Superstar 2014: Last-Minute Advice for Round 1

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Hello, gamers, and welcome again to RPG Superstar 2014! I'm Sean K Reynolds, host of this year's RPG Superstar competition, designer at Paizo, and a judge for the previous four RPG Superstar competitions.

Tomorrow, January 1, 2014, at 2 PM Pacific time, is the deadline for your Wondrous Item submission for Round 1! If you haven't submitted your item yet, remember to set aside a little bit of time between now and the deadline. If this deadline has caught you by surprise and you're not prepared, do not let that stop you from entering this competition. Submit an item. Jot something down, fiddle with it for a few minutes, and submit it. We've had people make it into the Top 32 who have never played the Pathfinder RPG—whether you're a GM or a player, you should give it a shot. You can't win the competition if you don't submit a wondrous item (and you can't advance to the later rounds if you don't submit a wondrous item for Round 1).

Here's some last-minute advice for people who haven't submitted an item yet:

• 1) Use the magic item format provided in the Round 1 Rules.
  Double-check the rules here. Not only does this make your submission look better, but it helps make sure you don't accidentally leave out an important part of the item stat block, like the Price or Slot.
• 2) Preview your item on the site before you hit "Submit."
  When you use the submission tool on the main RPG Superstar page, remember that it works just like a message board post—you can and should hit "Preview" to see how your item looks. It should look similar to a magic item entry in the Core Rulebook. Maybe you accidentally turned everything bold or italic, or have an extra return in the middle of a sentence. Now is the time to fix these problems. And, before you hit "Submit"...
• 3) Check your word count.
  When you preview your item, scroll all the way up and look above your username and avatar picture—right there should be your item's name, a dash, and how many words are in your magic item. There is a hard limit of 300 words for your wondrous item—if you're over 300 words, you're automatically disqualified. If your item is over 300 words, trim some words out of its description (don't trim words like Aura, Slot, or Price... those are required). If you're at 290 or so, double-check to make sure you haven't left out any spaces between words (especially between the item's Price or Cost and the abbreviation "gp" ... there has to be a space there). Make sure your item's name is also in the body of the post, not just the subject—that counts toward your word count. Once you've made your adjustments, hit Preview again to look at it one more time.
• 4) Save a copy of your final item.
  Select it, copy it, paste it into a text file or word processor, and save it for later. You'll want a record of it, just in case you don't make it into the Top 32 and want feedback on your item (technically we can look up items later, but it's a lot easier if you have a copy).
• 5) Click "Submit."
  You're done, no going back! Congratulations, you've made the plunge.

Good luck!

Sean K Reynolds
Host, Designer, Former RPG Superstar Judge

Meet Our New Editorial Interns!

Saturday, December 28, 2013

The editorial team is excited to announce our two new interns, Austin Bridges and Kate Sprague.

Here's Austin:

Greetings! Austin Bridges here, your brand new editorial intern for the winter. I'm incredibly excited to join the team and get to know all of you, so allow me to kick things off with a personal introduction.

I graduated from Western Washington University in 2012 with a Theatre/Playwriting major and a minor in German. After college I wrote for The Cheezburger Network's The Daily What Geek news blog, and more recently spent the last year at Amazon working for the Kindle Direct Publishing and Kindle Worlds platforms. Outside of work, I spend my time reading comics, playing tabletop and PC games, going on podcast binges, writing sketches, and listening to mashups with the theme music from Space Jam. Currently, I'm crafting seasonal adult beverages and developing a radio play about mermaids. In the near future, I'd like to move to Los Angeles to pursue television writing. Or honestly just whoever will hire me to write.

I'm well acquainted with other tabletop roleplaying games, but only recently discovered Paizo and Pathfinder through the release of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. I got hooked pretty quickly, and now I'm happily crash-coursing all that Golarion has to offer. Please be gentle! I'm just a sunken-eyed, bearded child scampering around the Paizo office eating crusts, but I can't wait to get started and begin currying your favor!

And here's Kate:

Hello, my name is Kate Sprague. I am currently a student at Bellevue College, studying Digital Media Arts. I'm particularly interested in game design, and have pursued this internship due to my enduring love of tabletop roleplaying games.

I started playing Pathfinder a little over two years ago with a group at our local game store. Not long after that, my husband and I found our way to a weekly Pathfinder Society meetup in Redmond. Our early experiences with Pathfinder led us to assemble a weekly home game. Currently, we are following the Kingmaker Adventure Path through the River Kingdoms.

My most played class is hands down the Druid. Currently, I have five pathfinder society Druids. My favorite is Dr. Chrysanthemum Moonbeam; an elderly aasimar practitioner of gnomeopathy whose day job is representing the ‘Make a Limited Wish Foundation.' Her animal companion, Tasha, is a sabertooth tiger who unfortunately suffers from a terminal case of gigantism.

I'm looking forward to contributing here at Paizo, and will work tirelessly towards making the Druid class not only a good choice, but a mandatory one.

Austin and Kate will be helping us out for the next few months, so please feel free to say hi to them on the messageboards!

Jessica Price
Project Manager

Pathfinder Battles Preview: Good Girls, Bad Guys (?)

Friday, December 20, 2013

I've been threatening to reveal a few more "good guys" from January's Wrath of the Righteous set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted figures, and now that I'm sitting here in the Minneapolis airport about to fly back to Seattle from my holiday vacation, it appears that there are somewhat fewer heroes in this set than my memory had earlier suggested. As in, there's only two more.

Since we're within about three weeks of the set's release and I don't have a ton of preview blogs left to go before you have your own figures in hand, that means that a touch of evil will be creeping into a blog that I'd originally intended to focus on good guys.

In the spirit of the set, I trust you'll forgive the unexpected onset of darkness.

So, let's start with the goodies, shall we?

Here we have the crusader Queen Galfrey, leader of the goodly kingdom of Mendev on the edge of the Worldwound. Galfrey plays an important role as the Wrath of the Righteous campaign progresses, giving your player characters and opportunity to rub shoulders with a national leader. Of course, in full plate mail armor and with a longsword held aloft, this figure also doubles as any female warrior player character or NPC. Queen Galfrey is a Medium figure slated at the rare rarity.

Arueshalae here is a redeemed succubus who fights for the side of good against her former demonic brethren. Based on a cover illustration by superstar Pathfinder artist Wayne Reynolds, this figure is a masterpiece of sculpting that pushes the envelope for what's possible with a Medium figure. We've got wings. We've got a (sweet-looking) bow. We've got great three-dimensionality. All in all, one of the loveliest figures in the set for one of the most interesting NPCs in the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path. Arueshalae is a Medium, rare figure.

And that's it for the good guys in this set. I sincerely hope your player characters are up to the challenge of fighting off all these nasty demons and hideous monsters! Speaking of which….

We're not done with demons yet, and this wily little fellow is at the vanguard of their insidious armies. Here we have the Brimorak, a rank-and-file demon your players will grow to loathe as the campaign progresses. Drawn from the cover of the very first Wrath of the Righteous adventure with stats in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Book of the Damned Vol. 2: Lords of Chaos, the Brimorak is cast in clear plastic with fiery hoofs and a flaming sword. This Small figure is slated at the common rarity.

This enormous, mottled pile of disgusting grossness is the Vescavor Queen, an evil sort of giant insect you definitely do NOT want to meet on the battlefield. The Vescavor Queen is on the very Large side of Large, and is definitely one of the more disturbing figures we've produced to date. Naturally, I love her. She's an uncommon, so I suggest your PCs pack some bug repellant before setting out for the Worldwound.

Last up this week is another gross-out king, the evil Xanthir Vang. Again based on a Wayne Reynolds cover image, Vang is an evil villain composed of writhing vermin. He makes a perfect alien spellcaster, uber-villain, or all around bad guy. I don't want to give away too much about his role in the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path, but suffice it to say—he's not good. Xanthir Vang is a Medium, rare figure.

And that's it for this week (and for 2013!). We'll see you next week (and next year) for a look at the remaining figures in the Wrath of the Righteous set. Until then, be safe, be strong, and watch out for demons!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Meet the Iconics: Balazar

Wednesday, December 25, 2013

To join in all the gift giving going on today, here's a belated present for the season. Happy holidays from all of us here at Paizo Publishing!

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

The final decade of the Age of Enthronement brought hope and innovation to the people of the Inner Sea region. In the north, Chelish explorers from Korvosa founded the city of Magnimar. In the east, Taldor and Qadira reached an uneasy peace after centuries of antagonism and open warfare. In the treacherous Mana Wastes of the south, refugees fleeing persecution in Nex settled the Duchy of Alkenstar as a beacon of light and progress in a sea of magic-warped madness. And not far away, in Nex's capital city of Quantium, the Arclords adopted an orphaned gnome child named Balazar into their most prestigious school of magical instruction.

Diligent students of the scribbles and writings of the long-lost archmage who founded that nation, the Arclords deciphered codes and texts from the margins of newly discovered spellbooks and concluded that "children of the First World" would play an important role in the magical administration of the departed wizard's kingdom. In the years before the death of Aroden, prophecy was a much more valuable currency in the lands of the Inner Sea, and in 4601 the tradition-obsessed Arclords scoured the gnome communities infesting their beloved cities for young gnomes to press into service. To prevent their great works from falling victim to what they considered a chaotic and untrustworthy race of childlike anarchists, the wizards culled only the youngest (and thus in their minds least corrupt) gnome children from their parents, imprisoning or destroying families with the temerity to go against the marginalia of the wizard who had founded the nation and declared the city open to creatures of all races so long ago. To the Arclords, any gnome resistance was a revolt against the ideals of the nation itself, akin to treason.

By 4606, the human god Aroden was dead, the power of prophecy was broken, and the Arclords' eugenics experiment was veering toward abject failure. As the gnome orphan brood developed into maturity in the decades that followed, they brought chaos and catastrophe to Quantium's magical academies. And at the center of that chaos stood Balazar: an impulsive youth with a temper to equal the bright red ferocity of his prodigious mustache, a burning match on a bed of tinder.

In the early years of his instruction, Balazar revealed almost no magical acumen whatsoever, preferring to spend his days conducting merry pranks on his fellow students and instructors instead of absorbing himself in the meticulous study of the Arclords' curriculum. When one such prank resulted in the transmutation of an instructor's tower into a living being of elemental stone (thanks in part to a mysterious glowing rock pilfered from the school's vaults), Balazar and three gnome associates found themselves expelled from the academy, exiled from Quantium, and sent on the first wagon train to Ecanus, the sprawling southern city whose world-famous fleshforges churned out a legion of horrors to bolster Nex's armies and terrorize its squalid countryside.

The Ecanus assignment was intended exclusively as punishment, but the city's masters welcomed the gnomes with open arms, eager that their unconventional attitudes, boundless creativity, and unpredictable obsessions might aid them in conquering one of the most enduring mysteries of the monumental fleshforges. For deep within the dungeons below the military complex, in a room designed by the Archmage Nex himself, lay an extraplanar rift known as the Void Chasm, a shaft of sheer sides and cloying, multicolored mists that had driven insane all who had previously gazed within it.

One by one, Balazar's gnome associates gazed within the abyss, and one by one they lost their tenuous grip on reality. Balazar watched in horror as the color drained from their hair and skin, as if the whole of their life from birth to bleaching transpired within the span of a few moments. When the emotional strain grew too great and the gnomes cried out in anguish, the pitiless fleshforge instructors pushed them into the trench, where their howls soon faded beneath the swirling mists. If the gnomes could not discover the purpose of the Void Chasm, the administrators reasoned, perhaps a sacrifice to the unknown powers below would do the trick.

As he stood on the precipice of the Void, Balazar wondered if perhaps he should have studied more diligently in the relative comfort of Quantium's academies. Reluctantly, he cast his gaze into the miasma and felt the weird energies of the Chasm worming their way into his mind. Worse, he heard whispering voices in the mists, calling out to him and begging him to step over the edge. At first he thought the voices to be those of his lost fellow gnomes, and called back to them one by one even as the color drained from his hair and he felt his mind slipping away. But the voices were not those of his friends. They belonged to… something else.

It took all of Balazar's limited concentration to sift the many voices from each other. Some were angry, demanding to be left alone. Others beckoned with honeyed words of sweet oblivion. But one voice among the tumult spoke softly and plainly. "I will help you," it said in reassuring tones. "Give me form and allow me to leave this prison, and you and I will become as one."

With the hands of the fleshforge administrators on his shoulders, about to give the final push that would send him into nothingness, Balazar tried to imagine what the voice would look like. He dreamed of a creature with a vast serpentine body, with grasping talons and horrifying scales. And, perhaps because he had not eaten that day and was growing hungry, he imagined the voice speaking through the beak of a monstrous chicken. And then, just as he felt the muscles of his captors tense for the final push, the creature he had imagined emerged from the Void Chasm fully formed and fully real, screaming a hideous avian cry and weaving through the air with serpentine grace. Its claws tore at the necks of the administrators, its hideous beak making a mess of their unbelieving eyes. And all along, in reassuring tones only he could hear, it spoke to him. "Do not be afraid, little one," it said. "We were meant to be together."

Somehow, Balazar and the avian entity that called itself Padrig managed to win their way free of the fleshforges, of Ecanus, and even of Nex. As he fled up the eastern coast of Garund on a succession of merchant and smuggler vessels, Balazar and Padrig grew closer and closer to one another. Padrig explained that he was a bodiless being known as an eidolon, and that only Balazar could give him structure and form due to the affinity of their minds and souls. As the gnome made his way from Nex to Katapesh to Absalom, Balazar grew more and more adept at shifting Padrig's form to add more legs, terrible wings, or other features fitting the dangers and situations at hand. When things got too dangerous to be seen with a magical creature or when discretion was more important than protection, Balazar dismissed Padrig to some extraplanar hidey-hole, only to call him once again to his side when needed.

Although a great deal of the young Balazar's mischievous spirit remains, the horror of the Void Chasm remains with him to this day. Other gnomes often confuse his stark white hair for a symptom of the insidious bleaching that threatens all gnomekind, but through his constant and relentless travels Balazar remains as engaged and full of life as any of his healthy gnome brethren. When other gnomes inquire about his "condition" with the best of intentions, Balazar sometimes flies into an impatient fit of grumpiness, chastising his would-be helpers and instructing them to mind their own business.

Privacy is very, very important to Balazar, for the Nexian wizards he betrayed have not forgotten his singular mastery of the Void Chasm. Agents of the Arclords of Nex dog his travels at every stop, pushing him further and further away with each season. Balazar knows that each new stop—however temporary—will provide him with ample opportunity to learn new things and meet new people, to master the magical craft that always eluded him in Nex, and to do honor to the friends and colleagues he left behind. Despite occasional moments of maudlin reflection on all he has lost, Balazar takes comfort in his enduring friendship with the eidolon he recued from oblivion so long ago. As long as he travels with Padrig, he knows he will never be alone.

Erik Mona
Publisher

Exciting Holiday tax Forms!

Tuesday, December 24, 2013

With Crystalhue upon us, everyone is eager eager to sing, dance, and tell secrets to the Zonzon to air our our grievances for the coming year. But this time of year is also important for financial reasons, and as you begin gathering your receipts and calculating your deductions, we here at the office have decided that it's the perfect time to offer a sneak-peak at our upcoming Pathfinder-branded W2 forms!

