The Scarlet God Comes to Dustpawn
To be written, in an ideal world, by Tom Phillips and Mike Welham.
A power-hungry sorcerer and her fellow cultists have overrun a monastery of Desna and used a relic hidden within to recall an ancient expedition from the heavens. Can the heroes secure the site of this expedition's return before insane cultists and monsters from the stars conspire to pierce the fabric of the Dark Tapestry and rouse the dreadful Scarlet God that lurks beyond?
This adventure is for four 9th level characters. By the end of the adventure, PCs should realize that the best possible outcome of RPG Superstar 2012 would be a tie between Tom Phillips and Mike Welham, resulting in the fusion of their two adventure proposals into the single greatest adventure module of all time.
Background
Just over a century ago, a secretive sect devoted to Desna constructed a craft to travel to worlds beyond Golarion. Several of their number departed, but communication with the craft was disrupted when the travelers' land of origin was swallowed by the storm that created the Sodden Lands. The screams of the travelers thus went unheard when their craft encountered a planar distortion that twisted the crew into new forms, placed them in a magical slumber, and turned their fevered dreams into a doorway through which the Emissary of the Scarlet God entered the mortal world.
The Scarlet God for whom the Emissary acts as herald was last worshiped on Golarion during the early half of the Age of Destiny. The entity's followers, a cult known as the Argent Veil, were noted for sacrificing humanoids to sate their god's hunger in exchange for foul secretions that enhanced their minds and tainted their bodies. The Argent Veil was eventually rooted out and destroyed, sending its god into an uneasy slumber.
But the taint of the ancient cultists lives on in their descendents, many of whom are aberrant-blooded sorcerers whose minds the Emissary have learned to contact. One such sorcerer, Naevia, has long been beguiled by dreams of a tower on a vast, desolate plain within which lurks an entity of forbidden wisdom and dark promises: the Scarlet God. Naevia has dedicated her life to waking this dangerous entity and unleashing it upon Golarion.
Towards these ends, Naevia has uncovered the secrets of the ancient expedition to the stars that brought forth the Emissary of the Scarlet God. In recent days, she and her band of mercenaries have captured a monastery to Desna and used a forgotten relic stored within to recall the expedition's craft to Golarion. Though heroes are en route to reclaim the monastery, they are too late to stop the craft's arrival. The Emissary of the Scarlet God has already landed nearby and awakened the craft's original crew.
These insane crew members now terrorize the countryside at the Emissary's behest, enacting an orgy of violence that only grows worse as insane cultists converge on the crash site. Drawing power from this ongoing violence, the Emissary has corrupted the magic of the craft in which it arrived and opened a portal to the realm of the Scarlet God. Soon, it will fuse itself with the Scarlet God, awakening and reinvigorating its terrible master.
Adventure Outline
Act 1: The Great Observatory The PCs recapture a monastery of Desna from Naevia and her henchmen. From captives or from documents found on the scene, they learn that Naevia has called an ancient craft down from the sky, and that this craft contains something or someone dangerous.
Act 2: The Site of the Crash The PCs locate the site of the crash. The vessel has been largely abandoned, but its former occupants are terrorizing the locals. The PCs investigate and dispatch several insane mutants. Things are complicated by the steady arrival of evil cultists on the scene.
Act 3: The Village of Dustpawn As increasing numbers of cultists gather a nearby village, it becomes apparent that these new arrivals are colluding with the monsters from the sky, and that their collective campaign of violence is being orchestrated from a nearby abandoned mine.
Act 4: The Portal in the Mine Within the abandoned mine, the PCs fight through cultists and monsters to discover the portal opened by the Emissary of the Scarlet God with the help of a magical engine salvaged from the craft in which the Emissary arrived. The Emissary has already passed through the portal.
Act 5: The Scarlet God's Tower Pursuing the Emissary, the PCs brave the insane geometry of the Scarlet God's realm and infiltrate the entity's tower. Therein, the Emissary has awakened the Scarlet God by fusing with its master. The PCs must defeat this new incarnation of the Scarlet God to prevent it from visiting destruction upon Golarion.
Rewards
Who cares? If Tom Phillips and Mike Welham collaborated to write this module, just getting to play it would be reward enough. Seriously, I take no credit for any of the above awesomeness. It's all Tom Phillips and Mike Welham, and they should both win RPG Superstar 2012.
