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The Creepy Crepitus

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

Here's another peek at the forthcoming Pathfinder Module LB1: Tower of the Last Baron.

It is speculated that Asmodeus spawned the first crepitus devils, sometimes called magewretches, to tempt and corrupt mortal wizards into damning their souls. Yet while it is true that the crepitus is a highly intelligent creature with a gift for spellcraft and all things arcane, its great intellect is countered by its foolishness and inability to competently lure mortals to Asmodeus's will. As a result, specimens seen on the Material Plane are more often slaves than fiendish tempters.

Ecology

A crepitus stands 3 to 4 feet tall, with bright eyes in a saurian head that appears too large for its gaunt, rune-covered body. Its shoulders sprout bat-like wings that allow it to fly with ease, and its sharp talons are surprisingly nimble and capable of fine adjustments when conducting magical rituals. A typical crepitus weighs 30 pounds. Though, like other devils, crepituses don't require food, they take particular joy in consuming wizards' familiars (and sometimes the wizards themselves.) Crepitus devils are native to Hell, and many lurk around Asmodeus's infernal palace, often serving as messengers.

Habitat & Society

Left to their own devices, crepitus devils are cunning, malicious pranksters, content to while away their days flitting about Hell and tormenting lost souls and devils alike. Yet crepituses are rarely left alone for long, and it is likely from this fact that their long-standing racial hatred of wizards stems. Highly valued for their spell-like abilities and intuitive knowledge of magic, crepituses are frequently bound into contracts or enslaved outright by mortal wizards and other fiends, a situation the intelligent devils find exrtemely demeaning. This situation is not helped by the fact that crepituses are frequently the first gifts handed out by higher-ranking demons attempting to seduce mortal magic users. If given an opportunity, a crepitus goes well out of its way to destroy a wizard and burn his precious spellbooks to ashes (not necessarily in that order). Chelish wizards regularly bind crepitus devils as servants, and view having an enslaved crepitus as a mark of prestige.

Crepituses enjoy lording their power over their significantly weaker impish cousins, and referring to a crepitus as an imp is the gravest possible insult.

Mike McArtor
Editor

Art!

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

We're all crazy busy here today making sure you get the awesome products you've come to expect from us. While we're at it, here's a pretty picture of the ever-popular Seoni from Pathfinder Module LB1: Tower of the Last Baron. Enjoy! :D

Mike McArtor
Editor

Taking Back Escapism

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Well, here we are—the final installment in Michael Moorcock's Kane of Old Mars trilogy. In City of the Beast, Moorcock first introduced us to the steely-eyed physicist and swordsman Michael Kane, a man catapulted across space and time by a chance invention, who hit the ground running and managed to make himself a prince of the violent, vibrant world that is ancient Mars. Moorcock himself has said that, in the early days of his career, he would sometimes only give himself a few days to write a book, and in that seminal Michael Kane tale, we felt that breathless pace—the prose light and quick, the images coming in fast succession as Kane fought blue giants, cities of thieves, and vast subterranean monsters. In its sequel, Lord of the Spiders, Michael Kane—yanked cruelly back to Earth by his fellow scientists—manages to return to his adopted world, only to find himself in a place (and perhaps time!) far removed from his beloved green city of Varnal and the gorgeous princess waiting there. With Lord of the Spiders, Moorcock keeps the same breakneck pace, but the story as a whole feels darker, as Kane's adventures become colored by his despair and deal with darker subject matter—genocide, revolution, and assassination.

In Masters of the Pit, Moorcock returns a final time to the familiar characters of Mars, who by this point feel like old friends—Hool Haji the blue giant, steadfast Princess Shizala, and of course Michael Kane. Yet rather than rehashing either of the book's predecessors, Moorcock takes the story in yet another new direction, this time with a more philosophical bent. While much of the story deals with Kane and Hool Haji traveling (and frequently battling their way) across the world in search of a cure for a deadly plague, the focus of the story seems to be not on the violent struggle, but on the moral one. By far the stars of the show in my mind are the citizens of Cend-Amrid, who in their attempt to survive through machine-like efficiency have succeeded in killing everything that made them human. Adding to the theme are the dog-men of Hahg, degenerate mutants that continue to cowardly serve the evil, winged First Masters even though freedom lies easily within their grasp. Or there's always the barbaric horde of Rokin the Gold—crude, lowbrow raiders who Kane nevertheless comes to respect for the sheer passion with which they live.

As with much of Robert E. Howard's work—and, honestly, most of the early pulp masters—it's this respect for the individual, the enshrining of action and free will as the ultimate good, that permeates Moorcock's last adventure in this series. It is, at its heart, a rebellion against the modern world where—much like the men of Cend-Amrid—many of us feel trapped as tiny cogs in a vast machine, one whose function we have little control over. And if there's anything that Moorcock's writing offers us, it's freedom. In a world where "escapist" is often a derogatory term, Moorcock stands up and wears the label proudly, and Masters of the Pit is a shining example.

