Pathfinder in 2009!

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

So one year ago today, I made a post to this blog about what was coming in 2008 for Pathfinder's Adventure Path. I just went back and looked and it's some interesting reading. For the most part, we accomplished everything on that list, although as we got toward the end of the predictions for 2008, I note a few things that didn't quite work out the way I'd planned for them to. Pathfinder #16 didn't have a gazetteer of the Darklands surrounding the drow city, and as I'd feared, the article about Demon Lords did indeed slip from #17 to #18. But overall, pretty close!

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is that here we are at the end of 2009, and I need a topic for a blog post. Especially after we missed several posts over the past few days due to snow-related apocalypses. So, without further ado, here's what you can look forward to seeing in Pathfinder in 2009!

January: The Second Darkness Adventure Path comes to a close this month with Brian Cortijo's "Descent Into Midnight," taking the PCs into one of the deepest reaches of the Darklands. A gazetteer of the mysterious Land of Black Blood and an article about the 29 most notorious of Golarion's demon lords rounds out the first volume of the year. Followers of Eando Klein's adventures in the Pathfinder Journal won't want to miss this volume, for this installment brings his long adventure to a close!

February: We heat things up in chilly February by traveling far to the south of Varisia to start the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path. Paizo's own publisher, Erik Mona, penned this volume's adventure, "Howl of the Carrion King," and New York Times bestselling author Elaine Cunningham takes over the Pathfinder Journal, starting a new story that'll run alongside of the Legacy of Fire campaign.

March: Those who didn't get enough gnolls from the first Legacy of Fire adventure in February will love "The House of the Beast," by Tim Hitchcock. The picture shown here by Svetlin Velinov depicts just one of the exciting encounters you can look forward to in this massive dungeon crawl, proving that there's more than gnolls waiting for you! Sean K Reynolds continues his exploration of Golarion's deities with Sarenrae, and Steve Kenson explores the region around Pale Mountain in northwest Katapesh, ground zero for half of Legacy of Fire's adventures.

April: In April, we begin Wolfgang Baur's four-part series of articles about the Genies of Golarion, starting with an exploration of what it is to be one of these magical elemental creatures to begin with. Darrin Drader's first Pathfinder adventure, "The Jackal's Price," takes the PCs into the second-largest city in the Inner Sea region, and Richard Pett shows us what goes on in a typical Katapesh marketplace. Be afraid, as they say…

May: RPG Superstar finalist Jason Nelson's adventure, "The End of Eternity," takes the PCs into an unexpected realm both near and far from Katapesh, while Todd Stewart, author of The Great Beyond, explores the chaotic extraplanar race of the proteans. Wolfgang's genie articles continue with an exploration of methods to bind and command genies.

June: At the height of summer, Pathfinder heads into one of the game's most legendary sites—the efreeti-ruled City of Brass on the Elemental Plane of Fire. Greg Vaughan's adventure, "The Impossible Eye," delves deep into one of the city's palace fortresses, while Wolfgang Baur explores the rest of the City of Brass in a gazetteer of the mythic realm. And Sean K Reynolds adds Rovagug to the list of big deity articles.

July: The Legacy of Fire reaches its explosive conclusion in RPG Superstar finalist Rob McCreary's "The Final Wish," where we get to see just what happens when a crazed genie gets too generous with his wish-granting mojo. Wolfgang's genie articles end with all sorts of genie-powered magic, and we pull back the curtain on the spawn of Rovagug. The tarrasque is only the most famous one of many, after all!

August: Things start to get a little bit hazier once we move into Gen Con, as they usually do, but I do know that August sees the launch of something no less than the first ever Pathfinder RPG Adventure Path, "Council of Thieves." Fully compatible with both the new rules and the 3.5 SRD, this Adventure Path heads back north to the city of Westcrown in Cheliax, home of devil worshipers, tiefling bandits, and lots and lots of rebels! We've been pitching the adventure in house here as "The Godfather" meets "The Omen," but I'm still not quite sure what exactly we mean about that. Those of you who've been waiting patiently for lots of details on the Hellknights should find one of this volume's support articles of particular interest.

