Starfinder Encounter: Eclipse of Prophecy

By Chris Sims

The Haunter of the Dark, an aspect of the chaotic evil Outer God, Nyarlathotep, whispers to its loyal servants, the grioths (Starfinder Alien Archive 4 40–41), that something dire has awakened in the depths of the Pact Worlds sun. An elder being long imprisoned has broken free and moves toward the realm of mortals. Reading the portents, a grioth eclipse seer named Drenrika has determined that her raiders should be on Castrovel in the city of Candares during a springtime blood moon there in order to learn more about the burgeoning evil. And so, Drenrika enacted the eldritch rituals required to open a portal to Candares during the lunar eclipse.

Drenrika opened her gate in Candares’s Temple of the Dawnflower, an edifice almost as old as the city itself. Murderous grioth raiders mercilessly dealt with the temple’s clergy and poured into the city streets to murder and loot. They took out power substations to plunge parts of the city into darkness.

A survivor from the temple, a damaya lashunta mystic named Syell Yllsuoda, reports that the grioth leader remains in the sanctuary, awaiting something. Taking her down might close the grioth portal and strand the raiders without hope of reinforcements or retreat. The PCs are just the force for this decisive strike.

Grioths in the Sanctuary — CR 8

After fighting through the shadowy city streets, the PCs come to the Temple of the Dawnflower. Within its sanctuary, just beyond an ancient orrery, stands a lightless portal (represented with a “P” on the map) issuing a frigid wind. This portal is a powerful magical phenomenon of the conjuration school. A PC can suppress it for 1d4 rounds with a targeted dispel magic (dispel check DC 15) plus 1d4 rounds per 5 points by which the check exceeds the DC. If Drenrika dies or retreats through the portal, it closes 1 round later. To non-grioths, this portal is like a solid plane of stone.

Creatures: Drenrika (D) and her six grioth guards (G) wait in the gloom near the orrery, the eclipse seer perched on the device. They gaze up through the transparent dome, its apex 60 feet overhead, at the blood moon.