Zoetrope Logs, Part Three: Potential for Change

The next morning dawned bright and clear, no trace of the previous day’s storm left on the horizon. Dr. Pom joined me on the research deck for our customary morning tea, sipping in companionable silence until we’d finished our first cup and were contemplating our second.

“How are you feeling, Baranthet?” she asked kindly as she held out her cup for a refill. “That was an intense day of travel yesterday.”

“Quite well, thank you,” I said as I poured, reveling in the wisps of aromatic steam rising from our mugs. “How are you? Are you used to storms like that where you’re from?”

She took a moment to consider this, her eyes following the gulls soaring over the cliffs. “We did have some mighty storms, yes, but it’s different now,” she said thoughtfully. “The instinct to seek shelter is the same, of course, but there’s... a deeper appreciation, I suppose. A sense of thinking about the past and the future, whereas before there was only the present moment. I find joy in their beauty and feel appreciation for the sheer primal power of the skies. Though,” she said with a laugh, “I never expected to be flying in those skies in the middle of one!”

“Neither did I,” I admitted, grinning. “A humbling and awe-inspiring experience, to be sure!”

We sat in comfortable silence for a while as the others drifted in for breakfast or set about their tasks for the day. I wondered idly where my Spiridendra book had gone and what we might find next in our journey as I watched Telero and Ten examine one of the ship’s wings—they’d been busy checking and recalibrating this and that after the flight through the storm the day before. For my part, it was nice to have a slower morning before returning to the expedition.

“It’s wild, isn’t it,” Dr. Pom said softly, “looking back on the changes you’ve weathered in your life?” Her eyes met mine, and though we were close in years, I sensed she wasn’t talking merely about aging.

“I certainly never thought I’d go from ink-stained librarian to bold explorer,” I said fervently, and she chuckled, her small spectacles slipping down her striped snout. “When you awakened, did you ever plan on having such adventures?”

“It was hard to make plans at all, at first.” She adjusted her glasses and looked back out over the cliffs. “Awakening is... a turbulent time, for most. There’s a lot of information to process all at once, and many of us are overwhelmed by the concept of a vaster and more specific future than what we’d previously had the capacity to consider. But I always felt called to be a healer,” she added, and smiled again. “I know what it’s like to be hurt, and afraid. It gladdens me to provide comfort and support where I can.”

I reflected on this as I watched Telero hoist Ten higher up the wing, where they began to hammer at one of its joints. Suddenly, tension released in an explosive pop, the wing springing back into place… and catapulting our mechanic overboard, falling past Telero’s arms to land with a thud and a yelp in the water below.

“Goodness, not again!” Dr. Pom and I were on our feet at once, tea abandoned. Grefu surfaced in the waves near our mechanic (no doubt he was enjoying his morning constitutional), and swam Ten over to the research deck, hoisting them aboard. Their eyes blinked rapidly at us as we gathered around.

Dr. Pom knelt next to them, illuminating the lamp at her shoulder and setting her bag down as she looked them over.

Light writer plates of Dr. Gulnara Pom and Whose Antenna Is Askew (“Ten”), from official Zoetrope expedition logs. Art by Gunship Revolution.

“It’s my fault, Professor,” Telero said in anguish. “I tried to catch them—”

“It is not his fault; the wing was badly jammed from the storm; it was more badly misaligned than I thought,” Ten chirped in their customary staccato tone, their eyes glittering as Dr. Pom shone her light in one and then the other. “Do not fret; I feel fine; and that should be the last of the repairs!”

“I keep telling you to use your safety lines when you’re doing repairs,” said Dr. Pom, ignoring this tale of triumph as she peered into her patient’s eyes. “You seem coherent, but I’d like to confirm, please. What’s your name?”

“Whose Antenna Is Askew,” they replied promptly, wiggling the appendage in question. “You know me; I am the ship’s mechanic; you’ve patched me up many times before.”

Dr. Pom smiled wryly and looked up at me. “They’re all right.” She rummaged about in her belt, retrieving a slip of paper and weighing several powders and herbs onto it. “Take this before you tuck in tonight. It should help your carapace mend.”

An aggrieved Telero relaxed slightly next to me as Ten withdrew the frayed checkered cloth that was always at their toolbelt and dried their face. “Telero; now the repairs are done; do you want to check the cliffs for geodes?” they said, pointing at the shore.

Dr. Pom and I left the young friends to their explorations as they boarded the airskiff for shore, but I checked in on our mechanic later that evening. They were in the engine room, as usual, cleaning various gears and leaning close to the engine to listen to its steady hum.

I knocked on the doorframe. “Doing all right, Ten?”

They jumped and dropped what appeared to be an armful of wrenches, the tools clanging on the floor and narrowly missing their feet. “So sorry; you surprised me; please come in; hello.”

“Oh! The fault is mine,” I said, crouching down to help them collect everything. “You’re still feeling well?”

Ten nodded. “My carapace is very tough; it’s held up through worse falls; I am fine; thank you.”

I smiled at their earnest assurances. “I’m glad to hear it! And the Zoetrope? Everything running smoothly?”

“Running like a dream,” Ten said, casting their expert eye over the complex machinery that made our expedition possible. “The good kind of dream; the ones with friends; and cookies; and adventures. Like what we have.”

How had I been so fortunate as to find such bright, kind, brave, and talented companions? “Like what we have,” I agreed, handing over the last of the wrenches. “A dream come—”

“Come quick!” a voice yelled from above. “One of the specimens has escaped from the menagerie!”

