A desperate refugee emerges from the earth's depths in shadow-cloaked Nidal with an urgent pleas. A new faction in the subterranean dark folk city of Lyrudrada -- a wicked cult called the Reborn -- seeks a fabled artifact called the Cradle of Night. Vanished demigods of the Shadow Plane once used this artifact to craft the elusive caligni race, and the Reborn want to use it to shroud the world in darkness once more. Cursed with the stain of shadow, the heroes must battle their way through the tomb of an ancient horselord chieftain before descending to Lyrudrada. Plots and schemes run rampant in this city riven with political upheavals and back-alley bloodshed, and the heroes must collect allies and information to confront the Reborn in their fortified fane. With the mysterious masters of the caligni race arrayed against them, can the heroes hope to shed their shadowy curse and claim the Cradle of Night?
"Mysterious Ways" is a D&D adventure set in the Holy Land (Israel and Jordan) during the time of the Crusades (1114 A.D.) in an alternate-Earth setting. This is a world where the portals to otherworldly realms, particularly the Lower Planes, are closed--sealed shut by the power of the True Cross, a holy relic sought by evil thieves who would see the gates to the Lower Planes flung open. Magic exists in this alternate world, but it is less prevalent than in other D&D campaign settings. This paucity of magic serves the core of the adventure's storyline and should be preserved, if possible. This adventure is designed for a party of four 7th-level player characters (PCs). It is recommended that the party include at least one lawful cleric or paladin. Consult the "Adapting the Adventure" sidebar for ways to incorporate the adventure into generic D&D campaigns and modify it for higher or lower levels of play. Pgs. 84-112
For hundreds of years, Aknar Ratalla's tomb remained undisturbed, the Black Blade safely hidden within its vaults. Can a band of adventurers use the tomb's guardians and traps to keep it that way? Long ago, Aknar Ratella brought pain and desolation down upon the land. His reign of ruin was finally ended by an unlikely alliance of the forces of law: a band of devils and devas slew the warlord but were unable to destroy his dangerous weapons and relics. They chose instead to hide these potent artifacts of evil in a remote tomb, selecting a devil and a deva to stand guard over the tomb for the rest of time. For many centuries, the tomb stood unspoiled... but now, a new player has entered the scene. After infiltrating the tomb themselves, a band of adventurers must become its guardians and use its denizens and traps to prevent a monstrous gnoll chieftain from claiming the deadly artifacts hidden within for his own nefarious glory. Pgs. 58-80
Framed by the Covenant of the Knife and thrown in the notorious Blackmaw Prison, Karl Manderholm awaits his execution at the hands of the deadly assassins’ guild. In order to save him, the PCs must enter Blackmaw in the guise of lowly prisoners and expose the one man who can clear Karl’s name, the Shadowmaster of the Covenant himself. Pgs. 34-50
The Reign of Winter Adventure Path begins with an exciting new adventure from RPG Superstar winner Neil Spicer! Every 100 years, the Witch Queen Baba Yaga returns to the nation of Irrisen to place a new daughter on the throne, but this time, something has gone wrong. Far to the south, winter cloaks the forest near the village of Heldren with summer snows. The heroes venture into the wood and discover a magical portal to the frozen land of Irrisen, whose supernatural winter will soon engulf all of Golarion unless they can discover the fate of the otherworldy witch Baba Yaga- a quest that will take them through snowbound Irrisen to even stranger lands beyond. Reign of Winter part one of six.
The logging town of Falcon’s Hollow has been through rough times—first a kobold tribe abducted the town’s children for an evil ritual, then an unknown force reanimated the defeated kobolds to attack the town. Now a horde of zombies approaches and a mysterious evil gathers power in the north, tainting wildlife and the buried dead, its presence hinting at ancient evils better left undisturbed.
