Pathfinder Legends: A Visual Companion

Sunday, April 6, 2014

Right after the debut Pathfinder Legends full-cast audio drama was released, my wife and I got stuck in an unexpected traffic snarl (which shouldn't have been too surprising, living in Seattle, and all). To kill the time, I put on the CD, and my wife—Shelyn bless her—obliged me by listening. It didn't take very long before she was getting into the story and following closely. There were a few instances when she made me pause playback, however, so that I could explain what certain locations, creatures, and characters looked like. It hit me then that not everyone listening to Pathfinder Legends may play Pathfinder or be familiar with some of the fantasy tropes that those of us who've been playing D&D or variants thereof for decades can sometimes take for granted. One of the reasons the audio drama is so captivating is that it doesn't include a lot of exposition dumps or narration, meaning some of the physical descriptions one might expect in a novel or RPG experience just aren't there.

Thus, I put together this quick visual guide for listeners new to the Pathfinder universe to aid you in acclimating to some of the elements encountered in Burn Offerings. The following images and descriptions could be considered a spoiler, so if you aren't familiar with the Burnt Offerings story, I recommend scrolling down the page as you're listening to the audio drama.

First up we have the town of Sandpoint, where the adventure begins. This is a settlement of about 1,200 people in the nation of Varisia, in a coastal wilderness region known as the Lost Coast.


Illustration by Noah Bradley

Among the personalities the heroes encounter during the Swallowtail Festival are Mayor Kendra Deverin, Sheriff Belor Hemlock, and Lonjiku Kaijitsu (all pictured below).


Illustration by Andrew Hou and Maichol Quinto

Lonjiku's daughter, Ameiko, has a prominent role in the adventure, serving as their hostess at the Rusty Dragon, Sandpoint's finest inn and tavern (she appears on the cover of the third Pathfinder Legends release, The Hook Mountain Massacre). Her half-brother, Tsuto, also makes an appearance. It's pretty clear from the dialogue in the audio drama that he's a half-elf—here's what he looks like.


Illustration by Eric Belisle

One of my wife's most pressing questions toward the end of the adventure was, “what's a bugbear?” The character Bruthazmus plays a large role in the adventure's conclusion, as does his boss, Nualia Tobyn. They're both depicted here. He's a large-yet-sneaky goblinoid (bugbear), while she's a demon-tainted human with angelic ancestry (making her both beautiful and ugly at the same time).


Illustration by Eric Belisle and Eva Widermann

That should take you right up to the adventure's end. Does having images to accompany the audio heighten your listening experience? We can't add visuals to the audio itself, but if this is the sort of thing listeners like, we may make a habit of this sort of blog for future Pathfinder Legends releases. Comment on this blog and let us know your thoughts, both about this visual companion as well as Pathfinder Legends in general.

Mark Moreland
Developer

More Paizo Blog.
Tags: Andrew Hou Eric Belisle Eva Widermann Maichol Quinto Noah Bradley Rise of the Runelords

I thought Ameiko was the one on the cover of the third adventure (Hook Mountain Massacre).

Dark Archive

Bob790 wrote:
I thought Ameiko was the one on the cover of the third adventure (Hook Mountain Massacre).

That is Merisiel, the iconic rogue.

Ameiko is on the covers of The Brinewall Legacy and The Empty Throne.


Being blind the visuals don't really help me out, but I think adding some relevant art in a blog would be a grand idea.


Justin Sluder wrote:
Bob790 wrote:
I thought Ameiko was the one on the cover of the third adventure (Hook Mountain Massacre).

That is Merisiel, the iconic rogue.

Ameiko is on the covers of The Brinewall Legacy and The Empty Throne.

Looks like the same person to me but I'll take your word for it.


Bob790 wrote:
Justin Sluder wrote:
Bob790 wrote:
I thought Ameiko was the one on the cover of the third adventure (Hook Mountain Massacre).

That is Merisiel, the iconic rogue.

Ameiko is on the covers of The Brinewall Legacy and The Empty Throne.

Looks like the same person to me but I'll take your word for it.

I think that Justin was referring to the AP's cover, not the cover currently showing for the as-yet unreleased audio book.

-TimD


TimD wrote:
Bob790 wrote:
Justin Sluder wrote:
Bob790 wrote:
I thought Ameiko was the one on the cover of the third adventure (Hook Mountain Massacre).

That is Merisiel, the iconic rogue.

Ameiko is on the covers of The Brinewall Legacy and The Empty Throne.

Looks like the same person to me but I'll take your word for it.
I think that Justin was referring to the AP's cover, not the cover currently showing for the as-yet unreleased audio book.

