Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-21: Slaver's End

The backstory to Slaver's End involves two NPC antagonists from previous scenarios. First, going way way back to # 1-38, No Plunder, No Pay, is a former Chelish ship captain turned pirate named Jirandiel Waverider. The PCs in that scenario (I haven't played it) apparently stole Jirandiel's ship from her and led to her extreme embarrassment, gaining PCs a "Waverider's Revenge" boon that gets paid off here. Second, earlier in Season Ten, PCs in # 10-06, Treason's Chains, encountered the schemes of treacherous Venture-Captain Phlegos Dulm and forced the half-orc alchemist to flee Katapesh. Off-screen, Dulm allied himself with Jirandiel in a slavery business before Jirandiel's hatred of Pathfinders (even former ones) got the better of her and she turned Dulm into a slave as well! Now, Jirandiel and her pirate crew are building a base on a small island off the coast of Qadira, using Dulm and several other kidnapped Pathfinders as slave labor. (as an aside, I'm not really sure why Dulm thought it was a good idea to get into the "enslaving Pathfinders" business--surely it's far riskier than other types of slavery!)

The scenario proper starts with the PCs receiving a letter from Venture-Captain Wulessa Yuul (Dulm's rival from Treason's Chains) instructing the group to meet with a leader of the Liberty's Edge faction named Karisa Starsight. Starsight has creepy eyes, but explains the mission: the Decemvirate wants Dulm captured and brought back for questioning. Leads point to Dulm having sold Pathfinder agents into slavery, so the best place to start is by talking with Corvius Vayn, a wealthy slave merchant and genie binder.

When the PCs get to the Vayn estate, they'll soon be presented with an intriguing dilemma. Vayn is willing to divulge Dulm's whereabouts . . . for the price of a PC's servitude for a month. Alternatively, he'll ask for every PC to owe him a favor to be collected at a later date. PCs not interested in making deals with a powerful slave merchant have an alternative, however. They could secretly free Vayn's efreeti bodyguard who can provide the information, but the efreeti is evil and they'll be setting free a creature that could easily inflict harm on innocents later. And to add another layer of complications, the efreeti could even use a wish to instantly teleport the group to Dulm's location--but (depending on how well they negotiate), with a twist. I think it's an excellent situation to put PCs in, as there's a solid moral quandary and lots of room for character personality and motivations to feed into quality role-playing and decision-making. The best way to proceed isn't obvious, which is crucial to making an interesting problem like this one.

However the PCs solve it, they'll be able to get to Jirandiel's pirate base, but will be unaware that Dulm is a slave as well. It's a clever twist. The rest of the scenario takes place on the island. PCs who travel there through mundane means will arrive at the docks, and the scenario makes excellent use of the Docks flip-mat for it. PCs who get there via an efreeti wish may start in a sea cave that could just be occupied by a giant octopus or squid! This sea monster is controlled by Jirandiel by a new magic item, an orb of aquatic mastery, and the PCs are likely to encounter the monster at some point in the scenario, either in the sea cave or at the docks. A careful GM will note that it will only use its grab & constrict ability once per round (despite the number of attacks it has), which makes the encounter easier than it could be. Still, I was happy my PC had a lesser talisman of freedom--things could have gone very bad otherwise!

The manor house contains pretty much what you might expect: some lesser pirates (aided by some guard dogs), the Pathfinder slaves that need to be freed, Dulm (whose fate could be another interesting moral question), and, of course, Jirandiel--gamified here as a high-level swashbuckler. I like how the writer played fair with how long it takes various NPCs to respond to alarms by donning armor, buffing, etc., and PCs who move quickly might be able to catch them unprepared. I don't imagine most groups will have difficulty with Jirandiel (one martial villain against four to six PCs is probably not going to fare well), but Dulm does have some poison ability and the giant octopus/squid can be a wild card that could ruin an unlucky player's day. It's a solid set of encounters in terms of overall challenge, and I don't have any complaints on that score.

There's not much in the way of epilogue, but the Chronicle does allocate boons for the different ways the PCs might have dealt with Vayn and his enslaved efreeti. It's a fun, solid adventure, and actually something that would work well for new players despite being for higher level PCs. PCs in the Liberty's Edge faction will find some special features as well. So although this may not be in the very top tier of PFS scenarios, it's definitely one to play.