For one reason or another, occasionally a mistake slips through into one of our printed products. I know that's a shock. I'll give you a moment to recompose yourself.
Fortunately—if you can ever call such things fortunate—they're not always our fault. From the time production files leave our tender care to the moment a fully realized book reaches your door, countless mysterious hands work and tinker in ways neither editor nor reader should dare interfere. Most of the time such mysterious forces rise and pass leaving behind no evidence at all. Sometimes not.
Pathfinder Adventure Path #35 includes one such instance of "not." Although it's too late to correct the thousands of books already sailing their way to our warehouses, we can preempt them.
Here's the deal, and I've probably already overplayed it: there's a map on page 33 of #35 that got "garbled" (you'll see when you get it). It's not unusable, but it's not pretty, and it's one of the most baffling snags we've ever seen, likely having to do with vicious data-gnawing file gremlins or other computer-age equivalents of "acts of God." Regardless: not pretty. So, hidden behind the spoiler below is the map as it should appear. It's of one of the final encounter areas of War of the River Kings, so I'd suggest all GM-fearing Kingmaker players NOT look.
Spoiler:
Cartography by Rob Lazzaretti
The volume is still awesome, with some really nasty new threats and particularly cool new rules for martially minded rulers. But we just wanted to fill everyone in as soon as we found out so there's no surprises and so you have everything you need to run the adventure as easily as possible right out of the book. We're totally sorry for the half-page mystery map you'll be seeing, but hope the version here prevents the snafus from slowing down your game.
Whew... with all the mad rush to get so many books out to the printer in time for Gen Con, closely followed by the weird sort of "now we get a chance to relax/don't stop to relax or you'll fall behind schedule again!" fugue state, I have a little bit more time to think. And while thinking, I realized that we've pretty much sent the last two adventures in the Kingmaker Adventure Path off to the printer and have started working on the next Adventure Path, "Serpent's Skull," with barely any art previews at all.
So, presented here is art from Pathfinder Adventure Path #36's "Sound of a Thousand Screams." In order to keep folks guessing and throw some uncertainty into the mix, two of these are NPCs from the adventure, one's from the gazetteer of the First World, one's from the "Beyond Kingmaker" article where we talk about continuing your Kingmaker campaign beyond the final adventure, and one's from this volume's bestiary. And at least one of them is an illustration of a character we've named before in our campaign setting but have never illustrated before. And yes... there are a lot of twelve-sided Hit Dice rolling around in this adventure, if you know what I mean... better start working on your anti-breath weapon tactics!
Also, you can tell that our art director, Sarah Robinson, is still on vacation because we don't know who the artists were for these pictures, and thus aren't able to give artist credits. WE MISS YOU, SARAH!
An ancient land of half-forgotten empires and untold savagery, Iobaria sprawls beyond the frontiers of northern Avistan. History scars and shapes the people of this rugged land, the ruins of sprawling civilizations standing testament to ages of glories long lost, but which might rise again. Supplementing the "Iobaria Gazetteer" by Steven Schend in Pathfinder Adventure Path #33, the following timeline (also by Steven) presents an overview of the land's long history, laying bare the wonders and terrors that rule that rugged realm even today.
Iobaria Timeline
Year
Event
–5293
Earthfall. End of the cyclops Koloran Empire
–3923
Pit of Gormuz opens in central Casmaron
–1281
Taldor founded by Lost Azlanti and primitive native humans
–632
The Tarrasque, Spawn of Rovagug, destroys Ninshabur. Some hidden force turns the creature west across the Tovrus and into Avistan.
752
Ulfen explorers traverse the polar ice and settle into the taiga of northern Casmaron, founding Okormirr.
753
Okormirran explorers discover the Koloran Roads and begin building Orlov among an old ruined cyclops city. Orlov becomes larger than Okormirr by 764.
780
Founding of Orost.
788
Founding of Antoll.
795
Founding of Lenusya.
809
Founding of Mishkar.
818
Founding of Kirrosuli.
846
Founding of Kirya.
905
Iobar, son of Kjell of Orlov, conquers all challengers. He unites all territories under his own banner, claiming all lands from the Icewall to the Castrovin Sea as Iobaria.
937
Death of Iobar I at the Battle of Kridorn. Iobar's son Hrugil repels the pirate fleets from the east, spending the rest of his rule improving Iobaria's fleets, intent on eradicating the powerful mercenary pirate and corsair fleets of the northwestern Castrovin Sea.
975
Kridorn rises to become a port city, not a minor fishing town.
1080
Hroran and Kridorthrost founded in this year of plenty.
1106
The Tearplague scours all settlements between the Norinor and Finadar.
1240
Human settlers claim cyclops ruins in Caemorin, dubbing the settlement Mavradia.
1412
Founding of Zradnirras.
1466
Founding of Vurnirn after a 24-year-long struggle against Hoofwood natives.
1528
Founding of Mirnbay.
1634
The Chardeath sees many spontaneously combust in high fevers. The flames lead to the eradication of a third of all Iobarian settlements. This plague's source is revealed in 1869 as the necromancer Otyb the Undying.
1717
The red and blue great wyrms, Shrodniar and Voldmannasein, clash over Fangard. Some force from the forest depths strike Voldmannasein dead, while Shrodnair crashes near Antoll. Strange glyphs are discovered, burnt into the blue dragon, scarring even his bones.
1900
The centaur tribes of the Caemorin unite under the banner of Errindayn the Seer, sacking Mirnbay and destroying numerous humanoid settlements.
1986
Errindayn the Seer dies mysteriously after an unnaturally long life. The centaurs of the region abandon their warlike ways.
2108
Mirnbay refounded and defenses significantly reinforced. Centaurs barred from the city for more than 400 years.
2546
Ohjar's Plague kills a third of all male centaurs, orcs, and humans across the land in a mere 8 months.
2602
Humans and some native centaur tribes ally together to form the realm of Zastel in eastern Iobaria, its capital in Mavradia.
2654
Iobaria begins the Reclamation Wars against Zastel.
2686
Zastel reconquered and returned to Iobarian rule.
2742
The Choking Death. A respiratory plague suffocates more than 40% of Iobaria's adult population over the course of 8 months. The plague spreads west out of Iobaria (carried to Avistan by refugees) and devastates human populations in northeastern Avistan over the next 6 years.
2767
The Native Plaguestrife: Various druid sects, guilds, and politicians fan flames against those they deem "non-native Iobarians" by claiming no plagues ever happened until folk started coming east from Avistan. Skirmishes and vendettas weaken the power bases of many for decades.
2920
Earthquake rocks Taldor, Qadira, and central Casmaron. Coastal settlements along the northwestern Castrovin all damaged or destroyed by tidal waves.
3000s
Exodus. At least three separate waves of refugees abandon Iobaria over this century to settle other colonial lands to the west and south or new domains east of the Castrovin Sea.
3150
The Pestilentropy infected many nomads and settlers in central Iobaria, causing fevers and madness ultimately leading to death by overexertion or by the blades of those its victims imagine to be their foes. The disease or its manic side effects destroy more than half of Iobaria's farms, villages, crops, and cattle, leading to a decade of lean harvests and starvation for the region. This devastation and the lack of support for the people leads to the final dissolution of Old Iobarian rule.
3212
Three warlords (one of Issian descent) and their allies band together to restore the nation of Iobaria. Rallying to banners and flags of Old Iobaria, support for New Iobaria rose quickly with their reclamation of Orlov from foreign factions and their local pawns. The Restoration War lasts for nearly a century before New Iobaria officially exists and rules its lands.
3283
House Arjal and House Korya betray allied House Narkys, sacrificing its leaders and troops to dragons of the mountains and wilds, their newer allies.