I don't know about you, but I'm with him.

James Sutter
Planet Stories Editor

Meet The Iconics: Seltyiel

Monday, May 26, 2008

Born from a dead mother amid screams and disgrace, this sickly half-elf would never have survived had he fallen into his stepfather's waiting arms. In a cruel trick of fate, his half-sister's tears stole the infant Seltyiel's chance for a mercifully short life.

The bastard son of the duped Lady Phiaura Bhrostra and the brigand-sorcerer Lairsaph—the so-called Feign Prince of Cheliax's Whisperwood—Seltyiel was never meant to survive. Through guile and illusion, the half-elf was conceived as a living disgrace to the sonless Bhrostra family—stern, martial-minded traditionalists who had long hunted the woodland bandits. The tragedy of his wife's death in childbirth, compounded by the dashed promise of a male heir, nearly drove Lord Ghran Bhrostra mad, and only his daughter's sobs stayed the lord's blade. For the next 12 years, a continuing river of tears ensured the young bastard's life.

Raised by his sister Sioria, young Seltyiel lived a humiliating fiction. In words, he was Lirt, an adopted waif who lived in the light of the Bhrostras' boundless charity. In the truths whispered from servant to mocking lord, though, he was living proof of Lord Bhrostra's failure as a husband, a lord, and a man. Keenly aware of his family's disgrace, Lord Bhrostra frequently reminded his wife's son of his loathing with beatings and broken bones.

Two weeks before Seltyiel's 13th birthday, with the bedridden youth already nursing a thrice-broken arm, a drunk and enraged Lord Bhrostra rampaged into the bastard's attic room. The boy could scarcely fight against the burly lord and took a fierce beating before reflexively lashing out. Catching the unsuspecting lord below the waist, the boy's blow sent Lord Bhrostra stumbling backward and tumbling down the steep attic stairs. Seltyiel stared down at his stepfather's unconscious body in terror. Without a word to his sister, the bloodied and crippled half-elf fled into the Whisperwood that night.

For days, the boy wandered the forest, soaked by rain, slashed by vipervines, chased by a boar, and pushed to the brink of starvation. As his continued merciless fortune would have it, though, three scowling brigands found the youth. Terrified, Seltyiel repeated the name he'd heard Lord Bhrostra curse a thousand times over: Lairsaph. Bemused, the scoundrels dragged the boy to his father.

Lairsaph laughed for nearly an hour after discovering that Lord Bhrostra had actually raised his whelp, and in cruel amusement welcomed his son into his camp. The Feign Prince gave the boy the name Seltyiel—a corruption of the elven word for malicious humor—and turned his mind to finding a use for the youth. In the weeks following his son's arrival, the sorcerer made several cruel attempts to coax forth some evidence of the boy's inborn arcane ability. Despite his efforts, though, it swiftly became apparent that his son possessed none of the brigand lord's sorcerous blood. Disgusted, Lairsaph dismissed Seltyiel, relinquishing him to the ranks of his craven, sycophantic followers.

For the next decade, Seltyiel scraped out a life among the thieves of the Whisperwood. Pale, morose, and slight of frame, he suffered endless abuses at the hands of his father's gang, and as Lairsaph and his men grew rich off brigandry and violent raids, the half-elf performed menial tasks and scavenged from scraps. Gradually, though, as the boy grew into a young man, he cultivated a quiet intellect and began collecting the objects his father and his men discarded—typically the letters, ledgers, and books of the merchants they preyed upon. Slowly he taught himself to read, first Taldane, then other languages. As he neared his 20th birthday, he made his greatest discovery amid a treasure-stripped caravan wagon: a tattered tome, a book of simple magic. Seltyiel became obsessed. For years, the bastard read the tome over and over, learning its runes, memorizing its symbols, and gaining some measure of control over the cantrips within.

In the half-elf's 23rd year, Lairsaph and his men made a daring robbery, stealing a fully-loaded taxwagon headed back to Egorian from the Majestrix's eastern holdings. Although cunning, the brigand lord was unprepared for the infernal queen's swift reprisal and the skill of her hunters. A half-legion of Chelish soldiers led by an Order of the Rack Hellknight tracked Lairsaph to his hidden camp and turned an evening's debauchery into a night of fire and blood. The swift attack scattered the Feign Prince's men, making them easy pickings for the merciless soldiers. In a blur of shouts and slashing blades, Seltyiel found himself fleeing—to his shock—at his father's side. Through the night, war hounds and the tenacious Hellknight pursued the father and son. Lairsaph exhausted every spell he could conjure attempting to stymie the ironclad hunter, but still the infernal knight came. Finally, knowing his capture would mean a lengthy torture followed by a dramatic execution, Lairsaph turned to his son, drew him close, and, with the butt of his spear, shattered Seltyiel's kneecap.

