Pathfinder Chronicles: Seekers of Secrets talks about the tests to become a Pathfinder and the training members receive if they pass, but the carrot that convinces most applicants to try is the chance to explore strange places, discover exotic treasures, and be published in the Pathfinder Chronicles. This illustration encompasses all aspects of those rewards, from the young Pathfinder referring to the Chronicles for clues on how to open a strange sealed door, to the female Pathfinder so impressed with Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin that she cut her hair just like his, to their overzealous companion too intent on unearthing a cache of wayfinders and ioun stones to heed his fellows' warnings.
Illustration by Craig J. Spearing
Of course, few could blame him for this eagerness. The Pathfinders are said to have enough treasures in their vaults to buy and sell all of Absalom—surely an exaggeration, but greed is a powerful lure, and many join the Pathfinder Society just to get their hands on as much magic as possible.
While the denizens of the Pit have been slavishly wrangling hundreds upon hundreds of beasts both fascinating and foul, we've managed to slip in and liberate a particularly interesting few. Now behold! We bring to you, our faithful readers, the terrible visages of four terrifying creatures, taken directly from the pages of the fabled Pathfinders' Bestiary that nears completion deep in the Vault of the Golem. Some of these creatures are obvious, yet what the others are, we cannot say. Perhaps you, dear readers, can tell us what they are?
Art by Eric Lofgren
Art by Andrew Hou
Art by Kieran Yanner
Art by Michael Jaecks
Watch close for further glimpses into the gruesome Bestiary; next time, expect fearsome creatures from the Great Beyond!
With Pathfinder #19, "Howl of the Carrion King," the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path introduces the first in a new breed of fiendish terror: the divs. Drawn from Persian lore, divs are neutral evil fiends born from the souls of fallen genies. Where the daemons of Abbadon seek to harvest souls from the Material Plane, divs seek to cause hardship, making mortal existence as painful as any hellish afterlife. Researched and designed by Adam Daigle, expect to see a new div every month, from the wicked-tongued doru (illustrated here by Eric Lofgren) to Ahriman, supreme lord of the div race. While wildly different, every div bears certain similarities. From Pathfinder #19, check out the fiends' nefarious traits:
The Nature of Divs
Divs are a race of fiends native to Abaddon that exist only to cause harm and destruction. They are closely related to daemons and the other fiends of the Outer Planes, though many planar scholars believe them to be descended from the spirits of the first evil genies. These creatures vary in power, yet all have similar traits that link them.
Divs commonly speak Abyssal, Celestial, and Infernal.
Div Traits: A div possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in the creature's entry).
—Immunity to fire and poison.
—Resistance to acid 10 and electricity 10.
—See in Darkness (Su) Some divs can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, even that created by a deeper darkness spell.
—Summon (Sp) Some divs share the ability to summon others of their kind (the success chance and type of divs summoned are noted in each monster description).
—Telepathy.
That's right, you can never, ever have enough fiends.
No one will believe me when I say this, but I absolutely did not plan to have Pathfinder #19 contain not only the Golarion version of the notorious chupacabra, but also a relatively significant goat NPC. The goat in question is a hapless chap named Rombard, and he's menaced not by chupacabras but by something else entirely in this volume's adventure, "Howl of the Carrion King," but that doesn't mean he can't be worried about the goat-suckers that are lurking later on in the same volume's bestiary.