RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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This means you no longer have to worry about being left in a sealed tomb or abandoned on another plane of existence. As long as your body still exists (meaning no disintegration), you can get out!
Boba Fett, enemy of the Pathfinder society, or hired by the Decemvirate to eliminate pesky Shadow Lodge members?
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Boba Fett, enemy of the Pathfinder society, or hired by the Decemvirate to eliminate pesky Shadow Lodge members?This means you no longer have to worry about being left in a sealed tomb or abandoned on another plane of existence. As long as your body still exists (meaning no disintegration), you can get out!
The latter. Boba Fett will work for anyone for the right price.
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When I first read this I fell in love with the Shadow Lodge. I personally feel the explanation makes perfect sense. Not only does the Decemverite quell the uprising, but they gain a group of deniable assets willing to work outside the Pathfinder Society to help out the members. If the Pathfinder Society can't send in agents to location X to rescue person Y due to politics (whether The Society is not allowed in the location at all, or if there would be ramifications to somebody knowing The Pathfinder Society was at the root of it all), they now have a group who can help out.
The Decemverite has bigger fish to fry and larger concerns than individual members; now those individual members have a voice. Personally I think it's an awesome compromise.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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I like a lot of the new factions, and how they fit into the PFS campaign. But color me muted on the Shadow Lodge.
I don't think they were ever moustache-twirling villains. From the very first introduction, with the assault on the Grand Lodge, the authors took pains to make sure that we understood the Shadow Lodge was not the evil side of the Pathfinder Society, but rather the activist side. We've spent centuries not just researching and exploring, but also collecting and storing priceless, powerful weapons in our vaults.
It is not a matter of good and evil. It is rather a question of methods and goals, limits and horizons.
What agent of Andoran hasn't thought wistfully when we hand over our +2 devil-bane silver bastard sword to the venture-captain once we return home, only to see it packed away, never to be used? Contrariwise, after uncovering ancient Azlanti weapons in the oppressive heat of Mwangi jungles, could there be an agent loyal to House Thrune who wouldn't want to take them out for a spin around Galt? And wouldn't we all rest a little easier if we just took out a few toys from our vaults and blew the Aspis Consortium into fragments?
That's the Shadow Lodge, as I've understood it: Pathfinders who grew impatient with what they saw as the Decembrivate's reluctance to use the immense power at the Society's disposal. As it so happened, we kept running into evil-alligned members of the Shadow Lodge, but there were probably rangers and clerics looking to turn the Society against the Worldwound, sages and oracles wanting to use the Society's resources to uncover the secrets of Aroden's silence, too.
As a "Shadow Lodge", the alliance would never last; it would be doomed by too many heartfelt, competing agendas. If the Decembrivate ever fell, the various Shadow members would turn on each other before they drew another breath. (We saw this in the first adventure, where Shadow Lodge members let Charivon loose against the Grand Lodge, knowing he was on a fool's errand.)
The Shadow Lodge have been men and women of hubris, willing to take on great deeds, of weal or of woe, and willing to turn on their mysterious overlords if that's what the situation required. No longer content to chronicle history, they were going to grasp it and mold it as they saw fit.
And that's the faction which has been turned into a labor union for Pathfinders. Which is a nice thing, but it's not the same.
I am really digging all of the pfs evolutions I am seeing.
"So there you have it: the 10 factions available for play in Season 3 of Pathfinder Society Organized Play! Next week, we'll take a look at the revised Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play and go over a few of the more notable rules changes or clarifications you can expect to find within. See ya next Monday!"
Ah man that is a real shame since SDCC is THIS weekend.
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I am actually even more excited for my Cleric of Urgathoa to join the Shadow Lodge, especially after reading this and playing through the Eyes of the Ten series with another character. The higher ups of the Pathfinder Society are sketchy. Out of character, I would rather trust a figure like GMT than a member of the Decemvirate. At least I know what I'm getting with an alliance with GMT.
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I have to say, I’m warming to this twist in how the Shadow Lodge is being portrayed. Seems like a good way to make them a faction in my opinion, and gives them a bit more depth. I was initially reluctant about them becoming a faction after I had spent My Entire Career in PFS killing or GMing over the slaying of these guys. But after playing through Mantis Prey and Eyes of Ten, I’m beginning to question the Decemvirate’s increasingly sketchy ways, aloofness, and gross incompetence at times.
I’m actually starting to consider making a character in the Shadow Lodge.
With the inclusion of the five new factions, it seems we have a ton more diversity in factions to choose from, and a greater variety in goals now. Something I definitely like. Now in addition to national interests with Andoran, Cheliax, Taldor, Osirion, and Qadira, I now have the option to work directly with the Grand Lodge if I just want to act like a Pathfinder and just that. Or show my frustrations with the Decemvirate with the Shadow Lodge. Have a new option to act good with the Silver Crusade. Work with some mafia dons for more criminally inclined criminals. Still not sure what to make of the Lantern Lodge though.
