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Very cool, though yeah being able to make notes on it would be nice. Also so would having all the known holidays listed on it. :) Your wish is my command, Mistress. I included all the festivals and holidays listed in the ISWG. If there are any others from other sources please let me know and I'll try and add them later this week. New, improved (With Festival & Holidays) Golarion Calendar [Adobe PDF] New, improved (With Festival & Holidays) Golarion Calendar [MS Word] 
During another conversation there was some disagreement over the idea of "custom" magic items. As far as I can tell, the magic item creation rules are part of the standard game. They have very clear-cut rules that are in effect to define and limit what they can do and how they can do it. They exist to quickly, easily, and fairly, allow the design of new magic items without having to make the already enormous rulebook twelve times larger by trying to create every instance of magic item possible. So as far as I'm concerned, if it's legal by the magic item creation rules, then it's a core magic item that doesn't exist yet. So what does this mean? It means there's a lot of really cool and most importantly interesting magic items that aren't printed but are part of the core rules by proxy. So, I wanted to discuss some of these possibilities, and create a little archive of Core Rules Legal magic items that have been created using these methods, and explain how the item was formulated so as to give some easy to use examples to those new to the 3E/PF RPG. ================================================= Cloak of Disappearance
Item Breakdown:
This magic item uses the same formula that boots of speed use. It's caster level (3) * spell level (2) * 4000 gp (2000 * 2 for 1 minute / level spell duration). The price was then divided by 5 to determine the price per charge. Finally, the duration of the single charge was split into rounds. The magic item is ideal for rogues who want to get their sneak on, or for skirmishers who like vanishing and then re-appearing. On a personal note, my brother's ranger in our tabletop game uses this cloak. Ring of Elemental Warding
Item Breakdown:
This is a caster level 1 ring of resist energy. The item creation rules say that items are to be priced using the lowest caster level and spell level a spell is available at to determine the price regardless of who makes it. The item was priced as continuous with a 10 min/level duration (1 * 1 * 2000 * 1.5). Each additional stud on the ring is like buying an additional ring with a 50% markup due to adding additional abilities to the same magic item. Belt of Ogre's Size
Item Breakdown:
Like with the boots of speed, the belt of ogre size follows the same basic mechanics of the boots of speed. It was priced at (1*1*2000*2) gp for level, caster level, use activation/continuous, and duration modifier. Finally it was divided by 5 for charges per day (1 charge) and the duration split. Shield of the Dragon's Breath
Item Breakdown:
This magic item uses the command word activation (though it can also be a command thought, as there is no mechanical difference) to unleash a caster level 5 burning hands spell effect, which has been divided by 5 for 1 use per day. In a method similar to splitting the duration, we have actually split the damage, allowing the wielder to divide the d4s as desired. The pricing was (1 * 5 * 1800 divided by 5) + the cost of a +1 steel shield. This should get everyone started. Before you know it, you'll be on your way to making lots of interesting magic items that are 100% legal by the core rulebook! Notice: Before anyone brings it up, no you cannot make a sword of continuous true strike. True strike cannot be made continuous because of its unique duration type. Instead, the best you can do is make it at-will, or make a quickened true strike sword which is far more expensive and more limited. The most advanced true strike weapon you could craft would actually cost about 90,000 gp on top of whatever the weapon normally costs, which would allow you to cast true-strike as a swift-action once per round. =============================================
The Gamers' Guide to Pathfinder has released our latest episode: The Gamers' Guide to the Witch Sean & Barry continue their class discussion series in this episode dedicated to the Witch. We would love to hear what you think! Feel free to comment here or come and join the discussion on the message boards at 3.5 Private Sanctuary. Register and become a part of the discussion. While your there check out some of our other episodes: The Gamers' Guide to Firearms - Part I
pathfinder&Itemid=65]The Gamers' Guide to Romance[/url] We are a happy member of the gaming shelf over at 3.5 Private Sanctuary, where you can find other great podcasts, such as: 3.5 Private Sanctuary
Know Direction
World of Sexton (AP)
Dwarfed Podio Book
Let us know what you think!!! Sean Mahoney 
My group started the HoH on Pharast 16, so the following weekend was the Firstbloom fstival. I wrote up the following handout (in nice script on vellum) but I do not have any accounts to post pdfs, so I thought I would offer the text here. A big thanks goes to my friend Jeff Ibach and his Ultimate Toolbox for some inspiration. The PC's had a great time on Fireday and then Starday before the zombies attacked. This was much more interesting than the town hall meeting. Firstbloom Festival
Schedule of Events Fireday, 20 Pharast
Starday, 21 Pharast
Sunday, 22 Pharast
OK, so I finally had some time over the weekend to work on updating Carrion Hill for my Carrion Crown game. I am just about complete, but I figured I would start posting to see if I could get any feedback on the earlier encounters before we play this Wed 4/18. So first, the analysis portion of our program... Here is the rewards analysis of the original module. This is based on the maximum possible value if the players take everything noted. Once I am finished with the update I will post my finished rewards analysis. Here is the encounter analysis of both versions. Please not I have not worked on Keeper Crove yet, hence the highlight. On to the encounters...I will be posting throughout the week as time allows... 
