Greetings! I've recently acquired a ticket to travel all of Golarion in the form of Pathfinder Player Companion: Heroes of Golarion. Once you pick up this book from your local gaming store in digital format from Paizo.com, you'll be able to see the wonder of great heroes from around the world. If that doesn't excite you, let me give you a tour!

Illustration by Nathanael James

Illustration by Marcel Mercado

Your journey will begin in Arcadia, a land of natural beauty and great legends. Among these are the warriors of Kazutal, the goddess known as Mother Jaguar. These slayers have perfected techniques to capture and incapacitate their foes and such techniques can be yours with a new set of slayer talents. Another group of locals are the wyrwoods, living constructs that span the entire continent. Wyrwood PCs of all manner will have new class options, feats, and racial traits to help expand their skill set.

From Arcadia, we land in Avistan. While the continent is well-known at this point, there are always new secrets to be discovered! Who better to learn about secrets than the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye? The new speaker of the Palatine Eye archetype allows bards to tap into the power of secret rituals. Less secretive are the goblins of Avistan. The new batch of goblin feats allow goblins to sing confounding songs or spout nonsense to stop foes in their tracks.

If we head south, we land in Garund! The land is a place full of unique heroes, like Holomog investigators capable of using their engineering expertise to collapse environments on to their enemies, or the beast speakers, heroes that draw on ancient Tekirtanin techniques to tame mighty beasts. The beast speakers are not the only ones to draw upon the power of Garund's animals. Many Garundi shifters use their abilities to transform into unique animal aspects like those of the elephant or the lion.

Illustration by Nathanael James

Casmaron is no stranger to great heroes. Some of these include the plague eater spiritualists of Iobaria. These spiritualists specialize in housing the souls of those lost to the ravages of disease and travel the land to cleanse those who have yet to succumb to plagues. Other notable figures include the hero-gods of Iblydos. These mythical figures have shaped Iblydos and some, such as the Divine General Psomeira, will even share some of their might with mediums that call upon them.

Next, we arrive in Tian Xia. This is a land where humans live alongside kitsune, nagaji, tengu, and other notable groups. The varying peoples and cultures have connections to the spirits and elements that sometimes manifest as power over the elements. The new array of kineticist talents allow Tian Xia characters to wield power over winds or call upon past lives to tap into elements outside the norm. Even more intriguing are the uniquely treated dyes and inks of Tian Xia that allow alchemists to create tangible objects and creatures with the mere swipe of a brush.

With all these great heroes from around Golarion, it's no surprise to find that some of them have achieved mythical status. This book wraps up with a look at options for mythic heroes, in particular, those classes that make use of occult power. A new set of rules and guidelines allows all occult classes to join in the fun offered in Pathfinder RPG: Mythic Adventures. In addition, the book features new universal path abilities and path abilities for all six mythic paths, such as the champion's overcharged blast which allows kineticists to apply additional infusions to their blasts.

Finally, we made it home! If you want to take the journey around Golarion for yourself, make sure to grab your passport and pick up Pathfinder Player Companion: Heroes of Golarion right away!

Luis Loza
Developer

Space is big. Really, really big. Even Starfinder's galaxy, one of trillions in the larger universe, is a vast expanse from a humanoid perspective, and the best way to traverse these almost incomprehensible distances is with a starship! Many starships are commercial workhorses, hauling cargo from one world to another; other ships ferry passengers between pockets of civilization in Near Space or the Vast; and some ships, bristling with armaments or packed with troops, are weapons of war.

Launching out of spacedock this month is Starfinder Flip-Mat: Warship, ready to land one of these intimidating military vessels on your tabletop! Perfect for representing a cruiser, a battleship, or even a dreadnought, Starfinder Flip-Mat: Warship presents two different miniatures-scale maps: the ship's bridge and command-and-control center, and one of its gun decks, complete with capital weapons!

If interstellar war is not your style, there are plenty more Starfinder Flip-Mats featuring less... aggressive... starships for your game. When your heroes happen across a derelict ship tumbling through space, Starfinder Flip-Mat: Ghost Ship has you covered, with an abandoned tramp freighter on one side, and a scientific research vessel that has clearly suffered some sort of outer space calamity on the other.

But Starfinder is a game of characters as well as starships, and science-fantasy heroes need a ship of their own to ply the space lanes between worlds. Starfinder Flip-Mat: Starship gives you two different starships, each suitable as a mobile base of operations for player characters, whether they're piloting an elegant exploration craft with two decks or a well-used working freighter with plenty of cargo space. If your heroes are of a more martial bent, the freighter can also double as a military dropship, its cargo holds ready to host platoons of marines for invading hostile planets.

Another option is Starfinder Flip-Mat: Starship, The Sunrise Maiden, showcasing a ship familiar to players of the Dead Suns Adventure Path. Over the course of the campaign, the Sunrise Maiden carries the heroes of Dead Suns from the civilized Pact Worlds to the unexplored reaches of the Vast, but it can represent almost any Medium starship used by player characters. This oversized Flip-Mat includes maps of both the Sunrise Maiden's interior compartments and a portion of its exterior inside a docking bay.

Whatever your crew, and whatever your destination, you can find the perfect starship for your game on a Starfinder Flip-Mat!

Robert G. McCreary
Starfinder Creative Director

Glory to the Dawnflower! Today, Sarenrae answered the prayers of fans of Kyra, the iconic cleric! Enjoy the following piece of short fiction from James L. Sutter in the next entry into our series of Iconic Encounters—brief vignettes of the iconic characters showcasing the myriad stories you can tell with Pathfinder Second Edition.

Illustration by Matteo Spirito

The doors of the refuge shuddered as the monstrosity slammed against it once more. Wood that had protected the townsfolk faithfully for generations cracked and split, the stout timbers no match for the strength of a full-grown troll.

Kyra moved through the cave, tending to the injured in the light of ancient glowworms. She'd long since used up the last of her magic, and now had little more to offer than a kind word and a gentle hand. Yet still she walked among them, head held high—a symbol of Sarenrae's salvation.

"Why don't you fight it?"

The child was small and shoeless, with the unflinching boldness of the very young. Kyra seethed at the question, yet knelt to look him in the eye, careful to keep her voice calm. "We have no fire. Without it, my sword is useless. And I have no magic left."

The child frowned. "But Sarenrae has fire and magic. Shouldn't we pray?"

"Aren't we?" Kyra smiled, reaching out to cup the child's cheek. "Sometimes the best prayer is helping others."

The child opened his mouth, but any further questions were cut off by a final, fatal crunch from the doors as the crossbeam gave way. Kyra turned and drew her scimitar, waving aside the townsfolk who were frantically pressing their backs against the ruined wood.

