Illustration by Mylene Bertrand

The final adventure of the Season of Ghosts Adventure Path, To Bloom Below the Web, arrives with hints of spring and hope in the new year! Of course, as I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, this Adventure Path is filled with more surprises and plot twists than most, and this final adventure is one that’s especially tricky to talk about without spoiling those developments. Folks have been great about helping to keep the campaign’s twists secret as well, and though I expect that we’ll talk more openly about the narrative stunts and risks we pulled with this Adventure Path sometime in the future, that time isn’t quite here yet.

Of course, we wouldn’t have been able to pull this off at all without having such an amazing group of authors working on the adventures and their support articles. So instead of dancing around spoilers and trying to figure out what to say about this final adventure without revealing too much, let’s hear from two of the authors for this book!

(A final note about the art I’m featuring in this blog post—none of it is technically from the adventure itself, but from support articles, so there shouldn’t be anything in these images that will particularly spoil things for anyone who’s eager to discover Season of Ghosts’ surprises as players!)

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Narrative Creative Director

Illustration by Riley Spalding

Jeremy Blum

I'm Jeremy Blum and my articles in Season of Ghosts volumes 3 and 4 will be my first published Paizo projects! For volume 3, I got the chance to flesh out nindorus based on James Jacobs' initial notes, and detailing the intricacies of a delicious new fiend variant was a blast. As for volume 4, let's just say that I was able to write up character options inspired by aspects of Buddhism. I look forward to seeing how players use them!

Aside from Season of Ghosts, I've penned portions of the upcoming Pathfinder Lost Omens Tian XiaWorld Guide and Tian Xia Character Guideas well as Pathfinder Howl of the Wild. I've also designed Pathfinder conversions for the Korean-themed Undying Corruption setting by Nine Heavens Press, contributed lore to the Chinese-inspired Banner Clans faction in Three Sails Studios’ miniatures wargame Margrave: The Marcher Lords, and most recently worked on several Renegade Games Studios projects that are still under wraps. Check out my portfolio and feel free to follow me (I use the name Pixel Grotto on Twitter and Bluesky) to share stories of how nindorus have made your life miserable.

Liane Merciel

I was both super excited and nervous to be asked to contribute to this Adventure Path.

Like a lot of you, I have been a Forever GM for a... well, forever, basically. I think the last time I got to be a PC was, uh, 2006 maybe? No, wait, I did get to play Fumbus for 20 glorious minutes at PaizoCon 2019. So yeah, that’s the last time I was a player in a tabletop campaign.

Possibly because of this (vengeful? Me? Never!), my home campaigns are skewed heavily toward horror in all its many and glorious forms. If my players aren’t white-knuckling it and/or grossed out at least once per story arc, I believe that I have failed.

Trying to pull off a horror game as a published adventure, though, was a totally different kind of challenge. My GM’ing style is reactive: I see how the players respond to NPC X or Encounter Y and tailor the interaction accordingly. Writing an adventure for players I’ve never met, at tables I’ll never see, using a set of rules that was in flux at the time, was probably more terrifying than anything I’ve ever inflicted on my PCs.

But I look forward to putting them through the game later, just to make sure.

Illustration by Riley Spalding

One final note: If you’re the kind of person who enjoys a good Adventure Path trailer (that is, a person of culture and taste), you may have taken special notice of the music underscoring the visuals of our latest Season of Ghosts trailer. Those haunting melodies were composed by Filip Melvan of Michael Ghelfi Studios, with whom we’re excited to announce we’ve entered into an official partnership! Beginning with Season of Ghosts, Michael and his team of award-winning composers will be composing all-new original soundtracks uniquely tailored to accompany selected past and future Pathfinder Adventure Paths!

We’ll have plenty more to say in the weeks to come, but for the time being, we’ll leave it at this: players who like to incorporate music into their games can expect a lot of exciting auditory surprises in store!

