 
Sign in to create or edit a product review. Enough said really. Cool space walrus lore reveals, cool adventuring, boss fight is super hard though especially for party where nobody has right equipment for it(one character did have the fusion, but not on underwater weapon) and we failed to pick up hints that the one weapon in room would have been really useful in chaos of it. I do think its okay to have more difficult encounters like this occasionally, but I do feel like I have to take one star away (I think this is 4 star otherwise) because the encounter is super brutal and I don't think you are really able to prepare for it because let's say you get the hint about hauntings with dc 25 knowledge check or have seen the cover? Well you still need to invest money on fusion AND underwater weapon and not everyone has lot of money left for that purpose. Encounter itself is in such small room that boss' certain ability always triggers and it has so high damage potential that level 5-6 characters are really squirming.(not to mention boss having high dcs and multiple aoe options to disable characters) We did almost win it even with us almost having tpk though, but we were forced to retreat since everyone was almost dead and almost out of stamina and even then that good situation was because gm allowed us to retreat once to take 10 minute rest before coming back. Still though while its bummer to fail, it is nice to have difficult fights in SFS as well, though I have feedback on encounter too. I do think difficulty itself is okay, but scenario should have telegraphed ways you could deal with it better:
Like we helped our morlamaw friend to fight off possession super fast, but we didn't realize how useful her weapon would have been against the ghost boss. That's one thing that would have helped us a bit since we did happen to have one character that could have used it. I wasn't expecting to get answers to big lore questions like couple names of gods Rovagug ate, why Eye of Abendego exists and why Ghol-Gan fell to ruin, but that was neat xD But yeah, it is fun adventure to read I like, my only nitpicks is that I feel like resolution to villains feels about as fast as 1e boss fight combats(and one of them was pretty on the nose about his true identity xD) and that I feel like we didn't really get chance to see Merisiel's "normal" perspective since for most of adventure we are dealing with her insecurities regarding old Calistrian way of life and her having changed and learned to trust her friends, so while we get to see Merisiel's cocky side occasionally from outside perspective, her own point of view is for most part rather anxious. Liminal space take on Ghost Levels is good and fascinating, but it does lead to combat encounters feeling like grab bag of random elements to test out variety of stuff. It does fit liminal space idea, but it definitely feels play test-y Anyway, my party had mostly absurd amount of luck (lot of 6 hp enemy fights resulted in things like "soldier attacks with area weapon, rolls 8 on damage dice, every enemy fails reflex save) so they managed to avoid lot of hard parts in this adventure (like they critted animated statue on first attack), but there are definitely lot of tough fights mixed in and some encounters could be really grueling with wrong skills in party like one of final hazards in adventure, considering that it has hardness 12 if party wanted to break it without skills. Biggest problem with adventure is editing really, it was unclear in adventure itself whether Newborn had born yet (Midwives shouldn't exist if it hadn't hatched, but certain characters speak about newborn as if its birth was imminent) and nothing in adventure itself clarified its basically meant to be in the "egg has hatched, but its still stuck in placenta" stage. Chapter 2 was also confusing to read since it was mixing of "roleplay with quest giver, quest they give" moments where it went back and forth rather than either listing all locations and then all quests or location followed by quest given. Part 2 even with all editing problems IS the most fun part of adventure though, there are lot of memorable moments and npcs are given enough depth that it is easy to run them and thus they are easier to actually be endearing and I appreciate extra information given on them as well which isn't necessary for running adventure, but gives them extra depth. (also the heist mission was weird to run for party without any of assumed skills and I soon figured out it does miss lot of information that would be helpful for pcs to plan the heist x'D Also I think as written it says "turning off generator gives alarm, also if turn off generator and improperly disable remote ability to turn it on causing it to explode, that pings alarm" is either editing error or redundancy if it really is meant that its impossible to disable generator without alarm ping) I just had to include that funny text editor shenanigan in the title, I kinda hope it was on purpose and not just text editing putting spaces between letters in that word particularly x'D Anyway, Run at low tier for four characters in three hours Combat encounters are relatively easy: and skill challenges aren't that bad either. Its otherwise fairly basic one that gives some minor hints to on going intrigue of metaplot this year, but doesn't explain anything to gm either so I'm not sure if hints were too cryptic or too obvious since I don't know the answer yet. Overall I do think this one is very much your mileage may vary scenario, either you find carnival stuff fun and the relatively easy combat enjoyable or maybe you enjoy the cryptic hints in the scenario. For me though, the hints did provoke "well yes that IS weird" reaction but not really interest in figuring it out. I do like though that this is scenario affected by Gorum's death without being godrain scenario. Again really loving how this event hangs as shadow over unrelated events.
hardest one is the final one with hazards that deal aoe damage and debuffs in absurdly large area and force players to advance slowly, but unless party is precision damage focused(had swashbuckler and rogue), lacks right skills or gm does silly things and ignores placement guides to place them 30 feet apart from each other instead placing them in clump where they all activate at once, its not that bad really. My biggest nitpicks personally are mostly some of the art. Its good looking art, but it feels off from the design point. Like I haven't seen ghouls having their iconic pathfinder super long tongue post monster core much, but these ones look outright cute more like dhamphirs than undead flesh hungering emaciated creatures, they seem to be done by same artist as one other new npc but art for them looks like vampiric version of other npc. Gezlek is supposed to be goblin, but they have very human or halfling head, face and torso proportions making them look more like dromaar halfling at best. Vim has both lips and human like teeth, I kinda think goblin art is at best when it still retains paizo goblin iconic features like needle teeth and the lipless grimace, let the goblin child have the gremlin design qualities! ...Yeah its continuing cool mystery build up with alarm bells ringing as more and more imply that previous information is in fact accurate with still some error margin :D:
Its also curious to see that Planashar Dominion claim of being related to First Ones/created by them might not be inaccurate since seems like they did do dimensional research into alternate realities, perhaps for resource extraction or just for research. Also love seeing introduction of new mysteries while also giving hints to purposes of several First One cities while leaving other ones still mystery for future. Also I love seeing faction leaders do stuff besides just giving quests so that's nice bonus:
lovely to see Sarmak still hold up in close quarters.) So yeah loved portrayal of Sarmak here. I do in general love that:
