Lens-Keeper Tiluatchek

A Pathfinder Campaign Setting Supplement Authors • Tim Hitchcock, Brandon Hodge, Michael Kortes, Jason Nelson, and Russ Taylor Cover Artist • Daren Bader Interior Artists • Branko Bistrovic, Damien Mammoliti, and Florian Stitz Cartographer • Rob Lazzaretti Creative Director • James Jacobs Senior Art Director • Sarah E. Robinson Managing Editor • F. Wesley Schneider Development Leads • Mark Moreland and James L. Sutter Editing and Development • Judy Bauer, Christopher Carey, James Jacobs, Rob McCreary, Erik Mona, Sean K Reynolds, and F. Wesley Schneider Editorial Assistance • Jason Bulmahn Graphic Designer • Andrew Vallas Production Specialist • Crystal Frasier Publisher • Erik Mona Paizo CEO • Lisa Stevens Vice President of Operations • Jeffrey Alvarez Director of Sales • Pierce Watters Finance Manager • Christopher Self Technical Director • Vic Wertz Marketing Manager • Hyrum Savage Special Thanks • The Paizo Customer Service, Warehouse, and Website Teams Introduction Ilvarandin Kho Storasta Sun Temple Colony Tumen Xin-Shalast Credits Table of Contents This product makes use of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary 2, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Advanced Player’s Guide, and Pathfinder Roleplaying Game GameMastery Guide. These rules can be found online as part of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Reference Document at paizo.com/pathfinderRPG/prd. Product Identity: The following items are hereby identified as Product Identity, as defined in the Open Game License version 1.0a, Section 1(e), and are not Open Content: All trademarks, registered trademarks, proper names (characters, deities, etc.), dialogue, plots, storylines, locations, characters, artwork, and trade dress. (Elements that have previously been designated as Open Game Content or are in the public domain are not included in this declaration.) Open Content: Except for material designated as Product Identity (see above), the game mechanics of this Paizo Publishing game product are Open Game Content, as defined in the Open Gaming License version 1.0a Section 1(d). No portion of this work other than the material designated as Open Game Content may be reproduced in any form without written permission. Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion is published by Paizo Publishing, LLC under the Open Game License version 1.0a Copyright 2000 Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Paizo Publishing, LLC, the Paizo golem logo, Pathfinder, and GameMastery are registered trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC; Pathfinder Adventure Path, Pathfinder Campaign Setting, Pathfinder Chronicles, Pathfinder Companion, Pathfinder Module, Pathfinder Player Companion, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, Pathfinder Society, and Titanic Games are trademarks of Paizo Publishing, LLC. © 2011, Paizo Publishing, LLC. Printed in China. Paizo Publishing, LLC 7120 185th Ave NE, Ste 120 Redmond, WA 98052-0577 paizo.com This book works best with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook and the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary. Although it is suitable for play in any fantasy world, it is optimized for use in the Pathfinder campaign setting. Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion That Which Is Lost avenues, humanoids of all shapes and types cavort and indulge in a festival of earthly delights, their secret hideaway a hedonistic utopia. Or is it? For the things in the dark may not be what they seem, and those emissaries who carry word of glorious Ilvarandin may not be who they say they are. Written by Russ Taylor—for additional information on Ilvarandin, see Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Into the Darklands. Kho: Millennia ago, the Shory possessed a magnificent culture, and were known for their refinement, their art—and most of all, their magic. Through the efforts of their powerful aeromancers, the Shory astonished other nations by lifting entire cities free from the earth and sending them sailing high above the clouds, where they wandered at their residents’ command, carrying the Shory far across continents and oceans. Yet despite their power, no empire lasts forever, and eventually the Shory fell from grace, and with them their cities. The first sky city to fall was the legendary city of Kho, which crashed under mysterious circumstances on the northeastern edge of the Mwangi Expanse, where the jungle meets the mountains. Today, the city lies lost and forgotten by many—but not uninhabited. For inside its wreckage, strange energies and engines still fire and pulse, and even stranger residents have claimed them as their own. Written by Jason Nelson—for more information on Kho and the surrounding regions, see Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Heart of the Jungle. Storasta: Once known for its gardens and groves, Storasta was lost long ago to the ravages of the demonic Worldwound. Its lands, annexed by the Abyss, defy even the greatest Mendevian warriors’ attempts to reach and redeem them. Though no more than 70 miles from the gleaming crusader city of Nerosyan, Storasta today is a ruin, all blackened stones and tainted plant life. Even many demons find the place inhospitable, so choked and infested is it with assassin vines, corrupted treants, and worse. Both the landscape and the river are grotesque parodies of their former glory, yet there are still great treasures and opportunities within the demons’ garden for those who dare pass beyond its unholy gates. Written by Jason Nelson. Sun Temple Colony: Azlant, the first bastion of human civilization, is little more than a legend today. From its womb rose gods and demons, and the culture that gave birth and succor to many of the cultures of the Inner Sea. Yet as time’s millstone ground on, Azlant fell, destroyed in the cataclysm of the Starstone’s fall. While most of the great nation sank into the sea, there remain scattered islands and patches still above the waves of the trackless Arcadian Ocean, guarded by the vicious and alien Mordant Spire elves. It was on one such island refuge that intrepid settlers from Avistan attempted to found E very city is an adventure location. Given the sheer number of people living and working in a full-fledged city, there’s bound to be just about any story you can imagine being told within its walls and buildings. Love and hate, murder, kidnapping, redemption, and falls from grace—it’s all just one block over, or in the next apartment. Add in a few fantastical elements, some shadow wizards, secret assassins, or honor-bound crusaders, and the possibilities increase a thousandfold. At least, that’s what we at Paizo thought when we came up with the idea for Cities of Golarion, an earlier installment in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting line. By our reckoning, getting six brand-new urban campaign settings in the same book, each full of weird locations and flavorful sidebars, would create an incredible resource for GMs looking for a quick city to set their next adventure in. As it turns out, a lot of the folks who picked up the book agreed, and we began thinking about how we might go about introducing even more such locations in the future. Yet as we were thinking, we realized something else. While living cities are a lot of fun, there are some stories they can’t tell: the stories in which a city falls, and horrors forgotten for a thousand years take root in its ruins. More than just dungeons within a city, we wanted to present entire cities that were themselves dungeons, with huge, bizarre themes that are too big for your average city. Whereas Cities of Golarion was designed to let GMs drop their PCs into the world and immediately start adventuring, this new book would put groups through their paces, providing irresistible lures and potentially fatal roadblocks before they ever reach the city walls. Thus Lost Cities of Golarion was born. Within its pages, you’ll find six heavily detailed cities drawn straight from the mythology of Golarion itself. These are no generic adventure sites, though they can of course be used as such by GMs in need of a quick adventure setting. Rather, these cities are living, breathing parts of the Pathfinder campaign setting— from the crashed remains of the legendary sky-city of Kho to the crumbling Thassilonian stronghold of Xin-Shalast. The creatures there have become legends, and every idol and artifact speaks of age and abandonment. Now send in your PCs and shake things up a little. The Lost Cities Below are summaries of the six cities presented in this book. Ilvarandin: In the deepest reaches of the Darklands lies a mostly abandoned city of spires and towers, stretching high into the darkness of a gaping vault. Within its shadowed Introduction a colony, a bold new holding from which the many peoples of Avistan could search for lost knowledge and explore the secrets of their own uncharted past. Yet what they found there was not simply old relics and writings, ancient technology and indecipherable magic. Despite their power, the great Azlanti were not perfect, and not all of their experiments were wise or ethical. It was the result of one such experiment that those first Andoren colonists encountered—and which became their doom. For on the lost and shattered islands of the Sun Temple Colony, an amorphous and gestating godling awaits, ready to secure new worshipers by any means necessary. Written by Brandon Hodge. Tumen: Amid the drifting sands of Osirion’s great deserts hides a city of wonders. Constructed by the legendary Four Pharaohs toward the end of their reign, the cliffside redoubt known as Tumen is four cities in one, each built to the specifications of its patron pharaoh. Yet with the fall of those godlike rulers, Tumen too has fallen into disuse and disrepair, with any roads to its gates hidden completely by the wildly shifting sands. Though the era of pharaonic greatness has passed into the history books, the lost city of Tumen still maintains many of the wonders that made it famous... and even more of the dangers. Written by Michael Kortes—for more information on Tumen and the surrounding region, see the Pathfinder Player Companion Osirion, Land of Pharaohs. Xin-Shalast: Before Earthfall, before the exodus and return of the elves, before Aroden became a god and Azlant was lost to the sea, the great empire of Thassilon dominated the northern coastal region known today as Varisia. Within this nation, seven rulers known as the Runelords presided over seven different fiefdoms, each dominated by one of the Seven Rewards of Rule (values that eventually became known as the Seven Sins of the Soul). Though the sinful empire has long since crumbled, leaving in its wake the shattered tribes that would eventually become Varisia’s indigenous peoples, not all of its monuments and relics have gone with it. High in the Kodar Mountains, the city of Xin-Shalast still stands, silent and brooding in the shadow of the great volcano Mhar Massif. Once the capital of Runelord Karzoug the Claimer’s empire of greed, Xin-Shalast now waits for bold adventurers to lay their own claim on its riches and awaken that which is best left asleep. Written by Tim Hitchcock—for more information on Xin-Shalast, Karzoug, and the empire of Thassilon, see the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, particularly “Spires of Xin-Shalast” in Pathfinder Adventure Path #6. Using This Book Each city in this book is presented using the same format, for greater ease of reference. While some of the categories are obvious in their function—the initial overview, appearance, history, residents, relations and trade, and sites of interest sections—some are a bit more involved. Perhaps the most unique of these latter sections is the city campaign section. Broken into low, middle, and high level, the campaign sections offer unique adventure hooks and gamemastering advice tailored to parties from all three level bands, as well as handy tips should you decide to run an entire campaign set in the city. Yet a lost city needs more than just cool locations, irresistible adventure hooks, and a beautiful full-page map. It also needs monsters—lots of monsters. Fortunately, we’ve got you covered. In addition to random encounter tables (again broken down by level band), we’ve also got a number of variant monsters for each location, new takes on classic monsters and simple modifications to turn generic creatures into memorable, region-specific horrors. Add on a full stat block for a brand-new monster or villain, plus a new major magical item or valuable artifact for each city, and you’ve got a whole toolbox of terror to throw at your players. Ilvarandin Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion “Of the poems the noted alchemist Vumeshki published in his noteworthy (if obscure) text ‘Songs at Sun’s Ebb,’ none has fascinated readers more than ‘Ilvarandin.’ In this curious poem, Vumeshki describes eternal life not on some distant plane beyond death, but in a physical utopia hidden in the unreachable depths below our own world. Note that in the original edition, the last quatrain is omitted. This omission, together with the obviously inferior technique and broken meter of these final four lines, clearly indicates that this stanza was added by a later, lesser talent, whose identity remains a mystery.” —Moraknon of Cheliax, penned in exile in Magnimar Ilvarandin D eep below western Avistan, hidden in an ancient cavern the size of a small country in the Darklands of Orv, sprawl the silent streets of Ilvarandin. Hundreds of miles wide, the vast city is perhaps the largest urban sprawl in or under Golarion, yet the endless streets and grand plazas of the so-called Mute Metropolis lie silent, its few inhabitants huddled together in small enclaves. Only in the city’s heart does Ilvarandin awaken. Here, dwarves walk side by side with duergar, elves rub shoulders with drow, and humans and derros live together in peace. None grow old here in High Ilvarandin, for it is an unearthly paradise of feasts and pleasure palaces. Yet this utopian vision is a sham: those who walk its streets are already dead, their corpses slave to the whims of intellect devourer masters who wear flesh like clothing, using their victims to indulge their unspeakable depravities. Isolated settlements of refugees from the upper Darklands eke out a meager existence in Ilvarandin’s outer reaches. They live in terror of the city’s mysterious heart, for while those who travel to the center of Ilvarandin may return, but they never do so unchanged. In truth, the horror is nearer than any suspect. The intellect devourers watch over these outlying settlements as humans tend ranches, fattening the bodies and minds of their herds until they’re ready to use them. And with the development of an eerie new elixir known as the midnight milk, a magical drug brewed from the secretions of vast fungal monsters, the intellect devourers are finally expanding their attentions beyond Ilvarandin’s borders to the surface world far above. Appearance The city of Ilvarandin lies within an immense cavern in Orv, the deepest realm of the Darklands below the Inner Sea region. Known as Vaults, these vast caverns were built and abandoned eons ago by mysterious creatures known today only as the Vault Builders. The city of Ilvarandin fills its vault from wall to wall, a dizzying expanse of towers, domes, arches, avenues, and plazas. The architectural style varies throughout, with buildings showing Azlanti, elven, serpentfolk, and even aboleth influence. Other expanses resemble styles known to the surface only in ancient ruins of uncertain origin, and still others are unlike any construction found elsewhere on Golarion. Clouds of phosphorescent fungi floating high above keep the city in a perpetual pale green twilight. These fungi also find ready homes in the graceful spires and towers of Ilvarandin, creating glowing landmarks visible for miles around. The millennia have not been kind to Ilvarandin. Whole districts have fallen into disrepair, and others have been deliberately razed to make way for fungal farms and subterranean herds. Even portions of the cavern ceiling have given way as the ancient magic sustaining the Vault’s architecture has faltered. Little trace remains of Ilvarandin’s original inhabitants. The rare intact sculpture, relief, or fresco indicates that many different races once called the great city home, but tells nothing of their fate. History The founding of Ilvarandin is lost in the mists of time. That the city was the work of the mysterious Vault Builders seems certain, for only they had mastery over the magic that keeps the dense stone of Golarion’s interior from reclaiming Orv’s many Vaults. Ilvarandin is ancient almost beyond reckoning, built in the manner of empires long faded from Golarion. The ultimate purpose of the patchwork city remains as mysterious as the fate of the Vault Builders themselves. When Earthfall reshaped Golarion thousands of years ago, the Vault Builders were already long vanished. When a band of elves seeking refuge from the cataclysm above fled deep into the Darklands, the seemingly abandoned city was an answer to their prayers. Not yet affected by the foul influences that would turn them into drow, the elves settled in the western portion of the city, in an area built Ilvarandin In deepest dark where corpselight glows, And love and life eternal flows; The spiral path of midnight shows: The route to Ilvarandin. Bright towers reach from sunless stones, Strange steeples vie with terraced cones; A blessed sight for aching bones: The spires of Ilvarandin. To live a life on Sunless coast, To love and lust amid the host, To seek and feel what pleases most: The joys of Ilvarandin. Long life for all and death for none, The mortal coil at last undone; Eternal bliss and joy begun: The gift of Ilvarandin. Yet distant lords of dark yesteryear, Draw plans in caverns steeped in fear— The worm-kings of Denebrum draw near: The end of Ilvarandin. Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion Ilvarandin SIGHTLESS SEA SIGHTLESS SEA TO DOGA-DELLOTH TO DOGA-DELLOTH TO MIDNIGHT MOUNTAINS TO MIDNIGHT MOUNTAINS TO DENEBRUM High Ilvarandin TO DENEBRUM AUMENTRAL THE WARRENS URKALLA OTHA-THOLA THE SCALES AUMENTRAL THE WARRENS URKALLA OTHA-THOLA THE SCALES SEKALETH TOLOSKA AJAMOTE High Ilvarandin AJAMOTE Duskport Irith-Arnakian Irith-Arnakian High Ilvarandin ARCHIVE OF AGES ARCHIVE OF AGES FEASTING HALL FEASTING HALL BATHHOUSE COLISEUM OSSUARY GRAND SPIRE GRAND SPIRE Irikusk River Iri k usk Riv e r Iri k usk Riv e r feet miles Ilvarandin in familiar elven style. But soon the vanishings began. First a few lone elves, then entire families disappeared, as though they had simply abandoned their homes and walked away. The surviving elves stayed, believing the city still safer than the other terrors of the Darklands. A scant year later, the vanished elves returned in force, fighting their kin savagely. Soon the root of their treachery became clear—as the crazed elves fell, horrors burst forth from their skulls. Shaking themselves free of gore were nearly indestructible mockeries of brains, walking on four clawed feet. These brain-creatures fell upon the elves, slaying them and claiming their bodies. Only a handful of the elves escaped Ilvarandin, their harrowing tale becoming the earliest account of the dangers of Ilvarandin. Frustrated at the loss of so many potential hosts, the intellect devourers never again acted so rashly. They spread agents clad in stolen flesh throughout the Darklands, seeding whispers and rumors of the Mute Metropolis among every society they discovered. Visionaries, malcontents, and refugees were lured to Ilvarandin in search of the promised utopia at its heart. Countless small communities have grown up in Ilvarandin over the centuries, tended by the intellect devourers as surface dwellers tend crops and cattle. Yet not all in the Darklands were easy prey. In the neighboring Vault of Denebrum, the intellect devourers found their greatest foe: the neothelids, few in number but more than a match for the walking brains. The intellect devourers retreated back to the safety of Ilvarandin, but neothelids have long memories and great patience. Five hundred years ago, the neothelids shook off the malaise of their ancient near-extinction, and once again sought mastery over all of Orv. For centuries, the two ancient evils have warred by proxy, the neothelids using wriggling minions like seugathi and worms that walk, and the intellect devourers battling with stolen bodies selected specifically for their skills and powers in battle. Countless times Denebrum has neared victory in the field, only to be thwarted by the clever stratagems of High Ilvarandin. Even so, the intellect devourers continue to lose ground, and now the forces of Denebrum are encamped even within Ilvarandin’s Vault. Residents Expatriates from all manner of Darklands communities have come to Ilvarandin. Most band together in small communities scattered through the outer edges of the city. Morlocks in particular have taken well to the city, gathering in dens of as many as 200 in the district of Toloska. A number of derro settlements pepper Ilvarandin, dwelling in tunnels under the buildings themselves. Heretical or exiled drow, having been forced to flee their homes in Sekamina above, live in the elven boroughs of Otha-Thola to the south of Duskport and Sekaleth to the north. Gargoyles are common in other reaches of the city, lurking amid its countless rooftops. Several tribes of mongrelfolk, deformed humanoids scorned by others as worthless save for menial labor, also reside in Ilvarandin. Vegepygmies dwell in reaches of the city thick with fungal infestations, while duergar, svirfneblin, and troglodytes rule other areas. The southwestern edge of Ilvarandin borders the immense Darklands ocean known as the Sightless Sea, and along these jagged coastal cliffs and beaches dwell many skum under the influence of hidden aboleth masters. High Ilvarandin is the most populous of all the boroughs of Ilvarandin, home to about 12,000 intellect devourers, their host bodies, and a few thousand servants of varied races. Intellect devourers are almost never seen outside their hosts, the “skinless” among them made subjects of endless mockery and derision. Relations and Trade Trade is the lifeblood of any city, even ones in the unimaginable depths of Orv. For the intellect devourers of High Ilvarandin, the lust for luxury competes with the need for secrecy, and they take care that merchants not be seen approaching the city. What cannot be imported by magic is brought up the Irikusk River by the black galleys of Leng. Those who pry into the affairs of the denizens