3304
The Restoration War over, King Irral I turns control and demesne of all the old cyclops ruins to their white and red dragon allies.
3679
The Great Horde. A collection of ogre, giant, and cyclops tribes rampage across Iobaria under the command of Burlor, a cyclops wearing the Crown of Mirim and wielding the Perobov Maul. These monsters remain a threat long after the death of Burlor beneath the hooves of more than 25 tribes of centaurs.
4000
Amid the blizzards of a long and particularly harsh winter, frost giants from the Ice Steppes invade New Iobaria, pillaging and murdering. They reach Orlov before being repelled.
4499
Iobarian Choral the Conqueror unites Rostland and Issia into Brevoy.
4519
The Drakeplague kills more than 60% of the dragon population within 3 months. The silver dragon Cithaythren and Finadar druids perform a ritual to end the plague before it spreads beyond Iobaria at the cost of that dragon's life.
4600s
Sarkorian barbarians flee the expanding Worldwound, a number of tribes crossing the polar ice to Iobaria.
4607
Skirmishes and battles among Sarkorian refugees, native insurgents, and Iobarian troops begin the second fall of Iobaria with the loss of Mavradia to rebel forces. Battles and rebellions continue over the next 5 decades.
4659
New Iobaria reduced to the now-isolated cities of Kridorn, Mirnbay, and Orlov, each of whose rulers now claims to be the true ruler and heir of Iobaria due to blood ties to the dead kings.
4667
Red Revolution of Galt; many Galtan nobles flee north and eventually arrive in Kridorn.
4699
Royal House Rogarvia, descended from Iobarian warlords, disappears. House Surtova assumes power in Brevoy.
It's been a long, strange, and humiliating trip for the poor unlucky owlbear. He's been shot dead, turned into a pigeon roost and object of mockery for slack-jawed yokels, torn down and broken apart by barbarians, and defiled by wandering wolves. But as is always the case with that pesky circle of life thing that nature loves so much, eventually he gets to return to his beloved woods. And hopefully warn future generations of owlbears of the dangers he faced.
Or maybe not. Maybe his forgotten head will just serve as a dinner platter for the next one to come along...
If these installments of the Unluckiest Owlbear saga seem to suddenly be coming fast and furious, there's a reason—as our deadline for Gen Con "ship to the printer" approaches, we're finally seeing all of our product lines actually bunch up and get back on schedule. As a result, we've sent what feels like 40 installments of Pathfinder Adventure Path to the printer over the past few weeks. Which is, I suppose, good news for our poor unlucky owlbear, since that means the ongoing humiliations will be made public (and thus come to an end) all the sooner! This week, we present the penultimate installment of the saga, wherein the raiders have done their thing and moved on to other towns, leaving in their wake nothing but ruins and wolves. It's probably for the best that this illustration doesn't depict the natural progression of events as the wolves, moving in to claim new territory, begin to do what wolves do best when it comes to neglected statues...
We try to mix up what we do on the inside covers of Pathfinder from Adventure Path to Adventure Path. Those interior pages are prime real estate, after all, what with being the first thing you see when you open the book, their extra sturdiness, and what not. There's precedent for leaving these pages blank or just putting in some design—like we sort of did in Rise of the Runelords—but that's boring. On the other hand, we could do what the Modules and Companions do, and chock these pages full of charts, tables, cover art, and standard maps. But you know what? Pathfinder Adventure Path has more class than all that. So we tend to err on the artsy side. We've done tales from the marid storyteller Shazathared, we've done illustrative maps, we've done cast lists and power charts. This time around, for Kingmaker, we're doing wanted posters. With the often-comic illustrations of Peter Lazarski launching these side quests, every volume of Kingmaker includes eight optional missions, hunts, and errands. As these are meant to be wanted posters, and with a few folks already making their own, we thought it'd be cool to slip a few more of these out into world.
