Concluding Season 9, Heralding Season 10

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Every year, the number of scenarios released for Gen Con is huge, especially since it typically combines all the scenarios for July and August at once. This year's been an exception insomuch as the number of scenarios is positively immense with 15 different adventures across four different campaigns: 6 Pathfinder Society scenarios, 4 Starfinder Society scenarios, 3 Pathfinder Society Playtest scenarios, and 2 Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild adventures! It's so much that we're breaking our preview blogs into three different posts.

Thankfully, preparing so many adventures has been much more approachable thanks to our growing organized play staff. To reflect this, I've asked each scenario's respective developer to chime in with their own perspective on these excellent adventures.

Speaking of scenarios, by now Gen Con GMs should have received many of these in their downloads already. As of the time I'm writing this, we've completed all of our work on #9-24, #9-25, #10-01, #1-18, #1-19, Playtest #2, Playtest #3, and (just now) #10-00. Many of these have already been arriving in GM downloads, and most of the other adventures are just going through final checks over the next day or two. That means that anything you don't have yet should be arriving soon. Keep in mind that when we cued Gen Con GMs to receive these scenarios, you would have received a notice that you have them in your downloads; this is a placeholder file that's replaced with the actual file once they're on the website. We're regularly running the report to grant new scenarios as they're finalized.

With that, let's get a preview of the Pathfinder Society adventures coming up.

Michael Sayre (organized play developer): I enjoyed a journey across Golarion as I developed scenarios that took me from the ocean depths, to the savannas of the Mwangi Expanse, all the way to the Crown of the World, so I'll jump right in to sharing some of that journey with you!

The first scenario I'll be discussing is the Tier 5-9 adventure Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-24: Beneath Unbroken Waves from Kate Baker—who also wrote Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Scenario #1-08: Sanctuary of Drowned Delight. Beneath Unbroken Waves takes the PCs to the islands and waters off the coast of Jalmeray, where the Pathfinders meet a group of undines who have discovered the ruins of a monastery containing martial arts techniques lost to Golarion…until now! It's not all fun and games in this coastal setting though, as the PCs will also encounter deadly threats like this individual illustrated by Maja Djeke!

John Compton (Organized Play Lead Developer): Ever since Season 7, the organized play team's been including more seeker-level (i.e. level 12+) content in the campaign, which is a delight because it opens up a whole new caliber of narrative. A year ago, the Pathfinder Society helped thwart the so-called Fiendflesh Siege that threatened Absalom. In doing so, we learned that several of the Society's old foes had teamed up to coordinate the siege, and the Pathfinders have taken it upon themselves to personally track down these villains. Agents realized their first victories in Qadira in this season's Adventure Card Guild scenarios, and we've now cornered two of the masterminds in the Five Kings Mountains. There they've taken over an ossuary sacred to Magrim—dwarven god of the afterlife also featured in the upcoming Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Faiths of Golarion—and established such potent defenses that only an elite team of Pathfinders stand any chance. Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-25: Betrayal in the Bones is a Tier 12-;15 scenario that concludes Season 9 on a high note. Not only has the author Tom Phillips brought his storytelling flair and devious encounter design to bear, but the scenario also answers numerous questions that we've been waiting to reveal since as early as Season 2. How did an ex-venture-captain use that fateful wish? Why did a particular faction leader take the actions she did? And how will it all end in these final confrontations?

Linda Zayas-Palmer (organized play developer): The Year of the Ten kicks off with a multitable interactive special for both the Roleplaying Guild and the Adventure Card Guild: #10-00: The Hao Jin Cataclysm (links here for the Roleplaying Guild and Adventure Card Guild versions). Long ago, the legendary sorcerer Hao Jin built a demiplane by tearing locations and peoples out of Golarion and stitching them together into an eclectic realm, bound together by the strength of her magic. The Pathfinder Society has made numerous excursions into this Hao Jin Tapestry demiplane over the years, cataloguing sites of forgotten history and forging alliances with isolated cultures. However, the demiplane is now in critical condition. Unless the Pathfinder Society acts quickly, the plane's very fabric will rip apart. It won't be an easy fix, however. The Society's allies on the Hao Jin Tapestry are in peril, as malevolent forces prey upon the chaos and actively accelerate the destruction. Even the tapestry's own repair mechanisms have malfunctioned horribly and now terrorize its inhabitants. Will you help save the demiplane from certain destruction? Mike Kimmel is the author for the RPG portion of this adventure, and Ron Lundeen wrote the ACG portion. If you want to discover the role this magnificent phoenix (illustrated by Marko Horvatin) has to play in the adventure, come join us at Gen Con or another convention near you.

Linda: Author Nicholas Wasko brings us the first Tier 1-5 of the season, Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-01: Oathbreakers Die. In most places, guilds that trade in death would have to operate undercover. In the setting for this scenario, Daggermark, the Assassins Guild and the Poisoner's Guild are effectively part of the government. Here, a Pathfinder agent who knows too much has been marked for death. The local Venture-Captain Istivil Bosk, illustrated below by Tom Ventre, has concocted a daring plot to save his life. Is your PC brave and skilled enough to save an ally without falling prey to an assassin's blade?

