Starfinder Adventure Path #39: The Gilded Cage (Fly Free or Die 6 of 6)

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Starfinder Adventure Path #39: The Gilded Cage (Fly Free or Die 6 of 6)
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The crew of the Oliphaunt have gone from rags to riches... and then lost everything to their rivals. Now, at last, it's time for payback! Their longtime enemy, Lord Sinjin, drow master of an interplanetary crime family, dwells in a secure fortress surrounded by an army of henchmen. Getting in is impossible. Instead, the crew must lure him out with bait he can't refuse, bringing him to a remote space station and a deadly ambush. But Sinjin didn't survive this long by being easy to fool...what happens when the hunted becomes the hunter?

"The Gilded Cage" is a Starfinder adventure for four 11th-level characters. This adventure concludes the Fly Free or Die Adventure Path, a six-part monthly campaign in which players take on the role of a merchant crew with an experimental starship, trying to get rich, escape interplanetary assassins, and outwit their rivals. This volume also includes advice on continuing the campaign beyond level 13, and full details on Smuggler's Moon, an elite paradise and refuge for the galaxy's most illustrious and wealthy criminals.

Each monthly full-color softcover Starfinder Adventure Path volume contains a new installment of a series of interconnected science-fantasy quests that together create a fully developed plot of sweeping scale and epic challenges. Each 64-page volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path also contains in-depth articles that detail and expand the Starfinder campaign setting and provide new rules, a host of exciting new monsters and alien races, a new planet to explore and starship to pilot, and more!

ISBN-13: 978-1-64078-326-3

The Gilded Cage is sanctioned for use in Starfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure Path and Chronicle sheets are available as a free download (5.3 MB PDF).

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Starfinder Adventure Path Subscription.

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I feel bad for being harsher on this one since I liked a lot in it, but yeah

2/5

Taking break and coming to reread ap part with new eyes is sometimes really handy, while its easier to review aps as whole when you read all six parts in row, its much easier to notice strength and flaws of individual part when you aren't exhausted from reading all of them. In this case I can start that while I haven't run the adventure, I can tell that most of combats don't feel like they are there just for exp besides nyssholora one which feels like randomly out of nowhere pacing wise.(though I think lot of other people might feel otherwise about part 1) So I feel pretty decent about combat encounters even if I don't know how they feel like in practice.

But yeah, after reading this few years ago and rereading now, I kinda have to agree that yeah fly free or die IS railroady. Like, I get feeling that the dev in charge of ap and assigning ap books to different authors had really strong idea what kind of story role each books fills and writers went along with it? I could be wrong, but it feels like best way to run ap as written is to basically at start of campaign give players handout "here are all story arcs/acts, you can prepare in advance thinking how your character will develop into these acts" kind of thing <_< Like it goes beyond the whole "players will go from rag to riches back to rags and then get their revenge" story buying aspect of it, some parts of different ap books kinda make assumptions about characters about do or ap as written goes off rail, even if some of the books provided the minor branching paths pcs could take.

Its not really fault of the book itself since it applies to all six books as whole and I do think its entertainingly written and enjoyable to read, but admittedly pacing wise its kinda weird that this book starts with "After taking revenge on other person who screw them over and learning of bounty, pcs try to live normal life for while and ignore the larger problem". Like yeah in book or movie you could justify with it being clear how untouchable the big bad is, but in trpg campaign players tend to be very proactive. (lot of things like this make me think fly free or die as whole would work better as a video game)

What kinda surprisingly make this worse for me is that book acknowledges this with sidebar, which just makes me think devs should have figured out more natural way to do the part 1. Heck it doesn't help that at time part 1 seems to go with "Look, we all know this is that part of story, this part can't happen if all pcs have great disguises and nobody recognizes them" while still allowing some minor encounters to be avoided with disguises (and then in part 2 allows disguises to work again. Heck pcs really might be masters of disguise considering the heist earlier in the ap). It just feels railroady because the part 1 is derailed if players do anything that deviates from assumption of "pcs try to return to regular work and don't try to disguise themselves 24/7 in public"

Like... The story and writing itself gets across the bittersweet frustration of "man everything is going to shit again, ignoring the bounty doesn't work" but I just don't see what kind of party would actually need all three events to be convinced to do something about it rather than the first one at best? Dr. Gulm one especially feels like railroady (so random passerbies recognize pcs and his medicine instantly gets destroyed when combat starts unavoidably).