However, we live every day in paralyzing terror of saying or showing something on here that might be interpreted as a spoiler. Therefore, so as not to cripple any of the AP's upcoming encounters, I've only attached character headshots here. Who are they? Well, your GM knows (or soon will), all you sneaky players, so you'll just have to wait and find out!
Illustrations by Peter Lazarski
That said, if folks chime in and want the monsters too, maybe, just maybe, we can be convinced to take a short jaunt on the wild side and release some of those too.
In Pathfinder Adventure Path #34, things once again take a turn for the worse for our poor unlucky owlbear. It's one thing to be immortalized as a statue in the middle of a village, where children laugh at you and birds poop on you and you eventually become forgotten as part of the town square's mundane decor. It's quite another when the barbarians come to town and, in a sudden urge to show off their destructive power and strength, tear your statue down! At least the owlbear's ghost can take solace in the fact that those pesky barbarians are probably being equally destructive to the adventurers who got him into this fix in the first place.
First up, an update from last Monday's post: We're all feeling much better around here. Physically at least. (The various stresses and psychoses of the editorial pit are more the topic of an encyclopedia set than a blog post... so moving right along.)
If you read Pathfinder Adventure Path's monthly Bestiary, you probably already know what a sucker I am for monsters, especially when we can double-dip, combining cool creature design with beasts from real-world folklore and mythology. Well, just a heads up, the Bestiary in Pathfinder Adventure Path #34 hits the swamp monster mother load! To spill the beans on the majority, we've got the ahuizotl, the river-dwelling eye-ripper of Central American; the leshy, the legendary green man of Slavic myth (which, as you can see by the art, I ended up taking a weird but open ended turn with that all you druid players might be particularly intrigued by); and, my personal fav, the nuckelavee of Orcadian legend—the second time I've developed this monster for a d20 game—who, thanks to artist Scott Purdy, looks INCREDIBLE!! I absolutely love bringing these monsters, with pedigrees as vaunted as classics like chimeras and goblins, to the game table, so expect a few more lethal legends by the end of the Kingmaker Adventure Path, and plenty more in the future.
Illustrations by Scott Purdy
And if you have any other obscure folklore or mythological monsters you'd love to see make their way into Pathfinder Adventure Path, don't hesitate to drop a suggestion in the thread for this post (along with a link so I can read more!).
So it's been about a month, and you know what that means! Yup! Time to reveal Chapter Three of the saga of the Unluckiest Owlbear. I had mentioned previously how the poor owlbear was destined for greatness... and as it turns out, that greatness is that he's now the pride and joy of Owlbearton's central plaza! Gaze upon his magnificent glory, preserved for all time* for the idle entertainment of passing rubes and for the perching comfort of well-fed pigeons! What more could a proud magical beast of the woods primeval hope for?
James Jacobs
Creative Director
*At least, until next month, when the indignities continue.
With the GameMastery Guide off to print we need something new to start teasing you all with, and while the Advanced Player's Guide seems logical, being our next next big release, I like monsters more. So where should we look for previews of Bestiary II? Why, no farther than Pathfinder Adventure Path #33, as we've got a few homeless horrors in there that will be creeping into October's tome of terrors. See for yourself. And no, none of these are new creations for Bestiary II.
As I mentioned back on the 22nd of February, the owlbear sort of ended up being the mascot for the Kingmaker Adventure Path. I also hinted that our poor mascot was going to have something of an unlucky streak. Turns out... the bad luck hits more or less immediately—in the second Kingmaker adventure, "Rivers Run Red," the PCs start to build their kingdom and tame the wilderness of the Stolen Lands. That's bad news for the owlbears, as you can see here.
Don't worry, though, because our unlucky owlbear is destined for greater things than merely providing a pile of experience points for some overzealous archer! It's just that the owlbear won't be all that aware of his fame when it finally comes!
