Announcing RPG Superstar Season 9!

Friday, July 31, 2015

Hi, I'm Owen K.C. Stephens, the host of RPG Superstar. Welcome to the beginning of Season 9!

You probably already have some questions!

Once again, we'll be doing things a little differently for RPG Superstar. First, as you may have guessed, the next contest is happening MUCH earlier in the calendar year than before. This time we are starting the Open Call round next Friday, August 7th. We'll run five rounds total to find our winner, who will be announced October 30th. There are lots of reasons for the scheduling changes, not the least of which is that fans, potential contestants, and judges can't participate when we hold it over the holidays.

Every year there are some folks who would like to be involved, but don't hear about the contest until after it's gotten started, so we're announcing it early! The hope is that by announcing the schedule in advance, we can encourage fans to help get the word out and increase the chances that everyone who wants to be part of this event can do so. We also announced the new schedule at the "Be the Next RPG Superstar" panel yesterday at Gen Con.

It's also worth noting that we've switched to "Seasons" of the contest, rather than attributing each to a year. Since this is the ninth RPG Superstar contest, we're calling it "Season 9." That's a change in name only, since we've already crowned Monica Marlowe as Superstar 2015. We thought it was important for the folks involved in the both 2015 and Season 9 to know they don't have to “share" Superstar titles and achievements.

The above are only a few of the things that we've changed up this time. How we determine the Top 32 and our 4 alternates is now going to be decided exclusively by the popular vote. We'll have the same comparison voting we've done for the past several years, but the bottom few percentages of vote-getters will be culled out every few days. Once voting closes, we'll also provide a list of the items that fell short of this mark, but landed in our top 100 entries in alphabetical order. For the first time, all the voting for the Open Call is entirely in the hands of the fans. Our Open Call judges will give feedback about the Top 32 because we know how important that feedback is to a lot of people, but not until after voting is over.

Here are a few more Season 9 details:

• The Open Call round has changed to: design a wondrous item, magic armor, or magic weapon
• We're allowing 50 words of description for the maps in Round 2
• We're going to have some pre-generated maps contestants must use for their encounter design in Round 4.

Exact rules for later rounds will be available as the contest progresses. The main thing to know for Open Call is the category of items to submit, that we aren't allowing siege weapons, intelligent items, or cursed items, and that the only rules contestants should reference are those available on the PRD.

We also have a wonderful line of judges lined up including two return RPG Superstar winners, some interesting challenges, and many fewer last-second twists than last year. Which isn't to say we may not have more twists in the future! I believe making sure we don't get into a rut is important, but for now, the earlier contest schedule and revisions to Open Call are plenty of change.

So get your calculators and graph paper ready, warm up your playtesting dice, and spread the word for everyone to prepare for RPG Superstar Season 9! You can find more information on the main RPG Superstar page.

Owen K. C. Stephens
Developer and RPG Superstar Host

Fly like a...

Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 02:00 PM Pacific

Those goblins sure do like to get themselves into trouble. Looks like fun
though!

Liz Courts
Community Manager

If You Die on Rainbow Road, You Die in Real Life

Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 01:27 PM Pacific

The annual Gen Con Skeleton Crew Pizza Business Summit was a great success! We hope everyone at Gen Con is having a great time! Time to head back to the mines! :D

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director

A few choice words

Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 11:29 AM Pacific

Queen Abrogail has something to say to those who sow rebellion in her realm!

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Pathfinder Tales Signing

Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 09:41 AM Pacific

Pathfinder Tales authors (from left to right) Richard Lee Byers, Gary
Kloster, Josh Vogt, Michael A. Stackpole, James L. Sutter, Chris A.
Jackson, and Howard Andrew Jones prepare for a group signing.

But since no gathering of Pathfinder Tales authors has ever reached this
size, we don't know what to call it! Is it a gaggle? A pod? My guess is "an
asylum".

Mark Moreland
Developer

Sneaky Goblin Approves of our Occult Adventures Display

Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 09:29 AM Pacific

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Gen Con Booth Button: Friday

Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 09:23 AM Pacific

Friday's booth button is our new Iconic Spiritualist, Estra!

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

A Royal Summons

Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 07:23 AM Pacific

Her infernal Majestrix demands your presence at the Paizo booth!

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Good News Everyone!

Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 06:20 AM Pacific

Pathfinder Society HQ is happy to report the following from Thursday night!

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Gen Con Booth Button: Thursday

Thu, Jul 30, 2015 at 04:32 PM Pacific

Thursday's free booth button was Occult Adventures!

Sara Marie
Customer Service Dire Carebear Manager

Goblin Attack!

Thu, Jul 30, 2015 at 2:06 PM Pacific

Goblins are attacking Sandpoint in the Sagamore Ballroom at Gen Con! Thanks to Miniature Building Authority for the sweet terrain!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Shiny!

Thu, Jul 30, 2015 at 12:08 PM Pacific

Pathfinder Society volunteer Nathan King shows off his Wayfinder!

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Hangry

Thu, Jul 30, 2015 at 07:41 AM Pacific

Toothless wanted something more substantial than fish apparently!

Liz Courts
Community Manager

All is quiet

Thu, Jul 30, 2015 at 05:26 AM Pacific

...for now.

Liz Courts
Community Manager

A warm welcome

Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 02:35 PM Pacific

Literally rolling out the red carpet for gamers!

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Group survey time!

Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 08:47 AM Pacific

Okay, survey time since we can't come to a consensus among the setup crew:
Is a group of goblins called a horde, murder, or pyre?

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Display case goodies!

Wed, Jul 29, 2015 at 08:23 AM Pacific

Check our what's in our display case at Gen Con!
...Huh. We have a GM's screen in there too. Wonder why that is...

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Season of the Righteous—The Story So Far

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

This week marks the start of the third chapter of the Season of the Righteous storyline for the Adventure Card Guild. Season of the Righteous is a complementary story to the cataclysmic events of the Wrath of the Righteous. The heroes who brave its dangers are fully as powerful and important to the plot as those who go through the main AP, but they deal with other events of the Fifth Crusade.

Where is the Herald of Iomedae at the start of Wrath? Kicking demon butt with you, of course.

Who finds the Lexicon of Paradox? The saints and martyrs who complete Adventure 3, premiering at Gen Con this Thursday!

The Story So Far (beware—this way lies season spoilers!):

Adventure 1-1: Herald's Chosen
The Herald of Iomedae, also known as the Hand of the Inheritor, has divined that demons are up to no good. When are they not? The Herald chose the best and brightest crusaders available (and maybe a Darago or two who snuck in.) You cleared the fortress city of Kenabres of a gathering herd of fiendish minotaurs, as well as a gaggle of demon-summoning, polymorphing witches. You then cut your way past the Fiendish Tree ruler of Storasta to save Fort Clearwater from both itself and demonic invasion. By the end, you were not only granted mythic power for your deeds, but also hot on the trail of an obvious trap, and the Herald totally knew how to safely spring it.

He made the Arboreal Blights. Have fun killing him!
Illustration by Anna Christenson.

Adventure 1-2: War for the Worldwound
Sound the horns, beat the drums, and let sing the tenors of war! With a Rallying Cry, and over the bodies of a few demonic mongrels, you gathered a powerful army to your side. You led them fearlessly against armies of cultists, undead, and demons in order to reach Raliscrad. But the Herald's confidence proved to be hubris: he sprung the demons' trap and was somehow spirited away. Even as you did all you could to keep your army alive, the wardstone in Kenabres shattered. You laid waste to armies of evil, but the demonic hordes are seemingly endless. With the loss of the Kenabres, the line of wardstones, and the Herald, have you already lost the war?

The Lexicon of Paradox

That brings us to the current adventure. Your only hope of stopping the demonic hordes from flooding through the Worldwound is to find the Lexicon of Paradox, the powerful artifact that originally opened the Worldwound. Queen Galfrey would not ask you to undertake such a dangerous quest without assistance. The renowned adventurer Count Varian Jeggare and his bodyguard Radovan Virholt are also looking for the Lexicon, and the queen is sending along one of her most powerful paladins, Captain Oparal.

Radovan: Listen up, you mooks. You die, makes me look bad. You know how much I like to look good.
Varian: Some choose to wield the sword, others the grimoire. I note that we have two hands.

If these heroes and this quest sound familiar to you, it's because they're the stars of several Pathfinder Tales novels by the outstanding Dave Gross, who helped us write the text for this adventure. More details about the events in Adventure 3 are recounted quite directly in Pathfinder Tales: King of Chaos. (Prince of Wolves, Master of Devils, and Queen of Thorns precede that novel, but you don't need to read them first.)

Hope to see many of you at Gen Con! I'll be at the ACG Open, as well as bouncing between the Paizo booth in the exhibitor hall and the ACG area in the Sagamore Ballroom.

Get out there and take back the Worldwound, my crusaders. It's demon-clobbering time!

Keith Richmond
Adventure Card Game Developer

The Case Designed for Champions

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

Over the past several years Battle Foam has lead the gaming industry in cases and custom foam storage solutions. The dedication to quality, customer service, and community support has helped grow Battle Foam into a global company. Battle Foam over the years has partnered with many great gaming companies. Solid partnerships between gaming companies allows both parties to successfully bring a great product to market. Both teams can discuss in detail what their customers need and what will best provide the ultimate storage solution.

About a year ago the amazing people at Paizo and Battle Foam held a meeting to partner on a new Pathfinder storage solution. After many months of hard work from both parties the official Pathfinder Battle Foam bag was created. This new storage solution truly covers all the bases when it comes to transporting your role playing books, papers, and models. The rugged design of the Battle Foam bags have proven to outlast the most grueling of tournament or gamer travel. Each Pathfinder bag features a hard plastic shell interior with a rugged outer waterproof skin. The Pathfinder bag has pockets and storage areas specifically designed for collectors of role playing style games.

The Pathfinder bag also features the ultra soft but durable Battle Foam foam trays. Each tray comes with a lifetime warranty on separation from its bottom and are cut to the exact sizes needed for Pathfinder minis. One of the coolest features of the Pathfinder bags is the MOLLE accessories system that each bag features on both sides. This area was inspired by the US military and allows the customer to attach any number of accessory items to the sides of the bag. This options really makes the bag a totally customizable solution for just about any game type.

The Pathfinder bag from Battle Foam can be purchased directly on our website and ships in just a couple days from time of order. With warehouses in both the US and UK, Battle Foam can handle any order quickly and easily with their great customer service. Check out the images and video below to learn more about this new carrying case!

Romeo Filip
Battle Foam

Banners up!

Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 07:41 AM Pacific

Always a good feeling!

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Books are heavy!

Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 07:05 AM Pacific

Really heavy!

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Guide to the New Season

Monday, July 27, 2015

We're just a few days away from the start of Season 7: Year of the Serpent! That means it's time for an updated Guide! The first big change you'll see is that we've changed the title to: Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide. Pathfinder Society Organized Play has referred to two branches of organized play for the past year, which we have distinguished with the terms Roleplaying Guild and Adventure Card Guild. You'll be seeing more of this term as time goes on.

There are also a few other key changes to note for this revised version of the Guide:

• Added a new Step 1 to character creation that involves choosing between Core and Standard Mode
• Updated some of the class-specific replacements and nuances, such as the exclusive use of the summoner class that appears in Pathfinder Unchained
• Updated the faction symbols to use the new art we released earlier this year
• Updated Season 7 goals
• Added a Faction Journal Card section
• Added a new Core Mode section in Chapter 5
• Added to the Playtest and Errata section, providing additional ways in which a character can retrain features and resell equipment following a rules update
• Revised the Slow progression so that one opts to use the slow progression at the very beginning of an adventure, not at the very beginning of a level
• Presented a concept of Downtime, which is just the Day Job “slot.” This reinforces that everyone has Downtime, even if they don't have a Day Job skill
• Removed technology and glitch information (now available on the Pathfinder Reference Document)
• Removed the list of venture-officers, which changes far too frequently these days to update the list only once or twice a year; this information is available online

In addition to the new Roleplaying Guild Guide, we've released new versions of the Faction Journal Cards for you to download. If you're heading out to Gen Con this weekend to play any of the new Season 7 scenarios, you'll want to grab this updated document for your character! We hope they continue to add flavor to the campaign and help you add additional roleplaying elements to your PFS experience.

Thank you to the Pathfinder Society venture-captains, venture-lieutenants, and Jonathan Choy for helping us compile a list of necessary changes!

The Pathfinder Society Team

Fantastic Promos and Where to Find Them!

Monday, July 27, 2015

Illustration by Andrew Hou

The Paizo crew has begun to roll out for Gen Con 2015. Our trucks are loaded up with tons of Pathfinder products, including some fabulous promo items! Here's the run down of Paizo Promos, that will be available be at the show:

At the Paizo Booth

• Daily Button
  Each day we will have a unique button to hand out. These buttons are free, with no purchase necessary. Make sure you get yours early in the day as supplies are limited and they often go fast! Button designs are a surprise until the day they are released and will be featured during the Gen Con live blogging each morning.
  
  
• Pathfinder Battles Red Dracolisk
  This Pathfinder Battles prepainted Gen Con 2015 special figure is free with a $50+ purchase (before sales tax, does not include subscription pick up items, while supplies last).
  
  
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Promo Card
  The "Temptation of Big Die" promo card is free, with no purchase necessary, while supplies last.
  
  
• Discounted Occult Adventures PDF
  Purchase the Occult Adventures hardcover at the Paizo Gen Con booth and get the PDF for just $5.00! The $5.00 PDF cannot be gifted and purchaser must provide an email address. PDF will be available through purchasers paizo.com "My Downloads" page.

Pathfinder Society

• Unique Button
  The Pathfinder Society button will be available at the PFS HQ in the Sagamore Ballroom. (Free, no purchase necessary, while supplies last).
  
  
• Pathfinder Battles Mystery Miniatures
  Pathfinder Battles prepainted "mystery figures" for ticketed participants in the Thursday-night and Friday-night Pathfinder Society "Special" events.

Scotty's Brewhouse

• Pathfinder Minimate
  Limited-edition glow-in-the-dark Ghost Goblin Minimate figurine, available for sale ($5.00) exclusively at Scotty's Brewhouse. And while you're there, why not grab a pint of "Goblin Ghost Ale" or snack on something from the Pathfinder themed menu specially provided for Gen Con weekend?

In addition to our promos, we have a couple community and social media activities for attendees to join in on:

• Annual Costume Contest
  The Gen Con Costume Contest is back! If you plan on attending Gen Con in Pathfinder cosplay, stop by the booth and get your picture taken to enter.
  
  
• #GoblinHorde
  Have you gotten your hands on all of our goblin promos at the show? Share your finds using this hashtag!
  
  
• Pathfinder Iconic Standees
  Strike a pose! Tag your pictures with #paizoatgencon to get featured on Paizo's official social media outlets (Facebook, Tumblr, or Twitter).

Excited to see you there!

Sara Marie
Customer Service Manager

Living in a Material World

Saturday, July 24, 2015

One of the most interesting things about Pathfinder Online is the fact that the items your character uses are crafted by players. In so many other MMOs, the gear that players crave is the result of killing off specific boss monsters. Sure, PFO's boss monsters drop nice spells and other maneuvers, and killing NPCs is a great way to get the recipes folks need to make all the stuff in the world... but those items still need to be created. Raw components need to be gathered or bought from other players, and a crafter needs to have a specific recipe and must dedicate time to crafting the item.

PFO also has no NPC stores selling gear. The auction houses in the game are stocked entirely by other players, who set their own prices for each item. This leads to an interesting economy where items that are in demand command a much higher price than items that are more niche.

Every week, I travel around the map, checking out all the player-run auction houses. The quality of each auction house depends a lot on the local groups and the players who are taking the time to stock the auction houses. If the local population is sparse, then the auction house tends to be fairly bare, with items listed either being insanely cheap or outrageously expensive. On the other hand, in areas with a higher population, the auction houses are vibrant, with goods changing hands all the time and prices moving toward what the market will bear.

The exception to this rule is settlements which are run with a "commune" philosophy, where everyone contributes everything they have to their central bank, which in turn provides them with all the gear they could want for free. It's a great way to play the game if you don't want to worry about money and gear, but it tanks the local economy for folks who have a more capitalistic bent. These settlements have some of the highest populations... but some of the weakest auction houses.

I have been running a merchant business out of Thornkeep for the past six weeks. My main goal has been to provide new players with upgrades over the starter gear they get when they start the game. It only takes around a week of play before a new player will be ready for better gear, so keeping my supply pipeline full is a hard job. But it is also very profitable. And the money I make has allowed me to start purchasing raw materials from gatherers or refiners rather than having to gather it all myself. This has allowed me to ramp up production of goods to keep up with the ever-increasing new player demand.

The Bloodstone Swords' merchant Gilrin stands outside the Thornkeep Auction House.

Another facet of the economy is that creating finished goods usually involves a web of people. For instance, to make a +2 Steel Longsword, a weaponsmith needs Steel Ingots +2, which are made by a smelter using 22 iron ore, 22 coal, and an ordered essence. Iron ore and coal are gathered by miners, while the ordered essence comes from a dowser. That longsword also needs Basic Strips +2, which a tanner makes using 10 Beast Hides, gathered by a scavenger, and 4 weak acidic items and 1 weak deadly item. Acidic items include smoke peppers and foxfire, while deadly items include belladonna and blood nettle; all of these are gathered by foresters. So it's hard—but not impossible—to make things all by yourself. To make that sword without involving anyone else, you'd need levels in Dowser, Forester, Miner, and Scavenger to gather the raw materials. Then, to refine them, you'd need levels in Smelter and Tanner. And you'd need levels in Weaponsmith to make the finished sword.

Also, some raw materials are localized. For instance, coal is more common on the west side of the map, which is pretty far away from the Thornkeep area. I've had to go out there and gather some coal, augmenting what I find with purchases from local gatherers in the auction houses, and then I haul it back to Thornkeep using the new mule system. Soon, there will be a Buy Order system where I will be able to tell gatherers that I am willing to pay a specific amount for each piece of coal ore they bring me. This way, I won't have to worry about going places to get coal, and the gatherers will know they have a ready source of cash for the stuff they find. This is going to be a huge boost to the player-created economy because players will know there's a particular amount of money being offered for a particular item, and it will help set pricing norms.

So there are already a lot of interesting facets to the economy in PFO. Once the enchanting system is added to the mix, crafters will have a myriad of ways to differentiate their wares (other than price). The economy in PFO has risen from its infancy and is now entering its awkward teenage years. It will be exciting to see how it grows and develops!

Player Profile: Drake and Kachara, Gatherer and Armorer from Keeper's Pass

I first met the person who plays both Drake and Kachara when a large contingent of folks from Keeper's Pass showed up at PaizoCon this year. Keeper's Pass has focused their in-game efforts on gathering, refining and crafting, providing gear for their compatriots in the large EBA alliance. Kachara created a special set of Ornate Steel Plate +3 for my character Laurethoron to wear on special occasions.

Let's hear from Drake and Kachara about how this all came about:

Drake "the Mule" heard the calling of Desna and convinced his twin sister Kachara to follow him wandering the world in search of new things. That led them to the River Kingdoms where they met other wanderers and helped found the settlement of Keeper's Pass. While his sister settled down quickly and found work as a master armorsmith, Drake preferred to get out and explore the land. In his exploration he was always finding valuable gems and ores which seemed to find their way into his pack, apparently not even slowing him down. When he would return to town he would dump out his pack and people would be astonished how much he was carrying. Unfazed, he would shove the haul into the hands of the town crafters—all but the most choice bits of iron and other metals, which he would smelt himself to present to his sister before leaving town to see what else he could find.

Kachara, twin sister of Drake, having no strong ties to anyone else in her home village and no available apprenticeships to the local smithy, decided to follow her brother in his wanderings. Her decision proved the right path for her as it led her to the River Kingdoms where she received training in the crafting of the armors that are in high demand by the adventurers flooding the area. She set herself up with a group of friendly individuals in the mountains a fair ways south of Thornkeep where they founded the settlement of Keeper's Pass. She always has work orders coming in, and the constant stream of work only causes her to improve her craft further. Her brother always returned from his wanderings bearing gifts of iron of the highest quality, which she uses to forge armor for her friends and new family here in the River Kingdoms.

Player Profile: Stache, The Merchant Prince of Kreuz Bernstein

One of the more exciting things that has happened in the game since the launch of Early Enrollment is the revitalization of the settlement of Kreuz Bernstein by Stache. In the early days, Kreuz was practically a ghost town, but Stache and his army of gatherers and crafters have turned it into a thriving hub of commerce. It has the widest selection of Tier 2 gear, which the more advanced players make use of, and the prices for most things are among the most reasonable in the entire Echo Wood. From what I hear, Stache is about to become the first millionaire merchant in the game.

Stache and his crew of refiners and crafters stand outside the Kreuz Bernstein auction house.

Let's hear from Stache himself about how this all came about:

Who is Stache? The Merchant Prince, the man behind the Mustache, the guy who gets it done. The Stache even talks in third person. Stache and his twin ZomoZ (brother from another mother) do a stiff business in virtually everything craftable. Stache has an army of dedicated refiners for every refining job, and tons of crafters pumping out quality goods for the masses. ZomoZ is the strong arm of the law, enforcing trades and defending the infrastructure that his twin has built.

Stache has worked his way up from being a citizen of the Empire of Xeilias (EoX), to being one of the leaders. Yes, that's right, Stache is the mustache behind the curtain, and while he runs his own company, it is almost a one-man company.

Kreuz Bernstein, the home for Stache and many more, has widely been recognized as the best auction house for Tier 2, with a steady supply required for the Empire's war efforts. Stache is an equal opportunity merchant. Large orders have been purchased from virtually every corner of the map, including the monster hunters at Talonguard, the dwarves of Forgeholm, and the students and staff of the one and only Pathfinder University. Shady intermediaries from down south who would rather their names remain anonymous also buy my wares when they are running low. Conservative rumor has it that Stache has crafted a third of all goods consumed by the Empire, with other crafted goods going anywhere there is coin.

The pleasure from profits gained is only exceeded by his pride in his name, his brand, and his very fine Mustache. No person can doubt a deal or trade made, as Stache's word is as good as gold. Stache's company, Stache's Mustache, has also seen the limelight from reclaiming towers for the ability to craft high-tier gear, and for the betterment of the market as a whole.

Are you interested in crafting with someone who has connections to every type of refiner in game, so you do not have to wait for seven people to log in over a week's time to get one thing crafted? Stache has logged in and crafted every day for over half a year strong and there is no stopping this crafting machine! Consider joining Stache's Mustache, Kreuz Bernstein's pride and joy. Search "Stache" in game in the company finder—it's the one and only! There are profits to be made, and war to be had when bored!

Lisa Stevens
CEO

Iconic Heroes Set 4, Part 2

Friday, July 24, 2015

Last week, I revealed three digital sculpts for the upcoming Iconic Heroes Set 4 boxed set of prepainted plastic gaming figures. This week we complete the set with a look at the final three figures, as well as a look ahead to a special promotional repaint figure that will be available free with $50 purchase at Paizo's booth at Gen Con next week.

Let's look at the minis!

Here we have Crowe, Human Bloodrager from the Advanced Class Guide. Crowe is based on artist Wayne Reynolds's own Pathfinder character, so when we wrote an art order that said "just draw your own character here, Wayne," we were pretty confident we'd end up with something awesome. Since Wayne is incapable of producing anything that isn't awesome, we knew it was a pretty safe gamble. Crowe works great for a bloodrager, a barbarian, or really any sort of martial character. His face tattoo gives him a cool exotic look, and his earthbraker weapon looks like it packs a real punch.

When our friends from WizKids brought the paint masters for this set to the Paizo office last week, we all pretty much agreed that Shardra was the most impressive of the bunch. This dwarf shaman comes from the Advanced Class Guide, and for my money I think she's one of the coolest dwarf minis we've done to date. The level of detail on her headdress and the overall "weight" of the figure makes a strong impression. I'm thrilled to add this figure to the collection.

Of course, Shardra wouldn't be complete without her rock lizard familiar, Kolo, who also makes an appearance in this set. You can use Kolo in conjunction with Shardra or simply as a Small/Tiny lizard, something we've produced surprisingly few of in Pathfinder Battles so far. He's a fun addition.

Iconic Heroes Set 4 is expected to hit stores and subscribers this November!

Let's move on from boxed sets to talk about the very special figure above, the Red Dracolisk! This impressive lizard is available free with a purchase of $50 or more at the Paizo booth (#203) at Gen Con next week, while supplies last. We're leaving a few Red Dracolisks behind at Paizo to put up for sale some time after the convention season, so if you miss out on the Red Dracolisk or can't get to the show this year, don't despair!

We also have TWO MORE promotional Pathfinder Battles miniatures that we'll be distributing at Gen Con, but I want to keep their identities secret for now. We'll supply these figures to ticketed players of the Thursday and Friday night Pathfinder Society Specials at Gen Con, so be sure to look out for them at the show. Like the Red Dracolisk, we'll have several available on paizo.com eventually, so missing out at the show won't necessarily mean missing out forever.

I'm going to be spending most of my Gen Con packed away in Paizo's meeting room, but if you see me wandering around the booth, please take a moment to say hello! I love chatting about minis in person even more than I love talking about them here, and I'm eager to see you at the show!

That's it for now. No blog next week, but we'll catch up after the Big Show!

Until then, I remain,

Erik Mona
Publisher

Occult of Indy

Friday, July 24, 2015

Download Standard | Download Widescreen | Download Mobile
Illustrations by Caio Maciel Monteiro and Wayne Reynolds.

Many of us are heading out to Indy next week for Gen Con 2015. In the Paizo booth there will be a huge display made from Pathfinder RPG books, and the latest of them's going to be Occult Adventures. Here's a last preview at the fantastic art before it officially releases on July 29! See you in Indy!

Illustrations by Igor Grechanyi, Caio Maciel Monteiro, and Mariusz Gandzel

Illustrations by Federico Musetti and Subroto Bhaumik

Sarah Robinson
Managing Art Director

Occult Adventures Class Preview: The Kineticist

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Illustration by Suzanne Helmigh

The kineticist is the odd girl out in Occult Adventures. All the other occult classes are spontaneous spellcasters, but the kineticist isn't a spellcaster. Instead the power of the elements surges through her, and she controls the fundamental building blocks of reality in her own way, using her own body as a conduit to unleash and shape raw bursts of power and to assist her in every aspect of her adventuring career. The kineticist class lets you play characters with strong elemental themes, just like those from all sorts of books, TV shows, movies, and other popular media. She can infuse both form (to change the shape and the delivery mechanism for her blasts) and substance (to add extra effects to her blast), making her blasts an extremely versatile weapon indeed in the hands of an experienced kineticist. The kineticist needs the Constitution to withstand those energies and the Dexterity to shape them, which also makes her an oddity among all the classes in the way she operates. She can use her powers at a baseline all day long, but she can also overclock them, pulling in more energy than her body can normally withstand to gain impressive short-term benefits and the lasting advantages of extra elemental energy coursing through her, but at a great cost to her durability.

In the playtest, I was lucky enough to have the most active playtesters for the kineticist, nearly more feedback than all five of the other classes combined, and I was able to work with those playtesters to refine the kineticist and add more options to open up more possibilities for each element. The final version not only has many more wild talent choices in her pages, she also gains about twice as many wild talents over the course of her career (split out between infusions and utility talents), as well as twice as many base skill points each level (4 instead of 2). This allows the kineticist to branch out and cover more areas instead of being super-specialized like in the playtest. In terms of what else is new, internal buffer grants her an ability to store a very small pool of extra energy to use instead of burning herself, and elemental overflow now provides more benefits than ever before, especially if you wind up taking large amounts of burn and begin taking on more and more elemental aspects within your own body. Infusion specialization now works on both types of infusion, so you don't have to pick between form and substance; whichever kind you use, it's reduced automatically. While the kineticist was always able to gather power in order to reduce the burn cost of her next blast, now she gains improvements at higher levels; a kineticist with the supercharge ability and a round to prepare can reduce the burn cost of her blast by a whopping 5! For reference, especially for those not involved in the playtest, that's enough to both empower the blast and double it, essentially shooting out two blasts for 1.5x damage!

Every single element has gotten something new and cool (and since there are new and cool universal talents that anyone can take, that adds even more options). Here's s little bit for each element (there are more for you to discover on your own!): Aether gains telekinetic invisibility, which lets you use strands of aether to dampen sound and refract light around yourself, potentially fooling sound-based blindsense like the echolocation spell. Air can gain evasion and can even haste the whole party by either spending your turn or taking burn to keep it active. Earth can create deadly areas of difficult terrain that cause reduced blast damage—and special substance effects of course!—to everyone inside everyone (pair with grappling infusion substance to make grasping hands of earth that hold them in place to take damage again and again). Fire can burn away an enemies buffs and has fan of flames, a cone-shaped blast available at 1st-level. Water can summon a tsunami to annihilate entire settlements.

Alright, whew! Too many goodies to describe them all, but let's move on to the archetypes. The kineticist archetypes are pretty high-impact, in that they can strongly alter the kineticist in a way that opens up whole new avenues of play. Much of that is thanks to the playtesters who desired alternate styles of play, allowing me to see what we needed most. In the end, I managed to fit five archetypes in there somehow, enough to cover many of the archetypes that playtesters wanted most of all. The blood kineticist gains mastery of blood and can injure a foe without an attack roll by twisting the blood within their body. Sounds good for a vampire, right? So I'll skip alphabetically to the overwhelming soul, which uses Charisma instead of Constitution and doesn't conflict with the blood kineticist; the overwhelming soul uses mind over matter to avoid burn, gaining some of the benefits of a kineticist who took a lot of burn through sheer focus. Overwhelming soul is perfect for a kineticist face character, or for players who don't want to handle the tactics and economy of burn, like a small group of the playtesters. Next up is elemental annihilator. This archetype is all about killing things with blasts, and she trades out all utility talents for increased combat boosts, free combat feats that ignore prerequisites, and a special form infusion that grants her a versatile stream of mixed melee and ranged attacks. The elemental ascetic combines monastic wisdom with elemental powers, adding elemental damage (and of course, the true power of the archetype: delicious extra substance effects like trip, entangle, stagger, and more) to every punch in his flurry of blows. Finally, the peaceful kinetic chirurgeon is the polar opposite of the elemental annihilator and the perfect archetype for a support healer kineticist, giving up infusions and blast-based metakinesis abilities to gain a large number of paladin mercies (1.5x as many as a paladin gets), metakinesis that affects her kinetic healer (like extra healing, healing that brings back a recently-dead target, and quickened healing), and a double size internal buffer that only works for healing. And remember, this healer heals a lot of hit points each time to a single target. Way more than a cure spell.

I hope you enjoy the kineticist and use her to make all the elemental-focused character builds you've only dreamed about playing until now, based on all sorts of books, TV shows, and movies. It's going to be a (kinetic) blast!

Mark Seifter
Designer

Live Audience-Participation Author Game at Gen Con!

Thursday, July 23, 2015

Illustration by Andrew Hou

To celebrate the new partnership between Pathfinder Tales and Tor, this Gen Con we'll be hosting a live audience-participation Pathfinder game with a bunch of celebrity authors! Join me and Editor-in-Chief F. Wesley Schneider as we run acclaimed fantasy and science fiction authors Max Gladstone, Elizabeth Bear, Wesley Chu, and Scott Lynch through a pig-riding, fire-setting, dog-slicing goblin adventure!

Yet this won't be just any celebrity game session. Everyone who shows up to watch will be given a Plot Twist card, and every 5 minutes, Wes will select someone from the audience to play their card, forcing me to rewrite the story on the spot. It'll be a madcap improv adventure—but what else would expect from goblins?

Come play with your favorite authors (and maybe snag an autograph afterward), and learn once and for all whether Wes's audience-fueled heckling can cause me to spontaneously combust! (WARNING: The test-run of this game was so intense that at one point my glasses actually flew off my head and smashed against the wall. So anything could happen!)

The game will take place in the Paizo seminar room (Room 233) on Thursday, July 30th from 5:00-7:00 PM.

Mark your calendars, and we'll see you there!

James L. Sutter
Executive Editor

Meet the Iconics: Yoon

Wednesday, July 22, 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 Yoon, the iconic kineticist!

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Yoon always loved fire—the warmth, the color, the brilliant blaze. Fire always changed, and changed everything around it. Yoon could empathize. Fire was also always hungry—Yoon could empathize with that, too, as her family were immigrants in Minkai, and struggled to support themselves.

Not long after Yoon learned to walk, she learned to climb, and immediately took a shining to the rooftops of Oda. Her father only brought her to the city for the big festivals, and she wanted the best view to watch the fireworks celebrating the Lady of the North Star. Once, when she was climbing, Yoon fell, dropping into the river, and her father had to fish her out. Yoon coughed up a seemingly endless stream of water, and her grandmother scolded her, saying it would have been far worse if Yoon had hit the ground.

Yoon wasn't so sure. Just as fire had always been her friend, water had always been her enemy. All her life, it had taken her mother away on ships, for weeks or months at a time. And in the end, it refused to give her back.

Yoon's mother had been a brave warrior and explorer, and had told Yoon many fantastic tales of adventure and faraway places, primarily in the savage lands to the north. She also brought Yoon things, like the stuffed bear-owl creature named Gom-Gom, or the crooked stick used to play a strange northern game. Yet one day, her mother failed to return. Yoon and her father waited, growing more anxious as each week. When at last a messenger arrived and confirmed her mother's death battling siyokoys, a grief-stricken Yoon decided that no one else would ever call her by the same name her mother had. Forsaking her old name, she insisted on being referred to only by her mother's family name, the one her mother's adventuring companions had called her—Yoon.

Gom-Gom was the first to accept Yoon's new name. Eventually, even her grandmother gave in, though she continued to sniff at the impropriety. Yoon's grandmother had been a palace servant to the Shojinawa family once, and despite the fact that Yoon was determined to become a warrior like her mother, the old woman insisted on teaching her about things like poise, discipline, and self-control, arguing that they were just as important to a warrior as to a court scholar. Yoon didn't quite believe that, but did her best anyway, proving a quick and capable student.

Yoon's father fared worse. Still a loving, caring parent, he grew distant and sad after his wife's death, and spent more time muttering about things like imperial taxes and yakuza corruption. The new friends he made were constantly grouchy, and Yoon came to think of them privately as his Bitter Friends. They spent long evenings drinking and arguing in low voices, always careful to keep the windows closed and doors locked, even in the worst summer heat.

One night, as Yoon was once more watching fireworks in honor of the Lady of the North Star, her father went off to meet those friends. Yet even as the colored stars burst overhead, a new light blazed up to the east—a burning warehouse! Yoon went to watch the citizens fight the fire, but when she arrived, she found the place surrounded by imperial soldiers. Not only were they not helping put out the blaze, they were actively preventing those inside from fleeing. An uncomprehending Yoon wept to hear their cries, plugging her ears against the crunch of tetsubos on bone as the soldiers beat back burning men and women and their captain issued a proclamation about the punishment of Hwan rebels.

That's when Yoon saw her father.

He was in a knot of his Bitter Friends, blackened with ash, struggling to break through the ranks of soldiers. Even as Yoon called his name, she saw him fall beneath the soldiers' blows.

Screaming, Yoon raced for the line of soldiers. She might have gone unnoticed in the din, if not for the flaming board she scooped up and hurled at one of the soldiers, striking him in the helmet. As the man crumpled to the ground, several of his companions turned toward her. Yet as they advanced, truncheons raised, Yoon found her view suddenly blocked by her grandmother, wreathed in a snaking cloud of eerie black flames.

"Run, child!" the woman commanded. "If you listen to me only once in your life, run now, and don't come back!"

Yoon ran—through the city, out the gates, and into the surrounding fields. Only when she could run no farther did she finally collapse, exhausted, into the grass, listening to the night breeze and the song of insects. Behind her, the fireworks still continued, but the brilliant lines and stars no longer held Yoon's attention. As she held up a hand, little flickers of black flame flared into life around it. Her own tiny fireworks.

Her grandmother had commanded her to leave. Yoon understood that. She had struck a soldier, and no one harmed an imperial soldier and lived. But where should she go? She had always wanted to see Hwanggot, her family's homeland, but it lay across the water to the southwest, and there was no way Yoon was crossing that much water. In a sudden flash of inspiration, she decided to head north, up through the Forest of Spirits, then down along the mainland. She would be an explorer, like her mother. And she wouldn't have to be scared. After all, she still had her two oldest friends—Gom-Gom and fire. Between the two of them, they'd protect her.

Yet while a stuffed animal and a magical flame can handle a lot of problems, they weren't truly equipped to handle all Yoon's needs, and she might well have starved to death in the ensuing days and weeks if she hadn't fallen in with a mysterious traveler. Seemingly waiting for Yoon at a crossroads, the man spoke to Yoon of her powers, helping her come to understand them even as he taught her to scavenge and forage for food. Yet his greatest gift came on the slopes of the great volcano Kumijinja, where he called forth the spirits of the mountain's fire, presenting Yoon to them like a visiting dignitary. As the kami touched her, Yoon felt something inside her shift, and the flames that roiled inside her emerged, turning from black to a brilliant red. In that instant, she understood the fire she carried, and it understood her. When she woke from her trance-like reverie, the traveler was gone, leaving Yoon to continue her journeys alone—a child in age, yet armed with the courage of her mother, and the fiery wisdom of the mountain.

Mark Seifter
Designer

A Farewell to Web Fiction

Wednesday, July 22, 2015

For the last five years, Wednesdays have held a special place on this blog. Every Wednesday, it was our distinct pleasure to present a new chapter of serial Pathfinder web fiction. Some stories were from authors you already knew, tied into the latest Pathfinder novels. Others were from first-time Pathfinder authors, trying out new characters in front of a live audience—the entire internet.

Illustrations by Eric Belisle

Of all the fun that the web fiction has brought us, far and away the part I appreciate most is the number of authors who started with web fiction, knocked it out of the park, and went on to become beloved authors in the novel line. Some, like Chris. A. Jackson and Liane Merciel, were already accomplished novelists, simply taking their first crack at shared-world writing. Yet for others, like Wendy N. Wagner, Josh Vogt, and Gary Kloster, scoring a critical hit on their web fiction led directly to the sale of their first published novels. As an editor, there's no greater joy than being the first to snag an author destined for great things, and I cackle with glee at the thought of having been the midwife to those awesome authors' first novels.

But all good things must come to an end.

Over the last half a decade, Pathfinder has grown immensely, and Paizo with it. This blog, once such a fragile creature that it could be taken out simply by removing all the keys on Wes's keyboard, is now a robust beast with more posts per week than there are days. And while the web fiction was once one of very few outlets for folks hungry for Pathfinder fiction, there are now dozens of novels, not to mention the Pathfinder's journals, comics, audio dramas, and a huge backlist of free short fiction. Where once I (and later Senior Editor Chris Carey) desperately needed the web fiction to help us find the next great Pathfinder Tales authors, in the wake of Pathfinder Tales teaming up with Tor/Macmillan, I've got amazing, established authors like Max Gladstone, Sam Sykes, and Richard A. Knaak joining a roster already packed with folks like Tim Pratt, Dave Gross, Chris Jackson, and Liane Merciel. Add in the expense, both in time and money, of buying and illustrating free web fiction stories, and it just doesn't make sense to continue the tradition.

The web fiction we've already posted will continue to be available for free in perpetuity, and I'm also hoping to complete the ePub processing of the stories very soon for folks who prefer to read them that way. We'll also continue to post free sample chapters of the novels as each one comes out to let you test-drive the books before you buy.

Many thanks to all the faithful web fiction readers, and I hope you continue to enjoy Pathfinder Tales in all its various forms!

James L. Sutter
Executive Editor

The Big Reveal: Demon's Heresy!

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Hi everyone! I'm just getting ready to tell you all about Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Demon's Heresy Adventure Deck, but I want to make sure I have everything I need.

Copy of the adventure deck to refer to as I write? Check.

Supply of snacks? Check.

Mike locked in a closet so he can't interrupt me as I tell everyone about Adventure Deck 3? CHECK!

Mike: MRRPH! BANG! BANG!

MUHUHAHAHAHAHAHA! ALL RIGHT! The biggest surprise in all of Wrath of the Righteous set for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is right here in Adventure Deck 3. It's going to BLOW YOUR MIND! You won't BELIEVE it!

Let's Get It Started

But first, let's talk about the adventure. Demon's Heresy takes place after the players have liberated the city of Drezen. This gives them a safe haven in the middle of the Worldwound from which to strike out against the demons. There is so much to be done that the players can pick and choose the order they attempt most of the scenarios before tackling the Ivory Sanctum at the end.

What is this Heresy?

If you're smart, you'll tackle the Demon's Redoubt first. (I'll get more into why later on.) It's a cheeky little scenario where the demon Arueshalae is trapped in a ruined castle. In each deck, there's an extra monster in the form of a Grimslake. And it should be easy to find, since it's right on top. Not too much to worry about. You just have to make a check or bury some cards from your deck. And if you fail, you can bury another card for good measure.

You shall doubt it a second time!

It's not all bad, though. After you close two of the locations, you get to add another one to the mix, with no henchmen or villains in it. Why would you want to do that? KEEP READING!

In the end, you must track down the hag Jaruunicka. She's pretty nasty. She requires a check to play attack spells, she can force you to discard blessings as damage, and she has the second-highest check to defeat of any villain in this deck. Plus, she has an odd little trick if you fail your check: you have to draw as many cards as you're dealt in damage and then recharge the same number. There's a small chance this will immediately kill you, but if it doesn't, you might get a better selection of cards.

What a hag!

The Demon's Dangers

This deck has some truly impressive monsters. Take the Dominion Scientists, for example. They are masters of learning your weaknesses. They deal 2 Force damage to you, and if you take it, they get tougher. Plus they are resistant to magic, which really tends to annoy the casters in the party.

To-o-o-o-oad Science! Ooh!

My favorite, though, is the Toad Demon. Its check to defeat is 28! That's at least 5 higher than any other monster in the deck, which makes sense, as you can reduce it by 5 if you don't go after it with a melee attack. Still, a very high check, and if you fail, it will ribbit all over everyone at your location.

There are four new Temptations in this deck, each with its own risk and reward. Take a gander at the Glimmer of Hope. Every turn, you can take a chance to stall the blessing deck. All you have to do is look at a random card from your deck. You can choose to bury it and the deck will advance normally, or you can banish it, which will prevent the blessing deck from advancing. Who needs all those cohorts, anyway?

Hope springs eternal.

Good Stuff!

As frightening as these dangers are, there are equally great rewards.

For the spells, there's Steal Soul. Play this spell after a character at your location defeats a monster that isn't immune to the Attack trait, and you'll gain a d4 on ALL of your checks for the rest of the scenario. It's hard to think of a bigger advantage than that for casting a single spell.

They weren't using it anyway.

The Unfettered Imp is one of the best allies we've ever created. It lets you acquire Corrupted blessings for FREE if they are on top of the blessings discard pile during your check. A Corrupted blessing is risky, and you have to play it immediately, but you get to keep it afterward.

Much better than the fettered imp.

And let us not forget the Tome of Mental Prowess. I'm amazed this card got printed. It's an item that lets you gain a FEAT. Yes, we've done cards that give you feats before. But this is the first time we've made one that is usable more than once. It does require a Knowledge 30 check to keep it from being removed from the game, but this is the mythic set. Twenty-sided dice are the characters' bread and butter.

Reuse or recycle.

OH MY GOD!

All of that is very cool. Really! But let's get down to it. No one is going to stop me this time.

Mike: MRRRO! MRRRO! MRRROOOOO!

As I said above, after the players close two locations in The Demon's Redoubt, they get to build the Tower of the Fourth Sphere. It's sort of an optional location to explore, as there's no villain or henchmen in it. But if you put in the time and effort to close the location, and you win the scenario, there is an amazing reward.

YOU GET TO PLAY ARUESHALAE!

She's a WHAT?!

For the first time, we've added a new character to the game after the base set. Any one player can choose to switch to playing her after you win this scenario, or a new player can jump right in and join your party. You will get the same number of feats as any other character, right there on the spot. Leave no character behind, I say.

And she's a SUCCUBUS! We're letting you play a DEMON! But it's okay. She's a good demon... for a demon. She delved a little too deeply into the idea of a soul, and Desna gave her one. Well, part of one, anyway. Now she must fight to become redeemed or risk falling back into her old ways.

There are a number of advantages to choosing to switch to Arueshalae. In addition to resistance to three types of damage and the ability to evade any encounter she doesn't like, she has a special cohort called Arueshalae's Gift that she can give to another character. He gets a bonus to all checks in one skill for as long as he has it. But what a demon gives, a demon can reclaim: Arueshalae can take her gift back (or not) on her turn to give it to another character or change which skill it affects.

Arueshalae giveth… and so does Desna.

There's another subtle benefit to being Arueshalae. The loot cards the players get at the end of this scenario all have the trait "Owner: Arueshalae," which means that she can fill out her deck with them if the party comes up short of cards of the same type at the end of a scenario. (She may want to help make sure that happens if she banishes one of them.)

