Faith and the Sword—New Class Decks Headed Your Way!

Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Greetings, Pathfinders.

We've got an exciting new announcement for you this week, but first, I want to talk about the characters from the new August release, the Paladin Class Deck. Meet the band:

First up is Koren. When the design team started kicking around paladin character concepts, I immediately pitched the idea for a self-sacrificing martyrish fellow, one who's always saving other people at cost to himself. Because the design team has a... quirky... sense of humor, Koren quickly morphed into a self-hating half-orc who follows Sarenrae. He's all about saving people from themselves. His roles allow him to branch out into undead slaying or to stick with his team. (Fun Fact: that last one, the Unflagging Companion role, was originally called Creepy Stalker. Editorial is so mean.)

Next we have my personal favorite, Raz the gnome. She's definitely a cavalier-like take on the paladin. She's inspired by a perennial RPG character of mine: a halfling paladin dog rider. Conveniently, I talk about her a bit on this podcast. From Raz's token card:

“Raz is the only gnome paladin she's ever met. Therefore, she's clearly the best gnome paladin there ever was. At an early age, Raz decided she wanted to be different from her mischievous kin. She did so by kicking bad guy butt and protecting the good guys.”

That tells you most of what you need to know. She's got a role devoted to helping people get stuff, and she's got a role named Dog Rider Knight. I'm not going to tell you what to do or anything, but Dog. Rider. Knight.

Last but certainly not least, we've got a fresh new take on the iconic paladin Seelah. This Iomedae-following sword-wielding lover of good and righteousness shows off her "lay on hands" ability in the Paladin Class Deck. For the uninitiated, Lay On Hands is a classic paladin ability—the paladin calls forth divine aid to heal someone with a mere touch, faith healer-style. In fact, Faith Healer is one of her roles, good for those who like supportive paladin builds. Unlike Raz, Seelah has no interest in loot, so she tends to ignore it in her endless search for justice.

You may have noticed that this deck features only three characters rather than the four featured in each of the first seven class decks. That's a change that you'll see going forward in the rest of the Class Deck line. Based on extensive player feedback, we've increased the number of boons in the deck. Each character can now get a greater range of worthwhile options to choose from while progressing through an adventure path. We think you'll be pleased with the results while still appreciating the variety of innovative characters that we present in these products.

Oh, and that news I foreshadowed so subtly earlier? CLASS DECK SUBSCRIPTIONS, Y'ALL. They're starting with the August release of the Paladin Class Deck. Check the details:

With your ongoing Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Class Deck subscription, we'll automatically send you each new Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Class Deck, charging your credit card automatically as we ship each product. You only need to sign up once, so you'll never need to worry about renewal notices or missed products! Best of all, each subscription shipment will give you a discount of 20% off the MSRP of that release. Items from your Class Deck subscription will be combined with your other Paizo subscriptions (including your Adventure Card Game subscription) to save money on shipping.

When you start an ongoing subscription, any existing preorders for products covered by your subscription are automatically cancelled (or if you've preordered more than one of an item, they'll have their quantity reduced by one). If you've already preordered any of the upcoming decks, you do not need to do anything special when you subscribe.

Exciting, right? Next week, you'll learn what the real Best Character Ever is, because I'm taking my turn at the helm.

Until next time, Pathfinders.

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

Fair Winds and Following Seas

Monday, June 29, 2015

Illustration by Eva Widermann

Last October the Venture-Officers became aware of some family health issues that caused a change in my employment status at Paizo and I was allowed to telecommute. This change led my family and I to make the move from Seattle to the New Orleans area. This has worked fairly well for almost a year as I traveled to Paizo from New Orleans regularly but, as with most situations, things continue to evolve and my work status is changing yet again.

It is with a sad heart I announce today that my tenure with Paizo will end on August 7. This should allow me to say personal goodbyes at both PaizoCon UK and Gen Con. The day after I leave my position, I will be closing my public Campaign Coordinator Facebook page as well.

It has been a pleasure working with, and for, all of you. I was always taught to leave a situation better than I entered it. I hope I have done that. Some changes I take pride in being heavily involved with are:

• Updating the Guide with a more professional appearance and outline
• Implementing GM 101, GM 201 and Kid's Track (with the help of some awesome VOs)
• Expanding our volunteer base from 13 VOs to more than 470
• Growing the playerbase from around 12,000 to more than 60,000
• Expanding Pathfinder Society's presence from 5 countries with an active PFS presence to 29 (including regions that had little or no prior Organized Play)
• I have also taken a great deal of pride in watching PFS expand from one small room of 30 tables at Gen Con, to taking over the entire Sagamore Ballroom (with 180 tables of PFS gaming this year!), as well as numerous other activities planned for the space
• Additionally, I've been working with our Tech Team over the past few months on an array of improvements to the Pathfinder Society section of paizo.com, and think you will approve of the changes that are coming

There are many other changes that I have initiated and been a part of, and I think have improved the overall quality of Pathfinder Society, but are too numerous to list here.

I wish you all well. Again, thanks for the opportunity of letting me be the Global Organized Play Coordinator for almost 4 full years.

Mike Brock
Global Organized Play Coordinator

Forge in the Crucible of Gameplay

Saturday, June 27, 2015

One of the unique aspects of Pathfinder Online is something we call crowdforging. Crowdforging brings into play a symbiotic relationship between the developers and the players. The players become partners as we design and develop the game over the course of many years. It's more than using customer feedback—it's having players actively contribute to the design by giving us real information from actual gameplay. In addition, the players are creating a vibrant world from an empty sandbox—all the stories, quests, personalities, and most of the gear comes from their hands, forged as they played the game.

Crowdforging the Gameplay

When we started building Pathfinder Online, we created an initial design document—a tome that would guide us as we started to make the game. It laid out our vision for Pathfinder Online, conceptualizing different game systems and how they would interact with each other. In traditional MMO design and development, the design document would be fully implemented before a single player would be let into the game, even in alpha or beta testing. In these games, player can have very little impact on the fundamental design of the game design. If the designers were off base with part of their design, there is little they can do at this point without costly changes and long delays, so the only problems that get fixed are the things that are either relatively easy to deal with, or the most egregious. Things that work "well enough" don't usually get much attention, even if they could work much better.

Instead of locking ourselves into our design document, we created the base systems of the game—the fundamental things that every MMO has, such as running, fighting, inventory, weapon slotting, and crafting. Then we began bringing players into the game during a phase we called Early Enrollment, while we were starting to work on the systems that make Pathfinder Online unique. As we launch each of those systems, the players give us real-time feedback that allows us to maneuver our design away from problems we didn't foresee in a way that you just can't do with traditional MMO design.

Of course, while the players are helping us refine our design, they are also populating the Echo Woods, creating settlements, putting up holdings, fighting off monster incursions, gathering loot and raw materials, and crafting finished goods such as weapons, armor, potions, and other things that characters need to survive in the world.

It has been a really great process for us at Goblinworks. Our current players are pioneers in the game, forging a world from the wilderness, creating an economy, developing political alliances and enemies, and forging real friendships. All the while, their experiences are helping us make the game better for them. Let's talk about some examples!

The Monsters Are Coming

One of the new concepts you'll find in Pathfinder Online is the escalation. There are areas of the world where different groups of NPCs—human or otherwise—have staked a hold on the land to try to fulfill their own agenda. The Skullbasher ogres are trying to fill their stew pots with meat. The Mordant Spire elves are searching for Azlanti treasures. The duergar are looking for slaves to take back to their underground cities.

In our original design document, these escalations would enter the world in a particular hex and, unless they were stopped by the players, they'd grow in power and expand into surrounding hexes. We thought this tension would be great, but through months of gameplay, we realized that because the pressure was always on, the players felt they were being forced to attack escalations even when they might prefer to be doing something else. And if they let the escalations go for a while so they could do other things, the escalations soon got out of hand.

The Bloodstone Swords join with the Pathfinder University Faculty to battle some Charred Goblins.

So working with the community, we started to change the fundamental ideas behind escalations. Players were happy when they could chip away at escalations over the course of a few weeks, but all their hard work was evaporating when the escalation grew back from its losses. So we changed escalations so they grow much more slowly and don't infect other hexes as quickly. And instead of having every escalation start small and grow, we created an escalation that came in strong, but because the monsters were in control, they only left their lower-powered soldiers around. Then, as the players succeeded against the escalation, more powerful minions would get sent in, with the escalation getting harder as you got closer and closer to victory. Also, in the next patch of the game, various events that had been on timers in the past will have those timers removed so that progress against them won't be lost.

All of these changes came through direct feedback from players. Without this feedback, we would have never known that our original plans had flawed assumptions about the way that players wanted to interact with that part of the game—at least, not until it was too late.

Getting the Balance Right

Another part of the game where crowdforging has made a difference is in balancing the classes and the various equipment in the game so there isn't a single, sure-fire winning strategy. This is pretty hard to do in a vacuum—game designers need real game feedback from real players to understand why they behave in unanticipated ways.

For instance, Pathfinder Online has a number of consumable items that the designers thought would be a part of every player's arsenal. Tokens are one example—they're small one-shot magic items that do a single thing, such as heal you, improve your armor, give you resistance to energy attacks, etc. You get them as drops from killing monsters, so you are constantly getting more. The designers thought that even though the effect of a single token isn't huge, players would slot them and use them regularly because they were effectively free and they did provide a benefit. But the reality was that they just weren't powerful enough for folks to bother with. Incredible amounts of tokens built up in character vaults because they weren't being used in the game. So the designers amped up the effects, and now tokens are getting used on a regular basis.

The same happened for potions. The designers thought there would be a big demand for various potions, but only a few select potions (healing and speed) were crafted by most people. The problem was similar to tokens: they just weren't powerful enough to be part of a regular arsenal. Changes have been made based on player input, and the jury is still out on whether potions are where they need to be. Only time and actual gameplay will tell.

These are just a couple examples of how crowdforging is working. There are many other areas where the players have helped to evolve our design document: the auction house, rogue abilities, the way feuds will work. This symbiosis is the crux of how we are making Pathfinder Online the best game it can be.

Player Profiles

We have a very diverse and colorful cast of characters in the game already and I want to showcase that diversity in this blog. But due to some mix-ups on my behalf, I don't have a player profile for this week. I have a number of profiles in the works, and should soon have a bunch in the hopper for future weeks. But in the spirit of crowdforging, I would love to hear your thoughts on players that you think should be profiled, so post your thoughts in the discussion thread—I'll be taking notes!

Lisa Stevens
CEO

Crazy Good Commons

Friday, June 26, 2015

One of my favorite things about November's The Rusty Dragon Inn set of prepainted Pathfinder Battles figures is the strength of the common figures in the set. Picking the right rarities for figures is both an art and a science, and we've been doing our best to get the balance correct since the start. I'm very pleased with how things shook out for The Rusty Dragon, and hope that you agree!

First up this week is a staple of tavern life, the Dancing Girl! She works great as a solo performer or as part of a troupe, and if you imagine her hands are raised for a purpose other than a seductive dance, it's also possible to see her as a spellcaster. Her cultural details suggest the Varisian race of the Pathfinder world, which means she'd also work as a Harrower or a commoner NPC. Anyway, I think her sculpt turned out pretty well! The Dancing Girl is a Medium, common figure.

Last week we revealed the Guard, and this week we introduce his better-armored, haughtier cousin, the Pious Guard. His illustration comes from page 117 of the Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex, where he is depicted as a 10th-level paladin of Iomedae, but he could just as easily be a temple guardian or a heroic player character. Heck, he might even work as a cleric or even a member of the city watch. The Pious Guard is a Medium, common figure.

Although the general theme of The Rusty Dragon Inn set is taverns and the folks who patronize them, not all figures in the set slavishly follow the theme. For players wanting more creatures than barmaids and commoners we have a variety of honest-to-goodness monsters in the set, including several examples of my personal favorite low-level undead critters—ghouls. This Ghoul Cultist looks best in large numbers, surrounding your player characters at the culmination of a profane ritual. Luckily, he's a common, so you'll be able to build a coven of these guys pretty easily! The Ghoul Cultist is a Medium figure.

And that's it for this week! The Sun is shining in Seattle, and I'm ready for the weekend. See you in seven days for more previews of The Rusty Dragon Inn!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Occult Adventures Class Preview: The Spiritualist

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Illustration by Alexandru Sabo

When souls pass from the Material Plane to the Great Beyond, most speed through the Astral Plane on their way to final judgment and placement with in the fantastical outer planes. Other souls take a detour. Highly charged emotions shake them out of the stream of souls, and toward the esoteric gravity of the Negative Material Plane. Tragically, many of these souls are transformed into horrifying and dangerous undead creatures who haunt the multiverse unleash their malice and hate upon living creatures they encounter. A select few are able to pull themselves out of this horrid free fall. These phantoms push their way back through the Ethereal Plane until they find a psychically attuned individual to serves as anchor and sanctuary for their spirit.

These psychic anchors are called spiritualists, but they are much more than a psychic haven for the phantom. The relationship between a spiritualist and its phantom is mutually beneficial. While the phantom is confined within her mind, it grants the spiritualist focus with skills tied to the phantom's powerful emotions, as well as powerful protections against mind-affecting effects. Furthermore, the spiritualist can manifest her harbored spirit partially or fully in either incorporeal or ectoplasmic form, gaining access to a powerful combat ally and scout. Coupling this relationship with spellcasting focusing on life, death, spirit, and ectoplasm manipulation, clearly a spiritualist commands forces beyond the pale.

During the Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures playtest, it became clear that our list of phantom emotional aspects was incomplete. Especially missing was a powerful emotion that tied the phantom to the spiritualist in a closer, more intimate way. While we avoided making emotional focuses that were very positive in nature (after all, it's typically very strong negative emotions that makes a soul drift toward the Negative Material Plane), we added a dedication emotional as a companion to the zeal aspect helping fill the niche for those desiring to play a spiritualist that didn't entirely dwell within the super-negative spectrum of emotions. We also added despair to that list, as that emotion was a good fit for the more negative side of the spectrum. Aside some bits of minor fine-tuning, and a restructuring of the bonded manifestation ability, we took a close look at the phantom's ability to scout in incorporeal form via the etheric tether class feature. While an incorporeal phantom can still scout while outside of line of effect from its spiritualist master, the amount of time it can do so is much shorter than the playtest version of the class.

In the end, the spiritualist is a class that allows you to channel forces from beyond the grave, and some of the more spooky aspects of psychic magic. Next week, we will delve into different Occult Adventures class, so stay tuned.

Stephen Radney-MacFarland
Designer

Meet the Iconics: Estra

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Today, as part of our ongoing Meet the Iconics series, we introduce the next of the six new iconic characters featured in Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Occult Adventures. This week we meet Estra, the iconic spirtualist!

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Estra never wanted to commune with spirits: she only wished for others to believe she did, and profit from that belief.

Born the daughter of a poor miner in the nation of Isger, Estra dreamed of the theaters of far-off cities, and more than once nearly ran away with a traveling acting troupe that stopped in her small town. Fortunately, her family moved to the capital city of Isger, Elidir, during her teenage years, and she swiftly became enthralled with her new, cosmopolitan home. Her dreams of joining the theater were even somewhat fulfilled when she fell in with a small gang of faux-spiritualists who needed a convincing actress to play the role of their spirit-channeling medium. The group engaged in fraudulent séances targeting grieving mourners, who paid dearly for confirmation of the smooth passing of their loved ones into the hereafter.

Within darkened chambers and ramshackle theaters, Estra and her confederates spent nearly ten years bilking grief-stricken with the promise of communion with their dead relatives. Estra proved a talented actress, falling into convincing trances to channel the dead and dispense the carefully gathered information her associates had gleaned on their targets. Sessions typically culminated with the full-form “manifestation” of a bereaved subject's lost relative: actually a confederate dressed in luminous robes and clumsy disguises approximating the dead person's appearance.

The arrival of a handsome knight named Honaire changed all that. Stationed in Elidir, Honaire had left behind an ailing mother, and in his absence she had passed. Honaire sought some comfort in his loss, and turned toward the séances of Estra's troupe for assurance that his mother rested in peace. Relieved of his grief by the assurances of the spirit-seer, the young knight became smitten with Estra's quick wit and streetwise charm. Estra, for her part, found the knight's combination of physical strength and gentle courtesy enchanting, even as his strict code of honor made her regret her own life of lies. When at last she confessed the truth—that she'd never contacted Honaire's mother at all—she expected him to fly into a rage. Instead, he thanked her for her courage, and promptly proposed marriage. Accepting his proposal, Estra left behind the life of a charlatan, and the two spent several happy decades together, with Estra enjoying the social status that came from being the wife of an up-and-coming military commander.

Yet this life, too, came to an abrupt end when rumors of a rising alliance of goblin tribes reached the capital. Seeing her husband's frustration at the government's slow response, Estra urged him to volunteer to investigate, with no way of knowing that the goblin assemblies were in fact the precursor to the deadly Goblinblood Wars. There in the dark expanse of the Chitterwood, Honaire and his unit were unexpectedly ambushed by a horde of maniacal goblins and their green dragon ally. Though he fought bravely and saved the lives of many comrades in their retreat, Honaire was bathed in the dragon's toxic breath, his armor and body rent by the beast's deadly claws.

Wracked by guilt and loss, set adrift in a devastated nation that suddenly had more to worry about than the plight of military widows, Estra turned back to her old means of supporting herself, training several new associates in the tricks of the faux-spiritualist trade. Yet during the group's first performance, while her confederates secretly lifted spirit trumpets with thin threads and caused tambourines to shake as if by unseen forces, Estra's fake trance became something more. A wispy, greenish vapor coalesced from her mouth, eyes, and nostrils. To the wonderment of those assembled, a spectral figure emerged through the curtain of ectoplasmic mists. The ghostly apparition was not the luminous confederate Estra expected to emerge from the spirit cabinet, but rather the very real specter of her fallen husband. Both comforted and shamed, the burgeoning spiritualist pledged once again to never allow deceit to rule her life.

Though her body is increasingly stooped by age, Estra has learned to strengthen her spiritual bond with Honaire so that his ectoplasmic form might walk the world again. She tries to emulate her lost lover's selfless drive to aid the helpless wherever they might be afflicted—though her impatience and sharp tongue sometimes get the better of her. Wandering far from Isger, she uses her strange powers to provide comfort and consolation—for real this time—to those who've lost loved ones to the ceaseless violence of the world. Yet all the while, she remains plagued by doubt, wondering if her phantom husband's presence is the result of the depth of their love, some god's attempt to shepherd her toward righteousness, or a manifestation of her own guilty conscience.

Brandon Hodge (Contributing Author) & the Paizo Staff

P.S.: The psychic preview and Meet the Iconics installment we promised last Thursday has been pushed out just a bit, but never fear, you will learn more about Rivani soon!

Crisis of Faith

by Michael J. Martinez

Chapter One: Trouble Brewing

"In Cayden's name, I bless this brew. May it give strength to the weak and solace to the weary."

Jeddah Cailean tore a piece of bread off the loaf under his arm and tossed it into the vat of cooled barley tea before him. He then picked up a small barrel containing the last dregs of a previous batch of finished ale, swirled some water in it, and dumped it in as well.

"Father, why do we mix the dregs with the new?" asked Gantren, Jed's twelve-year-old son. "Isn't that ale stale?"

Jed eyed his son up and down with a smile. He'd been learning the trade for only a short while now, and always had a question in him. That's good—Cayden teaches his people to question everything, after all. Jed could see his lanky, blond-haired son would be a very good questioner, and hopefully his successor one day.

"These dregs contain drops of the ale before it, and the ale before that one, and so on. Why, this could have a bit of the very same brew that Cayden himself drank the night he ascended to godhood!" Jed said. "It's that connection... that's Cayden's blessing. Without the dregs, it would take forever to ferment, if at all. The ale needs to know where it came from."

"And the bread? Is that part of the blessing, too?"

"No, Gant, that's just me trying to get it to ferment faster, because I've got a temple to run and thirsty patrons who want to celebrate the god's bounty," Jed said. "Now, head on downstairs and help your mother. We're opening in a bit."

Gantren nodded and, taking care not to disturb anything, left the room. Cayden's Rest, a temple of Cayden Cailean in Augustana, was a sprawling affair full of comings and goings. But this room, where the vats of barley tea were transformed into ale, had to be kept in a very specific state, free of outside influences. It was the heart of any Caydenite brew-temple, and it had just the right mix of protection from the elements, fresh air, and musty cobwebs needed to create the best ales.

Yes, the cobwebs were important. Jed's adoptive father—an orphan himself and the temple's former priest—had told of a time when one of his predecessors had cleaned the Chamber of Cayden's Blessings after several decades. The ales made thereafter went from exemplary to pedestrian, and thus the chamber was never cleaned again.