The Haunting of Harrowstone 01 Prologue: Rising Appalachia – Oh Death
Optional Events
From the time of his birth to his departure from public life, Adivion Adrissant wanted for nothing. Born in the former Ustalavic capital city of Ardis, the young nobleman dwelled in the lap of luxury, his family being well-regarded members of the local aristocracy with holdings throughout Ardeal county. An only child, both his wealthy parents and an army of servants attended to the youth with slavish attention and absolute devotion. His tutors were the finest in Ustalav, his playmates all came from noble stock, his playthings valued a small fortune, had Adivion been heir to the royal throne he could not have been dotted on more. While in most youths such attentions would likely have spoiled the child into a life of idleness and debauchery, Adivion ever proved the exception. While never anything but a charming, gracious child, the boy ever proved more interested in the growth of plants, the migration of fowl, and the habits of insects than the gifts of his family or the attention of his peers. Such antisocial behavior concerned his parents, but they were able to dismiss each other’s worry with reassurances of their son’s obviously burgeoning intelligence and gifting him ever more extravagant presents. By the time Adivion began attending the prestigious Quartrefaux Academy he had matured into an intelligent, well cultured, and handsome young gentleman, though withdrawn and dispassionate. In his varied studies he mastered every subject with a bored ease, finding nothing that inspired or challenged him. To him, academia proved nothing more than rote trivia, romance a foolish distraction, and religion the height of nonsense. By age 20, Adivion had weighed all that the world had presented of value, and found it wanting. Bored with Ustalav, he traveled for several years, expending a small fortune in the pursuit of anything meaningful—including research into the arcane arts—yet by age 26 returned to his family’s holdings in disappointment. An utterly passionless genius, Adivion grew rightfully arrogant and ever more withdrawn, immersing himself in the nihilistic poetry of Krait, Perry, and Vhaags. From such grew an interest in death and an idealistic morbidity that such might be the only adventure life makes worth having. His fancies turning ever more morose, Adivion spent seasons investigating death, séances, theories of necromancy, obituaries, and the histories of fallen empires. A particular favorite of his soon became accounts of the rise, fall, resurrection, and conquest of the Whispering Tyrant. In Ustalav’s one-time undead ruler Adivion began to imagine a kindred soul, a genius burdened by the weight of a worthless world, one whose supreme intellect and ambition allowed him to defy even death in the pursuit of reshaping Golarion into an existence worth experiencing. Adivion’s research into the Whispering Tyrant’s deeds and histories consumed the majority of his family’s wealth, the excesses of which he had never had much use for. Records of the lich’s rule, histories of the ages in which he was active, and relics related to the villain came to fill Adivion’s apartments, possessing his entire life. It was only by the scholar’s astute reasoning and eidetic memory that he eventually made an astonishing discovery. With his access to the imposing libraries of the Quartrefaux Academy, the county’s once royal record halls, and his own collections, Adivion discovered that the Whispering Tyrant, while alive, had sired at least one child, and through the years, his bloodline had survived. Even more remarkably, the thin but ever-descending roots of the archmage’s family ancestry reached all the way to modern Ustalav. In fact, the living Count Lucinean Galdana was the most noteworthy living inheritor of the Whispering Tyrant’s bloodline. Shocked and inspired in a way he had never known, Adivion journeyed to the county of Amaans and arranged an audience with the count at his home, Willowmourn. Yet the meeting proved an utter disappointment, with Galdana appearing as nothing more than a lecherous lout to Adivion’s critical eye, an aging fop displaying none of his world-shaping ancestor’s vision or drive. Adivion had desperately desired some connection to the source of his morbid adulation, but here he found none, the potential for greatness obscured by centuries of forgetfulness and polluted blood. In dejection, Adivion returned to