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I don't know. For an information broker, I've found him to be downright honest. I might have missed something though.
It was obvious set up of
When he very obviously killed the person who is to be you source and then try to sell back the information to you, you are my enemy. I will not pay you for that kind of thing and I will not aid you in any way. You are a liability to the Pathfinders.
His death only serves to help us all.
Yeah I know its a harsh position, but he /really/ ticked my entire group off with that. So much so that The Mantis' Prey is looked forward to just so we can hear the mission and tell them NO, we will not help this man.
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I don't know. For an information broker, I've found him to be downright honest. I might have missed something though.It was obvious set up of
** spoiler omitted **
Yeah I know its a harsh position, but he /really/ ticked my entire group off with that. So much so that The Mantis' Prey is looked forward to just so we can hear the mission and tell them NO, we will not help this man.
...whereas my PCs just love dropping gold on information from the man, which I provide them via Golarion lore or just general knowledge of the PFS faction struggle (who the other factions' heads are, which Pathfinders work for which faction, etc). I think Grandmaster Torch has made nearly 2,000 gold from them all told on non-mission related information sales, and I've actually only run Silent Tide and Delirium's Tangle with him in it (they sometimes go to him after other missions to spend money on info).
Director of Brand Strategy
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...whereas my PCs just love dropping gold on information from the man, which I provide them via Golarion lore or just general knowledge of the PFS faction struggle (who the other factions' heads are, which Pathfinders work for which faction, etc). I think Grandmaster Torch has made nearly 2,000 gold from them all told on non-mission related information sales, and I've actually only run Silent Tide and Delirium's Tangle with him in it (they sometimes go to him after other missions to spend money on info).
As the official wrangler of Grandmaster Torch since taking over development of the campaign, I expect a 20% cut from all his earnings spreading such information. As long as that's factored into how much he's made, continue this! I like it!
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...whereas my PCs just love dropping gold on information from the man, which I provide them via Golarion lore or just general knowledge of the PFS faction struggle (who the other factions' heads are, which Pathfinders work for which faction, etc). I think Grandmaster Torch has made nearly 2,000 gold from them all told on non-mission related information sales, and I've actually only run Silent Tide and Delirium's Tangle with him in it (they sometimes go to him after other missions to spend money on info).I don't know. For an information broker, I've found him to be downright honest. I might have missed something though.It was obvious set up of
** spoiler omitted **
Yeah I know its a harsh position, but he /really/ ticked my entire group off with that. So much so that The Mantis' Prey is looked forward to just so we can hear the mission and tell them NO, we will not help this man.
As a judge, he's a great NPC. As a player, he can take a flying leap :P. I don't know what his alignment is, but it isnt good and if its neutral its on the darker side of neutral YMMV. In any case, I don't see him as an altruistic character who just wanted the Decemvirate to care about their lost sheep.
The character who has actually run into him will never trust him or the Shadow Lodge by extension. As a judge, I still feel that there is a darker side to the Shadow Lodge than they are showing. After all, they're closer to the Decemvirate now than ever... ;)
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...whereas my PCs just love dropping gold on information from the man, which I provide them via Golarion lore or just general knowledge of the PFS faction struggle (who the other factions' heads are, which Pathfinders work for which faction, etc). I think Grandmaster Torch has made nearly 2,000 gold from them all told on non-mission related information sales, and I've actually only run Silent Tide and Delirium's Tangle with him in it (they sometimes go to him after other missions to spend money on info).As the official wrangler of Grandmaster Torch since taking over development of the campaign, I expect a 20% cut from all his earnings spreading such information. As long as that's factored into how much he's made, continue this! I like it!
Then you'll particularly enjoy the 20% cut you are receiving from the coffers of one Avir Silvertongue, Chelaxian expatriate and Andoran operative who staged his own death in Westcrown and is operating under an assumed identity. When GMT made a subtle hint that he knew all this, Avir decided to pay GMT not to tell anyone. True to form, GMT said that all information had its price--while he couldn't promise never to tell anyone, he could charge any amount of Avir's choice to make the cost of the information 10x as high as Avir paid. I think Avir paid 500 gold to make the cost of the information 5000, then when he saw how suspicious his fellow PCs were, he paid another 500 to take it up to 10,000!
The stuff I'm finding out only ten years later, following information breadcrumbs from Belimarius in "Lost Omens:Legends" via the Ulisses Glossary to the PF Wiki, from there to Kaer Maga and then to the Shadow Lodge and suddenly a newish character roams my theatre of mind. I like it. :-)