A wizard friend once speculated to Jed that the resulting mold and dust in the room could lend flavor to the brews. Personally, Jed simply assumed Cayden was a slob, bless his name.

With a final, silent prayer, Jed left the chamber and walked through the rest of the brewhouse. It was a large warehouse, lined with barrels both empty and full, along with the fireplaces and vats used to make the barley tea. Sacks of grain and hops were stored on lofts in the high-ceilinged room so as to better discourage vermin.

Jed paused by the casks nearest the door, scanning the shorthand markings chalked on the wood. He quickly counted backward, away from the door, and made a few scribblings in the small notebook he kept in his pocket. They were running low on the dark ale, and they might have to go a few days without the amber next month. The last of the past year's wheat beer would probably be gone within a week.

Some days, it seemed winter wouldn't arrive fast enough. And that reminded him to send Gant down to the market for cinnamon and cloves from the spice vendors. People seemed to like that in cold weather, for whatever reason. Another note, and then the notebook and pencil returned to his pocket.

Jed pushed open the doors leading from the brewhouse to the kitchen, where a couple of workers were busy chopping vegetables. They waved eagerly at the priest, and Jed said a very quick blessing over them. The workers were destitute, and like most of Augustana's poor, they knew that there was always a chance for work at Cayden's Rest. Aside from Jed and his family, the workers were almost all beggars and orphans. Jed paid a fair wage and offered a place to sleep in the brewhouse lofts. More than a few former workers at the Rest had gone on to better things, which made Jed proud.

Finally, in the main temple area—which the uninformed might mistake for a large tavern—Jed found his wife setting up tables with Gantren. Before he could speak, Maeve Cailean launched into business. "Deggin stopped by with your hops while you were in the chamber, love," she said, pointing to a large burlap sack in the corner. "Good crop. Smells like lemon and pine."

Jed rushed over and, bending over the bag, inhaled. "Oh, that's nice. Deggin's hops are the best this side of Almas." He lifted the bag over his shoulder, sagging slightly under the weight. "Might add some to the next batch. Maybe at the ten-minute mark? Or five?"

Jed tromped to the back of the temple, muttering to himself and leaving Maeve smiling and shaking her head after him.

∗∗∗

Cayden's Rest was a joyful cacophony that night. Sailors fresh from plying the Inner Sea came to celebrate dry land once more, and several of them were funded by a small group of bankers from the Forester's Endowments—someone's ship had, quite literally, come in. Then there were the locals and regulars, along with the rural folk who had brought their harvest to market, and the small, huddled groups of armed and armored strangers—adventurers, no doubt, and perhaps a Pathfinder or two.

While Maeve managed the kitchen, ales, and servers, Jed wandered among the revelers and drinkers. He toasted their successes, bestowed Cayden's blessings on those who wished it, and occasionally mediated a dispute so that it would not come to blows. Brawling wasn't forbidden in the temple-tavern, of course—Cayden himself loved a good bout—but it was ultimately bad for business.

Then there were the harder cases. Jed convinced one regular that, yes, he really ought to make amends to his wife for the past night's drunkenness, and another that her shop's lack of profit was ill-served by the woman finding the bottom of her fourth tankard that night. Occasionally, Jed would point to the Placard of Wisdom hanging on the wall by the hearth, hoping the simple messages there might help those in need.

All in all, it was a fine night. Until the screaming started.

One of the serving women was the first to let loose with a shrill cry of terror. Jed quickly turned and reached for the dagger at his belt—enough of a precaution, he felt—and saw an armored man staggering in the center of the room, his hands clutching at his throat. Then a gout of blood burst forth from between his fingers, spraying the patrons all around him.

Silvestrae only trusts those who prove themselves.

Then the man collapsed.

Jed rushed over, shouting for everyone to clear out of his way. He knew Maeve would immediately stop serving, call the watch, and summon the strongest workers from the brew-temple, leaving Jed to attempt to heal the wounded man. Jed slid to his knees next to the prone man and started praying.

"Cayden, hear me. Harm has come to one under your roof. Send your power through me and bind his wound before it's too late," Jed whispered, closing his eyes and laying his hands over the man's bloodied body. Cayden Cailean was not one for rote prayer.

Unfortunately, Jed was indeed too late, or Cayden was. Either way, the man's hands slid from his throat as he breathed his last.

The stranger had been slit ear to ear. A deft cut, and one that apparently went unseen by anyone else around the poor sod; otherwise, there'd be a massive brawl going on right now.

"Lock the doors and summon the guard!" Jed bellowed. He turned a woman crouching next to him and the dead man, and chanced the question regardless: "What did you see?"

"Nothing," said the woman, a half-elf with a distressed look on her face. "A flash. A bit of shadow. And then Rafe gasped and got up and started bleeding. He's dead?"

"Afraid so." Jed placed a hand on her shoulder in solace. "I'm so sorry. You knew him?"

She nodded as a tear fell down her cheek. "We'd been companions a while. Our priest. Lots of jobs. This... this is no way to go."

A large man in light chainmail knelt down next to them. "Nothing. No track, no trace. Not even so much as a blood spatter."

Jed looked up and saw a half-orc wearing the regalia of an Eagle Knight of Andoran. "You sure? There's a lot of blood here."

The half-orc frowned. "My friend is dead, priest."

"I meant no offense," Jed said quickly. "Just surprised. Maybe they used a spell to cloak themselves."

Jed rose and walked over to Maeve, who stood looking worried behind the bar. "The watch is on the way. The boys aren't letting anyone out." She took his hand. "This isn't just a brawl, is it, love?"

"No, this is far worse," Jed said. "This was murder."

∗∗∗

An hour later, the watch had come in and cleared the tavern, questioning the thirty or so people therein. Nobody had seen anything, of course. It was a thorough job, and the watch commander seemed doubtful about finding the murderer.

"They're questers," the commander said, nodding toward the half-orc and half-elf, who sat in the middle of the now-empty room staring silently into half-full tankards. "Likely went afoul of someone who carried a grudge."

Jed nodded. "I've fifty gold to use for reward money," he offered. "Will that help?"

The commander smiled sadly. "This was a professional job. Doubt any reward will help."

Once the commander and his men left, Jed went over to the two adventurers and took a seat, placing fresh ale before them. "I'm so very sorry," he said quietly. "No one has ever defiled the temple like this."

The woman took the ale and quaffed half of it in one go. "Yeah, well, they just did. And Rafe just paid the price. You need better protection, tavern-keeper."

The half-orc reached over and whacked her on the arm gently—mostly gently. "Show respect, Silvestrae. This is a priest of Cayden Cailean, and his temple has suffered as well in this."

She shoved the knight's hand aside. "Yeah, well, we suffered more, Corogan. We'd been together, the three of us, for, what... four years? And now we have to head back to Almas with our tails between our legs."

"We are not heading back," Corogan said. "We must continue with our mission."

"Without a priest," she said dully. "That's going to go really well. This is the Nogortha Necropolis we're talking about. We need someone who can turn undead."

A sinking feeling stirred in Jed's gut, and he reluctantly looked over toward the Placard of Wisdom on the wall, as if it were eyeing him back.

Then he went and opened his mouth, knowing he'd come to regret it.

∗∗∗

"What do you mean you're going with them?" Maeve said late that night, once all the revelers were dispersed and she and Jed had retired to their room above the main temple. "When's the last time you even left Augustana?"

Jed stood, hands on his hips. "I went to the fair two years ago!"

Maeve's eyes flared wide as she sat up in bed. "That is not exactly a quest with an Eagle Knight and some half-elf tart. I know, Jed. I did that sort of thing once, before I met you and settled down. I like being settled down. I thought you did, too. When have you not been settled down?"

"It's not about liking, or even wanting," Jed said, his defensive stance sloughing off into a slouch. "This... this is what Cayden is all about. Yeah, he's about ale and revelry and helping the unfortunate. But he's also about adventure and being spontaneous. We're talking about someone who became a god on a drunken whim—and he demands that kind of spirit from all his followers."

With a sigh, Maeve slumped back down under the covers. "Look, I love you, Jed, but your religion's tenets are written on a placard. A placard that hangs in a tavern we call a temple. I can't..." Maeve's voice caught, and she angrily wiped away a tear. "I don't want to lose you. And let's face it, you're in no shape for weeks on the road and fighting undead."

Jed sat on the bed next to her and smiled. "Thankfully, I can just turn them, right? I'm a cleric of Cayden Cailean, one of the greatest forces of good in the world. I can do this."

"But you don't have to," she replied. "You really don't."

"No, I don't. And that's exactly why I have to."

∗∗∗

Jed stood over the trunk that had been stored in the attic for years, the key in his hand. Long had he feared that opening the chest would release pure chaos into his world. And yet...

He set the candle down on the floor and worked the key into the lock. The chest opened with a stubborn groan, and a musty smell filled Jed's nostrils. He pulled out an old, heavy cloak—the vermin hadn't gotten to it, it seemed—and a battered but still-whole backpack. Three vials of clear liquid followed, and Jed couldn't remember if they were holy water or potions.

Then there was the chain shirt, which seemed to catch every bit of the guttering candlelight. And the rapier, of course. Jed grasped the hilt and pulled it partially out of the scabbard. The blade gave off a soft blue-white light of its own.

These were his father's things, garnered from years of questing and exploring and generally being a ne'er-do-well on behalf of a drunken god. Jed's father ultimately had settled down and taken over the Rest, but Jed loved his father's tales by the fire.

The gleaming shirt had been a gift from the dwarves of the Five Stone Mountains in honor of his father's valor in battle against orcs. The rapier—one that heightened its wielder's accuracy considerably—was from a cache kept by a tribe of hill-dwelling giants somewhere... else. Jed couldn't remember.

He sheathed the blade and dropped it into the chest. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he muttered. "Dammit, Cayden. Is this a test? Some sort of trial? A bloody joke?"

The darkness around him didn't yield an answer. He didn't expect one from Cayden anyway.

Coming Next Week: Menace in the foothills in Chapter Two of Michael J. Martinez's "Crisis of Faith."

Michael J. Martinez is the author of the Daedalus trilogy of Napoleonic space opera novels, the most recent of which, The Venusian Gambit, came out in May. He also has short stories in the forthcoming anthologies Cthulhu Fhtagn! and Unidentified Funny Objects 4. Visit him online at michaeljmartinez.net.

Illustration by Marek Madej.

Be All That You Can Be! In Adven-n-n-ture Deck 2!

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Important! This blog post, including previewed cards, features substantial spoilers of the plot and events in the second installment of the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path. Please tread carefully if you plan to play through the Pathfinder RPG version of the story, or if you like to be surprised by events in the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game.

When we left our intrepid heroes, they had just fled a collapsing city (and the Storm King), fought through the underground, and reclaimed their city from hordes of undead. Now all they have to do is travel through the heart of the Worldwound and conquer another city filled with demons in Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Deck 2: Sword of Valor. Piece of cake!

Your adventure begins with the scenario "The Gibbering Swarm." If you're anything like me, you're always having trouble finding the monsters in a location deck. You keep running into the constant frustration of finding allies and weapons. Well, this scenario takes that frustration away! For each of the locations you'll face here, take all of the monsters and put them right on top of the deck. You'll never have to search for them again!

Why must they gibber?

Those monsters are aided by the annoying little Vescavor Swarms we last saw in Elven Entanglement. I'm sure you remember them. (You certainly would if you had to banish your weapon when fighting them before.)

Game over, man! Game over!

And of course, we have their queen. You do not want to get close to her! At least, not if you only want to have to beat a 20 on your combat check. But if you're happy to add another 1d6 to that, by all means, wade right into melee.

How Many Demons in a Cadre?

Wrath of the Righteous is not afraid to try new things, and in this adventure, we're introducing armies. The players and the banes both have armies of a sort. Let's look at the player's version first. In certain scenarios, the players get a new support card type: the troop card. In adventure deck 2, your troops are the Knights of Kenabres, the loyal army you're marching to Drezen.

We are the knights who say "Kenabres!"

While you're traveling with your troop, after you complete each scenario in this adventure, you'll check one of the six boxes on this card; each one corresponds to a skill such as Strength or Intelligence. Whenever you encounter a barrier that has the Army trait (because an army is much too big to just be a "monster"), each character adds 1d6 to his checks against the army when using the skills you checked on your troop. Also, at the end of the adventure, when the town of Drezen is cleared of all its baddies, everyone gets an amazing reward based on the skills you checked, so choose carefully!

Of course, your enemies have their own armies, and they are no joke. When you encounter an enemy Army, all characters must face them, no matter where they are. (After all, armies are really big.) Characters must each attempt a different check from among those listed on the card. If any of the checks fail, the army is undefeated. Not only that, but the enemy army immediately pillages the location deck for any remaining boons before heading off to maraud another open location. You're definitely going to need those bonuses from the Knights of Kenabres.

What forces all these chaotic creatures to march together?

Moar Demons

There are, of course, several new demons for you to face. The Incubus, as you might imagine, has a "close friend" in the form of the adventure's servitor demon. And if you lose the fight, he'll just have to take one of your allies with him when he goes. Nobody parties quite like the Incubus.

Often seen drinking together.

The Betrayal Demon doesn't really have any friends, so he wants to make sure that you don't have any either: no allies for you, and other players can't pitch in to help. On his way out, he'll somehow convince you to stab one of your friends. That's sure to increase your popularity.

Lead Me Not into Temptation

There's another mechanic that is new to Wrath of the Righteous that I haven't really talked about yet: Temptation. These banes are a new kind of barrier. Unlike other banes, you don't have to defeat them. When you encounter them, they present a choice to the players—sometimes immediately, and sometimes they lie in wait. Each of them provides a valuable new ability to the players, but there's always a cost.

Adventure 2 introduces the Blood of Eustoyriax. I'm sure your mother warned you never to drink the blood of a demon, but she's not here right now, so maybe you should consider it. After all, drawing a bunch of cards at the start of your turn seems like a pretty big advantage, and you might not even have to bury any cards (if you get lucky).

Tastes like burning!

The Good Guys

Not everything is made of flames and death. This expansion includes some new cohorts. Queen Galfrey lets you either gain a bunch of boons or raise the dead, and Nurah Dendiwhar lets you add to any check. Of course, it turns out one of these women might have a different agenda than the other one, so there could be some consequences to her help, but I wouldn't worry about it too much...

At least one of these women will help you.

One More Cool Thing

You know all of those irritating Corrupted cards you've been carrying around and wondering what to do with? Behold the Corruption Forge!

Redeem boons for valuable prizes!

This set gives you your first opportunity to redeem a Corrupted item. All you have to do is banish a non-Corrupted blessing when you close the location. Then you can redeem any card in any character's hand. Which one will you pick?

Well, that about wraps it up for Adventure Deck 2. Come back soon for a peek at Adventure Deck 3. Wait... Adventure Deck 3? OH MY GOODNESS! Wait until you see it! We did something we've never done before! We actually put a...

Mike: BACK TO WORK, PETERSON!

Paul Peterson
Adventure Card Game Designer

Small Conventions, Big Results

Monday, June 22, 2015

This time of year it’s easy for the Pathfinder Society team to focus so hard on the major conventions (all of the adventures for PaizoCon and Gen Con in particular) that we can lose sight of the smaller events. These might not have the same reach and exposure as the big names, but they’re all stronger in how they bring the community—both the players and the public—together. Venture-Captain Mike Bramnik of Bloomington, Indiana recently contacted me with an after-event report for the Convention of Stonekeep, which did exactly that. Let’s read it in his words.

Being the Venture-Captain for a Pathfinder Society lodge in a college town is usually quite predictable. You know what times of year to expect to run lots of introductory scenarios and quests, and when to plan for lulls in attendance. Something that you would never be able to foresee, however, is just how awesome and generous your lodge can turn out to be when given a challenge.

Our lodge here in Bloomington, Indiana boasts several current and former employees of a nonprofit facility called Stone Belt, as well as friends and family of clients who utilize the services. Stone Belt is a charitable organization dedicated to helping adults with physical and developmental disabilities. They provide a number of services from home care to employment services and even pass the charity on to others in need. When one of our local players who works in special education suggested teaming up with Stone Belt to have fun and give back to our local community, things came together in a really amazing way.

Preparing for Race for the Runecarved Key, presenting Ducky the Goblin to Lori (Stone Belt's Director of Development),
and a "thank you" card from several of Stone Belt's clients.

As a challenge to our players, many of who wanted to experience a local-level convention before "con season" got into high gear (culminating at Gen Con next month!), we decided to create an event with all of the "hardest" scenarios available—an event we called the "Convention at Stonekeep." We offered all three Ruins of Bonekeep adventures, every scenario with a hard mode option, and a few other scenarios with deadly reputations. In addition, we held a charity auction with prizes donated by several local GMs, Sean K. Reynolds, and two local businesses (Common Room Games and That's The Rub Massage Therapy Center), as well as having our lodge's aspiring authors create two new unofficial adventures using PFS rules—one for the Adventure Card Game and the other for the Roleplaying Game—partially integrated with each other as well.

Two tables for the ACG adventure (written by Michael Johnson and me) assembled on their ships to bravely escort the PCs for the RPG scenario to their destination: the center of the Eye of Abendego. Once there, three tables of level 7th-level pregenerated PCs faced "The All-Seeing Eye of Abendego," written by Alex Ducey, Joe Ducey, and Justin McNeely. The convention was a nice-sized event, with 17 tables of PFS in addition to the 5 charity tables and charity auction over 2.5 days—part of which was a live auction held during the middle of Race for the Runecarved Key right before the PCs for the Season 4 Special went to the auction themselves!

Thanks to the generosity of our players, we were able to purchase $800 of equipment for Stone Belt's Lifelong Learning program, including mobility scooters, a variety of headphones, jump ropes, bubble machines, and over 30 lbs of kinetic "moon sand"—in addition to a Paizo goblin plushie immediately named "Ducky!" by one of Stone Belt's clients! Overall, our event was a smashing success, and our lodge is now looking forward to partnering with Stone Belt and possibly other organizations like it on an annual basis so we can continue to share the fun of being part of the Pathfinder Society as well as give back to our community that has produced so many amazing and kind people who are part of our lodge!

Mike Bramnik
Venture-Captain—Bloomington, Indiana

Thank you Mike, Stone Belt, and the Bloomington lodge for your hard work!

John Compton
Developer

Virtual Kingmaker

Saturday, June 20, 2015

When we first started brainstorming for Pathfinder Online (PFO), I was running the Kingmaker Pathfinder Adventure Path in my home gaming group. We were loving the idea of adventurers forging a kingdom out of the wilderness. It gave an extra dimension and purpose to our adventures, along with an additional set of problems to roleplay through.

So when Ryan and I started to think about PFO, I felt that Kingmaker's setting, the River Kingdoms of Golarion, would be the perfect backdrop for an MMORPG: a cluster of small settlements and kingdoms battling the environment and each other for survival. It would be like playing Kingmaker in coordination with dozens of other gaming groups, with each GM sharing info on what his group is doing, and occasionally the groups would get together and either help or hinder each other. In the Pathfinder RPG, coordinating such a campaign would be a massive feat, but MMORPGs are perfectly set up for just such a scenario, so that's what we're building with PFO.

Jon Hodgson's illustration for Kingmaker was an inspirational focus for Pathfinder Online.

Starting in a little less than two months, PFO players, much like their table-top counterparts, will be able to pick and choose how their settlements are going to be built, developing it all with their own sweat and blood. There will be dozens and dozens of buildings to choose from, and you'll be able to upgrade many of those buildings over time. Will you put up walls? How about a community garden? What deities will your temple support? There will be a legion of decisions, making each settlement as unique as any character.

Right now, you can claim a hex in the game and put up holdings and outposts. In a few weeks, you will be able to contest the claims of others, possibly claiming those holdings for yourself, or burning them to the ground. Remember in the Kingmaker AP when you heard that one of your lumber camps was being attacked and you had to intervene? Well, the same thing will happen in PFO to your lumber camp, or your mine, or any other holding. Defend them, or there will be consequences.

The Political Landscape

One of the unique things about playing in a sandbox MMO is that the players themselves build the things that exist in the world. To jumpstart that effort, we did a Land Rush a few months after the Kickstarter ended, and 30 player settlements were handed out to the 30 groups that had the most players pledging to them. This gave us the starting player settlement landscape for when the game launched. You can check out the current map of the game world, created by one of the players in the game, here.

Once settlement warfare comes into the game and you are able to destroy a settlement or conquer it, this map will change. Already, there are some areas of the world that are more powerful and populated than others. Here is a snippet of the political landscape as it exists today.

