Isle of Photos

The adventure

At last the tyrant Syron has been overthrown and democracy restored to the Isle of Photos. Syron's soldiers, the Red Cloaks, held monsters and raiders at bay during the Time of Terror. The regime's priests conjured up sea-monsters to defend the island's waters. In return the people provided obedience to Syron's oppressive taxes and demands for sacrifices. But no new threats have appeared for years and the people have at last overthrown their tyrant and restored their former democracy. It is time now to break the xenophobic cordon that Syron placed around Photos and send ships out into the surrounding islands. Explorers must find whether communities in the Circle of Islands have survived in isolation. Their task will be to kill monsters, remove cults and banish tyrants so as to restore confidence, and re-connect far-flung islands with Photos as the old Circle League's protector.

system/ house rules

• Pathfinder, using low-level characters in a low-level setting where most NPCs will under level 5 in power.
• Start at level 1
• Use defence bonus rules, so that characters have a good AC sans bulky armour, but perhaps allowing fighters to also benefit partly from shields/armour.
• Healing would be done mostly from rest, food , gymnasia, temple visits
• Monsters would be harpies, skellingtons, bad guy soldiers, but also possibly hydras and sea-monsters. Not necessarily filtered for level 1 encounters. Players will struggle at first (possibly die) but grow in competence against typical encounters as they advance.

Links to Character Pages

These are links to individual pages that you fill in with your stuff.

swashbuckler (Mitch)
pankratist (stormraven)
satyr bard (psyop)
priest of typhon the destroyer (Illtry)
hoplite of old photos (thattripletguy]

Setting Stuff

Setting languages part from the local Photos dialect are:

• Koine (universal language)
• Palace Script (Linear A)
• Lydian
• Hunters’ signs
• Typhonic (priests only, like Black Speech in LOTR)
• Atlantean (ancient written language)
• Amazonian (Amazons are rare visitors)
• Keltoid (barbaric northern traders)
• Stygian (egyptian-like tongue)

Island Layout

NINE ISLAND ZONES

×	West	Centre	East
North	Deep Water Bay	Mount of Trees	Temple Forest
Centre	Mount of Winds	Town of Photos	The Farms
South	Western Cliffs	Closed Harbour	Eastern Cliffs

Kosmologi

Two particular gods, Typhon and Hecate are especially active in the setting. Other gods- Zeus, Neptune, Athena, Mercury, are still revered but have a less obvious presence. Typhon is a god of monsters and chaos, and the real bad guy in the setting. The priests of Typhon have just been overthrown on Photos. Those that survive are tolerated either since they represent a milder aspect of the god, or are too effective and powerful for the new regime to kill them off. Typhon's domains are chaos, darkness and destruction.

Hecate is generally a good goddess in the opinion of locals to the island. She's worshiped as feminine, protective but with a fierce and mysterious aspect. Her domains are chaos, liberation, magic as core.

Priests of Asclepius alos have obvious active powers, dealing with healing.

Why are some gods so obviously active, and others less so? The adventure will reveal all in time.