The truth lies beyond the maks in Pathfinder. Here is how to complete the A Grand Masquerade quest in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous A Dance of Masks.
Pathfinder WOTR Dance of Masks A Grand Masquerade walkthrough guide, explained
The A Grand Masquerade is the main quest that engulfs most of the story content in A Dance of Masks, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous’s latest and last DLC. As you might expect, this will be a pretty long guide that will only focus on the quest and will not cover any of the side quests that appear during your travels or other types of content like the new archetypes or weapons introduced in A Dance of Masks. Expect major spoilers moving forward. You have been warned.
Pathfinder WOTR Dance of Masks: Receiving the invitation
The A Dance of Masks DLC story content will trigger right after the start of Chapter 5. Travel to the Citadel in Drezen and rest for three days. Arsinoe then will visit you and deliver you an invitation to Kenabres. A festival will be taking place in celebration of the crusaders, with you being the guest of honor. She will also give you half of a strange coin you know nothing about.
Now that you have been invited to join the celebration, head to Kenabres and fight any enemies you come across along the way. After all, it is a long way to Kenabres if you want to rock and roll. You will want to go to the Old City Gates location since this is where the whole festival is taking place.
Pathfinder WOTR Dance of Masks: Arriving at Kenabres
One of the very things that you will do once you arrive at Kenabres is not take part in the festival’s activities or buy yourself a corndog, but rather speak to a so-called “Nice Old Lady” who will offer what media has taught old ladies love the most: cats. She will insist on you having one so you might as well accept it. No, this doesn’t change things in the long run but it is nice to have a furry friend follow you around with no ulterior reason – yeah, something’s strange but don’t worry about it yet.
Next up, a couple of townsfolk will be debating about which type of flags should they put up as a decoration. You can choose the Commander’s logo, a colorful pattern, or even a beer as the flag’s logo. You can be as Chaotic as you want, but I would choose the Commander’s logo. After all, it matches the whole theme of the festival, right?
Anyway, right after you move down the stairs you will see a guard not allowing a merchant an entry to the festival. Said merchant will tell you to meet him later at the square’s surroundings. He will sell you some necromancy items and spells, so I guess the guard was right in not letting him enter, right?
Walk around past the huge line of festival attendants and you will see a Wizard Illusionist using spells to depict the Commander’s greatest achievements in a very comical way. Some guards will try to apprehend him under the suspicion that he is using necromancy to summon these ghost-like visions. You can convince them of the contrary and even use some of your Arcana knowledge, Diplomacy, or Intimidation to make the guards go away. A nice way of paying tribute to your past victories.
Time to face one of humanity’s worst enemies: standing in line for hours and hours. All of the interaction in the whole section before and including the line interactions are strictly role play so have as much fun as you want.
Whether you wait in line, decide to shove all of the townsfolk, or even prove to the folks in line that you are the real Commander, you will meet the Herald, a masked man who is totally not a suspicious character who is the host of the festival. He will give you a warm welcome to Kenabres and then you will enter the square and be part of the celebrations.
Once you arrive at the square, a Commander look-alike will take the stage and will ask for some voluntary donations for the war. He is nothing but a scammer, so your reputation will take a bit of a hit along with your pride. Then, a somber man will walk up to you.
This man is Rovus, a mysterious figure with a terrible cough who you will discover has the other half of the coin you received from Arsinoe. His illness is an act and he is the head of the Eagle Watch chapter in Kenabres. He is highly suspicious of the festival and its organizers, but he won’t have any more information for you.
Pathfinder WOTR Dance of Masks: Traveling to the Echo of Fury arena
If you think meeting one strange character was enough weirdness for a day, then a strange shadow-like figure named Drimo will arrive at the square. He is the steward of the Echo of Fury arena and he will take you and your companions to it.
Once you arrive at the arena, you will be met by Lord Zuset Ekhox Zego, the owner of both the arena and a name I never thought was possible to conceive even in the wildest of imaginations. He will recognize your power and will test you with two mandatory fights with some adventurers and Zovra and Arvoz.
Once you beat both fights, he will say that there are three more that you can tackle now or go back to Kenabres to continue with the celebrations. You can stay here and battle Nosferatu, The Magic Pranksters, and Aslynn, but there is no penalty if you decide to go back to Kenabres since Drimo will be there. You can interact with him to be teleported back to the Echo of Fury arena throughout the A Dance of Masks story.
