Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-1: "Silent Tide" [RPG]

NON-SPOILERS

A couple of nights ago, I had the chance to direct my first Pathfinder Society scenario.  I just picked the very first one listed for "Season 0", which was named Silent Tide, and ran it for Level 1 Iconics.  The adventure takes place in the island metropolis Absalom, and involves the PCs on an adventure to save the city from disaster.  It has some very creative set-piece encounters and a fairly interesting backstory, even if doesn't all hang together perfectly.  The story does ensure that a good pace is kept and the momentum will surely keep any players from getting bored.  As a GM, there were some confusing elements to prepare, but on the whole I was satisfied.

SPOILERS

Premise:  Eight-hundred years ago, a Taldoran invasion fleet lay anchored off the coast ready to invade Absalom in an operation code-named "Silent Tide."  The fleet was waiting for a group of infiltrators and saboteurs known as Black Echelon to weaken the city's defenses and then transmit a special code using coloured lanterns.  But the Black Echelon operatives were discovered, their plans foiled, and the invasion fleet taken by surprise and sunk.  What no one in Absalom knew at the time, however, is that everyone involved in the planned attack had sworn an oath lost to time: a Binding Word, that ensured that neither time nor death would keep them from carrying out their goal.  Now, a military historian named Yargos has uncovered an ancient codebook from the Silent Tide operation and, on a lark, sent off the signals to begin the operation.  This triggered Black Echelon to rise from the dead as skeletal abominations to begin to carry out their ancient plans.  Yargos realized his mistake, but before he could transmit the abort code to stop the plan, the codebook was stolen by a would-be crimelord named Nessian who plans to use it to blackmail the city's leaders.

Encounter # 1:  The PCs are sent by a Pathfinder Venture-Captain to get the codebook from Yargos so that the Society can add it to its historical archives.  There's a *long* text block to read to the players to begin the scenario, which is quite old-fashioned and could test the patience of some.  On the positive side, once the text block is done, the PCs are right at an encounter.  The PCs find out that Yargos and three of his friends (all shackled together) have been kidnapped by crimelord Nessian's henchmen (the War Hounders) AND are about to be pushed over the edge of a cliff to drown into the waters below!  This was a great encounter to start the scenario, as it adds an exciting element to an otherwise unremarkable battle against thugs: the PCs have to rescued the prisoners (dangling from the edge of the cliff) before they fall in and drown.  This requires some urgent action and may result in some major risk-taking (and the GM should prep the drowning/swimming rules).  Unlike all of the other encounters, there was no map for this encounter, but it was simple enough to improvise so I don't find fault with that.  A potential flaw in the encounter, which some people have noted in the forums, is that there is absolutely no contingency sidebar for the GM if Yargos actually dies.  This didn't happen when I ran it, and it's probably not really likely (it would take 20 rounds for Yargos to die after falling in the water), but if it does a GM would have to think quickly or the entire scenario would be derailed.  Perhaps a bigger issue is that Yargos, once rescued, is supposed to explain to the PCs everything in the backstory and then tell the PCs that to find Nessian they should visit an information broker named Grandmaster Torch.  But if the PCs capture and interrogate one of the War Hounders (using Intimidate, Charm Person, etc.), it would make sense for the prisoner to tell the PCs exactly where Nessian's base is, which would mean the PCs would skip the information broker encounter.  This happened in my game--it wasn't a huge issue, but should be noted.

Encounter # 2: On the way to Grandmaster Torch, the PCs notice signal lights flashing and Yargos realizes that's a code for Black Echelon to try to poison Absalom's granary.  This encounter sees the PCs fighting several Black Echelon operatives inside the granary, and there's a couple of good elements here.  First, the granary is given some interesting terrain features: grain is spilled in random spots which makes movement more difficult than just charging straight ahead, and there are hatches in the ceiling which can (if the right check is made) dump grain on a creature to cause damage and immobilize them.  Second, the Black Echelon operatives themselves are far more interesting and flavourful than simple skeletons: they have the ability to summon a fog-like cloud around them, and every square adjacent to one is affected by total silence.  These features made what would have been a bland encounter against undead into something that kept my experienced players off-balance and alert.  I also liked that one of the Faction missions was to recover a vial of the poison, which could create some good role-playing opportunities.

