Rise of the Runelords Recap # 95 [RPG]

[4 Pharast 4708 continued]

 

A howling cacophony fills the air as the enraged winged furies spring to attack.  But Yuzo and Jinkatsyu move quickly and cleverly rush into the room so their opponents have little space to maneuver.  At first the creatures, whom Kang identifies as succubus demons, rely on their sharp talons and rage.  But as the battle wears on, they turn to a vile bag of tracks, like charm and suggestion spells.  Jinkatsyu finds himself suddenly falling madly in love with one of the succubi and leaning in for a kiss.  Ava wades into the fray and teleports Jinkatsyu to seeming safely, but the succubus can teleport as well and follows!  As the kitsune’s lips touch those of the demon, some of his very lifeforce is drained away!  Meanwhile, Yuzo continues slashing with his sword, Erik faces the succubi in hand-to-hand combat in order to conserve his last handful of bullets, and Kang starts hurling bombs of magical force.

Succubi have been known to give their lovers 

profane gifts that come at quite a cost.

The battle spills out into the hallway adjacent to the chamber.  Suddenly the others realize that Yuzo has been left alone with a single succubus!  Falling prey to the demon’s mental manipulations, Yuzo happily follows the succubus into bed and is soon reduced to a desiccated husk!  The other adventurers win the battle and destroy all the succubi (who, oddly, melt into piles of snow), but not even Ava’s powerful array of magicks can return the gillman to life.  There are far worse ways to die, but the loss of Yuzo is a major blow to a party trapped within the demiplane of Runeforge.

After the harrowing battle, the adventurers once again barricade the doors to Vraxeris’ study.  They rest for several hours, though the utter lack of a day/night cycle within Runeforge makes it hard to tell duration.  Kang spends much of the time continuing his translations of Vraxeris’ work and learns a secret which he keeps to himself: with enough effort (and the assistant of an arcanist), he could develop an improved version of the clone spell Vraxeris used and, potentially, achieve true immortality!

 

[5 Pharast 4708]

 

When everyone is fully rested, Kang drinks an elixir that allows him to see magical auras and identify magical items.  He realizes that the headband that Vraxeris wore increases one’s intelligence dramatically.  Kang puts it on, and suddenly a host of new alchemical insights spring fully-formed into his mind!  And when the others continue speculating about how they might be able to escape Runeforge, Kang recalls a pertinent detail in Vraxeris’ journal: the mention of a “master circle” in the Halls of Wrath that one could use to leave the demiplane.  After he shares this information, the others press for an expedition to that wing.  Kang, however, is quite reluctant to leave and abandon the fantastic library and other resources in the Shimmering Veils of Pride that are suitable only for a genius like himself.  Jinkatsyu and Erik manage to lure the tiefling away, however, by dangling the hope of even more amazing discoveries in the other wings of the complex.  Although Ava follows the others, she grows increasingly nauseated as the foursome pass through the central hub and then venture deeper into the Halls of Wrath.

 

The corridor leading into the wing is made of polished marble, and opens into a massive, brightly lit chamber.  The upper portion of the far wall is entirely covered in a mural of an armored woman with crimson hair holding a burning ranseur and riding on the back of a massive dragon.  On a square outcropping that juts out of the far wall, the adventurers see a twelve-foot-tall iron statue gripping a enormous bow in its metal fists.  Behind the outcropping is a passageway, but for now the Heroes of Varisia have to deal with the threat before them, as there’s no doubt that the “statue” is really some kind of iron golem!  A distant alarm that echoes through the stonework begins to ring as Jinkatsyu starts racing across the chamber, but before he can even get close, he’s struck by several “arrows” of fire launched by the golem’s obviously-enchanted bow.  The fusillade is powerful enough that the injured kitsune is forced to flatten himself on the ground, but he doesn’t have to wait long for help.  Kang, although perhaps a hundred feet or more away from the golem, draws a strange device that allows him to launch his bombs incredible distances!  In less than twenty seconds, the alchemist has reduced a seemingly invincible guardian to melted slag!  But Kang takes no visible pleasure from his success, having fallen into a state of ennui after leaving Vraxeris’ library.

Although iron golems are immune to most spells and resistant to most weapons,

 no one expected an adventurer like Kang!

