For those of us living in the United States, today is the deadline by which we must file our taxes. Luckily, we in the real world aren't the only ones doing our civic duty today; inhabitants of the Inner Sea region are also participating in their own celebration of taxes, sponsored by the church of Abadar. Editor-in-Chief F. Wesley Schneider got his taxes done early, and used the extra time to put together a special holiday blog for the Pathfinder Society community. You will find a special Pathfinder Society Chronicle sheet below, which you can download and apply to a Pathfinder Society character during the date ranges noted on the sheet.
Illustration by Jason Engle
No one enjoys paying taxes. Every year, though, on the 15th of Gozran, priests of the church of Abadar spend the day walking city streets, doing what they can to make the bitter pill of annual taxes a bit easier to swallow. From dawn to dusk, clerics of Abadar attend the tax collectors of sizable communities as the tax wagons roll from door to door. More than just aiding in the yearly errand, the faithful personally thank every citizen for contributing to the improvement of their city, extol the public works funded by their contributions, and foretell the grandeur of civic projects to come. The disenfranchised and destitute they attempt to comfort as best they can, quoting from their god's dogma on work and worthiness, but this is not a day for discounts or deferrals.
At dusk, the Abadarans host several celebrations in parks, plazas, and other communal areas about the city, organizing donations and contributions from local vendors to feed and entertain all comers. Having already preached to most of the city over the course of the day, the clerics perform only a brief opening ceremony, dedicating the feast to Abadar, the city, and its great people. These celebrations are often quite distinct from neighborhood to neighborhood and are almost always divided along economic boundaries.
The festivities involving the wealthiest citizens usually happen on the steps of city hall or other grand civic buildings and feature the best music and food, but often little more than polite card and guessing games. These galas usually wrap up by midnight.
For the common folk, the parks and marketplaces take on a carnival atmosphere, with simple but good food, local ales, performances by talented citizens, and games of chance going on well into the night. A prevailing superstition through these festivals is that, during the celebration, it's lucky to kiss—or in some regions, pinch—a cleric of Abadar, leading to many a rosy cheeked cleric.
Even the city's poor are given reason to celebrate, as the local temple of Abadar hosts a cheery but unabashedly religious gathering on its steps, feeding all comers, doling out a hearty ration of wine, singing hymns of the faith, and providing tokens for a second wine ration for any who return to attend a service within the month.
For a holiday that revolves around paying taxes, this Abadaran festival isn't as reviled as one might expect.
Use the Chronicle sheet below to celebrate your pending tax refund or for a little escapism from the realities of whatever you may owe. And for those of you in other countries where taxes aren't due today, maybe you want to earn this boon while you can and save it for your nation's tax day.
Click here to download the Taxfest 4713 Boon! — (90KB zip/PDF)—This Boon is no longer available as of 5/4/13.
Mark Moreland
Developer
