Pathfinder Battles Preview: Sing, Sing, Sing!

Friday, June 15, 2012

The August release date of the new Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Battles miniature set approaches, and you can tell by the rising sound of chittering and singing on the horizon. "Goblins chew and goblins bite! Goblins cut and goblins fight!" the chanting goes, growing nearer and nearer. Your dog begins to bark with anxiety, casting watery eyes toward the back door. Out in the yard, you hear your horse whine in fear.

The goblins are coming. Their song haunts the darkening skies.

With the first adventure in the now-classic Rise of the Runelords Adventure Path, our own James Jacobs created a brilliantly demented twist on goblins, and their haunting (and yet somehow hilarious) song about killing dogs and horses, bonking baby heads, and stewing flesh solidified goblins as the Pathfinder monster in the minds of roleplayers everywhere. That song put us on the map.

In the goblin raid encounter that starts the campaign, all the goblins attacking Sandpoint sing James's little ditty, but the one leading the song is the Goblin Warchanter, a female bard with a whip and a nasty attitude.

Here she is in all her plastic glory, screaming at the top of her little lungs. This common miniature is a great addition to the several other goblins in the set, and helps to set the scene in style with the campaign's very first series of encounters. We've even drawn out the location of Sandpoint's Swallowtail Festival on the new GameMastery Flip-Mat: Town Square, which has several perches and crannies for the Goblin Warchanter to seek refuge once the player characters interrupt her song.

But here's hoping they don't do it too rapidly. The last line of the song goes "We be goblins, you be food!", and it's always important to remind the player characters of their proper place in the world.

Don't you agree?

Erik Mona
Publisher