September: The Council of Thieves Adventure Path takes place entirely in and surrounding the city of Westcrown, and as a result, many of the adventures in this campaign will have a distinctively urban feel. This volume's adventure ups that ante, asking the PCs not only to brave the perils of urban adventures, but to take part in a violent and dangerous play in order to impress the local nobility! Anyone can kill an otyugh, but how many adventurers can remember their next line on stage during the middle of a fight for their life?

October: The PCs continue to oppose the Council of Thieves as Westcrown falls ever more under the influence of the mysterious thieves' guild, and the second part of an exploration of the Hellknights of Cheliax (a series scheduled to begin back in August) shows us even more about this organization's methods and resources.

November: At some point along the way in Council of Thieves, I suspect we'll be talking quite a bit about devils and Hell—about Mammon and Erebus in particular. I won't promise a lot more about this archdevil in November, but chances are good! This volume's adventure, tentatively titled "The Infernal Syndrome," explores just why it's a bad idea to rely too much on diabolic magic for comforts around the home.

December: It's pretty likely that by this time, we'll have a nice big article that examines the tieflings of Golarion. Also, I probably should have mentioned that Sean'll be taking a long look at the church of Iomedae back in September already, but in December we've got a toasty gift for everyone—Asmodeus, one of the deities most requested for an exploration in Pathfinder, finally makes his debut here!

And that's that! Wes and I are going to be spending a fair amount of time this week getting Council of Thieves all mapped out in detail, and in the months to come I'm sure we'll have more to say. But for now, the hints and clues and teasers above will have to suffice. Next year's looking like it could be Paizo's biggest year yet, in any case—hope to see you all there!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

...and we're back!

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Howdy, all! In the wake of Snowpocalypse 2008, in which we got inches—inches!—of snow and therefore couldn't possibly make it into the office, but rather holed up in our houses waiting for the imminent apocalypse, we're all rushing a bit to catch up and get our latest books off to press. Books like The Reavers of Skaith, Leigh Brackett's epic conclusion to the Eric John Stark novels which began with The Secret of Sinharat. For a taste of what's in store for all you Planet Stories aficionados, check out this scene, which made it onto the cover, illustrated by James Ryman:

Victims customarily went smiling to their deaths. Only at the very end, when they had been cast into the sea and the Children had begun to share them, were there cries amid the blood and the floating garlands; and both cries and blood were pleasing to the Mother. The monks sang in their growling voices and did not notice that Stark had ceased to smile.

He was still beyond any rational thought. He only knew the death was coming swiftly through the silken water to claim him. The life within him stirred—a simple, uncomplicated force that rose of itself to fight against extinction.

Ashton was at his right hand. At his left was a monk, and then a second monk, and then the unguarded edge of the steps.

Stark swung his left arm viciously. The blow took the nearer monk across the throat and swept him back into those who climbed behind him. In falling, he clutched at the second monk and cost him his balance. Blue-robes tumbled and fell, splashing into the shallow water. Stark rushed up out of the space he had opened, clearing more space ahead of him by knocking other monks into the water. Hands caught at him, tearing away the garlands but slipping on his naked, oiled body. Some of the fingers had talons that drew blood, but they could not stop him. He gained the platform with a wild bull's rush.

The blue-robe with the horn turned about, startled. He had an especially brutish face. Stark took the horn from him. With it, he broke the face and sent the blue-robe flying out into the water on the far side of the platform. Then Stark swung the long horn like a ten-foot club to clear the upper steps.

He shouted, "Simon!"

Then he heard a faint voice calling his name, N'Chaka, Man-Without-a-Tribe, and he wondered who on this death-bitten godhaunted planet knew that name to call him. And suddenly he realized that the voice was in his mind...

James Sutter
Planet Stories Editor

Paizo Invades the Atomic Array

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Over at the Atomic Array, Rone Barton and Ed Healy have created a great podcast that should interest everyone who's a gamer. A brief look through their recent episodes sees topics such as Shadows of Cthulhu, Kobold Quarterly, Gen Con, and as of episode #11, Pathfinder!

This episode of the Atomic Array features myself, Jason Bulmahn, and Josh Frost getting interviewed about all matter of things Paizo, from Pathfinder and the upcoming Legacy of Fire Adventure Path to the Pathfinder RPG Beta playtest and more. Check it out!

