Each day during PaizoCon Online, we’re taking a look at upcoming products, revealing new art and details, and diving deep into the day’s focus with a livestreamed Marquee Event panel and Q&A session. Today’s Marquee Event panel focused on Paizo’s exciting Organized Play programs. This blog is a recap of some of the reveals covered in that session. Don’t forget to check out the PaizoCon Online Stream Schedule to stay on top of the latest Paizo news in real time!

Starfinder Society: Year of Exploration’s Edge

Illustration by Michele Giorgi

Starfinder Society’s Year of Exploration’s Edge kicks off in just three weeks at Origins Online (June 19–21)! The new season takes place in the first period of real stability that the Starfinder Society has enjoyed since the campaign began. Of course, that doesn’t mean things will be easy for Starfinders. Emphasizing shorter bouts of exploration instead of a single, overarching metaplot, the upcoming season offers exciting new ventures into unexplored locales in the Pact Worlds, Near Space, and even far into the Vast, taking us farther afield and exploring more of the setting than we’ve ever seen before!

Looking to explore the uncharted regions of the Vast with a fancy starship (maybe with some accompanying content from the Starfinder Starship Operations Manual)? How about seeing those places recently detailed in Starfinder Near Space up close with some new characters? Or perhaps you’d fancy a mind-altering visit to the one Pact World we’ve not yet seen in a Starfinder adventure? (Hint: it’s Aucturn—the planet that might be a Great Old One.)

Year of Exploration’s Edge is the perfect opportunity to start enjoying Starfinder Society, or even to pick up as bonus content for your already ongoing Starfinder campaigns when you need that fun “planet of the week” diversion. While we’re not as focused on a major overarching metaplot, there are three unique multi-part stories that PCs of all level ranges can still enjoy and should scratch that ongoing story arc itch.

All this content (and more!) is just around the corner, with the Year of Exploration’s Edge releasing two new scenarios every month starting in June. Finally, dedicated Starfinder Society fans across the world can look forward to the upcoming multi-table interactive, Starfinder Society #3-00: The Last Bite, arriving in the coming months. This big-ticket event is set to bring a climactic conclusion to last season’s Year of a Thousand Bites storyline and provide an unforgettable experience to gaming events across the world! We look forward to sharing all this great content with you in the coming months.

Illustration by Michele Giorgi

Pathfinder Society: Year of Corruption’s Reach

Illustration by Sebastion Rodriguez

We’ll be wrapping up the current season, Year of the Open Road, with an awesome special in the form of Pathfinder Society Special #2-00: The King in Thorns, by authors Kate Baker and Dennis Muldoon. An ancient fey monster, a long-sealed demiplane, and a hero from the past will all take the stage as the Pathfinders fight their way through a horde of deadly plants and First World assailants in the first interactive special of Pathfinder Second Edition!

Pathfinder Society’s first Second Edition season, the Year of the Open Road, focused on rebuilding and rediscovering the Pathfinder Society in the wake of the world-shattering events that heralded the end of the first edition storyline. Now, with the Society rebuilt and refocused on their principles of exploration and discovery, the Pathfinders are set to embark on a new mission: creating a new Pathfinder lodge in Iobaria and delving into the ancient secrets that have lain dormant on the Inner Sea’s northeastern border for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of years.

Iobaria is home to ancient cyclopean ruins, deadly dragons, and mysterious monstrous denizens seldom recorded in the annals of the Inner Sea. As a centuries-old ritual unfolds, a looming presence stalks the abandoned cities and forlorn forests of the haunted northland, threating to ignite the wilderness into a conflagration of devastation and otherworldly evil. Agents of the Pathfinder Society are going to need to come prepared, as even the mightiest adventurers will find themselves pushed to the brink of certain doom on the desolate frontier.

This season we’ll also be rolling out some innovations to scenario format, taking the feedback we’ve received over the last year and assembling it into an improved template we think is the best yet for our program. We’ll also be swapping out our traditional Pathfinder Society Quest short scenario format for a new approach we’re calling Pathfinder Bounties. These 1-hour adventures answer the question “What does a Pathfinder do when the Society doesn’t have a job for them?” Unlike our quests and scenarios, bounties don’t assume that the players are members of the Pathfinder Society, and the adventures presented therein might be anything from a dragon hunt on the Crown of the World to saving a Druman farmer’s prized alpaca herds from predacious chupacabras. Bounties are designed to provide exciting entry points for any adventurer looking to start their career, and they’ll all be repeatable, making them a perfect option for game store owners and volunteer coordinators looking to introduce their community to Pathfinder Second Edition.

The Year of Corruption’s Reach kicks off at Gen Con Online Online (July 30–August 2)!

Illustration by Sebastion Rodriguez

Pathfinder Adventure Card Society: Year of Reborn Strife

PaizoCon Online sees the launch of the first ever interactive developed specifically for the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, adventure #6-99: Tyrant of the Harrow. An ill-fated fortune telling pulls the heroes into the Harrowed Realm, a mystical realm populated by a host of storybook characters. They must find a way back home before being sacrificed to fuel the plans of an evil mastermind!

Pathfinder Adventure Card Society’s new season, Year of Reborn Strife, starts in just a few months! The first half of the new season runs from August to December, with a new storybook releasing every month. The season’s early action takes the PCs to a swarming ancient metropolis filled with mysteries and intrigue. Kaer Maga, City of Strangers, is a haven for outcasts, misfits, rebels, and wayfarers from across the dangerous land of Varisia. Anyone is welcome on its shrouded streets, so long as they don’t ask too many questions or interfere with the freedom of their neighbors.

But a new threat rises to upset this delicate balance. Among the city’s more unusual denizens are zombie servants, kept in check by control amulets that prevent them from rampaging through the streets. A group of Pathfinder agents is on the scene when these amulets begin to fail, creating an undead menace. It falls to these Pathfinders to root out the source of the disruption. Along the way, they’ll meet several representatives of Kaer Maga’s iconic and eclectic factions, delve dangerous caverns, and uncover ancient secrets at nearly every turn!

The Year of Reborn Strife launches at Gen Con Online Online (July 30–August 2)!

Illustration by Benjamin Widdowson

The Open Road Ahead

We’ve got loads of more news to share about upcoming conventions, program features, sanctioning, and more, but we will save those for another blog on June 4th. For now, join us at PaizoCon Online for games, chats, streams, and a celebration of all things Paizo!

Don’t forget to Explore, Report, and Cooperate (and wash your hands!).

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Linda Zayas-Palmer
Organized Play Lead Developer

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

Michael Sayre
Pathfinder Society Developer

Each day during PaizoCon Online, we’re taking a look at upcoming products, revealing new art and details, and diving deep into the day’s focus with a livestreamed Marquee Event panel and Q&A session. Today’s Marquee Event panel focused on the upcoming Starfinder Starship Operations Manual and other future Starfinder releases. This blog is a recap of some of the reveals covered in that session. Don’t forget to check out the PaizoCon Online Stream Schedule to stay on top of the latest Paizo news in real time!

Though convention season looks very different in 2020 than in years past, we’re still ecstatic to have the opportunity to spend PaizoCon Online with all of our fans, geeking out together (from a safe distance) over what lies in store for our favorite game of space fantasy.

Starship Operations Manual

This summer’s big Starfinder release is the Starship Operations Manual, a 160-page sourcebook for all things starship related, from custom upgrades and expansion modules, to advice on running starship-based campaigns, new starship monsters to challenge parties of all levels, to details on the galaxy’s most prominent manufacturers!

Cover illustration by Remko Troost

Left to right: starship illustrations by Bryce Homick and Michael Soong.

We would be remiss to make a book this size called the Starship Operations Manual and not include dozens of new starships ready to add to your campaign such as the trio shown here.

Illustration by Daniele Sorrentino

Starship Operations Manual contains rules on building supercolossal starships, such as in this illustration by Daniele Sorrentino.

Alien Archive 4

Following in Starship Operation Manual’s engine wake comes the Starfinder Alien Archive 4. As with previous alien archives, this book presents scores of new friends, foes, and potential player character races with tons of lore and new rules options tied to each.

Alien Archive 4 cover by Remko Troost

Left to right: alien illustrations by Tuan Duong, Victor Rossi, and Alexandre Honore.

Check out these aliens inhabiting the book from Tuan Duong Chu, Victor Rossi, and Alexandre Honore. Can you guess what they are?

Devastation Ark Adventure Path

We don’t just publish rules supplements, though! Starfinder is all about galaxy-spanning adventure, which we provide in the pages of the monthly Starfinder Adventure Path. In August, we’ll launch the first sequel AP in the line with the 3-chapter high-level Devastation Arc Adventure Path. This campaign begins at 13th level, making it the perfect sequel to nearly all of our previous APs, and characters should reach 20th level by the story’s conclusion!

Fly Free or Die Adventure Path

In November, we’ll mix things up and return to our normal 6-chapter campaign format with the Fly Free or Die Adventure Path. In this exciting story, the player characters aren’t necessarily heroes—at least not intentionally. A crew of scoundrels, rogues, and misfits, they find it hard to survive in a galaxy where everyone has a price. Targeted by a crime boss and his army of enforcers, preyed upon by faceless mega-corporations, and hounded by rivals, the crew of the Free Trader Oliphaunt line up the big score that will at last make them rich beyond their wildest dreams. But when their many enemies join forces and the crew loses it all, they find out there are two things in the galaxy that can't be bought: freedom... and revenge.

Galaxy Exploration Manual

Fans wondering what our next hardcover rules supplement will be need look no further, because we’re happy to announce the Starfinder Galaxy Exploration Manual for release in April of next year. This book will provide players and GMs alike with rules for hailing from or exploring the myriad worlds found in the Starfinder galaxy, covering a variety of biomes and planetary concepts, allowing for nearly endless possibility every time a starship drops out of the Drift into uncharted space. It’s still nearly a year out, so we don’t have a lot to show you now, but we’ll have a lot more on this book as its release approaches.

Beyond the Galaxy

That wraps up this infosphere transmission, but we’re on halfway through Wednesday here at PaizoCon Online! Be sure to check out the live-play Starfinder X.T.R.E.M.! stream this evening from 4-7 PM (Pacific Daylight Time) at twitch.tv/officialpaizo. You can find the full schedule of streamed events here. Enjoy the rest of your PaizoCon Online, stay safe, and roll high!

Mark Moreland
Director of Brand Strategy

Hi everyone!

With groups coming together online to make their own tabletop RPG livestream shows for both Pathfinder and Starfinder, I wanted to share the overlays that we use in our streams so those without access to artists can take their live streams to the next level. So please enjoy these free Starfinder & Pathfinder stream overlay assets (while also following Paizo’s Community Use Policy).

Included will be a character stat block and a modifiable stream overlay!

To get an idea of how to use these overlays, check out the Pathfinder: Band of Bravos and Starfinder: X.T.R.E.M.! actual-play shows.

These overlays are not an extension to Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds, but are instead multiple layers of images used in streaming software like OBS or Xsplit.

Next up we have the download links for the stat blocks and overlays. These are .PSD files to allow those with compatible software to edit them as they please. Please note that we cannot distribute the fonts we use on our streams, so we recommend checking out Google Fonts and similar repositories to find something more in line with your game’s look and feel.

Pathfinder Stream Overlay: (Download Link Here)

The Pathfinder stream overlay! The file is easily adjustable for your virtual tabletop needs.

Pathfinder Character Block: (Download Link Here)

The Pathfinder character block, for when you wanna show off how powerful your players are!

Starfinder Stream Overlay: (Download Link Here)

The Starfinder stream overlay! Adjustable for all of your space-faring needs.

Starfinder Character Block: (Download Link here)

The Starfinder character block, the best way to present how diverse your party is!

I hope you find these overlays useful! Let me know if you are interested in different variations of these to use in your own streams, and please tag us social media using either #Starfinder or #Pathfinder2E when posting about them on social media.

I would love to see what you do with these templates! For those starting their own Pathfinder or Starfinder live plays on a virtual tabletop, feel free to share it in the comments below!

Payton Smith,
Social Media Producer

For those that didn’t see today’s earlier blog, check out our Pathfinder Society releases for May.

First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo examined the datapad with a jubilant smile.

“It gives me great honor to confirm Zafeldrin’s appointment to the role of venture-captain.” Luwazi spoke aloud to the crew members diligently working their stations. “He’s worked hard on Triaxus, and there were no voices on the Forum opposing this appointment. Besides, it should be interesting to have a full-blooded dragon venture-captain in our ranks!”

A flash of holographic data stole Luwazi’s attention, bringing her back to the moment. She examined the data with a raised eyebrow before directly questioning the crew, “Still no signal or report from the asteroid?”

One of the science officers responded, “No, ma’am. The entire site seems eerily quiet. Should we send in the first wave of ships?”

Luwazi pondered the dangerous question as she reviewed one final addendum to the datapad. It appeared that Zafeldrin was already hoping to employ several groups of Starfinder field agents for a mission into the abandoned Triaxian region of Cadascon, a region known for its strange crystalline growths. A bold endeavor, and one that could surely expand the Society’s influence on Triaxus and perhaps skyrocket Zafeldrin’s influence.

“Good luck then...” Luwazi mused while approving the mission and stowing the datapad.

“Ma’am?” the science officer queried, unsure if Luwazi’s statement was a reply to his question.

Straightening in her command chair, Luwazi Elsebo directed her full attention to the officer, “Not yet. We’ll divide the ships into tactical assault groups and make sure that we go in together. This mission could put an end to Datch and her campaign against the Society, so I want it done correctly.”

“Understood!” the officer half-shouted a response, “I’ll get to re-organizing our ships immediately. Also, the senior field agents are on standby for their briefing in the requested meeting chamber.”

Almost leaping from her seat, Luwazi looked around the command deck of the ship, “Then I’ll leave the rest to all of you. I’ll go brief our premiere agents on this mission. When I return, we’ll begin the first phases of the operation.”

Taking a single step away from the command chair, Luwazi paused. With a smile, she half-turned and reached to a wooden container she had kept just under her console. Plucking one of many similar objects from the container, Luwazi strode to the nearest bridge exit.

Staring at the shiny red apple she had withdrawn from the basket, Luwazi flashed a devil’s smile.

“We’ve got you now, Datch.”

She took a bite.

Left to right, Cadascon Crystal art by William Marton. Dispassion art by Mark Molnar

---

We’ve got two new scenarios coming out in May, wrapping up the main arc of Starfinder Society’s Year of a Thousand Bites. Starting with Starfinder Society #2-23: Edge of Cadascon by Emily Parks, the PCs travel to the Pact World of Triaxus and take part in a major expedition to a mysterious region of the planet. In Starfinder Society #2-24: Cornered Rat by Mikko Kallio, the PCs take charge of an all-out assault on a hidden installation used by the nefarious ysoki mastermind, Datch. This important mission could put an end to the multimedia smear campaign used to besmirch the Starfinder Society throughout the Pact worlds!

Until next time,

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

While you’re catching your breath from the hundreds of Paizo Organized Play games and other scheduled events available at PaizoCon Online, make sure to visit our Twitch channel for seminars and actual-play games from the Paizo staff and our licensed partners.

Once again, we’re thrilled to have Know Direction hosting this year’s PaizoCon Online, alongside Paizo social media producer Payton Smith. Stay tuned in between shows for special guests and commentary from the Know Direction team. Viewers watching live on Twitch will also have the opportunity to win special prizes, such as:

• Rule your own kingdom with Kingmaker Explorer Edition, by Owlcat Games (PC/Mac, Steam).
• Build your perfect character with Hero Lab Online licenses for Pathfinder Second Edition and Starfinder, by Lone Wolf Development.
• Take your game to virtual tabletop with D20 Pro: Game Master + 6-player seat License, by Mesa Mundi.
• Play your game from anywhere on Roll20.net, with special PaizoCon bundles for Pathfinder Second Edition (Core Rulebook and The Fall of Plaguestone adventure) and Starfinder (Core Rulebook plus The Reach of Empire adventure, Book 1 of the Against the Aeon Throne Adventure Path).
• Your epic game deserves the epic sounds of a 2-month Pathfinder subscription to Syrinscape.

Winners will be chosen at random by Payton and the Know Direction team, and giveaways can happen at any time. Make sure to watch the chat room for your opportunity to enter!

Marquee Events: The biggest news each day will be revealed in these special events, where we’ll release advance information on what’s to come for the future of your favorite games.

Times for all events are Pacific Daylight time (GMT -7), and you can catch everything on Paizo’s official Twitch channel.

Tuesday, May 26

Welcome to PaizoCon (10-12 p.m.)

The show must go on! Join Erik Mona, Tonya Woldridge, Alex Speidel, and Payton Smith for an official welcome to the first-ever PaizoCon Online. We’ll cover a variety of topics, including moving PaizoCon to an online format, what content is on offer, how to make the most of a fantastic six days of online gaming with friends from around the world, and where to get answers to any questions you may have.

Marquee Event: Kingmaker Adventure Path (12-2 p.m.)

Join Lisa Stevens, Jason Nelson, Mark Moreland, and James Jacobs for an in-depth chat about one of the largest projects Paizo has ever attempted—the Kingmaker Adventure Path hardcover compilation! Updated to 2nd edition, we’ll go over all of the books and support products for this sprawling campaign, reveal more about the brand-new content that’s being added to the Adventure Path, and answer as many questions about Kingmaker as we can squeeze in! So don your crowns, get comfy in your thrones, and prepare to find out what awaits in this massive return to one of Pathfinder’s most popular Adventure Paths of all time!

Secrets of the Starfinder Universe (2-4 p.m.)

Paizo’s top storytellers reveal the mysteries behind the Starfinder campaign setting, from conspiracies you never knew existed to the real story behind that one thing you always wanted to know. Bring your most burning setting questions to this often too-honest Q&A!

Live Play: Dragons & Things (PF2E; 4-7 p.m.)

Welcome to Heroic Endeavors Inc., where every licensed adventurer stands ready to exercise Heroic Interventions™ as needed to keep our client community safe from undesirable risk and dangerous circumstances. Join Ben Burch, Meghan Caves, Jamie Mills, Nathan Ondracek and Adam Conn as our experienced and capable Licensed Adventuring Team on their latest Heroic Intervention as they battle evil and defend client assets as defined in the HEI Client Agreement Section II Paragraph 4. Guiding them through these dangerous exploits is HEI Administrator and Game Master, James Rodehaver.

Dragons and Things: Heroic Endeavors is a Pathfinder 2e Actual-Play Live Stream. You can watch more Dragons and Things: Heroic Endeavors LIVE every Friday at 6pm Pacific on twitch.tv/thedatnetwork. Be sure to check out their streaming schedule for additional shows all week long.

We are @thedatnetwork on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Facebook! Join us on discord: https://discord.gg/qEwdAMA

Wednesday, May 27

Pathfinder RPG Q&A (10-12 p.m.)

Join the Paizo Design Team as they look back at the launch of Pathfinder Second Edition and gaze forward into the future of the game. Don’t forget to bring your questions about the game and how you can get the most out of the system. The team will be answering what they can, but save the hard-core rules for the forums as we will be keeping this light and fun.

Marquee Event: Starship Operations & Beyond! (12-2 p.m.)

Join Paizo staffers to learn about what to expect and how to make the most of the new toys in Starfinder’s upcoming rulebooks, from new starship combat options in the Starship Operations Manual to new alien threats and playable species in Alien Archive 4, plus what to look forward to in the galaxy for 2021!

Ask the Paizo GMs (2-4 p.m.)

How can I throw together a quick one-session game? What are some good ways to flesh out my world and NPCs? I just TPKed my players, what do I do?! Join Paizo developers James Case, Thurston Hillman, and Luis Loza and Paizo editor Ianara Natividad as they answer these questions and more, share their favorite gamemastering tips and tricks, and help you troubleshoot your own adventures!

Live Play: Starfinder X.T.R.E.M.! (4-7 p.m.)

Gooood evening stargirls, starboys, and every beautiful person in between! Are you tired of the same ol’ holovid stars clogging up your infosphere? Bored of loops with squoxes wearing hats and proogs playing keytars? Well, you’ve come to the right place! XenoTrouble Enterprises is proud to present the weirdest, wildest wrestling shows in all of the Pact Worlds!

Join Game Master Amanda Hamon as she brings professional wrestling to the Starfinder universe, alongside a star-studded cast of Paizo luminary players! The Pact Worlds’ most notorious wrestling stars are in danger from a mob of a rival’s obsessed fans, and it’s our PCs’ job to save the day--while putting on their best ladder-diving, chair-smacking, cage-wrestling performances for a live-stream audience, of course!

Thursday, May 28

The Art of Paizo (10-12 p.m.)

Join Paizo’s art directors and as they discuss the illustrations, maps, and other visual elements that bring Pathfinder and Starfinder to life and lead an interactive live concept art of a creature invented by the audience!

Marquee Event: Organized Play (12-2 p.m.)

Wonder what plans the Organized Play team have up their sleeves? Want to know more about the Starfinder Society’s upcoming Year of Exploration’s Edge? Interested in the theme for Pathfinder Society’s second year of programming? Curious about what’s up with Year 7 of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Society? Join Lead Developer Linda Zayas-Palmer, Pathfinder Society developer Michael Sayre, Starfinder Society Developer Thurston Hillman and Organized Play Manager Tonya Woldridge as they share storylines and plans for the upcoming year of Paizo Organized Play.

Adventure Path Design (2-4 p.m.)

Join four of Paizo's Adventure Path developers for a close look at the process of how Pathfinder and Starfinder Adventure Paths are made, including conception, outlining, writing, development, and publication. We'll discuss the differences between writing an Adventure Path and writing other types of stories, as well as provide insights and advice for Game Masters and aspiring authors who want to write great campaigns. We'll even reveal some secrets about Paizo's forthcoming Adventure Paths!

Live Play: Roll for Combat - “Tales from the Black Lodge” (PF2E; 4-7 p.m.)

Deep in the heart of the River Kingdoms, lies an old Pathfinder lodge once thought lost. A lodge shrouded in secrecy and mystery, driving many to believe that its goals are not that of exploration… but of more nefarious purposes. Recently an unknown Venture-Captain has reopened the lodge and recruited a new group of Pathfinder Agents to do its bidding. Whether their goals are to benefit the Society, or something much more sinister, is yet to be seen... Join the Roll For Combat crew and special guest Erik Mona as they explore a Pathfinder 2e Society Quest on behalf of the Black Lodge!

Friday, May 29

World of Pathfinder (10-12 p.m.)

Join Pathfinder Creative Director James Jacobs, Lost Omens line developers Eleanor Ferron and Luis Loza, and Director of Brand Strategy and living lore encyclopedia Mark Moreland to delve into the World of Pathfinder! Explore some of the recently revealed secrets of the setting and get some hints of what revelations lie just over the horizon, with previews of upcoming Lost Omens world guide books. Ask your questions of Golarion’s stewards to help bring your characters and campaigns to life in new and exciting ways. Who knows, we might even slip up and reveal something we aren’t supposed to!

Marquee Event: Advanced Player’s Guide (12-2 p.m.)

Join Advanced Player's Guide designers and a rockstar editor for never-before-seen reveals and behind the scenes insights into Pathfinder's biggest summer release! Also, our Pathfinder Friday marquee panel will reveal an upcoming Pathfinder book coming in 2021!

Pathfinder Adventures (2-4 p.m.)

Adventure authors, developers, and editors gather to take you inside the contents, creation, and opportunities presented by official Pathfinder Second Edition adventures yet to come! Panelists include Paizo Publisher Erik Mona, Managing Developer Adam Daigle, Adventure Path developer Ron Lundeen, and editor Patrick Hurley.

Live Play: Pathfinder - Band of Bravos (4-7 p.m.)

Band of Bravos is a Pathfinder Second Edition Actual Play Twitch stream. Staring James Jacobs as the talented half-elf bard Shensen, Payton Smith as the curmudgeon human wizard Lorn, Maryssa Lagervall, as the storytelling halfling druid Ilana Thistlefoot, and Jason Keeley as the wisecracking tengu swashbuckler Roark Thunderbird. Jason Bulmahn, Paizo’s Director of Game Design is serving as host and GM for this band of misfit performers whose tall-tales of adventure may have finally gotten them into more trouble than they could possibly handle!

Saturday, May 30

Pathfinder Game: Roll the Role (10-12 p.m.)

Join Roll20 Spotlight creators Roll the Role as they balance the perils of circus life and a conspiracy that threatens all in Extinction Curse: Legacy of the Lost God.

Live Play: 2 Perception (PF2E; 2-4 p.m.)

Fresh from dealing with the problems of Etran’s Folly, these brave adventurers continue where Bort’s caravan left off. Join Squiiddish and his crew as they continue their story from The Fall of Plagueston in this one-shot Pathfinder Second Edition adventure.

Live Play: Glass Cannon (PF2E; 4-7 p.m.)

The Glass Cannon Network: Pathfinder Society Quest #1: The Sandstone Secret LIVE!
Witness the triumphant return of Hawkraven Eaglecrow, Pima Shaleslider, Nero Goodfence, Arkonis Severith and Ecthelion, son of Aegnor, known as Orphan Puncher as Paizo Publisher Erik Mona joins the Glass Cannon Network crew for a night of Pathfinder 2E ribaldry!

Sunday, May 31

PaizoCon Closing Ceremonies (12-1 p.m.)

All good things must come to an end, and so must we close the curtains on PaizoCon Online 2020. Join Paizo and Know Direction staffers as we look back at the event and give thanks to all of the amazing contributors, volunteers, partners, and you for making PaizoCon Online an event to remember.

Live Play: QueueTimes - Shadow of Norgober (PF2E; 4:30-7:30)

A string of gruesome murders, five mysterious notes, and one long forgotten friend inspires five retired adventurers to band together one last time. As they look for the one responsible behind the killings, they’re each forced to confront their past actions, before their days of fame and glory, in order to save the kingdom.

Greetings all!
The finalized schedule includes over 1150 Paizo Organized Play (POP) games, as well as author-run events, non-organized play games, panels on both Discord and Twitch, and a full slate of Twitch-streamed games. For the full schedule, check out the PaizoCon Online Warhorn page. Reminder, all times are listed in PDT.

In preparation for event registration, we suggest you visit the following sites and register accounts. You may use existing accounts on all the sites listed, so no need to create a new one just for PaizoCon Online.

• Register for an account and an organized play number at Paizo.com (if playing POP games)
• Join the PaizoCon Online Discord Server. Here is an invite code.
• Follow the Paizo Twitch channel.

Player signups go live Saturday, May 16th, at 1 pm PDT on the PaizoCon Online Warhorn page. Once you are registered for a game, please download the associated VTT platforms and input your character(s). All VTT information is listed in the Notes section of the Warhorn page. There is no need to register for panels or streams, they are included on the schedule to help in planning.

The Discord page is open and there are channels to chat before the event and ask questions if needed. You may also email paizocononline@paizo.com if you need assistance.

So without further ado, here are the descriptions for the special events we are pleased to offer at PaizoCon Online 2020. We will release the Twitch panel schedule on Thursday afternoon.

Author-Run Organized Play Tables

PFS2 1-12: The Burden of Envy (level 1-4)
Lysle Kapp
Swindler, rogue, and occasional Pathfinder ally Guaril Karela has approached the Society with an opportunity that Valais Durant, the leader of the Society's Radiant Oath faction, can't refuse. Guaril has been charging refugees to sneak them out of Xin Edasseril, a city ruled by the Runelord of Envy, and now it looks like Guaril won't be able to fulfill his contracts. Society agents are charged with sneaking into the dangerous city and sneaking out with a handful of its citizens before their absence is noticed so that the Radiant Oath can help them find new lives beyond their current ruler's tyrannical reach.
Sessions: Tuesday, May 26: 12pm (noon), Friday, May 29: 6am, Saturday, May 30: 6pm

PFS2 Quest 3: Grehunde’s Gorget (level 1-4)
Kate Baker
Venture-Captain Bjersig Torrsen calls the PCs north to the town of Iceferry in the frigid Land of the Linnorm Kings. There, Bjersig informs the Pathfinders that he has a request from the family of a storied and long-dead Linnorm King. The family's patriarch, the warrior Hlavard Grenskuldr, appears to have perished in a shipwreck while wearing the family's heirloom, the gorget of the Linnorm King Grehunde the Sunchaser. For one hundred generations the family has passed this heirloom down from parent to child, until Hlavard sought to wear it on a journey to Valenhall as Grehunde herself had intended to do before perishing with the task unfinished. Unwilling to leave the relic to rust away in a watery grave, Hlavard's family has requested the Pathfinder Society's assistance in locating the shipwreck and retrieving the family treasure.
Sessions: Friday, May 29: 6pm

PFS2 Quest 7: A Curious Claim (level 3-6)
Dennis Muldoon
Money is power in the land of Druma and those who know how best to manipulate the economics of the land have the most of both. The PCs are sent to Druma to investigate a missing ship and the particulars of an insurance claim related to its disappearance, though both ravenous undead and agents of one of the Pathfinder Society's fiercest rival organizations seek to keep them from the truth behind the ship's sad end.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon), Saturday, May 30: 3pm

PFS2 Quest 9: Wayfinder Origins (level 3-6)
Dustin Knight
The Pathfinder Society has sent an expedition to a previously uncharted island! The island contains a door sealed with a type of magical technology thought lost with the ancient Azlanti empire. What secrets lie behind the door, and what dangers may lurk beneath the island's surface? To find out, the PCs will first have to solve the magical "puzzle" sealing the door and preventing contact with whatever lies beyond.
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 6pm, Thursday, May 28: 6pm, Friday, May 29: 6pm, Saturday, May 30: 6pm

SFS 1-16: Dreaming of the Future
Sasha Laranoa Harving
The Starfinder Society pursues the dream visions of a Liavaran dreamer, seeking information lost in a time before the Gap. Three broken fragments form the key to a forgotten repository of knowledge hidden within the Pact Worlds. It's up to the PCs to find these missing fragments and brave the dangerous reliquary to secure a new source of prescient knowledge for the Society.
Sessions: Thursday, May 28: 12pm (noon)

SFS 2-03: The Withering World (level 1-4)
Rigby Bendele
The Starfinder Society has dispatched an investigation fleet to a seemingly impossible world: a planet located between a nurturing sun and a voracious black hole. When a chance meeting with the local inhabitants leads the Society to discover another group of visitors who threatens this incredible planet, it's up to a group of heroes to make sure that the world's delicate balance does not break and the planet isn't sent hurtling into a black hole!
Sessions: Friday, May 29: 12pm (noon)

SFS 2-18: Forbidden Tides (level 5-8)
Kate Baker
After the Starfinder Society made first contact with the morlamaws of Arniselle, the walrus-like people of that world have worked alongside several Pact Worlds organizations to explore their homeworld and other planets beyond. Recently, a group of radical morlamaws was discovered to have been working with an individual opposed to the Society's interests. The PCs travel to Arniselle to follow-up on this group's activities and link it back to the mysterious ysoki known as Datch. The truth behind these morlamaws is beyond comprehension, and threatens all life on Arniselle and beyond!
Scenario tags: Faction (Exo-Guardians)
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon)

SFS 2-21: Illegal Shipment (level 1-4)
Joseph Blomquist
As the Swarm invades the distant Suskillon system, a notorious collector of alien life captures several Swarm lifeforms with the intent of selling them to interested buyers. Bringing these creatures to Absalom Station as part of a clandestine trade, events go awry and the trader’s preserved wildlife escape into the station. In order to prevent station-wide panic, the Starfinder Society sends its best agents to find out what happened, track down the escaped Swarm lifeforms, and stop a full-scale infestation at the heart of the Pact Worlds!
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 6pm

The following authors have volunteered to run one or more of their Paizo-published adventures. All tables will run as normal Organized Play tables and will earn full rewards.

Third-Party/Non-Organized Play Games

The Book in the Old House (Pathfinder second edition)
Russ Taylor, Legendary Games
Kick off the Aegis of Empires AP! Escort a nobleman to the an abandoned estate—fast and easy coin, right? But why is the neighborhood deserted but the house still pristine? I'm sure those furtive shadows, sinister rumors, and the deafening chorus of frogs haunting the grounds are nothing to worry about!
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 6pm

Scions of the Five Winds (Pathfinder second edition)
Vanessa Hoskins, Legendary Games
Five bearers of elemental power gather at the Temple of Elements to perform their annual blessing, when a dark power intervenes. Can the scions of the five winds defend their temple and fight off the dark power that seeks to unbalance the elemental forces?
Sessions: Thursday, May 28: 6am, Saturday, May 30: 6am

Wizards Wanted (Pathfinder second edition)
Scott 'Curaigh' Janke
Wizards Wanted! Explore, Report, Trade spells! This will be a session of PFS (2) where most of the players have a spellbook that needs filling. Tier and scenario will be determined by the players. Alchemist and anyone that can learn spells from another Pathfinder are also welcome.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon)

Remnants of the Outer Dominion (Starfinder)
Matt Daley, Legendary Games
Remnants of the Outer Dominion is a 10th-level Starfinder adventure set in the Arcforge Campaign Setting. The wrecked Outer Lord starship known as Mourner's Comet has orbited the star of Aurin since the ancient race battled with the Dragons, its derelict hull visible across the skies of many worlds. As the wreck approaches near the inhabited worlds for the first time in over a century, scattered factions from different spheres converge upon Mourner's Comet to uncover its secrets and perhaps claim them for themselves.
Sessions: Friday, May 29: 6pm

The Wandering Water Bear (Starfinder; Author table)
Hilary Moon Murphy
Vaando dome on the ice-encrusted asteroid of Nisis is desperate. Under constant threat from diaspora wyrms that darken the waters and attack their settlement, they've hired the party to contact a missing dwarven scientist. The only one with clues to the scientist's whereabouts is her ex-spouse, Captain Cora, an irritable riverboat captain. Her ship, The Wandering Waterbear, is a submersible that travels between settlements on the River Between; it's also the smelly and nigh-indestructible shrunken corpse of a Giant Tardegrade. Captain Cora likes to pilot her ship down the river and ram wyrms. The party's job is simple; get on Cora's crew, find the scientist and save Vaando dome. This adventure appears in Wayfinder 20.
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 12pm (noon), Friday, May 29: 12pm (noon), Saturday, May 30: 6am

Bestiary Bash (Pathfinder first edition)
Scott 'Curaigh' Janke
Sharpen you claws and study your Agrippa! Monsters with class levels in a tournament to hold the Sapphire Blade!
Sessions: Thursday, May 28: 12pm (noon)

Cat’s Meow (Pathfinder first edition)
Jessica Peters, Find the Path Ventures
Excuse me, my cat is lost. Can you help me find her? What seems to be a simple case of lost and found, soon expands into something more mysterious. Cat's Meow is a Pathfinder 1e adventure for 1st level characters. Adventure adapted from High Level Games.
Sessions: Friday, May 29: 6pm

Legend of the Burning Star (Pathfinder first edition)
Steve Helt of Legendary Games
Dive into the spectacular Aegis of Empires AP with urban investigation and wilderness exploration to unravel an ancient and deadly mystery whose madness echoes down through the ages, run by the author! 10th level PCs
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 6pm

Riders on the Storm (Part 1) (Pathfinder first edition)
Greg Vaughan Track vicious raiders into the mountains for the voormann of Perenland and put an end to their attacks. An original Greyhawk adventure for 10th-level characters updated to Pathfinder (1e). Pre-gens provided. This is part 1 of a two-session game. Ideally the same players that sign up for this session should sign up for part 2 as well.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon)

Riders on the Storm (Part 2) (Pathfinder first edition)
Greg Vaughan
Continuing the mission against the mountain raiders begun in Part 1. An original Greyhawk adventure for 10th-level characters updated to Pathfinder (1e). Pre-gens provided. This is part 2 of the same adventure from the previous session. Ideally the same players that signed up for part 1 should be the players in part 2 as well.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 6pm

Wizards Wanted (Pathfinder first edition)
Scott 'Curaigh' Janke
Wizards Wanted! Explore, Report, Trade spells! This will be a session of PFS (1) where most of the players have a spellbook that needs filling. Mid-tier 3-7 though the scenario will be TBD. Magi, alchemist and witches welcome too, but the focus will be on book-based casters wanting to trade some spells.
Sessions: Friday, May 29: 12pm (noon)

Fall of Magic (Fall of Magic system)
Mike Ferdinando
Magic is dying, and the Magus is dying with it. We travel together to realm of Umbra where magic was born. "Fall of Magic" is a collaborative storytelling game where we play a group of travelers in the company of the Magus. On the way, we'll encounter strange hosts, fantastic places, and perilous choices as we play to find out who our characters are, how they relate, and how our journey changes us. Game rules will be taught at the table.
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 12pm (noon)

The Flocculent Cathedral (Trophy Dark system)
Mike Ferdinando
Coiled in the moss-shrouded marshlands of The Mire lay the ruins of a lost temple to a forgotten saint. What riches can be found there... and what are you willing to do to claim them? Trophy Dark is a collaborative dark fantasy/horror RPG of desperate treasure-hunters seeking fortune in an enchanted forest that does not want them there. The game has very simple rules that will be taught at the table. This is an 18+ table.
Sessions: Thursday, May 28: 6pm

Laser Metal: Quest for Fire (Attention Span Games’ Laser Metal system)
Mark Orr
In a brutal, futuristic, post-apocalyptic world only the most metal of heroes will survive. Will you join the quest for fire and rock the Laser Metal tournament? Laser Metal is a science fiction RPG that is light on rules but heavy on metal, and doesn’t' take itself too seriously. Players will play pregenerated characters provided by the GM. This is an 18+ table.
Sessions: Friday, May 29: 12pm (noon)

Starfinder Adventure Card Game Concept (Reskinned Pathfinder Adventure Card Game)
Tyler Beck, et al
This event will allow players to join veteran PACG organizers in a celebration of the game format, set in the world of Starfinder and designed by Tyler "Cartmanbeck" Beck. The Dead Suns Adventure Path is the inspiration for this brand-new Core Set-style game. This game builds on the rules of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, so significant experience with that game is recommended. This session will use pregenerated characters, and will be run using Tabletop Simulator software, so please be familiar with the controls and functionality of that platform beforehand. Which scenarios will be run during a given slot will be coordinated through the convention's Discord server. Please do not sign up for more than 2 slots of this game, in order to give other players the chance to experience it.
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 12pm (noon), Thursday, May 28: 6am, Thursday, May 28: 6pm, Friday, May 29: 12pm (noon), Sunday, May 31: 6am

Please note that no Organized Play credit or rewards will be awarded for these tables

Panels

Wayfinder #20 Launch Party and Chat
Tim Nightengale, Wayfinder/Paizo Fans United
With this year's PaizoCon going virtual, how about a Wayfinder release party as part of the fun? Join the Wayfinder Staff and Contributors in voice and text to chat about the newest issue!
Sessions: Tuesday, May 26: 6pm, Friday, May 29: 6pm, Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon), Saturday, May 30: 6pm

Freelancing 101 with Freelance Force
Mike Kimmel, Freelance Forge
Learn the basics of RPG freelancing from a panel of freelancers!
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 12pm (noon)

What's New with Legendary Games!
Jason Nelson, Legendary Games
Get all the latest news and sneak peeks from the stars of Legendary Games, including the amazing Aegis of Empires AP Kickstarter ongoing NOW!
Sessions: Wednesday, May 27: 12pm (noon)

Danger Club Presents: Level 0 to Level Hero
Dan Thompson, The Danger Club Podcast
Tune in to a live episode of The Danger Club and hear a group of British voice actors playing Pathfinder 2e. A team of level 0 characters are trapped behind enemy lines and hunted by terrible monsters. Can they make it home? Will they become heroes, or die as zeros?
Sessions: Thursday, May 28: 12pm (noon)

Play-by-Post (PbP) 101
Play-by-Post Venture Officers, Organized Play Foundation
Interested in games online? Like to write descriptive narration? Talk to the team of PbP coordinators about the pros of playing PbP online as well. Through the use of Discord screen share, they’ll show you the ins and outs of a game.
Sessions: Thursday, May 28: 3 pm

Converting a Galaxy: From Star Wars Saga Edition to Imperial Assault
Carlos Cabrera, Something Clever Games
Learn how a Star Wars GM converted his player’s characters from Wizard of the Coast’s roleplaying game to Fantasy Flight’s board game in an ongoing campaign since 2008. Carlos Cabrera is a freelancer who has worked with Legendary Games, Encounter Table Publishing, Rite Publishing, and Paizo.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon)

Creating Dynamic Characters for the Gaming Table
Jessica Peters, Find the Path Ventures
Join Find the Path for this interactive seminar that delves into the ins-and-outs of creating dynamic and interesting characters. You'll get to work with the crew to build a character that implements our best tips, including using archetypes to guide mechanics selection, playing against stereotypes, and creating backstories that tie into the campaign and the world.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 9am

Playing Dynamic Characters at the Gaming Table
Jessica Peters, Find the Path Ventures
In this panel, Find the Path will give advice and strategies for roleplaying dynamic characters that stay true to your vision while also growing and evolving with the story at your gaming table. This is a continuation of Creating Dynamic Characters for the Gaming Table, but you do not need to have participated in that seminar to attend this one.
Sessions: Sunday, May 31: 9am

Methods for Fast Combat
MrBoot
Learn methods that both players and GMs can use to hasten combat, improve smoothness of play, and encourage engagement in the game.
Sessions: Saturday, May 30: 12pm (noon)

All panels listed here will be taking place via Discord text and/or voice chat, as determined by the panel organizer.

Remember, check back Thursday afternoon for the list of seminars streaming on Paizo’s Twitch channel.

Less than 2 weeks to wait!

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Associate

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Inside volume two of Starfinder’s The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path, Flight of the Sleepers, by Owen K.C. Stephens.

The timing of this blog series was delayed a bit, but we last looked into volume one in Don’t Trust Your Senses. Now let’s catch up and explore volume two!

This cover by artist Tomasz Chistowski.

This Starfinder Adventure Path volume continues The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path and includes:

• “Flight of the Sleepers,” a Starfinder adventure for 3rd-level characters, by Owen K.C. Stephens.
• An examination of the enigmatic aliens known as grays, by Vanessa Hoskins.
• A study of fringe scientific theories, by Leo Glass.
• An archive of alien creatures, including a beast that attacks with magnetic pulses and a mutated troll, by Vanessa Hoskins, Jenny Jarzabski, and Owen K.C. Stephens.
• Statistics and deck plans for a Steward frigate, plus a glimpse of a lawless mining planet, by Owen K.C. Stephens.

Trapped in a bizarre research facility that’s under attack, the heroes must battle against weird technology and experiments run amok. Even after they are aided by elite Steward agents in their escape, the heroes are left with more questions in need of answers!

Even if you are not playing this AP, you can use all this content in your homebrew Starfinder campaign

SPOILERS

Starship: Steward Banshee FA Frigate by Owen K.C. Stephens.

The Banshee FA (fast attack) frigate is a well-known Steward vessel produced under contract with ATech, manufacturers of the Immortal. Although on the small side, this starship is designed to be fast, stealthy, and hard hitting. The standard crew comprises a half-dozen well-trained Stewards, but Banshees have seen field duty with as few as two people—an arrangement made easier by the fact that the ship’s weapons are concentrated in a turret and one forward mount. The typical Banshee can also carry a small contingent of marines for boarding actions and airborne assaults.

