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In The Stumbling Society, Part 1: Sangoro's Lament, the PCs discovered that Datch has stolen crates full of military equipment from a Starfinder Society installation called the Arsenal. In The Stumbling Society, Part 2: Sangoro's Gifts, we learn what she's doing with them: dropping them off on low-technology worlds for the locals to fight over, filming the results, and making it look like the Starfinder Society is responsible! In the mission briefing, Fitch plays one of the anti-SFS propaganda vids filmed on a jungle planet called Stabrisis-14, home to strange, moth-shaped creatures known as kiriintas. The SFS has avoided making first contact with the kiriintas so as not to interfere in their developing civilisations, but Fitch says it's now unavoidable: the SFS has to get those weapons back before the situation turns even worse. In a departure from the norm, however, the PCs won't be travelling alone to their mission site; Fitch has assigned another agent, a maraquoi named Saivessa, to trail them in a second ship to help pick up the supplies. Saivessa isn't really integral at all to the plot, but they have a great pic and an interesting personality, so a good GM could make them memorable.

After a short jaunt through the Drift (broken up only by a brief cameo from Captain Winks of the Clutter Collector, a nod to # 1-03), the PCs emerge near Stabrisis-14 only to find it protected by drone starships launched from a (cloaked) orbiting base. The ensuing starship combat has an interesting twist in that more drones get launched until the PCs figure out that they're coming from a cloaked launch base, scan to locate it, and then destroy it. Like almost all SFS starship combat, it's still not great, and in my game the GM called it once it became obvious we were (eventually!) going to win. The interior artwork for the scenario is really strong, as the launch base also has a cool pic.

The PCs have no trouble locating a recently-dropped and unopened crate of weapons on the surface, but their timing could hardly be worse because two rival groups of kiriintas arrive at the same time! The PCs are thus caught in the crossfire, and have to quickly decide what to do. The scenario provides a fair amount of backstory into the two groups, explaining that they were once all part of the same kiriinta community but split when the weapons started dropping from the sky, with one group (the Builders) believing the weapons are a gift from the gods and meant to be studied and used, while another group (the Reflectors) also believe they're gifts but that tampering with them would be a type of blasphemy. The PCs, of course, won't know any of this when they have to decide to fight back against one group, both, or try to stay out of the battle entirely. (Oddly, the scenario provides information on what happens for the first two choices, but doesn't seem to contemplate the third.)

Whichever side prevails in the battle invites (with some language barriers that the PCs should have prepared for) the newcomers back to their camp, believing they're agents of the same divine authority that has been dropping the crates of weapons. The fact that the crates bear the symbol of the Starfinder Society and the PCs probably do as well makes this a reasonable inference. There's a lot of room for role-playing in this part of the scenario, and the author did a good job developing the kiirintas as a whole as well as particular NPCs from each faction. Presumably, the PCs will try to persuade the kiirinta group they're with to abandon use of the weapons, in which case the kiirintas will put the PCs through a series of hastily-improvised tests to gauge whether they're really acting with divine sanction. The tests including drinking a local beverage, an athletics or debating contest, and (my favourite) what the PCs are told will be "Death Match." But even jaded players should smile when they learn that "Death Match" is actually a local card game and completely harmless.

As the tests are winding up, the PCs receive a message from Saivessa: one final crate is on it's way to the planet. When the PCs head to the drop site, they'll find whichever faction of kiirintas they didn't bond with there, but under attack from a huge burrowing monster called a tiraka. Not-so-nice PCs will wait for the kiirintas to wear down the tiraka before joining in, but if they don't wait to long, they'll have a better chance of convincing the opposing kiirinta leader to renounce using the new weapons and mend fences with the other leader. When I played, we did a really fast run and the tiraka only lasted a single round. Anyway, that's the end of the scenario, apart from a brief epilogue. The scenario has a nice boon (assuming Part 1 has also been played): the opportunity to have a kiirinta character. I liked the kiirintas, and I hope we get a chance to see more of them in future scenarios.

In Reign of Stars, Alaeron, who has long been living in Almas since his hasty departure with stolen tech from Numeria, receives a surprising invitation. His mentor, the Techno League captain Zernebeth, is alive and wants him to come back to Numeria for a special project--with all past misdeeds forgiven. An obvious set-up for a trap, as Alaeron and Skiver well know, but the incentives provided are enough to persuade them to take the risk. The novel is a great way to learn about the history of Silver Mount and to get a feel for present-day Numeria, and there are some great scenes that only that particular geographical setting can provide. There are hilarious bits throughout, like a cleric worshipping the Holy Fundament, the Black Sovereign's feast that I can't even begin to describe, and so much more. Pratt always plays by the rules of Pathfinder, so descriptions of things like Alaeron using a mutagen are both fun and "realistic" in terms of effect. There's also some fun little easter eggs, like references to Gad, Rodrick, and Hyrm from other Pathfinder Tales stories. Anyway, I definitely recommend this one.

Jump with me back in time, if you will, to a simpler world! The year is 2017, no one has ever heard of Covid-19, and in the first wave of SFS scenarios is # 1-04: Cries from the Drift. Although at the time discussion of the scenario focussed on how difficult it was to kill an incorporeal monster if the party lacked the right weapons, an important SFS story element was introduced in the adventure's background. Prior to the Scoured Stars Incident, the Exo-Guardians maintained a massive fortress-armory called Sangoro's Bulwark (after the faction's founder, who discovered it). But when so many of the faction's members were lost in the Scoured Stars, the few remaining members of the Bulwark were overwhelmed by a mysterious threat and all contact (and even the location) of the base was lost. In Cries from the Drift, the PCs collect data from the sole ship to escape the Bulwark and return it to Lorespire Complex in the hope that somehow, the location of the Bulwark can be reassembled.

Now, that time has come! After intensive work, the Dataphiles have managed to learn the location of the Bulwark: a planet in the Vast called Mazdrun. In the scenario briefing, Zigvigix (leader of the Exo-Guardians) explains that the Society can't afford to send a full, highly-visible assault force to the Bulwark because of how much scrutiny the organisation is under recently. But, it can send a smaller force to the Arsenal, a satellite site near the Bulwark that was used for research and training purposes. From the PCs' perspective, their mission is very straightforward: get to the Arsenal and secure it. As an aside, I'll mention that the briefing is held at the Nest, the just-renovated warehouse HQ of the Exo-Guardians in the site secured by the PCs in # 1-01: The Commencement. I love it when little story nuggets from previous scenarios pay off!

