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What would or should happen if one or more PCs attempted to unmask the Waterfall? Both in-game and out?
I am concerned that upon learning what the Decemvirate and their magical masks are to the Society, and meeting the Waterfall for the first time, one or more of my players will make the attempt to unmask her during their introductions.
My players, though experienced roleplayers, are total newbs to organized Pathfinder Society play. They are accustomed to complete player autonomy, not highly structured adventures in which they must do the bidding of strangers in masks. I suspect they're going to chafe a bit upon meeting the Waterfall for the first time.
I'm thinking maybe a high level daze effect that knocks the character straight out, or some other narrative black out in which the character awakens with no memory of her identity and is heavily chastised ("you're lucky you're not dead or exiled!"). In either case, I'm thinking a point of infamy would be in order for openly assaulting a leader of the Society. I will be providing stern warnings beforehand and making clear the gravity and possible consequences of such a disrespectful action.
What do you think would or should happen if a player attempts this? If it helps, the PCs are all level 1 or 2 still.
Venture-Lieutenant, Finland—Turku
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Depends on how they go about it, but ultimately if they keep pushing the issue:
"Exploring the hidden identity of the masked leader is outside the scope of this adventure, and if your character attempts to reveal their identity by force, they will earn a point of infamy for it."
If it's something like, first attempt just describing their character attempting to grab the mask? Ask them to roll athletics -> Crit fail regardless of how well they rolled-> describe how they end up on prone on the ground -> go for something similar to the above quote if they keep pressing.
I would... Avoid custom mechanical effects because I think players have a tendency to view mechanical obstacles as puzzles to be overcome, and I feel it's better to just direct them to the right course than to spend time dealing with the follow up questions, like:
What did the rest of the party see when this character removed the mask?
Can they exploit this somehow to their advantage?
Can the memories get recovered somehow?
This character has a camera-thing from splatbook X, I'll try to use it to record the face?
etc.
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"That is outside the scope of the adventure, persist at your own risk" seems most reasonable to me. Don't even bother asking for checks.
First, low-level characters have very little hope of successfully assaulting anyone powerful enough to join the Decemvirate. (Without spoiling any revelations from recent adventures, I can confidently say that rude, pushy 1st-2nd level characters pose absolutely ZERO threat to the Waterfall.)
Second, point out to them that attempting to unmask her would constitute an unprovoked attack against Society leadership. Awarding Infamy for that sounds perfectly reasonable.
And if THAT doesn't dissuade them, proceed directly to handing out Chronicles with zero rewards, because nobody is trusting them with this mission.
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"...are accustomed to complete player autonomy."
This part makes me a little confused. I'd be interested in a further explanation. Whenever I GM, my players have complete autonomy. That said, their actions have consequences.
I was indicating that the players probably won't like the super structured, rail-roady fetch quest nature that many PFS scenarios often take. If that was all they wanted out of a game, they wouldn't be roleplaying, but playing video games instead.
If your players won't like PFS scenarios... then why are you playing PFS scenarios with them?
Venture-Captain, Germany—Bavaria
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I think it is fair to assume that the super magical artifact level masks have some safeguards to avoid getting snatched, worst case ask for a very high DC.
Assume that other Pathfinders might be around, and explain to the players that certain acting will cause the end of the adventure.
Also even if you see the character's face... so what? It's a person, a rather powerful person that likely will be pretty offended.
In general shorter adventures like scenarios really benefit from an understanding that trying to go off script or fighting the narrative is not a very rewarding choice. If your players absolutely want chaos, I would suggest starting with something in Adventure mode.