Starfinder Society Scenario # 6-13: "The Beginning of the End" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

Yes, the title of this scenario is The Beginning of the End, and yes it's the next to last scenario for next to last season of the first edition of Starfinder Society.  But I'm sure everything will be fine!  I got to play this via play-by-post with my embri Mystic of Pharasma, Speaker for the Dead.  I had a fun time.  There's not a lot of amazing story, NPC, or encounter creativity on display, but it's a solid meat-and-potatoes adventure that should leave players satisfied.  There's also some good artwork and the return of an old enemy that everyone loves to hate, which is a plus in my book.

SPOILERS!

I haven't played any of the other Season Six ("Year of Fortune's Fall") scenarios, so reading the Adventure Background to this scenario was a bit overwhelming.  I'll try to boil it down: there once was a party of Starfinders that turned bad.  Led by a powerful seer named Zaheni, they schemed to get access to a rare starmetal named finitrium which would give her even more powerful precognitive powers.  The Starfinder Society eventually learned what was going on and launched an operation to stop the group, which had taken the moniker The Order of Dawning Fate.  Previous scenarios have had the SFS taking down some members of the group, but now the Order has a not-so-secret scheme called Project Dawn, which involves using a doomsday device to cause earthquakes in a particular metropolis to scare away the residents so the Order can get full access to the rare finitrium deposit that lays underneath it. (the exact sort of thing a James Bond villain would do!) The Starfinder Society has narrowed the possibilities of where the doomsday device is hidden to one of about a dozen planets across the galaxy and is preparing to send teams to each of them.

The PCs come into the picture with a briefing by Celita in the Lorespire Complex.  They're being sent to check out one of the possibilities, a city called Izdris on the planet Relthune in the Vast.  I'm not familiar with either the city or the planet, though the scenario gives some backstory indicating it hosts extensive pre-Gap ruins that have been well-preserved, making it quite the tourist destination.  One intriguing thing that Celita mentions is that she received an encrypted message from an unknown sender a few days ago stating that Izdris was the Order's target.  The message was "signed" with an apple emoji, which a veteran player will suspect means the message is from Datch, the villain of Season Two, who was apparently freed from prison by the Order in a previous scenario.  However, whether Datch has turned against the Order or this is all bait for a big trap remains to be scene.

The weeks-long journey to Relthune proceeds without incident.  When the PCs' ship lands on Izdris, they see the population is in panic: a series of escalating earthquakes have hit the city, and misinformation is making the situation even worse.  The GM is instructed to choose three "vignettes" from a list to get the PCs involved in trying to address the panic.  These vignettes are simple one-line problems where the players get a choice of two different skill checks to try to solve them--a lot like an obstacle Chase card in Pathfinder.  I think it worked well, though I could imagine some groups not realising these little vignettes aren't major plot threads to follow.

The PCs will trace the source of the encrypted message to a building owned by a news network called RelWIN.  Unbeknownst to the Izdrian populace, RelWIN was bought out by the Order and is being used to spread misinformation to aggravate the panic and get people to evacuate.  The PCs burst into a studio so see Datch handcuffed to a computer console, and three Order agents maintaining security.  The Order agents open fire on the PCs, of course, but Datch tries to help the PCs by using technology in the studio.  The battle is forgettable, but there's an excellent role-playing opportunity with Datch, especially if PCs (unlike Speaker for the Dead) had encountered her in previous scenarios.  Datch explains that she was held prisoner by the Order and forced to participate in their misinformation scheme (she is an expert at it, after all).  She tells the PCs that the doomsday device isn't far away under an old university building, but that time is of the essence as the strikes are going to continue intensifying.  She offers the PCs a deal: she'll stick around after they leave to prepare a full synopsis of the Order's activities and membership for Celita, if they agree to let her go afterwards.  It's a good, interesting decision for the PCs, with multiple plausible views, exactly the sort of thing I like to see in RPGs.  Our group agreed to the deal.

The PCs are expected to take a news enercopter on the building's roof to get to the university building, and they'll find themselves chased by another news enercopter piloted by Order agents.  We get a proper Chase with customised zones and tricks.  Our group's enercopter took a *lot* of damage, but we managed to get enough speed to simply escape the pursuit.  There were some fun obstacles in the Chase, such as avoiding cranes from construction zones, oncoming air traffic, etc.  It was notable that each enercopter was outfitted with a corona artillery laser, leading my GM to quip "It really tells you what the media situation is like on this planet if their news copters come armed with laser cannons!"

Two encounters await the PCs when they get to the university building.  The first is against some Order robots; robots be robots, and the encounter will be pretty forgettable even though the artwork is interesting.  The second one is the big climax, as the PCs take on Kebzec, a drow mechanic (and a founding member of the Order) with some cool unique augmentations.  He's accompanied by a pair of goons, one of whom I memorably caught with a critical hit using my soul surge spell for 12d8 damage!  After the battle, there are some additional (possibly painful) complications to shut down the doomsday device and stop the earthquakes.

Although the overall plot is a bit cheesy (with the idea of trying to force the evacuation of an entire metropolis to "secretly" mine a rare metal underneath by using an earthquake-generating device), the scenario had some good, straightforward action and some quality role-playing with Datch.  I do wonder though, if it wouldn't have better to have had a more dramatic or foreboding ending to really set the stakes high for the last scenario of the season.

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 91 [RPG]

[Moonday, 10 Arodus 4708 A.R. continued]

 

Secure in The Reckoner’s safehouse, the Harrowed Heroes plan long into the night.

 

[Toilday, 11 Arodus 4708 A.R.]