When the time comes for a player to pick a role for the succubus, that player can either choose to fully redeem her or have her fall again.

Two sides of the same coin.

The Redeemed role doubles down on the character's ability to help others. She can gain the ability to get her Gift back at the start of ANY turn, which lets her basically give a bonus to any one skill for each other character on their turn. She can also heal and peek at her location deck.

The Fallen role turns the corruption mechanic in this set on its head. You can use Corrupted cards to heal yourself, but more importantly, you can ignore the Corrupted trait on any card so all of those penalties that others have to deal with just don't affect you. You can also gain the full benefits of the Corrupted blessings, even if the top card of the blessing discard pile isn't also Corrupted. Oh, and she's a succubus, so if anybody doesn't acquire an ally, she will.

Whew. It feels so good to get that off of my chest. I've been trying to tell you about her for so long now. She's so amazing, and now you can finally play with her!

Hey. Wait. I just realized there's nothing stopping me from telling you about the secrets for the next adventure deck, too!

In Adventure Deck 4 we have...

CRASH!

Mike: PETERSON!!!

Ah, never mind! I'd better go.

Paul Peterson
Adventure Card Game Designer

Introducing Six New Agents!

Monday, July 20, 2015

Illustration by Ryan Yee
There are just a few more iconic characters left to bring into Pathfinder Society. Alain has held up the process by demanding we make his character sheet *perfect*.

Over the past several weeks, the design team and other authors have been introducing us to the new Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures iconic characters and sharing some of the changes incorporated since the playtest in late 2014. Subscribers have already begun receiving PDF copies of the new book, which we'll have added to the Additional Resources in time for Gen Con 2015 in just over a week.

Much as we did with the Advanced Class Guide for Gen Con last year, we have also prepared 1st-, 4th-, and 7th-level pregenerated characters for use in the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign for Occult Adventures. These include all of the necessary rules needed to play the character, down to the abridged spell descriptions and class ability explanations. One of the unique challenges in designing these characters was the sheer versatility of them—especially in the case of the occultist, whose base statistics can change depending on how he allocates his mental focus. As a result, we presented those characters with a recommended distribution of points, and we're sure that a player who wants to shuffle those around can add to and subtract from a few modifiers if necessary.

Download them, and use them in your next game!

John Compton
Developer

Tales from Gen Con

Sunday, July 19, 2015

I have a long relationship with Gen Con, stretching back into the previous century. That relationship is tied very closely to the progress of my career, from fan, to freelancer, to Paizo developer. Like many good stories, my tales from Gen Con are best told in reverse.

Last year was my first time at Gen Con as an employee of Paizo, and I spent most of it helping the amazing volunteers running Pathfinder Society events in the Sagamore Ballroom. Watching more than 1,400 tables of people playing Pathfinder together over the course of the convention was an awe-inspiring sight. Watching people spend hours of blood, sweat, and tears to make sure their fellow PFS members had a good time was actually emotionally moving for me. The entire point of RPGs is to play games together, and seeing dozens of people take hour and hours out of their convention fun to help other people's game experiences run smoothly was immensely fulfilling.

Last year was also the first Gen Con where freelance writers struck up conversations with me on the hallway, often getting around to asking if I would have writing opportunities to assign anytime soon. I remember being on the other end of that conversation, and I have to say most Paizo freelancers seem better at it than I remember being.

For many years before I was an employee at Paizo, that kind of networking with developers and editors was the main thing I did at Gen Con. The convention is one of the few places where multiple RPG companies have editors and developers present all in one building, so for a freelance RPG writer it's a target-rich environment. For a decade I considered travel to Gen Con less a vacation (though I always ended up having a great time), and more a necessary business trip. Thankfully I was well-enough known to be invited to the occasional private event, but mostly I went to places where editors and developers were likely to be found (dealer's room booths, the ENnie Awards, bars), and asked if anyone needed anything. I discovered that if developers know you well enough to ask if you can grab them a bottle of water, helping out often later results in being invited to a quick lunch or an event you'd otherwise have missed.

Such impromptu gatherings are amazing opportunities to get to better know people in the industry, and were instrumental in my building a network of people who might offer me work or who I could go to for career or design advice. Of course you have to follow up on such contacts, and don't miss out on opportunities closer to home. At one casual Gen Con gathering a few years ago, I realized that I never spoke to Greg Vaughn, who lived no more than 30 minutes from my house, except when we were both in Indianapolis, hundreds of miles from where we lived. He and I had a good laugh about that, but I also made sure to have lunch with him before the next Gen Con.

In 2010 when I was part of the Industry Insider program of seminars I also discovered there was a second level of networking at well, between peers who already have some success in the industry. Every seminar panel included some time just before and just after talking to the crowd where the panelists would say hi, exchange business cards, and sometimes see what meal plans fellow panelists had. I didn't follow-up on as many of those opportunities as I should have, but I did learn a lot over just a few shared lunches.

The chance to be at such social gatherings evolved slowly over the years I've attended Gen Con. Before anyone knew me by name, I spent most of my time at the convention listening to seminars, playing demo games (often run by luminaries in the industry who already held the kinds of positions I aspired to), and getting to know other gamers. I had some advantage because I worked for Wizards of the Coast briefly in 2000-2001, but for the most part my early Gen Con opportunities came from being in the right place at the right time. I found that the last panel of the day was a particularly good time to be visible and friendly, and more than once got invited to impromptu gatherings of fans and professionals just because everyone was hungry. In one of my early trips to Gen Con I managed to be invited (along with most of the front row of fans) to have dinner with Dave Arneson after he gave a seminar about his experiences with roleplaying games, dating back to his early experiments with Braunstein. I hadn't planned to try to go to dinner with one of the godfathers of my favorite hobby, I just got lucky because I stood around politely when the seminar came to an end.

In fact, my best moments at Gen Con have almost always been things I not only didn't plan for, but didn't even dream might happen. There's aren't that many opportunities for fans of tabletop games to rub elbows with their favorite designers and artists, but Gen Con brings so many people together that you always have a chance at an amazing encounter.

So it was at my very first Gen Con, sometime in the 1990s, I had the honor of playing an RPG with Gary Gygax... for about 90 seconds.

He was at a table in-or-near the TSR/WotC Castle (a magnificent structure used as the TSR/WotC booth in the Dealer's Room at the time), and I believe he was running some edition of D&D. A crowd of us were watching. He was an energetic and exciting storyteller, and just watching him run a game was a lot of fun. Someone's character died (killed mysteriously in the darkness, having walked away from the PCs' campfire and only light source). That player gave up a spot at the table, and Mr. Gygax pointed at me and boomed "You want to play!?"

Of course I did.

A character sheet was slapped in front of me. My turn came soon enough. THINGS were circling our camp. I was a warrior of some type—I think a ranger, but I didn't last long enough to get acquainted with my character. As my one action, I grabbed a burning log from our campfire and hurled it out at the multiple sets of red eyes stalking us. "Good!" Mr. Gygax shouted approvingly, and had me roll a d20. I have no idea what I rolled.

It wasn't good enough to hit any of the red-eyed threats, but it was enough to illuminate them. Massive black wolves, snarling and, we realized talking.

"Kill that one!" Mr. Gygax snarled, pointing at me and explaining the words came from the biggest wolf, directed at the rest of the pack.

And they did.

I lasted exactly one round. Mr. Gygax smiled, told me I was dead, and I should let someone else play.

I've been hooked on Gen Con ever since.

Owen KC Stephens
Developer

The Most Dangerous Game

Saturday, July 18, 2015

In Richard Connell's 1924 short story "The Most Dangerous Game," a hunter bored with animals because they don't have the brain power to be a threat to him instead hunts people he has trapped on his island. This he finds exhilarating, especially when a big-game hunter lands on his shore.

In Pathfinder Online, the most dangerous game is played between two human-controlled characters. Even the most advanced AI cannot provide the challenge and unpredictability of battling another human-controlled character. Many MMO players crave the thrill of this Player-vs-Player challenge and seek out PvP in preference to fighting NPC monsters which can become predictable because of the limits of AI.

Arch enemies Phyllain and Nihimon square off in a duel to the death!

Our goal is to give players meaningful and focused outlets for PvP while disincentivizing the random player killing that plagues other open-world MMOs. In Pathfinder Online, settlements fight over territory and other valuable items. There's still a risk that anybody can attack anybody else at any time, which adds a sense of suspense to your encounters with other characters in the game, but in PFO, meaningless PvP comes with a cost to the aggressor, so the reality is that you will rarely (if ever) have this happen to you unless you are part of a group which is at war with another group.

Territory Warfare Is Here!

With the next patch to the game, players will be able to vie for control of hexes in the River Kingdoms. There are currently 603 claimable hexes in the game; as of the writing of this blog, 219 of them have been claimed by someone by putting down a holding and some outposts. Holdings and outposts produce the bulk goods that settlements will need to grow and thrive once that system starts to come online in a month or so. For the last few months, settlements have been putting down the holdings in anticipation of this. But until now, those holdings were impervious to attack.

A mass battle between Golgotha and Brighthaven over a tower.

In EE10.1, a company will be able to feud the owning company of a holding and then try to seize control of that holding's hex during the controlling company's PvP window, which that company sets. This will be a multiple-day affair. First, the invader will need to capture the hex's outposts. NPC guards will attempt to fight off the interlopers and will give the hex's current owner time to arrive in force to prevent the seizure. The more you upgrade your holdings and outpost, the better and more numerous the guards will be, giving you more time to arrive on the scene and beat back the attackers.

If the attacker is able to take all the outposts in the hex by killing all the guards and then accumulating enough capture points at the holding, the next day they will be able to try to do the same thing to that hex's holding. If they are successful, the attacker will take over ownership of those structures. Ownership of the holding gives ownership over the hex. This is the way that countries, kingdoms and empires will be built, hex by hex. And it all starts in a few days!

The Future of the Most Dangerous Game

Over the next year, new systems will be coming online to add more variety to PvP combat in the River Kingdoms.

First up will be the Faction System. In this system, players will be able to join one of several factions in the game and gain access to benefits from that association, including unique gear, training and locations. But all of these benefits come with a potential drawback: members of a faction opposed to yours can attack you without penalty whenever and wherever they find you. And you can do it to them as well. For instance, two of the first factions will be the Pathfinder Society and the Aspis Consortium. These two age-old enemies hate each other with a passion, and the lore of Golarion is full of stories of their fights against each other. In PFO, lower-tier members of these factions will have the option of flagging themselves for PvP with. members of the opposing faction, but as you rise through the ranks of your chosen faction, the flag for PVP will become non-optional.

Farther down the road, we will add factions such as the Echowood Bandits, the Crusader Knights (including the Eagle Knights of Andoran and the Knights of Iomedae), the Hellknights, and factions serving each of the major gods. Factions provide PFO players with a way to opt into consensual PVP that allows them to add to their character's backstory and purpose in the game.

Even farther on in the game's development, there will be settlement vs. settlement warfare, including siege engines and army-vs-army combat. But those details will have to wait for a future blog.

Player Profile: Nihimon Vhane'Sylvan

The first time I heard of Nihimon was in the earliest days of Pathfinder Online when we sent out a request for supporters to send us videos telling us why they were excited about our game, which we used during our first Kickstarter campaign. In the following years, Nihimon became a strong voice in our online community, helping us crowdforge the game into what it is today. His goblinary.com website has become an essential resource for players interested in studying the game design behind PFO. In-game, Nihimon is one of the leaders of the settlement of Phaeros, a community of wizards in the southern Echowood. Allied with Brighthaven and Keeper's Pass to form the Everbloom Alliance, the Phaerites have been in an almost constant battle with the evil city of Golgotha to their north. Both sides have dealt blows to each other in the last few months. It will be interesting to see how their war changes as new features are added to the game.

Nihimon takes a moment to rest outside the Phaeros library.

I first heard about Pathfinder Online when a friend of mine pointed me to Your Pathfinder Online Character on the Goblinworks blog. I immediately recognized the revolutionary potential of such a game and fell head-over-heels in love with it. The promise of being one of those first players let into the game lured me to become active on the forums. There, I worked hard to be helpful and informative and to push back against the "learn to use search, newb" mentality that plagues so many other game forums. What started with Guild Recruitment & Helpful Links gradually morphed into Pathfinder Online (Public) and culminated in the Goblinary.

The Seventh Veil organization officially announced itself on February 20, 2012, almost exactly two months after the first Goblinworks Blog. We have some of the most active longtime fans of PFO, and many of the players who came together on the forums back then are still actively participating in the community and have been playing PFO since Alpha. We set ourselves the goal of writing useful guides and spreading our knowledge to the rest of the community, and we have achieved those goals with many of the guides linked at Pathfinder Online (Public) having been written by our members.

Nihimon first appeared in the River Kingdoms in the form of an elf wizard. He holds divination magic in high esteem for its ability to lay bare the truths of the world around him. As a Steward of the Seventh Veil, he—along with Decius Brutus—is responsible for the well-being of the citizens of Phaeros, and to a lesser extent all of the Everbloom Alliance. This is a very diverse group consisting of peace-loving gatherers and crafters, hardy adventurers, and stalwart warriors. We have been victorious against several attacks by the Elves of the Mordant Spire, and against hordes of Elementals, but by far our most ruthless and relentless enemies are the raiders from the Empire of Xeilias who attack from the Northern Cragthorns. Although many of us have no love of war, we have answered the challenge. Our many victories do little to quell the attacks, or to give comfort to those who grow weary of endless war. And yet, we do what we must, guarding the precious candle-flame of hope which holds back the shadow of despair.

Player Profile: Phyllain

Every game needs a villain, and the Empire of Xeilias and Golgotha in particular have risen to the occasion, giving players a group to strive against while providing players who want active PvP an organization that funnels their needs into avenues that aren't toxic to the game. Leading this group of miscreants is Benevolent Dictator Phyllain, whose journey to leadership was less "carefully planned rise to power" and more "last man standing." But Phyllain took a situation he wasn't necessarily looking for and turned it into a powerful group in the game, an empire that players will be striving against for a long time to come.

Phyllain evades his enemies.

A brief backstory about Phyllain? This should be fun.

It all started back in the second Kickstarter. One of my buddies told me about it, describing it as "like EVE Online, with swords." I was hooked.

We originally started The Bloody Hand as an unaligned mercenary group of PvPers focused on assassinations and resource interdiction. That dream lasted until we learned about the support mechanic. At that point we needed to find a city that would be willing to support a bunch of Neutral Evil players, or we'd have to found our own. After deciding that it would be too much work to have our own city (oh, the irony!) we decided to join with House Karnath and Maelstrom to found Golgotha. We almost joined Phaeros at that point, but an actual evil city seemed more attractive than a neutral one.

So once we formed Golgotha we started talking to Callambea about an alliance. We would eventually add Auroral and Kreuz Bernstein to this alliance, forming the Empire of Xeilias. At this point I was supposed to just be in charge of small-group PvP—bandit-type stuff.

As Pathfinder Online got closer to Alpha, some of the leadership for the Empire decided the game wasn't for them. By the time we reached Early Enrollment, I was pretty much the only officer left. That's how I went from being the small-group PvP guy for one city to running four cities and an evil empire!

For the first couple of weeks I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off, managing every aspect of everything. It was going ok, but I was burning out fast. At this point there was a sort of player intervention where I ended up promoting a bunch of people to manage specific aspects of running four cities. People were put in charge of recruiting, PvE, production and stuff like that. It reduced my workload significantly and let me focus on diplomacy and stabbing people.

Around this time we abandoned Callambea, Auroral and Kreuz Bernstein. We didn't need them and it wasn't worth the effort to do anything with them. We did everything out of Golgotha and consolidated. There were a few hold-outs in those cities, but for the most part, the people who started those settlements weren't playing the game any longer.

Eventually we turned that around. Quij joined us and picked up Callambea, making it an actual city that could stand on its own. We swapped to a coin economy inside Golgotha and recruited Clan Maugrimor, Dreamless, and Stach. Those three groups have made Kreuz Bernstein into the best-stocked and best-maintained market in the game.

That's where we stand today. Golgotha stands strong against the combined forces of the Everbloom Alliance. Kreuz Bernstein and Callambea are making money off that war handover fist. We keep the server interesting. We are pretty much the only group on the server that actually starts conflict. Every other group on the map responds to what we do. Whether it's coming up and taking us on directly or signing peace treaties and sending us bulk goods for continued peace, we are definitely the "bad guys" of the server. It's a role I love and want to continue.

So if you want to dive right into PvP, or provide for the war machine and get rich doing it, head on over to xeilias.com and put in an application—we will get you going!

Lisa Stevens
CEO

Portuguese Pathfinder Launches in Brazil!

Saturday, July 18, 2015

This past weekend, I was honored to attend EIRPG, a game convention that takes place inside the gigantic Anime Friends convention in Sao Paulo, Brazil! This show heralded the release of the official Portuguese translation of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game!

While many of the gamers in Brazil had English versions of the game, most were very excited to see it released in Portuguese, hoping that the translation would allow the game to become an even bigger part of the game scene in Brazil. I spent most of the show playing games (well, assuming killing player characters counts as playing), giving seminars (with the help of Jessica, my amazing interpreter), and signing books, plush goblins, program books, event tickets, and the walls of the convention (where I also drew a dungeon). All in all, it was an amazing show, filled with passionate gamers, fantastic costumes, and delicious food!

If you ever find yourself in Sao Paulo in early July, EIRPG is a show that is not to be missed!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Iconic Heroes Set 4, Part 1

Friday, July 17, 2015

Last week, WizKids announced the release dates for the next two Pathfinder Battles Iconic Heroes boxed sets of premium-quality prepainted plastic figures for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game or the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. This week, I'd like to take a closer look at three of the figures from Iconic Heroes Set 4, which features familiar faces from the Advanced Class Guide and Ultimate Combat.

I want to start with Lirianne, Half-Elf Gunslinger today, because I had a chance to review the paint master for this figure in-hand last week, and I was really impressed with the overall improvement since Lirianne's first miniature, which appeared in the Skull & Shackles set.

The original Lirianne is a perfectly acceptable miniature, even a good one when you consider the amount of detail on her outfit. But I was never completely thrilled with the way her face came out, and overall the pose wasn't terribly exciting. With the Iconic Heroes Set 4 version, Lirianne appears to be aiming or even firing her gun, and overall the pose is much more dynamic and interesting. Coupled with the superior paint jobs that are the hallmark of Iconic Heroes sets, this figure is well-positioned to end up looking really spectacular.

The iconic skald Hakon has always held a special place in my heart. I had a chance to write his "Meet the Iconics" backstory, where I not-so-subtly made him the brother of my long-running character in Paizo Creative Director James Jacobs's office Pathfinder campaign. So, in a way, Hakon is family, and it's been very important to me that he get an amazing miniature!

I'm pleased to report that WizKids definitely delivered on that score. Of the six paint masters we reviewed in-hand last week, Hakon was my second favorite (after Shardra, whom we'll see up close next week). Hakon definitely works as a skald, as a barbarian, as a ferocious villain, or really as just about any axe-wielding maniac.

Last up this week is our iconic swashbuckler, Jirelle. When Wayne Reynolds's original art first came in to Paizo I was thrilled and terrified, all at the same time. Thrilled, because here we had a fully clothed, fully ass-kicking woman warrior. Terrified because her costume was so complex I wondered how we were ever going to do justice to it in miniature form. I shouldn't have worried. That was before the advent of WizKids's super-premium Iconic Heroes sets, which are more than up to the challenge. Once again, the paint master for Jirelle looks wonderful, and is a great representation of the character and the digital sculpt revealed above.

"Hey," I can hear some of you asking. "If you've already seen paint masters, how come we only get to see digital sculpts? Why are you holding out on the real thing, Mona?"

That's a fair question, and the answer is that the final figures in all cases have sooooo many tampos—stamped-on details like face tattoos, clothing adornments, and so on—that the paint masters wouldn't reveal an accurate look at what the final figures will look like. They're very much a part of the process, in this case, and I want to wait until I have samples with the tampos finished before we show off actual minis. In the meantime, the digital sculpts I've revealed today do a very good job of showing what we're shooting for.

Iconic Heroes Set 4 hits stores and ships to subscribers in November. I'll reveal the last three figures in the set next week, and after that we're deep into Gen Con territory, and to see new Pathfinder Battles figures you'll have to track me down personally on the convention floor, get them as a $50+ sales incentive at the Paizo booth, or play one of the Pathfinder Society Specials.

Until then, I remain,

Erik Mona
Publisher

Open Your Eyes—Occult Adventures Art Preview

Friday, July 17, 2015

Download Standard | Download Widescreen | Download Mobile
Illustration by Wayne Reynolds.

Subscribers are beginning to get a peek at the gateway to the unseen world in Occult Adventures, which officially hits game store shelves and the convention floor at Gen Con on July 29! Since our art department has been keeping a fairly low profile, I wanted to take over and give you another preview of the artwork gracing the pages of this book. Enjoy these selections from Occult Adventures!

Illustrations by Igor Grechanyi and Subroto Bhaumik

Illustrations by Ivan Troitsky, David Alvarez, and Alexandru Sabo

Sarah Robinson
Managing Art Director

Occult Adventures Class Preview: The Mesmerist

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Illustration by Ivan Troitsky

The mesmerist creeps into the minds of his enemies, bending their wills. Our initial concept for the mesmerist was a sort of anti-bard. The class would get a similar blend of spellcasting with moderate combat ability, but instead of buffing allies, it would penalize enemies and make them softer targets. Our mesmerist achieves this not only through a robust selection of debuff spells, but also through his intense stare. He can focus on a creature within 30 feet as a swift action, imposing a penalty on the target's Will saves. Bold stare options, which the mesmerist gains starting at 3rd level, allow him to apply that penalty to other types of rolls or weaken the subject of his stare in other ways. The best part? He can mentally remove the memory of his stare from the target's mind afterward, so they forget he was manipulating them all along.

Through the Occult Adventures playtest process, we saw that the mesmerist needed a leg up, particularly when it came to the combat side of things, so we added the painful stare ability. This comes in at level 1 and causes subjects of the mesmerist's stare to take more damage from attacks. We also increased the Will save penalty the stare gives (from -1 to -2) and made it increase automatically to -3 at 8th level. The stare lost the ability to target multiple creatures so that we could make the debuffs stronger.

The other hallmark ability of the mesmerist is his mesmerist tricks, abilities similar to contingencies that he can set up and trigger when a condition is met. By planning ahead and anticipating situations intelligently, the mesmerist can surprise his foes with nasty magic. The biggest change here was the duration. Instead of lasting for 1 minute per mesmerist level, a trick stays set up until the next time the mesmerist prepares his spells (or until it's triggered). The mesmerist also picked up a bunch of new tricks, like letting the subject turn into a bird and flee from an attack or reduce the damage from an attack and simultaneously create a shadow illusion in the attacker's form, attacking someone else.