Spoiler:

Just kidding! Have an awesome new monster!

Golem, Feast

Illustration by Crystal Frasier

Grease, glaze, and gravy pour in equal shares from this tottering, man-shaped banquet as it lurches forward. Heavenly aromas pour from its countless components.

Feast Golem CR 6

XP 2,400

N Large construct
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +2
Aura alluring aroma 30 ft. (DC 19)

DEFENSE

AC 16, touch 8, flat-footed 16 (–1 Dex, +8 natural, –1 size)
hp 82 (8d10+38); fast healing 5
Fort +2, Ref +1, Will +2
Defensive Abilities amorphous anatomy, indestructible, slippery; DR 10/bludgeoning; Immune construct traits, magic
Weaknesses delicious

OFFENSE

Speed 40 ft.
Melee 2 claw +11 (1d6+6 plus burn), bite +11 (1d8+4 plus burn)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.
Special Attacks burn (1d6, DC 17)
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th; concentration +11)
   At will—create water, purify food and drink, putrefy food and drink
   3/day—polypurpose panacea
   1/day—allfood

STATISTICS

Str 19, Dex 8, Con —, Int 8, Wis 11, Cha 17
Base Atk +8; CMB +13; CMD 22 (30 vs. grapple)
Feats Ability Focus (alluring aroma), Eldritch Claws, Improved Initiative, Toughness
Skills Disguise +5 (+13 in kitchens or larders), Escape Artist +0 (+8 to escape grapples), Perception +2, Profession (cook) +4; Racial Modifiers +8 Disguise, +8 Escape Artist
Languages Common (can’t speak)
SQ bountiful corpse, powerful blows (claws), unstoppable

ECOLOGY

Environment any urban
Organization solitary
Treasure none

SPECIAL ABILITIES

Alluring Aroma (Su) The feast golem exudes a powerful scent that compels creatures to physically attack it. Affected creatures are compelled to attack the feast golem using only a bite attack for 1d4 rounds. Creatures that normally do not possess a natural bite attack temporarily gain one while under the alluring aroma’s effect; this attack inflicts (1d3 + Strength modifier) damage for Medium creatures (1d2+Str for Small creatures) and does not provoke attacks of opportunity from the golem. Creatures may make a DC 19 Will save to resist the feast golem’s alluring aroma and act normally. Creatures who succeed at their saving throw are immune to this ability for 24 hours. This save is an enchantment (compulsion) effect and does not affect creatures that do not need to eat.

Amorphous Anatomy (Ex) Composed of many different dishes, the feast golem has no discernible anatomy. This grants it a 50% chance to ignore additional damage caused by critical hits and sneak attacks and grants it immunity to polymorph effects. A feast golem recovers from physical blindness or deafness in 1d4 rounds as it regrows new sensory organs.

Bountiful Corpse (Sp) Consuming the corpse of a feast golem grants the effect of a heroes’ feast, but those that partake are fatigued for 1 day.

Delicious (Ex) Feast golems take a -2 penalty on Escape Artist and combat maneuver checks made to escape a grapple against any creature that has a bite attack with the grab ability.

Immune to Magic (Ex) A feast golem is immune to any spell or spell-like ability that allows spell resistance. In addition, certain spells and effects function differently against the creature, as noted below. A feast golem's spell-like abilities cannot be used to affect itself or other feast golems.

• Create food and water instantly heals the golem for 3d6 hit points.
• Feast of ashes negates the feast golem’s alluring aroma and fast healing abilities for 24 hours.
• A heroes’ feast spell cast directly on the golem increases its size by one category, doubling its height and increasing its weight by a factor of 8 for one hour. The golem gains a +4 size bonus to its Strength, a -2 size penalty to its Dexterity, an extra 10 feet of movement speed, and increases its reach by 5 feet.
• Putrefy food and drink causes portions of the golem’s body to rot and fall away, inflicting 1d4 points of damage (no save).

Indestructible (Ex) A feast golem is nearly impossible to destroy. Even reduced below 0 hit points, its fast healing continues to restore hit points, though the golem is helpless unless above 0 hit points. It can only be destroyed if the golem’s heart is consumed: an ossified loaf of fruitcake, reeking of bad liquor and covered in various colorful molds. In order to successfully eat the golem’s heart, a creature must make a DC 17 Fortitude saving throw every round for 4 rounds—somewhat of a challenge due to its dryness (and the feast golem’s fast healing). Failing this saving throw indicates that the creature takes 1d4 points of Constitution damage. This ability is Charisma-based.

Slippery (Ex) Oozing butter, fat, and sticky syrup from every crevice in its misshapen form, the feast golem has a +8 bonus on all Escape Artist checks and to its CMD against grapples.

Unstoppable (Ex) The feast golem ignores penalties for difficult terrain, and its movement increases by 10 feet.

The unholy machinations of mad sorcerer-chefs or unstable goblin alchemists, feast golems are walking amalgams of food, drink, and flatware given horrible purpose by magic. Stitched together from leftovers and hearty meals, no two feast golems look exactly the same. The same magic that animates their delectable flesh also maintains their various ingredients at appropriate temperatures, preserving both hot and cold dishes indefinitely. Affluent fey or magically-versed nobles may employ the creations, disguised as a sumptuous meal to deter would-be assassins at the dinner table, but just as often their creation is an accident wrought from the overeager joining of edibles and enchantment. The precise origins of the feast golem remain a mystery, and its means of destruction not for the faint of stomach.

From all of us, to all of you: Have a Joyous Crystalhue!

Liz Courts & Crystal Frasier
Department of Holiday-Themed Awesomeness

It's a Christmas Massacre!

Monday, December 23, 2013

December's Pathfinder Adventure Card Game release is The Hook Mountain Massacre, the third Rise of the Runelords Adventure Deck. In this chapter of the story, the stalwart heroes are asked to investigate Fort Rannick, a ranger outpost near Hook Mountain. Fort Rannick is home to the Order of the Black Arrows, a cadre of rangers that have kept the local ogre problem at bay for decades, but now the outpost is ominously silent.

Striding boldly (or not) into the foothills near Rannick, the players quickly find themselves in conflict with the first of the area's "looming troubles."

Let's take a moment to dig into the first scenario of the adventure, Them Ogres Ain't Right—a card that still regularly wins Mike's vote for "Best Card Title"—and preview some of its giant-sized participants.

Though you might not normally associate an ogrekin matriarch with necromancy, Mammy is happy to change your mind. Ancient Skeleton henchmen aren't a major threat to the characters at this point, but every little bit hurts, and Mammy's habit of using the dimension door spell to escape the fight and heal up doesn't help.

From a mechanical standpoint, we don't often ask you to remember specific details from turn to turn, but Mammy provides a rare exception. Though you may not remember if you tried to recharge that Lightning Bolt spell last turn, we're pretty sure you'll remember whether or not the gracious Ms. Graul has already escaped your best efforts.

Of course, Mammy's going to want some help, and not just from some puny skeletons; luckily, there are plenty of Graul Ogrekin to go around. In fact, there are so many Graul Ogrekin that we didn't think a single static card would do them justice.

When you're bred (and re-bred, and re-re-bred) from fine stock like most ogrekin, you're bound to see a few… changes… pop up here and there. You never know exactly what to expect from a Graul Ogrekin. Some have especially thick skin, while others have massive, oversized arms. A few have an extra head or even a vestigial twin keeping an extra 1d3 eyes out for trouble. One thing is pretty common to the Graul Ogrekin, though—they live in small groups, so when you've beaten one, there might still be another cousin, nephew, or really ugly relative waiting just around the corner.

Next up in our giantkin parade, let's look at the current occupants of Fort Rannick itself, the Kreeg Ogres. In case the ogrekin you've already seen weren't big enough, "Pappy" Jaagrath Kreeg has brought you some new friends to play with.

Combining all the fun of a whirling barbarian with the sheer entertainment value of an ogre (and showing off our basic ogre power, the ability to hurt everyone at its location), Jaagrath also has a special hate-hate relationship with humans. He's not so bad to start, but once his rage kicks in you might need to dig deep for that Combat 23 check, especially since you might have already lost a card from your hand.

Lest you think Hook Mountain Massacre is just about simple giantkin doing what simple giantkin do, there are always a few subtler opponents moving around behind the scenes. Given that the Graul Ogrekin and the Kreeg Ogres have been held at bay for decades by the work of the Black Arrows—and the on-again, off-again Kreeg-Graul feud—you might wonder why things have suddenly changed.

If you ever find yourself lacking for temptation with just a touch of silver-tongued treachery, look no further than the friendly local lamia matriarch. These shapechangers are known for their malice as well as for their spellcasting prowess. Lucrecia's presence definitely suggests something more than ogres run amok.

Good News from the Front

Luckily, it's not all bad news on Hook Mountain (heh). In addition to the new playmates, there's also some potent new help on offer, including members of the Order of Black Arrows themselves.

Jakardros is a grizzled veteran of the Black Arrows, and with his help, anyone can have a little ranger-flavored assistance. Whether you're trying to make your Ezren more of a team player, or just trying to make Harsk win all the battles from the next location over, Jakardros can lend a bow. He's lived in Fort Rannick long enough to learn to hate giants of all types, a talent that I promise will not go to waste. For those of you who enjoy the story of the Adventure Path, Jakardros has a not-so-public relationship with someone you have probably already met… someone who might even be with your party at this point.

While rangers are all very well and good, we all know that if you want a job done right, you do it yourself, with magic. If that's more your speed, I have a little something for you.

This one works for both kinds of spellcasters, Country and Western... I mean Arcane and Divine. Swipe's versatility doesn't stop there, oh no! It can be used to help out a comrade in a fight, to put up a decent fight of your own, or to seal the deal on that nice weapon, armor, or item that you just happened across. That's plenty of potency for our part-time finger-wagglers who might have spent some attention on other shiny things (looking at you, Lem!), while still rewarding the dedicated magic-is-my-life spellslingers. It's a great way to make your blaster a little more party friendly, or to pick up that Vicious Trident +1 for your friendly bear.

Finally, just to reinforce the idea that every cloud can have a silver lining, and anything with a silver lining can be stripped for parts and sold, I bring you a blessing from the God of Greed:

Sure, Norgorber has a dark side—or 3, or 4—but who's counting? You know who likes acquiring boons? You do. And everyone else does, too. When you break out the PACG and play over the holiday, this card will help you get that gift that you really wanted.

That's it for The Hook Mountain Massacre. I hope you enjoyed reading about it, and I hope that you enjoy playing it! Thanks again!

Chad Brown
Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Developer

Quest Cards

Sunday, December 22, 2013

The relatively new Campaign Cards sets from the Pathfinder Cards line include quest cards, which tie directly into the corresponding adventure. So far we've seen Pathfinder Cards: The Dragon's Demand Campaign Cards, which tied in to Pathfinder Module: The Dragon's Demand, and Pathfinder Cards: Wardens of the Reborn Forge Campaign Cards to complement Wardens of the Reborn Forge. We're also going to have sets for the upcoming RPG Superstar module Tears at Bitter Manor, and the hardcovers super dungeon The Emerald Spire!

But if you haven't used the Campaign Cards before, you might be unfamiliar with how the quests and quest cards work. Well, the quests are built to provide more XP to PCs and give them clear goals they can choose to pursue (or not), and they appear in several places in the text.

First off, each module has a list of quests at the start of the book. Let's take a look at an example from Wardens of the Reborn Forge! I've trimmed out some of the text so you won't get spoiled on the adventure's plot, but rest assure the quest list contains all the salient details for the GM.

3. Sabotage!: Acquired: Adventure's start. Quest: Uncover [REDACTED]'s role in sabotaging the Brass Guardians in areas [REDACTED]. Reward: 51,200 XP.

This entry shows when the PCs acquire the quest in the adventure, what they need to do to complete it, and the reward they earn. Often, this reward includes items or gold in addition to an XP story award. The "acquired" entry also shows when the PCs get the corresponding quest card from the Campaign Cards set. Of course, you can have them write it down or make your own cards, but the cards are probably going to look a little cooler than your index card.

Illustration by Matthew Starbuck

The players hold on to this card, which conveniently summarizes the quest's requirements—without spoilers—until they complete it. Each card is fully illustrated and has a summary, but includes none of the reward information the GM knows (though some quests involve an NPC revealing the amount of the reward up front and that sort of thing). The back has plenty of space for taking notes, with a wider note box than you'd see on an item or face card.

The final part of the quest is the story award for completing it. This appears in the section where the PCs get the information they're looking for, defeat the enemy they've been tasked with taking down, or the like. For instance, here's one tied to the quest above. The text appears in the adventure location that's cut out of the quest text above.

Story Award: If the PCs uncover [REDACTED]'s role in the reprogramming of Alkenstar's Brass Guardians, award them 51,200 XP.

And that wraps up the quest! The selection of quests can include both long-reaching quests that take pretty much the entire adventure to complete, or ones that can be acquired and completed within the span of one session. Hope you enjoyed this rundown of how these cards work, and may you complete all your quests!

Logan Bonner
Developer

And a Joyous Crystalhue to All!

Saturday, December 21, 2013

On the shortest day of the year in Golarion, goodly folk celebrate Crystalhue with small gifts and rainbow imagery in honor of Shelyn. So to celebrate not only Crystalhue but also wrapping up work on Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Gods, I’ve made a small present for you all—Shelyn’s symbol charted up for needlepoint and also as a mittens pattern! Enjoy, and please share images if you try it out!

Download the Shelyn Knitting Patterns — (109kb zip/PDF)

Judy Bauer
Editor

Pathfinder Battles Preview: Arise, Agents of Evil!

Friday, December 20, 2013

We're getting closer and closer to the mid-January release of the Wrath of the Righteous set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures, and already the agents of evil gather with sinister designs on your player characters!

Presented here are five monstrous adversaries from the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path that you'll want to add to your Abyssal armies just in time to kick off the new year!

Let's take a look!

I admit it, sometimes I put minis on the list just to see how far I can push WizKids to produce something that's never been done before, and the Will-o-Wisp here is a great example of my Loki-ish tendencies when deciding what figures to put into these sets. Here we have a very common monster of fantasy that is, essentially, a glowing ball of energy—a tall order when it comes to plastic miniatures. Our own Pathfinder Will-o-Wisp, from page 277 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, adds a bit of complexity in that it incorporates a ghostly skull visage at the center of the luminescence. Sounds impossible to make as a plastic mini. Except that it isn't. What we've done here is sculpt a skull and the light as two different pieces. The skull is off-white, whereas the nimbus of energy is done in clear plastic. Alas, this is one of those figures where the photo doesn't really do justice to the final piece, because you've got to hold it in hand to, for example, appreciate how skillfully WizKids hid the seams in the contours of the light. I've had this figure in the hallway display case at Paizo for a couple of weeks now, and folks here have been raving about it. I'm really pleased with how it turned out, and it only took a half-dozen tries! The Will-o-Wisp is a Small figure slated at the common rarity.

The Worldwound armies are not made up exclusively of demons, of course. They also throng with debased mortals who worship demons, like this malevolent fellow. The Demoniac's stats appear on page 46 of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Book of the Damned Volume 2, Lords of Chaos. The Demoniac easily doubles as any kind of knife-wielding debased cultist, making it an extremely high-utility figure above and beyond the context of the Wrath of the Righteous campaign. The Demoniac is a Medium, common figure.

