Deconstructing the Serpent's Skull 2: Racing to Ruin Part I

I love how in the forward, James Jacobs resents the label of railroad.  Well... I suppose he probably would, wouldn't he?  Anyway—other than a few snide remarks here and there because I can't help it, I've already decided to abandon any attempt at following the specific structure of these Adventure Paths in these adaptations, so that's merely a funny anecdote at this point. I should give him a break; he also gives a fanboy call-out to Deinonychus in there. Here's the adventure summary:

Having escaped Smuggler’s Shiv, the PCs arrive in Eleder, where word of their discovery on the island quickly leaks out. Many rival factions seek to find Saventh-Yhi, and the PCs must choose one to ally with to organize their expedition. Before they can set out on their journey, however, they must deal with an armed rebellion in Eleder (possibly instigated by a rival faction), and secure the aid of a strange cleric of Gozreh as a guide. 

Once on their way, the PCs race across Sargava, dealing with native hazards and ravenous beasts, and contending with rival factions again at a stopover in Kalabuto. Along the way, the PCs have the opportunity to gain new allies to help them reach their final destination, the ruins of the ancient Azlanti outpost of Tazion. 

Now inhabited by a renegade tribe of charau-ka cultists dedicated to the serpent-god Ydersius, the ruins of Tazion also hold an ancient Azlanti device that can reveal the location of Saventh-Yhi. The PCs must battle the vicious ape-men and their mysterious serpentine ally while scouring the ruins for the Azlanti device and the means to activate it.

A GATHERING OF SCAVENGERS Eleder is described later in the module (I always love a good city description), but it's the capital of Sargava, the virtue-signaling White Colonialism is Really Bad themed city, so... yeah.  That said, that plays only a minor role in this adventure, thankfully.  The PCs need to get their notes about the location of the hidden city translated (from Aklo, of Lovecraft fame although of course Lovekcraft borrowed out from Machen; although apparently it's easy to find a translator in Eleder.  smh.)  The most interesting part of all this is that there are five factions that also want to find the lost city, so it become a race of sorts to get there first, and the PCs are key elements, because they're the ones with the best info on how to find it (although the castaways mentioned in the last adventure have a role here too, if any of them are rescued.)  Depending on what (if anything) the PCs did with these castaways, they could be friendly, or hostile to the endeavors of the PCs, meaning that there's a chance for some BioWare-like influence on the various factions; or at least on the NPCs, which could have effects that cascade to the various factions. There should be incentives to ally with a faction, since they will offer to fund and outfit the trip to find the city. Whichever faction the PCs join will also suggest a primary rival faction, although none of the five really appreciates the other four. The various factions are; since at this point in the module, they're described:

—The Aspis Consortium: These guys are allied with the Japanese sailor castaway mentioned last time.  They are pretty much what a stupid Bernie Bro thinks a capitalist entity is like; all caricature and stuff. The recruiter is utterly ruthless and cold-blooded, willing to murder or order murder for the flimsiest of excuses. On the other hand, their relationships with the natives offers some base-camp benefits.

—The Free Captains of the Shackles: Our angry half-elf chick Aerys is linked with these guys.  The faction says "free captains" but it's really just a single ambitious pirate captain who wants the loot from the hidden city to further xir own ambitions.  Yeah, it's a girl captain, but since that's thoroughly unrealistic, I can't bring myself to call xir a her.

—The Pathfinder Society: Mostly the protagonist organization for the entire setting, but not always.  The snarky little gnome is affiliated with them, and in his efforts to get back on the good side of the Society, he brings what he knows of the city with him.  The Consortium and the Society are, as always, primary rivals.

—The Red Mantis: These guys are assassins and cultists, but they believe that the hidden city contains sacred (and lost) information about their cult.  They use our manic pixie girl, quite possibly by intimidating her, since she's not a member of the group, as a link.  They are rivals to the pirate captain.

—The Sargavan Government: There is no rivalry per se with this group, although once "in the field" it's presumed that one of the four other factions will emerge as the rival.  Here's where we get the typical colonialist bad guys nonsense, if you side with this group.

There's a few events that happen while in town as well, that can be worked in as the GM pleases.  These aren't encounters per se, although some of them resemble encounters to a great degree.

—The Freemen's Revolt: There's a riot, sparked by false rumors spread by the PCs rivals, actually—they're accused of being associated with slavers, and the natives revolt against the colonials.  This takes a few forms:
- Who Let the Dogs Out? Rabid dogs run through the street.  You have to kill them or be bitten and get rabies.
- The Roof Is On Fire! Arsonists attempt to burn down the PCs warehouse, where their expedition equipment is being gathered.  You have to fight rioters as well as put out the fire.
- Damsels In Distress. The NPC allies of the PCs have been kidnapped by rioters who threaten to murder them, overthrow the government and murder every white person in town. (I'm actually not kidding. Although here they're called "foreigners".)  They're in a whale processing plant (I'm also not kidding about that) and going into the plant, fighting terrorists and murderers and rescuing the damsels (and/or dudes) in distress plays out like a minor dungeon.  There's a trap, but mostly it's just fighting NPCs, including a "boss" NPC at the end.

