A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 3–7.
The legendary sorceress Hao Jin transferred many abandoned historical sites to her museum demiplane, though even her magic had limits, forcing her to transport only part of an architectural treasure. The half of a temple she left behind in the jungles of Dtang Ma has developed a haunted reputation in the centuries since. Now an unlikely ally has approached the Society with tales of unspoiled historical secrets and hidden treasure left within the shattered sanctuary of Yamatsumi, the mountain god.
You each receive a letter from Venture-Captain Amara Li (see Player Handout #1), who requests they meet with a colleague known endearingly as Old Pak.
Bells tinkle and chime as the door to “Pak’s Tobacco and Spice” opens. Shelves on the walls are full of jars and pouches, and a collection of masks adorns the wall opposite to the entrance. An old Tian-Dtang man sitting behind the counter wakes up mid-snore, rubs his eyes, and exclaims in a raspy but exuberant voice. “Yes, come in, come in! Ah, you must be the Pathfinders Ms. Amara sent! Where are my manners! I am Pak! Tea, anyone?” Before anyone can answer, Pak flicks one end of his metal smoking pipe, snags a teakettle, and plants it atop a small brazier with smoldering coals.
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An unkept, half-orc with a mean features stands before Pak. He dons a hooded robe and his garments consist of only the shades of the colours grey and black. Unlike most half orc's, his skin is an odd dull magma red colour, as if it was burnt, A feature that could possibly be explained by long exposure around volcanoes or hot temperatures. Although messy in appearance, he presents himself as a well prepared man: his haversack filled to the brim, 4 daggers in a variety of materials and 4 bolas hang from his belt. He has two bandoliers strapped across his chest, filled with useful looking amenities.
What an extremely odd fellow. "Thank you for the offer, but I'm content."Kelumur looks on fixated as if he is studying the man's every move. "I understand you have information regarding a mysterious temple? What could you share with us?"
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"Good day, Mr. Pak. I am Whendel and, yes, we are pathfinders sent by Ms. Li." The brightly colored halfling with only a mace and dagger at his belt and a backpack with several scrolls poking out steps out and addresses the Mr. Pak. Gesturing to his Half-orc companion,"Excuse our bluntness...I would love some tea. You have a very cozy shop here. And, yes, in your time, tell us how we can help you." "Our message mentions a temple in the mountains."
Whendel has shoulder length red hair and a tanned complexion. He wears a black cloak, orange and yellow shirt and brown trousers. There are pockets all over the cloak, shirt and trousers. He has minor jewelry, a signet ring, an amulet, and an ear ring.
"We are in no hurry and at your disposal." "I will let the others introduce themselves."
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"We are in no hurry and at your disposal." "I will let the others introduce themselves."
Kelumur looks at his companion somewhat disapprovingly, but knows it is expected at times. Pleasantries do not deliver results, when do these people learn? Taking the cue, he immediately waste no time though and introduces himself in a short manner.
"I am Kelumur, the night fighter." And then turns to the look at the others in the room.
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You hear voices from outside and the more perceptive of you will realize it is someone confirming that this is indeed Mr. Pak's shop.
A handsome young Vudrani man enters followed by a small bear.
"Ah Mr. Pak. Or would you truly wish me to call you Old-Pak?"
Barid smiles. "And I assume these are my fellow pathfinders. I am Barid Sadorka and this is my faithful companion Scruffy." Barid bows. "How may we assist you today?"
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"Thundering Bull," says the next person walking through the door, poking his chest with a thick finger, as if to clarify he was talking about himself.
"Thundering Bull bring food, but want tea too," he says as he draws forth a greasy metal bucket with a lid. He unclasps the latches and pulls out a piece of chicken and a hunk of cheese. While waiting for directions, he messily gorges himself.
Through mouthfuls of food, he continues. "Thundering Bull escape with half-orcs from real orcs. Like half-orcs. Don't like orcs. Make us slaves," he says with a deep frown.
While Pak is serving tea and lighting his pipe with vanilla-scented tobacco, one of the masks on the wall animates and floats you!
"Ah, this is Tanbaru, a spirit oni."
Tanbaru lazily glides from person to person, as he speaks to you.
“Long ago, I was a kami who lived near a temple of Yamatsumi in the Kullan Dei mountains. But centuries ago, the temple and I were magically transported into an extraplanar place called the Hao Jin Tapestry. For hundreds of years, I languished in a broken temple surrounded by tyrannical conquerors who encouraged my cruelest habits, and I turned into what I am now — an oni. It wasn’t until a group of Pathfinders found me and showed me mercy that I was able to see past my own selfishness and spite. I have been working for the Pathfinder Society ever since, both in Absalom and in Tian Xia.”
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A serious-looking undine with various lenses and tubes hanging out of his pack and off his cloak nods his greetings to all. "I am Korez. I study the motions of the heavens. I have learned much about their great powers but the more I learn, the more I realize I do not even know."
When the oni appears, he remarks, "I have never seen one of your kind before. That sounds simply dreadful though. I'm sure you have much you can tell us about the Tapestry after such a long stay?"
Pak continues.
“I’ll get straight to the point. I would appreciate your to traveling to the Kullan Dei mountains in southern Dtang Ma and exploring what is left of the temple of Yamatsumi near which Tanbaru once lived. You see, the ancient sorceress Hao Jin was able to transport only the lower, front half of the original temple into her tapestry. I know little about the broken temple other than its haunted reputation, but Tanbaru here says that the temple’s secluded location high up in the mountains may well have kept its historical secrets and hidden treasures safe from vandals and looters, relics that should be valuable to the Pathfinder Society.
“I want Tanbaru to accompany you. Although his transformation into an oni made his memories somewhat frayed, he still instinctively knows the way there. You should know that when Tanbaru was a kami, the Pilgrim’s Path—the trail that leads up to the temple—was his sacred ward. His presence may have unpredictable consequences, so please keep him safe.”
Tanbaru pledges to help you to the best of his ability.
Old Pak then gives you two large backpacks full of rice and a camping cooker that needs only twigs for fuel. He explains that the terrain is rough and that taking pack animals into the mountains would be unwise. Pak has two climber’s kits that he can lend out and advises you to purchase additional climbing equipment as needed.
Seeing Thundering Bull in his plate armor, Pak taps a finger on the armor and notes, “If you’re going to wear that, you’d better watch your step.”
"Any questions?"
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Having experience several hauntings previously, Kelumur grins uneasy and lets out a soft sigh at the sound of it. "Ghost? My weapons will be useless against them. Is there anywhere I could purchase goods around here that might have some effect on them? Does the temple's reputation suggest hostility from the spirits?"
Furthermore, he scans his belongings and picks out to demonstrates he has his own climbing gear."I have my own, thanks."
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A small gnome, with hair a dark purple, almost black color, and light golden skin, watches all the proceedings with a quiet but excited air to him. He squeals lightly in delight when the mask comes flying towards them, clapping his hands lightly. "You are magnificent!" he says lightly.
To Old Pak, he listens and responds with a firm nod. "I will be glad to help in whatever way I can. My name is Henrikuaxian, by the way. I've never seen a floating mask before. A spirit oni you say? How fascinating."
He frowns a little after thinking about their goals. "I'm not very good at climbing - I'm small, but I'm not very strong. I've never been in the mountains before; should I acquire any spells before leaving that would help?"
Old Pak chimes in at Henrikuaxian's admission of not knowning what an oni is.
“Oni are depraved spirits that take on a fleshly form so they can indulge in hedonism. They see the world only as a playground for their cruel games. Oni and kami are like fire and water— their hatred is strong and mutual. When a kami fails her ward or becomes estranged from it, she may fall to evil and devolve into an oni, and that is what happened to our friend Tanbaru. He has, however, learned to control his urges and is a valued friend of our organization.”
You are currently in the city of Ramparassad, and so all of the purchases mentioned are easily made.
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Kelumur is somewhat a resourceful man and is able to find out a few things about the mountain range. "We need not worry about the weather, the mountain range is warm. Kullan Dei is quite a long mountain range that extends it's way into the dragon Kindom of Xa Hoi. The nearest summit is a couple hours from here."
He then measures the weight of his gear, and looks a little concerned. "My gear will slow me down during my hike, I require some assistance during the climb. Is anyone able to provide me with help?"
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Barid nods at Tanbaru. "I've recently had my fill of wearing masks. Pak will there be many places we need rope to climb or only a few hard climbs? My crocodile buddy is no goat."
Barid will chat about the journey with the townspeople while purchases are made.
When he meets up with the party he shares what he has learned.
"The journey is quite risky as Mount Pho-Yim, which looms over Ramparassad is an active volcano with nearby seismic events, gas vents, landslides, earthquakes, and so on. As for the Kullan Dei Mountains there are many species of birds and reptiles some of whom form spiritual bonds in locations there and act as guardians. The area is also know to have Dragons, ogres, and various types of kami and oni."
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"Well hopefully are travels in this range won't take us into the active volcano. Although it would be fascinating to to do so." Whendel pauses then adds, "I have to confess ignorance. What are kami and what are oni?" "I have no idea about any of this... and how did Tanbaru go from being a kami to an oni?"
“Kami are guardian spirits present in things both living and inanimate. That frog you saw leaping across the street? That teaspoon you’re holding? There might be a kami in it, so treat it with respect! Our friend Tanbaru was once a dosojin kami, a guardian of paths and roads. But no more!”
Oni are a race of evil spirits, native to the Material Plane, that manifest physical bodies based upon the shapes and desires of humanoid mortals. In pure spirit form, an oni is nothing but a disembodied evil longing for the sins of the flesh. In this form, oni are harmless and invisible. The majority of these bodiless oni were once kami who failed their wards, or more often, who deliberately abandoned them. As punishment, they were stripped of their ability to form a physical body and then cast into the void. Rarely, a mortal creature's soul can become a disembodied oni upon death, or in even rarer cases, after a truly evil individual has undergone a particularly vile ritual that ends in suicide. These oni are more often destined for positions of great power and strength than most.
Eventually, an oni's spirit manifests a physical body on the Material Plane. The methods by which this may occur vary, but the process generally takes place in areas already despoiled by sin, tragedy, or cruelty. The type of oni a spirit transforms into is influenced by a wide variety of variables, ranging from the nature of what the oni spirit was before to the location where it is reborn into the realm of flesh and blood. Once an oni manifests its physical body, that body becomes its true form for the rest of its life—all oni are shapechangers, but this original form is the form in which they are born and the form they revert to upon death.
An oni's true form is always similar to that of a specific type of humanoid, save that it is always deformed and monstrous to look upon. Tusks, additional eyes, or strangely colored skin are common physical attributes. Yet while they have hideous forms, all oni are capable of changing their shape to assume forms more pleasant to the civilized eye. The type of shapes an oni can assume depend upon its species, but all can transform into some form of humanoid. Oni use this ability to infiltrate humanoid societies, either to prey upon the weak or to rule them in disguise.
In order to understand oni, it is important to consider that most of these beings were once spirits tasked with protecting a material realm they now believe is undeserving of such care and concern—indeed, the physical world is to be dominated and consumed. They arrive in physical form starved for sensory experience, and never fully sate their desire to gorge on such experiences. Most oni seek to attain positions of leadership and power, often in the guise of a normal humanoid, in order to secure a never-ending supply of sensory experiences. It is also important to understand that oni's immoderation is also motivated by their corrupted and evil natures—that is, no pleasure is more enjoyable than one that deprives or wounds another.
Oni retain their hatred of the kami upon reentering the Material Plane as physical creatures, and often their depredations and violations of the world can be directly tied to their efforts to destroy kami or the kami's works. Oni tend not to congregate with others of their kind, being most comfortable in positions of leadership over enslaved or oppressed societies populated by humanoids they can masquerade as. Yet, at times, particularly powerful oni abandon this mindset and instead gather to their side entire legions of oni drawn from all types. The oni known collectively as the yai—oni with an affinity for true giants—are most often responsible for such actions, and when a yai builds such an army of oni, the humanoid lands shake with terror.
Kami are ancient, mystical, and otherworldly spirits created eons ago by the gods. Originally intended as guardians of those parts of nature that could not protect themselves, kami have proven remarkably adaptive. As the nature of reality changes, so do the kami.
There are countless species of kami—in theory, every type of animal, plant, object, and location could be served by its own type of kami. These are collectively called "wards" by kami, who often think of them similar to how a human might think of a young child placed into his or her care. In practice, there are far more wards in creation than there are kami. As such, all kami seek to reproduce and thus expand their influence—the more kami, the more wards what benefit from their protection. Accordingly, kami influence is usually regional in nature—the kami simply aren't numerous enough yet to protect all of creation.
Further complicating attempts to catalog and categorize kami is the fact that there seems to be no rhyme or reason as to what sorts of wards get specific types of kami. The jinushigami, for example, are a race of kami that associate with all manner of regions, while the kodama concern themselves narrowly with the protection of specific trees. To the kami, these apparently arbitrary classifications make perfect sense, and their attempts to explain the reasoning to others generally result in confused listeners and frustrated kami. One thing that does remain constant, though, is the relationship between a kami's size and the import of its ward. A kami associated with a knife, frog, or single pebble in a stream would generally be quite small and unimposing, while a kami associated with a mountain, redwood tree, or elephant would be proportionally larger and more powerful. Of course, even here there seem to be exceptions, and frustrated scholars often wonder only half-jokingly whether the gods themselves vary these rules only to cause scholastic arguments and frustration.
Kami come into existence either as a spontaneously manifesting spirit or as the reincarnation of a particularly noble soul. Souls of creatures who died to protect an element of nature are particularly prone to returning to life as a kami. In this latter way, many kami arise from the souls of dedicated rangers or druids who perished while defending their homelands, or monks who spent a lifetime meditating on the serenity of nature. Once reincarnated, however, few kami remember any of their former lives, and their forms never resemble their former bodies. The rare kami who do recall their prior lives are the kami most likely to become more than mere guardians—these kami often take class levels and grow quite powerful.
Kami exist as ever-morphing spirits rather than souls trapped in concrete forms. Most exist to watch over a single tree, stone, or bend of a stream, and can have no more influence on the world than a single insect. A kami spends the majority of its existence merged with its ward—in this shape, it has no ability to interact with the world at all, but it can observe its surroundings with ease. There is no reliable way to determine whether an object, plant, animal, or location is protected by a kami, so those who travel or live in regions where kami are common generally assume that everything has a kami guardian. The kami do little to dissuade this, since the belief that kami are present is often just as potent a protection as having a kami in the first place.
All kami can assume physical form. Most somewhat resemble their ward, but again, in apparent eagerness to baffle and frustrate scholars, this is not always the case. When a kami assumes physical form, it always initially appears adjacent to its ward, manifesting suddenly as if teleporting. It is considered impolite by kami to pop into view, though—most prefer to manifest bodies while hiding, such as behind a tree, then step out of hiding to reveal themselves to those they wish to speak to.
Kami are generally a peaceable race, cohabitating with friendly fey and other magical beings that reside in natural environments. Dryads and treants alike find the company of kami to be quite favorable, as these noble spirits are willing to defend their lands to the death. Being more destructive, troublesome fey find themselves unwelcome in lands overseen by kami, who use the power of nature itself to obliterate intruders who make a nuisance of themselves. Kami's peaceful nature never vanishes more quickly than when they face oni, however, for no other creature is as hated by the kami as these. Kami view oni as defilers of the natural world and monsters whose goals and actions are in direct conflict with those of the nature spirits. When oni are spotted in areas guarded by kami, all kami alert each other to this intrusion, and band together to root out the dark presence. The fact that when a kami falls from grace it runs the risk of becoming an oni has much to do with this hatred—essentially, kami see oni as physical proof of their race's capacity for failure and shame.
While kami are rarely evil, they place the protection of their wards above all else. Often, this puts them at odds with other creatures, and as a result, many tend to view kami as troublemakers at best and outright monsters at worst. The kami have little care for how they are viewed by non-kami, of course—what matters to them is the safety of their wards.
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"My sincerest thanks Thundering bull" Kelumur says as he passes Thundering Bull some of his gear. Later he approaches the flying mask and hands it Korez's way. "You look like you could make the most out of it."
"If everyone is ready, I suggest we make an early start."
With regards to the journey, Kelumur wishes to travel slightly ahead to scout for danger. He will ensure he is visible, or makes signs for the group to indicate if there is danger.
When you leave Ramparassad, the weather is sweltering hot. After a walk past rice fields that extend a few miles outside the city and a hike through a bamboo forest, you find a mountain trail that leads south, deep into the Kullan Dei range.
Up in the mountains, the weather is pleasantly cool. The air is thin, but the days you spend in the mountains are enough to become acclimated. After a week of hiking, you arrive at a set of stone pillars with inscriptions that read “The Pilgrim’s Path” in several languages. The mist-shrouded outline of the broken temple is visible in the distance, some 5 miles away.
The stone pillars not only mark the beginning of the Pilgrim’s Path but also a transition from profane to sacred, which means that travelers should show proper reverence to tradition and the rules of the trail.
One of the pillars is partially translated into Common.
Do not obstruct paths! 不要拖你的帐篷或将你的设备放在小径上。要有礼貌地注意别人使用的踪迹。 Leave no trace! 拿你的垃圾与你。不要在指定区域外进行火灾。不要留下任何其他痕迹的通行证。 Stay on the marked trail! 自然是神圣而脆弱的;不要踩它不要伤害动物，除非你必须保卫自己。
The full text is:
Do not obstruct paths! Don’t pitch your tent or leave your equipment on the trail. Be courteous and mindful of others using the trail. Leave no trace! Take your trash with you. Don’t make fires outside designated areas. Don’t leave any other trace of your passage. Stay on the marked trail! Nature is sacred and fragile; do not tread on it. Don’t harm animals unless you must defend yourself.
If you missed it, you have been hiking for a week now. So you have had plenty of opportunity to change spells, etc.
We'll give everyone a chance to chime in here before we continue.
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"Do not obstruct, as in do not block the path." Kelumur studies the pillars closely. "This is holy grounds, I suggest we see to obeying the rules, we don't want to attract unwanted attention."
Kelumur continues stealthing and looking out for dangers or possible interest points slightly ahead of the group.
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"Well we are eventually going to be on the side of a volcano. Maybe getting off the path could mean chancing breaking through the surface into lava. Sometimes the exterior has cooled enough to solidify and if it is stepped on it cracks through to an uncooled center. Just a thought." "But maybe we are not to the volcano yet."
The narrow trail winds along the base of a steep ridge, and large, jagged rocks have fallen from the cliff face here, blocking the path. At least a score of dark birds with white throats reside here, sitting atop nests built into the cliff face.
A recent landslide caused large rocks to block the path.
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Kelumur looks around cautiously as he decides his next move. He studies the birds for a moment. "They are timid creatures, they don't look to be a threat to us."
Then he ties a rope around himself as some sort of precaution, hooking it to a sturdy structure nearby and balances himself to make across the rocks.
Once across, he dons his armor and looks behind, "Are you guys coming?" he shouts.
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"The locals consider the birds an auspicious sign, and never kill them or eat their eggs. We should probably show them the same respect or risk offense."
When Kelemur has crossed, Korez calls out: "Tie off your end of the rope so we can use it to assist our climb."
Korez removes his armor then uses his climbing kit and the rope to attempt the landslide.
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Barid drops a rock and shrugs. "Not our problem right? Leave it to other travelers, Hope they are as strong and capable as ourselves, And maybe a little more considerate of whomever follows them."
Barid will then slowly start crossing the rubble with the provided climbers kit.
If that fails.
+2 from aid?
Kelumur deftly skips along the top of the rocks, making it look easy.
Thundering Bull starts moving rocks to clear the path. He is about 20% done.
Meanwhile, Whendel decides to try and scale the cliff face to get across.
Korez will also make the climb well enough.
The rope doesn't help any, as the cliff face is above and to the side. Maybe the rope could help crossing the rocks (acrobatics), but I don't think it will help the croc in any case. Also...