Rise of the Runelords Recap # 108 [RPG]

[31 Pharast 4708 continued]

 

The adventurers endure a long night, painful night of tedium and rumbling bellies.  Morgiana uses some bits of metal and gearwork to craft a homemade beartrap!

 

[1 Gozran 4708]

 

Through Ava’s magic, the adventurers turn into gossamer figures lighter than the winds and hurl themselves further north until they reach a point labelled on a few sages’ maps as “The Fen of the Icemists.”  The partially-frozen wetland is constantly swathed in damp fog, with the ground a treacherous landscape of bogs obscured by thin icy crusts.  The group choose poorly on where to return to their normal corporeal forms, and crack through the crust, sinking into the freezing cold muddy waters!  Jinkatsyu and Erik are able to climb out quickly, while Kang’s mosquito wings allow him to shoot out like a Tien firework.  But Morgiana plummets helplessly deeper and deeper, and only with Ava’s quick thinking and amazing magicks that bend time and space do both escape.

 

Once the adventurers find solid ground, they set up camp and wait hour after hour, starving from their self-imposed fast.  Then, sometime near the witching hour, everyone except Jinkatsyu notices something strange under the light of the full moon: a faintly sparkling, nearly transparent image of the River Avah continuing north from the icy fens. The ghostly river provides the adventurers a path to follow, and they travel until well past dawn—keen to see where it leads and concerned that if they sleep or eat, it may just disappear.  Erik manages to assuage their concerns, however, with the clever use of a spell invented by a knightly order: it allows him to stay awake and alert for several more hours with no ill effects.

 

[2 Gozran 4708]

 

The ghostly river doesn’t disappear from sight, and the group’s magically-sped pace allows them to move through mountainous terrain faster than a horse-drawn chariot on the smoothest plain.  Soon the adventurers reach a point where the phantom Avah overlaps with an ancient road paved with flat stones that have a faint sheen of gold on them—the road is a strict 100 feet wide, and looks surprisingly intact given its antiquity.  The Heroes of Varisia continue hurtling along the wind until, just after dusk, they crest a bluff and look down upon their goal: the legendary city of Xin-Shalast!

The tableau defies belief: a glacial valley extends north and then turns to the west at the base of a vast mountain at the far end.  Filling the valley is an ice-capped city of enormous proportions.  The near end is mostly blocked by a huge fortress of smooth black stone, with multiple towers rising from its high walls.  Beyond the fortress, a massive causeway of gold dominates the city as it travels down the center of the vale.  Enormous towers and spires of many-colored stone pack both sides of the central thoroughfare, rising to prodigious heights, giving the illusion that the road itself is a valley.  The eastern slope of the valley has been partially subsumed by an ancient volcanic flow—nearly a quarter of the city has been buried, and that section is now little more than a great mass of ice, with the jagged angles and peaks of ruined structures poking through the topmost layer here and there.  But where the valley curves slightly to the west, the structures, if anything, grow even larger—becoming truly gigantic as they climb up and over the rocky spur.  At the far end of the valley, the city abuts the lower slope of a truly massive peak, but the great causeway merely elevates at a steep angle and continues to climb the incline at a nearly straight line, transforming into an immense stairway.  Additional buildings cling precariously to the mountain face alongside the causeway, growing even larger and more impressive as they ascend.  The gigantic buildings finally give way a few thousand feet above, but the mighty road continues to wend its treacherous way to just below the mountain’s peak.  There, a spired citadel looms, its size and proportions truly magnificent: yet it too, fails to summit the mountain.  Instead, its topmost spires end just below the dominant face of a stern man carved into the peak of the mountain and surveying the city below.

Jinkatsyu wistfully tells the others he wishes Brodert and Veznutt were with them to take in such a breathtaking sight, but then notes he’s glad they’re safely out of the enormous danger the group is about to face.  Discussion is had about whether to proceed down into the city immediately or wait until

Mhar Massif, as seen from the lower city.

morning, and the latter view wins out.  The group retreats some distance along the gold-paved road and Ava conjures a stone bunker to provide shelter from the icy cold winds that continue to howl.  Thanks to her magical prowess, the members of the group barely notice the thin air at the elevation they’ve reached.