Knowing only that the criminals of the Whisperwood were led by an elf, the Magistrix's men drug Seltyiel back to Egorian in chains. For weeks, the half-elf suffered constant tortures and arcane assaults to his mind. Gradually, though, his captors accepted that he was not the brigand lord Lairsaph, but merely the Feign Prince's dupe. Dismissed as just another bandit, he was thrown into a dank Chelish dungeon and, for nearly 5 years, left to rot.

During Seltyiel's imprisonment, the whispers came. Seemingly drifting from the darkness in the depths of his reeking cell, they were a cool balm to the fires of his angry wounds and smoldering hatred. They reminded him of his fear, his violent youth, his loathing, and betrayal. They also told him much: tales of magic more ancient than the gods, paths to lost treasures with feckless guardians, and the names of beings who could teach him secrets unknown to men. For long years he listened, and his soul turned to steel. If he was to ever have anything, he would have to take it himself. He would have riches and influence like Lord Bhrosta. He would have respect and fear like Lairsaph. He would have revenge.

In 4707, Seltyiel was released. Cold and determined, he walked from Egorian to Westcrown, murdering two thieves met along the way with arcane fire. Using their twice-stolen coin he bought passage on a ship with no clue as to its destination. He would kill his fathers, he would have revenge—but first, he would have power.

Seltyiel debuts as a pregenerated character in volume 13 of Pathfinder.

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

Pathfinder 11 Art Preview

Friday, May 23, 2008

Pathfinder #11, "Skeletons of Scarwall" presents the 5th exciting chapter in the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path. Here's a sneak peek at some of the incredible art you'll see when it releases next month!

Mike McArtor
Editor

The Korvosan Cards

Thursday, May 22, 2008

One of the highlights of working in a gaming company with product lines as closely related as Paizo's is to see an idea you presented in one product show up in another. In fact, even though James Jacobs is systematically destroying the city I lovingly and painstakingly crafted in Guide to Korvosa, it is immensely satisfying to see features of Korvosa I created presented in our flagship product. Along those same lines, two of the excellent cards in the Curse of the Crimson Throne Item Card set come directly from Guide to Korvosa.

First up is the coin card. This card presents a gold sail as minted in the Golden Vaults of Abadar. Of course, the coin is generic enough that you can use it for coinage from any governmental entity that produces its own numismatics.

The other card shown here is a badge of the Korvosan Guard, the main branch of Korvosa's armed forces. Like the coin card, though, the symbol is sufficiently generic enough to allow you to use it for whatever you want.

Check out these and 52 other awesome pieces of art in the upcoming Curse of the Crimson Throne Item Card set, set to release on June 11th!

Mike McArtor
Editor

Here Comes the Neighborhood

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Darkmoon Vale is a dangerous place (indeed, it hosts the modules D0, D1, D1.5, E1, and LB1). Probably the most dangerous place in Andoran. But it does not exist in a vacuum. To give you a sense of place regarding the vale and what's around it, we present you with this sneak peek at the forthcoming Guide to Darkmoon Vale.

Neighbors

While civilization seems to actively avoid Darkmoon Vale, it has little problem developing in the areas surrounding the insular vale. The following descriptions offer a brief look at the largest or most influential civilized locations of interest near Darkmoon Vale. The interaction of these locations with Valers varies greatly.

Highhelm: An ancient and expansive dwarven Sky Citadel within and beneath lofty Emperor's Peak, Highhelm remains the center of dwarven culture on Avistan, as it has for millennia. Northeast of Highhelm, dwarves control the Five Kings Mountains with unquestioned authority, and passage among the many high peaks remains relatively safe from living dangers. Dwarven caravans from Highhelm seldom come to Darkmoon Vale, as most of them head west into Isger or Molthune. Roughly two or three times a decade, though, a group of Highhelm merchants gathers together and sends a caravan along the treacherous scree-covered trails that wind perilously through the mountains. The dwarves prefer to hire dozens of mercenaries to augment their tough dwarven guards and to act as arrow-fodder and spear-catchers during the inevitable attacks on these wealthy caravans.

Oregent: This large city several miles south of Darkmoon Vale houses the main office of the Lumber Consortium as well as its massive factory-like forges and sawmills. The government and people of Oregent consider themselves friends and allies of Darkmoon Vale, and particularly of Falcon's Hollow. Most newcomers to the vale originate in Oregent, either as citizens of that city or as travelers passing through from points south and east. In addition to company policies and replacement lumberjacks, Oregent also provides Darkmoon Vale with its main connection to the greater world beyond. Information flows into Olfden and Falcon's Hollow through Oregent, and many Valers suspect the news provided to them also flows through a Lumber Consortium filter, painting the company in the best possible light.

