A Riddle Wrapped in Mystery

Friday, November 18, 2016

Illustration by Gintas Galvanauskas

Villain Codex is here! This week we're unveiling some of the hidden secrets of the last five remaining enigmatic organizations. Each one has its own mysteries and hidden agendas, either hiding in the shadows or in plain sight beneath another facade.

Secret Society

What could be more of an embodiment of secretive villain groups than a literal secret society? The group in this chapter maintains the facade of a harmless secret club for the wealthy and influential to engage in wild parties, but underneath is something far more sinister. Let's see if the High Talon, the group's official recruiter, can convince you to join the inner circle:

"Everyone who's anyone is, or was, a member, darling. I'm so glad you accepted our open invitation. We've had our minds on you for quite some time, you see, waiting for you to grow into the handsome young thing you've become. Now, see before you this quivering lowlife. Oh, yes, you once considered him your friend, I know. You must be pained to see him debased this way before you. But such is the natural order of things. He is weak, and you are strong. Do not consider this creature a person any longer. It is a base animal, and it is only right that you treat it as such. Show us exactly what such a simpering beast deserves. That's it! Yes, it's cowering now, so you can take your foot off its throat—it's already lost and the hunt hasn't even begun. Oh, we're going to have so much fun, my young friend. Take this—mind how sharp it is—a claw for you, my beauty, a claw to catch a mouse. See how it runs."

That's right, in secret, the society engages in hunts for the most dangerous game. But with a twist: these ailurophiles use magic to transform their victims into humanoid mice while hunting them in cat masks.

As the ritual commences, you can see the child leader of the organization, the Grand Dam, sitting on her throne. The society has three leaders: the High Sire, High Tom, and Grand Malkin. The High Sire is the Master of the Hunt and keeper of the Great Black Sphynx, the society's sacred beast and focus of many of its internal rites. The High Tom is Master of the Lodge, the public face of the society, and its primary vector of recruitment, propaganda, and internal control. The Grand Malkin is the Master of the Rites and holder of its occult mysteries and arcane methods. Despite having passed on several years ago, the Grand Malkin still jealously clings to power: his phantom is tethered to his granddaughter, known as the Grand Dam. The Grand Malkin's guidance has helped the Grand Dam become a powerful spiritualist early in life, and though he's a shade of his former self, he retains extensive knowledge of the society and guides the Grand Dam in the details of the society's tenets, organization, and sacred rituals.

Grand Dam

The Grand Dam is the anchor by which the Grand Malkin, a dead sorcerer, jealously clings to his leadership of the society.

Grand Dam CR 12

XP 19,200

Female young human spiritualist (haunted) 13 (Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures 72, 110)

NE Small humanoid (human)

Init +2; Senses Perception +6

Defense

AC 23, touch 13, flat-footed 21 (+6 armor, +2 Dex, +4 shield, +1 size)

hp 90 (13d8+28)

Fort +9, Ref +8, Will +16 (+4 vs. mind-affecting effects)

Defensive Abilities greater spiritual interference

Illustration by Daniel Lopez

Offense

Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (good)

Melee mwk kukri +9/+4 (1d3-2/18-20)

Spell-Like Abilities (CL 13th; concentration +23)

At will—detect undead

2/day—calm spirit^OA (DC 13)

1/day—see invisibility (10 min)

Spells Known (CL 13th; concentration +23)

5th (2/day)—dominate person (DC 21), shadow evocation (DC 23), telekinesis

4th (4/day)—entrap spirit^OA (DC 20), greater invisibility, phantasmal killer (DC 22), possession^OA (DC 20), shadow conjuration

3rd (5/day)—bestow curse (DC 19), ectoplasmic snare^OA (DC 19), fly, riding possession^OA, slow (DC 19), vampiric touch

2nd (7/day)—detect thoughts (DC 18), false life, invisibility, life pact^ACG, pilfering hand^UC, spectral hand

1st (7/day)—compel hostility^UC, obscuring mist, protection from law, psychic reading^OA, sanctuary (DC 17), shield, ventriloquism (DC 19)

0 (at will)—detect psychic significance^OA, mage hand, message, open/close (DC 16), read magic, telekinetic projectile^OA

Tactics

Before Combat The Grand Dam casts false life on herself and the Grand Malkin each day, and she casts fly and shield before summoning the Grand Malkin.

