Maze of the Open Road

This article covers the portal hub based in Woodsedge. For the Pathfinder Society scenario, see The Maze of the Open Road.

The Maze of the Open Road is a living, magical, extradimensional, hedge-maze demiplane of portals located on the grounds of Woodsedge Lodge in Galt. It leads to destinations across Golarion, to distant planets, and to other planes.

History

The statue of Narven at the center of the Maze of the Open Road.

Forest King Narven Feathereyes gifted the hedge maze to the Pathfinder Society approximately 200 years ago, growing it from the ground up on the lawn of the Galtan Woodsedge Lodge. The Maze of the Open Road contains magical teleportation portals, used in times past by the Decemvirate to travel to the lodge for meetings. Narven planted additional portals within the Maze that brought in strange beasts as time went on, making it dangerous to traverse its paths.

Structure

The entrance to the Maze is a large stone arch in the garden behind Woodsedge Lodge. Its walls are made of magically self-maintaining green topiary hedges that are 20 feet tall and appear to be 1 foot thick, and its exterior hedge walls are 300 feet long.

The top of the Maze is warded with magical force against being entered from above or exited from the ground, and also obscures its true nature to observers from above. Likewise, the ground is warded to prevent attempts to burrow into or out of the Maze, or to circumvent its inner or outer walls.

The interior of the maze is even larger than its exterior dimensions would suggest, and its walls have properties that betray physics by being impossible to penetrate regardless of how much material is removed from them. The hedges are occasionally punctuated by an otherwise extinct variety of red roses called Narven's Tears. It is typically quieter than the Lodge, with a pleasantly warm breeze circulating air throughout.

Maintenance

While the Maze's physical hedges do not require maintenance, its planar structure is unevenly worn, which can lead to localized instability. When unstable, the Maze might also grow its own unplanned portals to unexpected destinations.

Locations

While the maze is much larger and more complex than it appears, it is largely stable and can be mapped. It features a central courtyard of marble arches, the ruins of palatial marble structures, and a 15-foot-tall marble statue of Narven.

A circular henge of eight standing stones, once used by Narven to focus his druidic magic, remains intact deep within the Maze. In another clearing, four statues depicting friends of Narven—Stoneroot, Sunsear, the Green Ghost, and Midwinter—serve as a navigational monument.

Terminus points

In addition to Woodsedge Lodge, the Maze contains many portals to and from destinations across and beyond Golarion. These portals vary in appearance; for example, the portal to Edme is a solid door of oak wood, while the portal to Arl is a red steel ring of swirling reddish-orange light.

The Maze is anchored by artifacts called keystones, which if disrupted can displace its portals' functionality or cause other planes' properties to bleed through into the Maze. While additional portals can be opened to connect the Maze to new destinations, doing so can temporarily create planar tears in other locations that can be exploited to force entry into the Maze.

Known portals include:

• the Grand Lodge in Absalom
• Heidmarch Manor in Magnimar
• Nexus House in Nex
• Starrise Spire in Mendev
• the Open Road Lodge in the northern Mwangi Expanse
• Port Valen
• the Thuvian desert
• an abandoned manor house's hedge maze in Absalom's Ivy District
• the top of the great central pyramid of Arl on the planet Akiton
• the caverns beneath Montrose Keep in Edme
• Habermorrow, the home of Eddington Keel in Corentyn
• the Mwangi Expanse, on the northern shore of Lake Ocota near Usaro
• the Elemental Planes

Inhabitants

Condria, medusa and former guardian of the Maze.

The Maze was long guarded by Condria, a medusa who petrified intruders. She was trapped within the Maze by Narven, and if killed she re-materialized seconds later. Her statues long littered the Maze's central courtyard, and since her departure the Society has attempted to restore many of her petrified victims. Pathfinders also control and guard some of the Maze's portals, while other portals have their own magical guardians that predate the Society's usage.

Interplanar criminals Gedun and Yeyacha used the Maze of the Open Road as a hideout between their plane-hopping heists.

References

Paizo has used or set several Pathfinder Society scenarios in the Maze of the Open Road, particularly the Eyes of the Ten series, Mistress of the Maze, Year of Unfettered Exploration, Thick as Thieves, and Mischief in the Maze.

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.