As the PCs make ready their trip to Katapesh, Almah also reminds the PCs that Katapesh’s markets are the most robust and fantastic in the Inner Sea region. Once they’ve determined what the Scroll of Kakishon is capable of doing, there’s no better place she can think of to find a buyer for the mysterious artifact. She also advises the PCs to avoid advertising that they have a possibly powerful artifact to sell, for as many and varied as the merchants of Katapesh are, her thieves and criminals are more so.
Almah can write a letter of introduction to Rayhan for the PCs, and encourages them to set out for the city of Katapesh at once—especially PCs who have never been there. The PCs have more than earned a vacation, in any case, and now that the Carrion King is defeated, Almah is more certain than ever of Kelmarane’s safety. She’ll even award each PC a bonus for the valuable services they’ve provided, for without their aid, Kelmarane would not be the burgeoning town it has become today. This reward should be a small bag of gems worth 2,500 gp per character—profits, Almah admits, she’s been saving from Kelmarane’s battle market and planning on gifting to the PCs for some time. With the Carrion King’s defeat and what looks to be a trip to the big city in the near future, Almah has decided now is the best time to reward the PCs for a job well done.
In addition to this reward, Almah also provides the PCs with an escort and mounts if they wish. Camels are the standard mount for long overland journeys in Katapesh, with travelers either mounted on camelback or riding in wagons. Almah can supply the PCs with enough camels for each of them to ride, or a single wagon that can seat four and additional camels as needed. Further, she asks her majordomo Garavel to accompany the PCs, especially if not all of them have been to the city of Katapesh. With the Carrion King dead, things in Kelmarane are relatively safe and calm, and Almah has no worries about sending her closest ally with the PCs, along with a small host of soldiers as well. Almah initially offers four soldiers to go with the PCs, but if a PC is romantically involved with Almah or can make a Level 5 Diplomacy check, she increases the number of guards to eight.
As the PCs travel east, they face a number of set encounters designed to introduce them to several of the organizations that play roles in this adventure. The Sons of Carrion are the primary antagonists for this section of the adventure, and as the PCs draw closer to Katapesh, the gnolls grow increasingly desperate. This part of the adventure’s climax occurs as the Sons of Carrion make a last-ditch attempt to ambush and defeat the PCs. The 210-mile journey from Kelmarane to Katapesh takes about 6 days (assuming the PCs travel by camel at a speed of 50 feet), and while the following events are each keyed to a specific time along that journey, feel free to adjust them as you see fit to make for more enjoyable play.
With a lantern jaw and short black hair, Garavel looks more like a swordsman than an accountant and business expert, yet it is he who oversees much of Almah’s personal business. A strange metal bolt protrudes from the left side of his skull, a sign of his direct servitude to the Pactmasters and a magical method of keeping his emotions in check while he engages in important business matters on their behalf. He often hides this bolt by wearing a plain white keffiyeh over his head—this metal bolt is a Pactmaster’s favor, and apart from ensuring loyalty and preventing emotional outbursts, the device grants Garavel an asset resistance bonus on saving throws against mind-affecting effects (but at the cost of never being able to gain the benefits of a morale bonus of any sort). A Level 4 Spot check is enough to notice the bolt while he wears his keffiyeh. The guards Almah sends with the PCs in fact answer to Garavel unless the PCs have taken significant steps to earn the trust of the Kelmarane guards over the past two adventures. The guards’ purpose on the journey is to provide the PCs with additional protection from lesser threats, but when the big set piece battles begin, feel free to have the guards serve as distractions. Some of the encounters on the road have large numbers of foes, and the assumption is that the additional guards will take some of the hits in these encounters so that the PCs will have more chances to strike.
Nonetheless, arriving at the city of Katapesh with guards intact should be one of the PCs’ goals.
You see a bearded swordsman with a placid emotionless face.
Health: 12
Armor: 2
Damage: 6 damage
Movement: Short
Modification: Level 4 Might and Speed Defense, Attack with falchion; Level 5 Intellect Defense, Perception, and Sensing Motive.
Languages: Common, Gnoll, Kelish, Osiriani, Varisian
Combat: Combat Garavel fights swiftly and silently, his face a placid mask. If one of the PCs in particular has earned his respect and trust, he tries at all times to place himself between that PC and any danger.
Combat Expertise: Speed Defense checks are eased, Attacks are disadvantaged
Equipment: Chain Shirt (Medium Armor), Falchion (Heavy Melee), composite longbow (Heavy Range) with 20 arrows, Cloak
Morale: Garavel fights to the death, abandoning a cause only if the Pactmasters will it.
Health: 8
Armor: 2
Damage: 4 damage
Movement: Short
Modification: Perception and Speed Defense (when melee fighting with sword and shield) Level 3
Languages: Common, Osiriani
Combat: The guards favor their longbows in combat, reverting to melee with their scimitars only if their foes move to engage, if directly commanded to change their tactics, or to move up to support other guards caught in melee.
Guards are not often wily, but they understand strength in numbers. If two or more guards attack the same target with at least one melee attack in the same round, the target’s Speed defense roll against those attacks is hindered.
Equipment: chain shirt (Medium armor), steel shield (asset to speed defense), scimitar (medium melee), longbow (medium range) with 20 arrows
Morale: The guards fight to the death.
The One Source Merchants’ Guild has agents in dozens of towns and cities along the western border of Katapesh, among them the town of Kelmarane. These agents keep an ear to the ground, on the constant lookout for any clues as to the location of the Scroll of Kakishon. The agent stationed in Kelmarane is a man named Radi Hamdi, and the timing of when he finds out the PCs have recovered the Scroll of Kakishon depends on how good the PCs are at keeping that a secret. This adventure assumes that the PCs don’t keep their discovery secret—after all, they should have no reason to keep the strange map under wraps until after talking with Almah. If they do avoid letting many others know about it, you can delay this event until later in the adventure or omit it entirely, in which case the One Source Merchants’ Guild finds out about the Scroll of Kakishon at some point soon after the PCs arrive in the city of Katapesh.
Assuming Radi Hamdi learns about the scroll and the PCs’ plan to journey to Katapesh, the rogue quickly realizes he’d have no chance to really defeat the party, and doesn’t like his chances of successfully pilfering the scroll. Instead, he decides to play to his strengths as a con-man, posing as a merchant who needs help in reaching Katapesh. Radi does his research, and to simulate this you can use some of what you know about your players against them—if you think that the PCs would be open to escorting a merchant from Kelmarane to Katapesh, then Radi poses as such and offers the PCs a reward of 1,000 gp once they reach the big city.
If you think the PCs would be more likely to react favorably to him if he poses as a merchant whose camels have been slaughtered by gnolls and his wares stolen, he heads out a day before the PCs and prepares a scene along the trade route for the PCs to come upon (a few slaughtered camels, some empty chests, and a believable hiding spot for Radi to burst out of as the PCs approach should do the trick).
Radi’s goal is, of course, to have the PCs take him under their wing, allowing him to observe them in battle, learn their strengths and weaknesses, and otherwise prepare the One Source Merchants’ Guild for their inevitable conflict with the PCs. He’ll try to learn which PC carries the Scroll of Kakishon, where it is carried, and what protections the PCs might have set up for it. If he gets the opportunity one night, he might even try to steal the scroll, although he’ll likely wait until they’re closer to Katapesh to attempt this. Radi’s role in the adventure, though, is not to deprive the PCs of the Scroll of Kakishon for long. His role, unfortunately for him, is to let the PCs know that someone, somewhere, wants the scroll. This information can play out in any number of ways, and it’s best to let it do so organically. If the PCs grow suspicious of Radi, they might learn the truth with discern lies or detect thoughts. If he fumbles his Move Silently and Sleight of Hand rolls, they might catch him trying to steal the scroll. If he does manage to get away from the PCs with the scroll, you should stage an encounter soon thereafter with Radi being ambushed by several gnolls working with the Sons of Carrion, timed so that the PCs come upon the scene just as the gnolls are looting the dead rogue and discover the stolen scroll. This development works well in that it reveals not only that Radi wanted the scroll, but that the gnolls do as well. In the end, Radi is essentially a tool you can use to foreshadow the coming conflict that waits for the PCs in the big city, not a method to deprive them of the whole point of the adventure before it even begins.
Radi is native to Katapesh, and he has a reputation there as a swindler and a thief. He frequently embarks upon some legitimate business enterprise, but upon some degree of success, figures out how to use it as a means to advance his career on the wrong side of the law. Because of this, he isn’t trusted by any of the merchants, though his skills and his contact with the underworld make him quite useful. His reputation is not so great that he is known to the average person of Katapesh, but he is well known to the city’s watch. A character who’s from the city of Katapesh who sees through one of Radi’s bluffs with a Sense Motive check should be told that his story seems off, and perhaps that he’s hiding something—at this point, a Level 6 Knowledge (local) check (with an asset if that character is from the city of Katapesh) allows a character to realize Radi is a semi-notorious con-artist who hires out to the highest bidder.
If the PCs reveal Radi’s identity, and can make him helpful (his initial attitude being hostile once the PCs are on to him), he admits that he’s working for one of Katapesh’s more notorious slavers—a man known as Father Jackal. Radi is unaware of Father Jackal’s association with the One Source Merchants’ Guild, nor does he know the man is actually a jackalwere. He was hired by Father Jackal (who paid Radi in rubies and promised more for the completed job) to find out where the Scroll of Kakishon was and then return to the city of Katapesh and contact Father Jackal with the silver raven he carries to report on his findings. When he realized that the PCs had the scroll and were bringing it to Katapesh, Radi decided to try to accompany the PCs and claim the scroll for himself, then return to the city and ransom the scroll to Father Jackal—perhaps not the wisest plan, but certainly one that appealed to Radi’s arrogance and greed. In any event, if Radi doesn’t get a chance to make his move before the PCs reach Katapesh, he slips away not long after the PCs first catch sight of the city; if he makes it to Katapesh alive, he’ll be part of the group that raids Rayhan’s villa in Event 7.
Health: 15
Armor: 2
Damage: 4 damage
Movement: Short
Size: Medium
Language: Common, Kelish, Gnoll
Skills: Level 5 on Speed Defense, Diplomacy, Intimidate, Slight of Hand
Combat: If forced to fight, Radi goes on the defensive, and fights only as long as it takes to try to escape peril.
Sneak Attack: +2 to attack damage.
Morale: If reduced to 7 health or less, Radi surrenders and begs for mercy, offering the PCs all of his gear and wealth in return for his life.
Equipment: Padded Armor (Light Armor), shortspear, figurine of wondrous power (Cypher that turns you to a silver raven for 10 minutes), 400 gp in rubies, 9 pp, 14 gp
Unlike the One Source Merchants’ Guild, the Sons of Carrion know the PCs are their target from the start. They number too few to strike against the PCs while they are in Kelmarane, but once the PCs leave, the Sons of Carrion begin tracking them and anticipating their moves. At some point after the PCs are well on their way, likely as evening on the second day of their journey approaches, the Sons of Carrion make their first attempt at revenge.
The trade route to Katapesh from Kelmarane follows a specific route for a reason: for large portions of the route, the land is barren and inhospitable, a grim combination of dry savannah and searing desert. Yet the trade route offers a safe series of oases that serve perfectly as campsites for weary travelers, allowing merchants to devote space they would have normally used to carry water to carry more trade goods. Although this adventure assumes that the PCs follow this advice, you can just as easily have the first ambush by the Sons of Carrion occur at any point along the way.
The Sons of Carrion know the PCs are powerful—they defeated their king, after all. Rather than risk an attack on their own, the gnolls lured a dangerous creature to the vicinity of the oasis the PCs are destined to reach on the evening of their second day. This creature is a monstrous beast called a death worm, a 30-foot-long worm that spits acid and lightning, and unfortunately for the gnolls, they underestimated their ability to handle the monster.
With the entire group’s aid, they managed to subdue a particularly large death worm using a trap baited with poisoned meat. The worm ate the meat and took enough Dexterity damage to become paralyzed, and then the gnolls bound the creature with several ropes and, joined by a pack of trained hyenas, dragged the monster the 2 miles from where they caught it back to this oasis.
The plan was to weaken the ropes, have one of the two clerics traveling with the Sons of Carrion use a few lesser restoration spells to waken the monster, and then flee the scene before it could break free. Unfortunately, the gnolls underestimated the monster’s strength and it broke free after only a few rounds and two lesser restorations. It swiftly killed the gnolls and hyenas, then burrowed into the sand nearby to digest its meal. The remaining Sons of Carrion, watching from a distant hilltop, cut their losses—a few of their number had perished in setting the trap, but the death worm was in place. Now, they wait.
Vultures wheel in the sky above the oasis in the gathering gloom. Scattered along the shore of the oasis are several mangled and quite dead bodies—gnolls and hyenas, although it’s impossible to tell how many of each due to their fragmentary state. These half-burned and melted remains are all that linger to tell of the catastrophe that resulted when the death worm broke free. Coils of rope, nearly 200 feet in all, lie sprawled along a 30-foot swath near the bodies, snapped and half-melted so that no single piece remains over 10 feet in length. A Level 4 Knowledge (arcana) or Heal check is good enough to note that whatever caused all this damage to bodies and ropes alike used a lot of acid and electricity.
Any PC that makes a Level 6 Spot check notices a flash atop a dune nearly a mile to the east, as if the last rays of the setting sun had just reflected off of something metallic. This is a glint off one of the weapons carried by the Sons of Carrion who are watching events unfold. As soon as anyone notices this glint, or if the PCs are about to leave the site or make camp, the death worm strikes.
Creature: The death worm is a 30-foot-long, slender, reddish-brown monster. Its skin is mottled yellow across its back, the colors tapering off near its head. Its mouth is huge and lined with diamond-hard teeth that allow it to break rocks and earth as it burrows underground. While its body hasn’t yet fully recovered from its poisoned meal, its appetite certainly has, and it attacks the PCs with a terrible ferocity.
This large worm’s body is muscular and scaly, its mouth a nightmare of row upon row of triangular teeth.
Health: 45
Armor: 3
Damage: 10
Movement: Long, burrow short
Size: Huge
Modifications: Level 4 (12) Stealth, Darkvision.
Combat: The worm lies in wait, but as it burrows up to attack, allow the party Spot checks to notice the creature’s approach and prevent it from emerging to spit lightning in the surprise round.
During Combat The monster lunges at the largest target, spitting acid as often as it can and attacking with a 5-point Power Attack while it waits for its acid to replenish.
Spit Acid within short range that does 10 damage. Death worms are immune to their own acid and that of other death worms.
Swallow whole one creature within short range for 10 acid/piercing damage. A successful grappling or escape check allow the creature escape from the maw of the death worm. Each round the target is swallowed they suffer 5 acid/crushing damage. The creature can attack with a small blade while inside, bypassing the death worm's armor.
Morale: The death worm fights to the death.
Treasure: Among the bits and pieces of gnoll remains are 43 gp, an obsidian holy symbol of Rovagug worth 20 gp, and a gnoll’s hand still clutching a cypher.
Development: Unless the PCs teleport to the site of the mysterious glint to the east, the Sons of Carrion are long gone by the time the PCs arrive to inspect the area. A Level 3 Survival check is enough to note that as many as a dozen creatures may have been watching from the area. The tracks lead north, out of the sand and into the rocky foothills of the Brazen Peaks, where following them farther is a Level 5 check. If the PCs successfully track these prints for several hours, feel free to have them discover the Sons of Carrion campsite in the scrublands—in this case, you can run Event 3, save in a reversed capacity with the PCs as the aggressors and the gnolls as the defenders.
The Sons of Carrion take what they learn from their semi-botched attempt to ambush the PCs in Event 2 and use that to stage their actual attack here. Time this event so that it occurs at a point near the end of the journey to the city of Katapesh, so that it can function as the climax of this part.
After the previous attempt to avenge the death of the Carrion King fails, the Sons of Carrion fall increasingly to infighting and bickering. The death of their cleric in the death worm fiasco leaves only two gnolls in the role of leader—a scheming ranger named Vlark and an aggressive and hot-headed sorcerer/rogue named Shiz. Arguments and tempers flare as these two fight over how best to strike at the PCs the next time, the remaining gnolls caught between Vlark’s call for another stealthy ambush and Shiz’s call for an all-out assault. When the last of these arguments comes to blows, Shiz murders Vlark in a gory, public battle. Her bloodlust up, she orders her pack (and their mercenaries) to move out and assault the PCs at once.
This confrontation with the Sons of Carrion should play out as a three-stage battle against the gnolls, with the PCs having a variable amount of time to prepare defenses. When you start this encounter, inform the players that their characters are approaching what appears to be another roadside oasis, but that this one has a ruined stone sphinx crouched nearby. At this point, have each PC make a Level 5 Spot check to notice an ominous cloud of dust approaching over stony hill and gritty dune. If no PCs make this check, they notice the onrushing Sons of Carrion as the gnolls, hyenas, and ettin crest a nearby hill, leaving the PCs a mere 1d6 rounds to prepare for the battle.
If at least one PC succeeds, though, they have 1d4 minutes to prepare for the battle.
Use the map of the Sphinx’s Oasis to run this battle—if the PCs wish to confront the Sons of Carrion on the open sand, they’ll not have the advantage of cover. If the PCs attempt to outrun the gnolls, you can use the rules for forced march (PH 164) to determine if the PCs outlast them and reach the safety of Katapesh before the gnolls catch up; you can even use a variant of the chase rules system presented in Pathfinder Adventure Path #7’s adventure, “Edge of Anarchy.” Yet this adventure assumes the PCs make the more heroic choice to face the gnolls head on; you can use Garavel to coax hesitant PCs into making this decision by having him point out that it’s better to use the Sphinx’s Oasis as a defensive position than to risk being caught out in the open by the enemy. Allow the players as much time as their Spot checks allow to prepare for the battle—once the fight begins, all three waves should occur in rapid succession.
This site was once a small shrine to an ancient Osirian deity now fallen into obscurity—all that remains are the two jackal-headed statues and one crumbling sphinx with a short flight of steps between its paws that leads up to a 10-foot-square alcove under its chin. This alcove is littered with refuse from previous travelers’ visits. The water in the oasis itself averages 3 feet deep. Nightback scorpions infest the place, but they are relatively harmless and timid and scuttle for cover once combat begins.
Creatures: The elements and the misadventure with the death worm have winnowed the ranks of the Sons of Carrion, yet they still number enough to pose a significant threat. The Sons of Carrion hit the PCs in three distinct waves as their three groups reach the site of the Sphinx’s Oasis. The desperate human mercenaries are the first wave to hit, sent ahead by the gnolls to “have the first chance at glory” (in fact, the gnolls see the mercenaries as expendable and are simply using them to soften up the PCs before the actual attack). The second wave consists of the bulk of the gnoll forces and their trained hyena pets, while the third wave is their leader Shiz, her ettin bodyguard, and a few gnolls she held back.
Wave One: This initial wave consists of a group of raiders dressed in dark robes and armed with scimitars and longbows. These are desperate men who, after their previous leader quailed at the thought of working for gnolls, murdered him for the promise of a few gold coins from the Sons of Carrion. They attempt to approach the largest visible concentration of PCs and their allies, splitting into two groups—four charge in to fight in melee, while another four hang back to use their longbows on any PCs who don’t rush to engage in melee. These raiders fight until four of their number have been killed, at which point they turn and flee—but as they do, they crash directly into Wave Two.
Health 8, 4 damage, 1 armor
Wave Two: This wave consists of a group of eight gnolls and four slavering hyenas. These vicious beasts loop around to approach the Sphinx’s Oasis from a different direction than the raiders did, hoping to sneak up behind the PCs if they can. If the PCs force the raiders to retreat and flee, they just happen to head directly into this second wave. The gnolls, furious at the raiders’ cowardice, spend the first round or two of combat attacking them, perhaps giving the PCs a few precious rounds to catch their breaths or regroup. Once the gnolls get close, they sic their hyenas on the PCs and hang back with their shortbows, forcing the PCs to come to them before switching to melee. These gnolls are loyal to Shiz and eager for vengeance—they fight to the death.
Hunched and feral, this furred, hyena-headed humanoid stands slightly taller than the average human.