The Enigmatic Grays by Vanessa Hoskins. Art by Nathan James

“You find scars and bruises on your body but don’t recall an injury, enter a room and forget why you’re there, surf holovids for what feels like only five minutes but an hour has passed, or are quite certain you completed a task only to find it unfinished. These are symptoms of an encounter with the grays. They involve themselves in every aspect of your life, but you’ve never heard of them. They watch you constantly, but you’ve never seen them. They’re the nightmare of an intruder that you can’t recall. They prod and probe, but you forget. Remember! Make yourself REMEMBER!
—From the personal journal of Steward Reyard Maldun

The following are excerpts from the personal journal of Steward Reyard Maldun, discovered in a locked box behind a false panel in an apartment leased to “K. Carlock” almost 2 years after Reyard’s disappearance on 2 Rova, 317 ag.

WHO ARE THE GRAYS?
That’s the first question most people ask: Who are they? Let’s start with what we know. Grays are named for their gray‐skinned bodies because no one knows what else to call them. They have a basic humanoid shape with a symmetrical body, a single pair of arms, and a single pair of legs. Their hands and feet are strikingly similar to those of humans, though generally smaller and more delicate, with elongated fingers. Their stature is like that of a ysoki or a human child, but each has a bulbous head on a small, wiry frame. A gray’s face is a stoic mask with two relatively large, black, emotionless eyes and an almost nonexistent nose with two nostrils no larger than a data port. Their mouths are tiny and slit‐like, which makes one wonder what they eat.

Grays have no trouble maintaining balance with precise grace, despite their over‐large heads. Reports say they sometimes stand in perfect stillness for several moments before acting all at once, each movement perfect as if choreographed and well rehearsed. The movement of a gray is so deliberate and agile, it would rival that of a finely tuned robot, yet their flesh is certainly organic.”

Read the full 8-page article for more on their plots, plans, and equipment!

Fringe Science by Leo Glass. Art by Alyssa McCartney

“Look, no one cares what happened to the researchers who previously owned this engine. Y’know why? Because this thing stops freakin’ time, that’s why! Picture this. You’re cruisin’ through the Diaspora in your Vagabond, just mindin’ your own business, when your sensors ping a gunship filled with pirates screamin’ in at full burn, gyrolasers hot. But you got this, because you made a savvy purchase from ol’ Pogo before you left this station. Your engineer turns one lousy knob, and boom! That enemy ship locks in place like it’s caught in a tractor beam! Meanwhile, your crew’s buzzin’ around the deck as if you spiked their morning coffee with liquid thasteron! Who’s got the drop on who now, scum suckers? Arm the plasma torpedoes—it’s time to make pirate paste!”
—Pogo Quick, ysoki tech broker

While modern scientific and engineering knowledge might appear to cover nearly all aspects of life, hundreds of intellectual questions remain unanswered. Though Triune granted access to the blueprints of Drift technology, no one has yet ascertained why using this technology rends a portion of a random plane into the Drift. The union of magic and technology has solved many modern problems, but travelers continue to experience dilemmas related to perfecting interspecies communication, understanding astronomical phenomena, overcoming biological diseases that may accompany first contact with alien creatures, and myriad other obstacles.

When mainstream science is unable to explain the origins of mysterious phenomena, the curious open their minds to more radical explanations, hoping to find even a trace of plausible explanation in an expanse of doubt. These practitioners often participate in what some call “fringe science,” a generic term for fields of study that diverge from the theories generally considered to be rudimentary by experts within a specific discipline. To traditional scientists, fringe science is a fool’s errand, as it usually relies on premises that may have been previously refuted and can often be performed by someone with no academic background. While this is true in some cases, some fringe scientists use methods that are just as statistically significant and reproducible as their more traditional counterparts. Fringe scientists often remind others that many disciplines, such as interplanetary communication or cybernetic and biological augmentation, were once considered little more than fantasies before true genius unlocked the power behind their mysteries.

The following disciplines represent fringe science practiced within the Pact Worlds and systems beyond, as well as some equipment associated with these fields.”

For more mad genius science, including cloning, multiverse theory, and neurolinguistic programming, read the mind-blowing 8-page article!

Alien Archives by Vanessa Hoskins, Jenny Jarzabski, and Owen K.C. Stephens. Art by Sebastian Rodreguiz

Local superstitions on the frozen world of Mobulen tell of a three-hooved “devil” that appears in the night and moves inexorably in a single direction, charging over rocky terrain and walking straight up the sides of buildings. Bad luck and worse fall upon those who stand in the creature’s way, especially those who wear heavy metal armor. Records show that multiple Mobulen devil sightings have occurred simultaneously across the planet, with each creature moving toward magnetic north. Unfortunately scholars have yet to determine the true nature of these migrations.
—Excerpt from Galactic Tales and Legends by Dr. Borogrand Traceter

A small aberration called a gray bounder, a large magical beast called a kunnid, a large plant called a linyf, a large quantum troll, and more lie in wait within the pages of Flight of the Sleepers!

Codex of Worlds: Stopgap by Owen K.C. Stephens. Art by Kent Hamilton

Port of last Resort

Stopgap is a dwarf planet in orbit around Foergrim, a yellow star in Near Space. The Foergrim system has no full planets, only several clouds of planetoids and asteroid belts that form rings and vague orbital clouds around the star. Stopgap is the largest object in the system—it’s just barely big enough to round itself out through gravitational forces. It has no atmosphere or native life of its own, but it does contain the manufactured corridors and chambers of a small base.

That’s only the first paragraph, but there is more than a half-page of detail, along with this intriguing art.

Don’t forget that The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path Dice Set by Q Workshop are available too!

Paizo releases Starfinder Adventure Paths in monthly, multi-volume arcs. You can acquire them at your favorite local game store. With your ongoing Starfinder Adventure Path subscription, we'll send each new volume to your door and charge your payment method automatically as we ship each product. You only need to sign up once, and never need to worry about renewal notices or missed products.

Next, we will unveil volume three, Deceivers’ Moon, with an article describing the insidious reptoids, a catalog of starships used by the Unseen, and a selection of new monsters, including cryptids from the Starfinder setting!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

Immerse yourself in the adventure with the colorful Extinction Curse, Attack of the Swarm! and The Threefold Conspiracy Dice Sets.

Q WORKSHOP has unveiled official Adventure Path dice sets designed and manufactured for the Pathfinder Extinction Curse, Starfinder Attack of the Swarm! and Starfinder The Threefold Conspiracy under a license with Paizo. Each is a complete set of seven polyhedral dice (d4, d6, d8, d10, d100, d12, d20) made from durable plastic and designed with precision engravings.

Two Pathfinder Extinction Curse Adventure Path Dice Sets

Pathfinder Extinction Curse Adventure Path Performer's and Entertainer's dice sets

The Extinction Curse Adventure Path is a six-part, monthly campaign in which the heroes lead a traveling circus as they unravel a plot to eradicate all life from the islands of the Inner Sea. These sets include dice in red and blue, with yellow painting in complexly carved engravings. The Performer's set contains a blue d20, d10, and d4. The Entertainer’s set is made with a red d20, d10, and d4. On the highest face, there is the symbol of a circus tent to help players take the stage and win the crowd.

Starfinder Attack of the Swarm! Adventure Path Dice Set

Starfinder Attack of the Swarm! Adventure Path dice set and limited edition dice set

The theme for this campaign is the invasion of the Swarm - a highly intelligent and always hungry monolithic hive-mind with gargantuan living ships. This set is glacier blue with cloudy admixture that resembles mist covering dangers, emerging out of the blue. Q WORKSHOP adorned the faces with pale yellow painting to mark the digits looking like insects and larvae. On the highest faces of all dice, there are symbols of the archenemy of the campaign - the Swarm.

You can also aquire a Limited Edition with deep black painting to mark the digits and engravings.

Starfinder The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path Dice Set

Starfinder The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path dice set

The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path is a six-part, monthly campaign in which the heroes unravel the machinations of insidious aliens who have infiltrated galactic society. Imagine that there are dice for revealing cosmic conspiracy theories. These dice could be a player’s best choice in their fight against twisted alien masterminds and their sinister plot. This set is dark gray with yellow paint to mark the digits and rich engravings. The whole design is inspired by science fiction movie thrillers, where the enemy is alien, unknown and hidden in dark corners of spaceships. On the highest face, there is the symbol of mysterious three triangles that symbolize three layers of space conspiracy.

Each dice set has a $13.00 MSRP and available today at paizo.com and q-workshop.com.

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks
Marketing and Media Manager

From ancient dungeons and chases, to dinosaurs, squads, and pawns, Paizo’s April 2020 new releases offer an abundance of riches for you and your friends to embark on heroic escapades!

Pathfinder Adventure Path #154: Siege of the Dinosaurs (Extinction Curse 4 of 6)

The heroes and their circus arrive in Willowside, a swamp community in dire need of diversion from the relentless expansion of the blighted land known as the Welt. Willowside soon experiences a problem of a different sort, as dinosaur-riding xulgaths blockade the town. The heroes mount a defense of the village and learn what has brought the xulgaths to this isolated settlement. When the heroes break the siege, they learn that the xulgaths follow a monstrous ex-slave and have forsaken their directive to assault a nearby aeon tower. The tower's current occupants know more, and put the heroes on the path to reach the fifth and final aeon orb.

“Siege of the Dinosaurs” is a Pathfinder adventure for four 13th-level characters. This adventure continues the Extinction Curse Adventure Path, a six-part, monthly campaign in which the heroes lead a traveling circus as they unravel a plot to eradicate all life from the islands of the Inner Sea. This volume also includes a gazetteer of the town of Willowside and lore about the inhabitants of the Abyssal realm of Gluttondark, as well as new monsters and xulgath-themed rules.

Each monthly full-color softcover Pathfinder Adventure Path volume contains an in-depth adventure scenario, stats for several new monsters, and support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the world's oldest fantasy RPG.

Watch: Pathfinder Second Edition: Extinction Curse

Pathfinder Chase Cards Deck

Whether you're the hunter or the hunted, Pathfinder Chase Cards make your choices during the pursuit matter. Each full-color card in this beautifully illustrated 55-card deck contains obstacles to overcome during your chase, from an angry barking dog to an imposing stone wall, each one using checks from the Pathfinder Second Edition Roleplaying Game. Make the right check to overcome the obstacles and you might just catch your prey, but fail and you might be left with a cold trail. Lay the cards down on your table to create the path of your chase, allowing you to track each character's progress and determine the die rolls needed to avoid or navigate unexpected dangers. Lay out a desperate pursuit through a crowded city, a dangerous race through hostile wilderness, and a nerve-wracking run through deadly ruins and abandoned buildings—or mix and match the cards to create a chase that moves through multiple regions!

Watch: How to use Infiltration & Chase Rules from the Pathfinder 2E Gamemastery Guide

Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Bigger Ancient Dungeon

Some dungeons are older and greater than others! Each side of this Flip-Mat features a different massive ancient dungeon. One side features an enormous and ancient dungeon sprawl on the edge of a volcano, while the other is ancient mausoleum under a ruined city. Don't waste your time sketching when you could be playing. With Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Bigger Ancient Dungeon, you'll be ready next time your players want to delve deep into the ancient past, with all its dangers!

Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Bigger Ancient Dungeon measures 27 by 39 inches, which gives you 45% more gaming space than the standard Pathfinder Flip-Mat. On tabletops across the world, the Flip-Mat Revolution is changing the way players run their fantasy roleplaying games! Why take the time to sketch out ugly scenery on a smudgy plastic mat when dynamic encounters and easy cleanup is just a Flip away?

Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-18: Lodge of the Living God

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1–4 (subtiers 1–2 and 3–4).

An unexpected alliance begins! The masked priest Narsen invites the Pathfinders to the city of Xer in Razmiran, a closed nation dedicated to Razmir, the Living God. Normally insular and isolated, access to Razmiran represents a unique opportunity for the Pathfinder Society. Narsen has even sweetened the pot by offering to fund the repair of an old keep to serve as the Society's new lodge. As the first Pathfinders arrive to oversee repairs on the lodge-to-be, will this mark the historic first moment in an unlikely partnership, or will it trigger a disaster of unmitigated proporitions?
Written by: Alex Greenshields

Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-19: Iolite Squad Alpha

A Pathfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 3–6 (subtiers 3–4 and 5–6).

The newly formed hobgoblin nation of Oprak has reached out to the Pathfinder Society in the name of diplomacy. Mindful of the aid Oprak could provide against the threat of the Whispering Tyrant, the Society has dispatched the PCs to escort a trial squad of hobgoblin recruits and run them through some in-the-field Pathfinder training. Will the Iolite Squad be the first in a new wave of Pathfinders, or are Oprak’s attempts at diplomacy doomed to go up in smoke?
Written by: Mike Kimmel

Pathfinder Society Quest #9: Wayfinder Origins

A Pathfinder Society Quest designed for levels 3–6 (subtiers 3–4 and 5–6).

The Pathfinder Society has sent an expedition to a previously uncharted island! The island contains a door sealed with a type of magical technology thought lost with the ancient Azlanti empire. What secrets lie behind the door, and what dangers may lurk beneath the island's surface? To find out, the PCs will first have to solve the magical "puzzle" sealing the door and preventing contact with whatever lies beyond.
Written by: Dustin Knight

Starfinder Adventure Path #27: Deceivers’ Moon (The Threefold Conspiracy 3 of 6)

On their voyage through space back to the Pact Worlds, the heroes and their new Stewards allies begin to realize disturbing gaps in their recent memory, missing moments of lost time replaced with dreamlike impressions of imprisonment, surgery, and shadows. A Stewards base on a fiery moon of the gas giant Bretheda seems to offer respite from paranoia and pursuit, but unseen enemies lurk even in the heart of the system's most powerful institutions, and the web of alien conspiracy enshrouds all of the Pact Worlds!

“Deceivers' Moon” is a Starfinder Roleplaying Game adventure for four 5th-level characters. This adventure continues the Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path, a six-part, monthly campaign in which the heroes unravel the machinations of insidious aliens who have infiltrated galactic society. This book also includes an article describing the insidious reptoids, a catalog of starships used by the Unseen, and a selection of new monsters, including cryptids from the Starfinder setting.

Each monthly full-color softcover Starfinder Adventure Path volume contains a new installment of a series of interconnected science-fantasy quests that together create a fully developed plot of sweeping scale and epic challenges. Each 64-page volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path also contains in-depth articles that detail and expand the Starfinder campaign setting and provide new rules, a host of exciting new monsters and alien races, a new planet to explore and starship to pilot, and more!

Watch: How to run a Conspiracy Campaign - Game Master Advice

Starfinder Pawns: Attack of the Swarm! Pawn Collection

Key aliens and NPCs from the Attack of the Swarm! Adventure Path come alive on your tabletop with the Attack of the Swarm! Pawn Collection, featuring more than 100 creature pawns for use with the Starfinder Roleplaying Game or any tabletop science-fantasy RPG! Printed on sturdy cardstock, each pawn presents a beautiful full-color image of an alien, NPC, or starship from the Attack of the Swarm! campaign, including the devouring Swarm, brave soldiers, beneficent mystics, and dozens of unique creatures.

The Attack of the Swarm! Pawn Collection, together with the creatures and characters from the Starfinder Alien Archive Pawn Box and Starfinder Core Rulebook Pawn Collection, provides pawns for nearly every Attack of the Swarm! encounter. Each cardstock pawn slots into a size-appropriate plastic base from the Alien Archive Pawn Box, making the pawns easy to mix with traditional metal or plastic miniatures. With tons of distinct images, the Attack of the Swarm! Pawn Collection brings to life the enemies and allies from all six adventures of the Attack of the Swarm! Adventure Path.

Watch: Starfinder: Attack of the Swarm!

Starfinder Society Scenario #2-21: Illegal Shipment Starfinder Society

A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 1-4 (subtiers 1-2 & 3-4).

As the Swarm invades the distant Suskillon system, a notorious collector of alien life captures several Swarm lifeforms with the intent of selling them to interested buyers. Bringing these creatures to Absalom Station as part of a clandestine trade, events go awry and the trader's preserved wildlife escape into the station. In order to prevent station-wide panic, the Starfinder Society sends its best agents to find out what happened, track down the escaped Swarm lifeforms, and stop a full-scale infestation at the heart of the Pact Worlds!
Written by: Joseph Blomquist

Starfinder Society Scenario #2-22: Rasheen's Reception

A Starfinder Society Scenario designed for levels 5-8 (subtiers 5-6 & 7-8).

Hot on the trail of the lost treasure fleet of the famous Pact Worlds explorer, Jelev Rasheen, the Starfinder Society finds the next clue in the path leading to the Near Space territory of the Marixah Republic. The PCs travel to this burgeoning stellar nation in search of the next leg of Rasheen's journey, and soon find themselves thrust into the politics of the region and as sudden facilitators of an ancient family pledge.
Written by: Mara Lynn Butler

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks
Marketing and Media Manager

Get ready to stay safe at home as you play awesome Pathfinder and Starfinder games with friends around the world!

Paizo is excited to announce that PaizoCon 2020 will be online! The annual game convention of all-things-Paizo, originally scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend in Seattle, will fall-back, regroup, and expand to six days of gaming at a safe social distance online May 26-31.

The event will include seminars and live-plays on Twitch, games scheduled via Warhorn and run on a variety of VTT platforms such as Roll20, Fantasy Grounds, Astral, and D20Pro, an official PaizoCon Online Discord server as a general hangout for con-goers, plus blogs on paizo.com, and more!

A PaizoCon Online 2020 homepage with schedules, game registration, and more details is scheduled to go live on May 1. Players can create a paizo.com account and get an organized play number in preparation today. GMs can sign up at Warhorn. For more information, email paizocononline@paizo.com.

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks
Marketing and Media Manager

Hello everyone! The Organized Play team has been hard at work on the summer round of scenarios, including the launch of Starfinder Society’s third year: the previously announced Year of Exploration’s Edge. At this time, we still plan on launching the new year at virtual Origins, an online convention scheduled for June 19-21, 2020, with the release of our first few Starfinder scenarios, though we won’t be releasing the interactive special #3-00: The Last Bite at that time. More information will be available shortly, we are just waiting on confirmation of details from the Origins team.

As with every new year of Starfinder Society play, the Organized Play team, in conjunction with our amazing Art Team, puts together a new symbol to represent the events of the upcoming year. The three different images within this year’s symbol really tie-in with three distinct story arcs scheduled to come out as part of this upcoming year of content—we also couldn’t help but sneak in more art of the Starfinder Society’s newest vessel, the Gorgon! We really think that this symbol brings together a lot of what the upcoming set of scenarios is going to deliver.

Credit to Michele Giorgi

One big change in this year is an entirely new cover layout for scenarios that more closely matches the covers of other Starfinder adventure products. In order to make this change, not to mention get some cool looking art for an updated website, we needed a half-page art piece that really showcased what the Year of Exploration’s Edge was all about. Keen eyes may notice that the right-hand side of the image is a bit sparse, but fear not, the team is going to be filling that space with art throughout the year!

Credit to Michele Giorgi

There’s still a few weeks before we start showcasing our new scenarios, including some new pretty useful updates to layout that should be welcome by both Organized Play participants and those GMs looking to run adventures outside of Organized Play. Until then, stay tuned to this blog for the latest updates on Starfinder Society and Organized Play!

Until next time,

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

[[Data Package Inbound]]
[[Processing...]]
[[Processing...]]
[[Data Package Accepted]]

Celita reviewed the scrolling information displayed on the terminal in front of her. She had come to appreciate intaking data through terminals, rather than directly through optical implants, ever since her decision to retake her original name. As she reviewed the final decoded information, Celita could not help but shift her eyes to the vesk pacing around the small office chamber: Radaszam of the Acquisitives.

“Still no word from Fitch or Ziggy?” Radaszam asked aloud, though the question was more directed to the walls than to Celita.

“Nothing new. Fitch requested Zigvigix’s presence on the Master of Stars due to what she referred to as a ‘very very serious serious situation’ involving some sort of illicit shipment of creatures that may have gotten loose on Absalom Station. She said that she has a group of agents assembled to handle the situation and that it did not concern either of us. I trust her judgement on such matters, and you should learn to as well.” Celita paused in her speaking as the data finished moving through. “Here we are, our data package is complete.”

Without a sound of movement, Radaszam suddenly loomed over Celita’s terminal. The vesk’s reptilian head took the data in at an odd angle and Celita gently pushed her chair back to accommodate a better viewing position for her fellow faction leader.

“Ha ha! You and your agents did it, Celita! It looks like we have finally decoded the coordinates on that beacon found by agents last year. You know what this means? It means we can keep on trailing Jelev Rasheen and her fabled fleet. You get this prepared and I’ll assemble the best team of agents I can find. Oh, Celita my friend, I can smell the credits and fame already! HA HA!”

Credit to Beatrice Pelagatti

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Up this month is Starfinder Society #2-21: Illegal Shipment, a scenario for levels 1 to 4 by Joseph Blomquist that looks into the arrival of some no-good nasties onboard Absalom Station that have something to do with the Attack of the Swarm! adventure path. Meanwhile, Mara Lynn Butler has written the continuation of the Starfinder Society’s search for Jelev Rasheen’s fabled treasure fleet with Starfinder Society #2-22: Rasheen’s Reception, an adventure intended for characters from level 5 to 8. Don’t forget to check out Starfinder Society #1-35: Rasheen’s Riches, another level 5 to 8 scenario, to see the start of the Society’s search!

Check back later this afternoon for the Pathfinder Society release highlights!

Until next time,

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

In the holovids, they make stowing away look practically romantic.

Starship corridor lights pulse, jump-suited crew members stand at their stations, and there’s our hero, crouching dramatically in the foreground. She’s beautiful and savvy, her hair flowing and streaked neon as she avoids detection by a laser’s edge. She darts past enemies like a shooting star in the night, spiriting herself away in the ship’s cargo hold. She steals her ride as easy as if she’d harnessed a runaway enercycle. The plot moves on.

Except real life ain’t the holovids, and I’m no hero. My name is Rayuhl Rengott. Technically, I’m a thief. Also technically, I’m a murderer. That last one is patently false, but we’ll get to that later.

I’m not beautiful or savvy, either. I hiss when I talk—and I don’t even have hair. I’m as bald as the dead landscape of my beloved homeworld. Unlike most of my fellow Eoxians, though, I’m very much alive.

Yes, there are creatures on Eox other than just putrefied corpsefolk, skeletal bone troopers, and necrovite spellcasters. And we aren’t all Absalom Station’s most foolhardy traders or undead wannabes living in dystopian bubble cities.

Some of us are living, breathing elebrians. Those long-skulled, dead-eyed, shrivel-skinned monsters you think of when you hear the name “Eox”? They were once us, except now they’re among the most powerful walking dead. And we are at their mercy.

You seem confused. Fair enough. I’ll explain.

Long, long before the Gap, a handful of elebrians survived our kin’s annihilation of the world. As second-class citizens, we’ve lived on our destroyed planet for untold generations ever since, passing flesh-and-blood legacies to our descendants. We try to keep the ravenous undead at bay for a half-dozen decades or so before we expire. We live only where our undead overlords deign to create hospitable environments for us. We perform the jobs they graciously hand out—if we’re lucky, it’s hard labor. If we’re not, we fight to the death for their amusement and profit in sick events streamed galaxy-wide from the Halls of the Living.

Like I said, we’re at their mercy. For most of us, it’s the only way to stay alive.

Which brings me to my current predicament. I’m peering out of the open cargo bay of this starship I hopped from Absalom Station. All around me are desolate hills, fossilized trees, miasmic eddies—you know, typical Dead Planet stuff. This is Eox, all right, but it’s not my beloved home city of the Pyre. Instead, it’s some desiccated place nearby, with the Pyre’s power-generating tower off in the hazy distance.

And I’m staring right at the bone sage who issued my death-warrant—a destroy-on-sight, as I believe the Eoxian authorities call it—over high crimes of murder and theft from his personal palace.

Illustration by Weston T. Jones

Remember when I said I wasn’t savvy?

I thought I was stowing away on an AbadarCorp freighter bound for the loading docks of the Pyre. The plan was simple. I’d slip into the city, meet up with my old Redbloods crew, and help them pull a job big enough to buy a new life for all of us—one meant for the living!— on Absalom Station. They’d lined up the heist in the elite suites of the arcology, and I’d leveraged my Absalom connections. This job would buy me a whole new identity, and it would afford my friends enough credits to comfortably emigrate from this dead rock. Win-win.

Except for that planet-blasted bone sage Kalantrodoch. He calls himself the Unburning. I call him the Bum-squirming. He’s a rabid zombified squox-rat if there ever was one. He also happens to rule the Pyre. And he’s the reason I had to flee Eox three years ago.

Look, I was minding my own business—okay, okay, I had broken into Kalantrodoch’s sky-mansion. I planned to steal some ancient tech artifact the Redbloods had heard he’d smuggled in from Castrovel. I had the thing in my hot little hands, too. It looked like a small datapad, but it was made from a strange metal covered in Elven runes, and was meant to be strapped on the wrist or ankle.

Just as I was ducking out of that awful place, I heard footsteps coming into the vault. I hid behind some technosafes, and I heard Kalantrodoch himself chatting in his horrifically sibilant voice to some of his cronies.

“We’ll put it in the water,” the bone sage had said. “In a fortnight, our problem disa—”

Whatever that meant. I didn’t hear the rest, because Kalantrodoch happened to walk past that particular technosafe at that particular time, and the jig was up. He would have caught me and likely thrown me into prison for life had I not had a vial of rotdust on me. I threw it in his face and he breathed in ground-up undead skin. Corpses hate that—they find it disgusting, on par with cannibalism. Go figure.

Anyway, it was just the distraction I needed to duck out of the vault. From there, I slinked out of the sky-mansion, and I promptly pawned the Castrovellian tech on the Station.

That’s how I earned my death-warrant from Kalantrodoch the Unburning. Why he decided to tell the Pact that I murdered someone is beyond me. I guess he takes thefts from his personal home rather personally. Either way, it doesn’t matter, because ol’ Bum-squirming has made sure I can never safely return to Eox in my current identity. Hence the current plan. And my current predicament.

Because I can tell that the bone sage I’m seeing is Kalantrodoch by his eyes, which do burn like some sort of unholy Asmodean forges. Why he’s out here in the gods-forsaken wastelands outside the Pyre is beyond me. And why he’s meeting an apparently legitimate Abadaran merchant is also a mystery.

My best bet is to creep undetected around these cases of cargo—probably supplies for those monstrous necrovites in the arcology—and simply vanish. Then, I’ve just got to hope my environmental protections last long enough for me to hike the rest of the way to the Pyre. This job can still happen.

I have to get dangerously close to Kalantrodoch as I pick my way around the ship’s perimeter, though. I see he’s got two corpsefolk cronies with him. Ugh, at least I don’t have to smell the stench of rotting flesh no doubt wafting up from them. Thanks to the tympanal cluster implants in my ears, I can even hear what they’re whispering to each other while they’re waiting for the Abadaran to review the cargo manifest.

“That’s the crate,” Kalantrodoch says, nodding to one small, inconspicuous box. “Undetectable, and the scientists promised it’d work this time. They’ve learned much in three years.”

I stop cold, heart racing. What is he saying?

“We’re just weeks away from ten thousand fewer breathers.”

I stifle a shocked gasp. What I heard three years ago suddenly makes sense.

Our problem disappears. Ten thousand fewer breathers.

Kalantrodoch is planning to wipe out most of the living elebrian population in the Pyre. With some sort of undetectable poison? I can only imagine the horrors he means to visit on my kind. Our numbers are well known, and for years the bone sage has subtly complained to Orphys that his living workers are a drain on resources.

Looking around wildly, I assess the scene. There are stacks and stacks of crated goods—this is not a small shipment; Kalantrodoch is smuggling the highly illegal poison in with a vast array of legitimate goods. That’s probably why he’s meeting the Abadaran outside the city limits.

I do see a rack near me with a few high-octane enercycles. I could take one of them and flee to the city. But they’re noisy, and the walking corpses would blast me away before I could get too far. And I’ve got to get to the city without heat on my trail, because I have to warn my friends.

Desperately hoping to find anything that might help, I start quietly prying lids off crates. There’s one with a dozen second skin suits, one with assorted computer circuitry, and finally, one I can work with.

A crate full of grenades.

I’m going to have to time this perfectly if it’s going to work. Thinking quickly, I lash the open crate of grenades to the back of one of the bikes, then I grab another cycle. Standing between them like I’m leading two prize show shotalashus, I slowly walk the bikes around the perimeter of the site.

I position myself just out of sight of the bone sage and the Abadaran. I’ll set one bike off riderless to distract them, I think. Then, when chaos reigns, I’ll ride in the opposite direction—toward Pyre—and none of them will be the wiser. The crate of grenades is mine, just in case I need any weapons once I slink into the city.

It’s a great plan, I think, as I start up the enercycles’ engines as quietly as I can. Until I realize I’ve misjudged the bone sage and his cronies’ line of sight.

“A breather!” one of the corpsefolk shouts, pointing in my direction. Both zombies pull out massive arc rifles and level them in my direction.

Instinctively, I rev the boom-cycle’s engine. Yanking a grenade out, I pull the pin and drop it back into the crate. I let the boom-cycle fly toward the corpses and the Abadaran, and I hop on the other cycle, shooting toward the spire in the distance.

The blast wave from the ensuing explosion nearly knocks me off balance. I can hear the shrieks of Kalantrodoch and his minions. I hear nothing from the Abadaran, and I can only hope that they survived.

I did say I wasn’t a hero.

A few minutes pass as I zoom along the shriveled Eoxian landscape toward the spire. When I dare to look back, it seems my plan didn’t sideline ol’ Bum-squirming for as long as I’d hoped. He’s racing behind me on a scorched enercycle, minions nowhere to be found, his long canines dripping with acidic saliva and his horrific, fiery eyes screaming with rage.

“Rengott!” he shouts.

Great. He knows it’s me. I kick the enercycle, bobbing and weaving, hoping I’ll be able to lose him.

This could be an awkward homecoming. I’ve just got to make it to Pyre alive…

About the Author

Amanda Hamon is the Managing Developer for Starfinder, and you could say science-fantasy is her jam. Her game design, worldbuilding, and adventure writing have appeared in dozens of RPG products, including the Starfinder and Pathfinder roleplaying games. Mostly, she just likes doing stupid voices for characters at the table. You can find Amanda on Twitter at @amandahamon.

About Tales from the Drift

The Tales from the Drift series of web-based flash fiction provides an exciting glimpse into the setting of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. Written by members of the Starfinder development team and some of the most celebrated authors in tie-in gaming fiction, the Tales from the Drift series promises to explore the worlds, alien cultures, deities, history, and organizations of the Starfinder setting with engaging stories to inspire Game Masters and players alike.

Starfinder Near Space released last month, and to show off some of the new character options available in the book, we present Daytenna Flass, an NPC witchwarper that you can use in your Starfinder campaigns. Among her many abilities, Daytenna utilizes an alternate damai racial trait, the mediator archetype, a new damai-themed witchwarper paradigm shift, and some new witchwarper spells, all from Near Space. While NPCs don’t normally use themes, we’ve given Daytenna the bureaucrat theme to give you a sneak peek at one of the new themes from the book as well. In addition, we offer a brief look at Daytenna’s home world, the colossi-infested Daimalko, which is fully detailed in Near Space.

Content from other Starfinder products is marked with the following abbreviations: AA2 (Starfinder Alien Archive 2), COM (Starfinder Character Operations Manual), and NS (Starfinder Near Space). These books are available here on paizo.com or online at sfrd.info.

Daytenna Flass

CR 12

XP 19,200
Female witchwarperCOM (mediatorNS)
LG Medium humanoid (damaiAA2)
Init +3; Senses low-light vision; Perception +22

Defense

HP 170 RP 5

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EAC 25; KAC 26
Fort +11; Ref +13; Will +15

Offense

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Speed 30 ft.
Ranged valorous LFD sonic pistol +21 (2d8+12 So; critical deafen [DC 18]; boost 1d6)
Witchwarper Spells Known (CL 12th)

• 4th (3/day)—dimension door, modify outcomeNS
• 3rd (6/day)—planned obsolescenceNS (DC 22), prescienceCOM (DC 22), suggestion (DC 22), tongues
• 2nd (at will)—dampening fieldNS, slice realityCOM (DC 21)

Statistics

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Str -1; Dex +3; Con +2; Int +5; Wis +4; Cha +8
Skills Bluff +27, Culture +22, Diplomacy +22, Mysticism +22, Sense Motive +27
Language Ancient Daimalkan, Common, Daimalkan
Other Abilities alternate outcomeCOM (1/day), brazen bravadoNS, bureaucrat themeNS (expert in the field), empathic linkNS, infinite worldsCOM, paradigm shiftsCOM (phantom colossusNS), scrappyAA2

Other Abilities

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Gear platinum AbadarCorp travel suit, valorousNS LFD sonic pistol with 1 high-capacity battery (40 charges), mk 3 serum of healing, serum of enhancement (diplomat); computer (tier 6, hardened, miniaturization [6, Bulk L], security I, self-charging), formal clothing

Special Abilities

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Brazen Bravado Daytenna relies on her incredible force of personality and in-the-moment ingenuity to get herself out of scrapes, rather than on the survival skills common among her fellows. She gains a +2 racial bonus to Bluff and Sense Motive checks. When she aids another creature using either of these skills, the aid another bonus she provides increases to +3. This alternate racial trait replaces survivor.

Bureaucrat Theme Daytenna is a civil servant, operating within institutional boundaries to effect change and navigating the proper channels to find solutions, skills which serve her well in encounters with organizations across the galaxy. Bureaucrats gain an ability adjustment of +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma at character creation.

Empathic Link (Su) Mediators tap into an innate emotional and psychological understanding of others to act as efficient arbitrators between the innumerable species and civilizations of the galaxy. As a full action, Daytenna can touch up to two willing or unconscious creatures to create an empathic link between herself and the creatures touched. This link lasts for 1 hour or until she ends it for all creatures with a swift action. While linked, she and the linked creatures gain the effects of status in relation to one another. Whenever a linked creature fails a Will saving throw, a different linked creature can spend 1 Resolve Point as a reaction to allow the affected creature to reroll the save; if the effect is an emotion or fear effect, they gain a +1 circumstance bonus to this reroll. An affected creature can reroll a given saving throw only once in this manner. Finally, once per day at the beginning of combat, each linked creature can swap their initiative result with that of any other linked creature within 60 feet.

Expert in the Field When Daytenna spends 10 minutes with a creature that knows about Daimalko’s war against the colossi that walk its surface, she gains a +4 circumstance bonus to her next attempted Diplomacy check to change that creature’s attitude or Intimidate check to bully that creature.

Phantom Colossus (Su) As a reaction, when a hostile creature within 100 feet would take any action to move 10 or more feet toward Daytenna or an ally, she can force it to witness an alternate reality in which a massive horror covered in tongues, teeth, and armored plates is bearing down toward it. The target creature must succeed at a DC 21 Will saving throw or it instead loses its action immediately as it is shocked into stillness, and it cannot voluntarily take any additional movement until the beginning of its next turn. Once an attacker has been affected by this paradigm shift, it can’t be targeted by it again for 24 hours. This is a fear effect.

Daytenna Flass is a talent scout for the Guardians of Daimalko, who defend the planet’s inhabitants from the roving colossi that rampage across the planet’s surface with mystical orbs that allow them to psychically sense and subtly influence the monsters’ behavior. Now the hunt is on for brave warriors beyond Daimalko who might be willing to step into battle against these destructive giants by other, more traditional, methods. Daytenna travels Near Space and the Pact Worlds seeking soldiers, saboteurs, and assassins with the guts and experience necessary to face down terrifying horrors from beyond space and time… and she’s very, very persuasive.

DAIMALKO

Daimalko is a dry, blasted world orbiting a tiny star in Near Space, teeming with rampaging colossi and the struggling survivors of the damai species (Starfinder Alien Archive 2 32). Two hundred years ago, the planet’s oceans evaporated, its greenery withered, and earthquakes reverberated across the planet as nightmarish colossi—kyokors (Starfinder Alien Archive 72), tekenkis (Starfinder Alien Archive 3 108), and even stranger monstrosities—rose from the rocky terrain of the empty seabeds. The colossi destroyed the planet’s population centers, forcing the Daimalkans underground, but under the watchful eyes of the Guardians, people have begun returning to the planet’s surface for the first time in generations.

For more character options and more details about Daimalko and dozens of other Near Space Worlds, check out Starfinder Near Space, available now!

Jason Tondro
Starfinder Developer

OPM Musings
While the past month brought lots of confusion and chaos to our lives, we’re grateful to our communities for providing some safe harbor in the storm. A huge shout out to the entire venture-officer team and the local GM crews who supported the FLGS until they closed and then moved the games online. For those of you that haven’t joined us in virtual, consider this an open invitation to do so! Come play, socialize, and stay strong!

Also, a huge thank you from our team to the community for their patience and understanding. As we scattered to the winds and socially distanced ourselves, we found everything taking more time and more energy. From getting remote offices set up to putting together this month’s scenario releases, it all was a bit wonky. We thank our community for coming together, helping each other, and supporting our hobby. You are awesome!

Unfortunately, not all of our community avoided their encounter or rolled a success on their fortitude save. We have several community members, and adjacent community members, who are dealing with the disease. Please keep them in your thoughts! If you have a bit of cash to spare, consider purchasing the Humble Conquer Covid-19 Bundle, whose entire proceeds go to fighting Covid-19 and rescuing lives.

Finally, if you’ve been waiting to stock up on some Paizo pdfs, consider getting them now during the Paizo Spring Social Sale!

Sanctioning

We have no sanctioning in the pipeline this month, as the transition to work-from-home put some wrinkles in our plans.

Achievement Points

This month, our tech team was forced to shift focus for several weeks as they ensured we all had the equipment necessary to work from home in the fact of the COVID-19 pandemic. As we finish settling into this new way of doing business, we are hopeful that their attention will be able to move back to getting this system up and running.

Campaign Coins

With no travel to conventions, we awarded no coins in the past month. As conventions continue to cancel, alternative awarding methods will be devised so we don’t have a prolonged gap in recognizing the communities’ volunteers.

Stars, Novas & Glyphs

The move to virtual games slowed some of the GM achievement progress. Thus, we have no new five-nova or five-star GMs this month.

Several of our community noted that they’ve seen their stars/novas disappear in different parts of the forums. This is due to our continual upgrade to the website and splitting of how the site accesses data. We’d ask for our GMs not to worry. The data remains in the database and we will re-hook in all the items as we get the new pages established.

Venture-Officers

Over the past month, one of our primary tasks has been updating the venture officer rosters so that everybody has access to the scenarios they need to run games. We are fast approaching the point where the system will be fully updated! At this point, all but one region’s current rostered venture-officers should have received emails. If you are volunteering and have not received an email, please contact your regional venture-coordinator. Their contact information appears here.

Charity Boons

Early in the month, we sent out all outstanding charity boons to their respective owners. Anybody whose information had been submitted should have received theirs by now! If you have not, check with the convention’s event organizer and confirm they submitted your info. If you aren’t sure who the organizer was, send an email to organizedplay@paizo.com and we will help you get records updated.

Online Resources

In the face of the current pandemic, our online venture-officers have stepped up and done a tremendous job of getting the rest of us up and running with online play. Our VTT and PBP communities are now larger than ever! They’ve shared a number of resources with all of us, as detailed in two blog posts last week. Here are links to part 1 and part 2 of the blog.

Be sure to check Warhorn, local meetups, and other community pages for online games supported by local lodges.

Conventions

Convention	Location	Start Date	Status
Tekko (2020)	Pittsburgh, PA	4/2/2020	Postponed
CODCON 2020	Glen Ellyn, IL	4/3/2020	Cancelled
Save vs Hunger 2020	Maryville, TN	4/3/2020	Cancelled
AtomiCon VIII: Story and Song (2020)	Durham, NC	4/3/2020	Postponed
AnimeDetour2020	Minneapolis, MN	4/3/2020	Cancelled
Gryphcon 2020	Guelph, Ontario, Canada	4/3/2020	Cancelled
MAG Con 2020	New Caney, TX	4/4/2020	Postponed
NORWESCON (2020)	SeaTac, WA	4/9/2020	Cancelled
EyeCon 20 (2020)	Sydney, NSW, Australia	4/10/2020	Online
MDog 2020	Kalamazoo, MI	4/10/2020	Online
WonderCon 2020	Anaheim, CA	4/10/2020	Postponed
Who's Yer Con 2020	Indianapolis, IN	4/11/2020	Cancelled
GameOn-Icon 2020	Plymouth, NH	4/11/2020	Cancelled
Crittercon 3 (2020)	Online - Cosmic Crittermander Discord	4/17/2020	Online
Cheyenne Gaming Convention (2020)	Cheyenne, WY	4/18/2020	No Change
KoboldCon 2020	Colorado Springs, CO	4/23/2020	Cancelled
RavenCon (2020)	Williamsburg, VA	4/24/2020	Cancelled
Pretzcon 2020	Ralston, NE	4/24/2020	Cancelled
SacOPF TakeTwo Con	Sacramento, CA	4/24/2020	Online
Ragnarok XP (2020)	Kitchener, Ontario, Canada	4/25/2020	No Change
Chupa VII (2020)	Austin, TX	5/1/2020	No Change
JP Lodge Con GW	Japan	5/3/2020	Online
C4 2020	Acme, MI	5/22/2020	No Change
KublaCon 2020	Burlingame CA	5/22/2020	Cencelled
LexiCon 2020	Lexington, KY	5/29/2020	No Change
UKGE 2020	Birmingham, UK	5/29/2020	Postponed
Huntsville Comic and Pop Culture Expo (2020)	Huntsville, AL	7/18/2020	No Change
1D4 Con 2020	Shepherdstown, WV	10/30/2020	No Change

Premier Conventions

As we announced last week, PaizoCon2020 has been cancelled; see the announcement here for more details on refunds and rolling over tickets. UK Game Expo has been postponed until August 21-23, 2020. Origins posted their intention to announce a decision on or before May 1. At this time, Gen Con continues as planned, though the convention aims to assess the situation closer to the show dates. We look forward to seeing you all when conventions resume!

Check back next week for more Society news!

Until then – stay safe and Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Alex Speidel
Organized Play Assistant

Every now and then, someone makes a typo and realizes that they’ve accidentally created a pun or joke so bad that they must immediately drop it into their team’s work chat, triggering a wave of snickering from some corner of the office. Whenever it sounds like a monster (or something else you wouldn’t want to see in a dungeon), we’ve offhandedly said “add it to the April Fool’s Bestiary.” But surely, we’d never actually stat them up and put them into a blog or some other format for them to run rampant on the internet, right? Well, against our better judgement, here are a few of the monsters that didn’t quite make the cut for Bestiaries or Alien Archives, born of typos, inside jokes, or meetings that started before the coffee pot was quite done brewing.

James Case
Organized Play Developer

Blarghest (2)

Creature 2

When a writer has run up against a particularly tough bit of text, they sometimes let out that most cathartic and universally understood of all sounds... “blargh”. When too many such sighs are uttered at a single desk, they can form into a beast that seeks to bring apathy to all it sees, as long as it doesn’t seem like too much work.

---

CE, Medium, Fiend
Perception +10; darkvision, scent (imprecise) 30 feet
Languages Abyssal, Common, Goblin
Skills Deception +9, Diplomacy +7, Intimidation +9, Stealth +8, Survival +7
Str +4, Dex +2, Con +2, Int +1, Wis +1, Cha +3

---

AC 18; Fort +8, Ref +10, Will +7
HP 30; Immunities emotion; Resistances fire 3, physical 3 (except magical)
Slack of Opportunity [reaction] Trigger A creature targets the blarghest with a hostile action; Effect The blarghest rolls its eyes and sighs, imposing a deep sense of... blargh... upon the attacker. The attacker must attempt a DC 18 Will save; on a failure, it decides its action is too much work and the triggering action is lost. On a critical failure, the creature is also overcome with lethargy, becoming stunned until the start of its next turn

---

Speed 15 feet
Melee [one-action] jaws +11, Damage 1d8+4 piercing
Melee [one-action] claw +11 (agile), Damage 1d6+4 slashing
Divine Innate Spells DC 18, attack +10; 1st charm, command; Cantrips (1st) message, prestidigitation
Consider Shape [one-action] (concentrate, mental) The blarghest thinks about taking on the shape of a goblinoid (a goblin, hobgoblin, or bugbear) or a wolf, but it ultimately decides that actually doing so is too much work.
Placeholder [two-actions] The blarghest shouts “Blargh!” to produce the effects of any cantrip that has a verbal component. This action gains the traits of that spell

Lyz Liddell
Designer

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Demom

Creature 3

Demoms are the mothers that birthed all demons. All creatures that know of demoms simultaneously love and fear them. They seem to never sleep, lying in wait for unsuspecting targets to stay out too late or make poor life choices. It is said that demoms can cook a mean green-bean casserole.

---

CE, Medium, Demon, Fiend
Perception +15; darkvision, true seeing
Languages Abyssal, Common; telepathy 100 feet (knows what you’re thinking)
Skills Diplomacy +7, Intimidation +8, Medicine +10, Stealth +8
Str +3, Dex +1, Con +0, Int +0, Wis +4, Cha +1

---

AC 19; Fort +12, Ref +9, Will +7
HP 50; Immune disease, excuses, mental, sleep; Resistances cold 10, electricity 10, fire 10
Maternal Aura (aura) 50 feet. All creatures who have a tragic backstory in which they’ve lost their parents take a –4 penalty to all Will saves as they are suddenly overcome with feelings of maternal love.
Shut It [reaction] Trigger A creature targets the demom with a hostile spell that has a verbal component.
Effect The demom says, “Don’t talk back to me!” The caster must attempt a DC 18 Will save; on a failure, it promptly shuts its mouth and stares at the ground contemplating how it doesn’t deserve this.

---

Speed 30 feet
Melee [one-action] hug +10, Damage 2d4+4 bludgeoning
Ranged [one-action] stern look +10, Damage 1d10+3 fire
Ground Target [three-actions] The demom narrows its eyes at a target and declared “You’re grounded!” The target creature must attempt a DC 18 Will save; on a failure, it must lay down its weapons, set up camp, and sit in its tent.
There, There [one-action] (mental, emotion, healing) Requirements The demom has a creature grabbed. Effect The demom embraces the creature and pats its back soothingly as it whispers reassurances, restoring 10 Hit Points to the creature.

Joan Hong
Customer Service Representative

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Cacaodaemon

Creature 1

A cacaodaemon appears at first glance to be an ordinary cacao pod, burnt-red in color and shaped like a football. But don’t let the promise of a sweet treat fool you—what looks like a crack in the rind is really a hideous maw filled with dozens of craggy, brown nib teeth. However, when extracted and roasted, the teeth are actually quite delicious.

---

NE, Tiny, Daemon, Fiend
Perception +2
Languages Common, Daemonic; telepathy 100 feet
Skills Deception +7 (+10 to appear as an inanimate object), Nature +3, Religion +4, Stealth +5
Str +3, Dex +1, Con +4, Int –2, Wis +0, Cha +1

---

AC 16; Fort +10, Ref +7, Will +4
HP 22; Immunities death effects; Resistances bludgeoning +2
Aromatic When a cacaodaemon is reduced to half its HP, the ruptures to its rind exude a fragrant tropical scent. Creatures within 10 feet of the cacaodaemon take a –1 circumstance penalty to Will saving throws until the cacaodaemon dies or is healed above half its HP.

---

Speed 5 feet, fly 40 feet
Melee [one-action] nib teeth +9, Damage 1d6+3 piercing plus bitter heart
Bitter Heart (poison) The dissonance between the cacaodaemon’s sweet scent and bitter inside drains the victim’s spirit; Saving Throw DC 17 Fortitude; Maximum Duration 6 rounds; Stage 1 1d8 mental damage and flat-footed (1 round); Stage 2 1d8 mental damage and stupefied 1(1 round); Stage 3 1d12 mental damage and stupefied 2 (1 round)

Avi Kool
Editor

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SKITTERGOBLIN DECKCUTTER

CR 3

In response to the Gap, a cosmic event that erased memories and records across the planes, the multiverse reflexively attempted to rectify the countless paradoxes and uncertainties like a blind surgeon stapling flesh. Among the results were skittergoblins, amalgams of several impetuously innovative humanoids that combine goblins’ destructive curiosity with skittermanders’ compulsive drive to help out. The boldest of these creatures (known as deckcutters) haplessly learn how to bridge time and space, tumbling through infinite realities where even the underlying multiverse’s mechanics vary wildly—and in rare cases drawing bystanders into these alien realms.

XP 800
CN Small humanoid
Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +8

Defense

HP 32

---

EAC 13; KAC 14
Fort +2; Ref +4; Will +6

OFFENSE

---

Speed30 ft.
Melee dogslicer +5 (1d4+4 S)
Ranged card +7 (1d4+3 S; critical wound)
Offensive Abilities three-action gambit
Spell-Like Abilities (CL 3rd)
1/day—plane shift 3/day—shifting surgeCOM

STATISTICS

---

Str +1; Dex +3; Con +0; Int +1; Wis +0; Cha +4
Skills Acrobatics +8, Mysticism +13, Stealth +8
Languages Common, Goblin, Vesk
Other Abilities multiarmed (6)

ECOLOGY

---

Environment any land
Organization solitary, pair, or shuffle (3–6)

SPECIAL ABILITIES

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Card Shark (Ex) A skittergoblin deckcutter transforms playing cards into deadly weapons, treating them as special one-handed weapons with a range of 20 feet, the wound critical hit effect, and the analog, operative, quick reload, and thrown special weapon properties.
Supernatural Scramble (Su) For brief moments, a skittergoblin can follow the rules of other realities to perform awesome feats, often causing others to perceive ephemeral afterimages. Once per day before attempting a Strength- or Dexterity-based skill check, a skittergoblin can use its Mysticism modifier in place of its normal bonus.
Three-Action Gambit (Su) Once per day when making a full attack, a skittergoblin can make up to three attacks instead of two attacks. Instead of these attacks taking a –4 penalty, the first attack takes a –2 penalty, the second attack takes a –4 penalty, and the third attack takes a –6 penalty. If the skittergoblin has another ability that allows them to make three or more attacks, the skittergoblin takes reduces the attack penalties for three-action gambit by 1.

John Compton
Starfinder Senior Developer

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Squirrelwind

Creature 10

Few phenomena are as feared as the deadly squirrelwind. The exact nature of squirrelwinds is a subject of some debate; many scholars believe they are intentionally created by vengeful druids, while others believe they are a bizarre but natural phenomenon created when a tornado touches down in an area rich in both magical energy and heavily populated in squirrels. Despite their deadly and destructive nature and reputation, squirrelwinds are responsible for surprisingly few casualties outside of plants and wildlife, as their chittering can be heard for miles around.

N, Large, Air, Animal, Elemental
Perception +19; darkvision
Skills Acrobatics +22, Stealth +16
Str +6, Dex +7, Con +3, Int +0, Wis +3, Cha +0

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AC 32; Fort +15, Ref +23, Will +17
HP 130; Immunities paralyzed, poison, precision, sickened, sleep, swarm mind; Resistances physical 10
Chittering (aura, auditory) 60 feet. The chitters of wind-buffeted squirrels disrupts the senses, making air and ground within the emanation difficult terrain for all creatures that hear the sound.

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Speed fly 75 feet; swiftness
Melee [one-action] gust +22 (finesse, reach 20 feet), Damage 2d12+10 bludgeoning plus Push 10 feet
Ranged [one-action] squirrel +22 (deadly 1d10, thrown, range increment 30 feet, versatile S), Damage 2d4+10 bludgeoning
Squirrel Surge [one-action] (flourish) Each enemy within the squirrelwind’s chittering aura takes 1d8 slashing damage.
Swiftness The squirrelwind’s movement doesn’t trigger reactions.

Michael Sayre
Pathfinder Society Developer

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Weredigo

Creature 15

The weredigo, a relative of the wendigo, is a monstrosity that lurks in the shadows of large cities where the options for fine dining are overwhelming. When a group of indecisive adventurers reaches a culinary crossroads and can't decide which tavern to peruse for post-dungeon drinks, a weredigo is destined to appear and put these foolish foodies out of their misery. The monster gets its name from the last words uttered by its victims, who continue to ponder their gastronomical dilemma even in death: "Where to go, where to go..."

Uncommon, CN, Large, Beast
Perception +29; darkvision, hungersight
Languages Aklo, Common, Jotun; telepathy 1 mile
Skills Acrobatics +30, Intimidation +30, Restaurant Lore +31, Society +31
Str +6, Dex +7, Con +8, Int +6, Wis +8, Cha +7
Coven A weredigo adds create food, enhance victuals, and ghoulish cravings to its coven’s spells. In addition, a weredigo, wendigo, and hoodigo coven can perform a unique ritual to enter the dreams of a creature responsible for hosting an upcoming party and curse them incurable planning indecision.
Hungersight (divination, primal) A weredigo can precisely sense peckish creatures.

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AC 37; Fort +29, Ref +28, Will +31
HP 280; Immunities indecision; Weaknesses any diner who has a “regular” order; Resistances hunger 20
Speed fly 100 feet

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Melee [one-action] jaws +29 (magical, reach 10 feet), Damage 3d10+14 piercing plus weredigo torment
Melee [one-action] fork +29 (agile, reach 10 feet), Damage 3d6+14 piercing plus Grab
Melee [one-action] knife +29 (agile, reach 10 feet), Damage 3d6+14 slashing
Reduce Options [two-actions] Requirements The weredigo is adjacent to two creatures that can’t decide where to get brunch. Effect The weredigo makes two fork Strikes and two knife Strikes against one of the adjacent creatures. These attacks don’t count toward the weredigo’s multiple attack penalty.
Weredigo Torment (curse, enchantment, mental, primal) A creature affected by weredigo torment can’t recover beyond stage 1 until it has been restored to full HP. Saving Throw Will DC 35; Stage 1 Stupefied 4 (1 day); Stage 2 As stage 1 (1 day); Stage 3 The creature becomes permanently afflicted with analysis paralysis, unable to make even the simplest of dining decisions, absentmindedly sipping their water whenever asked for their order.

Patrick Renie
Developer

Help fight the COVID-19 and rescue lives worldwide.

No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world. – Robin Williams

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The Pact Worlds are the beating heart of the Starfinder RPG campaign setting, a solar system full of citizens both familiar and bizarre. From the cosmopolitan corridors of Absalom Station to the carnivorous jungles of Castrovel or the floating cloud-cities of the gas giant Bretheda, this hardcover rulebook is your guide to Starfinder's core worlds and civilizations, and the perfect place to launch any adventure. Contains 14 intriguing worlds, unique character themes, new playable alien races, new archetypes, starships, equipment and more! A perfect introduction to the worlds of Starfinder!

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Starfinder Near Space releases this month, and to show off some of the new character options available in the book, we present Sheevak Smoke-Eater, an NPC antagonist and rival that you can use in your Starfinder campaigns. Among his many abilities, Sheevak utilizes an alternate vesk racial trait and the battle leader archetype, in addition to a new weapon in the form of the doshakari, all from Near Space. While NPCs don’t normally use themes, we’ve given Sheevak the stormrunner theme to give you a sneak peek at one of the new themes from the book as well. In addition, we offer a brief look at Sheevak’s current base of operations, the gas giant Ulthel, which is fully detailed in Near Space.

Content from other Starfinder products is marked with the following abbreviations: NS (Starfinder Near Space) and PW (Starfinder Pact Worlds). These books are available here on paizo.com or online at sfrd.info.

SHEEVAK SMOKE-EATER

CR 6

• XP 2,400
• Male vesk operative (battle leaderNS)
• CE Medium humanoid (vesk)
• Init +7; Senses low-light vision; Perception +14

DEFENSE

HP 80 RP 4

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• EAC 19; KAC 20
• Fort +5; Ref +8; Will +9
• Defensive Abilities armor savant, evasion

OFFENSE

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• Speed 40 ft.
• Melee tactical doshakari +12 (1d6+7 P; critical wound [DC 15]; analog, disarm, operative) or unarmed strike +12 (1d3+4 B)
• Ranged advanced shobhad horizon striker +14 (3d4+6 P; analog, sniper [1,000 ft.], unwieldy) or frostbite-class zero pistol +14 (1d6+6 C; critical staggered [DC 17])
• Offensive Abilities debilitating trick, natural weapons, trick attack +3d8

STATISTICS

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• Str +2; Dex +5; Con +1; Int +0; Wis +1; Cha +4
• Skills Acrobatics +19, Athletics +14, Culture +14, Intimidate +14, Survival +19 (+23 with trick attack)
• Languages Common, Iji, Pahtra, Vesk
• Other Abilities brawnyNS, operative exploits (ever vigilant), specialization (explorer), stormrunner themeNS (eye of the storm, theme knowledge), victory cry NS (got ’em!, regroup)
• Gear freebooter armor II (jetpack), advanced shobhad horizon strikerPW with 25 sniper rounds, frostbite-class zero pistol with 1 battery (20 charges), tactical doshakariNS, mk 2 serum of healing, adamantine alloy cable line (50 feet), environmental clothing (zero gravity), grappler, signal jammer (level 6); Augmentations cardiac accelerator

SPECIAL ABILITIES

---

• Brawny Sheevak takes pride in being as physically fit as possible. He gains a +2 racial bonus to Athletics and Acrobatics checks. This alternate racial trait replaces fearless.
• Eye of the Storm When in stormy conditions, Sheevak is able to gather greater information about his surroundings. His visibility range in a storm is reduced by only half, and he takes a –4 penalty to Perception checks instead of –8. When he succeeds at a Survival check to endure severe weather, he can move his full overland speed and still receive the +2 bonus to Fortitude saves against severe weather. He suffers the forced movement and takes damage from a failed Acrobatics check to fly in dangerous wind conditions only if he fails the check by 10 or more, instead of by 5 or more.
• Stormrunner Theme Sheevak is trained to navigate the tumultuous atmospheres of gas giants with grace, learning weather patterns and recognizing the order in the apparent randomness of storms. Stormrunners gain an ability adjustment of +1 to Dexterity at character creation.
• Stormrunner Theme Knowledge The life of a stormrunner is about beating the odds in high-risk situations. Reduce the DC of Survival checks to endure severe weather, orienteer, and predict weather when in rainy, snowy, or windy conditions by 5.
• Tactical Doshakari This punch dagger resembles a miniature doshko extending from the knuckles, with one to four diamond‑shaped blades.
• Victory Cry (Ex) Followers of a tradition that originated in the Veskarium among devout followers of Damoritosh, battle leaders are known for celebrating victories as they happen. Sheevak knows how to capitalize on his allies’ successes in battle, inspiring them to further incredible feats. As a reaction when Sheevak or an ally scores a critical hit against a significant enemy with an attack or drops a significant enemy to 0 Hit Points, he can issue a victory cry, choosing one of the following and providing its benefits to all allies within 60 feet (but not Sheevak himself):
• Got ’Em!: Affected allies gain a +2 morale bonus to damage rolls until the end of their next turn.
• Regroup: The triggering ally regains 10 Stamina Points.
• These alternate class features replace the operative exploit class features normally gained at 2nd and 4th level.

Sheevak Smoke-Eater is a veteran stormrunner, leading a team salvaging minerals and other valuable resources from the atmospheres of gas giants. He’s currently working for Project Omega, a top secret research facility in orbit around the Near Space gas giant Ulthel. Sheevak’s mission is to take samples from ulthelim, the planet’s native species, for study by Project Omega’s scientists. Project leader Dr. Holton-8 pays well, and ethical characters who seek to shut down Sheevak and his employers are in for a fight.

For members of Sheevak’s stormrunning team, you can use the stats for the mercenary rookie on page 174 of Starfinder Pact Worlds, but replace their Stealth skill with Acrobatics +13 and add the Eye of the Storm and Stormrunner Theme Knowledge special abilities from Sheevak’s stat block above.

ULTHEL

Ulthel is a gas giant in Near Space with a toxic atmosphere, home to a species of jellyfish-like creatures known as ulthelim. Early visitors to Ulthel reported hearing mental pleas from the ulthelim, which begged the visitors in a single cacophonous voice to partake of the planet’s wisdom, to merge with the clouds of ulthelim, and to become one with the planet as a single entity. These were always the last reports visitors logged before they themselves disappeared without a trace. To some, visiting the planet is a surefire death sentence. But to others, the transformative nature of the ulthelim represents a blueprint of utopia. To still others, the gas giant holds a potential gold mine of riches and scientific secrets that’s worth braving any risk.

For more character options and more details about Ulthel and dozens of other Near Space Worlds, check out Starfinder Near Space, available now!

Jason Tondro
Starfinder Developer

Yesterday, we posted a blog about play-by-post (PbP) benefits and experiences and ways play Pathfinder Adventure Card Game online. Now we continue the conversation, with a focus on virtual tabletops (VTTs) and general links and resources. If you missed Payton’s blog about home gaming options on Tuesday, I recommend you check it out, as it is a great overview of the online resources available to gamers!

From Jesse Davis (IronHelixx), Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online Region:

Watching the virtual gaming space adapt, evolve, and grow over the last thirty+ years has been an interesting and exciting experience. It's grown from simple, kludgy, rudimentary tools to realistic 2-D, and even 3-D, tabletop experiences rivaling its analog progenitors, and even exceeding them in certain aspects. The virtual tabletop has allowed friends and family spread wide-and-far to continue, or even begin, their campaigns that otherwise would never have happened; its allowed people from all over the world to “sit” at virtual-tables together in ways impossible in the past; allowed those with no access to game-spaces to play when they would otherwise be without; and extended opportunities for those unable to attend conventions to finally take part in such events from the comfy confines of their own homes. Watching the org-play opportunities explode online over the last decade has been even more exciting to watch. The online world is now a vibrant 24/7, 365 community filled with gaming opportunities, for every system and style of play that you can imagine. We look forward to where it goes from here - and look forward to you joining us and becoming part of the virtual gaming community we love so much.

Virtual Table Tops

Living in an area with little in the ways of Society games locally, and between my job and family being unable to drive the hour to Toronto where games are abundant, I found myself drawn to the online community. While there is a little more of a learning curve compared to physical games, I found a welcoming and robust community drawn from all across the globe eager to take a new player under wing and show me the ropes. A few years later and I somehow ended up being the Venture Captain for the VTT Community and am now helping new players with the transition to online.

What is VTT? VTT stands for Virtual Table Top and is a system of online play utilizing a representation of the physical table top for maps and tokens. Instead of flip maps we use digital copies and images instead of mini’s/tokens. The most popular VTTs used for organized Play are Roll20 and Fantasy Grounds , which are usually accompanied by Discord or Google hangouts for voice chat capacities. Finally, when a game is done the GM will fill out the chronicle sheets using a PDF editor like Foxit or Adobe Reader and email them out to the players.
— James Bartlett (Finegas), venture-captain VTT

I got involved in the VTT games a few years ago, and I have never looked back. The community is incredible. We have so many GMs and players from so many diverse backgrounds. Everyone is made to feel welcome, from new players looking to dip their toe into society play, all the way through to 5 Star and 5 Nova GMs, looking to help with conventions. One of my favourite things about our online community, is that everyone is always happy to help. Have a rules question? Come and ask in one of the rules channels. Need some support setting up your first table? Just ask! And (my personal favourite), asking if someone is happy to run their children through their first game, to help them learn about internet safety. Honestly. The PFS and SFS community worldwide is fantastic. And I believe we are lucky online to have built that same community feel- Just stretched over a few more miles!
— Helen Yau, venture-lieutenant VTT

Want to know the real secret to playing Society games online? It's easy. Really easy! If you can send an email, you can play online. The various virtual tabletop systems available are all fantastic and have many incredibly useful tools and options that you can use to build some amazing experiences and unforgettable games. With all these tools available it can sometimes seem daunting to get involved, but the most important part of the game is the players and GMs, with those and a short introduction to the basics of playing online you can jump in and be playing games with your regular group, or nufriends from across the world, the same evening you decide to try. We'll be very glad to see you there!
— Rich Lowe, venture-lieutenant VTT

Roll 20 my chosen virtual tabletop "VTT" is a robust tool that allows people from all over the world to join up and play Pathfinder/Starfinder just like we were sitting together in the same room. Moreover, it allows beginners and experts with the system to sit at the same table and use basic to advanced tools as each chooses. From relying on the built-in dice roller, to using character sheets or building simple to complex macros.
— Steven Mombourquette, venture-agent VTT

Tools and Links:

Tool Quick Suggestions by type:

VTT:

• Personal groups moving online:
• Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds w/ Discord
• Conventions moving online:
• Roll20 w/ Discord
• Regional gaming groups/Org Play lodges moving online:
• Roll20 w/ Discord
• Regional gaming groups/Org Play lodges moving online:
• Roll20 w/ Discord

PbP:

• Paizo Forums - PFS1
• Paizo Forums - PFS2
• Paizo Forums - SFS
• Paizo Forums - PACG

OrgPlayOnline Discord (For PFS[1|2]/SFS/PACG):
http://OrgPlayOnlineChat.com

VTTs:

• Browser Based:
• Roll20
• Astral
• Installable "Thick" Clients:
• Fantasy Grounds
• d20Pro
• Foundry
• MapTool FOSS
• TableTop Simulator
• Skirmish VTT

PbP Forums:

• Paizo Forums - PFS1
• Paizo Forums - PFS2
• Paizo Forums - SFS
• Paizo Forums - PACG
• Mythweaver
• RPGGeek

PACG Online:
https://acg.orgplayonline.com

Discord Org-Play Lodges:

• Roll For Combat
• Cosmic Crittermanders
• Starfinder Nexus

Tools for Filling in Chronicle Sheets:

• Foxit Reader
• Adobe Acrobat Reader DC
• Nitro PDF Reader
• Adobe Fill and Sign Android
• LibreOffice Draw FOSS
• PDFelement Commercial - Not Free
• PDFEscape Web Based
• PDFill Commercial - Not Free

Voice/Video Tools:

• DiscordM
• Google Hangouts
• Skype
• Mumble FOSS
• Zoom

Tokens Makers:

• TokenStamp
• TokenTool

Upcoming Online Events:

VTT:

• Crittercon 3 by Cosmic Crittermanders: April 17th-April 19th, 2020
• Details on Discord: https://discordapp.com/invite/hAQgjmX

PbP:

• OutPost : March 30- May 18, 2020
• Details: https://paizo.com/threads/rzs42xo9?Announcing-Outpost-III-Putting-on-the-Ritz#1

Additional Online Play Resources for events moving online:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1RymYlTucCRdrRwuh2yWlLfPwmFWBq2dG5bmfYm2Q57w/

Once again, shouting out a ginormous thank you to Online Regional Venture-Coordinator Jesse Davis and his team for sharing their knowledge and experience with our community!

See ya back next week for our spotlight blog. Until then, stay safe, wash hands, and – Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Just because we’re practicing safe physical distancing doesn’t mean we can’t have amazing adventures together. From now through May 3rd, save 25% on all Paizo PDFs, including Pathfinder Second Edition, Starfinder, and even classic Pathfinder titles.

Not sure where to begin? Here are some top picks.

Get everything you need to get started with Pathfinder Second Edition with the Pathfinder Core Rulebook. Harness the power of the Pathfinder Bestiary and bring 400+ monsters to your gaming table, or unleash more enhancements to your game with the Pathfinder Gamemastery Guide.

Explore the world of the Pathfinder roleplaying game with the Lost Omens World Guide, Lost Omens Character Guide, and Lost Omens Gods & Magic. Delve deeper with Pathfinder Tales fiction by some of fantasy’s best authors.

If epic adventure is more your taste, add Pathfinder Adventure Paths to your digital library, including Age of Ashes and the just-released Extinction Curse. Want a more science-fantasy theme? Shoot for the stars with Starfinder Adventure Paths, including the first volume of The Threefold Conspiracy.

Looking to save on an evening of adventure? Check out the scenarios available through the Pathfinder Society and Starfinder Society.

Your galactic journeys through science-fantasy begin with the Starfinder roleplaying game Core Rulebook and Beginner Box. Fill your galaxy with creatures from the Alien Archive, Alien Archive 2, and Alien Archive 3, each bringing new playable character races.

Not ready to build your own galaxy of civilizations? Pact Worlds brings the universe to life. Add the Armory and outfit your heroes and monsters with the latest weapons and armor, or include the Character Operations Manual and add three new classes to your game.

Hundreds of more game titles exist, from classic Pathfinder rulebooks to maps and pawns. What’s your favorite Pathfinder or Starfinder product? Let us know in the comments below.

Time for your weekly check in! Place a comment below letting us know how you are holding up. Now, more than ever, we need our communities and relationships to help us weather the tumult, and we have an awesome community. Speaking of awesome, our Online Region venture-officers stepped up to the call for support! For the past few weeks, as the Friendly, Local, Game Stores shuttered due to government mandates, the online venture-officers helped their physical region counterparts move games, and entire conventions, online. The online VOs ran training sessions, compiled resources, and answered questions. They are the experts, and as such, I asked them to guest author today’s blogs. Due to the length, we split their responses into two. This blog focuses on play-by-post (PbP) benefits and experiences, as well as ways play Pathfinder Adventure Card Game online. Tomorrow’s blog focuses on virtual tabletops (VTTs) and general links and resources. If you missed Payton’s blog about home gaming options on Tuesday, I recommend you check it out, as it is a great overview of the online resources available to gamers!

I’m turning the blog over and will see you next week for our first of the month Spotlight blog.

From Jesse Davis (IronHelixx), Regional Venture-Coordinator, Online Region:

Watching the virtual gaming space adapt, evolve, and grow over the last thirty+ years has been an interesting and exciting experience. It's grown from simple, kludgy, rudimentary tools to realistic 2-D, and even 3-D, tabletop experiences rivaling its analog progenitors, and even exceeding them in certain aspects. The virtual tabletop has allowed friends and family spread wide-and-far to continue, or even begin, their campaigns that otherwise would never have happened; its allowed people from all over the world to “sit” at virtual-tables together in ways impossible in the past; allowed those with no access to game-spaces to play when they would otherwise be without; and extended opportunities for those unable to attend conventions to finally take part in such events from the comfy confines of their own homes. Watching the org-play opportunities explode online over the last decade has been even more exciting to watch. The online world is now a vibrant 24/7, 365 community filled with gaming opportunities, for every system and style of play that you can imagine. We look forward to where it goes from here - and look forward to you joining us and becoming part of the virtual gaming community we love so much.

Play-by-Post

One of the best kept secrets Pathfinder is the Online Community. Not every community or individual has an established group of players or Lodge within a reasonable distance of them. This is what led me in search of online Pathfinder games several years ago. I came across Play-by-Post on the Paizo website and a very helpful and fun community. With games more than 2+ hours away from my home I was able to easily find games within the online Play-by-Post community. While they may take a bit longer (One post a day) than a traditional face to face game I can put more effort into the actual roleplaying aspect which helps enrich the purpose of our games. At first it might seem a bit overwhelming, but it is incredibly easy, and we have a great and wonderful community that will help guide you each step of the way. Come and join us for a game during these trying times. Locations can be found below:

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PbP Lodges (Play-by-Post):

1. PFS 1E Flaxseed Lodge
2. PFS 2E Cottonseed Lodge
3. SFS Castamir's Flaxseed Station Lodge
4. RPG Geek Lodge
5. Mythweavers Lodge

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Play-by-Discord Lodges

1. Roll for Combat (Play-by-Discord)
2. Cosmic Crittermanders (Play-by-Discord)

— Derek Larsen (Tyranius), venture-captain PbP

Play-by-post gaming was the one thing that kept me playing Pathfinder and roleplaying games in general. It started about 15 years ago when I moved away from the metro Boston area. I left a land of plenty when it came to game stores and places to engage in my favorite hobby to a place where few opportunities existed. So, I started getting into virtual tabletop games to satisfy my need to play. Then I started to have a family, one child then two, the third and fourth followed. Now with a full family and more responsibilities in my career, the time to set aside four or five hours at a time was no longer there. Play-by-post gaming which I had dabbled in before seemed like the natural solution. I found the Pathfinder Society group on Myth Weavers and jumped right in. Played a few games to get my feet wet, then tried my hand at GMing when I was ready. Fast forward a few years and our first VA had to leave his post and that when I was picked to step into the VO corps. While I play and GM on Paizo as well, my focus is on the smaller lodges. There may not always be a game mustering when you get there but stop in some time at RPG Geek or Myth weavers and say hello. Tell us what you are interested in playing and maybe someone will be happy to help you find a game. We’ll certainly be willing to show you the ropes. Figuring out the post formats may take some getting used to, but we'll guide you along until you get used to it.
— Michael Hallet, venture-lieutenant PbP

If a face-to-face roleplaying session is like exploring the set of a big-budget movie, a Play-by-Post or PbP game is akin to living inside the pages of a great book. PbP evokes the literary roots of fantasy gaming. And just as you are unlikely to digest an entire book in one sitting, you can play a PbP game as much, or as little, as you like throughout the day and weeks. The text format and slower pacing allow time to experience vivid, detailed descriptions, deep, internal monologues, and shrewd, sharp-witted negotiations. When I play via PbP, my bards' songs are more lyrical, my androids’ computations are more analytical, my clerics are more prayerful, and my gnomes are more playful. My insightful envoy can readily pick up on the thoughts in the room. My crazed, mad witch usually has a song running through her head. My incompetent witchwyrd spy always finds his well-planned schemes becoming thwarted by his more savvy, fellow party members. My pompous, scholarly wizard spouts out facts with Wikipedia-like knowledge. And whenever someone speaks to her, my wise-cracking ysoki always-- always-- has the perfect, instant comeback. Indeed, if one didn't know any better, they'd almost think that she'd taken several hours, perhaps even days, to come up with it.
— Lysle Kappventure-agent PbP

I first became involved in RPGs several decades ago though I did not have my first Organized Play experience until August 2017. I had a great local community to play with and within a year I had GMed my first game, attended my first PaizoCon, and discovered Play-by-Post (PbP). The online community was just as welcoming and supportive, and I discovered PbP provides the ideal environment to improve my roleplaying and GMing skills. It also provides an opportunity to play with others in very many areas of the world and without needing to commit a significant single block of time or share a time zone. I have since begun to enjoy the different benefits of online VTT (virtual table top) play, also with an international group of players. I am happy and honored to be a part of the team that helps provide structure for our Online Organized Play community.
— Katrina Hennessy, venture-agent PbP

Though I didn’t participate in my first Play-by-Post under the Organized Play umbrella until 2015 I’d discovered the format nearly a year and a half earlier by random chance and pretty quickly fell in love. Some of my fellow Venture Officers have already laid out many of the wonderful advantages to be found by playing online such as flexibility, convenience, and expanded opportunities for roleplay. Yet the one that has been the most meaningful in a personal sense is that Play-by-Post has allowed me to find my own voice and tap into a sense of creativity that I never knew I had, all through the power of writing and cooperative storytelling. It allows me to be the things I want to be and express myself in a way that I’ve always had a difficult time doing at face-to-face tables. The feeling this gives me is something that I wouldn’t trade for the world - and it’s a feeling that I’d love to share with others. So, if Play-by-Post sounds appealing to you, please drop in at any of the lodges and say hello! We’d love to meet you and help you get started.
— Kristin Wilhite, venture-agent PbP

Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

While our colleagues over in the roleplaying game space have many options for where and how to run their games, the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game is understandably more constrained… after all, PACG cards don’t fall under the Open Gaming License. Despite this, Paizo has been more than willing to work with those of us who don’t have the time or opportunity to meet in face-to-face space to play this game that many of us are very passionate about. Over the past year or so the online PACG community has been consistently growing. To handle that growth an online system, which can be found at acg.orgplayonline.org, has been created to allow for games to be played through play-by-post on the Paizo forums. This system is still in its relative infancy, but it allows games to be run by a “box runner” (or BR), with that BR posting updates to the forums and players posting their actions and a summary of their current hand. You can see an example of one of these games, where BR AAUGHWHY has been running myself and others through all 6 adventures of the Season of Tapestry Tide here.

For more info on how this all works, check out the second half of this blog post which gives a high-level overview. If you’re interested in trying out one of these games, I recommend checking out the Flaxseed On Deck Lodge. There we have instructions on how to get involved as well as other resources that can help you get started with building your character deck to play online.

In addition to our play-by-post system, we’ve been authorized for the time being to allow for other methods of play. Some of our player base has had luck with running games using web cameras, with players using the PACG Wiki to reference cards they acquire and may not have physical copies of. We’re also looking into additional options, so please feel free to post in the Flaxseed On Deck Lodge discussion thread if you’d like to propose or ask about other options.

We very much look forward to having you join us in playing PACG online!
—Tyler Beck, venture-captain online ACG

I got involved in Play-by-Post for Pathfinder Adventure Card Game a few years ago because my schedule does not always allow me to take large blocks of time to play with my local group. That makes it difficult for me to attend regularly and complete a campaign with them. What I like about play-by-post is that it can be done anywhere, and it takes less time out of my day spread out over a week rather than all in one afternoon. Basically, it's been a convenient way to get a little dose of ACG on a regular basis without straining my schedule. Another part of the online play-by-post I have enjoyed is that it allows players to connect from all over the world.

Something somewhat unique to play-by-post for the card game is that some players choose to roleplay their turns. This is not required by any means but is sometimes a nice way to add flavor to turns that I have never seen at a face-to-face card game session. Here’s an example from Amaryllis meeting a Treachery Demon, or Lem fighting a Cultist.

We have many helpful players so don’t be afraid to check out the resources Tyler provided and ask questions as needed. We were all new to the online format and/or card game at one point or another!
—Race Dorsey, venture-agent online ACG

A huge thank you to Online Regional Venture-Coordinator Jesse Davis and his team for assisting our community and sharing their knowledge!

See you tomorrow for the second half. Until then – Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Journey to Near Space, the galactic region that contains the Pact Worlds, the Veskarium, and countless other systems and worlds. This hardcover rulebook expands the Starfinder campaign setting with details on dozens of planets and cultures found in Near Space, each perfect as a locale for science-fantasy adventure! Inside this book you’ll find:

• In-depth gazetteers of the nine worlds of the Veskarium, the interstellar empire founded by the militaristic vesk, and of 20 more worlds and civilizations of Near Space.
• New starship options and a dozen new starships.
• A wide variety of new player options: archetypes, themes, gear, spells, and alternate racial options!

WELCOME TO NEAR SPACE

In the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, the discovery of the hyperspace dimension known as the Drift has granted explorers access to a plethora of new worlds. Home to many sapient species both peaceful and otherwise, Near Space is not a single geographical area. Rather, it is defined by how quickly one can reach a world using the Drift, which depends on how many of the mysterious Drift beacons are nearby. One world might be virtually unreachable to another through normal travel, but the two might be neighbors via Near Space and can therefore reach one another in a matter of days.

WHAT’S IN THIS BOOK

Near Space is a bigger place than could be fully captured in any number of books—or even datapads—but these 160 pages are packed with information about some of its most interesting places.

Illustration by Roberto Pitturru

CHAPTER 1: THE VESKARIUM

Chapter 1 is all about the Veskarium, the home system of the warlike lizard people known as vesk. Along with brand new in‐depth information about the vesk species, each of the Veskarium’s eight planets are covered in detail, as is the massive mobile star base and shipyard known as Conqueror’s Forge.

Illustration by Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo

CHAPTER 2: WORLDS OF NEAR SPACE

Chapter 2 opens with a guide on exploring the reaches of Near Space, along with 20 prominent and diverse planets and systems that starfarers from across the galaxy might visit. Whether you want detailed home worlds of playable species or entire new systems to explore, this chapter has you covered.

Illustration by Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo

CHAPTER 3: STARSHIPS

Chapter 3 introduces new starships for several kinds of Near Space denizens, including six new vesk starships. There is also a selection of new starship options for those who wish to further customize their home away from their home world.

Illustration by Roberto Pitturru.

CHAPTER 4: PLAYER OPTIONS

Chapter 4 is packed with player options, from alternate race options for nine Near Space–based species (including hobgoblins, osharus, and skittermanders) to new themes and archetypes. The chapter also offers new armor and weapon options, plus new shields (Starfinder Character Operations Manual 124) and spells, which can be used to flesh out adventures in Near Space.

You can acquire Near Space at your favorite local gaming store. Or with your ongoing Starfinder Roleplaying Game subscription, we'll send each new installment right to your door and charge your payment method automatically as we ship each product. You only need to sign up once, and never need to worry about renewal notices or missed products.

The next big releases for Starfidner will be the Starship Operations Manual and the Starfinder Core Rulebook Pocket Edition in July, which actually means the first weekend in August at Gen Con 2020.

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks
Marketing and Media Manager

It’s barely light—just after dawn—and my heart is pounding, hammering in time with the pahtra war drum’s rhythm. The visceral stomp of heavily armored boots and the jagged crackle of automatic rifle fire roil around us all. The vesk move awkwardly, still clumsy and off-balance in gravity that’s far weaker than what they’re used to. They carry their laser weapons with pride, firing sleek lines of light through the trees, and I find myself baring my teeth in a disdainful snarl. The magnetic storms of Vesk-6 make laser weapons risky even at the best of times, but the azimuth laser rifle is the standard-issue armament for the Veskarium army, and so the vesk carry them. My hands tighten on my own rifle, adrenaline surging as the war drum urges us forward. I take to the shadows behind a trio of ancient trees, waiting for the right moment to leap into the fray.

Is this what my forebears felt, some 300 years ago, fighting against the vesk invaders intent on reconquering a world they knew they had once controlled? Or even longer ago, before the Gap, when the Veskarium first came to Pulonis and claimed it as Vesk-6, the newest part of their empire?

Illustration by Roberto Pitturru

But this isn’t a war. We aren’t a guerilla team fending off an invasion—it’s a training exercise, and the vesk in the clearing are as much my teammates as the other pahtras in the trees around me. The largest and boldest vesk in our unit leads the way, with just over a half-dozen others not far behind her. One vesk for each pahtra in our unit. Usually we train side-by-side, learning from one another, but today we’ve been divided up, pahtras against vesk. My own vesk partner stands firmly in the center of his unit, holding his rifle steady and firing careful blasts. It’s a typical vesk tactic, all stoic and solid and focused on formation, while my half of the unit has split up, each of us blending into the trees and utilizing the tactics that work best for us.

It makes Major Koboratash furious, our disregard for formal strategies. It’s also how we’ve won the last six of these mock battles. I wonder what she’s trying to accomplish, dividing us up into Team Pahtra and Team Vesk when the high despot’s program has us training side by side in the first place. I know some of my teammates think the major is secretly training the vesk to fight some of the pahtra resistance cells active near Leapfang Bay. I hope they’re wrong.

I wait for my chance to leap into the fray, watching for an opening, a distraction, an opportunity. My gaze settles on Jaskenayo, a particularly stodgy vesk with dark green scales, and the fur down the back of my neck suddenly stiffens. A shiver runs down the length of my spine. Something here is... wrong. I can’t say what or why or even how I know, but something about him has me deeply unsettled. His movements aren’t quite in step with the others, the tracking of his beady eyes just a little jerky. Like he’s watching the skirmish and reacting just a nanosecond too slow to be real. I’ve never seen anything like it before, and the tension along my spine grows so tight it’s painful. Something here is deeply, terribly wrong.

I slip back into the shadows. Make my way around the simulated firefight, slinking along the underbrush, until I’m off to one side, almost opposite our war drummer. Slowly, careful not to draw attention to my movements, I dump the blanks from my rifle and swap in the magazine of live ammunition from my belt. We all carry it, as a precaution against the countless predators of Vesk-6, since you never know when a sky viper might turn a training exercise into a life-or-death fight. Somehow, even though I can’t say why, I know this is one of those times.

The headstrong scrapper of my unit gives me the opening I need, rushing in to take on the frontline vesk with her bare hands like the reckless brawler she is. I lift my rifle, take careful aim. Breathe out. Pull the trigger.

Jaskenayo goes down so easily. He hadn’t seen me, and I was so close my single shot punched right through his overplate. He falls with a strangled cry.

Chaos breaks out. Of course it does—these training exercises aren’t supposed to be lethal. Everyone is shouting, and eight standard-issue Veskarium laser rifles swing around to focus on me, sharp clicks ringing out as they, too, are switched to a lethal setting. The hammering rhythm of the war drum falters, and then ceases altogether. My pahtra teammates stare, aghast. I feel my vesk partner’s eyes on me, betrayed and furious.

My fear—that creeping sensation of wrongness—dissipates almost as soon as Jaskenayo’s body hits the ground. But it’s immediately replaced by a different kind of fear, less visceral and much more intellectual, as Major Koboratash’s outraged shouts resound through the jungle. Demanding to know what just happened. What I thought I was doing. And I realize, really realize, what I’ve done. I just killed my teammate. Our war drummer’s partner. My partner’s childhood friend.

The major stomps up to me, and I hand over my rifle. I try to explain myself, but I don’t have the words for it. I have no proof, no justification—I just knew something was wrong. She doesn’t believe me, of course. She sees a recruit killed by friendly fire. A personal vendetta turned lethal.

I can’t even pretend it was an accident. They’ll court-martial me, and I’ll be discharged, dishonorably, without the Soldier’s Due.

Then, behind the major, Jaskenayo’s body twitches. I flinch back, and the major spins around as the dead vesk body jerks and shudders. Then, horribly, his body seems to deflate as a slick, bulbous ooze slithers out from beneath his armor.

A hymothoa.

I understand, then. I hadn’t encountered one of the indigenous oozes before, but I knew about them. Like how they eat away at a host’s organs and replace them, puppeting them around in pursuit of goals no one has ever been able to understand. And that some pahtras have something of a sixth sense for hymothoas, when most other species have no way to detect them other than with extensive medical scanning—something almost impossible here given our planet’s unpredictable magnetic storms.

The major snaps out an order, and suddenly eight azimuth laser rifles are firing on the thing with lethal force. When I blink away the afterimage of eight laser beams, all that remains of the hymothoa is a damp patch on the leafy jungle floor beside Jaskenayo’s now-unmoving form. I begrudgingly admit to myself that the vesk weapons have some benefits after all—my own rifle would have been far less effective against an amorphous foe.

Major Koboratash looks back at me, scowling. “You knew?”

I nod and stammer, trying to put into words the gut feeling, the absolute certainty that things weren’t the way they should be. Childhood tales flit through my mind, warning of the bogeyman oozes, but I can’t use a ghost story as a justification. My heart is hammering louder than the war drums had before. She can still court-martial me. Have me discharged. Order the squad to turn their laser rifles on me and fire—the Army of the Veskarium certainly has no overabundance of mercy.

But she cuts me off with a snarl and a sharp gesture. “That was well done, Gunner Sehvet.”

I shut my mouth. The major looks between me and the unmoving corpse on the jungle floor. I wonder what the ooze had hoped to accomplish by parasitizing Jaskenayo. Probably nothing good—for all their inscrutability, the creatures seem to have as much resentment of the vesk occupation of our planet as the most deeply entrenched pahtra resistance cells.

