Pathfinder Society Scenario # 9-13: "The Lion's Justice" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I don't usually call out the cover art for PFS scenarios, but I have to give credit here: what an awesome image!  Anyway, The Lion's Justice is a direct tie-in/lead-in to the War for the Crown adventure path and a scenario of special interest for Sovereign Court faction members.  I played through it via PbP with a counter-intuitive character (my "caveman shaman", Gurkagh).  I had an okay time playing, but reading through the adventure afterwards, I think it's actually a really good scenario that just happened not to come across so well with the particular group I played with.  There are some interesting, creative encounters and the tie-in to War for the Crown is really cool and makes me want to run or play that AP some day.

SPOILERS

There's a pretty involved backstory here that has to do with Taldor's government and nobility.  The current ruler, Grand Prince Stavian III, faces a challenge from Princess Eutropia who is making a bid for the crown.  But Taldor currently doesn't allow females to inherit the throne, so she's trying to get the Senate to pass a bill to end primogeniture.  Seeing threats from various corners, however, Stavian plans to massacre his enemies in the Senate during a major event held there called the Grand Day of Exaltation.  There's a lot more, as well: the Lion's Blades (Taldor's spy network), the Ulfen Guard (Stavian's personal bodyguards), Lady Gloriana Morilla and the Sovereign Court faction of the Pathfinder Society (which tends to favour Princess Eutropia), and then some particular other nobles.  I can't summarise it all here, but suffice it to say that the PCs are stepping onto a rich tapestry of a storyline that has been developing in various adventures and sourcebooks for over a decade now.

The PCs assemble for their briefing with Venture-Captain Muesello at the Pathfinder Lodge in Oppara (disguised as a fishing shack!).  Muesello has just started his briefing when Bjarte Trolltooth, a member of the Ulfen Guard, bursts his way into the room and starts shouting!  Bjarte has become an ally of the Pathfinder Society after the events of a previous scenario (# 9-11), and he's now come with an urgent message: his employer, Prince Stavian, is going to murder everyone he perceives as disloyal in the Senate!  Bjarte says he can't personally interfere, and Muesello says there's no way the PCs would be able to intervene without creating an international uproar--unless they got the Lion's Blades on their side!  It's an exciting way to handle a briefing.

To enlist the Lion's Blades, the PCs travel to the group's secret headquarters, the site of a mission from # 5-11 (and there's a really cool bonus for PCs who played that one).  The Pathfinders are told that the Lion's Blades can't get involved unless they have proof, and that to get it they should investigate the home of Earl Calhadion Vernisant, an ally of Stavian who has been holding suspicious meetings recently.

While playing, I assumed this was leading up to an intrigue-based mission involving disguises and bluffs to sneak into the house (Gurkagh's offer to disguise himself as the Earl was rejected by the group!).  This part of the scenario actually turns out very differently, however.  The PCs are greeted by the Earl's chamberlain.  Unbeknownst to her, the Earl's staff has been replaced with agents of the evil Brotherhood of Silence (a group I don't know much about).  When they see the Pathfinders arrive, the disguised evildoers try to poison them!  The poisoning is handled well mechanically (doses are increased to raise the DCs, and suspicious PCs will be fooled by an obscure poison spell).  On the other hand, scenes like this are harder to run in practice with the GM having to ask "so who's eating the cookies?" which is sure to get everyone thinking (and meta-gaming).  Anyway, the whole sequence inevitably ends with a battle against the agents of the Brotherhood of Silence, all of whom have poisoned their blades as well.  If you don't have a good Fort save, you could be in trouble here.

After defeating the would-be assassins, the PCs will find the evidence they need locked in Earl Vernisant's safe.  The Lion's Blade promise to do what they can to halt the plot while asking the Pathfinders to head to the Senate to assist.

The first main sequence at the Senate starts with the PCs trying to burst into the main hall as they hear screams coming from inside.  The massacre has begun!  The PCs need to help everyone inside escape while simultaneously fighting a magus named Karina Deckland who has a grudge against the Pathfinder Society from way, way back in a Season 1 adventure!  The tricky part with this scene is that the crowd rules are in effect, making it difficult to move around and making it so that area of effect spells are likely to kill innocents.  I really like the encounter design, even though the battle was over before Gurkagh managed to get to it!

The big finale is a battle against Earl Vernisant himself and his resolute lion mount (pictured on the cover).  In the right circumstances, this battle could be really tough--Vernisant is a cavalier with some good charging feats, and could spike massive amounts of damage.  He's accompanied by three allips who likely target spellcasters.  Alas, when I played it, Vernisant lost Initiative and one optimized PC knocked him off his mount with a 55(!) on a reposition check and another optimized PC effectively killed him with a single fireball that did 13d8+30 points of damage!  The battle was thus over in a round or two.  I wish players with optimized PCs could realise the damage they do to the game and to everyone else's fun sometime.  But I don't hold this against the scenario--it definitely reads like a fun encounter.

The epilogue is more interesting than most.  The purpose of the Grand Day of Exaltation is to raise a single commoner to the nobility.  Stavian killed this commoner to start the massacre, but the PCs can chip in to have the main raised from the dead.  If they do, they earn a vanity boon that allows them to retire (if and when they're ready) in the man's home village.  I like this story touches like this.  As a (or the?) capstone for the Sovereign Court, members of that faction also get a cool boon--the chance to become a member of the Taldan Senate!

Overall, I really like The Lion's Justice.  Even though I never knew much about Taldan politics, the AP it links into, or the goals of the Sovereign Court, I could feel the excitement of everything the scenario was leading towards.  The encounter design was interesting and original, and it felt really cool to be part of a big event in the setting.