twist of players completing primary and secondary success conditions BEFORE those who call attack. That was funny thing to tell to players in middle of scenario. Overall really loving the megastructure and precursor exploration and with upcoming info on Riven Shroud in cosmic birthday's setting update info, I really have hopes of more of similar stuff in sf2e as well x3 Yay great times. Scenarios/metaplots like this give me more passion to work on my portfolio But yeah my love of First One mystery lore exploration and megastructure metaplots aside, run this for 4 level 2 characters and took about 3 hours. There was nice amount of time for exploration and combats didn't drag, so I feel it was a good experience mechanics wise as well. This scenario was thought provoking, feels weird it is repeatable considering how most of them feel kind of "mundane" in terms of importance :O But yeah, some of DCs seem high enough they could be mistake, but it seems like the more intended design is that players will fail at least some of the checks since the checks don't seem to have as big consequence in that segment as you would think. And influence scene was handled well, I got scared when six npcs were introduced, but the amount of rounds was short and they didn't have that high thresholds. (This review is being influenced by really good run of the scenario so thanks to the gm xD But yeah, whole premise of scenario is good for philosophical debates, I have sidenote though: I'm liking so far how Godsrain feels like major presence behind multiple scenarios this year unlike Drift Crisis which wasn't important to most of non drift crisis scenarios, but was occasionally brought up in the manner of "if you run this during drift crisis, mention this".) So hmm. Mechanically scenario is fine, besides having a simple hazard capable of massive damage death in both tiers in the season intro scenario feels pretty harsh. Replayable parts is nice, the combats are fairly easy but right fit for intro scenario and there isn't mechanical segment that stays around too long. The main thing that feels off is plot details. Like, Peacebuilders Alliance is a new thing, right? But it feels like something I've seen either in 1e or Starfinder that I can't put my finger on... At the very least it feels like Society is starting to rely a bit too much on the "someone complains about society's mistakes" and this reiteration of it is starting to feel like "I want to speak to your manager" level which might be intended? Either way, it feels absurd to have the character in this scenario as if Knights of Lastwall were never a target of attacks by undead and other monsters. Or if Absalom hadn't had multiple adventure paths set there in the past five years. Encounters happen outside of society as well, this is that kind of a world. Sidenote: that it felt like there could be an improvement in the pipeline of how many npcs to introduce at once, since only a few of them will be relevant in a given playthrough, so introducing them all at once is kinda tough for gm even if you want to roleplay them for funsies. But yeah back to main point: I don't really get full connection of how demon ritual connects to Whispering Tyrant fans, but that's probably be explored later in metaplotline. But I do kinda feel like the scenario misunderstands other characters? Like Nuar Spiritskin felt off character in the scenario. It's hard to believe level 9 oracle running scared off this scenario. Then there are minor details like "Lamashtu" being considered notable deity in Worldwound in the trivia quiz event, which is technically correct, but worldwound book and ap was all about Deskari and Baphomet and other demon lords with very little notable influence to her particular. Like Iomedae felt more notable than she did. Basically start of the metaplot feels like its retreading bits you see in other scenarios and for lore hounds it feels bit off or like characters are acting differently than they should be. (I'm still surprised Csilla is just staying around as leader, but I guess that's just the overall metaplot direction now). If you are new player, you'll have enjoyable scenario, but more in know you are more things just feel weirdly off. So I'm in general invested to see where paizo version of Sarmak goes and themes of precursors and mega structures, but I've yesterday played scenario and today run it. My run went under four hours with four players (two level 2s and two level 3 playing higher tier) so while there is lot of material in scenario, its surprisingly speedy one and there are nice amount of alternate options for non engineering/computer party (though this is scenario where you want those, but its good to provide backup options) I also like how scenario has multiple points where it muddled the occam's razor conclusions pcs could come to by reminding them its too early to make final conclusions. Like, one of locations is obviously munitions factory for massive robots capable of city wide destruction, but mechs exist in setting, and whether the lexicon's foreboding words refer to the robot schematics or to something else or is even inaccurate translation is muddled enough that you can interpret it multiple different ways. And the final reveal is mind boggling since it can be interpreted in so many different ways. I kinda hope it isn't the obvious conclusion most people probably come if they don't read text carefully. I do feel like there is stuff you can trim from scenario(my biggest nitpick is that final encounter honestly feels like filler, like the climax encounter was before it, but scenario wasn't confident on ending scenario on rather haunting exploration segment so had one more combat in case that falls flat. Or maybe if there were four scenarios in metaplot, this would have been split into two scenarios? Not sure, but yeah, final encounter was fine but unneeded, it would have been fun to end just on the exploration segment), but I feel its very plausible to run in four hours even with how much it has and its exciting start for the metaplot. Scenario I guess scenario does have bit of frontloaded roleplaying segment with two npcs after intro speech, but its rather quick segment. I also love first meeting with Those Who Call member because there is plenty of fun foreshadowing and roleplaying in that and it ends on haunting note. Also noticed that three of four combats had all hazard mechanic to them and this time hazards were all simple to run, so they didn't cause me to forget them or slow down combat. So that was fun and creative. But admittedly the random roll based one might make combat really chaotic depending on results and I'm still not sure where to find dc for escaping a grapple from one of effects here. What else. Well there was short trap segment that is rather easy to solve with just some thinking if rolls don't work out. The skill challenge segment was also rather simple and quick implementation of concept, though I think if character doesn't have acrobatics or athletics, its also confusing how character would escape the grapple that can happen as result of failure since I don't know how party members would have time to help in the scene. Oh right one more thing: I love that conversation with specific character avoids Q&A format and instead uses "this is what npc talks about and thus what pcs will learn over course of conversation and this is what they only mention if pressed upon) format, its much more easier to have natural conversation AND know what information is considered "plot important" and what is considered "only told if pcs bring conversation to that direction". Q&A format often includes delicious tidbits of information that players never stumble upon because players often don't think of the really specific thing to ask, but this scenario uses format correctly for chit chatting and small talk while having dramatic plot important conversation follow more natural format. While reviewing entire season, I noticed there has been going round subsystem burnout with players. I guess it makes sense since ratio of subsystems in this season is higher than in a single adventure path, but I do feel like people make bigger number of them due to fatigue and due to scenarios recently being on longer side in general. In this case, I think case to determine difficulty of hazard in next encounter is good idea, but I do think chase could be shorter by few obstacles since five obstacles with target of under 7 rounds for easiest reward is still lot of rolling even if they roll perfectly and make past it in five rounds. Like maybe target number could be 5 rounds for best situation and three obstacles? Either way, its fun sequel to the previous one and I'm shocked by end reveal, in good way, though if it happens for third time then the super rare event starts becoming too common plot point. Funnily enough while I can see why people have had conversation about fans joining the honor duel, I have my different thoughts on that encounter: I kinda feel like that while the encounter's consequences are primarily reporting conditions and secondary success, its nature as kinda plot based almost optional encounter kinda make me wish it didn't have any scaling at all and would just be "extreme solo for four characters of lower level of tier, severe solo for four characters of higher level of tier" type of thing. Like with that setup you could still have fans or paladin mook join in for parties of 5-6 players, but honestly i think it would be okay to have fight being on little bit easier side for 5-6 characters rather since I think fight is more about emotion and story than gameplay balance and solo character likely would still have chance to show off their badassery in their final fight. Either way, it is fun that paizo chose to introduce new shakeups to orc pantheon and lore through scenarios since they could have just easily been one of new tidbits learned in upcoming books :O Four encounters, one infiltration and one influence scene. Considering that one 5 round skill challenge can easily take hour depending on party and roleplaying, that really makes this one of scenarios that is really hard to run in 4-6 hours without speedrunning things. That said though, there is lot of delicious plot and stuff happening in this one. Like, in PFS context scenario doesn't fit, but I think content is fun enough that I think you could run this outside of PFS as well and not be disappointed. Still in PFS its likely to be