I'd like to make this as fulfilling as possible for my players, but I've never roleplayed a god before and it's daunting me. Thanks in advance!
One approach that I think would be very much in keeping with Desna's personality and beliefs is that ...
- Make finding her an epic journey (... Which might derail the rest of the AP).
- During that journey the priest(priestess) would discover the answers to the question he/she was going to ask.
- Allow herself to be found only after the priest(priestess) has alreay answered his or her own questions - just to reward him or her and confirm what they by now already have learned.
Director of Brand Strategy
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Typically the gods of Golarion don't interact directly with mortals (or even immortals). You might check out the Night Monarch, who is Desna's herald. If you do end up using Desna herself, she lives among the stars, perhaps even in the Material Plane itself. I'd play her as sort of aloof and alien. She is after all a completely foreign being who is as old or older than any of the other deities. She merely takes the form of an elf in art because it is something that mortals can understand. I am curious how gnomes were prevalent in the time of Thassilon, however, since my understanding is that they came from the First World very near to the time of Earthfall, at which point Thassilon was destroyed. Has this been explored at all in your campaign? What level are the PCs now?
This is just me, and my particular taste, but I like the Gods "hiding in plain sight" so to speak. I am a huge fan of Greek Mythology, where the gods were everywhere, often in disguise. I loved the Fizban character in the Dragonlance saga; Neil Gaiman's "American Gods," and Zelazny's "Lords of Light" (and almost everything else he wrote), where the characters would run into gods all the time and not be aware of it . . .or ever so slowly figure it out for themselves.
Just as an example, I had a slick-talking travelling salesman walk into the tavern at which my players were having a quiet drink. He walks up to them and says, "Pleased to meetcha, won't you guess my name?"
So, my approach would be to guide your players through clues, visions, and recurring NPCs, one of which (probably the very first one) turns out to be Desna herself.
Again, that's just me. Apple, anyone?
How about:
The priest there is impressed with their recent deeds as well as their dedication to Desna, but doesn't personally have "ground shaking" information, and his personal experience with Desna perhaps isn't as 'direct' as the PCs would like...
leaving them alone for a moment, the PCs have a chance to investigate an open book, an interesting religious tapestry, etc, and they happen to discover an interesting passage on the page 'randomly' blown open by a gust of wind, or notice a 'new' image in a religious tapestry the priest never noticed before, or a bird, symbol of desna, sings a tune by the window that the priest later explains has a certain signifigance to an aspect of Desna. This info either fits into events/things they already know of (i.e. the text mentioning a holy site somewhere they can travel to, or a prophecy eerily matching current events), or if they ask the priest about it when he returns, he explains how the text/image/song tune fits into Desna's mythology, which gives them a motive to seek out some other aspect of Desna.
follow thru with this along the lines of how Lord Fyre suggests, and I think you have a pretty good start on a great Deity-centric campaign or sub-plot...
Contributor
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As folks have already mentioned, any quest to find Desna or a "truth" central to her teachings will have to include a journey of some sort.
I don't think this needs to completely de-rail the campaign, given the fact that the AP in question involves exploring locales that have remained hidden for ten millenia. I would suggest that the journey in the last chapter of the campaign would be sufficient to get Desna's attention--on a small scale, at least.
I also doubt very seriously that Desna would allow one of her clerics an audience if he simply popped into her domain using plane shift or other powerful travel magic, because, for her, the journey is everything. Using magic to bypass any part of the journey would be a waste of countless opportunities to see new things.
I like Quandary's suggestions for giving the characters helpful hints through signs and omens. If you decide that Desna's domain is on another plane, I would suggest that the only way to reach it would be to plane shift to an adjacent planar region and then embark on a journey across that plane to find her or have the clues provide information on a planar portal that must be found on the material plane after a long journey--said portal would provide more direct access to her domain, since the journey requirement would be met on Golarion.
Lastly, although signs and omens should be okay, you'll want to be careful about using anything relating to prophecy in the campaign. Remember, the setting is currently in the Age of Lost Omens. Prophecy doesn't work anymore. In fact, there are some who are desperately trying to shape events make even one prophecy come true in the hope that it will somehow restore what was lost with Aroden's death.
I'm still a little unclear on how this ties into the function of divination magic, but my interpretation is that people can still get short glimpses into the near future through auguries, Harrow readings, etc., but these readings are now uncertain. It seems like it used to be that an oracle could give the querent a definitive answer about what was to come, but that's no longer the case.
I may be wrong about that part, but it won't do the characters any good to read about an ancient prophecy that seems like it relates to them. As far as anyone knows, no prophecy has come true in over a century. Also, keep in mind that Desna dislikes those who predict the future (I think because it takes the fun out of things), and will actually work to thwart prophecy, especially those that predict terrible events.
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Director of Brand Strategy
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Like Yoda, I'd recommend that even if the character has gone looking for Desna, what he finds is her herald instead.
This could end up with a 'ride on the back of a giant butterfly/moth through time seeing things' trip, and end with the character waking up and realising that his planeshift apparently sent him to sleep instead of transporting him anywhere....
Yes, Desna also holds the portfolio of dreams, so dream travel might be another way to interact with her.