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With the possibility of characters earning prestige points by furthering their faction’s larger goals, it can be difficult to keep in mind what those goals are. This is an attempt to create a quick reference to consult during play.
I’ve pulled out the relevant paragraphs for each faction regarding their larger season 4 goals, then tried to distill those down to one sentence so I have something quick and easy to look at while at the table. Hopefully it will be of use to others as well.
Andoran – Promote Andoran and Magnimar, weaken Korvosa.
While adventuring in Varisia, be ever watchful for ways of improving our embassy, both in appearance and reputation, and give Magnimar’s movers and shakers a reason to listen when we offer them our hand in friendship. Keep Magnimar’s interests in mind, and as you strive to further the goals of the city, make sure all around you know that it was Andoran who came to its aid. And while I cannot openly suggest you do harm to the citizens or property of Korvosa, the weakening of that Chelish thrall-city would benefit Magnimar and the Andoran cause.
Cheliax – Improve Zarta Dralneen’s name and reputation, prevent further harm.
As you travel the world doing what it is you do for fun, be on the lookout for potential enemies who may use you to get to me, or worse, attempt to sabotage our collective efforts by disrupting your work. And should you find the opportunity to improve my reputation, clear my name of slander, or otherwise show House Thrune that I and those Pathfinder agents loyal to me are effective and valuable resources to the empire, by all means, exploit those opportunities for all they’re worth! I believe many chances to do so will present themselves as you and the Society shift your glance north to Varisia, where the city of Korvosa could use our help in establishing itself as the true center of power in the burgeoning nation.
Grand Lodge – Thwart the Aspis Consortium and the remnants of the Shadow Lodge insurrection.
The recent conflict with the Aspis Consortium within the Hao Jin Tapestry was unfortunate, but we will not have the luxury of waging open war with our rivals in the streets of Magnimar or even the wilds of Varisia. Despite the limitations presented by the real world, we will doubtless have plenty of opportunities to make things difficult for the Consortium, both in Magnimar and elsewhere in Varisia. Ensure you take every such opportunity!
Additionally, it was in Varisia—in the mysterious and ancient city of Kaer Maga—that the rogue Shadow Lodge agents who troubled us recently made their first move against our loyal agents. Likely, remnants of that cell still operate in Varisia and are either plotting our demise or sullying the Pathfinder name. We have largely come to terms with the Shadow Lodge, but those who still defy Grandmaster Torch could present a problem for us. Continue to rout out remnants of the Shadow Lodge insurrection and ensure they either fall in line with the rest of their kind or are eliminated as potential threats to the Society’s wellbeing.
Lantern Lodge – Weaken the Aspis Consortium, maintain our honor, promote our worth.
As you know, many Pathfinders lost their lives in the Hao Jin Tapestry, many to the ruthless agents of the Aspis Consortium. Whether logical or fair, there are many in power within the Pathfinder Society who put the weight of those deaths on the collective shoulders of the Lantern Lodge. We have dishonored the Society by allowing Aspis Consortium agents into the Ruby Phoenix’s realm, and we must right that wrong by further weakening the Consortium wherever we may face it, be it in Varisia, Goka, or Absalom. While the Society now controls the Consortium’s backdoor into the Hao Jin Tapestry, we must take it upon ourselves to ensure the route from Absalom through the tapestry to Varisia is safe for future Pathfinders. The Aspis Consortium must never again breach our defenses and sully the honor the tapestry should have brought to our faction.
Last year, as the Society’s gaze focused on us and on our homeland, we were honored by the attention, and relevant to the organization’s larger goals. But now, the gaze of the Ten has shifted elsewhere, and we must work doubly hard to ensure we maintain our honor and prove our worth, lest we be supplanted by others hoping to establish themselves in the Society’s good graces.
Osirion – Help to find a cure for the Ruby Prince.
The Lissalan idol that seems to have caused this curse was brought from Varisia to Sothis by a Pathfinder, a promising young agent who I had taken under my wing. It was I who urged her to impress the Ruby Prince with relics of an empire older and ultimately more feeble than Osirion itself. And since I was indirectly the cause of the Ruby Prince’s interaction with that damned idol, he rightfully blames me for his condition. If I am unable to find its source and, more importantly, a cure—and find them quickly—he has promised that my time serving the Osirian throne will be at an end.
