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Highly resembles In Service to Lore. Good to see you-know-who again, though.

Enjoyable, interesting, noteworthy chronicle sheet ... overall pretty awesome. Stressful as all get-out if you have a character who hopes to become a Lion Blade, though!

This is without question my favorite scenario so far. It has roleplaying, complete with amusing side missions, it has action, it has the potential for a serious plot twist--it seems really obvious unless all the clues get missed due to certain rolls and then wham it's out of left field--and the chase scene uses a new mechanic that I sincerely hope becomes the new standard because it actually works. It's delightful.

I do wish it had seen some better editing; it's rife with typos and at least two are in player handouts, which means the GM needs to fix them before they go out. Or not--the DC 17 Swim check to break down a door does tend to get a pretty good laugh out of the table.

If I wanted Magic cards, I'd buy Magic cards. The redesign of the front already made me think of ugly CCG design, but then I realized that the back, with its little circle, is so evocative of M:tG that if WotC sued over it, I would honestly wonder if they might be on to something.

Plus I'm pretty bummed that the art isn't being updated. I'm not saying I don't love the original art--I love the original art--but this is just an uglied-up re-release. If they weren't going to reprint the original deck for whatever reason, they should've revisited the artwork to make an actual new product.

Quality merchandise! Lots and lots and LOTS of options. I love it.

This book is very good for certain things. There is a lot of interesting information in it. There are a number of new systems that I look forward to implementing in campaigns, and perhaps Society play, should any of them wind up legalized. The secret societies are fun, and it never sucks to read some more about the thought process behind a fantasy world.

However, I believe that the advertising text for this book is misleading. It says, "How did humanity rise from barbarism? Why did the gnomes leave the First World? Who are the string-pulling veiled masters? What is the Aucturn Enigma, and what strange powers did it grant the rulers of Osirion? What secret could be so great that it led to the suppression of volume five of the Pathfinder Chronicles? Within these covers, all these questions—and far more dangerous secrets—are explored at last." This is true, but only literally. These questions are explored. They are not answered. The answers are not even hinted at--instead, there is a bit of background, and then are suggestions of what certain people in the world might believe.

This is disappointing. I understand the value of maintaing mystery, but I would've preferred to know that I wasn't getting answers *before* I paid for the book.

I'm really surprised by how much I enjoyed this. It is pretty funny to see the iconics in action, especially after a few thousand PFS sessions of watching them suck. There are a few really neat character moments for each one--Valeros grabbing that guy's fist in the first book, for instance--that really just make the whole thing. The plot lines are a little derivative of every other damn thing published about Varisia, but that's okay.

From a gender perspective, there are some issues. On the one hand,

was actually pretty cool. On the other hand, there's a lot of girl-on-girl flirting--which is in keeping with the overall Paizo idea that the iconics are, for all intents and purposes, bisexual--but there's none of the guy-on-guy that should result from that same situation, which means it's just typical "omg look at the lesbeeens!" crap. Similarly, I wish Paizo concept art would stop being so obsessed with BREASTS. Seoni's got sideboob even from the front, Mersiel's cleavage is out to here ... it's just tiresome. I realize it's not the fault of the comics--I remember seeing a Quasit with double-Ds in an adventure path, and Quasits don't even have genders, from what I can tell--but I feel like it wouldn't kill us to have some female comic heroes who are fully clothed.

This scenario has a lot of potential, but it needs a good GM.

Keeps the players invested, is interesting, isn't likely to be the same thing every time (multiple events, not all of which get done at any given table, which vary based on tier ... good stuff).

Ran this twice in a row for a local con. Enjoyed the first time, kind of, even though the high social mod at the table was -2. The second time they talked where the talking needed to be done but the combats just draaaaaaaaaaagged. Make absolute certain you have 5 hours for this, by the way--4 is just not enough.

Really hoping that ending is explained at some point because it makes basically no sense whatsoever. I don't mean "X wouldn't do Y" I mean "THIS IS THE DUMBEST WAY TO GO ABOUT DOING THIS."

Zzzzzzzzz ...

Only even slightly memorable because of the last encounter, which was pretty funny. But the secondary success condition under the new system is pretty stupid.

Not bad. Nothing super-special, but at least it's interesting.

Nothing special, but it gets points for the possibilities of variety.

This is, without a doubt, the single best adventure written for Pathfinder that I have yet encountered.

Although this is thematically linked to the other two "among the" scenarios, it's actually substantially funnier if the characters in question *haven't* done the first two scenarios, IMO.

A rip-roaring good time. If you don't want to GM insanity and hilarity, don't run this scenario, because a boring GM would just ruin this. But if you enjoy goofiness, this is the one for you.

High quality. Strange, disturbing, repulsive ... awesome. Loses one point for predating APG (if you've run it you know exactly what I mean).

There is only one combat in this scenario that can't be easily avoided by roleplaying, and even that serves the end of roleplaying. It is awesome. I wish more scenarios were like this.

It's interesting, especially because two factions seem to be at cross-purposes, but ... I dunno, it just doesn't seem well-arranged. One of the maps makes no sense to me, and the secondary conditions are somewhat difficult to guess at.

Quality merchandise. Investigative, ethical quandaries, surprises galore. Superb.

Interesting, convoluted, varied. Quality.

Look, let's be clear: This scenario takes two hours if you stretch it. That's not always a bad thing, but it is something to keep in mind.

That said, those two hours are going to mess with your head. If you don't leave this feeling a little bit dirty, you weren't paying attention. It's an absolute delight to run because even a party that's goofing off and not paying attention finds itself sobered by portions of the flavor text--but it's not depressing, because the combats are so comically easy that you can get some good fun out of them. All told, fantastic. I just wish there was twice as much of it!

I kind of like this one--there's a lot of different things going on, and it's not the same thing over and over. The trouble is the maps are very much designed for four PCs, and with a party of six they get hopelessly cluttered.