Mid-Season Faction Updates

Monday, February 3, 2014

As quickly as they receive them, clerks in the Grand Lodge of Absalom are processing the reports from field agents across the Inner Sea. Overall, the results are very promising, and Society leadership agrees that despite the outbreak of the Firth Mendevian Crusade, plans to travel to Jormurdun are proceeding smoothly.

Against this backdrop, the eight faction leaders have overseen their own projects and sent missives to their allies in the Pathfinder Society to update agents on their progress. You can read each faction head’s letter on the paizo.com messageboards. When the time comes, ensure that you represent your faction proudly in the following scenarios, all released during the coming months of the Year of the Demon:

Andoran: Pathfinder Society Scenario #5–18: The Stranger Within and Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–23: Cairn of Shadows.

Cheliax: Pathfinder Society Scenario #5–17: Fate of the Fiend and Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–23: Cairn of Shadows.

Grand Lodge: Pathfinder Society Scenario #5–20: The Sealed Gate and Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–25: Vengeance at Sundered Crag.

Osirion: Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–12: Destiny of the Sands, Part 1: A Bitter Bargain, Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–15: Destiny of the Sands, Part 2: Race to Seeker’s Folly and Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–16: Sanctum of the Sages.

Qadira: Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–12: Destiny of the Sands, Part 1: A Bitter Bargain, Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–18: The Stranger Within, and Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–21: The Merchant’s Wake.

Sczarni: Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–12: Destiny of the Sands, Part 1: A Bitter Bargain and Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–18: The Stranger Within.

Silver Crusade: Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–13: Weapon in the Rift, Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–20: The Sealed Gate, Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–22: Scars of the Third Crusade, and Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–24: Assault on the Wound.

Taldor: Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–19: The Horn of Aroden and Pathfinder Society Scenario 5–24: Assault on the Wound.

Thanks for your participation in and feedback regarding the Year of the Demon. It’s exciting to see the check box results from reported scenarios. These not only help to steer the direction of our factions but also determine which NPCs might return in future scenarios as allies or as antagonists.

John Compton
Developer

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Tags: Pathfinder Society
The Exchange 4/5 5/5

Exciting Times for all!

Some of the scenario titles alone have me quite eager to play these. Any word on what tiers the later scenarios will be designed for?

Silver Crusade 4/5

3 people marked this as a favorite.

I am excite! I can't wait for ASSAULT ON THE WOUND!

Grand Lodge 4/5

518 The Stranger Within
519 The Horn of Aroden
520 The Sealed Gate
521 The Merchant's Wake
522 Scars of the Third Crusade
523 The Cairn of Shadow
524 Assault on the Wound
525 Vengeance at Sundered Crag

Oooh! What tiers are all of these at?
Vengeance at Sundered Crag is a BRILLIANT name for a death metal band, btw.

Paizo Employee 4/5 Developer

Belafon wrote:

Exciting Times for all!

Some of the scenario titles alone have me quite eager to play these. Any word on what tiers the later scenarios will be designed for?

I'll be revealing the tiers when I post the product pages, which should be going up in the next week or so.

Hint: A big helping of 1–5, a smidgen of 3–7, and healthy servings of 5-9 and 7–11

5/5

4 people marked this as a favorite.

The Horn of Aroden? Now that is exciting.

Shadow Lodge 3/5

5-24 and 5-25 sound strangely reminiscent of the last 2 scenarios from season 3 (which had 26 scenarios, sooo...).

4/5

05-26 We be demon chow

Shadow Lodge 4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

It's always the waiting that gets me.

The Exchange 5/5

Very excited for this lineup! Especially looking forward to The Grand Lodge missions.

Scarab Sages 2/5

Let's get that curveball 5-26 scenario (Levels 1-5).

Sovereign Court 4/5

Never realized how attached I got to Andoran. It was my first PC's faction and to read, in writing, that the corruption is spreading (even though I played AND ran Stolen Heir), it sort of hits close to home. I'd like to contribute in kicking out the corruption, but I don't have a new character to dedicate to the People's Revolt continuation yet! (My -1 recently retired. Yay! But sad...)

Will be eager to catch up on these new scenarios. They have been top-notch this season!

4/5 5/5 Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Tampere

Dammit, are you going to kill my favorite faction leader? Because I am going to be pretty furious when that happens.

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ***

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I wouldn't put money on a 5-26 existing. I would point out that there was only 3 scenarios released at Gencon instead of 4.

The fun part will be guessing which scenarios have the previews of Season 6...

Liberty's Edge 2/5 *

Im kinda jonesing in the hope that my Osirion Fire Elementalist can become a < Insert Precious stone> Sage. I know its a unlikely hope , but most are :)

Scarab Sages 2/5

We can try to take a comparative look to the Adventure Paths:

Season 3 - Phoenix Tournament - Tian Xia - Jade Regeant
Season 4 - Thassalonian Cults - Runelord Prevention - Shattered Star
Season 5 - Fight against Demons - Worldwound - Wrath of the Righteous

Each of these APs are two apart, so...