The doors exploded open, slamming into the unfinished rock of the stronghold's walls. The soft glow of the cave worms spread gentle, syrupy light over the hulking shoulders and shovel-sized claws of the murderous troll.

Kyra stepped forward. Despite her wounds, despite the heaviness of her sword arm, her heart felt lighter than it had since the whole nightmare had begun. She was out of tricks, out of any real hope of defeating the beast—yet here she was, placing herself between the predator and the innocent. Right where she was supposed to be.

As she'd told the child, sometimes that was prayer enough.

"Again, priest?" Wet lips smacked around protruding tusks as the troll chuckled. He spread his enormous arms, showing thin lines of scar tissue that had been gaping wounds an hour ago. "So be it. I'm ready. But are you?"

Kyra said nothing, only angled her blade and slid her rear foot back into Sunrise Wakes the Mountain.

He was right, of course. She'd been outmatched even when she'd been fresh, when her heart-fires had roared with the spells of her faith. Yet the stance still came easily, muscles trained by countless morning prayer forms. Her mind might know she was beaten, but her body didn't.

"You're out of magic." The troll grunted—a boar's wet snort. "Your goddess has abandoned you. But die how you like." He shrugged and reached for her.

That's when she felt it: the familiar warmth, waiting like a hot coal in her chest. She breathed in, letting the embers flare, and sank into the heat like the embrace it was. She raised her holy symbol.

The troll's tiny, piggish eyes shot wide, and then the flames engulfed him, searing green flesh black. He roared, falling backward as he burned.

Kyra let the goddess's symbol fall back against her chest, pain flooding back in as the magic receded.

From the cave floor, the charred mess of the troll glared up with agonized incredulity. His croak was as cracked as his flesh. "How?"

"You were wrong." Kyra stood over him, looking down calmly. "Whatever happens, the goddess never truly leaves us. She'll walk with me until my last breath."

She raised her sword in both hands.

"Or until yours..."

If you liked this week's Iconic Encounter, you won't want to miss next week's exciting entry. Until then, Pathfinders, may you walk in the light and heat of the sun!

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

In addition to working on the latest scenarios, the Pathfinder Society team's been reviewing the many exciting new player options published in February and March. These cover Pathfinder #139: The Dead Roads (which has a remarkable amount of player content), Pathfinder #140: Eulogy for Roslar's Coffer, and Pathfinder Player Companion: Heroes of Golarion. All told, it's a huge number of character options, including some choice pieces for rarely-supported player races like shabtis, wyrwoods, and duskwalkers. We've pulled together all of our Additional Resources and Campaign Clarifications updates (including a few developer clarifications from the Heroes of Golarion product discussion thread), which should be updated on the website soon. In addition to these books' new content, there are a few minor changes being implemented:

• The misnamed "Martial Artist's Handbook" title has been corrected to "Martial Arts Handbook"
• The Pathfinder RPG Planar Adventures entry addressing alternate ganzi abilities has been revised to remove the ambiguity of which options are legal.

We watch both the Additional Resources Updates thread and the Compilation of Campaign Clarification Requests thread to identify errors or additional clarifications to address, so please do note there if you find an issue that we need to address. All the while, Michael Sayre's been leading the charge in reviewing the next set of books for our April update, and Linda Zayas-Palmer is tirelessly developing the final multi-table interactive special for the first edition campaign of Pathfinder Society.

There's no immediate sanctioning news, though after wrapping up our current scenarios, a few team members have openings to handle the likes of 2019 Free RPG Day Pathfinder RPG scenario We Be Heroes and Pathfinder Module Cradle of Night.

John Compton
Organized Play Lead Developer

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

It's Tuesday, and that means it's time for our weekly Iconic Evolution! In this weekly video series, artist Wayne Reynolds takes Paizo's publisher and chief creative officer, Erik Mona, through his creative process in updating Pathfinder's iconic characters for the game's Second Edition, coming out this August. Check out this short video of their conversation for a glimpse into the mind of Pathfinder's most iconic visual artist and the first official look at the new version of Kyra, the iconic cleric!

Each week, we'll take a look at a different updated iconic with Erik and Wayne, so stay tuned.

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

As rare and special as it is to roll a natural 20 in a Starfinder game session, the odds are just as good that you'll roll a natural 1. Especially when it happens to the villains, spectacular failure can just be fun, right?

Here at Paizo we think so, and we know that can hold true whether you're watching a T-rexlike nyssholora miss so wildly with its phasic claws that it swipes itself in the face, or you're seeing a rogue vlaka technomancer's carefully selected spell turn into a completely random and catastrophically unexpected effect right before your eyes.

The Starfinder Critical Fumble Deck lets you impose these outrageous effects and far more when the result of an attack roll is a natural 1. The deck includes three variant rules for determining when an attack is a critical fumble, allowing Game Masters and players to decide how often they want these unfortunate effects to happen.

If you like lots of fumble effects in your game, use these cards each time a natural 1 is rolled and the attack misses the enemy's AC. If you want to impose fumbles sparingly, use the cards only when an attack roll is a natural 1, it misses the enemy's AC, and the attacker is not proficient with the weapon or is suffering from a condition that penalizes the attack roll.

Whichever way they're used, each card in the deck includes a critical fumble effect for a kinetic attack, an energy attack, and a spell attack. A fourth option, called an extreme effect, instead happens if the damage type, attack type, or weapon category matches that effect's description.

For instance, if you're throwing a grenade but you roll a natural 1 on the ranged attack, you might throw the pin instead—and drop the grenade right at your own feet. If that husk of a corpsefolk rolls a natural 1 with its static arc pistol, it might shock itself with its own weapon, causing a random piece of its technological equipment to stop working for 1d3 rounds.

If memorable dice rolls on the higher end of the scale are more your speed—or you simply want to own the companion deck to this set of fumbles—the Starfinder Critical Hit Deck offers hundreds of new critical hit results that can be used to boost the breadth and impact of a natural 20. You can also keep track of the most common conditions in the Starfinder Roleplaying Game with our comically illustrated, full-color Starfinder Condition Cards.

Whether you've just landed a sweet laser shot between your enemy's eyes or you've tripped over your own two feet while squeezing the trigger, we've got you covered!

Amanda Hamon
Starfinder Managing Developer

PaizoCon 2019 is quickly approaching—join us in Seattle, WA over the four-day Memorial Day weekend and play games, attend seminars, roll dice, shop—and celebrate all things Paizo!

The Roll For Combat Starfinder actual play podcast sent multiple people to PaizoCon 2018 for free, and this year they’re at it again. They’re also expanding their contest and making anyone in the world eligible to win a trip to PaizoCon 2019 in Seattle!

