The Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path begins in the sleepy Nirmathi town of Phaendar, nestled alongside the only major crossing of the Marideth River within 50 miles upstream or down. The campaign begins as artisans, farmers, miners, shepherds, raiders, and trappers from across the region gather for the seasonal Market Festival to send their raw materials to market in the “big city” of Tamran and trade for those essentials—finished goods, clothing, magic, and alcohol—that make surviving the next season easier. The PCs may be longtime residents of Phaendar, injured veterans recuperating from the war, or trappers and farmers who arrive to sell their wares, catch up with friends, or stock up for the season, only to find themselves beset upon by a merciless enemy!

COMING TOGETHER
With Phaendar being such a small town—barely 400 souls make their permanent home close enough for the sheriff to keep an eye on them—residents generally know one another by sight, and even consider regular visitors from across western Nirmathas to be neighbors. Ideally, at least one character is a native of the small town, and other characters should have reason to visit often enough that at least a few residents know their names. Many of the campaign traits (see page 7) offer reasons for a character to live in Phaendar or its
surrounding environs.

To help players acclimate to the nation and the regions surrounding Phaendar, a short guide to Nirmathas begins on page 8. This gazetteer can help you understand what it means to be Nirmathi, while additional details on the nation can be found in Pathfinder Campaign

Setting:
Lands of Conflict.
If your character isn’t from Phaendar, but is still tied to Nirmathas, she could be a trader or politician from the capital of Tamran, newly arrived to trade for local resources; a military veteran from the Molthuni front far to the south, on a resupply mission to Nirmathas’s breadbasket; a wounded veteran recovering in the country far from the action; or perhaps a militia deserter passing through while fleeing the nation.

Characters with no strong ties to Nirmathas may be part of a merchant expedition from any of the nations bordering Lake Encarthan. Varisian caravans occasionally traverse the Bloodsworn Vale to the northwest, migrating into and out of Nirmathas in the warm months. Refugees from Nidal to the west occasionally survive the treacherous journey over the Mindspin Mountains, and find Nirmathas a paradise compared to their shadowenshrouded homeland. Your character could be a halforc escaping from the hardscrabble orc tribes of the neighboring Hold of Belkzen, an elven game hunter from Kyonin challenging her skills against the wildlife of the Fangwood, or an explorer from Andoran or Taldor mapping the war to prepare a proper report for her respective government. Your character may be even more unusual—Nirmathas’s wilds are seen as a refuge by many considered monsters by society—and all manner of creatures and criminals might flee to the relative isolation of the Nesmian Plains and the Mindspin Mountains to escape their past.

Whatever the case, this Adventure Path works best if your character either has a strong personal investment in the area, a reason to oppose invading monsters, or no pressing reason to return from whence they came. Many people displaced by the Ironfang Invasion simply flee for safer climes; what makes an adventurer is the drive to push back against brutes who would take your home, your fortune, and your loved ones!

Origins
Given the campaign’s location, characters likely hail from Nirmathas or have good reason to visit the area regularly. Many are likely local trappers, hunters, woodcutters, soldiers, or scouts. Nidal, Varisia, the Hold of Belkzen, and Lastwall all share borders with Nirmathas and make excellent homelands for non-Nirmathi characters, as does any nation that borders Lake Encarthan. Remote as it is, Phaendar and the surrounding area attract an eclectic variety of personalities, from young hopefuls training to join the Chernasardo Rangers or Nirmathas’s army to wounded veterans recovering in relative peace far from the front to the south, and from quirky explorers and researchers to outsiders fleeing  persecution for their heritage or faith. Characters in the Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path can originate from anywhere, but should have reason to stay in Nirmathas and fight back against monsters taking advantage of the young, war-torn nation.

