Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-27: "Our Lady of Silver" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I ran Our Lady of Silver at subtier 5-6 via play-by-post.  One of the nice things about it, compared to most Season Zero/Season One scenarios, is that it has a lot of role-playing opportunities.  These are pretty free-form, and there are a lot of NPCs that a good GM could really make come alive if time and circumstances permit.  The combat encounters were fine (and pretty easy for modern PCs).  I’d rank the overall story and use of setting lore a little above average, and I appreciated the connection to an earlier scenario.  There’s one twist that may appear a bit forced and that some players may bristle at.  Overall though, I’d rank this one as definitely playable.

SPOILERS!

Our Lady of Silver takes place in Katheer, the massive city that serves as the capital of Qadira.  After a briefing from the (hardly ever seen in PFS again) Venture-Captain Osretia Cassomiran, the PCs are sent to a wedding feast!  The leader of the important merchant family House of Silver (Bashir al-Mudaris) is overseeing the marriage of his daughter (Lujine, the Lady of Silver) to a foreign scholar and Pathfinder, Farendir Faireven.  It’s apparently quite a coup for the young man, and for the Society as well because al-Mudaris plans to donate several valuable relics to burnish his new son-in-law’s reputation with the organisation.  The PCs, then, are representatives of the Society at the wedding and simultaneously guards to make sure the relics are safely delivered afterward to Katheer’s Pathfinder Society Lodge afterward.

The scenario encourages role-playing at the wedding feast, and introduces multiple NPCs to facilitate this.  One of the NPCs, Al’Jahar abu-Targos, is the nephew of the deceased Venture-Captain Targos Min-Katheer and is grateful to the society for the return of his uncle’s remains in # 0-3, Murder on the Silken Caravan.  I love little connections like that, and the nephew returns again later in the scenario to provide a potentially valuable service.  Apart from perhaps faction missions, the role-playing here doesn’t have a set goal and is mostly free-form—so some groups and GMs may really get into it, and others not so much.  (I love RP, though I find it hard sometimes to figure out how much time to spend on it when it comes to play-by-post)

Of course, the wedding feast doesn’t go off without a hitch!  You see, a rejected suitor of Lujine, a merchant-sorcerer named Raamiz Ibn-Chadli, has hatched a revenge plan to discredit the Pathfinder Society and, by extension, Farendir Faireven.  He arranges for dervishes from the Fraternity of the Unforgiving Flame to sneak into the wedding and let wild animals loose (lions and elephants) to cause a distraction while they steal the gifts meant for the Society!  I like the little sidebar that was included of dramatic events that can happen during the ensuing chaos.

I guess it’s a fait accompli that the gifts are stolen, because the premise of the rest of the adventure is that the PCs are trying to recover them.  (though it would work just as well if their mission was to track down who was behind the attempted heist)  A lead will take the PCs to the Hall of Purifying Flame, the decrepit headquarters of the Fraternity.  The combats here are really easy, though I actually managed to land a flaming oil trap which was fun!  A search of the premise uncovers Ibn-Chadli’s role in the scheme, which naturally causes the PCs to seek him out at his villa.

The scenario provides a fair amount of text on the villa, but there are no maps or encounters there.  Instead, the PCs need to find their way out back to where there are slave huts.  There, disguised in heavy robes, is Qutirh the Prudent: Ibn-Chadli’s vizier and actually an Erinyes!  For an encounter where the monster’s tactics include teleportation and ranged attacks, the map here is *really* small (just one tile from a map pack).  Interrogation of Ibn-Chadli’s slaves or papers in his library will point to the merchant-sorcerer’s interest in the tomb of High Priest Ubaidah, and since that’s their only lead, that’s where they’ll likely head.

However, there’s a sudden turn of events when a company of three dozen mounted warriors along with several sorcerers appear to arrest the PCs!  They’ve been accused of murder, theft, and grave robbing, and are to be taken into custody to defend themselves in the Satrap’s court.  It’s a bit heavy-handed and sort of comes out of nowhere, and it doesn’t really lead to anything interesting as success in the ensuing role-playing opportunity is automatic.  (in later seasons, writers would get better with using skill challenges to represent situations like this)  In other words, it’s a bit of an interlude that throws off the pace of the adventure without adding much to it, apart from perhaps foreshadowing the idea that the PCs are being framed for crimes they didn’t commit.

The final encounter is at High Priest Ubaidah’s tomb outside Katheer.  Ibn-Chadli has used magic to disguise a couple of ogres as Pathfinders to help him with the grave robbing!  I did have fun having large-sized duplicates of a couple of the PCs’ tokens in the ensuring battle.  Ibn-Chadli went down like a punk, as one might expect when a sorcerer is forced into melee range in confined quarters.  Capturing or killing him clears the PCs of any lingering suspicion, and the return of the gifts allows the marriage festivities to continue.  All’s well that ends well!