PTBC - Firesoul


Tales

Sczarni Order of the Amber Die

Ah yes...I was wondering when we'd get to read about the aptly named Mwangi Expanse! It's absolutely huge on the map of Golarion and I'm excited to finally to start exploring at least a part of it, as the only thing I really know about it is from the Serpent's Skull player's guide. [I haven't had a chance to play that AP yet, but it's on the docket so I wonder if there will be any ties between that story and this one...]

As I was reading The Gem and enjoying the use of rare monsters that I was hoping to see here, I was taking the usual mental notes on the special abilities the characters have after Oza said that he and Jiri were shamans. From their encounter with the young grootslang and the powers they used, I initially thought that Oza and Jiri were a distinction between the two types of shaman in the game, with Oza being a druid with one of the shaman archetypes and Jiri as the next generation of shaman with the hybrid class of oracle and witch. However, on the back of Firesoul that seemed to be switched, as it refers to Oza as a shaman and Jiri as a jungle druid. In The Gem, we saw Oza use Wild Shape, Summon Nature's Ally, and Woodland Stride, which are not typically available to shamans as far as I know, then we heard Jiri refer to ancestors and spirits, and although she doesn't seem to have a spirit animal, the speaker for the past archetype doesn't have one so that could explain that, plus the flame spirit grants the Touch of Flame ability similar to what we saw her do. Of course for Oza, shaman could be a reference to one of the many shaman archetypes for druids instead of the hybrid class, and Jiri could actually be a jungle druid be using the Produce Flame spell, but she doesn't seem to be using any spell components, which also rules out her being a sorcerer because even they need verbal and somatic components. She could have the Eldritch Heritage feat with a fire elemental bloodline, but my best guess is she is a multiclassed pyrokineticist from Occult Adventures because they have no components and can use their supernatural abilities more often than bloodline powers. But I guess we'll just have to wait to narrow it down further after we start Firesoul...

Scarab Sages

This story really sold me on the Grootslang. When you say "snake/elephant hybrid" it just seems ridiculous, but then you get to see the thing act in The Gem and omg is that thing scary.

I also enjoyed both the unusual protagonist and a visit to the Expanse. Both Firesoul and Pool of Stars take advantage of the underused local, to great effect.

Darkborn I didn't get too wrapped up in the mechanics of Oza and Jiri, but I'm glad to see they both work. I think a lot of authors play around with the flavor (and sometimes mechanics too) of the system to give more of a unique and intriguing air to their protagonists.


I really enjoy druids, so I was kind of curious after reading your post today, DB. Oza is most definitely a druid, probably with a shaman archetype, and possibly high level enough to have reached Timeless Body (judging from the artwork, that old man is in peak condition!).

To be fair though, we have only seen the nidalese wizard and Vera actually use spell components (with the maaaaybe addition of various enemy spellcasters and Salim), so I don't think that says much about whatever Jiri's abilities are. I recall reading other posts stating that she was a kineticist of sorts, but she was able to SNA too (the river dolphin) and cast a healing spell on the village kid. She also has some solid +wis going on and keeps referencing the spirits, so my guess is that she's just a flame spirit shaman that was casting burning hands over and over at the thing, which didn't even bother making a reflex save (or perhaps was successfully making every save very easily, either because her caster level is too low or even the hatchling of a CR16 monster is still way powerful). Alternatively, she may simply be a jungle druid with the fire domain, or just a -whatever- druid with the fire domain and thus have access to burning hands, fire bolt SLA, etc...

