Pathfinder Comics #1: Part 4

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Get settled and check out new next installment of the Pathfinder comic. We'll be posting the comic from issue #1, for free, with a few cliff-hanging pages each week. Enjoy!

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.

Part 1    Part 2    Part 3

Pathfinder Battles Preview: Shoot 'em Up!

Friday, March 28, 2013

With its piratical theme, the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path is a perfect campaign for gamers looking to add a little gunplay to their fantasy. This summer's Skull & Shackles Pathfinder Battles miniatures set therefore includes a few pistol-packing figures that will help you bring your black powder fantasies to life on the tabletop.

Guns are controversial in fantasy gaming, so you won't see a TON of them in this set (or in the campaign itself, if you don't want ‘em), but they are a great thematic match for pirates on the high seas, so we couldn't resist including at least a few of them here.

Up first is our very favorite gun-wielder, Lirianne, the iconic gunslinger we first introduced back in Ultimate Combat. Lirianne has an incredible amount of detail sculpted into her outfit, and her costume motifs bring a hint of the Old West to the High Seas. This Medium figure is slated at the rare rarity.

Here we have Tsadok Goldtooth, the first mate of Kerdak Bonefist, Hurricane King of the Shackles Isles and probably the toughest pirate lord of the southern seas. Old Tsadok here is a half-orc in a fine coat with a cool pistol and a nasty snarl. Our photo accentuates the colors on this figure and makes them look a little more primary than they look with the figure in hand. The green of Tsadok's flesh, for example, matches that of other orcs and half-orcs already produced in the Pathfinder Battles line. Tsadok is an uncommon, Medium figure.

And last up this week is the Hurricane King himself, Kerdak Bonefist! Take a close look at that pistol hand, folks. Let's just say Mr. Bonefist earned his last name the hard way. This Medium, rare figure is absolutely phenomenal in hand, easily one of the best in the set and one of the most finely detailed and well painted Pathfinder Battles miniatures to date.

Our partners at WizKids continue to outdo themselves with every aspect of these miniatures, from sculpt to paint application. I'm amazed every time they bring new figures to the office, which has been happening at an almost weekly pace lately. (For example, we're half-way through approving sculpts for the NEXT set, and have seen all but about three figures in this one).

What I'm trying to say is that it's a great time to be a prepainted figure collector, and it's a great time to be collecting Pathfinder Battles! Now I'm off to go shoot a gun into the air in wild celebration of awesome miniatures.

See you next week!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Bastard, Sword

by Tim Pratt

Chapter Four: Illusions of Ice

"Have you ever slain a demon, sword?" Manius addressed Hrym directly for the first time.

"Probably," Hrym said. "I can't be expected to remember every kind of thing I've slain. Listen, Manius, before we begin our crusade, do you mind giving me a few moments alone with Rodrick here?"

Manius narrowed his eyes. "Why?"

"We faced horrors together in that tomb," Hrym said. "Monstrous serpentine creatures of darkness—"

"And an angry dwarf," Rodrick chimed in.

"Yes, that too," Hrym said. "We became blooded comrades in arms together, and while I'm eager to join you in your battle, Manius, I wish to give my fellow warrior Rodrick my blessing before he goes on his way."

"Ah, certainly, the camaraderie of battle, I understand." Manius nodded sagely, with the full understanding of someone who'd never been anywhere near a real battle. "I shall return shortly. I have men waiting in the hallway, Rodrick, if you need anything in the meantime."

Rodrick nodded, smiling, absorbing the not-so-subtle reminder that Manius knew he was a thief, and would be watchful. Manius handed the sword off to Rodrick and strode out of the room, a busy man with big plans.

"I was promised a bed of gold," Hrym said. "Not a one-way trip into the heart of demon country! This fool will get himself killed, and I'll rot in some fecal swamp!"

"That does seem a likely outcome," Rodrick admitted. "I'm sorry—Manius didn't share his ambitions with me when he hired me to break into the barrow and bring you back. I assumed you were just going to be another collector's item. But don't despair. You're immortal. Someone will come along and pick you up from the battlefield eventually, and—"

"Piss on that," Hrym said. "Get me out of here."

Rodrick shook his head. "I don't see how I can. Manius doesn't trust me—he hired me to steal you, so he's prepared for me to try to steal you again. Short of using you to kill everyone between me and the outskirts of his property, I don't see how—"

"Then start thinking," Hrym said. "Remember what I said about how you'd need to become more cunning? Now's your chance."

"I appreciate the difficulty of your situation, but I'm afraid—"

Hrym is no ordinary magic sword.

"I have no intention of going to the Worldwound, Rodrick. If you don't save me, then I'll wait until Marius assembles his crusaders to start marching, and I will freeze every single one of them in place. They will be a forest of dead statues. And when that grim site is discovered, I'll start screaming 'Rodrick made me do it'!"

They sat together in silence for a moment. Then Rodrick said, not without admiration: "That's blackmail, Hrym."

"I prefer to think of it as forceful persuasion."

"Perhaps..." Rodrick murmured. "Listen, Hrym, this might take me a few days. But tell Manius you're going to stop talking until you reach the Worldwound—a vow of silence, or a period of meditation to help you prepare for the rigors of the struggle to come—whatever. The point is that you have to shut up. Can you do that?"

"I didn't say a word for years in that barrow. Silence is within my considerable capabilities. But I don't see why—"

"I know this is a laughable statement on the face of it, but: just trust me."

"And you trust me," Hrym said. "If you don't come back for me, remember: a field of frozen crusaders."

"Consider me motivated."

∗∗∗

Rodrick took his money—beautiful money, of which he suspected he'd have to spend nearly all of it—and then took his leave of Manius. He headed to Carpenden, the nearest town of size, and began making some inquiries.

Carpenden was prosperous, home to wealthy landowners and the merchants who catered to them, but it was also a military town, housing a large portion of Andoran's army. The real military types Rodrick encountered didn't give Manius's planned expedition great odds of success. They allowed that even a well-prepared force of hardened paladins led by a veteran warrior couldn't expect to win any decisive battles in the Worldwound. As for a mixture of unaffiliated crusaders and mercenaries led by a gentleman farmer who'd read a few textbooks on military tactics? A noble undertaking, in a way, yes—but hopeless.

Like anyone in his line of work, Rodrick knew people, and the people he knew knew other people, and so two days after leaving Manius's house he sat down in the back room of small gambling house with an illusionist named Horwick. The illusionist was fat, and wore a threadbare red velvet robe, and picked at his teeth endlessly with his over-long pinky fingernail.

"Do you know the goldbrick trick?" Rodrick said.

The illusionist considered the smear of old food stuck on his fingernail and grunted. "You offer to sell someone a gold brick, and at the last minute, you switch it with a lead brick covered in a thin coating of gold leaf. But you don't need an illusionist for that. You barely need a paintbrush."

"I'm working a sort of... variation," Rodrick said. He explained the two things he needed.

Horwick allowed that he could provide those items, if the price was right.

The right price, as Rodrick had expected, was ruinously expensive.

∗∗∗

Rodrick returned to Manius's house with an old sword strapped to his back and a pair of wands tucked away in his shirt. The crusaders were more organized now, clearly preparing for departure, but they still paid no attention to him as he rode up to the front steps. He wandered into the house again—depressed at the lack of small, valuable objects to steal—found the chamberlain, and requested an audience with Manius.

After a while, Manius appeared in the sitting room, which now contained only a single chair, the other having presumably been sold for sword polish or something. Rodrick rose to greet him, noting Hrym's hilt sticking up from scabbard at Manius's belt. "Your talk of crusade moved me," Rodrick said. "I'd like to join your party."

Manius grunted. "We're not on a quest for gold, Rodrick. Only glory."

Rodrick pressed a hand to his chest and put on his most sincere face, one that had charmed the coinpurses off men and the underclothes off women many times. "I've spent the past three days thinking about the empty hollowness of my life, and my need for a greater purpose. Please. Allow me to join you."

"It does my heart good to see you make that choice. My hope for humanity has never been stronger." Manius stroked his chin. "I could send you to report to one of the crusader leaders... but I think I'd like to keep you closer, as part of my personal retinue."

Rodrick beamed. "That would be an honor." He knew it was more likely because Manius didn't trust him and wanted to make sure he didn't steal the horses and provisions, but that was fine. If Rodrick was sleeping in the house, it would spare him having to sneak in later. "How are you, Hrym?"

"The sword is spending the foreseeable future in silent contemplation, marshaling its powers for the great battles ahead," Manius said. "It's just as well—it strikes me as a bit unseemly, having a sword speak."

He can still hear you, Rodrick thought, amazed at the man's arrogance. He seemed to think Hrym was just a curiosity, when the sword was really—

Well, not a person in the normal sense, obviously. But he was still a person.

"We could all probably do with a little less talking," Rodrick said.

∗∗∗

Late that night, Rodrick slipped from his bedroll in the corner of an empty storage closet and crept through the house to Manius's chamber. The door was unguarded, and why not? There was literally an army on the grounds. Rodrick opened the door and slipped in, then waited for his eyes to adjust to the dimness, listening to the rich man's snores from the overstuffed bed in the center of the room. The only light came from the fires outside shining faintly in the windows.

Rodrick was making a terrible habit of sneaking into places where dangerous creatures were sleeping in order to retrieve a magical sword. At least this time he was armed, though he desperately hoped he wouldn't have to stab anyone with the sword on his back.

"Psst," Hrym said. "Rodrick? Is that you? I'm over here."

Rodrick crouch-walked over to a large wooden wardrobe. Hrym was still in his scabbard, slung over the back of a chair. Not even a bed of coins. Rodrick eased the blade out of the scabbard.

"Let me out of this thing, I can't see—" Hrym began, and Rodrick shushed him, listening to Manius mutter in his bed for a moment before deciding he wasn't waking up.

Rodrick drew the old, battered longsword from the sheath on his back and laid it on the ground before him. He felt in his shirt for the right wand—it had a golden band around one end, while the other was plain wood—and withdrew the slim and expensive bit of magic. He touched the wand to the sword, and watched the illusion take hold.

The beaten sword shimmered and turned bluish-white. In a moment, it was a perfect copy of Hrym, sparkling like ice. He then took Hrym out of the scabbard.

