Pathfinder Society Scenarios Season #1 Part 4

46. Eyes of the Ten Part I--Requiem for the Red Raven.  This is the first part of a four-parter for relatively high level characters (level 12.)  The scenarios have to do with the "Shadow Lodge"; a secret society within the Pathfinder Society itself that wants to overthrow the current leadership and replace it with... themselves, naturally.  Venture-Captain Helstrom from Absalom, who's appeared in many of the scenarios so far to date, is one such Shadow Lodger, looking to get on the Decimvirate himself.  The adventure is also more than twice the length of the average; I don't know yet if it's going to be the new normal, or not (we'll see as we continue this exercise.)  The PCs are invited to a lodge in Galt (the "French Revolution" country of their setting) by the Decimvirate themselves, but some of their old venture-captain allies are there, all excited by their schemes for advancement, which seem to be bearing fruit.  Curiously, several pages of location descriptions are included, allowing the PCs to wander around the lodge exploring it in some detail.  Unbeknownst to the players, the local Pathfinders suspect Adril has been murdering members of the Decimvirate, and this whole affair is a loyalty test or a trap, and the PCs are also there to prove their loyalty.  Adril is murdered in the middle of the ceremony by the Red Raven, a kind of combination of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the Frank Nitti of The Untouchables movie.  He escapes after doing so through a weird extradimensional "maze" that Helstrom himself used to assassinate members of the Decimvirate; in fact, one such member was part of the Galtan heirarchy, and the Red Raven was striking in revenge, completely unrelated to politics within the Pathfinder Society.  Finally, the Pathfinder's suspicions about Helstrom (and the PCs themselves) are brought forward, and the PCs have to solve the mystery to absolve themselves.  The maze is inhabited by a medusa and lots of "stoned" people and monsters.  The maze deposits them in the Batcave (if the Red Raven were Bruce Wayne, which in some ways he is.)  However, Bruce Wayne's mansion is under attack by antifa, who wants to execute him and confiscate his stuff.  It's expected that the PCs will rescue him, although they may well not.  Either they do and talk to him, or they don't and read his papers, and they have all of the evidence to condemn Helstrom.  Returning to the Lodge, they report their findings to the venture captain and Osprey (another shadowy Pathfinder agent featured in some earlier scenarios), and find that Helstrom's body is missing (or he himself, if he were somehow saved from being killed.)  The whole scenario surrounds this already fairly complex plot with some complex set piece combats with plenty of "crawling" through tunnels, caves and passages with lots of weird monsters.  This, more than any scenario I've looked at so far, feels like a full-fledged "module" which removes some of the charm of this type of scenario on the one hand, but serves as a pretty nice (albeit railroady) adventure otherwise.
47. The Darkest Vengeance.  Set in Ustalav, Paizo's Transylvania and much of the original inspiration for my own Timischburg, and the PCs are to investigate a corrupt Pathfinder who is suspected of embezzling funds from the society to fund his own private obsessions.  Of course, his lodge is... in the caverns underneath a manor somewhere.  Sigh.  And it connects to the Underdark.  But first, they find that squatters are living in the manor, and they pretend to be the legitimate owners, hoping to murder the PCs or at least rob them in the evening.  Anyway, there's traps, there's the squatters, there's some other weird monsters (for some reason).  Dark Creepers are a major player, and one of them has in fact kidnapped the corrupt Pathfinder and has been torturing him; payment for a past betrayal.  Anyway, the PCs find the secret laboratory, including a rather dumb experiment in making blinding lights out of crystal (which doesn't seem to be a very useful thing to do in most situations) and then go save (presumably) the dude in distress. (A very common occurrence in Paizo scenarios, because they have an allergic reaction to damsels in distress, or something.)  The corrupt Pathfinder is put out to pasture in some remote location where he can't do the organization much more harm, and the venture captain who recruited you in the first place takes his place, rewarding the PCs.  In essence, the location doesn't matter, because this bizarre dungeoncrawl could take place anywhere; bizarre in the sense that there's no good reason for this dungeoncrawl down into the Underdark to actually exist in this location, but it does anyway.
48. The Devil We Know Part IV: The Rules of the Swift.  This is the series that takes place in the tunnels beneath Cassomir, where derros are kidnapping people.  The Swift is a prison, and they've broken through and kidnapped all of the prisoners, except for one who's actually an Aspis Consortium agent who had a deal with the derros.  Of course, the Consortium is also betraying the derros by making sure that Pathfinder agents (the PC's patron) finds out about them and goes and exterminates them, while keeping the Consortium's involvement on the DL.  In reality, the scenario is just a dungeoncrawl through a prison and the Underdark tunnels beneath it, with strange monsters who's presence is poorly explained, if at all, including an earth elemental, ghasts, mites and, of course, derros.  And a small subplot about a magical bell that is to be stolen spills the beans about the Consortium involvement, although the good news is that the derros are effectively and pretty much permanently defeated.
49. Among the Dead. This is a rather sad trap-filled dungeon, a sequel to Among the Living from way back to early in season 0.  There's a zombie cult beneath Oppara that the PCs need to infiltrate and destroy, in part to send a message that the Pathfinder Society doesn't brook murder of its members.  The PCs meet their contact out in the wilderness, and he's under attack by wild dogs (yes, this is a low level adventure...)  Almost immediately, it turns into its trap-dungeon exploration.  Other than traps, exotic zombies make up a large percentage of the challenges to face (monsters to fight).  Poltergeists and bat swarms give it a little variety, and the presence of tons of different types of traps I guess makes the traps more interesting?  I dunno; ask someone who thinks trapped dungeons are intriguing; I clearly do not.  After fighting some cultists and more traps, you finally face the unique, exotic wight who is the "boss" of the scenario.
50. Fortune's Blight. The PCs wander the River Kingdoms attempting to find a missing fragment of a broken and cursed magic sword.  They are dropped off in the woods and immediately come across a disguised green hag who was related to the curse of the sword and wants the fragment back.  She has another fragment.  Later, the ghost of another green hag killed due to the sword tries to attack the PCs too. They continue their travels by boat, and in the town of Sevenarches, they find a third fragment with a sword expert guy that they're meeting with.  The fragments fuse and the guy is dominated, and the PCs now have to fight him.  Assuming that he can be defeated without being killed, he can tell the PCs that while dominated, he understood how the curse must be broken--two monsters must be killed.  One of them is the green hag met at the beginning, and the other is a harpy, who lives in a nest with a bunch of other harpies.  When they kill them both, the curse is lifted, and the adventure ends.  This one seems particularly weak in terms of motivation and having a thread to follow that isn't just strap you to the rails.  It's a more forgettable one, although the chance to use harpies and hags is at least unusual.