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I would like to cancel my subscription as well. I'm looking forward to running the rest of Rise of the Runelords, no doubt, but I simply know I'm not going to be running Curse of the Crimson Throne or Second Darkness, even if I do end up playing the Pathfinder Role-Playing Game when it launches next year. Given that, I can't justify the continued expense. Thanks.
D&D has always been a generic toolkit for fantasy roleplaying. Simply untrue. The game has never been generic - it has always been informed by specific choices made by designers and writers. Elves aren't more generic than dragonborn, they're just more Tolkienesque and cliched (but I repeat myself). Orcs aren't more generic than tieflings. Wizards who memorise spells organised into nine levels of power out of spellbooks, and who can find themselves unable to cast any more magic after using up all the spells they've prepared, are not more generic than wizards who always have a certain amount of magical mojo up their sleeve. Pelor, Heironeous, Lolth, and Moradin are not more generic than the Raven Queen, Bane, Torog, and Zehir. The Great Wheel is not more generic than the Astral Sea. Law and Chaos as primal forces of the universe is not more generic than their not being so. There has never been a generic edition of D&D. It's just that Fourth Edition is, in some few respects, less traditional in the context of the larger fantasy genre and gaming history specifically.
Steve will indeed be doing covers for Pathfinder starting with Pathfinder 13. NOTE: That does not mean Wayne won't still do covers for Paizo products! :)Why did you decide to change artists? Perhaps Wayne is too busy doing the Fourth Edition covers.
Although I should say that the bestiary entry on harridans twice makes the mistake of saying "tenants" of religion where you mean "tenets". ;)
I just wanted to say that I love what the Pathfinder crew have done with the lamia. Adding a whole family of lamia-kin was an inspired stroke, and I really enjoy what you've done with them all.
Tali was still pretty badly wounded, but the heroes had found no sign of Ameiko or her brother, so they continued the search. Another door off the loading room led to some stairs down into a storage basement, where they found the badly-beaten but still conscious inkeeper bound and gagged in a locked storeroom. She was able to explain what had happened to her as the heroes cut her free. When she arrived for her midnight rendezvous with Tsuto, her brother had explained to her that it was not her father but Tsuto himself who was in league with the goblins. He'd boasted that something even bigger was in store for the town, hinting that she wouldn't want to be around when it happened, and offered her the chance to join in with him and the others who worked for a woman named "Nualia", headquartered in the den of the Thistletop goblins. Of course, she refused, and Tsuto had his goblin minions beat her unconscious and lock her in the storeroom. The only other feature of the basement was a narrow passageway that looked like it had once been bricked-up but was recently reopened. Inside, the heroes found two doors - behind the first of which they could faintly hear the sound of someone snoring. Aaron concentrated, stretching out with a mystical sense granted to him by Erastil, and could feel a corrupted soul inside the room. That was all he needed to know - drawing his sword, he flung open the door and stepped inside. Tsuto, for it was obviously he, was startled awake by Aaron's violent entry and crouched on his pallet. The paladin pointed the tip of his blade at the half-elf and commanded his surrender . . . a demand which was predictably met with a cry of "Never!" as the murderer tried to twist past him and flee down the other end of the corridor, which led to the stairs up into the glassworks proper. Aaron cried out for Erastil's justice and tried to smite Tsuto with the flat of his sword, but his stroke was easily evaded. Tharl, in an unlikely show of bravery, pursued the murderer and caught him in the back of the head with his staff, and Aaron finished the fight with a near-fatal blow as he caught up. Staggered and leaning against a wall to stay upright, Tsuto looked at the heroes with hatred and desperation. As a bitter gesture, the murderer lashed out with the heel of his hand, cracking Tharl's skull, then fell to the ground exhausted as the wizard reeled back into unconsciousness. With half their number badly injured and Ameiko to care for, the PCs elected not to investigate the second door in the corridor and retreated to safety. Tsuto was bound tightly and carried to the Sandpoint garrison under Aaron's watchful eye for imprisonment pending trial in Magnimar, while the other PCs helped Ameiko to the cathedral and the care of Father Zantus. Of course, the priest was more than happy to tend to their own wounds! Among Tsuto's possessions were found a magical potion and a magical ring (as determined by Tharl the next day, though they don't yet know their functions), along with a very well-made flute, a high-quality set of thieves' tools, some jewelry, and a few sacks of gold and silver dust which had evidently been stolen from the safe in the glassworks. They also found Tsuto's personal journal. Most of it was filled with various maps detailing different plans for attacking Sandpoint - the heroes were easily able to recognise the circled map which corresponded to the attack they'd experienced, but noticed with alarm that later maps seemed to plan for a force of two hundred goblins attacking the town! None seemed to have been chosen yet, but the implications were ominous. The journal also contained a great many erotic drawings of a beautiful woman Aaron recognised as the daughter of the old priest Father Tobyn - the one who died in the fire that burned down the old chapel, and whose body was stolen during the attack on Sandpoint. Aaron put it together - this girl had been named Nualia, he remembered, and she must not have died in the fire as everyone thought! The last of the drawings, disturbingly, depicted the girl as a succubus - clawed, batwinged, with horns and a tail. Three passages in the journal seemed especially relevant - one commented on the aftermath of the attack during the Swallowtail Festival and mentioned "the real raid", another mused about disagreements among the goblins and the humans about how to proceed and mentioned the possibility of making some kind of a deal with a quasit, and the last expressed Tsuto's misgivings over Nualia's intent to replace her "celestial taint" with "her Mother's grace", and hoped that she would still be beautiful when she became a demon . . . That's where we left off. Everyone has reached 2nd level, and next week's session ought to begin with the heroes exploring beyond the second door in the smuggler's tunnel.
A few days later, with Sheriff Hemlock still not yet returned from acquiring more guardsmen in Magnimar, the PCs' meal was once again interrupted by someone needing help. This time, an elderly halfling woman named Bethana Corwin, a maid at the Rusty Dragon, came to the heroes for help - her employer, Ameiko Kaijitsu, had gone missing overnight. In Ameiko's room, Bethana had found a note written in her boss's native tongue - fortunately, Ameiko had been teaching her to read its unique script, and Bethana was able to show the PCs a translation of the note, which proved to be from Ameiko's half-brother Tsuto. Bethana explained, her eyes wide, that Tsuto is a half-elf, and obviously the product of his mother's having had an affair. She related the whole sordid history of the family, explaining that Ameiko hasn't seen her brother since their mother's funeral five years ago. Bethana is sure that Ameiko must have gone to see her brother after such a long silence, but she's frightened that her boss hasn't returned. The heroes decided to investigate the Glassworks right away. As they approached, they could see the furnace chimney smoking as if it were still in operation, but they found every window with its curtain drawn and every door into the building locked. Before I forget - I use the name Tali here in the recaps, but she actually uses the name Nima even with the other PCs. Tali slipped around to a side door and carefully opened the lock, but by doing so she drew the attention of a passer-by who asked - pretty loudly - why one of Sandpoint's heroes was trying to break into the Glassworks. Luckily, Aaron was just around the corner, and managed to quiet the man by alluding to "official business of the Sandpoint guard". Inside the Glassworks, the PCs found themselves in some kind of circular showroom - wooden cabinets on every wall held examples of vases, bowls, and windows. They moved cautiously through the seemingly-deserted factory, hearing little besides the ever-present rumble of the furnace. They found the common dining and recreation room a complete shambles - every stick of furniture had been chopped into kindling, playing cards were scattered everywhere, and even the dinner knives had been stuck into the ceiling beams. The workers' sleeping quarters presented a shocking sight: eight beds soaked in blood, sheets and matresses torn by the blades that had obviously slaughtered their occupants. A nearby pantry provided an obvious clue: a broken dogslicer discarded amidst the ruins of sacks and barrels of food. Goblins! In the loading room at the opposite end of the building from where the PCs had entered, they discovered a safe hanging open and empty. The only room left for them to look in proved to be the glassworking room itself - home to another horrible sight. More than a half-dozen goblins were capering around the work tables, waving dismembered body parts of the employees they'd murdered in the night, partially burning them in the furnace and dripping molten glass over the remains in an attempt to mimic a more "impressive" achievement in the center of the room - an elderly man, whom Aaron was barely able to recognise as Lonjiku Kaijitsu, dead and strapped to a chair, covered in runny sheets of molten glass. The goblins shrieked in alarm and gathered up their weapons at the sight of the heroes, but Tali reacted more quickly than any of them, sprinting forward to crouch behind a nearby worktable and hurling a dagger at the closest goblin. It caught him right in the eye and killed him instantly - but now three goblins rushed at Tali, and one of them was waving some long-handled tongs dripping with molten glass! As the rogue leapt backwards to avoid their attacks, the remaining four goblins (one also carrying glass-laden tongs) charged at the rest of the PCs as they stood in the doorway. Thinking quickly, Tharl cast enlarge person on Aaron, and the paladin stood shoulder to . . . hip . . . with Nartana as they cut the goblins down. Tali stabbed a goblin right in the face, but the blow wasn't fatal, and she decided to retreat. She managed to throw herself back out of the range of their weapons and headed towards her friends. The goblins shrieked in rage and hurled large fragments of glassware at Tali's back as she ran. One only clipped her hip, but another one lodged in her back near the base of her spine, severely injuring her. Tharl aimed an acid splash at the goblin with the wounded face, but it flew wide and only succeeded in scarring the wall of the furnace. As Nartana and Aaron cut down the last two goblins, and the paladin moved forward to interpose his enlarged self between the wounded rogue and the remaining three foes, the little freaks realised that most of their number had been killed. Hurling a last barrage of half-melted glassware at Aaron, they turned to run. With his longer reach, Aaron charged forward and cut two of the three goblins down. Tharl and Tali (healed by Desna's grace) ran to catch up, but the last goblin was out of the room and around the corner before anyone could catch him. A long corridor ran down between the left wall of the furnace and the workers' quarters and offices on the other side of the building, and it was down here that the goblin ran as fast as his stumpy legs could carry him. Aaron and Tali were hard on his heels, but unable to cut him down. Tharl winged the creature with another acid splash, but the battle wasn't over until the goblin burst through a set of double doors at the end of the hallway and ran straight into the business end of Nartana's morning star, the cleric having moved from the other end of the glassworking room to cut the little freak off.