One thing I noticed right away was that Khar seemed to just fall out of the picture. Possibility of a returning villain already? I dunno, sometimes it's hard to get a feel for the characters or the author's writing from these brief snippets, and I often find myself wondering if these were written before, or after, the book itself. In some cases, like with Akina and Ondorum, it's exactly what we could have expected - the two of them were argumentative, yet drawn to each other, with some humor and the overall focus being on the two of them specifically. With James Sutter's pieces on Salim, the emphasis is always on Salim being a world-traveling, world-weary guy who plays by his own rules and never expects to hang around in one place for long, which also continues in the book(s). Other times we're just shown a snippet of something that happened either a long time before, or is relatively irrelevant, to what happens in the book (such as the prequel to Plague of Shadows or before the first nidalese book). I've gotten the impression that you're sometimes interested in examining this from a more expansive perspective, DB, so I'm kind of curious, if you (or anyone reading) feels like responding - what about this short snippet hooked you? Was it the action, the characters, the mechanics? What makes you interested in continuing Jiri's story?

edit: in the sense of making that step from reading free material on the internet to actually going through the effort of picking up a book, I mean.


Waho, hey Belabras you posted too! The grootslang was something I'd never heard of and honestly sounded kind of dumb - I mean, I pictured some sort of... I dunno, pig/slithery thing. Then I googled it and one of the first images was a green elephant with a lot of trunks or something and I was like "oh... okay." I am pretty forgiving so I rolled with it, but then I scrolled down and saw the art and I was like "woah nelly, yeah I'd RUN too!"

Well, I mean that was after I decided to look up its stats and saw that it was basically a mean, evil, more wicked dragon (at least a dragon MIGHT be placated with treasure - these things???). That made me sit back and reassess Jiri's concern. I was also even more on the side of the Jall and like "Look Jiri just magic the boat back together - who cares if it hits a city, you're level 2?? 3?? Get it out of here!"

Executive Editor

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Just wanted to say I'm really glad you're covering this one. I loved FIRESOUL, and thought Gary really nailed the flavor of the Mwangi Expanse, as well as giving me one of my favorite Pathfinder adventuring parties to date. :)

Sczarni Order of the Amber Die

Way to open strong with Firesoul! Oza against a hezrou demon was super cinematic, given the locale, the stakes, and the gut-wrenching inciting incident when Jiri forced herself to obey his last wish and run. What a fantastic scene...and especially after how powerful we learned Oza is in The Gem, I thought he had a decent chance in that fight. Maybe he did, he might not actually be dead, but it doesn't look good as it stands right now. Must read more...

I'm definitely more convinced that Jiri is a multiclassed kineticist now, as her powers resemble the basic pyrokinesis, fire blast, and searing flesh wild talents, plus their descriptions continue to be contrary to standard spellcasting. One of the things I look forward to in Pathfinder Tales is when they break new ground with classes from the new books, as it feels similar to playing one for the first time.

What I didn't expect was for Jiri to join up with a group of northerners like this, that was a great surprise. Two Chels, one a holy warrior and the other a heartless mercenary, led by a snowborn half-elf in the tropics? Those are quite the polar opposites, yet they totally work as a adventuring party, I love it.

Let's not forget the Aspis Consortium villains though, they're quite the formidable foursome as well. As a player and a GM, some of my favorite encounters are against groups of enemy characters. A big nasty creature, horde of smaller ones, or somewhere in between tend to be the norms, but these types of battles are what I enjoy most and I'm very much anticipating an interesting (and violent) combat in their final encounter!

And yes, Mr. Sutter, you are absolutely right about capturing the full flavor of the Mwangi Expanse. It's exactly what I wanted, from the culture and the meaning of their names down to the nauseating amount of insects and all the muck...so gross, but so good!

Scarab Sages

I think you could certainly see her as having some levels of kineticist. I suspect the intent was that Jiri used produce flame to great effect, but that is just my take on it.

I too liked the quite varied pathfinders that Jiri hooked up with. I could see that party showing up to a game night table, but their back story works here and despite the disparate origins they make a good team.

Why do you think neither Jiri nor Oza have animal companions?

Sczarni Order of the Amber Die

Belabras wrote:
I think you could certainly see her as having some levels of kineticist. I suspect the intent was that Jiri used produce flame to great effect, but that is just my take on it.

