Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-14: "The Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I ran The Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch at Subtier 3-4 via play-by-post.  Since he's in the title, it's no spoiler to say role-playing with Grandmaster Torch is the best part of this scenario.  The encounters and story are fine but unremarkable, and one plot element needed much more development.  Nowadays, this is a fast and relatively easy, straightforward scenario to run and play.

SPOILERS

The backstory to this scenario is reasonably interesting.  A pair of archaeologists discovered an ancient vault in Osirion that contained four statues, each capable of magically conjuring insects.  Notorious information broker Grandmaster Torch arranged for them to be smuggled out of Osirion and into the Qadiran city of Sedeq, where he then split up the statues and sold them to four separate buyers. Only after selling them did a report from Osirion reach Torch indicating that stray spells could easily activate the statues, conjuring swarms of insects answerable to no one.  Because Torch's reputation would be ruined if he were known to have sold defective goods, and he knows the Pathfinder Society is after the statues as well, he plans to arrange for PFS agents to intercept all four of his buyers--thus, the PFS will be thieves and Torch's hands will be clean of any apparent wrongdoing.  It's a cunning plan, and a good demonstration of Torch's ability to manipulate events behind the scenes.

The briefing, with Venture-Captain Yasmin Kal'al in what I think is her only appearance ever, is pretty quick and to the point.  The PFS wants those statues, and the PCs need to go get them.  She sends the PCs to a bathhouse that the person who physically smuggled the statues into the city is known to frequent.  In a well-staged scene, the buyer sprints away from the Pathfinders through various steam-filled rooms in the bathhouse, only to end up with his throat cut by one of Grandmaster Torch's bodyguards.  The murder is staged as the act of an overzealous personal bodyguard, and serves as a dramatic introduction of Torch himself.  Torch pretends to be purely an information broker here, with no personal involvement in the statues being smuggled or sold, and then has the (endearing, to me) gall to offer to sell the names of the four buyers to the Pathfinder Society.  Groups can either pay for the information outright, or agree that they owe Torch a favour to be named and collected upon later.  I really like that the "favour" option initially seems like a no-brainer, but becomes a sort of anti-boon on the Chronicle sheet.  I'm sure it comes into play in a later scenario, and perhaps contributes to why a lot of players hate Torch so much.  

Anyway, once the PCs know the names and whereabouts of the four buyers, they can go after them in any order.  A handy map of the city is included to aid with the planning.  Along with some particularly nasty faction missions (poison someone! burn down a refinery!), the fact that the Pathfinder Society is perfectly happy to rob or murder folks for these artifacts is a good example of how different the ethos of the organisation was in these early seasons.

Each of the four subsequent encounters has a twist to keep it from being simply "we beat up a merchant and take his stuff."  One of the merchants is being shaken down by a local street gang operating a protection racket when the PCs arrive.  Another tries to cast a spell to escape when confronted by the PCs, inadvertently triggering his magical statue which conjures several monstrous centipedes the PCs have to take care of.  A third drinks an invisibility potion and dashes into a spice refinery that is extremely flammable.  This one was interesting in concept but difficult to run for two reasons: there's no map of the encounter provided, and there's a discrepancy between the text and the enemy's tactics on what he tries to do (hide and escape out the front or dash through the back exit).  A fourth merchant has set up shop in a place called The Secure Market, which not only bans all weapons but is protected by an anti-magic field!  I'm on the record as enjoying situations like this, where PCs can't always use their go-to combat tactics and have to improvise.  When GMing the scenario, I didn't feel like any of the encounters were particularly difficult for the PCs--though there's certainly a difference in power levels between six modern Pathfinder characters and four D&D 3.5 characters (as the scenario was originally designed for).

When the PCs get all the statues, Grandmaster Torch invites them to a sumptuous dinner.  It's an interesting idea, but there's not enough content provided to make it really workable and it's somewhat anticlimactic because nothing hinges on it.  I also think the more exposure the PCs have to him, the greater the likelihood that they just try to kill him!

One major thing the scenario falls down on is on how these statues work, exactly.  There are some passing mentions that they won't activate if a spell is cast nearby and they're in a bag, but apparently thick linen wrappings aren't enough.  There's a reference to the statues only having to be in the "presence" of a spellcaster (not necessarily held) to activate, but that's a pretty vague term.  It's not clear how often they can activate.  It's not clear who, if anyone, controls the insects that are summoned or how long the summonings last.  And although there's only one scripted time a statue is activated, some of what the other statues can summon are pretty nasty.  Last, it doesn't sound like any thought was given setting-wise to how powerful these statues could potentially be as mobile, 100% successful  automatic spell absorbers!  When coming up with Macguffins, writers need to be careful they don't accidentally get more than they bargained for.

Overall, I'd rank The Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch as average.  Other than perhaps Torch himself, there's not a lot about the scenario that's particular creative or memorable.  Some use is made of the setting, and the combats are a step above being generic fights.  I'd consider it important for players who want to get the full story of the long-running Grandmaster Torch story thread in PFS, but nonessential otherwise.