The world-renowned Blakros Museum has outdone itself, gathering an unrivaled collection of relics from the Shining Crusade, a holy coalition that felled the greatest lich to threaten Golarion. When trouble befalls the exhibit mere days before its debut, the Pathfinders intervene, only to discover that one of the relics is key to averting a far greater disaster that has laid in wait for a millennium.
The story continues, first taking the Pathfinder Society to Lastwall's tangled Fangwood to earn the favor of a powerful celestial being and destroy a sinister curse. The PCs then return to the Solstice Scar itself for one final confrontation with the evil that dwells beyond—and a chance to end her villainy for good!
"The Solstice Scar" is a multi-table interactive adventure in which each group's actions can affect neighboring groups and contribute to the entire room's success. This is the last installment of an ongoing adventure updated and rereleased incrementally several times since May 2017, collectively telling a longer story while also presenting exciting stand-alone chapters. Based on participant feedback, this final chapter features two slightly longer parts rather than three, providing a more focused and exciting experience.
Written by Kalervo Oikarinen
When the Shining Crusade defeated the dread lich Tar-Baphon in 3827 AR, the lich’s lieutenants scattered, hoping to evade the crusade’s triumphant armies. Eshimka, one of the nightwalkers serving Tar-Baphon, fled north to hide and build up its power.
Ivvora, a disciple of the divine martyr Vildeis, tracked the evil creature into the Tusk Mountains. There she contacted a nearby tribe of Kellids known as the Twinhorn following, and together, they formed a plan to destroy the nightwalker.
On the winter solstice, they lured Eshimka to a circle of standing stones where the Twinhorn druids used their powerful magic to bind the nightwalker. Ivvora leapt from the shadows and attacked, burying her sacred dagger deep into Eshimka’s flesh before the blade snapped off near the hilt. Try as it might, the nightwalker could not pry the blade loose. As the druids’ ritual concluded at the darkest hour of the solstice, Eshimka sensed its imminent demise and used magic to escape back to the Negative Energy Plane.
After the escape of the nightwalker, Ivvora left the ruined hilt of her blade with the Twinhorn following, instructing them to place it on the center stone each year when the world grew darkest. She then traveled north, pursuing new threats in her never-ending quest to eradicate evil from Golarion.
The Twinhorns have kept their promise to Ivvora over countless generations, ensuring that their nomadic circuit always brings them back to the standing stones each winter.
For centuries, Eshimka has been able to travel the planes and build up its power, gathering armies of undead followers. However, the combination of the druids’ magic and the fragment of Ivvora’s blade have prevented the nightwalker from returning; the former bars it from traveling to the Material Plane except during the winter solstice, and the latter pulses painfully with holy power as a reminder of what awaits the undead menace if it returns. Eshimka is patient and waits for the day it can gain its revenge on mortals. Each year it prepares itself to travel back, but thinks better after sensing Ivvora—in truth the hilt of her dagger—waiting to finish it off.
Recently, acquisition agents from the Blakros Museum discovered the Twinhorns’ interesting tradition while following the story of Ivvora, champion of the Shining Crusade. They approached the following, asking to buy the relic to display in their new exhibit. When the Twinhorns refused, the acquisition agents stole it, unwilling to let such a rare treasure rest in the hands of barbaric northerners. They quickly traveled south, returning to Absalom with their
prize.
Once the following became aware of the theft, they dispatched a large group of warriors to retrieve the hilt, led by Medda, the following’s spiritual leader and keeper of Ivvora’s treasured weapon. They vowed to return with it before the winter solstice, for it was not a point of pride but a matter of life and death for all living creatures in their territory.
The Pathfinder Society received a call for help from the Blakros Museum, where intruders had tripped the many defenses and barricaded themselves inside the building. Upon overcoming these safeguards, you encountered Medda and her Twinhorn warriors. Medda was willing to discuss the Kellids’ reason for attacking. Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin was angered to learn that museum agents resorted to theft to gain relics and promised Medda that Pathfinders would accompany them back to the Tusk Mountains to return the hilt.
With your help, the Pathfinders secured passage for their convoy through the Hold of Belkzen and fought off renegade tribes’ raiders.
However, you arrived at the Twinhorn encampment too late; Eshimka’s forces had begun flooding through a portal at the standing stones. The Pathfinders needed to fight back the undead and close the rift. Once the rift was sealed, you learned that the attack had left an extraplanar scar. Expecting an even greater invasion the next solstice, the Pathfinders must prepare to defeat Eshimka and end the threat forever.
The Society members followed in the footsteps of the paladin Ivvora, seeking the place where she died battling a powerful white dragon. There, Medda hoped to commune with Ivvora in the afterlife, learning how to reforge the broken dagger or create a new weapon to destroy Eshimka. In the process, those present had to fight the new generations of white dragons and their kobold servitors who inhabited the area.
Now preparations are being made to travel to an ancient battlefield where Ivvora and her comrades fought against an overwhelming undead force...
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The long journey south from the slopes of the Tusk Mountains to the edge of Fangwood took several weeks, during which many of the Twinhorns and Pathfinders exchanged ancestral stories and tales of daring adventures to pass the time on the relatively uneventful trek. By the time the Fangwood rises ahead in the brisk morning air, both groups are eager to confront whatever lies ahead.
Medda addresses the crowd gathered before her. “South of here lies a battlefield where the paladin Ivvora risked her life in a daring ploy to help her battalion defeat an undead horde. For her selflessness, Ivvora earned a token of Vildeis’s favor: the dagger she used to deal a terrible blow to Eshimka! For all the crusaders’ heroism, I can sense an undead taint lingered here, and that stretch of the Fangwood has expanded in the centuries since to absorb it. It is now our turn to earn Vildeis’s blessing, risking ourselves to end this threat so that in turn we might slay Eshimka once and for all.
“The terrain favors small groups over larger formations, so we shall divide into smaller groups to navigate the forest and identify the corruption’s heart. May Ivvora’s example guide us to victory!” With that, Medda and her phantom Anok turn and enter the Fangwood, followed by Pathfinder and Twinhorn teams that fan out behind her.
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The weeks of travel from Absalom and around Golarion have agreed with Aurus - he's spent the travel time telling off-color jokes and bawdy tales, and he's let a stubby beard grow across his cheeks in the journey to the Fangwood.
As the party gets their marching orders, he unslings the greatsword and gives a wide grin. "Man, all this fightin' is almost enough to make you forgive those asshats running the Blakros Museum, huh? Who wants to help me give old Nigel a citizen's arrest when we get back?"
You have been assembled and make your way to the forest. As you assemble the first issue is just getting there.
Brambles grow wild throughout the edge of the wood where a thick canopy of trees begins to filter out sunlight, turning day into night. The overgrown plant life forbids easy access deeper into the forest and fills the air with the sickly-sweet smell of decay.
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"Hi everyone! My name is Ny'a, and one of those Venture-Captainy folks assigned me to join your group. They said you've been on assignment together for a while, and that you're a really effective group, so not to 'upset the apple-cart' or something like that. I'm glad to be along, praise Iomedae!" The gnome rides comfortably on what appears to be a trained dog, resplendent in shining armor with shield, lance, and plenty of other assorted weaponry close at hand.
When the underbrush becomes too dense, she works at guiding her mount through the worst of it. "C'mon, dog, you can do it. See, right there, that's the place to go!"
Aurus tries to rely on plain, brute force, shoving branches out of the way and helping lift packs over downed trees and bushes. However, the underbrush proves to be more daunting than the half-elf realized.
Aurus' brute force approach disturbs a colony of ants who aren't very forgiving. They swarm into his armor and bite. Although it doesn't deal damage, the poison does sicken the paladin.
"Hi everyone! My name is Ny'a, and one of those Venture-Captainy folks assigned me to join your group. They said you've been on assignment together for a while, and that you're a really effective group, so not to 'upset the apple-cart' or something like that. I'm glad to be along, praise Iomedae!" The gnome rides comfortably on what appears to be a trained dog, resplendent in shining armor with shield, lance, and plenty of other assorted weaponry close at hand.
When the underbrush becomes too dense, she works at guiding her mount through the worst of it. "C'mon, dog, you can do it. See, right there, that's the place to go!"
Ny'a makes good progress, but accidentally guides her dog through some poisoned ivy. The paladin is sickened as well, but the dog saved!
Both the paladin and her mount are sickened as well!
Know nature to get through the brambles
1d20+9
Lukian has no trouble navigating the brambles
Botting Mao and Cloudia
Check DC20
Failure
Failure
Saving throw
Succes
Failure
Cloudia is sickened, Mao is ok.
The forest floor is blanketed with eerie dark flowers that paint the otherwise lightless woods with their purple incandescence. Disorienting paths cut through the trees, forward-facing paths seem to lead back to where they started, and retracing one’s steps leads to unfamiliar terrain. Glowing eyes glare hungrily from within the impenetrable thickets where the vines slowly curl around anyone who gets too close.
Suddenly you all hear a terrible howl and you are attacked by two large wolves!
Initiative
The first wolf double moves and both Mao and Aurus can feel and smell the hot and foul breath of the creature!
Mao
Lukian
Wolf Red
Cloudia
Aurus
Ny'a
Wolf Blue
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Cloudia is a petite woman with dusky complexion and brown hair, very fit and pretty but not show-stoppingly so. She wears stylish but not fancy street clothing and a more elaborate cloak. She is unassuming and lacks self confidence, though being a part of the pathfinders has helped her grow in this area.
Battle Actions:
Cloudia will back of a bit and start casting a Summon Monster I spell.
Know nature 1d20+9 to see what he knows about the wolves
The little gnome seeing that there is trouble will cast mage armor on himself.
Mao's punch misses, but the kick hits!
The red wolf joins the fight and attacks Aurus!
Hits Flat-Footed Aurus
Succes!
The wolf bites in Aurus leg and gives it a tug and Aurus falls!
Cloudia casts Mage Armor on Mao.
Aurus Sickened, Prone
Ny'a Sickened
Wolf Blue
Mao
Lukian
Wolf Red
Cloudia Sickened
She draws her longsword and attacks, groaning with sickness.
Ny'a's attack hits and deals a bit of damage to the red wold.
After her attack she notices the nearby vegetation tries to wrap itself around her dog's legs.
The dog tries to get away, but fails and is entangled.
Botting Aurus
Aurus attacks defensively from prone
Misses
The blue wolf attacks the prone elf.
Misses
Mao
Lukian
Wolf Red
Cloudia Sickened
Aurus Sickened, Prone
Ny'a Sickened, Wolf entangled
Wolf Blue
Mao's unarmed attacks both hit!
Lukian's arcane ray does too!
The red wolf attacks the prone paladin
Misses
Cloudia Sickened
Aurus Sickened, Prone
Ny'a Sickened, Wolf entangled
Wolf Blue
Mao
Lukian
Wolf Red
Aurus groans from the ground, still feeling the terrible nausea. "I take back what I said this morning - I'm still real mad at the Blakroses for this one!"
He swings at the wolf from the ground.
Aurus misses.
Botting N'ya
N'ya continues her attack on the closest wolf.
Failure
Hits
Ny'a gets entangled by the plants too!
The blue wolf attacks Aurus
Hits!