Leaders in Liberty 2

Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Back in July, the organized play team launched an exciting contest called Leaders in Liberty to name and detail a new character in Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild canon. We read the entries, narrowed it down to our top picks, and invited the community to vote on the best candidate. In mid October we had our winner, Karisa Starsight as presented by Sam Sampson!

When we first launched the contest, we were a little coy about exactly how this character might feature in the campaign. We were, after all, several weeks away from releasing Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-02: A Case of Missing Persons, which provides considerably more context. If you haven't played it yet, I both strongly encourage that you do so, and I will be providing only the slimmest spoilers (you can see more in the spoil-tagged section below). Namely, Major Colson Maldris is not currently available to provide the Liberty's Edge faction the necessary guidance and oversight. While this faction is likely one of the best equipped to operate without a leader, we want to bring in someone who can not only provide leadership in the difficult time, but also guide the faction's vision and steer its reforms in the wake of Maldris's rather spotty legacy.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-02 Spoiler:

Major Colson Maldris has gone missing, and it seems he's enlisted some very questionable allies. Without an appointed leader, the Liberty's Edge faction needs someone to keep the operation running smoothly and coordinate the hunt for Maldris.

That's right, we're asking you to help pick a faction leader.

We have two candidates, whose backstories I'll summarize below along with a snapshot of their strengths and style. The first is Leaders in Liberty contest winner Karisa Starsight, who you can read about in more detail in this September blog. The second is Tamrin Credence, a halfling smuggler and freelance freedom fighter. Let's meet them both.

Illustration by Tom Ventre

Karisa Starsight

The slaver Kolm Redarax found the infant Karisa aboard a derelict Bonuwat ship, and he was so taken by her unexplained presence and strikingly blue eyes that he adopted her as his daughter. She worked hard aboard that ship, tending to the slaves her adoptive father shuttled from port to port. Whereas he saw these souls as chattel, she quietly grew to respect and pity them. As she reached adulthood, Karisa struggled between her love and loyalty for her father and the plights of the people he bought and sold.

Several years ago, Andoren privateers known as the Gray Corsairs assaulted their ship, subduing the crew and freeing the slaves. When the Corsairs' captain was on the verge of slaying Redarax, Karisa intervened, swearing her own life, service, and freedom to Andoran in exchange for his life. Not want to condemn the young woman to anything resembling slavery, the captain provided a different offer: she could instead apprentice to an upstanding Eagle Knight, and Redarax would live out his sentence in an Andoren prison. Karisa eagerly accepted.

Her mentor was none other than Major Colson Maldris, and she has excelled as his aide. Over the past year, her duties have more resembled those of a steward, overseeing some of the Liberty's Edge faction's operations while Maldris traveled farther afield. Even so, there's a side of Maldris that she's only now uncovering as she tries to find his current whereabouts and holds together the initiatives he set in motion. All the while she wonders at the irony that no matter his morals, Karisa's father is in chains while she promotes liberty in the Inner Sea region and beyond.

Strengths: Karisa Starsight has a much more intimate familiarity with the faction's operations, which inclines her toward making changes and executing missions "within the system" while also watching for hypocrisies that undermine the faction's goals. She has solid connections within the Eagle Knights without being one herself. She's also the more self-reflective candidate, likely to examine the faction's moral pillars and assess how the faction could do better. Even so, her childhood on the seas leaves her ready to tackle threats head-on when needed.

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Illustration by Kenneth Camaro

Tamrin Credence

Trained as a sommelier, butler, and shopping assistant, the halfling now known as Tamrin Credence spent his first 26 years as a Chelish slave, albeit a well-treated one. When a tiller (a member of the halfling liberation group called the Bellflower Network) infiltrated the estate and laid plans to lead a few halfling slaves to freedom, Tamrin made a counter-offer: he would create a distraction so the tiller could escape with twice as many souls. The plan worked, albeit at a cost. By the time the tiller returned to lead him out of Cheliax, the halfling butler had received many scars for his deception.

Tamrin Credence is a self-styled name that the halfling adopted in the decade since, both to distance him emotionally from his subjugated past and to create a new identity that wouldn't lead to his recapture. He's continued to assist the Bellflower Network as a spy and supplier, often leading him into dangerous territory or treacherous relationships. Although he's infiltrated and worked with the Aspis Consortium and Cheliax's port authorities to this end, his most infamous rivalry is that with Zarta Dralneen, whom he regularly undermined while she served Cheliax as that nation's liaison to the Pathfinder Society. Only once she fell from Cheliax's good graces, suffered unforgiveable offenses by her former allies, and sought refuge with the Society did the two agents begin finding common ground. They've now worked together on coordinating several missions, though years of thwarting each other's ambitions leave them prone to verbally sniping at each other over unresolved gripes they're yet to bury.

Tamrin's experience with the Liberty's Edge faction is modest, having only worked with Major Colson Maldris a few times before the former began more concerted collaboration in the past 18 months. Even so, he's a proud "liberator of humanoid assets" with criminal and business contacts in dozens of cities. What he lacks in faction experience, he makes up for in gutsiness, survivability, cunning, and a willingness to lead from the front as needed.

Strengths: Tamrin Credence is a pragmatic individual who doesn't mind breaking a few unreasonable rules if he can mitigate the harm to innocent bystanders and maximize the benefit for oppressed people. He's witnessed the dark underbelly of several infamous operations firsthand, and he knows that no matter how seductive those groups might seem at times, they're ultimately immoral. These experiences have left him hardened against corruption, and he takes a more decisive stance on correcting the faction's embarrassing past misdeeds. He has strong Bellflower Network connections, though he would broaden his agenda considerably if made the leader of Liberty's Edge.

Voting

Voting begins now! Let us know which of these two candidates should step up to lead the Liberty's Edge faction in Major Colson Maldris's absence. You'll have three weeks to pick your favorite candidate, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, December 13. Our plan is to feature both of these characters at least once, so even the candidate that doesn't receive the most votes will still play a role in a future scenario. We're also looking forward to pursuing more of the Liberty's Edge storyline later in Season 9, discovering just what Maldris has set in motion!

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer