Adventure π-2 – A World of Despair

Jen McTeague
This adventure uses trademarks and/or copyrights owned by Paizo Inc., which are used under Paizo's
Community Use Policy. We are expressly prohibited from charging you to use or access this content. This
adventure is not published, endorsed, or specifically approved by Paizo Inc. For more information about
Paizo's Community Use Policy, please visit paizo.com/communityuse. For more information about Paizo
Inc. and Paizo products, please visit paizo.com.

This adventure is a joke. It is not a real adventure in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild Organized Play
Campaign, nor is it pretending to be. While this adventure is playable, and can be played by Tier 2
characters in the ACG, it does not count towards skill, power, or card feats for those characters.
(Although if you were playing this scenario at home, you certainly would want to use the Adventure
Card Guild progression to give your characters appropriate feats.) In addition, this is not a canon
addition to the Pathfinder Society Organized Play Campaign storyline in any way. Relax and have fun!
And if you do run it, let me know how it goes!
 Adventure π-2 – A World of Despair
Everything I’m about to tell you is true. You already know it. You just don’t know that you know it.

You’re having trouble holding onto it, I get that. You grasp at something about the blessing deck,
something about the increased panic as it ran low. It’s not that you gave up all hope when the gods’
blessings ran out, it’s that when the gods’ blessings ran out, something made you give up all hope.

It’s missing now, though. You can’t remember the middle bit. There’s a gloss over your brain, a hole in
your consciousness, an amyloid plague clumping over your neurons. It’s no accident. Someone put it
there. Somebody put it everywhere.

There are other things you do see, flashing in the corners. Things with dice. Things with cards. Things
with minis and rotating tables and nothing at all. No one else sees them. We’ve all agreed its better if we
don’t see them. It’s easier that way. Easier for us, and catastrophically easier for them.

Well, part of that wasn’t entirely true. There’s the man who talks to objects and claims they talk back,
the woman of fire who can see locations before you get there but can’t see in front of her face, the old
woman who can’t tell if her husband is dead or alive. And if she can’t tell, how can anyone else?

These aren’t your friends. But you can feel a connection to them, hot and shining, like you’re in a ring of
fire. They’re your party. Together you can do all the things you’ll probably regret. You can make the
things on the other side of the wall stay there, even if you join them there.

You’ve heard one of them call you an “adventurer.” You knew the meaning of that word, but maybe you
didn’t. Today it means that someone else is counting on you, whether you want them to or not. You may
not know how to save them. At least you have something in common.

My name is Gom-Gom. Honestly, you probably won’t remember I was here tomorrow. You should try to
remember because there are two things people know about adventurers: They tend to do amazing
things, and they tend to be dead. You want to hold off that last part as long as possible. But if you have
to go out, then go out gloriously. Make them remember you.

That way, it won’t feel so bad that you can’t remember yourself.
Complete The Following Scenarios in Order:

 π-2A: The Astronomers

 π-2B: On the High Seas
 π-2C: The World Scar
 π-2D: Trapped in the Desert
 π-2E: Maze of Games

During this Adventure

The adventure deck number is 2.

Each scenario uses a different base set. The “During this Scenario” instructions will tell you which base
set you need to use for each scenario.

Whenever you close a location, remove that location and its location deck from the game. All characters
at that location move to a different location.

Reward

Each player unlocks the ability to play Mavaro with the… uh… what haven’t we done yet? Goblins Fight!
Class Deck? Yeah! That one!
 Scenario π-2A: The Astronomers
Your first adventures take you to the sleepy town of Sandpoint. A sign at the entrance to the town
proudly proclaims “Welcome to Sandpoint! Please stop to see yourself as we see you!” A mirror lazily
hangs off the sign. You walk away. If only they knew the things that you’ve seen… If only you knew the
things you’ve seen…

You make your way to Setec Astronomy. You heard all the stories. Years ago the observatory used to be
filled with people. They would appear for a year at a time, claiming to be preparing for some kind of
hunt. Locals would ask them what they were hunting, but the only answer that they ever got was that it
was a mystery. However, for years the observatory lay quiet, and any questions that were ever asked of
the pilgrims as to what had happened were met not with answers, but drinking. For years the town of
Sandpoint thought the place abandoned, and everyone had forgotten about it.

