After a detailed backstory that spells out what's really going on for the DM we hear that the party, apparently newly-arrived in Cassomir, are given the task of finding a recently-kidnapped fellow Pathfinder. What makes it a bit interesting is that the one lead is an Aspis Consortium trainee whose boss was also kidnapped at the same time: both agents were attending an auction of artefacts that night, from which all the attendees were taken.

For once, the adventure actually starts with the briefing, rather than having it as a flashback. Once given the characters are sent off to commence their investigations. Cassomir has had a spate of kidnappings recently, mostly of people associated with the the Imperial Naval Shipyards. Nobody knows who's behind it, the imperative at this time is to get the Pathfinder back. The Aspis Consortium junior thinks he knows where some of the kidnap victims were taken (he escaped by jumping into the harbour!) and has agreed to lead the party there.

From there on in, it's basically one brawl after another around the dockyard area. The maps lay things out OK, and for at least a couple are based on Paizo Flipmat product, so if you like largescale maps to lay before the players (or use miniatures in combat) you can get hold of ones which match the ones given here. Apart from questioning vanquished foes (or rescued kidnap victims) there's little in the way of interaction apart from at the point of a sword. The Faction missions interlock quite neatly, and could bring about a bit of party conflict depending on which factions are represented.

Overall it's a reasonable low-level adventure provided you are happy to let your sword do your talking. The backstory is good, but unless the party captures rather than kills the mastermind behind it all and then get him to talk at length, it's unlikely that the players will discover what's going on. However, if you are mining this module for your own campaign, you might wish to expand on it to run a whole sequence of adventures...

Return to The Devil We Know 1: Shipyard Rats page.

Reviewed: 13 March 2016