Axel wasn’t his real name. He’d wanted a name that echoed in the big top, and something that sounded good in front of “Amazing Aviary.” So now he was Axel, of Axel’s Amazing Aviary, and no one knew who he’d been before he came to the Circus of Wayward Wonders. He was certain his new name would lead to his first real, actual performance.

Except it hadn’t.

The ringmaster and circus manager went by the name “Thunder” and, like his namesake, he could silence the largest crowd, rolling over them as they hung on his every word. He was like that in person as well, pronouncing all his words deliberately and forcefully. Axel thought the Thunder was the most intense, serious, forthright person he’d ever met. This made it especially frustrating that Axel hadn’t been able to get a straight answer from the man in five days. Would Axel be able to perform on opening night? Could he practice in one of the three rings beneath the big top? Could he see the order of the acts, to find out where his bird act would best fit?

Yes, but also no, and also perhaps yes.

Soon.

Axel left every discussion feeling that he’d finally received the ringmaster’s answers, but as soon as the Thunder had moved on to talk to someone else, Axel realized he hadn’t gotten any answers at all.

With little else to do, Axel turned back to his doves. He’d set up a lightweight stand in a corner of the darkened big top, out of the way of the genuine performers practicing their circus tricks. He gave a low whistle, and one of the doves darted from its perch to take a wrapped pebble from his hand, swooping around Axel’s head with it.

Illustration by Nathanael James.

“Is that candy?”

Axel turned at the question, following the bird with his gaze as it swooped to drop the pebble into the outstretched hand of a young girl wearing a tight white leotard. She was no older than twelve—not much younger than Axel himself—but she held herself with the confidence of one with two, three times that many years behind her.

“No, sorry. It’s just a rock,” said Axel quickly. Then, as if the warning were necessary, he added, “Please don’t eat it.” He quickly glanced over her shoulder where her parents and two older siblings practiced their high-wire acrobatics routine. They didn’t seem to notice him or his young friend.

The girl—Odvi Kanbali, Axel remembered—looked curiously at the prize that the dove had delivered. “Why would you wrap a rock up to look like candy?”

“It’ll be actual candy during a performance, but candy’s expensive to use during training,” Axel explained. “I taught the doves to give them to children in the audience.”

“I’m not in the audience,” Odvi huffed, “and I’m not a child. I’m a performer. One of the Flying Kanbalis…although that was our name back in Escadar. We’re the Feather-Fall Five now. Papa says it’s because we won’t have to risk a hard fall ever again.”

“You were in Escadar?” Axel asked enthusiastically, wholly forgetting to maintain his facade of jaded professionalism. He saw Odvi’s face twist in a grimace and regretted sounding excited about it. “Then you worked for… her,” Axel finished flatly.

“Mistress Dusklight,” Odvi said slowly, nodding. The rest of her words came in a rush, as though they’d been bottled up for a long time. “She’s beautiful and graceful, and she knows more about the circus than even Professor K does, and he’s ancient. But she’s really a monster! Her circus isn’t ‘The Delights of the Heavens,’ it’s a prison. Or worse, an executioner’s block. Nobody in the audience realizes she doesn’t care if her performers are hurt or worse, so long as she keeps up the sparkly illusion she’s selling her crowds. I hated it. I hated her. Papa always said we’d get away, and when a bunch of us decided to leave Dusklight’s circus, we came here to start up our own. Wayward wonders, all of us. Now my family never has to perform without a safety net. I think it’s very exciting—there are lots of new people joining, too, and it feels like…I don’t know. Like the start of something really important.”

Axel stepped toward her to collect his bird and his wrapped pebble, wincing as his weight fell awkwardly on his left foot.

Odvi frowned. “You’re hurt.”

“I bumped my leg last night. I’m fine.”

“It’s a stake bite.”

Axel looked over where Mistress Elizia, the snake charmer, was poking around in the mouth of her enormous anaconda. “A snakebite?”

Odvi giggled. “No, a stake bite. Circus talk. It comes from old stakes. We had to make do with parts we could scavenge, and that meant used tent stakes. When stakes get pounded into the dirt again and again, their tops eventually split. If you don’t step carefully when outside the tent at night, their frayed tops can cut your leg. Newcomers get stake bites all the time. Take off your shoe and I’ll wrap your ankle. I learned a lot about wrapping injuries in Mistress Dusklight’s circus.” The girl unwound one of her chalk-dusted handwraps to use as a makeshift bandage.

As Axel bent to roll up his trouser leg, Odvi glanced at his doves, clustered together on their perch. “Your bird rack is empty in the middle.”

“That’s where I go,” explained Axel. “The harness doesn’t stand on the ground like that during a performance. It goes over my shoulders, and under my cloak. That’s how I hide the birds before unveiling them for their tricks.”

“Your wire’s too thick,” interjected a flat-faced, simple-looking boy walking by with a metal spar over one shoulder.

“Hod can…talk?” gasped Odvi, surprised.

The boy scowled. “Don’t talk a lot. Doesn’t mean I don’t talk.”

Odvi leaned in to Axel, whispering. “Hod’s the assistant to the magician.”

Axel nodded. “I’ve seen her around. Mordaine the Magician, right? Apparently, she’s really, really good.”

The acrobat rolled her eyes. “Mordaine says that Mordaine is really good. And that we’re lucky to have her. And that she should be the big number in the center ring on opening night. And so on. The Thunder isn’t so sure.”

While Axel and Odvi spoke among themselves of his mistress, Hod set down his spar and picked up Axel’s cloak. He turned it inside out with a careful motion and pointed to several small tears. “Wire’s wrecking your lining. After a show or two, it’ll tear and spoil the illusion. Use thinner wire. And loop the ends.”

“Thanks, Hod,” Axel replied, genuinely grateful for the boy’s advice. “I’m lucky you stopped by.” He paused, unsure whether to speak his next thought aloud. “Is Mordaine all that she says?”

Hod considered, his brow furrowing. Then his face split into a smile. “At least she has a good assistant.”

Odvi laughed, slipping Axel’s shoe back on and helping him to his feet. Hod’s face grew suddenly solemn and he picked up his spar. “She told the Thunder that we already have a magician, and we already have animal acts, so there’s no place for you.”

Axel was torn between shock and outrage. “No place? How is it even her decision? She’s as new to this circus as I am! I thought the Thunder ran this show.”

Hod grinned again, “That’s what the Thunder told her. Said he was already considering a place for you.”

“Oh, that’s good news,” interjected Odvi, “I’d heard he was going to say no, because of how obvious it was that you’d never performed in front of a crowd before. But I think you’ll fit in well. We were all novices once. Except me. I’ve been on the high wire since before I can remember.”

“I’d better get back to training, then.” Axel said, preparing to run through his trick again. “I feel like this opening night is going to be the beginning of something wonderful.”

“Yes,” the children said in unison before returning to their own duties.

Hod turned back, smiling over his spar and looking intently at Axel’s outstretched hand. “Is that candy?”

About the Author

Ron Lundeen lives in the rural hinterlands outside of Seattle, Washington, where he finds the climate a pleasant change from his native Illinois. After a career as a corporate attorney, Ron took a full-time position with Paizo, Inc. as a developer, working with freelancers to create fabulous worlds and monstrous threats for the Pathfinder and Starfinder roleplaying games. He also designs games in his free time, creating a dizzying variety of perils, plots, and legends. Ron’s favorite RPG design work is adventure writing, to help others share exciting stories with their friends. Although his first game design credit came back in 1993, Ron has recently written for Paizo, Wizards of the Coast, Ulisses Spiele, and many others. Ron also runs a gaming company and RPG writer advice blog, which you can visit at www.runamokgames.com.

About Extinction Curse

Kicking off in January, 2020 with Pathfinder Adventure Path #151: The Show Must Go On, Extinction Curse is the 26th Pathfinder Adventure Path from Paizo, Inc. and the second designed for use with the second edition of the bestselling Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. In Extinction Curse, the players take on the role of humble circus performers who uncover a sinister plot to exterminate life from the Starstone Isle. The dead god Aroden may be gone, but his legacy lives on, as do his old enemies who would destroy the wonders he raised from the sea. Spectacle meets savagery as the heroes strive to stop the Extinction Curse!

Since the launch of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game Core Set and Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path, we’ve wanted a way for Pathfinder Adventure Card Society characters to use more new cards from those sets. Version 6.1 of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society Guide gave you access to Core or Curse versions of existing Class Deck cards, and Adventure Path rewards from The Dragon’s Demand PACS Sanctioning Document and the Curse of the Crimson Throne PACS Sanctioning Document provided access to a small set of cards when playing scenarios using those sets. Fortunately, the designers of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game came up with a solution that goes beyond simply letting characters use more cards, adding a whole new layer of customizability to your game. I’ll pass it over to them to explain how it works.

Linda Zayas-Palmer
Organized Play Lead Developer

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For the past several months, we’ve been internally examining and testing a concept dubbed “adventurer’s packs,” which divides the Core and Curse boons into 10 packs of cards each about half the size of a usual Class Deck. The basic rules are fairly simple:

• Instead of a Class Deck, you can take one adventurer’s pack.
• Instead of an Ultimate Add-On Deck, you can take two adventurer’s packs.
• Instead of both a Class Deck and Ultimate Add-On Deck, you can take three adventurer’s packs.
• You cannot take multiple copies of the same pack.

Let’s look at some examples.

Edward is playing Ezren with the Wizard Class Deck. Following the PACS Guide, he had added the cards from Ultimate Magic Add-On Deck. Edward has the following new options:

1. Replace the Wizard Class Deck with one adventurer’s pack and keep using the Ultimate Magic deck.
2. Keep using the Wizard Class Deck and replace the Ultimate Magic deck with two adventurer’s packs.
3. Replace the Wizard Class Deck and the Ultimate Magic deck with three adventurer’s packs.

Helen is playing Hayato with the Ultimate Combat Class Deck. Following the PACS Guide, she had added the cards from the Barbarian Class Deck. Helen has the following new options:

1. Replace the Barbarian Class Deck with one adventurer’s pack and keep using the Ultimate Combat deck.
2. Keep using the Barbarian Class Deck and replace the Ultimate Combat deck with two adventurer’s packs.
3. Replace the Barbarian Class Deck and the Ultimate Combat deck with three adventurer’s packs.

(Remember that the PACS Guide requires that any specific cards listed on the back of your character card must be in your deck, so if Helen gives up the Ultimate Combat deck, she would still keep Hayato’s cohort Jinfu from that deck.)

Of course, nothing is ever quite that simple; those rules alone could result in players building decks that aren’t suited to their characters, so we need to provide a couple more rules to ensure that everybody’s character stays legal.

• The decks and packs you select must collectively provide enough cards of each type to create a valid deck for your character. For example, the Arcane, Nature, and Occult packs collectively have only 2 level 0 weapons; if your Tier 0 character needs 3 weapons, you cannot select that combination of packs.
• You cannot gain a card feat if you do not have a legal card of the appropriate type to add to your deck. For example, if you gain a feat for your Tier 3 character and do not have any level 3 or lower weapons available, you may not choose a weapon card feat. (Usually, you can just choose a different type of feat, but if you are unable to do so, you do not gain a feat.)

These rules need to be tested by a much broader audience, so today we’d like to invite everyone to join us in trying out these packs in official PACS play. You must have access to a Core Set and a Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path that are not used in the scenario you’re playing. You can build all 10 adventurer’s packs simultaneously from a single set of Core and a single set of Curse, so as long as no two characters want to use the same pack, that set can supply packs for several characters, even among multiple players if you so choose.

• If you would like to use adventurer’s packs for a new character, add the rules above to the existing rules for modifying your class deck in the PACS Guide. Note that since you can now replace the deck your character came from, you technically no longer need a Class Deck to create a PACS character as long as you have the appropriate character sheet. (If your character’s deck list names a specific card, though, you will need access to either that card or a card with the same name and type.)
• If you would like to use adventurer’s packs for an existing character, first record the level and type of each card in your deck. Next, replace your entire Class Deck and/or Ultimate Add-On Deck in your deck box with one or more adventurer’s packs in accordance with the rules above. Then, for each card you recorded in the old deck, choose from your deck box a card of the same type of the same level or lower and add it to your deck. For example, if you had a level 2 weapon in your old deck, you’ll choose a level 0, 1, or 2 weapon for your new deck. (If your character’s deck list names a specific card, you may replace it only with a card that has the same name and type.)

As a result of your feedback, we may need to make some adjustments to these rules, and it’s likely that we’ll need to shift a small number of cards from one pack to another. When we’re finished, we’ll issue an updated PACS Guide; you’ll be able to make adjustments to bring your character in line with the finished rules, and you’ll also have the option to switch back to your original deck(s) if you like.

Thanks in advance for any feedback and testing you provide. We hope you enjoy the (fairly ridiculous) number of new character customization options this adds.

Chad Brown, Keith Richmond, Liz Spain, and Mike Selinker
Adventure Card Game Designers

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Alchemy Pack

A ton of potions and bombs, and a lot of fun with Fire, Poison and other energies.

Level 0
Ally	Snake
Armor	Armored Coat
Blessings	Incitation, Incitation, Sands of the Hour
Items	Acid Flask, Antiplague, Blast Stone, Elixir of Energy Resistance, Elixir of Healing, Elixir of Love, Noxious Bomb
Spells	Acid Arrow, Immolate
Weapons	Light Crossbow, Sword Cane

Level 1
Allies	Clockwork Servant, Tinker
Armor	Slick Leather
Blessings	Irori’s Mastery, The Carnival, The Forge, The Inquisitor, The Lost, The Publican, The Sickness, The Snakebite, The Waxworks
Spells	Fire Bolt, Toxic Cloud
Weapon	Flaming Shortbow

Level 2
Ally	Flensing Jelly
Armor	Grounded Studded Leather
Items	Elixir Of Focus, Liquid Courage, Plaguebringer’s Mask, Tangleburn Bag, Twitch Tonic
Spells	Full Pouch
Weapon	Venomous Hand Crossbow

Level 3
Blessings	Blackfingers, The Prince of Pain
Item	Ambrosia
Spells	Dragon’s Breath, Poison Blast
Weapon	Acidic Bolas

Level 4
Item	Bottled Lightning
Spell	Acid Rain

Level 5
Ally	Pegg and Louie
Item	Wyvern Poison
Spell	Quickened Ray

Level 6
Item	Fuse Grenade
Spell	Corrosive Storm

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Arcane Pack

Your favorite Arcane spells and books and magical gadgets.

Level 0
Allies	Acadamae Student, Harrowed Society Student, Sage
Blessings	Incitation, Sands of the Hour
Items	Codex, Sage’s Journal, Spellbook
Spells	Acid Burst, Detect Magic, False Life, Force Missile, Infernal Healing, Lightning Touch, Phantasmal Minion, Sleep

Level 1
Ally	Bound Imp
Blessings	Nethys’s Duality, The Eclipse, The Fiend, The Foreign Trader, The Hidden Truth, The Rakshasa
Items	Wand of Acid Burst, Wand of Force Missile
Spells	Frost Ray, Invisibility, Knock, Life Drain, Mirror Image

Level 2
Ally	Korvosan House Drake
Blessings	Asmodeus’s Tyranny
Items	Circlet of Mental Acuity, Ring of Protection
Spells	Dimensional Jump, Enervation, Lightning Bolt, Vampiric Touch

Level 3
Ally	Acadamae Scholar
Blessing	The First
Items	Wand of Enervation
Spell	Chain Lightning, Harrowing, Magical Mansion

Level 4
Ally	Salvator Scream
Item	Fireball Beads
Spell	Death’s Touch

Level 5
Ally	Andachi
Spells	Disintegrate, Scrying

Level 6
Ally	Toff Ornelos
Item	Staff of Greater Necromancy
Spell	Meteor Swarm

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Divine Pack

A host of Divine spells, blessings, and gifts from the gods.

Level 0
Allies	Acolyte, Merchant
Armors	Chain Mail, Light Shield
Blessings	Benefaction, Orison, Prayer
Items	Holy Symbol, Holy Water
Spells	Cure, Detect Evil, Divine Insight, Enchant Weapon, Frozen Touch, Sanctuary, Viper Strike
Weapons	Mace, Warhammer

Level 1
Allies	Bodyguard, Priest of Pharasma
Armor	Magic Chain Mail
Blessings	Abadar’s Law, Desna’s Freedom, Gozreh’s Growth, Iomedae’s Justice, Nethys’s Duality, Pharasma’s Knowing, Sarenrae’s Light, The Empty Throne, Torag’s Power
Item	Sacred Candle
Spells	Commune, Holy Light, Remove Disease
Weapons	Glorious Warhammer

Level 2
Ally	Magistrate
Armor	Gray Maiden Plate
Blessing	Urgathoa’s Gluttony
Spell	Deathgrip
Weapons	Flaming Mace

Level 3
Ally	Ausio Carowyn
Armor	Lion’s Helm
Blessings	Grandmother Nightmare, The Healing Light
Spells	Divine Fortune, Wall of Light

Level 4
Ally	Lyrune-Quah Truthspeaker
Item	Wand of Restorative Touch
Spell	Divine Blaze

Level 5
Armor	Angelic Armor
Spell	Steal Soul

Level 6
Ally	Darb Tuttle
Spell	Boneshatter

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Finesse Pack

All the things an urban adventurer might need.

Level 0
Allies	Burglar, Mouse, Spider
Armor	Studded Leather Armor
Blessings	Orison, Prayer, Sands of the Hour
Items	Magnifying Glass, Spider Venom, Thieves’ Tools
Weapons	Dagger, Kukri, Rapier, Shortsword, Starknife

Level 1
Allies	Gang Enforcer, Priest of Abadar
Armor	Armor of Insults
Blessings	Cayden Cailean’s Revelry, Desna’s Freedom, Irori’s Mastery, Shelyn’s Song, The Crows, The Demon’s Lantern, The Joke, The Locksmith
Items	Gem of Physical Prowess, Smoke Bomb
Weapons	Elven Curve Blade, Keen Rapier, Snakebite Dagger

Level 2
Ally	Naval Hero
Armor	Glamered Leather Armor
Items	Belt of Physical Prowess
Weapons	Humanbane Rapier, Keen Starknife

Level 3
Ally	Cerulean Mastermind
Armor	Sable Company Leathers
Blessing	Master of Masters, The Eternal Rose
Item	Bloodroot Poison
Weapons	Shock Kukri, Venomous Dagger

Level 4
Ally	Jasan Adriel
Item	Silver War Paint
Weapons	Blackjack's Rapier, Limning Starknife

Level 5
Ally	Risibeth
Weapon	Keen Spiked Chain

Level 6
Armor	Greater Bolstering Armor
Item	The Lost Harrows
Weapons	Dancing Dagger, Shocking Sawtooth Saber

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Nature Pack

A menagerie of animals to join you (or for you to become), and other things to help you in the wild.

Level 0
Allies	Bat, Dog, Frog, Porcupine
Armor	Hide Armor
Blessings	Incitation, Prayer, Sands of the Hour
Items	Balmberry, Spiked Gauntlet
Spells	Burst Bonds, Frostbite, Levitate, Revitalize
Weapon	Bolas

Level 1
Allies	Droogami, Giant Slug
Armor	Magic Hide Armor
Blessings	Erastil’s Eye, Gozreh’s Growth, Sarenrae’s Light, The Cricket, The Owl, The Rabbit Prince, The Tangled Briar, The Unicorn, The Wanderer
Items	Boots of Friendly Terrain
Spells	Bloodscent, Elemental Treaty, Sonic Blast
Weapon	Allying Dart

Level 2
Ally	Riding Allosaurus
Armor	Shield of Resistance
Blessings	Lamashtu’s Madness
Spells	Aspect of the Monkey, Heat Metal
Weapon	Frost Longspear

Level 3
Ally	Wolverine
Armor	Sable Company Hide
Blessings	The Wind and the Waves, The Worldbreaker
Item	Wayfinder
Spells	Ice Strike, Volcanic Storm

Level 4
Ally	Firepelt Cougar
Armor	Shoanti Barbarian Hide
Spell	Restoration
Weapon	Returning Totem Spear

Level 5
Spell	Icy Prison

Level 6
Ally	Hippogriff
Spell	Shapechange
Weapon	Fury’s Trident

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Occult Pack

For the subtle occult arts of divination and mental mastery.

Level 0
Allies	Card Caster, Harrower
Armor	Quilted Cloth Armor
Blessings	Incitation, Sands of the Hour, Sands of the Hour
Items	Bracers of Protection, Flame Staff, Luckstone
Spells	Candlelight, Confusion, Fiery Glare, Magic Eye
Weapon	Quarterstaff

Level 1
Allies	Fox, Leech
Blessings	The Betrayal, The Idiot, The Marriage, The Midwife, The Mute Hag, The Peacock, The Queen Mother, The Theater, The Tyrant
Item	Gem of Mental Acuity
Spells	Charm Person, Harrowstrike, Locate Object
Weapon	Quarterstaff of Vaulting

Level 2
Allies	Bound Homunculus, Fortune-Teller
Items	Wand of Flame, Zellara’s Harrow Deck
Spells	Fly, Twisted Space

Level 3
Ally	Dream Spider,
Blessings	Lady Luck, The All-Seeing Eye, The Lady of Mysteries
Item	Fate-Reader Lenses
Spells	Clairvoyance, Mistform

Level 4
Ally	Nightspear
Item	Dust of Revealing
Spell	Instrument of Agony

Level 5
Ally	Zellara
Item	Headband of Mental Superiority
Spell	Major Harrowing

Level 6
Ally	Venster Arabasti
Item	Third Eye
Spell	Dominate, Sadomasochism

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Ranged Pack

The best ranged weapons and tools for characters who might sometimes want to be at range.