When mortal humanoids find themselves exposed to profound, supernatural evil, a horrific, occult transformation can strip them of their souls and damn them to the tortured existence of a Lost Soul. Changed into a twisted, misanthropic husk, a Lost Soul wanders the endless tracts of evil-aligned planes, periodically stumbling into other realms by passing through portals or otherwise being conjured elsewhere. Possessing only fragmented memories of its former existence, the Lost Soul is driven by profound emptiness, sorrowful longing, and vengeful hatred of all life. The Lost Soul is found under a different name on page 48 of Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2. And you can adopt your very own as a Medium, common figure.

A few weeks back we revealed the Mongrel, a bizarre amalgamation of animal parts twisted into a humanoid form. Mongrels feature prominently in the first Wrath of the Righteous adventure, so we wanted to include a couple of varieties in this set. This Mongrel Huntress is slightly less mutated than her brother in this set, but (especially in hand) you can really see all of the various bits that make up her somewhat twisted form. The Mongrel Huntress is a Medium, uncommon figure.

This is the figure I was bragging about last week for really pushing the limits of the prepainted miniature format. The Dominion Invader plays an important role late in the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path where, among other activities, he is no doubt interested in collecting the brains of your unsuspecting player characters. And once he extracts them, he'll store them in the coolest feature of this figure—several clear bubbles spaced all over his body, each of which contains its very own brain! Think back to the Alchemical Golem from Shattered Star, only bigger and in far greater numbers. This thing is a joy (or perhaps a terror) to behold, and I absolutely love it. I'm certain you will, too. The Dominion Invader is an enormous Large, rare figure.

And that's it for this week! Come on back for more exciting Wrath of the Righteous previews, and have a great holiday week!

See you next Friday!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Lost in the Labyrinth

Thursday, December 19, 2013

This month's volume of the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path comes from the mighty Wolfgang Baur! Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth pits the heroes of Kenabres against more demonic forces as they journey once again into the Abyss. This time the PCs take the fight against Baphomet's cultists to their front door as they siege the Ivory Labyrinth to rescue the herald of Iomedae. At this point in the Adventure Path, the PCs are going to the highest level that we've ever had in a volume of the Pathfinder Adventure Path, and this adventure shows it with its encounters. If you're playing in this campaign, good luck. If you're running this campaign, keep your hyena-like laughter to a minimum—that's just rubbing salt in the wound. I'll leave you with a few pieces of art to whet your appetite until you can get your hands on Pathfinder #77: Herald of the Ivory Labyrinth!

Illustrations by Roberto Pitturru, and Maichol Quinto

Adam Daigle
Developer

The Fury of the North

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

Illustration by Michal Ivan

Due to the holiday madness, your regularly scheduled web fiction—Chris Willrich's adventures of Gideon the bard, star of The Dagger of Trust—has been postponed for two weeks, but I couldn't pass up the chance to talk about Pathfinder Tales. Specifically, I want to show off the cover art for Wendy N. Wagner's book Skinwalkers, which comes out in late February.

We've had a lot of great covers over the years, but I won't lie: Michal Ivan knocked this one out of the park, and created hands-down my favorite cover Pathfinder Tales has ever had. His vision of Jendara is one of the most badass heroines I've ever seen, from the messy braid all the way down to the skull and crossbones tattoos on the backs of her hands. Yet at the same time, she also looks realistic—there's no over-the-top comic book superhero here, just a pissed-off Viking mother ready to show a raider why you do not mess with the people of the Ironbound Archipelago. Similarly, the cold, forbidding beauty of the mountains and longships in the background perfectly matches my vision of the Lands of the Linnorm Kings.

Of course, if you want to know why Jendara's kicking ass in the frozen north, you can preorder Skinwalkers today!

James L. Sutter
Fiction Editor/Senior Editor

RPG Superstar 2014: Week 1 Advice

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Hello and welcome again to RPG Superstar 2014! I'm Sean K Reynolds, host of this year's RPG Superstar competition, designer at Paizo, and a judge for the previous four RPG Superstar competitions.

So far after a full week since the Round 1 submission period started, we have about 200 wondrous items in the hopper, which is about on par for previous years. Given that we usually have a surge of entries at the start and end of the Round 1 open call, I expect we'll have about as many wondrous items this year as we did last year. Here's some quick advice for everyone who hasn't submitted an item yet.

1. When I was an RPG Superstar judge, I wrote a series of long posts about "design traps" you should avoid when designing your wondrous item submission. Although I'm not a judge this year, the public voters and the official judges are aware of these "traps," so I suggest you read about each of them.
2. Remember to use the standard magic item stat block format presented in the Pathfinder RPG Core Rulebook. The submission tool uses the message board interface, so you can use [b][/b] for bold and [i][/i] for italics. The Round 1 rules actually include a properly-formatted magic item stat block template—you can save yourself a lot of work by copying it to your favorite word processing program, writing your item into template, and (when you're 100% ready to submit it) paste it into the submission form. Just remember to hit the Preview button to see how it looks, and only hit Submit Post when you're sure it looks right!
3. Don't let your inexperience talk you out of submitting an item. We've had people as young as age 9 make it into the Top 32, and people who've never played Pathfinder before. Give it a shot!

Also, last year, about 5% of the items submitted to the competition were by women (based on the gender info the author provided in the Paizo.com message board profiles). I'd really like to see that number go WAY up! RPG gaming has been a male-dominated hobby for a long time, but in my 18 years in the game industry I've seen a steady increase in the number of lady gamers. If you are female, or know any ladies in or outside your gaming group, please encourage them to create a wondrous item and submit it to RPG Superstar this year. Of course, feel free to encourage any gamers you know to write something for the competition, too!

Remember, the deadline to submit your item is January 1, 2014 at 2 PM Pacific time! Open voting for all Round 1 items begins immediately after the submission deadline.

Thanks, and good luck!

Sean K Reynolds
Designer, RPG Superstar Host & Former Judge

Playtest Closing Thoughts

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Has it really been four weeks already? The playtest of the new classes set to debut in the Advanced Class Guide is drawing to a close. Today at 5:00 PM Pacific time, the boards and surveys will be closed, marking the end of one of our more successful playtests. It's been a wild ride for us here on the design team and the classes have seen marked improvement from their initial designs. For that, we have you to thank.

Playtests of this nature are a tricky process to manage. There are disagreements, heated discussions, wildly varying design philosophies, and threads that seem to go on for countless pages. Through it all, we have endeavored to read and respond as much as our time would allow, while still putting time in on the classes themselves to improve them and clarify their abilities. We released a second version of the classes just last week, to show off some of our progress, but we are not done yet. The work will now continue in house as we dial in our final changes to make these classes a great addition to your game. It's a lot of work, but it is well worth the effort.

This will be our final update on this book until its release this coming August. Expect to see a number of previews, showing off some of the final designs, as we approach that date. For those of you playing these classes in Pathfinder Society games, continue to use the second playtest versions of the classes until the book is released. For the rest of you, I can honestly say that we are excited to show off our final work on these classes and I am sure that most of you will be happy with the results. As an side note, I will be posting up a thread in the Pathfinder general discussion forum for folks to give us feedback on the playtest process itself, so that we can continue to improve our playtest process. Look for that thread after the playtest has closed.

Finally, I want to remind all of you to update your survey results right now! The surveys come down today at 5:00 PM Pacific time as well, and we want to make sure that we get your opinions on the revised versions of the classes. You can find the surveys right here.

So, in closing, the design team would like to off up our thanks for all of your hard work on this playtest. Although we are now mentally exhausted and ready for a nap, we greatly appreciate you putting us through our paces on these designs. I think you will find that all of the long hours reading PDFs and playtest boards will have paid off. The Advanced Class Guide is shaping up to be an awesome addition to the Pathfinder game.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Digging Deep, Branching Out

Monday, December 16, 2013

Illustration by Jon Hodgson

Part of what initially attracted me to Pathfinder Society Organized Play was the archaeological background, which resonated with my academic training and love of traveling abroad. Playing scenarios that explored ancient structures, visited dig sites, or required the PCs to understand a foreign culture made me really get what the Pathfinder Society was all about, so when I began writing support material as a volunteer—in particular the convention boons for Season 4—I made sure to highlight some of the archaeological feel in boons such as Expedition Manager.

Let be honest, though. Even though archaeology has an alluring mystique and can be both enjoyable and rewarding, its virtues don't always translate well in a four-hour time slot. Perhaps one day I'll develop an engaging, short challenge that features the joys of excavation and systematic discovery without boring the socks off of the players. A developer can dream!

Well, let's instead take a look at that other feature of Pathfinder Society: travel. With about 40 countries in the Inner Sea region alone, there's a lot to take in and explore—and only so many scenarios each season to see it all. Ever since Season 3, we've focused on a particular part of the world and explored it in depth. What we haven't done quite as much as a result is travel widely to less understood, less frequented locales to explore, report, and cooperate.

I'm feeling the itch to send Pathfinders to a few exciting places, and I would love to hear your feedback about what regions deserve more attention. Have you always wanted to travel to an island in the Shackles? How about a return to Jalmeray? Does Lastwall call to you? These could be places we've visited before but haven't seen for a long time, or they could be places where no PC Pathfinder has ever set foot.

John Compton
Developer

Pathfinder #12 Preview: Draconic Dining at its Best!

Saturday, December 14, 2013

Black Fang is back for this week's release of Pathfinder #12, and now adventurer is on the menu! Will the black dragon gorge on sweet, sweet player characters? Or will the Pathfinders inflict some mythic-tier indigestion?

Subscribers to Pathfinder comics through paizo.com receive a 20% discount off the cover price, 15% off back and special issues, a special subscriber tag for the paizo.com messageboards, and a limited-edition collectible paizo.com exclusive cover for each issue.

Tech-saavy goblin fans can also pick up their digital copies of Pathfinder Goblins! at comixology.com!

Jenny Bendel
Marketing Director

Pathfinder Battles Preview: Did I Mention There Are Demons?

Friday, December 13, 2013

We're about a month away from the official January release date of the Wrath of the Righteous set of 55 prepainted Pathfinder Battles miniatures, and I've got to tell you—I am starting to get seriously psyched. This week WizKids stopped by the Paizo offices to deliver the first brick of sealed boosters for the Wrath of the Righteous set, and I'm happy to say that the quality on the final figures is phenomenal.

Although we love all of our children equally, it's fair to say that there were some paint deco struggles on the last set, Legends of Golarion. Reports of questionable paint jobs on that set started coming through just as this one was going into production, and we were able to take some steps to prevent some of the issues that crept in last time. Most significantly, we've simplified the paint masters, often in extremely subtle ways, to make it easier for the factory to apply the paint in the time allotted. Wrath of the Righteous features less complex color blends, more judicious use of inks, and less fetishism for painting every single buckle on every single figure. While it might seem like that's a step backward, in practice the final figures are less sloppy and much better executed. I think everyone will really appreciate the new approach.

These photos, and indeed all of the photos we've shown for this set so far, are under the new paradigm, so if you like what you've been seeing here, chances are very, very high that you'll love the final production figures.

By the way, did you know that this set includes a very large number of demons? We've already previewed several, but this week I wanted to reveal five more. Here we go!

Known as “wrecker demons,” Abrikandilu Demons delight in destroying beauty, be it the rending of a fine painting to shreds, reducing a magnificent statue to rubble, or scarring a lovely face. This fine gentleman here is depicted defacing a beautiful book (the Core Rulebook, perhaps?). Abrikandilus are formed from the tortured souls of vandals and mortals who destroyed beauty out of jealousy. They often serve as ground troops in Abyssal armies, and appear somewhat frequently in the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path. The Abrikandilu Demon is a Medium figure slated at the common rarity. Its statistics can be found on page 42 of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Worldwound.

The vile Invidiaks dwell in the deepest shadows, always looking for mortals to possess. The incorporeal creatures thrive in darkness, blending perfectly into their shadowy surroundings to spring shuddering surprises on their prey. Molded in clear plastic shaded in dark tones, this Medium figure is slated at the common rarity. Its statistics can be found on page 67 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary.

Legends of Golarion already gave us the Greater Death Demon, one of the most beloved figures in that set. Now we present the lesser version, simply called the Death Demon. I don't know what else to say about this figure other than that I love it like a child. It makes the perfect companion to its cousin. The Death Demon is a (somewhat large) Medium creature, and is slated at the uncommon rarity. It appears under a different name on page 64 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary.

Faxon here isn't technically a demon, but there's no question that he has demons roosting somewhere in his family tree. This tiefling witch plays an important role in the very first Wrath of the Righteous adventure, The Worldwound Incursion. He's got an amazing sculpt, and though you can't see it on the paint master photograph, he's also got a cool demonic sigil on his chest. Faxon is a Medium figure slated at the rare rarity.

Last up today is one of the most important villains of the entire campaign, the mighty fire demon Khorramzadeh! The leader of the Worldwound armies and the most powerful of the true demons that serve the demon lord Deskari, Khorramzadeh the Storm King rules over the ruins of the city of Iz, at the heart of the Worldwound. I know some of you will be saying “But Erik, there was already a fire demon in Legends of Golarion!” True, says I, but this one is even BIGGER and even AWESOMER. And I hate to tell your player characters, but you're going to need several fire demons to pull off the campaign appropriately. As befitting his status, this quite Large figure is slated at the rare rarity.

PHEW! That's mostly it for demons in this set, though there are a few more yet to be revealed. What else is coming up? More good guys, more disgusting monsters, and the figure that gets my vote for the coolest mini we've done so far, a creature whose audacity as a sculpt rivals the Shattered Star's Clockwork Reliquary. I get shudders just thinking about how great it is. Soon you too will behold it in all its glory.

Just not quite yet.

Until next week, I remain…

Erik Mona
Publisher

Campaign Cards of the Reborn Forge

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Since Golarion is mostly a fantasy world, it's not every day that Paizo brings in new treats for the gear-and-steam set. If you're looking for something a little more scientific, a little more modern, and a little more sooty and gritty, look no further than Pathfinder Cards: Wardens of the Reborn Forge Campaign Cards! Though this set is made specifically to go with Pathfinder Module: Wardens of the Reborn Forge, it's plenty useful for anyone who wants to run a steampunk-themed or Western-themed game. We'd love it if everything took place around Alkenstar—and hey, the module has a write-up of the city to help you out—but we won't judge if you send your Pathfinders off to Victorian England or the Wild West! (If you send them to the Wild Wild West, we might judge you a little bit. But only a little bit.)

The folks featured on the set's 23 face cards in the set range from the fancy elites of Alkenstar to the dusty workers well suited to an industrial location. We see a couple of their cards down below, and there's a little bit of Clint Eastwood in... well, both of them really! Like the rest of our face cards, these have names and short descriptions on the back, plus plenty of space for writing notes.

Illustrations by Jon Neimeister and Daniel Warren

The 16 item cards from the set include three different firearms, like the sword cane pistol shown below. The magical bombard isn't a cannon per se, but we won't tell the people it blows up if you don't!