More so than any other class, the mesmerist is built around casting spells that manipulate minds. This kind of class can be tricky to build, largely due to the number of creatures in the game that are immune to mind-affecting effects and the predominance of mental spells that get negated by a Will save. That led us down two avenues. The first is the bold stare option called psychic inception, which gives you a chance to affect such creatures. The second came in the form of new mind-affecting spells that do have a partial effect if the target saves.

Occult Adventures also includes four mesmerist archetypes. The cult master lets you control groups of cultists devoted to you, gaining special tricks and even being reborn in a follower's body. The spirit walker gains control over undead and adds undead-themed spells to his spell list. The toxitician uses injuections instead of a mesmerist stare, causing pain and delivering severe penalties. Finally, the vexing daredevil (pictured here) focuses on the combat side of the mesmerist class, gaining additional weapon prodiciency, bonus feats for feinting, and dazzling feint abilities she can use against creatures she fools with a feint.

May the mesmerist's eyes never meet yours!

Logan Bonner
Designer

A Hellishly Good Winter Ahead: July and Winter 2015 Releases!

Thursday, July 16, 2015

As we double- and triple-check our Gen Con prep lists, our warehouse is also busily sending out the latest and greatest Pathfinder releases to your doorstep! Check out this overview of this month's releases, as well as what's heading your way this winter!

There are creatures in the world that even giants fear.
Illustration by Jason Rainville, from "Shadow of the Storm Tyrant"

Subscribers have already started receiving their July products, and in a little less than two weeks, they'll be available to retail stores everywhere, as well as at Gen Con in Indianapolis! Here's a roundup of this month's releases:

• Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Occult Adventures
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #95—Giantslayer 5 of 6: "Anvil of Fire"
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #96—Giantslayer 6 of 6: "Shadow of the Storm Tyrant"
• Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Giantslayer Poster Map Folio
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Wrath of the Righteous, Adventure Deck 3: "Demon's Heresy"
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Character Mats: Ekkie
• Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Hell Unleashed
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Museum
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Village Square
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: Woodlands
• Pathfinder Map Pack: Camps & Shelters
• Pathfinder Comics—Origins #5: Harsk

Of course the big release this month is one that our staff has been super-excited about, and we've been filtering out sneak previews and stories about the six new iconics featured in the newest Pathfinder RPG hardcover—Occult Adventures! Over 250 pages long, it's got everything you want to be a master (or mistress) of mysticism and explore new realms of adventure with psychic magic.

November 2015: One Hundred Volumes of Pathfinder!

There was a time in the not-too-distant-past where the idea of Pathfinder (and Paizo) reaching a volume in triple digits was a distant dream—but it is a reality, and "A Song of Silver" is it! This special volume contains more than just our usual assortment of support articles for the adventure—it also contains more new monsters, revelations about the god Aroden, and a retrospective covering all of our previous Adventure Paths!

Additional releases in November include:

• Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 5
• Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Realms
• Pathfinder Player Companion: Weapon Master's Handbook
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Class Deck: Barbarian
• Pathfinder Pawns: Summon Monster Pawn Collection
• Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Winter Forest

December 2015: The Thrice-Damned!

Unsurprisingly, we've got Hell on our minds (and I am firmly placing this blame on the Overlord of Words Wes Schneider), and this December, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Cheliax, The Infernal Empire gets its due with more details on this infamous country. For both freedom fighters of the Hell's Rebels or Thrune supporters of the Hell's Vengeance Adventure Paths, this will be an essential guide!

Additional December releases are:

• Pathfinder Adventure Path #101—Hell's Rebels 5 of 6: "The Kintargo Contract"
• Pathfinder Player Companion: Agents of Evil
• Pathfinder Adventure Card Game—Class Deck: Oracle
• Pathfinder Map Pack: Marsh Trails
• Pathfinder Tales: Bloodbound

As always, the release dates are subject to change, but you can see the most up-to-date information on the Product Schedule page, or on each individual product page.

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Meet the Iconics: Meligaster

Wednesday, July 15, 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 Meligaster, the iconic mesmerist!

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

From the fine tailoring of his immaculate suit to the gold handle of his elegant sword cane, little about Meligaster's current appearance reveals his upbringing as a common slave. Born in captivity in the field house of a minor noble Lord Maskelyne in the devil-obsessed nation of Cheliax, Meligaster's childhood saw him cast in the role of enforced plaything to a brood of aristocratic children. Even as his own brothers and sisters were torn away and forced into servitude at noble estates all over Cheliax, Meligaster found a new home as an adopted sibling of his master's children, who treated him like a beloved living doll. While his aging mother toiled in the manor's laundry, Meligaster sat at tea in gardens blooming with a profusion of exotic and colorful plants. The children dressed their "poppet," as they called him, in stylish suits of silk and velvet, granting Meligaster an early appreciation for the finery of nobility so foreign to his true brothers and sisters, whom he began to forget as the years went on.

The young halfling soon found that he possessed a natural charm and wit that engendered an especial affection in his "hosts," and even the elder generation of Maskelynes doted on him and offered him special privileges. At night, when the children went to bed and Meligaster returned to the "Sliphouse," a ramshackle garrison for the family's halfling servants, he regaled his fellow laborers with news of the goings on in the manor home. He wove vivid tales of rooms festooned with fine framed paintings, of beautiful baroque bronzes depicting the gods of Old Azlant, and chambers lined with bookshelves holding the accumulated knowledge of centuries. At first, Meligaster's fellow slaves resented him for the better treatment afforded by the nobles of the house, but here again the halfling discovered that his charm, humor, and personal charisma were enough to get even the most hostile audiences on his side.

Despite the nice clothes and decadent meals, Meligaster remained a slave. He was forbidden from leaving the estate grounds alone, and on the rare occasion when he accompanied the children into town he did so with a fine silver chain around his neck. As the children grew older, tea parties evolved into wrestling and rough play, and the small stature that had so endeared him in years past became a liability. Now teenagers, the children began to view Meligaster as an old, unwanted toy. No longer did he receive a handsome new suit every fortnight. No longer was he welcome to sip sumptuous wine at the feasting table. To his considerable consternation, Meligaster began to take on a shabby appearance, and his change in status—subtle at first—undermined his cheer and good humor, which in turn served to further alienate him from his hosts.

At the same time, Lord Maskelyne's political affairs in the nearby capital city of Egorian grew dire, and the family found its fortune much diminished. Things at the manor became much harder not just for Meligaster, but for all of the slaves and servants of the Sliphouse. As the fortunes of his fellow slaves grew worse, their attitudes toward him grew likewise darker and less charitable. Meligaster, formerly a friend to slave and master alike, soon found himself with no allies in an environment that grew more and more dangerous as the Maskelyne's fortunes continued to decline.

On one particularly dreary day, while sitting at the bedside of his ailing mother, Meligaster found himself surrounded by a half-dozen halflings with scowls cut deep into their faces. Each held a field implement in tense hands, and Meligaster knew from a single glance that they had not come to wish the woman well. The Maskelyne children, Meligaster's estranged playmates, had just that morning burned three particularly troublesome slips upon a pyre as a sacrifice to Mammon in hopes that the arch-devil would reverse their family's fortunes, and the bedside visitors clearly meant to even the score by harming Meligaster. When his amicable pleas did nothing to curb the slaves' threats, Meligaster looked deep into their eyes and funneled all of his charm and personal magnetism into that glance. His striking eyes had always managed to get him out of trouble in the past, and with great effort encouraged by desperation and fear for his mother's life, Meligaster ordered the interlopers to return to the fields and leave him alone. To his surprise, the slaves quickly agreed, changing demeanor almost immediately. Minutes later he stood alone in his mother's squalid chamber wondering just what had happened.

In the weeks that followed, Meligaster continued to explore this new power of persuasion. When he could not find a fellow slave on which to experiment, he looked into the rheumy eyes of his mother, whom he found to be most pliable to his commands. At the same time, Meligaster stole books on healing techniques from the Maskelyne libraries, and experimented with touch treatments designed to nurse his mother back to health. While he managed a few minor successes along these lines, he could see the kind, broken woman fading with each day. Eventually her eyes filled with cataracts and her mind grew weaker and weaker. At first, Meligaster took advantage of her failing defenses to strengthen his influence over her, commanding her to get healthier, but the woman eventually grew insensible. Soon he turned his experimental attention fully to the other halfling slaves of the Maskelyne estate, who were little match for his bolstered mental powers.

First, he used his fantastic stare to bind the bully-boys who had threatened him earlier into service as personal protectors. On his increasingly rare visits to the manor he surrounded himself with a coterie of tough protectors. When this drew the ire of taskmasters who naturally expected Meligaster's defenders to attend to their assigned duties, Meligaster likewise brought them under his influence. Soon he had coerced the psychic allegiance of all of the Maskelyne's slaves and overseers, who doted upon Meligaster and began treating him better than they treated their lawful masters.

Meligaster tired of the Sliphouse. It was time to make his move on the manor. By this point he had developed his mental powers to include the ability to cast psychic spells, which he used to great effect. First he bent his former playmates to his will, then the lord and lady of the house as well. Meligaster took up residence in a resplendent chamber within the home, sharing his room with his ailing mother and forcing the nobles to serve him as he and his mother had served them. Manipulating Lord Maskelyne into granting him generous gifts from the family's dwindling fortune, Meligaster once more dressed in the finery to which he had become accustomed. He ordered the most celebrated craftsmen of Egorian to cut him a beautiful white suit and matching fez, accentuating his style with a locket medallion containing an ivory cameo of the only individual other than his mother than he had ever truly loved—himself.

For months Meligaster lived as the master of the house. When his charges—particularly among the Maskelynes—failed him, he responded with the pent-up cruelties of 20 years, subjecting them to the same whippings and tortures they had inflicted upon him. In time he grew used to being obeyed, and his perverse punishments extended to his fellow halflings, whom he began to think of as his own personal chattel. What once had been a playful sense of humor transmogrified into a cynical cruelty. When he grew tired of disciplining his inferiors, he manipulated their minds to make them the agents of their own humiliation and injury, and as he grew more comfortable in the seat of power, Meligaster began to enjoy these punishments. He soon became a harsher taskmaster than the Maskelynes had ever been, and while all residents of the manor claimed to love and adore him, not a one did so of his own free will.

Meligaster went to great lengths to conceal his reversal of fortune from the other nobles of the Egorian outlands. He received no visitors and closed the estate to the outside world. It came as a surprise, then, when he found himself in the company of a freed halfling slave named Lem, a charming bard who claimed to be an escaped slave born to the same mother. After decades apart, Meligaster looked into the eyes of his long-lost sibling, and what he saw broke his heart. Lem represented another way out of the grim subsistence of slavery. His brother was just as charming and charismatic as he, but even though Meligaster lived as a lord in his secluded manor, it was Lem who seemed at peace with himself. Worse, Lem was horrified by the scene of vacant-eyed halflings and humans that greeted him at the Maskelyne estate. He pleaded with Meligaster to abandon his ruse and run away with him to Absalom, but Meligaster would have none of it. In the presence of their failing, bed-ridden mother, the two brothers argued about the bonds of family. Meligaster summoned all of his psychic power and, gazing into the eyes of his brother, he commanded his visitor to abandon the Maskelyne estate and never return.

The following morning, Meligaster learned a powerful lesson about the limits of his power. He awoke to find Lem gone as he expected, but he also found that his brother had absconded with his frail mother, and that he had unshackled all of the halfling slaves as well, somehow using his magic-infused music to break Meligaster's hold upon them. Angered at months of mistreatment at Meligaster's hands, the slaves set the manor house ablaze, bringing a squad of Hellknights and neighboring lords to investigate the reclusive Maskelynes. Meligaster was forced to flee with little but the clothes on his back and a sack full of some of the Maskelyne's greatest treasures.

In the year since, Meligaster has bounced from city to city, taking on short-lived jobs as a spiritual advisor to various nobles, whom he bilks of their wealth before moving on to another "sponsor" in a distant realm. Agents of Lord Maskelyne hound him at every stop, keeping the halfling constantly on the move and leery of laying down strong ties to any one location. Years of relying upon mental manipulation to get his way have considerably damaged his psyche, and while a part of him regrets the cruelties necessary to maintain the lifestyle he feels he deserves, he is loath to take a backward step, and seeks always the easier route to wealth and the finer comforts of success. After leaving behind him a trail of powerful enemies, Meligaster has, of late, turned to a life of adventure, finding it safer to pilfer from the tombs of dead lords and ladies than the drawing rooms and bedchambers of the living. He has never again seen Lem, and plots one day, when he is ready, to venture to Absalom and show his brother the folly of underestimating one who has total control over the minds of others.

Erik Mona
Publisher

Crisis of Faith

by Michael J. Martinez

Chapter Four: Trial by Fire

Sandwiched between a boulder and the side of a mountain, with a burning skeleton trying to grasp at him from above, Jeddah found himself thinking of his wife and son—the two people who meant the most to him in this world—and silently said his good-byes.

The burning skeleton was trying to clamber over the boulder but seemed to find no purchase in its mindless pursuit of Jed. It flailed at him, flaming arms outstretched, the intense heat singeing hair and blistering flesh on his sword arm. He parried with his rapier as best he could, managing to lop off a few finger bones, but at some point the burning skeleton—and the other undead skeletons with it—would figure out how to reach him.

I don't want to die, Jed thought. I want to go home.

Then he remembered something his father had told him long ago: "Home is something you earn when the battle's won. That's Cayden's way."

And in that moment, Jed's mind snapped into focus. He looked around and found a large rock within reach. He grasped it and hurled it up at the burning skeleton, connecting with its jaw. The jawbone fell down into the crevasse with Jed, nearly singeing his arm.

The burning skeleton disappeared for a moment, leaving Jed just enough time to get his bearings. Go home. Earn the right to go home. And so he began mentally ticking through his options, much as he would check off a recipe for one of his brews back at Cayden's Rest.

The burning skeleton reappeared above him, its jaw gone, and surmounted the boulder in front of him with renewed vigor. It reached the top and crouched, ready to leap—just when Jed remembered his prayers from the last evening.

"Cayden, give me the strength to defeat the enemies of good!" he shouted, gripping his tankard tightly. He felt a surge of divine energy run through him, felt his muscles tighten and grow.

Jed braced his feet against the boulder—and pushed.

With a mighty rumble, the boulder before him started to move. Jed redoubled his efforts, just as the burning skeleton prepared to leap.

The boulder gave way and began rolling.

The burning skeleton staggered atop the rock, trying to regain its balance, but then tumbled backward—right into the path of the boulder. It rolled onto the creature with a crunch and a shower of sparks and flame, then kept going down the mountain. More crunching sounds followed—branches and trees and the bones of the undead.

Jed sat up, freed from his trap, and looked down the mountain as the stone, easily six feet high, gained momentum. It crashed into other rocks, dislodging them and creating a small but noisy avalanche down the side of the mountain, leaving rubble and tree branches and broken bone in its wake.

He laughed. A quiet laugh, fueled by relief at being alive.

Jed struggled to his feet, but found his right ankle nearly useless. He thought to spare a moment to heal the wound, but the sound of clicking bones distracted him.

Three skeletons—thank Cayden, they were not aflame—moved toward him, arms outstretched and flailing.

"Not this time," he muttered, grasping his tankard once more and raising his voice. "In the name of Cayden Cailean, he who gives me strength and succor, I banish you!"

The skeletons stopped dead in their tracks for an impossibly long moment—then turned and fled back down the trail.

"Sweet barleybrew, it worked," he muttered, his smile returning. "Thanks, Cayden."

The undead of the Nogortha Necropolis come in many forms.

After a quick prayer over his ankle to heal it, Jed began climbing down the mountain, half-sliding down the trail left in the boulder's wake. It was a good five hundred feet to the valley floor, where the torchlight still guttered among the barrows. He was prepared this time to face any undead he came upon, but the only evidence of them he found were the crushed bones on his path.

Reaching the valley, he walked as quietly as he could among the mounds until he came with about a hundred yards of the torchlight. Crouching behind a massive barrow, Jed peeked around one side to see a half-dozen zombies standing all too still in the light. The red-robed figure was there as well, and was talking to someone—though Jed could not see whom.

Jed quietly moved closer, hoping to see who else was there and perhaps catch a bit of the conversation. Hiding behind a small barrow, he edged around the corner—and his eyes grew wide.

Silvestrae was still captive, and had been tied up with her hands behind her back. She sat on the ground with a zombie standing guard over her. And so, too, had Corogan been captured—how, Jed could not say—and was heavily bound in chains, lying on his side.

The figure in red laughed, but Jed couldn't make out any more words. It was clear the figure was in command of the zombies, simply because no others seemed to be there, and it had what appeared to be a wand in its hand.

After a moment, the figure removed its hood—and Jed saw horns upon its otherwise human head. It was a hellspawn. With the Cheliax border not far away, the prospect filled Jed with dread... and anger.

Settling his mind, Jed tried to piece together a strategy. He could glimpse chainmail beneath the folds of the fiendling's robes, and a spear leaned against a tomb nearby. That likely made the hellspawn a cleric of some foul deity or another—which would explain the undead as well.

Peering from behind the mound, Jed saw a pair of bodies on the ground near the very edge of the torchlight. Both were slashed and stabbed with great force, and Jed assumed they were Corogan's work—which was good, because there appeared to be no other living opponents aside from the hellspawn.

Once again, Jed mentally ran through the few options he had at his disposal. The one that made the most sense seemed to have the highest chance of failure—but also the greatest boon if it succeeded. Typical Cayden, Jed thought. Only the crazy options for me.

He tried to think of better plan, but nothing came to him. Pulling his pants up with a sigh and readying both rapier and tankard, Jed stepped out from his cover—and ran straight toward the hellspawn.

The fiendling's head whipped about, revealing a hate-filled countenance—and the crest of a noble house of Cheliax around his neck. Jed willed his legs to pump faster, but the hellspawn simply raised his wand and spoke a single word.

Jed felt magical energy surround his body—a dark magic, fueled by infernal power—and willed himself to keep moving. He felt his pace slow a moment, but then the magic washed over him and faded.

Jed raised his tankard and focused his own power. "Cayden! Hold him!" he shouted.

The hellspawn froze.

Jed ran into the center of the barrows just as the zombies began shambling toward him. One of the creatures was close enough to get in a good swipe, but its filthy claws skittered over Jed's chain shirt. Reflexively, Jed lashed out with his rapier, slashing the undead across its neck. It staggered back and fell.

Turning to the others, Jed brandished the symbol of his god once more. "In the name of Cayden, I banish you!"

They stopped. And fled.

Jed turned and dashed over to the fiendling, plucking the wand from his still-frozen hand and relieving him of the dagger at his belt. He used the weapon to cut Silvestrae loose, even as she eyed him wordlessly with something between incredulity and amazement.

"Get Corogan," she said once her bonds were cut. "I'll keep an eye on our friend here." The half-elf got to her feet and found her bow and other gear nearby, and then stationed herself a short distance from the hellspawn, arrow nocked and aimed straight for his eye.

Jed managed to free Corogan from his chains—they were both heavy and numerous, but there was no lock. "That was kind of dangerous, what you did there," Corogan said with a grin. "You are a Caydenite, aren't you."

"I am, it seems," Jed replied. "Apparently you have to do something really stupid to get him to help you. How did they capture you?"

Corogan nodded at the hellspawn. "The wand. I'm surprised it didn't affect you."

Jed helped the half-orc to his feet. "Cayden favors the foolish, I guess. Now let's see about that devilborn."

The hellspawn was, in the end, the bastard son of a minor house of Cheliax and an overly ambitious sort. Under Silvestrae's surprisingly menacing interrogation, the fiendling confessed he had sought to carve out a holding of his own in the necropolis and force the government of Cheliax to recognize the claim.

"Not that the Chels would do that," Corogan explained to Jed once they were back on the road to Augustana. Behind them walked their captive, his mouth bound by cloth to keep him from speaking. "Cheliax would love nothing more than to take Andoran for its own," he went on. "But the Chels know we'd put up one hell of a fight for every square inch. This bastard would've found himself hung out to dry no matter what."

"And eventually he'd run out of bodies to animate," Silvestrae said, her mood improved significantly. "What I still don't get is what happened to Rafe down in Augustana."

Corogan shrugged. "If this one has something to do with it, we'll get it out of him," he said, turning to give the hellspawn a wicked grin. "And if not... then we'll have more work to do."

∗∗∗

Some nights later, Cayden's Rest was rollicking once more—and its brew-priest was once again among the revelers, this time telling the stories of his own adventures and, in good priestly fashion, weaving in a lesson as well.

"I admit, I was shaken," Jed said to a large table of drinkers, all staring at him with rapt attention. "I'm no adventurer. Just look at me!" he added, turning to show off his profile, complete with belly. After the laughter subsided, he went on: "But you have to have faith. Cayden put me there for a reason, to show me what it means to put yourself in peril for what you believe in. But if you do that—if you fight for what's good and right with all your being—well, I think he'll be there for you, as he was for me. And he'll bring you back here to drink his ale and tell your tale."

Tankards were raised at this, and Cayden's name duly praised. Jed turned and saw Maeve smiling at him from the door to the kitchen, holding Gant close to her as they listened. She was, of course, quite relieved at his safe return, though less pleased when young Gant had immediately asked to begin practice with the rapier.

"So, Jeddah Cailean!" a woman asked above the din. Jed turned and saw Silvestrae standing among the throng, her own tankard raised and a smile on her face. "Will you be coming with us again if we need you?"

Jed turned back to Maeve, whose eyebrows were arched in that way only displeased wives can manage, even though her smile remained. All Jed could do was shrug at her.

"If Cayden wills it, then I can't argue," he replied. "It's as simple as that."

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.

Adventure Card Game Open at Gen Con 2015!

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

As we rush around the Paizo office preparing for the Best Four Days in Gaming, I'm focusing my efforts on the Adventure Card Game Open, a new team-against-team tournament format that will debut at Gen Con this year. Testing and tuning is still underway, but for those of you who are participating, I can post the characters for the quarter-final round now. (You might also wish to familiarize yourselves with the characters' associated roles; role text can be found on the freely downloadable ACG character sheets.

The tournament will have 4 quarter-final sessions, 2 semi-final sessions, and 1 final round in which teams of 4 will compete in a 2-hour test of their skills against a fiendish scenario. Each round will tell one piece of the story these adventurers are living. Your play will determine whether good or evil will win the day.

First up is our original Rise of the Runelords incarnation of the iconic wizard Ezren. He'll bring some arcane might to the proceedings.