Level 0
Allies	Archer, Guide, Lookout
Armor	Chain Shirt
Blessings	Benefaction, Prayer
Items	Compass, Spyglass
Weapon	Heavy Crossbow, Longbow, Shortbow

Level 1
Allies	Crow, Gentleman Explorer
Armor	Archer’s Kite Shield, Magic Chain Shirt
Blessings	Calistria’s Sting, Erastil’s Eye, The Cyclone, The Twin, The Uprising, The Vision, The Winged Serpent
Items	Cape of Escape, Helpful Haversack
Weapons	Deathbane Light Crossbow, Returning Starknife, Returning Throwing Axe, Seeking Shortbow

Level 2
Allies	Eries Yelloweyes, Sergeant-at-Arms
Armor	Mithral Chain Shirt
Blessing	Norgorber’s Shadow
Items	Iron Shackles, Ring of Evasion
Spell	Unearthly Aim
Weapons	Frost Longbow

Level 3
Allies	Raccoon, Sable Company Marine
Armor	Impervious Chain Shirt
Blessing	Old Deadeye, The Savored Sting
Item	Red Mantis Mask
Weapon	Seeking Longbow

Level 4
Ally	Skoan-Quah Boneslayer
Armor	Moon Maiden Armor
Blessing	Achaekek’s Claws
Item	Belt of Physical Might
Weapon	Vindicator

Level 5
Item	Brooch of Protection
Weapon	Deathbane Sling, Deathbane Throwing Axe

Level 6
Item	Ring of Energy Resistance
Weapon	Guardian Bow

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Smash Pack

Big weapons. Big armor. Spikes. Smash.

Level 0
Allies	Korvosan Guard, Soldier
Armors	Helm, Spiked Breastplate
Blessings	Benefaction, Orison, Prayer
Items	Crowbar, Horn of Battle Clarity, War Drum
Weapons	Battleaxe, Dogslicer, Longspear, Scythe

Level 1
Ally	Priest of Asmodeus
Armors	Magic Spiked Breastplate, Spiked Half-Plate
Blessings	Calistria’s Sting, Gorum’s Iron, The Avalanche, The Bear, The Beating, The Mountain Man, The Survivor, The Trumpet
Items	Staff of Minor Healing
Weapons	Cold Iron Greatsword, Earthbreaker, Giantbane Greataxe

Level 2
Ally	Pit Gladiator
Armor	Helm of the Valkyrie
Blessing	Rovagug’s Destruction
Item	White War Paint
Weapons	Shock Glaive, Vicious Scythe

Level 3
Ally	Hellknight of the Nail
Armor	Magic Spiked Full Plate
Blessings	Lady Despair, Our Lord in Iron
Item	Drums of Panic
Weapons	Dragonbane Greatsword, Wounding Spear-Axe

Level 4
Ally	Sklar-Quah Thundercaller
Armor	Bearskin Armor
Item	Red War Paint
Weapon	Thundering Earthbreaker

Level 5
Ally	Aerilaya
Armor	Stone-Shard Breastplate
Item	Ring of Immolation
Weapon	Speed Battleaxe

Level 6
Armor	Hellknight Plate
Weapons	Ashbringer, Commander’s Falchion

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Support Pack

Everything a support character needs, and more than a few things everyone else wishes every character took

Level 0
Allies	Cat, Troubadour
Armor	Leather Armor
Blessings	Benefaction, Orison, Sands of the Hour
Item	Token of Remembrance
Spells	Aid, Deflect, Enhance, Soothing Word
Weapon	Sling

Level 1
Ally	Korvosan Dandy
Armor	Magic Leather Armor
Blessings	Iomedae’s Justice, Pharasma’s Knowing, Shelyn’s Song, The Big Sky, The Courtesan, The Dance, The Juggler, The Liar, The Paladin
Items	Harrow Deck, Mist Horn
Spells	Fool’s Gold, Good Omen, Minor Harrowing

Level 2
Ally	Noble
Armor	Magic Mithral Chain Mail
Blessing	Zon-Kuthon’s Pain
Items	Drums of Haste, Horn of Blasting
Spells	Disable Mechanism, Enlarge
Weapon	Lucky Starknife

Level 3
Ally	Djinn
Armor	Maiden’s Helm
Blessings	Lady of Valor, The Gold-Fisted
Item	Persona Mask
Spell	Restorative Touch

Level 4
Ally	Landshark Whelp
Spells	Giant Form, Safe Haven

Level 5
Armor	Mantle of Life
Item	Whisper of the First Lie
Spell	Breath of Life

Level 6
Ally	Formian Myrmidon
Armor	Mantle of Faith
Items	Lyre of Storms, Staff of Greater Healing
Spell	Repulsion

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Tank Pack

Shields, heavy armor, solid melee weapons, and everything else a defender needs.

Level 0
Allies	Horse, Pig, Teamster
Armors	Half-Plate, Heavy Shield, Klar
Blessings	Benefaction, Orison, Sands of the Hour
Items	Caltrops, Plague Mask
Weapon	Longsword, Scimitar, Throwing Axe

Level 1
Allies	Craftsman, Standard Bearer
Armors	Covering Heavy Shield, Full Plate, Tower Shield
Blessings	Abadar’s Law, Cayden Cailean’s Revelry, Gorum’s Iron, The Brass Dwarf, The Desert, The Keep, The Teamster, Torag’s Power
Item	Bastion Boots
Weapon	Cruel Longsword

Level 2
Ally	Tayce Soldado
Armors	Brute Force Shield, Magic Full Plate, Magic Klar
Item	Banner of the Ancient Kings
Weapon	Cleaving Battleaxe

Level 3
Ally	Ruan Mirukova
Armor	Voidglass Armor
Blessings	The Father of Creation, The Lucky Drunk
Item	Marked Cards
Weapons	Sawtooth Saber, Wyrmsmite

Level 4
Ally	Hippogriff Fledgling
Armor	Totem Klar
Item	Blue War Paint
Weapons	Verminbane Warhammer

Level 5
Ally	Lyrune-Quah Moon Maiden
Armor	Dread Helm
Item	Scabbard of Keen Edges
Weapons	Banudor, Horrorbane Heavy Pick

Level 6
Armor	Kazavon’s Shield
Weapons	Ukwar Axe

Greetings, Society Members!
Earlier today, we revealed the next round of sanctioning for Starfinder Society—including the Attack of the Swarm! and Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Paths Chronicle Sheets. If you missed that blog, you can catch up here!

Now it’s Pathfinder’s turn. The team finished their review of the products and consulted with our community’s Additional Resource team about what best fit the Organized Play environment. Instead of waiting for an updated web page with formatting, we decided to get everything into our players’ hands. That doesn’t mean a new site with better layout isn’t coming, we just didn’t want to hold things up any longer waiting our turn in the web queue. All the rulebooks and Lost Omens products, up to and including Pathfinder Lost Omens Gods & Magic, appear in this update, so there is plenty to choose from. Apologies for the length—If you want to find a particular section, we suggest using control + F and the name of the book you’re looking for.

We made a few changes to the layout and structure of the character options, as well as how we look at what we include in the campaign. To help players understand what goes into character options, as well as the parameters and criteria in how we address concepts, we included a new section at the top of this document. Some of the items in this section include core assumptions, table policy, and access. This information is being migrated to the guide and will appear there with the next update.

You’ve waited long enough, so without further ado, here is the first batch of Pathfinder Society (Second Edition) character options!

I’ll see you next week for our beginning of the month update on Society!

Until then – Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

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Character Options

Legal Sources and Table Policy

Character options from the following books can be used in Pathfinder Society.

• Rulebooks Line
  • Pathfinder Core Rulebook
  • Pathfinder Bestiary
  • Gamemastery Guide
  • Advanced Player's Guide
• Lost Omens Line
• Lost Omens World Guide
• Lost Omens Character Guide
• Lost Omens Gods & Magic
• Lost Omens Legends
• Lost Omens Pathfinder Society Guide

To use an option from any source other than the Pathfinder Core Rulebook, the Pathfinder Bestiary, or the Lost Omens World Guide in Pathfinder Society play, you must bring any one of the following to your game table:

• A physical copy of the book you wish to use
• A name-watermarked PDF copy of the book
• Name-watermarked printouts of all relevant pages you wish to use from the PDF
• Access to the rules you wish to use in the form of either electronic access to the Pathfinder Reference Document (paizo.com/prd) or a photocopy of the relevant pages, along with proof of purchase, such as a receipt from a game store or a screenshot of your My Downloads page on paizo.com.

The following do not satisfy this requirement:

• A photocopy of a physical book with no proof of purchase
• Printouts from electronic character builders such as Hero Lab
• Content reproduced in other sources under the Open Gaming License (such as an online reference document or a homemade omnibus)

Family members, significant others, or other members of the same household (such as roommates) can share resources if they are playing at the same table, rather than requiring a separate copy of the same book for each person. A group of friends that always plays together at the same table fulfills this requirement, as long as all the necessary materials for each character's options are present. Members playing at separate tables must each supply their own materials as normal.

In addition to the copy of the rules themselves, you must be able to provide an electronic or physical copy of the below Additional Resources page for that source to show that the options you have selected for your character are legal for play.

Rarity, Access, and Availability

Character options for Pathfinder Society play have one of three levels of availability: standard, limited, or restricted.

Standard: These options follow the standard rules as printed in their respective sourcebooks. If a character wants to take this option, they must meet all its prerequisites as usual. If the option is uncommon or rarer, they must also have access to the option. Characters can gain access in a variety of ways. They can gain access by virtue of their origin, religion, or their membership in certain organizations (see below sections). Selecting certain common character options can give you access to other, rarer ones; for instance, a gnome who takes the Gnome Weapon Familiarity ancestry feat gains access to uncommon gnome weapons. Specific boons—such as from the Achievement Points system or Chronicle Sheets—can also grant access to these options.

Limited: A limited option is rarer in Society play, but not unheard of. A limited option can be selected only if specifically allowed by a boon—whether from the Achievement Points system, a Chronicle Sheet, or another other option from a Pathfinder Society source—even if the option is common or if the character meets the normal prerequisites or access requirements printed in the option’s source.

Restricted: A restricted option is one that is not generally appropriate for all tables or conducive to the Pathfinder Society's shared campaign setting, such as a one-of-a-kind weapon, a horrific spell used by only the most evil magic-users, or player options that require high degrees of GM adjudication. Such options will generally be made available for Society Play in only a very few special cases, such as via boons given out as part of charity events, if at all.

Character Origin

When you create a character, you can choose their origin, including their ethnicity and nationality/region of origin. These choices might allow your character to take certain character options. For instance, humans of Jadwiga ethnicity descend from the witch-queens of Irrisen, and they can take the Irriseni Ice-Witch feat to represent this connection. Similarly, characters from the Broken Lands have access to the Aldori dueling swords that are iconic to that region.

If your character is of mixed ethnicity or comes from multiple regions of origin, then for the purposes of game balance, you choose one ethnicity and one region of origin that your character can use to satisfy prerequisite and access conditions for character options. This affects only the character options you can select, and in no way limits your character’s identity or story.

Certain boons, such as Home Region or Multicultural Training, can allow you to change or expand your character’s origin for the purpose of qualifying for character options, to reflect their life experiences.

Religion

When you create a character, you can choose their religion or philosophy. If your character is of a class that directly interacts with the divine, such as a cleric or a champion, you must make this choice at first level as part of gaining your class abilities. However, characters of any class might be allowed to certain character options based on the deity they follow. For instance, all followers of Abadar gain access to Abadar’s flawless scale, a magic item considered holy by the faith.

Characters can worship and gain mechanical benefits from any deity listed in the table of gods on page 437 of the Core Rulebook or detailed in Lost Omens Gods & Magic, so long as their alignment matches one of the deity’s listed follower alignments. Note that some deities, such as Rovagug or Urgathoa, allow only evil followers; as Society characters cannot be lawful evil, neutral evil, or chaotic evil, these deities cannot be worshiped to gain benefits in Society play. Characters can also be agnostic, atheist, or can follow the tenets of philosophies (Lost Omens Gods & Magic 94–101) rather than deities.

Your character can participate in the rituals and cultural aspects of a deity’s faith without being a worshipper of that deity; for instance, citizens of the diabolic nation of Cheliax might participate in state holidays revering Asmodeus, the Prince of Darkness, but only lawful evil followers are true worshippers of his faith.

If your character worships multiple deities, then for the purposes of game balance, you choose one deity that your character can use to satisfy prerequisite and access conditions for character options. This affects only the character options you can select, and in no way limits your character’s identity or story.

Pantheons

Characters can also follow pantheons (Lost Omens Gods & Magic 92) instead of specific deities, in which case they gain the benefits of the pantheon as a whole. Characters in Society play must choose a patron deity when following a pantheon. They can use both their patron deity and the pantheon as a whole to satisfy access and prerequisites, but not any other deities in the pantheon individually. For instance, a lawful neutral cleric could worship the Godclaw, with Iomedae as her patron deity, in which case she could take options related to both Iomedae and the Godclaw, but this wouldn’t automatically allow her to take options related to Torag, Irori, Abadar, or Asmodeus.

Edicts and Anathema in Society Play

Several characters, such as clerics or champions, must abide by the edicts and anathema of their deity to receive divine powers from that deity. To allow a wide variety of characters in Society play, the rules around edicts and anathema are slightly relaxed. It is generally assumed that all characters can participate in Pathfinder Society adventures without running afoul of their deity’s edicts and anathema—attempting to perform the primary objective of an official Pathfinder Society mission by itself will not cause a character to fall out of favor with their deity. For example, Pharasma prohibits robbing tombs, but a cleric of Pharasma can accept a Society mission to retrieve an artifact from a pyramid, confident that the Society has gone through the proper channels to secure the right to retrieve the artifact.

While edicts are valorous actions praised by a deity, a character does not need to perform their deity’s edicts to the exclusion of other activities, or if doing so would prevent the smooth progression of play at the table. When considering anathema, note that a character must actively and personally commit an anathemic act in Society play to incur consequences with their deity, and is not liable for the actions of their party members. For instance, a champion of Sarenrae could not personally lie to a guard when infiltrating a city, but they do not need to force the party’s rogue to tell the truth (though they might look on disapprovingly)

Remember that edicts and anathema exist to create roleplaying opportunities at the table for your character, and should not be used by the GM to pressure PCs, or by PCs to pressure other members of the table toward specific styles of play.

Uncommon Ancestries

Because your ancestry is the first thing you pick about your character and it is not possible to retrain your ancestry as you might retrain other options, the only way to select uncommon or rarer ancestries is with a boon that allows you to create a new character of this ancestry.

Organization Membership

Through the course of your character’s adventures, you might meet influential members of other organizations and have the opportunity to learn from them. The Secondary Initiation boon can be used to gain membership in an organization and access to its character options.

Books

Pathfinder Core Rulebook

Rarity and Access Adjustments

Please use these rarity and access adjustments in Society Play, instead of the rarity and access printed in the original source.

Languages:	Note that the adjustment to regional languages (page 432) detailed in the Rulings and Clarifications section below expands some characters' access to Erutaki and Varki.
Items:	All characters have access to the scholarly journal, scholarly journal compendium, survey map, and survey map atlas (page 291). All characters have access to the wayfinder (page 617).
Spells:	All characters have access to raise dead (page 362).
Rituals:	All characters have access to atone (page 409) and resurrect (page 415).

Option Availability

Standard

All options are of standard availability unless specifically noted otherwise.

Limited

General Feats: Connections (page 260).

Restricted

None

Rulings and Clarifications

Please follow these rulings and clarifications specific to Pathfinder Society play wherever they conflict with the language printed in the original source.

• The level 1 version of summon plant or fungus (page 376) can be used to summon a leaf leshy (Pathfinder Bestiary page 218) that has the weak adjustment (Pathfinder Bestiary page 6). This is an exception to the rule that summon spells do not normally allow you to adjust the level of the summoned monsters by applying adjustments or templates to them
• The Experienced Smuggler skill feat (page 261) allows you to Earn Income using Underworld Lore with tasks of your level –1, instead of the normal level –2.
• Add the following regional languages to the options listed on page 432. As with other regional languages, a character hailing from the region listed below automatically has access to these languages.
• Erutaki: Saga Lands
• Varki: Saga Lands

Gamemastery Guide

As the Gamemastery Guide primarily contains tools for GMs, new subsystems, and rules variants rather than direct player options, all content from this book is of limited availability. However, Organized Play will be drawing from the rules options in this book in creating future adventures, boons, and other content.

Lost Omens World Guide

Note that your ethnicity, area of origin (nationality), or membership in certain factions might grant you access to options in this book. See the Character Origin and Organization Membership sections above.

Rarity and Access Adjustments

Please use these rarity and access adjustments in Society Play, instead of the rarity and access printed in the original source.

Archetypes:

[Updated Feb 7] All characters have access to Pathfinder Agent Dedication and all Pathfinder Agent feats (page 21). Characters with the Living Monolith Dedication feat have access to Ka Stone Ritual (page 59). Characters from the Mwangi Expanse have access to the Magic Warrior Dedication feat (page 95). This feat should be uncommon (see Rulings and Clarifications, below) All uncommon organization options are available to members of the associated organization.

Items:

All characters have access to the archaic wayfinder (page 17). Characters from the Broken Lands have access to the Aldori dueling sword (page 28). All characters of 10th level or higher who are from the High Seas have access to black pearl aeon stones (page 63). Orcs and half-orcs from the Mwangi Expanse have access to blessed tattoos (page 92).

Option Availability

Standard

All options are of standard availability unless specifically noted otherwise.

Limited

Feats:	Eye of the Arclords (page 81)
Items:	Golden Legion epaulet (page 124)

Restricted

Archetypes:	Red Mantis Assassin Dedication and all Red Mantis assassin archetype feats (page 71).
Items:	Pesh (refined) (page 52).

Rulings and Clarifications

The following rulings and clarifications are based on upcoming errata for this product.

• The Aldori dueling sword’s (page 28) price should be 2 gp, not 20 gp.
• Magic Warrior Dedication (page 95) should have the uncommon trait.

Additionally, please follow these rulings and clarifications specific to Pathfinder Society play wherever they conflict with the language printed in the original source.

• The Prerequisites entry for Living Monolith Dedication (page 59) is “Osiriani language, trained in Crafting” rather than “Ancient Osiriani and Sphinx languages, trained in Crafting.”
• The Prerequisites entry for Ka Stone Ritual (page 59) is “Living Monolith Dedication” rather than “Living Monolith Dedication, a sphinx or living monolith with this feat performs a ritual with you”.

Lost Omens Character Guide

Note that your ethnicity, area of origin (nationality), or membership in certain factions might grant you access to options in this book. See the Character Origin and Organization Membership sections above.

Rarity and Access Adjustments

None

Option Availability

Standard

Ancestries:

All ancestry options are of standard availability. As the hobgoblin, leshy, and lizardfolk ancestries are uncommon, this means they are limited to boon access through Chronicle Sheets or the Achievement Point system (See Uncommon Ancestries above).

All options are of standard availability unless specifically noted otherwise.

Limited

None

Restricted

Ancestries:

Chosen of Lamashtu (page 38).

Rulings and Clarifications

The following rulings and clarifications are based on upcoming errata for this product.

• [Updated Mar 05] The design and development teams have clarified that the ancient elf heritage (page 25) requires an elven lifespan (a feature that half-elves do not have) and thus cannot be selected by half-elves using the Elf Atavism feat (Core Rulebook 58), only by full elves. Clarifying text has been added to the errata for this book.
• Eclectic Obsession (page 33) should be a single action and have the one-action symbol accordingly.
• Hobgoblin Weapon Familiarity (page 50) should contain fewer weapons. The updated text should read “You are trained with composite longbows, composite shortbows, glaives, longbows, longswords, and shortbows
• Leshys with the fungus leshy heritage (page 53) do not have the plant trait listed in the leshy base statistics sidebar, but have the fungus trait instead.
• [Updated Jan 31] The seedpod ranged unarmed attack granted by the Seedpod feat (page 54) has a range increment (not a flat range) of 10 feet.
• Add Amurrun to the list in the lizardfolk base statistics sidebar (page 57) of additional languages you can choose if you have a positive Intelligence modifier.
• Impassable Wall Stance (page 90) should have the stance trait.
• The key spellcasting ability for the spells granted by Invoke the Crimson Oath (page 95) is Charisma.

Lost Omens Gods & Magic

Remember that your religion might grant you access to options in this book, even if you are not a cleric or champion. See the Religion section above for more information.

Rarity and Access Adjustments

Dieties:	The Pillars of Knowledge, Prismatic Ray, and Wards of the Pharaoh pantheons that originally appeared in the January 21, 2020 Paizo Blog entry, “Friends in High Places” are available for Society play and can be selected following the normal rules for pantheons.
Items:	Characters from Numeria have access to the polytool (page 121).

Option Availability

Standard

All options are of standard availability unless specifically noted otherwise.

Limited

Deities:	Achaekek (page 52).
Spells:	Time beacon (page 111)

Restricted

Deities:	All archdevils (page 124). All demon lords (page 124). All outer gods and great old ones (page 130). Walkena (130). All queens of the night (page 132).
Feats:	Splinter Faith (page 8).

Rulings and Clarifications

Please follow these rulings and clarifications specific to Pathfinder Society play wherever they conflict with the language printed in the original source.

• GMs cannot enact divine intercessions.
• Remove the final sentence of Syncretism (page 105) that specifies the feat’s benefit if your cleric doctrine is not cloistered cleric or warpriest. Organized Play will reexamine this feat when additional cleric doctrines are released.
• For the purposes of Society play, remove the final clause of Evangelize (page 105) that states “at the GM’s discretion, a target that genuinely changes its perspective to support your faith as a result of the argument is also otherwise unaffected.”
• As Mortal Healing (page 105) requires you to specifically use the Treat Wounds action, it does not apply when used with other actions related to medicine or healing, such as Battle Medicine.
• When using Sanctify Water (page 105) use your proficiency with simple weapons to determine your attack bonus when throwing the blessed container of water. If you give the container to another character for them to throw, they use their proficiency with improvised weapons instead.
• For the purposes of Society play, remove the Prerequisites of Numb to Death (page 105) that states “you have died at least once.''
• The temporary tool spell (page 111) can be used to create only simple tools, and therefore cannot create kits, which are complex objects made of multiple pieces, or objects made of any specific precious material.
• The Targets entry for winter bolt (page 112) should be “1 creature”, not “1 creature or object.” This change is based on upcoming errata for the Pathfinder Core Rulebook
• The Targets entry for withering grasp (page 112) should be “1 creature or unattended object”, not “1 creature or object.” When used on an unattended object, the object takes persistent damage on your next turn.
• For the purposes of Society play, remove the final sentence of remember the lost (page 119) which states “A creature that truly knows no one who died with any sort of grievance to that creature is immune to this effect.”

Lost Omens Legends

Note that many of the options in this book are uncommon or rarer, as they represent the signature teachings, items, and ability of legendary figures.

Rarity and Access Adjustments

None.

Option Availability

Standard

All options are of standard availability unless specifically noted otherwise.

Limited

None.

Restricted

Items:	All infernal contracts (page 10). Addiction suppressant (page 72). Hype, diluted hype, and plasma hype (page 81).
Archetypes:	All rare Red Mantis assassin archetype feats (Achaekek’s Grip, Fading, and Vernai Training) (page 58).

Rulings and Clarifications

Please follow these rulings and clarifications specific to Pathfinder Society play wherever they conflict with the language printed in the original source.

• Spare wax cylinders for a clockwork recorder (page 24) cost 3 gp each and are the same rarity as the recorder itself (rare).
• Spare bolts for a palm crossbow (page 25) cost 2 sp for 10 bolts and are the same rarity as the crossbow itself (rare).
• For the purposes of Society play, the Azaersi’s Roads feat (page 28) can be used twice per Society adventure—once to travel from the Material Plane to the Plane of Earth, once to travel from the Plane of Earth to the Material Plane.
• For the purposes of Society play, the telepathic link created by a deepdread claw (page 28) ends when a Society adventure ends.
• Per design team clarification, an item animated by the spirit object (page 32) hex uses the spellcaster’s spell DC as its AC. Its Hardness and Hit Points remain unchanged from their normal values as listed on page 577 of the Core Rulebook.
• If a target of all is one, one is all (page 64) does not consent to the allocation of Hit Points resulting from this spell, they become an unwilling target and they (and their Hit Points) are removed from the spell’s effect. The spell can continue with any remaining targets.

Advanced Player’s Guide

Rarity and Access Adjustments

Ancestries:	Due to years of successful Pathfinder Society activities, all characters have access to the kobold ancestry (page 12).
Archetypes:	All characters have access to the vigilante archetype (page 196).

Option Availability

Standard

Ancestries:

All ancestry and versatile heritage options, other than kobolds, are of standard availability. As the catfolk, orc, ratfolk, and tengu ancestries and the aasimar, changeling, dhampir, duskwalker, and tiefling versatile heritages are uncommon, this means they are limited to boon access through Chronicle Sheets or the Achievement Point system (See Uncommon Ancestries above). Orc feats can continue to be taken by half-orc characters who meet the prerequisites or access requirements, as normal.

All options are of standard availability unless specifically noted otherwise.

Limited

Ancestries:	Defy the Darkness (page 42)
Items:	earthsight box (page 260)
Feats:	A Home in Every Port (page 202) Biographical Eye (page 203) Consult the Spirits (page 204) Criminal Connections (page 204) Underground Network (page 209)

Restricted

Classes:	Connect the Dots (page 62) Whodunnit? (page 63) Plot the Future (page 64)
Spells:	ghostly tragedy (page 220)

Rulings and Clarifications

Please follow these rulings and clarifications specific to Pathfinder Society play wherever they conflict with the language printed in the original source.

• The snares created with the Snare Genius kobold ancestry feat (page 15) are temporary items and become unusable after 24 hours or during your next daily preparations, whichever comes first.
• The Tusks orc ancestry feat (page 18) requires the character to file down their tusks or perform a similar action to retrain; this is part of the normal retraining process and does not take any additional time.
• The temporary Hit Points granted by the Spell Devourer orc ancestry feat (page 19) are applied as soon as the character succeeds at their saving throw; for an effect that causes Hit Point damage on a successful save, such as a fireball, this means that the character gains the temporary Hit Points before taking damage.
• Unless specifically noted otherwise, most wands and scrolls are less than 1 foot long and can fit into a ratfolk’s Cheek Pouches (page 22).
• Per design team clarification, the Homeward Bound gnome feat (page 44) should be of uncommon rarity.
• Per design team clarification, the Speed penalty inflicted by the Kneecap feat (page 45) has a duration of 1 round.
• GMs should provide a character with the That’s Odd investigator feat (page 60) a hint whenever the character enters a room with hidden aspects, specifically with regard to hidden passageways (such as scuff marks near a bookcase that’s actually a swinging door), creatures or hazards (such as drippage on the floor from an unseen fungus growing on the rafters), or valuables (such as bunched carpet over a secret compartment in the floor that contains a bag of coins). The GM does not need to provide clues for rooms that have no significant secret or hidden features. These clues should indicate only that the character should investigate a given section of the room, not let them automatically uncover the hidden element or provide any additional information beyond signaling its presence.
• GMs should let a character with the Sense the Unseen investigator feat (page 64) know when the trigger for the ability has been met so they can use the feat if they so choose.
• Given the slightly relaxed rules around edicts and anathema in Society play, a barbarian with the superstition instinct (page 108) can benefit from spells and magic items if they are an unavoidable part of a Society adventure, such as if a scenario assumes the PCs are transported to their mission location via a teleport spell, or if an adventure requires that all PCs participate in a magical ritual.
• Per design team clarification, when a barbarian uses the Sunder Spell feat (page 111) against a spell like wall of fire that does not have a listed AC, the Strike hits automatically—the barbarian simply rolls the counteract check.
• A cavalier (page 184) can pledge to a legal deity, religion, or pantheon, an organization they have access to, or the Pathfinder Society. The edicts and anathema of the Pathfinder Society are as follows:
  Edicts: Explore important sites, report and record your discoveries, and cooperate with fellow Pathfinders
  Anathema: Fail to explore, report and cooperate; defy the will of a venture-captain or the Decemvirate
• A vigilante’s Safe House (page 196), can be located in any city or near any lodge they have received a Pathfinder briefing. A vigilante can use their downtime to relocate their safe house. A vigilante can use their safe house only if it is in the town or location where their current adventure is taking place.
• The DCs for the Armor Assist feat (page 203) are not subject to GM adjudication. Rather, simply use the default DCs listed in the feat: 15 for common armor, 20 for uncommon armor, and 25 for rare armor.
• For the purposes of Society play, the Targets entry for the claim undead (page 230) oracle revelation spell is “1 mindless undead creature”, not “1 undead creature.” The intent of this change is to reduce the prevalence of domination magic on sapient creatures in Society play.
• Strikes made by a malicious shadow (page 238) use the spellcaster’s spell attack roll.

Lost Omens Pathfinder Society Guide

Note that players have automatic access as members of the Pathfinder Society to many of the uncommon options in this book, and they can gain access to several others through free Chronicle Boons, which can be acquired once a character completes a related adventure. See our October 15th blog.

Rarity and Access Adjustments

Items:	Characters from the High Seas have access to the boarding pike and combat grapnel (page 81). All characters have access to the everyneed pack (page 85). As stated in the section introduction, all characters have access to the magic items in the Magic Items section on page 117.
Feats:	As stated in the section introduction, all characters have access to the uncommon (but not rare) options in the Academy Instructors section on pages 118–119.

Option Availability

Standard

All options are of standard availability unless specifically noted otherwise.

Limited

Faction Gear:	All faction-specific gear (Envoy’s Alliance, page 26; Horizon Hunters, pages 29–30; Grand Archive, page 34; Vigilant Seal, pages 37–38). Players can gain access to each set of gear by taking the corresponding Faction Gear Access Game Reward, available when they reach 20 reputation with the respective faction.
Items:	Razmiri wayfinder (page 72–73)

Restricted

None.

Rulings and Clarifications

Please follow these rulings and clarifications specific to Pathfinder Society play wherever they conflict with the language printed in the original source.

• The blade within a stiletto pen (page 30) is a simple weapon.
• All versions of metalmist spheres in this book (page 38) contain either cold iron or silver.
• The trigger for Master’s Counterspell (page 48) should begin with “A creature Casts a Spell that you have prepared or is in your repertoire...” to provide a trigger for spontaneous spellcasters as well as prepared spellcasters.
• A character with the Fane’s Fourberie feat (page 118) can etch their deck of cards with weapon runes themself or have this service provided by a third party. The deck can also be targeted by weapon-modifying effects such as a magic weapon spell.
• The saving throw for the calligraphy wyrm’s Ink Spray ability (page 122) should have a DC equal to the master’s spell DC or class DC, whichever is higher.

Just over a month after the holiday season and there’s more gifts to unwrap! Today, the organized play team is proud to unveil the latest round of sanctioned content for Starfinder Society.

Credit to Mark Molnar

Attack of the Swarm

The Attack of the Swarm Adventure Path has been picking up steam and we’ve just released the final installment in the six-part epic. The story of “Heroes Vs. Evil Bugs” is far older than I am (seriously, ask me my Alien story sometime), and the Attack of the Swarm Adventure Path puts the PCs into that story by setting them right in the path of the voracious alien empire known as the Swarm. To get a new generation of heroes out to battle the Swarm, we’re hoping to enlist a whole lot of Starfinders into the Suskillon Defense Forces, and what better way to do that than by sanctioning the entire Adventure Path for Starfinder Society organized play?

While this opens up six full adventures for existing Starfinder Society participants to enjoy, it’s also the perfect opportunity for new players to step into the wide world of organized play. Exactly how can you play Attack of the Swarm and earn organized play credit? Would you like to know more? It’s easy. All you need to do is play the adventure path, exactly how you’d play any of Paizo’s adventure paths, but at the end of it, you’re eligible for a special Chronicle sheet that can be applied to a Starfinder Society character; the perfect starting point if you’re interested in trying out Starfinder Society organized play.

So pickup a rifle and get ready to defend Suskillon from the Swarm! You can find the sanctioning documents on the individual Adventure Path pages!

Along with the sanctioning on Attack of the Swarm, we’ll be updating the Additional Resources to include the latest character options permissible in Starfinder Society on Tuesday, February 4. As always, a big thanks goes out to our additional resources review team who took time to review this content and help us pick the most applicable rules to include in the campaign.

The Threefold Conspiracy

Art by Doruk Golcu

Alright, how about we take a break from battling against a galactic-level threat to take a luxury space cruise. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right? OK, loaded question! Something does go awry in Starfinder Adventure Path #25: The Chimera Mystery, and it’s up to the PCs to step in and unravel the first step in the great mystery that is The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path!

With pre-orders for the first installment of the Threefold Conspiracy right around the corner, why not get a little advance preview of the full sanctioning? That’s right, along with Attack of the Swarm, we’re also releasing the first three adventures in the Threefold Conspiracy as sanctioned content! Pre-sanctioning, you say? You heard us right folks, you’ll be able to play the first three adventures as they release and receive Chronicle sheets and organized play credit for doing so. You can pickup the first wave of Threefold Conspiracy sanctioning from each volume’s product page.

As a heads up, we haven’t quite got the Threefold Conspiracy updates into the Additional Resources yet—we want to give our dedicated review team the time they need to check over these rules to determine what is appropriate for the campaign! Once those updates go live, we’ll be sure to post another update and let you all know!

I hope everyone out there enjoys the new content! Come back this afternoon to see what we have in store on the Pathfinder Society side of the house.

Signing off,

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

In my short time here at Paizo, I’ve learned that the production of a book is never an exact science. We know approximately how many words fit on a page and how much space a piece of art takes up. Even with these estimates, there’s always some content that does not make it onto the page. Sometimes, it feels like our books are actively working against us, constantly reshaping themselves and proceeding to taunt us about how we couldn’t fit everything we wanted into the book.

Once again, the books have teamed up with their old ally, physics, to taunt us once more. Even with the power of the gods in our hands, there was some cool content that we had to cut from Lost Omens Gods & Magic. Luckily, we have more tools to fight back against the literary menace known as “a lack of space”—free PDFs! We’ve collected a lot of cool stuff from the cutting room floor, dusted it off, cleaned it up, and are sharing with it you today!

Art by Ksenia Kozhevnikova

Gods & Magic introduced divine intercessions which allow deities to grant boons and curses to characters that have gained the attention of the gods. The book provides intercessions for the twenty core deities, but we had actually intended to provide them for the other twenty deities also showcased in the book, such as Arazni and Gruhastha. Unfortunately, due to a lack of space, these intercessions had to be dropped pretty late in production. Additionally, we never had a great spot to explain the design process for these intercessions to help GMs create their own. Thankfully, all of this great content lives again. We hope everyone enjoys this cool content. If you like what you see in the web supplement and you haven’t yet checked out the book, make sure to snag a copy of Lost Omens Gods & Magic.

Click here to check out the Gods & Magic Web Supplement!

Luis Loza
Developer

While the writers of our Paizo products are always credited in the front and back of the books, a simple name in a byline doesn’t give readers much information on the people who work to bring the setting to life! To wrap up our preview of Lost Omens Gods and Magic, I reached out to the authors of the book with the intent of promoting them—as well as any other personal work they would like to share, so that new fans of their work could find other projects, RPG products, websites, livestreams, and more to enjoy!

-Eleanor Ferron,
Pathfinder Developer Manager

Gruhastha Art by Emile Denis

Calder CaDavid
Calder CaDavid is a TTRPG freelancer living in sunny Los Angeles and has been contributing to Pathfinder since 2018. Calder had a great time envisioning the Four Horsemen in a new era of Pathfinder. Their nihilistic outlook and obsession with oblivion makes them a unique set of divines. Being able to establish personal history between the Horsemen created opportunity for complex and intriguing motives. Calder has contributed original RPG adventures to Dungeon in a Box and Pathfinder Society. Calder is also the host of the podcast, Mythos Manual. Mythos Manual is a Pathfinder homebrew live-play set in a pulpy jungle adventure with bi-weekly Crunch! episodes pulling from the previous chapters to spring-board discussion on a myriad of TTRPG subjects such as GM prep, house-rules, subsystems, and player agency. In his spare time, Calder has been creating original ancestries for the Pathfinder Second Edition system, such as the bouncy and adventurous Merrybears which will be available within the next couple months. Calder is can be reached on twitter @CaDavidCalder or by e-mail at Mythosmanual@gmail.com.

James Case
Hi! I’m James Case, editor à organized play developer at Paizo. Gods and Magic was a lot of firsts for me—my first time as editing lead on a project, as well as my first writing credit for Second Edition! I was happy to contribute the section for my favorite hot mess / literal hurricane bird, Hei Feng, as well as write (and copyfit ☹) the new domain spells. Eleanor and Luis were even kind enough to let me pitch a couple new ones, letting me add my much-longed-for star domain to the game. I tweet memes, Japanese music, RPG stuff sometimes I guess, and also memes on The Twitters at @toriariaria.

Katina Davis
Hi, everybody! My name is Katina Davis, and while I’ve been working at Paizo for nearly 6 years now, I’ve only recently started dipping my toes into writing for our products. I was absolutely tickled at the opportunity to write Shelyn’s section in Gods & Magic, because I have long identified with her values of art, beauty, and love. I was a relative latecomer to RPGs when I first started playing Pathfinder and I remember her making an impression on me. It’s been rewarding to be able to dabble in the world of Second Edition from the ground floor, starting with my favorite deity. In addition to writing for Pathfinder, Starfinder, and the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, I have also had the pleasure of working with Black Book Editions to translate RPGs from French to English. Though I speak German too, I have not yet had the opportunity to test my German RPG translation chops. (I’d love to, though!) If you’re interested in seeing my full list of credits or contacting me regarding freelance writing and translation, you can visit my website: katinawritesstuff.com.

Joshua Grinlinton
I’ve been playing tabletop for well over a decade. I got my proper start in 3.5e D&D playing a Wizard (for better or for worse), and immediately fell in love with the game. Since then, I’ve played in a dozen different systems, run and played in a multitude of campaigns, and have gotten deeply absorbed in writing new mechanics, classes, abilities, monsters, and more! Magic in particular has always been a huge draw to me, so it was impossible to pass up getting to write for 2e’s World Guide about Nethys, the ambitious man who sought to master and understand all of magic, and wound up splintering his mental faculties in the process. A dangerous endeavor, but a venture many mages would undoubtedly find respectable. I tend to do animation, illustration, design, and creative writing, and am available for freelance and contract work for all of this and more. If interested in seeing more of my work and getting in contact with me, feel free to find me at: joshgrinlinton.com

Virginia Jordan
Hi folks! My name is Virginia Jordan, and I wrote nasty mosquito god, Glaundher. It’s always so fun to write the grittier stuff from the Pathfinder universe, and I look forward to getting to write more content to fill Golarion with. You can also find my other writing for Paizo in Alien Archive 3 and Lost Omens: Absalom. While not centered on writing, you can get in touch with me via my professional website, virginiajordanphotography.com.

Jason Keely
Eleanor and Luis approached me with the opportunity to write up a couple of the minor Pathfinder gods that have a much a larger presence in Starfinder: Besmara, Brigh, and Casandalee. (The latter two are two-thirds of the Starfinder deity known as Triune.) While we know plenty about Besmara and Brigh from past products, Casandalee—from the Iron Gods Adventure Path—was only recently “canonized.” I was excited to pick through the last adventure of that AP, “The Divinity Drive,” to see what kind of goddess Casandalee would become. It turned out her personality and domains could be different depending on the PCs’ actions! Luckily, Eleanor and Luis gave me a brief sketch of Casandalee’s areas of concern, so it wasn’t difficult to realize how her faith would manifest on Golarion. In addition to being the patron of artificial life, Casandalee wants to help people understand and use advanced technology responsibly. Given that there isn’t a ton of that in the wider world (so far), the majority of her priests remain in Numeria. It was a ton of fun to write, and I hope we’ll eventually get to see a couple of devotees of the Iron Goddess outside of the Broken Lands!

Jacky Leung
Jacky Leung is a freelance tabletop game writer and editor who runs the Death By Mage blog (deathbymage.com) featuring articles on storytelling, game mechanics, and reviews. He contributed entries for Achaekek and Sivanah for Lost Omens Gods and Magic. Jacky has worked on numerous tabletop projects including the Uncaged Anthology, Book of Seasons, and Artifacts of the Guild featured on the DMsGuild. He is also one of the project organizers for the Unbreakable Anthology, featuring a series of Asian-inspired adventures for D&D 5e with a projected release in February 2020. He also creates indie tabletop games on itch.io (deathbymage.itch.io) such as his Harry Potter inspired game, Broomsticks & Wands, and the chilling horror-suspense game, Haunted Memories.

Lyz Liddell
When Arazni stepped forward into a more prominent role within the Lost Omens campaign setting, Lyz Liddell stepped forward to be her champion. Since Arazni's appearance in the Tyrant’s Grasp Adventure Path, Lyz has worked to present the demigoddess with sensitivity, emphasizing her agency and centering her narrative within her own perspective. Lyz also adores basically the entire Lost Omens pantheon and contributed several other entries to this absolutely drop-dead gorgeous book. You can learn more about Lyz’s work at LyzLiddell.com or join in adoration of her cats on Twitter: @LyzMayTweet.

Ron Lundeen
I’m Ron Lundeen, a developer on the Pathfinder adventure path line here at Paizo. I wielded my pen in several different parts of this book. Perhaps my favorite was the section on the Eldest, the deities of the First World. Before I was a full-time developer here, I did some freelance development. The Pathfinder First Edition player companion Legacy of the First World was one of the first books I outlined and developed, and I chose to break up the sections in that book by the Eldest’s influences because I found them so compelling. They remain compelling to me, and I regret I didn’t have a lot more words here to spin yarns about them, their plots, and their relationships! Also, as the resident halfling expert, I was pleased to take another turn with Chaldira. I also put together the writeup of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye, an organization my friend Rhett likes quite a bit (and I hope he likes that they’ve stepped a bit out of the shadows here). You can check out my RPG advice, including an entire free Pathfinder Second Edition adventure path I wrote, on my blog at RunAmokGames.com. I’m available for freelance in any number of game systems at rules.lawyer.ron@gmail.com.

Jacob W. Michaels
Hello all, I'm Jacob W. Michaels. I've been gaming for 30+ years, since I went on an Expedition to the Barrier Peaks in the third grade. I remember growing up thinking it would be cool to write for Dragon or Dungeon magazine, but I had no idea how. Then, years later, I entered Paizo's RPG Superstar and was stunned to make the Top 32.
After finishing in the Top 16 in 2012 and 2014, I became a regular Pathfinder freelancer, and have designed monsters, archetypes and setting material for Paizo. For Lost Omens Gods and Magic, I wrote sections on Gorum and Rovagug, trying to capture and expand the existing lore. I've written more than a dozen five-star products for Raging Swan Press; a module, Ironwall Gap Must Hold, that was the runner-up in AdventureaWeek.com's Pathmaster adventure design contest (which also featured Luis Loza's fun Timeless Fort); and more. I've run design contests to try to give new writers a chance to get into the industry, and am a founding members and administrator of Freelance Forge, the forum for RPG freelancers. You can find my complete credits at paizo.com/people/JacobWMichaels.

Matt Morris
In 2015, encouraged by an amazing group of creative friends, I made a showing in RPG Superstar, and that experience pushed me to explore writing for 3rd-party companies. I’ve been lucky enough to work extensively with Everybody Games and Rogue Genius Games, producing a variety of rules options for Pathfinder and the popular Starfarer’s Companion for Starfinder. Recently, I’ve enjoyed working with a talented group of collaborators at Paizo, beginning with my contributions to the Starfinder Armory and Alien Archive 2. My work on Pathfinder Player Companions has had me body slamming, bushwacking, and relic hunting my way through Golarion, and writing back matter for an Adventure Path has even taken me to the Boneyard! The Lost Omens line for Pathfinder Second Edition has given me the opportunity to explore some of my favorite parts of the setting, and I can’t wait for everyone to see what is in store from the line in the future! For Lost Omens Gods and Magic, I got to delve into some dangerous secrets while detailing Norgorber and Groetus!
I keep an up-to-date list of my work on my Paizo profile, and I’m always looking for interesting projects, so feel free to send me a message via the forums if you are looking for a reliable writer! When not writing, I’m teaching high school English near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Dave Nelson
Hey everyone. My name is Dave Nelson, a neurodivergent and queer writer, and this is my first Paizo credit. I've been playing tabletop games for about 15 years now, and Pathfinder for as long as it's been around. I have a degree in both Classics and Theology, so mythology is a passion of mine, making it rather fitting that I got to write in this volume. You can find my words in the articles for both Cayden Caliean and Gozreh. I hope you like what you see, I was sure to add some new flourishes to each of them. If you like my work you can find more of it in the upcoming Absalom: City of Lost Omens, or my work for Legendary Games on Legendary Cavaliers and Legendary Magus. I can be found on Twitter @davicthegrey, talking about theology, cybersecurity, and of course game design. Enjoy the book and I hope to be doing more of these blogs in the future!

Lost Omens Gods and Magic Table of Contents

Amirali Attar Olyaee
I’m Amirali and I am incredibly excited to finally be able to say that I have actual published writing! I’m very thankful to Paizo for having given me the opportunity to contribute to this incredible project (specially allowing me to write about one of my favorite gods!) Taking this project as inspiration, I hope to continue writing fantasy and fiction, either as part of other wonderful projects, or through short or long stories across various mediums.
I’ve always had a deep interest in fantasy and science fiction settings, the creativity that flows through them, and the infinite possibilities they offer for exploring all manner of themes, concepts, and ideas. I enjoy running tabletop RPGs, seeing how the players react to the world, how they deal with complicated decisions, and where the story goes once the characters of that story have full agency of their actions.
If any of that sounds interesting, feel free to follow me @_WritingBot on twitter where I’ll be sharing snippets of games I’m running, and updates on projects I’m working on!

Samantha Phelan
Hello! My name is Samantha Phelan, but I usually go by Sam. In Pathfinder Lost Omens Gods and Magic I contributed my writing and ideas to the Mother of Monsters, Lamashtu. Villains are often my favorite characters, and my background in Cultural Anthropology and Linguistics was very useful in describing the worship of this malevolent mother. I have contributed to several other Paizo products, including Starfinder’s Alien Archive 3, the upcoming Absalom, City of Lost Omens, and more. It's always exciting to see the book's final form. I hope I have the opportunity to work with many more wonderful creative people and contribute to a myriad of projects. For more complete information on me and my work please visit my site: samphelan.com or contact me at contact@samphelan.com for freelance work.

Jennifer Povey
Hi, I’m Jennifer R. Povey. I was born in Nottingham, England (Why yes, I do lay full claim to Robin Hood), but now live in northern Virginia with my husband. There I enjoy regular tabletop sessions, horseback riding and a minor obsession with Doctor Who.
I’m an RPG freelancer, writer of short fiction, and novelist. Please check out my website at www.jenniferrpovey.com. If you want to hire me for writing, editing your RPG book, or proofreading almost anything, drop me an email at poveyjennifer (at) gmail.com. If you want to check out my fiction, visit my Amazon author page.

Jessica Redekop
Hello! I'm Jessica Redekop, cat lady and Planescape nerd. I had the privilege of writing the Elemental Lords section for Gods and Magic, which I hope inspires you and gets you and your friends into some great planar trouble. You can find more of my planar work in Lost Spheres Publishing's City of 7 Seraphs, in my lottery games at PaizoCon, and perhaps in more Pathfinder books yet to come...? :> I'm on Twitter and Instagram as @tectonomancer and beginning Saturday, January 25th, I'll be playing in The Houses of Halifax, a Bloodlines and Black Magic live play game streamed over Twitch. For more information and the full game schedule, visit stormbunnystudios.com/houses

Nathan Reinecke
Once upon a time I wrote a vigilante guide, which led to me making a friend who pointed me at a third party Pathfinder studio that took new freelancers. Now I'm here, writing about two of my favorite Pathfinder deities, Shizuru and Tsukiyo. So hi, I’m Nathan Reinecke, and thanks to Paizo for the opportunities you’ve given me.
I'm a writer and blogger from Wisconsin and I've worked on backmatter for a few AP books before this (after this? One hasn’t come out yet). My main body of work is class options, especially trying to fill niches that don’t quite have them yet, but I’m also steadily developing a series of ancestries and archetypes for a setting I hope to release someday. If you liked my work, you can find more at fedoraferret.wordpress.com, where I do monthly class guides and regular content updates, or you can reach out to me atnathan.reinecke12@gmail.com.

Simone Dietzler Sallé (she/her)
Hello! I'm an editor, writer, and fierce advocate for representation in storytelling. While I have an abiding love of en dashes and serial commas, I'm most passionate about the way we use language to create relatable, engaging stories and build welcoming communities. I edit adventures in multiple systems and am thrilled to be a contributing author in several Starfinder and 2nd Edition Pathfinder resources, including this one! When I'm not editing and writing, I'm likely reading, hiking in my favored terrain, or—surprise! —gaming (currently in Pathfinder, Pendragon, Poem, and Subnautica).
To discuss working together, swap resources on storytelling and conscious language, or just to nerd out about good games and books, you can find me at www.wildwoodediting.com and on Instagram @wildwoodedits.

Michael Sayre
Yo! Michael Sayre here. Gods and Magic was the second Lost Omens book I’ve had the privilege of writing for, and definitely one was really excited to see come to life. Getting to write the goblins for the Lost Omens Character Guide was a blast, but for this book I got to revisit Nivi Rhombodazzle (possibly my favorite Golarion deity) and do the write-up on God Calling and the related deity stat blocks. The Sarkorian reclaimers and their allies are a part of the Inner Sea I’m really invested in, having written or developed multiple adventures talking about their stories (Scourge of the Farheavens, Breath of the Dragonskull, and another we haven’t officially announced yet!), as well as consulting on the short story posted in our blogs, Far From Heaven. I was a little worried that since god calling is a tradition with multiple deities (and “deities”) that it might not fit the format of this book as well, but the charts of deities and their statistics in the back proved a perfect place for me to point to while using the main article to talk about the god calling traditions and culture from a top level perspective. I’ll also take some credit for Imot, The Symbol of Doom making the cut in the Monitor Demigods section since I begged Luis and Eleanor to make sure we had a deity whose favored weapon was a shield included in this book. Hopefully you all have as much fun playing with these new options as I did working on them! Now to go remind the design team that the Sarkorians would love a proper summoner class for their god callers to be a part of….”

David Schwartz
Hey! I'm David Schwartz and I've been freelancing for Paizo since the days of Dragon Magazine. In that time I've written everything from player character options to monsters, setting material to adventures. Arguably my most famous contribution to Golarion is the iconic vigilante the Red Raven. Given my eclectic writings, it's appropriate that my contributions to Lost Omens Gods and Magic are for people who want a little of everything. Can't decide between good and evil? Dedicate yourself to one of the Monitor demigods, divine patrons of absolute law, unbridled chaos, or pragmatic neutrality. Can't choose just one deity? Follow a pantheon and get your divine magic from a whole family of related gods.
In addition to my work for Paizo, I've currently got a series of undercity locations coming out from 0one Games. Written for that other popular RPG, these ready-made adventure sites can be used individually or combined together. Watch trailers for the first two here and here.

Shahreena Shahrani
Marhaba/hello fellow pathfinders! My name is Shahreena. Much of my writings and imaginations about Pathfinder deities, their places of worship, and religious beliefs and practices are based on observations and knowledge about various Asian and Arab cultures. As an ethnologist, I am fascinated by communities of people and their cultural practices, and frequently spend time observing and thinking about how they relate with others. IRL, I teach courses in Modern Standard Arabic, and the literature and cultures of the Arab and Islamic world at The Ohio State University. I am passionate about (and give presentations on) providing equitable access, skills, and support to young people from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds interested in pursuing foreign language study abroad, and am excited about my upcoming 360 video recording project in May! I cannot wait to begin recording in different cities of the Arab world and offer a virtual sense of cultural immersion to interested learners. (To contact, support, and/or learn more about my projects, you can reach me at: shahreena_s@yahoo.com .) Inshallah I’ll be back in time for Origins. Hope to see y’all there! O-H!

Jason Tondro
I’m Jason Tondro and I'm a Starfinder developer; I wrote the Outer Gods section of this book, which allowed me to explore what I think is really scary about the Cthulhu Mythos: not that it’s gross and icky, but that the universe Just Does Not Care About You. I’m also the author of Arthur Lives! for Fate Core, and the editor of Peripheral Code, a fanzine for the Ars Magica game. Follow me on Twitter @doctorcomics.

Diego Valdez
Hello everyone! I wrote the Empyreal Lords and Alseta. The Empyreal Lords have long been my favorite part of the Golarion cosmology. So being given the opportunity to write them was really awesome! Alseta was also a really fun deity to write! I hope you all find both to be fun and flavorful parts of your tables! Gods and Magic will be my first contributor credit in a physical Pathfinder book, but it is not the first writing I have done for Paizo. I have been invited to write 3 ACG scenarios. On the Starfinder end I contributed to both Alien Archive 3 and Near Space, I wrote a quest for Starfinder Society, and I wrote an article for the backmatter of an upcoming Adventure Path. For Pathfinder RPG, in addition to Gods and Magic, I have contributed the upcoming City of Lost Omens Absalom book. Creative endeavors beyond that include a YouTube channel I am working on getting off the ground (it’s still a work in progress).
If you’d like to get a hold of me for freelance, you can do so through my website, diegoavaldez.com, which also has a list of the projects I have worked on.

We have been super-busy in the Paizo offices, especially our content creators! Just like previous blogs have said, most shows are still on hiatus and they’re excited to get things rolling.

So, without further delay, here is what’s happening this week at OfficialPaizo on Twitch!

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Starfinder Wednesdays! The Unseen (Lore Episode). Jan 29, 4:00-5:00 p.m. Pacific

The Unseen is a name given to a secretive group that plans to infiltrate various organizations within the Pact Worlds. With the Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path coming up, it’s best to gain as much knowledge about these individuals as possible.

Join the Starfinder team as they explore all of the in-depth lore on The Unseen!

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Pungeon Crawl, Jan 29, 5:00-9:00 p.m. Pacific

Note: Pungeon Crawl will now be hosted on the Paizo Twitch channel instead of being streamed directly. You can find BBWolfe’s twitch channel to support the show here.

"The results of the breakfast sweepstakes are in and The Biggest Darn Heroes of the Pact Worlds are about to get a new set of legally-distinct sidekicks as the Pungeon Crawl returns! Join the Deep Space Defenders as we find out if a handful of breakfast cereal contest-selected weirdos can keep up with your favorite syndicated space saviors! Sent on a mission with REAL HEROES, they’ll be put to the test as things go wrong, while on camera the entire time! As their situation develops the heroes’ morale may falter, but with the help of you, the faithful viewers, your favorite heroes can grip success from the jaws of failure! Wednesday nights 8e/7c only on Paizo!"
- BBWolfe

Streamed on OfficialPaizo on Twitch.

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Arcane Mark, Jan 30 & Feb 1, 7:00 p.m. Pacific

Arcane Mark is a stream with Pathfinder Designer Mark Seifter and Organized Play Lead Developer Linda Zayas-Palmer covering all sorts of RPG and Pathfinder-related topics, from GM Tools to Design Diaries to Workshops. Thursday episodes are always interviews, usually covering Paizo staff you might not have seen as often in other interviews.

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Pathfinder Fridays! The Philosophies of Golarion Jan 31, 4:00-5:00 p.m. Pacific

Even though the Lost Omens Gods & Magic does cover a lot on who and what the gods in Golarion are. The question still remains on what do the denizens of Golarion benefit when they follow these powerful beings. And so what philosophies and traditions do they establish to support their faith? Tune into the twitch channel with Creative Director James Jacobs and learn how maybe you, and others who inhabit Golarion, establish different philosophies around Golarion.

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Androids & Aliens Live by GlassCannonPodcast Jan 31, 5:00 p.m. Pacific

The legendary crew over at GlassCannonPodcast are stretching out to Twitch with their Starfinder show Androids & Aliens! Join them live at 5:00 P.M. Pacific for a hilariously good time.

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Age of Ashes with Squiddish, Feb 1, 11:00 A.M. - 3:00 P.M. Pacific

“Fires burn atop the ruined citadel on Hellknight Hill, sending plumes of red smoke into the air that could be a call for help. Now a gang of adventurers rise together to investigate the current conflict. How will they handle the Hellknights? Will they all burn in horrendous fire? Tune into this new Pathfinder Second Edition live play show!

Squiddish with the 2 Perception crew streams on the OfficialPaizo on Twitch channel every week at 2 p.m. Pacific.

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We've added a new Forum for Streaming & Actual Play discussions. If you have any questions you’d like to submit for our Q&A segments at the end of our Starfinder Wednesdays or Pathfinder Fridays you can do so in our Forums.

Pathfinder Fridays Fan Club

Starfinder Wednesdays Fan Club

If you have a Pathfinder or Starfinder stream, post it under Third Party Broadcasts.

Catch us live at our Official Twitch Channel. Catch the Video On Demand (VOD) on Twitch immediately after it is done or a week later on our YouTube channel.

Amiri is the character that got me thinking about these character strategy guides in the first place. I don’t think I’ve ever played her in a tabletop game, but I played all of the Rise of the Runelords characters a lot in Obsidian’s Pathfinder Adventures computer game shortly after it was released, and I was really impressed by subtle uses of Amiri’s power of movement. That cleverness is still there in the Core Set, so I’m happy to finally present these strategies, over three years after I wrote an earlier version of them down in rough notes.

Core Set Amiri

Best Skill: Strength (d12)
Character Type: Warrior, Melee

Skills. As a character with a d12, Amiri gets to roll the best die in the game. This makes her especially strong in combat (Melee: Strength +2) and even more so if she’s blessed, since blessings add a d12 each. That often makes Amiri a great choice for fighting the villain. Amiri’s other skills are Fortitude and Survival, of which Survival is the only one that’s somewhat rare—shared by only Harsk and Lini in the Core Set. Harsk in fact shares both of these subsidiary skills with Amiri, so they’re not good fellows in an adventuring party due to the overlap.

Weaknesses. Amiri’s d4 is in Charisma, which makes it harder to recruit allies. Generally, Amiri shouldn’t explore ally-heavy locations, though some allies have a Survival acquisition roll, so she still has a chance. Otherwise, Amiri’s biggest weakness is that her sub-skills are all +1 or +2, balancing out her high Strength roll.

Cards. Barbarians hate magic(!), so it’s no surprise that Amiri has no spell card slots (0), but remember that she can always cast spells as one-off “scrolls.” She may have more weapon cards (4) and armor cards (2) than she needs, and this can clog your hand if you’re not careful, so you should only increase these slots after Amiri’s deck has gotten large enough that you can no longer reliably draw the weapons and armor that you need.

Blessings. The favored deity for Amiri is probably Torag, who can boost her already robust Strength and Constitution. Given Amiri’s role as a brutish fighter, Gorum and Lamashtu aren’t bad either

Clarification: What is a non-Attack combat check? Attack is a trait that tends to be added by spells and Wand items, so a non-Attack combat check tends to be a physical attack, like Melee or Ranged. That’s why Gorum is the perfect deity for physical combatants.

Items. Amiri will often discard weapons for extra damage and will discard blessings and allies to explore again, but she has no way to recover them on her own. Obviously, there should be a healer in your party like Kyra or Lini, but Sarenrae also helps those who help themselves, so stock up on healing items like Elixirs of Healing, Balmberries, and Staffs of Minor Healing.

Weapons. Amiri prefers Melee strength weapons that can be recharged or reloaded (instead of discarded) for extra damage. That tends to mean swords (such as the Shortsword, Longsword, and Keen Rapier), which usually reload for small bonuses.

The Power of Rage

Although it’s not Amiri’s most interesting power, her “rage” may be the most useful: she can add her Fortitude skill to Strength checks or checks against monsters.

Take Rage from Discard as Your First Power Feat. Thanks to her Melee skill of d12 + 2, Amiri is already a combat monster, but the rage power just improves that, because she can now add Fortitude skill of d8 + 1 to checks against monsters, which brings it to d12 + d8 + 3, even before adding in a weapon. (In fact, Amiri can get away without having a weapon in many fights, as she averages 14 if she rages, and she certainly doesn’t need to discard a weapon in most cases if she rages.) The catch is Amiri’s need to bury a card from her hand to rage, which is quite costly except near the end of the game, as buried cards typically can’t be recovered. This is why Amiri’s first power feat should go toward turning her rage into an ability that draws from her discards: it’s still costly due to the loss of a card, but at least it doesn’t thin her hand (and honestly, that’s one less card that she needs to heal).

Clarification: What is the Fortitude Skill? The Fortitude skill is the die plus any modifiers that you add together when rolling Fortitude (as described in page 11 of the Core Set rules). For Amiri, that’s d8 + 1 at start. If the rage power had instead said to add the Fortitude modifier, then it would be just the +1, and if it had said the Fortitude die, then it would be just the d8, but a skill is both.

Rage, Rage against the Beginning of the Fight. Note that Amiri’s rage ability allows her to add Fortitude to any “check against a monster.” That’s not just the main combat check! Amiri can also use her rage power on “before acting” and “after acting” checks. These checks usually have lower target numbers that become relatively easy when you get to add together two skills—both the listed skill and Fortitude—so this may be even more useful than raging in the fight itself... though you can of course do both.

Rage When You Talk Too. Similarly, if a monster has a non-combat check to defeat, like Charisma or Divine, it might be easier to do that than actually fight, as non-combat checks to defeat tend to have lower difficulties. Take a look at your comparative dice pools and see which is better.

Collect Things to Break. The cost of Amiri’s rage is breaking stuff—which is to say burying cards. To prepare for this, try to collect things early in the game. Send Amiri to a boon-heavy location, and even if she picks up junk like Quarterstaffs and Leather Armors, she can still use them to fuel her rage. And once she’s taken the power feat that lets her fuel her rage with discards, she doesn’t even need to let the junk clutter her hand; she can discard it at the earliest opportunity.

The Power of Movement

Though Amiri’s rage is extremely useful, it’s her power of movement that is unique, and allows her to do something that no one else can (well, other than roles and other characters that copy the power!).

Dance Around Locations with Start-of-Turn Penalties. Amiri should be your group’s character to explore locations where something bad happens at the start of your turn. (There were more of these locations in previous sets, and presumably will be more in future sets.) She can move there after the start of her turn, explore during her turn, then move away at the end. Rinse and repeat until the location is closed.

Occasionally Hang Out with Your Friends. Alternatively, Amiri might have friends who are great to explore with like Kyra (who can heal Amiri, resolving one of her major disadvantages), Lem (who can boost local checks), or Seelah (who can boost local checks and invoke Magic). But, it’s not always great to hang around with friends because monsters can attack you all and barriers can force everyone to make checks. So Amiri might join her friends during her explorations, then flee the possibility of bad effects on their turns.

Be Ready to Guard Out of Turn. Finally, Amiri can also use her ability to guard locations on other players’ turns. Maybe she’s teaming up with other characters on her turn or maybe there’s some nasty location that no one wants to explore because it’s full of monsters and barriers. In either case, Amiri can go sit at an otherwise unguarded location after her turn is done, then return to her normal explorations at the start of her next turn.

Clarification: Can Amiri’s Movement Be Stopped? Yes! Per the Golden Rules on page 3 of the Core Set Rulebook, if a card says that you cannot do something (such as the location Cell, which says “You cannot move unless…”) and something else says you can (like Amiri’s power), comply with the one that tells you that you cannot. (The Golden Rules also say that locations override support cards, support cards override characters, and characters override other card types, so that would stop her too.)

Take Your Friends with You. Remember that Amiri’s power extends to other characters. This means that if someone is exploring a nasty location with beginning-of-the-turn powers, Amiri can also whisk them away; other characters might even go to Amiri’s location with the intent to be moved away on her turn. This makes Amiri’s location a prime spot for powers like the spell Revitalize, which heals everyone there. Characters can move to Amiri’s location to get healed, then she can move some of them away to spread out the party.

The Amiri Roles

Both of Amiri’s roles make her even more of a combat monster; Resistance Fighter can help her take damage, while Smashmouth can help her cycle her deck and destroy traps.

Resistance Fighter. This role mainly offers incremental improvements to Amiri’s core powers: she can remove scourges and heal while raging and closing, and she can examine while moving. Her combat power also gets even better thanks to freely played blessings. But there’s one big addition, focused on damage taking: a set of three powers allow her to (controllably) discard damage from her deck instead of her hand. This can really improve Amiri’s combat against dangerous henchmen and villains, who often do pre-combat damage that can empty out a hand. In those circumstances, Amiri can instead take the damage from her deck while peeking to ensure they’re cards she can lose.

Smashmouth. This role also adds incremental improvements to Amiri’s powers, though it focuses a little more on combat than the other role. The ability to recharge combat blessings helps Amiri’s issue with healing, while the ability to recharge weapons to stop before or after you act damage offers a different answer to that problem, and one that’s less costly in health. The Smashmouth role also allows Amiri to rage against barriers, which is a nice addition if you don’t have a Disabler in your party.

