Pathfinder Module: Masks of the Living God (PFRPG)

4.10/5 (based on 18 ratings)
Pathfinder Module: Masks of the Living God (PFRPG)
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An adventure for 3rd-level Pathfinder Roleplaying Game characters.

Cult of Personality

Razmir the Living God used his power to conquer an entire country; now he and his mask-wearing priests enforce peace and generosity—though some say their tools are intimidation and fear. His worshipers preach charity and self-worth, blaming rival faiths for crafting lies about the glories of the Living God. Now the cult has come to the city of Tamran, feeding the poor and promising happiness to those who serve Razmir. Yet ugly rumors persist of bribery, extortion, and strange disappearances associated with the new temple. Are these stories just gossip and lies spread by rival faiths? Or is the church of the Living God more than it seems?

Masks of the Living God is a adventure for 3rd-level characters, written for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and compatible with the 3.5 edition of the world’s oldest RPG. This city-based adventure involves infiltrating a fortified temple and exposing the evil deeds of its cultists.

This adventure is set in the wooded land of Nirmathas in the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting, but can easily be adapted for any game world. It can be used as a sequel to Crypt of the Everflame or as a stand-alone adventure, and is a prequel to the adventure City of Golden Death.

Written by Jason Bulmahn

Pathfinder Modules are 32-page, high-quality, full-color, adventures using the Open Game License to work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the standard 3.5 fantasy RPG rules set. This Pathfinder Module includes four pre-made characters so players can jump right into the action, and full-color maps to enhance play.

ISBN 13: 978-1-60125-207-4

Masks of the Living God is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. Its Chronicle Sheet and additional rules for running this module are a free download (217 KB zip/PDF).

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Adventure Subscription.

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Intriguing follow up

4/5

After playing the Crypt of the Everflame, this adventure changes things around a bit with the players infiltrating a temple of a corrupt religion and taking them down from within. This offers many interesting roleplaying opportunities, with the NPCs in the temple constantly abusing your players and encouraging them to commit acts of robbery, extortion and property damage. Though the adventure can be restrictive at times, it requires players to think things out in order to find ways to break through the temple's rather ridged regime and infiltrate it's higher levels. it's recommended to have at least one stealthy character in the party, though a GM can easily shift things around if this isn't the case. The last part of the adventure is supposed to involve the characters fighting their way past hordes of cultists to escape, but my players simply ran for it, avoiding the attackers and leaping over the wall for a rather un- smooth landing making for an amusing end to an entertaining adventure. The boat journey at the start however is a little shaky with its random encounters: I only ended up with two when my players were in need of some extra XP but this can be rectified by the GM if need be. Otherwise, this adventure was entertaining for me and my players with some fun roleplaying to be had.


Infiltrate

4/5

I complete change of pace from the first part of the series, but a fun one. I thought it was organized poorly and required alot of flipping back and forth. Outside of that I don't have many complaints.


Good Potential For the Right GM

3/5

I ran Masks about a month ago and found that while it is a fun module, as other reviewers have stated it is built on a single track (though there are a few alternatives, all lead to the same place). For the GM that can take this module and add to it or blend it into a home game, there is a lot of potential here for not just Masks but the entire trilogy. Another of my favorite points is that this module is role-play heavy for a good two-thirds. It was very welcome to have the opportunity for our usual Pathfinder Society players to add a little more depth to their characters.

I would totally run Masks again, but I will want to augment part of it to give players a few more options to move the plot along.


Strong module in fun 3 part series

5/5

This module is a great follow up to the Crypt of the Everflame. The module is tricky to run for a novice GM in that creative players can approach the challenge in several ways so some GMs will need to adapt the plot a bit but enough hints are given to make it easy enough for an experienced GM.


A great deal of potential but too much railroading!

2/5

My group enjoyed playing Crypt of the Everflame a great deal and I was looking forward to running Masks of the Living God next. I was especially excited by the premise of infiltrating a masked cult and all of the possibilities that it presented. However, after reading the adventure, I realized that I would not be able to run this adventure without either a high level of railroading or a great deal of time spent reworking it.

Spoiler:
As a follow up to Crypt of the Everflame, this adventure has the players infiltrate the headquarters of a cult of Razmir that has recently become more prominent in the capital city of Nirmathas.