Next up is the Sarenite cleric Kyra from the Wrath of the Righteous base set. She smites foes with grim purpose and heals when she helps others to succeed.

The stabby and sneaky archetypes are represented in the Open by the Rogue Class Deck version of Merisiel. This Merisiel is a ranged combatant rather than a finesse fighter, but she still brings the pain... from a safe distance.

Finally, we have the stalwart front-line fighter, ably portrayed here by Valeros from Skull & Shackles. It's hard to go wrong with Valeros. All his incarnations are tough and focused on winning.

So there you have the lineup for the Thursday and Friday rounds of the Adventure Card Game Open! Those of you who are playing might want to get very familiar with these four heroes. Sadly, the event itself is sold out, but if you want to sign up for some Pathfinder Society Adventure Card Guild play at Gen Con, here's a link to the schedule. We're hoping to have some of the new Class Decks available for perusal at PFSACG events, so buy your tickets now!

Until next time, Pathfinders!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

Another Year, Another Costume Contest!

Monday, July 13, 2015

We've made our Perception checks, and we see Gen Con sneaking up to us in just a few short weeks, and that means our 8th annual Gen Con cosplay contest is nearly upon us! Time to show off your Craft skills!

Every contest needs rules (or so our Friendly NPC with ranks in Profession [lawyer] tells us), and the rules this year are much the same as in previous years. In order to qualify for some super-sweet prizes, your costume has to be sourced and identifiable as from Pathfinder or the world of Golarion. Dressing up as an iconic? Sweet! Dare to be Squealy Nord? Fantastic—I hope there are no goblins around and you don't get pulled into a We Be Goblins! LARP!

Previous winners from 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2010!

Swing by the Paizo booth and seek me out (don't worry, my Stealth isn't that great), and we'll take a picture of you in your cosplay and share it on the Paizo blog! After Gen Con, we'll collect all of our photos and put them to the test by opening up voting to our fans, where they will select a first place winner and two runner-ups! The first place winner will receive $75 in store credit, and two runner ups will receive $50, which they can use on such new goodies like Occult Adventures and Hell Unleashed, or save up for upcoming releases like "In Hell's Bright Shadow" and Bestiary 5!

See you in Indianapolis!

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Undercover Society

Monday, July 13, 2015

The Pathfinder Design Team recently released a second round of the Pathfinder RPG Ultimate Intrigue playtest, listening to the community’s feedback and using it to improve the class. I encourage you both to check the recent blog for updates and to continue providing your feedback in the feedback forum.

Illustration by Eric Braddock, from Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Paths of Prestige

What does this mean for the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign? Most importantly, the linked blog has a Chronicle sheet that rewards campaign participants for helping in the playtest during RPG organized play events. The sheet works in many ways like the one released during the Occult Adventures playtest, granting scaling rewards based on how many times you playtest a vigilante character and at what levels. However, the Pathfinder Society team also learned from previous playtests and incorporated a few additional features to improve the experience.

First, very early in discussing the playtest process, we inquired about ways to expand the playtest window. The result the two-stage playtest with the traditional playtest running through July 20th and a second “final thoughts” opportunity to comment extending another month after that. For Pathfinder Society, that’s exactly what we needed to support your accruing playtest credit over two months instead of just one.

Second, we heard that there were too many lines that one needed to fill out to earn the top rewards. We haven’t changed the numbers much, but we have provided a way to earn double credit during the first playtest window. For those wondering whether to risk a new character built using GM credit, note that we’re explicitly allowing rebuilding once the hardcover book hits the shelves.

Finally, GMs were concerned because they felt they could contribute valuable playtest feedback despite not playing a vigilante character themselves. We agreed, and a GM is now able to accrue credit on her own vigilante character so long as someone at the table is using the new class.

Because there was a delay in getting out the Chronicle sheet, you’ll notice that it allows for retroactive credit for those who have already started playtesting during organized play events. Perhaps most importantly, if you already have a vigilante playtest character, it is important that you update your character to use the most recent version of the class. We have updated the Additional Resources page to reflect this.

Linda and I—as well as many members of the editorial and art staff—are back to working on the many new adventures set to debut at Gen Con. It’s going to be a great show and a great opportunity to showcase your assistance in playtesting Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures! See you there!

John Compton
Developer

Giantslayer Marathon: Part 4!

Sunday, July 12, 2015

I just got the newest report from the Order of the Amber Die after their experience with Pathfinder Adventure Path #94: Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen and those guys are still alive! (Mostly.) Remember, this blog is full of spoilers for the Giantslayer Adventure Path, so read at your own risk! And now I turn this blog over to the Order of the Amber Die.

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

The party found itself in bad shape following the third marathon session, and we knew that this could very well be our last report—so if it was, we needed to go out knowing we had given ourselves every best chance to succeed. First, to encourage cohesion, we chose to play with only the four main players present for this marathon, no live NPCs, and our GM played the role of Kurst Grath as would normally happen in most groups. Second, even though we are spread across the east coast, an emergency player meeting was called via Skype to try and figure out what needed to be done to turn things around in-game. The conference was complete with an agenda and new approach to utilizing our ACG hybrid classes to better effect in combat. Lastly, with permission from reluctant elders of our GM's family, we returned to the sacred birthplace of our Order and played this marathon in the room where it all began in '87.

This 83-hour marathon was also record setting for the RPG community, as one of our members and our GM both surpassed 500 documented session hours of Pathfinder in a single year (GMed and played respectively). According to our research and to the best of our knowledge, this is the new world record!

For this adventure we were headed well above the snow line in the Mindspin Mountains, so to better immerse ourselves we looked for wintry effects. The obvious was the thermostat, and it was set low enough to feel like December in the peaks. We also purchased plenty of polymer snow to go 3 inches deep around our play area. For glacial winds, we fired up fans that kept most of us wearing our long sleeve uniforms and winter hats at times—despite being late June in NJ.

Highlights From our Experience With Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen

• As the giants in the training camp of Skirgaard were too numerous to count, we had to resort to repeated guerrilla actions to disband the camp. Much of the weekend was spent planning raids on a unique 20" x 30" isomorphic map of Skirgaard. Thanks to author Jim Groves for his support with this!
• We made another powerful ally in Naximarra, the majestic and yet terrifying red dragon of an ancient bloodline. We'll never forget her first appearance, with the dragon's head rising from the snow just five feet away from us—but she didn't breathe.
• Pumped up to fight big Vikings, we rocked out to Led Zeppelin's "Immigrant Song" and "No Quarter" while putting up a body count that now totals 57 giants slain throughout the AP.
• An aerial duel over boiling vats began while confronting Rohkinirr, a frost giant witch and accomplished brewmaster. Quinn chased the witch around the brewery in a vicious dogfight, firing off inspiration points to activate his studied combat twice per round. The investigator eventually found an opening and drove home his longspear, plunging the giant to a gruesome death in a vat of his own ale.
• The Amber Die itself was alive and well, delivering 6 natural 20s throughout the weekend, and of course: a signature 20-20.

Character Deaths

While camped in deep snow, the party's night watch team heard something very large in the darkness beyond their sight. Coming into view was a 20-foot tall undead giant known as an indarugant, which strode from the pages of the Pathfinder #94 bestiary directly into our camp, determined to make a strong debut on Golarion. It dropped two PCs in one round with its frozen axe, and left another near death. Kurst Grath never rose from the hit, and the ranger would remain under gentle repose for the rest of the adventure.

Current Situation

We had an incredible performance, with our shortest completion time and fewest character deaths of any module in Giantslayer thus far. Skirkatla the undead queen was laid low, a giant training camp dispersed, and our ACG classes kicked into high gear. Our reforms worked, we made the semi-finals of this AP, and we can now take some small measure of inspiration from Churchill into the last two adventures:

"If the Order of the Amber Die and its members last for a thousand years, adventurers will still say, 'This, was their finest hour!'"

Best Quote From Marathon 4

Sterling (Crowe): "I actually feel sick to my stomach right now." (with a TPK looming in the final battle)

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.

Be sure to stay on the lookout for the next report from the Giantslayer marathoners!

Adam Daigle
Developer

Faithful Companions and Deadly Foes

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Whenever there is a new patch for Pathfinder Online, it's like being a kid in a candy store, or getting the new rulebook with that class you've been dying to play! New options that expand the game are really fun to play around with and they have the benefit of changing things up enough to make it interesting. The tenth patch for Pathfinder Online (lovingly referred to as EE10) brings a bunch of new stuff into the game!

I Used a Mule... and I Like It!

In a game which simulates a real-world economy, moving resources and finished goods from one side of the map to the other without help is a daunting and time-consuming task. Even a character optimized for hauling heavy loads can carry only a small amount of something heavy like iron ore or coal, not to mention the bulk resources that settlements need to grow and become more advanced.

Enter the mule, the ornery equine whose ability to haul heavy loads is legendary. In EE10, players will be able to hire mules to help them carry heavy loads across the map. Either buy a set of saddlebags from the auction house, or craft a set with your leatherworker character, then proceed to the muleteer adjacent to the bank to get your own friendly mule for six hours! The mule will follow you around like a puppy dog... as long as you don't go too fast and leave him in the dust. If you do, he will sit down on his hind legs and pout until you come back into range, at which time he will leap up and run to you with a happy grin on his face.

When left for more than a minute though, the mule will no longer be attached to you. Once a mule becomes unattached, anybody (including you) can come up to him and acquire him, at which point he will happily follow his new owner around. So you'll want to get back to him quickly. If the mule isn't acquired by anyone within 15 minutes, it will die from loneliness and leave a husk that can be looted in the next half hour. After that time, whatever's left in the husk goes away for good.

Laurethoron hires a mule at the bank before heading out.

While playing around with my new mule friend, I found that he worked great for gathering resources. As you go around gathering, he will dutifully follow you and allow you to dump the stuff you find onto him for the first four hours that you have him. (For the last two hours, you may only remove goods from your mule.) This means that you can effectively stay out gathering for hours without having to spend a bunch of time running back to town every time you become too encumbered.

The downside to the mule, though, is that a bandit who sees a mule is going to (probably correctly) assume that there's profit to be had by taking your mule. Doing so will give them a reputation hit unless you are being feuded by them (attacking a mule is the same as attacking you for reputation loss), but the gains could outweigh that penalty. On the other hand, the mule is almost always slower than a running human, especially when loaded down with stuff. So if the bandit takes the mule for himself, he'll have to make a slow getaway, giving you a chance to bring some friends in to hunt him down. A bandit who wants to run off will have to take only what he can carry, leaving the mule for you to reacquire, minus a few choice pieces of your stash.

The mule is definitely a game changer in a virtual world where goods are regionalized and bank vaults aren't global. I can't wait to see how it shakes out!

I Fought Nhur Athemon... and I Won!

The other big feature coming this weekend is the first server-wide event, the Wrath of Nhur Athemon. As I mentioned in last week's blog, this event is centered around the removal of the towers that have dotted the landscape in our War of the Towers mini-game. But now their time is done; Nhur Athemon has other uses for them.

Testing the escalation, four of us decked out in Tier 2 gear with a bunch of expendables such as potions and greater tokens, and set out to free a hex from Nhur Athemon's influence. I don't want to give too many spoilers, but beating this escalation is all about finishing off the various quests, not killing the monsters that defend the hex (though sometimes those two things will align). The minions of Nhur Athemon had some tasty loot on them—some of the best I had seen in the game to date! Tier 2 and even Tier 3 recipes, spells, and maneuvers dropped into our greedy hands. There were even a handful of the new recipes for creating settlement buildings—things folks are going to really want come early August when you'll be able to start building your own settlements from scratch!

Laurethoron battles Nhur Athemon one on one.

This escalation event also unveiled the first of the new Azlanti crystals, Pathfinder Online's twist on Pathfinder RPG's ioun stones. Everybody who participates in beating down the escalation gets a crystal for their efforts. Crystals have their own slot on your character and we plan to introduce different crystals in future monthly events. Eventually, you'll be able to take lesser Azlanti crystals and craft them into much more powerful versions.

Of course, befitting all the great loot, Nhur Athemon turned out to be the deadliest escalation that we had faced to date. Between the four of us–a heavily armored melee fighter, a ranged fighter, a cleric, and a wizard—we died 22 times over the course of the escalation. We got better at fighting Nhur Athemon as we went along, so I expect that we will have slightly less deaths the next time we face off against him, though his minions are nevertheless deadly. With the right mix of potions and spells, you can give yourself an advantage, but it will take trial and error (and a few deaths in the process) to figure this out. And in the end, Nhur Athemon and his hoodlums are still going to give you a fierce battle. What fun!

For newer players, we have made The Shadow of Nhur Athemon, an easier version of this event that will appear in certain hexes. With some +2 Tier 1 feats and some spells and potions, you will have a tough fight on your hands. This escalation doesn't drop the high-end loot that the main one does, but it will give new players some nice things to play around with in the game, including the Azlanti crystal drop.

Player Spotlight: Jokken

I met Jokken as part of the leadership of Stoneroot Glade and the Coal Road Alliance. At the start of the game, he and his allies were hampered by being isolated in the northwest corner of the map, away from all the action. Rather than letting that become a negative, he and his compatriots in the northwest have managed to create a thriving haven for characters interested in dealing with some of the NPC challenges in PVE far away from the PVP drama happening in the southeast part of the map. Now they are one of the fastest-growing areas of Pathfinder Online. Let's hear from Jokken himself about how this all came about:

I love Pathfinder Online. It touches core aspects of my interests and life as few other things do: Fantasy tabletop RPGs, Online Multi-User Dungeons, and a vibrant, evolving community. Like many of my peers, I came upon fantasy roleplaying with the classic D&D "red box" in the mid-1980s. Thanks to Mr. Mentzer, I still desperately want to punch that Bargle fellow in the nose. That grudge and the stirring art of Larry Elmore gave birth to a passionate obsession that has lasted 30 years. What started in my friend's basement as ten-year-old children rolling dice for hours upon end, slaying caves full of trolls and bears for magic and plunder, evolved into the rich 12-hour-a-week tabletop gaming experience I enjoy today.

My love for Paizo began with Dragon Magazine. Along with Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" comic and Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series, Dragon and Dungeon were the cornerstone of my adolescent escape experience. Grabbing those magazines from my local bookstore each month and poring over them cover-to-cover brought joy that is completely untranslatable to adult life. Given my endearment of such works, my weekly group and I were on board with the launch of Pathfinder RPG Alpha, running the entirety of the Second Darkness Adventure Path under that system. Since then, our multiple weekly gaming sessions have been filled with adventure paths, Pathfinder Society scenarios, and mythic homebrew. With a diversified pot of interests, I'm a 3-star Pathfinder Society GM and, along with my dear friend venture-captain Eric Clingenpeel, I organize an annual convention hosted in a winery/brewery. (If you're in the Mid-Michigan area at the end of August, join us at Tavern Con 2015!)

When not rolling dice, working, or volunteering on community projects, I'm playing MMOs. That experience began in the days of yore when I'd log my Packard Bell 486/66 machine onto a much younger internet and get lost in text-based MUDs such as GemStone III and Tarmon Gai'don. One can not thank TinyMUD enough for turning a floundering middle-school typist into a keyboardist extraordinaire. Games like Asheron's Call and EverQuest came calling in the '90s along with an eventual transition to a seven-year experience in World of Warcraft.

By the end of 2013, my interest there had lost its steam. The glory of the theme park MMO was waning. That's when the Pathfinder Online Tech Demo Kickstarter hit my radar. After reading all I could on the burgeoning product, I wanted it and I wanted it now. When the second Kickstarter came along I got a chance to vote with my wallet and help to make this dream come to be. I didn't have the bankroll to become an alpha backer, but last August I was very pleased to buy access to Early Enrollment and begin my life in the River Kingdoms.

Those early days were simply the best. I still miss clobbering goblins with the flat side of my axe and tussling with the "Werewolf of Rathglen." The experience of interacting with a game world that evolves and changes 24/7 is impossibly enticing. Many of the friendships garnered in those early days of development are the seeds of the community to come.

With January and the launch of Early Enrollment, we hit the ground running. We had pledged to life in the west and became enamored with the ideal of living on the frontier. With no handouts or guidance from an alpha aristocracy, we are a people on the range with nothing but bootstraps and grit. The bonds of our Alpha experience held our little cadre together. We are Stoneroot Glade, Talonguard, and Tavernhold, and we are here to stay. We slowly built what we have from the salted earth up, and did it without a training manual. It is tedious and painful at times, but endlessly rewarding. In lockstep, we embraced "hard is fun."

There were so many awesome days the first couple of months. In week one, we kitted out in starter gear and hastily crafted +1's and set ourselves upon a wild and dangerous wilderness. We'd do crazy things, like spend a 5-hour evening tussling with Moloch Cultists, nervously ferrying coin and the occasional piece of Tier 2 loot back to the bank as a break from being roasted alive. Gutgluts (a tribe of goblin ghouls) were a numerous mainstay. We endeavored without end to push them back around Guardheim and away from our lands. I was stunned not just by those undead fiends but also at the resolve of my companions. I think the pinnacle of our grit in the Tier 1 days was clearing out a Ripping Chains goblin tribe at the full 26,000 strength with four unrelenting souls, a pile of gear, and a free weekend. Making a safe place for new recruits is important to us. It came from the blood, sweat, and tears of the dedicated.

Jokken and his Stoneroot Glade compatriots rest at one of their shrines.

We decided early that we'd be a free people. Freedom and brotherhood became the cry of the western settler. We looked at the collectivist play going on in the east and put it at our backs. We would be a collection of engaged clans, a tribe of diversifying interests with constructive gameplay at its heart. We have a lot of sand in the western sandbox, and our desire to pile it up is ravenous. We advance through hard work and fair trade. Meritocracy has become the way of the west. We're a land where everyone is born a slobbering infant and worth is built on one's ambition and resolve.

Looking at the community growing across the map, we saw the Empire of Xellias focusing on an engaging and exciting PvP-centric experience, the Free Highlanders fighting for justice and glory in the north, and the Everbloom Alliance churning the cogs to manufacture an industrial complex and great civilization in the southeast. "Where do we fit?," we pondered. Largely, we inherited the role of player-versus-environment by necessity. We were a small band of settlers compared to the rest of the server, with five escalation sources and three monster home hexes in our region. We would either forge ourselves into the most skilled and efficient force tackling those threats, or we would die trying. To that end, we did both spectacularly. We do not like being overrun by infected hexes, therefore, by force of will we do not get overrun. Molochs, Ustalavs, Mordant Spire, and Elemental invasions meet our mettle and are no more. One can walk from Talonguard to Tavernhold and have little to fear.

Our latest (and perhaps proudest) endeavor is the creation of the Coal Road: a bridge between east and west; a lifeline of communication over the distance between our kingdoms. The Coal Road is a physical thing, much like the Silk Road of Marco Polo fame. It stretches from Forgeholm and Blackfeather Keep at the edge of the Eastern lands, into the Southern Echo Peaks, through depot stops in Callambea and Alderwag, into the Western Echo Woods, before coming into the heart of our society in the Bulwark Hills, connecting Tavernhold to Stoneroot Glade and Talonguard, then turning South to a cozy tavern on the Highwater Plains. It is a conveyance from east to west and back again; a path for those of brave heart and bold endeavors to journey and seek their self-made futures and fortunes. It is also a fantastic online resource, a place for citizens across the River Kingdoms to communicate and trade with the peoples of the west; an open channel of diplomacy where new relationships can be fostered and new trade opportunities found. In either incarnation, all who are respectful of their neighbor are welcome to join the Coal Road. Its stones come from the ore of our land, the mortar, the triumph and tears of our ambitions. We hope you like it.

The future holds limitless possibility that none can predict. Even our seers of Desna and Pharasma are silent on the subject, but I, as many, look forward to meeting it head on.

Lisa Stevens
CEO

Innside and Out!

Friday, July 10, 2015

Welcome to another edition of the Friday Publisher Preview, and another look at November's The Rusty Dragon Inn set of prepainted plastic gaming figures! Before we get to this week's reveals, I'd like to update everyone on the status of our popular Pathfinder Iconic Heroes sets. The first three sets are currently available, and ever since they hit shelves, people have been asking for more! I'm happy to report that WizKids has just announced official release dates for Iconic Heroes Set #4 and Iconic Heroes Set #5, which will be released in November and January, respectively. We're also at work on a Set #6 (and possibly more beyond that!), but we're not quite ready to announce release dates, yet.

I'll have nice images of the figures from these sets here on the blog over the next couple weeks, but until then, let's take a look at three more figures from The Rusty Dragon Inn!

Here we have the Ghoul Huntsman, inspired by the ghoul stalker art on page 82 of the Pathfinder RPG Monster Codex. GMs often overlook ranged combatants when it comes to undead hordes, and we wanted to make sure we had a figure that could help! This is the third of four ghoul figures in The Rusty Dragon Inn, so there are even more to come! The Ghoul Huntsman is a Medium, common figure.

Last week we revealed a draft horse, and we're not yet finished with the set's beasts of burden. Here we have a handsome Riding Dog for all your Small heroes. I'm looking to see some interesting gradients and stuff on the final paint job for this figure that don't quite come out in the digital sculpt, but I really like the looks of this figure and am glad to add it to the line. The Riding Dog is a Medium, uncommon figure.

Finally today we have the gorgeous Half-Elf Bard figure, straight from the cover (and page 29) of the Pathfinder RPG NPC Codex. She's great as an adventurer OR an NPC entertainer, and pairs perfectly with the Dancing Girl figure we showed off a few weeks back. I remember a day when literally the only bard figure available anywhere was a lute-playing metal Ral Partha figure with a big floppy hat. We've come a long way since then! The Half-Elf Bard is a Medium, rare figure.

And with that, I'm off on a couple of days of vacation back to the ancestral homeland of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I'll be back next Friday with a look at some of the fantastic Iconic Heroes figures yet to come!

Until then, I remain,

Erik Mona
Publisher

Hell Unleashed: 10 Infernal Secrets

Friday, July 10, 2015

Just in time for the Hell's Rebels and Hell's Vengeance Adventure Paths, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Hell Unleashed hits later this month. For this entry into the Unleashed series, Jerome Virnich and I broadened the book's focus to encompass more than just dragons, just undead, or just any one creature type. Instead, we investigate a spectrum of Hell's servants, be they immortal fiends, damned mortals, or more terrible things in-between. Also expect a few other nasty tricks you've never seen in an Unleashed book before.

So you're as prepared as you can be for the coming blasphemy, here are 10 infernal topics in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Hell Unleashed that your party paladin doesn't want you to read.