Health: 8
Armor: 2
Damage: battleaxe 4 damage + bite 2 damage
Movement: Short
Modification: Low-Light spotting; Level 3 tracking and Speed defense if wielding a battle axe and shield.
Languages: Gnoll
Combat: Gnolls relish combat, but only when they have the obvious advantage of numbers. In other situations, they prefer to avoid combat except as a means of winning a kill from another hunter, or as a clever ambush to bring down a large meal. These hyena-men see no value in courage or valor, instead preferring to flee once it becomes clear that victory is not possible, noting that it is better to run with tail tucked away than to lose one’s tail entirely.
During combat, gnolls use a strange mixture of pack tactics and individual standoffs. If a gnoll feels that it is winning, it attempts to take down a weaker being rather than aiding its fellows. If the gnolls are struggling, they gang up on a powerful leader and try to take that creature down, in the hopes of forcing its allies to flee.
Equipment: leather armor, wooden shield, battleaxe, longbow with 20 arrows.
Morale: Gnolls will retreat if their health drops below 3.
Health 8, 4 Damage + Trip Check, 1 Armor
Wave Three: The final wave consists of Shiz, her ettin bodyguard, and three final gnolls. Starting with the second round of Wave Two, these gnolls move into position near the Sphinx’s Oasis at a point the PCs aren’t occupying.
They observe the battle, but do not join in immediately unless they are directly attacked. Once the combatants in Wave Two are down to only three survivors, Shiz shrieks in frustration and anger and orders the ettin and her remaining gnolls into battle, ordering them to “Slay them all in the name of the Carrion King!”
Hunched and feral, this furred, hyena-headed female humanoid stands slightly taller than the average human.
Health: 23
Armor: 4
Damage: 4 damage
Movement: Short
Modification: Darkvision
Languages: Gnoll, Common
Combat: During Combat Shiz lets her ettin engage foes in melee while she provides support with concussive missiles. In melee, she relies on burning hands unless she has a chance to try a sneak attack, in which case she uses her spear.
Sneak Attack: Adds 2 damage to her attack due to familiar hawk named Eddia distracting target
Fire Burst: 5 ambient fire damage within short range
Concussive Missiles: 4 missiles that does 3 damage and Might Defense check or fall prone.
Equipment: spear, light crossbow, obsidian unholy symbol of Rovagug worth 200 gp, 45 gp, 2 cyphers
Morale: Shiz fights to the death.
This lumbering, filthy, two-headed giant wears tattered remnants of leather armor and clutches a large flail in each fist.
Health: 35
Armor: 3
Damage: 2 attacks 10 damage + prone
Movement: Long
Size: Large
Modification: Perception, Might Defense Level 6, Speed Defense of Level 4
Languages: pidgin of Giant, Goblin, and Gnoll
Combat: Attacks anyone within immediate distance. Has two independent attacks.
Equipment: large Leather armor (light armor), 2 large flails
Morale: Fights to the death.
Hunched and feral, this furred, hyena-headed humanoid stands slightly taller than the average human.
Health: 8
Armor: 2
Damage: battleaxe 4 damage + bite 2 damage
Movement: Short
Modification: Darkvision
Languages: Gnoll
Combat: Gnolls relish combat, but only when they have the obvious advantage of numbers. In other situations, they prefer to avoid combat except as a means of winning a kill from another hunter, or as a clever ambush to bring down a large meal. These hyena-men see no value in courage or valor, instead preferring to flee once it becomes clear that victory is not possible, noting that it is better to run with tail tucked away than to lose one’s tail entirely.
During combat, gnolls use a strange mixture of pack tactics and individual standoffs. If a gnoll feels that it is winning, it attempts to take down a weaker being rather than aiding its fellows. If the gnolls are struggling, they gang up on a powerful leader and try to take that creature down, in the hopes of forcing its allies to flee.
Equipment: leather armor, heavy wooden shield, battleaxe, longbow with 20 arrows.
Morale: Gnolls will retreat if their health drops below 3.
Development: With Shiz’s death or defeat, the Sons of Carrion themselves are no longer a concern for the PCs. If Shiz escapes, feel free to develop her into a recurring character—she might round up a new band of murderers and assassins to try to strike at the PCs again, and this time she won’t balk at entering the city of Katapesh to do so.