When the iron mines that made Dustpawn so prosperous played out not long after the Goblinblood Wars of Isger ended, the city shifted its focus from mining to goat herding with quite a bit of success. Things have, as a result, been quiet and calm in Dustpawn for the past several years, but that quiet is shattered the night a strange falling star roars across the sky above town to crash somewhere in the hills several miles to the south. When several locals eager to find the fallen star and strip it of its ore go missing, it becomes apparent that whatever has fallen from the sky is much more than a mere meteorite. There are those in town who claim the falling star was in fact a ship, and now a strange malady is creeping through the townsfolk.
Alhaster is in flames, choking on the poison mists of the Wormgod's first tentative breaths on the Material Plane. The Age of Worms has begun, and unless the PCs can kill a god, this new age will be dark indeed. "Dawn of a New Age" is the final installment of the Age of Worms Adventure Path, a complete campaign consisting of 12 adventures, several "Backdrop" articles to help Dungeon masters run the series, and a handful of poster maps of key locations. For additional aid in running this campaign, check out Dragon's monthly "Worm Food" articles, a series that provides additional materials to help players survive this campaign. Issue #334 of Dragon presents some advice on rules specific to the Age of Worms to aid players (and DMs) in making the transition beyond 20th level. Pgs. 52-86
The crown of the kobold king will be anointed in blood. Five children from the town of Falcon’s Hollow have gone missing, dragged off into ruins underneath a cursed dwarven monastery. Soon they will be sacrificed to the crown, all to the glory of the twisted King of the Kobolds. If they are to be saved from this gruesome fate, brave heroes must follow their trail to the monastery and plumb the depths of its trap-laden and monster-infested halls.
Most adventurers like to think that when their number is finally up, their colleagues will bring them home, either to be raised or at least returned to their families for a proper burial. But how far will the PCs go in order to do right by a fallen adventurer? And will they draw the line at hauling his coffin out of the Underdark? Pgs. 20-40
From a ruined theater in the run-down Puddles district of Absalom, a goblin hero and self-styled king rules over the nearby goblins. Shifting foundations beneath the playhouse have revealed ruins from Absalom's early history, and the goblin king has put out a call for explorers to search the area and clear out its dangers. The Pathfinder Society has answered the call. They aren't the only group that is interested, however, and they must prove themselves to earn the right to enter these lost chambers.
To banish the monstrous shadows that stalk Westcrown by night, the PCs go undercover, joining the city’s chaotic theatrical community in an elaborate plot to infiltrate the estate of the decadent lord-mayor. Yet theater life turns deadly when they become players in a spectacle no actor has ever survived. Can the PCs endure their debut performance in a city where an actor’s first big hit is often his last? This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path continues the Council of Thieves Adventure Path, and includes: "The Sixfold Trial," a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 3rd-level characters, by Richard Pett The Six Trials of Larazod, the complete and unabridged text of that infamously deadly play, by Nicolas Logue An exploration of the faith of Iomedae the Inheritor, goddess of valor, by Sean K Reynolds Pathfinder Varian Jeggare investigating death among the aristocracy in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Dave Gross Six new monsters by Darrin Drader, David Eitelbach, Sean K Reynolds, and F. Wesley Schneider
A supernaturally powerful storm, mudslides, and agitated dinosaurs are the least of the worries in the tropical village of Mora. The village's spiritual leader, the Zombie Master, has gone missing, and now undead rise from sodden graves and the village matriarch lies dead, murdered by her own son. What dire menace awaits in the flooded catacombs below? Set on the infamous Isle of Dread.
Arcanamirium transmuter Maren Fuln found a magically sealed amulet in the school's library and kept it as a shiny bauble. Little did he know the amulet contained an entity far worse than he imagined, and by unsealing it, he loosed a revenge-obsessed horror into the sewers beneath the school. Can the Pathfinder Society halt the beast’s plan in time, or will he build his army of revenge and sow chaos in Absalom?