I thought the same thing too at first, but it wouldn't necessarily make it hot around her, nor would it burn people touching her, which the wild talents can do. Sure, it could be the author just embellishing her spellcasting ability if she was indeed using Produce Flame, but that has verbal and somatic components, none of which Jiri uses, which I believe is deliberate in its lacking. However, if she's not a kineticist, she a could be a shaman using the Touch of Flame (Su) ability from the Flame Spirit, or she could be jungle druid using the Flame Bolt (Sp) ability from the Fire Domain, which brings me to your next question...

Belabras wrote:
Why do you think neither Jiri nor Oza have animal companions?

Oza and Jiri have domains instead of animal companions with their nature bond abilities. We've seen Oza use Wild Shape so he's likely a jungle druid, and the same goes with Jiri if she's also a jungle druid, but if she's a shaman she likely has the Speaker for the Past archetype that doesn't have a spirit animal, thus no animal companions or familiars for either.


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Hey there! It's great to see people talking about Firesoul. And kind of weird- this is my first book, so it's still bizarre to realize that there are all these people out in the world, reading this thing that I plunked out in my fabulous office/walk-in closet.

Are you curious about how I put Jiri together? No meaning to be coy, I just don't want to ruin it if you're having fun puzzling it out.

Sczarni Order of the Amber Die

Gary Kloster wrote:

Hey there! It's great to see people talking about Firesoul. And kind of weird- this is my first book, so it's still bizarre to realize that there are all these people out in the world, reading this thing that I plunked out in my fabulous office/walk-in closet.

Are you curious about how I put Jiri together? No meaning to be coy, I just don't want to ruin it if you're having fun puzzling it out.

Hey Gary! I promised you at GenCon we'd try to get to you before the end of the year, so I'm glad you poked your head in to see that I kept my word. It's been a great read so far! I think you were right in holding back about Jiri's build right now though, it's definitely been fun trying to figure it out, and I'm hoping to get it right by the end of the book. Would you mind holding back for another two weeks? Surely we'll have other questions for you in the meantime, like what compelled you to write a story in the Mwangi Expanse? Have you played there, perhaps in Serpent's Skull or PFS scenarios? You sure seem to know it extremely well as if you had, or if you spent a serious amount of time in an actual rainforest, it's really captivating...

Contributor

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I really liked this book, as I posted in the product discussion thread when it first came out.

The author actually did such a good job evoking the heat and humidity of the Mwangi that it ended up stalling me out on doing a perfume post about the characters. At the time I'd been planning to revive my on-and-off thread in which I try to guess what fragrances various PTales characters might wear, but Firesoul and Forge of Ashes were a total double whammy on that front.

I couldn't come up with anything for the dwarves in Forge of Ashes (seriously, what would dwarves even wear? smoke? blood of their enemies?), and while I had some ideas for some of the characters in Firesoul, the setting and climate threw off my guesses pretty hard. Perfumes operate differently in high heat and humidity, and ultimately I just threw my hands up in surrender because I couldn't figure out how to compensate for that complication in my guesses.

So I never did write that post, because the setting was so vividly evoked that I could not for the life of me figure out what would work there. Ah well. Maybe someday I'll go back and give it another shot. Regardless, these were super fun characters in a super fun story and I greatly enjoyed reading about them. :)


No problems holding back. Well, except you folks will probably come up with something a lot cooler than what I did...

I picked the Expanse for two main reasons- first, because there hasn't been a lot done with it, so it was wide open for stories. Second, dinosaurs.

I used the Serpent's Skull adventure path as research for Firesoul, and it was really helpful, but now that means I can't really play it, which is too bad since it's pretty cool.

Liane- Your scent project is really interesting. Details like that really help develop setting and characters. I have to admit, I didn't think about perfumes. I wonder if the ancient Egyptian trick of putting perfumed wax in their hair to slowly melt would work? I mean, it would certainly melt, but would the humidity make it into a sticky mess?

Also, I'm fairly sure dwarves perfume themselves with their favorite beers and ales, liberally applied to their beards.

Scarab Sages

You don't see a lot of evil bards. I do like that the creepy aspect of charm spells got some play though. Charm person is a very questionable spell when you think about it.

Sczarni Order of the Amber Die

Belabras wrote:
You don't see a lot of evil bards. I do like that the creepy aspect of charm spells got some play though. Charm person is a very questionable spell when you think about it.

Now I know what you mean about the Charm Person, it IS rough when it happens. I’ve seen charm spells end campaigns more often than I’d like to admit. It’s hard to pull off though, with the +5 to the save in combat, then the opposed charisma check, but bards using the fascinate bardic performance to negate the save bonus, combined with their usual high charisma, make them really good at it. I liked how Patima worked Jiri into it using her storytelling, because someone looking for answers will always listen to what someone has to say regarding them, so Jiri was pretty much destined to fail resisting the charm as soon as Patima walked into the room. But, then again, that’s on Jiri too because she was foolish to go to the compound alone against a clearly experienced group. Don’t get me wrong though, I totally understand why she did it. Between her frustration and apparent idleness of her allies that has regularly upset her throughout the story - for good reason - I don't really blame her for being impetuous, but she really had no business risking getting captured like that. The Aspis Consortium doesn’t play around. [The Aspis Agent PrC in Paths of Prestige is really well done, especially for bards!]

I hope Jiri burns the whole place down. Preferably with (at least) Corrianne still inside.

Sczarni Order of the Amber Die

The Mwangi Expanse continues to get richer in detail every chapter. Too bad it’s all burning to the ground. Whatever All-In-Ashes is, it’s extremely powerful and I don’t see how Jiri and friends can possibly stand against it, even with all the cold spells from Linaria. Anyone have any guesses to what it is? It was mentioned that it’s not a demon or an elemental, but something in between…a spirit of smoke and flame…so it may be something new, but if anyone has any ideas, go for it.

I think the kindi are new too, which I thought were interesting, and I like how magic items from tribal cultures are portrayed as more spiritual rather than the traditional arcane or divine items that we’re used to seeing in the game. The kindi also convinced me even more that Occult Adventures played a role in this novel, as Jiri’s experience in Lozo with Shani played out exactly like a psychic mindscape. She said he reminded her of Hadzi, so I wonder if Hadzi is one of his descendants that survived from Lozo, and maybe is still alive and has something to do with all this, whether he knows it or not. This may be reaching, but perhaps Jiri is unknowingly pregnant with his child and will be able to use that to channel the power of his ancestors to battle All-In-Ashes like Shani did…

Sczarni Order of the Amber Die

So it doesn't look like we're getting a blizzard anytime soon, which may be a sign that we shouldn't start Winter Witch just yet. After we wrap up Firesoul this weekend, let me suggest going to a third Web Fiction to Tales author, Wendy N. Wagner, in the interim. Her stories take place northwest of Avistan in Ulfen territory, so I think it would make an excellent segue to Winter Witch. If all agree, we could start with Mother Bears after this weekend, Winter's Wolves the week after, then Skinwalkers. That'll take us into the middle of January where we should likely see some snowfall...


Sorry I have not been around I kind of fell behind on my PFT reading list...I Blame RL, getting a Roku(thus access to Netflix and Hulu), and other novels.

Though I have read Skinwalkers so I can contribute for that from memory.

Scarab Sages

Skinwalkers and the two prequel Tales are a good choice.

Sczarni Order of the Amber Die

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The problem with a good story is that you’re left with wanting more. Its final chapters played out as I hoped, with a trip to a buried civilization, a fitting demise for a despicable halfling, and none of our heroes left behind.

I found the strategy that Jiri used to turn the umdhlebi against the baregara particularly pleasing, as I’ve tried to do that in the game before – fleeing from a random encounter and leading it to another encounter in hopes they would turn on each other – although that didn’t work nearly as well for me as it did for Jiri and friends. Anyway, I wasn’t familiar with the umdhlebi and initially thought it was just what the Mwangi call a jinmenju, but after digging around not only did I find out that it’s a creature from the Serpent’s Skull AP, but the umdhlebi is based on an actual South African legend I absolutely appreciate the crossovers like this in Pathfinder, and the writers deserve as much credit as the developers in bringing so many of our multicultural myths and legends into Golarion where they resonate more than any other campaign setting I’ve read or played in.