For those unfamiliar with Roll For Combat, the podcasters are playing their way through the Dead Suns Adventure Path, as well as the occasional Starfinder Society adventure. They also regularly host Paizo guests on their show—both as interviewees and as guest players. Over the years the show has hosted Erik Mona, The Order of the Amber Die, Thurston Hillman, John Compton, Stephen Radney-MacFarland, Jason Keeley, Amanda Hamon, James Jacobs, and more. Some of them even developed new Starfinder gear just for the show (which you can download for free from the Roll For Combat Discord channel).

So how does the contest work and what can you win? First, the prizes: the winner will receive a trip to PaizoCon 2019 including airfare (or a portion thereof for some international locations), a hotel room at the DoubleTree, a 4-day pass to PaizoCon, and a ticket to the PaizoCon banquet.

How to Enter: Listen to the show starting with Roll for Combat Episode 70: "Never Give Up, Maybe Surrender?" and continuing until Roll for Combat Episode 76: “The Slug Defense”. Although episode 70 starts at the beginning of Dead Suns Book 4, The Ruined Clouds, GM Stephen provides a full recap of the adventure-to-date before starting a new book. It’s easy to jump right into the show without missing a beat!

During each episode, you will be posed a simple question, such as “how many crits occurred during this week’s combat?” Take notes on these answers as they’ll be required for entry.

Once you have all your answers, just head over to the Roll For Combat Contest Entry Form, fill out all the fields, answer one question from each episode, and you’ll be all set!

The winner(s) will be randomly selected from all correct entries and be announced on April 23, 2019 on Episode 81 of the podcast. Wait, did we say winner(s)? Well, last year Roll For Combat initially was going to only send a single person to PaizoCon, but decided to extend the contest two additional weeks and ended up sending a total of three people to PaizoCon. Will they do this again this year? Who knows, but if history is any indication there is a good chance they will!

What if I don’t win? Have no fear, explorer! Paizo will be livestreaming many of the seminars on the our Twitch Channel.

Jim Butler
VP of Marketing & Licensing

Disclaimer: Paizo is not a partner in this contest; prize obligations remain solely with Roll For Combat. Rules and Restrictions apply. Head over to the contest page to see the fine print.

Pathfinder fans have been tracking Harsk, the iconic ranger, for years now, but he's finally revealed himself and he's armed for bear! Enjoy the following piece of short fiction from James L. Sutter in the next entry into our series of Iconic Encounters—brief vignettes of the iconic characters showcasing the myriad stories you can tell with Pathfinder Second Edition.

Harsk had to admit, they'd had him stumped.

It'd been obvious what had happened in the village. The stench of blood and death had hung in the frozen air, fresh from corpses that hadn't even finished freezing. And there'd been no question as to where the raiders had gone: one set of wagon ruts, heavily laden.

But the tracks—the tracks hadn't made any sense. Each corpse sprawled in a wedding-dance swirl of boot prints, but they were all the corpses' own prints. Every one of them, slain fighting a foe that left no trace but bloodshed.

He'd been headed into one of the ransacked houses to boil himself a pot of thinking tea when he remembered the story he'd heard at the trading post, of magical white-furred slavers called wikkawaks who slid light as ghosts over the snow. On impulse, he'd passed by the hearth in favor of the house's salt pot. He'd carried it outside and shook it over the snow, and suddenly there they were: a flurry of deep tracks, just like the folktales said.

Illustration by Valeria Lutfullina

Now he crouched among the stones of the mountain pass, white bear pelt blending with the snow as he gazed down at the three slavers and their caged victims.

There was a time when he would have ended it here. Put them down with his crossbow from the shadow of the rock. It was the prudent move, as efficient and mechanical as the bow itself.

He still did it that way, when he had to. Yet in recent years he'd found himself more and more reluctant to unsling the machine. Killing that way felt too detached. It felt like cowardice.

Which was ridiculous. A wolf felt no guilt over striking from darkness, no shame in hunting with the pack. Only humanoids were stupid enough to forego the advantages nature granted.

He dropped loudly into the middle of the camp, axes in hand. Rough voices shouted in alarm.

His brother had once said that in a battle, you had to fight as if you were taking on the whole army yourself—watching everywhere at once, ready to attack or be attacked from any quarter. And that was true as far as it went. You needed to keep your eyes open.

But it was also badger scat. You didn't hunt every deer in the forest. You singled one out, ran it down, and did what needed doing.

He chose the one in front, figuring it for the leader by its necklace of human ears. He drew back his arm, letting the rest of the world fall away as that snarling face filled his vision. The bond of predator and prey.

The hatchet flew. At the last moment, the wikkiwak managed to snap its shield up. Crude pig iron shattered beneath the force of dwarven steel.

But Harsk was already moving, axe coming in low to take the creature's leg off at the knee. He dove beneath a wild swing, free hand snatching up the fallen hatchet, and rolled to his feet, burying the weapon in the monster's chest.

One down. The world stuttered back into focus, revealing the two remaining slavers. They spread out, trying to flank him, but they came on slowly. Cautiously.

For the first time that day, Harsk smiled.

"Next."

If you liked this week's Iconic Encounter, you won't want to miss next week's exciting entry. Until then, Pathfinders, may your enemies always be favored!

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Starfinder Society continues its momentum towards the end of its first season with two new releases and the Organized Play team is excited to show them off! This month, our players can expect to learn more about the developing jinsul threat, while also getting a chance to "take a break" and go on a good old fashioned treasure hunt.

Starfinder Society Scenario #1-34: Heart of the Foe is a Tier 3–6 joint mission where two First Seekers lead several dedicated teams of Starfinders (including our intrepid PCs) to the jinsul's adopted homeworld. Nicholas Wasko, who some of you may recognize from Seers of the Drowned City and RPG Superstar fame, stepped up to write this action-packed scenario that looks deep into jinsul history. What excites me about this scenario, on top of the sheer amount of thematic content contained within, is that Heart of the Foe continues our ongoing season metaplot and introduces some of the final elements leading to our upcoming interactive special; so be sure not to miss out on this important scenario!

Illustration by Bryan Syme

Next up, Starfinder Society veteran author, Mara Lynn Butler, returns to give us our first higher tier (Tier 5–8, in fact) Acquisitives scenario. Starfinder Society Scenario #1-35: Rasheen's Riches acts as a great standalone scenario and the perfect break for those players and GMs who maybe find themselves wanting to forget the terror of the jinsuls and corporate conspiracies, and just travel somewhere unknown in search of some treasure! Sometimes a story comes out so well in outlining and its final turnover that you know it should have one or more follow-ups, and I suspect that this scenario won't be the Society's only adventure following the trail of the scenario's titular character, the intrepid explorer, Jelev Rasheen! If you're interested in learning more about this early Drift travel explorer, her exploits, and how your character fits into them, be sure to find a seat for this scenario at your local gaming group (or perhaps, a digital seat in our expanding online community).