harsh since having two major skill challenges just increases chances that someone in party has no right skills and is kinda sitting around feeling like load for the part. This one has three combat encounters, skill challenge, on top of at least five smaller roleplaying or skill encounters. There is basically too much content for 4-6 hour scenario to run in reasonable amount of time. As elemental romp it could be fun if split into multiple sessions, but that would mean running it outside of pfs rules. I can see players being really angry at duo over the mess though, which seems like intended outcome tbh. Though its honestly too presumptuous to assume players are automatically like "yeah, screw the rich" because scenario doesn't really convince you that the target really deserved it either, so lot of people would likely side with the law. The past five scenarios not being as silly on tone does help tone wise though this year is still frontloaded on that front. Either way, this scenario is mostly okay, but I feel like compared to previous repeatable scenario in the year, there really isn't much of replayability. Like yeah there is different flavors and combat encounters, but not really different roleplaying scenarios, like the two out of six elemental characters who can appear are practically interchangeable regarding scene they appear in. Basically I just don't really see much of motivation to rerun or replay this one. Like "wait, how did that person become Waterfall and when?" Either way yeah, I do like the scenario a lot and it was fun to play and has good roleplaying moments, but admitedly I do feel like its bit of Numeria adventure (starfinder flip mats do contribute to this) since the facility feels like horror laboratory you see in scifi movies set in 1940s, but unlike in ruins of azlant where you run into azlanti ruin that has energy of magical megacorporation complete with completely white sterile rooms and magical announcer voice talking for the corporation, it feels like scenario doesn't really acknowledge how much of the focus on electromagnetism, metal doors working on electricity and clinical surgery tables should feel out of place. Like maybe with rise of inventors and stasian coils and exploration of numeria it could be more normal for pathfinders nowadays, but I do kinda feel like I'd wish scenario more explicitly talked about the eerie disconnect that comes if folks from renaissance showed up in 1940s, that was fun part of numeria adventures in 1e. Still, tone of scenario is great and horrifying, and scenario does well with handling subject matter of dark crimes performed in the facility. (that said, the haunt definitely almost caused tpk, but I don't think it being bit too deadly takes away from scenario) Edit:
It didn't hit me at time, but I realized wait the ending reveal raises lot of questions like "so wait, they never did anything?" when it turned out decemvirate was infiltrated by non pathfinders and "anyone who gets the mask can pretend/become decemvirate" and they promised to fix that. And some of Aram Zey's friends' reaction to Waterfall's identity feels really off. I think problem with bigger metaplot isn't really fault of scenario, but I do feel like ending character roster reaction had some ones that felt so off character I had to edit score a bit even if rest of scenario is great. I feel like there was some kind of last straw for lot of people here in review section were they are being unfair on scenario because they have had bad experiences with influence scenarios? Like, there are issues here don't get me wrong, but it is fun scenario so harshness really isn't warranted. Like, there are couple things here that I find problem with influence scenario handling: too many npcs can be hard for gm to roleplay, especially when scene goes long and you don't want 4-6 hour session stretch over the limit, in normal campaign you could easily split this into two sessions. Some players obsessed with success can also miss that you often just need to fully influence two of them rather than all of them, but in general I think influence scenario might work better with 3 targets maybe? Either way I remember influence scene as player feeling okay for most part even with one character who didn't have any of the right skills in the party. I think my main issue story wise is more of that influence scene is basically really long red herring mechanically. Like, at end of scenario, we didn't feel like we accomplished our goal of identifying rakshasa or finding any information out of them, but it didn't matter because scenario essentially turns to insurance scam(to not spoil what actually happens, I put it this way) halfway through and pathfinder resolve that situation unrelated to rakshasa thing at all. And considering vast majority of scenario is about the influence part which is really important only for the faction mission... Yeah I feel like the influence scene should have been shorter or maybe everyone's treshold should have been 3 instead of 6. It kinda just feels like the scene while fun to roleplay was waste of time scenario's focus wise because it didn't really contribute to the actual plot of scenario. Or at least that's the impression I came away as player and reading it for behind the scenes information didn't really make it feel like gm run it wrong. Like I get the goal here, its to foreshadow the rakshasa for later scenario for dramatic reveal while raksahsa is toying with pcs (and then unrelated event happens while rakshasa is snickering at chaos in secret), but it feels like heroes don't really succeed at doing anything for their actual goal even if they do something heroicly unrelated to that. Its rather short scenario with fun bits, chase is great scene but information for it was easy to miss since its two pages earlier on sidebar, my biggest nitpick is "since when [spoiler] work like xenomorphs from later movies and base their form on the host? I mean its cool art, but I'm pretty sure they just spawn as bipedal tentacle quadruped thing and not in other forms, or are buso somehow special?" and scenario doesn't really explain "why" they exist, just says it can happen rarely (which is good enough excuse yeah I might use as gm as well, but is pretty handwavey), so it strikes to me as one of those non canon one off things. Zombie art in general is fun here. Repeatable should have variants that differ for replays and I think this year both systems had repeatable that aren't just slightly different combat encounters but ones that feel interestingly different. I also like thematic irony with this one being "Well, starfinders lied(by absence of sharing information) for the greater good, so should you choose to do same this time as well or convince newcomer to be honest?" :D Its great direction to take newest yesteryear scenario The variety of different feeling events this scenario can have is what you would really hope for repeatable, and its really handled well in this case. Disclaimer: Continuing my reviews of season even if I haven't run or played scenario yet, so I focus less on mechanical stuff unless there is something obvious to comment on without needing to experience it in practice. Thing I like about scenario is that even with things like the corrupt official dinner could be funny due to how sleazy the official is, but scene isn't written with especially comedic tone. Sewer race also could be run as slapstick, but its written in neutral or serious tone without tongue in cheek. Basically scenario doesn't use kobolds for comedy. Even the goblin tribe that shows up is just a goblin tribe looking for opportunity to get back at their enemies rather than being used for levity. The kobolds have valid concern and political tensions going on and it would be bad tone wise if scenario wasn't taking them seriously when their problem is essentially at its core a view that pathfinders don't really take them seriously as equals and see their relationship more give than take with all talented kobolds leaving to be pathfinders. The kobold art does feel inconsistent though since they basically go through three different designs, I'm also bit confused that all Sewer Dragons seem to be blue now since I thought they didn't have specific scale color as tribe. Still its nice to have art for Yiddlepode too now. Forgot to review this earlier but while I don't remember my thoughts exactly anymore, months later I feel like this one was five star one and thats with finale encounter almost being tpk to the party. Its really tense scenario and handles the dark subject well. I was planning to rate this back in march when I run the scenario, but kinda forgot huh. Either way lot of year 6 Order Founder scenarios have really hard combat in scenarios that tend to easily run long time either due to amount of combat or roleplaying stuff. This one has one: which is both fun explosive challenge, but legitimately kinda hard to respond to lot of parties :'D Thus its kinda hard to consider how that translates to score since it can be legit like "our party had no chance" and "wow, they played dirty, I love that!". I just like that all founder fights I've run have been difficult tactical challenges in different ways.
