Welcome to The Sinking, Campaign Serial, Season II.
"The Tribunal Edicts", written by Tim Hitchcock, is part of an ongoing series set in the Great City. This is not a numbered adventure in a path, but instead, it concerns a mysterious event that will forever alter the Great City, setting the tone for future events. Following the trial of the Malchort Cabal (Season I closing adventure) and the revelation that something of great danger lurks within the Sinkhole, the adventurers will face new dangers that lead them in the vast underground of the Great City. Each one will be a stand-alone adventure, designed to be played independently without a specific sequence and can be completed in a single evening’s play.
Following the trial of the Malchort Cabal and the revelation that something of great danger lurks within the Sinkhole, the Kortezian Government ordered an immediate evacuation of the Sinkhole area. In addition to the possibility of outside threat, the strong anti-Azindralean sentiment of various Cabal members struck a raw nerve with the native Azindraleans, forcing the ruling class to act preemptively in order to avoid civil uprising. Almost two hundred soldiers deployed to the Sink site and, overnight, they barricaded the area from the rest of the city.
"The Tribunal Edicts" is the introductory adventure for Season II of The Great City: The Sinking adventure serial. It was designed using the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game system and intended for a group of 5th-level player characters
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In a delightful romp through political intrigue, this adventure proves that politics, Great City style, are not in the least bit boring! An ancient but lapsed custom of calling an open meeting called a tribunal to solve major issues facing the City has been revived to discuss the Sink - as 'experts' the characters (assuming that they have played through at least some of the earlier adventures in the series) are called as witnesses.
Of course, there's much more to it than that, and a heady mix of celebration, assassination and a good chase will keep the characters occupied in ways more fitting to an adventurer that participating in a political talking shop... yet for those who relish a good intrigue or debate, there is plenty of that too, clearly set out with the appropriate mechanics to abstract the process yet enable the characters to have an influence on the outcome if they so wish.
Old acquaintences and new are woven deftly into events, which will increase the feeling of being at the centre of affairs and beginning to wield some real influence over the course of events. Everything is laid out clearly for the GM, with information, maps, stat blocks and other game mechanics provided just where they are needed. It's quite amazing how much is packed into a few pages, and yet the adventure can - and indeed for best effect should - be played out in a single session. A fine addition to the saga of the Great City, and an excellent demonstration of how to weave politics into your plot whilst keeping it exciting.
The first episode of 0one's second season of the urban catastrophe-series "The Sinking" has 23 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page SRD, 1 page editorial, 1 page ToC, 1 page back cover and 1 page advertisement, leaving us with 17 pages of adventure - not a bad deal for the low price!
This being an adventure-review, the following contains SPOILERS. Potential players will want to jump to the conclusion.
Still here? All right! As a result of the exposure of the Malchort Cabal and the evacuation of the immediate vicinity of the Sinkhole, senator Vulgrax has called for a public tribunal, evoking an old rite of the Azindralean poeple. The adventure kicks off with the PC getting first a signet that invites them to the tribunal and declares them key witnesses and soon afterwards, they are contacted by infamous Butcher Cwell of the Pigoteria, a man known for his seditious satires of the ruling class and chef extraordinaire, warning the PCs of the hidden agenda behind the edicts. When the hearing in teh courts under the mountain kicks into place, the PCs will bear witness to the 4 edicts: The first denotes the sinkhole's area the property of the Triperium, disowning any people of their claims to their own goods. This edict also has a revised version in which at least some compensation is potentially provided. The second edict want to appoint Cygil Karn, first prophet of the church of Lazarus, to become the official oracle of the sinkhole and its Kharel. Everyone exposed to the sinkhole must report to the authorities for questioning and potential quarantine - essentially making it possible to hold anyone for an indeterminate amount of time. A revised version requires "only" meeting the Kharel and reporting once a month to the authorities. Edict 4 declares the sinkhole off limits for all but Academe Trypus and their personal assistants - these are the highly volatile political edicts. And then, there are the factions:
From the delvers, adventurers and middle-class individuals that want to check out the sinkhole, to people who want to contain it, the adherents to the church of Lazarus, the proactivists who want to destroy the sinkhole to the staunch believers in the edicts, the Trypus Academe, each fraction gets its own write-up on how they stand on the edicts and it's up to the PCs in one AWESOME bout of influencing the poeple, to determine which of the edicts pass and which don't - unfortunately for them, though, as often in politics, there are no right choices and each of their actions might have potentially rather severe repercussions, even more so than in any of the first season of the Sinking.
When the PCs meet Blood Senator Vulgrax thanks to Cwell after the edicts, he is straight-forward and pronounces tantamount to treason - that he and his clan seeks segregation from the Kortezian empire and that he suspects the villain of "The Malchort Cabal" to be allied with Clan Atregan and the dominant powers as well as that the empire want to make the Great City the new capital - with potentially dire repercussions. And there seems to be something to his words, as not long after, an assassin takes the first, subtle shot at the Blood Senator and the PCs - if the assassin is uncovered, the PCs can make for an interesting 7-part chase through the ward to hunt down the perpetrators. Upon their return (or if they stay), they'll see a blood senator named Harlo Belano make way for Vulgrax - detaining him in informal questioning and clearing out the Pigoteria for now - and provoke a fight with the PCs to have an option to detain them. If the ploy fails, the PCs could spy on the interrogation - if they can avoid detection by Harlo's creepy halfling associate... After all these high-tension intrigues, the PCs will meet the drudgespades and make off for an old storage which probably contains information on the undercity, hidden in a now desolate villa - the problem being that one exemplar of deadly prowess infiltrator s among them, making a final grab for the valuable documents. Thus concludes this breath-taking installments of the Sinking.
Conclusion:
Editing and formatting are awesome this time around - I encountered no glitches. Layout adheres to a beautiful 2-column standard in b/w and the original b/w-artworks and cartography are awesome, as we've come to expect from 0onegames. The pdf comes with extensive bookmarks.
Oh boy, intrigue, excitement, chase, interrogation, combat - this module has them all and opens the second season of "The Sinking" with a BANG! One of the components would be enough to carry such a short module and I'm honestly stunned how much content Tim Hitchcock managed to cram into these pages -I've read adventures thrice the length of this module that had less going on! Add to that that the chance to influence the edicts and all the conspiring is simply awesome and empowers the PCs, I can absolutely and wholeheartedly recommend this stellar little module - which costs only 2 bucks! I don't get it! There are 20-buck modules I've bought that lack even a fraction of the coolness of this humble module. If you enjoy urban adventures even a tad bit, you MUST check this out, this is one of the best urban modules for PFRPG. Final verdict? 5 stars, endzeitgeist seal of approval. If the rest of season 2 is as awesome, we're in for one hell of a ride!
