The Legend of the Black Monastery Two centuries have passed since the terrible events associated with the hideous cult known as the Black Brotherhood. Only scholars and story-tellers remember now how the kingdom was nearly laid to waste and the Black Monastery rose to grandeur and fell into haunted ruins. The Brothers first appeared as an order of benevolent priests and humble monks in black robes who followed a creed of kindness to the poor and service to the kingdom. Their rules called for humility and self denial. Other religious orders had no quarrel with their theology or their behavior. Their ranks grew as many commoners and nobles were drawn to the order by its good reputation. The first headquarters for the order was a campsite, located in a forest near the edge of the realm. The Brothers said that their poverty and dedication to service allowed them no resources for more grand accommodations. Members of the Black Brotherhood built chapels in caves or constructed small temples on common land near villages. They said that these rustic shrines allowed them to be near the people they served. Services held by the Brothers at these locations attracted large numbers of common people, who supported the Black Brotherhood with alms. Within 50 years of their first appearance, the Black Brotherhood had a number of larger temples and abbeys around the kingdom. Wealthy patrons endowed them with lands and buildings in order to buy favor and further the work of the Brothers. The lands they gained were slowly expanded as the order’s influence grew. Many merchants willed part of their fortunes to the Black Brotherhood, allowing the order to expand their work even further. The Brothers became bankers, loaning money and becoming partners in trade throughout the kingdom. Within 200 years of their founding, the order was wealthy and influential, with chapters throughout the kingdom and spreading into nearby realms. With their order well-established, the Black Brotherhood received royal permission to build a grand monastery in the hill country north of the kingdom’s center. Their abbot, a cousin of the king, asked for the royal grant of a specific hilltop called the Hill of Mornay. This hill was already crowned by ancient ruins that the monks proposed to clear away. Because it was land not wanted for agriculture, the king was happy to grant the request. He even donated money to build the monastery and encouraged others to contribute. With funds from around the realm, the Brothers completed their new monastery within a decade. It was a grand, sprawling edifice built of black stone and called the Black Monastery. From the very beginning, there were some who said that the Black Brotherhood was not what it seemed. There were always hints of corruption and moral lapses among the Brothers, but no more than any other religious order. There were some who told stories of greed, gluttony and depravity among the monks, but these tales did not weaken the order’s reputation during their early years. All of that changed with the construction of the Black Monastery. Within two decades of the Black Monastery’s completion, locals began to speak of troubling events there. Sometimes, Brothers made strange demands. They began to cheat farmers of their crops. They loaned money at ruinous rates, taking the property of anyone who could not pay. They pressured or even threatened wealthy patrons, extorting money in larger and larger amounts. Everywhere, the Black Brotherhood grew stronger, prouder and more aggressive. And there was more… People began to disappear. The farmers who worked the monastery lands reported that some people who went out at night, or who went off by themselves, did not return. It started with individuals…people without influential families…but soon the terror and loss spread to even to noble households. Some said that the people who disappeared had been taken into the Black Monastery, and the place slowly gained an evil reputation. Tenant farmers began moving away from the region, seeking safety at the loss of their fields. Slowly, even the king began to sense that the night was full of new terrors. Across the kingdom, reports began to come in telling of hauntings and the depredations of monsters. Flocks of dead birds fell from clear skies, onto villages and city streets. Fish died by thousands in their streams. Citizens reported stillborn babies and monstrous births. Crops failed. Fields were full of stunted plants. Crimes of all types grew common as incidents of madness spread everywhere. Word spread that the center of these dark portents was the Black Monastery, where many said the brothers practiced necromancy and human sacrifice. It was feared that the Black Brotherhood no longer worshipped gods of light and had turned to the service of the Dark God. These terrors came to a head when the Black Brotherhood dared to threaten the king himself. Realizing his peril, the king moved to dispossess and disband the Black Brother hood. He ordered their shrines, abbeys and lands seized. He had Brothers arrested for real and imagined crimes. He also ordered investigations into the Black Monastery and the order’s highest ranking members. The Black Brotherhood did not go quietly. Conflict between the order and the crown broke into violence when the Brothers incited their followers to riot across the kingdom. There were disturbances everywhere, including