of Leng can find themselves shackled in the hold of a ship bound for High Ilvarandin. Outside of High Ilvarandin, ships reach the city through the Sightless Sea, sailing up the mouth of the Irikusk to the docks of Duskport. Here, vessels crewed by denizens of Leng, tieflings, and even stranger crews hawk their wares, trade slaves, and organize overland caravans. Travelers within Ilvarandin rely on the Builder’s Way, a great marble avenue fully a hundred feet wide that spans the entire length of Ilvarandin. The River Irikusk also spans the Vault, though few dare travel its full length. The burgeoning garrison of Irith-Arnakian in Urkalla draws increasing interest from merchants, and promises to become a new center of trade. What little trade leaves Ilvarandin by land does so via the southern passage toward the Vault of Doga-Delloth, as Irith-Arnakian allows merchants free passage. Few brave the northern route through war-torn Aumentral, and the passage east to the Midnight Mountains is blocked by fierce gugs who control the collapsed district of Ajamote. Sites of Interest Aumentral: The architecture of Aumentral, now claimed by the worm-armies of Denebrum, is more varied than that of most of Ilvarandin’s districts. Slender towers and ornate minarets dominate, reminiscent of old Garundi Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion cities. The eastern fungus swamp has curious primitive stone buildings, half dry, half submerged. To the west, a great chasm splits the Vault floor to dizzying depths. A sizable enclave of svirfneblin dwells in the rift. Pavvid Nermeshnatesh (N male svirfneblin illusionist 7), eldest of the tribe and close friend of the chief, ensures their continued survival through clandestine deals with the worms that walk. The depths of the fissure are perilous, yet the few svirfneblin to survive the deep came back with opals, sapphires, and emeralds of unparalleled quality, along with tales of searing heat and blood-drinking, tentacled ghorazaghs (Pathfinder Adventure Path #29 84). Travel through Aumentral is perilous indeed. Seugathi patrols deliver strangers who are not outright slain to the worms that walk, ancient minions of the neothelids. These generals of Denebrum are masses of worms and maggots walking upright in a mockery of the form of humans. Duskport: The Irikusk River widens as it nears the Sightless Sea, where a long stretch of piers and warehouses lines the northern bank. Duskport is home to a fiercely independent assortment of drow, duergar, tieflings, mongrelfolk, and even humans. Duskport’s nominal ruler is known only as the Rakehell, a former merchant captain of oddly variable gender. The Rakehell entertains a steady stream of lovers of a variety of races and both sexes. One former paramour, the half-retired smuggler Laerstrum (NE male drow rogue 5), suspects the Rakehell’s hand in the disappearance of a dear friend and confidant. He would pay handsomely for information or revenge. Storm’s Rest is the only temple of note, built along a large dock and dedicated to the demon lord Socothbenoth. Otha-Thola: Graceful elven architecture dominates the northern half of Otha-Thola, continuing even into the shallows of the Sightless Sea. Here, a beautiful coral city lies beneath dark waters, its only residents strange scaled lacedons. Aboleth and their skum minions claim the coastal waters, while skum freed of aboleth control dwell on land. A plateau rises over a mile in height to the south, almost reaching the roof of the Vault. A substantial tribe of mongrelfolk dwells in the barren stone buildings of its heights. The Scales: The Scales make up the eastern face of Ilvarandin. Architecture similar to the ancient serpentfolk city of Svernagati gives way to grand ruins of cyclopean make in the southeast. Fearsome gugs dwell among these great spires and toppled buildings, their seemingly random malice guided by four powerful intellect devourers (CE intellect devourer sorcerers 10 with advanced gug host bodies). The northern expanse of the Scales is ravaged by the plague that gives the region its name, thickening the skin and cracking it into dry, flaky scales. The disease is particularly devastating to reptiles. The Scales Type disease, contact or injury; Save Fort DC 16 Onset 1d4 days; Frequency 1/2 days Effect 1d2 Dex damage and 1d2 Cha damage; Cure 2 consecutive saves. Reptiles and creatures with the reptilian subtype receive a –2 penalty on saving throws and require 3 consecutive saves to recover. Urkalla: The fierce urdef hans of Doga-Delloth have established a beachhead amid the remains of the blocky, primitive buildings built in the long-forgotten fashion of the troglodytes. Much of this borough lies in ruins, scavenged to build their fortress of Irith-Arnakian or razed to deny shelter to their enemies. The feral warlord Vilthanter (NE female urdef han fighter 9) holds undisputed command over more than 1,000 soldiers. She has survived not one but five births, all sired by urdef hans defeated in single combat. New recruits in the fortress prove their worth by traveling alone into the city and returning with not less than five bloody skulls. Most prized of all are skulls pierced by an intellect devourer’s passage. The Warrens: Named for the subterranean city beneath their surface, the mountains of the Warrens are old and weathered, not even a mile in height. The architecture of Ilvarandin varies greatly in this district, but is dominated by a mix of dwarven construction and giant-sized buildings reminiscent of ancient Thassilon. The Warrens are largely deserted save for all manner of crawling beasts. A scattering of svirfneblin and duergar eke out a meager existence in small villages, while derros are encamped in the foothills, desperately searching for a remedy to the blight ravaging their prized cytillesh crop (see page 20 of Into the Darklands). Deep within the Warrens is the Builder’s Mark, a crater fully 3 miles across. Great stairs lead to the crater’s floor, devoid of the buildings found elsewhere in Ilvarandin. Rumors abound of a secret entrance concealed in the crater’s floor that leads to a Vault Builder’s personal domain. All manner of oozes live within the Builder’s Mark, themselves fodder for titan centipedes. Scattered bands of derros furtively mine the crater floor, hauling away carts of the black sludge that seeps into their mineshafts. The derro savants form this goo into constructs that share many of the abilities of clay golems. High Ilvarandin The heart of Ilvarandin is surrounded by miles of deserted buildings of the Azlanti style. Few venture along these streets. Those who dare return possessed by intellect devourers, and seek to lure others to their doom. Unlike the outer Vault, High Ilvarandin is bustling and full of life, a vibrant city within a city. Ilvarandin The monsters and beasts on the outskirts of High Ilvarandin are rarely what they seem. Vigilant intellect devourers patrol the area in stolen flesh, with giant vermin being a particular favorite. Even the river is guarded by dire cave crocodiles, elasmosauruses, and a pair of water orms—intellect devourers all. Few uninvited ships survive to reach the docks of High Ilvarandin. Over the course of thousands of years, the intellect devourers have spun countless dweomers over the city to free their homeland from decay. No corpse rots in High Ilvarandin, nor do the bodies stolen by the intellect devourers. Some favored bodies have been worn for decades or even centuries. As a consequence, an aura of moderate necromancy radiates throughout High Ilvarandin. The rising threat of Denebrum moved the intellect devourers to raze the buildings south of High Ilvarandin. A wall 30 feet tall stands in their place, overlooking more than a thousand yards of cleared ground and rubble. The northern side of the city is unwalled, as the river Irikusk is trusted as a final bastion against assaults from the north. High Ilvarandin CE large city Corruption +1; Crime +3; Economy +4; Law +2; Lore +4; Society +2 Qualities insular, notorious, prosperous, racially intolerant (all but intellect devourers), strategic location Danger +20 Demographics Government magical Population 15,500 (12,000 intellect devourers, 2,000 vegepygmies, 1,500 other) plus 11,500 host bodies (2,500 humans, 2,000 drow, 1,500 duergar, 1,000 elves, 1,000 morlocks, 1,000 skum, 500 derros, 500 dwarves, 500 orcs, 1,000 other) Notable NPCs Arena Master Dakreyos (CE intellect devourer fighter 8 with male advanced gug host body) Bereshkhani (CE male ghast alchemist 15) Furnace-Keeper Laerxniyzon (CE intellect devourer rogue 8 with male azer* fighter 7 host body) Historian Caerilant (CE intellect devourer sorcerer 10 with female elf monk 9 host body) Lens-Keeper Tiluatchek (CE intellect devourer sorcerer 12 with male human fighter 5/barbarian 5 host body) Lord Feaster Ralnisham (CE intellect devourer sorcerer 12 with various host bodies) Marketplace Base Value 13,600 gp; Purchase Limit 100,000 gp; Spellcasting 8th Minor Items 4d4; Medium Items 3d4; Major Items 2d4 * See Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2. Archive of Ages: Part museum and part mausoleum, the Archive of Ages was built as a monument to the glory of the intellect devourers. Its labyrinthine rooms and halls are filled with the art, writings, and relics of their conquests. Countless stuffed and preserved bodies grace its galleries, including many from species now extinct. The upper reaches store moldering tomes and scrolls, knowledge gleaned by 10,000 years of body-thieving. Many are long lost to the surface; some date back to before the Age of Darkness. The curator and chief historian of the museum, Caerilant, has lost favor in Ilvarandin, and may soon be stripped of its status. Bathhouse: Each bath in this grand marble building features a unique blend of perfumes and minerals. Temperatures range from scalding hot to icy cold. Outside are grand pavilions, outdoor springs, and a beautiful sculpture garden. Vegepygmies and enslaved salamanders staff the bathhouse, overseen by furnace-keeper Laerxniyzon. The bathhouse hosts regular bacchanals, often degenerating into ribald debauchery and brawls once the drink runs low. Coliseum: In better days, the blood-soaked sands of the coliseum held all manner of lethal games, with intellect devourers both as spectators and participants. The shortage of slaves has put an end to most games, with would-be victims of the arena now destined for the feasting hall or the battle against Denebrum instead. Arena master Dakreyos schemes to claim the feasting hall’s slaves for his own, and seeks to eliminate his hated rival, Ralnisham. Feasting Hall: Always redolent of spices and roast meat, the feasting hall of High Ilvarandin holds more than 500 guests. The proprietor Ralnisham changes bodies like clothing, favoring gorgeous specimens and stunning garb. The fare of the feasting hall varies daily. Sapient creatures are a particular favorite, strapped to the tables and consumed organ by organ, their suffering prolonged by the intellect devourers’ healing powers. The hall’s extensive underground rooms are more dungeon than larder. Grand Spire: This graceful obelisk of pink-veined marble towers over High Ilvarandin, perhaps the tallest such structure in the entire city. No windows or doors pierce its exterior, but from inside the city can be seen as though through glass. Mounted inside at the spire’s apex