For decades, the tiny village of Ravenmoor has existed quietly on the upper reaches of the Lampblack River. Linked to the outside world only by an overgrown, mostly forgotten trail, the villagers are comfortable with their isolation. Certainly, the lack of a village inn, the oppressive humidity, and the bug-infested moors and swamps that surround the village do little to encourage visitors. When a clerk in the city of Magnimar discovers that, due to a clerical error, the village of Ravenmoor hasn’t paid taxes in years, a tax collector is sent to the distant community to settle accounts with its mayor. When the tax collector fails to return, however, a group of adventurers must travel to the town during its Founders’ Feast celebration to investigate his disappearance.
The vile city of Scuttlecove is the home of murderers, thieves, demon whorshipers, peddlers of vice, and monsters. Here, anyone can find a place to hide, provided they can survive the terrors and dangers that infest the city streets. Scuttlecove is also the home of the Crimson Fleet, a notorious band of pirates who have long held the Vohoun Ocean as their private looting grounds. The time has come to take the fight to these legendary pirates, to confront them in their own depraved lair. "Serpents of Scuttlecove" is the eighth chapter in the Savage Tide Adventure Path, a complete campaign consisting of 12 adventures appearing in Dungeon Magazine. For additional aid in running this campaign, check out Dragon magazine's monthly "Savage Tidings" articles, a series that helps players and DMs prepare for and expand upon the campaign. Issue #344 of Dragon magazine features several additional locations the PCs might wish to visit during their stay in the city of Scuttlecove. The characters once again board the Sea Wyvern, this time to sail for Scuttlecove – a hideous city of pirates, slavers, cannibals, and worse – in search of clues to the final Savage Tide and the rescue of their patron. Pgs. 42-75 Also see Pgs. 76-85 for Backdrop: Scuttlecove City of Chaos.
Deep in the Osirian desert stands the blank-faced monument known as the Sightless Sphinx. In search of the stolen mummy of Chisisek, the architect of the flying tomb of the Sky Pharaoh Hakotep I, the heroes track the cult of the Forgotten Pharaoh to its secret headquarters inside the sphinx. There they must face monstrous mercenaries and servants of the demon lord Areshkagal before finally confronting the masked cultists and their leader, the Forgotten Pharaoh, who has been possessed by a fragment of Hakotep’s soul. This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path continues the Mummy’s Mask Adventure Path and includes: - "Secrets of the Sphinx,” a Pathfinder adventure for 10th-level characters, by Amber E. Scott. - An exploration of the sinister world of curses, by Russ Taylor. - Two exciting additional encounters in Osirion’s wastes, by Greg A. Vaughan. - Reptilian rage and unexpected rescue in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Amber E. Scott. - Five new monsters to challenge player characters, by Michael Kortes, David Schwartz, and Larry Wilhelm.
When the mysterious Gauntlight, an eerie lighthouse located inland from Otari, glows with baleful light, the people of Otari suspect trouble. The town’s newest heroes must venture into the ruins around the lighthouse—and delve into the dungeon levels far beneath it—to discover the evil that Gauntlight holds. Hideous monsters, deadly traps, and mysterious ghosts await the heroes who dare to enter the sprawling megadungeon called the Abomination Vaults! Content Warning: Does contain themes of suicide.
The esteemed Blakros family—famous for their museum in Absalom—receives a large shipment of artifacts from Numeria but fears that the ever-vigilant Technic League will attack to reclaim its "stolen" property. When they request the help of Pathfinders to help guard the collection, the PCs discover that the Technic League is the least of their worries. Content in “The Silver Mount Collection” contains faction missions for the Dark Archive.
Alkenstar, City of Smog, is a bastion of civilization in the magic-warped region known as the Mana Wastes. Its ingenious citizens survive in the treacherous Spellscar Desert with the help of canny inventions like guns and clockwork automatons, but now their construct protectors have begun to run amok within the city. It falls to the PCs to venture beyond the city walls to find the source of their strange behavior.