Pathfinder Adventure Path #120: Vault of the Onyx Citadel (Ironfang Invasion 6 of 6) (PFRPG)

[Spoilers for this book, and also Lost Omens]

I want to say first off that there is nothing wrong at all with this book in isolation. It provides a rich and varied experience with fascinating locations, unusual enemies, and a real sense of gravitas over what is happening in the world. It well deserves the otherwise good reviews in an of itself.

As someone in a group who plays in a setting where the ends of APs matter and go on to shape the geopolitics of the world, I feel obliged to speak up about this book now that the Lost Omens campaign setting has released.

This AP did a great job of bringing out the horrors of war and the fate of simple, everyday folk in the face of a violent and oppressive invasion. As some other reviewers have observed, it had a very Lord of the Rings feel about it. It started by making the PCs feel utterly powerless, and then let them gradually gain power and prestige as they were able to stand up against a very real terror that threatened the life of their loved ones and their country.

It should go without saying that villains need a good motivation for their deeds, and Azaersi was a compelling and complex villain from the very beginning. She had her own history and reasons for doing what she did, but I feel that her (potential) 11th hour turnaround was extremely poorly handled.

Never once was she portrayed in the previous 5.5 books as anything other than a terrifying tyrant, and the PCs had not only suffered at the hands of her finest, hand-selected generals, but they'd seen the utter misery wrought on countless innocents at the hands of the Ironfang Legion.

Thus, in every meaningful sense of the word, this was a classic heroic story with a genuine villain. The fact that the villain had good reasons for doing what she did should not stop her being a villain. Any good villain should have a motive, and complexity is always welcome. However, she pursued her goals through violence and subjugation, and fact that some of the creatures involved had been negatively stereotyped or mistreated in the past didn't erase that fact that she was waging a race war on a peaceful nation unable to defend itself.

The fact that, at the very last minute, you are able to exploit a squabble with a friend to 'talk her down' from her schemes has already been acknowledged as utterly ridiculous and out of character with the rest of the AP. I don't buy it as the 'super tough general actually has a soft side'; Azaersi as a person at this point has not earned that level of sympathy or understanding for what she's done. The fact that she can be talked down with a series of skill checks that are not especially challenging at that level is not only underwhelming as an end to the campaign, it's downright insulting to the PCs and their allies who have suffered under the tyrannical torment of her army.

Because it's not enough that she's talked down, no. She is also persuaded to peacefully treat with the PCs to 'give her people a home', which would be all well and good if it wasn't for the fact it's not just a random convenient empty nation that just happened to open up and would happily host a trained army of vicious warmongers. It's a pleasant demiplane in the Plane of Earth which already has native residents who probably don't particularly wish for their peaceful natural home to be flooded with a now-directionless Lawful Evil military. There are native creatures and cultures on that plane who don't get a single say in this, and frankly I thought Paizo was better than that. Portraying this as somehow a 'good' ending simply because Azaersi is a complex villain is disingenuous to an absurd degree.

I think the fact that this option exists is ridiculous and thoughtless, but I just accepted that some people might enjoy that and left it well alone. Its existence doesn't affect me or my players.

Until now. With the release of the Lost Omens campaign setting, we are told in no uncertain terms that this was, in fact, the CANONICAL end of Ironfang Invasion. Sorry to any players who rightfully defeated Azaersi and her army and did anything more meaningful with the Onyx Citadel, but that's how it went.

I'm sorry to say that this felt like it was written by an imaginative yet inexperienced GM who was far too in love with her villain, and wanted all the power and prestige of being a violent tyrant, but not the consequence of actually losing the character. The fact that Azaersi's survival and the establishment of a hobgoblin nation is canon now makes many of the stories told by Irongfang Invasion meaningless. Any GM running this who uses Golarion as a setting and plans to move to 2E should know this before getting into it. Of course, you can always ignore or customize anything you wish to, but you're going to have to ignore some fairly substantial developments in Lost Omens, and certainly hope that there aren't any further adventures or intrigues which touch on this.

This sixth installment of the 'Ironfang Invasion' wraps up an excellent Adventure Path with a suitably heroic ending. In my previous reviews, I've been able to discuss the narrative arc of the Adventure Path in general terms, without revealing any major spoilers, but those spoilers all lead somewhere in "Vault of the Onyx Citadel," making it exceedingly difficult to discuss the twists and turns in this part of the story. Suffice it to say that players begin this leg of the Adventure Path at 16th level and should be 18th level at its conclusion. Having organized and led a small group of resistance fighters against an invading hobgoblin army, and having learned a great deal about the arcane magics that these enemy forces are using to great tactical effect on the battlefield, the players' previous adventures have earned them seats at a major war council. This opening encounter has a very "Council of Elrond" feel to it and is a fantastic roleplaying opportunity-- literally one of the best pure roleplaying encounters that Paizo has ever written. Many of the allied parties who attend this meeting were likely brought into the alliance as a result of the player characters' actions, giving them credibility and status at a council which is also attended by some of Nirmathas' greatest, most legendary heroes. This is great stuff, truly epic! Anyway, at the council, a dramatic course of action is decided upon, sending the players to a dangerous, hobgoblin-occupied location which will be very familiar to them from previous events-- a location which several of the players likely called 'home' prior to the invasion-- giving this combat-heavy encounter added emotional heft and further intensifying what should already be another powerful roleplaying experience. From there-- and this is where I have to begin obfuscating a bit to avoid major spoilers-- the player characters should be able to appropriate some of the magical power which the invading hobgoblin army been using, allowing them to finally confront the enemy on its own terms. Once all of the dust has settled and the AP plot-line has reached its conclusion, this resolution presents the player characters with a new strange, unknown realm to explore, setting the stage for the next chapter of the players' mighty adventures.

All in all, the "Ironfang Invasion" Adventure Path begins with three top-shelf installments which are literally among the best things that Paizo has produced, which are then followed up by two quite-good chapters, and then the AP strikes gold with this finale. This series stands toe-to-toe with classic Paizo Adventure Paths like Rise of the Runelords or Kingmaker. I highly recommend this AP to anyone looking for a great Pathfinder campaign.