Pathfinder Society Scenarios Season #1 Part 3

Let's keep this moving; I haven't done anything with this in a couple of weeks.

39. The Citadel of Flame: With only a bare minimum of context and set-up, the PCs find themselves out in the desert looking at an old temple of Moloch that is, as the title of the module suggests, fire-themed.  They fight fire elementals, cultists, devils, traps, extreme heat, and finally, the cult leader boss.    It's a very typical evil temple dungeon crawl type adventure, so if you like that kind of thing and want to keep it brief, this is a good scenario for you.  I strongly suspect that if you like that kind of thing, you prefer it to not be brief, so I think this kind of dungeon crawl meant to be done in just a couple of hours or so (maybe longer given Pathfinder's complexity and the length of time to resolve complex tactical combat) probably doesn't really scratch very many people's particular itch.  Either go all out and make it a full-blown module-length scenario, or don't do a dungeon crawl.  Obviously, based on my tastes, I'd prefer the latter to the former.
40. Hall of Drunken Heroes: This is actually a rather interesting and diverse scenario, especially given it's short length.  Much of it takes place in (and below) a "fest hall"—a ridiculous bohemian RennFaire wish-fulfillment fantasy, but luckily that doesn't mean that the adventure itself is as ridiculous as that premise.  It starts with some spy-like skulduggery, a nice change of pace, includes the interrogation of a minor demon, dealing with good guys who are "charmed" magically by a succubus, so in theory should be dealt with delicately, and may turn out to be a rousing, great bar fist fight kinda thing (watch Tony Curtis' The Great Race for one of the best examples ever put to film, albeit comically) if you're lucky.  Afterwards, they talk with the rather earthy priest caste of Cayden Caillean, or whatever his name is, but find that one's been possessed by a demon.  There's a really kinda clever dream-state or pscyhic kind of "surgery" that they do, which was probably borrowed from either Dr. Strange or Professor X to get information from the possessed priest—where they find out that a "nest" of demons, led by a succubus trying to free her imprisoned demonic lover from a research lab below the fest hall needs to be dealt with.  This is a little half dozen areas dungeon, and I find that after such a great set-up, I don't even mind doing a small dungeon crawl like this.  I could do without traps, because I think that they're silly, but as you can imagine, the encounters will be demonic; a succubus, a shadow demon, and the "boss" demon who's been imprisoned varies depending on the CR needed for the group; either a nabassu or a hezrou, if you're into esoteric D&D demon titles.  This little scenario really has it all.  It even manages to somehow introduce compelling and charismatic interesting NPCs.
41. The Devil We Know, Part III: Crypt of Fools: Part of the Taldan Devil We Know series introduced earlier in the season with derros and strange cults and stuff under the capital city of Cassomir.  While this one starts out strong and in an overt Lovecraftian vein, even, with the questioning of a creepy cultist who's quite insane and who's in Swift Prison, it's really a module that's focused on solving puzzles, one of my least favorite activities that are often considered "core" to the D&D experience.  Oh, sure, there's cultists to fight, and mites, skeletons and derros and giant centipedes and other monsters (depending on the EL needed) like an otyugh, etc. but the core of this module is interpreting some painted handouts to piece together the location of the little dungeon you need to explore.  You rescue some prisoners, but the local Pathfinder Venture-Captain is unable to make headway with the Taldan bureaucracy, so the derro threat isn't completely finished off (see The Devil We Know, Part IV: Rules of the Swift in another 7-8 or so episodes.)  Serviceable, but not great.
42. Echoes of the Everwar, Part II: The Watcher of Ages: We're back to the concubines' rings again, from the Echoes of Everwar series; a four parter.  Parts 1-3 can be played in any order, but Part 4 can only be played after the other three are all done.  This scenario, given its typical brevity, sure spends a lot of time on backstory and context, much of which I'm not sure the PCs will actually ever uncover unless the GM just tells it to them somehow (although to be fair, I haven't read the next two parts yet.)  And yet after all of that, this is just a really arch-D&Dish (and not in a great way) dungeon crawl populated by a bunch of esoteric and weird monsters chosen more for their tactical diversity (as near as I can tell) as for any other reason.  You'll fight barghests, deal with a xorn, fight gargoyles, bat swarms and cave fishers (giant crabs), morlocks and a roper.  I think this kind of adventure is silly bordering on outright ridiculous, but it is kinda iconic to the game, I suppose.
43. The Pallid Plague: If you are a regular Pathfinder Module player, this one has a suspiciously similar premise (and the exact same location!) as D0 Hollow's Last Hope, except it's nearby fey who are the main victims (so far) and resentful human cultists plotting "revenge" for the crime of not having suffered enough or whatever is the motivation.  You fight unique animal plague zombies and plaguey flower fields tended by gardeners (who are actually druids, who've sacrificed their animal companions to become plague zombies).  There's a Wiccan "wise latina" wise woman lady who can magically cure everything with her magical feminism (although skill challenges are needed to make this work), more cultists, sick fey, and then the "boss" with her zombies and cultists having, of all things, a big party and feast in the woods that you have to fight.  While I guess the module itself is serviceable enough, the premise is so silly that I have a really hard time taking any of it seriously.
44. Echoes of the Everwar, Part 3: Terror at Whistledown: The final of the "three McGuffins" part of Echoes of the Everwar, before we head towards the conclusion in Part 4.  The set-up, as always, is brief, although the module itself spends the better part of a page and half giving the entire Echoes of the Everwar backstory word for word as before, before adding some module specific backstory.  The PCs find themselves in Whistledown, a charming lakeside gnome community that's turned to panic because undead mohrgs and vampire spawn (numbers depending on PCs EL needed) are taking townspeople away at night.  At night, of course, they attack again coming by rowboat, and the PCs are supposed to fight them off.  They can find a ranger smuggler after this who's boat they're using; he was chased off of his smuggler island when the undead arrived, and he can tell them where to go next.  As the PCs cross the lake, in spite of Varisia's generally Iberian or Mediterranean-like climate, they get attacked by anacondas (!?) although that encounter is optional.  When they get there, there's a little building that contains the smuggler's loot plus more undead, including a fairly difficult vampire boss.  Once all three of these "concubine McGuffin" missions are complete, you can play the final Echoes of the Everwar scenario, which is number 53 in this series.
45. Delirium's Tangle: Grandmaster Torch has gotten over his head, dispatched a visiting minotaur dignitary (who's been magically dominated) into a labyrinth to retrieve some ancient elven artifact, but he didn't come back.  Knowing that if his involvement is uncovered, he'll be sentenced to death, he calls in a favor, but hides his involvement, calling the minotaur dignitary his "close friend", etc.  Heh.  Grandmaster Torch.  He may yet end up being a charismatic character, although so far, much of his deviousness will not be apparent to any players, only to people who've read the modules that he's in.  Of course, after this compelling introduction, you immediately are meant to go into maintenance tunnels and the scenario is basically just a routine dungeon crawl.  You fight some giant beetles (although not too giant; size Small), morlocks, and have to make skill challenges to "solve" the maze itself, which although described as possessing Lovecraftian geometry, just kinda seems to be readily handled with some routine skill challenges.  The scenario includes this odd note, which while true, should have led one to suggest that maybe a maze wasn't the best idea anyway: "Mazes Can Be Boring. Despite their prominence in literature, few things frustrate players quite like encountering a maze in a roleplaying game. Describing a labyrinth in terms of right and left turns from a character perspective can be confusing and repetitive. Drawing the maze itself on the battle grid is often too time-consuming for a 4-hour game. By abstracting the maze into a series of skill and ability checks, the act of solving the maze falls to the characters, rather than the players."  What prominence in what literature, I wonder?  Anyway, hopefully the PCs make their skill challenges, because otherwise they face a barrage of tedious and probably fatal traps everywhere else.  They fight a giant leech, who for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me this leech has been whispering madness to the inhabitants of the maze.  After solving one more puzzle, they find the "boss" an insane elf sorcerer cursed with some kind of unnatural longevity and hanging suspended from the ceiling where he's been tied up for centuries.  The minotaur is rescued, and the adventure ends... it's a bit weird, but nobody—I guess—can ever say that it isn't pretty iconically D&Dish.