Season 6 - Scenarios revolving AP after Mummy's Mask

(Note that this is a wild guess)

Sovereign Court 4/5 5/5 ***

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I would find it very surprising if they did a PFS season based off of Numeria. (Although it would be a pleasant surprise.)

Liberty's Edge 2/5 *

Off a single country? Unlikely. The worldwound is featured because its a source of a lot of story threads.

4/5 ****

We've got a whole Sky Citadel to delve into next season once we finally get there and set up tapestry teleportation.

Silver Crusade 4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

WORLDWOUND!!!! ARODEN AWESOMENESS!!! SO EXCITE.

Now I gotta get my games in and play a good bit of them.

Scarab Sages 2/5

For Season 6:

Aroden with the ancient Azlanti scenarios?
Mordant Spire?
Exploration of the Eye of the Abendego?
More inquiry into Ustalav and Razmiran?
More Pirate-themed Scenarios?

Liberty's Edge 2/5 *

I still dont get the Tapestry Teleportation thing. From what I understood of the Hao Jin Tapestry it was essentially a demiplane within the Tapestry and the picture on the tapestry was a picture of the demiplane when it was made.

You touch a finger on it, boom you are in then you come out again. Im not understanding how it has been retooled to be a matrix style hall of doors to anywhere.

4/5

Matthew Pittard wrote:

I still dont get the Tapestry Teleportation thing. From what I understood of the Hao Jin Tapestry it was essentially a demiplane within the Tapestry and the picture on the tapestry was a picture of the demiplane when it was made.

You touch a finger on it, boom you are in then you come out again. Im not understanding how it has been retooled to be a matrix style hall of doors to anywhere.

If you play the right scenarios, you will learn more.

Storming the Diamond Gate, Portal of the Sacred Rune, Fabric of Reality:
The Aspis found a way to make a backdoor into the Tapestry by consorting with knowledgeable Lissalans. But that backdoor in is also a backdoor out, which became a quick teleport from Absalom (where the actual Tapestry is) to Varisia (where the backdoor is). It didn't work the other way around (since those who enter through the backdoor don't get Astral Eddies to return to Absalom), but even one-way is pretty good.

In Fabric of Reality, if you are awesome enough of arcane researchers, you can rejigger the demiplane's nature, based on the Aspis and Lissalan research, to allow for more backdoors to be created on the fly (though not without some effort). This essentially allows one-way teleportation anywhere (but still not two-way because you won't have the Astral Eddy if you come in through a backdoor.

Liberty's Edge 2/5 *

ahh I see

response:
I see. My group screwed Fabric of Reality up so we never technically changed things so the society could use the Tapestry like that. Ive played all of those , but not run them. I guess you learn different things via playing and gming) We actually fled from the final battle as the others were ill prepared to fight the final creature

Now it makes more sense, but it sorta bastardises the demiplane treasure concept in a way for me

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/5

Wow, some of these scenario names really build the anticipation for the rest of the season!

I guess the only missing piece of info right now (other than the tiers) is the exclusive scenario; is there going to be a 5-EX?

Sovereign Court 5/5 RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Sior wrote:

Never realized how attached I got to Andoran. It was my first PC's faction and to read, in writing, that the corruption is spreading (even though I played AND ran Stolen Heir), it sort of hits close to home. I'd like to contribute in kicking out the corruption, but I don't have a new character to dedicate to the People's Revolt continuation yet! (My -1 recently retired. Yay! But sad...)

Will be eager to catch up on these new scenarios. They have been top-notch this season!

And see, as a die hard Taldan, I laugh, a lot, at the Andoran woes. I explained it to my group like this, "Andoran is trying to replace the Windsors, Yorks, and Lancasters with Kennedys, Gores, and Bushes."

4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Patrick Harris @ MU wrote:
The Horn of Aroden? Now that is exciting.

Play or GM 5-11 Library of the Lion and you may find out!

5/5

Mark Seifter wrote:
Matthew Pittard wrote:

I still dont get the Tapestry Teleportation thing. From what I understood of the Hao Jin Tapestry it was essentially a demiplane within the Tapestry and the picture on the tapestry was a picture of the demiplane when it was made.

You touch a finger on it, boom you are in then you come out again. Im not understanding how it has been retooled to be a matrix style hall of doors to anywhere.

If you play the right scenarios, you will learn more.

** spoiler omitted **

Spoiler:
unless they also made a backdoor in Absolom
Grand Lodge 5/5 ****

A quick question

Do players need to read the new faction head letters to do the missions?