Shannon Appelcline
Game Historian

New year, new stories! January brings us further into the ongoing Year of a Thousand Bites with a standalone (and pretty spooky) Tier 1-4 scenario and a Tier 5-8 scenario that takes us back to a planet we haven’t visited since early in Starfinder Society’s inaugural year. Let’s take a peek at what’s in store...

Starfinder Society #2-15: The Infernal Gallery is a Tier 1-4 scenario written by Jessica Catalan. In a series of freak initially coincidences, this scenario imitated a lot of the beats that were present in the first assignment I ever had for Paizo: Pathfinder Society #1-55: The Infernal Vault. Beyond the obvious name homage, The Infernal Gallery is also written by a fellow Canadian from Winnipeg (something I hadn’t realized when assigning—it’s a small world). This scenario is a stand-alone mission that has the PCs following up on a mysterious discovery in the Drift that eventually leads into a rather diabolic affair. It even includes another sneaky homage to an organization I first created way back in the early days of Pathfinder Society, re-envisioned for Starfinder. All in all, Jessica did an amazing job writing this scenario, as did Linda Zayas-Palmer in developing it.

Seriously, just look at this creepy art!

Art by Doruk Golcu

Speaking of going back to old (but way more recent) memories, Starfinder Society #2-16: A Scoured Home sees the return of the izlaguuns at the skilled hands of Christopher Wasko. This scenario has the PCs travelling to the world of Icefront (or Izalraan, as the locals prefer to call it) after the events of Starfinder Society #1-13: On the Trail of History, in order to retrieve much needed medical supplies for Pact Worlds colonies out in Near Space and the Vast. Of course, the PCs aren’t just going to wait around for those supplies, and izalguun elder Naarma requests some assistance in fixing a buried izalguun starship that seems to be leaking radiation. I’m sure nothing bad will happen on this mission. Nope, not one thing. It should be a cakewalk. Though, I’m not sure why it would be of interest to former First Seeker Jadnura?

Luckily, this time some of the PCs might just be playing izalguun characters, as first made a legal playable choice in this blog!

When I pitched this scenario, Creative Director, Rob McCreary, requested that we include an izalguun robot. So, here’s me fulfilling that promise! Now if only he’ll fulfill his pledge to write me a scenario...

Art by Doruk Golcu

That brings us to an end for this month’s previews! As I get ready to take a small, and much needed vacation, I’m in the midst of finishing off our February offerings, which include some further follow-up on why the Society needs medicinals, as well as another return mission to a popular aquatic world where we might have seen our first playable Starfinder Society species emerge from...

If you missed the earlier Organized Play blog, which had an update on the Organized Play Foundation’s calls for convention volunteers and a preview of Pathfinder Society offerings for January, you can find them here.

Until next time,

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

Before I turn the blog over to developer Michael Sayre for a preview of this month’s Pathfinder Society offerings, I wanted to give a quick update on volunteer opportunities for PaizoCon, Gen Con, UK Games Expo, and Origins. The Organized Play Foundation sent the first set of letters out to potential PaizoCon volunteers. If you didn’t get one and thought you should, please email paizoconleads@gmail.com. If you didn’t submit a questionnaire yet, they still have spaces available. The questionnaires for Gen Con and Origins opened yesterday. While UK Games Expo should have opened today, we’ve been advised there are a few GDPR items that they wish to look at before making the open call and expect they will open next Wednesday. To find the questionnaires, visit http://www.organizedplayfoundation.org/home/convention-volunteer-registration/.

Come back later today to check out the Starfinder Society preview!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Here we are, barreling toward the end of another month! In case you’re not familiar with what that means, it’s time for the previews of the scenarios that are about to be released!

The first adventure I’m going to be talking about is the Tier 1–4 adventure Burden of Envy, by Lysle Kapp, a returning author who was previously part of the team that wrote the quest pack What the Helms Hide. In Burden of Envy, the PCs are sent on a mission by two returning fan-favorite NPCs, the unscrupulous Sczarni crime lord Guaril Karela and the reborn aasimar faction leader Valais Durant. What could lead these two unlikely allies to work together, you ask? Well, Guaril has been smuggling refugees from the runelord-ruled city of Xin Edasseril, but once again he’s pushed his luck too far, and now the Runelord of Envy has put a price on his head. Valais has agreed to call upon her allies in the Radiant Oath faction to complete Guaril’s contract and bring the refugees to safety, but only under the condition that Guaril use some of the profits he’s extracted to ensure the refugees are provided with jobs and housing once they’re safely relocated. Hopefully, the PCs will find a safe home for refugees like poor Yuleg Bluingot here!

If altruism isn’t your jam, you might find that our Tier 3–6 scenario, Devil at the Crossroads, is more to your tastes. The idea for this adventure was brainstormed at Gen Con 2019 during our adventure design workshop, and the theme and tone of this adventure were inspired by thrillers like Bad Times at the El Royale and The Hateful Eight. During this adventure, the PCs head to an old trading post in the Sarkoris Scar to meet up and exchange reports with a member of the Farheaven Clan, longtime allies of the Pathfinder Society. Things take a turn for the weird when a malevolent spirit traps the PCs inside the trading post with a colorful cast of NPCs, each with their own agenda. The PCs will have to sort friend from foe if they have any hope of surviving the night, and it won’t be easy. After all, who wouldn’t trust a face like this?

And finally, we introduce a new author to Paizo with Quinn Murphy’s Tier 1–4 quest, Archaeology in Aspenthar. With opportunities for exploring tombs and pyramids drying up in Osirion, an ambitious nobleman in nearby Thuvia sees an opportunity to cash in on the world’s demand for ancient Osiriani secrets. Unfortunately, some folks are more interested in a quick buck than fair dealing, and the PCs may just uncover more than they bargained for. Luckily, they’ll have some help and guidance from allies like Sefu Moyo here to guide them along the way!

Don't forget to come back for Starfinder Society previews later!

Until next time, explore, report, and cooperate!

Michael Sayre
Pathfinder Society developer

In the Trophy Room of Shyka the Many, among the infinite treasures that the Eldest has plucked from time, there sits a plinth of banded bone and gold.

Upon this plinth is a stone of red agate veined with spreading black. It resembles a large baroque pearl, but it is more precious than any oyster’s prize, for this is the heartstone of the lich-king Darocath.

It sits on the plinth by Darocath’s own will, and it commemorates how Shyka the Many defeated the lich without striking a single blow.

This is how it was done:

Illustration by Igor Grechanyi. For more information on Shyka and the Eldest, Lost Omens: Gods & Magic!

Long, long ago, in a small and forgotten corner of the Immortal Principality of Ustalav, there lived a girl named Krisalla. She was a child of uncommon patience, and this drew Shyka to her, for the Eldest knew the value of a mortal who could let time unspool properly.

One evening, as the brief summer moths were flying thick through the twilight, the Eldest appeared before the child. “Do you wish to touch your hand to destiny?” they asked.

Krisalla looked up at the blue-gowned figure, who appeared to her an ageless woman with light brown skin and a silver-capped braid, at once human and unearthly. “How?”

“You will lay low a sorcerer of terrible power, an unliving monstrosity who will come to grip all Ulcazar in his bony fist. You will end his reign of cruelty and will become a hero to those who survive to remember your name. But this will not come without cost.”

“What cost?” Krisalla asked, for she was a child of Ustalav and knew the grim ways of its curses.

“One life,” Shyka answered. “Not yours.”

“I accept,” Krisalla said.

From a hidden sheath in their sleeve, Shyka drew out a scroll bound by a white ribbon figured with cracked hourglasses. This scroll came from Shyka’s Archives, where the records of the future were penned in the past. They held it out to Krisalla, and as the girl took it from Shyka’s slender fingers, the Eldest flickered and shifted to an androgynous youth in the same garb, but now with a different symbol at the neck.

Krisalla showed no surprise at this, for why should one be surprised by the transformations of a god? “What shall I do with the scroll?”

“Read it if you like,” Shyka said, “though most mortals are happier without knowing their futures. Otherwise, hold it safe. When the time to do more comes, you will know.”

Then the Eldest was gone, and Krisalla was alone.

Decades passed. The girl became a woman, married, had three daughters of her own. Her husband fell ill and died; her children became mothers in turn.

And in this time, at first from afar, a cold and withered shadow began to stretch across Ulcazar. Bones and wraiths rose up from the dark places in the mountains, and they gathered into an army of the hateful dead. Rumors of the lich-king at their head grew ever closer and more urgent, until finally Krisalla, now an old woman, knew that the day for Shyka’s gift had come.

She opened the scroll. With fearful eyes and trembling hands, she read what Shyka had written, long ago or long before. Then she rolled it up again, and closed her eyes over her tears, and sent for her youngest daughter.

“You must flee Ulcazar at once,” Krisalla told her daughter, “or it will mean your life. The sorcerer-lich Darocath is coming, and it is written by a god that he will kill you in Ulcazar. Therefore, you must go to Amaans with all haste, because if you stay here, you will surely die.”

“Yes, mother,” her daughter said, and fled.

But neither mother nor daughter knew that Darocath had already come to Ulcazar. The lich’s armies held the border village of Borsov, and there they caught Krisalla’s daughter. Darocath’s creatures killed her, but not before their master heard of the woman who had tried to flee Ulcazar to escape a god’s prophecy.

Struck by curiosity, Darocath ordered his forces to Krisalla’s village, where they seized the old woman. From her he took the story and the scroll, and then he left her weeping with her family as he swept off to study the Eldest’s message. He scanned impatiently past the tale of Krisalla’s life, and he saw the words written for him:

“You will come to the House of Eternity,” it said, “and you will die.”

Darocath laughed, amused as he had not been in centuries, as he read the instructions Shyka had given him for finding his way in. “I am dead,” the lich said to his lieutenants, “and I do not fear time’s watcher.”

Indeed, for years piled upon years, Darocath had sought a way into the House of Eternity, for it was the manipulation of time and the mysteries of the future that had intrigued the lich beyond his mortal span. Now all those secrets had been given to him freely, and he would not be intimidated away from using that key.

Abandoning his army, Darocath ventured through a breach into the First World, and then followed the tangled and treacherous path that Shyka had set for him to the House of Eternity.

The Eldest met him there. “Lich.”

“Many.” Darocath studied Shyka with the same half-forgotten savor of curiosity. The lich had trained his sight to see across a certain span of time, and so he saw Shyka as a figure blurred across multiple faces and heights. “You invited me here.”

“To die,” Shyka agreed. “Would you like to visit the Archives?”

“What will you allow me to read?” Darocath asked. He had no intention of obeying the Eldest’s restrictions, but he was curious.

“Everything,” Shyka said. “I will let you walk the Archives as I do.”

Suspicious but intrigued, the lich climbed the mountain stairs after the Eldest, circling around the castle’s crumbling base until they came at last to the gaping maw of its entrance, pitted with rusting spikes and shards of age-discolored wood. Inside, the House of Eternity was in equal disrepair, all dust and cobwebs and stale gray gloom.

Yet though the Archives’s books sagged on shelves of mold-spotted wood and its scrolls were brittle and yellowed by time, its grandeur awed Darocath. The lich scarcely glanced at the scholars’ books; it was Shyka’s writings he had come for. “You will let me read these?”

“Yes,” the Eldest said.

So Darocath went into the Archives.

For a year and a day he absorbed himself in the Eldest’s journals of the future, while in the world outside, his army collapsed from neglect and infighting, and the spell-wards of his tower crumbled for want of tending. The lich forgot his own experiments into manipulating the strands of time, for why should he labor so arduously to uncover the secrets that were already laid out for him?

All that the lich wanted to know was his. Any question he could conceive of was answered and had been answered before ever he imagined it. In the Archives of Shyka the Many, he saw the map of time laid bare of its mysteries, and so Darocath came to realize a terrible thing.

To live this way, in all moments at once, was to exist without curiosity. It was to realize that all his efforts at mastering his own fate came to a nullity, and that the illusions of choice and control were just that, and that even he, a creature of unfathomable brilliance and magic, could not escape the slow snares of fate.

All was known, and all was written, and nothing was left to wonder.

The lich sat with this truth in silence and turned it over in his mind for a day and a night. Darocath could see no flaw in his conclusion. The answers were written in the Archives; the outcome was foreordained.

And so he plucked out the stone that held his unliving heart, and placed it on a plinth in surrender, and let himself collapse into dust and despair.

And in a dusty corner of the Archives, on a page buried in an unremarkable book that the mighty lich had never thought to open, the lettering changed minutely. But only minutely. Because, in Darocath’s story, the ending did not change.

About the Author

Liane Merciel is the author of the Pathfinder Tales novels Nightglass, Nightblade, and Hellknight, and a contributor to other books including Nidal: Land of Shadows, Faiths of Golarion, and the Lost Omens World Guide. She has also written for Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, and Bioware’s Dragon Age franchise. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband, two dogs, and an adventure toddler who is extremely into Spider-Man.

About the Windsong Testaments

On the northern reaches of Varisia’s Lost Coast stands Windsong Abbey, a forum for interfaith discussion tended by priests of nearly twenty faiths and led by a legacy of Masked Abbesses. At the dawn of the Age of Lost Omens, Windsong Abbey suffered as its faithful fought and fled, but today it has begun to recover. A new Masked Abbess guides a new flock within, and the Windsong Testaments—parables about the gods themselves—are once again being recorded within the abbey’s walls. Some of these Testaments are presented here as Golarion’s myths and fables. Some parts may be true. Other parts are certainly false. Which ones are which is left to the faithful to decide.

The people of Golarion have literally hundreds of gods that they could choose to follow. In fact, many people follow the teaching of multiple deities in their everyday life. A farmer might pray to Gozreh for rain, Sarenrae for lots of sunlight, and Erastil for a good harvest all in the same day. Considering this was a common aspect of so many of our characters and stories in Pathfinder, we thought that Lost Omens Gods & Magic was the perfect time to introduce a way to represent polytheism mechanically.

Pantheons are groups of related gods that can be worshipped either individually or together. In some cases, these gods share thematic ties. The farmer mentioned above sees Erastil, Gozreh, and Sarenrae as important because of their influence on the farmer’s crops. In other cases, gods are all part of the same pantheon due to their common worshippers. Most elves worship the same group of elven deities, for example. Sometimes gods might be actually related, such is the case with Torag and his family who make up the dwarven pantheon.

Art by Emile Denis

Gods & Magic introduces new rules for worshipping pantheons. A character can choose to worship a pantheon, which is very similar to the worship of an individual deity. A pantheon features a stat block with its own set of alignment restrictions, domains, edicts, anathemas, and so on, thus following the same rules as the worship of a single deity. Pantheons do have a wrinkle, however. Instead of simply worshipping the pantheon, a character must also select a patron deity among those that are part of the pantheon. Think of the patron deity as a character’s focus or guide to the specific pantheon. A character worshipping a pantheon must follow the edicts and avoid the anathemas of both the pantheon and patron deity, with the patron’s edicts and anathema taking precedence. Having a patron deity prevents a worshipper from becoming caught between mutually exclusive edicts and anathema from all the gods they worship as the worshipper can ultimately fall back on the patron’s requirements in conflicting or unusual situations.

Dwarf Pantheon

• Alignment LG (LN, NG, N)
• Areas of Concern Ancestry, crafting, dwarves, relationships
• Divine Font heal
• Divine Ability Constitution or Wisdom
• Divine Skill Diplomacy
• Domains creation, family, protection, wealth
• Alternate Domains duty, glyph
• Cleric Spells 1st: ant haul, 4th: creation, 7th: retrocognition
• Edicts develop skills useful to your community (especially mining, crafting, and trading), honor your ancestors through traditions and rituals
• Anathema dishonor your family, willingly break a contract or oath, irreparably damage an ancestral relic
• Favored Weapon warhammer

This book presents a few sample pantheons, such as the dwarven pantheon and the Godclaw. However, pantheons can come in all shapes and sizes. We recommend that GMs use the pantheons featured in the book as a starting point for what you can do with pantheons. In fact, let’s see what we might be able to come up with using some of the gods featured in Gods & Magic!

Art by Klaher Baklaher

You could consider gods who are each other’s’ allies. Desna, Shelyn, and Sarenrae all work together in their fight against evil and are even known to be lovers. If we made a pantheon that included their themes and values, we might end up with something like this.

The Prismatic Ray

• Alignment NG (LG, NG, CG)
• Areas of Concern Defeating evil, guarding innocents, and wholesome creations
• Divine Font heal
• Divine Ability Wisdom or Charisma
• Divine Skill Diplomacy
• Domains creation, moon, protection, sun
• Alternate Domains family, healing, travel
• Cleric Spells 1st: sleep, 3rd: fireball, 4th: creation
• Edicts Create works that inspire good acts, defend those who cannot defend themselves, pursue evil
• Anathema allow evil to spread, destroy that which brings joy to others, fail to offer evil a chance to surrender
• Favored Weapon shortsword

Here, I tried to snag a bit from each goddess. I settled on the Primastic Ray as a name that represents all three. The various colors represent Shelyn, while the ray could be either moonlight for Desna or sunlight for Sarenrae. Of course, this is just one take on these three deities. I could have chosen to focus more on the travel and freedom aspects of Desna or the healing aspects of Sarenrae. What’s fun about pantheons is that you can usually make them however you like, so long as they make sense thematically.

Art by Cynthia F.G

Speaking of thematic ties, have you heard of Ancient Osirion? Turns out they had lots of deities back in the ancient days. Also, did you know that Nethys was originally an Osiriani pharaoh? That’s fun! Well, let’s see what we can do with that. Gods & Magic includes rules for worshipping the Ancient Osirian gods. A good number of them (Isis, Selket, and Thoth to be specific) also have a focus on magic, just like Nethys. If we take those four, we might get a pantheon like this one.

Wards of the Pharaoh

• Alignment NG (LN, NG, N, CG)
• Areas of Concern Abjuration magic, protection, self-improvement
• Divine Font harm or heal
• Divine Ability Constitution or Intelligence
• Divine Skill Medicine
• Domains Family, knowledge, magic, protection
• Alternate Domains glyph*, healing
• Cleric Spells 1st: soothe, 4th: resilient sphere, 9th: disjunction
• Edicts Use magic to defend yourself and your allies, maintain magical wards, seek greater magical knowledge
• Anathema Destroy wards that are actively protecting innocents, refuse to use your magic to help those in need who ask you
• Favored Weapon staff

All of these deities have a focus on magic, but a lot of them are also focused on the protection of others or on knowledge. I chose to lean into these aspects a bit, creating a pantheon themed around using magic to protect others while still keeping the pursuit of knowledge. Nethys is a neutral deity, but I doubt that he would be against improving one’s magical skill regardless of what school of magic it’s for. As a result, he made a fitting, but very interesting addition to the pantheon.

Art by Emile Denis

Let’s try one more pantheon before I go. With the focus on knowledge, I want to snag a few knowledge focused deities and see what we can create. I start by grabbing Brigh and Casandalee. Then, I take Irori as he is an obvious choice. From there, I include Shyka who can understand all events throughout time thanks to their unique focus on time. Finally, to introduce a little chaos, I’ve added Ydajisk, a protean demigod focused on language. With all of those deities, we might get something like this.

Pillars of Knowledge

• Alignment N (LN, N, CN)
• Areas of Concern Learning, innovation, safeguarding knowledge
• Divine Font harm or heal
• Divine Ability Intelligence or Wisdom
• Divine Skill Crafting
• Domains Creation, knowledge, secrecy, truth
• Alternate Domains glyph*, perfection, time*
• Cleric Spells 1st: message rune*, , 3rd: hypercognition, 9th: retrocognition
• Edicts Seek new knowledge, use your knowledge and skill to improve the world around you, protect knowledge from becoming lost
• Anathema Choose to use old knowledge or tools after they have been improved upon, destroy knowledge, refuse to answer a query for which you know the answer
• Favored Weapon light hammer

Again, this leads to a fun little mishmash of different themes and ideas for each of the deities. Some of the most fun comes with creating anathemas for the pantheons. Brigh and Casandalee are both goddesses related to invention and innovation, so asking a worshipper to make sure they are using the latest knowledge and tools is an interesting way to express these themes. Ydajisk calls for worshippers to keep old languages—and old knowledge—alive, but they also keep you from holding your tongue when asked a question.

As you can see, pantheons can make for limitless interesting combinations and ideas. We’re looking forward to providing more pantheons in the future, but we’re most excited to see what pantheons players and GMs create for their own games. You could maybe take the four Horsemen and create a pantheon to worship all four. If you like the spirit of competition, you could create a pantheon that includes Kurgess and other sporting deities. I’m sure our fans will create lots of fun and memorable pantheons in the years to come. If you want to check out pantheons, make sure to snag Lost Omens Gods & Magic when it releases on January 29th. It’s going to be divine!

Luis Loza
Developer

Another week has passed, which means another week of Pathfinder & Starfinder content! Several shows are still on hiatus till the end of January, and from seeing what they have planned is extremely exciting. The awesome folks over at Dragons & Things have recently moved into a new studio, and we’re very excited to see what they have coming up! You can check on their progress via Twitter here.

Additionally 2 Perception by Squiddish has moved to Saturdays! So for those looking for some Pathfinder Second Edition content on your weekend will be pleased as Squiddish and his gang plays through the Age of Ashes Adventure Path!

Of course we still have our staple Starfinder Wednesday & Pathfinder Friday shows bringing you several tips & tricks for Game Masters and players alike.

So, without further delay, here is what’s happening this week at OfficialPaizo on Twitch!

Starfinder Wednesdays! Ending a Campaign - Developer Commentary. Jan 22, 4:00-5:00 p.m. Pacific

The end of an Adventure Path should be a wonderful occasion! But how does one transfer the end of a campaign to another? How do you finalize the story to become a satisfying conclusion? Join Managing Developer Amanda Hamon & Developer Jason Tondro as they help Game Masters and players alike reach that perfect ending.

