I don't know how emphatically I can say "please, no" to an Arcadian AP being focused on trying to rally Avistani colonists against the locals.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Yeah I mean I like the idea of the thread but not a fan of the pro-colonial AP where colonists unite and butcher the locals.
| 5 people marked this as a favorite. |
My point is that I think Arcadia deserves Arcadian heroes, the way Avistan has had Avistani heroes in dozens of AP volumes. There's no need to repeat Jade Regent's story beats of faux-Europeans from the far side of the world showing up to save the day by killing a bunch of locals.
Give me the first hero-gods born in Xopatl in generations against the newest Army of Fire. Give me a boundball sports epic that draws everyone from the Razatlani to the Mahwek. Tell me the story of Arazni's return to the land of her birth - now as a goddess in her own right, scarred but proud. Let's go wrestle some mummies, El Santo-style, or collect some star guns lost to time. There's a million stories you can do that aren't about the three villages of foreigners on the continent as the protagonists.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Two years ago, I plotted out an Iron Gods sequel Numerian Steel, about building a railroad in Numeria. keftiu shot the idea down with two objections: (1) mundane steam technology steals the thunder away from Numeria's alien high technology, and (2) railroads were associated with unfairly taking land away from natives.
This thread gives me a chance to fix that. I still want to play with steam engines, but a steamboat should be less intrusive than a railroad.
Hot Iron River
The fall of the Technic League in Numeria freed its people to experiment with the alien technology littering the barbaric land. Elderly Captain Fitch after years of trial and error built a working steamboat powered by perpetually hot skymetal, and now he and his crew ply the Sellen River. But the captain is not the only one taking great risks for new opportunities, and some are less scrupulous.
Full Steam Ahead (1st level) The steamboat Endeavor deals with peculiar business and threats as it travels up the Sellen River in Numeria.
Scrap and Ruckus (4th level) With the Endeavor docked in Scrapwall port for renovation, the adventurers are caught in a conflict between the town and its barbarian Ghost Wolf neighbors.
Technic Difficulties (8th level) Technic League renegades in Chesed steal the Endeavor's power source.
Sovereign of Steel (12th level) Kevoth-Kul, the barbarian Black Sovereign, enters Chesed to quell challenges to his rule.
Library of Mists and Veils (15th level) The Endeavor is hired to recover the spaceship Alexandria and its data banks sunken in the Lake of Mists and Veils.
Moon River (18th level) The demigoddess Casandalee sends the Endeavor on its longest journey yet: to Golarion's moon.
I also want to avoid the mistake of the Extinction Curse adventure path in sidelining its circus theme as the adventure continued. The steamboat Endeavor will remain relevant throughout the adventure.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Funnily enough I too have an AP idea that involves the Moon. I'll post more later but basic gist is "Pathfinder Agents find themselves in a position where their actions will determine which of two somewhat dead deities will experience a rebirth, the original Nurgal or Acavna. Spans the Moon, Heaven, Basrakal, the Mordant Spire and the domain of an ancient dragon that served Acavna in life."
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Okay so here we go. It's a 11-20 AP that goes like this:
Beneath the Faceless City (11-14)
A party of experienced Pathfinder Agents are called to investigate a Society Observatory that has failed to report in for a week, only to discover a group of rogue Mordant Spire Elves dismantling the place. They soon uncover the existence of the Faceless City, an Azlanti penal colony on Somal that has been in contact with the Observatory and has apparently uncovered something that resembles the Starstone within the caverns below. Traversing up to the moon, they find their way to the colony and have to fight their way into the caverns, since the only way down has been taken over by demonic remnants from the Moonscar. Below the surface of Somal, they uncover a Xiomorn laboratory and its owner, who has become obsessed with the Moonstone, a fragment of the same meteor that birthed the Starstone.
Star Above the Cerulean Sea (15-17)
The Agents discover that the Moonstone contains the essence of the dead goddess Acavna, and are confronted by a Star Archon who reveals that a nascent godling, Nuruu'gal, has become aware of and obsessed with it. The stone cannot be destroyed or its power claimed by another, not without help; the Archon brings the Agents to Heaven's Shore, so that the Agents can convince the celestial council there to grant them access to the safest passage to their true goal; Basrakal, home of Acavna's old herald. Finding evidence of the godling's corrupting influence the whole way, the Agents make a name for themselves in the bizarre city of outsiders, gaining audience with the Shieldmarshal and securing his advice on how best to deal with the Moonstone. Before they can act on this, the Star Archon, having been corrupted and driven mad by Nuruu'gal, leads an army of burning celestials into the city in a grand purge, forcing the Agents to decide whether to run or fight.
New Moon Rising (18-20)
With a ritual in hand, the Agents must travel to the Mordant Spire to convince the Elves there that they must claim the spiritual essence of Acavna. The tower itself reacts violently to their plans, and must be calmed before the Agents can convince the goddess' remnants to take back the Moonstone's power and be reborn! But it's too late for that; a new creature closest to Acavna's ideals must make the ultimate sacrifice to remove the Moonstone from play, being reborn as a new moon god. To do this, the Agents need to cleanse Acavna's center of worship (and it's master, an undead moon dragon) and perform a ritual that will allow a chosen mortal to ascend. Nuruu'gal refuses to back down though, as a host of demons, devils, mutants and aberrations assault the ritual site, the tripartite forces of Nurgal's pieces making their final ploy to become one again and teach mortalkind to fear the sun! Win or lose, the Agents are the catalyst for the rebirth of a god, be it of the new moon or the burning sun.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I too have had an AP idea, sort of a sequel to Kingmaker. The party is a group of adventurer/explorer sent by the newfound stolen land country to explore eastward into the seemingly accursed land of Iobara to map the territory, establish contact with the centaur tribes and jauge if there are any threats in this place that could "spill out" of Iobara and menace the country.
The most difficult part of writting this AP would be of course to account for every possible variation of every group that played Kingmaker (both the 1e, 2e and even the videogame), but I don't think it's an unsurmountable task. As the adventure path would actually take place in Iobara, and not in the stolen land proper, this AP wouldn't need to go into detail about the stolen land as a country, but instead simply place it as the party's "patron", and add the possibility of using it as homebase if the party want to go back to it in between module/chapter. The only things that would need to be set in stone is that as for every other AP, the campaign was successfull, and that some portion of the leaders of the country (which is to say, the kingmaker party) are interested or wary of Iobara, which can easily apply for every party as all saw the "Vordakai" incident that made them aware of Koloran's ruins, and the history of Iobara as being "the land where civilisation crumble" is eerily similar to that of the stolen land and can easily rouse curiosity (or fear) from any party.
As for the story proper, I have two idea, a "normal" one in 6 module going 1-20, and another one that a bit less iobara and hexploration focussed that came to me latter, in 3 module going 1-10. I'll post the 6 module story latter this week, here's smaller adventure rundown :
Topic : Iobara, Hexploration, Survival, Daemon, Abbadon.
Into Accursed Lands (1-4) :
It begin with a Hexploration focussed 1st module, exploring the lands west of Noyrus River and south of Norinor forest. The party find traces of a careless necromancer leaving his discarded experiement in his wake, who will be the main "bad guy" of this module. It end when the party have dealt with the necromancer, found the friendly centaur tribe, and charted most of that module map, whichever came last.
The Madman's Trail (5-7) :
The party receive instruction to push exploration further north into the forest of Norinor. The tribe also tell them of the passage of a human pilgrim worshipping Groetus, that seeked a ruin from Koloran who according to him housed a Doomsday Door, which he claimed would bring the apocalypse if opened (the obvious madness of the pilgrim meant that the centaur didn't took him seriously). Fearing another possible Vordakai incident (ans possibly the door if they are inclined to believe the pilgrim), the group Hexplore again in the next module, and can track down the pilgrim. They find him soon after he finished openning the door, which is a permanent gateway between golarion and Abbadon. Fortunately the daemons weren't prepared for this portal openning here (as even they didn't notice or care about the mad pilgrim), and thus only a handfull have arrived so far. The climax is a battle against those daemons. As for the pilgrim, his soul was absorbed by a cacodaemon and turned into a soul gem. While after the climactic battle, no more daemon are spilling forth, the Horsemen are bound to notice the portal if it stay open, and it would truly unleash apocalypse upon golarion. Furtunately, there is a way to close it, but there is a catch : It must be done from the other side. The module end when the players close the door to save golarion and are trapped in Abbadon.