"You sly bastard," Hrym said. "It's my spitting image—"

"Your turn," Rodrick whispered, and touched Hrym with the other wand. The sword was transformed into a battered, notched longsword, decidedly unmagical. He shoved the disguised Hrym into his scabbard, ignoring the sword's outraged squawk. Then he placed the false Hrym in Manius's scabbard and hung it back over the chair. Horwick had assured Rodrick that the illusions were long-lasting enough to let Rodrick escape undiscovered with time to spare, but he didn't want to test that.

Rodrick was nearly to the door when he heard the mattress creak. "Who's there?" Manius demanded.

The thief stopped breathing, and tried to think like a shadow. Manius padded over to the chair, drew the false Hrym halfway from the sheath, and grunted. "Still not talking?" He rattled the sword and then shoved it back in the scabbard, sighed, and returned to bed.

Rodrick counted to a hundred fifteen times before he was convinced Manius was asleep again, then slipped into the hallway and away.

∗∗∗

"Do you think he'll realize the sword is fake before or after he tries to charge directly at a demon lord?" Hrym asked as they dawdled along a road many miles south the next day. He'd instructed Rodrick to stick him on the outside of the scabbard on Rodrick's back, and Hrym had frozen himself in place there—that way Hrym could see. Drawing Hrym was a lot easier when he wasn't actually in the scabbard, too. Wearing a longsword strapped on your back made you look impressively dangerous, but it was practically difficult to draw four feet of icy blade from a sheath on your back in a hurry, unless you had freakishly long arms.

"Before, if he's lucky." Rodrick jingled his coinpurse, or tried to; it contained three pieces of copper and one of silver, which didn't make for much of a jingle. He'd had to sell his lovely blue boots, too, and he'd never even walked on water with them. "Wands are damnably expensive, Hrym. I wish I was sure you're worth it."

"The wands still work, don't they? Can't they cast the same spell dozens of time?"

"Well, I suppose, but—" He paused. "You're a genius, sword. I could sell you. Over and over again."

"You could use me to put on a dazzling demonstration, then sell worthless hunks of metal that looked like me," Hrym said.

"Oh, this could work out," Rodrick said.

"We just have to settle how to divvy up the profits," Hrym said. "Since without me there would be no profits, I suggest a ninety-ten split, in my favor."

"Ha! More like ninety-ten in my favor. I'd like to see how much gold you'd make on your own if I stuck you in the bottom of a bog, sword."

They rode on, bickering amicably, into their golden future.

Coming Next Week: A look inside one of Andoran's oddest military units in Neal F. Litherland's "The Irregulars."

Want more? Check out Liar's Blade in paperback or ePub format, or read the story leading up to this one for free in "A Tomb of Winter's Plunder"!

Tim Pratt is the author of the Pathfinder Tales novels Liar's Blade and City of the Fallen Sky, as well as the short story "A Tomb of Winter's Plunder." His writing has won a Hugo Award, a Rhysling Award, and an Emperor Norton Award, as well as been nominated for Nebula, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Stoker Awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies such as The Best American Short Stories and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, as well as two short story collections of his own. His non-Pathfinder novels include the contemporary fantasies The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl and Briarpatch; the Forgotten Realms novel Venom in Her Veins; and seven books in the Marla Mason urban fantasy series (as T. A. Pratt). He edited the anthology Sympathy for the Devil, and Rags & Bones with Melissa Marr. His books and stories have been translated into French, Czech, Dutch, Russian, Greek, Korean, Spanish, German, and several other languages.

Illustration by Greg Opalinski.

Vote for the Next RPG Superstar!

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

The time has come to determine this year's RPG Superstar! For Round 5, each of our Top 4 competitors have submitted a Pathfinder Module adventure proposal. They've rolled with the puches and absorbed feedback from the judges and voters, and now it's time to see who will come out on top!

Matthew Duval - Chicopee, MA Round 5 The Seven Veils Masquerade   Round 4 Mienka's Cauldron   Round 3 Blackwood Drake   Round 2 Everbloom Monk (Monk)   Round 1 Seer's Soap Pedro Coelho - São Paulo, Brazil Round 5 Through the Dream Sands   Round 4 Feer's Crossing   Round 3 Leechroot   Round 2 Water-Born Votary (Monk)   Round 1 Reins of Unstoppable Stride

Scott Fernandez - Allen Park, MI Round 5 The Scrollmaster's Ransom   Round 4 The Pools of Iridescence   Round 3 Yellowtongue Hulk   Round 2 Forecaster (Alchemist)   Round 1 Verdant Crown of Oak and Iron Steven Helt - Tulsa, OK Round 5 The Golden Watch   Round 4 Ssel Asha - Ancient Naga Temple   Round 3 Deadfall Dweller   Round 2 Floodwalker (Witch)   Round 1 Quicksand Cloak

Vote now!

Congratulations again to our Top 4! Your votes will determine the next RPG Superstar and the winning Module proposal!

The ultimate winner of RPG Superstar will be announced on April 2, 2013, and will be writing a Pathfinder Module. Doom Comes to Dustpawn, written by last year's RPG Superstar, Mike Welham, will be releasing this May!

Sean K Reynolds
Designer, RPG Superstar Judge

The First of Many

Monday, March 25, 2013

Illustrations by Yong Yi Lee and Ian Llanas

This month's Pathfinder Society Scenarios send the ever-resourceful agents after two valuable treasure troves, and thanks to its inside information, the society has exclusive access to both sites; however, just because a ruin is long-forgotten does not mean that it is undefended.

Sam Polak's Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-17: Tower of the Ironwood Watch sends the Pathfinders to the edge of the Mierani Forest to explore a lost elven watchtower.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #4-18 The Veteran's Vault, written by former Editorial Intern, Savannah Broadway, sends the operatives to recover an ex-Pathfinder's hidden wealth that she secreted away somewhere in Korvosa five years ago.

This is an exciting month of "firsts" for many reasons. It's the first time that we deal directly with Venture-Captain Sir Canayven Heidmarch, Sheila's husband. Also, not only are these the authors' first Pathfinder Society scenarios that they have written, but they're also the first that I had the privilege to develop. Look for these scenarios later this week.

John Compton
Developer

Pathfinder Comics #1: Part 3

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Get settled and check out new next installment of the Pathfinder comic. We'll be posting the comic from issue #1, for free, with a few cliff-hanging pages each week. Enjoy!

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.

Part 1    Part 2

Pathfinder Battles Preview: Grindy High, Grindylow

Friday, March 22, 2013

This week I'm in Las Vegas for the GAMA Trade Show, an annual meeting of game manufacturers and retailers wherein game publishers show off their new stuff, hatch massive conspiracies with one another, and work with retailers to be better partners in getting our cool game products into the hands of consumers. This year's show has been a wonderful experience, and over the last few days I've spoken with hundreds of retailers with questions, comments, and criticisms about Paizo's products. That's meant a lot of chatting about the Pathfinder Battles miniatures, and I'm pleased to report that the word from folks here is that customers are really loving our figures. The trade show has been an educational experience, and it's convinced me that the next few years are going to be even more exciting for Pathfinder fans than the last few!

And while I've been away from the office, the Pathfinder Battles forces have been marshaling some amazing new figures from the upcoming Skull & Shackles set, scheduled for a summer 2013 release!

This week I'd like to show off three of these neat new minis, the insidious (and probably a little leaky) grindylows!

Grindylows play an important role in the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, as they make great aquatic adversaries for low-level characters. Without the risk of spoilers, I think it's fair to say that your players will be seeing a lot of these guys over the course of the campaign.

With heads and upper bodies that resemble those of goblins and bottom halves more reminiscent of a greasy octopus, grindylows aren't actually goblins, but their teeth and crazy culture make them just as lovable.

But don't take my word for it. Have a look for yourself!

This little critter is the Grindylow, a rank-and-file warrior of his undersea race. Armed with a coral-studded poker and ready to bite your hand off, the Grindylow is a Small figure. Because you'll want a good number of this guy, we've slated him at the common rarity.

Here we have the evil Brinebrood Queen, an appalling grindylow matriarch. You'd better hope she's not pointing at you, because wherever she commands, a swarm of grindylows is likely soon to be!

This figure has a great sculpt and looks amazing in hand (especially the tentacles along her bottom half). She is a Small creature at the rare rarity.

And here we have The Whale, a genetic throwback to a primeval era in which grindylows could grow to any size. Grindylows like The Whale never quite stop growing, and can eventually reach size Huge. This charming gentleman is "merely" Large, and makes a great centerpiece to any grindylow-themed encounter. The Whale is a rare figure.

And that's it for this week. Stay tuned to this space next week for more piratical and aquatic beasties from the upcoming Skull & Shackles set of Pathfinder Battles prepainted figures!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Pathfinder Preview!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

It's Savannah again. The prodigal intern from last summer returns... for Spring Break anyhow. It's been an accidental intern reunion here at Paizo, as my predecessor Jerome is helping out in the warehouse this week. Personally, I think I've got the better end of the deal, since I get to tell you all about some of our upcoming products and how exciting they're looking. So, from the depths of the Editorial Pit and my appropriated computer comes an intern's-eye view (when that view isn't "hiding on pallets from the cave raptors.")

Do you want the power to challenge the gods themselves? Then Mythic Adventures is the book for you! This is the perfect resource to help you take our game up a notch, and give your characters the power to challenge the gods themselves. Mythic Adventures allows you to take up new mythic magic items, artifacts, and legendary items, utilize news feats and spells, and walk one of six mythic paths. However, with mythic heroes also come mythic foes, and this book has over 40 of them, including mythic versions of the minotaur and the medusa!

Next up is the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Demons Revisited. This book showcases some of Pathfinder's most vicious and well-known demons and provides in-depth information, such as what sins they arise from. The balor, the succubus, and the vrock are among the demons mentioned here, but Demons Revisited doesn't stop there! There are a list of named demons, some of them from previous Pathfinder products, and some of them brand new, but each of them unique in their own horrendously cruel ways. This can help to add some spice to the conjurations of your villains (or your PCs) and nothing says "personal" quite like a named summons. As an added bonus, this book ties in with the upcoming Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path!