Illustrations by Tim Kings-Lynne

Rounding out the rest of the set are the 15 quest cards tied specifically to the events of the module. So whether you're snagging these Campaign Cards to make running that adventure more vibrant or to bring some steam into your own campaign, the Wardens of the Reborn Forge Campaign Cards will treat you right!

Logan Bonner
Developer

The Dagger of Trust Sample Chapter

by Chris Willrich

In The Dagger of Trust, Chris Willrich introduces us to Gideon Gull, an Andoren musician training at one of Taldor's greatest bardic colleges—and not just as an artist. For in the secret halls beneath the school, Gideon studies to become a Lion Blade, one of Taldor's elite espionage agents. When a mysterious fog starts turning ordinary men and women into rabid monsters, it's up to Gideon and a team of his friends to stop the chaos. But in the murky world of international politics, there's always more at stake than just a few lives...

Chapter Two: Chamber Music for Three Assassins

Taking leave of the headmaster, Gideon raced into the building upon whose roof he'd greeted the day. Footfalls echoed through halls of dwarf-cut stone from the World's Edge Mountains and timber from the grim druids of the Verduran Forest.

Even corridor acoustics concerned the Rhapsodic College.

Weaving and dodging, Gideon passed classrooms, recital halls, dance studios, practice rooms, and the big performance hall, until he reached twin oaken doors carved with musical notes.

The smells of paper, leather, vellum, and papyrus greeted his nose. A gruff "Howzit, Mister Gull?" from the gnome librarian greeted his ears. Wintry light glowed through stained-glass windows depicting the rainbow-tailed bird of the goddess Shelyn and the purple butterfly of the goddess Desna, two powers particularly admired by bards. In their light, bookshelves stretched all around him.

"Need work, Mister Gull?" The librarian's skin was as dark as the oiled wood of his desk, and his gray hair had highlights that matched the colors of the windows. "They say a ship's in port all the way from Vudra. Might have some new sitar tunes."

While the library couldn't match the rival Kitharodian Academy's collection for size and depth, the gnome was fanatical about competing in breadth. Students could make money scouting docks, gates, and markets on the librarian's behalf, hunting for anyone with a new scrap of music. When busking went dry, Gideon often worked for the librarian, expanding his own repertoire in the bargain.

Gideon is a man of many talents, only some of which are musical.

"Not today, Master Spindlegrim. Late for...studying."

"It's winter exams, boy!" As one of the oldest students in the college, Gideon only had to endure the term boy from this ancient gnome; he didn't begrudge it. "You're a little late indeed!"

"Don't I know it!" Gideon retreated into the stacks. He was never sure if Spindlegrim was in on the secret of the Shadow School or not, but in any case Gideon couldn't give the game away.

A dark turn in one corner led to Antique Musicology, a dusty, mazelike nook. The ancient music discussed here preceded all notation, and its true sound could only be guessed at, never recorded with certainty. Most students were too practical-minded to venture here.

If they did—if they slipped around the absurdly narrow last turn and peered through the shadows at the farthest books—they might find a low, slim, volume titled Toward an Ethnomusicology of the Serpentfolk, with letters of onyx embossed on black. It took squinting to find it, and it appeared jammed between its bulkier neighbors.

But if you were a truly determined seeker, seizing knowledge in both hands, you could slide the book out...and in so doing discover it was no book at all, but a slab of stone.

Pulling it further, you'd trigger two silent mechanisms, one shifting the stacks to cut off this alcove, the other sliding the final shelf just a fraction, revealing a dark passageway. If bold enough, you might slip into that tunnel before the shelves slid closed again.

Now trapped in total darkness, you'd have no choice but to descend steep stairs to a landing where magical light suddenly sprang to life. When your eyes at last adjusted, you might notice the murder holes surrounding you, through which guardians might jab poisoned spears if they didn't like what stood revealed in the light.

But if you were Gideon Gull, you said, "The crab catch is catastrophic in Korvosa," giving the passphrase of the week. "And hurry, I'm late."

Someone grunted and cranked a lever. A stone wall carved with notation from a requiem groaned aside and revealed the Shadow School.

It was not the only Shadow School, of course. Everyone knew there were others. It was guessed, but never admitted, that there was another beneath the rival Kitharodian Academy. Gideon suspected there were more, and there was even a rumor of one under Cassomir. The mastermind of the Lion Blades obviously liked both secrecy and redundancy. He also liked keeping his recruits on their feet.

Gideon moved as fast as he could without alarming the hooded guards that stood at attention like pieces of architecture. He passed quickly through a labyrinth of drab corridors whose only ornaments were slogans spelled out with magical glowing stones.

Speech is a sword, said one group of red stones, while Silence is a shield, answered another batch in blue. Around the bend, purple stones announced the silent pun No thieves aloud. Beyond another turn was a kind of mandala composed of green stones spelling out repetitions of Illusion Reality Illusion Reality in an ever-tightening spiral. Students argued as to what the innermost, tiniest message actually said. (Made You Look was Gideon's favorite guess.)

Gideon panted up to one particular slogan, Here lies truth. Gideon caught his breath and pressed the letter s. Stone rumbled.

His first time in the Shadow School had also been his first hazing, of sorts. Students were set loose alone into the maze, which apparently had no particular rhyme or reason, let alone classrooms.

Eventually he'd guessed that the slogans marked concealed doors. Gideon's first class had been behind Silence is a shield, where he'd met the other members of his cell. The instructor there, the Mistress of Lies and Memory, had claimed the particular slogan you first triggered said a lot about you, and determined which students you trained with. What exactly it said in their case, the Mistress never explained.

The concealed door marked by Here lies truth shifted inward, revealing the shape of a tombstone, then slid sideways. Gideon stepped through, and the tombstone rumbled back into place.

He stood within a vast chamber that at first glance appeared mobbed. The magical illumination was silvery as moonlight. As his eyes adapted, he recognized the crowd as fake. Mannequins, statues, straw men, and potato sacks, all wrapped in clothing, filled this arena. Facades like those Sebastian had spoken of created civic scenes. This time, judging by the sharply pointed buildings and the jagged symbols of devils and diabolism, Gideon was supposed to be in Cheliax.

The decor made the locale's nickname all the more apt. Although officially termed the Simulation Gymnasium, students called it the Scar Chamber.

"You're late, Gull."

Above, on the Rhapsodic campus, students were "mister" and "mistress." Down below, you were meat.

"As such, the simulation will incorporate your delay." If tones could cut like knives, this one was a surgeon's blade for that meat.

"Yes, ma'am."

"You're a Lion Blade on assignment in Cheliax, and you've stolen war plans from the desk of Queen Abrogail herself. Her armies mass on Andoran's borders, threatening to destroy Taldor's buffer with Cheliax—and, incidentally, your own native land."

"Yes, ma'am."

His instructor stepped forward into the faux moonlight. She was a short, compact woman with cropped gray hair, wearing a severe black tunic and goggles with lenses of dark crystal. Two dueling scars sliced her impassive face like a chart of the Porthmos and Sellen Rivers, with the curve of her left eye the coast, the Porthmos slashing east on one side of the eye, the Sellen slicing north on the other. She passed Gideon a scroll, sealed with a red, waxen mark that rivaled a sea-urchin for sheer number of pointy bits. "Find your contact and hand over these plans. Escape by locating a spot marked Exit in the language of devils. The word will be incongruous, but inconspicuous."

"How...how will I know my contact?"

"He—or she—is wearing a hat marked with the azure coin of the archdevil Mammon of the Third Layer, Hell's treasurer. Move quickly. Your colleagues Ozrif and Viridia are playing treacherous Lion Blades in the queen's service. Their job is to ‘kill' you. I will unleash them sooner, because you were late. Now inspire yourself!"

With that, the Mistress faded into shadows.

A low growl, nearly inaudible, filled his throat. The vibration's sound and sensation triggered a series of memories: hours spent beside the Mistress of Lies and Memory in a darkened chamber, surrounded by anonymous Lion Blades in leonine masks, all growling and chanting about him.

You are loved, brother!
You will triumph!
Your claws will tear the foe!
Your fangs will rip the enemy!
You will taste the blood of victory!
We are always with you, brother!
No force in the world can stop you!

And so on, in this enthusiastically bloody vein. On one level it was silly. Yet the sensation of trust and support had been powerful. Daily repetitions of the ritual had clawed the feeling deep into his brain, so that now if he merely rattled a soft, wordless echo of the chant, it was as if every Lion Blade stood beside him, urging him on.

Now he stepped into the crowded moonlight. The crowd wasn't moving, of course, but the Mistress would be watching, her magical eyewear bestowing perfect vision in the dark, so he had to behave as though it were. Gideon slipped into the frozen bustle and wove through it.

He couldn't tell where she was—perhaps due to some magical effect—but the Mistress's voice echoed through the chamber, goading and encouraging.

"The structures around you aren't lifeless, Gull! Crowd and city aren't just random flotsam! They're embodiments of what we glibly call ‘society.' They box in your body. Just as rules, strictures, and customs box in your brain."

As a child in Andoran, Gideon had gotten used to teachers who ordered him to sit still while they lectured. He'd never have dreamed of an instructor like the Mistress, who shouted maxims like some Ulfen wrestling coach.

"You can bypass these obstacles. Your body knows how. It's hungry to evade, to twist, to leap. Let it!"

Something in Gideon quickened at these words, as though every muscle he possessed yearned for the challenge of a city and the need to traverse it. He encountered a cart hitched to a wooden horse; he jumped smoothly over the singletree.

"Most people shamble endlessly through their days, as unmindful as constructs or walking corpses. You can be free!"

The faux horse was triggered to kick; Gideon spotted the danger and rolled away, getting himself around a corner.

A sound rose magically in the chamber, that of a multitude upon a busy street.

The Mistress's voice rose above the hubbub. "Remember, city dwellers have a mental shorthand. Class, gender, race, objective—all are surmised at a glance, below the level of true awareness. That shorthand is your friend. Step lightly, and leave no trace in the pliant mud of the mind."

Gideon hustled, searching everywhere for his contact. How long till his hunters found him?

"But not everything can be average or ambiguous. You can't help but present a gender and a class. Viridia! Your gender invites danger and opportunity. There are shadowed streets a prudent woman won't walk alone, yet also social occasions where only a woman blends in."

At Viridia's name, Gideon immediately ducked close to the facade of a building and removed his boots. This would call attention to him, and in daylight would be a critical error. But in this moonlight, it might not matter. He pulled off the boots and tangled the laces in his hand, so that he would have a pathetic little club, if need be.

"Class is more subtle," the Mistress said. "Its power varies by nation, city, and district. Here in Taldor, take special note of what stratum you're emulating—especially you, Gideon."

Now, as if people pulled off their shoes for no reason every Moonday night, Gideon returned to the crowd. His footfalls would be quieter now.

"In Katapesh, everything's for sale—including, potentially, you. Be suspicious, and in that way you'll be acting like everyone else. An innocent is a mark, or an idiot, or has something up his sleeve. I don't fear for you in this, Ozrif, though beware of sentimentality should you return."

A dummy moved, attempting to block him.

Gideon had expected this, though not so soon. Many of the figures were mounted on movable panels, responding to pressure plates or cranks operated by unseen staff. Some of the figures were even magically self-animated.

Gideon dodged.

"In Andoran, swagger—but not you, Gideon—to the point of insulting your betters. For the point is that an Andoren has no betters. Walk down every street as if you own it. For after all, you do."

Now he heard footfalls elsewhere in the Scar Chamber, though he couldn't tell where.

"It's best to think of wondrous Absalom not as one city, but many. Its variety is such that it's always easy to blend in to a degree. But each district has its special customs, and you'll have to learn them to operate with real success."

Glints of red and gold, emerald and turquoise lay on many of the dummies' hats or arms or necks. Gideon's eyes shifted back and forth, hunting for the blue coin of the archdevil Mammon.

"In Cheliax, tell yourself you're smarter than anyone else, and the appropriate sneer will develop. Learn the diabolic deferences, but remember that Cheliax respects devils without worshiping them. And never forget your common humanity with the Chelaxians. They'll surprise you with little kindnesses toward their foes, even amid the business of backstabbing their friends."

At last Gideon glimpsed an azure disc across an alley. He ducked low and veered between the building facades.

A mistake. A foot jabbed from behind a mannequin and tripped Gideon. He fell, rolled, and was up immediately, kicking at a dark shape that skittered backward. Such was Ozrif's style.

The juggler from Katapesh had grown up on mean streets, performing but also stealing, evading grown-up thieves and slavers and worse. Gideon's own street experience—mainly lying insensible in them—could not compare.

Remembering the lay of the crowd, Gideon gambled and danced backward between dummies. When he'd gotten a sufficient distance he threw his shoes to a point beyond where Ozrif must be.

Before the shoes had even hit the floor, Gideon was off through the forest of mannequins, circling the block to bypass the alley.

He reached his contact, an unusually realistic mannequin wearing a cap adorned with a devil-faced blue coin. Gideon stuffed the small scroll under the cap and ran, hoping neither Ozrif nor Viridia had seen. Now his job was to run.

He rounded a corner and met Viridia's knife.

The rough-and-tumble frontierswoman from Stavian's Hold had good hearing, and now that Gideon was taking risks with speed, she was quick to find him. She jabbed and swung like someone who'd grown up with a blade in her hand.

"Die, enemy of the queen!"

"She's a rebel!" Gideon pointed, knowing the Mistress would be imagining a crowd's response. "An Andoren trying to undermine the regime!"

"I'm a loyal servant of Cheliax!"

"Oh, yeah? Name all of the eight archdevils below Asmodeus!"

Viridia spat. "Creepy, Snarly, Greedy, Nasty, Farty, Crazy, Chilly, and Scum! Who the hell cares?"

When you first looked at Viridia, you thought you were looking at a weathered, strong-minded, dark-haired young woman with the plain-spoken wisdom of the eastern frontier. It was only after hearing her snorting bark of laughter, after watching her swill hard liquor with a burp or listening to her haggling at the market, that you realized either your idea of the solemn dignity of the plains was utterly quaint, or that Viridia was unique. Perhaps both.

Gideon leapt onto a facade's balcony. With Viridia swearing beneath him, Gideon jumped to the balcony of a neighboring facade and, with one quick scan for the word Exit, leapt back to the street.

He'd glimpsed a golden word...

Somewhere out there, the Mistress said, "Remember! Whenever you speak in the field, you play a role! When you're silent, only then will you be yourself."

"It's well you should know the names of devils," said a different voice, "for you'll be meeting them soon."

He whirled and ducked beneath Ozrif's spinning kick.

Ozrif's light brown skin, black hair, and almond eyes revealed his Keleshite heritage; and in a nation still remembering a withering war against a Keleshite land, this forever marked him as suspicious. Gideon sometimes wondered if Ozrif's bardic specialty deliberately deflected that suspicion. For a juggler is necessarily apart from his audience, the center of a whirling, transfixing phenomenon—if all goes well, anyway. It's only if one drops the ball that the spell is broken. It helped that Ozrif was also a bit of a comedian.

Oops! Gideon had once heard Ozrif say. Well, every moon must descend. Parents, thank you, and remember I have magic powers to cure your children of childish traits. Za zim zab! There, bring them back in thirty years and we'll see how that worked. Unattended money attracts thieves; save yourselves from such a fate by means of my handy cup!

