Pathfinder the varnhold vanishing pdf

Turns out there is nothing here but a fake door. After exploring all three places, return to the Kellid Barbarian Camp. The Sisters will attack you. Deal with your enemies, then talk to Dugath to complete this quest. You will receive XP. This quest can be taken from Dugath in the Kellid Barbarian Camp. Go there, pass the test saving beforehand , and then chat with a character over there to learn about his objective. Complete Along the Cold Trail quest, where you try to find all the Defaced Sisters, then beat the barbarians so Dugath will tell you where to find the relic.

Head down from the camp to find the location called the Valley of the Dead. It is near the mountains. Make sure that you have three Cyclops Incense Burners in your inventory. You will receive them in three different places during the Along the Cold Trail quest. It is important to note that while the Burners are considered to be quest items, you will have an opportunity to sell them.

Do not do this. Moreover, do not sell the incense burners to the merchant in the barbarian camp, as you will probably kill him at the end of the aforementioned quest and will not be able to recover them. Go to the gates and select the option to use your Incense Burners.

You are in for a long exploration of the tomb, which has two floors. In the end, you will fight Vordakai and his raven. Defeat them. Go left and get out of there. Decide what to do with the soul vessels. It is better to free everyone.

Then talk to Varn. He will serve you, and Varnhold will automatically join your state as a result. This will be a voluntary annexation, required for the Annexation kingdom quest. Pathfinder: Kingmaker — Linzi Quests Walkthrough. Pathfinder: Kingmaker — Valerie Quests Walkthrough. Pathfinder: Kingmaker — Tristian Quests Walkthrough. Quests Locations Monsters Characters Companions.

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Edit source History Talk 0. Their surface is striated and pocked by years of weathering; it is crumbling in places and at some points supports creepers and other scrub foliage. Hundreds of bird nests exist in the tiny seams and nooks that dot the cliff face, and the air before the cliffs is constantly abuzz with the insects that dwell in the foliage and the wrens and starlings that feed on them. The bluffs are feet high and level off evenly with the top of the cairn stack.

The face is unstable, crumbling, and rotten from long years of erosion, though it has many handholds DC 20 Climb check to scale. Creatures: A naturally eroded declivity widens at the bottom into a sheltered cave chamber here. It can be spotted from the lake or the central island with a DC 35 Perception check. This cave serves as the home for a mated pair of wyverns. Unless the PCs are stealthy when they approach the central island, the wyverns are swift to notice and swoop down to attack at some point when the PCs are relatively spread out, so the creatures can focus their violence on one or two foes at a time.

Hidden Overlook A natural cleft in the side of the tower of stone creates a sort of overlook here. The far wall contains a single stone door. Beach Entrance CR 3 At the foot of the cliff, where the beach meets the limestone scarp, a dark opening in the stone beckons, partially obscured by creepers and dangling foliage.

A faint path in the mud is actually the remnants of the passage of three creatures over the past several weeks— Willas Gundarson, the undead cyclops that wandered out of the crypt down to area X, and the centaur Xamanthe. A DC 25 Survival check is enough to pick out hints of all three sets of prints. Cairn Entrance This darkened passageway is decorated to the north and south with alcoves. Midway down the hall, just before the second set of alcoves is another archway carved in the stone.

Upon its lintel are various runes and symbols. The northern alcove just 38 beyond this arch holds an ancient amphora that has broken open, spilling its contents into the corridor. They were a part of the protections placed on the cairn both to alert the nearest dread zombie guardian and awaken Vordakai if any of his treasures were taken.

A DC 16 Survival check notes more tracks in the thick dust. The oldest prints human go up to the fallen amphora and then retreat back out of the tunnel toward the beach. The largest prints undead cyclops go in one direction, coming from area W7 and exiting at area W5.

The hoof prints the The Varnhold Vanishing most recent, left by Xamanthe also go only one direction, but these go deeper into the dungeon into area W7. Around the corner toward area W7, a pile of rubble marks where a wall of stones once blocked the passage into area W7.