The biggest and most powerful alliance in the game is the Everbloom Alliance, or EBA. Made up of the settlements of Brighthaven, Phaeros, Keeper's Pass, Hammerfall and Blackwood Glade; the purpose of the alliance is protection of its member settlements and their members.

EBA's arch-nemesis, the second most powerful alliance in the game, is the Empire of Xeilias, made up of the member settlements of Golgotha, Callambea, Kreuz Bernstein, and Auroral. They are led by their Benevolent Dictator Phyllain, and are the most active PVP contingent. Located in the center of the game map, their exploits against the EBA have already become the stuff of legend in the world.

In the northwest corner of the map lies the third most powerful alliance in the game, the Coal Road Alliance, aka The High Road Covenant. Comprised of the settlements of Stoneroot Glade, Talonguard and Taverhold, they have provided a bastion for folks wanting to steer clear of the drama taking place between EBA and Xeilias. The community there is super-supportive and actively campaigns against the monsters in the area.

In the north, we have the Free Highlanders, consisting of Alderwag, the paladins of Ozem's Vigil, and the dwarves of Forgeholm. This group provides support for each other through trade and defense, especially when troubles flared up between them and Golgotha a month or so back.

Currently, the last significant alliance is the Aeonian League, consisting of Hope's End, Sunholm, and Canis Castrum. For the most part, they have kept to themselves out in the middle western part of the map, with Canis Castrum making a run to become the most significant market town on the western half of the map.

The southwestern corner of the map is a ghost town of hexes overrun with monsters and abandoned settlements and is avoided by most—which will soon mean opportunity for others!

The Emerald Lodge

This leaves the largest non-allied settlement in the game, The Emerald Lodge. Run by Thod, the Emerald Lodge is situated smack-dab in the middle of the map, between the warring factions of the EBA and the Empire of Xeilias. This has made for some harrowing times for Thod and his settlement, but to date, they have navigated the politics, made deals where they had to, and kept themselves viable and thriving in the game without joining one of the larger player blocs.

Player Spotlight: Thod

Five-star Pathfinder Society GM Jens Loesel gives us insight into Pathfinder Online from the point of view of a Pathfinder RPG player, father of two, and the leader of the largest non-alliance group in the game, the Emerald Lodge.

The leader of the Emerald Lodge attacks Ustalavian Invaders.

In his own words:

One of the interesting aspects of a sandbox game is that you can play your own game, bound only by the sand, the other players, and the technology. There is a lot of freedom as a player. And that is what attracted me to Pathfinder Online.

Because I wanted to give everything a Pathfinder Society background, in the early days my main character was Theodum, designed after my very first PFS character. Theodum earned the title of Venture-Captain in the Eyes of the Ten, and now the things he does in Pathfinder Online feed back into his character at the PFS table.

Lately, my dwarf character Thod has taken much of my time. He started as a gatherer because that's probably the most important role to kickstart a settlement economy. Encroaching monsters and the need for victory tokens led to Thod training in fighting, which also makes him fun to play with groups that need someone who can kill monsters in the wild. Most people associate me with Thod now, especially as I post as Thod in my blogs. (A lot of the time I "play" as Thod is actually outside of the game.)

My background as a Pathfinder Society player and 5-Star Game Master in the United Kingdom was invaluable in the Land Rush. To earn a settlement, you needed votes from other players, so I created a background for my proposed settlement that would tie it to the Pathfinder Society. I proposed the Emerald Lodge as a Pathfinder Society lodge located near the Emerald Spire superdungeon. (In game, the Emerald Spire can't yet be explored, but it can be seen, and my son was the first player to see it—or at least to report seeing it—so being close has advantages.) With this background in place, I asked UK PFS players to back me in the Land Rush, which they did. But securing a settlement was only the beginning.

My first nasty surprise came in the first week of the Land Rush, well before anyone was actually able to log into the game. Golgotha, the largest evil group, wanted to position their settlement in a spot that would make them our neighbors. We had several options: join or ally with them; find someone stronger to ally with and hope for their protection; move elsewhere and say goodbye to the background story about being next to the Spire; or ensure that they valued your settlement more alive than dead.

Meanwhile, the Everbloom Alliance was staking out a spot to the other side, albeit further away. This opened up more problems and more options. Do we get between the two, becoming a speedbump when we are overrun, or can we steer a neutral way out of the whole situation? Either side might or might not want us, but they also don't want us to join the opposition. They also don't want the bad publicity from squashing a small, harmless, innocent settlement.

What followed was a year of diplomacy, plotting, building, and interacting with other players. PFO is not just "log in, kill a few monsters, be done." Whatever you do, in game or out of game, has an effect. At times it was a balancing act, especially when we had to take some towers for ourselves or when we tried to ensure nobody tread on our toes. But we are still there. We still have all our towers and, most surprisingly for a lot of gamers, we carved out an oasis between much larger groups that are keen on PvP, yet not only do they let us play our game, they sometimes even support us. We are still around and we plan to be around a lot longer.

There's still a lot to look forward to: growing the settlement further, getting rid of towers... and building our own vision of a Pathfinder Lodge, defended by diplomacy and not force, becoming a neutral meeting point when war rages around us. Oh—and one day being among the first to go down the Spire.

Lisa Stevens
CEO

Download Standard | Download Widescreen | Download Mobile
Illustrations by Dave Allsop and Jaime Martinez.

It's a Goblin Free-For-All!

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Free RPG Day is here! Today game stores across the world are participating in this event, bringing new and exclusive adventures to their area, and inspiring new comers and long-time gamers to new roleplaying games. This year we're contributing two new products to Free RPG Day. The first is Pathfinder Module: We Be Goblins Free!, a new adventure following the antics of select characters from the Birdcruncher goblin tribe. For Adventure Card Game fans, we've got a real tricksy treat in store: Ekkie the Goblin Cutpurse.

Illustration by Dave Allsop

If you're running We Be Goblins Free! at your local store, or if you've just picked it up and want to try it out, you can download the pregenerated goblin characters for your players right now. This module is also sanctioned for play in the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild.

Want to marathon some goblin fun? Why not add We Be Goblins! and We Be Goblins Too! to your gaming arsenal? These adventures all follow the same four goblin adventurers: Chuffy Lickwound, Mogmurch, Poog of Zarongel, and Reta Bigbad.

In addition to tables of the new Pathfinder Module, participating stores will also be running demos of the current Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Base Set, Wrath of the Righteous, or the new introductory scenario Demonic Politics. You can also download Ekkie as a free PDF and drop her into your game right now!

Download Ekkie's Character Sheet (116kb zip/PDF)

If you'd like to jump in right away as Ekkie, we've worked up some suggested deck lists below. You'll want to pick the 12-card deck if you're playing the short demo, and the 15-card deck if you're playing a full-length scenario. Either way, should should have the Mythic Champion mythic path card.

Deck Lists

12-Card Deck		15-Card Deck
Card Type	Card Name	Card Type	Card Name
Weapon	Heavy Pick	Weapon	Heavy Pick
Weapon	Javelin	Weapon	Javelin
Armor	Hide Armor	Weapon	Mace
Item	Blood Periapt	Armor	Hide Armor
Item	Caltrop Bead	Item	Blood Periapt
Item	Nectar of the Gods	Item	Caltrop Bead
Ally	Bat	Item	Nectar of the Gods
Ally	Frog	Item	Trapsmith Gloves
Ally	Vulture	Ally	Bat
Blessing	Blessing of Ascension	Ally	Frog
Blessing	Blessing of Ascension	Ally	Vulture
Blessing	Blessing of Ascension	Blessing	Blessing of Ascension
		Blessing	Blessing of Ascension
		Blessing	Blessing of Ascension
		Blessing	Blessing of Ascension

If you want to start a Wrath of the Righteous campaign and play Ekkie, build her deck by using her Cards List above after the other characters have built their starting decks. Remember that you may only use cards that have the Basic trait.

Won't get a chance to head out to Free RPG Day? No worries! Starting on July 1, we'll have We Be Goblins Free! available as a free PDF and a $5 print product while supplies last. While Ekkie will not abvailable for sale until the first day of Gen Con, you can pick up her character mat starting July 1 from paizo.com! Pathfinder Adventure Card Game subscribers will receive Ekkie in their July shipments.

Get out, game, and enjoy Free RPG Day!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

Men and Monsters

Friday, June 19, 2015

I'm pleased to see that our current Pathinder Battles set, Dungeons Deep, is arriving in stores and in the hands of collectors, and early reaction to the set has been very encouraging. We put a lot of effort into making Dungeons Deep the best and most useful set of figures we've done to date, and with tons of high-utility figures, it looks like we either achieved or came very close to that goal (hey, we've done some great sets in the past too, so the competition is fierce!).

This week I'd like to move on from Dungeons Deep to present three figures from our NEXT set, November's The Rusty Dragon Inn. After I announced that we planned a tavern-themed set at this year's PaizoCon, a few miniature collectors expressed some concern about a set with so many non-combatant figures. I guess the taverns in my campaigns see a lot more fighting than the national average, but never fear! In addition to barmaids, bartenders, and other NPC figures, The Rusty Dragon Inn set also includes a good number of monsters or fight-ready humanoids.

Here are three of them.

Every location needs a Guard, and I knew I had to make a miniature of this guy as soon as I first saw his image on page 267 of the NPC Codex. Good guy, bad guy, you be the judge. The only thing that's certain is he is way, way lower-level than your player characters, and he's probably going to die in large numbers. That's why we made this Medium figure a common!

We've already produced a couple of frost giants in the Pathinder Battles line, but I'm not convinced we've created enough to build a truly meaningful battle royale. Thus, I present to you the Frost Giant Ice Mage, a regal figure who could just as easily double as a cleric or leader type. What's a frost giant doing at the Rusty Dragon Inn, you ask? Shhhh. Shhhh. Not everything has to fit the theme perfectly, you guys. There's always room for more monsters. The Frost Giant Ice Mage is a Large, uncommon figure.

Last up this week is a real winner, the mounted Orc Rider on Dire Wolf. I'd like to see the look on the faces of bar patrons when this dude wanders into town. The Orc Rider on Dire Wolf comes with a sword and a battle standard bearing the symbol of the Hold of Belkzen, where orcs have carved out a bit of a nation for themselves. Will he carve out a place at your tavern table? The Orc Rider on Dire Wolf is a Large, rare figure, and I can't wait to see what he looks like in his final form!

That's it for this week. Tune in next Friday for another early glimpse at digital sculpts from The Rusty Dragon Inn!

Until then, I remain,

Erik Mona
Publisher

Ultimate Intrigue—Vigilante Playtest!

Friday, June 19, 2015

Illustration by Miroslav Petrov

The streets of almost every large city are rife with corruption. Greedy merchants, cruel guards, and bloodthirsty gangs oppress the poor common folk and those who dare to stand up against them find themselves with the dagger in the back more often than not. That is where the vigilante comes in. With their true identity hidden behind a secret persona, the vigilante is unafraid to take the fight to the powerful. Of course, not all vigilantes fight for what is good and just. Some use their secret identity to commit acts of depravity, unburdened by guilt or consequence.

Due to release in early 2016, Ultimate Intrigue includes a new base class for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: the vigilante. By participating in this playtest, you can help us make this class a fun, vibrant part of the game.

Starting today, you can download a playtest version of the vigilante right here! Create a vigilante, use it in your games, and then head over the playtest forums to tell us what you think. Tell us what works with the class and what other abilities you think it should have. We need your thoughts and ideas to refine this class and get it ready to stalk through the shadows of game tables everywhere. We have two subforums for you to use: one for general discussion about the class and the playtest and another specifically for feedback based on actual play.

For the Pathfinder Society players, the playtest version of this class opens as a character option. And there will be a special Chronicle sheet available soon that allows you to gain benefits that increase in future utility the more sessions that you play a vigilante for the playtest, or GM a game with at least one vigilante player at the table.

This playtest will remain open until Thursday, July 20, 2015. Although the forum discussions will close as that time, we'll be setting up a “Final Thoughts” thread. That thread will remain open until August 17, 2015 and you can post in that thread once with your final comments and feedback from the playtest. As always, we ask that you check for an existing thread that covers your topic before starting a new one. Remember that we are all here to make a better vigilante, so please be polite and civil to your fellow playtesters and community members.

We are truly excited to see your thoughts and feedback on the vigilante. It's a class unlike any other that we've ever done and we hope it will make for an exciting addition to your game. See you on the boards!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Occult Adventures Class Preview: The Occultist

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Illustration by Alexandru Sabo

The world hides many secrets, some strange, some wondrous, and others far too terrible for the rational mind to contain. In just over a month, we'll be unveiling some of these secrets with the release of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Occult Adventures. Within the pages of this mysterious 272-page book, we'll uncover the secrets of the occult and detail those who wield its might. In the meantime, we'll be previewing all six of the book's new classes, and investigate a new type of spellcasting power to add to your game—psychic magic!

First up is a class that harnesses the intrinsic power of ancient or psychically charged items, and then channels mental power through these items to cast powerful psychic spells: the occultist.

The occultist is a psychic spellcaster who uses rare and powerful objects called implements to manifest his magic. Each implement belongs to a specific school of magic and, as the occultist grows in power, he gains the use of more and more of these implements, increasing his power and the number of spells he can cast. In addition, he has a reservoir of mental focus to invest into these implements. Doing so not only grants him additional abilities, he can expend that focus to create even more powerful effects.

For those who took part in the Occult Adventures playtest, you'll find a number of things have changed during the development of this class. The biggest change involves the resonant powers of implements. Such powers are gained by putting mental focus into the item and, when more focus is stored within it, the item's power increases. In the final version, these resonant powers are not diminished as the mental focus is spent. As long as there is at least one point of mental focus remaining, the power remains at full strength! To add to the fun, each implement also had a few additional focus powers you can choose from.

The occultist is also very skilled at using magic circles to protect allies and hinder foes. At higher levels the occultist can use these circles to a trap enemies. After the playtest, we added a new ability utilizing magic circles. The occultist can now create a magic circle to call upon a specific outsider—a contact from beyond that the occultist can bribe or intimidate in exchange for aid. The occultist can use this outsider to gather information and, at higher levels, that outsider can deliver messages or small objects for the occultist. As the occultist advances in level, he learns to call additional outsiders, creating a network of otherworldly allies.

Lastly, the occultist can cast psychic spells from the schools associated with his implements. Since these are psychic spells, he does not have to worry about somatic or verbal components, but he does have to have a clear mind and steady emotional state to properly channel this type of magic. These components are unique to psychic spellcasters and we'll be talking more about them in the coming weeks.

Well, those are all the secrets we dare share with you this week. Next week we'll be delving into the history of Rivani, and looking at the powers of the psychic!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Meet the Iconics: Mavaro

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Starting today, we'll be introducing you to the six new iconic characters featured in Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Occult Adventures as part of our Meet the Iconics series. This week we'll start off by meeting Mavaro, the iconic occultist!

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Mavaro's earliest childhood memories are of the silent seclusion of a Pharasmin convent deep in the Mindspin Mountains. The boy never learned what brought his mother to the strange cloister built among ancient standing stones, but there she had sought refuge. The sisters' strict tutelage was the only life he knew; his only friends the esoteric books and scrolls of the convent's great library. He spent years in the library, devouring countless tomes to learn more of the world denied him.

Tales of horrors stalking the cloister's corridors held Mavaro's wanderlust in check. As he grew older, Mavaro dismissed the stories and learned to secretly navigate the forbidden halls of the convent, where he regularly bore witness to the nuns' strange ceremonies. One was a ritual of severe fasting and meditation that gradually wasted the sisters' bodies. After a period of fasting, novices would unveil a yellowed, sigil-scripted skull of the order's founding abbess, Mother Wren. The acolytes then listened in turn for a ghostly whisper from the skull to indicate a worthy candidate. Soon afterward, the selected nun's sisters would rise to adorn the candidate's body, withered in self-starvation, with strange sigils and specially cast silver talismans. They'd wrap her in fresh linens and carry her down into a hidden, spiraling catacomb to carefully place her among generations of similarly mummified worshipers spanning thousands of years.

In Mavaro's twenty-second year, Varisian traders arrived at the abbey. While the nuns took the opportunity to restock their food stores and other essentials, Mavaro felt entranced by a wagonload of riches reclaimed from the ruins of a stone giant temple. Tribal totems, esoteric steles, and ruined relics of forgotten cultures all called to him—representations of a world and cultures he'd only ever read about. When one of the traders pulled forth a strange sword of ancient design, bearing a carved, glowering face with gleaming red gems inset as eyes, Mavaro knew he had to obtain the treasures at whatever cost.

But as only a lonely scribe, Mavaro had no way to pay for the items. So he quietly stole into the forbidden catacombs where he knew the silver talismans of the abbey's mummies lay for the taking. Little did he know, though, that the sisters' starved bodies actually served as unwavering guardians, and with the desecration of their remains, an evil long held in check by their sacrifice slipped free. As the caravan trundled away from the holy ground, taking the convent's traded relics with it, the binding magic that held the entity in check cracked imperceptibly, and its spiritual corruption leaked forth.

The deaths began slowly. At first they just seemed like bad luck: a broken neck from a short fall; a drowning in the convent's well; three nuns killed in the collapse of an old stone wall in the kitchens. But soon the malevolent presence grew more bold, and the sisters realized something was hunting them in the quiet corridors. By the time the prioress realized that Mavaro's pilfering had jeopardized divine defenses centuries in the making, it was too late. One by one, the nuns were slaughtered by the dark thing of rust and chains slipping through their midst. The quiet butcher saved the prioress for last, possessing her body in anticipation of a long, self-inflicted torment. But wrenching back control of her body for the briefest moment, the prioress knocked a lantern aside and set fire to the convent in an attempt to destroy the entity—and herself—in cleansing flame.

Though injured, the vicious entity was not destroyed in the blaze, and only it and Mavaro survived. Desperate to protect himself, Mavaro shifted through the smoldering ruins of the haunted abbey, desperately collecting any holy relics he could find in hope of warding off the lingering evil. Vestments of razor wire still glowing red, the spirit soon found Mavaro. The young scholar would surely have faced his death, had not the skull of Mother Wren whispered to him from the ashes. The ancient holy woman commanded Mavaro to close his eyes and open his soul to the power of the items he had collected. Its long fingers flicking like the lashes of a scourge, the wicked shadow closed on the desperate youth, cooing promises of endless, barb-licked torment. Mavaro felt the power of the relics well up inside him, and shakily reached for the ruby-eyed blade he had purchased. Trembling, but full with strange power, Mavaro blindly struck.

A red gem shattered in the sword's hilt and the dark thing shrieked, flailing jangling fetters as it retreated through the ruins. Mavaro fled the holy site as quick as he could, never looking back at the only place he'd ever called home.

In the twenty years since, Mavaro's life has been a strange paradox. He's now a man of many indulgences, making up for his modest childhood with good food and raucous company. He deflects inquiries about his youth with inconsistent but highly entertaining tales tied in with his mysterious collection of relics and strange objects. Quietly, though, he regularly casts one eye over his shoulder, ever watchful for the shadow he's come to call the Thorn Priest, which stalks him still. Mavaro regularly consults the yellowed skull of Mother Wren, heeding her ghostly whispers as he pursues the relics he traded away long ago. His travels have taken him to markets across Varisia, the strangest of private collections, and many dangerous, distant locales. Still he seeks to reclaim their power, determined to undo the folly of his youth and face the Thorn Priest once more.

Brandon Hodge
Occultist Contributing Author

Lord of Runes Sample Chapter

Wednesday, June 17, 2015

In Lord of Runes, when Count Varian Jeggare is bequeathed a dangerous magical book by an old colleague, he and his hellspawn bodyguard Radovan find themselves on the trail of a necromancer bent on becoming the new avatar of an ancient and sinister demigod—one of the legendary runelords. Along with a team of mercenaries and adventurers, the infamous investigators will need to delve into a secret world of dark magic and the legacy of a lost empire. But in saving the world, will Varian and Radovan lose their souls?

Chapter One: The Acadamae

Radovan had placed seven pebbles on the sundial between the shadow and the next hour. As darkness covered the next tiny stone, he flicked it away. It skittered across the plaza, narrowly missing the toes of a woman hurrying east. By her well-made dress of common cloth, the basket trailing a few errant threads, and the distinctive callus on her finger, I took her for a seamstress. She frowned at Radovan. He offered her a wink and the smirk he refers to as "the little smile." She turned away an instant too late to conceal her own smile.

"A servant will bring me the keys at any moment," I said. "Go."