Ozrif had no juggling clubs or quips today, but his limber punches and kicks testified to his quick reflexes and wit.

Viridia reappeared, flanking Gideon. She jabbed him in the arm. Gideon's old friend Pain rattled the bell of his mind. Ozrif and Viridia were indeed the perfect couple, if you needed someone hunted down.

Spellcasting was unwise under these conditions. But then again, anything was unwise under these conditions.

He wished he'd retained his spell to fascinate a crowd, but you played the instruments you had. He recalled one spell he didn't associate with any particular music, but rather with the random, perplexing, fascinating racket of an orchestra tuning up.

Waving his hands, he intoned syllables that would implant perplexity.

It probably shouldn't have worked, but it did. Ozrif froze. He began babbling what might have been a Keleshite nursery rhyme.

Gideon rolled away from Viridia, noticing that the straw mannequin nearest him, done up as a Chelish Hellknight with cloth for armor, was bound together with twine.

Humming the tune of "Haul Away for Arcadia," he rose beside the dummy. Viridia advanced within a foot of the Hellknight. The shanty opened a hatch in Gideon's mind, and out popped the arcane formulae and gestures for a spell.

The twine unraveled and engulfed Viridia.

As she shouted "Cheat!" and Ozrif's addled brain set the juggler to punching himself, Gideon reached the shadowy spot where he'd glimpsed the word Exit.

He heard the Mistresses' voice again, now from a new direction. "Remember, you're a paradox, for Taldor is flamboyant even in its secrets. Who but Taldor would recruit performers to become its corps of spies?"

He spotted a glint of gold.

The Mistress had never said Exit would appear on a structure.

He ran toward the voice.

"Only Taldor so smoothly blends guile and show," the Mistress said. "Hello, Gull."

"Hello, Exit." The word glittered, golden letters strung upon a necklace.

"Well played," said the shadowy shape wearing it. "But you must tag me to escape."

Gideon circled. "What does this represent in the scenario?"

"The unexpected. No plan survives contact with reality." She moved gracefully, shifting with him. "So sometimes our simulations simply cheat."

Gideon lunged. She shifted aside easily.

Behind him he heard the footfalls of Ozrif and Viridia. Gideon's spells had worn off or been overcome.

All he had to do was tag the Mistress of Stillness and Motion. But she could see in the dark and he couldn't.

Ozrif was upon him then, attempting a flying tackle. Gideon dodged, rolled, rose—and realized what he needed to do. As Ozrif got to his feet, Gideon treated the Mistress as a pillar, an obstacle, and she seemed not to object, so long as he wasn't trying to touch her. He kept his distance, so as to goad Ozrif into another leap.

Now—

Instead of evading, Gideon threw himself into the brunt of Ozrif's tackle. He'd positioned things so that the momentum threw him against the Mistress. Tag.

But even as he knew his gambit would succeed, his ears brought him the sound of Viridia's drawling incantation, the voice swiftly shifting location, for Viridia usually danced as she cast. He recognized it as her sleeping spell...

He awoke to the Mistress of Stillness and Motion splashing water on his face.

"Wake up. You're dead."

He was as groggy as if awakening in a gutter. His arm had the tingling sensation he always felt upon receiving magical healing.

"Twice in one day," Gideon groaned.

"All part of life." The Mistress offered him a hand and hauled him up. The lighting in the Scar Chamber now resembled bright noontime, revealing the mannequins in all their rumpled artificiality, the facades as disguised exercise platforms. "You did achieve your goal, at the cost of your death."

"It's becoming a habit." Gideon blinked at Viridia and Ozrif, who were sitting nearby, drinking some of the cold water Gideon was now wearing. Being dead was thirsty work. He took a cup from the Mistress and gulped it down. "Didn't I escape in the end?"

"You did, but with your opponents glued to you. No clean getaway."

Viridia drew a line across her throat.

"A draw," the Mistress concluded. "Class is done. I have a message for you from the headmaster, Gull. He'd like to discuss this morning's events, whenever you find it convenient." She paused. "And do be cautious, topside, all of you. Something strange is in the air."

"I appreciate the warning," Ozrif said. "I'd appreciate specifics even more."

"That's Kelish for ‘spill it,'" said Viridia, then added, "please."

The Mistress shook her head. "Just an intuition."

As they left the Scar Chamber, Ozrif said, "The longer I know the Mistress, the less I think I know her."

"She's odd," Viridia agreed, "even for this place."

"I'd listen to her, though," said Gideon.

"Well, you're odd too." Viridia turned toward a branching corridor. "See you both later?" The cell usually took different exits to the surface.

"This time let's stay together."

"You do take her warning seriously," Ozrif noted.

Gideon shrugged. "She's an honest spy, as these things go."

"Do you feel a chill?"

At first, Gideon thought Ozrif was joking, but then Viridia answered, "Yes," and Gideon's skin felt clammy too.

All sounds were muted. Usually there was a hint of footsteps elsewhere in the school, but now it was as though the trio walked alone in a long-abandoned labyrinth.

They rounded another corner.

"—what in Desna's name is that?"

Everyone stopped. Viridia pointed.

Mist crawled through the corridor. It was as though the air of some remote bog had been grasped by a divine hand and deposited here, where it had no business being. Aside from the glow of a nearby slogan—Every brain is a pickable lock—the white fog, swirling with hints of green, obliterated vision. It didn't begin gradually, as a natural fog would, but rather blurred into view a few yards ahead of the trio, and filled the hallway like a mass of cobwebs.

Perhaps it was the corridor's chill, but Gideon recalled his sessions in the Shadow School's icy dissection chamber, where exhumed corpses were sliced to show the finer points of humanoid anatomy.

No, that was not entirely true. It reminded him of something else as well. Something long ago, just out of his mind's grasp.

"This must be a prank," Viridia said. "The Night of the Pale's less than two weeks from now..."

"An expensive prank," Ozrif said. "Some sort of magic..."

"There are shapes inside," Gideon said, unable to look away.

Three long shadows of human forms stretched into the fog, as though he and his companions were backlit. Above each shadow twisted even darker images. At first Gideon thought of these as ink spills, then as octopuses, and finally as shadow plays, like those Leothric performed with certain puppets imported from Jalmeray. For now in crisp silhouette there loomed scenes from each bard's life.

Above Ozrif's shadow Gideon saw a dancing, juggling boy he was sure was Ozrif himself. The boy jumped aboard a ship and was embraced by the people there. The ship soon encountered a larger vessel, and it flew a chiaroscuro flag of a crown above a lion. Many on the smaller ship were killed, and many treasures taken from it. The ship sank into the mists.

Meanwhile over Viridia's shadow there rose a farmstead, where a girl rode a horse through the grass. There came an ornate carriage bearing the crown-and-lion banner, and the girl's parents pleaded with a robed official. In the end many bags went into the laughing tax collector's hands.

Gideon didn't want to look at his own shadow.

Above Ozrif's there was now a bazaar scene, with the boy fleeing a slave stockade where his old crewmates stood for sale; and above Viridia's were hangman's nooses, their purpose fulfilled, with the girl raging before them.

And still Gideon did not look to the third scene. He saw instead his friends' expressions, haunted, contorted in old anger and pain. But worse, they looked also toward him.

"Gideon," Viridia said, "what are we seeing? I know the girl is me, and I know enough about Ozrif's past to recognize...but I don't understand yours."

"These are scenes torn from our pasts," said Ozrif. "Grim things. Yet yours seems different, Gideon."

Now Gideon looked.

In his own shadow play, a boy wrestled with his older brother. From the little cape worn by the bigger boy, Gideon knew it was his brother Gareth. And from the smaller boy's toy sword, Gideon knew that he was looking at himself.

The idyllic scene by itself was not the cause of his dread. The Singing Knight had fought the Opera Ghost many a time, sometimes with the participation of their sisters in the form of the Captive Diva, the Master Detective, and Chomper the Dinosaur. (That was Zitha, the littlest, who introduced Chomper into everything from tea parties to formal dinners; after a while it made a strange kind of sense.)

There was no diva or detective or dinosaur this time, but there was another element. Little specks flew back and forth in the air above the brothers.

"What are the dark dots?" Viridia asked.

"Bees."

"Did the bees attack you?" asked Ozrif.

"No! The bees are just bees." What mattered was not the bees but what their presence said about the time and place. "Those are the bees of Bellis."

The fog curdled and thickened near the bees, and the swarm dispersed. The boys looked up, the Singing Knight and Opera Ghost forgotten as they looked to where the fog had congealed.

"What are they looking at?" Ozrif asked.

"It," muttered Gideon.

"What?" said Viridia. "I don't see anything."

"That!" said Gideon, for it was plain as a bear on the Grand Bridge. And now it was as if he were back in time.

He unsheathed his dagger and confronted the fog.

"Gideon!" Viridia shouted, and Ozrif tried to restrain him. But he plunged forward.

The touch of the fog was like the caress of some undead lover. It sickened him, for all that he remembered it well. And within it, something touched his mind. The same presence he'd felt on the conservatory roof. Laughing.

All at once, the fog withdrew around a corner. He followed, his friends close at his heels.

When they rounded the bend, it was gone.

"What manner of monster was this?" Viridia demanded.

"Now you're leaping to conclusions," said Ozrif. "It was a trick, a spell effect..."

"I suggest," Gideon said, trying to return to the here and now, "that you two reach an exit and inform the guards. I'll see if the headmaster will speak to me early."

"You sure?" Viridia asked.

"You seem most affected—" said Ozrif.

"I'm fine." Gideon turned and walked toward the headmaster's nook of the maze, not wanting to speak further. He needed to be alone.

The past was the past. And Gareth was gone.

Gideon at last reached a wall where silver light stones spelled out the sentence If you want to know what lies ahead, learn what lies behind. He found a spot on the unmarked wall directly opposite the word behind, and pressed the stone there. A panel slid aside, and cold rock gave way to warm wood, silk curtains, and embroidered furnishings.

The headmaster had an open-door policy—if you could figure out how to open the door.

In Xeritian's office hung portraits of the sort that great men, or men who fancy themselves great, commission. Each noble or official or wealthy merchant stood in a pose of ease and power, often fondling some token of authority—a heraldic shield, a book of laws, or brass scales—as though it were a concubine.

In each picture Xeritian stood in the shadows behind the great personage, a dagger in his hand, a smirk upon his face.

There was a large chair facing a vast desk strewn with papers. Xeritian made a point of having his back to you if you entered his office. A dare, Gideon supposed, though he personally thought it theatrical.

The chair was empty, however.

"Gideon!"

Sebastian came down the hallway from the direction opposite Gideon's.

"I was hoping to catch Xeritian," the corsair said. "What are you doing here?"

"Sebastian. I'm glad to see you." Gideon explained about the fog, though something made him hold back anything about dead brothers or voices in his head.

Sebastian frowned. Entering the office, he leaned over a brass horn embedded in the desk, its cone opening onto some cavity in the wood. He blew. Gideon heard nothing.

"That should bring everyone running," Sebastian said. "They'll also send a messenger to Xeritian, wherever he might be."

"They?"

"A school like this requires many hidden staff. Will you show me where this fog manifested?"

When they reached the spot in question, Ozrif and Viridia were gone, but there were guards present, as well as the Mistress of Stillness and Motion. Sebastian conferred with her, adding, "Do you think it was the same?"

"That's supposition. But I mistrust coincidences."

"The same as what?" Gideon asked.

Sebastian took his arm. "Come with me, Gull."

They reached a guard post and ascended a switchbacking stairway in the dark. "There've been reports across Oppara of these manifestations," Sebastian said. "Even in the Senate's halls."

"An attack?"

"A strange one, if so. Only certain people perceive it. Thus we've not been able to convince the mighty. Also, no one's suffered worse than a scare, and a riling of their emotions." He paused. "You do seem upset."

"I'm fine. On the green, you mentioned a fog. Are these apparitions similar to what Corvine described?"

"Her letter was brief, but yes, I think so. She requested an investigation. I was personally inclined to wait, but given the excitement her messenger caused at the debate, I had to show her letter to the headmaster. He insisted we inform Director Rell. I did so personally, and was returning to Xeritian when I found you. Evidently the headmaster chose to do some investigating of his own."

"I'd volunteer. To go to Cassomir, I mean."

"You're eager to see Corvine."

"Well, how would you feel?"

Sebastian laughed. "That's unclear, since no one but you and she understands your relationship. You were clearly lovers once, but something happened—"

"I became a worthless drunk is what happened. Well, became one again. She's hinted we might start again. But I need to build a life that doesn't center around a bottle."

They reached the top of the stairs. Dim light seeped through the edges of a secret portal. They emerged between wine barrels into a storeroom with frosted window-slits lining the upper ceiling. A permanent illusion portrayed the squeak and scuttle of a rat infestation. Sebastian pulled down a trapdoor from the ceiling as Gideon rolled a barrel back into place, with beady, illusory eyes glaring at him all the while.

"She knows you've gone to the Rhapsodic," Sebastian said. "Does she suspect the rest?"

"I don't think so."

"Do you think she's the sort who can love a Lion Blade?"

"I think that's a premature question." Gideon paused. Unless he's asking for his own benefit. "By the way, I hope our little argument on the green didn't raise a cloud between us."

Sebastian paused on the trapdoor ladder. "That could never happen. Even if I'm a great believer in the Taldan way and you're an addled democracy-fool of Andoran."

"Thanks, I guess. It's been a long while since I voted, however."

"Do you ever want to go back?"

"I love Andoran. But we're...estranged."

"Hm."

They ascended to the owner's office of The Harp and Harpoon, a tavern and inn popular with bards and sailors, and thus a natural safe house for the Lion Blades. Sebastian hailed Tithra Sparksteel, the proprietor, who grunted invisibly from behind her stack of ledgers.

"Thought that racket was you, Tambour. By the way, that girl from The Cat and Feather came by."

"I hope you told her I'm busy."

"I almost told her I had an opening. If she's going to keep popping up, she might as well work."

"You won't, of course."

"Settle your business, man."

"My business is Taldor, madam."

Sebastian pulled a heavy book from a shelf and led Gideon to the common room. Amid the bright babble of seafaring conversation and snatches of song, Sebastian said, "I must take my leave for now. For even without these apparitions, I've a full schedule."

"You won't be investigating?"

"Not primarily. Not with the faculty already involved. I've an appointment with a ship's manifest and a mug of Bellis Mead. I'd hoped to find the headmaster here, but a school messenger's surely found him by now. My own business with him isn't urgent, and I'd best resume my duties."

"What should I do? Before all this happened the Mistress of Stillness and Motion told me the headmaster wanted to see me."

"You've made the effort. I'll vouch for you. I suggest you return to the college, prepare for exams, and let him find you." Sebastian smirked. "If he does, mention I'd like to speak to him again as well." After a pause, he said, "Do be careful out there."

"You mean the fog?"

"I mean everything."

When Gideon emerged from the tavern into the street, the air had changed. The sky, once so bright and clear, was now pale gray.

As he stepped onto the cobblestones, something swooped out of the pale sky.

Gideon dove across the street, ducking around a carriage, a trio of sailors, and a flower girl in a way that might have impressed the Mistress of Stillness and Motion. He rolled into a crouch beneath a townhouse's timber jetty, dagger out.

Swooping past the staring faces, the pigeon landed beside Gideon. A little scroll clung to its leg.

