A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 7th to 11th level characters (Tiers: 7–8 and 10–11).
When a retired Pathfinder's nephew goes missing after allegedly discovered the fabled city of Rachikan of the ancient Jistka Imperium, he turns to the Society for help. Now you've been sent to the coast of devil-tainted Cheliax to uncover the missing nephew's whereabouts and to, quite possibly, uncover one of the most sought-after legendary cities on Golarion. But you have to move quick! The Aspis Consortium is rumored to be racing to the site ahead of you and their involvement could spell disaster for the Pathfinder Society.
Written by Larry Wilhelm
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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Fingerprints of the Fiend is an interesting little scenario. Like all Season Zero ones, it's almost exclusively concerned with combat and has very little opportunity for role-playing or social skill use. But the combat encounters are certainly varied in terms of opponents and terrain. I ran the scenario via play-by-post at low-subtier, and it didn't present much of a challenge at all to modern PFS characters. I found it a solid early scenario and enjoyed running it, and it's cool that some of the lore is picked up on in later scenarios.
SPOILERS!:
Venture-Captain Adril Hestram explains in the briefing that the PCs are headed towards an exciting new discovery: a lost city of the fabled ancient civilisation known as the Jistka Imperium! The city, named Rachikan, exists under (or inside?) one of the Pillars of Anferita in Cheliax. The Pathfinder Society learned of the city's existence from a retired Pathfinder, Benton Grone, whose nephew discovered the city but has since gone missing. The PCs' mission is a straightforward one: head to Rachikan and rescue Eldis Grone. What the PCs don't know is that Eldis Grone's discovery came to the attention of the Aspis Consortium, and that evil mirror image version of the PFS now occupies the site--and doesn't plan to give it up.
Like many Season Zero scenarios, Fingerprints of the Fiend actually starts in media res with the PCs arriving at the base of the pillar (although this type of start is good for stories, it's awkward for gaming as it's never clear whether the PCs can "flashback" and ask questions, buy supplies, etc.). After running and re-reading the scenario for the purposes of this review, I still don't really understand what the Pillars of Anterifa are--they're large enough to have "plateaus" at the top, so maybe they're a natural geographical feature like islands with tall cliffs? Anyway, as the PCs ascend the pillar, they have their first combat against an erinyes devil. It wasn't a hard fight, but it was funny to see just how much trouble mid-level PCs had with basic climbing (too many ranks devoted to Perception and not enough to Climb, I guess).
Once on top of the plateau, the PCs can see an excavation camp about a half mile in the distance. My PCs approached in broad daylight, so as the scenario instructed, I had the Aspis guards immediately attack. This started a very long range encounter with arrows raining down on the PCs as they *slowly* crossed a completely open plain under fire for several rounds. But it pretty much took a natural 20 to hit any of the PCs, so not a lot of damage was done. I do like long-range encounters though, as they actually make things like Far Shot or Enlarge Spell worth taking.
Once at the camp, the PCs will see a couple of dozen slaves and several armed guards around a wooden building. Inside are mining carts and rails leading down into darkness. A renegade Pathfinder named Talia is here, and she'll jump into the cart to escape while a couple of guards try to keep the PCs from pursuing. If the PCs act quickly, they can give chase in a cart and the scenario has rules for such a chase. My group wasn't fast enough in dealing with the guards to give chase in that way, which I (secretly) appreciated because it made things much easier to run (the mining cart chase rules looked complicated and a lot to digest for one encounter).
Once at the bottom of the shaft, the PCs find themselves in the decaying remnants of Rachikan. I wish there had been more and better description of the city, but the PCs are pretty quickly assailed by a group of morlocks and their golem servant. Morlocks just aren't much of a threat to PCs at this level.
The final encounter takes place at a Jistkan Temple-Foundry, where the leader of the Aspis Consortium (and several hidden guards) await. The leader, a cleric of Asmodeus named Halidurs Karn, did hold a few nice surprises for the PCs with his spell resistance and fire shield spells active and his tactic of separating PCs with wall of fire. I thought it was a solid encounter. The PCs will, unfortunately, discover that the individual they've come to rescue has been killed and reanimated as a zombie! And then, after the encounter, they have to immediately flee Rachikan as thousands of morlocks can be heard approaching. These Season Zero scenarios certainly don't have warm-fuzzy endings unlike some in later seasons.
Overall, I thought it was pretty good, especially for a Season Zero. My only advice would be to allow just four PCs to help make the encounters adequately challenging.
One of the most evocative chases I've encountered so far.
I love Larry Wilhelm. His scenarios tend to be imaginative, and this is no exception. While season 0 and 1 aren't the best in a mechanical sense, I like what he managed to pull off here. The story is nearly absent; only the fact that there are two followups makes this remotely interesting. After having GMed one and played one, I still have no idea what the "fiend" part refers to. The scenario begins at a good pace, but it swiftly loses all momentum when we're inside. It wasn't just that we were pressed for time that the GM rushed us through, she assured us that there are just random timeskips until the final encounter, which is a shame.
So, story is a bit lacking. Why is it still three stars? Well, the chase scene was very cool to imagine. It could be very easily broken with today's selection of spells, but deliberately not doing that leads to a great chase. And aside from that, most combats pack quite a punch. The human mooks are a bit disappointing, but the heavy hitters hit hard.
While this isn't my favourite Wilhelm scenario, it's clear his fingerprints (pun intended) are all over this. Some combats may fall flat, but there's still plenty to enjoy.
In this adventure, an uncle's plea for a search for his missing Pathfinder nephew lands the party in Cheliax, investigating a dig site that may reveal secrets of the long-lost Jistka Imperium, which once ruled great swathes of Golarion not long after the cataclysm of Earthfall.
The background notes for the DM lay out what's actually been going on, right back to the days of Jistka rule and up to the present day's events. Then the usual 'flashback' mission briefing, given in the Grand Lodge at Absalom, provides the party with the more limited information that's available to them before the action begins with them standing at the base of the Pillars of Anferita on the southwestern Chelaxian coast. And the tide's coming in...
Once they climb up to the top of the pillar they find a dig already in progress, and it will be up to them how they proceed from there. The more obvious options are catered for, and there's a reasonable amount of information to aid the DM if the party comes up with something different. The map supplied is rather small and doesn't cover everything needed, especially for a potential exciting chase scene. Good prior preparation on the DM's part is recommended. It would also be advisable to review the encounters if running this under Pathfinder RPG rules rather than the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 ruleset for which it was written, as the actual challenges posed are a bit variable, with some posing considerable risk and others being a bit of a push-over.
Run well, this has potential to be a running action-packed 'Indiana Jones' style adventure. There's scant opportunity for any interaction, however, the encounters are designed to provide combat and combat alone. The concept is fascinating, but I'm left feeling that a lot more could have been made of it.
Scenario idea is nice and if you can get the right vibe (thankfully we did for the most part) it has an Indiana Jones feel to it.
Unfortunately this is a prime example of how older scenarios do not stand up to characters who have access to anything past the core rulebook. The first encounter was a nice challenge but everything else was a walk over. The final boss died round 1 before getting to do anything for example.
There is a cool chase sequence but you need to embellish it a bit otherwise it is fairly bland.
