Pathfinder Society Sanctioning: Strange Aeons

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

I spent several minutes trying to think of a clever name for the blog announcing that we had finished sanctioning the Strange Aeons Adventure Path. However, after talking to the team and reading the posts from players eager to get started playing the adventure path in a PFS-sanctioned environment, I realized that less was probably more. So, as you may have surmised from the title, Strange Aeons is now officially sanctioned and available for Pathfinder Society credit!

Strange Aeons is the first sanctioning project I tackled after joining the OP developer team here at Paizo, so the boons and decisions in the sanctioning document are a combination of my (perhaps overly) enthusiastic ideas tempered and refined by John and Linda's wisdom and experience. We came up with an idea that the boons themselves could tie into the search for identity and purpose that interweaves the themes of psychological and subversive horror found in Strange Aeons, taking fundamental questions about who your character is and why they're on this adventure and turning them into mechanical benefits that enhance an already-awesome story.

But what if Strange Aeons isn't really your kind of adventure? Well, no worries, because there are even more modules and adventure paths queued up and rapidly nearing completion! I'm not going to spoil the surprise, but I will say that the next module sanctioning we've got working its way through the publication process rhymes with "Hearing the Bound Ditty" and I recently sent off a sanctioning document for layout that rhymes with "Druids of Pantsland." So, I guess what I'm saying is, be ready for an awesome year full of newly sanctioned content!

Happy gaming everyone!

Michael Sayre
Developer

Order of the Amber Die—The Strange Aeons Experiment, Part 6

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

"It was all the same dream, a dream that you had inside a locked room, a dream about being a person. And like a lot of dreams, there's a monster at the end of it."—Rust Cohle

It’s been a long and dangerous delve into madness for the stalwart folks in the Order of the Amber Die, but they successfully made it through the Strange Aeons Adventure Path in six weekend-long sessions. Here’s the Order of the Amber Die returns to give us a recap of their last session and share some collected stats on their entire run of this campaign. If you haven’t been reading this series of blogs, catch up by reading Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.

As usual, spoilers about, so proceed with caution!

Entering the grand finale of an Adventure Path—especially one played in front of the community—comes with plenty of trepidation and nostalgia. Our opening evening of marathon six was emotional, and we spent it reminiscing about some of our favorite moments in Strange Aeons. As our membership is spread across the country, even if we achieved victory we'd be saying goodbye to our characters and each other for what could be months or years; with fifteen active members, we've had some overlap but never the same roster in any project.

To help bring this marathon experience to life, our GM tapped another member as a live-NPC for the role of the mute musician Erich Zann, and we were joined once again by Savannah Broadway in the role of NPC Winter Klaczka. We also had plenty of props and music for the dark cabaret we would encounter in Paris, and actual wine labels for the bottles of Ruby Artemesia that would feature at a sinister gala.

For Pathfinder Adventure Path #114: Black Stars Beckon, the entire marathon session was 104 hours long with 63 hours and 15 minutes of session hours.

Highlights From Black Stars Beckon

• We needed to perform three rituals in order to sever Carcosa's connection to Golarion; these were lengthy, left us vulnerable, and worse yet: drew the attention of Great Old Ones. During our second ritual, a ghastly dream manifestation of Xhamen-Dor emerged to disrupt our casters. Erasmus, despite still suffering from the possession corruption, put his occult skills on display with entrap spirit—instantly ending the fight before it began.
• The strangeness of this Adventure Path reached new levels with Carcosa's patchwork of cities stolen from different times and planets, but by this point we had found ways to embrace it. We invited ourselves to a vampire ball in ancient Azlant, where we threw caution to the wind and partied like it was -9999. Later on, we popped in on a cabaret full of Leng ghouls in 1890s Paris, where we sipped champagne and basked in the ambiance of La Belle Époque.
• To reach our goal in an ice-enshrouded elder thing city, author Jim Groves challenged us with an old-school numbers puzzle that almost stopped the campaign. Immersion is important to the Order, so our GM wasn't ready to let us off the hook with an intelligence check. After two hours the group broke for sleep, leaving Sterling (Alahazra) alone with our notes. When we woke up the next morning, he had solved it.

The Experiment

From otherworldly horror to the research rules, dream quests and occult rituals, this path just felt different from standard Pathfinder—which was exactly what we loved about it. Regarding the results of our experiment, we were all in agreement that not only can Strange Aeons be played by complete rookies to the Elder Mythos, but that we may have had the better deal by doing so!

Character Deaths

When Adam Daigle opened his introduction to Black Stars Beckon by apologizing for killing our characters, it helped us to consider PC-demise from a lighter perspective. With our group having regular access to breath of life, a cauldron of resurrection, and even wish, mortality was no longer an issue; with a number as high as sixteen, even death died.

Best Quote From Marathon 6

Cold silence before a gunfight in the cabaret.
Feiya: "Any ghoul that doesn't wanna get killed, better clear on out the back."

The Strange Aeons Adventure Path by the Numbers

All of us went to great effort to track data throughout the entire Adventure Path, and we are proud to present the results of that effort here:

• Total marathon hours: 581
• Actual session hours: 357
• Longest single session: 19 hours, 45 minutes
• Real-life months passed: 10
• Days passed on Golarion/Carcosa: 248
• Highest DC reached on a skill check: 55 (Quinn)
• Occult ritual record: 9-1
• Teamwork Feat: Shake It Off. Total preventative uses: 101
• Group-consensus on most valuable skill: Knowledge (dungeoneering)
• Caffeine consumed from Monster energy drinks: 45,216 mg

Feiya's Channel Energy

• Uses: 145
• Healing living creatures: 116 uses, 6,738 hit points
• Harming undead creatures: 29 uses, 469 damage

Quinn's Inspiration

• Points spent: 244
• Free uses of inspiration with skill checks: countless

Alahazra's Revelations

• Erase From Time
• Attempts: 37
• Successes: 9
• Temporal Celerity
• Initiatives won: 32
• Aging Touch
• Total uses: 18
• Successful uses: 10
• Rewind Time
• Total uses: 9
• Conversions from failure to success: 4
• Time Sight
• True Seeing: 12
• Moment of Prescience: 3

Erasmus's Spirit Surges

• Total uses: 37
• Champion spirit: 32
• Hierophant spirit: 4
• Trickster spirit: 1
• Conversions from failure to success: 28

GM Stats

• Most common enemy abilities used: confusion, fear
• Strongest party-defenses faced: freedom of movement, find fault, particulate form
• Highest enemy full-attack damage: 220 (graveknight)
• Marathon prep hours: ~540
• Random encounters: 22
• Breaks taken during the Adventure Path: 1

How it Ended

Atop a rain-soaked tower surrounded by a massive yellow sign, we faced off against Ariadnah the lich and the abomination that Count Lowls had become. Things got off to the kind of start you hope you'll never experience when playing for a championship. We lost two characters on the opening round, with Feiya dropped by a horrid wilting and Winter removed by a maze. The room was silent. We had to block out what was happening, find a way to rally, and do what any team might do in this situation: a Hail Mary. Alahazra threw it in the form of disintegrate, and the lich caught it in the face with a natural one. A few rounds and seven (consecutive) successful saving throws later, we were in a position to win. When the dust of victory finally settled, only Erasmus and Quinn were left holding the belt of Strange Aeons.