The following night, eight days after the goblin raid, the PCs had met for dinner in the Hagfish tavern. Their meal was interrupted by a frantic woman, clutching a baby to her breast and almost dragging along a small boy, little older than a toddler. This woman, Amele Barett, explained with fear in her voice that her son, Aeren, had been having nightmares ever since the attack on Sandpoint - he'd seen a goblin light a cat on fire and caper around its burning corpse, and ever since he'd woken almost every night screaming about a goblin in his room. He insisted that their dog Petal sleep in the room with him, but his screams would wake her too and set her barking. Finally his father, Alergast, had insisted that the boy begin acting like a man, and when Aeren woke in terror an hour after being put to bed tonight, they ignored his cries at first. That changed when they heard his screams become even more shrill, and Petal yelping in pain - Alergast ran into the room, grabbing Aeren and pushing him out into Amele's waiting arms. She didn't wait to see what was happening, but ran outside with the children to safety. At this point, she lifted one of Aeren's arms to show the characters the unmistakeable marks of needle-sharp goblin teeth. Amele went on to explain that she'd waited a few minutes for Alergast to come out and tell her everything was all right, but when he didn't come she'd run to the Hagfish for help - and luckily, Sandpoint's heroes were right there. Naturally, Aaron led the others down the street to the Barett home a short distance away. Nima volunteered to quietly explore the small home - just a kitchen in the front room and two bedrooms - and found it empty apart from the boy's bedroom. In there, a gruesome sight: Petal lying dead with a crude knife in her ear, and Alergast Barret lying on the floor motionless, his head and upper body inside the boy's wardrobe. He had obviously crawled inside to see something, but what? Nima found the courage to pull Alergast out of the wardrobe and turn him over, and saw the sickening truth: the flesh of his face and most of his neck and upper torso had been chewed off. The culprit wasn't hard to find - enraged at the theft of his meal, a skinny goblin wearing a dog's-tooth belt hurtled out of the hole, slashing at Nima with some sort of crude knife he'd made from a sharp bit of metal and the leg of a wooden toy soldier. Nima's cry of alarm brought the others inside, luckily for her as the desperate goblin cut her deeply on both her calves - when Nartana came into the room, she saw her friend's wounds immediately and healed them with Desna's grace. Which may or may not involve a glow of twinkling stars and fluttering butterflies, since both are special to Desna. With four "longshanks" to deal with, the vicious little monster was soon despatched, despite his agility in twisting around their blows. Sorrowfully, the PCs lifted Alergast's body onto his son's bed and covered it with a blanket, and Aaron bore the dreadful news to his widow, still waiting down the street with her children. Aaron took it upon himself to lead the Baretts up to the new cathedral, where he knew Father Zantus would provide for them until their family could be contacted. Tharl tried his best to calm Aeren down by entertaining him with prestidigitation tricks, but it was clear that the PCs were witness to the destruction of a once-happy family.
This is the beginning of the second session, held just this past Tuesday night. On patrol around Sandpoint, Aaron Deverin met a pretty young woman named Shayliss Vinder waiting for him outside her father's general store. She explained, almost shyly, that her father Ven was so preoccupied with what her older sister Katrine "might be up to up at the lumber mill" that he wouldn't listen to her about a problem in the store's basement. Namely, she's sure she saw a rat "as big as a goblin . . . well, at least half as big" hiding among the barrels and sacks down there. Aaron was, of course, more than happy to take care of the problem for her, and the two of them headed straight into the store and down the stairs. Needless to say, Aaron was flustered when Shayliss began to slip out of her bodice and wrap her arms around him as soon as she shut the door behind them. A cot in the back of the basement seemed to be her intended destination, but Aaron protested - surely she knew of his history with Aya, and that he couldn't give her what she wanted? Shayliss's mouth turned down at this news, and she seemed about to speak when Aaron whirled around - he could hear footsteps coming down the stairs to the basement! As she straightened her clothes at Aaron's urging, the door flew open and Ven Vinder appeared, frowning at the sight of his daughter and a guardsman alone and not entirely dressed! Fortunately, Aaron smoothed things over with a simple and honest explanation that, while Shayliss might be infatuated with him, he was not in the slightest bit interested himself, and merely thought he was doing her a favour. Shayliss surreptitiously stamped on his foot as she stormed out of the room, but Ven (after visibly thinking it over - you could almost hear the gears turning) accepted Aaron's story, and contented himself with warning the paladin away from both of his daughters. As he left, Aaron asked if there was any real rat problem, but of course Ven had no idea what he was talking about.
It wasn't long before the PCs accepted Aldern Foxglove's invitation to meet him at the Rusty Dragon, and it took even less time for them to accept his further invitation to join him on a boar hunt in the Tickwood, a few miles west of Sandpoint along the Turandarok River. Along the ride, Foxglove was extremely chatty with all of them, inquiring into their backgrounds and praising their prowess in the fight. He paid especial attention to Nartana, commenting often on her beauty, and to Aaron, remarking several times in wondering tones on the mighty blow which had killed the goblin commando and his mount in but a moment. His attentions and inquiries, in fact, wore on the heroes' nerves over the course of the boar hunt, but they were certainly glad to dine with Foxglove at the Rusty Dragon when he arranged for Ameiko Kaijitsu to prepare the boar with some of her native land's unusual sauces and spices. Over the next couple of days in town, Aaron found himself surrounded by distant but attentive knots of blushing young women wherever he went, and his elderly landlady kept finding little love notes and gifts left on his doorstep. None of these secret admirers seemed to have the courage to approach him just yet, however, so who exactly was showing such interest remains, for now, a mystery. The heroes were becoming concerned about the possibility of further goblin trouble, but their tentative plans to head out and look for signs of another attack were cut short when Sheriff Hemlock invited them to a meeting with Mayor Deverin and a newcomer to town, the elven ranger Shalelu Androsana. Shalelu, as Hemlock informed the PCs, spends most of her time wandering around the general vicinity of Sandpoint keeping an eye on the goblins and other threats in the open country and the forests. Shalelu herself had a tale to tell: members of all five goblin tribes in the Sandpoint area were involved in the attack on the town, and that worried her a great deal. Anything that could unite all five tribes could pose a more serious threat to the town, and the idea that it might be a "longshanks" was even more troubling. Hemlock laid out his plan: he would travel to Magnimar and secure an additional garrison for the town from the city guard there, but in the meantime it would be best if the PCs could stay around and reassure the populace that their new heroes were looking after them. When Tali and Tharl expressed some doubts, he offered them a small salary of 2gp per day, which they of course gratefully accepted. Aaron, of course, wouldn't need the encouragement even if he weren't a guard, but Nartana wasn't exactly averse to earning a little more than what she could make dancing in the Hagfish.