several attempts to assassinate the king by blades and by dark sorcery. It became clear to everyone that the Black Brotherhood was far more than just another religious order. Once knives were drawn, the conflict grew into open war between the crown and the Brothers. The Black Brotherhood had exceeded their grasp. Their followers were crushed in the streets by mounted knights. Brothers were rounded up and arrested. Many of them were executed. Armed supporters of the Black Brotherhood, backed by arcane and divine magic, were defeated and slaughtered. The Brothers were driven back to their final hilltop fortress – the Black Monastery. They were besieged by the king’s army, trapped and waiting for the king’s forces to break in and end the war. The final assault on the Black Monastery ended in victory and disaster. The king’s army took the hilltop, driving the last of the black-robed monks into the monastery itself. The soldiers were met by more than just men. There were monsters and fiends defending the monastery. There was a terrible slaughter on both sides. In many places the dead rose up to fight again. The battle continued from afternoon into night, lit by flames and magical energy. The Black Monastery was never actually taken. The king’s forces drove the last of their foul enemies back inside the monastery gates. Battering rams and war machines were hauled up the hill to crush their way inside. But before the king’s men could take the final stronghold, the Black Brotherhood immolated themselves in magical fire. Green flames roared up from the monastery, engulfing many of the king’s men as well. As survivors watched, the Black Monastery burned away, stones, gates, towers and all. There was a lurid green flare that lit the countryside. There was a scream of torment from a thousand human voices. There was a roar of falling masonry and splitting wood. Smoke and dust obscured the hilltop. The Black Monastery collapsed in upon itself and disappeared. Only ashes drifted down where the great structure had stood. All that was left of the Black Monastery was its foundations and debris-choked dungeons cut into the stones beneath. The war was over. The Black Brotherhood was destroyed. But the Black Monastery was not gone forever. Over nearly two centuries since its destruction, the Black Monastery has returned from time to time to haunt the Hill of Mornay. Impossible as it seems, there have been at least five incidents in which witnesses have reported finding the Hill of Mornay once again crowned with black walls and slate-roofed towers. In every case, the manifestation of this revenant of the Black Monastery has been accompanied by widespread reports of madness, crime and social unrest in the kingdom. Sometimes, the monastery has appeared only for a night. The last two times, the monastery reappeared atop the hill for as long as three months…each appearance longer than the first. There are tales of adventurers daring to enter the Black Monastery. Some went to look for treasure. Others went to battle whatever evil still lived inside. There are stories of lucky and brave explorers who have survived the horrors, returning with riches from the fabled hordes of the Black Brotherhood. It is enough to drive men mad with greed – enough to lure more each time to dare to enter the Black Monastery.
The time has come for the heroes to take their places as true pirate lords. But doing so will require more than a ship, a scallywag crew, and a hold full of plunder—they’ll need to win the esteem of the Hurricane King himself. If they succeed, they’ll earn the right to claim even greater glory by participating in the Free Captains’ Regatta, a grueling race along the fringes of the mighty hurricane called the Eye of Abendego. The winners receive a fat prize purse, their own private island, and a seat on the Pirate Council of the Shackles. Will the adventurers triumph against fierce competitors, old rivals, and the treacherous winds and currents of the Eye? Or will their ship be claimed by the storm, a doom that’s befallen so many before them? This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path includes: • “Tempest Rising,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 7th-level characters, by Matthew Goodall. • Details on the infamous pirate lords of the Shackles and new rules for storms at sea, by Tork Shaw. • A gazetteer of the infamous pirate city of Port Peril, by Liz Courts. • Ghosts and cylcopes in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Robin D. Laws. • Five new monsters, by Jesse Benner, Ryan Costello, Philip Minchin, and Tork Shaw.
A silent threat grows in Freeports streets. One of the pirate city's own leaders brings Freeport ever closet to war, lining his pockets eve as he plans for eventual invasion by the foreign power Mazin.
Following the opening of its necropolis, the city of Wati is overrun by hordes of the unquiet dead. The heroes must once more brave the abandoned streets and dusty tombs of Wati’s necropolis in search of the powerful artifact called the Mask of the Forgotten Pharaoh, as well as the necromancer who is using it to create the undead uprising. But mysterious masked cultists also seek the artifact so they can bring a pharaoh from the ancient past back to life. Can the heroes defeat the evil necromancer and return the deceased to their graves, or will Wati truly become a city of the dead?