 

The ringing of handbells in the street outside wakens everyone at dawn.  Goldcape sneaks out, invisibly, to see what all the clanging is about and learns it’s a horse-drawn cart to collect the bodies of those killed overnight by the terrible blood magic curse still striking down victims across the city!  Sadly, Mifeg—the homeless woman the group had some contact with months ago—is one of the deceased.  Goldcape returns to fill the others in on what she’s seen.  But although bodies may continue to accumulate as long as Ileosa lives, the group agree to plan their strike on Castle Korvosa carefully instead of acting rashly.

 

Goldcape decides to walk to Old Korvosa to check on Sergeant Clenkins and the other members of the rebel cell she organised there.  The vanara is recognised by friendly House Arkona soldiers at the bridge and waved across.  Although the perpetual gloom of the nearby Black Tower puts a damper on things, she’s surprised to see how much the city’s most notorious slums have improved in recent weeks!  Rubbish has been hauled away, no gangs roam the street, and there’s even early signs of new construction.  But curiously, her rebel cell is nowhere to be found.  There’s no sign of violence or disorder in the abandoned building, but it looks like everything other than Goldcape’s personal gear has been packed up and moved out. 

 

She decides to learn the rebels’ fate by directly asking the most important man in Old Korvosa: Glorio Arkona himself!  In Arkona Palace, after having her identity confirmed through a quiz from Glorio’s majordomo (apparently shapechanging assassins are a risk), Goldcape is immediately brought to meet the artistocrat in a well-appointed salon.  Glorio is welcoming and flattering, and explains that Sergeant Clenkins and his troops found it “unnecessary” to maintain their protection of the Black Tower after the forces of House Arkona arrived.  Instead, Glorio explains, they’ve joined the siege of Castle Korvosa.  Along with refreshments and a gift of platinum coins, Glorio hints that, should he become leader of post-war Korvosa, he would offer her a major position of responsibility: Commandant of the Sable Company Marines!

 

After leaving the palace, Goldcape realises she’s near Vencarlo Orisini’s old fencing academy and decides to pay a visit to her mentor.  The two speak carefully in case spies for the Queen are listening in, but Goldcape subtly confirms that the mission to Scarwall was a success while Vencarlo talks about rebuilding the academy with the aid of a wealthy student.  He welcomes Goldcape to stop by for lessons anytime.  Goldcape says her farewells and makes it back to The Reckoner’s safehouse in the early afternoon.

 

Meanwhile, Protosilaus and The Reckoner haven’t been sitting idle!  Leaving Lorien and Yraelzin behind, the two walk to a particular alleyway not far from the safehouse to meet with one of The Reckoner’s informants.  In this case, that informant is Xoza, a dandasuka in the employ of House Arkona who is magically-bound to spy for The Reckoner!  Xoza reports progress on the three tasks assigned to him by The Reckoner before the Harrowed Heroes left the city for Scarwall.  First, Xoza reports a (not-so-stunning) revelation: the vigilante Trifaccia was an efreeti agent of The Queen!  Given that Grau Soldado took care of that problem some time ago, the information is now of little value.  Second, Xoza was charged with learning what House Arkona was planning, and again the little spy has information that may be too late to be of much value: the aristocratic family has entered into an alliance with the queen of the xill from the Black Tower.  In exchange for military support, House Arkona lets the xill implant their spawn in the bodies of captured Ileosan loyalists!  Third, Xoza says his third task (to find out Glorio Arkona’s weaknesses) faltered due to  the man’s security and that, as far as he knows, Glorio is just a human.  But The Reckoner gets a hunch that Xoza has doubts about that, and presses him to reveal not just what he knows, but what he suspects: that Glorio is a rakshasa!  Xoza doesn’t seem able to articulate exactly what that means or what the differences are between different kinds of rakshasa, but insists the only weakness of a “true rakshasa” is a blessed crossbow bolt. The Reckoner asks Xoza to next look into finding information about the Queen and her new seneschal, the bloodmage Togomor.

But as Protosilaus and The Reckoner leave the alleyway, they hear angry shouting nearby to the south.  It seems that the rebel forces loyal to Kroft (the “New Korvosan Guard”) and the forces loyal to Glorio Arkona (his enlarged “Palace Guards”) are pushing, shoving, and yelling.  And watching ominously, just behind the Arkonan side, are a contingent of the four-armed, flame-red insect-like xill, surely ready to intervene with lethal force at the least invitation!  The Reckoner pulls the leaders of the two sides away from each other and learns that they’re arguing about a boundary dispute stemming from an ambiguously-drawn map.  He’s able to calm the situation enough that the leader of the Arkonan forces agrees to return to the palace and verify the map with the majordomo.  On the walk back to the safehouse, The Reckoner says that immediately after taking out Ileosa, they should go after Glorio Arkona!  Protosilaus grins disturbingly at the notion, and The Reckoner continues by explaining that they can’t give the man any chance to seize power, and that allowing the xill to implant their eggs in captured loyalists is surely a sign he’s evil.  Protosilaus shrugs and replies, “or just pragmatic."

Once everyone is back together, they plan their next steps: Yraelzin and Goldcape will visit Jeggare Library to check the castle blueprints (stashed there long ago by Goldcape) against the maps provided by Sabina to see if the latter are indeed accurate; meanwhile, Protosilaus and The Reckoner will do some long-range reconnaissance on the castle to determine if their current plan for entry is viable.

The research part of the plan goes off without a hitch, as the blueprints are exactly where Goldcape left them (in the “Fungi of the Mwangi Expanse” shelf) and, after an afternoon’s comparison, seem to support Sabina’s veracity.  On the way back from the library, Yraelzin and Goldcape run into a strike organised by the city’s dockworkers.  Seizing on a rare opportunity provided by the rebellion (trade unionism is illegal in Korvosa), the dockworkers are threatening to stop unloading grain shipments for the rebels unless they’re guaranteed bargaining rights in whatever regime follows Ileosa’s!  Goldcape tries to explain to the strike’s apparent leader just how important the grain shipments are, but has no luck, even when she name-drops The Reckoner (it seems like Blackjack is the “people’s champion” to this particular dockworker).  Eventually, Goldcape sends a message to the rebels camped around Castle Korvosa about the situation, and their commander, Sir Gyrad Tolgrith, comes himself!  Tolgrith’s reputation precedes him, and, after Goldcape explains the situation, he’s able to give the needed assurances to get the ships unloaded.  Interestingly, the well-respected leader pointedly refused to answer Goldcape’s question about which of the three rebel faction leaders he supports.