But despite the shelter, the adventurers’ rest is not a peaceful one.  During his turn to stand watch, Kang picks up whiffs of a terrible stench carried on the wind.  Seconds later, he discerns the cause: a foursome of vaguely humanoid creatures that have a vulture’s head, wings for arms, and wield enormous bows in their taloned feat.  “Kuchrimas!” Kang shouts, recognizing the creatures as the lowest order of lamia-kin, rarely seen since the fall of Thassilon.  The kuchrimas let loose with a volley of arrows and Kang is nearly knocked down, but he responds by lighting up the night with his explosive alchemical bombs!  With the aid of the others in the adventuring party, the battle is over quickly.  With little choice, the adventurers return to slumber, hoping the battle didn’t draw unwanted attention.

Kuchrimas served as foot-soldiers and 

disposable scouts in the days of Thassilon.

[3 Gozran 4708]

 

The adventurers return to their earlier vantage point, this time closely observing the fortress that seems to guard the approach to Xin-Shalast.  They can see small black specks circling, and know that it will be difficult to sneak in undetected.  The decision is made to scout the city while using Ava’s wind-walking magic.  But although the magic turns them into cloud-like figures, it doesn’t make them invisible—and soon, the group is spotted.  Several kuchrimas give chase, with Morgiana barely able to escape and rejoin the others at their stone bunker.  A second furious battle takes place, with the kuchrimas using their bowcraft to fire devastating volleys at great range.  The battle is long, difficult, and loud, but once again the adventurers prevail.

 

The adventurers have reached legendary Xin-Shalast, and found it all too real.  But the hardest question lays before them: where in its cyclopean structures is Karzoug, and what does he have in store for intruders?

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

Director's Commentary

I liked the AP's concept that starvation is the key to seeing the magical trail to Xin-Shalast.  It ties in nicely to several real-world spiritual traditions involving fasting as a method to gain insight.

Morgiana crafting beartraps was a bit of surprising fun.  Although extremely heavy, they actually did come in useful a time or two.

In the Fen of the Icemists, there's a nymph druid that can be a friend or foe.  But as written, she only appears if the PCs are being particularly loud or obnoxious or disrespecting her swamp, and that didn't happen.

I'm not sure if it's possible in an RPG to adequately describe the sheer wonder of seeing, for the first time, an enormous Shangri-La like lost city.  I used the AP's descriptive text, which is quite good, but it can't rise to the level of an immersive novel or poem.

The combat against the kuchrimas was a good challenge for the PCs.  It's actually relatively rare in published Pathfinder (and even Starfinder!) APs to have encounters where ranged weapons are crucial.  I always like it when tactics and builds that work fine in dungeon-crawling have to be reassessed in other encounters.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 9-04: "The Unseen Inclusion" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I played in The Unseen Inclusion with my Daggermark Poisoner character, Siegfried, via play-by-post.  I probably didn't bring the best PC for it, but I still found that the scenario was well-written and interesting.  It ties into a major plotline for one of the PFS factions, and has a good mix of combat and role-playing.  I can't say there's anything super memorable about it, but it's a solid adventure.

SPOILERS

The Unseen Inclusion takes place in the city of Merab in the country of Thuvia.  The scenario is a big part of the Scarab Sages' faction storyline in Season 9, as it continues with the plot concept that the sage jewels (ancient Osirion mystical stones that have been collected by a new generation of scholars) were contaminated with the spirit of a vile necromancer named Aryana Tahari.  That spirit is starting to revive and exert influence on the present wearers of the sage jewels.  When the Sapphire Sage, Amenopheus, senses something related to the jewels in ruins recently unearthed in Merab, he sends Pathfinders to investigate.  (Amenopheus can feel an evil influence, but doesn't know anything about Tahari)  The scenario itself starts with a briefing from a cool new Venture-Captain, Diya Akan.  She explains to the PCs that excavation in the city has uncovered an ancient complex, while also setting free some kind of evil spirit.  She asks the PCs to investigate the dig site and canvass the workers to learn more.