Base Statistics Without her spells in effect, the Grand Dam's statistics are hp 75 (13d8+13); AC 19, flat-footed 17; Skills Fly +11.

Statistics

Str 6, Dex 15, Con 10, Int 14, Wis 22, Cha 10

Base Atk +9; CMB +6; CMD 18

Feats Emotional Conduit^OA, Focused Phantom^OA, Greater Spell Focus (illusion), Phantom Fortification^OA, Shared Soul^OA, Skill Focus (Appraise, Bluff), Spell Focus (illusion), Spiritualist's Call^OA, Toughness

Skills Appraise +10, Bluff +22, Disguise +10, Fly +21, Knowledge (arcana, planes) +18, Knowledge (nobility, religion) +10, Linguistics +6, Sense Motive +16, Spellcraft +10, Stealth +18, Use Magic Device +9

Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Ignan

SQ bonded senses (at will), etheric tether, fused consciousness, phantom (Grand Malkin, jealousy), phantom recall 2/day, shared consciousness 1/day

Gear +2 chain shirt, mwk kukri, cloak of resistance +2, hat of disguise, headband of inspired wisdom +4, society ring†, Book of the Black Sphynx (see below)

Grand Malkin

Male phantom (Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures 78)

NE Large outsider (phantom)

Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +15

Aura resentful aura (20 ft., DC 19)

Defense

AC 28, touch 14, flat-footed 23 (+5 Dex, +14 natural, -1 size)

hp 103 (10d10+48)

Fort +6, Ref +14, Will +9 (+4 morale vs. enchantment)

Defensive Abilities fortification 50%, invisibility; DR 10/magic and slashing

Offense

Speed 30 ft.

Melee 2 slams +16 (4d6+2)

Space 10 ft.; Reach 10 ft.

Tactics

During Combat The Grand Malkin manifests using teleplasmic surge, before usurping greater invisibility. He focuses retributive slams on enemies who dare attack him or the grand dam.

Base Statistics Without his usurped manifestation and spells, the Grand Malkin's statistics are Size Medium; AC 27, touch 15, flat-footed 22; hp 88; Fort +4, Ref +12, Will +7; Melee 2 slams +15 (3d6+1); Str 12; CMB +11; CMD 26; Skills Appraise +12, Bluff +21, Disguise +6, Fly +10, Intimidate +17, Knowledge (arcana) +12, Knowledge (nobility, planes, religion) +5, Linguistics +1, Perception +13, Sense Motive +13, Stealth +18.

Statistics

Str 14, Dex 20, Con 13, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 18

Base Atk +10; CMB +15; CMD 28

Feats Deceitful, Improved Initiative, Improved Natural Attack (slam), Power Attack, Toughness, Weapon Finesse

Skills Appraise +14, Bluff +23, Fly +10, Intimidate +19, Knowledge (arcana) +14, Knowledge (nobility, planes, religion) +7, Linguistics +3, Perception +15, Sense Motive +15, Stealth +36 (+56 when stationary)

Languages Abyssal, Common, Draconic, Ignan

SQ devotion, ectoplasmic phase lurch, jealous combatant, magic attacks, retribution (2d8), teleplasmic surge, usurp manifestation 16 rounds/day, usurp spell

The Grand Dam is the keeper of the Book of the Black Sphynx, which contains the occult rituals described in the New Rules section and grants a +2 competence bonus on those rituals' skill checks.