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief

Snowpocalypse 2008

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Today (Monday, as I write this blog) I attempted to make it to Paizo and failed after a 4x4 monster truck thought it would be a good idea to stop in the middle of Interstate 90 and check his tires. The resulting car slide melee that (thankfully) resulted in no accidents led me to the conclusion that turning around and going home would be wise. It's very bad out here and as James said yesterday in his blog when you take very bad snow (especially for us) and combine that with hills and a lot of people who are not used to driving in anything more than heavy rain you get Snowpocalypse 2008.

After I decided to return home, I stopped by Burger King to stock up on healthy provisions before returning home. I'm an amateur photographer and figured Burger King would be as good a place as any to take some "proof of snow" pictures for our community.

Pulling up the drive-through at Burger King. Note the solid block of ice that is the driveway.	Avalanche!
A nearby intersection. Note how the sidewalk, wooden boardwalk, and road are all one giant white mass.	Eastbound I-90. One lane is an icy slush and the rest are just ice.

Hoping to return to the office soon,

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

I Think I Heard a Yeti Outside...

Monday, December 22, 2008

Those of you who check the blog daily have doubtless noted that there's been a few missing posts of late. The answer can be found on any major news website; the Seattle area's been hit with a pretty potent winter storm. Now, before anyone starts getting indignant about how snow's easy to drive through and Seattlites are cowards when it comes to snow (an accusation in my own case that's spot on, by the way), it's worth remembering that a lot of the streets and freeways out this side are on hills. And when you mix snow and hills, you get icy chutes that can only be navigated by things like white dragons who have the icewalking ability.

Anyway, rant about ranting aside, the reason there's been a dearth of blogs lately is that very few of us at Paizo have been able to get into the office lately, and as a result, blog writing has kinda been set aside. I'm sitting at home, typing this blog with a blanket on my shoulders and a space heater aimed at my feet, after having ventured outside to snap the following picture. It was while I took the picture that I think I heard that yeti stomping around somewhere. I ain't going back outside till he's been driven off by the local sasquatches, who, of course, aren't coming out until the snow goes away. Stupid sasquatches. You can never trust them to be there when you need them...

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief

Announcing Pathfinder Society Scenarios #11 & #12

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Pathfinder Society Scenario #11: The Third Riddle by Clinton J. Boomer

When Pathfinder Colm Safan entered the Nethys-linked heart of the fabled dungeon known as the Ravenous Sphinx, the Pathfinder Society expected to solve one of Osirion's greatest riddles. Months passed with no word from Safan and you and your fellow Pathfinders find yourselves dispatched into the desolate wastes of Osirion's notorious Parched Dunes to find the sphinx, find Safan, and uncover the mystery he sought. With a band of cloaked riders on your trail and a trap-filled dungeon ahead, will you solve the third riddle before time runs out?

This Pathfinder Society Scenario is designed for 1st to 5th-level characters (Tiers: 1–2, 4–5). This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can be easily adapted for use with any world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the 3.5 edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #12: Stay of Execution by Alison McKenzie

When a petty thief named Hadge gets a lucky break and makes off with a powerful divination focus of the Pathfinder Society's masked leadership, you and your fellow Pathfinders set out to the sparsely populated Taldor frontier to find him and recover the focus. When the local governor tosses Hadge into the brutal Porthmos Prison for a minor crime, your mission suddenly becomes a jail break. Will you free Hadge and uncover the location of the focus before the gangs of Porthmos tear him apart?

This Pathfinder Society Scenario is designed for 1st to 7th-level characters (Tiers: 1–2, 3–4, 6–7). This scenario is designed for play in Pathfinder Society Organized Play, but can be easily adapted for use with any world. This scenario is compliant with the Open Game License (OGL) and is suitable for use with the 3.5 edition of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game.

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Don't Fear the Reavers

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Well, folks, it's finally here. One year and three books later, we've reached the last of Leigh Brackett's amazing Eric John Stark novels, which began with our introduction to the wildman-turned-mercenary in The Secret of Sinharat and continued in her epic Skaith trilogy. In The Reavers of Skaith, her final installment on the world of the dying ginger star, Brackett doesn't pull any punches. Not only do we get more strange landscapes, more epic battles, and more alien cultures (such as the vicious Kings of the White Islands, with their seal-towed iceberg ships containing the frozen corpses of their ancestors), but Brackett gives us something that few authors of her era were willing to: a sense of fear.

