Just in time for Christmas, we have a new holiday boon! Developer Adam Daigle was so excited when he detailed Evoking Day last month that I was able to rope... err... convince him to write a second holiday post for Pathfinder Society. This time, Adam took the original work regarding Crystalhue, written by Crystal Frasier in Wayfinder #2, and expanded on it. The holiday of Crystalhue is also mentioned on page 249 of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Inner Sea World Guide. You will find a special Pathfinder Society Chronicle sheet you can download and apply to a Pathfinder Society character during the date ranges noted on the sheet.
Illustration by Eva WidermannDuring the day, in towns where the holiday of Crystalhue is celebrated, locals hang crystal prisms and glass baubles throughout town in order to spread light and scatter rainbows in the streets. As townsfolk prepare for the evening festivities, artisans and musicians ply their trades, hoping for a coin or two while they sell their crafts and play tunes for the people while they browse. Throughout the day, the locals exchange small gifts, typically handmade, as tokens of appreciation or as peace offerings to those they feel they wronged during the year.
To reflect artistic depictions of their patron goddess, women dye colored streaks in their hair. Young girls will commonly have half a dozen different colored locks, while older married women usually only have one or two. Men wear colorful patchwork coats they call melaros that they keep their whole lives, adding new patches or scraps of scavenged cloth every year.
As night falls, the community gathers every available lantern and candle, bringing them out onto porches or lining the streets with their communal light. The town square hosts a large feast around a bonfire complete with roasted meats, stewed vegetables, roasted root vegetables, and winter squashes—all seasoned with plenty of fragrant spices. Around these bonfires, the clergy of Shelyn perform marriage ceremonies, where the whole community gathers to witness and affirm the bonds of love. During the ceremonies, teenagers pursue their budding romances, giving trinkets and other symbols of their affection to the ones who caught their eye throughout the year.
One of the stranger traditions among the faithful of Shelyn is the Zonzon doll. A child chosen to be the “sibling” passes this strange little doll, made from scraps of leather and cloth and sewn with red thread, among neighbors. The townsfolk give it symbolic gifts and whisper apologies to those they’ve wronged during the year or share with the doll happy memories in order to represent Shelyn’s kindness and mercy to her now-lost brother Zon-Kuthon. The “sibling” child brings the doll to everyone in town during the festival, making sure everyone has had the chance to pay his or her dues and make peace. As the celebration winds down, the doll is cast into the wilderness or set afloat to drift down a river in the hope that it will find its way to the Midnight Lord and relate his sister’s kindness, mercy, and goodwill in the face of the dark place he now resides.
Also this past week, a Pathfinder Society boon was added to the $5 sponsorship level of the Pathfinder Online Kickstarter. The emerald elixir, stolen from a bizarre pool in the Emerald Spire dungeon, has now been made available for Pathfinders. When used at an official Pathfinder Society game table, drinking the elixir grants your hero the advanced simple template for the duration of the scenario. Alternately, the elixir can be spiked with experimental agents to trigger a beneficial permanent mutation randomly determined on a huge chart included on the certificate. If more than one player activates an emerald elixir at the same table, all drinkers can choose their preferred mutation from the list rather than roll randomly.
There will not be another Pathfinder Society blog post until January 7, 2013, so I want to take this time to wish all of you a happy holidays. I hope everyone has a great time visiting family, giving gifts, and hopefully enjoying some Pathfinder Society with the new holiday boon. We’ll see you in 2013!
Click here to download the Crystalhue 4712 Boon! — 117 KB (zip/PDF)—This Boon is no longer available as of 1/9/13.
Mike Brock
Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator
