For Gen Con 2012, we plan to make this the biggest and best Gen Con yet! I am scheduling 750 tables of Pathfinder Society over the four days. We are also bringing the GM 101 workshops that debuted at Paizo Con (and were discussed in last Monday’s blog) to Gen Con. They will hopefully be a hit and draw in new players and GMs to Pathfinder Society, as well as make active Pathfinder Society players take the next step and help to GM in their home regions.
We will be hosting Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box Introductions. During nine of the 10 slots at Gen Con, we are setting aside four tables at each slot for these events. These are scheduled with new players in mind. The first 45–60 minutes will be exploring the contents of the Beginner Box, explaining the rules, and reviewing the pregenerated characters. The final 4 hours of each slot will be playing through the four 1-hour adventures that were offered during the Beginner Box Bash.
In addition, we are adding a Pathfinder Kid’s Track to our gaming area. We are focusing on players aged 6–12 and we will be using the Beginner Box for this as well. Each Kid’s Track slot will be 2 hours long and each player will receive a check-off card, very similar to what was used at the Beginner Box Bash. The first hour teaches roleplaying and rules and reviews the pregenerated characters found in the Beginner Box. During the second hour, one of the four 1-hour adventures used during the Beginner Box Bash will be played. We will be restricting tables to four children players and are requiring a parent or guardian be present with each child (or multiple children if they have two or more interested in participating) for the entire 2 hours. The parent or guardian will assist the child when needed. But, we want to make this a good and memorable experience for the kids that attend Gen Con, who often find little they can participate in, especially with others their own age. We will be scheduling eight slots per day for the Kid’s Track. However, we are only scheduling one adventure each day. If a child comes back and plays a different adventure each of the 4 days, he will be able to present his check-off card and receive a special certificate. We may also have other giveaways or special prizes. I will be very picky when choosing volunteer GMs for the Kid’s Track. I prefer to have schoolteachers and other professionals with experience dealing with children, but I will consider GMs who are parents even if they do not deal with children regularly in their profession. If you are volunteering to GM the Kid’s Track, please make sure to include all of your credentials. Also, since these are scheduled as 2-hour blocks, a GM will be required to run two Kid’s Track slots back to back in a 4-hour block to count as one slot of credit toward GM rewards.
Finally, we are adding an invitation-only second round to the Gen Con Special: Race for the Runecarved Key! The first round will be what you have come to know and love as the Pathfinder Special. It will be 75 tables all working together to overcome some nasty problem the Decemvirate wants dealt with. However, the change this year is that we are adding a special, secret scoring system. The top three tables from each tier will advance to the invitation-only second round.
This second round will be one of the deadliest dungeons ever explored by the Pathfinder Society, and only the very best of the organization’s agents even have a chance of surviving. Again, let me emphasize—this will be a true and deadly test of the Pathfinder Society’s best teams. It is almost a guarantee some Pathfinders will die. Make sure to bring your A-game. The first round will be made available to qualifying conventions worldwide after Gen Con 2012 as it is every year. However, the second round is only being offered this once—at Gencon 2012.
At this point I am looking at restricting the GM pool to only 4- and 5-Star GMs. To top it off, the players that advance to the second round will trade in their Chronicle sheets received after the first round as their tickets to this invitation-only event. When they complete the second round, they will receive new Chronicle sheets with a very special boon. We haven’t forgotten about our volunteer GMs for the special either. We didn’t want them to miss out on the opportunity to play in the invitation-only second round. So, we will be entering all Round 1 GMs into a drawing, were we will pull six names. Those six GMs will then receive a seat at a 16th table of the second round.
The observant readers may have caught that I just mentioned 16 tables and are scratching their heads that three tables from each tier and the special GM table don’t add up to 16 tables. Well, you are right. Like last week’s blog that announced a special Tier 12+ event at Paizo Con, we are adding a Tier 12+ to both rounds of this year’s Gen Con special! The special will be written for Subtiers 1–2, 3–4, 5–6, 8–9, 10–11, and 12+, and we'll actually have 19 tables of round 2.
Now, let’s talk about the GMs and volunteers we need to pull all of the above off and make it an awesome Gen Con.
I need a minimum of 125 volunteer GMs for Pathfinder Society games, Beginner Box Introductions, and Kid’s Track events. I’ll continue taking volunteer GMs until the slots are filled, at which point I will create a waiting list in the event a scheduled GM has to cancel his or her Gen Con trip for whatever reason. I also need eight Volunteer Assistants for each slot of the show. These folks will not GM during their volunteer slots, but will instead help me run Pathfinder Society HQ—including marshalling, collecting tickets, distributing GM packs, and entering tracking sheets into the database—and will be our go-to guys and gals for all things Pathfinder Society.
Below you will find the reward structure for volunteering at Gen Con 2012. Keep in mind that you’re volunteering for slots, not a specific event. I will let you know the slots and scenarios you have been assigned as soon as possible. You may designate what tier scenarios you wish to GM but this is not guaranteed to be filled. I will do the best I can to accommodate your requests. My target date to get all GMs their assigned schedules is April 10. This should allow you plenty of time to plan a schedule, before the May 20 event registration, with your friends and family who are also attending Gen Con 2012. Please let me know via email which days you will be at the convention and how many slots you are volunteering for at Gen Con 2012.
Volunteer Tiers and Rewards
Tier 1 GM Volunteers
Tier 1 GM volunteers are my every day GMs. They are invaluable to making the show a success. Tier 1 GMs must select and volunteer for a MINIMUM of 7 slots. Tier 1 GMs may feel free to volunteer for more than 7 slots if they so desire. Any slots over 7 will be used as overfill GMs. Overfill GMs are requested to show up for muster but will be free for the slot if a scenario has all of its assigned GMs present. I only have room for 80 Tier 1 GM volunteers so don't delay in volunteering for this tier. Volunteers will be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis, though I reserve the right to select volunteers who have previously worked for Paizo over new volunteers. Please do not volunteer for Tier 1 if you have any doubts that you won't be able to attend the show. Tier 1 GMs receive:
A FREE 4-day Gen Con 2012 badge
A FREE 1/4 of a hotel room in the Hyatt Regency Hotel
A $10 per slot voucher for Paizo.com credit, useable at the show or anytime after, including with your subscriptions
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2012 T-Shirt
Tier 3 GM Volunteers
While the rewards for volunteering for this tier are smaller, the majority of my volunteers will come from Tier 3. Tier 3 GMs must volunteer for a MINIMUM of 5 slots. Tier 3 GMs receive:
A FREE 4-day Gen Con 2012 badge
A $10 per slot voucher for Paizo.com credit, useable at the show or anytime after, including with your subscriptions
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2012 T-Shirt
Tier 4 GM Volunteers
This is the minimum volunteer level. Tier 4 GMs must volunteer for a MINIMUM of 3 slots. Tier 4 GMs receive:
A $10 per slot voucher for Paizo.com credit, useable at the show or anytime after, including with your subscriptions
A FREE limited edition Paizo Publishing Gen Con 2012 T-Shirt
Volunteering for One or Two Slot
While we will gladly accept anyone who wants to run just one or two slots during the show, there are no rewards for doing so other than our thanks.
When Volunteering...
Please be specific about what days and how many slots you are volunteering for. I will assign folks to slots and scenarios on an as-needed basis. I will update the needs in the thread below as I receive volunteers, so you may look there to remain up to date on where we still need help. You must have a gencon.com account and you must include your gencon.com account number in your email or I won’t be able to get you a badge (obviously this is only for volunteers who are volunteering for 5 or more slots). Finally, include your Paizo.com email account so I can make sure you receive the scenarios in your downloads.
Slot 1: Thursday 8 A.M. to 1 P.M. Slot 2: Thursday 1 P.M. to 6 P.M. Slot 3: Thursday 7 P.M. to Midnight Slot 4: Friday 8 A.M. to 1 P.M. Slot 5: Friday 1 P.M. to 6 P.M. Slot 6: Friday 7 P.M. to Midnight (Gen Con Special Round 1) Slot 7: Saturday 8 A.M. to 1 P.M. Slot 8: Saturday 1 P.M. to 6 P.M. Slot 9: Saturday 7 P.M. to Midnight (Gen Con Special Round 2) Slot 10: Sunday 9 A.M. to 2 P.M.
All Gen Con 2012 volunteers please email me at mike.brock@paizo.com with the subject line Gen Con Volunteer.
Thanks in advance for volunteering, good luck, and have a great spring and summer convention season!
Mike Brock Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator
The Dawn of a New Era: Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Version 4.1
Monday, January 30, 2012
Illustration by Kevin Yan
When I arrived back in late September as the new Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator, I had hundreds of people requesting hundreds of changes to the way Pathfinder Society Organized Play was run. It was definitely enough to make my head swim with all the different requests and it took me a few weeks to get a grip on the way change should be handled. Pathfinder Society has some very good things going for it, but there were some rulings and fundamental practices that needed to be looked at to see if we could make organized play better.
