d20 – Page 7 – d20 Diaries

By feather, fur, and scale!

My kids are Earth Rangers. No idea what I’m talking about? The Earth Rangers are a kids conservation organization which empowers Canadian children to embark on missions to save local ecosystems, endangered animals, and do their part to reduce pollution, waste, and climate change. It’s free to join, and in addition to missions, videos and games there’s also an educational blog my kids enjoy reading. Both of my children are members, but, because of my son’s dedication to saving the planet, he set out at the start of this school year to accomplish two things:

One: start a litter collecting club to beautify the school yard and neighbourhood parks.
Two: get the Earth Rangers to come to his school.

It should be noted that he’s seven years old.

While his litter club is still in the works (he had to wait until he snow melted before his teacher would help him get it started), just this afternoon the Earth Rangers came by his school to put on a presentation. Now, this isn’t super strange–they do school assemblies across the country–but it’s never happened at my son’s school before, nor any of those nearby. He’s been trying his best to get this to happen all year long, so you can imagine how excited he was that they came. And man, did they put on a show! In addition to an energetic, fun assembly, they also brought along a quartet of awesome Animal Ambassadors to show off. My favourite? The barn owl that they sent soaring through the gym right over the crowd! My son’s? The three-banded armadillo which we got to see scurry around, roll up, and nibble on some mealworms. My son got mentioned during the opening, and at the end both of my children and I got to go behind the scenes to meet all the animals personally, and chat with the presenters. Surprisingly, once my daughter got up close it was the ball python that stole her heart.

They honestly made my kids ~~day~~ m~~onth~~ year.

Which brings us to the topic of todays blog: animals!

PZO1110 — Rules for familiars and animal companions can be found in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Core Rulebook, or Core Rulebook: Pocket Edition.

I have yet to meet a player of d20 games who has NEVER made a character that has a pet. Perhaps it’s a familiar, an animal companion, or a mount. Whatever the case, animals are a huge part of most d20 games–as both companions and enemies. I find that among children, they’re an even bigger draw. My daughter’s first character had so many pets I took to calling the entire party the ‘Animal Crew.’

Everyone’s got a favourite animal. Chances are everyone’s got a favourite choice for familiars and animal companions, as well.

My daughter? Easy! Rabbits are her favourite familiar by far, and that’s not even taking into account that they grant their masters +4 initiative! She’s also a huge fan of the arctic hare. And animal companions? Parasaurolophus, of course! Particularly if you let them ‘sing.’

My son prefers pigs as his familiar of choice–mostly because he thinks they’re adorable. They also grant their masters +3 diplomacy, which is handy for those of you who want to make friends. For animal companions, he favours the boar, although he’s also pretty partial to owls and eagles on occasion.

PZO9429_500 — Rabbits were originally introduced in the Pathfinder Player Companion: Animal Archive,alongside a ton of other animals and archetypes.

My husband’s top choice for familiars is the raven, which can speak any one language. Awesome! And his favourite animal companion, hands down, is the wolf. Love those free trip attacks!

And me? The fox is my favourite animal by far, so choosing my favourite familiar is a simple decision. Fox, fox, and fox again. Maybe toss in an arctic fox for a bit of variance… Haha. Those lovely little fennecs grant a +2 on reflex saves.

But animal companions? Wow, tough choice! I’ve always been a big fan of the grizzly bear. But then there’s the crocodile… Who doesn’t want a badass beast who can go on land OR water? But, when it comes down to it, I’m a big sucker for the ankylosaurus. SO COOL! Unfortunately, every time I’ve made one it’s master died a horrible death within a session or two. Haha. I’m cursed!

But, in my opinion, it’s not what animal you choose that makes your pet important, but how you choose to play them. Big or small, they can be living breathing characters and allies–not just a pet you give a scratch here and there.

My daughter has a druid with a pet parasaurolophus who loves to sing and dance. She dresses her in bows and fluffy tutus, and always gives her hugs. She spends time comforting her pet, and always plays that little dinosaur as a young, skittish, easily scared little (big) thing. When battle starts, she doesn’t just tell good old Paras to attack, she tells her to strike up a battle tune, which sets her dear tooting, and bellowing, and shaking her tail. That’s not to say that Paras never enters the fray–she does. She whips that tail around with a vengeance whenever her master’s hurt. But, it is to say, that Paras is a character, more than just an extra attack form.

PZO9454_500 — Familiars of all kinds–as well as some nifty archetypes–can be found in the Pathfinder Player Companion: Familiar Folio.

I have a meek, shy wizard who fell in love with a vicious, man-eating dog during a session, and ended up taking it home with her. Barely able to control her big, snarling brute, clearly it’s Prickles the dog who’s the alpha in that relationship. Unfortunately, that same wizard hates killing things and, knowing she won’t be able to stop her dear dog from devouring something once he gets a taste of blood, she never orders him into the fight. That said, Prickles is a territorial pup. With the awesome bodyguard archetype, from Ultimate Wilderness and the Animal Archive, if there’s one thing he won’t abide is someone harming ‘his pet’ (my wizard). I have a ton of fun roleplaying these two and their weird, unbalanced dynamic.

My husband’s most memorable pet is a rat familiar named Rothmhar, who is a direct conduit to the foul god Mhar. Rothmhar and his master, Haji both devour rocks during their communion, which causes Rothmhar to froth at the mouth and engulf itself in a transformative, rocky, cocoon. Upon hatching he not only grants Haji magical powers, but he also has his ugly flesh pierced by sharp rocks. Also? He hates Haji’s girlfriend. You can read more about Rothmhar in my Iron Gods blog posts: Iron Gods: Character Focus: Haji and Nix, Iron Gods: Part One: Into the Weeping Pond, Iron Gods: Part Two: Bring Out Your Dead!, Iron Gods: Part Three: Gremlins, Iron Gods: Part Four: The Dead Desert and Iron Gods: Part Five: High Times in Torch.

In another campaign, when we played the Second Darkness Adventure Path (which starts with Part One: Shadow In The Sky), my husband’s character befriended a sleazy scumbag named Bojask, and made him his cohort. Later, Bojask got a horribly stupid and overly friendly swamp barracuda, named Gulper, for his animal companion. This dopy thing was hilarious and a total blast to have in the party, especially as he licked and tried to ‘hug’ his grumpy, cussing owner. Half-way through the campaign, poor Gulper died. So heartbroken was the party we used resources to have the goof reincarnated, only to have him come back as a ram. As lovable as he was before, Gulper was even funnier trapped in the body of a completely different animal. He kept trying to bite when he should headbutt and swim when he couldn’t. But the best part? The first time the poor thing found himself in water and had no idea he couldn’t breathe water. HILARIOUS. In time, he died again, and this time was brought back as a spider. Admittedly, that didn’t last long. The poor thing kept trying to lick people with a non-existent tongue, and only ended up poisoning them with his mandibles. In the end, we paid a ton of money to have him returned to his proper form, only to have poor Gulper–who had finally gotten used to being a spider–adjust all over again! You haven’t laughed until you’ve seen a swamp barracuda try to figure out why he can’t shoot webs and climb up walls. Priceless!

s-l300 — Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Wilderness alsoreleases some great new familiar and animal companions, as well as archetypes for both!

But my favourite pet of all time? It belongs to my seven-year old son. In a previous blog post we talked about the creation of a character of his, Fuzzzy. Fuzzzy is paladin of Iomedae who died battling demons in the Worldwound alongside his brother. Luckily, Iomedae rewarded them for their service, seeing them brought back to life in new bodies. Unfortunately, Fuzzzy found himself in the body of an old man, with no memories of his past life. Or any memories, really. He barely recalls what happened two minutes ago. Now a wizard, Fuzzzy is accompanied by an intelligent little owl, who keeps him on track and safe. This little owl, Bobby, ranks as my favourite pet by far! Seriously! They have such a wonderful relationship. Take a peek at any of his play-by-post adventures and you’ll see what I mean.

Now, I know all of you have beloved familiars and animal companions! You’ve got funny stories and heartfelt ones. And plenty more of you have preferences. So let us know YOUR opinion in the comments! Share your picks for favourite animals companions and familiars! Tell us about the most memorable ones you’ve created or played. Did you ever see someone else with a pet you wish you’d thought of? By all means, let us know!

Whether they’re feathered, furred or scaled, we want to hear from you!

Until next time,

Jessica

Iron Gods: Part Five: High Times in Torch

Today on d20 Diaries we’re heading back to Torch, for more of the Iron Gods adventure path!

Iron Gods is a six-part adventure path by Paizo Publishing that fuses technology and fantasy into one awesome Pathfinder campaign. The first volume, Iron Gods Book 1: Fires of Creation, is written by Neil Spicer, and is intended to bring characters from levels one to four. The Iron Gods Player’s Guide is a free download on Paizo’s website, here. For further information on the Iron Gods campaign, check out my blog post ‘Iron Gods Adventure Path.’ For information on our characters, check out my blog post ‘Iron Gods: Character Focus: Haji and Nix,’ and for information on our first few play sessions, check out my blog posts ‘Iron Gods: Part One: Into the Weeping Pond, Iron Gods: Part Two: Bring Out Your Dead,’ ‘Iron Gods: Part Three: Gremlins,’ and ‘Iron Gods: Part Four: The Dead Desert‘ If you’re going to play Iron Gods yourself, I highly recommend picking up the Iron Gods Adventure Path Pawn Collection, which has a ton of unique pawns for use in the campaign.

Pheonix 'Nix' — Art that inspired Nix. Discovered on Pinterest. If you know the artist or the source let me know, so proper credit can be given!

The trip back to Torch had been hell.

Despite their wounds, Nix had insisted on digging through the piles of debris for useful parts and scrap. She was an impulsive woman. Impatient, and reckless, but she was also brilliant. The bits of wire and metal she might find in the blocked passageways could become something wonderful with a bit of tinkering in her workshop. Like the massive metal arm that she wore. Built from scrap salvaged from the junkyard, it was a fine replacement for her missing one, which had been torn off by a piece of malfunctioning machinery a few years ago.

Haji had watched with exhausted fascination. His one remaining eye piercing the darkness with ease. The second eye socket was filled with a glittering gemstone, and surrounded by a strange triangular rune that had been branded into his flesh by his one-time master. The same master who had taken his eye.

Perched on his shoulder, a hideously ugly rat with strange rocky protrusions jutting from his flesh hissed in impatience. The rat was Haji’s keeper, and the source of his magical powers.

Haji eyed his rat-master and shook his head.

“I’m not leaving her behind.”

The rat hissed again and nipped Haji on the ear, clearly disappointed in his decision.

In the skulk caverns, Sef had eyed them with ill intent. It was clear she was contemplating taking advantage of their weakened state to murder them, but apparently thought better of it. She bit her tongue and let them pass. For now, their alliance still stood.