Speaking of Wrath of the Righteous, The Worldwound Incursion is also up for August. One of the most exciting aspects of this Adventure Path is that it is the first to utilize the rules of Mythic Adventures, making it a truly epic adventure! On top of that, there will be six demon lords featured in Wrath of the Righteous, and the first of them will be in The Worldwound Incursion's bestiary.

Continuing our demonic theme is Pathfinder Player Companion: Demon Hunter's Handbook. This book explains exactly how to eradicate or control demonkind through might or magic. To help, there are all sorts of archetypes, feats, spells, and magic items to give you just what you need to take care of the vilest of demons and purge them from the land (or take their power for yourself...). Don't travel to the Abyss without one!

For the fans of steampunk out there comes Wardens of the Reborn Forge by Paizo's own Patrick Renie. This module takes place in the Grand Duchy of Alkenstar, which has withstood the ravages of the Mana Wastes thanks to the amazing inventions of its citizenry. When the clockwork guardians start attacking the townspeople, though, the power balance of the city is thrown into disarray. Can our heroes discover the cause behind these attacks and save Alkenstar from itself?

In case you were wondering about what you were going play some of these awesome adventures on, you can look no further than the Pathfinder Map Pack: Evil Ruins for all of your creepy, dungeon-crawling needs! From spider haunts to profane altars to overflowing ossuaries, this map pack brings all the horror and dark ambiance of unhallowed ruins to your game.

If frightening ruins aren't what your game calls for, then the Flip-Mat: Basic Terrain Multi-Pack might be just what you need. Its full-color textures include grassland, stone floor, street, and water. It also folds up to be travel sized, making it great for the GM on the go.

If you haven't had enough of demons yet, then I'd suggest that you check out the new Pathfinder Tales novel from fan-favorite (and intern-favorite) author Dave Gross: King of Chaos. This is another adventure featuring Count Varian Jeggare and his wisecracking hellspawn bodyguard, Radovan. This time they find themselves mixed up in the battle at the Worldwound as the demons break free of the wardstones. In addition to being an excellent book with interesting characters, King of Chaos is also a great resource for those who are running or playing Wrath of the Righteous.

To round out our Worldwound-themed August comes a new set of Pathfinder Item Cards. These cards represent the trove of treasure that characters can amass, as well as the medals that heroes can earn in their service against the demon hordes and the legendary artifacts that they will need to defeat the Abyssal armies.

From Paizo's collaboration with Lone Shark Games comes an entirely new breed of game: The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Rise of the Runelords Base Set. This is a cooperative card game for one to four players. Choose a class and select your cards to create a unique character to play through your first adventure, the Burnt Offerings Adventure Deck. If you want even more card game goodness, then check out the Rise of the Runelords Character Add-On Deck, which adds on 110 cards worth of new classes (including druid, monk, paladin, and my favorite, barbarian), new items, and enough cards to expand to five or six players.

All right, well that's a wrap. Let's hope that writing this was a good enough offering that I don't get thrown to the cave raptors. Hope you enjoy all the new products!

Savannah Broadway
Editorial Intern

Bastard, Sword

by Tim Pratt

Chapter Three: Rich Man's Crusade

Rodrick threw the lantern at the dwarf's head. It bounced off the miner's helmet, but didn't deter the attack.

"Use me!" Hrym shouted.

Rodrick lifted the sword defensively. As he swung the blade, an arc of whiteness flew from its tip and struck the dwarf just below the knees. The miner's forward movement instantly halted, and he swayed like a young sapling, his boots and calves frozen to the tunnel floor—which didn't stop him from swinging his axe wildly, to the limit of his reach.

"I'll just, ah, be going." Rodrick moved carefully around the dwarf, then followed the slanting tunnel upward at a brisk jog.

What other miners they encountered were quick to drop their swords and flee, and a short while later Rodrick and Hrym emerged into a bustling mining camp. They sidled toward the edge of the settlement and then hared off into the trees, following a ridgeline up and away. Once they'd reached high-ish ground, Rodrick looked around in hopes of finding his bearings. The barrow was in the hills of northern Andoran, east of Darkmoon Vale, but he wasn't sure how far he'd gone underground. But if the gloomy spire of Droskar's Crag was over there, then that was west, and so...

"Are you lost?" Hrym said.

"Only until I find a road," Rodrick replied, and set off downhill in what he suspected to be the direction most likely to lead to civilization. After a while they hooked up with a dirt track—probably the one that led to the mining camp—and Rodrick proceeded with more confidence. They were sure to encounter a village soon, or someone they could beg a ride from.

"So what are you really?" Hrym said as they—or, rather, Rodrick—trudged along.

"I can't imagine what you mean."

"You say you're an adventurer. You're certainly no fighter, though—when holding a sword in one hand and a lantern in the other, your first instinct is to defend yourself with the lantern? I would therefore assume you're a thief, but I saw you skulking in the cavern, and you're equally awful at stealth—"

"Please, your flattery will overwhelm me. I do wish I had a scabbard to shove you into." He switched Hrym to his left hand and stretched out the cramped fingers of his right. Carrying a sword for this long was grueling, even if Hrym was lighter than most blades his size. "As you can see, I look like a fighter—"

"Humans look mostly like fuzzy blobs of varying hues to me, I'm afraid."

Rodrick sighed. "Take me at my word, then—I am long of limb, broad of shoulder, wide of chest, mighty of thew, and so on. Reasonably mighty, anyway. I am blessed with a certain natural athleticism, though admittedly devoid of skill or training in battle, because people get hurt in battles, and I have no interest in getting hurt. But looking as I do makes it easy for me to be hired as a caravan guard, or personal bodyguard, or member of an adventuring party—"

"And once there, in the midst of your trusted allies, you wait for the opportune moment to steal whatever you can and escape in the night?"

"Do I detect a note of judgment in your voice, sword?"

Many nobles fancy themselves warriors, but most warriors would rather be nobles.

"Not at all. I'm interested in ends, not means. And I'm only interested in ends when those ends are gold."

Rodrick laughed. "You and I could get along, sword. A shame I've promised you to someone else."

"You could just steal me, though," Hrym said reasonably. "In fact, by not stealing me, you're violating your own habits. You might even be accused of doing an honest day's labor."

"Oh, I had to cheat a few people to get into the barrow, don't worry—I kept in practice. And what are you saying, anyway? You'd give up your spot in a rich man's treasure-heap?"

"I'm not volunteering to join you, no, though this has been entertaining—at least compared to being jammed beneath a linnorm's belly. I'm just wondering why you don't seize an object of my obvious value. An intelligent sword of living ice, capable of speech and great feats of magic—whatever this rich man's paying you, I'm worth more in your hand."

"Ah, and if I were truly a fighter and adventurer, I'm sure I'd never dream of giving you up. But to succeed in my chosen venture, I benefit from a certain amount of anonymity. I can easily disappear into a crowd after committing a morally questionable act—assuming it's a sufficiently handsome crowd—and alter my speech, mannerisms, and mode of dress well enough to elude detection. But if I started carrying around a loud-mouthed sword with a blade of shimmering blue-white crystal, word would get around. I might even, allow me to shudder at the thought, become famous."

"You might have to change your ways a bit, I suppose," Hrym said.

"You wouldn't suggest I try actually being a fighter."

"No, no. You'd just have to get better at cheating people and stealing from them—ideally leaving them unaware they'd been cheated at all, at least until you'd said your farewells and ridden into the next country. I'd be good for you. I'd force you to become more cunning, and elevate your practice."

"Alas, we'll never know." Rodrick shaded his eyes and looked down the ridge. "Aha! I know that village. I can get a sheath for you there, and a horse, and room for the night." He yawned. "And then take advantage of a bed. Being drugged in a barrow doesn't count as a good night's sleep."

"I don't like sheathes," Hrym said. "And you'd better not spend all the gold you stole on horses and beds and things—you'll need to scatter a nice layer of coins for me to rest upon while you sleep."

"You are a very odd weapon, Hrym."

∗∗∗

The sword drew quite a few glances before Rodrick bought a sheathe and convinced Hrym it was better to be temporarily hidden than to become a target for ambitious bandits. They settled in an inn Rodrick had visited before and bedded down for the night. Normally when so flush with coin Rodrick would not have been alone in that bed, but the thought of inviting one of the village's more adventurous ladies up to his room while Hrym rested in a drawer on a thin scattering of coins was too embarrassing to contemplate. Yet another good reason he and the sword shouldn't travel together.

And yet, they stayed up into the night, talking. In the dark, it wasn't so strange to chat with an intelligent sword; they were just a couple of rogues swapping stories of past exploits. Rodrick's tales were mostly wildly exaggerated, and he assumed Hrym's were, too. Even so, the sword's laziness and avarice—and the heroic efforts he was willing to expend in hopes of future laziness, while wielded by men far more ambitious than Hrym himself—were truly inspiring.

The last thing Hrym said before Rodrick fell asleep was, "My great tragedy is that I'm so attractive to conquerors, crusaders, and heroes, when by temperament I'd be a better companion for a treacherous, self-interested hedonist like you."

"You say the nicest things, sword," Rodrick said, and closed his eyes.

∗∗∗

The next day Rodrick bought a sweet-tempered horse and they rode down out of the hills east of Darkmoon Vale, toward the fertile valleys south of the Andoshen River, where Rodrick's employer Manius lived. The rich man's family had been nobility back in the days when Andoran had such things, and in the years since had managed to recreate the conditions of nobility by buying up farm- and timberland, amassing quite a fortune. He lived in a grand house surrounded by green fields, with a stand of personal forest spreading green and wild beyond—

Or at least he had last time Rodrick was here. Rodrick reined in his horse and stood staring across the fields.

"What?" Hrym said, voice muffled inside the scabbard. "Are we there yet?"

"Ah, nearly," Rodrick said.

The fields were trampled and full of tents, with armored men milling among them. The miniature forest was greatly reduced, and the sounds of hammering and sawing and cart-building suggested what had become of those noble old trees. Smoke rose from the house's four chimneys, and from at least two makeshift forges. Rodrick, never comfortable entering camps of armed men without a good reason, eased his horse forward. None of the soldiers challenged him, even as he passed among the tents and proceeded to the house. A harried-looking man stood near the front door, directing various servants, and Rodrick recognized him as Manius's head of household.