Carnival Troupe

"Step right up and see the world—yes, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy a show gathered from the disparate corners of the globe! For just a few shiny coins, see bravado and oddities heretofore unknown in your sleepy hamlet, too astonishing to speak of on public corners and within a sheriff's earshot! These canvas walls hide marvels beyond reckoning. Freakish forms cursed by nature! Toothsome young bodies guaranteed to delight! Within you'll find contortions and conjurations, mysteries and mesmerism, and sights to bewitch and delight! All that parts you from this life-changing extravaganza is the exchange of a cursory fee! Pay no attention, my friends, to hurtful rumors of malfeasance here. Our purpose is but to delight by bringing wonders, lessons, and dangers from across the lands to your profitable and trusting little community! Step right up and learn every conceivable meaning of awe!" —The ringmaster, as her eyes glow so hypnotically, so invitingly, so trustworthily…

Fang Monastery

A secret martial arts dojo hidden in the mountains where initiates must undergo rigorous physical and mental training? Sounds like part of a backstory for a PC monk, where the monk met a wise master and trained in secret techniques. But the Fang Monastery is more than just a training ground for martial arts; the First Fang is obsessed with the ancient empire of the serpentfolk and seeks nothing less than a return to a twisted order patterned off the serpentfolk of old.

Sinister Cult

What could be crazier than a secret cult so dedicated to the apocalypse that they worship daemons, or perhaps the Great Old Ones? Why, an apocalyptic cult that worships daemons and the Great Old Ones, of course! Of course, the Sinister Mastermind uses his powers of persuasion and raw charisma to delude the lower ranks who just want to belong from realizing this goal (yep, as the master of a cult, he's a cult master mesmerist!), but the upper echelons are full of insane prophets, daemonic agents, and more. Note the comedy mask on the front of the cult assassin's crossbow, the symbol of the cult. Once you have the book, if you look closely you can find one on each picture, and the Sinister Mastermind has the tragedy mask to complete the pair and usher in an incomprehensible tragedy.

Slayer's Guild

Speaking of assassins, last but not least is the slayer's guild, a religious order of assassins who believe in one simple truth: any assassination is just as long as it's paid for properly. There are assassins of all stripes, from those who use disguises to those who focus on beatdowns, from a vishkanya deadly courtesan (the second in command) to snipers of all stripes. The fact that several members use bows, like the ninja zen archer pictured below, means that they also have strong representation in the secret bonus groups (see below).

Illustrations by Ramon Puasa Jr., Richard Suwono, Bogdan Rezunenko, and Florian Stitz

Wait, did I just say secret bonus organizations? I sure did! In the back of the book, there are 22 write-ups of organizations that use members from across several of the chapters, either as an adventuring party of members all around the same level, a themed group, or a different sort of group entirely. Most of these are sort of alternate reality mix-ups of different ways to use the NPCs, like The Furies (and all-female adventuring group named for the erinyes), but some of my favorites are meta-groups that could exist in a world that contains all the groups in the book. For instance, the Legion of Dominion is a cabal of the most powerful villains in the book, banded together to help share information and protect against heroes by the Eminent Spellqueen, and the Chromatic College of the Atonal Arts is a bardic college where almost every faculty member is a secret recruiter, advocate, or spy for a different evil group. My favorite, however, is the Silent Oath, a sort of henchmen anonymous group, which I've included here to close out our final blog:

An order of minions working across various evil organizations, the Silence provides numerous benefits to its members, from a place to vent and share frustration at their overlords' demands to an avenue for the organizations to coordinate through even when their leaders are too publicly opposed to allow an official alliance. With the threat of retribution from their organizations' commanders, members swear a namesake oath of silence. The founder is a bearer who managed to find and reattune a number of society rings that the Secret Society had forgotten through the years. Other members include a cult librarian, the spellmaster, the stagecrafter, a shadowcaster, a fang monastery ascendant, the Renewer, a royal bureaucrat, and a guild operative.

I hope you enjoy Villain Codex as much as we enjoyed working on it!

Mark Seifter
Designer

Prepare to Raise Hell

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

I've got a lot of favorite parts of the Pathfinder campaign setting—if you've been following along for the last few years, there's a good chance you already know a few of them. Since we created the Pathfinder world, I've had a chance to explore the pits of Hell in the Book of the Damned, some of Golarion's mightiest treasures in Artifacts & Legends, and the gothic nightmare of Ustalav in both Rule of Fear and Pathfinder Tales: Bloodbound. But in all that time there hasn't been a good opportunity to fully detail my favorite of Golarion's countless organizations. With the Hell's Rebels and Hell's Vengeance Adventure Paths, though, that's changed. This month, at long last, you'll learn more than has ever been revealed about the Pathfinder world's most infamous champions of law: the Hellknights.

Illustrations by Roberto Pitturru

Since their first appearance in the Rise of the Runelords Player's Guide, Hellknights have been a part of the Pathfinder campaign setting. In those crazy frontier days of Golarion's creation, we didn't have all the setting's details fully defined. As a result, part of the goal of the player's guide for our first Adventure Path was to fake it. To that end, I wrote in a whole weave of loose ends, threads suggestive of places yet to be visited, threats without faces, and groups bound to be enemies or allies. One of these organizations—described among the ranks of paladins, if you can believe it!—were the Hellknights. There wasn't much more than a name for the group, but the grim title immediately stuck, so much so that we got our first glimpse of these dark armored crusaders as early as Pathfinder Adventure Path #2: The Skinsaw Murders.

Over time there'd be drips and drabs revealing more on the Hellknights, particularly in our campaign setting hardcovers and in two meaty articles I wrote for Pathfinder Adventure Path #27 and #28. Liane Merciel's newest novel, Pathfinder Tales: Hellknight, also has more than a little to do with these grim mercenaries. But beyond those books, there hasn't been a ton more on the relentless order. It's been too long.

The drought ends now.

Today presents the first of three previews of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Path of the Hellknight. While my name's on the book's cover as author, this title owes most of its coolest bits to star developers Amanda Hamon-Kunz and John Compton, who not just contributed a host of ingenious new player options, but made me sound like I know what's what. Creative Design Director Sarah Robinson also somehow managed to outdo herself once again, not just by wrangling incredible art, but by creating a gorgeous interior evocative of dark iron and bloody crimson. As for the content, today I'll show you a bit from the first chapter, a section that provides an overview of the Hellknights as a whole, the group's history, methods, philosophies, and the like. Throughout this series I'll also be showing off snippets and symbols of all seven of the major Hellknight orders, starting with the Order of the Chain and Order of the Gate.

Order without Mercy

Path of the Hellknight's first chapter focuses on the Hellknights as an organization, their history, their unyielding philosophy—the Measure and the Chain—and more of the traditions and trails that bind their distinct orders. There's also a fantastic piece of art depicting the Hellknights' founder, Daidian Rhul, along with details on his deeds and mysterious disappearance. The section also includes a discussion of what it means to play a Hellknight character. Being zealots, Hellknights are similar to paladins in some ways and bring with them some of the challenges one might expect with inflexible heroes. To that end, the section includes big picture advice for players and GMs alike planning to bring Hellknight characters into their games—such as the following.

Hellknight Philosophy at the Table: Hellknights seek to embody supreme order, refuse to compromise their ideals, and do everything they can to uphold their philosophies. People and circumstances that don't fit into their definition of order must be stamped out to meet their vision of progress. For some, this extends to whole religions, cultures, or philosophies. When making a character, discuss with your group whether a Hellknight character is right for your party—Hellknights and law-breaking characters are unlikely to work well together. Also, discuss with the group and GM how appropriate themes of intolerance are in your game. Behaving in ways that make other players uncomfortable simply because your character is a Hellknight is neither respectful nor fun. Consider that lawful neutral Hellknights of any order tend to focus on the harsh judgment of societal vices, while lawful good characters usually work at the organization's fringes, hunting down criminals and bringing justice to civilization's frontiers. Lawful evil members are the ones who tend to commit acts of prejudice and intolerance. Remember that every Hellknight order has members focused on different tasks, meaning that it's your choice whether your member of the Order of the Nail is either a righteous traveling judge or a vicious murderer—make the character that's right for your entire group.