Actually, you know what? That’s not fair. We can’t just tell you about this amazing music and not give you a sample to whet your appetite. Here’s the title track from the upcoming “Season of Ghosts” album right now, suitable for all your ghost-thwarting, village-protecting, below-the-web-blooming needs!

Check Out The Season Of Ghosts Adventure Path

Illustration by Mylene Bertrand

The third part of the Season of Ghosts Adventure Path, No Breath to Cry, both takes place during winter and comes out as winter arrives for me and many other Paizo employees and freelancers! Fortunately for most (hopefully all) of us, we won’t have to worry about the supernatural threats that are coming to a head in the poor little town of Willowshore, during which the story finally reaches its climax and the PCs must grapple with a revelation that hopefully comes as a surprise to all who play this Adventure Path! As with previous volumes, please make liberal use of spoilers if you’re talking about this Adventure Path in public, because there are a LOT of plot twists to protect. (In particular, I had to be very choosy with deciding what pieces of art to show off in public this month! Fortunately, there was another cat illustration to share!)

The original plan to present Season of Ghosts as a four-part Adventure Path was originally born out of a desire to set up the 200th volume of Pathfinder as a special double-sized book (more on that in a few months), but now that Season of Ghosts is coming out, I’m particularly pleased with two things that came about because of this choice. First, it let me organize the Adventure Path according to the four seasons, which gave the adventure authors some fun themes to work with and encouraged everyone to come up with some memorable uses for downtime in the campaign. Second, it let me structure the story using kishotenketsu (special thanks again to James Case for the great suggestion)! This is a traditional four-act story structure used in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese narratives in which the major turning point/narrative crescendo/plot twist of the story happens not in the final act, but the penultimate one. Hence my comment in the previous paragraph about this adventure serving as Season of Ghosts’ climax! This gives us an entire adventure (coming next month) to focus on the results and ramifications of the story and wrap things up with some new and intense developments of their own, resulting in what I think is not only a truly memorable campaign, but in what is certainly one of the Adventure Paths I’m the proudest to have been a part of. (And not just because it let me get a lot of cat artwork in print!)

Illustration by Justine Nortjé

As in the past few months, I’d like to introduce some more of this Adventure Path’s amazing and incredible authors—they’re the ones who did the heavy lifting and wrote the campaign, after all!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Narrative Creative Director

Dan Cascone

Hi everyone! I’m Dan Cascone, and I’ve crawled out from under my rock to join Eleanor Ferron in writing No Breath to Cry. You may remember me from contributions to books such as Pathfinder Dark Archive, Pathfinder Treasure Vault, Pathfinder Lost Omens Highhelm, and the upcoming PathfinderHowl of the Wild. I look forward to hearing about all your horrible deaths and triumphant victories over the challenges we’ve put in the adventure.

Eleanor Ferron

Hello! I'm Lost Omens senior developer Eleanor Ferron, and I teamed up with co-author Dan Cascone to write the third volume of the Season of Ghosts Adventure Path, No Breath to Cry. As a fan of Asian horror and horror-adjacent media such as Onmyouji, Kuon, and Fatal Frame, as well as the supernatural shenanigans of Inuyasha and Goblin: The Great and Lonely God, I enjoyed getting to bring all these inspirations into the world of Pathfinder. I hope you survive your time in Willowshore, and hopefully even have fun doing so. Be nice to foxes, don't go near the baskets, and always carry a camera to catch ghosts.

Michelle Y. Kim

Hi, this is Michelle! I’m a Korean American TTRPG writer and designer who contributed some backmatter to Season of Ghosts, and I am so excited for you all to meet some truly terrible little guys (and maybe not so little guys) in the haunted lands of Shenmen. As a lover of both folklore and horror, this project was a delight, and I look forward to hearing about everyone’s adventures. Currently I'm working on a Joseon Dynasty setting supplement for Good Society: A Jane Austen RPG by Storybrewers Roleplaying, which I talked a bit about on the Asians Represent! Podcast. You can find me on Twitter as @_missmyk_ or at Bluesky at @missmyk.bsky.social. I've recently joined the Paizo team as a developer and will be helping create more wild adventures from the other side of the screen!