Treasure: The contents of the spilled amphora include gp minted in the ancient cyclops empire and bearing the image of an all-seeing eye on the obverse and a clenched fist on the reverse. Sepulcher CR 8 This diamond-shaped chamber vaults to a height of nearly thirty feet at the center of the room.

Three wings branch off from the center. One ends shortly at a wall of mortared stone, while the other two once bore walls that have since been broken down, revealing empty cobweb-shrouded alcoves holding stone biers.

She put up a good fight, but in the end she was defeated. Creatures: Although one of the dread zombie cyclopes that stood guard in this room has since ended up in the Valley of the Dead, two remain here at their eternal post.

One of these undead cyclopes stands in the northern alcove, while the other lurks in the walled-off western alcove. The northern zombie still bears fresh wounds caused by what appear to be sword slashes and kicks from a hoofed animal. This zombie immediately attacks anyone who enters the room, while the western one bashes through its wall this takes 1d3 rounds to join the fray or to replace the first zombie if it has fallen or pursued the intruders out of the tomb.

Both zombies have been ordered by Vordakai to avoid killing intruders if possible—the zombies even attempt to stabilize unconscious and dying foes. He checks this room once a day with his oculus of Abaddon, and if he sees new victims to collect, he gathers them up and returns with them to the third level above—such was the fate of Xamanthe, who is now imprisoned in area W Pool Stairs CR 7 This wide natural cavern seems to have been artificially enlarged in places.

A vaulting ceiling nearly thirty feet above is replete with a forest of slowly dripping stalactites, while below a wide pool occupies the entire chamber save for a narrow rocky shelf hugging the cavern wall at the level of the river outside. A submerged f light of steps descends under the western ledge of this room. The pool itself is 30 feet deep and has a foot-diameter passage at its base that leads feet north into the river basin. Creature: Inhabiting this pool for many years, living off the abundantly available eels, is a fabulously rare species of river elasmosaurus—more and larger versions of these creatures dwell in the lakes of the Stolen Lands, and they are responsible for the rumors of sea monsters in areas like Lake Silverstep, the Tuskwater, and Lake Hooktongue.

The dinosaur is ferociously territorial, immediately attacking anyone who enters the water and pursuing foes onto land for short distances if needed.

Pottery Store Dread Zombie Cyclopes 2 XP 2, each This oddly shaped chamber has stairs descending into cloudy water to the east and another set of stairs descending to a bronze double door to the southwest. When the southern secret door is opened, the trap is triggered. As soon as this occurs, the two portcullises to the north and south come crashing down, as numerous 5-foot-wide holes iris open in the ceiling. These holes connect to winding tunnels that connect to a second pair of apertures opening on the submerged side of the island outside; this allows the waters of the Little Sellen River to plunge down into this room, possibly damaging or knocking prone those in the square portion of the room itself but not in the adjoining hallway.

The f lood of water continues to fill area W10, swiftly filling this chamber completely and reaching the top of the stairs leading down from area W9 or the first f light of those leading up at W11 in a mere 10 rounds. Perhaps worse, a number of fish are pulled into the room as well—including one immense river eel.

This monster takes 2d6 points of damage from its traumatic voyage. It arrives in area W10 with a huge splash, whereupon it immediately begins attacking any sizable prey in the room, infuriated by its mishandling. The room is completely f looded in 10 rounds, at which point the irises at both ends of the tunnels slam shut. Objects or creatures in either doorway when this occurs take 8d6 points of damage—a DC 15 Ref lex save allows a creature or attended object to avoid the damage but only if it immediately shifts out of the doorway to one side or the other.

The pottery in here is of ancient cyclops make, elaborate pieces painted primarily in black and white and depicting lotus f lowers, cities, and one-eyed humanoids engaged in everything from worship to f ighting to athletic contests.