Inn of the Wood: Situated a short day's walk south of Olfden, Inn of the Wood is a popular place to relax for those traveling to or from Darkmoon Vale. The inn is the easiest place to find the sheriff of the Shire of Elberwick, Cage Blunnde. It is also the only safe place to spend a night between Olfden and Oregent, so it is frequently crowded. (For more information on the inn, see TC1: Into the Haunted Forest.)

Mike McArtor
Editor

Meet The Artists: Concept Art House

Monday, May 19, 2008

So, it struck me that we haven't spent much time on this blog talking about art. We've shown off plenty of it, but remember, it all has to come from somewhere! Sometimes we go to specific artists to get illustrations for Pathfinder products, but we also work with several studios of artists as well. One of our favorites to work with is Concept Art House.

Concept Art House is an international art studio/outsourcing company whose clients include the film industry, video games, print media, and entertainment related intellectual properties—like Pathfinder. The core founders have over 20 years of industry experience, and while they're headquartered in San Francisco, California, they also have a full production studio in Shanghai, China. You'll be seeing plenty of their work in the pages of Pathfinder products (such as the two illustrations featured with this post), but if you'd like to see more, head on over to their art galleries at www.conceptarthouse.com. Trust me, it's worth the visit!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

It's a Hardcover!

Friday, May 16, 2008

This Gen Con, something pretty exciting is coming to Golarion—a hardcover book! I'm talking, of course, about the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting. Wayne Reynolds gives us the first look at one of the campaign setting's big bad guys, the infamous lich known as the Whispering Tyrant as he takes offense at Valeros, Seoni, and Merisiel's intrusion upon his personal time. Here's hoping those heroes have built up enough experience points to be epic level—otherwise, what are they doing messing around with the Whispering Tyrant in the first place?

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

His and Hers Full Plate

Thursday, May 15th, 2008

Well, not exactly, but the lovely armor worn by Queen Ileosa's Gray Maidens—from the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path, and thus the Curse of the Crimson Throne Item Card deck—is for women only. Make no mistake, though: you do NOT want to mess with them, no matter how good their armor looks.

On the even less subtle side, the Hellknight Order of the Nail stomps around Korvosa in their less stylish but far more intimidating apparel. As befits an organization with "Hell" in its name, the Hellknights dress to inspire fear and wonder in those who meet or oppose them. Unlike the Gray Maidens, though, the Hellknights are open to people of both genders.

Check out these and 52 other awesome pieces of art in the upcoming Pathfinder Item Cards: Curse of the Crimson Throne Deck.

Mike McArtor
Editor

Pathfinder RPG Alpha Release 3 Preview

Wednesday, May 14, 2008
The third, and final, release of the Alpha playtest version of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is rapidly approaching completion. Over 17,000 gamers have downloaded the Alpha rules and the messageboards have been buzzing with activity. Release 3 includes the final three base classes, the bard, the monk, and the ranger, along with rules on simple NPC generation, monster creation guidelines, and a host of other rules. In anticipation, here is a look at the new ranger (built using the NPC generation rules).

Kiramor, The Forest Shadow
Male human ranger 8
LN Medium humanoid
Init +8 (+10 in forests, +9 in urban); Senses Perception +11
Defense
AC 18, touch 14, flat-footed 14
(+4 armor, +4 Dex)
hp 57 (8d10+16)
Fort +8, Ref +10, Will +2
Offense
Spd 30 ft.
Melee mwk longsword +11/+6 (1d8+2/19–20)
Ranged +1 composite longbow +13/+8 (1d8+3/x3)
Ranged +1 composite longbow +7/+7/+2 (1d8+7/x3)
Special Attacks favored enemy (humanoid [orc] +4, magical beast +2), favored terrain (forest +4, urban +2), hunter’s bond
Statistics
Str 14, Dex 18, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 8
Base Atk +8; Cmb +10
Feats Deadly Aim, Die Hard, Endurance, Improved Initiative, Many Shot, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Rapid Shot
Skills Climb +13, Heal +11, Intimidate +10, Knowledge (geography) +12, Perception +11, Stealth +20, Survival +11 (+15 follow tracks), Swim +13
Languages Common, Orc
SQ swift tracker, track, trapfinding, woodland stride Combat Gear potion of barkskin (+3), potion of cure moderate wounds (2), potion of invisibility; Other Gear cloak of elvenkind, +1 composite longbow (+2 Str), +1 studded leather armor, gear and coins worth 500 gp

