Pathfinder Society Scenario # 4-07: "Severing Ties" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I played Severing Ties via play-by-post way back in 2018 and apparently completely forgot to write a review for it!  I might never have noticed, but for the fact that I'm running the Second Darkness adventure path, which starts in the city of Riddleport, and I try to do a thorough read of related Pathfinder setting materials before running a game.  Severing Ties is also set in Riddleport, and helped flesh out some key locations in the city for me.  I also ended up stealing bits and pieces of the scenario's plot as an optional side-quest (but ended up disguising that fact too well, leading the PCs to spend a lot of time on it!)  Such are the perils of GMing.  Anyway, as for the scenario proper, I think it's done reasonably well but I imagine many groups struggle with an expectation that they'll avoid direct combat in a particular area, which could mean PC death or even a TPK.  Most Pathfinder PCs just aren't very subtle, and this is a scenario that expects subtlety.

SPOILERS!

The backstory to Severing Ties involves the Aspis Consortium trying to improve its relationship with the Cult of Lissala after some drama involving the Hao Jin Tapestry in previous scenarios.  What the Consortium, led in Riddleport by a silver agent named Vidrin Jenk, wants to do is gift the cultists with three items sacred to other faiths in the city (presumably, so it can sacrifice or desecrate them in some way).  As each of these faiths owe the Aspis Consortium a financial debt, it should be a simple matter of having someone pick up the sacred items as payment and deliver them to the cult's secret safehouse.  But what those Aspis snakes don't know is that the Pathfinder Society is on to their plan, and intends to throw a wrench in the works!  Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch explains to the PCs (in a quick flashback briefing in Magnimar) that she's arranged for a group of Aspis specialists to be intercepted en route to Riddleport so that the PCs can impersonate them.  Once they've collected the three gifts and learn the location of the hidden cult safehouse, they're to sabotage it to discredit the Consortium in Lissalan eyes and break the alliance.  It's a creative premise for a scenario.

Despite the premise, those rare PCs who invest a lot of ranks or abilities in skills like Disguise and Bluff will probably be disappointed to learn that the scenario handwaves any checks.  Vidrin Jenk and the other Aspis thugs at their headquarters in Riddleport (Barracuda Cartage) automatically believe the PCs are out-of-town agents once they see the brass coins that Heidmarch has provided.  The Consortium really needs to invest in photo ID membership cards!

The PCs can visit each of the three temples to collect the gifts in any order.  One is Publican House, the city's temple to Cayden Cailean, which is of course a raucous tavern.  The sacred mug the PCs need to obtain has been inadvertently entered as a prize into a drinking challenge, and this presents a fun opportunity for a light-hearted contest of strength, dexterity, and intestinal fortitude.  Another temple is the House of the Silken Veil, a brothel dedicated to Calistria.  Here, the PCs need to negotiate with the temple high priestess/madame, Shorafa Pamodae.  It's very possible they get tricked into accepting a fake sacred relic (a dagger in a locked case that has magic aura cast on it), but the way the scenario plays out, getting fooled probably won't matter in the end.  A third temple is the Fish Bowl, the city's temple to Besmara; here, to obtain a sacred bicorne hat, the PCs will have to fight some sea creatures feasting on some human sacrifices!  For Riddleport aficionados, the scenario doesn't do much to give the city a distinct feel (as a pirate haven/gang town), but it's still nice to have these temples and NPCs fleshed out.

Assuming the PCs can get at least two out of the three sacred objects, Jenk then provides them with the location of the Lissalan safehouse to deliver the gifts; the safehouse is hidden under an abandoned tattoo parlor.  Here's where it's vitally important that the PCs remember their mission: sabotage the safehouse, don't get into traditional dungeon crawl and try to fight their way through!  The threats in the underground complex are very real: basilisks that can easily turn someone to stone, a couple of dozen cultists, an animated stone guardian statue, etc.  PCs can succeed in the sabotage by doing things like setting the basilisks free, causing a gas leak, flooding it, and more, but the scenario instructs GMs to allow creative options the PCs come up with.  Once the sabotage has been performed and a clue left to implicate the Aspis Consortium, the PCs can escape and consider it a job well done.  The overall lesson of this part of the scenario is: fights probably mean failure, so be smart!

All in all, I like the general story and approach taken in Severing Ties; it's certainly different than a run of the mill scenario.  It also helps flesh out a key location in Varisia.  I'd recommend it, but probably only for more experienced players who will pay close attention to the exact instructions given to them in the briefing.