Illustration by William Marton

Alright, that's all the time I can spare from the pre-convention season word mines. Looking forward to next month's previews, we'll take a glimpse into what the duergar have been up to in Starfinder and get a sneak peek at our second major social scenario!

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

As we started working on Season 10 of Pathfinder Society, we knew that there were a lot of long running storylines that we wanted to resolve—and as importantly give players the opportunity to see through to the end. This month we're debuting the finale for the Gloomspires as well as a deep look into the famous Decemvirate helms!

Decemvirate Helms

In Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-16: What The Helms Hide, a series of four quests for Tier 1–5 written by Calder CaDavid, Lysle Kapp, Kendra Leigh Speedling, and Nate Wright (we're excited to welcome Calder and Lysle as our latest open call authors). In this adventure, the PCs are given the opportunity to take a peek into the past of the most mysterious members of the Pathfinder Society. For over three centuries, the Decemvirate guided the Society from behind the anonymity of their magic helms, though their rule has not always been praised by the agents and other members of the Society. Over the course of the past decade, the Society has faced rebellion, treason, and other threats from within, as well as external menaces. Thanks to the tenacity and strength of its agents, the Pathfinder Society withstood the turmoil, but questions about the Decemvirate and the secrets possessed by those whose identities are hidden behind the magic helms still remain.

The Society's Master of Scrolls, Kreighton Shaine recently discovered clues left by a long-ago member of the Society exiled for a foiled assassination attempt against one of the members of the Decemvirate. These clues seem to indicate that the purported assassination may not have transpired quite as the history books claim. Supported by members of the Decemvirate who believe this to be exactly the kind of secret that could weaken the Society at a critical juncture, Kreighton sends the PCs to key locations across the Inner Sea to track down these clues and reveal the secrets hidden at the heart of the Grand Lodge.

Illustration by Ernanda Souza

Whether you're a dedicated believer in the Decemvirate and their actions, or a fiery rebel carving “Shadow Lodge for life!” into the doors of every Grand Lodge privy, you won't want to miss your chance to find out what kind of secrets and dark histories are hidden in the veiled past of the Pathfinder Society's most enigmatic figures!

Nightmare Seas

The legendary tomb of pirate captain Sempet Sevenfingers captivated sailors throughout the Shackles for generations, perhaps none more so than Venture-Captain Calisro Benarry. Over the last few years, Benarry sent numerous Pathfinder teams to explore and plunder the depths of the Gloomspires: haunted stone spires rising from the stormy sea infused with strange dimensional magics and filled with all manner of perils. Yet none of these ventures uncovered Sevenfingers himself or his greatest treasures. That's about to change, as you might have guessed from Josef Kucera's illustration of the nefarious captain himself. The old pirate hasn't been sitting quietly in his tomb. He has big plans, and if the PCs don't stop him quickly, his triumphant return could spell disaster for the Shackles! Come play the grand finale of the Gloomspires story arc, Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-17: On Sevenfinger's Sails. And if you particularly want to challenge your PCs, consider playing the scenario's optional Hard Mode.

Illustration by Josef Kucera

Author Tom Phillips invented the Gloomspires as a part of his 2012 RPG Superstar submission, and this fascinating dungeon's rich story was something the Organized Play team wanted to explore further. He's been working with us ever since to gradually reveal its buried secrets. Check out the rest of the Gloomspire's story in these scenarios: Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-06: Hall of the Flesh Eaters, Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-19: Labyrinth of Hungry Ghosts, and Pathfinder Society Scenario #8-15: Hrethnar's Throne.

Michael Sayre and Linda Zayas-Palmer
Organized Play Developers

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

They say repeating something three times makes it a habit, so I guess we've established a steady routine for Iconic Evolutions! In this weekly video series, artist Wayne Reynolds takes Paizo's publisher and chief creative officer, Erik Mona, through his creative process in updating Pathfinder's iconic characters for the game's Second Edition, coming out this August. Check out this short video of their conversation for a glimpse into the mind of Pathfinder's most iconic visual artist and the first official look at the new version of Harsk, the iconic dwarf ranger!

Each week, we'll take a look at a different updated iconic with Erik and Wayne, so stay tuned.

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Things are heating up in Starfinder adventures! The second volume of the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path, Soldiers of Brass by Crystal Frasier, releases this month, after an explosive start with James L. Sutter's Fire Starters.

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

With Dawn of Flame, the Starfinder Adventure Path goes back to six volumes, released monthly and starting at 1st level. The action in Dawn of Flame takes place around, on, and inside Mataras, the Pact Worlds sun. It all starts on a space station near the star, where the heroes watch a magical portal to the Plane of Fire disappear into the sun just after creatures exit it for the first time in recorded history. The heroes must then peel back layers of a fiery conspiracy while delving deeper and deeper into Mataras itself.

In the Dawn of Flame video, a mysterious speaker reveals parts of this scheme.

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

This Adventure Path emphasizes some of the fantasy in science-fantasy without straying too far from the science in that genre. Flying into the interior of a star seems impossible, yet the heroes in this story find a way, by means of magic and technology. Within Mataras are places to discover and explore, each revealing a bit of lore from the Pact Worlds or other locations in the wider galaxy.

In a similar way, each volume of the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path delves into aspects of the life in the sun. The heroes have an opportunity to experience the hustle and bustle of the Burning Archipelago, a Pact Worlds settlement in the sun's atmosphere. They can change the status quo there, and ultimately, protect the solar settlement from threats once hidden in the solar plasma.

The adventures in the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path are only part of the package. Every volume also contains new creatures, from elementals to bizarre solar aliens. Additionally, each book contains expansions to the Starfinder setting, along with new starships, gear, and other player options.

So, if you and your group want to know what hides in Mataras's stellar depths, pick up Fire Starters and dive right in!

Chris S. Sims
Developer

I'm currently in Reno attending the GAMA trade show. It is our chance to meet with many retailers and present seminars on all things Paizo. We also have a booth on the exhibition floor where attendees can try out the new Starfinder Beginner Box, talk with the team about Pathfinder Second Edition and try a demo of the revised Adventure Card Game. So far, feedback from the floor is highly receptive on all fronts.

Last week, the teaser at the end of the blog said we would be doing a preview of Starfinder Society this week. We had a minor hiccup in getting a few things processed before I left town, so instead of doing a partial writeup, I decided to swap things around and present our plans for the Adventure Card Game this week and wait on the Starfinder Society story blog until we could announce all the information.

