A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st to 7th level characters (Tiers: 1–2, 3–4, and 6–7).
When the Black Marquis lost all of the men he could trust on a failed treasure hunt, he did the only thing he could: turned to the Pathfinder Society for help. Offering an ancient lost text in return for assistance, the Black Marquis of Deadbridge sends you deep into the spider-haunted Echo Wood of the River Kingdoms to track down his missing pirates and recover an ancient treasure for the Society. You'll face brigands, pirates, spiders and more—but will you survive the perils of the Pirate Pact?
Written by Matthieu Dayon
This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can easily be adapted for use with any world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the 3.5 edition of the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game.
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I enjoyed running this scenario and my players had a good time. Given the advice of the previous reviewers, I played down the 'real' villain's early role, glossing over any dialogue with that NPC so that there would be more of a surprise in the end. It seemed to work and the players were fooled. The players also enjoyed the ship combat and were creeped out my some of the other encounters.
Despite the well-declared obvious, predictable plot, the atmosphere is good and the fights make sense. What doesn't make sense is how easy the fights really are. Some of the high tier encounters are just so flawed they can be soloed with a 5th-level wizard.
Regardless of some ingenious moments, there's always a balancing stupidity. The scenario is by no means bad, it's just so average. I'd still want to see more from the author.
The premise for Perils of the Pirate Pact is a simple rescue. The real villain will be obvious from the first scene. My character enjoyed tormenting the poor villain hoping to get the final battle over early but the DM stuck to his guns allowing me to taunt the entirety of the game. If you like pirates and ship battles then you have already played this one. If you like harassing the antagonist for a few hours you should play this one. It's priceless for the sadistic part of you.
On my running of this I was able to fool the players into not knowing who their real enemy was until the end which worked out well.
This scenario was a great introduction to The River Kingdoms. I’m a fan of any adventure where players get to run around on a ship, although it only lasts a little while. The biggest let-down with Perils of the Pirate Pact is the fights are too easy. That often happens when PCs face off against human opponents who can be critted, blinded, sneak-attacked and generally slapped around. The plot was easily uncovered and it takes an unconscious player not to know the score right from the introduction. I did enjoy the way the fights were set up however. The author does a fine job of establishing the mood and scenery. The encounters are thoughtful and well-timed. The players may feel some apprehension but once the dice start to fly it’s all over. The fights are fun but there are no nail-biting, edge-of-the-seat moments. The maps were fun to draw though. Faction missions were typical—make a skill check, pick up an item/body part ;). As I said earlier, campaign setting flavor is better than average.
