Pathfinder Society

The Pathfinder Society has existed for more than 400 years. Its history, fraught with the daring exploits of brave heroes, has long enchanted the populace of the Inner Sea. Members include explorers, historians, tomb raiders, treasure hunters, and vagabonds who roam the farthest reaches of the world seeking lost relics of worldshattering power and answers to riddles older than the gods. These heroes brave vine-choked jungle ruins, ascend snow-capped peaks, and comb sun-seared desert sands in search of buried tombs and monuments of bygone ages.

Upon the completion of a particularly notable discovery or journey, Society members send a record of their exploits to their venture-captain superior, who in turn reviews it for accuracy before forwarding the manuscript to the masked leaders of the Pathfinder Society, the cryptic Decemvirate, an inner circle of 10 experienced Pathfinders who guide the Society’s activities. This guidance is quite subtle, allowing individual Pathfinder agents to believe they act of their own accord when they are actually doing the bidding of the Ten.

The Society recognizes no formal bylaws, but adherence to a general code of behavior is expected of all members, and reports of activity in contrast to this code are grounds for removal from the organization. The three most important member duties are as follows:

• Explore: Pathfinders are expected to further the knowledge and reputation of the Society by traveling to distant lands, unearthing forbidden secrets, and piecing together the secret history of the world. Agents are encouraged to travel uncharted lands in search of evermore-fantastic mysteries.
• Report: In the course of their adventures, Pathfinders are expected to keep detailed journals, maps, and accounts of their exploits. At the conclusion of a successful mission, the agent sends a copy of his notes to his immediate superior, a regional venture-captain, who makes a full analysis (often involving divination). Accounts of especially noteworthy exploits make their way to Absalom and the Decemvirate, who compile the best tales into irregularly published editions of the Pathfinder Chronicles, which make their way back to venture-captains for distribution to Pathfinder agents in the field.
• Cooperate: The Society places no moral obligations upon its members, so agents span all races, creeds, and motivations. At any given time, a Pathfinder lodge might house a fiend-summoning Chelaxian, an Andoren freedom fighter, an antiquities-obsessed Osirian necromancer, and a friendly Taldan raconteur. Pathfinder agents are expected to respect one another’s claims and stay out of each other’s affairs unless offering a helping hand.
   

The Pathfinder Lodge

Most Pathfinders wander the world in search of riches and adventure, settling down only long enough to plan their next caper or fully plunder an ancient ruin of its treasure and secrets.

But another class of Pathfinder exists, a group unknown to the populace at large yet integral to the success of the organization. These are the venture-captains who manage regional affairs and their sometimes considerable cadres of cohorts, retainers, menials, and guardians. Venture-captains generally station themselves in Pathfinder lodges, unassuming locales meant to house the paperwork, plans, and infrastructure of the society while also occasionally serving as temporary residences for wandering Pathfinder agents. 

The Grand Lodge of Absalom stands alone among its fellows. Unlike lesser chapter houses in towns throughout the continent, which often mask their purpose behind facades of commerce or domesticity, the Grand Lodge wears its affiliation proudly. The Glyph of the Open Road, so often hidden in a map’s compass rose or a book’s embellishment to show the covert approval of the Pathfinder Society, blazes above the gate of a sheer-walled redoubt at the heart of Absalom. The wall circles seven sturdy fortresses that date back to the city’s founding, perhaps the estate of a long-dormant noble house or the one-time bastion of a forgotten government. For the last 400 years, the Grand Lodge has been the stronghold of the Pathfinders, the seat of the Decemvirate, and the legendary repository of the order’s treasures and legends.

The Pathfinder Chronicles

Lesser scholars and tomb-robbers unaffiliated with the Pathfinder Society are crass villains who contribute nothing to the greater understanding of the world, selling off their treasures without bothering to record the stories behind them or furthering understanding of lost races, cultures, and times. These goals are what sets the Pathfinders apart. The Chronicles, gathered over centuries of daring work, record the Society’s exploits and share them with the entire organization.

Most volumes come packed with maps, trap diagrams, and detailed explanations leading to highly profitable and extraordinarily fragile locales. Common treasurehunters, bizarre cultists, and wealthy artifact collectors do their best to acquire copies of the journals, and a multi-volume set can often fetch thousands of gold pieces in the right markets. It is the burning dream of all Pathfinders to someday see their own exploits immortalized in the ultra-exclusive pages of the Pathfinder Chronicles.