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One of PCs in my campaign just met an untimely end due to Disintegrate. Since the character is an atheist, I've decided to tie in the Beyond the Vault of Souls module - seems like a great fit.
I want to run some solo story for that PC as he reaches the Boneyard. I am curious, what/who are the most common servants of Pharasma encountered on the Boneyard ? I would like to run some nice RP encounters there, and allow him perhaps to interact with his comrades on the Material Plane. Pitch me some ideas, folks :)
One of PCs in my campaign just met an untimely end due to Disintegrate. Since the character is an atheist, I've decided to tie in the Beyond the Vault of Souls module - seems like a great fit.
I want to run some solo story for that PC as he reaches the Boneyard. I am curious, what/who are the most common servants of Pharasma encountered on the Boneyard ? I would like to run some nice RP encounters there, and allow him perhaps to interact with his comrades on the Material Plane. Pitch me some ideas, folks :)
From Gods and Magic (p30):
Her herald is the Steward of the Skein, a pair of linked ghaele-like creatures, one shining white and blue, the other flaming orange and darkness. Her divine servants are usually strange creatures such as Birthed-in-Sorrow (a ravid cleric), Echo of Lost Divinity (a spectral soldier in fine clothes who vaguely resembles depictions of Aroden), and Endless Gravestone (a wheellike stone creature).
In The Great Beyond, they mention the souls of the departed and the Vulpinals in Nirvana, but skimming through there is no specific mention of beings that serve as her servants.
As for how she would make herself known on the Prime Material Plane, here is info, also from Gods and Magic (p30):
Pharasma manifests her favor through the use of scarab beetles and whippoorwills, both of which function as psychopomps and serve to guide recently departed spirits to the Boneyard. Black roses are thought to bring good luck, especially if the rose’s stem sports no thorns. Pharasma will also sometimes allow the spirit of those who have died under mysterious conditions to transmit short messages to their living kin to comfort them, to expose a murderer, or even to haunt an enemy. Her displeasure is often signified by cold chills down the spine, bleeding from under the fingernails, an unexplained taste of rich soil, the discovery of a dead whippoorwill, or the feeling that something important has been forgotten.
One of PCs in my campaign just met an untimely end due to Disintegrate. Since the character is an atheist, I've decided to tie in the Beyond the Vault of Souls module - seems like a great fit.
I want to run some solo story for that PC as he reaches the Boneyard. I am curious, what/who are the most common servants of Pharasma encountered on the Boneyard ? I would like to run some nice RP encounters there, and allow him perhaps to interact with his comrades on the Material Plane. Pitch me some ideas, folks :)
Have you purchased The Great Beyond? It's an excellent resource for information on the afterlife and planar gaming.
Be aware that "atheist" in Golarion has a very specific meaning: one who denies not the gods or their divinity, necessarily, but the afterlife and the existence of souls, or possibly simply the prospect of reward and punishment for deeds done in life. One who simply has little time for the gods but expects some sort of deserved afterlife will be assigned where most casual believers of similar alignment go. Souls who do meet the definition are in a metaphysical sense damaged goods. They are automatically stored in the Graveyard/Vault of Souls, regardless of their alignment; it is specially constructed to suppress a natural phenomenon by which they would travel to their plane of alignment.
There is a thread on atheists in Golarion further down in this forum, with a good deal of detail on this. I have included a short description of a demigoddess with atheism in her portfolio there.
Your atheist character would usually not have the chance to do any roleplaying if he qualifies as an atheist under Golarion's definition. "Beyond the Vault of Souls" specifies that atheist souls mostly go comatose and unresponsive, turning into gems. However, The Great Beyond indicates that some are conscious and mobile, though they remain quarantined in the Vault/Graveyard of Souls. Presumably a PC's soul could be one of these lucky few. Some are insane (the Black Nurse, the NPC I mentioned writing up above, tries to work with these). The more stable conscious souls consider themselves wardens of the Graveyard. One suspects they would try to recruit your PC if they find him active and sane. Since atheists are condemned to the Vault regardless of alignment, there are likely to be all sorts there.
Beyond the Vault of Souls mentions a group called the Keepers of the Vault, and introduces one as an NPC, who exists outside the Vault, but gives no statistics.