The Price of Virtue (8-10) :
As such, the last module is not so much about Hexploration as it is about survival, as the bellow level 10 party must find a way to escape the plane. As they struggle to survive, they are pursued by daemon and meet the hunteds, petitionner of this plane who are all too eager to use the players as daemon bait to buy a few more days of survival. Finding themselves once again in uncharted territory, the players will need to use everything they learned in Iobara to explore this hostile plane and find a way out. If they survive long enough, the player will find a strangely out of place house, the residence of a hag for when she visit the plane to participate in the soul trade. Of course, the hag will only see them as three more soul to trade, but if the party defeat her, they might be able to force her to send them back on golarion, or even to use her equipment to carve their own way back.
Unlike most adventure, the "true climax" which have huge repercution of the player fail is in module 2, while the third module is all about wether the player will live to tell the tale, or wether they will always be unsung hero who saved the world without anyone ever knowing it, who received oblivion for sole reward. I'm not sure it's the kind of story that would appeal to every group, but I personally really like it.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
Let's get indulgent. It's a three-parter, levels 5 to 15, centered on Numeria; the Player's Guide has some light guidance on which Starfinder 2e content is best to bring in, like the Lashunta ancestry or Solarian class.
We open in the city of Hajoth Hakados, with the PCs as enfranchised troubleshooters in Lady Altouna's unnamed network. Their most recent investigation follows the trail of some Technic League survivors who've been drawn to the (now abandoned) Chapel of Rent Flesh, where they discovered technology from the Dominion of the Black. Crushing the local cell reveals signs of wider Technic Leagues leftovers who've aligned themselves with the Dominion.
Book 2 sees Lady Altouna dispatch the PCs to Kevoth-Kul's court, hoping to warn the Black Sovereign of the threat to his nation. You probably get some fun politicking here as the warlord, his traditionalist Kellid kin, and the devout Android population in his city all have different desires - all of which need to be soothed if Numeria is to survive an alien invasion. Once favors have been exchanged, it's time for something dramatic: maybe Technic League assassins come for Kevoth-Kul, maybe a Dominion ship starts abducting people from Starfall, maybe both at once...
Book 3 sees the battered survivors retreating to Hajoth Hakados, everyone now fully aware of the devastating threat the Dominion and their mortal servants present. The quest to find an ancient Androffan teleport device is substantial, but the true test comes when it flings the heroes aboard the Dominion of the Black's horrifying local mothership for a desperate decapitation strike. Success sends alien tech raining from the heavens into a now-united Numeria, while failure spells doom for all Golarion!
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
An AP I came up with after discussing interworld adventures.
Swords against the Worlds (working title-- all titles are working rn tbh)
Themes: Sword and Planet, War, Technological Advancement, Magic, Interworld Travel, Politics,
Location(s): Technically the entire solar system, but with a heavy focus on all the parts of Golarion, with Castrovel and Akiton being second (and other places not to feature much until book 4-- tentatively speaking)
Book 1 : A Powder Keg, Ignited (Levels 1-3)
The PCs are a group of world travelers (of varying composition) representing various exploratory societies (possible source of campaign traits) on a mission in Qadira, hoping to follow up on leads of an incredible discovery. While in the city of Katheer, however, an act occurs which rapidly plunges the city-- and soon the world-- into chaos: the assassination of a major political figure from Kelesh. The PCs must contend with the consequences of already fraught international relations exploding into open tumult, from outraged civilians to government patrols seeking to apprehend any they suspect of the crime. In making their way out of the country, however, the PCs may have to deal with the remnants of the forces behind the unrest as well.
Book 2: The Burning Red World (Levels 4-6)
Having escaped the unrest in Qadira in the previous book, the characters find themselves transported to the world of Akiton via an ancient portal located in a Thassilonian temple since converted into the headquarters of a cell of the Cult of the New Eon, the anarchistic group responsible for the assassination in Qadira. There, the PCs join a passing trade caravan between the city-states of the Akitonian continents. Upon their arrival in Seldo, a major trade hub of the region, the PCs find themselves embroiled in the intrigue of the city-state's changing relations with other places on Akiton, culminating in a daring battle with Casmoran Empire soldiers on board an experimental skyship over the burning ruins of Seldo.