Some even show vicious confrontations between these humanoids and centaurs. The humanoids are all portrayed in a distinctive stylistic manner with a wide-legged, sway-backed stance that can be identif ied with the ancient Casmar cyclops empire with a DC 30 Knowledge history check. River Trap CR 9 A ten-foot-high hallway extends at an angle from a bronze door, passing two shallow alcoves before reaching a square room. Standing in the side alcoves are two man-sized statues of painted stone depicting one-eyed humanoids.

More of these statues stand in ranks within the room beyond. The statues are of cyclopes warriors clad in ancient Casmar style. The backs of the alcoves themselves have sealed secret doors, unopened since the cairn was first excavated—they can only be detected with a DC 40 Perception check.

The 16 statues in the main room are identical to those in the alcoves. Twelve of them have been looted of their weapons and armor but retain their helms. The secret door in the south wall can be found with a DC 25 Perception check—opening this door reveals a bronze portcullis barring passage to a twisting stair that rises to the south. On the ceiling are arranged 16 very cleverly hidden circular doors, each just under 5 feet in diameter.

Creatures: A single dread zombie cyclops stands in each alcove beyond the secret doors north of the room itself. Winding Stair This crooked stair is uneven and hewn from the living stone. It winds upward, apparently following a natural seam in the rock. These stairs lead up to area W Daemon Shrine CR 9 To the north, this room is paved in patterned tiles of differentcolored slate and subdivided by a pair of pillars carved in the likeness of leering fiends.

These each depict a shadowy individual standing in a sinister longboat. Between them stands a bronze double door, its face decorated with a mosaic of a winding river crafted from obsidian tiles. Vordakai revered the archdaemon known as Charon, the Horseman of Death.

A DC 20 Knowledge religion or planes readily identifies the shrouded figure in the boat as Charon. The southern shrine is a simple stone altar with an unlit oil lamp empty. The northern shrines each consist of a large piece of quarried quartz upon which has been set an unlit oil lamp fueled and a shallow drinking cup stained with some dark residue identifiable with a DC 15 Heal check as dried blood no more than a week old.

A DC 30 Knowledge religion check recognizes these dual altars as a relatively outdated and obscure form of worshiping Charon in which the smoke of the two shrine lamps symbolizes the rising spirits of the dead as they approach the River Styx.

This check is enough to know that in these old temples, the lanterns were magical keys that helped to seal doorways. Trap: If the north doors to area W12 are opened without first lighting both northern shrine lamps, placing at least 10 hit points worth of fresh blood in each of the drinking cups, and either drinking it or boiling over the lamp f lames, the quartz altars burst into freezing black fire that carries in it the taint of the River Styx.

False Stair This chamber is rough-hewn, as if it were never fully finished. A bronze double door opens in one wall and a passage exits through another. Once intended to be priestly quarters, these chambers were indeed never finished. The western doors open onto an unfinished stairway that climbs 30 feet and dead-ends at a stone wall.

The ceiling reaches to a height of twenty feet overhead and appears to bear many fractures in the rock. In the center of the chamber, two columns of mortared stone support a ceiling of strange, delicate arches of stone. Creature: As soon as any living creature enters this room, a dreadful summoned guardian appears in a burst of foul-smelling damp mist. This monstrosity is a piscodaemon—a neutral evil fiend from the swamps of Abaddon. Appearing as a hideous cross between lobster, octopus, and man, the piscodaemon speaks telepathically to the intruders, demanding to know in whose name they dare intrude upon the inner sanctum of the Horseman of Death.

The piscodaemon can see invisible creatures—but other methods of hiding the prisoner from W15 can fool it. Once summoned, the piscodaemon remains on guard at this post for 24 hours before returning to Abaddon.

Note that since this piscodaemon is itself summoned, it cannot use its own summon ability. Morale The piscodaemon fights to the death.

