Pathfinder Society Scenario # 1-06 (Scenario # 34): "Encounter at the Drowning Stones" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Encounter at the Drowning Stones is a pretty good Season 1 scenario.  It's in the classic "pulp adventure/jungle hero" vein, and the author does a good job setting and presenting a Pathfinder version of the classic "greedy treasure hunter" tale.  Environmental rules are put to good effect, though encounters are more on the average side.  There's probably not a ton of role-playing opportunities.  The scenario is also longer than many from this time period, so the GM and players shouldn't expect a quick session--which is perfectly fine as long as its accounted for.  I played it with my dwarf Oracle of Groetus, Makras Vekker, in a live tabletop game.  Makras wears boots of the winterlands into the jungle, because that's just how he rolls.

SPOILERS!

The scenario, set in the Mwangi Expanse, has an intriguing background section.  It tells of an isolated, legendary site of monoliths carved in human-like shapes rising from a small gorge, where water from nearby streams pour into the figures' open mouths--thus, they've come to be known as the Drowning Stones.  However, they've also come to be associated with cannibalism and suicide, and are shunned by modern tribes.  The taboo is warranted, because the Drowning Stones sit above an ancient temple to Sifkesh, the demon lord of heresy and suicide, and her herald in the region, a succubus known as Sifkesh's Razor, still lures explorers to their doom.  Most recently, Wynard Lichten, a vile and ruthless treasure hunter working for the Aspis Consortium, has fallen under the sway of Sifkesh and has arranged for an entire expedition to be sent to retrieve the temple's treasures (and thus spread Sifkesh's madness more broadly).  However, the Pathfinder Society had a secret agent named Eiastor Wyrn join the expedition.  Unfortunately for him and the PFS, Eiastor sucked at his job and was discovered almost immediately.  I liked this line because it's so true: "Lichten forced Wyrn to send a final missive to his handlers in Absalom in the hopes that the Pathfinder Society would do what they always do: send another team to find their missing agent."  Sending good agents after bad is classic Pathfinder Society!

Osprey, who's one of the quirkier of an admittedly quirky bunch of Pathfinder Society leaders in this period, has (or is disguised as) a vagrant slip the characters a slip of paper giving them the location to meet for a mission: a mead hall of ill repute in Absalom called the Saucy Wench.  Osprey explains the mission (find Eiastor, keep the demon-linked stones from falling into Aspis hands) and has the resources to teleport the PCs all the way from Absalom to the Mwangi Expanse!

The PCs arrive at a Pathfinder jungle waystation that is near the lands of the Rumawa tribe (regrettably described in the text as "savages").  Dirch, a PFS agent at the waystation, is able to give the PCs information that the Aspis expedition went upstream and hasn't returned, and that following the river would be the safest way to make their way through the dense jungle.  He also provides them with flat-bottom push-rafts to help navigate the shallow rivers in the area. The scenario does a good job setting out why travel is difficult in the jungle, and expects the GM to impose environmental rules for heat, dim light (under the jungle canopy), slow travel through dense vegetation (if moving overland), and frequent downpours that then result in thick mists. I fully approve of making PCs' lives difficult in this way. 

Act 1 ("Rumawa Territory") has the PCs hear drumming from the forest as they slowly drift down the river.  PCs who make a Knowledge (religion) check here--and we didn't in my game--will realise that the drumming is a ritual request for trespassers to offer a sacrifice to the totem animal of the Rumawa: crocodiles!  If the PCs fail this check, the Rumawa emerge in person and offer the same request and warnings--but in the language Polyglot.  If the PCs again fail to learn the required information--like us--the Rumawa attack.  It's a perfectly fair encounter, as the PCs have multiple chances to avoid it.  Blood in the water attracts the aforementioned crocodiles, but I particularly liked this encounter because the Rumawa know their lands well and get the PCs to chase them into the jungle and right into some camouflaged spiked pit/poison spear traps.  Makras fell for it (literally).  It's nice to see traps actually integrated into combat encounters in this way as opposed to being freestanding, isolated threats.  Unlike us, a group able to communicate with the Rumawa diplomatically learns that four members of the Aspis expedition were killed by the tribe while the rest continued upriver toward the Drowning Stones.

