Pathfinder Society Scenario # 3-06: "Song of the Sea Witch" [RPG]

 NO SPOILERS

I played Song of the Sea Witch via virtual tabletop.  One of the other players in the group had a super over-powered PC who pretty much single-handedly took care of all the encounters, and there wasn’t much role-playing, so the experience wasn’t the best.  Reading the scenario afterwards, it looks like a solid but unspectacular adventure.  There’s nothing wrong with it, but it’s not fantastically original and memorable like some of the author’s other work.

SPOILERS

Song of the Sea Witch has quite an involved backstory, but to be fair much of it does come into focus later on for the players.  The gist of it is that Yargos Gill, a historian last seen in the very first PFS adventure, # 0-01 "The Silent Tide", has returned from Tian Xia with two magical books to study.  One of the books is the Infernal Incantatum (which Gill assumes is a book on how to battle and bind devils) and the other is the Celestial Song.  But on the return voyage to Absalom, one of Gill’s two apprentices was seduced by an evil cecaelia (octopus-man) into stealing the latter book.  Once back in Absalom,

Gill performed a ritual with the Infernal Incantatum which he thought would help the side of good, but turned out to simply summon an uncontrollable devil (the scenario emphasises the historian’s bumbling nature, which ties in nicely to his earlier appearance).  At around the same time, the “evil” apprentice arrived to try to steal that book as well, and violence and chaos erupted that left Gill unconscious and both apprentices dead.

This is where the scenario starts from the PCs’ perspective, as they receive a briefing from Venture-Captain Amara Li.  Li knows that the Infernal Incantatum is actually a prison for devils, and worries that Gill may get in over his head.  She asks the PCs to go to his estate to make sure he’s okay.  When the PCs arrive, they have to defeat the devil that was accidentally set free (a bearded or Erinyes depending on sub-tier).  They’ll learn from Gill what happened, and also figure out that the other book, the Celestial Song, has to be combined with the evil book to stop more denizens of Hell from escaping!  I liked the map pack chosen for the encounter.

Gill thinks Venture-Captain Ollysta Zadrian (a paladin) has been delivered the Celestial Song (not realising his traitorous apprentice took it elsewhere), and he gives the PCs directions to where she should be shopping in the markets of Gilltown (no relation to Gill!).  The PCs are ambushed by rogue thugs working for the cecaelia in a bid to recover the Infernal Incantatum, because the villain has classic villain plans to use the book to wreak havoc and such.  Even with surprise and sneak attack damage, the ambushers have little chance of success.

Once they find Ollysta Zadrian in the markets, she explains she never received the book.  But by asking some questions of the gillmen in the market, the PCs will learn that the thugs that attacked them have been using tunnels under Gilltown.  The GM can use an optional encounter against hell hounds if time permits, but otherwise it’s on to the last section of the adventure.

The tunnels lead to the cecaelia’s lair, but the lair itself can only be accessed by solving a fun puzzle that involves opening and closing certain gates to get water levels to a particular height (but not too high).  Puzzles are actually pretty rare in Paizo adventures, so I always appreciate them when they appear.  This one requires a bit of math and teamwork, and seems pretty reasonable in terms of difficulty.  The consequences for failure are pretty modest (setting off a trap that’s not likely to kill anyone).  I also have to give the map artist props for making a layout that looks like an octopus (even if it doesn’t really make sense on the premise that these are ancient tunnels recently taken over by the cecaelia).

The evil cecaelia, a dude named Na-Kraka, is known as the “Sea Witch” despite only have actual levels in Witch at the higher sub-tier.  I guess if he managed to drag a grappled opponent underwater he could be mildly dangerous, but the Pathfinder rules around holding one’s breath are pretty generous.  I really don’t imagine most groups having troubles defeating this guy.  Once they win, the PCs can retrieve the Celestial Song and combine it with the Infernal Incantatum to stop further devil escapes.

Some of the things I liked about Song of the Sea Witch include the reappearance of Yargos Gill (creating continuity and making recurring use of NPCs is great for storytelling), the use of faction missions (there’s a ton of little goals for different PCs—something I imagine must have been hard to write for), and the selection/creation of encounter maps.  But all that being said, as I stated in the opening, there’s not really a lot that jumps out here.  It’s a quality scenario, but not a top-tier one.