 

After the adventurers ascend to the top of the outcropping, they see that the tunnel behind it leads to a chamber with two engraved circles on the ground that surround large runes.  One of the runes is red, while the other is blue.  Kang has no difficulty identifying them as teleportation circles, explaining that the red circle sends the user somewhere, while the blue circle is where someone using a different circle would arrive.  Excitement builds in the group as speculation mounts that this circle may be the way out of Runeforge.  But the conversation drops into stunned silence as Kang off-handedly remarks that the group has been scried  ever since the battle against the golem began . . .

-------------------------

Director's Commentary

Yuzo's player went permanently AWOL just before this session, so having the PC get drained and killed by the succubus seemed like a fast and easy way to resolve in-game what happened to the character.

Erik was really starting to run low on ammunition, an effect of being trapped in Runeforge that I hadn't really thought about it.

The trivial defeat of the golem was another reason I'm not a fan of the alchemist class in Pathfinder.  Normally, golems are difficult to defeat because they have a good AC, a lot of DR, and they're completely immune to all but a few particular spells.  But alchemist bombs target Touch AC, by-pass DR (because they're not "weapons"), and work perfectly fine against golems or creatures with spell-resistance because they're not "spells" (even if they are "magical").  In theory, an alchemist only gets a limited number of bombs per day, but it's very rare that a character runs out of them in a normal day's adventuring.  Add in their splash effects and all the discoveries that give them even more versatility, and bombs are just the best thing ever.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 10-19: "Corpses in Kalsgard" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I played Corpses in Kalsgard several months ago at low subtier with my psychic-monk, Arrius Vext.  Before rereading it for the purposes of this review, I couldn't really remember what it was about--which I guess isn't a good sign.  After going over it again, the scenario has some decent characters and makes good use of its setting.  But there are some flaws as well, and nothing that elevates it beyond the ordinary.  I guess "quintessentially average" is where I'd rank it.

SPOILERS

Corpses in Kalsgard is in the Land of the Linnorm Kings (in the eponymous city Kalsgard).  The Pathfinders have been summoned by one of my favourite venture-captains, Bjersig Torrsen (and his cute hound Mahki!).  There have apparently been several mysterious deaths of gnomes in Kalsgard, with the victims looking pale as if they died from the Bleaching (the disease that affects gnomes who lead bland, joyless existences).  However, the victims died suddenly and with fearful expressions, and the Bleaching takes far longer.  The PCs are asked to investigate the deaths and find the culprit.  The explanation of what any of this has to do with a group of explorer/scholars like the Pathfinder Society is pretty feeble, and this isn't the first time scenarios have cast the PCs as general, all-around world police problem solvers.  There is an interesting backdrop to the events, however:  Sveinn Blood-Eagle, the Linnorm King, has decided to step down from the throne, and his children are squabbling about who should replace him.  (There's a minor encounter against some street thugs who mistakenly think the PCs are supporting one faction or another.)  I assume this sets up an evolution in setting lore that will be reflected in PF2.

The Pathfinders' primary liaison with the local gnome community in Kalsgard is a fun and well-written cleric of Nivi Rhombodazzle named Quil Tabberdash.  Quil operates The Hall of Seven Wagers, a combination church and gambling parlor.  She explains that several gnomes have died over the past few months in a suspicious fashion, but only the four most recent crime scenes are available.  The PCs can visit the crime scenes in any order.  The way the investigation is handled mechanically isn't very good, in my opinion.  Instead of the scenario describing the general scene and allowing the players to ask some intelligent questions (as well as search for clues), the entire process (even down to getting a general description of the room!) is handled only by Perception checks or Diplomacy (Gather Information) checks.  It made the investigation very artificial, and was a bit infantilizing.  One thing that the investigation reveals is that all four victims spent time in The Hall of Seven Wagers.  My group spent a lot of time investigating the connection (and being suspicious of Quil), but that turned out to be either poor writing or an intentional red herring.  

What the PCs are supposed to discover, instead, are cryptic, fading messages written in ectoplasm (!) that express regret for the murders and contain a street address.  When they arrive, they find a small family of gnomes being held hostage, guarded by gnome wights!  What the PCs will learn is the killings have been done, quite reluctantly, by the ghost of a gnome named Humush Mum.  The rescued gnomes are Humush's family, kidnapped and held hostage by an evil gnome necromancer named Ellux Shost in order to force Humush to kill.  Ellux, it turns out, wants to establish a gnome kingdom in the northern lands, and thinks an army of undead gnomes is a good way to accomplish this.  Umm . . . hmm . . .  