Book 3: Storming the Gates (Levels 7-11)
The PCs are back on Golarion, after miraculously surviving the Ardent Sirocco 's first (and only) in-action usage of its experimental crystalline wind drive. The PCs are rapidly extracted from their crash site in the Inner Sea region by Taldan soldiers of the United Avistan Alliance (or the Allies for short), and brought before a local Taldan military governor, who inducts them into a special unit of the Taldan military as a result of the UAA declaring their exploratory societies military assets. They are promptly sent out to aid and assist in securing potential magical gates and portals to other worlds, against Casmoran occupation, taking them one end of the war front to the other, where they must confront the war and its aftermath up close.
Book 4: Shooting Over the Moon (Levels 12-14)
With the final Casmoran-threatened gate secured, the PCs are called back from the world of Castrovel to the Allied command in the famous city of Absalom, where the salvaged parts of the wreck of the Ardent Sirocco have contributed to the creation of new ships to traverse space and travel to different worlds on the Material Plane. The PCs are given the honor of being on the first to travel offworld with these first generation ships. Their first mission? Travel to the Moonscar and recover vital intel on the suppliers of Casmaron's new war material.
Book 5: A Wartime Tour (15-18)
The battle between demon residents, Casmoran forces, and Cult of the New Eon agents on and over the desolate landscape of Somal has concluded, in the UAA's favor. However, the Casmoran empire has found other allies in secretive alliances with the Bone Sages of Eox. In the face of this assembled fleet, the UAA scrambles to build up industry and alliances throughout the other worlds of the system. The PCs are sent to attend major diplomatic missions on Castrovel and Akiton, investigate and counter New Epoch plans throughout Triaxus and Verces, and ultimately lead a major battle in space for the safety of all the system.
Book 6: Having Done All, Stand (19-20)
With the ultimate deception of the Cult of the New Eon revealed, and their forces shattered, the PCs must ally with one-time enemies and old allies alike to prevent the Cult's plans for the awakening of Aucturn. Traveling past the Diaspora, the PCs must battle the remnants of ancient and modern foes alike to make a final stand against the plots of the New Eon in the depths of Aucturn, with the knowledge that their universe might change-- for better or worse, is up to them.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Alright, finally, this has grown a bit out of control, but here's the story of the Iobara 6 parter I though about :
Themes: Hexploration, Iobara, Daemons, Cyclops
Not all cyclops fell to the power of Abbadon tho. Some still wanted to do good, and were horrified by the exactions of their peers. They though that peraps there might be a future even after earthfall, and that the reason why the power of Abbadon were so generous with their gift was to rob the world of this future, by pushing their servant into destroying any possibility of recovery themselves. These cyclops led numerous campaign to destroy the most powerfull cults of the horsemen, and to steal the daemonic artifact, so that they could be destroyed. In retaliation, the cult of the then horseman of pestilence created an artifact that worked as a prison made to countain one of their strongest member, a variant of swarm that walk made of viruses known as "the Thinking Plague". They hoped to use it as a trojan horse, letting their foe get ahold of it so that they would destroy it, and unleash the thinking plague in their own headquarter. Unfortunately for the cultist and their adversary alike, earthfall was quickly approaching, and put an end to all these plans.
Understanding that they didn't have the time to painsteakingly research how to destroy each of their stolen artifact and put it into action, the good cyclops instead created a vault to store them. Knowing that every vault is eventually breached, they devised it's defenses to be much more effective against undeads and those marked by the power of Abbadon, hoping that by doing so, the first one who would open the vault would be foes of the daemon, and would venture to destroy these artifact instead of trying to use them.
After earthfall, the heart of Koloran became what is now known as Iobara. Multiple empires tried to rise here, but numerous plague and other disasters made them all crumble one by one. The ruins of Koloran still remain, and from them multiple cult to the Horsemen arose, the most powerfull currently being a cult of Appolyon, the Horseman of Pestilence. That cult found the vault, but were unable to breach it, and instead hired a powerfull hag to retrieve the artifact within for them. The hag, unwilling to risk her life herself as she also resonnated with energies from Abbadon, contacted a group of pilgrims of Groetus making their way through the country, and directed them into the vault, knowing that they wouldn't trip the vault most dangerous defenses, and hoping that they would want to use these artifact to bring the end time they were raving about, and thus take them out of the vault, where she could simply steal them.