"Hail," Rodrick said. "I've returned from my mission—"

The chamberlain—or whatever his title was—squinted at Rodrick, then brightened. "Ah! The master was just wondering if you ever intended to return. We'll see to your horse—you go on inside. The butler will arrange an audience."

"If you don't mind me asking," Rodrick began, "why is there an army on the—" But the man had already hurried away.

The butler didn't open the door at Rodrick's knock, so the thief just let himself in. The interior of the place had changed greatly, too—the beautiful rugs were gone, leaving bare wood behind, and the artwork was gone from the walls. He wandered on the first floor until he found the butler, who stuck him in a drawing room that still possessed a couple of chairs and told him to wait. Hrym complained of being in the sheath, so Rodrick drew him forth and leaned him against the other chair.

"This doesn't look like the opulent palace you led me to expect," Hrym said suspiciously.

Rodrick spread his hands. "It was a rich man's mansion last time I was here, I assure you. I can't speak for what's going on now—"

"What's going on," said Manius, stepping in and shutting the door after him, "is preparation for a crusade." Manius was in his early fifties, with graying hair, a lined and serious face; and the bearing of a warrior ascetic. He wore the sort of clothes that seemed ordinary unless you noticed how perfectly they were cut and tailored to his form. His eyes fell upon Hrym, and widened. "Rodrick. You succeeded. You brought me the blade of ice!"

"I did," Rodrick said. "With great effort and considerable peril, and even loss of life among the hirelings who assisted me, and—"

"You will be duly compensated." Manius stepped forward, then paused. "Does, ah—does it truly speak?"

"I do," Hrym said. "You may address me directly."

"Remarkable!" Manius said, still talking to Rodrick. "One of my ancestors saw this blade in battle, wielded by Brant Selmy—"

"Oh, I hated him," Hrym said. "Never knew how to relax. Until he died. Buried me in his tomb with him. But I suppose you know that."

Manius knelt, took Hrym by the hilt, and raised him up, staring at the shimmering blade. Rodrick felt an unexpected twinge at seeing the sword in another man's hand.

"Beautiful," Manius murmured. "You will be the death of many a demon."

"Demons?" Hrym and Rodrick said at the same time.

"Oh, yes," Manius said. "It's the reason I wanted this sword. My life has been one of idleness and pointless pleasure for far too long. I decided that I need to make my mark on the world before I die. And so I've spent every penny I've inherited and earned to gather and provision an army of crusaders to go north, where we will face the demon-infested nightmare land men call the Worldwound." He held up Hrym. "We leave in one week. And with this sword, I hope to slay a demon lord with my own hand."

Coming Next Week: The final chapter of Tim Pratt's "Bastard, Sword"!

Want more? Check out Liar's Blade in paperback or ePub format, or read the story leading up to this one for free in "A Tomb of Winter's Plunder"!

Tim Pratt is the author of the Pathfinder Tales novels Liar's Blade and City of the Fallen Sky, as well as the short story "A Tomb of Winter's Plunder." His writing has won a Hugo Award, a Rhysling Award, and an Emperor Norton Award, as well as been nominated for Nebula, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Stoker Awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies such as The Best American Short Stories and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, as well as two short story collections of his own. His non-Pathfinder novels include the contemporary fantasies The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl and Briarpatch; the Forgotten Realms novel Venom in Her Veins; and seven books in the Marla Mason urban fantasy series (as T. A. Pratt). He edited the anthology Sympathy for the Devil, and Rags & Bones with Melissa Marr. His books and stories have been translated into French, Czech, Dutch, Russian, Greek, Korean, Spanish, German, and several other languages.

Illustration by Greg Opalinski.

Five Awesome Things about the Dungeoneer's Handbook

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Get out of the tavern and into the treasure with Pathfinder Player Companion: Dungeoneer's Handbook! Since this book is just over the horizon, I thought I'd treat you all with a sneak preview of what I think are just a couple of the coolest parts about this dungeon-delving must-have.

1. Dungeon Guides! Found yourself more lost than a bat in an area of silence? Never fear with dungeon guides! Each of these tomes is keyed to a specific adventure location and can help dungeon delvers figure out what kinds of dangers might lurk around the next corner. Bibliophilic dungeoneers should be wary however, for the veracity of these volumes is variable, and those who rely too frequently on their supposedly trusty tour book might discover only too late the flights of fancy implicit in these over-the-top tomes!
2. New Alchemical Items! With such items as glowing gel-tubes, pebbles that expand into boulders with water, and smoke pellets that cover invisible creatures with sticky black resin, the aspiring trickster need look no further than the cornucopia of alchemical items unveiled in this volume. Oh, and did we mention new alchemist discoveries for those bomb-slinging partisans of all things potable?
3. Essential Tips and Tricks! Discover solutions to common dungeoneering quandaries with sections on monsters, traps, and treasure. Whether your task involves outsmarting the minotaur guard, throwing an unwitting foe into a suspected swinging blade trap, or figuring out how to haul all that booty back to town, Dungeoneer's Handbook will have you covered with clever advice, helpful suggestions, and brand new feats!
4. New Hirelings! Who's taking care of your horses outside while you're excavating that kobold-infested mineshaft, anyway? Wonder no more with handy new hirelings—NPCs that specialize in making your dungeoneering career a lucrative one while you concentrate on the action.
5. Archetypes, Spells, and More! With new magic items, spells, archetypes, feats, traits, equipment, and more, this book will leave every crypt delver and tomb raider fully prepared for their next dungeon visit!

Illustrations by Ben Wootten

Pathfinder Player Companion: Dungeoneer's Handbook comes out this month, so don't wait for the gelatinous cube to swallow your character before it's too late—order your copy now!

Patrick Renie
Developer

Pathfinder Comics #1: Part 2

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Get settled and check out new next installment of the Pathfinder comic. We'll be posting the comic from issue #1, for free, with a few cliff-hanging pages each week. Enjoy!

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.

Click here to read Part 1.

Pathfinder Battles Preview: A Motley Crew

Friday, March 15, 2013

WizKids secret agents have been making multiple weekly trips to Paizo these days, and each time they show up they have a chest full of pirate's treasure. Ok, that's not true, but for nerds like me it's pretty close. In fact they've been bringing over the latest paint masters for figures in this summer's Skull & Shackles set of Pathfinder Battles miniatures, and man, they shine like the brightest gold to these old pirate eyes!

The new set supports the popular Skull & Shackles Adventure Path, and provides a host of creatures that have never before appeared in prepainted plastic (many of which, I might add, came from suggestions from the Pathfinder faithful—so keep those requests coming!). This week I present a motley, more or less random assortment of figures from the set.

Up first is Selissa, a young aquatic naga pushed into the "civilized" lands of the Shackles isles by unusually dry conditions in her usual river habitats. That means she's hungry and desperate, and ready to bite a chunk of refreshing meat from your player characters.

Selissa is an interesting figure because she's size Medium, one step smaller than standard aquatic nagas. One of the cool things about basing these sets on actual characters from actual adventures is that it gives us a chance to do some oddball figures that maybe wouldn't make sense in a more "generic" set.

The figure looks amazing in hand, with vibrant blues and greens and an aquatic shine that adds an extra layer of creepiness.

"But she's the wrong size!" some might exclaim. "Why didn't you include a Large aquatic naga in the set?"

To which I'd reply. "She's the right size for Selissa, and a cool figure to boot. You'll just have to wait a bit longer to see the Large version that's ALSO in this set!"

Up next we have a classic creature of fantasy gaming that to my knowledge has never before been produced in prepainted plastic. We call this Large abomination Shimerae, and in the Skull & Shackles Adventure Path she's the beloved pet (and convenient poison source) for a nasty alchemist.

In the real world, she's an amazing, amazing miniature that I can't wait to throw up against my hated enemies (by which I mean my players).

But it wouldn't be a proper Skull & Shackles preview without a kick-ass pirate, and this week we've got a baddy who you really don't want to run into on the open sea. I give you Arronax Endymion, Lord of Hell Harbor and renegade former commander of the Fourth Fleet of Imperial Cheliax. That didn't turn out for him, and now he ranks among the most powerful pirate lords of the Shackles Isles.

I think he also makes a nice sub for any kind of naval officer or player character with a naval background. By the time we're done with this set, you'll be able to pair him up with tons of different pirate lords OR team him up with Chelish naval officers, all of whom will be sailing into view in the coming weeks.

You can make sure you get all of these figures by setting up an Ongoing Pathfinder Battles Subscription today!

The set is scheduled for a summer release, so start getting your sea legs. There's a long and exciting voyage ahead!

Erik Mona
Publisher

The Price of Freedom

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Illustration by Grafit Studio

The next installment of the Pathfinder Modules line, Broken Chains, is set to release this month, and a lot of you have been asking on the messageboards about how well this module fits into a Legacy of Fire game, particularly while pairing it with Pathfinder Adventure Path #21: The Jackal's Price. As it turns out, Broken Chains is a perfect fit for PCs playing through the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path, and can easily be incorporated into the campaign as an expansion to The Jackal's Price, building upon the urban intrigue set forth in the adventure and being highly compatible with that volume's article on the markets of Katapesh.

While GMs will hardly find it difficult to combine the perils of Broken Chains with the events of The Jackal's Price, here are a couple suggestions for readers hoping to run both adventures in concert.

Spoiler:

• Adjusting CRs: Broken Chains is designed for 6th-level PCs, whereas PCs playing through the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path should be 7th level by the time they start The Jackal's Price. Increasing the quantity of enemies per encounter throughout Broken Chains can easily increase the difficulty of combat. If the PCs are still 6th level by the time they start playing through The Jackal's Price, all the better, since running this module before delving into that volume's content is a snap. Alternatively, since 6th-level PCs likely gain a level near the end of the module, many of the foes fought throughout the latter half of Broken Chains are perfectly suited for 7th-level characters—making it easy to simply skip the first half of the adventure and go into the harder stuff.
• Incorporating the Nightstalls: The first part of Broken Chains takes place in a slave auctioning house known as the Garden of Chains, located on the outskirts of the Twilight Gate district in Katapesh. While the auction house's nefarious wares are solicited primarily during the day, it wouldn't be hard to incorporate the gritty nature of the Nightstalls (described in detail starting on page 58 of The Jackal's Price) into this establishment, further lending it an air of cruelty and unjustness. If Broken Chains would likely be too easy for your group of expert players, plunging the events of the auction house into darkness can certainly make for a more challenging visit!
• Incorporating NPCs: The Jackal's Price and Broken Chains are both rife with new and interesting NPCs that can easily be dropped into either adventure. From brooding slave hunters and crazed pesh addicts to undercover Andoran agents and monstrous slavers, the personages encountered throughout Broken Chains make perfect accompaniments to those in a Legacy of Fire campaign and vice-versa.

