A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 3-7.
The failure of Mendev's wardstones set in motion not only a new crusade but also catalyzed a change in the Pathfinder Society's various factions. As the Pathfinders prepare to march on the Sky Citadel Jormurdun, members of the various factions scramble to consolidate their gains and neutralize their enemies. "The Paths We Choose" is a special event designed to highlight the changes in each faction over the course of Season 5, The Year of the Demon, and the adventure is different for each group depending on which factions are represented at the table. Content in "The Paths We Choose" also contributes directly to the ongoing storylines of the Andoran, Cheliax, Osirion, Qadira, Sczarni, and Taldor factions. This adventure kicks off Season 6, The Year of the Sky Key and is for character levels 3-7.
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 Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
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Scenario #5–99: The Paths We Choose is more time consuming to prepare than most scenarios and half its content will not be run. Much of the justification for faction changes could be covered in blog posts and faction letters, much like we saw weeks ago. It's about as climactic as a blog post, too. If this scenario’s goal was to provide a meaningful introduction to the factions post Season 5 it is my opinion that it failed. That said, I approve of what Paizo has done with factions, but I recommend skipping #5–99: The Paths We Choose if you have another option.
The scenario works reasonably well, but it feels rushed into publication. There are lots of typos, important details are missing in several cases, and some of the motivations and sections of railroad track don't quite make sense.
Good GM prep can overcome all of these obstacles, but the scenario would have benefited from another round of editing before being released.
That said there are some cool scenes once you hammer the thing into shape.
This scenario wasn't what I expected. Based on the description I thought I'd be playing some sort of epic finale in Mendev, where factions backstab each other in the middle of hordes of demons. This turned out quite differently.
It should be understood that we had a fairly strong party of mostly level 3-4 characters and my level 6 paladin, with a healthy spread of abilities. I played this with Damanta as a fellow player (see review below). We were told we'd gotten back to Absalom for some R&R after the business in Mendev was concluded, and as it happened there was a funeral/public festival, so that worked out quite nicely. As it turned out the missions weren't hard for us, so we treated the whole thing as a sort of holiday; kick some butt in the morning, go to a party in the afternoon. We felt like veterans dealing with some light issues at home after a season of heavy fighting abroad. So while the adventure as a whole wasn't all that challenging, everyone had a great time.
Basically what happens during this adventure is, you play 3-4 faction missions against a backdrop of a city councillor's funeral. We did Silver Crusade, Osirion and Cheliax missions.
Silver Crusade:
This one was the one we had the most fun with. There's a slave auction with a strange bidding mechanic, and we really went into trying to figure out the "game theory" to win it. And then there was a moral choice; there was a young slave girl that we didn't "need", but it looked like she might end up with a pervy buyer dude. So do we use part of our scarce funds to try to save her? We did, and succeeded at enough of the auction as well, so we finished this with a clean conscience, but it was tight.
Afterwards some of us trailed our opponent while the rest of us moved to bring the "merchandise" to the security of the Grand Lodge. So when the bad guys tried to ambush our main party, we ended up catching them from both sides. It was a nice fight.
The epilogue conversation with the faction leader is important here. Using the mini-adventure as an example, it tells you what the focus of the Silver Crusade will be now. I've seen some other reviewers write that they thought this adventure would've made more sense as a Liberty's Edge scenario, because it's about slaves.
I disagree with that: this path is about the SC taking responsibility for things in peacetime. They promised criminals a pardon if they fought in the Worldwound, and now they have a debt to settle. Because some of those criminals are still getting bounty-hunted and sold into slavery, after they went on the crusade. I think this is actually an important message about the Silver Crusade: it's not just about smacking down demons, it's about making the PFS a force for good in the whole world, in peacetime as well.
For the GM, I think he/she should make sure to think about the auction mechanics, and figure out some sort of justification for them. Because they are kind of weird, and you should have answers for that, instead of the lame "that's just what the scenario says".
