The Price of Freedom

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Illustration by Grafit Studio

The next installment of the Pathfinder Modules line, Broken Chains, is set to release this month, and a lot of you have been asking on the messageboards about how well this module fits into a Legacy of Fire game, particularly while pairing it with Pathfinder Adventure Path #21: The Jackal's Price. As it turns out, Broken Chains is a perfect fit for PCs playing through the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path, and can easily be incorporated into the campaign as an expansion to The Jackal's Price, building upon the urban intrigue set forth in the adventure and being highly compatible with that volume's article on the markets of Katapesh.

While GMs will hardly find it difficult to combine the perils of Broken Chains with the events of The Jackal's Price, here are a couple suggestions for readers hoping to run both adventures in concert.

Spoiler:

• Adjusting CRs: Broken Chains is designed for 6th-level PCs, whereas PCs playing through the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path should be 7th level by the time they start The Jackal's Price. Increasing the quantity of enemies per encounter throughout Broken Chains can easily increase the difficulty of combat. If the PCs are still 6th level by the time they start playing through The Jackal's Price, all the better, since running this module before delving into that volume's content is a snap. Alternatively, since 6th-level PCs likely gain a level near the end of the module, many of the foes fought throughout the latter half of Broken Chains are perfectly suited for 7th-level characters—making it easy to simply skip the first half of the adventure and go into the harder stuff.
• Incorporating the Nightstalls: The first part of Broken Chains takes place in a slave auctioning house known as the Garden of Chains, located on the outskirts of the Twilight Gate district in Katapesh. While the auction house's nefarious wares are solicited primarily during the day, it wouldn't be hard to incorporate the gritty nature of the Nightstalls (described in detail starting on page 58 of The Jackal's Price) into this establishment, further lending it an air of cruelty and unjustness. If Broken Chains would likely be too easy for your group of expert players, plunging the events of the auction house into darkness can certainly make for a more challenging visit!
• Incorporating NPCs: The Jackal's Price and Broken Chains are both rife with new and interesting NPCs that can easily be dropped into either adventure. From brooding slave hunters and crazed pesh addicts to undercover Andoran agents and monstrous slavers, the personages encountered throughout Broken Chains make perfect accompaniments to those in a Legacy of Fire campaign and vice-versa.

Broken Chains is sure to win the hearts of anyone who appreciates an adventure rife with vigilante justice, dungeon delving, and Katapeshi lore. For even more information on the trade capital of eastern Garund, be sure to check out Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Dark Markets, A Guide to Katapesh and the entire Legacy of Fire Adventure Path while getting ready for this highly anticipated Tim Hitchcock adventure!

Patrick Renie
Developer

New Books and Epubs!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

It's an exciting day over here in the Pathfinder Tales department! Not only does today introduce the final chapter in Erik Mona's "Two Pieces of Tarnished Silver" (which you can read right here for free), but it's also the release date of two things that folks have been anxiously awaiting for a while now.

Illustration by Daren Bader

The first is Robin Laws' The Worldwound Gambit, a rollicking heist novel set in the demonic madness of the Worldwound. Hitch a ride with veteran con man Gad as he gathers the perfect team of scoundrels and thieves to infiltrate a cult's living tower deep in demon-held territory. Together they'll attempt to pull off the biggest job of their lives, saving their home from destruction and keeping business booming. Along the way, they'll have to deal with insufferable paladins, a dangerously seductive priestess, their own quirks and faults—and of course, plenty of demons. By turns hilarious and disturbing, Robin's new book is a dark, witty romp that will show you Mendev and the Worldwound like you've never seen them before.