 

The surveillance part of the plan also provides valuable intelligence.  Protosilaus conjures a magical invisible flying eye that he can somehow see through, and sends it on multiple journeys in and around the castle.  The witch-doctor learns that the group’s originally-planned incursion site (a salon on the fourth floor) is the barracks for a contingent of Red Mantis assassins—one of whom spots the eye and sounds the alarm so another can dispel it!  But Protosilaus always has another spell, and is able to conjure more eyes to continue the reconnaissance.  He’s unable to see into the throne room or the queen’s bedroom due to the stained-glass windows, but is able to discern the shape of  . . . something . . . in the latter.  A look into the armory and Sabina’s room doesn’t provide confirmation that there really are secret doors as Sabina said, but the sight of a corpulent imp raiding the kitchen and barbed monsters in the mess hall support her story about Ileosa consorting with devils. 

 

Still, the crucial question remains: has Sabina provided the group with everything they need for a surgical assault or instead simply set the bait for an irresistible trap?

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GM Commentary

One of the areas that a GM in a campaign like this really has to exercise judgement on is the control of information.  I like it when PCs are smart and plan ahead with things like reconnaisaince, the recruitment of spies, divination magic, and so forth.  But it can be challenging to decide what their efforts should yield.  There's a balance between not giving them enough (leading to discouragement--"that was a waste of time, I guess we're supposed to just attack") and giving them too much ("hey guys, here's the adventure with room key and encounters, just read it yourselves").  A couple examples where I had to exercise that judgment came in this session, with Xoza (a player-favourite NPC) who had been spying on Arkona for weeks and the magical floating eyes used by Protosilaus to check out Castle Korvosa.

Sir Tolgrith is an NPC from the 3.5-era module Conquest of Bloodsworn Vale.  Bloodsworn Vale is an important aspect of Korvosa's history, and although Tolgrith isn't mentioned in Curse of the Crimson Throne, I thought it would make sense (and be fun) to include him in a cameo role since the module had been completed by a group of PCs in my Magic Mirror/Roots of Golarion campaign.

Starfinder: Alien Archive 3 [RPG]

 Paizo released its third Alien Archive for Starfinder (first edition) in 2019, continuing the initial annual release schedule.  I rated the first two as excellent, if pricey.  Now, (too many) years later, what do I think of the third one?  I’ll make up my mind as I write the review!

 

Let’s start with the cover: a shining valkyrie, an insect-like jinsul, and a little plant-creature raxilite (I think?) stand on rampart, firing outward.  It’s okay, but doesn’t wow me.  The inside front-cover and inside back-cover have the standard decorative map of the Pact Worlds system.  There’s then a two-page table of contents and a two-page overview that has the usual (but useful) “How to Read a Creature Stat Block”.

 

The core of the book is, of course, pages and pages of new species: each of the 66 gets two pages of coverage.  I’ve talked before how Starfinder has concise stat blocks, so there’s always lot of room for lore development.  I think the artwork is okay, but a step below what appeared in the first two books.  I obviously can’t go through each new species one by one, but I’m going to call out a few that I found especially interesting.

 

·       There are twenty new playable races.  The animals-as-humanoids trend is strong, with brenneri (otters), dromada (kangaroos), expraksa (birds), hanakan (velociraptors), ijtikri (squids; these were everywhere for a while!), morlamaws (walruses; a great import from SFS), and telia (turtles).  Having played the game for a decade, I tend to think that most of the choice of race is cosmetic because the special racial abilities are few and fairly minor.  My preference would have been fewer playable races but more depth and meaningful differences between them.

 

·       Along with morlamaws (above), I was really happy to see some of the creatures introduced in Starfinder Society make it to the big time!  Jinsuls and izalguun are other imports.

 

·       Similarly, some of the creatures from Free RPG Day materials make an appearance, like animated armor and stridermanders.

 

·       A few entries that really stuck out to me: Drift natives (time-eaters that are great for GM plots), ferrofluid oozes and living holograms (I’ve fought these a million times in scenarios now!), quantum slimes (love the doubling effect), shakalta (playable race; twin-souls in one body, so must multiclass!), thorgothrel (intelligent oozes that believe in de-evolving all humanoid life—fun motivation!), rendalairn (a CR 25 colossal death orb!)

 

After the entries, there’s a substantive ten-page feature that introduces Creature Companions to the game.  How this works is that each PC is allowed to purchase one Creature Companion.  At base, a Creature Companion can only take one move action each round.  A PC can take a feat to trade their standard action in a given round to their Creature Companion (or, at Level 4, take another feat to give up just a move action so their Creature Companion can have a standard action).  I *really* like this, as it intelligently alters the action economy to keep “pets” from overshadowing other PCs—while still making them situationally useful.  Several example Creature Companions are given, as well as some new gear (I think the environmental field collar would be a must-have).

 

There’s not a lot that’s worth discussing in regards to the nine appendices (20 pages), with “Creatures by Terrain” and “Creatures by Pact World” the only ones I would consult other than the Universal Creature Rules.

 

That’s Alien Archive 3.  I don’t think it’s a must-have.  But now that the prices have come down, it’s a much better deal for 160 pages of material than before.

