Paizo has built itself upon the strength of its adventures—the first offerings we published set in the world of Golarion were adventures of different types, ranging from short encounters with maps and minis included to classic 32-page softcover standalone modules, and of course, the flagship monthly adventure line: Pathfinder. This line’s name became the more specific “Pathfinder Adventure Path” two years later when we launched the Pathfinder RPG, but ever since that first volume kicked off Rise of the Runelords nearly two decades ago, the format has largely remained the same. Even as we’ve recently shifted to a focus on three-part Adventure Paths, the physical nature of the product hasn’t changed from a softcover 96-page monthly softcover book.

I’ve known Gorum longer than anyone else. Although he’s changed and developed in ways I never considered, he was created for my homebrew setting back in the very early 90s, as I was rounding out my campaign setting in preparation for a big campaign I was going to run for several friends in my college dorm.

Just north of the coastal lumber town of Otari lie the swampy reaches of Fogfen, a mire nestled in the depths of a seaside forest that would have had a notorious reputation for being the dangerous haunt of monsters even without the presence of the looming tower known as Gauntlight. At first glance simply a lighthouse, the tower stands amid a ruined fortress, its heights looking out over the tree line at the coastline and town to the south. To those passing by, its position in a landlocked swamp is curious, even nonsensical, but its light’s sinister use is not for the guiding of ships through troubled waters.

Paizo’s made a name for itself on its adventures—even before the rise of the Pathfinder RPG, we were creating standalone adventures and Adventure Paths. There’s an old industry adage that “adventures don’t sell,” and while it’s true that a product like an adventure, which is aimed only at the GM, will sell less than a product aimed at players, I’ve never agreed with the theory that creating and publishing adventures is a waste of resources. To me, adventures are the whole point of an RPG—without adventures, GMs have nothing to run and players have nothing to play.

Sandpoint is in trouble again—are you the heroes to step in to save the day?

Some two-hundred months ago, I was a wrecked ball of frazzled nerves as I waited for the verdict to come in on the very first Pathfinder Adventure Path. This was before Pathfinder was its own RPG, and while I had experience writing and developing three previous Adventure Paths, this was the first one that wasn’t tied to an established world.