More Content

Read through the entirety of The Strange Aeons Experiment.

For character builds, questions about Strange Aeons, content and more, see our thread here on the forums.

Give Order of the Amber Die a Like on Facebook and follow us on YouTube or Instagram for more!

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

Order of the Amber Die—The Strange Aeons Experiment, Part 5

Sunday, April 30, 2017

They made it off the map! Well, off the map of the Inner Sea and deep into parts unknown. The folks from the Order of the Amber Die recently completed their fifth marathon session of running the delightfully creepy Strange Aeons Adventure Path. I'm going to keep this introduction short and let all of you dive right into the action as the Order of the Amber Die recaps their experiences with Pathfinder Adventure Path #113: What Grows Within.

As usual, proceed with caution if you are playing in this campaign, as spoilers abound!

Author John Compton handed us an experience in this marathon that had a horrifically epic feel from the opening hours, and didn't let up. We dealt with threats that dwarfed anything we've seen in this Adventure Path, perhaps in a dozen campaigns we've played. As this year marked the 30th anniversary of Order of the Amber Die, we decided to try for a new record regarding the total time spent together during a marathon. Ninty-six hours was our previous tally, but we're proud to say that part five of Strange Aeons allowed for a new achievement:

• Adventure: Pathfinder Adventure Path #113: What Grows Within
• Marathon Length: 108 hours
• Session Hours: 64

For immersion, the audio engineers at Axion Studios provided custom sounds of the eerie wind that blew through Neruzavin. We also used modeling clay and clumps of foliage to make unique versions of the fungal monsters we encountered. Lastly, we employed the author's suggestion for enhancing horror in roleplaying games (see John's foreword in "What Grows Within"), by silencing our phones and severely curtailing their usage.

Highlights From What Grows Within

• Finding the forgotten city of Neruzavin was our first challenge, made more difficult after our gnoll guides ditched us and the camels were killed by drakes. Upon surviving our first day in that terrible metropolis, the camels might have been better off.
• To earn the respect of an ash giant tribe in control of the Parchlands, we had to draw on our skill set from Giantslayer and best a colossal scorpion. Their skeptical leader shouted three words that were guaranteed to fire up our room: "Prove your might!"
• We tried everything to get answers to the mysteries hidden within Neruzavin, including a legend lore spell, a real-time harrowing by Erasmus, and a conference with an otyugh tome eater who chomped down our scrolls faster than a bag of Doritos.
• During our daily seance, an unknown spirit forced its way into Erasmus and began battling Nissa for control of his body. We don't know much about it, or even how to rid Erasmus of it; unfortunately, the spirit is beginning to manifest its unpleasant personality, and it suffers no rivals.
• Even our new companion Amrivast, a lammasu paladin, wasn't safe from the evil present in Neruzavin. We could do nothing as he struggled against its dark influences and eventually abandoned us. The lammasu returned later as a fungal abomination, calling himself "Amrivast the Seeded, herald of Xhamen-Dor!" We didn't want to put him down, but we had to.
• We found the Necronomicon, and even being Elder Mythos rookies we'd heard the name before. It didn't help that Quinn was the one who read it—or that Dan laughed sadistically while our GM told him its secrets.
• After having our flesh and egos scoured by what our GM told us was a "flying polyp," our poor reflex saves began dreading what was around every street corner, if corner is even the word. Please, no more polyps.

The Experiment

Quinn broke. Out-of-game too. Our lawful good companion murdered a man right in front of our eyes. The diseased member of a prior expedition to Neruzavin was clearly suffering from seedborne consumption, but we hadn't tried everything to save him before Quinn acted. It didn't go down easy either—the man screamed while Quinn drove his dagger home again and again.

Character Deaths

This marathon was as deadly as you'd expect from a semi-final matchup. On our side were stats such as Feiya's nine instant kills via flesh to stone, and Erasmus's 142 points of damage in a single round. On the opposing side were John Compton's twelve character deaths scored, with five of them coming from the graveknight inquisitor of Rovagug he designed. It's important to note that we had easy access to breath of life through Feiya's hex channeling, and Winter carried two in her daily complement.

Best Quote From Marathon 5

Alahazra (during a tense parley with an irritated moon giant): "I need money. I am negotiating with a massive giant, OR WE ARE GOING TO DIE. What do we have?"

Current Situation

We had to make one of the toughest decisions of our Pathfinder careers, and it will surely trouble us throughout the last chapter of our story. Desperately low on resources, the debate came down to saving the multiverse from Hastur, or merely saving Golarion in the present. The vote was 3-2 in favor of leaving Golarion behind, forcing our world to face the reviving threat of a Great Old One and the polyps we unleashed. Moreover, we had taken the Necronomicon away from Quinn and given it to exscinder archons, which meant we would have to attempt the Path to the Black Stars occult ritual without a key focus—the ritual's costly toll now meant we had only one chance at completing it.

The result: We're headed to Carcosa and the finals of this AP!

More Content

Read through the entirety of The Strange Aeons Experiment.

For character builds, questions about Strange Aeons, content and more, see our thread here on the messageboards.

Give Order of the Amber Die a Like on Facebook and follow us on Instagram for more!

If this is the first time you're reading one of these Order of the Amber Die blogs and want to catch up, check out the Strange Aeons Experiment Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Until next time, stay safe and keep alert, because the next time you hear from the Order of the Amber Die they'll be sharing tales of the finale of the Strange Aeons Adventure Path! This probably won't happen until after PaizoCon where I'll run into a few of the Order of the Amber Die folks as they come to Seattle to play some games and talk about their marathon experiences. If you're at the show, make sure to say "Hi!" You can't miss their custom shirts.

Adam Daigle
Developer

Order of the Amber Die—The Strange Aeons Experiment, Part 4

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

On the trail of the person who condemned them to an asylum with no memory of their former selves, the Order of the Amber Die tackles the fourth adventure of the Strange Aeons Adventure Path. It looks like they had a great time (as usual), and this time around it was great to read the live tweeting from the Order's newest member—former Paizo intern Savannah Broadway.

Here's their report from their marathon experience with Pathfinder Adventure Path #112: The Whisper Out of Time! As always, proceed with caution if you are playing in this Adventure Path or planning to do so, as spoilers may lurk within the following words.

After reaching the Taldan port city of Cassomir and recovering from the madness that plagued several of our party members, our group was eager to chase Count Lowls further into this Adventure Path. We knew we were in for a long run when our GM booked an extra day for this marathon. We ended up setting an Order of the Amber Die record, staying in the same house for 93 hours, and playing over 60 of those. We also saw three of Golarion's signature cities, and traversed nearly 800 miles.

Making this marathon even more significant for us was the return of Savannah Broadway, taking the role of Winter Klaczka and leading "Winter's Wolves" to victory once again. We opened up the first night of play with an official draft ceremony, fully inducting Savannah into the Order—our first new member in three years! After presenting her with an official Order of the Amber Die jersey, it was time to settle in for a few days of Pathfinder.

