A Case of Disappearing Persons

Monday, July 6, 2015

The last of the Season 6 scenarios are out the door, meaning Gen Con is right around the corner. Linda Zayas-Palmer and I are keeping our noses to the grindstone as we develop the huge amount of adventure content that's on its way, including three new scenarios, six new quests, a new Special that features kobolds, and a new interactive special. But the important thing is that we're still here, which is more than we can say for several VIPs the Society dearly wishes to find in this month's adventures!


Illustrations by Marko Horvatin and Dion Harris

When a Chelish blockade closed up the town of Pezzack, the Pathfinder Society could do little to stop it. As rumors stir of dissent and rebellion in Cheliax, venture-captains have learned that one of the Society's top informants still resides in Pezzack. Extracting him should be a simple matter, right? It's only a matter of sneaking past one of the strongest armadas, finding one person in the ramshackle ruins of a dying town, and then smuggling him out—easy! When I created this outline, I knew it needed someone who could juggle a whole lot of canon to weave an intricate and exciting story, and freelance editor and frequent Pathfinder Wiki contributor Garrett Guillotte was a top pick. He's done a stellar job of presenting Pezzack in all of its politically twisted, war-weary glory in Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-22: Out of Anarchy. In commissioning art, it was hard to resist depicting the gnome professor at the Academy of Applied Magic who helps the PCs navigate Pezzack's strange politics.

Our other adventure returns to a country that Pathfinder Society has not visited in a long time—Ustalav—in Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-23: The Darkest Abduction. The Society's never been popular in Ustalav, and Venture-Captain Basia Kalistoff has done what she can to fight the stereotypes of grave robbing, underhanded tactics, and general seediness. When noteworthy citizens began disappearing in Karcau, Kalistoff saw her chance and offered her lodge's services to Countess Sasandra Livgrace. I knew returning author Jerome Virnich would be the right author for the job, especially given his work on Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Mysteries and his credits in the upcoming Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Hell Unleashed. This adventure was also an opportunity to depict Venture-Captain Basia Kalistoff, whom we last met in Season 1.

Back to work for me!

John Compton
Developer

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Tags: Dion Harris Marko Horvatin Pathfinder Society Pathfinder Society Scenarios
Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/55/5 **

Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber; Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

It is cool that Linda is helping you out! Is she on loan for the convention season or will we hear more about her working on Society stuff in the future?

Shadow Lodge 4/5 *** Venture-Captain, Michigan—Mt. Pleasant

Steven Lau wrote:
It is cool that Linda is helping you out! Is she on loan for the convention season or will we hear more about her working on Society stuff in the future?

I thought she was hired as an assistant PFS developer.

EDIT: Just checked her intro blog post. I was wrong, just an assistant developer. Guess it was wishful thinking on my part?

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/5

5 people marked this as a favorite.

Surely a blog about missing persons should include something of these new breed of agents who keep disappearing and reappearing every five minutes and the new paperwork the decimverate has introduced to help assess the usefulness of these vigilantes to the society

4/5 *

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Great to be heading back to Ustalav! As a bonus, those fancy maps I made for <redacted> will come in handy again.

Grand Lodge 4/5 5/5

I must say I am looking forward to returning to Ustalav and I have a couple of Chelaxian Brothers (whom nobody has seen at the same time) wondering just what happened to old Pezzack

Silver Crusade

I'm happy to finally have a picture of Basia, and I'm even more excited about running Darkest Abduction.

4/5

I think there is another picture of Basia in the primer. Though given it is Ustalav how much holy water does this woman get splashed with by Pathfinder Agents?

Sovereign Court 4/5

Ah, fair Lady Basia. I hope Miregrold Manor is treating her well.

T'was a handful, gods keep. Nay, more it was utter damnation! Ne'ertheless, anything for a noble lady.

Shadow Lodge *

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
David Neilson wrote:
I think there is another picture of Basia in the primer. Though given it is Ustalav how much holy water does this woman get splashed with by Pathfinder Agents?

I own an Everflowing Aspergillium...so it could be quite a bit.

Scarab Sages 4/5

1 person marked this as a favorite.

It will be good to visit Ustalav once more. I have recently solved the case of the

Spoiler:
Midnight Mauler.

