“I fear that misfortune may have struck some of your fellow agents. I hope that you can help them return here to safety, but I fear the task I have to request of you may instead center around recovering what you can from your fallen allies and, if it is safe to do so, completing the mission in their stead.”
“Last year, I received a donation of relics from Taldor. The route is lengthy and complicated, so I will spare you unnecessary details. A caravan carrying the relics safely arrived in Hongal to the north, where it met up with a pair of Pathfinder agents, Lin Po and Ti Lan. These agents inspected the cargo, sent me a missive indicating that all was in order, and joined a second caravan to take the Spirit Road through the Forest of Spirits. The journey is understandably long, taking over two months to complete. Still, the caravan is late, and I fear that they may have run into trouble along the way. They were supposed to reach Sakakabe two weeks ago."
“While it’s possible that they were waylaid in the northernmost parts of Minkai, I believe it’s far more likely that they ran into trouble in the Forest of Spirits, a mystical place that shelters departed souls and most of the world’s kami. Kami are spiritual guardians with a deep connection to certain living locations or living things. The locals pay great respect to the kami, never intruding further into the forest than their one coastal road, the Spirit Road, and a number of small settlements built around shrines. This should make tracking the caravan simple, since there’s only a single road along which they should have had to rest or resupply at some point. I need you to check each of the roadside settlements until you find the last one to have seen the caravan, then track it from there and figure out what happened.”
“Be sure to respect the kami and the local traditions honoring them; I don’t want you to come to harm in your journey. The kami are mostly benevolent, so long as they receive the proper respect, but there are some dangers that might have harried the caravan. Bandits, hobgoblins, and giants, among other creatures, dwell within the forest. The forest also hosts some aggressive plants and animals, not to mention malign spirits such as the oni, the sworn enemies of the kami. The locals will know more than I of what perils to expect.”
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Background Knowledge
The PC knows several details about villages bordering the Forest of Spirits, as well as the kitsune that populate the region. Such PCs gain a +2 circumstance bonus on checks to investigate the village and to negotiate with the thief.
The PC recalls general information about the Forest of Spirits, including its dense populations of kami and mostly benign spirits that can possess living creatures to share memories but exert little control over their hosts.
The PC recalls that the Forest of Spirits is named for its numerous incorporeal undead denizens, including fell spirits who possess travelers’ bodies only to horrifically murder their hosts. A PC who receives this result and is not corrected is frightened 1 for the duration of Encounter B: Caravan Defense
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"Greetings, I am Zisiro. I believe I've seen some of you working on the grounds," says a tattooed Varisian man wearing a breast plate over an embroidered robe as you gather at the tea house. He might have been noticed working on the future gardens before being summoned to the task at hand.
"I will be sure to respect the kami of the land," he says after the Venture-Captain explains their task.
The spirits have been particularly closed lipped about the nearby wild lands these past months.
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Radiant Natalu is a rather short man with golden hair (not blond, but actually golden) and a silver sheen to his eyes. He only introduces himself as "Natalu," but the "Radiant" part always seems somehow implied.
He has tattoos across his torso that portray his past adventures, but alas covers them with leather armor when expecting danger. He carries a spear that is noticeably longer than he is tall, but seems light. While one of the wingless sprites of the Universe, everyone present has seen him take to the air in short bursts, born aloft on dragonfly-like wings of blue light that unfurl from his shoulders.
"A rescue mission? Count me in! I am confident of our success. And it sounds like an interesting place!"
Although Sakakabe is the closest city to the forest of Spirits, it still takes several weeks of travel on a road that winds through the Osogen Grasslands to reach the Forest of Spirits. Along the way, the PCs cross paths with travelers heading south into Minkai, as well as the nomadic herders who call the rolling plains home. No one the PCs meet in the grasslands has seen the caravan the PCs are looking for.
When the PCs enter the Forest of Spirits, the atmosphere changes. The forest is cool and damp, and profoundly alive. Snow blankets the ground and clings to branches of towering pine and spruce trees. Birds, rodents, foxes, deer, bears, and numerous other creatures roam through the woods, keeping their distance from the road. The density of the trees suggests that logging is almost unheard of in this forest. Animals are not the only creatures moving out in the woods; the PCs occasionally see unexplained movement in the trees and rocks or feel like someone is watching them. As the PCs progress through the forest, they visit several small villages, none of which have seen the caravan the PCs are looking for. They can find signs of passage from several caravans and groups that travelled on foot, and the remains of campsites right next to the trail. However, there are no indications that any of these groups came to harm.
Eventually, the PCs arrive at a village nestled deeper in the forest’s outskirts!
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Asking around for the whereabouts of the missing pathfinders involves the following skills:
Diplomacy
Medicine
Performance
Each PC can make a single check, or, a single check to Aid a fellow PC. I will be somewhat flexible on Aid skills, feel free to be creative. If the party succeeds at this skill challenge, open the spoiler below to gain a Charm for the rest of the scenario!
Charm
Hospitable: The villagers or spirits provide comfort and care to travelers, improving their stamina. This charm allows a PC to reroll a single saving throw once per encounter.
The party manages to locate the possible whereabouts of the last Pathfinder Caravan to pass through, but are quickly urged to move along as the villagers insist upon the “Outsiders” doing so to “Appease the Spirits” - when just then, the village comes under attack!
Drawing their weapons, the party musters at the center of the village square, bravely racing to the defense against whatever “Angry Spirits” have “Taken Offense” to their presence!
Skeletons assault the village from all corners!
The Black Skeletal Quadruped charges across the central pond and tackles Natalu!
Brendar and Natalu are Up!
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The kobold reaches out to the spirits, and dark whisps of energy twist around him. He gestures at the closest skeleton and darts of metal fly at it.
for
[one-action] FOCUS 1
UNCOMMON ANIMIST AURA MISFORTUNE VOID
Area 5-foot emanation
Duration sustained up to 1 minute
You are surrounded by an aura of spiteful murmurings that
incite bad luck and punish failure. Each creature that starts its
turn within the area of this spell must roll twice on their first
attack roll that round and take the lower result. If an attack
roll modified in this way results in a failure, the creature that
rolled the failed attack takes 1d6 void damage.
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Natalu looks at the enemies. Skeletons. No flesh. Full of holes.
He looks down at his weapon. A spear. Pointy.
Well, he'll just have to stab them better!
Oh, or he could just use the blunt end.
But first, he lets the light flow from his bangles into his spear. The horse is drawn towards their inevitable clash. Stepping forward to close the gap, the little sprite twirls his spear and brings the heavy blunt end crashing down towards the skull.
DIVINE EXEMPLAR
Frequency once per round
Requirements The ikon must currently house your divine spark. You can unleash an ikon’s transcendence ability only if you are holding it (if it’s a weapon ikon) or wearing it (if it’s a worn ikon).
You channel the full might of your divine spark through your ikon to briefly surpass mortal limitations and enact a miraculous deed. This is a special activity that takes a variable number of actions, as listed in the ikon’s stat block. Some ikons are activated as a free action or reaction instead of as an activity. Immediately after the effects of the transcendence resolve, your divine spark is forcefully ejected from that ikon into another ikon of your choice.
Brendar’s needles fly through the quadruped’s ribcage (resist piercing 5) - his baleful aura is engaged by his apparition.
The quadruped attempts to resist the spiritual magnetism!
Natalu’s destiny pulls in the horse, which repels completely his otherwise well-laid strike, but the noble branch pulls through with spiritual energy (2 damage to horse) - his second strike goes wide.
Green Armored, shield attacked to his back, moves forward twice and strikes as Zisiro with his lance!
Red Bones, unarmed, follows suit, clawing Zisiro with his bare boned hands!
Both attacks are easily dodged.
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Village Assault: Round One
Terrain: Houses are obstacles, Bushes can be used to take cover, Fountain is difficult terrain
Monster ID: Religion
Status: none
Black Horse (-1 needles, -2 spirit)
Brendar (whispers)
Natalu (-6 hoof, weapon ikon)
Green Armored (w/ lance, reach)
Red Bones
Zisiro
Blue Bones
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Zisiro is Up!
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Zisiro's eyes roll back in his head as the skeletal warriors advance and assault him. He suddenly adopts a more hunched posture. His fingers curl like claws and he bares his teeth right before his body twists and expands under a swirl of shadow.
When the shadow clears, a black furred bear stands in his place. He snaps at the closest skeleton.
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Ziriro transforms into a bear and bites Red - gnawing on bone (resist 5).
Blue skeleton advances upon the Bear, striking twice!
Meanwhile, Black Horse continues to attack Natalu!
Clobbering the sprite for 24 damage!
Terrain: Houses are obstacles, Bushes can be used to take cover, Fountain is difficult terrain
Monster ID: Religion
Status: none
Black Horse (large w/ reach) @ (AC 16; -1 needles, -3 spear, -4 spirit)
Brendar (whispers)
Natalu (weapon ikon) @ (-6 hoof, -16 hoof, -8 hoof)
Green Armored (lance w/ reach) @ (AC 19)
Red Bones (AC 16; -4 jaws)
Zisiro (bear, AC 19, weakness 5 physical)
Blue Bones (AC 16)
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Brendar and Natalu are Up!
Foisting his misfortune curse upon adjacent foes, Brendar restores to Natalu some vitality!
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Terrain: Houses are obstacles, Bushes can be used to take cover, Fountain is difficult terrain
Monster ID: Religion
Status: none
Black Horse (large w/ reach) @ (AC 16; -1 needles, -3 spear, -4 spirit)
Brendar (whispers)
Natalu (weapon ikon) @ (-6 hoof, -16 hoof, -8 hoof, +29 heal)
Green Armored (lance w/ reach) @ (AC 19)
Red Bones (AC 16; -4 jaws)
Zisiro (bear, AC 19, weakness 5 physical)
Blue Bones (AC 16)
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Natalu is Up!
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"Ah ha, perfect!" says Natalu as the monsters close and the party surrounds them (and as his mounting injuries are healed almost entirely).
Keeping the weighted end of his weapon towards the enemy, he lashes the brute in front of him as he tries to crack its skull.
With his second hit, instead of swinging again, he sends a pulse of energy down the haft of the weapon and into the undead.
His spark flows the other way, back from his weapon and into his body.
Immanence You gain resistance to bludgeoning, slashing, or piercing damage equal to half your level. You make this choice when you gain this ikon, and it can’t be changed thereafter. This resistance doesn’t apply against critical hits, which successfully find your unprotected spot.
Transcend—Crash against Me [one-action] Your skin becomes virtually unbreakable until the beginning of your next turn. Your resistance increases to a value equal to your level. During this time, if a creature fails a melee attack roll against you using a weapon dealing the same damage type as your resistance, or if they succeed at an attack against you with the weapon but your resistance would be enough to reduce the damage dealt to 0, that weapon clangs wildly off your skin with a painful reverberation, making the attacking enemy off-guard and applying a –2 circumstance penalty to attacks with that weapon until the beginning of their next turn.
Natalu's spear dances and dances, crunching the quadruped's bones and melting it with spirit energy!
Meanwhile, a low cunning advances the Green Skeleton forward, now threatening the entire party with it's lance - it focuses it's strikes on the spirit bear.
The horse retaliates with fury against the sprite!
But Natalu dances between it's hooves with legendary agility!
Terrain: Houses are obstacles, Bushes can be used to take cover, Fountain is difficult terrain
Monster ID: Religion
Status: none
Black Horse (large w/ reach) @ (AC 16; -1 needles, -12 branch, -17 branch)
Brendar (whispers)
Natalu (body ikon / resist slash 1) @ (-6 hoof, -16 hoof, -8 hoof, +29 heal)
Green Armored (lance w/ reach and RS) @ (AC 19)
Zisiro (bear, AC 19)
(delay) Red Bones (AC 16; -4 jaws)
Blue Bones (AC 16)
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Zisiro is Up!
Zisiro clobbers the horse, which collapses into a pile of jagged bone - he nearly clobbers the Blue Skeleton as the bear goes ape!
Barely holding together, Blue Skeleton attacks Zisiro (the ape) with wildl swings!
Swiping him across his chest!
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Terrain: Houses are obstacles, Bushes can be used to take cover, Fountain is difficult terrain
Monster ID: Religion
Status: none
Black Horse (large w/ reach) @ (AC 16; -1 needles, -12 branch, -17 branch)
Brendar (whispers)
Natalu (body ikon / resist slash 1) @ (-6 hoof, -16 hoof, -8 hoof, +29 heal)
Green Armored (lance w/ reach and RS) @ (AC 19)
Zisiro (ape, AC 19; -4 claw)
Red Bones (AC 16; -4 jaws)
Blue Bones (AC 16; -3 ape slam)
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Brendar and Natalu are Up!
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Circling around, Natalu allows his spark to flow back from his body and into his weapon. The radiant light for which he is sometimes named also shines on Zisiro. He then whirls his spear around, trying to bring the weighted end smashing against the back of another skull.
Brendar rips the unarmored skeleton's ribcage open - it's animating magic departs.
Natalu's shine heals Zisiro as he makes his way through Green's lance - which catches him! - he does not recover, missing with his spear which the skeleton easily parries.
Green Champion - the remaining skeletal threat, fully intact! - steps back tactically before lancing out at Natalu twice more!
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Terrain: Houses are obstacles, Bushes can be used to take cover, Fountain is difficult terrain
Monster ID: Religion
Status: none
Brendar
Natalu (weapon ikon / resist slash 3 + punish miss w/ slash @ 1-rnd) @ (-6 hoof, -16 hoof, -8 hoof, +29 heal, -8 lance, -9 lance)
Green Armored (lance w/ reach and RS) @ (AC 19)
Zisiro (ape, AC 19; -4 claw, +8 randiance)
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The Party is Up!
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"I don't suppose you're going to start explaining?" says Natalu as he closes, a little more carefully this time, with the last skeleton.
He drives the butt of his spear up towards the jaw so far above him. The weight collides, and Natula pushes his spiritual energy down the shaft and through the enemy, to rest protectively in his bangles.
Immanence (aura) You are surrounded by a 15-foot aura that protects you and all allies within the aura from harm, granting a +1 circumstance bonus to AC. This bonus increases to +2 for anyone in the aura who has a buckler raised, or +3 if they have a shield raised.
Transcend—Embrace of Destiny [one-action] (emotion, mental, spirit) You draw an enemy within the aura into your reach, moving them directly toward you into a square within your melee reach unless they succeed at a Fortitude save against your class DC.
Green Champion Skeleton reels from the combined blows - but doesn't fall - instead retaliates against Natalu!
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Natalu (worn ikon / resist slash 3 + punish miss w/ slash @ 1-rnd) @ (-6 hoof, -16 hoof, -8 hoof, +29 heal, -8 lance, -9 lance, -9 lance)
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The Party is Up!
Brendar chisles away at the few remaining structural junctures of the Skeletal Champ - but his application of piercing and slashing damage fails to penetrate the bone
Zisiro's slam attacks go wide as the Undead parries with his Lance!
Can Radiant Natalu, mighty born of sprites, finish the job!?!
Natalu fells the skeleton, which piles into a mess of bones.
The villagers "release" the party for having "corrected" their own "auspicious intrusion", allowing them to camp on the outskirts of the village for the night.
Following the villagers’ directions, the PCs travel the Spirit Road toward the east, taking the same path that the caravan traveled before them. Along the journey, the road branches off several times, typically only for a short distance before rejoining the main road or reaching a dead end. The seemingly endless rows of conifer trees create a serene yet monotonous backdrop.
The patch is choked with snowdrifts, making it too narrow for a wagon to traverse easily. The wagon regularly catches on roots or stalls in the snow. Overall, these impediments slow the wagon to a speed of 10 feet. If the PCs leave the wagon behind in the village, they can travel at their normal overland speed. While weather has obscured the trail, the PCs soon see obvious signs that the caravan before them ran into similar difficulties, such as an abandoned wheel along the side of the path and damaged branches. Occasional flurries of snow fall from trees the above as breezes shake their branches.
Up ahead, two vague incorporeal forms linger effervescently...
A PC who succeeds at a DC 10 Nature or Religion check recognizes that the spirit needs a host to
interact with the living world, and wants to possess a PC in order to share its experience; these types of spirits are not strong enough to take control of a body they possess, but they may influence their host’s thinking and behavior by superimposing their own consciousness.
If the PCs wish to avoid being possessed, they can easily circumvent the slow-moving spirits and be on their way. If a PC chooses to accept a spirit into their body, however, they experience a rush of memories, both from the spirit’s living days and its recent moments roaming the forest.
The first spirit the PCs encounter has recently seen the
caravan: the host PC sees flashes of memory as the caravan
is beset by creatures native to the forest—the same type
of creature that will attack again in Encounter B—all the
while harried by a humanoid thief that appears to have a
fox’s head and tail. A PC who succeeds at a DC 10 Society
check recognizes the creature as a kitsune, a race of crafty
shape-changing humanoids common throughout Tian
Xia, including the Forest of Spirits. The spirit observed
the kitsune infiltrate one of the wagons while the guards
were distracted repelling the attack, and then sneak away
holding a sack of clanging valuables and the relic Venture-
Captain Amara Li seeks. Hosting this spirit allows the PC
to attempt an appropriate Recall Knowledge check.
The second spirit the PCs encounter witnessed the
kitsune’s escape from the battle, following him to a clearing
deeper in the woods. There, the spirit observed the kitsune
behave in a way that belies his motivation for stealing the
relic: an amateur mage kitsune immediately retrieves the
relic and a book from his satchel, poring over some text
and eagerly reciting incantations under his breath; a selfish
thief kitsune opens up the sack, grabs fistfuls of treasure,
and holds them up to sparkle in the light with a wicked
grin; and a champion of Pharasma kitsune stares at the
relic in his hand while silently running his thumb along a
holy symbol around his neck, nodding with an expression
of resolve. If the kitsune is the violent villain, the spirit
observed him stalking into the forest like a feral animal
clutching the clattering sack until a white, cat-like creature
with a mischievous sneer emerged from inside a nearby
tree trunk—seemingly having melded into the wood—
only to snatch the sack and disappear in a flash.
(Regardless of whether or not the PCs accept the visions), spirits and minor kami endeavor to make the trail to the caravan as clear as possible to the PCs, moving aside brush to reveal wagon tracks, snagging lost scraps of fabric on trees, and otherwise making sure that the PCs find their way to the caravan.
Two humans - a short heavyset Tian man with a round cleanshaven face, and an athletic woman who stands a few inches taller with broad shoulders and a stern demeanor - looking quite haggard hail the party up ahead.
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Zisiro greets and welcomes the wandering spirit. His eyes roll back and his face contorts through several expressions as shares witness to the events in the spirit's memories. "A werewolf--or maybe a werefox--distracted our caravanners with her minions and then stole something from the wagons," he explains.
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"What's that!?" the short fat pathfinder yells as a mass of swirling spirits come screaming out of the enchanted forest!
The screaming spirits target who's mind is tempted into committing seppuku!
Critical Success The target is unaffected and is temporarily
immune to this haunt for 24 hours.
Success The target is frightened 1.
Failure The target is frightened 2. The value of the frightened
condition does not automatically decrease by 1 at the end
of each of the target’s turns. Instead, the target can attempt
a DC 18 Will save at the end of each of their turns to lower
their frightened value by 1.
Critical Failure The target is frightened 3. The value of the
frightened condition does not automatically decrease by 1
at the end of each of the target’s turns. Instead, the target
can attempt a DC 18 Will save at the end of each of their
turns to lower their frightened value by 1.
The haunt uses its third action to compel any
frightened creature to harm itself with surrounding forest
debris, its strength fueled by spirit possession. The creature
must succeed at a DC 22 Will save or attempt to Strike
itself during its turn as its first action, using the haunt’s
statistics below. Note that frightened applies equally to the
creature’s attack roll and AC, and therefore does not affect
the accuracy of the attack.
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Vengeful Spirits: Round One
Identify (◆) @ Occultism or Religion (DC 20) or Haunt Lore, Kami Lore, or Spirit Lore (DC 18)
Disable (◆◆) @ Occultism or Religion (DC 26)
Attack (◆, no MAP, 5 damage) @ Diplomacy, Nature, Occultism, or Religion (DC 22) or Haunt Lore, Kami Lore, or Spirit Lore (DC 20)
The party is Up!