Part 2 is pretty much best part of the book and I like Smuggler's Moon. if Smuggler's Moon was its own standalone module it would be easy 3 or 4. But as part of this ap it feels kinda convenient? Its new location that is 1) distant enough that players could hide there and Sinjin couldn't contact other goons 2) it happens to have several people related to Sinjin 3) it happens to be perfectly reasonably to be taken over by pcs 4) one of its rules is that bounty hunting isn't allowed. Like.... I honestly don't mind that its very perfect location for pcs' purposes. What I mind is that its new location disconnected to events or characters from previous ap books. Like I feel like final confrontation with Sinjin should either take place somewhere familiar to PCs or Smuggler's Moon should have been introduced way earlier in earlier jobs or even as temporary hiding place for pcs. If this is space trucker ap then it could have been one of the common stopping points for pcs. Considering that book 5 is the "and now all your good deeds and friendships pay off" book, book 6 feels kinda disconnected from stuff pcs do personally even if its mentioned that their friends can still help them.

Part 3 in itself is just "here is an example plan, but your pcs could really just come across with any kind of other plan, but try to uses statblocks and ideas to help you plan out what happens" which is good. (though I do find it kinda amusing that example plan assumes that players trust certain character to do their job well considering players might have done same thing to him that Sinjin does to him as well xD) And I do like the possible fate of smuggler's moon and variants of it(maybe pcs take control of it, let it stay on status quo, improve things and maybe mend relationship between two characters, etc) and I do like Sinjin's anime transformation(might have preferred more of Yakuza game reference though ;D). So I do think there is lot of great things to the book(ursolha from bestiary are one of my favorite monsters btw) but yeaaaaaaah.

Part 1's pacing in bigger campaign and weird zig zagging between "players can use their skills to minimize harm" and "sorry, but this is spot where things go bad because they get recognized" and "Your players might not need any convincing to go after Sinjin, but here is 15 pages of things going wrong to convince them to do so also so that they have enough exp but hey you can just replace them with assassins if needed to" combined with how part 2 feels disconnected from grander ap is what brings down my rating for this one. I don't think its badly written or anything and most of problems with it as problems with ap as the whole, but I really do feel like smuggler's moon would work better as standalone or gm should introduce it as much earlier as much more important location to pcs for this book to work better.


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Announced for April! Product image and description are not final and may be subject to change.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

I. Cannot. Wait!

Grand Lodge

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Yay! Excited to see this.

Paizo Employee Webstore Coordinator

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Cover art updated! :D

Marketing & Media Manager

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This volume does not have a content note or warning.


Did the pdf date get pushed back a week or is my mind playing tricks on me?


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber

Yes, all of the April releases got pushed back due to international shipping delays.


Was wondering why it is not possible to preorder the PDF as it would have been nice to get it on the sales price.

Silver Crusade

Sales have never applied to preorders to my understanding.


Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Has anyone gotten their copy yet? Mine hasn't even started processing and the street date is quickly approaching.

Liberty's Edge

Nighthorror888 wrote:
Has anyone gotten their copy yet? Mine hasn't even started processing and the street date is quickly approaching.

If you check the current thread here you will see that there has been a delay in Paizo receiving several of their products for shipping. That is why you have not received an e-mail yet about processing your credit card, etc.. Paizo doesn't do that until they have their products all in and ready to ship for the month.

Don't worry. The product won't end up on shelves before you get yours, as Paizo does not have the product yet from China in order to ship it to you - let alone to retailers. Delays happen; canals get blocked, ships that were expected to deliver, turn around, pick up products and carry on carrying on, here, there, and everywhere over the globe were disrupted last month.