To keep us fully immersed, we used AdventureScents to overwhelm our olfactory senses with the myriad smells of an alchemist's lab, followed by the moldy paper of an ancient library. For the streets of Cassomir, we combined buildings from Custom Kingdoms with a 4 ft. x 6 ft. gridded cobblestone battlemat from Deep-Cut Studio.

Highlights from The Whisper Out of Time

• In the top floors of an old infirmary, we chased a three-armed derro vivisectionist through a maze of skin. Enough said.
• Searching for the Mysterium, one of the oldest libraries on Golarion, we rolled into majestic Katheer to the sounds of Mosavo's "Mystic Caravan." While many dungeons we've crawled have contained a library, in this adventure the largest dungeon was a library.
• Before we could figure out how to shut off the Mysterium's warped defense system, we faced packs of hounds—of Tindalos! Sixteen slain was the number, with MVP Quinn taking on four at once in a plan gone awry.
• Going into this adventure, we knew we'd be up against author Richard Pett. Gaming convention crowds and the Paizo messageboards helped confirm that with Xanesha from Rise of the Runelords, he possessed perhaps more TPKs than any contemporary author. Though we managed to best her in 2014, Xanesha still put 4 of our iconics in the ground. Pett delivered again in this adventure. In the extradimensional heart of the library, we faced off against a corrupted archon known only as "The Keeper," who shook off three banishments and two hold monsters while draining over 20 ability points on round one. At a critical moment, he succumbed to the 1st level spell ill omen, and we managed a clean game.
• In Okeno, we had to navigate a difficult parley with the Hyena Princess Njano. Since two members are lawful good, our party tried everything—which meant slipping into her milk bath to discuss terms.
• On the rooftop of a gnoll fortress known as Blossoming Thorn, we got ourselves into the largest melee of the campaign thus far. An airwalking Quinn engaged Biting Lash, one of the most notorious slavers in the Yellow City. At the same time, Erasmus took on her bodyguard, scimitar versus scimitar. Alahazra slowed the reinforcements with bursts of radiance, while Winter provided Pharasma's blessing through Fateful Channel. As Feiya engaged their enemy sorcerer in an arcane duel, Daji jumped into the scrap by going after Biting Lash's eagle animal companion. Just as we were about to be overwhelmed, we grabbed our quarry and called for the teleport extraction. Mission successful.

The Experiment

We kept hearing creepy whispers and a strange bell throughout the adventure. We've gotten so used to the unexplainable in this Adventure Path, that we just wrote them off as more Lovecraftian enigmas that will be revealed in time.

Character Deaths

It turns out the cult of Hastur was more widespread than we thought. Cultists hunted us through the damp streets of Cassomir, leading to two deadly ambushes that resulted in casualties amounting to: several townsfolk, a byakhee, a few dire bats, a keeper of the yellow sign, and some members of the city guard. With the help of our cult hunter, we fought our way out of their tentacles, but lost Feiya both times.

Best Quote from Marathon 4

Alahazra (after slaying a Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath): "We just pissed off a Great Old One."
Winter (in a Russian accent): "It is having a thousand young, I don't think it is going to miss one..."

Current Situation

We've exchanged dark and fog-shrouded Ustalav for more sun and heat than we ever expected coming into this AP. Armed with a map, ample supplies, and gnoll guides provided by the untrustworthy slaver named Biting Lash, we're headed deep into the Parchlands of Casmaron for part five. Semi-finals, here we come!

More Content

Read through the entirety of The Strange Aeons Experiment.

For character builds, questions about Strange Aeons, content and more, see our thread here on the messageboards.

Give Order of the Amber Die a Like on Facebook and follow us on Instagram for more!

So, they made it through and are on the move again. Tune in next time to see if they can survive the Parchlands and the mysterious ruined city of Neruzavin.

Adam Daigle
Developer

As Aeons End

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Illustrations by Kent Hamilton

This month the Strange Aeons Adventure Path wraps up, and by the time this blog goes live some subscribers will have already dug their claws into the adventure while others have to wait for stores to put them on the shelves next Wednesday.

Over the course of this Adventure Path, readers have seen how subtle corruptions can boil over into dangerous territory, leaving those that witness them to gestate further horrors in their own minds that can threated the world at large. Within this Adventure Path, we got a look at the Great Old Ones and Elder Gods that make up the Elder Mythos. We explored Hastur's cult and had a glimpse into what might happen if that Great Old One was to rise as an Outer Gods. We got to look deeper into the vile evil of the Necronomicon, and explored the strange world of the Dreamlands. We ventured to forgotten locations in Golarion and stepped beyond the gap between worlds to set foot on lost Carcosa. In the Adventure Path bestiary, we got to show you new statistics for a Great Old One in each installment, as well as a double handful of other Mythos creatures throughout. It's been a strange journey to say the least.

I'm terrible at picking favorites, be it a favorite color, favorite song, favorite food, whatever. However, since I had so many great writers on this Adventure Path, I felt the need to pick my favorite thing that they created in each of the six adventures. Like always, it's difficult picking my favorite things that I liked about each one, so in some cases I just went with my gut when picking from my lengthy lists. Here goes!

Pathfinder Adventure Path #109: In Search of Sanity

Favorite Thing: The whole first act.

The starting encounter with the PCs asleep and encountering the Tatterman and the fugue state set up of the whole AP seemed challenging in the outline, but Wes Schneider killed it in a way that was better than I could imagine.

Honorable Mentions: That attic whisperer illustration; the Argus Wall; and Red Destiny.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #110: The Thrushmoor Terror

Favorite Thing: Thrushmoor's weird townsfolk.

Tito Leati is great at writing character that interconnect, so I loved his backstory of Nemira Lowls and how she tied in with Clymes Prett and the history of Thrushmoor's leadership, as well as the other characters he introduced.

Honorable Mentions: Fun Star Stelae mechanics; the Hastur article; and meeting Weiralai the first time.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #111: Dreams of the Yellow King

Favorite Thing: The adventure's entire structure.

I love that this adventure takes place in two worlds during a long river journey, and with most of it in the Dreamlands Ron Lundeen was able to give out powerful treasure and present some nearly impossible fights (I'm looking at you, Bokrug).

Honorable Mentions: Abdul Alhazred; Skywin Freeling as a breath of fresh, positive air; and fighting yourselves.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #112: A Whisper Out of Time

Favorite Thing: Creepy derro madness.

Rich Pett is a master of the weird and unsettling, and I really adored what he did with Miacknian Mun's house (and his weird experiments that look like him).

Honorable Mentions: The derro leader Twain; the weirdness of the Mysterium; and betrayal and blood in Okeno.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #113: What Grows Within

Favorite Thing: The strange allies you encounter.

This trip into a forgotten and inhospitable location in Golarion was made extra fun and interesting with the rich characters John Compton introduced. I adored Hoshbagh, the otyugh tome eater occultist and the frightening Mother Grim Moon, as well as the broken soul manu and the Saffron Prince.

Honorable Mentions: The return of Weiralai in her advanced form; the Necronomicon article; and the child of Yog-Sothoth template.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #114: Black Stars Beckon

Favorite Thing: Packing varied locations into one adventure.