The first step was to talk with Developer Mark Moreland. He was the current institutional knowledge on all things Pathfinder Society. I rolled of out my list proposed alterations and requests and we talked for the first few weeks about what could be changed, what should be changed, and what should remain the same. After quite a few hours-long meetings, we finally knew what improvements we wanted to focus on. I also want to take a quick second to thank Mark for all of his help, not just on the guide but with everything, in helping me to transition into this position. Without his help, thoughts, insight, and advice, this job would be a tenfold more difficult than it has been. Mark was the caretaker for a long while for Pathfinder Society and I appreciate everything he did to bring it up to the level it is today. He has more love and has poured more heart and soul into the campaign than anyone else I know and I thank him for that.
After my list of goals and changes was completed, I approached the Venture-Captains and Venture-Lieutenants for their input. I felt it was important to get more ideas and different perspectives from the leaders of Pathfinder Society. There was much debate and discussion. Changes and tweaks were made to refine the direction I wanted to take Pathfinder Society. After a week or so, we finally decided that most changes were in good working order. However, we felt, as a group, that it was important to hear what the fanbase had to say about such sweeping changes to organized play. We knew that there would be people who were outright opposed to some of the changes while others would wholeheartedly agree with them. Whatever the outcome, we still felt it important to allow folks to have their input heard. So, I listed a series of proposed changes on the Pathfinder Society General Discussion messageboard.
After a week or so of listening to input from players, GMs, coordinators, and store owners, we brought all the discussions back to the Venture-Captain messageboard. We held firm to some of the changes we believed in, but altered other proposed rules changes where all of you made very good points. Once we had all the rulings in place for after a final review, I wrote them into the new Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Version 4.1.
I will post a complete list of changes, additions, and deletions that vary from version 4.0 to version 4.1 on the Pathfinder Society General Discussion messageboard. However, I did want to list some of the bigger changes here.
We added all current Paizo shirts as available for a reroll.
We have changed the way pregenerated characters work. Gone are the days when playing a pregenerated character in a scenario for the first time left the player empty-handed. Now, if the player is playing a non-1st-level pregenerated character, he or she may choose instead to apply the Chronicle sheet to a newly created 1st-level character.
We added a new chapter titled, Chapter 6: Sanctioned Modules. There are big changes to sanctioned module play. Gone are the artificial leveling up or down of a character. Now, the sanctioned modules must be played by a character within one level of the module’s starting level. I know this is not a popular decision for some. However, campaign leadership feels this change is what is best for the campaign. Death and use of consumables now have consequences. New Chronicle sheets have been completed for all 15 sanctioned modules that adjust the wealth received to be in line with wealth received when playing the equivalent number of scenarios. These Chronicle sheets are available for download on their respective product pages.
We have opened up play beyond 12th level. While there are no 13th-level or higher scenarios on the schedule, a retired Pathfinder Society character may play and continue to advance in levels utilizing the sanctioned modules. To facilitate the higher-level advancement, the Fame and Item Purchases chart has been expanded to an upper limit of 99 points of Fame and 800,000 GP. Guidelines for purchasing scrolls of levels 7, 8 and 9 have also been included.
A section on alignment infractions has been added.
There are a few more changes and those will be detailed in the post on the Pathfinder Society General Discussion messageboard. I want to thank Mark, the Venture-Officers, and the fanbase for input into the new guide. I think the changes are what is best for the campaign, will help to strengthen the campaign for the future, and make the overall organized play experience a better one for new and veteran players alike.
On a side note, the guide’s numbering system is off due to the first season of Pathfinder Society Organized Play being labeled Season 0. At Gen Con this year, we plan to align the guide’s version number with the current season. Instead of listing the Season 4 guide as version 5.0, it will be titled Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Version 4.2. Once Season 5 is upon us at Gen Con 2013, the guide will then be titled as version 5.0 and we will move forward from there.
Mike Brock Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator
When designing an encounter, it's tempting to focus the majority of your attention on the mix of monsters and villains. After all, coming up with interesting enemy synergies and evocative scenes of terror, threat, and evil-doing go a long way in making encounters both memorable and fun. Often neglected, though, is making sure that the setting you place these bad guys in offers both threat and opportunity of its own. When designed correctly, the terrain of an encounter can provide opportunity and challenges that not only compliment the opponents that you select, but can make combat the stuff of gaming stories for years to come.