Illustration by Mylene Bertrand

Check Out The Season Of Ghosts Adventure Path

Illustration by Shafi Adams

The second part of the Season of Ghosts Adventure Path kicks off with your characters having started to build their reputation in the town of Willowshore. Whether they’ll be known as heroes or otherwise depends on how your group’s been playing, of course, but regardless of that choice, everyone in Willowshore is increasingly aware of the looming threat posed by the coming season. If the mysterious curse afflicting the town can’t be lifted in time, it might be a difficult winter indeed, and preparations to contend with a worst-case scenario must begin at once!

But not every day of fall must be spent seeking a solution for a frightening curse or dealing with the dangerous situations that crop up in town to threaten your neighbors (including strange new horrors like the ones you see above). There are plenty of new friends waiting to be made and numerous opportunities to build your reputation even more by participating in some of the town’s most beloved annual traditions.

Illustration by esus Iván Nolasco Fuentes

Of course, the whole Season of Ghosts Adventure Path would never have existed in the first place without its amazing and incredible authors. Let’s hear from two more of this Adventure Path’s creators!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Narrative Creative Director

Tan Shao Han

Hi! I'm Shao Han, a Paizo freelancer from Singapore who's been happily at work on the new Tian Xia books. For the Season of Ghosts Adventure Path, I contributed to the rituals, festivals, daily life, and customs of Willowshore, as well as provided my insights and opinions on Asian ghosts, monsters, and folklore as a sensitivity and cultural consultant.

In my day job, I teach college students anthropology, philosophy, and Southeast Asian history, and in my free time, I enjoy traveling to villages, palaces, temples, and sacred sites across Asia to learn about art, culture, and the environment. I hope some of my love for the rhythms, echoes, and struggles of my home region will resonate with you when you play these games and help you understand a little more about the everyday lives of Asia's peoples. Thank you!

Grady Wang

Hi, I’m Grady Wang. I’m a second generation Taiwanese American, and Buddhism and Taoism were both strong influences in my household growing up. I was always excited to see authentic representations of Eastern thought about life, death, and reincarnation in Western media, so I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to that legacy by fleshing out Sangpotshi for Pathfinder (expanding on its first appearance in Pathfinder Second Edition in Lost Omens Gods & Magic)! Since Season of Ghosts presents so many amazing opportunities for character-centric storytelling, this content should give you lots of new options for playing someone in Tian Xia!

If you’d like to see my other work, I’m the co-founder of the Gallant Goblin alongside my partner, Theo Thourson. The Gallant Goblin is a TTRPG review channel on YouTube and other social media platforms; we are also the makers of kuddly kobold plushies via our Hero Plush line—you can find all our links at linktr.ee/thegallantgoblin. We also publish our own supplements, including Pathfinder Infinite community content that seeks to promote diverse voices, such as the Queerfinder series and Adventures in Jalmeray.

Illustration by Mylene Bertrand

Check Out The Season Of Ghosts Adventure Path

Illustration by Mylene Bertrand

By which, of course, I mean the spooky season, but also the new Pathfinder Adventure Path, Season of Ghosts! This is the first Adventure Path I’ve been the lead developer on from the very start since Age of Ashes, back when we were launching Second Edition Pathfinder. Since then, I’ve worked on hardcover compilations, written for other Adventure Paths, and developed ones that started with other folks who moved on to other opportunities. All of which was a lot of fun, of course, but it’s nice to be back in the proverbial saddle, creating outlines and plots from the start.

An Adventure Path set in the spookiest of all locations in the continent of Tian-Xia is something I’ve been eager to get moving for many years, and despite some schedule hiccups, I’m delighted the campaign is finally here for folks to enjoy. There’s quite a lot of plot twists and surprises in store for all of you destined to play through this campaign—I’m eager to hear how things went down at all of your game tables, but I also ask folks to make liberal use of the spoiler tag technology when speaking about these adventures, so we can all preserve those surprises for players to uncover as they progress through these four upcoming seasons of horror.