The journey through the Vast is event-free, apart from the usual foreshadowing of a future scenario. Surprisingly, Zigvigix comes along on the ship (though not on the mission)--perhaps this pays off in Part 2? I'm not sure.

The rest of the scenario involves exploring the 14 rooms in the Arsenal. There are multiple traps to overcome and some dangerous monsters (an apari hive, special radiation-themed moonflowers) that were being experimented on at the time the place shut down. In addition, a barachius angel (devoted to safeguarding dangerous technology) named Negator-XIII has lost most of its memories and has to be carefully negotiated with (through a sort of role-playing skills challenge) or it will turn violent. As they explore, the PCs will find some scattered clues about what happened to the Arsenal and the Bulwark, but not enough to really put a full picture together. I'm not going to review the individual encounters, but I'll just say as a whole that they're fun, fit the story well, and are tough but fair.

What the PCs won't know, until a great reveal late in the scenario, is that Datch (a ysoki devotee of Lao Shu Po) has already been to the Arsenal and looted it! Not only that, her tap on SFS communications gave her the foreknowledge to leave some traps behind, including a cursed idol that could make the PCs gradually more and more suspicious and paranoid as they explore. For some players, this will just be some bland negative modifiers, but with a good group, some really fun role-playing could result. And Datch really twists the knife when the PCs finally get to the treasure vault and discover a single credit stick containing . . . six credits (one for each of them)! The scenario does a great job of making players hate Datch, which is important for the season meta-plot to succeed.

I don't want to overstate my review: there are limits to what can be done within a dungeon crawl structure, and there's definitely a "enter a chamber, deal with threat, search for clues or loot, and then do it all again at the next chamber" playstyle for the scenario. But within that framing, this was a solid, enjoyable scenario, and I'm looking forward to Part 2.

It seems that in the final days of ancient Azlant prior to Earthfall (the cataclysmic event that reshaped Golarion), some powerful mystics and seers gained a sense of impending danger. As part of a program to research worlds and realms far and wide, a special ship called the King Xeros was commissioned--a ship capable of travelling to and from the Ethereal Plane! But once launched, the ship never returned, and its very existence has since fallen into mere legend. But as the scenario starts, the King Xeros has returned and is floating in Absalom's harbor! A strong backstory and classic adventure hook makes for a compelling start to the scenario, as the PCs are requested to explore the ship and glean answers to the many mysteries surrounding it.

In Act 1 ("Boarding Action"), the PCs arrive at the ship and learn it has already been boarded by Absalom's Harbor Guard. But some sort of automatic defenses have been accidentally triggered, as flame projectors and defense constructs are slaughtering the seamen! The faster the PCs manage to intervene, the more lives they can save. Topside, the King Xeros should immediately strike the group as strange. For one thing, it's seemingly carved out of a single piece of crystal, and for another, there are no obvious entrance below decks.

Act 2 ("Breaching the Hulk") starts with the group trying to gain entry below decks through the only means possible: a magical doorway called a ghost portal. It has a mechanic I've never seen before (involving opposed ability scores) to gain passage, and if the PCs do it the wrong way, the doorway disgorges the ghost of (of all things!) a tiefling barbarian! The ghost doesn't stand up well in light of the PFRPG (it only has 32 hit points, for example, and doesn't pump out much damage), but it's another taste of this ship's innate weirdness--whatever happened to it in the thousands of years since it was launched hasn't been kind.

Act 3 ("Hunters from Beyond") has the PCs beginning to explore the interior of the ship. The layout of the ship is frankly pretty confusing (in terms of the connections between rooms and between decks), and the way the scenario itself is laid out doesn't help (a GM has to keep switching back and forth between a general description of rooms and decks to later where the encounters in those areas are detailed). There are some threads in the forums that can help GMs with this. From the PCs' perspective, they quickly encourage strange, phantasmic plant-life laced throughout the ship before being ambushed by the xill who have taken over the ship and are using it to enslave creatures for their home plane. The xill are a real threat because their tactics are to paralyse a PC and then try to planewalk with them to the Ethereal Plane for imprisonment in another part of the ship. PCs who succumb here are effectively out of action until (hopefully) rescued at the end of the scenario. It led to a really exciting battle when I ran it, as the PCs *just* managed to stop one of their own from being kidnapped.

Act 4 ("Riddle of the Navigator") is rather confusing to run. The idea is that the ship's helm acts as a sort of giant puzzle box. Instead of being a "real" riddle, the PCs can make skill checks to solve it and accomplish one of two things: 1) open a secret door or 2) release a creature who has been trapped in the helm to fuel it. I found it hard to describe this because the skill checks depend on what the PCs are trying to do, but the PCs don't know (in advance) what their options are: the secret door has a DC of 50 (the highest I've ever seen!) to discover, and they won't know in advance that there's a trapped creature. And anytime one of the checks is failed, a random roll can release something as minor as a phase spider or as scary as a 24d6 disintegrate ray! The main inhabitant of the helm is a night hag named Skarja, and she can be negotiated with because she's relieved to finally be free.

Act 5 ("The Ether Fly Trap") is kind of fun, as the PCs face a handful of xill including one who controls a giant plant monster that functions a bit like the "claw" in an arcade claw drop game. It's here that previously-captured PCs can be recovered. But even if the group is successful in overcoming this encounter, the danger's not over--destroying the xill's plant creature starts a 10 round countdown for the group to escape before the King Xeros transfers to the Deep Ethereal with the PCs still on it! It should be plenty of time for most groups to escape, but if several members are paralysed or otherwise out of action, there'd be a real race against time to get everyone off.

Although mysterious "ghost ships" are a staple of fantasy RPGs, they're usually filled with various sorts of undead. King Xeros of Old Azlant presents an original twist on the trope and effectively maintains an atmosphere of the uncanny. It's a scenario that definitely keeps the PCs on their toes as they explore, and the ending is exciting and cinematic. GMs need to do extra prep before running it, but this one is worth the extra time.

The scenario starts on Salvation's End, the mysterious artificial moon that has been the subject of Starfinder exploration since the campaign's very first scenario. In a cool and completely sensible idea, the Society has decided to open a new lodge there from which to launch missions. Kunoris Vex, a drow, makes his first appearance as a new Venture-Captain. Vex explains to the PCs that some encrypted Pact Worlds and Veskarium signals have been detected in one of Salvation's Ends myriad vaults, and that he wants an experienced team to investigate. In a nice twist (that makes perfect sense given technology), Vex will stay on comms during the whole mission in case the agents need advice (and mechanically, he can help with certain skill checks, and is also a good GM tool in case the PCs need some help getting back on track).

Once the PCs get into the vault, they'll see it's a simulation of Akiton--but not necessarily the one they're familiar with. This is an Akiton that has undergone decades of terraforming for atmospheric regeneration. Another oddity will strike them quickly, when they're almost immediately attacked by predators native only to a distant world in the Vast! These "Arquand drychens" are interesting and reasonably-tough foes.

The group will soon come to a nearby settlement named Buyer's Remorse (excellent map!). Buyer's Remorse is an old mining town that was once used to extract thasteron, a pre-Drift travel starship fuel. But in the vault simulation, Buyer's Remorse is in full operation and occupied by a Veskarium garrison! In this part of the scenario, PCs are expected to visit various locations in Buyer's Remorse and talk to NPCs to figure out what's going on. Mechanically, this occurs throughout a couple of phases where each PC can make one skill check in order to gather "Data Points"; but they want to avoid standing out too much and earning "Suspicion Points." PCs can stick together or, for much more efficient coverage, split up to cover more ground quickly (one of many rebukes in gaming I've found to the "never split the party" mantra). One challenge though is that some of the locations have a *lot* of content and other locations have very little, and sometimes what it takes to earn Data Points is fairly non-intuitive. There are some fun little anomalies, like Vesk warriors wearing costumes from a children's safari show, or a VR headset that flashes "Exciting Experience" over and over. In a fun twist, one of the locations holds a "Starfinder" who actually is a Starfinder--an agent lost on a previous mission in Salvation's End, and now with completely different memories.

What all the information collection will reveal is that this vault simulates a future where the Pact Worlds has collapsed due to an event called the Data Plague, which completely wiped out all hi-tech devices in the system. But because the plague was isolated to the system, other forces--like the Veskarium--stayed at full military power and moved in to take over. In this simulation, after the Veskarium took over the system, they outlawed any other race from using Drift travel--thus, the resumption of thasteron mining. But in the past few weeks, mysterious invaders have been attacking Buyer's Remorse, proclaiming themselves agents of the "Vault Lord." Obviously, the simulation wasn't designed for this! The important thing to remember about the vaults in Salvation's End is that they may involve simulated environments, but that the people involved are very, very real--even if they've been kidnapped from who-knows-where and brainwashed. The PCs need to figure out how to help the inhabitants of Buyer's Remorse. It's a great plot, and I appreciate the richness of detail the writer put into the scenario (even if it can be a little overwhelming at times).

In the middle of a meeting with the local Veskarium military governor of Buyer's Remorse (in which the PCs may or may not be successful in convincing her she's in a simulation and needs to evacuate), the army of the Vault Lord attacks in force. This is a complicated battle, as there's a lot going on. Attackers arrive in different waves, the PCs are expected to continue gathering Data Points (weird!), fixed events can happen in certain rounds depending on what happened in previous rounds, and more. There's some really exciting things that can happen, like siege tanks appearing, buildings exploding, and more. The PCs can even call in artillery strikes, which is awesome! I had to make a round-by-round list and populate it with the various things to remember, as the scenario has stuff happening all the way up to Round 15 (wherein the town collapses and everyone who hasn't evacuated dies instantly!). Running this all through play-by-post was a big undertaking, but fortunately my players were great and stuck with it.

And then, when the big battle is over and the players probably think they're pretty much done, there's a whole additional encounter waiting for them. They need to escort civilians across a wasteland to the vault's exit as the landscape is being gradually swallowed by incinerators! Again, a pretty cool and cinematic example of encounter design.

Assuming the PCs live to tell the tale, it's clear this Vault Lord is going to be a major problem for further exploration of Salvation's End. I for one am really looking forward to experiencing what happens next.

My overall thoughts on Future's Fall is that it's a great scenario, but one that needs to be run by an experienced GM and in a setting that doesn't have strict time constraints. It could easily have been modified to be a two-part scenario. Still, it's definitely memorable and worth playing.

Issue # 1 starts off with a bang, with Valeros fighting one of the troll augurs of Kaer Maga over a prophecy that didn’t happen as promised. But the fight is broken up by the sudden appearance of Imrijka (the Iconic Inquisitor), who turns out to be an old friend (and lover) of Valeros! She accompanies Valeros back to a local inn along with Seoni and Merisiel (Kyra is off on a pilgrimage, apparently). Meanwhile, Ezren and Harsk are doing some research nearby and one thing leads to another and they find themselves trapped in a catacomb under the city. Fortunately, those topside get a magical distress call from Ezren and head down after them. But along the way, Valeros spots a mysterious black orb, touches it, and . . . dies!

Issue # 2 starts with a flashback to Valeros’ life as a child, and is revealing about why he grew up as the man he is today. In the Boneyard (the realm of the dead, where all souls go to be judged by Pharasma or her agents), Valeros finds himself in the hands of a night hag who plans to sell him at a soul market. But a psychopomp (a birdlike agent of Pharasma) rescues him. But in a twist, everyone in the Boneyard thinks that Valeros is an ancient warlord named Zeladar the Animator, and it looks like Valeros is going to receive a final destination that he doesn’t deserve! It’s really funny.

Issue # 3 starts with Valeros being judged by a yamaraj(?) called Yindaal. Back on Golarion, the other adventurers are dealing with a “Valeros” whose body is inhabited by the soul of Zeladar; they figure it out *just* as the real Valeros makes it back to his body. It’s a comedy of errors, of course, but handled well. There are also some poignant moments with Merisiel knowing her time with her companions is a lifetime to them but fleeting to her.

Issue # 4 has Valeros and Zeladar sharing a body as the group continue the search for Harsk and Ezren. The issue has some exciting battles against caulborn

In Issue # 5, Harsk and Ezren are rescued, and Valeros figures out how to defeat Zeladar by getting really drunk (he’s more used to holding to liquor than the warlord). The book ends with a tender moment between Imrijka and Valeros that’s really sweet.
The dialogue in these issues is genuinely great, causing me to laugh out loud multiple times. I really love how a random bunch of pre-generated gaming characters have been brought together into the comics and formed into a real group that you care about. This particular run is also great for anyone who wants to get a better feel for Kaer Maga or the Boneyard.

When I started reading the Pathfinder comics, I wasn’t very impressed—poor artwork and mediocre stories. But things have really improved since then, and I’m going to miss reading stories about Varisia’s best. I hope, somehow, we get some more stories in the future.

A background section summarises a lot in a nice, concise package. The stellar degenerator was created by an ancient alien race called the Sivvs who were at war with another ancient alien race called the Kishalee. Kishalee commandos captured the stellar degenerator and the Sivvs were defeated. Realising just how destructive the stellar degenerator was, the Kishalee decided to hide it away in a secure demiplane, the location of which was a closely-guarded secret in a military-industrial complex called The Foundry on a planet called Nejeor VI. Millennia pass, the Kishalee empire degrades and breaks apart, and the inheritors of Nejeor VI (the kish) know little about their ancestors or how they commanded technology. Just days or weeks prior to the PCs starting Chapter 4, the Cult of the Devourer comes to Nejeor VI, rough up the kish, break into the Foundry, and abscond with the location of the stellar degenerator. The PCs won’t have any hope of following the Cult unless they too can obtain the location. In Dead Suns, the PCs are always one step behind!

Part 1 (“Aeons in the Drift”) starts with the PCs in the Drift, on their way to Nejeor VI. It seems like every chapter of Dead Suns must have a starship combat, so the PCs are assaulted by a Klokworx Prism (from the inside front cover). Like every starship combat to date, there aren’t actually any consequences if the PCs lose. In addition, the writer goes to *extraordinary* length to ensure that the PCs get no information or technology from the Azlanti ship—it’s not exactly rail-roading, but it’s another heavy-handed way to limiting the PCs.

Part 2 (“The Forgotten City of Istamak”) makes use of the planet and city from the back matter. Another Starfinder trope is a huge location with only one safe place to land—here, it’s an old starship landing pad covered with lichen being gathered by the native kish. There’s no choice but to fight the kish here, which is probably something of a bummer for any first contact specialists among the PCs. But soon after, through some rather forced circumstances, the PCs can befriend a priest of Taylavet named Herald Tzayl and establish peaceful contact. Herald Tazayl reveals that the Cult of the Devourer was in Istamak recently and desecrated sacred places. After the Cult left, a schism developed among the kish, with one sect remaining optimistic and another barricading themselves in the “Temple Found” (the Foundry) to exclude all comers.

Through a plot contrivance I can’t quite follow, the PCs need to visit two locations (the “House of Renewal”, full of gene therapy devices that have gone awry, and the “Maze of Ghosts”, an ancient museum with a living hologram of the mayor!) to get both halves of a message that, when combined, leads the group to an ancient computer security company (“Securitech”) that can provide the passcode to gain entry to the Foundry. The bit with Securitech is pretty cool, as jumping from floating chunk to floating chunk with the prospect of falling to one’s death in a gas giant below is exciting, and the collapse of the building due to a writher swarm infestation is pretty cinematic. It’s all still a transparently contrived way to get the PCs to visit each location, and there’s not much in the way of accommodation provided for groups that want to do things differently.

Part 3 (“The Temple Found”) has the PCs breaking into the Foundry. They’ll have to overcome the renegade kish leader (a solarian), scavenger slimes, elementals (where my dwarf bit the dirt), and more to find datapads revealing the full history of the stellar degenerator and the coordinates where the entrance to the demiplane that holds it can be accessed. The chapter ends with the PCs once again setting off to a new destination in space, in the hopes of catching the Cult of the Devourer before it’s too late.

Creating a believable alien civilisation is no enviable task, and I thought the writer did a solid job with the kish. With the material in the back matter, there’s plenty that an enterprising GM could do if they were willing to let out the strict “Go to A, then B, then C” nature of the plot a little. Still, I really prefer a less linear adventure design in favour of one that sets out several problems, suggests some different ways PCs might address them, and empowers the GM to adjudicate accordingly. The Ruined Clouds will get the PCs where they need to go, but they probably won’t feel like they’re in control of their fate along the way.

Much of PFS Season Six was devoted to assembling pieces of the Sky Key, a legendary dwarven artifact that turned out to have been salvaged from a crashed Dominion of the Black starship in Numeria. The Sky Key, if fed a tremendous amount of power, allows locations from the past to be temporarily brought to the present (contained in a sort of "time bubble"). Although nothing can be removed from the bubble, Pathfinders can enter and see historical events as they actually happened; and indeed, they can even interact with objects and speak with historical personages. The premise of The Sky Key Solution is that, after a few small experiments, the Society is ready for a major research endeavour: by having hundreds of wizards feed lightning into the Sky Key, the Age of Serpents will be brought into the present! (More specifically, a serpentfolk city called Sessegishoss that once stood on the Isle of Kortos) Each table at the special is a group of Pathfinders charged with entering the time bubble and discovering as much historical insight as they can before the wizards run out of magic and the time bubble collapses.

In terms of structure, this special is very similar to all other Paizo specials I've played. When tables are successful in encounters, they contribute to an event-wide total of "Victory Points" that unlock other encounters or parts of the scenario. Tables can use "aid tokens" sent to them by other tables, and all skill and save DCs are fixed by subtier. There's an event-wide narrator who provides the introduction, occasional transition speeches, and reads out the conclusion, while table GMs handle the rest. And last, despite making the accumulation of Victory Points seem really important, there aren't really any consequences even if every table was an utter failure--there's the same result story-wise and characters "trapped" in the time bubble just need to spend 4 PP to be freed.

This special is divided into four parts.

Part 1 ("Gathering Outside the Walls") has the PCs assembling in a muddy field outside Absalom called Bloodwatered Meadow, the site for the first large-scale test of the Sky Key. This part of the scenario is mostly exposition (delivered by Master of Scrolls Kreighton Shaine) about the mission, though PCs can make some Knowledge checks for additional information, buy supplies from vendors, or get some bonuses if they have relevant Season Six Chronicles. Unlike some other specials I've played, this one doesn't have any little tasks or skill challenges for tables to handle during the mustering process, which is a shame. The exposition is handled nicely and really sets the grand scale for the adventure to come.

Part 2 ("The Temple District of Sessegishoss") has each table venturing into the sprawling serpentfolk city from 10,000 years ago! The city has an interesting vertical structure, and PCs start at the bottom but can start moving up as additional options are unlocked. Whether intentional or not, the day that the PCs experience happens to be both a special serpentfolk festival ("Spent Coils") and the day of an Azlanti slave revolt. How this all plays out in practice is that each of the five districts of the city has both a combat encounter and a research encounter. In the Zoological Gardens, the PCs fight serpentfolk and dinosaurs and can decode symbols on plinths for (never-detailed) lore about serpentfolk society. In the Slave Pens, they can fight troglodytes and talk to a rebel leader. In the Temple Plaza, there are battles against guardian statues and research into festival preparations. In the Temple (of Ydersius, a dead serpentfolk god?), the PCs fight serpentfolk priests and more snakes, and can find hidden stone tablets of religious lore guarded by traps. And last, in the Ophidian Rectory, the PCs interrupt a plan to sacrifice a legendary Azlanti hero and general, Krahnaliara Lac Suhn and can interview him at length about Azlanti lore.

There's a lot here to unpack. Obviously, the details of each combat encounter varies by sub-tier. The problem from my perspective is that there's very little introduction to the combat scenes & opponents (PCs are essentially hurled into battle) and there's no interesting terrain or hazards for the combats, which makes them rather bland and forgettable. Although the scenario taken as a whole establishes a lot about serpentfolk history, the details of what the PCs uncover with their research checks are never provided, making a GM's task a lot harder to provide flavour to what's going on. But the biggest issue I had is the incomprehensibility of what's actually going on with this time bubble. PCs can do things like aid and speed up the rebellion, and save the life of that Azlanti general--so is this actually altering the past? Is it creating an alternative timeline? Is it all a "holodeck" exercise? We're not given any answers. The scenario treats it like helping the "good guys" (Azlanti) vs the "bad guys" (serpentfolk) is really important, but it would almost seem to make a lot more sense if all the Pathfinders went in with illusory disguise magic or something to just observe and report instead of getting actively involved. This isn't just an abstract armchair nit-pick either, as it really affected what (to me) the stakes were for my PC's decisions while playing. Time-travel is always a really tricky concept because it creates paradox-headaches, so if it's going to be integrated into a game, it needs to be handled really intelligently--and that's just not done here.

Part 3 ("The Sky Comes Crashing Down") probably over-eggs the pudding. If time-travelling serpentfolk from 10,000 years ago wasn't enough drama to deal with, the Pathfinder Society has failed to notice a massive external threat. The Harbingers of Fate--a secret society dedicated to proving Aroden's prophecy to generate his return--has learned of the Sky Key experiment and decided to hijack it for their own purposes. When the Harbingers take control of the Sky Key, something goes wrong (or right?) and hurls the Pathfinders and the Harbingers into a different point in time: right before the legendary starstone is about to crash into Golarion and launch the Age of Darkness!

The goal in this part is for the Pathfinders to hurriedly explore the Azlanti city of Lacshuhnolio (named after the general from Part 2), find the Harbinger "anchors" who maintain the new time bubble, and either kill them or coax them into surrendering. It's a pretty cool (cinematic) premise in the sense that the Pathfinders have to solve the problem quickly or face an impending worldwide apocalypse (my Oracle of Groetus would have loved it!). Again though, in practice, the scenario doesn't live up to the premise. There's very little flavour provided for this ancient Azlanti city or its people, and the poor table GM won't be able to fill in any gaps as they have an enormous workload (keeping track now of "Anchor", "Discovery", and "Vault" points as well as running a copy of Kreighton Shaine to aid the PCs).

The combats here can be a bit of kooky-fun, as the time disruption has brought primordial oozes and cavemen from the past and undead (bearing uncanny resemblance to the PCs!) from the future. (The flip-mat chosen for these fights, Village Square, is super-mundane for an ancient Azlanti city.) Each of the Harbinger anchors is given a surprising amount of background, but if (as is likely the case) things boil down to a fight, they'll be outnumbered 5 or 6 to 1 and easily dispatched. Mid-tier and higher level groups can then take the fight to the Harbinger leader herself, Lady Arodeth--statted up as a magus. I do like how the scenario presents combat and diplomatic alternatives for dealing with her.

The Conclusion records that after dealing with the Harbingers, the Sky Key is lost but the Pathfinders are returned to their normal time.

Overall, I don't want to be too hard on The Sky Key Solution. It's certainly an epic task to generate encounters for so many subtiers, a plot that seems suitably epic for a yearly special, and a ways to make it feel like the tables are cooperating in a joint effort. And in addition, by doing it play-by-post, I missed out on that buzz of energy and excitement that comes from playing it in-person with dozens of others. Still, the scenario needed to spice up the meat of the gameplay (the battles) and better explain the core question about how the time-travel elements worked. As a capstone to Season Six and a source of lore on both the serpentfolk and the Harbingers, the scenario succeeds. Otherwise--not so much.

Meeting of Queens is the first Starfinder Society adventure set on the Castrovellian continent known as the Colonies (home to the ant-like formians). The scenario's plot ties into the history of Castrovel, as it involves a ritual reenactment of the "Meeting of Queens", a time when the warring formian queens united together to fight a common foe (the lashuntas on the continent of Asana). For the first time since a peace agreement was reached on Castrovel three decades ago, outsiders have been invited to participate in this reenactment. In his briefing to the PCs, Venture-Captain Arvin says lashuntas, staff from Qabarat University, and Starfinders have been asked to play the role of one of the now-extinct formian tribes by making a trek overland from the edge of the Colonies to the meeting site. Arvin tasks the PCs with essentially making a good impression on their hosts in a high-stakes diplomatic mission.

As an aside, I still discern a complete lack of personality coming from Arvin. I also wonder why the decision was made to have all Starfinder Venture-Captains based on Absalom Station instead of spread out across the Pact Worlds. It seems like a little thing, but it means every scenario starts the same and requires the formality of travelling through the Drift (where nothing ever happens) to reach the point where the adventure really starts.

