System: Pathfinder RPG
Setting:Golarion
Required Reading:Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, Inner Sea World Guide, Into the Darklands
Recommended Reading: PF #32 Rivers Run Red OR Book of the River Nations, PF #15 Armageddon Echo, PF #16 Endless Night
Pitch
When an apocalyptic event ravages Golarion and poisons the atmosphere of the surface world, the PCs are forced to lead a band of survivors into the Darklands. Will they be able to safely navigate the dangerous underground world? Will they be able to find a new home for themselves and their followers? And will they be able to unravel the mystery of the apocalypse and prevent an even darker fate? Find out in Beneath a Granite Sky!
Style
The early- to mid-section of this game draws heavily from the survival-horror genre. Elements such as difficult decisions, dwindling resources, and a hostile environment pervade the narrative. Eventually, the PCs will create a more-or-less stable society, and they can turn to investigating the central mystery of the campaign: why has this disaster befallen Golarion? The tone shifts slightly to cosmic horror as the players discover the truth and desperately seek to halt the final steps of a mad cult’s plan.
Rules Modifications
Very early in the game, the Material Plane will cut off from the rest of the Multiverse. This has several effects which the GM should take into account as they lead their players through character creation. The most important of these effects is that the gods of Golarion (with a few notable exceptions) can no longer imbue their followers with magical energy. It is strongly recommended to discourage clerics, inquisitors, or paladins in the party– most of their abilities will vanish at around 2nd or 3rd level. Similarly, summoners will find themselves unable to call/ dispel their eidolons and cast summoning spells. Druids and rangers are unaffected since they draw their magic from nature; oracles are fine as well, since they are conduits for ambient divine magic in the world. If a player wishes to play a witch, the GM should work with them to choose a patron that could conceivable be based out of the Material Plane.Throughout most of the game, spells that access other planes– chiefly summoning and teleportation– will simply fail. Players should be encouraged during character creation not to build characters that rely to heavily on either; soon enough, they will know the reason why and will presumably steer away from those choices themselves!
Ideal Group
The ideal group for this campaign enjoys being part of a story greater than themselves. At least some members of the group must be willing to play responsible characters, or the conceit that they are leaders of a band of survivors falls apart. If the players jump to combat to solve all of their problems, their characters will die very, very quickly. Finally, a group that is fairly well acquainted with Golarion lore may have a greater appreciation of the metaplot.
Synopsis
Prologue
The story begins as each of the PCs individually answers a call, sent out by House Melachor in the Chelish city of Corentyn, for skilled soldiers of fortune. There, after extensive interviews and tests of skill, the PCs are offered positions as House Adventurers. Their duties are to serve the interests of the House by assisting in the negotiation of contracts, acting as bodyguards to important family members, hunting down house enemies, aiding in the martial and/or magical education of the children, serving guard duty, and seeing to any other odd jobs that require attention. In return for this, they receive perks such as quarters within Malachor Manor, looting rights in relevant missions, and a moderate stipend.The party accepts this lucrative offer, and, in the service of their new patrons, performs various minor tasks around the southern tip of Cheliax. Aside from engaging in many of the activities listed above, they stop a band of smugglers dealing in flayleaf, pesh, and a strange reddish-brown quartz the PCs have difficulty identifying. Then, when the party is returning home after another unspectacular adventure, the world as they know it comes to an end. It begins with a massive earthquake, throwing the party off their feet as the ground wrenches beneath them. Fire rains from the sky. And a fine, ash-like substance blocks out the sun, throwing the land into darkness and slowly poisoning the air. The lives of the PCs will never be the same.
Act I
The party rushes back to Corentyn to assess the damage and report to their superiors. When they arrive, they find the city in ruins. The earthquake and fires have destroyed many buildings, and the poisoned atmosphere is already beginning to take its toll on the remaining population. The PCs pick their way through the rubble, helping out where they can and witnessing several scenes of grim portent. In one instance, a cleric attempts to give succor to the injured, but his every attempt at divine spellcasting fails. In another case, a wizard attempts to teleport away from the ruins of the city, only to be killed hideously by some sort of magical backlash as the spell fails. Aside from these mysterious events, the PCs also witness more mundane occurrences of looting and violence.The party gradually picks its way to Melachor Mansion and finds most of the ranking family members dead, the rest frightened and confused. With no authority figures to turn to, the remaining Melachors look to the PCs for guidance. Fires continue to consume the city and the poisons atmosphere intensifies, leaving the PCs with little choice but to lead the survivors underground into the well-maintained Corentyn sewer system.
The PCs and the survivors of House Melachor remain in the sewers for some time. More survivors from the surface trickle into the encampment, and eventually the players establish some semblance of normality. However, scouting missions to the surface reveal that the poisoned atmosphere has not yet reverted to normal, and shows no signs of doing so. Worse still, the poison is slowly beginning to seep underground. Food supply is extremely limited, and while some magic continues to function normally, all religion-based spellcasting fails and every attempt at summoning or extradimensional movement meets with disaster. Finally, and most strangely, the encampment occasionally faces attacks from deeper in the sewers by bizarre reptilian humanoids– troglodytes from below.
Through exploration, inference, and possibly the interrogation of a captured trog, the party realizes that the city’s sewers must be connected to the Darklands, the legendary realm of tunnels and caverns which stretches beneath the length and breadth of Golarion. Though this land is reputedly dangerous to the extreme, it may be the only hope of survival for the party and their charges– going deeper may provide sources of food, escape from the poisoned air, and the possibility of finding a new home. After gathering what supplies they can, the party descends.
The remainder of the Act takes place within Nar-voth, the topmost of the Darklands’ three layers. The majority of the adventures are focused on survival– finding food, water, and other necessities for their band of surfacers while progressing with their exodus. Population and resources may be tracked by a mechanic of the GMs creation (perhaps by drawing upon the Paizo’s caravan rules) or dealt with behind-the-scenes. A GM interested in the Old School of gaming may even wish to create a table of random events, each with the potential to increase or decrease the PCs remaining resources depending upon their performance.
During this part of their journey, the PCs encounter derro slavers eager to add the survivors to their stock, but from whom other captured surfacers may be freed. They scrap with feral tribes of troglodytes and barter with the semi-civilized mongrelmen. They trade information with the duergar, dark kin of the dwarves now vindicated in their decision to defy the Quest for Sky. And they may meet with other survivors of the apparent apocalypse who have sought shelter underground.
The most important of these fellow-survivors is a priest to Rovagug, dark god of destruction, who miraculously still has access to his divine powers. Astute players may be able to figure out that because the god Rovagug was banished to a terrestrial existence millennia ago, he is still able to answer the prayers of his faithful now. Aside from its theological implications, this fact may provide players with a valuable clue as to the nature of the disaster which ruined the surface world– that the Material plane has somehow been shielded from the rest of the Multiverse.