Check out some of his new abilities, like favored terrain (which gives him a bonus to Knowledge (geography), Stealth, and Survival skill checks, as well as a bonus on initiative when he is in his favorable terrain) and hunter’s bond (which allows him to grant some of his favored enemy bonuses to his allies). Release 3 should be ready for download next week.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Men of the Broken Towers

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

In trying to choose a topic for today's blog post on Leigh Brackett's The Ginger Star, I had a rough time. After raving about Brackett's prose in my last post, I knew that I wanted to share an excerpt—but which one? The scene depicted on the cover, where Stark and the mysterious wise woman face execution? Perhaps his fight with the Children of the Sea? Or his escape from the subterranean world of humanity's ferret-faced descendants? Eventually, though, I realized that there's one scene in particular which stands out in my mind whenever I'm thinking about this book: the first appearance of the Corn King, after Stark's been captured by the treacherous trader Amnir. While it's a bit longer than the usual excerpts we post here, I hope you'll find it as captivating as I do.

Amnir rode along the line of wagons. "Close up there. Close up. Smartly now! Let them see your weapons. On your guard, watch my lance point, and keep moving."

The broken towers were grouped around an open circle, which had a huge lump of something in the middle that might once have been a monument to civic pride. Three figures stood beside the monument. They were gaunt. Tuck-bellied, long-armed, slightly stooped. They wore tight-fitting garments of an indeterminate gray color, hoods covering narrow heads. Their faces were masked against the wind. The masks were worked in darker threads with what appeared to be symbols of rank. The three stood immobile, alone, and the ragged doorways of the buildings gaped darkly on either hand.

Stark's nostrils twitched. A smell of living came to him from those doorways—a dry subtle taint of close-packed bodies, of smoke and penned animals, of dung and wool and unnamable foods. He was riding in his usual place beside the third wagon in line. Gerrith was behind him, beside the fourth; the other captives strung out behind her, except for Halk, who was still confined. Stark tugged nervously at his bonds, and the armed man who led his beast thumped him with his lance butt and bade him be still.

The noise of the wagons rolled against the silence. Amnir rode aside, toward the three gray figures. Men came after him bearing sacks and bales and rolls of cloth.

Amnir halted and raised his hand. The hand held a lance, point upward.

"May Old Sun give you light and warmth, Hargoth."

"There is neither here," said the foremost figure. Only his eyes and his mouth showed. The eyes were pale and unreadable. Above them, on the forehead of the mask, was the winged-disc sun-symbol, which Stark had found to be almost universal. On the sides of the mask, covering the cheeks, were stylized grain patterns. Stark supposed the man was both chief and high priest. It was strange to find a Corn King here, where no corn had grown for centuries. The man's mouth had thin lips and very sharp teeth. His voice was high and reedy but it had a carrying quality, a note of authority.

"Here there are only my lord Darkness, and his lady Cold, and their daughter Hunger."

"I have brought you gifts," said Amnir.

And the Corn King said, "This time, you have brought us more."

The wind blew his words away. But Amnir's lance point dipped and a movement began along the line of wagons, a bristling of weapons. The man leading Stark's beast shortened up on the rein.

In a curiously flat tone Amnir said, "I don't take your meaning."

"Why should you?" said the Corn King. "You have not the Sight. But I have seen. I have seen it in the Winter Dreaming. I have seen it in the entrails of the Spring Child that we give each year to Old Sun. I have seen it in the stars. Our guide has come, the Promised One who will lead us into the far heavens, into warmth and light. He is with you now." A long slender arm shot out and pointed straight at Stark. "Give him to us."

"I do not understand you," Amnir said. "I have only captives from the south, to be sold as slaves to the Thyrans."

The lance point dipped lower. The pace of the wagons quickened.

"You lie," said the Corn King. "You will sell them to the Citadel. Word has come from the high north, both truth and lies, and we know the difference. There are strangers on Skaith, and the star-roads are open. We have waited through the long night, and now it is morning."

As though in answer, the first sullen glimmer of dawn stained the eastern sky.

"Give us our guide now. Only death waits for him in the high north."

Stark shouted, "What word have you of strangers?"

The armed man clouted him hard across the head with the lance butt. Amnir voiced a shrill cry, reining his beast around, and the wagons began to move, faster and faster, the teams slipping and scrabbling on the frosty ground...

James Sutter
Planet Stories Editor

The Cinderlander

Monday, May 12, 2008

In "A History of Ashes," you'll be introduced to a wide cast of misfits, troublemakers, heroes, anti-heroes, and outright villains. The complicated part? For many of these NPCs, which of those roles they'll end up playing will depend on how the PCs interact with them. One such character is the mysterious Cinderlander, a man whose family was slaughtered by the Shoanti, leaving him with nothing but a burning need for vengeance. He abandoned his former life and walked into the Cinderlands, where he became a figure of legend—many Shoanti believing that the Cinderlander can't be a living man, but rather a spirit of wrath fueled by men slain during these raids into the southern lowlands.