1. Roads to Hell: Before you can face the horrors of Hell you have to get there. Learn more about gates, spells, ferrymen, and talismans that provide direct routes to Hell—or that bring it to you!
2. Manifestations: Learn how to conjure forth manifestations, new haunt-like dangers that allow divinities—both fair and foul—to exert their wills upon the mortal plane. Along with these new rules you'll find examples of foul miracles for all of Hell's archdevils, and more.
3. The Book of the Damned: Learn more than ever before about Golarion's most infamous tome, The Book of the Damned, including its history, its lingering masters, how to conduct research within the book, and the god-like being that guards its secrets.
4. The Cult of Lies: Hell has many allies in the mortal world. In once such case, a cult of Asmodeus on the cusp of breaching the border between the mortal world and Hell. This elaborate encounter features customizations to make it a threat for a wide range of play, making it an appropriate climax to either an adventure or an entire campaign.
5. Exorcism: Fiends sometimes wear the fairest of faces, and their disguises aren't always illusions. Can you defeat a zebub devil? What if that disgusting devil is firmly rooted inside the body of a 12-year-old?
6. Everything has its Price: Whether you're striking a deal with a contract devil or your trading artifacts in the legendary Market of Breaths, everything has a price. Yet Hell rarely accepts currency as mundane as gold. What would you trade for power, immortality, or a chapter from the Chronicle of the Righteous? Once you've decided you're buying, it's just a matter of finding who's selling.
7. Living Blasphemies: Not all of Hell's denizens are devils. Asuras, immortal beings with grudges against the gods, also strike from Hell's depths against pious mortals. The Flowering Jasmine Monastery has fallen to one such living-heresy. Can you, and your faith, survive what that holy place has become?
8. Test of the Hellknights: Before any armiger can call herself a Hellknight, she must survive a lethal test: defeat a devil in single combat. Learn more about the Hellknights' most infamous rite of passage, with details on its strictures, testing grounds, and devils to confront would-be Hellknights of all levels.
9. The Gate to Dis: The passage between Hell's first layer, the wasteland of Avernus, and its second, the metropolis of Dis, is one of the most traveled routes in all the planes. The Forked Pyre guards that passage, twin spires flanking an endless volcanic cascade. Infernal Duke Furcas oversees the orderly passage of the damned through his realm to the torments beyond. Learn more about one of Hell's most notorious warlords, his eon-old fortress, traits for all infernal dukes, and details on their infernal demesnes.
10. Visions of Hell: Glimpse the face of Hell with one of Pathfinder's most METAL covers ever, by Remko Troost. Inside, you'll also see more of Dis, depictions of infernal personalities, and maps for every diabolical locale.

Illustrations by Eric Belisle and Roberto Pitturru

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Hell Unleashed debuts at the end of this month. Pick it up, and put the fear of Hell back into your players.

F. Wesley Schneider
Editor-in-Chief & Author

Occult Adventures Class Preview: The Medium

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Illustration by Ivan Troitsky

While all of the occult classes have some connection to strange otherworldly forces, the medium is the only one crazy enough to allow all sorts of spirits to enter his body and mind in order to share their strength, allowing the spirits to gain more and more influence over him in exchange for great power. The playtest medium's spirits were based on the cards of the Harrow deck. Since that meant 54 spirits, each with unique abilities, that proved far too lengthy to fit in Occult Adventures without cutting, so I've saved that work, and we're hoping to release it in some venue.

The medium in the final book, however, has a new theme and direction, bolstered by countless ideas from playtesters that didn't fit with the Harrowed medium but work great in the new paradigm. In the new approach, the medium's spirits are born from the Astral Plane, where the Astral stuff clings to tiny fragments of the souls of people that pass through it and blends them with the tales and thoughts of others about those people. Spirits of power thus arrive from one of six different sorts of legends, which share their names with mythic paths (archmage, champion, guardian, hierophant, marshal, and trickster). Within those categories, a medium might find countless spirits with slightly different abilities. For example, one trickster spirit might be able to help with sneaking and another with grifting. A rondelero duelist champion might be a master of the falcate, and a samurai champion might know how to use a katana. Because these six legends correspond strongly to party roles, this change allows the new medium an unparalleled ability to fill in whatever role you need that day. Going to a masquerade ball? Bring a trickster master of disguise. Party missing a cleric today? Bring a hierophant and literally add the divine spells you need to your spell list that day. Same with archmage for arcane spells. And while the medium is still sometimes a 4-level spellcaster, both the archmage and hierophant progress him up to a 6-level spellcaster!

The Harrowed medium built a special spell list solely from his spirits, but the new medium has his own spell lists, with some intriguing early-access options fitting of a 4-level spellcaster. Furthermore, he is the only 4-level spellcaster currently in the game that receives cantrips at all (and he gets them at 1st-level). This adds a lot of versatility to his options if he chooses a more martial sort of spirit, and it fits with the fact that he can temporarily gain 1st-level spells too, if he picks the archmage or the hierophant.

The medium could always use seances to bring spirits into himself and grant benefits to allies, and the new medium can still do that, but he also gained some special new types of seance that let him do things like trance at a location to learn of its tragic past or even channel a haunt into his body so his party can try to reason with it. The medium can now accept strange taboos from his spirit to gain extra benefits, causing him to act in unusual ways that befit the spirit's temperament. Lastly, the medium's astral ties allow him to perform other incredible feats, like at-will astral projection at 14th level!

But wait, you say, what about the archetypes? If the medium changed that much, how do the archetypes work? To make sure that the archetypes were an absolutely perfect fit for the medium, after the changes, I wrote them from scratch myself. And boy, some of them do some crazy and fun things! The kami medium (whose awesome art graces this blog) channels the spirits of kami instead of legends, losing all the Astral abilities for the ability to use strange ofuda and shikigami, and even gain a ward like a kami does. The reanimated medium is a medium in reverse: after dying, he borrows from his own potential future legends to come back and possess his own body, keeping himself alive. This unique state grants him a variety of benefits and unusual trade-offs. The relic channeler possesses particular relics of a select group of spirits, meaning she contacts the same ones each time. She gains object-based powers and receives extraordinary benefits in exchange for the lack of flexibility. The spirit dancer shakes the whole system of spirits on its head; instead of choosing a spirit each day and gaining its powers for the whole day, he selects a suite of spirits and spends rounds from a daily pool, allowing him to slip in and out of his suite of spirits with ease, in a strange and exhilarating dance. The storyteller is more obsessed with the stories and legends than she even is with the spirits themselves; they are a means to the end of discovering more about the tales of the past. She gains lesser benefits from her spirits in exchange for enhanced knowledge, story-based abilities, and some of the most powerful applications of bardic performance (like inspire courage). Also, she can send you into a story of her own making forever at 20th level, which is pretty nasty!

So however you enjoy letting strange spirits take your body for a test drive, Occult Adventures and the medium class have something right for you!

Mark Seifter
Designer

Ultimate Intrigue—Vigilante Playtest Round 2!

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Illustration by Miroslav Petrov

Almost three weeks ago, the vigilantes of the world struck out from the shadows and began to carve their own niches in a new open playtest. After plenty of feedback and several playtests of the vigilante, the vigilante returned to his lair to recover from his wounds and prepare his toolbox for his next greatest challenge... and so, the vigilante returns, with more tricks than ever before!

For those of you familiar with the first playtest vigilante, there's some huge changes in the new versions. In my opinion, the biggest of all was the change to the social identity. The first round vigilante received set abilities in his social identities, but many playtesters pointed out that every vigilante has a slightly-different take on their social identity, so maybe they won't all have abilities befitting of Bruce Wayne. The new version of the vigilante allows each vigilante to choose from a list of social talents at odd levels, to complement his vigilante talents at even levels. This allows you to prioritize the social abilities that are perfect for your own vigilante's social identity. For instance, you can gain the ability to switch identities quickly at a lower level... speaking of which, however, leads me to the second and perhaps more important part of the change in how identities work. In the new version of the vigilante, it only takes 1 minute to change identities even at 1st level (down from 5 minutes). But beyond that, as many of you suggested in the discussion threads, vigilantes can now use all their vigilante abilities in their social identity; they just risk being exposed if they do!

The other huge change is to the zealot specialization. In the first round, playtesters pointed out that the zealot didn't have enough of its own identity as a specialization like the others did, and too many of the abilities were similar to those of previous classes. Following some very clever suggestions from the playtest forums, the revamped zealot, inspired by superheroes with divine origins, chooses one of four potential sources for his power and gains a special ability, new talent options, and some changes to his spells known based on his choice. Whether you play an abyssal zealot with claws (and the ability to gain rend!) or a fey zealot with the ability to turn invisible while moving, the choice is yours!

There are a number of other smaller changes within the talents and specializations as well. Together they add up. For instance, many playtests of the stalker indicated that its unique talents allowed it to play differently than the playtester first expected, and now, with a few new talents, the specific ability to do full hidden strike damage on every attack against a foe affected by startling appearance, and upgraded damage on a full hidden strike (d8s instead of d6s), the stalker continues its path of darkness. Meanwhile, the avenger has gained some upgrades and consolidation of key talents that grant him some powerful abilities. For instance, now if you take hard to kill, you don't just gain Die Hard; you gain other powers like the ability to wait a round before dying of hit point damage (during which you can heal it off). The warlock's biggest change is to the powerful mystic bolts option, which now allows you to use it in conjunction with way more other abilities and ignores spell resistance, in return for a decrease in damage that is more-or-less cancelled by the ability to use it with the arcane striker talent (which you previously couldn't) alone!

So whatever style of vigilante you might be, whatever secret hides within your fragmented heart, find the strength within yourself to go forth and right the wrongs you crave to right... or, you know, commit those wrongs; we don't discriminate against evil vigilantes!

Roleplaying Guild Vigilantes

As we announced in the last playtest blog this version of the vigilante is legal for play in the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. The Chronicle sheet for the vigilante is now available for all participating in the playtest in organized play! Go ahead and grab it now!

Download the Chronicle sheet — 147kb zip/PDF

The official playtest period ends on July 20th, but we'd love for you to keep playing through August 17th; when you're through, you can post new discoveries and final thoughts (once per person) in a special thread. This allows us to continue to apply your most important ideas and latebreaking discoveries later into the design process than usual and makes them easy to find!

In honor of the new round of the playtest, I think I'm going to make a dedicated stalker thread to have some stalker chats with you guys. See you there!

Mark Seifter
Designer

Meet the Iconics: Erasmus

Wednesday, July 8, 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 Erasmus, the iconic medium!

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Erasmus was born the youngest scion of a minor noble house in Caliphas, Ustalav's capital. Along with his five older siblings, he enjoyed the benefits of a fine education and practice in horsemanship, swordplay, and tutelage in the arcane arts. Yet he understood he had little hope of ever claiming ancestral holdings or heirship. He spent his early life in the cosmopolitan pursuits of the idle rich, and he seemed destined for some opportune marriage to secure his family's comfort, with the resulting life likely to be one of bored leisure.

As Erasmus left his teenage years behind, though, the heirs of his family began to mysteriously die. Authorities discovered Nissa, his eldest sister—a cunning duelist—slain in some underground fighting pit by an opponent she severely outmatched. His uncle, a skilled magic-user, was torn apart by a summoned creature in his own occult library, while the corpse of his son was found broken below his high tower. His second sister, Veldira, choked to death on porridge in the Pharasmin cathedral where she served. Erasmus's closest confidant, his sly older brother Baylock, was found hanged in a dark alley in what authorities ruled a suicide. Amid the turmoil of the deaths, Erasmus's father began to waste away in his council chamber, while the family's eldest surviving heir, Erasmus's brother Vinn, took control of the family affairs.

It wasn't long before the voices started.

At first they were the faintest whispers, which Erasmus dismissed as sleep-deprived hallucinations or echoes bouncing through the corridors of his family's estate. But with each new death, the whispers grew stronger and their message clearer: "Murder." Erasmus ignored the ghostly mutterings as best he could, quietly writing them off as the lunacy of grief. But, with his suspicions aroused, he began to investigate the whispers' claims. Erasmus told no one of the subtly altered summoning circle he found in his uncle's chambers, or of the oily residue that failed to wash from his father's used silverware. The more he discovered, the more intense the chorus of voices grew in his crowded mind. Servants concealed Erasmus's late-night wanderings as best they could, or dismissed his mutterings and wild ravings as overwhelming grief.

It all came to a head when one of Erasmus's episodes interrupted his own father's funeral. Snapping his head back and forth, Erasmus railed against a chorus of unseen phantoms. Amid the outburst, he howled that his family was victim of his eldest brother's deceit.

None who heard truly listened, though, all convinced that grief had pushed Erasmus past the brink of insanity. Vinn, Erasmus's only remaining family member, committed him to Havenguard Lunatic Asylum.

For nearly a year, Erasmus languished at the asylum, baffling his well-intentioned wardens as they sought to heal the man's troubled mind. But on the anniversary of his father's death, another voice called through the darkness. From a neighboring cell, a new prisoner calling himself "the King" counseled the troubled man. With gruff kindness, the stranger with the accent of a northern barbarian taught Erasmus not to fight the chorus, but rather to accept and welcome it, opening his mind and body to its words. Erasmus gradually identified each mysterious voice in turn, and finally understood they were the shades of his family—the spirits of his deceased brothers, father, and uncle—who endlessly dwelled upon the circumstances of their deaths. Over time, he learned to sit in quiet communion with the voices, and to allow them to exercise their influence upon his mortal shell.

With the aid of his uncle's mastery of magic, Erasmus easily retrieved the keys to his cell to secure his escape. Under the control of his battle-eager eldest sister, the asylum's guards had no hope of restraining him. But when he gratefully burst open the King's cell, he found it empty. Too harried to ponder the implications of his friend's disappearance, Erasmus fled, relying on the influence of his roguish brother Baylock to slip through the shadows to freedom.

Yet, the world had not changed for the better during Erasmus's absence. Vinn had used his brother's madness to legally disown him from any claim to his family's titles or lands. His murderous brother had also married into a prestigious noble family, solidifying his holdings and winning him considerable influence in Caliphas's royal court. Seeing little chance at justice, and now questioning the source of the mysterious voice that had counseled him back to sanity, Erasmus knew he'd need living allies to retake his birthright. He boarded a ship crossing Lake Encarthan, the restless spirits of his ancestors following close behind.

Brandon Hodge
Contributing Author

Crisis of Faith

by Michael J. Martinez

Chapter Three: Fighting Spirit

Jed stood, his holy tankard outstretched in one hand, his rapier in another, as the zombies approached in their ponderous, shambling gait. For all appearances he might have been one of the great Caydenite adventurer-priests of old, ready to banish evil with holy power and charming wit.

Except the holy power wasn't coming. And Jed was just about ready to soil himself.

"What the hell, Cayden!" Jed cried out. "Help me!"

Corogan had been waiting for Jed's turning to take effect—and had run out of patience. The Eagle Knight charged forward, battleaxe and short sword in hand, and began slicing his way through the zombie horde, leaving Jed standing alone—with a circle of zombies closing in upon him.

A gout of flame distracted Jed momentarily; the blaze enveloped three zombies about ten yards away. That would be Silvestrae unleashing her magic.

Jed continued to shout prayers, pleas, and invective toward Cayden, but to no avail. Left with no alternative, the brew-cleric began swinging his rapier. The weapon had belonged to his father, one of Cayden's more adventurous priests, and its magic guided Jed's hand true, despite his distinct lack of training. Jed cut through undead flesh at a feverish pace, praying and shouting and generally hoping that he would survive.

Then a battleaxe sank into the head of the zombie in front of Jed, and he saw Corogan remove the weapon with a grunt. Turning, Jed found no undead left to confront.

"Thank Cayden," he breathed. Jed moved to sheathe his rapier, but with trembling hands it took him four tries.

"Cayden had nothing to do with it, priest," Silvestrae said, striding toward them. She was covered in the black ichor that ran through the zombies' dead veins, but appeared to be unharmed. She stared hard at Jed with anger that seemed ready to boil over at any moment. "You were supposed to turn these things so we wouldn't have to hack our way through! They're zombies! This isn't supposed to be hard for you!"

Jed does his best to exemplify the adventuresome spirit of Cayden Cailean.

Jed stood, still trembling, and looked down at his muddy boots. "I don't know what happened," he said quietly. His left arm was throbbing and he didn't know why. He was sore and scared and pined for his brewery as if he were a child lamenting a broken toy. "I'm so sorry."

Corogan looked at the half-elf with a measured stare. "You know full well turning isn't a sure thing," the Eagle Knight said. "Even Rafe couldn't always make it work. Give Jed some time. He'll get there. In the meantime, Jed, maybe you have a cure left in you?"

Jed looked up to see a dark red stain spreading across Corogan's tabard. "Yes! I can do that! Sit down before you fall down!" he said, taking Corogan's arm and helping him over to a large rock beside the trail. Jed helped the half-orc out of his armor, then placed his bare hand on the wound. "Cayden," Jed prayed, "you better listen to me. This brave man is hurt, and you have the power to heal him. Don't leave me hanging again."

He felt the power of his god's grace flow through his hands and into the half-orc. The wound began to close and, a moment later, it was as though it had never been there to begin with.

Corogan smiled in surprise and delight. "Hey, that's not bad," he said, placing a hand on Jed's shoulder. "That's not bad at all. Thanks, Jed." The half-orc stood and began to put his leather armor back on. "Let's get the horses and get off this damn road. We need to go cross-country if we're going to avoid any more of these hordes."

Jed rose with a smile, grateful he had been useful in some small measure. He then said a short prayer over the painful gouge in his left forearm, which had been made by a zombie's claws. This too disappeared.

Jed looked over to where he had stood in the battle and estimated he had dispatched three of the zombies. Not bad for my first time, he thought. But when Silvestrae's unrelenting glare drilled into him, he remembered there had been twenty zombies. He sighed. The half-elf had made her contempt for him clear. He doubted the half-elf would even ask him for healing if she were injured in battle.

A short time later, the companions led their mounts off the path, away from the tiny village they had spotted and into the forest at the edge of the mountain meadow. There, Corogan carefully chose a spot to make camp, one well hidden from the glen, on high, defensible ground. No fires were set; the three simply sat, ate hard biscuits, and drank water in silence. Nobody asked Jed to take a watch, so he walked a few steps away from camp and, sheltered by a large rock and tree, knelt to make his evening prayers.

Prayers to Cayden Cailean were hardly ritualistic and almost never repetitive. But they were rarely as angry and confused as Jed's that night.

∗∗∗

The morning light made things little better. Jed woke up with pains in his back so sharp they stole his breath, and his limbs creaked like old doors. At breakfast, Silvestrae looked ragged, and if Jed wasn't mistaken, almost forlorn. Jed's first instinct was to help, somehow, but one half-lidded glare from the half-elf made him reconsider instantly.

"Is she all right, then?" Jed asked Corogan when Silvestrae was out of earshot. "She seems a bit off today."

The half-orc managed the hint of a smile. "She will be. Was a rough night for her." And that was all the Eagle Knight would say on the matter.

So Jed helped load the donkey and the three set off while the sun was still struggling over the tallest of the Arthfells' peaks. The air was cooler here, which made walking more bearable, but even so, Jed couldn't help but wonder what had happened to his body. He carried sacks of grain and hops around his brew-temple each day, manhandled barrels of ale constantly, and was on his feet every night for several long hours. Sure, he had a few pounds around the middle, but it wasn't that bad.

Was it?

He looked at his companions—both lean and muscled and not even breaking a sweat, though they wore armor and carried weapons and packs far heavier than his—and concluded that he was not only out of shape, but was getting old on top of it all.

And that the path of the adventurer was not his to take. Maybe, Jed mused, that would be Cayden's lesson in all this. Or maybe Cayden was just enjoying a jest at his priest's expense. Jed wouldn't put it past him, deity or not.

Perhaps the joke had gotten stale, for it seemed Cayden was in no mood to test his follower further that day—the mountain trail was clear, if steep in places, and the mounds of the Nogortha Necropolis were visible as dusk settled over the mountains. Most importantly, Jed and his companions were not harried by any more undead, and were able to get within a half-mile of the necropolis proper before they settled down to reconnoiter.

"There aren't that many trails up into the mountains," Corogan reasoned. "So whoever's controlling the undead can group them at the top and try to bottleneck folks. Not a bad plan—except they didn't figure on us, did they?"

Corogan gave Silvestrae's arm a playful whack, but the half-elf's focus was on the necropolis ahead. "I see movement there, mostly undead, but a few living beings there as well. Humanoid. Can't tell who, though. I think we need a closer look."

With that, Silvestrae whispered words and gestured briefly, then winked out of sight once more. Jed could see the brush and grass sway unnaturally as she passed them, but that was the only trace, and soon there was no sign of her at all.

"That's her job," Corogan said, answering Jed's unasked question. "I get us to the enemy, she goes on ahead to scout when we get there, then... well, then we'll figure out a plan."

Jed nodded sadly. "It was different with Rafe, wasn't it?"

Corogan shrugged. "Rafe was a priest, sure, but he could throw down with the best of 'em. He took joy in it, the battle for justice, as he saw it. So yeah, it's different now. But we still have to get the job done. And you'll step up and do fine."

With his doubts firmly in place, Jed turned back to the necropolis, where he saw torches now illuminating the mounds. Jed counted two people who seemed to be very much alive—their movements were fluid and quick, not at all like zombies. In fact, there were no zombies in sight—but there were skeletons.

Lots and lots of skeletons. More than a dozen visible to Jed—and he figured it would be safe to assume there were at least twice as many more in the shadows.

"About that plan... what is it, exactly?"

Corogan scanned the terrain with an expert eye. "Working on it. First, I think, we need to get Sil back here so we can—oh, hell. Hell and be damned!"

Jed started at the Corogan's sudden change of mood, then followed his gaze to the mounds below. There, he saw Silvestrae—now fully visible—being shoved into the middle of a small clearing among the stones. Skeletons surrounded her, two of them in flames. The half-elf was cradling her sword arm as she faced a tall humanoid in a long, flowing red robe.

"Not good, not good at all," Jed muttered. "New plan. We need a new plan."

Corogan frowned deeply and jabbed his short sword into the dirt in frustration. "Fine. I need you to be a distraction."

"I'm a natural," Jed said, the words coming out before he could think properly. "You want me to lead as many of the skeletons away as possible."

"Exactly. I'll go down and get Sil. If we're lucky, you'll draw enough of them away for me to take care of the rest, and maybe see what Red Robes there has to say," Corogan said. "You up for this?"

Jed shrugged and got to his feet. "No choice, is there? I better be. I'll head uphill once I get their attention. When you're done, come find me." And with that he jogged off, seeming far more certain about things than he felt.