"automatic surprise round and enemies have aoes" I do remember this one having some kinda open questions like "wait, why are they doing this like this in character" but none of them bothered my immersion and I liked the latest version of ethical dilemma here even if I think paizo had already chosen which one they want to go with for rest of year at least. Either way, its kinda hard to rate scenario months later, but I decided on score based on how positive I feel afterwards. Its probably not most objective score, but I think I was informative enough here on what stuck out to my memory months later at least. Its cool time shenanigans the scenario (I dunno how time mechanics actually work in either pathfinder or starfinder to say whether it breaks anything, but if it does, I assume it does because Project Dawn somehow) with couple supervillain type challenging encounters (that scale well for four player for change) and its really cool finale that doesn't stretch its welcome by having every single encounter being tanky as possible. So yeah, its very cool one. My only negatives are nitpicks (like that I do appreciate opportunities for roleplaying, but it is hard to make most use out of them in high level scenarios with more than 2 encounters without stretching over four hour session especially if you wanted to get most out of eight characters and also do super villain monologues during combat) Agaisnt the Aeon Throne basically did same concept better because this one is restricted by Starfinder Society parties not being guaranteed to have any disguise or shapeshifting or even deception abilities. Like it feels bit stretch that after warning about how serious the mission is, all party full of pact worlds species(or vesk) would need to visit ASE Homeworld is "correct licenses". Basically, this spy mission feels too easy, even the "authorities take 20 minutes to arrive to middle class neighborhood" feels bit like "well that makes azlanti sound incompetent and not that big of threat". Final boss is difficult but fun though, at least for 4 player parties. SFS format also prevents exploration of fascist imperialist azlanti supremacist state outside of vague "non azlanti seem resigned, bitter and depressed" statements since it would be weird to roleplay azlanti discriminating party members in convention games. It also has mechanically some weird bits like how none of skill challenges scale if there are only 4 players available. Scenario doesn't stop there, but it makes secondary success much much harder for 4 player parties which aren't unlikely at these levels. So this book is another weird one. Because its a fairly brilliant planar shenanigans adventure with cool super old-school lore callbacks, held back by it being the final book of Edgewatch. Like I did kinda expect there to be at least one encounter with chaotic outsiders in law enforcement campaign, but as the book says the complete switch to outsider-based adventures and recommendation to give pcs a chance to retrain their entire characters is a bit of a red flag. Overall it kinda ends up giving me the feeling that AP outline provided to writers was kinda vague? Hard to tell since this ap didn't have a clear campaign outline in book 1, I kinda assume those are essentially fleshed out outline of what was given to writers after they were finished :'D Finished AP does make sure that there is at least one foreshadowing of something in previous books, but a lot of things here still come out of nowhere in how sudden they are. But... Yeah, there is only one more thing I can say pre-spoiler tags: Ultimately final villain of AP is essentially a political one, in the AP that skips all scenes dealing with politics to focus on action. As a result, it comes across as "main bad guy pulled political victory, off-screen, somehow" since they have made only one cameo in ap as written so far, and political shenanigans on the background are never shown in this ap, so we don't know how they managed to make meteoritic raise from obscurity to top of city besides "blackmail and genius maneuvering". With previous book's big bad essentially being the AP's actual main big bad, it kinda ends up looking like you could easily end ap on book 5 and wrap up Gray Queen with "and she got arrested since you had derailed her plans and evidence Rumormonger had"*. Heck, the adventure itself feels like it would be more fitting for level 15 adventure, most of the enemies are powered-up versions of lower-level outsiders(likely because there weren't many bestiary options for writers at the time) and ultimately adventure is kinda low stakes even with big bad's divine spark. Like the forum suggestions on how to change the final book are really good at upping the stakes, with this one not having a "what happens if pcs fail" paragraph it kinda ends up feeling like "Well Absalom is already a corrupt city, so at worst there is now mad evil leader for while." Basically stakes aren't as legendary as adventure should have for level. *honestly the original plan with Infector does kinda make it confusing how exactly Gray Queen managed to still do her part of the plan without Infector's part. Sure players won't know what the original plan was, but to GM it makes it seem like Infector's part was completely unnecessary since apparently it didn't take much of extra effort to pull off, somehow. Enough of that, to the plot analysis:
So starting from chapter 1 is why I believe there were communication issues about the outline for the entire ap: after the humble city architect's dark horse victory for acting emergency Primarch spot over the actual Primarch candidates from Absalom book, the first thing she does is order immediate execution of everyone related to Twilight Four, this being meant as way to ensure all Twilight Four members are dead to raise as daemons(book 2 assuming they steal Skinner's body seems bit odd in retrospect). Main problem: if I understood the Twilight Four's pact right(and I might not), all of the surviving members should be empowered the moment the final offering is done, so basically all of them should now be godlings with themed powers for their gods's aspect(well more on that later). And even if that wasn't the case, at which time Rumormonger had time to be jailed since this immediately happened after pcs had captured Rumormonger? So after this is the chaotic non-sequitor chapter with graveraker. Graveraker had really weird journey huh, it disappeared in chapter 1 to be only used for plot to frame Wynsal, book 5 is only one that explains what it actually is and now its being taken on postal destruction ride. I do like the theme of chapter 1 being "chaotic proteans be chaotic and randomly interrupting plot", but due to overall problems with Edgewatch as whole, it comes across as less charming diversion and another case of PCs being kinda yanked along. (chapter 1 and 2 are essentially filler you could cut out without changing final dungeon or plot, you could cut out entire graveraker from campaign and nothing would change) Anyway, after brief callbacks to chapter 1 minor npc and Radiant Festival still ongoing, the graveraker dungeon is pretty cool yeah. I do find it sad there isn't art of the entire machine though. I do find it lorewise confusing the proteans inside return to Maelstrom since they don't need to be summoned, but bound, but it's nice that players don't need to be morally worried. I do like that time dilation exists to provide pcs finally rest chance at these dungeons (though with rests having consequences with events) :D But yeah, while dungeon is cool chaos themed diversion, fan favorite and author's player character cameo Il’setsya comes randomly to offer the deal to swap artifact big bad has(that pcs learned of in last book and that she decided to steal to build super villain lair) for location of Radiant Spark which comes across as... Convenient? Like once again(it really isn't a mystery ap and more of an action movie ap), players' investigation has nothing to do it. Plus unlike what she says, the radiant spark isn't needed to combat her, only thing it does as written to the final boss is seal her divine spells at 100 hp (out of 500). More on that later. Either way it's nice to have NPC ally accompany the party to anything important for once, so I'll take what I can get. So the quest to find an artifact that pcs apparently "Need" to destroy Oleansa(again, its not like creatures with divine spark are immortal?), there is nice diversion with research rules being brought up (plus time mechanic to add consenquences). This ap is ultimately action and dungeon crawling heavy, but I like it whenever it remembers to give pcs any kind of opportunity to investigate, and this time its not infiltration super spy thing. But yeah the dungeon itself is extensive, but again there isn't the same kind of time pressure anymore pcs feels for most of