From the Raging Heart of a Swirling Sandstorm Comes... the Mummy's Mask Preview

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

I have said in other blogs that each Pathfinder Adventure Card Game set takes on the personality of one of Lone Shark's designers. With its sun-parched sense of derring-do among the pyramids, the Mummy's Mask Base Set coalesced around Liz Spain's pith-helmeted madness. For today's preview, Liz has been presented with the challenge of writing this preview in the style of a desert-blown romance novel—a challenged that was embraced. Enjoy!
     —Mike Selinker, Adventure Card Game Lead Designer

Osirion! Land of ten thousand years of love and loss! What mysteries will you unveil under the light of the burning orb? Reveal to your fair traveler that which beats beneath a cover of blistering sand!

The wind howled in protest as the traveler strode out alone into the storm, heeding only the call of her own desires. The dust threatened to steal her breath, but she grasped at the cowl of her cape to protect her face.

The desert can swallow you whole.

Designed to withstand the dangers of exposure in the desert, the dense weave of the sensuously smooth cloth danced across her skin. The wind breathed her name, a name born of wind itself: Simoun.

Masters of elements—air, fire, and steel.

The weight of her old armor gone, she felt more free despite the danger that lay in wait. Here in Osirion, trappings of metal and leather were not what they seemed. Though her precious vestments would do little against steel, they were a comfort beneath the elemental electricity that danced above.

In Mummy's Mask, armors and weapons don't do what you expect anymore.

In this place of cultures more ancient than humanity, Osirion has not lost its teeth with age. Here, Pathfinders are survivors who know the secrets of the elements. To the rhythm of her drumming heartbeat, Simoun prayed the lords of lightning would spare her another night.

In the desert, staying alive is challenging. You'll need resources.

The dry storm raged on, cracking the dark sky with brilliant flashes of lightning, illuminating the rolling dunes. The caravan was not far away. Simoun hoped to find succor from friends there, or at least enemies of enemies, but until then she took cover in the night.

You never know who you'll meet in the desert, or what they serve.

She set her jaw, determined to find her prey first, somehow, amid the blinding dust. Her boots slid swiftly over the shifting dunes, as shapes of dead things emerged and were buried just as quickly by waves of sand.

Barriers do strange things in this set.

Tomorrow, life would move on, driven by the sound of footfalls proceeding ever westward, punctuated by the sighs of discontented camels. But tonight, she was the huntress. She heard his call carried on the wind. Despite the ravages of the poisons and hungers within her veins, she pressed on.

These scourges will plague you till the end of days.

And then, she froze. A bolt of blue electricity revealed him, hovering over her, huge and powerful, his wrappings in tatters. They would dance, blade and bone, her will against his. Steel and song swirled amid sand in the storm. The air was his domain, but so was it hers. She would tear him apart, even if it took her all night.

With the Trigger trait and monsters doling out scourges, it's hot times in the desert.

As the dawn light gilded the calming sky, she threw off her dust-caked cape to approach the caravan. An Aspis Consortium trader was there, awaiting successful adventurers seeking to exchange goods unearthed from the ruins. Busily coaxing the camels to wakefulness, the merchant noticed her wicked smile.

"Interesting night?" Falsin Deek grinned.

"I wouldn't have it any other way." The young Djinn coyly asked, "Trade for dragon teeth?"

His grin widened to reach both ears.

When you return from adventures, you can now trade your goods at the markets.

As they concluded their dealings, the rest of the caravan grumbled to its feet. With the sun at their back, they marched toward the River Sphinx over sands that held ten thousand years of history. A new adventure awaited them all.

Liz Spain
Adventure Card Game Designer