Ardis. It was on the return trip that the seeds of inspiration—or madness—took root in Adivions mind. Witnessing a rite of metaphorical rebirth outside the Kavapesta Cathedral, he struck upon the idea for a grand experiment. History had already shown that, when exposed to certain ideas, events, settings, and magics, one with the blood Galadana harbored possessed the potential to reshape the world. What then should occur if a modern possessor of that same blood were subjected to the exact same ideas, events, and magics? Would it not follow that the heir would produce the same result as the ancestor? What if he himself could recreate the Whispering Tyrant, and in so doing gaze into the mind of a force that rivaled even the gods. With such a dark muse—one indebted to him for its very existence—could he not emulate that same path to world-shaping might? Adivion had already dismissed the idea of embracing the path of mad necromancers by seeking to free the Whispering Tyrant though direct means—as went the accounts of many a storied failure. But if liberation was not an option, what of such a theoretical recreation? Could it be done? The knowledge he possessed; he was already perhaps the single most eminent scholar on the Whispering Tyrant’s past life, and though arcane modification could recreate such information into another’s memories with ease. The blood too he had identified and by manipulations could doubtlessly obtain. Even the location could be of aid, the nearby tower of Gallowspire, the Tyrant’s very prison, might be employed to impart a measure—if not the whole—of the archmage’s spirit into a selfsame host. But what of the singular most defining trait? That defiant mystery coveted by mages both insane and ambitious. What of lichdom? In the next several years Adivion launched fully into his experiment, courting contacts within the nefarious cult known as the Whispering Way, a society of the death obsessed surely willing to share his goal and easily turned to his objectives. At the same time, he delved into the blasphemous secrets of lichdom, taking the unheard of and difficult path of researching not his own individual path to undeath, but another’s. After years of investigation, his delving, both scholarly and arcane, bore strange fruit: whispers from beyond death, a verse spoken from the spaces between death and the afterworld. This glimpse into what would reshape a man into a state unbound by mortality, the formula to an undying apotheosis, the ultimate proof of control over the world, Adivion dubbed the Carrion Crown.
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I would like to request a sticky thread be created (not this one because I can't edit it after an hour), that would, in the first post, give a list of guides in this sub-forum. In the thread we'll discuss which guides to include and which category they should be in - it would be a community project. This is my no means a complete list...its just a start. Also, if you are going to post a guide for this list, please have a discussion thread for said guide in the Advice forum so we can link to it. The guide can be off-site, but we need a discussion thread for it, please. Also somewhere in your guide please reference which books you use (Core, APG, UM, UC, etc...).
Alchemist
Antipaladin
Barbarian
Bard
Cavalier
Cleric
Druid
Fighter
Gunslinger
Inquisitor
Magus
Monk
Ninja
Oracle
Paladin
Ranger
Rogue
Samurai
Sorcerer
Summoner
Witch
Wizard
--
Arcane Archer
Arcane Trickster
Assassin
Dragon Disciple
Duelist
Eldritch Knight
Loremaster
Mystic Theurge
Pathfinder Chronicler
Shadowdancer
--
This guide is also mirrored at: 
I really like the themes of travel and destiny that are at work in this adventure path. Every game session, I think about themes and set myself some goals for what I want to accomplish from a story standpoint. For our first proper game session, I have several goals: (1) caravans--I want to introduce the idea of caravans right away as I think it is sort of shoehorned into part 2 without much introduction and it is too important to the AP to do that way, (2) destiny--I want to get the PCs feeling that they are a part of important events, and (3) the NPCs--I want to build a connection to them early. To that end, I have used those themes to help me design the set up encounters as follows. I'll post more game notes later, but here is a summary: 1. Intro First, I'll make sure everyone has characters and has selected their free third trait.