Interviewing the dig team provides a good, early opportunity for role-playing.  I especially like how one of the youthful workers makes up a story about having seen the monster emerge, and this story could give the PCs a very different sense of what to expect (a vargouille) than what was really set free.  A scholar named Obahar who is working at the site gives members of the Scarab Sages faction a sort of special mission--to learn what their senses (other than sight) can discern when they explore the complex.  I didn't play a PC from this faction, but I really like how the scenario calls them out for some special importance (and can lead to a special faction boon).

The ancient complex dates back to the Age of Destiny and was a secret outpost for Aryana Tahari, the necromancer whose spirit has corrupted the sage jewels.  Tahari used it as a laboratory to craft curses and diseases, using a trapped doru div named Veshtahz as her test subject.  The encounters in the complex are fairly mundane--skeletons and caryatid columns--but there's a ton of excellent "dungeon dressing" and flavourful lore to uncover.  With some careful investigation, the PCs should learn that the "evil spirit" or "monster" that escaped the complex was Veshtahz--still alive after being buried for millennia.

But finding Veshtahz's current whereabouts isn't easy--the PCs need to assemble several clues from different sites in Merab (a temple to Sarenrae, an alchemist's shop, a necropolis, and a scholar's study) in order to reach the right conclusion.  I found the "clues" pretty obscure and thought they could have been done better.  On the other hand, there is a surprise appearance by Zurnzal--a notorious Aspis Consortium assassin (who I got to play in a Special!)--who is now working for Grandmaster Torch.  Zurnzal is here as an ally, not a foe, but PCs' innate distrust of Torch may be enough that they refuse to work with him to their own detriment.  I love Zurnzal, though I'm not sure how much his appearance here is really necessary to the plot.

One way or another, the PCs likely do discover that Veshtahz is located at the "Dungeons of the Ever-Dying", another ancient outpost of Aryana Tahari.  The site has since been reclaimed by the Usij (cultists who are trying to hasten her re-awakening).  But in a good twist, Veshtahz hasn't come to help the cultists--he's come to murder them all as vengeance for what Tahari did to him!  The flip-mat chosen for this location, Asylum, is simply too large for the actual content in the scenario.  When I played, instead of the PCs getting to the only room where the action was, we spent ages investigating each of the over two dozen side chambers, occasionally finding a minor clue but nothing of any real importance.  The big showdown with Veshtahz (and the cultists he's mentally taken over) is solid, if unspectacular.

After the climax, the PCs will be able to recover the onyx sage jewel which Amenopheus can use to realise that it is Tahari's spirit that is reawakening.  It's an exciting ending that sets up nicely future scenarios in the storyline.

I could quibble that it seems awfully convenient that a construction crew in Merab would accidentally free Veshtahz, who has been trapped for millennia, at exactly the same time that Tahari is awakening.  But on the whole, I thought the scenario was put together pretty well and, if I were invested in the Scarab Sages, would be thrilled by.

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 107 [RPG]

[28 Pharast 4708]

 

Having ventured as far north as the Fen of the Icemists, the adventurers change their minds about camping.   They instead decide to make one final trip to Magnimar for provisions and magical armaments before proceeding to Xin-Shalast.  When they magically jump to the city, however, they find a strange tenseness in the citizenry.  Many shops have a “No Gold” sign, whilst here and there on the streets is a lifelike gold statue.  The adventurers see members of the city watch and priests of the church of Abadar examining the statues, and quickly discern that a terrible fright has gripped the city.  A small percentage of gold coins have been infected with a magical curse that turns anyone who touches them into a statue!  Learning that those coins are revealed to be stamped with Sihedrons, the adventurers can only surmise that Karzoug’s plans are accelerating: by making currency dangerous, the Runelord of Greed has weakened one of Varisia’s most important cities by bringing trade to a veritable halt!

 

Fortunately, for present purposes, the adventures have enough platinum coins and gems to make the purchases they’re most concerned about.  That night, after Morgiana’s dazzling displays of prowess scares away another attempting mugging by the Bloody Knuckles gang, the adventurers sit down at the Blasted Ferret and begin drinking heavily.  Conversation turns to what each member of the group will do once they’ve defeated Karzoug.  Kang announces his intention to settle down and set up a school for advanced alchemical studies, and Ava suggests she could attend so she could learn how to read!  Erik speculates about joining the Pathfinder Society and taking on evil tyrants, while Morgiana ruminates about visiting the City at the Center of the World (Absalom) someday and living in a place where hobgoblins like herself aren’t frowned upon.  For his part, Jinkatsyu says he still hasn’t forgiven or forgotten the hag who murdered his parents.