Thus I need you, who are more able to explore the ruins of ancient Thassilon, to search for lore on Lissala and the magic she and her faith may have used to forge such a harrowing curse. I will work here in Absalom to piece together what clues I can from the works in Forae Logos and the Grand Lodge on a potential cure. I may, from time to time, ask you to retrieve reagents or ingredients that I can’t easily get while conducting my research; know that such requests are of dire importance, for the life of the Ruby Prince may well rest in all of our hands.
Qadira – Promote trade, find new resources, prevent the Aspis Consortium from getting resources.
Our primary and most transparent motivation in the coming months will be the establishment of formal trade relations with the cities of Varisia—especially Janderhoff, which to date deals almost exclusively with other dwarven communities and the nearby city of Korvosa. Work toward this goal openly among your allies who are not invested in this enterprise and you should draw suspicion away from our more lucrative plans. But while you venture into the wilds of Varisia, be ever watchful for new untapped resources to exploit and see to it that any competition for control of these resources are stopped—especially the Aspis Consortium, which has already taken from our grasp many resources from within the Hao Jin Tapestry.
And if during the coming year I or an associate of mine asks you to carry through the Hao Jin Tapestry a simple, nondescript bag (which may or may not hold within it more than it seems from its weight), think little of it, and know that your cut of the transaction will be paid in favors both material and intangible.
Shadow Lodge – Fight the Aspis Consortium – infiltrate it if you can.
Keep up appearances by making sure Pathfinders of all stripes see you fighting the obvious enemies of the Society, especially the Aspis Consortium or holdouts from when our own Shadow Lodge agents turned against the Society. An enemy of my enemy is my friend, after all, and the more Pathfinders who see us as friends and not enemies, the better.
Ever one to present two faces, I need you to use a bit of subtlety when dealing with the Aspis Consortium. I have a suspicion that the schism among our membership a few years ago was the work of someone who had much to gain by setting Pathfinders against Pathfinders in open conflict. Who better than the Aspis Consortium to benefit from our self-destruction? If you have the chance to infiltrate the Aspis Consortium and learn about their leadership, their structures, and their plans, all of this information can be of use to me. If it also benefits the Society, then so be it. But someone in the Consortium played all of us for fools, so now it’s personal.
Sczarni – Promote the family’s interests.
As you’re running errands for the Pathfinders, you can also deliver some messages to other members of our extended family who might need a reminder of who’s really in charge of things. Between the two of us, I think we can be the ones planning all the Karela family reunions in just a year’s time, no?
Make sure you’re always looking out for those who have your back, and if you need to rearrange your priorities a bit so the Pathfinder Society’s serving us instead of the other way around, I certainly wouldn’t stop you. Don’t get into any trouble that’d make you unable to do your main mission, however. Knowing your place is important.
Silver Crusade – Learn runelords’ weaknesses, spread the light.
You have a great opportunity in Varisia, for you can learn from the ruins of the runelords’ unholy empire what their weaknesses are, what fates they succumbed to in the past, and what we may use to combat them should they return again in the future.
Along your travels, spread the word of righteousness, vigilance, and sacrifice. For the time may very well come when untrained farmers and common merchants must take up arms to fight the forces of evil, be they the demons of the Worldwound, the orcs of Belkzen, or a risen runelord and her army of enslaved monsters. Prepare the people for the coming war, for when the tide of battle washes over them, it will be too late.
Taldor – Expand the empire in Varisia.
We can expand Taldor in a way that hasn’t been accomplished in millennia. The world is too populous now for armies to march forth into the wilderness and tame them. But in the Varisian frontier, the taming has already been done by both Magnimar and Korvosa, and like little mice on the edge of the jungle, they will crawl under our lion’s paw for protection. Taldor’s future and our return to glory will come in Varisia, and you can be the catalyst for this revival! Show the mighty and influential of Varisia Taldor’s puissance, and teach them that with us, they too can rule.
