昏暗中的威胁 Threats In the Gloom
当她用那副插满针的嘴朝我们微笑，并示意我们进入塔中时，我当时觉得事情正在往好的方向发展。
最初我们心想，她只是用一条带结绳索来测试我们能不能爬向绳那边的奖品：一打闪亮的魔法玩意。太简单了。但当我们开始朝闪光处攀爬时，才发现这根本不是绳。这玩意是血肉。它就像一大艘塔尔多战船的帆缆绳，只不过是由人手、人脚以及人脸所组成，它们在我们一路攀爬时发出悲鸣。
在我们大概爬到一半的时候，那堆人手追上了我们。它们抖落了扭曲交织的皮肉，露出了锋利的指骨。Dharmos开始尖叫，直到它们把他的喉咙挠破。Lira试图救他，于是它们也把她挠了上去。我没能抓稳，从五十多尺的地方摔回到石走廊上，在落地时折了一边腿。但我是幸运的。我逃出来了。——Beylin Ettervatter，退役的盾徽财团特工。
奈多有着内海地区最久远的历史，而其国土各处地点都见证了这久远而糟糕的过去。它们中有些已经在昏暗中延续了数千年，其间的悲惨或险恶之力已经育出了恐怖之果实，正等待着无辜者自投罗网。而另一些地点则在新近孕育出了危险，在宗库松信徒邪恶统治的掩护下得以生根发芽，独霸一方。确实，那些幽影般的威胁源自于盛行在奈多大地的施虐之邪恶中，可谓源源不断；而更多更大的威胁则潜伏在黑暗之中，哪怕足智多谋的冒险者也未必能想象得出来。本章节给出了一些范例地点，在那里冒险者们会遇到巨大的危险与恐怖，以及惊人的奖励。
奈多冒险地点
对那些够胆挑战的冒险者而言，以下的奈多地点充满了幽影般的危险和无穷的机遇。
艾维拉路口 Aevolar`s Crossing被水中之惧怖所守卫的水底宝藏地点 南乌斯克河，麦纳多山脉附近
掌控者 无敌者希尔夸 Xhilqua the Unmatched（中立邪恶雌性水元素长老4级战士）
住民 朽战尸（draugrs B2），泥霸（mudlords B4），各种体型的水元素
特点 被遗弃的宝藏，军事历史，扭曲的元素生物和复苏的死者士兵 随着眩心山脉逐渐低矮成丘陵，再化为乌斯克森林南部的一片广阔平原，南乌斯克河也同样逐渐变宽，地从一条凶猛的激流转为了一条宽阔、平缓的水路。河边的陆路随着蜿蜒的水路一同在山间绕行，但却没有桥梁能横跨此处宽阔的河水，想渡河之人必须涉水穿越浅滩。在一个被称作艾维拉路口的地方，曾有一整支军队尝试这么做——从散落在河床上和被冲往下游的护甲、武器、货车、货箱、木桶等早已锈蚀腐烂的装备来看，他们这次尝试灾难性地失败了。过路人如果靠近点看，甚至能从水底一副还散发着光亮、肯定附有魔法的胸甲上认出旧切利亚斯帝国的镀金纹饰。
虽然艾维拉路口处的河水又浅又缓，但却没人从此处渡河。空气中弥漫着一股不同寻常的凉意，这股凉意夺去了河流附近本该有的声响。没有虫鸣，没有鸟鸣，也没有鱼儿敢跃出平静的水面。当地人谈及艾维拉路口时都只敢悄声细语，他们总是远远避开此地，仿佛午夜领主亲自在这藏了位祟邪特工一般。他们说这地方闹鬼，因为当年宗库松正是在此向胆敢带着刀兵闯入他神国的家伙展露其神怒。当地人承认这里可能埋藏着宝藏，但探索者们得付出生命的代价——或者更糟——所以当地的财宝猎人们没有哪一队敢探访这让人噤声的地方。
这些故事中有一部分是事实。在永恒战争时期，的确有整一营的切利亚斯军队陷落于此。当年指挥官艾维拉命令她的部队朝奈多进发，作为切利亚斯北部邻国中第一个攻击目标。大军在此地整营陷落，除了被遗弃的大量装备以外再无生还者。虽然大多数普通物资已经在之后的数百年中遗失，但仍有大量金银珠宝和魔法装备留了下来，有些甚至诱人地显露在低浅的水流之下。
关于闹鬼和麻烦的不死生物的故事有一部分是迷信，不过真相则来得更为复杂。当年摧毁了指挥官全军的惧怖之首并非宗库松的侍从，而是一只名为希尔夸，自封为“无敌者”的残忍水元素。希尔夸已经占据了南乌斯克河的这片地区万年之久，甚至早于星陨之灾，当年曾有一个通向水元素位面的传送门出现在了上游。居住于此的元素生物和它们生活在其他位面交接或元素位面内的那些与世无争的亲戚们有着天壤之别
曾经，希尔夸以及追随她的低等元素和泥霸们曾经在此过着平静的生活，哪怕位面传送门关闭了也是如此。然而，随着宗库松降临奈多，附近城镇的居民——如今早已消逝——开始向这位邪神举行各种祟邪而充满痛苦折磨的仪式。那些仪式所引发的能量扭曲了元素生物们，让希尔夸和她的同伴变得嗜血而残忍。最初，他们只是将怒火发泄在途径的行人身上。但后来，元素们开始猎杀那些离他们巢穴太近的镇民，而此地的传奇故事就此生根发芽。
在永恒战争时期，当指挥官艾维拉在那次命定的行军开始渡河时，元素们有了第一次大开杀戒的机会。这群杀人如麻的生物愉悦地出现在入侵者面前，把涉足自家领地的士兵们一个个撕成了碎块。随着岁月流逝，这些死者所遭受的可怕暴行，以及当年让元素们变得嗜血的同一股能量，让一部分士兵重新活化为朽战尸。如今，任何想轻松搜刮河底宝藏的财宝猎人都得面对以上全部的致命威胁——而结局总是他们的毁灭。虽然很多人曾试图劫掠艾维拉路口，至今还没人能带着宝藏活着逃出此地。
劇透 - 原文:
AEVOLAR’S CROSSING Drowned Treasures Guarded by an Aquatic Horror Location Southern Usk River near the Menador Mountains Master Xhilqua the Unmatched (NE female elder water elemental fighter 4) Inhabitants draugrsB2, mudlordsB4, water elementals of various sizes Features abandoned treasures, military history, warped elementals and soldiers risen from the dead
As the Mindspin Mountains ease into foothills and then into a broad plain south of the Uskwood, the Southern Usk River likewise broadens and flattens, transforming from a swift-churning torrent to a wide, calm waterway. A road runs alongside the river as it winds along the mouth of the pass through the mountains, but no bridge spans the wide waters here, and anyone looking to cross must ford the currents. At the site called Aevolar’s Crossing, an entire army once tried to do exactly that—and failed catastrophically, based on the mass of rusted, decaying equipment strewn along the riverbed and carried downstream: armor, weapons, wagons, crates, barrels, and more besides. A passerby looking closely enough might even see the gilded insignia of the old Chelish empire on a still-gleaming, certainly magical breastplate.
No one crosses the river at Aevolar’s Crossing, though the river here is shallow and the current is sluggish. An unnatural chill pervades the silent air, which is bereft of any of the usual sounds of river activity. No insects sing, no birds call, and no fish dare break the still surface. Locals speak of Aevolar’s Crossing only in hushed whispers, and they avoid the place like it might an harbor unholy agent of the Midnight Lord himself. They say the place is haunted, that it is here where Zon-Kuthon enacted his vengeance against those who would dare bring arms to bear against the god’s own realm. There may be treasure to be found here, the locals agree, but the cost is the seeker’s life—or worse—and so no hordes of local treasure-hunters descend on this hushed locale.
Parts of the tales are true. An entire battalion of the Chelish army was indeed lost here in the early days of the Everwar, when Commander Aevolar led her troops north into Nidal in what was to be the first attack against Cheliax’s northern neighbor. The entire battalion was lost, leaving no survivors but a wealth of abandoned equipment. Though most of the mundane supplies were lost to the intervening centuries, plenty of gold, jewels, and magical gear survives, some of it tantalizingly visible beneath the shallow currents.
The tales of haunts and troubled undead is partly superstition, though the truth here is far more complex. The leader of the terrors that devastated the commander’s troops and all looters since is no servitor of Zon-Kuthon, but a fierce elder water elemental named Xhilqua, who styles herself the Unmatched. Xhilqua has claimed this stretch of the Southern Usk River for millennia, since long before Earthfall, when a portal to the Elemental Plane of Water once existed just upriver. The elementals here are a far cry from the insular, nonaggressive creatures typically found near planar founts or on the Elemental Planes.
For a time, Xhilqua and the lesser elementals and mudlords that followed her lived here peacefully, even after the planar portal closed. However, following ZonKuthon’s descent into Nidal, the villagers from nearby towns—now long-gone—began practicing fell and torturous rituals to their evil god. Those rituals pulled forth energies that warped the elementals, rendering Xhilqua and her allies bloodthirsty and territorial. At first, they simply visited their wrath on passing locals. Soon, though, the elementals began hunting townspeople who ventured too close to their lair, and the seeds of the legend of this place began.
The elementals happened upon their first chance at widespread destruction when Commander Aevolar led her fateful foray across the river during the Everwar. The elementals descended upon the invading force gleefully, tearing them limb from limb as the soldiers waded through the murderous creatures’ watery territory. As the decades have passed, the horrific violence of their deaths and the same rank energies that turned the elementals bloodthirsty has reanimated some of the soldiers as draugrs. Now, any treasure hunters hoping for an easy score must face all of these deadly threats—always to their ultimate doom. Thought many have tried to raid Aevolar’s Crossing, none have yet escaped with any of its many treasures.
