A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–4 (subtiers 1–2 and 3–4).
In the heart of the River Kingdoms, revolution and turmoil boil just beneath the surface. The PCs are called to investigate rumors of an old, abandoned Pathfinder Lodge, but discover that their investigation leads them into a firestorm of danger and intrigue. What starts as a simple task becomes a revolution sweeping a nation, and the PCs' actions will inevitably shape the future of an entire kingdom.
Written by Kalervo Oikarinen.
Scenario tags: None
Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:
Lots of extra text, a bit open ended with some forced interactions. Of the modules I have played to date this one required a lot of massaging to make enjoyable for a quick one shot outside of a long campaign like story where any of these events matter.
I appreciate that this adventure lets you choose a variety of sides to take, providing adventure for players who want to join the rebels, infiltrate them or even just turn them in.
That said the most common action I've seen involves PCs going from meeting with the higher up rebel to suddenly jumping to assassinating the king right this minute feels very jarring.
The whole adventure doesn't really quite hold together
"Special: By the end of this encounter, the PCs should have either won the fight, fled, surrendered, or lost the fight."
No adventure, that's not special. That's how almost all combat encounter end. The adventure consistently uses an overabundance of text like that to explain itself. It's hard to read, convoluted with what feels like pages of text describing the most basic of circumstances. As well as about a half page of text describing terrain in excruciating detail that's unlikely to be interacted with.
I liked this scenario a lot better as a player than I did as a GM. The story seemed cool and coherent when I played, but when I GMed, I realized that it's an awful lot of work to make it that way. The sandbox-style exploration could benefit from a stronger explanation of the timeline and what happens as the PCs start intervening.
That being said, if the story arc can be wrangled, it's a very nice scenario, with a lot of interesting encounters and setups.
Completely pointless, boring battles and setpieces
Sometimes a scenario concept just doesn't land. This is one of those times.
"hey go here and scout out a location for a potential lodge" (you do this in the opening moment of the game) okay cool now here's some stuff with a potential revolution in the town nearby where we as a society have no real stake.
Wanna pick a side? Uhh..why would I? Who are these people? What's going on? None of these questions are really ever answered. You then do some talking to some king after which you may or may not get involved in a fight over political power in this region you have little to no reason to care about.
Developers - it would be super helpful in these scenarios if you would add a treasure bundle summary/w award conditions for GMs at the end of the scenario for quick calculation and to move along the chronicle process quicker. Super annoying if you forget to jot notes during the running then have to go back and count what the players earned.
Please keep this as non-official. There seems no description that I found on the Paizo pages - but the following maps got mentioned when I added a slot to warhorn
maps used according to warhorn:
Maps used: Pathfinder Map-Pack: Palace, Ruined Village
I've purchased it searching for a political scenario. Found a total mess. The mcguffin is annoying, the combats are pointless and the political intrigue plays out itself. I thought... Perhaps it's an oportutinty for a bard to shine but...no! Everybody foolishly trust you for no reason! Please, make interesting political scenarios. I love merchant's wake. I love blackrose matrimony. This is just some lazy excuse to feel "political". That is not the way. I ended up purchasing #1-07 and it's far better. We don't want to kill spiders for no reason. Without a true sandbox there's no point in making some "political flavored" adventure. Please take more seriously that kind of stories.
Why do the Veteran Guards have Longswords as ranged weapons on pg. 28? That has to be an error where it should say Melee. That are they need ranged weapons.
This was a fun campaign, but the PDF for this adventure was rife with problems ranging from grammar problems and abrupt sentence structure, to misleading / incorrect treasure bundle information. The beginning of the adventure also starts off without enough information to really help the players understand all of the things they can do, so make sure you put in some extra effort wrapping your head around it all so you can present it to your players in a clear way.
All in all, this adventure felt pretty sloppily put together and didn't have the polish I would have expected.
As I have not bought it myself but have played it. This is a decent scenario that can have some slight challenge to it. I have fun playing it though there can be a bit of weird travel things with it that can break up the narrative and gameplay, not that bad though. Good RP.