I just made a compilation for all factions 2 weeks ago combining the faction goals from the rules, the faction letter from start of the season and the overall goal of each faction and printed them all out. At least I didn't get around to have them laminated yet - but I'm not happy to have to redo the whole lot.
On the other hand I can't see my players going to the web to read them - so me doing it for them is likely the only way for them to ever read them.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Pathfinder Adventure, Rulebook Subscriber
Thod wrote:

A quick question

Do players need to read the new faction head letters to do the missions?

Szcarni characters are going to miss a lot in the new scenarios if they don't.

Shadow Lodge 4/5 Venture-Captain, California—San Francisco Bay Area South & West

Paz wrote:
Is there going to be a 5-EX?

Apparently not :-(

Shadow Lodge 4/5 5/5 RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 8

John Francis wrote:
Paz wrote:
Is there going to be a 5-EX?
Apparently not :-(

There may be still. I think it would be a stroke of wisdom to not include anything faction specific in an EX scenario, as most players won't get to experience them. Because of this, we may not have seen the 5-EX mentioned yet. Or that could just be the optimist in me talking again... :P

And to answer a question up thread, 5-25 Vengeance at Sundered Crag is a 7-11 I believe.

5/5

Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber
Walter Sheppard wrote:
And to answer a question up thread, 5-25 Vengeance at Sundered Crag is a 7-11 I believe.

5-21 = 1-5, 5-23 = 5-9.

Subject to change of course...

5/5

Thod wrote:
At least I didn't get around to have them laminated yet - but I'm not happy to have to redo the whole lot.

Aren't mid-season faction letters a tradition? I mean, I think I recall them from S4, at least.

Scarab Sages 4/5

Patrick Harris @ MU wrote:
Thod wrote:
At least I didn't get around to have them laminated yet - but I'm not happy to have to redo the whole lot.
Aren't mid-season faction letters a tradition? I mean, I think I recall them from S4, at least.

I would also think the faction letters from the beginning of the season would continue to be relevant. I don't think those missions have changed. They've just been refined based on the results so far. And I'm sure everyone (like me) hasn't yet had a chance to play all of the scenarios from the first half of the season.

I'm glad to see an update to the faction goals. It's a sign that success/failure from the first half of the season is being looked at, or at least gives the appearance as such. It's also a sign that the feedback on these boards is being looked at, as at least the letters I've read have seemed a little more direct and to the point about what's expected.

Let's remember that this is a new system for John and the scenario authors as well. Some need for refinement should be expected, and I really don't think the new system can be completely judged until at least the completion of this season. Most factions have had 2 or 3 missions so far? That's just enough to start laying the groundwork for things to pay off in the second half of the season.

The Exchange 4/5 5/5

John Compton wrote:


I'll be revealing the tiers when I post the product pages, which should be going up in the next week or so.

Hint: A big helping of 1–5, a smidgen of 3–7, and healthy servings of 5-9 and 7–11

Behold! As I use my Linguistics and Knowledge: Mathematics skills I will predict the exact numbers of the final eight scenarios (5-18 thru 5-25)!

3 x 1-5
1 x 3-7
2 x 5-9
2 x 7-11

Paizo Employee 4/5 Developer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Belafon wrote:
John Compton wrote:


I'll be revealing the tiers when I post the product pages, which should be going up in the next week or so.

Hint: A big helping of 1–5, a smidgen of 3–7, and healthy servings of 5-9 and 7–11

Behold! As I use my Linguistics and Knowledge: Mathematics skills I will predict the exact numbers of the final eight scenarios (5-18 thru 5-25)!

3 x 1-5
1 x 3-7
2 x 5-9
2 x 7-11

Blast! I admit nothing!

Grand Lodge 4/5

Is there any chance The Merchant's Wake might be a social scenario, ala Blakros Matrimony and Hellknight's Feast?

Paizo Employee 4/5 Developer

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Andrei Buters wrote:
Is there any chance The Merchant's Wake might be a social scenario, ala Blakros Matrimony and Hellknight's Feast?

Does Kyle Baird have a reputation for killing PCs?

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
John Compton wrote:
Andrei Buters wrote:
Is there any chance The Merchant's Wake might be a social scenario, ala Blakros Matrimony and Hellknight's Feast?
Does Kyle Baird have a reputation for killing PCs?

That Wimp would be lucky if he could kill Familiar.

His reputation PC killer is over exaggerated, he is a lover at heart and cries every time a PC dies. His jar of tears are all his own.

;)

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/5

John Compton wrote:
Quote:
Any word on what tiers the later scenarios will be designed for?

I'll be revealing the tiers when I post the product pages, which should be going up in the next week or so.

Hint: A big helping of 1–5, a smidgen of 3–7, and healthy servings of 5-9 and 7–11

Any news on this? Sign-ups are opening soon for a newbie-friendly con in May, and I want to make sure I can put myself down for GMing the newest 1-5 scenarios.

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