Pathfinder WOTR Dance of Masks: Back in Kenabres, companion events
Once you get back to the square and the festival, you will be tasked with checking on each of your companions which will trigger personal events. Some of them have engaged in very colorful activities that you can take part in if you humor them and not antagonize their intentions, as dark and devious as they may be. Otherwise, you will miss them entirely. I will list the ones that appeared in my journal, but they might be different depending on which companions you have recruited.
Daeran festival event
Starting with Daeran, you will find that he is running a Daeran imitation contest. He will greet you and ask you to become the guest judge for the contest. We will, of course, accept said honor, as absurd and superficial as it may be.
There are four contest finalists. A man that might as well be Daeran thanks to his flawless attitude imitation – maybe he is that way in real life, who knows –, a woman that also plays a decent Daeran, an Orc that is having the time of his life thanks to the amount of alcohol in his blood and a little boy who is, well, a boy. There is also a cat which you can choose as the winner but he will be disqualified by Daeran.
You can choose to interact with each contestant to get a more accurate impression of their, well, impressions, or you can just select one at random. The choice will not matter because Daeran will just pick the woman no matter what in the hopes of having a hot date. She is married and will turn him down, but Daeran will still declare her the contest winner.
Arueshalae festival event
Time to see what Arueshalae is up to. She is alone on one of the streets next to the square, and when you talk to her she will both be amazed by the celebrations and a bit overwhelmed. She just wants to be one amongst them but she is fearful that she won’t know what to say and how to behave – which arguably is a problem due to her recent demon-to-mortal conversion. Encourage her to try and interact with people at the festival and you will start her personal event named Overcoming Fears.
To overcome her fears you will have to visit three different groups in the festival to make her interact with them. The order is up to you. The first group I interacted with is a couple that will not stop fighting thanks to some minor disguise malfunctions – they fight over a button, I mean, come on people. Both you and Arueshalae will be amazed by their arguing capacity but will leave them be.
The second group will be a communion of characters that have chosen Arueshalae as their disguise because she is their favorite companion. This is a great way to discover the reasons why they chose Arueshalae and to make Arueshelae interact with them. You can even convince her to reveal her identity, making them excited but willing to keep their secret at the same time. Finish talking to them and Arueshalae will notice a little girl looking at her from a distance.
The final group will be a set of townsfolk who are using homemade disguises due to their lack of funds for more expensive materials. Arueshalae will encourage them and will genuinely love their costumes in spite of them not being the most visually impacting on the festival.
When you have interacted with all the groups, the girl we saw before will approach. She is Valisa and she looks at Arueshalae as her hero. When asked why she hadn’t approached before, she will answer that she was afraid of approaching but eventually decided to do so because fear would prevent meaningful friendships from being born. This connects with Arueshalae and she decides to spend time with Valisa and take a walk with her.
Woljif festival event
Woljif has set up a shot of valuable items that are, of course, magic contraptions without any real value. Nice. You can shut the whole shop down by forcing him to stop scamming people or humor his intentions and be part of them. He will ask you to convince a total of four guards to come to the shop and visit him. We will do so because, why not? This will trigger the Talk to the Guards quest.
The closest guards you will encounter are a pair of old guards that have seen better days, a long time a ago in far, far away galaxy. Convince them that Woljif has a cure for their physical pain and they will agree, not before you find out they have a bit of history with him.
Right next to the old guards, you will find a Young Guard. Huh. She will take a bit more of convincing due to her having a more direct experience with Woljif, but you can use Diplomacy or Intimidate to convince her to go to his shop.
The final guard is Isera Voyle, another guard with a history with Woljif standing near the square. As soon as you mention that Woljif is just nearby she will walk to his shop without a question. Sounds like things got personal in the past – and they did.
With all the guards in Woljif’s shop, he will reveal that all of these guards attempted to apprehend or jail Woljif in one way or another but they all failed. He will then distract him with a chain link he claims was used to chain Baphomet in his labyrinth. The most probable thing is that it is false, but the guards will be infatuated with the apparent rarity of the item.
Regill festival event
When we arrive at Regill’s location, you will find him worried about Kenabres’s safety and will begin to interrogate every Eagly Watch crusader he comes across. Share his doubts and you will start his quest named Close Inspection, so don’t claim his fears are unfounded or you will be locked out of it.
Visit the three locations he wishes to check: a hole in the ground, one of Kenabres’s doors, and one Eagle Watch crusader standing on top of a box and plank in the square. Follow his questions interrogate each of the Eagle Watch crusaders and use your Perception to notice strange things with all of them. These strange things however will be more reassuring rather than worrisome, so Regill will be pleased and you are left to continue your companion events.