The PCs were, of course, in town when the Swallowtail Festival was held. They enjoyed the sights and sounds, listened to the speeches given by prominent citizens, and finally gathered to hear Father Zantus begin the dedication ceremony proper. Before he could even begin to recite the first prayer, a goblin dashed through the crowd and opened the throat of a sleepy dog, just roused by the thunderstone, under a wagon near the PCs. Two other goblins leapt out from their hiding places nearby, and people all over the crowd began to scream as they noticed goblins swarming through the streets around the cathedral. Tali reacted more quickly than anyone - her hand found a dagger at her belt and hurled it straight through the throat of the dog-killing goblin, pinning him to the wagon by his neck. As Aaron ushered any children within reach behind him for safety, one goblin leapt onto the closest lunch table and started filling his pockets with leftover food, while the other tried to hide behind the dog by lifting up its nearly-severed head, exposing its opened throat. Nartana drew a starknife, favoured weapon of Desna, and put an end to that ruse by sending it spinning through both the dog's throat and the goblin's own, killing it instantly. Aaron, having herded all the children behind him, rushed forward at the goblin scrabbling for food on the table. Luckily for the goblin, it slipped in a puddle of gravy and dropped down below the deadly arc of his sword. Tharl stood in front of the children as Tali sprung forward, intent on pinning the goblin to the table with a second dagger. She came within a hair's breadth of pinning it down, too, but succeeded only in burying the knife in the wood of the tabletop. Nartana was more successful, coming forward and crushing the goblin's skull with her morningstar. The PCs took stock of the situation and helped Father Zantus gather up the frightened children and their parents within the safety of the cathedral. Just as they'd caught their breath, however, our heroes saw five goblins light on fire a wagonload of wood intended for the evening bonfire . . . and the goblins saw the PCs, too. They rushed to meet each other in combat, Tharl muttering a hasty spell (enlarge person) and causing Aaron to grow magically larger. Four of the goblins had armed themselves with flaming brands, but when Aaron neatly cut one of them in half from shoulder to hip they shrieked in outrage and drew the battered, scrap-metal swords they call "dogslicers". Nartana and Tali joined Aaron in melee immediately, and even Tharl charged forward to deliver a satisfying blow with his staff. The fifth goblin, a filthy-looking female with disturbingly few clothes on her scrawny body, was croaking some sort of warsong (inspire courage) to encourage the warriors. Seeing the even-larger-than-normal "longshanks" paladin cutting down her allies, she changed her tune and tried to cloud his mind (daze), with little success. Instead, she was forced to use her whip, cutting his cheek but soon after falling before the heroes. The last goblin left alive yowled in terror at the sight of the warchanter's death, but didn't manage to get three feet towards safety before Tali despatched him with a knife between the shoulderblades. As the PCs caught their breath and cleaned their weapons, they heard screams and barking from the north. Rushing to help, the arrived in time to see a tough-looking goblin mounted on an ugly, ratlike goblin dog cutting down some kind of hunting mastiff with the scrap-metal halberd they call a "horsechopper". Behind a nearby rainbarrel, a well-dressed man was cowering at the sight, shrieking even more as four more goblins emerged from hiding, emboldened by the dog's death. Tali's first knife performed what we called "precision surgery at range", killing one of the goblins outright as Aaron and Nartana charged at the commando on the goblin dog. Aaron's final act before the enlarging effect wore off was to kill both commando and "dog" with a mighty downward blow, and it didn't take the PCs long to finish off the other three goblins. The well-dressed man was falling over himself to thank the PCs, introducing himself as Aldern Foxglove and begging them to find him in his room at the Rusty Dragon so that he could properly reward them for saving him from certain "goblining". They agreed, but sent him on his way as they cautiously explored the rest of the town, looking for any further goblin menace. Several town guards hailed Aaron and let him know they'd pushed goblins as far as the seacliffs, where they'd leapt into the ocean rather than be captured! Sheriff Hemlock found them a short while later, and told them the guards had managed to interrogate a few, but all they would say was that their leader was a "longshanks like you" who had a "secret mission to the graveyard". Sobered, the other PCs accepted his invitation to come along to investigate as vouched-for friends of Aaron, and together they discovered that Father Tobyn's grave had been robbed. No-one there could think of a reason why someone would do such a thing, but they agreed to honour the sheriff's request to keep the theft of Tobyn's body quiet.