Encounter # 3:  The third encounter is the one where the PCs are to visit the information broker.  Grandmaster Torch is willing to divulge Nessian's whereabouts if the PCs can open three out of the five treasure chests he hasn't been able to crack.  Although the PCs in my session skipped this encounter, I really liked the idea of it as it gave the scenario the classic element of puzzles and riddles to engage the less-combat focussed players.  Requiring only 3 of the 5 to be solved meant that getting stuck on a single one wouldn't ruin everyone's fun.  Someone like Grandmaster Torch would also make a good recurring NPC for games set in Absalom.

Encounter # 4: On the way to Nessian's hideout, the PCs see, yet again, signal lights that are recognized by Yargos.  Yargos explains that these lights mean that Black Echelon is about to attack the Metro-Church (a long-standing cathedral of Abadar) and try to interrupt the morning Oathday song.  The sudden stoppage to the song, which has been played every Oathday morning for centuries, is the final signal for the invasion fleet to attack.  This is the most memorable encounter of the scenario, as inside the Metro-Church is a *massive* organ: each key is as big as a human being laying down, and the way that music is played is to jump from key to key.  The Black Echelon operatives have killed most of the dancing priest-musicians, and have used their Silence auras to keep any sound from emanating from the organ's pipes.  I will admit that the whole premise of the organ struck me as a bit silly, but it led to an encounter I can safely say your players haven't had before!  The encounter tests not just the PCs combat ability, but also their jumping and performance skills.  This encounter does take some extra prep by the GM and some extra explanation for the players on what's going on.

Encounter # 5: The finale for the scenario sees the PCs approaching Nessian's hideout, "The Pyramid of the Dog."  The concept of this structure is that three old siege towers have collapsed inwards to rest on a fourth, upright siege tower.  A map of the encounter is provided, but it still took me a while to try to figure out how it was supposed to translate into three-dimensional space when it comes to climbing, cover, etc.  An artist's rendering would have been extremely helpful here.  Anyway, apart from the odd structure, this is a fairly run-of-the-mill encounter against Nessian, some of his henchmen, and a very mean dog.  In his tower, the PCs find the codebook so that Yargos can send the abort code and stop Silent Tide.

So there are some problems with the scenario from a GM's perspective: it's a harder scenario to just plop down and run because some of the encounters are hard to conceptualize without a lot of planning.  In addition, there are places where the backstory doesn't really hold together well (discussed in the forums); however, the momentum of the scenario is such that I imagine very few players will notice and question any inconsistencies. GMs new to the Season Zero scenarios should note that these are written for D&D 3.5, which means some minor adjustments need to be made ahead of time for NPCs in terms of CMB, CMD, and some skill names.

Overall, however, there's an interesting-enough story, some quite memorable encounters and enemies, and a strong mix of combat, role-play and puzzle-solving to make this a good (even though not great) adventure.

Mystery Monsters Revisited [RPG]

Mystery Monsters Revisited is an unusual entry in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting line.  The goal of the book is to transform ten different monsters from real-world folklore and modern legend (so-called "cryptids") into creatures usable in Pathfinder and in the game's official setting, Golarion.  The book is a 64-page softcover with full colour interior art that is adequate but not Paizo's best (and I think the cover needed a better inker to add definition to what looks like a coloured pencil drawing).  Each of the ten monsters is covered in a six-page section that includes the following topics: Evidence (why the creature is thought to exist), Ecology, Habitat & Society, Campaign Role (how to use the creature in a game), Treasure, Golarion lore, and a full stat block and picture of a unique version of the creature.  Each section also includes a brief sidebar about the creature's real-world inspiration.  The ten monsters covered are:

* Bunyips (from Australian aboriginal lore), an aquatic mammal that combines features of a shark and a seal.  Two new feats just for bunyips are introduced, which is a bit strange.  The idea is a bit bland.