Illustration by Jason Engle

The second thing we're proud to unveil is the latest batch of Pathfinder Tales ePubs, which includes not just several of the web fiction stories, but the first three Pathfinder's Journals from Pathfinder Adventure Path, available now in compiled electronic form, complete with all their original illustrations! For years, people have been asking for compiled versions of the journals for ease of reading and transportation—in fact, before he worked here, Mark Moreland compiled all the Eando Kline stories into a self-printed chapbook to read on his commute—and we're glad to finally be able to oblige. Appearing in this first batch are "Hell's Pawns" by Dave Gross, which marks the first appearance of Varian Jeggare and Radovan; "Dark Tapestry" by Elaine Cunningham, which follows the adventures of half-elven Pathfinder and desert druid Channa Ti; and "The Compass Stone: The Collected Journals of Eando Kline," which presents the entire epic journey of Pathfinder Eando Kline from his first appearance in Pathfinder Adventure Path #1 to the stunning conclusion in #18. Much longer than a typical web fiction story, both "Hell's Pawns" and "Dark Tapestry" are full-length novellas, while Eando's story is roughly as long as a Pathfinder Tales novel! "The Compass Stone" also comes complete with a new foreword by yours truly, discussing the evolution of the Pathfinder's Journal, and of Eando's story in particular. Joining these journals are the compiled web fiction tales "Lord of Penance" by Richard Lee Byers and "The Secret of the Rose and Glove" by Kevin Andrew Murphy.

And this is just the beginning! We hope to unveil the next novel in the Pathfinder Tales line fairly soon, and you can look forward to seeing further batches of web fiction stories and Pathfinder's Journals compiled for your electronic reading enjoyment at regular intervals. Because when it comes to Pathfinder fiction, more is better!

James Sutter
Fiction Editor

Battle in Kelmarane

Friday, September 17, 2010

I had the pleasure of meeting and running a game for Kyle and Nani Pratt at PaizoCon a few years back, and since then Facebook has brought me occasional awesome updates from their campaign. But when THIS showed up, it was too awesome not to repost here. Check it out, with the whole story by the mad geniuses behind what looks like an incredible campaign!

(Forewarning to Legacy of Fire players, minor spoilers might follow.)

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

Nani and I actually took the inspiration from the battle market that someone else made a year ago from here. Originally we thought we were going to just make something exactly the same, but then when we noticed how good the map was, we thought we could blow it up properly to give a good "full immersion" for the market. So my wife Nani took the image into Photoshop, sharpened the image, and then increased the scale to 1 inch. When it was all said and done, we printed it out on ~30 8.5 x 11 pieces of paper and cemented it onto foam board. We had envisioned making the columns look better... but we sadly ran out of time before the game so we had to hurry with a makeshift styrofoam solution!

We really wanted to make our Legacy of Fire game have immersion and put us all into the feel of the game. It's what makes the Paizo products so great, so we're trying to go the extra mile with this one. All of our players were so surprised we had this game aid and thought it was wonderful. It really made everyone understand exactly what the market was like (and just how huge it is compared to the characters themselves. We actually already had the Ruined Crypt of Kelmarane made for after this, and decided we wanted to go the extra mile. I think our players are going to be really surprised at this one too. Hopefully World Works finishes up the Garden from the next AP in time!

The fight itself was completely memorable. Our entire party snuck in through the north entrance using Undrella's key. Our rogue, a goblin, scouted ahead in the guise as a member of the battle market, and ended up talking with both the gnolls in the guardroom and Hurvank. With some very good bluff checks he convinced the poor ogre that the gnolls had set him up to lose in his last bout with Haleen. Hurvank then went over to the gnolls in the guardroom imagining that each one was Haleen and started to strangle them all to death. The goblin quickly went over and pitoned the second door to the guard room, trapping the remaining guards inside, scaring and confusing the gnolls on the first floor. Meanwhile the rest of the party (who didn't know what was going on) heard an ogre running across the market yelling about how he was going to kill Haleen (all three of them). The character with the "Finding Haleen" trait went rushing in to attack the ogre... which caused the bugbears to join the fight against the PCs fighting the ogre. Meanwhile, the gnolls all were trying to kill the ogre and had no clue what was going on. After about 10 more rounds of confusion, the remaining gnolls/defenders on the upper terraces finally figured out what was going on and rushed to protect the remainder of the battle market. By this time, though, the damage was done and a large number of the forces were dead by ogre/bugbear/gnoll/PC hands.

Having the market made prior to this made the combat incredibly easy to run. Instead of just describing how far up the terraces were we just placed the gnolls and described how they were shooting down from above. It was a GREAT aid!

Kyle Pratt
GM & Mad Architect

Fans Make a Fan out of Me

Monday, November 23, 2009

Working in the RPG publishing business is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. It's a joy to get paid to think about things like new oracle class abilities, which products to release in 2012, and what we should have artists like Wayne Reynolds paint for our next hardcover release, but in some ways working in the main office of the sausage factory can take the fun out of things, or at least lessen the surprise.