The swim through the Weeping Pond was the worst. It’s toxic waters stung their wounds, and made their eyes water. Although Rothmhar was unwounded, neither Haji nor Nix had much strength left in their limbs. Swimming while weighed by scrap and scavenged equipment took forever, and in the end they ended up walking along the bottom of the lake for the better part of an hour. Finally they clambered up onto shore wet, exhausted, with their wounds seeping puss. Unsurprisingly, this meant their first stop would be the Temple of Brigh.

The Temple was crowded with worshippers all praying that the Torch would reignite. Without it, many of them would starve and the town would sputter and die. The old high priest, Joram Kyte, was in the middle of leading a sermon, so Haji, Nix, and Rothmhar plopped down at the back of the chapel, bleeding all over the pews and stinking the place up with the toxic fumes of the lake. To say they made a disturbance was an understatement.

In time the sermon drew to a close, and the worshippers moved on to pray privately, either in the chapel, or by creating a useful device in the holy workshops nearby. Joram strode over to them with a pleasant smile on his face.

“I see the caverns proved a challenge today. Lucky for you, Brigh blesses all who beseech her for aid.” He gestured at a nearby donation box made of elaborate clockwork parts.

“You cheap bastard,” Nix cursed.

Haji dug a pile of money out of his belt pouch and dropped it into the box. With a clicking and a whirr, the box began to move. Sprouting metal protrusions It formed and created a golden mask—the holy symbol of Brigh, goddess of invention and clockworks. The mechanical face bowed it’s little head, then clinked and clanked its way back into its constituent pieces and withdrew itself inside.

“A fine blessing, indeed!” Joram remarked with a wide grin. “Now, let’s see what we can do about those wounds?”

It took more than a few castings, prayers, and a heavy dose of antiseptic cream before Haji and Nix were feeling more like themselves. Haji was grateful to the clerics, but Nix grumbled and complained the entire time that she could just brew her own potions at home. To drown her out, Haji explained to Joram what they had seen.

“The behaviour of these skeletons it strange,” Joram admitted. “Can you describe their behaviour in detail? And their bodies… Is there any chance they were particularly rotten zombies? I… have heard tell of something similar sounding…”

After further conversation, Joram sighed. “I believe that this red light is a sign that the skeletons are being controlled by another. By an intelligent undead, capable of forming a mental link with the skeletons, and bending them to his will. Unfortunately, if I am correct, then there’s a high probability that these unquiet skeletons will reform daily.”

Haji scowled. “Reform?”

“But, we just destroyed them!” Nix exclaimed. She crossed her arms in an angry pout.

“And you’ll need to destroy them again tomorrow,” The preacher added with a stern look.

“So how do we stop their rejuvenation?” Haji asked.

“You’ll either need to destroy their controller, or bring their spirits peace. I’m afraid I can’t tell you more without witnessing them personally.”

“Bring them peace?” Nix scoffed. “Pretty hard to do when they’re shoving their claws into your chest! Ass.”

Joram ignored the insult and shrugged. “If I’m wrong, you’ll soon find out. But, if I’m right… Well, it wouldn’t hurt to be prepared. Have I mentioned that we sell holy water? Brigh protects all who show her the proper respect.”

Haji nodded quickly, before Nix could insult the old priest further.

With their holy water in hand, and their purses significantly lighter, Nix and Haji left the chapel and entered the streets of Torch. Wide, well-worn dirt roads stood empty. The forges and bellows lining the roads were quiet and dark. Doors were shut. Windows shuttered. Shops closed.

Torch was dying.

Eventually they came to the home of Val Baine. Val was a child, barely twelve, but she had promised to feed Haji, Nix and Rothmhar. Not indefinitely, of course. Only while they were exploring the caverns under Torch. Val’s father, the town councillor Khonnir Baine, had gone missing in those same caverns, and Val was hopeful that Haji and Nix would bring him home.

At the sight of them, Val smiled. “You’re back! Did you find my father?”

Haji shook his head no, while Nix ignored her and held her stomach dramatically.

“I’m starving.”

“I see,” Val sighed sadly. But a moment later she smiled. “I’m sure it won’t be much longer now! You’ll bring him home, soon.” She led them into the nearby bar that was her father’s. “We’re having roast crow for dinner. Come on.”

The bar was large and empty, having been closed by Val until the day her father returned.

Val was a decent cook for a kid. Better than Haji and Nix, anyway. Of course, that wasn’t saying much, as Haji had been known to eat garbage and rotten meat on occasion, while Nix often cooked out of the same pot she brewed alchemical concoctions from. Standards were not high.

They stuffed themselves, and then Haji stuffed himself even more. Food had been scarce growing up, so he had a habit of gorging himself to bursting whenever possible.

Eventually they left and made their way to the market. They had goods to sell, and Nix was intent on discerning the uses of the strange devices she had discovered. The market was pretty empty, with only a few stalls in operation, but they were lucky. They met a man by the name of Sanvil Trett who was an expert in the advanced technology that littered Numeria. He was a friendly fellow, who chatted away happily with Nix and explained how all of her scavenged goods worked—for a fee, of course.

Haji didn’t like the man. He smiled entirely too pleasantly at Nix and flirted with her while they talked. After Haji wrapped his arm around Nix and gave the man a growl he backed off a bit, and the conversation turned professional. Turns out Sanvil was pretty helpful. They learned that the silverdisks they regularly used as currency were batteries capable of charging up advanced technology. Most of the ones that they had were spent, and had no purpose other than money, but others had a visible lattice of metal lines on one side that shimmered in the light like a rainbow. These possessed the power to recharge advanced devices. The strange pen-like stick Nix had found a while back was a zipstick. When charged it would send a minor electrical current into something. Although not powerful on its own, a zipstick could be used with ion tape and some other advanced devices. Ion tape was pliable and sticky, but solidifies when electrified, becoming solid and smooth. Another shock caused it to revert to its original form. The smooth rectangular disks they had turned out to be a strange kind of key, which would open doors within metal ruins—presuming the ruins still had power. Nix also picked up an e-pick—a set of tools that would help her pick electronic locks—and some of that splendid ion tape!

After a bit more ooh-ing and aah-ing over the devices Sanvil had for sale, Haji and Nix wandered off to sell some of their more mundane loot. Afterwards they would head back to Nix’s house to rest, recover, and brew a heaping pile of potions for the next day.

On the way they came upon a messenger.

“Miss Nix! Mr. Haji!”

Nix turned with a raised eyebrow to find a scrawny messenger holding out an envelope.

“What?” Haji growled.

The messenger stuttered nervously. “P-p-please come and visit the illustrious Silverdisk Hall! My master bids you welcome!”

Haji glowered at the messenger with his one good eye, while Rothmhar hissed at him.

Nix raised an eyebrow. “Your master? Seriously? Garmen Ullreth just suddenly decided to offer us an invite to spend our coin at his casino?” She scoffed. “How generous of him.”

Haji snatched the envelope out of the messengers hands and opened it. Inside was a fancy invitation and a writ for 100 gold worth of credit at the casino. Sure enough, it was addressed to them personally, and signed: Garmen Ullreth.

“M-my master has heard of the good you are doing for the town of Torch, and wanted to honour you for your efforts. The c-c-credit is good on our games, beverages, and food.”

“Food?” Haji’s frown transformed into a bright smile.

“Uh, yes, sir!” The man stammered.

Nix let out a laugh. “We’ll be there.” She told the messenger. “Now, get.”

The messenger scurried off, while Haji and Nix went back to the business at hand: selling their loot and buying supplies for Nix’s crafting. By the time they got back to Nix’s crowded home/workshop it was late afternoon. Nix only had a few hours to tinker and brew before they left for Silverdisk Hall.

PZO9085_500 — Learn more about the wonderful town of Torch in Iron Gods Book 1: Fires of Creation!

The casino was swanky! Staffed by scantily clad workers, and filled with the finest furniture in town, Silverdisk Hall was like another world. Tables of card and dice games filled the main hall, while a bar and restaurant at the back served food. Impeccably clean servers wound through the crowds of grungy townsfolk, carrying trays of alcohol and drugs for sale. And everywhere they looked: siverdisks. Haji and Nix found their way past the half-naked greeters and over to the cash counter. A burly looking fellow with bulging muscles and a sleazy smile gave Nix a wink before cashing in their voucher for ten shiny silverdisks.

“All games and services are paid for by silverdisks here. When you’re ready to cash out, just come on back. Enjoy yourselves, now!”

Haji growled in response.

Nix snatched up the silverdisks and discovered one had a tell-tale shine to it. She pulled out her zipstick and pressed it against the silverdisk, like Sanvil had taught her. The shine on the circuitry faded. Nix clicked the button on the side of the zipstick and a small jolt of electricity shot sparked at its tip.

“Ah!” She exclaimed happily. She waved the zipstick around for Haji to see and smiled brightly. “Did you see?” After testing it a few more times, and wasting half the charges provided by the battery, Nix finally put the stick away and returned her attention to her surroundings.

“Care to waste our coin on gambling?” She asked.

Haj shook his head. “No. But I will waste it on food.”

Nix laughed. “Honey, food is never a waste.”

There was a chuckle from behind them, and a hand fell on Nix’s shoulder. “Oh, my dear, this is delightful!”

Nix and Haji turned to find the infamous Garmen Ullreth smiling at them. He was clean and handsome. Dressed in gleaming sutdded leather armour, and with a rapier on his hip, the man was clearly well off, and not to be trifled with.

Haji growled, but refrained from threatening the overly wealthy (and politically powerful) man.

“Oh, Miss Nix! You must have a brilliant mind to forge such a wonderful device! Your arm is exquisite! And you, Mr. Haji! I was told you were a terrifying sight, but I must say, I’m impressed. That gaze alone could send a trained warrior crying back to his mother’s skirts.”

With a bow, Garmen introduced himself. “My name is Garmen. I’m the owner of this fine establishment, and I’m so happy you could join me.”

Haji grunted, but Nix smiled. “Thanks for the invite.”

“Oh, it’s the least I could do for the saviours of Torch! Now, go on. Enjoy yourselves. It’s on me, tonight.”

Garmen gave Haji a bow, kissed Nix’s good hand in farewell, and was gone as fast as he had appeared.

“Well, that was weird.” Nix remarked.

Haji only grunted. “Let’s eat.”

Wandering through the tables, the duo made their way to the bar at the back of the hall. They sat down to eat, only to discovered Sanvil Trett already there.

“Hey! Happy to see you two again!” Sanvil greeted them. “I didn’t peg you for the gambling type.”

“We’re hungry.” Haji remarked.

“Hungry? But the food here is horribly over priced!”

Nix laughed. “Figures.”

Haji shrugged. “We’re eating free tonight. So why are you here, then?”

Sanvil smiled. “Why, didn’t you hear? They only deal in silverdisks.” Leaning over conspiratorially he whispered, “They don’t know the difference between a charged disk and a spent one. I cash in my sales from a day to disks, and often end up with one or two that are charged. That’s a ton of profit! I just hang onto those at the end of the night, and trade in spent ones. It’s great turnaround!”

Nix let out a laugh. “That’s genius!”

Sanvil grinned. “Let’s keep it our little secret, dear.”

Haji narrowed his eye at Sanvil, and growled.