While I wouldn't dare give out spoilers, I have to say that I respect an author who can, after multiple novels with the same characters, allow some of them to fail in their quests or die for the good of the story. All it takes is one quality death scene to break through the reader's warm sense of security, and after that it's a nail-biting page turner as you suddenly realize that the author could kill off anybody she wants to. This is her world, and there are no rules. No one is safe. Complacency is a terrible thing in a story, and it's fabulous to see a sword and planet author that isn't afraid to toy with the reader's emotions a little.

Some series lurch to a halt, others grind on long after the magic is gone. In The Reavers of Skaith, Leigh Brackett shows her chops by bringing more than a thousand pages of adventure to an elegant, satisfying close. It's not saccharine—Brackett's too much of a realist for that. As with our world, some people win and some people lose, and those results don't always line up neatly along the axis of good versus evil. But there can be no question that, as you turn that last page, you come away with a new world that is all the more real for its grittiness—a living, breathing place. This is the gift of Leigh Brackett, and a fitting end to the Eric John Stark books.

Enjoy.

James Sutter
Planet Stories Editor

The Map of Absalom

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Absalom is a big, big city—several miles across and home to over 300,000 people. Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Absalom is our first detailed look at this city and our first chance to map it. This full-page map should give you a sense of the city’s size, population, and majesty.

And now, a little background on this map.

Absalom is the idea of Jason Bulmahn, lead designer at Paizo. He once studied to be an architect, but he felt there was more fame and poverty in the world of professional game design. His years of grueling apprenticeship to Henri Ringelheim, Master Architect of Stuttgart, gave Jason a hunched posture and the inability to see in illumination brighter than tallow candlelight, but from time to time he is able to tap into the small amount of talent his master begrudged him, and create fine maps that are like Archimedes’ lever for your imagination.

One such map is the rough version of Absalom, City at the Center of the World. Note the square grid, a tool used by all devotees of the draftsman’s pencil. The heavy black lines, representing the cartographer’s stern intent. The green district borders and blue lines demarking the edges of the ship graveyard, attempts to inject a moment of life and joy into his work. The labels in red, representing the very blood he spilled to bring this map to completion. You can almost imagine him pausing, pen in hand, to wipe the sweat from his brow with an old rag, then patiently lowering his pen to the paper, as the nearby candle sputters in the late hours of the night. This is the work of one who loves his craft.

Plus, it almost looks like some sort of weird crab monster.

Sean K Reynolds
Developer

All Aboard for Absalom!

Monday, December 15, 2008

Earlier this week, we got in our first bound copy of Guide to Absalom. In the hectic "GO GO GO!" mentality that is the Editorial Pit, we're often surprised when books we send out do what comes natural and show up in completed print form back at the office. It sounds funny, perhaps, but that's the way it is in crazy Paizo-land!

Anyway, the book reminded me that we actually haven't shown off that much art from Guide to Absalom. This blog rectifies that! Behold, one of the First Guards of Absalom by artist Andrew Hou, and a nice view of the Starstone Cathedral by Ben Wootten.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Too Hot to Handle!

Friday, December 12, 2008

I'm being forced to do this because my overlord is an ogre. He's off doing the 24% of his day's worth of lollygagging. (He actually told me to write that—sorta.) Anyway! Even though Second Darkness is still in full swing, we wanted to tease you with a bit of Legacy of Fire—which we've already steamed right on into here. No rest for the wicked and what not. From Vincent Dutrait, who brought us the cover to the Second Darkness Player's Guide, comes the appropriately scorching cover art to the Legacy of Fire Player's Guide. Check it out! The Pathfinder Companion: Legacy of Fire Player's Guide heats things up this February.

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

(There Jacobs. I did it. Where's my soda?) :P

Open Call for 21 & 22 and New Format

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Before I get into the new open call format as well as the next round of open calls, I want to talk about the submissions for Pathfinder Society Scenarios #19 & 20. I received nearly as many submissions for 19 & 20 as I did for 17 & 18, but the difference this time was that I received almost all of them for 19: Skeleton Moon. The other scenario, 20: Demon Haunts the Devil's Hall, received an incredibly low number of submissions, and after looking through them again and again none of the submissions wowed me sufficiently to select the submitter as the author. I then spent some time thinking about our submissions process and I think our process may be to blame for the reduction in submissions for 20. I asked for 20 to include a non-SRD monster (the nabasu) that many submitters probably weren't familiar with and I asked for no undead (because we've been undead heavy lately) in a scenario where the monster (again, the nabasu) could potentially create undead with one of its powers. These two errors on our part, I believe, led to a serious reduction in submissions and because the pool was so small, there weren't a lot to choose from. In the end, I had to choose none of them. Instead, we've removed Devil's Hall from the schedule, to appear later in season 1, and replaced it with a later scenario I'd planned to assign rather than open. So for the 19 & 20 round, I'll select an author for 19 only and the new 20 will be written by an existing freelancer.