Broken Chains is sure to win the hearts of anyone who appreciates an adventure rife with vigilante justice, dungeon delving, and Katapeshi lore. For even more information on the trade capital of eastern Garund, be sure to check out Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Dark Markets, A Guide to Katapesh and the entire Legacy of Fire Adventure Path while getting ready for this highly anticipated Tim Hitchcock adventure!

Patrick Renie
Developer

Bastard, Sword

by Tim Pratt

Chapter Two: Serpent and Bow

Rodrick dropped the bell and scrambled toward the slope that led back to the barrow. The linnorm uncoiled with impossible speed, and suddenly its head filled Rodrick's vision, blocking his route to the treasure room.

The miniature snowstorm Rodrick had accidentally spawned with the bell sent snowflakes spiraling all around, limiting visibility, but not enough to matter at this range. The coins and stones beneath the soles of his feet were icy, so cold Rodrick worried he'd lose his toes to frostbite—and then realized such a worry was the least of his problems, as he was standing nose-to-snout with a linnorm.

Rodrick had never seen a dragon or dragon-type creature in person, but this one looked more or less like the statues and drawings of such creatures: a huge reptilian head with twisted horns, immense black eyes, and a mouth full of teeth like broken daggers. It was unmistakably an apex predator of such power and size that Rodrick would barely count as a mouthful.

He froze, still holding Hrym aloft, as the creature gazed at him. It opened its jaws, and Rodrick prepared himself to be bitten in half. The preparation mostly involved whimpering and trembling.

Instead, the creature began to draw in a vast breath. Rodrick's relief lasted only for an instant. Could linnorms breathe fire, or ice, or poison, as their less snakelike cousins the dragons did?

At least it would be a quick death, Rodrick thought. Not as good as no death, but better than many of the other alternatives.

"Point me at the beast!" Hrym shouted.

Rodrick complied, though it was more of an involuntary muscle spasm than a conscious effort.

A cone of swirling, bluish-white crystals shot forth from the point of the sword, and the blade sent up great billows of freezing white mist. The linnorm disappeared in the torrent of ice, and when Hrym ceased his frigid attack, the beast's head was encased in an irregular ball of ice the size of a boulder. The linnorm's body began to whip around wildly, and Rodrick threw himself to one side—careful to keep his grip on the sword—to avoid being crushed by the creature's coils. The boots wrapped around his neck nearly strangled him in the process, but he managed to cram himself against the cavern wall.

The linnorm's ice-encrusted head slammed into the wall that led to the treasure room, smashing down enough rocks to block access to the barrow. Rodrick whimpered again—he was doing a lot of that lately. Trapped in a cavern, in a magical ice storm, barefoot, with a furious linnorm lashing around. The day just got better and better.

The torch he'd jammed into the coins was dislodged by the beast's lashings, and it came sliding down the mound of treasure toward Rodrick. He scooted away on his butt to avoid having his feet set on fire, then picked up the torch. It flickered weakly, its fuel nearly extinguished. The thought of being trapped here blind was too horrible to contemplate.

The linnorm continued to bash its head against the cavern wall, trying to break the armor of ice before it suffocated. Rodrick wondered if it would die or escape before causing the entire cavern to cave in.

"Good thing it's a mountain linnorm," Hrym said. "They breathe fire—or, actually, molten rock. Ice linnorms are immune to my powers."

"How fortunate," Rodrick rasped. He struggled to his feet, shivering in the cold. "We have to kill the beast before it collapses the whole cavern on top of us."

"I wouldn't recommend that," Hrym said. "When linnorms die, they curse their killers. Don't you think your luck is bad enough already?"

"I'd rather be cursed and alive than blessed and dead, sword."

"Hmm," Hrym said. "You make a point. Being an immortal magical sword, I don't usually see things in those terms. There is another option, though."

The ball of ice encrusting the linnorm's head began to glow deeply red, like an immense ruby. Rodrick realized the monster was trying to use its breath weapon—magical lava-breath versus magical ice. Which would prevail?

"Don't you want to hear about the other option—"

"Yes, yes, of course!" Rodrick shouted.

"We could just leave."

"The monster has sealed off the entry to the barrow—"

Never get between a dwarf and his ore.

"Yes, I can see, you know, even if I don't have eyes. I don't mean we can leave that way. There's a tunnel toward the back of the chamber, probably too small for the linnorm to fit through. But a tiny little humanoid like you—"

Rodrick was moving before the sword even finished speaking. The cavern was brighter now, with the monster's fiery breath shining through the prism of ice around its head, casting rays of ruby light all around—and revealing a spot of deeper shadow in one wall, a tunnel big enough for Rodrick to fit through if he crouched.

Once outside the main cavern, the horrible biting cold diminished. Rodrick's spine protested as he shuffled along bent forward, torch in one hand, icy sword in the other, following the curving contours of the tunnel. Behind him there was a great thump, and the sound of cascading rock. He paused and looked back in time to see the mouth of the tunnel go totally black, sealed off by a cave collapse.

"Is it dead?" he asked.

"I don't know," Hrym said. "Do you feel cursed?"

"Now that you mention it... But wouldn't you be the one to get cursed?"

"I believe traditionally the wielder of a weapon is held to be the responsible party, not the weapon itself."

Rodrick grunted. He leaned Hrym against the tunnel wall, jammed the spluttering torch into a scree of small stones, and sat down on a flattish outcropping of rock. He crammed his feet—they felt like lumps of ice—into the magical boots, which shifted and squirmed to fit his feet perfectly. He leaned against the wall with his eyes closed and exhaled. "It's good to be alive."

"I wouldn't know."

The thief opened one eye. "You can shoot ice, then. That's handy."

"Oh, that's just a small part of what I can do. I hail from the north, and all things of frost, ice, and cold are within my power."

"I don't suppose you can withdraw cold? My ears are freezing."

"No, but I could make the rest of you even colder, to make the ears seem warm in comparison."

"I think I'll pass," Rodrick said. "Do you have any other tricks? Glowing in the presence of evil, flying around and fighting on your own, things like that?"

"Total elemental mastery of ice isn't enough for you?"

"Yes, well. Hmm. So you can't move on your own, then. You need a wielder. Someone to carry you around."

"Yes, humans are to me as horses are to humans."

"Ha. Horses aren't the ones who decide where to go, though."

The sword's voice grew harder. "A man who tries to take me somewhere I don't wish to go will find himself with his hand frozen off, adventurer. And now that we're on the subject, I don't want to be carried around—I want to rest on a heap of treasure. Specifically the untold riches I was promised. Shouldn't we be on our way?"

"Do you know a way out of this black cave, then?"

"I barely knew there was a tunnel. I just remembered glimpsing this one when the linnorm dragged me into his hoard. Aren't you living creatures attuned to subtle drafts and currents of air and so forth?"

"Not especially." Rodrick stood up, his head brushing the top of the tunnel. "But it's not as if we're faced with a wealth of choices. This tunnel only goes in one direction."

"If you die and leave me stuck in some dark hole with no gold I will be very annoyed."

"I'm sure knowledge of your unhappiness will make my afterlife miserable, sword."

Rodrick picked up the sword and the torch and made his way along the tunnel, trying in vain to feel a waft of air suggesting a route to the upper world. He also did his best to avoid facing the possibility that he might simply be sealed in the dark forever, plunging ever deeper, eventually starving to death. The torch's light grew ever more inconstant and flickering as he progressed, and he wondered how long he'd be able to force himself to keep going once the light was gone, and he was inching along by feel—

"Do you hear that?" Hrym said.

Rodrick cocked his head. He did hear something—a distant sort of knocking, seemingly coming from the rock wall before him. "It's not the linnorm," he said. "That's still behind us, unless I've become hopelessly turned around."

"Jam me in that crack in the rock," Hrym said. "As far in as you can."

"As you wish." Rodrick shoved the point of the sword into a fissure in the wall. "Now what—"

The exposed length of sword began to steam and billow mist, and ice crystals poured out of the hole. Cracks spread across the wall, like thin ice breaking over a pond, as magical frost filled every minute fissure and pushed it wider.

"If you bury me, you stupid sword—"

The wall collapsed inward in a cascade of frozen stone, and Hrym stopped steaming mist. A hole three feet across yawned open at chest height, light glowing on the other side. A man with a filthy face, holding a pickaxe, gaped in astonishment at Rodrick.

"Hi there," the thief said, clambering through the hole, leaving the torch behind. "A miner, are you? Good man. I have only the greatest admiration for those who wrestle wealth from the very bowels of the world—"

"Are you mining for gold?" Hrym said. "Answer me, man!"

The miner stared, wide-eyed, at the talking sword, then dropped his pickaxe and ran away, leaving a sack and a lantern behind with his tools.

"Hmm," Rodrick said. "We may as well follow him. I doubt he's running in terror deeper into the mine, so he's probably headed for the surface."

"I don't see anything shiny at all," Hrym said. "They must be mining something boring here."

Rodrick picked up the lantern and began to walk, whistling, through the tunnel. "Things are looking up, sword. You'll be resting on a bed of gold in no time, and more importantly, so will I—"

A dwarf stepped from a side tunnel and into Rodrick's path. He wore a miner's helmet set with a magical glowing gem, and held a battleaxe with a head approximately as large as his own chest.

"Breaking into my mine?" he rumbled. "Trying to steal from me? Nobody steals from me! This mine is mine!"

"You don't—" Rodrick began, but then the dwarf was coming at him, axe held high.

Coming Next Week: Finder's fees and disillusionment in Chapter Three of Tim Pratt's "Bastard, Sword"!

Want more? Check out Liar's Blade in paperback or ePub format, or read the story leading up to this one for free in "A Tomb of Winter's Plunder"!