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 80 [RPG]

 [Fireday, 7 Arodus 4708 continued]

 

Having learned that the key to defeating the chained spirit in the throne room is to first destroy each of the “anchors” that keep it bound to the Material Plane, the Harrowed Heroes discuss how to find them.  Yraelzin laments that no one in the group is skilled in divination, adding that the group has already spent days in Scarwall and could easily spend several more before they’ve searched it thoroughly.  But with no better options available, the group continue their room-by-room search of the second floor.  After looking over what must have been servants’ quarters, now containing only sagging bunks, the group head toward the front of the castle where the winch mechanism sits to raise and lower the main portcullis.  Murder holes in the floor alongside troughs of magically-cold oil testify that it must have been from this vantage point that the group was attacked on their way into the castle.  But, mysteriously, evidence that the defenders were destroyed here recently is everywhere: scattered and broken bones, dented weapons, and small impact craters in the wall from something small but powerful.

 

Adjacent guardhouses contain stairs descending to the first floor, but The Reckoner is most interested in the ladders providing access to wide trap doors above.  Climbing up quietly, he puts an ear to the bottom of the trap door and can hear creaking sounds—something heavy is walking around up there!  He climbs back down and whispers to the group.  After more discussion about the shattered bones and the pock-marked walls, The Reckoner has an insight: what if Shadowcount Sial and his bodyguard are still exploring the castle?  Or could there be other, even more mysterious, forces at work in Scarwall?

The decision is made to investigate where the trapdoor leads.  Anorak takes point, but he’s not nearly as stealthy as The Reckoner, and the trapdoor creaks loudly when he raises it just a few inches to peer out onto a rooftop turret overlooking the castle’s main gate.  A pair of massive skeletal minotaurs, presumably the reanimated remnants of the castle guard, hear the creeping of the trapdoor and spring to attack!  The Reckoner hurries up to do battle, activating his mask of the mantis to see through the supernatural gloom, but even he isn’t fast enough to stop the guards from shouting an alarm in some foul tongue.  Lorien ascends quickly and channels the glories of Cayden Cailean through his rapier, shattering one of the massive skeletons, and the other one falls soon thereafter.  The group decide to retreat back down the ladder before anything can respond to the alarm, but Anorak can’t help but gaze over the castle’s parapets into the crater lake below.  Was that a shadow just below the surface of the water?  If something’s swimming there, it must be enormous!

Back in the winch room, the sounds of pursuit are clear.  The group decide to stand and fight, hastily blockading the doors.  But doors can be no obstacle to the incorporeal, and two shadowy apparitions drift down from the ceiling!  Seconds later, one of the blockaded doors bursts open to reveal a skeletal figure with a flaming skull and a wicked-looking battleaxe.  But when fully prepared for battle, the Harrowed Heroes are unstoppable!  Anorak utters a spell that forces one of the shadows to flee and the other is quickly dispatched.  The fearsome looking skeletal warrior withstands only a few quick blows from one of The Reckoner’s many enchanted mauls before crumbling to dust.  And not only is no one seriously hurt in the fighting, but a breakthrough has been accomplished: tremors shake the castle, the gloom recedes somewhat, and a shriek can be heard from the direction of the throne room.  A spirit anchor has been destroyed!

 

With its primary defender dispatched, the castle’s heights are now open for investigating.  The Harrowed Heroes find little of interest beyond more evidence that others beyond themselves are exploring (and occasionally fighting) in the castle.  The Reckoner says that if it’s Shadowcount Sial and his bodyguard, the group needs to get to the chained spirit as quickly as possible once the fourth spirit anchor is destroyed before their rivals can get Serithtial.

 

Extensive discussion is held about whether to rest or press on.  Anorak pushes to keep moving, and agrees to take the lead as the group searches more rooms on the second floor, finding little of interest apart from a sparring chamber manifesting splotches of blood and a haunting that grabs hold of Yraelzin’s psyche, convincing him that he needs to clean the castle before the spiritual hold over the former Priest of Razmir is broken by Lorien’s magic.  Before long, the Harrowed Heroes have cleared the second floor proper, and are ready to move on to the roof of the guest wing.

 

With one of the spirit anchors destroyed, only three more remain before the curse of Castle Scarwall can be broken forever.  But if they are in a race against time—or Shadowcount Sial—are the Harrowed Heroes winning or falling behind?

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

GM Commentary

Yraelzin's mention of divination is a shout-out to the most underappreciated school of magic--there are so many great divination spells that would save adventuring parties loads of time if they were used more often.