Yet once again, this plan was not to be. Once they finally breached the innermost vault and gazed upon the pristine artifacts, anger and indignation overcame the pilgrims, for what right did these thing had to still remain intact after so many millenia have passed. Rather than exiting with the artifacts, they endavoured to do exactly what the vault creators wanted, and started to destroy the artifacts one by one. After destroying most of them, they finally destroyed the thinking plague prison, and unleashed the 10 000 year old trap. The plague slaughtered the pilgrims and raised them as undead, but soon discovered that it was trapped in here, the ward of the vault still holding strong against beings like him.
Meanwhile, a new kingdom have arose from the neighbouring stolen lands. Having experienced the kind of problems that can arose from the ruin of Koloran, and from an "accursed" land that seemingly reject all attempt to tame it, the rulers of this newfound kingdom have tasked the PC with the mission of exploring Iobara, contacting any group that might be open to trade, and report on any possible danger that might arise from it.
Book 1 (1-4) : The PC are tasked with investigating the part of Iobara that directly border the Stolen Lands, but are expressely forbidden from entering ruins of Koloran, as the kingdom don't want a new Vordakai incident. They encounter a "friendly" druidess during their hexploration, who is actually the hag in disguise, who endavour to win the PC trust so that she can use them the way she used the pilgrim (she have no idea what happenned to them, as she simply know that they went in and never came out). The PC also encounter another group of explorers, working for a noble house in Brevoy, who share their discovery with them. These are meant to become the PC friend and rival, and to also be manipulated by the hag - a lot of this AP rely on the PC doing the hag bidding unknowingly, but this second group allow them to outsmart her and for the AP to still continue with them doing the bad stuff instead. The main objective of this book is simply to hexplore and raly a friendly centaur tribe the kingdom know should be around here, but don't know preciselly were.
Book 2 (5-7) : The PC are tasked with pushing their investigation further, but are targeted by a small daemonic cult implanted in the centaur tribe that don't like interlopper such as them. The hag having no tie to these one, she is happy to give some direction to help the PC, and tell them that she will search for them on her own. The book end when the small cult is dealt with and most of the new land is explored.
Book 3 (8-10) : Once again the PC are tasked with pushing their Hexploration further, but halfway through the book (when the hag believe them strong enought to be able to survive the vault), she contact them with dire news: a groetian cult have entered cyclopean ruin, intent to use the artifact laying down there to provoke the end time! the PC should go there and stop them, and find somewhere safe to hide the artifact too. The second half of the book is the vault, where the PC face both traps and the undead remains of the pilgrims, and are unknowingly infected by the Thinking Plague, who intend to "ride along" with them until they leave the vault. Wether the PC take the artifact with them on their way out or leave them inside, the Hag await them near the exit. She drop the the mask and intend to take all of the artifact they took from the vault, and being the boss of book 5, the PC are unlikely to be able to face her by now. Luckily for them, she doesn't want to kill them, as powerfull adventurer like them fetch a good price in the soul market. She trap them all into specially made jars, and transport them to her special retreat, a cottage in the plane of Abbadon itself.
Book 4 (11-13) : The jars holding the PC all spontaneously shatter (as the thinking plague inside them don't want to be trapped yet again), and they must escape not just the hag cottage, but the plane itself! In the cottage, they meet a friendly nosoi, also a prisonner of the hag, who tell them that they are in abbadon, and more specifically in the realm of Appolyon, the horseman of pestilence. Fortunatelly, the hag has a way to make herself immune to plagues, an elixir named "Apollyon's Panacea", and the PC should find it before leaving the cottage into the plague infested lands. This way however don't make them truly immune to plague, but merely to their symptoms. The PC can't suffer any ill effect from illness anymore, but they can still cary them and infect other, and it's exactly what will happen once they finally escape the plane and return to golarion. After some extraplannar Hexploration and survival, during which the PC must locate a portal to Golarion, the book end when they finally leave the plane.