is a potent artifact known as a dream lens—a device capable of capturing a dreaming mortal’s mind and providing a gateway through which an intellect devourer may enter a drugged host’s skull from a vast distance. Tiluatchek is often found at work in his laboratory near the spire’s apex. Ossuary: An unimaginable tangle of bones fills this charnel pit, which is home to more than a hundred ghouls and ghasts. Strong resistance sends them cowering, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion yapping back to their warrens. One particularly ancient ghast named Bereshkhani, exiled a century ago from Nemret Noktoria, knows much of the secret ways of Ilvarandin. It was with his aid that the intellect devourers perfected the sinister drug known as (see page 11). The Ilvarandin Campaign High Ilvarandin faces extermination. The neothelids have encroached on outer Ilvarandin for centuries, and their control now stretches across the banks of the Irikusk. More than anything, the intellect devourers need bodies to triumph against the worms, the stronger and more capable the better. Centuries of war have stretched the intellect devourers’ capacity to replace bodies to the breaking point. But the ruling caste draws close to their greatest triumph, a plan to swell their ranks with tens of thousands of newborn intellect devourers. With artifacts called dream lenses and a magical drug called midnight milk, they have developed a way to harvest new bodies from the surface world with harrowing efficiency. Spread by spies and allies on the surface, midnight milk is taking root among the intellectuals and upper crust of Cheliax, Nisroch, and Varisia. Midnight milk brings euphoric dreams of subterranean vistas and impossible places. With repeated exposure, the dreamer’s roaming mind reaches the lost city of Ilvarandin. Here, an intellect devourer may insinuate itself into the dreaming mind. In time, this psychic parasite consumes the victim’s brain, allowing the intellect devourer to transport itself from the depths below directly into the addict’s skull. These intellect devourers then use their new bodies to spread midnight milk to new hosts, eventually sending new soldiers with their intellect devourer hosts back into the dark below to join the war. Low-Level Adventures Ilvarandin is no place for low-level characters, but the introduction of midnight milk into a surface society provides an excellent way to introduce new adventures to the intellect devourers and the Mute Metropolis. Rumors may reach the PCs of a new drug on the streets called midnight milk. As they investigate drug dens and crime syndicates, it becomes clear that the drug is becoming a favorite among not only the nobles, but among soldiers as well. Eventually, the PCs should uncover Vumeshki’s poem “Ilvarandin.” One of the drug’s earliest victims, Vumeshki spent many years convinced that Ilvarandin was a true paradise where one could seek immortality and perpetual youth. His consumption by the intellect devourer Tiluatchek (who has since moved on to other bodies) was a slow and gradual process that laid much of the groundwork for this magical invasion of dreams. Eventually, the PCs should discover that those who take the midnight milk have similar dreams of strange subterranean cities, and after defeating a guild of thieves or ghouls responsible for spreading the stuff through their home town, should realize that the drug’s source lies deep below the earth. Medium-Level Adventures A mid-level Ilvarandin campaign may focus on the journey to the Mute Metropolis itself. The passage to Ilvarandin may well take several months to uncover and traverse. The intellect devourers themselves travel down through the three Darklands realms via various routes, but keep a secret base of operations in the city of Umberweb. The PCs may uncover one such route, or they may find their own path through Darklands. Once the PCs reach Ilvarandin, they can select any one of the countless buildings in the city’s outskirts as a base of operations, but will likely need to first clear it out of whatever monstrous denizens dwell within. The best hope of long-term security is one of the many small settlements in Ilvarandin. The mongrelfolk and svirfneblin are most inclined to take in friendly strangers, but duergar or drow might consider harboring a capable band in hopes of gaining assistance in their own plots and schemes. The demands of adventuring may lead the PCs to Duskport in search of trade; its seedy docks provide resources not readily available elsewhere, such as capable spellcasters and markets where PCs might acquire expensive goods and magic items. High-Level Adventures Only seasoned adventurers should dare to venture into High Ilvarandin itself. The streets around High Ilvarandin are patrolled by intellect devourers clad in monstrous flesh, as are the waters of the River Irikusk. Travel beneath the ground or through the sky above offers the safest approach to the intellect devourer stronghold. Venturing into High Ilvarandin is perilous, and even carefully disguised parties won’t remain undiscovered for long. While in the inner city, the PCs should uncover the full scope of the intellect devourer’s plot to convert Ilvarandin thousands of surface dwellers into unwilling host soldiers for the war against the worms of Denebrum. To truly end the threat of Ilvarandin, the PCs must remove or destroy the dream lens, the artifact allowing the invasion into Golarion’s dreaming minds. The lens is mounted in a tall spire at the center of High Ilvarandin, with strange golems and arcane countermeasures guarding the way. It is watched over by Tiluatchek himself, the intellect devourer most responsible for the spread of midnight milk. The exact method for destroying the dream lens is left to the GM to devise. Random Encounters Low Level d% Result Avg. CR Source 1–5 2d4 duergar Bestiary 117 6–10 1 cockroach swarm Bestiary 2 58 11–18 2d6 drow Bestiary 114–115 19–23 1 gelatinous cube Bestiary 138 24–30 1d4 svirfneblin scouts Bestiary 261 31–39 1d6 vegepygmies Bestiary 273 40–46 1d3 morlock scavengers Bestiary 209 47–53 1d6 jinkins or vexgits Bestiary 2 142, 145 54–61 1d4 derro scouts Bestiary 70 62–69 2d4 ghouls Bestiary 146 70–74 1 ochre jelly Bestiary 218 75–83 2d4 troglodyte raiders plus d3–1 monitor lizards Bestiary 267, 194 84–88 1d2 basidironds Bestiary 28 89–94 1d4 id oozes (see gray ooze) Bestiary 166 95–100 1 lurker above MMR* 50 * See Misfit Monsters Redeemed. Medium Level d% Result Avg. CR 1–6 1 black pudding Bestiary 35 7–14 2d4 drow warrior 1 and 1d3 drow noble cleric 3 Bestiary 114–115 15–22 2d4 morlocks Bestiary 209 23–30 3d4 derros* Bestiary 70 31–36 1 giant slug Bestiary 254 37–46 1 intellect devourer in host body 8 Bestiary 180 47–54 4d3 skum Bestiary 253 55–60 1 titan centipede Bestiary 2 53 61–68 1d4+1 urdefhans on skavelings Bestiary 2 276, 42 69–74 1d6 fungal mounds** page 12 75–80 3d4 gargoyles Bestiary 137 81–88 1 young roper Bestiary 237, 295 89–94 2d4 seugathi Bestiary 2 243 95–100 1 purple worm Bestiary 230 * Including 1 derro sorcerer 4. ** Variant or new monster detailed in this chapter. High Level d% Result Avg. CR Source 1–12 1 purple worm Bestiary 230 13–20 1d4 elder earth elementals Bestiary 123 21–28 2d4 vrocks Bestiary 69 29–38 1 adult umbral dragon Bestiary 2 102 39–53 2d6 intellect devourers in host bodies* 14+ Bestiary 180 54–63 1 worm that walks Bestiary 2 286 64–73 1d10 gugs Bestiary 2 151 74–83 1d6 ropers Bestiary 237 84–95 4d3 advanced seugathi led by 1 neothelid Bestiary 2 243 and Bestiary 214 96–100 1 shoggoth Bestiary 249 * Host bodies of CR 2–8, 25% chance leader is an 8th-level sorcerer. Midnight Milk The strange and powerful drug known as midnight milk is the cornerstone of Ilvarandin’s most recent attempt to bolster its armies against the worms of Denebrum. Distilled from the excretions and seepings of vast mu spores that f loat in the skies above the Midnight Mountains, midnight milk has a strange connection to the powerful and alien dreams these immense slumbering monsters spend the majority of their time pursuing. By distilling the f luids and mixing them with other alchemical elixirs and catalysts, the intellect devourers and their ghast ally Bereshkhani have concocted an elixir capable of allowing an intellect devourer to use its body thief ability at great range. The only tricky part— getting the targets addicted to the stuff, for it takes time for midnight milk to work its unwelcome magic upon the dreaming mind. Midnight milk is imbibed through the mouth. A single dose is enough to send most drinkers into a deep sleep, during which the user experiences very vivid dreams. All of these dreams are superficially similar, starting with a sensation of an endless fall into what seems a bottomless pit that eventually reveals itself to be a fall downward toward a vast range of subterranean mountains lit by strange moon- like shapes floating near the vast cavern roof. If the dreaming victim dreams long enough (with successive doses of midnight milk, each dream lasts longer and allows the dreamer to travel farther), they travel ghostlike to the west and eventually reach Ilvarandin, at which point the dreaming mind “lands” in the body of a creature that dwells there—typically a troglodyte, drow, duergar, derro, mongrelman, or morlock, but sometimes stranger things like driders or gugs or ropers, or even black puddings or purple worms. The “dreamer” experiences his explorations of Ilvarandin unaware of the fact that he’s in a strange new body, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion with no ill effect. If the intellect devourer reaches the dream lens in time, the intellect devourer can attempt to use its body thief ability on the dreamer—see page 180 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary for rules. If the attempt fails, the dreamer awakes with a start with blood pouring from eyes, mouth, nostrils, and ears, but no real memories of what caused the incredible pain. Variant Monsters The Mute Metropolis is a veritable menagerie of strange monsters and bizarre creatures, for the intellect devourers are fond of importing exotic bodies to raise as hosts. Yet one strange variant is a native of the region. The fungal swamps of Ilvarandin that cake the shores of the Irikusk River are home to a variety of shambling mound composed of mold and mushroom rather than actual plant matter. Many of these shambling mounds carry symbiotic masses of dangerous fungi such as yellow mold or even green slime that has adapted to not feed on the fungus itself. Rulers of Ilvarandin The rulers of High Ilvarandin are powerful intellect devourers—most of which are arcane spellcasters. Status as a ruler of Ilvarandin is achieved when no less than 400 intellect devourers cede their authority to another in a process they call melding. As many as 20 intellect devourers rule in Ilvarandin at any given time. One of the most powerful in the city, Lens-Keeper Tiluatchek, oversees the harvest and production of midnight milk and currently favors wearing the Ulfen warrior Sigmar (human fighter 5/barbarian 5, Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide 263), but has hidden away numerous other bodies for specialty needs, including those of a storm giant, an umbral dragon, a succubus assassin, and the surfacer poet Vumeshki, author of Songs at Sun’s Ebb and one of the first to succumb to midnight milk.