古坟荒原 Barrowmoor古代马王的殉葬地地点 奈多北部、乌斯科河附近
掌控者 迪里德恩·古什 Dridehn Goish（中立男性老年人类9级通灵者 OA）
住民 阿特伦的魂语者和看守者（spirit talker and caretaker），与古奈多马王相关的传奇英灵（Legedary spirit，PF战役设定：异能国度 10-11），无羁魅影（Unfettered Phantom B5）
特点 远古作祟和陷阱，地灵（loci spirits OA），古代人民的记录，与精魂交流 古坟荒原是一个统称，它指代这一片大小坟冢山丘星罗密布的神秘地区，其历史可以追溯至古奈多的马王时代。来到此地的外来者会发现自己迷失了方向，总是在同一座山头附近打转，而指南针也旋个不停、失去作用。作为马王们的后裔，阿特伦牧区的人们在谈及古坟荒原时总会带有悄然的敬畏，但就连它们都甚少在此地徘徊。
大部分关于古坟荒原的传说从核心上是正确的：这里的山丘都是古坟，里面长眠着内海地区留存至今的最古老文明之一的先祖。这些古坟最小的大约有一间小农舍那么大，而最大的则比这大三倍；每一座坟墓旁边都围着一圈烧尽的炭木栅栏。许多古坟上还建有由发黑的木料搭成的奇特骨塔，塔尖直指天空，塔边则饰有燧石和马鬃编成的简易饰品，以证明有古人长眠于此。虽然外行人通常统称为“鬼魂”，但其实徘徊在古代坟冢之间的精魂种类繁多，且善恶兼有。
作为一处古文明的殉葬地，许多历史学者都对古坟荒原有着浓厚兴趣。这里有着格拉利昂唯一一支熬过星陨之灾的文明的考古记录，而其中某些文物甚至能追溯到古阿兹兰特时代。在这些坟墓中，用马鬃编织成的挂毯上详尽地记载了千百年来当地的马匹育种记录。那些宗教研究者也能从中了解许多关于黑暗之年以前、宗库松的铁拳还未挥落这片土地时，此地卡利德人的生活风俗。投机的探险者们则坚称，这里一定有着数不尽的宝藏，古代马王们曾带着它们一起被埋葬于此。涉足秘传知识之人则想从历史中寻求智慧，或试图与仍徘徊于生前熟知土地的精魂们进行交流。
尽管古坟荒原有着种种诱惑，但哪怕旅行者够胆面对从地表和地底挂起的怪异寒风和变化不定的山丘地貌，他们也很难成功掠夺这里的墓穴。古奈多的马王们早已预见到外来者可能会侵犯自己的殉葬地，因此他们将自己的坟冢建得极其牢固。很少古坟有入口；即便有，通道上也设有能熬过无尽岁月的致命陷阱。奇妙的是，新近的古坟也采取了和最古老的前辈们完全相同的防护措施。这其中最主要的一样技术便是使用假门，它们被设在显眼处，装饰得像是能通向墓穴更深处，实际则是被束缚于此的恶灵的寄居地：它们会毫不留情地袭向触碰自己居所的入侵者。这项技术与古奥斯里昂所发现的技术惊人地相似，但还没有学者找出两个文明之间的其他联系。
除了这些预设的防护措施以外，另一些守护者也逐渐出现，这包括强力的作祟，虚体不死生物，乃至极少数决心看守着坟场，担任起精魂与活人沟通桥梁的当代在世马王后裔。虽然流浪于此地的凡人们并没有正式的机构或社区，但古坟荒原非官方的看守者首领是一位名为迪里德恩·古什的老人，数十年前，因为与死者之间有着诡异的联系，又能自在地活在死人堆中，他被从自己家族位于古坟荒原附近的农场赶了出来。自那以后，他就一直在这里生活。据说，古什知晓这些坟冢的每一处角落，还能聚集起此地海量的不死能量与生物来对抗入侵者。对于那些想了解更多关于这片远古之地的人而言，寻求古什的建言可谓是明智之举，不过没人确切知道他的住址，而据说他只会留意那些最为尊重古坟荒原的历史之人。
虽然古坟荒原很诡异，但它并不邪恶——的确，这里有作祟，还经历了一段可怖的历史，但长眠于此的死者大多数在生前并非邪恶，也未被时光所玷染。如果给出恰当的敬意，很多徘徊于此的魂灵并不会有恶意，它们之所以留在主物质位面通常只是因为有未了的心愿，或是寰宇间的某些差错让他们没法前往骨园。
这些地灵（Loci Spirits）可能会直接在旅者面前现身，向他们伸出援手，以换取某种帮助；又或者他们会用一点小小法术与眷顾，来护佑那些曾保护过他们在世后裔免受奈多国土上各类邪恶之力的友人。还有些魂灵会教导那些知晓如何运用精魂之力的人以大智慧：这可能是一位通灵者传奇英灵的跟脚，一位先知的骸骨秘示，秘学士所佩戴的各种灵器，甚至是传说中被骑将们称为幽灵骑手的鬼魂坐骑。显然，这些赠与非常罕见，而想获得这些大智慧的人也得做好充足的准备；阿特伦牧区的养马人和他们的先祖固然不会太敬重奈多的阴暗主子们，但他们也不会随便欢迎来自国土之外的旅行者。
劇透 - 原文:
BARROWMOOR Burial Mounds of Ancient Horselords Location northern Nidal near the Usk River Master Dridehn Goish (N male old human mediumOA 9) Inhabitants Atteran spirit talkers and caretakers, incorporeal undead, legendary spirits (Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Realms 10–11) tied to the ancient Nidalese horselords, unfettered phantomsB5 Features ancient haunts and traps, loci spiritsOA, records of ancient peoples, spiritual connections
Barrowmoor is ultimately a thoroughly descriptive name, applied to this eerie region of enormous burial mounds that date back to the ancient culture of Nidal’s horselords. Outsiders traveling the region find themselves lost, looping around the same handful of hillocks over and over again, their compass needles twirling uselessly. The people of the Atteran Ranches, who are the horselords’ descendants, speak of the place with quiet reverence, but even they tread here only rarely.
At their core, many of the tales of the Barrowmoor are true: the mounds are burial mounds, where one of the oldest surviving cultures in the Inner Sea region laid their fallen to rest. The smallest of these hills stands at the size of a small cottage, while the largest reach three times that, each enclosed by a cage of burned charcoal logs. Many further bear strange, skeletal towers of blackened wood reaching into the sky above them, and decorations of simple flint and braided horsehair offer a testament to those interred within. Though the uninitiated simply tell of “ghosts,” in truth many spirits roam the ancient mounds, both benevolent and malign.
As the burial ground of an ancient culture, Barrowmoor holds much of interest to scholars of history. Here lie archaeological records of one of the only civilizations on Golarion to have survived Earthfall, with some relics reaching as far back as those of ancient Azlant. Within these tombs, detailed tapestries of knotted horsehair track horse-breeding records over the course of centuries. Those studying religion find much to learn from those Kellids who lived in this part of the world before the Age of Darkness and Zon-Kuthon’s iron fist descended upon the land. Opportunistic explorers insist that treasures untold must certainly lie here, buried alongside those horselords who bore them in life so long ago. Individuals steeped in eldritch lore seek wisdom from the past or connections to the spirits who still roam the lands they knew in life.
For all the temptations Barrowmoor offers, even a traveler brave enough to face the unnatural chill rising from the ground and the subtle, eerie shifts in the mounds would find these tombs difficult to plunder. The horselords of ancient Nidal foresaw that outsiders might seek to pillage these burial lands, and so they constructed their barrows accordingly. Few of the mounds contain
entrances, and those that do have entryways also bear deadly traps that have survived countless ages. Oddly, newer mounds employ the same protections as the most ancient of them. Chief among these is a technique strangely akin to one found in ancient Osirion, though no scholars have yet found any other links between the two cultures; false doors, prominent and decorated to appear as portals to an inner tomb, serve only to house malevolent spirits bound within, eager to lash out at any who dare trespass upon their demesnes.
Around these intentional protections, a host of other defenses has arisen, from potent haunts to incorporeal undead to the very few living descendants of the horselords who have taken it upon themselves to serve as caretakers of the burial ground and as conduits for its spirits to the living world. Although there is no formal structure or society among this area’s mortal wanderers, the barrows’ unofficial lead caretaker is an aged man named Dridehn Goish, who has lived here since he was cast out decades ago from his family’s nearby farm for his unsettling connections to and comfort with the dead. It’s said that Goish knows these tombs’ every nook and cranny and can marshal the area’s significant undead energies and creatures against intruders. Those who seek information or other riches from this ancient place are wise to seek Goish’s counsel, though it’s unclear exactly where he lives, and he’s said to brook the attentions of only those who show the utmost respect to the Barrowmoor’s past.
As unsettling as the moor is, the place is not evil— haunted, yes, and weighted under a tremendous history, but most of those who lie at rest here were not evil in life and have remained uncorrupted by time. Many of the spirits that wander here are not malevolent if treated with appropriate respect, and they simply linger on the Material Plane because of some unfulfilled wanting of the soul or some cosmic confusion that bars them from reaching the Boneyard.
These loci spirits may take form and offer aid to travelers directly in exchange for succor, or they might simply offer support in the form of minor spells and solicitude to beneficiaries who protect their living descendants from the nation’s many evils. Other spirits offer great wisdom to those individuals who know how to harness them: many a medium’s legendary spirit can be found with roots here, as can an oracle’s mystery of bones, various implements wielded by the occultist, or even the ghostly steeds of the fabled cavaliers called ghost riders. These offerings are rare indeed, and those who seek to garner such wisdom had best prepare themselves accordingly; the horse tenders of the Atteran Ranches and their ancestors bear no great respect for Nidal’s shadowy masters, but neither do they welcome travelers from beyond their borders.
囚日城堡 Castle of the Captive Sun受虐癖不死者的奢华宅邸地点 乌斯克森林北部，帕格莱斯西侧
掌控者 沃萨兹尼·德扎尔 Volsazni Dezarr （守序邪恶男性吸血鬼10级催眠师 OA）
住民 被吓倒的善良阵营人士（神裔，天界血脉术士，艾奥梅黛和塞恩蕾的牧师），吸血裔B2，凶暴狼，吸血鬼
特点 吸血鬼的黑暗晚宴派对，堆积如山的魔法物品与神器，吸血鬼衍体 虽然沃萨兹尼·德扎尔在帕格莱斯有一座大宅——就像所有奈多上流人士那样——但囚日城堡才是他最爱的住处，他一年里大部分时间都居住于此。从外面看，这座宅邸像是一座传统的乡间豪宅，有着修建齐整的草坪和一尘不染的建筑，和其他国家中的乡间别墅没什么不同。但奈多永恒的阴影让宅邸变得暗淡，其内在与外表更可谓大相径庭。
首先，沃萨兹尼是一位吸血鬼，也是一位热诚的宗库松信徒，他以一种只有真正生于黑夜的物种才能做到的独特方式拥抱着苦痛。
囚日城堡得名于沃萨兹尼的“客人”，一群有着天界血脉的俘虏。他们在城堡里过着无上奢华的生活，身边则环绕着堡主多年来收集到的海量与神圣和太阳相关的奇物珍宝。沃萨兹尼关押了神裔、塞恩蕾信徒、和其他神圣生物作为他最爱的人畜，因为他们那流淌着神圣之力的血液不仅能饱腹，还带着让人愉悦的灼痛。而对那些神器与奇物，吸血鬼则用它们向自己的黑暗主神献上厚重的虔诚：他会引动这些奇物的光明之力，将其直接照射到自己和数位在囚阳城堡建成前收下的吸血裔子嗣的肉体上。
沃萨兹尼让他的客人们尽享奢华，但他们都被束缚在餐桌旁的镀金长椅上。围绕在这些客人身边的除了吸血鬼和他的衍体以外，还有数不清的陷阱、法术，以及堡主的凶暴狼守卫。沃萨兹尼会定期举办晚宴派对，并邀请其他吸血鬼贵族作为晚宴的嘉宾，在为期两周的派对中将俘虏们一步步折磨至绝顶。
成为堡内的俘虏也就意味着能免受外界的威胁，而新来的一位客人则借助了这份保护。
阿拉斯托斯·尼安纳 Alastros Niannah （守序善良男性人类5级血脉狂怒者 ACG）正躲避着沉默执法者（Slinet Enforcers）；虽然城堡早已臭名远扬，但阿拉斯托斯知道自己血脉中的天界祝福能让他在城堡中得到保护。眼下，这位艾奥梅黛信徒正等待着时机，他已经被堡垒内真正的恐怖吓软了脚。现在他想找到逃跑的方法，以拯救自己身处尼斯罗切受尽折磨的爱人。
沃萨兹尼收藏的奇物珍宝在奥术学者、历史学家和财宝猎人中同样名声远扬。这些物品中有的仅仅是一根昼明术魔杖，有的则可能是无价的神器。然而吸血鬼本人并不特别看重哪一件奇珍；他很乐意卖出任意一件宝物，只要对方能给出新的有用小玩意作为交换。不过想尝试这种交易的人最好准备妥当，因为沃萨兹尼蔑视那些把自己藏品当成商场摆卖之人，而想当着这位古代领主的面行窃的家伙则只会大难临头。
劇透 - 原文:
CASTLE OF THE CAPTIVE SUN Luxurious Estate of Masochistic Undead Location northern Uskwood, west of Pangolais Master Volsazni Dezarr (LE male vampire mesmeristOA 10) Inhabitants cowed good-aligned individuals (aasimars, celestial bloodline sorcerers, clerics of Iomedae and Sarenrae), dhampirsB2, dire wolves, vampires Features dark vampiric dinner parties, hoards of magic items and artifacts, vampire spawn
Though Volsazni Dezarr maintains a townhouse in Pangolais—as all members of Nidal’s high society do— the Castle of the Captive Sun is his favored abode and the location where he spends the vast majority of his time. From the outside, the estate seems a traditional country manor akin to one that might be found in any civilized nation, given its manicured lawns and pristine architecture. But the perpetual gloom of Nidal’s shadows dims the estate into a gray monotone, the first sign that the great house is not what it seems.