Personally I think it works if you call it conspicuous consumption; the focus of the customers isn't to get the best possible deal, it's to have a nice evening with some light competition and possibly a souvenir.
Osirion:
This one was a bit trivial, although it ended up entertaining as well. Bad guy comes in, surprises two PCs. I move closer and draw a weapon. He casts Sound Burst, stunning only the previously surprised PCs. Monk manages to Stunning Fist him. I move up again, demanding he surrender. He doesn't answer (stun), so I hit him, crit, and he's dead. His minions run away at that point. And then the surprised PCs went "whaaaa? what happen?"
Afterwards we had fun talking about how we were going to send in the level 1 pathfinder "interns" to nicely seal up and hide the now-cleared tomb. Because that's how level 1 adventures start: a routine job to mop up the remains on a cleared tomb, that of course isn't cleared anymore. We felt we had a "responsibility" to ensure there'd be another such adventure :P
The epilogue however, where Amenopheus decides to formally secede from Osirion, was short but effective. We literally got to see the moment the faction changed, and see why. That was nice.
Cheliax:
One of the Cheliax tieflings in our party went with Zarta to a wild party at her villa and was kinda doing the walk of shame in her wake when we met her the next day to hear about a little problem she wanted us to help. Here's were I make mention of how relatively easy the missions were so far; it was basically 15 minute adventuring days, because we had about 4 days to do 3 jobs, and they all showed up nicely spaced apart. So for our wizard to miss morning spell prep wasn't even such a problem. It's a nice change of pace, but from my experience with 6-01/02/03 I can safely say this will be the exception (also good; a break now and then is nice but I also like real challenge).
So basically, we need to go into a vault where something's gotten loose. So we do so, find a strange monster that's escaped from a mirror. We learn that the shards of the mirror might help stop it's fast healing, but by the time someone's gotten the shards next to the melee, we've already beating the thing to death. Remember, our party was on the powerful side for the tier.
What made it nice is that the creature isn't one of the standard evil outsiders, so it's a good break from the "cold iron or silver?" routine. This was still the heftiest fight, but not terrifying. Afterwards, we all agreed that Zarta was right to say that it's about time someone starts real work on dealing with the stuff the society keeps locked inside these vaults. After all, this creature could've been dealt with ages ago, but instead now there's some dead interns. So this mission does a good job of justifying the existence of the Dark Archive.
So, although there's quite a bit of combat in this scenario, it's not particularly hard. There's some RP in it, but you can keep that either minimal or expand on it according to taste; most of it isn't mission-critical but it's available if you want it. I think the strong point of this scenario is that it actually does what it promises: it shows you the new directions for the factions in a way that makes sense.
Combats: 4 Not too hard, but both SC and DA were interesting. All the fights were entertaining.
Story: 4 The scenario does what it's supposed to do. The backdrop adds some flavor but doesn't distract.
RP: 3 It's got possibilities, but not a whole lot of RP is required.
Miscellaneous: 4 We went on to play the first S6 scenarios with roughly the same party, and this was an enjoyable teambuilding exercise. And feeling like a bunch of badass veterans showing the people at home how it's done was enjoyable.
I'll probably GM this at some point as well, it looks like a nice bag of things to work with as a GM.
We played this in low tier (3-4), Dark Archive, Osirion and Silver Crusade were at the table I played.
The Dark Archive mission was the one that made most sense to me, and also the conclusion and introduction to it. A well placed true striked whip grapple won us the day there.
The Osirion mission felt a bit tacked on as a quick sewer/dungeon crawl. The aftermath was really puzzling to me, but that might be because I haven't played that many season 5 scenarios yet, unlike Dralneen who sort of explains why she's starting the Dark Archive before you start the mission, Amenopheus just goes into a rant at the end against the ambassador of Osirion and states that the Scarab Sages are going to be started. (Or I just misinterpreted the speech ofcourse)
The Silver Crusade mission was also a bit strange; There's three people who have been pardoned, but they have been captured and are going to be sold as slaves, but instead of dealing it by having a "police"-raid you're supposed to buy them free. We decided to roll with it for the stories sake and had a lot of fun with it.