About the Author
Baranthet Zamendi cultivated his love of the natural world at a young age, enamored with his grandmother’s awe-inspiring tales of the legendary Wardens of the Wild. He briefly attended Almas University before returning home to rebuild Droon’s public library, eventually becoming its head archivist. His upcoming book on the crew of the Zoetrope and their search for the wardens is his first, but he’s already planning his next adventure.

Support for Mr. Zamendi by
Simone D. Sallé is a senior editor at Paizo and has written for numerous Pathfinder and Starfinder books, including more of Baranthet’s tale inPathfinder Howl of the Wild, the primal treatise and witch journals in Pathfinder Secrets of Magic, and Starfinder Bounty #12: Under Pressure. When she’s not extolling the virtues of the en dash, she enjoys playing as many narrative games as her schedule allows and wandering the woods with her Disreputable Dog.

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Hi everyone! James here again to talk about the last two ancestries featured in Howl of the Wild. We’ve saved the awakened animal and surki for last, as they’re quite different from the ancestries we’ve put out so far! Each uses its heritage in a pretty different way than any ancestries we’ve published previously, so we’ll be previewing those here instead of some feats.

 The awakened animal freely chooses their size (from Tiny to Large) as a part of character creation, which also determines their starting Hit Points. Afterward, they choose a heritage that represents their general body plan. Your heritage will usually give you some suggestions for an unarmed attack that replaces the fist attack that most ancestries get, but given how broad the animal world is—some aquatic animals have wing attacks, after all—these are treated as suggestions to work out with your GM rather than as hard restrictions. The climbing animal heritage showcased below is great for a bipedal animal, like Dr. Pom.

Climbing Animal Heritage

You are an animal whose limbs are adapted to grab, climb, and brachiate. You might be dexterous and ready to use tools like a chimpanzee or otter, or you may simply be a quick climber like a bear, raccoon, or sloth.

You have a land Speed of 20 feet, a climb Speed of 20 feet, and one animal attack of your choice (typically claw, fist, or jaws; see the animal attacks sidebar).>[?

Surkis also approach heritages in an unusual way. Surkis absorb magic as larva and young adults, which accumulates in nodes throughout their bodies. All surkis freely choose a tradition of magic at character creation that represents the type of magic they most consumed as a larva, which affects the tradition of their magical abilities (plus a few others). Then, they also choose a heritage. A surki can then, later in life, undergo metamorphosis to develop these nodes into unique magic-projecting organs. Each surki heritage has a base ability as well as two possible directions they can evolve the ability later by taking feats such as the 9th-level Grand Metamorphosis. Surkis can even gain multiple heritages or change their heritage late in life with various feats as well! We can take a look at this with the light-emitting lantern surki heritage below:

Lantern Surki

The nodes in your abdomen are particularly luminous. You can use an Interact action to shed light from your abdomen in a 20-foot radius (and dim light for the next 20 feet). This is a magical light effect with a level equal to your own. You can change the color of the light or extinguish it with another Interact action.

Evolution Your abdominal nodes have evolved into a pair of secondary limbs that project a magical focusing lens. You gain the Lantern Beam action.
Lantern Beam [one-action] (light, fire, magical) Requirements Your lantern light is shining; Effect Your lenses focus your light into a searing beam. You deal 5d4 fire damage to all creatures in a 30-foot line, with a basic saving throw against the higher of your class DC or spell DC. Your lantern light then extinguishes, and you can’t use this ability or use your lantern light again for 1d4 rounds. At 11th level and every two levels thereafter, the damage increases by 1d4.

Evolution Secondary light emitters grow from your shoulder nodes that flash in time with your lantern. You gain the Lantern Strobe action.
Lantern Strobe [two-actions] (light, magical, visual) Frequency once per hour; Effect As you pulse your lantern, your emitters flash erratically, disorienting your opponents that see it. Each opponent in a 15-foot cone must attempt a Fortitude save against your class DC or spell DC (whichever is higher). On a failure, the creature is dazzled for 1 round. On a critical failure, the creature is blinded for 1 round and dazzled for the following round.

“But wait,” you might be asking. “My explosive surki sorceress, Blastrellina, isn’t just a surki; she’s also a nephilim because she fed upon the lingering unholy magic of the Worldwound! How will these ancestries interact with versatile heritages?” We know that versatile heritages are very popular, and so if you want to take one with either an awakened animal or a surki, you can! In this case, you still select a heritage purely to define your character’s story and cosmetic appearance, and you gain some basic benefits but not their specialized heritage abilities. However, you can take either the Late Awakener or Secondary Adaptation feat later to gain these benefits.

The awakened animal ancestry is embodied by the ship’s doctor, Dr. Pom, and the surki ancestry by its mechanic, Whose Antenna Is Askew (“Ten”)! Art by Gunship Revolution.

It’s hard to believe it, but our next chapter is the conclusion to this run of Zoetrope logs! If you don’t think you can wait that long for more Howl of the Wild, be sure to tune in to this Friday’s Paizo LIVE, where we’ll be talking a bit more about the book!

But that, explorers, is a story for another day.

James Case
Senior Designer

For the fourth and final chapter of the Zoetrope Logs, click here.

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Pathfinder Howl of the Wild releases May 22, 2024 and is available for preorder now. Customers who subscribe to the Rulebooks product line will receive the book and a complimentary PDF upon release!