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Archives of Nethys

Archives of Nethys

Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition) Pathfinder RPG (2nd Edition) Starfinder RPG

Rules Index | GM Screen | Player's Guide
The Harrow Court

Into the Court

Source Pathfinder #190: The Choosing pg. 69
The easiest way to enter the Harrow Court is to use the Enter Harrow Court activity—indeed, this is the only way to enter the demiplane the first time, for the PCs' arrival in the Harrow Court actually finalizes the creation of the demiplane. The act of investing a card from the Deck of Destiny and then bringing that card into the Harrow Court automatically activates that card's incarnation effect on the demiplane as well (see Epitomes). After this initial investiture, that incarnation effect persists even if the card doesn't remain invested over the course of the adventure.

Before one can use the Enter the Harrow Court activity, six cards —one from each suit—must be brought together. At this point, only the PCs can use a card from the Deck of Destiny to Enter the Harrow Court, as the demiplane's formation is inexorably linked to their souls and fates.

Harrow Court Features

Source Pathfinder #190: The Choosing pg. 69
Once the Harrow Court has been created, it's possible for anyone to travel to the Harrow Court using spells such as plane shift or gate, but the newness of the plane and its obscurity means such methods are difficult. Traveling via plane shift, for example, requires the use of a tuning fork attuned to the Harrow Court. If the PCs wish to create such a tuning fork, they must succeed at a DC 30 Crafting check and expend 200 gp in raw materials. The check must be made while in the Harrow Court, after which the newly created focus can function for the casting of any plane shift spell to travel to the demiplane. Other methods to enter the Harrow Court exist—some of which the PCs may discover (or endure) as the Stolen Fate Adventure Path progresses (these methods are presented in the adventure text as they occur).

Once a character arrives in the Harrow Court, exit from the demiplane is possible via six portals found within Harrowheart or via plane traveling spells like plane shift. A character who arrives in the demiplane by using the Enter the Harrow Court activity can use that same activity to open a portal back to their initial point of entrance from the Material Plane. Certain card epitomes can provide additional options to exit the Harrow Court via this method, but until those cards are epitomized, using the Enter the Harrow Court activity only returns the traveler to their original point of departure from the previous plane.

Exploring the Harrow Court

Source Pathfinder #190: The Choosing pg. 70
The PCs can explore the demiplane as they wish, and can even make use of the demiplane as a place to rest, recover, and pursue Downtime activities. The map of Harrowheart provided here can be used to calculate travel times as needed when PCs pursue activities, particularly those tied to specific points of interest.

Harrowheart

Source Pathfinder #190: The Choosing pg. 70
Harrowheart is a sprawling complex featuring dozens of rooms—more than enough of each type to suffice for the PCs. No map of Harrowheart is provided. A PC can travel to any room in the castle within a few minutes. Feel free to create a map of the castle if you wish or allow your PCs to design one.

With the exception of the Grand Hall (of which there is always only one in Harrowheart), the total number of each of the following types of rooms is always equal to the number of PCs in the party. If this number changes as the campaign progresses, Harrowheart's layout changes as well when no one is looking. As the PCs grow the court by incarnating more cards, each of the rooms is increasingly attended by droves of simulacra servants ranging from cooks to valets and more, all eager and ready to ensure the player characters' visits to Harrowheart are as comfortable as possible.

Bedrooms: These chambers are a perfect place to rest and relax. They can be outfitted as recovery rooms as well, to provide places for long-term rest or other medical care as needed.

Dining Halls: These chambers range from sprawling rooms capable of hosting galas to intimate nooks for single dining. Meals provided by cooks in adjoining kitchens are filling but not overly flavorful. While the materials used to cook these meals vanish like all other materials if taken from Harrowheart, the sustenance they provide is real—a character who eats and drinks in one of the castle's dining halls remains full and sated, even if they immediately leave the demiplane after finishing their meal.

Grand Hall: The grand hall occupies the center of Harrowheart. This is where the PCs arrive when they use the Enter the Harrow Court activity. Several doors provide access to other parts of the castle, but the most significant features of the grand hall are the six looming alcoves along its northern wall. The six arches over the entrances to these alcoves are adorned with imagery associated with the six suits of the Harrow—hammers, keys, shields, tomes, stars, and crowns. These archways can be activated as portals to travel to points across Golarion where cards from the Deck of Destiny lie in wait—see Part 2 of this adventure for more details.

Training Rooms: The first time a training room is entered, it's empty, featuring only a single meditation mat lying on the center of the floor. A character who spends a minute meditating on the mat can adjust the room's contents to be a shrine, laboratory, library, dojo, garden, sparring hall, or any similar room that matches the themes of their class. The room thereafter can be used by any character of that class for the Retraining downtime activity. A character can adjust the room's contents to support a different class by meditating at the center of the room—provided the room isn't already in use.

Workshops: Harrowheart's workshops feature numerous tools and resources for creating a wide range of items, including magical items. The tools located in each workshop are of high quality and grant a +1 item bonus to any Crafting check made within. Raw materials must be provided by the crafter, of course, as no materials found within Harrowheart can exist outside the demiplane.

The Realm

Source Pathfinder #190: The Choosing pg. 71
Harrowheart is situated on a hill at the very center of the Harrow Court, surrounded by a small village in turn surrounded by farmlands and pastures. It's in this village that the simulacra who play the role of servants in Harrowheart “live,” and all the food and drink served in Harrowheart's dining halls come from the surrounding farmlands. Beyond these fertile plains lie scorching deserts, trackless swamps, a deep lake, and a sprawling forest. Surrounding them all is a range of looming mountains.

The PCs are free to explore as they see fit, and as they epitomize more cards, the options and activities they can pursue in these terrains increases, but until those options are epitomized, there's not much more to do in the wilds surrounding Harrowheart other than sightsee.

In order to pursue activities in these outlying terrains, a PC must travel to the required terrain. Resolve travel using Exploration Mode, and use the map of the Harrow Court on page 70 to calculate time spent traveling. Sometimes, a PC may find themselves having to spend the night outside Harrowheart's comforts. In these instances, the character must use Survival to Subsist. (As with the dining rooms, sustenance gathered while Subsisting is filling, even while the food itself cannot exist outside of the demiplane.) Each terrain entry below notes additional features a PC faces when traversing the terrain. The DC listed in parentheses after the terrain's name indicates the Survival DC to Subsist in that terrain.

Desert (DC 30): The desert is difficult terrain. Daytime temperatures are severe heat, while nighttime temperatures are mild cold.

Farmland (DC 10): Temperatures in the farmland are normal during day and night.

Forest (DC 25): The forest is difficult terrain. Temperatures are normal during day and night.

Lake (DC 25): Small boats and rafts are commonplace along the lake's shores. There's always an available watercraft within no more than a ten-minute walk along the water's edge. Temperatures here are normal during the day and mild cold at night.

Mountain (DC 35): The mountains are greater difficult terrain. Temperatures here are mild cold during the day and severe cold at night.

Swamp (DC 25): The swamp is greater difficult terrain. Temperatures here are mild heat during the day and normal at night.

Points of Interest

Source Pathfinder #190: The Choosing pg. 72
In each of the six terrains lie three points of interest; these are locations where certain epitomes manifest their associated activities. When the PCs epitomize such a card, they get to choose what point of interest in the appropriate terrain hosts that activity. Once this location is selected, it cannot be changed.

All points of interest are numbered, allowing you to track which ones are assigned to particular epitomes.