 

As the night wears on and the wine cups are emptied and refilled, the talk turns more maudlin.  What if they don’t survive the attack on Karzoug?  Ava says she’d like to be buried in Sandpoint, because that’s where she met all of her friends.  Morgiana asks to be cremated and buried on her family’s farm.  Instead of talking about the future, Kang reveals a secret he’s never shared before: born in the Darklands, he learned alchemy from his father before the man was executed by the so-called “dark elves” during a time of turmoil and war.  Kang admits to having dabbled in poisons and pesh, and, while enslaved by the “drow”, having conducted nefarious flesh-warping experiments on living creatures for them.

 

When the bartender announces last call, the Heroes of Varisia toast to hope.  In the morning they may be embarrassed by the intimacies they’ve shared, but they’ll have a stronger bond than ever before.

 

[29 Pharast 4708]

 

Kang distributes his disgusting but effective hangover cure.  The adventurers spend the day on errands.  Occasional plumes of smoke can be seen from distant parts of the city, and reports of isolated looting start to spread.

 

[30 Pharast 4708]

 

Having started fasting the night before (so as to meet the cryptic conditions in the Vekkers’ journal about finding the hidden path to Xin-Shalast), everyone wakes up hungry.  Rumours of a (failed) attempt on the Lord-Mayor’s life spread like wildfire, and soon after, soldiers from the Arvensoar place the city under martial law.  Gossip holds that Korvosa and Riddleport are suffering from problems of their own, leaving people to wonder what’s happening to Varisia.  The adventurers debate whether it’s safer to stay in Magnimar or spend time in the wilderness, and the latter view wins out.  After teleporting everyone back to the Kodars, Ava helps them withstand a blizzard by creating another stone bunker.

[31 Pharast 4708]

 

Another morning sees the adventurers suffering from extreme hunger pains.

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

Director's Commentary

The cursed gold coins spreading throughout Magnimar were something I came up with to make the "shopping trip" more interesting.  I wanted to show that Karzoug's agents were accelerating their plans, and the theme seemed to fit the Runelord of Greed perfectly.

Some great role-playing in the tavern scenes.  I try to occasionally prompt topics that the players wouldn't perhaps naturally have their PCs discuss by saying something like "As you finish your meal, talk turns to what you'll do after Karzoug's defeat", etc.  It's not something that always works, but with some good role-players at the table, it can really add to character depth.

Pathfinder: "Pathfinder Society Year of the Sky Key T-Shirt" [RPG]

I got this shirt for my kid because I was either too big or too small for the sizes left.  I have only a vague idea of what the Sky Key is, and he has absolutely no idea, but he told me to give the shirt 10 out of 10.  I've used my mastery of fractions to change that to 5 out of 5 stars for the Paizo website.  To me, the symbol is pretty forgettable compared to other Pathfinder shirts, but, it's not my opinion that counts!

Pathfinder Module: "Entombed with the Pharaohs" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

 

Entombed with the Pharaohs is a 32-page entry in the D&D 3.5-era line of Paizo modules.  Set in the Egypt-analogue country of Osirion, the module involves some classic tomb-raiding in the pulp Indiana Jones’ vein (not the more culturally sensitive, quasi-archaeological approach taken in some more recent Paizo adventures).  But there’s a depth and richness to the story and setting here that really turns this into a memorable adventure, not a forgettable dungeon-crawl.  There are plenty of surprises and

dynamic elements to keep players on their toes, and plenty of opportunity for quality role-playing.  I ran this several months ago, and although I do think it’s a higher difficulty than may be fair for an average Level 6 group, I really enjoyed it.

 

SPOILERS

 

For an adventure hook, the module assumes the PCs are either members of the Pathfinder Society or are hired by them to explore a pyramid that has recently been unearthed in Osirion.  But this is no ordinary pyramid—it’s reputed to be the tomb of the Four Pharaohs of Ascension, a legendary group of powerful, magically-inclined rulers who bound themselves together in both life and death for eternity. 

