Starfinder Society Scenario # 2-06: "The Stumbling Society, Part 1: Sangoro's Lament" [RPG]

 

NO SPOILERS

I played The Stumbling Society, Part 1: Sangoro's Lament via play-by-post with my skittermander Steward character, Officer Swizzers.  The scenario is an important part of the Season Two metaplot, but also ties up a nice loose end from a very early SFS scenario.  It's fair to say that it boils down to a (space) dungeon crawl with limited role-playing opportunities with NPCs.  However, the scenario is atmospheric and the background story is integrated well into the action and exploration.  The result is a solid (and reasonably difficult) scenario.

SPOILERS!

Jump with me back in time, if you will, to a simpler world!  The year is 2017, no one has ever heard of Covid-19, and in the first wave of SFS scenarios is # 1-04: Cries from the Drift.  Although at the time discussion of the scenario focussed on how difficult it was to kill an incorporeal monster if the party lacked the right weapons, an important SFS story element was introduced in the adventure's background.  Prior to the Scoured Stars Incident, the Exo-Guardians maintained a massive fortress-armory called Sangoro's Bulwark (after the faction's founder, who discovered it).  But when so many of the faction's members were lost in the Scoured Stars, the few remaining members of the Bulwark were overwhelmed by a mysterious threat and all contact (and even the location) of the base was lost.  In Cries from the Drift, the PCs collect data from the sole ship to escape the Bulwark and return it to Lorespire Complex in the hope that somehow, the location of the Bulwark can be reassembled.

Now, that time has come!  After intensive work, the Dataphiles have managed to learn the location of the Bulwark: a planet in the Vast called Mazdrun.  In the scenario briefing, Zigvigix (leader of the Exo-Guardians) explains that the Society can't afford to send a full, highly-visible assault force to the Bulwark because of how much scrutiny the organisation is under recently.  But, it can send a smaller force to the Arsenal, a satellite site near the Bulwark that was used for research and training purposes.  From the PCs' perspective, their mission is very straightforward: get to the Arsenal and secure it.  As an aside, I'll mention that the briefing is held at the Nest, the just-renovated warehouse HQ of the Exo-Guardians in the site secured by the PCs in # 1-01: The Commencement.  I love it when little story nuggets from previous scenarios pay off!

The journey through the Vast is event-free, apart from the usual foreshadowing of a future scenario.  Surprisingly, Zigvigix comes along on the ship (though not on the mission)--perhaps this pays off in Part 2?  I'm not sure.

The rest of the scenario involves exploring the 14 rooms in the Arsenal.  There are multiple traps to overcome and some dangerous monsters (an apari hive, special radiation-themed moonflowers) that were being experimented on at the time the place shut down.  In addition, a barachius angel (devoted to safeguarding dangerous technology) named Negator-XIII has lost most of its memories and has to be carefully negotiated with (through a sort of role-playing skills challenge) or it will turn violent.  As they explore, the PCs will find some scattered clues about what happened to the Arsenal and the Bulwark, but not enough to really put a full picture together.  I'm not going to review the individual encounters, but I'll just say as a whole that they're fun, fit the story well, and are tough but fair.

What the PCs won't know, until a great reveal late in the scenario, is that Datch (a ysoki devotee of Lao Shu Po) has already been to the Arsenal and looted it!  Not only that, her tap on SFS communications gave her the foreknowledge to leave some traps behind, including a cursed idol that could make the PCs gradually more and more suspicious and paranoid as they explore.  For some players, this will just be some bland negative modifiers, but with a good group, some really fun role-playing could result.  And Datch really twists the knife when the PCs finally get to the treasure vault and discover a single credit stick containing . . . six credits (one for each of them)!  The scenario does a great job of making players hate Datch, which is important for the season meta-plot to succeed.

I don't want to overstate my review: there are limits to what can be done within a dungeon crawl structure, and there's definitely a "enter a chamber, deal with threat, search for clues or loot, and then do it all again at the next chamber" playstyle for the scenario.  But within that framing, this was a solid, enjoyable scenario, and I'm looking forward to Part 2.