#3-01: The Frostfur Captives - Tweaking the Fluff for Season 5

[Blackbot]

Greetings fellow Pathfinders,

first off, I am aware that there already is a discussion thread for The Frostfur Captives. It was created back when the scenario came out and you can find it here:
The Frostfur Captives
However: as we all know, resurrection such an old thread leads to newcomers only reading the first posts only and not bothering with the reason why it came back up in the first place, so I created this new thread. Also: Very minor spoilers ahead. Nothing you don't know after the first 5 minutes of playing the scenario.

Now, first off: I know that I am not allowed to change any mechanics in a scenario. I may not change a troll to a troglodyte because I see it as a better fit or move a scenario from Mwangi to Ustalav just because I like.
So all the tweaks I want to make are ones which happen in the "Intro" to the scenario.

Now! While the scenario still reads like a fun ride two things are just off.

First problem: The scenario basically starts by saying "Please get to the place where the mission takes place as soon as possible. You will have a few days when you get there. Take the next available ship, you will be there in a few months."
Maybe you already see the slight problem here...;)

Spoiler:

Second problem: The mission is "The Shadow Lodge rejoined the society. We have to deal with the renegade cells. Torch told us how to gain information about this one cell, please do it." As we all know, the Shadow Lodge left the society again, so...little problem here?

The solutions I can see for the first problem are these:

• The PCs already are up there. They were part of the team which was sent up there and haven't done much in the past few weeks except waiting for the "Go!" - the scenario starts when the signal came and the briefing doesn't happen in Absalom, but right where the action is.
  
• Teleportation Cirble. Because the Society always has a wizard 17 around for fun like this.

Spoiler:

Second problem: It wasn't Torch who provided the info but a captured member of the Shadow Lodge.
Or maybe a traitor.
Or it all happened before the Shadow Lodge left - the group I inted to play it hasn't played any scenario where the leaving of the Shadow Lodge played any role at all, so acting as if it was still part of the society might work, but confuse the players.

Any input would be appreciated!

Blackbot

[BigNorseWolf]

You could just say that there's a group of troublemakers calling themselves pathfinders

[FLite]

Just tell the PC's it is a flashback. They are really all sitting in a bar, remembering that time a couple years back when...

PFS doesn't really have linear time anyway.

[FLite]

FLite wrote:

Just tell the PC's it is a flashback. They are really all sitting in a bar, remembering that time a couple years back when...

PFS doesn't really have linear time anyway.

(If they complain about the fact that in that case they should all be lower level, you can offer to let them play with temporary negative levels, and with only half their gear.... :) )

[Muser]

And if they should die during a flashback, call it a heart attack mid-sleep.

Really, it's nothing to stress about. Back when the old module rules were in play, my character died to a surprise round sneak attack in the Feast of Ravenmoor. No consequences, no problem, got two exp and quite a lot of gold too, but since you could attach the chronicle sheet to any eligible character and my main char(3rd level ranger) needed it, a huge mindfeck happened when he promptly gained a fighter level between #3-11 and #3-13.

Picture a boat, crossing from Kaoling to Shokuro, the prow treading the freshwater back of an unknown lake. In the hold, a sailor is soundly asleep. Is he dreaming of booty and adventure? Pffft. In his dream, a Varisian backwater hamlet bears witness to a massacre. An ulfen maiden falls, her throat pierced by a shortsword blade.

In the morning, the sailor is awake, practicing a new form of swordfighting he somehow adopted from the dream.

Now Vasco, the sailor, doesn't mind: He later split a gigantic diatryma in twain lenghtwise thanks to that new style, but narratively nothing makes sense anymore. Later he met somebody who'd experienced the Ravenmoor bloodbath first hand and heard the maiden went on to barely survive a cult raid in Tamran and argghhh...

Better not think about these things too much. Just roll with.

