frozenwastes's page

In my current game I have a arcane fraternal organization that has worked its way into the upper echelons of political power in all the major cities of the rather obscure area that the campaign takes place in (on the edge of the Dreamlands on the world proper).

That the organization serves Asmodeus. They obviously don't advertise it. They talk about the greatness of human reason, enlightenment, the banishment of superstition and living in fear of supernatural beings. They run schools of magic, collect lore and generally do what they can to educate those they see as worthy. But they have other goals.

They've largely been successful in these goals. They started introducing the idea in seminaries and monasteries that it's not appropriate to actually say the names of the gods. They're holy names after all. So over the last few centuries, they've been doing their best to strip away the personal identity of the gods. And largely people now just call them "the gods of light" or "the dark gods" for the bad ones. They also work hard to get dirt on priests and monks and to have their men placed in positions within various temples and shrines and to cut short the influence of any itinerant preachers or lay revivalists who might call worship back to the gods as individual and personal beings. They've also been doing their best to make anyone who knew the rites to appoint true clerics and true paladins disappear.

The PCs are just about to loot the vaults of one of their strongholds. In them is a secret room that has the various ceremonial and pledge equipment that they only use for the more initiated members.

This particular stronghold is a minor one. It's master doesn't have the power to summon devils. He's probably not even all that capable. The only reason there's a stronghold in the town is that the town used to be a major one but has declined over the years and the stronghold is there pretty much out of tradition.

So what clues should the group find among the treasures? I was thinking of an upside down triangle symbol made up of 9 lines that gradually getting smaller. And perhaps a plaque inscribed with the Oath of Loyalty. And perhaps another with the Oath of the Inner Circle. The Oath of the Inner Circle would be an another language (Chelaxian?) which will be deciphered easily enough, I'm sure.

Should I just go all out and have really obvious Asmodean stuff here? A big obvious Asmodean star on tapestries? Should the Oath of the Inner Circle basically just say that they're interested in destroying the faith of the people in favor of "reason" and that their inner circle is dedicated to taking the position of herding the human cattle who can't make the right decisions for themselves or should it out and out praise Asmodeus and pledge their loyalty and souls to him? My gut says just to layer on enough clues so they can figure it out without too much trouble without being blatant.

One of the characters is actually up for membership in the organization and it would be interesting with putting them in the position of whether or not to join them knowing full well that they are nefarious Asmodeans who seek to dominate the area. If he joins, is he going to infiltrate? If he suddenly rejects membership after working to nominated and considered, what message would it send the members of the organization who sponsored them? And then when news of the robbery reaches those same ears, perhaps things will be pieced together.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

I'm contemplating starting a campaign that is focused around the otherworldly elements in Golarion. The Realm of Dreams, The First World, Leng, the Dark Lands, and perhaps other planes.

Who should the party be? Natives to these realms or people from the prime material who happened upon them? A combination? I'm thinking mostly people from the prime material.

Power level/whatnot is not an issue. I'm adept enough at either scaling monsters and designing encounters that it's a non-issue.

What I'm really looking for is suggestions and thoughts about:

- Adding colour to get the feel of the strange locations right
- What adventure hooks and goals might be appropriate for the group
- How to deal with the lack of mundane people to protect or whatnot.
- How to avoid it being an "escape from X" campaign.

I'd also love to hear about what elements of the otherworldy in Golarion you think are great and worth highlighting or including in play.

I'm going to be revisiting the fiction of Lovecraft and Arhur Machen. Any other suggestions for a reading list?

Like many here, I've become a bit of a Golarion junky and am in the process of prioritizing what to buy at the local store.

One thing I'm finding is that I can't quite tell which elements of Paizo's product lines are directly related to Golarion.

I know the Adventure Paths are. As well as the Pathfinder Chronicles line.

What about the other modules?

This is stupid and irrelevant, but I figured, "hey, it's the internet" so here we go:

One problem I've always had with the wheel is it's structure. Or rather, the nature of it's structure. 9 alignment planes and 8 mixed planes all arranged around in a wheel.

So 7 of these 17 planes have some sort of chaotic leaning. The 3 CE, CN & CG planes and then the half way/mixed planes. A full 41% of this ordered symmetrical cosmic structure are places of chaos and disorder.

I find the descriptions of the Great Beyond in Pathfinder to be far more mysterious and lacking such simple symmetry. I like that. A lot. Between the infinite nature of the Abyss and the Maelstrom and the somewhat relative positioning of the other planes relative to Pharasma's Spire, you have a lot of leeway. It definitely doesn't come across as nearly as understandable, codified and figured out as a symmetrical 9/17 piece wheel.

My group has recently migrated from the implied setting of 4th edition D&D to Pathfinder/Golarion and I'm trying to hammer out the best way to go for my first adventure in Golarion.

My design goals:

1) It has to involve larger organizations/nations/groups from the world of Golarion so as to introduce the players to the unique and awesome world that is Golarion.

2) A dungeon crawl is a must. Or rather a dungeon jaunt-- faster paced. So some sort of ticking clock is needed. The group generally dislikes attrition/resource management/level clearing style dungeon crawling-- if the PCs are going to be down in some horrible underground death trap of a locale, it better be for a good reason and the play time be about that reason.

3) The results of the PC's actions need to matter. How it all goes down and the decision they make need to have an impact.

So here's what I've got that I think meets those requirements.

There's a conjunction of certain stars rapidly approaching. It happens very infrequently, like every 173 years or so and only lasts for about a day. As far as constellations go, the motions represent the hand of Pharasma moving to touch was is known as the Mortal star.

There was a temple built just for this conjunction. It was built by followers of Pharasma to take advantage of this rare and special omen. A time when Pharasma's mastery of prophecy and fate is present such that it can be tangibly touched under the right conditions. The priests built an alter and a special chamber to channel the strange effect produced by the conjunction. That's about all that is currently known about it. Other than what city it was built under. Any suggestions about what city?

So that brings us to the organizations. It's been 173 years and those who are aware of this abandoned temple know that it's time to once again pay attention to it. The Pathfinder Society missed the last window and definitely want it looked into. A venture captain will likely approach the PCs with it as some of the PCs have decided their characters will be part of the society.

Then I'm thinking of bringing in the Harbingers. The prophecies of failure have failed. They need to make them work again. :D So this temple with this day where fate and prophecy are especially potent might be a step towards righting everything they see as having gone wrong. This will also bring up stuff about Aroden and the ages of Golarion's history and future that are unique and interesting facets about the setting.

Another group that will likely be involved will be the Hell Knights. Particularly the Order of the Rack. Unlike the other involved parties, they know exactly what's what. They know what the temple contains and what will happen on the conjunction. And the idea that something might come from that which would allow the fates of the ordinary to be transformed into the extraordinary is just too dangerous of a thing to allow.

I'd like to add in another faction or two, just to introduce them to the players and give the players the sense that the world is a big place that is currently in flux with all certainty about the future having died with Aroden.

The conjunction being a fixed date adds a ticking clock to everything. If they're not in the temple's central chambers when the conjunction is happening, they've failed. So there won't be time for a 5 minute adventuring day where they nova with all their spells and then hole up somewhere to rest.

As for what happens during the actual conjunction, I'm thinking that a powerful spell is revealed. Casting it rewrites a person's history, fate and prophetic future. A peasant could become a great hero, the cursed could lose their infliction, the weak be made powerful and the powerful be made weak.

So there's basically going to be bargaining, double crossing, attempts to steal the mcguffin spell, different organizations who all want it or want it destroyed and the PCs are going to be caught in the middle.

Thoughts? Advice?