Pathfinder Dark Archive

....Okay who were writers in this book? I feel like they have to have loved pathfinder 1e lore or else they did super good research if they didn't love the lore but wrote this ._.

The authors did a great job with this! You can see the author blog here for some comments from some of them!

I guess it was supposed to be something like "Not everyone is replaced by clone?" or something? I do kinda want to know how sentence finished x'D)

This sentence reads as intended--narrator just trails off every now and then ^_^.

Ed Reppert wrote:

Who is this K.H.W. person whose initials are scattered throughout the book?

James Cases said that it was intentionally left as a mystery.

Looking around, I don't thin anyone found anything conclusive as of yet, looking at the previous lore. But the search is still ongoing.

He's not a preexisting character, but beyond that, who indeed, where indeed. There are some hints to his story here and there in the book, and others might come to light later

K.H.W,

Though your pages may now be lost, we’ll find them. We’re drawn to the Truth like moths are drawn to - well, you know, of course, you know.

Be seeing you!

Today's great white moth search was very fructiful. So many hidden stuff in that book. XD

White moth search?

White moth search?

Yeah. There are a bunch of white moths hidden in the art of the Dark Archive book. We think it’s tied in to the secret messages that Paizo has been sending out as Lost Pages of the Dark Archive from K.H.W., like a giant mystery puzzle game. We’re calling it the Dark Archive Alternate Reality Game or ARG and have been discussing it on the pf2 discord and Reddit.

The fact that this ARG is playing out on PF2 Reddit and not here is a good example of how irrelevant the Paizo boards have become.

The fact that this ARG is playing out on PF2 Reddit and not here is a good example of how irrelevant the Paizo boards have become.

Yet the Paizo boards were relevant enough for you to come here and post that comment.

We're not irrelevant, we just don't care.

It's a great book mind you, but I could care less about secret messages or hidden symbols.

We're not irrelevant, we just don't care.

It's a great book mind you, but I could care less about secret messages or hidden symbols.

Speak for yourself! I fall hard for stuff like this. :p Alas, I don't have my pdf yet, and Reddit already has everything compiled in one place, so it's easier to talk about it there. Also, IRL has been crazy lately. But this entire ongoing mystery for the community is such a brilliant thing, tying Paizo's awesome community together to a lore-related event. Reminds me of the fun I had trying to decode all those online puzzles leading up to Nolan Batman movies. I love this so much, and hope more of the like is down the pipeline.

I'll conteract with just saying that forums are kinda not the perfect medium to discuss this stuff. Even the Reddit format is not really adapted to it. It's so fast paced that the "chat" format of discord is way better.
Yesterday, we solved a page in less than 3 minutes from the initial posting, and like, almost a dozen of people were working on it in tandem, and all contributed in some small way. That wouldn't be possible in a "forum" format like here of even reddit.
I mean, it took us less time to solve it than it took me to type this message here.

(Also, multiple discord servers have more up to date posts pinned than even the reddit post. xD )
(And nooooo, I'm not biased *just* because I'm the one updating these pinned messages... >_> )

Totally Not Gorbacz wrote:

The fact that this ARG is playing out on PF2 Reddit and not here is a good example of how irrelevant the Paizo boards have become.

Yet the Paizo boards were relevant enough for you to come here and post that comment.

Bold of you to think this post relevant.

captain yesterday wrote:

We're not irrelevant, we just don't care.

It's a great book mind you, but I could care less about secret messages or hidden symbols.

Speak for yourself! I fall hard for stuff like this. :p Alas, I don't have my pdf yet, and Reddit already has everything compiled in one place, so it's easier to talk about it there. Also, IRL has been crazy lately. But this entire ongoing mystery for the community is such a brilliant thing, tying Paizo's awesome community together to a lore-related event. Reminds me of the fun I had trying to decode all those online puzzles leading up to Nolan Batman movies. I love this so much, and hope more of the like is down the pipeline.

No, he is speaking for me, too, on that. I really do not care and am actually annoyed that I received this email for the secret PDF, not knowing what it was and thinking initially that it was supposed to be some sort of correction errata or update to Dark Archive that got me excited only to let me down. Yeah, I don't like that. It's great for those who want it, but please don't send me misleading emails. I am not invested enough, I don't have the time for that, and it just contributes to email clutter I would rather not have to deal with. I have never received anything like that from Paizo ever before. So, I did not realize what it was in the beginning. The time it took for me to realize what it was and then knowing it contributed nothing to my game could have been better spent on other things in my life. I am cool with it being created for others to enjoy, but please be clear that it is a mystery for those who want it and not something else for the game up front; that way, if I don't want to participate, I won't waste my time.