Heh, just realised I have a PC who has met Grandmaster Torch 4 times and the first time was Rivalry's End. Just imagine fitting that into a coherent framework.

[GM Lamplighter]

Here's how I handled it for my (ongoing) PbP game.

Intro:

I had the briefing occur in Kalsgard, not in Absalom. The scenario's author has said he only started ti there because he thought that's where they were supposed to start, but there is no reason to not move it. Kalsgard is a big enough town to buy things, it has a Pathfinder Lodge - the only think it lacks is a named Venture-Captain! So I had the V-C from the scenario give the briefing personally, due to the secrecy issue.

(I often do this, since usually the Society seems to assign missions based on "who is right outside my office when a crisis erupts"... and I *hate* teleportation. Hard to "Explore" if you're only going to where you already know things are, isn't it?)

Bad Guys:

It's actually easier to run this now, than it was while the Shadow Lodge was in the Society. I always called them "rogue Shadow Lodge agents" and did that this time as well. Ignore Torch and just use an unnamed source of the information.

I suggest that the intros for scenarios do need to be adjusted, sometimes based on ongoing plot stuff, ut also based on what scenarios the PC's have played before. I like to see what their last mission was, so I can concoct a story about why they're all in Kalsgard now. The "new" PCs were assigned to the Kalsgard Lodge and so we on assignment there, and the existing PCs has been sent there a month or so back to deliver some Pathfinder archives from Absalom to help build up the Kalsgard Lodge's reference library. It also allowed me to give the new folks the idea that they have already discovered how useful cold weather gear is in this area of the world!

None of this hurts the story or causes mechanical issues, instead it smooths over the continuity issues PFS has. About the one thing I don't like to do is change who is giving the mission - sometimes those same V-C's will show up in other scenarios that are linked, and it's unfortunate if the players don't get a chance to "meet" the right people in-game.

[DM Beckett]

After Rivalry's End, they said that the Shadow Lodge still existed (with or without GMT), it just wasn't a playable Player Faction, and I think that it's basically been forgotten.

But, there are still a lot of Pathfinders out there looing to help the little guy in the Society and make the VCs and Decem. look like the fools they are, and GMT still has some contact with the PFS, so it shouldn't be much issue. And if I remember correctly in FfC, it was actually rogue Shadow Lodge members who had tried to lead a coupe against GMT, and not GMT at all.

[deusvult]

*thread necromancy on the thread created to avoid necromancy*

I won't bother rediscussing the mission brief or motivations of the Decemvirate.. the comments above are just as relevant midway through season six as they were in season five: the season three storyline is just no longer relevant.

I'd instead like to discuss the faction missions.. specifically what to do in their place. Frostfur Captives isn't alone in being dated by the irrelevance of all the text devoted to faction missions.. but I do feel that as a rich roleplaying scenario it is particularly hard hit by the season 3/4 experiment in faction missions.

Act 4 is a disaster outside the context of being played in season 3 or 4. Having nothing to do except cross the Rimeflow certainly works if the session is threatening to run long, but the absence of sidequests to accomplish there leaves a gaping hole in the scenario. The mechanic from Act 1 affecting Act 4 is also rendered virtually meaningless in seasons 5 and beyond.

Simply making up new encounters is a big no no, but Frostfur Captives is already largely about improvised roleplay and Act 4 already relied upon improvised scenes as written. Assuming the session has the time available to devote comparable scenes in town to the now-unplayable faction quests, what sorts of scenes would you include?

A couple of ideas:
Potential trouble with members of the Icetooth Tribe living in town. (if violence isn't averted, stats are already presented in act 1)

Frostfur captives attempting to indulge in arson in town.

A creepy slaver offering to buy the captives, and too insistent to accept "no" easily.

[kinevon]

Is there any reason the faction missions are unplayable?

It is still GM option, and/or player choice, in general, as to whether the earlier season faction missions are used or not. Except, of course, where the secondary success conditions involve one or more faction missions...