“Miss. Nix.” Sanvil corrected. “And Mister Haji, of course. And now, if you’ll excuse me, It’s time for me to cash out.”

Sanvil excused himself and left, while Nix and Haji ordered—horrendously overpriced—food.

Deeper in the bar there was a disturbance. Some drunk loser at the other end of the bar was making a fool of himself.

A drunk loser who also happened to be Nix’s dad.

“Figures.” Nix scoffed. Turning to Haji she added, “You eat. I’ll check on him.”

While Nix settled down her father, Haji watched the gaming hall. He saw some strange things, but nothing particularly weird. There was a lot of cheating by the dealers. And a lot of guys walking around had ropes wrapped around their forearms and fists. He had seen people like that around Torch, but had no idea who they were. A gang, maybe? Some weird fashion trend? Fist-fighters? He didn’t know and, frankly didn’t care. There was a suspicious woman slinking around the tables. Foolish girl was going to get herself killed. And a surprising number of customer altercations. The rope-fisted fellows were prone to picking fights with other patrons, only to have the dealers take advantage of the commotion to cheat for the house.

Haji shook his head. He didn’t understand gambling.

The silverdisk’s didn’t go far. A few drinks each and a couple of helpings of food, and suddenly they were broke. The place was a money pit.

Haji and Nix left the Silverdisk Hall not long after arriving, no richer than they went in. On the plus side, they were full, and drunk. They stumbled home happily, their earlier brush with death temporarily forgotten. They spent the night wrapped in each others arms, with Rothmhar hissing at them angrily.

They had survived one hell of a day! But, with another battle against the strange skeletons looming on the horizon, they might not be so lucky next time…

Thanks for checking out d20 Diaries today! Haji and Nix’s adventures playing Iron Gods Book 1: Fires of Creation, will continue soon, in their sixth instalment: Master of Skulls. We hope you’ll join us again!

Jessica

Farewell to OutPost

As we roll into the month of May, we reach the end of the online play-by-post convention for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and the Starfinder Roleplaying Game: OutPost!

OutPost marked my first PFS convention. It was also my husband and children’s first foray into play-by-post gaming, and their second adventure in the Pathfinder Society, so it was pretty exciting for us! My husband signed up for one game, while my children each signed up for two. And me? Well, I signed up for a lot. Three for Starfinder and three for Pathfinder. Plus the Solstice Scar Special.

All of the scenarios were a blast, and we had the wonderful luck to play alongside some awesome GMs and players. All told, not counting specials, OutPost hosted fourteen games of Core Pathfinder Society Scenarios, fifty-seven games of Classic/Standard Pathfinder Society scenarios, eleven games of the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game, and twenty-four games of Starfinder. That makes for nearly a hundred games!

So, what did we play?

I’ll tell you!

Black Waters

GrandLodgeSymbol — Glyph of the Open Road, symbol of the Pathfinder Society and the Grand Lodge faction.

My husband, children and I all signed up for an old classic: Scenario #06: Black Waters. From season zero, this adventure is intended for tier 1-2 and 4-5, and was written by Tim and Eileen Connors back before Pathfinder had it’s own rules set. It was being run by one of my favourite GMs I’ve had the pleasure of playing alongside on Paizo’s Messageboards, GM Shieldbug, who gave us a great game. Seriously. It was such a wonderful experience, my kids and husband are now thoroughly spoiled. I warned them after we finished this scenario to lower their expectations for whatever scenario they signed up to next, because not all GMs are as awesome as Shieldbug. They didn’t believe me at the time, but for the record, they do now. If you happen to be lucky enough to join a game he’s running, I highly recommend leaping at the opportunity. You won’t regret it.

Black Waters takes place in the Beldrin’s Bluff district of Absalom. Once a neighbourhood full of the wealthy elite, this area was devastated by an earthquake a decade or so ago, which killed many, and sent an entire chunk of the cliffs the neighbourhood was built upon, tumbling into the sea. Included in this devastation was a school for the city’s elite called the Tri-Towers Yard, which collapsed into an ancient underground necropolis. As the buildings are destroyed, black foul water rose up from below, drowning all those who weren’t crushed. The Tri-Towers yard was sealed up, and no one has been allowed inside–or into the necropolis–since. Lucky for us, the Pathfinders have finally been granted clearance, presuming they treat the site with respect.

My husband played Enzo Jeggare, a well-groomed, Chelaxian nobleman with pale skin, black hair, grey eyes, and a fabulous moustache. He’s a handsome, if lanky, gentleman with a reputation as a philanthropist and a conjurer. He enjoys fine wine, fine company, and ancient magical objects. Enzo is a secretive man, which gives him an air of mystery. Though well-practised in the art of evasion, he’s an awkward liar. He is never without his Devil Deck—a beautifully illustrated harrow deck adorned with images of devils and infernal symbolism—and a worn-out dog figurine that he can occasionally be seen speaking to. Enzo’s an occultist who specializes in conjuring creatures. He used his esteemed family’s political connections to gain membership into the Dark Archive’s faction of the Pathfinders, and is hopeful that handling other objects of power will allow him to access other magical abilities.

My daughter played a two-tailed kitsune druid (saurian shaman) with pink fur and eyes by the name of Bunny Paras. She is always accompanied by her pink and yellow pet parasaurolophus, called Paras, and adores rabbits. She and Paras run a rabbit farm–although they are sold only as pets, and are not for eating! Bunny Paras is a vegetarian, and a good healer. Paras loves to sing and dance, and is very, very loud.

My son is playing Senton, a pale Ulfen ranger better known as Mr. Ice. He is always shivering with cold, and has constantly chattering teeth. He wears warm winter clothes in every weather, including a big furry hat on his head, and a fur cloak and boots. He has a black patch on his cheek from some old frost bite, a big bushy beard, and a full moustache. Under his hat his hair is grey and his eyes are blue. He likes to fight with his short swords and his fine longbow. Senton works on Bunny Paras’ rabbit farm as a guard. He often lays traps to protect the farm.

Their characters were first introduced in the d20 Diaries blog post: Joining the Pathfinder Society, where I talked about their backgrounds, creation, and mechanics. Their first adventure, playing Scenario #9-10: Signs in Senghor, was chronicled in a two part series on d20 Diaries: Signs in Senghor: Part One and Signs in Senghor: Part Two.

But, this kooky trio wasn’t the only Pathfinders on the case. I played my wood kineticist, Everbloom, a wild and curious kitsune who grew up alone in the wilds and views life and death as just another fascinating part of existence. Her fur is an orangy-brown, with bits of leaves and flower petals constantly tangled in its length. Everbloom’s easily fascinated by people and places, and just as easily bores of them. More than a little aloof and uncaring, Everbloom comes off as way nicer than she actually is.

The final character was Tera Fosham, a veiled ifrit oracle with clouded vision whose healing touch and blessings were invaluable on this adventure.

Together, these five Pathfinders enjoyed some awesome roleplaying with their venture captain (Drandle Dreng), at a fancy dinner party held alongside Absalom’s nobility, and with the caretaker of the Tri-Towers Yard, who is equal parts sad, deluded, and gifted. Possibly insane. I’ll leave that up for debate! From there they investigated the haunted classrooms, and foul black waters of the estate. Battling off monstrous bugs and undead, they descended into the ancient necropolis to discover its secrets. Along the way, they made some amazing discoveries, and even saved a little girl. The frail–but still alive–Junia Dacilane. Junia reappears a decade down the road in the Pathfinder Society Scenario #7-05: School of Spirits (which is a delight), and can even be found in the Pathfinder Society Pawn Collection, which I only recently discovered and am itching to get my hands on!

Want to follow along with their adventures? Check out the complete gameplay for our group here.

In the time since playing Black Waters, Enzo, Bunny Paras, Paras and Mr. Ice have played through the Many Fortunes of Grandmaster Torch, and are soon to begin Scenario #7-10: The Consortium Compact!

Delirium’s Tangle

My children were so excited to play in OutPost that they created a second character each for the occasion, a pair of twenty-five year olds who couldn’t be more different. Lady Naysha is an oracle of whimsy who stumbled in the First World through a fairy ring, and came back over a decade later looking like not a day had passed. A few years have passed since then, but she still doesn’t look a day over twelve. Lady Naysha has a child-like enthusiasm and innocence about her. She believes her stuffed rabbit, Miss Whiskers, is the source of her powers (which is entirely false, by the way), and can all upon her fairy friend to play tricks on her enemies. Contrariwise, my son made a paladin of Iomedae who is brave, bold and true! Unfortunately, he died fighting in the Worldwound. Iomedae took pity on him and granted him a second life, but he was reincarnated as an old man, with horrible memory problems. Unable to even remember his name, he calls himself Fuzzzy, and he relies on his pet owl, Bobby, to keep him on track. For full details on my Lady Naysha and Fuzzzy, check out my blog post OutPost Commences.

I joined them, with my dwarven fighter, Juno Berik, a self-centred woman who believes she’s far more important than she’s given credit for. Together with some other quirky characters, they entered a complicated maze underneath Absalom City to search for a lost minotaur prince, Nuar Spiritskin, in another classic PFS Scenario, #45: Delirium’s Tangle. This is a tier 1-5 scenario written by Crystal Frasier. Personally, I find this is a difficult scenario to run by play-by-post, as navigating a maze is always tricky in person, never mind over message boards. When it could take an entire day for a team to roll a single perception or survival check–which could be done in seconds in person–there’s a high probability the game will get bogged down. Fortunately, our GM was wonderful at streamlining the navigation process. In fact, this scenario finished first out of all the games I played! As poor navigators, the sheer number of pit traps we endured (and by endured I mean fell into over and over again) was painful (literally), and has left permanent mental scarring on Juno. Fuzzzy was also traumatized by the event–for about a minute before he promptly forgot about it. The fights and secret chambers were interesting, and left my kids hungry for more information on the maze and its connecting chambers. The final battle was interesting, as was the wrap-up roleplaying. All in all, we had a lot of fun, although this one certainly left a lot of unanswered questions.

You can read our complete gameplay experience here, if you’re interested.

In the time since, Lady Naysha’s begun Scenario #5-08: The Confirmation, alongside my husband’s character, Toban Tangletop (check out the ongoing gameplay here). Fuzzzy’s moved on to combat the Master of the Fallen Fortress (a free download on Paizo’s website, by the way) and rescue a lost Pathfinder (check out the ongoing gameplay here). And, Juno’s decided to tell the Aspis Consortium where to shove it, in Scenario #4-07: Severing Ties. Currently being as boorish and mean as she can be, she’s in Riddleport, happily dragging the Aspis Consortium’s name through the mud. This scenario’s about to begin a two-week break while some of the participants go on vacation, but you can check out it’s progress so far, here.

The Unseen Inclusion

250px-Scarab_Sages_faction_symbol — Symbol of the Scarab Sages, a faction of the Pathfinder Society.