Sosiel festival event
You will find Sosiel talking to a wine seller named Yumillian Nikdel-Trazze. He is selling his wine harvest which is charged with various types of positive magic making them unique in their effects, but maybe not so much in their taste. Yumillian will then invite you to try each of the wines, so it’s time to do some wine tasting, starting the Wine Testing quest – yeah, pretty simple naming here.
Try each of these wines and you will see rainbows – not a double rainbow, unfortunately –, float in mid-air, transform into a golden frog, and suffer from a triple vision, making your surroundings a bit trippy.
Once the wine’s effects fade out, Yumillian will ask you some questions so that he can see if there are any improvements to be made. Answer honestly by declaring it as the best or the worst wine you’ve ever tasted and he will disappear to look for another wine for you to try.
Talk to Sosiel and he will claim that the wine is horrible and will never ever get into business with a winemaker such as Yumillian. Leave him be with his wine preferences and you will finish this small event.
Ember festival event
Travel to Ember’s location on the map and she will be nowhere to be found. Instead, a couple of nobles and some homeless kids will be fighting, with the noblewoman expressing his disdain for the appearance of the kids. However, you will discover each side knows Ember one way or another. You can dismiss either side but I would choose to look for Ember so that she can solve this dilemma. Time to complete this quest named A Banquet for Beggars.
Travel to the temple of Desna and a Grateful Citizen will tell you that, after Ember helped him, she went to the town’s chapel.
At the chapel, another Grateful Citizin will be sitting on the floor. He fell from the chapel’s belfry but Ember tended to his wounds. He will tell you that Ember went to the table right next to the nobles and the kids.
Once you arrive, both the nobles and the kids are discovered as two sides of her family. The nobles helped raise her and the other kids knew her due to her kindness and time spent as an estranged kid. Ember will convince the noblewoman to treat the kids with respect and the noblewoman will sincerely apologize for the way she treated them. A happy ending, after all!
Pathfinder WOTR Dance of Masks: Exploring the mysterious house
I didn’t mention it in all of our companion personal event dealings, but Rovus will appear right after you interact with the second companion saying that there have been reports of similarly clothed people entering a house near the square. They have the good old cultish vibe, so we better go ahead and investigate.
Enter the house and you will notice some of your companions are missing. Walk to the bedroom and you will be able to interact with the floor. It is emanating a strange purple light from the basement, so we better check it out, but how? There are no open doors or even a way to get out of the house. Well, there is a book in the bookshelf pictured below which will open a door behind you. Inside, you will find the basement entrance.
Once you get to the basement, you will find out that the Old Lady we met when we arrived at Kenabres is a Razmir cultist. Not only that, but the cat that has been following you around is a shapeshifting cultist, or a discount Peter Pettigrew. They will all be using masks that will become animated once you kill the cultists who wear them, so make sure to get rid of them in the ensuing fight.
Pathfinder WOTR Dance of Masks: Razmir Palace stronghold
Still shaken by the recent discovery, you will be instructed to head to the plaza for the closing ceremony. Note that this is a spot of no return, so if you are completing any side quest or even taking part in the festival activities be sure to do them beforehand or you will miss them.
Head to the square and the Herald will be summoning all the Commander lookalikes for a contest. You will notice that the Herald is using a mask similar to the ones you saw in the house’s basement. Step forward and you will find out that the Herald is the self-proclaimed god Razmir. He will summon a portal and ask you to go through it. Do so to make sure that no one is hurt and to find out where your companions are being kept.
Razmir Palace arrival
You will now arrive at the Razmir Palace, a stronghold we will soon get to see right after completing a text RPG section. During the first interaction, you can choose to endure Razmir’s spells, fight everyone on sight, or just take a quick look around the room.
Either way, you will eventually arrive at two possible locations: either enter through an inconspicuous door or up the stairs. I chose to go through the door and found a lab with some cultists talking to each other. You can listen to their conversation or just fight them. Either way, use your Perception to take a look around and you will discover a secret passage.
Should you decide to go through the passage, you will enter the palace’s chapel where Razmir is preaching. You will see the magnitude of his follower’s faith in him and total allegiance. Quite distributing, I know. You can choose to continue listening, attack the cultists, or just get out without being noticed.
Either way, you will eventually fight Razmir and his cultists. You will notice that you have little effect on Razmir and he even casts a spell that will limit your powers greatly. You will then be sealed inside a room with all of your companions. Rest and then the text portion of the stronghold will end.
Corridor encounters
You will now be in the room stuck with your companions. Fortunately, Rovus was able to sneak in through the portal and disguise himself as a cultist, opening the way for you and your party to lay waste on the cultists inside Razmir Palace.
Outside of the room, you will find some cultists hanging out like there is no issue standing right behind them. Dispose of them and continue down the corridor and take a left. You will arrive at another room where one of the cultists will alert everyone in the palace about your presence and sound the alarm. Make sure to remember this since some will want to trick you later.
Dining room encounter
And when I say later, I mean now. On the door to your right, you will find a dining room filled with cultists. The cultist leader will invite you to join the dinner, but he is just tricking you and attempting to poison you, which will fail.
This will trigger a fight with all the cultists in the room, the cultist leader, and one Mask Golem. Focus your attention sparingly across the room, with the Mask Golem being your top priority since he does pack a punch. The cultists can also spam their attacks if you aren’t careful, so use ranged attacks to shoot at them across the room. Melee companions should defeat the cultist leader and golem with ease.
Mirror encounter
Return to the previous room and use lockpicking to go through the locked door right next to the dining room entrance. Inside you will find a room with a giant teleporting mirror. A cutscene will play with one of the cultist leaders apparently healing one of the cultists, to the amazement and applause of the other cultists.
Once all the other cultists walk through the mirror, you will hear the banter between the leader and the hurt cultist, revealing that the whole healing was just a performance.
They will not fight you until you interact with the mirror twice. Get rid of them quickly and then use the mirror to teleport you across the palace.
Balcony and Mask Golem encounter
You will appear in a balcony with a large number of cultists well spread across the room. To prevent you and your companions from becoming surrounded, spread your companions evenly to deal with each of the cultists and use AoE attacks to deal as much damage as possible.
Before you leave and walk through the other mirror on the balcony, investigate the book found here to earn a new Lore: Religion entry. Loot the cultist bodies if necessary and then walk through the other mirror.
Inside, you will find yourself surrounded by Mask Golems. Distribute your companions and attack them all at once to prevent getting struck by them or even becoming surrounded by far worse enemies than the cultists.
Once you clear the room, you will find a magic mask being displayed on one side of the room. The spell enchanting their mask is the same type of magic Razmir used to take your powers away, and after you interact with it, you will get them back.
Throne Room encounter
Return to the dining room and walk past it and down the stairs to find yourself in the main Palace area which will have Razmir preaching again, assuring that the cultists will be able to defeat you and your companions without breaking a sweat. That is, of course, a big lie.
Once again, there is a vast concentration of cultists in the middle of the map, so use AoE attacks once again and try to stay near the stairs while defeating the rest of the cultists located outside the perimeter.
Once you defeat each of the cultists, a Projection of Razmir will appear, revealing that the Razmir we have health with along the A Dance of Masks DLC is just one of his extensions, acting on his behalf. The projection will be embarrassed and sorry about the whole situation and even play with the idea of releasing you. However, the non-Razmir will ask for permission to fight you himself. The projection will agree and let the fake Razmir face your party.
The Mask Golems that were standing during the confrontation with the cultists will attack you alongside Razmir. This is why positioning yourself near the stairs will be vital since it will prevent another surrounding opportunity. Once you defeat all of them, the golem remains will concentrate on a new and powerful enemy: the Greater Mask Golem. This creature is very powerful so treat him with caution and deal powerful attacks at will.
Not only that, but some Mask Swarms will appear across the room. Use ranged and magic attacks to dispose of them without taking damage thanks to the distance and keep focusing your power on the Greater Mask Golem to win the fight.
Pathfinder WOTR Dance of Masks: Final fight aftermath
Once the battle is finished, the Projection of Razmir – which is Razmir himself – will say he is very sorry about the inconvenience and that his only wish was to understand your power. He doesn’t want to be a hassle anymore so you can leave or use your particular abilities to gain some interesting outcomes. For example, using the Trickster Mythic Path will end up with you selling a book of secrets made up of mumbo jumbo to Razmir for 100,000 gold coins.
Anyway, Razmir will tell you that you can loot every treasure in his palace, so make sure to pick up everything you see on sight and walk up the stairs and lockpick the door right in front of them for more loot. Talk to Razmir once again and he will teleport you back to Kenabres.
Pathfinder WOTR Dance of Masks: Back in Kenabres, let the real party begin!
Once you are out of the portal, the whole townsfolk will celebrate your arrival. None of them will know the truth behind the festival, but at least they are happy, right? Anyway, a cutscene will depict the celebrations and the fireworks which will end the A Grand Masquerade quest and star the A Well-Deserved Party which will lead to the romance event for the A Dance of Masks DLC. Be sure to join your companions in an intense partying session and your partner on a romantic date