Gideon rose and bowed to the passersby. "Alas, pigeon training is never done!"

There was muttering to the effect that there ought to be laws against this sort of thing as the wayfarers moved on. Gideon removed the scroll. The pigeon looked familiar; some of Corvine's couriers returned to her, which spoke well of her treatment of animals.

Bard said to bird, "Thank you. Go free."

The pigeon fluttered into the dour sky. He opened the scroll and squinted at rows of intricate and increasingly diminutive handwriting.

Dear Gideon,
Salutations, greetings, waves! I'd have sent a seagull, Gull, but pigeons are better at this, and I need to move fast. How are you? I'm haunted by eldritch forces, but otherwise fine. No, don't be alarmed. It's not me personally, just my whole city. Maybe that doesn't reassure you. Maybe it doesn't reassure me. Anyway, the long and the short of it is, there's a mysterious, magical, fog-like effect that seems to drive people mad. We've had reports of it around town and up the Sellen. Actually one of the reports is mine! Earlier I sent a letter to our mutual friend Sebastian

"A coded message from the Qadiran Satrap, Gull?"

Gideon started, and pocketed the scroll. "Headmaster!"

Headmaster Xeritian chuckled. He was still dressed in his spattered groundskeeper's robe. "I fear you mistake me for someone else, Master Gull. I'm but a simple groundskeeper." His eyes flashed a warning.

The day grew suddenly warmer as Gideon realized his error. They stood in the middle of a busy street, and here he was loudly proclaiming the headmaster's true identity. "Of course. My mistake."

Xeritian nodded to the pocket containing the scroll. "Your blushing haste suggests not treachery, but romance. Your friend in Cassomir, then."

Gideon's face burned hotter still. He stepped closer and lowered his voice to a safe level. "The Mistress of Stillness and Motion said you wanted to see me? And you were informed about the apparition at the school?"

"Yes and yes. Walk with me."

He followed the old man through Westport, feeling increasingly agitated at Xeritian's lack of agitation.

They crossed some of the rougher streets of that rough district. Sometimes Xeritian would chuckle at this folly of humanity or that. Gideon had no sense of what the headmaster was up to. From time to time a disturbance would make Gideon ready to spring. A man came hurtling through the much-abused window of a tavern. Beside a brothel a woman in a man's clutches laughed in a shrieking, mocking way that hammered the ears. A man in a gutter gripped at Xeritian's leg and gasped, "Money for pesh?"

Gideon wanted to say, You have enough trouble without sucking up that stuff, but Xeritian passed the man a coin, to a babble of thanks from which the headmaster silently removed himself.

"You disapprove?" Xeritian asked Gideon.

"I've seen pesh carve brains like melons."

"His fate isn't my concern, and I admired his candor. A little honesty is a fine thing in this deceitful world."

"In that case: why aren't you back at the Shadow School, when something like that fog's gotten in?"

"The truth isn't going to be at the school. This is a city of a million lies, and I'm a master of liars. Sifting the lies, I may find the answers."

"If you admire honesty," Gideon wondered aloud, "doesn't it bother you, being a master of liars?"

Xeritian raised an eyebrow. "Not at all. I train them, but I have the privilege of being an honest man myself. If anything, I feel guilty at the discrepancy. Do the lies bother you?"

"Somewhat." If Xeritian appreciated candor, then Gideon would give it to him. "Every song's a lie of sorts, you know. You take the pose of a narrator. Sometimes that narrator is you, sometimes not. Spycraft is kind of like that, I think. Except it isn't a show, it's a con. It does bother me, sometimes..."

"Spoken like a bard. You're not the first with that reaction."

"Were you a bard, Headmaster?"

"No. I was a historian." A few unexpected snowflakes fell around them as they spoke. Xeritian caught the year's first snow in his hand. "When you grow up amid the bones of past greatness, it's a lively field." The snowflake melted, and they walked on.

They departed Westport, and the snowflakes became a throng, dancing on the air like fat, lazy gnats. At first they left only a little moisture on the cheek or a few brief bright motes in the glorious weaves of a Taldan woman's hair. Opparans, busy with the business of the City of Empire—or surviving the City of Empire—ignored it. But the sky's gray mills weren't to be denied, and relentlessly churned out their snowy flour. Bit by bit, the streets and rooftops were covered in white, and the Gilded City became silver.

Xeritian led Gideon to the doorstep of the House of the Immortal Son, the temple of the dead god Aroden, now converted to an opera house. He pushed open one of the great doors and gestured inside.

"Headmaster? What does an opera rehearsal have to do with the fog?"

"Nothing, Gull. I summoned you because of your performance this morning. It concerns me. Crises come and go, but the need to train new Lion Blades remains."

A singing troupe was rehearsing inside, sans orchestra, yet augmented with the presence of spellcasters. As Gideon watched, illusory fires seemed to fill the air around the singers, and blasts of water withered the fire; yet the waves were outflanked by further flames.

"Have you heard of the thaumacycle?" Xeritian asked.

"A composition that incorporates magic. A revival of a lost Azlanti tradition. A difficult form." While true bards studied both music and magic, each discipline was quite demanding on its own. The combination defeated most composers. By tradition, every spell in a thaumacycle performance had to be at least theoretically castable by the author. The exact form was up to each composer, but most entries were operas.

"You're aware of the Taldan Thaumacycle Festival?"
"I've heard of it but never witnessed it. It travels around." Corvine had spoken of it with interest, and had mentioned wanting to try her hand at it.

"The next one will be held here on Longnight, a little over a month from now. This group's already rehearsing." Xeritian winked. "But I believe there's enough time for you to enter and compose something."

"Me? What about the fog?"

"You're forgetting you're still a student, Gull. More experienced hands will deal with today's danger. I still need you in training, to face tomorrow's threats."

"But—respectfully—how does this help me become a better Lion Blade? I could do it, but I'd have to drop everything else, and I doubt very much I'd win." And if he were to devote his winter recess to the work, he wouldn't be able to travel to Cassomir to investigate the fog. And see Corvine. "Maybe I'd manage the score, but the magic..."

"Challenging, yes. But experience is the point, not victory. You seemed reluctant to employ magic during the Shadow Taunt."

Gideon reddened. It was true. He was a quick study at spells, and could cast them at need, but they never seemed natural to him. Outside of immediate danger, he rarely thought of employing them.

"I suspect your difficulty with magic's less a matter of talent, and more that you have a lopsided interest in music."

"Well, I was just a musician until recently."

"Quite. Sometimes we must coax the brain, rather than flog it. I have recommended the thaumacycle for others before."

Gideon smirked. "And it'll keep me out of trouble?" And possibly, Gideon considered, give him something that could entice Corvine to visit him.

"There's that. I'll place you on special assignment. For the college as well. As it's almost winter recess, that will be simple. Indeed, as soon as I return I'll cancel your commitments for the day, and rearrange your tests, so you may begin work. It might be good to keep you out of the official eye. Be careful this fine frosty day." Xeritian turned.

"Wait."

The headmaster stopped.

"You're the third person today who's warned me to be careful," Gideon said. "Is there something I should know? If there's danger, why can't I investigate along with you? What does the future hold?"

Xeritian smiled. "I'll use the historian's standard answer: ‘That is not my period of study.' As for the rest—you're simply not ready, Gull. I'm sorry. Even I must be wary, as I go hunting."

"Be careful, Headmaster."

"Always, Gull." The headmaster paused. "You dislike lies, and that is admirable. Remember the value of truth. It is high. But it is not infinite."

"I don't understand."

"I believe you will."

Xeritian walked into the crowd, and there should have been no way that the old historian could simply disappear from Gideon's sight, but that was exactly what happened. Of course the headmaster of the Shadow School would have access to magic. But Gideon knew that thought was merely an attempt to salvage his own pride. You're forgetting you're still a student.

Hoping his pride would be burnished by Corvine's letter, Gideon pulled it out and finished reading.

as we both know he must be rather connected in government. But he may be at sea. Alert whom you can. You're surrounded by bards, I'm sure you can get the word out. Sorry this is so rushed. I have good gigs, will report later. Am I done? No, I'm never done! But there's no more room and these letters are as tiny as I can make them GBYE

Gideon reread the letter and pocketed it. He smiled. The concerns about anything between Corvine and Sebastian dissipated like morning mist. He strode jauntily into the snowfall, looking here and there for swirling shadows. He took the letter out and read it again, put it back in his pocket. He whistled.

A dim part of his mind replied, You are pathetic, Gideon Gull. Your would-be lover is under threat and all you can think of is how relieved you are there's probably no reason to be jealous of Sebastian.

A bright-lit part of his mind said, You have that part right, Gideon Gull! But she did say not to be alarmed!

Pathetic.

Whistling, his mind drifted toward the problem of a thaumacycle. It was a welcome change after the visions of the fog. Perhaps if he completed the work quickly, he could still be involved in the investigation, somehow.

As his thoughts drifted, so did his path through the snowfall, his feet leading him through the city, the deep parts of his mind in charge.

Gideon's boots led him to an empty sliver of city park dominated by a bust commemorating the sponsoring royal. Dark trees cradled the air and brought a hush to the white cobblestones and granite benches. It reminded Gideon of the Verduran Forest that enfolded the border of Andoran and Taldor far to the north. He remembered the family trip to Bellis on the Andoren side, and running around trees trying to tag Gareth...

But best not to think of that day.

He stopped and stretched. Gideon appreciated the park but could never remember the benefactor's name, only the patrician expression the sculptor had conjured. He decided the royal looked like he'd take chill without a hat, so Gideon molded one from snow.

The two took up parallel views of the river, as men in serious discussion might.

"You know much about women, Prince?" Gideon asked the bust. "I'm assuming you were a prince. If you appear to desire a woman, she frequently edges away. If you give up your desire, she frequently returns. This would seem to be perverse behavior, yet I've seen it time and again."

Gideon paused and nodded.

"Yes, of course you're right, the obvious stratagem is to pretend a lack of desire. And as a performer I normally find pretense as simple as plucking a note. Yet in the matter of Corvine Gale, I'm just not myself. For I find, with her, I can only be myself. Maddening."

A long-suffering member of the Lighters' Guild shuffled into the park with his pole and began to kindle the park's lantern. He stopped to study Gideon as the bard conversed with a stone head. Gideon waved. The Lighter muttered a prayer to Abadar, god of cities, and hurried about his work.

"True," Gideon continued, as if the bust had just lectured him, "she's no flower wilting in the snow. If I want Corvine's attention, I must live what, to my lights, is a life of attainment and honor, whether or not she consents to share it. She won't want a man whose chief occupation is talking about her with rocks. Thank you, Prince."

The Lighter might have set a speed record, for his work was already done, and he padded on. The sky darkened, and with the lantern ablaze there was a wash of amber light about the white-frilled, dark-wooded branches, as though the park were some old etching in bronze.

The stillness was broken by the sounds of a snapping twig and the unsheathing of a blade.

Gideon's well-trained ears had alerted, him but couldn't make out the exact direction. So he did the prudent thing and scrambled onto the bust.

A thug was approaching with a dagger, faster now that he was discovered. The man wore a leather jerkin and breeches and a fine cloak. Even in this prosperous swath of the city, he might pass as a well-to-do merchant or a buccaneer who'd fetched a rich haul. For that matter, perhaps he truly was one of those things, and was angling for supplemental funds. This was not the finest of times for Taldor.

"First snow's beautiful, eh?" said Gideon.

"It is, good madman, it is!" said the other. "Now howsabout you throw down your purse, and you can enjoy it with your eyes still in your head?"

"Crude! Uncouth! Good sir, I've lived in places where mugging is a refined art, with certain protocols. I might say, ‘Lovely weather,' and you might say, ‘Yes, but it's cold,' and I might say, ‘Ah, and you are seeking a donation for those without good winter gear, who've only a rusty knife to see them through,' and of course you might say, ‘That's about the size of it,' and then I offer my purse out of generosity, you bow, and I run like mad. Civilized!"

"I got your civilization right here." The mugger waved the blade. "Just hand it over!"

"Ah, you didn't specify, ‘it.'" Gideon reached into a pouch, but not his coin purse.

He pulled forth a small rolled piece of parchment, wider at one end, upon which he'd written the aria "Valley of Echoes." Under his breath, Gideon incanted strange syllables to the song's tune...

"Who dares disturb the peace of my park?" rumbled a voice.

"What?" screeched the mugger. "Who's there? What was that?"

It was Gideon who mouthed the words, but the sounds seemed to emanate from elsewhere. "It is I, Prince..." (he thought a moment) "...Acerbic, of the...Age of Enthronement!" (As the Age of Enthronement had lasted over four and a half thousand years, Gideon figured he could tuck an imaginary prince in there somewhere.)

"Where are you hiding?" The mugger, while frightened, had still not discerned that the voice emanated from the bust.

Gideon rolled his eyes and slapped a hand over his face. He thought of the old Carpenden song "A Helping Hand" and murmured another incantation as he spread his fingers to keep an eye on his assailant.

With his other hand he gestured and caused a clump of snow to rise from a bench and move toward the thief.

"Boo," Gideon said, and remotely shoved snow down the man's back.

This sort of trick was commonplace enough, but the thief was already nervous. He screamed.

Some people, if taken by fear, will run. Others will lash out. This one was the second kind. He whirled and jabbed madly at the air, shouting, "Where are you where are you where are you—"

Gideon, a person of the first inclination, was already fleeing the scene. He could probably overpower the thug, but it wasn't his job to protect the streets, and no amount of training was a guarantee when a knife was involved. Besides, the college didn't need a criminal investigation on top of their run-in with Matharic, Royal Adjunct Pain in the Posterior.

Panting, Gideon at last stopped upon the Grand Bridge over the River Porthmos.

A river. The thought hit Gideon like a snowball to the face. The thaumacycle—my characters will escape assailants by taking a raft upon the Sellen. That northern river, greater even than the Porthmos, churned with more than a thousand miles of adventure and mystery. Where better to let loose a raft of vagabonds?

His characters would come from Galt, he decided. They would flee the guillotines of that failed democracy and ride the river south, encountering elves and dwarves and gnomes, crusaders and traders and pirates, Andorens and Taldans and druids. They would argue and laugh and weep. And sing, of course. At last at the sea, all would be resolved, as much as anything in life is resolved. Blood and crescendos.

Smiling to himself, he nodded to the passersby, for there was always somebody on the bridge. He came around the foot of the statue of General Coren, leader of the Third Army of Exploration. There was a legend that if you touched Coren's foot you would always make a return journey to Oppara. He reached out and patted the statue. "Just in case," he murmured.

An image came to him unbidden, of a small hand touching a huge insectile leg.

Gideon stopped in his tracks.

Snowflakes hit his face like scores of tiny biting insects, the kind that attack once and perish. His eyes saw nothing of the bridge or the city or the wayfarers who glanced at him curiously.

In his mind's eye, he was ten years old again, looking up at a monster. It resembled a giant beetle with legs like broken halberds, vast green eyes and curved mandibles, and antennae that flexed and quivered far out from its nightmarish head. Behind it swirled an unseasonably thick, cold fog. His heart was pounding, in the past and in the now, and the monster had him half-entrapped by the spears of its legs. Yet terrified as he was, the boy Gideon knew the creature didn't mean to eat him. An eerie sound like a pipe organ cut through the fog of memory, and Gideon imagined the monster turning its head, and the boy following its alien gaze.