That brings us to the open call round for 21 & 22. I'm going to test a more open format for both, though I'm still going to suggest a few key items on each—items that are necessary either for art resources or simply to keep game play spread around the Inner Sea region. These restrictions will be relatively minor and shouldn't hamper creativity overmuch. I am, however, opening this test with a few caveats:

1. Don't break our world. If you submit something that breaks part of our world, it'll be auto-rejected. The scenarios are one-shot, 4-hour adventures—epic story arcs, world-shattering events, wars, mass famine, etc. don't have a place in them.

2. Understand Pathfinder Society Organized Play before you submit. Specifically, understand that the Pathfinder Society is an organization of vagabond scholars, thrill-seeking treasure hunters, and extreme explorers. They are not necessarily the "good guys," they don't get "hired" for their adventures, and they're not generally looking to make the world a better place. Submitting generic 3.5 "save the day" adventure ideas will decrease your chances of getting to write one. There are plenty of resources out there to give you a feel for the Society: the Guide to Pathfinder Society Organized Play, Pathfinder #1, and the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting all have information on the Pathfinder Society.

3. I need to feel that you've read or played a few scenarios before submitting. I'll get this sense through your proposal—our scenarios have a very specific flow to them and your outline should follow this flow. Read one or two before submitting.

4. Pathfinder Society scenarios must be no more offensive than PG-13. Scenarios are played in public at public settings and children will be playing them. As an aside, the number of submissions that involve violence toward children is staggering—no more of those, please.

5. This is not a contest. This is more like an interview for a job—you're showing me your best idea and I'm deciding if the combination of idea and writing skill equals you being selected as our next scenario author. I need authors—not winners.

6. Finally, I just don't have time to return every submission with feedback. I did that with the first round, for 17 & 18, and it stretched my resources and time very thin.

Rules for submitting Pathfinder Society scenario outlines are as follows:

1. Based on the guidelines for the current round, write a 750-word outline that includes the following:

a. A title—the more evocative the better

b. A brief introduction that acts as a prologue for the scenario

c. A brief summary of how the PCs proceed through each encounter

d. A brief summary of each encounter—minimum five encounters

e. A brief conclusion—what happens if the PCs fail or succeed

f. You no longer need to submit mission ideas with your outline

2. By the due date, email your outline to josh@paizo.com with the subject line SCENARIO NAME_YOURLASTNAME. Your summary must be in a MS Word document, Notepad, or Real Text format—these are files ending in .doc, .txt, or .rtf. Your file must be titled SCENARIO NAME_LAST NAME, i.e., PerilsofthePiratePact_Dayon.

3. Include your full legal name, email address, physical mailing address, and a contact phone number at the top of your submission—this text does not count toward your word count.

4. Please allow 72 hours for a response before resending your submission.

The current open call is for Pathfinder Society Scenarios #21 & 22—the May releases. The full schedule for this submission period is as follows:

• 12/11/08—Open call begins

• 12/19/08—Submissions due by 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time

• 1/9/09—Submissions review completed—selections and rejections notified

Guidelines

**SPOILER ALERT: Do not read the guidelines below if you wish to avoid spoilers for upcoming scenarios.**

Pathfinder Society Scenario #21
Suggested Title: The Eternal Obelisk
Setting: Qadira
Monster: A medusa
Level Range: Tier 5–9; tiers 5–7 and 8–9

Pathfinder Society Scenario #22
Suggested Title: None
Setting: Rural Cheliax
Monster: Open
Level Range: Tier 7–11; tiers 7–8 and 10–11

PLEASE NOTE: Pathfinder Society Scenarios are written with a 4-hour time limit in mind. Your outline should reflect 4 hours of solid game play.