I was positively thrilled to bring my beloved half-orc monk, Kenza Bloodborn, through Scenario #9-04: The Unseen Inclusion. Why? Well, as a member of the Scarab Sages, whose faction stories have come to an end, I wanted to see my stoic warrior tackle a Scarab Sage-centric mission. Taking place in the Thuvian city of Merab, Kenza delved into haunted ruins on the hunt for a mysterious spirit that even now seeks her master’s jewels… Part dungeon delve and part investigation, I had no idea what to expect with this scenario when I signed up for it, but I ended up having a blast. She had plenty of opportunities to hurl herself into danger to protect her allies, and nearly died on more than one occasion. You can check out the complete gamplay here.

In the time since, Kenza’s journeyed to Absalom for the first time, in order to pay her respect to the centre of her order. There, she’s been called on by Venture Captain Drandle Dreng, on a mission of great importance… Fetching him a bottle of wine. Fortunately, this mission is a lot more than it seems at first, leading the group through hidden chambers, abandoned homes, conspiracies and secrets, and even into Absalom’s Temple of the Fallen. That’s right, she’s playing through a super quick run of Scenario #6-10: The Wounded Wisp. Check out her adventure so far, here.

Yesteryear’s Truth

But not everything’s about Pathfinder! I’m also involved in three wonderful Starfinder Society Scenarios. My primary SFS character, a bold, boastful vesk solarion with far more brawn than brains by the name of Julakesh Starfist participated in Scenario #1-03: Yesteryear’s Truth. We’ve already spoken about Julakesh earlier this week, but if you’ve missed it, check out my blog post Competitions and Compliments. If you’re interested in reading Julakesh’s experiences in Yesteryear’s Truth, the complete gameplay if found here. Want a summary? She discovered a new planet, engaged in amazing battles, attempted to befriend the planet’s natives, and made a lot of people laugh! Seriously, a ton of fun. Speaking of fun, Julakesh recently began a new adventure that’s tailor made for her: Scenario #1-07: The Solar Sortie. Or, it’s half made for her, anyway… Sent to retrieve information from a corporation that orbits the Sun, Julakesh gets to begin this infiltration by impersonating a gladiator! This pretty much consists of her being herself, in front of a large adoring crowd. Awesome! And all that other subtle espionage stuff? Well…. we’ll cross that bridge up (and mess it up horribly) when we get to it! Check out the start of out adventures, here! It’s been a ton of fun so far (and it’s only just begun).

Fugitive on the Red Planet

I also used OutPost as an opportunity to try out two Starfinder classes I had yet to have a chance to test. Firstly, I created a proud, smooth-talking ysoki xenoseeker envoy by the name of Aurora Vim (Rora, for short) who was tasked with finding a rogue Starfinder and retrieving an powerful object he stole from the Society in Scenario #1-02: Fugitive on the Red Planet. Her adventures took her to the grungy planet of Akiton alongside a haan, a human, and a whopping three other ysoki! Apparently those furry little fellows are popular! All in all this scenario was a lot of fun, and Rora really had a chance to shine throughout its length. It was completed quite quickly, and was hosted by a wonderfully humorous GM. You can check out the complete gameplay here.

Following her adventures on Akiton, Rora hopped a shuttle back to Absalom Station, where she’s been invited to attend a gala in honour of the First Seeker, Luwazi Elsebo. Scenario #1-05: First Mandate is right up her alley, and has seen her wheeling and dealing with a bunch of movers and shakers–including Zo!, who I’ve been dying for her to meet! This scenario is reaching its climax, but you can check out its progress so far, here.

Cries from the Drift

I also made a curious but awkward shirrin spacefarer operative, Zez’ka, who is prone to announcing her emotions to the world. She’s friendly, but super awkward, and honestly a blast to play. Unfortunately, Scenario #1-04: Cries from the Drift, is a horror scenario, which tossed my chipper shirren into the most traumatizing, suspenseful, and gory Starfinder Scenario to date. This adventure particularly benefits from having the element of surprise, so I won’t mention much more in the way of spoilers. What I will say is that if you’re uncomfortable with body horror, don’t play it. That being said, when played by play-by-post the suspense is lost, so it turned out to be a fun, romp despite the tone. For those of you who aren’t afraid of spoilers, our complete gameplay can be read here. In the time since, Zez’ka has joined a delightfully fun and carefree mission, which won’t possibly be as traumatizing for her as her previous one was! Right? Right…? Wrong. She’s currently engaged in Starfinder’s second horror scenario, Scenario #1-10: The Half-Alive Streets, which amuses me to no end. She’s currently oblivious to the dark turn this scenario’s going to take, and is currently having great fun making friends and shopping. You can check it out here.

The end to these Starfinder scenarios will mark the sixth games I’ve played in the SFS, which means I’ve reach a milestone on my Alien Archive Boon. No idea what that means?

PZO7105 — The alien archive boon features creatures from Starfinder Roleplaying Game: Alien Archive, which you will need to make full use of the boon.

Well, let me enlighten you!

For every Starfinder Society game you participate in as a player (not a GM) you can get your GM to sign your boon sheet, which is available here. When you have six games played you can apply this sheet to a new character to make them either a wrikreechee, or a ryphorian. Or, you can wait until you have twelve games played, and then apply it to a new character to make them a barathu. After applying it you can start a new boon, and begin earning new plays. Note, that there is a time limit on earning credit for this boon. After June 14th of this year they’ll be releasing a new boon in its place, which will let you unlock other races for play.

Now, of the current options, I think I’d get a kick out of a Barathu, but I won’t have a chance to earn that bad boy. I’ll be hitting six, which leaves the wrikreechee and ryphorians. And for me, the choice is clear! Ryphorians! I have honestly no idea what I’m going to make for her class, but its definitely going to be different than the others I’ve got! Soldier, perhaps? That’s a question for another day!

And that’s it!

OutPost and its associated adventures have come to an end–for this year. But, there’s plenty more adventures out there waiting to be played!

Until next time,

Jessica

Spring is in the air…

Well, Spring has finally sprung here on d20 Diaries. In the last few short weeks we saw our last snowfall of the winter, we’ve watched the sandy snow melt, and we’ve seen the grass begin to green. My children went from complaining it’s too cold, to whining it’s too hot and bemoaning the lack of prepared swimming pools all within the same two weeks. We had our first sprinklings of rain, and the line-ups for slurpees have officially tripled.

My kids are very interesting in making our planet a brighter, healthier place, so they took to our apartment’s patio at the first opportunity, insisting we spend ‘just a little bit of money’ on some potted plants.

“It will help bring back the bees, Mom!” (Thanks for that tag line, Cheerios, by the way).

“It will bring beautiful butterflies!” (which will leave their cocoons splattered all over my patio walls)

“The rabbits can eat them!” (Not a very compelling argument…)

“They are great for smelling!” (I’m allergic).

“They help us breathe. Well, maybe not YOU, Mom, cause you are allergic to EVERYTHING. But it will help everyone else breathe great!” (Fair.)

Compelling (and not so compelling) arguments aside, I always encourage my kids to follow their passions. My daughter’s embraced her love of rabbits with wild abandon, while my son carries gardening gloves and extra bags in his school backpack, so he’s always ready to clean up the litter we pass by. So, I had every intention of helping my kids do some gardening, despite how ill it was going to make me.

Well, five trips to Rona, nine pots, four tiny bags of soil and infinitely more than ‘a little bit of money’ later, and my kids have transformed our dour little concrete slab into a riot of colourful pots and flowers. They planted three pine seeds they got from the Earth Rangers. (If you don’t know, the Earth Rangers is a Canadian kids conservation organization which challenges kids to help the environment and save endangered species one mission at a time. They have a kid-friendly website, mission lists that give kids easy to accomplish ways they can make a difference close to home, rewards for completing tasks, and nature themed games and articles the kids can play or read. You can also donate or fundraise on behalf of their various missions to save endangered species, but my kids don’t do that part cause I’m a big stick in the mud. For more information on the Earth Rangers, check out their website!). We’ve also got a lovely fern, plenty of flowers and an overpriced rabbit planter. We’ve got a bag of wildflower seeds to plant, as well, which we recently got free from the Cheerios Bring Back the Bees campaign. If you haven’t done so, check out their website, where you can get a free book for your kids and a packet of wildflower seeds (Note: I have no idea which countries can receive the free seeds and book, but it doesn’t hurt to try!).

Admittedly, some plants aren’t doing so well. My kids can be overly eager with the water, we don’t get much sun, it was still below freezing some mornings, and rabbits have been eating all the petals off of the yellow flowers (much to my daughter’s delight). But, that doesn’t really matter. My kids are thrilled to be doing their part to help our local environment, and they’re learning how to be responsible for another living thing. And hey, if it feeds a few rabbits and brings back a bee or two, that’s a bonus. It’s their smiles that really make it worthwhile.

On the gaming front, OutPost has finally come to an end. It was a lot of fun, and my whole family enjoyed themselves. Despite the many games I was a part of, I never managed to win one of the special convention boons, nor did my husband or any of my kids. Happily, what my kids did manage to win was respect. Both of their GMs from the convention were impressed with their crazy characters and their handle of the game. Not long after the end of their convention games they applied for more. My daughter easily scored herself a spot in another play by post, despite worries about her age, after providing a link to her last game to prove she was a decent player. One of the people who played alongside my kids during Outpost decided to GM a scenario and opened a sign up for prospective players which got a ton of interest. My son’s character earned a spot with ease, with an admission from the GM that he had enjoyed playing alongside my son’s character so much that he was the first person selected to play in his scenario. Suffice to say my son was pleased. Both games have been running for a few weeks now, and are going well.

Closer to home, my kids have been plugging away at the The Shackled City Adventure Path. It’s been six play sessions, and we’re still in Jzadirune. The end of their exploration is in sight, and soon we’ll be descending into the Malachite Hold! I’ve had to make some changes to the dungeon. After the first few play sessions my son was getting a little bored of all the fights and what felt like a lack of progress. I streamlined the encounters, removed the unnecessary ones, and added some flavourful fluff. We refocused slightly, and have been really paying attention to the things my son’s character recalls from Jzadirune. He did live there as a child, after all! Last session ended with my son discovering his family’s old home, and meeting the ‘King’. He’s grown to love this haunted little dungeon, and has every intention to fixing up when we’re done down there and living in it. What could go wrong?!

My daughter, meanwhile, has been on the edge of her seat, exclaiming after every session, “But, we have to finish it! I have to save my good friend Griffin who I work with! He was supposed to be married! His girlfriend is so sad she cries everyday! We must hurry! He could DIE!” She says the word ‘die’ with such drama. It’s adorable.

It’s been a blast! When they finally leave Jzadirune’s halls we’ll have one heck of an update for d20 Diaries! If you haven’t read our previous adventures in Shackled City, check out our previous blog posts: The Shackled City, Shackled City: Part One, Shackled City: Part Two: A Mystery!, Shackled City: Game Aids (Part One and Two), and Maps, Jzadirune and Laundry–Oh my!

Our Crown of the Kobold King adventure, played by our deliciously evil villains, has creeped along slowly. The group has discovered that the missing children were abducted by kobolds and are hard at work tracking them into the Darkmoon Vale. If you haven’t read about our evil characters, check out our blog posts: Character Focus: Professor McMaan, and Crown of the Kobold King: Part One.