Then the vision was gone, and Gideon stood alone on the Grand Bridge.

But he could still hear the dirge.

No one else appeared to notice. The sound seemed to emanate from somewhere upriver. He moved to the eastern edge of the bridge, leaned upon it, and looked out. He had a good view of the river and the city. The crescent moon was up, and the lamps were lit everywhere except the slum district known as the Narrows.

The eerie music came louder to his ears, and squinting for a source he saw a ship beyond the city, a long way upstream.

It was a ship that had no business being that far inland. This was a galleon with a sweeping prow and high stern, wide amidships, with four spindly masts, and a deep draft. Gideon was no mariner or boatman, but even he knew that the river's unseen shallows should gut such a keel.

And perhaps such a fate had already occurred, and this was a dead ship. For the vessel was suffused with a ghostly glow. Its torn sails gleamed, its gargoyle figurehead glinted, and its crew stood at attention with skeletal poise, eye sockets aimed at the Grand Bridge.

"Do you see it?" Gideon demanded of the nearest bystander, a Taldan nobleman. "Do you see the ship?"

The richly garbed man's expression was unreadable. "There are many ships," he ventured, with a nod toward the harbor.

"Not like this! Right there! Something right out of Blacwin's Wanderloss. Isn't it the spitting image of Wanderloss's adversary, the cursed ship Demonwake?"

The man took a step back, then appeared to find his courage. "Good sir...your accent marks you as Andoren, no? You must be a stranger here. I happen to contribute to Madame Floret's Home for Troubled Travelers, and I'm sure they can assist you with whatever afflicts you. If you'll just come with me..."

"Don't you see?" Gideon looked around at the few other witnesses who might validate his vision of the ship (sailing closer, blithely unconcerned about the Taldan noble's reaction). All looked at him blankly or with unease. A young girl did venture, squinting at the river, "I think, perhaps, I do see a glint of light..." before her parents hauled her over to watch something suddenly fascinating on the bridge's seaward edge.

No, Gideon realized, they didn't see.

And even as he'd made the comparison, Gideon had realized that the spectral craft didn't simply resemble the fictional Demonwake. It was Demonwake, just as he'd seen it in a performance in Almas many years ago. It was correct down to the flag of the horned skull above the crossbones and Captain Crookwing there in his torn black cape, and his daughter Desdimira beside him, the only human-appearing spirit aboard, ready to tempt the similarly dead cabin boy Wickham of the Wanderloss.

All in a rush the ghost-craft reached the bridge, far swifter than a true sailing ship should manage, and as Desdimira passed beneath Gideon she looked up at him, mouthing some secret message. Then there was a flash of light, and she and her ship were gone. Gone, too, was the mournful dirge. Only a trace of bubbles remained below the bridge, and in this lunar illumination Gideon doubted even these.

No one else nearby was looking at the waters.

Just at him.

The Taldan grandee was saying, "If you'll just hold still a moment, sir, everything will be all right..." The noble inched forward, and was joined by a tough-looking sightseer dressed for dockland work. First a thief, and now these excessively honorable citizens. A man can't win.

He bowed. "Let this be a lesson to me. This is what comes of too much opera."

From his spell component pouch he plucked a feather and a clutch of diminutive fruit tarts. He stuffed the tarts in his mouth and commenced waving the feather at the dockhand.

"What?" said the man, and with that Gideon blessed his good luck that his spell looked too ridiculous to be considered magic. Mouth full, Gideon began the incantation.

"Fate and Chance walk into a tavern," he said, magic embellishing his words. "‘I wasn't expecting you,' says Chance. ‘Just the person I wanted to see,' says Fate, adding, ‘I wanted to play some chess.' So they agree to play chess, but every time Fate and Chance flip a coin to see who chooses colors, the coin explodes. Every time they pick a taverngoer to choose, the taverngoer's head explodes. By now the chess pieces have been so knocked around by exploding coins and so bloodstained from exploding heads that you can't tell which is white and which is black. And Fate and Chance both smile and say, ‘I choose red.'"

The man's eyes got big and he commenced a horrid giggling. He collapsed upon the ground, unable to do anything but gasp and titter at the cosmic joke.

The noble stared at Gideon.

"I can tell another," Gideon said.

The noble ran toward the far end of the bridge and the vagabond camp there, which said something about his desperation.

Gideon wasted no time dashing in the opposite direction, toward the city.

He had to talk to Xeritian about this. Even if the headmaster decided Gideon was insane, Gideon instinctively trusted the man. Once off the bridge, Gideon panted in the shadows of an alley and watched the river a little longer, until the call of the fire-lit dormitory and his pillow proved too much, and he retraced his steps to the college. Apparitions, he decided, could wait until morning.

But in the morning Headmaster Xeritian was dead.

Purchase the whole novel here.

Coming Next Week: Web fiction will be going on hiatus for two weeks due to the holidays, but stay tuned for an all-new story starring Gideon after the break!

Chris Willrich is the author of the Pathfinder Tales novel The Dagger of Trust. He is a former children’s librarian best known for his sword-and-sorcery tales of Gaunt and Bone, which have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and elsewhere, and which continue in the novels The Scroll of Years (Pyr, 2013) and The Silk Map (forthcoming). Chris lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his family. Visit his website at www.chriswillrich.com.

Illustration by Eric Belisle.

It's the Most Superstar Time of the Year!

Tuesday, December 10, 2014

It's time for RPG Superstar 2014! Every year, Paizo holds an annual open-call RPG design competition to give the best and brightest aspiring game designers a chance to show the world their talent. This year's winner will receive a contract to write a Pathfinder Module to be published by Paizo.

Previous winning modules include Christine Schneider's Clash of the Kingslayers, Neil Spicer's Realm of the Fellnight Queen, Matthew Goodall's Cult of the Ebon Destroyers, Sam Zeitlin's The Midnight Mirror, Mike Welham's Doom Comes to Dustpawn, and Steven Helt’s Tears at Bitter Manor. We look forward to welcoming the next winner to the ranks of published adventure designers!

Even if you don't win the grand prize, RPG Superstar offers a number of different routes to getting your name on a Paizo product. Runners-up will have their work critiqued by industry leaders, and the three final-round runners-up will earn a contract to write a Pathfinder Society Scenario, a downloadable adventure sanctioned for play in Paizo's worldwide Pathfinder Society mega-campaign. Staff and audience favorite entries from RPG Superstar's earlier rounds may show up in Paizo publications as well.

Getting noticed in RPG Superstar might be the start of a long-term professional relationship with Paizo as one of our regular freelancers. Developer Rob McCreary got his start with Paizo as a finalist in the first RPG Superstar. Even though he didn't win the final challenge, his creativity and talent earned him a staff position as one of the creative leads behind our flagship Pathfinder Adventure Path line.

This year's competition begins today with an open call to design an original wondrous item. Last year we introduced public voting by fans for these initial entries, and the response was so great—over 500,000 votes cast—we’re doing it again this year. Tell us about your magical treasure in 300 words or less by January 1, 2014, and you might just have started your RPG design career! The top 32 will be picked by our guest judges and staff, and those 32 competitors will face other game design challenges in the remaining rounds of the competition.

So loosen up your creative muscles and start crafting a wondrous item, and get ready to be the next RPG Superstar!

Sean K Reynolds
Designer, RPG Superstar Host & Former Judge

Playtest Thoughts, Week 3

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

We are in the home stretch now. The playtest has been going for three weeks now and we have one week left to go. The big announcement this week is that we have released a revised version of the playtest document! Inside you will find changes and alterations to all 10 of the playtest classes, from sweeping changes to the Arcanist to smaller alterations to the Shaman.

You can find the revised version of the playtest document on your My Downloads page. If you have yet to grab the document, you can download add it to your account for free here.

Once you've downloaded the PDF and taken a look at our changes, head over to the messageboards. We've created 10 new threads for you to use when discussing these classes and we've locked the old threads to avoid any confusion. Give the classes a try, use them in your games, roll up a PFS character, or just pit them against foes in mock combats. We want to hear what you have to say. The design on these classes is far from over, but your chance to comment comes to an end in just one week on December 17th!

Once you've gotten a chance to go through the revisions, don't forget to update your survey. We are eager to see how these revisions affect your opinion and the survey is our best tool to gauge your thoughts.

The playtest has been great so far. We've gotten a lot of great ideas, feedback, and comments about these classes, and we are excited to see what you have to say as the playtest draws to a close. Thanks again for all of your hard work making this our most successful playtest to date.

See you on the boards!

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

A Look at 2014

Monday, December 9, 2013

It's a busy time of year around the Paizo office as folks are working ahead to ensure that everyone can get their products on time even as the diligent editors, developers, graphic designers, and others look forward to taking a little time off. I spent much of last week outlining and assigning scenarios, and you should be seeing the product pages going up soon. Here's what to watch for:

January

#5–12: Destiny of the Sands, Part 1: A Bitter Bargain (Tier 1–5)
#5–13: Weapon in the Rift (Tier 5–9)

February

#5–14: Day of the Demon (Tier 3–7)
#5–15: Destiny of the Sands, Part 2: Race to Seeker's Folly (Tier 1–5)

March

#5–16: Destiny of the Sands, Part 3: Sanctum of the Sages (Tier 3–7)
#5–17: Fate of the Fiend (Tier 7–11)

Yes, that's right; the third scenario in the three-part series is actually one tier higher than those that precede it. This is the first time that we've jumped tiers during a named series, and there are very important in-game reasons for Part 3 being the level range that it is. Don't worry about having to play the three scenarios one after another, though; there are no plans to include a reward for consecutive play. Of course, there is something else that makes this series particularly special, but I won't spoil that just yet.

In the meantime, it's back to development. I want to make sure that everyone has the December scenarios to enjoy over the holidays.

John Compton
Developer

Pathfinder Battles Preview: Five for Fighting

Friday, December 6, 2013

We're less than a month away from the January release of the 55-figure Wrath of the Righteous set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures! These figures support the pulse-pounding Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path, but the set contains enough monsters and heroes to make it a great resource for any fantasy campaign.

Of course, the Wrath of the Righteous wouldn't be so righteous without truly evil foes to fight, and this week we have three more demons to throw onto the battlefield, as well as two more general monsters that are sure to come in handy in all sorts of situations.

First, the demons.

Here we have the Blood Demon, the assassins, murders, and sadists in a plane filled to bursting with all of the above. Appearing as a horned human skeleton smothered with a bone-tight hide of slimy leather, blood demons exude acidic slime that will make heroes think twice about punching them. WizKids has helpfully coated this figure in a shiny gloss, to emphasize its sliminess. The Blood Demon appears under a different name on page 57 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary. The figure is a Medium common.

Here we have the Incubus, the male version of the seductive succubus. Incubi appear on page 73 of Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3, where they are described as counselors, torturers, and companions for greater demons. They are formed from the souls of particularly lustful and rapacious mortals. The Incubus is a Medium uncommon figure.

The last demon today (but certainly not the last in the set!) is my favorite, for as my appreciation for the Seaweed Siren from Skull & Shackles no doubt reveals, I like the weird ones. This ugly guy is the Gibrileth, or Filth Demon. Gibrileths are covered in hideous tumors and grasping appendages. They enjoy spreading illness and nausea. They're also nasty with a whip, in addition to being just plain old nasty. The Gibrileth is a Large, rare figure. Its statistics appear on page 46 of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The Worldwound, a critical resource for the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path campaign.

Moving from the Abyssal to the just plain mean and dangerous, I give you the Basilisk. This squat, reptilian monster turns creatures to stone with its baleful gaze, a power that has ensured its status as a “classic” monster from not just the beginning of fantasy roleplaying, but in mythic history in general. WizKids did a great job sculpting its eight legs and giving him a cool color scheme. The Basilisk is a Medium, uncommon figure. Its statistics are found on page 29 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary.

Last up for this week is the treacherous Rift Drake, a lesser form of dragon that is nonetheless more powerful than just about all of its drake cousins. Weighing in at CR 9, Rift Drakes spit a ball of caustic gas that bursts into a cloud on impact. Rift Drakes inhabit badlands and areas scarred by the gods, a pretty good description of the Worldwound in which the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path takes place. The pose is really sweet, and while the color scheme is a bit difficult to grasp from the photos, in hand it looks very, very cool. The Rift Drake is a Large, Uncommon creature. Its statistics appear on page 106 of the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 3.

That's it for this week's previews. Please join me next Friday for more reveals and exciting news regarding the Pathfinder Battles line! See you in seven days!

Erik Mona
Publisher

This Bestiary is Advanced

Thursday, December 7, 2013

Illustration by Ilya Astrakhan

My name is Chris Pramas is I'll be your guest blogger today. You may know me as the founder and president of Green Ronin Publishing, the author of the AD&D Guide to Hell, a contributor to the Emerald Spire superdungeon, or the designer of the Dragon Age RPG. The fine people at Paizo Publishing have given me the chance to tell you about Green Ronin's latest Kickstarter, the Advanced Bestiary for the Pathfinder RPG!

Veterans of the d20 years will no doubt recognize the Advanced Bestiary. It originally came out in 2005 and was an immediate hit. The book provided over 100 templates and a sample creature for each of them. The utility it provided to GMs was immense. As we like to say, the Advanced Bestiary makes every other monster book you own more valuable.

Now we are bringing the Advanced Bestiary back and updating it for Pathfinder. This was an easy decision to make because we've received so many requests from Pathfinder fans to do so. Last summer, for example, I went down to PaizoCon on Sunday. I was there in no official capacity. I showed up to take part in the miniatures trade and to hang out in the bar and see friends. Nonetheless, multiple people came up to me and said, "Please update the Advanced Bestiary!" It was something we were already talking about after the success of our Freeport Kickstarter earlier this year, but the personal pleas certainly brought it home!

We realize, of course, that there are many Pathfinder fans who were not around in 2005 and that's one reason we've had our Pathfinder developer, Owen Stephens, creating some new sample monsters using templates from the book. He started with three new creatures, the Cave Ogre, Toxic Goblin, and Autumn Genie. Then he took those same base creatures and made three different creatures with other templates: the Herald of Ragnarok, Darkling, and Umbrated Genie. You can download all those sample monsters for free in Wednesday's update.

Illustration by Shawn Sharp

The great news is that we've already hit our basic funding goal and unlocked two stretch goals (a new cover for the book and 16 pages of new content). You can be assured therefore that the Advanced Bestiary is happening and you can pledge in confidence. We are pushing to hit at least two more stretch goals, however. If we can get up to $45,000, we will print the book in full color and commission brand new color art for the whole thing. This is how we really want to do the book and we've got until Monday, December 9. Let's make it happen!

If you are a loyal Pathfinder fan, you've actually been enjoying the Advanced Bestiary for years already. Here's a list of all the Paizo books that have used templates from the book. Clearly Paizo knows something about the Advanced Bestiary. Check out the Kickstarter and find out what!