 

Part 1 is “Hidden Secrets of the Malhitu Bazaar.”  The module proper starts with the PCs attending an antiquities auction to meet their secret Pathfinder contact, a woman known only as the Mithral Scarab (great artwork).  She’ll signal the PCs at some point during the auction, but the auction isn’t just background.  There are several Osirion relics up for sale, many of which hold some clues or value for the adventure to come.  The module details several other potential bidders for each item, and this segment could be an interesting role-playing (and financial strategy) opportunity for the PCs.  Crucially, also in attendance at the auction are the members of Her Majesty’s Expeditionary, a Chelaxian-backed group of mercenary tomb robbers who are also planning a venture to the pyramids of the Four Pharaohs of Ascension.  This group becomes a major rival to the PCs at various stages throughout the module and add some dynamic tension.  Indeed, one member tries to infiltrate the PCs in the guise of a freelance translator—a move that worked perfectly on my group.

 

After the auction, the Mithral Scarab takes the PCs to the only living person to have previously visited the pyramid tomb of the Four Pharoahs of Ascension.  In a well-done scene, the man, Raegos, explains that he keeps himself perpetually blindfolded to avoid succumbing to a terrible curse.  Inside the pyramid, he says, are four mystical runes—anyone who sees all four transforms into a terrible, mindless monster, which is what happened to one of his fellow explorers.  Raegos saw three of the runes, and lives in terror of someday seeing the fourth.  He explains that the pyramid normally exists on another plane, but can be summoned back through the use of a special mask—though the whereabouts of this item are unknown.  The rest of this part involves the PCs making Gather Information checks or using other means to try to figure out where the mask is currently located.

 

Part 2 is “Pursuit of the Mask”, and it really has two distinct segments.  The first segment involves stealing the Mask of the Four Pharoahs from its current owner, an antiquities collector named the Crook Bearer.  But if the PCs aren’t diligent with their sources, they may think the mask is actually at a museum called the Exhibitory—but that one’s a fake!  The module provides layouts and content for both places—PCs could try a lazy smash-and-grab or plan a full heist (and stealth isn’t a bad idea if they don’t want the entire city guard after them).  It’s handled really well, and I imagine a lot of groups could get quite creative with their planning.  I especially liked that Her Majesty’s Expeditionary is also after the mask, and the module plays fair-and-square with their own chances of figuring out which location has the real mask and then details their heist plan.  It’s perfectly possible for the PCs to be too late and for their rivals to get the mask first—which means the PCs are the ones trailing behind in the second segment, which is the trip to the Valley of the Pyramids.  A regional map and a couple of encounters are provided here (one against Chelish legionnaires and one against a hieracosphinx), and there’s also some risk from sand-slides.  It’s only a two-day trip from Sothis to the valley, so just enough time to give the PCs a little flavour of desert travel before the real adventure begins.

 

Part 3 is “Into the Tomb”, and it constitutes the bulk of the adventure as the PCs enter the pyramid in search of lore and treasure.  Although, yes, this is technically a dungeon-crawl, you can really see the difference a skilled writer can breathe into the template.  Each room in the pyramid has a rich connection to the backstory lore and there are tons of little details that flesh things out further for those players who are really paying attention.  An overall theme of this part of the adventure is what was foreshadowed by Raegos back in Part 1: the Curse of the Encircled Runes.  There are four of these runes hidden in various places within the pyramid, and a PC who happens to see all four risks transforming instantly into an undead abomination!  The runes are hidden in some really clever and surprising places, and some players will curse (pun intended) the fact they gave their characters such high Perception scores.  When I ran it, fear of the curse was a constant source of apprehension for the group, and it worked perfectly. 

 

Apart from the lore and the curse, there are some stand-out encounters, such as a gloriously gross swarm of embalmed organs.  My favourite encounter is a little hard to explain, but it involves a sort of Strength challenge over several rounds with the PCs needing to effectively out-muscle a golem or find themselves crushed to death between the ceiling and a rising floor.  It was really satisfying for my group when it was the golem who got slowly crushed instead, and a much more memorable victory than a traditional combat.

