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NO SPOILERS
SPOILERS!
The backstory to Cairn of Shadows is really
cool. When disaster struck the nation of
Nidal ages ago, most of its inhabitants turned to worshipping Zon-Kuthon, the
Midnight Lord. But not all of the
horselords of Nidal agreed to this dark pact, and led a rebellion. The rebellion was crushed, and the rebel
leaders were taken to the Barrowmoors, ancestral tombs of the horselords in the
hills. There, the tombs were turned into
extra-planar prison realms staffed by kytons who could torture the rebels to
their dark heart’s content! In a tomb
that became known as the Cairn of Shadows, a kyton named Kazartak was put in
charge of torturing a horselord chieftain named Telendrak. After Telendrak finally perished, Kazartak
had other prisoners assume Telendrak’s identity so the torture could
continue. Now, thousands of years later,
Kazartak has voluntarily left the Cairn of Shadows in a deal with Lord Maravan
of the Onyx Alliance—a powerful consortium from the Plane of Shadows. Lord Maravan of the Onyx Alliance and his
agents have fled into the Cairn of Shadows after several defeats from the
Pathfinder Society (in previous scenarios), and are looking for a magical
shadow obelisk that will give them control over the demiplane. (I’m not 100% convinced the Onyx Alliance
couldn’t have found a better location for their purposes, but that’s neither
here nor there.)
The PCs come on the scene when they get a briefing from the
(less often seen) male Heidmarch Venture-Captain, Canayven. The briefing takes place in Korvosa’s “Thief
Camp” (Varisian sympathisers should refer to it as Trail’s End). Canayven relates to the Pathfinder Society’s
allies in Absalom, the Blakros family, have sent intelligence about the Onyx
Alliance’s plans to secure a hideout somewhere in the Barrowmoors. The mission is to find out where and to keep
it from happening, and to achieve the first bit the PCs will need to travel to
a tavern in Nisroch (a city in Nidal) called the Broken Cup to speak to a
Desnan resistance cell leader.
The journey from Korvosa to Nisroch is hand-waved. When the PCs arrive at the forlorn Broken Cup
to talk to their source, they soon learn that a bounty hunter working for the
authorities is sitting at the bar, celebrating, because she has the rebel
trussed up in her room upstairs and will soon turn him over to the authorities
for a big payday! The PCs might be able
to rescue him quietly and slip out, though there are also good odds there’ll be
a fight. Four to six PCs taking on one
enemy probably won’t be too hard, and the source will be able to direct them
specifically to the Cairn of Shadows. As
an aside, a PC in my group had an interesting alternative way of rescuing the
source—he seduced the bounty hunter into “going upstairs” with him! (whatever
happened next was handled in spoilers, so don’t ask)
The journey to the Cairn of Shadows is also hand-waved. From this point, the scenario becomes
essentially a two-level dungeon crawl.
It is a suitably grim and atmospheric dungeon. The dialogue for a torture victim
(brainwashed into believing he’s the horselord Telendrak) is excellent and
helps add to the feel of the place. Perhaps
oddly, despite its ominous look, there are actually only some minor traps and a
few (fairly easy) encounters against shae, potentially kytons or a night hag
(depending on subtier), and Lord Maravan himself (a magus).
Although the execution isn’t perfect, I do appreciate the
skilled writing that went into Cairn of Shadows. For players, like myself, who are familiar
with Nidal from the Pathfinder Tales novels or other modules, this scenario was
a really good representation of its oppressive and gloomy vibe. It also may help establish some additional
bits of setting lore about the Barrowmoors.
Overall, it’s certainly a scenario worth playing, especially if you don’t
mind one being a touch on the easy side.
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