Radovan stretched, pointing his wicked elbow spurs at the sky. His red leather jacket hung loose on his broad shoulders. The tongue of his belt lolled out from the tighter cinch. In the months it had taken us to reach Korvosa, I estimated he had lost seventeen pounds. He nodded toward the gate. "I don't like the way those guys are looking at you."

I turned to see a trio of students emerging from the Acadamae, the girls laughing at the boy's quip. I could only presume that Radovan referred to the hellspawn guarding the gate. The devil-blooded sentries were notorious throughout Korvosa for abusing students and visitors alike.

One of the guards snarled as the students emerged. "What's so damned funny?"

Unlike Radovan, who boasted he could pass in dim light so long as he avoided the "big smile," these hellspawn would never be mistaken for human. One had vestigial gills and an eel's snout; the other could barely see out from beneath a pair of coiling horns.

The students lowered their heads and hastened past. The horned hellspawn whistled after them. The other turned toward me. His piscine eyes lingered on the sword on my hip and the Ustalavic wolfhound at my heel. He weighed the danger and looked away.

Suppressing a smug smile, I turned to Radovan. "As you can see, 'those guys' know better than to menace a count of Cheliax."

"Not those guys," said Radovan. He plucked another pebble from the sundial and made a catapult of his thumb and middle finger. He aimed at the top of the gate. "Those guys."

A spotted raven, a chimera cat, and a potbellied imp peered down at us.

"Radovan, it would be prudent not to—"

Radovan flicked the stone. The half-black, half-orange cat shrieked and fled along the wall. The raven flew into the safety of the Acadamae grounds, but the devil flew toward us, cursing in the guttural tongue of Hell. It demonstrated an impressive vocabulary and a flair for simile.

"That cat might have been a professor's familiar," I said. I drew the Shadowless Sword and plucked a riffle scroll from my pocket. "Or, worse, a master's."

Radovan shrugged, but I saw by his posture he was prepared to produce a razor-sharp throwing dart or star from one of the many secret pockets in his jacket sleeves. "I was aiming for the imp."

Hovering just beyond reach of my blade, the devil hissed, revealing a mouth full of needle-sharp fangs. Radovan hissed back through his big smile, revealing a jumble of teeth a Mendevian general once compared to a demon's armory.

The imp peeped and flew after its cohorts.

Radovan popped his jaw back into joint. He turned to see where the seamstress had gone.

"Go."

"You don't mind if I take the night?"

"Look for me at Upslope House tomorrow. I will return there after I finish cataloging Ygresta's library."

"You got too many books already."

"One can never have too many books. Still, I doubt I shall find any worth keeping. Just strive to remain inconspicuous. Stay out of Thief Camp and Old Korvosa."

"Old Korvosa, huh?"

I should have known better than to present Radovan with a forbiddance. By naming the two districts I most wished him to avoid, I practically ensured he would visit them. "The important thing is to avoid Chelish attention. The moment I receive the queen's summons, I am duty-bound to return home."

Thanks to warnings from military friends in Sarkoris, I had thus far avoided the heralds of Her Infernal Majestrix. I knew what message they must carry: Queen Abrogail would demand to know why I sent her a copy of the Lexicon of Paradox rather than the original. I had prepared several excuses, but none would withstand a rigorous interrogation by the inquisitors of Asmodeus. How could I admit that I trusted the crusader queen of Mendev to use the book for the good of all Avistan? How could I conceal my fervent belief that the queen of Cheliax would use it only to further her own power? One sharp question was all it would take to condemn me to impalement upon the tines.

Self-preservation was not my only motive for remaining abroad. What began as a self-imposed exile to escape scandal had become an adventure. Radovan and I had faced many horrors, and wonders too. Some came not from the fabled lands we visited but from within ourselves. One of the wonders—or horrors—within myself remained an unsolved mystery.

And I hoped to find the answer to that mystery soon, here at the Acadamae in Korvosa. Yet as Queen Abrogail's impatience grew, it was only a matter of time before she instructed one of her sorcerers to contact me with a spell. There were ways to avoid such communication, but none I could safely explain to her inquisitors. When I received the summons, by writ or dream, I would answer.

"You'd think she'd cut you some slack now the war's over," Radovan said.

Despite the sun warming my shoulders, I felt a gloom. "The war is never over."

"Come on, boss, lighten up. Take a picnic over to Jeggare Island. Go for a stroll around Jeggare Square. There's a Jeggare Museum, isn't there? You like museums. You like stuff named after you."

"How many times must I tell you—?"

"Yeah, I know. They named those places for your uncle Monte."

"Montlarion Jeggare the explorer, one of the esteemed founders of Korvosa, my accomplished great-great—"

Arnisant pricked up his ears at the sound of irritation in my voice. I patted his shoulder. A sly smile grew at the corner of Radovan's mouth. He was trying to be amusing. As usual, he succeeded more at being trying than at being amusing.

"I just wish you could relax is all," he said. "Ever since we hit town, you've been tense."

"Tense" was too small a word for the vexation I felt since meeting with Toff Ornelos. What I sought from the headmaster was an explanation of why the Acadamae had failed to detect my magical bloodline, which I had discovered only recently. For reasons of their own, the proctors allowed me to engage in a futile struggle to master the science of wizardry when they should have turned me away to develop my innate talents under the tutelage of a sorcerer.

Instead of answers, what the headmaster gave me was news that one of my oldest friends had died having named me executor of his meager estate. Headmaster Ornelos would hear none of my complaints until I had dispensed with what he deemed the more urgent matter.

Yet none of that was Radovan's fault. I looked him in the eye and said, "There is a park."

"Huh?"

"Jeggare Green. It is a modest size, but Queen Domina dedicated it to me, not my ancestor."

"'Jeggare Green,'" Radovan mused. "I'll look for it. If you're all right, then I'm going to—" He jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the vanished seamstress.

"Go!"

Radovan departed at a jog.

I turned back to the hellspawn gatekeepers. They glowered but kept their tongues still. I wondered whether their caution had more to do with my sword or my hound. The Shadowless Sword was swift and Arnisant fearless, but the guards had more to fear from my spells—both those inscribed on the riffle scrolls concealed throughout my coat and those I could summon by force of will, now that I understood that I was a sorcerer rather than a wizard.

The guards turned at the approach of another student from inside the Acadamae grounds. Rather than taunt the woman, they bowed as she passed.

The hem of her skirt swirled about her ankles as she strode toward me with swift grace. Upon each hand she wore a jeweled ring, and around her throat a cameo on a black ribbon. Across her hips hung a plaited belt holding a pair of holstered wands and a tooled-leather pouch, to which she had pinned the silver Acadamae badge that granted her access to the campus. To my surprise, I could not estimate her age more precisely than mid-twenties to mid-thirties. Ordinarily I could make a guess accurate to within two years.

On impulse, I uttered a brief cantrip. The spell indicated powerful magic on the woman's cameo, rings, pouch, and wands, but none on the woman herself.

"Count Varian Jeggare." Her eyes registered surprise as she drew near. "Why, you look entirely rejuvenated, if a bit underfed. You must come to my father's house and let us give you supper."

Unable to recall her name, I bowed and fell back on a banal courtesy: "You are as lovely as ever, my lady."

Her lips quirked—with pleasure or amusement, I could not tell. My inability to read her expression irked me.

My gaze slipped from the woman's deep purple eyes to the cameo at her throat. Carved into the stone was an exquisite death's head moth, its wings dappled in tawny shades fading to ivory.

"Did I see you cast a spell as I approached?" she said.

It was bad form to cast a spell on a fellow noble. "A minor divination, lady, nothing to violate your person. Forgive me. I must strive to shed my wartime habits."

"No apology necessary. We are all grateful to those who held back the Worldwound demons. Besides, no one can cross the campus without being subjected to a few divinations, if not a transmutation when the upperclassmen feel prankish. I just didn't think you could do that."

"Do what?"

"Cast a spell."

"Ah." My disability was not a well-kept secret, but few were bold enough to mention it to my face.

With a gesture for me to follow, the woman led me through the gates. As we strolled along the gravel path, Arnisant snuffled at her shadow and growled.

"Arnisant, heel!" The hound returned to my side, his gaze locked on the lady's feet. "I beg your pardon. He is usually better behaved. Perhaps he too must shake off the rude habits of war."

The woman lifted her skirt a few inches and examined the soles of her boots. They were of a fashion popular decades earlier, one that I found uncommonly fetching. "Perhaps I stepped in something as I passed the conjurers." She appraised Arnisant, who remained calm. "May I pet him?"

She showed no fear, so I nodded.

The hound remained still as a statue as she stroked the curly gray fur on his head. "What a handsome fellow. And what a fine name for him."

Since I was in Ustalav when I found Arnisant, I named him for the famous general who martyred himself to defeat the Whispering Tyrant. "My grandfather always said, 'Give a dog a good name.'"

"Because others will think you a brute if you call him 'Fang'?"

"For that reason too, but also as a practical blessing. When you give a dog a brutal name, your tone grooms him to become a brutal animal each time you call to him. But a dog hears respect as well as scorn. Call him by a hero's name, and he may become a hero himself."

"In that case, Arnisant must be ready to give his life for you."

That notion troubled me more than it ought, for I had grown fonder of Arnisant than of any other dog I had raised.

We continued our walk across campus. Plots of ornamental foliage provided a Chelish order to the grassy swards between the academic buildings. The spring flowers perfumed the grounds. A bell from the Hall of Summoning tolled the hour. Moments later, students spilled out to enjoy a few minutes outside before their next classes began.

"They look so young, don't they?" said the woman beside me. Her smile should have seemed familiar, yet it did not. Still I could not place a name with her face.

In my memory library, the mental construct I have nurtured for nearly a century, I perused the gallery of every Korvosan aristocrat I had ever met. The woman's black hair and purple eyes suggested she shared my mother's Azlanti heritage, the rarest of bloodlines. She bore none of the other Jeggare features, which my father's elven blood muted in me.

I nodded agreement and smiled before looking away, pretending to take in the scenery while wracking my memory for her identity. As we passed the statue of Acadamae founder Volshyenek Ornelos, I found a clue in his countenance.

I last met unfamiliar members of House Ornelos at the funeral of Fedele Ornelos, one of the finest men I ever had the privilege to call friend. After the memorials, I remained in Korvosa to attend to business. In the evenings I renewed old acquaintances and established new ones. Among the new were young scions of the noble families, including House Ornelos. Children seldom leave an impression on me, but I record their names and ages in my memory library nevertheless.

My escort was surely one of Fedele's nieces, making her the grandniece of Toff Ornelos and thus accounting for the deference the hellspawn guards showed her. No doubt the headmaster had sent his grandniece to keep me and my hundred questions out of his office.

Arnisant woofed as a raven swooped near. Once more I drew the Shadowless Sword from its scabbard, but not to strike. In addition to its swiftness, the blade revealed the truth beneath any illusion. It revealed the raven's true form as that of another imp.

"Don't let them frighten you," said the woman. "The familiars are worse bullies than the guards. Professor Ygresta had the right idea. Each term he would destroy one as an example to the others. They never harried him as they do some of the timid professors."

The Shadowless Sword revealed no illusion on the woman. I put away my blade. "Was he not concerned he would kill a colleague's familiar?"

"Oh, no," she said. "He always summoned the imp himself."

Her anecdote brought a nostalgic smile to my lips.

"So it's true he learned that custom from you?" she said.

"Not the idea of a warning demonstration, but I might have provided the inspiration." Even before the rise of House Thrune, summoning a devil was a mandatory exercise at the Acadamae. There was no requirement to keep the fiend as a familiar, however, nor to let it free to torment the citizens of Korvosa, as so many reckless students do. Though the convulsions I suffered while casting the spell were agonizing, I gladly suffered them again to destroy the fiend after the proctors recorded my success. One less devil in Korvosa. One less inch of the world surrendered to Asmodeus.

As we passed the Hall of Whispers, a stench of boiling urine from the necromantic laboratories wet my eyes. I plucked a scented handkerchief from my sleeve and offered it to the lady.

She waved it away. "After four years among the cauldrons, I became quite immune to the stench."

"Ah." The significance of the moth on her cameo struck me. "You specialized in necromancy."

"Your favorite subject." Her tone indicated that she knew of my disdain for her specialty.

"Ah."

"Ah." She softened her mimicry with a smile. "Uncle Toff warned me that you despise necromancers, but I know that can't be universally true. After all, Professor Ygresta was your friend."

Despite our social disparity, Benigno Ygresta had been a friend of a sort. In fact, he had been perhaps my oldest living friend, although I had seldom seen him in the seven decades since we left the Acadamae. I decided not to mention that we first met when I hired the lowborn Ygresta as my bottle-washer, a menial job he gladly accepted to supplement his paltry income.

"You studied with Ygresta?" I asked.

"He was the one who persuaded me to join the Hall of Whispers. I'd always thought only ghouls and grave robbers would study the art, but he caught my attention by demonstrating the best spell I had ever seen. Eventually, his lectures on the ethical applications of necromancy won me over. His life-matter theory alone should have earned him distinction, if only he could have won over the masters."

I nodded sadly, remembering one of Benigno Ygresta's many shortcomings: he had little talent for the subtle politics of wizards, especially the more conservative masters of the Acadamae. "Ygresta always struggled to express his fancies as proofs the traditional necromancers could embrace."

"I'm more than half certain they were more than fancies," she said. "But you're right: He could never satisfy the masters that they were more than eccentric ideas. Everyone always thought it was another part of his hopeless quest to improve the Acadamae's reputation."

I was familiar with Ygresta's arguments that necromancy was not inherently evil. His points were cogent enough, sometimes even compelling. Yet even if I could overcome my disdain for the ghouls and grave robbers, as my enigmatic companion described her colleagues, I would never break a promise to my mother.

"The professor once told me that you could have been one of the best necromancers at the Acadamae, if only you'd chosen to pursue our specialty."

"Arcane theory was my best subject." It was in practice that I had failed, not in principle. Even through the long decades when I barely dared to cast a meager cantrip, my knowledge of the arcane served me well.

"Let me guess: you studied evocation."

There's nothing Varian loves more than a good book—except maybe an evil one.

"Did the headmaster tell you that?"

"No one told me anything."

"Why do you guess evocation?"

"Am I wrong?"

"No," I admitted. Not only had I failed to read her expressions, but she seemed singularly capable of reading me. "But I still want to know why you guessed it."

"You strike me as the fire-and-lightning type."

Much as I despise being categorized, I held my tongue. One does not wish to seem defensive.

She continued leading the way to Ygresta's rooms. I continued to worry at the knot of her identity.

Realizing she was Toff Ornelos's grandniece narrowed the possibilities. When I had met them, the girls had ranged from ages six to fifteen. This woman was surely not Nicoletta, who married an ambassador to Sargava and likely resided there still. I did not think she was Letizia, whose constant yawning was her singular attribute. Of the others I remembered only names and relative ages. The youngest was Ambra, and her sisters were Filomena, whom Shelyn had blessed with exceptional beauty, and Illyria, whom the goddess had overlooked.

With that thought, I knew the answer.

By virtue of my half-elven longevity, I had seen generations of human children grow to adulthood. Lady Illyria was not the first ugly duckling to become a swan, but hers was the most pronounced transformation I had witnessed. The nose that seemed thin in childhood had grown regal, the fey cheekbones elegant. As a girl, she had barely spoken to me, yet I could now envision her watching the adults in silence while her sisters chattered among themselves.

Past the Hall of Whispers, we came to a row of faculty cottages. At the farthest, she climbed three steps up onto the landing and unlocked the door. Turning with a flourish, she offered me the key.

Also with a flourish, I held the door for her. "After you, Lady Illyria."

"Ah!" she said, still mimicking me. She straightened a pin holding her hair in a display of purple-frosted roses. "I knew my name would come to you eventually."

I recalled that Illyria's mother lived in Westcrown while her father—Fedele's sickly brother, nephew to Headmaster Toff Ornelos—kept a home in Korvosa. "How is your father's health?"

"I am making sure he eats properly before I sail to Riddleport next month."

"To Riddleport?" The city was more popular with pirates than with gentlewomen.

"Some friends are throwing an eclipse party beneath the Cyphergate."

I resisted the impulse to correct her use of the term. The phenomenon is more accurately an occultation of the sun, not an eclipse. Yet one does not wish to seem pedantic.

Inside, the cottage appeared largely undisturbed since Ygresta's death. Someone had stripped the sheets from the sagging mattress in the bedroom. We shooed flies from unwashed dishes in the kitchen but were relieved to discover the pantry had been cleared. A film of dust had accumulated on the furniture.

The sitting room featured a pair of overstuffed chairs beside the hearth. A deep depression in one seat indicated Ygresta's favorite. On the wall behind it hung a portrait of the man. His tall figure was much as I remembered, if withered. It had been decades since we last met, so I had never seen Ygresta's thinning gray hair, his round spectacles, or his sunken cheeks. Recognizing the portrait as the work of a painter who had died twenty years ago, I wondered how much more time had ravaged Ygresta before death. Considering he was the same age as I, and wholly human, he had enjoyed an exceptional life span.

"They say he slipped away in his sleep," Lady Illyria said. Sorrow tinged her voice.

"Then the Tender of Dreams kissed his face." I sketched the wings of Desna over my heart.

Illyria drew the spiral of Pharasma over hers. How strange, I thought, for a necromancer to invoke the Lady of Graves, whose priests abhor the undead. No stranger to the paradoxes of character, I found this anomaly deepened my curiosity about the woman.

After a moment, we broke our separate reveries.

"The library?" I asked.

"Between the dungeon and the torture chamber," she said, her voice sinister yet whimsical.

We descended a spiraling iron staircase. Magical flames sprang up in glass fixtures, casting our shadows behind the bars of the railings. Arnisant followed us down to the wooden floor and sniffed the corners of the room. Again he growled.

"Arnisant!" He came to heel.

Lady Illyria sniffed. "I can't blame him. This place is full of weird stinks."

That was so. The library smelled more like an alchemist's laboratory. Shelves lined the walls, except where they parted for a fireplace and two doors. One door stood open, revealing a cluttered storeroom. Judging from the odor, the closed door concealed a privy.

Librams, chapbooks, scrolls, folios, and loose manuscripts crammed the shelves. The collection was smaller than expected. At a glance, I estimated I could complete the inventory within a day. The sooner the cottage became available for another tenant, the better pleased the headmaster would be. Pleased enough to answer my inquiries, I hoped.

Knickknacks interrupted the ranks of books. Apart from a devil's skull and a brass candelabrum resembling a hand of glory, I spied few tokens of necromancy. Between the shelves stood a pair of tables. One lay empty, one stacked with crates overflowing with packing straw. A ledger, brush, and paste-pot lay beside a stack of blank labels, as the custodians had promised.

Ygresta's desk stood across from the tables, before the little fireplace. Beside it hung a birdcage, empty but for a dry water dish and a carpet of hardened fecal matter. At my approach, a brass lamp flared to life, spilling light on the desktop.

There in the center of the desk, upon a discolored paper blotter, rested a teak box beneath a calling card inscribed with my name.

Without disturbing the card, I scanned the box for magic. Detecting none, I scanned the room. The lamp above the desk and the lights on the stair radiated steady magic. On a few of the shelved books I discerned traces of metamorphosis spells. The latter were likely the residue of simple preservative spells, but their presence suggested more valuable tomes. Those I set aside for further study.

"The professor left his entire library to you?" said Illyria.

"His will names me his executor but indicates no beneficiaries, so in effect he did. After gathering the collection into lots, I will circulate an inventory to the Acadamae librarians and entertain their requests."

"You won't keep it for yourself? I thought you liked books."

"Perhaps one or two volumes." My library surely already contained any interesting volumes I might find here, but I did not say so. One does not wish to boast.

"In that case, may I be the first to lodge a request?"

"On behalf of the Hall of Whispers?"

"On behalf of myself."

So, I thought, Illyria was not merely smoothing over her uncle's sour greeting. She had her own agenda as well. "Name it."

She indicated a shelf of chapbooks. "Professor Ygresta's collection of the Pathfinder Chronicles."

My own collection was the most comprehensive I had ever seen. It included volumes dating from the very founding of the Pathfinder Society, with many annotated duplicates. In the unlikely event I should find one I lacked on Ygresta's meager shelf, I would claim it. But I saw no harm in giving Illyria the rest. "Is that all?"

She averted her eyes. "If you aren't taking them, perhaps also your letters?"

"My letters?"

"Please."

Her blush appeared genuine, but a sincere appearance is the goal of every ruse. "My letters to Professor Ygresta?"

"Exactly." She withdrew a pasteboard box from a shelf and lay it before me. I opened the drawer and saw it was full of letters, all addressed to Professor Benigno Ygresta in my handwriting.