And yet it felt good to have a purpose. He was a priest of Cayden; this seemed much more like his bailiwick. Silvestrae got caught while doing her job—now Jed would do his to help get her back. It wasn't enough to put an actual spring in his step, but Jed found it easier to ignore the nagging aches and pains as he clambered down toward the necropolis.

Unexpectedly, he reached the first of the mounds without being intercepted by any guards whatsoever—and he had taken great pains to make plenty of noise.

Drawing his blade for both light and protection, Jed picked his way forward through the gloomy barrows, heading for the biggest source of torchlight he could see. It would do no good, of course, for him to venture too close—he needed to flee successfully in order to be pursued. Being captured wouldn't help.

So while still a good hundred yards off, Jed stopped and drew his tankard in his other hand, then shouted at the top of his lungs.

"What's a Caydenite got to do to get a drink around here?"

The shout did two things: One, it served as the proper focus for his prayer, as Jed figured he needed all the help he could get. Two, and more importantly, it created a hue and cry from the torchlit area. Moments later, the sound of clattering bones could be heard in the distance—and one set of bones, Jed could see, was aflame.

Jed turned and ran as fast as he could. "Burning skeletons," he huffed to himself. "I didn't know they could do that."

Running without concern for noise, Jed reached the edge of the necropolis and began climbing the trail once more, heading up and away from where he left Corogan, toward the rockier mountainside. The trail was small and steep, and there were massive rocks on either side. It was tough climbing—and he felt himself growing too tired, too quickly.

Chancing a look back, Jed saw the burning skeleton far more clearly now—it was barely thirty yards off, and there were several shambling skeletons behind it. They were slow, yes, but they were unable to get tired. There was a joke in there, Jed thought, but he hadn't the clarity or the heart to make it.

The climb got harder still. The trail was all but gone, and he was several hundred yards above the clearing now, which was dimly visible below. The moon had begun to shine, but the flames of the skeleton were brighter still. Jed could see the fiery rictus now, and despite his best efforts, the undead were closing fast. His breath was short and his legs were at the edge of failing him.

And then a small rock gave way underfoot, and Jed tumbled off the remnants of the path, falling into a small gap between the mountain face and a large boulder.

He struggled to gain purchase once more—but a surge of pain from his right foot told him there would be no climbing quite yet. He was wedged in.

And a flaming skull peered over the top of the boulder, eyeing him with empty sockets and burning hate.

Coming Next Week: Trial by fire in Chapter Four 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.

Gen Con for Everyone

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

As gigantic as Gen Con Indy has become, it's not hard to say that the show has something for everyone. If it's a game or style of gaming you're looking for, you're more likely than not to find it there. The convention's courting of younger fans, families, and even non-gamers has gone a long way in making the show feel like an event for everyone. In the past several years, Gen Con has grown into a fantastic meeting place for gamers of all shapes, genders, sexual preferences, ethnicities, and ages. If you love gaming, there's sure to be a community at Gen Con for you.

This year, though, Gen Con's vociferous welcome to gamers of all stripes proved to be about more than just marketing.

In March, when Indiana passed its controversial SB 101 bill—which, in part, protects businesses that wish to discriminate against same-sex couples—Gen Con wasn't quiet about it. The company issued a letter to Indiana's Governor Mike Pence, asking that he reconsider his support of the bill. They went on to explain that "Legislation that could allow for refusal of service or discrimination against our attendees will have a direct negative impact on the state's economy, and will factor into our decision-making on hosting the convention in the state of Indiana in future years." As the largest annual convention held at the Indianapolis Convention Center—one that draws an estimated 50 million dollars to the city—Gen Con has some weight to put behind its words. That said, the convention also has a contract with the city of Indianapolis that lasts until 2020, so whatever action Gen Con chooses to take in response to SB 101—which remains Indiana state law—will take some time. Acknowledging such, Gen Con CEO and Owner Adrian Swartout issued a letter to Gen Con attendees, restating the convention's commitment to inclusivity and asking con-goers to contact Gen Con regarding both positive and negative experiences they have with local hospitality (you can see the complete letter here).

As a young gamer, Gen Con always felt like a place where I was accepted for who I was. Today, as a married gay man, it still does. I've always had an especially warm welcome in Indianapolis, and I don't see the passage of March's law changing that. At the same time, though, I also can't overstate how much I appreciate Gen Con standing up for all its attendees.

For the past several years it's been my honor to be a panelist on the popular Queer as a Three-Sided Die seminar, as well as on Paizo's own Diversity in Gaming panel. These discussions and events like them have been forums for enthusiastic feedback and invaluable criticism. They've been eye-opening and, at times, emotional experiences attended by folks who haven't always felt welcomed by their own fandoms. They've helped calibrate my perspective as a writer, game maker, and editor, and have had a direct, positive impact on the content of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. And they've all happened with the help of the supportive, earnest allies at Gen Con—both those who make the show happen and those who come to the show year after year. These events have become highlights of the show for me, not just because they're tremendously energetic, but because they've been a way to prove that, no matter who you are, you're absolutely welcome at the game table.

This year, I expect Gen Con to be the same as it always is—filled with amazing people, awesome events, and a community that knows what's really important: having great times with the people you care about. But even though this year has been filled with fantastic changes for many, that doesn't mean that your support or that of events like Gen Con is any less important. So be sure to swing by any of the great diversity or LGBTQ events going on at the show (a few can be found at TabletopGaymers.org, but be sure to post others you know of in the comments below). You can also nab your very own rainbow Gaymer ribbon at the Rogue Judges HQ table in Hall C—I know I'll have mine.

That Gen Con is so dedicated to fostering one big welcoming gamer community—well, for me, that's part of what really makes it the Best Four Days in Gaming.

Hope to see you all in Indy!

F. Wesley Schneider
Editor-in-Chief

Tanis's Best Character Ever: Goblins!

Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Yeah, that's right, I picked two characters. Like goblins, I am greedy and cheaty. Deal with it, humans! Below you'll find an overheard conversation between Ekkie the cutpurse and Ranzak the raider.

Ranzak sits on a rock, nibbling shreds of meat off what appears to be a thighbone. He occasionally feeds a morsel to the Magic Bird sitting on his shoulder.

Ranzak (humming): ...come on pirates, do your duty. Ranzak's ready for some booty!

Ranzak snickers. Ekkie enters, skipping and swinging a dogslicer in a wide circle as she moves. Ekkie's brother's skull, Plarg, is wedged under one of her arms.

Ekkie: Hiya, Ranzak! Whatchu' eatin'?

Ranzak: Bits of tiny flapping demon. Longshanks say "imp." Imp imp imp. Good with sauce.

Ekkie: Everything better with sauce!

Ranzak: What we do today, Ekkie?

Ekkie: Ekkie think we talk about how great goblins is.

Ranzak: Good way to start most days.

Plarg: ...

Ekkie: Good point, Plarg. Whole world should know why goblins is best adventurer party.

Ranzak: Especially when goblins find big dumb longshanks to stand near! 'Specially with big longshanks to stand behind!

Ekkie: Yes, is best for longshanks—I calls 'em shields of meat or "pre-dinners"—to think they is in charge and is being nice to goblins, protecting goblins from mean old monsters. Best longshanks for this is called pal-a-dims. Meat shield stand in front while goblins sneak around back, taking all the stuff.

Ranzak: When adventurer party is ALL goblins, sometimes things can be slow, because all goblins want stuff, but not all goblins want to stand in front. Better with paladims.

Ekkie: Ekkie see how Ranzak steals stuff real good then sneaks ahead to steal more stuff when he find good stuff. This good plan, but Ranzak gots to stay sorta close to the paladims in case a bigbad comes.

Ranzak (looking around frantically, prepared to hide): Reta? Where?!

Ekkie (sighing and bopping Ranzak on the head): She not here, dummy. Ekkie means big, nasty ol' monster.

Magic Bird: SQUAWK!

Ekkie: Exactly.

Ranzak: Ranzak see how Ekkie fight rats and cats and snakes real good by herself and scares bigbads away so they goes and fights at other places. That smart!

Ekkie: So together, Ekkie and Ranzak make bigbads run away to other places, and take all the stuff. Ekkie's pretty sure that's what it say in longshanks book under picture of "adventurer."

Ranzak: Eww, books!

Ekkie: Sometimes books are mixed in with stuff to steal. Longshanks trade books for meat; Ekkie learn this when she in Big-Time Thief Guild. That also where she learn to speak with semicolons.

Plarg: ...

Ekkie: Good point, Plarg.

Magic Bird: SQUAWK!

Ranzak (laughing): Truth, Magic Bird.

Ekkie: Hmm, with Ekkie and Ranzak, you get four adventurers for price of two!

Ranzak: That good bargain!

Ekkie and Ranzak stare out into space for a beat.

Ekkie: World should also know that because of stuff-stealing and bigbad-scaring, goblins search places really fast. Fastest of all adventurers!

Ranzak: And goblins maybe not good at clearing out all places, like temples or magic places, but good at most.

Ekkie: And when time comes to fight biggest bad, Ekkie turns to devoted paladim friend and cheers. While going through pockets for loose stuff.

Ranzak: So, in end, is clear that goblins is best characters ever. Accept no substitutes.

Ekkie: What's a character?

Plarg: ...

Magic Bird: SQUAWK!

Want to being these goblins into your Adventure Card Game? You can pick up Ranzak right now. Ekkie will be available for purchase from paizo.com on the first day of Gen Con, July 30. You can also get their playmats by UltraPro for the full goblin ACG experience!

Tanis O'Connor
Adventure Card Game Designer

A Case of Disappearing Persons

Monday, July 6, 2015

The last of the Season 6 scenarios are out the door, meaning Gen Con is right around the corner. Linda Zayas-Palmer and I are keeping our noses to the grindstone as we develop the huge amount of adventure content that's on its way, including three new scenarios, six new quests, a new Special that features kobolds, and a new interactive special. But the important thing is that we're still here, which is more than we can say for several VIPs the Society dearly wishes to find in this month's adventures!

Illustrations by Marko Horvatin and Dion Harris

When a Chelish blockade closed up the town of Pezzack, the Pathfinder Society could do little to stop it. As rumors stir of dissent and rebellion in Cheliax, venture-captains have learned that one of the Society's top informants still resides in Pezzack. Extracting him should be a simple matter, right? It's only a matter of sneaking past one of the strongest armadas, finding one person in the ramshackle ruins of a dying town, and then smuggling him out—easy! When I created this outline, I knew it needed someone who could juggle a whole lot of canon to weave an intricate and exciting story, and freelance editor and frequent Pathfinder Wiki contributor Garrett Guillotte was a top pick. He's done a stellar job of presenting Pezzack in all of its politically twisted, war-weary glory in Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-22: Out of Anarchy. In commissioning art, it was hard to resist depicting the gnome professor at the Academy of Applied Magic who helps the PCs navigate Pezzack's strange politics.

Our other adventure returns to a country that Pathfinder Society has not visited in a long time—Ustalav—in Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-23: The Darkest Abduction. The Society's never been popular in Ustalav, and Venture-Captain Basia Kalistoff has done what she can to fight the stereotypes of grave robbing, underhanded tactics, and general seediness. When noteworthy citizens began disappearing in Karcau, Kalistoff saw her chance and offered her lodge's services to Countess Sasandra Livgrace. I knew returning author Jerome Virnich would be the right author for the job, especially given his work on Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Occult Mysteries and his credits in the upcoming Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Hell Unleashed. This adventure was also an opportunity to depict Venture-Captain Basia Kalistoff, whom we last met in Season 1.

Back to work for me!

John Compton
Developer

I Demand More Dragons!

Sunday, July 5, 2015

Pathfinder's beloved adventure The Dragon's Demand just got a whole lot better! After months of hard work and the contributions of a host of Syrinscape and Pathfinder fans, the long-awaited SoundPack for this well known adventure has arrived.

Packed full with delicious and slightly frightening goodies, "The Dragon's Demand" SoundPack includes a complete Kobold Lair, an awesomely gross "Mouther" monster, shrieking grioths, firebombing Flame Drakes, and an epically massive and quite angry Green Dragon with an eye-wateringly singeing acid breath weapon with which to terrorise your players.

Check out the video demo of the awesome SoundPack!

Then grab all the sounds here, along with the rest of Syrinscape's products in the Paizo store!

What else is news?! Well, we are super excited to be able to announce that Hell's Rebels is the next Adventure Path to receive the Syrinscape treatment! Just imagine what sounds will be coming out of your speakers when you play this one—Cheliax here we come! Look out for the first chapter of Syrinscape's Hell's Rebels SoundPacks coming out simultaneously with the August release of "In Hell's Bright Shadow."

And finally watch out for Ben at GenCon! Drop by the stand to pick up this year's free goodies and contribute your voice to the "GenCon Monster Raid" SoundSet or once again enjoy the epic accompaniment Syrinscape adds to the Pathfinder Society Specials. And make sure you don't miss Ben as he GMs this year's Live RPG Plus, a truly interactive roleplaying experience where the audience determines the fate of our all-star cast, including such legends as Chris Pramas, Adrian Swartout, and Paizo's very own James Jacobs. This event is not to be missed—the last time we ran a Live RPG Plus we ended up with a Green/White/Fire/Ice Dragon held by the tail being used as a weapon by the slightly overenthusiastic Ranger, a ranger who determined all his actions using Rock-Paper-Scissors. Get your tickets now!

And remember listen out for the fantastic Pathfinder fans who gave their vocal talents to "The Dragon's Demand" SoundPack at both PaizoCon and UK Games Expo this year. You can find their names in lights under the product credits in the store. Syrinscape thanks you and praises you for your spectacularly and slightly disturbing contributions!

Benjamin Loomes (half-elf bard/paladin)
Creative Director
Syrinscape

You Got Golarion in My MMO!

Saturday, July 4, 2015

When we began designing Pathfinder Online, one of the first issues we needed to tackle was making our fantasy sandbox MMORPG feel like Pathfinder. The terms of the Open Game License make a straight port of the Pathfinder RPG rules a challenge—and a lot of RPG mechanics just don't work very well as MMO mechanics anyway—so we would be focusing on the Pathfinder world of Golarion as our touchstone.

Choosing the Echo Wood portion of the River Kingdoms as our starting location made it easy for us to mix in a lot of Golarion color in a sensible way. The crusades against the Worldwound have brought combatants from all over the Inner Sea region and thus the River Kingdoms have become a melting pot of races and nationalities. The Sellen River system is one of the most traversed in Avistan, and the surrounding nations of Ustalav, Numeria, Brevoy, Galt, Kyonin, and Razmiran give us many options for storylines and villains.

This statue of Pharasma graces a player settlement.

Marked of Pharasma

In the Pathfinder RPG, overcoming death is something that requires a higher level spell such as raise dead or resurrection. But in Pathfinder Online, player death can't be permanent, so we needed a story reason for the discrepancy. Enter Pharasma, the Lady of Graves, who holds sway over birth and death. For a reason we have yet to reveal, Pharasma has taken a special interest in the Echo Wood. Pathfinder Online characters have died elsewhere on Golarion and have returned to life near Thornkeep with only a vague memory of their former lives. Very soon, these characters realize that they are trapped in this part of the world. Giant barriers of force keep in the Marked of Pharasma—the name given to those who cannot die here in the Echo Wood. Other creatures can come and go as they please, but unlike the Marked, those creatures can die permanently. What plans Pharasma has for the residents of the Echo Wood are shrouded in mist, much like the Lady of Graves herself. Will she expand the region under her control? And what's the story with those who are "twice-marked" by her? Only time will tell.

An elven wizard spies the Emerald Spire in the distance.

The Emerald Spire

In order to obtain part of the funding for Pathfinder Online, we ran two Kickstarter campaigns. Each of those Kickstarters featured a Pathfinder RPG sourcebook detailing a part of the Echowood. The Thornkeep sourcebook was the first, and author Rich Baker peppered the Echo Woods with many mysterious sites. The Dismal Caverns are home to the Bonedancer goblin tribe, who make an appearance in-game as the Bonedancer escalation. Their home hex is in the mountain to the north of Thornkeep in the game. To the northwest of Thornkeep on Rich's map, you will see Oreena's Cottage. This is the site of the Nature's Wrath home hex and the mysterious Warden of the Wood. Perusing the map, you can see that places like Toad Hollow and the Skullbasher's Den can easily be found in-game using the RPG sourcebook map. All the little tidbits of lore in the game are culled from various sourcebooks, brought together in Pathfinder Online.

When we decided to create a super dungeon for the Pathfinder RPG, Rich's paragraph on the Emerald Spire intrigued all of us and we decided to expand the idea into the Emerald Spire Superdungeon for the second Kickstarter. Once again, pieces of information from that book have made it into the game, and when Fort Inevitable is built sometime in the future, it will draw heavily from that book.

But for the moment, the most important thing Pathfinder Online has brought into the game from these books is the lich Nhur Athemon, whom Erik Mona created for his dungeon level in the Emerald Spire. Nhur Athemon is responsible for creating the mysterious towers with large floating gems that dot the landscape of the Echo Wood. These towers have served an important role in Pathfinder Online since the launch of Early Enrollment in January, as they have been the source of power for each settlement, and controlling those towers affects a settlement's ability to offer training.

All that is coming to an end on July 10 with the start of the Wrath of Nhur Athemon server-wide event. The Spire's resident lich has had enough of the puny surface dwellers leeching off his emerald power and he's out to put a stop to it! In the end, the towers will be destroyed and the players will have to fend for their settlement's training in new ways.

The Wrath of Nhur Athemon server-wide event starts Friday, July 10 at 10 am PST.

The Goblinworks designers have pulled out all the stops with the Wrath of Nhur Athemon, serving up the most challenging fight the game has seen to date. Old tried-and-true tactics will more than likely fail against the ruler of the Spire, and players are going to have to come up with clever strategies to defeat the lich and his allies. The rewards are going to be sweet, with the new Azlanti Stones being given out to all participants in the event. This event will also mark the first time that settlements will be able to put a claim on a hex that previously had a tower in it, so there will be new land up for grabs to those who can defeat Nhur Athemon's plans!

It will take a large group of persistent heroes to defeat the Azlanti lord and push him back to his subterranean lair. Will you take up the fight? Be there at server up (around 10 am PST) for Pathfinder Online's first big server-wide event, the Wrath of Nhur Athemon!

Player Spotlight: Hoffman, Dean of Pathfinder University

One of the cool things about Pathfinder Online is that the players can create things that the designers never imagined. It never crossed our minds that a group of players would devote their time to helping new players integrate into the game by creating an in-game university. The sheer dedication to man the chat channels and provide in-game support nearly 'round the clock is staggering. But Hoffman and his faculty do this and they do it well! They have touched the careers of many of the players in the game, and PFU alumni are now scattered throughout the Echo Wood. Focusing on helping players for their first 90 days while they get their feet wet and figure the game out, Pathfinder University is a shining example of players creating their own stories in the sandbox of the Echo Wood. And Hoffman is a great example of the player whose dedication and drive makes it happen.

In the words of Hoffman:

You want a piece about me? Bleh. My job is easy. My faculty does all of the work and deserves the credit. But if I must, I will share the story of how Pathfinder University came around to share my minor role in it.

It started around a bit too much ale and complaining about these young adventurers that can't even seem to find their way out of Marchmont. Then Foxglove and I were chatting about the abandoned Southwest and how it would be great if we could get people skilled enough to keep RiverBank alive... After some help from people across the area, we put two and two together and realized if we could make an Academy or University at RiverBank then we could kill two birds with one stone.

I wandered down to RiverBank (which was semi-abandoned by its original occupants) and found ogres and bandits everywhere. I started to set up shop and found a vagabond (I mean wanderer) named Nactillius hanging around. He became our first student, back when we first called ourselves River Academy.

It wasn't long before people across the map had an opinion about the River Academy. The most common themes: We should exist; we shouldn't exist; we are just a shill for the big groups. Our biggest problem was that we only had Foxglove and myself, and people were dying before they could ever get to us and leaving the River Kingdoms forever.

So we reached out to other settlements to "borrow" teachers. We were able to get people like Vorsk, Sspitfire, Thannon Forsworn, and Duffy to "volunteer" in addition to rotating guest speakers. Thannon and Duffy continue teaching weekly today.

Am I going on too long? That's the bonus of being the dean: I get to ramble and you have to pretend to listen. Back to the history of PFU.

When we had nobles like Lisa Stevens join us for Keepside chats, they were so popular that we had to hold them in Thornkeep just for space reasons.

As our students grew, we needed more faculty. We found an interesting pair in Aurora and Auriga. They wandered the map together, but there are those who still think they are the same person.

About that time, our students started graduating and spreading out across the map. We picked the best and kept them as faculty. That is how we got to keep Nactillius, Garrick Orcsbane, Dylan Hunt, Dawley, and Kleptus. (Kleptus is one to watch. Sticky fingers, that one, but usually he leaves me a few "gifts" and I never ask where they come from.)

RiverBank was eventually overrun by Ogg and we had to move. It was okay because Thornkeep started to attract more adventurers and we were able to move to University Commons and change our name to Pathfinder University.

Luckily, Garric has been able to keep this new area ogre-free (though Drothar has to make armor for us nonstop).

Was this story supposed to be about me? I just get to sit in this comfy chair and pretend I know what I talk about. Our Chair of Students Nactillius (how much he has grown since his first days) tells me we have enrolled over 270 students. Wow. Foxglove as our Chair of Classes keeps a class going every night with volunteer help from across the map.

I've got the best job and the best faculty. I show up to work for an hour or so each day to prove I'm still alive (the perks of tenure).

If you are new to the River Kingdoms, come join us for your first few months. I may see you, wish you well and put you to work. Maybe that is why my faculty all run when they see me coming?

Hoffman
Dean of Pathfinder University and Hater of Ogg

Lisa Stevens
CEO

Dungeon Dressing Singles Online!

Friday, July 3, 2015

Welcome everyone to the Friday Publisher Preview, and another look at some of the sweet Pathfinder Battles miniatures coming up in November's The Rusty Dragon Inn set of prepainted plastic gaming figures. Before we get to that, however, I'd like to talk a little bit about the PREVIOUS set, Dungeons Deep. Specifically, I'd like to discuss dungeon dressing.

Dungeon dressing is a new type of figure introduced in Dungeons Deep. That set saw the release of six different sculpts, the Anghazan Idol, Bubbling Cauldron, Burning Brazier, Chest, Iron Maiden, and Sarcophagus.

Based on online commentary, it appears as though dungeon dressing has been very popular, and some of the singles have been selling for crazy money on the secondary market. From my perspective, that's primarily due to a small handful of factors. The most important is availability.

