Mendev: The Pain Beyond the Wound - Homebrew PF2e

About the adventure

It's been 10 years since the closing of the Worldwound during the Fifth Mendevian Crusade. What once was a massive rift in the fabric of reality that connected the mortal world of Golarion to the demon-infested Abyss has now become the Sarkorian Scar. The Scar is a massive network of craters, crevices, and old battlefields that was once the lands belonging to the Sarkorian people. However, between the ruins and destruction has sprung new life. Bright verdant pastures and newly-sprouted forests mark the impact of the commander of the Fifth Crusade, Laverna Sharan. The Commander was the one who inspired Mendev to begin the Fifth Crusade with her mythical powers that seemingly came from Elysium, and was instrumental in leading the armies of the mortal world against the terrors of the Abyss to the eventual closing of the Worldwound. But the Commander has disappeared following the end of the war, and Mendev is without a war to fight for the first time in over a century. Queen Galfrey led the nation throughout its many crusades, but has now ascended to become Iomadae's herald, leaving a woman named Irahai as chancellor of the recovering nation. Irahai has tried to rebuild the nation's economy from one focused on war to a more stable society, but has been met with difficulty at every turn. She has turned the country from a monarchy into a parliamentary democracy, yet the wealthy families of Mendev have disrupted her every attempt to take power away from the nation's long elite. Furthermore demons trapped in the Sarkorian Scar are a constant threat as they make every attempt to corrupt the nation that trapped them on Golarion. With most of the remaining crusaders having left to battle the Whispering Tyrant during the destruction of Lastwall, Mendev is left defenseless, in political turmoil, and without an identity to unite its people. You are a wanderer, a retired crusader, a Sarkorian refugee, or maybe just a Mendevian commoner that's found their way to the heart of the Fifth Crusade, Drezen. What once was the jewel of the North has only recently been resettled a decade ago during the Fifth crusade where it acted as a forward bastion into the Worldwound. Some of the greatest battles for Golarion were fought here, and now it's a shadow of its former self. A chipped and broken city that still bears the scars of battles from a decade ago. You may have come here for your own reasons, but you need money like many in Mendev now. Hoping to find a place to stay for the night and some work, you stop at a local tavern like you would on the many others stops along your journey. But fate has brought here you here for a reason, and soon you will find yourself in yet another battle for defense of Mendev.