Hakotep’s flying pyramid has been grounded, but the heroes must enter the ancient tomb to deactivate the fleet of smaller flying pyramids poised to attack cities across Osirion. Deep inside the Pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh, an untouched tomb from the heights of Ancient Osirion, the heroes face undying guardians woken from ageless sleep, culminating in a final battle with the reborn Sky Pharaoh Hakotep himself. Will the heroes defeat Hakotep and reunite the pieces of his sundered soul to send it into the Great Beyond, or will Osirion enter a new age under the rule of a mummified pharaoh from the distant past? This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path concludes the Mummy’s Mask Adventure Path and includes: - “Pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh,” a Pathfinder adventure for 15th-level characters, by Mike Shel. - A detailed look into the questions of the afterlife, judgment, and the nature of souls, by F. Wesley Schneider. - A collection of plots and intrigues to expand the scope of the campaign, by Adam Daigle. - The exciting conclusion of “Shadow of the Sands” in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Amber E. Scott. - Five new monsters created by Tyler Beck, F. Wesley Schneider, and Mike Shel.
557 pages - five adventures! The first act of the critically acclaimed ZEITGEIST: The Gears of Revolution Adventure Path now compiled into a gorgeous hardcover book! These five adventures are the first act of a steam & spell campaign for the Pathfinder RPG (also available for Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition). Steam and soot darken the skies above the city of Flint, and the choking products of its industrial forges sweep from the majestic harbor to the fey rainforests that dot its knife-toothed mountains. The Unseen Court, the Great Hunt, and the many spirits of the land no longer receive tribute, but they cannot enter these new domains of steam and steel to demand their tithe. The impoverished workers who huddle in factory slums fear monsters of a different breed, shadowy children of this bleak urban labyrinth. Times are turning. The skyseers – Risurs folk prophets since their homeland’s birth – witness omens in the starry wheels of heaven, and they warn that a new era is nigh. But what they cannot foresee, hidden beyond the smog of the night sky, is the face of this coming era, the spirit of the age. The zeitgeist. This tome contains Act One of ZEITGEIST: The Gears of Revolution, a cinematic adventure path designed for experienced Game Masters. These five 'steam and spell' adventures will take your party - members of the Royal Homeland Constabulary - from 1st to 8th level as they solve murders, engage in magical spycraft, and unearth villainous conspiracies. Take a step away from traditional fantasy, and play a part in shaping the coming age!
Every year the Acadamae—Korvosa’s prestigious school of the arcane arts—opens its gates to the city to host the Breaching Festival, where the most skilled infiltrators are invited to enter the magically guarded Hall of Wards or die trying. Testing their luck against the university’s strongest defenses, the competitors pull out all the stops as they vie for a chance at a fortune in gold and magical treasure. This year, the school’s headmaster has invited the heroes to participate, against the contest’s longstanding traditions.
Far from the nearest town, hidden deep in the forest, lies a marshy, boggy valley. Woodsmen and hunters shun the place—kept away by rumours of a terrible beast lairing within and of a ghost haunting the valley’s boggy mere. But, as well as great danger, treasures magical and mundane may yet lie unclaimed in the valley for three unexplored tombs built by ancient hands, stand amid the mud and reeds. Dare you explore the Shunned Valley of the Three Tombs?
When strange reports of misty undead spread through Absalom, you and your fellow Pathfinders are dispatched to the half-drowned district of Puddles. Notoriously rough, the drooling addicts, flesh panderers, and quick-handed knifers of Puddles are the least of your worries. The night's tide brings with it an ancient armada of some long-forgotten war and you are the only thing between their mist-shrouded ghost fleet and Absalom's utter oblivion.