It was a tough challenge to show different parts of Carcosa in such a tight space, but Jim did a great job of it. I especially liked seeing the Paris element of Carcosa, but getting to see Azlanti vampires and an elder thing "ghost town" was delightful as well. Man, I really love this cover.

Honorable Mentions: The cast of familiar characters like Erich Zann, Cassilda, and the Pallid Mask.

The Sounds of Madness

Today we're also excited to announce that our partners at Syrinscape have released the first Strange Aeons SoundPack! Ben has, yet again, worked his magic on bringing "In Search of Sanity" alive in all of its delightfully creepy beauty. After listening to it at my desk, I nabbed Wes so he could get a chance to hear the demented sounds of his adventure. This SoundSet really captures the fear and uncertainty of trying to survive an asylum that has descended into monstrous chaos. I loved hearing the sounds for the argus wall, and the encounter with what Debis Lieklan has become is especially unnerving. Listening to this also made me realize that I need to put more dialog in adventures, as it was great hearing the NPCs in this adventure come to life.

The first volume in the new Strange Aeons Adventure Path, "In Search of Sanity", is a fantastically intense and ghastly adventure needing equally fantastic and horrible sounds. You can get a peek at the process behind how the Syrinscape team worked their magic to bring this adventure to spine tinglingly disturbing 3D life on our YouTube channel. (Who would have thought you could voice a Nightgaunt with a fur seal?)

With the In Search of Sanity SoundPack you'll be able to carefully and finely tune your player's discomfort. Subtly ramping up or down from one so-called "Tension Level" is simply a matter of touching a single button. Your players probably won't even notice just how intensely immersed and involved they've been in the adventure session. Not until you stop Syrinscape to take a break and the mood weirdly drains from the room will they know just how you've been masterfully you've been controlling the ebb and flow of this horror adventure with a few subtle mostly subliminal tones.

Watch the demo below and grab the first Strange Aeons SoundPack here! If you're looking for more creepy sounds, check out the whole range of Syrinscape products.

Benjamin Loomes
Creative Director
Syrinscape

Illustrations by Miguel Regodón Harkness

Crossing the Streams

For those of you who want more Call of Cthulhu chocolate in their Pathfinder peanut butter (or vice versa—it's your metaphor to manipulate as needed), James Jacobs worked up a clever system in the Continuing the Campaign article to merge your Strange Aeons characters with investigators working against the sinister machinations of the Mythos in this final Strange Aeons Adventure Path volume, Pathfinder Adventure Path #114: Black Stars Beckon.

When using this system, at the climax of the Adventure Path, the PCs don't return to Golarion, but instead a magical vortex opens in Carcosa that blasts their consciousness out to the stars where they arrive in the minds of humans on a planet with a strong connection to Carcosa—Earth.

This provides an option to play adventures with the Call of Cthulhu Roleplaying Game where the investigators have the spirit essences of the characters the players controlled throughout the Strange Aeons Adventure Path inhabiting their minds on Earth. These spirit essences want to return to Golarion, but can't make the transition until they achieve some goals on Earth such as preventing the rise of eldritch forces and fighting against Mythos influence. With enough successes, the characters' spirit essences are freed from the human investigators and can safely return to their selves on Golarion.

This is an interesting approach to merging two different games and campaigns, and I'm interested in seeing how folks use it.

This month's Pathfinder Adventure Path closes out the Strange Aeons Adventure Path and I hope that you've enjoyed the weird ride as much as we've enjoyed bringing to you. Stay tuned to this blog for deeper looks into the Adventure Path as we bring you more reports from the Order of the Amber Die as they run marathon sessions of the remaining adventures in this campaign. You're not getting this Adventure Path out of your head that easy.

Adam Daigle
Developer

Down the Path of Madness

Thursday, December 15, 2016

With this month's release of The Whisper Out of Time the Strange Aeons Adventure Path is two-thirds of the way through a twisted journey through horror and uncertainty. By the time the PCs begin this month's adventure, they have reclaimed their lost memories and figured out what happened to them—something that will hopefully motivate them to track down those responsible. Let see what mind-shattering dangers await the PCs as they move into the last two volumes of the Strange Aeons Adventure Path.

In Pathfinder Adventure Path #113: What Grows Within (written by our own John Compton), the PCs journey to the mysterious and (mostly) abandoned alien city of Neruzavin where they hope to catch up to Count Lowls, but they have to survive a dangerous desert trek and the otherworldly dangers within if they hope to be successful. In addition to the adventure, this volume contains an article about the Great Old One Xhamen-Dor as well as a look into the blasphemous Necronomicon.

Pathfinder Adventure Path #114: Black Stars Beckon (written by Jim Groves) brings the PCs to dreaded Carcosa as they frantically attempt to unravel the tendrils of the city that grip Golarion and seek to draw it into its alien bulk. Will the PCs draw the attention of Hastur before they can complete their task or will they remain forever shattered in lost Carcosa? This volume also contains a number of ways to continue the campaign—in strange ways—as well as the final installment of the Pathfinder's Journal (written by yours truly).

Illustrations by Mikael Leger

Illustrations by Alexandur Alexandrov, Kent Hamilton, and Jorge Fares

There's still more to come in Strange Aeons, so keep your eyes open for the final two adventures. I'll leave you with a few art teasers of what to expect for the final third of the campaign. Best of luck to all the PCs in this Adventure Path!

Adam Daigle
Developer

Order of the Amber Die—The Strange Aeons Experiment, Part 3

Friday, December 9, 2016

Despite waking from the nightmare of what sounded like a tough but exciting marathon session, the Order of the Amber Die folks bring up a report from their experience with the third adventure in the Strange Aeons Adventure Path, Pathfinder Adventure Path #111: Dreams of the Yellow King. This adventure promised to bring the weird and surreal into the campaign, and from what I've heard from the Order of the Amber Die, it succeeded.

What follows is their brief report. As always, proceed with caution, as spoilers abound.

So far in The Strange Aeons Experiment we've been stumbling through the horror with the naivety you'd expect from four players who are Lovecraft-ignorant. Dreams of the Yellow King would be no different, and we were determined to fully immerse ourselves for our rookie excursion into the dimension of dreams. We blacked out our walls with floor-to-ceiling panels, dialed up a soundtrack that included plenty of psychedelic trance, and even passed around a miniature staircase just as our characters did for each Dreamlands occult ritual. For the real-world ride on the Sellen River, we created 3-D boats from Rob Lazarretti's maps, with one member managing to create a fully functional sail for the Sellen Starling. Lastly, for the massive amount of research that we'd be performing in this adventure, we borrowed a collection of antique books and piled it around our play area.

This marathon was unique, because joining us at the table for the three-month voyage to Cassomir was a special guest: Paizo former intern, author, and editor Savannah Broadway flew from Seattle to New Jersey to take on the role of NPC Winter Klaczka. Savannah bunked in the command center of the Order, a room we call "The Lair," and it was an honor to game alongside her. We clocked 60 session hours, and even had Savannah with us for the longest day of the AP: a nearly 20-hour run. Her live tweets kept us laughing throughout the marathon and helped present the experience for our fans. Not only will we miss Savannah's perfect accent for Winter, but she did something unprecedented by naming our first party after an NPC: Winter's Wolves! We were also very grateful to add the talents of an Order member (a Boston NBA and NHL cameraman) to help us best capture the occasion.

