Pathfinder - Pathfinder Society - Scenario 12 - Stay of Execution.pdf

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Stay of
Execution
By Alison McKenzie
TM
PAthfinder society scenArio
12
Stay of ExEcution™
Design:
Alison McKenzie
Development:
Joshua J. Frost
Editing:
Christopher Carey
Art Director:
Drew Pocza
Interior Artist:
Concept Arthouse
Cartographer:
Rob Lazzaretti
Managing Art Director:
James Davis
Vice President of Operations:
Jeff Alvarez
Events Manager:
Joshua J. Frost
Paizo CEO:
Lisa Stevens
Corporate Accountant:
Dave Erickson
Sales Manager:
Chris Self
Technical Director:
Vic Wertz
Publisher:
Erik Mona
Pathfinder Society Scenario 12: Stay of Execution
is a Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st to 7th level characters (Tiers: 1–2,
3–4, and 6–7). This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can easily be adapted for use with any
world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the 3.5 edition of the world’s
most popular fantasy roleplaying game.
The OGL can be found on page 17 of this product.
Paizo Publishing, LLC
2700 Richards Road, Suite 201
Bellevue, WA 98005
paizo.com/pathfindersociety
Product Identity: The following items are hereby identified as Product Identity, as defined in the Open Game License version
1.0a, Section 1(e), and are not Open Content: All trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names (characters, deities, artifacts,
places, etc.), dialogue, plots, storylines, language, incidents, locations, characters, artwork, and trade dress.
Open Content: Except for material designated as Product Identity (see above), the contents of this Paizo Publishing game
product are Open Game Content, as defined in the Open Gaming License version 1.0a Section 1(d). No portion of this work other
than the material designated as Open Game Content may be reproduced in any form without written permission. To learn more
about the Open Game License and the d20 System License, please visit wizards.com/d20.
Pathfinder Society Scenarios are published by Paizo Publishing, LLC under the Open Game License v 1.0a Copyright 2000 Wizards
of the Coast, Inc. All other trademarks are property of Paizo Publishing, LLC. ©2008 Paizo Publishing. All Rights Reserved.
2
Stay of Execution
By Alison McKenzie
The Decemvirate, the masked leaders of the Pathfinder
Society, possesses great artifacts of wonder and power.
Recently their collection became one less when a skilled
rogue named Hadge, looking to build a reputation, tried
to break into the vaults of the Grand Lodge by slipping
in through a carelessly unlocked window. He found a
sleeping scholar at a desk, gripping a shiny object in his
resting hands. Rather than go through with the original
plan, the opportunist Hadge grabbed the object instead
and escaped back into Absalom proper.
The object was a powerful divination focus, used
by scholars of the Decemvirate to communicate with
one another. The Decemvirate is eager to get it back
and humiliated by its theft. They contacted Venture-
Captain Drandle Dreng and ordered him to send his best
Pathfinders for a quick and quiet retrieval. Hadge was
known to still be in Absalom so the Pathfinders started
the search there but with no luck—Hadge had vanished.
Word came from Pathfinders in Oppara, the gilded capital
of Taldor, that a person matching Hadge’s description was
seen debarking from an Absalom merchant ship and then
boarding a flat-bottomed riverboat headed east up the
River Porthmos for Sardis Township. Just after Venture-
Captain Dreng booked a vessel to ship the PCs to Oppara,
he learned the thief Hadge was accused of some petty crime
in Sardis Township and was thrown into the infamous
Porthmos Prison.
Once called Edgeside Keep, Porthmos Prison faces the
expansive Whistling Plains just over the World’s Edge
Mountains, a gently rolling land of thousands of square
miles of empty grasslands that connects the Empire of
Taldor with the many nations of Casmaron’s interior.
Edgeside Keep was sturdy but small, and in the years that
it stood as a border fort it saw very little action. When a
small earthquake shook some of the supports loose and
damaged portions of the fortress a hundred years ago, the
cost and effort of repairs were deemed not worth it and
the keep was abandoned.
Not long after, it was claimed by the governor of the
Porthmos Prefecture and, after moderate repairs, became
Porthmos Prison. Calling it a prison was unfortunate
as most who’ve entered Porthmos have never actually
received a trial. Many of its inhabitants are there simply
for gaining minor disfavor with local nobles—Thestro
Briarsmith, the current governor of Porthmos Prefecture
and the wealthiest man in Sardis Township, is no
different. Porthmos Prison, today, is filled with a fair
share of honest criminals but also counts many innocent
men and women among its numbers, ordinary folk guilty
of one thing: displeasing Briarsmith.
At Porthmos Prison, no guards patrol the prison halls.
Instead, they live outside the walls and are only concerned
with keeping the prisoners inside. The prisoners run
Porthmos, with control of the keep’s interior changing
every few years as the many gangs constantly battle for
supremacy, supplies, and survival. The prison’s inner
courtyard is filled with the rubble of buildings destroyed
in the earthquake and never repaired. It’s a no man’s
land separating the various quarters of the keep that
are controlled by the Porthmos gangs. The courtyard is
considered off limits by the traditions of the gangs and
setting foot there is considered a challenge against the
power of whichever gang rules the prison. Maybe because
of the courtyard’s history of death and violence, maybe
because of its ruined red rock buildings, maybe because
the sandy courtyard is stained in blood, the prisoners call
the center of Porthmos Prison “Hell.”