Some of the good points about this adventure are that it presents some interesting opportunities for roleplaying and strategy (if the priests all wear masks, the players may try to impersonate some of its members) and that the temple itself can be an interesting place to explore/infiltrate.

However, for the adventure to work as written, the plot requires that the players be poisoned and captured by the cult, stripped of all their belongings and then inducted into the cult. Otherwise you end up missing aobut half of the adventure and it turns into a standard dungeon crawl.

I was also disappointed with the first part of the adventure which consists of little more than a random encounter table and features a single encounter with pirates that has no bearing on the rest of the adventure.

Finally, other minor things such as a number of typos throughout the text and uninspiring/bad artwork for the NPCs and villains make this a somewhat unsatisfying module, which is definitely not up to Pathfinder's usually high standards.


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The Exchange

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DM Wellard wrote:
AHHH.. GO TAKE 31 STEPS OFF A SHORT PIER MATEY!!!

random Razmiran propoganda

The First Step;

Spoiler:
In the first Test, which Razmir later called 'The First Step,' the Living God found himself alone on a featureless white plain. No art at his command functioned, and he stood alone. He could attempt to move forward, but saw no sign of progress, and could not be sure whether or not he had ever truly taken a step.

While a lesser man might have railed against the gods, calling the challenge unfair, or given in to despair, Razmir sat down and meditated upon the challenge before him. He came to the conclusion that if the challenge could not be beaten or fought or argued against, that it must be *accepted* as a lesson of some sort. And so he meditated upon the lesson. Was it a test of patience? It seemed not, for he felt his still-mortal body experiencing hunger and thirst and fatigue, lending the experience a sense of urgency. Was it a test of cleverness? Again, it seemed not, for none of his arcane arts or skills or feats of training availed him in this place. He came to accept it as a test of faith, and stood to genuflect to the various gods who had come before, those of ancient and uncertain origin, and those few who had passed the Test of the Starstone before him.

And he stepped forward, and the world was no longer white around him, for that was the First Step, to accept and respect the power and authority of the gods who had come before and to realize that no worldly power or accomplishment or station in life could earn him this opportunity to stand among them.

The Third Step;

Spoiler:
The 3rd step saw Razmir moving among the people of Absalom, but all was gray, and the people seemed like ghosts, unable to see or hear him. From this vantage point, he could not only see them, but also see the personal devil's that beset them, their fears and doubts and worldly troubles, and while he could not interact with the gray people, he could interact with the brightly colored spirits representing their mortal woes. Some ills he found that he could grapple with and dispell, overcoming illnesses or injuries with force, and leaving the people looking a little less gray than before, as if they could *almost* see him. Other ills proved more subtle, and he found himself moved to parley and negotiate with the representations of ills such as self-doubt and marital strife, to the same result, the brightening of the gray people around him. He came to recognize the many ills that beset man as signs of disorder, reflected in this place, and by restoring the flesh of the ill or injured, he reset the natural order of their limbs, while those who were beset by more social issues benefitted from guidance, discipline and structure. And so the 3rd Test was to understand the role of the priesthood, to minister to the ills of the many races of man, and prepared him for the day when, as a god, he would give of his own personal power to empower those who are called to his clergy, and who speak in his name.

The Eighth Step

Spoiler:
The Eighth Test of the Starstone found Razmir presented with a blank white parchment in his grasp. No magic at his command or clarity of vision would reveal any message on this parchment, but as he handled it, he felt areas where the parchment had known the touch of an inkpen, although the ink remained imperceptible to his sight. He spent a time handling the parchment under a variety of lighting conditions, conjuring forth magical illumination in an attempt to coax forth the concealed writings on the parchment, to no avail, although he did discover that the ink was also white in color, when some came off onto his fingers. Attempting to alter the color of the inks (or the paper itself) with minor magic proved ineffective, and Razmir again sat down to meditate.

After a time, he opened his eyes and drew forth flint and steel, striking a spark and setting the god's message aflame, watching dispassionately as the paper curled and blackened, and the white ink turned bright against the now-darkened page. Very delicately, he peered at the writings of the gods, careful not to touch the scorched papyrus, which would have fallen to ash at the slightest disturbance, destroying for all time the secret message of the gods.