First of all, Volsazni Dezarr is a vampire, as well as a devout Kuthite who embraces agony in a way that only a creature truly of the night can.
The Castle of the Captive Sun takes its name from Volsazni’s “guests,” a collection of celestial-blooded captives kept in utter luxury alongside an astounding treasury of holy and solar-related artifacts gathered over the years. Volsazni keeps aasimars, Sarenites, and other holy creatures as his preferred feeding stock, as their divinely tinged blood offers a delectable, searing pain in addition to sustenance. The artifacts, meanwhile, the vampire uses in profound devotions to his dark god. He wields their light-bringing powers upon his own flesh and that of several dhampir offspring he sired in the years before establishing the Castle of the Captive Sun.
Volsazni keeps his guests in the height of luxury, though they are chained to their gilded chairs at the feast table. Volsazni’s guests are hemmed in not only by the vampire and his spawn but also by countless traps, spells, and his dire wolf guardian. From time to time, Volsazni even hosts decadent dinner parties during which other noble vampires stay as honored visitors and escalate the captives’ torment to despicable heights over the course of a fortnight.
What keeps the captives in also keeps them safe from outside predations, and one recent arrival has taken advantage of that protection. Alastros Niannah (LG male human bloodragerACG 5) is on the run from the Silent Enforcers; though the castle’s full reputation was no secret, Alastros knew that the celestial blessings in his blood would grant him sanctuary within. Now, the Iomedaean bides his time, aghast at true horrors of the castle. Now he seeks a way to escape so that he can rescue his tormented lover in Nisroch.
The collection of artifacts Volsazni keeps has its own reputation among arcane scholars, historians, and treasure seekers. Some items are no more remarkable than a wand of daylight, while others are priceless artifacts. Yet the vampire regards few with any particular affection; he is more than willing to part with any if offered a new useful trinket. Those attempting such trades had best be prepared, though, as Volsazni scorns any who think they can treat his collection as a mere shopping arcade, and woe to those who think to outright steal from the ancient lord.
艾德迈拉的愚行 Edammera`s Folly跨越位面的古代实验室
地点 奈多西部，乌斯克河分叉口西北侧
掌控者 凯达娄斯 Kaidalous（守序邪恶无性别邪验魔B3 6级调查员 ACG【法医UI】）
住民 邪窥魔（augur kytons B3），邪验魔（ interlocutor kytons B3），幽影领主脑泥怪（shadow lord B4 brain oozes B3），各种幽影（shadow）和高等幽影（greater shadow）
特点 通向影界且不断变换的神秘传送门，徘徊在阴影中的恐怖，外科手术室 神秘的大法师梅森德罗思·孤魔（Mesandroth Fiendlorn）在奈多奥术学者中非常有名；这位古代法师在穷极一生对不朽的追求中造就了海量的知识，包括各类异界生物、死灵系的造诣、新防护法术，等等——但就是没能揭开不朽之谜。和很多伟人一样，孤魔疑心重、城府深，他把自己各领域的研究分别安置在国境内多处不同的研究场所，每一处都由他其中一位学徒来掌管。没人知道这样的研究所一共有多少，因为它们中只有一小部分被后人发现，且在被发现时内部都已全毁。
艾德迈拉的愚行就是一处这样的研究场所。地名上提及名号的这位法师是孤魔的一位学徒，他负责维持着这座崭新的研究设施——一座由钢铁和玻璃建成的，刻有密密麻麻的清晰奥术符文的无菌白高塔。和孤魔的其他设施一样，这里的防护措施几乎滴水不漏，以确保大法师本人能尽情使用塔内的设备。他在塔内进行研究造成的动静，塔外几乎完全无法察觉；大多数看到高塔边缘闪烁阴影图样之人只会将其归功于笼罩奈多全域永恒的昏暗。
若有探险者能进入设施中——这并不简单，此人必须搞定层层奥术防护和数道加固过的大钢门——她将发现高塔内部也几乎看不到没落的迹象。恒定的光亮术散发着柔和的光芒，照亮了整个大厅，而研究室和外科手术室中则配有更强的光源，在类人生物踏入房中时发出白昼般的光亮。
当然，这些光照仅限于设施在物质位面的部分——当踏遍设施内几乎所有门廊后，这点就非常明显了。孤魔那背信弃义的性格在此展露无遗：他把设施内部所有门口都替换成了通向高塔位于影界扭曲镜像的传送门。这些传送门是永久的，但并不固定。它们会随机通向对侧镜像高塔的某一条走廊，而传送地点还会在每次使用后改变，哪怕两个生物通过时间只隔了一刹那也是如此。机智的探险者们会意识到他们可以手拉手来确保被传送到同一处，但这样又会在面对传送门对侧的威胁时丧失先机。
艾德迈拉的愚行在影界的部分是由黑化的锈铁和染血的黑曜石建成的，和物质位面的无菌白高塔形成强烈反差；而高塔那渗人的静谧也变成了痛苦的尖叫和喘息。一群邪验魔和邪窥魔充当着这里的守卫，把一间间实验室当成了理想的艺术间，以方便他们对彼此，对从影界抓来的可悲灵魂，以及从传送门跌入的家伙进行“艺术创作”。凭借天生的位面传送类法术能力，链魔们可以轻易行走于艾德迈拉高塔各处，不过高塔内充足的照明实在让他们不悦，因此通常而言他们会避开这些光亮区域。传言中，此地链魔中最强大者，凯达娄斯，与当年的艾德迈拉正是同一人。
艾德迈拉高塔在物质位面的住客们要比影界那边的更加安静，但危险程度丝毫不减。艾德迈拉的研究主要是如何利用泥怪的天生特质来抵抗岁月流逝，而当迅速排除掉那些无心智的品种后，奇特而聪慧的脑泥怪（B3 43页）便成为了她下一个实验项目，因为传言中这种生物就是另一个试图成就不朽的种族的产物。被艾德迈拉带进高塔的大批试验品中，只有一小部分还活在这里，其余的要么落入了孤魔手里，要么在经手人逝去后成批死去，要么沦为了影界来客的猎物。
从传送门泄露出的暗影精华深深地渗入了这些残存脑泥怪的躯体中，如今他们全员都获得了幽影领主（shadow lord
B4）模板。它们非类人生物的躯体不会激活塔内的照明，因此这些生物可以悄然穿行于设施内的阴影中，而无需穿越传送门。当然，高塔还是幽影和高等幽影的家园，它们总是来回穿梭于自己的本土位面和物质位面之间，寻找着沿途的受害者。
少数投机者们发现，艾德迈拉的愚行塔内半稳定的通向影界的传送门，可以用于在两个位面之间的旅行。该尝试得面临多方面的挑战：旅行者不仅要避开或安抚位面两边高塔的居民，还得找到稳定传送门的方法，以确保一条能让他离开影界高塔的路，而非永恒地在两座高塔中盲头打转。诚然，某些冒险者愿意冒此生命危险，以夺取被废弃在阴暗设施内的各种研究材料和魔法物品。
劇透 - 原文:
EDAMMERA’S FOLLY Ancient Laboratory Straddling the Planes Location western Nidal, northwest of the Usk River’s fork Master Kaidalous (LE agender interlocutor kytonB3 investigatorACG [forensic physician] 6; Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Intrigue 33) Inhabitants augur kytonsB3, interlocutor kytonsB3, shadow lordB4 brain oozesB3, various shadows and greater shadows Features mysteriously mobile portals to the Shadow Plane, roving shadow horrors, surgical laboratory
The mysterious archmage Mesandroth Fiendlorn is well known among Nidalese scholars of the arcane; the ancient wizard’s lifelong quest for immortality produced a wealth of knowledge on various outsiders, necromantic arts, abjurations, and more—if not the desired outcome. Like many great minds, Fiendlorn was paranoid and secretive, and he segmented his various areas of research into separate laboratories across the land, each in the care of one of his many apprentices. No one knows how many such lairs exist, as only a few have been discovered and explored, and all proved destroyed from within.
Edammera’s Folly is one such location. The titular wizard, an apprentice of Fiendlorn, maintained this pristine research facility—a sterile tower of steel and glass etched with meticulous columns of precise arcane runes. Its protections were near absolute, save that this tower, like all of Fiendlorn’s facilities, remained accessible to the archmage. The damage he wrought within its halls during his research is nearly imperceptible from without; most who see flickering shadows crawling along the sides of the tower simply attribute the shifting pattern to the perpetual Nidalese gloom.
If an explorer were to gain access to the facility—no small feat, given the layered arcane protections atop the reinforced steel doors—she would find that the interior likewise shows few signs of its downfall. Permanent light spells gently illuminate the halls, while the laboratories and surgical theaters are enchanted such that much brighter lights flare into near daylight when a humanoid creature enters the space.
Of course, this illumination is limited to those spaces that exist on the Material Plane—a fact that becomes clear upon stepping through nearly any doorway in the facility. Here, the treachery Fiendlorn unleashed becomes evident: every interior doorway in the entire facility has been replaced with a portal to a twisted replica of the tower on the Plane of Shadow. These portals are permanent, but they are not fixed. Each connects with a doorway in the counterpart tower at random, and the destination changes from use to use, even between two creatures passing through only moments apart. Savvy explorers might realize they can at least ensure they pass through together by joining hands, although this leaves them rather disadvantaged against whatever might await them on the other side of the portal.
The Shadow Plane version of Edammera’s tower is forged of blackened, rusting iron and blood-spattered obsidian in place of the Material Plane’s sterile steel and glass, and the eerie silence is replaced by screams and gasps of torment. A cabal of interlocutor kytons and the augur kytons who act as their sentinels use the laboratories here as an ideal location for them to work their arts upon one another and upon pitiable souls captured from the Shadow Plane or who have crept through the portals. The kytons navigate their portion of the tower courtesy of their innate plane shift spell-like ability, though they find the plentiful illumination of Edammera’s tower distasteful and typically avoid it. The greatest of these kytons, Kaidalous, is rumored to once have been Edammera herself.
The residents of Edammera’s tower on the Material Plane are far more subtle but no less dangerous than their Shadow Plane counterparts. Edammera’s research focused on harnessing the innate abilities of oozes to withstand the ravages of time, and while she quickly dismissed the mindless varieties as an unviable option for her efforts, the peculiar and intelligent brain ooze (Bestiary 3 43) came to the fore as a candidate for her experiments, its reputation bolstered by the rumors that these creatures themselves were the result of another race’s efforts to achieve immortality. Of the dozens of specimens Edammera kept here at the facility’s height, only a handful remain, the rest having fallen into Fiendlorn’s hands, wasted away in captivity once their handlers had perished, or fallen prey to guests from the Plane of Shadow.
