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So, kind of surprised there's not more discussion of these PFS scenarios in the GM threads, but The Broken Scales ties directly into the events of the AoE AP, and Balancing the Scales indirectly, as they both describe the havoc and aftermath caused by the mysterious activation and disappearance of a Graveraker prototype, an immense clockwork drill. Canonically, these events occurred in the year prior to the festival, but it's easy enough to move them (or some version of them) back to being approximately concurrent with the disappearance of Graveraker and tie them into the overall plot.
As written, the cause of the activation of the prototype and its ultimate destination are both left completely unidentified, but I am looking to run a modified version of The Broken Scales for my party in between books 1 and 2 of the AP. My thought for setup is that the senior detectives investigating Graveraker's disappearance had learned of the prototype and requested Wakeiwa meet them at its storage location, but the Rumormonger sent a minion to collect the powerful clockwork artifact and said minion made an error in attempting to transport it, activating it and then losing it for a time as it charged through the tunnels and caverns below Westgate where the Sewer Dragons' lair is located. Eventually they caught up with it, deactivated it, and transported it to the Clockwork Dungeon, leaving nothing but further mystery about Graveraker and the prototype for the Agents to find.
My only issue with this plan is what reason do I have for the senior detectives to stay behind and send the junior agents down into the mysterious hole after the powerful artifact? Any thoughts?
I gave the "Broken Scales" a quick look. It doesn't seem to have anything substantial about the Graveraker. The only thing of use is that the inventor let loose a small-scale replica in the sewers to test her hypothesis about the power source. The quest, however, only provides this as background information and doesn't have any evidence or anything else to track down the source of the damage or otherwise tie it somehow to the larger plot of Agents of Edgewatch.
I gave the "Broken Scales" a quick look. It doesn't seem to have anything substantial about the Graveraker. The only thing of use is that the inventor let loose a small-scale replica in the sewers to test her hypothesis about the power source. The quest, however, only provides this as background information and doesn't have any evidence or anything else to track down the source of the damage or otherwise tie it somehow to the larger plot of Agents of Edgewatch.
A number of people have mentioned that 1) there was not enough material at level 4 for their campaigns and 2) that the Graveraker plot is so sidelined in the early books that when it suddenly ramps up in importance later it is narratively jarring, requiring them to give infodumps on what the thing even is and why they should (theoretically) care. This scenario can help fill both.
Obviously since my party is 3/4 Hookclaw Kobolds and the Sewer Dragons have come up multiple times in our campaign already it was a more inviting tie-in for us than most, but it still seems generally useful to those attempting to address the problems above, to me.
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The story element seems more like chekhov's magical excavator rather than a side-lined plot of its own.
As far as I remember, there's only the few mentions in book 1 that demonstrate it as an exhibit and then it being missing, and then what happens with it in the final book. The agents should know that it went missing and probably recognize it as the one castle-sized excavator that was stolen in broad daylight all the way back at the start of the festival, a tie-in to their early days on the job and resolution of a loose end.
It certainly makes thematic sense that the drill could be a connection to the Graveraker, though with such a small amount of information in the scenario it may just be something that got loose from the Clockwork Cathedral.
A good reason to send the junior agents down into the mysterious hole after the powerful artifact could be because every district is short-staffed with the festival. Absalom's population was already pretty sizeable before the festival started, and now that it's doubled they certainly need all the help they can get. Another decent reason is that the senior agents underestimate the power/danger of the device, and think a few rookies can handle some dungeon-delving that they might rather not be bothered with.
As far as I remember, there's only the few mentions in book 1 that demonstrate it as an exhibit and then it being missing, and then what happens with it in the final book.
It also plays a prominent role in the framing of the Agents at the end of Book 4/start of Book 5.
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I ended up using some of the content from these scenarios.
Instead of testing the mini-graveraker before building the real one like the scenario says, I had Wakeiwa Atikak build the mini-graveraker after the real one was stolen. I decided that Wakeiwa at that point in the story did not know exactly how the real one was powered. From Blune's requirements, specifications and cryptic clues she has surmised that it might be powered with sentient creatures but now she wants to confirm it, especially due to the extraordinary manner of its disappearance.
So she sets up a secret workshop in the sewer beneath the Halcyon Hog, she builds the mini-graveraker and hires a wizard to summon some voidworms (baby proteans). The experiment is a bit too successful, when the voidworms are placed inside the mini-graveraker it gets overcharged and runs amok underground.
The mini-graveraker digs straight through any walls on its way and eventually reaches the Ivy District. It penetrates the buried theater where the Sewer Dragons' lair is located, wrecking some columns and making the whole building structurally unsound. It keeps going, crashing into a sealed ancient tomb nearby. There it finally runs out of juice or maybe that wall is a bit too reinforced by ancient magicks for it to break through. The kobolds fight against the horrors unleashed from the tomb and through lots of sacrifice manage to place a huge boulder on the hole, sealing the tomb once more and the mini-graveraker within.
- • The PCs have some contact with the Sewer Dragons, for example maybe some of the kobolds from the Pagoda. These contacts ask the PCs for help.