Pungeon Crawl, Jan 22, 5:00-9:00 p.m. Pacific

Note: Pungeon Crawl will now be hosted on the Paizo Twitch channel instead of being streamed directly. You can find BBWolfe’s twitch channel to support the show here.

"The results of the breakfast sweepstakes are in and The Biggest Darn Heroes of the Pact Worlds are about to get a new set of legally-distinct sidekicks as the Pungeon Crawl returns! Join the Deep Space Defenders as we find out if a handful of breakfast cereal contest-selected weirdos can keep up with your favorite syndicated space saviors! Sent on a mission with REAL HEROES, they’ll be put to the test as things go wrong, while on camera the entire time! As their situation develops the heroes’ morale may falter, but with the help of you, the faithful viewers, your favorite heroes can grip success from the jaws of failure! Wednesday nights 8e/7c only on Paizo!"
- BBWolfe

Streamed on OfficialPaizo on Twitch.

Arcane Mark, Jan 23 & 25, 7:00 p.m. Pacific

Arcane Mark is a stream with Pathfinder Designer Mark Seifter and Organized Play Lead Developer Linda Zayas-Palmer covering all sorts of RPG and Pathfinder-related topics, from GM Tools to Design Diaries to Workshops. Thursday episodes are always interviews, usually covering Paizo staff you might not have seen as often in other interviews.

Pathfinder Fridays! Lost Omens Gods & Magic Lore - Developer Commentary Jan 24 , 4:00-5:00 p.m. Pacific

The upcoming Lost Omens Gods & Magic book hosts a large amount of deities in the world of Golarion. But the gods aren’t the only players in the grand scheme of things. Old ones, demon lords, and demigods still walk the world spreading their influence. Join us as we show you as Game Masters and players how you can utilize these beings in your adventures, teaching you who and what they are along the way.

Age of Ashes with Squiddish, Jan 25, 2:00-6:00 p.m. Pacific

“Fires burn atop the ruined citadel on Hellknight Hill, sending plumes of red smoke into the air that could be a call for help. Now a gang of adventurers rise together to investigate the current conflict. How will they handle the Hellknights? Will they all burn in horrendous fire? Tune into this new Pathfinder Second Edition live play show!

Squiddish with the 2 Perception crew streams on the OfficialPaizo on Twitch channel every week at 2 p.m. Pacific.

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We've added a new Forum for Streaming & Actual Play discussions. If you have any questions you’d like to submit for our Q&A segments at the end of our Starfinder Wednesdays or Pathfinder Fridays you can do so in our Forums.

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If you have a Pathfinder or Starfinder stream, post it under Third Party Broadcasts.

Catch us live at our Official Twitch Channel. Catch the Video On Demand (VOD) on Twitch immediately after it is done or a week later on our YouTube channel.

Two weeks ago, we shared some of the different world concepts members of the Paizo staff came up with for the same array of cards from the Deck of Many Worlds. Now it’s your turn! Using the rules reference cards from the deck (a free download available here) design your concept for the world shown below and propose it in the comments. The submissions that are marked as a favorite the most times will be included in the running to have an official writeup by a member of the Starfinder team in a forthcoming blog entry into the Codex of Worlds!

I can’t wait to see what world concepts you all come up with, and I’m excited to see one of your ideas reflected here in a few weeks’ time. Best of luck, Finders!

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

The size of her sword is bested only by the size of her rage

I’ve always been a fan of Amiri as a character. I was drawn in first by her artwork, then by her story. It’s sometimes hard to justify why your barbarian is so damn angry all the time; Amiri’s tribe and brother tried to have her killed because of rampant misogyny. Yeah, my only question is if she ever stops raging.

First rule of Badass Club: Amiri wins. No more rules.

Amiri was in my party when I first played through Rise of the Runelords, along with Seoni and Lini. I played Lini, but I really appreciated Amiri’s toughness, always being ready for combat, and her ability to charge around everywhere. Especially when Amiri would take Lini along for the ride. I assumed Lini would perch on her shoulders to leave Amiri’s hands free for slaughtering. I imagine the player of Amiri assumed he was tossing a gnome in a backpack, or possibly just winding up and hurling her like a discus.

A lot of players balk at the bury cost for barbarian rage, but I usually consider it a feature. Especially with a small hand size, it’s nice to thin your deck to just the cards you care the most about. Amiri is also a fantastic character for everyone in the party to throw their unneeded boons to. All the easier since she can do whatever she wants on her turn, then move at the end of her turn to your location.

Ready to smash, right out of the box.

The Barbarian Class Deck was the first class deck that I got to work on from start to finish, so it has a special place in my heart. Class Deck Amiri takes the Runelords formula and, well, kinda just does everything better. She gives up a little bit of Survival to pick up Fortitude, which is thematically excellent and occasionally gives you more armor to feed to your rage. She’s better at barrier-busting and moving when her location closes (if you’re using Core Set rules, this Conversion Guide entry will come in handy on that front.) Perhaps most importantly, she has the best paired roles in the entire game: Unstoppable Force and Immovable Object.

Still unstoppable, but even shinier.

Core Set Amiri has a fairly recognizable first and last power, though with a couple key tweaks. First, her “rage” power has seen some dramatic improvements: It can scale with skill feats, giving her more reason to take Constitution. It has an option to bury from your discards, which should open the power up to even some of the most bury-averse players. And it works on any check against a monster. Amiri can’t dodge dragon breath, but she can scream and charge right through it. That’s more like it.

Her movement power is a lot like the Runelords version, except Core really emphasizes helping out characters at your location, so Amiri gets to take them along for free now. Her middle power to keep exploring after closing her location is entirely due to a Core rules change, leaving her in the special spot of being able to close multiple locations without nearly as many shenanigans as other characters.

Amiri gets a lot of weapons and knows how to use them.

Core Amiri also picked up a very nice change to her favored card, requiring it be Melee. Among other things, that means Amiri can include that bow in her art without potentially ruining her starting hand. She can use the bow much like a blessing for a friend’s combat, then bury it from her discards for her own combat.

Amiri likes lots of boons. You might want to give them to her before she has to take them.

Core really treats Amiri well for armor, with Hide Armors leveraging her skills and displayable armor getting out of her fairly small hand. Generally speaking, there are a lot of good things for Amiri at level 4 in Curse, too. Turns out that if you spend an entire level trying to impress Shoanti barbarians, it’s not only good to be a barbarian for generating Respect points, but the rewards also use your talents.

Smashmouth is the role name I most expected to be vetoed. [Vic notes: I let it pass because, hey now, she’s a rock star.

Resistance Fighter has an eclectic selection of power feats that do neat things like letting people bless her combat checks freely, letting her examine a card at her new location after she moves at the end of her turn, and protecting her hand (though not her deck) from damage. I suspect the feat that draws players the most, though, is the scourge removal when raging. Scourges are sometimes infuriating, so a trivial way to get out of them is invaluable.

By comparison, Smashmouth’s main draw is probably raging against barriers, often the bane of any intrepid barbarian. And encouraging your allies to recharge their blessings to bless you. It also picks up some extremely useful benefits to more weapon card feats by letting you add to local combat checks and reduce damage suffered to 0 with your weapons. When every problem looks like you can smash it, bring the right smasher.

That’s our new Amiri. She’s the fourth (and last) of the Core Set Quick-Start characters, so our series on the Core iconics could go anywhere after this! Feel free to suggest what Core Set character you’d like us to discuss next below, though I make no guarantees where the muse will take us.

Keith Richmond
Adventure Card Game Designer

With all the snow falling around the office, I thought a bit of Frozen humor appropriate. Since I ran away from the snowmageddon to the warmer climes of Virginia, I’d ask our community to send good vibes back to the Paizonians braving the wrath of Baba Yaga to keep operations and books moving forward.

Linda and I being at conventions left Michael, James, and Thurston with the run of the Org Play department. I’m looking forward to hearing what craziness they concocted in our absence. One of the tasks this week involved completing the Pathfinder Society Year 2 outline, so I wouldn’t be surprised if a leshy luchador or an iruxi alchemist snuck in somewhere.

The big news for this week is that we are coordinating with the Organized Play Foundation to launch the call for volunteers for the next batch of Paizo-sponsored conventions for 2020. The following events need GMs and HQ volunteers:

• PaizoCon (SeaTac, WA, USA) – May 22-25, 2020 – Call currently open
• UK Games Expo (Birmingham, United Kingdom) – May 29-31, 2020
• Origins (Columbus, OH, USA) – June 17-21, 2020
• Gen Con (Indianapolis, IN, USA) – July 30 – Aug 2, 2020

General signups open Wednesday, January 22, 2020 at 12pm Eastern time. Information on volunteer perks and links for the volunteer questionnaires are on the Organized Play Foundation website.

We won’t request volunteers for PAX Unplugged until second quarter 2020, but I wanted to include its’ information since the date changed significantly next year.

• PAX Unplugged (Philadelphia, PA, USA) – November 20-22, 2020

One other note – The Origins staff event organizer noted that a $10 processing fee applies to any badge returns. If you are volunteering at a level that receives a badge as part of the perk package, please keep this in mind before purchasing badges, as any fee incursions are the responsibility of the GM. The Origins staff noted the fee was the policy in the past, though not collected consistently, and that they intend on enforcing it this year.

Next week, join us for previews of the Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society scenario releases for January. Pathfinder Adventure Card Society won’t have a release this month but returns with a new adventure in February 2020.

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Seelah took a moment to run a mental checklist before leaving the last place of cover. The sun was high, brightly keeping shadows at bay and ensuring she had clear lines of sight. It also ensured that as soon as she stepped into the courtyard, she would be spotted. Stealth was not her area of expertise in any case. She would need different tactics to overcome her foes, and she hoped she had planned well enough. If she had not, the consequences would be dire.

There were two of them pacing in the rubble, hulking things of fur, horn, and claw. Their mere appearance was not so much different from beasts or giants, but even if she had not recognized them from her studies—ceustodaemons, extraplanar guardians set to keep any from reclaiming this place—the malevolent sensation that churned her stomach would have told her they were not of the material world.

Her eyes scanned the broken courtyard one last time. This had been a training ground once, before icons of death and despair had been carved into the rocks and the walls had been painted with obscenities. Once, nearby common folk would have come here for basic instruction in defense and young warriors of Iomedae would have tested themselves to see if they were ready to carry her ideals into a dangerous world.

Now, Seelah would face a very different kind of test.

Illustration by Igor Grechanyi.
For new faith-based tools you can use in battling the forces of evil, check out Lost Omens: Gods & Magic!

After a quick prayer for guidance, she strode toward the two monstrosities, shield up, sword drawn. They saw her immediately, of course. She had not planned to strike from surprise, nor to attack without giving them an opportunity to avoid conflict. She couldn’t imagine a circumstance that would make these creatures anything but her implacable enemies, but she still could not simply slay them without confirming they posed a threat.

“You are on once consecrated ground.” Her voice was firm, even. “And I shall see it consecrated again!”

The twin daemons turned and focused cruel attention upon her. She felt supernatural malice hammer her mind like invisible sling stones, trying to turn her limbs leaden, but she focused her thoughts through the immobilizing magic. Seeing her still moving and uncowed, the daemons responded with angry roars and headlong rushes toward her. She was hard pressed for a long second as they raged, clawed, and bit. Her armor weathered their blows, her shield taking some of the impact as well. Seelah had prepared for this and sensed no hint of the unexpected. She could bring her full force against them. Literal avatars of violent death, there was no chance they would ask for quarter.

Seelah moved to keep them from flanking her, flicking her eyes quickly from her targets to her environment. It pained her to see what had been done to the once beautiful columns and walls of the ruined temple, but she did not turn her face from any corner where another foe might hide. The sacrilege that had been carried out here was methodical, total, and nauseatingly creative. She did not believe these daemons to be any more than guardians left behind to ensure the vile vandalism was not undone. Some other intelligence had brought the temple low.

Suddenly a well-placed blow dropped one daemon sooner than she had expected, and the other leaped back from Seelah. She moved toward it cautiously but at a quick stride.

“Perhaps we should negotiate.” The creature’s voice was deep and gruff, as though mortal words hurt its throat, and its tone betrayed any intention of diplomacy. The false overture was scarcely out of its mouth when a gout of fire followed it. As the flames danced off her magically warded armor, Seelah surged forward and drove her blade deep into the daemon’s chest. The steel cut, the holy forces coursing through it cutting deeper still. With a gurgling cry, the remaining daemon staggered back and fell, ichor dripping from the wound.

“This wins you nothing!” The fiend’s growl was more petulant than defiant. “You cannot hold this place. That which bound us here shall see you begin to rebuild. Your dreamed-of monument to your lackluster mortal of a godling will fall again before you finish gilding it. No accolades will this win you from your light-thrall masters, no wealth or power will you collect!”

Seeleh paused a moment, her enemy’s tar-like blood boiling off her glowing blade. She disliked striking a fallen foe but there was, of course, no chance of turning this thing from its path of evil.

“This place,” Seelah indicated the open court with a jab of her chin, keeping eyes, sword, and shield carefully oriented against any desperate last strike the monstrosity might make, “is just a place. When my order lost it, we grieved, but more for the loss of those within than for toppled stone. We rebuilt elsewhere. We still train the willing, temper the faithful, and sharpen the keenest of Iomedae’s blades. If we can rebuild this place after it is cleansed, we will. But that is not why I am here.”

The daemon laughed once, a hard, humorless noise.

“Then you risk your life and rouse my anger of that which bound me for even less than I thought. It has done this to a hundred places and will do it to a hundred more. Vanquish us, and it shall return to do the same to you!”

At the last word the daemon lunged, claws slashing for Seelah’s armored belly. Unsurprised, she caught the blow on her shield, felt the impact crack its boards and bruise her arm. She smoothly thrust her longsword down and forward, channeling the divine power her patron granted her through the blessed metal, and felt it cut her foe’s fiendish malevolence as much as its hide and flesh. It collapsed, stretched out on the ground, it’s black blood seeping into the stone.

Seelah crouched, peering into its eyes. Was there some dim light still there? Some glimmer of its daemonic spirit still clinging to its useless physical form? If so, perhaps it could still hear her for a few moments more.

“I did not come here because that which conjured you did this to us. I came because, as you say, it may yet do the same to others. And when it comes here to seek vengeance upon me?” The spark was definitely gone from the daemon’s lifeless eyes. Seelah stood and looked at the hours of toil that would be needed to make this an even vaguely defensible place once again.

She smiled.

“When it comes? I will be ready.”

---

About the Author

Owen K.C. Stephens is a veteran of the tabletop RPG industry with more than 20 years of experience, including being on staff at Green Ronin, Paizo, and Wizards of the Coast and being the publisher of RogueGeniusGames.com. He has worked on numerous RPG lines, including being co-author of the Star Wars Saga Edition RPG and Design Lead for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. You can support his writing and free content production at Patreon, and follow him at his blog, on Facebook and on Twitter.

About Iconic Encounters

Iconic Encounters is a series of web-based flash fiction set in the worlds of Pathfinder and Starfinder. Each short story provides a glimpse into the life and personality of one of the games’ iconic characters, showing the myriad stories of adventure and excitement players can tell with the Pathfinder and Starfinder roleplaying games.

The free Extinction Curse Player's Guide is now available! From humble beginnings as members of the cast-off and cobbled-together Circus of Wayward Wonders, a handful of heroes will rise to avert a catastrophe that threatens to swallow the islands of the Inner Sea! Any kind of adventurer can find a home in the circus, from burly barbarians and flamboyant bards to nimble monks and flashy sorcerers, and the Extinction Curse Adventure Path welcomes them all. This player’s guide contains lots of spoiler-free advice to prepare your characters for the challenges ahead of them.

In addition to character advice, this player's guide contains information about the Isle of Kortos and the Isle of Erran, and also describes the mysterious aeon towers that dot the islands. A short discussion on building circus tricks is also included in the player’s guide, although the full rules for running a circus appear in the adventure path’s first volume, Pathfinder #151 The Show Must Go On. Nine new backgrounds round out the player’s guide, including aerialist, barker, mystic seer, rigger, and—of course—clown.

And no performance goes off without a hitch. Readers of the “Life in the Circus” article in the upcoming Pathfinder #151 The Show Must Go On may note a reference to the Additional Circus Trick general feat presented in the player’s guide, but the player’s guide escaped its cage before we wrangled that feat into it. This feat is particularly useful for players who really want their characters to excel in the circus aspect of this adventure path. So here it is!

Additional Circus Trick	Feat 3

---

General Circus
Prerequisites You must have a signature trick.

Your signature trick can have one additional trait beyond the number provided in Table 2: Trick Progression on page 63 of Pathfinder #151: The Show Must Go On. If the trick trait has an associated skill (such as Intimidation with the fire trait) and that skill is one of your trick checks, your checks with that skill to Perform a Trick aren’t penalized if you Perform a Trick using a different skill. For example, if your signature trick has Acrobatics and Intimidation as trick checks and you take this feat to add the fire trait, you can Perform a Trick using Acrobatics (at no penalty), then Acrobatics again (at a -5 penalty), and then Intimidation (at no penalty).

---

The big top is full and the performers are ready to thrill the crowd, but danger lurks just outside the spotlights. Come see the wonders of the Extinction Curse Player's Guide!

Ron Lundeen
Developer

Characters living in the Age of Lost Omens have the unique benefit of being able to speak directly with their gods and have these gods directly influence the world around them. This is especially true of player characters, who typically have a direct line to their given gods, particularly in the case of faithful classes like champions and clerics. You can think of Lost Omens Gods & Magic as a catalog to help you decide not only what faith your character can follow, but also what benefits you gain for said worship.

Art by Michele Esposite

The most obvious benefit is new options for your character. Gods & Magic has new domains, equipment, feats, and spells for all faithful types, but we wanted to make sure that these options were not simply limited to characters who were champions and clerics. Faith is important to all manner of character in Golarion, whether you are a barbarian praying to Gorum for strength or an investigator praying to Zohls for guidance on the latest case. As a result, many of the options contained in the book are available to all classes and are meant to encourage players to play up the faithful sides of their characters. A great starting point for these options is with the new background featured in the book.

Raised By Belief Background

This background ties into your deity’s Divine Ability, a selection of two different ability scores that best represents your faith. Abadar, for example, has Constitution and Intelligence listed as his Divine Ability while Zon-Kuthon has Constitution or Wisdom. Every deity in the book features a Divine Ability, allowing this background to function with any deity necessary for your character concept.

Art by Klaher Baklaher

In addition to the background, we also present several feats. Most of these feats are available to all characters, allowing any faithful to gain benefits from their devout worship. As a note, some of these feats are restricted to particular faiths, such as the Sanctify Water feat that only functions for followers of a good or evil deity as it allows you to create holy water or unholy water respectively. Other feats are tied to specific classes, like Sacred Ki which allows monks to convert the damage from their ki blast into an alignment that matches that of their deity. One particular favorite of mine is Battle Prayer, which allows you to blast a foe with the power of scripture!

Battle Prayer

Now, as this book is titled Gods & Magic, one would assume that there is plenty of magic. Oh, boy, is there! This book features 14 pages of new spells and focus spells. Again, as we didn’t want to lock these spells to only characters with domains, a large portion of these spells are part of the arcane, occult, or primal traditions, making them perfect additions to your bard’s repertoire or your wizard’s spell book. Some of these spells include old classics that have been updated for Second Edition like anticipate peril, ill omen, shifting sand, and of course, cup of dust!

Cup of Dust

Although these spells aren’t part of the divine tradition, it doesn’t mean that clerics are out of luck when it comes to these spells. Many of these new spells are on the list of cleric spells granted by a deity, allowing worshippers of the correct god to gain these new spells, too! Are you sad that you missed out on time beacon, the cool new spell that allows you to turn back the clock and undo negative effects on you? Worry not! Just follow Shyka the Many or… erm… Yog-Sothoth and you can have this cool spell, too!

Art by Emile Denis

Magic takes many forms. For clerics, a significant portion of their magic is in the form of domains. Gods & Magic features 18 new domains that run the gamut of different concepts and themes. The Dust domain, for example, calls upon the power of the gods to dry and crumble what opposes you, allowing you call swirling dust with the dust storm spell. The void domain, on the other hand, lets you rend reality and create a rift that pulls creatures toward it with door to beyond. These new domains also cover general concepts that we didn’t have a chance to include in the Core Rulebook like the cold domain.

Winterbolt

Finally, let’s take a look at some of the cool equipment featured in this book. Most of the deities featured in Gods & Magic are ones that are being updated to Pathfinder Second Edition. Where we could, we tried to make sure these deities are exactly the same as they were originally, only swapping out things like the strength domain for the might domain where necessary. As a result, we needed to update a good number of favored weapons or even create brand new favored weapons for the new deities premiering in this book.

Art by Oksana Federova

These weapons range from classics like bladed scarf, fighting fan, and khopesh to brand new weapons like the polytool, a metal rod with several tools folded inside. The polytool is the favored weapon of Casandalee and her faithful, allowing her followers to always have whatever tool they need for a given task, be it crafting or fighting enemies. In addition to these new weapons, we also provide a number of new magic items, each with ties to a particular faith. These include the bottomless stein, a stein for Cayden’s faithful that never runs empty, the dagger of eternal sleep, a dagger used by Achaekek’s followers that automatically critically hits a sleeping target, and Urgathoa’s dreadsmoke thurible.

Dreadsmoke Thurible

As you can see, there are lots of goodies for those who are willing to follow the edicts of their faith, whether they are clerics or not. All of these options and more await anyone willing to take a leap of faith with Lost Omens Gods & Magic, releasing later this month on January 29th.

Luis Loza
Developer

While a lot of our content creators are on break and readjusting their schedules. We here at Paizo are back and excited to show off what the dev team has been working on. The Starfinder team is getting close to completing the Attack of The Swarm Adventure Path. And the Pathfinder team are excited to sit with you and go over how we team came up with the gods for Pathfinder originally, and how they developed to be the divine beings today!

