Return to the Grave this October

Way back in 2019 when Pathfinder Second Edition first released, one of the four scenarios released for play at Gen Con was 1-03 Escaping the Grave. It was set in the former lands of Lastwall, which were devastated by the hordes of undead unleashed by the Whispering Tyrant Tar-Baphon in 4719 AR during his escape from his prison in Gallowspires. That scenario quickly became one of the new edition’s classics and was a blast to both play and run. This month, we are going to present its sequel, 4-02 Return to the Grave in Columbia on October 8th at our monthly PFS Smackdown. This scenario is built for levels 1-4. It is our featured scenario of the month! You can sign up for it on our Warhorn page right now!

Following the desolation of Lastwall at the hands of the Whispering Tyrant, untold horrors wander the woods and roads of the region now known as the Gravelands. Many small refugee settlements are scattered throughout the area, their citizens either helplessly trapped behind enemy lines, or stubbornly hoping that they won’t be noticed by Tar-Baphon’s undead armies.

One such settlement became a new home for a Pathfinder agent—a dedicated member of the Radiant Oath faction—who had been traveling in Lastwall when the nation fell. The agent decided to help those in need rather than flee the Gravelands, and they’ve managed to keep the settlement protected… so far.

Now, with the settlement burgeoning with refugees and the Whispering Tyrant’s forces drawing near, the agent has made a desperate attempt to reach a Pathfinder lodge in Ustalav. They barely made it out alive—and now they’re asking for agents to return to the Gravelands and aid their stranded friends!

We will also feature a couple of bounties to go along with this scenario. We will run them after we finish playing 4-02. They are Bounties #15 and 18. One of the nice things about bounties is that they are repeatable. Again, we are going to see how this setup works for a bit based on your feedback about how you want to play games at Smackdown. So far, the initial feedback has been overwhelmingly positive about this plan. We are just waiting to see if we need to stagger scenario start times for more players or not. Here’s what our Bounties are about this month.

Bounty #15 – A former slave seeks to reclaim a life’s worth of pay from her former captors. Luckily for her, a ship containing the misbegotten wealth of her masters is just off the coast of the city of Kintargo. A group of heroes steps in to assist and claim whatever goods remain on the wreck, but not everything is calm beneath the waves. This is for Level 1 characters.

Bounty #18 – When the Fifth Mendevian Crusade ended, the hamlet of Bulviss was one of many casualties on the Mendevian side of the border. Overrun by demons and their allies, the hamlet hasn’t been touched since a band of crusaders cleared out the demonic influence that lingered. Now, contracted by an interested party, a group of adventurers must head into the ruins of Bulviss to find a missing deed and any other surviving treasures. Have the demons truly been removed, or are there other, darker secrets waiting in the ruins? This is for Level 3 characters.

I have been continuing to update the League of Aroden website and have most of the Pathfinder Second Edition page finished along with all of Pathfinder First Edition. A new addition to the site has been our splash page where we explain what the League of Aroden is about. I wanted to direct your attention to a new list of objectives for the League. This list is what the League strives to do for everyone who is part of it. You can read the list on our splash page, but here it is:

1. AWESOME PLAYER EXPERIENCE – We seek to deliver as awesome a player experience as we can at every table. This is our hobby and we enjoy it. We want you to enjoy it just as much as we do. The best way for that to happen is to make having fun our main goal.
   
2. NO TABLE FEES – The League of Aroden never charges a table fee for any of our events. The venue may charge a fee and some do, but we ourselves do not.
   
3. GM TRAINING PROGRAM – We have a GM Academy program which we offer annually to train our GMs to be better at what they do. Our League officers are required to GM regularly to hone their craft and have the opportunity to consult with a 5-Star/Glyph GM privately. Two of our Venture-Officers have extensive experience in GMing and have earned multiple Stars, Novas, and Glyphs. They too are available to consulting our GMs. Several of our GMs have already earned their first 2e Glyph and are working steadily toward their second one.
   
4. VENTURE-OFFICER CADRE – Every lodge has a Venture-Officer with a higher ranking VO to report to in the chain of command in order to resolve any issues that come up. The VOs are tasked with following the rules of the Organized Play program so that your gaming experience is consistent throughout the League, and therefore throughout Organized Play itself globally.
   
5. COMMUNICATIONS – We maintain this blog, several Facebook pages, Warhorn sign-up pages, and e-mail lists for each lodge. We try to notify players well in advance of our events and offerings. We make the rules and information available to everyone so that they can learn about the game and participate at the level they prefer.
   

We will probably add to the list over the next few weeks as we continue to revamp the website and continue to provide the best gaming experience we can for you. Thanks for being part of the League and I hope to see you on October 8th as we Return to the Grave!