The message was this, "We are watching. Be our Herald, and remind the world that we are watching."

It had been many years since the Test of the Starstone had been passed, and the path to the gods was obscured by many heresies, such as the Left-Hand Path of Diabolism, or the Green Faith of the animists, so that the Living God was tasked to remain on Golarion, to remind the many races of man that the true gods still watched over the world, as shepherds to a flock that was increasingly straying away from the true path.

Scarab Sages

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Almost forgot about this.....
JPEG of my Campaign Cartographer version of Tamran.

I went with some of the description from the Campaign Setting hardcover:

"The ramshackle wooden city of Tamran sits perched at the mouth of the River Marideth, with much of the city built on piers and pilings over the broad marshlands of the estuary, connected by causeways, bridges, and a flotilla of coracles and skiffs."

It was also stated that the walls were torn down, although I left the towers that would have been aprt of them.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Looks great for reference, Aber! Certainly gives Tamran more of a feel than I had envisioned. Thanks for showing it off.

Liberty's Edge Contributor

Umm...AZ? Forget that I offered to help...your map-fu is already far beyond mine. Your map looks really good.

I've downloaded the JPEG...would you be willing to send me a copy of the FCW file? I'd love to use this as part of my ongoing campaign!

Scarab Sages

Paris Crenshaw wrote:

Umm...AZ? Forget that I offered to help...your map-fu is already far beyond mine. Your map looks really good.

I've downloaded the JPEG...would you be willing to send me a copy of the FCW file? I'd love to use this as part of my ongoing campaign!

Sorry Paris, I hadn't actually seen your previous post - just noticed this new page of the thread up today and was reminded to post a copy.

Anyway, thanks for the compliment, and consider the actual CC3 file on its way.

Liberty's Edge Contributor

I just got the file, AZ!

Thanks! And you're welcome for the compliment. I love CC3 (I've been a Profantasy fan for over a decade), but I have a mental block when it comes to mapmaking. Without trying to sound boastful, I am very good at taking an image and turning it into a map in CC3, but I'm no good at creating original maps.

Off-topic stuff:
I did this character art in CC2, basing it on artwork from the d20 Modern book.

The closes thing I can do do original maps I'm happy with is to base fantasy locations on real-world geography: like this

Scarab Sages

I've also been a fan of Profantasy for a long time. Started out when I bought the Core Rules 2.0 Cd-rom, which had a copy of CC2. Before that I was drawing maps by hand that I used in some games. I found the program similar to some CAD programs I'd used, and very user friendly.

Then, a little less than a year ago, my brother gave me CC3 for my birthday. I hadn't done too much with it: bought the dungeon add-on and toyed with crafting a dungeon crawl of my own. When I received my hardcopy of Masks of the Living God, and found no map of Tamran, I knew I'd have to do one myself or find one someone else may have done. Well, no one else had done one that I could find, so I purchased the city add-on and went to town.

For my next trick, after my players finish City of Golden Death, I'm going to take them into Ustalav using a made up bit - returning a wayward daughter of some minor noble to her home village. I'll need to do a map for that I think.

Grand Lodge

ledger hand image out for DMS.

my players keep out!

Spoiler:

image hand out

I'm using this in my Council of Thieves campaign, so there are some local changes. The cultists are Mammonites (not Razmirians), which explains the usury charges. I've made up high class house of ill-repute ("The Exquisite Torture") that the cultists have purchased a monthly VIP ticket to for Scasi Bolvini, the duxotar of the condotarri. the boat and water fee is the formal pay off to the condottari, the local tithe is the pay off to the Council of Thieves, and the remote tithe is a quarterly cash-out to the Egorian branch of the Church of Mammon.

Thanks paizo chat denizens for helping cook this up.

Grand Lodge

Egarthis' handwritten notes


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Interesting stuff there. Nice work on that!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I'm pretty sure this all could be considered spoilers to some extent so I'm sorry for making you click the button. This is primarily directed at other GMs.

Show:
How many Acolytes/Priests did you throw in there? I'm a baby GM and I'm pretty sure I borked it up pretty bad with
Priests: 14
Acolytes: 56 (priests x4)
Heralds: 6

The book is straightforward on the number of Heralds (3+Egrathis), but seems to be pretty open as the number of acolytes and priests.