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Out and About

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Turns out that we haven't been the only ones busily bustling away to bring you new Pathfinder brand insanity. A quick glance across the boards turns up Hugo Solis's (aka Butterfrog) currently Unofficial Paizo Comic Strip. The first is featured above, but check out his awesome comic thread here.

Also, Paizo—or more specifically Entombed with the Pharaohs and the Critical Fumble Deck—got a subtle shout-out on this week's commodoreHUSTLE by the web comedy troupe over at LoadingReadyRun.com. Be sure to check it out—hilarious stuff. I promise that Tukanem-Hanam, the mummy dragon in question, doesn't always suck that bad. And don't worry, we're totally hooking them up with the sequel, The Pact Stone Pyramid, to give Jeremy a chance to get his revenge.

So yeah! Great work to everyone out there making Pathfinder their own! And if you've been inspired by adventures in Golarion, be sure to show off your talents here on the message boards. We can't wait to see what you've come up with!

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

Ryman For The Win

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Covers are important. Not only do they help popularize books and win over new readers—and believe me when I say that the first thing the book industry drills into you is that a book with a bad cover Will Not Sell, no matter how amazing the content—they also go a long way toward establishing the feel of a series. There are a number of authors and series that I can recognize from the cover art alone, and I'm always distraught when some publisher changes a cherished series' look for no good reason. (Granted, sometimes there is a good reason, and kudos to those publishers who raise great books out of the ghetto.) Dan Simmons's Hyperion cantos, Gordon Dickson's Dragon Knight series, Richard A. Knaak's Dragonrealms books which were my first introduction to Larry Elmore—these covers are part of the story to me, forever linked emotionally to the books they promote.

All of which puts a lot of pressure on those of us charged with ordering covers. Fortunately, though our aesthetic is always growing and changing, Planet Stories has gotten extremely lucky during its short history, and a perfect example of that is cover artist James Ryman.

James came on board for the second book in Leigh Brackett's Skaith trilogy, The Hounds of Skaith, and we were ecstatic over his vision of Eric John Stark and that dying planet in its galactic backwater. Naturally, we immediately signed him on to do the cover for the final book, The Reavers of Skaith, as well. Seeing the two side by side, there can be no question of the link between the books, more so than any cover line we could have run over the top of the art. The subtle juxtaposition of the positions of good and evil on the covers is masterfully done as well, and my only regret is that we weren't able to bring him on in time for The Ginger Star and make this a triptych.

You can expect to see more covers from James Ryman in Planet Stories' future, as well as some other fabulous new artists—for instance, the cover currently being finished up for Otis Adelbert Kline's The Outlaws of Mars may be my favorite to date—but if you want to weigh in and make your opinion known, hop over to the Planet Stories messageboards and let us know what you think. We're always listening.

James Sutter
Planet Stories Editor

Bigger Beasts of the Black

Monday, December 8, 2008

So last Monday, I introduced you to the Land of Black Blood and listed a few of the indigenous creatures that dwell in this eerie underground world. But things like ghost bats and ether frogs and stirge hounds are small potatoes; they barely warrant stats at all when you're talking about an adventure for high-level characters. So you can bet that in Pathfinder #18's bestiary that there are quite a few strange and creepy creatures that should give the PCs a run for their money. Pictured here are but two of them—the earth-based shaitan genie and the thrice-envenomed demonic Xacarba, illustrated by Tyler Walpole.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Legacy of Fire

Friday, December 5, 2008

Although Second Darkness is only two-thirds of the way to being out on store shelves, we here at Paizo are already heading deep into the fourth Adventure Path. The cover art for the first installment, Pathfinder #19's "Howl of the Carrion King," just came in, and while you can check out the actual cover over at the Paizo store, I thought it'd be cool to show off some of the new art here on its own! With Legacy of Fire, Jesper Ejsing joins the ranks of Pathfinder cover artists—I can't wait to see what he comes up with as the adventures grow increasingly genie-riffic!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Upcoming Pathfinder Society Conventions

Thursday, December 4, 2008

As part of our continuing effort to showcase upcoming conventions that are running Pathfinder Society Organized Play events, here are two shows coming up in December and January that have let us know they are doing so. If you're local to either of these fine conventions, please show your support for Pathfinder Society by GMing or playing few Pathfinder Society Scenarios there. Spread the word!