Defense

Offense

Statistics

Description

Intellect devourer sorcerer 12

Before Combat: Tiluatchek keeps false life active at all times. If expecting a fight, it casts bear’s endurance, eagle’s splendor, invisibility, mirror image, resistance, and shield. It always prefers to fight in a host body rather than its natural form.

During Combat: If not already in a host, it tries to use its body thief ability. It favors neutralizing threats with enchantments over direct conflict. In its natural form, Tiluatchek cannot speak, and must use Silent Spell to cast.

Morale: If reduced below 50 hit points, Tiluatchek teleports away and devises a new plan of attack.

Base Statistics: If not given time to cast the spells listed in its

Before Combat: section, Tiluatchek’s stats are: AC 23, flat-footed 16; hp 178; Fort +11, Ref +12, Will +16; acidic ray 10/day; concentration and save DCs reduced by 2; Con 19, Cha 24; Bluff +38, Diplomacy +20, Disguise +27, Use Magic Device +23

Str 12, Dex 25, Con 23, Int 18, Wis 14, Cha 28 Base Atk +12; CMB +12; CMD 29 Feats Combat Casting, Empower Spell, Eschew Materials, Extend Spell, Greater Spell Focus (enchantment), Improved Initiative, Quicken Spell, Silent Spell, Spell Focus (enchantment), Still Spell, Toughness, Weapon Finesse Skills Bluff +40, Craft (alchemy) +17, Diplomacy +22, Disguise +29, Fly +20, Knowledge (arcana) +15, Knowledge (history) +15, Knowledge (local) +12, Perception +21, Sense Motive +20, Spellcraft +22, Stealth +23, Use Magic Device +25 Languages Orvian, Undercommon (cannot speak); telepathy 100 ft.

SQ bloodline arcana, long limbs (+10 ft.), unusual anatomy (25%) Gear (only if encountered in a host body) ring of protection +2, rod of splendor, unguent of timelessness (2), 5,000 gp of luxury goods Kho Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion “In the time before our fathers, before Kuta wrestled the lion, the people of the lower hills were visited by people from the sky. They were not the sky people of the Doorway—for you know that story, and how Old-Mage Jatembe defeated the King of the Biting Ants—but real people, humans who flew in a great city torn from the earth. The hill people rushed to meet them, yet the flying city continued on beyond the mountains.

“And then something happened. The sky roared, and lit like fire. When next the city appeared, it was as a falling star, crashing down among the great peaks. Our people were frightened, but in our hearts we knew the truth: the sky people had stolen their city from the earth. And the earth had reclaimed it.” —M’delo, Uomoto storyteller Kho T he glory of the world, a magical marvel still spoken of in hushed whispers, Kho was at once the master and the envy of every place it roamed. Its gleaming crystal towers and domes sparkled and shone in the light of sun and moon, a beacon signaling the power and ambition of humanity and its magic at the dawning of the great empires. The crown jewel in the Shory Empire, the city of Kho rose to heights undreamed of, but for all of its majesty and pride, it is remembered less for its rise than for its fall. More than 6,000 years ago, the Soaring City fell to earth and smote its ruin upon the unforgiving land beneath. The light of Kho was extinguished, and its name became a byword against hubris, an object lesson on how great a fall could be. Millennia later, the ruins of Kho lie shattered, with much of the city pulverized, half-buried, and overgrown in the Barrier Wall mountains northeast of the Mwangi Expanse. Their location long since forgotten save in the secret histories of the wise or among the few tribes and treasure-hunters who comb the nearby mountains, the tumbledown remains of Kho and its shattered crystal structures retain their power to amaze. Even broken, cracked, askew, and cloaked in verdant greenery, their beauty is weathered but undimmed, accented by a verdant wildness. Yet few brave the Mwangi Expanse or Osirion’s scorching deserts for mere beauty. It is magic that draws explorers to Kho, the mysteries and relics of a bygone civilization, and the eldritch secrets of its fraying but enduring enchantments. And for these things, explorers risk all.

Appearance At first glance, the ruined city of Kho hardly looks like a city at all. Its high, cleft valley is overgrown with verdant foliage more characteristic of the lower jungles, though broken in places by patches of scrub meadow. Damp breezes carry a hint of plumeria and hanging orchid, and a narrow river meanders across the valley floor, tumbling over a cascading fall from a high shelf at the valley’s eastern end and dancing amid rocks and rapids along the valley floor. When shrouded in mist or low cloud, Kho is indistinguishable from a hundred other jungle valleys, but in the bright light of the sun or stars, the city comes alive. The meadows dance with sparkling rainbows from countless faceted fragments, while hummocks and ridges across the valley floor glow with captured light, revealing immense cracked domes and fallen towers of lambent crystal worn smooth with the ages. Monolithic towers lean drunkenly against the valley walls at its eastern end, pockmarked with fractures and long-vanished windows hung with curtains of clinging creepers, while fallen spires serve as natural bridges across the river. In a few places, weathered fragments of the ancient city remain, broken and canted against the valley wall but still showing traces of the masterful architecture of ancient Shory. History Kho was founded roughly 7,000 years ago by the Shory Empire, and in its heyday was the greatest of Shory cities and the first of their legendary flying sky citadels. Through magic lost to modern mages, they lifted their great city and its foundations from the rock beneath it and sent it soaring into the air, climbing even above the clouds. This magnificent magic was duplicated in cities across Shory, until they had created an aerial empire that looked down upon all others. Removing themselves from the concerns of land-bound nations, and considering themselves both literally and figuratively above the concerns of the “crawlers” beneath them, the Shory grew mighty and haughty. They explored across oceans and far continents, defying those who would deny them passage, conducting their magical experiments with impunity.

The cause of Kho’s downfall is a mystery to sages. Some suspect rebellion or civil war among the Shory archmages, or between them and the lower classes, perhaps resulting in an act of magical sabotage. Others maintain it was an importune summoning or planar exploration that resulted in some sort of invasion or spatial rupture. The general consensus is that Kho’s fall occurred sometime during the Age of Destiny, with the most popular theory claiming that the city’s fall coincided with the terrible march of the Tarrasque, which destroyed Ninshabur and left a scar of desolation across the world. Regardless of what was ultimately responsible, it seems likely that the arrogant Shory, unused to being overmatched and unable to escape to the lower stratosphere, were caught by surprise. Whatever the cause, one thing is certain: the mighty city of Kho plummeted to earth amid the lower peaks of the Barrier Wall, near a natural break in the range that in later years would come to be called the Kho-Rarne Pass. Many were killed in the disaster, and when the dust settled, only a few were left alive. Those aeromancers who were left sought succor from their Shory brethren, using their magic to call to the other sky cities. Yet only a few managed to retain their status; the majority were permanently disgraced by the city’s fall, forced by their adopted sky citadels to perform public and menial labor as penance for shattering the myth of Shory invincibility. The lesser Shory of Kho, those without significant magic of their own, were mostly left to fend for themselves, and assimilated into the nearby Osirian and Mwangi populaces. Their names and histories were lost or discarded, and within scant generations, the displaced Shory of Kho ceased to exist.

The Shory Empire as a whole fared little better—one by one the other cities were overcome by threats internal and external, succumbing to plagues and rebellion, crushed by strange beings released in the relentless quest for power, or simply disappearing into parts unknown. Ulduvai, the last Shory city on record, is rumored to have met its Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion Kho UPPER CITY UPPER CITY CISTERN MAJOR CISTERN MAJOR LOWER CITY LOWER CITY FIELDS OF GLASS FIELDS OF GLASS DOMES OF THE POLYMATUM DOMES OF THE POLYMATUM SUNSET TOWERS SUNSET TOWERS feet Kho end in the depths of central Garund, perhaps searching for information in the ruins of Kho that might have held clues to the empire’s salvation. The star of the Shory shone bright indeed, but less than a thousand years after Kho first soared across the sky, the Shory civilization was no more than a memory.

