4 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan
My group did two of the stories, since we had PCs with links to two of the factions; though we did also, during downtime investigation, make a contact with another faction (no PC is a member of that faction) leading towards "Trees Tales Tell". Those two stories had flexible potential to spend LOTS of time investigating background, exploring Phlan, and preparing for the dangerous part of the mission, if that's what the players are up for, and/or if the DM wants to nudge the players towards "we have a real setting, please appreciate it". It even got me motivated to read the description of Phlan in the Forgotten Realms wiki, outside of our group's meeting time; and to write a political parody song about the Daoran dynasty, for my Bard PC to perform in a tavern. On another hand, if your group prefers to cut to the action scenes, that's also reasonably available.*One of the missions can be resolved without any combat at all. One stubborn PC managed to get himself into a solo fight against some ruffians, and the other PCs bailed him out of trouble. That's a mission for a faction which prefers to keep a low profile, so it's entirely appropriate. My PC spent almost the entire encounter Invisible. (Tactic of the day: setting up caltrops doesn't break Invisibility. Caltrops awaiting your pursuers, on the other side of a door, in darkness, are great preparation for a clean get-away.)*Another of the missions is for the "We Fight Against Evil" faction, and it has room to start with some investigation and exploration, but it pretty quickly moves into horror. Underground, darkness, under an old temple, check. Corrupt abuse of civic authority, check. Mundane evil human minions followed by supernatural/divine evil, check. An encounter venue which inspires caution, followed by actual magical fear effects imposed on PCs (make that WIS save!), check. NPCs whose sanity has already been damaged, check. Unpleasant moral choices - do you free all the prisoners, including the criminals and cultists? - check. Innocent in peril, horrible monster, check. The monster even has resistance to normal weapons in a way which reminded me of similar abilities of "Call of Cthulhu" monsters.*On the downside, our DM did not adequately increase the challenge. We figured out where the monster would emerge, it did so more or less on cue, and we finished it off in one round before all the PCs got an action. Which is too bad - since the PC who was last on the initiative count was a Warlock with a Great Old One pact, and he could have used eldritch magic against our horrible eldritch foe. The monster should perhaps have had a mate, which emerges for revenge; also, since we're in the Cult of Dragons storyline, perhaps it could have had a draconic breath weapon, as the result of unnatural crossbreeding/tinkering/grafting. (If you run this story against strong PCs, maybe have it first appear by using that breath, without even fully emerging from its hole... who wants to go in after it, there's only room for one at a time, as in the first "Alien" movie.)*Meta-review: Michael J Tresca said "I was not impressed with this one hour scenario. They're best played by experienced players working together as a team." Um, could Mr. Tresca point me to any scenarios, in any game system or setting, for which that is *not* true? Yeah, impulsive non-cooperative players could get their PCs in trouble, and fail any or all of the missions. I'm totally OK with that. (shrug) We each have our gaming styles!
