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Steam and soot darken the skies above the city of Flint, and winds sweeping across its majestic harbor blow the choking products of industrial forges into the fey rainforests that dot its knife-toothed mountains. Since the earliest ages when the people of Risur founded this city, they feared the capricious beings that hid in those fog-shrouded peaks, but now as the march of progress and the demands of national defense turn Flint into a garden for artifice and technology, the old faiths and rituals that kept the lurkers of the woods at bay are being abandoned.

The Unseen Court, the Great Hunt, and the many spirits of the land long ago conquered by Risur’s kings no longer receive tribute, but they cannot enter these new cities of steam and steel to demand their tithe. The impoverished workers who huddle in factory slums fear monsters of a different breed, shadowy children of this new urban labyrinth. Even their modern religions have no defenses against these fiends.

Times are turning. The skyseers – Risurs folk prophets since their homeland’s birth – witness omens in the starry wheels of heaven, and they warn that a new age is nigh. But what they cannot foresee, hidden beyond the steam and soot of the night sky, is the face of this coming era, the spirit of the age. The zeitgeist.

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Campaign Trailer

https://youtu.be/8AGcSQUL5SE

Campaign Primer

A Step Away from Classic Fantasy

In the Zeitgeist adventure path, your characters serve in the Royal Homeland Constabulary of the nation of Risur, protecting the country and its citizens from foreign threats lurking within its borders. During missions of espionage and assassination, your duty will be to root out hostile spies and pursue international conspiracies. As you learn more of your homeland’s own secrets, however, your loyalties may be tested, may even be turned, and you may find that it is you whose hand controls the gears of the turning age.

Humans and the Great Nations

Humans rule three of the five great nations of the continent Lanjyr. Their ascendance in the past two thousand years toppled a mighty eladrin empire and has provoked belief in doomsday millennialism among many dwarves. The campaign begins in Risur, and every PC should have a strong loyalty to the nation, even if the character does not hail from there.

Eladrin, Devas, and the Great Malice

Long ago elves known as the eladrin built an empire of magical wonders. Then five hundred years ago the death of the eladrin goddess Srasama caused nearly every eladrin woman to perish. Those few who survived were often claimed as trophies by human conquerors, though a handful of free matriarchs head their own family lines in the ruins of the old empire. 

Mortals present at the death of the eladrin goddess have continually reincarnated in the following centuries as devas, as if a sliver of Srasama’s divine spark has granted them a semblance of immortality.

Tieflings, Technology, and Dead Magic

When the eladrin goddess died, an entire other nation became a dead magic zone, and some in that land were marked by a curse, turning them into tieflings. In the centuries since, however, the tieflings have come to rule that nation, and in the last few decades they have begun a revolution of industry and mighty science almost as powerful as the magic they lack.

Dwarves, Doomsday, and Nihilism

The major dwarven nation is bleakly resigned to an imminent doomsday, when ancient horrors will claw free from glaciers and engulf the world in a frigid death. Adherence to duty is so ingrained in their culture, however, that the dwarves continue to toil in their forges even as they prepare for the world’s end.

Savages, Primitives, and Peace

Freed from the yoke of toppled dragon tyrants, the youngest of the great nations formed from an alliance of several monstrous races which now live in an uneasy peace as their rulers seek to force the disparate peoples into the modern age.

Piety and the Planes

The heavens possess an undeniable hold on the world’s religions, its people, and its very structure. In Risur, skyseers believe that the movements of the night stars foretell the future and direct the fate of the world. More enlightened scholars study distant planes of elemental and temporal power to understand how the flow of their energies affects the fundamental nature of reality. The eladrin people have begun to withdraw into the Dreaming, and the bishops of the high church of the Clergy invoke condemned spirits from the Bleak Gate to frighten sinners into worship.

The Astral Plane, the Elemental Planes, and the Far Realm exist only as postulations, and there are countless other theories on the nature of reality. No one in this world has ever traveled to these planes, and even travel between the known worlds of the night sky is brief, with summoned beings never remaining more than a few minutes.

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Welcome

Hello and well met. I am ChaosCowboy, and I have a very fond connection to this campaign. For little under three years, I ran a 4th edition version of this campaign on roll20 and got about two thirds of the way through it before life split the group asunder and I fell in love with Pathfinder 2nd Edition.

There is a conversion of the first eight adventures (out of 13) online, and serves as the basis for this campaign. Given rate of play by post games, it will be some time, and quite a feat should we outpace what material is already available and by that time I can convert the rest as necessary.

There are a number of documents related to this campaign, as well as some additional character options and setting considerations, all of which can be found in the threads within this forum. If you are curious about this game, I highly encourage you to download the ZEITGEIST Adventure Path Extended Player's Guide (Pathfinder RPG) for 1st Edition, and any additional setting or mechanical details related to the conversion to 2nd Edition will be found within the theads of this forum.

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