We’re about to undertake a side quest in our Carrion Crown campaign (we’re currently on: Carrion Crown Book 1: Haunting of Harrowstone), but were stymied by an excess of laundry, and a need to purchase summer shoes. More details on these characters will come in an upcoming blog post.

Out in the wider universe, my family is currently one battle into the delightful Starfinder Scenario #1-03: Yesteryear’s Truth! They’ve just fought their way past Elytrio’s automated defences, deployed their drift beacons, and are about to touch down on the surface. You can pick up this awesome scenario for a few dollars on Paizo’s website. You’ll need the Starfinder Core Rulebook to make characters and play.

Meanwhile, our adults-only game of Mummy’s Mask has unleashed my players upon the city of Wati, in order to save if from the walking dead! For more details on this campaign check out our blog posts: Mummy’s Mask: Game Aids, Mummy’s Mask: The Shrine of Wadjet, Mummy’s Mask: The Canny Jackal, and Mummy’s Mask: The Dead Come Knocking…. There’ll also be a new post up sometime within a week or so. We’ve already completed volume one of the Mummy’s Mask Adventure Path, The Half-Dead City, and are currently playing through Book two: Empty Graves.

My kids have been hard at work creating their own custom adventures, which they’ll be running through as GMs for our family soon. Not long after that they’ll be up on d20 Diaries for your enjoyment. We’re keeping it under wraps for now, but what I will tell you is that they both involve islands, and lost treasure. But, while my son’s gone for a pirate adventure, my daughter’s taken a different approach. And yes, before you ask, hers has some rabbits in it. Haha.

In other exciting news, I’ve cashed in my various gift cards left over from Christmas and have a delightfully tall pile of Pathfinder and Starfinder books to read through sitting on my dresser. I’ve recently finished reading through Pathfinder Player Companion: Legacy of the First World, and have just begun reading the highly anticipated (in my house at least!) Starfinder Roleplaying Game: Pact Worlds! My daughter’s particularly excited for the SROs race, for reasons we’ll go into another time.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for us to water the plants.

Until next time,
Be green!

Jessica (and family)

Iron Gods: Part Four: The Dead Desert

Today on d20 Diaries we’re heading back to Torch, for more of the Iron Gods adventure path!

Iron Gods is a six-part adventure path by Paizo Publishing that fuses technology and fantasy into one awesome Pathfinder campaign. The first volume, Iron Gods: Part 1: Fires of Creation, is written by Neil Spicer, and is intended to bring characters from levels one to four. The Iron Gods Player’s Guide is a free download on Paizo’s website, here. For further information on the Iron Gods campaign, check out my blog post ‘Iron Gods Adventure Path.’ For information on our characters, check out my blog post ‘Iron Gods: Character Focus: Haji and Nix,’ and for information on our first few play sessions, check out my blog posts ‘Iron Gods: Part One: Into the Weeping Pond, Iron Gods: Part Two: Bring Out Your Dead,’ and ‘Iron Gods: Part Three: Gremlins!’ If you’re going to play Iron Gods yourself, I highly recommend picking up the Iron Gods Adventure Path Pawn Collection, which has a ton of unique pawns for use in the campaign.

As Nix, Haji and Rothmhar stepped into the metal ruins for the first time, their footsteps echoed down the corridor loudly. The walls, floors and ceiling were made of smooth, dark grey metal–glaucite–while panels of lighter material ran along the ceiling eight feet above. To their left and right, the tunnel was blocked by piles of rubble, but ahead it continued through an open doorway.

Nix stepped forward to sift through the rubble with excitement. She was an impulsive woman. Impatient, and reckless, but she was also brilliant. The bits of wire and metal she might find in the blocked passageways could become something wonderful with a bit of tinkering in her workshop. Like the massive metal arm that she wore. Built from scrap salvaged from the junkyard, it was a fine replacement for her missing one, which had been torn off by a piece of malfunctioning machinery a few years ago.

‘Wait!” Haji hissed. A far more cautious creature than Nix, Haji was often the voice of reason in their relationship.

With a roll of her golden eyes, Nix paused.

Haji peered into the darkness with his one remaining eye. The second eye socket was filled with a glittering gemstone, and surrounded by a strange triangular rune that had been branded into his flesh by his one-time master. The same master who had taken his eye.

Haji spotted a figure down the tunnel… It was still and silent. Unmoving. Looking closer he realized it had three spider-like legs, two metallic arms, and a single red lens in the centre of its head. It was a robot–the same kind they had fought outside Val Baine‘s home (see Iron Gods: Part One: Into the Weeping Pond for more details). This one looked to be in much better condition, though. It’s outer shell was solid, it’s arms looked to be all in joint, and its legs looked even and well-oiled. Recognizing the threat it could pose, Haji approached the robot with his falchion.

Nothing.

Slowly, he poked it.

Nothing.

With a shrug, Nix began to dig around in the debris.

The robot in front of Haji whirred to life. It’s lens lit up, bathing Haji in bright red light.

“It’s awake!” Haji exclaimed, swinging at the robot with his falchion.

Parts of the robot’s chassis split open under the assault, but its didn’t slow. It swung its metal arms at Haji, knocking the breath out of him.

The stones and gems braided into Haji’s hair and beard jingled as he was knocked around by the blow. On his shoulder, Rothmhar hissed at the robot.

Turning to see a robot bludgeoning her boyfriend, Nix stalked forward. With a big downward swing she yelled, “Hey! Leave him alone!”

Her morningstar smashed parts of the robot apart, but a moment later, a strange flickering occurred around the damage, and the metal bits started repairing themselves.

“Well, shit!” Nix swore.

The battle continued, but the robot didn’t stand a chance. Already aware of its weaknesses, Haji and Nix made short work of the metallic monster–though its ability to quickly repair itself did draw out the battle.

As it collapsed to the floor in pieces, Nix leapt upon the robot’s body, pulling parts and pieces out for her own use. Soon it was nothing but scrap, and its repairing capabilities no longer functioned.

Further down the hall they came upon another entry hatch that led into a room filled with a tangle of broken cages.

“Was this a… prison?” Nix asked.

Holding up a few bits of ancient bones, Haji shook his head. “No. Animals were kept in these cages. Or… aberrations, maybe. Creatures not of this world.”

There were two other doors leading out of the ancient menagerie. One was open while the other was sealed shut. Nix tried to break her way into the sealed door using her wide array of tools, but had no luck. In another pile of rubble they discovered a few strange technological objects. Nix was thrilled, but Haji insisted she wait until they were home safely before fiddling with them.

In time they came to a room with a pair of machines protruding from opposite walls. They were covered with coils of metal tubes and nozzles, which were aimed at the room’s interior.

“What’s does this thing do?” Haji asked Nix.

Nix smiled widely and examined the weird machines. “I… I don’t know, but they don’t seem to be working.”

With a shrug they continued on through the room. Past another door, they found themselves in a tunnel of rough stone.

“What?” Nix complained. “That’s it?”

“No…” Haji mused. “I… There’s something strange with this rock. It’s not… Real.”

“The rock’s not real? What are you talking about?”

“It’s… artificial rock, I guess. It was formed this way, into this tunnel.”

“What the heck for?”

Haji shrugged. “I don’t know.”

With their weapons drawn they proceeded down the tunnel and came across a large rock formation that looked a bit like petrified coral.

You can find the ghelarn, a large aberration, in Iron Gods Part One: Fires of Creation.

As they approached, something deep inside the stone formation moved and a mass of long, tentacle like protuberances reached out from the centre of the rock formation and lashed at the duo.

Haji growled and slashed at it with his falchion, slicing some of the rubbery tentacles apart.

The tentacles recoiled, hiding inside the rock formation like it was a shell.

“What the hell?” Nix asked. “Should we kill it?”

Rothmhar hissed and bobbed his head. A moment later, Haji grunted. “Yes.”

The strange beast attacked from within its stone carapace, lashing with its tentacles and spitting a sticky substance. The tentacles tore into Nix’s flesh, causing deep, bleeding wounds. Haji struggled against the goop’s entangling tendrils, but the little rat on his shoulder hissed and began to gnaw right through it. With a growl, Haji strained and struggled, and burst his bonds. He swung his falchion and severed some of the strange creature’s tentacles, while Nix smashed through the stone-like exterior with her morningstar. As stone shattered, revealing a pulsing purple mound, Haji drove his blade right into the centre of the mass. A strange, viscous liquid exploded out of the beast’s wounds, splattering Haji and Nix.

Nix stumbled over to the side of the cave and wiped the goo out of her face. She was heavily wounded during the fight, although Haji came out unharmed. Nix activated one of her gadgets, causing a metallic beetle to scurry over her body and spray a healing foam into her nastiest wounds. As it crumbled to pieces she activated a second one, then scooped the parts back into her backpack.

“Well, that was fun.” Nix groaned sarcastically.

Haji looked her over with worry, while Rothmhar hissed in his ear. With an annoyed look at the rat, Haji grumbled, “Yeah, I’m going.”

Then he looked back at his girlfriend. “You alright?”

“Shiny.” she replied, though she clearly wasn’t. “Come on, then, before that rat bites your ear off.”

Rothmhar hissed at Nix, then tossed its nose up in the air.

With Haji and Rothmhar leading the way, they continued down the tunnel. After a few twists and turns it opened into a large cavern. The floor was red sand, and the cavern walls behind them were steep but smooth. Difficult to climb, they disappeared out of sight in all direction–left, right and up. Nix’s sunrod barely pierced the gloom.

“Can you see the other side?” Nix asked.

Haji shook his head. “No. And not the ceiling or side walls, either. This cavern is… vast.”

Nix let out a short “Huh.”

It was eerily quiet in the cavern, with no sign of the pervasive damp of the previous caverns they had been in, and no distant echoes. The sand at their feet looked natural, but bore no dunes or gentle curves as it would on the surface. It was flat and still. Unnaturally so.

A shiver ran up Haji’s spine. He couldn’t shake the sudden feeling of unease that overcame him. But Nix hobbled off a few steps into the sand, apparently unconcerned.

“We need to stay together,” Haji warned. “It would be easy to get lost in here…”

“Lost? It’s so quiet in here you could hear my footsteps from a mile away.” She chuckled, but then stopped. “Speaking of footprints… I found some. Looks like a few pairs. What do you think?”

Haji moved over to check them out. Sure enough there were a few sets. “Looks like a group of people traipsed through here, and headed off ahead. One of ’em was wounded. Khonnir’s group, maybe. Some time later another few tracks came through. And it looks like… one pair managed to leave again.”

“Leave?” Nix asked. “Oh! Yeah!” she exclaimed with a clank of her metal fingers–it would have been a snap had she used her good hand. “That guy we found in the cold mold! That naked freak said he had stumbled out of here like a madman.”

Haji nodded absently. “Gerrol Sondor. He was a friend of Khonnir’s. And the woman’s name was Sef. She said nothing of the sort, by the way.”