Book 5 (14-17) : The PC are back with a vengeance, and now of high enought level to perhaps defeat the hag. This module turn into an investigation as the PC must retrace the path of that "friendly" druidess to understand where she is now, defeat her, and get back the artifacts that she stole from the vault (either by taking it from the PC at the end of book 3, or by comissionning the other group to do the same during the time the PC were trapped in Abbadon). In the meantime, the thinking plague is finally free, and using the PC as vector, spread in their path like wildfire, killing people and rising them as special undeads. Once they learn about that plague, either in this module or the next one, a new goal for the PC should be to find a way to end it. During their investigation, they might learn that this plague is a single malicious being. Fortunately for them, one of the artifact that was held within the vault might be of use against this "Thinking Plague", an object that may be used to forcibly turn a soul into a soul gem, which might be used on the plague itself, as it has only a single soul. The module end when the PC finally track back the hag and have a climactic showdown against her. As for the artifact tho, the hag have already passed them to the cult of Apollyon, and the PC can't get them back yet.
Book 6 (18-20) : The PC continue their investigation to find the cult of Apollyon, but facing more and more aggressive interference from the thinking plague, now that it actually feel threatenned by the PC (and now that it can't kill them with the plague anymore). The Hexploration is now interupted by powerfull undeads that specifically hunt them down, and the cultist also grow restless, and infect themselves with the plague so that the plague can raise their body if the PC kill them. Despite everything, the head of the cult refuse to destroy the "blessed" artifact of the horseman, which will allow the PC to finally deal with the Thinking Plague once they find it.
Special thoughts : The Thinking Plague could be a very interesting antagonist if it start to "possess" the undead it create once the PC understand that it's not a mere illness, but an actual being. It can lead to interesting encounter if for exemple the PC face a horde of zombie with one in particular being especially dangerous and casting spells, and once they kill it, the plague simply "possess" another one and start casting plague from that other zombie instead.
Apollyon's Panacea, as an "elixir" that make one that drink it immune to the ill effect of disease, but not to the disease itself, and allow them to spread it is an interesting idea that fit right in the horseman deal I think. You take something anyone would want, immunity to illness, and now you have the horseman of illness being able to gift people exactly that, except in a way that help the illness spread amongst the larger population.
The principle of the vault would also the writters to create a large swathe of abbadon themed cool artifact. On the other hand, the 4th module rely on the PC loosing at the end of module 3, and even if facing the end boss of module 5 two whole module too soon should be enought to ensure their loss, it's still not garanteed. Canny PC might find ways to escape, or even to use the Vault traps agaisnt the hag to be able to defeat her. This would require extensive rewrite, but it shoudln't derail the adventure too much. Obviously the Thinking Plague would spread far sooner, but the PC could then ear about the fact that the hag had some way of making herself immune to illness. Then, the goal could be a reverse of module 4&5, as the PC must now track down the witch cottage in Abbadon in order to get the panacea to avoid dying to the plague. Afterward, it would require the additionnal rewrite of the cult already having the soul stealing device, and then module 6 can go on unimpeded, as the PC still need to track down the cult and the device to stop the Thinking Plague.
| 4 people marked this as a favorite. |
The Grand Venture
A three-part Adventure Path for levels 1–10
In the musty, smoke-filled Bloom Cabaret of the Ivy Playhouse in Absalom, proprietor and Ivy District nomarch Alain Always makes an announcement, and issues a challenge, to the members of the Ordaire of Goode Standing: he intends to retire and leave the city, and rather than leave the fate of his Playhouse and the Ivy District to mere contract and democracy, he intends to arrange a successor to both through competition.
The task: lead a group of derring-doers in a race to circumnavigate Golarion without the aid of propulsive or displacing magic, whether arcane, divine, or otherwise. Even if used in situations of mortal self-defense, any advancement by means other than their own mortal flesh or mundane ingenuity are instantly disqualifying. Any deviation beyond 30 degrees' distance from the equator is disqualifying. Otherwise, all else is fair in The Grand Venture.
Five take him up on the challenge: The Libertine, the Plagiarist, the Powerbroker, the Strategist, and the Scion. Each is intrigued by either the competition or the prize and quickly sets about pulling together a team of resourceful globe-hoppers from their extensive contacts. Some would wield this for their own ambition. Others would wield it toward nefarious ends. One would wield it to expose everyone else's secrets.
Other than last place, the rest receive prizes of Always' choosing, from mere wealth to having a swath of the city named after whomever they choose.
But what's a competition without real stakes? The patron who finishes last is not only permanently drummed out of the Ordaire but also has their deepest secrets plastered upon the city's broadsheets. Most in the Ordaire consider this a bluff, that Always knows something ribald to share but nothing truly damaging. Some believe they have no secrets dark enough to damage them. All are too arrogant to believe they'd ever finish last.
When all options are exhausted, each patron approaches the players to recruit them as a team. Who do you accept, and whose patronage would none of you ever consider? What secrets do you hide from each other, and to what extent will you go to conceal them? Are you truly working for your shared patron? Are you racing for first, or only to ensure someone specific is exposed by their finishing last?
Players' Guide: Most characters have a backstory with some secrets they prefer to keep, but in The Grand Venture each character must have three: one about themselves, one about another player character, and one about their patron. When up against a seemingly impossible challenge, each player can act in a way that reveals one of these secrets as a boon toward success. The ramifications of sharing or keeping their secrets unfold over the adventure, particularly in the final act.
Book 1: Always and Never
Each of the five patrons attempts to recruit the player characters as a team, each offering a promise of unusual compensation: access to exclusive social strata, ill-gotten and dangerously magical wealth, political influence among the region's most powerful forces, violent vengeance against nearly anyone they choose, or a chance to upend and expose it all to the world.
After accepting a patron, the players must devise their plan for winning the race. Will they rely on easily corruptible favors and largesse on their journey, risking betrayal? Will they take risks on technological contraptions toward an edge or stick to simplicity? Or will they focus on subterfuge and attempt to sabotage their competitors?
Book 2: Under an Embaral Sky
The players' team and their rival race and battle across sweltering Casmaron and stumble into a battleground, as a mysterious cyclopean army attempts a shock invasion of northern Vudra at the exact time the teams try to cross the region.
When the players do eventually come face to face with their pursuer on the eastern coast of Casmaron, the cyclops reveals the deeper conspiracy afoot. The cyclops' soul is that of the true Alain Always, cursed to exchange bodies years ago with a cyclopean oracle after refusing to pay for an attempted divination. The Always in Absalom who engineered the contest intends to use the influence of Always' office to learn exactly how to infiltrate and subvert Absalom from within, raise a new pantheon of cyclopean deities through the Starstone, turn the Inner Sea into the seat of Eternal Ghol-Gan.
This competition is the false Always' attempt to move his most stalwart rivals out of the city long enough to put his true plan into motion. But Always had a charisma lacking in the cyclopean oracle whose body he now inhabits, and he quickly ascended not only to lead his community but to also unite several others into a significant force.
And he kept up with his contacts in Absalom, particularly the Pathfinder Society, who planted a spy into the Ordaire and is one of the participating patrons. Upon hearing about the competition, the true Always led the cyclopes in this feint of an offensive in order to ensure at least two of the teams would be slowed enough by it to reveal the truth to them.
The true Always makes the players an offer just by virtue of being the first he meets: he'll give them an advantage in the race by having his forces escort and supply them with ease to the shores of eastern Casmaron while harrying the rival team into a disadvantage. In exchange, the players must ensure the cyclopean Always reaches the point where the Embaral Ocean and Valashamai Sea meet, near the center of a triangle between Casmaron, Tian Xia, and Sarusan at the southernmost edge of the race's allowance, during a lunar eclipse on a specific date. Doing so would revert the curse, return the true Always' soul to Absalom, guarantee their patron's benefit regardless of the result, and allow them to extract whatever scheme they like on the imposter.
The point is far off course and would complicate their chances at winning, but the cyclopean Always makes it clear that if they refuse, he'll do much more than complicate their race—he'll turn his army toward protecting Alain's secret.
The players must either fight their way out of an army of cyclopes to escape Casmaron, or take up the cyclops' very beneficial offer.
In secret, the cyclops Always makes them a second offer. If the players agree to deliver their own patron to the ritual point, he'll eliminate the other team altogether. The true Always is honestly happy with his lot and has little desire to return to the haute and petty clashes of Absalom. He finds it amusing that any of the five patrons would suddenly find their soul in Always' body, and he'd also much rather ruin the oracle who cursed him in person than swap back with him, especially not to grant the deceptive oracle the leadership and army that Always had built.
The players' decision either way sets them up for a confrontation with an unexpected entity at the ritual point. A lost sect of cyclopes who delved into the Darklands to battle the serpentfolk never left, instead plumbing through tunnels on the backs of mighty purple worms for centuries until they encountered the remains of an even older civilization sunken from the surface into the depths by some pre-Earthfall calamity. Upon the transfer of the false Always from Absalom to the players' ship, the cities that once sat on the land bridge that connected Tian Xia, Casmaron, and Sarusan and now lie in ruin in Nar-Voth open a whirlpool into the Embaral Ocean. The vortex spins so deeply that the starlit sky shines upon this Sleeping Empire for the first time in tens of thousands of years, and the players must battle both the furious oracle and horrors from the depths trapped with them in the long-swirling drain into even deeper reaches of the Darklands before witnessing long-lost parts of Nar-Voth known to no being, mortal or otherwise, but these immortal cyclopes of the Sleepless Frontier.
Book 3: And Boy Are My Arms Tired The Sleepless Circuit
The player team discovers an esoteric stretch of lands lost across Golarion's many layers, both material and metaphysical, melded together by being the only point damaged by every calamity Golarion has ever faced—the world's unluckiest place. The discovery of this world within provides an unexpected connection to Absalom, and the decisions the players make in navigating it will reshape the very nature of secrets, and in turn delicate balances of power, across Golarion.
Within that cavern are Acavna and Amaznen.
These dead gods persist here, their eyes as black as the cyclopes but as recognizable as their depictions. The cavern is fashioned into a domestic home. They are gods made flesh and nearly mortal, the first beings to take the Test of the Starstone and the first to fail it. And they are happy, living a facsimile of the life they would have had if they had been simply lovers and not gods.
When the players intrude, these dead gods are gracious hosts. When the players have questions, they provide gracious answers. And when the players ask to leave, they shrug and ask why anyone would leave a place as beautiful as this.
Stairs carved in their moon cavern lead to the fragment's surface, and when looking up from it the players see the world of Golarion from the moon's perspective, spinning below them. When the gods join them their eyes are clear, and their divine powers radiate from them as if they were alive. This moon fragment is in two points of time at once, both above and within Golarion, both before and after Earthfall. It is a piece of the moon's trauma frozen in grief, a deathbed frozen in respite. If the Starstone was made divine by the blood of these gods, this Moonstone was made mundane by its absence, and this frozen moment was set in this unlucky place by Amaznen's sacrifice.
Why would the players leave? Aside from their own desires to return to the world and people they know, if their patron is still with them they also still want to win the race, regardless of whose soul is in Alain Always in Absalom. Their reputation is on the line. (And if their patron is the spy, they have one hell of a Chronicle to write.)
And their path home in this time-broken splinter is clear, if indirect. The part of Golarion this fragment is pointed at is Absalom. They are already in Absalom. An Absalom of the distant, distant future, decimated by every disaster its creation wrought on the rest of reality. They just have to figure out which one.
The players must explore this broken Absalom, fraught with manifestations of the damage related to the many calamities since Earthfall. And when they find their way to its Ivy Playhouse, they find themselves there as the embodiments of the disaster they've just wreaked on the world in this vortex. The players must battle this manifestation of themselves, who taunt them that victory will undo what they've done. And it will; they will return to the moment they took the job, remembering everything and leading to a final confrontation with the false Always.
Since the moment this false Always swapped his way into Absalom, he found enlightenment and delight in Norgorber. For the players to now know his secrets but also secrets beyond knowing—the fates of Amaznen and Acavna, the existence of the Sleeping Circuit—without engaging in any subterfuge apparent to him is beyond sacrilege, and draws the Reaper of Reputation's complete attention.
The Secret Shade himself comes to the false Always' aid, and the players (with or without their patron or the true Always in aid) are sorely outmatched. But they can wield their own secrets as manifest against the false Always and Norgorber's servant by revealing them, especially any they kept secret through the entire path or learned in the Sleepless Circuit. This includes Acavna and Amaznen, whose mortal forms will manifest to fight alongside them against this abomination serving a god of evil they know was born, even indirectly, from their sacrifice.
If the players prevail, the false Always' plot is undone. The true Always can come forward (or not). The players' patron "wins" a race that never started, but the knowledge they gained is worth far more than any prize. The Ivy District needs a nomarch and the Playhouse needs a proprietor.
And, uh. Acavna and Amaznen are still here. And mortal now. And have no idea what this city is. And the players and these dead gods know things nobody else on Golarion knows. And they're in a city full of and surrounded by Norgorberites. Have fun continuing this campaign.