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Pathfinder Tales: Gears of Faith

Interview with Gears of Faith Author Gabrielle Harbowy

In the madness of the Starfinder launch, I wasn't able to do my usual blog about the new Pathfinder Tales novel, which was a real shame, given that Gabrielle Harbowy's Gears of Faith is a novel that's been so eagerly awaited by fans here on the Paizo boards! Fortunately, Pathfinder Tales author Liane Merciel (of Nightglass, Nightblade, and Hellknight fame) swooped in to save the day, interviewing Gabrielle on what it was like to write the novel. For my part, I'll just say that I knew since the very first installment of "Inheritance," Gabrielle's web fiction story that introduced the main characters of Gears of Faith, that Keren, Zae, and the bold riding dog Appleslayer, were going to star in a novel someday—there was something so deep and genuine about all three of them, and their relationships with each other. So it was gratifying but not surprising that the fans felt it, too! And now, 3.5 years and a new publishing partner later, the book's finally hitting shelves, and I couldn't be happier about it. But enough from me—let's hear from Liane and Gabrielle!

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Tags: Gabrielle Harbowy Liane Merciel Pathfinder Tales Remko Troost Roberto Pitturru

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Pathfinder Tales: Hellknight

Behind the Book—Hellknight

If you've been following the novels for a while (and if you aren't, you can subscribe right here and stop missing out), you probably know Liane best from Nightglass and Nightblade. Through the adventures of Isiem and his companions, Liane did more than anyone to establish the dark yet terrifyingly realistic flavor of Nidal's society, as well as much of our understanding of the winged strix. I make no secret of my admiration for the work she's done fleshing out that part of our world, so when she proposed turning her attention to Cheliax and the Hellknights, I knew that I could trust her to bring some of the most important pieces of our campaign setting to life.

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Tags: Liane Merciel Pathfinder Tales Roberto Pitturru

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Pathfinder Tales: Hellknight

Hellknight Sample Chapter

In Hellknight, dive deeper than ever before into the brutal organization of warriors and spellcasters dedicated to maintaining law and order at any cost. For devil-blooded Jheraal, a veteran Hellknight investigator, even the harshest methods are justified if it means building a better world for her daughter. Yet things get personal when a serial killer starts targeting hellspawn like Jheraal and her child, somehow magically removing their hearts and trapping the victims in a state halfway between life and death. With other Hellknights implicated in the crime, Jheraal has no choice but to join forces with a noble paladin and a dangerously cunning diabolist to defeat an ancient enemy for whom even death is no deterrent...

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Tags: Jason Rainville Liane Merciel Pathfinder Tales

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PathfinderTales

Nightblade Sample Chapter

In Nightblade, Isiem is a fugitive, a former wizard-priest in the church of the dark god Zon-Kuthon who rebelled and left his old life behind to follow his conscience. Now, his unique heritage makes him perfect for a dangerous mission into an ancient dungeon, one said to hold a magical weapon capable of slaying demons and devils by the thousands. With allies ranging from a righteous paladin to the mercantile mercenaries of the Aspis Consortium, it’s up to Isiem to lead the expedition back into shadowed lands that are all too familiar...

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Tags: Eric Belisle Liane Merciel Pathfinder Tales

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PZO8500-Voraic

Misery's Mirror—Chapter Four: The Burdens of History

Misery's Mirrorby Liane Merciel ... Chapter Four: The Burdens of HistoryThey left the midnight mirror without speaking. ... Once on the other side, safely back in the Cathedral of Bones, Isiem snatched up the fallen shroud of silk and swept it back over the glass. Then he sat heavily on the bed, shuddering, as Ascaros sank to the floor beside him. ... You can't go back, Isiem said. ... Ascaros did not reply. He laid his staff across his lap, thumbing its silver adornments over and over in...
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Tags: Andrew Ryan Liane Merciel Pathfinder Tales Web Fiction

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PZO8500-Silence

Misery's Mirror—Chapter Three: Silence

Misery's Mirrorby Liane Merciel ... Chapter Three: SilenceWhat would spur someone to kill her? Isiem wondered aloud as they left the dead shadowcaller on her bier. Not rebellion, surely. In Westcrown, perhaps, but not Nisroch. ... The mirror, Ascaros answered. He swept up the stairs from the chamber of the dead to their temporary quarters, where the Over-Diocesan's lackeys were to have delivered Misanthe's belongings. Blue-flamed candles in sconces of bone flickered as he went past. Of course...
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Tags: Andrew Ryan Liane Merciel Pathfinder Tales Web Fiction