Races
Nirmathas lies at the heart of Avistan, but consists largely of unclaimed wilderness and bustling colony towns less than a century old. The vast majority of Nirmathi are humans of Chelish, Kellid, Taldan or Varisian descent— often blended within any single family. Because Nirmathas was once part of the trade route connecting Cheliax to its Varisian colonies, human heritages from all across the world can be found in various corners of the nation. Many other humanoid races also call the region home. Half-orcs, often orphans or refugees from the Hold of Belkzen, are the most numerous non-humans in the wilderness nation. With one of the remaining Sky Citadels—Kraggodan—situated in southern Nirmathas, dwarven artisans, merchants, and warriors are common sights throughout the nation, often traveling to or from other nearby dwarven settlements like Janderhoff and Glimmerhold. Gnomes and halflings are fairly common as well, attracted by the new opportunities and ancient mysteries of this verdant land; halflings in particular tend to descend from slaves freed from Cheliax or Molthune. Half-elves, largely refugees or indiscretions from Kyonin across Lake Encarthan, also make up a sizable minority of Nirmathas’ population, while full elves find themselves attracted to the primordial wilderness of the Fangwood.

Less common races also call Nirmathas home (with Game Master approval). Ratfolk from nearby Druma see Nirmathas as a land desperate for arms and rich in untapped resources. Dhampirs and fetchlings sometimes number among those refugees fleeing from neighboring Nidal. Nirmathas itself is home to a small population of undine genie-kin, who are sometimes born to families who settle near the nation’s mysterious Marching Springs. On rare occasion, aasimars from Lastwall, as well as changelings and skinwalkers from Ustalav, make their way into Nirmathas, usually hoping to escape their pasts.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:11, Thu 11 Feb 2021.

Religion
Religion is not a cornerstone of the Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path, but faith is still deeply important to the people of Nirmathas, and divine spellcasters are far more common within its wilder corners than arcane or psychic spellcasters. Most communities honor Erastil as both the lord of hunters and the guiding hand of small communities. Cayden Cailean, as the god of freedom and heroism, is exceptionally popular among those who consider themselves freedom fighters. Gorum and Iomedae both enjoy a strong following along both sides of the Molthuni front, but the chaotic and free-willed Nirmathi hew more closely to the tenants of Our Lord in Iron. Nirmathas’s proximity to Kyonin has also invited some converts to elven gods, and the cult of Calistria in particular has found many fervent worshipers across the nation.

The Green Faith is of particular importance to the people of Nirmathas. Many lay people know the cult’s basic tenants, and various trappers and lumberjacks pay their respects to the land each day before they begin  their work. Easily the regional center of the Green Faith and its worship, the hidden community of Crystalhurst provides an excellent hometown for druid, hunter, or ranger characters.

NIRMATHAS AT A GLANCE

Nirmathas is a frontier land of rugged individuality and personal freedom. Repeatedly settled, lost, and settled again over Avistan’s history, it is a place that has varyingly played homeland to dwarves, fey, orcs, elves, and humans, all of whom have left traces behind in the forms of strange land formations, crumbling ruins, magical scars, and long-forgotten dungeons. The modern people of the region are largely descended from Chelish and Taldan settlers, and even though this newest effort to take the region began over 200 years ago, much of Nirmathas— especially the Fangwood Forest—remains uncharted and uninhabited by modern humans.

Modern Nirmathi are notoriously difficult to govern, so much so that today they exist less as a nation and more as a collective of people with a common grudge against Molthune. The national capital of Tamran issues few edicts, rarely collects taxes, and generally leaves each community to govern and protect itself. Most social support is voluntary—a well-off farmer or town may offer grain to neighbors suffering through a bad harvest, but the state itself has no resources to provide the same. While this freedom attracts many new settlers to the region and means that every copper earned lands straight in a laborer’s pocket, it also leaves settlements more vulnerable to bandit attacks, illness, and bad weather than most other communities in Avistan. In Nirmathas, every citizen lives or dies by her own fortunes and the generosity of those around her.