But you’re here because you heard the concerns. Children were worried about their parents, significant
others were worried about their partners, employers were worried about their employees, and friends
were worried about their friends who had heard the call of the observatory once more. On behalf of
those communities that were losing important members, you had to investigate.

You find your way to the run-down observatory. The building looked in shambles, and someone had
rearranged the letters on the sign to spell “TOO MANY SECRETS.” Making your way in, you find that the
observatory is filled with people huddled over pieces of parchment and muttering to themselves. One
pair in the corner stands out. A very tall human sits at a table in the corner, hunched over parchment
with a bunch of weird symbols titled “Some Light Hacking”. What’s probably the strangest about this
scene isn’t the man himself but who he is seated next to. Sitting at the table with him is a goblin. She is
wearing 20 hats, each one stacked on top of the previous one in order of ridiculousness. Despite the
goblin moving around a bunch, the hats seem to be staying perfectly balanced on her head. After a
couple of seconds staring at the goblin’s head, you realize what the real issue is here – that goblin is
reading!

You’re snapped back to reality by the sound of the man talking. It seems that in your shock at the
reading goblin you hadn’t noticed the man turn around and stare at you. “Well, it seems we have
company. You’re just in time to see our great concoction. These puzzles will poison the mind of anyone
who reads them, and hopefully, it’ll even poison the gods themselves! It’ll be EPIC (3-1)!”
Villain – Black Fang (proxy for Chad Brown)

Henchmen – Koruvus (proxy for Tanis O’Connor), Bandits (proxy for Setec Astronomer)

Locations – Goth Theater (1), Old Dense Jungle (1), Pagoda (1), Hillside (2), Academy (3), City Gate (4),
The Old Light (5), Guard Tower (6)

During this Scenario

Use the Rise of the Runelords Base Set, AD 1 and AD 2 to build this scenario.

When you build the blessing deck, replace 5 blessings with monsters. Whenever a monster is put into
the blessing discard pile, you take 1 Poison damage.

Reward

Each character draws a weapon from the box. Adventure Card Guild characters may choose a bonus
deck upgrade.

Development

Having defeated the puzzles and survived the swarm of puzzlecrafters, you make your way outside of
the observatory. As soon as the last of you crosses the threshold, the observatory disappears. Finding
that strange, you go talk to other people in Sandpoint about the observatory. No one seems to
remember it. Strange. And in fact, now that you think about it, the details are starting to get fuzzy…
 Scenario π-2B: On the High Seas
Your travels take you into the Shackles. You had heard stories of ships disappearing at sea before, but
these ones were different. There was an area of the sea called the Red Baum Triangle, and inside this
triangle there was said to be a ship called the Goblin Weidling. Very few people lived to describe the
Goblin Weidling, and what descriptions they gave were very inconsistent. The only identifying mark was
that the ship’s masthead was a baby triceratops named “The Clompster”.

Clearly prior experiences weren’t giving you much to work with there. Checking it out for yourself would
give you the best chance of figuring out what was harming these innocent pirates and putting a stop to
it.

Soon after you passed Red Baum Island, fog started forming behind your ship, like the air itself didn’t
want the rest of the world to be a witness as to what terrible things would be about to occur. You
spotted a small ship in the distance. It must be a fast ship to be responding to your incursion already.
Screams and cries from the crew take your focus away from the ship in the distance and back onto the
deck of your ship. And then you saw it.

Somehow, a giant rampaging turquoise dinosaur was running around on the deck of your ship.

Taking stock of the situation, you paused and looked at the situation logically. Dinosaurs are really
heavy. If something that heavy was standing on the deck of your ship, it’d break the floor and crash
down into the lower levels. The dinosaur appears to be standing on your ship but not breaking through.
Therefore, it can’t be real. And with that last thought, the dinosaur disappears from view.

Clearly the rest of your shipmates hadn’t thought through your logic, as they stood there fighting a
nonexistent dinosaur. You were about to call out to them when you had noticed that the ship that you
were tracking on the horizon was suddenly much closer than before. That ship must be really fast!
Looking over at the other ship you could see the infamous Clompster, but the entire crew seemed to be
cats who were just napping in the sun and a solitary blue owl perched in the crow’s nest, crackling with
electricity. But if that was the crew, who was driving the ship?

“Hoo” said the owl, almost in response to your question. And on the owl’s sound, the sky turned dark.
The sun was replaced with a full moon, and the creatures on the deck started to transform. The cats
stood up and became half-human half-cat lycanthropes wearing fabulous stripy white and blue pants,
while the owl became a human woman with all-natural blue hair and sparks flying from her skin. You
were pretty sure that you had found the Goblin Weidling.
Villain – Adaro Barbarian (proxy for Gaby Weidling)

Henchmen – Ruffians (proxies for Werecat Pirate)

Locations – Dangerous Cove (1), Deadbolt Door (1), Mold Isle (1), Outlands (2), Lonely Island (3), Shark
Island (4), Fog Bank (5), Docks (6)

During this Adventure

Use the Skull and Shackles Base Set, AD 1 and AD 2 to build this scenario.

You may choose any Class 2 ship or below for your ship.

When you build the blessing deck, replace 5 blessings with monsters. Whenever a monster is put into
the blessing discard pile, summon and encounter Adorasaur.

Whenever you defeat a Werecat Pirate, display it next to the scenario card.

Reward

Each character draws an armor from the box. Adventure Card Guild characters may choose a bonus deck
upgrade.

Development

With the defeat of the sparking captain and her werecat crew, the illusory dinosaur disappears from
your ship. Or at least, you would assume so – your crew has stopped fighting an invisible creature. As
the Goblin Weidling sinks into the sea, the fog lifts from the sea. Unfortunately, as the fog rises around
you, it seems to settle in your mind…
 Scenario π-2C: The World Scar
It had been a couple years since a group of adventurers closed the gaping hole in Sarkoris that led to the
abyss. People celebrated all around Golarion. “This is the end of the demons! We can reclaim our land!”
No one seemed to remember that only the hole was closed – the demons were still there. Not that you
could blame them. You barely remembered what you have done. You think you just fought something
named Gary?

A settlement inside Sarkoris had gone silent. The settlement had consisted of the descendants of old
Sarkorans who wanted to reclaim their ancestor’s land. According to the crusaders who were working
with them, they understood the risks and they understood that it could be dangerous, but they insisted
on resettling anyway. And in a way, you couldn’t blame them.

Heading to the village was easier than the stories from before the Worldwound was closed. There were
no more eyeballs raining from the sky, no more demon weed which caused travelers to attack their
friends, and no more swarms of hellwasps roaming the lands. But there were still no trees, no clean
water and no grass anywhere to be seen. The abyssal landscape had receded, but nature had yet to
reclaim its land.

You weren’t sure what you expected to see when you got to the village, but it certainly wasn’t what you
saw. All the villagers were standing in a line leading up to the town square. At the head of the line stood
a fearsome guillotine, where two men were taking turns pulling the string and collecting the resulting
heads. You expected to see frightened faces and people trying to cut out of line, but instead you saw
calm faces and people fighting over what position in line they wanted. Why were they so calm? Why did
they just accept their fate?

You run up to confront the two men, and quickly you see through their disguises. One is actually a
quasit, hovering in the air like a more sinister imp. The other is a demon that appears to be made from
multiple creatures stitched together. The amalgam turns to the quasit and asks “So, are you going to
help me now or later when you…”

The quasit cuts him off “PETERSON! Don’t reveal that!” The quasit teleports away, leaving you to deal
with the half-ninja, half-dinosaur demon. Or wait, was it a half-alien, half-zombie? Hopefully it won’t
matter when it’s dead.
Villain – Faxon (proxy for Paul Peterson)

Henchmen – Vescavor Swarm (proxy for Smash-Up Minions)

Locations – Flagpole Park (1), Pigpen (1), Pond (1), Dung Hovel (2), Molten Pool (3), Canyon (4), Sanctum
(5), Cell (6)

During this Adventure

Use the Wrath of the Righteous Base Set, AD 1 and AD 2 to build this scenario. This scenario’s servitor
demon is the Blood Demon.

At the beginning of the scenario, each player gains a mythic path.

Set up all of the locations in a line starting with the first location listed in the leftmost position. Then
display an ally from the box on top of each location.

When you build the blessing deck, replace 15 blessings with allies. Whenever an ally is discarded from
the blessing deck, display it on top of the rightmost location, and move each of the allies displayed on
top of locations one location to the left. If there is an ally displayed on top of the leftmost location, it is
displayed next to the scenario card.