What I Read (2025)

 BOOK LOG 2025

1 January 2025: Avatar by John Passarella.  “Angel novel.  Solid, could pass as an ep.”

6 January 2025: Worlds Without End by Caroline Spector.  “Shadowrun novel.  Ancient elf tries to stop return of mysterious evil.  Very different than one would expect of the setting, but not bad.”

9 January 2025: The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.  “Norton Critical Edition.  Interesting how much early interpretation differed from later.”

11 January 2025: The Blue Hour by Paula Hawkins. “Ok murder-thriller, but predictable.”

15 January 2025: The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith.  “Strike novel.  Very enjoyable.”

28 January 2025: Two Faces of Liberalism by John Gray. « Excellent defense of minimal ‘modus vivendi’ liberalism. »

18 February 2025: Collapse by Jared Diamond. “Workmanlike writing, but impressive coverage.”

22 February 2025: Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff.  “Genuine surprises with a hard edge, a real page turner.”

15 March 2025: Initiation by Carla Jablonski.  “First book in Timothy Hunter series.  Liked Trench-Coat Brigade.”

8 April 2025: The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith.  “Strike book about a cult.  A bit over-complicated but still good.”

9 April 2025: Showdown at Centerpoint by Roger Macbride Allen.  “Last in the Corellian Trilogy.  Average.”

18 April 2025: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen. « Features the most insipid protagonist ever. »

9 May 2025: In Good Company by Gary McKay.  “Story of an Aussie platoon commander during Vietnam.  Interesting how little has changed tactically in many ways.”

9 May 2025: The Outsider by Albert Camus. “I need to think about this one.”

15 May 2025: The Walrus & The Warwolf by Hugh Cook. “Ridiculous but fun and different style of fantasy.”

18 May 2025: Breaking the Dark by Lisa Jewell.  “Infuriating fan fiction that tries to ‘fix’ everything ‘wrong’ with Jessica by making her a bland #mumlife carbon copy vision of ‘stable’ and ‘happy’”

22 May 2025: The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu.  « Starts off amazing, but then gets really silly. »

1 June 2025: If This Book Exists, You’re in the Wrong Universe by Jason Pargin.  “Hilarious and awesome; have to get the others.”

1 June 2025: Gerald’s Game by Stephen King.  “Overlong epilogue, but good.”

23 June 2025: Newton by I Bernard Cohen and Richard S Westfall (eds).  “Norton edition.  Good coverage of many topics.”

30 June 2025: X-Men: Watcher on the Walls by Christopher L Bennett.  « Post 9-11 security state theme, handled well. »

30 June 2025: No Bikinis on the Front Yard: My Lighthearted Stories in the Army by Larry Patrick.  « Very funny and I learned a lot.  Proud of my dad! »

9 July 2025: Silver Linings by Katrina Nannestad.  « Well-written. »

20 July 2025: Spirit of the Crocodile by Aaron Fa’aoso and Michelle Scott Tucker.  “Great YA book about Torres Strait islanders.”

29 July 2025: Delores Claiborne by Stephen Kingston.  « Draws you in immediately! »

10 August 2025: The Surface Trials by HM Waugh. « Surprisingly good. »

23 August 2025: Middle English Lyrics edited by Maxwell S Luria and Richard L Hoffman. “Hard to read—literally!”

4 September 2025: Westfallen, Book 1 by Ann and Ben Brashares.  “Solid YA time slip novel.”

14 September 2025: The Hall-Marked Man by Richard Galbraith. « Latest Strike novel.  Excellent. »

15 September 2025: Oak-Leaf Bearers by John Flanagan. « Fourth Ranger’s Apprentice book.  Exciting large scale battle scenes! »

27 September 2025: A Slowly Dying Cause by Elizabeth George. « New Lynley novel.  Disappointing flat mystery, though some good Havers bits. »

5 October 2025.  Muhammad: Biography of a Prophet by Karen Armstrong. « Hagiographic and relentlessly apologetic. »

6 October 2025: The Association of Small Bombs by Karan Mahajan.  « Elliptical story about cycle of terrorist bombings in India.  Ok. »

8 October 2025: They Bloom at Night by Trang Thanh Tran.  « Interesting spin on Black Lagoon-type horror tales. »

9 October 2025: Frog: The Secret Diary of a Paramedic by Sally Gould.  “Readable and heartfelt.”

12 October 2025: The Koran trans. by N.J. Dawood.  “Boring and repetitive.”

18 October 2025: Stop Screaming, I’m Scared Too by Rod Henderson.  « Well-written and heartfelt account of an Army aviator’s time in and after service. »

14 November 2025: Beggars in Spain by Nancy Kress.  “Re-read of one of my all-time favourites.  Remains thought-provoking and resonant, now more than ever.”

24 November 2025: Inversions by Iain M Banks.  “Clever tale told in two different settings with subtle links between them.”

3 December 2025: Descent of Angels by Mitchel Scanlon. “Tells origins of Luther, Zahariel, and Lion, but doesn’t appreciably tie into Horus Heresy.”

11 December 2025: A Study in Ashes by Emma Jane Holloway.  “Third book in The Basketville Affair.   Good but overlong.”

14 December 2025: Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits by Jason Pargin.  “Fun and clever.”

17 December 2025: Dark Mirror by Craig Shaw Gardner.  “Angel novel.  Good characters, but pedestrian plot.”

20 December 2025: House of Secrets by Chris Columbus and Ned Vizzini.  “Enjoyable, fast-paced kids’ adventure book.”

22 December 2025: The Ghost Machine by James Lovegrove.  « Firefly novel.  Ok, but afraid to push storytelling beyond established boundaries. »

25 December 2025: The Christmas Market Murder by Peter Boland.  « Really satisfying classic locked-room mystery. »

27 December 2025: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.  « Fantastic story and love poem to the 1980s geek culture. »

29 December 2025: Lair of the Crystal Fang by S.A. Sidor.  “Really strong Arkham Horror novel.  Makes we want to check out more.”