2. Caravan Set Up The PCs are accompanying Sandru and Ameiko in a caravan. The NPCs have taken their covered wagon and one supply wagon south down the Lost Coast Road to meet up with a supply caravan from Magnimar. Ameiko negotiated better terms if she met them half way, transferred the goods to her and Sandru's wagons, and brought them back to Sandpoint, bearing their own risk of goblin attack. Secretly Ameiko is hoping for some action. We pick up play with the PCs having just helped transfer the goods to Sandru's caravan and the caravan turning to head north up the Lost Coast Road back to Sandpoint. I'll quickly go over caravans and have the PCs tell me which roles they serve. I won't do full mechanics, but just enough to get them introduced to it so it doesnt seems so jammed in later. The only thing to calculate is the Security check since that comes into play below. 3. Scribbleface encounter Just as the PCs have almost made it all the way by the length of the Brinestump, and actually just as they pass the New Fish Trail, they are "ambushed" by Scribbleface. Scribbleface has just seen, the prior night, the raid of the skeletons on his village. He fires a skyrocket at the front of the caravan to stop them, then he runs out asking for help. Here is some of my text from my notes: Scribbleface emerges: Scribbleface (goblin Wizard 3(abjurer)) then comes running out from the surrounding brush, waiving his hands, and carrying a strange lantern—a bejeweled silver and jade lantern built to look like a coiled dragon worth a substantial amount of money on craftsmanship alone. This is, in fact, the lantern stolen by the goblins in We Be Goblins that was recaptured by the skeletons when they assaulted the Licktoads’ compound. Scribbleface, though outcast, watched over his old village and saw the massacre. He followed the skeletons as they traveled back to their caves. Along the way, one of the mindless skeletons dropped the lantern Scribbleface now carries. He hopes that showing it to the “longshanks” may persuade them that he speaks the truth. He speaks in Varisian or Common, but if anyone can speak Goblin they can converse with him freely. Scribbleface begins 60 feet away from the caravan. "A strange looking goblin emerges from brush. He is dressed in what appears to be robes of some sort and he seems to have some sort of writing covering his face. He has a staff in one hand and a strange bejeweled silver and jade lantern in the other. He is waiving both madly and shouting to you in Varisian: 'Wait, stopping! Please to help me, please! I am your help needing badly!'" PCs can make Appraise checks about the lantern (DC 10, it is obviously valuable and not something one would expect a goblin to have), Knowledge checks about goblins (DC 10, it is very unusual for goblins to speak Varisian), Knowledge checks about the local ambushes (DC 10, there are NO stories of goblins using decoys like this, certainly none speaking Varisian), Spellcraft checks (DC 10, his robes do appear to bear valid, if somewhat shamanistic, mystical symbols, in fact you recognize a common warding rune used locally in the mage armor spell worked into the front of his robe), or Sense Motive checks (DC 15, he appears to be sincere, as much as you can tell). Roll initiative, including for Ameiko. Ameiko Intercedes: Ameiko recognizes the lantern, or thinks she does. If the PCs attempt to take hostile action (and don’t beat her Initiative by more than 10) she shouts: “Stay your hands, friends! Stay your hands! Do not harm him!” If a PC beats Ameiko’s initiative roll by more than 10, he or she can act before she shouts. Of course, that PC is free to attempt any of the above skill checks prior to acting. If Scribbleface is slain, his body can be looted. [edited] He bears a lantern of the jade palace, a bejeweled silver and jade lantern built to look like a coiled dragon. The lantern is lit with a magical light, as per the spell, that shines like a hooded lantern. The light can be willed on or off at the user's speaking of the command word or, if held, by the holder’s mental command. The command word is worked in Tien on the bottom of the lantern: it is the name of one of the first emperor's many wives. It is rumored that many such lanterns exist in a far off palace in Minkai, each bearing the name of one of the emperor's wives. If not slain, Scribbleface proceeds in Varisian, or better in Common. A goblin still, he grows nervous if asked to stand near horses, preferring to speak away from the beasts. “Thank you. I thank you. May we step away from the horses? Too many of my kind have they trampled. It is not normal for my kind to speak with humans, I know. But I need your help. And I am not like my kind. I am outcast even from them. As you see, I speak your tongue. And I write, which is a great sin to goblins. I am of the Licktoad tribe. Though they cast me out and they carve words onto my face, I am still a goblin and they are my people. I live apart from them, but I watch over them. I need your help. WE need your help, though they would never ask longshanks as they call you. Last night, a great evil came upon my village. An army of the dead—large, like you, human