Pathfinder Society Scenario # 0-17: "Perils of the Pirate Pact" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

I ran Perils of the Pirate Pact on its highest sub-tier for a group via play-by-post.  It's a fun, fast-paced adventure that is very much a product of the lore-light, rough-and-tumble, not-always-going-to-have-a-happy-ending missions of the early seasons.  If you like the River Kingdoms or pirates (no spoilers, given the title), this might just be the one for you.

SPOILERS

Perils of the Pirate Pact is set in the River Kingdoms.  Venture-Captain Istivil Bosk, the elderly leader of the Society's Daggermark lodge, has received an intriguing offer.  The Black Marquis (leader of a band of brigands known as the Pirate Pact) has offered Bosk an incredibly rare text called The Memoirs of the Silver Brotherhood.  But in exchange, the Black Marquis wants the Society's help.  When the PCs arrive at the (briefly described) rundown hamlet of Deadbridge, the Black Marquis explains that the text contains information about an Azlanti treasure vault deep within the Echo Wood.  He sent his most trusted lieutenants after the treasure, but only one came back alive: Lady Riverbane.  She explains that the party was beset by spiders and other abominations, and she was lucky to escape with her life.  The PCs task: accompany Lady Riverbane in retracing her steps and discover what happened to the Black Marquis' men.  

What the PCs don't know is that Lady Riverbane's responsible for the deaths of the Black Marquis' lieutenants!  She forged the "rare text", knowing the Black Marquis would send her and his other trusted men out after the treasure.  But she also arranged an ambush with a small number of ettercaps who worship at a shrine to Mazmezz (the demon lord of vermin).  Riverbane's goal was to strip the Black Marquis of his protectors so she could make a move on him, but she wasn't expecting the Pathfinder Society to be brought in--so now she has a complication (the PCs) to deal with.

There's some good descriptive text about the lazy Sellen River the PCs travel down aboard The Scrag Fisher, Lady Riverbane's ship.  It's no fun having an adventure involving pirates without a boarding action, so the first encounter starts when another band of pirates launch a surprise attack.  It's a simple premise, but handled well, with lots of opportunity for swashbuckling leaps between the ships and so forth.  One of the things I really appreciated is that there are a *lot* of enemies in the encounter--12 at high subtier.  In most Pathfinder Society scenarios, the PCs always outnumber the villains in every encounter.

After another day's journey down the river, the Pathfinders spot the Hanspur's Luck--the ship that the ill-fated expedition of the Black Marquis' men took.  No one's aboard, but there are several monstrous spiders in the partially-flooded hold.  It's a decent encounter, though CR 2 spiders (no matter how many of them) aren't going to be a challenge for a normal group of PFS PCs.  The group might find some evidence aboard that makes them suspicious of Lady Riverbane, but she should maintain enough plausible deniability to get by.

The next logical step is for the PCs to head into Echo Wood, hoping to follow the trail of the doomed expedition.  Lady Riverbane pretends to stay behind on the slip, but secretly follows the group from a distance--knowing she'll have to finish the Pathfinders off if her arachnid allies can't.  The next bit is handled a little unusually for Pathfinder Society--an unmapped labyrinth with a certain number of traps depending on how good the PCs are at making Survival checks to navigate it.  I thought it worked fine, though the traps hardly scratch at high sub-tier.  One of the traps is clever though--it covers a PC in special pheromones that attract spider swarms!

Multiple ettercaps are hiding in the shrine to Mazmezz.  Again, web-slinging ettercaps aren't really much of a threat, as any foe that can't drop a PC in a couple of rounds is likely to get squished in my experience.  The ambush by Lady Riverbane could be interesting if it really takes the PCs by surprise, but she doesn't have much firepower to back it up.  The PCs can collect The Memoirs of the Silver Brotherhood from her corpse--and probably won't even realise it's a fake! (since few PCs are going to invest in the Appraise skill).  Speaking of the book, it makes for a pretty poor Macguffin, as there's no detail in the scenario about who wrote it, what it's supposed to contain, and why it's important.  Over a decade on, I don't think there's even been any explanation of what the "Silver Brotherhood" was.  Anyway, after the final battle, there's a very brief epilogue.

One potential complication in the scenario is what to do if the PCs figure out early that Lady Riverbane is behind everything.  She's given some magical protections against divination spells, but presumably she still needs to make Bluff checks at key points (especially if the PCs ask if they can roll Sense Motive).  The scenario doesn't have anything to say on the point, and some guidance would have been a good idea.

The scenario does have a good feel--a little like Pirates of the Caribbean--as the PCs hack their way through a dark forest in search of ancient treasures, with monsters and cutthroats all around them.  I would suggest that GMs limit the PCs to just 4 or 5 to help make it more challenging.  Overall, I'd say Perils of the Pirate Pact is a good scenario--but like a lot of these early PFS scenarios, a GM should add some flesh to the skeleton.