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PZO8500-Ascaros

Misery's Mirror—Chapter Two: Hovels

Misery's Mirrorby Liane Merciel ... Chapter Two: HovelsThe Hovels lived up to their name. ... The poorest and most wretched of Nisroch's people did not live in the city. They huddled outside its walls, clustered in a miserable, mud-drenched shantytown by the Leper's Gate. There was little stable ground to support them, so the denizens of the Hovels built high and dense, creating a teetering warren of sticks that seemed a sneeze away from collapse at any moment. ... Swaths of sucking mud...
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PZO8500-Isiem

Misery's Mirror—Chapter One: A Death in Nisroch

Misery's Mirrorby Liane Merciel ... Chapter One: A Death in NisrochI need a favor, Ascaros whispered, stopping before Isiem's library table. ... Of course you do, Isiem murmured back, unsurprised. He did not lift his head from the scroll he was copying. ... Once, he and Ascaros had been friends. As children in the village of Crosspine, they had been almost brothers. That friendship had survived the early years of their tutelage in the Dusk Hall of Pangolais... but only the early years. The...
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Tags: Eric Belisle Liane Merciel Pathfinder Tales Web Fiction

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PZO8500-Strix

Nightglass Sample Chapter—Chapter Thirteen: Reprisals

Nightglass Sample Chapter Wednesday, June 27, 2012by Liane Merciel ... In Nightglass, a young boy in the shadowy nation of Nidal is taken from his home and trained by the sadistic magical academy known as the Dusk Hall, transformed into a living weapon in the service of the dark god Zon-Kuthon. Many years later, now grown to manhood, Isiem is sent to Cheliax to help put down a rebellion by the winged, inhuman strix. Yet as he conducts his grisly work, Isiem begins to question his life under...
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PathfinderTales

Certainty—Chapter Four: The Stone

Certaintyby Liane Merciel ... Chapter Four: The StoneJelani, Adrun, with me, I said. The rest of you, keep going. Whatever the scout had found had terrified the man, and I didn't want his panic spreading to the others. ... Found tracks, the scout said when we were out of the others' earshot. Followed them. He thrust a hand forward, jerkily, as if to hurl the memory away. ... I was about to ask how he had spotted tracks on the tundra when I saw them myself: a line of booted prints sunk deep...
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Tags: Certainty Kyushik Shin Liane Merciel Pathfinder Tales Wizards

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PathfinderTales

Certainty—Chapter Three: Justice

Certaintyby Liane Merciel ... Chapter Three: JusticeThe first of the Burner's prisoners was a pregnant woman, though I would have thought her long past her childbearing years. She wasn't a day under fifty, and might easily have been ten years older. ... Those years were heavy on her, and the short, dirty shift she wore did nothing to conceal them. Her shoulders were soft and spotted brown; her legs were puffed and lumpy as badly kneaded dough. The weight of a lifetime's grief dragged down her...
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Tags: Certainty Kyushik Shin Liane Merciel Paladins Pathfinder Tales

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PathfinderTales

Certainty—Chapter Two: Valas’s Gift

Certaintyby Liane Merciel ... Chapter Two: Valas’s GiftA grim silence settled over the recruits after that welcome. When another soldier came to lead them to the armory, they followed quietly, their heads lowered like those of condemned men marching to the gallows. ... I rose to go with them, but the scarred soldier waved me down. After the others had gone, and the banners on the walls had stopped flapping in their wake, he leaned back, watching me. Do you know why they have me greet the new...
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Tags: Certainty Kyushik Shin Liane Merciel Pathfinder Tales

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PathfinderTales

New Pathfinder Web Fiction!

New Pathfinder Web Fiction! Wednesday, August 18, 2010If you're reading this blog on paizo.com, rather than aggregating through some sort of high-tech feed to your personal mobile command unit, or beaming it directly to your personal communications satellite—as one of the last Paizonians without a smart phone, I really have no idea what such things are capable of these days—it's likely you've already seen the little tab just above this that says Web Fiction. And if you're a fan of...
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Tags: Liane Merciel Pathfinder Tales

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PathfinderTales

Certainty—Chapter One: The Crusade

Certaintyby Liane Merciel ... Chapter One: The CrusadeThere aren't many old paladins. ... Mostly we die. Spend year after year fighting everything from boggards to balors, and sooner or later one of them will take off your head. Or you succumb to rice-water fever while wandering in the bowels of a festering swamp. Or that smiling innkeeper with the dirty jokes turns out to be a secret cultist of Norgorber and slits your throat while you snore. ... Few of us last ten years. ... We don't all...
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Tags: Certainty Liane Merciel Pathfinder Tales

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