Newcomers to the prison are often killed the moment
they arrive unless they can prove themselves useful
in some way. The only contact prisoners have with the
outside world is the frequent and brief appearances
of smugglers who bribe the guards to get inside. The
residents of Porthmos Prison pay the smugglers what
they can, though recently they’ve been running out of
stolen valuables to trade.
Hadge found himself on the wrong side of Governor
Briarsmith after attempting to trade the divination focus
for large sums of Taldor gold. He hid the focus before
capture, was tortured by the Porthmos Prison guards,
and when he wouldn’t give up the focus’s location, he was
tossed into the prison and forgotten. Hadge has been in
Porthmos Prison for a month once the Pathfinders finally
arrive, and he wants out. He’ll do anything to get out in
fact, including using the hidden location of the focus as a
3
Pathfinder Society Scenario
bargaining chip to force the Pathfinders to break him out
of Taldor’s most infamous prison.
Summary
A stolen divination focus leads the PCs to Sardis Township
in Taldor in pursuit of the thief, a rogue named Hadge,
who was recently captured and thrown into the infamous
Porthmos Prison. Their primary contact to gain access
to the prison is a book-loving gargoyle who shares a
secret entrance to the prison with the PCs in exchange
for a rare book.
After the PCs get inside, they climb through a room
used as a trash heap and fight off vermin before climbing
up into one of the keep’s main towers. On the top floor of
the tower the PCs locate Hadge and face the ruthless gang
of crooks who call the rogue thief their prisoner, prizing
him for his ability to craft makeshift weapons. Once
freed, Hadge declares he will only reveal the location of
the artifact if the PCs help him escape Porthmos Prison.
Once they have Hadge, a battle between two rival gangs
and a platoon of interceding prison guards drives the PCs
down a staircase where they are accosted by a halfling-
led gang of gnolls who hold territory in the keep’s former
smithy and intend to make Hadge their weaponsmith.
Once the Gnoll gang is dealt with, the continuing riot
in the tower forces them into the feared courtyard of
Porthmos Prison known as Hell.
In Hell, the PCs are stopped again—this time by their
gargoyle contact who demands further payment in order
to allow the PCs to leave. If they have another rare book
to offer, perhaps one from an earlier exploit, he lets them
pass. If they have nothing to offer the gargoyle, he attacks.
If Hadge is successfully freed from Porthmos Prison,
he fulfills his promise and leads the PCs to the hidden
location of the Society’s divination focus. What the PCs
do with him after that is entirely up to them.
GEttinG StartEd
Read or paraphrase the following to get the adventure
underway:
The grasslands lost their color a few miles back and the sun
hangs bleak in the muted sky. In the distance is a faded gray
smudge, the outline of Sardis Township, backwater seat of the
Porthmos Prefecture of Taldor. To the right of the road stands
a tall and broken series of towers linked by a thick curtain
wall and surrounded by a small sea of prison guard tents and
banners—welcome to the infamous Porthmos Prison.
Four weeks ago, word came that a rogue named Hadge
made off with a powerful divination device the Decemvirate
and their scholars in Absalom use to communicate with one
other. If someone were able to discern the use of the device,
they could spy on the Decemvirate, the masked leaders of the
Pathfinder Society. Venture-Captain Drandle Dreng was tasked
with assembling a small team of Pathfinders to track down
Hadge and return the item to the Society.
“It’s an embarrassing loss for the Decemvirate,” Dreng said,
back in a meeting room in the Grand Lodge. “And they want it
back. Find Hadge and return the item to us immediately—what
you do with Hadge is up to you.”
A week-long search of Absalom, however, turned up nothing.
Hadge had vanished. Then, a week later, a Pathfinder in Oppara
spotted Hadge disembarking a Diobel merchant vessel and
watched him board a flat-bottomed riverboat for Sardis
Township in eastern Taldor. The venture-captain of Oppara
hired mercenaries to track Hadge upriver and they reported
a week ago that Hadge was captured in Sardis Township for
an unrelated crime and was thrown into Porthmos Prison, a
former keep-turned-prison that the prefecture governors
of eastern Taldor use to throw away undesirables they wish
removed from so-called polite society. With no word from
Sardis Township that the Decemvirate’s divination focus was
recovered, the Society surmised that Hadge didn’t have it on
him when he was taken.
“You’ll need to board the fastest ship in Absalom’s harbor
and make haste for Porthmos Prison,” said Venture-Captain
Drandle Drang a week ago in Absalom. “Go there, get into the
prison in any way possible, and get Hadge to reveal the location
of the focus. Once you have it, return to Absalom immediately.
The Decemvirate is counting on you.
“Porthmos Prison is notorious. The guards rarely enter the
prison itself, and once you’re inside it’s a free-for-all among the
prisoners. It’s been a keep and a jail which means it’s both hard to
get in and out. Luckily the Society knows someone who can help.