I have too much mystery in my life already, thank you very much.

Stop complaining and listen to my poem I wrote while slowly going insane:

You know what the biggest hindrance to the dark archive is?

The overflow archives

Something fishy is always occurring there

Though some say that Zarta made a big splash dealing with the issue

But she always remained coy when pressed about what exactly happened

Despite a flood of questions, the only other witness would only go on to say members of the archive outfoxed the perpetrator.

Though he did also mention that the PUNishment fit the crime.

What does this have to do with anything? Nothing I just wanted to torture you all. Bye....

Speak for yourself! I fall hard for stuff like this.

Happy to hear it. Keep letting people know. I'm not wasting my time jumping through hoops for a secret decoder message on a PDF I've already downloaded.

This looks pretty interesting. You almost had me playing this in organized play until I saw this can't be played in PFS2 mode. So, I can't use my Pf2 organized play characters - It's campaign mode only. How disappointing. Another intersecting looking product I will skip.

Man, imagine being upset a company sent you a free thing.

The ARG is fun! Reddit and the Discord I’m on are super energized by it. For anyone who doesn’t care, it’s dead simple to ignore one email and one file - I’m sure the solution and what it means will filter out to the public at the end.

Man, imagine being upset a company sent you a free thing.

You're a new one, aren't you?

Opsylum wrote:

captain yesterday wrote:

We're not irrelevant, we just don't care.

It's a great book mind you, but I could care less about secret messages or hidden symbols.

Speak for yourself! I fall hard for stuff like this. :p Alas, I don't have my pdf yet, and Reddit already has everything compiled in one place, so it's easier to talk about it there. Also, IRL has been crazy lately. But this entire ongoing mystery for the community is such a brilliant thing, tying Paizo's awesome community together to a lore-related event. Reminds me of the fun I had trying to decode all those online puzzles leading up to Nolan Batman movies. I love this so much, and hope more of the like is down the pipeline.

No, he is speaking for me, too, on that. I really do not care and am actually annoyed that I received this email for the secret PDF, not knowing what it was and thinking initially that it was supposed to be some sort of correction errata or update to Dark Archive that got me excited only to let me down. Yeah, I don't like that. It's great for those who want it, but please don't send me misleading emails. I am not invested enough, I don't have the time for that, and it just contributes to email clutter I would rather not have to deal with. I have never received anything like that from Paizo ever before. So, I did not realize what it was in the beginning. The time it took for me to realize what it was and then knowing it contributed nothing to my game could have been better spent on other things in my life. I am cool with it being created for others to enjoy, but please be clear that it is a mystery for those who want it and not something else for the game up front; that way, if I don't want to participate, I won't waste my time.

I have too much mystery in my life already, thank you very much.

I do not have it on PDF so I have no idea what you're talking about.

Don't worry though, I've already established I don't care so no worries!

Whatever it is, I'm sure Reddit and other sources will spoil it five seconds after it's fully deciphered, so I'll check in then.

This looks pretty interesting. You almost had me playing this in organized play until I saw this can't be played in PFS2 mode. So, I can't use my Pf2 organized play characters - It's campaign mode only. How disappointing. Another intersecting looking product I will skip.

These adventurers are ridiculously poorly suited for Organized Play in non-campaign mode. One adventure is designed around something that is against the rules in Organized Play. Another has a content warning. And a third breaks encounter balance in a way that would drain player resources in a way akin to bonekeep.

I understand why you are upset but in this case this was the best compromise.

I mean, its also class rulebook, so thats a reason to not skip it if you like new classes xD Art is nice~

But yeah, the adventures here are fairly experimental.

Just listen to that U2 album you didn't want while solving this puzzle you didn't ask for, it makes the time go by faster.

Dear devs/des's/paizo/K.H.W., is there any way y'all could release higher quality versions of the maps from Dark Archive?

I'd love to play these adventures with my friends over Foundry but the maps from the pdfs are too small to look good.

Roll20 modules have them in HD ^^;

Roll20 modules have them in HD ^^;

Oh would I be able to rip them from Roll20 if I own it? So I can use it in Foundry.

Also, I only see tokens in the art pack, but it might not be listed in there.

They are in the add on ya, but yeah I don't know if you can move them but maybe?

They are in the add on ya, but yeah I don't know if you can move them but maybe?

Thank you, I will wait to see if someone who owns it responds with if you can, because no way am I playing on Roll20 lol.

High res maps from our rulebooks, (Book of the Dead & Dark Archive both have adventures) are not currently for public sale. They are available though our various VTT partners.

All 22 pages have been found

Page 0/22

Help me

Assuming that is real post, that is cool small arg :D

Assuming that is real post, that is cool small arg :D

It's real. It also specifically requests that unlike the others, people solve it individually. It's not super hard though, particularly if you've been keeping up with the rest of it. The first person figured it out literally less than 10 minutes after I posted it to the discord.

This was fun, I hope they do more thematic little things like this in the future.

All 22 pages have been found

Page 0/22

Help me

Thank you to everyone who put this mystery together. Solving it with other PF2 fans has been incredibly enjoyable and has made me feel much more a member of the pf2 community.

I enjoyed it greatly too. This was awesome. :3

That was fun!

CorvusMask wrote:

Assuming that is real post, that is cool small arg :D

It's real. It also specifically requests that unlike the others, people solve it individually. It's not super hard though, particularly if you've been keeping up with the rest of it. The first person figured it out literally less than 10 minutes after I posted it to the discord.

This was fun, I hope they do more thematic little things like this in the future.

^^; I'm sad though because uh..

...I absolutely suck at cyphers and number puzzles and letter puzzles and I've never successfully solved them on my own x'D

(I don't even comprehend what the hint is supposed to be besides that a letter from every single 22 pages to something something something something?)

The ARG was a blast. I hope there more like this in the future.

I mean I'm guessing I'm not target audience for this anyway because I'm not currently a subscriber so I haven't gotten any of lost pages emails, but yeah, I'm currently trying to wrack my brain on how to solve this and coming up with gibberish x'D

(I'm currently assuming that I overthought it and its supposed to be solved like the other ones were solved, but even then I suck because I'm sure I would never have solved vast majority of those on my own x'D That and I suck with image editing software)

Update: Solved it x'D I feel stupid because of amount of headache I have. I uh, I have bad habit with over thinking

I’m trying to decide which I hate more, trying to solve puzzles like this or not knowing what the answer is.

This has been an incredibly fun community event with a great ending, thank you so much to all the folks who put the work into this, whether it was creating it or solving it!

And I solved too!

High res maps from our rulebooks, (Book of the Dead & Dark Archive both have adventures) are not currently for public sale. They are available though our various VTT partners.

Are there any plans to have the HQ maps be sold on Foundry you can share? That's the VTT partner I'm interested in.

Aaron Shanks wrote:

High res maps from our rulebooks, (Book of the Dead & Dark Archive both have adventures) are not currently for public sale. They are available though our various VTT partners.

Are there any plans to have the HQ maps be sold on Foundry you can share? That's the VTT partner I'm interested in.

No announcements to share but I'll share it with them and internally.

Thank you Aaron, really appreciate it. It's a neat adventure, the Dark Archive narrative is quite fantastic tbh.

Update: Solved it x'D I feel stupid because of amount of headache I have. I uh, I have bad habit with over thinking

Any hints? I'm really bad at this too.

CorvusMask wrote:

Update: Solved it x'D I feel stupid because of amount of headache I have. I uh, I have bad habit with over thinking

Any hints? I'm really bad at this too.

Don’t overthink it. Have the clues from the solved pages in front of you. What are there eight of? The beginning of those.

Evan Tarlton wrote:

CorvusMask wrote:

Update: Solved it x'D I feel stupid because of amount of headache I have. I uh, I have bad habit with over thinking

Any hints? I'm really bad at this too.

Don’t overthink it. Have the clues from the solved pages in front of you. What are there eight of? The beginning of those.

Okay. I got it. Thank you. I would never have figured it out without the hint.

Anyone have a good version of the Lorres Manor map? It seems that it's a little stretched in parts, so getting grids to match is being a pain.

Folks,

I am happy to announce that the content of this Source Book is now featured in TOS 2ᴺᴰ PRO edition v.15!

More details can be found here.

Happy Gaming!
The Only Sheet

Vision of Foresight is pretty damn strong for what it is. Letting you roll with fortune on any one or two action skill check makes them the best at Recall Knowledge, Lying, Hiding, etc, without any resources besides being in their Trance, which they can easily activate whenever. Maybe something to check for errata.