There's a lot to unpack here!  The first thing that strikes me is that in Pathfinder, ghosts stick around because there is something very specific that they've left undone--they haven't been buried, they want revenge on their murderer, etc.  Here, Humush Mum died in an ordinary accident and her ghost is apparently hanging around just because she was generally concerned over her family's well-being (this was before they were taken hostage).  It's not really the sort of situation that one thinks of as giving rise to a ghost.  Further, Humush Mum fits into that very problematic (in Golarion at least) category of non-evil undead.  I have to give Ellux, the evil necromancer, credit for cleverly thinking that a ghost's corrupting touch would leave victims looking like they've suffered from the Bleaching, but I don't really see the connection between killing a bunch of gnomes and then raising them from the dead as a plausible way to establish a gnome kingdom.  Like, is the local graveyard running out of bodies?  That dude is bringing a lot of extra work on himself with these roundabout schemes.  I know that a searching exploration of most fantasy plots break down as some point, but these were things that jumped out at me during the session, and I think they're a sign of a story that needed more work.

Anyway, the Pathfinders will find their way to Ellux's lair (in true PFS fashion, even if they don't discover any clues, they're almost literally led there by the nose).  The lair is guarded by ghoul badgers (now that's an army!) and some skeletal champions.  I like the artwork for Ellux.  There is a nice little touch I thought was good--the faster that the PCs find Ellux's lair, the fewer buff spells the necromancer has time to put into place.  After the battle, the epilogue is fine and the Chronicle boons are pretty interesting.

I've probably made Corpses in Kalsgard sound worse than it actually is.  It plays fine, and although the plot needs work, there's nothing actively terrible about it.  Indeed, the scenario does a good job portraying gnome culture in Kalsgard and provides a bit of insight into the evolving setting lore of the Land of Linnorm Kings.  Overall final verdict: it's okay.

Pathfinder Flip-Mat: "Thornkeep 2-Pack" [RPG]

This set contains two double-sided flip-mats designed to be used in conjunction with the Pathfinder Online: Thornkeep module.  It's important to note that it only covers the second, third, fourth, and fifth dungeons in that book, and that the first level ("The Accursed Halls") are not included here--which is a shame, because that's a hard one to draw!  But if you are planning to run the other levels, these flip-mats are very handy and will save you a lot of time.  They're very well done, with excellent attention to colour and detail.  As with all Paizo flip-mats, they take wet or dry erase markers and have 1 inch grids built in.  I guess the limitation of a product like this is whether there's any use for them once you've finished the associated module.  A homebrewing GM could repurpose them for other dungeons, but otherwise they're more likely to sit on your shelves and get dusty.  

Pathfinder Module: "Pathfinder Online: Thornkeep" [RPG]

Ah, Thornkeep!  I think many who experience it will have a love-hate relationship with it.  On the plus side, there’s a great town ripe for exploitation by homebrew GMs who need a perfect place to launch a sandbox campaign.  In addition, the five dungeon levels within can be raced through in PFS for a full 3 XP each!  On the down side, those dungeon levels are of such inconsistent and often unfair difficulty that sudden PC deaths and even TPKs have become notorious.  I’ve run all five dungeon levels, and I can testify they can be a group-destroyer! 

 

Thornkeep is a 96-page book that includes a full gazetteer of the eponymous town and the surrounding area, a full description of each of the five dungeon levels under the town, and then a lengthy discussion of plans for an online Pathfinder game.  The artwork within is great, and there are some nice maps.  It’s worth mentioning that there are several associated products: flip-mats that make running four of the dungeon levels much easier, a novel (Crusader Road) that fleshes out a lot of the setting and NPCs, and even a granite plaque that reproduces the cover art.

 

The book starts with a two-page introduction from Paizo CEO Lisa Stevens that explains its origins as a Kickstarter incentive.  The Kickstarter was to raise funds for Pathfinder Online, a massively multiplayer online RPG.  The town of Thornkeep was designed as one of the three starting locations in the game, and this book and its expanded content was the result of several Kickstarter stretch goals being met.  There's a sidebar that provides an overview of the five levels of the dungeons under the town, including suggested level ranges.  The sidebar explains that because each was written by a different author, "all five dungeons have vastly different aesthetics, inhabitants, and dangers."  That's an understatement!