Anonycon (thread)	Stamford, CT	December 12–14, 2008
SnowCon	Maine	January 17–18, 2009

If you know of any future conventions that plan to run Pathfinder Society Organized Play scenarios, please put their con coordinators, organized play coordinators, or RPG coordinators in contact with me. I'd love to use the blog to support as many shows as possible. With your help, we can support them all.

Joshua J. Frost
Events Manager

Thugs, Delhi-style

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Even more than his writing or game design, Gary Gygax is known for his imagination. The number of his unique creations—monsters and gods, spells and artifacts—that have entered the collective consciousness is truly mind-boggling. Yet like all great artists, Gary's inventions didn't spring full-formed from nothing, but rather were rooted in part in his deep love of history. For in order to create new mythology, you have to understand the existing ones.

This desire to explore and create variations of differing real-world belief systems is undoubtedly part of what led him to write Death in Delhi. While the previous Setne Inhetep books—The Anubis Murders and The Samarkand Solution—had allowed him to do great work imagining alternate versions of the ancient Egyptian pantheon, Gygax was always looking for new ground. And he found it—a whole subcontinent of it, in fact—with Death in Delhi.

One of the more interesting points of Indian history, and which plays an important role in the novel, is the concept of Thugee. While historians continue to clash on the extent of the practice, and what role the British played in expanding and disseminating the stories, the Thugs of India were part of a tribal system of organized crime centered around the worship of Kali, Goddess of Destruction. Descending in wild charges or carefully infiltrating parties over a period of weeks, gangs of Thugs would attack caravans traveling long distances and slaughter every man, woman, and child, strangling them with yellow handkerchiefs. The spoils would then go to the Thugs, who would carefully bury the bodies and remove any trace of evidence, making it seem that the caravan simply disappeared. It's from this tradition of mass slaughter and robbery, which some have estimated cost millions of lives over a period of centuries, that we get the modern English term "thug."

Of course, if there's something that sinister in our India's past, then you know Magister Setne Inhetep and his bodyguard Rachelle are bound to encounter it in Gygax's own Lands of the Peacock Throne.

For more information on Thugee, check out what Wikipedia has to say, or pick up a copy of Death in Delhi and go straight for Gary's own take on it.

Because the only thing stranger than fantasy is history.

James Sutter
Planet Stories Editor

Illustration by Kevin Yan

Beasts of the Black Blood

Monday, December 1, 2008

In Pathfinder #18's "Descent into Midnight," the heroes travel deep into the Darklands, into the nightmare realm of Orv. There, in an immense cavern known as the Land of Black Blood, the final enemy awaits. This volume of Pathfinder includes a short gazetteer about the Land of Black Blood that details the numerous strange locations therein and several of the region's dangerous denizens, like the aboleth pictured here.

But there are also less intimidating (but no less creepy) denizens of the Land of Black Blood than monsters ready to challenge a high-level party. Numerous rare and unique creatures make their home here as well, most warped from more common forms by ages of exposure to the vault's strange magics and the deadly black blood.

Ghost Bats: The pale bats native to the Land of Black Blood typically sate themselves upon large insects and other vermin, though in their swarms they have been known to attack larger prey. Possessing transparent wings and no hair—just white flesh—these small hunters sometimes grow to shocking sizes. Ghosts bats have the same stats as normal bats and bat swarms, though the species frequent mutants might grow to the size of dire bats.

Ether Frog: These creatures look like nothing more so than an oversized, four-legged blister with nostrils and a mouth. With an undifferentiated body and head, these ghost-white amphibians hide a single overdeveloped parietal eye beneath their bulbous backs, which grants them darkvision out to 60 feet despite their lack of normal eyes. Most creatures avoid the frogs, knowing of their natural poison—Ingested, Fortitude DC 14, initial and secondary damage 1d4 Dexterity. In all other ways they are simply largish frogs with the same statistics as common toads.

Stirge Hounds: These rare, unnaturally large stirges are often used as tracking animals, capable of following flying creatures through the Darklands. Stirge Hounds have the statistics of a stirge advanced to Small size and 4 Hit Dice. They are very aggressive and prone to hunting in packs or even swarms. Their proboscis is uniformly ivory-colored, while their bodies are usually dark rust-red along the wings fading to black upon the body.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief