We’ve been waiting seven years for this moment.
Starting in 2019, when we first heard of Erik Mona’s upcoming deluxe adventure, we’ve built and rebuilt parties of characters to play it. We’ve chosen – and changed – this project’s roster of players from among Order of the Amber Die’s members.
Years passed: 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023. Yet, The Dead God’s Hand did not arrive.
We moved on to new projects. On cold nights around the fire pit, we tried to guess why Paizo would delay the release of an already-announced adventure for so long. We knew just enough about what was inside its pages, to build some legends about why The Dead God’s Hand was taking so many years to get here. We knew that this adventure was originally the Paizo office campaign, with names like Bulmahn, Sutter, Schneider, Jacobs, and McCreary having played in it. We’d be treading on holy ground where our idols of the industry had journeyed. But for some reason, we still had to wait.
There was a night in 2024, staring into the coals, when someone said it: Aroden is returning. The theory was not rejected. Right, because if Aroden was returning, then Paizo wouldn’t bring him back in the beginning of Pathfinder 2nd Edition, but more towards the middle. 2025 perhaps? We’ve followed our share of threads in the Pathfinder forums where either James Jacobs or Erik Mona was pressed about Paizo’s plans for the dead god. At best, their posts usually end with the line that there are no plans to have Aroden return. That is, there are no plans for them to make Aroden return. As Pathfinder fans, we know that Paizo is always full of surprises – especially one that could involve your characters bringing the god of humanity back.
2026 is here, and so is The Dead God’s Deliverance!
Order of the Amber Die
In case you aren't familiar with our work from past projects, we'll repeat the staccato version. We only play published adventures. We use the complete rules set. We've had the same GM since our founding: 1987. We like to push the envelope of tabletop roleplaying. We only play marathon sessions -- days at a time. We'll play on location. Our GM isn't afraid to kill characters or TPK us; he'll do it in front of the community, too. Imagine us like a roleplaying team, complete with a Captain and Ref positions to help manage the game. We revere one d20 above all others, and that is the Amber Die. It doesn’t roll more 20s than it should, but it chains them when it does, and doubters have always been converted. After more than 170 adventures, we've even gotten rid of RPG absolutes: Yeah, we'll split the party.
Past Pathfinder Projects
The Emerald Spire Project, 2014
The Giantslayer Endeavor, 2015
The Strange Aeons Experiment, 2016
The Azlant Odyssey, 2017
The Pathfinder Playtest, 2018
The Slithering Salve, 2020
The Abomination Arsenal, 2022
The Crown Academy, 2023
The Sky Scions, 2025
The Dead God’s Deliverance, 2026
The Deliverance
We approach each project with its own take. Safe to say that much of the community remembers our all-gunslinger party, or knows our recent family of dwarves with its out-of-game generations. For this project, we’re ready to usher in Aroden’s return, and we’ve built a party worthy of greeting the Last Azlanti when he sets foot in Absalom once more. We proudly introduce you to The Aroden 5!
For ancestries, of course we’re all human, like the patron deity of humanity. For weapons, every character uses a longsword in some fashion – the weapon of Aroden himself. This party has been in Absalom for quite some time now, exploring forgotten places beneath the City of Lost Omens in their quest to find out more about the fate of their god. Our deity’s colors are green and gold, and each character wears a set of clothing to match. We’re going to be dressed properly for the return of the Last of the First Humans!
The core members of the The Aroden 5 can be found below. Also listed are the names of each player and the year each became a member of OAD. We’re fortunate to have friends like artist Erik Frankhouse, whose stellar portraits captured the grunge we were going for, especially with characters who worship a dead god. The backgrounds you’ll see listed below are a teaser from the adventure itself!
The Aroden 5
Meet Dorianth, a commander belonging to the lost sect known as the Knights of Aroden. He claims to be a descendant of Ilsur and has goals: Restoring the Knights and carrying the title of First Sword. Dorianth is all about longsword and board, but it’s his tactics and leadership that unite The Aroden 5.
Human Commander
-Strategy: Plant banner and defend
-Background: Esoteric Bookworm
-Style: Longsword and shield
-Played by Erick Germer (member since 2007)
Meet Bettalia, “Betty,” a barbarian who channels the anger of Aroden. Betty is for everyone out there who still believes that Aroden was murdered, and isn’t happy about it. Her two longswords are ready to slash and hack through anything that stands in the way of bringing her god back.
Human Barbarian
-Instinct: Spirit
-Background: Puddles Carnie
-Style: Twin longswords
-Played by Theodora Marcantonis (member since 2023)
Meet Uhlan Vale, an oracle who has foreseen the return of Aroden. Uhlan spends his days as a street preacher, preparing the people of Absalom for the return of his deity. Uhlan wields a spiritual longsword, and receives his guidance from Azlanti voices of the past.
Human Oracle
-Mystery: Ancestors
-Background: Absalom Street Preacher
-Style: Spiritual Armament
-Played by Logan Ernst (prospective member)
Meet Cassiel Seldeogaear, “Cass,” a student of Aroden’s background, who worships Acavna as the Last Azlanti did. Her character build pays homage to the Child of Acavna and Amaznen archetype from Pathfinder 1st Edition. She wields a longsword and open hand in the tradition of those martial casters that have come before her.
Human Fighter
-Archetype: Wizard
-Background: Mystery Adept
-Style: Longsword and free hand
-Played by Shannon Hogan (prospective member)
Meet Alleuwyn Alsyr, an exemplar striding the path of Aroden. If the dead god will not return, then Alleuwyn will take his place; after all, a demigod is still better than no god. The exemplar dares to throw his longsword across the battlefield at foes. That’s impressive enough, but there is something about Alleuwyn that just makes us believe.
Human Exemplar
-Ikons: Gleaming Blade, Scar of the Survivor, Victor’s Wreath (belt)
-Background: Destined for Greatness
-Style: Thrown longsword
-Played by Matthew Hardin (member since 2003)
Highlights from Preparing The Dead God’s Hand:
□ Here’s another teaser about the adventure: A plethora of NPCs that can accompany you, and character arcs for each. So many NPCs in fact, that we’ve chosen to go with additional players who will take the roles of live-NPCs at each session. It’s our pleasure to be accompanied by Peter Woodworth in his role as Krell the halfling rogue. Peter has authorship credits that go about as far back as when we first discovered a strange die with an amber hue. Fun fact: Order of the Amber Die was first featured in 1997, when one of our themed groups of characters (the Happy Blasters) was published in Star Wars Adventure Journal #13, courtesy of Pete!
□ All these years have gone by, and we’ve never shown off the walls of our actual studio, usually you see the adventure-specific backdrops we surround ourselves with. Well, the studio walls are green -- a sign from Aroden himself that we should make this the first playthrough without backdrops! As we release content for this project, you’ll get to see more of where we play and shoot photos for the blogs, and catch a glimpse of the padded floor that is one of the secrets to how we’re still rocking the longest sessions in the industry.
□ We’re adding – you guessed it – another teacher to our roster. We’ve got enough educators in Order of the Amber Die for a regular faculty meeting at this point. Welcome Shan Hogan, an AP Calculus teacher who will make sure that not a single hit point or attack bonus will go unaccounted for! We’re also matriculating one of the top students from our very own Crown Academy into his first official project: Logan Ernst. This young prospect has been blooded in Crown of the Kobold King, and has been asking for more action. Done.
□ It’s green and gold everything for us until this project comes to an end, including matching dice sets from our friends at Norse Foundry. Adam also put together a gold GM screen, and we have green and gold placards for our portraits. Our custom template for the commander’s banner aura is green with gold, and we’re pretty sure Theodora even had green and gold eyeshadow on in that photo. Expect a couple more custom props straight from the pages of The Dead God’s Hand, combined with some trimmings from Beadle and Grimm’s 2022 Absalom Gold Edition set. Our table is ready!
What’s Next
We’ll leave you with a couple of playthrough reveal photos in this report, then drop a blog for every marathon session we run, and provide details of what we discover. As Adam likes to remind us, a TPK ends the project, and that would be rather embarrassing – it has happened before. To be clear, we have no idea what will happen regarding Aroden in this adventure, but you can expect to hear from us again soon (before the module’s release) with part one of the playthrough!
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Our table was brought to life with the help of Blue Table Painting for our miniatures and Black Bard Studios for our custom terrain.
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