Although I can't quite yet show off the actual rules you'll be using in the Kingmaker Adventure Path quite yet, I can show you how they look in play. Presented below is an excerpt from Merisiel's diary as she oversees the foundation of a brand-new kingdom in the mysterious Stolen Lands. NOTE: Merisiel's probably not the best choice in this group for a nation's ruler, but sometimes that's just how politics work. As time permits, I'll post a few more diary entries to this blog's messageboard thread so we can all learn from Merisiel's triumphs and failures. Certainly there'll be more triumphs in her future, yes?
1 Pharast: So it looks like I'm in charge. Queen Merisiel. I like the sound of that. Although, as Seelah is so fond of pointing out, I'm technically a baroness until this new nation of mine grows large enough. I'm still gonna be calling myself queen in these pages. Seelah's gonna be the general of my armies (she volunteered!), and I put Lem in charge of keeping an eye on the citizens to make sure they're loyal as the spymaster. And of course Kyra's our high priest. All the other leadership roles, for now, go to some of the other locals we've allied with during the past several months of exploring the Greenbelt. We'll see how they work out, I suppose—none of them seem particularly talented, but hopefully they'll grow into their jobs? And if they don't, I can fire them. I'm the queen, after all. Anyway, we've managed to claim a pretty sizable area around this old ruined castle that bandit lord was using as a hideout. The ruins should work pretty well as a new castle, once it gets patched up. We've started clearing the area around the ruins to serve as a good place to build up a town. I'm thinking of calling it Owlbearton, after that bandit's pet owlbear that nearly bit off Lem's ear, but Seelah says that's a stupid name. I told her that if she comes up with something better we'll call it that, but so far all her ideas suck. Surprise, surprise. So for now, Owlbearton it is! We've even built some roads around the place! It's gonna be a city in no time! Especially now that I've got some deliciously heavy taxes coming into the treasury! Who woulda guessed that taxes could be something to be happy about? So far, those taxes more than paid for the roads and land clearing and stuff. Not the rebuilding of the castle, though. That's expensive, as it works out. And while Lem says that the locals are complaining that all I'm doing is lying around and taking it easy while they pay for my little project, and while Kyra says she only barely managed to talk a group of farmers out of marching up to the castle to tear it down and (their words) "git back what we done paid for from that spendthrift pointy-eared harlot!" I'm not worried. Once they see how excellent this castle looks when it's all done, they'll all forgive me. I'm sure of it!
I'm not sure when it happened, but at some point along the way, the owlbear kind of ended up being the official Kingmaker mascot. Sure, the PCs will be facing evil fey, lizard and frog men, undead monstrosities, bandits, trolls, giants, dragons, and worse during this Adventure Path, but they'll also be facing a lot of owlbears. Some of which are really rather memorable.
Anyway, once we realized how owlbear-riffic this Adventure Path was going to be, we decided to open each one of Kingmaker's forewords with illustrations of the life and death (mostly death) of the River Kingdoms' unluckiest owlbear. There he is in the illustration above, wandering through the primeval woodlands of the Stolen Lands without a care in the world. I'm not going to name him, because that would just make the next five months of what happens to the poor guy depressing.
For now, though, he's at home in his element, with no idea of the pain and humiliation to come. What has cruel, cruel fate got in store for this poor, innocent owlbear? Tune in to this blog next month to find out!
We've had the cover for Pathfinder Adventure Path #32: "Rivers Run Red" (written by our own Rob McCreary) up for sometime now, but it bears another mention, as this cover sees the climax of a long and interesting evolution. It's little surprise that we were only three months into the Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path—and Pathfinder's life in general—when it came time to order art for our first troll. How to handle this got a little tricky, though, as it's important to us that our creatures walk the line between familiarity and distinctiveness when it comes to earlier incarnations of the game. What we ended up with was the gnarled, lanky, long-nosed fellow from "The Hook Mountain Massacre". Neat! And totally a cool piece of art. But definitely nothing ground breaking.