 

The first major part of the book is an 18 page gazetteer of Thornkeep.  Thornkeep is a small town--just 600 residents--but it definitely doesn't have "small town charm"!  Instead, it's a dangerous place used by bandits and gangs of thieves.  Locals protect themselves by hiring protection from mercenaries, as the town's current ruler doesn't particularly care what happens in the town.  Nonetheless, it's not a completely chaotic "pirate's den" type of environment, as some order is provided by the multiple factions in the town.  These take the form of guilds--a mercenary guild, a hunter's guild, a wizard's guild, and a thieves' guild.  I'm guessing this design has something to do with the online game, and that the players could have their characters join a guild for advancement.

 

Thornkeep has an interesting backstory and there's plenty of flavourful fodder for role-playing in the description provided here.  There's a full map of the town and a description of 38(!) locations within, many of which have little adventure hooks. I assume today most readers just gloss over this and head to the dungeon levels, but I'm really impressed by the detail in this section.   It provides a good, classic overview of a group's "home base." It'd be a perfect location for an open-ended sandbox campaign, and a believable base for a group of PCs to start becoming major players in the River Kingdom.  I used as much of it as I could even when running the dungeon levels in PFS, as the locations and NPCs provided make for some good role-playing and keep those sessions from being pure dungeon-crawling.

 

The next part of the book provides detail on Echo Wood, the larger area in which the town of Thornkeep is located.  Although the section is only eight pages long, there are several great locations for adventures, though a GM would need to flesh them out from the brief descriptions provided.  For example, there's Mosswater, an entire town overrun by merrows decades ago--who knows what treasures the fleeing residents left behind? Echo Wood also contains the Emerald Spire, but that's a whole other topic!  There's a brief random encounter table that could have used expansion (and it suffers from the common problem of threats ranging all the way from CR1 to CR8, which means it'd be a potential TPK generator if a GM really rolled randomly on it).  But all in all, this chapter's a good complement to the chapter on the town, and adds to the book's usefulness in setting up a classic, open-ended sandbox campaign.  

 

The next five chapters of the book are eight pages in length each and devoted to the five dungeon levels under Thornkeep.  As a sidebar in the Echo Wood chapter explains, each dungeon level is designed for PCs of different levels, and there's probably not enough XP in one level to get the PCs ready for the next.  Thus, side quests will be necessary, and it'd be a really bad idea for a group to try to tackle the levels one after another without doing some adventuring elsewhere.  I only ran the dungeon levels via PFS, where this wasn't a problem (apart from some awkwardness in making it clear that certain staircases were effectively off-limits), but in a regular campaign the GM may need to do some fancy footwork to keep groups from exploring areas they're just not ready for.  As I mentioned above, each of the five levels is written by a different author, and even for PCs within the appropriate level ranges for them, the challenge levels vary dramatically.  What they do share is a unified backstory about an ancient Azlanti wizard named Nhur Athemon who was exiled from his homeland and came to the Echo Wood to build a complex for his research and experiments.  The gazetteer sections of the book do a decent job providing some lore and adventure hooks to get PCs into the first level of the dungeon, and there's a little bit of connection between the dungeon levels themselves, though for the most part they're pretty independent.  Before moving onto each of the levels, I'll just note that the Thornkeep Flip-Mats cover the second, third, fourth and fifth levels, but a GM will have to draw their own map for level one (and it's not an easy one to draw).

 

Level One is "The Accursed Halls", written by Richard Baker, and designed for 1st-level PCs.  Frankly, I don't think it's a great start.  Apart from the sprawling and confusing map, there's a video-game style requirement to obtain seven crystals of different colors scattered throughout the dungeon in order to open the door to the next one.  PCs can easily be lulled in to a sense of complacency through multiple fights against goblins and the like, before suddenly being hit with some genuinely unfair encounters against wights, a shadow, and surprisingly nasty fungal crawlers.  If you read the forums, there are a *lot* of complaints about this level and the number of PC deaths, and I can testify that when I ran it, there was the same result.  A group of six min-maxed PCs might be fine, but a group of four average PCs should expect casualties.

 

Level Two is "The Forgotten Laboratory", written by Jason Buhlman, and designed for 2nd or 3rd level PCs.  As the name implies, this level was where Nhur Athemon conducted arcane and alchemical experiments.  Although the wizard himself is long dead, the labs have since been taken over by a half-orc alchemist beautifully named "Krenar Half-Face."  There are some really fun bits in this dungeon, including mutated goblins, a goblin with alchemical vials embedded in his head (love the pic of Snarltongue!), and some clever traps.  But compared to Level One, it was a breeze for the PCs and they finished it quickly.