Highlights from Dreams of the Yellow King

• We tried nearly everything we could to cure Quinn of the ghoul corruption he picked up during In Search of Sanity. Horrible as it may seem, isolating a manacled Quinn in a barn for a week actually worked. You can imagine his face during this adventure when we discovered a race of ghouls even more powerful and intelligent than any we knew existed: Leng ghouls.
• Powerful treasure was as abundant as danger in the Dreamlands. We came across our first vorpal blade since 6th grade in '89. And yes, we took off some heads.
• Dying in the Dreamlands had its price: madness. While we managed to cure some of them along the way, by the end of our trip we had acquired nearly every lesser and greater madness listed in Horror Adventures. Trying to roleplay these over the course of a weekend spent in the same room was a challenge that certainly pushed the envelope of immersion.
• We attended a grand ball in a city called Celephais, where guests were routinely murdered every few minutes. Only Feiya stayed for "The Sunset Waltz," where the viscount danced with a Leng spider to Shostakovich's "Waltz No. 2." Creepy on so many levels.
• While in the Dreamlands, we were surprised to face a dragon—a nightmare dragon. Our GM slammed the mini down on the table like we were back in Stranger Things, then woke us with a TPK.

The Experiment

• This AP doesn't feel like our other Pathfinder campaigns. Others have had highs and lows, but this one just has us run down, freaked out, and anxious. We can't help but wonder if this is what Call of Cthulhu is like.
• The monsters just keep getting scarier. An indescribable creature, known only as a formless spawn, massacred us in our dreams with what our GM called "a masterpiece of a stat block." At least we got to use our Pathfinder Map Pack: Swallowed Whole as it sucked us down one by one.

Character Deaths

On our first attempt, we botched the Dreamlands occult ritual and allowed an animate dream to follow us out into the real world. It took down Alahazra with a phantasmal killer, and the fight spilled out onto the deck of the Sellen Starling. Skywin Freeling, the ship's captain, came to our aid, but was put to sleep forever with a crit from the Amber Die. The room was silent when it was over.

Best Quote from Marathon 3

Quinn: "Let's assess, it's been a few minutes: Two of us are blind, one can't speak, and Feiya was already ripped out of this dream."
Winter: "Can we leave zis place? I do not like zis place!"

Current Situation

We reached Cassomir, but with the Sellen Starling whittled down to a skeleton crew and our party riddled with madnesses, we'll be spending a couple of months to recover. After that, we're headed off again in pursuit of Count Lowls!

More Content

Read through the entirety of The Strange Aeons Experiment.

For character builds, questions about Strange Aeons, content and more, see our thread here on the messageboards.

Give Order of the Amber Die a Like on Facebook and follow us on Instagram for more!

Mike is 2nd from the left, in his black OAD attire with the well-known Sihedron medallion.

A Tough Goodbye

We wanted to take a moment to say some words about a recent event that has deeply touched all of us here at Order of the Amber Die. This past weekend, the Order lost one of its most respected and admired members to a hard battle against cancer. Mike Dappolone had been with us since 7th grade in 1990, and was one of the earliest members of the group. As kids, Mike showed us how to secretly pack our D&D books and dice in our backpacks during Boy Scout trips so we could play in the tent at night. In college, Mike was pivotal in helping to launch our organized "marathon" method of gaming, so that when we were all together twice a year we could put away an entire module in a sitting. In our adult years, Mike created many of the intricate set pieces that can be seen in our playthroughs (including the fully functional sails on the boats here), and his painted miniatures have always been featured heavily in our game. Throughout his recent struggle, Mike loved the days that he could escape into long Pathfinder sessions, starring as Seltyiel in our Runelords campaign—even brazenly wearing a Sihedron medallion. This fall he spent some peaceful time introducing his young son to the joys of the game. Mike's seat cannot be filled, but the Order and "Seltyiel's Seven" will continue on in his name.

I want to give my heartfelt sympathies to the crew of the Order of the Amber Die and to Mike's friends and family. It's never easy to lose someone.

The crew of adventurers in this Strange Aeons campaign have made it down the river and through the Dreamlands, now they look forward to more research and mystery before they can catch up to their former associate. Keep your eyes on this blog for more reports from the Order of the Amber Die.

Adam Daigle
Developer

Up to Eleven

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

After much deliberation, I have come to a decision for our latest Design Challenge. In this challenge, Liz Courts challenged you to come up with statistics to represent Eleven from the excellent new series Stranger Things. It wasn't an easy task, and trying to pick the best two entries from among the well thought out submissions was a bit difficult.

The prize for first place goes to Nargemn. I think telekineticist was a good choice to represent most of what we see Eleven do in the show.

Jon Cary snags second place with his submission, showing that there is more than one way to approximate Eleven's skills.

I'd also like to give a shout out honorable mention to Jeffery Swank for his choices. The eidolon angle to represent the demogorgon was clever.

Thanks to everyone for entering! Keep your eyes on the blog for future Design Challenges!

Adam Daigle
Developer

Logo is from the MakeItStranger.com website by Nelson Cash. You should totally go have fun with it.

Order of the Amber Die—The Strange Aeons Experiment, Part 2

Friday, October 7, 2016

After what seems to be some harrowing experiences, the Order of the Amber Die completed the second adventure, Pathfinder Adventure Path #110: The Thrushmoor Terror, in the Strange Aeons Adventure Path in yet another marathon session. I'm going to keep this short and let them tell their tales. Be sure to check out the links at the bottom of this post to read more about their experience with this Adventure Path. Beware, players! Spoilers below!

The second adventure in an Adventure Path is always an important one, as patterns begin to emerge in the way the party performs, and we look to build momentum early in the AP. We spent the marathon as amnesiacs slowly piecing together the clues of a mystery while working alongside investigators from the Sleepless Agency, and we dabbled into the True Detective soundtrack to give us ambiance throughout 67 hours of play. Since there was so much role-playing involved, our GM brought one of the best actors in the Order down from NYC to play some of the slick-tongued cultists we encountered, and also tapped another member for the role of Winter Klaczka where appropriate.

As the facts surrounding our amnesia were uncovered, it turned out that each of us had a nefarious past. Erasmus had shady friends showing up who expected us to recognize them, while Quinn had once started a bar fight defending the honor of his boyfriend. Even securing lodging was a challenge in this adventure. To thoroughly immerse ourselves in the stormy town of Thrushmoor, we mixed fog machines with a 24-square-foot setup of 3D buildings, and some structures were even specific to the town itself. We also had a couple of Lazzaretti's maps remastered by Axion Studios and printed for play.

