The Golarion Gazette

According to legend, a group of adventurers, beaten to near-death by monsters, once happened upon a hut inhabited by an occult witch. The witch offered the adventurers shelter and healing, but the adventurers were suspicious of a trap, scoffing at the idea that a mere occult caster with no divine aid could help them. “What do you think you’re going to do, conjure up a unicorn out of thin air?” said the group’s fighter. “Actually, yes,” replied the witch, casting a spell that summoned a unicorn which could itself cast healing spells.

Since then, students of summoning magic throughout Golarion have always set their sights on learning how to repeat the witches’ feat. But the constant summoning of unicorns has wreaked havoc on the unicorn population, as a group of scientists on an expedition to northwestern Sarkoris recently found to their dismay. The scientists’ goal was to document the habitat and behaviors of unicorns, but when they found the herd, the unicorns unceremoniously attacked. While the scientists did suffer injuries, they were able to pacify one of the unicorns, whose name was Alinea, and talk to her to ask what was going on.

“I was almost killed by your kind!” Alinea said. “I was just grazing on some grass when all of a sudden I found myself teleported into some strange dark place with people like you fighting a bunch of strange creatures. One of the humans forced me to cast my spells on them, and an arrow hit me and almost knocked me out. I don’t know what happened, but soon I found myself back here. I have seen my friends mysteriously disappear too, and lots of them don’t come back. Have they died due to what you did?”

The new findings shocked the magical community, as they had originally believed that unlimited quantities unicorns come from the heavens and are surprised to find that they are just ordinary Golarian creatures, subject to the same population pressures as any others. The scientists say they were alarmed by their findings and have begun advocating for the end of the use of summoning spells. “Unicorns are social, intelligent animals with their own needs and goals,” said Narita Kumoji, the leader of the expedition. “It’s wrong for us to exploit them for our own ends.” Kumoji has called for unicorns to be reclassified as Uncommon creatures, which would bring them under the protection of the Endangered Monsters Act and ban their summoning except with explicit divine permission. “We’ve done that for bone croupiers, let’s do it for unicorns,” said Kumoji. Nevertheless, with unicorn summoning such a staple of mid-level occult casting, protection efforts will face an uphill battle.