Pathfinder Society Scenario #2-13: A Gilded Test

Taking away our equipment was met with a mixed response. For some giving up their free wayfinder was not a problem. However, at least one character depended on the light to see and we had no way of knowing if the mission would take us past sunset. Also, I spent wealth on upgrading my wayfinder and nearly had an aeon stone slotted (glad I decided to delay doing that). Taking away a character's gear is not cool. We've been to areas much less hospitable to Pathfinders and we just had to keep them concealed in public. If this mission was so sensitive that simply having our wayfinders put it at risk, why were there random people aware of our actions such that they could be captured and tortured to find out who we were just hours after our arrival?

The first encounter was fairly easy, though letting the troubadour start on the roof already was a bit lame given we didn't have the chance to prepare before the battle started. It is important to note that Vionnia had a point to tell us to stay out of the abandoned houses as it comes up later. Seeing as how these guys seemed less mercenary and more just down on their luck, we mixed nonlethal damage to avoid killing them. We were never really at much risk, but it did mean we didn't hit as often because of the penalty for pulling our "punches."

We knew going into the second match that the enemy was mercenaries so we had no resistance to killing them, if necessary. We assumed they would be doing so vs us, so no guilt. We knew something was up when the sole visible enemy was a wizard-looking guy. A wizard just doesn't stand out in the open waiting to be attacked. However, since we were previously told not to enter any of the surrounding buildings and nothing was said to counter that, it was really lame that the mercs were hiding in the buildings. That's either lazy or bad design. As if the author/developer couldn't come up with a way to "fairly" ambush the PCs. We felt the merc "cheated" and Vionnia should have stopped the fight and disqualified them.

That being said, we continued. Now, I am all for variant "monsters" to help keep the PCs on their toes, but NPCs should not have unique rules that apply only to them that give them advantages that the players cannot possible see coming. So when the mercs started using Trapped Prey on our martials who obviously closed on the wizard immediately, I started searching for that ability. I have a snare-specialist who would love to have the ability. AFAIK it doesn't exist outside of those mercs. Lame. Just another 'lazy' way to boost the bad guy's DpR without having to use existing rules or any reasonable justification whatsoever. Given them sneak attack? Sure, they could have rogue training, but they had an ability that blind-sided us and coudln't even be learned through Recall Knowledge checks. Now, I admit my searchfu is not infallible, so if the ability exists perhaps under a different name, I apologize, but if not, I stand by my assessment.

Next a hooded figure has a clearly harsh conversation with Vionnia and then leaves at the speed of plot. Nothing we can do can impact their conversation, nor the hooded figure's departure.

Now we head to the tournament grounds. This is where things really start to get railroady. First, Vionnia escorts us to the center of the melee "pit" and that we have to stay there. I assume that author wanted his tactics to run flawlessly, so what follows is a series of controlled checks with little to no opportunity for us to actually do anything other than stand in the middle of the area and gawk at our surroundings.

The grounds are wide open. There are three huge cages covered in canvas that contain some kind of creatures that are emitting a "low rumble." Vionnia tells us that her "boss" is a dangerous man and even that he has access to invisibility. The she wanders off leaving us there alone. Not sure how much time is supposed to pass, but each of us is only allowed to make one check, but that is enough time for Vionnia to completely slip away. No chance to use magic or other means to try and find a potentially invisible foe.

Immediately after the checks, there is a voice who's source we cannot locate because apparently he has access to an "old contraption that projects his voice throughout the training grounds." He is allowed to take the typical free action to regale us with his "Bond villain expose" and then gets to activate some kind of magic locks on the cages, all keyed to the same command word, so that the chains on the cages fall loudly to the ground, waking the lions inside.

Now, apparently the scenario does not say Archis starts invisible, but if not, why would we just stand in the middle of the parade ground waiting for someone to attack us, especially if the person who we've been looking for all day is right over there?

Anyway, the lions (remember they were just asleep a moment ago) get to use Stealth for their initiative since there are tarps on the cages. Convenient since that score is better than their Perception. Now, we all get an initiative boost because of our knowledge checks, but as fate always has it, the lions win. I don't know how specific the tactics are laid out in the scenario, but the lions are able to stand up from their nap, burst out from behind the cage door, Pounce (which includes a free Strike at the end of a Stride) across the field to us, hit a PC, and then grab the PC. Since they started behind the canvas, they get sneak attack damage on the Strike as well. So, before any of us can say "well isn't that a fine how do ya do?," three PCs are half dead and grabbed by full-sized adult lions. Oh, and did I mention that they must be malnourished/mistreated because they don't flee after taking serous damage, they fight to the death, cause, of course they do.

While this is all going on, Archis plans to Stealth across the battlefield, invisibly, and sneak attack a PC. Fortunately, for us the dice flip heavily in our favor and before he can get near us, we finish off the lions, without losing any PCs amazingly enough because we are mostly experienced players with optimized PCs. He goes to get his journal which is a serious mistake since it allows us to catch up to him and defeat him before he can flee the park.

Overall, I like the story and I think it had a good premise. However, it failed in the execution with wonky encounters that made assumptions about the PCs and allowed the NPCs to be unduly prepared, not to mention taking "extra actions" before initiative started. I suppose it would be less interesting to have the staged battles in an underground area out of sight of the public who could easily cause problems for Archis and his operation, but it would have made A LOT more sense. It just seems to me like the author/developer just could not come up with a way to balance the encounters so they just railroaded advantages for the NPCs in order to get the "drop" on the PCs regardless of what we did.