Out of a sense of collegial obligation, I had always responded to his letters about current affairs at the Acadamae with some account of my latest excursion. The letters contained nothing not also reported to the Society. Naturally, I never mentioned military, political, or personal matters to someone beneath the aristocracy. I could not fathom what interest they might hold for Lady Illyria.

The foremost letter was my most recent message, a request for Ygresta to speak on my behalf to Headmaster Toff Ornelos, for whom I had so many questions about my admission and education at the Acadamae.

"I'm sorry." Lady Illyria winced. "I knew it was too much to ask."

For a moment I considered whether she was flirting with me. Long before I reached the age of maturity, my mother armored me against the attentions of women attracted more to my wealth than to myself. Yet Illyria did not strike me as the type. An Acadamae graduate would be far too intelligent to expect me to succumb to such manipulation.

Whatever her agenda, I could think of no harm that could come from giving her the letters. Moreover, a favor to her was a favor to the headmaster. I still required answers to my questions.

"You will understand that I must review the letters before deciding."

She brightened. "Naturally."

"Then let us revisit the matter after I have finished cataloging the library."

She rubbed her palms together. "In that case, let me help."

Before I could protest, she drew a wooden disk from her pouch. She wound a string around a slot in its circumference and flicked the disk away. As she uttered the spell, the whirling disk reached the end of the string and vanished. In its place, a whirlwind stirred the loose pages on the nearest shelves.

"Start in there." She directed her invisible servant toward the storeroom. "Dust every surface, but move nothing."

While I appreciated her careful instructions, I preferred to discharge my duty in solitude. "Lady Illyria, I assure you I require no assistance."

"You'll choke to death on these cobwebs before we can have you to dinner." She fanned away the cloud already emerging from the storeroom. "There must be a window in one of these rooms."

She cast a light on the palm of her hand and entered the storeroom.

With a resigned sigh, I sat before Ygresta's desk. The chair felt too large, but so did my coat. Radovan was not the only one who had lost weight during our journey. Arnisant sat at my foot, sniffing to confirm I had no food to share. I admonished him with a look, and he laid his head on his crossed paws, the guilty beggar. During the worst of our privations on our journey from the Worldwound, I had succumbed to pity and secretly fed the hound a portion of my ration. He learned to linger whenever I ate. Now I had to be strict with him lest he learn to beg whenever I sat before a table.

The box on Ygresta's desk appeared to be of recent construction, no more than a year or so old. The golden teak was of a type commonly imported to Varisia from eastern Garund, but in the carving I spied the iconography of ancient Thassilon.

I lifted the card bearing my name. Engraved on the box's lid was the sihedron, a star with each of its seven points notched like one of Radovan's throwing blades. I had seen the symbol etched on artifacts recovered from the demesnes of the long-lost runelords and their predecessor, the great King Xin, Emperor of Thassilon.

Illyria emerged from the storeroom with a bottle of wine. "Was 4690 a good year?" She presented the bottle like a sommelier.

The label had begun curling at the edges. The bottle was from one of my best vineyards, but an early frost had bruised the grapes that year. "That vintage has not aged as well as others."

"There's plenty more where that came from. What's a good year?"

"Is there any '84?"

"I see bottles dated back to the Age of Enthronement. You could open a shop with all of these."

Since I left Korvosa upon my graduation from the Acadamae, it had become my custom to send a gift of each year's wine to friends and associates in the city. Benigno received only one bottle annually, so I was surprised so much remained. "Did Ygresta stop drinking wine?"

"We didn't exactly run in the same social circles."

"No, of course not." Despite his academic accomplishments, modest though they were, Benigno Ygresta remained a vintner's son.

"What have you found there, a sihedron?" Illyria sat on the corner of the desk and peered at the box. "You see all sorts of adventurers with those lately."

"Do you?"

She nodded. "Fortune-hunters have been dredging up Thassilonian artifacts all across Varisia. So many Pathfinders have been exploring the region that they opened a new lodge in Magnimar. Oh, but of course as a venture-captain you already knew that."

In fact, I did not know of a new lodge, but I had no desire to discuss my estrangement from the Society and its ten anonymous leaders whose motives I no longer trusted.

I opened the box. Inside I found a thick stack of unmarked parchment. The pages fit perfectly inside the box's velvet lining, suggesting the container had been made to size. I retrieved a magnifying glass and a pair of clean white gloves from the satchel. A cursory inspection offered no clue as to the parchment's age or origin. Even with the aid of my glass, I could not identify what animal's skin constituted the material. Removing the parchment, I felt its substantial weight. Its outermost pages, only slightly thicker than the rest, formed its only binding.

"It's a book," said Illyria. "A codex, to be precise."

The study of ancient manuscripts remained one of my abiding interests, so I appreciated her specificity. "You must have earned full marks in Paleography."

"One of my best subjects." She made no attempt to disguise her pride.

I flipped through the pages. The interior was as blank as the covers.

"A gift of stationery?" said Illyria. "The professor often said how much he enjoyed reading accounts of your travels. Maybe he intended you to use it as your next journal."

"Perhaps. But if it was a gift, why not send it to me?"

"Maybe he wanted to give it to you in person."

"Then why leave a calling card with my name upon it? Except for a recent message I sent him, we had not corresponded in several years. He never told me I was to execute his will. He left me no instructions."

She picked up the calling card I had set aside. "Perhaps he had just begun making arrangements."

That was as reasonable a suggestion as any, but it hardly satisfied the questions of the carved box and the blank pages. Setting aside the box, I began to lay down the codex but paused when I noticed the stains on the blotter. Among the usual ink spots and food stains lay a dark spatter surrounding a rectangular void.

"Let me tear that away for you." Lady Illyria reached for the blotter page.

"No, leave it." I laid the codex in the blank space within the spatter. Its corners fit one side of the blank. I opened the pages to lie flat, and it fit perfectly within the unblemished space.

"He must have spilled wine," said Lady Illyria. "Later he cleaned the pages with a spell."

That was possible, but I did not like the color. I rubbed a gloved finger across the stain. Faint granular residue remained on the white cloth. "Not wine. Blood."

"How interesting."

I raised an eyebrow.

She wrinkled her nose. "I mean, how gruesome."

The stain was beyond interesting. Ygresta had left me far more than a codex of blank pages. He had left me that which I love best: a mystery.

Purchase the whole novel here!

Illustration by Eric Belisle.

How Hard Should it Be? Adventure Card Game Power Curves

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Now that Wrath of the Righteous is finally in players' hands, I'd like to talk with you all about the thematic and mechanical motivations behind the different difficulty of each Adventure Path. In order to do this, I'm going to talk about each set while trying not to spoil anything, just in case some of you haven't started one of the sets.

Let's talk about what it's like to work on a game that's always changing and yet always somewhat the same. We explicitly design each PACG Adventure Path to be compatible with all of the others. This means that once you know how to play the game, you can easily jump into any set... and if you really like a particular character from a particular set, you can bring it into a different AP. Our default example of this is Lirianne, the iconic Gunslinger character in Skull & Shackles. If you decide that you'd really like to play Lirianne in Rise of the Runelords, Wrath of the Righteous, or in our upcoming release, Mummy's Mask, you can do so, and she'll work just fine. For Lirianne, we recommend that you also bring along some of the firearms from S&S, but that's up to you—she works either way.

At the same time, we also spend a lot of time, effort, and brainpower to make each Aventure Path a new and interesting experience. We use a wide variety of techniques to do this, including new characters, new mechanics, and of course, a brand-new story with each one. One important technique we use that might not be obvious to everyone is the power curve. This is a technical term we use to roughly mean, "How hard is it to get through the adventure at different points along the path?" If you've ever studied writing and film—and especially if you've ever GM'd a long campaign—you've gone through at least some of this process yourself. How strong are the characters at the start? When things get tough (as they usually do), when does it happen, and how often? Do the characters have the resources they need to protect themselves? Do they use them wisely, or do they have to scramble to get where they need to be? As the plot unfolds, are they ahead of the game, behind the eight ball, or both... and do they know it?

In our first AP, Rise of the Runelords, the adventurers start out in the small coastal city of Sandpoint. As the adventure begins, the town is attacked! A few minutes later, the typical adventuring party is moving from location to location, finding goblins with torches and kicking them in their oh-so-many teeth.

Mechanically speaking, the characters start off in a position of relative strength, but also ignorance. Unless they are risky or get unlucky, the typical character can go toe-to-toe with the typical goblin and expect to come out on top most of the time, especially if there's some help available. In the story, though, it's unclear why these torch-toting goblins would trouble the town. Figuring out that secret is the step that takes Rise of the Runelords from a one-shot "defend the town" session to an epic campaign against an ancient evil of the first order. As the story progresses, the characters grow in both knowledge and power, facing and overcoming increasingly dangerous threats on their way (both figuratively and literally) to the top.

In Rise of the Runelords, the character power progression is more or less linear over time, while the difficulty of challenges is a curve that dips and then rises. Character power starts very slightly behind the power curve in Adventure B. Then the difficulty curve dips beneath the power curve through the middle of the Adventure Path, rising over time until, very near the end, the two lines approach.

In story terms, this represents the change in difficulty as...

Rise of the Runelords spoilers

... you discover the stone giants behind the ogres, the rune giants behind the stone giants, and eventually the ancient Azlanti behind it all.

In Skull & Shackles, the doughty adventurers are press-ganged into service on a vessel most piratical. You start off by learning to handle life at sea, including learning to crew a vessel (and learning to hate geese) and learning how to get along with the rest of the crew, be they friendly or otherwise.

Here the characters start the campaign off-kilter—they're quickly tossed into a situation that's unlike what they're used to facing. Whether you played Rise of the Runelords or not, you probably recognized at some gut level that Valeros could fight his way free of his captors, but he would be alone on a boat in the middle of an unfamiliar sea. From both a narrative and a mechanical perspective, Skull & Shackles was a bit more difficult than Rise of the Runelords because we forced you to learn to do new things. You could still focus on being the strongest fighter, awesomest bard, or stabbiest rogue, but unless you could also handle yourself underwater, navigate a ship, and manage a crew, you were very likely to run into serious trouble. In game terms, we forced you to spread out your resources. Most characters can't afford to dedicate every card and feat to a single, focused goal.

In Skull & Shackles, the difficulty is much closer to linear—the difficulty increases mostly steadily over time—but the character power progression follows a parabolic curve. In the very beginning scenarios, character power is somewhat above the difficulty line, but it dips down below the line quickly in AD1, and then rises above the line for much of the AP. Near the end, the character power curve levels out, and it comes very close to the difficulty line by the end.

In story terms, this...

Skull & Shackles spoilers

... represents the narrative progression of the characters as they start out as "fish out of water" and then come to master their new environment, as they escape from captivity, gain their own ship, then make their mark in the Shackles as part of the Pirate Council. Eventually, they discover an invasion plot and move from freebooting around the islands to confronting the Chelish fleet and taking the fight directly to the Hurricane King.

In our current Adventure Path, Wrath of the Righteous, you're in the city of Kenabres to celebrate a famous past battle against the demonic invasion into the Worldwound. Just when the festivities are about to officially start, something very bad happens. This time, though, it's not goblins with torches or pirates with whips. It's demons... lots of demons. Again, I don't want to spoil too much, but the title of the first scenario in Adventure 1 is "The Fall of Kenabres." (I can assure you that it's not the follow-up to "The Summer of Kenabres.")

This is our third set, and we have once again changed things while keeping the game the same. In this case, the characters start out "behind the curve," both in knowledge and in raw power level. The demons you face right from the get-go are tougher, more numerous, and just meaner than you've seen before. On the other hand, you have a bunch of new tools to even the score. In particular, Wrath of the Righteous adds both cohorts and mythic power. Cohorts are a new card type in this Adventure Path, representing important, named characters that will help you in your struggles against the demonic hordes.

Cohorts are bonus cards given to the party at the start of scenarios. They make you a little bit tougher, and in the right hands, they have some potent powers. Additionally, we've brought you mythic path cards, representing the unlocked potential for mythic power possessed by each of the characters in this set. Paul talked about these already, but the way they're added to the AP is important here: mythic paths are unlocked by a specific event that happens in the story. When you're playing Wrath of the Righteous, you get a chance to play a number of scenarios before you pick a mythic path card, which helps with your understanding of the card and the narrative arc of the story. On the one hand, you now have some experience with the character, and you can make a better choice of which path will be the most fun. On the other hand, it lets us level up the characters in a new way. This helps us create the feeling of being slightly overwhelmed and in trouble at the start of the AP, but it then gives you a dramatic moment where you start climbing out of the pit, bringing yourself up to the level of—and even potentially ahead of—the mass of terrible, evil banes we've assembled for you.

In Wrath of the Righteous, both the character power level and the difficulties they face are curved. Difficulty starts high, but dips quickly below the character power level before rising again. At the same time, character power level starts off relatively linear, rising as the characters recover their footing.

In story terms...

Wrath of the Righteous spoilers

... the characters start off behind the curve as the initial troubles with the Worldwound are overbearing. You don't start with the feeling that you can solve the problems of the Worldwound so much as you hope that you can withstand them. As those that survive the initial onslaught unlock their mythic potential, the character power curve catches up and exceeds the difficulty curve. These things are tricky, though, and only time (and more Adventure Deck releases!) will reveal what the future holds for your valiant crusaders!

The use of the d20 in mythic paths is the final piece in the puzzle here. While it increases the top end of your checks, it doesn't help with everything. It also doesn't change the bottom end at all. As many discovered while demoing and playing WotR at the recent Origins Game Fair, d20s roll 1s just like every other die. In a set like Skull & Shackles, the d20 would be "too swingy" to use often, but in Wrath of the Righteous, it's a great fit. You each have within you the potential to do truly amazing things, but so do your opponents. The results are far from certain... which is kinda what we were going for.

Since we released Wrath of the Righteous, we've heard from some people that the start of the Adventure Path— especially the scenarios in Adventure B—are tougher than they expected. Hopefully, you now have a better idea what we were trying to accomplish with this set and how did it. On the other hand, if you are finding that the start of WotR is so hard that you're not having enough fun, there are a number of options available.

First and foremost, remember that the B Adventure is optional for the Adventure Path. It's recommended, but it's not required. If you would prefer to start with Adventure Deck 1: The Worldwound Incursion, that's perfectly fine. Also, if you'd like to play a little bit of AD1 and then go back and complete the B Adventure, you should feel free to do so. In a more extreme variation, you might even choose to finish all of AD1 before completing the B scenarios, but be aware that you will be significantly stronger at that point. In the end, any way that you find to have fun is a great way to play.

Chad Brown
Adventure Card Game Lead Developer

We Be Pathfinders!

Monday, June 15, 2015

Illustration by Dave Allsop

This Saturday, June 20th, is Free RPG Day! Participating hobby game retail locations and industry publishers will be giving away free adventures and other materials so that gamers can try new games and play exclusive content together. This year Paizo has contributed two special products. A few months ago, Tanis O'Connor introduced us to the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game's special treat: the adventurous goblin Ekkie. Of course, many of you familiar with Pathfinder Society have likely met the little warrior while dealing with a certain goblin guild. I have no doubt she'll get up to even crazier antics now that she's a playable character.

We're also debuting We Be Goblins Free!, a new adventure featuring the Licktoad tribe's champions Reta, Mogmurch, Chuffy, and Poog. As in past years, the new Free RPG Day module is also sanctioned for the organized play campaign, and we're releasing the sanctioning document today so that GMs have a chance to read over it and print out Chronicle sheets. If you're planning to play the adventure first, I encourage you not to peek and spoil the surprise, so I'll answer some of your anticipated questions now.

How many Prestige Points does We Be Goblins Free grant?
This module does have a secondary success condition of sorts, allowing someone to gain up to 2 Prestige Points for playing the adventure. Anyone playing this on Free RPG Day this Saturday automatically qualifies for the second point.

Is it bad if my goblin pregenerated character dies?
As was the case when I sanctioned We Be Goblins Too, it's still important that a deceased goblin's horribly squishy death be resolved, but doing so happens at a heavily subsidized rate: 5 Prestige Points completely clears up even the worst fate that you might inflict on your pregenerated character during the module.

Does the Chronicle sheet have lots of cool boons?
The Chronicle sheet has lots of cool boons, including one for Squealy Nord and owlbear enthusiasts.

Where can I download the sanctioning document?
On the product page or the right-hand side of the Additional Resources page.

John Compton
Developer

It's Only The Beginning

Saturday, June 13, 2015

It turns out: I like writing blogs. And here you thought you got rid of me!

For the past six months, I have been very focused on Pathfinder Online now that it has been released into the wild. Since January, we have had nine large releases of content, and we've progressed to the point where I am really happy with the game and the community that has built up around it. So I'm going to be writing this weekly blog each Saturday to keep you up to date about the cool things going on in Pathfinder Online and to let you in on what is coming down the turnpike. Think of it as an Auntie Lisa's Story Blog with a focus on Pathfinder Online!

Starting Has Never Been Easier

With the latest release this past week, Pathfinder Online has entered a new realm of convenience and ease. The new patch focused on the new player experience, providing a new improved tutorial, an improvement to the maps in the game, and most importantly, newly improved tool tips which provide enhanced information to the player on what something does and how to most effectively use it. Pathfinder Online, like the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, is a fairly complex and detailed game, so providing lots of information for players is paramount.

A new player gets advice outside of Thornkeep

It is also way easier to get into the game and start playing. Every new account comes with a free 15-day trial period. At the end of that period, you just start paying your $15 per month subscription fee to keep playing. No box price. No levels of membership. Just one small price per month for countless hours of entertainment!

Monsters, Monsters Everywhere!

While Pathfinder Online has had a wide variety of your typical bestiary monsters such as goblins, skeletons, ogres, bandits, wolves, and more, we keep adding new monsters to the game, and I'd like to acquaint you with the two most recent additions.

The Emerald Spire Superdungeon is at the heart of many of the bad things that plague the Echo Wood region of the River Kingdoms. The Emerald Spire itself delves deep into the earth, opening up rifts into the Darklands. One group that used the Spire to enter the region is the duergar slavers. The dark dwarves have found fertile ground for their slave raids amongst the folks of the Echo Wood and the heroes need to push them back to their dark home.

Fighting back the duergar slavers!

Like any good invasion force, the Duergar are well rounded in their roles. The fighting force is made up of Warriors, Soldiers and Defenders. They also have Scouts and Silencers to sneak around and do rogue-type stuff. Their ranged groups are made up of the Junior and Senior Artillery squads as well as the Bombers. Every army needs its divine support and the Priests of the Duergar do Drokar's work well. Finally, the wizardly sages provide spells in support of their compatriots. Because of their diversity, the Duergar are one of the harder groups to fight in the game, able to provide stout fighters along with destructive ranged combat and spells. They have been testing the mettle of all since their arrival on the scene.

The other group of creatures that has recently made the Echo Wood more deadly are the elementals that have been unleashed. Once again, the Emerald Spire is the culprit for this invasion of aggressive elementals. Ranging in size from rather cute small elementals all the way up to towering huge elementals, the diversity in challenges is unparalleled. These elemental harness many types of elemental energies, from the fiery Magma Elementals, to the dusty Sand Elementals, to the rocky Earth Elementals, and the freezing Ice Elementals, the sheer scope of the various energies at play can be daunting, not to mention the sheer size of the largest ones.

Battling ice, magma, and earth elementals

The first appearance of these creatures in the game happened near my in-game home, Pathfinder University, and it took the combined might of many different settlements sending their best adventurers to turn back the tide and defeat the elementals. Part of the fight was done live from PaizoCon, as experienced veterans and new players alike allied to fight the elementals off.

The Face of Evil

One of the things we unveiled at PaizoCon was the fact that each month, there would be a server-wide event that would drop unique loot and advance the storyline of the Echo Woods, challenging the players to defend their homes. For the month of July, the server event is called The Wrath of Nhur Athemon. Check out the video we made for the PaizoCon banquet!

If you played the Emerald Spire Superdungeon, you are well aware of Nhur Athemon, the renegade Azlanti who was imprisoned below the Emerald Spire many hundreds of years ago by his Azlanti brethren. Nhur Athemon is now a lich using his vast powers to spy upon the Echo Woods above his dungeon prison. His anger at what is happening above is coming to a boil, and it's going to take the combined might of the server to fend off Nhur Athemon and his minions.

If you want to be part of this epic event, be sure to get into the game and gear up right away! The Wrath of Nhur Athemon is a one time event that will not be repeated!

Player Character Profile: Laurethoron

I think one of the most interesting things about Pathfinder Online is that it allows players to make their own stories, just as they do in the RPG. So each week, I intend to showcase a different Pathfinder Online player and that player's main character. And to start it all off, I'm going to do something that everybody always does to me: I want to tell you about my character.

