Pathfinder Adventure Path #161: Belly of the Black Whale (Agents of Edgewatch 5 of 6)

It does help make it more palatable since players have to buy into the premise actively make themselves look bad (or at least try not to defend themselves) so that they are taken off the force because your previous allies aren't that dumb to assume you are guilty of what you are framed off. Heck by all accounts, it should be really easy to clear your name based on how relatively easy its later on. Well besides Lavarsus since his character assassination kinda continues here.(from my perspective since I don't like him as just sitcom archnemesis) But anyway, the main problem with chapter 1 is that it's ultimately filler to gain levels and none of it is actually as necessary as it's presented to players.

The book's sidebars at least acknowledge it and provide alternate options on how to handle the situation rather than the previous book which just suggested convincing players. I consider that's a great thing, but I do still have to review the segment as written.

So while it makes sense to learn from only the person who escaped Blackwhale how they did it, the book really forgets to address the possibility of "Well if he figured out how to do it IN the prison, there is a chance we can do so as well". Plus if story is changed so that players aren't framed, even if prison is co-opted by hags, you'd think there would be other options even for undercover agents. I don't really dock a point from adventure for this though because it'd be silly to expect players break into inescapable prison purely on blind faith without them having good plan in check. Still, idea that ONLY way to escape prison is to learn how Miogimo did it is weird presentation since it works better if PCs choose to do this than them being told its necessary, especially since they actually don't need to do it.

The whole part of gaining Miogimo's trust feels off when you don't actually need to do that either, you just learn how he did it from his journal if you betray him. Sure he'll give best amount of information if trust level was high and chance for redemption(more on that as well later), but it kinda feels off that Grimwold suggests you to gain his trust when he will be part of raid to get rid of him anyway.(it makes it sound like book's default assumption is him being killed off and Kapral ruining plan out of anger towards Miogimo)

Also, why does Miogimo exactly trust corrupt looking guard more? I mean yeah, he wouldn't trust guards who seem like obvious moles, but his whole dealio seems to be some sort of Vigilante gang that forces tributes from other gangs and kills criminals. Miogimo in general being presented as one of most dangerous criminal lords of Absalom feels off when we haven't heard of him before either in this ap or in previous books(even if it makes sense setting wise since he was in black whale until his escape for some time at least, I don't exactly know why he is so dangerous if his primary aim is violence towards other criminals. Is he a hypocrite who affects innocents as well or is his vigilanteism so extreme that they might kill non criminals as threat to the city or what? At least he doesn't bother treating white collar crime with violence.) Grimwold I can at least believe having personal grudge and Miogimo isn't above killing guard members, but is that main reason he is considered dangerous? Because he is guard killer? Either way, he feels like someone who should have been foreshadowed long ago in ap so we already know what his deal is.

(it also feels like Miogimo is both meant to be seen as noble demon trope like anti hero and as evil bastard at same time. So at same time adventure is making sure you don't feel too comfortable, but might have reason to not hate guy completely. It feels bit inconsistent as result of again him being introduced out of nowhere and we don't really get good picture of what his gang is about.)

Book also kinda bends too much over to make infiltrating Miogimo be easy. Like okay sure he is fine with using pawns he doesn't trust as pawns, but it feels silly book expects players to attempt rejoin his gang if deal falls through and he tries to kill them off.

I do in general actually like section having difficult choices with benefits to both choices. Like, not doing convincing job to seem corrupt doesn't gain trust points, but Asilia still trusts you. It is possible to gain Miogimo's trust and still remain moral(but players wouldn't know that and thus would be under stress and maybe even resentment towards gm or game for "forcing" them to do this since this cloak & dagger stuff isn't really what people expected from ap's premise.

Like let's be clear, player's guide is all about recommending LG paragons of detectives yet vast majority of investigation segments are undercover visits to criminal dens, heisting a casino, infiltrating cultists, etc. It fits the secret agent thing, but not town guard thing as their main operation.)

There also that ap keeps having theme of making deals with criminals to deal with worse problem (copperhands, washboard dogs, now Miogimo) which each case being bigger scale than previous one. It really is going to make people who were expecting LG paladin type honest paragon thing feel bad even if you use idea of it being undercover mission by Starwatch. It also makes me wonder why AP is really fascinated with idea of cops making shady deals with criminals as something heroes should do.

It also bit confuses me how book keeps kinda flip flopping between remembering PCs focus on nonlethal and not. Like Miogimio clearly wants Twisted Jack dead(newspaper even confirms it), but doesn't mind if players just leave suspects to guard (so either he sends someone else to finish him off, or that doesn't happen, but newspaper just assumed that did because its more dramatic sounding option).