When you explore, if there is an ally displayed on top of the location, you can encounter that ally instead
of encountering the top card of the location deck. If you fail the check to acquire, the ally stays
displayed.

Smash-Up Abilities Table

1 – Alien. Before you act, recharge an ally.

2 – Dinosaur. The difficulty to defeat this monster is increased by 3.
3 – Ninja. Before you act, recharge a weapon or a spell with the Attack trait.
4 – Pirate. Before you act, move to a random location.
5 – Robot. The difficulty to defeat this monster is reduced by 3. If it is defeated, reroll the dice. The
monster is defeated entirely based off of the second roll.
6 – Trickster. Before you act, discard a card.
7 – Wizard. Before you act, summon and encounter a random monster from the box.
8 – Zombie. Before you act, you take 2 Combat damage and draw a card from your discard pile.

Reward

Each character draws an ally from the box. Adventure Card Guild characters may choose a bonus deck
upgrade.

Development

It was tough saving people who actively wanted to be beheaded, but after some hard work and the
defeat of the amalgam Peterson, you shook the mental control from the town and saved who you could.
Those who broke free went back to living their lives, oblivious to the fact that some of their friends and
family were now headless. Wait, how did all those people get headless? What happened here? Your
brain is filled with memories that you don’t remember. You need to go on a walk to clear your head.
 Scenario π-2D: Trapped in the Desert
You had been traveling in the desert for a long time. Every inch of your skin was turned red with
sunburn. Each one of your waterskins hangs limply off your belt, having been drained dry ages ago. Your
muscles ached, threatening to quit at any moment from lack of food and rest. But you had to keep
traveling. You were lost in the middle of the Osiriani desert, and you had to keep moving if you had any
shot of trying to find a settlement to rest at.

Looking ahead, you spot a break in the orange sands up on the horizon. It couldn’t be. Have you finally
found something that can help you? You gather the last of the energy in your tired legs, and race over to
the dot in the distance. As you get closer, it becomes much clearer what you were racing towards. You
finally found an oasis! You quickly close the distance to the oasis, and you kneel down and dip your head
in that luxurious water. Instead of getting a mouthful of liquid like you expected, you fall straight
through the water as if it wasn’t there!

Tumbling down the shaft in the ground, you land on a soft patch of ground a couple seconds later. You
look up to see the bright sky above you through a tiny hole. Well, at least you were prepared for this.
You took your backpack off and looked around inside of it for the climbing kit and pitons. You had just
gotten them out when you heard a hissing sound coming from something around you. All of the sudden,
the chamber filled with the sound of gears turning and metal moving frantically. You watch as
something moved across the hole, blocking all the light and leaving you trapped underground in the
darkness.

Shortly afterwards, you heard another hiss and some more gears, followed by the room being filled with
light from glass jars placed around the walls. Looking around, this room looks much bigger than you had
initially realized. The walls were covered in pipes and gears, and the hissing was coming from a pipe that
was releasing steam. The room was surrounded by doors, each one locked with a complicated lock that
looked slightly different from the others. It seems that you’ve fallen into a dungeon, and you’re going to
have to leave a different way than how you came out.
Villain – none

Henchmen – Ajin Ra Baqa (proxy for Yellow Key), Beheaded (proxy for Red Key), Bheg (proxy for Blue
Key), Blightwing (proxy for Green Key), Cryptfinder (proxy for Purple Key), Daughter of the Desert (proxy
for Orange Key), Dog Soldier (proxy for Brown Key), Ekram Iffek (proxy for Aqua Key)

Locations – Birdhouse (1), Machine Mound (1), Locker (1), Store (2), Canny Jackal (3), Dilapidated Plaza
(4), Glass Pavilion (5), Oasis (6)

During this Adventure

Use the Mummy’s Mask Base Set, AD 1 and AD 2 to build this scenario.

After you’ve set up location decks, grab a number of barriers from the list in order until you have a
number of barriers equal to the number of locations: Gaunt Cadaver (proxy for Yellow Lock), Giant Sand
Eel (Proxy for Red Lock), Graven Guardian of Nethys (proxy for Blue Lock), Natron Zombie (proxy for
Green Lock), Old Eye-Taker (proxy for Purple Lock), Paracletus (proxy for Orange Lock), Sand Scorpion
(proxy for Brown Lock) and Sand Thief (proxy for Aqua Lock). Shuffle them and put one at the bottom of
each location deck.