The Sky Pharaoh Hakotep I has risen and launched an attack against the city of Wati! The heroes return to Wati to defend it against this menace, only to discover that the attack is just the preface to a larger invasion of Osirion, controlled from Hakotep’s own flying tomb. Journeying to the Slave Trenches of Hakotep, the heroes must learn how to activate an ancient weapon to pull Hakotep’s tomb back to earth. Will the heroes bring down the flying pyramid of the Sky Pharaoh, or will their bones join the thousands of skeletons that lie crumbling within the Slave Trenches of Hakotep? This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path continues the Mummy’s Mask Adventure Path and includes: “The Slave Trenches of Hakotep,” a Pathfinder adventure for 13th-level characters, by Michael Kortes. A look into the ancient Shory people and their amazing flying cities, by Neil Spicer. A collection of powerful artifacts and strange relics recovered from Osirion’s First Age, by Tim Hitchcock. A thrilling urban pursuit in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Amber E. Scott. Four exciting new monsters, by Robert Brookes, Adam Daigle, Michael Kortes, and David N. Ross.
The all-new Player's Guide for ZEITGEIST: The Gears of Revolution! This Player's Guide is a whopping 60 pages of FREE material for players planning on delving into the ZEITGEIST adventure path for 5th Edition. The free Player’s Guide is designed for players of the ZEITGEIST adventure path, and contains background information and character options. This Player's Guide is divided into five separate sections for easy printing and disssemination at the gaming table. 1. Characters. Deva and Eladrin races; Docker, Eschatologist, Gunsmith, Martial Scientist, Skyseer, Spirit Medium, Technologist, Vekeshi Mystic, Yerasol Veteran character themes; salary and requisitions. 2. Equipment. Explosive alchemicals, firearms, ship of the RPHC, prestige rules, and stats for allied officers. 3. The City of Flint. City districts, the military, the Royal Homeland Constabulary. 4. Setting Overview. Languages and accents, details of the countries Risur, and Ber; fey and the mortal realms. 5. Setting Overview (contd). Details of the countries Crysillyir, Danor, Drakr, Elfaivar; plus the border states and Malice Lands, planets and planes, key religions. ZEITGEIST is a critically acclaimed adventure path from EN Publishing, brought to you by the same people who created the War of the Burning Sky campaign saga and featuring the same level of intriguing plot, memorable NPCs , and a strong, immersive storyline. In the ZEITGEIST campaign saga, your characters serve in the Homeland Constabulary of the nation of Risur, protecting the country and its citizens from foreign threats lurking within Risur's borders. During missions of espionage and assassination, your duty will be to root out hostile spies and pursue international conspiracies. As you learn more of your homeland's own secrets, however, your loyalties may be tested, may even be turned, and you may find that it is you whose hand controls the gears of the turning age. This FREE 60-page guide introduces players to the ZEITGEIST adventure path, with background information, character options, maps, and more. This Player's Guide is completely free. You are welcome to distribute it amongst your friends.
More than a hundred years ago, Delbera Axebringer—a mighty warrior and dwarven leader—slew the necromancer Audalot Karexin, but spared his young apprentice Zohir. In the ensuing decades, the bitter survivor brooded and plotted her revenge. Now, descendants of the Axebringer clan are vanishing, dragged screaming into the darkness by the animated bodies of their fallen kin. The Axebringers and their hometown of Davarn need heroes to break this family curse. What mysteries lie sealed within Delbera Axebringer’s ancient abandoned fortress? And what challenges lurk along the Blighted Path winding through the Darklands beneath Golarion’s surface? Down the Blighted Path is a deluxe adventure for 5th-level characters, and includes 64 action-packed pages of exciting battles, supernatural mysteries, and monstrous foes, plus a gorgeous double-sided poster map featuring an overview of the dwarven trading post of Davarn and a miniatures-scale battlemap! The author of this adventure, Monica Marlowe, was the winner of the 2015 RPG Superstar contest, in which hundreds of unpublished authors competed or the chance to write a Pathfinder Module. In addition to her adventure, this book contains a host of new monsters and magic items designed by the contest’s runners-up. Players can expect to reach 7th level upon completion of this adventure—if they can survive its deadly haunts, Darklands horrors, and furious villains both living and undead!
Book 4 in the Iron Gods campaign: A great threat is rising in Silver Mount, but a precious item belonging to a mysterious entity called Casandalee has yet to be found. With the Dominion of the Black still an ever-present danger, players must navigate a dangerous canyon, the Scar of the Spider, in hopes of learning more about their enemies, and to accomplish their mission.