 

On the other hand, it’s also fair to say that there are some encounters that just aren’t fair for an average group of four level 6 PCs.  In particular, there’s a battle against a CR 9 undead dragon with an AC of 28 and six attacks a round!  When I ran it, this encounter killed half of the PCs and the others were forced to flee the pyramid entirely, leading to a downbeat ending to what was otherwise a really fun experience.  It’s a pretty tough foe for what’s essentially a treasure-less side room, not even a boss encounter.

 

Her Majesty’s Expeditionary remains a wild card during the whole thing, and the module details when and where that group will be at different points in the PCs’ exploration.  The rival group could easily continue as antagonists (fighting or trying to steal from the PCs’), but, could potentially team up with the PCs in a short-lived joint venture.  There are a lot of possibilities there, and I like how the module keeps things flexible.

 

If the PCs manage to defeat all four of the pharaohs, the curse is broken and they’ll be able to escape the pyramid with some quality loot and intriguing clues.  My favourite bit is about the Aucturn Enigma, which ties into the Dominion of the Black and a sort of “Doomsday Clock” in the temple.  I think some of this connects to another module, “The Pact Stone Pyramid”, and I know the storyline gets resolved in the Pathfinder Playtest adventure.

 

The last eight pages of the module are devoted to three appendices and some level 6 pre-gen Iconics.

 

Appendix 1 introduces five new magic items.  I like the (perhaps poorly named) “Tomb Guard”, which is a magic ankh affixed to a weapon; if the weapon’s wielder falls dead or unconscious, the ankh magically animates the weapon and defends the owner.  There’s another magic item, a “Wracking Rod” which is good in concept (a torture device that heals the victim to keep them conscious as it simultaneously inflicts pain) but the actual mechanics of it could be improved.

 

Appendix 2 has artwork, backgrounds, and full stat blocks for the five members of Her Majestrix’s Expeditionary, the rival group of tomb robbers I spoke of above.  They’re a well-developed and interesting group of NPCs, and it’s clear the writer spent some time on them to make them a plausible rival group, not just single-battle fodder.  One of the members wields a “wand rifle”, a cool idea that would take just a bit too long to explain.

 

Appendix 3 is the bestiary, but there’s only one new monster: the Osirion Mummy.  This template doesn’t carry the mummy rot disease/curse of the traditional mummy, but does have a cool “Dust Stroke” ability that turns opponent’s bodies to dust if it kills them.  It’s perhaps not the most original idea for a monster, but the artwork is cool.

 

Overall, Entombed with the Pharoahs is a stand-out module.  It has a great backstory, cool NPCs, a fun heist element, original encounters, and some great ominous connections to future adventures.  It might be a touch too difficult for many groups—though, come to think of it, exploring the resting place of the legendary Four Pharaohs of Ascension should be pretty deadly!

Rise of the Runelords Recap # 106 [RPG]

[24 Pharast 4708 continued]

 

Ava decides to try one final spell before giving up completely on her own ability to remove the dread wendigo curse that has taken a deep hold on Jinkatsyu,  With a fervent prayer to Sinashakti, she throws wave after wave of divine energy into the swashbuckling kitsune.  The curse resists almost as if it were sentient, and for a moment, Jinkatsyu’s fate teeters on a knife’s edge . . . but Ava’s will is strong enough to overcome the curse, and she tears it out of Jinkatsyu by its roots!  Although freed from its malign influence, the kitsune is drained and exhausted by the ordeal.  Kang mixes a powerful, foul-tasting restorative for him.  The adventurers decide to rest for the night.  Ava explains that she’d still like to teleport to Magnimar sometime the next day in order to buy some clothes and armor that fit her new body.

 

[25 Pharast 4708]

 

The heroes spend the morning traversing the rough trail to the wide ledge where the bones of Karivek Vekker remain, still frozen to the earth.  It takes some effort to break it free of the ice, but the body is successfully transported back to the cabin.  Once taken to the part of the cabin at the bottom of the cliff-face where Morgiana first encountered the spirit of Silas Vekker, the ghostly figures of both brothers manifest again in a strange, spiritual struggle!  Unsure of whether or how to intervene, the adventurers wait and watch.  

