A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 5th to 9th level characters (Tiers: 5–6 and 8–9).
You and your fellow Pathfinders are sent to Katheer, the shining capital of Qadira, to witness the wedding of Pathfinder Faireven to the wealthy and beautiful Lady of Silver and bring back a trove of relics given to the Society as part of the wedding dowry. When the wedding is disrupted by unscrupulous thieves, you soon find yourself dodging double-crosses, accusations of grave robbery, and worse. You must find the relics soon, or risk facing the eternal expulsion of the Society from the treasure-filled deserts of Qadira.
Written by James F. MacKenzie
This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can easily be adapted for use with any world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the 3.5 edition of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game.
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I ran Our Lady of Silver at subtier 5-6 via play-by-post. One of the nice things about it, compared to most Season Zero/Season One scenarios, is that it has a lot of role-playing opportunities. These are pretty free-form, and there are a lot of NPCs that a good GM could really make come alive if time and circumstances permit. The combat encounters were fine (and pretty easy for modern PCs). I’d rank the overall story and use of setting lore a little above average, and I appreciated the connection to an earlier scenario. There’s one twist that may appear a bit forced and that some players may bristle at. Overall though, I’d rank this one as definitely playable.
SPOILERS!:
Our Lady of Silver takes place in Katheer, the massive city that serves as the capital of Qadira. After a briefing from the (hardly ever seen in PFS again) Venture-Captain Osretia Cassomiran, the PCs are sent to a wedding feast! The leader of the important merchant family House of Silver (Bashir al-Mudaris) is overseeing the marriage of his daughter (Lujine, the Lady of Silver) to a foreign scholar and Pathfinder, Farendir Faireven. It’s apparently quite a coup for the young man, and for the Society as well because al-Mudaris plans to donate several valuable relics to burnish his new son-in-law’s reputation with the organisation. The PCs, then, are representatives of the Society at the wedding and simultaneously guards to make sure the relics are safely delivered afterward to Katheer’s Pathfinder Society Lodge afterward.
The scenario encourages role-playing at the wedding feast, and introduces multiple NPCs to facilitate this. One of the NPCs, Al’Jahar abu-Targos, is the nephew of the deceased Venture-Captain Targos Min-Katheer and is grateful to the society for the return of his uncle’s remains in # 0-3, Murder on the Silken Caravan. I love little connections like that, and the nephew returns again later in the scenario to provide a potentially valuable service. Apart from perhaps faction missions, the role-playing here doesn’t have a set goal and is mostly free-form--so some groups and GMs may really get into it, and others not so much. (I love RP, though I find it hard sometimes to figure out how much time to spend on it when it comes to play-by-post)
Of course, the wedding feast doesn’t go off without a hitch! You see, a rejected suitor of Lujine, a merchant-sorcerer named Raamiz Ibn-Chadli, has hatched a revenge plan to discredit the Pathfinder Society and, by extension, Farendir Faireven. He arranges for dervishes from the Fraternity of the Unforgiving Flame to sneak into the wedding and let wild animals loose (lions and elephants) to cause a distraction while they steal the gifts meant for the Society! I like the little sidebar that was included of dramatic events that can happen during the ensuing chaos.
I guess it’s a fait accompli that the gifts are stolen, because the premise of the rest of the adventure is that the PCs are trying to recover them. (though it would work just as well if their mission was to track down who was behind the attempted heist) A lead will take the PCs to the Hall of Purifying Flame, the decrepit headquarters of the Fraternity. The combats here are really easy, though I actually managed to land a flaming oil trap which was fun! A search of the premise uncovers Ibn-Chadli’s role in the scheme, which naturally causes the PCs to seek him out at his villa.
The scenario provides a fair amount of text on the villa, but there are no maps or encounters there. Instead, the PCs need to find their way out back to where there are slave huts. There, disguised in heavy robes, is Qutirh the Prudent: Ibn-Chadli’s vizier and actually an Erinyes! For an encounter where the monster’s tactics include teleportation and ranged attacks, the map here is *really* small (just one tile from a map pack). Interrogation of Ibn-Chadli’s slaves or papers in his library will point to the merchant-sorcerer’s interest in the tomb of High Priest Ubaidah, and since that’s their only lead, that’s where they’ll likely head.
However, there’s a sudden turn of events when a company of three dozen mounted warriors along with several sorcerers appear to arrest the PCs! They’ve been accused of murder, theft, and grave robbing, and are to be taken into custody to defend themselves in the Satrap’s court. It’s a bit heavy-handed and sort of comes out of nowhere, and it doesn’t really lead to anything interesting as success in the ensuing role-playing opportunity is automatic. (in later seasons, writers would get better with using skill challenges to represent situations like this) In other words, it’s a bit of an interlude that throws off the pace of the adventure without adding much to it, apart from perhaps foreshadowing the idea that the PCs are being framed for crimes they didn’t commit.
The final encounter is at High Priest Ubaidah’s tomb outside Katheer. Ibn-Chadli has used magic to disguise a couple of ogres as Pathfinders to help him with the grave robbing! I did have fun having large-sized duplicates of a couple of the PCs’ tokens in the ensuring battle. Ibn-Chadli went down like a punk, as one might expect when a sorcerer is forced into melee range in confined quarters. Capturing or killing him clears the PCs of any lingering suspicion, and the return of the gifts allows the marriage festivities to continue. All’s well that ends well!