“Same difference.” Nix replied. “Should we follow them?”

Haji nodded and drew his falchion. “Yes.”

They set off following the tracks through the sand. After a short time they could see none of the cavern walls at all. They were adrift in an endless expanse of motionless sand.

Suddenly, Haji stopped. “Did you hear that?”

“What?” Nix asked.

Rothmhar sniffed at the air.

Suddenly there was a shifting of sand. Footsteps. Then more.

“Who’s there?” Nix called out. “Show yourself!”

At the edge of Haji’s vision he saw a figure. Skeletal and tall with a massively elongated cranium and four arms, the creature stalked through the sands. And there, to his left! Another. And another from behind.

“We’re surrounded…” Haji told Nix.

“Shit! I can’t see them. Where are they?”

“They’ll be in your light soon. Looks like they’re slow, though. And stupid.”

Suddenly, the eyes of one of the skeletons glowed red. That skeleton cocked its head, looked right at Haji and met his eyes. Then it charged him, bounding across the sand in an instant.

“BAH!” Haji exclaimed in surprise.

The skeleton tore into him with a clawed hand, ripping flesh with its ancient bones.

“Slow, my ass!” Nix exclaimed.

Rothmhar hissed at the skeleton while Nix hurried over to Haji. She swung her morningstar at the skeleton and smashed a gaping hole in its skull. The skeleton turned on her, it’s red, baleful eyes focusing on her with hate.

“I thought you said it was stupid!” Nix exclaimed.

The skeleton launched itself at her and tore gaping wounds in her arms and neck with its claws. Suddenly, the light in its eyes faded. The other skeletons traipsed mindlessly closer, when suddenly another’s eye-sockets lit up in a red light. It looked right at Nix, and charged at her, zipping past Haji in order to swing a claw at her back.

Haji roared in anger. He raised his sword and brought it down on the skeleton that had so heavily hurt Nix. As his blade struck bone it sent a jarring vibration up his arms, but he powered through, tearing through the skeletons ribcage and spinal column with his oversized sword. The skeleton fell to pieces, but around them, others moved closer.

Nix quickly swung her morningstar, taking the red-eyed skeleton out at the knees, and sending it toppling to the ground. But, even as it fell, the red light transferred to another skeleton, and in the distance, they heard more footsteps. And more… And more…

The red light was moving faster now, jumping from skeleton to skeleton and imbuing each with intelligence before moving on. As the skeletons all surged forward, swinging their claws at Nix, and trying to tear her weapon from her hand, Haji roared.

“Run!” He bellowed. “RUN!”

Heavily wounded, Nix took off after the trail of footprints, dripping blood across the sand. Haji took another swipe at the skeletons before following her. As the ran they could hear more skeletons shuffling out there in the distance. Nix quickly activated another of her gadgets, causing a clockwork beetle to scurry it’s way from her belt over to the bleeding wounds across her chest. It sprayed a magical antiseptic foam across her open wounds, causing them to heal–partly. After healing her, the beetle crumbled into tiny pieces. This time she didn’t spare the time to retrieve them.

As she hobbled across the desert, pouring blood, Nix hissed at Haji, “I’m out of healing.”

Haji raced after her. “I’ve got some left, but it’ll only slow us down.”

Quickly, he shoved his hand into one of his belt pouches and let out a quick prayer to Rothmhar. His words were strange and unintelligible, but they had a dark and foul sound. As he muttered the brand around his eye surged with power, Rothmhar let out a fierce hiss, and the trio of rocks inside the pouch began to magically glow. Haji pulled out one of the rocks, which struck one of the skeletons in the chest and caused its ribcage to explode. It stumbled on for a few steps before tumbling to the ground in pieces.

The path led Nix to a rock formation that jutted up out of the sand like a miniature mountain. As they raced along it’s edge Haji threw his other two stones, both of which smashed into skeletons. As the bones fell lifeless to the dirt, Haji let out a whoop.

Atop the rocks to Nix’s left, there was a sudden pair of glowing red lights–another skeleton. It eyed Nix, but let her run right past. Instead, it focused on Haji and his magical stones. It leapt off the crags and landed upon Haji, knocking him over into the sand.

Haji let out a growl of pain and lashed out at the skeleton. He managed to get to his feet, but the skeleton gave a deep gash across his arm for the trouble. He gripped his falchion in his hands and faced off against the red eyed skeleton, just as the other skeletons caught up to him. Surrounded, he let out a growl. From the sand beside his foot, little Rothmhar hissed menacingly.

“Don’t stop!” Haji yelled to Nix. “Get out of here!”

At his words, Nix spared a glance behind her. Seeing Haji surrounded, she growled. “Like hell!”

Haji swung his falchion at the most damaged of the skeletons around him and forced his blade through the bones, causing it to shatter to pieces. “Come and get me, you freaks!”

The red eyed skeleton attacked with all four arms, tear and scratching at Haji’s exposed skin.

Haji grunted in pain and spat a glob of blood on the ground. “That all you got?”

As the red light left the skeleton’s eye sockets and entered another’s, Haji knew he was done for. The second skeleton attacked him with its many sharp claws, then the third… He howled in pain and fell to his knees. He tried to swing his sword, but it was too heavy… His hands weren’t working right…. And his vision… Why was everything so blurry? Soaked with blood, and moments from death, Haji lost his grip on his sword, and toppled over, bleeding in the red sand.

Rothmhar hissed and nipped at the skeleton who had taken down his friend, but his teeth did nothing to the monster’s ancient bones.

One of the skeletons raised its claws in the air, ready to drive them down into Haji’s chest. There was a shuffling of sand and an explosion of bone, as Nix smashed her morningstar through its skull. She let out a strangled cry–half sob and half scream–and stood over Haji’s body.

Waving her morningstar menacingly at the last two skeletons, she smiled like a mad woman. “Over my dead body, bitches.”

The skeletons turned their attention to Nix, tearing and cutting her flesh with their bony, clawed hands. She screamed in pain, and fought back. Howling in rage and frustration.

She wouldn’t let Haji die here. Not alone.

Bloody and near death herself, Nix fought.

Meanwhile, Rothmhar had buried himself into Haji’s belt pouch. He grabbed a vial in his mouth and scurried back out of the sack. He dragged it across Haji’s chest and perched his hideous body right up beside Haji’s open mouth. He worked at the vial’s cork, gnawing it out with his teeth until the vial opened with a pop. Then he nudged the vial over, into Haji’s gaping mouth. Slowly, the healing potion trickled into Haji’s throat.

Above them, Nix had smashed one of the skeletons, but her wounds were great. The last wounded skeleton dugs his four hands into her chest and tore, yanking great hunks of skin off and sending her tumbling to the ground. She landed with a dull thump, tangled in a heap just inches from Haji.

Haji opened his eye just in time to see Nix fall beside him like a lifeless doll. Blood covered her and she was missing massive hunks of flesh. As her head smashed into the sand she caught sight of him just for a moment, before her eyes looked past him–dull and unfocused.

Haji let out a howl of anger and launched himself at the skeleton, pounding it with his fists… his head… a nearby rock. Anything he could grab hold of. He vented his anger and pain on the creature, slowly smashing in its skull with blind rage. Finally, the red light left its eyes.

With bloodied hands, and broken knuckles, Haji heaved in gulps of air, panting with exertion and anger. He screamed, then crawled across the sand to Nix’s side.

She didn’t look good. She was pale and bloody, bruised and broken. She looked dead.

He pressed his hand against her, and prayed loudly to Rothmhar. The rat hissed at him in anger, clearly thinking Nix wasn’t worth it. But, Haji didn’t let up. He snarled his prayers over and over. Beneath his hands, Nix didn’t draw breath. Her heart didn’t beat.

Haji glared at Rothmhar and continued to chant in the foul tongue, forcing his prayers upon the hideously ugly rat. Rothmhar let out a rather human sigh. Finally, the brand around Haji’s eye burned with power, and a surge of healing energy poured from Haji’s hands and down into Nix’s chest. Some of her wounds healed, and he felt a single beat of her heart under his palms. Haji continued to chant, funnelling more and more of Rothmhar’s magic into his dying girlfriend. Eventually she drew in a shuddering, weak gasp of breath. Her eyes refocused. She blinked, and groaned.

“You’re not dead,” she rasped. Her bloody lips turned up into a smile.

A wide grin broke out across Haji’s face. “Neither are you.”

Nix chuckled, but then hissed in pain.

“Don’t move,” Haji ordered her. “You’re too wounded, and I’ve got no healing spells left.”

She groaned and dug a few vials out of her pockets. “Drink,” she told him, “You look like shit.”

But instead of drinking them himself, Haji fed them to Nix.

Bloody and wounded, but alive, they both struggled to their feet.

“Ugh, this place sucks.” Nix groaned.

Haji nodded. He put an arm over Nix’s shoulders and pulled her close. “Let’s go home.”

Rothmhar chittered angrily up at the duo, clearly displeased that despite saving their lives he was given so little attention.

Together, they limped their way back to through the metal ruins, on their way back home.

Thanks for checking out d20 Diaries today! Haji and Nix’s adventures playing Iron Gods Book 1: Fires of Creation, will continue soon, in their fifth instalment: High Times in Torch! We hope you’ll join us again!

Jessica

Competitions and Compliments

I’m not one to brag.

I don’t usually do it.

But, I’ve been getting a lot of compliments lately and, as my husband so eloquently said: “You should write about that.” So here we are.

Compliments. That’s not a weird thing, I know. People get compliments all the time, right?

Fair.

But, when your father’s compliments are sweet, pleasant gems like: “You look good. That’s new.” and “Did you lose weight? You’re not as fat as you usually are.” you understand why some nice, no-strings-attached compliments from someone other than my wonderful husband, and adorable children, is a big deal.

So as I was sifting through my personal messages on the Paizo website the other day, I read one that included the words, “I was taking a look through your Paizo profile…and just noticed who you are!”

Huh? I thought. Do I know this person from real life? Have I horribly offended them in the past in some way?

Nope!

He knew me from something I’d created.

This is new for me.

On occasion, Paizo announces design competitions on their blog. These are short, miniature competitions where fans are asked to create a stat block on a theme, or something similar. I’ve entered nearly all of them, and done quite well. The most recent one involved creating Eleven, from the wonderful television show Stranger Things, as a Pathfinder character. Any level, any class… Your choice. Make her. It was a ton of fun! There were a lot of great entries, with a few class variations. In an effort to duplicate her many abilities, most of the entries placed her between CR 6 and CR 11, with a few brave souls aiming for lower CR ranges. I put in a version of El that made her a young telekineticist 7/psychic 4 (click the Spoiler button beside meloriel!). My brother (Theron Pearroc) put in a version that made her a young psychic bloodline sorcerer 9/loremaster 5 that made great use of the technology guide and the lassitude spellblight.

