I've been adding a few Pathfinder Society scenarios to our ongoing homebrew campaign and I've noticed a few strange things. Number one - venture-captains always managed to deliver messages to their teams no matter which part of Golarion they are currently residing with no apparent mail system. And secondly, are there any measures in place to prevent people from forging messages and claiming they are from venture-captains just to mess with people?
How do venture-captains deliver their missives? And how do pathfinders prevent their message system from being imitated or infiltrated?
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There are lots of things in PFS scenarios that one really shouldn't look at too closely and this is one of them. For ease of play in an organized play environment lots of simplifications are made, the near perfect communications and identification being one of them.
It really doesn't make all that much sense in world but the last thing one wants is for paranoid players to spend time verifying orders. So, orders are assumed to be valid, information given is assumed to be correct (if incomplete) etc.
Do you mean the faction leader missions?
Yes. I've been trying to find more details on how venture captains deliver their missions. What is the message delivery system like.
Yes. I've been trying to find more details on how venture captains deliver their missions. What is the message delivery system like.Paladin of Baha-who's point was that you appear to be asking about faction leaders but using the term "venture captain". They're not the same thing.
They are interchangeable in some cases aren't they? I don't play PFS at all, but I run PFS scenarios to fill the gaps between modules.
Someone shows up with a scroll and an unbroken seal bearing the emblem of the Pathfinder Society or the particular faction.
Boom. Done.
Unless it's going to be a plot device (the Pathfinder Society has been compromised by the foul forces of XXX!), then you can ignore it.
That's along the lines of what I was thinking. Since I'm running this outside of PFS in a regular campaign, there are certain unscrupulous players that want to take advantage of things by forging venture-captain missions.
In my mind, anything that's been running for hundreds of years has been doing so because it can't be tampered with. My role as GM is to figure out why it is tamper proof so my players can't get away with doing dumb stuff to take advantage of it.
There is no information on the message delivery system used by the venture-capatains, so I am having to come up with something. I was hoping someone had a better idea.
My idea is that venture-captains seal their messages in identical tubes with only the name of the recipient written on the outer casing. Messages are delivered each day to a Pathfinder mage tasked with maintaining the delivery system. A tome of sigils is maintained - each one pertaining to a specific Pathfinder Lodge. Each day, the messages are sent in bulk to the appropriate lodge as directed via instant teleportation using the sigil as the focal point.
The teleported container appears in a safe room that is accessible only by the head of the local lodge - such as Sheila Heidmarch in Magnimar. the venture-captain in turn delivers the message to the indicated Pathfinder in person.
There is never a moment where the chain of custody is broken so it can be taken advantage of. Alternately in an area without an established Pathfinder Lodge, the same method of transport could be used with the local church of Abadar. Messages would be sent to the high priest who would deliver them to the local Pathfinder as part of a deal worked out with the Pathfinder Society.
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Someone shows up with a scroll and an unbroken seal bearing the emblem of the Pathfinder Society or the particular faction.
Boom. Done.
Unless it's going to be a plot device (the Pathfinder Society has been compromised by the foul forces of XXX!), then you can ignore it.
That's along the lines of what I was thinking. Since I'm running this outside of PFS in a regular campaign, there are certain unscrupulous players that want to take advantage of things by forging venture-captain missions.
In my mind, anything that's been running for hundreds of years has been doing so because it can't be tampered with. My role as GM is to figure out why it is tamper proof so my players can't get away with doing dumb stuff to take advantage of it.
There is no information on the message delivery system used by the venture-capatains, so I am having to come up with something. I was hoping someone had a better idea.
My idea is that venture-captains seal their messages in identical tubes with only the name of the recipient written on the outer casing. Messages are delivered each day to a Pathfinder mage tasked with maintaining the delivery system. A tome of sigils is maintained - each one pertaining to a specific Pathfinder Lodge. Each day, the messages are sent in bulk to the appropriate lodge as directed via instant teleportation using the sigil as the focal point.
The teleported container appears in a safe room that is accessible only by the head of the local lodge - such as Sheila Heidmarch in Magnimar. the venture-captain in turn delivers the message to the indicated Pathfinder in person.
There is never a moment where the chain of custody is broken so it can be taken advantage of. Alternately in an area without an established Pathfinder Lodge, the same method of transport could be used with the local church of Abadar. Messages would be sent to the high priest who would deliver them to the local Pathfinder as part of a deal worked out with the Pathfinder Society.
whatever works.
like I said, unless there's some reason for them not to be legitimate, it's easy enough to assume that the system works and that the messages are from the Decimvirate.
heck, maybe they only become readable if the Pathfinder they are addressed to is the one who opens them up and they contain a secret phrase known only to the Pathfinder and granted to them when they become members. Every missive ends in "This Message will Self-Destruct in 15 seconds". have fun with it if you care to.
Keep it simple, move on. It's a world with magic and dragons. Pretty easy to get buried in minutiae and things that don't "make sense" if you start looking into the weeds.
