Pathfinder Society Scenario # 2-S: "Year of the Shadow Lodge" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Year of the Shadow Lodge was the first Pathfinder Society multi-table Special event.  Compared to later Specials, it seems incredibly streamlined and straightforward, as there's no later innovations like different tables choosing different missions, aid tokens, mustering activities, etc.  Honestly, it was kind of refreshing.  That being said, although I liked the general idea of the scenario, I don't think the plot holds together very well and many of the combats are repetitive, very easy, and fairly bland.  I played it at highest subtier (10-11) with my Kellid Shaman, Gurkagh, via play-by-post last year.  I find the play-by-post conventions run Specials at incredible speeds (usually finishing weeks before the convention is set to end), which is unfortunate as everything becomes a bit of a blur.  Anyway, today, the Special is certainly playable but probably mostly of interest as an interesting development in the history of both the fictional and the real Pathfinder Society.

SPOILERS!

Prior to the events of Year of the Shadow Lodge, the fictional Pathfinder Society is largely unaware that there is a secret network of members dissatisfied with the group's slow pace and bureaucratic nature.  Apparently, there are dozens and dozens of members working to change the organisation within and plotting an eventual overthrow of its leadership, the masked Decemvirate.  However, the members of the Shadow Lodge are, by nature, cautious and secretive, and thus want to carefully lay in wait while developing the strength to make the revelation of their existence simultaneous with successfully seizing control.  Unfortunately, for the Shadow Lodge, one of its members, a sorcerer named Charvion, is tired of waiting--he wants to act now!  Charvion has planned a major (and by major, I mean several dragons and a horde of goblins) assault on the Grand Lodge.  But there's intrigue within intrigue, because the rest of the Shadow Lodge thinks Charvion is foolish.  So, they feed him red herrings that the Decemvirate's secrets are on scrolls buried beneath the Mortuary at the Grand Lodge.  They hope that, in the likely event Charvion's very public attack fails miserably, the Pathfinder Society either continues to disbelieve in or greatly underestimates the Shadow Lodge's real strength.

Charvion's plan is a bit convoluted, and I don't really understand it.  The general premise is that he plans to use a minor Azlanti artifact recently discovered in the Mwangi Expanse called the Cage of Spirit Echoes.  The Cage allows the user to communicate with the dead.  As hundreds of Pathfinders will be present at the unveiling of the Cage during a major Absalom holiday event (the Passion of the First Siege of Absalom), Charvion plans to have his dragons attack as a distraction while he then takes the Cage and rushes over to the Grand Lodge and fights his way into the Pathfinder Society Mortuary to dig up the Decemvirate secrets.  I'm honestly fuzzy why he needs the Cage to dig up the scrolls, how he has managed to secretly amass an army of dragons and goblins and sneak them into Absalom, and why, as a sorcerer and a Pathfinder in good standing, he couldn't just walk right into the Mortuary in the middle of the night, bump off anyone there, and do his digging without all the drama!  In other words, the plot just doesn't really hold up, and nor do I understand why the rest of the Shadow Lodge would let it go forward--after all, anyone who can amass an army of dragons and goblins and wield an artifact is going to seem like a major threat, so surely the Pathfinder Society will take the Shadow Lodge seriously in the future.  And, that is exactly what happens at the end of the scenario: the existence of the Shadow Lodge is confirmed.  It really makes the Shadow Lodge look kinda dumb, which undermines the dark conspiracy storyline the PFS organisers wanted to tell.

Anyway, the Special moves quickly.  Act 1 starts at a massive stadium in Absalom called the Irorium, where the festival is to take place.  I love that only PCs of the highest subtier gets the "good" seats (next to the field); more scenarios should give perks to those who have earned it!  For some reason, the scenario spends several paragraphs describing the physical features of the Irorium, even though none of it matters because the combat will take place on a flip-mat that is only a pale, symbolic version of it.  When Charvion makes his move and seizes the Cage, the dragons and goblins attack and the PCs need to fight them off in order to escape.

Act 2 has the PCs hearing of an assault on the Grand Lodge, but needing to fight their way through an ambush in the Foreign Quarter before they can get there.  The ambush is more goblins, obstacles (that mechanically function as traps--a bit odd), and a Shadow Lodge cleric of Groetus named Melyra.  If the PCs actually capture Melyra alive and interrogate her, they can get the broad outlines of what is happening; otherwise, they'll probably be completely in the dark.

Act 3 has the PCs needing to fight their way into the Grand Lodge by breaching its falls and overcoming yet more goblin defenders.

Act 4 is interesting, as an old black dragon named Zythrustianax is perched on the roof of the Mortuary.  PCs of the highest subtier can actually fight it if they want, while PCs of every other subtier need to try to sneak in, with failed Stealth checks resulting in the dragon's tail slaps dislodging rubble to drop on them!  There's a nice cooperative element here, as tables can work together to distract Zythrustianax so others can get inside (and, similarly, the first table that manages to break the door down makes things easier for every subsequent table to get in).  There's a nice custom map of the Mortuary to handle multiple encounters inside (more goblins, beetle swarms, spectral undead somehow unleashed by the Cage), and finally Charvion himself.  Unless the PCs were completely devastated by the earlier encounters, they'll probably have no trouble defeating a lone sorcerer (unless, at high subtier, he manages to get off a death spell or two).  When Charvion is defeated, his body and soul are sucked into the Cage of Soul Echoes in a gleeful bit of flavour text.  And now we know: the Shadow Lodge is real!