Encarthan Coast: Of all the nations that border Lake Encarthan, Nirmathas boasts the smallest and leastdeveloped coastline. The area, known for its thick marshes and rocky outcroppings, supports several stubborn fishing settlements, but only the river deltas of the Tourondel and Marideth rivers offer safe ports for anything larger than barges or fishing skiffs. Alder, gum, and willow trees grow in thick stands among the swamps, and the only real industry beyond subsistence fishing is a cottage-level manufacturing of papyrus for scrolls and books. Because the swamps preserve just about anything that sinks into their muck, many valuable finds and ancient dangers from Nirmathas’s past—including undead bog mummies—have been dredged from the mud by careless anglers.

The coastline is sparsely populated. Tamran, Nirmathas’s largest town and nominal capital, anchors the southern edge of the region, and the next most sizable settlement—Fort Faelon—is little more than a ruined, marsh-choked, Taldan fortress hosting a rotating trader’s town barely a thousand strong. The Molthuni navy blockades all water traffic to and from Nirmathas, leaving the nation heavily dependent on smugglers and blockade-runners to conduct any trade.

Fangwood Forest: Nirmathas’s beating heart is the massive, primeval forest that dominates most of its terrain. The Fangwood provides building materials, food, and shelter, and the vast majority of the nation’s citizens dwell in small villages along the edges of or just within the verdant masses of oak, pine, maple, and spruce. Many strange ruins lie hidden in the unexplored depths, from both an ancient, unidentified empire and more recent, failed attempts by humans to settle deeper within the forest. Reclusive communities of druids have far more luck in exploring the forest’s depths, and maintain a variety of ancient stone monoliths throughout the region where they conduct rituals. Those Nirmathi who dwell within the Fangwood are generally hunters, woodcutters, or some combination of both, but enjoy the independence such a difficult but fertile land offers.

Hollow Hills: Heavy clouds that blow in from Lake Encarthan drop all the rain they have to give within a hundred miles of the coast, leaving a rugged and dry stretch of land between the Fangwood and the Mindspin Mountains named for its countless natural caverns and abandoned mines—many dating back to the Age of Anguish, and still haunted by those bygone horrors. Rolling, stone-capped hills separate the region into widely different valleys, from verdant wonderlands to rocky, scrabbly wastelands. Towns in this area support themselves by mining veins of iron, copper, quartz, and gold, as well as light farming. The rough terrain generally protects locals from Molthuni interest. Conversely, the isolation leaves the peoples of the Hollow Hills more vulnerable to bandit activity and the monstrous predators like bulettes, harpies, and wyverns that also call the region home, and the towns of the Hollow Hills are some of the few settlements in Nirmathas that rely on walls for defense rather than fleeing into the hostile wilderness. The largest towns in the region, Skelt in the  north and Longshadow in the south, survive primarily by smelting and shipping their smaller neighbors’ hard work to Tamran or the Molthuni front.

Mindspin Mountains: Marking Nirmathas’s western border, the Mindspin Mountains offer a thankfully daunting border between the young nation and ancient, shadowy Nidal. With so many natural caverns here connecting to the Darklands below, the mountains host a variety of terrible and rare creatures as well as countless orc and dwarven ruins from long before humanity’s claim to the region. While treacherous, the Mindspin Mountains boast rich deposits of many metals and minerals—including some whose presence in the volcanic range makes little sense—and a number of prospecting companies and boomtowns dot the eastern slopes. Additional information on the Mindspin Mountains can be found in Pathfinder Adventure Path #93: Forge of the Giant God.

Nesmian Plains: In a more community-minded nation, the Nesmian Plains would be considered the “breadbasket” region thanks to its gentle hills, fertile plains, and light forests, but the lack of taxation or infrastructure instead makes this region a well-fed but poorly defended corner of Nirmathas. Stretching from the Marideth River south to the prairies around Kraggodan, the Nesmian Plains are frequently invaded by Molthune or targeted by the southern nation’s infamous monster legions. Nesmian natives simply fall back, often burning their homes and crops when they see enemies approach, and return after the area’s bitterly cold winters drive illsupplied foreigners out. The jagged gullies and ravines that crisscross the plains provide ample hiding places for anyone who knows them, and a number of monstrous races—especially goblinoids and troglodytes—use these features to their own advantage, preying upon human farms and then falling back into easily defended hideaways. While the Nesmian Plains provide little of the lumber that makes Nirmathas famous and lack the mineral wealth of the Hollow Hills and Mindspin Mountains, its green fields require little attention to produce bountiful harvests, and the grasslands support not only wild populations of aurochs, but also large herds of domesticated goats and sheep. Because of the constant danger of invasion, villages of the Nesmian Plains rarely grow larger than a few dozen to a hundred people, but the humble town of Phaendar lies far enough from the border that its citizens have rarely needed to abandon and fall back into the wild, and thus has become a small but important trading center alongside the only major crossing of the Marideth River for 50 miles in any direction. Additional information on the Nesmian Plains and Phaendar can be found in Pathfinder Adventure Path #115: Trail of the Hunted.

Tourondel Marches: The Tourondel Marches surround the Tourondel River and line Nirmathas’s northern border with Lastwall. The Marches contain Nirmathas’s oldest permanent settlements, some of which were established during the Shining Crusade a thousand years ago. Crumbling castles and pocked battlefields from that era still scar the woods and hills, hosting a rotating population of orcs, goblinoids, and undead that prey on locals. Much of the region cuts through the central Fangwood Forest, but heavy settlement and traffic along the Tourondel River over the past millennium has pacified most of the dangers common deeper within the woods. Thanks to both the river and the relatively open border with Lastwall, the people of Tourondel consider themselves Nirmathas’s canniest traders, and share more philosophies in common with their lawful northern neighbors than with more free-spirited fellow Nirmathi to the south, but thanks to hard winters and annual spring floods on the river, many Marcher towns still find themselves on their own for at least half the year.

TRAITS
These traits have had their mechanical bonuses removed.  However, you can still use them or keep them in mind for making your character background.

Animal Whisperer: You’ve spent more of your life around animals than people, and find them easier to understand.

Blight-Burned: You were raised deep in the Fangwood Forest, but in your childhood the Darkblight overtook your community, and blighted fey attacked your friends and family. Even after escaping, you barely survived infection by the otherworldly fungal disease and still bear a terrible scar from your ordeal.

Chernasardo Hopeful: You’ve pledged your skills and your life to the Chernasardo rangers, studying to protect your homeland from foreign invaders. You currently remain a neophyte in this secretive guerrilla army. You have yet to be entrusted with many of their secrets, and spend a great deal of time training with the old ranger Aubrin in Phaendar to hone your skills of hunting and tracking.

Foxclaw Scout: You are part of Nirmathas’s informal network of hunters and scouts known as the Foxclaws, and study the secret vulnerabilities of those dangerous beasts that prey upon your fellow settlers.

Frontier Healer: You make your way in life by putting people back together after the rigors of the world take their toll—brewing herbal remedies, setting broken bones, and treating diseases.

Ironfang Survivor: Whether you were serving in the military or simply beset by a surprise attack, you barely survived an encounter with the Ironfang Legion, one of Molthune’s infamous monster regiments. Maybe you even survived the horrors of the Ramgate Massacre.

Kraggodan Castaway (Dwarf Only): You hail from the dwarven Sky Citadel of Kraggodan in southern Nirmathas and have spent the past several years among the surface people serving as a mercenary in the war, trading with Nirmathi towns, or simply seeing the surface world. Molthune’s recent siege of Kraggodan has squelched any hopes you had of returning home, and now you struggle to find a home on the surface.

Unbreakable Survivor: Over a decade ago, bandits took everything you valued in life and left you barely alive. You managed to rebuild your life in the years since, and your tenacity has made you a local legend.

World-Weary: You’ve seen the horrors of war, and had hoped you’d seen the end of it. You’ve retreated from the fighting—likely from the front line with Molthune, but maybe from the crusade of Lastwall or the political infighting of Ustalav—and now just want to protect and provide for those you care about.