The first design competition I entered, challenged the entrants to recreate the final villain from Book Five of the Reign of Winter Adventure Path: Rasputin Must Die! using the rules from Occult Adventures. As a huge fan of that adventure path, and all things occult, I had an absolute blast with that challenge, although the stat blocks high CR and the many new rules meant that it was quite challenging! I ended up making him a CR 17 occultist, but if you’ve never played Reign of Winter, be forewarned! Reading my entry (or any entry) will definitely cause you to go “WHAT?!?” and have one of the many great surprises of that Adventure Path spoiled! Beware the spoilers! I earned an honourable mention in that competition, which made me literally jump for joy. Yes, literally, literally. I got at least an inch of air (which is big for me. I don’t jump…)

Happily, this is how my friendly GM knew me. He liked my entry, and not only remembered it, but USED IT. As far as compliments from total strangers go, I don’t think there’s a nicer one than that. Something I made for a d20 game, USED. By someone other than me?! Gasp! Haha. (And there was much rejoicing!)

Druid - Lini.jpg — Lini, Pathfinder’s Iconic Druid. Art by Wayne Reynolds. Lini can be found in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Core Rulebook, and many other wonderful Paizo products.

But, it’s the second design competition I entered which made me happiest. In it, we had to recreate one of Pathfinder’s many iconic characters, and make them evil. Delightfully, deliciously, evil. It was really enjoyable to participate, and in the end I made a cruel version of Lini, the gnome druid. And I won. Not only did I win some store credit that I used to purchase some awesome Pathfinder Society Scenarios (the shipping and duty fees are too high to make buying physical books from their website manageable for me), but I also won a custom avatar which I rock on the messageboards all the time. It was a blast.

Now, that’s not the only delightful compliment I’ve received regarding one of my creations lately. I’ve also received a lot in regards to a character I’ve made. Who? My first (and greatest) Starfinder Society character, Julakesh Starfist. Julakesh is a bold vesk solarian who’s strong, proud, and entirely full of herself. She’s prone to accidentally insulted her companions with her generous compliments, getting herself into fights too dangerous to pound with her fists, and generally making people laugh. She’s not the sharpest knife in the drawer. In fact, in that analogy she’s more of a spoon than a knife. But I love her. She’s among my most fun characters to play. Ever. And that’s saying something.

She’s has been called “hilarious,” “great fun,” and “absurd.” More than a few people have mentioned that they love her, with the sweetest being “<3 Julakesh all the time always!” (Here’s looking at you, ElektraDawns! You made my day! Haha.) She’s received personal invitations to join games, and people seem to be pleased to get to play with her a second time. Her recent acceptance of an invitation to a game included excited squealing and the ever-eloquent (and very flattering) exclamation: “Yayy!” But the best compliments I could have possibly gotten?

“On so many levels she is my favorite vesk character I’ve ever seen!”

“…one of the finest vesk characters I’ve seen played since Starfinder was published.”

Seriously. If either of you are reading this, you’re SO NICE.

Now, I’m not saying Julakesh is everyone’s cup of tea. She’s not. I’m sure some poor person she’s played alongside has wanted to tape her mouth shut, and break my fingers to prevent me from typing. But, I am saying, she’s brought some joy to people–myself included–and I hope she continues to do so as her Starfinder career continues.

So who is this, Julakesh anyway?

StarfinderCover — Check out the Starfinder Roleplaying Game: Starfinder Core Rulebook for more information on vesk!

Julakesh Starfist is a fierce looking vesk with horns circling the top of her head like a spiked crown. Her scales are mottled black that never reflects light and bright white that almost seems to glow. She is well muscled and just under seven feet tall. Clearly a warrior! Curiously she bears only one weapon: a small azimuth laser pistol holstered on her hip. A glowing orb of bright white light hovers around her, following her wherever she goes. During battle she grasps the ball of light and it energizes her fists, making them surrounded by a blazing, bright white light.

Julakesh is brave, bold and adventurous. Like most of her kind she revels in the glory of combat and competition. She loves exploring new planets and—most especially—being off planet. She’s most at home in the depths of space and enjoys floating around with her jetpack outside the ship whenever it is stopped.

Before becoming a Starfinder, Julakesh was a vesk soldier. She spent most of her time policing residents and putting down rebellious behaviour among the barbarous feline humanoids on Vesk-6. She treated her charges with respect but revelled in the opportunity for glorious combat, or competition among her fellow soldiers. As she rose through the ranks her chances for combat increased, and eventually she was given the opportunity to join a combat vessel bound for a fierce battlefield on another planet. She accepted the honour with great enthusiam and left Vesk-6 for the first time since she joined the military.

Unfortunately, a solar flare and the subsequent coronal mass ejection struck their ship, causing most of the systems to fail and the nearly all of the crew to die. Of those few crew remaining, all of them were left changed—three suffered slow radiation poisoning, one’s scales turned a sickly brown, one lost more than half his muscle mass and two suffered terrible mutations. The energy from the corona bonded with Julakesh in a moment of intense pain, leaving her capable of using the very elements of the universe as a weapon—the power of gravity and the power of the stars. She was no longer Vesk, she was something other. Something greater.

Through luck and determination, Julakesh and her fellow ailing soldiers managed to steer the ship back to Vesk-6 where they were taken care of by the military doctors. Julakesh was cleared for active duty, but found the next few years of work unfulfilling. Although she enjoyed combat as much as she always had, her gaze was constantly drawn heavenward, she knew in her heart she belonged among the stars.

Eventually she left behind her promising military career and set out into the unknown on a passenger ship travelling to Absalom station. As they took off into the beautiful void of space, Julakesh finally felt at peace. This was where she belonged.

Want to join the Starfinder Society? Download the Starfinder Roleplaying Guild Guide for more information. It’s a free download on Paizo’s website. )

Her travels have taken her far and wide since then, but as much as she loves discovering and exploring new planets and stars, she’s always happiest in the void of space, surrounded by silence and stars. She has recently joined the Starfinders, in the Wayfinders, and is excited to push new boundaries and travel the unknown depths of space.

Her love of glory and battle shines through no matter the circumstances, not only from her bright exuberant smiles, but also from her loudly exclaiming her joy for all to hear. She’s easily confused by long words, and has absolutely no understanding of advanced technology. She hacks ‘puters’ with a fist, and never lies. She’s a happy, energetic soul, quick to laugh and often smiling. She doesn’t have much of a verbal filter, and her well-meaning compliments tend to insult her fellow Starfinders.

She offers pleasant and friendly greetings…

“Greetings, companions! The honour is YOURS!”

“You look at least half-competent! Wonderful! If you’re a quarter as capable as I am we’ll be a formidable team!”

“Hail, friend-bug! We shall soon break bread and bones together!”

She provides compliments and encouragement…

“You are not as feeble as I expected!”

She’s always ready for a good time…

“Ah! Yes! Let us hope there are terrifying beasts and dangerous traps within this ‘mainframe’ they spoke of! THAT WOULD BE GREAT FUN!”

She’s always willing to lend a helping hand…

“Yes! You are very meek and pathetic! Be happy we are here to make you a winner!”

“After my mission and befriending your many soft people, I will pound you into the dirt many times! This will make you stronger! You will know how to use your weapons, then!” She thumps her chest and smiles. “If you are lucky, you will then be as strong as a child among my people! A great accomplishment! You will see! You will be proud! Bring honour to your name!”

She’s understanding…

“Ah, yes! Puters! I know these! When they make noises I don’t like I punch them dead! Many of my fellows do not like this. They caress the puters instead, with fingers and some invisible force called coding. You are one of them, yes? A lover to puters?”

And she’s always ready for a fight…

“BRING YOUR FACE TO MY FISTS!”

“TO BATTLE, FRIENDS! IT IS TIME TO EARN OUR HONOUR! AHAHAHAHAAA!”

All in all, she’s one colourful character, and I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about her as much as I enjoyed sharing her with you today. If you’re one of the delightful people who have given me kind words about Julkaesh, thank you so much for the feedback! It means a lot. To read more about Julakesh, you can check out some of her previous play-by-post games, including The Commencement, and Yesteryear’s Truth. Or, pop in and check out her current misadventures, in The Dire GM’s Solar Sortie.

Until next time,

I wish you honour and glory (and more than a few laughs)!

~~Julakesh Starfist~~
Jessica

Disciple’s Doctrine

We’ve been looking at a lot of Starfinder products lately, but today we’re changing gears. I recently got my hands on Pathfinder Player Companion: Disciple’s Doctrine, so today, we’re going to take a look at what’s inside.

Disciple’s Doctrine is a soft cover book that is 32 pages in length. Like the other ‘Faith’ books before it (Faiths of Balance, Faiths of Purity, Faiths of Corruption, Faiths & Philosophies, etc.), this book takes a look at a dozen complex philosophies that are found throughout Golarion. As a book in the Player Companion line, it’s aimed at players, which means that you won’t find any great secrets of the order explained in this book. What you will get is spoiler-free information about each of the disciplines inside, including what the discipline’s about, how its organized, and what’s expected of its members. In addition, you’ll find some new player options related to each discipline, typically spells and character archetypes.

PZO9488 — Pathfinder Player’s Companion: Disciple’s Doctrine

Curious? Read on!

Disciple’s Doctrine features awesome cover art by Setiawan Fajareka, and features the Iconic Psychic Rivani, and the Iconic Slayer Zadim, facing off against a devourer. The inside front cover compiles information on each of the disciplines inside the book. Each has some iconography to represent it, and a few sentences describing it in an abbreviated fashion. So what’s in the book, exactly? The Concordance of Elements, Cults of the Failed, Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye, Harbringers of Fate, Hellknights of the Godclaw, Magnimarian Mystery Cults, Oracular Council of Po Li, Prophecies of Kalistrade, Razmir the Living God, Sangpotshi, Shoanti Shamanic Traditions and Tamashigo. It’s quite an array! Some of them are expected–for example, I was well aware that the Oracular Council and the Prophesies of Kalistrade would get some attention in this book, but others are a surprise. I had honestly no idea that the Concordance of Elements would be featured in this book! I’m a huge fan of them in the Pathfinder Society Organized Play, so I’m thrilled to get a bit more background for this group. I was also super excited about getting to learn about the Hellknights of the Godclaw and the Cults of the Failed. A few of the other disciplines I’ve read about before, so I wasn’t entirely sure how much new information would be presented here on them. The Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye, for example, although mysterious to most is featured in the Carrion Crown Adventure Path–which I’m currently running for my children. (Yes, that’s a horror campaign, and yes, my children are very young. They love it, I swear! Haha! More details on that in the future!). The Shoanti Shamanic Traditions are another example of this. I LOVE them, I cannot emphasize that enough, but they were already covered in depth during the Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path (which I played through with a wonderful group of players back when it was new). Still, I was hopeful that the player focus of this book would bring something new to the table.