Once on Castrovel, the Starfinders meet the rest of the delegates for a party the night before the planned departure overland. There are six named NPCs to interact with here and a series of minor events (one of the delegates is drunk, one offers the PCs some revolting food, one is in a bad mood, etc.) to be dealt with. Depending on the outcome of some skill checks, the PCs might gain some friends among the other delegates (which generally results in automatic attempts to Aid Another on particular skills from those delegates, which is something very easy for a GM to forget about). The social "events" are fine, and I always appreciate some role-playing opportunities. However, when a bunch of NPCs are thrown at the group, they really need to have artwork and personality descriptions--otherwise, it's just too hard to tell them apart and to make the role-playing interesting (unless the GM is *really* good).

The next part of the scenario is the overland travel. There are six different encounters (though only one involves combat) here, and the main thing the PCs are trying to achieve is to stay on schedule. If they lose too much travel time (all given in half-day increments) by not dealing properly with the encounters, they could end up late for the Meeting of Queens and that would, of course, make a poor impression on the formians. An interesting complication, at least for the combat encounter, is that the PCs are expected to recreate the original journey by foregoing all use of powered devices--that means only archaic weapons! A good challenge, even if some players will whine about their perfect builds becoming less useful for a session. I also like how the scenario writer made some of the encounters optional and gave the GM explicit instructions to tailor them to how interested the players were in the travel section--some added flexibility is usually a good thing.

The Meeting of Queens itself is a little bit of text-box description of the ritual and then an action scene, as one of the delegates (a phentomite graduate student from the university) has activated a psychic feedback device that makes the assembled formians attack each other! All the fuss about travel delays really boils down to whether the PCs are seated near the front of the event (and thus have an easy time chasing the saboteur) or seated near the back (and thus have to deal with more difficult terrain, the possibility of falling down the rafters, and being attacked by crazed formians). The saboteur himself surrenders the moment a PC reaches him, and confesses he was bribed by an unknown party to set off the device on the promise that a scholarship fund would be set up for impoverished university students.

The feedback device is in communication with a mysterious ship in orbit, and it falls to the PCs and some climactic starship combat to deal with the problem. Like with most starship combats, I have no particular recollection of this one, and I'm pretty sure my PC did nothing meaningful in it.

The conclusion offers the PCs a moral decision (and reporting condition) on whether to turn the saboteur over to the formians, over to the lashuntas, or over to the Starfinder Society. It's not a particularly interesting decision to my mind, as there's no information given to the players as to what the different choices might entail in terms of consequences--if all three options result in imprisonment, for example, then it doesn't seem to matter. A twist in the tail ending reveals that the previously-undisclosed sponsor of the lashunta delegation is Datch! I don't think the revelation really hits, as it's not clear how/why the Starfinder Society would have gotten in particular trouble for what happened at the meeting.

I guess I've been pretty hard on Meeting of Queens. It's not a bad scenario per se, and involves a good mix of role-playing, skill challenges, and some action scenes. For whatever reason, it just doesn't quite cohere into an especially good scenario either. I'm going to mark it down as average, with the reminder that an excuse to hang out with buddies, eat pretzels, and roll dice is always welcome.

The planet-hopping nature of Dead Suns continues. If Chapter One was Absalom Station and Chapter Two was Castrovel, Chapter Three is (briefly) the Diaspora and then (mostly) Eox. At the end of Chapter Two, the PCs learned that the Cult of the Devourer had transmitted information on the possible whereabouts of the Stellar Degenerator to a base in the Diaspora. The background information is pretty interesting (and involved!), and PCs may have the opportunity to learn some of it in the course of the adventure. It starts with a long-dead prophet of the Cult of the Devourer named Nyara and her magnum opus, a tome called The Entropy of Existence and Glorious Rise of the Void. In her cryptic prophecies, allusion is made to what could very well be the Stellar Degenerator as laying somewhere within or beyond a distant, unexplored star system called Nejeor. As this chapter begins, the Devourer cultists in the Diaspora who received the transmission from the Castrovellian sect have already made the connection and set off for Nejeor. What they, and the PCs don’t know, is that the Corpse Fleet (renegade Eoxians) kept an eye on things, saw a transmission to this hidden base, raided it for information, and have also set off for Nejeor! The idea is that there’s a race for this superweapon, and if anyone other than the PCs win, the galaxy will suffer.

The adventure is separated into three parts.

Part 1 (“Field of the Lost”) starts with the PCs’ arrival in the Diaspora, where their starship is immediately attacked by a patrolling pirate vessel named the Rusty Rivet (a Nebulor Outfitters Starhopper from the inside front cover). This starship combat is intended to go the PCs’ way and can even be handled completely peacefully, as the pirate captain surrenders quickly and invites the PCs aboard so she can be conveniently interrogated about the location of the Devourer base. The set-up doesn’t speak very highly of the supposed vaunted Free Captains, but I guess that can be remedied in a future AP.

The pirates point the PCs to an asteroid, but the Starfinders will have to comb its apparently desolate surface to find a secret entrance to the underground complex. But even getting that far could be a challenge, as there’s a rogue sarcesian with a sniper rifle to make it difficult (the rationale for his placement there is a bit far-fetched, but I *do* like long-range encounters). In addition, there’s a back-matter monster: a skreesire (and its offsprings, skreelings) to be overcome. A skreesire can take some temporary mental control of foes and that, combined with a nearby acid pool, could prove pretty nasty.

Part 2 (“The Vanished Cult”) starts with the PCs discovering the cultist base is eerily abandoned. It’s a big complex with lots to explore, and wasn’t left completely unguarded: there are some cool-looking security robots, a veolisk (from the back-matter), and my persona -favorite, an awesome laser wall trap (don’t roll a nat 1 on your save!). Careful searching my clue the PCs in that the Corpse Fleet came here after the cultists left. This is definitely one of those (fairly common) situations where a group would be stuck if they didn’t have someone skilled in Computers. For better or worse, the group I was in had a super-Operative that could make any skill check in the game with ease. However, all the searching and hacking in the world doesn’t discover that the cultists and Corpse Fleet have set off for Nejeor. Instead, all the PCs have to go on is a vague idea that if the Corpse Fleet is involved, then Eox should be their next step. In any event, as the PCs hop in the Sunrise Maiden for whatever destination, two Corpse Fleet fighters who have been watching the asteroid swoop in to attack. What I find patently ridiculous is that the fighters wait for the PCs’ ship to get going before attacking, as it would have been a sitting duck while parked on the asteroid. Another example of a forced starship combat that doesn’t really make a ton of sense plot-wise.