Illustration by Justine Nortjé

One of the most exciting parts of the process for me, though, was getting to work with such a wide range of amazing and talented writers! It’s been eye-opening, educational, and wonderful to see what the authors’ various adventures and support articles have brought to each volume of Season of Ghosts, bringing in an incredible range of inspiration from throughout Asia. So, for the next four months, I’ve invited the authors of Season of Ghosts to introduce themselves as the volumes they contributed to come out. In some cases, authors wrote for multiple volumes, while in others (like this first one), only a single author tackled the contents of the volume. So without further ado, take it away, Sen H.H.S.!

James Jacobs
Pathfinder Narrative Creative Director

Sen H.H.S.

Happy spookiness everyone! I'm Sen H.H.S., the writer of the first volume of Season of Ghosts, “The Summer that Never Was.” I welcome you all to your beloved town of Willowshore and the town's lovely inhabitants... along with the first three months (or more!) of fears, horrors, and thrills you are about to face. As someone who generally avoids ghost stories and the horror genre, writing this adventure was an interesting challenge, though one I gladly took on to help establish a baseline for how our PCs and the folks of Willowshore generally survive haunted Shenmen day-to-day. Now that those usual strategies don't work though, it's time to step up to the challenge. If you are interested in what I'm up to, you can follow me on Bluesky at senhhs.bsky.social or you can see what I'm retweeting on Twitter @SenHHS. For my past works, check out my website at https://senhhs.carrd.co/. Otherwise, I'll see you all in the upcoming Tian Xia books AND [falls into the NDA pit].

Illustration by Shafi Adams

CW: Spiders
Your hometown is in peril, and needs you to come to its rescue!

The remote town of Willowshore is nestled on the banks of the Ceiba River. Founded by religious pilgrims and host for a time to a bustling lumber business, in the first few years after the onset of the Age of Lost Omens, Willowshore’s fate looks grim. Already faced with fears about political upheaval due to the collapse of the empire of Lung Wa, and fearful of rumors that monsters from the deeper reaches of Shenmen are preparing to seize control of the land, Willowshore is ill prepared for a horrific new curse about to engulf the region.

In the Season of Ghosts Adventure Path, each player character calls Willowshore their home—be it one their family has lived in for generations or a place they’ve only recently arrived at. When your group awakens on the first day of summer in the nearby woods, what at first seems like the aftermath of a night spent too energetically during a festival reveals itself to be something much more sinister. Wildlife is acting strange and aggressive. Thick fog has descended upon the region. And at night... things get worse. Can you help your hometown escape from this sinister curse? Or are you and your homes equally doomed to fall into the clutches of sinister forces in this horror-themed Adventure Path set in the heart of the continent of Tian Xia?

Inside the Season of Ghosts Player’s Guide, you’ll find player-friendly, spoiler-free information and tips to help you make an exciting new character perfect for the Season of Ghosts Adventure Path, which is set just over a hundred years in the past, not long after the onset of the Age of Lost Omens itself!

This player's guide contains:

• Information about local customs in the rural town of Willowshore, and background on the state of the region in the years directly after the onset of the Age of Lost Omens, over 100 years in the past.
• Character suggestions, including recommendations for alignments, ancestries, classes, languages, skills, and feats well suited for this Adventure Path.
• Six new backgrounds to contextualize your character’s history with Willowshore, including additional benefits you can draw upon once per season, advice on how to integrate your character’s family and home into the town of Willowshore, and details on heirlooms you might begin the campaign with.
• A detailed gazetteer of the town of Willowshore and its hinterlands, including maps of the town and surrounding region and player-friendly notes and descriptions for thirty locations in the town itself!

Download The Player's Guide Today!