In order to test the market for this sort of miniature, WizKids inserted them in place of uncommon figures in randomly selected boosters, with at least a full set of each figure in each case (case collation not guaranteed, etc., etc., etc.). In practice, that makes them equivalent to rares at the very least, which is probably fitting in some sense. Since we announced dungeon dressing, a minority of customers have been very against the idea, either because they don't use "props" on their table, or simply because they'd prefer another monster or character mini.

This sort of distribution for dungeon dressing has another effect—it significantly reduced the number of figures we at paizo.com have to sell. That's meant that, until today, zero dungeon dressing singles have appeared on our web store.

Well, that changes as of now, with one major caveat. As of this moment, customers can order dungeon dressing from paizo.com. However, we know that the demand for these pieces will be very high, so in order to spread their distribution as widely as possible, we are limiting sales of dungeon dressing minis to one of each piece per customer account. I want to stress that we have an extremely limited supply of these pieces, so even with the one-per-customer limit I do not expect them to last very long. We'll evaluate how this goes for the next set, and I'll do my best to keep you updated here over the months between now and November.

But wait, I hear some of you saying. One Sarcophagus or Iron Maiden might be enough, but how about that awesome Burning Brazier? I want like a dozen of those things!

Happily, I anticipated the demand for the Burning Brazier immediately upon seing the final brilliant design by WizKids, and I immediately ordered a special repaint Burning Brazier Promo Mini, that is available exclusively from paizo.com. They are online right now, with no per-customer limit. Trick out your whole dungeon in these things!

I also made sure to differentiate the Burning Brazier Promo from the regular Burning Brazier figure by changing up the colors. The promo version is a flat silver metal color, whereas the Dungeons Deep version has a gold color to it. That means you can set up an encounter with several "normal" Promo Burning Braziers and use the more rare "gold" version as some kind of "special" set piece.

So buy away to your heart's content!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a promo version of the Chest (probably the best other candidate from this set), and there's no guarantee I'll be able to do this with "common" dungeon dressing in future sets. But I knew people would want more than one of those braziers, and I did what I could to make that possible.

And Now, Back to The Rusty Dragon Inn

With that out of the way, let's take a look at two pieces of dungeon dressing from November's The Rusty Dragon Inn set. As many of you have suspected, the dressing in this set follows the theme of the set in general—the tavern. Let's take a look!

Here we have a Cart that will look great as part of a campsite, to liven up an urban street encounter, or carry around random junk. I don't have final outputs of any of the Rusty Dragon figures yet, but the idea is to make the back of this thing big enough to fit a figure into, so it also makes a crude chariot. To my knowledge, the wheels on the cart are stationary, so (as with all figures), you'll have to use a bit of imagination.

Even cooler than the cart is its older brother, the Wagon. This simple wood-textured vehicle has a ton of uses. Cart around a player character! Pick up several to fashion a crude barricade! Carry your dungeon treasure back to town in style!

So, there you have it. Two of The Rusty Dragon Inn's dungeon dressing figures. But wait! I hear your questions already!

"Hey Erik," I hear you say. "Just who is supposed to pull around this cart and wagon? Our player characters?"

"Why no," I reply calmly. "I expect the set's Draft Horse to pull them."

The Draft Horse is a Large, uncommon figure.

See you next week!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Occult Adventures Class Preview: The Psychic

Thursday, July 2, 2015

What do you get for the mind that has everything?

Illustration by Nemanja Stankovic

We always knew Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Occult Adventures would have a full 9-level caster who could cast all the biggest and baddest psychic spells. This was our psychic, running fully on the power of her intellect. The big challenge with 9-level casters is always making them unique without making their non-spell class features too powerful. Getting full spell access is a big deal, and doesn't leave a lot of room for other bells and whistles. This is also the Pathfinder RPG's first Intelligence-based fully spontaneous caster, drawing on the strange psychic structures of her mind rather than her force of personality. And that unique mental structure leads to...

Psychic disciplines! Because psychic magic is heady and full of occult weirdness, one of my priorities was making sure there was something for the player to wrap their head around a little bit more easily—a frame of reference for how her psychic works. Psychic disciplines fill that space by describing what techniques the psychic uses to access the spells from her mind. In many ways, it's akin to praying to a deity for a cleric or studying a spellbook for a wizard, but far more individualized to suit how psychic magic works. (This wasn't just useful for the players. Even the design team had some trouble wrapping our brains around the esoteric concepts this book talks about, so it was valuable for us too.) Much like sorcerer bloodlines, disciplines give additional abilities and additions to the psychic's spell list mirror bloodlines in many ways, and provide roleplaying cues. The disciplines didn't change drastically after playtest, except for a few balance and thematic issues, particularly in the pain discipline. The final version of the class adds several new disciplines: dream, faith, psychedelia, rapport, and self-perfection. Faith and self-perfection lend a bit of a divine feel and a bit of a monk theme, respectively. Some of these, like dream, required some of the new spells from the book to function properly, so we waited to add those until the final version.

Though our version of mental magic differs wildly from ye olde psionic rules, the psychic's phrenic amplifications were designed to recapture some of the feeling of augmenting spells. The psychic can exert herself to dig into the workings of her mind and mess with the very nature of her spells. Some of the new phrenic amplifications let the psychic read the thoughts of creatures affected by a spell, spend phrenic points to improve her undercast spells, or replicate metamagic feats.

Now, the biggest change to the psychic isn't really any of her special abilities. It's her spell list. From the playtest, the psychic spell list has expanded dramatically, including the vast majority of the new spells from Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Occult Adventures. The psychic is also the only class with access to undercast spells. The spell list more than doubled in size from the playtest version. At the low end, the book introduces a telekinetic 0-level spell that hurls an object at an opponent. With high-level magic, the psychic can duplicate herself to be in two places at once, make a special ship that can take her and her companions on a voyage through dreams, or permanently switch minds with another creature.

Archetypes for the psychic have an interesting range. The psychic can get better at psychic duels (a new subsystem in the book) with the psychic duelist archetype, adopt physical mutations with the mutation mind, or shed her physical body with the formless adept. The craziest archetype we've included is the amnesiac, who forgets her own spellcasting ability and can attempt to recall spells to determine which ones she knows at a given time.

Logan Bonner
Designer

Meet the Iconics: Rivani

Wednesday, July 1, 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 Rivani, the iconic psychic!

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

The path of the initiate is long and fraught with danger. For Rivani, the journey began as a young girl of 12 in the teeming city of Chendras, in the distant land of Vudra. Born the seventh daughter of a minor functionary in the court of a great rajah, Rivani seemed set to follow her sisters into a life of government service. Always a precocious child, Rivani took well to her studies, spending hours in her master's library studying tomes she could barely comprehend. She especially favored lavishly illustrated accounts of harrowing victories over fantastic creatures, or voluminous surveys of distant lands and their many peoples, monsters, and mysteries. Rivani thrilled at imagining herself traveling to those distant lands as a questing hero, and soon these whimsical idylls consumed her every thought. As her revels grew more vivid, Rivani grew more distant from her sisters, putting her presumed future as a courtier at risk.

The rishis at court saw promise in the young girl's whimsy, and implored the rajah to put Rivani to the Trial of the White Lotus, a simple test to determine a child's mental aptitudes. After a series of intelligence and motor skill challenges, the rajah's poets probed Rivani's knowledge of the world's esoteric nature. They were surprised to discover that Rivani's reading had already set her on the path to spiritual development. She knew of the growth of the soul through reincarnation, of the astral body and the etheric double, and of the distant planes that house them. She knew also the rudiments of ki, the energy force that binds all living things into a spiritual family. In terms of esoteric theory, Rivani knew more than most third-year chelas. A promising child, indeed.

But it all came down to the Trial of the White Lotus. Following the minor challenges, the rishis brought Rivani to a secret room within the onion dome of the rajah's highest tower, and there revealed a lush garden of fabulous flowers and colorful plants. Here was a verris bulb from distant Kaladay, there a purple jonquil from mythical Hermea. A massive quanlum bush—identical to the specimen allegedly recovered by Khiben-Sald himself on the far planet of Castrovel—dominated a far wall, next to a collection of ghorus seeds floating in a nutrient tank. And at the center of the room lay a pedestal, and on that pedestal a simple white lotus—Rivani's final challenge.

"Cast forth your mind," the rishis bade her. "Merge your life essence with that of the flower and realize that you and she are but tongues of the same flickering cosmic flame." Rivani closed her eyes and concentrated on regulating her breath, relying on techniques she'd read inscribed upon an archaic manuscript of palm leaves by a lost yogi brotherhood. With each exhalation, she pushed her consciousness deeper beyond her physical body into the scintillating emanations of ki that comprised her health aura. At first, Rivani wasn't sure if she simply imagined that it was so, but when her mind conjured the thought of her aura touching upon that of the white lotus, she felt her spirit lighten, and a beatific calm overcame her.

Sensing a breakthrough, the rishis instructed Rivani to infuse her ki with that of the plant, to meld her mind with its animating force and open its closed petals. As she considered their instruction, Rivani pictured the bulb of the lotus opening one petal at a time. From within the flower glowed a coruscation of colorful energy Rivani inherently knew represented the force of life itself. It flourished within the tiny cup of the white lotus, but it burned with an intensity that echoed that of the sun. At that moment Rivani realized—not just read, but truly realized—that all life, hers, the flower's, even the sun's, were but aspects of the same glorious creation. As her conviction grew deeper, as the petals of the white lotus opened faster and faster, Rivani became aware that her mind also opened itself one petal at a time. Sweat dripped from her brow, threatening to distract from her spiritual unfoldment by reminding her of the limits of her physical body, but still Rivani delved deeper.

In her mind's eye, Rivani stepped further and further into the light until she could no longer distinguish herself from the flower. But she felt other presences, too. The poets of the court were also part of the fabric of life, and Rivani brushed against their innermost thoughts without even meaning to. She saw their anticipation, their pride, their amazement at her unexpected power. She saw too their betrayals, their scandalous secrets, and their venal, immoral ambitions. Rivani had passed the Trial of the White Lotus, but none of the rajah's rishis celebrated her victory.

Instead, certain that her unexpected foray into their consciousness had revealed secrets that could threaten their status at court, the rishis proclaimed Rivani a mahatma reborn, the vessel of a world teacher consciousness returned to Golarion to guide the people into a new age. Just not in Vudra.

With the blessings of a rajah nervous about his advisors' tales of Rivani's mind-reading prowess, the rishis dispatched their blessed student across the sea to the Isle of Jalmeray, there to further study among the adepts of the Houses of Perfection. Each of the that institution's three monasteries welcomed their honored visitor from the East, but the Monastery of Unblinking Flame in particular seemed most eager to accept her into their ranks. Even as far away as Chendas, Rivani had heard tales of the Houses of Perfection and their "impossible" entrance trials. Steeling herself for the test of a lifetime, Rivani prepared, as her books instructed, to outwit an efreeti.

Instead, white-robed warrior monks escorted her to the monastery's courtyard garden for an audience with Anandala, the order's ageless sovereign. She denied Rivani's entrance to study at the monastery, for she was to be a teacher, not a student. "Everything you could teach us you read in a book," she said. "We have read books. Go out into the world and learn to live. Once you know something for yourself, come back to Jalmeray and teach us what you have learned."

Thereafter, Rivani spent several months as a librarian's assistant in Quantium before fleeing the city after becoming a pawn in the psychic espionage and infighting of the Council of Three and Nine. From there she ventured to Absalom, spending most of a year as a translator for the esoteric manuscripts department of the Forae Logos before conflict with a fellow librarian drummed her out on the streets. Although she still reads voraciously and is seldom found without a well-thumbed book or two, Rivani henceforth swore off finding the world's secrets in musty libraries, and finally set out to make some discoveries of her own.

A life filled with so much travel has filled Rivani with a wanderlust that borders on fatalistic. Her relationships burn intensely but briefly, as she constantly guards against delving too deeply—accidentally or otherwise—into the minds of her friends and lovers. She seems always fixated on the next stop on her journey, and while of a generally kind nature and friendly demeanor, she takes it as a matter of faith that she will soon be moving on, and avoids long-lasting, deep connections with others. Rivani loves nothing more than to share stories of her travels and cultural explorations, and to receive the tales of others in return. Through all of this she's begun to develop her own philosophy, but it will be many years, and many many more adventures to come, before she will be ready to share her wisdom with the world.

Erik Mona
Publisher

Crisis of Faith

by Michael J. Martinez

Chapter Two: Depending on a Drunken God

The forests and low hills surrounding them were as bucolic as anything the bards described at Cayden's Rest, but Jed's spirits remained low as he followed his new companions over the quickly diminishing trail.

It was his fifth day on the old dirt road. His back ached and his haunches were sore from the jostling. The chain shirt didn't fit right—or, rather, his father was a bit thinner in his prime than Jed was today. He was hungry, and while he was rationing his ale supply, there were but two small barrels left.

And of course, he had undertaken this momentous quest in the only manner of conveyance he had available—the brew-temple's mule cart. His thinking was that the others' horses wouldn't be burdened by the camping gear, including the tents Jed had purchased at the last minute on his way out of Augustana.

Silvestrae and Corogan didn't use the tents. They simply slept on the ground. Corogan was nice about it, saying he preferred the open air. As for Silvestrae, her disdain was silent but palpable. After the first night, Jed left the tents in the cart and slept outside with the others—which was one of the primary reasons, though by no means the only one, why his back was killing him.

The ale he brought, on the other hand, was more welcome, and it was going fast. Corogan seemed to limit himself to a tankard each evening, but Silvestrae seemed to put away the rest of the massive half-orc's share in addition to her own. And yet she held her drink well. Jed had put one of his more experimental brews in the cart along with a few others, and the half-elf immediately noted the lemon verbena hiding behind the hops. She was his kind of customer... at least when it came to ale.

The trail took them northward toward the Arthfell Mountains, long the home of Andoran's more rustic denizens. Those who dwelled in the cities thought of these hillfolk as little better than barbarians, and the few Jed had met at Cayden's Rest certainly fit the bill. Yet they were thoroughly Andoren—fiercely independent and desirous of little more than the right to keep farming their land and hunting the herds in those inhospitable mountains.

So when a representative of the hillfolk traveled all the way to Almas with terrible tales of the dead rising in the Nogortha Necropolis and sweeping through their lands with flame and doom, the Golden Legion had immediately assigned Corogan to investigate.

In Jed's view, at least, Corogan was one of those rare Eagle Knights whose sense of righteousness and justice did not impair his practicality. That was evident from his close friendship with Silvestrae, whose modest magical ability seemed only to augment her skills at stealth and deception. They bickered occasionally—actually, she bickered at the half-orc, who accepted her barbs with grace and humor—but theirs seemed to be a bond of experience and respect.

And loss. They spoke little of Rafe, the cleric who died in Cayden's Rest, and Jed was too circumspect—and perhaps a touch too intimidated—to ask. Jed knew his presence was keeping them from true haste. He could only hope he would be of some use before the end.

"Keep up, Caydenite!" Silvestrae called from up ahead on the trail, riding among the shadows of the afternoon sun.

Grimacing, Jed cupped his hands to his mouth to shout after her. "The road's getting worse! I won't be able to get through soon!"

It was as if Silvestrae's disdain and Corogan's weary patience were tangible magic beams, smacking Jed in the face.

Corogan deftly guided his horse back around toward Jed. "All right. Let's get you on that mule, along with as much of your gear as we can. Except for those tents."

Jed slid off the cart and started unhitching the mule, while Corogan began lifting everything out. The half-orc was strong, as strong as any Jed had seen, but was possessed of such quiet strength and decency that even Jed, who prided himself on his treatment of others, wondered if he had been giving half-orcs in general enough consideration.

Silvestrae, meanwhile, was content to stay on her horse and look utterly impatient with the whole thing—except when the two barrels of ale were unloaded. She was willing enough to sling one onto her horse's back, even when she had to finally climb down from her mount and wrestle it out of the wagon herself.

Corogan does what it takes for Andoran.

And that's when a twig snapped off toward the trees. Corogan looked up... then looked down again, shaking his head in quiet disgust. "Damn it all..."

Jed's heart raced as he suddenly found himself and his companions surrounded by at least a dozen haggard, filthy humans with bows and arrows at the ready.

"Whoa! Hey, now!" Jed yelled, raising his hands. "We're just traveling the road here! This is still Andoran, is it not?" The sound of Silvestrae's hand slapping her forehead somehow didn't distract Jed from looking at the men and women surrounding them. "Come now, who's in charge here?"

A rather large, muscular woman dropped her aim for a moment. "I am, and you'd best explain yourselves before we fill you with arrows."

Jed stepped forward, despite Corogan grasping at his shoulder. "Of course, my dear lady. I am Jeddah Cailean, priest of Cayden. These are my companions, the lady Silvestrae and Corogan, Eagle Knight of Andoran. Surely you see his sigil?"

The woman snorted and a few of the others chuckled. "Sigils are cheap," she said. "And we ain't had no food to eat in a week, since we been drove off our land. So you best step away from that wagon before we send you to meet your drunk god."

Jed looked to Silvestrae and Corogan, and both looked ready to unsheathe their blades and have at it. The odds weren't as bad as they seemed, for the ambushers seemed to be mostly unarmored and ill-equipped, and a few were indeed looking quite thin and wan. Thieves, certainly—but why? They had to know their chances were slim against three strong adventurers... well, two, at least.

"Cayden, lend me that silver tongue of yours," Jed whispered in prayer. "And be quick about it before blood is spilled."

He then looked up at the woman with a divinely enhanced smile. "How about this instead: Tell your people to lower their bows, and we'll partake of some of Cayden's ale together. And you can tell me what's driven you and yours to such desperate measures, eh?"

The woman looked wide-eyed at Jed for a long moment, even as Silvestrae began to unsheathe her sword. Then the woman smiled. "All right, then. Ale in hand is better than blood on the ground. Stand down!"

With but a little confusion and murmuring, the bandits lowered their bows and stowed their arrows, and Jed turned to Silvestrae and Corogan with a smile. "Better to lose a barrel of ale and gain some knowledge of the area, eh?"

Corogan responded with a smirk and a clap of Jed's shoulder, while Silvestrae merely frowned as she shoved her blade back in its scabbard. "A waste of good ale on these grubs," she muttered.

∗∗∗

The "grubs" in question were indeed local hillfolk, driven from their homes some months past by the sudden surge of undead in their lands. They had left their village with only the clothes on their backs, and what little could be thrown into packs and baskets. Many were left huddling around fires at night, exposed to the elements or trying to find rest in makeshift shelters. Food was scarce, as the tilled fields were far away and the mindless undead had no compunction about killing game and leaving the carcasses to rot, such was their hatred of all life.

"And so we came down to the road to try our hand at briganding," said the woman, whose name was Toska. With some soap and clean clothes, Toska might have simply been seen as fiercely maternal. But here along the road, wearing dirty rags and full of anger, she almost rivaled Corogan in savage mien. "Fact is, though, nobody travels this road much except farmers and tinkers—no real food nor gold. So we try to catch a few fish, maybe some squirrels and rats. And we starve while them skeletons and zombies sit on our lands."

They were seated around a fire, the sun having gone down an hour ago. The first barrel of ale was gone, and the second newly tapped, much to Silvestrae's great annoyance. But the ale—along with Jed's simple spell of charming—had the desired effect. The mood had lightened considerably, and most importantly to Jed, nobody got hurt.

Jed had thought to ask one of the hillfolk to serve as guide, but when he asked Corogan about it during a pause in the drinking, the half-orc merely snorted. "Not necessary. I can follow the land to the necropolis. We bring along one of these people, we'll be slowed down. Can't protect 'em, either. Best to leave them be."

And so Jed went back to the revelry. He took the time to talk with each of the men and women—and a few older children mixed among them—to ensure they were as healthy and hale as could be expected. He used his divine gifts to create a bit of water and food they might share—sadly, not enough to fill all their stomachs, but it was better than nothing.

One after another, the hillfolk drifted off to sleep. There were but two left standing—actually, sitting slouched on a log and singing off-key in slurred voices—when Corogan nudged Jed awake. "We're leaving," he said.

Jed looked to see Silvestrae already on her horse—and Jed's mule already packed and waiting for him. "Now? In the middle of the night?"

Corogan nodded, and Jed could see him work up the patience to explain. "You did well to make friends with them. We have a little more information now, and no one was killed. But we can't have them following us. Or changing their minds about wanting our stuff. Let's go."

Jed staggered to his feet, wincing at the pain in his back and haunches once more, and staggered toward his mule, clumsily mounting it and following the others quietly away from the camp. By daybreak, they had reached the point where the trail began rising toward the stark, gray peaks of the Arthfell Mountains.

As daylight strengthened, the road grew less traveled. By lunch—a meal that Jed missed more than he cared to admit at this point—the trail became more ambitious. By the time the sun disappeared behind the tallest mountain peak, all three companions had to walk their mounts to avoid tumbling off the foot-wide dirt path and into a ravine.

Yet Corogan insisted on going forward, convinced that a clearing was just around a bend. It took three such bends and a half hour of steep climbing in the growing dark, but he was correct. The trail emerged into a small mountain meadow. Buildings rose in the distance, dimly lit by the dwindling rays of sun escaping around the peaks.

"We can shelter there," Jed said. "Perhaps they even have a bed and some ale."

Silvestrae tsked loudly. "There are no lights there, priest. It's probably been abandoned by the hillfolk. And if it is, that means there's undead about."

Jed turned to Corogan, hoping he might have a different take, but the half-orc's weapons were already drawn—a battle-ax in one hand, a short sword in the other. "To the right," he hissed. "Movement."

Silvestrae began whispering words of power and a moment later disappeared from view. Jed drew his rapier, forgetting its power for a moment and starting at the magical blade's light.

A soft moan came from up ahead. Jed turned—and saw several figures shuffling down the path toward them.

"Zombies," Corogan said quietly. "About twenty or so."

Jed could only see six—and that terrified him even more. He turned to Corogan, only to see the half-orc eyeing him expectantly. Right. This is why I'm here.

Stepping forward, Jed took the tankard hanging from his belt and held it aloft in his left hand, a voice in the back of his head critiquing the move. It was the first time he had ever faced undead, let alone tried to focus his god's power to turn them.

He cleared his throat and spoke out into the darkening sky. "In the name of Cayden Cailean, I command you to be gone!"

Nothing.

No power flowed through him as it did when he cast his spells. There was no flash of light, no clap of thunder. There was nothing except a growing chorus of moans, the shuffling of feet through dirt and grass, and the growing stench of rotting flesh.

"Damn it, Cayden," Jed shouted, his voice breaking. "You put me here for this! Get rid of these things!"

The zombies kept coming.

Coming Next Week: Flesh and fire in Chapter Three 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.