But oki, missions for Miogimimo themselves are pretty cool shady cloak and dagger flavor, also Batiste makes cameo(her only appearance after first book, think that means Bolera is now only one who never has appearances after sidebar. Yeah I still think Edgewatch cast should have been more involved with entire plot, it was surprising to realize how much our gm had to work on that). Its kinda weird to realize this is essentially come back tour of House of the Planes guests from first book, so this was apparently considered important enough in outline to setup this much in advance.

Garrote Sisterhood one is weird one though since its basically just trap for players who buy too much into trying to earn Miogimo's trust. You don't even get or lose trust for opening the box and all you do is make things harder for you for 30 exp and get played for sucker if you fail skill check to realize tail and shake her off. (also I do find 20k bribe the book assumes multiple times funny because this ap is rather low on loot, so players might legit not have that much extra money even at these levels)

Mother Venom's mini dungeon also bit confuses me due to how extensive it is, I would have thought she is Rumormonger's slime naga ally that supplied Infector's supplies for blackfinger blight, but there is no mention of that here.

But yeah so ultimately, chapter 1 is introducing new character for cool cloak and dagger "balance your ethics and allegiances" where pcs might go out of their way to help Miogimo or betray him to guard, but that's also why its feels off for this AP. Because AP's initial promise was being Lawful ap about heroic detectives trying to do good in corrupt city. It really isn't town guard ap, it really is secret agent ap. Also nitpick: Kinda sad we don't have art of Miogimo with his mask, especially since his maskless art just looks like dude who is purple. I feel mixed on lot of character art for this ap in general, like the painterly look some of them have doesn't feel right for the mood and atmosphere.

Okay so chapter 2. In our table we just skipped entire book 1(we did do mother venom thing though, while Grimwold captured Miogimo for interrogation), chapter 2 had GM turn prison into having been overtaken by hags with mind control magic and we had to break in because we knew Rumormonger had sent assassin to kill Wynsal (and Jonis Flakfatter as it turned out since he was sent to Blackwhale too in our campaign). We got entrance to prison by having talked to Oirel about our conspiracy theories about Flakfatter planning to get into Blackwhale for some reason, so he had written us prisoner transfer document we could use to switch place with wardens since he was going to retirement anyway and we essentially saved his life from lesser death x'D

Reading the version as written, I actually like both as written and sidebar inspired versions, at least as an infiltration scenario. Though admittedly this is section which really could have been heist scene instead of casino from book 3. Like in this version there really isn't as much planning of prison break, you just obtain the tattoo, then try to bluff you way through to Wynsal. I do find it amusing that to get to the binding crystals, they kinda have to fight through the evil hags.

Binding crystals being superior locks is bit harsh though because six successes with level 40 dc is... Well hard. 35 + 5 is exactly very hard level 16 difficulty. Like reason its level 17 item is because "level 17 and lower creatures can't open this one easily". So as result its extremely likely math wise pcs trigger alarm.

I do find it bit confusing though how Absalom book makes it clear this is Gyr's prison for political prisoners while book seems to assume its just where worst of worst are sent to. Its also interesting how absalom book version of Warden is listed as LE while this one is LN but in progress of being corrupted by hags.

I do think the main thing that I find problematic about this part as written is that its ending is basically "Mimmurath breaks out and is good distraction" since we already know you can't leave demiplane that easily(he is kinda dumb for blue dragon as written since it doesn't seem like he is bothering to make sure he can leave demiplane first by convincing pcs to take him with them or such), so logically he and guards just stay there fighting each other which uh... Feels bit weird spot to leave place? I mean even if they take friendly prisoners with them, that seems like lot of casualties to rescue primarch for... Barely any urgency besides making plan together on how to deal with Rumormonger?

In general though yeah, I do think main risk here is that stormholt seems to be mostly assumed to be normal combat dungeon, with infiltration being more of special option rather than norm and honestly kinda hard because there are multiple ways for pcs cover to blow especially with hag fight. (I do like that guards are level 12 creatures so -4 threats to level 16 party in case alarm happens and they gang up on pcs) Like... It kinda just adds to as another morally grey thing for pcs to deal with (even if guards are bastards, its still them doing their job which you'd think for law enforcement pcs is hard thing to swallow even if they fight non lethally, when in the end they see "oops, dragon broke out") and it kinda feels the "hags mind control everyone" option is better for combat while normal version is better as heist infiltration scenario with ending needing to be adjusted somehow to feel less like you indirectly killed lot of people. I think that's why our GM had Mimmurath just leave place with us while being all creepy about it.