Tim Pratt is the author of the Pathfinder Tales novels Liar's Blade and City of the Fallen Sky, as well as the short story "A Tomb of Winter's Plunder." His writing has won a Hugo Award, a Rhysling Award, and an Emperor Norton Award, as well as been nominated for Nebula, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Stoker Awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies such as The Best American Short Stories and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, as well as two short story collections of his own. His non-Pathfinder novels include the contemporary fantasies The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl and Briarpatch; the Forgotten Realms novel Venom in Her Veins; and seven books in the Marla Mason urban fantasy series (as T. A. Pratt). He edited the anthology Sympathy for the Devil, and Rags & Bones with Melissa Marr. His books and stories have been translated into French, Czech, Dutch, Russian, Greek, Korean, Spanish, German, and several other languages.

Illustration by Greg Opalinski.

RPG Superstar: Top 4 Announced!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The votes are in, and the Top 4 competitors in RPG Superstar 2013 have been chosen!

Matthew Duval - Chicopee, MA Round 4 Mienka's Cauldron   Round 3 Blackwood Drake   Round 2 Everbloom Monk (Monk)   Round 1 Seer's Soap Pedro Coelho - São Paulo, Brazil Round 4 Feer's Crossing   Round 3 Leechroot   Round 2 Water-Born Votary (Monk)   Round 1 Reins of Unstoppable Stride

Scott Fernandez - Allen Park, MI Round 4 The Pools of Iridescence   Round 3 Yellowtongue Hulk   Round 2 Forecaster (Alchemist)   Round 1 Verdant Crown of Oak and Iron Steven Helt - Tulsa, OK Round 4 Ssel Asha - Ancient Naga Temple   Round 3 Deadfall Dweller   Round 2 Floodwalker (Witch)   Round 1 Quicksand Cloak

Congratulations to the Top 4! Now is the time to double down in their efforts and write a proposal for an exciting adventure that'll impress the judges and the voters. Check back on March 26, 2013, to view the final entries for RPG Superstar 2013!

The ultimate winner of RPG Superstar will be announced on April 2, 2013, and will be writing a Pathfinder Module. Doom Comes to Dustpawn, written by last year's RPG Superstar, Mike Welham, will be releasing this May!

Sean K Reynolds
Designer, RPG Superstar Judge

Welcome to Whitethrone!

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Illustration by Jason Rainville

Enjoy the splendid weather! Taste the local flavor!* Meet new and interesting people!

Anyone who said Whitethrone isn't safe is just spreading some sort of propaganda. All are welcome in Whitethrone. Ice trolls, goblins, and winter wolves walk the streets and the White Witches make sure that everything runs smoothly. The only thing to be careful of are rabble-rousers and dissidents.**

Subscriber's shipments are on their way and before long GMs and players all over can eagerly dig into The Shackled Hut, the second volume of the Reign of Winter Adventure Path, for all their witch-fighting fun!

Illustrations by Miguel Regodón and Dmitry Burmak

Adam Daigle
Developer

* On second thought, you should probably stick to your rations. You brought rations, right?
** PCs should disregard this. Instead, be careful being the rabble-rousers and dissidents. There's a world to save and we don't need any PCs dying on us.

Animals and Their Tricks

Monday, March 11, 2013

Illustration by Emily Fiegenschuh

One thing the Venture-Officers and I have noticed is that there tend to be questions that continually come up on the messageboards about pushing animals to do something, animals using trained tricks, and other such issues regarding animal companions, familiars, etc. The newly released Animal Archive added several new tricks that a lot of GMs were hand-waving. I received numerous emails asking for clarification. Instead of replying to each email separately, I thought the community could be better served with a blog post.

The Ontario Venture-Captain, Adam Mogyordi, has written Mergy's Methods in the past and posted on both paizo.com messageboards and the Southern Ontario Pathfinder Lodge website. Not only have these been popular, but players have advised they have been very helpful articles to explain confusing rules and the like. I reached out to Adam and he was thrilled to write something to help clear up some common confusions players and GMs might have about animal companions. Thanks, Adam! Below is the article he wrote for the Pathfinder Society community.

Animal Archive gives druids and other pet classes a wide range of new options. To utilize these options, a review of the basics is a good place to start. Today I want to go over some of the rules that go with handling an animal for GMs and players. There are some benchmarks Handle Animal users need to meet, and I also have some tips for handlers and their GMs.

New Tricks: There are 18 new tricks available in Animal Archive, and some of these may be taken more than once! But while you now have much more freedom in what your pet can know how to do (my personal favorite new one is Bombard), there is also a side to this that some players may find displeasing. The addition of a Flank trick and an Aid trick means that pets do not, by default, know how to perform these, even if they know the Attack trick. If you command your companion to attack, it will take the most direct route. If you want your companion to always flank, you now need the Flank trick. If your companion doesn't know one of these tricks, pushing your companion with a successful DC 25 Handle Animal check is also an option.

Handling Your Companion: Some players and GMs hand-wave this, but it's important to note that just because your pet knows a trick doesn't mean it can perform the trick on command. Animal companions certainly cannot read your character's mind, and that's why we need to use the Handle Animal skill. A trick the animal knows is DC 10 and is a move action. A trick it does not know is a full-round action at DC 25. There are, however, a few ways to make this easier.

Druids and other classes with the animal companion feature get a +4 circumstance bonus when handling their own companion from the Link class feature. This also allows them to handle an animal as a free action, or use a move action to push the animal. Keep in mind you may still only perform the free action on your turn, so even if your animal wins initiative, it's not going to automatically do what you want before can you order it.

With Link, we can set some benchmark numbers a companion class needs. The DC to command an animal to perform a trick it knows is only 10, but this increases to 12 if the animal is injured or has taken nonlethal or ability score damage. With the +4 bonus from Link, the magic Handle Animal modifier you want to hit is +5. If you have a +5 modifier at level 1, you are guaranteed to always command your uninjured animal companion (the number for an injured companion is +7). GMs may wish to log what the player's Handle Animal skill is at the start of the game so that they know when to ask for a roll.

Smart Kitty: If you have increased your animal companion's intelligence score to 3 using various means, then great! You can now have your companion learn any feat it can physically perform, and it can put ranks into any skill. What this increase does not accomplish, however, is any advantage in commanding your companion whatsoever. It's still the same DC 10 to handle and DC 25 to push. It may still only learn six tricks plus your druid bonus tricks. However, for every point of Intelligence it gains above 2, that is three more tricks it can learn. A smart animal will have more versatility without needing to rely on pushing.

Why druids don't dump Charisma?: So how do we reliably overcome DCs like 25 at reasonable levels? I think Skill Focus (Handle Animal) is certainly an option for some druids who see themselves as dedicated animal companion users. There is also the training harness item from page 76 of the Advanced Race Guide that will give you another +2 bonus on these checks. The most important thing is to not dump Charisma. If your druid has a Charisma score of 7, you are likely looking at a 20% chance of your animal ignoring you at 1st level. If you want to reliably push your companion, you are going to make it much more difficult with a negative Charisma modifier.

If you have other questions not addressed here, please feel free to reply in the comments below. Adam and I will do our best to try to answer those in a timely manner.

Mike Brock
Pathfinder Society Campaign Coordinator

Pathfinder Battles Preview: Hoist the Black Flag: Skull & Shackles!

Friday, March 8, 2013

I am pleased to announce today that the next major Pathfinder Battles release will be a full 55-figure set inspired by Paizo’s popular Skull & Shackles Adventure Path! Skull & Shackles casts players in the role of a gang of pirates with their own ship, struggling to make a name for themselves in the treacherous southern seas of the Pathfinder Campaign Setting!

The new Skull & Shackles Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures set provides players and GMs with legions of figures to kit out their seafaring campaigns, from pirates to aquatic menaces to undead horrors from the briny deep!

Our partners at WizKids have been delivering amazing new sculpts and killer paint masters on a weekly basis, and things are moving very rapidly with this set as we head toward its summer 2013 release (more later on the specific date when WizKids locks down a few more details on the manufacturing side).

As with previous major Pathfinder Battles releases, the Skull & Shackles set features a special limited-edition figure available only to folks who purchase a case. This time around, it’s the Gargantuan Skeletal Dragon Brinebones, a major antagonist in the campaign that easily stands toe-to-bony-toe with our previous Gargantuan dragon releases (and other Gargantuan dragons yet to come). Check out these very early behind-the-scenes photos of the Gargantuan Skeletal Dragon from WizKids’s factory!

Of course, the set contains a fair share of Small, Medium, and Large figures as well. Let’s take a look at a few of these water-logged beasties for just a hint of what’s in store when the set releases this summer.

Here we have the squamous Sea Troll, a deadly denizen of the deeps eager to munch your player characters into chum. He stands with a bit of a curved spine, making him a little smaller than the Troll Champion from the Shattered Star set. But when you get this figure in hand, you’ll agree that he fits right in with his big land-dwelling brother. Only I think he may be a little bit cooler, which is saying something, since the Troll Champion is my favorite figure from the last set. When WizKids brought the Sea Troll to our office, everyone agreed that it was a step forward for the line. You guys are going to love it.

Of course, the set includes lots of pirates, with this guy here being just the first of several we’ll show off in the coming weeks. The sculpt detail on this fellow is amazing, and I suspect he will see lots of use by GMs as well as players looking for a cool swashbuckling figure.

There are, of course, lots more figures to show off in this set, but we’ve got a lot of weeks between now and the summer and plenty of time to show them all off.

In the coming months, look forward to more pirates, more aquatic creatures, more creatures never before produced in prepainted plastic, and more figures specifically demanded by you here on paizo.com.

And while you’re checking out the Skull & Shackles set, keep in mind that WizKids is hard at work on the NEXT set after that. With the set-to-set improvement we’ve seen on paint steps and sculpts we’ve seen so far, I can’t even imagine how amazing THAT one is going to be!

More next week, you scallywags!

Erik Mona
Publisher

Illustrations by Wayne Reynolds. Widescreen version here.

Ultimate Campaign Wallpaper!

Thursday, March 7, 2013

As we gear-up for the release of Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign, we thought we'd share these new free, downloadable wallpapers featuring the epic cover art by Wayne Reynolds. Whether it's kingdom-building or leading an army, starting a business or crafting magic items, Ultimate Campaign is for all of the adventures that take place outside of the dungeon. Pre-order your copy today!