I'm tagging this campaign with "Free Company" in order to distinguish it from everyone else's Rise of the Runelords games here. The name is a bit of an in-joke; all of my friends playing in this game are also members of a World of Warcraft guild of the same name, on the Oceanic server Nagrand. The PCs Nartana, played by my wife Lexa. A human cleric of Desna, the goddess of dreams and travel. Nartana is a member of the Varisian people, who take their name from the region in which these adventures take place. Varisians are a travelling culture, fond of tattoos and fortunetelling, magic and performance. Nartana herself is a well-trained dancer, dance being one of the ways she honours her patron goddess. Aaron Deverin, played by my friend Owen. A human paladin of Erastil, the god of farming, hunting, and family. Aaron is a member of a lesser branch of the Deverins, one of the four founding families of Sandpoint; his mother is actually a blood relative of Kendra Deverin, the current mayor, but Aaron's father took her surname out of a desire to further associate himself with such well-regarded people. Aaron is a member of Sandpoint's town guard. Tali "Nima Gorod" Relevon, played by my friend Sarah. A human rogue. Tali was born and raised a member of the Gargoyles, an all-female criminal organisation in the nearby metropolis of Magnimar. Recently, she had an affair with a Varisian man named Meleris, who persuaded her to abandon her life of crime and start a new one with him. They arranged to meet in Sandpoint two weeks ago, but she hasn't seen hide nor hair of him. Tali is using the name "Nima Gorod" in an attempt to distance herself from the Gargoyles. Tharl "the Stupendous", played by my friend Andrew. A human conjurer. Like Tali, Tharl was born and raised in Magnimar, and apprenticed to the Stone of the Seers, a well-regarded wizards' academy in that city. Unfortunately, it was only his father's glib tongue and occasional luck in gambling dens that enabled Tharl's tuition to be paid (or temporarily forgiven), as the family was in truth quite poor . . . and when his father died recently, Tharl was forced to sell even their tumbledown home in order to pay for the remainder of the year's education. He began supporting himself - barely - by performing stage shows in sleazy dockside bars, but two weeks ago he finally decided to take up an old friend's offer and make a fresh start in Sandpoint. Backstory Aaron Deverin was that old friend who offered Tharl a place to stay. Aaron had been sent to Magnimar as a teenager as part of his father's grand plans for his future, and had met Tharl there. The two had become friends and maintained a correspondence over the years. As it happened, Tharl travelled to Sandpoint with the same merchant caravan as Tali. Aaron also knows Nartana fairly well, since he often involved himself in easing tensions between the permanent residents of Sandpoint and Varisian travellers. When Tali couldn't find Meleris anywhere in Sandpoint, she decided the best way to find out what had happened to him was to get to know some of the Varisians in town. Nartana happened to be performing regularly in the Hagfish, a tavern known for its rough clientele but lively entertainment (and the place where Tali was staying), so they became casual friends as a result. The final piece of backstory for these characters ties Aaron Deverin to the town's history a little more. One of Chopper's victims was a young man named Jared, Aaron's best friend growing up. When Aaron was sent to Magnimar, unfortunately, Jared and Aaron's fiancee Aya grew too close to each other and fell in love. It's a great source of guilt for Aaron that the day he found out and confronted Jared (in a raging argument that left the two former friends angry rivals) was also the day that Jared was brutally murdered. Since then, Aaron and Aya have had to deal with not only their broken engagement but also their mutual sorrow over Jared's death. It's not exactly easy on either of them, let's just say.
Hey, I was listening to this video and she let it slip about 4th Edition. Desperate as ever, eh, Luis?
On this point, I have no freaking sympathy. I've had to suffer through several editions of a game packed with garbage like elves, orcs, and halflings! And they're all still here - but at least I'm getting something that appeals to me. The first person to say "But if you don't like all that Tolkienesque stuff, why are you even playing D&D?" gets a punch in the throat. LeiberVanceMoorcockHowardLovecraftMievilleMartinWolfePowers, people.
Last night I finally organised the first session of my campaign! The PCs: Nartana, Varisian cleric of Desna. Nartana was in Sandpoint with her extended family's caravan to celebrate the Swallowtail Festival. She knew Aaron Deverin because of his work in defusing tensions between the citizenry of Sandpoint and Varisian travellers, and had recently been approached for help by Nima Gorod, a visitor from Magnimar who is looking for a Varisian man called Meleris. Nartana is trained as a dancer in order to honour Desna, and often performs when her family is in Sandpoint. Aaron Deverin, Chelaxian paladin of Erastil. Aaron, who occupies a post in the Sandpoint town guard, is actually related to the Deverins on his mother's side, but his father adopted his wife's surname out of ambition for himself and his son. Aaron was sent away to Magnimar as a teenager to learn what he would need to know to make the most of his birthright, but returned to find that his best friend Jared and his fiancee Aya had fallen in love in his absence. The same day he confronted Jared and the former friends parted as angry rivals, Jared was murdered by Chopper - leaving Aaron distraught at the loss of his friend in such circumstances, and Aya grieving the loss of her new love. Tali "Nima Gorod" Relevon, Chelaxian rogue. Tali was born and raised a member of the Gargoyles (who are, in my campaign, an all-female outfit) in Magnimar. Her mother always taught her that it didn't matter who her father was, but Tali assumes it must have been another underworld figure. Recently, Tali fell in love with Meleris, a Varisian man who eventually convinced her to give up her criminal career and start a new life on the road with him. Meleris promised to meet her in Sandpoint in a few days, but by the time of the Swallowtail Festival Tali has been in town for two weeks and seen neither hide nor hair of him. Tharl "the Stupendous", a Chelaxian wizard (specialist conjurer). Tharl was born and raised in Magnimar and apprenticed at an early age with the Stone of the Seers wizards' academy. His father's glib tongue and occasional gambling wins managed to keep him enrolled despite the family's poverty, but when his father died Tharl was forced to sell everything, even their tumbledown home, just to pay out the rest of the year's tuition. He began supporting himself by stage performances in sleazy dockside taverns, using his magic to supplement his shows, but a fortnight ago he realised Magnimar was a dead end. Tharl and Aaron knew each other from the latter's time in Magnimar, and had kept up a correspondence; Aaron offered him a place to stay in Sandpoint until he got his life back on track. Coincidentally, Tharl and Tali travelled to Sandpoint together in the same merchant caravan. So far in "Burnt Offerings": Spoiler: The PCs easily defeated all the goblins they encountered on the day of the Festival. Since Aaron Deverin is both kin to the Mayor and a member of the town guard, Sheriff Hemlock invited the whole group to investigate the "secret mission to the graveyard", so they've seen the priest's empty grave for themselves.