New products are a great example of this. Back in my fan days, I'd rush to the game store on a near-weekly basis, eagerly scanning the racks for the latest releases from my favorite publishing companies. Now that I effectively run my favorite publishing operation in the business, the frisson of excitement brought by a new product often isn't as strong as it once was.

By the time a "brand new" product hits my desk, for example, my mind is already several months ahead, working feverishly on the products almost on their way to the printer or dreaming up new products that won't be released for more than a year. In some sense, the actual arrival of a new product is the last step in a long process, not the first.

There are, of course, exceptions. Huge, incandescent exceptions that glow with the light of a hundred suns. Yeah, sure, by the time my adventure for Pathfinder #19: "Howl of the Carrion King" came out last spring, my personal connection to the adventure—writing it—was already more than 5 months in the past. I'd already proofed the adventure in galleys, I'd already signed off on the final PDF, I'd already moved on, more or less, to something else. Actually holding the printed product was just a physical expression of the end of a long process, and given mounting pressures related to products that hadn't come out yet, I barely even had time to stop and think about that before moving to the next emergency email or the next staff meeting.

But even if the actual thrill of getting a printed product is diminished, I always marvel when Paizo fans find a way to remind me how awesome this game and hobby really is, even if I've become somewhat jaded in my old age here in the tenth year of my RPG career. This happened recently upon a visit to the Paizo Twitter feed, where I encountered an image that brought the thundering excitement that was "Howl of the Carrion King" crashing back to the forefront. Paizo fan Snaggled posted some images of a 3D model of the Kelmarane Battle Market—the major tactical site of the adventure—created by his GM, Dave Dostaler. My chin has yet to come up from the floor since the moment I saw these images:

Photography by Todd Warnke

WOW! Thanks to Dave Dostaler, photographer Todd Warnke, and all of Dave's players for sharing their "Howl of the Carrion King" experience with me. It's moments like this—seeing what other creative gamers do to make the stuff we create even better—that returns the giddy excitement to those of us on this side of the GM Screen, and speaking as the publisher, I can't thank you guys enough for this type of thing. It really makes all of the hard work worthwhile!

Erik Mona
Publisher

PS: And if you'd like to make your own 3D "Howl of the Carrion King" terrain, don't forget to check out the Ruined Undercrypt of Kelmarane map kit from World Works Games, available right here on paizo.com!

Snagged from the Vault: The Final Wish

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Howdy Paizonians! As you may have noticed, there's been a dearth of blogs lately. You can blame that on the Pathfinder RPG Bestiary, as almost all of the editorial staff (including the interns) are furiously working on getting the Bestiary ready for release and ensuring that other projects (such as the one that bears this cover!) stay on schedule. It's a busy and exciting time, but it means that blogs may be sparse for a little while. Still, Hank and I will do our best to make sure that you have something new to enjoy every day (or almost every day) here on the blog! In the meantime, here's some art! Enjoy Jesper Ejsing's awesome cover for Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #24: The Final Wish, in which a poor sitarist is skewered by a brass golem's sword.

David Eitelbach
Editorial Intern

Snagged from the Vault: Grand Sultan of the Efreet

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Behold! A portrait of the Grand Sultan of the Efreet, faithfully rendered by Ben Wooten. Look for the grand sultan within the pages of "The City of Brass" in Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #23: The Impossible Eye.

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners

Illustration by David Bircham

Half-Elf, All Druid, No Tree Hugging

Monday, April 20, 2009

When you think of characters in game-world fiction, what first comes to mind are the fighters, wizards, and rogues. Priests are fine if they're sufficiently powerful and conflicted, otherwise, not so much. Bards generally play second fiddle, you should pardon the expression, and paladins are seldom cast in starring roles. The druids, apparently, are too busy communing with nature to bother with fiction.

Since the publication of my first shared-world book, Elfshadow, in 1991, I've hit most of the character classes with the exception of the druid. Channa Ti, the protagonist of the Pathfinder's Journal fiction in the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path, is my first.

I started with a typical D&D druid—a serene mystic who dwells in emerald groves, nurturing the woodland creatures and healing hapless passersby with potions brewed from rare herbs and crafted from recipes learned at the feet of wise, benevolent elven mentors. And then I put him in a cage match with Channa and observed while she stomped him into organic fertilizer.