Jinkatsyu decides to get started in digging a grave for Karivek’s body, but has the awful luck to pick a spot under the decayed pine tree that stands nearby.  But the tree is far more than it seems—once a treant, it died decades ago from the arsenic polluting the soil, only to persist as an undead creature—a Horror Tree!  Its roots lash out at Jinkatsyu, crushing him while sending filaments of strange fungus

through his bloodstream.  But Kang hurls an explosive right into the monster’s gaping maw, and blows it apart from within!  Jinkatsyu regains his footing and finishes off the remnants of the abomination with his rapier.

 

After almost ten minutes of struggle, the ghost of Karivek Vekker suddenly sighs and stops struggling.  The spectral ghost’s teeth return to normal and his feet grow back before the entire apparition fades away into nothingness.  The ghost of Silas Vekker turns to face the Heroes of Varisia and speaks, fading away more and more with each word:  “You have saved my brother.  You have saved me.  I would reward you by simply taking the path to Xin-Shalast with me into the beyond, yet I sense that you would still harbor a desire to see those golden ruins.  Very well.  Look to the pages of my ledger for the way, and may Torag watch over you in the darkness to come.”  As the spirit fades away forever, several parchment pages manifest in thin air and float lazily to the ground.  Kang examines this carefully and explains to the others that they must continue heading north, following the Kazaron River until it branches, then follow the western branch to the end.  There, they must fast and wait for a night with a full moon, and then (this part is maddeningly vague) the path to Xin-Shalast shall be made clear.  With some hours of daylight still to burn, and a promise from the taiga giants to escort them out of their territory, the adventurers decide to leave the tragedy of the Vekker Brothers and the wendigo behind, and get started on the next leg of their journey.

 

[26 Pharast 4708]

 

The journey north is difficult, even with the giants choosing the easiest way forward through the trackless mountains.  Jagged rock, slippery ice, steep ascents, and a general lack of mountain-climbing training or gear bedevils the adventurers, and they make only slow progress.  But, hour after hour, they forge ahead, and soon reach the edges of the giant’s territory.  As thanks for their aide, and as a makeshift celebration of how far the adventurers have come, Ava magically conjures a feast fit for a king’s coronation.  At sunset, the giants give their solemn farewells, and are not seen again.

 

[27 Pharast 4708]

 

With the guidance of the giants no longer available, the adventurers make even slower progress than before, sometimes spending hours just to scale a few hundred feet of cliff-face.  Pessimism starts to set in.  Ava continues to conjure stone bunkers for the group to rest in each night.  On this night though, she sets her bunker at the base of a tall outcropping that just happens to be the roost of a massive, roc-sized avian called (in a translation from the original Shoanti) a “thunderbird.”  Bolts of lightning and heavy winds surround the thunderbird, forcing the adventurers to flee their original campsite and set up another one several hundred yards away.

 

[28 Pharast 4708]

 

In the morning, Ava thinks deeply about the vast array of magicks she can draw upon to speed the group’s journey towards Xin-Shalast, and realizes that one in particular will make the trip a trivial thing: by turning everyone lighter than air, they can float along magical winds at tremendous speeds!  No longer need they be hampered by difficult terrain or limited visibility.  An experiment with the spell proves incredibly successful, as the adventurers cover more distance in a single hour than would have with days of laborious climbing through the rugged Kodar range.  The western branch of the Kazaron terminates in a vast, icy swamp.  As the adventurers get closer to it, both Kang and Ava feel an uncanny sense of dislocation, as if they’re venturing into an area only loosed moored to the material plane.  The group decide to retreat outside the swamp and set up camp for the night.

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

Director's Commentary

The DC to break the wendigo's hold on Jinkatsyu was very high, but Ava persisted with multiple castings of the necessary spell until she finally made it.

I thought the ghosts' spiritual struggle was a bit cheesy and fell flat, and there really wasn't much for the PCs to do besides watch.

I was wondering when or if that horror tree would ever get triggered!

Ava discovering wind-walking sped up this portion of the chapter dramatically.  I just don't know how groups without high-level full casters would make it through the extreme terrain and weather hazards.  It would definitely take a lot of preparation and patience!