Hopefully that changes in the coming days, but that's what's up with delays on The Gilded Cage -- and other products that should have gone out a week and a half ago to subscribers.

Dark Archive

Moved to july 2021!

I guess this will be my last issue of Starfinder Adventures for the time being, as my local FLGS is changing owners and we havn't had time to play any SF adventure after Dead Suns.
I am also switching jobs and with "Horizons of the Vast" (which sounds great) switching to bi-monthly, i am loosing interest a little.
We also can't meet in person yet and have lots of Pathfinder 1e left to play.

It has been a great ride, thank you for the fish! ;-)

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Please follow the April & May 2021 New Releases and Subscription Shipping thread for updates.

Marketing & Media Manager

Please see the June 2021 New Releases and Subscription Shipping customer service thread for updates.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Was there other articles in this book besides smuggler's moon and continue the campaign articles? (I will know soon but I still wanna ask while waiting!)

Marketing & Media Manager

2 people marked this as a favorite.
CorvusMask wrote:
Was there other articles in this book besides smuggler's moon and continue the campaign articles? (I will know soon but I still wanna ask while waiting!)

CONTINUING THE CAMPAIGN, SMUGGLER'S MOON, ALIEN ARCHIVES, CODEX OF WORLDS: EMPEROR'S GRAVEYARD, and STARSHIP: RISEN on the inside cover.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I'm going stir crazy while waiting my books to be shipped as well :3 So I have to ask questions!

What monsters are in this one's bestiary?


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
CorvusMask wrote:
What monsters are in this one's bestiary?

Ghigorda (CR 18 Colossal magical beast): Toad-like kaiju from Daimalko.

Oni, Tsabagu (CR 10 Large outsider): New oni variety based on shobhads (just as other oni are based on different humanoid species).
Spewer (CR 5+ undead): Toxic zombie, more or less, that spits and spews acid. (Template graft creature; example spewer is CR 10.)
Tattoo Guardian (CR 11 Medium construct): A magical tattoo capable of defending its owner. (Tied to some new tattoo items presented earlier in the book.)
Ursolha (CR 15 Large aberration): Sort of a floating obelisk with tentacles. Sort of mystery creatures; they're sentient, but no one really knows what their deal is.
Veshred (CR 9 Medium aberration): Asteroid-dwelling pack hunters.
Yurei (CR 10+ undead). Y'all seen The Ring? Beware gifts from the associates of those you've wronged. (Template graft creature; example yurei is CR 12.)

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Alien onis, new Daimalko colossus and yurei :O Awesome! (okay I like obelisk with tentacles as well, those are cool recurring weird scifi enemy type from what I've seen xD Spewer sounds like spitter reference so thats also cool)

Dark Archive

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Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Good news everyone!

Devastation Ark player content isn't out yet, but Fly Free or Die stuff can be found on additional resources page now :3


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I've been anticipating the final book of this AP. Just purchased the PDF and downloaded it.

The single-file version is a little over 40MB, which is typical. The file-per-chapter version is over 550MB(!). Uh ... wow.

I'm just hoping that the maps and portraits - which I'm assuming are the source of the inflation - are easier to extract for online play than previous PDFs in this series have been.

Second Seekers (Ehu Hadif)

Wondering when this will appear on Fantasy Grounds because I'm so stoked to run it~!

Marketing & Media Manager

Jasmine Asura wrote:
Wondering when this will appear on Fantasy Grounds because I'm so stoked to run it~!

We will all find out together

Dark Archive

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I'm starting to realize that there are advantages to reviewing ap books without having just read all other ones in row and being exhausted from reading six books in same campaign :'D

But yeah, I don't like being harsh in reviews, but I feel like as written this isn't as strong finale as I would like due to reasons in review. I do think its good base to come up with your own ideas, but I also feel like if pcs don't buy in to every story note in this ap, its a LOT of hard work to come up with your own stuff to replace stuff that pcs ignore.

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