Sometimes the creative process takes interesting turns.

Once I started thinking seriously about druids, one of Tennyson's more famous quatrains came to mind:

Who trusted God was love indeed
   And love Creation's final law—
   Tho' Nature, red in tooth and claw
With ravine, shrieked against his creed—

Why should druids embody calm serenity and selfless love rather than "Nature, red in tooth and claw"? Surely some druids would be more closely attuned to nature's predators. This notion was central to Channa Ti's creation. To her way of thinking, "A paladin's noble steed must eat, but then, so must a crocodile."

Another inspiration came from Pathfinder's ingenious addition to the druid class: the Nature Bond, which allows druids to specialize in one of the domains—Air, Animal, Earth, Fire, Plant, Water, or Weather—rather than forming a partnership with a companion animal. Since Channa is a loner by nature and circumstances, this suited her perfectly. An affinity for water also gives her considerable value in a desert clime. An expert dowser, she occasionally pays her way as a "water witch." Her ability to sense a coming rain is highly valued in a culture that still mourns the passing of the Age of Prophecy and is always seeking some way to foresee the future. Finally, her affinity with water gives her skills that interest people obsessed with an ancient, sea-swallowed realm.

Nature Bond offers intriguing potential for character development and storytelling, not just for fiction, but also for campaign use. For those of you who've never played a druid—and I'm guessing that's most of you—the Pathfinder setting is a great place to start.

Elaine Cunningham
Contributor

Hunting the Planes

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Readers with a keen eye might spot something a little different on the credits page to Pathfinder Adventure Path #22. Tucked in there amid all the who's-whos and what's-whats is a dedication to Spooky the Mighty Hunter, feline familiar and cat of legend. I personally didn't know Spooky, as he was Gary Teter's long-time partner in crime, but when Lisa came to us with the news that our web czar's slinky sidekick had moved on to hunt upon other planes of existence and suggested adding him into a Pathfinder adventure, we were all for it. Even Kevin Yan stepped up to the task of cranking out the super-fast portrait for the noble hunter before our deadline. So just a heads up to those thousands of players who tackle "The Edge of Eternity" in Pathfinder #22—keep an eye out for Spooky, a wandering kitty who proves just as reliable, just as tenacious, and just as adorable a companion in Golarion as he did out here. Good hunting!

F. Wesley Schneider
Managing Editor

Snagged from the Vault: Genie Binder

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

From upcoming Pathfinder #22 we bring you the mighty genie binder, whose dark magic commands the awesome might of the djinn, depicted here by artist Kevin Yan...

While any spellcaster capable of casting planar ally, planar binding, and binding spells can conjure and bind genies, the true genie binder is a spellcaster who has devoted his life to the pursuit of this practice. Most genie binders study the works of Sulesh the Great religiously, but the best of them understand that even Sulesh wasn't infallible, and use his works as stepping stones to further perfect the act of genie binding.

While most genies abhor the act of binding and bottling, many have an odd appreciation and respect for actual genie binders. Nothing delights an efreeti more than to see a djinni ensnared, for example, and the jann are quite pleased to see their elder brothers and sisters brought low.

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners

Snagged from the Vault: Two-Headed Ruhk

Thursday, April 9, 2009

From the Bestiary of Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #21 comes this twisted menace, the nightmarish two-headed ruhk, as depicted by Tyler Walpole...

Beating its greasy, night-black wings, this gigantic two-headed vulture picks across the ground upon two earth sheering talons. Craning its twin massive heads forward, the terrible avian opens its giant twin beaks to unleash a blood curdling shriek.

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners

Artist: Concept Art House

Snagged from the Vault: Pathfinder #21—The Jackal's Price

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Once again, the foolhardy Purloiners have braved the depths of the Vault of the Golem to bring you, our faithful readers, a glimpse of the future. Featured here today is the cover of Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #21—The Jackal's Price. Enjoy it, dear readers, before the Golem returns to claim his prize...