Spoiler:

• Rise of the Runelords Anniversary Edition
• Pathfinder Module: Carnival of Tears
• Pathfinder Module: Hungry are the Dead
• Pathfinder Module: Realm of the Fellnight Queen
• Pathfinder Module: City of Golden Death
• Pathfinder Module: Revenge of the Kobold King
• Pathfinder Module: Crucible of Chaos
• Pathfinder #65: Into the Nightmare Rift (Shattered Star, Volume 5)
• Pathfinder #54: The Empty Throne (Jade Regent, Volume 6)
• Pathfinder #51: The Hungry Storm (Jade Regent, Volume 3)
• Pathfinder #50: Night of Frozen Shadows (Jade Regent, Volume 2)
• Pathfinder #48: Shadows of Gallowspire (Carrion Crown, Volume 6)
• Pathfinder #47: Ashes at Dawn (Carrion Crown, Volume 5)
• Pathfinder #46: Wake of the Watcher (Carrion Crown, Volume 4)
• Pathfinder #45: Broken Moon (Carrion Crown, Volume 3)
• Pathfinder #42: Sanctum of the Serpent God (Serpent's Skull, Volume 6)
• Pathfinder #40: Vaults of Madness (Serpent's Skull, Volume 4)
• Pathfinder #36: Sound of a Thousand Screams (Kingmaker, Volume 6)
• Pathfinder #34: Blood for Blood (Kingmaker, Volume 4)
• Pathfinder #33: The Varnhold Vanishing (Kingmaker, Volume 3)
• Pathfinder #31: Stolen Land (Kingmaker, Volume 1)
• Pathfinder #30: The Twice-Damned Prince (Council of Thieves, Volume 6)
• Pathfinder #28: The Infernal Syndrome (Council of Thieves, Volume 4)
• Pathfinder #27: What Lies in Dust (Council of Thieves, Volume 3)
• Pathfinder #26: The Sixfold Trial (Council of Thieves, Volume 2)
• Pathfinder #23: The Impossible Eye (Legacy of Fire, Volume 5)
• Pathfinder #22: The End of Eternity (Legacy of Fire, Volume 4)
• Pathfinder #18: Descent into Midnight (Second Darkness, Volume 6)
• Pathfinder #16: Endless Night (Second Darkness, Volume 4)
• Pathfinder #12: Crown of Fangs (Curse of the Crimson Throne, Volume 6)
• Pathfinder #11: Skeletons of Scarwall (Curse of the Crimson Throne, Volume 5)
• Pathfinder #10: A History of Ashes (Curse of the Crimson Throne, Volume 4)
• Pathfinder #9: Escape from Old Korvosa (Curse of the Crimson Throne, Volume 3)
• Pathfinder #6: Spires of Xin-Shalast (Rise of the Runelords, Volume 6)
• Pathfinder #4: Fortress of the Stone Giants (Rise of the Runelords, Volume 4)
• Pathfinder #2: The Skinsaw Murders (Rise of the Runelords, Volume 2)

Chris Pramas
Green Ronin Publishing

Bells for the Dead

by Howard Andrew Jones

Chapter Four: Earning Her Keep

Darvus reached out to bat the rifle bore away and had his palm blown through for his trouble. He screamed at the spurt of blood.

She dropped the rifle even as her other hand closed on the butt of her pistol. All evening she'd debated how to play this out once she had the Andorens and her quarry in the same place. "Surrender or die, Chelaxians!" she cried.

As hoped, the words gave her startled and horrified allies pause. Perhaps it would also convince Dronsbech that the little force was united.

Dronsbech lashed out with his cane, discharging a blast of lightning that sent Lisette flying toward the window. She crumpled beside a mystified Karag, her gun tumbling toward the corner.

Vech shouted something about halting in the name of Andoran as she threw herself to her feet, ignoring the tingling in her extremities.

Lisette pulled at the second pistol even as Karag swiped at the nobleman with his axe. At least the dwarf didn't doubt her. Dronsbech dodged, and Darvus the supposed servant extended his crippled hand, fingers flicking in an arcane gesture. Lisette wasn't sure about the nature of the spell, but it set the poor dwarf twisting with a grimace. Dronsbech himself dropped behind Darvus, so Lisette shot the sorcerer. This time the bullet caught him in the chest, and he stayed down.

Vech again shouted for everyone to put down their weapons. Lisette was running out of time. If Dronsbech kept his cool, he could talk his way free, and she'd be hard pressed to escape a hanging.

He didn't, though. As the aristocrat shot to his feet, his features rippled like flowing water, his form broadening. In place of the kneeling nobleman sat a powerful hellspawn with red-gold skin and immense forward-pointing horns. His lower half was virtually identical to his assumed shape, yet his upper body was so layered in muscle that he had burst the seams of his shirt and coat. The hair that crowned his high forehead now seemed more like a furred spearhead.

She ripped her sword free of its sheath.

The young guard, Culcumber, extended a shaking sword toward the Chelaxian; Dronsbech batted him into the book case with a contemptuous laugh, then lashed out again with the cane, now resembling a tiny stick in his oversized hand. Another lightning blast hurled the charging Vech over the back of the desk.

Lisette's eyes flicked to her pistol, which had slid to the corner beside the window. Karag still lay on the floor, Kerrigan's rifle strapped to his back. There'd be no help from that quarter. Culcumber and Vech were both down and groaning.

Dronsbech—or, as she knew him, Kryllic—spoke in a low, dangerous rumble as he stalked toward her, teeth bared in a jaw open impossibly far. "How did you find me?"

No wonder Kryllic relies on magical disguises.

"I followed the stench." She drew her sword, backing toward the pistol. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the dwarf shaking his tousled mane of hair. She needed to buy time. "There's more after me, you know. I told the whole guard force."

"You lie."

"You can't tell, can you? Go ahead—try to read my mind. Darvus couldn't, either."

"You've ruined years of work." Kryllic raised the cane, then turned his head at the sound of a noise behind him.

The dwarf had leveled the rifle. His shot burned past Kryllic's face and shattered the window. Lisette threw herself at the pistol, rolled to her knee, and fired.

Kryllic, stomping toward the dwarf, cried out in agony as the bullet, both holy and silver, took him in the back of the skull. He weaved drunkenly, then suddenly found himself impaled on the end of Culcumber's sword tip.

With that, he dropped, bleeding all over his lovely carpet. Culcumber, face stricken, stabbed his motionless body again and again.

"I think he's dead," Lisette pointed out.

Panting, the boy relented, his eyes round as saucers.

From outside she could hear screams, but all the footsteps sounded as though they were running away.

"Sorry I missed," Karag said.

Lisette shrugged. "You did fine."

Vech climbed to his feet from behind the desk, adjusted his uniform coat. His lips twitched in fury, setting his mustaches wobbling. "Would you mind telling me what just happened? What about your bowman?"

She frowned at the mention of her adversary, but kept her temper under control as she ticked off the salient points. "I misled you about the bowman so Kyrllic and Darvus wouldn't read your minds and be alarmed."

"You lied to us?" the lieutenant rumbled.

"I just killed two agents of Cheliax," Lisette said calmly. She had begun, almost without thinking, to clean and prime her pistol. "You should be thanking me."

"Wait," Karag said. "You planned all this?"

"I improvised some of it," Lisette admitted.

"So all that about the bowman," Culcumber prompted. "That was a lie too?"

"No," she said tightly. "The bowman is after him."

"So there's no bounty on the bowman?" the dwarf asked angrily.

"There's a bigger bounty on Dronsbech. You'll be snagging four hundred sails for him, Karag. Maybe I'll throw in ten for the boy, too, since he delivered the death thrust. Several times."

Culcumber was still too glassy-eyed to respond to the jibe.

"I still don't follow all of this," Vech said. "If Dronsbech—"

"Kryllic," Lisette corrected.

"Whatever his name was," Vech said testily, "could read minds, why couldn't he read yours?"

"I planned ahead and brought a charm to protect me. But he or Darvus could have read your mind like a book. Darvus tried to do it when you came in earlier. Didn't you notice the way he was looking at all of you? They were cautious, but not suspicious, because they could tell all three of you believed my tale. If I'd told you the truth—"

"But someone really was firing arrows earlier this evening," Vech protested.

"Yes," Lisette said. How thick was he? "The bowman."

The lieutenant's expression cleared. "So you were using us to help you get this bounty before the bowman could get Dronsbech himself!"

There came the sound of pounding feet, and then the shouting escalated as the door was pushed open. The guards who'd scattered to the perimeter thundered into the room. If not for Vech's uniform and the strange corpse, things might have gotten deadly, fast.

Matters really weren't settled until late into the night, and even then it seemed like almost half the city guard was there interviewing the staff, the guests, and the hired guards, none of whom admitted any knowledge about Kryllic's true nature or motives.

She and Karag waited to the side through it all. She tried not to think about the bowman. There'd been a chance, of course, that she'd catch him making a play at the same time. Finally, though, she'd been lucky. At that thought, her lips twisted into a bitter smile.

Karag had been silent for a very long time, and his gruff question startled her. "You think maybe you could teach me how to shoot?"

She considered the dwarf. "First I have to teach you how to load."

"Okay, then."

This was a little unexpected. Her smile grew more genuine. "I tell you what: I could use someone to ready the weapons. If you can load and prime fast, I can keep up a good steady stream of fire. Let's try it out for a week and see how quick you are."

Karag nodded once. "Sounds fair."

She grew conscious of the toll of a distant, lonely bell. "The bowman's my next target," she said. "I could use backup. It's a decent bounty. Not as good as Kryllic's, but decent."

"So all that about revenge—you were just making all that up." He shook his head. "You're a cold one, alright. I thought this whole thing was a matter of vengeance, when really it was all about the money."

"It's always about the money," she lied.

Coming Next Week: Down and out in the slums of Cassomir in Chris Willrich's bard-tastic new story, "The Cloak of Belonging."

Want even more Lisette and Karag? Check out the new Pathfinder Tales novel Stalking the Beast, available now!

Howard Andrew Jones is the author of the Pathfinder Tales novels Plague of Shadows and Stalking the Beast, as well as the independent historical fantasy novels The Desert of Souls and The Bones of the Old Ones. He's also edited eight collections of literary giant Harold Lamb's work, and currently serves as the Managing Editor for the iconic sword-and-sorcery magazine Black Gate. For more information, see his website at howardandrewjones.com.

Illustration by Kelly Perry

Playtest Thoughts: Week 2

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

The Advanced Class Guide Playtest continues to roll along and the design team has been getting some great feedback from the boards. It's been a busy week; we've made changes to the arcanist, launched the playtest survey, and stuffed ourselves on Thanksgiving. This week, we'll take a look at those in detail and cast an eye toward the upcoming revisions.

Late in the day on Wednesday, we released a revised version of the arcanist, swapping out the blood focus class feature for a new mechanic designed to give the class flexibility along with a clearer and better sense of role in the game. The arcanist gained an arcane reservoir that she can draw upon to fuel exploits (special class features that let her tinker with the forces of magic). She can consume her own spell slots to fill up her reservoir and can even learn to siphon such power from magic items and enemy spells. If you have not seen the update, forums right go to the forum post here. We aren't done with this class quite yet, but it's a step in the right direction.

The other big news last week was the launch of the playtest surveys. Each class has its own questionnaire, allowing us the gauge their interest, power, and versatility. The great thing is that you can update the survey as the playtest continues, meaning that we can see how opinions and ideas for each class change as time goes on. This also means it is vital for you to fill out your survey now, so that when you change it later, we can get a sense of whether or not we are heading in the right direction. You can find the surveys right here. Of special note, please base your arcanist survey answers off the original version of the class, not the revised version on the messageboards.

Let's take this chance to share some feedback from the survey. We asked the same eight questions about each of the classes, and we found some interesting trends.

The first two questions are about comparing each class with its two parent base classes. For example, the shaman questions compare the shaman to the oracle and the witch. Most of the classes are falling relatively close to their parents, but there are some outliers. The original version of the arcanist is seen as being more powerful than its parents, but I think the revision will normalize those numbers a bit. On the other hand, people are seeing the skald as being a bit weaker than its parents. The big winner here was the shaman, which most feel is pretty close to the mark as compared to its parent classes.

Next up, we ask whether the theme of the class matches its mechanics. The bloodrager and slayer were the big winners here, while the hunter and the warpriest need some work.

Our fourth question looks at how each class is presented in terms of clarity and ease of use. The slayer once again comes out on top here, along with the investigator. Interestingly, this is the only question in which the shaman gets some poor marks—understandable considering how the spirit and wandering spirit mechanic plays out.

Next, we ask you two questions: one comparing the class in terms of power and balance to the other playtest classes, and another comparing it to all of the other classes in the game. The shaman and skald once again show that they need some work in this department, while the brawler, investigator, shaman, and slayer are all falling closer to the mark.

The seventh question asks whether the class has enough options and versatility. The head of class here is the bloodrager, investigator, and shaman. At the other end, it's clear that the skald and swashbuckler need a few more options added to their frameworks.

Finally, we look to gauge your interest in playing the class. Not surprisingly, the bloodrager, investigator, shaman, and swashbuckler are all pretty high on the list. The hunter, skald, and warpriest are lagging behind, which is key feedback.

What all does this tell us? First off, that some of the classes are getting close to where they need to be. They're not done, and they still need a lot of polish and refinement, but they probably don't need any major revisions. Others need to see some big changes to get them closer to the standard we're striving for. We aren't basing mechanical decisions solely off survey responses, but it will help us understand how our upcoming changes impact the consensus opinion.

And that brings me to my final point: barring any catastrophes, we are hoping to release a revised version of the playtest document sometime in the next week. Once we release that document, we will be calling on folks to update their surveys as soon as they have gotten a chance to read through them and run them out for a test drive. Remember, the surveys and playtest forums will remain open through Tuesday, December 17th.

Thanks again for taking part! We'll see you on the boards.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer

Announcing PaizoCon 2014—July 4-6!

Monday, December 2, 2013

Get ready for 3 days of some serious Paizo fun! Gaming, panels, workshops, costumes, and exciting Pathfinder news await you at PaizoCon 2014. Meet-up with members of the Paizo staff, community members and fans, and dozens of veteran authors, artists, publishers, and designers from the gaming industry.

Those attending PaizoCon 2014 have the opportunity to participate in an event lottery for a chance to game with their favorite Paizo staff member, be a part of a grand adventure and participate in Pathfinder Society events, attend the annual PaizoCon banquet, and laugh and learn at one of the many panels featured at the convention.

The convention will be held at the Seattle Airport Marriott. We encourage all of our attendees to stay at the Seattle Airport Marriott in order to remain close to the daily gaming action.

This year we also have a new badge option available to parents of young gamers. The Kid's 3-Day Badge is available to children 10 and under for $25 and grants them the ability to participate in Pathfinder Society and other non-lotteried events!

Previous PaizoCon attendees will know that we hold an annual banquet where we announce upcoming Paizo and Pathfinder news! This year is no different and tickets to the PaizoCon Preview Banquet are available for $25. These are limited in number so purchase your ticket soon!

Please note that a regular 3-Day Badge will be required for purchasing a Kid's 3-Day Badge and/or Banquet Ticket.

If you have any questions about the PaizoCon 2014 (including hotel information), please check our FAQ! More information and announcements about PaizoCon will be available as the convention date gets closer.

We're all looking forward to PaizoCon 2014 here in the office. Get ready, get set, go get your PaizoCon 2014 tickets!

Chris Lambertz
Digital Products Assistant