Pathfinder Society Scenario # 8-20: "Torrent's Last Will" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I played Torrent's Last Will recently with my half-orc paladin, Trokkus, via play-by-post.  The scenario is a sequel to # 8-19 (Treacherous Waves), and although playing that one first isn't required, I'd definitely recommend it as they flow together quite naturally.  I enjoyed Torrent's Last Will, but it's definitely a scenario on the long and complicated side, and probably not the right choice for beginners.  

I should call out the interior artwork, which is great.

SPOILERS!

The backstory to Torrent's Last Will is interesting, but also really dense and complicated, with a dozen proper nouns and lots of to-ing and fro-ing.  I'm not saying it's 1990s X-Men complicated, but I'm still not going to try to summarise it here.  Suffice it to say, on the Elemental Plane of Water, there's an ancient temple carved out of a giant nautilus shell, and that shell contains an artifact that the Pathfinder Society would like to get its greedy little hands on.  The mission briefer is pretty cool: an undine Pathfinder named Zahra.  In Vialesk (a city on the plane), Zahra explains that the Pathfinder Society has learned about the temple and artifact but that a bloodthirsty band of sahuagin led by a Baron Zemdar have taken up residence there and need to be ousted so the Society can explore the location.  Zahra has assembled an expedition to help ferry the PCs to the temple (as it's a three-week swim!) with the help of a local brine dragon named Razethka.  But what neither Zahra nor the PCs know at this point is that Razethka can't be trusted, and secretly wants the temple for himself!

The entirety of the scenario takes place underwater, but PCs aren't left to their own devices.  They're provided with daily renewals of water breathing, transportation (strapped to the back of sharks!), and can even borrow underwater-specific weapons from the Vialesk city guard.  There's definitely a bit of hand-holding going on here, though some builds may still struggle.  I do like the scenario's concise and helpful summary of how underwater combat works, even if fighting in three dimensions is still complex.

The lengthy journey to the temple is hand-waved, with the first encounter occurring when the expedition arrives.  The PCs need to overcome Baron Zemdar and several other sahuagin who have sallied forth to do battle in the middle of the Lambent Bloom, a miles-wild field of jellyfish.  The battle here isn't a simple one: in addition to the complexity of underwater combat rules, there's a tide effect that pulls PCs multiple squares in one round before pushing them away in the next, and the jellyfish squares can poison PCs, requiring multiple saves in a round.  The players and the GM need to be patient, as this won't be an encounter that's over quickly.  However, the added mechanics create some fun situations.

The rest of the scenario takes place in the Great Shell, as the PCs explore its ten chambers room-by-room.  Monster encounters include coral golems and a bizarre humanoid comprised of a swarm of eels (a galvo).  The scenario expects do-gooder PCs (as opposed to the more mercenary inclinations of early PFS), and there are lots of little rituals and other tasks PCs can perform to cleanse various chambers of evil (and haunts).  The group accumulate "Judgment Points" for these acts, and these points tie into the reaction of a angelic being called a monadic deva that has been charged with protecting the artifact contained with the temple: a crystal decanter called The Breath of Lysianassa.  I may be making this all sound kind of random, but that's only because I'm moving relatively quickly: there's plenty of backstory to support and enrich all of this.

As they're on their way out of the temple, the brine dragon Razethka springs his ambush, aided by some tough sahuagin and sharks.  I personally have an awesome memory of the encounter, because my PC turned out to be the only melee combatant in the group and had to stand toe-to-toe with a brine dragon as the other PCs buffed and healed him--it was epic, and and great redemption for Trokkus after a terrible performance against an umbral dragon in a previous scenario.  But looking at the encounter objectively, there's a real issue with the map.  The spiralling nature of the Great Shell looks really neat, but it makes the encounter a nightmare to run as there are loads of grid squares that are truncated (curving walls are the bane of grid-based combat).  The narrow hallways, weird coral walls (you can sort of see through them and maybe destroy them), and uncertain "ceiling" heights (in a three-dimensional environment) make for a really clunky encounter--especially with so many foes present.  Although I really enjoyed the encounter, it took us ages to resolve.  In other words: don't try to cram this scenario into a fixed convention slot!

I do want to give a quick bit of praise for how the scenario handles the hostages that Razethka has taken and brought to the scene of the battle.  The scenario is fair but pulls no punches, allowing them (including Zahra) to be killed if the PCs don't act quickly enough.  I hate "plot invulnerability", so this was a good choice.

All in all, Torrent's Last Will is a solid scenario, best played on a long weekend afternoon with an experienced group that's in no hurry to finish.