Here is what’s happening this week at OfficialPaizo on Twitch!

War for the Crown with Squiddish, Jan 13, 2:00 p.m. Pacific

“Five everyday nobodies united (loosely) in the shifting political landscape of Taldor. A nobleman, a veteran, a bounty hunter, a trained spy, and an old wizard. They joined for an evening’s “work” at an elegant gala, and now fight for the future of their nation and their very lives. The question every week is simple: Can these five overcome their own differences long enough to succeed in this War for the Crown?”
-Squiddish

Squiddish with the 2 Perception crew streams on the OfficialPaizo on Twitch channel every week at 2 p.m. Pacific.

Starfinder Wednesdays! Attack of the Swarm: The God-Host Ascends! - Developer Commentary. Jan 15, 4:00-5:00 p.m. Pacific

The Attack of the Swarm Adventure Path The God-Host Ascends! is the finale of the 6 part adventure for the Starfinder RPG. We have Developer Ron Lundeen to talk with Starfinder Developer Jason Keeley to showcase all of the behind the scenes in the creation of the Attack of the Swarm AP.

Pungeon Crawl, Jan 15, 5:00-9:00 p.m. Pacific

Note: Pungeon Crawl will now be hosted on the Paizo Twitch channel instead of being streamed directly. You can find BBWolfe’s twitch channel to support the show here.

"The results of the breakfast sweepstakes are in and The Biggest Darn Heroes of the Pact Worlds are about to get a new set of legally-distinct sidekicks as the Pungeon Crawl returns! Join the Deep Space Defenders as we find out if a handful of breakfast cereal contest-selected weirdos can keep up with your favorite syndicated space saviors! Sent on a mission with REAL HEROES, they’ll be put to the test as things go wrong, while on camera the entire time! As their situation develops the heroes’ morale may falter, but with the help of you, the faithful viewers, your favorite heroes can grip success from the jaws of failure! Wednesday nights 8e/7c only on Paizo!"
- BBWolfe

Streamed on OfficialPaizo on Twitch.

Arcane Mark, Jan 16 & 18, 7:00 p.m. Pacific

Arcane Mark is a stream with Pathfinder Designer Mark Seifter and Organized Play Lead Developer Linda Zayas-Palmer covering all sorts of RPG and Pathfinder-related topics, from GM Tools to Design Diaries to Workshops. Thursday episodes are always interviews, usually covering Paizo staff you might not have seen as often in other interviews.

Pathfinder Fridays! Lost Omens Gods & Magic Lore - Developer Commentary Jan 17 , 4:00-5:00 p.m. Pacific

With the upcoming Lost Omens Gods & Magic book coming out late January, we thought it’d be best to help newcomers understand how our gods in Pathfinder operate, along with the lore significance of them. So for those who are not familiar with the lore of Pathfinder, James Jacobs will be here to help give you a look behind the scenes on the creation of the gods and how they developed in Pathfinder Second Edition.

We've added a new Forum for Streaming & Actual Play discussions. If you have any questions you’d like to submit for our Q&A segments at the end of our Starfinder Wednesdays or Pathfinder Fridays you can do so in our Forums.

Pathfinder Fridays Fan Club

Starfinder Wednesdays Fan Club

If you have a Pathfinder or Starfinder stream, post it under Third Party Broadcasts.

Catch us live at our Official Twitch Channel. Catch the Video On Demand (VOD) on Twitch immediately after it is done or a week later on our YouTube channel.

OPM Musings

Our last blog looked at 2019 and some of the team’s best memories of our year. Between then and now, I took a few weeks off over the holidays to visit family and recharge my batteries. I arrived back in the office on Monday, ready to tackle our outstanding tasks and get things completed.

While out of the office, I remained in contact with our tech team as we worked to resolve the outstanding issues with the Achievement Point program. The good news is we have a pile of fixes ready for quality assurance testing and we hope to have them rolled out over the next few weeks. Some of the pending items include downloadable paper copies of Playtest Point/Achievement Point boons, Achievement Point scaling for Premium/Premium Plus events, and correct values for Pathfinder Society (second edition) Quests. I’m optimistic we have the light at the end of the tunnel on this issue.

Better news than the Achievement Points is our movement on sanctioning. The organized play developers finished their pass on several of the books and now we are working on getting them formatted for publication. This is another task I hope to have completed by the end of the month.

Hard to believe, but there is one more piece of news even better than Achievement Points and sanctioning updates. I’m pleased to announce the organized play team is growing by one – we are adding an operational administrative assistant working directly with me to support our programs. The job posting should go up shortly and I encourage our community members to appy!

Campaign Coins

Taking a few weeks off of convention travel led to not awarding any campaign coins over the past month.

Stars

The end of 2019, while thinner on conventions, was thick with GMs qualifying for their 5th star. This is a great achievement, as to reach the 5th star milestone a GM must 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! Thank you to all our GMs who committed time and energy to the campaign and a resounding cheer to the GMs on the list below that earned their 5th star.

• Conor McClure
• Adam Kessler
• Steven Mombourquette
• Kyle Hallberg
• Michael Petlicke
• Jon Haight
• Edward Kabara
• Derek Blakely
• Mike Welham

Novas & Glyphs

In taking care of backlog items, we got the nova icon updated on the website and are working to get the glyph icon added. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as me just putting the image somewhere and needed some behind the scenes tech assistance. We anticipate having the Glyphs up and running in the next few weeks. For those running Pathfinder Society (second edition) games, thank you and we will get your recognition out asap!

I’d like to list the first 5-nova GMs in the February Spotlight blog! While we wait for the online nova evaluation tool, which is part of a greater tools overhaul, we’ve made an online form for logging evaluation games. Venture-Captains, please use this form to submit evaluations.

Convention Listing

Only 10 days into the new year and already have an impressive list of conventions! Community event organizers submitted their events for support, which is awarded to all conventions that meet minimum criteria (15 blocks of games over 3 days and publicized to the public). If you don’t see an event on the list below and know they are running Society games, ping the organizer and have them submit a request for support or have them email me at organizedplay@paizo.com to discuss their event. All of the conventions on the list maintain some type of web presence, be it website, social media page, or Warhorn listing, so if you are interested in attending in either capacity, check out their websites or contact the local venture-officer for more information!

Convention	Location	Start Date
Midwinter Gaming Convention 2020	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	1/9/2020
Moosebear Con 2	Salt Lake City, UT	1/10/2020
Arisia 2020	Boston, MA 1/17/2020
MarsCon 2020	Williamsburg, VA	1/17/2020
PAX South 2020	San Antonio, TX	1/17/2020
SCARAB 2020	Columbia, South Carolina	1/17/2020
Polar Vortex 2020	Lisle, IL	1/17/2020
PlayDis Con 2020	Online	1/20/2020
ConTIngency 2020	Hunstanton, Norfolk, UK	1/22/2020
Gaming Marathon for Charity Part 2.5	Colorado Springs, CO	1/25/2020
PFS/SFS@Cancon2020	Canberra, ACT, Australia	1/25/2020
BayCon 2020	Geelong, Victoria, Australia	1/25/2020
LodgeCon 2020	Peotone, Illinois	2/8/2020
GenghisCon 2020	Aurora, Colorado	2/13/2020
BASHCon 35 (2020)	Toledo, OH	2/14/2020
Con of the North	Plymouth MN	2/14/2020
DunDraCon 44	San Ramon, California	2/14/2020
Radcon 8	Pasco WA	2/14/2020
Capricon 40	Wheeling, IL	2/14/2020
Dreamation 2020	Morristown, NJ	2/20/2020
TotalCon 34 (2020)	Marlborough, MA	2/20/2020
4th Annual Omaha Pathfinder Charity Con	Bellevue, NE	2/21/2020
Gad Con	Aberdeen MD	2/28/2020
COSCON 2020	Lyndora, PA (USA)	3/20/2020
CogCon Spring Revel 2020	Rolla, MO	3/27/2020
CODCON 2020	Glen Ellyn, IL	4/3/2020

Organized Play Staff Travel

While we aren’t ready to announce our full year of convention travel quite yet, we can confirm a few appearances during first quarter 2020. For those proactive organizers out there, please note the deadline to request Paizo staff attendance is 1 June 2020.Organizers may email your interest to organizedplay@paizo.com.
Note: staff do not attend conventions that conflict with Paizo-sponsored shows.

Convention	Location	Start Date	Paizo Staffers Scheduled to Attend*
SCARAB 2020	Columbia, SC	1/17/2020	Linda
MarsCon 2020	Williamsburg, VA	1/17/2020	Tonya
OwlCon 2020	Houston, TX	2/28/2020	Thurston
GenghisCon 2020	Denver, CO	2/13/2020	Tonya
Gama Trade Show 2020	Reno, NV	3/9/2020	Staff TBD
Emerald City Comic Con 2020	Seattle, WA	3/13/2020	Staff TBD
CogCon 2020	Rolla, MO	3/27/2020	Tonya

*Staffers scheduled to attend may change without notice.

Don’t forget to come back next week for the scenario previews!

Until next time—Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

The ritual continued. Gifne sat in place as she had for the past day, eyes closed, silently repeating the mantra in her mind, communing with the Green, with the Will of the World, with nature itself. Finally, to her satisfaction, she felt nature respond.

All about her the world became green, lush, filled with light. The sandy ground grew dark with moisture, became thick loam, from which sprouted grass, brush, and bramble. Under the half-elf druid’s encouragement, desert plants sprung from the ground around a newly pooling oasis, their leaves reaching toward the diamond-blue sky.

Gifne opened her glowing green eyes and was pleased with what she saw. Where once there was only dry dunes now stood a lush grove surrounding an oasis vital to her employers, the nation of Rahadoum. The potential for life in this place had always been here. All it needed was a little push so it could flower and grow.

She closed her eyes and thanked the Green for its bounty. This was another successful day in a series of successes. If her work continued unimpeded, Rahadoum would have many years before it had to worry about encroachment from the desert once more.

Illustration by Igor Grechanyi.
For more information on the philosophies of the Age of Lost Omens, including both the Green Faith and the Laws of Mortality, check out Lost Omens: Gods & Magic!

With her eyes still closed, Gifne folded her hands and began a new ritual, communing with nature, casting her mind from her body, seeking the next location to continue her work, to re-channel the desert, keep it flowing and healthy, yet maintaining a balance with its human neighbors.

“Are you… you’re not praying, are you?”

Gifne opened her eyes but didn’t get up from her cross-legged position. Jhelana Mandu, captain of the Pure Legion, had been assigned as her bodyguard and guide when she’d first arrived in Rahadoum’s capital, Azir, the Godless Port. The woman was tough, curious, and charming. Over the past few months they’d each saved one another a score of times, changing what was once a professional relationship into a friendship forged in fire and steel. Yet Jhelana’s question represented the rot in the garden.

“Not praying,” the half-elf answered, struggling to keep sarcasm from her voice. Luckily her friend’s Rahadoumi accent was different enough from her Taldan tones to hide the nuance. “I was communing.”

“Communing?” Jhelana asked, eyebrow raised. “With what?”

“Why ask questions to which you already know the answer?” said Gifne, no longer bothering to hide her exasperated sigh. “With nature, with the Green. With life itself, as I’ve told you before.”

“Sounds an awful lot like a deity,” said Jhelana, patting her sword. “Which I’m sworn to put a stop to.”

Gifne laughed to hide her annoyance. She pointed at where the green grass now poked up through the sand at Jhelana’s feet. “Are those blades of grass a god? Is that palm tree? That spit-lizard on the rocks or those flowers by the pool? No. That’s life itself and it’s never wrong to worship life.”

Jhelana moved her hand away from her sword. Gifne had seen her wield it several times since they’d begun travelling together and didn’t envy any who found themselves facing the Legionnaire. “You shouldn’t worship anything,” Jhelana said. “The Pure Legion believes in people. In ideas, as the Laws of Mortality dictate. Not in powers who rule from some golden castle in the clouds.”

Gifne shook her head. How could she explain to the Legionnaire, dear friend though she was, about the will of the green world, the very life force of Golarion? It shone through them all: rock, tree, and water. Even Jhelana Mandu; her more brightly than most.

“I used nature’s magic to heal your wounds when we were set upon by those gnoll reavers last month,” Gifne said.

“You didn’t question where it came from then.”

“I was barely conscious,” said Jhelana. “Plus I trusted you when you said your healing came from no god.”

Gifne raised an eyebrow. “So now you don’t trust me?”

Jhelana shrugged, looking uncertain—very unlike her usual self-assured demeanor. “A troubling thought occurred as I watched you work on this latest encroachment of the desert.”

The sun still shone bright in the sky, its heat bringing dappled sweat to Gifne’s brow. “And that is?”

After departing Azir, Gifne and the captain had traveled east alongside the Winding Way river, making their way through most of central Rahadoum. Gifne could use its vibrant waters to aid her ritual and also, the pair never need worry about dying of thirst. Far off along the eastern horizon, Gifne could see the tall peaks of the Napsune Mountains where stood the fabled Shepherd’s Rock, citadel of the Pure Legion.

Jhelana stared at where the desert had once been, where the lush oasis now stood. “You commune with nature, but what if it’s nature’s will that the desert consume Rahadoum? Would you abandon us, leave my country to choke and die, a forgotten ruin in the desert?”

The wind blew around them, causing newly sprouted leaves to rustle gently, making a susurrus of the long grass. Jhelana’s question pierced through Gifne’s defenses as easily as the captain pierced an opponent with her blade. Was she doing the right thing, here? Or was she upsetting the balance? Gifne looked at the life around her. She stared at the desert, its dunes now several hundred yards away.

“It’s hard to know what nature wants,” said Gifne slowly. “These are things you will need to accept. Balance is never easy, but it’s worth it. I cannot believe the desert would destroy your nation. Elsewise, my rituals wouldn’t work. A balance can be achieved between your people and the desert. I have to believe that.”

“When I was a child, this didn’t happen!” Jhelana said. “The desert might grow slightly in the dry season, a few hundred yards at most, but when the rains came, the grasses retook it. The movement was slow, there was balance. Only now…”

Gifne stared at her friend in shock. The Legionnaire never spoke of her childhood, never told much of herself at all, really. “What’s happening now?”

“The desert is like a glutton who can never be sated,” said Jhelana, and Gifne heard the fear in her voice. “The rains slow its progress, but it keeps growing by miles every season. Nothing about this is natural. Nothing!”

Gifne refrained from telling her friend that trying to determine what was natural on Golarion was often a futile exercise. In its earliest days her own faith, druids of four factions had warred over whose philosophy best represented nature. Only by intercession of nature itself did they learn to work in balance together as the Green Faith. Even now there were schisms and disagreements, but at least none could claim to be the only true path.

“I believe you, my friend,” the druid said. “And I promise two things. You will never have to compromise your beliefs with me. I worship nature.”

Jhelana nodded. “Your second promise?”

“This I swear, Jhelana Mandu,” said Gifne, slicing open a palm with a clawed thumb and letting it bleed on the thick brown soil. “If the source of the growing desert is unnatural, we will put a stop to it, you and I.”

Jhelana stared at Gifne’s bleeding hand in surprise. Then, quicker than thought, she too cut her sword-calloused palm with a dagger and grasped the druid’s hand. Gifne smiled.

“We must keep to the Winding Way, for now, but soon we will come to this Eternal Oasis. I would very much like to see that, if we’re able.”

“Why?” Jhelana asked. “It’s said those who go in don’t come out. Besides, it’s one of the few places in Rahadoum that doesn’t need your help.”

“That’s just it,” said Gifne. “If there is indeed an unbalance, something strange happening in Rahadoum, it may be we can find the answers in this Eternal Oasis.”

Gifne watched the uncertainty in Jhelana’s face give way to determination. The captain nodded and the two began to make their way back to the Winding Way to find the next place to push back the desert.

All around them, as the wind blew through the new grass and rippled the oasis pond, the desert waited.

About the Author

Patrick Hurley has had fiction published in Galaxy’s Edge, Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores, Abyss & Apex, New Myths, Arcanist, Aurealis, Frozen Wavelets, The Overcast, and The Drabblecast. He is a 2017 graduate of the Taos Toolbox Writer's Workshop. In 2018, he was a finalist for the Baen Fantasy Award. Patrick lives in Seattle and is a member of SFWA and the Dreamcrashers. He still can’t quite believe he has to good fortune to also be an editor at Paizo.

About the Tales of Lost Omens

The Tales of Lost Omens series of web-based flash fiction provides an exciting glimpse into Pathfinder’s Age of Lost Omens setting. Written by some of the most celebrated authors in tie-in gaming fiction, including Paizo’s Pathfinder Tales line of novels and short fiction, the Tales of Lost Omens series promises to explore the characters, deities, history, locations, and organizations of the Pathfinder setting with engaging stories to inspire Game Masters and players alike.

One of the things I love seeing while browsing through the internet, is seeing folks creating Pathfinder and Starfinder content. And from all of my years assisting and even creating live-play shows and content for thousands of eyes to see, I know the amount of work that goes into making these shows. Especially for Tabletop RPG live-play shows such as Pungeon Crawl. So to see amazing people spend that much time making content for our games is truly heartwarming for us at Paizo. And when we get time we like to spotlight people in our community who do a great job supporting and showing off how great our games and community can be.

BBWolfe has been absolutely stellar at providing her audience and ours with Starfinder content, and we would like to encourage fans of Starfinder to support BBWolfe as she takes her live-play show to new heights during this Year of the Crit!

You can find her streaming Starfinder every week 5:00 P.M. - 9:00 P.M. Pacific time zone on her twitch channel. We will be hosting her on Paizo’s Official Twitch Channel for those wishing to keep all of your Tabletop RPG content in one place.

Further on is a description of the show in her words for those interested.

— Payton Smith, Social Media Producer

Pungeon Crawl’s newest season, “Legally Distinct,” asks the question “What if the Starfinder Universe had a beloved set of Saturday morning action stars, and everything was real*?” The Deep Space Defenders certainly have a power that you’ve never seen before--a team of real* heroes who work together to even the score against any foe. Backed up by the beloved* Junior Deep Space Defenders (The Crawlers), a team newly minted to follow in their footsteps, surely no one can ever take them down.

Every week is a new live-play adventure following the Junior DSDs as they make their way through their steps as understudies to become real* super starheroes. They’ve just taken up their first real outing with the Deep Space Defenders: a mission to escort a diplomatic team for negotiations with a newly discovered civilization. But when a mysterious distress signal is detected, the Deep Space Defenders set aside even this important mission, for what kind of real* super starhero could say no to a call for help?

Where will the Junior Deep Space Defenders stand when those heroes disappear suddenly into the drift? The worlds of Gamemaster Kapperson’s design will call to the crew of the StarJumper soon. With the brave* leadership* of the Human Envoy “Captain Duke Raylan” (Fish), the consistent* encouragement* of the Espraksa Envoy “Livven” (Bailey), the legally* accredited* medical nurturing of the Spathinae Mystic “Durasa Commonality” (Nate), and the proportionally* appropriate skills of the SRO Operative “GR-3Y” (Wing), surely the power must lie on their side.

It won’t be the only thing lying.

Tune in to twitch.tv/bbwolfe every week on Wednesdays at 8 Eastern/5 Pacific for the continuation of the Pungeon Crawl to follow along with the crew’s misadventures.

*Deep Space Defenders and its parent company ABADAR CORPORATION are not responsible for non-actualization of attempted heroics. Any action sequences may or may not involve compensated parties. Leadership, Encouragement, and Proportionality are proprietary measures endorsed only by ABADAR CORPORATION. The legality of the medical advice given by “D-Com” is not the responsibility of Deep Space Defenders or its parent company ABADAR CORPORATION. Acknowledgement of status as a hero does not imply actualization of heroic deeds. Chad from legal says, “Hello.”

BBWolfe
@BBWolfeVox on Twitter

The world of Pathfinder is one of many gods, entities of unfathomable power with influence over every aspect of mortal life. To the average person on Golarion, a prayer to a god for good health, good harvests, or protection from harm is an everyday tradition. A character’s choice of a patron god can have a huge impact on that PC’s background, attitude, and overall flavor. Yet for the player of a PC who is not a member of a divine class, the choice of deity has often proven merely cosmetic. If you aren’t affected one way or another by the whims of the gods, what point is there in following their strictures—in other words, what’s in it for me?

Theological discussions aside, we’ve added a new tool into Lost Omens Gods and Magic to allow the GM to showcase the gods’ influence upon the world, without their actions snatching away the PCs’ autonomy. Called “Divine Intercessions,” these take the form of boons and curses, ranging from minor to moderate to major in scale, that the gods can grant to those who especially please and displease them. While the gods don’t grant these intercessions lightly—otherwise everyone in Golarion would be cursed all the time! —they might be potent enough to draw an adherent’s prayers in hopes of being blessed… or fearful enough a PC might think twice before sacking the local temple!

Art by Valeria Lutfullina

In many cases, Divine Intercessions are reserved for adherents of the god in question, who have either pleased their patron deity or committed some manner of anathema. Nothing prevents them from responding to a simple prayer from a layperson either, however; in this way, we offer the gods more nuanced reactions towards their faithful than the often-binary responses that they had in the past. For example, a PC who helps out a struggling artist would probably think little of a grateful farewell of “May Shelyn bless you!”—yet might later find Shelyn repaying that small kindness when it is most needed:

Minor Boon: Once, when you roll a failure on a Diplomacy check, you get a critical success instead. Shelyn typically grants this boon only when the Diplomacy check would serve to increase love or offer a chance of redemption.