Laurethoron is a female elven fighter who has a smattering of cleric and rogue skills to augment her fighting prowess. She wields a longbow and a greatsword. In January, I started the game in the southeastern corner of the map in the Southern Cragthorn mountains, centering my adventures around the Neutral Good settlement of Brighthaven. For the first month or so, I battled goblins, ogres, bandits, wolves and undead with the members of the Argent Crusade company, with occasional forays against the much tougher Ustalav invaders and Mordant Spire elves.

While my time with the folks of Brighthaven was awesome, I felt that I needed to do something in game to encourage my fellow workers at both Goblinworks and Paizo to play together, so I started a company called the Bloodstone Swords, based on the mercenary group detailed on page 12 of the Pathfinder Chronicles: Faction Guide. We moved our base of operations to the NPC town of Thornkeep and started building a crafting empire to outfit all the new players being added to our company. Gathering resources and leveling up my crafter characters took much of my time for the next few weeks as plans were laid and implemented. At the end of that time, the Swords had swelled to 26 characters and we were ready to start adventuring. To date, we have mostly tackled lower-level adventures as everyone got used to working together, though recently an enclave of Mordant Spire elves was spotted in the hills to the north of our home; we have been battling them, though the cost has been high in deaths. Fortunately, Pharasma, Golarion's goddess of death, has taken a special interest in this region, and death is just a temporary setback.

About a month ago, it was time to move again. NPC settlements are great for getting started, but the only way to gain advanced training for your characters is to become part of a player-run settlement. After looking around the game, we settled on Pathfinder University, a settlement run by a group of players who are dedicating their gameplay to helping new players learn the game and get situated with equipment and training. I liked their mission, so we dedicated the Swords to helping them out, and moved from Thornkeep to University Commons. We are now safely ensconced in our new home and have made a bunch of new friends including Pathfinder U's Faculty and many of the recruits that the University helps out.

Laurethoron stands outside the Bloodstone Swords' Library Holding

As community members, we have taken on the responsibility to build and maintain a few holdings and outposts in the hexes surrounding University Commons. To the south, we built a Library, supported by a lumber camp and a hunting camp. To the southwest, we built a Sanctum, again with the support of lumber and hunting outposts. To build these structures, we had to gather raw resources; refine them into items such as iron nuggets and hemp rope; beat down a few of the escalations that plague the land, giving us victory markers that allow us to claim the territory we want to build on; then bring everything together to make the buildings. It was a tall task that took the skills of numerous Swords to pull off, but now we are the proud owners of two hexes that will support University Commons.

The Bloodstone Swords have also started a little business making nicer gear for beginning characters and providing them with spells and recipes that allow them to craft their own items. Our crafting queues have been pretty full making goods to put into the Auction House and our gatherers keep us stocked with raw materials.

In the next months, we will continue to support Pathfinder University, but we also have a new goal. A few weeks ago, I invited all of the Pathfinder Society Venture Officers to join the game, and they've been flooding in from all parts of the world. Right now they are getting their feet under them in the game, but I don't doubt that there will be quests and goals aplenty for this group as they spread their wings in the game, and the Bloodstone Swords will be there to lend a hand.

Lisa Stevens
CEO

One Last Look at Dungeons Deep

Friday, June 12, 2015

Last week, I previewed some Pathfinder Battles prepainted plastic figures from the upcoming set, Dungeons Deep that had originally leaked to the Internet thanks to trade show photos, which often don’t reveal the figures in the best possible light, or even from a decent angle. And, while I’m eager to show off a bunch more figures from Dungeons Deep now being shipped to paizo.com customers and appearing in retail stores, today seems like the best time to make up for that omission.

So, without further ado, here are most (if not all) of the remaining Dungeons Deep figures, now available as singles or in booster boxes from paizo.com and elsewhere. Thanks especially to our crack Community Team members Liz Courts and Chris Lambertz for taking snazzy new photos of the final figures from the entire set, which you can browse in our singles gallery here.

First up this week is the Nuglub Gremlin, one of my favorite creatures from Bestiary 2! The Nuglub’s three eyes shine with a pearlescent blue paint that adds a touch of color to this dastardly figure. The Nuglub Gremlin is a Small, common figure.

The Pukwudgie was originally intended for the Reign of Winter set, but got bumped to Dungeons Deep for a variety of reasons. Its statistics appear in Bestiary 3. The final figure features some really nice paintwork for a Small common, including picked-out fingernails and a wash on the garment that adds a nice sense of three-dimensionality.

The Andrazku Demon is another refugee from the Reign of Winter set. Its statistics appear in Pathfinder Adventure Path #69: "Maiden, Mother, Crone", which among other things details powers like “icewalking” and “mutilating gouge.” WizKids did a nice job with the Andrazku’s sculpt, giving the creature a great, menacing scream. The Andrazku Demon is a common, Medium figure.

Here we have the Dire Bat, a long-anticipated creature for the line. Based on the illustration from page 30 of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary, the mini depicts the Dire Bat hovering in flight, facing its enemies directly. This pose gives it a strange, almost humanoid appearance that, for my money, makes the figure great as a proxy for any number of bat-like foes. The Dire Bat is a Large, uncommon figure.

Dungeons Deep is the first set to greatly benefit from the amazing art in the NPC Codex, and almost as soon as we saw the Half-Orc Adept on page 245, we knew we needed to add him to a Pathfinder Battles set. With a mace, blade, and a nasty mask, this guy works great for any orcish villain or for a decidedly nasty player character. The Half-Orc Adept is a Medium, rare figure.

Our last figure today actually comes from the very first volume of the Pathfinder Adventure Path—the adventuring hero Eando Kline! The first 18 Pathfinder Journals depicted Eando’s field reports to his Pathfinder Society masters, and in the years since his 2007 debut we’ve come to think of old Eando as the “iconic Pathfinder.” He’s subsequently appeared on the cover of the Pathfinder Society Field Guide, and he was an NPC in the Serpent’s Skull Adventure Path. And we definitely haven’t seen the last of him, either. Based on fantastic art by PaizoCon 2015 Artist Guest of Honor Jason A. Engle, Eando Kline is a GREAT choice for a player character figure, an NPC Pathfinder Society agent, or really just any sweet-looking human warrior with a sword. Eando is one of my favorite figures in the set, and not just for reasons of nostalgia. Eando Kline is a Medium, rare figure.

All of these figures and more than 40 others are currently available in the Dungeons Deep set. Snap them up before they’re gone forever!

Until next week, I remain…

Erik Mona
Publisher

I Can Call Spirits From the Vasty Deep!

Friday, June 12, 2015

Looking to see what will come when you call for it? Find the answer in our new Player Companion, Monster Summoner's Handbook!

Summoning is a popular tactic, and it's one of the few magic options that has an entire character class built around it (a class that is also one of the few to get a revision in Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Pathfinder Unchained). So when we dedicate a 32-page book to the topic, we know there are a lot of expectations, and a lot of concerns. As a big fan of summoning (so much so I stepped in and wrote part of this book, as did Assistant Developer Linda Zayas-Palmer) I wanted to make sure, it provided a wide range of options.

So, to put a lot of folk's minds at ease quickly, be aware that all the summoner class options we present in this book function with both the base summoner, and the Pathfinder Unchained summoner! Second, we provided options for expanding monster summoning spells with creatures from Bestiary 2-4, without just openly boosting the power of those spells. There are also options for priests of various gods to gain access to new summoned creatures when using either summon monster or summon nature's ally.

Illustrations by Darren Waud, Katherine 'Kez' Laczin, and Ian Perks

We also added two new outsiders (one with 5 HD and one with 11 HD, filling some gaps in the list of HD for outsiders appropriate for planar ally and planar binding spells), a slew of archetypes (my favorite being the elemental ally, a druid with access to four elementals, one for each element, that function as eidolons but with just one out at a time), simple templates (for creatures from elemental planes, Plane of Shadow, and the First World) and ways to access them, a way to use summoning spells to summon the SAME guardian spirit each time, and some anti-summoning options (ranging from the counter-summoner archetype to the summon bane magic weapon special ability).

It's only 32 pages of course (efforts to summon a bigger book failed...), and I'm sure there are yet more things people would have loved to see. But I hope we managed to provide a little something for everyone, and a lot of cool options for anyone wanting to master summoning!

Owen K.C. Stephens
Developer

I Smell the Blood of a Player Character

Thursday, June 11, 2015

The first three volumes of the Giantslayer Adventure Path are out in the wild, and in a short time the fourth volume, Pathfinder Adventure Path #94: Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen will be hitting stores and subscribers' doorsteps (and downloads). Hopefully, if you're not playing though this campaign, some of you have been living vicariously through the Order of the Amber Die by reading along and looking at all the amazing pictures they have been sharing with us all from their marathon sessions. (If not, go check it out now: Giantslayer Marathon: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.)

Download Standard | Download Widescreen | Download Mobile
Illustrations by Johan Grenier and Miguel Regodon Harkness.

It's been a wild and dangerous ride so far filled with towering odds and heavy hitters, and that's not about to stop. In fact, things are just going to get harder for your PCs as we step up the ranks of the giants.

Illustrations by Johan Grenier and Ekaterina Maximovich

Here are some of the things you'll encounter in the second half of the campaign. In Pathfinder Adventure Path #94: Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen the PCs have to take on a frost giant village and later on they come across one of the more rare types of giants in the Inner Sea.

Illustrations by Johan Grenier and Eric Belisle

Then, in Pathfinder Adventure Path #95: Anvil of Fire, the PCs assault an elite fire giant training facility in their way to finding the Storm Tyrant. The PCs also get a chance to put a hellhound in a headlock.

Illustrations by Aleksey Bayura and Yigit Koroglu

Wrapping things up (assuming everyone is still alive) Pathfinder Adventure Path #96: Shadow of the Storm Tyrant gives the PCs a chance to finally put an end to the Storm Tyrant's ambitious push at starting a new giant empire and subjugating the smaller folk of Avistan. Along the way the PCs encounter evil cloud giants and some new strange creatures, and hopefully emerge alive and victorious.

Illustration by Roberto Pitturru

Oh, remember when we said that there were more than just giants in this Adventure Path? Yeah, there are dragons too.

Adam Daigle
Developer

Hidden Depths: Delving into Dwarves and the Darklands

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

There are certain figures within fantasy tales that are immediately recognizable or familiar when they appear in a scene. Wizards... dragons... elves...

Dwarves.

Ask most people to describe a dwarf and they'll likely touch on many similar points: short, gruff, warriors, lovers of gold, gems, and frothy mugs of ale. We see this time and again throughout books, movies, and video games. It's an iconic image, and it might be easy to leave it at that since it's such a familiar representation—as well as one many have come to love.

But just as with a true dwarven city, those surface level identifiers conceal many hidden depths. With Forge of Ashes, I wanted to be true to particular iconic elements while also delving beyond the "typical" and providing greater insight into unique parts of dwarven lore, culture, and passion. Yes, there are still aspects that make dwarves... well... dwarves! Their earthen origins. Their predilection for mining and turning the stones themselves into grand works of art that are equally fantastic and functional. The beards.

But what I love about the world of Golarion and Pathfinder itself is the emphasis on diversity. There's the recognition that even while certain races or species might share baseline characteristics there's going to be infinite opportunity for variety among them. Yes, dwarves can be warriors. But they can also be scholars and artists, commoners and royalty, priests and scoundrels. They can be courageous... brash... broken... greedy... selfless...

The central figure of Forge of Ashes, Akina, holds a questioning perspective about her kin and her place among them. After years fighting abroad, she's lost her way somewhat and is coming home to try and regain a sense of self and purpose (though that hardly goes as well as planned). So her interaction with dwarven culture and environs is both familiar and yet an exploration in itself. That was part of why I had immense fun writing Forge of Ashes! It was an opportunity to go deeper, both literally and figuratively.

Beyond the focus on dwarves, Forge of Ashes held many delights for me as an author. The chance to venture into the Darklands and bring its many strange denizens to life was a great creative challenge and adventure in itself. I loved getting to peek into the enigmatic nature of the dark stalker, Izthuri, and her people, as well as the maddening chaos found within a derro warren. There's a unique discourse with a roper that... well, let's just say it boggled my brain to write. And even the infamous rust monster has a small-yet-vital role in certain scenes!

So, join me in an adventure full of monsters, magic, and mayhem. Where some things are immediately recognizable but then quickly take a turn to devious and deadly ends. It's time to discover deeper levels of dwarven identity...

... and deeper levels of the Darklands, where someone or something is always waiting around the next tunnel corner—most likely to eat you!

Josh Vogt
Pathfinder Tales Author

Josh Vogt's debut Pathfinder Tales novel, Forge of Ashes, just released and is available from paizo.com now!

The Price Paid

by Josh Vogt

Chapter Four: Many Paths to Tread

Akina stood rooted, a peculiar chill dousing the embers in her gut. Could it be possible? Could these creatures truly want to handle things in a civilized manner? Ever since leaving for the war, she'd only ever encountered them on the battlefield, knowing full well they sought her death as much as she theirs. What if Ondorum was right? What if these hobgoblins hadn't participated in the fighting and were just victims of circumstances? Could she damn them for the actions of others?

The job would be done either way, so long as the hobgoblins left and didn't bother anyone in the region again. Nothing compromised the mercenary band's reputation, and Akina guessed Nigarl would let her take a few "trophies" as proof to satisfy the locals.

She studied the desolate chapel as all these doubts whirled through her. Then her gaze rested on Ondorum's guileless expression and a cold flame kindled in her marrow.

"Maybe." She kept her voice as flat as possible. "First, I got a question."

Nigarl bowed her head. "Ask."

"Why didn't you tell Ondorum about the barghest earlier?"

The hobgoblin leader blinked. "What?"

Ondorum looked at Akina askance. "I don't understand."

Akina watched the hobgoblin reactions carefully. "Why leave him in the dark about such a nasty critter if you knew it was lurking?"

The monk frowned. "That would have been helpful, yes. We might've been more prepared."

"The beast came and went as it wished," Nigarl said. "We had no idea it'd be around or if it was off on its village hunts again."

"Hunts?" Akina echoed. "The reason Falcon's Hollow finally scrounged up the funds to hire our band was because of the latest raid you all," she swept her maulaxe at the warband, "made against an outlying settlement. Half the place burnt down, at least ten dead. Far more damage than a single barghest could make."

"There's plenty other than us attacking the countryside these days," Nigarl said. "No proof my band did anything."

"No proof it wasn't you," said Akina.

The hobgoblin leader snarled. "This is pointless. We're blamed for every mishap, and now we have an army of mercenaries set on us."

Ondorum showed the warband leader an open palm. "Not an army. Merely a dozen or so." He looked to Akina. "Unless you have reserves waiting at a distance?"

Akina stared back at him. "Anyone ever mention that you talk too much?"

The monk grimaced. "My old masters occasionally noted that flaw in me, yes."

"So they remain above while just the two of you came to visit?" Nigarl shifted her furred cloak, considering. "How... civilized. Will they send down a couple more if you don't return soon enough?"

Akina tightened her grip on the maulaxe. "Why wouldn't we return? After all, you did want to handle this all nice-like, hm?"

Nigarl grinned toothily while her warriors edged closer.

Ondorum glanced between them. "Is this the point where I admit their intentions may not have been entirely peaceable?" he asked Akina.

She nodded, keeping her eyes on Nigarl. "About time."

Nigarl snatched up her dagger and whip and jumped back. "Kill them."

Akina and Ondorum went back-to-back as the hobgoblins attacked. Three charged Akina. She struck out, sending one reeling. Another cut in with twin axes. She caught them across the maulaxe haft and struggled to throw him back. He leaned all his weight in and roared in her face.

Akina bellowed back with all her might. The hobgoblin lurched as if she'd struck him, and she used the slight opening to kick into the side of his knee. The joint snapped and he staggered. A swipe of her axe-edge slashed his stomach wide.

She jumped over the body and closed the gap between the third. He wielded a broad blade and hacked at her wildly while she beat him back. Her breaths came hot and fast, strength fueled by the furnace in her gut that baked her from the inside out, blood and marrow bubbling.

Images blazed through her mind. Ashen skulls. Leering goblins. Dead dwarves staring at a cloudy sky. Settlements reduced to cinders. Each added fuel to the fury until she fought within a storm of raging flame.

The hobgoblin came in with a desperate two-handed strike. She bashed the sword aside and then whirled around to sweep the axe-edge across, cleaving the creature's hands off at the wrists. The hobgoblin stared at his bloody stumps until another blow sent his head rolling.

Fuming, she turned to find another victim to chop into kindling. Across the chamber, Ondorum fended off four hobgoblins at once while Nigarl watched from the side.

The monk shifted among them as he had with her, twisting this way and that to let mortal blows bypass him. Then his feet rooted and he took their blows with open palms and flicks of his elbows, absorbing and deflecting even the most jarring hit.

One hobgoblin tried to stick him in the side. As the blade slid past, Ondorum clamped onto the hobgoblin's wrist and dragged him along. The warrior stumbled and ended up stabbing the fighter on the opposite side. A club whistled at Ondorum's head, and the monk ducked, letting the blow smash into the chest of another opponent.

Nigarl unspooled her whip and lashed out. The thong coiled around Ondorum's waist. When she yanked, barbs tore across his midsection and upset his balance. A hobgoblin cracked a club across his side. Ondorum tried to right himself, but two warriors grabbed his arms and clung tight. One bit into a bicep, while a third aimed a cleaver at his skull.

Akina cleared the distance in a heartbeat, leading the way with her helm. She took the hobgoblin in the side and his chest crumpled beneath her assault. Heaving the dying creature aside, she spun and swept the maulaxe hammer on the nearest hobgoblin's foot, shattering bone.

Ondorum's fist connected with the back of the hobgoblin's head and the snap of her neck resounded through the chamber. The other two turned to flee. Akina struck one down with a backbreaking hammer blow. Ondorum's kick swept the legs out from under the other, and a stomp crushed the creature's neck.

Shrieking curses, Nigarl raced for the hall. Ondorum leaped into her path, ducked a swipe of her dagger, and thrust a palm into her chest. The blow staggered her back halfway across the chamber. As she shook off the daze, Ondorum stepped aside and bowed to Akina, palms pressed together.

"Yours."

Akina grinned fiercely and lumbered toward the surviving hobgoblin. Nigarl snarled and struck. The whip snapped around the maulaxe handle, but Akina let it be yanked from her grip. Nigarl stumbled, not expecting her to relinquish the weapon so easily. In that instant, Akina sprinted over and plowed into the hobgoblin leader. Icy pain lanced through her shoulder as the dagger plunged in.

The hobgoblin screamed as Akina bore her to the ground. Akina grabbed a fistful of her snarled hair and wrenched. Nigarl's scalp tore loose and she thrashed, but Akina planted a punch that bounced the hobgoblin's skull off the floor.

Then again.

Never trust a hobgoblin who says she comes in peace.

And again.

Fists blurred as she turned Nigarl's face into an unrecognizable mash of bone and flesh. She didn't stop until a hand settled on her shoulder. Still caught up in the frenzy, she turned and struck—but her fist impacted only Ondorum's palm, and the force behind the blow flowed away.

Panting, Akina shook her head, trying to gather herself. Her gauntlets dripped gore. Ondorum watched her, looking concerned.

She rose, then reached back and yanked Nigarl's dagger out from her shoulder, ignoring another wrench of pain. She flung the blade aside and forced herself to square up with the monk.

"I'm... you shouldn't have seen... I mean..."

She stumbled as the last fiery wisp of strength burned out, leaving her with bones made of lead and muscles that couldn't have squashed a fly. Ondorum caught her arm and helped her remain standing.

After retrieving her weapon, it took them several hours to find a way back to the surface, doubling-back from dead-end passages and collapsed chambers. When they emerged into the fading sunlight, the ruins appeared empty at first. Then someone shouted, "They're back!" and mercenaries emerged from around the courtyard.

Durgan and the gang gathered around them, clamoring for answers. Akina sat on a stone and let them bandage her shoulder as she spun out the main thread of events. Ondorum accepted a salve for his wounded arm and waist, but deferred further aid, insisting he'd heal soon enough.

Once she caught everyone up, Akina studied the clearing. "Figure we can camp here and head back tomorrow to collect my pay."

"Your pay?" Durgan echoed.

"I did most of the work, after all." She nodded at the monk. "Some goes to him, though."

Ondorum shook his head. "I leave any share to your companions."

She grinned. "Oh, take a little credit, won't you?"

His shoulders drooped and he smiled sadly before bowing and wandering over to a corner of the ruined courtyard. Akina exchanged looks with the band.