campaign(since no criminals to escape if they take too long), with time being handled by timeline of agents of gray queens causing problems. Cool lore bits, cool lore based puzzles rewarding knowing lore, rare fights with corrupted celestials(bit sad at lack of token chance to try to redeem any of them, but fair enough xD) Overall cool stuff for long term fans. But yeah Radiant Spark aka glorified evil pokeball is bit weird as sudden macguffin because its never been foreshadowed being important in entire ap besides Radiant Festival celebrating Radiant Siege. Its anti outsider nature makes it useful items (as long there are characters willing to use device that tortures celestials inside and makes good aligned characters sickened), but it feels bit weakly connected as for its "intended purpose". There are several things here: 1) Gray Queen doesn't have any divine Gray Master themed abilities, and radiant spark sucking her divinity doesn't remove her extra levels as 23 creature. So only thing it does as written is remove her spell list (that she has likely already used all good spells by point she is at 100 hp. her spell list could use more norgorber themed spells too) for final stretch of fight(radiant spark stops being usable implies fight still continues. It might be fine if book assumed fight ends the moment Gray Queen is nerfed back to mortal, but I guess that would technically be it just effectively reducing her hp by 100. Plus I guess that conflicts with final defeat cutscene. 2) I guess final cutscene of Radiant Spark and Norgorber wrestling where Gray Queen's essence goes is supposed to carry the implication of "what if Norgorber lost something permanently because Gray Queen got sealed" but I don't know if that's how divine sparks and gifts really work. Plus next page has editing mistake with saying that "with [her] arrest" which just seems funny since she definitely didn't get arrested in adventure. 3) I kind of feel like it would have been more impactful if divine spark made her super affectable by radiant spark so the reaction works at her when she is weakened and thus she gets straight up sealed inside with failed save thus final cutscene. Preferably at higher hp threshold to make it worth it. In general I would add usefulness to radiant spark through final dungeon. Like maybe all Daemonic Twilight Four members are susceptible it so you can collect them all inside relic like pokemon. Maybe have the opportunity to swap their essence with good celestial essence inside to encourage good characters to make use of it. Maybe each sealed up twilight four member gives you another chance to use reaction on Gray Queen. But oki, after good dungeons of bit fillery content, the final dungeon at least has good jrpg final boss presentation. Main problem here is Gray Queen herself since it uses the good old "main big bad has went mad thus she is doing tactically bad choices that let player's have chance of defeating her", except its even more silly since its result of her choosing to steal cane of maelstrom to build her super villain tower. At least have her divine gift protect her from madness to retain her threat. (nitpick: I'm also confused of whats up with her art. The reada loud text calls out her daemonic form's spider like appearance, then text after that clearly refers her looking like meladaemon instead. Considering all four Daemonic Twilight Four members seem to appear like version of different deacon daemon(her having famine does seem bit funny, but other ones do make sense enough with Skinner = war Infector = disease and Rumormonger = death), it really seems like artist got the order wrong and editor forgot to edit meladaemon part. Which is pity because I really don't like her drider form, its kinda silly tbh.) Anyhoo final dungeon is relatively short and sweet. It has fun protean dungeon shop keeper, megaman style bossrush with daemonic twilight four(it does explain why book really wants all members to die) and some opportunities to make use of radiant spark (eremites are evil, eeeeevil). Plus CHAOS mech- I mean Famous Golem is fun ;D My only nitpick about dungeon is that Daemonic Infector's minions are vulnerable to his aura. But yeah. Gray Queen is sadly statwise also bit underwhelming since she doesn't really have that strong "divine thief" theme going on, but her main problem really is being a political villain who never got the chance to shine on her stage in this ap. So yeah overall I like a lot of things about volume individually, but as whole as part of AP it suffers. This book is a weird one to review since while I have a lot of feedback to give, I actually like the book. The "railroad" part isn't really as bad as I thought it would be based on general reception, though it does have stuff to criticize. I don't really do the thing where I'm like "premise shouldn't be done at all", I tend to review things from a "let's say I accept the premise, how it's done" perspective, for most parts at least. Especially since it's ultimately the end of the last book that sets up this premise. I do still that the premise is something that works better as premise of first adventure. I mean it IS the premise of Outlaws of Alkenstar more or less. That ap isn't really about playing as criminals, its about playing a bunch of people who got framed and turned into fugitives working as agents for Alkenstar, so Outlaws kinda takes the premise of this book and also the whole secret agent aspect of the latter half of edgewatch. That ap could have been called Agents of Alkenstar instead. Its kinda weird how as a result we have two different bait-and-switch premises meaning we lack a town guard focused campaign and outlaw focused campaign. But I digress, so to the spoilery part of review:
So this is the book that tries to emulate the "loose cannon cop was taken off the force and now has to clear their name!" part of cop movies, but in the kinda weird soft-balling way. It does help make it more palatable since players have to buy into the premise actively make themselves look bad (or at least try not to defend themselves) so that they are taken off the force because your previous allies aren't that dumb to assume you are guilty of what you are framed off. Heck by all accounts, it should be really easy to clear your name based on how relatively easy its later on. Well besides Lavarsus since his character assassination kinda continues here.(from my perspective since I don't like him as just sitcom archnemesis) But anyway, the main problem with chapter 1 is that it's ultimately filler to gain levels and none of it is actually as necessary as it's presented to players. The book's sidebars at least acknowledge it and provide alternate options on how to handle the situation rather than the previous book which just suggested convincing players. I consider that's a great thing, but I do still have to review the segment as written. So while it makes sense to learn from only the person who escaped Blackwhale how they did it, the book really forgets to address the possibility of "Well if he figured out how to do it IN the prison, there is a chance we can do so as well". Plus if story is changed so that players aren't framed, even if prison is co-opted by hags, you'd think there would be other options even for undercover agents. I don't really dock a point from adventure for this though because it'd be silly to expect players break into inescapable prison purely on blind faith without them having good plan in check. Still, idea that ONLY way to escape prison is to learn how Miogimo did it is weird presentation since it works better if PCs choose to do this than them being told its necessary, especially since they actually don't need to do it. The whole part of gaining Miogimo's trust feels off when you don't actually need to do that either, you just learn how he did it from his journal if you betray him. Sure he'll give best amount of information if trust level was high and chance for redemption(more on that as well later), but it kinda feels off that Grimwold suggests you to gain his trust when he will be part of raid to get rid of him anyway.