 

Level Three is “The Enigma Vaults”, written by James Jacobs and designed for 3^rd or 4^th level characters.  Stylistically, this level is great—it’s a sort of museum where Nhur Athemon stored and displayed artifacts from other planets.  There are a lot of cool links to setting lore that doesn’t get much attention because it involves worlds other than Golarion.  But it’s the boss of this level, a mi-go cleric named The Visitant, that I’ll never forget, as he pretty much broke my gaming group!  He has claw four claw attacks—not a big deal.  He has grab—not a big deal.  He has sneak attack—a bigger deal, especially since he summons allies to help with flanking.  He has a special power called evisceration, which means every time he succeeds on one of those grab checks, he inflicts sneak attack and ability score damage—a very deadly deal!  Following most forum GMs, I went with the catch-and-release style when running the Visitant (dropping every grapple as a free action to continue the series of attacks), but this proved incredibly deadly—a couple of PCs were killed, one was permanently damaged, and one fled.  There was real anger at the table afterwards, and the whole situation got escalated up to real-life PFS oversight in an attempt to reverse things.  The players thought I was a terrible GM, I thought they were overreacting, and the group never really recovered.  Suffice it to say, I was off to play-by-post to run the next two levels!

 

Level Four is “Sanctum of a Lost Age” by Erik Mona, designed for 7^th level PCs.  This is a good example where you can see what separates a skilled, professional writer from the lazy “drop a bunch of random monsters in rooms and call it good” type.  The story involves Nhur Athemon’s three traitorous apprentices imprisoned in a time-stasis field indefinitely.  The level is very interesting and dynamic, and the order in which PCs do things can change the entire way the situations play out.  For example, when I ran this, an NPC who joins the PCs got himself killed in a trap, and his death created a paradox that destroyed the time-stasis, which in turn instantly destroyed every living creature and organic thing that had been trapped there!  The apprentices themselves are definitely manageable, but there’s one potentially-lethal room where multiple high-CR monsters can be released every round if the PCs aren’t smart about how they deal with things.  Overall, I thought this was probably the best written level in the book.

 

Level Five is “The Dark Menagerie” written by Ed Greenwood and designed for 5th level PCs.  I have no idea why they put this adventure after the previous one (both in the book and in terms of moving down through the dungeons), as the PCs’ levels are supposed to be lower here than in “Sanctum of a Lost Age.”  I think it was considered quite a coup at the time to get Ed Greenwood of Forgotten Realms fame to write a level, but unfortunately this is by far the least-inspired one in the book.  The concept is that Nhur Athemon had created a zoo of exotic living creatures and engineered illusory environments to place them in, and all of this has been in stasis until the PCs arrive.  The problem is that the creatures aren’t particularly rare and, apart from negotiating with a sphinx, there’s really nothing to do besides step into each room and fight the monsters within.  I expected a lot more from a legend in the field.  It does play fast if you need to quickly level up some PCs, but that’s about it.

 

The last section of the book is essentially promotional puff for the Pathfinder Online game, and it comes in at an absurdly long 26 pages (the longest chapter in the book).  There’s little enduring value in this section now, but even at the time it came out, the assorted interviews when the game designers delivered little more than some of their early ideas, concept art, and discussion about the tech demo they were putting together.  Frankly, this is the sort of thing that should be offered for free on a website to spruik the game, not printed in a sourcebook.  I’ve never played the game (my understanding is it never really got off the ground in the sense of having paid subscribers), and there’s not a lot here that makes it sound particularly special or appealing compared to the many other sword and sorcery MMORPGs out there.

 

To end quickly because I’m running out of space, overall there’s some value in Thornkeep—but just be careful how you use it!