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 4-11: "The Disappeared" [RPG]

NO SPOILERS

I played through The Disappeared via play-by-post with my go-to Iconic, Quinn the Investigator.  Season Four PFS scenarios have a (well-deserved) reputation for really ramping up the combat difficulty, but I didn’t find that an issue at all in this one.  It’s fair to say that combat itself takes a back seat in The Disappeared, and instead characters who specialise in deception, stealth, and smooth

talking get their time in the spotlight.  The plot’s interesting and original, and the gameplay experience is very different than the norm.  I really enjoyed it, and I strongly recommend it.

SPOILERS

Zarta Dralneen, the very . . . memorable . . . Chelish liaison to the Pathfinder Society has disappeared!  Or, perhaps more accurately, she has been disappeared.  Worried about the fate of the secrets she has about the Society, Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin calls on the PCs to discover what happened to her, where she is, or if she’s even still alive.  It’s clear the government of Cheliax knows something, as they’ve taken to denying she ever existed in the first place!  So Valsin tasks the PCs with infiltrating the Chelish Embassy in Absalom during an evening gala to search for clues.  Their cover will be as “Pathfinders with information about Sargava to sell to the ambassador,” and that should get them as far as the waiting room.  Valsin explains that he’s been able to get Amara Li an invitation to the gala, and she’ll be able to keep the ambassador busy for an hour, and that’s all the time the Pathfinders will have to slip out of the waiting room, search for clues to Zarta’s fate, and return to the waiting room before the ambassador turns up and starts getting suspicious.

How this works mechanically is that the PCs are, quite literally, on the clock.  They have sixty minutes in-game for their search, and various actions take different specified amounts of time, with the GM given discretion to account for PC actions that haven’t been accounted for.  Drawing the attention of embassy staff by being clumsy with stealth or disguises results in one “strike” each time it happens, and the group only gets a certain number of strikes before the gig is up and they’ve been discovered.  The GM is encouraged to be transparent with the PCs about how much time they have left and how many strikes they’ve accumulated, as this encourages some great risk vs reward role-playing about how to proceed because there’s often a cautious but slower option compared to a faster but more noticeable option on how to proceed.

This may all sound a bit abstract, but it all works well in practice.  For example, after they’ve slipped out of the waiting room, the PCs need to traverse a long hallway bustling with servants without being noticed.  They can take their time and wait for a pause in activity (a Perception check, with each attempt taking 2 minutes) or just stride down like they belong there (a Bluff check that only takes 1 minute).  Failing either check lands the group a strike.  Not every option is as binary as that, and there’s lot of fun to be had with the various ideas PCs might come up with to get where they want to go—Zarta’s personal quarters.

The description of Zarta’s quarters is perfectly lascivious, fitting the character to a T.  One of the only two mandatory combats in the session takes place here, as the rooms are guarded by summoned devils.  Zarta had some brief notice that she was about to be taken into custody by Chelish internal security, so she arranged for some clues to be left for anyone coming to help her later.  The clues take the form of some messages encoded in a basic substitution cipher, and I like the added touch that if players attempt to decode it, every minute they take in real time is deducted from the sixty minute total they have in game! 

The clues should lead the PCs into embassy’s ventilation system which, as we all know from myriad spy movies, are the perfect way to travel.  The vents then exit into the embassy’s records room which is full of filing cabinets arranged by subject matter.  Various skill checks are used here to pinpoint what happened to Zarta, with each attempt taking a certain amount of time.  By putting together various pieces of evidence, the PCs can conclude that Zarta was framed for espionage by a Chelish rival named Tancred Desimire, arrested, and imprisoned at the Hellknight fortress of Citadel Vraid outside of Korvosa! (there’s a sort of silly fight against animated chairs in the records room, which I think was inserted just to satisfy some notion of a minimum number of combats per scenario).

 Armed with the information, the PCs then need to reverse course and see if they can make it back to the waiting room in time.  If they fail, or if they accumulate too many strikes, they then have to battle successively difficult waves of Chelish security forces until they either get captured, surrender, or make a dramatic escape by something like crashing out a window!

As I said, the plot of The Disappeared is certainly an original one.  I like that some rarely-used skills (like Disguise) really get a chance to shine, and the ticking-clock mechanism keeps things exciting. I really enjoyed the scenario, and I imagine there’s a follow-up where the PCs have to try to rescue Zarta from Citadel Vraid.  This is definitely one worth playing, especially for PCs who are more than just hack n’ slashers.