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The title’s
a mouthful, but First Steps, Part II: To Delve the Dungeon Deep delivers a
solid Pathfinder Society adventure. As
with Part I, the goal here is to introduce gamers to Pathfinder and to the
Pathfinder Society’s faction leaders in particular. The scenario’s opening sequence is much
better than the generic briefing we often get, and the bulk of the gameplay has
a few creative twists on classic gameplay.
It’s not a mind-blowing scenario, but it is a solid experience and worth
playing to continue the theme started in Part I (though, please note, Part II
has been officially retired).
SPOILERS
First
Steps, Part II starts off in an interesting way, with the PCs receiving
an invitation to attend a holiday festival in Absalom. The invitation, sent by Venture-Captain Amara
Li (of the then-existing Lantern Lodge), is for the Snapdragon Festival, a
traditional Gokan holiday featuring fireworks, plum wire, and elaborate
dress. Goka is part of Golarion’s
little-used Asian/eastern setting, and the Lantern Lodge was themed around the so-called
Dragon Empires. The PCs thus have a
chance to put on their finest, mingle with some guests (the GM should do a bit
of improvisation here), and learn a bit about another culture before they’re
discreetly invited aside for a private meeting with Amara Li. She explains that one of her ancestors gave
the gift of a ceremonial jade katana to a warlord that had laid siege to
Absalom centuries ago; like all invaders before and after him, this warlord
failed. Amara Li suspects the jade
katana still lies somewhere within the rubble of the warlord’s siege castle
outside the city, and asks the PCs to retrieve it for her. She also makes it clear, however, that this
is a personal favour to her and not an official mission for the Pathfinder
Society. What she doesn’t explain to the
PCs is that this ceremonial katana hides important trade agreements between her
family and Qadira noble houses, and she desperately needs money to cover the
enormous cost of establishing the Lantern Lodge in Absalom!
Later during
the party, the PCs are pulled aside by (separately) two other representatives of PFS
factions. The bombastic Colson Madris
(of the Andoren/Liberty’s Edge) faction says he’s heard the PCs are venturing
into the Cairnlands (the area around Absalom where dozens of ancient siege
castles still exist, crumbling into ruin).
Madris warns the group about undead, and I guess serves as a bit of
introduction to Andoran and the Eagle Knights, but he comes across as a prat
and I think does a disservice to the faction.
Soon after that encounter, the PCs are pulled aside by Trade Prince
Aaqir al’Hakam, representing the Society’s Qadira faction (he later is a
founding member of the Exchange faction).
al’Hakam also suspects ancient trade agreements can be found within the
warlord’s ruined siege tower, and wants the PCs to bring it to him (instead of
Amara Li). I like seeing the PCs get
involved in intra-faction intrigue early on in their careers, and I wish more
scenarios would make good use of the story possibilities presented by the faction
concept. The festival was a great way to
start the scenario, though it could perhaps have been fleshed out a bit more to
help the GM with some flavour and role-playing.
The PCs have
no difficulty travelling to the crumbling siege tower. Just outside the entrance, they’re accosted
by a ghoul who still retains some memories of her former life—she was once a
Pathfinder! The incident is set up so
the PCs can handle this encounter diplomatically or through combat, and I thought
it was presented well. The interior of
the keep is essentially a dungeon crawl, which I might complain about but these
First Steps scenarios are designed to
introduce players to the game and there’s no arguing that room-by-room
exploration of dungeons isn't a core part of many adventures. In addition, the writer did a good job of
making the siege tower more than just a random collection of unconnected
encounters. There’s a lot of details
connecting the rooms and dangers within to the adventure’s backstory, and some
creative touches like giving the PCs a chance to control a (small) earth
elemental. A potentially devastating
encounter is versus one or more blindheims, creatures that have a gaze attack that
blind a PC for an hour on a failed save; with a little bad luck here, the entire party could
be effectively crippled for a while.
The “boss”
encounter in the dungeon involves a kobold tribe that has been tricked by a
skulk (humanoids creatures skilled in deception and disguise) into thinking
that a fire-breathing statue is giving them instructions. The scenario does a good job of setting up
multiple ways this situation can be addressed, so it doesn’t have to be a pure
hack n’ slash situation. I did find the
in-text instructions for the GM on how to run the skulk clashed some with some
of the given During Combat and Morale conditions given in the stat block, and
it would be very possible for the skulk to escape the dungeon entirely (taking
the jade katana with him!). Assuming the
PCs recover the katana, they may or may not discover the trade agreements
within. If they do, they’ll have a
choice on who to present them to when they return to Absalom, thus gaining more
favour with the Lantern Lodge or the Qadira faction. There are no long-term implications of this
decision (and the scenario is retired anyway), but it’s a good role-playing
choice nonetheless.
Overall, I
appreciate First Steps, Part 2 more now than I did on a first quick
read-through. It does what an
introductory scenario needs to do, and even though I wish there was a bit more
flavour here and there (and more time interacting with the faction leaders),
there’s a good mix of combat, role-playing, and setting lore. It’s a satisfying way to spend a few hours.
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