The major barks new orders. She turns north and leads the way as if nothing unusual had happened. We all leap to comply, vesk and pahtra alike. Lines form as we pair up with our counterparts and begin the strict, regimented march back to Command 6. My vesk partner falls into place beside me, and I can feel his uneasy eyes watching me, but now isn’t the time for chatter. I don’t know what I’d say anyway, because I have a sinking feeling this is just the beginning.

About the Author

Lyz Liddell is a designer for Pathfinder Second Edition at Paizo. She writes adventures and rules for Pathfinder and Starfinder, plus an abundance of independent fantasy and science fiction in various stages of editing and querying. You can find Lyz and learn more about her innumerable hobbies on Twitter at @LyzMayTweet.

About Tales from the Drift

The Tales from the Drift series of web-based flash fiction provides an exciting glimpse into the setting of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. Written by members of the Starfinder development team and some of the most celebrated authors in tie-in gaming fiction, the Tales from the Drift series promises to explore the worlds, alien cultures, deities, history, and organizations of the Starfinder setting with engaging stories to inspire Game Masters and players alike.

I hope this blog finds our communities of players weathering the social distancing restrictions. As we noted in last week’s organized play blog, we already moved some of our organized play activities online and are working to add more over the upcoming weeks. A huge shout out to the GMs who are learning new platforms and offering their skills via different mediums. For those that prefer play-by-post to virtual tabletops, Outpost III launches this week. You can find more information here.

With working from home causing a new set of challenges for the organized play team, we decided to combine our preview blogs into one for this month. We’d appreciate feedback on this new format, so please put any constructive criticisms below.

We hope you enjoy playing these scenarios as much as our team enjoyed working on them!

If you didn’t see it earlier, check out our blog where we showed off the fantastic Pathfinder Society (second edition) faction art.

Next week, tune in for a status update on organized play. Until then, Explore, Report, Cooperate (and wash hands!)

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

Pathfinder Society Releases

Greetings, Pathfinders! This month we’ve got a couple exciting scenarios for you and one awesome quest, so I’ll be jumping right in and letting you know what those are.

Pathfinder Society Scenario # 1-16: The Perennial Crown Part 1, Opal of Bhopan and Pathfinder Society Scenario #1-17: The Perennial Crown Part 2, The Thorned Monarch are a pair of back-to-back Tier 3–6 scenarios written by Alex Augunas, veteran Paizo freelancer and third-party publisher, and Thilo Graf, who you might know for his comprehensive reviews of tabletop gaming products at endzeitgeist.com and contributions to high-profile third-party products like Lost Sphere Publishing’s City of 7 Seraphs. When I reached out to Alex and Thilo about working on this project, I knew I had something really unique and I had a strong feeling that they were the ones who could give it to me. The Perennial Crown adventures are part of the Open Road season metaplot, which send the Pathfinders sailing down the eastern coast of Garund to the famed island of Bhopan, where founding Pathfinder Selmius Foster met his end some four centuries ago. On this island that much of the Inner Sea has considered to be practically mythological for hundreds of years, the PCs will find that both their enemies and allies are fey and inscrutable, bound by beliefs, traditions, and ambitions far older than the Pathfinder Society or most nations of the Inner Sea.

In addition to exciting new NPCs like the one pictured here, be ready to see these adventures showcase some of the exciting new subsystems introduced in the Pathfinder GameMastery Guide!

Art by Josef Kucera

For this month’s quest, Alexandria Bustion shares her awesomeness and takes us to Numeria with Tier 3–6 quest Pathfinder Society Quest #8: Shadows of the Black Sovereign! Numeria is a land of high technology ruled by a warrior-king, and for years the Pathfinder Society has been banned from operating within its borders. This hasn’t stopped Venture-Captain Dagur Hawksight from maintaining a secret lodge in the border town of Hajoth Hakados, however, and now the time for the Pathfinders to step out of the shadows has come once more! Not everyone is excited to see the Pathfinders joining Numeria’s political scene, and as the Black Sovereign himself makes his way to the lodge, Dagur finds that a scribe has gone missing with ledgers critical to sealing a deal that would allow the Pathfinders to more openly explore the country and its technological wonders. Can the PCs track down the critical documents and missing scribe before Numeria’s iron-fisted warlord arrives to drive the Pathfinders from Numeria once and for all?

That’s all I’ve got for you adventurers! Good luck in the battles to come, and until next time, Explore! Report! Cooperate!

Michael Sayre
Pathfinder Society Developer

Starfinder Society Releases

Two new adventures coming to you this month, including our first trip to Vesk-controlled territory, as well as an extraplanar jaunt that starts the endgame for our Season 2 storyline. Let’s see what’s on the docket!

Starfinder Society #2-19: Truth Keepers is a repeatable Tier 3-6 scenario from 5-nova GM Natalie Kertzner and new author (and prolific GM) John Curtin. This one starts with a bang, as an evening of relaxation at a Starfinder bar is interrupted by an attack! To retrieve a stolen artifact, the PCs will have to travel to the heart of the Veskarium itself and tangle with a fringe cult of vesk soldiers. This adventure features randomized elements, as well as a number of colorful NPCs, that are sure to keep you coming back for more! And if you’re really hungry for more Veskarium, pick up Starfinder: Near Space, on shelves next week!

The Seeker’s Respite (the bar in question) is a regular hangout for Starfinder agents. Inside, while your time away celebrating Starfinders new and old, joining in a vidgame, or just stewing with other agents over this terrible equipment they keep sending you out with, I mean, this battery barely holds a charge, and I’m pretty sure this second skin is more like a fifth skin at this point…

Seeker’s Respite

Starfinder Society #2-20: Shades of Spite is a Tier 7-10 scenario from veteran author Vanessa Hoskins. Those of you keeping up with the Year of a Thousand Bites storyline will likely have strong feelings about a particular white-furred ysoki, and many are asking: “Why is Datch like this?” To get the answer to that question, the PCs, along with a priest of Lao Shu Po, venture to the Shadow Plane. While there, a master assassin tests their mettle, in the hopes that they get what they need to finally defeat their foe.

We’re in the endgame of year 2 now, and the only thing standing between the Starfinders and Datch’s machinations is this enigmatic individual. Will the PCs convince him to share what he knows, or does he have other motivations entirely?

Silent Strike

Alrighty, that’s it for March’s releases! Come back next month we’ve got a notorious collector bringing the Swarm to the Pact Worlds, and the next stage in an ongoing historical treasure hunt.

Until next time,

Alex Speidel, doing his best Thurston Hillman impression
Organized Play Associate

Zemir stepped around a fetid pool of… something… and tried to breathe shallowly. Intellectually he knew that either his mask was working or it wasn’t, and either way the worst he’d suffer was a strong sense of nausea if he did get a whiff of unfiltered air. But the horrid smell that penetrated the mask’s filters still made him want to avoid taking deep lungfuls of the stuff. Which made it difficult to keep up with Obozaya, as his vesk companion strode unfettered through the densely-packed market.

Illustration by Roberto Pitturru.

“I still do not understand you mammals!” Obozaya sounded more amused than perplexed. “If the atmosphere’s odor is so terrible it turns you into mewling monkeys, why not activate your environmental controls rather than just using the breather mask?”

Zemir ignored the “monkeys” jab. He was still relatively new to the crew of the Sunrise Maiden, hired for his power to search through and bring things from various iterations of reality. Obozaya was a respected, veteran member of the crew, and Zemir was better off humoring her. If he could earn Obozaya’s trust, the rest of the crew would quickly follow.

“There are two reasons.” Zemir sidestepped a group of haggling kasathas and picked up his pace to walk next to the vesk. “The first is that I’m not sure how much I trust this filter to pull the actual toxins out of the air, given how much of the rotting-fish-and-eggs odor it lets in. Since we’re here to get surplus air filters and pressurized tents so the rest of our crew can operate on this planet long-term—longer than our armor’s environmental seals will last—I’d like to test this model in the field. I don’t fully trust AbadarCorp’s marketing claims.”

Obozaya nodded, her teeth flashing briefly in what Zemir had come to believe was an expression of appreciation. Vesk might be one of a dozen species immune to the toxins in this planet’s air, but she was pragmatic enough that she certainly wouldn’t want her teammates hampered by nausea and weakness if their mission ran more than a few days.

“Secondly... are we being followed?”

Zemir did not change the tone of his voice at all, and to her credit Obozaya did not spin to look around. Instead she simply angled her path to skirt a denser part of the crowded market’s patrons. Zemir fell in behind her, moving through the wake she made in the throng. Creatures of half a dozen species cursed and stepped in behind them, shaking fists and raising their chins in angry postures. Which meant it was easy for Zemir to spot the group following them as they plowed into the already-agitated crowd, shoving sapients out of their way while remaining quiet and taking on hunched postures, trying to keep their profiles below the general level of the market’s customers.

There were three of them, short and broad humanoids in heavy armor. Zemir guessed they were lashuntas... or dwarves, though he had much less experience with dwarves. Their equipment was worn and patched, but looked functional enough. All three had laser rifles of some kind slung over their shoulders, and holstered sidearms. Their armors’ environmental seals were active, protecting them from the extreme discomfort of the atmosphere, and making their faces harder to discern.

But their facial tattoos were clear enough. He shifted his view, searching through nearby iterations of his own reality, and saw the three figures following someone on this street, at this time, in most alternate realities. Their presence here was not random.

Obozaya took a sharp turn onto another major road and stepped to the side, allowing Zemir to pass her. She shot him a glance with a raised brow ridge.

“Three of them, definitely following us. Short, maybe korasha. Facial tattoos.”

“Golden League?” Obozaya asked.

Zemir shrugged. “I don’t know the local families well enough to hazard a guess. Would Golden League assassins be likely to want you dead?”

Obozaya shook her head once, firmly, while unclipping the safety strap from her stellar cannon. Zemir bit his lower lip, though his mask concealed the expression. If they weren’t Xun assassins, then they were most likely just robbers, possibly drawn by his own obvious good taste in equipment. In that was the case, Obozaya and he could likely deal with them if it came to a fight, but likely not without getting ejected from the market for getting flechette holes in nearby shops. And even if he could talk their way out of expulsion, the shop they were headed to for supplies might close for the day if there was talk of a brawl in the street

Of course if they were robbers, their main motivation would be to make a quick credit in a shakedown.

Zemir put a hand on Obozaya’s arm. “Follow my lead.”

Her brow ridge went up even higher, but she nodded. Just as the three tattooed pursuers rounded the corner, Zemir stepped into the street and turned to face Obozaya.

“NOW you want your back pay?”

Obozaya was clearly surprised, but covered it quickly enough, especially since all eyes were on Zemir. She growled at him, which he hoped was just her way of playing along.

“I’m mortgaged to the hilt!” Zemir let exasperation leak into his voice. “I’ve even been reduced to wearing cheap knock-off fashion. Not a thing on me is worth a tenth its appearance. And since the family disowned me, I can’t turn to them for support!”

At first the squat ruffians simply stood in shock and stared at Zemir complaining to his apparent bodyguard, but as he continued to describe the dire straits of his finances, and lack of extended family, their expressions went from shock to sour. About the time he claimed he could pay Obozaya in a week, when his next loan came through, the lashuntas—he’d seen at least one antenna, so they must be lashuntas—turned as a group and trundled back the way they’d come.

Once Zemir was sure they were out of earshot, he stopped whining.

Obozaya chuckled. “Not how I’d have handled it, but effective. But aren’t you worried word will get out that you‘re broke, and merchants will refuse to talk to you?”

Zemir shrugged. “If we needed high-end or custom goods that you can only buy with an appointment, maybe. All we need are more filter masks. When we show the paramilitary surplus dealer our credits, he won’t care about rumors.”

Obozaya seemed satisfied, and began making her way toward the surplus shop again. “That taken care of... what was the second reason you’re not using your environmental seals?”

Zemir’s mask kept his predatory grin from being obvious, but his eyes did sparkle.

“I want to know this miasma well enough that I can grab a cloud of it from another iteration of reality. If I ever need to flood a room with it, anyone unfamiliar with the stench is in for quite the shock.”

---

About the Author

Owen K.C. Stephens is a veteran of the tabletop RPG industry with more than 20 years of experience, including being on staff at Green Ronin, Paizo, and Wizards of the Coast and being the publisher of RogueGeniusGames.com. He has worked on numerous RPG lines, including being co-author of the Star Wars Saga Edition RPG and Design Lead for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. You can support his writing and free content production at Patreon, and follow him at his blog, on Facebook and on Twitter.

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.

Inside volume one of Starfinder’s The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path, The Chimera Mystery, by Jason Keeley

When the security officer of the starship Chimera goes missing, the heroes are asked to investigate. Murder, misdirection, and misapprehension abound. But is this whole whodunit only part of a much larger conspiracy?

It is time to pull back the curtain, just a bit, on The Threefold Conspiracy. The plot will remain a mystery, but the back matter is full of advice, lore, and game material we can’t wait to show off. So, this blog may have light spoilers, be warned.

Don’t want to chance it? Go back and read the flash web fiction The Threefold Conspiracy: Gray Matter to set the mood.

As previously revealed, inside you will find advice for running and playing in adventures focused around secrecy and mystery, by Jason Keeley. Read an excerpt in Motive, Means, and Opportunity.

New from Jason Keeley, the Sanjaval Palanquin is a long-haul passenger transport freighter. It could be the setting of many adventures for Pact Worlders and Starfinder homebrewers of all stripes.

“Sanjaval Spaceflight Systems produces the Palanquin model of heavy freighter for a variety of transport applications, but it’s often converted into a long-distance high-quality passenger conveyance for regularly traveled space lanes. The Palanquin’s several decks provide enough room for spacious guest accommodations, which are far enough away from crew quarters that the two groups don’t need to mingle in the corridors. With two cargo holds standard, the Palanquin serves as a capable freighter for those passengers who are transporting valuable goods to far-off reaches.”

The full article includes more details, statistics, and deck plans!

Discover In from the Cold, a collection of new class options for espionage-themed characters, by Crystal Frasier.

“You want to know why you’re here? Imagine you’re a brain, yeah? But no eyes, no ears, just sittin’ warm and cozy in your skull with nothin’ but imagination and pixie sparkles to keep your attention. You’d never need to see how mean the real world is. How it can chew you up and spit you out. That’s great for some. But me? If something is about to go pear-shaped, I want to know. I like to see the bullet coming. And that’s what we do, kid. We’re not soldiers. We’re not heroes. We watch and we listen, and when we see the bullet coming, we tell the brain when to get out of the damn way.”
—Donlaia Sekk on Training Day 001

Subterfuge is the exacting scalpel to warfare’s indiscriminate shrapnel. And in a galaxy where superweapons can wipe out entire planets, a careful hand is infinitely more useful for achieving practical goals. Even the most noteworthy interstellar conflict in recent memory— the war between the Veskarium and the Pact Worlds—lasted only 5 years before both sides shuddered at the mounting cost and devastation of open conflict. But the so-called Silent War— focused mainly on smaller skirmishes and espionage—lasted ten generations, as dedicated spies and agents on both sides faced off to uncover the other power’s secrets, sabotage their efforts, and sway the direction of their politics.

Espionage encompasses a number of tactics. A nation conquered by placing loyal entities on its throne without a drop of spilled blood can immediately turn its engines of commerce to fill your pockets. Quietly bribed researchers can grant you access to scientific knowledge. Magical scrying sensors can overhear state secrets. Deep cover agents can live among the enemy populace for years and find work within government and security organizations. The ultimate goal of espionage is to take what your foe can’t afford to lose— knowledge, resources, loyalty from their populace, or the lives of key figures—while knowing exactly how they will respond.

The article includes envoy, mechanic, soldier, and technomancer options, as well as three new spells, and is available in both print or PDF.

Catch a glimpse of Gadravel, a planet of war-torn ruins and ghosts, by Erik Mona.

“By the time explorers affiliated with the Pact Worlds first came across the lonely, haunted planet of Gadravel on the frontier of Near Space, it was already an ancient graveyard. The trench-like scars across Gadravel, visible from space, hint at an ancient destruction wreaked by some unknown force or super weapon that also wiped out every living thing on the planet. In the decades since its rediscovery, the unquiet spirits of Gadravel’s slaughtered populace have swallowed a dozen scientific research expeditions and countless opportunists and explorers. Scavengers come in search of forgotten technology or unclaimed plunder, while pirates seek refuge among the silent streets of abandoned cities, hoping to shake off pursuit by bounty hunters. Those who alight on the planet’s surface and leave within an hour or two often escape with fantastic riches and intriguing components of baffling alien technology. Those who linger too long are devoured by the ghosts and remain on the planet for a torturous eternity.”

In Alien Archives you will encounter seven full-page creatures entries with art, including an adorable shapechanging ooze and a predatory bird able to eat bullets, by Stephen Glicker, Jason Keeley, Luis Loza, Isabelle Thorne, and Gabriel Waluconis.

“Marrax and I noticed the smears of blood on the floor right away. They seemed to form some kind of pattern or maybe words in a language I never seen before. Someone stepped forth from the shadows. It looked like Professor Ko, but her clothes were tattered and there was some kind of symbol carved into her chest. She shuffled forward and grabbed Marrax and slashed at his shirt with long nails. I panicked and ran out of there. But Marrax’s wounds began to shift and glow, and it was like he was moving through tar... I’m sorry, I left him screaming in the dark.”
—Report from Lonthis Vens, janitor at Qabarat University of Xenoarcheology and Xenoanthropology”

Paizo releases Starfinder Adventure Paths monthly in three- or six-volume arcs. You can acquire them at your favorite local gaming store. With your ongoing Starfinder Adventure Path subscription, we'll send each new volume to your door and charge your payment method automatically as we ship each product. You only need to sign up once, and never need to worry about renewal notices or missed products.

Next, we will unveil volume two, Flight of the Sleepers, with an article describing the enigmatic grays, a survey of fringe science, and a selection of new and strange monsters!

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

Rock rained near New Valor.

With a twist of the wheel, Zurkrishu maneuvered the hover tank out of the largest boulder’s path before drifting back onto their collision course with the colossal kyokor as Renz kept firing the main autocannon. “Stay with me, Renz,” Zurkrishu admonished over her shoulder as Renz’s tracer rounds veered off target. “We only got this one chance, yeah? Let’s do it for Daimalko!” Still hundreds of feet off, the kyokor lunged toward another vehicle, snatching and crumpling it in a single motion as its occupants rained haplessly back to the ground. As Renz’s explosive shells hit home, the kyokor hurled the wreckage at their hover tank, striking it straight on and flipping it end over end.

Time slowed. Zurkrishu went flying, her hand outstretched toward Renz as she cried out “Captain!”

Captain? In that frozen moment, Renz looked down at their sleeve. No, they were a sergeant, weren’t they?

“Captain!”

Something wasn’t right. The kyokor’s roar was fading into dull static as Renz tumbled through the air.

“Captain?”

Renz blinked awake. Their sheets were tangled like so much wreckage, and the only light came from an unblinking featureless face projected on their wall monitor.

“Captain, there’s an incident,” Stilchee announced patiently. The embri’s mask hid her emotions admirably, yet Renz could detect a hint of silent judgment. “You’re needed on the bridge.”

“An incident?” Renz quipped while rolling off their bed in a vain search for trousers. “If they’re fighting again, just break ’em up.”

“I assure you, Flowers and Esh are on their best behavior. I respect your non-Pact Standard sleep cycle enough not to disturb you unless it’s important.” Stilchee paused before adding, “We have unexpected company.”

Renz swore quietly all the way to the bridge, idly rubbing the Daimalkan military insignia on their jacket. For decades, the Veskarium had subjugated the planet Landahl and its peaceful illyr inhabitants, provoking a guerrilla war that the illyrs were slowly losing. Not wanting to provoke another Silent War, the Pact Worlds had stayed out of the unjust annexation, but sympathizers with deep pockets still supplied the illyrs where they could. It was just such a smuggling run that Renz had accepted, sneaking ordnance to the rebels.

As Renz arrived, Esh reflexively stood and saluted, the hobgoblin’s military upbringing taking over before he sheepishly returned to his seat. The ghoran behind him smirked before Esh chidingly swatted them, ruffling the ghoran’s fern-top undercut. “All right, business time. What’s happening?” Renz demanded.

Stilchee maintained eye contact as she turned on the main viewscreen, displaying a fleet of Veskarium warships.

Illustration by Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo

“What the Hell’s with this welcoming party?” Renz demanded. “All reports described light patrols, not a blockade!”

“Kinda wish we were being paid more for the run, huh Renz?” quipped Flowers, their sarcasm belied by their nervously gripping the starship’s controls.

“Hey, it’s a good cause, alright?” Renz shot back before looking to his embri science officer. “Stilchee, our cover’s still in order, right?”

“Aye, captain.” The alien mollusk bobbed her mask as her claws tapped away. “Our hold remains shielded, and our documentation still insists we’re shipping scientific instruments and other supplies to the Obedurn Associates research colony, a neutral entity. I worry more that their flagship has begun scanning us aggressively.”

“Your countermeasures holding up, though? Good.” Renz shook out their shoulders, checked their mutton chops, and ran a hand through their hair. “Patch me through to our new friends, and I’ll clear up this misunderstanding before they dig too deep.”

Stilchee tapped away diligently as Flowers mockingly mouthed “nu-nu-friends” and pantomimed a dancing skittermander to Esh in an attempt at levity. The ghoran snapped back to the controls when the screen suddenly displayed a massive Veskarian starship’s bridge filled with dozens of vesk officers. Before them loomed their leader, a vesk in overplate armor, her fuchsia-and-green scales bristling with confidence. “Attend, and identify yourself,” she boomed, her vesk second-in-command stepping into view at her side.

“Glory to you.” Renz inclined their head slightly in respect. “I am Renz, captain of the Zurkrishin. We’re bound for Landahl carrying food, clothing, and scientific instruments for Obedurn Associates. What earns us this welcome?”

“You stand before Wing Commander Tolskamash of the Army of the Veskarium, Thrice-Tested Conqueror of Persam-6 and commanding officer of the Scorchrazor. I trust you understand commerce to Landahl is tightly restricted?”

“Absolutely, wing commander.” Renz briefly glanced to Stilchee, who pointed insistently to her station’s display, indicating multiple ships were now scanning the Zurkrishin.

“Yet even so, you traffic in the name of rebel sympathizers?”

Renz stared back in disbelief. “Sympathizers, wing commander?”

The vesk’s first officer responded. “Sympathizers,” he intoned grimly. “They recently declared their support for the illyr resistance. Those who serve them are in violation of Veskarium law. Violators are to be eliminated with prejudice,” he added with a hungry grin.

“The Veskarium’s justice is not so cruel, sub-commander,” Tolskamash remarked calmly to her second without breaking her predatory menace.

“Then no doubt the captain would welcome a boarding party to search his starship,” amended the first officer.

“They/them, thank you!” snapped Flowers from the pilot’s chair, interrupting the vesk’s interrogation.

“They/Th—?” Wing Commander Tolskamash blinked, quirked her head, and studied Renz before straightening and raking three claws over her breastplate in display of the god Damoritosh’s doshko blade, nudging her second to do the same. “My subordinate and I were mistaken and meant no disrespect,” she apologized while struggling to regain her earlier momentum. “The captain, ah, they would certainly—"

“It’s an honest mistake, please,” Renz interrupted with a casual wave before adding, “But I believe it’s not the only honest mistake at hand—we’re simple teamsters given bad information. My crew will send you our manifest imminently, and we can forget about these misunderstandings. Hold, please.” Stilchee cut the transmission as the off-balance vesk struggled to respond.

Renz furiously scratched their mutton chops before Flowers began another round of gallows humor. “Hey, hey!” Renz snapped. “News doesn’t travel any faster through the Drift than we do, okay? It’s just bad timing. We can talk our way out.”

“We don’t have long to talk, captain,” Stilchee reported, pointing to her screens. Alerts silently popped up every few seconds, signaling that each of the vesk ships was scanning them. Their cover was slipping as surely as Stilchee’s masked emotions, and Renz could hear the restrained fear building in her voice as she more quietly counseled: “Just because you named the ship after a colossus hunter doesn’t mean it can take on that many goliaths.”

“That, ah, might not be true,” countered Esh, pantomiming finger-guns to emphasize his point. “At this rate, they won’t just find our illyr shipments.”

Renz scowled. “And why would our starship’s basic armaments upset the vesk?”

“What are a few lasers between friends?” The hobgoblin flicked at his own screens and added, “But when we were doing maintenance last, I gave our systems a little, ah, upgrade that might spook their sensors.”

“Like what?”

Esh’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “Little something we called ‘Gideron Gold’ back in the home system.”

“Gider—" Flowers visibly wilted. “We’re packing nukes?!?”

“Hey, you de-stress with spa days, I de-stress by knowing we’re packing real heat!”

“Damn, you Authority types don’t mess around.” Flowers cracked their knuckles. “That changes the odds just a little.”

Esh gave the ghoran a playful shove, “Well look who bloomed and grew some stamens!”

“Irrelevant!” Stilchee chided while furiously reconfiguring their starship’s signatures to foil the vesk scanners. “Captain, we have perhaps a few minutes before they see through our cover. We need a plan.”

Renz quickly reviewed the armament specs before responding. “Typically vesk. This isn’t a patrol fleet, but one designed to make an example, just like they’re doing to the illyrs. Whether we let them on board or just wait long enough for them to scan us, they’re going to learn just how much ordnance we’re packing.” They glowered out the window while idly rubbing their jacket’s insignia. “But when it comes to dealing with colossi, I like to think there’s an Option 3.”

The embri deflated slightly. “By your tone, captain, I’m sensing that last option is not ‘retreat?’”

“You can bet your best mask it ain’t,” Renz declared dangerously. “Didn’t you hear me earlier? I promised the good wing commander a full inventory—and that means declaring every rocket, bullet, and beam we’re packing.”

Esh cackled and rubbed his hands in anticipation before turning to the starship’s targeting computers. “Permission to send those scaleys the first line item?”

Renz nodded. “Shields up, Stilchee. Flowers, take the first opening through this blockade. Esh, light ’em up with whatever you’ve been bragging about. We’ve only got this one shot, yeah?” they encouraged, tapping the Daimalkan insignia once more, their face briefly lit by the saffron glow of Esh’s torpedoes silently screaming toward their targets. “This time, we do it for Landahl.”

About the Author

John Compton is the Starfinder Senior Developer at Paizo, Inc., having recently joined the team from years creating organized play adventure content. He has written extensively for Pathfinder and Starfinder, including adventures, setting content, and rule books, and before working for Paizo, he was a teacher, practicing archaeologist, and archaeometallurgist. You can find John on Twitter and Paizo-facing Discord servers @Archaeotagh.

About Tales from the Drift

The Tales from the Drift series of web-based flash fiction provides an exciting glimpse into the setting of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. Written by members of the Starfinder development team and some of the most celebrated authors in tie-in gaming fiction, the Tales from the Drift series promises to explore the worlds, alien cultures, deities, history, and organizations of the Starfinder setting with engaging stories to inspire Game Masters and players alike.

The galaxy of the Starfinder RPG expands with this month’s release of Starfinder Near Space, which details dozens of planets and civilizations in this region of the galaxy and includes new starships and a wide selection of character option as well.

Among the many worlds located within Near Space are not only the allied planets of the Pact Worlds, but also the core worlds of the Veskarium, the interplanetary empire of the warlike vesk. While vesk are a relatively common sight in the Pact Worlds and throughout the galaxy, their home system has remained something of a mystery. But no longer! Starfinder Near Space takes us into the Veskarium for the first time, so let’s take a brief look at the vesk empire and its diverse worlds.

The Veskarium

Centered around a blue sun called Ghavaniska, the Veskarium is an autocratic empire and military dictatorship with one overarching goal: conquest. Long before the onset of the Gap, the vesk conquered all of the planets of their home system, renaming these worlds after themselves and numbering them in order of their distance from the sun. When the Gap ended, the vesk turned to their well-organized pre-Gap military archives and set about relearning the boundaries of their ancient empire and re-establishing the Veskarium’s dominion over their subject worlds in less than a decade. Vesk dominate the empire and make up the majority of its inhabitants, but the Veskarium encompasses dozens of planets, and their native inhabitants enjoy full citizenship in the empire. Vesk believe they have an obligation to care for their conquered vassals, and while the Veskarium’s laws are strict and draconian, standards of living are high, and most residents of the empire, vesk or not, are content with their lives and support—or at least tolerate—their government.

Vesk Prime

The closest planet to the sun, Vesk Prime is the vesk home world and the imperial capital of the Veskarium. It is the most densely populated world in the empire, with large, modern cities—like the sprawling metropolis and vast military installation Command Prime—surrounded by huge tracts of cultivated lands and wilderness reserves. Under the leadership of High Despot Vindaskayo Swarmripper, Vesk Prime remains the center of the empire, both politically and culturally. The Veskarium originated here in ages past, when the vesk defeated the other native sapient species of their home world, the caiagaras and the skeraskens, and first proclaimed their empire before expanding to the other worlds of the Ghavaniska system.

Vesk-2

Ghavaniska’s second planet, a calm, watery world with a shallow, salty ocean covering much of its surface, was the Veskarium’s first extraplanetary conquest. The squid-like ijtikris are native to Vesk-2, and after centuries of vesk rule, they are highly integrated into Veskarium society. Strange, ancient ruins that predate ijtikri culture dot the scattered islands of Vesk-2 and are an enduring mystery on the planet, hinting at the possibility of another sapient species that inhabited the world in the distant past. Ijtikris have an instinctive aversion to these sites, but vesk have no such compunctions and have explored many of them. The flooded swamp-forests of Vesk-2 are also a center of domesticated defrex ranching in the Veskarium.

Vesk-3

A garden world with expansive forests, abundant nutrients from constant volcanic activity, and warm, shallow oceans, Vesk-3 is saturated in a constant, rainy spring. Ostensibly a paradise, Vesk-3 remains one of the Veskarium’s most difficult planets to rule, thanks to its indigenous population of ever-helpful skittermanders. Although they far outnumber their vesk overlords, skittermanders generally don’t seem to understand the significance of their conquest. Their obsequious nature grates on the practical-minded vesk, who commonly joke that skittermanders will eagerly “help” tear down your engine unless you eat them, and even then they’ll stick around and help chew your food. As a result, vesk presence on the planet is mostly confined to one of the planet’s two primary continents, leaving skittermanders largely autonomous in their native lands.

Vesk-4

Nicknamed “the Glutton” by early vesk conquerors for its tendency to pull celestial bodies—such as its own moons—into its powerful gravitational field, Vesk-4 is a dense planet with a single landmass teeming with lush jungles, sodden swamplands, and volcanic mountain ranges. Home to an indigenous species of sapient mole‑like creatures called talphi, Vesk-4 is an important hub for mining useful minerals, left behind by millennia of meteorites crashing into the planet. Recently, however, the Veskarium has begun harvesting crystals that can be refined to power solarian weapons, and Vesk-4 now supports an academy specializing in training solarians. Life on Vesk‑4 is generally difficult. Citizens lead austere, regimented lives focused on labor and service, and seismic activity, radiation, and frequent meteorite collisions constantly threaten settlements.

Vesk-5

Encircled by bands of red and purple gases, Vesk-5 is the largest planet and the only gas giant in the Ghavaniska system. The planet’s atmosphere surges with powerful lightning storms and pounding hydrogen rain, and its dense, unstable core constantly ejects valuable ore that the Veskarium monopolizes. Nevertheless, daring adventurers called stormrunners dodge military patrol craft and brave Vesk-5’s dangerous atmosphere to “mine” these profitable minerals using gigantic energy nets deployed from their ships, causing the Veskarium to brand them outlaws—a label that many stormrunners adopt as a badge of honor. Vesk-5’s only native sapient species, formians, reside in orbiting hives in the planet’s small, rocky ring system, and most other inhabitants live on the gas giant’s largest moons.

Vesk-6

Though distant from the sun, Vesk-6 is an inexplicably warm jungle world with relatively low gravity, towering trees, gigantic insects, and other titanic flora and fauna that struggle ruthlessly with one another to survive. A powerful magnetosphere helps the planet retain its atmosphere, but the magnetic winds it generates devastate many forms of technology, with the result that Vesk-6’s surface remains mostly untamed. The planet’s dominant sapient species, the catlike pahtras, initially resisted the vesk invasion, but they were eventually conquered and incorporated into the Veskarium. Most pahtra nation-states signed treaties with the Veskarium that grant them an unusual amount of autonomy, but some groups of pahtra guerillas continue to battle vesk peacekeepers for the liberation of their home world.

Vesk-7 and Vesk-8

The distant, icy worlds of Vesk-7 and Vesk-8 are the outermost planets of the Ghavaniska system, and a posting to either of them is usually a punishment for dishonored vesk or those exiled for controversial or troublesome political views. The two worlds share virtually the same orbit, though Vesk-7’s orbit is retrograde, and twice each planetary year, the planets’ shared moon, Traverse, transfers its orbit from one world to the other. Magical gates linking the planets and their moon activate at these times, allowing the native kothamas of Vesk-7 and Vesk-8 to travel between them. Vesk-7 hosts a small, nominally independent city of people who want to leave their pasts behind them, while Vesk-8 holds a penal colony established to mine the planet’s valuable shimmerstone deposits.

Conqueror’s Forge

Initially constructed to address a perceived technological gap between the Veskarium and the Pact Worlds, this massive space platform and shipyard—with a distinctive silhouette reminiscent of a doshko—has the full status of one of the Veskarium’s core worlds, with its own high despot in command. Equipped with banks of mighty thrusters (and even a powerful Drift engine, if rumors are to be believed), Conqueror’s Forge travels throughout Veskarium space, collecting resources for research and production, manufacturing weapons and starships for the Veskarium’s military, and selling its technological developments to other species to fund additional research. One section of the station, officially denied by the Veskarium government and known only by the codename Vesk-9, is devoted to confidential research, advanced experimentation, and other secret projects that remain classified to all but those with the highest security clearances.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse of the worlds and peoples of the Veskarium. If you’d like to learn more about the Veskarium (or other Near Space cultures), pick up a copy of Starfinder Near Space and keep your sensors locked on the Paizo blog and Paizo’s Twitch stream for more previews and behind-the-scenes details of Near Space and Starfinder!

Robert G. McCreary
Starfinder Creative Director

The Starfinder Roleplaying Game takes place in a galaxy that is vast and full of surprises, so it’s no wonder that our rulebooks occasionally contain surprises of their own—some of which might include unclear meaning, the occasional typo, or the like. At Paizo, we strive to provide clear and concise rules content to help you play an exciting and engaging game, and part of that is clarifying when things go awry.

To that end, I’m very excited to announce our new-and-improved FAQ and errata page! Special thanks to Rei Ko, Maryssa Mari, and Andrew White for building this tool. This new streamlined system will help us efficiently address our community’s most pressing questions in a centralized, easily searchable location.

Illustration by Miroslav Petrov

A handy localized search function helps you find the exact answers you need, so go ahead and search for “forced movement,” “solar flare,” or even “page 179” to highlight questions and errata containing those terms.

As you use this resource (which contains our existing FAQ as well as some new questions and answers), please also continue to visit Starfinder’s rules questions forum. You might find that a helpful community member has already clarified something you were wondering about, and you can join others in calling for a question to be added to our FAQ.

Thanks, and we look forward to answering your questions!

Joe Pasini
Starfinder Lead Designer

It never failed to amaze Devi, coming out of Drift. The sensation, visual and mental, of time and space returning to their normal flow, of planets, stars, and the black expanding to their normal size. The tiny feeling of relief that he’d made it through.

Devi’s route through the Drift had taken just under three days. Even though it was quite rare for Drift voyages that short to encounter disaster, ships traveling in Near Space still occasionally disappeared. Triune’s miraculous space highway had done wonders for the Pact Worlds, opening new planets and cultures for all, but using it wasn’t without risk. During his trip, he’d seen swirling black holes, ancient debris from long-wrecked spaceships, and the far-off silhouettes of creatures with more eyes and tentacles than he could count, but nothing directly threatened his ship and making it safely still felt especially good.

He piloted a heavily modified Ringworks Wanderer he’d gotten for an amazing deal at an underground auction in an off-the-grid port in Akiton. Devi had asked no questions and the ysoki auction runner had named no names. Devi liked to think there was honor among the same species, but even so, he’d personally gone over the ship to make sure there were no problems and after installing a custom Drift engine and new pilot controls to fit his height, the Winding Jaunt was fit for interstellar travel. She could hold a crew of three—her ideal crew size—but Devi could never seem to hold onto crewmates. That’s probably why he hadn’t yet risen high in the Starfinder Society. After life in an overstuffed warren under the eyes of innumerable relatives, he liked traveling alone. It was better that way, out in the black with nothing but his thoughts and the far-off stars.

The Winding Jaunt drew closer to her destination, the orange and purple-tinged planet growing larger on the front display screen. An unexplored planet around a yellow sun, one of the few that could support organic life. One of countless worlds on the edges of Near Space, just outside the unknown edges of the Vast. Devi had listened to a crusty vesk spacer talking about its coordinates while he’d been in port buying supplies to send back to the warren weeks ago.

Devi was glad he’d followed up on the pirate’s drunken boasts. There the planet was, sure as daylight. And if the readings Devi was getting were any indication, this world was filled with all kinds of biodiverse lifeforms. Large bodies of water. Breathable atmosphere, too, at least with the right adjustments to his suit. Some heavy thaumic surges, but an overall stable reality field. This could be his ticket to promotion in the Starfinder Society, crew or not.

As the Jaunt entered atmo, Devi initiated the ship’s landing sequence and set the computer scanners to find a suitable landing zone—a clear field near a forest, but with enough sightlines that he’d see anything overtly dangerous approaching his ship and have enough time to respond. After reviewing scans of several possibilities, Devi chose an open clearing near a lightly wooded area, just a couple of clicks from one of the planet’s oceans.

The Jaunt descended, adjusting its pressure, wards, and shielding so the vessel wouldn’t burn up as it let gravity do some of the ship’s work. Devi used the next hour to review his own supplies. Enough food and water for a few weeks. His weapons and armor were primed and charged, his AI ocular implant set to record and catalog all new forms of life he came across. He even had some trinkets, coins, and other useful items should he come across any sapient species looking to trade. Though that seemed unlikely. So far, the ship’s scanners had detected no trace of technology or sentient-made shelters. With a final push from its thrusters, the ship landed in its chosen clearing and made a scan of the perimeter.

“So far, so good,” Devi murmured to himself and his AI. This was one of his favorite parts. The moment before stepping outside into the unknown. A chance to learn new things, discover key mysteries of the universe. It was like a fine wine or cheese, to be savored for as long as possible.

Illustration by Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo

Devi lowered himself from the ships platform and took a step out into a whole new world. It was more wonderous than he’d allowed himself to imagine. Purple and orange light filled a lush, open forest, covered with vegetation that—at least according to his AI—were not catalogued in the Society’s archives. He could hear far off grunts and screeches, reminding him of birdsong or mammalian apes. The ground felt solid. The atmosphere, with a few minor adjustments, tasted sweet.

The planet was beautiful. Pristine and untouched. He must do his best to keep it so during his exploration. He began to walk toward the trees. It wasn’t long before he encountered his first new species. His AI ran through its database and could find no matches. It bore some similarities to various types of gecko, but it carried its young in a pouch, an adaptation usually reserved for mammalian life.

He watched in fascination as the lizard-like creature pulled a bulbous-looking fruit from a nearby branch and fed it to the young one in its front pouch. Though Devi had taken care to stay upwind from the creature, it must have heard his quiet footfalls in the grass, for the creature quickly turned to face him.

Fleshy pink antennae extended from either side of the creature’s head behind its large eyes and pointed themselves at him. Devi felt a presence in his mind. Although he had never experienced it before, it seemed similar to what he had learned about how telepathy and psychic magic worked. The message in his mind was primal, instinctual.

Prey / notprey?
Hunger / nothunger?
I-not-food. No-food-me. Look-other-place.

The last bit was accompanied by a gentle push on his mind. Devi had not been thinking of the fascinating creature as food, but felt sure that if he had been considering eating it, the influence from the creature may have convinced him, or at least a creature of lesser intelligence, to leave it alone.

“Instinctual telepathy,” muttered Devi to himself. Perhaps his own mind, or his AI, had translated the mental push into words. “Remarkable.”

The creature grew alarmed at his continued presence. Both antennae expanded.

Stepback.
Stepback
Stepback.

Without meaning to, Devi almost took a step back, only stopping himself mid-gesture as he realized the creature had pushed him to do so. Now the creature and its brood looked terrified. Devi tried to calm the creature with his own thoughts, but it only shifted its face quizzically

No-sky-thinker, Devi heard back in his mind. After pondering this a moment, he realized sky meant above, higher-up, that the creature couldn’t parse his… words? He’d need to use something other than words to reassure it.

Devi was no xenodruid, who drew power and magic from the cycles of the natural world, though he’d heard stories of them while still a youngling in the warren. Kasathas debating philosophy with the animals of the forest. Elves disappearing into living trees and emerging from different trees half a world away. Nature priests living for a thousand years or more in an ongoing cycle of rebirth. What would they do, in this moment?

Closing his eyes, Devi tried to think in pictures. He thought of himself eating plants, of gently petting the creature. He thought of his den mothers in the warren, of safety, comfort, and a warm thermal blanket. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the creature had drawn closer to him, the muscles in its body less tense, the ridges on its back no longer standing erect.

Not-prey-not-death, the creature emoted to its child in what felt like a happy croon. Safe-friend.

Devi nodded. The creature’s antennae retracted into the sides of its head and it wandered off, though not before brushing against Devi’s leg in friendship.

Overhead, several winged creatures zipped through the air, moving almost too fast for Devi to see them. Luckily, his AI recorded them through his ocular implant, so he could review the footage later at his leisure. Right now, Devi was more interested in the giant megafauna he saw sipping water from a nearby stream.

Fascinated, he stealthily approached the herd, continuing to record footage through his ocular implant. Their thick hides were dark blue and green, with long tentacles slowly undulating out from their maws and necks. The large creatures took slow gentle sips from the lake they’d gathered around, some pausing to munch on the green grass at their feet. Slow, calm, not too bright. They seemed like peaceable herbivores, so Devi sent a command to his AI to scan them more thoroughly and record all the data. It was something of a surprise when the herd all raised their tentacles, the air about them rippled like water, and the creatures vanished before his eyes.

Devi studied the edges of the lake for some trace of the creatures. It wasn’t until he heard ground-shaking footsteps behind him that he looked over his shoulder. There the megafauna stood, regarding him with strange, solemn eyes. Devi backed away slowly, keeping his eyes on them, but his arms spread wide to show he was no threat.

Had they teleported? There was no sign of such magic. But… he checked his AI’s chronometer to find it was acting strangely. He looked at the ground where the creatures had stood. No foot prints. No recently eaten bare patches in the tall grass.

Had they… but that was… Devi almost thought impossible, but then he remembered all the wonders he’d heard about when joining the Starfinders. Nothing out near the Vast was impossible. Only undiscovered.

If these readings were right, then it hadn’t been his imagination. The creatures had apparently traveled back in time, just several seconds, in only their individual timelines, to the point before they’d reached the lake, just so they could see if he was a threat. Perhaps their tentacles were somehow able to unravel the quantum threads of localized time…

Instinctive, short-range time travel as a natural defense. The Society wouldn’t believe this. The possibilities were staggering. He wondered how far back their range went. Seconds? Minutes? If technomancers were able to synthesize how the creatures could achieve this affect…

The sun began to set beyond the far-off amber sea by the time he finished noting all he could about the creatures. Daylight passed quickly on this world, it seemed. Devi knew it was time to get back to the Jaunt. Two giant moons began to glow in the lavender twilight above. Devi would have to take notes and study just how they affected the sea’s tides, or if they pulled at the planet’s natural magical and life forces.