(it makes it sound like book's default assumption is him being killed off and Kapral ruining plan out of anger towards Miogimo) Also, why does Miogimo exactly trust corrupt looking guard more? I mean yeah, he wouldn't trust guards who seem like obvious moles, but his whole dealio seems to be some sort of Vigilante gang that forces tributes from other gangs and kills criminals. Miogimo in general being presented as one of most dangerous criminal lords of Absalom feels off when we haven't heard of him before either in this ap or in previous books(even if it makes sense setting wise since he was in black whale until his escape for some time at least, I don't exactly know why he is so dangerous if his primary aim is violence towards other criminals. Is he a hypocrite who affects innocents as well or is his vigilanteism so extreme that they might kill non criminals as threat to the city or what? At least he doesn't bother treating white collar crime with violence.) Grimwold I can at least believe having personal grudge and Miogimo isn't above killing guard members, but is that main reason he is considered dangerous? Because he is guard killer? Either way, he feels like someone who should have been foreshadowed long ago in ap so we already know what his deal is. (it also feels like Miogimo is both meant to be seen as noble demon trope like anti hero and as evil bastard at same time. So at same time adventure is making sure you don't feel too comfortable, but might have reason to not hate guy completely. It feels bit inconsistent as result of again him being introduced out of nowhere and we don't really get good picture of what his gang is about.) Book also kinda bends too much over to make infiltrating Miogimo be easy. Like okay sure he is fine with using pawns he doesn't trust as pawns, but it feels silly book expects players to attempt rejoin his gang if deal falls through and he tries to kill them off. I do in general actually like section having difficult choices with benefits to both choices. Like, not doing convincing job to seem corrupt doesn't gain trust points, but Asilia still trusts you. It is possible to gain Miogimo's trust and still remain moral(but players wouldn't know that and thus would be under stress and maybe even resentment towards gm or game for "forcing" them to do this since this cloak & dagger stuff isn't really what people expected from ap's premise. Like let's be clear, player's guide is all about recommending LG paragons of detectives yet vast majority of investigation segments are undercover visits to criminal dens, heisting a casino, infiltrating cultists, etc. It fits the secret agent thing, but not town guard thing as their main operation.) There also that ap keeps having theme of making deals with criminals to deal with worse problem (copperhands, washboard dogs, now Miogimo) which each case being bigger scale than previous one. It really is going to make people who were expecting LG paladin type honest paragon thing feel bad even if you use idea of it being undercover mission by Starwatch. It also makes me wonder why AP is really fascinated with idea of cops making shady deals with criminals as something heroes should do. It also bit confuses me how book keeps kinda flip flopping between remembering PCs focus on nonlethal and not. Like Miogimio clearly wants Twisted Jack dead(newspaper even confirms it), but doesn't mind if players just leave suspects to guard (so either he sends someone else to finish him off, or that doesn't happen, but newspaper just assumed that did because its more dramatic sounding option). But oki, missions for Miogimimo themselves are pretty cool shady cloak and dagger flavor, also Batiste makes cameo(her only appearance after first book, think that means Bolera is now only one who never has appearances after sidebar. Yeah I still think Edgewatch cast should have been more involved with entire plot, it was surprising to realize how much our gm had to work on that). Its kinda weird to realize this is essentially come back tour of House of the Planes guests from first book, so this was apparently considered important enough in outline to setup this much in advance. Garrote Sisterhood one is weird one though since its basically just trap for players who buy too much into trying to earn Miogimo's trust. You don't even get or lose trust for opening the box and all you do is make things harder for you for 30 exp and get played for sucker if you fail skill check to realize tail and shake her off. (also I do find 20k bribe the book assumes multiple times funny because this ap is rather low on loot, so players might legit not have that much extra money even at these levels) Mother Venom's mini dungeon also bit confuses me due to how extensive it is, I would have thought she is Rumormonger's slime naga ally that supplied Infector's supplies for blackfinger blight, but there is no mention of that here. But yeah so ultimately, chapter 1 is introducing new character for cool cloak and dagger "balance your ethics and allegiances" where pcs might go out of their way to help Miogimo or betray him to guard, but that's also why its feels off for this AP. Because AP's initial promise was being Lawful ap about heroic detectives trying to do good in corrupt city. It really isn't town guard ap, it really is secret agent ap. Also nitpick: Kinda sad we don't have art of Miogimo with his mask, especially since his maskless art just looks like dude who is purple. I feel mixed on lot of character art for this ap in general, like the painterly look some of them have doesn't feel right for the mood and atmosphere. Okay so chapter 2. In our table we just skipped entire book 1(we did do mother venom thing though, while Grimwold captured Miogimo for interrogation), chapter 2 had GM turn prison into having been overtaken by hags with mind control magic and we had to break in because we knew Rumormonger had sent assassin to kill Wynsal (and Jonis Flakfatter as it turned out since he was sent to Blackwhale too in our campaign). We got entrance to prison by having talked to Oirel about our conspiracy theories about Flakfatter planning to get into Blackwhale for some reason, so he had written us prisoner transfer document we could use to switch place with wardens since he was going to retirement anyway and we essentially saved his life from lesser death x'D Reading the version as written, I actually like both as written and sidebar inspired versions, at least as an infiltration scenario. Though admittedly this is section which really could have been heist scene instead of casino from book 3. Like in this version there really isn't as much planning of prison break, you just obtain the tattoo, then try to bluff you way through to Wynsal. I do find it amusing that to get to the binding crystals, they kinda have to fight through the evil hags. Binding crystals being superior locks is bit harsh though because six successes with level 40 dc is... Well hard. 35 + 5 is exactly very hard level 16 difficulty. Like reason its level 17 item is because "level 17 and lower creatures can't open this one easily". So as result its extremely likely math wise pcs trigger alarm. I do find it bit confusing though how Absalom book makes it clear this is Gyr's prison for political prisoners while book seems to assume its just where worst of worst are sent to. Its also interesting how absalom book version of Warden is listed as LE while this one is LN but in progress of being corrupted by hags. I do think the main thing that I find problematic about this part as written is that its ending is basically "Mimmurath breaks out and is good distraction" since we already know you can't leave demiplane that easily(he is kinda dumb for blue dragon as written since it doesn't seem like he is bothering to make sure he can leave demiplane first by convincing pcs to take him with them or such), so logically he and guards just stay there fighting each other which uh... Feels bit weird spot to leave place? I mean even if they take friendly prisoners with them, that seems like lot of casualties to rescue primarch for... Barely any urgency besides making plan together on how to deal with Rumormonger? In general though yeah, I do think main risk here is that stormholt seems to be mostly assumed to be normal combat dungeon, with infiltration being more of special option rather than norm and honestly kinda hard because there are multiple ways for pcs cover to blow especially with hag fight. (I do like that guards are level 12 creatures so -4 threats to level 16 party in case alarm happens and they gang up on pcs) Like... It kinda just adds to as another morally grey thing for pcs to deal with (even if guards are bastards, its still them doing their job which you'd think for law enforcement pcs is hard thing to swallow even if they fight non lethally, when in the end they see "oops, dragon broke out") and it kinda feels the "hags mind control everyone" option is better for combat while normal version is better as heist infiltration scenario with ending needing to be adjusted somehow to feel less like you indirectly killed lot of people. I think that's why our GM had Mimmurath just leave place with us while being all creepy about it. But yeah so after breaking out Primarch there is small (bit fillery/clean up like) segment of clearing your names. And due to how easy it is, it kinda ends up feeling like only difficulty here is due to you on purpose making things harder for yourself by refusing to help clean your names before. Its why I noted that while soft-balling makes it easier to buy into premise, it also results in it feeling