As for Occult Adventures, I’m even more certain now that it was used in this story, because the final conflict between Jiri and Patima seemed exactly like a psychic duel in a mindscape, triggered by the kindi. I also did some digging around for more information about the kindi, but came up short. Again, they’re likely an original creation like All-In-Ashes, but if anyone has any ideas otherwise, do tell.

Lastly, although I really wanted to see more of the battle against Amiro and Corrianne, I’m almost glad they escaped because that leaves me thinking there’s unfinished business that will be resolved in a sequel. So, Gary - if you are indeed working on a continuation to this story, I have a suggestion for you:

Write faster.


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Darkborn- Yeah, the nice thing about writing the story, as opposed to playing out a campaign, is that you can make it go the way you want it to. I've occasionally made similar scenarios work out in a game, but I've also tried it only to blow some critical roll and have the pursuing monster catch up- usually right while my character is in front of the other bad guy.

Glad you liked it! There may be more in the works...

Silver Crusade

Sorry if this is short and rude (I'm mainly posting in here real quick to give me impetus to start posting again) but there was a bunch I liked about this story, and a lot I didn't.

I absolutely loved the setting, showcasing an in-depth description of what it's like to be a Druid and how their powers work, Jiri, Shani, All-In-Ashes, and the Kindi were freaking awesome.

I hated... pretty much every other character in the book aside from the paladin.

I hate torture scenes, dear gods do I hate torture scenes. I also hate insufferable smug pieces of s+!+. So combing them all together at the Aspis compound made that all really hard to read. And while the deranged and psychopathic members finally got offed the smug douchebags who went around flaunting themselves and instigating a bunch of stuff got off mostly scot free.

Also didn't care for the other two murderhobos Jiri had to work with. They came off as entitled bastards who were way too apathic to what all Jiri had been through.

Scarab Sages

Gary Kloster wrote:

Darkborn- Yeah, the nice thing about writing the story, as opposed to playing out a campaign, is that you can make it go the way you want it to. I've occasionally made similar scenarios work out in a game, but I've also tried it only to blow some critical roll and have the pursuing monster catch up- usually right while my character is in front of the other bad guy.

Glad you liked it! There may be more in the works...

Looking forward to it Gary!

Sczarni Order of the Amber Die

Rysky wrote:
They came off as entitled bastards who were way too apathetic to what all Jiri had been through.

As for Morvius, yes, he was awfully apathetic, but understandably so for someone of his obviously flawed persona. [I must admit that I did find it darkly amusing at times though.] As for Linaria, I don’t think it was that she was apathetic, rather the opposite since she sympathized with Jiri several times about her loss(es), and cared for her enough to not let her do something stupid, such as going against the Aspis Consortium without a plan, or chasing after All-In-Ashes and foolishly throw her life away trying to fight fire with fire.

Speaking of which, now may be a good time to reveal what Jiri was exactly - if she was a jungle druid with the fire domain or a multiclassed kineticist, the latter which I’m still sticking with by the way. Also, any insight about All-In-Ashes/Shani would be appreciated, plus the whole "mindscape" connection with the kindi, although I have an inkling that I may have been reaching too far with all the Occult Adventures references...

Scarab Sages

My guess was Ifrit Druid


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Rysky- I didn't think your post was rude at all. While it would be nice if everything I wrote was universally loved by everyone everywhere, I don't actually think that's possible. Everyone has different tastes, likes and dislikes, which is good because that means there's a wide variety of stuff out there for us to try. I'm just glad you liked some of it- as a bog standard neurotic writer, when someone says "Yeah, didn't really like this, but those parts were ok" I actually perk up and let myself think that maybe some of it was actually half-decent.

As for Jiri- Like I said, you guys were more imaginative than me. On paper, she's a standard druid- not even jungle, though I was might tempted, but I needed to have her get wildshape at 4th level. She actually has the ash sub-domain from the player's handbook, instead of fire, but they're almost exactly the same. I thought ash just fit a bit better with her background. Plus it gives her disintegrate, which I envision as forcing someone to spontaneously combust, then fall apart into ashes, so that's cool. And also a long way off.