In looking at the revamp of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game and the new Core Set, we re-evaluated our presentation of the Adventure Card Guild. Over the past few years, we tried using the Pathfinder Society as an umbrella for both the Roleplay Guild and Card Guild. Our evaluation of our methods showed that lumping the two together wasn't helping either program—the cross-pollination of players we hoped for hadn't quite taken off. We decide that since we have a dedicated community of card game players and a dedicated community of roleplayers we should support communities on their own.

Going forward, we are renaming the Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild (PACG) to the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society (PACS), with a new logo based on the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game logo. We tapped developer Linda Zayas-Palmer, familiar to many for her work on Pathfinder Society, to oversee the playable content. And she has plans!

Speaking of storylines, the Year of Tapestry's Tides ends at PaizoCon (May 23-26). To support the new Core Set, we plan four short adventures to highlight gameplay and bring people to the table. The planned release schedule is two at PaizoCon and two at Origins (June 12-16). We will launch a new storyline at Gen Con (Aug 1-4). Since the Core Set is a revised product, not a new game, we are continuing our numbering cycle, so the Gen Con launch will be Year 6. I'm not going to spoil the name or plot, though, as I think that is Linda's prerogative. So, you'll have to keep an eye out for her blog for more card game news.

In regard to Gen Con, I'm busy entering event submission data. One change to our usual structure. Besides having regularly scheduled sessions of the new Year and demos of the Core Set, we will have older sets and scenarios available for check out for any available tables. These events will accept generic tickets, so if you find yourself with an extra hour between events, pop on by and have a quick game.

Next week, join the developers for a sneak peek into March's scenarios!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Pathfinder scholars are already familiar with Ezren, the iconic wizard, but even old dogs occasionally show off new tricks! Enjoy the following piece of short fiction from James L. Sutter in the next entry into our series of Iconic Encounters—brief vignettes of the iconic characters showcasing the myriad stories you can tell with Pathfinder Second Edition.

Illustration by Matteo Spirito

Tomes older than half the nations of the Inner Sea haphazardly crammed the shelves, or else leaned in stacks that had teetered on the brink of collapse since the days of Aroden. Ezren closed his eyes and inhaled, taking in the bone-dry bouquet of ancient pages slowly losing their battle with entropy, the scholarly tang of acetic acid. Truly, there was nothing so marvelous as a library.

"Getting a little hot out here, Ez!"

Valeros's shout cut through the perfect moment. Ezren opened his eyes in irritation, but it was true—already the temperature in the vault was rising. Outside, the crackle of flames rose alongside the hellhounds' baying, answered by the signature whoosh of Seoni's magic. Always the same spells, sorcerers. After this long traveling together, he could find her on a battlefield by sound alone.

He sighed. A shame that such an ancient repository of knowledge would be ashes by morning. But such was the fate of all things eventually.

Seating himself cross-legged among the treatises of scholars long since turned to dust, he pulled the puzzle box from his satchel. Runes glowed back at him mockingly. They'd burned to life beneath his magically altered vision, but steadfastly refused to reveal their meaning no matter which linguistic magics he'd attempted.

Very well, then—time to get creative. He applied Kazmiri's Cryptographic Theorem, twisting the wheels in quick, precise turns. Lomal's Revealing Incantations traced the box's edges in cerulean fire, yet failed to penetrate. Perhaps the Inquiring Sigil, combined with the Lockbreaker's Progressions...

"Ezren!" Valeros's voice rose, hitting the octave of a man at least partially on fire.

No. None of the old standbys. That was the problem with classics—if you knew them, so did everyone else.

That was what the arrogant elitists of the Arcanamirium and the pampered dandies at the College of Mysteries never understood. It didn't matter how many old spells you knew—wizardry wasn't butterfly collecting. They could memorize as many spells as they wanted, performing tricks for each other in their ivory towers, and still be no better than a sorcerer, trading instinct for rote.

Learning spells was supposed to be a springboard for one's own experimentation. Magic was an art and a science—both creative pursuit and process of discovery. That was what Ezren's studies on the road had taught him. In the real world, your magic had to be flexible. You needed to be able to calibrate, to channel more magic into a spell, to stretch or quicken it, to—

Adapt.

Of course! Ezren abandoned all the incantations except Lomal's and tried again, inverting the third and fifth gestures. This time, however, he infused it with a thrill of ice magic, a tendril of frost that curled inside the words and crystallized. Suddenly the magic sank inward, the box's inner workings revealed like a three-dimensional schematic as the spell traced them in Ezren's penetrating sight. With the secrets revealed, it was a simple matter to break the enchantment and align the runes in the proper order, cracking the box open to reveal...

Treasure. A glittering mass of gems, no doubt the ransom of some forgotten noble.

How disappointing. Ezren sagged backward, the box suddenly heavy in his hands. After all his research, all the team's work to fight their way into these final chambers, he'd really thought—

A voice boomed out from behind him. "WHO SUMMONS ME?"

Ezren froze. Slowly, he turned, doing his best to hide a triumphant grin.

"Greetings, Excellency." He bowed, gesturing with the glowing box. "This won't take long. Just a few questions..."

If you liked this week's Iconic Encounter, you won't want to miss next week's exciting entry. Until then, Pathfinders, study hard!

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Last week we launched Iconic Evolutions, a video series in which artist Wayne Reynolds takes Paizo's publisher and chief creative officer Erik Mona through his creative process in updating Pathfinder’s iconic characters for the game's Second Edition, coming out this August. Check out this short video of their conversation for a glimpse into the mind of Pathfinder's most iconic visual artist and the first official look at the new version of Ezren, the iconic wizard!

Each week, we'll take a look at a different updated iconic with Erik and Wayne, so stay tuned.

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Last time, I showed you several of the new card frames and revised wordings in the upcoming Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: Core Set. Let's keep that going!

Hey now.

Here's Amiri, our favorite barbarian. Hey—no more sideways character cards! In playtests, we enjoyed reading character and role cards like all the other cards. Paragraph widths your brain can handle. Pretty great.

We're using Wayne Reynolds' new iconic art for Amiri, which we revealed just this very week. We're proud that the Core Set is the first product that will include all 12 of Wayne's new iconic illustrations. (Yes, we said 12, not 11 like in Rise of the Runelords. There's a new Alchemist in town, and his name is Fumbus. More on him later on.)

The first part of Amiri's second power, "Closing your location does not prevent you from exploring," probably doesn't make a lot of sense to you just yet—we'll come back to that later in this blog.

Looking at the back of the card, you'll notice that the character's flavor text has moved here from the token card. That's because we no longer have token cards. Instead, you'll be getting pawns for each character, just like the ones in the Pathfinder Pawns line.