"Give us a few minutes, hm?"

She joined Ondorum where he'd taken up a meditative pose along one wall. Laying her maulaxe down, she tried to imitate the posture but couldn't get her stubbier legs to cooperate. Finally she grunted and just sat back against the wall.

"What's gnawing your gristle? We got out alive, didn't we?"

He spoke without opening his eyes. "I'd hoped to resolve the situation more amicably."

She chuckled. "Funny thing. So did I."

He peeked at her sidelong. "You wanted to spare them?"

"Hell no. Glad to see them gone and glad we were the ones who ended them. But you were so committed. I felt bad seeing all that effort defending them go to waste."

"Nothing is ever wasted," he said. "There's always a lesson to be learned."

"That so? What do you figure's the lesson here?"

"That I have much more to learn about the world and the nature of its people than I'd imagined." He sighed. "It is... disheartening at times to think how far I have yet to go."

They fell silent for a while, watching the band prep a rough campsite and gather firewood. Before weariness could sink too deep into her bones, Akina roused herself.

"Fairingot."

Ondorum's crystalline eyebrows rose. "Pardon?"

She tugged her helm off, letting her coil of braided hair fall loose, her trademark platinum streak shooting through the otherwise dusky blonde strands.

"My family name," she said. "It's Fairingot. We hail from Taggoret."

"Fairingot." He tugged at his chin as he eyed her. A smile teased his lips. "Fitting."

She scoffed and waved him off.

"Isn't Taggoret a bit north of here?" he asked.

"Sure. But we're heading south once we collect our bounty."

"You're not returning home, then."

"Not until I'm good and ready to."

"When will that be?"

Akina studied the head of her maulaxe, thumbing a nonexistent blemish. "When people stop paying us for what we're good at. Rumor says there's plenty of work down near Almas." She glanced over. "Figure you could come with us."

Ondorum crossed his arms. His sleeves tugged back, revealing ridges of purple crystals along his forearms.

"Why would you want a fool of a monk as a companion?"

"I don't think you're fool." She shrugged at his dubious look. "Not a total one, at least. But you've got some fine skill. I don't admit to being impressed too often but... I'm impressed. Besides, our band could use someone who doesn't just jump into every mess without considering other ways to clean it up first." She studied him from the corner of her eye, trying to gauge his reaction. "And you could use us in return."

"Use you? How?"

"How long you been traveling alone?"

He clasped hands, considering. "A long while."

"Think that's a good thing, being all by yourself? You may have a ways to go, but you don't have to go it alone. You said it yourself earlier. You're looking to learn from new experiences. Get some new perspectives."

"You're offering yours?"

She waved at the others. "Ours. We're not a bad lot. A little scruffy, sure, but earnest. And if you've got something against coin, I'll just hold your share until you figure out what you want to do with it."

He flexed his jaw as if chewing on the idea.

"Tell you what," she said. "I'll throw in a few tales of my home to sweeten the deal."

"True tales?"

"That'd be for you to figure out."

He grinned, an expression Akina realized she quite liked on his stony face. "Will you teach me any dwarven jokes?"

"Most jokes I know aren't fit for proper company—especially for anyone trying to be all polished and perfect."

"If my sense of humor is lacking, perhaps I can fix its faults by rounding it out."

She clapped him on the arm. "Might be hope for you yet."

"There's always hope." He lifted his chin, voice firming. "No matter how far one wanders, you can find your way again. You just have to follow the right path."

"If it's a simple matter of paths..." She pushed up to her feet and offered a hand. "How about we see where this one leads, hm?"

After the briefest consideration, he clasped her hand in his. "I've a feeling it will take us many interesting places."

Coming Next Week: The further adventures of Radovan and Count Jeggare in a sample chapter of Dave Gross's new novel, Lord of Runes!

Josh Vogt is the author of the Pathfinder Tales novel Forge of Ashes, also starring Akina and Ondorum, as well as the web fiction stories "The Weeping Blade" and "Hunter's Folly." His first creator-owned novel, Enter the Janitor, just released, and his short fiction has been published in such venues as Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show and Shimmer. For more information, see his website at jrvogt.com.

Illustration by Marjorie Davis.

Gaby's Best Character Ever: Ezren

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Greetings, dear readers! I know there's been a rash of these "So-and-So's Best Character Ever" blogs going around, but all of them have been lies. LIES! And on this most frabjous of days, I'm here to tell you which PACG character is actually the best. For real cats this time.

It's Ezren!!! If you know me, you probably saw that coming. I love old people, especially the curmudgeonly sorts. I can identify with them. If you don't know me, let me illustrate my point. When you sit down to play a cooperative game, are you there to make friends and help people? Oh, you are? That's lovely. Not me. I mean, it's kind of a miracle you got me to sit down to a cooperative game in the first place (how can I crush you if we're on the same team?), but you can bet if you did, I'm gonna be real Ezren about it.

What exactly does "be real Ezren about it" mean? Basically, I'm there to pick up some sweet spells, blow up some monster faces (I sure hope the number of faces to heads is a 1:1 ratio), and generally be a badass. I'm not there to give you a d4 when you need to do better, and I'm not there to cure you. You shouldn't need curing. Stop taking damage. Learn to be old and tough, like Ezren!

Have you checked out Ezren's card list? And starting powers? SPELL ALL THE THINGS! Choo choo magic train!!! If you set your deck up right and go to the right locations, you'll be an unstoppable exploration machine. And yeah, Ezren may have a couple allies, but let's be honest, he doesn't give a hoot who they are. He just needs them to get some more explorations in case cards that have the Magic trait are scarce. As far as Ezren is concerned, those "friends" can go right in the woodchipper.

And those roles! Add to your checks with spells! Add to your checks to get spells! Add to your checks to recharge your cards! BE UNSTOPPABLE. With a blast blast here and a blast blast there, here a blast, there a blast, everywhere a BOW TO EZREN, FOOLS! And if straight-up blasting isn't your style, there's always the tricksy illusion side of Ezren. Not to mention the roles you can get with the Wizard Class Deck version of Ezren. Ch-ch-ch-check 'em out!

So, I made a big fuss about Ezren not being here to make friends or help people and to me, he'll never be a grandfatherly-type wizard. But the Ezren from the Class decks is a little more friendly. Also, HAVE YOU SEEN THAT TRANSMOGRIFIER TRANSMOGRIFYING? That's not a monster, it's a teapot! Hand size 6? I think you mean hand size 10! This boon? NO! That boon! There's also that Hedge Wizard, the most helpful Ezren of all. That's right, I said it. Helpful Ezren. Ermahgerd. You know what that means, right? Ezrens helping Ezrens. COWER IN FEAR, MORTALS!

Another lovely aspect of Ezren is that he cares about blessings about as much as he cares about your feelings. Other characters rely on their blessings like amateurs rely on their queen during a chess game. Ain't nobody got time for gods, least of all Ezren. He's making up for lost time and exploring the world, and he won't get bogged down by deities or their zealots. Word on the street is that Ezren is making a comeback in Mummy's Mask, and that he might have some blessings this time around. Of course, he has no interest in Divine blessings.

Alright folks, you've spent enough time reading about why I think Ezren is the best. Now you should go get all the versions of Ezren you can get your hands on. (In case you were wondering, that's four—two roles from Runelords, and two from the Wizard Class Deck. YOU COULD BE FOUR DIFFERENT EZRENS ALL AT ONE TIME!) Why are you still sitting here? Get off my lawn, and go play some PACG!

Meanwhile, Back at the Ranch...

Some of the PACG folks were at Origins this past week. Wave to Tanis, Chad, Mike, and Paul, readers! They worked super hard all week and received some fancy loot! SHINY!

Type: Loot
Check to Acquire: Be awesome!
Powers: Reveal this card to add 2d12 to your anything.

Anyway, we're real excited to have something that will allow us to make "it was Colonel Mustard, in the library, with the Vanguard Award" jokes. Thanks so much for all your support! Our game wouldn't be in the place it is without all of you... or without Ezren. We should probably all just thank Ezren for this. He is the best, after all.

Gaby Weidling
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Developer

The Improvements So Far

Monday, June 8, 2015

Back in November 2014, you may recall the Pathfinder Society team held a marathon meeting to address a long list of feedback and devise numerous concrete objectives for how to improve the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign. In the spirit of the main announcement for today, let's take a look at what Mike and I shared back then and see where things are now.

Factions

Factions were getting a bit unwieldy as promoting faction goals relied on playing the right scenario with the right character. Updating faction documentation on the website was also behind schedule. We proposed getting new art for each of the revised factions, getting the website text updated, and producing the faction journal cards. As you can see by the links, we've hit all of these goals, albeit a little later than projected.

Scenario Length

As scenarios developed deeper stories and greater complexity, the adventure gradually ran longer and longer—even extending beyond the 5-hour soft limit. What's more, numerous locations couldn't manage to complete some of the average-length scenarios because the venue or weeknight schedule only allowed for 4 4.5-hour games.

Beginning back in January, I began trimming the number of encounters in higher-level scenarios while also watching for exceptionally time-consuming encounters in lower-level adventures and adjusting as necessary. Based on the feedback I've read, the first month or two after the change was a bit hit-or-miss in meeting this goal, but what I've read since suggests that it's getting easier to run the new scenarios in a 4-hour slot (not including set-up and paperwork).

Scenario [Preparation] Difficulty

With the Pathfinder Reference Document so easy to reference from home, scenario authors and I felt more comfortable including increasingly complex and diverse options from the Pathfinder RPG hardcover line. The trouble was that this made scenarios harder to prepare and run—especially in the unenviable but occasionally necessary circumstance of running an adventure cold.

Beginning in December 2014, we began including full Bestiary pages in the back of scenarios, reducing the books that a GM might need to juggle to the “character option” books such as Advanced Player's Guide for a feat or a spell. We also returned to the practice of including full stat blocks for creatures with simple templates that substantially modify their statistics (e.g. the advanced simple template, but not the fiendish one). It's a little harder to measure how well we've limited the number of subsystems and complicated mechanics, but it's certainly been on my mind while writing outlines, working with the author, and developing adventures.

Season Plotline

By 2014, Pathfinder Society had developed a reputation for basing its season-long plotlines off a recently released Adventure Path, and it was increasingly apparent how much this tied our hands regarding what kinds of stories we could tell and pushing the Society toward year-long goals that did not always support its main agenda of exploration, documentation, and scholarship.

It's a little hard to share a lot on this front without giving away too much, but as you probably picked up from the recent blog announcing the Year of the Serpent, we're cooking up a fun new season that tips its hat to the upcoming Hell's Rebels Adventure Path but focuses on its own story near and dear to the Pathfinder Society's interests. All of that includes traveling to a large number of destinations—many familiar and many new—in the name of exploring, reporting, and cooperating.

The Story So Far

If you're following along with that first blog I linked to back in November, you may notice one big entry that I haven't talked about yet: the Story So Far project. As the organized play campaign gets older, the accumulated wealth of stories, NPCs, and other developments can make it tough to know what has happened already, how the current season might tie in, and what the underlying assumptions are when playing an older adventure.

The project really picked up steam when Linda Zaya-Palmer joined the team, and I am happy to announce that the first wave of Story So Far handouts is now complete and available for download. These five cover the first five unified season plot arcs in a very low-spoiler sort of way, providing enough information to give a newer player helpful context without identifying who a mysterious benefactor or a hidden traitor might be—all in a few hundred words. Pass them out before an adventure tied to that season's metaplot, and let us know how they work. Based on feedback, we're looking into addressing major plot arcs and unifying threads (like the Blakros family and Grandmaster Torch) in a similar fashion.

John Compton
Developer

Giantslayer Marathon: Part 3!

Saturday, June 6, 2015

I just got the third report back from the Order of the Amber Die folks, and I'm excited to share it with everyone! As a recap, here are links to Part 1 and Part 2. As usual, I must warn everyone reading that there are spoilers in this blog post, so if you're playing in the Giantslayer Adventure Path read at your own peril.

Order of the Amber Die is back with the third update on our ambitious endeavor to complete Giantslayer in just 6 months!

Once again, both players and GM set about trying to build on the momentum of the previous marathon. We knew we were headed into the Mindspin Mountains, so we acquired a massive backdrop of the peaks in all their glory. Our GM stopped returning calls for a couple of days, then surfaced with a map from the adventure that we're not sure Paizo intended anyone to draw—nearly 70 square feet—the biggest yet. Finally, in a risky move to help improve the roster, we also drafted a young but promising rookie to play the role of NPC Kurst Grath for this module.

No two marathons are the same, and when we close the doors on reality and begin a 4-day run of Pathfinder, we're never exactly sure how it will all go down. This marathon was massive—totally overwhelming—and clocked in at 82 hours, with 57 hours of play culminating in a single 25-hour run to complete the adventure just before some careers had to resume on Monday morning. We even skipped breaks, which took its toll. Four months passed on Golarion. Two of us had real-life birthdays in there somewhere.

It was AWESOME.

Highlights From our Experience With Forge of the Giant God:

• While the adventure was diverse, author Tim Hitchcock still delivered one of the single best fighting modules in our history. He turned our GM loose to drop us into at least 15 different battle maps during our long trek through the Valley of Minderhal.
• Negotiating with giants is not always as easy as a die roll. In a case of Quinn's diplomacy gone astray, it was determined by several dozen hill giants that Crowe should have to defeat their champion, Kragmuld, for the right to stand before the great Cathedral of Minderhal. Not exactly what we had in mind. In a fighting pit surrounded by a crowd of cheering giants, Crowe not only survived Kragmuld's spiked chain, but put the champion down in 6 rounds—and we woke the neighbors.
• Giantslayer is officially living up to its name: the big folk were abundant throughout the adventure, and thanks in part to our Escape Route teamwork feat, we slew more than a score of them.
• During this marathon we had a chance to experience something special: an exhilarating 20-20-20 from the Amber Die, which is what makes it our namesake.

Character Deaths

• While exploring the tomb of a giantslayer, Crowe and Ingrahild (whose ancestor was buried there) became separated from the party and locked in the sepulcher. Trapped inside with them was the broken soul who had betrayed the ancient giantslayer 700 years before. An epic struggle ensued, which saw our heroes fight dearly for their lives before being forced to share the tomb with its former occupants.
• Player-fatigue is a factor in marathons, and can be lethal for a character. In a brave but incomprehensible move, Kurst Grath spurred his mount into battle against two stone giant sentinels—alone.
• Kurst and Ingrahild were scouting ahead of the party when they spotted something very, very big. With one eye, it noticed them too. Gsurak the huge cyclops stalker moved to erase the rangers from Golarion. Kurst sprinted back to get help; as fate would have it, Ingrahild was wearing the armor of her ancestor and legendary giantslayer—which compelled her to attack.
• In the final battle above the great forge, Zadim engaged Urathash, a stone giant inquisitor of the god Minderhal. The slayer brought Sarenrae's will to bear with a flurry of critical hits, but it wasn't enough to save him from Urathash's human-bane warhammer.

Current Situation

Our party is surviving this AP, and we've had our moments—but not much more. Character deaths have at least been well timed, which has avoided TPK, but an absence of about 210,000gp proves we have sacrificed dearly. The party is also missing some precious artifacts after an encounter with a venerable slag giant. An in-game relationship has fractured, causing one of our NPCs to quit the party. Morale is at a low point. What's compounding everything is that we have learned where we're headed next: above the snow line as autumn descends on the region.

This is what it takes to slay giants.

Best Quote From Marathon 3:

Tyler (Kurst): "Sure man, I'd love to chop your hand off." (Alluding to Steelhand's artifact.)

More Content

Read through the entirety of The Giantslayer Endeavor. For more pictures, campaigns, and information on the Order of the Amber Die, you can find them on Facebook and Instagram. The miniatures used are again painted by Blue Table Painting.

Looks like the Order of the Amber Die crew are fighting for their lives in this Adventure Path. They're at the midpoint and things are only going to get more dangerous. Wish them luck in Pathfinder Adventure Path #94: Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen and stay tuned next month when we get to hear how they fared.

Adam Daigle
Developer

Catching Up, Looking Ahead

Friday, June 5, 2015

Whew! What a roller-coaster the last few weeks have been here at Paizo HQ and beyond! Two weeks ago from this moment we were deep in the throes of PaizoCon 2015, which is rapidly earning a place in my heart as the best PaizoCon to date! It's always such a wonderful experience getting to spend a weekend with Pathfinder players tossing dice and throwing back beers, and this year's show was no exception.

Actually, it was a bit of an exception in that the new, larger hotel space at the Doubletree Hotel allowed for more focused gaming and a slightly more relaxed atmosphere, conjuring memories of the earliest PaizoCons. I had a wonderful time chatting about Pathfinder Battles with fellow minis enthusiasts, and from the attendee reports I've read so far, everyone on hand seemed to appreciate the two full booster boxes of Pathfinder Battles figures we packed in every attendee's goodie bag. These packs primed the pump for my favorite PaizoCon event, Erik Mona's Miniatures Trading Afterparty, now in its SEVENTH consecutive year.

This year I seeded the party with a few samples from the forthcoming Dungeons Deep set, which is now shipping to paizo.com customers and should be hitting retail stores any day now. Folks were very positive about the new figures, and I was very proud to show them off. Dungeons Deep is one of my favorite Pathfinder Battles sets to date, and I'm confident you're going to really enjoy it.

PaizoCon was also special from a Pathfinder Battles perspective in that I announced the very next set of Pathfinder Battles figures at the Preview Banquet—The Rusty Dragon Inn! I've long wanted to base a set loosely around a tavern theme. Not only does it provide a great excuse to produce dungeon dressing suitable for the tavern environment, but it also allows us to feature several NPC and even player character-appropriate figures in a naturalistic way. Of course, The Rusty Dragon Inn set will also include a nice mix of monsters, but we'll get to those shortly.

Before that, however, let's preview the one figure from Dungeons Deep that somehow slipped through the cracks: the Anghazan Idol! Anghazan is an ape demon lord in the Pathfinder campaign setting, and his blood-soaked idol—based on one of the first metal miniatures Paizo ever created back in 2006—seemed like a natural (ahem) fit for our first round of dungeon dressing.

The Anghazan Idol comes complete with blood-stained hands and cheeks, and works well as any primitive stone idol, either in a dungeon or in the wilderness. I've teamed it up with a gaggle of dancing Charu-ka from Legends of Golarion in the photo above to put it in its proper context.

While out in the Sun, I noticed the idol's special, somewhat secret feature. The green gem at the crown of the idol is, in fact, translucent plastic, and it caught the light of the Sun in a really interesting way (did I mention that I love summers in Seattle—these outdoor dioramas will definitely be vanishing in a couple months as our weather turns terrible). Check out the gem in particular in this close-up shot:

Anyway, the Anghazan idol is, in many ways, the most modest of the dungeon dressing in Dungeons Deep, but I hope you'll discover that it's got a charm all its own.

But what about the Rusty Dragon Inn?

The big Pathfinder Battles news out of PaizoCon was, of course, The Rusty Dragon Inn, currently set for release in the fourth quarter of 2015! As I said, I've wanted to do a tavern-themed set for a long time, and I'm thrilled with the characters, creeps, and critters we've been able to fit into this set.

Ever since the line debuted, I've been trying to balance the different requests I get from customers and retailers. Generally speaking, super-collectors want stuff they don't already have, while retailers (who often break boosters down for singles) say they want figures suitable for player characters, since that's what their customers most often want to buy.

Well, the Iconic Heroes boxed sets are serving the need for straight-up heroes admirably (and sets 4, 5, and 6 are currently in the works!), but that still leaves the need for NPCs. But again, they should be NPCs that not everyone already has—a tall order after 15 years of prepainted plastic figures.

Anyway, I think we did a pretty good job making our selections. Honestly I'll be thrilled to have the figures in The Rusty Dragon Inn set for my own gaming, in which fights seem to break out in taverns nearly as often as they do in dungeons!

Let's take a quick look at many of the figures I revealed at PaizoCon, and get into some of the whys and details I didn't have time to cover during my banquet presentation.

No tavern set would be complete without a Serving Girl, here with a tray laden with food and drinks. This figure takes inspiration from Wayne Reynolds's cover to the NPC Codex, and I can see plenty of uses for this figure—mostly involving getting caught in an area of effect spell, but hey, that's tactically important too! The Serving Girl is a Medium, common figure.

There always seems to be a Merchant lurking about in the inn right before things go down, so he was another obvious inclusion in The Rusty Dragon Inn set. Whether you use this guy as an NPC to be protected, as an alchemist player character or adversary, or as a villain with an amazing mustache to twirl, he's bound to make an impression on your players. The Merchant is a Medium, uncommon figure.