Part 3 of the Carrion Crown Adventure Path takes the heroes to the infamous Shudderwood in Ustalav. They travel to Ascanor lodge, the only safe place in the woods, to find more information on the necromantic cult The Whispering Way and meet a colorful group of npcs that reside at the lodge. The werewolf packs that live in the woods are on the brink of war as their pack leader has disappeared and as the heroes get involved, strange things start happening within the lodge. Soon all three story lines will intertwine and the heroes are left to piece the puzzle together and follow the trail left by The Whispering Way. It's worth noting that this book does an excellent job at fleshing out the npcs (lodge residents and werewolves) both through stat blocks and background information including history and motivations. This book includes: - “Broken Moon,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 7th-level characters, by Tim Hitchcock - The secrets of the Whispering Way, a notorious cult sworn to the powers of death and undeath, revealed in blasphemous detail, by Adam Daigle - Insights into the savage lives of werewolves, wererats, and other lycanthropes, by Gareth Hanrahan - Laurel Cylphra comes face to face with an ancient mystery in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by F. Wesley Schneider - Seven exciting and deadly new monsters, by Tim Hitchcock, Rob McCreary, and Patrick Renie
After an Andoren village is razed by the Hydra's Fang, a renegade Chelish slaver-ship, outrage threatens the stability of both nations. You and your fellow Pathfinders are sent to capture the Fang before the Inner Sea is pitched into political frenzy.
A caravan was attacked, and their valuable magical beasts were stolen. The caravan owners hire the adventurers to find their stolen cargo and bring them back safely. But once the heroes find the bandits, they may discover that they are not really just "thieves". Depending on their decision, they may end up travelling to the fey world or battling the bandits for the creatures. A wilderness adventure compatible with the first edition of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Whether you want to run an adventure where druid and ranger characters feel at home, or challenge a party of city slickers, Following the Tracks will allow the party to explore the savannah in a wholesome adventure. The module provides a branching point, where the adventurers will have to make a decision which will lead them to widely different paths. It also includes alternative hooks to suit different play styles. Published by RPG Writer Workshop
More than a millennium has passed since the "machine mage" Karamoss's failed siege of Absalom, and for years the Pathfinder Society has used upper reaches of his subterranean siege tower as a training ground for initiates. During a routine drill, the once-dormant dungeon springs to life, and it will take all the PCs' resourcefulness and skill to make it out alive.
Having won the Free Captains’ Regatta, the adventurers must now claim their prize—the uninhabited Island of Empty Eyes. Yet exploring strange ruins and fighting the isle’s monstrous denizens won’t be enough. Once they’ve got things well in hand, the adventurers must host a feast for the Shackles' infamous Pirate Council, only to have a dangerous situation turn even worse when a mysterious saboteur threatens to disrupt the party. Can the adventurers tame their island and protect their influential guests? Or will they lose the respect of the pirate lords and fade into obscurity? This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path includes: • “Island of Empty Eyes,” a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 9th level characters, by Neil Spicer. • Pirate legends and mysteries of the Shackles, by Jack Graham. • Details on the cyclopes who once ruled the Shackles, by Gareth Hanrahan. • Island harpies in the Pathfinder’s Journal, by Robin D. Laws. • Five new monsters, by Alex Greenshields, Michael Kenway, Mark Moreland, and Tork Shaw.
The Giantslayer Adventure Path begins! In the human town of Trunau, a beleaguered settlement surrounded by the brutal orcs of the Hold of Belkzen, the heroes must investigate a mysterious death. Before they uncover the truth, however, Trunau comes under attack by an orc army, and the heroes must help defend it—only to discover that the situation is worse than anyone realizes. For even the fearsome orc raid is just a distraction allowing a giant chieftain to recover the relics of an ancient giant hero from a tomb long forgotten beneath the town.
Part 1 of the "The Devil We Know" campaign arc. Shipyard Rats is a Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st to 7th level characters (Tiers: 1–2, 3–4, and 6–7). When simultaneous kidnappings of Pathfinder and Aspis Consortium agents rock Cassomir's Imperial Naval Shipyards, the Society orders you to join forces with hated Aspis agents to solve the mystery. Can you work together with the enemies of the Society to uncover the source of the kidnappings, or will you perish in the shipyards of Cassomir?