After years of hunting and killing Shoanti, the Cinderlander gradually achieved two cynical epiphanies—first, no matter how many Shoanti he killed in his lifetime, there would always be more; and second, that the Shoanti were already a doomed culture, gradually being crushed between civilization to the south and more brutal orcs to the north. His righteous fury largely exhausted, the Cinderlander now rents himself out as a guide for those who seek to cross the Cinderlands in safety, facilitating the inland travel of southerners. He secretly resents the paradox that over the years he has gradually become far more like the Shoanti he hunts than the Chelaxian heritage he thought he was defending, yet he knows little else.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Peer into Pathfinder #10

Friday, May 9, 2008
Take a look with me into the future as art from Pathfinder #10—Curse of the Crimson Throne: "A History of Ashes".
Jacob Burgess
Online Retail Coordinator

A little history for Falling: The Goblin Edition

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Sometimes it truly amazes me how things work in real life. Most of the time, there's a strategy behind our product releases. Many months of scheming and preparation go into each Paizo product. Sometimes, though, there's a project like Falling that... falls into our laps.

A few months ago we were sitting around the conference table brainstorming new products for the Titanic Games line. Somebody, I think it was Mike Selinker, said "What about Falling?" That was all it took!

"Let's set it in Golarion!"

"Let's use goblins!"

"Yeah, goblins falling from the sky!"

"Goblins falling from the sky and fighting! We can make another goblin song!"

That turned out to be a perfect fit! A re-envisioning of one of James Ernest's most popular card games, now out of print for many years, was suddenly slated to be our next release.

Coming up with the idea is sometimes the easiest step in producing a great product. Really, it's the quality of the writing or the style of the art that makes or breaks a game. In this case we knew that it was crucial that the art style spoke to the fun and silly aspects of the game while keeping true to the world we were building in Pathfinder. Fortunately for us, we had just the guy to stay true to our vision. Our own in-house Drew Pocza did a tremendous job on our Christmas card last year and we knew his cartoonish style would work perfectly for our version of Falling. Drew jumped at the chance, and the rest just fell together.

Here are another couple of cards from Falling: The Goblin Edition. We hope you like them!

Jeff Alvarez
Titanic Games Brand Manager

A Duo of Deities

Thursday, May 8, 2008

The Pathfinder Chronicles Gazetteer is out now and receiving rave reviews. In case you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, here's an excerpt of what you're missing. I have a soft spot for Shelyn, since she was my first major contribution to the campaign setting, so here's the first official look at her, straight from the pages of the Gaz.

Shelyn

The Eternal Rose
Goddess of beauty, art, love, and music
Alignment: NG
Domains: Air, Charm, Good, Luck, Protection
Favored Weapon: Glaive
Centers of Worship: Absalom, Galt, Sargava, Taldor
Nationality: Taldan

An ancient story tells of how Shelyn stole the glaive Whisperer of Souls from her half-brother Zon-Kuthon in an attempt to redeem him. Obviously, this didn't work, but to the intelligent weapon's great frustration, neither do its continued attempts to corrupt or influence her.

All depictions of Shelyn, regardless of race or ethnicity, show her as a young woman barely out of her youth, with eyes of blue or silver.

Shelyn's ankle-length chestnut hair bears several strands colored bright red, green, and gold. She always wears tasteful clothing and jewelry that accentuates her beauty without revealing too much of it. Shelyn preaches (and practices) that true beauty comes from within, and she favors romances not based solely on lust. Clerics of Shelyn endeavor each day to create something of beauty, whether artistically or through unconventional forms, such as a gardener tending a flower garden.

And, of course, because their histories tie them together, here too is the foul Zon-Kuthon (who also appears in the upcoming Pathfinder #11).

Zon-Kuthon

The Midnight Lord
God of envy, pain, darkness, and loss
Alignment: LE
Domains: Darkness, Death, Destruction, Evil, Law
Favored Weapon: Spiked chain
Centers of Worship: Belkzen, Cheliax, Geb, Irrisen, Nidal, Varisia
Nationality: Alien

The Umbral Leaves, which chronicle the history of Zon-Kuthon, claim that he was once the half-brother of the beauty goddess Shelyn, but that his envy over her talents led him to commit terrible acts against her and her works. For his crimes, the gods of Golarion banished Zon-Kuthon to the Plane of Shadow, there to reside for as long as the sun hung in the sky. Unfortunately, in the depths of the Age of Darkness, Zon-Kuthon emerged from his prison to a benighted Golarion and wept tears of joy. Here was a world ripe for the conquering, hidden from the light of the stars and cloaked in fear and entropy.