Part 3 (“Planet of the Dead”) has the PCs’ headed to Eox to meet up with a contact provided by their Starfinder Society contact, Chiskisk. Chiskisk explains that the authorities on Eox have set up a specialised government agency called the Ministry of Eternal Vigilance to investigate the Corpse Fleet and that it’s headquartered in a city called Orphys. Like some real-world government agencies, the “Ministry of Eternal Vigilance” is essentially a tiny pro forma office that does little and mostly exists so that the authorities can claim to be interested. The Ministry of Eternal Vigilance is headed by a bored ghoul bureaucrat Waneda Trux, and this was probably my favorite part of Chapter Three. Props to the GM for making Waneda really come alive (pun!) as an NPC with limitless time and a limitless fondness for rules and regulations.

Waneda has a couple of leads to follow about Corpse Fleet activity in Orphys and, depending on how the PCs handled the Eoxian Ambassador’s special mission in Chapter 1, provides some different resources (a nice tie-in). The leads were actually planted by the Corpse Fleet to lure the PCs into a trap, and from a metagame perspective they work perfectly because plenty of adventures are premised on PCs following even sketchier evidence to get to the next encounter. But this section of the AP is far less of a railroad than earlier parts, as the PCs have some time to explore Orphys, a city given some memorable flavour by its connection to the flesh vat and necrograft industries. I particularly love a shopowner who calls himself Gentlesage--a corpsefolk wearing archaic finery (like a dented monocle and dingy top hat) who considers himself too fancy for his surroundings.

The clues eventually lead the PCs to a hermit outside the city (and outside of its environmental protections for living creatures). The hermit is a marrowblight Corpse Folk sympathiser (with cool artwork!), and she ambushes the PCs with the help of a pet ellicoth. Alas, this is the battle where my dearly departed barathu envoy B’rrlb’lub (a.k.a., “Excitable Flying Jellyfish”) was killed and added to the marrowblight’s “Skin Shack”. To add insult to injury, in our group’s next session we were walking back from the marrowblight when the *real* boss of Chapter Three (a jiang-shi vampire) springs her ambush. My new PC, a really interesting (honest!) wannabe-ghoul, got bull-rushed into a pool of acid for 20d6 damage per round and died. (A real bummer for me, but I can’t blame anyone but myself for that gaffe!) The vampire has a data module that provides the link the PCs need for Chapter Four--again, though, without some *really* good skill in Computers, a group could easily be stuck (especially because the data module has self-deletion countermeasure with some failed checks).

Despite losing two PCs in short succession, I really enjoyed the Eox portions of Chapter Three. The Diaspora stuff, on the other hand, was fairly forgettable, generic space-dungeon crawling. Next chapter, we leave the Pact Worlds behind and set off to explore strange new worlds and new civilizations.

Hands of the Muted God is a perfect example of a scenario that starts with a great premise but then tells exactly the wrong story with it. In a briefing by Venture-Captain Adril Hestram, we learn that there was once an aspirant for divinity who called himself the Muted God. But when he took the Test of the Starstone, he never emerged, and his name was added to the Shrine of the Failed and the vast majority of his followers abandoned him. But a small kernel remained steadfast, reasoning that perhaps a God of Silence and Serenity would ascend into godhood without trumpets and fanfare. These loyal followers, the eponymous “Hands of the Muted God”, have stayed in the Puddles District of Absalom ever since. But recently, many of them have started exhibit powerful magical powers which, rumor has it, are traced to their pilgrimage to a mountain called the Weeping Grandfatheg, on which the Muted God supposedly spent a year and a day in meditation. Now that’s intriguing! Did the Muted God ascend? Why are his worshippers gaining power? What are their beliefs and rituals like?

But the story we get isn’t nearly as interesting. It seems that Hestram sent a team of Pathfinders out to investigate the Weeping Grandfather, but they haven’t returned and the PCs are sent to discover their fate. (they’ve only been gone a week, which seems a bit too soon to panic where wilderness treks and mountain climbing is involved!) The scenario then jump-cuts from the briefing to the discovery of the missing Pathfinders’ campsite. The Pathfinders are dead, but their bodies have been booby-trapped with insect swarms to deter pursuit.

The identity of the booby-trappers is spoiled in some of the faction mission handouts, but also becomes obvious in the second encounter once the PCs start ascending the mountain: drow! In an unconvincing backstory, the demon lord Abraxas has had some divination about a source of great power hidden in the mountain and has sent his own cultists to secure it. I think this whole drow-derail was a major mistake in plotting. First, the drow are treated as just more monsters to overcome—we don’t get to see any of the culture that makes them so interesting. Second, I found it a real stretch that drow would be operating so boldly on the surface—one of the distinctive things about Golarion is that the existence of drow are a closely-guarded secret and viewed by most surface-worlders as simply a myth. The scenario sets up this really interesting, original storyline involving a failed(?) aspirant to divinity and then gives us three forgettable encounters against drow (plus a battle against some chimeras, seemingly thrown in just to pad out the scenario some more). The leader of the drow expedition is a drider who, at high subtier, will be accompanied by a vrock. I’m not 100% sure why the scenario was retired, but my guess is that drow sleep poison could be a TPK-generator with some poor saving throw luck.

The epilogue, at least, is interesting. After defeating all the drow, the PCs will gain access to the site of mystic power: the Hall of the Zero Incantation, a vast shimmering cavern of crystal with a serene, silver lake in the middle. The lake is capable of recharging any chargeable magic items, which is pretty powerful indeed! But, there’s a twist that makes perfect sense: if anyone entering the hall makes the slightest sound (e.g., failing a DC 30 Move Silently check) the entire cavern crumbles. This is the Muted God we’re talking about! Though, he has stayed very, very muted since and has never been mentioned again in any Pathfinder product.