Prison Engaged masonry columns form shallow alcoves around a central pillar in this flat-roofed chamber. Manacles hang from the walls near ancient bloodstains. After she was defeated and captured by the dread zombie in area W7, Vordakai used dimension door to enter that room, gathered the unconscious victim up, and then used dimension door to bring her to this prison.

After ensuring the centaur was under the effects of his paralysis touch, he stayed long enough to mock her before leaving her to her pain. Xamanthe remains paralyzed, her mind in a semidelirious state brought on by malnourishment and fear. Once every few days or so, a dread zombie cyclops arrives with a pan of watery gruel and feeds her—just enough to prevent her from dying of thirst or starvation, but far from enough to allow her to recover from her trials.

After she was defeated by the cyclops in area W7, she has only f lashes of memories—periodic visits by other undead cyclopes who brought her foul-tasting food, painfilled dreams and nightmares, and a growing sense of despair. I shall return once your fear and dread drive all semblance of will and self from your mind, at which point you will thank me for these gifts of pain. She has no gear to offer the PCs in reward, but she does describe to them her magic f lail and says that they are welcome to keep it if they find it, wherever it may have ended up in this tomb.

All are empty save for small stone shelf ledges holding assorted bits of pottery. All of them were roused when the cairn was violated by Willas Gundarson and have since emerged from their places of repose. Creatures: Vordakai has used planar binding to place a pair of soul eaters in this chamber as guardians— the eerie monsters f loat near the central pillars and swiftly move to attack any living creatures that enter the room.

The eye carving to the east radiates strong conjuration and divination magic. The eye carving is actually part of a specialized teleportation circle linked to the oculus of Abaddon carried by Vordakai.

This artwork depicts one-eyed ability to use true seeing and familiar farsight. They to enter this room and then begins tracking down the provide glimpses into the ancient cyclops culture and would PCs from there. The stink of sulfur and tar are strong, as a huge lake of bubbling black tar acristy dominates the chamber. From rock outcrops here and there on A stone bench sits at shoulder height against the far wall of the walls bubble small springs of milky-looking water.

Across the this chamber. Upon this bench lie a number of stone vessels chamber, a stony shelf provides purchase for a door stoop before a and bronze tools. A man-sized statue of a sway-backed black wooden door swollen in its frame. The broken stumps of two humanoid, a hand is clamped over its single eye, stands support posts protrude from the rock of the shelf as well as that of against the north wall.

This chamber was used to prepare the dead for interment and houses an assortment of funerary tools This chamber is horrifically inhospitable to living and items, though none are of particular value other than creatures.

The tar pool is boiling hot—each round of as antiquities. The secret door behind the statue can be contact inf licts 1d6 points of fire damage, and total found with a DC 20 Perception check. This secret door is immersion inf licts 10d6 fire damage per round. A small blob of tar can be removed as a full-round action, but a creature that was immersed in it can only avoid the culus ocus damage by removing the sticky tar with universal solvent.

After the tar burns for 3 rounds, it cools to a thick layer that This chamber is empty. V W H W S W O F 45 P CR 8 Part 3 of 6 A creature can slog through the tar each round it makes a DC 20 Strength check as a full-round action— success means the creature can move at a speed of 5 feet.

The tar itself is too thick to be navigated by a swim speed, but a burrow speed works normally in it. Freedom of movement allows a creature to navigate the pool of tar with ease as if swimming in water.

The pool is only 1 foot deep—below this layer, the tar is thick and vicious enough to support weight. Making matters worse, the air in this chamber is hideously noxious.

Every round a creature breathes the air in the room, it must make a DC 15 Fortitude saving throw—failure indicates the creature is nauseated for 1 round. A saving throw of a natural 1 results in 1d4 points of Constitution damage from the toxic air. This is a poison effect. One such doomed soul was the wizard Cephal Lorentus, who now serves Vordakai in undeath as a dread zombie.