- • Someone from Edgewatch, perhaps Detective Bolera, is investigating the Graveraker disappearance. She suspects the real Graveraker was stolen by making it dig through the ground (and hiding the hole with illusion magic). Investigating unusual underground digging activity, she hears about the events at the Sewer Dragons' lair, perhaps through contacts at the Pathfinder Society.
- • The PCs notice or are told about suspicious activity, especially weird sounds and a loud bang, under the Halcyon Hog inn (for example because they happen to be there to visit Kassi Aziril).
When they get close to the Sewer Dragons' lair, the PCs might encounter some of their traps. Use the traps from the Broken Scales scenario, but do it theater-of-the-mind style and handwave the details, especially if the PCs are very high level compared to these traps.
Once they get there, they immediately notice the rampage. The trail of destruction from the mini-graveraker's passage has left theater seats flattened, a straight line of debris dividing the hall in two. On each end of the line on opposite sides of the hall, there's a hole: the one the mini-graveraker got in from and the one it exited. You can find a map of the theater in the 1e scenario Sewer Dragons of Absalom which you can augment with your drawing powers to indicate the mini-graveraker's passage.
Once they manage to get an audience with Yiddlepode and earn her trust, she explains what happened and her concerns: she thinks the theater will collapse and the boulder won't hold off the horrors for long, so tribe will have to move to escape. Yiddlepode's stance is generally trusting and is hoping the PCs offer solutions. Her brother, Trapmaster Tok, is a traditionalist, does not speak common and will resist any attempts to move the tribe or even accept the PC's help.
If the PCs offer to deal with the tomb, the kobolds warn them the whole tribe couldn't fight back the horrors it unleashed.
Alternatively the PCs can backtrack and investigate the graveraker's trail to see where it came from.
PCs will need to be at least level 7 for this. You might want to even tell them outright if they're lower. Use the "meeting site" map from Balancing the Scales. Before getting inside, they'll have to get the boulder out of the way. Force Open DC 25 or just dragging it or some spell that destroys / passes through stone will do the trick.
Inside there's 5 Fire-Eyed Cyclops Zombies and 3 Ash Skeletons. The Ash Skeletons begin the fight in Ash Form and are gathered around the mini-graveraker which has crashed on the south wall.
The undead might not only attack PCs but also the mini-graveraker. Any damage on it from PCs or monsters will puncture a hole which will allow a steady stream of voidworms to be released. These will not fight but are still vulnerable.
The voidworms are semantically synced to the stochastic processes of their enslaved brethren on the real graveraker. If the PCs manage to protect enough of them and have some way of communicating with them, they might become privy to the Cane of Maelstrom's rhyme “Build. Make. Unmake. Shackle/Bend/Break/ and/Take and Unto the Cage, Cerulean Light Lakes.”
Reaching the workshop from the theater is not very straightforward. Add some random encounter and some digging (will take 6 hours) as some of the dug tunnels have collapsed since the time the mini-graveraker made them.
Once there, they find a small sewer chamber retrofitted into a workshop, complete with a desk filled with schematics, lots of clockwork parts and some engineering tools. Reading the schematics it's obvious it's an attempt to make a miniature version of the graveraker. DC25 to realise only the real inventor of the graveraker would be able to so elegantly replicate and miniaturise the machine.
Climbing the nearby ladder leads to a manhole directly next to the Halcyon Hog. Track or Gather Information DC25 or similar will lead the PCs to Wakeiwa's room at the inn.
She's going to refuse to talk to them but if they are insistent and diplomatic enough she might open up a bit. She will admit who she is and explain she's hiding. She will admit to doing the experiment with the mini-graveraker and apologise profusely for the damage she has caused. She won't divulge she's hiding because she's afraid of being accused of enslaving the proteans unless the PCs first bring up related evidence they have gathered. At your discretion, more pressure might make her confess her business with Blune (but be careful this might derail the whole AP, this is information the PCs normally get in book 5).
If they present her any clockwork technology they have found, she will correctly identify the source. For example, for the dig-widgets in the catacombs/bank heist she will correctly tell them they are made locally, in the style taught at the Clockwork Cathedral. (At your discretion she might even recognise they were made by Vancaskerkin, but again be careful as this might sequence-break the whole AP)
If they pressure her to make an official statement or try to arrest her, she will attempt to escape. She will non-challantly walk towards her desk (DC 30 to realise her suspicious intentions), then throws a smoke bomb, gets a helicopter-like gadget and flies through the window. (the flying gadget can easily lift 2 Medium-sized creatures, but will lose height continuously at 3 and won't lift off at all at 4). Run this with the chase subsystem: First, if anyone has managed to grab onto her, she flies dangerously close to a building so the grabber gets hit. After some evasive manoeuvres she lands. If she has managed to get some distance to any pursuers, she presses a button to transform her gadget into a fake metal chimney she attaches to the nearest building. (DC35 Stealth).
If the PCs manage to detain her after all that, you might need to make huge changes to the AP from the information she will reveal about her association with Blune and Vancaskerkin. Also the whole plot later with her attempted assassination by Vancaskerkin killbots is going to have to change etc.
- • Confirmation that the graveraker was powered by proteans.
- • Information on the graveraker, Blune and clockwork technology by Wakeiwa.
- • Gratitude of the Sewer Dragons tribe.