Curse of the Crimson Throne Recap # 90 [RPG]

[Sunday, 9 Arodus 4708 A.R. continued]

 

For 800 years, Castle Scarwall has stood unchanging as a forlorn, haunted reminder of the cruelty of one would-be tyrant and the doomed fates of those who finally ended his reign of terror.  For the orc tribes of the Hold of Belkzen, Scarwall has always been taboo—a place forbidden, generation after generation, long after the memories that explained its curse faded away.  But the Deadwatcher tribe has always guarded Scarwall—from what could come out and from those who would foolishly enter—as part of a great ancestral legacy.  The Deadwatchers paint their faces white to honour the legend of their ancestors’ flight from Scarwall, a flight said to have turned their flesh white from the shock.  But a time of great change is about to come to Scarwall, and only one member of the Deadwatcher tribe has had premonitions of the cataclysm soon to unfold.  Protosilaus, much-derided half-blood witch-doctor of the Deadwatchers, has seen a future of life outside the stifling responsibilities of tribal membership.  A future of travel and excitement, a future of fun and frivolity, and, oddly enough, a future involving a golden monkey flying on a bird!

 

For Goldcape, the journey from Ilsurian back to Scarwall has been a grueling one that has tested even Rocky’s vaunted endurance.  As the two finally crest the volcano and see the crater lake below, Scarwall looks the same as before—a fog-shrouded, imposing castle that seems bathed in perpetual gloom.  As she prepares to take Rocky down, the roc suddenly banks and heads toward the ruined barbican on the shores of the crater lake—a barbican known to be infested by orcs!  For Rocky is no longer flying under his own, or Goldcape’s command—he’s been magically compelled by Protosilaus!  For Goldcape, seeing a skinny half-orc clad in rags is no reason to let down her guard.  “Tell me who you are and what your weaknesses are so I can kill you!” the vanaran shouts.  Protosilaus laughs uproariously and explains his visions of a new future while promising friendship.  He says the rest of his tribe haven’t returned from a hunting expedition yet, and now is the time for him to escape for a new life.

But fate has decreed that escape will not be that easy.  Shouts indicate the rest of the Deadwatchers have just returned to the barbican, and as their words are carried on the wind, a small tremor causes ripples in the normally calm lake.  And then, as if it has suddenly exhaled its final breath and died, Castle Scarwall implodes!  A massive cloud of dust, trapped for centuries, is released into the sky as thousands of tons of stone collapse into a pile of rubble.  For the curse of Castle Scarwall has, at last, been broken!  And floating in the air above the debris are three members of the legendary Harrowed Heroes—Lorien, Yraelzin, and The Reckoner--along with the body of a fourth, their fallen dwarf magus, Anorak.

For Ury Sevenskulls, chief of the Deadwatchers, the twin sights of his hated witch-doctor speaking to a well-dressed foreigner (and a monkey at that!) along with the collapse of the tribe’s sacred charge become inextricably linked.  With an enraged battle cry, Sevenskulls orders the rest of the Deadwatchers to kill Protosilaus.  But the focus of their outrage isn’t afraid.  “I foresaw this, you idiots!  I alone foresaw this!  And I shall suffer your ignorance no more!”  With an invocation of occult power, the cloud of dust over the ruins of Scarwall is drawn around him and Goldcape, obscuring them from sight of the orcs.  Arrows begin flying and two graze Protosilaus, leaving Goldcape in a quandary of whether to trust this bizarre stranger.  She makes her decision and offers the half-orc a hand to climb onto Rocky’s back, and together they fly to the pile of rubble to join the others, leaving the Deadwatchers to fume impotently on the shore.

 

Once reunited, Goldcape relates what happened at the summit in Ilsurian—how a military alliance between Varisia’s independent city-states has been formed to try to repel the wizard of the north’s army of giants, and how Rolth Lamm made an appearance only to escape again.  Yraelzin quickly summarises how the curse of Scarwall was broken, and that Anorak died bravely.  Protosilaus hears for the first time about the evil Queen of Korvosa, and how breaking the curse of Scarwall has finally made her vulnerable to attack.  He offers to teleport the group there, but explains he needs to know what a particular location in the city looks like in order to make the magic work.  Perhaps surprisingly, The Reckoner agrees to allow the newcomer to magically access one of his memories of Korvosa to facilitate the plan. 

 

Meanwhile, Goldcape leads Yraelzin aside and says that if anything happens to her, she wants him to take up the mantle of Blackjack and train with Vencarlo Orisini.  The former Razmiran is honoured, but says he couldn’t imagine himself running around on rooftops, dueling with a rapier, or catching criminals.  He does promise, however, that he’ll either bring Goldcape back to life or work with Vencarlo to find a worthy successor.  Touched by the trust Goldcape has shown in him, Yraelzin admits he’s not really a cleric!  He says he could always do some magic, and sometimes secretly used wands to cast spells.  He explains that the Church of Razmir booked him passage on a ship out of the country because he never really fit in with their training, and that they were trying to get rid of him.  But when Goldcape hears about the strange apparition following him around, dressed like an ancient Azlanti, she makes a startling speculation: perhaps that’s one of Yraelzin’s ancestors!  He’s startled by the idea at first, but then realises it could make sense—after all, a family heirloom (a ring) that he wears is said to be an artifact of that lost empire.  But further discoveries have to wait, as the others are ready for the magical journey back to Korvosa.