Given that he was telling me I was wrong. What I was refering to is, perhaps, more important. Either way, Ameiko is not on the cover of either version of The Skinsaw Murders. (Which this blog claims she is - hence my original correction.)

And given that this was a blog about the audio-plays, I figured most people would assume that was more relevant than the original AP.


Clicking on Lonjiku's image just links me to the skyline.


Bob 790 wrote:

Given that he was telling me I was wrong. What I was refering to is, perhaps, more important. Either way, Ameiko is not on the cover of either version of The Skinsaw Murders. (Which this blog claims she is - hence my original correction.)

And given that this was a blog about the audio-plays, I figured most people would assume that was more relevant than the original AP.

But you referred to "the cover of the third adventure" which many people would think of as the AP book itself. In other words, it could be said that the original book is the adventure, the audio-play is a dramatization of the adventure.


Lost In Limbo wrote:
Bob 790 wrote:

Given that he was telling me I was wrong. What I was refering to is, perhaps, more important. Either way, Ameiko is not on the cover of either version of The Skinsaw Murders. (Which this blog claims she is - hence my original correction.)

And given that this was a blog about the audio-plays, I figured most people would assume that was more relevant than the original AP.

But you referred to "the cover of the third adventure" which many people would think of as the AP book itself. In other words, it could be said that the original book is the adventure, the audio-play is a dramatization of the adventure.
True. I'll grant you that although the article this was in reply to says
Mark Moreland wrote:
(she appears on the cover of the second adventure in the series, The Skinsaw Murders)

So it seemed reasonable to suggest a correction using the same terms. If I'd realised there were enough people capable of forgetting the content and context of an article by the time they reached the comments section, I would have been clearer.

Paizo Employee Developer

Ack! That's my error. Ameiko appears on the cover of the third installment of the Rise of the Runelords Pathfinder Legends series, "The Hook Mountain Massacre." And on the cover of the Pathfinder Adventure Path volume, "The Brinewall Legacy." I'll see about getting that corrected in the blog tomorrow when there are folks in the office who can make such an adjustment. Sorry for the confusion.

Dark Archive

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Bob, we are both wrong and right. I was talking about the adventures, while you meant the audio books. So let's just agree that we are both correct, and that it's all Mark's fault. ;)


Justin, I agree, you were right and so was I. I knew that from the start, I was trying to clarify and dug myself further into a hole.

Still, no harm done.


I've always wished there was an illustration of Ameiko in her role as proprietor of the Rusty Dragon, as opposed to that (very nice) one of Ameiko as an adventurer.

Silver Crusade

I enjoyed it. Wish it was longer.

Sovereign Court

I like this kind of blog, it makes sense for Paizo and Big Finish to think beyond the Paizonauts.

You might even include a pdf of images with the audio files, and a range of images in the CD sleeve.

---

Just a thing about phrasing: I think you should leave room for the listener's imagination and avoid being didactic.

Phrases like 'this is how we depicted her' and 'this is our artwork for him' gives license for readers/listeners to use their imagination and take the art as a starting point or inspiration, or even to reject it for a superior mental image of their own.

I know the blog isn't mind control and people can do that anyway, but Paizo is the authoritative voice and language can affect us all.

Paizo Employee Chief Technical Officer

NoncompliAut wrote:
Clicking on Lonjiku's image just links me to the skyline.

Fixed.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I know it's splitting hairs, but I am more partial to the artist's style that was used for Tsuto and Nualia from the first edition of RotRL. I don't remember who that was right now.
Also was partial to the original look of Belor Hemlock.

On the other hand, I like the newer image of Bruthazmus - he seems for more menacing there. In the first edition, he looked more like a big goblin.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

Callum wrote:
I've always wished there was an illustration of Ameiko in her role as proprietor of the Rusty Dragon, as opposed to that (very nice) one of Ameiko as an adventurer.

That pretty much IS how she dresses in her role as proprietor of the Rusty Dragon, in fact. Remember, a big part of that place is that it's designed to appeal to adventurers, and the fact that she's an adventurer herself is kinda the point.


Now that I'm really diggin' the legends series yes!Appreciate having a visual blog like this one. My suggestion is to include visuals geared more for non-gamers such as the aforementioned bugbears,in the case of skinsaw (#2 audio now available),visuals for the manticore & ghouls & revenant (better if they include the characters such as a battle scene).

A behind the scene interviews how the audio was made would be great just like what you do with the other paizo products. It would be a bonus if you are able to do interviews from the voice actors & actresses sorta like those bonus materials you get from dvd movies.

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