But yeah so after breaking out Primarch there is small (bit fillery/clean up like) segment of clearing your names. And due to how easy it is, it kinda ends up feeling like only difficulty here is due to you on purpose making things harder for yourself by refusing to help clean your names before. Its why I noted that while soft-balling makes it easier to buy into premise, it also results in it feeling like "we just did bunch of unpleasant stuff to make things harder to ourselves and it turned out it wasn't actually absolutely necessary".

I do like that its bit of throw back to allowing pcs do some investigating again, so I take any opportunity of that being allowed in this ap. Our gm did cut this part but that's because our group was so heavy into roleplaying our entire campaign took 94 sessions and there was heavy burnout towards end so we started skipping "extra" stuff after book 5 started and eventually took on milestones when we skipped more stuff in final book.

I do find Wynsal's "failsafe in case pcs missed chance to ask about it from Rabbit Prince, here is confirmation that who Rumormonger is" thing bit silly because it both feels like another example of answer to mystery being handed down to players instead of giving them new chance to figure it out AND it makes Rumormonger seem too obvious due to reasons Wynsal could figure it out.

But yeah so I do have commentary on mini investigations: Graveraker one is bit funny in that this is first time pcs actually investigate it personally in campaign since its disappearance in first book, which ends up being setup for next book as well. Graveraker is really weird thing in that how its literally stolen just to implicate Wynsal, then it turns out its really bizarre magical protean chaos magic thing so you are like "wait, the heck, they stole chaos warping construction machine... To frame Primarch?" Also bit convenient graveraker's creator also recognize 's Rumormonger's clockwork and thus can implicate his identity as well. It kinda ends up becoming this entire "this feels too important thing to not have been foreshadowed since book 1" and "wow so we could have found this early if we had used free time to go around asking".

Anyway so pcs fulfill investigation and have evidence to implicate Rumormonger, with help of Wynsal's contacts with makes Rumormonger's all unknowing innocent employees abandon him conveniently and finally Starwatch will raid his lai- yeah no that doesn't happen.

Okay so I think its time to address one thing I haven't really addressed: The ap overall doesn't really focus much on city of Absalom itself. There are couple times there are reminders of "oh right this is supposed to take place during Radiant Festival" in most books even if Radiant Festival isn't really important for most of them. There is another example where this is notable: whole Twilight Four's plan rests on civil unrest created by framing Primarch. There are multiple mentions of this to GM and even Wynsal's article foreshadows it and... In this book its only mention really is certain Hellknight who executed rioters after Rumormonger freed them(presumably to continue rioting).

I don't think its case of real life events causing changes due to production timeline of AP but its really weird of how its REALLY plot important to AP, but we barely see any of it on screen. And as result, its

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The crime lord cooperation is just in pursuit of a MacGuffin; there's no grand plan to break into or out of prison, it's mostly just "cast ''get out of jail ritual''". The prison break winds up being a dungeon crawl with a brute-force ending that defies any attempts at subtlety. Afterward, being on the run as fugitives is just a few skill checks against amnesiac witnesses in order to set up a combat encounter, the result of which automatically clears the PCs' names and gets them back on the force, with no questions asked.

All of that is in service of a final act that looks like it'll be an engaging social/roleplaying reckoning for the PCs and their role in Absalom up to this point, and against a compelling foe who should be able to use their evil actions from the first two acts to manipulate them into considering staying outside of the law — like telling them the first-act crime lord had the right idea to foster order by building power outside the broken legal systems, but he clearly wasn't as well equipped or right-minded as the PCs to pull it off.

But it instead just winds up throwing one left-field twist after another (Reginald is literally made of the ink of an enslaved kraken??? His head writer is a devil with eight prosthetic pen limbs so it can libel faster??????) that sets up a series of underwhelming demon/devil/clockwork combat encounters and boss fight.

The most distressing part is the chance that players will find out during the prison break that the first act wasn't even necessary — a second person knows the ritual required to escape, they're already inside the prison, they're good-aligned, and they're explicitly amiable to working with the PCs. So not only is the first-act crime lord a frustrating mess to deal with as both a GM and player, he's also ultimately redundant to the plot. The AP doesn't seem to acknowledge this, but the PCs almost certainly will if they investigate like the previous four issues have trained them to do.

In other words, the PCs commit evil acts for nothing, will almost certainly find out that it wasn't necessary, and end up getting away with commiting evil acts by being above the law. If the PCs don't reckon with this themselves (and do so entirely unprompted by the AP), and they're lawful or good, they need to move a step toward both chaos and evil if they finish the adventure as written. Not ideal!

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