The PCs quickly picked up the clues that they weren't the only ones exploring Castle Scarwall.  Indeed, Shadowcount Sial and Laori Vaus were each (separately) exploring the castle and hoping to find Serithtial.  I assigned odds and rolled randomly each in-game day to see if they found the weapon or died in the attempt.

It was just sheer good luck that the first spirit anchor, a skeletal champion named Castothrane, happened to be in the area to respond to the alarm.  He was no challenge for the PCs.  One day, three to go!

Armageddon: Inferno # 1-4 (DC Comics) (Ltd. 1992) [COMICS]

The second limited series that DC spun out of the Armageddon: 2001 crossover event in the early 1990s was Armageddon: Inferno.  Written by John Ostrander, it's clear that this was done in a hurry: the first issue has 5 pencillers and inkers, the second issue has 3 of each, and the last issue has *six* of each!  That might be some kind of record for a standard 22 page comic :)

I thought Issue # 1 was pretty good (definitely better than Armageddon: The Alien Agenda).  The time-travelling hero Waverider is drawn to a dangerous rupture in time and space: cultists have opened a doorway to the evil demon realm of Abraxas!  (hey, the PCs just encountered a drow priestess of Abraxas in Second Darkness!)  Four of the cultists are transformed by Abraxas into massive "Daemen" monsters and sent to different points in time to prepare the way for him to merge into Earth's reality.  Waverider hurries to assemble groups of heroes to stop each of the Daemen.  This issue takes place in Moscow during the (then very recent) fall of the Soviet Union and features Batman, Creeper, Jo Nah (aka, Ultra Boy), the Spectre, and the classic Firestorm.  There's lots of good action, but it looks like they're losing the fight!

Issue # 2 is pretty hard to follow.  Waverider goes to Metropolis to recruit Superman, and along with Guy Gardner, Lobo, the Red Baron (yes, really), Hawkman, Hawkwoman, and Sgt. Rock and company, and some others I've forgotten, they fight an army of demons too.  I know it's a forgettable issue because I've completely forgotten it.

Issue # 3 has Superman and his team fighting in a future where the moon has crashed into the Earth!  Meanwhile, Guy Gardner is back in the dinosaur age, while Waverider and the Spectre are getting the Justice Society of America out of perpetual limbo to help out.  A lot of new named villains are introduced, and Ostrander tries to give each one a line here or a line there to explain their powers or origin, but I the artwork is pretty crappy and there's just not enough time to develop any of them.

"The Return of the Justice Society!" is heralded on the cover of Issue # 4, and I felt like the whole mini-series might have been conceived as a justification for bringing them back.  The issue is pretty crappy and feels very rushed (with the aforementioned art team of 12 people, there are five lazy full-page splashes to save them time).  The Justice Society invades Abraxas' castle.  Abraxas is a very generic "giant demon bad guy" and it somehow eventuates that he takes over the fight in limbo to prevent Ragnorak, which lets the JSA off the hook and free to reintegrate into the mainstream DCU.

I felt pretty good about Armageddon: Inferno in the first issue (and I generally like John Ostrander), but it quickly went downhill.  I guess the series is important for JSA history, but otherwise has little to offer.

Armageddon: The Alien Agenda # 1-4 (DC Comics) (Ltd. 1991) [COMICS]

After the debacle of Armageddon 2001, DC nonetheless tried to cash in with a couple of subsequent mini series.  The first one out was Armageddon: The Alien Agenda, a four issue limited series that follows Captain Atom and Monarch after they've been blasted back in time by the former's climactic atomic explosion at the end of the big crossover.

In Issue # 1, we find out that Captain Atom has been blasted all the way back to the dinosaur age!  (I know, I know, that's a completely unscientific descriptor since dinosaurs occupied the Earth for millions of years).  Anyway, a T-Rex tries to make a meal of of the silver stud, but obviously fails.  Then, Hawk/Monarch (40 year old spoiler alert!) attacks.  And then it turns out there is an alien base on Earth!  The aliens initially pretend to be friendly, but secretly they plan to blow up the entire solar system (because it interferes with an ongoing war they have with another alien race).  Cap uses a bomb on the alien base/fleet, but the resulting explosion blasts him all the way into Roman Empire times, and he arrives, unarmored, before hostile legionnaires during Nero's reign!  Honestly, it's pretty crappy, Saturday morning cartoon style stuff.  Hawk/Monarch has hardly any personality, the alien invaders are pretty silly, and the time-travel stuff is pretty cliché.  But a serious reader never gives up, so on to the next instalment.