Back in his ship, Devi powered up the defensive shields and settled into his bunk. He thought about all he’d seen today. His findings would get him several accommodations. This planet was a wonder—and still in Near Space for all that! And its native life! These creatures had adapted to escape and survive in such astounding ways. Instinctual telepathy and short-range temporal travel. It just showed how amazing evolution was.

Only as he started to drowse off to the night-sounds outside the ship did the question occur.

Just what had they evolved to escape from?

For the first time since leaving the warren, Devi found himself wishing he had a crew. Wide awake now, he didn’t think he’d get much sleep tonight. Outside, the sun sank beneath the purple sea and darkness covered the planet. The wilderness grew quiet, as if waiting for something to emerge.

About the Author

Patrick Hurley has had fiction published in Galaxy’s Edge, Cosmic Roots & Eldritch Shores, Abyss & Apex, New Myths, Arcanist, Aurealis, Frozen Wavelets, The Overcast, and The Drabblecast. He is a 2017 graduate of the Taos Toolbox Writer's Workshop. In 2018, he was a finalist for the Baen Fantasy Award. Patrick lives in Seattle and is a member of SFWA and the Dreamcrashers. He still can’t quite believe he has the good fortune to also be an editor at Paizo.

About Tales from the Drift

The Tales from the Drift series of web-based flash fiction provides an exciting glimpse into the setting of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. Written by members of the Starfinder development team and some of the most celebrated authors in tie-in gaming fiction, the Tales from the Drift series promises to explore the worlds, alien cultures, deities, history, and organizations of the Starfinder setting with engaging stories to inspire Game Masters and players alike.

Conspiracies continued.

Hail Starfinders,

The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path has begun and I have uncovered additional resources for Starfinder mystery and conspiracy adventures!

The Unseen are mysterious groups that infiltrate various organizations for their own gain. The only documentation that has been widely distributed can be found on page 497 of the Starfinder Core Rulebook and the Zeffrac Science Platform entry on page 116 of Starfinder Pact Worlds. For speculation, watch Who are The Unseen, Starfinder Lore - Starfinder Wednesday with Starfinder Developer Jason Keeley and Starfinder Creative Director Robert G. McCreary, who some claim are authorities. Note: spoilers for The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path were avoided, but GMs may wish to preview it for their players.

Which races would you add to the Unseen? What is your concept for a character who has gone rogue from the Unseen? At the start of every new Starfinder adventure, it is fun to refer to the Inspirational Media found on page 516 of the Starfinder Core Rulebook. The Expanse series is there. The Cigarette Smoking Man could be added to the list. What are your favorite pop culture conspiracy theory resources?

The Glass Cannon Network produces Androids and Aliens, an officially licensed actual play podcast of the Starfinder Dead Suns Adventure Path. Starfinders can be entertained, informed, and inspired by these professional storytellers as they craft an air of mystery. Note: Rule accuracy may vary.

What Starfinder podcasts, streams, and compatible products would you recommend for enhancing intrigue?

Adventures Ahead!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

A month ago, we presented an array of cards from the Deck of Many Worlds and asked you to fuse those prompts together into a world of your own creation! We got some terrifically creative descriptions of weird and wonderful planets and their inhabitants, but Gyrwynt’s particular handiwork received the most favorites. So, as promised, here is a writeup of their Neidr Nine, ready to be inserted into any Starfinder campaign!

NEIDR NINE

World of Watery Graves
Diameter: x1; Mass: x1
Gravity: x1
Location: The Vast
Atmosphere: Normal
Day: 27 hours; Year: 2 years

Though the ninth planet of its system, Neidr Nine still lies comfortably in its bright sun’s habitable zone due to the fact that the star’s other satellites are clustered together in tight orbits. Neidr Nine is covered in a shallow ocean, with continent-sized masses of floating kelp forests that support much of the planet’s non-aquatic life.

Neidr Nine’s post-Gap history is marred by tragedy. In the first few decades after Drift travel was granted to the galaxy, a civilization of orcs calling themselves the Lesser Belkzen Imperial Alliance attempted to conquer the Neidr system. At a casual glance, Neidr Nine seemed to be an ideal target, with its oceans and landmasses a likely supply of natural resources. Unfortunately, as the Lesser Belkzen ships descended into Neidr Nine’s atmosphere, they discovered an overwhelming abundance of life-forms not picked up by their scanners: proteans, the chaotic serpentine outsiders from the Maelstrom.

What started as an organized colonizing expedition quickly became an all-out war as the proteans wreaked havoc on the various orc landing parties. Though the orcs fought back with gun and blade, the anarchic proteans—for reasons unknown—used a wide variety of tricks and tactics to disorient and kill the interlopers. The seaweed forests came alive to strangle. The waves rose up to drown. Weapons misfired to electrocute and burn. Starship hulls turned to basalt or stranger materials to cause deadly crashes. Soldiers suddenly turned on one another. All thanks to protean magic.

Centuries later, what was the Lesser Belkzen Imperial Alliance is nothing more than a few scattered pockets of orc mercenaries, many of Neidr Nine’s proteans have seemingly returned to the Maelstrom, and the planet’s waterways are haunted by the ghosts of the orcs that were killed there. However, this hasn’t stopped recent attempts to turn Neidr Nine into a home.

Over a decade ago, a collection of mutated astrazoans, each no larger than a pebble, landed their miniscule starship at the planet’s northern pole. They established a bubble city and factory named Reefworks just under the surface of the water in the crevices of a large section of brightly colored coral. The Reefworks astrazoans claim to be able produce a “ghost-proof” glass, citing the safety provided by their city’s bubble as evidence, and are happy to take purchase orders from those who can find them, although it takes them at least a month to manufacture enough of the material to be usable to larger species. Some of these astrazoans admit that the secret of the glass comes from the coral itself, which they claim can speak, though this is dismissed as rumor by Reefworks officials.

More recently, a network of platforms and watercraft has been built on Neidr Nine’s equator by a group of intrepid skittermanders. Known as Floatsbarely, this community is at the whims of the planet’s faint currents. Friendly and welcoming, these skittermanders are willing to trade the trinkets they dredge up from beneath the waves—remnants of the Lesser Belkzen Imperial Alliance’s failed attempt to conquer the planet—for goods and supplies. As Floatsbarely travels close to the places where the Lesser Belkzen orcs suffered their largest defeats, many wonder why the community isn’t routinely harassed by ghosts and proteans. Some believe the evils find the skittermanders inoffensive enough to leave alone, while others believe the furry, six-armed sailors must offer tributes or sacrifices. Religious scholars posit that Floatsbarely must have a divine patron who keeps the residents safe, a fact given some credence by the strange temple-like structure at the community’s center. However, the skittermanders refuse to allow just anyone entrance to the building, claiming safety reasons. If an enquiring individual could discover what secrets Floatsbarely holds (if any), several interested parties would be willing to pay handsomely for them.

Jason Keeley
Starfinder Developer

We’ve got a pair of great scenarios to preview for February, from a mysterious disease that overwhelms a colony in the Vast to a check-in on a fan-favorite species. With those in mind, this month offers great adventures to experience!

Starfinder Society #2-17: The Cost of Living is a new Tier 3-6 scenario written by Andrew Mullen and Jenny Jarzabski, who’ve put in the work to come up with a truly memorable scenario. In this scenario, the PCs travel through the Vast with important medicinal goods to a colony overrun with a new disease. Arriving with the goods, the PCs must ensure the colony survives long enough to administer the newly arrived medicine, but also dive into the cause of the disease. Of course, there’s always an unexpected discovery that changes everything! If you’re interested in taking the battle to “Big Potion” then this is the scenario for you!

Here’s a new critter that the PCs may come across in their travels.

Credit to William Marton

Veteran author (and PaizoCon Gaming Guest of Honor), Kate Baker, brings us Starfinder Society #2-18: Forbidden Tides, a scenario that takes us back to the morlamaw home world of Arniselle. We first encountered the morlamaws way back in Starfinder Society #1-08: Sanctuary of Drowned Delight where a group of Starfinders made first-contact with the walrus-like species and brought them into greater galactic affairs. Since that fateful meeting, the morlamaws have expanded beyond their world, even appearing in the recently released Starfinder Alien Archive 3. This visit back to Arniselle shows us a bit of what the morlamaws have been up to in the meantime. Also, pay no heed to the cover art. Nothing to worry about there. Nope, nothing at all.

While you’re not thinking about that cover art and what it means, have some art for our newest venture-captain, the kalo Suulhu-Huur.

Credit to Doruk Golcu

Alrighty, that’s it for February’s releases! Want a sneak peek into next month’s offerings? Of course you do! March gives us a new repeatable scenario that takes us into the Veskarium, and a scenario that acts as a major pivot point in our ongoing metaplot.

Lots more stuff before then though. Including this afternoon, when we preview the Pathfinder Society offerings for February. Don’t forget to check back!

Until next time,

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

A bearded man clad in blue armor raced through the side corridors of Absalom Station, his gold-trimmed capelet flapping behind him. His eyes wild, he threw glances over his shoulder as he careened around corners and nearly toppled precariously stacked piles of empty crates and garbage. He came to a skidding halt in front of an unmarked door to a nondescript structure and quickly tapped an eight-digit code in the nearby keypad, muttering, “Hurry, hurry” to himself. The multiple locks disengaged with a series of electronic clicks and the man threw open the door with a sharp exhalation. The light beyond spilled into the alleyway.

---

The bright light enveloped Reyard Maldun as he dozed fitfully on the couch in his office. He had sat down for just a moment to rest his eyes after a long day of filing reports, thinking he would soon grab a bite for dinner at the noodle stand just outside the base, but clearly more than a few minutes had passed. To Reyard’s ears, it sounded like the rest of the office was empty. He tried to move his arm to block the light from his face but found that he couldn’t. He was paralyzed. All he could do was breathe and wait.

Seconds later, he felt himself being lifted up, weightless in the beam of light. He began to float gently toward the window. He could see his face—a mask of terror—reflected in the glass as he seemed to phase quietly through it and into the night sky beyond.

---

Illustration by Nathaniel James

Looking at himself in the mirror, Reyard ran his fingers through his matted brown hair. How long had it been since he had it cut? How long since he had taken a shower? Eaten a good meal? Gotten a full night’s sleep?

No matter. Such trivialities were for those not being hunted.

He stepped out of the small bathroom, added to the converted storefront almost as an afterthought. When he realized he might be spending hours, perhaps days, here, he had brought in a canvas cot and had the toilet and sink installed. He had paid the plumber extra to quietly hook into the neighborhood’s water main without alerting the neighbors. The building wasn’t zoned for residential use.

Not that Reyard was living here, exactly. This was merely his command center, his base of operations. A place where he could perform his “unsanctioned” investigations in privacy… Hopefully.

Most of the space was occupied by a large wooden desk, a small server tower, several plastic storage bins, and a pair of free-standing holomarker boards. The bins were empty, their contents spread across the floor: printouts of infosphere pages, cheap datapads displaying a series of blurry photographs, and random pieces of other technology in various states of disassembly. Paper notebooks cluttered the desk, each open to pages filled with dense walls of text and hasty sketches. The tidiest portion of the desk’s surface held an array of electronic tools in neat row. Reyard reached for one.

---

The alien reached for the laser scalpel with long, slender fingers, selecting the instrument from one of others lined up precisely on a tray of shiny, silver metal. Reyard lay on a table of similar material, restrained by several bands of glowing energy. He tried to cry out, but his mouth was frozen shut, his tongue a useless lump of meat. The alien turned back to face him. Though it was no more than three feet tall, it loomed over Reyard as it peered unblinking at his helpless form. It ignited the scalpel and the blackness of its large eyes seemed to swallow him whole.

---

The dark monitors on his desk flared to life, and the computer prompted Reyard to enter a series of passwords and to finally press his eye to a retinal scanner before presenting him with his home desktop. Like the room, the computer was a mess of files and programs, arranged in no particular order.

Reyard connected the computer to the infosphere, entering another password that bypassed the security to prevent such a thing from happening by accident. He initiated a program of his own design that would upload the contents of the server—months and months of his painstaking research—to multiple infosphere sites simultaneously. Using various aliases, he had compared notes with other truth seekers on these sites, some more in touch with reality than others. He knew his pursuers would quickly find and erase all instances of his uploads before the night was over, but he hoped that in doing so, they wouldn’t look for the notebooks he stashed around the station. Reyard looked over at the door. He whispered, “Come on, you bastards. Where are you?”

---

“Where is your head, Maldun? I remember when you were one of my top agents.” Chief Inspector Theovos was a stout korasha lashunta woman with truncated antennae. She sat behind her imposing desk in her Stewards armor and waited for Reyard to respond. He simply stared at his boots and muttered an apology.

“Several months ago,” Theovos said, pulling up a file on a datapad, “You reported that you had been abducted from your office in the dead of night. Building security found no signs of intrusion. And though you claimed to have been operated on, medical can’t detect a thing wrong with you. A psych eval determined you were disturbed by a particularly vivid dream, but you have refused further counseling. Since then, you’ve been pursuing these ‘little gray men’ to the detriment of your other work, dredging up only a mass of ridiculous conspiracy theories and turning yourself into the laughingstock of the base.”

Reyard opened his mouth to speak, but Theovos cut him off. “No. Don’t bother. I’m transferring you to Absalom Station for desk duty until you at least agree to seek help for these delusions.” Her eyes softened a bit. “Reyard, there’s still time.”

---

It would still take several moments until the uploads were complete. Reyard hoped there would be enough time. He peered up at the ceiling. With any luck, he had installed the electronic trip sensors correctly.

The door behind him dematerialized with a flash. A small figure with gray skin and bulbous head stood silhouetted in the entrance.

“Try to take me again if you want, but the moment you step inside this room, a force field will block your exit and half a dozen vidcams will stream your ugly mug all across the infosphere.” The alien didn’t move. A chime from the computer indicated the uploads were finished. Reyard smiled. “That’s the sound of the whole system learning the truth. Hide all you want. Someone will always shine a light in the dark corners of the universe.”

A single word pierced his thoughts.

Incorrect.

Suddenly, the power to the building was cut. The room was plunged into darkness.

About the Author

Jason Keeley is a Developer at Paizo, working primarily on the Starfinder Adventure Path line. His work has appeared in all sorts of products, from adventures to supplements to short stories written for Paizo and many other RPG companies. You can find him (and pictures of his dog) on Twitter at @herzwesten, and also watch him as Professor Nikodemus Thorne on the Oblivion Oath stream every Thursday!

About The Threefold Conspiracy

Launching in February, 2020, with Starfinder Adventure Path #25: The Chimera Mystery, The Threefold Conspiracy is the 6th Starfinder Adventure Path from Paizo, Inc. In The Threefold Conspiracy, what begins as a normal trip through the Drift back to the Pact Worlds turns into a mind-bending whodunit as a crewmember goes missing. The heroes must unravel an intricate web of motives and opportunities before they discover the seeming truth behind the disappearance. However, this only leads the PCs down a twisting path of strange conspiracies and devious machinations that could reach into the very heart of the Pact Worlds' government! How deep are the heroes willing to go to uncover the truth?

For those of you that missed the Starfinder Society takeover of our Twitch stream yesterday, we packed it full of interesting information. For today’s blog, we recap some of the stream and then provide a bit deeper dive into Year 3.

Credit to Nathaniel James

We covered lots of recent announcements, including those of the first 5-nova GMs and the addition of Alex Speidel to the team as our Organized Play Associate. We talked about past sanctioning efforts and our expectation that we would announce future sanctioning at the beginning of a month. We also noted we updated the Regional Support Program for 2020 and that the program would function as it had in prior years. Thurston previewed the last few scenarios coming out in April and May (we will get product pages up for them soon):

• SFS #02-21: Illegal Goods by Joseph Blomquist (levels 1-4)
• SFS #02-22: Rasheen’s Reception by Mara Lynn Butler (levels 5-8)
• SFS #02-23: The Edge of Cadascon by Emily Parks (levels 3-6)
• SFS #02-24: Cornered Rat by Mikko Kallio (levels 9-12)

Credit to Mark Molnar

We also previewed the awesome art for the newest Starfinder Society spaceship – The Gorgon! This piece of art will be added to the ships portion of the Guide for Year 3. At this point, we intend the guide remain a printable pdf download, as we haven’t resolved the bugs on the Pathfinder (second edition) guide and don’t want to swap Starfinder Society assets until we have solved the issues. This news also applies to Achievement Points (AcP) for Starfinder Soceity. Thurston, Linda, and I keep evaluating the situation and will announce changes to either guides or AcP in our Thursday blogs. After meeting with internal stakeholders, we decided to move the Org Play blogs to Thursday to help workflow for Org Play teammembers. There may be days where this slips, but our plan involves posting most Org Play blogs on Thursdays (or sometimes even twice on Thursday!)

Before I turn the blog over to Thurston for an in-depth dive into Year 3, I want to once more amplify the call for volunteers that the Organized Play Foundation made last week. Offering games means lots of GMS/HQ volunteers and we still have spaces available for all the major conventions. You can find a list of rewards and the volunteer applications on the Organized Play Foundation website or in last week’s Call to Vol blog.

See you next week for previews of our montly Society releases!

Until then – Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Woldridge
Organized Play Manager

---

Drumroll please! The Organized Play Team is proud to announce the title of Year 3… The Year of Exploration’s Edge.

After two years of epic space operate fantasy in the Scoured Stars, followed by then our current year of battling against a social media smear campaign organized by a now rather infamous NPC, our third season (Technically forth, since Season 1 spanned two years) takes us to new frontiers. Exploration’s Edge is about getting back to basics as Starfinders and focusing on things that are at the heart of what it means to be a Starfinder. Obviously, exploring sites both old and new is paramount to the theme of this new season, but there’s a few other key elements changing in Exploration’s Edge, so let’s take a look!

First off, as previously announced on our Twitch stream and in a blog, Year 3 opens with a new First Seeker. Ehu Hadif guides the Society into its next phase of missions, and as someone focused on ensuring that the Society gets back to its roots of discovery and research, Ehu really drives a lot of this upcoming year’s core concepts. Along with a variety of faction missions associated with Ehu Hadif, the upcoming Starfinder Society Guide includes a new Second Seekers faction that provides all the boons and bonuses necessary to really champion the cause of the Society’s new leader. We’re looking forward to all the new (and old) characters who take up Ehu Hadif’s cause.

Credit to Beatrice Pellagatti

Next up, let’s talk metaplot. Over the course of our first two years of Starfinder Society, it has been clear that there’s a lot of players who’ve really enjoyed the expansive metaplots that weave their way through many scenarios, but just as many players like the episodic nature of the Starfinder Society. To change things up, we’re pumping the breaks on having one large overarching metaplot and are going to take this opportunity to try something a bit different. With the season focus of exploration lending itself much more to “missions of the month” rather than an expansive story, our plan for this season isn’t to have a single metaplot, but instead break things down into several multi-part scenario series.

Past multi-part stories needed playing in the order published to really participate in the story and we named them as such, for instance PFS 10-22 and 10-23: Passing the Torch series, which had a Part 1 and Part 2. For Year 3, the arcs are more thematically tied together than an A/B/C structure. They actually won’t be numbered by part. Instead, we structured the titles SFS 03-XX: Arc Title: Scenario Title. For organizers, this means you can schedule them in any order!

The Year of Exploration’s Edge will include three storyline arcs, each spread across a variety of levels, but most easily explained as low-level, mid-level, and (excitement) high-level story arcs. Without giving too much away on each of the story arcs, here’s a brief summary of what to expect:

Low-Level Arc (Tiers 1-4 + 3-6): What’s exciting about this story arc is that it’s predominantly going to be Tier 1-4 scenarios, making it the perfect onboarding series of adventures for new players. For our veterans looking to start up a new character, this arc is also going to be our first real deep dive into the worlds of Near Space, with some heavy influence by the Veskarium. With Starfinder Near Space just around the bend, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to really dive into this part of the galaxy.

Mid-Level Arc (Tiers 5-8 + 7-10): The mid-range of levels in Starfinder is where exploration into the unknown can really start to pay off in terms of narrative options, so this arc was the perfect opportunity to explore the Vast. However, in order to better coordinate with a certain upcoming product, one of the main goals for this story arc is to have the Society work alongside a corporation to test out a potential new starship hull. This also presents us with the exciting opportunity to use our Chronicle sheets to give PCs wider customization options for starships, and determine potential future designs used by the Starfinder Society!

High-Level Arc (Tiers 9-12 + 11-14): Though not the highest levels of the Starfinder RPG (we’re getting there), this arc is roughly the highest reaches most of our dedicated players will have PCs in the level range of—barring all your dedicated Adventure Path players out there! For our high-level story arc, we wanted to look back at the Pact Worlds, in particular some loose threads first seeded in early Season 1 and involving the Society’s past actions. With Hellknights on the prowl and a journey that goes from Verces to Eox, what else could be missing? Well, there’s one particular planet in the Pact Worlds star system we haven’t visited yet. Specifically, there’s a certain far-flung planetoid that might be utterly inhospitable to all but the highest-level characters... hopefully you’ll be ready to go there.

OK, so with all the fancy announcements about what’s happening in the Year of Exploration’s Edge, there’s one final topic to discuss today: the opening interactive special. Starfinder Society #3-00: The Last Bite, brings the story of Year of a Thousand Bites to climactic conclusion and serves as the opener to our third year. This Tier 1-8 interactive special has the PCs taking part in one last mission for outgoing First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo, working as a team to thwart the machinations of the mischievous ysoki known as Datch. Written by longtime Paizo author Jenny Jarzabski, this interactive is sure to have the PCs at the edge of their seats as they race to stop Datch from enacting her greatest scheme yet: plunging one of the Pact Worlds’ paramount institutions into chaos. Given the more “personal scope” of this year’s interactive, we opted to really focus on a set of Subtiers, making it easier on those GMs running our interactives. We hope the upcoming Season 3 high-level content accommodates those of you players out there who want to get your players gaming right away!

Come see us at upcoming events, where we can talk more about future plans for the Starfinder Society. Until then, let the hype for the Year of Exploration’s Edge begin!

Signing off for now,

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

Navigating Starfinder Mystery Campaigns

Hail Starfinders,

The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path begins February 26, 2020. What begins as a normal trip through the Drift back to the Pact Worlds turns into a mind-bending whodunit as a crewmember goes missing. The heroes must unravel an intricate web of motives and opportunities before they discover the seeming truth behind the disappearance.

The details of this campaign are classified. Therefore, in preparation for this or any mystery campaign, I’ve scoured the Starfinder archive to collate some general advice and inspiration you.

Let’s set the stage with an excerpt from the six-page article Mystery Adventures by Jason Keeley in volume one of the Starfinder Adventure Path #25: The Chimera Mystery.

“You see, Mrs. Braintner, only you have knowledge of the rare poison that was found coursing through Count Correndo’s veins, only you were seen leaving the hedge maze on the night of the crime, and only you were aware of the last-minute change to the count’s will in which you wouldn’t have received a solitary credit. You had the means, the opportunity, and the motive. Those are the facts, and there’s no use in saying otherwise. Therefore, only you could have committed this heinous murder! Ghenkins, if you would be so kind as to escort this cold-blooded killer to the police hovervan waiting outside?”
—excerpt from the popular weekly holovid “Detective Death”

A MYSTERY’S THREE PILLARS

Whether the mystery occurs on a high-tech space station or in a colony settlement on a backwater planet, the culprit has a means, motive, and opportunity to commit the crime. Some suspects might have one or two of these elements. However, the true criminal must have all three.

MEANS

A suspect has the means to commit a crime if they are physically able to do so. Could they reliable fire a pistol to kill the victim with one shot? Are they dexterous enough to reach the only window that showed signs it was forced open? Do they have the knowledge to be able to create a malignant computer virus?

Some crimes are simple enough that all suspects could conceivably have the means to commit them. Other times, the means by which a crime was committed are unknown or indefinite. In such cases, discovering the culprit’s motive and opportunity becomes even more important. However, knowing that a suspect couldn’t possibly have had the means to perpetuate the crime is probably the easiest way to eliminate them from the list.

MOTIVE

A suspect’s motive for committing the crime should be compelling enough for them to want to break the law or at least act outside norms. Might they inherit a large estate when the victim passes away? Are they trying to keep the victim from revealing a devastating secret? Did they fly into a fit of rage at the mention of some past misdeed?

No criminal acts without a motive, even if the motive has little connection to reality. Money and love are common motives in classic mysteries. Motives might abound in a mystery adventure, and should in a good one. Then, it’s up to the investigators to determine which of the possibilities is strong enough to warrant the perpetrator’s actions.

OPPORTUNITY

A suspect has the opportunity to commit a crime if they could have been at the location of the crime at the correct time. Were they having dinner with a large group of people at the time of the incident? Did they redeem a fare for public transportation in a city hundreds of miles away? Do the security logs show them entering the restricted building before the crime occurred?

Most perpetrators try to have an alibi for when the crime happened. It’s important for it to seem like they had no opportunity to perform the deed. Investigators need to sort through the alibis to discover which are true.

You can proceed by watching How to run a Conspiracy Campaign - Game Master Advice where Jason Keely and Jason Tondro share their wisdom to help you keep the mystery alive in your Starfinder campaign.

For basic Pact Worlds conspiracy related lore, you may want to refamiliarize yourself with the section on galactic threats starting on page 494 of the Starfinder Core Rulebook and Chapter 3, Supporting Cast in Starfinder Pact Worlds.

In the Against the Aeon Throne Adventure Path The Rune Drive Gambit read The Stewards—a detailed exploration of the peacekeeping organization, including a pair of new archetypes for Stewards agents, by Lyz Liddell. Then watch The Stewards, Where X-Files Meets Starfinder!

If GMs want to twist the knife, refer to the Signal of Screams Adventure Path to read Horror Campaigns by Ephidah Ravachol in The Diaspora Strain. The paranormal investigator theme introduced in that same volume might appeal to players in a mystery campaign. Starfinders may also wish to take a look at the history and motivations of the Shadow Plane outsiders known as velstracs, by Isabelle Thorne, in The Penumbra Protocol for dark inspiration.

In the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path, read Criminal Organizations of the Galaxy—a look at a handful of nefarious criminal organizations operating across the galaxy and equipment of use to those who engage in questionable activities, by Lacy Pellazar in Sun Divers. Consider the cult hunter theme with its conspiracy web feat from The Blind City.

Starfinders can acquire PDF or print copies here or at your favorite local or online game store.

Please comment on what Starfinder material inspires the conspiracy theorist in you!

Aaron Shanks,
Marketing and Media Manager

“So I had three planets in my hand, and this crankshaft plays one to the field! I couldn’t have signaled it stronger, so I threw my cards down and drew my—"

Indra flipped the ship’s comm unit off with an exasperated sigh. Most miners he had flown with over the years were tolerable, even companionable in their own right. But this low-rent job buzzing asteroids for starmetal bits had somehow attracted all the boisterous lowlifes that gave miners a bad name. Indra ignored the uneasy feeling of turning off coms, normally a dangerous proposition even this close to a Star Citadel’s protection. Communication was the real lifeline out here, not the sputtering patrol ship assigned to escort, with its half-functioning gyrolaser turret and a pilot who was barely out of flight school. And certainly not his ship’s mining laser, which took a while just to cut through unmoving asteroid rock.

Illustration by Leonardo Borazio.

But Indra loved the special quiet of a coms-dead ship in space, especially when compared to the current alternative, and he leaned back in his seat to drink it in for a moment. Best not to linger, though; there were plenty of dark, mineral-rich pockets in these rocks that a nest of kaions, dangerous magnetic space squids, would love to call home. Indra pulsed his ship’s thrusters and careened around the nearest asteroid’s rocky surface, eyes sharp for the telltale glint of any of several starmetals.

Soon enough, a dull pulsing crackle began to issue from the ship’s ore-detection system, increasing in intensity as he strafed the skyscraper-sized space rock. “What’d we find, B1? More thasteron dregs?” Indra had noticed he’d started talking to himself more and more lately on these uneventful jobs, maybe a bit too much. So he’d taken to talking to his onboard AI instead, which he’d named after all that was left of its worn serial code. Of course, it couldn’t understand anything beyond basic commands, or even respond—it was, at best, a glorified metal detector—but it made him feel better just the same.

“Oh, my—is that…” Indra trailed off as his scanners confirmed what he could plainly see, a dust-dulled hunk of pale-green crystal. It was a sizable chunk of noqual, and Indra quickly set to work flipping switches and toggles to begin extraction. He expertly guided his ship’s mining laser to carefully etch a frame around the embedded starmetal. Periodically, Indra turned off alarms meant to alert him to nearby magnetic disturbances that might signal the presence of a kaion pod—but that were just as likely to be false positives from the aging ship’s own engines.

A few tense minutes of precise cutting later, the ship shuddered and rattled as its extraction arm ratcheted out, snaking among the recently cut debris toward its prize. This particular deposit was shaped perfectly for the arm’s triple-pronged gripping mechanism, and as the noqual wrenched free, dust bloomed from the pocket, the remaining rock looking somehow even more barren and forlorn.

Just as the hunk of noqual ore reached the deposit basket at the rear of his ship, the asteroid in front of Indra began to glow a dull red, bathed by pulsing emergency lights. Confused, Indra tapped his console—had he accidentally turned them on? Then a cold realization struck him in the stomach and he slammed the comms back on.

“—PIRATES! Turn on your comms, you damned fool!”

Indra wrenched the flight stick, the sudden motion disorienting him and causing the ship to groan and shake, to see their escort fighter dead in space, its emergency lights flashing bright red and its slight frame a tangle of shredded hull and transparent aluminum. The other miners were already halfway back to the Star Citadel, and two sleek and deadly Free Captain ships arced around lazily to face Indra’s virtually defenseless vessel, much closer to him than he was to safety.

Thinking quickly, Indra scanned the pitted surface of the asteroid. There, near a shallow-looking cave, were piles of floating scales, shed from at least a pod of kaions—odds were at least even that they were still in there.

“Well, B1, we don’t have to fly faster than the squids…” A few careful shots from his mining laser into the cavern had the desired effect, setting off a flurry of activity as the tentacled creatures began to silently spew forth from their resting place. “…just faster than those pirates.”

About the Author

Joe Pasini is the Starfinder Lead Designer at Paizo. He is steadfast in his belief that gaming is for absolutely everyone, and he’d love to play a game with you sometime! You can find him on Twitter at @joeadultman. His most recent passion project, the Starfinder Deck of Many Worlds, is out now.

About Tales from the Drift

The Tales from the Drift series of web-based flash fiction provides an exciting glimpse into the setting of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. Written by members of the Starfinder development team and some of the most celebrated authors in tie-in gaming fiction, the Tales from the Drift series promises to explore the worlds, alien cultures, deities, history, and organizations of the Starfinder setting with engaging stories to inspire Game Masters and players alike.

The Starfinder Alien Archive 3 Pawn Collection is about to invade game stores near you, and we here at Paizo would love to tell you all about the wild aliens that will soon be available to use as full-color pawns on your tactical battle maps.

Wait, what am I thinking? Telling is fine, but it’s way more fun to show you what these pawns can do!

The encounter below is intended for 1st-level Starfinder characters. It takes place on a small, rocky, terrestrial world with a normal atmosphere and standard gravity, though it can easily be set on any world that PCs visit. You can draw a cozy little mud lair for this encounter’s cuddly denizens on any blank battle map, but it fits particularly well in the crater-like terrain in the southeastern quadrant of the front side of Starfinder Flip-Mat: Asteroid.

You’ll need the following pawns from the Alien Archive 3 Pawn Collection:

• Diatha (2)
• Hobkins gremlin (1)

Giggles In The Muck

The desolate, chalk-white terrain of this rocky planet rises in steep inclines all around, forming a dead-end ravine pockmarked with deep ruts and craters. The air here is crisp and eerily still, though surprisingly breathable to those without environmental protections. A muddy pit burbles at the ravine’s southeasternmost end.

The slopes of this ravine rise abruptly 5 feet into the air. Similarly, the ravine’s ruts dip about 5 feet below the normal ground level. All squares with slopes, ruts, and craters in them are difficult terrain.

The mud pit at the southeastern end of the ravine is about 1 foot deep and full of thick, viscous mud that a natural underground spring keeps heated to a lukewarm temperature. It’s considered a shallow bog (Starfinder Core Rulebook 398), so it counts as difficult terrain and the DCs of Acrobatics checks attempted in its squares increase by 2.

When a PC moves within 25 feet of the mud pit, they hear a strange gurgling noise that sounds like someone is being strangled and urgently needs help. The PC can attempt a DC 13 Will saving throw to disbelieve this assumption. If they succeed, they realize the gurgling is an illusory ghost sound.

Regardless, any PC who moves within 15 feet of the mud pit can attempt a DC 15 Perception check to hear the soft sounds of giggling from a creature lurking in the mud.

When a PC discovers the illusory nature of the ghost sound, comes within 5 feet of the mud pit, or realizes there are creatures in the pit, the pit’s denizens attack (see Creatures below).

Creatures: Crouching in the mud is a hobkins gremlin, who thinks they’re very clever to have befriended a small nest of diathas—slug-like creatures whose volatile internal fluids detonate upon contact with the open air. The hobkins gremlin hopes to lure in and then drive away anyone who stumbles into the area, obsessively stealing any equipment that enemies drop and leave behind.

Hobkins Gremlin

HOBKINS GREMLIN	CR 1/2
XP 200
HP 13 each (Starfinder Alien Archive 3 44)

TACTICS

---

During Combat When combat begins, the gremlin stands up from the mud pit and hovers an inch above the ground using its minor levitation ability, allowing them to ignore difficult terrain. The hobkins then strategically flanks the nearest PC with a diatha, cackling the entire time: “Your shiny techies! Drops them and you will live!”

Morale The hobkins thinks the diathas’ detonate and explosive charge abilities are hilarious, so if a diatha uses either ability, the hobkins can’t help but spend their next move action laughing hysterically at the aftermath. If they are reduced to 3 or fewer Hit Points, the hobkins calms the diathas and tries to surrender, offering the PCs the gold-stitched patches they’ve collected over the past few days (see Treasure below) in exchange for their life.

Diathas

DIATHAS (2)	CR 1/2
XP 200 each
HP 13 each (Starfinder Alien Archive 3 18)

TACTICS

---

During Combat The diathas instinctively try to flank all PCs who threaten them. Whenever a diatha reaches 4 or fewer Hit Points, it uses its explosive charge ability to make a bite attack and then detonate.

Morale The diathas are mindless and thus will fight to the death as long as they are threatened (unless their hobkins calms them).

Treasure: If the PCs defeat the hobkins and search the mud pit where they were lurking, they can find a small, microcord satchel with a successful DC 15 Perception check. Inside the satchel are a dozen dirty arm patches that bear the symbol of AbadarCorp and a 6-digit number, and are embossed with golden thread. All together, the patches are worth 775 credits.

If the hobkins gremlin surrendered and gave the PCs the patches to spare their life, the gremlin explains how they found the patches on a group of fallen merchants in a bunker about 3 miles to the south. The scene was picked clean of all other valuables, but this might prompt the PCs to investigate and continue their space adventures!

If the PCs return these patches to the planet’s AbadarCorp outpost, they’ll learn that the patches belong to members of a fallen merchant expedition that had been bound for the faraway planet of Castrovel. How or why the merchants died is a mystery that the PCs might wish to solve.

Amanda Hamon
Starfinder Managing Developer

Just over a month after the holiday season and there’s more gifts to unwrap! Today, the organized play team is proud to unveil the latest round of sanctioned content for Starfinder Society.

Credit to Mark Molnar

Attack of the Swarm

The Attack of the Swarm Adventure Path has been picking up steam and we’ve just released the final installment in the six-part epic. The story of “Heroes Vs. Evil Bugs” is far older than I am (seriously, ask me my Alien story sometime), and the Attack of the Swarm Adventure Path puts the PCs into that story by setting them right in the path of the voracious alien empire known as the Swarm. To get a new generation of heroes out to battle the Swarm, we’re hoping to enlist a whole lot of Starfinders into the Suskillon Defense Forces, and what better way to do that than by sanctioning the entire Adventure Path for Starfinder Society organized play?

While this opens up six full adventures for existing Starfinder Society participants to enjoy, it’s also the perfect opportunity for new players to step into the wide world of organized play. Exactly how can you play Attack of the Swarm and earn organized play credit? Would you like to know more? It’s easy. All you need to do is play the adventure path, exactly how you’d play any of Paizo’s adventure paths, but at the end of it, you’re eligible for a special Chronicle sheet that can be applied to a Starfinder Society character; the perfect starting point if you’re interested in trying out Starfinder Society organized play.

So pickup a rifle and get ready to defend Suskillon from the Swarm! You can find the sanctioning documents on the individual Adventure Path pages!

Along with the sanctioning on Attack of the Swarm, we’ll be updating the Additional Resources to include the latest character options permissible in Starfinder Society on Tuesday, February 4. As always, a big thanks goes out to our additional resources review team who took time to review this content and help us pick the most applicable rules to include in the campaign.

The Threefold Conspiracy

Art by Doruk Golcu

Alright, how about we take a break from battling against a galactic-level threat to take a luxury space cruise. Nothing could possibly go wrong, right? OK, loaded question! Something does go awry in Starfinder Adventure Path #25: The Chimera Mystery, and it’s up to the PCs to step in and unravel the first step in the great mystery that is The Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path!

With pre-orders for the first installment of the Threefold Conspiracy right around the corner, why not get a little advance preview of the full sanctioning? That’s right, along with Attack of the Swarm, we’re also releasing the first three adventures in the Threefold Conspiracy as sanctioned content! Pre-sanctioning, you say? You heard us right folks, you’ll be able to play the first three adventures as they release and receive Chronicle sheets and organized play credit for doing so. You can pickup the first wave of Threefold Conspiracy sanctioning from each volume’s product page.

As a heads up, we haven’t quite got the Threefold Conspiracy updates into the Additional Resources yet—we want to give our dedicated review team the time they need to check over these rules to determine what is appropriate for the campaign! Once those updates go live, we’ll be sure to post another update and let you all know!

I hope everyone out there enjoys the new content! Come back this afternoon to see what we have in store on the Pathfinder Society side of the house.

Signing off,

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

New year, new stories! January brings us further into the ongoing Year of a Thousand Bites with a standalone (and pretty spooky) Tier 1-4 scenario and a Tier 5-8 scenario that takes us back to a planet we haven’t visited since early in Starfinder Society’s inaugural year. Let’s take a peek at what’s in store...

Starfinder Society #2-15: The Infernal Gallery is a Tier 1-4 scenario written by Jessica Catalan. In a series of freak initially coincidences, this scenario imitated a lot of the beats that were present in the first assignment I ever had for Paizo: Pathfinder Society #1-55: The Infernal Vault. Beyond the obvious name homage, The Infernal Gallery is also written by a fellow Canadian from Winnipeg (something I hadn’t realized when assigning—it’s a small world). This scenario is a stand-alone mission that has the PCs following up on a mysterious discovery in the Drift that eventually leads into a rather diabolic affair. It even includes another sneaky homage to an organization I first created way back in the early days of Pathfinder Society, re-envisioned for Starfinder. All in all, Jessica did an amazing job writing this scenario, as did Linda Zayas-Palmer in developing it.

Seriously, just look at this creepy art!

Art by Doruk Golcu

Speaking of going back to old (but way more recent) memories, Starfinder Society #2-16: A Scoured Home sees the return of the izlaguuns at the skilled hands of Christopher Wasko. This scenario has the PCs travelling to the world of Icefront (or Izalraan, as the locals prefer to call it) after the events of Starfinder Society #1-13: On the Trail of History, in order to retrieve much needed medical supplies for Pact Worlds colonies out in Near Space and the Vast. Of course, the PCs aren’t just going to wait around for those supplies, and izalguun elder Naarma requests some assistance in fixing a buried izalguun starship that seems to be leaking radiation. I’m sure nothing bad will happen on this mission. Nope, not one thing. It should be a cakewalk. Though, I’m not sure why it would be of interest to former First Seeker Jadnura?

Luckily, this time some of the PCs might just be playing izalguun characters, as first made a legal playable choice in this blog!

When I pitched this scenario, Creative Director, Rob McCreary, requested that we include an izalguun robot. So, here’s me fulfilling that promise! Now if only he’ll fulfill his pledge to write me a scenario...

Art by Doruk Golcu

That brings us to an end for this month’s previews! As I get ready to take a small, and much needed vacation, I’m in the midst of finishing off our February offerings, which include some further follow-up on why the Society needs medicinals, as well as another return mission to a popular aquatic world where we might have seen our first playable Starfinder Society species emerge from...

If you missed the earlier Organized Play blog, which had an update on the Organized Play Foundation’s calls for convention volunteers and a preview of Pathfinder Society offerings for January, you can find them here.

Until next time,

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

Two weeks ago, we shared some of the different world concepts members of the Paizo staff came up with for the same array of cards from the Deck of Many Worlds. Now it’s your turn! Using the rules reference cards from the deck (a free download available here) design your concept for the world shown below and propose it in the comments. The submissions that are marked as a favorite the most times will be included in the running to have an official writeup by a member of the Starfinder team in a forthcoming blog entry into the Codex of Worlds!

I can’t wait to see what world concepts you all come up with, and I’m excited to see one of your ideas reflected here in a few weeks’ time. Best of luck, Finders!

Mark Moreland
Franchise Manager

The most exciting thing (to me) about the Deck of Many Worlds is that you can shuffle up and deal millions of different worlds to prompt multiple galaxies’ worth of ideas. But for this blog, I wanted to show off how even just one of those millions of possibilities can provide plenty of different ideas, all on its own!

To that end, I’ve asked folks from all over Paizo to take a look at the world below and, using the system included in the Deck of Many Worlds, fire off some ideas about this world and what’s happening there. The attributes of this world (as determined by the cards) are: it has Earth-like technology, low magic, its residents get along relatively well, it’s got a neutral evil vibe, and religion is influential. Each author put their own spin on this combination, leaning on or subverting various aspects to tell their own story.

Of course, I’d love for you to chime in down in the comments with your own ideas and interpretations!