Act 2 ("Crimson Soil") starts with the PCs several miles' upriver when they spot a bloated corpse floating in the river.  Investigation reveals it to be a member of the Aspis expedition killed by claw and blade attacks.  From the raft, the PCs spot a freshly-hacked passage into the underbush and can follow the path to a makeshift clearing where the expedition had set up camp.  But the camp is in ruins--tents shredded, possessions scattered--and even worse, there are gory husks of bone, blood, and hair strewn across it.  And even worse than *that*, a pack of dire boars is scavenging in the area and the PCs are going to have to deal with them.  After the battle, good Perception checks to search the ruins will find several intriguing clues to what happened: webbed footprints, a broken weapon with an unholy symbol to Sifkesh carved on it, a journal entry about another member of the expedition being lured into the jungle by a beautiful woman and not returning, another journal entry about finding the temple and taking some of the stones while leaving Eiastor behind, and yet another entry about Lichten acting more and more strangely.  And perhaps most oddly, a discovery that all the wounds on the corpses in the camp were self-inflicted!  Near the camp, in a crude cage-pit, the PCs will discover a member of the expedition alive!  This is actually Lichten himself, but he's been driven mad by the brutal attack on the camp (led by Sifkesh's Razor and her skum minions) and believes himself to be another member of the expedition.  (I find this bit unconvincing.) He offers to lead the PCs to the Drowning Stones.  I remember my GM did a really nice job with Lichten's crazy babbling.

Act 3 ("A Razor in Waiting") has the PCs going further into the jungle.  At one point, they'll find a canvas bag hanging from a tree, and inside is a single black stone--something intentionally placed by Sifkesh's Razor in the hopes that a member of the Pathfinder Society's relief team will find it and take it with them into the Drowning Stones--the reason being is that it marks them as one of Sifkesh's chosen (and gives them a -8 penalty to Will saves vs enchantment effects to resist self-harm!).  A little later, near a huge waterfall, the PCs see a "mermaid" sitting on a rock.  This is Sifkesh's Razor in disguise, and is frankly a pretty ridiculous disguise and attempt to lure the PCs in closer--I would think a succubus with an Intelligence of 18 could do better than that!  (a mermaid is one of the *last* things one would expect to find in the jungle; except maybe a polar bear, unless one has seen Lost).  Anyway, there's an ambush here as the Razor and her skum companions attack (though they leave the stone-carrier unharmed).  I remember thinking that was the big climax of the scenario, but there's actually a lot left!

Act 4 ("The Drowning Stones") has the PCs descend a shaft hundreds of feet below the Drowning Stones monolith and into the ancient temple.  There's some potential classic cinematic fun with a slide and a long, long fall if the PCs aren't careful.  (There's also a time-dependent optional encounter with advanced fiendish dire bats on the way down.)

Act 5 ("The Temple") has the PCs finally locate the missing PFS agent, Eiastor Wyrn.  Unfortunately, it's far too late, as Eiastor was sacrificed days ago and his bloody, bound corpse is on an altar.  A skum cleric of Sifkesh named Moglar-Tor is here, and uses darkness and invisibility magic (plus her skum minions) to make a potentially tough climactic encounter.  I remembered we really struggled before eventually succeeding.  There are loads of ceremonial treasures to find, as well as thousands of pounds of the demon-infused black stones (which, hopefully, the PCs are smart enough to leave behind).

Osprey will be waiting for the PCs back at the waystation, teleportation scroll in hand for the journey back to Absalom.

Encounter at the Drowning Stones isn't the most original and creative scenario, and I think in the past I've criticised some of author Tim Hitchcocks's writing for being derivative, but for whatever reason I liked the classic pulp jungle action in this one.  Lost temples, demon lords, sacrificial altars--what's *not* good about that?  This is a good scenario to play if you don't want to have to think too hard, and just want a good, solid night of adventuring.  But maybe leave the boots of the winterlands behind.