Seems to me that 7 priests are on guard during the day, so x2 for replacements/priests being used for other things (like going out into town)
The acolytes were a x4 of the priests
And the number of heralds i used was as direct result of me counting herald rooms instead of reading well.

So yeah, that was the obscene amount of people I put in there, seems pretty off for 16 bunks, (48 max if they are being rotated every 8hrs). I'm running it again (with a different group) and I'm just wondering how many dudes other GM's have put in there.

If you care on the outcome:
1 guy didn't show up that night and they basically blew through it with pretty easily with 3 guys at level 3. (I've had many cases of the CR seeming to be very off for well made characters and experienced players). They did it smart, and burned the Armory beforehand and holed up in the hallway on the 1st floor, a LOT of dice rolling later, they won.

Grand Lodge

More digital projector DnD pr0n


Have Clerics been a problem in anybodies game? My group will most probably contain a priest of Abadar, so if anybody has any advice if this is a feasible combination, please let me know.

EDIT: I could imagine that the faithful of Abadar won´t have much love for the Razmiran cultists, as they cut into business. Perhaps if I play into that sentiment, an Abadarian might even be very interested in getting rid of those cultists.

Stefan


Bump

Liberty's Edge

My take on that particular problem is this: I can't see any of Golarion's dieties being extremely cheesed about the concept of some completely mortal schlep walking around calling himself a God, and as such detracting from their potential following. I'd think that basically any bonafide diety would approve of the persecution of such a "church".

The Patron of cities and commerce should have no trouble working up enmity toward the temple of Razmir for the reasons you mentioned above, as well.


Just read through this one recently,good concept. I can see the original Temple of Elemental Evil being a lot like it!


Aberzombie wrote:

Almost forgot about this.....

JPEG of my Campaign Cartographer version of Tamran.

Just in case you don't want to search through the forums to find the link, you can also find this image by searching Tamran in Google. Pretty handy Aber :DD I've been using your map for some time in this adventure and another, can't say I'm too disappointed, thanks!


Forum Necromacy. mua mua mua!

Two quick questions.

Spoiler:

1. What is the point of the deed to plot of land in Absalom the PC's can find in one of the Herald's room.

2. How are the characters supposed to figure out how to go Isle of Terror short of Reginar just plain telling them to go rathar than figuring it our from the evidence?


Not to horribly self bump, but this fell off the front page, and I don't think it would come back otherwise.

Questions in spoiler above for anyone who may know.


BigDTBone wrote:

Forum Necromacy. mua mua mua!

Two quick questions.

** spoiler omitted **

RE: 1

There is no specific point, at least none that I saw tying back into the module. You can use it as a plot-hook for an adventure of your own, if you wish.

Spoiler:
Land in Absolom can be very expensive, depending on the neighborhood, so it can be sold if significant gold if that fits your campaign better.. though the PCs would probably have to travel to Absolom to do it. See the "Guide to Absolom" in the Campaign Setting line for details on the prices.

RE: 2

Spoiler:
The handout in Iramine's quarters pretty much tells them where she's going. If they can't figure it out from "Now I must go to the Isle of Terror...", I don't know what else would help them.

Characters with the appropriate Knowledge skills could know the backstory of the Isle and the treasure city there, in any event.


On point two. wow. I feel kinda dumb. I read that as a euphimism before looking at the third part....

On point one, cool! Thanks


It does help to have read all three parts, yes :)


Aberzombie wrote:

Almost forgot about this.....

JPEG of my Campaign Cartographer version of Tamran.

I went with some of the description from the Campaign Setting hardcover:

"The ramshackle wooden city of Tamran sits perched at the mouth of the River Marideth, with much of the city built on piers and pilings over the broad marshlands of the estuary, connected by causeways, bridges, and a flotilla of coracles and skiffs."

It was also stated that the walls were torn down, although I left the towers that would have been aprt of them.

Thanks so much for creating this map! I am wondering if you might have a higher resolution version, as I was hoping to use a Tamran map as a resource for my group.