These few remaining brain oozes have been thoroughly infused by the shadow essences seeping through the portals, and now all of them bear the shadow lord template. Since their non-humanoid presence doesn’t activate the tower’s lights, the creatures can slink along the shadows throughout the facility without passing through the portals. Of course, the tower is also home to shadows and greater shadows, who consistently slide from their home plane to the Material Plane and back, looking for victims along the way.
A few opportunists aware of Edammera’s Folly have considered whether the facility’s semistable portals to the Plane of Shadow could be used as a means of transit between the two planes. The challenges facing such an endeavor are manifold: not only would a traveler need to avoid or appease the denizens of each planar tower, but she would also need to find some way to stabilize the portals enough to secure a route that lets her exit the Shadow Plane’s tower rather than shifting randomly between the two for what could become eternity. Of course, some explorers are willing to risk that fate in the hope of gaining access to the wealth of research material and magical items that are no doubt abandoned within the shady facility.
碎梦堂 Hall to the Broken Dream刁滑链魔和其狂热信众的秘密教派地点 眩心山脉南部，基斯丹诺堡东北方
掌控者 斯克里亚斯肯 Skrialsiken （中立邪恶女性lampadariu kyton 8级催眠师 OA【操影师】；PF战役设定：内海诸神 315，内海战役设定：异能国度 16）
住民 满怀希望的秘教徒，lampadarius链魔
特点 离奇的塑肉和塑魂实验（flesh- and soulwarping experiments），秘教徒招揽者，喧主链魔（kyton demagogue，链魔的半神）的神坛 坐落在奈多南部的碎梦堂的外观像是完全由阴影铸造而成，它是一个有趣教派的根据地，而教派成员们的忠诚与奸智发生了意料之外的变化。该教派由lampadarius 链魔（PF战役设定：内海诸神 315）和狂热的凡人信众组成，他们崇拜维沃若（Vevelor），被称为破碎之梦（the Broken Dream）的链魔喧主（kyton demagogue）。教派的首领，斯克利亚斯肯，自称是维沃若在格拉利昂的神使，不过她想借此身份带领其链魔教团所欲何为还不得而知。
无论任何，阴影朝廷都已注意到了碎梦堂。事实上，碎梦堂每年都会派出一支代表团前往帕格莱斯，以感受大城市的氛围、沐浴隐伏在城内的苦难气息，以及悄然向任何愿意驻足聆听之人讲解他们这尊特殊的信仰。他们会公开地赞颂破碎之梦是如何从一只链魔荣登喧主之位，并会敏锐地反驳一切支持宿命论的学说。
若是其他团体够胆在奈多如此传教，阴影朝廷想都不想就会把肇事者弄得生不如死。的确，大多数朝廷成员都公开地厌恶奈多国内除宗库松以外的一切信仰，哪怕维沃若是来自影界的一尊强力邪神也是如此。但是，碎梦堂的信徒们坚称，自己之所以信仰维沃若，仅仅是为了反抗他们心目中束缚了宗库松仆从们的宿命。在该问题上，阴影朝廷意识到，绝大多数的奈多居民很难分辨维沃若和宗库松信仰的区别。他们希望避免发生在午夜领主教会内的内斗，因此碎梦堂的代表团得以继续前往帕格莱斯执行自己的黑暗使命而不受到外界报复。
在他们前往奈多首都的旅途中，教徒们也会暗中物色潜在的人选以壮大自己的教派。在乡村和小城镇等地区，他们会寻找那些对自己生活感到不满的宗库松信徒或潜藏的无信者，希望能激发和强化这些人心中顽强不屈的意志，直至在这个国家难以容身的地步。
至今为止，该教派中约有十来位非链魔教徒，他们都在碎梦堂中接受了可怕的仪式和手术，以效法维沃若所经受的灵肉之旅。大多数这些教徒渴望把自己转化为链魔，不过也有一小部分人有着别样的目标，例如变成另一种类的邪恶生物。
教派非常小心地隐藏起自己招揽信众和塑肉塑魂的举止，以免其失去与阴影朝廷成员之间的脆弱和平。不过，阴影朝廷也不傻，朝廷中某些人已经猜出了真相。由于他们手头没有证据，而斯克里亚斯肯又有一些强大的盟友，这些阴影朝廷特工们正物色一队强劲的代理人，以派去剿灭这个刁滑耍赖的链魔据点。
斯克里亚斯肯
劇透 - 原文:
HALL TO THE BROKEN DREAM Cult of Rogue Kytons and Fanatics Location southern Mindspin Mountains, northeast of Citadel Gheisteno Master Skrialsiken (NE female lampadarius kyton mesmeristOA [umbral mesmerist] 8; Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Gods 315, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Realms 16) Inhabitants hopeful cultists, lampadarius kytons Features bizarre flesh- and soulwarping experiments, secret cultist recruiters, shrine to a kyton demagogue
Seemingly constructed from pure shadowstuff, the Hall to the Broken Dream in southern Nidal is home to a curious sect of malignant beings whose loyalties and machinations have taken a perhaps unexpected twist. The sect is made up of lampadarius kytons (Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Gods 315) and fanatic mortals who revere Vevelor, the kyton demagogue known as the Broken Dream. Their leader, Skrialsiken, claims to be Vevelor’s herald on Golarion, though what actions she has planned for her cult of kytons regarding that role are unclear.
Regardless, the Umbral Court is aware of the Hall to the Broken Dream. In fact, every year, a contingent from the hall visits Pangolais to soak in the urban atmosphere, bathe in the latent suffering that looms so large in the city, and quietly explain their particular faith to any who will listen. They openly discuss the Broken Dream’s apotheosis to first a kyton and then a demagogue, and they adroitly argue against any possible merits of fatalism or predestination.
Were any other contingent to dare such proselytizing in Nidal, the Umbral Court would visit torturous sufferings on the perpetrators without thought. And indeed, most court members openly dislike the worship of anyone other than Zon-Kuthon in Nidal, even if Vevelor is a powerful, evil deity from the Plane of Shadow. However, the hall’s faithful insist that their adherence to Vevelor is simply defiance of the predestination that they believe limits Zon-Kuthon’s servants. For their part, the members of the Umbral Court realize that the vast majority of Nidalese citizens can discern little difference between Vevelor and Zon-Kuthon. They wish to avoid the appearance of infighting within the church of the Midnight Lord, and so the hall’s contingents continue to travel to Pangolais on their dark missions without reprisal.
During their trips to the Nidalese capital, the cultists also clandestinely look for potential recruits to join their sect. Among rural villages and back urban alleys alike, they seek Kuthites or secret atheists who are discontent with their lot in life, and wish to translate indomitable wills into more power than the state would ever allow.
So far, the sect contains about a dozen non-kyton cultists, all of whom undergo horrific rituals and experimentations at the Hall to the Broken Dream as they try to map Vevelor’s journey of the flesh and soul. Most of these cultists hope to transform themselves into kytons, though some seek very different and specific goals, such as becoming another type of evil creature.
The sect has carefully hidden its recruitment and flesh- and soulwarping activities lest it lose its very tentative peace among members of the Umbral Court. Nevertheless, the Umbral Court is wily, and some of its members suspect the truth. Because they have no proof, and because Skrialsiken has a few powerful allies, these Umbral Court agents quietly seek a powerful team of agents who can be sent to eliminate the rogue outpost.
谎言之屋 House of Lies闹鬼的公会大堂和宝物库地点 乌斯克森林西北角
掌控者 塔克希娜 Takhina（混乱中立女性中年人类9级通灵者 OA【说书人 OA】）
住民 谎言公会，阴影朝廷特工，不安的守护之魂
特点 奥术和异能财宝，作祟与陷阱，超自然的强大防卫措施 影碎是奈多历史中的一段反常时期，它大约持续了3个世纪，在此期间奈多与他国之间的帷幕被拉起，奈多国民得以一瞥世界上其他地区的生活，而外来的冒险者们偶尔也被准许进入这处阴影国度。正是在这个时期，在签署了与切利亚斯的主权条约以后，德拉里斯·伊文吉奥（Delaeris Iovengio ）建下了谎言之屋。
作为一位精明的企业家，德拉里斯看到了新近开放的奈多国界会所带来的机遇。他在建成这座宅邸后，开始邀请有名的说书人们前往奈多，让他们惊叹于这座曾经难以接触的国家。当然，这些客人需要交纳一笔客观的费用才能前往这座奢华的宅邸，而对外部世界感到好奇，想聆听各种故事的奈多籍客人们，同样需要花大价钱才能搞到剧场中的座席。
为了进一步引人注目，德拉里斯开设了一项比赛。每5年，全内海地区最有天赋的说书人们都会被邀请来参加一场争夺“真相编造者”（truth maker）头衔的比赛。当然，参赛者需要在比赛期间住在谎言之屋内，但参赛费上仅需要参赛者为狂宴之屋的藏品贡献一件独一无二的奇珍即可。于是，古怪的考古文物，秘传典籍，独特的魔法物品，谜题盒，以及其他千奇百怪的玩意都被送进了藏品库。而每届比赛真相编造者的真正大奖，便是历届参赛者所献出的海量宝物的使用权。胜利者们可以尽情研究这些宝物，但不能将它们带出奈多国境。
总的来说，这是一次成功的尝试。谎言之屋的名号，获得奈多第一手体验的机会，以及海量奇珍藏品的诱惑，年复一年地吸引着造访者。那些参加过比赛的家伙，无论输赢，都开始自称是谎言公会（Guild of Liars）的一员。德拉里斯在退休时家财万贯，而他家族后辈则将宅邸一直维持到了今日。
就连管理者伊文吉奥家族，也没意识到阴影朝廷对谎言之屋的暗中影响。自谎言之屋开张第一天以来，奈多的特工们就已经在监控和引导着公众对此地的理解认知。最初，这宅邸的名称仅仅暗示着其内讲述的故事的虚假性，但随着时间流逝，这种欺诈故事逐渐成为了谎言之屋的主流，直至其明文规定，在此地讲述的故事都必须是完全虚构。谎言公会被宣传为由一群谎话大师所组成的机构，其成员参加的乃是一场史诗级的谎言比赛。因此，奈多居民们所能听到的外界故事统统都是谎言——这进一步巩固了阴影朝廷对外部世界的信息管制。
随着切利亚斯公民战争爆发，奈多重新收紧边界，谎言之屋遍布国内外的名声也戛然而止。然而，谎言公会仍然延续着，他们每5年便在此聚集，以评选出新一任的真相编造者，获得谎言之屋多年来收集的无数珍贵藏品的使用权。
现任的真相编造者名叫塔克希娜，她是一位曾游历四方的伽伦德女性，和探索者协会有着不甚牢固的关系。自从在比赛中胜出后，她就一直居住在谎言之屋，并在数年内逐步从伊文吉奥后人手中接过了对宅邸的管理权，如今乃是谎言之屋毫无争议的女主人。虽然据说她当年是在协会的要求和赞助下参加比赛，但在获胜后，她一直拒绝允许其他探索者专员分享她所掌管的奇珍藏品。为了警告那些头脑发热的造访者，塔克希娜召唤出了一批精魂徘徊在宅内，让奈多人口中这间大宅闹鬼的传言部分成了事实——讽刺的是，这让她成为了第一位字面意义上的真相编造者。
塔克希娜
劇透 - 原文:
HOUSE OF LIES Haunted Guild Hall and Repository of Curiosities Location northwestern corner of the Uskwood Master Takhina (CN female middle-aged human mediumOA [storytellerOA] 9) Inhabitants Guild of Liars, Umbral Court agents, unquiet guardian spirits Features arcane and occult treasures, haunts and traps, supernaturally strong security
The Shadowbreak was an anomaly in Nidal’s history; it was a 3-century period during which the veil between Nidal and other nations was drawn back, Nidalese citizens gained a glimpse of life in other parts of the world, and adventurous souls were, occasionally, permitted to travel within the shadowy realm. It was during this time, not long after the treaty granting Chelish sovereignty was signed, that Delaeris Iovengio built the House of Lies.