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 94 [RPG]

[3 Pharast 4708 continued]

 

Kang, immersed in Vraxeris’ journal, decides to stay behind in the dead wizard’s study while his allies Ava and Erik go to check on Jinkatsyu.  They find the previously-unconscious adventurer confused and just starting to wake up in the spot where his friends hid him.  Ava explains what happened with the battle against the six duplicate Vraxerises.  The trio decide to see if the portal is open yet, in the hopes that it was the evil spellcasters who caused it to close.  However, they find it just as sealed as before.  Ava continues to express her dismay that they may be stuck in Runeforge forever, but she calms down enough to perform the difficult magical ritual to bring Yuzo back to life.  The gillman is proud to consider the point that if someone had to kill him, at least it was his own glorious self!  The adventurers barricade the entry to the Shimmering Veils of Pride and manage to rest, unmolested, for several hours.

 

[4 Pharast 4708]

 

In the “morning” (a difficult concept in a demiplane that knows neither day nor night), the others awaken to realize that Kang hasn’t yet gone to sleep, and is in fact strutting around in Vraxeris’ cloak of peacock feathers muttering to himself about the “Lord of Shimmering Veils.”  Realizing he won’t be much use in his distracted state, the others leave him to his own devices and continue their explorations.  The location where the portal out of Runeforge should be remains just a brick wall.  Yuzo hammers at it repeatedly and punches through several inches of stone before giving up.  The adventurers decide to explore the wing of Runeforge known as the Iron Cages of Lust, only to find that an invisible magical force field bars their way.  Ava tries to dispel it, but her magicks aren’t powerful enough.

The four adventurers decide to try the wing of Runeforge that lays behind the statute of the Runelord of Gluttony.  They advance without impediment until they reach a circular, domed chamber with a set of double-doors at the far side.  The walls are decorated with a half-score of grinning skulls, each gripping what appears to be bits of flesh in their teeth.  Concerned that there may be a pit trap or some other nefarious hazard in the chamber, the adventurers tie a rope around Yuzo’s waist and send him in to explore.  He smashes one of the skulls with his warhammer just to see what will happen, and is taken aback when a secret door slides open behind it with an animated Thassilonian mummy ready to spring out!  The others rush in to give Yuzo aid, but more and more secret niches are revealed, each concealing another undead horror.  The adventurers’ teamwork is impressive, but the battle is a near thing with Ava finding herself temporarily paralyzed before Erik manages to drag her to safety.  After the battle, Ava’s magic reveals a disturbing fact: Yuzo has contracted the strange mixture of disease and curse known as mummy rot!

As Ava prays for guidance on how to cure the condition and Yuzo starts to panick, Jinkatsyu passes the time by smashing the remainder of the skulls—little realizing that someone (or something) has been sent to investigate the disturbance in the outer room of the so-called Ravenous Crypts of Gluttony.  A lithe, incredibly fast humanoid, obviously undead, sprints into the room and attacks!  Only Erik has kept his wits about him in such a dangerous resting place, and he’s able to open fire.  But in return, he becomes the creature’s target and finds his abdomen torn open by long, dirty claws.  Jinkatsyu joins the battle and lands some skilful thrusts with his rapier until one goes awry and the blade gets stuck in his own ally’s armor!  Fortunately, Yuzo’s brawn and Ava’s ability to channel divine energies to hurt the creature are enough to squeeze out a victory. 

This mysterious intruder 

exhibited surprising speed.

 

The bruised and battered adventurers immediately retreat back to the Shimmering Veils of Pride.  Erik, upset with the battle and Kang’s frustrating insistence on studying Vraxeris’ journal, gets into an altercation with the alchemist that almost results in bloodshed.  Back in a secure setting, Ava is able to cast the necessary combination of spells to remove the mummy rot from Yuzo.  Afterwards, the adventurers realize they haven’t fully searched this wing of Runeforge—several rooms past the study remain behind unopened doors.  One such room holds an uncanny sight: almost 200 identical looking dead bodies, neatly stacked, all looking exactly like an elderly Vraxeris!  But the final room poses actual danger, as six horned demons seem to revive from a state of suspended animation to howl, shriek, and charge forward to do battle.

----------------------------

Director's Commentary

The exploration of Runeforge continues.  The battle against the undead in the Halls of Gluttony were pretty tough, and (if I remember correctly), the PCs didn't end up going back.  I liked the bit in Shimmering Veils of Pride with the hundreds of corpses of Vraxeris' clones--what a creepy room to enter!

This was the one time in the whole campaign that my prep had fallen behind the PCs' progress, and that's why there was the force wall barring the way to the Iron Cages of Lust.  With the complexity of high-level characters and antagonists, I thought it was just too risky (in terms of the possibility of me making mistakes) to try to wing it--and as we'll see soon, the encounters there are pretty involved.  I think I at least made the force wall seem like a part of the AP instead of GM intervention.