Forgotten Realms had a god making sure that the Arcane Mark would not forged. Attempting to forge one was quite likely to get you cursed.
Even without that, you could assume that an invisible Arcane Mark is difficult to forge.
Without that you still have wax seals and various other tricks that were used throughout history.
In any case, you likely have a clerk at each lodge responsible for checking the seals on incoming communications and verifying that any outgoing communications have their seals properly in place.
Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I am trying to deal with a rogue that tries to take advantage of everything in the game, so I have to be prepared. He wants to rob every mage and forge pathfinder missions, so I have to understand what it takes to do such a thing.
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Thanks for the suggestions, everyone. I am trying to deal with a rogue that tries to take advantage of everything in the game, so I have to be prepared. He wants to rob every mage and forge pathfinder missions, so I have to understand what it takes to do such a thing.
Well, just have him try to rob the wrong mage.
Should set him on the straight and narrow right quick.
Yes. I've been trying to find more details on how venture captains deliver their missions. What is the message delivery system like.Paladin of Baha-who's point was that you appear to be asking about faction leaders but using the term "venture captain". They're not the same thing.They are interchangeable in some cases aren't they? I don't play PFS at all, but I run PFS scenarios to fill the gaps between modules.
Only one of the faction leaders, Ambrus Valsin, is a Venture Captain. The others may not even technically be part of the Society at all, but rather close associates.
Thanks for the clarification.
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Well Brother Fen, this does not directly answer your question.....I remember in one PFS scenario I was playing in, our party was given our marching orders by our venture captain and then sent on our way. When we asked our Venture captain if he would be providing camels and provisions for the mission, and the scroll with the spells we would need to bypass a magical vault, his reply was no, your pathfinders, you will figure it out.
A bit miffed, the rogue in the party pulled a slight of hand to get a few sheets of letter head off of the desk of our venture captain for this mission. With a copy of his seal and handwriting, we were able to forge several letters of credit. We went around town and "bought" or camels, provisions, and that scroll, on our Venture Captain's "dime"....And as per orders we headed out into the desert. A few weeks later we returned with the artifact our Captain wanted. While a bit miffed at what we had done, we got the job done and turned over the artifact and the camels.
But yeah as others have said up thread, the players usually just receive a summons or a scroll.
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There is at least one scenario off the top of my head that has the players receiving a forged note from a faction leader. So, the answer is, they DON'T have an infallible system.
Having said that, you mentioned that your rogue is trying to defraud mages by trading on the reputation of high level characters. How well does he fare opposed linguistics checks against int-based casters? How long until one of these VCs or faction leaders sends a group of Pathfinders to track down whomever is issuing fake missions? Hell, there's at least 3 scenarios where you track down pathfinder impersonators.
You can tell your players "No!" and prevent them from forging official documents, but it's more fun to have tnem jump through hoops to deal with the consequences after the fact.
but that's a message from a faction leader, not the decimvirate.
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Still, not without precedence. And the original post mentioned nothing about the decimvirate. Frankly they probably have better things to do than draft and notarize the correspondence of dozens to hundreds of Pathfinder Lodges. Not to mention PFS's history of sedition and treason amongst venture officers implies they aren't kept on the shortest of leashes.snipbut that's a message from a faction leader, not the decimvirate.
True enough.
There is at least one scenario off the top of my head that has the players receiving a forged note from a faction leader. So, the answer is, they DON'T have an infallible system.
Having said that, you mentioned that your rogue is trying to defraud mages by trading on the reputation of high level characters. How well does he fare opposed linguistics checks against int-based casters? How long until one of these VCs or faction leaders sends a group of Pathfinders to track down whomever is issuing fake missions? Hell, there's at least 3 scenarios where you track down pathfinder impersonators.
You can tell your players "No!" and prevent them from forging official documents, but it's more fun to have tnem jump through hoops to deal with the consequences after the fact.
I'd be curious to take a look at that particular scenario to see what happened. Thanks for the recommendation.
About my rogue, he has more plans than actions at this point, but fortunately he hints at things he'd like to do. As yet, he hasn't tried to rob actual mages or defraud pathfinders, but he has talked about doing so.
Unfortunately for me, this is a mythic campaign, so the PCs are very capable at what they do. I just try to be ready for whatever contingencies come up due to their actions in-game.
If he robs the wrong mage, he'll have to deal with the consequences and if he tries to forge pathfinder missions and gets found out, he'll be thrown out of the group and possibly assassinated. Some factions are not to be trifled with.
Why not use the spell magic mouth for this. Send a scroll with a message on it but that message is the decoy. The real message is delivered by the magic mouth cast on the scroll. The triggering condition could use a multiple verification process. A three part key would probably be secure enough. Say requiring a specific phrase, gesture and item. So to hear the message the captain has to be dressed in a particular costume, saying a secret phrase in a dead language, and touching the scroll with a particular item.