Pathfinder Battles Preview: Spirit of the Season

Friday, July 20, 2012

With the glories of PaizoCon behind us, the Paizo editorial department finds itself deep in the throes of that fabulous annual event called Gen Con Prep. The office is abuzz with the work of getting ready for the Big Show. All of Gen Con's big releases (Ultimate Equipment, the Bestiary Box, etc.) were finished long ago, of course, but there's still a ton of stuff to do before we can head to Indianapolis next month. We've got catalogs to finish, signs to complete, Pathfinder Society events to edit, and a million other tasks that are probably invisible to Gen Con attendees, but which are absolutely critical to making sure the show goes off without a hitch.

That's all a very long and elaborate way of saying I've been too slammed this week to write a proper blog introducing the next set of Pathfinder Battles miniatures, which ties into August's Shattered Star Adventure Path. We've seen about 2/3rds of the paint masters for this set already, and they continue the tradition of steady and amazing improvement we've been shooting for with each new release in the Pathfinder Battles line. The WizKids production manager is bringing over a bunch more paint masters tomorrow, and I'm hoping we'll have seen almost the complete set within a few short weeks.

The first pictures of some Shattered Star minis will come next week. This week I want to show off a miniature that fits in between the Rise of the Runelords and Shattered Star sets. And it just so happens that this miniature ties into the general theme of Gen Con Prep, as it's the official 2012 convention promo figure: The Festering Spirit!

The Festering Spirt made its debut at PaizoCon, where we included a complimentary figure in every attendee's goodie bag. We'll also have the figure at Gen Con, available for free with any purchase of $50 or more.

Many of you may recognize the base sculpt of the Festering Spirit as the Spectre from the Heroes & Monsters set. This time, we've cast the undead horror in clear plastic, and then drybrushed the figure with shades of opaque green. The mini really shines when held to the light, and the whole thing adds a very "toxic" luster to what is already a spooky miniature in any color.

We'll have singles of the Festering Spirit available following Gen Con here on paizo.com, so those of you who weren't able to make PaizoCon or Gen Con will still get a chance to get your hands on this very cool figure.

And with that, it's back to the salt mines for me! Next week, we'll take our first real look at the Shattered Star, and you guys are going to be blown away!

Erik Mona
Publisher