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners

A strange artifact discovered in the belly of an ancient ruin has all of Katapesh intrigued. Yet none can decipher the strange markings, nor confirm much about the scroll's purpose beyond the fact that the magic it contains is powerful indeed. In order to learn more, a trip to the sprawling market city of Katapesh itself must be mounted. Yet others want the map for themselves—scheming merchants eager to make their fortunes with its sale, enraged gnolls eager to reclaim what they feel rightfully belongs to them, and even a sinister hidden society willing to murder to claim the treasure as its own. What could be hidden within that could drive so many to such desperate acts of violence and mayhem? Is this artifact truly the one and only Scroll of Kakishon, and does the one who controls it control an entire world?

Roots & Beginnings: Genies of Golarion

Monday, March 2, 2009

One of the perks about being an intern at Paizo is that I have the privilege of reading and editing Pathfinder material that I would normally peruse in my free time. In my first week here at Paizo, in fact, I was handed a manuscript for an article that will be appearing in Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #21, "The Jackal's Price." This article describes the various cultures of genies and legends surrounding geniekind, and should prove very useful for those GMs seeking to expand their players' encounters with these mythological creatures in the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path. I had a chance to speak with Wes recently about the historical and mythological sources that were referenced in the creation of Golarion's genies.

One of the most comprehensive sources is The Encyclopedia of Middle Eastern Mythology and Religion by Jan Knappert. In the pages of this reference guide, sandwiched between the entries for Jilani and Jiris (the Arabic form of the name George, apparently), is a fairly long explanation of jinns. Knappert explains that in Islamic countries, spirits are divided among jinns, shaytans, ifrits, and marids, and that in Ancient Persia some jinns and other evil spirits were referred to as div (which also have a role as a new breed of fiends in Legacy of Fire). The entry goes on to illustrate examples of genies from myth, for instance, Knappert explains that many jinns "have ugly and terrifying forms" as a result of God's curse for copulating with animals.

Another source that was referenced is Everyman's Dictionary of Non-Classical Mythology by Egerton Sykes. Among other things, this book was used as a reference to further develop the shaitans, the new earth-based genie that was created as a replacement for closed-content earth genies. The brief entry explains that shaitan was the Islamic name for devil, and the it also "applied to the third species of jinn."

Wikipedia also proved to be an invaluable font of (sometimes questionable) knowledge about genies and Middle Eastern mythology in general. In the entry for ifrit, for example, an ifrit is described as "an enormous winged creature of smoke, either male or female, who lives underground and frequents ruins." The entry goes on to explain, "While ordinary weapons and forces have no power over them, they are susceptible to magic, which humans can use to kill them or to capture and enslave them." Already sounding like RPG text, entries like this can do a lot to spark GMs' imaginations.

Hopefully these sources can serve as a launching pad for your own investigations into the nature of the always-unpredictable and dangerous genies and can inspire you to flesh out the nature of genies in your own games. You can also look forward to a detailed exploration of genies and their society showing up in Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #21. Also check out Jesper Ejsing's djinni illustration appearing on the cover of that volume. He starts a series of four cover characters who, while not necessarily specific personalities in the Adventure Path, epitomize the genies featuring prominently in each.

David Eitelbach
Editorial Intern

Illustration by Tyler Walpole

Snagged from the Vault: Pathfinder #20—House of the Beast

Thursday, February 26, 2009

At much risk to ourselves, my colleague and I braved the defenses of Paizo's well-guarded vault to bring you, our loyal readers, this exclusive preview of Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #20, House of the Beast. Now we must flee, before our pursuers discover us...

Sunlord Thalachos is Sarenrae's favorite angel, liaison to the mortal world, the hosts of astral devas, and the ranks of superior angels (including the Empyreal Lords). At 8 feet tall and 300 pounds, he is an impressive figure with a rich baritone voice, always speaking with clarity and precision. His metallic skin is as hard as steel to any that wish to do him harm, but as soft as velvet to anyone kind, merciful, and good. He is the champion of the Dawnflower in Golarion and her favorite weapon against the spawn of Rovagug (though she only calls upon him for this when no mortal heroes are available). Before the death of Aroden he often delivered prophecies on behalf of the goddess, and several stories in The Birth of Light and Truth were penned by oracles whom he personally escorted through Sarenrae's realm. Now the only similar duty he bears is appearing at auspicious births.

Look for the full article on Sunlord Thalachos in Pathfinder #20's bestiary, along with the full description of Sarenrae's faith!

Vadid and Nahk
Preview Purloiners

Pathfinder in 3D!