Highlights From The Thrushmoor Terror

• We're clicking as a unit more than many other parties we've had. The players all selected a teamwork feat to suit their needs in this path: Shake It Off. In our standard 2-by-2 formation, everyone gets a +3 to all saving throws, and it's made the difference on 12 saves already.
• Our GM doesn't pull punches. Travelling back from Caliphas, he rolled up a marsh giant as a random encounter at a waterlogged farmstead—and threw it at a 4th level party. We are veterans of Giantslayer after all.
• They say defense wins championships. During a 2-hour grinder against an evil druid and her fungal wolves, our 5th level party healed over 200 hit points, with 36 of those coming from Erasmus's seance boon alone—and defense prevailed.
• We awarded Daji the MVP for this module. The fox was on fire from the opening minutes: He picked up his sixth kill of the campaign, used his knowledge skills to identify the critical weakness of a foe that would likely have defeated us, located the secret door that led us to the final encounter early, The crowning moment was when the fox leaped onto an abomination known as a byakhee and engaged it with everything he had, despite the creature biting Daji into negative hit points.
• Something is wrong with Quinn, and it's stacking more horror onto this already scary AP. In the asylum he suffered horribly at the hands of ghouls—and despite being raised twice—he possesses an insatiable hunger. Quinn's skin is becoming thicker, and he smells so much like rot that it sickens anyone around him. Our companion has torn through our food reserves, and we sometimes catch him eating when he should be sleeping. We've tried everything from remove curse to remove disease, yet nothing works.

The Experiment

• We already track a lot of data across each Adventure Path, but we've had to add a new category that is very unfamiliar to us: Battles Run From. Ten so far. The team doesn't like to talk about it.
• One of our strangest moments in this module involved an interaction with something called an "Elder Thing." Two of them actually, and our GM swears that's the real name. They weren't immediately hostile, but we couldn't tell whether we should introduce ourselves or slay them. Then they spoke!

Character Deaths

• An assassin, Risi Nairgon, stalked the party around Thrushmoor, seizing our vulnerable moments to strike and get away. After tailing us to a safehouse, she patiently waited on a rooftop for the party to emerge the next morning—sans buffs. Despite sniper's fatigue, she scored a direct hit with a Death Attack on Alahazra: one shot, one kill.
• Three natural 1s on fear saving throws left Quinn alone facing a Manananggal—a vampiric horror we had yet to see in 138 modules. We could hear his screams while we ran.

Best Quote From Marathon 2

Cesadia Wrentz (lead detective): "How many people saw you carrying a body through town?"
Feiya: "Now? Or ever?"

Current Situation

Quinn's affliction doesn't bode well, but we'll keep trying for a cure. Good detective work has us hot on the heels of our quarry and headed south to piece together what our memories cannot. Alahazra and Quinn are a bit behind in XP, but this is made up for with author Tito Leati's generous amount of treasure awarded to those with the patience to look.

More Content

Read through the entirety of The Strange Aeons Experiment.
For character builds, questions about Strange Aeons, content and more, see our the Strange Aeons Experiment thread on the forums.
Give Order of the Amber Die a Like on Facebook and follow us on Instagram.
Custom 3D Terrain Provided by GeordieJohn Studios.
Gridded battlemats provided by Deep-Cut Studio.

Things are looking pretty grim for the crew. Tune in shortly for a report on their potentially nightmarish experiences in the third adventure in the Strange Aeons Adventure Path, Dreams of the Yellow King.

Adam Daigle
Developer

Where the Winds of Limbo Roar

Monday, September 12, 2016

The Strange Aeons Adventure Path is in the wild, and for some characters, that means questioning the reality that they wake up and find themselves in. But whether coincidence or stars aligning correctly, another recent media release goes quite well with Strange Aeons, and is the focus of our latest Design Challenge!

If you can't tell by the image above, I mean the Stranger Things series, which is full of '80s nostalgia for folks 'round my age (which, turns out, also happens to be a good chunk of the Paizo staff), not to mention just a whole lot of fun. Without getting too spoilery, let's just say that a small town is about to get its world flipped Upside-Down, and conspiracies are afoot in the town of Hawkins, Indiana. But this is a challenge—and the challenge is: make Eleven for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

I like to give away prizes, so let's get to the meat of it: First prize is the ENTIRE Strange Aeons Adventure Path (all six volumes!), as well as a custom Paizo.com avatar with a piece of art from Strange Aeons. We will also be selecting a second place winner, who will win hardcover copies of both Occult Adventures and Horror Adventures! Your entry will be judged on presentation and theme, so let's get down to the rules for designing Eleven:

• Race Base race must be human.
• Ability Scores: 20 point buy.
• Template: You must use the young creature template.
• Automatic Bonus Progression: Use the Automatic Bonus Progression from Pathfinder Unchained.
• Wealth: One-half standard NPC wealth (as presented in the Core Rulebook), and no magic items that grant bonuses to AC, saving throws, and ability scores (as per Automatic Bonus Progression).

But that's not all! Here are the participation rules:

• One entry per poster. Employees of Paizo, their immediate family members, and persons with whom such employees are domiciled are ineligible. Anyone who is currently employed full-time as a designer for a game company is ineligible. Anyone with a cover credit on a hardcover RPG book is ineligible. Anyone who has a design credit in 3 or more of Paizo's Pathfinder products is ineligible.
• You must post your entries in this blog's discussion thread (please use spoiler tags).
• Entries must be in the following format:

Stat Block Format:

[b]Eleven  CR XX[/b]

[b]XP xxx[/b]
zzRace zzClass zzLevel
zzAlignment zzSize zzType
[b]Init[/b] +##; [b]Senses[/b] zz, zz,; Perception +##
[b]Aura[/b] zz (## ft., DC ##)

[b]----- Defense -----[/b]
[b]AC[/b] ##, touch ##, flat-footed # (+## zzModifier, +##zzModifier)
[b]hp[/b] ## (##d##+##); fast healing ##
[b]Fort[/b] +##, [b]Ref[/b] +##, [b]Will[/b] +##
[b]Defensive Abilities[/b] ##/zzAbility; [b]DR[/b] ##/zzMaterial; [b]Immune[/b] zz; [b]Resist[/b] zz ##, zz ##; [b]SR[/b] ##
[b]Weaknesses[/b] zz, zz

[b]----- Offense -----[/b]
[b]Speed[/b] ## ft., fly ## ft. (zzManeuverability)
[b]Melee[/b] zzAttacktype +## (zzDamage plus zzOthereffect), zzAttacktype +## (zzDamage)
[b]Ranged[/b] zzAttacktype +## (zzDamage)
[b]Space[/b] ## ft.; [b]Reach[/b] ## ft.
[b]Special Attacks[/b] zz, zz
[b]Spell-Like Abilities[/b] (CL ##zz; concentration +##)
At will—[i]zz[/i], [i]zz[/i]
1/day—[i]zz[/i], [i]zz[/i]

[b]zzClassName Spells[/b] (CL ##zz; concentration +##)
1st—[i]zz[/i], [i]zz[/i]
0 (at will)—[i]zz[/i], [i]zz[/i]

[b]----- Tactics -----[/b]
[b]Before Combat[/b] zzBeforeCombat
[b]During Combat[/b] zzDuringCombat
[b]Morale[/b] zzMorale

[b]----- Statistics -----[/b]
[b]Str[/b] ##, [b]Dex[/b] ##, [b]Con[/b] ##, [b]Int[/b] ##, [b]Wis[/b] ##, [b]Cha[/b] ##
[b]Base Atk[/b] +##; [b]CMB[/b] +## (+## zzConditionalmaneuverbonus); [b]CMD[/b] ## (## vs. zzManeuvername)
[b]Feats[/b] zzFeatname, zzFeatname
[b]Skills[/b] zzSkillname +##, zzSkillname +## (+## zzCondition); [b]Racial Modifiers[/b] +## zzSkillname, +## zzSkillname when zzCondition
[b]Traits[/b] zzTrait, zzTrait
[b]Languages[/b] zzLanguage
[b]SQ[/b] zz

[b]----- Special Abilities -----[/b]
[b]zzName (Ex/Sp/Su)[/b] zzDescription

• All entries due by Monday, October 10, 2016 at midnight Pacific time.
• You may use any Paizo-published material, but you must cite your sources.
• Selection of avatar art is subject to Paizo.com's Community Guidelines.