Michael: Moving on to our Tier 3-7 offering forces us to ask the question: "Do ants have bones in Golarion, or do the bones just belong to the ants?" Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-02: Bones of Biting Ants, by Sean McGowan, takes place in the savannas of the Mwangi Expanse, where the PCs have been summoned to assist the lone survivor of a past Pathfinder expedition. Daring the many dangers of the sweltering savannas, the PCs must help Ulfen skald Stuinvolk Hundrakson reclaim not just the lost relics of his previous expedition, but also a piece of himself that never escaped the deaths of his allies. Bad memories and Mzali border-guards won't be the fearsome threats the party faces though, as this fearsome foe illustrated by Akim Kaliberda shows!

Michael: The final stop in my personal tour around Golarion takes us far away from warm coastal waters and sultry savannas, to a markedly different setting. Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-03: Death On The Ice, by Scott D. Young, sees Venture-Captain Bjersig Torrsen sending the PCs on a chilling trek north to the Crown of the World, where a Pathfinder expeditionhas uncovered more than they bargained for beneath the polar ice. The PCs won't be alone on their dangerous journey though, as the snowy owl Kuokei leads the party ever-northward towards his master, the ranger and archaeologist Svala Ice-Rider. Svala's Varki ancestry gave her the insight to begin unraveling an ancient riddle from the Pathfinder archives, but will the PCs find the last piece of the puzzle in time to rescue Svala from a frigid fate? I hope so, because if not, this might be the only time you get to see Svala's illustration from artist Benjamin Widdowson!

Join us next week for a look at our upcoming Pathfinder Society Playtest scenarios!

John Compton, Linda Zayas-Palmer, and Michael Sayre
The Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild team

Unseasonably Warm?

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

If you haven't heard the stereotypes, Seattle has a rather dreary reputation for being constantly cloudy, rainy, chilly, and damp. That's only about 80% true; our summers (starting a little before PaizoCon) are quite beautiful and warm. However, it's around late February that I'm rather desperate for the feel direct sunlight and warmth. Apparently this month's scenarios got the memo, and both involve a swelteringly welcome break from the northern hemisphere's winter.

In the first, author Nicholas Wasko takes us down to the rough-and-tumble port of Bloodcove, the heart of Aspis Consortium activity in the Mwangi Expanse. Pathfinder Society Scenario #9–15: The Bloodcove Blockade is a Tier 3–7 scenario that continues an ongoing storyline that began in Season 8. The Consortium's up to its usual tricks of exploiting the Mwangi Expanse's mineral and cultural resources, but lately the organization's taken an interest to a particular site in the Kaava Lands. The catch? Much like how tree roots anchor the soil, these ruins and the surrounding jungle have kept a powerful fiend locked away. As a result, the Society's trying to shut down the Consortium's imminent strip-mining scheme for more than just ecological conservation. That means sneaking into Bloodcove to sabotage the operation, and the Exchange faction's itching to leverage its economic muscles to blockade the port and strangle out the Consortium's dangerous plans. Naturally, Exchange faction PCs have a special opportunity here, courtesy of Guaril Karela.

Nicholas Wasko's done a nice job with this adventure, which involves lots of urban danger, a dash of intrigue, and a lot of dealing with fun NPCs. What I really appreciate here is his attention to detail in portraying Bloodcove, which straddles the silt-choked Vanji River and is built atop an extensive grove of mangrove trees. Not only does the mangroves' flavor play an important part in several encounters—such as with the illustrated Erwyn Harvacus, leader of a druid circle who keeps the ever-growing mangroves from swallowing the city—but it's also beautifully depicted in the scenario's custom map by Robert Lazzaretti.

Illustration by Maja Djeke

Of course, it's no surprise when traveling toward the equator leads to warmer weather. We're playing a fantasy RPG, aren't we? Where's the supernatural weather? Where's the ritual to inject the sweet relief of spring into winter's cold clutches? Look no further than Pathfinder Society Scenario #9–14: Down the Verdant Path, a Tier 1–5 scenario by Scott Sharplin. Ever since Pathfinder Society Scenario #6–15: The Overflow Archives, we've known that Scott has a special talent for telling stories with whimsical themes, and #9–14 is no exception. Down the Verdant Path takes the PCs to Andoran, where they must untangle the secrets behind a strange weather phenomenon: in the middle of winter, there's a verdant explosion of summer weather! The PCs' journey takes them into the depths of the Verduran Forest and beyond, introducing them to a host of "colorful" characters like the gnome Azure (pictured here).

What else is special about Down the Verdant Path? It's the first ever adventure to include a Concordance of Elements (i.e. "the Concordance") special faction opportunity! Back in December we announced the new Concordance faction, dedicated to maintaining the elemental balance of the cosmos, studying the multiverse's natural complexity, and calming areas of elemental instability. For the Concordance's debut, we wanted to reinforce that the faction's more than just a "nature faction" eager to hug pixies and high-five druids. No, this organization recognizes that even natural forces can grow wildly out of control and require intervention, and that's just what you get to do in this scenario. We're excited to see how the faction grows and what you think of it.

Illustration by Sebastian Rodriguez

Guide and Faction Journal Cards

An updated version of the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide is now available on the website. Not only has Linda Zayas-Palmer put in a lot of work updating several major sections (including the spell hierarchy for buying scrolls and the retraining class synergies), but there's also now a faction entry for the Concordance, complete with five new faction traits. We've also updated the Season 9 Faction Journal Cards with a Concordance card. Thanks, Linda!

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer