Shattered Shields and Tattered Tapestries

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Illustration by Tom Ventre

December brings us two scenarios dealing with artifacts that play a vital role in the story of the Pathfinder Society, and perhaps in the future of Golarion itself (not to oversell you on the importance of playing these adventures or anything)!

The first scenario I'll be talking about is Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-10: The Shattered Shield, a Tier 1-5 scenario that takes the Pathfinders back to the nation of Rahadoum, where organized religion is banned and merely being found to possess religious iconography, like a cleric's holy symbol, can result in stiff fines or even banishment for repeat offenders. Searching for a stolen religious artifact in Rahadoum can prove a challenge, and the Pathfinders will find that very few of Rahadoum's citizens are interested in making things any easier for them.

Adventures in Rahadoum can prove difficult, both for the adventurers who must navigate the delicate political landscape where some of their most common and vital tools are banned, and for the writers who have to make an adventure in such a volatile environment work. Fortunately Paizo editor and adventure author Leo Glass rose to the occasion, providing an adventure that is both challenging and rewarding. Illicit auctions, attempted assassinations, and twisted games of chance all build towards a confrontation where the stakes are far greater than they seem. Of course, no adventure is complete without memorable friends and foes! I'll let you guess which camp this cloaked figure and her poppet fit into.

If artifact hunting in the secular lands of Rahadoum doesn't strike your fancy, fear not! We've got something a bit weirder for our more experienced Pathfinders. Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-11: The Hao Jin Hierophant is a Tier 5-9 scenario that explores the Society's efforts inside the Hao Jin Tapestry following the events of this year's interactive special Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-00: The Hao Jin Cataclysm. This story will be continued in January with Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-13: Fragments of Antiquity, and developed even further in February with Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-15: Tapestry's Trial. The Society has fought many bitter battles, both for possession of the magical artifact known as the Hao Jin Tapestry and within the eponymous demiplane it contains. These battles have weakened the magical fabric of the tapestry to the very breaking point, and now no one among the Pathfinders can be certain how much time the tapestry has left before it unravels once and for all.

Illustration by Michele Giorgi

Traveling into the Hao Jin Tapestry, the PCs are tasked with recovering the lore and artifacts of an ancient Tian culture all but lost from Golarion. Complications arise as the PCs discover the fate of an old ally and wander into a deadly diversion whose seeds were planted by an old foe. Adding even more to the challenge, the tapestry itself strains to hold its threads together, and strange planar storms and weirder phenomena abound! Fortunately adventure author Jessica Redekop was more than up to the task of exploring time bubbles, disappearing landscapes, and evil extraplanar vegetation! Even if the PCs successfully navigate the hazards laid before them, they must still face the steel (or obsidian) of the deadly Hao Jin Hierophant, portrayed below by artist Michele Giorgi!

We hope you have as much fun playing and running these as we had in developing them. Coming up in the next several months, we'll be continuing the Hao Jin Tapestry storyline and traveling to the far edges of the Inner Sea region!

Michael Sayre
Organized Play Developer