You may appreciate the clean phrasing of "Melee weapon." In previous sets, we would have to say "a weapon that has the Melee trait." Using traits as adjectives has value far beyond just making wordings more concise, though; we can now more easily use them as qualifiers throughout the game. For example, Amiri no longer has to be content favoring just any old weapon—she now favors Melee weapons specifically. And since favored cards aren't limited to types alone, "favored card type" has become simply favored card.

A change you could easily miss: characters don't have gender traits anymore. We've never actually used them anywhere in the game—not even that one time where we tried to make a Unicorn that cared—so we banished them to the ashbin. You can still figure out a character's gender from the pronouns in the flavor text (or not, as the case may be).

Enhance is the closest we got to naming a spell "Share Tattoo."

Spells and items got a very important overhaul. The most significant adjustment is how you recharge them after playing. One of the game's roughest edges—ok, it's a rusted razor blade—has been how and when you do that: these cards would go into a Schrödinger's cat-like abeyance zone while you finished whatever you were doing, then you could finally find out whether it was discarded, recharged, or banished. I've been wanting to fix this hiccup for years. So one day in the office, I quietly said, "I want to change what 'banish' means." Once everyone got done checking my forehead for signs of fever, I explained my new concept of recovery.

You will notice that Enhance gets banished when you're done using it; that's because all spells get banished now. But when you banish a recoverable boon for its power, you don't put it back in the vault—you put it into a recovery pile. At the end of each turn, anyone with a card in a recovery pile does whatever that "During Recovery" section says. Usually, this means applying your proficiencies and/or succeeding at a check to allow you to keep the card. If you aren't able to get your card back during recovery, then it goes to the vault. Recovery fixes a lot of the game's worst exploits, so we never have to worry about Restoration bollixing things up again.

And let's talk a bit more about proficiency. Previously, characters were proficient with card types, so when a card wanted to know if you were proficient with it, it would ask you by naming its card type. For example, a weapon might say "If proficient with weapons, you may add or subtract 3 from your result." But the first part of Enhance's recovery text just says "If proficient, discard this card." That's because there's now more than one way to be proficient with a card—in addition to being proficient with its type, you can be proficient with any of its traits. For Enhance, this means you're proficient with it if you're proficient with spells, or if you're proficient with Magic, Arcane, Divine, or even Veteran cards (not that any character is ever likely to be proficient with Veteran cards, but hey, you never know).

So if you're proficient with items, or with Alchemical or Liquid, you can try to recharge that Elixir of Energy Resistance. (Don't laugh about the Liquid proficiency, or Drunken Avenger Valeros will have words with you. Perhaps not entirely comprehensible ones, but words nonetheless.)

Also, check out that word freely on Enhance. That's an important word. There are new restrictions on how you play boons, most notably that the party can collectively play no more than one of each card type on each check. We'll talk about that in depth in a later blog, but the key is that sometimes we want you to be able to bypass those restrictions. So if you play a boon freely, you or someone else can play another of that type.

Sonja fit all that on one side of a location card. That’s A++ graphic design.

The first thing we need to explain here is "to close or to guard." We used to use the terms "permanently close" and "temporarily close" to mean closing a location either forever or just for the brief moment when the villain is trying to escape. But there were significant differences between those concepts, often requiring us to do some dancing to ensure that it was clear when we wanted something to affect just one of them. So "temporarily close" has become guard, as it is in Apocrypha, and "permanently close" is just close. No longer do you have to second-guess whether something that affects closing is supposed to affect temporarily closing too.

The next thing we need to explain is why we're not showing you the backs of those locations. Well, there is no back. When you close a location, you don't flip it over anymore—you banish it, then everybody there moves to a new location. There's no need for a "When Permanently Closed" power to appear on the other side of the card because there are never closed locations in play. This also means that the game cleans itself up as you go—when you win, there will typically be a lot fewer cards on the table, allowing you to get on with the next scenario that much faster.

This is also where Amiri's mysterious "Closing your location does not prevent you from exploring" power comes in. When other characters close their location, they move to a new one but are done exploring for that turn. Not Amiri—she can try to power through her new location like a raging barbarian should.

Let's talk about what it takes to close or to guard the Ruin: "Summon and defeat the danger." Every scenario lists a danger: one or more specific banes that a wide variety of effects can bring into play. This allows us to play up unique thematic elements in each scenario. Before, we didn't have a good way to throw lots of skeletons at you during a haunted castle scenario, but now we just define the danger as, say, an Ancient Skeleton, and it's restless dead till dawn.

The Graveyard has a new term: new. This just lets us bring in cards from the vault that—unlike summoned cards—stick around for more than one encounter.

And hey, all locations have traits now! Certain banes may be harder to defeat in an Urban location. Or you might be a power that serves you better at Wild locations, giving you a reason to gravitate toward them. That's a fun bit of storytelling.

Then there's the proxy card. We've been using proxies in Pathfinder Society scenarios for a long time now; bringing that concept to the Core Set means that we don't have to include six copies of a bunch of the henchmen. (Even the proxies themselves aren't truly duplicates—there are times when it's helpful to differentiate between them, so they each bear a unique designation, like our buddy A1 above.) This means we can give you more unique cards for your money. Proxies allow us to put 411 unique cards in the 440-card Core Set (and the duplicates are all level 0 and 1 blessings). It gets even better in the 550-card Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path, which includes 543 unique cards (the duplicates are all of a single level 0 blessing).

These are not the nicest cards we've ever created.

This trio shows some of the many ways we hurt you. When we hurt you in myriad ways, we want to use the same verb, because we often do it multiple ways at once. Enter suffer, a word you will learn to loathe. You can suffer damage and you can suffer scourges, an evolution of the concept from Mummy's Mask. We also named the place you bury your cards the bury pile, which might lead you to believe we did so because we used it a lot. Probably don't worry about it. For all that suffering, we also coined the verb heal to describe the act of shuffling a random card into your deck from your discards—and yup, we simplified that to one word too. That'll help when you use the single copy of Cure we put in the Core Set. (More unique cards is good, right?) And while we're shortening things, "reset your hand" became just reset.

We might hurt you before acting or after acting. We changed those from "before you act" and "after you act." This should make it more apparent that these terms describe a time that something happens regardless of who actually does it. Castothrane hits you for Fire damage and gives another character a Wraith to fight, so it's clear that "before acting" can affect more than just you.

When you try to defeat ol' Ghost Rider here, you might notice his immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities. You can't hit him with Cold because he hand-waves that away. Hit him with Fire and you'll subtract 4 from your result, because he's resistant. Hit him with Bludgeoning and you'll add 4, because Skeletons fold up like deck chairs when bashed with rocks. Hit him with a Flaming Mace and both of those apply, so it all washes out.