A gargoyle named Grinnd is said to keep haven in the building’s
rooftops and has done so since the keep’s construction. He has
a mind for knowledge, that one. Take a book, a good one. Make
sure it’s rare, and make sure it’s illustrated.”
He paused for a moment and then removed an ancient
leather-bound tome from his bag called
Linnorms of the North.
“Take this one but be careful with it. It’s worth all our weights
in gold and should serve to grease the wheels of negotiation
with the gargoyle. Lose it, and you lose entry to the prison.
Lose entry to the prison, and you might as well stay there.”
His lips pinched and his eyes narrowed. “One more thing: the
Porthmos Prison guards don’t really care who goes in but they
sure care who comes out. You’ll need a plan to get Hadge out.
I leave that to you.”
Development:
The outer wall of the keep is capped
with crenellations and outward-facing spikes. The inner
wall is similar but features newer, inward-facing spikes.
A small scattering of buildings circles the edge of the
inner courtyard. In the center, on a small hill, is the
prison itself.
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Stay of Execution
A pair of large wooden doors marks the only entrance
to the outer wall. On either side, guard towers block the
passage between the outer and inner walls completely;
only a narrow channel is accessible to those traveling in
and out of the keep. More guard towers are positioned
within the inner wall, but very few of these have stationed
guards. Two unoccupied towers sit at the front of the main
building, with two staircases winding down between them
and meeting just in front of the entrance to the building.
At first glance, the keep is impressive, but it doesn’t take
long to notice that many of the walls are crumbling, many
of the outer buildings bear holes, and piles of rubble are
strewn throughout the outer courtyard.
As the PCs approach the prison, the guards may
ask what they’re up to but, in truth, they don’t really
care. So long as the PCs are even slightly discreet about
accessing the interior of the prison, the guards pretend
not to notice. They only care about anyone escaping the
prison—not about smugglers (or Pathfinders they mistake
for smugglers) getting inside. Feel free to spend some
time here with the prison guards grilling the Pathfinders
about why they’re here. If they go so far as to admit that
they’ve come to break Hadge out of the prison or try to
bribe the guards to free Hadge, the guards become angry
and demand the PCs leave, though they won’t resort to
violence to do so. The guards are, for the most part, simply
content to have a job and aren’t interested in doing much
beyond their mandate: to keep everyone inside Porthmos
Prison
inside.
Lastly, since this scenario includes tier ranges for
PCs who may have the
fly
spell or spells such as
teleport
or
dimension door,
the outside walls of Porthmos Prison
are warded with a barrage of spells similar in nature to
dimensional anchor.
Spells (or spell-like abilities) such as
teleport
or
dimension door
simply do not function inside the
walls and once someone has gained entry to the prison
using either spell they find themselves unable to get out
the same way. With regard to
fly,
there’s nothing stopping
PCs from gaining access to the prison this way. If they
plan to enter by air, remind them that they don’t really
know where Hadge is, that they’ll still need to make their
way through a prison full of gangs, and that they might
want to save the spell slot they plan to spend on
fly
on a
more useful spell for getting out of trouble. Finally, you
can always remind them that getting in and out with
fly
might complete the scenario quickly and safely but it won’t
necessarily get them their prestige and gear rewards.
Ruined
Storehouse
T Inner
o
Courtyard
A3
A2
Loft
A4
Basement
A1
N
First Floor
A1
One square = 5 feet
It takes a DC 20 Spot check to notice him. After a few
moments, he makes his way toward the PCs (though not
while they’re talking to the guards) and finds a comfortable
spot on a broken wall or rocky outcropping before speaking.
Grinnd speaks in a rough, crackling voice.
“I am Grinnd, Keeper of Porthmos. Do you bring shiny trinkets
for the prisoners or do you want inside? I’ll show you the way
but you have to give me something. What you got that I might
like?”
If the PCs don’t immediately offer him
Linnorms of
the North,
Grinnd grows sullen and slowly makes as if
to fly away. He wants the PCs to think that he’s old and
senile and slow so he does his best through his actions
and words to portray his feigned senility. Make opposed
Sense Motive checks if any of the PCs doubt his charade.
If one of the PCs offers him the book, his eyes light up
and he rubs his hands together and then quickly tries to
snatch the book from the PC offering it. If he manages to
get the book, read the following.
“Now that’s a good trade,” he says, flipping the book back and
forth in his hands. He sniffs it a few times, thumbs through the
pages, and then sticks the whole thing in his mouth, chewing
slowly and methodically, moaning with pleasure. “A
very
good
trade—that was delicious, thank you. Follow me!”
At this point Grinnd leads the PCs to an out-of-the-way
span of wall opposite the ramshackle guard camp where
two guards sit playing cards at a fold-up table under a
small canopy. When the guards see the gargoyle and the
PCs approach they stand, stretch, and wander a small
act 1: HunGry for
KnowlEdGE
Grinnd, the Gargoyle, is perched on the roof of one of the
outer guard towers and he watches the PCs approach and
observes any conversations they may have with the guards.
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