A savvy entrepreneur who saw a particular opportunity in the newly opened Nidalese borders, Delaeris established this estate with the intention of inviting renowned storytellers to Nidal to marvel at the previously inaccessible country. Of course, such guests would pay a fine price to visit this luxurious retreat, and Nidalese guests, curious to hear tales of the outside world, likewise paid well for seats in the theater.
To further drive attendance and interest in his venture, Delaeris began a contest. Every 5 years, the most talented storytellers from across the Inner Sea region were invited to compete for the title of “truth maker.” Contestants were, of course, required to lodge at the House of Lies at exorbitant festival rates, but entering the contest merely required the participant to contribute a unique curiosity to the house’s collection. Archaeological oddities, eldritch tomes, unique magic items, puzzle boxes, and all manner of strange objects made their way into the collection. Each time, the truth maker’s true prize was access to the amassed curiosities garnered from competitors over the years. The winners could study the curiosities but were not permitted to take them from the site.
It was a thoroughly successful venture. Word of the House of Lies, the opportunity it provided to experience Nidal firsthand, and the allure of its collection of curios drew visitors year after year. Those who had taken part in the competition, winners or not, began to call themselves the Guild of Liars. Delaeris retired a wealthy man, and the younger generations of his family have kept the institution going to this day.
Not even the Iovengio management realized the subtle influence the Umbral Court has had on their institution. From the first days the House of Lies opened its doors, Nidalese agents have watched and steered the public perceptions and understanding of the locale. While at first only the estate’s name hinted at the false nature of the tales told within its halls, as the years passed, such deception became more and more central to the house’s operations, until it was explicitly stated and then even outright required that the stories told within its halls be firmly in the realm of fiction. The Guild of Liars was advertised as consisting of individuals with the best lies, who competed in a contest of falsehoods on an epic scale. Thus the only stories from outside of Nidal that citizens heard were lies—further reinforcing the Umbral Court’s control over information about the outside world. The regional fame of the House of Lies came to an abrupt end with the Chelish Civil War, as Nidal again tightened its borders. However, the Guild of Lies continues, meeting every 5 years to declare a new truth maker, who gains access to the invaluable collection of artifacts in the house’s collection for the years to come.
The current truth maker is Takhina, a well-traveled Garundi woman with a rocky relationship with the Pathfinder Society, who has lived in the House of Lies since winning the contest. In the years since, she has gradually taken over administration of the manor from the remaining Iovengios and is now its unequivocal mistress. Though she allegedly entered the contest at the Society’s request and using Society funds, she has since refused to allow other Pathfinder agents to share in her access to the manor’s curio collection. To warn away overeager visitors, Takhina has summoned several spirits to linger within the premises, lending some veracity to the Nidalese claims that the site is haunted—and ironically making her one of the first literal truth makers.
晚夜平原 Plains of Night黛丝娜神秘学使们的堡垒地点 阿特伦牧区
掌控者 星触者艾特莉西亚 Etrixia Star-Touched （混乱善良女性神裔6级黛丝娜的牧师/8级异能者 OA）
住民 黛丝娜神秘学使，奈多裔逃亡者
特点 梦境魔法，神秘仪式（occult rituals），成功隐蔽在牧场内的有组织抵抗势力 奈多的土地上容不下黛丝娜信徒，但一代代黛丝娜信徒们仍前来这里，试图捍卫他们善良女神治下的黑夜，不至化作宗库松的领域。多年来，许多黛丝娜宗派都渗入了奈多西北部的牧区，但有一个被称为护梦使（Dreamtenders）的团体，他们在传教工作中所用到的工具与手段，和大多数信奉低语之歌的同事相比，可谓大相径庭。
在能否彻底推翻奈多的幽暗政权的问题上，护梦使不抱有任何幻想。尽管阴暗朝廷和宗库松就和切利亚斯的魔鬼一样公然把持着朝政，但他们对这片国土的掌控可能要比邻国与地狱的合同更加牢不可破。在奈多境内的武装起义无疑会被宗库松的幽暗仆从们碾碎——碎片大小取决于叛乱的严重程度——而尽管有传言道一些黛丝娜的特工们正在潜入阴暗朝廷，千万年的历史早就证明，在暗无天日的苍穹下，这种颠覆政权的努力结不出什么好果子。相反，护梦使们把工作重心转到了归属他们女神掌管的晚夜和梦境上。
护梦使们是一群神秘学（occult and mystical）学者，他们欢迎那些试图躲避酷烈主子的奈多裔逃亡者。黛丝娜信徒们向这些弃民们提供居所和庇护，而护梦使们还擅长通过心灵咨询、魔法、或其他更加神秘的手段，来帮助曾受奈多折磨的受害者们克服各类创伤。这些手段包括各类仪式，它们不仅是治愈伤者的良药，更是护梦使在这片阴暗国度中赖以生存的武器。 黛丝娜的学者们在漫长岁月中走遍世界各个角落才找到了这些仪式，它们能将受术者的惨痛记忆和梦魇从心灵中提取出来，显化出物理形态。这些半实体的梦境生物中大部分都不受控制，必须被彻底摧毁，但其中一些可控性强的品种则成为了护梦使们的武器，被派去寻找和袭击该份苦痛的始作俑者。梦境怪兽们极难被追踪；探寻它们来源的预言法术所找到的记忆线索，通常只会指向正与怪物搏斗的奈多特工本人，这使得它们成为了一种有效而恼人的武器。
晚夜平原是一处规模不大但经营良好的养马场，它距离最近的村落有一定的路程，是护梦使的行动基地。远离文明社会让护梦使可以把新客人带入牧场，而不必担心引起过多注意，而饲马既能给予黛丝娜信徒们明面上的合法身份，又能在执行某些开销巨大的任务时提供资金来源。他们和周边的乡间近邻们维持着友好关系，但仍会严密保守自己的叛乱行为。虽然自古以来阿特伦的居民就默许黛丝娜信徒进入自己的社群，但面对奈多当局的时候，他们也同样愿意供出这些外来客。
大多数护梦者是通灵者，催眠师，异能者和唤魂师（请见PFRPG：异能冒险第一章）。他们的首领是星触者艾特莉西亚，一位拥有着天界血脉，而曾在童年时期遭受阴影朝廷迫害的奈多裔逃亡者。虽然她已经通过治疗他人的行为痊愈了自己的精神创伤，但她仍然背负着被宗库松牧师刻下的肉体伤痕，他们当年曾想让她在缓慢而痛苦的死亡中受尽非人的折磨。她拒绝谈及自己如何从对方的魔爪中逃出，但哪怕只听闻这段不完整的经历，就足以让人明白为何她会全力投身到护梦者的工作当中。
晚夜平原会雇佣员工来负责牧场的运作。这些马夫由艾特莉西亚亲手挑选；他们一部分是曾接受过护梦者的援助，决心前来作出回报，一部分是并不信奉黛丝娜，但也无法继续在这邪恶国度中过活的逃亡者，而其余的则是单纯手艺熟练而又值得信任的工人。艾特莉西亚愿意对任何需要帮助的人伸出援手，只要他们不是双面间谍。他们会定期前往欧若罗码头，在售卖良马的同时掩护逃亡者们离开奈多。
护梦者们有着一项次要任务，他们对此更加守口如瓶：自成立以来，他们就一直寻找着
夜冀竖琴（见39页），一件黛丝娜信仰的圣器，据说拥有能将听到其乐声之人从宗库松的阴影魔爪中解放的力量。尽管这项搜索最初源自一位护梦者听说了关于神器的传闻，并推测它可能为组织工作提供助力，但艾特莉西亚最近收到了一些风声，称阴影朝廷中一位成员已经独自承担了神器的搜索工作（这是真事；见第六页关于帕格莱斯的维尼翰的介绍）。这意味着神器的力量强到能引发如此高级别的关注，让护梦者的搜索工作变得迫在眉睫，他们一直留心关注着有没有可靠的特工能帮忙寻找圣器。黛丝娜信徒们的预言法术给出了一些关于竖琴所在地的线索，但寻找和回收圣器的旅程注定无比凶险。
劇透 - 原文:
PLAINS OF NIGHT Stronghold of Desnan Occultists Location Atteran Ranches Master Etrixia Star-Touched (CG female aasimar cleric of Desna 6/psychicOA 8) Inhabitants Desnan occultists, Nidalese refugees Features dream magic, occult rituals, successful ranch obscuring organized resistance
The plains of Nidal are no place for Desnans, and yet for generations Desnans have come here, fighting to defend the night as the realm of their virtuous goddess rather than the domain of Zon-Kuthon. Though various sects have slipped into Nidal’s northwestern reaches over the years, those known as the Dreamtenders approach their work with methods and tools far removed from those of most followers of the Whispered Song.
The Dreamtenders harbor no illusions about the effectiveness of an outright rebellion against Nidal’s shadowy rulership. Though the Umbral Court and ZonKuthon’s hand are just as overt as devils’ grasp on Cheliax, their grip over the land is perhaps even stronger than their neighbors’ contracts with Hell. Armed rebels in Nidal would be utterly crushed by Zon-Kuthon’s shadowy servitors—depending on the perceived severity of the insurrection—and though whispers speak of Desnan agents infiltrating the Umbral Court, millennia of history prove that subversive efforts bear little fruit under the sunless sky. Instead, the Dreamtenders focus their efforts on the night and the dreams that fall under the purview of their goddess.
Scholars of the occult and mystical, Dreamtenders welcome Nidalese refugees who seek to escape the land’s cruel masters. The Desnans offer these pariahs of the state shelter and safety, and the Dreamtenders are well versed in helping victims of Nidal’s torments overcome the trauma of their abuse, whether through counseling, magic, or more esoteric means. These methods consist of rituals that are not only a salve to those Nidal has wounded but also a weapon the Dreamtenders bring to bear against the shadowy realm. Discovered in far corners of the world by traveling Desnan scholars over the ages, the rituals pull the victims’ traumatic memories and nightmares out from the psyche to manifest in physical form. Many of these quasi-real dream creatures are unmanageable and must be destroyed, but some of the more pliable specimens become the Dreamtenders’ weapons and can be sent to find and assail the root of the afflictions that caused them in the first place. The dream-beasts are difficult to trace; divinations seeking their origin find that such psychic threads typically lead back to the Nidalese agent who finds himself fighting them off, making them an effectively anonymous weapon.
The Plains of Night, a modest but successful horse ranch some distance from the nearest village, serves as the base of operations for the Dreamtenders’ efforts. The distance from civilization allows the Dreamtenders to bring new guests to the ranch without drawing overmuch attention, and the horses raised here help the Desnans claim a legitimate identity in the region and finance some of their more expensive operations. They maintain amenable relations with their rural neighbors but remain careful to keep their rebellious activities under close guard. For all that the Atteran residents have allowed Desnans into their communities in the past, they have been equally willing to purge those same outsiders when challenged by the Nidalese authorities.
Most of the Dreamtenders are mediums, mesmerists, psychics, and spiritualists (see Chapter 1 of Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures). They are led by Etrixia Star-Touched, a Nidalese refugee persecuted since early childhood by agents of the Umbral Court due to her celestial blood. While she has healed her spiritual scars through the practice of healing others, she still bears the physical scars inflicted by the clerics of Zon-Kuthon, who meant to torture her to a slow and agonizing death. She refuses to speak of how she escaped their clutches, but those who hear even this much of the tale realize the dedication it has inspired in her for her work with the Dreamtenders.
The Plains of Night employs staff to handle the ranch’s operations. These hostlers are handpicked by Etrixia; a few are those the Dreamtenders have helped who then decided to repay the service, some are non-Desnan refugees who can no longer face life in this evil nation, while others are simply experienced hands who have been found trustworthy. Etrixia loathes turning away any who might need her help, so long as they’re not double agents, and the hands’ periodic journeys to Orolo’s Quay to sell the ranch’s quality steeds double as cover for the refugees escaping Nidal.
The Dreamtenders have a secondary mission that they keep an even closer secret: since their formation, they have been seeking the Harp of Night’s Hope (see page 39), a Desnan relic said to have the power to free those who hear its song from the grasp of Zon-Kuthon’s shadows. Though the search began when a Dreamtender heard tales of the artifact and suggested it might aid in their work, Etrixia has recently caught wind of a rumor that a member of the Umbral Court has personally undertaken the search for the artifact (this is true; see page 6 for more information about Virihane of Pangolais). The implication that its power is great enough to merit such high-level attention has given their search more urgency, and the Dreamtenders keep a careful watch for trustworthy agents who can assist in finding the relic. The Desnans’ divinations have given them several clues as to the harp’s location, but the journey to find and procure the relic is certain to be treacherous indeed.
影穴 Shadow Caverns奴隶们前往幽暗之地的入口地点 乌斯克森林，帕格莱斯附近
掌控者 维切洛斯 Visceroth（守序邪恶老年雄性影龙 B2）
住民 幽暗生物（dark folk），幽暗之魂（owbs B4），地下怪物，战蜥人（troglodyte）
特点 幽暗之地的入口，龙之军势，奴隶贸易 大约在400年前永恒战争时期，这些位于乌斯克森林中，帕格莱斯西南方的阴暗洞穴首次被发现，第一批进入洞穴深处的是一队倒霉的切利亚斯军团，而如今此地早已不仅仅是他们的埋骨地。在影碎时期（见48页），试图搞清这批失踪部队下落的探险家们发现，这座之前未被探索洞穴的深度超乎所有人的想象，它深入地表之下，直通幽暗之地最上层的那-沃斯（Nar-voth）。在与一处名为劳路斯（Rauhols）的定居点内的幽暗生物们达成了友好和平条约后，这些洞穴便充当起奈多与幽暗之地间，近乎最划算最活跃的奴隶贸易商路，直至今日。
影穴的洞口是一条不起眼的石缝，必须趟过一处冰冷的天然泉水才能到达此地——这种经历被很多奈多裔奴隶视为向自家神祇表示虔诚的恰当表现。前几个洞室显得平平无奇，一些流动的蜥蜴人团伙为洞穴之主看守着这里，他们负责赶走那些因意外或好奇心而造访此地的家伙。那些被允许进入洞穴更深处的人会看到当年切利亚斯失踪军团士兵们的遗骸，以及许多粗制铁笼，里面关押着被镣铐岛海贼们俘获并带至奈多的各种类人生物，这些倒霉蛋最终会被卖给劳路斯的幽暗生物居民。监管着影穴日常交易的是影龙维切洛斯，一位午夜领主的忠诚信徒，他既守卫着洞穴，又确保奴隶们的售价能给奈多商人们提供足够的利润。
劳路斯虽然只是个小村，但却极其繁荣。作为一处通往那-沃斯的交通门户，它在格拉利昂地表的入口相对而言比较好找。劳路斯和小村下方，位于幽暗之地中层塞卡米納（Sekamina）的斯沃斯匹姆城（Sversqpume），在奴役贸易上有着激烈的竞争关系。劳路斯闭塞的幽暗生物居民们时刻保护着自己的家园，任何想通过此地的旅行者——无论是想前往地表还是想从上方进入幽暗之地——要么得支付昂贵的过路费，要么得向村民证明自己是奴隶主们的宝贵财产。
劳路斯经常被一位或多位神秘的幽暗之魂所光顾（它们掌控着幽暗生物的命运）——由于幽暗之魂缺乏可分辨的体征，又浑身笼罩着黑暗，当地人几乎不可能分辨每次造访的恩主和之前是否同一位。无论如何，它们的造访又为当地居民打开了另一条独一无二的生财之道。在地表，帕格莱斯有着可观的卡利尼定居人口，他们会毫不犹豫地购买卡利尼婴儿作为自己的后人，而不会过问这些婴儿到底是被自愿献出的还是被偷来的。而奈多全域中，再没有比影穴更合适的地方来寻求此类交易了。尽管这种买卖可能会让大多数外来者目瞪口呆，但交易的当事人们对此都非常满意：卡利尼获得了家人，幽影子民们避免了让这些离群子嗣们在家乡引发令人厌恶的矛盾冲突，而奴隶贩子则赚到了可观的利润。
劇透 - 原文:
SHADOW CAVERNS Slavers’ Entrance to the Darklands Location Uskwood near Pangolais Master Visceroth (LE old male umbral dragonB2) Inhabitants dark folk, owbsB4, subterranean monsters, troglodytes Features Darklands entrance, dragon’s hoard, slave trade
First discovered during the Everwar some 4 centuries ago, these caverns in the Uskwood’s shadows southwest of Pangolais have become far more than the tomb of the unfortunate Chelish legionnaires who first found their way into the caverns’ depths. Explorers during the Shadowbreak (see page 48), intent on learning what had become of the lost troops, found that the previously unexplored caverns delved far deeper into the earth than anyone would have expected, eventually opening into the Darklands layer of Nar-Voth. Once peaceful contact and amicable relations were established with the dark folk of the settlement called Rauhlos, the caverns took on their present-day role as perhaps the most profitable and active slave-trade route between Nidal and the Darklands.
The caverns’ mouth is an unassuming crack in the stone, accessible only by wading through an ice-cold natural spring—an experience that many Nidalese slavers consider a suitable display of devotion to their deity. The first few caves appear ordinary enough, and the roving bands of troglodytes working in service to the caverns’ master are sufficient to drive away those who happen here by chance or curiosity. Those permitted access deeper into the caverns find the remnants of that lost legion of Chelish soldiers, alongside rough iron cages holding all manner of captive humanoids brought to Nidal by pirates from the Shackles. These unfortunates are ultimately sold off to the Rauhlosian dark folk in regular exchanges overseen by the umbral dragon Visceroth, a devotee of the Midnight Lord who both guards the caverns and ensures that the slaves are sold at rates that garner sufficient profit for the Nidalese traders.
Rauhlos, though a relatively small village, is tremendously prosperous. As a gateway into Nar-Voth with relatively easy access from the surface of Golarion, it maintains a fierce rivalry in the slave trade with the Sekamina city of Sverspume located beneath it. The insular dark folk inhabitants of Rauhlos are protective of their holdings, and any travelers looking to pass through the settlement—whether to gain access to the surface or to reach the Darklands from above—must either prove themselves a valuable asset to the residents or purchase passage at exorbitant rates.
Rauhlos is frequented by one or more of the mysterious owbs that control the fate of the dark folk— the owbs’ lack of distinguishing features and its shrouds of darkness make it nearly impossible to tell whether it is the same benefactor who visits each time or if they are different creatures. Regardless, their visitations grant the settlement yet another unique means of generating income for its denizens. Aboveground, Pangolais holds a sizable population of caligni residents who without hesitation would buy a caligni infant to raise as their own, without regard for whether the infant was freely given or stolen. Nowhere else in Nidal is this exchange carried out with such deliberate frequency as the Shadow Caverns. While such an arrangement would leave most outsiders aghast, it appears to work perfectly well for those directly involved in the exchanges: the caligni gain families, the dark folk avoid any unpleasant confrontations with estranged offspring stirring up trouble in their homeland, and the slave brokers make a tidy profit.
影舍总部 Shadowreach废弃后又被重新发现的暗影大师的老巢地点 乌斯克森林南部
掌控者 瓦尔尼卡·希宛塞恩 Valnica Sivanshin（中立邪恶女性吸血裔B2 4级术士）
住民 肉食性植物，吸血裔 B2，影兽和阴影蕨（请见60页和62页）
特点 关于一位已死恶魔领主（demon lord）的文献，一个古代文明的记录，被阴影束缚的秘密 那些在乌斯克森林中旅行的人都知道，一定要当心外表过于安全和美好的地方，因为这种场所出现在奈多简直是奢望。在一处古代红橡木林的深处，就有这样的一座乡村小屋。从外表看，它像是一处风景宜人的林间隐舍，有着高耸的石烟囱、牢固的木墙和百叶窗。然而烟囱中没有飘出炊烟，而藤蔓也在一年年攀上建筑的墙体。更让当地人和警惕的旅行者避而远之的是弥漫在此地的阴影瘴气，以及匍匐在屋舍周围昏暗灌木丛中的可怕影兽守卫。
虽然当地人都远离这座屋舍，声称它被宗库松的侍从所庇护，但很少人能猜出此地的真正本质。在一个世纪以前，一位名为伊尔尼瑞克·希宛塞恩（Ilnerik Sivanshin）的半精灵探索者协会专员曾经带着一尊古代神器逃出了西冠镇（Westcrown），这尊神器与威瑞阿瓦苏斯（Vyraivaxus），掌管阴影的恶魔领主相关。虽然该恶魔领主神祇早已逝去，但它的力量残留在了神器之上，吸干了专员的生命力。这位半精灵在死后复生为一只吸血鬼，他在乌斯克森林的林荫中找到了一处庇护地，并在此建下了安全屋，以方便研究带给他如此伟力的神器。他把这里取名为影舍总部，一半是为了嘲弄探索者协会在艾巴萨罗姆的总部要塞，另一半则描绘出伊尔尼瑞克的终极目标，他希望把这座小屋从单纯的住所，发展为由当地被阴影玷污的新士兵和希宛塞恩的吸血鬼奴隶组成的小型老练雇佣兵团的总部。
伊尔尼瑞克对改变他命运的神器所具有的幽影之力的研究成果累累，尽管他本人和手下的雇佣兵在大半个世纪前离开此地，回到了他的故乡西冠镇，但在苦心经营多年之后，他仍然在影舍总部留下了许多奥秘。在小屋引人注目的图书馆中，一部分丛书记载着海量关于铸造了伊尔尼瑞克手中幽暗神器的失落文明杰特利安（Jaytirian）的知识，而另一些书籍则无比精确地记录了一系列亵渎仪式的流程与功效，它们之前被世人认为早已随着威瑞阿瓦苏斯逝去而遗失。但其中最危险的，当属希宛塞恩收集的各种能操纵奈多幽影造物的秘密知识与宝物，这包括曾在西冠镇街头横行无忌的影兽。
虽然伊尔尼瑞克离开了影舍总部，他并没让此地毫不设防；他的幽影生物（shadow creature
B4），黯翼（gloomwing
B2），暗影蕨（见62页）和更多更怪诞的阴影守卫们守卫着屋舍的里里外外。尽管它们中大多数仍遵循着失踪主人留下的最后命令，那些接受早期影缚（shadowbinding）实验的受术体的行为则更加叵测。希宛塞恩认为，能获得这些生物提供的额外守备力量，偶尔少一两个雇佣兵也是可以接受的。
这座屋舍虽然外表看上去平平无奇，但内部结构却错综复杂。每个厅堂和房间里都布满了伊尔尼瑞克的幻术，包括出入口数目永远在变化的过道，以及由阴影构成，能让人在环路中永恒徘徊的无尽长廊。奥术和机械陷阱也同样等待着粗心的入侵者，而存放有最贵重知识的区域还覆有超自然的黑暗，让这些陷阱变得更加致命。这座屋舍毫无疑问要比普通的乡村小屋要大得多：在其基层之下，是庞大的地下楼层；而屋舍另一些部分则处在类似于由魔绳术所创造的异位面空间中。
最近，这座屋舍有了一位新的女主人。她是伊尔尼瑞克的吸血裔女儿，瓦尔尼卡·希宛塞恩，其父亲的遗赠流淌在她体内的术士阴影血统之中。这位优雅而残暴的吸血裔最近结束她在午夜卫队的短暂兵役回到了这里，并在几位性格相投的吸血裔朋友的帮助下，试图掌握影舍总部中秘传的学识。至今为止，不少旅行者和村民的失踪都归功于瓦尔尼卡的追捕和实验，这让乌斯克森林的危险程度进一步提升。不过，此地分散的人口使得“猎物”资源并不充裕，而瓦尔尼卡现身的消息定然能很快传入阴影朝廷的耳中。
劇透 - 原文:
SHADOWREACH Abandoned and Rediscovered Shadowmaster’s Lair Location southern Uskwood Master Valnica Sivanshin (NE female dhampirB2 sorcerer 4) Inhabitants carnivorous plants, dhampirsB2, shadow animals and shadow ferns (see pages 60 and 62) Features archive of a dead demon lord, records of an ancient culture, shadowbinding secrets
Those who travel the Uskwood know to beware sites that appear overly wholesome, as such locales in Nidal are almost always too good to be true. Such is the case with this rustic lodge tucked into a thick stand of ancient red oaks. From the exterior, it resembles an idyllic woodland retreat adorned with a tall stone chimney, stout log walls, and shuttered windows. But no smoke rises from the chimney, and climbing vines cover more of the structure’s exterior every year. Further driving locals and wary travelers away are the crawling, miasmatic shadows drifting through the area and the fearsome shadow beast guardians that prowl the dusky undergrowth around the dwelling.