Residents The Uomoto tribes of the foothills below the ruins of Kho represent the nearest humanoid settlement to the ancient city, whose former residents and culture have long since gone to dust. As nature has reclaimed much of the city, animals and plants common to the Mwangi highland and lowland jungles have flourished, but they are not alone. The self-proclaimed ruler of Kho is Khurram abol Ghasem (CN male advanced noble marid ranger 6), the shahzada and patriarch of a marid clan that migrated here after the city’s fall through the ruptured elemental seals upon the planar portals that delivered an endless supply of fresh water to Kho’s Cistern Major. The cistern is located in the largest fragment of the city to remain substantially intact; its waters empty through a myriad of cracked reservoirs and fractured aqueducts to form the headwaters of the Uomoto River, which flows through and out of the valley. The marids claim this fragment and the river as their own and tend it as a fabulous garden and palace, enhanced and shaped by their powers of illusion.

Not all of the city’s residents arrived after its fall, however. Chief among these are the derhii (see page 23), winged ape-soldiers that once served the Shory. Those away from the city or able to escape its fall found their erstwhile masters fled or slain (with some derhii hastening the demise of any survivors), and when the wrecked city had settled, they claimed the highest surviving monoliths as their aeries. More than 400 derhii now hunt the surrounding mountains. Most ignore the imperious genies, though some have taken up their ancestral vocation of servant-soldiers in exchange for the rewards the genies can offer. The shattered crystal towers contain hidden dangers of their own. Not only are the razor-sharp Fields of Glass already perilous, but the malfunctioning magic of Kho has caused the glassy shards to sprout underground into filaments and veins of crystal, discovered centuries past by a clan of xorns. The Vokthavaravat Cluster now numbers more than 50 xorns and has taken up residence in the Sunset Towers. Consuming these replicating crystal fibers, however, has gradually transformed the xorns into crystal themselves, and they now hunger to afflict others with their vitrifying virus and then devour the glassy remains. Fatal to most beings, the strange plague turns earth elementals and other earth-based creatures into infectious crystal-spawn, which are either adopted into the cluster or destroyed as rivals to it. The xorns roam the surface in daylight but otherwise lurk below ground, skirmishing with degenerate clans of morlocks—perhaps descendants of Shory refugees from Kho—led by the mad priestess Xiuli Cachu (CE female morlock cleric of Lamashtu 11). The most sinister inhabitants of Kho dwell in the Domes of the Polymatum. From here, a cabal of 10 leukodaemons (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 68) ranges across the Mwangi, harvesting and spreading myriad exotic pestilences. They are served by a small army of corrupted but deviously intelligent rat-slaves bred from ancient Shory experimental stock. The leukodaemons are led by Thanyachani and Shanesja, a pair of astradaemons (Bestiary 2 63), soul devourers who have ensured that these ruins where thousands perished are little haunted by restless spirits of the dead.

Relations and Trade The ruins of Kho bear little resemblance­—either physically or in regard to its inhabitants—to the utopian aerial enclave of its past, yet the legacies of the Shory still linger in the creatures that call this place their home. The human population of Kho has long since fled into the surrounding mountains and jungle, mostly to their doom, but their legacy remains in the nearby Uomoto villages of Jianguji, Tsutai, Tafiq, and Abjit in the form of a surprising number of sorcerers, especially of the arcane, destined, and elemental bloodlines. The Uomoto consider the valley a sacred site, taboo for them and dangerous to outsiders. The Uomoto do not trade in relics from Kho, warning strangers of curses should they be foolish enough to take anything, but do not raise a hand against treasure-hunters unless they bring recovered items back to the Uomoto villages. The Uomoto’s belief is mostly superstition, but it has proven true often enough that the taboo persists. The Uomoto can sometimes be persuaded to lead adventurers within sight of the city’s resting place, though even the bravest of them usually only venture this far for the purposes of making sacrifices. Among the closest villages, outlaws and oathbreakers (including violators of the taboo against entering the city) are sometimes taken by the tribe and bound to the Stone of Sacrifice, offered up upon a fallen monolith to appease the denizens of the valley. For the right price, the Uomoto sometimes guide strangers as far as the Stone, but no farther. Fearful of the “shining stones that walk” and other strange denizens, they venture into the valley only by night, and always travel with torches in hand to ward off lurking morlocks, which they call tuitele (“the light-haters”).

While the xorns and marids of Kho have little interest in commerce with the outside world (though the marids do trade with allies on the Plane of Water), the derhii of Kho sometimes visit trade-fairs along the pass or in lowland villages beyond the Uomoto’s lands, bartering Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion looted artifacts, magical trinkets, or even choice bits of Shory craftsmanship, though they usually mislead buyers as to the origin of their treasures. Travelers coming from the east may encounter these derhii at the Osirian fort of Aboul-Nasar (“the vulture’s roost”) at the crest of Kho-Rarne Pass, where Akfirat Zouhair (N male human rogue 6) maintains a small lodge for Osirian Pathfinders venturing into the Mwangi Expanse. The derhii usually trade for fine-quality weapons and armor, leather goods, or sometimes wines or drugs such as pesh.

The leukodaemons of Kho also secretly trade their plagueborn creations all over Golarion. These are carried by their rats and wererats to their malign customers, congealed and distilled in pots and vials or incubated within living hosts. Their prime patrons are cultists of Urgathoa, Ghlaunder, Apollyon, or Cyth-V’sug looking for new strains of infectious misery to unleash, but the daemons are happy to sell to anyone willing to pay.

Sites of Interest The Shory were famous for their love of crystal and glass, which they crafted stronger than stone. Many structures in Kho remain partially intact, though most of the city’s substructure collapsed and the surviving upper buildings were often wholly or partly sheared off, tumbling down the valley amid rubble from the crumbled city and scored hillsides; they lie now half-buried beneath the eroded detritus of 6,000 years.

The Upper City: The domain of the Ghasem marid clan, this is the largest semi-intact section of Kho’s cityscape, and even it lies along the hillside at a 30-degree angle. Vines, trees, and fragrant blossoms grow from hanging gardens tended by ooze mephits around the Plaza of Cesaire and its cracked midnight blue tiles, while genie-bound derhii nest in the broken towers. The lower levels are a bewildering maze of slanting passages shrouded in permanent images that change according to the genies’ whims. Water flows through many passages and through carved aqueducts or even simple cracks and fissures, arising in a perpetual flow from the planar gates within the vast Cistern Major at the heart of the upper city.

The seat of the marids’ domain, the Cistern Major is bedecked in fabulous illusory trappings celebrating the glory of the shahzada and his court: his wife Zahra, daughter Shireesha, and son-in-law Juqua (all CN noble marids), as well as his personal priest Kaila (CN marid cleric 9 of Gozreh) and more than a dozen of their common cousins who come and go to the Plane of Water, as do a large retinue of water mephits and elementals of all sizes, the smaller as servitors and the larger as battle companions or even mounts. The arrogant marids claim all of Kho, but their rule stretches only as far as Iouri’s Cascade, where the Cistern Major’s waters spill into the Lower City. There, the marids create ever-changing liquid sculptures, vying to shape and caress the flowing water into the most elaborate and fantastical patterns and even seemingly solid shapes, thereby winning boasting rights over their fellows. The marids share the Upper City with the derhii aeries of the Monoliths, a set of high towers that survived Kho’s fall mostly intact, though they were uprooted from their foundations and settled vertically against the valley’s southeastern wall, stretching beyond the tops of the encircling cliffs. Many monoliths are not wholly solid, but rather consist of level upon level of chambers and halls stretching up hundreds of paces, their windows long shattered and swathed with encroaching vines for much of their height. Perhaps most interesting to scholars are those towers that bear enormous striations along their lengths, deep furrows like claw marks from some titanic predator.

Derhii family groups, usually led by a 5th-level barbarian or ranger, claim adjacent layers of the towers and defend their turf against rival derhii, but the various groups unite against menaces that threaten all derhii. The tribes have no true leader, instead meeting in tribal council to decide matters of mutual interest, but the most powerful leaders are Shanaca Anisoara (N female derhii ranger 9) and Tonoyan Balasu (N female derhii barbarian 8).

The Domes of the Polymatum: The central valley is dominated by the cracked remnants of Kho’s arcane academies, now haunted by daemons who were once bound but who broke free during the city’s fall. Here, these deacons of disease brew and refine toxic sludges and slurries in their vile fleshpots, crafting ever more virulent strains of common ills or inventing new ones.

The daemons also specialize in the warping and manipulation of life, having long ago spawned experimental rats kept by the Shory and turned them into a slave race of sentient dire rats called the hadi (see page 23). While most hadi are simple minions, the inbred siblings Teffera and Yilmaz (NE male and female hadi transmuter 8) are striving to cultivate a master caste of their kind. The daemons’ army of sinister rat-soldiers is led by Naheed and Nahush (NE male hadi rajwan barbarian 6), while their subtler operations of smuggling and infiltration are orchestrated by Uzma Desferal (NE female hadi tafen bard 7).

Kho The Lower City: The river is spanned to the north by the Obelisk Bridge, a cracked and moss-covered fallen monolith engraved with faded runes. This tower was once full of residential chambers, and creatures walking across what were once its vertical walls may fall through weakened sections into the jagged rubble within (treat as spiked pit traps or camouflaged spiked pit traps; see pages 420–421 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook). Beyond the river is another semi-intact cityscape that slid down and across the valley floor in the city’s fall. Called the Shadow Hill by the valley’s other residents, this area is shunned because of a ruptured planar gate that continues to sputter within its heart—an unreliable portal to the Plane of Shadow. Those daring it may lose their lives and souls, and be reborn as shadows. While the dark spirits that dwell here fear the soul-devouring astradaemons and binding by morlock cult-clerics, few dare challenge them in their shadowy lair.

