Eye of the Crocodile King

Eye of the Crocodile King, a retired Pathfinder Society scenario written by Chris Self for tier 1-5, was released in November 2008 and retired from organized play on May 24, 2010.

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Arcanamirium transmuter Maren Fuln found a magically sealed amulet in the school's library and kept it as a shiny bauble. Little did he know the amulet contained an entity far worse than he imagined and by unsealing it, he loosed a revenge-obsessed horror into the sewers beneath the school. Can the Pathfinder Society halt the beast's plan in time, or will he build his army of revenge and sow chaos in Absalom?

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Scenario overview

Level	1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Location(s)	Absalom Grand Lodge Foreign Quarter

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Background

In 4658 AR, an Arcanamirium docent named Lord Corgan was accused of involvement in forbidden magical research related to the trapping and manipulation of living souls. He initially escaped arrest, but was convicted in absentia, and eventually captured in Katapesh. He was punished using his own research, such that his soul was bound to an eye-shaped emerald amulet. The amulet was sealed in a box and stored in the Arcanamirium library.

In 4708 AR, a journeyman transmuter of the Arcanamirium named Maren Fuln found the amulet and became corrupted by the Lord Corgan's lingering will. He was tricked into unleashing the amulet's power, a process which rendered him unconscious.

When he awoke, he discovered that the subjects of his transmutation experiments, including a particularly vicious reptilian aberration, had fled into the sewers along with the Arcanamirium's animal handler Lemedor, who had been assisting Maren in his experiments.

For a week, the anxious Fuln covered up these events, but eventually he contacted Pathfinder Society Venture-Captain Adril Hestram, an old friend of his family, for help.

The spirit of Lord Corgan, acting through the amulet, had meanwhile taken control of Fuln's prize aberration. Styling himself "The Crocodile King", Corgan quickly conquered a local group of xulgaths¹ and enacted a plan to arm and train his xulgaths for an invasion of the surface, where they would destroy the Arcanamirium.

Adventure

Venture-Captain Adril Hestram commissions a group of Pathfinders to look into Maren's problems, with a particular eye to recovering the magic amulet and bringing it to Hestram.

Upon attending the Arcanamirium, the Pathfinders meet Fuln, who minimises his role in events and directs them into the sewers to seek his experiments and Lemedor.

In the sewers, the Pathfinders fall afoul of a xulgath trap that unleashes a swarm of rats on them. They also encounter a wounded otyugh in its lair. They are eventually ambushed by Lemedor, now mind-controlled by Corgan, and some xulgaths. It is likely that Lemedor is shaken free of the mind control during this battle in time to avoid being killed. If so, he explains that after the blast that left Fuln unconscious, Lemedor felt himself magically compelled to feed the magical amulet to Fuln's beastly experiment, which fully awakaned Corgan's soul and fused it to the aberration.

Progressing onwards, the Pathfinders battle with the xulgath tribe's pet crocodile, and then make their way to Corgan's lair, where they find him in the half-human, half-crocodile body of Fuln's experiment.

The Pathfinders defeat Corgan, retrieve the amulet from his belly, and return it to the Pathfinder Society.

Recurring characters, concepts, and locations

The following characters, concepts, or locations can be found in this scenario, but also significantly appear in the publications listed below:

Available resources

The following Pathfinder Map Pack and Pathfinder Flip-Mat products are used in this scenario, in addition to four custom maps:

References

↑ Prior to Pathfinder Second Edition, Paizo referred to common xulgaths as trogolodytes, and used the term "xulgath" only when referring to what are now known as xulgath thoughtmaws.

[1] Prior to Pathfinder Second Edition, Paizo referred to common xulgaths as trogolodytes, and used the term "xulgath" only when referring to what are now known as xulgath thoughtmaws.

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