First Things First
There are two ways to go about terrain selection for your encounter. The first is to think about the environment that you want to set your encounters, or an entire adventure, within, and filling it with the proper terrain. When it comes to dungeon and cavern settings, much of this work is already done for you. Take a look at Chapter 13 of the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook, especially pages 410&ndash416, and you'll find a good selection of terrain types to stock your dungeon. You'll also want to check out pages 193—194 of the Core Rulebook as it has the rules for difficult terrain and obstacles, and maybe take a peek at pages 244–245 Pathfinder RPG GameMastery Guide for some sample hazards to play with.
Picking proper terrain is all about creating interesting exceptions, so the first thing you'll want to do is make decisions about the baseline terrain for your dungeon. Unless your group is full of seasoned Pathfinder veterans, you'll want to set those baselines at or near the base assumptions of the Pathfinder rules: Masonry walls, flagstone, and wooden doors are a good start. For the most part you, and your players will not have to think about these areas of terrain at all. They're the standard dungeon dressing everyone is use to. Then you'll want to think about the possible exceptions for your dungeon. Are parts of the dungeon in disrepair? Are parts of the dungeon in the midst of construction? Does the dungeon serve as an entryway to a subterranean cave system? Does it lead to an underground river or water or magma? Once you are done imagining your dungeon, and maybe even sketching it on some graph paper, you can start to figure out where the exceptions sit, and then start brainstorming possibilities that you can't find in the rules... but we will get to that later.
Straying deeper into Chapter 13, you can make similar choices for large areas of terrain that are not dungeons, but the principles are the same. Find your baseline, and then ponder the possibility of interesting and evocative exceptions to that baseline. Take some notes, ponder some possibilities, and search the rules for similar types of terrain.
The other way to go about creating interesting environments is to think about the monsters and villains you want in your encounter in the adventure, and ask yourself two questions. The first question is, what kind of terrain compliments the monsters' or villains' tactics? The second question is, what kind of terrain compliments your PCs' abilities? Answering the second question can be a little tricky, especially if your end result is being designed for a nonspecific group of PCs (say you're writing an adventure for a convention or Pathfinder Society open call, or you're already thinking about next year's RPG Superstar). More often than not, you'll want to try to fill your encounters with terrain that does both simultaneously. This creates better-balanced encounters that don't favor one side or the other overly much, which not only tend to create more exciting encounters, but can also bypass the need to adjust the CR of your encounters because terrain favors one side more than the other.
Whenever possible, it's best to use a mixture of these two approaches. Treat each one as lenses toward your ultimate goal—to create a fun game experience in a world that seem rich, vibrant, and full of possibilities and potential dangers for the PCs to explore.
Designing New Terrain
Whenever you get the itch to create a new piece of terrain, you should shoot toward making your terrain challenging to interact with but not overly frustrating. In general, you will want one of two speeds for your new terrain. The first speed is terrain that has automatic effects when a creature spends an action to interact with it, but the effect is always constant. Unlocked doors, stairs, and small passageways all fall under this category. They talk directly to the action economy of the game. Someone must spend an action or slightly modify her normal actions in order to use them (think squeezing, opening doors, or basic difficult terrain). This type of terrain is easy to use, quick to remember, but it lacks variability. Some of the most exciting terrain features effects that do not guarantee success, or, better yet, feature varying degrees of success.
Enter the second speed of terrain, where actions are often required, but the effect is variable. Usually such variability is tied to the uses of a skill. For most terrain you will want to pick a basic skill that can be used untrained and that makes sense for the terrain type. Acrobatics, Climb, Escape Artist, Fly, Survival, Swim, and even raw Strength checks are some obvious examples, with Acrobatics already doing a lot of the heavy lifting with the terrain found in the Core Rulebook (see hewn stone floors, rubble, and slippery floors). But don't be afraid to mix it up a little with other skills, even those that can't be used untrained (Disable Device, Ride, and even Stealth are some personal favorites). Creating such terrain is just another way where PCs (or monsters) with high skill bonuses have an opportunity to shine, but at a cost. Failure is a possibility.