Beyond this introduction chapter, the book spends considerable space focusing on the various Hellknight orders. Each section features details on the order's organization, philosophy, citadel, prominent members, tenets, suggested rules for Hellknight characters, and new options for Hellknight heroes and villains. Every one of these chapters begins with an overview of fundamental information, including rules elements that tie in with the new Hellknight Obedience feat—an option similar to Inner Sea Gods' Divine Obedience feat—which grants a host of new powers to an order's most fanatical members. All one has to do is take the feat... and perform an excruciating daily reckoning. I'll show off the reckonings here, but the powers themselves can wait for now.

Illustration by Daniel Lopez

After this first chapter, Path of the Hellknight turns its attention to each of the major Hellknight factions. For this first preview, here are a few glimpses of the Order of the Chain and the Order of the Gate.

Illustration by Damien Mammoliti

Order of the Chain

Symbol hand wrapped in chains
Headquarters Citadel Gheradesca, near Corentyn
Leader Lictor Uro Adom (LN male human fighter 5/Hellknight^ISWG 7)
Members guards, sleuths, trackers, victims of outlaws
Armor Features lock-and-chain design, manacle-like gauntlets, helms reminiscent of iron prisoners' masks
Favored Weapon flail
Reckoning Crush your limbs with tightened chains. Gain a +2 bonus on combat maneuver checks when attempting to disarm, grapple, or trip opponents.

The Order of the Chain counts among its ranks the greatest Hellknight bounty hunters and jailors. Believing that everyone has a vital role to play in society, the order seeks to remove those who irredeemably deny their place and who actively impede civilization's progress. Rather than slaying criminals and nonconformists outright, the Order of the Chain forces most of its captives into lengthy terms of service in work camps. The most dangerous malefactors are sequestered in the order's fortress-prison, Citadel Gheradesca. Few criminals surrender easily, and so members of the Order of the Chain train in a variety of fields: tracking, criminal psychology, investigation, and interrogation, to name a few. Little strikes greater dread in a lawbreaker than knowing she's become a Hellknight of the Chain's quarry.

Along with details on the structure and fugitive hunting techniques of the group, players of Order of the Chain Hellknights can also expect a variety of new rules and uses for restraints, from fetters and iron masks to new uses for common manacles.

Illustration by Damien Mammoliti

Order of the Gate

Symbol infernal eye staring out from a swirling portal
Headquarters Citadel Enferac, east of Pezzack
Leader Vicarius Giordano Torchia (LE male human wizard 11/Hellknight^ISWG 2)
Members devil worshipers, intellectuals, planar-blooded outcasts, spellcasters
Armor Features helm with a vortex-like pattern, crimson robes
Favored Weapon dagger
Reckoning Etch complex symbols of penitence into your flesh with a dagger. Gain a +4 bonus on Will saving throws to resist divination spells and spell-like abilities.

Punishment is a response to the failure of law. To the members of the Order of the Gate, true order can be achieved only when criminal behavior is quelled before it is committed—preferably before it is even considered. The Order of the Gate doesn't seek to convince every free-willed creature of a lawful society's virtues, because its members believe that forces stronger than rhetoric must be used to prevent the sickness of criminal impulse. Thus, the Order of the Gate employs magic to enforce its vision of law.

Would-be Order of the Gate Hellknights can look forward to learning a measure of this spellcasting order's secrets, including invasive new scrying techniques, methods for shielding spellcasters, and the order's connections to planes beyond.

Keep on the lookout for more previews of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Path of the Hellknight, as I'll be covering the rest of the major Hellknight orders soon, along with plenty more glimpses of the dreads to come.

Thanks for reading!