* Chupacabras (a modern Puerto Rican legend), bloodsucking creatures that walk on two legs and sneak around at night to feast on livestock and pets.  The stealthy nature of the creatures and the fact that they could easily be confused by PCs with vampires or other dangers would make them a good story element for a low-level campaign set in rural areas.  A magical weapon, the Chupar Pick, is introduced.

*  Death Worms (the Mongolian "Olgoi-Khorkhoi"), which, as the name implies, are gargantuan subterranean worms that live in desert areas and can spit acid and electricity.  Despite the added attack styles, Pathfinder has enough giant worms and I don't think much is added here.  This section includes a new magic item to see creatures moving underground, Vitreous Goggles.

* Mokele-Mbembe (a Congo legend), a massive saurian that is basically a swamp dinosaur with long spines down its back.  Again, a bit bland.  A new magic weapon, the Mokele-Mbembe Tail Whip, is introduced.

* Mothman (a West Virginia legend), a strange, unearthly winged humanoid that appears just before terrible disasters for an inexplicable reason.  This was the first entry in the book that really caught my eye as something that would be fascinating to add into a campaign.  The new magic item introduced here, a Mothman Memento, is also well done.

* Sandpoint Devil (based on the Jersey Devil), a winged-horse that stands on two legs and has demonic teeth and horns.  I'm running Rise of the Runelords right now which of course has Sandpoint as its setting, so I'm partial to this entry.

* Sasquatch (Bigfoot), a forest-dwelling apelike creature.  A cursed item called a Sasquatch Skull is introduced here.

* Sea Serpents (from many cultures), enormous snakes large enough to sink entire ships.  Could be interesting as a major storyline in an aquatic-themed campaign.  A new magic weapon, the Serpentseeker Bow, is introduced.

* Water Orms (the Loch Ness Monster), lake-dwelling saurials that are enormously reclusive.

* Yeti (the Abominable Snowman), alpine beasts with sharp claws and teeth.  I really liked the lore added by the book here, as they portray Yeti as the nobel guardians of portals to dangerous extra-dimensional lands like the Lovecraftian Leng.  A magic item called Leng Tea is introduced.

The book does a good job emphasizing that these legendary creatures really need to be built up over a period of time in a campaign.  If you just drop a random Sea Serpent attack in while the PCs are on a boat, then Sea Serpents are just another monster.  But if you depict sailors and dock-workers growing increasingly frightened over the course of several sessions by the legendary Ashen Worm, then it means something when/if a fight actually takes place.  In other words, these creatures aren't meant for random encounters but are instead best used as driving forces for story-lines that can include investigation, tracking, red herrings, scam artists, and more.  That being said, only a couple of the creatures listed in the book really struck me as elements I'd love to bring into a campaign.  Many left me feeling "meh."  So in sum, I'd say that Mystery Monsters Revisited isn't a *bad* book, but it shouldn't be a high-priority for readers.

Cheliax, Empire of Devils [RPG]

Cheliax, Empire of Devils is a solid entry in Paizo's line of Player's Companions for Pathfinder.  The nation of Cheliax provides a far different feel than that of most fantasy, as it's a land where the rulers have openly made pacts with the devils!  It's a dark and oppressive place to live, and one wrong word can bring the Inquisitors to one's door.  I've read about several different areas in Golarion, and Cheliax is one of the most interesting and original.  Cheliax, Empire of Devils contains the following:

* A map of the city of Westcrown on the inside front cover.  The map isn't particularly good or detailed, and one doesn't see any cartographic talent at work.

* A twelve-page overview of Cheliax.  This is one of those all-too rare occasions where the history of a fictional land is actually quite fascinating!  This section a lot of useful information on the culture of Cheliax, as well as its leadership, perception of neighboring countries, organizations (such as the famous Hellknights), and even a few paragraphs on the arts scene(!).  Some of this will naturally be more useful to GMs than players, but it was still done well.