Sovereign Court

I'm currently running this module. My players have just been drugged and, next session, are going to wake up in the cell block. I've got a few questions:

1:
The double doors on the east of the worship room (T6) - where do they go?

2:
The acolyes are crammed in the barracks in the basement and the heralds and Iramine have private quaters on the second level. Where do the priests live? Is it suitable to assume they have their own places to live in the city and travel into the temple each day?

Sovereign Court

bump


The Diplomat wrote:

I'm currently running this module. My players have just been drugged and, next session, are going to wake up in the cell block. I've got a few questions:

RE: 1

Spoiler:
Outside, to the street. As the place is a fortress, I generally treated those as not doors so much as the lower portion of the window from the second floor. Otherwise, the lack of defenses seems inappropriate.

RE: 2

Spoiler:
I had the same issue. I started to add another room off the west end of the main hall in the basement. If your PCs wind up fighting their way through the basement, though, this could be more than they can handle depending on when they go through it.

Paizo Employee Lead Designer

1 person marked this as a favorite.
The Diplomat wrote:

I'm currently running this module. My players have just been drugged and, next session, are going to wake up in the cell block. I've got a few questions:

** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **

Question 1:
Those are supposed to be windows. The map is in error.

Question 2:
As noted in the appendix, the priest room with the acolytes.

Hope that solves it up for you.

All Hail the Living God!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Sovereign Court

All Hail! Cheers Jason. Loving this module, by the way. Good job.


This module looks fantastic. I'm a little skeptical about pulling my players around by the nose for the first few days. Wish me luck! Any other tips ?


Just finished Masks of the Living God this weekend. Had a great time running it. Very refreshing change of pace from the standard dungeon crawl. My party actually went along with the plot and infiltrated the compound.


Going to necro this, but has anyone noticed that in the Priest of Razmir stat bloc, under their ranged attack, it lists light crossbow +6. I went back and forth with the Priest's stats trying to figure out how they got +6, even going so far as to recreate the npc in Hero Lab, and it still came out only at +4.

+2 Base Attack Bonus
+2 Dex Bonus (Dex 15)

the crossbow isn't mwk, and the feats don't account for the extra +2 (Dodge, Imp. Shield Bash, Mobility, Shield Focus, 2-wpn fighting)

I'm stumped. Couldn't find any mention of it on Google or searching this site.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Jason Bulmahn wrote:
The Diplomat wrote:

I'm currently running this module. My players have just been drugged and, next session, are going to wake up in the cell block. I've got a few questions:

** spoiler omitted **
** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

** spoiler omitted **

Hope that solves it up for you.

All Hail the Living God!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Any chance that Paizo has made a flip map for this module?


2 people marked this as a favorite.

Two random memories from when I ran this:

1) I'm a little bit of a ham, and my players know it. At one point, they goaded me into using my televangelist/street preacher voice to portray the faith.

2) At one point (don't remember if I was in-character or not), I looked at my players and said, "Can I get a praise Razmir." Very unenthusiastic response. So I looked at them sharply. "I said, can i get a PRAISE RAZMIR!!" Much better response the second time around.


I'm running this soon, and I wanted to add some 'color' to the other acolytes and priests. The Heralds are named in the modules, but not the others, so I generated some random Anglo-Saxon-like names and some orc names using programs I've written. Feel free to use them if you want. The half-orc priests have epithets, following the style of orc leaders. The NPCs are either female or male humans (F or M), or female or make half-orcs (F or M ½O):

Acolytes
Trumek (M)
Godwyn (M)
Gladegir (M)
Sped (M)
Beorth (M)
Culcleed (M)
Eoforn (M)
Gwenbarth (F)
Orm (F)
Gwengild (F)
Thurcrom (M)
Cadhak (F ½O)
Blake (M)
Culcsteer (M)
Wiggrim (M)
Norwulf (M)
Thurgyth (F)
Hofbeort (F)
Wignoth (M)
Fogdak (F ½O)
Gruthaj (M ½O)
Dorsig (M)

Priests
Tunni (M)
Osward (M)
Brark Stabhalfling (M ½O)
Wulmal (M)
Offa (M)
Hali (F)
Deorstan (M)
Wigmar (M)
Tornazz Bloodbathe (M ½O)

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