Issue # 2 has the drama of Cap's powers flickering on and off as he (of course) is forced to be a gladiator and fight hungry lions.  Triumphing, he becomes Nero's favorite.  "Meanwhile", back in dinosaur times, we learn that the hostile aliens need Captain Atom to act as a detonator to open a wormhole, so they put Monarch and a pair of their own into suspended animation to wait out millennia to "catch up" to Captain Atom.  But Atom triggers another explosion in a fight and is blasted all the way forward into the Old West, just in front of a stampede! (the explosion causes Rome to burn, so Nero must fiddle).  Again, pretty silly.  I also find the printing pretty poor, making the art hard to follow.

In Issue # 3, classic cowboy characters turn up as Atom stumbles into town.  There's a two-page bar brawl sequence that is genuinely really fun.  Another explosion sees Atom apparently start the great San Francisco fire before getting blasted into a Nazi camp during World War II.  (Geez, he's got some bad luck!)  Meanwhile, Hawk/Monarch and the aliens continue trying to catch up to him.  Hawk/Monarch seems to just be classic Hawk personality, with no real trace of all the stuff that led him to becoming Monarch and slaughtering all of Earth's heroes during the "future" side of the big crossover.  It's really poorly written in that respect.

Captain Atom, in his human form as Nathaniel Adam, is interrogated by the Nazis before being thrown into a concentration camp in Issue # 4.  He bonds with some children there and powers up to set them free.  Meanwhile, generation after generation of aliens in a secret dome have come and gone, and eventually they've started to believe that the ones frozen in suspended animation have mythical/religious significance.  Somehow, Monarch/Hawk and Captain Atom end up on an island that has a secret (1944) atomic bomb test!  The explosion hurtles Atom all the way to the present, where we are promised "The All-New Captain Atom Returns! Coming to a Comics Rack Near You Soon!"  I'm pretty sure that's a bald-faced lie.  We don't learn (in this series) what happened to Monarch.  And obviously, the aliens didn't succeed in destroying the Earth.

My overall verdict: eminently skippable.

Pathfinder (GameMastery) Compleat Encounter: "The Vault of the Whispering Tyrant" [RPG]

The Vault of the Whispering Tyrant is the highest level (13-16) of the encounter packs released under the "Compleat Encounter" line.  Regular Pathfinder players will have heard of the Whispering Tyrant, of course, but I think this may actually be the character's first appearance (even if non-canonical).  The rough idea that Tar-Baphon is an ancient lich-king appears here, though he's more of an occasional pest for the (generic fantasy) outside world than the world-shaking threat he is in modern Golarion.  The encounter set doesn't really have an adventure hook, but the general idea is that the PCs have located Tar-Baphon's hidden vault to put an end to him once and for all.  The set includes three metal miniatures that are very nicely done and three cards with (mediocre pencil) drawings and stats for the following:

* Tar-Baphon himself, presented here as "only" a level 12 wizard/lich;

* Lar-Tasha, his mummy "queen", a level 7 monk/mummy (whom I don't think reappears in any future Paizo lore);

* The soulstone, a minor artifact that provides some fast healing, remote sensing, and image projecting ability to the single creature it's bonded to.

I ran The Vault of the Whispering Tyrant as a single session in my "Roots of Golarion (The Magic Mirror)" campaign, with the canon-preserving premise that it wasn't actually Tar-Baphon in the vault, but one of his senior apprentices.  I found the brief adventure felt very cramped because the four map cards provide very little fighting room and would (logically) force multiple encounters to happen at the same time.  There's a neat trap (a mass suggestion to take it easy and relax combined with a simultaneous crushing walls mechanism), but otherwise there's not anything particularly memorable about it.  The soulstone does make for a nice souvenir, and the primary PC in the group that played it has it follow him around for the fast healing effect.  I think the adventure would have been better if, instead of double-sided map tiles (one "before" and one "after" each encounter) there were several single side map tiles with adventure text on the other side, which would allow for a longer adventure.  In any event, this is primarily of interest now to only to collectors.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-15: "The Asmodeus Mirage" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

The Asmodeus Mirage is one of the notorious "retired" Pathfinder Society scenarios from Season Zero.  I played it "just for fun" with my summoner, Jakeric, and it's pretty easy to see why it was retired: the chance of a TPK (and need for a body recovery) is pretty bloody high!  The underlying premise is kinda neat, but the actual execution of the story is a let-down and there's not necessarily a lot the PCs can do to control their fate.  An enterprising GM might be able to steal an interesting idea or two for a homebrew game, but overall, there's not a lot to recommend the scenario.