Oh, maybe the most obvious change: Castothrane isn't a villain or a henchman. He's a story bane, which lets him be used as either a villain or a henchman. Or as a danger, even. This flexibility lets us use these important cards for various purposes, such as Mob of Undead summoning a random Undead story bane. This will come in especially handy when you see the random scenarios that you can generate yourself.

You might be wondering about that white circle on the scourge. That's just one place where markers come into play. The Core Set includes 63 of these little discs; 7 each of 9 different designs. When you suffer a scourge, you put a marker on that circle, and you take a corresponding marker yourself. While so marked, that scourge's powers apply to you. Scourges can also mark locations, and if you're at a location when it gets marked, or if you end your turn at a marked location, you suffer the corresponding scourge. Scourges are just one fun thing we do with markers; frankly, we haven't even begun to scratch the surface with the possibilities. And wait until we tell you what's on the backs of the markers... in another blog.

As I mentioned last time, we're aware that these changes affect some extant cards. The vast majority of cards just work, and the conversion guide in the rulebook has simple rules that cover many more. For example, characters that have the Arcane or Divine skill count as being proficient with the corresponding trait—easy. A single sentence tells you how to play old rechargeable boons with the new recovery rules. And another sentence tells you how to easily determine whether effects that apply to closing locations should also apply to guarding.

A few cards will need more specific attention, though. The conversion guide includes the general rule that you ignore any effects that involve interacting with closed locations, but that might not be good enough for a few cards; when Menhir Savant Lini wants to use her Planar Tuning Fork in the General Store, we'll help her out. And we might want to give some cards additional powers to increase their usefulness in the new set, like letting some cards that currently affect Curses and Haunts also affect scourges. Let us know what cards you think need an overhaul.

Basically, you're playing the same game as before, just with a new coat of paint. A much spiffier coat of paint, in my totally unbiased opinion. We hope you enjoy playing with the new rules as much as we do.

Mike Selinker
Lead Designer, Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

You've already met Amiri, the iconic barbarian, but you've never seen her like this! Enjoy the following piece of short fiction from James L. Sutter in the first of our series of Iconic Encounters—brief vignettes of the iconic characters showcasing the myriad stories you can tell with Pathfinder Second Edition.

Illustration by Roberto Pitturru

Snow whipped around Amiri as she stepped out from behind the rock, letting her cloak drop away. "That's far enough."

The giant looked down in surprise. Tattoos the color of woad swirled across ice-blue skin as he towered over her, the axes in his hands taller than Amiri herself. Yet she had eyes only for the broken horn on his helm. This was him, all right.

"Hail, Agmundr Jarl." Amiri knew it was pointless to feign diplomacy, but her employers had been insistent. They still thought they could solve this without blood. Never mind that blood was all that ever really solved anything. Even now, White Elk scouts were hiding in the cliffs, watching to see if she could truly do what she claimed. "The White Elk Clan greets you," she said sternly, "and will trade if you wish, but your band may not enter their territory. The council forbids it."

The frost giant stared for a moment, then guffawed, a thunderous shout that threatened to bring down an avalanche and bury them both. The frozen waterfall of his beard split in a malicious grin.

"Forbid?" His voice was the groaning of glaciers. "Prey does not forbid. Prey runs, and the hunter pursues."

"So you agree we're done talking, then." Amiri unslung the sword from her back.

The jarl's grin widened as he took in Amiri's oversized weapon. "A giant's blade! And what will you do with that, little ermine? Shelter beneath it?"

"Stick around and find out."

Amiri hoisted the sword. Immediately, her biceps began to shake, her shoulders cramping. She bit down hard, teeth grinding as she tried to steady her traitorous muscles by sheer force of will. Yet the sword's point still bobbed like a ship at sea.

"You're too weak, little ermine." Agmundr laughed again and spat, the spittle freezing in midair with a crack. "And the time for weakness has passed. The last war is nearly upon us."

There it was, then. War. It had always been coming, as inevitable as the winter snows. Amiri had known that even before accepting the White Elk Clan's offer.

Yet now she knew nothing. Red haze settled across her vision, painting white snow a prophetic crimson. Her heart beat in her temples, a war drum throb that flowed hot through her limbs. Pulsing. Eager.

"Say it again," she growled.

"You're weak." He leered down at her, eyes alight. "Too weak to fight. Too weak to even make a proper slave. Nothing but dripping fat and marrow for the cook fire."

The cold was a distant memory. Inside Amiri's chest, a blast furnace opened its doors. Her ears filled with its roar.

The sword steadied, point going as still as a rock viper.

The giant's eyes widened.

"You're right about one thing, Jarl." She smiled. "War is coming. So let's get started."

Sword held high, she raced up the slanted stone. Axes made to fell watchtowers rose into guard position as the giant stepped back. In her hands, Amiri's giant-made blade sang, its frost-forged steel suddenly light as a willow switch, longing for the blood of its makers.

Around them, the storm shrieked, savage and unstoppable.

Amiri screamed with it.

And leapt.

Check back next week for another Iconic Encounter. Until then, Pathfinders, rage on!

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

It's been 12 years since famed artist Wayne Reynolds designed the core iconic characters we've all come to know and love. When we knew a second edition was on the horizon, we asked him to update them for the new era of Pathfinder. Last summer, Paizo's publisher and chief creative officer Erik Mona met with Wayne at Paizo's Gen Con booth to discuss his creative process. Check out this short video of their conversation for a glimpse into the mind of Pathfinder's most iconic visual artist and the first official look at the iconic barbarian, Amiri!

Each week, we'll take a look at a different updated iconic with Erik and Wayne, so stay tuned.

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

I spent much of February traveling to different conventions and leave again this weekend for a week of GAMA trade show fun! In my absence, organized play lead developer John Compton took to the Paizo twitch channel with Marketing Manager Dan Tharp for a discussion of upcoming bits and bobs about the Paizo organized play programs, with the predominate focus on the remaining storylines of Pathfinder Society Season Ten, the launch of Pathfinder Society Year One, Starfinder Society Season One, and the Adventure Card Guild. Without further ado, John's recap:

Campaign Coins

We distributed no campaign coins in February, partly due to lack of recommendations. The organized play team cannot be everywhere, and we rely on recommendations from community members regarding who receives coins. Anyone can make a recommendation, not just the venture-officer or GM teams. Please take a moment and email me at organizedplay@paizo.com with their name, location, and the reasons you feel they should be recognized for their service. It doesn't need to be a long, involved email, just a synopsis of what the volunteer does to make your community go. If you are able, please include what events they may attend in 2019 so that we can either make awards in person (preferred) or make arrangements for remote presentation.

