“Don’t play near the water by yourself or the kushtaka will get you!”

“Don’t wander into the trees by yourself or you’ll be taken by the little-men-in-the-woods!”

Samo had heard such warnings her entire life, repeated in fireside tales and stories told to pass the hours when her people left the summer fishing camps to travel to their inland lodges closer to Icemark’s caribou herds for the winter. Samo was spirit-touched, born with the mark of the elk, an angel’s golden eyes, and unusual insight. The cautionary stories always seemed to be directed at her, specifically, when it was her father’s turn to tell the tales, as though her gifts would be more likely to lead her astray than the other children. Perhaps there was some merit to that worry.

It wasn’t that she didn’t believe the stories on that summer day when she crept down to the shoreline by herself. Her father and uncles had been gone for several weeks now, taking her grandmother to Seer’s Home, where the elderly woman would live out the rest of her days among the Varki elders, now that her aged hips and back could no longer handle the nomadic migrations between fishing camps and hunting lodges. Samo wanted to be the first to greet her father on his return, and she was twelve years old now, nearly an adult by her reckoning, and she was accustomed to the little spirits warning her of dangers before others ever became aware of them.

Thus, it was particularly surprising when a cold, slimy paw wrapped in dank fur clutched her from behind, covering her mouth. Her screams were completely muffled, and all she could do was struggle in terror as she realized what had grabbed her: a kushtaka! Part man, part otter, the soulless creatures would drag her back to their village where they would cast her soul from her body and transform her into one of them! Worse yet, there were nearly twenty of the fearsome creatures quietly slipping from the waters around her. An entire kushtaka raiding party had come, doubtless here to take the encampment and disappear with them before anyone could so much as raise an alarm.

Despite all the terror she already felt, Samo discovered that things could still get worse. For every kushtaka that slipped from the waves, the insubstantial, sad-eyed form of a human walked beside them. Among the lost souls, she saw her father and uncles. Thrashing desperately, Samo thrust her small hand out towards her father’s spirit, and the ghostly figure reached out to her in response. As their fingertips brushed, it felt like lightning struck.

The kushtaka holding Samo screamed in agony, the sound finally awakening the people in the nearby fishing camp. Her father’s ghostly figure was nowhere to be seen, but the monster’s body changed and contorted, its otter’s fangs and fur falling away as its bones stretched to reveal her father’s features.

Samo used the opportunity to run towards the camp, where she snatched up one of the nets laced with dog bone that had been left there to repel just such an incursion. Dashing towards the kushtaka, she saw the spirits of the lost Varki moving to aid her, and she swung the net about, pulling the spirits together with the soulless bodies that had once belonged to them, triggering transformations like the one that had happened with her father. The sounds and cries of battle finally drew the rest of the village to her side, and Varki men and women with spears and daggers did what they could to fend the remaining kushtaka away while herding as many as they could towards Samo and her net.

Though over half of the kushtaka escaped back into the waves, Samo managed to save her father, her uncles, and a handful of other Varki from neighboring encampments. As Samo’s people gathered around, her father knelt down before her. “You do not belong here anymore, beloved. Your gifts must be nurtured by those who understand them.”

Samo, the iconic animist. Art by Wayne Reynolds.

Samo joined her grandmother at Seer’s Home and helped care for the Varki elders there while they taught her everything they knew of her people’s legends, traditions, and magic. In her early twenties she had a brief, passionate love with a handsome young man named Nankou who also resided at Seer’s Home for a time, but their duties called them apart more often than they drew them together.

Samo’s ability to see what others could not made her into a healer and counselor, the person others called on when they suspected that unusual events were the doings of unquiet spirits. When fires raged, she spoke to the spirits of flame and calmed them. When people disappeared along the coastline, she would accompany the hunters who sought out the kushtaka villages hidden nearby, speaking to the apparitions that dwelt in the rivers and ocean waves to help guide them to those enclaves of lost souls.

It seemed to Samo that hardly any time at all had passed between that day on the beach where she returned her father and uncles from the kushtaka and the day when she looked into a small hand mirror and realized that many silver strands now danced amid the raven-wing black of her hair. Where had the days gone? Samo did not regret her service, but she envied the stories she heard of her old friend Nankou and his adventures slaying linnorms and rescuing would-be heroes.

One night, Samo sat amid the grove of Seer’s Home. Her grandmother had passed almost twenty years before, but the woman’s spirit still lingered in that peaceful grove, appearing to Samo’s eyes as a majestic elk woven from the leaves and grasses of the grove itself. That evening, they conversed as they had so many times before, but unlike those previous occasions, their conversation was interrupted by a spectacular and terrifying sight.

Two great figures battled in the sky, gods of the southern lands. One, covered in armored spikes, was struck down, his body ripped asunder. As red and silver droplets rained from the sky, Samo’s spiritual sight and physical sight crashed together.

As the god died above, she saw another battle: a powerful young man from a distant land fighting a fearsome demonic owl, until both were struck by the droplets of falling god-blood. The twined pair were spun a great distance through the air until Samo’s spirit sight faded and she saw that they were both truly there, in the flesh, crashing to the ground on Icemark’s shores.

A Calling thrummed within her. She knew this was a moment where all that she was and all that she had learned would be tested, when her choices and actions would determine not just the future of Icemark, but perhaps that of all the Inner Sea. Perhaps more.

She dashed to her home, and pulled on her well-used armor of bone, hide, and driftwood. She slid her clan hat down over her antlers, so that whoever she met would know that they faced a Varki woman of standing and power. Her grandmother’s apparition flowed into her, filling her with the peaceful magic of healing and quiet places.

Moving swiftly towards the shoreline and the fallen figures, her grandmother’s thoughts echoed her own. Let us go, the women thought. This Calling is for us, this time is ours, and whatever may happen next, the world will know the power of the women of the north.

Michael Sayre (he/him)
Director of Rules & Lore

Samo’s class, the animist, appears in Pathfinder War of Immortals alongside the exemplar class and tons of mythic options for characters of all classes. Follow the events of the Godsrain—the deific cataclysm of Gorum’s death—as pieces of his armor, blood, and divine essence spread mythic power and war across the multiverse. With myriad options for your favorite player character, countless plot hooks to inspire exciting new campaigns, and a glimpse into the implications of the event across the Lost Omens setting, it’s time to follow a Calling of your own! Pathfinder War of Immortals is available for preorder now in hardcover, special edition, and pocket editions, and will also be available as a retailer-exclusive sketch cover while supplies last.

Introduction

Last year, we released an exclusive module called the Pathfinder Tokens: Bestiaries, a token pack that offered high-quality portrait and token artwork for all 1207 actors in the three Bestiaries released for Pathfinder Second Edition. We were overwhelmed by the positive response to that module and we’ve been eager to follow it up with another token pack ever since, even as we’ve been working on other projects. Since then, we’ve been hard at work on new modules, like our conversion of the Pathfinder: Kingmaker adventure path, all while continuing to push the potential of the core software even further forwards, with the release of Foundry VTT Version 12 bringing in a whole new suite of exciting features.

In that time, a lot has changed in the Pathfinder ecosystem too: the Pathfinder system has been remastered, playtesting has begun for a Starfinder Second Edition, and Paizo recently released a Monster Core token pack, which expands on the Pathfinder Tokens: Bestiaries module by providing artwork for the new creatures released in the remaster.

However, for all that’s changed, one thing hasn’t—the need for more tokens! And so we’re incredibly excited to announce the release of a brand new token pack, the Pathfinder Tokens: Character Gallery, which is planned to release on Wednesday, August 21.

In this blog post, I thought I’d start by introducing the Character Gallery, and talk about some of the reasons we’re so excited for it to release, as well as share a few behind-the-scenes peeks at the development of the module.

Module Features

Pathfinder Tokens: Character Gallery is a brand-new token collection, comprising ~1200 unique portraits, each accompanied by a hand-crafted character token. Our intention is for this pack to cover a wide range of playable ancestries, making it an ideal tool for filling the ranks of previously faceless NPCs, or for picking out the perfect portrait for a heroic adventurer.

The module includes:

• ~1200 high-resolution portraits and tokens depicting characters of a variety of ancestries, professions, and classes, including high-profile named characters from the world of Golarion
• Seamless compendium image replacement for ~100 actors from the Pathfinder Second Edition game system
• Built-in support for Foundry VTT's Dynamic Tokens functionality
• A bespoke new application that can be used to browse and filter the artwork from within Foundry, searching for assets by name or filtering by tags like ancestry, equipment, or armor
• Integration with the Pathfinder Tokens: Bestiaries module, allowing it to add its artwork to the Character Gallery application when both modules are active, with the potential for this integration to be used by other modules in the future
• Detailed datasheets filled out with relevant metadata for each imageset, facilitating their sorting and filtering by the application

The format and scope of the module should be readily familiar to anyone who knows our previous token project, the Pathfinder Tokens: Bestiaries module. The new pack features about as many tokens as the Bestiary pack, and we were delighted to bring back Ian Hildebrandt as our artist, ensuring that the tokens are created to the same—or better—standard that you’ve come to expect.

We’ve also taken full advantage of some new core innovations to push the features of the module even further. For instance, at release, the Character Gallery tokens will be fully configured for use with Foundry VTT’s new Dynamic Token Rings framework, which means they’ll be readily compatible with any special features or visual effects that other content creators and module developers might implement.

Perhaps of greater significance to the average user, though, is a brand-new custom application, developed specifically for this module, which provides a means to search and filter the collection of artwork with ease from within your game world. For more information on the features of the Character Gallery application, you can check out the module’s package page, but I thought I might also share some behind-the-scenes stories of how we first began designing and implementing the feature!

Story Time: Creating the Character Gallery Application

Ever since working on the Bestiaries token pack last year, we’ve been considering various ideas for what a follow-up token pack might look like. The idea of an NPC-focused pack was always one of our favourites, but one obstacle we had to solve before we could justify it was finding a way to deliver the art in a convenient and user-friendly way, from within the application. With the Bestiaries, we could map the artwork straight to the creatures inside the system compendiums, all configured and available without any effort required, but with an NPC or PC-focused pack, we weren’t initially sure how to provide a similar level of quick access. We didn’t want the module to just be a folder of assets—even incredibly gorgeous assets—that the user had to organise and manually assign to characters themselves. We needed a better solution.

The idea that ended up becoming the Character Gallery application first was actually first explored when working on our module for the Pathfinder: Kingmaker adventure path. When we were implementing the settlement-building subsystem, I had developed a very simple application that users could use to browse the different building assets and place them onto a scene to represent their growing village. The idea struck me as a good way to solve the very similar problem with delivering NPC artwork, so I worked on a quick, hasty mock-up during our next Free Project Friday—a team-wide tradition where, on the last Friday of each month, we work on individual passion projects or crazy ideas and pitch them to the rest of the team.

Just for fun, I thought I’d share a rare screenshot of that initial prototype as it looked after only one day of work. As you can see, the idea of a central grid view where the artwork thumbnails were displayed in big “cards” was always a core part of the vision—I wanted you to be able to see what you were picking. The filtering functionality on the left-hand side, meanwhile, was inspired by Pathfinder’s own traits mechanic, and echoes some aspects of the PF2E system’s compendium browser.

If you can look past the rough exterior, and the fact that many of the buttons didn’t work, it showed promise—and it’s kind of remarkable, now, to see simultaneously how little and how much the application changed in its journey to the final product we have today.

Where does that data come from?

All the metadata about each piece of art—the tags, the source, the label—are loaded from a datasheet, provided by the module, which contains a range of useful information about each imageset. These datasheets are what allow the app to filter and search the entire collection for the exact piece of art you need at any moment.

As you can see, the application also has a tab for searching for artwork of companions, as well as player characters. For the Character Gallery, that mostly means the sprites and leshies, but for users with the Bestiaries token pack installed, they’ll see various animals, crawling hands, and other creatures populating that tab as well!

This is possible thanks to a hidden but powerful feature of the application—it can load more than one datasheet at once, allowing other modules to create a datasheet of their own which allows their artwork to be loaded into the application. It’s our hope that, by including module support in this way, we’re creating opportunities for future modules—both ours and those developed by other creators—to integrate with the Character Gallery. In fact, the ease of module development on the Foundry VTT platform means that this functionality is in reach of many end users, as well, if they’re interested in creating and loading their own custom datasheets into the module.

I could go on, but I should save some surprises for the module’s release. I’m very excited for people to get their hands on it, and I hope that it lives up to the vision we set out with! If anyone has any questions, I or some of my colleagues will surely be replying in the comments, and there’s also an FAQ on the module’s page on our website with a little more information.

Viviane Charlier (Cora),
Foundry VTT Content Development Team

Greetings, Starfinders and Pathfinders, and welcome to Gen Con 2024! Whether you’re joining us at the show or following along at home, we’re thrilled to share the Best Four Days in Gaming with you!

Missed the Gen Con 2024 Paizo Keynote? Catch up NOW!

Join us over on youtube.com/@PaizoInc right now for our Gen Con 2024 Keynote Address, hosted by Erik Mona! Creatives across the Pathfinder, Starfinder, and Paizo Board Games lines give some updates and behind the scenes sneak peeks at upcoming Paizo games!

Paizo at the Show!

If you missed our blog earlier this week, hop over here to see all the amazing panels, show exclusives, and games we’ll be hosting at the show! For a snapshot overview:

• Come pick up Pathfinder Player Core 2, the Starfinder Playtest Rulebook, Pathfinder Prey for Death, convention exclusives, and so much more at Booth 203 in the Exhibit Hall!
  • Get your Core Rulebooks signed by Wayne Reynolds and your Playtest Rulebook signed by Kent Hamilton, their respective cover artists, at our booth!
• Join us in Bays 3, 4, and 5 of the Sagamore Ballroom for Organized Play, Digital Character Creation, Starfinder Second Edition Playtest demos, and a satellite store stocked with essentials for Organized Play!
• Stop by our demo booth in Hall C or the Syrinscape booth in Capitol Concourse for short Pathfinder and Starfinder demos!
• Dive into Pathfinder and Starfinder with our on-site panels and a special Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Liveshow!

All of our on-site panels will be recorded and shared on our YouTube channel after the show, so don’t worry about FOMO!

Paizo.com Gen Con Sale!

For everyone at home, we’ve got a sale happening on paizo.com! Use code GenCon2024 for 20% off your whole purchase on paizo.com! This sale is not valid on preorders, backorders, subscriptions, and third-party PDFs.

Whether you’re sitting in on our streams and forums or joining us at the show, we hope you have a wonderful Gen Con weekend

Among piles of stacked books, Marbrook heard the tingle of the front door chimes. The front door whose OPEN sign clearly faced inward. The pair of entrants, a goblin in goggles and a human with a coat and cane, made themselves at home browsing the bookstore’s shelves. Or they were casing the joint to rob. If they were going to rob her later, they would be the second most audacious thieves Marbrook had ever witnessed. The most audacious thieves, meanwhile, were those the two would be if they were to rob her in this very inconvenient moment.

The bookseller suppressed a huff, feeling her bleaching subside from the annoyance. There were greater challenges at hand. Ages ago, someone had rearranged her entire store’s inventory. While it was a hilarious prank, Marbrook would rather eject her soul back to the First World than run her shop out of alphabetical order. This created her current impasse: ignore the intruders or stop replacing the books momentarily.

The choice was obvious. Marbrook let the intruders be, as they were entranced by the books floating about the store and seemed to pose little immediate threat. The spectral assistants responsible for that spectacle, which she remembered neither hiring nor requesting, were both a blessing and a curse. They were handy at keeping the shop tidy, and less so in put the books back in order.

The human of the pair waved at the spectral figures. “Hello! Pardon our intrusion.” The spirits said nothing back. “I don’t think they can help us,” the human concluded, stroking a trimmed beard.

“Not for talking. For cleaning, maybe?” the goblin guessed.

“The store is spotless. Maybe she planned a holiday,” said the human. “They are moving the books about rather… unnecessarily, however.”

The goblin pointed to the corner furthest away. “Fumbus will start over there.” The human watched Fumbus skitter away before realizing the goblin meant to search for the source of these ethereal spirits. Following his example, the human strolled to the other far corner. With this division of labor, Marbrook reckoned she had three minutes before she needed to decide which of the two tomes immediately at hand would best suffice as a weapon: the Revised History of Taldor, 28th Edition, or Encyclopedia Chelaxia, volume 18.

Long before that time came, Marbrook heard the familiar squeak of the floorboard from the center of the shop. She did not suppress her huff this time. She meant to fix that loose board, except books happened.

“Quinn!” Fumbus shouted, probably meaning the human. Quinn strode over, footsteps crisp and measured. This was followed by whispers, then the rustling of a backpack, then the groan and splintering of floorboards. Quinn vocalized dismay. Fumbus oopsed.

Marbrook stood like a war god roused to battle. She watched from behind her book pile as Quinn reached into the new hole in her precious floorboards to pull out a bowl of… blue stuff. Marbrook had not put that bowl there. Or rather, she did not remember doing so. Maybe her bleaching caused a memory lapse, but somehow, that blame felt misplaced.

“A ritual.” Quinn drew a sharp breath. “For… spirit custodians?”

“It can last a year.” Fumbus poked the inside the bowl and made a face at the squish. The goblin then sniffed the bowl, and made a different face. Finally, Fumbus licked the blue stuff. A wide smile appeared. “This one is fresh. Three months.”

“That lines up. Now, until the duration expires, the spirits continue their task unless ordered otherwise. If I recall correctly, it usually gave you one, two, three…” Quinn trailed off. There were only three assistants to count. “Fumbus, have you heard any gossip lately?”

Marbrook did not know why Quinn changed the subject, but she did sheathe her inner war god. Reorganizing the books had kept her indoors and away from the gossip on the street for too long. Long enough she suspected she had bleached a shade. If these intruders were about to share some juicy secrets, she would very much like them to continue. She might even forgive them for the floorboards.

When Fumbus replied “I have. I saw some,” Marbrook rejoiced. The bookseller crept out of her book fortress, adjusting a small pile of rummaged paperwork as she passed.

Quinn sounded equally delighted. “Excellent! What have you heard?”

“Orange worms!”

The goblin looked expectantly at his companion, whose blank stare rivaled Fumbus’s own emotionless goggles. It gave Marbrook time to settle in for a good view, and put more paper away. “You don’t say?”

“Yes, while you were talking to the jeweler about whatever, I was listening to the gardeners tending the shop’s flower box. And do you know what Fumbus heard? The orange worms are back, and that means the ebon rooks will be back, and you know what that means!” Quinn clearly didn’t, but while he had initially tried to ignore his yammering companion, the passion with which Fumbus recounted the tale pulled him away from his distractions. Marbrook was equally rapt. What could the goblin be going on about?

For the better part of five minutes, the goblin barely paused to take a breath as he led Quinn and Marbrook down a roundabout stream of consciousness—some overheard, some observed, and much seemingly coming from the random recesses of his overactive mind. Rooks. String. The best cucumbers to pickle in this part of the country this time of year. An annoying Isgeri folk song stuck in his head. Some alternate lyrics to that song. Something about soil composition. Bird droppings (employing rather rude language, if Marbrook was being honest).

When he reached what seemed the logical conclusion of his line of reasoning, he once again stared intently at Quinn. After a long, expectant moment, Quinn said, “Yes, I see.”

Fumbus’s mouth gaped open. “You do not see, Quinn! The orange worms mean the soil is especially rich in phosphorus, and the droppings—” (again with the language) “—of the rooks after they eat the worms makes the perfect reagent for longer burning fire.”

“Ah,” Quinn interjected, clearly hoping this was the end of it. Marbrook got the sense that this was not the sort of “gossip” he’d had in mind when he inquired, and it certainly wasn’t what she’d hoped to overhear.

“But!” Fumbus jabbed a finger at his friend. “This isn’t the first time Quinn has missed something so obvious to Fumbus.”

Quinn, clearly wanting to escape the conversation, held up the bowl. “So, rituals need help—"

Fumbus and Quinn investigate the nature of some helpful apparitions in this illustration by Christoph Peters from Pathfinder Player Core 2

Fumbus, like a flame running out of fuel, lowered his arm and deflated, finally pausing to catch his breath. “Was… that enough?”

“More than enough. You did great.” Quinn squeezed out an assurance. “I think we know now which one of our friendly spirits here is the gossip-loving grandmother. I saw some papers instead of books being moved.” Quinn turned and looked straight at Marbrook. Into Marbrook.

“Also flinched when I swore.” Fumbus too met her gaze. The red-tinted googles reflected… nothing. No bleachling gnome, nor gossip-loving elderly bookseller. Just red glass with a spot of ethereal blue light.

A blush of embarrassment, of being caught eavesdropping, washed over Marbrook. Then came an emptiness—ethereal, spirit, void, death. Cold reality sank, disbelief hollowed. Blurred emotions unnamed, the swirl reverberated like a bell toll echoing dead, dead, dead in crescendo.

Marbrook screamed.

---

Goosebumps ran up Quinn’s arm as the moan crawled under his skin. Beside him, Fumbus strangled a shriek. The ghost of Marbrook the bookseller, now in her shape in life, closed the distance. Quinn saw a missing eye, a slashed throat, and through the translucent body, a stab wound in the back. Such death would make a ghost of anyone, and make them want to forget it happened.

Crash! Glass shattered upon the ghost. Drops sizzled on the floor. Fumbus had retreated a distance, then improvised some acid from among his carried reagents to throw. Quinn was thankful the alchemist’s aim spared him, still beside the ghost, from collateral damage. He was also thankful Fumbus didn’t throw his usual alchemist fire. Not that it mattered against the ghost. Neither would have worked.

Quinn made his own retreat, thinking. They were ill-equipped and without backup. No blessed weapons, no holy water, no cleric. How do you fight a ghost under such circumstances? An intimately familiar voice in his mind answered, “you don’t fight if you can help it; you try talking.”

What should one talk to a livid ghost about? Hello there, may I inquire why you are a ghost? What tragedy befell you? With this bookstore, there were no signs of a struggle, no blood suggesting violence, not even a corpse. The shop was immaculately clean without even a speck of dust— unless it had not always been so.

The custodians. Their erratic shelving of the books. Quinn looked for the spirits. All three were gathered about the acid damage and broken glass, prodding at the stains and sweeping. Fumbus was right. The ritual was for cleaning. Cleaning up evidence, specifically. What “clean” means beyond stains and messes can be ambiguous. In some languages, clean also conveyed “to tidy” or “to organize”. One command, and you could not only erase evidence of a crime, but also make a store look as if its owner was still about, just… reorganizing inventory.

This was no normal crime, nor an average criminal. This was a professional.

Across the room, Fumbus shrieked with a gurgle, running away from a pursuing Marbrook as he downed a vial of red liquid. Quinn stowed the rudimentary criminal profile away. The plan for the immediate moment: One, talk Marbrook down from violence; two, ask questions without prolonging her suffering; three, leave this place alive with Fumbus.

Just in case, Quinn made an alternative plan which skipped to step three. There were some rook droppings he needed to make sure Fumbus had a chance to collect.

About the Author

Sen H.H.S. is a Taiwanese TTRPG freelancer and one of the winners of the Diana Jones Emerging Designer Program in 2023. Her works with Paizo include Rage of Elements, Pathfinder Adventure Path #196: The Summer that Never Was, and the Tian Xia World Guide. She has upcoming contributions in the Tian Xia Character Guide as well as the Curtain Call Adventure Path.

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.

Players who want to pick up the investigation where Fumbus and Quinn’s adventure leaves off need look no further than Pathfinder Player Core 2, which remasters eight Pathfinder Second Edition classes including the alchemist and investigator. Among the many existing and new character options for members of all classes found within, you’ll find the phantasmal custodians ritual responsible for the fastidious apparitions in this story. Pathfinder Player Core 2 is available for preorder now, and will release in hardcover, special edition hardcover, retailer exclusive sketch variant hardcover, and PDF on August 1, 2024, and in pocket edition softcover in October.

Hail and well met, Finders! The dawn of Gen Con heralds a host of our best releases, including the final remastered Pathfinder Core rulebook, the Starfinder Playtest, and more!

Get these releases on paizo.com, at Booth 203 on the show floor, in the Sagamore Ballroom, and at your FLGS!

Never miss a release with our Paizo Subscriptions—for everything from rulebooks to accessories. Subscribers get a free PDF with purchase, early access to game content, and exclusive discounts on paizo.com!

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Pathfinder Player Core 2

VENTURE BEYOND!

Survival in a world beset by magic and evil takes more than a lucky roll of the dice. Pathfinder Player Core 2significantly expands the options available to Pathfinder players, giving you the edge to take on any adventure. Look inside to find everything you need to create a wide array of new characters ready to take on the world. Eight new classes, new ancestries and versatile heritages, a massive number of diverse archetypes, and tons of feats, spells, and alchemical items provide a near-endless array of exciting options for every Pathfinder character!

Pathfinder Player Core 2 is available in standard hardcover, as a deluxe faux leatherette Special Edition with metallic foil debossing, as well as hobby-retail exclusive Sketch Cover and PDF formats!

Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Rulebook

TEST PILOT THE LATEST UPGRADE!

The Starfinder Playtest Rulebook brings Starfinder into a new age of compatibility as Starfinder switches to using the same rules engine that powers the popular Second Edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Inside this playtest for the new edition, you’ll find six new classes, 10 ancestries, new skills, new feats, futuristic equipment including augmentations and upgrades, new science-fantasy spells, and more!

Get involved with the playtest at starfinderplaytest.com.

The Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Rulebook is available for purchase as a softcover book or available to download as a FREE PDF. (Note: You will need Pathfinder Player Core and Pathfinder GM Core, or the rules reference on Archives of Nethys, to participate.)

Pathfinder Adventure: Prey for Death

A FINE DAY TO SLAY

The Red Mantis assassins are known and feared throughout the world for their relentless devotion to the task of murder. Those slain by these assassins tend to stay dead, but those who have come to rule rightfully need not fear them. In this adventure, the players take on the role of a group of assassins, favored agents of the ruler of the Red Mantis, who have been sent on a dangerous mission to assassinate an upstart whose warmongering actions have finally attracted the wrong kind of attention! Prey for Death is an adventure for 14th- to 17th-level characters.

Pathfinder Adventure: Prey for Death kickstarts the War of Immortals meta event and is available in standard hardcover, as a deluxe leatherette bound Special Edition hardcover, and PDF formats.

Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Adventure: A Cosmic Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

A nascent cosmic entity stirs deep within one of the Pact Worlds planets. As the entity’s emergence sends psychic anomalies and strange phenomena through space, a group of heroes becomes trapped in the Ghost Levels of Absalom Station! Within this liminal pocket dimension, they learn that devoted followers of this cosmic being are searching for a power source strong enough to aid its birth. As dangerous creatures and ominous power surges threaten the station, the heroes must team up with the residents of Little Akiton to investigate these horrifying new foes, stop their meddling—and stay alive!

Pathfinder Adventure Path #204: Stage Fright (Curtain Call 1 of 3)

WELCOME TO SHOW BUSINESS

Your group has faced many foes and dangers during your adventuring career, but one enemy in particular has gone on to inspire stories. Now, a famous director wants to transform your previous adventures into an extravagant new opera, and you’ll be there to help! First, though, you’ll have to address rumors that your old foe has returned to plot revenge against you! The Curtain Call Adventure Path begins with “Stage Fright,” a complete adventure for 11th- to 13th-level characters.

Get the digital deluxe experience with Stage Fright (Curtain Call 1 of 3) on Foundry VTT!

Starfinder Flip-Mat: Second Edition Playtest Multi-Pack

Playtest the new edition of Starfinder in style with this collection of two double-sided Flip-Mats featuring four key encounter areas from not one, but two Starfinder Playtest Adventures: A Cosmic Birthday and Empires Devoured! One Flip-Mat features a futuristic space station and a science-fantasy cityscape that are abandoned and ready for investigation! The other features a dense fungus jungle and a futuristic settlement bordering the jungle, for exciting sci-fi adventures on the borderlands!

Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Village Assault

SAVE THE VILLAGE!

Raze the Village! During their adventuring careers, heroes will surely find themselves saving a small hamlet or invading a town of miscreants. Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Village Assault sets the scene for both! One side of the Flip-Mat shows a small village centered on a meeting hall or chapel, and the other side depicts the same village amid fiery turmoil as it is attacked. Spread one side down to plan the attack and flip it over to take part in the action!

Starfinder Playtest Scenario #1: Shards of the Glass Planet

A Starfinder Second Edition Playtest adventure designed for 1st-level characters.

For millennia, Birnam’s Bubble has been a planet untouched by outsiders, fully encapsulated in an impenetrable shield of unknown energy and protected by powerful automated defenses. Through this barrier, explorers and surveyors have glimpsed pristine settlements, verdant flora, and inexplicable magical emanations—yet no fauna or citizens populate the world’s surface.

As in many other parts of the galaxy, the Drift Crisis changed everything. Now, the energy barrier surrounding Birnam’s Bubble cracks like shattering glass, and shards of this solidified energy have begun to fall through the atmosphere to the planet’s surface, causing significant destruction. Enter the breach and uncover the secrets of the lost civilizations of Birnam’s Bubble before they're lost forever!

Starfinder Playtest Scenario #2: It Came from the Vast!

A Starfinder Second Edition Playtest adventure designed for 5th-level characters.

Countless derelict and abandoned starships litter space, some damaged beyond repair, some containing valuable cargo, and others empty save for the dead. The Xenowarden starship Bloom is one such ship. During a routine survey mission to a newly discovered dwarf planet in the Vast, the crew of the Bloom collected a variety of biological and environmental samples, secured the samples for further study, and departed, plotting a course through the Drift to a mobile research laboratory in the Pact Worlds.

The Bloom that emerged in Pact Worlds’ space was much changed—unresponsive, careening out of control, and with no sign of the ship’s crew. Explore the biomechanical corridors of the Bloom to uncover the fate of its missing crew and face off against a dangerous, alien predator that can’t be allowed to survive.

The Bloom is haunted. That’s the least of your problems.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-20: The Rakshasa’s Court

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 7th- through 10th-level characters.

With clues from around Jalmeray and Niswan, Venture-Captain Safa has been able to determine where the mysterious Benefactor lives in the city. It's up to a group of Pathfinders to break into the enormous mansion to confront her, all while avoiding her underlings and trying to find evidence of her wrongdoings. A secret plot to undermine the powers that be in Niswan is discovered, and there's only one place left to corner her: her private quarters.

Starfinder Society Scenario #7-04: Inheritors of Gadrathar

A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for 5th- through 8th-level characters.

Tabrid Minor is a planet on the brink of devastating ecological collapse. While the planet’s government refuses to alter course or change policy, hope is not lost. The Coenocopi Foundation works hard to rekindle ancient copaxi magical traditions in the belief that their spread would cause many citizens to adopt a more ecologically responsible way of life, turning the tide of destruction. Unfortunately, these magical traditions have been lost to time and government erasure.

Enter the Starfinder Society! Explore the rotating ruins of Gadrathar Fortress, a shattered citadel floating many miles above the surface of Tabrid Minor, while on a quest for ancient wisdom and magical secrets.

Foundry Releases!

Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Deluxe Adventure Path (Foundry VTT)

Uncover the secrets of an ancient and mysterious civilization before they're lost forever! Explore the biomechanical corridors of a derelict starship to uncover the fate of its missing crew and face off against a terrifying alien predator! Witness the birth of an alien god and defend Absalom Station from a horde of cosmic horrors! All these escapades and more await you in the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Deluxe Adventure Pack, a collection of six thrilling tales carefully designed to mix classic dungeon crawling and narrative-rich sandbox adventures while introducing players to the new Starfinder Second Edition Playtest rule system!

This all-in-one package, exclusive to Foundry VTT, includes the three Starfinder Second Edition Playtest adventures: A Cosmic Birthday, Shards of the Glass Planet, and It Came From the Vast. Empires Devoured, Wheel of Monsters, and Rescue at Shimmerstone Mine are scheduled to be added as free updates when they release in Fall 2024. Experience these adventures using the full suite of Foundry VTT features, using maps, tiles, tokens, sounds, and much more to bring you content that truly cannot be experienced in the same way anywhere else!

Pathfinder Tokens: Monster Core (Foundry VTT)

Every creature, every variant, and every portrait tokenized and ready for use!

A comprehensive collection of portrait and token artwork for almost 500 creatures, including subtypes and variants! This new premium module, exclusive to Foundry VTT, assembles all the artwork from the Monster Core book for Pathfinder Second Edition Remastered into a complete set of creature tokens and portraits that are ready to be dropped into your games. Crafty caligni, duplicitous devils, deadly dragons, genial genies, lively leshies, nightmarish niliths, perplexing proteans, ruthless rakshasas, slithering serpentfolk, and unrelenting undead—no creature goes unrepresented!

From Our Partners:

Our partners at Archives of Nethys, Demiplane, Fantasy Grounds, Hero Lab Online, and Roll20* are dropping new content this month as well! Buy your PDF on paizo.com to get a discount via the PaizoConnect API, or pay full price on their platforms, sync your account, and get a complimentary PDF on the Paizo Store.

*Roll20 is no longer a part of PaizoConnect and discounts and complimentary PDFs do not apply.

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Thank you for playing Starfinder and Pathfinder!

Shop the Paizo Store and your favorite local game store today!

Hello, ‘Finders! Gen Con opens in two short days, and we’ve got a host of exciting announcements about what we’ve got going at the show, from show floor exclusives to live shows, panels, and more!

Places!

Coming to Gen Con? There are a variety of places to find Paizo at the convention—whether you’re looking for demos, Organized Play, signings, or good old fashioned shopping!

Paizo is happy to be returning to Booth 203 in the Exhibitor Hall! We’ll have tables and shelves stocked with products new and old—including print copies of the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Rulebook and sketch covers of all four remastered Pathfinder Core rulebooks! And, with Wayne Reynolds and Kent Hamilton on-site at the booth, you can get those books signed by their cover artists at Gen Con!

Looking for Organized Play? Paizo has an even bigger slice of the Sagamore Ballroom this year, taking Bays 3, 4, and 5 to offer over 80 tables of Pathfinder Society, Starfinder Society, Paizo Board Games, and Starfinder Second Edition Playtest Scenarios! Build characters using Demiplane’s Pathfinder or Starfinder NEXUS at our Digital Character Creation Station and jump right into a game! Play a demo of Pathfinder Second Edition or the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest on Foundry VTT! Also, we are excited to announce that there will be a satellite retail space in the Sagamore Ballroom this year, stocked with Core books, flip mats, minis, and more!

If you want to dip your toes in a shorter game, Paizo has demo tables in Hall C, as well as tables at Syrinscape’s space in the hallway between the ICC and Lucas Oil. Drop by any of these tables for a short, sweet introduction to Pathfinder or Starfinder!

Products!

It’s not a convention without convention exclusives! This year, our friends at Fanroll Dice have crafted some wonderful metal goblin dice!

On the subject of Wayne Reynolds’ beautiful artwork and sketches—our partners at Gamehead have designed a Gen Con exclusive playmat featuring the Player Core, GM Core, and Monster Core cover sketches! Get this playmat at our booth and have it signed by Wayne himself!

Panels and More!

Excited for announcements and engaging content? Great news—Paizo is bringing panels to Gen Con physically and virtually! See the full schedule of our content below:

Thursday, August 1^st

Gen Con 2024 Keynote – 10 a.m. EDT on twitch.tv/officialpaizo

Join Erik Mona and a variety of creatives across Pathfinder, Starfinder, and Paizo Board Games as they give a sneak peek at upcoming products and announce exciting new books!

A Drift Through Space Time – 2 p.m. EDT on Gen Con’s Main Stage and twitch.tv/officialpaizo

Starfinder Managing Creative Director Thurston Hillman leads a mixed party of Pathfinder Second Edition and Starfinder Second Edition characters—played by B. Dave Walters, Mark Meer, Jenny Jarzabski, and John Compton—through a Starfinder Second Edition Playtest extravaganza!

Friday, August 2^nd

Building Worlds and Stories: Pathfinder Lost Omens Panel – 10 a.m. EDT on twitch.tv/officialpaizo

Luis Loza and the developers of the Pathfinder Lost Omens line discuss worldbuilding—from the wide scale of an entire universe to the minute details of an individual city. Learn tips and tricks from Pathfinder’s master lorecrafters.

Starfinder Second Edition Roadmap Panel – 1 p.m. EDT at Gen Con*

Thurston Hillman and Jenny Jarzabski reveal the roadmap of Starfinder Second Edition, announcing upcoming books and giving a look behind the curtain as work progresses on Starfinder Player Core, GM Core, and Alien Core.

Godsrain & Bloodshed: Pathfinder War of Immortals – 2 p.m. EDT at Gen Con*

With Pathfinder Prey for Death releasing at Gen Con, the War of Immortals meta event has begun, and Golarion’s landscape will be changed forever! Learn more about how this meta event is sparking change across the rulebook, Lost Omens, and adventure lines!

Saturday, August 3^rd

Playtest Makes Perfect (What Makes a Good Playtest) – 2 p.m. EDT at Gen Con*

With the launch of the Starfinder Second Edition Playtest, the Starfinder team is thrilled to get player feedback on the rules. This panel will elaborate on how design choices were made for the playtest, what the design team is interested in hearing about, and how your feedback helps shape the future of Starfinder Second Edition!

Pathfinder: A Remastered Retrospective – 3 p.m. EDT at Gen Con*

The release of Pathfinder Player Core 2 at Gen Con concludes the remastering of the core rules engine for Pathfinder Second Edition. Join the Pathfinder design team as they discuss the remastering process and what’s coming up for Pathfinder.

*All panels taking place on-site at Gen Con will be recorded and uploaded on our YouTube channel after the show!

We’re looking forward to seeing you all at Gen Con this year—in person or online!

You step hesitantly into a musty cellar crowded with alchemical glassware, stone crucibles, and the occasional metal antenna crackling with electricity. Strange-colored fluids in uncovered beakers bubble and smoke near jars that hold the remnants of failed experiments floating in formaldehyde. A man stands in the center of the room, hunched over a table. His hair is wild, and his once-white lab coat has been stained with various chemicals. He looks up as you approach, and you can see that his table is strewn with papers splotched with ink. He barks out an overexcited laugh, followed by a half-choked cry of “The Remaster! Is Finished!”

Hello! Pay no attention to the man in the intro. He was laughed out of the university for his unorthodox research. But his theories—and some healthy doses of mutagenic mixtures—have led the way for a Remastered version of the alchemist class coming in Player Core 2!

The alchemist can craft chemical concoctions that can aid in all manner of situations. From deadly poisons to life-saving elixirs to explosive bombs, an alchemist can whip up the perfect item, provided they have the formula. The Core Rulebook version of the class had limited resources each day that could be used in multiple ways. However, while this was flexible, it created very complex decisions based on guesswork, which often ended up disappointing. We wanted to smooth out these choices while retaining the core functions of the class.

To that end, instead of having a large batch of infused reagents at the start of the day that require the alchemist to choose how many they are using with advanced alchemy and how many to save for Quick Alchemy, these two resources are now separate. Infused reagents are gone! At the start of each day, an alchemist makes a certain number of alchemical items that they can keep for themself or hand off to friends; remember that these items are only good for 24 hours, so be sure to use them!

Fumbus, the iconic alchemist, blows stuff up real good.
Art by Federico Musetti

In addition, an alchemist also has a number of what we’re calling versatile vials, which are small mixtures of fast-acting chemicals that can be easily turned into other consumables. On their own, versatile vials can be thrown as acidic bombs, and with the Quick Alchemy action, an alchemist can turn a versatile vial into an alchemical consumable they know the formula for; this item remains potent until the start of the alchemist’s next turn. Each research field presents a unique way for the alchemist to use their versatile vials. For example, a mutagenist can drink one of their versatile vials to temporarily suppress the drawback of one mutagen they are under the effects of. And a chirurgeon can hurl a versatile vial at a willing ally within 20 feet for some distance healing!

The number of versatile vials an alchemist has isn’t a finite daily resource. They can replenish their vials over time as they gather alchemical ingredients during exploration mode. If things start going poorly, an alchemist can also whip up a temporary versatile vial using Quick Alchemy, though it can’t be used to make a different kind of item. And the 2nd-level Improvise Admixture feat allows the alchemist to scrounge together enough materials for a few extra ready-to-use versatile vials once per day as a single action.

We found the space in this book for toxicology, a research field that was introduced in the Advanced Player’s Guide. It’s included here in all its noxious glory, and poisons created by such an alchemist deal acid damage instead of poison damage if that would be more detrimental. The toxicologist’s 13th-level greater field discovery causes a victim of one of their injury poisons to spray that toxin onto an adjacent creature, exposing them to the same poison. Not a fun time for the toxicologist’s enemies!

Finally, we know a lot of you are curious to hear more about the alchemist’s attack proficiencies. Some of the other designers didn’t want me to tell you this, but I’ve slipped some soporifics in their morning coffees, so they won’t even notice. Alchemists are still getting their alchemical weapon expertise at 7th level, but they now also receive alchemical weapon mastery at 15th level. Get those bombs ready!

We are very excited for you to see the class when Player Core 2 releases… soon! So soon, it’s making me a little anxious. Perhaps one of these mysterious elixirs left behind by that scientist will calm me down… Oh no, what have I done? I feel… What is happening to me?!?

Regurgitate Mutagen [one-action] Feat 4

Alchemist, Manipulate
Requirements You are under the effects of a mutagen.

You redirect a mutagen within your body to spit a stream of stomach acid at a foe. A creature within 30 feet takes 1d6 acid damage for every 2 levels you have, with a basic Reflex save against your class DC. On a failure, the creature is also sickened 1 (or sickened 2 on a critical failure). The mutagen’s duration immediately ends.

Jason Keeley (he/him)
Senior Designer

Today, we’re excited to launch a new landing page featuring all the information fans, content creators, and other publishers need to legally use Paizo’s intellectual property—game rules, setting details, artwork, logos, and other copyrights and trademarks—in their own products. Whether you’re looking to make an online rules database using the ORC license, a setting compatible with Pathfinder Second Edition, an adventure set in the Pact Worlds system, an actual play podcast, or a series of handmade plushies of iconic heroes like Valeros, Seoni, and Lem, we’ve got everything you need at paizo.com/licenses.

Along with this new hub of information, we also made a few updates and revisions to our existing licenses, both for ease of use and to bring them up to date with the current state of our games and brands. You can find out more about these specific licenses on their respective pages on the site.

Paizo Compatibility License

With Pathfinder (and soon Starfinder) in its second edition, we were starting to get a bit of a glut of system-specific compatibility licenses. So, we consolidated what was previously two distinct Pathfinder RPG Compatibility Licenses and a Starfinder Compatibility License into a single Paizo Compatibility License. Using the new license, a publisher can declare compatibility with any of our games and use the appropriate logo, and we don’t have to constantly maintain the list of products and game systems you can use it for.

We also got rid of the registration process by which publishers had to inform us they were using the license. Now, you agree to the license when you publish something using it, the same way you do for the OGL or ORC. Your use of one of the Compatibility Logos or our proprietary Pathfinder-Icons font aren’t locked behind any red tape. Just create your content, ensure you’re following all the rules of the license, and you’re ready to go.

Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite

In October, on the eve of the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster Project launch, we announced that the ORC license wouldn’t be usable on our Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite community content publishing platforms. While this initially caused a bit of confusion, in the months since, we’ve seen publishers continue using both platforms with great success, accessing Paizo’s IP via the Infinite License alone.

Next month, with the release of Pathfinder Player Core 2, we’ll have completed the 18-month task of divesting our core game from the OGL, and thus, starting on September 1, 2024, publishing of new OGL content on Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite will cease; publishers wishing to release game content on either platform will need to use the Infinite license exclusively.

This means that until Starfinder Second Edition is officially out in just over a year, Starfinder content on the platform is going to need to be free of rules (setting lore, fiction, art assets, etc.) but once the new edition of the game is out, we plan to relaunch Starfinder Infinite in style. It also means that Pathfinder First Edition content, or Pathfinder Second Edition content based on OGL material, will also sunset from the platform in just over a month. So, if you have a Pathfinder product in the works featuring chuuls, the eight schools of magic, or yes, even drow, you have until the end of August to release them. We won’t be removing OGL-based content from the marketplace in September, but you won’t be able to release new material using the OGL after that point.

The Infinite FAQ and End User Licensing Agreement on the marketplaces will be updated closer to the date of the actual change, but consider this your fair warning.

Fan Content Policy

As of today, Paizo’s Community Use Policy has been replaced by the Paizo Fan Content Policy, which serves a similar role, but with different provisions.

First, the Fan Content Policy will allow you to sell merchandise using our IP. Yes, for money. You will also be able to monetize other content using Paizo’s IP, like putting a live play of one of our Adventure Paths behind a Patreon paywall. There are restrictions to this, however, so make sure you read the license carefully before you put in your order with the factory to make high-end poster maps of Golarion. Anything you sell needs to be made by you and sold directly by you to the consumer. You can’t upload a bunch of our art to one of those print-on-demand shops that will let anyone put the art on whatever hat or mug or shirt they want. You can screen print shirts or sew your own plushies and sell them on an Etsy storefront you operate or at conventions, but not mass produce either or sell them through external services or storefronts. But those Pathfinder Society faction dice bags you have been making because you love them? You can totally start selling those now instead of just giving them away for free.

Most of what you could previously do with the Community Use Policy is still permitted under the Fan Content Policy except for making RPG products, which you’ll need to release through the Pathfinder or Starfinder Infinite storefronts (even for free if you want) from now on. So, you can’t use art from the blog or setting material from Golarion to make your own rulebook or adventure under this license. If you’re currently using the OGL or ORC in conjunction with the Community Use Policy, in order to be compliant with the new Fan Content Policy you’ll need to either remove any game rules that would require you to use cite those licenses or remove any non-rule content you accessed via the Community Use Policy.

We know that all this legal stuff can be intimidating and confusing for many fans, and for that, we apologize. It’s our hope that these changes largely improve the community’s ability to create and engage with our brands, our games, and each other, even if they’re different than what we’ve offered in the past. Be sure to check out each license’s FAQ for more information, or pose your questions in the forums or comments below. We’ll do our best to answer them in as timely and clear manner as possible.

Now go out there and start creating! We can’t wait to see what you have in store for us.

Mark Moreland
Director of Brand Strategy

“Fire,” the professor whispered. His hands shook as he traced the runes etched onto the walls.

The Taldan scholar—bald and stooped, somewhat like a pale turtle—had intricate tattoos coiling up his arms, neck, and cheek, like her own but of a different style. On their first night together, she had asked about the markings. Irezoko, he said they were called, borrowed from her own Varisian tradition and a sign of his rank in Absalom’s College of Mysteries, the rank of enigma.

Seoni frowned and scanned the long tunnel. Various support beams of the same smooth stone as the walls buttressed its length, and script she did not recognize covered the entirety. The symbols were old and worn, done long ago, but she looked for inhabitants anyway. There were no signs that the lizardfolk or giant beasts from the surface had found this place.

“The runes?” her tengu companion Korakai asked, prancing forward with a hop. As he did so, the various vials, scroll cases, paper talismans, totems, and baubles affixed to his robes and chain shirt clinked and slapped musically. An orb of liquid blue light followed at his shoulder. Korakai cocked his corvid head one way then the other, peering at the writing. “They say ‘fire,’ do they? How ominous. What else do they say?”

“It—it will take days,” the scholar said with awe, “perhaps weeks, to decipher. This is ancient script, you understand. More than ancient. From the Age of Serpents, I suspect!” He turned to them dramatically, his voice echoing in the tunnel.

At his declaration, Korakai tilted his head back the way, and Seoni stared unmoved. None of them spoke for several heartbeats. The professor sighed in disappointment at their reactions and turned back to the wall. “But see here,” his knobby finger tapped one rune. “This says ‘fire,’ I’m sure of it. And look there, and there, and here. It’s repeated, see?”

“Fire, fire, everywhere,” Korakai chuckled nervously. His robes and feathers fluttered in the faint breeze that always surrounded him. He tapped the butt of his elaborate staff on the floor. The oracle’s fidgeting made noise incessantly. “What do you think it means, Seoni?”

“That is why we have the professor,” she said simply, shrugging.

If the old man, Enigma Rodos, heard her, he was too preoccupied to respond. Muttering, hands touching each symbol reverently, he combed over the walls everywhere Korakai’s light illuminated them.

“He’s a funny one, isn’t he?” The oracle tapped his staff and jingled his way over to Seoni’s side. She thought he was smiling, but it was difficult for most humans to decipher a tengu’s expressions, even after several weeks together. As Korakai drew nearer, the breeze surrounding him plucked at her cloak and skirts.

“Indeed. As I told you, we did not need to bring Valeros for this part. The perils were in getting the professor here. Other than dying of boredom, I do not see any danger from these forgotten tunnels. No need to fear, Korakai.”

“If you say so, Seoni,” her companion looked left and right, tap-tap-tapping with the staff, which was topped by a stylized, silver eye. “Embrace life’s mysteries, yes? Even when they’re in a dark, unexplored ruin. It will be fine, you say.” He did not sound convinced.

Seoni nodded once, and the two of them watched Enigma Rodos work. After several minutes, the professor paused to deliberately pull a parchment, quill, and inkwell from the pockets of his robes.

“Do you really think it will take days?” Korakai whispered.

“Mmm.” She frowned. “Perhaps we can light a torch and leave him to it. He paid us to find this place and we have done so. We have no expertise here. Let him do…” she made a vague gesture with one tattooed arm, “whatever it is scholars do.”

“Oh, yes, yes, leave this place, good,” Korakai jangled as he unshouldered his backpack and began rummaging through it. “I have one. Professor! We are going to light you a torch and head back to camp, yes? You can find it easily enough? We will be close if you need anything.”

Rodos looked up, confused and blinking, as the words slowly sank in. “Yes, that will be fine.”

“Flint and steel, here we are,” Korakai said, balancing his staff in the crook of one arm. With taloned hands he struck once, twice, three times, and a spark lit the animal fat on the end of the wooden torch.

As soon as the flame ignited, several of the runes around them flared in bright orange light. Then others, spreading out like an infection.

Or perhaps a wildfire.

Rodos gasped. “What—what did you do?”

“Fire?” Korakai laughed anxiously, waving the torch. “You must be right on that translation! Keep up the good—Aaaiiiggghhh!” He jumped back on four-toed taloned feet.

Flames filled the chamber with a great WHOOOSH! Rodos scrambled away on hands and knees, nearly engulfed. As Seoni watched, wide-eyed, the flames coalesced into distinct shapes, each moving independently while still part of the same conflagration. It took her a heartbeat to realize that she faced not one raging blaze, but a dozen smaller ones, each in the shape of a halfling-sized humanoid. The fiery figures prowled forward, moving like a pack of wolves.

“Professor! Away!” she barked. “Get Valeros and the others, quickly!”

Seoni dashed to one side of the tunnel, her arms weaving symbols in the air. Instinctively she plunged her consciousness inward, where a roiling mass of memories awaited her. Images and voices from experiences before her birth flooded her mind. In her childhood, this sort of bombardment threatened to overwhelm her. Now, she utilized her tattoos; for her they were not a sign of rank but instead a map, a reminder of her ancestral blood and the thousand generations of spellcasters who preceded her. Power flowed through her. Power and knowledge. And Seoni channeled it through the detailed patterns across her skin, focusing the chaos into her spells.

“Frost and ice!” she called to Korakai. “Quench the flames!” As she said the words, an orb of biting cold formed around one of the fiery figures. Steam filled the tunnel as the elemental screeched like a teakettle.

“You mean to fight?!” the oracle gasped. “But… oh, bother.”

Korakai tamped his staff to the ground and the silver eye atop it flared. Geometric sigils, triangles and circles of blue light, spun around the head of the oracle’s weapon and, as they did, his free hand swirled with liquid, azure energy. The tengu had explained to Seoni that he could glimpse the First Storm that existed before creation, when the planes were nothing more than a roiling sea of lightning, wind, and rain. It was these fleeting glimpses, he speculated, that allowed the many gods and goddesses of weather to grant him their blessings.

The oracle reached out with his tempest’s touch, the water leaping from his outstretched talon to the nearest figure. More steam and high-pitched screeching let Seoni know that Korakai’s attacks were as deadly to these creatures as her own orbs of frost.

Korakai and Seoni fight fire with ice in this illustration by Gunship Revolution from Pathfinder Player Core 2.

Small arcs of lightning etched at random intervals across his robed form, and he moved to attack again. The breeze surrounding him was now a gale, buffeting Seoni’s hair and clothes. For all his fear, a true force of nature raged, barely contained, within her companion.

Their opponents breathed gouts of flame in response. The collective experience of Seoni’s ancestors guided her every movement as she raised a round shield of energy. Arcane sigils around her hands glowed blurrily in the steam. To her right, in a divine battle cry, Korakai let forth a mighty crow’s call as the tempest around him roared in response.

Seoni smiled fiercely, the light of fire dancing in her eyes.

About the Author

Jay Moldenhauer-Salazar was a founding columnist for Magic: the Gathering’s official website, which he wrote weekly for five years (along with various other gaming columns). During that time, he also penned several Kamigawa block web stories for Wizards of the Coast. He is a lifelong tabletop roleplaying gamer, frequent GM, and currently part of a fiction writers’ group in Oakland, CA. His serialized novelization of the Age of Ashes Adventure Path is available on Pathfinder Infinite.

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.

Korakai’s and Seoni’s classes—the oracle and sorcerer—appear in Pathfinder Player Core 2, which remasters eight Pathfinder Second Edition classes and presents a vast array of existing and new character options for members of all classes, including the chilling spray and tempest touch spells the pair cast in this story. Pathfinder Player Core 2 is available for preorder now, and will release in hardcover, special edition hardcover, retailer exclusive sketch variant hardcover, and PDF on August 1, 2024, and in pocket edition softcover in October.

Now that the dust of battle has cleared and all your survey responses are in, we can examine the intel you’ve given us to help refine and perfect the commander and guardian classes. We appreciate all your feedback, and while we’re still sifting through the more detailed notes, we can give you some quick insights into some ways we’ll be moving forward.

First, Michael Sayre will talk about the commander, and then Jason Keeley will fill us in on the guardian.

The Commander

Michael Sayre here, talking about where we might be headed with the commander class post-playtest.

One of the big things we saw in the playtest feedback was that by and large, people were really happy with the class as it stands. When we see numbers like this, one of the takeaways is that we want to focus on polishing what we’ve got rather than taking apart something that people are already really enjoying.

With that in mind, there’s a few things I think we’re highly likely to be doing going forward.

• Tactics: A big thing we want to do, obviously, is adding a bunch more tactics, especially in the expert, master, and legendary tiers. For the playtest, we had two tactics to choose from at each of these tiers, and we’re looking to increase that number significantly. With more tactics to choose from, we have room to expand the number of tactics the commander can have in their folio, and we can look at giving them a slight bump to the number of tactics they can have prepared. In addition to modifying the number of tactics available (both while building your commander and while playing them), we’re looking at some adjustments to the tactics themselves. In particular, making the master tactics all function on a once-per-10-minutes frequency and the legendary tactics all function at a once-per-day frequency can help make deciding when and how to deploy the various tactics in your folio a bigger part of your strategies across the day, without raising the cognitive load of play too high.
• Traits: The use of “banner” as both a class item and as a trait was sowing a bit of confusion, so we’re looking at replacing the banner trait with a “brandish” trait to make it a bit clearer that those abilities require you to have your banner held in hand and able to be waved about.
• Feats: We’re not anticipating a lot of changes here, but we’re looking at some opportunities to polish and expand some of the functionality presented in the commander’s feats. One of the possible changes we’re considering is swapping out the commander’s mount for a more versatile “mascot” pet and adding in a class-specific capstone feat for said mascot.

We know that folks really loved this class during the playtest, so hopefully this opportunity to polish and elevate it further makes it even more satisfying when the final iteration rolls out with the release of Battlecry! next year!

In the shadow of a mountain range, Amiri and Harsk lead an army of soldiers to war. Art by Jorge Jacinto.

The Guardian

The majority of you felt that the concept of the guardian was worth exploring but needed a little more polish to really sing. We couldn’t agree more. Some of the class’s main features might be able to interact with one another more cleanly, and we might be able to present them in a way that shows that the guardian’s abilities are a set of tools that each have their particular uses. We’re considering some larger overhauls to ensure that the guardian is fun and exciting to play.

• Intercept Strike: Many of you responded that needing to be adjacent to an ally to protect them could sometimes be difficult to engineer. We’re thinking about adding some mobility to this core reaction, allowing to the guardian to move a little bit before getting the in the way of the blow; after all, who doesn’t want to fling themselves at the frail wizard as an archer’s arrow flies toward their heart, dramatically screaming “Nooooo!”?
• Taunt: We wanted to test an extreme version of this ability so we could get your opinions, and we got them! In the current version, the bonus the target gets to attack the guardian essentially negates the advantage of their increased armor proficiency; for the less extreme revision, we’re considering focusing the ability on the penalty it confers to attacking the guardian’s allies. Whether or not this final version operates off of a saving throw or something else depends a lot on the specific implementation, so we’ll be reviewing some possible directions.
• Armor Specialization and Resistances: The concept of armor specialization might seem to fit the guardian very well, but that game element was designed to mesh with the abilities of other classes. After playtesting and going through the feedback, we feel it could be a little confusing that the resistance granted through Intercept Strike was different than the armor specialization resistance, so we’re looking at giving the guardian their own generalized resistances that apply in multiple situations!
• Feats: With the changes noted above (and some others we’re working on), some of the guardian’s feats will need a bit of reworking and recontextualizing to cohesively fit together in the final version. And, yes, I know Hampering Sweeps is too good for this world! But I’m hoping the idea of it will live on...

Of course, there will be other tweaks that we’ll make to the class as it goes through its post-playtest revisions. We’re sure that the final guardian will be fun and exciting to play for all of you who want to portray a character who goes to great lengths to protect their allies in a fight!

Jason Keeley (he/him)
Senior Designer

Michael Sayre (he/him) )
Design Manager

I see it in the flickering of my monitor. I hear it in the cawing of the seagulls fighting over a bagel outside my window. I smell it in my coffee from down the street (not the coffee from up the street—the coffee from the other street, or the coffee from the corner; this is Seattle, after all). For the oracle, coming in Pathfinder Player Core 2, is Remastered.

Oracles are divine spellcasters who draw their power not from prayer or devotion to a deity, but from a firsthand connection to the great mysteries of the universe. This connection is a double-edged sword, though, as gazing too deeply into these mysteries results in terrible backlash in the form of a divine curse. While this unique relationship with the divine and its “power at a price” theme offer strong and appealing roleplaying hooks that are very Golarion (what is the role of an oracle in a world where prophecy is lost?), the original oracle was often thought of as intimidatingly complex or as a class that made the player jump through hoops to unlock its potential. The Remastered oracle has been changed in ways both large and small to reduce its complexity and pain points, while still allowing players who want to risk fate to draw upon their curse to gain power.

The big change: instead of an oracle’s curse giving them a large suite of abilities, some of which are buffs, some of which are debuffs, and some of which might go either way, the oracle’s curse now just strictly debuffs the player. We’ve done it—no, no, no, come back; I promise this made the class stronger!

Art by Christoph Peters.

Because the classic oracle’s curses boosted some stats while lowering others, it could be unclear whether being cursed was a benefit you were trying to get ASAP or a price you had to strategically work around. In the Remaster, they’re always a price, which lets us significantly dial up the power that you get for paying it and keeps the trade-off simple to understand: “Cheat the rules of creation for power, and you get cursed.” The new oracle’s cursebound trait appears not on their focus spells, but instead on specific feats and other actions that have a notable advantage over similarly leveled feats, like cheating the action economy, letting you automatically learn about your target without a skill check, or other similar benefits. Each mystery grants a cursebound ability at level 1 to let them draw on this power, like Foretell Harm.

Foretell Harm [free-action] — Feat 1

Cursebound, Divine, Oracle
Frequency Once per round
Requirements Your previous action was to Cast a non-cantrip Spell that dealt damage.

Your magic echoes ominously as you glimpse injury in the target’s future. At the beginning of your target’s next turn, it takes damage equal to twice the triggering spell’s rank as a seemingly random and minor misfortune finds it. The damage and type of misfortune is of a type matching the spell; for instance, if you dealt fire damage, a flame might spontaneously ignite on them or they might burn a hand on their torch. The target is then temporarily immune to Foretell Harm for 24 hours.

However, whenever you use a cursebound ability, your cursebound condition increases in value. This is a unique condition that appears only in the oracle class. As your cursebound condition increases, the deleterious effects of your curse increase as well, like giving you a penalty to certain saving throws or a weakness to certain damage types. Like the classic oracle, the remastered oracle can tolerate higher and higher cursebound values as they increase in level, letting them use more cursebound abilities.

While most of these curse effects are relatively simple, we do know that a lot of oracle players enjoyed the more disruptive curse effects that could really throw variety into your battle. We’ve kept many of these as cursebound feats, like Meddling Futures (where sprits vie for control over your body) or Thousand Visions (where visions of the future grant you great perception within a short range, but overwhelm your senses beyond it), which are now selectable by any mystery. Now, oracle players who want to opt into this complexity can do so, and oracles who want more straightforward benefits can keep it simple.

Other Changes

We’ve also made several smaller changes throughout the oracle! In no particular order:

• We’ve made it easier to tailor your oracle's spell list to your mystery. Each mystery now grants three thematic spells to an oracle’s repertoire, and all oracles automatically gain a divine access class feature about halfway through their career that lets them expand this list further.
• We’ve doubled the number of available domains for oracles who want to harness domain magic. All mysteries now grant four related domains—now your battle oracle might gain the destruction domain, or your cosmos oracle the star domain!
• We’ve added dashes of ominous, portentous, delirious flavor throughout the class to really make you feel like you’re channeling otherworldly powers.
• With more streamlined mysteries and curses, we had room to add a greater number of unique oracle feats, a thing that was often cited as lacking in the classic oracle. Take a look at a unique feat for ancestors or battle oracles: The Dead Walk!

The Dead Walk [two-actions] — Feat 10

Cursebound, Divine, Oracle
Prerequisites ancestors or battle mystery

You beseech warrior spirits to come forth and aid you. Two ghostly warriors manifest within a 30-foot emanation of you and each attempt a Strike against an adjacent enemy, using your spell attack modifier, and then disappear. The warriors’ Strikes each deal 4d6 spirit damage, and the warriors can flank with one another and with you and your allies. If you are cursebound 2 when you use The Dead Walk, you instead summon three warriors, and if you are cursebound 3, you instead summon four warriors. The warriors disappear at the start of your next turn.

We’re getting close to the release of Player Core 2, with ancestries, archetypes, and more, so be sure to subscribe to the Rulebook line, pre-order the book, or make a note to swing by our booth at Gen Con to check things out—and keep an eye on the future for the last of our Remaster class previews!

James Case (he/him)
Lead Developer, Rules and Lore

You’ve fought ghosts and goblins, dragons and demons, and so much more in your storied careers as adventurers, yet now you face what may be your most daunting challenge yet—creating an opera based on your heroic legacy!

The city of Kintargo has a long tradition of art, even when it chafed under the oppressive rule of House Thrune. Now that its nation of Ravounel has seceded from infernal Cheliax, though, the time is nigh for the artists and performers of Kintargo to step up to the grand stage that is the Inner Sea region. While politicians maneuver complex plots and merchants work to secure new trade, it falls to a band of famous heroes fresh off a legendary adventure to bring what might be the Next Big Thing to the stage.

Surely, things will all go according to plan.

Surely, something unexpected won’t happen.

Surely, you’ll all soon be stars!

In the Curtain Call Adventure Path, your characters are asked by a famous director to aid in translating your adventures into an opera—a production that could well bring even greater fame and fortune to your group, but only if it’s done exactly right. Of course, there’s more afoot in the town of Kintargo than what’s coming soon on stage, and as the production swings into high gear, unexpected and dangerous complications are sure to make themselves known. Fear of performing on the stage will soon be the least of your worries!

Inside the Curtain Call Player’s Guide, you’ll find player-friendly, spoiler-free information and tips to help you make an exciting new 11th-level character perfect for the Curtain Call Adventure Path. Welcome to show business!

This player’s guide contains:

•  Character suggestions, including recommendations for ancestries, classes, languages, skills, and feats well suited for this Adventure Path.
•  Eight new Persona traits your PCs can take to indicate how the public regards you—do they see you as a struggling underdog, a relentless flirt, a troublemaking scoundrel, or something else? Your character’s Persona trait doesn’t have to match your character’s actual personality or role in the party, but it does give you a handy narrative hook to explore during play—and perhaps, once in a while, could even grant you unexpected opportunities as the Adventure Path unfolds!
• Eight new backgrounds tailor-made to contextualize your character’s larger-than-life theatrical role, building upon the eight Persona traits and providing advice for how (and why) your character might want to see themselves portrayed on the stage.
• A gazetteer of the city of Kintargo, including an exhaustive list of the dozens of NPCs your group might encounter during the campaign.
• A step-by-step guide for your group to develop a legacy worthy of transformation into an opera, in the event that you’re creating brand-new characters and not bringing in heroes from an already completed campaign.

Download The Curtain Call Adventure Path Player's Guide Today!

Welcome back to another exciting collection of Pathfinder Infinite & Starfinder Infinite Top Performers!

Pathfinder and Starfinder Infinite is a program that allows you to create content (adventures and locations; monsters; character classes, archetypes, and backgrounds; fiction; etc.) based on Paizo’s intellectual property (IP), including Pathfinder’s Lost Omens campaign setting, and to make some money while you’re at it. Your work might even be recognized by the community and earn you an invitation into the Infinite Masters elite creator program.

For more info on Pathfinder Infinite, Starfinder Infinite, and how to get started, check out the FAQs!

May’s Top Performers

Titles are ranked by an average of units sold and revenue earned and presented in alphabetical order. Asterisks indicate titles that have been on a best-seller list previously. Because they’ve consistently topped the list, and due to the number of their titles that typically take up spots, “Team+” and “Team Index” have asked to be removed from the calculations for ongoing top performers lists. This will allow newer publishers or book series to get more attention. Thanks, all!

Pathfinder Infinite Top Performers

Blood & Sigils

Unravel untapped powers slumbering within your blood and alter space around you by using mystical sigils with two new classes for Pathfinder 2nd Edition with Blood & Sigils! With more than150 feats and 16 new spells, be the bloody hero or the special sage you’re meant to be, and go discover even more hidden secrets all over Golarion!

Kitsune of Golarion Remastered*

Providing an in-depth expansion of Pathfinder Second Edition's vulpine ancestry, Kitsune of Golarion Remastered provides players and GMs alike with everything they need to make this vibrant ancestry of shape shifting fox folk feel at home in the Age of Lost Omens. Based on Gold Best-Selling product Kitsune of Golarion, this product aims to not only remaster, but redefine the content from this original offering into an indispensable product for the entire table, tailless or not.

The NPC Omnibus

The NPC Omnibus presents GMs with 36 new NPC's to use in their Pathfinder Second Edition Games. From chronomancers to knights to warrior poets, these stat blocks are perfect for any GM that needs a quick NPC! You can also find quick customizations for different ancestries inside!

Oceans Unleashed

From the powerful bards who harness the song of the abyss, to rangers who hunt leviathans alongside their aquatic companions, there are countless watery adventures waiting to be unleashed and brought to your table. With the recent release of the Athamaru and Merfolk ancestries from Pathfinder: Howl of the Wild, there's no better time to jump right in!

Player Core 1 Expanded*

Has inspiration struck, but Pathfinder Player Core doesn't have a subclass to fit? Whether you are looking for a Cleric spy, a swaggering Rogue, or a Druid with a will of Steel, you will find myriad options within, made by 4 Infinite Masters and specially tuned for the PF2e Remaster! Feats, subclasses, focus spells, and more for the classes of Player Core 1.

Starfinder Infinite Top Performers

The Adamantine Bastille: The Once Unbreakable Prison of the Starfinder Society*

The Adamantine Bastille: The Once Unbreakable Prison of the Starfinder Society offers a futuristic, science-fantasy prison setting for your next Starfinder adventure or campaign!

Whether you are looking for a supplement to use for a Starfinder Society Organized Play scenario set within the Adamantine Bastille, an evening's one-shot adventure, a side-trek for a campaign set on Absalom Station, or a detailed, dynamic, and decidedly thought-provoking setting for your next campaign, The Adamantine Bastille setting book gives you all the tools you need.

Elemental Experts

In the far future, spells and weapons tech alike put the power of the elements and other destructive energies in the palm of your hand! But some, whether they are modern-day elementalists, scientists or other experts in certain energy types, or simply enthusiasts, take this further and bring out the best in their chosen element.

Presented within are 5 archetypes dedicated to the 5 major energy types in the game, enhancing weapons and spells alike!

Enhanced Mechanic*

Experience the new Enhanced Mechanic.

A new version of the Mechanic, revised to make it more balanced and easier to play.

Several new (and revised) mechanic tricks, drone chassis, and drone mods.

Flumph Gate – or – Undulations Across the Infonet

In celebration of Paizocon 2024, here is the means to introduce the setting's original inspirational entertaining educators into the future that they never meant to happen.

This single page PDF is designed to print out and slip into any GM's binder for a dangerous rainy day and includes:

• A monster stat block representing a typical flumph that can be easily augemented with class templates into a wide variety of NPCs!
• Stats for allowing players to create a Flumph PC of their own!
• Three potential plothooks to introduce flumphs into a campaign set in space or planetside!
• VTT token artwork!

Monstercology Galacica: Autumn Aliens*

The Monstercology Galatica is an attempt to catalog and describe all of the many and varied creatures that we share the galaxy with. We understand that with millions of stars and billions of worlds – plus those that visit the galaxy from other planes – this is a nearly impossible endeavor. But if we do not try it, then we can never succeed. This is but one small excerpt of the greater Monstercology Galatica, focusing on creatures most often seen during the later parts of the year.

New & Exciting from Infinite Masters!

Want to see what’s been cooking in the Infinite Masters’ alchemy lab? Here’s a selection of new products from some of our Infinite Masters—and some pieces that have caught their eyes!

• Hoerm – An Odd Jobs encounter for Pathfinder Second Edition.
• Kineticist: The Element of Flesh – A new elemental gate for kineticists. (content warning for body horror)
• Abominations Under Absalom – A continuation of Pathfinder Adventure Path: Abomination Vaults for levels 11^th through 20^th
• Summoners+ - An expansion of the summoner class, now with Foundry and Pathbuilder support.

Thorny points menaced Jirelle from all directions. Her buckler and dagger turned them away for what felt like the hundredth time in half as many steps. Sadly, these were not enemy blades, which she would have preferred by far. Those she could beat, parry, catch, disarm, and finally answer with her own winning thrusts. Not so these hanging, coiling vines and branches. So lazy, yet so stubborn! Where was the energy, the impassioned back-and-forth between skilled players? This wasn’t daring play, but pure drudgery.

Of course, even if the trees did rise to the challenge, she was hardly prepared to meet them in a duel. Not an impressive one, at any rate. A swordless lunge lacked a certain something.

Blasted belaborin’, an old shipmate might’ve said. Damnable detour!

With those thoughts, she gave the thicket a moment of undeserved, unrequired mercy and turned on her companion instead. The rebuke she’d swallowed several times over finally made its escape. “You realize I may never forgive you for this?” she said, only half-joking.

Sajan was probably less penetrable than the jungle. The monk appeared indifferent to the grabbing flora and buzzing flies. Not even the yellow paint on his shaved head ran in the humidity. Still, Jirelle’s comment managed to hoist his brow a bit.

“Charging inland was not my idea,” he reminded her.

No, his idea had been to make peace with their losses. Adapt and carry on while the impertinent thieves carried off their shiny treasures. By the time he’d relented and joined in the pursuit, the criminals had a fair head start. The aiuvarin swashbuckler and qi-fueled monk rivaled one another in swiftness, but not even they could chase a winged quarry up waterfalls. Hence their current climb through choking roots and broadleaves.

But before all that… well, yes. Maybe if she had taken Sajan’s advice to ignore them, the creatures swarming the riverboat like seagulls might have, in fact, lost interest. Instead, she became defensive when the nosy things started hopping and flapping around the party’s gear. Sajan had retained his characteristic focus, gently accusing Jirelle of attaching too much importance to her possessions. It was possible he had a point. In trying to drive the thieves away, she had only fanned their interest. Curious picking and prodding became bold, giggling pilfery. Jirelle could appreciate a bit of provocative showmanship… when she was the one onstage. The role of an inactive audience didn’t suit her, let alone that of a helpless victim.

“Well, it’s clear I value my sword more than you value yours,” she sniffed before pressing on.

“Possibly,” he said as he padded quietly behind her. “Although you shouldn’t mistake my calm for indifference. I do feel frustration; I just deny it control. In time it diminishes, like an unfed fire.”

“Then I’m merely… feeding… my frustration?” Jirelle gasped, wrestling with the green creepers. They clung to her ankles and threaded through her slashed sleeves. Surely, she’d stumbled into an actual snakes’ nest! Thank the Lucky Drunk she’d left her cape behind.

“Which do you value greater?” the monk continued, arms relaxed behind him as if this were a beachside stroll. “Your favorite sword or the commission that awaits us?”

“Rather difficult to protect that nervous venture-captain without our weapons.” Jirelle paused before a particularly solid knot of branches blocking their way. She sighed. “Or to cut through these bloody tangles.”

“Hmm,” Sajan purred through a ghost of a grin. Clearly, he sensed another opportunity to impart some sage wisdom—or what his companions had taken to calling “Sajan advice.”

Jirelle decided to head off another lecture. “I suppose you want to move with the forest rather than against it. Glide across the top, perhaps?” That couldn’t be too terribly dissimilar to a masts-and-rigging balancing act, come to think of it. Climbing aloft might not be a bad idea.

Sajan considered this, too, then surprised her by shaking his head and stepping up to the natural barrier. She motioned for him to be her guest. He planted his feet in a wide, low stance and cupped his fingers like claws. His breath went in and out with a blur of motion too fast to follow. Sharp cracks rang in Jirelle’s ears, but only after the twisting arms of wood exploded away, splinters flying. Soon the debris settled; the path was clear. The monk turned and offered a bow, meaning both you’re welcome and after you.

Jirelle smirked at the showiness, but he couldn’t fool her. Swagger was her style, not his. His approach was direct, practical, and purposeful… not to mention effective. Clearly losing a favored weapon hadn’t hindered him to the extent it had her.

“Why don’t you go first?” she said with strained sweetness.

“Again, this particular detour was not my idea.”

“So it wasn’t. Then when we find our swords, I suppose you won’t be claiming yours?”

There was that hint of a smile. “Touché, madam.”

Jirelle laughed.

Soon they breached the worst of it and hastened their pace. A gap in the foliage and the undergrowth exposed dewy sky, and the jungle noise gave way to a low, distant rumble. They had returned to the river above the cataracts, which they’d overshot. This was only a small tributary to their vessel’s waterway.

“Must drop off ‘round the bend there,” Jirelle said, pointing left along a rocky bank. She searched right. The river wandered down from a purple fog of mountains. The landscape was peaceful, still, undisturbed. She doubted the thieves had fled any further inland, but they were nowhere to be seen. Might they have doubled back to the main river, followed it back to sea? That made sense. All while Sajan and she stumbled through the forest.

Blasted belaborin’!

A strange, spicy odor tickled her nostrils then, tempting a sneeze.

“Oh dear,” she heard her companion say, and found him staring almost sheepishly at his open hands, slick with something moist. A little apprehensively, Jirelle sniffed her own and recoiled quickly, eyes watering. Even her buckler wafted a hot stink.

“Monkey tree oil!” she gagged. “Must’ve run afoul of it back there. Better wash it off before it draws every predator in half a league.”

Sajan chuckled, apparently impressed that the forest had fought back.

The river’s current wasn’t too strong or deep and the water not at all cold, but its bed was slippery with moss and stones. They picked their way to the middle to give any oil on their feet a good rinsing. Then they scrubbed their forearms. Jirelle was just about to suggest they immerse themselves completely, for good measure, when a wet sound reached her over the rumbling downstream, a splashing that hadn’t come from them. Sajan went alert, too.

They realized they now had a better view around the bend. White spray indicated the tributary’s drop-off, but it was split by a wedge of moss-blanketed boulders. The sound had come from the tiny creatures crowding that wedge. They leaped into it from the water like flying fish bouncing off a ship’s hull, then flapped around like yellow bats, only to dive and start the process over again.

Jirelle and Sajan had found the thieves!

“Why are they acting like that?” the monk wondered softly.

These annoying, aquatic, fin-headed gremlins usually kept to the sea and the coast, but Jirelle assumed they’d been drawn in by the riverboat. Now the bright green, almost glowing boulders distracted them. Why didn’t interest her, because there were their weapons, her rapier and the monk’s temple sword, momentarily forgotten among the rocks.

Sajan must have sensed her coiling like a spring. “Remember what happened last time.”

“I know. If they think I want it…”

“Yes. And we’re too exposed here. Too slow. Better to slip around.”

He began to do just that, then looked back with an expectant stare. Are you coming?

There came a sickening metallic scratch. Downstream, Jirelle’s rapier was slipping, soon to fall into the spray and probably down the falls. Sajan’s expression was one of pity, but she felt her own resolve form into a confident smile. She decided her companion had had the right idea before when he cut through the trees.

The direct approach.

Her first few strides were indeed slow. Grounded. But soon she picked up speed and momentum, feeling lighter and lighter. Her feet touched shallower and shallower, recovering faster and faster, until they were completely free of the water, slapping the surface rapidly as she raced across it.

Sajan’s strangled grunt of surprise was extremely gratifying.

Jirelle strides across the surface of the water in this illustration from Pathfinder Player Core 2 by Alexander Nanitchkov.

Jirelle bent forward, focused only on reaching her property before it disappeared or the gremlins grabbed it again. A timely somersault carried her off the water and over her sword; her hand closed inside the guard. Landing gracefully on the wedge of boulders, she flourished the blade with an extravagant bow of her own.

Sajan nodded back, his head tilting only slightly toward her: Impressive!

Satisfied, Jirelle figured it was high time they rejoined their riverboat party. If that venture-captain’s fear of vengeful Aspis agents proved warranted, it wouldn’t do to miss out on the fun—or the commission.

There was no need to menace the gremlins, whose strange fascination with the boulders broke under Jirelle’s demonstration. They scattered and dove down the cascading steps of the falls. Jirelle wished them good riddance and stooped to recover the monk’s sickle blade from the rocks—which moved.

She froze. Looking closer, she realized the moss under her feet wasn’t just moss, but a scaly hide lit like a lantern from within. The heavy weight underneath shifted again, then began to rise. A long neck emerged, dripping from the stream. A face like a horse’s skull turned to inspect its passenger, sharp teeth flared hungrily

Jirelle’s dismount was far less graceful. She backpedaled upstream, kicking big splashes this time, until Sajan was by her side again. The river monster, even larger than it had seemed, greeted them with a crocodilian hiss. It lashed its tail and gave off a stronger greenish glow than before. Jirelle was glad they had their weapons back, though she had the horrible notion she was about to understand those gremlins’ dangerous enthrallment.

Damnable detour!

About the Author

Andrew Bud Adams learned to dungeon crawl before he learned to walk (and he has yet to learn to water sprint). When not pestering family and friends to play yet another tabletop adventure, he bides his time teaching college English, painting miniatures, and writing stories. His work has appeared in the Paizo Blog, in short story anthologies, and in the Malifaux universe by Wyrd Miniatures.

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.

Jirelle and Sajan’s classes—the swashbuckler and monk—appear in Pathfinder Player Core 2, which remasters eight Pathfinder Second Edition classes and presents a vast array of existing and new character options for members of all classes, including the Water Sprint feat employed so deftly by Jirelle in this story. Pathfinder Player Core 2 is available for preorder now, and will release in hardcover, special edition hardcover, retailer exclusive sketch variant hardcover, and PDF on August 1, 2024, and in pocket edition softcover in October.

The swashbuckler is swinging into Pathfinder Player Core 2 with a fresh coat of paint to show off their style and swagger like never before!

Swashbucklers fight fast on their feet with flair. They dart between foes, gaining and expending panache to execute powerful and flamboyant finishers. When a swashbuckler hits their stride and lands their rolls, they create wonderful, memorable moments on the battlefield. However, this could be difficult to do consistently based on the encounter. In some low-threat encounters, swashbucklers easily dance around the battlefield, able to gain and use panache freely, but in severe and extreme fights, they often struggled to gain panache and use their class abilities. Additionally, many swashbucklers heavily relied on Tumble Through as their primary way to obtain panache, which led to less satisfying uses of Tumble Through instead of an exciting way to move dynamically around the battlefield.

Our primary aim with the swashbuckler’s remaster was therefore to increase the consistency of the class to allow for more stylish moments.

Jirelle, the iconic swashbuckler, fights an angry dwarf. Art by Luis Salas Lastra

One way we’ve done this is through the new bravado trait, which you’ll see in several places in the class. Bravado is not only a bit more reliable for getting into panache, but the trait also lets us give more actions the ability to grant panache, allowing for more diverse options in combat. For instance, many of your swashbuckler styles might state that certain actions gain the bravado trait.

Bravado: Actions with this trait can grant panache, depending on the result of the check involved. If you succeed at the check on a bravado action, you gain panache, and if you fail (but not critically fail) the check, you gain panache but only until the end of your next turn. These effects can be applied even if the action had no other effect due to a failure or a creature's immunity.

Not all swashbucklers fight with honor, though. We’re introducing the new rascal swashbuckler style in the remaster! Rascals aren’t afraid to use underhanded tactics on the battlefield to show off their skills and thoroughly embarrass their foes with a Dirty Trick or two. They do what they need to do to gain the advantage and are happy to let their opponents drop their guard before striking fast, leaving their foes in their dust before finishing them off, perhaps with a Twirling Throw.

Twirling Throw [one-action] — Feat 4

Finisher, Swashbuckler
Prerequisites Flying Blade
Your thrown weapons seem to defy physics as they soar through the air and spin back to you after a strike. Make a thrown weapon attack, ignoring the penalty for making ranged attacks within the second and third range increment. The weapon returns to your hand after the attack unless you critically failed on the attack roll.

Pathfinder Player Core 2 is full of exciting remastered ancestries, classes, spells, and more to allow you to truly make the most of your games. Look forward to more previews of other remastered classes in the near future!

Joshua Birdsong (he/him)
Designer

Hail and well met, ‘Finders! This month’s new releases bring remastered accessories to your table, make our monsters pocket-sized, and send Starfinders to an earthquake-wracked Aucturn!

Never miss a release with our Paizo Subscriptions—for everything from rulebooks to accessories.

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Pathfinder Monster Core Pawn Box

The formidable foes and colorful characters of Pathfinder Monster Core come alive on your tabletop with this collection of more than 400 creature pawns for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game or any tabletop fantasy RPG! Printed on sturdy card stock, each double-sided pawn contains a beautiful full-color image of a creature from Pathfinder Monster Core. Each pawn slots into a size-appropriate plastic base, making them easy to mix with traditional metal or plastic miniatures. The Pathfinder Monster Core Pawn Box is the best way to ensure you’ve got the perfect monster on hand for every Pathfinder Roleplaying Game encounter!

Pathfinder Monster Core Pocket Edition

FIGHT FOR GLORY!

Intense battles call for intense monsters! Inside Monster Core, you’ll find over 400 creatures, including fantasy classics like elves, ogres, and all-new dragons; wild animals from giant ants to ferocious wolves; and unique monsters that threaten the world of Pathfinder, like sinspawn and noxious needlers. These creatures cover all levels of play, from the slow and mindless zombie shambler to the ultrapowerful demonic Treerazer! This collection is an ideal resource for Game Masters planning their next battles and player characters looking for monstrous allies to summon.

The pocket edition presents the same contents as the standard edition in a smaller sized softcover for a lower price and better portability.

Pathfinder Core GM Screen

ACCELERATE YOUR GAME!

Keep crucial rules on hand and protect your notes and die rolls from player eyes with the Pathfinder Core GM Screen! This beautiful four-panel, landscape-style screen features stunning artwork from Mirco Paganessi on the players’ side, and a huge number of charts and tables on the GM’s side to speed up play and reduce time spent leafing through rulebooks in search of key modifiers or results.

The Pathfinder Core GM Screen gives you the tools you need to keep the game fast and fun: conditions, death and dying rules, tables for setting DCs, creature elite and weak adjustments, summaries of actions, and more. Constructed from ultra-high-grade hardcover book stock, this durable screen is perfect for travel, convention play, and repeated regular use.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #203: Shepherd of Decay (Wardens of Wildwood 3 of 3)

STRIKING AT THE HEARTWOOD

Having neutralized the Wildwood Lodge’s new weapons, the PCs and their allies assault it directly to oust its murderous despot. Yet after recruiting local allies and besieging living fortresses, they discover their foe has fled to an unfamiliar realm: the Plane of Wood. Can the PCs stop this villain from recruiting a demigod of decay to devastate the Verduran Forest? The Wardens of Wildwood Adventure Path concludes with “Shepherd of Decay,” a complete adventure for 11th- to 13th-level characters.

Starfinder Society Scenario #7-03: Aucturn Asunder

A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for 7th- through 10th-level characters.

Perched on the edge of the Pact Worlds, the planet Aucturn is an inhospitable place with a foul reputation, believed by many of its fanatical inhabitants to be a massive, alien womb. After receiving conflicting reports of strange psychic and cosmic phenomena occurring on the planet’s surface, the Starfinder Society dispatches a team of experienced agents to travel to Aucturn and investigate. As the Starfinders strive to unravel the source of these occurrences, persistent tectonic activity rocks the planet.

Aucturn is hatching! The end is nigh!

Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-18: Equal Exchanges—Tapestry of the Mind

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 9th- through 12th-level characters.

Her identity finally revealed to the Pathfinders, the Waterfall makes a final request: have a group of senior agents travel into the mindscape attached to her and extract whatever it is that ties her to entities unknown. With any hope, this will give her the privacy and security she so desires and deserves after her life. Within her mindscape, strange aberrations lurk, and even stranger are their motivations and how they plan on keeping the Pathfinders away from the center of her cerebral maze.

This adventure is the final part of the four-part Equal Exchanges metaplot arc in the Year of Unfettered Exploration. This arc began in PFS2 #5-04: Equal Exchanges—Necessary Introductions and continued in PFS2 #5-09: Equal Exchanges—Skymetal Hoard and PFS2 #5-11: Equal Exchanges—The Hidden Current.

Pathfinder Quest (Series 2) #19: The Elsewhere Feast

A Pathfinder Society Quest designed for 1st- through 4th-level characters, playable in 2-3 hours.

The enigmatic being known simply as the Thane, one of the more powerful denizens of the First World, on rare occasions grows weary of solitude and holds a grand party. Invitations are scattered throughout the planes, and simply interacting with one in any manner will suddenly see a “guest” whisked away to the feast. Further, the Thane warps time in their realm, making each day last a decade. The celebration continues for a week of these decades. Mortals taken find themselves seventy years older with only a week having passed outside, if they even survive decades of partying.

Recently, the Thane has again become bored and sent out invitations. Some citizens of Jol unfortunate enough to have stumbled upon these were whisked away. It’s up to the PCs to free them—and likely the PCs themselves— before even more years pass in the twisted time of the Thane's realm.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-19: Demonic Afterparty

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 3rd- through 6th-level characters.

A demonic cult recently performed a ritual to great success, part of its leader's greater schemes. Her work near Nerosyan complete for now, she left a token force to guard the site, no longer needing it, and prepared to travel elsewhere for grander plans. This activity, though, has been noticed. The ritual site was supposed to be completely abandoned, but a group of traveling merchants became aware of the strange activity. This was reported to the Nerosyan leadership, who in turn have pressured Venture-Captain Jorsal of Lauterbury to get involved. Jorsal has decided to send the PCs to investigate the site itself, assuming that a place so near the city likely isn’t much of a threat.

From Our Partners:

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When Quinn needed to work, he liked to get out. It was amazing what a walk, a chat with a neighbor, or a fresh environment would do to dislodge stray thoughts or connect fresh insights. Of course, that wasn’t the only reason Quinn found himself at his usual corner at Amberlight, his table covered in ledgers, timetables, and a map of the city. The Merrymead Menace had struck again. There were only a few more days until the festival, and the thief was taking it upon themself to rob a different restaurant or inn every night.

Not that they’d bother hitting here, Quinn thought. Target pattern: establishments with occupancy over one-hundred-twenty-five guests, catering primarily to out-of-town clientele. The exact opposite of this cozy cafe. The Merrymead Menace was clearly looking to separate some wealthy tourists from their valuables, then blend back into a crowd. If it weren’t for their seemingly impossible scale of activity and a certain flair for the dramatic—last night’s inn had seen every single safe box emptied, jewelry and gold and letters of banking replaced by a single dull copper coin in each—they’d would hardly stand out against the lost purses that inevitably happened around the winter holiday’s raucous pub crawls and outdoor parties.

With one last look around the room for his favorite barista—Odd... New scent in the air.—Quinn turned back to his work, tapping his pen against the alchemical flask sitting on the table in the hope the damn thing would change colors. No luck. He scratched another region off the map. Not from the Looms, either, then. While Quinn appreciated knowing he wouldn’t have to spend the rest of the day canvassing up and down the clothing district’s notorious hills, he’d have preferred to know where to look, rather than where not to. A bit of flattery and a fresh lemon cake from the local bakery had bought Quinn a favor with the local constabulary’s evidence department, but he’d been able to borrow only enough of the mud collected from a windowsill to run one more test. Quinn furrowed his brow as he shook another vial.

He always was better at this sort of thing. Quinn split his thoughts, setting the majority of his mind on the notes in front of him. But with one part, Quinn drifted to the past. He’d met Arlo right when he’d been getting his start as a freelance detective. He’d needed a consult on the case of the vanishing coins, and several recommendations had pointed him in direction of a talented forensic chemist. Frankly, Quinn had disliked the man when they first met, with his adherence to protocol, but he’d identified the solvent used in the case with nothing more than a cursory glance, so Quinn resolved to work together.

Time and shared ambitions have a way of bridging the gaps between even the most different people. Waiting for lab work or a long stakeout left plenty of time to talk. Talks of the theater turned into a date to see Echoes of Everfall; talks of the virtues of Taldan white wines compared to Chelaxian reds flowed into a weekend getaway to the vineyards of Carpenden. Talks of a longer partnership turned naturally into a marriage, and for a time, everything was perfect.

But time can separate two ambitious people when their aims begin to diverge. First it was a canceled dinner here or there, spurred on by a breakthrough in a case (both men understood that you had to strike when a breakthrough came). Then it was a few weeks’ deployment to investigate this village or that town. When they did talk, it was less and less of theater or wine, more and more of work. By the time Arlo was scouted by the Qadira division of the Society of the Scales and Quinn had received that offer in Andoran, there wasn’t any doubt that it was a parting. They were two brilliant detectives at the height of their careers—they could deduce how things were going to end.

Quinn remains focused while working on the case of the Merrymead Menace.
Art by Kiki Moch Rizky.

A footstep to Quinn’s left, intentionally loud enough to be audible but not so much to be alarming, pulled him back to the present. Without turning his eyes from his notes, Quinn smiled as he moved his hand to clear a spot on the table. “Quinn, you know the only person I let do alchemy in my establishment is the chef.” Rhys placed a cup of (unordered) coffee on the table. “I can’t be making exceptions, even for my favorite customer.”

Quinn hastily noted the color in the vial before moving it back to his bag. “They have me on the case of the Merrymead Menace,” the investigator said as he attempted to piece together some numbers in a ledger before he became too distracted. Rhys nodded. “This residue narrows the culprit down to either the riverbanks, central square, or old ironworkers’ quarters, but there’s too many establishments to cover.”

“Maybe you could investigate during the festival?”

Quinn shook his head. He tried to keep business and pleasure as separate as possible, these days—and turned to Rhys. “By that time, the culprit—"

Apron steamed two days earlier than normal. Fresh haircut. That same floral scent.

“Roses.” Quinn didn’t need to look behind the man’s back to notice the bouquet. “You’re going all out decorating this year, aren’t you?”

Rhys coughed a bit, taking the bouquet out from behind his back. “I… thought they’d look nice along the bar?”

Slight flush. Eyes turning to door. A charming vocal hitch. “Or maybe they’re for a gentleman you’re planning on asking to a Merrymead party?”

Rhys laughed, and the sound warmed the cafe. “Really, Quinn, nothing gets past you. I enjoy the big night out with the group as much as the next guy, but I was thinking a quieter festival for two might be nice this year.”

Quinn agreed—he was about the same age as Rhys, and by now a quieter Merrymead for two sounded nicer than a loud party. Two people enjoying a walk along the river, two cups of spiced wine, two… Quinn bolted to his feet. “Say that again.”

Rhys stood up, smoothing out his apron and running a hand through his hair, tightening his grip on the bouquet slightly enough that even Quinn’s finely honed senses didn’t notice. “I was saying a quiet festival for two might—"

But Quinn was already shoveling his notes into his bag. “Exactly! For two—two of them! That’s how they’re covering that much space. Identical build, height, weight as well—it’s the Extrina Twins back in town, I’m sure of it!” He dashed for the door “Perfect! Absolutely perfect! Thank you!”

It was only when the chill of winter’s air touched Quinn’s face that something clicked in his mind, something obvious that he should say. He opened the door again, locking eyes with the barista.

“Good luck on your date!”

Rhys sighed to himself as the master investigator’s coat swept out into the streets. “Really, Quinn, nothing gets past you.”

About the Author

James Case (he/him) is lead developer for the Rules and Lore team at Paizo. His recent projects include the Lost Omens Tian Xia books and Pathfinder Howl of the Wild, and he’s very proud to work with so many awesome queer creators in this hobby where we write about adventurers and archmages and monsters and lasers. Happy Pride!

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.

I’ve known Gorum longer than anyone else. Although he’s changed and developed in ways I never considered, he was created for my homebrew setting back in the very early 90s, as I was rounding out my campaign setting in preparation for a big campaign I was going to run for several friends in my college dorm.

He wasn’t the first, second, or third divinity I created for my setting (those honors go, in order, to Yamasoth, Treerazer, and Desna), but he was part of the larger group of two-dozen or so gods I invented once the world-building bug bit me. I wanted a deity in my setting who was someone like Crom, someone non-clerics like Conan could pray to or curse to before, during, and after a fight. Unlike Crom and Conan, though, I wanted this god of war to be fully armored and armed in iron and steel. And so the idea of a god who presents as an animated suit of armor was born into my setting.

When it came time to build Golarion, we were very pressed for time. We had to simultaneously close out the magazines and then jump right into producing our own RPG content without skipping a month, due to the realities of the subscription-based promises and methods Paizo had been built on. It’s very difficult to build an adventure in a world without proper nouns. You can make that up as you go, but that runs the risk of rushing an important job. So as I was put in charge of the Pathfinder Adventure Path line, I made the decision to draw from my then 15-year-old setting for much of that lore. Which included the deities.

We wanted to do 20 “core deities” from the start because it was a fun number to aim at (this being a d20 game), but also because that allowed us to create two different types of deities for each of the 9 alignments, with 2 left over to pad the numbers (one of those went to Neutral to create a “best choice” deity for druids, and one of those went to Lawful Good to create a “best choice” deity for paladins).

Gorum ended up making the jump from my homebrew at that stage into the public by being one of the two chaotic neutral deities chosen, and for the next 17 years, he would serve as Golarion’s god of war.

Illustration by Maichol Quinto

Roleplaying the Grim Reaper

When we decided it was time to shake things up in the Lost Omens setting, the death of a god made the most sense. We’d done this at the dawn of the campaign with the death of Aroden—even though his death took place a century earlier, it still was a huge part of our world’s lore. But killing off someone no one knows about is very different than killing off someone who some folks have known for 17 years (or in my case, closer to 34 years). We had a lot of discussions about which of the core 20 deities we wanted the metaphorical Grim Reaper to visit. We didn’t want to kill off an evil deity, since that would have less emotional impact, but we also didn’t want to take out a deity we had strong plans for in the future, or whose role in the setting was significantly load bearing.

In my homebrew in the early 2000s, I killed off Abadar as part of a plot where the world was slipping into entropy and the PCs had to step up to help prevent more gods from being killed, and he was thus my first nomination. But he’s also someone who’s a handy non-evil villain to have around, and beyond that, he had a role in the future in Starfinder. Other folks suggested other deities, but in the end, we all settled on Gorum. Here was a god who wasn’t evil, who was part of the core 20 but didn’t have a particularly strong role in the lore, didn’t represent a specific ancestry or character class, but who was still popular enough that his death wouldn’t feel hollow. It would still sting. It would still be noticeable. And it would absolutely change the setting—especially when we decided that the death of the god of war wasn’t going to make war go away, but instead let war run rampant.

llustration by Kendal Gates

Witness Him!

Unlike Aroden’s death, which was and will remain shrouded in mystery, we aren’t being coy about Gorum’s death. The specific methods by which he dies will be spelled out in print, and your PCs will be able to take part in multiple adventures impacted by the event—an event known as Godsrain, and which begins a period historians will refer to as the War of Immortals. We’ll have information about what your clerics of Gorum can do next, particularly in adventures where the event takes place after you’ve already potentially started playing clerics of Gorum. We hope the specific details of how and why will resonate with everyone in the same way they do with me and everyone on the editorial team at Paizo!

During PaizoCon last month, we revealed more details about where and when Gorum dies, as well as how you can read those details as a GM, how your PCs can take part in those details as they play out in the course of play, or how you can experience them in the form of fiction. Those who want light spoiler information about where you can find out more, read on. Those who want to be surprised about the event when it happens in your game—I’ve already said too much!

SPOILERS

Gorum’s death is described in detail in the upcoming standalone adventure, Prey for Death. Where that event takes place during the adventure, I won’t say more now, but GMs who read the adventure will find that information front and center. How much the players learn, and when that learning happens, depends on the choices they make during play, of course!

The Curtain Call Adventure Path will be starting in a world before these events take place, but by the end of that three-part, high-level campaign, Gorum will be dead. While the direct impact of this will be less than it was in Prey for Death, other developments rising from the event will be on full display. Again, the timing of where and when Godsrain falls during Curtain Call isn’t something we’ve revealed, but it will become obvious once the first volume (and its short summary of the campaign’s three chapters) is published.

After that, War of Immortals presents additional information about the rules involved with these events, Lost Omens Divine Mysteries spends some time exploring the way the gods of the setting are changing, and the novel Godsrain chronicles some in-world fiction involving some familiar iconic heroes as they experience certain developments caused by the death of Our Lord in Iron.

Illustration by Mark Tarrisse

After these, we’re not simply going to let the topic go, of course. The Godsrain may be over, but the War of Immortals is only beginning. And while we’ll soon reveal the exact event in which Gorum dies in print for you to read, there are other new mysteries that event sets up. Mysteries we have plans for. These events—Gorum’s death and other still-unrevealed-complications that death creates—will continue affecting the Lost Omens setting from this point forward, much in the same way that the re-introduction of the runelords in the very first Pathfinder Adventure Path continues to have ripple effects, the closing of the Worldwound allows for the exploration of new stories, and the secession of Ravounel sets up brand new narratives to experience. The War of Immortals is larger in scope and scale than all of those, though, make no mistake. You’ll see the aftermath of the Godsrain play out in the Triumph of the Tusk Adventure Path later this year, and it has some ripple effects that help kick things off in next year’s just-announced Spore War Adventure Path as well. Not every adventure will be focused on these events—the one after Spore War won’t, for example—but just as we’re still telling stories about runelords or the aftermath of the Worldwound or the fate of Ravounel, what goes down during the War of Immortals is here to stay.

Unlike Gorum.

But do not weep for him! Instead, maybe the next time your PC slays a dragon, defeats an evil warlord, or simply earns a new weapon or suit of armor, raise a sword in his memory.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Creative Director of Narrative

A cool autumn breeze blew across the woodlands, its scent carrying the promise of snow that was, for now, still trapped in distant mountains. The wind rustled leaves across the ground, shaking a few remaining bits of gold and crimson foliage from their branches. Birds sang in the background, but the clearing was otherwise silent, except for…

“Amiri, can you please lie still,” Seelah’s voice was firm, and only a touch strained, “for just a few minutes more? Once I have finished the rite of the blade, I can heal you again, and then recite the prayer of—”

“I’m fine.” Amiri’s voice was laced with frustration. “You don’t need to finish any rites, and I certainly don’t want to wait for one of your endless prayers. I don’t need any more healing than you’ve already provided, Seelah. I’m ready to take on whatever else is out here.”

Seelah shook her head and continued her rite. She had already cleaned her longsword with the eleven small cloths she carried for that purpose and now needed to put it all away mindfully, treating the cloths and her sword with the honor and respect they deserved as instruments of justice.

“We don’t know that, because we don’t know what’s out here.” Seelah kept her tone even and her eyes focused on what she was doing. “Certainly, more giant ticks like that one,” she indicated the two halves of the monstrous insect that had attached itself to Amiri before the duo had cut it apart, “could have either killed the hunting party or sickened them enough they can’t make it back to the village. But they’re locals, and the villagers called these ticks a common threat; I wouldn’t expect a well-equipped party of four men and two hunting dogs to have been overwhelmed so easily.”

Amiri shrugged but managed to lie still, screwing her eyes shut to block out distractions. “All true,” Amiri said, “but no one and nothing likes ticks—especially ticks the size of badger-hounds. So, since they thrive here, these woods are unlikely to have anything tougher than them in them, or that tougher thing would have killed off the ticks. It’s one reason I insisted on coming and checking this hunting trail while the others waste time looking through the village records.”

Seelah tried to suppress a smile.

“Yes, and since you insisted on coming out here, someone had to come with you in case you needed backup. And as your backup, I want you fully healed before we get any deeper into the woods.” Seelah carefully placed her ritual kit next to her backpack, then laid her sword on the ground within arm’s reach. “Now, are you going to allow me to ensure you are at your best?”

Amiri took a deep breath and forced herself to relax.

“Oh, go ahead. We might as well, at this point.”

Seelah knelt next to her ally and placed her left hand over where the vile tick had dug into Amiri and begun draining her blood. “Inheritor,” Seelah prayed silently, “please heal this mighty warrior whom I have seen face the greatest foes with valor, and ready her to stand against injustice in all its forms.”

A golden light formed around Seelah’s hand and silently poured into Amiri’s remaining wounds like glowing, liquid amber. The puncture mark from the tick’s attack, already half closed from Seelah’s first effort at healing it, disappeared entirely, leaving no sign the wound had ever existed. Amiri’s eyes popped open, and she grinned at Seelah.

Seelah heals Amiri with Iomedae’s holy power in this illustration by Christoph Peters, from Pathfinder Player Core 2.

“Right, now let’s get the rest of the way up the trail and—”

Seelah shook her head.

“I know I’ve already strained your patience, Amiri, but if you just wait a little longer, I can—”

“Shh!” Amiri interrupted, holding up a finger. “Listen.”

Seelah stopped talking and cocked her head to pick up whatever noise Amiri had heard. The woods were filled with susurrant shuffling, the sound of dead leaves brushing over thick grass and, farther away, bird noises that seemed more like short, concerned chirps rather than the songs they’d been singing earlier.

Seelah shook her head. “Other than some bird sounds, I don’t hear anything but the rustling of leaves.”

Amiri stood, lifting her enormous sword into a ready stance. “Yes, the leaves are rustling… but the wind has died.”

Seelah’s eyes widened in realization, and she quickly turned to strap her shield firmly to her forearm. Amiri was right, of course: the wind had stopped, but the sound of rustling leaves was growing louder and closer. Amiri leaped off the ground, already ten paces ahead by the time Seelah was standing and fully ready, but she swiftly stopped her advance, large sword held high as she peered into a dark copse of trees that seemed to be the source of the rustling. Seelah knew her eyes were not as keen as Amiri’s, and she carefully glanced around them as she closed the distance to her companion. It would not do to be caught unaware if a threat attacked from another direction.

From the dense woods to the side of the hunting trail, figures shambled toward them. Three were humanoid in shape, but moved with a slow, unsteady gait. As they stumbled into the light, their faces came into view, showing rictus grins and sagging, yellowed flesh. The arms and legs of each were twisted and curled, as if locked in awkward positions they could only barely control.

Beside the shuffling corpses, two smaller figures moved jerkily forward, crawling on all fours. Once, they had clearly been hunting dogs, but jagged wounds ran the length of one’s ribcage, and the other’s throat was missing. Both had blank, white eyes.

Amri turned to Seelah, her nose wrinkled in distaste.

“What in iron are those?!”

Seelah’s expression darkened. “Zombies. Freshly risen, from the looks of them.”

“But zombie… dogs?!” It was clear from Amiri’s tone that she felt such abominations were worse than the bipedal undead shambling along beside them.

Seelah nodded grimly. “Anything living can be perverted to undeath one way or another. This is almost certainly the missing hunting party. Whatever killed them visited this further indignity upon their corpses, an indignity I will not allow to go unche—”

Amiri bellowed a challenge, charging the nearest zombie hound. Seelah knew that cry and the expression of pure fury on Amiri’s face.

There would be no retreat in this battle.

Amiri’s charge brought her to within reach of the zombies, and a single swing of her massive sword felled one of the undead hounds. Seelah rushed to protect Amiri’s flank as the zombies clumsily surrounded her companion. Their slow movement kept the undead from overwhelming Amiri, but the remaining zombie hound bit at Amiri’s boot and tried to pull her to the ground.

Seelah hefted her shield as she reached the once-dog,. She slashed it with her own sword, watching as the blade peeled its flesh apart as easily as a canvas sail. Amiri was exchanging blows with the zombie hunters, and just as the undead hound collapsed, one of them caught her with a powerful blow to her chin. Blood flew, and Seelah whispered a hasty prayer to Iomedae to lessen the attack while ducking under Amiri’s massive sword to split the zombie’s skull with her gleaming longsword.

A fist smashed Seelah’s shield, cracking the wood and bruising her arm, but then suddenly there was only one zombie left. Seelah deflected another blow with her shield, then she and Amiri struck it as one, dropping the corpse back to the earth, skewered and sliced by the pair’s steel.

Seelah saw Amiri scanning the woods and trusted her to be alert for any danger, while the paladin ensured all the undead were truly destroyed.

“Well, ticks didn’t do that,” said Amiri.

“No,” Seelah agreed. “Whatever created these horrors is either new to the area or willing to make itself known in a way it hasn’t before. Unless it has, which is a thing that might be recorded in the village’s records.”

Amiri frowned, then nodded. “All right, so we should go back and see if the others have found anything. Right after we take whatever time you need to heal us both. But I’m going to stay standing this time.”

Seelah began unstrapping her shield, assessing the damage it had sustained during the fighting in the process. “And why is that?”

Amiri grinned grimly. “Because the villagers said four hunters went missing, and this only accounts for three.”

A cold wind blew from the woods, bringing a chill that no longer felt tied to any natural season.

About the Author

Owen K.C. Stephens is a veteran game designer and writer with more than 25 years of experience. A former Paizo developer, he worked extensively on the Pathfinder Player Companion and Starfinder lines and remains a fan of Golarion and all of Paizo’s games. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2023 and is delighted to be back to doing some professional writing. He regularly releases new content on his Patreon and has a GoFundMe campaignto help cover the costs of fighting cancer. You can also find him on Facebook, Twitter/X, and BlueSky.

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.

Once, very long ago, a traveler walked a lonely road, lost and afraid. Though the path seemed to stretch on forever, they could not say where it took them, nor were they entirely certain of where they hoped it might go. All they knew was that they could not stay where they had begun.

They had set out with purpose, but the hardships they faced had worn their spirit down, leaving them weary and alone. As the night grew darker still, the traveler ruminated on the trials of the world, their own and those of others, and despair settled around their shoulders like the heaviest of mantles.

As they climbed a tall and wooded hill, each strained step slower than the last, they gradually became aware of a gentle sound: shh, shh, shh. The weary traveler peered ahead, unable to make out anything in the feeble starlight, and gripped their walking staff tighter in case of trouble.

A small, white butterfly ghosted across the path before them and flitted up over a fallen menhir they hadn’t yet noticed in the dark. A delicate tune floated back in its wake. Their fear assuaged and their exhaustion temporarily muted by curiosity, the traveler clambered over the stone slab and followed the butterfly’s path to the top of the hill.

They didn’t expect the scene that awaited as they emerged from the trees. Several rough stone pillars, arrayed in what might once have been a circle, ringed the summit of the grassy hill. Nestled against the biggest stood a wide, flat stone platform covered in many colors of faded threadbare cloth that were surely vibrant long ago. Small rock cairns, candles burnt to their wicks’ ends, a bedraggled feather, and a few other small tokens littered the rock’s surface.

It might have looked forlorn and abandoned, save for the three women merrily tending to it. One, a Tian woman with pale skin and short, dark hair, was setting out fresh candles, the flame reflected in her dark eyes. The second, a Varisian woman with warm brown skin and multicolored ribbons threaded through her long, wavy hair, was the source of the tune that echoed into the trees; she continued to hum cheerfully she painted the stone pillar with delicate designs. The third figure, a Garundi woman with skin nearly as dark as the night around them, danced as she swept the ground around the shrine, the beads in her cloud of black hair like miniature sisters of the stars. Shh, shh, shh, the broom whispered to the stones.

The third woman—clearly a priestess of Desna—spotted their guest first as the ghostly butterfly alit on a nearby cairn. “Welcome, traveler,” she called with a smile, her warm voice gentle as she set the broom aside.

The first woman—surely a priestess of Sarenrae—rekindled a dwindling log with a gesture. “You look cold,” she said, her voice strong and clear. “Come, share our fire.”

The second woman—undoubtedly a priestess of Shelyn—ceased her song and beckoned the traveler closer. “You are welcome among us.”

The traveler, overwhelmed at their kind and unexpected greeting, assented with quiet thanks, sitting near the now-blazing campfire and accepting a warm mug of tea from Shelyn’s acolyte.

“You look troubled, friend,” said Sarenrae’s priestess as she sat down across from the traveler.

The traveler looked into their tea for a long moment before meeting her gaze. “The road has been long, and uncertain,” they said, and soon found themself telling the women all about their struggles, from the personal queries of identity and belonging to the endless communal work toward justice and liberation.

“I’m afraid I’m tired, and lost,” they admitted. “I see a brighter future, but I don’t know how to get there. It’s hard not to feel hopeless, and alone. Though I guess I’m less so, at the moment.”

Desna’s acolyte smiled again, looking to her companions. “We are always ready for unexpected friends,” she said, and the others nodded. “And as for being lost or unsure, the only step in any journey that matters is the next one.”

“The dawn brings new light,” Sarenrae’s acolyte added. “You may find you see more clearly after rest. There will always be good causes to fight for, but we cannot do so alone and weary. Even the boldest among us must seek rest and community to nourish our spirits.”

“I find creation helps,” offered Shelyn’s acolyte, gesturing to the paintbrush now tucked behind her ear. “Love and beauty belong to all, and help to keep hope alive in each other when we might otherwise falter.”

“But everything has changed!” cried the traveler. “So many are suffering, and nothing is as I expected it to be. How are we supposed to cope with the uncertainty?”

“Change is unavoidable,” said the priestess of Sarenrae. “But it brings new opportunities to right old wrongs. We must face change head-on. Together, we can find courage.”

“Change is beautiful,” said the priestess of Shelyn. “Instead of fearing it, we can learn to dance with it.”

“Change is the only way we see new horizons,” agreed the priestess of Desna, smiling at her companions and taking their hands in hers. “But as the union of the Radiant Prism has shown us, even in the face of change, some things endure.”

As the women joined hands, the traveler saw a new scene before them. Instead of a dark hilltop, there was a peaceful woodland glade with a small creek warmed by afternoon sunlight. Three women rested together in the soft grass, but they were not the acolytes—or had they been the acolytes all along? Two of the women now had wings, one the thin veined membranes of a butterfly, the other the powerful feathers of an angelic raptor, her hair now shining gold as if it contained the sun’s own light. The third woman was crowned in flowers. She sang softly, a comforting ballad of loves’ triumphs, her long hair now threaded with all the colors of the rainbow.

Desna, Sarenrae, and Shelyn together are worshiped as the Radiant Prism. Illustration by Klaher Baklaher

The traveler slept then, the cares of the road eased, for a while. When they awoke on the hilltop, the women were gone, but they no longer felt quite so alone. The embers still glowed in the fire, and a wren’s morning song filled the air. Above them, starlight twinkled in the friendly dawn sky.

About the Author

Simone D. Sallé (she/they) is a senior editor at Paizo. Her writing credits include the Paizo blog’s Zoetrope Logs, Pathfinder Howl of the Wild, Starfinder Bounty #12: Under Pressure, and more. She can often be found exploring divine woodland glades in the Pacific Northwest with her spouse and dog.

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.

Hail and well met, ’Finders! It’s that time of year again—Free RPG Day is just around the corner! Paizo is excited to once again be participating in Free RPG Day and supporting FLGS around the world!

This year, Paizo is offering a Pathfinder one-shot adventure and a collection of preview creatures for the Starfinder Playtest!

Pathfinder Adventure: The Great Toy Heist

DON’T TOY WITH US!

There’s always someone up to no good in the Chelaxian capital of Egorian, and this time it hits a little too close to home! A corrupt banker discovered there was something magical about The Terrific Toyshop beyond just the magnificent creations within. Greedy and unprincipled, this wealthy noble found a loophole in the diabolically complicated laws of the city and exploited it to seize the deed to the toyshop and threaten to boot the toy maker and his lovely creations out on the streets. What are sentient toys to do in the face of such reprehensible actions? Break in and steal the deed back, of course!

In The Great Toy Heist, you take on the role of one of four unique poppets—living toys with strong wills of their own. While your gentle creator is beside himself with worry, you and your friends enact a risky plan to save your home and livelihoods with stealth, subterfuge, and no shortage of luck!

Starfinder Second Contact

THE EVOLUTION STARTS HERE

Experience the evolution of the Starfinder roleplaying game with over a dozen iconic creatures fully compatible with the upcoming playtest and your existing Pathfinder roleplaying game campaigns! Inside you’ll find friends and foes, ranging from the whimsical asteray to the classic cybernetic zombie. This dossier also includes previews of spells, weapons, and even a squox companion to help you face extraterrestrial threats. Get started today and prepare your players for out-of-this-world adventure in the second edition of the Starfinder roleplaying game!

Free RPG Day takes place on Saturday, June 22^nd, 2024.
Find a participating retailer near you: https://freerpgday.com/gamers

With Pathfinder Player Core 2 releasing at the start of August, we know players are anticipating the remastered versions of some of their favorite classes! In a series of blogs starting right here, we’ll be alternating between talking about the changes to four of the classes and showing off some fun fiction and art starring the iconic characters of Player Core 2.

The champion is the premier divine warrior, with some of the best armor and defenses in the game. They’re devoted to their deity and their tenets. One of the major changes to the remaster was dropping alignment, which the champion has always featured heavily, so we know everyone expects big changes to the class!

We’ve already put basic compatibility rules for the champion in the Pathfinder FAQ—see Pathfinder Core Rulebook Errata (Remaster Compatibility)—but the Player Core 2 version will present a much more thorough overhaul. So what do fans of this class have to look forward to?

Seelah, the iconic champion, battles a tyrant devil. Art by William Liu.

Before the remaster, a champion’s alignment and their choice of champion cause established a strict set of hierarchical rules to be followed. Each good and evil alignment had a cause tied to it, like the lawful good paladin, chaotic good liberator, and neutral evil desecrator. The remastered version still has a cause, but the focus has shifted away from being so strict and static. Now we use edicts and anathema tied to different character choices to guide your roleplaying.

Let’s take the paladin as an example. They used to follow the two tenets of good, two tenets of the lawful good paladin cause, and any edicts and anathema for their deity. A champion under the remastered rules would choose the justice cause. They would follow the edicts and anathema of their deity, plus the following from the cause of justice.

Edicts follow the law, respect legitimate authorities or leadership

Anathema take advantage of another, cheat

More emphasis on edicts rather than an unbendable code loosens some of the restrictions on their roleplaying to allow more well-rounded, nuanced characters. There’s a better balance over “should nots” instead of all “must nots.”

A champion can optionally choose a sanctification. If you’ve read Pathfinder Player Core, you’re familiar with holy and unholy sanctification—a choice based on your deity that lets you commit yourself to the battle for souls between the holy planes and unholy planes. Champions can choose sanctification based on their deity, though unholy sanctification is an uncommon option. Each sanctification gives you another edict and anathema, and adds the holy or unholy trait to all your Strikes.

Some, but not all, champion causes require a certain sanctification. Justice, mentioned above, does not. The Player Core 2 causes are justice, liberation, and obedience (open to all); desecration and iniquity (open only to unholy champions); and redemption and grandeur (open only to holy champions). If you are already playing a champion and want to update them to the new options, you’ll probably be able to keep the core of that character. Though you can always shake things up with the new grandeur cause, which is based on the brilliant splendor of celestials.

Other Changes

This class has seen a huge number of other changes we think will make it more satisfying to play, but we don’t want to keep you here all day with one blog post. So here’s the short version!

• You now have a defined champion’s aura for your reactions, aura feats, and other abilities, which lets other rules alter and refer to the range of your divine abilities more easily.
• The divine ally ability has been changed to blessing of the devoted, and the mount has moved to a 1st-level feat. You can instead choose the blessed swiftness option to move faster—whether you’re mounted or not.
• Feats saw a ton of change, like the new Defensive Advance feat and updated structure for Mercy. We focused on broadly useful feats plus maintaining some backward compatibility, but we did run out of room. You’ll see oath feats moved to Lost Omens Divine Mysteries. We’re hoping to find a book in which it would make sense to remaster litanies at some point, but we don’t have one that can hold them yet.
• You choose a focus spell based on your deity’s divine font options. As before the remaster, you can choose lay on hands if your deity allows the heal divine font or touch of the void (formerly touch of corruption) if they allow the harm divine font. However, there’s also a new option for a deity with any font, specially made for defense-minded characters. Introducing shields of the spirit!

Shields of the Spirit [one-action] Focus 1

Uncommon, Champion, Concentrate, Focus, Sanctified, Spirit
Requirements You are wielding a shield.

You Raise your Shield, causing ephemeral spirit shields to float within your champion’s aura. The shields last until the start of your next turn or until you’re no longer raising your shield, whichever comes first. While one of your allies is in your champion’s aura, the shields grant them a +1 status bonus to AC, and each time an enemy makes an attack against the ally, the enemy takes 1d4 spirit damage (even if it misses).

The benefit applies only while an ally is in your aura, ending for any ally that leaves and applying to any that enters later. As normal, you don’t count as your own ally and therefore don’t get the benefits of the spirit shields yourself.
Heightened (+2) The damage increases by 1d4.

Logan Bonner (he/him)
Pathfinder Lead Designer

Hail and well met, Pathfinders and Starfinders! With Father’s Day coming up, we wanted to give you a guide for the best Father’s Day gifts for the Paizo gamer in your life—and showcase some Dad Creators!

Starfinder Beginner Box

Learn the rules of Starfinder while you play through the Starfinder Beginner Box! Dungeons With Dadrecommends this as a great starting point for playing Starfinder with the kids! The pre-generated characters and a dungeon that teaches you skills as you progress make for a great game night.

Pathfinder Beginner Box

Newly remastered, the Pathfinder Beginner Box teaches you the ropes of Pathfinder Second Edition as you solve the mysteries of the Menace Under Otari! Paul Benson from GeekDad reviewed the original Pathfinder Second Edition Beginner Box back in 2020—calling it a great resource for players, veteran and new alike!

Pathfinder Elemental Stones

Harness the power of the elements with this Pathfinder board game! Designed in-house by Paizo Games Lead Designer and proud board gaming Dad, Joe Pasini! Elemental Stones is a pattern-building game with a secret role element to keep you on your toes. Great for family game nights!

Pathfinder Adventure Path: Abomination Vaults

Give Dad a chance to continue the adventure of the Pathfinder Beginner Box with Abomination Vaults! This best-selling megadungeon adventure path is a great follow-up to Menace Under Otari, taking adventurers deep into the dungeons of Belcorra Haruvex! Pathfinder Adventure Path: Abomination Vaults is available in hardcover for Pathfinder Second Edition and Fifth Edition.

It wouldn’t be a Father’s Day blog without tipping our helmets to Keskodai, the Iconic Mystic from Starfinder First Edition! Keskodai is such a dedicated father; he keeps his child with him in a protective cylinder.

Follow Keskodai’s child, Chk Chk, into Starfinder Second Edition, where he will be stepping up as the new Iconic Mystic! Keep up with the Starfinder Playtest at starfinderplaytest.com!

Check out this guest blog submitted from our friends at the Order of the Amber Die! This is part 6 in their adventures in the Abomination Vaults. Find previous entries in the links below.

The Black Powder Cadre met its match!

It took eight levels of the Abomination Vaults to finally run into something that not only exposed a severe weakness in our party, but also exploited it. Again, and again. Let’s see, what could possibly shut down a party of mostly human gunslingers? Magical darkness should be near the top of the list. Make it heightened darkness, just to mess with those darkvision elixirs. How about a community of creatures that can throw darkness back at our desperados like a box of bang snaps? Well, the caligni we encountered on level eight did exactly that, and hit us from so many directions in the dark that we had to snag a high Perception DC just to find our own wounds. Then we learned there was another community of caligni below us on level nine. Yeah, this was a rough marathon.

To get to level nine we had to get past level eight, and we were in new territory here. We had switched authors from Vanessa Hoskins to Stephen Radney-MacFarland—a grizzled veteran whose plethora of work in this industry takes us back to when our own veterans had a lot more hair. In fact, level eight of the Abomination Vaults paid homage to an adventure module that carries plenty of nostalgia around our table: Against the Cult of the Reptile God. We first played it in ‘96, and our GM liked it so much that he ran it again for us in 2005 and 2009. Level eight of the Vaults even hinted at some of our favorite scenes from the soggy, humid dungeon we remember: the infamous “mud room,” the off-limits door with a very clear warning on it, boats to traverse the level, and even the naga boss you can only reach by water.

If you need to catch up on this project:

• Introduction
• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

For this marathon we were joined again by Joe O’Brien from the Glass Cannon Network, rocking the same Beast Gunner archetype as before. Joe wanted more of our typical marathon experience this time, which means playing fourteen or more hours in a day, crashing on an air mattress near the table, then doing it all over again at 6:00 a.m. when Adam blasts our soundtrack to wake the team. You’ll eat well though, and there’s always a bonfire at the end of the weekend. To Glass Cannon fans, we’ll say that Joe handled the extreme playtime pretty well, and is starting to stack up some session hours for that Order of the Amber Die membership!

• Adventure: Eyes of Empty Death
• Marathon Length: 62 hours, 30 minutes
• Session Hours: 38 hours, 30 minutes

Highlights from Marathon 6:

□ On level eight we found ourselves surrounded in a temple by caligni stalkers and their endless darkness. Put it this way: we got good at flat checks. As if things couldn’t get worse, something called an owb showed up. A creature with a background as shadowy as the caligni themselves, this thing can turn you from our cadre’s shared blue colors to drab gray—and even turn your gun gray, which is where we drew the line. Joe came through with the Beast Gunner, landing a couple of devastating shots from his drake rifle that allowed us to walk away alive and most importantly, blue.

□ If you’ve followed our projects over the years, then you know we despise gugs, in-game and out. We came across another one, which held something called a fulcrum lens that we unfortunately needed. One of our snipers, Mazatl, practicing the Way of the Spellshot and wearing what Erick calls “dungeon camo,” crept into position. Erick is even known to wear a ghillie suit at the table to mimic his cloak of elvenkind. Can you find Mazatl in the photo? The sniper aimed for the head and landed the first shot, but the gug still tore into us for six rounds before we put it down.

□ Think you can predict what a Pathfinder megadungeon has in store for you? Enter level nine, with its 10-foot scale in the original version of the adventure. We’re going to have to lay this one out on the patio to get a full pic for the next blog. It’s also level nine where you really get a sense of just how interconnected this megadungeon is to the Darklands that surround it, which is evident as the worked stone in the levels above has now shifted to caverns. Since we’ve delved The Emerald Spire and measured its square footage, we can say that level nine is what helps the Abominaton Vaults achieve its title as the largest megadungeon in Pathfinder history!

□ A massive dungeon level just meant more reach for our shooters. We’d been waiting nine levels to see the 150’ range on both the harmona and arquebus truly rip, and honestly, in a dungeon we never thought we’d see it. When Breen spotted four ceustodaemons on some kind of guard duty, it just meant long range fun. We opened initiative, and one was on the ground before they heard the shots.

□ Level nine was full of towering bioluminescent fungi, which meant breaking out the blacklights for the truest experience. It also meant getting ourselves into a fungal forest firefight with reaper skull puffballs. Don’t be fooled by the name like we were; these things are badass. Go look at the illustration inside Eyes of Empty Death and tell us that the miniatures we had to represent them weren’t darn near perfect, too. Better yet, an exploded puffball is worth 150 gp! Zoric, the cadre’s Unexpected Sharpshooter, scored both money shots and made it rain.

Character Deaths

□ None, but everyone in this party owes another thank you to Breen, Way of the Pistolero. When you’re surrounded by hostiles and bleeding out, it’s our pistol phenom that will pull you to safety and cauterize your wounds—popping off rounds in the process.

The Arsenal

Order of the Amber Die doesn’t have a session zero before our campaigns begin. We start somewhere around session negative eight. In one of those meetings, our player captain had us brainstorm ways that we might cause awkward encounters throughout an Adventure Path by making an entire party of gunslingers. No one suggested anything close to what we came across on level eight of the Vaults. We encountered some drow who took us to their outpost on the level below, packed with none other than the Darklands equivalent of our own gunslingers: the Drow Shootist archetype and their repeating crossbows. We hit it off almost instantly, and soon we were sharing stories over a game of cards, including tales of the best and luckiest shots we’ve landed during our time in the Vaults. Even the art for Quara, their leader, showed her with a bandolier and a set of dueling boots that matched plenty of members in our cadre. She also had a scar across her face from—guess what—a gug. Naturally, we ended up at their firing range, where they allowed Vlai to have his dwarven scattergun (with large bore modifications) for a friendly competition. With all three targets destroyed in a single 15’ radius hit, we won.

Best Quote from Marathon 6

(fierce battle in a caligni temple)

Adam: “Caligni stalker is near death, cornered, attacks Axayaca. Gotta go to the Amber Die for this one.”

Matt (to Joe): “This is when the Amber Die usually goes off.”

Joe: “...”

Adam: “First attack hits… Second attack… 20! Attack you again, agile, -8 penalty… NATURAL 20!”

Current Situation

Well, we’ve made it to the final game of the season—this next marathon is the last one either way. We’re trying not to let the pressure get to us; we keep telling ourselves it’s just another marathon. If we do succeed in defeating Belcorra, then drow aid must be accounted for. Not only are they a source of items, trade, and safety, but the drow have become our friends—we certainly don’t have many on the surface. From conversations with their scouts, we’ve learned of a dragon’s lair on level nine. The drow avoid it. Which, of course, meant that we took a party vote to fight it. Come on, you know it’s once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for any Pathfinder player to slay a dragon with a party of gunslingers!

More Content

Our table was brought to life with the help of Blue Table Painting for the miniatures, and Black Bard Studios for custom adventure-specific miniatures/terrain.

Follow Order of the Amber Die:

-Facebook
-Instagram
-X (Twitter)
-YouTube
-The Abomination Arsenal thread

An epic cooperative adventure board game for 1 to 4 players!

Sharpen your swords and ready your spells because the people of the Darkmoon Vale are in danger and they need your help! Gather up to three friends and explore the mysteries of the vale and uncover the villain behind the sinister forces that threaten to reduce the entire region to a pile of smoldering ash.

Pathfinder Quest is an adventure board game where you and your friends take on the role of heroes trying to help the town of Falcon’s Hollow avoid certain catastrophe. The story unfolds over eight of twelve possible thrilling adventures, where your choices and the luck of the dice will determine the fate of everyone in the region. Create your own character by selecting an ancestry and class, and further customize your character with powerful magic items, feats, and magic spells! With so many choices to be made, no two games will ever play the same!

Pathfinder Quest includes an Adventure Book (detailing each one of the possible dozen adventures you might experience), a Challenge Book (containing the hidden outcomes for many of your choices), map tiles, custom dice, hundreds of cards, monster pawns, and select miniatures as well!

You can secure your copy of Pathfinder Quest by participating in our crowdfunding campaign, set to launch on BackerKit this fall! Sign up for more news and updates in the coming months over on our Pre-Launch page right NOW! If you sign up for news and back the game when it goes live, we will include a special metal coin as a bonus.

So, what are you waiting for? An epic Quest is just on the horizon. Sign up Today!

Roll20's commitment to Paizo is soaring in 2024. We're listening and responding to Pathfinder and Starfinder player requests and are thrilled to share the latest updates.

New Pathfinder Character Sheet & Builder

The Pathfinder Character Sheet and Builder on Roll20 is undergoing an upgrade featuring a new look, new functionality, a completely redesigned user experience. The best part? We want your feedback to help influence the final product launching later this year!

An ever-evolving Community Preview is available on Roll20 Characters, perfect for playing with your group at your in-person or online table. Our team recently introduced Custom Effects and made significant progress in enhancing Traits handling. We’re currently focused on updating the Spells tab, so a new release should be available soon!

If you’re a Pathfinder player or GM, we encourage you to explore the preview and share your thoughts with us through our feedback form! To see what players have thought so far, take a look at our latest blog post. Stay tuned to the Pathfinder Second Edition Remaster page for the most recent Roll20 updates, previews, and FAQs related to the project.

Permanent Price Cuts on Pathfinder & Starfinder

We’ve implemented permanent price reductions on nearly 100 titles on Roll20, so you can expand your Paizo library at more affordable prices!

New Pathfinder Bundles

Building on the excitement of lower prices across the board, we’re excited to announce the introduction of six new Pathfinder Bundles, curated to offer convenient single purchases based on how you play and plan your campaigns.

BONUS: enjoy an additional 10% discount when buying or upgrading to one of these bundles!

Return of the Runelords Bundle: The all-powerful Runelords, ancient rulers of Varisia, awaken once more, surging to reclaim their lost empire alongside their scheming allies in this Adventure Path that continues Pathfinder's Rise of the Runelords storylines.

Lost Omens Bundle: Explore a curated selection of Lost Omens titles for endless inspiration in Golarion's lore! Uncover jungle mysteries, diverse ancestries, bustling marketplaces, legendary creatures, Absalom's secrets, and more.

Strength of Thousands Bundle: The Magaambya, the world's oldest and most prestigious magic academy, founded by a legendary wizard, faces threats from his enemies. As heroes grow from students to teachers, they hold the fate of the academy in their hands. Can they safeguard this revered institution against its adversaries and preserve its legacy?

Deluxe Adventures Bundle: Embark on five thrilling adventures offering endless excitement and challenges! Unravel mysteries in a darkened town, face cosmic horror, navigate political tensions, confront ancient rivalries, and explore forgotten ruins with untold secrets.

Essential Supplements Bundle: Four Pathfinder supplements perfect for endless adventure and exploration! Immerse yourself in mystical realms with ancient secrets, delve into spells and sorcery, explore firearms and machinery, and confront raw primal forces in epic struggles.

Stolen Fate Bundle: When powerful forces threaten destiny, heroes chosen by a magical Harrow deck must intervene in this Adventure Path. Racing to control scattered cards of this artifact, they face a crucial challenge: losing means ruin for most of reality.

Commitment to Pathfinder Core

Roll20 is fully committed to the new Pathfinder Core Rulebook line! We offer complete rulebook integration, including monsters you can drag & drop right onto your table, and character options you can drop right onto your character sheets!

Take advantage of our Bundle Deals to save an additional 16% on our already low Core prices:

• Core Intro Bundle
• Core Advanced Bundle
• Core Mega Bundle
• Player Core
• GM Core
• Monster Core
• Player Core 2 (Pre-Order)

Nerd out with us! Why we love Pathfinder

Join Roll20 staff as they dive into their favorite parts of all the recent Pathfinder updates, including Pathfinder Core and Roll20 Characters.

Roll20 is your gateway to adventure, where every roll counts! Start your journey, customize your story, and explore like never before. Get started today with Roll20—Your adventure awaits!

Hello, explorers!
Pathfinder Howl of the Wild is now officially out! I hope everyone’s been having fun making new characters, whether they’re minotaur druids, centaur wild mimics, or awakened koi witches with the Ripple in the Deep patron who navigate on land in enchanted supramarine chairs that double as their cauldrons! I hope, too, that you’re enjoying some new animals to throw at your PCs, or just having fun reading the tale of Baranthet and the Zoetrope’s crew as they fly about Golarion!

Of course, this book had its own crew in the form of wonderful writers and designers who each brought a taste of the wild to the project and were sure to keep the writers’ room well supplied with animal gifs and links to nature documentaries. Get to know some of them below and feel free to shout out any bits you enjoy!

Light writer plate of crew upon returning from their journey, from official Zoetrope expedition logs. (Art by Ivan Koritarev)

Rigby Bendele (they/them)

When James pitched Howl of the Wild, I was immediately hooked! I want to bring a sense of embodiment to TTRPGs so that players and GMs have tools to understand what it might be like to live in a world so fantastic, so I was looking forward to focusing an Attenborourgh-style lens on Golarion’s natural world. While working on my sections—the athamaru ancestry, holdfast, some of the big game siege weapons, and the Warden of Caverns and Burrows—I hoped to make the world seem fantastical from its skies to its lowest depths. This book is going to be a great tool as I continue to run my own games and design adventures, and I can't wait to see how everyone uses it in their games.

Chris Bissette (he/they)

Hello! I'm Chris Bissette, a game designer from the UK. Writing for Pathfinder has been a dream of mine for over a decade at this point, and I'm delighted to have finally had the opportunity on Howl of the Wild. Monsters were my first love in RPGs and getting to put together the dischorans for this book was some of the most fun I've had writing games.

When I'm not writing for Pathfinder, I can usually be found working on my free and very imaginatively titled dungeon crawler A Dungeon Game. On socials, you can find me on Bluesky @loottheroom.bsky.social.

Jeremy Blum (he/him)

I wrote the ostilli host archetype for Howl of the Wild, the anti-behemoth weaponry (anybody catch the Godzilla reference in there?), and the decapod dinghy, which is basically Catbus as a giant crab. Contributing to this wonderful celebration of nature's finest offerings was a nice shift, as it immediately followed the work I did to redesign Linvarre for the Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide, which should now be in everyone’s hands. I've also penned some rad stuff for the Tian Xia Character Guide and have several unannounced Pathfinder contributions in the pipelines.

Outside of the Paizo sphere, my biggest project is Mappa Mundi: An Exploration + Ecology RPG for Three Sails Studios, a small three-man company based in the UK. It's a TTRPG about mapping the wilderness, studying monsters like a biologist instead of fighting them, and returning the art of storytelling to a voiceless world. Our recently released playtest could be used in conjunction with Howl of the Wild to run a gorgeous, monster-observing campaign that spans Golarion and beyond, since the themes are quite similar! Mappa Mundi's full release will crowdfund in 2025, so if you're interested, please follow me on Twitter and Bluesky for the latest news.

The ethereal rift chameleon (art by Adam Shafi) and the lithivorous stony bat (art by Maichol Quinto)

Brite Cheney (he/they)

Hey folks! I’m Brite (pronounced Bright), a TTRPG freelancer and prop maker. You might have seen my recent Pathfinder Quest, The Winter Queen’s Dollhouse, among other works. I had a blast writing a narrative section for Howl of the Wild and trying to capture Baranthet’s unique voice. He is so inquisitive and adventurous, yet simultaneously levelheaded. I hope you all enjoy meeting the crew of the Zoetrope and all the other wonders hidden in this book. I also hope your players “enjoy” the marp and its adorable gold-eating habits.

When not writing for or playing games, I make and sell hand-crafted props and accessories for TTRPG, cosplay, and LARP. You can find links to all my work, including where to contact me for custom commissions, at https://linktr.ee/mrgwillickers. I can also be found on Blue Sky, Mastodon, Instagram, Twitter, and all other socials @MrGWillickers.

Rue Dickey (they/he/xe)

Hello, hello! I've been around the Paizo blog quite a bit this past year since joining the marketing team, but I'm super excited to be dropping myself into this blog—because Howl of the Wild is the first Pathfinder project I’ve ever written for! A thousand thanks to James Case for scooping me out of the river for this project and giving me an opportunity to work on Pathfinder. It's opened a number of doors for me, and I love getting to be a part of the game I love (and market, haha). For Howl, I worked on the hexmoth and the zoophonia muse, and I look forward to seeing what everyone does with the cool stuff in this book! Please feel free to @ me on socials about your Howl stuff. I want to see it!

Twitter: @ilananight13
Bsky: ilananight.bsky.app
Website: https://ilananight.space

Matthew Fu (he/him)

Hi everyone! I first wanted to say that it was a fantastic experience to be able to work on this project alongside so many other talented writers. Getting to see so much positive feedback on the creatures that I wrote (apothecary bee and hardhead mole) has already done numbers to lift my spirits, and seeing someone refer to my beastmaster feats as "swanky AF" really made my day. I wanted to give a quick shoutout to James Case and the rest of the Paizo team for having me on this project and allowing me to pour my heart and soul into this project. I can't wait to see what kind of characters my friends and the community at large come up with given the sheer quantity of high-quality work that can be found in this book.

Also, be sure to check out some of the other Pathfinder 2E material that I've written alongside other fantastic authors at Eldritch Osiris Games!

A centaur bard (art by Wilmar Ballespí Escarp) and a surki warrior (art by Ivan Koritarev)

Steve Hammond

Hello everyone! I'm Steve Hammond, and I wrote a few beast items, the tardigrades, and had the distinct pleasure of writing the surki ancestry! They are the first ancestry I've written, and my time working on them was really special. The response to them so far has been great, and I can't wait to see more of the characters you create with them!

I'm not really on social media these days, but I pop up in a few books here and there. Most recently, I worked on War of Immortals. Thank you all for your lovely words and praise for the book. Everyone on this team did incredible work, and I cannot wait to work with them again.

Dustin Knight (he/him)

Greetings, Pathfinders! I'm Dustin Knight, Starfinder developer and proud freelancer for the incredible tome of beasts and critters that lies before you! Working on the swarmkeeper archetype was a blast and fulfilled one of my long-time bucket-list entries of designing an insect-themed archetype. While I've yet to incorporate my own swarm of creepy-crawlies, I'm a big fan of bugs, especially bees! If you'd like to help your local pollinators, you can find resources such as Lawns to Legumes that can help turn your yard into a pollinator's paradise.

I also wrote some of the spells in Howl of the Wild, including antlion trap, summon stampede, and summon warden of the wild. You can catch me on dozens of different Paizo-adjacent Discord servers, including my own for Pathfinder Infinite creators and fans under the username KitsuneWarlock. You can also catch me at PaizoCon on the Paizo Events Discord where I'll be answering questions, posting memes, and participating in some panels! I'd love to answer as many of your questions as I can and hear about the insects you'll be using with your future swarmkeepers!

Christiana Lewis (she/her)

Greetings and salutations! This was my first ever TTRPG writing experience, and I’m so grateful to James Case and the whole team for their support. I had the unique privilege of writing up the Zoetrope’s design and seeing it be brought to life by the artists was an incredible experience I’ll never forget. Working with Paizo really set the standard for what I expect as a freelance writer. I can’t wait for everyone to get their hands on this special book.

I’m currently working on some other TTRPG projects, all of which will be announced in time on Twitter. You can find me at @carpechristi on all socials. In the meantime, I love streaming TTRPG Actual Plays with my friends (which, let’s be real, are just paid opportunities to flirt with each other), collecting special edition novels, and crocheting absurdly long scarves.

The spell-eating hexmoth and the spell-singing virtuosic lyrebird (art both by Vira Linevych)

Jonathan "Ryomasa" Mendoza (any)

Howdy! I'm Jonathan, and I wrote the rumindrol and the beast guns for Howl of the Wild! This book was my first experience writing for Pathfinder and Paizo in general, and I'm happy to say I thoroughly enjoyed the creative spirit and collaborative nature of working on this book alongside so many talented people! I hope you use the rumindrol to remind players who think nothing of stepping into the dark, forbidden places of the world that there is a reason we fear the unknown, and I hope that the beast guns help you attain the gunslingin', yeehawin', fantasy-anime-nonsense vibes so many of us enjoy. You can find me nerding out and/or yeehawing over on Twitter (I will never call it anything else) or reach out through my website.

Dave Nelson (he/they)

Dave Nelson is a queer and neurodivergent freelance writer and editor with multiple credits for Pathfinder. This time, he put his degree in Classics to work to bring you the minotaur ancestry and the bestiary section on hydras. They also spent hours throwing cat toys while writing the clawdancer archetype, and they watched nature videos of birds for the winged warrior archetype. He also managed to write a few new spells, like divine beasts and albatross’ curse.

You can find him lurking on Bluesky at @davicthegrey.bsky.social and an updated list of their credits at https://davicthegrey.carrd.co/.

Mikhail Rekun (he/him)

Здравствуйте, уважаемые читатели! My name is Mikhail Sergeyevich Rekun, and I’m a Russian-speaking Ukrainian-American historian, educator, and author. I’m also a Pathfinder author of long standing—if you’ve suffered at the hands of a kholo, been lost in the Dark Archive, or had to dodge a laser-bear, that is my fault. I regret nothing.

In this particular venture, I was responsible for writing the merfolk ancestry, the sky fisher, and the character of my beloved buggy protégé, Ten. The merfolk ancestry was a particularly interesting challenge—usually, the trick with ancestries is filling them out, but here, we had a veritable buffet of myth, legend, and pop culture to choose from. If you want to weep tears of pearl, lure sailors to their doom with your voice, or merely stroll down the harbor walk with your new pair of legs, Howl of the Wild has you covered.

And if you like the sky fisher, well, would you like to know where you can find even more horrific beasties? It just so happens that I am also the creative director for the Luminant Age Campaign Setting, and we have a small bestiary of vampire dogs and teleporting rats over at https://luminant-age.itch.io/. Check it out!

A merfolk fighter (art by Ivan Koritarev) and an awakened turtle kineticist (art by Damien Mammoliti)

Kai Revius (he/they)

Hello everyone! I’m Kai, and contributing to the Howl of the Wild team as a freelancer was my first foray into professional writing. I had a blast and hope to do it again in the future!

It was my joy and privilege to help bring Dr. Gulnara Pom to life, as well as provide some new animal companions, beast armor, and beast armaments. As a child, I was heavily influenced by Brian Jacques’ Redwall series and jumped at the opportunity to create my very own badger. As a Forever DM/GM, my approach for the items and animal companions was to provide players with interesting or surprising things that I would love to see at my own table. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing art of a giraffe in full barding or anything flying squirrel related! As far as items go, my favorite was a particularly stinky maul. I love when I can utilize a piece of equipment for roleplaying! The best place to find me is @KeenKoala on Twitter/X.

Simone D. Sallé (she/they)

Hi, fellow nature enthusiasts! I'm so excited for you all to tag along with Baranthet and the crew of the Zoetrope on their quest for the wardens of the wild. This has been my favorite book to work on so far, both as a writer and an edit lead, and I can't wait for everyone else to dive in (or burrow, if that's more your Speed). In addition to co-creating Baranthet with James, I got to write Baranthet's narrative introduction, conclusion, and the climactic chapter of the crew's adventure! I also upheld my contractual obligation to seed mushrooms into everything I do by way of the primal witch patrons. There are such fun new creatures, lore, and player options in this book, and I know I'm not the only one ready to build at least six new PCs.

I'm difficult to track down on social media these days, but you can always send notes to Almas University, c/o Baranthet Zamendi—he'll know where to find me.

Kendra Leigh Speedling (she/her)

Hello! I’m Kendra, frequent freelancer for Paizo (credits at klspeedling.com). For Howl of the Wild, I did the bio for Charikleia, the Techniques and Tricks story, the sharks (my favorite ocean creatures!), and the Warden of Peaks and Skies.

When writing, I had to decide the type of contest to choose the new warden. A sky race made sense for flying creatures, but I didn’t want it to be that straightforward. I thought about what qualities the wardens might value, and one that jumped out to me was the interconnection of the natural world; while nature can be harsh and unforgiving, nothing within it exists in isolation, and I felt the wardens would be mindful of that. Maybe the true test would be the candidates’ willingness to aid others and accept help in turn. I wondered if it was too trite, too saccharine. But I decided that if I often need the reminder that assistance isn’t cheating or failure, just a part of existence, well… maybe someone else might need that, too.

The storm’s rough out there. Help others fly if you can, and don’t begrudge yourself the need to shelter under someone else’s wing for a while.

The powerful ascendant griffon (art by Damien Mammoliti) and the shocking magnetic gecko (art by Maichol Quinto)

Kyle Tam

Hello everyone! I'm Kyle, a writer from the Philippines, and this is my first time writing for Paizo! For this book, I had the pleasure of introducing everyone to your favorite navigator, Lythea, and writing the thunder snake! I've written my own tabletop RPGs as well as writing for other people’s games, and I've also published my fair share of short stories, all of which you can find at https://whatkylewrites.carrd.co/.

I LOVE mermaids, so it is with absolute joy that I took on the task of bringing Lythea to life! She's basically the kind of character I'd love to play in a campaign of exploration, at one with the land, sea, and sky thanks to adaptive technologies giving her the best of all worlds. The thunder snake concept came to me by looking at electrical cords and adjustable lamps, watching the way coils and wires moved—so you can imagine it like a giant electrical plug!

Thank you so much for supporting Howl of the Wild!!!

Ruvaid Virk

Good day, friends! Ruvaid Virk, sometimes Paizo contributor, here. It's so wild that they keep letting me on these books, but I'm super grateful for it. First, I'd like to say how proud I am to have contributed to this cool book alongside other fantastic authors. Field biology was one of my favorite undergrad classes, and seeing this book come together has brought me an untold amount of joy. Only one thing could make this better for me, and that's if all of you would share your favorite parts of the book. Now, maybe you're wondering, "That's cool, Ruvaid, but what did you work on?"

Surprise, dear reader, for I have seeded a trail to answer that very question—one that can be found by tracing steps back through these sentences of mine.

That's right, it was the griffon section! Well, that, and some of the beast armaments and alchemical items.

I hope you guys enjoy this awesome book. There's a ton of cool things in here that I can't wait to play with for myself.

Should you want to know more about me or my works, you can follow me on the bird site at @Darth_Ruvaider or the sky site @darthruvaider.bsky.social. I've got plenty of exciting announcements to make this year, so stay tuned!

Andrew White (he/him)

Hello! I’m Andrew, Paizo’s digital products lead and contributor to such projects as Book of the Dead, Rage of Elements, and the first volume of an Adventure Path that just so happens to go great with all of the new character options you’ll find in Howl of the Wild! For this book, I had the amazing opportunity to write a bunch of weird new alchemical items, the ethereal wildlife section, six new dinosaurs, and the werecreature archetype. I absolutely loved working on this project, and I would like to extend my sincerest thanks to the designers who not only gave me all these awesome assignments but who also let me put a devil T-Rex that shoots unholy fire beams out of its eyes into their nature book.

You can find me on Twitter and slightly-less-awful-Twitter at @plaguecontrol and @plaguecontrol.bsky.social respectively, and my freelancer portfolio at https://andrewwhite.carrd.co.

---

Lastly, to celebrate Baranthet’s long journey to find the wardens of the wild, we leave you with a glimpse of their majesty, just beyond the spoiler text below:

[To gaze upon the wardens of the wild, click here]

The Warden of Caverns and Burrows & the Warden of Forests and Meadows (art by Mirco Paganessi)

The Warden of Oceans and Rivers & the Warden of Peaks and Skies (art by Mirco Paganessi)

That is all, dear readers!

Until another day,

James Case
Senior Designer

Hail and well met, Pathfinders and Starfinders! This month’s new releases take you on a tour of Golarion’s wilds, dive into the Abomination Vaults once more (this time in Dungeons and Dragons Fifth Edition), and ask you to suit up and save Daimalko!

Don’t forget, this weekend is PaizoCon 2024—our community celebration of all things Paizo! Join us on twitch.tv/officialpaizo and hop into the paizo.events Discord server to get in on the excitement!

Never miss a release with our Paizo Subscriptions—for everything from rulebooks to accessories.

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Pathfinder Howl of the Wild

A WILD ADVENTURE!

A sound echoes across the world’s farthest wildernesses: the howl of countless animals and beasts! This all-new, 224-page Pathfinder rulebook dives deep into the wilderness like never before! With new ancestries, character options, animal companions, wilderness foes, and more, Howl of the Wild provides a traveler’s pack worth of value for players and Game Masters alike!

Pathfinder Howl of the Wild is available in standard hardcover, Special Edition faux leatherette bound hardcover, and PDF formats. Don’t forget to check your FLGS for the hobby retailer exclusive sketch cover!

Starfinder Adventure Path: Mechageddon!

SUIT UP, SAVE THE WORLD!

On a rugged planet crawling with colossi, terrifying kaiju that demolish cities with fearsome power, courageous mech pilots battle monsters to protect the world’s people. As the war for control of planet Daimalko rages on, a mysterious third power plots to use an ancient artifact to purge the planet of all life. It’s time for Daimalko’s defenders to suit up against a new threat!

Starfinder Mechageddon! is available in standard hardcover, Special Edition faux leatherette bound hardcover, and PDF formats.

Pathfinder Adventure Path: Abomination Vaults (5E)

One of Pathfinder’s most popular and exciting campaigns comes to D&D Fifth Edition at last!

When the mysterious Gauntlight, an eerie landlocked lighthouse, glows with baleful light, the people of Otari know something terrible is beginning. Evil stirs in the depths of the Abomination Vaults, a sprawling dungeon where a wicked sorcerer attempted to raise an army of monsters hundreds of years ago. The town's newest heroes must venture into a sprawling dungeon filled with beasts and traps to prevent a spiteful spellcaster from rising again!

Pathfinder Adventure Path: Abomination Vaults (5E) is available in standard hardcover, Special Edition faux leatherette bound hardcover, and PDF formats.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #202: Severed at the Root (Wardens of Wildwood 2 of 3)

Under surprising new leadership, the Wildwood Lodge begins a campaign of violence. Shocked, the PCs and their allies form a new lodge in exile to oppose this new regime. As they recruit new friends to their cause, the PCs must deny the Wildwood Lodge a powerful relic created by the renegade druid Ghorus, all while investigating the strange, primal magic the Wildwood Lodge has uncovered. If the PCs are to prevail, they will need to track down one of the Verduran Forest’s most dangerous inhabitants and convince her to aid their cause—or ensure she cannot aid their enemy.

Keep your campaign going with the Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscription and get a free PDF when your copy ships!

Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Treasure Trove

A wealth of riches!

To some, adventuring is all about getting treasure and Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Treasure Trove sets the scene for a haul of legendary scale. Each side of the Flip-Mat presents one of two treasure-laden locations adventurers can explore to get their loot. One side presents a fortified temple vault protecting priceless relics, while the other shows a secluded cavern lair of a dragon or other large and covetous beast. Spread this map out at your table and enrich your experience!

Pathfinder Battles: Leshy Window Boxed Set

Delight your tabletop with the Pathfinder Battles: Leshy Window Box Set! This set features eight charming miniatures representing a veritable grove of nature spirits from the Pathfinder role-playing universe.

This set includes eight types of Leshy, such as the fanged Flytrap Leshy, the prickly Cactus Leshy, the adorable Gourd Leshy, and even the cheery Fruit Leshy, to name a few.

Starfinder Society Intro: Year of Era’s End

A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st- through 4th-level characters.

Under the watchful eye of newly elected First Seeker Sarmak, the Starfinder Society travels to the machine planet of Aballon to undertake an archaeological survey of the ancient city of Eternity. Using a relic known as the Eternity Drive, the Starfinders launch initial explorations, uncover long-forgotten information about the fabled First Ones, and clash with a violent faction of anacite extremists named Those Who Call.

Starfinder Society Scenario #7-02: Zo! vs. Zo

A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for 3rd- through 6th-level characters.

Objection!

For years, Zo (the city) and Zo! (the bombastic undead media mogul) have been engaged in a legal dispute over their shared name. Finally, both parties have agreed to a trial on the planet of Triaxus to put the matter to rest for good. In a bold move, Zo! calls in a favor from the Starfinder Society, requisitioning a team of Starfinders to represent him in the trial. Make your case to the jury, ready your counterargument, participate in a trial by combat against a team of crack combat-lawyers, and smile for the camera in the live broadcast of the decade!

Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-16: A Lie Told to Strangers

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 3rd- through 6th-level characters.

Poorer citizens of Kaer Maga, the City of Strangers, have been going missing, and while many think they've simply left to emigrate to New Thassilon, a purported haven for outcasts, an independent journalist feels that there's something unsavory going on. Kaer Maga doesn't have much in the way of authorities, and those who hold any power aren't taking her seriously, so she's turned to the Pathfinder Society. The PCs need to figure out what's going on, and if it is unsavory, perhaps put a stop to it.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-17: Stranded on Yesterdays’ Tide

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 1st- through 4th-level characters.

The Pathfinder Society has heard reports of a ship sighted over and over, apparently following the same path before vanishing each week. This unfortunate ship is stuck in time, repeating the same week over and over. The crew has tried everything to escape this fate, and gave up years of the same week ago. The PCs must find a way to return things to normal and save the crew from an eternity of this single week.

Starfinder Society Special #5-99: Battle for the Bulwark

A Starfinder Society Special designed for 1st- through 8th-level characters (subtiers 1-2, 3-4, 5-6 & 7-8).

The Exo-Guardians faction once maintained an impressive fortress known as Sangoro's Bulwark. Years ago, mysterious forces attacked the bulwark, and the fortress was lost. Now, under the command of Ixthia the Unbreakable, the Starfinder Society launches a massive operation to reclaim Sangoro’s Bulwark, rescue any survivors, and destroy the foul forces that dared take the lives of the Starfinders stationed there. The battle for Sangoro’s Bulwark has begun!

From Our Partners:

Our partners at Archives of Nethys, Demiplane, Fantasy Grounds, Hero Lab Online, and Roll20* are dropping new content this month as well! Buy your PDF on paizo.com to get a discount via the PaizoConnect API. Or pay full price on their platforms, sync your account, and get a complimentary PDF on the Paizo Store.

*Roll20 is no longer a part of PaizoConnect and discounts and complimentary PDFs do not apply.

Pathfinder Remastered Core Collection – Brazilian Portuguese Translation

Our translation partners New Order Editora are currently crowdfunding to translate the remastered Core Rulebooks into Portuguese!

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Welcome! We’re a week out from PaizoCon and you’ve got a whole slate of reveals for new stuff to look forward to: Pathfinder Player Core 2,Pathfinder War of Immortals, Pathfinder Howl of the Wild, the list goes on! But some of you might be looking back thinking, “Sure all this new stuff is great, but I’d really love some updates and clarifications for some of these books I bought right before the remaster started.”

Well, good news! We’ve got a slate of errata for you. Right about now, you should find some new entries over at https://paizo.com/pathfinder/faq for Pathfinder Guns & Gears, Pathfinder Rage of Elements, Pathfinder Lost Omens Firebrands, and Pathfinder Lost Omens Ancestry Guide. I’ll let you read those entries to see the specifics, but some highlights include a broad update in the Ancestry Guide entry for re-standardizing the flight feats of certain ancestries like sprites and strix to bring them more in line with the new standard we’ve set for ancestries with inherent flight following the Remaster. We’ve also got a swath of minor updates to combination weapons to align with the new standard set by the swap function of the Interact action in the Remaster, and some much requested clarifications for Rage of Elements.

This also marks the beginning of a return to normalcy for us following the flurry of activity around the OGL events of last year and the need for us to pivot to the Remaster project and the introduction of the ORC license. With all of that in the rearview mirror and a clear road leading into a bright blue horizon ahead, we’re looking to get back on track for the annual errata cycle we had announced right before those plans got altered. As part of this pivot, we want to set some clear expectations for what the future we’re working toward is going to look like for FAQs and errata.

• Hardcover Rulebooks: This includes books like Player Core, Guns & Gears, Rage of Elements, etc. Our goal for this product line is for it to receive two errata and FAQ cycles per year on an as-needed basis, one in the spring/summer and one in the fall/winter. This current drop is the spring/summer cycle, so you can expect one more errata update before the end of the year!
• Lost Omens Books: This line of books will receive one errata and FAQ update cycle per year on an as-needed basis, coinciding with one of the two hardcover rulebook cycles.
• Adventures: Our Adventure Path line is a monthly periodical and the player content produced in it is intended for use with the associated adventures. The standard for player content presented in adventures is that it is of uncommon or rare rarity and directly tied to the story it is presented with; using this content outside of the associated adventure inherently requires GM review and approval (or appropriate sanctioning for use in Pathfinder Society organized play). We do not currently have any plans at this time to include adventure content in a scheduled errata cycle. We may still do errata around particular reprints, such as when compiling an adventure for a hardcover release.

So, that’s our roadmap for the errata and FAQs going forward! If you’re planning on playing some Pathfinder Society games at PaizoCon, make sure to check for any updates your character might have received!

Catch you next time!

Michael Sayre
Design Manager

Guest Blog by Meredith Gerber (she/her), DriveThruRPG Partner Relations Manager

For PaizoCon this year, we wanted to invite the community to a Micro Game Jam. We received over 20+ submissions, all from different levels of creators from first-timers to Infinite Veterans! These two-page submissions offer a ton of variety inspired by PaizoCon 2024’s theme of Educate, Entertain, and Inspire.

You can check out ALL the titles here!

If you’re like me and want to learn about all 20+ titles, we have included them in this blog to give you a quick glimpse of each title! These titles are in order of submission. We hope that you enjoy these and use them in your games at PaizoCon 2024 (and beyond!)

I Don't Wanna Be a Pirate, But I Cannae Pay the Bucks, and I Need a Duck

Created by: Druid GM Designs

This is a quick-start guide to using iNaturalist, a citizen science nature website, to find images of animals, plants, and the like for use in gaming. Applicable to players, GMs, and publishers.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/473321/I-Dont-Wanna-Be-a-Pirate-But-I-Cannae-Pay-the-Bucks-and-I-Need-a-Duck

Vaudevillian Muse Bard

Created by: Ian Speidel

Most people take life too seriously, and you want to change that. Your muse may be a great comedian, someone who can effortlessly lift the spirits of those around them, or even the concept of humor itself. Art inspired by a vaudevillian muse is often absurdist and irreverent, though it can also contain biting satire or scathing criticism of the powers that be.

As a bard with a vaudevillian muse, you support your allies by lifting their spirits and combat adversaries with lighthearted antics.

This new muse adds seven new feats allow you to make pratfalls, modify casting certain spells, and find hilarious new ways to mock your enemies while the three new focus spells will really leave your foes with pie on their faces!

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/476767/Vaudevillian-Muse-Bard

Numerologist

Created by: gameipedia

If you know what this is you are probably crying tears of anguish or joy, if you dont know what this is, I'm sorry.

Numerologist is a class archetype for Pathfinder 2e made for the PaizoCon 2024 Game Jam with the theme of Educate, Entertain, and Inspire!

It will Educate you on prime numbers, Entertain your friends with your ability to (hopefully) do quick math, and Inspire your GM's nightmares!

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/477416/Numerologist

Dacilane Academy Teacher's Handbook

Created By: Minty Belmont, Sasha Laranoa Harving

Study the surreal and educate the adventurous at Dacilane Academy! Featuring skill feats perfect for teachers, a magus hybrid study for those pulling from the ethereal, a wizard arcane school suited to educate and inspire, and ranger feats for those who seek to take down troublesome proteans, this Pathfinder 2nd Edition product is perfect for characters new and old.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/477439/Dacilane-Academy-Teachers-Handbook

World Renditions

Created By: Iris Gormless, Joshua T

Beneath all worldly processes is a steady, beating rhythm; all bards know this, but few truly feel the pull of inspiration to explore the fundamentals of their magical knowledge to greater breadths. Within are a duo of unconventional muses inspired by breadths of real-world cultures, that might push your Bard to take their art in strange new directions;

• The Mute Muse, a mourner that divests others of their sorrows whilst also plunging their opponents into eternal repose.
• The Phenomenon Muse, a naturalist that invokes the energies that move in the earth and on the wind.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/477938/World-Renditions

Flumph Gate! -or- Undulations across the Infonet!

Created by: Joseph fox

In celebration of Paizocon 2024, here is the means to introduce the setting's original inspirational entertaining educators into the future that they never meant to happen.

This single page PDF is designed to print out and slip into any GM's binder for a dangerous rainy day and includes:

• a monster stat block representing a typical flumph that can be easily augmented with class templates into a wide variety of NPCs!
• stats for allowing players to create a flumph PC of their own!
• two potential plot hooks to introduce flumph into a campaign set in space or planetside!
• VTT token artwork!

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/478290/Flumph-Gate-or-Undulations-across-the-Infonet

The Goblin Gog Crawl

Created by: Elise Cretel

The Goblin Grog Crawl is a 2-page mini adventure created as part of the PaizoCon 2024 Game Jam! Get ready to steal, brawl, make deals, or sweet talk your way into reclaiming goblin loot at the Tipsy Tavern, The Dragon Roost, and other pubs frequented by humans! You don't have to be a goblin to go on the grog crawl and drink a little troll swill!

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/478679/The-Goblin-Grog-Crawl

Remembrance

Created by: Vishesh Bhartiya

Remembrance is an adventure outline for 5th-level characters where the PCs explore the memories of a former Steward Director, experiencing first-hand his early years, his service during the Swarm invasion, and his later days in office. Also contained within is a brief look at the mechanics of the Sensorium, the technomagical device used to traverse memories.

This outline draws upon the lore found in the Starfinder Core Ruleboook, Pact Worlds and Near Space books, as well as rules and aliens found in the Alien Archives and Attack of the Swarm adventure path.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/478708/Remembrance

The Caring Necromancer

Created By: Jared Thaler

Not all necromancers view their undead minions as disposable cannon fodder. Some view their creations as works of art, others view them as the closest thing they will ever have to children, and some just can’t stand the inefficiency of constantly having to restock their forces with fresh corpses. Whatever their reasons, caring necromancers need magic that goes beyond the mere raising of corpses.

This One Page Ruleset contains 8 new spells that GMs can use to flesh out their NPCs and give them a little personality or Players can use to keep their undead friends safe or patch them up when they get hurt.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/478895/The-Caring-Necromancer

Way of the Gunsmith

Created by: Daniel Vitti, Arcanum Press

The Way of the Gunsmith is a new Gunslinger Way granting a series of deeds and access to new feats available to a Gunslinger character in the Pathfinder 2e RPG. The Gunslinger is described in the Guns & Gears sourcebook.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/478869/Way-of-the-Gunsmith

Teacher Archetype

Created by: Sam Striker

A support archetype allowing a character to teach their allies skills and techniques, including weapon proficiency and spells! Works well with martial, spellcasting, and skill-focused classes. Inspired by the author's experiences as a teacher!

Complete archetype for Pathfinder 2nd edition, with 10 feats (plus dedication) and access to 5 feats from outside the archetype.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/478995/Teacher-Archetype

Focused Aptitude: Unarmed Mastery

Created by: Ruka Amick

Created for the PaizoCon 2024 Game Jam under the theme "Educate! Entertain! Inspire!'' This short 2-page supplement gives you a selection of unarmed focused options focused on the classes in Player Core, but includes options for characters all all walks of life - so long as they like to punch (or claw, or tail-swipe) people.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/478997/Focused-Aptitude-Unarmed-Mastery

A Breath of Cordite

Created by: Kate Tremaine

Hired to provide support on a milk run through the pirate-infested waters of the Shackles, the PCs come face to face with a new but feared pirate in Jessina Alousin and her vessel, the Groaning Phoenix. The Phoenix is rumored to hold a magical secret that lets her sail in any way she pleases, even into the wind. Duel fierce boarders, cross swords with the Dark Fate herself, and discover the secret hidden in the lowest hold of the Groaning Phoenix in A Breath of Cordite!

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479074/A-Breath-of-Cordite

Ashrah's Abandons : Melodrama Bard Muse

Created by: Kathrin Garcia

A new bard muse focusing on the epic and dramatic! with abilities like Temper the crowd allowing you to potentially lower and even cancel critical strikes against your allies!

This was intended for "Educate, Entertain, Inspire!" Game Jam done for PaizoCon 2024! my first game jam AND Pathfinder infinite product so I hope you enjoy!

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479145/Ashrahs-Abandons--Melodrama-Bard-Muse

To Learn or Not to Learn

Created by: Luc Dumain

Always wanted to learn a few more languages?

To master one specific weapon?

To get that one fun class feat from level one but that you really can't afford to sacrifice a feat for it?

Then here comes the Learning subsystem! A simple system that can be applied to any character wishing to learn more abilities: Languages, Skills, Skill Feats, Lores and even Class Feats!

Be it with the help of a teacher, or a book, or simply by yourself... Learn more! Do more! And have fun!

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479153/To-Learn-or-not-to-Learn

Chronicler: A Bard Archetype

Created by: B.D. Anderson

Do you wish that your Bards were a little less charismatic and more of an intellectual? Do you love telling stories about your adventures with other players? Or do you like just info dumping all the cool lore you know about a setting with the thinly held pretext of it being in character?

The Chronicler Bard is for you!

This Class Archetype changes out your charisma and perfomance based abilities for a focus on intelligence and storytelling. Supported with eight brand new feats to help you weave your tale alongside your new storytelling assistant.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479222/Chronicler-A-Bard-Archetype

Educate, Entertain, Inspire! The Art of Monster Channeling

Created by: Kevin Glusing

Give yourself a reason to use the monster books usually reserved for the GM!

Educate: With the monster channeler archetype, you can learn new abilities from the monsters you battle, then turn them against your next, unsuspecting enemy.

Entertain: Gain access to an entirely new collection of options you may have never used otherwise as a player.

Inspire: Plan ahead with your GM, or find exciting new twists on abilities as you select your favorites to keep long after your enemy is defeated.

Included in the 2 pages

• The monster channeler archetype
• 7 new feats
• A list of sample adaptations you can gain from Monster Core monsters

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479229/Educate-Entertain-Inspire-The-Art-of-Monster-Channeling

The Trial of the Muse

Created By: Wyatt Stevens

The festival of the muses is the most exciting time of the year for the town of Fugue and the Bard College of the Four Muses as they host a legendary musical festival for all to join in. This year will be more exciting than most as the doors to the inner sanctum of the muses have once again opened. What trials will await our adventures and what will they learn in The Trial of the Muses.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479231/The-Trial-of-the-Muse

Erudition Duet Archetype

Created By: Tan Jim Son

Made for the Educate, Entertain, Inspire! one-page game jam.

Establish a mentor and pupil relationship, an erudition duet that learns and grows each step together. As you traverse this path you will teach each other new skills, cultivate teamwork and enable combination attacks.

https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479289/Erudition-Duet-Archetype

Roving Intern Archetype

Created by: Helen Savore

Sometimes when you set forth on an adventure you’ve already had a lifetime of experience, are world weary, and simply know this is what you must do. But for others, they’re on the road to learn. A real frontier education. The Roving Intern Archetype is 14 feats of learning features from your party, aiding them in return, and generally accumulating knowledge.

• Don’t forget the Beverage Runs
• Benefit from a Broad Grasp on topics
• Be shown Like This from your mentors

Comes with Pathbuilder and Foundry Integration.

Part of the PaizoCon 2024 Game Jam - Educate, Entertain, Inspire!

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479314/Roving-Intern-Archetype

The Aetherial Loom

Created by: Wim De Hert

Fabled, yet known only by the initiated few, the Aetherial Loom is a legendary artefact. It consists of three key elements: the Loom itself, the Weaver, and the Shuttle. The Loom spins the threads of existence out of nothingness, these threads are passed on to the Weaver, who defines the patterns and structures into which the fates align, using the Shuttle, which through the inevitability of time finds its way through the weave.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479155/The-Aetherial-Loom

Elementary, My Dear Acadame

Created By: Evelyn Hannon, Astride "Dr Umbrus" Couillaux

Professor Janius of the Acadamae, nervous about today's demonstration of their special arcana altar designed to draw elementals from different planes to the Universe, has asked for the assistance of students - and well paid adventurers - to come and assist them and make sure nothing bad happens. What could go wrong? A roar filled adventure for four 3rd level characters.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479336/Elementary-My-Dear-Acadame

Legacy of the Storm Serpent

Created by: Max Forrest

Follow in the footsteps of the illustrious Storm Serpent to learn the secrets of her long-lost fighting style. This supplement includes feats for Monk characters who pursue the Storm Serpent Style and a ritual for devout followers of the divine.

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479359/Legacy-of-the-Storm-Serpent

A Coven's Brilliant Predicament

Created by: Kate Tremaine

Relaxing in a tavern after a long day, the PCs are asked for help by a citizen of the town. A coven led by several local witches has experienced some troubling accusations and is calling to a small group of skilled visitors for help.

Or are they perhaps just looking for a convenient scapegoat...

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479368/A-Covens-Brilliant-Predicament

The Magic of Boolean Algebra

Created By: Patrick Starrin

Educational puzzles that teach Boolean algebra, a branch of math fundamental to computer programming and digital electronics. Players and GMs alike can learn a valuable STEM skill while playing their favorite tabletop RPG!

Link: https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/product/479372/The-Magic-of-Boolean-Algebra

In advance of the Zoetrope’s return from its Golarion-wide voyage, expedition leader Baranthet has sent a collection of journal entries—accompanied by sketches of the creatures from expedition scribe Charikleia—detailing some of the fantastical beasts that call this world home.

Baranthet: Art by Gunship Revolution.

There seem to be two entries, one related to elemental birds, the other to unicorns! Let’s see what he has to say.

Elemental Birds and the Power of the Storm

A scientific illustration of a variety of chaos falcon feathers. Art by Luca Sotgiu.

The elements have a life of their own. I have always believed that birds embody these elements particularly well—phoenixes, thunderbirds, and tidehawks to name a few—but each of these creatures is so different from one another. They make their homes in different habitats and approach life with such different philosophies that they rarely meet without clashing.

My question, dear reader, has always been about the connection between these birds. Most sources say there is no doubt the three creatures have a common ancestor. What could that creature be? And does it still live?

I needed to trace the birds back to their commonalities for an answer. The Zoetrope could not take us back in time, but my studies could, and I soon found several similarities within a handful of creation myths. In ages past, the world was said to be in an everlasting tempest. Volcanoes spat fire into the sky, lightning jumped between clouds of ash, and sharp ice fragments whipped through the wind. It was the storm from which all other storms were born. How fitting would this primordial tempest be as the birthplace of the species of elemental bird from which the others evolved?

I searched volcanoes for the creatures known as chaos falcons, waiting for a violent eruption to give me a glimpse into the world of the past. It was in the Kullan Dei mountains that I at last found it.

This journal entry was written for Pathfinder Howl of the Wild by Caryn DiMarco.

How odd, it seems Baranthet also included some notes about the chaos falcon’s “abilities.”

CHAOS FALCON — CREATURE 10

Dive-bomb [two-actions] (earth, fire, primal) Requirements The chaos falcon is Flying; Effect The chaos falcon Flies twice straight down. If they reach the ground or a similarly solid object at the end of this movement, their landing shatters that surface into sharp shards, and droplets of molten stone deal 4d6 fire and 3d8 piercing damage (DC 26 basic Reflex save) to all other creatures within 20 feet.

Storm Bolt The chaos falcon's bolt Strike always deals the damage type of their storm nexus aura.

The chaos falcon, wreathed in fire, water, and electricity. Art by Shafi Adams.

A Sanctuary for Unicorns

A scientific illustration of unicorns grazing, drinking water, and frolicking in a field. Art by Luca Sotgiu.

During our journey, we were lucky to stumble into the Monkeros Sanctuary, a hidden forest doubling as both a nature reserve and home for a small herd of unicorns. Of course, I will not share its location—indeed, publicizing the location of any unicorn poses a terrible danger to them. With that in mind, many who support the sanctuary do so without ever seeing the unicorns they protect. A rare few academic visitors are allowed along with a handful of mercenaries, both vetted through the churches associated with Monkeros and further by the unicorns themselves.

Although unicorns have the capacity for speech far surpassing my own eloquence, their nervousness around outsiders makes direct interviews difficult. It was only by enlisting the aid of ten-year-old Theom, the son of a visiting scholar, that I was able to establish something of a dialogue with the most outgoing of the unicorns. Theom knew the unicorn as “Periwinkle,” which she seemed happy to accept—much like our own Ten has adopted their moniker. Even in the oldest stories and tales, the true name of a unicorn is always missing. It seems too much of a coincidence that this detail is so persistently lacking; I’m left to believe that unicorns must have a very good reason to protect the secrecy of their true name.

This journal entry was written for Pathfinder Howl of the Wild by Jessie “Aki” Lo.

Another note—perhaps Baranthet has found a system of denoting abilities across the wide variety of Golarion’s wildlife... Apparently, unicorns comprise not just the eponymous species, but many others as well, such as the flying alicorn.

ALICORN — CREATURE 15

Draw in Magic [reaction] (arcane, concentrate) Trigger A creature within 30 feet of the alicorn Casts a Spell; Effect The alicorn attempts to counteract the triggering spell (counteract modifier +28, counteract rank 8th). If successful, the alicorn can choose to gain the effects of the triggering spell as its sole target.

An alicorn—a stronger, winged version of a unicorn—in mid aerial dive. Art by Jessé Suursoo.

Pathfinder Howl of the Wild releases May 22nd, 2024 in standard hardcover, special edition hardcover, and PDF formats. Plus, check your FLGS for our hobby-retailer exclusive sketch cover hardcover!

Subscribe to the Pathfinder Rulebooks line to get the PDF free when your physical copy ships!

With the death of Gorum, war runs rampant across the world. The nations of Golarion clash over border disputes, natural resources, and ideological differences. For such grand conflicts (as well as your typical dungeon encounters), we introduce two new classes who can help turn the tide of any battle.

The commander is an Intelligence-based tactician with unparalleled authority over the battlefield. By drilling specific tactics with your allies during your daily preparations, you can signal them with your unfurled banner during a fight to take additional actions. Call for a Defensive Retreat to allow each of your squadmates to Step up to three times (away from enemies, of course) as a free action. Using the Double Team tactic to allow a squadmate with an opponent in reach to Shove or Reposition that foe as a free action. If they are successful and move that creature adjacent to you or a different squadmate, you or that squadmate can Strike that opponent as a reaction. The commander is no slouch in the fight themself, being trained in martial weapons and all armors, so if you want to lead your fellow adventurers to victory, be sure to playtest the commander!

Illustration by Alexandre Chaudret

The guardian is a Strength-based protector who excels in the use of armor, both for their own benefit and the aid of others. You gain the effects of armor specialization at 1st level, and you can also Intercept Strikes meant for your allies, taking the hit but gaining resistance against that damage. Because of your armor, you’ll be a little more difficult to hit than your friends, so what’s to stop monsters from simply ignoring you? Your Taunts! By Taunting a foe, you make yourself a more tempting target and impart penalties to their attacks on anyone else. If you are the type of player who enjoys keeping others safe from harm, be sure to playtest the guardian!

Illustration by Sammy Khalid

This playtest will run for almost two months, beginning April 29 (today!), and continuing through June 21, 2024. In addition to playtesting these classes in your home games, you’ll be able to try them out in our organized play program by making your own Pathfinder Society characters using the rules located in the Guide to Organized Play. The commander and guardian classes and all related options are available to all players during this playtest.

Our friends at Demiplane are also hosting a free character builder for the commander and guardian classes, available at www.pathfindernexus.com/playtest, for those of you interested in taking advantage of their digital toolset to generate your characters.

Once you’ve had a chance to get a feel for the new classes, please be sure to leave your feedback at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BattlecryClassSurvey and https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/BattlecryOpenResponse to let us know what you think of them and where you think they could be improved! We’ll also have dedicated playtest forums here on paizo.com to discuss these classes and options with your peers. We’re looking forward to hearing what you have to say! We’d also love to see stories of your adventures with these classes on social media!

Check out the playtest!

Jason Keeley
Senior Designer

Michael Sayre
Design Manager

Hello everyone,
James, Eleanor, and Ianara here, your leads for the Tian Xia project. As of yesterday, the Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide is officially out! This is a region of our setting that we know many of you (not to mention us at Paizo as well!) have been looking forward to for some time, and it’s great to be able to share this look into the continent with you. Tian Xia takes inspiration from Asian fantasy and folklore, and we knew that we wouldn’t be able to bring this vast range of stories to life without an all-star team of writers and designers, many of whom also worked on the Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide, which releases in August. Get to know some of them below!

James Case
Senior Designer

Eleanor Ferron
Senior Developer

Ianara Natividad
Senior Editor

Eren Ahn (they/them primarily)

안녕하세요, 여러분! My name is Eren, and I had the incredibly fun opportunity to refresh Daikitsu and Lao Shu Po for the Tian Xia World Guide as well as contributing some lore around the mystical imugi. As someone who loves exploring the relationship between mortality and divinity, it was an absolute dream to have the opportunity to expand on Tian Xia's pantheon. I hope you all fall as deeply in love with the Lady of Foxes and Old Rat Woman as I did while writing them.

You can find me sporadically talking about my writing on Bluesky (by the time you're reading this, I'll have posted more detailed threads on my contributions for this book, if you're interested in reading about my process) and talking about everything else on Twitter. You will also see me in a couple of months for the Tian Xia Character Guide!

Alyx Bui

Hear ye, hear ye! Here come the imperial dragons of Tian Xia! I had the pleasure of crafting and writing on the Imperial Dragons and the peoples and land of Zi Ha! This was a massive collaboration between so many talented writers and artists—Basheer Ghouse to place Arindham, a forest dragon within the Valashmai Jungle, with Jay Zhang to place Luong Phung, a sea dragon within Xidao, with Jacky Leung to place Shen Ra, a sky dragon within Po Li, with Kevin Thien Vu Long Nguyen to place a sovereign dragon, Pham Duc Quan within Xa Hoi, and Grady Wang to place an underworld dragon, Zhu Long, within Chu Ye.

For Zi Ha, it was brilliant to connect with Kienna Shaw, as we placed the samsaran peoples and their origins in this magical land. We wanted to make sure that we inserted a non-colonial view of this world. I wanted joy and wonder to come out of these harsh, wintery lands—from bioluminescent fungi and large, carnivorous plant hunting to festivals that honor the mountain peaks, dragon cycles, and the long day and night phases. Enjoy the epic lore of Shei Long, a Sky Dragon, and the moon deity Tsukiyo! Continue the conversation with me on X (Twitter) @daredevilalyx!

Two rulers of Tian Xia, Empress Amatatsu Ameiko of Minkai (art by Gunship Revolution) and Empress Nai Yan Fei of Goka (art by Vira Linevych)

Banana Chan (she/they/he)

I'm Banana and I wrote a bunch of stuff for Tian Xia, but what I need EVERYONE to know about is the Great Flood, based on the creature Xiangliu. It's one of my favorite mythical creatures because of how silly it looks in drawings, but if you could see it in real life, it would probably be a body horror disaster. It has the body of a giant snake or eel with nine human heads attached to it. I'd been wanting to write about the Xiangliu for the longest time, so I'm extremely grateful that Paizo gave me that opportunity.

Connie Chang (they/he/she)

Hey there! I'm Connie Chang, and I wrote Quain, a location full of wuxia fantasies, grandmasters, and cultivation! As a queer and trans diasporic Chinese person, I'm a huge fan of the wuxia and xianxia genres as a way to explore historical fantasy beyond western imaginations—so of course I jumped at the chance to help create something with Paizo. I'm especially interested in seeing the stories that will bloom from centuries-old, deeply complicated rivalries between grandmasters!

Social media: Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Twitch

The exuberant pixiu (art by Gunship Revolution) and the monstrous Great Flood (art by Mylene Bertrand)

Hiromi Cota (they/them)

Hai tai! Wanne Hiromi yaibiin! Hi! I’m Hiromi! For folks unfamiliar with me, I’ve worked on over a hundred books and games, usually as a writer or game designer. I’m excited to have worked with Paizo, as I’ve wanted to for years. I’m even more excited to say that I also got to work on the Tian Xia Character Guide and pen the tie-in fiction The Matsuri! Hopefully, I’ll have more opportunities to work with Paizo in the future. If I do, you’ll find out about them from my Bluesky account @hiromicota!

For the Tian Xia World Guide, I worked on Kwanlai. I had fun providing an in-world explanation as to why Kwanlai is principally populated by tengu (a Japanese creature) but has a Chinese name. The answer, in short, is colonialism. In real life, Japan colonized Uchinaa and foisted the exonym “Okinawa” upon my people. So, it was natural for me to depict the Lung Wa conquering the nation of Ootoya and foisting the exonym “Kwanlai” on the Ootoyans. Another fun tidbit in the writeup is takoyaki (battered and fried octopus) becoming a popular snack due to Wanshou (a nation ruled by a kraken) attacking Kwanlai.

Dana Ebert (she/her)

Dana Ebert (nonchalant female human writer) is a common author to find credited in Pathfinder publications, and the Tian Xia World Guide is no exception. Known for fanciful and often extravagant prose, her work reimagining Minata is most evident in phrases like "swallowing dragons like krill" and "churned the sea like a mortar and pestle." In addition to authoring the chapter on Minata, she contributed substantial Minata-adjacent content to the Tian Xia Character Guide. When she's not writing for Pathfinder, Dana is a full-time content creator at TPK Brewing Co., a tabletop roleplaying-themed brewery she co-owns in Portland, Oregon.

The sorrowful dragon Luong Phung (art by Gunship Revolution) and the draconic emperor Pham Duc Quan (art by Gunship Revolution)

John Godek III (he/him)

Hi! I’m John, a mixed-race Filipino American gamer, gamemaster, freelancer, and podcaster. For the Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide I wrote the Oceans of Tian Xia as well as several new Tian ships, along with Yamatsumi the mountain god and General Susumu. I was very excited to work on these as I spent my early childhood in Hawai'i and Philippines, and later sailed the seven seas as I started my career.

As a freelance game designer, I’ve written mostly for Paizo but also some for Evil Robot Games and Legendary Games. As a gamemaster, I earned my 5th Nova in 2021 and have volunteered at dozens of gaming conventions. As a podcaster, I produce three podcasts on the Know Direction Network: Digital Divination, with Paizo Senior Designer Jason Keeley and D&D Designer Ron Lundeen; Intrepid Heroes, an RPG actual play where we just completed the Devastation Ark AP and soon begin a Scum and Villainy adventure run by Jason Keeley; and Presenting - Gamers Making Games, a podcast where I have interviewed over 100 game designers, developers, artists, and editors. In addition, I am also GMing a Fists of the Ruby Phoenix campaign and playing Outlaws of Alkenstar and Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse. In my non-gaming life, I am a university professor teaching entrepreneurship and social venture creation in the Seattle area.

You can reach me on Twitter @JohnGodekIII and find my podcasts at https://knowdirectionpodcast.com/ or on YouTube.

Daniel Kwan (he/him)

Hello! My name's Daniel! I'm the co-host of the Asians Represent Podcast and am a freelance game designer and cultural consultant with over 40 games credits! The Tian Xia World Guide is my second Paizo contribution and certainly the one I'm most excited about. I had a blast bringing my love of weapons, horror, and mythology to life for the project. It is such an honor to be part of such a diverse team of Asian creatives who have worked so hard to bring life to Tian Xia! Fun fact, some of my fellow freelancers and I started a home game to test out many of our contributions during the development period!

Twitter: @danielhkwan Website: https://danielhkwan.carrd.co/

Two of Tian Xia’s deities, the goddess of liminal spaces, Lady Jingxi (art by Carl Springer), and the lovers-turned-rivals Mugura and Nrithu (art by Carl Springer)

Jacky Leung (he/they)

Hey, everyone! I'm Jacky Leung, and it's been a while since I worked freelance for Paizo. Tian Xia was an amazing experience to revisit as a player and a creator. I had the pleasure of writing for Po Li and expanding life in a country ruled by the theologic elite and how people governed by oracles thrive despite its previously sheltered portrayal in earlier works. I had the opportunity to provide faces to the extremely secretive Oracular Council that governs Po Li, introduce the equally secretive Lapis Watchers, and expand new iconic locations for players to explore such as Tuotuo, the Enlightened City—a historical education center containing special archives housing racks of prophecies and oracular writings. Beyond the nostalgic glamor lies also the Emperor's Footprint, a site rumored to contain mystical properties, a supposed asteroid, and stunning panoramic beauty—just highly dangerous and full of monsters, I'm sure it's fine. I hope folx gets to experience the social and political dissonance that awaits them when adventuring through Po Li; it was a fantastic challenge.

You can find me on Twitter/X under @deathbymage and Bluesky under deathbymage.bsky.social. You can find my website and portfolio here: https://deathbymage.carrd.co/.

Jessie "Aki" Lo (she/her)

I'm a freelance writer, artist, GM, producer, editor, and TTRPG performer who just can't say no. Tian Xia was my first big Paizo gig, but if you want to see more of my little grabby hands making a gorgeous mess of Pathfinder 2e, you should check out my podcast! Goblets and Gays is an award-winning, Pathfinder 2e Actual Play podcast. With our first campaign "Blood of Kings" wrapped up, we're in the middle of releasing our second campaign "Tyrant of the Dark Star". ToDS is a grim dark Pathfinder 2e Remastered actual play set in the gothic-horror homebrew world of Noxlight.

Goblets and Gays Twitter and Podlink

A woman demonstrating the technology of ancient Yjae (art by Alexander Nanitchkov) and a member of the seafaring Nisama people (art by Riley Spalding)

Adam Ma (he/him)

Hello friends! I'm so excited for you all to sink into this beautiful world. For many of you it will be a marvelous opportunity to immerse yourself in a land rich with cultures perhaps outside your own. I'm right there with you. This was my first contribution to Pathfinder's rich world, and I never expected to go so deep into exploring my own culture and heritage through the lens of Wanshou's horror and paranoia. Just remember, if anything bad happens to your party while exploring this flooded land, it's definitely not a coincidence and probably your party member's fault. You know which one I'm talking about.

I work on all kinds of TTRPG content, so if you're into grand adventure with a bit of horror, then we'll get along great! If you're a fan of my contribution to Tian Xia and want to follow my other work you can find me on Bsky and Twitter as 34thGingerbread - or you can visit my website: https://www.adam34th.com/

Tan Shao Han

Hi! I'm Tan Shao Han / 陈绍涵 (family name Tan/Chen, 陈; generational name, Shao 绍; personal name, Han 涵), a TTRPG creator, lecturer, and cultural consultant from Singapore, Southeast Asia. I'm proudly part of the RPGSEA TTRPG design movement based in Southeast Asia! I grew up a steady diet on wuxia media (movies, books, TV series, manhua), and am happy to re-imagine and create settings (the histories, lands, and peoples of Goka and Songbai) in the Tian Xia World Guide to inspire the telling of new wuxia-influenced stories in your Pathfinder games! It has been an absolute privilege to work on the Tian Xia books, alongside great colleagues and supervisors whom I now have the pleasure to call my friends.

Outside of freelancing with Paizo, I also run an indie TTRPG company, Curious Chimeras. If you're interested in more of my takes on Chinese fantasy, check out my recent indie games: Swordfarer, a wuxia journaling game of jianghu melancholia and friendships and Shrine, a xianxia storytelling game of karma, despair, and reincarnation. To find out more about the other amazing TTRPGs and creators from Southeast Asia, please check out https://across-rpgsea.com/ as well!

Urakadussi, the High Matriarch of Xidao (art by Sammy Khalid), and Zhanagorr, Divine Savior of Wanshou (art by Nicholas Phillips)

Ruvaid Virk (he/him)

Hello, y’all! Ruvaid here. You may have seen my name in previous Paizo books such as Dark Archive, Impossible Lands, and Rage of Elements. For the Tian Xia World Guide, I wrote the entry for the nation of Hongal. I have a deep appreciation for Mongolian culture from which Hongal draws inspiration, and I endeavored to bring as much respect to my words as possible. I sincerely hope that you enjoy reading about Hongal as much as I enjoyed writing about it.

If you’re looking for a South Asian/Muslim freelancer for your next project, or should you simply wish to perceive me, you can find me on Twitter @Darth_Ruvaider, or the other one @darthruvaider.bsky.social. Until next time, and happy Pathfinding!

Grady Wang (he/him)

Howdy, I'm Grady and my work on Chu Ye in the World Guide was my first-ever assignment for Paizo! I'm so excited that it's finally out! This nation has incredible potential for grand stories, from its historical contributions to medicinal knowledge to the present-day four-way clash between its greedy oni ruling class, a scrappy humanoid rebellion, an underworld dragon out for revenge, and a jealous god. I was also thrilled to be able to draw upon my Chinese and Taiwanese heritages to expand Chu Ye’s culture and its experiences under occupation.

My next contribution will be in the Character Guide coming later this year, which contains Tian Xia’s unique takes on medicine. You can also find me online at The Gallant Goblin where my partner and I review TTRPG products on https://www.youtube.com/thegallantgoblin, sell kobold plushies at heroplush.com, and produce expanded content for Pathfinder at https://www.pathfinderinfinite.com/, where we just released the first community print-on-demand product, Adventures in Jalmeray, which is an anthology of three adventures set in Jalmeray (Lost Omens: Impossible Lands) designed by an all-Desi team of writers!

A member of the spellcasting dovlokhuud (art by Vira Linevych) and a magical student of Tang Mai (art by Carl Springer)

Hail and well met, Pathfinders and Starfinders! This month’s new releases dive into the culture and history of the nations of Tian Xia, send Starfinders to confront the founder of the Order of Dawning Fate, and place you at the heart of a Wildwood negotiation breakdown!

Join us next Friday, May 3^rd,for Paizo LIVE on twitch.tv/officialpaizo!

Never miss a release with our Paizo Subscriptions—for everything from rulebooks to accessories.

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Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide

BIGGER THAN YOU REALIZE

Dragons once served as the stewards of this land, commanded by Heavenly decree. Can you live up to their lofty expectations, or will you flounder and fail like countless kingdoms before you? Prophecy is dead and history hangs on a feather; even the slightest breath might change the course of peoples and nations. Strike out and seize your destiny in an uncertain future!

This massive gazetteer features a look at the history, cultures, and peoples of Tian Xia, with summaries of over 20 distinct nations and kingdoms on, above, and under the continent. It’s accompanied by a giant poster map displaying this region of the Pathfinder setting in beautiful detail.

Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide is also available as a special edition hardcover bound in faux leather with foil debossing and an bound-in ribbon bookmark.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #201: Pactbreaker (Wardens of Wildwood 1 of 3)

A TREATY IN PERIL

The annual Greenwood Gala—a convention for primal power brokers and a festival associated with the Green Faith—is ruined when saboteurs assassinate several of the region’s eminent leaders. To keep tensions from erupting into more bloodshed, the PCs must maintain order long enough for the Wildwood Lodge to choose a new leader and restore peace. The Wardens of Wildwood Adventure Path begins with “Pactbreaker,” a complete adventure for 5th- to 7th-level characters.

Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Showtime Multi-Pack

LIFE IS A STAGE!

If your adventurers need to entertain a crowd or disrupt a sinister performance, the Pathfinder Flip‐Mat: Showtime Multi‐Pack has you covered! The four sides of this Flip-Mat Multi-Pack present three venues on which to perform an opera, stage a mock battle, or house a cozy tavern sing-along. Two sides combine to depict a grand theater, while the others show a large amphitheater and a wintry inn, perfect places to sing rousing bardic ballads. Put on a show for your players with these exciting performance scenes!

This set includes two Flip-Mats, each measuring 24" × 30" unfolded and 8" × 10" folded. A Flip-Mat’s coated surface can handle any dry-erase, wet-erase, or even permanent marker. Usable by experienced GMs and novices alike, Pathfinder Flip-Mats fit perfectly into any Game Master’s arsenal!

Starfinder Society Scenario #6-16: Dawning Fate

A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for 7th- through 10th-level characters.

For a century, the villainous Order of Dawning Fate has operated in the shadows, remaining anonymous and untouched despite extensive criminal activity, political manipulation, and espionage. Thanks to the efforts of countless Starfinders and their allies across the galaxy, the Order of Dawning Fate is crumbling—their members are exposed, their holdings are under investigation, their proxies are moving to cut ties, many of their highest-ranking members are dead or arrested, and their supply of the rare starmetal finitrium has been cut off. Yet a threat remains…

Zhaneni, founder and mastermind of the Order of Dawning Fate, has evaded capture, retreating to her personal demesne on the planet Kax to wait out the turmoil alongside her closest ally and fellow founder of the Order, Evethriel. As the Stewards, Veskarium, and numerous other galactic bodies move against the Order’s now-exposed agents and holdings within their respective jurisdictions, First Seeker Ehu Hadif and Ixthia the Unbreakable dispatch Starfinders to confront Zhaneni and destroy the last remnants of Project Dawn—the hybrid machine that amplifies Zhaneni’s natural precognitive abilities, enabling her to see and shape the future.

Time is not on your side.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-14: Poisonous Council

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 3rd- through 6th-level characters.

The Pathfinder Society is running low on a critical alchemical catalyst, and all their usual suppliers have run dry. The Supplies and Procurement Division is desperate and has put a call out directly to agents. They know of one alchemist skilled and knowledgeable enough to make the catalyst: Tragshi the Herbalist, master of the Daggermark Poisoner's Guild. The Society has used what contacts they have remaining in Daggermark to arrange a meeting, but the chief poisoner isn't one to give things away for free. The PCs will need to do several errands for her, proving the Society's worth to the guild and to Tragshi herself.

Pathfinder Society Quest (Series 2) #18: Student Exchange

A Pathfinder Society Quest designed for 1st- through 4th-level characters, playable in 2-3 hours.

The PCs have been placed in a sort of exchange program, wherein the Magaambya, the oldest school of magic still operating in Golarion, will judge their worth as a foundation for future cooperation. Teacher Ot has been tasked with showing the PCs the ways of the magical school as well as with taking their measure. The future of this partnership lies in the PCs' hands.

Pathfinder Society Scenario #5-15: Cleansing the Flame

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for 5th- through 8th-level characters.

The Burning Sun orc hold has spent the past year guarding the body of Mahja Firehair as she fights her Crucible in the afterlife. Unfortunately, there have been strange attacks on Freedom Town as of late. Desperate for answers and hopeful for assistance, Uirch reaches out to the Pathfinder Society to investigate the mysterious attackers and see if their flames belong to the Whispering Tyrant or to another enemy lying in wait. The Pathfinders will need to investigate the town while ensuring that an enemy of mythical proportions doesn't see their plan succeed and interrupt Mahja's Crucible.

From Our Partners:

Our partners at Archives of Nethys, Demiplane, Fantasy Grounds, Hero Lab Online, and Roll20* are dropping new content this month as well! Buy your PDF on paizo.com to get a discount via the PaizoConnect API, or pay full price on their platforms, sync your account, and get a complimentary PDF on the Paizo Store.

*Roll20 is no longer a part of PaizoConnect and discounts and complimentary PDFs do not apply.

Gods of Lost Omens Miniature Set – 10% off for a Limited Time!

In honor of our War of Immortals Kickoff Announcement and the looming death of Gorum, Our Lord in Iron, take 10% off of the Gods of Lost Omens Miniature Set when you purchase them on paizo.com!

Mystery Loot: Pathfinder Lost Tome

Our partners at Foam Brain recently released their Pathfinder Lost Tome Mystery Loot set! Each mystery bag includes a pin that folds out into a playable miniature, a themed metal D20, and an encounter card to use at your table! Buy them online or check your FLGS for a hobby exclusive sketch dragon promo pin!

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New Year’s first fireworks danced across Changdo’s night, their exuberant sparks half-reflected upon the Sea of Ghosts. Ling Zhiyu, courtesy name Wenhan, Sixth-Rank Clerk of the Ministry of Truth, Junior Secretary of the Lower Oracular Council, set down his brush to admire the distant pyrotechnics.

This far from the city, the celebrations looked almost peaceful. Whenever possible, Zhiyu spent New Year here, at this shoreside teahouse, preferring to stay away from the devotees jostling to light the auspicious incense to welcome the Eternal Emperor’s spirit, away from wending swells of dragon dancers bearing the throne’s five colors, and most of all, away from the Ministry of Faith’s magically amplified, self-congratulatory platitudes for yet another year of Po Li’s glory.

The Sea of Ghosts’ lapping waves broke the oracle’s reverie, their leisurely cadence not unlike the murmuring of some unknown tongue. Zhiyu smiled despite himself. No point thinking such dour thoughts during New Year. You'll invite Heaven’s displeasure... and more importantly, spoil everyone’s mood here. They’ve suffered enough.

Facing the vacuous waters, Zhiyu spoke loudly and clearly to no one at all.

“Yes, elders. Happy New Year to you too. May your heart realize ten thousand desires, may your descendants lead long and healthy lives, may the Eternal Emperor hasten your reincarnations for your loyal service. You can see, Changdo still stands, bright with lanterns, altars, cooking fires, and fireworks. You did not fight the War of Widow-Makers in vain; every New Year is your everlasting gift to us all.”

The currents settled. His invisible audience seemingly placated, Zhiyu returned to his table’s reports, and was pleasantly surprised to find the teahouse’s proprietors had discreetly left some fried niangao and a fresh pot of aged Tuotuo tea. These refreshments were not unwelcome; there was much to attend to, from goiter and beriberi coinciding with recent fads of grain diets emulating the Eternal Emperor’s piety; stirring instability in the West with Lingshen and Quain; troubling developments on the East with Hwanggot and Bachuan. So much to do! But for now, tea and rice cakes. Zhiyu sipped gratefully, smiled his thanks to the teahouse’s owners, and returned to his paperwork, as fresh fireworks and celebratory songs filled the night.

---

“Oracle Ling looks tired. He’s always working so hard, even on New Year.”

“You know how it is, my beloved. There are some oracles who work very hard, because there are so many who don’t...”

“Close your mouth, my foolish husband. These things! You shouldn’t even think them, let alone speak them... nobody, especially us, can afford to pay the price.”

On this solemn note, the teahouse owners’ whispered conversation reached a brief lull. Fireworks flared above, in the shape of a celestial peach tree; a sign of life’s renewal and promise. Husband and wife contemplated the sky together, a shared silence; then, both spoke abruptly at the same time.

“Do you suppose we can ask Oracle Ling...”

“Maybe it’s as good a time as any to ask Oracle Ling...”

They laughed quietly at this simultaneous blurting of their hearts’ nervousness. Who could blame them? They were but humble merchants without clan or fame, whose usual clients were fishers who plied the Sea of Ghosts for minnow and perch. Oracle Ling was by far their most prestigious guest, a virtuous official without outrageous demands or haughty airs, who paid in full and tipped well.

To ask an extra favor of him, and especially on this New Year, when families traditionally would have their Reunion Dinners, and officials would vie to fete the Ministers in grand court banquets... Oracle Ling must be truly busy to forsake those commitments and opportunities. What right would they have to disturb his schedule with such a selfish request?

---

Zhiyu yawned as he completed his report on the Gokan trafficking of false Po Lian relics and rubbed the poultice of chrysanthemum and wolfberry over his tired eyes.

I suppose it's time.

The waves stirred, as if in assent.

Zhiyu forced a smile, trying to let the wisdom in his mind fade away, to return from realms of divine insight dwelled by praiseworthy sages. He stood up quietly and tiptoed to the teahouse.

---

“Excuse me.”

The proprietors nearly jumped from shock. Zhiyu reprimanded himself; he had not wanted to cause any disturbance, but alas, that was exactly what had happened. Ah well, let's get on with it.

“Good sir, good madam, I understand you would like my help with something. I understand you have a child, of the right age for a Test of Fate, and you would like to see what the Heavens are willing to reveal about your child’s destiny.”

This time, the proprietors were truly in shock. How did the esteemed guest know all these? But then, he was an oracle...

“I understand your grandparents were from Lingshen and Quain, who fought here to defend the Imperial City during the War of Widow-Makers...”

The wind hissed, like a thousand knives drawn all at once.

“...and your parents stayed behind, but Changdo has not treated you all that well. Due to the present... succession disputes. Of things much bigger than you or me, our politics, histories, cultures...”

The wind stopped abruptly, A sleeping waterbird woke in surprise, and uttered a mournful cry.

“...and so, you have no lands, no clans, no names, no sponsors; no choice but to take on the regrettable work of doing business on your own. And you wonder... will your child inherit the same fate?”

Wife and husband nodded as one, their eyes red-rimmed and knuckles white-edged.

“If you will permit me, I will perform the Test of Fate for your child, and let his destiny be revealed in Heaven’s gaze. I apologize I must inconvenience you to visit my residence, because my luopan, almanacs, yarrow stalks, and other divinatory tools are at home.”

The couple fell to their knees in gratitude; Zhiyu stepped forward to help them back up. As they ambled to the oracle’s tiny manor, the night sky above Changdo seemed lighter somehow, and not just for the fireworks that flooded its inky expanse.

Illustration by Maichol Quinto

About the Author

Tan Shao Han (he/him) is a writer, editor, consultant, and researcher of Asian histories and cultures. Shao Han grew up with Chinese storytelling from gong'an (magistrate detectives), wuxia (heroic martial artists), and zhiguai (strange tales), which influenced his work on the upcoming Tian Xia World Guide and Tian Xia Character Guide. Outside of his work for Paizo, Shao Han is part of Curious Chimeras, an indie TTRPG company in Singapore, Southeast Asia. Currently, he is developing Sundered Flames, a Pathfinder Second Edition–compatible dark wuxia adventure, as well as remastering Shrine, a xianxia game of vulnerability and vengeance based on the Palanquin TTRPG. You can find more of his work at www.curiouschimeras.com.

To bring this and other Tian Xia stories to life in your Pathfinder game, check out the Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian Xia World Guide (releasing in April) and the Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian Xia Character Guide (releasing in August), both available for preorder now. Customers who subscribe to the Lost Omens product line will receive both books and a complimentary PDF of each upon their respective release!

Chaos erupts at the Greenwood Gala over the Verduran Forest’s best interests! Cool-headed wardens needed!

In the heart of the Verduran Forest, the largest woodlands in Avistan, druids and Green Faith adherents gather annually to share what they’ve learned from the natural world at an event called the Moot of Ages. Nearby, other forest denizens gather for the Greenwood Gala, a festive three-day event filled with feasts, games, and exuberance held on the river’s banks. The gala ends with a symbolic renewal of the Treaty of Wildwood, an agreement that has allowed a modicum of peace between those who call the forest home and those who harvest resources from it.

This doesn’t stop people from airing their grievances, yet the tone of such disagreements tends to be respectful. This year is different. Resentment has grown so deep and toxic that attendees are wielding their grudges like a keenly honed axe. Anyone stepping up to calm the situation is going to be forced to pick a side.

Inside the Wardens of Wildwood Player’s Guide, you’ll find player-friendly, spoiler-free lore and tips to create an exciting character suited for the Wardens of Wildwood Adventure Path. Contents include:

• An overview of the Verduran Forest, the Wildwood Lodge, and the annual Moot of Ages.
• Character advice, including ways different character classes and ancestries might excel in this Adventure Path.
• Six new character backgrounds specifically designed for this Adventure Path, including Fey Friend, Green Faith Pilgrim, Verduran City Folk, and Wood Warden.

Order The Wardens of Wildwood Adventure Path and download the Player's Guide Today!

Guest blog from Ben Loomes, Syrinscape CEO and Creative Director

Hello! Ben, the CEO and Creative Director of Syrinscape here. My favorite adventure of all time is Red Hand of Doom, which I've run four times—once in its original 3.5 system, and three times adapted for Pathfinder. The first and second SoundSets I ever built for Syrinscape are named "Bugbear Battle," after the very first encounter in Red Hand, and "Witchwood," after the spooky dangerous forest where much of the opening adventure takes place.

I am VERY excited to run Seven Dooms of Sandpoint! This amazing adventure was co-written by James Jacobs. I'm a not-so-secret über-fan of James, so I’m always excited to see new stuff from him.

Let’s jump from the first two Sandpoint SoundSets created for Syrinscape to the latest two. Number 1,081 (“Bones and Ashes”) and Number 1,082 (“Strange Times in Sandpoint”) were built to support the opening of this fantastic NEW adventure. Nowadays Syrinscape has a few more content creators than just me; while it’s still much of my music in there, Chris Körding built these sounds AND contributed even more rich evocative music of his own.

Back in 2009, Chris was playing Rise of the Runelords when, as he describes it, "Syrinscape came along and released the official soundscapes (SoundSets) for the adventure I was playing and I was blown away by the richness and textures and what it provided to the gaming table. Needless to say, Syrinscape became a permanent addition to every gaming session.”

Chris adds, “Fast forward to 2024 and Adventure Path 200! But this time I get to bring it to life for Syrinscape. Expanding from the original adventures and sounds, what could I do to propel it to the roaring 20s?" Nowadays, Syrinscape is more powerful—it can run more channels of sound, with individual reverb units set for every channel, and run sounds which are positioned binaurally for an increased sense of immersion. So, what has Chris done with these new capabilities? He’s had fun, that’s what!

Syrinscape supports all the key locations in this “new” Sandpoint with specifically crafted ambiances. Traps and dramatic events are meticulously crafted for maximum shock and affect. Encounters feature dramatic music to help keep everyone focused and specifically voiced creatures to trigger all those subconscious fears! And of course, as always, Syrinscape is 100% customizable.

When it comes to the music we have created, Chris says, “Don’t want piano hits? Just stop the element. Need some extra choir sounds? Just hit play on THAT element and you have your angelic voices. All of this can easily be done with the power Syrinscape puts into your hands.” With a SuperSyrin sub, you can even compose your own music and upload it to play along with the ambiances we designed. Syrinscape’s support for the Seven Dooms for Sandpoint Adventure Path is rich, specific, and immersive.

If you haven’t used Syrinscape at your table before, now might just be the time to give it a go! And if you are playing remotely with a team of headphone-wearing warriors, Syrinscape has you sorted with our new Web Player, which lets you share your audio with any of your friends ,wherever they are, with just a simple link they can open in any browser. We hope you love what we have built for this adventure. We believe that using Syrinscape in your Pathfinder and Starfinder games will deliver a world-class gaming experience so everyone in your game will have an amazing time, including you!

Ben Loomes
Syrinscape CEO and Creative Director

Yesterday, we announced a slate of new products set to release over the latter half of this year that are all tied to the War of Immortals event. While I’ll get to those below, I know the real reason you’re reading the blog, so without further ado, the identity of the member of the Core Twenty who is going to die as part of the War of Immortals is…

Gorum, God of War, is going to die in the War of Immortals event. Illustration by Ivan Koritarev.

Our Lord in Iron, Gorum! Now, the how, when, and why of this deific death are elements of War of Immortals we’re not quite ready to talk about yet, but we promise: Gorum is going to die “on screen” in an adventure in which your player characters play a role. We’ll have more details about that as the adventure’s release approaches. In the meantime, let’s take a brief look at the slate of products coming in the second half of 2024 in which Gorum’s death and the larger War of Immortals metaplot will play out!

First on the list are an adventure and adventure path that have already been announced. In July, we’re releasing Pathfinder Adventure: Prey for Death, a 128-page hardcover adventure for 14th-level characters, written by former Paizo Developer Vanessa Hoskins. In this adventure, you’ll play members of the Red Mantis, the notorious and mysterious assassins guild and cult of the mantis god, Achaekek, who must clear their names when treachery threatens to besmirch their honor. Not only is Prey for Death the first tie-in to the War of Immortals storyline, but it’s also the debut of the new ongoing format of the Pathfinder Adventure product line!

Also in July, we’ll kick off our 40th Pathfinder Adventure Path (!!!), entitled Curtain Call, with Pathfinder Adventure Path #204: Stage Fright by veteran designer Richard Pett. Stage Fright starts characters as 11th-level adventurers who, over the course of the AP, help to produce an opera based on their own prior adventures while simultaneously facing a new threat that only the most powerful of heroes can stop. The connections between a theater-based campaign and the death of one of Golarion’s most powerful deities may seem tenuous, but you’ll have to trust us on this: the ramifications of Gorum’s death and the ensuing Godsrain affect all aspects of the world. And players of the Curtain Call Adventure Path will have a front row seat!

In September, we’ll be releasing the first of a pair of e-book short fiction collections exploring the event, a compilation of Erin Roberts’s smash web fiction series, The Godsrain Prophecies, complete with additional material exploring the identity and motivations of the mysterious seer who first penned the prophecies.

In October, we’ll publish Before the Godsrain, an anthology of short and flash fiction featuring four Iconic characters: the barbarian Amiri, the wizard Ezren, the cleric Kyra, and elven rogue Merisiel. These stories—mostly previously published on the Paizo Blog—explore the characters’ origins, character, and prior adventures and set the stage for something we’ll chat about a little bit later.

Also in October, Paizo is proud to announce the tentpole release of the War of Immortals event, the aptly named Pathfinder War of Immortalshardcover rulebook. This 240-page hardcover (also available in special edition, retailer-exclusive sketch variant, and forthcoming pocket edition) will introduce mythic rules to Pathfinder Second Edition, as well as two brand new classes—the first original classes built on the remastered foundation of the Pathfinder Player Core—the animist and exemplar! In addition to loads of new character options, War of Immortals also explores Gorum’s death and the ramifications. Most notable among these is the Godsrain: a literal shower of the slain god’s blood, shattered armor, and divine essence that falls upon Golarion and every world on which he was worshiped, leaving war and mythic power in its wake. A book called War of Immortals would hardly be doing its job if it didn’t explain the selfsame conflict, an extended period of conflict in which gods struggle to survive a slew of divine deaths and mortals vie for the newly available god-sparks upsetting the balance of power.

October also brings our second War of Immortals tie-in adventure path, Triumph of the Tusk, beginning with Pathfinder Adventure Path #207: The Resurrection Flood, by Brian Duckwitz and John Compton, and adventure for 3rd-level characters. Triumph of the Tusk is a three-part monthly campaign in which an eclectic band of dignitaries become battle-hardened survivalists fighting for the orcs’ homeland and independence. “How does this tie into the larger War of Immortals?” you might ask. Well, let’s just say that Gorum isn’t the only god who’s going to die during this event, and some ancestral pantheons are going to get hit harder than others. For more info, you’ll just have to wait until October!

In November, we round out the products we’re announcing today (though the consequences of the Godsrain and War of Immortals will continue into 2025 and beyond) with two exciting new releases. The first, Lost Omens Divine Mysteries, explores, well, the divine mysteries of the setting and provides an overview of the gods and faiths common throughout the Age of Lost Omens, reflecting the changes to the setting brought about by the War of Immortals. You’ll notice that Arazni is featured prominently on the cover, and that’s because she’s graduating into the ranks of the Core Twenty to fill the vacancy left with Gorum’s death. While she won’t take on his mantle of war, she will nevertheless rise to more and more prominence within the setting as a new status quo materializes.

Finally, November also sees the return of long-format Pathfinder fiction to print with the much-anticipated Pathfinder Godsrain by fan-favorite author Liane Merciel. Unlike previous novels published under the Pathfinder Tales brand from 2010 to 2017, Godsrain will debut as a deluxe hardcover with wraparound dustjacket and will feature Pathfinder’s popular Iconic heroes as its protagonists. In this exciting tale, Amiri, Ezren, Kyra, and Merisiel will witness Gorum’s death, receive their own nascent god-sparks, and even meet one of their patron deities as they take on a desperate quest to prevent the greatest threat Golarion has ever known from escaping an ancient prison. Can they use their unique talents, newfound mythic power, and the blessings of the Dawnflower to maintain the seal on the Dead Vault? You’ll just have to read and find out!

The advent of the War of Immortals on Golarion will necessitate seasoned warriors, and we’re answering that call with the newly announced Battlecry! Class Playtest, launching on April 29, 2024. During this public playtest, players will have the chance to put two new war-themed classes through their paces before their release in an as-yet-unannounced product coming in 2025. The commander is a martial support class that can issue commands to her allies, granting them extra movement, actions, reactions, and more. The guardian is an armored tank, who can taunt opponents and maximize the effectiveness of heavy armor to be a bulwark against nearly any threat. Be sure to try these exciting new classes out in just a few weeks!

That’s all the announcements we have for now, but we’ll have a lot more to say about these releases and more in the coming months, beginning at PaizoCon in May. Until then, you can catch up on yesterday’s stream on Twitch or YouTube and join the conversation here, on the Paizo Forums, or any of the many social media communities where Pathfinder fans congregate.

Mark Moreland
Director of Brand Strategy

One of my favorite places aboard the Zoetrope was the menagerie, where I would tend to the flora and fauna we’d taken aboard temporarily for further study. Unfortunately, things were decidedly less peaceful this evening as I raced up the steps to the upper deck, pausing to catch my breath before a small blue creature scampered past me along the ship’s outer railing, giving me a dreadful start.

“She’s still not eating, Baranthet.” Charikleia came around the side, gingerly navigating the narrow space between the railing and the Zoetrope's menagerie. Through the structure’s glass walls—perfect for letting in natural light—I could see our other specimens settling in for the evening amid the lush vegetation, under ballast rocks, or near the drinking pond. The little blue creature, however, swiveled her enormous amber ears in my direction as Chari spoke, resolutely ignoring the seedcake in Chari’s hand.

“Hmmm.” I leaned down and peered at our guest, who chirped plaintively at me in a way that sounded like speech. “Chari—”

“I agree,” she said, already scribbling notes. “That sounded like language. Can you understand us, little one?”

The creature surveyed us solemnly, then without warning sprang from the railing and scrambled through a window.

I let out a rather undignified yelp of surprise and hustled to the nearest door, Chari following soon after. Dr. Pom was at the helm this evening (she was always a bit more alert at night), and the Zoetrope was well underway; we couldn’t have our small guest accidentally falling overboard!

The tiny patter of paws overhead led us upstairs to the mess deck, where, sure enough, the creature perched in the doorway to Grefu’s kitchen, sniffing the air with a disappointed look.

“Well now, who’s this?” Grefu turned from a simmering pot and looked from the creature to us. “I didn’t set a place for an honored guest.”

She emitted the sound—a word?—again, but Grefu looked as nonplussed as the rest of us.

“Well, it’s not Jotun or Thalassic,” muttered Chari, surely making a mental note for our records. Before I could reply, the creature shot between the legs of the chairs and dining table and tore back downstairs. Grefu shrugged and returned to his work as Chari and I gave chase.

The creature was perched on a crate as we came downstairs to the storage area but looked almost disapprovingly at us before scrambling down the stairs to the next flight. We heard a “Goodness! What—?” from Dr. Pom as the creature chirped at her and continued down another level, then a clang a few seconds later. She must have already reached the engine room on the next deck down.

The Zoetrope’s newest guest. Art by Vira Linevych.

 “Hey; I need that!” called Ten as the creature emerged clutching a small gear in her hands. She chirped at them, placed the gear gently on the ground, and took off once more.

“She’s very energetic,” I observed to Chari, pausing to catch my breath.

“And she’s not speaking Surki either,” said Chari, who seemed unaffected by our unexpected evening exercise. “Oh no!”

We heard a distant splash and ran down another level to find the creature sputtering and pulling herself out of the access pipe leading down to the aquatic deck. She looked rather affronted as Lythea swam up the pipe and broke the surface, inadvertently splashing a few droplets onto the creature’s head.

“So sorry, little one,” our navigator said, holding out a hand. “How can we help?”

The creature instead clambered up onto Chari’s arm, flicking water from her ears. She chirped again. It sounded so familiar! I was increasingly convinced that lyrical chirp was, in fact, a word in a language I’d heard before.

“I’m going to stop for my notes before we go back up,” Chari called over her shoulder, turning down the hall toward the crew quarters. I followed her, thinking to peruse my own small collection and check again for any clues as to this creature’s identity.

“Professor, is that you?” Telero opened the door at the end of the hall, emerging from the shuttle bay just as I stepped into my own room. “Hey, who’s this?”

The creature, catching a glimpse of the darkening sky through the branches of the shuttle bay door, squawked and leapt from Chari’s shoulder to her head, climbing up one of her horns and chattering at Telero. He quickly closed the door behind him and approached slowly. “Hey there, it’s okay, friend,” he said. “You’re safe. What’s your name?”

The creature blinked at him, then chirped that same familiar syllable.

Telero frowned in confusion. “Gold?”

I’d become distracted while opening the door to my own room, bemoaning the untidy stack of scrolls and maps I’d meant to organize the previous day, but I turned at this. “Wait, did you say—?”

The creature leapt from Chari’s head and shot into my cabin, papers flying as she disappeared under my desk. I crouched at once to see her clutching my long-missing volume of The Thrilling Tales of Spiridendra (so that’s where it had gone!). She chirped once more.

“She’s saying ‘gold’ in Fey,” Telero said, he and Chari crowding in behind me.

“Of course,” I breathed, looking back up at Chari.

“A marp!”

“They usually communicate in both Common and Fey, but perhaps this one is too young,” I reasoned, reaching out for the book as she began to lick its gold embossing experimentally. “Wait, please! I’ll trade you.” I slowly reached into my pocket and withdrew a gold piece. “Would you like to return to the menagerie? We’ll make sure you’re well fed!”

The marp reluctantly relinquished her grip, but cheered up when she grasped the gold piece with her small hands. We climbed back up to the menagerie, the marp riding on Chari’s shoulder and crunching happily.

The rest of the crew gathered around to exclaim over our guest and her unique menu. (Ten dashed off and returned with an armful of metal scraps to see if the marp found anything else to her liking, but as you’ll see in Charikleia’s notes, gold remains the preferred meal.) As I looked around at my companions, the moonlight streaming through the menagerie’s glass dome, a wave of joy overcame me, as it has so often done on this journey—the joy of discovery, of reaching shared understanding, and of building communities. The joy of belonging.

The Zoetrope hummed quietly under our feet, whisking us away to our next adventure.

About the Author
Baranthet Zamendi cultivated his love of the natural world at a young age, enamored with his grandmother’s awe-inspiring tales of the legendary Wardens of the Wild. He briefly attended Almas University before returning home to rebuild Droon’s public library, eventually becoming its head archivist. His upcoming book on the crew of the Zoetrope and their search for the wardens is his first, but he’s already planning his next adventure.

Support for Mr. Zamendi by
Simone D. Sallé is a senior editor at Paizo and has written for numerous Pathfinder and Starfinder books, including more of Baranthet’s tale inPathfinder Howl of the Wild, the primal treatise and witch journals in Pathfinder Secrets of Magic, and Starfinder Bounty #12: Under Pressure. When she’s not extolling the virtues of the en dash, she enjoys playing as many narrative games as her schedule allows and wandering the woods with her Disreputable Dog.

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Good morning, explorers! While we’ve taken a look at the crew you’ll see throughout Howl of the Wild, we realized there’s one more character we still needed to introduce: the Zoetrope itself! This unique airship serves as a home to our eccentric crew as they search Golarion for the Wardens of the Wild and features its own onboard menagerie, darkroom, research deck, and aquarium for all their exploratory needs.

The Zoetrope in dock. Art by Gunship Revolution.

If your characters want to have their own adventures alongside Baranthet and the rest of the crew, we hope the following map, wonderfully illustrated by Damien Mammoliti and based on concept art from our very own Kent Hamilton, will come in handy.

Map of the Zoetrope. Art by Damien Mammoliti.

It's hard to believe our foray through the Zoetrope logs is at a close. But this is just a taste of Baranthet’s story, and we hope that you’ll want to take part when Howl of the Wild releases next month. Look forward to seeing some more tidbits about all the creatures, options, items, and more coming in the book, and let us know what sort of expedition your characters are thinking about going on!

But that, explorers, is a story for another day.

James Case
Senior Designer

Pathfinder Howl of the Wild releases May 22, 2024 and is available for preorder now. Customers who subscribe to the Rulebooks product line will receive the book and a complimentary PDF upon release!