Protosilaus is as good as his word, and succeeds in teleporting everyone just where The Reckoner told him: outside the Grand Cathedral of Pharasma in the city’s Gray District.  The imposing black-marble building looks as much a fortress as a temple but is still a relief to see after days spent trapped inside the perpetual gloom of Scarwall.  The Reckoner divulges his secret identity to Lorien and Protosilaus by changing to his alter ego of Ralph Blackfeather.  While Goldcape goes off to collect information about what’s happening in the city, the others are (after some difficulty with security precautions) admitted inside.  They’re soon led to a large embalming chamber filled with stone slabs that has been turned into a temporary hospital for those injured in the rebellion.  Bishop Keppira d’Bear is there, tending to an unconscious Field Marshal Kroft.  Ralph is circumspect with his words, but confirms that the job is done and that the final task can now be accomplished.  Bishop d’Bear gives him a knowing nod, and says that Field Marshal Kroft has been placed under magical sleep to recover from grievous wounds—it seems she slew a dragon!  d’Bear says she’ll awaken Kroft in the morning for a Council of War with the other rebel factions.  She remarks, as an aside, that she’s never seen Yraelzin without his mask before, and the two engage in what the others see as flirting.  Fittingly, the visitors decide to leave Anorak’s body in a temple devoted to The Lady of Graves.

Meanwhile, Goldcape (disguised as a human woman) passes through the gate out of the high walls of the Gray District and into the city proper.  There, she can see smoke rising from the direction of Castle Korvosa—campfires of the rebel army that has surrounded it.  And although it’s broad daylight, a darkness in the distance is surely the magical gloom of the Black Tower covering much of Trail’s End and even Old Korvosa in shadow.  From gossip on the streets, she learns that House Arkona was instrumental in cleansing the streets of Gray Maidens, but that its methods trouble many: an army of insect-like monsters!  Goldcape returns to the Grand Cathedral and tries to gain entry, but is refused by a particularly obnoxious elven priestess.

 

Fortunately, it’s not long until the others emerge to share information.  Plans are made to learn more about the state of the city.  Goldcape and Ralph discreetly talk about Blackjack and The Reckoner making a joint appearance that night to embolden the resistance.  A visit for supplies to Phaeton Skoda’s shop Hedge Wizardry reveals that business is booming, with a line stretching out of the door!  It is possible Korvosa has become better off in the absence of the Harrowed Heroes?

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

GM Commentary

This was first session of the final chapter of the adventure path, and a lot happens.  First, we get the introduction of Protosilaus, the new character run by Anorak's player.  Protosilaus was a witch, and the player chose some pretty OP abilities.  They ended up being manageable, but I was more concerned that the character wasn't really role-played as an orc, a Deadwatcher, or a non-Korvosan.  I like to see function and form fit together!  Second, Goldcape rejoins the main group as her player returns to that side of the gaming table after having been Assistant GM through the previous chapter.  It was great to have one of the original PCs back in the group again.  Third, we get the big "official" reveal that Yraelzin isn't actually a cleric at all!  Instead, he's a sorcerer with the Razmiran Priest archetype.  In addition, we get some insight into why the ghostly Azlanti has started appearing sometimes (a manifestation of his Vestige bloodline's Call Ancestor ability).  And last, we have the PCs return to Korvosa for the first time in a long-time.  As always, I try to keep off-screen events dynamic to reinforce the notion that the whole world doesn't resolve around the PCs.  So, for example, I had Castle Korvosa under siege by the three rebel armies and had Field Marshall Kroft responsible for slaying the dragon Zarmangarof.

Pathfinder Player Companion: "Blood of the Night" [RPG]

 

Let’s dig into Blood of the Night, a 32-page softcover Player Companion that’s all about vampires (both killing them and being one!).

 

We’ll start with the front cover, depicting a dhampir vampire hunting taking on a gang of Pharasmin priests—very cool!  I really like the glowing holy symbols on the Pharasmins, the gothic background, and the dashing swordsplay of the dhampir.  The inside front cover is “Vampires of the Inner Sea”, and contains an image and brief summary of the four types of vampires (and their specific dhampir off-spring) discussed in the book: Moroi (traditional Dracula-type vampires), Nosferatu (ancient, hairless vampires), Vetala (Indian-themed mind-draining vampires), and Jiang-Shi (Chinese-themed breath-stealing vampires).  There’s also a reminder of dhampir racial traits—I ran an entire 17-level campaign for a dhampir PC, so I have a certain fondness for them!  The inside back cover is a map of the Inner Sea captioned “Regions in Need of Vampire Hunters”, and it calls out Nex, Osirion, The Darklands, Nidal, Ustalav, and Beyond the Inner Sea, providing a sentence or two about why each could use a hand.

 

Getting into the book itself, there’s a page for the table of contents, a page explaining what types of characters will get the most out of the book (clerics, inquisitors, vampires, dhampirs), and a page for the rules index.  Two pages are dedicated to an Overview, which contains the origins and creation of the four types of vampires and the things that motivate vampires.  Just for flavour, there’s a “handwritten” letter from Ramoska Arkminos—the Nosferatu who plays a small part in Chapter Two of Curse of the Crimson Throne! As a whole, the interior layout is excellent and the interior artwork is pretty good (not Paizo’s best—it’s a little cartoony in style—but still good). 

 

Each of the four types of vampires gets a two-page spread.  Jiang-Shi, the “hopping” vampires of Chinese myth, are driven by an unfulfilled obsession and perceive deep connections to it in signs and symbols unrecognizable by others.  I’ve never had a game with them in it, but they’re pretty interesting and the art is really cool!  Moroi, traditional Western vampires, are characterised by a self-imposed culture of refinement and restraint.  Nosferatu have eternal life without eternal youth and long for a cure for their condition.  Finally, vetalas are body- and memory- stealers.  Very interesting and very different than “typical” vampires, I’d like to see how they fit into an adventure.  For each type of vampire, a pair of race traits are introduced, which I guess are potentially useful if a PC was going to play a vampire.