For all that the locals avoid the lodge, claiming it is protected by Zon-Kuthon’s servitors, few would guess the site’s true nature. Over a century ago, a half-elf Pathfinder Society agent named Ilnerik Sivanshin fled Westcrown carrying an ancient artifact dedicated to Vyriavaxus, demon lord of shadow. Though the icon’s demon lord patron was long deceased, its power remained, and it siphoned away the agent’s life force. After his death, the half-elf arose as a vampire, seeking the shelter of the Uskwood’s gloom and building a haven in which he could study the artifact that had given him such power. Christened Shadowreach, part in bitter mockery of the Pathfinder Society’s Absalom stronghold and part describing Ilnerik’s ultimate goals, the lodge grew from a solitary abode to the headquarters for a small but talented mercenary crew of local shadowtouched recruits and Sivanshin’s vampiric thralls.
Ilnerik’s research into the shadowy powers granted by the artifact that shaped his fate was fruitful, and though Ilnerik and his mercenaries departed half a century ago to return to his home in Westcrown, Shadowreach still holds many of the secrets into which he delved during his years here. One section of the lodge’s remarkable library houses expansive lore about the lost Jaytirian culture that forged Ilnerik’s shadowy artifact, while another catalogs with startling accuracy a host of profane rituals and boons long thought lost with Vyriavaxus’s demise. Most dangerous of all, however, are those secrets and treasures Sivanshin collected to gain control over Nidal’s shadowy creations, not least of which are the shadow beasts that famously plagued the streets of Westcrown.
Though Ilnerik left Shadowreach, he did not leave it undefended; his shadow creatures, gloomwings, shadow ferns (see page 62), and far stranger shadow guardians defend the lodge both within and without. While many of these still follow the last commands given them by their absent master, subjects of earlier experiments in shadowbinding are less predictable. Sivanshin considered the occasional loss of one of his mercenaries a fair price for the additional security these creatures provided.
The lodge, though seemingly simple enough from the outside, is a confounding maze within. Ilnerik’s illusions lie heavy over every hall and room, from the entryway with an ever-shifting number of exits to unending corridors of shadowstuff that lead victims to wander in infinite loops. Arcane and mechanical traps alike await unwary intruders, all the more deadly in areas cloaked in preternatural darkness, where the most valuable lore lies. Unquestionably larger than the simple cottage containing it, the lodge extends down into an expansive sublevel carved into the earth and stone beneath its foundation; other portions, though, are more akin to extradimensional spaces not unlike those created by a simple rope trick spell.
Recently, a new mistress arrived at the house. She is Ilnerik’s dhampir daughter, Valnica Sivanshin, who carries her father’s legacy in her sorcerer’s shadow bloodline. The elegantly cruel dhampir has recently returned from a brief stint with the Midnight Guard and seeks to master the eldritch lore of Shadowreach with the help of some like-minded dhampir friends. So far the disappearances of those travelers and villagers due to Valnica’s predations and experimentations have been attributed to the typical dangers of the Uskwood, but there are only so many sources of prey in the sparsely populated region, and word of Valnica’s presence here is sure to reach the Umbral Court soon.
影斜塔 Tower of Slant Shadows挂满鲜活肉体布帘的铁塔地点 奈多西南部平原
掌控者 修女拉维尔 Mother Ravel（守序邪恶女性人类14级炼金术师apg【活体解剖师UM】/7阶诡术大师；PFRPG神话冒险 44页）
住民 洛瓦古格的秘教徒，魔孽（demodand B3）， 血肉魔像，撕皮魔（shredskin B4），skincrawler B6，缝皮傀儡（skinstitch B4）
特点 混合信仰，贯穿毁天巨兽牢笼的星塔，鲜活血肉织成的布帘 在奈多西南部平原棕褐色的草场上，伫立着坚固无比的影斜塔，它就像一根大铁刺，从云端直插入大地。关于这座高塔有着许多传闻，例如有研究称其地底深度还要比地表高度多100尺以上；或是有人断言高塔是刺入宗库松血肉中的一根铁钉，是从其神域中显化到格拉利昂之上的。很少有学者意识到，斜影之塔与散落在格拉利昂各地的另一些高塔是出自同一系列的建筑，而更少人知道，正是宗库松的前身铎-布拉尔（Dou-Bral）雕刻出了这些高塔，以作为被关押在行星内部的邪神洛瓦古格之监牢的一部分。
许多故事中提到了高塔的主祭，修女拉维尔。在故事里，她自远古时代就已守卫着此地，且会让胆敢踏足高塔之人在无尽折磨中死去，而大多数这些故事依然与事实相去甚远。大多数人都称修女拉维尔为血肉织工，她花费了千万年，把各种生物编织成了由剥落的血肉交织而成，带有部分知觉的血肉活挂帘，并将其挂满了自己高塔的内部。化身挂毯的大部分生物仍保有大部分生前的记忆，包括历史事件的第一手记录，或是在当代早已失落的奥术知识。有些布帘上的生物还穿戴或携带着他们当年落入修女拉维尔之手时带上的财宝：最常见的物件有戒指、护腕和项链，不过某些武器和奇物已经从活体织物上滑落。那些血肉织工不想挂上布帘的财宝则被简单地扔开，落入近乎无穷深渊的塔底，在那里成堆地等待腐朽崩坏——而其中肯定有不少珍贵的财宝。
修女拉维尔偶尔会欢迎那些能对她表示足够尊敬和献上够格供奉的造访者，此类“供奉”通常是能增添到其织物上的奇特新种生物，不过有时她也会让客人们进入塔中上下攀爬，以欣赏他们屈服于活挂毯的饿爪的全过程。这类客人会发现自己正攀爬着活动的血肉长绳，周围则满是由活体生物编织而成的帘带。从四周皮肉中延伸出的无面之嘴会用空洞而气绝的低语声祈求外来者结束其受难；其指骨会试图将攀爬者的手从绳网上撬开；而其四肢则会不停地踢挠攀爬者，试图将其拉入这怪诞的活布帘中。在这过程中，修女拉维尔会让血肉织物给予挑战者某种协助，比如点出某具知晓特定趣闻的灵魂合并体，或是让一大群手掌从昏暗中现身，在这片起伏的血肉之海中指出一条延绵数百码的生路。特别大胆的冒险者们可能会试图拯救被卷进挂帘的盟友或同伴，但他们必须把自己的战友从一大串不停流血和尖啸的血肉绞索中切除出来（并准备好面对修女拉维尔的盛怒）。
洛瓦古格的教徒们总是对拆除星塔怀有几分兴趣，因为这么做能削弱囚禁他们神祇的牢笼。影斜塔也一直面对着这类教徒的定期监视和不定期的袭击。这些教徒在草原南部一处植被茂密的峡谷中建立了一个小型的非法据点。他们偶尔也得抵御来自黛丝娜斗士们的袭击，后者希望能从切利亚斯和奈多的夹缝中求得一席之地。然而最近，这两个团体都面临着第三方的袭击——由蓬毛和墨油魔孽（shaggy and tarry demodands，B3 69,71）组成的战团也盯上了影斜塔。这些可憎生物遵从着一位暴亡泰坦（thanatotic titan，B2 267）的号令，它本人则被封印在一处靠近深渊（Abyss）的位面监狱之中。魔孽们并不想摧毁高塔，而是希望能将其伟力为己所用，把他们的泰坦主子主带入物质位面。它们的企图激怒了洛瓦古格的教徒，后者认为魔孽们想要肆意鼓弄封印自己神祇监牢的其中一把钥匙；与此同时，该地区的黛丝娜信徒们也因魔孽的举措而开始行动起来，他们要阻止如此毁灭性的邪恶之力被带入物质位面。
虽然正常情况下，这两尊神祇的信徒们永不会自愿合作，但在面对魔孽时，他们发现双方可谓吴越同舟，而一小部分混乱中立的成员甚至形成了某种将两派神学体系桥接在一起的离奇哲学思想。这种怪异混合思想的信众们在两边信仰的阵营中都不受待见，他们在高塔落下的阴影中建立了自己的公社，作为抵御魔孽袭击的最后防线——不算入修女拉维尔的话。高塔的守卫者至今仍未对塔外各大势力的纷扰采取任何行动，不过无论哪一方成为乱斗的赢家，在实施各自对高塔的计划前，都得先面对拉维尔的怒火。
劇透 - 原文:
TOWER OF SLANT SHADOWS Iron Tower of Living Flesh Tapestries Location southwestern plains of Nidal Master Mother Ravel (LE female human alchemistAPG [vivisectionistUM] 14/trickster 7; Pathfinder RPG Mythic Adventures 44) Inhabitants cultists of Rovagug, demodandsB3, flesh golems, shredskinsB4, skincrawlersB6, skinstitchesB4 Features hybridized religions, Star Tower piercing the prison of the Rough Beast, tapestries of living flesh
In the umber grasslands in Nidal’s southwestern plains, the rugged Tower of Slant Shadows stands like a massive iron spike cast from the heavens into the ground. Tales about the tower abound, from the simple theories that the structure extends far deeper into the earth than the hundred or so feet it rises into the sky to the assertion that the tower is one of the iron needles that pierces Zon-Kuthon’s flesh, manifested in his realm on Golarion. Rare is the scholar who realizes that the Tower of Slant Shadows is one of a series of similar structures found across Golarion, and rarer still is one who knows the origin and true purpose of these Star Towers hewn by Zon-Kuthon’s former incarnation Dou-Bral as part of the prison holding the evil god Rovagug captive within the planet.