like "we just did bunch of unpleasant stuff to make things harder to ourselves and it turned out it wasn't actually absolutely necessary". I do like that its bit of throw back to allowing pcs do some investigating again, so I take any opportunity of that being allowed in this ap. Our gm did cut this part but that's because our group was so heavy into roleplaying our entire campaign took 94 sessions and there was heavy burnout towards end so we started skipping "extra" stuff after book 5 started and eventually took on milestones when we skipped more stuff in final book. I do find Wynsal's "failsafe in case pcs missed chance to ask about it from Rabbit Prince, here is confirmation that who Rumormonger is" thing bit silly because it both feels like another example of answer to mystery being handed down to players instead of giving them new chance to figure it out AND it makes Rumormonger seem too obvious due to reasons Wynsal could figure it out. But yeah so I do have commentary on mini investigations: Graveraker one is bit funny in that this is first time pcs actually investigate it personally in campaign since its disappearance in first book, which ends up being setup for next book as well. Graveraker is really weird thing in that how its literally stolen just to implicate Wynsal, then it turns out its really bizarre magical protean chaos magic thing so you are like "wait, the heck, they stole chaos warping construction machine... To frame Primarch?" Also bit convenient graveraker's creator also recognize 's Rumormonger's clockwork and thus can implicate his identity as well. It kinda ends up becoming this entire "this feels too important thing to not have been foreshadowed since book 1" and "wow so we could have found this early if we had used free time to go around asking". Anyway so pcs fulfill investigation and have evidence to implicate Rumormonger, with help of Wynsal's contacts with makes Rumormonger's all unknowing innocent employees abandon him conveniently and finally Starwatch will raid his lai- yeah no that doesn't happen. Okay so I think its time to address one thing I haven't really addressed: The ap overall doesn't really focus much on city of Absalom itself. There are couple times there are reminders of "oh right this is supposed to take place during Radiant Festival" in most books even if Radiant Festival isn't really important for most of them. There is another example where this is notable: whole Twilight Four's plan rests on civil unrest created by framing Primarch. There are multiple mentions of this to GM and even Wynsal's article foreshadows it and... In this book its only mention really is certain Hellknight who executed rioters after Rumormonger freed them(presumably to continue rioting). I don't think its case of real life events causing changes due to production timeline of AP but its really weird of how its REALLY plot important to AP, but we barely see any of it on screen. And as result, its So hmm. This book has a kinda weird trend of starting with in media res in chapter 1, later on being in chapter 2 being like "if players felt cheated by chapter 1's start, you can soften things a bit here" and then in chapter 3 being like "if you players are very skeptical about the direction of adventure, convince them to trust you". Like there are multiple iterations of adventure being aware that it's involving something players might hate and then kinda being mixed on whether you should change things or stick to as written. It's kind of "Now listen, I know players usually hate mandated failure scenes, but trust me, it's going to be great this time!" energy. It kinda feels like adventure has a tendency to use railroading to ensure the scene happens as cinema intended if that makes sense? Anyway, as previously, I have to go to spoiler tags to explain further, it's going to be like this for the rest of the adventure as my main criticism is more or less about the plot itself:
So chapter 1 starts with important clarification of how Infector is proceeding with setback to this plans and how Rumormonger is responding to Infector going awol.
This clarification also confusingly seems to create a plothole. Though that might be part of it never being clarified super well what the exact pact was about since ap lacked an outline article. But okay. So to my understanding, Twilight Four made pact to Norgorber where they need to offer something grand to each of Norgorber's aspects to be empowered by the aspect's divine gift. The overall plan was for Rumormonger to frame Wynsal, Infector to create mass poisoning incident, and for Gray Queen to claim Primarch's throne. Rumormonger and Gray Queen were the main plotters of plan with Infector and Skinner being brought in, but Skinner was even less part of the plan since they decided the only thing she needed to do was a mass offering of blood from sacrifices to Norgorber, probably because they didn't trust Skinner to not put rest of plan in jeopardy somehow. So to my understanding, even if they don't work together(so technically they don't need to have synergy at all, presumably Rumormonger's offering doesn't have to involve primarch at all), once each of them has completed their offering, they all get the reward(and any member who died becomes daemonic servant of remaining ones). It is never clarified if specific member of twilight four needs to do the offering or not, but it makes less sense if one member can perform all offerings. The plan overall is interesting because if I understood it right, it incentives each of members to let each other live until they have fulfilled their offering, then kill off each member who fulfilled their part first, so that the dead members become servants to surviving ones once all offerings are complete. If they all work together without betrayal, they all get empowered, but if they win over each other, they both get empowered and three powerful servants. So whoever has to fulfill their part of plan last has biggest advantage over others(I was impressed with this part of the plan, more on this on book 5 review). So in the start's info, it implies Infector never actually got to do his mass poisoning offering because PCs stopped him. So umm... There isn't mention of this in the latter two books, so it kinda seems like plot hole how they got the pact fulfilled in final book. And if the pact's victory condition was only for one of them to become primarch, then what was up with Skinner's part? It can't be that pact only required blood sacrifice and one of them to become primarch? That'd be kinda weird since it puts two of the members as completely expendable. Well anyway, Rumormonger's part also has slight issue. I like that Rumormonger is supposed to be this mastermind who predicted how other people are going to act(like clockwork) but it feels bit "tell, don't show" in this case since apparently Infector is that predictable, but if it was, then how exactly IS infector playing along to the plan by choosing completely random moment and target for the bombing? Its not like Rumormonger really needs PCs to be heroes or exist at all to continue with his main plan, so there is really no benefit of letting Infector's "ruin plan by bombing early and then Norgorber will totally reward me" plan from book 3 go of. Book 6 makes it sound like Infector's part of the plan was completely unnecessary, so that just creates more confusion. Like was that what Rumormonger was predicting "we don't really need Infector, so let him create confusion when he tries to betray us" Like I could believe him engaging contingency plan, but its kinda funny how book 4 seems to claim Infector is mastermind as well(even with his plan not making sense in book 3) while also claiming he is predictably to greater mastermind. So which is it, is Infector an intelligent schemer or just a chump? Jury will decide as I get back to this later. Anyway so after this part the adventure itself starts with in media rest scene where informant Starwatch informs pcs of at end of last book gets killed mid sentence. Then after a severe fight there is flashback to how they got to this scene and what informant had time to tell them. This is something I could see as great opening to start of standalone adventure, but in campaign it feels kinda like taking players' agency away for scene that is supposed to be cool. And it doesn't help that this ap has kinda issue of making it feel like players' agency matters(even before this there are moments of mandated plot failure and ap is fairly linear without having opportunity for players' own investigation lead clues on how to proceed. And by that I mean that most of time players get lead on next place to go after previous combat encounter. So while its in a way good that Starwatch provides use to PCs investigation wise as well, it is basically taking away PC agency to continue the investigation as well until plot says they can proceed. And then the plot provided hook gets killed mid sentence without players having chance to do anything. It basically feels like an unnecessary risky scene for the sake of a surprise start. I think my GM realized it would anger our table due to previous experiences in casino so this didn't happen to us for good reason :'D Well anyway starting with severe encounter followed by extreme encounter (with optional post-fight moderate) feels bit cruel after end of last book but at least players will at this point survive without tpk risk. It just increase's aps tendency to be meatgrinder, since once again, pcs have no back up or safety. At least adventure assumes pcs can runaway, but players often forget that option. Neither they do next since its time for another infiltration mission.