The entire celebration against the background and inauguration (on which you have no influence?) made for a nice setting and we all treated it as followed:
We're in Absalom for R&R, with some light combat in the morning and feasting and drinking in the afternoon and evening, perfect relaxation.
This feels like a evolution of First Steps part 1. I really like it!
There are currently 7 Quests within the scenario, with the game only experiencing details of 3 of the 7.
With proper GM notations on the chronicle sheets, is it possible to play this scenario twice in order to experience 6 of the faction specific quests? With the proviso that no player gets to repeat a quest?
EG. Playthrough 1: Dark Archive, Grand Lodge, Exchange.
Playthrough 2: Silver Crusade, Scarab Sages, Andoran.
(Miss out on the Taldor mission)
This would double the play potential of this product and allow more PFS players to let their characters experience the changes in their factions.
That would be very difficult to coordinate. Remember that you would have to ensure that everyone at the table was not replaying one of the missions, and that's a tall order for a table of six.
The Special advises that a group should be able to play through at least three missions, but it can do more as the slot allows. It's conceivable that one might play 5-99 as an epic, 6- to 8-hour event and do all of the missions.
Why was the Silver Crusade left out as the only faction that doesn't get any attention in this module ?
Silver Crusade had a mission, just like every other current faction. If you played with more than 3 factions present, your table might not have had time to get to it was all.
Follow-up Question... Since this scenario becomes available after the start of Gen Con, how should the faction changeovers be handled?
I had the same question - the answer is in the fact that you get to make one faction change at any point during Season Six. When you start Season Six, your faction transfers to the new one matching it (if applicable). From then until next Gen Con, you can make one free faction change.
Announced for July! Keep in mind that it won't be available for normal purchase until just before Gen Con 2015 but is available for regional conventions and game days.
I'm confused. It is available for purchase, but it can't run it unless it's at a qualifying con or game days?
Announced for July! Keep in mind that it won't be available for normal purchase until just before Gen Con 2015 but is available for regional conventions and game days.
I'm confused. It is available for purchase, but it can't run it unless it's at a qualifying con or game days?
So since this was run as a special, does it count towards the "10 exclusives/specials" for qualification for 5th GM star?
I only ask because I'm at 99 tables and want to start getting those in soon.
So...you've got 99 tables but an exclusive ain't one?
;-)
Hard to tell if you are being serious or not. I have 113 tables now. And no. I have never run an exclusive. I have run a table at a multi-table special though.
Still no definitive answer to my question that I can see.
Hard to tell if you are being serious or not. I have 113 tables now. And no. I have never run an exclusive. I have run a table at a multi-table special though.
Still no definitive answer to my question that I can see.
I have a question, not whether it is a misspelling and maybe not important, but English is not my language and I tend to translate the stage for better interpretation. On page 6 named 'The Opparan Trace Commission,' and also page 10, but say the glorious speech Opparan Trade Commission. which of the two is? if they mean different things.
I have a question, not whether it is a misspelling and maybe not important, but English is not my language and I tend to translate the stage for better interpretation. On page 6 named 'The Opparan Trace Commission,' and also page 10, but say the glorious speech Opparan Trade Commission. which of the two is? if they mean different things.
It should be the "Opparan Trade Commission." Trace would be a typo.
given that this was essentially a reboot of first steps to introduce new factions, and tome of righteous repose has set precedent for a 3-7 evergreen, is there any chance this could be opened up for replay? likely without the trait boon intact, similar to the wayfinder restriction on confirmation?
I honestly hope not - this is way different from Tome of Righteous Repose. If people are super interested in playing for the other missions, that's why GM stars exist.
But honestly, half of the missions are pretty crappy anyway. The Exchange and Sovereign Court missions are cool, but the Grand Lodge, Liberty's Edge and Scarab Sages missions are forgettable, and the Dark Archive and Silver Crusade missions are downright terrible.
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