 

Speaking of PCs, the next two pages talk about the motivations of vampire adventurers, whether/how they can fit into a mixed party, and how a GM should run a campaign for vampires.  There are some useful tips, but it still sounds pretty challenging to make it workable.  The book’s big central spread (mostly art, a little text) are three new feats that (respectively) improve a vampire’s ability to take on bestial shapes, turn into swarms, and turn into mist.  For dhampir PCs (more likely to fit into a campaign), the book has four pages.  It starts with a good description of what it means to be a dhampir, introduces a couple of mediocre traits and roles, and then provides a half-page each (along with two more—much better—traits!) for being a dhampir of one of the four specific types of vampires.

 

The remainder of the book contains several short sections that are seemingly in no particular order.  There’s a two-page system of rules for tracking vampire hunger; I don’t think it’s great, though I get why having some sort of fixed system could be good to avoid arguments if a player is running a vampire PC.  Another two pages are “Vampires on Golarion”, but it’s pretty vague and doesn’t really add much.  Two pages on “Hunting Vampires” is likely to disappoint players familiar with the game, as it just contains roles (suggested classes, archetypes, spells, equipment and role-playing tips) for different types of vampire hunter PCs, but with no new mechanical content. Still, it could be quite handy for new players, and I’d much rather see them follow something like this than the often OP and flavour-blind Class Guides that are popular online.  A two-page section on Feats contains five designed for vampire hunters and four designed for vampires themselves.  I liked the “Hymn Singer” feat for bards, which allows them to sing sacred music as a bardic performance to hold a vampire at bay (in the same way presenting a holy symbol would) and the “Life-Dominant Soul” feat for dhampirs (allowing them to heal half hit-points from channeled positive energy).  Last up in the book are a page of new spells (project weakness is clever—it curses a living creature with the *weaknesses* of vampires!) and a page of new magic items (pretty good!).

 

And that’s Blood of the Night.  Obviously, it’s a book of niche interest.  Many campaigns won’t feature vampires or vampire hunters.  But if your campaign will, or you want to run a dhampir in a “normal” campaign, you might find it useful.

Pathfinder Module: "City of Golden Death" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

 

City of Golden Death is the third and final part of the Price of Immortality trilogy.  Like the first two parts, Crypt of the Everflame and Masks of the Living God, I ran it via play-by-post for Pathfinder Society characters.  One of the strengths of the trilogy is that each of the three parts is distinct in setting and story type.  If Crypt was a classic dungeon crawl, and Masks was a rare infiltration mission, City of Golden Death features both a major overland exploration component combined with a cool (not literally!) high-concept setting against a countdown clock.  I think Masks remains my favourite just due to telling a really unique story for Pathfinder (despite its defamation against the Church of the Living God—All Hail Razmir!), but this one is a close second and a memorable, satisfying way to wrap up the trilogy.

 

Here’s a few non-spoilery comments before we get into the heart of the review.  The cover art doesn’t do much for me—the figures look stiff, and the skeletal gold dragon is too small.  The art is reproduced without logos in the inside-back cover.  The inside front cover is a map of a major overland location the PCs will travel through; I like the art style, but it contains spoilerly information on it such that a GM couldn’t share it with the players.  The last page of the module contains four Iconics (Valeros, Ezren, Merisiel, and Kyra) as Level 5 PCs.  The interior art of NPCs and monsters is strong.  I like in principle that some of the interior encounters use Map Packs, but I would have liked more tiles to be deployed so those combats don’t feel as cramped (especially the outdoors ones).  The custom encounter maps have an interesting style, but the gridlines are *very* faint (to be fair, the expectation at the time the module was created was that GMs would have to hand-draw them anyway, as scanning them for online play wasn’t as easily done).

 

 

 

SPOILERS!

 

 

As I usually do with these reviews of modules and adventure paths, I’ll cover the front- and back-matter first and then circle back for the adventure proper. 

 

The Adventure Background is about a page and a half, and tells a solid story to integrate all three parts of the Price of Immortality trilogy.  Two centuries ago, a trio of brave adventurers, Kassen, Agar, and Iramine set out to find the lost treasure city of Tar-Baphon, the Whispering Tyrant.  They located it on the Isle of Terror in Lake Encarthan and, by combining three pieces of an amulet individually recovered from different crypts and dungeons (very video-gamey!), restored the key and entered into legendary Xin-Grafar, known as the City of Golden Death.  Inside, they found wealth beyond imagination, so they made a pact to carry out as much wealth as they could while separating the key back into three pieces so no one in the group would be tempted to return without the others.  Iramine, however, felt the lure of the jewel of everlasting gold, an artifact within the city that enabled Tar-Baphon to conjure great wealth.  Over the subsequent two-hundred years, she never forgot about the city even as she joined the Church of the Living God and become a true disciple of Razmir.  Promising him access to all of the wealth in the city, she put a plan into motion to recover the other parts of the key (as seen in Crypt) and, with several other cultists, has set out on an expedition back to the Isle of Terror.  (Scattered through the module is actually some even deeper background and a really interesting story about how the wizard-king Tar-Baphon ousted the native population of what would become the Isle of Terror in Lake Encarthan, built his treasure storehouse there, tried to turn the island into a trap for Aroden, failed and died in the attempt, and came back to existence as the undead Whispering Tyrant!)

 

Appendix 1 is a new Simple Template called “Terror Creature”, and represents living creatures warped by exposure to the negative energy that permeates the Isle of Terror.  They basically get a fear aura and heal from negative energy attacks.  Appendix 2 introduces a new monster, the Golden Guardian (cool artwork!), essentially a golem made out of molten gold.  It constantly radiates heat and has a cool “Molten Destruction” effect when destroyed (I have a soft spot for bad guys that explode when destroyed, making them risky to battle in melee combat).  Appendix 3 has a page and a half on the jewel of everlasting gold, a new major artifact.  It has a lot of powers around conjuring wealth, but as neither the artifact nor the wealth it creates can leave the treasure storehouse, it’s effectively just a MacGuffinish plot device.  (I did like the bit about how it can only be destroyed by casting it into Karzoug’s runewell of greed, as greed is definitely a major theme in this module!)