dead not goblin dead—marched on my village and many were killed. Many goblins. Even the fireworks could not stop them. The teeter chair destroyed. Squeely Nord himself, slaughtered. The dead looked like men in armor, but they were bones. No flesh. They did not speak, just killed. Then all at once they left. But when they did, they took something with them. I saw several of them carrying things. Treasure, I believe it was. But not any treasure I had ever seen. I followed them for awhile, but I am no thief. One dropped this lantern. This is not goblin make, as you can see. I watched you, watched you come and go. I saw the lizard on your robe, like the lizard on this lantern and I hoped you could help me. I think perhaps your robe means you are a wizard like me. Please, humans, I know it is strange, but will you help my village?” [yes, this requires two mods to We Be Goblins: (1) it is NOT Scribbleface in Vorka's pot, he survives, and (2) the lantern is now magical, something that would have eluded the goblins anyway] Ameiko is intrigued. She wants to see the lantern. Scribbleface lets her. Ameiko then hears from the PCs on what to do. Sandru, too, is intrigued. Unless a different course of action is suggested, Ameiko asks to keep the lantern, she wishes to study it (and show it to Koya and Shalelu) and consider Scribbleface's request. She will return to this fishing road tomorrow in the morning. Scribbleface says he will hide nearby, as he is used to doing, they can signal that they wish to talk to him by using a desnan candle, which he gives to them. 3a. Bar fight Time permitting, you can have the PCs go to the Hagfish per the newspaper and get in a bardic perform challenge with teh Seven Swords and maybe even a bar fight. Those cocky bastards! By the way, the Seven Swords are just 4 first level NPCs--but each bears two swords but one--their leader, who bears just one sword. The swords are largely ceremonial, as only one is a ranger who can dual wield. [b]4. Koya does a Harrow reading I then will have all the PCs gather with the NPCs to discuss the lantern. Koya does a Harrow reading for all the characters. For she has seen great omens in the cards: “This morning when I read the cards I saw a combination not seen in ages. I have forseen the shadows of this day. I knew that it would involve you, Ameiko, and all of you. I have known it, felt it. Events have been set in motion that cannot be undone. It remains to be seen only what part we shall play.” She lays down the Big Sky. “The Big Sky. A card of good, of strength, of momentous change, as when all the slaves of a nation are freed.” She lays down the Juggler. “The Juggler. A card of good, of travel and journey, of destiny and the gods and those who play with the fates. But against these promising heralds is set this—the controlling card that shapes the first two and a dark omen indeed.” She lays down the Cyclone. “The Cyclone. A card of great evil and power. It is an unstoppable and destructive force, unleashed through the plots of evil minds. These movements of the future I can read clearly, like the course of a great river. To that great river each of us is but a small drop. Yet a small drop may be the tears of the gods, and so I may be able see some short distance into the future. Come! Let Koya read your fortune and learn your place in these great events!” Have the PCs draw cards along with the NPCs. Use a deck of regular cards. Tell them you’ve got a “conversion chart” to the actual harrow card to make it seem random and as if the card they draw is actually not predetermined (which of course it is). [I'm not posting what I've come up with for my players in case they read this, but I will later, though I can tell you what I have for Ameiko] For Ameiko: "Ah, The Empty Throne! My child, I wish that I could tell you it is a good card of individual triumph, of success, of ascension. But alas it is reversed! Both power and loss it shows, death and nobility are yours. It represents those who are gone, ghosts of the past that have taught important lessons. Heed their wisdom! I see the traces of this card in this very lantern that you bring before me. I cannot see further than this, for some great mist—perhaps the mist of a great sickness or death—clouds my knowledge. But seek this destiny you must, my dear." Then the PCs in turn draw cards, followed by Sandru and Shalelu and finally Koya. 5. Into the Brinestump The next morning the PCs return to the fish trail, meet Scribbleface and set off to the Warden's hut. 
At this time in history, that is what I have been told by people in the hobby distribution trade, the book trade, and other avenues that both games sell their products into. If you talk to the various retailers, it is a mixed bag, with one telling you one thing and another a different story. But when you talk to the folks who sell those retailers the product that they sell, then you get a clearer picture. And I am just talking table-top RPG business. I am not talking about board games or card games or video games or whatnot. Just books and digital copies of those books for use in playing a table-top RPG. -Lisa |
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