(And for the record: while I picked one of my favorite terrestrial worlds, the rest of the cards were drawn completely at random.)
—Joe Pasini, Starfinder Lead Designer

A habitable world with no known sapient lifeforms to compete with, was tempting on its own, but the addition of the strange continent sized pool of magic spilling out into the galaxy made Hwatroth irresistible for hanakan explorers. Hoping to quickly settle the area around the magical anomaly, they perhaps did not study the local ecology as much as they could have, missing the presence of the vicious and unpredictable mountain eels. Several of the hastily established settlements have been decimated, and more are in danger as their defenses are inadequate and the eels are congregating around the sudden bounty of a new food source. Division, rumors, and insurrection are running rampant within the hanakan population, with factions pushing for different defensive or offensive strategies. Recently they started offering bounties on mountain eel carcasses and a mysterious sect of verthani have begun cashing in. However, the bloodbath may have attracted more than just opportunistic hunters.
—Sara Marie, Customer Service & Community Manager

On this world, a planet-wide society of hanakans have determined that a minor event of the past—two people meeting, the previous extinction of the once common mountain eels, a particular engineer becoming ill—caused the rending beacon to destroy the majority of a continent. They’re fairly sure, based on their calculations, that sending a small team back in time to prevent what appears to be an unrelated event will cause a butterfly effect that will prevent the catastrophe hundreds of years later. This means that anything else changed could lead to something much worse or change the entire layout of the society by the time the team returns to the present. We might even draw another card out of the deck to determine how else the world was changed if the team successfully completes their objective, or they accidentally cause any other changes!
—Samantha Phelan, Customer Service Representative

The world of Toriax has changed drastically since the day the beacon of eerie purple light burst forth from the continent of Maties. Even before the earthquakes stopped and the dust had settled, it was clear that something was wrong. Magic users have been unable to access their powers since that day. While it was initially thought that the earthquakes were responsible for the planet-wide tech outages, not even the most brilliant scientists among the survivors have been able to bring those vital services back online. Ships are grounded, communication with other worlds seems impossible, and those who thrive on taking advantage of chaos have wasted no time. Soothsayers who once claimed to see the future despair at this unforeseen emergency, and plead to their gods to restore a modicum of normality. Until the source and cause of the beacon is discovered, Toriax is a wounded planet in need of help.
—Katina Davis, Webstore Coordinator

An ecological research team from the Pact Worlds was recently granted access to this uninhabited and protected world in the Ash’Akan system to investigate concentrated energy signatures typically found only on the moon Hallas. But the team made disturbing discoveries once they landed, finding eerily silent forests scattered with the crystalline forms of wild creatures, and entire towns filled with the crystal sculptures of Hanakans going about their daily life. The guards have skirmished with a large Mountain Eel once or twice, but little else on this planet moves. But a faint purple light builds on the horizon and with each passing day, the research team has started to see more signs of life as large amorphous forms dance through the sky and shadowy figures dart through the forests. One day, one of the figures, a hanakan attendant, emerges from the trees with a message: help.
—Joan Hong, Customer Service Representative

Not native to the planet Sevestere, the verthani are an offshoot of the Pure One sect that left Verces millennia ago to establish a home free of invasive magic and technology. Here, they’ve established a capital city of hundreds of thousands, all working together toward a peaceful—yet controlled—society free of the bonds of magic and tech. Near the equator is a massive, stationary cyclone of energy 1,000 miles wide known as the Clashenmere, the only area on the planet where magic functions. Within the vortex, life is destroyed, and ships are torn apart. A 20-mile wide rim of dark clouds and lightning-filled skies circling the Clashenmere marks the territory of the hanakan, a race of magic-using creatures that are survivors of a failed teleportation several hundred years ago. They seek to build a magical craft capable of departing the planet or a portal that will return them to their home world; their disdain of technology-powered ships has kept them marooned here. The most well-known danger on Sevestere are mountain eels, which in addition to residing in the numerous mountains of the planet are also numerous around the Clashenmere. The most dangerous creatures on the planet are rumored to be the hallajins, though their purpose for being here is as mysterious as ever.
—Jim Butler, VP of Marketing & Licensing

Strange bedfellows, the magical hanakans and the technological verthani, yet they made their peace on the world of Herris deep in the Vast. Grudging acceptance of each other’s talents allowed both civilizations to flourish briefly on the sedate and resource-rich planet, but ultimately their incompatible natures meant that they could not come to each other’s aid when the hallajin arrived. The hallajin seemed to be trying to make contact, but any such contact caused tremendous psychic pain and usually resulted in the one contacted losing their mind. The hallajin prevented anyone from leaving the planet, though it isn’t known whether or not doing so was with intent. The last joint act of the two societies on the planet was to erect a beacon, broadcasting both magically and technologically, warning all who approach to stay away. Some may choose to ignore the warning, but at their own peril.
—Glenn Elliott, Program Manager

Not every civilizations attempt at drift implementation is successful, and this world is a living example of the consequences of failure. Regardless of the claims on how the accident began a massive storm now rages around the world's initial drift experiment. Pockets of reality are consumed by the storm as creatures from beyond imagining spill forth in their place. Of the expeditions sent in to shut down the experiment, only a single group has returned. The team confirmed that their world is being siphoned into the drift, but also had stories of a fiery hellscape erupting around them during their exploration. This only served to reinforce a recently popularized theory: the planets core itself is slowly being phased into the drift as its mantle destabilizes.
—Erik Keith, QA Engineer

In the early days of verthani space travel a group of Pure Ones settled this world, where they could be free of technology once they dismantled the ship that brought them. No one knows if the beacon summoned them, or if they found it, but for generations it provided for them. Eventually the hanakans came, claiming a voice they worshipped for as long as they remembered told them it needed them here. And finally, the storms began. Strange lighting bombarded the beacon for days and ghostly beings flittered around it. Then everything stopped, the storms, the beacon, the creatures. For a short time, things returned to normal. But now the land tears itself apart as it moves, shifting to form itself around the beacon. The stars and constellations move in the sky. The past and future collide in temporal distortions. And the beacon sits at the center of everything.
—Diego Valdez, Customer Service Representative

Two separate expeditions have been dispatched to investigate this odd world, dubbed “The Font”. Its namesake physical feature is an enormous fountain of ionizing radiation shooting from the core of the planet directly away from the system’s star, into deep space. A contingent of hanakans are currently en route via their new experimental “Gate-Thrower” magical vessel. The hanakans have lodged an official complaint indicating their belief that this planet is home to their legendary “Ssssithhh’sssthek Temple” and is forbidden to all other species. However, a verthani science expedition recently arrived with intentions of investigating and possibly harnessing the fantastic power output of the Font. They reported bizarre and ancient alien ruins riddled with mountain eels. As they got closer and closer to the font itself, the reports became more and more fantastic, erratic, and nonsensical, before ceasing entirely.
—Cosmo Eisele, Sales Associate

Hanakans and Verthani have worked together for centuries, combining their innate magical ability and advanced cybernetics acumen towards all manner of legendary magitech that propelled their shared culture to new heights. In a great college, their brightest and most capable worked tirelessly on a new invention - a magitech vision portal that would permit them to see the future and change it to suit their whims. Unfortunately, their invention backfired and exploded, consuming the college and its occupants and opening a massive trans-dimensional rift to all corners of the galaxy. Hallajin, mountain eels, and many other dangerous creatures immediately began pouring through the rift, and within a few short months the planet was largely overrun. Now, the remnants of the once-proud hanakan/verthani civilization are locked in a desperate struggle to survive - and just maybe to figure out a way to reverse the portal that remains open to this day.
—Brian Bauman, Software Developer

Clearly what we have here is an advanced magical society that foresaw a future in which the planet's oceans were decimated, proactively created a complex planet-spanning arcane apparatus to preserve and protect them, and inadvertently triggered a global cataclysm that forced the world's aquatic and land-dwelling life to switch habitats, obviously resulting in mass extinctions for any species not already living near a coastline. Unless you're trying to tell me "mountain eels" were already a thing.
—Andrew White, Front-End Engineering Lead

The Tempering: a time of travel for any kasatha reaching maturity, when the young adult seeks out new experiences, and in doing so, discovers himself. Some accept exciting internships, and others join crews to travel beyond the stars—proud, noble, traditional stuff. It was lost within this wistful self-reflection that Tahja gradually regained consciousness following his accidental dive off a skybridge, his fall unceremoniously broken by a dumpster. In his dawning lucidity, he gazed about and wondered.

“How did you end up here?”

Tahja reflexively jumped, or tried to, instead slipping on a lumpy trash bag below. The question mirrored his own thoughts, yet it wasn’t his own. In his scramble for stability, he looked up and locked eyes with a shocked shirren, her compound eyes bulging slightly in alarm at his sudden movements.

“Whoa, hey, hang on, calm down! Too much telepathy? Fine, hey—unarmed, see?” She raised her two main arms, splaying her three fingers and rattling her neck barbules in alarm. After a few tense seconds, she continued with her reedy voice. “That was quite a fall. You okay? Need an ambulance?”

“No. No authorities,” Tahja gasped, using his lower arms to sit up while his uppers straightened his mouth scarf. “I need somewhere to hide.” With a glance upward toward the twisting, towering skyscraper cast in late afternoon light, he added, “Just for a few hours, until sundown.”

The shirren’s antennae bobbed with amusement. “Oh wow, you really hit your head. Sundown? You know you’re on Verces, right? Tidally locked? Always the same time of day?” She cocked a claw toward the nearby skyscraper as Tahja’s eyes widened in confusion. “Hell, this is Building 5 for the Nabokon Broadcasting Network.” She punctuated the announcement by tapping the sewn patch on her coveralls. “It’s been late afternoon here since the Gap—perfect hour for filming drama.”

Verces. Nabokon. Tahja tried to remember his cultural training. That put him somewhere in the nation Kashak, known for its cybernetics research and heavily augmented populace. That also put him a long way from Absalom Station. The last he remembered, he’d been early in his Tempering on the station, short on credits, and several pages deep into the contracts for a short pharmaceutical testing gig. He figured he would get a few shots, earn some money, and then depart for new adventures. Instead he’d woken up from surgery less than an hour ago, his body no longer entirely his own. He dimly remembered doctors trying to calm and sedate him before he panicked, broke free, and started to run. His fall had just been his latest gamble in escaping his pursuers.

Verces — illustration by Mark Molnar

The shirren eyed him sadly. “C’mon, you’re clearly not doing well. I’m just coming off duty and can put you up for a bit. Name’s Estrik.” She reached up and clasped his hand, pulling him up and out.

“Tahja Maur of Clan Estu, House Truyark, Essence of Ipu—and thank you,” he responded while twisting his leg free from where it had punched through the dumpster lid. “But I’m being chased by dangerous people.” With that, he extracted his left leg, a cybernetic limb of hex-plated skin covering powerful joints and pistons.

Estrik’s barbules quivered with admiration as she inspected the limb with interest. “No kidding! Dermasteel weave?” She flicked the knee. “Is that adamantine? I bet it’s the debt collectors after you, with this thing’s price tag. Weird that it doesn’t even have a maker’s mark, though.” The shirren’s antennae suddenly twitched and she straightened with fear before pushing Tahja behind cover and pathing a silent warning into his mind. “We have company!”

“That’s because it’s stolen,” remarked the alley wall as a hidden figure’s skin dropped its camouflaged pattern. Eight feet tall with bulging all-black eyes and pale, chameleon-like skin, he was a verthani, the planet’s native humanoid species. His mostly nude frame had allowed his chromatophores to hide his approach, but it did little to hide the artificial muscle fibers and untold other augmentations that bulged under his skin. “This is NextStep business. Move away from the subject, bug. This doesn’t concern you.”

“Rude!” Estrik wailed before telepathically gushing to Tahja “You’re a criminal? Wanted by a real bounty hunter?” Her eyes developed an admiring sheen. “It’s just like in the stories—like Astral Eternities or Galaxy in your Eye? I’m such a fan! So. Cool.” She paused in hearing his wordless response before adding “Oh yeah, I know another way out of here, why?” His response came in the form of a swift kick that sent the dumpster careening across the alley, powered by his leg’s mechanical strength. It slammed into the verthani and threw him against the nearby wall, stunning him.

“The escape?” Tahja insisted. Estrik goggled at the dumpster for a second before whipping out a keycard, running to the far end of the alley, and swiping open a service door. The two slipped inside before slamming it closed. “Where to from here?”

“Zakol, one of the camera operators,” Estrik wheezed through her flaring facial spiracles. “He has a bunch of family near Darkside. It’s a trek, but maybe they could get you out of here?” The shirren mentally conveyed a vague map interspersed with halfhearted assurances and excited squealing. The chatter ceased as the door shuddered from a gunshot outside and the blaze of a plasma torch punched through the lock. “New plan: we run.”

By the time the outside door clattered open, Tahja had already bounded down the service hall, up two flights of stairs, through a cluster of interns, and into a studio—all while Estrik apologetically struggled to keep up with the kasatha’s cybernetically enhanced strides. They caught their breath for a moment before Estrik telepathically buzzed, “No, no, we can’t stay here.” Tahja stared back blankly, prompting the shirren to continue. “Hear that? They’re filming Galaxy in Your Eye, only the premier verthani serial romantic drama. You know, the star-crossed lovers forbidden to marry by caste, all set during the Gap? Thing’s practically a religion for some folks. Like, I’m not even allowed to clean within a floor of this place!”

“No other choice I see,” Tahja muttered, looking for a concealed means of crossing the occupied set being watched by a live studio audience. He tiptoed toward the ongoing scene featuring fantastically beautiful actors.

“Zfezar,” demanded the Augmented verthani woman, her steely arm and reinforced spine belying the melodramatic intensity in her voice as she wilted in her partners arms. “Were our families to find us so, what would they say?”

“To hell with families, traditions, and castes, Apsoria!” responded her masculine counterpart, his chest emblazoned with Ibra’s divine constellation, marking him as a God-Chosen. “Too long have we danced to their wishes yet denied the duet sung by our hearts alone! Here, just the two of us, nothing can stand in our way.”

The stage door shuddered, signaling the bounty hunter’s arrival. As Estrik worriedly looked back, Tahja pushed forward onto the set, wasting no more time. The actors, interrupted on the cusp of embrace looked up with shock, the director off-screen seemed ready to shout, and the hundred-strong audience gazed hungrily at this new development with an audible gasp. Tahja took to one knee, showing his cybernetics openly. “My lady, I come with dire news. Your family has learned of your actions.”

“Ha, they dare not intervene!” laughed Apsoria, improvising, though her narrowing eyes conveyed how suspicious she was of the kasatha’s sudden appearance.

“More dramatic!” Estrik mentally insisted from her hiding spot.

“And...they have sent assassins, my lady!” Tahja added quickly. “By slaying your love, ah—“

“His Occult Eminence Zfezar”

“—his Occult Eminence Zfezar,” Tahja continued, silently thanking Estrik for the prompt, “you will be bound to honor your arranged marriage!”

The audience’s gratifying gasps mollified the director, who sat back to observe this strange turn, and the actors adapted flawlessly to the changing script. “Villains!” growled Zfezar with a flourish of his cape.

Just then, the stage door fell open, and the bounty hunter stepped into the lights, at first with menace but then with quizzical uncertainty. As Apsoria and Zfefar berated the supposed assassin, the bounty hunter struggled to push past them, shouting. “Brightside blind you all, stand aside!” His throat swelled as his head tilted back before he spewed a bolt of electricity from his biotech dragon gland. Tahja’s cybernetic leg kicked into action—literally—flinging him out of danger’s path.

The audience shrieked with delight as Zfezar attempted a stage punch that the bounty hunter easily dodged before hurling the actor aside. He was just beginning spit another attack when Apsoria struck in earnest, hitting him in the throat as his dragon gland built up charge. The hostile verthani’s eyes went wide as the gland fired prematurely, shocking him and sending coruscating lightning ringlets dancing over his body. Smoking slightly, he dropped to the ground.

Without hesitation, the two actors took each other in their arms. “My family has spoken its peace, and I have delivered my answer, Zfezar. No matter what lies ahead, we will face it...”

“...together,” he finished.

“And scene!” cried the director, punctuated by the audience’s applause. She hopped off her chair and snagged Tahja by an arm. “You know that there weren’t kasathas in this system during the Gap, right? And that makes what just happened more than a little anachronistic?”

“Um, yes? About that?” stuttered the young kasatha.

“Ha! Soesn’t matter! The show’s set in the Gap for a reason: can’t historically disprove anything we film! And now this is just what we need to shake up the story: aliens! I’ll get those damn writers to revise whatever sorry script they had in store. Let’s talk numbers—got an agent?”

Tahja desperately looked around for any help in salvaging this awkward moment, but he saw only Estrik. Her arms were quivering with excitement as she pathed emphatically to him one more time: “So! Cool!”

About the Author

John Compton is the Starfinder Senior Developer at Paizo, Inc., having recently joined the team from years creating organized play adventure content. He has written extensively for Pathfinder and Starfinder, including adventures, setting content, and rule books, and before working for Paizo, he was a teacher, practicing archaeologist, and archaeometallurgist. You can find John on Twitter and Paizo-facing Discord servers @Archaeotagh.

About Tales from the Drift

The Tales from the Drift series of web-based flash fiction provides an exciting glimpse into the setting of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. Written by members of the Starfinder development team and some of the most celebrated authors in tie-in gaming fiction, the Tales from the Drift series promises to explore the worlds, alien cultures, deities, history, and organizations of the Starfinder setting with engaging stories to inspire Game Masters and players alike.

As the year steadily gets closer to ending, the Organized Play Team has been hard at work preparing for next year’s content. While we’re still far away from announcing exactly everything that is on the horizon for Starfinder Year 3, the team wanted to take some time to discuss an important change coming up in the Starfinder setting. Specifically, the change in leadership of the Starfinder Society—a new First Seeker!

Back at the end of November, the Organized Play Team hopped onto the Paizo Twitch Steam to detail a whole bunch of new information. During this event, we announced the winner of our recently completed survey to determine the Society’s new leader going into Year 3. While many heard the news live on air, we’re pleased to announce here, in the blog, that the Starfinder Society’s new First Seeker is Ehu Hadif Ko’ra Amares of Clan Tolar.

Ehu — Credit to Beatrice Pellagatti

Ehu, a male kasatha, came up in our initial selection process as something of the “quintessential Starfinder”. He’s about bringing the Society’s goal of exploration and research back to the forefront of the Starfinder Society’s agenda. Given the Starfinder Society’s escapades in the Scoured Stars and their more recent multimedia bouts in the Pact Worlds, it seems that Ehu is poised to bring the Starfinder Society back to basics in terms of individual missions and an overarching goal. His connection with the Kasathan deity known as Talavet also allows for the inclusion of some previously unexplored religious elements of Starfinder.

Organized Play Campaign participants can expect to see Ehu take the stage as First Seeker during the events of this summer’s interactive special, but until then, First Seeker Luwazi Elsebo still has some loose ends to deal with. As we make the transition into our new First Seeker, players should note that Luwazi’s Second Seekers faction will move into an inactive status.
Important Note: this isn’t traditional retirement, just that the factions likely won’t have major story roles in coming seasons (similar to the Jadnura faction) and we will not have new faction boon options. This does means that a new Second Seekers (Ehu Hadif) faction will launch with the new season, so be on the lookout for a new faction and a bunch of new related character options!

In increasing the living world feel of the Starfinder Society, we decided to start small and see how the experience went, which is why we limited the candidate pool to those characters achieving the Second Seeker Capstone Boon. Analyzing the process, including feedback on selection and voting, we are ready to expand how we handle living world options. In the future, expect Capstone Boon options involving inclusion in the campaign to open up for All Factions. Expect to see this (and several other quality of life changes) in the Year 3 Guide update, set to come out this summer!

Overall, the team is incredibly excited in the direction that Ehu Hadif is going to take the Starfinder Society into Year 3. I’m personally excited for the wide variety of scenarios that this new First Seeker is going to let us tell, and the ability to focus on some particular story arcs that fans have cited interest in since the early days of the Starfinder Society Organized Play Campaign. Trust me when I say, you’ll lose your minds—both literally (for your character) and figuratively (for you)—when you hear some of the stories we’re going to tell with Ehu Hadif leading the charge!

To a bright future,

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

Starfinder is now available on Amazon Alexa!

If you missed our earlier announcement, we’re launching a unique voice-based experience of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game today on Amazon’s cloud-based voice service, Alexa.

To play, all you have to do is say, “Alexa, play Starfinder” on any Alexa-enabled device. That will take you to the free pilot episode, “Scoundrels in the Spike,” adapted from the Starfinder Beginner Box adventure of the same name.

If you don’t already have an Alexa-enabled device, Alexa can be downloaded and installed for free on a variety of devices like phones, tablets, or computers. Just make sure you have a strong data connection (wifi is probably best).

I don’t want to spoil the wonders of Absalom Station’s Spike brought to vivid life by professional voice actors, immersive soundscapes, and screeching space goblins, but I will say that Starfinder on Alexa is an experience unlike any other, and with Alexa as your Game Master, get ready for some out-of-this-world excitement!

But the adventure doesn’t end with “Scoundrels in the Spike.” We’ve got more Starfinder on Alexa premium content planned for early 2020, with an adaptation of “Incident at Absalom Station,” the first volume of the Dead Suns Adventure Path. We’ll be sure to keep you updated with details on that as we get closer to release. For more information go to the Alexa Starfinder Skill page.

The pilot episode is free and is available in English in the United States. It will expand to Canada, Australia, the UK, and India in mid-January. So give Starfinder on Alexa a try, and let us know what you think in the comments section below!

Robert G. McCreary
Starfinder Creative Director

The year 2019 will go down as one of the busiest and most satisfying for the Paizo goblins and skittermanders here at Paizo HQ. From the release of the Starfinder Beginner Box, to the update of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, to fighting cave raptors in the warehouse, and finally to the launch of Pathfinder Second Edition, it has been a great year!

As thanks to all of you for joining us in our adventures, we would like to offer you a holiday discount code good for an additional 10% off a single order on paizo.com. Just enter “holiday20” during checkout, and we’ll apply the discount before adding shipping and taxes. This is a one-time-only code, so make sure to fill your shopping cart with lots of gaming goodness before using it! This discount isn't valid on subscriptions, preorders, backorders, non-Paizo downloads, or gift certificates, but it does stack with other discounts, including the Paizo Advantage. This holiday code expires at 11:59 PM Pacific Time on January 31.

From all of us here at Paizo we wish you and yours a happy and safe holiday season!

Lisa Stevens
CEO
Paizo Inc.

The bite of the usqui, a blood-loving fly native to the rainforests of Naleobaseq, delivers a parasite that renders victims psychically mute and deaf. Its effects on telepathic races are quite profound. The resulting silence, a cold psionic exile from kith and kin, so shocks the infected that they’ve been found in fetal curls, talking to themselves to keep from feeling so utterly alone.
—Entomological Survey of the Vast, Vol. 131.7

To kill time during the stakeout, Shaeon composed psychic poetry for her beloved, Kiress. Not far away, vermilliath flowers whorled in scarlet murmurations above the city’s defensive walls, and sometimes, when the wind shifted, she heard the rush-water sound of fluttering blossoms. Enthralled by the shivers it gave her, Shaeon grafted it synesthetically to the sibilant where Kiress’s name appeared in the poem, along with petrichor scent of the promenade

By the time Mataras kissed the horizon, the sky blushing in reply, most of the basement shops fronting the curved street below had closed. Some laborers trudging home past the fortune teller’s place bore the telltale circular welts of animute infection, unaware a black-market cure beyond their finances waited behind the door with the great eye sigil. Shaeon felt a fleeting temptation to let them know, to watch them batter down that door. But, since they weren’t receiving anymore, she’d have to yell the news down to them with lungs and lips, with a tongue that always found speaking uncomfortable. Such things, made for air and food and water, felt clumsy and inadequate for real communion.

Whatever Oryniri did with his stakeout time, tucked into the shadows on the other side of the pedestrian bridge, he wasn't sharing. Taking this to mean he might be bored, Shaeon telepathically sent him the newest line of her poem.

He pathed back with a terse nice, and they spent the next few minutes in psionic silence.

Illustration by Mark Molnar

With twilight there arrived two yaruks, which reared into the sky to feast on the flying blossoms like whale through krill.

The first telepathic alarms were rippling across the populace when one of the mighty beasts came down hard with its forelegs to crack the surge wall, then clambered onto the crumbling fortification, horned head darting from new heights to chase a river of petals.

Guards raced from streets and minor walls to defend the surge line. The steeple-high creatures weren’t carnivorous and feasted on neither bone nor blood. But they got such a narcotic buzz from vermilliath petals that most adults of the species were thoroughly addicted. Enough that they’d cheerfully endure bullets and lasers to gorge on gardens of the stuff, careless of what they trampled under their massive hooves.

Think our thief will capitalize on this distraction? Shaeon pathed.

Probably, Ory answered.

They stayed put, stayed quiet.

As the yaruk on the wall charged bellowing through a phalanx of defenders, a young lashunta urchin scurried past the fortune teller's storefront. Though the Face wasn’t a telepath, she employed a few. Two days earlier, they’d marked this girl as one of her messengers.

Any second

Inside, the Face crouched to peer through the window of her shop, adjusted her mask (which today resembled an impressionistic insect), and then passed through her door, hunching so her head wouldn’t scrape the doorframe. From the middle of the street, she watched the wall battle for several seconds before a passing man bumped into her.

The bumper—a korasha lashunta, stocky and scarred—paid the scene on the wall little heed and instead hurried into a narrow cut-through that zagged up to Expatriate Highway.

Handoff, Ory pathed. I've got the tail.

On relay, Shaeon answered, and darted across the crushed-shell blocks of the Gyre.

She was rounding the Gyre’s south bend when Oryniri’s mind blurted in alarm, then went silent.

Gods be still. No, dammit, no.

Feet a blur, Shaeon took the broad slabs of the Thirty-Four Steps two at a time. She brushed past a stubbled, thimble-hat tourist gaping at the yaruk brawl and reached the spot where the cut-through, the Steps, and highway met at odd angles.

Oryniri’s crumpled form lay in the cut-through, blood seeping into porous stone. A touch from her mind told her it was just fluids now, soul already departed.

On the other side of Expatriate Highway, a stocky shadow slipped into an opposing alley. Shaeon sprinted after him, arc pistol drawn. The shrouded alley bent among buildings like a branch seeking sunlight before opening into a cloistered courtyard.

There, a man waited, backdropped by—

—the glittering tower of a lashunta corporation, reflections of the fight on the wall playing out across its silvered surface. Each flash of laser and cannon flare limned the tower's angles and protrusions, giving an impression of—

Shaeon shook her head.

A gun pressed to her neck.

“On my wrist is a telepathic scanner,” said a voice by her ear. “If you so much as bleat telepathically, it’ll show, and I’ll remove your head at the neck."

Shaeon’s mind cleared. Someone had diverted her with that tower imagery. Nice job, too. She guessed whoever did it was lashunta, like herself. Lashuntas practiced diverting as children, squaring off like gunslingers. Fastest mind wins. Slowest comes to in the middle of the quad, pants around his ankles. She wasn’t used to being the slow one.

Across the courtyard, the korasha raised one hand, pacifying, the other hovering near a gun on his belt. “Come on, man. We don’t do this.”

“I do,” said the man behind her, voice human, accent from off-world—Akiton, maybe. The tourist from the Steps, she realized. “Already did her partner. Now drop the weapon.”

Shaeon dropped her pistol before realizing the human might have been talking to his partner.

“She was diverted,” the korasha said, his hand unmoving. “I could have escaped.”

“Yeah? And what was she gonna do when she recovered?”

“I’m fast.”

“You ain’t faster than thought. You’d be surrounded in no time. Come on, Romalo, you’re the telepath.” Romalo winced at the disclosure of his name. Shaeon realized her chances of survival just dropped. “What the hell were you thinking, going back to the fortune-teller?”

“One of the flies bit my cousin,” Romalo said, peacemaking hand extended, two fingers and thumb loosely curled. “I had to do something.”

“No you didn’t. You put all of us at risk, you monumental fool.”

Fair critique. An alien disease, animute was hard to diagnose. After the first symptom, a victim had maybe six hours to take labat before the affliction became permanent. All of which meant anyone responding quickly to an animute infection was probably in-the-know. After learning the Face obtained labat days before the heist, and guessing she must have supplied the team, Ory and Shaeon had monitored the Face in case the outbreak forced her customer back. Clearly the human was the sensible one—but also the one immune to the disease’s worst symptom, telepathic isolation.

“Someone’s gonna see us,” the human continued. “We need to kill her. Now.”

All of us, the human had said. Implying more than two operatives on the heist. How many in this alley?

Romalo’s hand caught her eye. Two fingers fully extended.

Shaeon had always been fast at diverting, but she’d never tried to beat a mechanical sensor before. She counted down with her left hand against her leg, one two—Romalo’s eyes twitched—three.

She hit the human with her psychic poem.

Romalo drew, fired, and the human slumped against her, tumbled to the ground, pushing Shaeon down with his dead weight.

Then Romalo tried to flee. But, as he reached the mouth of an alley, Shaeon pathed an image of her sighting his back with her recovered arc pistol.

He stopped.

My cousin needs me, he begged.

Your fault, she thought, getting to her feet. You brought the usqui flies. Released them.

He slumped. They were never supposed to spread, just disable the guards’ telepathic alarms.

But they did spread. In the smugglers’ defense, they’d sterilized the queen that they used to whip up the usqui swarm. But it died, and they apparently had no idea that some warrior usqui mutate in the absence of queen pheromones. Into queens. Now Qabarat had an invasive species and Shaeon had a case to close.

I know. But my cousin—

She shot him.

It was an arc. He’d recover. In a cell.

---

Quiet reigned in the villa, all its bustling servants gone.

Shaeon frowned at the unwonted stillness.

In the reading room, Kiress's parents faced each other, tear-streaked, locked in silent argument. Kiress was outside, staring at the courtyard wall, back to the door.

Everything o—? Shaeon started, and then recoiled.

Where Kiress’s mind should have been, she’d found nothing.

As she drew close, Kiress looked up and the cause was revealed. Shaeon traced the telltale bumps on her neck.

“How long?” she asked.

“Five hours.”

“Five?”

“It’s okay,” Kiress answered. “He’ll be back soon.”

A shiver settled into Shaeon’s spine.

“Pardon?”

“You haven’t met him, but my cousin’s back on Castrovel now, and he’s gone to fetch a cure,” Kiress said, waving a hand at the wall. “Sit with me and wait.”

Mind numb, unable to speak, Shaeon sat.

“Any minute now,” Kiress continued. “You’ll see. He’s never let me down.”

About the Author

A product of California, Graham Robert Scott now resides in north Texas; a born scofflaw, he owns neither surfboard nor cowboy hat. His stories have appeared or are forthcoming in Nature, Barrelhouse Online, X-R-A-Y, and Pulp Literature. He tweets semi-regularly at @graythebruce and maintains a blog at hemicyon.wordpress.com.

About Tales from the Drift

The Tales from the Drift series of web-based flash fiction provides an exciting glimpse into the setting of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game. Written by members of the Starfinder development team and some of the most celebrated authors in tie-in gaming fiction, the Tales from the Drift series promises to explore the worlds, alien cultures, deities, history, and organizations of the Starfinder setting with engaging stories to inspire Game Masters and players alike.

A draconic dilemma, a hostile hallucination, a gate to hold, a gate to break, a descent into the Darklands, and both monsters and horrors for your pockets — these are our new wares to outfit your adventurous expeditions this month.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #150: Broken Promises (Age of Ashes 6 of 6)

The Age of Ashes Adventure Path concludes! Age of Ashes is the first Adventure Path using the brand new rules for the Pathfinder RPG. This sixth and final adventure was written by Luis Loza for 18th-level characters, and also includes a gazetteer of the utopian city of Promise, advice for GMs on how the events of this campaign can change the world, a wealth of new options for player characters to discover, and more than half a dozen new monsters!
Check out the Age of Ashes Trailer!

Starfinder Adventure Path #23: Hive of Minds (Attack of the Swarm! 5 of 6)

Allies send the heroes into a hostile and alien landscape. "Hive of Minds" is a Starfinder Roleplaying Game adventure for four 9th-level characters. This adventure continues the Attack of the Swarm! Adventure Path, a six-part, monthly campaign in which the heroes fight back against a ruthless alien invasion. This volume also includes an explanation of the psychic constructs called mindscapes, an exploration of psychic magic, and a selection of new Swarm monsters and other mind-rending threats.
Check out the Starfinder Attack of the Swarm! Trailer

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Monster Codex Pocket Edition

With Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Monster Codex, fleshed-out hordes are at your fingertips! This volume presents a trove of entries for 20 classic monster races, giving you new ways to use your favorite monsters in a variety of encounters and challenge levels.

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Horror Adventures Pocket Edition

Pathfinder First Edition Horror Adventures gives you everything you need to bring nightmares to life. Within these pages, you'll find secrets to take your game into the darkest reaches of fantasy, where the dead hunger for the living, alien gods brood in dreams, and madness and death lurk around every corner. Rules for players and GMs alike pit brave champions against a darkness capable of devouring mind, body, and soul. To prepare to face such torments, the heroes can take new feats, learn powerful spells, and even acquire holy relics—for they'll need every edge possible to survive!

Pathfinder Flip-Tiles: Darklands Perils Expansion

There are dangers in the Darklands that defy reason or imagination! Flip-Tiles: Darklands Perils Expansion is the newest expansion to Flip-Tiles: Darklands Starter Set. With 24 full-color 6 x 6-inch double-sided tiles, each stunningly crafted by cartographer Jason A. Engle, you can spelunk precarious pitfalls, balance atop falling stalagmite bridges, and brave molten chambers. All perfect for the next time the heroes delve deeper into the twisting passages under the earth!

Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: City Gates

Defend or storm the battlements with Flip-Mat Classics: City Gates, a gorgeous double-sided battle-scale map of two complete fortified gates! Each side presents a different city entrance. One side features the gate into a prosperous city, while the other is the fortified gate of a dreary mountain-hugging town.

Also, coming your way this month are four new Organized Play scenarios and a Quest. These are a great way to step into some shorter winter escapades for homebrewers and Society players alike. Look for the previews here tomorrow!

Aaron Shanks
Marketing & Media Manager

For months now, we at Paizo have been holding onto an incredible secret: Starfinder, the science-fantasy game that mixes dragons with robotics and magic missiles with high-tech hacking, is coming to Amazon Alexa!

Let me repeat that. This is not a drill.

On December 16, a voice-based version of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game will be available for free on Alexa devices through Amazon’s cloud-based voice service. We’re giving you a heads-up on this release so that you can track down any of the Alexa-supported devices and, if you want, play the moment the free episode drops!

At launch, just say "Alexa, play Starfinder!" on any Alexa-enabled device. You’ll beam straight into an adapted version of “Scoundrels in the Spike,” the adventure I wrote for the Starfinder Beginner Box.

The adaptation script was written by none other than James L. Sutter, former Starfinder Creative Director and an amazing author whose work really makes this voice experience shine. Incredible voice actors, sound effects, and music further make this game sing. Specifically, when Starfinder Creative Director Robert G. McCreary and I heard the rich soundscapes of Absalom Station and felt the tension of combat with space goblins, we were gleefully astonished. This project has brought Starfinder’s world to life just as we imagined, and for me it was a truly awe-inspiring experience.

The rules Alexa uses to run the adventure are similarly adapted from the Beginner Box. Starfinder fans will recognize the player character options as Iseph the iconic operative, Quig the iconic mechanic, and Navasi the iconic envoy. What’s more, Raia the iconic technomancer can serve as a best friend and sidekick in these adventures. Simply put, there’s a lot to recognize and love if you’re already a fan of Starfinder. If you’re new to the game or even to tabletop RPGs in general, this experience is a fantastic gateway to a lifetime of adventure and fun

Beyond the pilot episode, Paizo and Amazon have big plans to bring more paid episodes of the Starfinder voice game to Alexa. But we’ll save that reveal for another blog—and probably a press release or two.

Before I smoke-bomb away from this exciting announcement, I’d like to just gush for a moment about how much of a dream this project was, both as a creative and as a manager. As we’ve spun up this initiative, I’ve gotten to work with some fantastic folks at Amazon, whose excitement for this project has left me energized and astounded at the power of tabletop storytelling across all media.

I’ve also gotten to work extensively with Rob and Sutter on this project. It’s been like a wonderful reunion of sorts, bringing me back to the days of working with those guys on the Starfinder Core Rulebook—and it’s made me realize how much I miss working with Sutter, especially since we both have a tendency to shriek and cackle when we get excited in creative meetings. I miss making that beautiful music with you, James.

Nostalgia aside, the entire Starfinder Alexa project has involved great team members, and the Starfinder team as well as folks all across Paizo have done a great job giving us feedback on the in-development game and generally supporting us along the way.

Now, time for that smoke bomb! Check out “Scoundrels in the Spike” when it drops, and stay tuned for more Paizo-Amazon news soon to come!

Amanda Hamon
Starfinder Managing Developer

Archon Studios begins shipping the second wave of Starfinder miniatures on December 16, Wave 2 includes Ferani Nadaz (Downside Kings boss), Obozaya (Vesk Soldier), Anacite Laborer (robot), Ryphorian Skyfire Pilot, Skittermander, and Luwazi Elsebo (Starfinder Society). Check out the sculpts below.

Head over to the Archon Studio website and prepare for adventure!

Kickstarter Backer Purchases: Backers who purchase any Starfinder mini from Archon Studio—whether that’s a new mini or a duplicate of a Kickstarter mini—will also receive any released Kickstarter miniatures due to that backer for no additional charge. Miniatures purchased through the Archon Store are shipped by Archon Studio worldwide. Make sure to include your pledge details during checkout.

Kickstarter Backers That Do Not Purchase: Approximately every 6 waves, Archon Studio will send out miniatures to backers at no charge. Archon Studio will be fulfilling backers in Europe, and Ninja Division will be shipping to the rest of the world. Paizo does not have specific answers to fulfillment questions: if you’re a backer with a question about your Kickstarter products, you’ll need to post the question to the Starfinder Masterclass Kickstarter page.

The store at paizo.com is an online retail hobby destination for gamers that carries the latest products from top hobby game publishers. You can also find the newest releases, as well as accessories like dice and maps, miniatures, T-shirts, and goblin plush toys, to quickly replenish your adventuring supplies for the next dungeon run.

You can go browse over 3,500 products that are on sale now. And on Friday morning, we will unveil over 1,000 new discounts, including Pathfinder First Edtion, Starfinder, accessories, and third-party products.

These discounts will be available for two weeks, so make sure to equip yourself with great deals while the golem’s got it!

Katina Davis
Webstore Coordinator

The Starfinder Character Operations Manual expands the universe of what is possible for characters of any class or race, providing new choices at every stage of character creation and advancement. Whether you are a veteran or new to the game, there's something there for you!

Now, retailers have their print copies, subscription PDF and print copies have been sent, and non-subscription PDFs are available for purchase. The new Starfinder Character Operations Manual has hit the streets. For your convenience (and because showing off my co-workers’ brillance is my favorite part of my work), I have bent time and space to gather the previews, with their vivid science-fantasy art, all in one place! #talentcrush

(Front Cover)

First, we introduced the new iconic characters in our Meet The Iconics series. Subsequently, in our Iconic Encounters web-based flash fiction series, we received a glimpse into the life and personality of each of them. Developer Jason Keely put Barsala, a.k.a. “Dr. B,” the new iconic biohacker centerstage. Then we saw Barsala test a hypothesis in The Scientific Method. Managing Director Amanda Hamon manifested Zemir, the iconic witchwarper. Later, she revealed more about Zemir in The Reality Next Door. Lead Designer Joe Pasini shown the spotlight on Velloro, the iconic vanguard. And then he showed Velloro in entropic action in A Hail Of Bullets.

In Starfinder Wednesday! on our OfficialPaizo Twitch channel, Social Media Producer Payton Smith got interactive with the new classes. Most of the Starfinder team, including Jason Keeley, Joe Pasini, Amanda Hamon, and Creative Director Rob McCreary, sat down together and—with the live assistance of chat— built a biohacker, a vanguard, and a witchwarper. All the Starfinder Wednesday! videos have been archived on YouTube for you to watch now, with one possible exception. This week’s episode showcased the New Roles Starship Combat, and it is currently available as Video on Demand on Twitch at the time of posting. If you have been lost in space, then it is on YouTube too!

(Table of Contents)

In our final preview blog articles, we explored alternate ability score adjustments, racial traits, and new feats, gear, and class options that are available to everyone in Character Operations Manual Preview: Race Options by Jason “Jake” Tondro, Starfinder Developer. We previewed the new feats and class features in Classing Things Up With Starfinder's Newest Book by John Compton, Starfinder Senior Developer. And we introduced you to a new mode of play in System Of A Downtime by Joe Pasini.

(Back Cover)

All 160 pages of the hardcover Starfinder Character Operations Manual are available today at your favorite local game, book, comic shop, online retailer, and here at paizo.com. We’d love to hear what you think on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube, and our Starfinder Forums.

Adventures Ahead!
Aaron Shanks
Public Relations Manager

Feeling overwhelmed by the wealth of new Starfinder species and class options in the new Character Operations Manual? Well, take a break and spend some downtime with me, and I’ll introduce you to a new system introduced in this very same book.

I love downtime—it’s the home of the montage and the “Meanwhile…”—and it lets you build those flavorful interrelational stories that bring motley crews together between their high-octane adventures. Downtime requires you to take at least one day off. You can still rest for 8 hours, but otherwise you can’t be out there beating up aliens and shooting down Corpse Fleet ships if you really want to focus on your downtime activities.

Let’s you and I hop in a starship and head to Near Space. With 3d6 days of travel ahead of us, we can try out some of the dozens of downtime activities covered by this system!

To start us off, why don’t you spend a few days using the manage course activity? If you succeed, you’ll shave some hours off our trip! I’ll use the maintain readiness activity in the meantime—if we’re interrupted by some combat in the Drift, we’ll get a bonus to our initiative.

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

After that, it’s time to lounge! I’ll probably watch some trivids and get some vidgaming done in the crew quarters, and you can head to the tech workshop and do some arts and crafts. The next day, we’ll both automatically get some temporary Hit Points and a +1 morale bonus to our first saving throw.

I suppose after that, we’d better get ready for action. We could individually drill specific skill tasks, potentially letting us take 10 on those tasks the next day (even under stress), or we could work together to coordinate, training together to gain bonuses on covering or harrying fire (or further bonuses if we spend multiple days).

And heck, once we reach our destination, we can keep the good (down)times going with activities like build shelter, carouse, practice profession, or secure area, all giving us specific benefits or bonuses, as we choose!

But we don’t have to do any of those; there are more than a dozen other options—grab the book and let me know which you prefer!

Joe Pasini
Starfinder Lead Designer

We’re mere days from getting ahold of Starfinder’s new Character Operations Manual, a book that’s overflowing with new character options. Although I didn’t get to work on this book directly, I got the benefit of flipping through all of its fancy new feats and class features with the exuberance of a fan—a pleasure I experience far less often as a developer.

Envoy: The envoy gets all sorts of potent new alternate features that let your PC become the combat-negotiator they always dreamed of becoming—or wield mystical spells in addition to their charismatic tricks. However, the one that captures my attention is called polymorphic disguise. With this alternate class feature, your envoy can ditch their expertise ability and instead become a shapechanger! You can design your envoy’s alternate form using the polymorph spell (from Alien Archive 2), and your envoy always adds their expertise die when disguising themselves in that form. As your envoy gains levels, their shapeshifting power improves by using higher and higher levels of the polymorph spell. What’s more, in place of learning new expertise talents, your envoy can instead learn additional forms to expand their shapechanging arsenal!

Mechanic: If you caught me on the recent Starfinder Wednesday Twitch stream, you’ll know I’m a fan of powered armor in Starfinder. I’m also a big fan of the mechanic class, so I was overjoyed to see an alternative to the artificial intelligence class feature called experimental prototype. Your mechanic chooses either to develop an experimental weapon prototype or an experimental armor prototype, and let me tell you: the armor is damn cool. In addition to gaining heavy armor proficiency, your mechanic is able to fit extra upgrades into their suit, reprogram the armor on the fly to better defend against specific foes, and at most levels rebuild the armor into a higher-level version of itself. At 5th level, your mechanic automatically becomes proficient in powered armor, and your mechanic can transform their armor prototype into powered armor. At higher levels, your mechanic can start adding great powers like flight and energy shields.

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

Mystic: If you’re like me, you adore many of the mystic connections but often see one of the connection powers and say “Hmmm, I see how that appeals to some folks, but that’s just not what my character wants.” What if you could shop around for new connection powers on a case-by-case basis? Enter epiphanies, a new mystic option that provides a host of universal connection powers that anyone can take in place of one of their connection’s current powers. Would you rather your akashic mystic gain the mystic reach epiphany in place of her peer Into the future connection power, extending the range of their spells by casting them as full actions? Maybe your star shaman wants to branch out by picking up a second connection in place of their starlight form power? Or are you like me and just want to give a mindbreaker mystic the 1st-level epiphany called wrecking fists, letting them punch anything that has the gall to be immune to mind-affecting effects? Now you can!

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

Operative: A large portion of the operative’s options involve a really fun alternative to trick attack called stunt and strike, and while I’m excited for you to explore that on you own, I want to call out a delightful alternative to the operative’s fast movement ability: quick cover. Why run when you can hide? You’re able to upgrade the degree of cover your character is gaining from the environment, with tiny impediments that would grant no bonus giving partial cover (“I take cover behind the toaster. No, really.”), and gain cover from whatever would provide just partial cover. I really enjoy manipulating an encounter’s environment with improvised weapons, cover, and other tricks, so this ability’s right up my alley.

Solarian: The Character Operations Manual introduces shields, which the new vanguard class wields admirably. But why should vanguards get all the fun? What if instead of manifesting a photon-axe or solar armor your character could instead generate an energy shield that boosts your AC? What if I also told you that you can slap people with your energy shield to make an unarmed strike? What if you could slap a solarion weapon crystal into your character’s shield to change the type of damage that the unarmed shield slams deal? What if I stopped asking leading questions and just got to the point? The solar shield solarian is really cool! And if you can stand to wait until this book hits shelves, you can also read up on the long-anticipated solar flare solarian option that can fire ranged energy bursts!

Soldier: Do you ever run into a character option that suddenly inspires a whole character concept and spurs a frantic rush to research all of the other options that could potentially contribute to that character’s new schtick? I know I do, and I’ve been through that at least three different times when finding a playable alien that has the natural attack racial trait. Like, do I want my vesk to tear limbs from her foes as the rest of the group watches with a mix of horror and envy? Darn right I do. And now others can enjoy that same fascination thanks to the ascetic warrior option that exchanges your character’s heavy armor and heavy weapons proficiency in order to deliver devastating unarmed strikes. And if your soldier already had the natural attacks ability, you can instead add weapon special properties to their strikes, such as block, grapple, or stun. If you’re excited about unarmed prowess, you might also like some of the new feat boosts—those are special gear boosts that modify specific combat feats your character might have grabbed. I really like grabbing strike (modifies Improved Combat Maneuver [Grapple]), which lets you automatically grapple a foe after you use an unarmed strike against them and beat the target’s KAC by 8 or more.

Illustration by Matthias Kinnigkeit

Technomancer: For those who love casting spells, the technomancer’s spell cache gives you all the power you need to fuel your character’s technological mischief. But for me, the ideal technomancer lives for cybernetic augmentations, slowly transforming into someone who’s as much machine as mortal. That’s why I’m so excited for the cache augmentation, a new option that replaces spell cache and cache capacitor with a cybernetic or magitech augmentation that evolves as your character gains levels. Plus, at higher levels, every time your technomancer prepares for the day, they can configure their augmentation to boost their choice of Reflex saves, Fortitude saves, attack rolls, or key skill checks.

Illustration by Matthias Kinnigkeit

There’s so much more beyond this that the Character Operations Manual has to offer, so get ready for its official release on November 13th!

John Compton
Starfinder Senior Developer

Starfinder has over 100 playable species now, but one of the things we wanted to do in the Character Operations Manual was give a little love to the 13 species found in the Starfinder Core Rulebook (including legacy races). What does that mean? That means alternate ability score adjustments, alternate racial traits, and new feats, gear, and class options which—while perhaps pioneered by a given species—are actually available to everyone.

Let’s start with the simple stuff: ability score and racial trait options unique to each species. So, for example, some androids were built for manual labor; instead of high Intelligence and Dexterity, they’re stronger and more able to endure tough working conditions (Strength and Constitution). Species known for settling diverse environments have options that model adaptation to high (human), low (human and vesk), or zero gravity (human and ysoki). There’s a lot more.

Every species also has one or more options that replace each of their racial traits. A player who doesn’t like the shirren’s Cultural Fascination ability, for example, has three (three!) new choices. Cultural Assimilation gives you a bonus to Disguise checks instead of Diplomacy, as you blend in with an adopted species; Individual Obsession allows you to pick an additional class skill and get an automatic skill point every level, along with a +2 bonus in the chosen skill; and Linguistic Acculturation swaps out that Diplomacy bonus for more languages (a lot more).

But what I find really cool are feats, gear, spell, and class options, and if your character has the right physiology, you can take these options no matter your race. Check out kasatha, for example: You’ve got a bunch of new feats for characters with four arms. (How many new feats? Four, of course!) There’s even a new class option for soldiers who wield three or more weapons at a time: the Fourfold Tactician. As followers of the Four-Armed Conspiracy™ can tell you, you don’t have to be a kasatha to qualify. Even a human or lashunta soldier with a couple of cybernetic arms can use the Fourfold Tactician fighting style to fire two automatic weapons at the same time! (We call that class feature “Overkill,” and you can see why.) Other class options have no requirements at all: the Crusader connection for mystics, for example, or the vesk Battlemaster fighting style for soldiers.

On top of all this, there’s spells and gear. Now your ysoki can cast shrink object to fit that big special something in their cheek pouches (at high level, a really big special something).

The rest of the Star Chamber will be chiming in here over the next few weeks with more glimpses into the Character Operations Manual, but let me tell you, you are not going to be disappointed. This book blows Starfinder character creation wide open. From now on, you’ll never feel like your hero is just like everyone else.

Jason Tondro
Starfinder Developer

“There's nothing we can do—all systems are jammed! Prepare for emergency landing!”

As Captain Navasi's frantic voice echoed throughout the Sunrise Maiden's bridge, a sinking feeling settled into the pit of Zemir's stomach.

There were many realities in which the Maiden was an unreliable starship, but this wasn't one of them. Something wasn't right.

But that didn't change the fact that the ship was quickly plummeting into the atmosphere of an uncharted planet in the Vast. If the crew didn't act quickly, that desolate rock would be their grave.

Pushing aside his fear, Zemir leaned back in his chair and cleared his mind. In an instant he sorted through a thousand iterations of this crash landing and clung to just one—the one where everyone survived.

“Hard to starboard!” Zemir boomed. “Aim for that plateau—it's our only shot!”

“You heard him!” Navasi shouted, cutting in the ship's retro-thrusters to try to slow its descent. “All hands! Starboard side!”

Obozaya and Quig scrambled to the captain's terminal, the bulky vesk's eyes wide with adrenaline and the scraggly ysoki shrieking profanities. They forced their weight onto the controls, pulling the levers far past their safety points, desperately hoping the ship could find the landing spot Zemir had seemingly pulled from thin air.

“That's it,” Zemir encouraged them, clinging to the single survival scenario he foresaw. “We're going to make it!”

The Maiden's proximity sensor screamed a warning. The ship slammed three times into the hard ground. But sure enough, thanks to the reality Zemir had plucked like a grain of sand from an infinite beach, they crashed in one piece.

Once Navasi caught her breath, the captain stumbled over to Zemir and clapped him on the back.

“Another day, another of your mysterious magic tricks,” she said, grinning with relief. “I don't suppose the universe told you why we all just nearly died in a fiery crash, did it?”

Obozaya strode up behind Navasi, glowering with anger now that the danger had passed. “If there is an enemy here, Zemir, tell us. It is dishonorable to sabotage the ship,” she growled.

Zemir forced a characteristic chuckle and shook his head. His companions knew his powers didn't work that way.

“Look, I don't have all the answers,” Zemir said. He grinned impishly. “Where we are, and why we're here—well, I'll need some help figuring that out.”

Just then, a telltale pinging rang out from the Maiden's comms. Quig slid over to examine the readout.

“Hey,” the gruff ysoki barked. “While you three are over there solvin' the world's mysteries, somebody near us on this rock needs help. Distress signal incoming.”

Hesitating, Navasi turned toward Quig. “But the ship—how damaged are we?”

“Structural damage minimal. I'll reset our systems and we'll be peachy again in an hour. Seems we just hit an electronics-jamming field.”

Obozaya hefted her doshko and looked at the captain, who nodded.

“If someone else hit that field and didn't have someone with Zemir's talents aboard, it's possible there's another crew outside lying on death's door,” Navasi said. “Obo, Quig—you up for a search and rescue? Zemir and I'll watch the systems.”

The vesk and ysoki nodded, saluted their captain, and headed toward the ship's airlock.

Zemir's eyes narrowed. Again, the subtlest of ripples tickled his senses. Something was not right, but without any sense of what or why, Zemir did the only thing he could.

“I'll join the rescue,” he said, winking to Navasi and striding purposefully to catch up with his companions. “You saw that green sky? Seems like a view I can't miss.”

The captain nodded, and the three set off for the source of the distress signal. Despite the rocky planet's abandoned desolation, its atmosphere was surprisingly friendly. Helmets off, the crew sauntered past chalky rock formations, skirting steep valleys and stagnant pools of dark liquid. Knowing Zemir's love of culture and cuisine, Quig joked about making the witchwarper a “sludge soufflé,” while Obozaya missed the jest and offered to share traditional vesk baking recipes.

It was strangely like any other friendly stroll—until the twinge in the back of Zemir's mind became a nauseating wave. Gritting his teeth through the mental assault, Zemir saw dozens of beady eyes and vicious tusks beginning to rise from crevices in the surrounding rock.

The creatures' hulking, scaled forms and snake-like tongues were unmistakable.

“Riveners!” Zemir shouted. “It's an ambush!”

The tines of her doshko roaring to life, Obozaya gave a fearsome battle cry and lunged toward the nearest riveners—powerful and nearly mindlessly aggressive lizard-like monsters often used as shock troops. Not to be outdone, Quig snatched his flamethrower from his back and braced himself to unleash a gout of flaming petrol.

But Zemir stood back, the wisdom of infinite possibilities settling on his shoulders.

The odds, he noted, were not in the companions' favor. Zemir counted a dozen riveners rushing toward him and his friends, who were already beginning to falter. And Zemir was certain he saw a different humanoid form scuttle away from the battlefield.

The twinges he felt made sense now. There was another witchwarper at hand—that's why everything from the moment the Maiden's systems jammed until now felt like it existed in the reality next door. Someone was out to destroy Zemir and his friends, and it seemed they were willing to change existence itself to do it.

Not if Zemir could help it, he thought, as he scrambled atop a rock formation high above the fray.

Illustration by Igor Grechanyi

Gritting his teeth and stretching out his arms, Zemir focused his mind and began to call just a taste of a terrible world into their own. Hellfire rained down from the sky, the ground boiled into lava, and grasping hands sprang from the rocky earth to clutch at the slavering riveners' feet.

Of course, much of it was an illusion. Zemir's friends knew that; they had witnessed his raw power unleashed before. Still, Obozaya and Quig turned to stare at Zemir in terrified, respectful awe.

The riveners, on the other hand, screamed with horror as the spectral hands grabbed at them and the hellfire burned through their skin and flesh.

“Finish them off!” Zemir shouted. He leapt off the rock formation to pursue the opposing witchwarper. “Do not follow me!”

Purple robes billowing behind him, Zemir dashed to the ravine where he'd seen the mysterious humanoid figure disappear. But when he vaulted down, a different sight stole his breath.

Instead of a person, there was merely a metal hatch set into the ground. It was partially ajar, revealing a passage that led deep below. And on the hatch was a familiar crest: a stylized “IEM.”

The crest of the Institute for Extraordinary Minds.

An academy for witchwarpers.

Specifically, Zemir's alma mater—and one whose masters held a fierce vendetta against the fugitive who abandoned three of his classmates in an alternate reality many years ago.

Reflexively, Zemir lifted his comm unit to his mouth to warn Navasi back on the Maiden. His past had come to call, and now they were all in danger.

“Captain, they've found me,” he said.

No response.

“Captain?”

A scream, and then nothing but static.

About the Author
Amanda Hamon is the Managing Developer for Starfinder, and you could say science-fantasy is her jam. Her game design, worldbuilding, and adventure writing have appeared in dozens of RPG products, including the Starfinder and Pathfinder roleplaying games. Mostly, she just likes doing stupid voices for characters at the table. You can find Amanda on Twitter at @amandahamon.

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.

Illustration by Remko Troost

Zemir Solodan was born with a gift—but not everyone saw it that way at first.

The only son of miners on a remote planetoid called Pikora 317, tucked within the widest orbital ring of the gas giant Preluria in Near Space, Zemir spent his earliest days exposed to the harsh reality of life in a corporate labor colony. Determined to provide for their son, Zemir’s parents eked out their existence in the Freugan Salvage Company’s starmetal mines. The Solodans never went hungry, though the only delicacies young Zemir enjoyed were occasional tastes of citrus-chocolate pastries, sweet-milk custards, and savory meringues—gifts from the Freugan executives’ own ample stashes of treats imported from Absalom Station.

Even as a toddler, Zemir’s gaiety and thirst for new experiences were readily apparent. The vivacious boy quickly became known for his curiosity around the sparse facilities of the salvage company’s residential complex on Pikora 317. He developed many troublesome talents, such as sneaking into seemingly inaccessible places, turning neat collections of supplies into epic messes, and even finding ways to manipulate control panels into colorful, sparking displays. In fact, whenever a commonplace utility malfunctioned around the Solodan home, his parents joked that the “Zemir effect” had struck again.

Around Zemir’s fifth birthday, it seemed that the boy’s body began to betray him. Always known for eating anything with aplomb—especially new foods—Zemir seemed to sicken overnight. His appetite was as strong as always, but he gained weight, took on a sickly pallor, and grew weak. Despite his healthy diet and robust physical activity, testing indicated that the boy was dangerously malnourished. Even stranger, after every meal, Zemir’s breath smelled eerily similar to his favorite sweet treats, perhaps an indication of a dangerous blood disease, doctors speculated.

One by one, physicians ruled out all known ailments. Though his spirit never dampened, Zemir’s condition continued to deteriorate, even after his family sold most of their belongings to afford vitamin supplements, pediatric medicinals, and batteries of experimental medical tests. Desperate, and carrying news from the pediatricians that Zemir might eventually perish, his parents took to posting details of their son’s strange condition on every related infosphere portal they could find.

In just a few days, the Solodans’ pleas elicited a mysterious message from a Dr. Fainoro Corone, who said he suspected a rare and unexplainable diagnosis and requested to observe the boy in person. Dr. Corone’s long list of credentials indicated he was an expert in “exceptional pediatric conditions.” He hailed from a facility on far-off Arkanen, a Liavaran moon home to scientists, spellcasters, and—as Zemir’s parents believed—medical doctors.

With no other options, Zemir’s parents readily welcomed the quiet damaya lashunta doctor into their home. For a full day, Dr. Corone watched Zemir’s every move, focusing on the boy’s behavior at meal times. As Zemir slurped at his nutritional broth with surprising glee, Dr. Corone studied him closely. Slight mumbling accompanied his look of suspicion, as if the doctor communed with some internal eldritch knowledge.

On the second day, Dr. Corone attended breakfast at the Solodan house wearing a pair of thick, circuitry-etched bracers. Saying nothing, he watched Zemir’s father spoon broth into his pallid son’s mouth. Just before the gleeful boy swallowed, Dr. Corone’s demand rang out:

“Zemir, open your mouth now.”

The boy refused and downed the broth quickly. But at his mother’s command, he sheepishly opened his mouth. A thin film of custard clung to his baby teeth, and his breath smelled like sweet milk.

Dr. Corone pointed this out, and then gently instructed Zemir’s parents to continue feeding the boy. Saying nothing, he flipped a tiny switch on his bracers, which thrummed and glowed with a strange technological energy.

Immediately, Zemir’s eyes widened. His father fed him his broth, and when Zemir drank it, he made a disgusted face.

Dr. Corone nodded and explained: Zemir was not suffering from a physical ailment. The boy was instead, in the subtlest of ways, warping the fabric of reality to suit his childish preferences. For months, the boy had been turning all of his meals into nutritionally empty sweets. Similarly, the messes and mischief he had caused around the residential complex were the result of the boy’s ability to shift reality ever-so-slightly for his own amusement.

Zemir was a witchwarper—one who understands that the universe consists of infinite realities. What’s more, witchwarpers possess the innate ability to peer into those worlds, and to mix and manipulate them at will. Most witchwarpers’ abilities manifested in adulthood, Dr. Corone explained. But Zemir was special, powerful even for a child, and unlike anyone he had seen.

The doctor’s bracers—called reality stabilizers—dampened Zemir’s nascent and unstable abilities and would allow the boy to have a normal childhood. The lashunta was prepared to give the Solodans their own set of reality stabilizers, but with his “diagnosis” came another offer.

Dr. Corone wanted to bring Zemir back to Arkanen with him. There, he’d enroll the boy in the Institute for Extraordinary Minds, a facility that was effectively a school for young witchwarpers.

The witchwarpers at the institute—like Dr. Corone himself—could help Zemir learn control over his abilities, the doctor explained. Dr. Corone offered full tuition for Zemir and unrestricted visitation privileges for his family. Saddened but understanding the value of this offer, Zemir’s parents agreed.

For the next twelve years, Zemir was Dr. Corone’s protege. Zemir spent the time honing his ability to subtly manipulate his surroundings, growing more delighted each time he created a new sound, smell—and especially taste—that he’d never before experienced. He supplemented his training with an insatiable appetite for learning about far-away cuisine and cultures, dreaming of one day traveling throughout this reality and perhaps an infinite number of others. During this time, Zemir also learned of Eloritu, the god of magic and secrets, and came to view the infinite cosmos as a gift from this mysterious deity.

However, as passionate as Zemir became about his talents and studies, he also grew increasingly cocky and resentful of the reality stabilizers the instructors used to rein his more dangerous experiments.

Near Zemir’s eighteenth birthday, the young witchwarper began the early stages of his final thesis project: an ambitious attempt to create a minute-long rift into a reality adjacent to his own. The institute’s professors approved the project only under their strict supervision, requiring the placement of several stabilizing safeguards during all forms of research.

Zemir bristled at such restrictions. And so, under the cover of night, the brash and charismatic young man convinced three of his closest friends and fellow students to participate in a dry-run of his experiment. With no safeguards in place, Zemir used his substantial willpower to tear open a rift in reality. A primal scream rent his lips and a shock of his hair whitened under the great mental strain. Ecstatic, terrified, but trusting their brilliant friend, Zemir’s classmates stepped through the rift, which immediately winked out.

The human Alena Nidaro, the half-elf Tornil Lee, and the ysoki Smidge disappeared from this reality. Try as he might, Zemir could not reopen the rift nor could he find any trace of his friends.

Panicked, Zemir ran from his lab to the institute’s docking bay, where at least he could be alone and think. For a moment, he considered returning to confess his horrific error to Dr. Corone, but then he saw a midnight supply shuttle about to leave Arkanen for Absalom Station. And in that split second, Zemir decided the course of his own existence.

Posing as a worker, Zemir fled the Institute for Extraordinary Minds in the shuttle, and promptly lost himself in the crowds of Absalom Station. Convinced his friends were gone and he was to blame, Zemir wandered the station in a haze for weeks, performing minor tricks of warped reality for the credits he needed to survive. Eventually, Zemir sent a message to Dr. Corone to confess what he had done, then deactivated his institute communications account.

Despite the institute’s best efforts to track Zemir down and get some answers, Dr. Corone and his colleagues have always remained one step behind him. Although his wits returned, Zemir’s scars are far from healed. He now travels to all corners of this reality, as much seeking to earn a living using his strange magic and indulge his love of new experiences as he is running from a guilty conscience.

Growing ever more powerful daily, Zemir is a mysterious and joyful—if occasionally morose—companion to those who share his goals. He’s known for waxing eloquent about the tapestry of existence and the dangers that other realities hold. The wise would heed the witchwarper’s words, for Zemir has looked into infinite realities—and he’s vowed to never again lose another to the fray.

Amanda Hamon
Managing Developer

“I thought you said the signal was coming from a ruin,” Velloro said into his comm unit, looking up at the huge, very intact fortification in front of him with a large, unruined door blocking the way forward. The captain’s response was garbled, no doubt thanks to the rocky, mountainous terrain between him and the Sunrise Maiden. “Ye… …is th… …thing there?”

Rolling his eyes dramatically for the sake of his companions, who had instinctively turned toward the comm unit to try to decode Navasi’s transmission, Velloro shrugged. “Guess we’re improvising, Chk Chk,“ he said, winking at Keskodai’s larval son as he spun slowly in his protective canister. “Raia, can you get that door open?”

Before the technomancer could respond, a recess in the doorframe began to flicker with a dim red light that grew brighter and more steady. As it did, the ground thrummed with the energy of a long-dormant system sputtering to life.

“Yes—I’ll get the door,” Raia’s telepathic response darted through the hallways of Velloro’s mind as she began casting a spell that would magically bypass the door’s locks.

Several other vertical recesses in the wall drew Velloro’s eyes as they, too, activated. Boxy machines rose out of the staggered parapets, topped with gleaming barrels pointing straight up, then swiveled down to point directly at Velloro and his friends.

“Fall in—NOW!” Velloro’s last word was a telepathic shout to prevent the opening salvo of eight massive turrets firing heavy rounds from drowning it out. With no time to be polite, he pushed through his companions, knocking them off balance. Raia’s spell failed as her concentration faltered, but she immediately began to cast it again, cleaving close to Velloro as he raised his shield just in time to intercept the first wave of pounding projectiles.

Illustration by Setiawan Lee

As he often did in these situations, Velloro began to experience time much more slowly, to take notice of everything around him more carefully. He saw the firing mechanism jam on the fourth turret to the left of the entryway. He felt the heavy, staccato thud of rounds as they slammed into the ground just feet away and began to describe a dotted line that would momentarily bring the molten-hot metal slugs into contact with his shield, his armor—and possibly his friends.

The firing seemed to slow, but Velloro knew the automated turrets were cycling shots to prevent overheating; those towers wouldn’t run out of ammunition any time soon. Raia, somehow sounding out of breath despite being in his head, said “I’ve got the door,” and it slid open with unnerving silence and speed.

Three red-scaled, lizardlike ikeshtis wearing sand-tattered defrex hides skidded to a stop just in front of the entryway. They had been running toward stairs leading to the top of the wall, but now they turned to the intruders, semi-auto pistols in their clawed hands.

Velloro immediately charged the startled ikeshtis, smiling as he did. With each step, he drew more and more energy from the ground beneath his feet pushing back at him, until he’d gathered an invisible storm of entropy around himself, a cloak of molecular disorder that easily deflected the ikeshtis’ first few panicked shots. In just a few seconds, he was among them, facing down the biggest one as the two next to him flinched in anticipation.

The large ikeshti took the opportunity to fire at the lashunta nearly point blank, two bullets screaming toward the ancient rune of Castrovel glowing in the middle of Velloro’s chest plate. Velloro grunted with the impact of the first, yet this he could use. As the atoms of the bullet interacted with those of his armor, disorder bloomed like a coalescing storm cloud. Molecular lattices broke and reformed in countless chain reactions, ones Velloro could shape, divert, invest—and control. As the second bullet hit fractions of a second later, Velloro used the explosive energy of the first, all its waste heat and shrapnel and friction, to mitigate the damage from the second. The shiny metal round clinked harmlessly off his armor, no more destructive than an idly flicked pebble.

The lizard creatures on either side of Velloro raised their guns, taking advantage of the momentary distraction to aim at Raia and Keskodai. But Velloro was ready to react, grabbing the barrels of both weapons with either hand and crumpling them as though they were made of thin-pressed aluminum, before dropping them to the ground with a smirk.

Velloro turned his attention back to the one ikeshti that was still armed and swung his fist in a wide arc, gathering the remaining excess energy into his chest before sending it screaming to his shoulder, down his arm, and into his fist, where it whirled and careened in an ever-growing nimbus of destructive energy. As his fist made contact with the stunned ikeshti, Velloro cut the tether with the disorder he’d hoarded, sending it fully into the creature’s dry and brittle armor, which splintered and caved in. The ikeshti fell to the ground writhing in pain, futilely scratching at the ruined clasps of its armor in a desperate attempt to relieve the crushing pressure.

As Velloro turned back to the other two ikeshtis, who’d drawn their batons and were advancing on him cautiously, a gruff and incredulous voice rang out from somewhere high up, bouncing off the towering flat walls of the fort.

“Velloro?”

He looked up and knew her immediately, a towering and extremely familiar shobhad who was shouldering a sniper rifle that had moments ago been leveled at Velloro’s head. As the shobhad held two of her four hands out to stop the ikeshtis, Velloro grinned at Keskodai, who had already begun to focus on ripping the newcomer’s mind apart with his own.

“Hold on a sec, bud. This should be interesting…”

About the Author

Joe Pasini is the Starfinder Lead Designer at Paizo. He is steadfast in his belief that gaming is for absolutely everyone, and he’d love to play a game with you sometime! You can find him on Twitter at @joeadultman. His most recent passion project, the Starfinder Deck of Many Worlds, is out in December of 2019.

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.

Illustration by Remko Troost

Velloro was adopted into a large ysoki family on the dusty planet of Akiton as an infant, never knowing another home—and never having much interest in finding one. His family were devout worshipers of Iomedae, goddess of justice and honorable battle, virtues the young lashunta gladly embraced. He spent his youth playing and scavenging among Akiton’s numerous wrecked starships with his many siblings. Time and again, Velloro proved a fierce protector of his family, whether extracting them from collapsed wreckage, fighting off rival scavengers, or otherwise putting himself between them and the many other dangers of their dying world.

When Velloro reached adolescence, he developed into the korasha clade of his species, packing on muscle and becoming rather headstrong. As he grew, he became less able to squeeze into the small spaces common to salvage sites and began to look around for other ways to expend his boundless energy. His years of roughhousing and scrapyard scrapping quickly pointed him toward one obvious direction in Akiton’s limited job market: Velloro traveled to the ancient city of Arl to become a gladiator. The VitariTech Coliseum, a new sporting venue that hosted nonlethal gladiatorial combats, began rotating Velloro into their regular fight schedule. The arena promoters capitalized on his youthful and attractive appearance and off-world species, dubbing him the Castrovel Kid and giving him a set of armor sporting the planet’s ancient symbol.

As Velloro moved up through the ranks of other local combatants and gained a small following, he also became close with a fellow gladiator, a shobhad named Dhareen. She saw potential in the young competitor, and after defeating Velloro in a particularly important show match, Dhareen invited the dejected lashunta to take the Test of the Mountain. In this shobhad tradition, travelers climb to the summit of Ka, Pillar of the Sky, the tallest mountain in all the Pact Worlds. Velloro accepted the challenge, making the grueling 22-mile climb over several months.

While climbing Ka, the charismatic and sociable Velloro experienced something entirely new and, at first, unpleasant: loneliness. Yet as his isolation grew, so too did his connection to the mountain and to his home planet. He spent long evenings watching the wind blow dust off the volcano in arcing swirls, and took note of how each step he took changed the mountain in an almost imperceptible way.

One night, while sheltering under a shallow outcropping during a violent storm, Velloro felt a strange acceptance and calm wash over him. As he did, he noticed the whirling mixture of ashy sleet around him turn to a gentle eddy. With sudden clarity, Velloro remembered dozens of instances earlier in his life when he had subtly affected the state of matter around him—events he had dismissed as coincidence or even imagined. Invigorated, the lashunta began to intentionally exert control over his surroundings, structuring and deconstructing the molecular lattice all around him, draining energy from one system and pouring it into another as easily as pouring red tea between cups.

Upon his return to the Coliseum, Velloro had new purpose. He honed his newfound skills, mastering the subtleties of molecular change and using it to great effect in his gladiatorial matches. His tendency to crumple the armor and weapons of his opponents as he sent them flying across the arena quickly earned him the nickname the Castrovel Crusher. But change is constant, and as Akiton’s gladiatorial combats continued to gain in popularity, the demand for blood sport also grew. Claiming the need to compete with other arenas, including Eox’s infamous and deadly Halls of the Living, the Coliseum’s management began to pressure Velloro to mortally wound his opponents. Velloro adamantly refused; he saw no honor in needless blood sport.

One day, just before a match against Dhareen, Velloro’s manager told him, “finish her—or you’re finished.” Velloro walked into the arena, embraced his mentor, and deliberately walked out to an uproarious mixture of cheers and mockery, knowing he could never return to his beloved profession. Instead, Velloro turned an eye to the stars, where he knew there were others like his family, others who needed protection and assistance—and he knew he had the power to help.

Having inherited no small part of his ysoki family’s gregariousness, Velloro is quick to laugh and make new friends, and is an amiable adventuring companion. His Iomedaean personal code predisposes him to giving second chances, even to the seemingly irredeemable—but he doesn’t hesitate to unleash his full might against unrepentant foes. And despite the sour end to his gladiatorial career, his love of games and sport have not waned, and he is always happy to strike his famous Castrovel Crusher pose at a fan’s request.

Joe Pasini
Starfinder Lead Designer

It was well after midnight when Barsala had her breakthrough.

She was in the temporary laboratory structure built for her by Iratha Incorporated deep in the swamps of Zulypsindo, a Near Space world known for its extensive marshlands and the site of the latest episode of “Dr. B’s Science Jubilee.” The windowless, prefabricated walls provided ample protection from nearly any environment outside, and the overhead lighting within dispelled the shadows, providing for a clean and efficient work space.

It had been a difficult, but ultimately rewarding, day of shooting. This particular program focused on the breed of caypin native to Zulypsindo, a large amphibious beast with a mass of detachable appendages that function as both eyestalks and chewing mouths. One had been captured for Barsala to show her viewers its fascinating anatomy, and everything had gone according to the script… until the caypin broke free from its enclosure and nearly ate one of the crew. The poor creature had to be put down, but the vidcameras caught every last minute of it. Edson Frost, her producer, had spent most of the dinner afterward exclaiming about the number of clicks the episode would get. Barsala was similarly excited, though she was more interested in getting her hands on the caypin’s corpse.

The exact way the caypin’s appendages functioned independently from its body were still a mystery to the scientific community, and Barsala surmised that if she could solve even a fraction of that mystery, she could help craft an entirely new category of biotech augmentations. When the meal was over, she rushed back to the lab, eager to begin experimentation. Hours later, as she inserted a small vial filled with a dissolved piece of an appendage into a mass spectrometer with one hand and typed frantically on a datapad with another, she reached for her comm unit with a third and started a transmission.

Illustration by Mark Molnar

A groggy voice answered. “B? Do you know what time it is?”

“Not precisely, Edson, I’ve been a bit too busy to pay attention to the clock.”

“Well, it’s late and I was sleeping… trying to sleep. Is there something the matter?”

“The quantum measurement paradox!” Barsala blurted.

“Who? What?”

“It’s not really my area of expertise, but there is a theory in quantum mechanics that if you could measure the state of a particle frequently—we’re talking thousands of measurements a microsecond or more—you could essentially arrest the decay of that particle. Like they say, ‘an observed cooking receptacle on a heating unit never reaches its boiling point.’”

“B, no one ever says that. But I think I know what you mean.” Edson yawned. “Riveting. Is that why you dragged me out of a peaceful slumber?”

“Yes! No. I mean, sort of. I’ve been in the lab, analyzing one of that caypin’s detachable tentacles.” She poked the grisly blood-red tube with a scalpel she held in her fourth, cybernetic hand. “It has no internal organs to speak of and should be no more animate than a clipped fingernail.”

“Gross.”

Barsala continued. “I wondered: how can these appendages survive apart from the host body for days at a time? How does the caypin know where they are and how does it call them back? I tested a few hypotheses, and I hit on the idea of quantum entanglement. Somehow, the caypin is constantly monitoring the state of its removed appendages on a quantum level, preventing them from rotting like dead meat!”

“Riveting once again. And also gross. But really, you could have just written this down for one of your scientific journals.”

“Right, right, sorry. I also had an idea for the show. I’d love to explain the basics of quantum theory to our viewers, maybe start with the wave-particle duality of light, do a practical double-slit experiment. We’d have to bring in an expert on the subject, of course, and…” Barsala trailed off as she looked down at the dissection tray. The appendage she had removed from the caypin’s body was nowhere to be seen, only a trail of blood and slime that led to the edge of the table.

“Barsala, is everything ok?” Edson asked, though Barsala didn’t hear him. She had placed her comm unit down and was already walking tentatively to the other side of the lab table. The detached appendage lay on the floor, squirming ever so slightly.

“Fascinating.” Barsala’s mind raced with possibilities. How was this thing moving? Delayed muscle death spasms? An internal parasite eating its way free? Necromantic energy? Or…

Barsala hissed in pain as she felt a sudden sting in her ankle. She turned to see several more of the caypin’s appendages wriggling at her feet, their tiny lamprey-like mouths lunging toward her. Surprised, she stepped backward, slipped on the half-dissected tentacle and fell onto her posterior. The mass of appendages slithered toward her.

Barsala fumbled for the custom microlab in her lab coat pocket, pointed it at the tentacles, and scanned them. Seconds later, she had her answer: they weren’t undead. In fact, they were quite normal as far as a handful of ambulatory feeding appendages went. She exhaled in relief. Living creatures she could handle.

Before their sharp little teeth could shred her boots, Barsala grabbed the edge of the table, pulled herself up to standing, and grabbed a syringe and a handful of test tubes. She mixed together several reagents, along with a fast-acting catalyst, inserting the resulting mixture into the syringe as Edson’s voice continued to call out from the comm unit. With a grunt, she jabbed the syringe down into the tentacles. A high-pitched squeal of pain emitted from the mass, and Barsala brought back a hand covered in several small bites.

“Let’s test this hypothesis,” she muttered to no one in particular as she stepped backward to a supply cabinet. “If I’m right, the gene-altering chemicals I’ve just injected into one of you should affect you all, thanks to your quantum entanglement. Making you particularly susceptible to this!” Barsala picked up a container of hydrochloric acid from the shelf behind her and hurled it at the throng of tentacles. The glass jar shattered, covering the feeding appendages in highly caustic acid. They writhed in agony as they dissolved into a disgusting puddle of acrid-smelling goo.

Barsala pressed her damaged hand into an armpit as she gathered up her comm unit. “Edson. Edson! I’m fine. Don’t worry. Just a minor accident.” She paused for a second. “The caypin. You’re sure it was dead, right?”

“We hit it with the electric prods until it stopped moving and then put the body in the lab’s freezer unit like you asked. Why?”

Barsala turned to see the freezer’s door wide open. A streak of bloody bile was smeared down the outside.

“I’m going to have to call you back.”

About the Author

Jason Keeley is a Developer at Paizo, working primarily on the Starfinder Adventure Path line. His work has appeared in all sorts of products, from adventures to supplements to short stories written for Paizo and many other RPG companies. You can find him (and pictures of his dog) on Twitter at @herzwesten, and also watch him as Professor Nikodemus Thorne on the Oblivion Oath stream every Thursday!

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.

The Swarm is here.

Without warning, they arrived in our system, broke through our orbital defenses, and streamed out of the sky in untold numbers. They landed near the massive freshwater lake known as the Stone Sea, and our closest fighting force, the 5th Battalion attempted to hold them off. The 5th Battalion suffered great losses, possibly the largest number of deaths in a single military action in all of our history. However, the sacrifices of those brave souls allowed us to mobilize the rest of our troops for a defense of the entire planet.

“Battling the Swarm” illustrated by Nathan James

Now, the Swarm continues to make advances across our world, and we are fighting to hold on to every inch. The Suskillon Defense Force needs every sentient from the bustling metropolis of Brinnoa to the farms of the Sahtor Region to chip in and do their part, especially if they are able and willing to pick up a weapon and fight! Enlist at your nearest SDF recruitment center today to help replenish the depleted ranks of the 5th Battalion or else the Swarm will surely overrun our home planet.

When you join up, you’ll receive a brief but rigorous training course, ensuring that you are familiar with your issued weapon and armor and can work within a squad. You will also receive your IDENT, a miniaturized computer embedded in an SDF insignia that holds your vital records and health information, useful for identifying you should the worst happen. Finally, you will be given access to the wide array of items available in the SDF armory, including pressure-sensitive gel pads for your feet that help to ease the pain of long marches. Other innovations are more recent and are directly related to our fight against the Swarm. The so-called pulse ray, when used properly, can temporarily scramble the minds of those creatures with telepathy, such as used in the Swarm hive mind!

“Career Trooper” illustrated by Nathan James

You’ll need every advantage you can get when you find yourself face-to-ugly-mandibled-face with the dozens of types of Swarm creatures that have invaded our world. While Swarm dredgers are small, they can burrow and are known to tunnel under our fortifications to attack unsuspecting soldiers. Swarm vorphomas can fling envenomed barbs from their skinny arms and can mentally sow fear and confusion within our ranks. Swarm convecytes can actually carrying other Swarm creatures under their protective plates, making them effective living transports, and to make matter worse, explode in a burst of acid when killed. Many more Swarm creatures have been encountered in the fields of battle, and scientists speculate there are even more out there, waiting to descend and devour.

“Swarm Dredger” illustrated by Mark Molnar

Do you have what it takes to stand against the overwhelming forces of an enemy that can’t be reasoned with? Will you answer the call of duty and enlist in the Suskillon Defense Force today? Are you ready to face the Attack of the Swarm?

Jason Keeley
Developer

When I was given the assignment to write Assault on the Crucible, the conclusion to the Dawn of Flame AP, I immediately knew it was going to be a challenge. Most of the adventure is a base invasion; some might even call it a “dungeon crawl in space.” But how was I to avoid the pitfalls that a dungeon crawl can bring?

The way I saw it, Assault on the Crucible had to have multiple paths. There had to be several competing factions inside the base, and more than one way for the PCs to gain critical information they could then use to make interesting choices. I set a goal for myself: I wanted an adventure in which every table had a different experience. It’s my hope that, when players get together to share their stories of the Crucible, no two groups will have the same story to tell.

I also wanted to create a sense of urgency and tension. This led to the development of a countdown system that represents General Khaim’s attack on the Burning Archipelago on the surface of the sun. The longer the PCs take in the Crucible, the more damage is done to the Archipelago; every encounter forces the PCs to make a choice: Is this a fight we absolutely have to have? I also added encounters that allow the PCs to undermine Khaim’s forces directly, partially rewinding the Countdown.

This is a high-level adventure, which means accommodating PCs armed with big, splashy, abilities. I spent a lot of time thinking about how PCs could quickly gather information with arcane eye, a mechanic’s scoutbot, an operative with cloaking field, or divination and mind probe. In an adventure filled with outsiders, dismissal and planar binding become important spells. I didn’t want to create a bunch of roadblocks to these powers. Instead, I wanted to make an adventure in which player characters had to use all their big guns if they were to have a chance of success. I wanted to not just permit and reward the use of high-level abilities, I wanted to make them an absolute necessity.

There’s so much more I could say about Assault on the Crucible. Writing it was a tremendous challenge, and I had the incredible help and support of Chris S. Sims, developer on this project and my friend. But my turn for talking is done, and now it’s your turn.

I want to know how you survived the Crucible… if you survived!

Jason Tondro
Starfinder Developer and Author of Assault on the Crucible

The light on the door pad blinked from red to green.

“Okay, you’re in.” Even though she was holed up in the data center, hacking the locks remotely, tension made Raia whisper. “The tracker chip I planted says Averly is in there. We need to get to him before they do... whatever it is they do to people.”

“Understood.” Keskodai stood from his place in the shadows. “I’m headed in.”

“Good hunting, Keskodai.”

Keskodai reached down to the child at his belt. “Ready, Chk Chk?”

Safe inside his canister, Chk Chk tapped his larval beak-tooth against the transparent polycarbon, treating Keskodai to a blast of confidence and enthusiasm.

Of course Chk Chk was confident. As far as he knew, his father was invincible. As was Chk Chk himself, for that matter. After all, hadn’t they survived one hundred percent of their adventures so far?

Keskodai knew better, yet some part of him still stood a little straighter at his child’s vision of him. Wasn’t that what drove every parent? A desire to be the person their child imagined them to be?

He stepped forward and keyed the door.

Illustration by Rodrigo Gonzalez Toledo

It swept aside, revealing a room full of strange equipment. Pumps whirred and hissed, spotlights stabbing down through the gloom to illuminate a shaved human lying nude on the central table. That was their contact, all right. Robotic arms like something out of Keskodai’s medical bay prodded at the inert body, injecting fluids or implanting subdermal machinery. And standing over it all—

The gray jerked upright, its movements an eerie, strobe-light stutter. It stretched a hand toward Keskodai, and he felt the sudden press of its mind—an overwhelming impulse to freeze, to sleep. It tugged at his synapses, seeking to reshape them with the force of its will.

But shirren already escaped such slavery once. Keskodai raised his pistol and fired.

The shot was dead-on: straight to the heart, the sort of merciful deathblow Keskodai thought of as the Lady’s Grace. Yet it passed through the gray like it was a hologram, the creature’s flesh seeming to ripple out of phase with reality. For a nanosecond, it was gone, and then it was there again, the bullet ricocheting harmlessly off the wall behind it.

Keskodai, on the other hand, had no such protections. He dove sideways behind a bank of machinery as the thing sighted its own weapon and fired, needles driving deep into the doorjamb.

So be it, Keskodai thought. If mercy wasn’t an option...

He stood, one hand out for focus, and shoved his way inside the gray’s head.

The creature’s mind was truly alien. In some ways, the neural pathways were structurally similar to Keskodai’s own, but without shared context or a known starting point, the thought processes that ran along them were nearly impossible to decipher. He’d heard Raia speak of different types of computer encryption, and this was like that—he could see the shapes of ideas, gliding past him like leviathans in a darkened sea, without having any idea what they meant.

But you didn’t need to know how something worked to smash it. Keskodai focused his magic and pushed.

The gray doubled over, screaming soundlessly as Keskodai’s spell surged through its neurons, scrambling synapses. Keskodai felt a momentary pang of regret—then plastered over it with the memory of what these creatures had done on Thersius 4. He pushed again, expanding his mental presence inside the creature’s skull, inflating until there was no room for anything else.

The creature gave a final twitch and collapsed to the ground.

Keskodai gasped and let the magic drop, grabbing the console for support as his mind dizzily readjusted to being back in his own body. He put one hand to Chk Chk’s canister—safely intact.

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” Keskodai said.

Chk Chk responded with a wave of fierce pride.

Keskodai tapped the canister in negation. “No, Chk Chk. That wasn’t good. Necessary, perhaps, but never good. Minds are sacred—they’re what make each of us unique. To shatter one like that, even in self-defense, is to take a sledgehammer to a cathedral.”

Chk Chk’s response was dubious, the telepathic sentiment accompanied by a rare image flash: Pharasma’s spiral, glowing in the air above Keskodai’s head.

The message was clear: if the Lady of Graves was content to let Keskodai take lives, then so was Chk Chk.

Keskodai’s antennae drooped in a sigh. He’d been worrying about this more and more, lately. Had his faith in Pharasma made Chk Chk too cavalier about death? Of course he couldn’t expect a larva to understand when it was acceptable to cut short a life, the differences between a death that furthered Pharasma’s plan and one that furthered your own. All the child saw was a father grown comfortable with killing.

Keskodai had never wanted to indoctrinate the child. Show him the galaxy, yes, and teach him as best he could, but it was crucial that Chk Chk feel free to walk his own path.

And one day, no doubt, he would. He’d leave Keskodai behind, the same way Keskodai had left his own parents. After years of constant company, Keskodai would be truly alone once more.