Monday, February 23, 2009

One of the more exciting things about working on Pathfinder is that, now and then, other companies have great ideas on how to augment and enhance what we're doing. With the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path, please welcome WorldWorksGames to the Pathfinder fold! WorldWorksGames provides some incredible 3D paper dungeons, and with each Legacy of Fire adventure, they'll be providing a fold-up, miniatures-scale presentation of one of the key dungeons or areas featured in that volume's adventure. The first one presents the Ruined Undercrypt of Kelmarane—a dangerous dungeon players of the first adventure, "Howl of the Carrion King," will get to explore during the adventure's climax.

We've already shown off some of the images of the Ruined Undercrypt—here are a few more, and perhaps even more importantly, the helpful guys at WorldWorksGames have created an instruction book on how to set the dungeon up. So, if you'd like a better idea of what it's like to build a dungeon for your PCs to adventure in, download the building instructions (37 MB zip PDF) for the Ruined Undercrypt of Kelmarane now!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

The Ruined Undercrypt of Kelmarane

Monday, February 9, 2009

Anticipation for the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path is at an all-time high at the Paizo offices, and it seems like every day brings a new piece of art, an exciting manuscript, or a fabulously evil idea related to the forthcoming campaign. The latest earthquake of interest occurred when our partners over at WorldWorksGames sent us images of their very first downloadable Pathfinder Terrain kit: The Ruined Undercrypt of Kelmarane.

Kelmarane is the village rescued by the player characters in the very first Legacy of Fire installment, "Howl of the Carrion King," which hits in Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #19. I'm especially thrilled with the new kit because I designed Kelmarane and the first Legacy of Fire adventure a few months ago, and have been not-so-patiently awaiting the release of my first adventure since Dungeon #124's "The Whispering Cairn," the first installment of the Age of Worms Adventure Path. When running that adventure for an all-star group of Paizo staffers I had to draw out my maps on a boring old set of blank tiles. The idea of springing my hideous traps and near-unfair villains on my workmates in a beautiful 3D dungeon crafted by the guys at WorldWorksGames... well, it's almost enough to bring tears to my monocular messageboard avatar's unwinking eye.

Feast your eyes on these early preview images of The Ruined Undercrypt of Kelmarane and gear up for the most exciting and fantastical campaign to hit Pathfinder since the day we released the very first volume! And I'm only partially saying that because looking at the dungeon in 3D makes it easier to imagine my friends' miniatures sprawled prone upon its flagstones like so much lifeless meat.

To arms, fellow Pathfinder GMs! To arms!

Erik Mona
Publisher

"Takin' it Easy" Uncontest Winners!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Okay. Wow, check out that "Takin' it Easy" Unthread (or, if you're at work, maybe don't). There's more than 300 posts on there, most being some really hilarious captions for the scandalous scene from Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #21. Totally a hard decision, but at the end of the day the caption that had the editorial pit most in stitches was James Martain's short but sweet:

"Dear Pathfinder letters..."

James picked up a few free PDFs for his hilarity. We've got a few worth some extra special mentions, though! Thanks for everybody who posted. Really funny stuff everybody, thanks for playing along!

Little did his friends know that Exren's arcane eye functioned perfectly well underwater.

Merisiel: "Hey, is Wrinkles dead?! I'm taking his stuff!"

For weeks Sajan had suffered the jibes and taunts of the others. However, by not inviting him to the pool party, they had gone too far.

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

Illustration by David Bircham

Legacy of Fire Outline

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

With Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #19, we launch the fourth campaign set in the world of Golarion. Legacy of Fire features jilted genies, bestial gnolls, sinister merchants, and the legacy of the Rough Beast Rovagug in an Adventure Path intended to bring to Pathfinder a sense of the tales of Sinbad, the Arabian Nights, and the mythology from the Middle East. If you're looking forward to GMing this new Adventure Path, check out the free preview of Pathfinder Adventure Path volume #19 we've posted—the complete outline and backstory for the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path! NOTE: It doesn't get much more spoilerrific than this, folks, so if you're intending to be a player in this Adventure Path, you should probably not look any further!