*  A two-page description of Egorian, a major city in Cheliax.  There's a brief overview of the different districts of the town, but this was fairly bland.

* A two-page description of Westcrown, Cheliax's former capital before the pact with demons was made.  As with the discussion of Egorian, there's not a lot of detail here and the material is probably of more interest to GMs.

* A section titled "Social" that contains brief one- or two-line descriptions of how the different core classes are perceived in Cheliax and then several new traits.  This may be the most useful part of the book for PCs, and it's done well (if short).

* Four pages on "Magic & Spells", introducing several new magic items and spells.  Good flavour links them to Cheliax.

* Two pages on "Faith."  Purely descriptive, but good as far as it goes.

* "Combat", another two-page section.  This is chock-full of feats, but contains an interesting sidebar on battle slang and one new weapon.

* Four NPCs detailed (with descriptions, pictures, and full stat blocks) in a "Persona" section.  This would be really useful for a GM, but (apart from maybe integration into a backstory) of little value to players.

* The inside back cover has a map of Egorian.  It's better than the map of Westcrown, but still falls a bit flat.

A word about the art: oddly, the cover art is much worse than the interior art!  There's some absolutely gorgeous artwork inside (see pages 20 and 26 for examples).

Overall, this is another of Paizo's early entries in the Player's Companion line wherein they still hadn't found the right distinction between material for players and material for GMs.  That being said, it's a good book and I'd recommend it.

Qadira, Gateway to the East [RPG]

Qadira, Gateway to the East is a 36-page source book about what could be called the "Arabian Nights" area of Golarion.  Retroactively listed as part of the Pathfinder "Player's Companion" line of books, this is probably as much or more for the GM rather than players.  It's an impressive and well-written overview of the land, and there's definitely a lot of bang for the buck here.  The book includes a full-color map of Qadira (sparsely annotated, to be fair) on the inside front-cover and is then separated into seven sections:

* A ten-page introduction to Qadira.  This section discusses the history of the area, its political situation in terms of leadership and relationship to nearby lands, what goods are traded, and how the people are divided into four groups: nobles, citizens, slaves, and foreigners.  It also includes descriptions of major cities and landmarks in Qadira.  A sidebar introduces one new feat, one new combat trait, and two new regional traits.

* A four-page section labelled "Society."  This is a quite useful overview of how the core races and classes are perceived in Qadira, and has a useful (if brief) discussion of cultural quirks.  This  section would be quite useful for players interested in creating a Qadiran PC.  A new social trait appears here.

* A four-page overview of Katheer, an important city in Qadira.  This section includes a half-page map, discussion of some major areas of the city, and four individual NPCs (description only, no stat blocks) that could come into contact with adventurers.  Two new regional traits and an item are introduced here.  This section is mostly for the GM.

* A two-page section titled "Combat" that consists solely of a prestige class called a Daivrat (a spellcaster who befriends genies).  I've never played or seen one of these in a session, but the mechanical abilities don't seem to really do enough to draw out the flavour of the concept.

* Two pages titled "Faith."  This section includes very brief discussions of the role of Irori, Sarenrae, Rovagug, Abadar, and Gorum in Qadira before introducing a pretty powerful new item ("War Kilt of Sarenrae") and a new feat ("Dervish Dance").

* "Magic," a short section that mentions some different traditions of magic in Qadira (like Veil Magic, Warding Magic, and Gen Magic) but unhelpfully doesn't cover in any detail whether these traditions have any real differences compared to the common schools of magic.  Five new regional traits and the alchemical substance silversheen are introduced here.

* A six-page bestiary with stat-blocks for the half-janni, suli, and zhyen.

As best I can tell, much of this book was written before Paizo had clearly differentiated between its Player's Companion line and its Campaign Setting line.  Qadira, Gateway to the East has much more in it of interest to GMs (a bestiary, an overview of a major city, etc.) than it does to players, while still introducing enough traits, feats, and even a prestige class to hold some value to players.  It's a bit of a confusing mix, but, as I mentioned, it's a well-written product overall.  More recent comers to Pathfinder might be warned that the artwork, although fine, is not up to the later Paizo standard.