SPOILERS!

The backstory to The Asmodeus Mirage is cool: when the gods battled Rovagug across the face of Golarion eons ago, the crystalline bone devil that served as the Herald of Asmodeus was struck down in what became Katapesh.  Ever since, for 24 hours every century, a pocket dimension opens up with the crystal skeleton at its center.  Anyone who ventures in and doesn't leave before those 24 hours are up risks being trapped there until it opens again 100 years later!  And, of course, the Pathfinder Society has managed to pinpoint the location and opening schedule of the so-called "Asmodeus Mirage" and wants to send a team in to investigate, with the goal of returning with the crystal skeleton before it disappears for another century.  Why exactly the PFs might select a group of Level 1-2 PCs for this mission is beyond me; maybe there was a mix-up in the cabinet containing lists of field agents?

After a briefing by Venture-Captain Rafmeln (only ever seen in this scenario; perhaps he was "retired" for sending agents on this mission?) in the Katapeshi Pathfinder Lodge,  the PCs have a chance to buy gear before an off-screen journey to the Asmodeus Mirage.  Once inside the pocket dimension, the 24-hour countdown clock starts.  The scenario is structured as a set of four encounters in the mirage that the GM selects randomly, with the journey between each encounter taking a random number of hours (that can be reduced with a good Survival check).  The pocket dimension is morphic in the sense that there's no reliable directions or fixed geographic points, meaning that depending on dice rolls, PCs might stumble into the same encounter multiple times (despite trying not to).  PCs also need to attempt Fortitude saves against the heat (it is the desert, after all), which makes perfect sense but can be quite draining for low-level characters (especially with any time spent resting counting against the 24-hour limit).

The encounters range from fairly pedestrian combat (like groups of illusory skeletons) to some with role-playing potential (like a peaceful gnoll village menaced by ankhegs) to intriguing mixed-bags (like an insane CR 19 brass dragon who wants the PCs to clear his lair of pesky vermin) to the main event (the crystalline skeleton, which will be guarded by different foes depending on subtier).  I imagine that at higher subtier (6-7), the encounters and environment would be far more manageable than the more swingy low subtier ones.  In any event, the main risk facing the PCs is becoming trapped in the pocket dimension and officially ruled dead.  The PCs can choose at any time before that to try to return "home", and so from the scenario's sidebar point of view, the chance of groups getting trapped should be low.  However, the scenario only gives the PCs a 25% chance of making it home with each attempt, and as each attempt takes 1d4 hours, a group that waits too close to the end of the 24 hours and has some bad dice luck could easily end up being trapped and effectively TPK'd (unless they have pieces of the crystalline skeleton, which shunts them out of the demiplane automatically when it closes).

There is a part of me that loves high stakes scenarios where genuinely bad things can happen to PCs--a game with no risk isn't nearly as much fun, after all.  But for The Asmodeus Mirage in particular, I think the stakes need to be better fitted to the level of the characters involved and with a little bit more transparency on just how heavy the odds are against them.  Not to mention, there's not really a lot of discoveries or mysteries to resolve once inside the mirage--it's just "get the skeleton and get out" with little opportunity for the PCs to understand the backstory.  I imagine more than one group ended up trapped in the mirage, and this probably fueled the push to retire the scenario.  I can't really argue against the decision.  Fortunately, with the demiplane having just appeared, no one needs to worry about it for another 100 years!

I have to append a coda to remark on a Chronicle boon from the scenario that is a classic, and hilarious, example of stingy rewards (or what we would, today, call trolling): PCs, after having somehow survived the risk of being trapped in another plane of existence for a century, receive a whole +1 to Diplomacy or Intimidate checks vs "western Katapesh gnolls"!  Talk about earning bonuses the hard way!

Pathfinder Map Pack: "Elven City" [RPG]

Sometimes I have map packs sit on my shelves for *years* before the right time comes along to pull them out.  Such was the case for Elven City, as my players visited the elven village of Crying Leaf in my Second Darkness campaign.  A visual representation of the village wasn't strictly necessary, but I thought these cards gave a good feel for what elven architecture is like: curved, flowing, in-tune with nature, and with few right angles or harsh lines.  The map pack includes several elven homes, an excellent meeting hall, a water feature/garden, and even what could stand in well for an elf gate.  The artwork is crisp and colorful.

To be frank, most campaigns won't call upon this map pack very often--but it's still a nice addition to a GM's library.