Got a fun opening scene, but the remainder seems a bit disconnected, and there's some HEFTY railroading. Overall, the scenario could use some modernizing, and it hasn't aged well.
A lot of local players hyped this scenario, so when I got round to playing it, I was expecting a lot. I’m sorry to say it didn’t deliver. Don’t get me wrong, the start of the scenario is excellent. The location in combination with what happens shortly after the party gets there works like a charm to set the scene. It’s by far the highlight of the scenario. The rest of the scenario just came across as a bit random. I felt like the GM and another player (who GM’ed numerous times) really had to guide the party in the right direction a bit too much. While I’m sure there’s a decent storyline, I felt like I was missing it a little.
There’s plenty of opportunities to partake in roleplay with NPCs. People who enjoy that kind of interaction will likely have a blast this scenario. The combats however are outdated, as others mentioned below. I know people say there’s strength in numbers, but this time around the mooks just die too quickly. At times they didn’t pose a challenge at all, which is weird if the party is out of tier and playing up.
Due to time-constraints, we had to call the boss fight rather early (even though we wouldn’t have struggled there at all) and sped up some of the investigation. Come to think of it, I must have missed a fair bit of the storyline because of that so I'll raise my rating by 1. However, right now I have to admit I’m far from impressed by this scenario, other than the opening scene. I honestly don’t see why some of my friends love this scenario so much. For now I’ll just put this scenario down as something I might want to revisit in order to find out, but I am also aware that there are other scenarios that I'd much rather replay instead. I can't in good conscience recommend this scenario.
This story is too good to pass up, but the mechanics need an update
Like most S0 scenarios, you can see this was Paizo's playtest season, and they didn't have the proper difficulty down yet. This one leans in the easy direction.
The story however is excellent. It's got some fun twists, and really shows off the Society "growing up" to be recognized as being more than your average tavern filled with murderhobos calling itself an adventurer's guild.
If Paizo ever gets around to updating S0 scenarios, this one should definitely be upgraded to proper Pathfinder rules. It's too good to languish in the 3.5 dungeon.
This scenario is very weird, but in a good way. The story makes some unexpected twists and turns that shake up the safe feeling I've had for a while. Seasons 0 and 1 are a bit wild and wacky, and I love them for it. It also has some problems common in those seasons, but the upsides outweigh the downsides, and it's definitely are worth playing it.
Well, first of all, the opening act. As I alluded to in the title, this scene must've been inspired by Aladdin. You name an element of that song, and it'll show up there. I recommend giving your players homework to listen to/watch this song to get into the mood a bit. And when combat does break out... Whoo boy. It's such a frantic mess, and I (and my players) love it. There's definitely a feeling of "WTF is going on here?" that you don't get too often, and the chaos is amazing. And then that turn about three-quarters through... That's a great part for players to roleplay. My players loved it. Again, a big WTF moment that's great to see played out.
Sadly, as great as this scenario is, it has some downsides. This is a very thin scenario, and a lot happens in it, so a lot of stuff needs to be condensed or cut. Some connections are tenuous or not very clear, and I had to shove my players onto the right path every now and then. They also stumbled on some plot holes every now and then I couldn't really explain away.
Also, combats are pretty underwhelming. I GMed the high tier, and the final combat didn't even last a single round. This was a case where the author thought that throwing more low-level mooks at you makes up for the lack of challenge per mook, but that doesn't work when you already have access to Fireball. The advantage in numbers seems daunting, but when a well-thrown Magic Missile can knock out a single combatant at tier 8-9, your combat won't last long. Similarly, 30 HP mooks around a boss with double that amount, in a Fireball formation doesn't really matter. My six-player party completely annihilated the encounters without being really in danger themselves, and my guess is that a low-tier group could play up without too many problems.
I've heard rumours of season 0 and 1 rewrites. If that's true, I wholeheartedly nominate this scenario for a revision. It's a great scenario as it is right now, but it could be even greater if it got the care and attention a season 7 scenario currently gets.
Bottom line: play this scenario with a group of people who really want to roleplay. There's ample opportunity for that here, and I often had to cut off my players' roleplay because we had a scenario to finish.
Eternal expulsion! Woot, we could have TPKs without killing. That's what I call progress. :)
Of course, if the players REALLY screw up, they could die and ALSO cause the Satrap to expell the Pathfinders from Qadira.
Never underestimate the ingenuity of those truly determined to do everything the wrong way: I'm waiting to hear from a group that plays the adventure with a party of CHA 6 half-orc barbarians.
Never underestimate the ingenuity of those truly determined to do everything the wrong way: I'm waiting to hear from a group that plays the adventure with a party of CHA 6 half-orc barbarians.
7 is the minimum for any ability score under v1.1 rules.
When I ran this one the CHA 6 half-orc wanted the party wanted to fight it out instead of going quietly. They could have done it. We never fought it out, but only because the CHA 26 bard knew he could talk his way out of anything.
RPG Superstar 2008 Top 16, 2010 Top 4