When creating new terrain, it is not only important to make sure that they work within the normal rules of the Pathfinder RPG but that they are also the right fit for the PC and creature mix you are designing encounters and adventure for. Designing a fight on a frozen lake may seem like fun, but the last thing you want to do is slow down the encounter to a crawl with every creature being forced to make an Acrobatics check in order to accomplish any kind of movement whatsoever. Consider creating relatively safe areas (maybe areas covered with snow or rough ice that grants more traction), giving clumsy creatures slightly suboptimal movement choices, while allowing agile creatures to gamble for success, or even the possibility of greater effect. With those sheets of ice, consider giving them the possibility of bonuses when higher Acrobatics checks are rolled.
Can We Get Some Examples?
With some of terrain philosophy out of the way, start fooling around with creating your own terrain. Tune in next Tuesday for some new pre-made terrain objects to spice up your game. Next week we will be focusing on some terrain primarily designed to limit or focus movement and action types, and the week after we will unleash some crazy terrain options that grant new action options, such as movement and even some terrain that grants creatures special attacks.
More than two years ago it fell to me to write the Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide, setting the stage for characters to take part in a world that was, at the time, painted not even in broad strokes but more in generally tossed bucket-sized splashes. Over time and through hundreds of thousands of words, though, what started as made-up names have transformed into some of the better-known characters, organizations, and locations in Golarion. But probably the passage that folks have grabbed onto most zealously comes from the description of the paladin on page 8, "Korvosa—in its traditional ties to Cheliax—enthusiastically supplies Citadel Vraid, bastion of the Hellknight Order of the Nail. The Chelish Hellknights pay homage to no deity, but rather bend the rigid law and infernal traditions of Hell to their will."
For years now folks have asked for more details on this iron-shod order of enforcers, even beyond their details in the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, but the time has never seemed quite right to give away the entire farm—I admit, I've been kind of precious with my pet antiheroes. At the same time, rules for running or playing Hellknights have always been vague, largely because I didn't want to work up a class that would immediately have to be updated to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. But now, with the PF RPG rules in circulation, my blasphemous baby Book of the Damned Volume 1: Princes of Darkness nearing the shelves, and the Council of Thieves Adventure Path being set in the very city where the Hellknights were formed, the time finally feels right.
So, as of Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #27, the Hellknights finally march forth, that volume revealing everything characters need to confront, research, and even join the numerous orders of Hellknights. That's right, that does mean there's finally going to be a Hellknight prestige class—and one of the largest ones I've ever seen at that.
But that's not all: in Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #28, expect the other side of the coin, with a GM-focused inside look into the mindset, citadels, and history of these infamous orders.
So that's back-to-back months of Hellknight action coming at you, finally answering many questions about the deadly knighthood, yet also revealing dozens of new mysteries. For example, taken from Pathfinder #27, presented here are just two of the several new lesser Hellknight Orders detailed therein. But that will have to do for now—not surprisingly, the Hellknights frown upon spoilers.
Lesser Orders
Despite the cull of 4639, numerous lesser orders of Hellknights still exist. Most of these orders work at the edges of Cheliax's sphere of influence or within the countries once within the Chelish empire's thrall. Despite their smaller size, the majority of these factions uphold the same code as their elder, better-established brethren, though many uphold practices that subtly deviate from the core knighthood. Most are careful not to defy the mandates of the Measure and the Chain (the core philosophies of the Hellknights; detailed in Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #28), however, as the larger, more powerful orders are mindful of those who would use the Hellknight name to opposing ends.
Order of the Crux: One of several bands of mercenaries dubbed Hellknights during the Chelish civil war, the skull-clad Order of the Crux refused to disband after the revolution. Hunted down and destroyed by the Order of the Scourge in 4663, the butchers were slaughtered and their fortress, Citadel Gheisteno, put to the torch. However, 25 years later, three graveknights clad in scarred Hellknight armor rose from the ruin. Calling themselves the Order of the Crux and led by the venomous Lictor Shokneir, the undead triune lurks upon the border of Nidal and Molthune, seemingly biding their time.
Order of the Coil: Among the smallest Hellknight factions, the Order of the Coil maintains holdings near the Sargavan city of Eleder, from where they viciously seek to tame the tribal natives of the country and put an end to their backward pollution of the outside world. Seeing the efforts of scholars and adventurers—particularly Pathfinders—as spreading a disease of savagery by carrying curios from the jungles into the world beyond, the Coil hunts down and destroys such explorers and artifacts, notorious for ending these perceived corruptions with poison and flames. The favored weapon of the Order of the Coil is the greataxe.
As promised, we shall continue to astound and delight you with pictures pilfered from the pages of the infamous Pathfinder Bestiary. Featured here today are four mighty and terrible creatures from the Great Beyond. We leave it in our readers' capable hands to determine which type of fiend each illustration represents...