Starfinder Society Scenario # 2-01: "Pact World Warriors" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I played Pact World Warriors at subtier 3-4 with my skittermander Steward, Officer Swizzers.  I thought it was a really enjoyable, original scenario that was challenging in a good way.  There's one encounter I thought was problematic from a moral perspective, but on the whole I had a blast.  This is a fun scenario, and good for players brand-new to Starfinder Society or experienced with the game.

SPOILERS

The scenario begins in an underground complex on Eox (the planet of undead), where the Starfinders are briefed by Radaszam.  The system-famous media mogul Zo! is present, and players who played the classic scenario Live Exploration Extreme! can probably guess that they're in for an unorthodox mission.  This time around, instead of reality TV, the PCs are told that they'll be contestants in a game show called "Pact World Warriors" where they compete against another team to accumulate the most points and emerge victorious.  The briefing is done well, however, as the reason the Starfinder Society is participating is made clear: the mysterious smear campaign against the Society is burning up the infosphere, and something needs to be done to get some positive publicity.  I liked the description of examples of the anti-SFS ads, and I like that the GM could customise some additional ones for their specific group of players.

Before the show starts, two things occur.  First, PCs with the right boons are allowed to choose from an array of additional equipment to take into the competition.  This was a reasonable way to pay off the boons, but I find this sort of thing slows the game down as every piece of equipment is looked up, compared, and the choice is made.  Second, the Starfinders meet their competition.  There's some good trash-talking written into the scenario here, which is always fun.

There are four events in the game show.

The first event an obstacle course full of traps, hazards, and challenging terrain.  It was a cleverly difficult course, and I liked the array of surprises that came out.  Our group didn't do very well in the competition, and I think one of the PCs didn't even finish in time.  But it was enjoyable nonetheless.

The second event is a "Combat Cooking Challenge."  Essentially, the contestants have to kill a variety of animals, slaughter their carcasses, and then cook particular meals while the rival team tries to sabotage their efforts.  I thought the whole idea of slaughtering animals just for a game show pretty gross (with the food going to waste since the undead judges can't eat it), but even worse is that at least one of the creatures (tashtaris) are endangered, intelligent magical beasts!  I think a little more awareness by the scenario writer that plenty of eco-minded PCs could balk at the task would have been good--perhaps a sidebar of story developments that could then eventuate, for example.

After the first two events, there's a brief interlude for the PCs to relax.  They'll meet an NPC named Datch, who has a major role play in later Season Two scenarios.  I won't spoil anything here, and only say that I thought her introduction (and a call back at the end) was handled well.

The third event was mindless fun--it's a battle against wave after wave of skeletons to see which team could accumulate the most kills.  The little twist that some of the undead would explode while others were worth bonus points (accompanied by fireworks) was great.  Sometimes it's nice to have a completely risk-free combat encounter to just go wild and show off a bit.

The fourth event is an interesting "capture the flag" challenge set in zero-G aboard a derelict spaceship. Each of the two teams has their own flag to protect, and there's also a third flag somewhere aboard the ship that can be recovered for extra points.  It was a good challenge, and I have to say the NPC team put their plan to effect much better than the PCs did!  We got our butts kicked--but in a perfectly fair way.

 There's a great, ominous epilogue.  After the competition, when the PCs have returned to Absalom Station, a news report indicates there was a shuttle explosion over Eox--and the rival NPC team was killed!  Early evidence may point to the Starfinder Society's involvement.  I'm excited to see how the smear campaign storyline evolves throughout Season Two--it's more intriguing than I initially thought it'd be.

Overall, apart from the morally-backwards cooking challenge, I thought this was a fun, fast-paced scenario that's sure to please.

Pathfinder Tales: "A Lesson in Taxonomy" [RPG]

SPOILERS

A Lesson in Taxonomy is a short, two-part series of free Pathfinder web fiction available here.  It features an early adventure of Varian Jeggare (before he met Radovan), when he instead had a bodyguard named Remigo.  Varian is on an adventure in the Mwangi Expanse, trying to complete his bestiary, when Remigo betrays him at the behest of the evil Prince Kasiya (a character who appears in one of the novels).  It's helpful to see the backstory between Varian and Prince Kasiya, and it's overall a solid story.  Though I do miss Radovan!