In life, Cephal was a middle-aged, bearded man of above average height. Cephal stands motionless on the ledge before the door to the east, impassively watching the room and waiting with endless patience for enemies to act against. He then flies to the cavern ceiling to use the stalactites as cover. During Combat Cephal remains near the ceiling as long as possible, targeting his magic at spellcasters and characters using ranged weapons.

He casts glitterdust on those making ranged attacks. If he depletes his ranged attacks and hand of the apprentice uses, he swoops down to finish the fight with his dagger and bite attacks. Morale Cephal fights until destroyed.

If Cephal bites a foe who already has negative hit points, he automatically kills the foe by eating his brain. Command Zombies Su Cephal can automatically command all normal zombies within 30 feet as a free action. Normal zombies never attack Cephal unless compelled.

The Varnhold Vanishing W Secondary Entrance Hewn stairs rise to the west from this room, and the air is foul with the stink of sulfur and tar. The air in this room and the hallway leading up to area W4 to the west is foul smelling, identical to the air quality in area W Secondary Crypts CR 7 This crypt stretches into darkness. The floor of this crypt is strewn with rubble and the filth of opened graves. Sprawled on the floor is a fairly fresh corpse of a middle-aged Ulfen man, no more than a week or two old at the most.

These secondary crypts held additional servants of Vordakai, not all of whom were converted into dread zombies. Their bones lie scattered upon the f loor. He retreated here and fought valiantly for his life with nothing more than the hunting knife at his belt but ultimately fell to the ravenous undead cyclops zombies. His troubled soul now haunts the crypt as a spectre. He does not leave this chamber but mercilessly attacks anything that enters—he has no memories of life, and seethes now only with a mad hatred of the living.

The spectre f ights until destroyed. Each chair holds the corpse of a human locked in its death throes, its mouth agape in anguish, the top of its cranium brutally removed, and the brains within excised. The body seated at the head of the table is that of Maegar Varn himself. All of these poor souls are victims of the cyclops lich Vordakai.

Unlike his dread zombie minions who are compelled to feed out of their necromantic nature , Vordakai feeds on the brains of the recently dead not to satisfy an aberrant hunger for f lesh but out of a darker hunger for knowledge. Creatures: Guarding this chamber are four dread zombie cyclopes. When they notice the PCs, the undead cyclopes spread out and attack—f ighting until destroyed and pursuing until the end.

Feasthall CR 10 This door opens onto a short dais looking out over a large chamber. Thick pillars ascend to a twenty-foot-high ceiling, while a wide stone staircase climbs to a darkened gallery above. The true purpose of the chamber is apparent from the great stone table running across its center. Balcony Cephal Lorentus 47 This balcony has no rail—it overlooks room W23, 30 feet below. The secret door to area W26 can be found with a DC 25 Perception check. Part 3 of 6 W Oculus Chamber W Throne of Bones CR 13 This octagonal chamber, which vaults to a twenty-foot-high ceiling, is composed of multiple slabs of opaque, white crystal fitted together to form a dome in the distinctive shape of an inverted eye, its gaze focused into the room below.

This white crystal gleams with a subdued moonlike glow. The walls of the chamber are covered with arcane symbols, stylized line art, and images of cyclopes. A twenty-foot-diameter circle is incised into the stone of the floor directly beneath the great eye-shaped dome.

This chamber stretches forward into darkness. A channel of sulfurous water runs down the center of the chamber into a placid pool tinged in red and surrounded by kneeling forms. Nearby sits a small stone shrine decorated with several freshly severed human heads. Just beyond this grisly altar, a hideous throne made of bones looms above the pool.

This chamber of fate and fortune is sacred to the archdaemons of Abaddon and has existed longer even than the tomb itself, which are the central reasons Vordakai chose this site.

