So the waters of Riddleport harbor are alive with things that find people delicious. A pirate or smuggler who falls overboard generally has only a few minutes to get to shore or clamber back on board a ship before a shark, bunyip, reefclaw, or other predator catches his scent. In some cases, though, those hungry predators don't wait until someone falls into the water—they can flop ashore to hunt for food if necessary. One notorious local predator with this unnerving habit is the swamp barracuda.
Of course, the swamp barracudas have long been a menace along the shores of the Varisian Gulf, and the local Sczarni families in particular have a unique working history with these beasts. Take the following as an example as to why it's generally a bad idea to annoy these criminals.
The Fish Tank: Owned by Jaster Frallino, the head of the Magnimarian Sczarni gang known as the Gallowed, images of glassy-eyed sea serpents and scandalously clad mermaids stare stupidly from the timbers of this peeling sea-blue caravan wagon. Within, the roomy wagon holds a single battered stool and a four-foot-tall glass aquarium filled with murky water. Inside the glass tank laze Frallino's three fat pet swamp barracudas: Verna, Argarno, and Big Mal. In Frallino's displeasure, several lazy thugs and untrustworthy business partners have lost a toe, a nose, or a whole hand to "The Boss's Fish," and more than one of the crime lord's enemies have gone into the tank headfirst. It's also rumored that the Sczarni boss keeps a collection of mysterious, rusted keys at the bottom of his chummy aquarium, guarded by his beloved pets.
Here it is folks, this is where it's all about to go down: Riddleport, the City of Cyphers, the most perilous pirate port north of the Arch of Aroden. Next month, with Pathfinder #13 and the start of the Second Darkness Adventure Path, the floodgates open and thousands of PCs get set loose to wreak havoc on this scallywag's sanctuary. Until then, though, things look pretty peaceful. Just check out this bird's eye view of the city. Which of these is your character's new home? In what alley will he get jumped by pirates? Under which dock will she be ambushed by bunyips? And which den of thieves will burn when that first fireball flies awry? It's all here, the Gold Goblin, Zincher's Arena, St. Caspieran's, the Temple of Besmara... you'll just have to wait till next month to find out which is which!
Here's a free one, though. The Cyphergate? It's that big arch.
Next month's Pathfinder marks more than just the launch of the Second Darkness Adventure Path, it also premieres a new addition to Pathfinder's pages with the first of our new Set Piece adventures! Eight-page adventures tied to that month's Adventure Path entry, Set Pieces present GMs with a host of options whether they're playing the ongoing Adventure Path, running their own games, or simply need an iconic location. Each Set Piece is built as an optional Adventure Path episode and includes details on how to include it in the month's adventure. For GMs craving lighter fare, though, these scenarios are flexible enough to adapt to any ongoing campaign or even serve as short, one-night adventures. There's also no telling when your game might need a familiar fantasy location—whether it be a thieves' guild, pirate ship, monster-haunted ruin, or one of countless other archetypical adventure sites—making Set Pieces useful to GMs who need a locale on the fly when their players zig when they're supposed to zag.
The first Set Piece, Tim Hitchcock's "Saint Caspieran's Salvation," presents a Riddleport thieves' den insidiously hidden beneath the guise of a rundown chapel. Forced to distinguish scheming swindlers from the truly needy, the PCs need to wade through a crowd of questionable castoffs to uncover the misdeeds rooted amid the hostel's good work.
Unfortunates of St. Caspieran's d6 Mission Encounters
1 Ukkar the Fierce: Once a raging warrior, Ukkar's legs were crushed in a cart accident and had to be amputated when they turned gangrenous. Now he sits in a small cart and pushes himself about with his calloused hands.
2 Sylee: This orphan girl stares silently with fearful eyes, desperately clutching a dirty rag doll with a missing arm.
3 Lil' Lirt: A young boy tries to slit one of the PCs' pouches or pockets with a razor and make off with whatever's inside. If caught, he bawls for mercy.
4 Jhonas: When away from Father Padrick's side, Jhonas walks the mission, talking to different parishioners and vagrants, trying to learn from their perspectives as much as offer them his blessings.
5 Pauper's Hand: These troublesome thieves are always milling about. If one spots a PC, he hurries to alert the other guild members.
6 Mika the Fallen: This poor mad fellow walks around barefoot wearing nothing but old sackcloth. He believes he's a fallen angel sent to redeem himself by offering comfort to lost souls. To those he feels suffer most, he offers true salvation—walking with them up to a high rooftop and pushing them off.
You'll meet this lot and more of Riddleport's most desperate and despicable residents in "St. Caspieran's Salvation," the first Pathfinder Set Piece adventure, coming up next month in Pathfinder #13.