They eagerly took up Aldern Foxglove's invitation to go boar-hunting, and I played briefly through part of their conversation. He praised both Aaron's impressive swordsmanship (he killed the goblin commando and the goblin dog in one blow) and Nartana's beauty and skill extensively. I will probably have Nartana be the focus of his obsession because she's the highest-Charisma PC, and the other characters have backstory hooks I can play with in other adventures. Atfer I set up the encounter with Shayliss Vinder by describing the newfound popularity Aaron experienced with the young women of Sandpoint, the PCs started to talk about heading out of town to see if there were any goblins still lurking - so I had Sheriff Hemlock invite them to the meeting with Shalelu Androsana. They accepted the sheriff's request that they stay in town while he seeks additional help from Magnimar; after their dinner with Shalelu and discussion of the goblins around Sandpoint, I called the evening to a close. Next session I plan to open with Monster in the Closet. I think I will save the encounter with Shayliss for later in the campaign - could be next session, or later on after Thistletop or the Catacombs of Wrath.
1. Have you purchased a Planet Stories novel or anthology yet? If so, which one(s)? Black God's Kiss by C. L. Moore and Elak of Atlantis by Henry Kuttner. They haven't arrived yet - just shipped a couple of days ago - but I'm looking forward to them very much. 2. What author in the Planet Stories line most interests you? Probably Moore, Kuttner, and Leigh Brackett. I am also interested in the lesser-known works of Robert E. Howard, Michael Moorcock, et alii. It would be great to see anything written jointly by Moore & Kuttner that you feel would fit with Planet Stories' established direction. I'm really not much interested in pseudo-historical fiction like Gary Gygax's Setne Inhetep stories, I have to say. I prefer completely fake pre-history like Atlantis and Aquilonia. ;) 3. Please list the following genres in the order you would prefer that we focus on in late 2008 and beyond: Sword & Sorcery
4. What can I do to get you to buy more Planet Stories books? Honestly, I'm not sure. I suppose publishing more stories from the genres at the top of my list is a good start. While I intend to use Planet Stories as a way to check out the planetary romance genre, I'm also really interested in more straightforward sword & sorcery like Elak of Atlantis, and in horror or "weird" fiction stories, which I don't see much of in the list so far. Clark Ashton Smith would be fun. 5. If we offer a monthly subscription with, say, a 30% discount off the cover price, would you consider subscribing? No, I don't think so. I'm just not going to be interested in everything that fits the Planet Stories line. I don't begrudge you the desire to publish, for instance, Gary Gygax's novels or space opera tales, but they're not for me.
Disenchant them for Strange Dust, maybe lesser magic essences. Thats what I do with all my eronious magical items. I see what you did there.
JJ: "If any of you play horde and end up getting shot dead by a hot night elf named Shensen... I apologize in advance." It's clear you favour PvP! Look at those lifetime honourable kills. I look silly, now, logging out with my fishing pole equipped.
Give us some info on the beastiary! BEASTIARY! Err, your wish is my command? The ercinee, or alicanto, is a Large CR 4 bird which, to my mind, fits in really well on the more magical end of the fauna of Varisia. The marsh giant is a Large CR 8 swampdweller with a great, unique animistic religion and an aquatic variety called brineborn. The witchfire is a Medium CR 9 undead, the spirit of a slain hag which often attract will-o-wisps. There's a cool legend about the first witchfire. The shemhazian demon is a Garguantuan CR 14 fiend which just look amazing. They too have an excellent origin, and several unique shemhazians are named and briefly described. The night monarch is a Huge CR 15 butterfly-like outsider, the herald of Desna on Golarion. They have a mortal variation as well, the star monarch. The yethazmari is a Large CR 15 fiend, the herald of Lamashtu. They look like winged, eyeless jackals with a snake for a tail. The illustration is fabulous.
Praise! Great site-based adventure. Lots of variety, very creepy descriptions, interesting complications for the PCs to have to deal with. It's somewhat simple, but in a good way - everything reinforces the themes in play, without awkwardness or confusion. Poor Nelevetu Voan. I'll have to make sure my players get him out of his cage and help him escape . . . My favourite part: Karzoug doesn't get to finish his boast. ;)
I haven't read much yet, so this will seem unfairly critical, but! It was at the beginning of the adventure background, so it's come to my attention quickly! "Phased" is a common but quite incorrect misspelling of "fazed". The sentence should read ". . . even the fall of their homeland barely fazed them." :) I promise I'll come back to the thread with praise when I can!