These latest disappearances look to prove equally interesting! Maybe *this* time someone will know what it means when I tell them I'm a Detective with the Sleepless Agency! Hrmph!

(Neither the GM nor any of the other players had heard of the Sleepless Detectives, so when I tried to pull rank and use my 1 level in the Prestige Class to impress the NPCs, I was met with a lot of blank stares and jokes about needing more rest.)

4/5 *

Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Lost Omens Subscriber

Eeexcellent. <steeples fingers>


1 person marked this as a favorite.

That beard needs a character sheet all its own.

Hmmmmm, Alchemist's parasitic twin?

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.

That beard looks like a variant mindflayer.

Grand Lodge 5/5 5/55/55/5

More aspis disappearing every day. Heh. Heh.


Professor Poppo: ALRIGHT MAGGOTS LISTEN UP! Professor Poppo's about to teach you the PECKING ORDER: It goes YOU! THE DIRT! THE WORMS INSIDE OF THE DIRT! POPPO'S STOOL! POPPO'S FAMILIAR! Then Poppo! ANY QUESTIONS?

Random Pathfinder Agent: Uh, yeah, I (gets LIGHTNING BOLTED) AAARRRGGGHHH!

Professor Poppo: ENJOY THE ELECTROCUTION BIATCH! Now any MORE QUESTIONS?

(silence)

Professor Poppo:...good...then we can BEGIN!

Liberty's Edge 4/5 5/5

Berselius wrote:

Professor Poppo: ALRIGHT MAGGOTS LISTEN UP! Professor Poppo's about to teach you the PECKING ORDER: It goes YOU! THE DIRT! THE WORMS INSIDE OF THE DIRT! POPPO'S STOOL! POPPO'S FAMILIAR! Then Poppo! ANY QUESTIONS?

Random Pathfinder Agent: Uh, yeah, I (gets LIGHTNING BOLTED) AAARRRGGGHHH!

Professor Poppo: ENJOY THE ELECTROCUTION BIATCH! Now any MORE QUESTIONS?

(silence)

Professor Poppo:...good...then we can BEGIN!

Ah, you've read Out of Anarchy then?


I am eternally grateful to John for giving me a shot and to Linda for doing such an awesome job developing it. Thanks to you both.

But really I'm just here to high-five the fact the scenario with my name on it has dat beard in it.


HIGH FIVES

Scarab Sages 5/5 5/5 *** Venture-Captain, Netherlands

1 person marked this as a favorite.

high five!


Quote:
Ah, you've read Out of Anarchy then?

I was actually referencing TeamFourStar.com's version of Akira Toriyama's somewhat racist drawn character "Mr. Popo" (aka TFS's version makes him somewhat more tolerable by redoing him as an all powerful psychotic narcissist who basically created the Dragon Balls [and by extension Shenlong] for nothing more than $hits and giggles).


Quote:
Though given it is Ustalav how much holy water does this woman get splashed with by Pathfinder Agents?
Quote:
I own an Everflowing Aspergillium...so it could be quite a bit.

Somehow I don't think drenching one of Ustalav's nobility (and the beloved ruler of Karcau to boot) with holy water is going to endear the Pathfinder Society to the townsfolk very much.

Grand Lodge 5/5 *

1 person marked this as a favorite.

That picture is our Venture Captain in town, not the Countess. The Countess is an even better bit of artistry. :-)

Sovereign Court 4/5

Solveig Meginsdottir wrote:

Ah, fair Lady Basia. I hope Miregrold Manor is treating her well.

T'was a handful, gods keep. Nay, more it was utter damnation! Ne'ertheless, anything for a noble lady.

Mental note: never again. That building is beweirded.

Grand Lodge 4/5

Solveig Meginsdottir wrote:
Solveig Meginsdottir wrote:

Ah, fair Lady Basia. I hope Miregrold Manor is treating her well.

T'was a handful, gods keep. Nay, more it was utter damnation! Ne'ertheless, anything for a noble lady.

Mental note: never again. That building is beweirded.

Not yet, not yet. It only has two scenarios set there. The museum still has the lead...

"So, Pathfinders, which would you rather visit, Ustalev, or the Blakros Museum?"

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