His only change to the room was to eradicate the previous wall carvings and replace them with the current designs—the original carvings were too horrid for even the cyclopes to stomach. The Oculus Chamber radiates an aura of overwhelming conjuration and divination and serves as a focal point of daemonic energies in ways that even Vordakai does not yet fully understand.

Pool Guardian CR 9 A burbling fountain and pool that stink of sulfur occupy the center of this chamber. A shallow channel cut into the stone of the floor passes beneath a pair of bronze double doors, funneling the foul-smelling water out of the pool to the east. The water is actually fairly safe to drink but tastes horrible and requires a DC 10 Fortitude save to avoid being sickened for 10 minutes. The pool is 10 feet deep. Creature: Dwelling within this sulfur pool is an elemental creature twisted by the archdaemons an age ago and left here as a guardian—a neutral evil greater water elemental that obeys the commands of anyone who wears the oculus of Abaddon.

Vordakai has commanded it to attack anyone who enters the chamber—if he dominates a PC, he takes a moment to inform the elemental that this victim is to be allowed to pass unmolested as well. Otherwise, the elemental fights to the death. The stairwell once led to the top of the cairn but is now collapsed and useless.

Here, the PCs can find numerous stone tablets, crumbling scrolls, and even some strangely intact ancient tomes, all of which concern the worship of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and methods by which to engineer great disasters in the world to feed their insatiable gluttony for souls. The abduction of Varnhold to use their citizens as research tools is but the first step in this mission—it should be obvious to anyone who studies the information here that, while it would be many years before Vordakai was in a position where he was ready to attempt his plans for the world, if the lich had been left to his own devices he could have swiftly become a terrible danger to both Brevoy and the River Kingdoms—and perhaps beyond.

All of these notes are written in Cyclops. Over the past 10, years of torpor, Vordakai has retained only a fraction of his original power. Though he was a 20th-level wizard at the time of his imprisonment, his power has since degraded to that of a 9th-level wizard. Although atrophied, Vordakai remains a very dangerous opponent who, on his own, can devastate a poorly prepared party. Of course, this adventure also provides several magic items intended to aid the PCs against the monster, such as magical blunt weapons and the ring of freedom of movement—if you find your PCs are doing well against Vordakai, feel free to abandon his arrogance in favor of more lethal tactics.

The thing to keep in mind is that this creature is the most powerful foe the PCs have yet encountered in Kingmaker, and by defeating him they will accomplish something truly legendary. He trusts to his damage reduction to protect him from most damage, using his spells and channeling negative energy in melee. He resorts to his touch attack against foes who seem to be able to hurt him easily. Morale Vordakai is not willing to abandon his lair to intruders— as a result, he does not flee from combat in this chamber, and it is here that his ultimate fate shall be decided.

The exact effects of atrophy vary from lich to lich. Note that these are not negative levels—Vordakai must earn back the lost XP normally.

More troubling to the lich is the fact that until he achieves at least 11th level as a lich, his phylactery is unusable—if he is destroyed, he crumbles to dust, forever dead. Treasure: Vordakai keeps his treasures nearby, in neatly organized mounds and piles behind his throne.

The majority of this treasure consists of ancient coins 50 1, pp, 13, gp, and , sp and various art objects altogether worth an additional 19, gp. In addition to the ancient treasures, several magic items Vordakai found on his victims can be found here.

The preserved knowledge of ancient Casmaron is contained in dozens of stone tablets weighing nearly 1, pounds in all—but the tablets are worth 10, gp to a scholar of this ancient land.

Ed Greenwood John C. Reynolds Sarah Robinson F. Wesley Schneider James L. Publisher: Devir. Year: View Corrections Link Image. Publisher: SmiteWorks. Soft Cover. Product Code: PF ISBN Publisher: Ulisses Spiele. Product Code: US Publisher: Paizo Publishing. Product Code: PZO ISBN X. No items found. No images found. No videos found. No threads found. No posts found. Title Hot Recent. Sort: Pg. Relationship: Periodical Articles Podcast Episodes.

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