explains that the Society can't afford to send a full, highly-visible assault force to the Bulwark because of how much scrutiny the organisation is under recently.  But, it can send a smaller force to the Arsenal, a satellite site near the Bulwark that was used for research and training purposes.  From the PCs' perspective, their mission is very straightforward: get to the Arsenal and secure it.  As an aside, I'll mention that the briefing is held at the Nest, the just-renovated warehouse HQ of the Exo-Guardians in the site secured by the PCs in # 1-01: The Commencement.  I love it when little story nuggets from previous scenarios pay off!

The journey through the Vast is event-free, apart from the usual foreshadowing of a future scenario.  Surprisingly, Zigvigix comes along on the ship (though not on the mission)--perhaps this pays off in Part 2?  I'm not sure.

The rest of the scenario involves exploring the 14 rooms in the Arsenal.  There are multiple traps to overcome and some dangerous monsters (an apari hive, special radiation-themed moonflowers) that were being experimented on at the time the place shut down.  In addition, a barachius angel (devoted to safeguarding dangerous technology) named Negator-XIII has lost most of its memories and has to be carefully negotiated with (through a sort of role-playing skills challenge) or it will turn violent.  As they explore, the PCs will find some scattered clues about what happened to the Arsenal and the Bulwark, but not enough to really put a full picture together.  I'm not going to review the individual encounters, but I'll just say as a whole that they're fun, fit the story well, and are tough but fair.

What the PCs won't know, until a great reveal late in the scenario, is that Datch (a ysoki devotee of Lao Shu Po) has already been to the Arsenal and looted it!  Not only that, her tap on SFS communications gave her the foreknowledge to leave some traps behind, including a cursed idol that could make the PCs gradually more and more suspicious and paranoid as they explore.  For some players, this will just be some bland negative modifiers, but with a good group, some really fun role-playing could result.  And Datch really twists the knife when the PCs finally get to the treasure vault and discover a single credit stick containing . . . six credits (one for each of them)!  The scenario does a great job of making players hate Datch, which is important for the season meta-plot to succeed.

I don't want to overstate my review: there are limits to what can be done within a dungeon crawl structure, and there's definitely a "enter a chamber, deal with threat, search for clues or loot, and then do it all again at the next chamber" playstyle for the scenario.  But within that framing, this was a solid, enjoyable scenario, and I'm looking forward to Part 2.

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 5 [RPG]

 

[16 Gozran 4708 A.R., continued]

At the Temple of Sarenrae, where they’ve holed up during the riots, Goldcape, Yraelzin, and Ralph Blackfeather are approached by the fast-talking ratfolk priestess Wiquita.  She explains that Tharl has been busy placing the children rescued from Gaedren Lamm’s hideout into orphanages across the city.  Wiquita says the process could be speeded up if Tharl’s friends could do a quick inspection of a private orphanage named Dottie Donovan’s Home for Wayward Youth.  Wiquita even promises a free magical potion or oil from the temple’s stores in exchange for the help.  The trio agree, and promise to conduct the inspection the next day.  They hope that if Tharl is quickly released from his current duties, they can discuss with him whether or not the group should accept the recent invitation to do some work assisting the thinly-spread Korvosan Guard.

While Yraelzin and Ralph rest and recover from the nagging effects of injuries suffered in the battle against the imps, Goldcape decides to spend some of the newfound wealth she’s gained from the city for turning in Lamm’s ledger of criminal activity and for returning the Queen’s brooch.  The vanara makes her way to Eodred’s Walk and into the cluttered shop named Hedge Wizardry.  There, she purchases a magical sack that doesn’t get heavier despite more and more stuff being placed into it!  However, the shop’s proprietor, Phaeton Skoda, warns Goldcape that the bag is fragile and easily destroyed—along with everything in it—if pierced or overloaded.

On her way back to the temple, Goldcape takes a side street and comes across looters ransacking an alchemist’s shop.  One of the hapless looters tips over a wooden barrel, accidentally freeing a strange, shimmering spider about the size of a human child!  The arachnid promptly shoots webs to halt two of the fleeing looters before Goldcape and her roc companion, Rocky, swoop in and manage to defeat it.  The remainder of their walk back is uneventful, and the Harrowed Heroes spend the night safely in the temple.

[17 Gozran 4708 A.R.]

In the morning, Yraelzin announces plans to spend the day doing some shopping of his own.  Goldcape and Ralph decide to conduct the orphanage inspection.  They journey along the vast, haphazard network of planking, shanties, lean-tos, and other structures that connect rooftops throughout much of the city.  However, the Shingles contain an assortment of nasty surprises for travellers avoiding the streets below, and today Goldcape and Ralph learn this fact first-hand when they innocently wander into the territory of a small pack of starving, feral dogs!  Goldcape throws some food to distract them, but Ralph says it’s too dangerous to just leave them there—they could attack anyone who comes through.  He sends an arrow streaking through the air and drops one of the mangy hounds, but one of the dogs pounces on Goldcape and knocks her to the ground!  After sending another of the dogs fleeing with an arrow in its back, Ralph switches to his warhammer and, with a mighty swing, sends Goldcape’s assailant hurling down to the streets below.  After the battle, several locals emerge to thank the pair for driving off the dogs.  Although Goldcape almost causes a riot of her own by freely handing out money, the two do learn something of interest—the dockworkers along the river have begun a series of wildcat strikes, and expectations are that food supplies will soon run thin in the city.

Old Korvosa, where the orphanage is located, is known as the worst district in the city.  A slum of festering poverty and crime, Old Korvosa is the funhouse-mirror version of the wealthy Heights.  But “Dottie Donovan’s Home for Wayward Youths” seems to break expectation: it looks like a fine, two-story home in good condition—especially considering the number and age of its inhabitants.  Goldcape and Ralph chat with some boys playing marbles out front, but although something about the children’s answers to their questions seems off, neither can pinpoint what it is exactly.  Dottie Donovan herself seems nice and genteel at first, and invites the pair in for tea—with a splash of whisky!  After conversing with the woman and conducting a (supervised) search of the premises, both amateur inspectors are left with the feeling that something is going on in the orphanage but without any tangible proof.  The two decide to make it seem like they’ve departed the area, but in fact they return in secret!  Ralph disguises himself and talks more to the children, eventually learning that the headmistress sometimes hires the olden children out daily or weekly as servants or maids to wealthier houses in the city, and pockets most of their earnings when they return.  It’s not unequivocal proof of wrong-doing, but it is enough for the pair to take back to Wiquita.  They arrive at the temple just before sunset (and the city’s new curfew).  The priestess promises that a full inspection will be conducted before any more children are sent there.

Goldcape decides to brave the curfew and complete another errand, but she underestimates the dedication and skill of the Hellknights in enforcing martial law across the city!  She’s promptly caught past curfew without a valid excuse and, despite her protestations, is taken to Citadel Volshyanek and detained (along with dozens of others) overnight.

[18 Gozran, 4708 A.R.]

After paying a twenty gold sail fine, Goldcape is released from detention.  The guard manning the gate, a Sergeant Clenkins, seems apologetic for the rough treatment of those caught out after curfew, and it is clear there’s no love lost between the Korvosan Guard and the Hellknights.  But fate has an ironic twist in mind for Goldcape—when she walks back to Old Lady Cloggins’ house (where she has her backyard treehouse), she finds the residence has been commandeered by Hellknights who are billeting there!  Old Lady Cloggins takes it all in with calm fortitude, but it’s surely an imposition.  She and Goldcape have a conversation about the mystery of why the king hasn’t simply been brought back to the dead through magical means.

Later in the morning, Goldcape, Ralph, and Yraelzin reunite at the Temple to Sarenrae, where they’ve started to receive polite hints that even friends of Tharl shouldn’t think of it as a flophouse.  The trio discuss whether to accept the Queen’s invitation to undertake missions on behalf of the Korvosan Guard.  Goldcape still maintains that the Queen is acting suspiciously, but Ralph persuades her that if there is something nefarious afoot, they’ll have a better chance of discovering what it is from the inside.  And, by operating under the auspices of the Korvosan Guard, they won’t have to worry so much about the Hellknights.  The trio leave a message for Tharl about their plans and then set off.

At Citadel Volshyanek, Sergeant Clenkins is surprised to see Goldcape back so soon, but waves the group through when they explain their business.  In the central keep, the group are shown to the office of Field Marshal Cressida Kroft, commander of the Korvosan Guard.  The harried and exhausted-looking woman greets the newcomers and waves for them to take seats. 

“You must be the ones sent by Queen Ileosa.  My name is Cressida, and street-smart residents of your calibre are exactly what Korvosa needs now.  You’ve been amidst the rioting and looting.  You know better than me how bad things are out there.  It’s breaking my heart to see Korvosa tear itself apart like this.  Every little bit of aid we can get from upstanding citizens like you helps.  If you’re willing, I’d very much like to retain your services as agents of the Guard.  You will, of course, be well compensated for these services.”

When the trio seem interested, she continues with a more specific assignment.  “Korvosa’s got enough troubles as it is without my own guards losing their way.  Many have deserted their posts, more concerned about friends and family than the city.  I can understand this, yet not all of the deserters have family—some of them are simply using the riots as an excuse for personal gain.  One such man is Verik Vancaskerkin.  Worse than a lone deserter, he’s convinced a small group of fellow guards that Queen Ileosa is going to ruin the city.  Whether she does or doesn’t isn’t the point—right now, we’ve got a city-wide crisis on our hands, and I need all of my guards working with me to see us through.”

“A deserter is worse than a lost resource—it’s an infection,” she says emphatically.  “I can’t afford to pull any of my other patrols off duty to deal with Vancaskerkin, and I’d rather not expose any of them to him anyway, since I don’t want Vancaskerkin to infect more guards with his talk of secession, nor do I want some overly patriotic guard killing him outright.  I need impartial, skilled talent.  Talent like you.”

“Vancaskerkin and his followers have holed up in an abandoned butcher’s shop up in Northgate—a place once called ‘All the World’s Meat.’  I need you there.  Try to avoid killing any of the deserters if you can, but if you must, they brought it upon themselves when they threw in their lot with Vancaskerkin.  I’d really prefer it if you could capture him alive and return him to me for interrogation, but if he makes that impossible, I’ll accept his body as well.  Finally, see if you can find out why Verik deserted—if there’s more to it than simple personal politics, I need to know immediately.  Bring me Verik alive, and there’s five hundred gold in it for you.  Dead, he’s worth only half that.” 

Kroft adds that she understands they’ve assisted Watch Captain Grau Soldado recently, and that she’s willing to re-assign him to the operation to ensure it’s a success.  She also offers bunks in the Citadel’s barracks if they need somewhere safe to sleep during the operation.  The trio accept the mission, on one condition: that Kroft give them a signed writ explaining that they’re acting on behalf of the Korvosan Guard.  She readily agrees, but notes that it’s only going to insulate them from the Hellknights if they’re acting in the course of official duties.  And even then, some patrols may still make trouble.

Grau Soldado accompanies the group as they leave the fortress, and he looks much improved since they first met him just a couple of days previously.  He thanks them again for their aid, asks about Tharl, and says he’s heard about Verik Vancaskerkin—apparently, he rose through the ranks quickly despite an average service record, which may indicate a powerful patron assisted him.  Goldcape confirms that she heard a similar rumor to that effect.

Ralph comes up with a plan to scout the butcher shop which, being located at 22 Stirge Street in North Point, is just two blocks from where he resides!  He asks Goldcape, Yraelzin, and Grau (wearing civilian clothes) to wait for him nearby at the Burnt Honey Inn.  He then approaches the shop on his own and sees it’s a fair-sized building with a fenced-in cattle yard and a storefront window display facing the street.  Several customers are lined-up, and although it’s clear that in the early afternoon the day’s offering of free meat is almost over, Ralph joins the line to get a look inside.  He sees that the front room has a pair of armed men—one handing out food, one watching and guarding a door that leads into the back.  One of the men is tall with bushy eyebrows, while his portly companion wears ill-fitted armor.  Both are doubtless members of what Ralph has heard referred to as the “Cow Hammer Boys.”  Returning to the Burnt Honey Inn, Ralph tells the others what he saw.  Grau says he’s heard the Cow Hammer Boys have taken to offering themselves as mercenaries, and that if they’re deserters from the Guard, they should be considered armed and dangerous. 

With no easy points of access visible on the ground-level of the butcher shop, the group decide to wait for nightfall so that Goldcape can put her natural climbing talents to good use and check out the small second-floor of the building for a way in.  Peering through windows on the upper level, Goldcape sees a couple of chambers that look like a break room and an office.  In the office, sitting behind a desk strewn with papers pinned to the tabletop by an exquisite silver dagger, is a handsome man still wearing the livery and armor of the Korvosan Guard: Verik Vancaskerkin himself!  Goldcape makes a stealthy escape and reports back to her friends.  They formulate a plan that involves Yraelzin casting protective magics, Goldcape adding archery support from a rooftop across the street, and Grau and the Reckoner bursting through the window.

As everyone gets into position, only one thing is certain: Verik Vancaskerkin is in for a surprise this night!

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GM's Commentary

The little side quest involving the orphanage was swiped from a Pathfinder Society Introductory Scenario: First Steps, Part 1: In Service to Lore.  I think I added it in because it seemed like a natural fit for the PCs after allying themselves with the Temple of Sarenrae and rescuing so many orphans at the Old Fishery.

The PCs haven't really spent much time on the Shingles since the campaign started, and it was a bit tricky to try to describe/visualise.

I'm a stickler for random encounter tables, but I do the best I can to make them fit in organically and, sometimes, lead to additional information about the setting or plot.

I created "Sergeant Clenkins" just because the PCs kept visiting Citadel Volshyanek and thought it would lead to better role-playing if I had a consistent gate-guard instead of unnamed NPCs.

I gave them the option of taking Grau along on the mission (earning a share of the XP) because Tharl was absent again and I wasn't sure if just Reckoner, Yraelzin, and Goldcape/Rocky were up to the task.  Nowadays, I have no doubts about their combat capability!