We've been doling out city watchmen for a long time in the Pathfinder Battles line, and with The Rusty Dragon Inn, we're finally providing a no-nonsense commander. Decked out in the familiar blue from previous watch figures, the City Watch Commander cuts an imposing figure, fists on hips, ready to kick some ass. We based her look on Kasadei, a character from both Dawn of the Scarlet Sun and the Pathfinder Comics series, but she can really be anyone you want, including a player character. The City Watch Commander is a Medium, uncommon figure.

Of course, a set filled with nothing by NPCs would likely doom the line, so I'm pleased to report that The Rusty Dragon Inn also includes a bunch of monsters!

We've had really good luck picking a couple of adversary types and providing multiple figures within a set, and The Rusty Dragon Inn is no exception. This time, we're focusing on monsters that, while not exactly welcome in an urban setting, certainly aren't out of place there.

The first focus race this time is GHOULS, one of my all-time favorite fantasy races. Yes, we've done a few ghouls in previous sets, but The Rusty Dragon Inn allows us to plumb the pages of the Monster Codex in particular to present even more ghoulish goodness. The Ghoul Champion depicted here, for example, is just one of a small handful of amazing ghouls that we'll reveal over the weeks to come. He's a Medium, rare figure.

The set also focuses on bugbears, a staple humanoid enemy race that has long been plagued by inconsistent or just flat-out unappealing figures. Here we see the imposing Bugbear Tyrant, a Medium, uncommon figure.

And, because I love you guys, here's a bonus reveal that we didn't show off at PaizoCon. It's one of my favorite figures in the set, a nasty, sticky… thing we can only call: the Quivering Cube. The Quivering Cube is a Large, rare figure that comes complete with skeletal remains and some gear visible within it. Hooray!

Lastly this week I'd like to mention that the replacement figures for the badly produced Feiya and King Irovetti figures that were originally going to appear in Dungeons Deep have been moved to The Rusty Dragon Inn instead. WizKids simply wasn't happy with the quality of the figures, and they want to make them as awesome as possible. I'm eager to see how they turn out.

And that's it for this week, folks. Tune in next Friday for even more amazing reveals of all-new figures from The Rusty Dragon Inn!

Erik Mona
Publisher

More Inner Sea Monsters!

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Ever since we released Pathfinder RPG Monster Codex last fall fans have been asking for an Inner Sea version, covering monsters unique to the Pathfinder Campaign Setting. Soon, those fans will get their wish, as the Inner Sea Monster Codex debuts in just a couple short weeks! The 64-page book presents ten monsters iconic to the Inner Sea region, including charau-ka, gillmen, and strix, each with four sample creatures filling a variety of combat and social roles. To support these monsters, the book also includes new rules, such as archetypes, oracle mysteries, alchemist discoveries, traps, spells, feats, and magic items. Here are two of the new rules found in the book, a minotaur spell and a gillman magic item, as a little sample, as well as a few choice pieces of art to whet your monstrous appetites.

PUZZLE BOX

School enchantment (compulsion) [curse^UM, mind-affecting]; Level bard 2, sorcerer/wizard 3, witch 3
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels) or touch; see text
Target one creature or one object up to 5 lbs./level
Duration 1 round/level or permanent; see text
Saving Throw Will negates or none; Spell Resistance yes

This spell causes even commonly used objects to become conundrums. When cast on a creature, the target loses all weapon and shield proficiencies. The target also forgets how to use all spell-completion, spell-trigger, and use-activated magic items, as well as any mundane items used as part of a skill check, imposing a –5 penalty on all ability and skill checks attempted with such items. These effects last for 1 round per level. As a move action, the target can attempt a skill check to negate the effects of this spell for one object. Weapons, shields, and mundane objects require a successful Craft skill check of the type required to craft the item in question, with a DC equal to the spell's save DC. Magic items require a successful Spellcraft or Use Magic Device skill check against the spell's save DC.

Alternatively, this spell can be cast on a single touched object that weighs up to 5 pounds per the caster's level. Use of this object becomes a puzzle even to those previously familiar with it. Any creature attempting to use an item affected in this way is treated as though the creature was the target of puzzle box for that item only. When cast on an object, the duration of this spell is permanent.

BATHING BASIN

Price 6,750 gp
Slot none CL 5th Weight 5 lbs.
Aura faint conjuration and transmutation

This heavy bronze bowl, etched with outlines of waves, feels cool to the touch. Once per day as a standard action, the bowl can be commanded to grow in size and fill with 25 gallons of cool, fresh water. In its enlarged state, the basin can accommodate a Medium or smaller creature. The basin remains enlarged for 1 hour or until the user commands it to shrink. All water in the basin disappears when the item shrinks, and any creatures or objects that don't fit in the shrunken bowl are expelled into an adjacent square.

Construction Requirements

Cost 3,375 gp
Craft Wondrous Item, create water, shrink item

Illustrations by Milivoj Ćeran and Wayne England

Illustrations by Aleksey Bayura, Maichol Quinto, Chris Seaman, and Jaime Martinez

Mark Moreland
Developer

The Price Paid

by Josh Vogt

Chapter Three: Beastly Dealings

The goblin's head morphed into a humanoid skull with a piggish nose and enormous, bat-like ears. Milky eyes fixed on Akina as fangs filled a slavering maw. The beast's body expanded and hunched over, bristling with fur until it resembled an enormous wolf with clawed hands instead of forepaws.

Akina recognized the creature for what it truly was. There'd been enough of them fighting alongside the goblinoid hordes, devouring corpses, acting as scouts or battlebeasts.

"Barghest!" she called to the monk, for whatever good it did with him being trapped.

If he replied, she didn't catch it, for the barghest's yowl resounded through the chamber. It lunged. Akina stepped in to meet it head-on, but the beast vanished in midair.

"Behind you!"

At the monk's shout, Akina spun just in time for a claw to smash across her helmet. Vision blurred, and she went to one knee. The barghest gnashed at her, but she lowered her head and surged up, her iron ram horns slamming into its face. She rose, following through with a hammer blow that caught it under the chin and flipped it backward. She planted a hand and shook off the rattling impact.

"I have it!"

She raised her head. Ondorum had reached through the cage bars and caught the barghest around the chest. It scrabbled at him, but the same bars kept it from doing anything more than snagging his robe. Its attempts to tear his grip away with its claws proved equally futile. Ribs crunched and the beast's cries pitched higher.

It vanished again. Ondorum's bear hug collapsed around empty air. Akina turned a circle, expecting another ambush from behind. But the barghest failed to reappear, and the immediate stink of it faded.

"Stones and bones, where'd it go?" She turned her maulaxe to poise the sharp edge. "Cowardly beast."

"A sorcerous creature?" Ondorum turned in the cage to eye the chamber.

"These things are nasty tricksters," she said. "Some think they're a kind of goblin demon."

"I'd not doubt it." He knelt and pressed palms to the cracked floor.

"What're you doing?"

He closed his eyes, face set in concentration. "Listening for the creature." One eye cracked open to peer up at her. "Haven't you ever tracked enemies through the vibrations of their steps on stone?"

"Of course I have! I'm a gods-damned dwarf, aren't I?" Embarrassed that she hadn't thought of it first, Akina stripped off a gauntlet and knelt to put her hand to the floor, keeping her maulaxe ready.

"You needn't bother." Ondorum stood. "I sense nothing. However, I believe I have a solution to my imprisonment."

"Oh?" Akina pointedly kept her hand on the stone, though in truth she didn't feel anything either.

"I shall attempt to rejoin you as quickly as I can. If you encounter any of the hobgoblins before then, please try to remember our bargain."

"Rejoin me?"

Ondorum raised a hand, palm open, then pounded it down onto the floor, dropping smoothly to put all his weight behind it. The cracks in the stones spread. Then he did it again. And again.

All at once, the floor beneath him crumbled. He caught her eye just as the floor fell away, dropping him into darkness.

Akina gaped for half a second before a scraping echoed up from one of the passages leading deeper into the ruins. A choked snarl made her grin.

Weapon ready, she stalked down the passage, brushing aside draping moss and thick spider webs. The barghest's smell strengthened as she went, reinforced by the click of claws on stone and occasional angry rumblings.

She paced through multiple rooms coated thick with dust, with dark niches and ceilings stretching out of sight. Who had the temple's original builders worshiped? Impossible to tell with so many of the original decorations and icons worn away or defaced.

As she crept into a wider room, a fresh wave of stink made her nose hairs bristle. Close. Very close. In fact, with its disappearing trick, the beast could be right on top of—

A weight slammed into her back. Akina hit the ground as the barghest screeched in her ear. Foul breath gusted over her and claws raked armor. Gripping her maulaxe tightly, she rolled as hard as she could, flinging the creature away.

The barghest gave a vile smile as it recovered and leapt at her. She cocked the maulaxe, but it reached out with foreclaws and grabbed the handle to stall the blow. It tried to wrench the weapon away even as it snapped fangs at her face. Akina wrestled the beast back a few steps, its fiendish strength nearly a match for hers.

Nearly.

Barghests may be worshipped by goblins, but they're far from benevolent masters.

Keeping one hand on the haft, she punched out with the other. Her fist connected with the barghest's barrel chest, right where Ondorum had crushed it earlier. Yet where the oread's fists had bruised and battered, the iron edge of her gauntlet just thumped against the creature's flesh and stopped, as ineffective as if she'd punched packed earth.

The barghest snarled and tried to yank the maulaxe away again.

Akina bared teeth in return. "Mine."

She let herself be pulled closer, then grabbed the shaft with both hands, jumped, and planted her feet on the barghest's chest. She kicked off, shoving the barghest away while keeping the maulaxe tight against her chest. Her back struck the stones, and she rolled upright just as the beast lunged in. She dodged and whipped the maulaxe out so the hammer side slammed into the barghest's ribs with a satisfying crackle.

Howling, the barghest fell. Akina leapt over its kicking paws and brought the axe edge down. The beast's writhing threw off her aim, and its unnaturally tough hide turned the blow so that instead of severing an arm, the blade simply gouged a shoulder.

Black blood spurted from the wound. The barghest arched hard enough to throw her off and scrambled free. One moment it stood just within reach. The next, it disappeared and popped back into being across the room, glaring at her from near a dark doorway.

"You are an annoying snack." Baring its teeth, the barghest floated off the floor a few inches, favoring its wounded side. Akina considered this new trick. Must've been how the creature ambushed her from above.

It started to move toward the passage. She hurried after, but knew she wouldn't reach it before it did its vanishing trick again.

The instant it crossed the threshold, however, a pair of clasped fists smashed down atop its skull.

Ondorum stepped into view, dustier than before but little worse for wear. The barghest yowled and scrabbled up at him. The monk evaded the snapping maw with a shift of his weight. A kick swept the beast's leg out from under it, and as it stumbled, Ondorum came down with an elbow that struck its spine with cracking force.

The barghest collapsed. Akina halted her charge to watch as Ondorum laid into the creature. He responded to its wild gnashing and slashes with precise palm strikes and kicks, until the beast's attacks began to slow.

At last, the barghest's twitching paws stilled. Ondorum watched it, fists cocked at odd angles, waiting to ensure it remained down. Then he glanced Akina's way and straightened, tucking arms into opposing sleeves.

Akina scowled. "Damn you to Hell. That was mine."

He eyed the mangled corpse. "If it's any consolation, I left the ears on so you could yank them off."

She stared at him until he smiled.

"That was a joke."

"And a piss-poor one! Don't you know better than to snitch another's kill?"

He appeared puzzled. "The beast won't hurt anyone again. Does it truly matter which one of us ended its life?"

"When you're a mercenary, it does. With Durgan, the more you kill, the bigger your share. Doesn't matter if you wound a creature. If you don't drop it, it isn't yours to claim."

"An interesting approach. I can see how it might motivate greater effort in battle."

Akina plodded over to study the barghest closer, but couldn't see anything worth carving off as a trophy. "Figure this at least makes you think twice about showing the hobgoblins any mercy."

Ondorum tilted his head. "Should it?"

"They obviously sent this beast ahead to take us out. Bet they didn't even let you know it was skulking around, hm?"

He frowned. "They failed to mention its presence, true."

His expression troubled, he headed deeper into the ruins without further argument. Akina followed, hoping she might finally be getting through to him. They worked through decrepit chambers, edged past pits, and left nothing in their wake but darkness.

Finally, as they moved down a long hall, Ondorum paused and pointed ahead. Beyond a spacious archway, shadows flickered from unseen flames and guttural voices reverberated in the distance.

"Right," she said. "We go in quiet, see what their layout is and—"

Ondorum tucked his shoulders back. "Hail, Skurl! We come to meet your leader. Will you honor our agreement?"

Akina closed her eyes briefly, biting her tongue to keep from unleashing a few choice curses. Hobgoblin voices rose in an argumentative flurry before another slashed through the air and quieted the rest. After a long minute, several hobgoblins strode into view. They wore ragged furs, leather scraps, and bits of battered armor. Each held axes or swords, and one with longer-than-average tusks had filed them to deadly points.

They stopped just out of reach. The foremost, a male with scarred splotches across his skin, squinted at Ondorum before his scrutiny shifted to Akina.

"So you're one of the mercs they sent to kill us?" he rasped. "I've fought tree stumps that were more dangerous."

Akina tensed, but Ondorum stepped between them.

"Hold." He nodded to the speaker. "Skurl."

The hobgoblin's lips peeled back. "Monk. Why bring another with you? This wasn't what we agreed."

"She indeed represents the mercenaries hired to eliminate your band. However," he raised his voice over the hobgoblins' growls, "she has agreed to meet with your leader to see if a peaceable resolution can be reached, as we discussed."

It took most of Akina's self-control to not attack then and there. She reminded herself that if she killed these right off, it'd give their leader a chance to flee.

At last, Skurl gestured with a blade. "Come."

The hobgoblins retreated into their lair. Akina turned to Ondorum, unable to believe that the creatures expected them to just blindly follow. Yet the monk strode forward through the arch, head erect, shoulders square.

She stared at his back, tempted to let him reap the consequences of his naiveté. Yet a part of her grudgingly admired his fearlessness and confidence. After a moment, she sighed. Let no one claim she ever left another to face enemies alone.

"Crack and shatter me for a fool," she muttered, hustling after.

In the room beyond, the hobgoblin camp looked like an underground chapel with arched ceilings, rows of broken stone benches, and a dais at the end of the main row. The place was littered with refuse piles, guttering fire pits, and bundles of gear tucked into the corners—stolen, Akina assumed.

Five more hobgoblins waited beyond the first three. As Akina and Ondorum entered, she checked to ensure the beasts remained off to the sides, not blocking the exit. All had the glowering look of warriors sullen from a lack of violence, and their armor appeared cobbled together from random salvage. One particular hobgoblin, a female, stood in the center of the room. Taller than most, she held the bearing of one used to command.

Once the pair stopped, the leader shuffled forward, bowlegged and wary. Clad in black armor and swathed in sable bear fur, she carried a long dagger in one hand and a barbed whip in the other. Her tusks had been capped in silver, and copper rings pierced her ears, nose, eyebrows, and forehead.

"I am Nigarl," she said, voice somehow grinding and gurgling at the same time. "From the noise you caused above, I'm guessing you finally put down the barghest. Thank you."

Akina's eyebrows rose. "You're thanking me?"

"That troublesome beast has hounded us for months, demanding we provide meals and tormenting us when we refuse. We thought we'd shaken it when we came north, but then caught it snuffling around here, thieving, pouncing on us from the dark. I lost two good fighters to its claws, and another to the traps it sets. I've heard it's also been attacking settlements in the area and leaving us to take the blame." She eyed Akina meaningfully. "I hope this monk has made it clear we just want to be left alone."

Akina gnawed a lip. "You really want to do this peacefully?"

Nigarl crouched and laid her dagger and whip on the floor between them. Straightening as much as her round-shouldered figure allowed, she showed empty palms.

"Will you give us that chance? Will you let this be settled without more death?"

Coming Next Week: Monstrous negotiations in the final chapter of Josh Vogt's "The Price Paid"!

Josh Vogt is the author of the Pathfinder Tales novel Forge of Ashes, also starring Akina and Ondorum, as well as the web fiction stories "The Weeping Blade" and "Hunter's Folly." His first creator-owned novel, Enter the Janitor, just released, and his short fiction has been published in such venues as Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show and Shimmer. For more information, see his website at jrvogt.com.

Illustration by Marjorie Davis.

Liz's Best Character Ever: Damiel

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

What do Rambo, MacGyver, James Bond, Doctor Frankenstein, and Mad Max have in common? Besides making one hell of an adventuring party, they all know how to use SCIENCE! to turn themselves into a veritable army. Of course, we could instead save space on that camel and ride with the one hero who can do it all: Damiel, the best character ever.

Most characters' destinies are written before they take their first step. Fighters are on the frontlines, clerics are on hand to heal injuries, and rangers are off in the wings. Damiel scoffs at these common party roles. The alchemist takes Destiny into his hands and bottles it.

In Skull & Shackles, Damiel can do anything you want him to do. Need a healer? Easy. Get him Cure spells and Potions of Healing, and he'll make Kyra look slack. Need someone to dish out party buffs like candy? He can do that, and he'll do it with the best items in the game to boot. Intelligent and quick, Damiel can "go rogue" and neutralize traps and locks alike. And when it comes to dishing out pure damage, it's tough to beat explosives.

Equipped with only a Noxious Bomb and any other card, n00b Damiel can blast an enemy with 1d10+1d8+2d6+5 (that's an average of 22 damage!!)... and there's a good chance he'll recharge BOTH of those cards and do it again later without so much as a scratch. Yelling an earth-shattering "KABOOM!" and cackling maniacally are optional, but encouraged. Knowledge is power, and power corrupts. Enjoy it.

Not only can Damiel take on nearly any role, but he's never stuck with just one. Want to watch the world burn? Add more oomph to bombs with the Grenadier role. Feeling more sanguine? Patch up a wounded party with the expert skills of the Chirurgeon.

Like any good cocktail, the best mixes are the result of imagination and ingenuity. With a little bit of everything, Damiel can confidently wander into the wilderness alone. (That's good news, given the rumors surrounding the adventuring parties that haven't returned with him.) A fighter who finds a shiny new sword can stab things more efficiently (big whoop), but the alchemist who finds a new potion recipe has a whole new power at his beck and call. Weaker items that fizzle out after a moment's use become the juice of juggernauts.

Imagine playing the Potion of Heroism on yourself every... single... turn. To use his best tricks, Damiel really wants to walk the razor's edge. Play your cards right, and he gets stronger when he's gasping his last breath. Never challenge an alchemist when death is on the line! MWAH HA HA ha ha! *ahem*

With the secrets to life and death in his pockets, Damiel can take on anything and look good doing it. Ignore the twitchy, bloodshot eyes and gruesome stains on his coat. Really, the only thing better than playing Damiel is playing two Damiels at once....

Liz Spain
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Designer

Year of the Serpent

Monday, June 1, 2015

Season 6 of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign is coming to a close, and the Society has finally pieced together the Numerian relic that gave this season its name: the Year of the Sky Key. During the second of this year's interactive Specials, The Sky Key Solution, we're going to fire up the device and see what happens!

Then again, the Sky Key helped us look back across the ages once before, and I want to look ahead to the future—namely Season 7. As I announced at the PaizoCon 2015 Preview Banquet and the Pathfinder Society Q&A panel about a week ago, Season 7 is going to be the Year of the Serpent! Too long has the Aspis Consortium been the source of ridicule and easily defeated low-level rogues, and I began to ask what would happen if the Aspis Consortium made a serious, concerted effort to tear down the Pathfinder Society. Where are those elite operatives we've always heard about, and what can they accomplish when bankrolled by one of the wealthiest operations in the Inner Sea? If you had a chance to play Pathfinder Society Special #6-97: Siege of Serpents and Pathfinder Society Special #6-98: Serpents Rise, you've had a good look at the Consortium's first major operation. However, there's a whole lot more in the works for this season with plenty of opportunities to foil Aspis plans (and occasionally even be foiled by Aspis plans). I'll let our new, serpentine overlords introduce the season's logo: a serpent consuming the Pathfinder Society's Glyph of the Open Road.

Of course, every great season becomes even better when we pick up a few loose threads in addition to spinning new stories, and I have already begun outlining some stories that pick up where we left off in far-flung locations from the Mwangi Expanse to Mendev—plus at least one more in the earthquake-shattered Precipice Quarter in Absalom.

And for those of you who were guessing whether the Year of the Serpent would involve the Aspis Consortium or the serpentfolk, why can't it be both?

John Compton
Developer