As this review is being written, a new book about Qadira is on the horizon, titled (rather too similarly) "Qadira, Jewel of the East."

Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition Player's Guide [RPG]

Paizo's adventure paths for the Pathfinder RPG are an excellent idea: a single long campaign, with six separate chapters, sufficient to take a party from Level 1 all the way up to the Level 15-18.  This past summer, I started directing my first adventure path, Rise of the Runelords, using the "Anniversary Edition" hardcover (which collects and updates the original adventure path featured in the monthly Pathfinder magazine).  I think the adventure path is fantastic so far and am having a blast, but I have to say the one part that lets the campaign down is the Player's Guide.

The Player's Guide, which is free to download from Paizo.com, is intended to introduce players to the adventure path by giving them some background on the setting of the adventure, the type of stories that will be told, and sufficient links to the first chapter so their PCs know where they are when the campaign begins.  The Anniversary Edition Player's Guide offers 1 page of helpful "Character Tips" (explaining that the adventure path involves ancient lost cultures, fighting giant monsters, and surface exploration) and then offers several excellent campaign traits (connections to the path's starting location, Sandpoint, along with a permanent mechanical advantage of some type).  There's then a color map of Sandpoint and a very small map of Varisia.  So far, so good.  But the entire remainder of the Player's Guide consists of *nine pages* of description of various landmarks in Varisia, the vast majority of which the PCs will never visit and which are of no particular interest to the players; frankly, it's rather boring.  The material is a copy of the material that appeared in the third volume of the adventure path, but should have been added, if anywhere, to the Anniversary Edition itself (though, with a separate sourcebook on Varisia available to GMs, it might not be necessary at all). Finally, there are two pages of ads for products that will only be of interest to the GM, not the players!

When the Anniversary Edition Player's Guide is compared to the original Player's Guide for the 3.5 edition of the adventure path, the faults of the new version become even more clear.  The old Player's Guide featured an introduction to the three human ethnicities that are the dominate players in Varisia (Shoanti, Varisians, and Chelaxians), an explanation of how all of the core races are like in Golarion and Varisia, an overview of how the different core classes are perceived in the setting, an overview of the deities of Golarion, some flavourful equipment particular to Varisia, and a two-page spread on Sandpoint that gives just enough of an introduction to the town without spoiling anything.  All of this information is especially useful to players who have never adventured in Golarion before.

If I had to do it all over again, I would give the players the old Player's Guide along with a link to the Archives of Nethys list of campaign traits for the Anniversary Edition.  I'm confident this way would be a more enjoyable and flavourful introduction to the campaign.

Inner Sea Monster Codex [PATHFINDER CAMPAIGN SETTING]

The Inner Sea Monster Codex is a 64-page entry discussing ten different monstrous races for the Pathfinder RPG.  The write-up for each monster includes background on the monster in the official campaign setting of Golarion, a summary of common encounters, and full stat blocks and pictures for various members of the race.  In addition, many of the races include new features like archetypes, traps, oracle curses, feats, magic items, spells, etc.  The monsters covered are:

* Centaurs.  Everyone knows what these are, and centaurs in Golarion follow the fantasy tradition of being stubborn and xenophobic.  This section includes a new archetype for centaur cavaliers called the Charger.

* Charau-Ka.  I had never heard of this type of monster before.  Charau-Ka are basically primitive ape-men, violent and brutal scavengers in Golarion's jungles.  This section includes several Charau-Ka traps, many of which are quite creative and would be fun to use in a game.

* Cyclops.  In Golarion, cyclops have a strong diviner/oracle flavour and are seen as quite rare.  New oracle curses and a Cyclopean oracle archetype, the Cyclopean Seer, is included here.

* Derros.  Everyone's favourite crazy evil gnomes.  I really like their portrayal here as hidden threats that lurk underneath urban areas and kidnap surface-dwellers for strange experiments before brainwashing them to forget the whole thing.  It would be quite easy to get PCs involved in investigating the mystery of missing persons.  Several new alchemist discoveries are added.

* Gillmen.  Merfolk that have a special role in Golarion lore as descendants of the ancient Azlanti people.  I assume Gillmen will get even more attention in the upcoming (at the time of this review) Ruins of Azlant adventure path.  I've never done much with aquatic races, but for those interested, several Gillman magic items are included here.

* Girtablilus.  Another new one for me: basically, giant scorpions with human upper bodies (think centaurs but swap giant scorpions for horses!).  In Golarion, they mainly appear in desert settings and as guardians of ancient ruins.  I wasn't particularly impressed, but your mileage may vary.  Two new druid domains (Ruins and Vermin) are introduced here, along with a new oracle curse (Site-bound) and a Girtablilu-specific feat.

* Minotaurs.  In Golarion, minotaurs are the product of the demon goddess Lamashtu, but full the stereotypical role of guarding ancient labyrinths.  There wasn't anything revelatory here for me.  Four new spells are introduced that all focus on creating illusions to confuse travelers.

* Ogrekin. Mutated, deformed, and disfigured freaks.  One gets a "The Hills Have Eyes" vibe.  I quite liked the two tables of Beneficial and Disadvantageous deformities for the ogrekin, and there's also a template for creating half-ogres.

* Strix.  Very cool looking winged humanoids who live on remote mountain perches.  I could definitely imagine doing something with them.  Six new feats for creatures with natural wings are included here.

* Urdefhan.  Creepy demon-worshipping monsters from another plane who live in the Darklands (Golarion's equivalent of the Underdark).  Nightmare-fuel that's perfect for adding some horror to a session.  Six new feats (Urdefhan-specific) are included.

The artwork is uniformly excellent--really, it's as good as it gets in fantasy RPGs.  Although not every monstrous race presented here was my cup of tea, there's enough creativity and mechanics crunch to make the book worth purchasing if any of the creatures presented here appeal to you as a GM.  Do note that this is primarily a GM's book; although some of the mechanics options (feats, spells, etc.) could be used by PCs, most have a prerequisite tied to being one of the monstrous races.

Dungeons of Golarion [PATHFINDER CAMPAIGN SETTING]

This 64-page sourcebook is an introduction and overview of six different "mega-dungeons" in Golarion, the setting for the Pathfinder RPG.  For each megadungeon, a sideview schematic shows how the various levels are arranged and connected.  Next, each level (usually arranged from easiest to hardest) is given a one-paragraph description and ideas for the types of threats present there.  Each megadungeon also includes a write-up of a new monster, a trap, and a new magic item or spell found within.  A couple of adventure hooks to lure PCs to the megadungeon complete each section.

The six megadungeons covered are:

* Candlestone Caverns, a complex in rural Andoran occupied by various monstrous humanoids (especially kobolds) and linked to the Darklands.

* Gallowspire, the famous fortress in Ustalav that contains the power of the undead lich The Whispering Tyrant.  The backstory here is fascinating and the description is quite evocative for would-be undead slayers.

* Hollow Mountain, a peak on an island off the coast of Varisia that was the capital of the Thassilonian Runelord of Wrath's domain.  The book's great cover depicts one of her sinspawn.

* The Pyramid of Kamara, a foreboding pyramid in Osirion that is the tomb of a Rovagug-worshipping pharaoh.  I quite liked how the top level is occupied by con-artists who stage fake mummy attacks for the entertainment of tourists.

* The Red Redoubt of Karamoss, an ancient subterranean structure near Absalom that was the home of a wizard who built technological marvels based on research in Numeria.  Robots and techno devices galore still exist within.

* The Zolurket Mines, an ancient dwarven mine corrupted by a necromantic mineral that has turned the original miners into ghouls!

The important thing about this book is that, as cool as the outlines are, none of the megadungeons are anywhere near being playable without a tremendous amount of work by a GM in producing level maps, stocking those levels with monsters, and figuring out treasure.  Also this is another high-quality Paizo product, it's really only for those GMs who have a LOT of time on their hands but need inspiration.