Legacy of Fire Campaign Outline (840 KB zip PDF)

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Pathfinder "Takin' It Easy" Caption UnContest

Monday, February 2, 2009

In just over 20 issues of Pathfinder we've put our 12 iconic heroes through a lot. Pathfinder volume #4 features Seoni getting knocked off a cliff, Pathfinder volume #11 sees Lem getting strangled, and in Pathfinder volume #18 Lini gets abandoned by her allies (and her kitty!). So yeah, we're a little rough on those guys. So, in Pathfinder volume #21, we give them a little break. Check it out. (Forewarning, this is arguably NSFW).

Once you're done ogling Valeros, here's the deal. Until Friday we'll be accepting captions for this piece on the "Takin' It Easy" UnThread. We'll hook up whoever writes the caption that makes us laugh hardest with a free PDF or... something (we're still working out the details). Regardless, it'll be something cool. One caption per entrant please (that counts aliases as well).

So there you go! Write down what comes to mind (try to keep it PG–13 rated) and maybe we'll hook you up with something! Yeah, there aren't a lot of details, but we're playing things fast and loose 'cause we thought it'd be fun. Can't wait to see what you all come up with!

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

Divs: Daemons of the Desert

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

With Pathfinder #19, "Howl of the Carrion King," the Legacy of Fire Adventure Path introduces the first in a new breed of fiendish terror: the divs. Drawn from Persian lore, divs are neutral evil fiends born from the souls of fallen genies. Where the daemons of Abbadon seek to harvest souls from the Material Plane, divs seek to cause hardship, making mortal existence as painful as any hellish afterlife. Researched and designed by Adam Daigle, expect to see a new div every month, from the wicked-tongued doru (illustrated here by Eric Lofgren) to Ahriman, supreme lord of the div race. While wildly different, every div bears certain similarities. From Pathfinder #19, check out the fiends' nefarious traits:

The Nature of Divs

Divs are a race of fiends native to Abaddon that exist only to cause harm and destruction. They are closely related to daemons and the other fiends of the Outer Planes, though many planar scholars believe them to be descended from the spirits of the first evil genies. These creatures vary in power, yet all have similar traits that link them.

Divs commonly speak Abyssal, Celestial, and Infernal.

Div Traits: A div possesses the following traits (unless otherwise noted in the creature's entry).
—Immunity to fire and poison.
—Resistance to acid 10 and electricity 10.
—See in Darkness (Su) Some divs can see perfectly in darkness of any kind, even that created by a deeper darkness spell.
—Summon (Sp) Some divs share the ability to summon others of their kind (the success chance and type of divs summoned are noted in each monster description).
—Telepathy.

That's right, you can never, ever have enough fiends.

F. Wesley Schneider
Pathfinder Managing Editor

Artist: Eric Lofgren

Artist: Kevin Yan

Pathfinder: Goat vs. Chupacabra Edition

Monday, January 5, 2009

No one will believe me when I say this, but I absolutely did not plan to have Pathfinder #19 contain not only the Golarion version of the notorious chupacabra, but also a relatively significant goat NPC. The goat in question is a hapless chap named Rombard, and he's menaced not by chupacabras but by something else entirely in this volume's adventure, "Howl of the Carrion King," but that doesn't mean he can't be worried about the goat-suckers that are lurking later on in the same volume's bestiary.

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief

Paizo Invades the Atomic Array

Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Over at the Atomic Array, Rone Barton and Ed Healy have created a great podcast that should interest everyone who's a gamer. A brief look through their recent episodes sees topics such as Shadows of Cthulhu, Kobold Quarterly, Gen Con, and as of episode #11, Pathfinder!

This episode of the Atomic Array features myself, Jason Bulmahn, and Josh Frost getting interviewed about all matter of things Paizo, from Pathfinder and the upcoming Legacy of Fire Adventure Path to the Pathfinder RPG Beta playtest and more. Check it out!

James Jacobs
Editor-in-Chief

Legacy of Fire

Friday, December 5, 2008

Although Second Darkness is only two-thirds of the way to being out on store shelves, we here at Paizo are already heading deep into the fourth Adventure Path. The cover art for the first installment, Pathfinder #19's "Howl of the Carrion King," just came in, and while you can check out the actual cover over at the Paizo store, I thought it'd be cool to show off some of the new art here on its own! With Legacy of Fire, Jesper Ejsing joins the ranks of Pathfinder cover artists—I can't wait to see what he comes up with as the adventures grow increasingly genie-riffic!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Editor-in-Chief