Illustration by JZConcepts
Several months later, against all odds, we found ourselves ordering a cover for a Bestiary. Attempting to follow in the tradition of the "a whole bunch of monsters about to getcha!" covers from classic gaming bestiaries, we wanted a swarm of little monsters, one or two medium monsters, and a big monster. Creature ideas went around and around, then sketches did their circles, and what we ended up with was goblins, a maralith, and WHAT THE HECK IS THAT! OMG, that's a TROLL! Awesome! You don't get an incredible Wayne Reynolds cover and then say, "That looks amazing, but could we get this guy to look a little ganglier." This was our new look for the troll.
Illustration by Wayne Reynolds
Flash forward a few more months and we're ordering Kingmaker covers. So we want a cool bandit and a sexy fey and a barbarian dude and a—hey, how 'bout a troll boss! Okay, that'd be cool. And thanks to Vincent Dutrait, here he is.
Illustration by Vincent Dutrait
So our trolls have come a long way over the course of the past few years, but without a doubt, things are settled now. And if that nasty claw-claw-bite wasn't enough to send your PCs running for their alchemist fire, just wait for "Rivers Run Red" to see all the nasty tricks Chief Hargulka has in store for the Stolen Lands.
Looking back, trolls actually had it pretty easy. You should have seen the backstage identity crisis the ogre had before its debut. But that's a story for another day…
Huh. It's been a while since I've talked about an Adventure Path in the blog, I just realized. Looking back, seems the last time we talked about an Adventure Path at all was on January 6th, in fact. AIEEE!
Now... sometime soon I wanna share with you some excerpts from Merisiel's journal that have come into my possession... excerpts that catalog her joys and frustrations over the foundation of her new nation in the northeastern River Kingdoms... but I'm still deep in the process of translating it to English from Elven and excising all the racy parts that the MAN won't let me put on the blog.
So, since I don't have the time yet to post that preview of the kingdom-building rules that'll be appearing in Pathfinder Adventure Path #32, why don't I show off some of the art from the first Kingmaker adventure instead? Let's see... how about pictures of two of the more ferocious war chieftains your PCs will be dealing with during the course of "Stolen Land?" Names withheld to prevent the not-so-innocent...
And I promise to make public Merisiel's journal soon! Stay tuned!
Illustration by Kyushik Shin
Illustration by Eric Belisle
Illustration by Scott Purdy
PS: Yes... the third picture is of a carbuncle. For real.
I have a pet pseudodragon! He guards my desk against unwanted intruders, shreds lackluster manuscripts for nesting material, chirps when I forget to go home at night, helps with insomnia, and spell checks documents for me! And if I can brag a bit... he was made by my mom for my birthday a few weeks ago! Apparently, it took her two years on and off to get him just right, with articulated and posable wings and legs, a tail filled with sand from the Point Arena beach (washed and cleaned, of course!), and sparkly hair that doesn’t quite show up as well in the photo as it does in real life. His name is Gwangi. Gaze upon his majesty!
And PS: That’s a map of the entire Stolen Lands just behind Gwangi. Think of it as an "accidental Kingmaker preview," even if you can’t really make out the details.
Pretty much the last thing we did in 2009—before we ran screaming from the office, that is—was to pack Pathfinder Adventure Path #31: "Stolen Land", the first volume of the Kingmaker Adventure Path, off to the printer. So, to refresh your desktop for the new year, check out its incredible cover scene from artist Vincent Dutrait. Enjoy!
So we're putting the final touches on the last volume of Council of Thieves as I write this post. Which also means that I'm finally starting to work on the next Adventure Path, Kingmaker. The authors have, of course, already been hard at work and we've already got four of the adventures in house in one shape or another—but the grisly process of development and editing can now start in earnest.
And so I thought I'd show off some art from the first Kingmaker volume, Pathfinder #31. Something new that's going on the inside front and back covers of every volume of Kingmaker. What could a crazy bearded man, a farmer's wife, a hungry tatzylwyrm, and an angry wild boar have in common?
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