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I feel like a necromancer raising a dead thread, lol.

So my party's fight with MArrowgarth didn't go like I wanted. It was really cinematic, though. I wanted it to spend a few rounds just doing flybys and terrorizing the party, expecting them to take cover in a building so Marrow could bring it down on them. Instead, the Paladin went all Shadow of the Colossus on it and teleported onto the dragon's back. Long story short, the combat was pretty short, the pally got tossed off and took a lovely amount of falling damage, and the dragon fell somewhere closer to Gallowspire. Like I said, cinematic, but the Paladin nearly soloed the encounter because he nova'd hardcore.

So I'm thinking that they'll come across the body and have a Wyrmwraith from Bestiary 5 pop out and have another go at them because round 1 was too easy. Thoughts?

I like everyone's ideas so much! Thank you for giving me great starting points and inspiration.

Two suggestions here:

-- Research has to start small. First, they research as much as is commonly known, which gives them breadcrumbs to follow to bigger and better sources, which are obviously more difficult to use. For example, the PCs might, at low-levels, go from town to town, getting permission to go through wizards'/churches' libraries until they get the hint about a lost library rumored to have more complete and/or accurate information... or rumors of a being they can try to find and bargain with. Rinse and repeat as necessary until they start being ready for the big plans.

-- One of the main issues with research even today: funding. All of the methods to find such information run pretty hefty rates. Sometimes you have to take a random dungeon crawl mission to help pay for it.

There are lots of old abandoned churches of Aroden that have been taken over by cultists and monsters. Seems like a great and cheap way to combine a dungeon crawl and a fact-finding mission.

If you still need a good starting point why not have them as part of the pathfinder society dedicated to uncovering the truth about Aroden's death. They get funding, and you can make it so they are seen as the mulder and scully of the organization. They will eventually deal with some big s#+&, but they are seen as a joke that will never uncover the truth by the rest of the society. Plus it gives them easy access to resources that they might not normally be able to have as basic adventurers.

I really like the idea of being part of a special Pathfinder team. I had the thought that, typically people have to petition and apply to be members of the Pathfinder Society. It might drop the a hint that they're special if instead, their regional venture captains specifically seek them out to recruit them and send them to Absalom to receive their mission. They could also use their PFS connections to pay for the research materials, instead of having to handle the GP themselves.

Speaking of which, Iomedae still has some lingering resentment for Pharasma not giving her a headsup on the incident.... not even to her own priests... the ones actually connected to prophecy all going insane when the prophecy failed.

For obvious reasons I don't want gods directly intervening in the affairs of mortals, but Iomedae would definitely want to know whatever the players discover

Gather info from mortal beings that lived through Aroden's time. Liches, the else at of dragons, etc.

Oh, don't worry, I'll definitely have my players pay Arazni the Harlot Queen a visit. The palace in the capital of Geb seems like an incredbily fun (and hazardous) place for an adventure.

I mean, I want to let my players figure out what happened to Aroden. I plan to give them odd bit of disparate information, a few red herrings, and maybe even some outright incorrect folklore to encourage them to get their brains working on conspiracy theories. Once they get to that stage, I'll start guiding them along whichever crazy theory I like the most or makes the most sense. If they get too lost and confused, then I'll worry about creating an answer to start leading them toward.

What I'm looking for is avenues of investigation. This is what I have so far:
-Pharasma knows more than she's letting on, so I thought to have the PCs quest to retrieve an artifact from Asmodeus capable of forcing a god to answer a question directly before it crumbles to dust.
-If the Echo of Lost Divinity is the passed on soul of Aroden, dragging it to the Dimension of Time might allow the PCs to see what happened.
-No one knows Aroden better than Arazni, the Harlot Queen of Geb. The PCs could go and entertain her in return for more info about Aroden.
-The Worldwound makes sense since the demons there were probably just waiting for an opening to invade Golarion, but the Eye of Abendego seems odd. Maybe investigating it's eye could reveal what's keeping it going and in turn, how it's related to Aroden's death.
-Iomedae is likely still trying to piece everything together as well and even if she has no information, she could provide some backup.
-The Starstone is what granted Aroden and the other Ascended divinity, so investigating it could reveal a clue.
-Attempts to enter the Akashic Record meet with failure, but they get a lead that a single "page" of the record is floating around somewhere.

I have lots of really cool, higher level ideas. I'm just not sure how to keep the players busy until they get enough levels and mythic tiers to actually accompish those crazy goals.

In a book of shattered star his death was predicted by a cleric of Grotius

I'm still waiting on my copy of Shattered Star to come in, but I'll definitely be on the lookout for that info. Depending on the exact circumstances, that cleric may be a lead in the PC's investigation.

The only reference I've found is that Pharasma revealed it through her clerics. It's probably the truth, but it could also be PR on the Church of Pharasma's part to help maintain order. And even if it is true, death for a god is a different affair from the death of a mortal.

All of that said, I want to sow enough doubt that if the players end up wanting to investigate on the assumption that he might have been god-napped instead, they can be free to go in that direction. I fully expect them to start with the assumption that Aroden is dead, though.

I've seen lots of conjecture about the fate of Aroden, the god of Humanity, but I really don't care what the answer is. It's a mystery and I like that it's THE QUESTION of the Pathfinder RPG. However, I think it would be a lot of fun for my players to investigate the disappearance and eventually come to their own conclusions organically. So the question is, how would my players go about the investigation.

Let's assume for a moment that the cleric and paladin refugees from Aroden who were taken in my Iomedae have tried all of the the direct methods of divination. We even know that Iomedae went and talked to Pharasma personally and didn't get anywhere. We also also presume that he's dead when in fact he is only missing.

I've been compiling a list of what we know from various Paizo sources that we can take more or less as fact. For example, we know that prophecy had Aroden appearing in 4606 AR in Cheliax, and that he simply didn't show. I've also been compiling a list of possible sources of information, like Pharasma herself and possibly Arazni the Harlot Queen, who was Aroden original herald before being forced into lichdom. And finally I've got a few related mysteries that may provide clues, e.g. the Eye of Abendego and the Worldwound.

I'm looking for an Occult Mythic game (which I realize don't typically go together), and I'm wondering if there are any angles or bases I've missed. Like I said above, the actual fate of Aroden is irrelavent, I'm looking for ways for player characters to discover the truth, whatever it may be.

Thanks!

Alliance is a part of Diamond Comics and I see 118 copies of the book in stock... (I may or may not work for DCD~)