The Preview Purloiners strike again! Featured here in a painting by Kevin Yan are Lem and Seelah, fending off a rabid undead dog and a fiendish tiefling inPathfinder Adventure Path volume #25: The Bastards of Erebus. Who knew that flutes could be wielded as deadly weapons?
Vadid and Nahk Preview Purloiners
"The city of Westcrown is dying. Since being stripped of its station as the capital of Cheliax, the wealth and prestige of the city has gradually slipped away, leaving the desperate people to fend for themselves in a city beset by criminals, a corrupt nobility, and a shadowy curse. Can the PCs fight back against champions of both the law and the criminal world?"
Readers with a keen eye might spot something a little different on the credits page to Pathfinder Adventure Path #22. Tucked in there amid all the who's-whos and what's-whats is a dedication to Spooky the Mighty Hunter, feline familiar and cat of legend. I personally didn't know Spooky, as he was Gary Teter's long-time partner in crime, but when Lisa came to us with the news that our web czar's slinky sidekick had moved on to hunt upon other planes of existence and suggested adding him into a Pathfinder adventure, we were all for it. Even Kevin Yan stepped up to the task of cranking out the super-fast portrait for the noble hunter before our deadline. So just a heads up to those thousands of players who tackle "The Edge of Eternity" in Pathfinder #22—keep an eye out for Spooky, a wandering kitty who proves just as reliable, just as tenacious, and just as adorable a companion in Golarion as he did out here. Good hunting!
From upcoming Pathfinder #22 we bring you the mighty genie binder, whose dark magic commands the awesome might of the djinn, depicted here by artist Kevin Yan...
While any spellcaster capable of casting planar ally, planar binding, and binding spells can conjure and bind genies, the true genie binder is a spellcaster who has devoted his life to the pursuit of this practice. Most genie binders study the works of Sulesh the Great religiously, but the best of them understand that even Sulesh wasn't infallible, and use his works as stepping stones to further perfect the act of genie binding.
While most genies abhor the act of binding and bottling, many have an odd appreciation and respect for actual genie binders. Nothing delights an efreeti more than to see a djinni ensnared, for example, and the jann are quite pleased to see their elder brothers and sisters brought low.
Pathfinder Society Scenario #13 & #14 Art Sneak Peak
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Check out the dretch and the giant centipede—featured monsters from next week's Pathfinder Society Scenario #13: The Prince of Augustana and Pathfinder Society Scenario #14: The Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch. The dretch was designed by Kevin Yan and the giant centipede was designed by Ben Wootten. Enjoy!
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.
In Pathfinder #18's "Descent into Midnight," the heroes travel deep into the Darklands, into the nightmare realm of Orv. There, in an immense cavern known as the Land of Black Blood, the final enemy awaits. This volume of Pathfinder includes a short gazetteer about the Land of Black Blood that details the numerous strange locations therein and several of the region's dangerous denizens, like the aboleth pictured here.
But there are also less intimidating (but no less creepy) denizens of the Land of Black Blood than monsters ready to challenge a high-level party. Numerous rare and unique creatures make their home here as well, most warped from more common forms by ages of exposure to the vault's strange magics and the deadly black blood.
Ghost Bats: The pale bats native to the Land of Black Blood typically sate themselves upon large insects and other vermin, though in their swarms they have been known to attack larger prey. Possessing transparent wings and no hair—just white flesh—these small hunters sometimes grow to shocking sizes. Ghosts bats have the same stats as normal bats and bat swarms, though the species frequent mutants might grow to the size of dire bats.
Ether Frog: These creatures look like nothing more so than an oversized, four-legged blister with nostrils and a mouth. With an undifferentiated body and head, these ghost-white amphibians hide a single overdeveloped parietal eye beneath their bulbous backs, which grants them darkvision out to 60 feet despite their lack of normal eyes. Most creatures avoid the frogs, knowing of their natural poison—Ingested, Fortitude DC 14, initial and secondary damage 1d4 Dexterity. In all other ways they are simply largish frogs with the same statistics as common toads.
Stirge Hounds: These rare, unnaturally large stirges are often used as tracking animals, capable of following flying creatures through the Darklands. Stirge Hounds have the statistics of a stirge advanced to Small size and 4 Hit Dice. They are very aggressive and prone to hunting in packs or even swarms. Their proboscis is uniformly ivory-colored, while their bodies are usually dark rust-red along the wings fading to black upon the body.
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