I was reading through some chronicles recently, and I cannot fathom how stupid we have become.
Three years ago, we were betrayed from within. It seemed that some Pathfinders had taken it upon themselves to split off and damage our Society's good name. After loyal agents contained the assault on the Grand Lodge in Absalom, the Decemvirate's damage control seemed to be haphazard and halfhearted, eventually getting the situation under control by making a deal with the person responsible, initially for the movement.
The fact that it took a good six months or so between his identity being known to the Qadiran intelligence forces is one thing, the fact that his intelligence was still being relied upon subsequently is another.
During those years, it was hard to tell which venture captains were reliable - who could be relied upon to follow the Decemvirate's orders, without pursuing their own sinister ends. There was mistrust. There were needless deaths of Pathfinders, and of bystanders.
Yet, after all was said and done, no internal review was performed. We have no guarantee on the trustworthiness of a given venture captain now, as we did back then.
Even last year, as we were wrapping up our business in Varisia, the real person responsible for the issues had been released from prison, and forgotten about. Yet her associate was still trusted to hand missions to pathfinders. And he betrayed us.
Yet, the Ten still have not undertaken checks. To even enter the Taldan Lion Blades, one's loyalty is tested. To attain any rank, tests for conflict of interest become more and more stringent. If a corrupt, decadent, failing empire can achieve this, for even their junior members, why cannot our trusted Venture Captains be trusted?
We keep being reminded of this, year after year. This year, all of Golarion is under threat from demonic invasion, because a Venture Captain has been associating with an enemy of the society and betrayed us. We had known that there were issues with him for years. The signs were there, but the Ten saw fit not to take action, or to undertake further investigation, but to simply ignore the problem, until it blew up.
Loyal and hard-working Pathfinders are taking increasingly difficult challenges to clean up this mess, yet the underlying problem still exists. It is inexcusable. Think of how much more exploration we could be achieving, how many more artefacts we could unearth and study, if we did not need to clean up our mess, and waste precious resources on this new crusade.
Just recently, a group of Pathfinders were dispatched to prove that the aforementioned venture captain was treacherous, notwithstanding the already existing evidence pointing that way.
To be clear: I am NOT advocating a Torch-like split within the lodge - that sort of divide solves nothing. What I am advocating is a complete, internal audit of the upper echelons of the Society, to ensure that our Venture Captains are trustworthy, and that any of the treachery never happens again. I am sure that we have no shortage of inquisitors and lie detection at our disposal.