But there was no time to worry about that now. Keskodai hurried to the operating table. With the gray’s death, the robotic arms had gone limp—psychically driven, perhaps? That could be useful in Keskodai’s own medical bay. But he yanked them free, casting his senses down into the man’s flesh and letting the healing magic flow.

Except that it wasn’t needed. The man—their contact, who had called himself Averly—seemed perfectly healthy. Whatever the gray had implanted in him, it didn’t seem to be harming him. He didn’t even seem to be sedated, by any conventional or magical means.

Yet he didn’t wake at Keskodai’s touch. Keskodai shook him harder, slapping him gently on the cheeks, then less gently. He even spat on a battery and pressed its contact points to the man’s skin, shocking him. Yet still the man slept.

And now, Keskodai thought to himself, we set another bad example...

“Chk Chk,” he said. “Remember what I said about minds being sacred? That’s why you should normally never invade a friend’s without their consent. But sometimes, we must hurt to heal.”

And with that, he dove once again into the mind of another.

This intrusion was gentler—an attempt to read a book, not tear out its pages. The comatose man’s thoughts were a familiar human structure, yet in some ways that made the content stranger. The man wasn’t quite asleep, but neither was he awake. His thoughts routed around the edges of strange, artificial holes. Yet certain images recurred. A face... a ship...

A warning. Keskodai broke contact and cued his coms. “Raia?”

“Keskodai! Did it work? Is our contact okay?”

Keskodai looked down at the comatose man, locked inside his alien dreams.

“After a fashion,” he said. “But listen—we need to get back to Navasi and the others. Immediately.”

He could feel her come alert. “Why?”

Keskodai lifted the unconscious man in his arms and turned toward the door.

“Because I know who they’re going after next.”

About the Author

James L. Sutter is a former Starfinder Creative Director and Executive Editor of the Pathfinder Tales novels. In addition to foundational work on both Pathfinder and Starfinder, he’s also written award-winning novels, comics, video games, and short stories. You can find him at jameslsutter.com or on Twitter at @jameslsutter. His Pathfinder Tales novels, Death’s Heretic and The Redemption Engine, are available now.

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.

Hello! Joe Pasini here, Neutral Good outsider and Starfinder Lead Designer. As the lead developer for Alien Archive 3, I got to work with a ton of awesome authors to fill the book with weird critters, from friendly playable species to colossal threats to all sapient life. I asked a few of these folks to talk about their experience writing these creations—take it away, designers!

Kate Baker

As Starfinder Society players are aware, I am responsible for the psychedelic-colored, four-tusked walrus aliens, the morlamaws. If you haven’t had a chance to play Starfinder Society Scenario #1-08: Sanctuary of Drowned Delight, then I hope you enjoy your introduction to these bizarre but orderly creatures of the deep sea in Alien Archive 3. I certainly didn’t expect when I first wrote them how much they were going to resonate with players, and I was delighted to get to expand on the morlamaws, their home, and what they’re up to now. I got to ask such questions as what kind of musical instruments work underwater and how would morlamaws dance? My original task when writing the scenario was to create something memorable and distinct from other underwater aliens, and I certainly feel like I succeeded there. Hope you all enjoy!

Illustration by Michele Giorgi

Natalie Kertzner

Jinsuls were the Big Bad of Starfinder Society Season 1: Year of the Scoured Stars, and they certainly had a larger-than-life presence—both as antagonists and as the source of endless hashtags like #LegBladesForDays and #VivaKadrical. Despite Season 1 being full of aliens, jinsuls were the first species we encountered that felt truly unknown; we just didn’t know what they wanted—except to kill us. As creatures created with Organized Play in mind, I designed the jinsuls to specifically combat certain common builds—casters, operatives, and melee fighters. While no one jinsul can counter all of them, I wanted to give GMs the flexibility when building these to add in abilities based on the party composition of their players. Even low-level jinsuls without extra special abilities are endlessly entertaining, and they toe the fun line between “this could really kill us!” and “phew, we took that one down!” I hope to see jinsuls spread far across the Starfinder universe, and that they stop doing biomedical experiments on adorable sharktopus space puppies.

Illustration by Graey Erb

Hilary Moon Murphy

Z-z-zap! Dirindi are an electrically attuned race who love to use their spell like ability as a joy buzzer to give each other playful zaps in greeting. Those who are not adventurers often have no idea how annoying these zaps are to other people. I decided early that dirindi playfulness would translate into a love of stories and humor. Their relationship with the facts is sometimes hazy, making their newscasts simultaneously wildly inaccurate and incredibly popular.

Dirindi are one of the two races that co-govern the Liavaran moon Arkanen. Collaborating with Katina Davis, who wrote Sazarons, we decided that our races were best buddies who complement each other well. Dirindis provide creativity, optimism, and ideas, while the scholarly sazarons make sure projects stay on schedule and on budget. I hope they spark joy in your games.

Illustration by Tom Ventre

Lu Pellazar

I DEFINITELY didn’t just write these so I can have one named Kazooie and an uplifted bear named Banjo. NOPE NOT AT ALL. In all seriousness, I wrote these charismatic, enigmatic folks for those kinds of people in your life that you instantly fall in love with—not necessarily romantically, but those that are the life of the party and have that uncanny ability to get along with anyone. I met a lot of these kinds of people in L.A. We became fast friends, but everyone’s just kinda doing their own thing and eventually drift apart. Espraksas are usually in your life short-term, because nothing gets in the way of their life goals of traveling the universe and learning everything they can before returning to their home world. I guess it’s kind of sad, but never fear—espraksa friends will always remember you, and who knows, maybe their travels will take them to your home planet!

Illustration by Javier Charro

Jessica Redekop

The cephalumes were initially created at the Designing Aliens panel of PaizoCon 2018, with Jason Keeley, Lyz Liddell, Luis Loza, Joe Pasini, and guest artist Taylor Fischer, where the audience and panelists collaborated to develop a creature while Taylor illustrated it. It was important to maintain the elements that resonated most with the audience, such as their liquid hydrocarbon environment, but also add enough new material to still make a fun read for everyone who participated. One of my favourite things about the cephalumes is the way they communicate. They 'speak' Lumos, a visual language comprised of sequential blinks of their racial bioluminescence. When other races communicate in Lumos, I imagine they make clicking sounds, or apply tactile pressure, in place of each blink.

Illustration by Nathanael James

Starfinder’s newest creature compendium comes packed with more than 100 stat blocks, including half a dozen new creatures native to the hyperspace plane of the Drift. But there are plenty of more worldly foes, too. In Starfinder, even seemingly innocuous things can become deadly, such as the ferromagnetic ooze, seen here engulfing our unfortunate mechanic, Quig, as his trusty drone, Scout, attempts to give him a lift without getting pulled in too.

Illustration by Hannah Böving

But it’s not all bad news for adventurers! Alien Archive 3 includes 19 new playable species, including dessamars, who have a larval and an adult form, complete with different statistics and abilities. Pictured here is a raxilite, a capital-T Tiny plant creature that uses its LFAN (Lifting Floret Activiation Network) to deftly handle items designed for larger creatures.

Illustration by Nathanael James

Of course, we crammed a lot of other player options into this book too; over 50 new options include armor, weapons, starship systems, augmentations, spells, and a whole lot more. Since we mentioned the ferrofluid ooze, check out this armor upgrade based on its vibration-dampening properties:

FERROFLUID SUSPENSION
ARMOR SLOTS: 1	ARMOR TYPE: ANY	BULK: —

Your armor dampens vibrations, reducing bludgeoning damage you take by 5 (to a minimum of 0) and reducing your armor check penalty to Stealth checks by 2 (to a minimum of 0). In addition, the DC of Perception checks against you is increased by 5 for creatures using blindsight (vibration) or blindsense (vibration).

Perhaps the most exciting player option we introduced in Alien Archive 3 is our new creature companion system! Now you can have a pet, a battle buddy, or even a mount. We included premade companions for you to choose from, such as tashtari (also known as laser wolf) pups, serpentine mounts, and curious shape-changing oozes. A simple series of feats lets you exert increasing control over your companion, letting you choose how deeply to develop your bond.

Illustration by Raphael Madureira

Whatever you’re looking for on your trek through the stars, Alien Archive 3 is sure to have something to help you succeed—or put you to the test.

Joe Pasini
Starfinder Lead Designer

Iseph crept through the empty museum, footsteps soundless on the tiled floor. All around the android, monsters loomed—alien creatures propped up in glass-walled display cases, their exhibits pumped full of inert gas to prevent the corpses' decay. In the dim emergency lighting, some of them almost looked alive. But of course that wasn't how places like this worked.

Iseph paused at the entrance to their destination. Pulling the tube from their belt, they blew a soft puff of dust through the doorway.

Laser lit up red, crisscrossing the small room. Iseph made a mental map of their locations, burning them into short-term memory even as the dust drifted to the floor and they disappeared again.

Bending low, Iseph slithered beneath the first laser, then arched high over the second. Of course, the android's cloaking field could bend lasers without breaking them, the same way it was currently foiling the thermal imaging cameras, and would have beaten the visual spectrum cameras if Iseph hadn't already hacked them to loop the footage. But Iseph had a certain level of professional pride, and laser tripwires were novice stuff—the sort of thing you put in because it looked impressive to clients, not because it deterred professionals. Dancing around them was so easy it was almost insulting. But of course the museum's security couldn't have known whom they'd be dealing with.

Illustration by Alberto Dal Lago

The crystal stood alone atop a display pedestal, glowing softly. Inside its cylindrical viewing case, it balanced incongruously on a single metal point, its lower half an elaborate setting of wires and circuitry.

Rerouting the arcano-electric security seal on the case itself was more of a challenge, but still too easy for someone of Iseph's skill. The android added the appropriate relays, synched them, and popped the case free.

With nothing left between Iseph and the crystal, the android considered the pedestal's pressure sensor. It was a classic mechanism—the sort of thing you saw everywhere from ancient temples to modern bank vaults—yet still remarkably difficult to deal with. The era when you could just swap in a similarly sized rock as you snatched away the treasure was long gone, if it had ever truly existed.

Iseph knew the right tool for the job—a specialized lifter-and-pump mechanism that you anchored outside the pressure sensor, then attached to your target. The pump drew up liquid from a reservoir in the anchor, inflating a sack atop the sensor at the exact same rate as the crane arm lifted the prize free, making sure the weight remained constant. But it was expensive, and by necessity single-use. Iseph couldn't be expected to have one on hand.

It was a perfectly reasonable test to fail, yet something about it stuck in Iseph's craw. It was just so pedestrian. If—

A glint at the crystal's base caught their eye. There—a single metal flake, its color slightly off from its surroundings.

Iseph smiled. A magnetic proximity alarm. Electromagnetic sensors inside the pedestal would be calibrated to the alloy of that tag, sensing its exact composition and distance. Move it, and you'd disrupt the invisible magnetic fields and trigger the alarm.

And Iseph almost hadn't seen it. Here, at last, was some quality security work. Getting past it would require time and finesse.

Iseph snatched the crystal off its pedestal.

Alarms blared, accompanied by the clangs of security gates slamming down across exits throughout the museum. Iseph dropped their cloaking field, briefly considered waving to the thermal cameras, then sprinted back through the exhibits.

Security guards came rushing through the main entrance just as Iseph neared it—two humans, a ysoki, and a full half-dozen humanoid security bots, all positioned between the android and the exit. They didn't even give a warning, just opened fire with arc emitters and pulsecasters, the air humming and crackling with electricity.

Well, that isn't very professional. Iseph dove for shelter behind an exhibit featuring some sort of star-nosed lizard. The android drew their own pistol and leaned out to return fire, winging one of the humans.

It was tempting to keep firing—to show them all just who they were dealing with. But nine was probably too many, even for Iseph, and besides, the android had promised: only enough combat to sell it. Which meant it was time for the hard part.

This is going to hurt. Wincing in anticipation, Iseph slipped the crystal into an armored pouch, then stood and darted around the corner, straight for one of the patrol bots.

The blast caught Iseph full in the chest, sending them sprawling as electricity overloaded circuits and set muscles twitching. Someone kicked the gun from Iseph's hand, and then the android was staring up at a circle of angry faces and mirrored robotic lenses.

The human Iseph had shot clutched at his injured shoulder. “An android?” he snarled. “I'd have thought one of you half-bots would be too smart to try stealing from the Galactic Heritage Foundation.” He patted Iseph down roughly, eyebrows rising as he pulled the crystal from its case. “The Songstone! You've got a good eye, for a thief.”

“I'm not the thief here.” Iseph pointed at the Songstone. “That crystal stores the psychic memories of the Parelnesi tribes going back a thousand generations—their whole culture is in there! It doesn't belong in a museum.”

“That's exactly why it belongs in a museum,” the guard snapped. “That kind of history is too valuable to leave on some backwater world. Besides, they obviously couldn't protect it.”

“No,” Iseph acknowledged with a nod. “But they could hire somebody to get it back.”

The guard smirked. “And look how well that went.”

Iseph matched his smile. “I don't know, I think it's going pretty well.”

The ysoki guard wrinkled her snout. “How do you figure?”

As if on cue, the six security bots swiveled in unison, pointing their weapons at the guards.

Over the museum's intercom, a familiar voice said, “Weapons down, please.”

“What?” The lead guard gaped, pistol hanging loose as he stared down the barrels of his robots' arc emitters.

“You didn't really think I tripped your alarm by accident, did you?” Iseph stood, shaking out the last pins and needles of the stun bolt. The android reached out and plucked the crystal from the guard's grip. “I just needed to lure you all away from the security station long enough for the others to get in there and work their magic.”

The intercom clicked on once more, ringing with Raia's smooth tones.

“The museum is now closed,” she announced. “All jewel thieves, please proceed to the nearest exit...”

About the Author
James L. Sutter is a former Starfinder Creative Director and Executive Editor of the Pathfinder Tales novels. In addition to foundational work on both Pathfinder and Starfinder, he’s also written award-winning novels, comics, video games, and short stories. You can find him at jameslsutter.com or on Twitter at @jameslsutter. His Pathfinder Tales novels, Death’s Heretic and The Redemption Engine, are available now.

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.

My first Gen Con was exciting! Getting the chance to meet so many of you and share our love of gaming was an absolute blast. Now that the dust has settled, I'd like to take a look at what went down.

For those who missed being there, the crew over at Know Direction helped bring the show to you at home! Our Twitch and Youtube channels will soon have all of the seminars and juicy revelations. Know Direction will also have more information and interviews on their website in the coming days.

So many of you greeted us at the Paizo booth! When I was able to step out of the streaming room to stop by and visit, I saw tons of gamers enjoying Pathfinder and Starfinder. It was great to see them playing demos right next door to the booth. I want to thank the GM volunteers who helped show off the magic of Starfinder and Pathfinder!

Upstairs in the Sagamore Ballroom, the Pathfinder, Starfinder, and Pathfinder Adventure Card Societies had amazing turnouts and hosted several awesome multi-table events! If you want to see some of us having fun with the NPC announcements, I was allowed to do one of the voices here. I got to talk to a fair amount of you in the ballroom and witness the fantastic community Organized Play brings to the table. I'm proud and thankful of all of our leaders and volunteers for making this Gen Con super exciting!

Now for the announcements about future products! Of course, we talked about Pathfinder products that have already been revealed, like the Lost Omens World Guideand Lost Omens Character Guide. Then we unveiled the Pathfinder Bestiary Pawn Box, Pathfinder Weapon & Armor Cards, Pathfinder Bestiary Battle Cards, Gamemastery Guide, Bestiary 2, and Advanced Player's Guide. That last one will be a 256-page hardcover with four new classes (Investigator, Oracle, Swashbuckler, and Witch), ten ancestries and heritages (Aasimar, Catfolk, Changeling, Dhampir, Duskwalker, Kobold, Orc, Ratfolk, Tengu, and Tiefling), and tons of archetypes, general feats, spells, and magic items. The free public class playtest will drop in October!

We also announced that the evolution of Golarion would focus on Absalom in the year to come. Here's the lineup: Lost Omens Gods & Magic hardcover, the Extinction Curse Adventure Path set on Starstone Isle (Kortos), The Dead God’s Hand 128-page adventure will feature Aroden lore, the Absalom: City of Lost Omens hardcover and Poster Map Folio will set you up for the Agents of Edgewatch Adventure Path. This AP will be a "cops and robbers" story set in urban Absalom.

On the other side of the Gap, our beloved Starfinder is going strong and exploring beyond the Pact Worlds! Of course, Alien Archive 3 and the Attack of the Swarm Adventure Path will both invade on August 28. (Stay tuned for our Twitch live stream on August 14 at 4 PM Pacific as we showcase and talk about the latest archive!)

Starfinder products that should already be on your radar are the Character Operations Manual, with three new classes, the Threefold Conspiracy Adventure Path, and the Deck of Many Worlds. Did you catch that we have started Starfinder Iconic Encounter fiction here on paizo.com?

But our big Starfinder reveal was Near Space. This hardcover book will take you beyond the Pact Worlds to explore the many planets and dangers of Near Space. It will showcase dozens of new worlds to explore and bring details on the Veskarium, home to the mighty vesk and the all-to-helpful Skittermanders! It will also include new alternate race traits, starships, themes, archetypes, equipment, spells, and more thrilling new options for your Starfinder character!

Whew! That was a lot for this 2019 Gen Con. I had a blast meeting and talking with you all. May your dice forever be 20, and your 1s be ever eventful!

Payton Smith
Social Media Producer

We have some really good news to share about the Starfinder Masterclass miniatures Kickstarter! Paizo is pleased to announce that Archon Studio will be taking over the license to produce Starfinder Masterclass miniatures, formerly produced by Ninja Division. As part of the agreement, Archon will fulfill backer rewards from the Starfinder Masterclass Kickstarter.

About Archon Studio: With their Unicast technology, Archon Studio has published several board games with miniatures, including League of Ancient Defenders, Vanguard of War, and Chronicle X. Recently, Archon Studio advanced its technology to hard plastic, which resulted in even more highly detailed miniatures.

Archon Studio also recently moved into the production of tabletop terrain with Rampart Wargaming. In August this year, its second tabletop terrain project, Dungeons & Lasers, is being launched on Kickstarter.

There are a few areas we want to highlight:

Archon Studio will be producing plastic miniatures instead of resin. They will also be starting over with Kickstarter fulfillment; this means that backers who have already received resin miniatures from Ninja Division will receive those minis again from Archon, this time in plastic.

Archon Studio plans to ship Kickstarter rewards in waves. Approximately every 6 months, the pledge rewards produced during the previous 6 months will be shipped to backers free of charge. Additionally, any time a Kickstarter backer purchases any Starfinder mini from Archon Studio—whether that’s a new mini or a duplicate of a Kickstarter mini—they will also ship any released Kickstarter miniatures due to that backer for no additional charge. Details of which minis are shipping when, and how to purchase other miniatures, will be posted on the Kickstarter page.

Archon Studio will be fulfilling backers in Europe, and Ninja Division will be shipping to the rest of the world. Paizo does not have specific answers to fulfillment questions: if you’re a backer with a question about your order, you’ll need to post the question to the Starfinder Masterclass Kickstarter page.

Thanks for all of your patience as we worked with Ninja Division and Archon to get this done. We’re looking forward to some epic minis!

Things are really getting hot for the heroes in the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path. I had the pleasure to write the fourth adventure, The Blind City, available now! The heroes have acquired an ancient tablet that hints of strange technology and even stranger magic deeper inside the sun. The unusual expert capable of deciphering it speaks of Outer Gods, strange cults, and a prison of darkness hidden within the sun’s blazing light.

Outer Gods? Vile cults? Formless evil? Sign me up! I was overjoyed to create the cosmic horror of this adventure and add to the pantheon of inscrutable and all-consuming entities lurking beyond space and time. This particular evil entity, known to some occultists as the Incandescent Doom, is a being of light that burns away life, of brilliance that scours flesh and warps minds. What better place to anchor such a being than a lightless oubliette in the depths of the sun? Of course, the heroes receive a less than pleasant welcome when they journey to this isolated location.

Illustration by David Franco Campos

This adventure is for 7th-level characters, and introduces several new monsters such as the pyric revenant and the dimensional shambler. This volume also presents a catalogue of bizarre gear and strange artifacts, an in-depth look at several cults of the galaxy and those who hunt them, and much more.

Illustration by Mary Jane Pajaron

Be not illuminated by the Incandescent Doom!

Ron Lundeen
Author

It’s rare for Paizo to make changes to its subscription program, but with the release of Pathfinder Second Edition on the horizon, we’re taking this opportunity to make some improvements. Here’s what will happen:

Paizo Advantage: The 15% discount remains, but how you get it changes. You need to subscribe to 4 product lines to become eligible, but you can mix and match both Pathfinder and Starfinder subscriptions. Your discount starts after your 4th subscription has been charged to your account.

Current Pathfinder Adventure Path subscribers keep their 15% discount. If you ever cancel your subscription, you need to meet the new criteria for the Paizo Advantage to get the discount.

It’s not too late! If you subscribe to the Pathfinder Adventure Path before July 3, and receive Pathfinder AP #144 as part of your subscription, you’ll lock in the 15% Paizo Advantage discount!

New—Society Bonus: If you have 4 subscriptions, you get your choice of either the Pathfinder Society Scenarios or the Starfinder Society Scenarios for free. If you have 6 subscriptions, you get both.

Free PDFs: No change; these remain part of the subscription program.

Subscription Changes: The following subscriptions are changing to better reflect their contents under Second Edition:

• Lost Omens (formerly Pathfinder Campaign Setting) is your home for the Golarion line, including the Lost Omens World Guide, Lost Omens Character Guide, and future hardcover releases. The Lost Omens subscription offers players and GMs the same kind of content found in the previous Campaign Setting line, but its larger, less frequent hardcover books examine their topics in even greater depth.
• Pathfinder Adventure (formerly Pathfinder Modules) contains all the great standalone adventures you’re looking for. The first release is the Fall of Plaguestone, and we expect this line to have 2–3 releases each year.
• Pathfinder Accessories is a new line containing products like the Combat Pad, Condition Cards, GM Screen, Critical Hit Deck, Critical Fumble Deck, and more.
• Player Companion is cancelled. You’ll find that material in the Lost Omens line now. The last book for this line was Chronicle of Legends.

Thanks again for supporting Paizo through your subscriptions to the Pathfinder, Starfinder, and Adventure Card Game product lines!

By now, you might have noticed an interesting trend in the Alien Archives of the first few volumes of the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path. As is appropriate to the subject matter of these adventures, Fire Starters introduces efreet and ifrits to the Starfinder universe. In case you are unfamiliar, an efreeti is a genie from the Plane of Fire, while ifrits are native outsiders who can trace their heritage to such beings or other similar fiery entities. Really, no surprises for an Adventure Path that takes place on (and in) the sun!

But then perhaps you noticed that Soldiers of Brass features jann—genies whose nature is split across the four elements—as well as sulis—native outsiders whose ancestors have connections to the jann. Plus, this volume also includes sylphs—native outsiders who are descended from beings from the Plane of Air, including djinn. But the stats for djinn are nowhere to be seen... until you check out the Alien Archives of Sun Divers that is!

Illustrations by David Franco Campos

If you're counting, that just leaves the Planes of Earth and Water, and their respective genies and planar scions. Unfortunately, you'll have to wait for the upcoming Dawn of Mud Adventure Path for those!

Just kidding! You'll find the marid and shaitan genies, as well as oreads and undines, in the upcoming volumes #17—Solar Strike—and #18—Assault on the Crucible.

Illustrations by Graey Erb and Nicolas Espinoza

Similar to the aasimar and tiefling planar scions introduced as playable species in Alien Archive 2, all the elemental planar scions will also be available as options for players. Each one provides slightly different ability score adjustments. For examples, sylphs are bit more dexterous, while oreads have powerful muscles. And each offers a different type of energy resistance; you won't be surprised to know that ifrits are somewhat resistant to fire. But what sets the planar scions apart from one another is that each receives a unique ability tied to the elemental plane they can trace their ancestry to. Usually, this is a simple spell-like ability, such as the undine's ability to cast energy ray at will, though it can only deal cold damage. However, as sulis have an affinity for all elements, they get a special ability that allows them to alter the type of damage any weapon they wield can do for 1 round. A suli can set her boring tactical doshko aflame and have it briefly deal half fire damage; she can even do the same for her fist!

Illustration by Mirco Paganessi

With the inclusion of genies and elemental planar scions, we've added a healthy heaping of fantasy to Starfinder's science-fantasy setting. We hope you enjoy them, and we can't wait to see some cybernetically enhanced undines and power armor-wearing ifrits out there!

Jason Keeley
Developer

As excited as we were to construct the Starfinder Beginner Box as a fun, intuitive, and effective introduction to the Starfinder universe, we were also daunted by the challenges of trying to make a complete game that did justice to something we first presented in a 528-page rulebook. Even just the Tactical Rules chapter of the Starfinder Core Rulebook is more than 50 pages long, which would eat up more than a quarter of the pagecount we had in the Beginner Box rulebooks that also needed a solo adventure, introductory adventure, an introduction to numerous RPG concepts, advice, character classes, setting material, and so much more.

Early on we had to make some tough decisions about what our goal was for this product, and how our goal would inform our design choices. One of the things we wanted this product to do was serve as both an introduction to Roleplaying Games in general, and an introduction to the most key concepts of Starfinder in particular. When we were discussing which rules to keep, which to alter, and which to cut entirely, we had to balance those design goals with things like the limitations of our page count, wanting to be playable quickly from the time the box is opened, and giving enough material that a group could continue to play with their GM making new adventures once all the pre-written encounters have been experienced. That lead to the decision to create a one page set of rules for modifying and even building enemy creatures from scratch, so GMs would not be limited to the small number of creatures we had room to present with full stat blocks.

Some decisions were based on a combination of concerns. We felt we wanted to have as many of the playable races and classes from the Core Rulebook as possible, but knew we could do all the core races, and legacy races, and all the classes, especially given we wanted each class to tell you how to build a character. In the end, we decided we needed to cut at least one class, and the solarian was clearly the one that needed the most complex explanations of its different rules. Since our iconic solarian is a kastha, we also removed that as a playable race so all our remaining iconics could represent one class and one race.

In other cases, we had goals that drove us to add additional components. The desire for the game to be a complete experience in a box meant it had to have dice, and character pawns, and a map. Joe Pasini specifically had the great idea to add player reference cards with things like the actions a character to take each turn clearly spelled out. We hadn't originally planned to have that kind of stand-alone player aid, but it was immediately apparent how useful that would be to simplifying the process of being able to play and learn the game, so we took the time to design them and added them to the components box!

It's also important to acknowledge how much we leaned on the design choices of people who have made entry-level boxed sets before us. Many of the Starfinder team have fond memories of some specific early introduction to RPGs, and we discussed what made those experiences fun and memorable, and what we thought we could improve upon. The fantastic work done on the 1st-edition Pathfinder Beginner Box was a crucial road map for us, and while we often decided to take different twists and turns in our design challenge, it was extremely useful to have such a successful product as a starting point, allowing us to stand on the shoulders of giants.

Owen K.C. Stephens
Starfinder Design Lead

The third volume of the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path takes adventurers out of the proverbial frying pan and into the literal fire, as they venture to obtain a ship to journey into the unexplored depths of the sun itself.

Join us on Starfinder Wednesday at 4:00 PM Pacific time on our Twitch channel to watch us talk all about the adventure, space casinos, and mysterious bubble cities—without spoiling any of it!

Joe Pasini
Developer

It's a monumental week here at Starfinder HQ! The Starfinder Beginner Box escaped into the wild yesterday, representing untold hours of Team Paizo's passionate work to bring an exciting and introductory Starfinder experience to players everywhere. No matter your level of experience in tabletop roleplaying games, the Beginner Box contains everything you need to enjoy the futuristic fun of Starfinder, either alone or with a group of friends.

As much as we worked to bring you this product, we're also working diligently to get the word about it out. Yesterday, Paizo's Twitch stream brought you an exclusive live-play stream of a Beginner Box game. If you want to watch some space antics in action (and hear some wacky voices!), check out the replay video of Starfinder Developer Jason Keeley, Starfinder Creative Director Rob McCreary, Starfinder Beginner Box Design Lead Joe Pasini, and Customer Service & Community Manager Sara Marie playing through a wacky adventure of my creation. (And if you'd like to read some of the Beginner Box designers' thoughts about making this beautiful product, check out last week's blog!)

But the stream certainly isn't the only way we're shining the flashlight on the Beginner Box. With our partners at Two Kings Entertainment, we have put together a character creation video to help players get started building their first (or second, or fourth) Beginner Box character. We hope this video, and the idea of creating your very own futuristic hero, will help players get started on the delightful path of a lifelong love of roleplaying—or supplement an existing passion for creativity, ingenuity, storytelling, and every other fulfilling aspect of tabletop games.

So if you're inclined, check out the video, forge some ideas for a Beginner Box character, and let your science-fantasy adventures begin!

Amanda Hamon
Starfinder Managing Developer

Starfinder fans,

Today we sent out this press release in partnership with WizKids. We're so excited about the opportunities this brings and while we don't have details now, like information on subscriptions, or which characters (aliens?) will make it into the first set, we want to be sure you hear about this new development for Starfinder.

WizKids Announces Enhanced Licensing Partnership with Paizo

Pre-painted Iconic Heroes, Monsters, and Starships from the Starfinder Universe Coming Soon!

WizKids, the industry leader in high-quality pre-painted miniatures, today announced a new branch of their licensing partnership with Paizo, makers of the popular Pathfinder and Starfinder Roleplaying Games, with plans to bring the company's latest offering to life on the tabletop with a brand new line of Starfinder Pre-Painted Miniatures.

Starfinder Battles joins the wildly popular Pathfinder Battles line in offering an amazing collection of high-quality miniatures for fans of the game.

"We're very excited to explore the Starfinder universe with Paizo," said Justin Ziran, president of WizKids. "We're confident that our fans will love the new miniatures this line will have to offer."

The initial Starfinder offerings will include a Booster Set and Premium Set, and product will be available for sale worldwide. The first release is slated to hit shelves in 2020.

"Pathfinder Battles has been a stalwart of the Pathfinder RPG for years, and we're excited to see WizKids bringing that same expertise to the Starfinder universe," said Jim Butler, VP of Marketing and Licensing at Paizo. "With hundreds of aliens and scores of player-character races in the Starfinder RPG, the Starfinder Battles line is sure to expand your gaming tabletop for years to come."

For more information on WizKids and the upcoming Starfinder pre-painted miniatures line, visit: WizKids.com.

We can't wait to share more details as they emerge!

Aaron Shanks
Public Relations Manager

Catch up with our past week of streaming from the Paizo studio! To follow along with us LIVE, subscribe on Twitch @officialpaizo where we share Pathfinder and Starfinder behind-the-scenes and lore and host weekly campaigns from our own office and our partners.

Oblivion Oath, Episode 2: A Boatload of Undead

The PCs in our Pathfinder Second Edition live-play discover that the barge isn't as safe as they thought it was. Plus, a strange encounter on a beach left the party with even more questions!

Character illustrations are by @pxelslayer and music featured is "Witchwood Harp" from the Witchwood SoundSet, used with permission from Syrinscape.

The cast of the Oblivion Oath campaign is:

• GameMaster, Jason Bulmahn, @jasonbulmahn
• Zel, a lizardfolk rogue, played by Gabriel Waluconis
• Mykah, a gnome wizard, played by Katina Davis, @katinalee13
• Carina, a dwarf champion, played by Sara Marie, @charmedneedle
• Qundle, a goblin sorcerer, played by Owen KC Stephens, @owen_stephens

Missed the first episode? Watch The Boat Party on YouTube. Join us for Episode 3 this Thursday, April 25, at 12:00 PM Pacific time on Twitch!

The Terrifying Land of Nidal

Nidal is one of the oldest nations in Avistan. It also happens to be controlled by followers of the lawful evil, Zon-Kuthon! We took a scary stroll through this city of sinister citizens on this Pathfinder Friday, Episode #41 with Amanda Hamon, @amandahamon.

Music featured is from Pathfinder Legends, produced by Big Finish.

Looking for more Pathfinder content? We host Pathfinder Fridays on our stream every Friday at 4:00 PM Pacific time.

The Year of a Thousand Bites

Last week we welcomed John Compton, @archaeotagh and Tonya Woldridge @paizoorgplay to cover the upcoming conclusion of the current season of Starfinder Society and the beginning of the next one, Year of a Thousand Bites! Watch the video, plus check our announcement from the Paizo blog for more.

Music featured is from Pathfinder Legends, produced by Big Finish.

Looking for more Starfinder content? We host Starfinder Wednesdays on our stream every Wednesday at 4:00 PM Pacific time.

It's almost here! In less than a week, the Starfinder Beginner Box will roam the wilds of outer space—and retail stores across the globe—bringing a unique and introductory brand of Starfinder to players everywhere.

Here at Paizo HQ, we couldn't be more excited. The Starfinder Beginner Box represents countless hours of passionate game design and development, layout and artwork, editing, playtesting, and much more. With the Beginner Box, we've put our hearts and souls into creating a great experience to introduce brand-new roleplayers into the hobby that we all love, and to create first impressions of the Starfinder RPG that players of all experience levels will never forget.

For certain, the project was a monumental undertaking. But knowing that our product might create deeply formative experiences for new players—in the same way that our early experiences with roleplaying changed our lives forever for the better—kept us all going the entire time. Now, we can't wait to share this game and this beginner's product with the world.

The Starfinder Beginner Box hits stores on April 24, and to help promote it, our partners at Two Kings Entertainment helped us put together the ad you see on this page.

Meanwhile, the Starfinder team members who helped bring this product to life have some thoughts to share about the process.

Creating the Starfinder Beginner Box was an extremely challenging and rewarding project that took dozens of people to execute. For my part as one of its designers, I did everything I could to pack as much of the Starfinder core experience into a package that's accessible to anyone with an itch to explore our weird and wild science-fantasy galaxy. I'm proud of the character sheet and especially happy about the player-aid cards. I hope they help give novice players a sense of agency and serve as a handy reminder for those with more experience.

—Joe Pasini, Starfinder Beginner Box Design Lead

I'm really excited to share the world of Starfinder with so many more people—from those who want a handy way to check out what Starfinder has to offer, to those who have never tried a roleplaying game before. I look forward to hearing everyone's epic tales of galactic adventure!

Early on in my RPG-playing hobby, I often had no one to play with. I ended up spending a lot of time with solo adventures, which helped me learn the rules at my own pace and without the pressure of making mistakes in front of more experienced players. That kind of solo-introductory experience isn't a thing most tabletop RPGs do much anymore. So even though this game supports group play and learning how to GM, I was also super excited to see the solo portion of the game.

I hope it lets someone else who doesn't want to try to learn a game with a group, for whatever reason, figure out the basics at their own pace.

—Owen K.C. Stephens, Starfinder Beginner Box Design Lead

A boxed set of basic rules was my first introduction to RPGs, so I've been looking forward to doing a Starfinder Beginner Box since we first started working on the Starfinder RPG. There is so much in that box that I'm excited about, but I'm particularly proud of the adventure I wrote for the Starfinder Beginner Box: “Steel Talon's Lair.” It was a fun challenge to write an introductory adventure for Starfinder that also would help GMs and players navigate through what could be their first roleplaying game experience ever! I don't want to spoil the adventure here for those who might play it, but one encounter features a strange effigy of an alien quadruped, and I wanted to share a little bit of flavor about the relationship between space goblins and horses that unfortunately had to be cut from the adventure for space: “Horses have long been an object of fear and hatred to goblins, and they hope that an image of such a fearsome creature will scare away intruders. Of course, these space goblins have never seen a real horse, so the effigy is more a representation of what they think a terrifying horse would look like.” Suffice to say, the sculpture looks nothing like a real horse—but it's still terrifying to space goblins!

—Robert G. McCreary, Starfinder Creative Director

I had the privilege of designing most of the creatures for the Starfinder Beginner Box. (Rob McCreary created the adventure's villain.) The primary point was usability. It was fun to pare the monsters down to their essentials, and to rework the language and format with that goal in mind. The creature section also has plenty of evil NPCs, so GMs have scoundrels to use right out of the box. I'd be remiss if I didn't point out that other members of the team, especially Joe Pasini, made sure my work meshed with the overall system. The results take me back to when I started with RPGs nearly 25 years ago with another beginner's box. I hope the Starfinder Beginner Box does the same for a new generation of roleplayers!

—Chris Sims, Starfinder Developer

That's all for now! Keep your eyes peeled for this gorgeous product soon!

Amanda Hamon
Starfinder Managing Developer

Oblivion Oath Episode 1:

The Boat Party

Catch up on Paizo's live-play of Pathfinder Second Edition kicked off with episode 1! The PCs found themselves on a barge, floating around Lake Encarthan. Overall, things were going great... except for a few undead.

Oblivion Oath is:
GM - Jason Bulmahn (@JasonBulmahn)
Mikah - Katina Davis (@KatinaLee13)
Zel - Gabe Waluconis
Carina - Sara Marie (@charmedneedle)
Qundle - Owen K.C. Stephens (@Owen_Stephens)

Character art by @PxelSlayer.

Music:
Witchwood Harp by Benjamin Loomes; Syrinscape Music.
Used With Permission.

You can continue to catch up with the replay of episode 2 on our Twitch channel today at 3 p.m. Pacific, where some of the players should be in the chat. Then you are set to join us live on twitch.tv/OfficialPaizo this Thursday at noon Pacific to watch what happens next!

Pathfinder Friday:

Treerazer and the History of Elves vs Demons! (Pathfinder #40)

We broke down the history of elves vs demons on Golarion with Pathfinder Creative Director James Jacobs. We also talked about a dangerous demon with a penchant for destroying trees, named Treerazer. We even had a little preview of the artwork that will be in the Pathfinder Second Edition Bestiary!

Intro/Outro Music From The Pathfinder Legends Audio Dramas from Big Finish.

Pathfinder Friday streams live every Friday at 4pm Pacific on our Twitch channel, Twitch.tv/officialpaizo.

Starfinder Wednesday:

What Didn't Make it into the Beginner Box? (Starfinder #31)

When creating the Starfinder Beginner Box, the team knew that some tough decisions needed to be made: What wouldn't make the cut from the Starfinder Core Rulebook? On this Starfinder Wednesday, we talked to Creative Director Robert G. McCreary and Developer Joe Pasini to get their thoughts on the Beginner Box and why they cut certain things before the finished product.

Crystal Frasier, Author of Soldiers of Brass (Starfinder #32)

The one and only Crystal Frasier was in the studio to talk about writing the second volume of the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path! We also got into some hot tips to help with writing, ways to get into writing RPGs, and SO MUCH MORE! It's an awesome show full of super-fun!

Intro/Outro Music From The Pathfinder Legends Audio Dramas from Big Finish.

We stream Starfinder Wednesday every Wednesday on Twitch.tv/officialpaizo at 4pm Pacific.

As the Dawn of Flame Adventure Path progresses, you might want to learn more about Starfinder lore related to ol’ Mataras, the Pact Worlds’ sun. Well, we’ve got you covered with video lore segment from our Starfinder Wednesday Twitch stream!

Unlike an eclipse, you can stare directly at it. Enjoy!

Chris S. Sims
Developer

For Pathfinder Society, we announce the yearly themes and logos at the PaizoCon preview banquet. This works well for Gen Con releases, but not so well for events in June and July. In deciding to launch new year storylines at Origins, we needed to move up our timeline for announcements. If you want to join me, lead developer John Compton, and developer Thurston Hillman at Origins for the premiere of Starfinder Season Year 2, you can find the Origins catalog of events on the Origins website.

The year numbering is a bit of a misnomer, as we’ve had the Starfinder Society for 20-ish months at this point, but this is the first major storyline pivot; hence, the Year 2 title. As the primary developer for Starfinder Society, Thurston Hillman is the best team member to provide a sneak peek into what’s coming. Without further ado, here is your glimpse into what the team has in store for you:

Today, the Organized Play team is proud to reveal the name and symbol for our upcoming season of Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild content. If you’ve been following Starfinder Society, you’ll know that we’re coming into the home stretch of our Year of Scoured Stars* and that there are only a few months of scenarios left before our Origins debut for Starfinder Society Year 2. With that in mind, it seemed like a good idea to provide some information on what Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild participants can look forward to starting in June of 2019.

Let me be the first to welcome all our players and GMs into the upcoming “Year of a Thousand Bites."

There’s a lot to parse and make guesses from in that name, but let me give you a bit of a preview of what this name and season represent. Taking a quick step back to the ongoing Year of Scoured Stars, the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild has focused a lot on a fairly sweeping “science fantasy space opera” storyline. Over the past two years of play, we’ve seen the Starfinder Society rebound from a nasty event in the Scoured Stars, come face to face with a new alien menace, and made inroads with new civilizations across the galaxy. This all culminates in our second interactive special, Starfinder Society #2–00: Fate of the Scoured God, a Tier 1–12 special debuting at Origins that bridges the gap (not that Gap) between Year 1 and Year 2. With all that in mind, our new season of play takes us back to somewhere we’ve been away from for too long: the Pact Worlds.

The Year of a Thousand Bites brings us back to the Pact Worlds and re-focuses the campaign on two major concepts: what it means to be a Starfinder and the living aspect of our campaign. Being a Starfinder can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people, and we’re going to get some insight into what people outside the Society think of Starfinders this season. We’re also going to get a chance to revisit some choices that players have made over the past twenty months of play and see how those choices have worked out.

Since taking on the role of Starfinder Society developer, I’ve pushed for a campaign that lets the players decide where our story goes. It’s taken some time for us to spin up this process, but I want to re-emphasize a promise that the Starfinder Society is a representative organization directly influenced by the player base. I suppose now would also be a good time to remind all our Second Seekers faction members out there to look at getting that Rising Star capstone boon and emailing us your character description—it’s going to be very important. In fact, for all you Second Seekers out there, you’ll probably want to look at getting that to us no later than 11:59 PST on April 30th**.

As for what else is in store for this year’s story… well, how about we take a brief look at our first Year of a Thousand Bites releases! (Expect product pages soon)

Starfinder Society #2–01: Pact World Warriors brings back the ever-lovable undead media mogul, Zo!, who wants a group of skilled Starfinders to participate in a series of televised events. Since the Society needs to improve its reputation in the Pact Worlds (hmmmm… wonder why they need to do that?) it’s up to the PCs to step in and participate in these—absolutely not deadly and ridiculous—events.

Starfinder Society #2–02: Waking the Past takes us out beyond the Pact Worlds to investigate a recently unearthed complex on an AbadarCorp-sponsored frontier colony world. I’m sure nothing could go wrong with Starfinders investigating an unearthed set of ruins.

We’ll have a lot more information on the Year of a Thousand Bites to reveal in the coming months, with a dedicated Q/A session at PaizoCon 2019 for all those of you in attendance. I’m really looking forward to showing some of the stories we have planned for this upcoming year of Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild play and am equally excited to hear from all the players who get a chance to participate in (and directly impact) where our shared campaign goes in the future!***

Footnotes:

*Ok, it's been a bit more than just a single year.
**Don't fret if you can't get us those capstone write-ups by this date. There will be more opportunities later on for those who complete this!
***Bad sci-fi/futuristic pun. I apologize.

Until next week, when we preview the April scenarios, I ask you all to Explore, Report, Cooperate!

Tonya Wolridge
Organized PlayManager

What has six sides, a robot dragon, and contains a galaxy's worth of science fantasy adventure? The Starfinder Beginner Box!