So what about the random stuff catching on fire when Jiri's upset thing? That was her (involuntarily) using the fire bolt power from her domain list. Which meant I had to keep track and make sure that between fights and losing control she never spent more then her allotment per day.

Occult Adventures actually came out around the same time as Firesoul, so I never got to see it until after I'd written the book. But I get where you're coming from, Darkborn. When I looked through it, I was going "Y'know, this kind of fits..." a lot, which was fun.

I never formally statted out All-in-Ashes, since Jiri & Co. never had to go toe-to-toe with him. Which is good, it would not have gone well. My informal sketch was an outsider with excellent flight, a permanent Fiery Body (the spell from Player's Handbook) and the ability to cast a powered-up version of Firestorm way too many times a day to be healthy. The kindi trick that got poor Shani stuck in his mess I thought of as a (heavlily) modified magic jar spell, with the kindi acting as the crystal.

Hope this was helpful!

Sczarni Order of the Amber Die

Gary Kloster wrote:
On paper, she's a standard druid- not even jungle, though I was might tempted, but I needed to have her get wildshape at 4th level. She actually has the ash sub-domain from the player's handbook, instead of fire, but they're almost exactly the same. I thought ash just fit a bit better with her background. Plus it gives her disintegrate, which I envision as forcing someone to spontaneously combust, then fall apart into ashes, so that's cool. And also a long way off.

Ay yes, the Ash Subdomain, that’s perfect! But, yes it IS a long way off. If Corrianne manages to still be around after Jiri gains nine more levels, she better watch her back…

Gary Kloster wrote:
So what about the random stuff catching on fire when Jiri's upset thing? That was her (involuntarily) using the fire bolt power from her domain list. Which meant I had to keep track and make sure that between fights and losing control she never spent more then her allotment per day.

Fire Bolt does explain the lack of components. It’s awesome you kept track of its daily uses, as responsible GMs and PCs should. I definitely appreciate Pathfinder Tales more when I can track the game mechanics, which is undoubtedly part of the fun of reading them, as I’ve mentioned in other PTBC threads.

Gary Kloster wrote:
Occult Adventures actually came out around the same time as Firesoul, so I never got to see it until after I'd written the book. But I get where you're coming from, Darkborn. When I looked through it, I was going "Y'know, this kind of fits..." a lot, which was fun.

That’s what started my doubts about that recently, because I actually went so far as to look for the release dates for Fire soul and Occult Adventures, and unless you received the playtest version earlier than the rest of us then started pounding pages out at a frenetic pace it just wouldn’t be likely. It may have been wishful thinking for Jiri to be a kineticist, but I assure you I am not disappointed that she isn’t.

Gary Kloster wrote:
I never formally statted out All-in-Ashes, since Jiri & Co. never had to go toe-to-toe with him. Which is good, it would not have gone well. My informal sketch was an outsider with excellent flight, a permanent Fiery Body (the spell from Player's Handbook) and the ability to cast a powered-up version of Firestorm way too many times a day to be healthy. The kindi trick that got poor Shani stuck in his mess I thought of as a (heavily) modified magic jar spell, with the kindi acting as the crystal.

Yeah, I thought that was the case, being an original creation rather than a monster with a template and some mythic powers to boot. That’s really nasty, and I totally agree that it would’ve wiped everyone out in an actual combat situation. The kindi are pretty neat, and it’s inspired me to create a PC for Serpent’s Skull if/when I get to play it. He’s one of my early guesses, actually - a Mwangi Human Shaman with the Speaker for the Past archetype and the Ancestors Spirit, and his hex at 4th level will be Fetish (Craft Wondrous Item) which I’m going to try to use to replicate the kindi as closely as I can. I even used your traditional naming structure – tribe/given name/birthplace – and his name is Ombo Baolo Kalabuto, but I think he'll go by “Olo” for short.

