Absalom, City at the Center of the World, the hub about which the Inner Sea spins. Paladins the world over get their start in the Tempering Grounds of Iomedae. Clerics gaze upon the Ascendant Court to serve their venerated deity. Wizards looking to broaden their understanding of the arcane arrive in her harbor with the hopes - or the scholarship - to attend one of the two most prestigious magical universities in Golarion. And of course, Absalom holds the Grand Lodge of the Pathfinder Society; hunters of knowledge and antiquity whose missions delve into all corners of the world.
There is glory to be found within her walls if you're willing to make the right sacrifice. There are equal parts ruin too. But there is no mercy, not for noble or peasant, politician or servant. Certainly none for a group of new adventurers sailing from the Taldoran port of Cassomir. They board a ship, all of them sent to meet with a new mentor, an old bard named Caleb with a past to match that of Absalom herself. The adventurers each have a history all their own, and a story as yet unwritten. Soon enough, they will find that their stories are intertwined more tightly than the streets of their destination.
There is a new darkness taking shape in the city. It's tendrils are stretching forth to greet the waiting world outside. Disappearances, strange music in the night, a villainous fog moving against the wind and the skin saws have been more active of late. It began with a single choice, but the ramifications are being felt like a slow-burning fever. Can the new heroes discover the heart of this new darkness before it's too late?
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Prologue: The Halfling's Key
The rains of Cassomir fall on rich and poor alike as a group of strangers rally around the unlikely person of a Halfling. By working together they can see him and his kin to freedom. But what mysteries lay beyond the present? And what has drawn them together?
The first item relates to the tunnels beneath Cassomir, specifically beneath a place called Cassomir’s Locker. The Imperial Naval Shipyards has seen layers and layers of construction over the years. With the Blackwood Swamp constantly trying to reclaim its lands from the city, many structures are forced to be either reinforced or built over. The result is a labyrinth of tunnels and sewers and abandoned basements and vaults known as Cassomir’s Locker. In one book written by Arguil Illyanov on the mysteries of man-made underground complexes, he sites the existence of crocodiles, huge rats and giant insects in the explored regions of the Locker. But Illyanov is quick to add that most of the warrens of tunnels have not been explored. In fact he was barred from entry to many of the areas by Taldan Phalanx.
Further in the book, the author even goes so far as to hypothesize an entrance to the Darklands beneath Cassomir’s Locker. ”For there are too many markers of ancient architecture most notable among the neverending toilings of the worshippers of Droskar, to think them made by the Taldan architects of the past two centuries.”
It is also in this book that the word “Derro” is used, but only in association with tales of night terrors plaguing Cassomiri citizens nearly 80 years in the past.
Cultist Activity:
There are a few scrolls and journals and letter penned by Andoran and Taldan authors regarding a wide variety of cultic activity in the region. Anything from Norgorber skinsaw cults to worshippers bringing in the following of Chelaxian devils like Asmodeus and Zon-Kuthon. Oddly enough, with the Grand Prince’s war on Sarenrae, even the good god of the sun is among those listed as ‘cultic’ with her followers praying and worshipping in secret.
But one piece of writing draws Drogan’s attention. A book Marcum indicates he bought when he first arrived in Taldor. To him, knowing about a region’s religious practices aided in understanding the people just as much as their art and cuisine. The book looks to have been bound roughly 50 years ago and compiles notes and journals of assorted acolytes and clerics in the north of Taldor. One account is of a Shelyn priest in the town of Demgazi. From what they can determine, the writing dates to 4615.
It reads:
12 Gozran - ”I’ve only been raised to the priesthood a fortnight and I’ve been dispatched to this small town. There are many hard workers here, lumber and cotton. But they are an untrusting lot. With Qadira so close to the north I am unsurprised. But there is something else that keeps them at bay.”
20 Gozran - ”...a run in with Liev today when I sought to offer blessings at his son’s birth. He shoved me to the ground and called me a nix-pottle...something of an interloper if my local dialect is accurate. Three months since I replaced the last temple priest and I’m no closer to being trusted.”
30 Gozran - ”I am plagued by questions regarding my predecessor. Genevieve, a local druidess who visits from time to time indicated he fell ill and died. A wasting sickness that robbed him of his ability to speak, but started with an inability to focus the eyes and moments of mental ramblings. She states he would be suddenly burst with nonsensical yammerings only to revert to a shaky shell of his former self. But soon he could no longer speak. Shelyn guide me, but I think something befell my predecessor.”
5 Desnus - ”A simple day of music turned dark. I have begun earning the trust of a few of the locals, even Liev if that can be believed. A few of them joined me in the town square to spread banners and paint and ready the town to celebrate Second Planting. At the end of our toils, at the height of my joy, several women arrived to announce the celebration is to be cancelled. Apparently the Shire-reeve and council saw it as an unneeded affair.”
6 Desnus - ”Several members of the town are gone. After daybreak, I departed my small home at the temple and made my regular rounds of greetings and offerings. But nearly three dozen on my usual route are gone. Worse still - and disconcerting to be frank - no one speaks of where the disappeared have gone. They don’t even acknowledge there being a problem or a mystery.”
27 Desnus - ”They returned. No fanfaire, not even an admission of the roads they’d traveled or the places they’d been. I’m a nix-pottle once more. I do not understand this behavior and feel that Shelyn is warning me away from this place. In the past three weeks, I’ve been unable to focus on my painting, nor complete a single new sermon. Perhaps a message to Oppara and I can depart this place, find a new acolyte to assume the mantle.
The journal ends there, but a note by the archivist who compiled the anthology states that the priest in question stayed on in Demgazi until his passing 30 years later.
Symbology:
The hardest part of their research involves the strange language Marcum was able to copy down in relation to Linkah’s key from Korvosa. Based on what Drogan had witnessed in the Tannery complex and the symbols on the floor of the basement ritual room, they belong to a singular language and purpose. Neither being a linguist by profession, they instead look at the language as a collection of symbols, vile and menacing symbols.
It’s by this vein they are able to find a single symbol that bears some kinship to one Drogan had seen on the ritual floor. It had been one near where the girl’s head had been rested; a circle of oddly incongruous parameter with wavy lines at unpatterned intervals along the outside. It’s closest match is one found on the pediment of a what is notated as a ruined temple of Lamashtu in Osirion. But a notation next to the image they found in a Pathfinder Society notebook indicates it is only a guess, considering there were no other evidences of Lamashtu worship in that region.
Demgazi and St Antoinette Academy:
Marcum withdraws a roughly drawn map, probably a trapper's, and points a stubby finger at a spot marked by a crude set of buildings surrounded by a wall. "Fort Luxtavian..." He traces his finger north by east. A picture of smaller structures denoting a town. "Demgazi...." He traces eastward along a curving line that appears to be a river until it stops at a drawing of a book with the word "novelty" written next to it. "When the subject of Demgazi came up, especially the events covered in the priest's journal, I recalled this map." He scratches his earlobe and smiles. "A merchant named Aleksy sold me the thing, said he'd picked it up from a ranger in the south so he could learn the back trails in the region. An important advantage considering what Aleksy had for sale."
Marcum points at the book icon on the map. "Saint Antoinette's School. An odd place for such an establishment, but it serves as a military academy of sorts." A notation in Marcum's now familiar writing is next to the book icon.
"Novelty?"
"There was significant movement to that area by some of the nobility in Cassomir and other cities to send their offspring to this school, maybe three years ago. I had thought it something of a novelty at the time, storing away the information for future use." He produces a slip of paper with a list of names. "I think I've remembered some of the Taldan families that sent children to that school. The reason I found out is the servants, having to prepare for visits, that sort of thing. Travel arrangements and all can't keep that too quiet."
Take the bones, shake them 'round and slam the cup down but hide your results.
Then you view your own roll on your turn, careful not to allow other players to see the roll
Minimum ante established by 'dealer'
Place your bet and call out how many fives or higher you've rolled, this may be the truth or it may be a lie. (roll a Bluff check) 5's and 6's count as fives. If a tie, then 6's will break the tie.
The bluff check you roll is the target # for other players to hit with a Sense Motive check.
Each round, you place your bet, and you can alter your bluff; raising or lowering the number of fives you claim to possess
When there are only two players remaining in the game the two "walk the plank"; a house roll is made in the open.
Then you reveal you results, whoever of the the players has the most fives wins.
If it's the house roll, then the pot is carried over to the next game
Typical Round
'Dealer' calls ante - 1 gold
All players rattle their cups and slam them down
OOC - Each player rolls a Bluff Check in the open. In the same post they make a 5d6 roll within a spoiler. Lastly, they roll a Sense Motive check also in the spoiler.
》[dice=Indrik Bluff]1d20+8[/dice] (in open)
》[dice=Indrik Roll]5d6[/dice] (in spoiler)
》[dice=Indrik Sense Motive]1d20+4[/dice] (in spoiler)
》Place your bets
If as a player, your Sense motive check (made in spoiler) beats another player's Bluff check (made in open), you can peer under their spoiler and call them out. If not you leave the spoiler alone and have to guess. Maybe you'll get lucky?
Choose to stay in the game or jump overboard (fold)
Next round you can reroll your Bluff (open] / Sense Motive (spoiler) then place your bets or call out opponents
Brimmer Fizzleboom - Acerbic artificer at Corg’s Forge (Gnome)
Kidge - Shop Owner (Gnome)
Knock - Shop Guard (half-orc)
Summary of Clues (read carefully):
The following summarizes the clues gathered in Golsifar. In addition, there’s a materials list at the end that outlines what you have for objectives and gear attached to those objectives. Please read carefully as each and every item is going to come into play later. (ye ‘ve been warned…)
Rumors from the Rockjaw Brothers Met by Phedron, will be on the caravan heading East
Rumors of a creature, heavy thumping footfalls and wailing, out on the road.