 

Ok, enough preliminaries: let’s get to the main event!

 

Part One (“From Tamran to Terror”) has the PCs recruited by their Pathfinder contact Reginar to go after Iramine and stop her from plundering Xin-Grafar in the name of the Living God (All Hail!).  Reginar says the PCs should only be two or three days behind Iramine, and has again retained Captain Walren and his barge, the Black Mist, whom the PCs will remember from Masks.  It takes a week in-game to travel from Tamran (in Nirmathas) to the Isle of Terror in the center of Lake Encarthan, and as every good adventure does, a random encounter table of aquatic threats is included to liven things up.  I like having the PCs travel aboard a flat-topped barge as it simplifies angles, climbing, and cover compared to a tradition high-hulled sailing vessel.

 

Part Two (“The Isle of Terror”) has the PCs dropped off on the west coast of the Isle of Terror at the ruins of a place called Fort Landing.  They’re under strict instructions to return within 10 days, or Captain Walren says he’ll leave them behind (and he keeps his promise!).  The Isle of Terror itself is a foreboding place, covered by chaotic negative energy storms for weeks on end—a cruel GM like me cackles with glee in following the instructions to roll % dice to see if random PCs are struck by bolts of negative energy lightning!  In addition, there’s another random encounter table for travel across the island, with many of the monsters having the Terror Creature template mentioned above.  The inside front-cover is a map of the Isle of Terror, and the adventure contains a brief gazetteer of locations the PCs could come to if they stray too far off Iramine’s trail (a precaution I always appreciate, even though it didn’t prove necessary for the group I ran it for).  One curious omission here is the lack of flavour text for the approach to the Isle of Terror, the arrival on Fort Landing, the experience of the negative energy storms, and the start of the scripted encounters on the island.  As GM, I’ll do what I can to extrapolate details from the text and make these things interesting and exciting, but an assist from the professional adventure writer would be appreciated.

 

Following the trail of the Razmirans won’t be hard (DC 15 Survival checks) unless all the players neglected to invest in wilderness skills—and there always seems to be someone who thinks land journeys will just be handwaved, and so forgets to buy rations!  Anyway, this part of the adventure has three scripted encounters.  There’s an attack by “Terror Wolves” (wolves with the Terror Creature template), a band of Whisperscale lizardfolk (lizardfolk with the template), and my favourite, Dusan Dremlock.  Dusan is a delightfully insane Pathfinder who’s survived alone on the Isle of Terror since an ill-fated expedition nearly a decade ago.  He’s disgusting in a way that reminds me of my first-ever Pathfinder PC, Little Bigtoes (may he chew toe gunk in peace!), but can prove useful to the group if they can make sense of his blubbering and rambling.  He’s also, quite literally, the only role-playing opportunity the players are likely to have in the module.  I especially like the detail that if the PCs are mean to Dusan, he scribbles in his journal and narrates aloud the unflattering things he’s writing about them.

 

Part Three (“Xin-Grafar, the City of Golden Death”) has the PCs entering the surface gates of a massive subterranean city dating to the days of Thassilon and long uninhabited.  The layout of Xin-Grafar is a little hard to conceptualise and explain.  It’s composed of three rings separated by floor-to-ceiling walls to form an inner ring, a middle ring, and an outer ring.  The three rings have different elevations which is key because of two related things: canals of molten gold flow through all three rings, and (due to a trap left by Tar-Baphon) a countdown starts the moment the gates to the city were opened by Iramine, and when that countdown expires, the city is flooded with that molten gold (up to a height of 40’ in the outer ring!).  If the PCs study the mural in the first chamber and make a high Intelligence or average Knowledge (Engineering) check, they’ll realise the risk (my group didn’t, but it didn’t end up mattering).  The countdown is pretty generous, as the adventure scripts it as 66 hours until the countdown expires (regardless of how long it took the PCs to cross the Isle of Terror to reach the entrance to the city).  Unless the group ends up camping out for a few days for some reason, they should be fine.  Anyway, it’s a cool setting, if hard to describe given the minimal flavour text provided.

 

As the PCs make their way through the city, still on the trail of the cultists, they’ll find encounters at most intersections and bridges.  The foes are sentinels left behind by Tar-Baphon, and consist of Golden Guardians (the constructs introduced in Appendix 2), human and ogre skeletons covered in gold, fire elementals, and a babau demon.  There’s also an ambush by a group of cultists left behind by Iramine to cover her, but it’s almost trivially easy (with several of the cultists at CR ½!).

 

Part Four (“The Third Ring”) has the PCs advancing into the city’s innermost ring.  They have to do battle with the gilded skeletal dragon featured on the cover, a dark naga, another group of cultists, and finally Iramine herself, mechanically represented as an eldritch knight (a rare Core Rulebook prestige class) wielding the jewel of everlasting gold to transform into a fire elemental.  It’s a reasonably tough succession of opponents for fifth-sixth level PCs, especially if they (understandably) feel pressure not to rest in between.

 

The Conclusion is a full half-page, and mostly proceeds along the lines one would expect.  I like that there’s a potential return journey to Kassen to return the piece of the amulet to the Crypt of the Everflame and set Kassen’s and Asar’s spirits at rest.  In many adventures, things don’t come nicely full circle like this.  And if the PCs do get tempted to reassemble the amulet pieces into the key to return to the City of Golden Death, they find the gate can only be opened once every ten years!  Of course, as it was 4710 A.R. when the module was released and it’s now circa 4726 A.R., it sounds like the perfect time for a return expedition!