Anyway, thanks for the inspiration, Gary! Firesoul was fantastic, and I’m really looking forward to your next novel. (Perhaps nine levels later?)

Sczarni Order of the Amber Die

Please keep posting on this threat throughout the week if anyone has something else to add about Firesoul, but it's time again to move forward.
Here's the link to the new thread featuring Wendy N. Wagner, starting with Mother Bears, which will be followed by Winter's Wolves next weekend, then finally onto..

Skinwalkers

Silver Crusade

@Gary- Okies, it's just that after reading The Gem I wanted to love Firesoul, I really wanted to, but I just ended up marginally liking it.

I am happy to see you in this thread though and your reaction to everyone else's response to the book :3


DB I sat this one out but omg this book was SO GOOD I have made such a horrible mistake

Dark Archive

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Firesoul has been my favorite Golarion Tales novel so far. Love the location and the characters, and that some of the potential race preaching that could have happened was handily brushed off by having both protagonists and antagonists from the Expanse, and from the northern Inner Sea lands.

The choice of a Domain druid, over a more 'standard' Druid w/Animal Companion (particularly in a region that encourages the possibility of dinosaur companions!) was a neat one. I'm not sure I'd have been able to resist the temptation to have a velociraptor companion! But from a storytelling standpoint, her being alone was more important, I think, and the decision to tie her Fire aspect into a regional elemental thing and not just be 'her PC picked the Fire Domain' really added to the character.

I like how setting specific details inform the story, without actually having to make an appearance, such as the references to the Gorilla King and his lands, an everpresent threat hanging over that area of the world, and yet not one the author felt necessary to 'grand tour' us with. Like the sun and the moon, it's important to the setting, but you don't actually have to go there. I admire the restraint shown, in that a story can be like painting a picture. Just because you have 64 colors in your box of crayons doesn't mean you have to use *all* of them, *every time.* :)

Good stuff.


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I honestly did not think I'd like this book. I dragged my feet on ordering it and the prequel was interesting but didn't do a lot towards selling me; I was in this phase of having finished reading a lot of disappointingly... well, cliched stories that upheld very stereotypical american, heterosexual, patriarchal values. not gonna lie, the thought of trudging through yet another story where - even if the main character is female - that stuff manages to still shine through was very tough. I really, really did not want to do it.

but then this book had Jiri deal with a break-up by not moping about it, or her mentor's death by not sobbing for thirty pages, or have an extreme emotional impact due to her village's reaction. also she was not hung up on the romance she had been enjoying, and didn't blame herself for the villagers not listening. like, there was just so much that was so very refreshing about her attitude and how wonderful it was that she wasn't crippled by any of this.

similarly, the characters - by the end - actually liked each other. it wasn't like other baloney adventuring parties where, somehow, despite having risked life and limb and traveled together for months, everyone will gleefully slit each others' throats. in fact, even the Aspis adventuring crew - Patima's crew, that went into the Gorilla King's city - sounded as though it was a crew of normal, well-adjusted people who aren't emotionally crippled or otherwise broken in some way. everyone was able to function as a human being which just... I don't know, I feel that it added miles to the material. having Sera bend and be humorous, or Morvius go out of his way to share his wisdom (and some needed life lessons) make them feel like there is far more to life than simply hoping to find another questgiver before they get too hungry. more than anything, I wanted to see them actually tackle another adventure (instead of just hoping that they all retire from the adventuring life because I'm so tired of them sniping at each other).

there was just a lot to this book that kept me going because it was just so different. Jiri is a young (16?) girl who wasn't shamed for having a sexual experience prior to marriage. Morvius and Linnara have an open relationship (for one partner at least) and they are both open and accepting of it - and even more amazing, it's one where she is A) fully informed and B) it's not the man getting to have a million ladies on the side. he's bi, he's okay with it, and SHE is also okay with it. it was just a mature understanding of relationships that seemed to inform this and I have to say once again that it's these little details that make this easily one of my top three Pathfinder Tales books.

thanks for recc'ing this, DB, and thanks Mr. Kloster for writing it. sorry for being a putz with the book club discussion of it!

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