Remember, all entries must be posted in this blog's discussion thread by Monday, October 10, 2016!

Until We Meet in the Upside-Down,

Liz Courts
Community Manager

Logo is from the MakeItStranger.com website by Nelson Cash. You should totally go have fun with it.

Mega Map Madness

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Before Adam Smith from the Order of the Amber Die had the first adventure of Strange Aeons sent to him, Adam Daigle warned him that the Briarstone Asylum was pretty detailed and complicated. After seeing the maps for the previous Giantslayer marathon, we knew that he put a ton of work into his maps, and apologized ahead of time for how much time he'd spend with the asylum.

Before you go further: Spoilers for Pathfinder Adventure Path #109: In Search of Sanity follow. All of the spoilers. Avert your eyes.

Okay, now check out this frickin' AMAZING thing! So, that massive map of Briarstone Asylum from their marathon playthrough of Pathfinder Adventure Path #109: In Search of Sanity? That incredible behemoth playmat? Yeah. That lives at Paizo HQ now. We were so blown away that most of the office stopped by the developer cubicles just to gawk at it!

Check out Adam, Crystal, Liz, and me drooling over it—and maybe pointing out a few opportune unicorn slaying grounds.

Countless thanks to Adam Smith and the Order of the Amber Die for their adventure reports, their kind note, and the one-of-a-kind mega-momento! We're totally blown away!

F. Wesley Schneider
Editor-in-Chief

Order of the Amber Die—The Strange Aeons Experiment, Part 1

Friday, August 26, 2016

They’re back for more! The dedicated gamers from the Order of the Amber Die have taken on another maddening task with their marathon sessions. They tackle an entire Adventure Path adventure in one long session over the course of a weekend. What’s better is that they share their experiences with the world. After their Giantslayer marathon they took a short break, but were eager to take on Strange Aeons. Here’s their first report of the Strange Aeons Experiment. (Careful, there may be some spoilers within.)

Welcome to The Strange Aeons Experiment!

In case you missed our exploits in The Giantslayer Endeavor or The Emerald Spire Project, here's a briefing:

Order of the Amber Die is dedicated to completing published adventures. It's what we do. We don't change modules; instead, we put our labors toward bringing them to life as written. We enforce the complete Pathfinder rules set, ask no mercy from our GM, and utilize four core party members with a 15-point build. We've played through 137 published adventures at this point, and while we're looking for something fresh, we're also continually looking to push the envelope of gaming. Thus, we are attempting to play all six volumes of Strange Aeons in just nine months and document the entire journey.

The Experiment: What happens when you take four players and one GM who are almost completely ignorant about all things Lovecraft, Elder Mythos, and Cthulhu and send them through Strange Aeons? We're about to find out. In fact, assembling a team of gamers that could marathon often and also meet this criteria was much harder than expected! As with almost all of our campaigns, we're playing iconic characters; knowing that James Jacobs personally selected the four iconics, we decided to play those exact four.

A long weekend was blocked out for our run of "In Search of Sanity." When we arrived at the marathon location, our GM had the fog machines set up and our anticipation grew. To best immerse ourselves in an asylum lit by lanterns and candles, we played only by candlelight for the entire 44-hour marathon. We also tapped a fifth member for a cameo as Winter Klaczka, the main NPC.

Going in, our history with Wes Schneider's writing was a storied one. He took down one of our favorite campaigns back in '09 when we TPKed while attempting "The Blackguard's Revenge." Two years ago, we were a few rooms inside his magma level in the Emerald Spire, when Wes took down our paladin with a caustic stalker and we barely edged out a draw. This being our third Schneider module, we had a strong desire to even-up the score.

Highlights From "In Search of Sanity"

• We're not sure what Call of Cthulhu is like, but we found ourselves one part scared, one part challenged by combat, and one part just plain freaked out. In a battle for a 4,000 sq. ft library, we faced off against ratlings skittering atop towering bookcases. On the first two rounds, our starknife, dart, and dagger found their marks, disrupting all 3 summon swarms. In this trial the ratlings were modified to throw anything, and they certainly threw the books at us.
• Our RPG skills were tested from every angle. Between a doppelganger infiltration, the worst dreams our characters have ever had, and six diseases active in the party at one time, we were just relieved to survive this cerebral horror film.
• Our GM reflected that being Lovecraft-ignorant was actually fresh and inspiring, and he had trouble remembering an adventure with so many new facets.
• In the finale, "Enter Sandman" blasted as we faced our worst nightmare-become-reality in the Tatterman. Erasmus stepped up with our best chance: Red Destiny, a magical sword now treated with silversheen and good-aligned. Not one, but two confirmed criticals made short work of a foe that is sure to flay his share of parties that come after us.
• The Amber Die was used sparingly, but showed its approval for Strange Aeons by delivering a natural 20 on the first attack roll of the campaign, followed by a signature 20-20 in the final hours.

Character Deaths

• "Dr. Latchke," a crafty doppelganger who got around our Sense Motive, attacked the party from behind while they were distracted with a haunt. One critical hit from a claw left Erasmus depending on the champion spirit of his sister, Nissa, to guide his fighting retreat—yet the asylum's collapsed walls left the medium no choice but to leave his mortal body behind.
• 4 iconics with poor Fortitude saves. 3 Ghouls. 9 attacks. 1 missed save. Coup de grace. RIP Quinn.

Best Quote From Marathon 1

Erasmus: "Ignore the sounds in the fog, my friends, they are fear incarnate."
Feiya: "I thought we met fear incarnate last night?"

Current Situation

Despite two character deaths, our party remains strong and we secured a win. The reanimated medium archetype allowed us to welcome Erasmus back, and Quinn's raise dead is first on our to-do list. We're doing fairly well on XP, and while our treasury will take a hit, we do have some magic items left. We're hoping we can convince Winter Klaczka to join us for module two, as she would make an excellent addition to the roster. Oh yeah, and Wes: we're tied.

More Content

Read through the entirety of The Strange Aeons Experiment For character builds, questions about Strange Aeons, content and more, see our thread here. Give Order of the Amber Die a Like on Facebook and follow us on Instagram. Iconic miniatures provided by Blue Table Painting.

It looks like they had a tough but fun time on their hands. I can’t wait to see what happens to them when they run through "The Thrushmoor Terror." Check back here later for that report.

Adam Daigle
Developer

Encounter the Unspeakable!

Wednesday, August 17, 2016

The first volume of the Strange Aeons Adventure Path has begun making its way through the world to subscribers who've been eagerly awaiting the unspeakable things writhing through the pages of this Adventure Path. To prepare you for this madness, we've released the Strange Aeons Player's Guide. This free download provides a wealth of hints, tips, and advice to help players make the best decisions possible for their characters in this campaign. In addition to character advice, this guide includes some spoiler-free information about the unique situation the player characters find themselves in at the start of this campaign—an amnesiac fugue state.

Don't wait! Download the Strange Aeons Player's Guide now! Shake yourself awake and dive right into the nightmares!

Adam Daigle
Developer

The Stars Are Right

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Dear Reader,

The light from Aldebaran and the songs from the Hyades fall upon our brittle planet, and I'm pleased to share with you that in the coming weeks the Strange Aeons Adventure Path will be slinking out of our warehouse and making its way into game stores, distributors' warehouses, and your homes. After much research and many an occult ritual, this Adventure Path steeped in the cosmic horror of the Elder Mythos has broken free from the Dreamlands and become a reality—a sentient thing, perhaps.

Now, this is no reason for concern. I assure you that the Strange Aeons Adventure Path is fairly benign. You will not go mad from reading it; the books won't flap themselves from your shelf and scuttle about your home in the stygian hours of the night while you slumber—dreaming of things far more horrific, no doubt. It will, however, provide hours and hours of creepy excitement for you and your friends.

Illustration by Caio Maciel Monteiro

While this Adventure Path is perfect for experts on the Lovecraft Mythos, don't feel like Strange Aeons isn't for you if you're not familiar with or well versed in the literature that provides the inspiration for this campaign. If you enjoy creepy cultists, bizarre monsters, forgotten lore, and accursed locations, Strange Aeons is a good fit for you.

I will, however, bestow upon you a small warning that this campaign starts off in an atypical way, perhaps our most non-standard Adventure Path opening to date. The characters wake up in an asylum with no memory of how they got there and only hazy recollections of who they are. This kind of start requires a fair amount of trust of the GM and of the Adventure Path. You can still create a character with a complete backstory, but know that some things happened in your character's past that are beyond his or her control. The upcoming Strange Aeons Player's Guide provides advice on how to make the best of this strange (but fun) situation.

If you are eager to play through or run the Strange Aeons and want to gather some associated materials to help spice up your campaign, consider checking out some of the following items. As this is a cosmic horror campaign, picking up the newly released Pathfinder RPG Horror Adventures is a great idea. In addition to great advice on running horror games, the book provides plenty of great character options for GMs and players both. I also advise using the new alternate fear rules included in this book, as I feel it will really help set the mood for the campaign. Similarly, grabbing a copy of Pathfinder RPG Occult Adventures provides plenty of character options and new rules that fit the tone and flavor of the Strange Aeons Adventure Path.

Illustration by Ramon Puasa Jr.

Strange Aeons kicks off with Pathfinder Adventure Path #109: In Search of Sanity by our own Editor-In-Chief F. Wesley Schneider, who puts his own brand of horror on the Adventure Path right out of the gate. I cornered him in his office and got him to jot down a few thoughts about his opening adventure.

"As soon as it was clear that we were returning to Ustalav, I was pretty vocal that I wanted in. Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Rule of Fear established Versex county as Lovecraft country, and Thrushmoor already had dozens of threads dangling for cosmic horror plots, so I was instantly stoked that Strange Aeons was going to be playing in that sandbox. The fact that the first adventure was set in an asylum was just icing on a really big pile of also icing (I might have written a couple of fictional asylums in past works).

Now, it's been nearly a year since I wrapped up work on In Search of Sanity. I wrote it on something of a binge after finishing my novel, Pathfinder Tales: Bloodbound (also set in Ustalav), and the first volume of Hell's Vengeance, "The Hellfire Compact." As a result, "In Search of Sanity" features as few subtle nods to both. I won't give away too much, but if you're interested in learning more about Ustalav's royal accusers or about the tribulations of Longacre's Lieklan family, the first Strange Aeons has more to say.

You'll also have the chance to join an asylum revolt, surf a blood tsunami and give a ghoul a shower.

I seem to remember that some Lovecrafty stuff happens too.

Y'all like bholes, right?"

If you're eager to get into the right feel for Strange Aeons and want to do some reading, I've compiled a brief reading list of some of the stories that capture the feel of and have inspired the Strange Aeons Adventure Path.

• "The Shadow Out of Time," by H. P. Lovecraft
• "The Dunwich Horror," by H. P. Lovecraft
• "At the Mountains of Madness," by H. P. Lovecraft
• "The Call of Cthulhu," by H. P. Lovecraft
• "Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath," by H. P. Lovecraft
• "The Doom that Came to Sarnath," by H. P. Lovecraft
• "The Repairer of Reputations," by Robert Chambers
• "The Yellow Sign," by Robert Chambers
• "The Great God Pan," by Arthur Machen
• "The Wendigo," by Algernon Blackwood
• "The Willows," by Algernon Blackwood
• "The House on the Borderland," by William Hope Hodgson

In a few short weeks the ritual to properly summon the Strange Aeons Adventure Path will be complete! Keep your eyes on this blog for the Strange Aeons Player's Guide, which you will see soon enough.

Adam Daigle
Developer

Look Into the Unknown

Friday, August 5, 2016

While our compliment of awesome Gen Con-bound comrades are steering the Paizo booth, running games, and working various panels, the Paizo skeleton-crew is continuing to assist customers, get packages out the door, and bringing you new content on paizo.com.

But, before everyone hopped on a plane, Adam Daigle sent over a few Pathfinder Adventure Path previews that I get to share with you all! In just a short time, the Strange Aeons Adventure Path will release. Until we get into the finer details that will be featured later this month on the blog, here's a sampling of art that is featured in the first volumes:

Illustrations by Michal Ivan and Damien Mammoliti

Illustrations by Damien Mammoliti, Crystal Sully, Caio Maciel Monteiro, Ramon Puasa Jr., and Kremena Chipilova

If you've been tracking #paizoatgencon, or following us on social media, you might have caught that we unveiled some pretty awesome images of the upcoming Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcover (and the limited edition version—details to come after Gen Con). Check 'em out!

Adam also just announced the Adventure Path following the Ironfang Invasion in this afternoon's Adventure Path panel. Look out for the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path starting next summer! In Ruins of Azlant, PCs join an expedition to the shattered remains of old Azlant, explore its mysteries and dangers, and face a veiled master who wants to get its tentacles on an Azlanti doomsday device. Titles include (but are subject to change before release):

Spoilers!

• Pathfinder Adventure Path #121: The Lost Outpost by Jim Groves
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #122: Into the Shattered Continent by Robert Brookes
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #123: The Flooded Cathedral by Mikko Kallio
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #124: City in the Deep by Amber E. Scott
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #125: Tower of the Drowned Dead by Ron Lundeen
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #126: Beyond the Veiled Past by Thurston Hillman

More information about Strange Aeons, the Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcover, and Ruins of Azlant to come as we get closer to their release dates!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director