Zon-Kuthon is almost never depicted by his followers, but his presence manifests as a deep darkness lurking in the center of paintings, and as a standing doorway that leads only to emptiness.

The Midnight Lord wreaked terrible havoc upon the world in the Age of Darkness, but his malign influence has mostly been purged over the years. The lone exception to this is the Shadow Court of Pangolais, the secret rulers of Nidal. In this dark nation, the faith of the Midnight Lord still rules supreme, the leaders issuing edicts from their pitch-black council chambers.

Mike McArtor
Editor

Guide to Darkmoon Vale Preview

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

We're getting ready to send Guide to Darkmoon Vale off to the printer. Here's a brief excerpt about the hated Lumber Consortium to whet your appetites until the book hits the shelves.

Lumber Consortium

A holdover from the days when Andoran existed as a province of Cheliax, the Lumber Consortium has watched its fortunes and influence wane with the rise of democracy. Although a mere shadow of what it was at its height, the Lumber Consortium nonetheless continues to exert incredible influence over certain regions and communities, particularly in the wild corners of Andoran. Nowhere is this continued power more obvious than in Darkmoon Vale, where the consortium's major tree-felling operation occurs.

Management: No one man controls the consortium. A board of directors, all of whom share a controlling interest in the endeavor, oversees the operations of the collective, forming long-term and large-scale strategies and leaving the day-to-day operations to on-site foremen (known as gavels). The powerful and unscrupulous men who sit on the board of directors include lumber barons and timber magnates, all of whom made their fortunes on the backs of lumberjacks and at the expense of the forests. Never a group possessing high moral standards, members of the board have become increasingly sadistic and cruel as their power has eroded. Whispers tie a few of the directors to the mysteriously sinister Aspis Consortium.

Two gavels—down from the heyday of the consortium's power, when more than a dozen of such men existed—maintain absolute control over the last of the consortium's holdings. In Darkmoon Vale, the gavel is Thaldrin Kreed, a hateful and hate-filled man whose sadistic and cruel ways keep the town pinned under his callused thumb. As a gavel, Thaldrin Kreed has absolute control over the consortium's presence in Darkmoon Vale, including its employees and hard assets. As long as he squeezes out a larger profit each year, Thaldrin Kreed can do no wrong in the eyes of the consortium (whose barristers have saved the gavel from the gallows on at least four occasions). With the passage of each year, though, it becomes ever more difficult for Kreed to increase his profits, resulting in ever-more horrific displays of exploitation and greed.

Mike McArtor
Editor

People of the Cinderlands

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

As inhospitable as the burning plains of the Storval Plateau are, several species actively seek to claw a life from the hard clay and lifeless ash.

Gargoyles: Bands of savage gargoyles have long made their home on the Storval Plateau. In the Cinderlands particularly, the ashen and brick-colored gargoyles of the Ashwing tribe soar from aerie to aerie, snatching up whatever meals they can and taking wing when the fires of the land grow too near.

Orcs: Raiders from the Hold of Belkzen and brutes from Urglin frequently prey upon the same animals as the native Shoanti, and upon the Shoanti themselves. Fearful of the deadly land, they rarely linger for long, yet it's not uncommon to fine the charred remains of orcs who were unable to outrun an emberstorm.

Shoanti: The Shoanti tribes of the Sklar-Quah wander the Cinderlands, preying upon the lands' deadly predators and following migrating aurochs. The flames of the land have long held a place in the faith and traditions of these warlike barbarians, most noticably in the fearless charges of the burn riders and in the rite of passage all quah members must face: the Burn Run (see "People of the Storval Plateau" and the Pathfinder's Journal in Pathfinder #7).

Varisians: The wandering cousins of the Shoanti occasionally make their way through the Cinderlands, always either on their way somewhere else, or just to say they've been.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

You Can't Keep a Good Kobold Down

Monday, May 5, 2008

In Revenge of the Kobold King the PCs once again find themselves facing perilous death in Darkmoon Vale, but this time they are working for a man as dangerous as any monster prowling the shadowy forest.

Thuldrin Kreed, by far the most powerful of Darkmoon Vale's lumber barons has long ruled Falcon's Hollow with a clenched fist, feeding on the misery of its common folk. When some undetermined and insidious force menaces his interests in the vale and leaves a camp of lumberjacks slaughtered in the night, Kreed requires a band of brave fools to deal with the threat.

Interested in the job? Have a little chat with Thuldrin Kreed, Gavel of the Lumber Consortium:

"We all know I'm a mean ol' bastard. I bleed these men and women for all they've got, but I pay them square, and there ain't no chains on their wrists. You think I don't care about these men? Then you're a fool. I need them. Sure I may grind these men to paste with years of back-breaking toil, but whatever's out there now is killing em. Nobody's puts a knife to my men but me. You go out there and get what did this. I'll not have my men slaughtered like pigs.