Jenny Bendel
Marketing Director

Bastard, Sword

by Tim Pratt

Chapter One: Ill Met by Torchlight

Rodrick—pragmatist, opportunist, and occasional outright thief—groaned and tried to sit up, but only managed to half-lean against the wall of a lightless cavern. His head had felt like this many times before, but usually only after a night of drinking and wenching. His memories of the prior hours were fuzzy, but they didn't involve taverns and winsome (or buxom, or both; he wasn't picky) maids.

Images bobbed in his mind like rotting apples in a pond. A body, crushed in a trap. A man with a weaselly narrow face and a pack full of potions. A creature that looked like a beautiful woman from one side, and a gnarled, hollowed-out tree from the other. A room full of shattered treasure chests, and a suit of ancient black armor, and a distressingly large hole in the back wall—

Then he remembered. Sneaking into a barrow rumored to be full of treasure, accompanied by a fool named Simeon who'd gotten himself killed in a trap before they were even well begun. Disabling traps and killing a monster, assisted by a treacherous alchemist named Alaeron. They'd had a small disagreement about how to proceed, and so the alchemist had drugged Rodrick, knocking him unconscious and leaving him here to die.

Or, more accurately, to wake up with a headache.

Rodrick patted his pockets and discovered that all of his knives were gone, even the ones in his boots. No surprise, really, since his boots were also gone. The alchemist had stolen his shoes. That was nicer than stabbing Rodrick in the neck, admittedly, but still quite rude.

Now he sat slumped on a sloping hill, in a dark cavern that stank of something rank and reptilian, which Alaeron had claimed was a linnorm—a great slumbering beast that wasn't exactly the same as a dragon, but close enough. This barrow of treasures plundered from the North had included a linnorm egg, which had, at some point, hatched and grown to full size. The beast had smashed through the tomb wall into a system of caves and constructed a lair there, complete with a hoard made from the gold and gems and magical geegaws Rodrick had come to steal.

The linnorm had been the source of Rodrick's disagreement with the alchemist. Rodrick had advocated sneaking into the linnorm's cave and stealing everything, while Alaeron had favored running away and living to loot another day. Rodrick had insisted on his course of action, using a sword to advance his argument, and Alaeron had replied with a potion.

Rodrick began to crawl up the slope, quietly, toward the hole in the wall. There should have been torches lit in there. Either they'd burned out, or Alaeron had doused them when he left.

Having groped his way back into the mostly-empty treasure room, Rodrick crawled without success along the floor, looking for the lantern. No luck—the alchemist had taken it—but he did find an unlit torch, and he still had his flint and steel, at least. He got the torch lit and breathed a shaky sigh of relief as light blossomed in the dark.

After lighting the other torches on the walls, he sat in a carved wooden throne and considered his options. He was tempted to pursue Alaeron and exact revenge, but there was a more pressing concern: acquisition.

The most important thing was the sword. The alchemist had used a potion of darkvision to look over the sleeping linnorm and its hoard, and had claimed to see a sword, so that was promising. Rodrick had spun a tale for the alchemist about discovering the existence of this barrow and deciding to pillage it with his friend Simeon, but that was only partly true. Rodrick had actually been hired by a wealthy collector to break into this place and retrieve the sword, rumored to be an artifact of great power. Anything else he could steal was his to keep, in addition to a hefty payment in coinage.

Returning to Manius without the sword wasn't really an option if Rodrick wanted to keep his head. He could flee, with the collector's up-front payment in his pockets—but no, damn it, Alaeron had stolen his coin purse too—and probably escape any unpleasant consequences by changing his name again and heading south.

Escape was tempting. He was no dragon-slayer, even if linnorms weren't exactly dragons. But the treasure... the treasure was even more tempting.

He sighed, rose, lifted a torch from its sconce, and slowly approached the hole in the wall. He stepped through carefully, the torch held out in front of him.

The light immediately returned to him, shining from a shimmering lake of golden coins and glimmering jewels. As always, the sight of large quantities of wealth took his breath away. Alas, he could also see the pale scaled belly of something immense coiled atop the hoard. He'd hesitated to bring light into this chamber before, for fear of waking the beast, but then he'd had an alchemist on hand, with potions that would let them see in the dark. Circumstances had changed, and necessity demanded a certain amount of risk.

He crept down the slope, to the more-or-less level bottom of the chamber, just a few feet from the outlying spill of gold and gems. In this case, being barefoot was actually a boon—his footing was more sure, and he could move through the coins far less noisily. Rodrick mostly watched his feet, carefully sliding coins aside to find secure footing underneath, but occasionally he glanced up and saw more and more of the linnorm revealed. The thing was large enough that he couldn't apprehend it as a whole—it seemed serpentine, wrapped around and around itself. At least its head wasn't visible. Alaeron had said the creatures could hibernate for centuries, so Rodrick hoped a little torchlight wouldn't serve to wake it up.

His circle of light continued to advance. At last, it touched the hilt and first foot or so of a longsword's blade. Unfortunately, the remainder of the sword was firmly wedged beneath the linnorm itself, both resting atop a bed of coins. Perhaps if Rodrick undermined the coins—

"Do you mind?" The voice was deep, faintly annoyed, and slightly muffled, as if the speaker were wrapped in a blanket.

Rodrick froze. "I... beg your pardon?" he whispered.

The voice didn't bother to whisper. "As well you should. Do I come creeping into your bedchamber at night and shine a light in your face? Well?"

Rodrick is cunning, but that doesn't make him wise.

"Uh, who is this speaking?"

"Me," the voice replied unhelpfully. "What are you doing in here? In case you haven't noticed, there's a linnorm sleeping a few feet from your face. You wouldn't enjoy waking it up. If it even rolls over in its sleep you'll be crushed by its coils. The thing must be sixty feet long."

"I'd love to discuss my motivations, but I'd like to know who I'm talking to—"

"I'm the sword, idiot," the sword said. "Call me Hrym, if you must call me something."

"Ah." Rodrick closed his eyes, but only briefly. "The sword. Of course. I'd heard rumors that you could speak, but I didn't entirely believe them."

"I'm a rare breed," Hrym said. His voice was muffled—presumably because he was jammed beneath several tons of sleeping monster. "Who're you?"

"Rodrick. An adventurer."

"Stay here too long and you're sure to have an adventure, though it's likely to be your last. Why don't you have any shoes on?"

"I had a disagreement with a, ah, fellow adventurer, and he stole them."

"Mmm. There's a pair of boots there, about a foot to your right."

Rodrick turned his head slightly and moved the torch. A pair of pale blue boots were indeed jumbled in with the gold and gems. "Are they magical?"

"No," Hrym said, the sarcasm unmistakable. "They're perfectly ordinary boots, sealed up in a warlord's barrow with all his other treasures."

"Ah. Do you know how they're magical?"

"They let you walk on water, if I recall," Hrym said.

Rodrick sighed. "Hardly helpful in my current circumstances."

"They are also quite functional as ordinary boots."

"A fair point." Rodrick slid over the gold, wincing as a small cascade of coins tinkled and chimed together. He stuck the torch down in the heap of gold—a bit like shoving a stick into sand—to free his hands, tied the laces of the boots together, and hung them around his neck like an unwieldy scarf.

"Most people wear those on their feet," Hrym said. "But I'm sure your bold new fashion will soon be all the rage. Away with you, adventurer! I doubt the linnorm will notice the absence of the boots—they were just sort of swept along with the rest of the treasure. As long as you don't try to remove anything shiny from the hoard, you can probably escape."

Rodrick thought of the gems and rings he'd already dropped into his pockets along the way and decided to pretend he hadn't heard that last part. "The boots are nice, but I'd rather hoped to leave with a bit more."

"Don't be greedy," Hrym said. "It's unseemly in a human. Why, think of the money you could make ferrying people across rivers. You've got nice broad shoulders and strong arms—you could probably carry two, maybe three people at a time. If they didn't have any luggage."

"Sword—Hrym—I'm here to rescue you."

"Rescue," the sword said. "Rescue? Would you ask me to rescue you from a brothel or a barroom?"

Rodrick frowned. "I suppose it depends on the circumstances—"

"I love it here, human. Do you know my fondest aspiration in this world? It's to sleep on a bed of gold. And do you know what I'm doing just this very moment? Sleeping on a bed of gold! Or I was sleeping, until you shone a light in my face."

"You don't have a face."

"And you don't have a very good grasp of metaphor. Fine, then, you shone a light on my hilt—"

"Which I assume would be less akin to your face and more akin to your—"

"My point," the sword said, loudly, "is that I don't need to be rescued. What you really mean is 'stolen.' Now go away before I wake the linnorm."

Rodrick considered. Stealing a sword should have been a lot simpler than this. But the sword had a mind—of sorts—which meant that it could be manipulated. And Rodrick was far better at manipulation than he was a burglary.

"Suit yourself," he said. "My client will be disappointed."

"Oh, to know I caused the disappointment of some human I've never met or heard of, how will I stand the pain? Now, go. This beast is hibernating, but I have ways of stirring it into consciousness very quickly."

"All right, fine. You're missing out, though. I mean, you call this a pile of gold? Pfft."

"Pfft?" Hrym said. "These are the all the riches acquired by the warrior Brant, slayer of beasts and men, despoiler of vaults—"

"Oh, I mean, it's alright," Rodrick said. "I wouldn't mind having this lot in my house, certainly. But my employer doesn't pillage. He invests. He owns half of Andoran, including the banks, and he believes in keeping a ready supply of coin on hand. There's a basement in his house that's so full of gold and gems that he has ten clerks working full-time just to inventory it all, and they can't keep up with the fresh cartloads of coins that arrive every day. He loves money, but more than that, he's a collector of rare and precious magical items and relics. You, of course, are one of the most rare and precious in the world—"

"This is true," Hrym said.

"—and he desires greatly to add you to his collection. Why, he's paying me more gold than I see here just to deliver you to him! Hrym, you could rest in a place of pride atop a mound of treasure that makes this look like the dregs of a drunkard's coinpurse after a holiday. Or you can stay wedged under the ass of a monster, if you prefer."

"Hmmm," Hrym said. "If this is a trick, you'll regret it. I have powers beyond mere speech."

"I'm sure you do," Rodrick said. "Shall we?"

