11.04.2013 Views

Pathfinder Chronicles - Faction Guide (oef).pdf - WORLDWAKE

Pathfinder Chronicles - Faction Guide (oef).pdf - WORLDWAKE

Pathfinder Chronicles - Faction Guide (oef).pdf - WORLDWAKE

SHOW MORE
SHOW LESS

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

<strong>Pathfinder</strong> <strong>Chronicles</strong>: <strong>Faction</strong> <strong>Guide</strong><br />

BellfloweR<br />

ne t wo R k<br />

Slavery is a common practice throughout the Inner Sea<br />

region of Golarion—particularly in Cheliax, where<br />

all manner of non-human humanoids, but especially<br />

half lings, make up the majority of the slave workforce. With<br />

no ancestral home, and having spent generations enslaved<br />

to the Chelish people, the halflings took it upon themselves<br />

to seek freedom and aid other half lings in doing the same.<br />

Thus was born the Bellf lower Network, a decades-old,<br />

ultra-secretive society of freed halfling slaves who engage<br />

in a wide range of subversive and rebellious activities to free<br />

their compatriot half lings from Cheliax and hopefully from<br />

slavery forever. The Bellflower Network is so named because<br />

of the blue bellf lower members use for their symbol. They<br />

leave it carved on fence posts, embroider it into tunics, and<br />

grow it around their important buildings. Members of the<br />

network can always spot other members on official business<br />

by identifying some sort of blue bellf lower symbol on their<br />

person—a tattoo, a pin, or even an actual bellf lower stuck<br />

in the lapel. In addition, the group communicates using its<br />

own set of code words (see sidebar). The network maintains<br />

hundreds of paths to freedom from dozens of Chelish cities;<br />

most of these paths end in Andoran, though some make<br />

their way into Rahadoum.<br />

go a l: eM a n c i Pat i n g halfling sl av e s<br />

The Bellf lower Network is focused on one thing: freeing<br />

half ling slaves from Cheliax. Its members are unafraid<br />

to murder slavers or slave owners to do so, though they<br />

prefer to grab slaves in the night and quickly get them into<br />

the network where they are much less likely to be found.<br />

Those freed often dress as slaves and sneak back into<br />

half ling slave communities or households where they stay<br />

for a time, encouraging the half lings still in captivity to<br />

f lee with them come the next harvest moon. The network<br />

maintains its secrecy by never divulging too much<br />

information to a single tiller or the owner of a single barn.<br />

Tillers typically only know one or two barns along a given<br />

row and the owners of those barns usually don’t know to<br />

what barns they are linked. Should a tiller be captured<br />

and tortured, he could only ever give away at most two<br />

locations and the owners of those locations could reveal<br />

none. Tillers typically only lead their crop by moonlight,<br />

as it’s much easier to hide the short-statured half lings<br />

when fewer people are around to see them. Nearly all of<br />

the barns in Cheliax are located outside the major cities,<br />

also reducing the chance the network will be uncovered.<br />

Though a few barns have been found and destroyed, the<br />

network has never seen a major infiltration in its history<br />

and remains largely a secret within Cheliax’s borders.<br />

10<br />

al i g n M e n t: cg<br />

Members of the Bellf lower Network are unafraid to<br />

dirty their hands in the name of freedom. Slavers, slave<br />

owners, and unfortunate witnesses have all fallen to their<br />

blades and bows in the name of half ling emancipation.<br />

Bellf lower members avoid direct confrontation whenever<br />

and wherever possible, but they don’t f linch from it when<br />

it’s necessary. Though the group has a rigid organizational<br />

structure, the secretive nature of that structure leaves<br />

the day-to-day operations of each part of the network<br />

largely up to the whims and ideas of the individual—thus<br />

the chaotic nature of the network’s alignment. Freeing<br />

half ling slaves and moving them to countries without<br />

slavery, like Andoran, puts the faction firmly on the good<br />

side of the spectrum.<br />

le a d e R<br />

The mysterious leader of the Bellf lower Network is known<br />

only as the Farmer. Those who have met him (or who claim<br />

to have met him) all say that he’s a male half ling who<br />

walks with a limp and wears a black hood with a bellf lower<br />

symbol stitched onto one side. Some tillers believe that<br />

the Farmer is in reality many half ling men, each of whom<br />

wears the hood when it’s his turn to guide the network. The<br />

tillers who claim this are those who have seen the Farmer<br />

on many occasions and swear that his limp shifts from one<br />

leg to the other, his voice is sometimes different, and his<br />

mannerisms and accent change frequently. Whether this<br />

is proof of several shadowy governors at the head of the<br />

network or simply the Farmer’s way of keeping his tillers on<br />

their toes will likely never be known. The most consistent<br />

rumor between network members is that the Farmer was a<br />

slave in Corentyn, that he was mistreated and abused, and<br />

that he killed his slave master when he escaped by ship to<br />

Rahadoum and later to Andoran. Finally, a recent rumor<br />

that’s gaining traction among tillers is that the Farmer<br />

is funded by the Eagle Knights of Andoran (or is actually<br />

an Eagle Knight himself ) and that the knights are using<br />

the network not only to free slaves, but also to identify the<br />

best routes from Andoran to every major Chelish city—a<br />

strategy they can only be developing as a prelude to war.<br />

go o d cl a s s ch o i c e s<br />

Bard, Cleric, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue<br />

ch a l l e n g i n g cl a s s ch o i c e s<br />

Barbarian, Fighter<br />

he a d q ua Rt e R s<br />

Though no one knows where the Farmer is actually located,<br />

there are several locations in Cheliax that are considered<br />

to be central gathering points for Bellf lower Network<br />

members. In Corentyn, there is a weekly meeting of freed

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!