Venture-Captain Fitch’s kids are up to more hijinks as she delivers the briefing aboard the Master of Stars. It seems the inhabitants of several Pact Worlds colonies are coming down with virulent diseases, and Big Potion (what we would call “Big Pharma”) has been slow to respond and is charging prices that are out of the reach of many. But the Starfinder Society has an ace up its sleeve: the izalguuns of the planet Izalraan have extremely advanced medicinal synthesis techniques, and have agreed to help the Society for cost. But one of the izalguun elders, Naarma, has asked for a favour in return: it seems a particular region of the planet is suffering from low-level radiation poisoning, and they’d like Starfinder help in finding out the cause.

The izalguuns were first encountered by the Starfinder Society in # 1-13: On the Trail of History and then again in # 1-17: Reclaiming the Time-Lost Tear. There, the Society learned the izalguuns were once an extremely technologically advanced culture residing in the system that came to be known as the Scoured Stars. When the izalguuns escaped the clutches of their over-protective deity through a mass exodus to Izalraan, they decided to leave their technological ways behind and live in harmony with their surroundings. The PCs in those early session had, as a reporting condition, to decide whether to keep the existence of the izalguuns secret from the wider galaxy (as they desired). It seems like most groups did, though my drug-addicted character Troivayan was happy to exploit them for the associated boon discount on medicinals. Ah, good times!

Anyway, the PCs have no trouble getting to Izalraan and meeting with Naarma. As she takes the list of medicines that need to be manufactured, she points the group in the direction of the irradiated area. Radiation is pretty nasty in Starfinder, though armor can protect against low levels and the PCs have had a warning that they should be prepared for it. Later on, however, they might be exposed to more severe levels of radiation, and then things can get serious.

The first encounter in the game is against some native bovine megafauna called ovibovos. The ovibovos have suffered severely from radiation-induced cancer, and their bodies slough off mobile tumors that can latch onto PCs! It’s simultaneously gross, funny, and memorable. I do like that the scenario provides a way to resolve the situation peacefully in addition to the usual combat option. What surprises me the most is that one of the Chronicle boons for the scenario is the opportunity to select an ovibovo as an animal companion--these are Huge sized creatures! I hope the Society starts manufacturing larger starships.

Speaking of starships, the source of the radiation leak will quickly be discovered as one of the large transport vessels from the initial izalguun exodus from the Scoured Stars system. But although the izalguuns have abandoned technology, they knew what they were doing and built their vessels to last (or, at least, to degrade safely)—so there has to be another reason for the radiation leak. Before the PCs can figure out the answer, they’ll have to contend with some of the ship’s automated security robots (cleverly designed to resemble izalguuns, which makes perfect sense) and persuade the vessel’s artificial intelligence to help out. The latter obstacle was a smart addition, as it provides an extended role-playing opportunity in what might otherwise be a fairly straightforward combat-heavy scenario. The AI can also provide some interesting insight into the history of the izalguun, building further on what’s been learned previously.

So what is behind the radiation leak? Sabotage--by jinsuls! Although they were conclusively defeated in # 1-99: The Scoured Stars Invasion, a small band led by a zealot mystic named Dvimnix escaped and have come to Izalraan for revenge on their ancient enemy. They’ve been working for weeks to break down the ship’s reactor in the hopes of poisoning the planet. I think it was clever to see the jinsul again, and to remember that an enemy defeated isn’t an enemy vanquished forever. It’s a nice tie-in to the Season 1 storyline. The main battle against the jinsul takes place in an encounter in which they can direct radiation leaks at the PCs, the PCs can try to shut down the reactor, and there’s plenty of combat to give everyone a role to play in the group’s success.

Assuming the PCs are successful in stopping the jinsul and curtailing the radiation leak, they can return to Naarma and will learn that the new medicinals are ready to go (izalguun work fast!). There’s a hint in the epilogue that Big Potion may be intentionally slow-walking their response to the disease outbreaks, and I suspect this will tie into Season 2’s overall storyline.

In reading the scenario, there’s very little that I didn’t like. The artwork for Dvimnix (the jinsul leader) was pretty poor, but the rest of the artwork is strong. There’s an unconvincing rationale for why the PCs can’t just take a shuttle to the source of the radiation and have to go on foot, but that’s par for the course for Starfinder encounter design which has never really grappled with the increased mobility of a futuristic setting. One would think the ship’s AI would have previously detected the jinsul incursion and done something about it. The Starfinder Society seems more interested in getting good publicity then in actually saving lives. And yeah, I’m not sure about Huge-sized animal companions that can be ridden as mounts and trample foes.

But those are all pretty small nit-picks in what’s overall a really strong scenario that shows the value of deep research into previous scenarios. I think most groups will enjoy it—just bring radiation buffers!

Terror in the Chamber of Pain involves an evil cleric/torturer named the Seeker in Shadow, who, with the aid of a half-orc assistant, wanders the planes inflicting pain on hapless victims out of a sheer delight in cruelty. The backstory is that the Seeker in Shadow was once a cleric of “Astanoth, God of Truth and Beauty” (a deity that never appears elsewhere). But after his family was savagely murdered, the cleric fell into madness, despair and a thirst for vengeance, so his god cursed him to wander the planes for all eternity in his perverted chapel, the “Chamber of Pain.” Astanoth isn’t exactly inspiring confidence in his decision-making as a deity.

Anyway, the cool thing is that the Chamber of Pain, being a mobile, inter-planar building, can appear literally anywhere. There’s a ton of easy adventure hooks to get the PCs involved in checking it out—such as the kidnapping of an NPC they know, being hired to investigate disappearances on the streets, or simply stumbling across it in the wilderness where it wasn’t when they camped the night before! But apart from that useful premise, the adventure itself falls very flat and is rather unmemorable. The Seeker in Shadow is a chump and no threat to the party, while his assistant is dangerous only if he lands some shurikens laced with purple worm poison. The “Compleat Encounter” products usually include a unique magic item or artefact, and in this case it’s a fairly uninteresting “Rack of Ruin” that provides a bonus on Intimidate checks to interrogate a foe. The artwork for the “Rack of Ruin” looks like one would expect (a medieval torture device), but the pictured miniature is just a wooden table with some tools on it—not sure what happened there.

All in all, there’s not much reason to track this down and play it. Unlike some of the other “Compleat Encounter” adventures, it doesn’t even have a proto-Golarion lore element. Probably best to leave it forgotten.