. . . that I placed my first order for Planet Stories books today: Black God's Kiss and Elak of Atlantis. Looking forward to them!
Gorum doesn't really throw in with undead all that much, but neither does he particularly crusade against them. I could certainly see a warlord who raises an army of undead being a Gorum worshiper, although this is more in Urgathoa's realm. Perhaps a character who enjoys reanimating the foes she's personally defeated in combat, so as to have an entourage which speaks to her personal power and skill.
The gazetteer of Varisia in Pathfinder #3 mentions a few:
The Stone of the Seers is mentioned in the Magnimar gazetteer in Pathfinder #2 as having a focus on abjuration and divination; it's located in the Keystone district.
I have a question, James: Can you tell us more about the Peacock Spirit, or is that information which will be revealed in "The Spires of Xin-Shalast" or some other source? :)
I hope to start running "Burnt Offerings" in early January.
That said... there aren't a lot of half-orcs OR half-elves in Golarion either. I thought it was appropriately unpleasant that most of the half-orcs in Varisia were deliberately fathered by raiders from the Hold of Belkzen because of their cooler temperament et cetera. Imagine having that in your past - not every gamer is going to be interested in a character with that kind of thing weighing on her shoulders, but some will. And hey, there's also that town in Varisia which encourages interracial relationships, if you want a happier background for your PC.
Despite what I've said in the other thread about Fourth Edition, James, all these hints are going to sorely tempt me to buy Second Darkness even if it's a Third Edition Adventure Path . . . damn it!
Maybe one day but not right now, the soonest that I'll look into 4E is when my current campaigns end and I've gone through all my 3E adventures. The thing is that, for me, "when my current campaigns end" is "when I finish running Rise of the Runelords". I think that the number of Dungeons & Dragons players who will not switch over to Fourth Edition until their multiple current campaigns end, and/or until they have played through every single adventure they have ever wanted to run for Third Edition, is simply a vanishingly small number compared to the number of players who will switch when Fourth Edition comes out. I agree with you that it's about "when to change", and I really do see the problem for Paizo in switching over before Second Darkness begins when a) they don't have the rules yet, and b) they'll probably have to massage them to fit Golarion's setting assumptions anyway. I just know that anyone who's in my position of enjoying Pathfinder but anticipating Fourth Edition will have a hard decision to make when Curse of the Crimson Throne wraps up, especially since I know I probably won't be running it - it's been hard enough getting my Rise of the Runelords group sorted out, and we haven't yet started. Can I really afford to buy a year's worth of Pathfinder that uses rules I probably won't want to go back to, and that I wouldn't have time to play even if I wanted to? The best result for me would be if Wizards of the Coast got Paizo the rules in time for Second Darkness. The second-best result would be if it's really easy to make an on-the-fly conversion from Third Edition to Fourth, so that I can still run Curse of the Crimson Throne and Second Darkness no matter what system they're using.
Hell, maybe a gamemastery module for 15th level would be of utility to these high-hitting sluggers who finished an AP and were drooling for more(?) Just a brainstorm. Yeah, perhaps even a trilogy of connected GameMastery modules to finish out the high teens and get the characters to 20. :) That would actually be pretty cool.
Yep, Arthaus did it via White Wolf as their publisher, much like Necromancer and Malhavoc were published via White Wolf, but were actually a separate company. I am under the impression, actually, that unlike Necromancer and Malhavoc, Arthaus was actually a daughter company or spun-off division of White Wolf. I'm pretty sure it simply started off as a publishing imprint.
I've pretty much decided that I will stick with Pathfinder through Curse of the Crimson Throne, but if Second Darkness is a Third Edition Adventure Path I'm going to have to get off the train then. I expect Fourth Edition to suit me very well, and since I'm not sure that I will ever get to use Curse of the Crimson Throne as written, I'm not prepared to buy into yet another campaign's worth of material I'll either never directly use or have to convert. Of course, it may not even be hard to convert Third Edition adventures to Fourth Edition! ;) That would be great, actually, because I do want to support Paizo. Very much. I just can't say I'll do that if they "go 3.75".
It has, I believe, happened in the past, having names become titles, or vice-versa, with a title becoming a name. Perhaps the most famous example is "Caesar", originally a Roman cognomen or family nickname meaning "a full head of hair" - ironic since the most famous Caesar, Gaius Julius Caesar the Dictator, inherited male pattern baldness from his mother Aurelia's family. In the decades and centuries following that Caesar's assassination, in the Roman tradition of adopting heirs into one's own family, the emperors began to designate their heirs by conferring upon them the name of Caesar; this remained traditional even long after the emperors' family relationship with the real Caesars was broken following the death of Nero. The use of "Caesar" as a royal title continued right down into the 20th century with the "Kaiser" in Germany (close to the original Latin pronunciation of the word, actually) and the "Tzar" or "Czar" in Russia.
Of course that history doesn't work when you're talking about Realms Drow, but that's ok. :) Oh, yeah, obviously. :) It also doesn't work for Eberron's drow, but we already know why they look the way they do: when the elven slaves of the ancient giant empires of Xen'drik rebelled, the giants magically altered some of their loyal (or imprisoned) elven slaves to serve as spies and assassins against the rebels. I think my interest in seeing D&D monsters interpreted and reinvented in multiple ways is related to my interest in alternate history and parallel timelines in fiction: I like seeing different takes on the familiar. The Paizo crew can be sure that I will be picking up Classic Monsters Revisited even if I never run a non-Adventure Path campaign in Golarion - it'll be worth it just for what it is.