Tales tell of the torturous deaths that the tower’s curate, Mother Ravel, inflicts upon those who dare trespass upon the tower she has guarded since time untold, and most of these tales still fall short of reality. A weaver in flesh, as they call her, Mother Ravel has spent millennia braiding all manner of creatures into vast, living tapestries of semisentient flayed flesh stitched together to span the interior of her tower. Many of these creatures retain no small portion of the memories they knew in life, whether firsthand accounts of historical happenings or arcane lore long lost among the living world. Others retain the treasures they carried or wore when they fell into Mother Ravel’s clutches; rings, bracelets, and necklaces are the most common of these trinkets, though some weapons and wondrous items peek out from the weave. What equipment the fleshweaver chooses not to incorporate into her tapestries is simply cast aside, left to molder in a heap at the bottom of the tower’s seemingly infinite depths—among which there are certainly no small number of valuable treasures.
Mother Ravel occasionally welcomes visitors who offer her sufficient deference and offerings, typically strange new creatures to incorporate into her weavings, though sometimes she allows guests into her tower for the sheer sport of watching them succumb to the hungry claws of the tapestries. Such guests find themselves clambering along the animate stretches of flesh, beset by animate ribbons of the creatures from which the weavings were made. A mouth set within a faceless stretch of skin implores outsiders to end its torment in hollow, breathless whispers; fingers pry a climber’s hands loose from the web; and limbs scratch and kick at creatures trying to creep along the grotesque tapestry. In the event that Mother Ravel demands the flesh weavings’ cooperation, perhaps to identify an incorporated soul that holds some tidbit of information, an eerie congregation of hands rises in the gloom to point the way across hundreds of yards of this lumpy flesh sea. Particularly bold adventurers may seek to rescue a companion or an ally woven into the tapestry but find they must slice their comrade out from the bleeding, screaming tangle of flesh strands (in addition to facing Mother Ravel’s wrath).
Cultists of Rovagug have always maintained some level of interest in dismantling the Star Towers, as they ever seek to weaken the bars of the prison around their god. The Tower of Slant Shadows faces fairly regular surveillance and the occasional attack by such cultists, who maintain a small, unruly outpost in an overgrown gulch in the grasslands to the south. These cultists find themselves occasionally fighting off attacks by Desnan fighters seeking to carve out a niche against both Cheliax and Nidal here. Recently, though, both groups have come under attack by a third party: a war party of shaggy and tarry demodands (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3 69, 71) with its sights set on the tower. These hateful creatures plot at the behest of a thanatotic titan (Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2 267), itself sealed away in a planar prison adjacent to the Abyss. Rather than destroy the tower, these demodands seek to channel its power into their own efforts to bring their titan master to the Material Plane. This plot has enraged the cultists of Rovagug, who see it as tampering with one of the keys to their deity’s prison, but it has also galvanized the efforts of the Desnans in the region to prevent the introduction of such a destructive force of evil.
Though normally followers of these two deities would never willingly cooperate, they find themselves strange bedfellows in opposing the demodands, and a few chaotic neutral individuals have formed a bizarre philosophy bridging the two divine portfolios. Not welcome in the camps of either of their patrons, the followers of this strange and hybrid faith have formed their own commune nearly in the tower’s strangely angled shadow, serving as the last line of defense against the demodands’ attacks—other than the caretaker Mother Ravel herself, of course. The tower’s keeper has so far refrained from taking action against any of the various factions struggling over her tower, though whichever group found itself the victor of this conflict would surely face her ire before it could enact its plans upon the tower.
谷下驿站 Undervale被幻术掩蔽的玲花驿站地点 阴影谷地
掌控者 兰德里·特瑟提恩 Landry Tethertine（混乱善良男性半身人6级吟游诗人）
住民 侏儒，半身人，过往商人
特点 构装体，遍布阿维斯坦的自由斗士，幻术 很少人愿意前往阴影谷地。哪怕奈多本地人也尽量避开这里，这里的超自然幽影雾气，和隐藏其中的捕猎者，都足够让人敬而远之。崎岖不平的地貌容易让坐骑崴脚算是是这里最寻常的危险，而传言中此地还有着更多险恶的存在：坚不可摧的碎片人（Splinter Men），成群结队的阴影巨人，以及能扭曲现实的黑雾风暴。
但还是有人克服恐惧走进这片不祥之地。此类勇士中最有名的乃是往返于摩尔苏恩和瑞德旺之间的半定期商队，赚钱是他们铤而走险的源动力，而商队也会聘请精锐的雇佣兵全程守护他们的旅程。不那么为人所知的则是玲花会（Bellflower Network）的半身人，凭借山间迷雾，以及附近穿越麦纳多山脉的通路，他们带领着来自奈多和切利亚斯的被解放的奴隶潜入摩尔苏恩，再从那前往内海地区和其他地区中更为好客的国家，获得完全的自由。
居住在谷下驿站的半身人们十分精明狡猾，他们利用阴影谷地中广为人知的各类危险，为其在该地区的行动提供掩护。几乎每个走入该地区的旅行者都会在看到雾气中显露出幽暗的身形后选择转身逃跑，因此至今还没人发现，徘徊在山麓处这一小片空谷的的生物只是身披幻术幽影的黄铜骨架，而远方传来的刺耳嚎叫声也只是来自吟游诗人或法师的小小戏法。玲花特工们带领着一群又一群向往自由的前奴隶，他们知晓哪些身影和声响是来自谷下驿站的同伴，以免在路上毫无防备地遇到真正的敌人。
这个定居点是一处与周边环境格格不入的惊人社区，它建造在谷地的翻腾幽影之中，有一半是处于地表之下。在小心隐藏好的墙体后面，旅行者会发现自己进入了一个明亮而充满喜悦的社区，每一个壁炉中都燃着温暖的火光，每一个人都哼唱着轻快的歌谣，每一份空气中都飘扬着佳肴的香气。
和奈多其他地方相比，谷下驿站的氛围可谓截然不同，它更加充满欢欣，更有活力。其内居民大部分是是半身人，不过也有一部分侏儒留在这里，寻求时刻面对传奇般危险的刺激生活体验，并协助维护驿站周围各类幻术和魔像等防护措施。摩尔苏恩商队的雇佣兵偶尔也会在迷雾中“走失”几天，期间他们会为谷下驿站居民们补充生活所需，不过高个子的造访者可能会在驿站中不太舒服，必须得曲身适应小体形尺寸的住所。半身人兰德里·特瑟提恩管理着谷下驿站，他负责审查潜在的住民，并监控着玲花会的各类行动和各处构装体和幻术的防御措施。
尽管谷下驿站的专家们成功在内海地区中危险系数最高的区域开辟出自己的据点，但从切利亚斯和奈多前往膜苏恩的这条路径可不是胆小鬼能走的。从切利亚斯通向麦纳多山脉的山路危险而崎岖，远离文明社会；而山路出口的阴影谷地边陲又离宗库松信徒掌管的瑞德旺只有一步之遥。虽然奈多和切利亚斯当局都不太可能去追捕一批逃入谷地的奴隶——他们深信一小群贱民根本无法从这里的骇人危险中幸存——但如果说派一支地狱骑士小分队在麦纳多南侧山口处巡逻，在逃奴进入山道之前就抓住他们，那就相对合情合理了。谷下驿站的猎手们会尽力把路途上更危险的敌人清理干净，但阴影谷地可谓危机四伏，其间许多危险很难完全拔除。无论如何，这些半身人的勇气和韧性都令人敬佩，而阴影迷雾下潜藏的自由希望鼓舞着玲花会的特工们，他们会定期使用这条密道带领着他人走向自由。
兰德里·特瑟提恩
劇透 - :
UNDERVALE Illusion-Cloaked Bellflower Waystation Location Umbral Basin Master Landry Tethertine (CG male halfling bard 6) Inhabitants gnomes, halflings, passing merchants Features constructs, freedom-fighting plots spanning Avistan, illusions
Few souls travel the Umbral Basin willingly. Even Nidalese locals avoid the place, warned away by the unnatural shadow mists and the many predators hiding and hunting within. The most mundane of the dangers is that of laming a steed on the rocky, uneven surface underfoot, and tales abound of far more sinister forces: the indestructible Splinter Men, leagues of shadow giants, and reality-warping storms of black fog.
But some do brave the terrors of this foreboding locale. The semiregular merchant caravans between Molthune and Ridwan are the best known of these hardy travelers, prompted by economic need and making the journey under the protection of elite mercenary guards. Less well known are the halflings of the Bellflower Network, who take advantage of the mist and the nearby pass through the Menador Mountains to shepherd freed slaves from both Nidal and Cheliax into Molthune and, once there, to freedom in the many welcoming nations of the Inner Sea region and beyond.
The halflings of the settlement of Undervale are a canny lot, leveraging the widely known perils of the Umbral Basin to provide cover for their own activities in the area. Nearly every traveler through the region would sooner flee than investigate a shadowy shape emerging from the mist, and so no one yet has discovered that the creatures stalking this particular hollow of the foothills have skeletons of brass cloaked in illusory shadows or that the eerie howls from the distance have no source other than a bard or wizard’s simplest cantrips. The Bellflower agents leading each group of freedom-seeking former slaves know which shapes and sounds are created by their Undervale kin, preventing them from being caught off guard when a true foe wanders across their path.
The settlement is a shockingly out-ofplace community, built half underground among the basin’s roiling shadows. Once within its carefully hidden walls, travelers find themselves welcomed into a bright, cheery community where fires burn on every hearth, songs carry from one person to the next, and the cozy scent of a hearty meal pervades the air.
The atmosphere of Undervale is vastly different, more cheerful, and more full of life than any place in Nidal proper. The vast majority of its residents are halflings, though a few gnomes remain in residence for the thrilling experience of living amid such legendary danger, helping to maintain the illusions and golems of all sorts that defend the waystation. Molthuni caravan mercenaries are occasionally “lost” in the mists for a few days while they convey supplies to the Undervale residents, though any taller visitors among them find themselves at a disadvantage in the settlement, forced to crouch and adapt to the half-sized accommodations. The halfling Landry Tethertine manages Undervale, vetting potential residents and overseeing both the Bellflower operations and the construct and illusion defenses.
For all that Undervale’s experts have achieved in carving out their way station in one of the most hostile environs in this part of the Inner Sea region, the journey from Cheliax and Nidal to Molthune via this route is not for the faint of heart. The pass through the Menador Mountains from Cheliax is a difficult and dangerous passage, far from any bastions of civilization, and the mountains open into the edge of the Umbral Basin perilously close to Kuthite-dominated Ridwan. While neither the Nidalese nor Chelish authorities are likely to pursue a group of fleeing slaves into the basin— for surely a ragtag band of little folk could never survive the overwhelming dangers to be found there—it would not be so unreasonable for a detachment of Hellknights to patrol the southern end of the Menador pass in an effort to catch fleeing slaves before they reach the pass. Undervale hunters do their best to keep their route clear of more dangerous foes, but the Umbral Basin is a perilous place, and many of its dangers are difficult to truly stave off. These halflings’ bravery and tenacity are formidable, however, and the promise of freedom beyond the shadowy mists encourages agents of the Bellflower Network to make regular use of this hidden route to freedom.