Most sinister and mysterious is the Pit of Endless Night. Surrounded by the broken base of an ancient dome that resembles a yawning maw with fangs of blackened glass, the pit was created when one of Kho’s broken towers thrust straight into the ground like an enormous spear, piercing the valley’s bedrock and breaching a natural fissure into an extensive cavern complex. Some of the river’s waters trickle down this bore, which is still uncannily smooth where the tower’s shell has endured, though its inner stonework has largely gone to dust and ruin. Some visitors seeking the Well of Axuma mistake this dark pit for the well—much to their sorrow when they discover what lies in its depths. Though not attached to the vast network known as the Darklands, the fissures and cysts in the shattered rock under the valley lead ever downward in a dizzying corkscrew, intersected by countless maze-like tunnels infested with morlocks descended from Kho’s survivors, and even stranger beasts. The morlocks prowl the city’s surviving under-warrens, skirmishing at times with the daemon-bound hadi and the crystal xorns, though they live a curious alternate existence with the latter; the xorns haunt the ruins above by day while the morlocks cower in darkness, but when the xorns retreat to their crystal caves at night, the morlocks emerge aboveground.

The Fields of Glass: The western half of the valley was not part of Kho’s impact crater, but the city’s fall produced a slide zone that obliterated the former terrain. Erosion and accretion have since built up a layer of fertile soil and a loose, open cloud forest, teeming with life amid trees and fruited meadows. In bright light, these glades are ablaze with reflected light, as shards of crystal embedded in the ground (and growing filaments beneath, harvested by hungry xorns) dazzle any creature traversing the area, also acting as caltrops to those treading the ground. Uomoto guides can show the PCs safe pathways, while others can find them with a DC 20 Survival check per hour of travel. The Stone of Sacrifice lies at the edge of the Lower City, and is as far as the Uomoto will come to punish their criminals or lead foolhardy outsiders into the valley.

At the far western end of the valley lie the Sunset Towers, the once-proud Towers of the Sun sheared off their bases and sent tumbling across the valley. Here they lie askew like an immense pile of driftwood, heaped together at radical angles and heavily draped with verdant greenery, yet beneath the foliage, these tubular husks glow in the light of the sun. The crystal xorns call this place Vokthavaravat; here Arzuu Mandilawi (NE male elder crystal xorn rogue 4) rules the cluster from a honeycombed crystalline cyst where five shattered towers ground together an age ago. The Kho Campaign Visitors to Kho must traverse the Mwangi Expanse to the west or the deserts and mountains of Osirion to the east just to reach it. Legendary even among scholars, relics and tales of Kho can draw adventurers gradually toward it, so that novices aren’t overwhelmed by its challenges.

Low-Level Adventures Early use of Kho in a campaign requires laying a foundation for later adventure. Fragmentary maps or mysterious relics from its ancient civilization can draw parties to the city, perhaps provided by allies or patrons such as the Pathfinder Society or Aspis Consortium, who could facilitate travel across Osirion to Aboul-Nasar or through the Mwangi Expanse to the Uomoto villages.

For a hook that relies less on a simple lust for exploration, the diseased minions of the leukodaemons provide an excellent introduction. When plague or disease erupts near the PCs’ base of operations, they might be enlisted to discover the source of this sickness. Heal or Profession (herbalist) checks can confirm the disease’s exotic origins, and Knowledge (local) or Diplomacy checks to gather information may locate similar outbreaks in other communities. Investigation might then lead PCs to black-market dealers who also trade in Shory antiquities. One path here could lead to Luana Sipress (LE female human natural wererat rogue 3), a local wererat with a nest of hadi underlings (see page 23), who are spreading the tainted produce of their leukodaemon masters, and from there to her suppliers in Sargava and eventually to Kho itself. Alternatively, the trail could lead back to Baddour (NG male derhii), a trader who frequents Aboul-Nasar. He is simply dealing in Shory relics without being aware that they have been secretly laced with infectious toxins by the daemons and their minions. There is no conspiracy to crack here, simply a common association that all victims of the tainted goods have recently acquired Shory artifacts. The PCs must trace these relics back to their source to discover whether there is a nefarious plot at work, or perhaps even Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion a curse. When the PCs confront Baddour, he is remorseful that his trade has resulted in such harm, and could guide them to Kho and secure a friendly audience with his clan. Medium-Level Adventures PCs arriving near Kho from the Mwangi Jungle first encounter the Uomoto villages—and indeed, studying that obscure culture may be an adventure hook of its own for PC scholars. Once there, parties may have to bargain with the chiefs for the right to visit the sacred city. A chief might demand a difficult-to-acquire gift that requires a side adventure into the jungle, or a service like hunting down a dangerous local monster or renegade Uomoto sorcerer. Alternatively, the PCs might arrive in Aboul-Nasar after being sent there to investigate an ominous lapse in communication. PCs coming to Kho from Aboul-Nasar with a derhii guide might arrange aerial transport back there to rest and resupply in between expeditions into the lost city. The derhii can provide safe haven, but they might also be ambushed by rival derhii who resent their intrusion, and who are likely to try to kill the PCs or capture and sell them to the marids as slaves.

Once within Kho, the PCs are likely to be intrigued by the various factions of the city. They find the marids aloof and the leukodaemons homicidal, but the derhii may accompany them to choice scavenging grounds, leading to a confrontation with crystal xorns by day or morlocks by night. The PCs may have to skirmish with raiding parties from both as they search out troves of still-viable magic items or hidden cysts where the leukodaemons and hadi concoct their tainted treasures.

PCs seeking a permanent solution to Kho’s viral output may decide to cleanse the under-warrens of the Domes of the Polymatum of the leukodaemons and their filth, but constant interference by morlocks and crystal xorns may necessitate a truce with one or both groups, which can also allow underground access to the well-warded Domes through secret ways. However, in this situation a high-ranking cleric from whichever group is friendly might betray the PCs, leading them into an ambush of daemons, oozes, hadi, and worse.

High-Level Adventures Daemons are always a dangerous unknown, and any number of good-aligned outsiders or religious officials might dispatch the PCs to cleanse Kho of its daemonic taint, should they learn of it. Even if the PCs don’t set off to the city for that purpose, continued exploration and skirmishing in the city eventually draws the astradaemons into the fray, and destroying them and the horrid laboratories of the leukodaemons erases their blight from Kho forever. Should the PCs eradicate the daemons, the marids welcome the heroes, inviting them to their pleasure palaces and healing pools on the Plane of Water as their guests. There, the PCs might be caught up in a contest of succession manipulated by Markish Aghayare (NE male devourer), a marid shahzada risen in undeath as a devourer and now sowing corruption among his living kin.

PCs who vanquish the daemons might also discover that shadows have boiled forth from their “shadow city” under Sarra Skepekaris (CE female greater shadow sorcerer 7), the Shadow Princess. Now that the astradaemons are gone, the shadows have laid siege to the other dwellers of Kho, picking off any living creatures they can find and swelling their shadow host to trigger an umbral apocalypse. In order to stop them, the PCs must destroy the shadow host and seal the gate to the Plane of Shadow, destroying the Mwangi necromancer-lich Trexima Butoi (NE human male lich necromancer 16), who raised the shadow host. Another menace worthy of drawing high-level PCs to the city is that of Vehanezhad (LE female blue dragon wyrm), a blue dragon transformed into living crystal by the xorns’ strange curse. The dragon tracked the crystal xorn that infected her to Kho and then assumed leadership of the Vokthavaravat Cluster, claiming all of Kho as her domain. The marids are being crushed in her ascension to power, and most of the derhii and morlocks flee or submit to her. Worst of all, using a hidden laboratory left behind by the daemons, Vehanezhad soon discovers a way to make her brilliant pestilence affect creatures that don’t have the earth subtype. Whether summoned by rumors of her rise or impacted directly by the strange new plague, PCs who want to defeat Vehanezhad may need to rally the surviving marids and derhii to destroy the crystal dragon, her newly bound servants, and her crystalline minions before she unleashes a transmogrifying pandemic.

Random Encounters Low Level d% Result Avg. CR Source 1–7 1 venomous snake Bestiary 255 8–14 1d4 hadi* page 23 15–21 1 bat swarm Bestiary 30 22–28 1 constrictor snake Bestiary 255 29–34 1 Small animated object Bestiary 14 35–40 1 hadi tafen* page 23 41–46 1 shadow Bestiary 245 47–58 1d4 boars Bestiary 36 59–64 1 army ant swarm Bestiary 16 65–70 1 derhii* page 23 71–76 1d4 dire apes Bestiary 17 77–82 1 frothing ooze* page 23 83–88 1d4 water mephitis Bestiary 203 89–94 1 girallon Bestiary 154 95–100 1 wyvern Bestiary 282 Kho Medium Level d% Result Avg. CR Source 1–6 1 hadi tafen* and 1d6 rat swarms Bestiary 232 7–12 1 umber jelly* page 23 13–18 1d6 monitor lizards Bestiary 194 19–24 1d6 morlocks Bestiary 209 25–30 1d6 shadows Bestiary 245 31–36 2d6 hadi rajwans* page 23 37–42 1 crystal xorn* Bestiary 284 43–48 1d4 manticores Bestiary 199 49–54 1d4 Large animated objects Bestiary 14 55–60 1d8 centipede swarms Bestiary 43 61–66 1 deadfall scorpion Bestiary 242 67–72 3–12 Medium animated objects Bestiary 14 73–78 1 leukodaemon Bestiary 2 68 79–84 1 marid and 1d6 water mephitis Bestiary 142, 203 85–90 1 marid and 2 derhii* Bestiary 142 91–100 1 greater shadow and 3d6 shadows 11 Bestiary 245 High Level d% Result Avg. CR Source 1–14 2 leukodaemons and 2d6 hadi rajwans* Bestiary 2 68 15–26 1 giant stone golem Bestiary 163, 295 27–39 1 crystal elder xorn and 1d8 crystal xorns* Bestiary 284 40–52 1 legion of 3d6 army ant swarms Bestiary 16 53–64 1 morlock war party** Bestiary 209 65–76 2 marids and 2 elder water elementals Bestiary 142, 127 77–88 1 marid hunting party*** Bestiary 142 89–100 1 astradaemon Bestiary 2 63 * Variant or new monster detailed in this chapter.

** 1 morlock cleric 8, 1d4 morlock barbarians 5, and 3d6 morlocks. *** 1 noble marid, 1d4 marids, and 3d4 derhii guards. The Well of Axuma The greatest treasure of Kho is one that cannot be looted. The Well of Axuma, named for its creator, is not a physical object but a self-renewing vessel of magical energy developed by the ancient Shory, a lacework of magical energies that permeates the entire city. Enchantments laid upon the city were cast into the Well of Axuma and were diffused throughout the entire city, uplifting and sustaining the life energies of every citizen and fulfilling their physical needs, while allowing them to tap into its power to perform minor acts of everyday magic.

Within the Well of Axuma, which covers the entire valley of Kho and extends a half-mile in every direction, all creatures enjoy the effects of endure elements and heal naturally at twice the normal rate. Gravity is subtly altered as well, and creatures reduce falling damage by half and gain a +10 bonus on Acrobatics checks made to jump or reduce falling damage. Natural plant and animal life grows with abandon, and creatures that spend more than 1 consecutive week within the Well of Axuma begin to perceive the flow of life energy around them. Those with a Wisdom score of 11 or greater may use detect animals and plants, detect undead, and deathwatch at will as spell-like abilities within the Well of Axuma. Those with Intelligence 11 or above can bend reality slightly, enabling them to use detect magic, mage hand, or prestidigitation at will. Those with a Charisma score of 11 or above can attempt to recharge spell-trigger items. This attempt requires 1 minute of concentration and a Use Magic Device check with a DC of 20 plus the item’s caster level. The DC increases by 5 for each recharge attempt made by a given creature or upon a given item (regardless of who tries to recharge it) within a given day. If the check succeeds, the item regains 1 charge. If it fails, the character takes 1d4 points of Charisma damage from magical feedback and the item loses 1d4 charges.

Since the city’s fall, the Well of Axuma does not function as it once did. While its mystic matrix was not destroyed, it was disrupted, and sometimes flares discordantly. Animated objects crawl to life at random intervals, driven by residual magical fluctuations and spiritual energy. In addition, every 24 hours disruptive fluctuations within the matrix deal 1d4 points of damage to a random ability score of any creatures in Kho’s valley that fail a Fortitude save (DC 15 negates). Creatures that fail this saving throw do not benefit from the Well of Axuma’s accelerated healing property for the next 24 hours. Creatures that remain within the Well’s bounds for 1 uninterrupted month become acclimated to these fluctuations and do not risk harm; however, when they exit the well, their minds and bodies must reorient themselves to the unbent contours of normal reality. The effects of this are identical to the potential ability damage of entering (or reentering) the Well of Axuma, except they occur once per day for the first 1d6 days after leaving.

These sputtering irruptions of raw magical energy may be harmless, but at points where the tendrils of magic decay to utter ruin, they can unravel the very substance of reality, creating short-lived holes in the fabric of the universe. These “rogue spheres” are rare, generally arising from conjunctions between powerful and overlapping magical fields in the city’s broken magical engines and devices, and they rarely last more than a few hours, often floating motionless or drifting aimlessly until they dissolve. Yet on those occasions when they interact with solid objects or creatures, the results are catastrophic. Treat rogue spheres as a CR 15 hazard similar to spheres of annihilation, but attracted to spellcasting; magic used within 120 feet causes a rogue sphere to move toward the caster at a speed of 5 plus 5 feet per level of the spell being cast. A rogue sphere within 30 feet of an ongoing magical aura of caster level 5th or higher (including magic items and active spells) drifts Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lost Cities of Golarion toward the highest-level aura at a speed equal to that aura’s caster level (rounded down to the nearest multiple of 5). Nondetection and similar effects hide passive auras but not active spellcasting from a rogue sphere’s detection. Rogue spheres are not always easily visible, sometimes appearing more as a ripple or whorl in midair than as a sphere of blackness. The DC to spot one is 15 in bright light, 20 in normal light, 25 in dim light, and 30 in darkness. Detect magic does not detect rogue spheres, but true seeing shows them for what they are. A DC 25 Knowledge (arcana) check also identifies their true nature once they are noticed. Rogue spheres are not quite as destructive as true spheres of annihilation, instead affecting creatures or spell effects they touch as a simultaneous disintegrate spell (DC 20) and greater dispel magic spell (caster level 20th). Depending on how a rogue sphere is encountered, it might make a +15 melee touch attack against a magical effect or magic-using creature, or creatures moving into its space unaware might need to make a DC 25 Reflex save to avoid contacting it. In a combat situation, treat a rogue sphere as a creature with a +5 initiative modifier.

Crystal Creature Template “Crystal creature” is an acquired template that can be added to any creature with the earth subtype. A crystal creature retains all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

CR: Same as the base creature +1.

Senses: A crystal creature gains low-light vision.

Armor Class: Natural armor improves by +4.

Defensive Abilities: A crystal creature gains resistance 10 to acid, cold, electricity, and fire, and DR 5/— unless the base creature’s DR is better. A crystal creature is immune to the harmful effects of bright light (including effects that blind with light); effects with the light descriptor; and other light-based attacks such as color spray, prismatic spray, and searing light. If the creature is hit with such an effect, the DC for its dazzling form attack increases by +2. Weakness: A crystal creature gains vulnerability to sonic damage.

Special Attacks: A crystal creature gains the following special attacks.

Brilliant Pestilence (Su): The creature’s natural attacks inflict a supernatural disease. Bite or claw—injury; save Fort DC 23; onset 1 day; frequency 1 day; effect 1d6 Dex damage; cure 2 consecutive saves. A creature whose Dexterity is reduced to 0 by the disease is petrified and transformed into lifeless crystal. A creature with the earth subtype that is petrified by this disease revives 24 hours later and gains the crystal creature template. Once transformed, only miracle, polymorph any object, or wish restores the transformed earth creature.

Dazzling Form (Ex): A crystalline creature refracts and reflects a dazzling cascade of light when illuminated. In normal light, this radiance extends 30 feet; in bright light, it extends 60 feet. Within this area, all sighted creatures are dazzled for 1 minute if they fail a Fortitude save (DC 10 + 1/2 the creature’s racial Hit Dice + the creature’s Charisma modifier). Creatures within this radius that are looking at the crystal xorn must save every round or become permanently blind (Fortitude negates); this is a gaze attack. The DC of these abilities increases by +2 in bright light.

Special Qualities: A crystal creatures gains the following special quality.

Light Amplification (Ex): A crystal creature’s body naturally captures and magnifies light that strikes it. When in normal light, it sheds normal light in a 30-foot radius. In bright light, it sheds normal light in a 60-foot radius.

Abilities: Str +2, Dex +4, Con +2, Int –4. If this reduces the creature’s Int to 0 or less, it becomes mindless.

Kho Variant Monsters The ruins of Kho are home to many strange beings. Some are misshapen constructs or bound outsiders lingering on from a forgotten age, but more are scions of the city in the long ages since its fall. While most of Kho’s derhii fly free, some cleave to their ancient tradition of service, binding themselves to the marids who claim lordship of Kho. These derhii do not serve for free, accepting gifts and even wishes in trade and receiving the blessings of their masters (see invisibility 3/day [CL 7th, concentration +7] and cold resistance 20). The valley’s opposite end is home to the crystal xorns of the Vokthavaravat Cluster, transformed by their diet of Shory glass into living crystals. They have the crystal creature template (see sidebar), save that their form of brilliant pestilence converts only creatures with the earth subtype into creatures with this template. Other creatures afflicted with this disease are turned to lifeless crystal statues, which are swiftly devoured by the hungry crystal xorns.

Some of Kho’s most unpleasant residents are oozes, the results of magical radiation or half-sentient muck escaped from cracked alchemical engines. Some were even created by the leukodaemons who have made the city their home, half-failed experiments in the arts of illness, dumped miserably from their curdled fleshpots and now creeping through the city. Frothing oozes are foamy, grayish-white masses that constantly bubble and froth, spattering those nearby with their filth. These variant gray oozes deal acid damage and spread blinding sickness to all creatures adjacent to them at the start of the creature’s turn; a DC 20 Reflex save negates both damage and exposure, but any creature that the ooze hits with its slam attack or that strikes it with a natural weapon or unarmed attack automatically both takes damage and suffers from exposure. The loathsome umber jelly is a mass of infectious protoplasm identical to an ochre jelly, except that it deals slimy doom (DC 14 Fortitude save negates) with its slam attack or upon creatures that touch or strike it with their bodies, and its putrescent odor acts as a continuous stinking cloud (DC 19 Fortitude save negates) centered on and moving with the jelly. (Both variants add +1 CR to the base creature.) The leukodaemons also have spawned a servitor race from the unnaturally cunning experimental rats and their descendants left behind by the Shory. The hadi are awakened dire rats with the advanced creature simple template. With an average Intelligence of 14 and prehensile paws, fluent and literate in Abyssal like their masters, they are capable assistants in the daemons’ sinister experiments. Some hadi have been warped still further. Bred for battle, the hadi rajwan are like their cunning rat brethren but are also 2nd-level barbarians with the giant creature simple template. Most insidious of all, the hadi tafen are shapeshifters, with statistics identical to advanced wererats. They often command one or more rat swarms.

Source: Lost Cities of Golarion, p. 13