I personally read it as "eye-OM-ah-day". Short O, in other words.
The Fourth Edition core backstory for drow explains their colouration pretty well for me: Sehanine and Lolth are sisters, goddesses of the full and new moons respectively; Sehanine is pale-skinned and dark-haired, Lolth is dark-skinned and pale-haired. When evil elves first gained Lolth's attention for the way they delighted in cruelty and took power for themselves, she marked them as her favourites by changing their colouration to match her own. So Lolth had black skin because she represented the new moon, and drow have black skin because Lolth marked them as her chosen people. I'm the sort of person who takes a real delight in seeing how elements like all the various monsters of D&D can be re-envisioned by an imaginative team of writers, so in that regard Pathfinder and Golarion in general is a goldmine for me, even if I'm not exactly looking for a world designed to be so much like Greyhawk as, say, Eric and many of the people on this thread are. I really loved the backstory for the dragons of Golarion, for instance. The crossbred lines are a great innovation.
As I said in another thread, I'm pretty sure I'll be playing Fourth Edition, but if I continue to enjoy the material Paizo produces, I'll continue to use it, even if I have to convert it for my game. I'm not sure I will be interested in a "3.75" standalone game, though. One of the reasons that I'm interested in Fourth Edition is because it's mechanically revamping everything, not just fixing the currently-iffy spots. On the other hand, make it a good enough game - and distinct enough from what Fourth Edition offers - and I'll be more interested. To make a comparison, I'm not interested in playing Vampire: The Masquerade anymore because Vampire: The Requiem took everything I liked about the old game and did it better, while cutting out everything I disliked. The potential difference, to me, with a Paizo "3.75" game would be that I trust you guys to make a game with the flavour of earlier editions that was worth playing. I can't imagine playing a Masquerade game when I could use Requiem instead, purely on flavour terms.
Fourth Edition. That doesn't mean I won't still be using Pathfinder, even if Paizo isn't able to convert or chooses not to - after all, I realised that I could easily turn "The Skinsaw Murders" into a story for Mage: The Awakening (and may still do so, even if I run Rise of the Runelords as a D&D game), so converting between Third Edition and Fourth won't be that hard!
I like the Great Wheel cosmology, but I'm not bothered by the changes. It sounds like an interesting new setup, and that's why it works for me (and why the Forgotten Realms cosmology doesn't, or at least wouldn't if I ever used that setting). To me, these changes strengthen the case for a Greyhawk campaign setting which makes the Great Wheel the specific cosmology of that setting, or perhaps even a Planescape sourcebook.
In support of what you said, however, that's clearly why Chinese find westerner's Chinese names odd--because they are often made to imitate the sounds of the western name and the meanings are usually 'cute' or 'amusing'. It's only fair, though: I've known countless immigrants from Chinese backgrounds in Australia, and I'd say a good half of them have been given comically archaic "English" names by their parents. Enoch, for example.
Great work, janxious!
So, that’s $85 per night at these inns—that’s roughly twice what you’d pay for a room at Motel 6. Well, that depends on where the Motel 6 is located, too. In North Hills, Los Angeles there's one which costs $75 per night, so.
I'm definitely interested in some science-fantasy planetary romance, too, Erik. Just letting you know we are out there!
Of course, one of the cool things about having a PDF copy is that it's a lot easier to create an edited version of the Sandpoint gazetteer!
doo eeet!
That's exactly what came to mind - it's an obvious, but totally cool, connection.
I want to voice my support for the direction Paizo has taken their products. Both the horrific elements and the "political" elements are things which I personally value highly in my entertainment, and I'm extremely pleased that James and his contributors will be continuing along this course. On another note: I'm a strong supporter of prominent non-white ethnicities in fantasy, so I'm going to emphasise diversity within each of the human ethnicities we've seen so far. Chelaxians per se might be "white", but if there are many people who call themselves Chelaxians I'm happy to make them a diverse group. Likewise, Varisians often have deep olive skin - in my games, they'll range from Mediterranean in appearance through Middle Eastern to light-skinned Indian. Shoanti won't all be dark-skinned like Sheriff Hemlock, either.
Ahh, curses. It comes around to all of us who live outside of the United States - I just didn't expect it so soon. I refer, of course, to the inclusion of the bunyip. To you in the USA, it is a colourful piece of foreign folklore. To us in Australia, there is simply no way we could ever take a bit of Aboriginal myth showing up in a fantasy setting seriously. As I said, it happens to us all. I shudder to think especially of what central and eastern Europeans must go through!
Actually, Cory, the broad strokes of that part of it are already covered in the four sets of notes we already have.
I don't have my copy yet, but . . . . . . half of the problem with massive PDF files clogging up your system is using bloated software like, say, Adobe Reader. It has an enormous system footprint which is very unnecessary. I use the very small Foxit Reader 2.0, which opens on my work computer (Intel Celeron 2.53GHz, 512Mb RAM) in about two seconds, and takes about four seconds to open a 300-page PDF like my copy of Vampire: The Requiem - which is pretty graphics heavy, especially in the first few pages. To use another example, a back issue of Dragon takes about one second to open. It's not Paizo's job to hold the hands of customers who are using bad software! ;)
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