Stars

As we start 2019 convention season in earnest, please join me in three cheers for the GMs who utilized the winter months to qualify for their 5th star. To achieve this milestone, GMs run 150 games, of which at least 50 must be unique scenarios and 10 special scenarios, as well as run a game for a venture-captain. A conservative estimate of time needed to reach 5-stars is 650 hours! To the GMs listed below, thank you very much for the time and energy you spend running Pathfinder Society games! Huge congratulations on your achievement!

• Walter Wooten
• James Kight
• Guy Caley

Convention Listing

2019 Organized Play Staff Travel

Want to hang out with Paizo staff? Play in a game which they are GM? Check out the list below and come see us at a convention near you. I've been asked several times what it takes for a staffer to attend a convention. At a minimum, the convention should supply room(s) and badges. The more costs a convention can cover, the easier it is to get a convention on the schedule. Please note - staff do not attend conventions the last weekend in May or the weekend of Gen Con, due to already being slated to attend those shows. If you are an event organizer and want to invite us out at your event in 2020, drop an email to organizedplay@paizo.com before July, as we put our schedule together in August.

^{*Staffers scheduled to attend may change without notice.}

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Now that we've shown off all the figures in the standard Ruins of Lastwall set of prepainted plastic miniatures over the past few weeks, that leaves just the premium set for today's blog. Over the history of the line, we've switched between extra-large figures like dragons and giants and hydras and themed dungeon dressing like the Rusty Dragon Inn and the Court of the Crimson Throne. For Ruins of Lastwall, we suggested a cemetery set to WizKids, who at first seemed hesitant to do it (we later learned that they were doing a similar set in their Icons of the Realms product line). When they heard the pieces we wanted to include, however, they got really excited. The end result is one of the most impressive sets of dungeon dressing I think I've ever seen.

Illustration by Joel Holtzman

Each Cemetery of the Fallen Setincludes a working cemetery gate, two 2" fence segments, four 4" fence segments, a mausoleum with removable roof, a mausoleum coffin, four each of two varieties of tombstone, and two each of two stone coffins.

Cemetery of the Fallen is also the first premium set to use new packaging that displays the content inside. You can see both the packaging and a sample set all laid out together at New York Toy Fair a few weeks ago.

Photos: Erik Mona

That wraps up our previews for the Ruins of Lastwall release, due out later this spring from WizKids. When I next grace the blog with another preview, it'll likely be about the forthcoming Iconic Heroes Evolved set, also due out later this spring. Until then, don't split the party!

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

Born in Isger's Chitterwood, Fumbus's early life was practically idyllic, at least by goblin standards. The Chitterwood has been largely left to the goblins since the end of the Goblinblood Wars nearly twenty years ago, its goblin inhabitants now free of the militant influence of their hobgoblin cousins, most of whom were eradicated or driven out of Isger at the closing of the war.

Fumbus had the honor of serving as apprentice to the Fire-Eater goblin clan's chief pickle-maker, a position which gave him a fair amount of standing amongst his kin. Unfortunately, Fumbus had a particular penchant for experimentation that led to spectacular failures as often as it led to new delicacies. When a particularly unstable batch of "spicy pickle brine" exploded in the middle of the Fire-Eater encampment, Fumbus fled the Chitterwood, fearing that the reprisal from his fellow goblins for destroying both the clan's precious pickle barrel and a significant supply of cucumbers would be swift and violent.

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Fumbus's initial forays into the wider world were truly terrifying. Scavenging from human farms usually ended poorly, as vicious dogs and horrifying horses would bite, chase, or stomp the poor goblin if they caught wind of his presence. The humans themselves were often even more terrifying, and Fumbus found himself fleeing pitchfork-wielding mobs with stolen, smelly shoes (easiest to find without a light and useful as either food or clothing) tucked under one arm far more often than he found a safe place to fill his belly and sleep. Fumbus's life likely would have ended at the hands of one of these mobs had he not encountered a passing half-orc Pathfinder named Droven whose initial reaction to the little goblin was humor, rather than fear or violence. Used to dealing with a certain amount of prejudice and distrust himself, Droven dissuaded the mob from pursuing their vendetta against the goblin and allowed Fumbus to accompany him on his mission.

Droven's heroics entranced young Fumbus, particularly the alchemical fire and other concoctions the half-orc used to defeat his opponents. When Droven completed his mission for the Pathfinder Society, he brought Fumbus back with him to Absalom. Droven helped secure a home for the little goblin in the Puddles district, where Fumbus's presence would be less likely to cause a stir, and shared what he knew of alchemy with the eager goblin. While Fumbus was terrified at the thought of needing to write down formulas, his mind was sharp and he quickly mastered the art of reading; to Fumbus, collecting these foolishly discarded thoughts was no different than surviving off the trash and scraps left on the outskirts of towns and cities. Fumbus came up with his own system for creating and remembering formulas using small tokens engraved with pictographic runes and a series of leather cords, which he would use to bind certain ingredients in specific orders. Together these implements allowed him to practice alchemy without risking his goblin soul or precious thoughts by performing the obscene act of writing anything down. Of further benefit to Fumbus, his new home's location in the Puddles allows the little goblin to experiment with all manner of inflammable and unstable concoctions with little fear of wreaking destruction beyond the building's water-logged rooms.

Droven offered to sponsor Fumbus into the Pathfinder Society, but the goblin was so impressed by Droven that he truly believed he would not be able to pass the Society's rigorous entry exams. Determined to prove himself, Fumbus busily applied his time and energy to creating new alchemical formulas and perfecting his system for recording his discoveries. As Fumbus's confidence grew, he began to believe that perhaps he might find a place in the Pathfinder Society after all. Skulking through the alleys of Absalom, Fumbus made his way to the Grand Lodge. Upon his arrival, Fumbus learned that Droven had left on a mission several weeks ago and was overdue to report in; his ship was believed lost at sea. Droven had left a letter of sponsorship as well as some funds to secure the goblin a chance to learn at the Society's institutions but Fumbus was unwilling to begin his training without the half-orc present.

Months have passed and Droven has still not returned. Fumbus spends his time perfecting his alchemy, seeking news of his lost friend, and looking for opportunities to ingratiate himself to the Pathfinder Society, despite multiple assurances from the Society's members and leadership that Fumbus's welcome was already secured by his half-orc friend. Something in Fumbus's mind refuses to let go of the idea that he must prove himself to be a worthy explorer of the same caliber as Droven, whose heroics and skill are unmatched in Fumbus's view. The little goblin has made a decision that he holds sacrosanct: he will earn his entrance to the Society by either finding his friend Droven and bringing the half-orc home, or by performing a truly heroic act worthy of the reputation Droven holds in Fumbus's own eyes.

Michael Sayre
Developer