Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-22: "Fingerprints of the Fiend" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Fingerprints of the Fiend is an interesting little scenario.  Like all Season Zero ones, it's almost exclusively concerned with combat and has very little opportunity for role-playing or social skill use.  But the combat encounters are certainly varied in terms of opponents and terrain.  I ran the scenario via play-by-post at low-subtier, and it didn't present much of a challenge at all to modern PFS characters.   I found it a solid early scenario and enjoyed running it, and it's cool that some of the lore is picked up on in later scenarios.

SPOILERS!

Venture-Captain Adril Hestram explains in the briefing that the PCs are headed towards an exciting new discovery: a lost city of the fabled ancient civilisation known as the Jistka Imperium!  The city, named Rachikan, exists under (or inside?) one of the Pillars of Anferita in Cheliax.  The Pathfinder Society learned of the city's existence from a retired Pathfinder, Benton Grone, whose nephew discovered the city but has since gone missing.  The PCs' mission is a straightforward one: head to Rachikan and rescue Eldis Grone.  What the PCs don't know is that Eldis Grone's discovery came to the attention of the Aspis Consortium, and that evil mirror image version of the PFS now occupies the site--and doesn't plan to give it up.

Like many Season Zero scenarios, Fingerprints of the Fiend actually starts in media res with the PCs arriving at the base of the pillar (although this type of start is good for stories, it's awkward for gaming as it's never clear whether the PCs can "flashback" and ask questions, buy supplies, etc.).  After running and re-reading the scenario for the purposes of this review, I still don't really understand what the Pillars of Anterifa are--they're large enough to have "plateaus" at the top, so maybe they're a natural geographical feature like islands with tall cliffs?  Anyway, as the PCs ascend the pillar, they have their first combat against an erinyes devil.  It wasn't a hard fight, but it was funny to see just how much trouble mid-level PCs had with basic climbing (too many ranks devoted to Perception and not enough to Climb, I guess).

Once on top of the plateau, the PCs can see an excavation camp about a half mile in the distance.  My PCs approached in broad daylight, so as the scenario instructed, I had the Aspis guards immediately attack.  This started a very long range encounter with arrows raining down on the PCs as they *slowly* crossed a completely open plain under fire for several rounds.  But it pretty much took a natural 20 to hit any of the PCs, so not a lot of damage was done.  I do like long-range encounters though, as they actually make things like Far Shot or Enlarge Spell worth taking.

Once at the camp, the PCs will see a couple of dozen slaves and several armed guards around a wooden building.  Inside are mining carts and rails leading down into darkness.  A renegade Pathfinder named Talia is here, and she'll jump into the cart to escape while a couple of guards try to keep the PCs from pursuing.  If the PCs act quickly, they can give chase in a cart and the scenario has rules for such a chase.  My group wasn't fast enough in dealing with the guards to give chase in that way, which I (secretly) appreciated because it made things much easier to run (the mining cart chase rules looked complicated and a lot to digest for one encounter).

Once at the bottom of the shaft, the PCs find themselves in the decaying remnants of Rachikan.  I wish there had been more and better description of the city, but the PCs are pretty quickly assailed by a group of morlocks and their golem servant.  Morlocks just aren't much of a threat to PCs at this level.

The final encounter takes place at a Jistkan Temple-Foundry, where the leader of the Aspis Consortium (and several hidden guards) await.  The leader, a cleric of Asmodeus named Halidurs Karn, did hold a few nice surprises for the PCs with his spell resistance and fire shield spells active and his tactic of separating PCs with wall of fire.  I thought it was a solid encounter.  The PCs will, unfortunately, discover that the individual they've come to rescue has been killed and reanimated as a zombie!  And then, after the encounter, they have to immediately flee Rachikan as thousands of morlocks can be heard approaching.  These Season Zero scenarios certainly don't have warm-fuzzy endings unlike some in later seasons.

 Overall, I thought it was pretty good, especially for a Season Zero.  My only advice would be to allow just four PCs to help make the encounters adequately challenging.