Next month, readers of Pathfinder #13 will meet Saul Vancaskerkin and Clegg Zincher, two scheming crime bosses from Varisia's famed pirate paradise, Riddleport. But the premiere entry in the Second Darkness Adventure Path isn't the first time the Vancaskerkin family and Boss Zincher (Pathfinder #14's cover boy), have shown up in Pathfinder. Would you believe that both received a nod all the way back in Pathfinder #1?! Turns out that the Vancaskerkin line has been causing trouble in Varisia for some time now, even leading to Orik Vancaskerkin's participation in Sandpoint's problems in "Burnt Offerings":
"After a scam involving a tiefling prostitute, a shifty alchemist, and an elixir of love, Orik was forced to flee Riddleport. He's pretty sure that Clegg Zincher, the now-dead alchemist's powerful brother, still carries a grudge for what Orik did to the alchemist when he discovered, to his horror, that the elixir of love was actually just cheap ale laced with lavender." (Pathfinder #1, pg. 45)
While Orik was schlepping around Thistletop, though, his brother Verik was getting into no end of trouble in Korvosa, serving as member of the city guard (Pathfinder #8). And all the way back in Riddleport, their dear old dad, Saul Vancaskerkin, started cooking up a scheme to reclaim some of his local clout (Pathfinder #13). But behind many of the Vancaskerkin family's troubles hides a singular tiefling harlot, a pretty face with a purple dress and pointed tail named Lavender Lil. In Pathfinder Companion: Second Darkness, a story that started over a year ago can finally be told:
"Like many of the city's tieflings, Lil grew up an orphan in Riddleport. She earned her coin by telling stories on street corners, where her fantastical tales garnered just enough copper for a bite to eat. Although a gifted storyteller, Lil's exotic good looks drew more attention than her tales, and soon a local pimp forced her into his flock.
"As she matured, Lil's sultry purple eyes and her love for flowers earned her the nickname 'Lavender.' Her talent for storytelling matured alongside her looks, and rumors circulated that her grandfather was Varisian and her grandmother was a devil-woman. While Lil had no strenuous objections to working as a prostitute, she missed the freedom of life on the streets. Her dreams never grew grand enough to imagine life as a noble lady, a brave adventurer, or even a wife or mother. All Lil wanted was the freedom to claim her own life and to manage it, for ill or good."
Lavender Lil appears in the first entry into the Persona section of the new Pathfinder Companion line, a section which details a new, fully statted personality from Golarion. Check out Lil's side of the Vancaskerkin tragedy, the entire "Second Darkness Player's Guide," and tons of new info for characters and GMs of all stripes in Pathfinder Companion: Second Darkness next month!
So, as you can see in the picture here, life in Riddleport can be tough. It might be a nice, balmy summer day, a perfect day for smuggling some loot. You've got word that the overlord's gendarmes have all been bribed and your boss' rivals have other problems that have them looking the other way—moving the latest catch from a fat Magnimarian merchant ship to the local fence should be a simple job. But if there's one mistake a Riddleport native can make—it's letting your guard down. The local wildlife (like reefclaws or swamp barracudas or sharks or even the cranky bunyip pictured here) can pose an even greater danger to the locals than the city's more conventional thugs and thieves.
Pathfinder's 3rd Adventure Path, Second Darkness, is a much more global campaign than the previous two—but it still starts in Varisia, in the dangerous and exciting city of Riddleport. this volume comes with a gazetteer of the City of Cyphers loaded with adventure hooks and hidden secrets for your PCs to discover, businesses to visit, rob, or even own, and exotic games of chance to take part in. And plenty of monsters and opportunity for peril, of course. Just keep one thing in mind—Riddleport is at its most dangerous when things seem calm. Oh, and don't feed the wildlife.
Being one of the newest employees here at Paizo certainly has its advantages, one of which is that I get to see some of the new stuff coming in. In an effort to not be a selfish, selfish man, I thought I'd share some of the love with you.
Here are a couple of sweet art pieces from August's Pathfinder Companion: Second Darkness. For those that don't know, Pathfinder Companion will be a new series of player-friendly, 32-page, bimonthly books designed to enlighten different aspects of the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting, such as Elves of Golarion or Osirion: Land of Pharaohs. This first Pathfinder Companion will be a key resource for players and GMs playing through Pathfinder's Second Darkness Adventure Path, which begins in Pathfinder #13.
By now, Pathfinder readers are getting to know Magnimar (detailed in Pathfinder #2). And when we launch the second Pathfinder Adventure Path, Curse of the Crimson Throne, there'll be all sorts of details on Korvosa. But what about Varisia's third city, Riddleport? While we do indeed have plans to eventually present Riddleport in greater detail, for the foreseeable future there's not going to be much about the notorious port town at the northernmost edge of the Lost Coast.
In Pathfinder #3, we'll be presenting a gazetteer of Varisia. Remember all of those names and locations on the map from the inside back cover of the Player's Guide? They all get, at minimum, a paragraph of descriptive text. Riddleport gets a little bit more—it gets a picture to go along with the following entry:
Riddleport: Varisia's northernmost port, the infamous city of Riddleport is renowned as a haven for scoundrels, outcasts, and worse. Cutthroats fill its harbor and dockside brothels, with Riddleport's officers of the law being just another gang of thieves (and hardly the most powerful one at that). Yet even in such a den of inequity and vice, scholars and historians abound, attempting to decipher the runes of the great arch known as the Cyphergate, which spans the mouth of the harbor and looms over each vessel that passes into the city. Although any progress on the inscription has been kept quiet, recent excavation hints that the massive arch might actually be just one segment of a ring that extends into the cliffs surrounding the port.
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