F. Wesley Schneider
Editor-in-Chief

Illustration by Mattias Fahlberg

Hey, Who Turned Out the Lights?

Thursday, February 18, 2016

It had been a few years since we returned the classic "Revisited" line of Pathfinder Campaign Setting sourcebooks, so we were really excited to delve into the depths beneath the Inner Sea in Darklands Revisited. All we had to do was narrow down what ten monsters we were going to feature in the book—a scary proposition indeed!

In the end, we left out some favorites, in part because they're all our favorites, but also because we love them so much that they might get books of their own someday. What we landed on was a nice mix of classic subterranean foes like drow and duergar; pillars of the science fiction and fantasy genres like morlocks and gugs; icons from the game's history like intellect devourers, neothelids, and vegepygmies; and two monsters introduced to the game in Pathfinder—daemon-worshiping urdefhans and their good-aligned nemeses, the psychic munavri.

It's rare that a single author tackles an entire 64-page Pathfinder Campaign Setting book, but we were lucky to get the veteran Canadian, Thurston Hillman, to put down his poutine and curling broom long enough to breathe life and adventurous inspiration into all ten creatures detailed in Darklands Revisited. The result is one of the most exciting Pathfinder Campaign Setting books I've had the pleasure of working on. I think Game Masters and players alike are going to love this book.

Illustrations by Jon Neimeister, Daniel Lopez, and Dave Allsop

Check out some of the awesome art that brings the Darklands and their deep-dwelling denizens to life! Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Darklands Revisited invades the surface world next Wednesday.

Mark Moreland
Developer

It's a Fight to the Finish!

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Bestiary 5 is creeping, crawling, slithering, and sneaking its way to you soon—it's time for some previews! But we're gonna shake things up a bit, and give you the opportunity to choose what you want to see, not to mention a chance to win a signed copy of Bestiary 5 when it releases!

If any of you have been to PaizoCon and had a chance to play "Green Blood on a Black Rock", you'll have a great idea of what to expect in this elimination-style event. All of these creatures are brand new, unseen in any of our other books—but this time, we're leaving the choice of which ones you'll get the details on to you! As each round progresses, we'll reveal more information, starting with their name and a full picture.

With that out of the way, let's get ready to rumble, and meet our contestants!

Aberration vs. Monstrous Humanoid, Animal vs. Plant

Our Aberration would love to sit down and think about deep, meaningful topics with you, and our Monstrous Humanoid would love to have a long shuffle on the ocean beach, and it's flora and fauna puttin' up their dukes, and who's gonna win this one: small and fierce, or cute and cuddly?

Construct vs. Outsider A, Dragon vs. Outsider B

Will this crafted being be able to conquer a creature formed from the very fabric of existence, and this is no ordinary Dragon that the Outsider will be facing—but this Outsider has powers at its command that even dragons should fear!

Fey vs. Undead, Humanoid vs. Outsider C

Clearly our Fey might just like to have a good time—will they set the glass down long enough to face against this ferocious four-legged Undead? Mortal pit against immortal: who will win? The candle that burns twice as bright, but half as long, or the embodiment of endless and immutable forces?

Magical Beast A vs. Magical Beast B, Ooze vs. Vermin

We're pitting these two Magical Beasts against each other—time to see who really can conquer mind over matter! I'm pretty sure if you dipped our Vermin in the Ooze, it might make a tasty tempura treat...but I don't think they'd like that much!

What are you waiting for? Place your bets in the voting booth and give yourself a chance to win a signed copy of Bestiary 5—as well as a chance to receive one of four Bestiary 5 PDFs! The first round of voting closes at 12:00 PM Pacific time on October 28, 2015, and remember, each round will give you more chances to win!

Vote Now!

Illustrations by Rogier van de Beek, Alexandru Sabo, and Daniel López

And because I know you've all been super-patient for some art, I'm gonna whet your appetites with a trio of goodies that caught my attention (I blame Diablo III).

Until next week,

Liz Courts
Community Manager