SEASON OF FACTIONS' FAVOR
Since its creation, the Pathfinder Society has trained and sponsored archaeologists, scholars, and adventurers of all stripes to uncover the world’s historical secrets. More than 400 years later, the Society practically spans the globe, from its Grand Lodge headquarters in Absalom to more humble lodges continents away. With this reach comes influence, not only through the Pathfinder Chronicles that make famous the Society’s greatest agents, but also through the organization’s growing power wherever it creates a new base of operations.
This fame and power has attracted the envious, the ambitious, and the downright villainous. Although Pathfinders have clashed with avaricious rivals like the Aspis Consortium, power-hungry tyrants like the runelords, and catastrophic threats like the abyssal Worldwound, the Society’s influence has also attracted factions that sought to recruit Pathfinder agents, control the organization, or usurp its resources. After nearly a decade of factions clashing with each other and then being brought in line, these groups have at last reached a fairly peaceful equilibrium. Each now contributes its own expertise to the Society’s greater goals.
That transition has been anything but bloodless. Two of the greatest faction rivals were Baron Jacquo Dalsine (representing Taldor’s failed ploy to seize control of Absalom politically) and Pasha Muhlia al-Jakri (representing Qadira’s desire to usurp Absalom through economic dominance). The two clashed regularly, and their conflict came to a head when Dalsine’s cousin killed al-Jakri’s sister. The pasha had come to expect casualties in their shadow war, but this act drove her to kill the baron and abandon the Pathfinder Society entirely for having entertained such internecine squabbles in the first place.
Pasha Muhlia al-Jakri has since tried to rebuild her career with other organizations, yet each time her increasingly criminal ambitions led her into conflict with the Society. For more than six years her anger toward the Pathfinders has grown. Other villains thwarted by the Society have sought her out, and together they recently launched an attack on Absalom using her intelligence to gain a critical advantage. Although the Society helped the city fend off this invasion, it’s only a matter of time before al-Jakri gathers new allies and strikes again.
The Society’s reformed factions have taken it upon themselves to help track down this renegade, recognizing that their past infighting contributed to al-Jakri’s downward spiral into treachery. With their guidance, it’s up to you to track down the pasha, thwart her schemes, and unravel the conspiracies she has woven across the Inner Sea.
DURING THIS ADVENTURE PATH:
After you begin Favors and Foes, when you would banish a bane that has the Basic trait, remove it from the game; when you banish a boon that has the Basic trait, you may remove it from the game. After you begin The Pactmaster’s Bargain, do the same for cards that have the Elite trait.
NEW RULE: FAVORS
Season of Factions’ Favor introduces a new type of support card: favors. Certain scenarios place favors into the blessings deck. When that card is discarded from the blessings deck, do what it says. If a favor would be encountered or removed from the blessings deck discard pile, banish it instead.
RULES: TRADERS
In Season of Factions’ Favor, traders work differently than in Mummy’s Mask, in the following ways.
When you are rewarded with a trader, instead of checking it off on the Bazaar card, record it on your Chronicle sheet.
You do not visit traders after winning a scenario. Instead, at the start of each scenario in this Adventure Path, before setting out the locations, you may visit 1 trader you have recorded on your Chronicle sheet.
Pay the trade cost with the usual number and type of cards from your deck, but instead of putting those cards in the box, put 1 in to your deck box and bury any others.
At the end of the scenario, return the card you traded for to the game box, and put the card you returned to your deck box back into your deck.
For example, to pay the trade cost to a trader offering spells at a cost of 2 boons, put 1 of those boons into your deck box, bury the other boon, then add the spell to your deck. At the end of the scenario, return the spell to the game box and put the first boon back in your deck.