(at least Ollo got cameo here, Lavarsus hasn't really gotten cameos much since players become starwatch) Like don't get me wrong, its cool to have another infiltration, but this ap could really use the "pc super agents go alone" as exception rather than as the norm. It would kinda make sense to have black finger temple be "when you have evidence of crimes, call us for raid while you go ahead" thing at least. Once players get to lower temple, they are once again expected to run entire dungeon on their own in single day without much of rest(at least it doesn't make sense if they can retreat and come back, but can't come with retinue) It gets ESPECIALLY harsh when it turns out that Lower temple doesn't have emergency exit that Jonis could even move out of.(it kinda feels like if there needs to be excuse of "we need you to infiltrate without backup so Jonis doesn't run away" that there would need to be actual possibility of him getting away. As it is right now, they are cautious for right reasons, but it results would be same if mission was "okay, when you have reached lower floor, call us to start raid, we will make sure the upper temple won't join lower temple as you make sure Jonis doesn't retreat, we will join you on lower floor when we can". But yeah so after many moderate encounters(the dungeon itself isn't THAT bad at least compared to previous time it would have been nice to allow pcs allies, at least by these levels. You are still likely going to be tired by time you reach the boss though) there is grueling severe boss fight with Stabbing Beast. After which Jonis Flakfatter just surrenders. Despite being level 15, another solo severe encounter and PCs are at this point exhausted not just from hard boss fight but also from any other encounters they had on their own. As written they have no backup. Jonis is fine with stabbing them if they seem to be about to be defeated by his remaining servants. He isn't even afraid of PCs because they defeated his god's herald. He just surrenders, smugly. ...Yeah this is really the part that mind boggles me on what exactly is Jonis' masterplan. This character profile implies this is just step one, but plan seems to be "Surrender without fight you could win. Have your allies break you out. ???. Profit". Like it would be something if his plan was "Get sent to the highest security prison so that I can outlast my ex cohorts". But nah, he is perfectly fine with finishing PCs off if it seems like they are about to lose anyway. So he doesn't really NEED them to capture him, he just doesn't want to put effort because he assumes they would capture him anyway and he wants to make them think everything is going along the plan. I think adventure wanted to ensure that Jonis can't die in combat accidentally(even if pcs are supposed to use nonlethal weaponry) so that next part would happen. So is he a mastermind or not? Because it is weirdly consistent with his illogical plan in book 3 as well. Then the next part, name sake of volume, starts with making Starwatch look rather incompetent again. So not again they don't have backup to give you(this is ONLY adventure in entire ap where they assume there is opportunity of other guard members helping you in combat and its volunteers from sleepless suns as thank you for before), they also happen to coincidentally choose obviously haunted house they apparently weren't aware of. Honestly the haunted house mysteries are cool, but while it is cool complication, it also seems bit much in this case? It at least results in there being oh so many encounters since there are both norgorberites, assassins and then mini dungeon with deadly encounters. Jonis Flakfatter does have impressively high chance of dying yeah, especially when it turns out final boss of segment is Lesser Death. If he somehow survives, well you don't really get any intel or other rewards from it and he disappears completely from story (I didn't realize our GM including him in Blackwhale was his addition) until he gets off screen executed in final book by Gray Queen. I'll get back to that in book 6. Well at least segment is fun enough, but it doesn't really erase how grueling, stressful and exhausting ap feels overall. Still it was nice to actually get help as written, even if it still feels weird that you got level 6 volunteers rather than any official help from starwatch for the super important suspect. While basement is cool, I do kinda feel section would actually be better off without it even though it works as the "unexpected complication" and bit of humiliation for Flakfatter. Since again it just makes starwatch look bad and kinda emphasizes how AP is less mystery solving and more endless amount of action scenes. Like I don't mind twist of house being haunted if it was more of subtle less murdery combat mystery to solve and causing more complications than "enter mini dungeon to solve it". Like maybe layout of rooms could change or etc. But yeah so after surviving all this its time for Harrowland! Aka cool segment but kinda random. It really isn't connected to much of anything plotwise besides bad guys picking it randomly. Anyway uh so about the final railroad... It kinda feels off that Wynsal sent letter to heroes about how they should just accept being framed for the greater plan? Because it really would be smarter to warn them so they could try to avoid being framed themselves. That's why I think our gm ultimately made it being fake letter sent by Rumormonger, because it really makes sense for Rumormonger to lure pcs to frame location rather than Wynsal himself. Wynsal taking the bait on purpose in vain hope that his friend is alive and so that mastermind exposes himself works for me yeah, just not summoning pcs part. There is another reason why I kinda dislike the scene besides "trust me, failure will be great" factor. Anyway, about harrowland first: So uh there were ten potential encounters there? Yeaaah I'm glad our gm cut it down. This ap loves making you encounter more than 3 encounters in day. While rabbit king comes out of nowhere without foreshadowing, it is cool location, I kinda wish the mechanic of breaking cards to affect Rabbit king was telegraphed better. As it is, its basically only comes as option to players if GM directly tells it. Also the part about gently telling players to not go to tent... Uh.. yeah it feels weird players can willfully just skip entire thing on accident. So anyway, final plot criticism: So it turns out Rumormonger's masterplan to frame Wynsal Starborn is... Steal extra dimensional excavation machine, hide it in haunted circus tent, fill it with canisters of blackfinger poison, Stealing dagger, stabbing Primarch's friend with it, place his friend next to excavation machine, summon Primarch and edgewatch. Thats really goofy plan. Like so far players unless they did something on their own have no clue what graveraker really is, how it was stolen so I can see it just being really goofy "wait how it got here?" thing, but also, that's only reason they stole it? It kinda turns graveraker into weird red herring that still becomes relevant later on. BUT the greatest problem with this frame up lose your reputation scene? Lavarsus. Lavarsus is really done dirty here. The AP really assumes PCs should hate Lavarsus even though he never really wrongs them besides being grumpy and mean and AP really assumes PCs never form same dynamic with Lavarsus as he has with Bolero and Ollo(then Bolero never shows up again after book 1 and Ollo just briefly makes cameos, so does Lavarsus. Really there isn't enough screentime in AP for PCs to even hate Lavarsus). On our table we did have good relations with Lavarsus, so Lavarsus ended up saving us from the scene (at cost of being shelved by the conspirators) and I feel like that worked much better than AP as written treating Lavarsus as non evil non hostile antagonist to the end that we should laugh at. Sooo yeah. This book has lot of good to it as do all edgewatch books, but its really insistent on its ideas.
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