—The Tempest is actually a person; because it's suggested that the PCs attempt to hire a seasoned guide, it's assumed that they will undertake this suicidally stupid attempt to reach one who lives in such an inaccessible place that they have to row a boat out to a rocky cliff, try not to get battered against the rocks and killed, climb sheer, wet cliffs, fight giant crabs, get past a couple of traps, and then convince this cranky old fart to take them and their quest seriously.  In order to do this, he challenges you to prove yourselves by doing some stupid tasks for him:
- Challenge of Water: go pearl diving, fight a kelpie, and get a black pearl for him (if I went to this much trouble, I'd keep it and kill the stupid guide, personally.  I'm a bit of a rogue when it comes to being a player, though.)
- Challenge of the Wind: Climb another cliff a day away in a thunderstorm and retrieve a single thunderbird feather.  You may have to fight superstitious natives after you get the feather too, because they demand it back.
- The native gives them Golarion's version of ersatz peyote, and the PCs have to go on a dreamquest and fight a dream serpent, and get assigned a spirit animal.  Mine is a T. rex.

THE RACE BEGINS This part is more railroady, and involves an entire expedition of NPCs to deal with.  To mitigate this, the railroad says the PCs should be trailblazers out in front of the expedition by a day or so.  The route includes taking some older, disused paths along the edge of the jungle to the town of Kalabuto, a river trip through the jungle (African Queen!) until you get to some rapids, or on foot next to the river, which is kind of recommended because of the rapids, travel through the Bandu Hills, and on into another jungle.  Here's where they are meant to find Tazion, the missing gateway to the missing city Saventh-Yhi.  While this route is just about as spelled out for the PCs as a railroad track, it is kinda fun to give them some overland travel to do—more echoes of Isle of Dread again.

There is a shortcut through some old salt mines, though, which gives them at least a choice to make.  If they take this route, they have to deal with a Tarzan-like girl with a pet Deinonychus (spergy dinosaur fans like me will point out that based on its size, it's most likely a Utahraptor.)  There's a risk of catching some weird jungle fever (not that kind) as you pass through the abandoned mining camp, and then you cut through the mine.  Inside, you'll find:
—a crystal ooze (this is such a weird D&Dism, that there's no way I'm converting it to FANTASY HACK or using anything like oozes in general.)
—salt wights (very minor change to regular wights)
—a collapsing ceiling trap and more salt wights
—a boss "cairn wight" plus a "negative energy orb" which kills people and turns them into wights

On the other side of the mines (or if the PCs go around them, if I remember correctly) they find a caravan with a shady guy running cock-fights, who tries to shake down the PCs.  If they bet on the cock-fights, he refuses to pay if he loses, and demands more than they bet if he wins.  Either way, they're probably fighting him and his thuggish caravan guards.  This is the kind of nonsense you get when you travel in Africa kids, ask anyone who's been there.

There's also a village where the villagers are strangely hospitable.  Turns out that they believe that they are under a curse, and want the PCs help to remove it by killing the ape-bears that are coming into their village each night to kill somebody and eat their brains.

Then there's ankheg's—gigantic anti-lions, basically.  Some wicked vultures, and some plague zombies laying under a tree as encounters to encounter while en route to Kalabuto.  This seems like overkill; some random encounter tables would have done the job, but these aren't bad ideas really.

KALABUTO AND BEYOND As you can see from the map, Kalabuto is the first major stop on the way.  Here, a number of things are supposed to happen:
—A little girl begs the PCs to buy good luck charms that are supposed to make the natives beyond recognize them as friends.  They actually will do the opposite, and the little girl is a con artist paid by the PCs rivals.
—They meet the contact that they've been advised to meet; a dwarf explorer who sets up expeditions further inland.
—Further rival agents try to ambush the PCs in town.

They may get wind of a treasure map up the river at L, where they fight an African Nessie guarding a sunken ship.

At M, there's a native ambush.  At N there are lizardmen hunting hippos, who get angry on seeing the PCs and prod the hippos into attacking.  Then you fight the lizardmen too.  At O there's a dire ape possessed by a shadow demon that's killed the advance party of another one of the groups racing for the city (not sure if it's a given that they get ahead of the PCs; although I've read this adventure before, I'm just skimming it for this review, and I can't remember.)

At P, the PCs might come across a tomb a little off the beaten path with a witch doctor necromancer with a troll zombie that attacks.  At Q, there are gnome headhunters that attack you (actually spriggans, to be precise and D&Dy) and finally at R, they come across some slutty native bathers who invite them to "party" with them—but it turns out that one of them is a succubus.  And then, they arrive at the ruins of Tazion.  Which, I'll start up with tomorrow.