Art by Klaher Baklaher

On the other end of the scale, priests or holy warriors of various gods may be forced into sticky situations where the most convenient, or even only, method to solve a problem is to violate one of their god’s anathema. A priest of Abadar might wind up stealing a key in their pursuit of a dangerous lawbreaker—that likely shouldn’t be grounds for expulsion from the church or a loss of divine power, but Abadar might make his displeasure known until his servant atones:

Minor Curse: Any time you steal, illegally harm or kill another creature, or undermine a law-abiding officer or court, a symbol or word describing your crime appears on a visible spot on your skin. This symbol cannot be removed or hidden with makeup (though it can be covered with clothing) and it doesn’t vanish until you make legal restitution for the crime, such as by serving your sentence.

The Divine Intercessions in this book are simply suggestions, as a godly response can be tailor fit to whatever circumstance or prayer provoked it. They provide a strong groundwork for how the gods respond to a service or insult, however; Iomedae and Gorum often bless or curse weapons and armor, for instance. Asmodeus rains down terrible punishments on those who offend him, while Erastil’s boons and curses might not even be noticed by those with no desire for a settled life. For those who truly upset the gods, there are even curses so powerful they could spawn a legend or a campaign in their own right:

Major Curse: Irori makes all living creatures forget your existence. This can be further compounded by raising Irori’s ire, resulting in your name being obliterated from all written records. In both cases, memories and writings rearrange themselves to omit you smoothly, rather than leaving obvious gaps.

Art by Emile Denis

How might your PCs change if they knew the gods were watching? Would they still prefer kindly gods who prefer to let mortals forge their own path? Or would the temptation of easy boons from evil gods sway them from the light?

Eleanor Ferron
Developer

Welcome to the Year of the Crit! A lot is happening behind the scenes for all of your favorite Twitch shows this January, and we couldn’t be more excited! This 2020 is going to be amazing for up and coming live plays and content creators for tabletop rpgs. And we here at Paizo are excited to aid those interested in pushing these platforms forward.

One note to our fans of Oblivion Oath and those who use the point currency system in our Twitch chat. We will be converting to the channel points system sometime around mid february. So for those who have granted our players hero points, boons, and villain points for the GM. Be aware that you will still have the option to do so, but with a more integrated system. Along with a lot more options to interact with us live!

Here is what’s happening this week at OfficialPaizo on Twitch!

War for the Crown with Squiddish, Jan 6, 2:00 p.m. Pacific

“Five everyday nobodies united (loosely) in the shifting political landscape of Taldor. A nobleman, a veteran, a bounty hunter, a trained spy, and an old wizard. They joined for an evening’s “work” at an elegant gala, and now fight for the future of their nation and their very lives. The question every week is simple: Can these five overcome their own differences long enough to succeed in this War for the Crown?”
-Squiddish

Squiddish with the 2 Perception crew streams on the OfficialPaizo on Twitch channel every week at 2 p.m. Pacific.

Dead Suns with Dark Galaxies Gaming, Jan 7, 6:30 p.m. Pacific

Dark Galaxies Gaming has been going strong with their playthrough of the Starfinder Dead Suns Adventure Path. And it has been an absolute blast for me to catch up on. We will be hosting them on the OfficialPaizo Twitch channel at 6:30 p.m. Pacific. You can also find their channel to catch up on previous shows and stay updated on the status of the show here.

Quick note: We are aware that Dark Galaxies Gaming’s time conflicts slightly with Geek & Sundry’s Pathfinder: Knights of Everflame. We will be hosting them as soon as Everflame has concluded.

Starfinder Wednesdays! Attack of the Swarm: Hive of Minds - Developer Commentary. Jan 8, 4:00-5:00 p.m. Pacific

The Attack of the Swarm Adventure Path Hive of Minds is the 5th of the 6 part adventure for the Starfinder RPG. And we have Society Developer Thurston Hillman beaming in all the way from Canada to talk with Starfinder Developer Jason Keeley to show off all of the behind the scenes goodies in the creation of this adventure path.

Pungeon Crawl, Jan 8, 5:00-9:00 p.m. Pacific

Note: Pungeon Crawl will now be hosted on the Paizo Twitch channel instead of being streamed directly. You can find BBWolfe’s twitch channel to support the show here.

"The results of the breakfast sweepstakes are in and The Biggest Darn Heroes of the Pact Worlds are about to get a new set of legally-distinct sidekicks as the Pungeon Crawl returns! Join the Deep Space Defenders as we find out if a handful of breakfast cereal contest-selected weirdos can keep up with your favorite syndicated space saviors! Sent on a mission with REAL HEROES, they’ll be put to the test as things go wrong, while on camera the entire time! As their situation develops the heroes’ morale may falter, but with the help of you, the faithful viewers, your favorite heroes can grip success from the jaws of failure! Wednesday nights 8e/7c only on Paizo!"
- BBWolfe

Streamed on OfficialPaizo on Twitch.

Arcane Mark, Jan 9, 7:00 p.m. Pacific

Arcane Mark is a stream with Pathfinder Designer Mark Seifter and Organized Play Lead Developer Linda Zayas-Palmer covering all sorts of RPG and Pathfinder-related topics, from GM Tools to Design Diaries to Workshops. Thursday episodes are always interviews, usually covering Paizo staff you might not have seen as often in other interviews.

Pathfinder Fridays! Extinction Curse Adventure Path - Developer Commentary Jan 10, 4:00-5:00 p.m. Pacific

Welcome to the circus! Where your Druids can show off their physical prowess by becoming “the strongest being alive” by bending treated metal bars and lifting impossible weights! Or having your warrior balance their way across terrifying depths. Developers Ron Lundeen and Jake Tondro will be live to give you a developers commentary on how this adventures concept came to be, and all of the development insights along the way.

Dragons & Things, Jan 10, 6:00-9:00 p.m. Pacific

Dragons & Things have finally ended their Pathfinder 1st Edition adventures. But as they prepare for their season 3 journey. The Krew will be hosting a Q&A at 6 p.m. Pacific on the Dragons & Things Twitch Channel! Paizo will be hosting them, but we encourage you to show up and show your support for these extremely talented players!

We've added a new Forum for Streaming & Actual Play discussions. If you have any questions you’d like to submit for our Q&A segments at the end of our Starfinder Wednesdays or Pathfinder Fridays you can do so in our Forums.

Pathfinder Fridays Fan Club

Starfinder Wednesdays Fan Club

If you have a Pathfinder or Starfinder stream, post it under Third Party Broadcasts.

Catch us live at our Official Twitch Channel. Catch the Video On Demand (VOD) on Twitch immediately after it is done or a week later on our YouTube channel.

The most exciting thing (to me) about the Deck of Many Worlds is that you can shuffle up and deal millions of different worlds to prompt multiple galaxies’ worth of ideas. But for this blog, I wanted to show off how even just one of those millions of possibilities can provide plenty of different ideas, all on its own!

To that end, I’ve asked folks from all over Paizo to take a look at the world below and, using the system included in the Deck of Many Worlds, fire off some ideas about this world and what’s happening there. The attributes of this world (as determined by the cards) are: it has Earth-like technology, low magic, its residents get along relatively well, it’s got a neutral evil vibe, and religion is influential. Each author put their own spin on this combination, leaning on or subverting various aspects to tell their own story.

Of course, I’d love for you to chime in down in the comments with your own ideas and interpretations!

(And for the record: while I picked one of my favorite terrestrial worlds, the rest of the cards were drawn completely at random.)
—Joe Pasini, Starfinder Lead Designer

A habitable world with no known sapient lifeforms to compete with, was tempting on its own, but the addition of the strange continent sized pool of magic spilling out into the galaxy made Hwatroth irresistible for hanakan explorers. Hoping to quickly settle the area around the magical anomaly, they perhaps did not study the local ecology as much as they could have, missing the presence of the vicious and unpredictable mountain eels. Several of the hastily established settlements have been decimated, and more are in danger as their defenses are inadequate and the eels are congregating around the sudden bounty of a new food source. Division, rumors, and insurrection are running rampant within the hanakan population, with factions pushing for different defensive or offensive strategies. Recently they started offering bounties on mountain eel carcasses and a mysterious sect of verthani have begun cashing in. However, the bloodbath may have attracted more than just opportunistic hunters.
—Sara Marie, Customer Service & Community Manager

On this world, a planet-wide society of hanakans have determined that a minor event of the past—two people meeting, the previous extinction of the once common mountain eels, a particular engineer becoming ill—caused the rending beacon to destroy the majority of a continent. They’re fairly sure, based on their calculations, that sending a small team back in time to prevent what appears to be an unrelated event will cause a butterfly effect that will prevent the catastrophe hundreds of years later. This means that anything else changed could lead to something much worse or change the entire layout of the society by the time the team returns to the present. We might even draw another card out of the deck to determine how else the world was changed if the team successfully completes their objective, or they accidentally cause any other changes!
—Samantha Phelan, Customer Service Representative

The world of Toriax has changed drastically since the day the beacon of eerie purple light burst forth from the continent of Maties. Even before the earthquakes stopped and the dust had settled, it was clear that something was wrong. Magic users have been unable to access their powers since that day. While it was initially thought that the earthquakes were responsible for the planet-wide tech outages, not even the most brilliant scientists among the survivors have been able to bring those vital services back online. Ships are grounded, communication with other worlds seems impossible, and those who thrive on taking advantage of chaos have wasted no time. Soothsayers who once claimed to see the future despair at this unforeseen emergency, and plead to their gods to restore a modicum of normality. Until the source and cause of the beacon is discovered, Toriax is a wounded planet in need of help.
—Katina Davis, Webstore Coordinator

An ecological research team from the Pact Worlds was recently granted access to this uninhabited and protected world in the Ash’Akan system to investigate concentrated energy signatures typically found only on the moon Hallas. But the team made disturbing discoveries once they landed, finding eerily silent forests scattered with the crystalline forms of wild creatures, and entire towns filled with the crystal sculptures of Hanakans going about their daily life. The guards have skirmished with a large Mountain Eel once or twice, but little else on this planet moves. But a faint purple light builds on the horizon and with each passing day, the research team has started to see more signs of life as large amorphous forms dance through the sky and shadowy figures dart through the forests. One day, one of the figures, a hanakan attendant, emerges from the trees with a message: help.
—Joan Hong, Customer Service Representative

Not native to the planet Sevestere, the verthani are an offshoot of the Pure One sect that left Verces millennia ago to establish a home free of invasive magic and technology. Here, they’ve established a capital city of hundreds of thousands, all working together toward a peaceful—yet controlled—society free of the bonds of magic and tech. Near the equator is a massive, stationary cyclone of energy 1,000 miles wide known as the Clashenmere, the only area on the planet where magic functions. Within the vortex, life is destroyed, and ships are torn apart. A 20-mile wide rim of dark clouds and lightning-filled skies circling the Clashenmere marks the territory of the hanakan, a race of magic-using creatures that are survivors of a failed teleportation several hundred years ago. They seek to build a magical craft capable of departing the planet or a portal that will return them to their home world; their disdain of technology-powered ships has kept them marooned here. The most well-known danger on Sevestere are mountain eels, which in addition to residing in the numerous mountains of the planet are also numerous around the Clashenmere. The most dangerous creatures on the planet are rumored to be the hallajins, though their purpose for being here is as mysterious as ever.
—Jim Butler, VP of Marketing & Licensing

Strange bedfellows, the magical hanakans and the technological verthani, yet they made their peace on the world of Herris deep in the Vast. Grudging acceptance of each other’s talents allowed both civilizations to flourish briefly on the sedate and resource-rich planet, but ultimately their incompatible natures meant that they could not come to each other’s aid when the hallajin arrived. The hallajin seemed to be trying to make contact, but any such contact caused tremendous psychic pain and usually resulted in the one contacted losing their mind. The hallajin prevented anyone from leaving the planet, though it isn’t known whether or not doing so was with intent. The last joint act of the two societies on the planet was to erect a beacon, broadcasting both magically and technologically, warning all who approach to stay away. Some may choose to ignore the warning, but at their own peril.
—Glenn Elliott, Program Manager

Not every civilizations attempt at drift implementation is successful, and this world is a living example of the consequences of failure. Regardless of the claims on how the accident began a massive storm now rages around the world's initial drift experiment. Pockets of reality are consumed by the storm as creatures from beyond imagining spill forth in their place. Of the expeditions sent in to shut down the experiment, only a single group has returned. The team confirmed that their world is being siphoned into the drift, but also had stories of a fiery hellscape erupting around them during their exploration. This only served to reinforce a recently popularized theory: the planets core itself is slowly being phased into the drift as its mantle destabilizes.
—Erik Keith, QA Engineer

In the early days of verthani space travel a group of Pure Ones settled this world, where they could be free of technology once they dismantled the ship that brought them. No one knows if the beacon summoned them, or if they found it, but for generations it provided for them. Eventually the hanakans came, claiming a voice they worshipped for as long as they remembered told them it needed them here. And finally, the storms began. Strange lighting bombarded the beacon for days and ghostly beings flittered around it. Then everything stopped, the storms, the beacon, the creatures. For a short time, things returned to normal. But now the land tears itself apart as it moves, shifting to form itself around the beacon. The stars and constellations move in the sky. The past and future collide in temporal distortions. And the beacon sits at the center of everything.
—Diego Valdez, Customer Service Representative

Two separate expeditions have been dispatched to investigate this odd world, dubbed “The Font”. Its namesake physical feature is an enormous fountain of ionizing radiation shooting from the core of the planet directly away from the system’s star, into deep space. A contingent of hanakans are currently en route via their new experimental “Gate-Thrower” magical vessel. The hanakans have lodged an official complaint indicating their belief that this planet is home to their legendary “Ssssithhh’sssthek Temple” and is forbidden to all other species. However, a verthani science expedition recently arrived with intentions of investigating and possibly harnessing the fantastic power output of the Font. They reported bizarre and ancient alien ruins riddled with mountain eels. As they got closer and closer to the font itself, the reports became more and more fantastic, erratic, and nonsensical, before ceasing entirely.
—Cosmo Eisele, Sales Associate

Hanakans and Verthani have worked together for centuries, combining their innate magical ability and advanced cybernetics acumen towards all manner of legendary magitech that propelled their shared culture to new heights. In a great college, their brightest and most capable worked tirelessly on a new invention - a magitech vision portal that would permit them to see the future and change it to suit their whims. Unfortunately, their invention backfired and exploded, consuming the college and its occupants and opening a massive trans-dimensional rift to all corners of the galaxy. Hallajin, mountain eels, and many other dangerous creatures immediately began pouring through the rift, and within a few short months the planet was largely overrun. Now, the remnants of the once-proud hanakan/verthani civilization are locked in a desperate struggle to survive - and just maybe to figure out a way to reverse the portal that remains open to this day.
—Brian Bauman, Software Developer

Clearly what we have here is an advanced magical society that foresaw a future in which the planet's oceans were decimated, proactively created a complex planet-spanning arcane apparatus to preserve and protect them, and inadvertently triggered a global cataclysm that forced the world's aquatic and land-dwelling life to switch habitats, obviously resulting in mass extinctions for any species not already living near a coastline. Unless you're trying to tell me "mountain eels" were already a thing.
—Andrew White, Front-End Engineering Lead

It took less than a day for the first seven worlds to end.

Before these seven planetary deaths, before the Material Plane began its storied journey through the Ages, the gods had not conceived that one of their own would wreak such ruin. The mortal realm, after all, was intended to be a place for the faithful of all divinities to learn and grow. Why, then, would a deity seek to destroy what was meant to be for all? In those early times before days were days, it could be said that even the gods were naive.

The glories and horrors of the outer sphere had long since coalesced into the nine outer planes after Pharasma’s First Walk. The Inner Sphere remained empty of mortal life for some time, a blank slate that increasingly drew the curiosity of countless divine imaginations. The raising of the First World was a wise choice, for it allowed the gods to practice the complexities of creation, to rework and rewrite, and to finally settle on a method for the crafting of the Myriad on the Material Plane.

When they turned to the dark universe at the heart of the Inner Sphere, there were already inhabitants—entities left over from other realities, but they were few and far between and seemed content to slumber. The gods kept them in mind as they turned their attention to the Work and were ready to react should these Outer Gods take note of their creations.

The Speakers of the Depths could hardly be concerned with aiding the work, but neither did they oppose the act of bringing order from chaos within the Inner Sphere, and in such act, they provided what aid they could. Desna lit the stars, so that their light could reach the skies of the Myriad. Sarenrae gave life to the suns of those countless worlds where creation would begin. Ihys and Asmodeus, not yet bickering brothers, set to work creating the first mortal frames. Achaekek stood sentinel at the edge of the Spire, an impartial arbiter to oversee reality’s spread. And the Bound Prince waited in the darkest place to welcome mortal death into the world.

And when all was set in place, Pharasma touched the source of the River of Souls and began the flow of mortal life into all worlds. Rovagug, the Rough Beast, who had busied himself with the eternal task of burrowing through the Outer Rifts, took note. He crawled from the rifts, scaled the Spire, and leapt from its edge to hurtle across the Silver Sea. He cracked the Elemental Shell and invaded the Material Plane and gloried in the banquet before him. He consumed seven worlds before they saw their first sunsets but found the food flavorless. Worlds without names... worlds without histories... worlds without anything to lose were unsatisfying to the Rough Beast, and he did not fight hard when the gods, aghast at the destructive assault, drove him back to the Outer Rifts. Desna raised Sevenfold Cynosure as a memorial to the first seven worlds destroyed, and the gods vowed upon its steps that, should the Rough Beast return, so too would they return to face him again.

Much took place during that first age—the Age of Creation. New gods like Calistria and Dou-Bral, Torag and Gorum, or Dahak and Apsu rose and began the creation of their own domains. Life grew and evolved within the Material Plane, and in time, so did sapience. At first, the most intelligent of life consisted either of intrusions from elsewhere, such as the visitations of the xiomorns upon many worlds, or the spread of alghollthu through the darkened seas they had always ruled. But in time, mortals themselves discovered faith and free will, and sapience became the spark that would burn the Age of Creation to ash.

It was this spark that compelled Asmodeus to betray his brother Ihys, who had encouraged the flow of free will through these hungry mortal minds. War spread as the rift between Asmoedus and Ihys grew, and the first true conflict amid the gods saw death and devastation on a scale the Great Beyond had never endured. Asmodeus’s murder of Ihys would bring the war to an end, but not in a way any could predict, for that final act would have repercussions. It was this betrayal that drew Rovagug’s attention back to reality as well. As the Great Beyond reeled from war, Rovagug slipped unseen back into the Material Plane and fed upon the world upon which Asmodeus had first lured and then slain Ihys. The Rough Beast reveled in the flavor of a planet that died screaming, its inhabitants agonizing at their apocalypse, and so from world to world did Rovagug move, feeding and destroying with impunity.

illustration by Igor Grechanyi

In these final eons of the Age of Creation, the gods suffered. Groetus rose above the Boneyard for the first time. Achaekek went mad and consumed his own impartiality to become little more than a mindless beast for many eons to follow. The Bound Prince gnawed upon the despairing souls from those planetary apocalypses and became the First Horseman. And Rovagug continued to feed, slouching from world to world and leaving cataclysms in his wake. As world after world died, devastation undid what the gods had wrought. It was Sarenrae who finally took note, who called upon the gods to honor their ancient vow, who begged them to join her again on the steps of Sevenfold Cynosure. Many, but not all, responded, but at the final moment, even Asmodeus returned, perhaps hopeful to make amends for his act, or perhaps seeing yet another opportunity for personal gain.

A new alliance was born that day as Rovagug turned his attention toward three different worlds—Androffa, Golarion, Earth—and as his actions began devastations therein, the gods began the work that would end the Age of Creation. Wily Calistria distracted Rovagug from his feast, sparing the three worlds and focusing his gaze around the least of them—Golarion, a younger world than its two imperiled sisters. Torag and Gorum toiled together under Pharasma’s guidance within Golarion to craft the Dead Vault, a demiplane metaphysically nested within that could hold the Rough Beast. Abadar provided the perfect key and lock to hold the prison shut, a key so cunning in construction that only Asmodeus could turn it. Dou-Bral placed the Star Towers around Golarion and poised to strike when the time was right. And when the Dead Vault was complete, Calistria lured Rovagug into the trap. There, he was ambushed by Sarenrae and Desna, Apsu and Dahak, Erastil and Gozreh, and many more who would fall in battle to Rovagug’s jaws and be forgotten forever. But as Rovagug stepped fully into the trap, Sarenrae cut open the world and dealt Rovagug a crippling blow, sending the Rough Beast hurtling into the Dead Vault. Dou-Bral woke the Star Towers, and they lanced into the world, stitching Golarion shut and piercing Rovagug within, stunning the rough beast long enough for Asmodeus to turn the key in the lock.

And with that, the young world of Golarion became the Cage. The Age of Creation ended, and the Ages that Followed began. And as long as the Cage continues to spin, as long as the Rough Beast remains within, may those Ages never again falter and die.

About the Author

James Jacobs is the Creative Director for Pathfinder. While he was there at the beginning of Golarion’s creation, many of the deities worshiped by that world’s heroes and villains had already existed for decades before. Goddesses and gods like Desna and Rovagug, Sarenrae and Abadar, Achaekek and Zon-Kuthon first established their faithful among PCs and NPCs alike in James’s home campaign in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Sharing them with the world as deities of the Pathfinder setting, seeing players and creators come to love and hate them (and in some cases cosplay as them), has been a career highlight.

About the Windsong Testaments

On the northern reaches of Varisia’s Lost Coast stands Windsong Abbey, a forum for interfaith discussion tended by priests of nearly twenty faiths and led by a legacy of Masked Abbesses. At the dawn of the Age of Lost Omens, Windsong Abbey suffered as its faithful fought and fled, but today it has begun to recover. A new Masked Abbess guides a new flock within, and the Windsong Testaments—parables about the gods themselves—are once again being recorded within the abbey’s walls. Some of these Testaments are presented here as Golarion’s myths and fables. Some parts may be true. Other parts are certainly false. Which ones are which is left to the faithful to decide.