When you build the blessing deck, replace 5 blessings with Liz’s Curse. Whenever a scourge card is put
into the blessing discard pile, suffer that scourge.

When all locations are closed, summon but do not build the location Volcanic Vents. Put the villain
Nebta-Khufre (proxy for Liz Spain) on top of that location deck. You win when Liz Spain is defeated.

Reward

Each character draws an item from the box. Adventure Card Guild characters may choose a bonus deck
upgrade.

Development

After defeating the cackling woman behind the controls and raiding her complex for food and water,
you manage to make your way back out into the desert sands. But as soon as you get outside, you
freeze. You try to move, but it was as if your body wasn’t following any commands you gave it. What if it
never did? You black out as a book falls open next to you, spewing smoke.
 Scenario π-2E: Maze of Games
You wake up in an unfamiliar location. Taking stock of the situation, each of you are sitting at a table in a
dimly-lit dungeon. The room has four exits, each with different symbol displayed prominently on the
doorframe. Reaching for your weapons, you quickly discover that all of your equipment is missing. You
quickly find your equipment, although perhaps not in a state that you would have preferred. On the
table is a series of cards, each one describing one piece of your equipment or one of your friends.

Standing in the corner of the room is a skeleton dressed in fancy clothes and a top hat. “I see we have
new travelers. Welcome to my world adventurers. I am the Gatekeeper, and welcome to the Maze of
Games.” His attitude acted like that should’ve explained everything, yet you understood none of it.

“There were people here before you. They called themselves saints, but they were no paragons of
virtue. They said they were tasked with preventing an apocalypse from happening and that there was a
coin hidden somewhere in my maze that would help them. I certainly let them explore, but it seems that
they’ve fallen prey to my various guardians. Given that they’ve saved your lives on multiple occasions, it
only seemed sporting that you were given a chance to save theirs.

“Beware though, adventurers. Everything in this maze is dangerous. I should know, I put it there.” And
with that, the skeleton disappeared in a flurry of playing cards.

That explanation left you with more questions than answers. Who were these saints? How had they
saved your lives? What actually is this place? Why was all your gear on cards instead of on your person?
What was this apocalypse that these saints were supposed to be stopping? You didn’t have a lot of
information to go on, but that was par for the course. At least you had a goal – find that coin. With a
hearty sigh, you pick up your cards, give them a good shuffle, and head on out into the maze.
Villain – Velriana Hypaxes (proxy for Mike Selinker)

Henchmen – Beheaded (proxy for The Gatekeeper), Blightwing (proxy for Dawizard), Cryptfinder (proxy
for Sharky McSharkerson)

Locations – Round Passage (1, RotR), Fox Hunt (1, S&S), Abattoir (1, WotR), Stonework Passages (1, MM)

During this Adventure

Each location deck uses cards from a different base set. Use the cards from that set’s Base Set, as well as
the appropriate AD1 and AD2 to build that location. Build the blessings deck using the Mummy’s Mask
Base Set. If a card refers to the box, it uses the box associated with the set that the card came from. The
servitor demon for this scenario is blood demon. You do not have a ship and are immune to structural
damage.

After building locations, grab a deck of playing cards, remove the Kings, and display one King by each
location. Then shuffle the remaining cards, and add two cards plus two additional cards if you have four
or more characters to each location deck. Shuffle the location decks.

Whenever you encounter a playing card, move to the location with the King of the same suit. Then
banish the card you encountered.

Do not remove locations from the game when you close them. Do not banish playing cards from location
decks when you close that location.

Reward

Each character draws a blessing from the box. Adventure Card Guild characters may choose a bonus
deck upgrade.

Development

You found it! Right there was the coin that the Gatekeeper talked about. You run towards it, but when
you get close, you freeze. You felt this before. You’ve run out of your ability to explore. But you just
need to go a little further. You think if you could reach it, you could just get that loot really easily.
Looking at your hand, you see that you only have one card left, and it’s utterly useless for this situation.
Yet, maybe… Just maybe if you looked at this card not how you would see it, but how the saints would
see it. It wouldn’t be the same, and it might even be more helpful…

What card is in your hand, and how can that card be more useful to you right now?