"Very well. Draw me forth. But slowly, so I don't slice the beast."

Rodrick moved toward the sword, grasped the hilt, and gently drew out the blade. The linnorm didn't so much as shift—it might have been carved of stone.

Hrym's blade was dazzling. It was made not of steel, but rather of some bluish-white crystal, gleaming like a faceted diamond in the torchlight. The substance resembled nothing so much as—

"Ice," Rodrick whispered. "I'd heard you were a blade of living ice, but I didn't know what that meant."

"You still don't," Hrym said. "Now go, quickly."

Rodrick held Hrym aloft and carefully worked his way down the slope, moving in a low crouch, away from the light of the torch. He paused halfway down, spying what looked like a silver bell as big as a man's head, half-buried in coins. "Is that—is that the bell that summons blizzards?" he whispered. "I heard there was such a thing here."

"Oh, probably," Hrym said.

"I can carry that too," Rodrick said, and moved carefully sideways.

"I wouldn't do that." Hrym said.

"In that respect, we differ." Rodrick reached for the bell, brushing away coins with his free hand, and grasped the ring at the top. He lifted the bell up, carefully, slowly—

And as it came free from the heap of gold, the clapper struck a deep, low note so loud it brought back Rodrick's headache in full force. An icy wind suddenly blew through the cavern, and the great coils of the linnorm began to move.

Coming Next Week: The perils of waking a linnorm in Chapter Two of Tim Pratt's "Bastard, Sword"!

Want more? Check out Liar's Blade in paperback or ePub format, or read the story leading up to this one for free in "A Tomb of Winter's Plunder"!

Tim Pratt is the author of the Pathfinder Tales novels Liar's Blade and City of the Fallen Sky, as well as the short story "A Tomb of Winter's Plunder." His writing has won a Hugo Award, a Rhysling Award, and an Emperor Norton Award, as well as been nominated for Nebula, Mythopoeic, World Fantasy, and Stoker Awards. His stories have appeared in anthologies such as The Best American Short Stories and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, as well as two short story collections of his own. His non-Pathfinder novels include the contemporary fantasies The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl and Briarpatch; the Forgotten Realms novel Venom in Her Veins; and seven books in the Marla Mason urban fantasy series (as T. A. Pratt). He edited the anthology Sympathy for the Devil, and Rags & Bones with Melissa Marr. His books and stories have been translated into French, Czech, Dutch, Russian, Greek, Korean, Spanish, German, and several other languages.

Illustration by Eric Belisle.

RPG Superstar: Round 4 Submissions!

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

The official playtest period for the Round 4 encounters is over and voting is open! Voting closes Monday, March 11, so you still have a few days if you want to playtest the encounters. Whether or not you get a chance to playtest, be sure to read the entries and playtest feedback from other gamers, then cast your vote.

The ultimate winner of RPG Superstar will be announced on April 2, 2013, and will be writing a Pathfinder Module. Doom Comes to Dustpawn, written by last year's RPG Superstar, Mike Welham, will be releasing this May!

Vote now!

Sean K Reynolds
Designer, RPG Superstar Judge

Get Ready for Unexploded Cow!

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Cheapass Games is back! Having printed nothing new since 2005, they are hitting the ground running with a full new line of games. Their first new offering is a deluxe reprint of their excellent 2001 card game, Unexploded Cow.

The game is set in Europe in 1997, where savvy entrepreneurs have discovered two problems with a common solution: mad cows in England, and unexploded bombs in France. You will buy cow cards, arrange them in a herd, march that herd through France, and "disable" unexploded bombs. It's fun for pretty much everyone, even the cows. Because they are quite mad.

Unexploded Cow was a great game before, and it's been completely updated and revised in this new edition by designers James Ernest (Kill Doctor Lucky, Button Men) and Paul Peterson (Guillotine, Smash Up). The new edition has art by Cheyenne Wright (Girl Genius Web Comic, James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game), with new rules that make the game smarter and better than ever.

Rules Synopsis: On each turn players draw cards, play cards, and then roll a die to see which cow finds a bomb. The cards are "cows" and "events," and you can play as many cards as you want. The price for each card goes into the pot, and when cows explode, you earn money from the pot. If you blow up your own cow, you also earn the City card, which can mean more money or special game effects. When the last city is taken, the game goes into "sudden death" where cows explode until the pot is empty. Then, the player with the most money wins!

Unexploded Cow is fast, funny, and fabulous. And it's coming soon!

Check out how to play Unexploded Cow on YouTube.

From James Ernest:

Unexploded Cow was always one of the "evergreen" Cheapass Games, and we were sad to take it out of print in 2006. Starting up Cheapass Games again has been really exciting, and I'm thrilled that Unexploded Cow will be the first game in the new line.

Cheapass isn't all about high-priced games, as you know. We've also got three white-boxed games coming out this June, as well as a bunch of free print-and-play games online at cheapass.com. Now there's a Cheapass Game for every budget!

Unexploded Cow was funded by Kickstarter back in September 2012, and it's just getting back from the factory now. We're thrilled at how it came out, and we're hoping for the same success with Deadwood Studios, USA, which is on Kickstarter right now. If you want to help us out, please check it out!

The Demons Cometh

Monday, March 4, 2013

"Help me, fearless Pathfinder. You're my only hope."

One of my earliest goals when I took over as developer of the Pathfinder Society Organized Play campaign in fall 2010 was to increase the internal continuity within the campaign. In the 2-1/2 years since, we've upped the metaplot elements of the campaign and have featured a number of recurring villains, locations, and subplots (with more to come!). It took a few years to build up the momentum I'd hoped for with the campaign's many interacting pieces, but I think we're finally there! It's fitting, then, that we hired John to take the torch from me (albeit after several more months of mentorship on my part) just as I feel we've attained the loftiest goal I set for myself all those years ago.

I'm particularly proud of our recently released Season 4 exclusive scenario, Day of the Demon, written by fan-favorite author Larry Wilhelm. This scenario serves as thematic link between last year and the concluding scenarios of the Year of the Ruby Phoenix, the current season—the Year of the Risen Rune—and next season, which we're calling the Year of the Demon. (Notice the similarity in titles between the season and the scenario? That wasn't an accident). Larry did a bang-up job on this scenario, and I'm glad it will be run exclusively for the next year by the campaign's most dedicated volunteers, including our growing army of regional coordinators (both Venture-Captains and Venture-Lieutenants) and 4- and 5-star Game Masters.

Day of the Demon is a scenario that no Pathfinder Society player should miss out on, so encourage your regional coordinator or local celebrity GM to run this one for you. This poor character (a young girl named Tilly Anders) is counting on your heroic PC to save her from a terrible, terrible fate. How can you say no to a face like that?

Mark Moreland
Developer

Pathfinder Comics #1: Part 1

Saturday, March 2, 2013

Grab a bowl of Cheerios and settle in for our new Saturday morning blog featuring the Pathfinder comic. We'll be posting issue #1 in it's entirety, for free, a few cliff-hanging pages each week. Enjoy!

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.

Pathfinder Battles Preview: At Last, the Goblin Mystic!

Friday, March 1, 2013

Way back when we first announced Heroes & Monsters, the very first Pathfinder Battles prepainted fantasy miniatures set, we knew we needed to include Pathfinder goblins from the very start. It’s an open secret that about half of that set was already in development at WizKids when we got involved, and a lot of the specifically Pathfinder creatures came relatively late in the process. Some of the figures, such as the Human Rogue and Orc Brute bear an uncanny resemblance to classic Mage Knight figures from the first era of prepainted plastic miniatures, whereas others like Seelah and the Ogre were more or less direct ports of Pathfinder art to miniature form.

The Goblin Warrior and Goblin Hero figures are examples of miniatures directly inspired by Pathfinder art, but what only some of the most astute Pathfinder Battles observers remember is that Heroes & Monsters was originally to include a third goblin, the mysterious Goblin Mystic.

Here’s the weird tale about how that miniature failed to happen the first time, and how we finally got a chance to bring him out with the upcoming We Be Goblins Builder Series set due in stores in late May.

The original Goblin Mystic was a port from an existing WizKids sculpt, modified slightly so that it better matched the Pathfinder goblin art. The original sculpt featured a goblin sitting cross-legged on a floating flying carpet. This was problematic because flying carpets in Pathfinder are not appropriate treasure for most goblins. Worse, the original sculpt was much, much taller than a Pathfinder goblin, so the Goblin Mystic was as tall sitting down as our regular goblins were standing up, which wasn’t something we could fix without scrapping the entire sculpt.

We decided to try to make it work anyway, and when we sent WizKids reference art for the only real “goblin mystic” that we had—the antagonist goblin druid Vorka from the original We Be Goblins! adventure, I’m afraid things went from bad to worse. The original sculpt was still way too big, only this time she was wearing a big dumb Gandalf hat on top of all the other problems.

Ultimately, we decided we couldn’t make things work in time, and that the poor old Goblin Mystic would need to wait for a future set.

I’m pleased to report that the We Be Goblins Builder Series set offers us the perfect opportunity to reintroduce a “goblin mystic” to the Pathfinder Battles line, only this time without the troublesome flying carpet and at the correct scale.

And we decided to cut through the earlier problems by actually making the goblin mystic Vorka herself, rather than a freakishly tall monster simply wearing Vorka’s hat.

So here she is in all her glory, the goblin villain Vorka!

In addition to new friends like Vorka and her goblin player character adversaries from both the original We Be Goblins! adventure and Free RPG Day 2013’s We Be Goblins Too!, the new We Be Goblins Builder Series set includes repaints of classic Pathfinder Battles sculpts like this major bad boy, the Goblin Warchief!

This upper-tier goblin villain comes with his very own riding lizard and a massive hate-on for the player characters. He’s based on the Warchief Ripnugget figure from Rise of the Runelords, with a unique new paint scheme.

There are two more We Be Goblins figures left to preview, but a mix-up here at the office sent them to the factory before we had a chance to take good pictures of them.

Instead, next week we’ll have to content ourselves with preview images of jaw-droppers from the very next full set, which we’ll announce here on paizo.com early next week!

A double dose of Pathfinder Battles news? AMAZING!

You guys are going to explode when you see the figures from the next set.

Set your internal spontaneous combustion engines to next week. You are all about to go BOOM!

Erik Mona
Publisher