"Boss Teedum's going with you to make sure you succeed. I do not trust a task like this to outsiders alone. Those men deserve justice that's for certain, but more importantly I'm not about to let anything threaten my interests in the Vale. If you fail, get your bowels opened on a blade, find yourself between a monster's jaws, or just plain loose the steel in your spine, Pay Day's there to pick up what you drop and see it through. I'm not laying down for monsters, stumpy dwarf ghosts or the prancing fey. This Vale is mine, and I'll keep it. I'll burn the whole gods-be-damned forest to ash before I let someone take it from me."

Revenge of the Kobold King is a 16-page full-color Pathfinder Module that will be Paizo's offering at Free RPG Day on June 21. Revenge is the sequel to Paizo's first-ever module, Crown of the Kobold King. To see if your local store is a participating retailer, visit freerpgday.com.

Shortly after Free RPG Day, Revenge of the Kobold King will be available for sale in print and as a free PDF, exclusively at paizo.com.

Nicolas Logue
Organized Play Coordinator & author of Revenge of the Kobold King

Joshua J. Frost
Director of Sales & Marketing

Second Darkness

Friday, May 2, 2008

With Pathfinder #12, we'll have introduced our twelve core "iconic" characters, the heroes you'll see going up against the bad guys in all Pathinfder products. These iconics are basically meant to be stand-ins for your PCs, but once we hit our 11th one (Lini the gnome druid), we'd covered all of the core classes. Our 12th iconic will be our "iconic multiclass" character—a fighter/sorcerer (keep an eye for his debut on our blog in a few weeks), but after that, we didn't really want to dilute our iconics by coming up with new ones. Nor did we want to put the same characters on the cover over and over.

Instead, with Pathfinder #13, our cover characters are transitioning from PCs to NPCs. Just as Karzoug appeared on the alternate Gen Con cover to Pathfinder #1, going forward, we'll be putting important NPCs from the adventure on the cover. In some cases, this NPC will be that adventure's primary villain, but in others the NPC may end up being an important ally. Pictured here is the cover to Pathfinder #13, which unveils our first drow character as well—whether or not she's destined to be an ally or an enemy isn't something I'm going to spoil here. But, come on. She's a drow! And look at that crossbow! You can't get into the good-guy meetings with that kind of accessorizing going on!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

PaizoCon 2008

Thursday, May 1, 2008

This past weekend, roughly thirty adventurous gamers descended upon the LaQuinta Inn in Bellevue, Washington to participate in the first annual PaizoCon. In attendance were several of our messageboard family's most visible personalities, including Lilith, Chris Mortika, Pete Apple, Grimcleaver, Timitius (who put together the event), Russ Taylor, and many more. Paizo itself made an appearance Saturday, with Lisa, Vic, James, Wes, and Erik (along with Open Design's own Wolfgang Baur!) answering questions and joking around with everyone at the Game Industry seminar. Josh, Corey, and I stayed shyly in the back, while Cosmo sneaked around the room snapping pictures, including the four presented here.

After the seminar, the Paizo staff mingled with the con's excellent attendees, and eventually a number of Pathfinder RPG games broke out (run by Wolfgang Baur, Jason Bulmahn, James Jacobs, and Russ Taylor), as did demos of Titanic's upcoming Yetisburg and Falling, as well as Kill Doctor Lucky and Key Largo.

Here's a look at the entire room, including the panelists, during the seminar.

Here's a look at everyone during the seminar.

From left to right: Lisa, Vic, Erik, Wolfgang, James, and Wes, with Lilith off to the right reading off questions.

From left to right: Timitius, James, Jason, and Mike.

To see all of Cosmo's pictures and to get a glimpse at what the elusive bronze dragon editor looks like in his human form, check out this page. For a different perspective, check out Timitius's pictures. For a detailed recap and a chance to weigh in, check out this thread on our messageboards.

Mike McArtor
Editor

Pathfinder Companion Art Preview!

The Creepy Crepitus

Ecology

Habitat & Society

Art!

Taking Back Escapism

Meet The Iconics: Seltyiel

Pathfinder 11 Art Preview

The Korvosan Cards

Here Comes the Neighborhood

Neighbors

Meet The Artists: Concept Art House

It's a Hardcover!

His and Hers Full Plate

Pathfinder RPG Alpha Release 3 Preview

Men of the Broken Towers

The Cinderlander

Peer into Pathfinder #10

A little history for Falling: The Goblin Edition

A Duo of Deities

Shelyn

Zon-Kuthon

Guide to Darkmoon Vale Preview

Lumber Consortium

People of the Cinderlands

You Can't Keep a Good Kobold Down

Second Darkness

PaizoCon 2008