Up next is the table of contents, followed by the introduction. Here you’ll find some flavourful information about what’s inside the book–and what the difference is between a religion and a discipline or a philosophy. Of more interest to most players is the Rules Index, which is a handy list of all of the archetypes, traits and other rules option found in this book, with page numbers for reference. There’s also a series of six new traits focused on some of the traditions found in this book. Five are faith traits, with one a social trait. Of those, one is very focused on a specific tradition (Dogged, which is for members of the Cult of the Failed), while the others are more broad. They’re not amazing traits, and you’re certainly not going to wish you could take them with every character, but they’re thematic, and I really like them. I think that Heretic’s Caution, which gives you a bonus on bluff checks that gets better against religious figures, is going to see the most use, followed by Self-Sustaining, which grants you a 0-level spell once per day as a spell-like ability (from a small selection).

Past the introduction we enter the bulk of the book: the disciplines. Each one has two facing pages devoted to it, with approximately one page being information about the group, and one page being player options (although there is variance in these lengths).

Concordance of Elements is up first and, as previously mentioned, I was super excited for it! The Concordance of Elements is a planes-spanning organization whose goal is to preserve balance between the elemental forces of the world (air, earth, fire and water). They can act as diplomats and impartial investigators amongst the elemental planes, and also work to stop planar disturbances, planar portals and powerful magic from messing the world up. The information presented on the Concordance is all quite useful and interesting, and contained different information than that which can be found in the Pathfinder Society Roleplaying Guild Guide. In addition to general organizational information, we get to learn about the role that Concordance Agents play within the group, and how the group as a whole interacts with other organizations and religions.

As for character options, we’re treated to two archetypes and a combat style. The first is the Elemental Monk, which is a monk archetype I can’t wait to try. It’s definitely one of my favourite archetypes in the entire book! For starters, they must be true neutral, and instead of gaining stunning fist and bonus feats they gain the feat elemental fist with one special alteration: they don’t select one element for use with this feat. Instead, they select what element they want whenever they use the feat, which makes them super adaptable. At second level they gain the ability to enter any of the five genie fighting styles as a swift action, chosen each time they activate the ability. At low levels this grants them the basic fighting style feat, but as they increase in level they gain access to the more advanced fighting style options automatically. This is super cool! I’ve been a fan of style feats for a while, but they’re such a big feat investment for very specific circumstances that I’ve never really had the opportunity to make good use of them. I’m thrilled that this archetype give us a chance! There’s other abilities the elemental monk gets, but I won’t go into any more depth on it than I already have. Just know: I love this one. I want to make one. Heck, I might go make one right now. The second archetype is the Elemental Envoy for rangers, which is quite thematic and cool, but very focused. Lastly, we’re treated to the elemental combat style for rangers, which offers some quirky feat choices for a combat style. Overall, I really enjoyed getting to take a look at the Concordance of Elements. It’s one of my favourite entries in the book.

Up next is the Cults of the Failed, a group of people who pay homage to those brave souls who have attempted to achieve godhood through the Test of the Starstone and failed. They venerate, honour, and learn from these deceased mortal heroes lives, and trials. They maintain a spartan temple in Absalom which is more of a solemn memorial than anything, and have no holy texts, or official clergy. Now, having played through Pathfinder Society Scenario #6-10: The Wounded Wisp, I know a tiny bit about the Cults of the Failed, which made me very curious to hear more. The information was definitely intriguing, and I was pleasantly surprised. For character options, we get a single medium archetype: Vessel of the Failed. Now, although I love the flavour of this archetype, it’s not really my cup of tea. As previously mentioned in other blog posts, the medium is my least liked class, so it takes a lot to get me interested in a medium archetype enough to make me want to actually make one. It’s not impossible, as I learned when we took a look at Blood of the Beast, but it is hard, and this one didn’t really do it for me. Still, I was intrigued enough with the group to start thinking of other things I wanted to do with the them, which is a win in my book!

Next we come to the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye. This elite secret society is heavily influenced by Osirion mysticism, Varisian occult traditions, and Pharasmin beliefs, which they have fused into a strange amalgam in order to achieve wisdom, enlightenment and an understanding of the occult. Based in Ustalav, this group has far reaching influence, and hidden agents throughout the world. As previously mentioned, this group is featured in the Carrion Crown Adventure Path, and an in-depth article aimed at GMs can found in Carrion Crown: Part 2: Trial of the Beast. That means that I was coming to the table with a lot of information in hand. I found that although the information on the Order inside this book didn’t offer me anything new, it was interesting, well-written and (very importantly) geared towards players, meaning the group is now accessible to a much wider audience without giving away the group’s secrets and too much history. I really enjoyed it. As for player options, there’s one archetype offered for my favourite class, the occultist, which I loved. The Esoteric Initiate focuses his studies on objects of antiquity related specifically to his Order’s teachings. Their symbolism ability is particularly interesting. There’s also a few new magus arcana which are super useful, my favourite of which is Book-Bound.

The Harbringers of Fate are up next, and I can honestly say I had no idea what these guys were about when I opened this book. And now? It think they’re cool! In short, they believe that Aroden can be ushered back into the world if the prophecies in his holy text are be made real. They gather information and attempt to manipulate events in order to bring about such prophecies. Apparently the group was recently splintered into three differing opinions, all of which are pretty interesting. Now, there’s not too much information on the Harbingers themselves, with one half of a single page devoted to information about their order, while the rest of the two pages consists of player options. We get a new Prophesy School (a focused arcane school for wizards) which I really enjoyed, and three new thematic spells, including one enchantment (debilitating speech), and two divinations (fortune’s path and prophetic lore). Although nice options, I wish there was a big more useful information on the group itself.

Then we come to The Hellknights of the Godclaw! Now, I was intrigued with these guys from the moment I first read about them on the front inside cover. They’re Hellknights, obviously, but they don’t exclusively worship Asmodeus or Hell. Instead, they worship a collection of five lawful deities–Abadar, Asmodeus, Iomedae, Irori, and Torag–believing that all five work together to put an end to chaos. Abadar is the keeper of laws, Asmodeus is the strategist, Iomedae is the perfect offensive combatant, Irori is disciplined, and Torag is the perfect defensive combatant. Together, they are the Godclaw. Now, obviously, this is super heretical to all five of those faiths, but these guys? They don’t care! Their quirky, super oppressive dogma collects the lawful aspects of those deities, and smushes them together into one religion, playing it off like these five are good pals who happen to work together to obliterate disorder in their off-time. Like some weird, super, adventuring party. I cannot express how much I love it! Haha. Suffice to say as far as information goes, I’m sold! But what about character options? I loved that too! In fact, this whole section is right up in there among my favourite parts of the book. First, we’ve got the Fist of the Godclaw, which is an archetype for war priests that sounds like a ton of fun. Because it’s so focused on defeating chaos, it’s quite specific in terms of usage. It’s not one of those universally awesome archetypes you’ll always want to add to your character, but it’s cool and I love it. Also? It’d be particularly useful in the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path, as well as the Second Darkness Adventure Path (to a lesser extent). After this we’ve got a new war priest blessing: Godclaw, which is useful and quirky. And lastly we’ve got four new spells called litanies, which are each activated as either an immediate or a swift action, and are for inquisitors, paladins and on occasion even antipaladins. You should really check these awesome spells out! All in all, I highly recommend you give this part of the book a read!

Up next is the Magnimarian Mystery Cults. Now, this entry isn’t really a unified group or religion. It’s a lot of religions, all focused on the worship of little known empyreal lords. These demigods are worshipped in private or in small groups, at personal shrines or sacred monuments. Typically, these beliefs are passed down through the generations. They are particularly prominent in and around the Varisian city of Magnimar, where they have been worshipped since before the city was founded. The most commonly worshipped empyreal lords in Magnimar are Arshea (the Spirit of Abandon), Ashava (The True Spark), Ragathiel (General of Vengeance), Sinashakti (The Immaculate Joy), Soralyon (The Mystic Angel) and Ylimancha (Harborwing). There’s a ton of information on these Empyreal Lords (and a lot more!), mystery cults, and the Mystery Cultist prestige class in Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Chronicle of the Righteous, but this entry contains just enough information to whet your appetite for more, and to briefly describe (just a few sentences) each of the most common empyreal lords in Magnimar. After this it moves right onto a new cavalier order, Order of the Monument. I think this Order is very cool and useful, but not suitable for all campaigns. This order requires that you select a single city or settlement to protect. You don’t need to stay in that city all the time, but it’s pretty hard to justify somehow protecting your city when you haven’t been there in a long time. So, although this would be an awesome Order to play in plenty of Adventure Paths and modules (including Curse of the Crimson Throne, Kingmaker, Hell’s Vengeance, Ironfang Invasion, Ruins of Azlant, The Dragon’s Demand and even the Crown of the Kobold King series of adventures), there’s a lot of other Adventure Paths and Modules where it wouldn’t be thematically appropriate. After this nifty new Order we get a Variant Channeling ability for each of the mentioned empyreal lords, which can also be chosen by clerics who worship deities with the same portfolios. These variant channeling abilities include Duty, Flying, Journeys, Moonlight, Monuments and Sexuality. Personally, I like the moonlight and monuments abilities best, but I’d be curious to see what everyone else thinks.

And that brings us to the Oracular Council. Located in the nation of Po Li where divine magic is revered, but worshipping the gods is forbidden, the Oracular Council uses advanced mathematics and a wide variety of divinations to foretell the future and govern their nation. In addition to information about the group itself, there’s also details on initiation and membership with the Oracular Council, as well as details on what it’s like working for the Council. Although this entry wasn’t my favourite, they did a great job of presenting thorough, but not overwhelming, details on this group. I really liked it. After this is the Divine Numerologist, which is an oracle archetype that’s pretty neat. This archetype is compatible with any mystery, and replaces the 10th, 12th, 14th, 16th, and 18th level bonus spells with divination themed ones. But, it’s the two unique revelations that really make this archetype shine. The first is Calculate the Odds, which must be taken at 1st level, and allows your character to quickly use numerology to grant herself a bonus on her next d20 roll equal to her Charisma bonus. Very cool, but I wish you could use it more often (it’s usable once per day at 1st level, twice at 7th, and three times at 15th). The second unique revelation is Program the Divine Algorithm, which you must take at 7th level, and lets you choose to take the average of a single or set of die rolls instead of rolling (so a 10 on a d20 or three 3s if rolling 3d6). All of your regular modifiers are then added as normal. The final revelation makes your character immune to aging, and allows a critical threat rolled within 30 feet of you by an ally to automatically confirm once a day. Neat. But, that’s not all this entry has to offer. There’s also five new numerology themed investigator talents, the coolest of which is Greater Numerical Alchemy. Definitely check it out!

Up next is the article I was the most excited to read about when I learned about this book: The Prophecies of Kalistrade. Now, I knew of the prophecies, and I knew that Prophets of Kalistrade were full of themselves and interested in amassing wealth. I also know that they wore long white gloves so they’d never have to come sully themselves via contact with someone not of their faith. But, I didn’t know much more than that. They have weird taboos, but I didn’t know what they were, and they wear a lot of white and gold. Voila! I know, Ygritte, I know nothing. Which is why I was hoping I would learn something more concrete about their group in this book. There was plenty of information in here, but at the end of it, I still don’t fell like I’ve got a handle on them. Maybe it’s me. I have a feeling I might ‘get’ them more if I just made a Kalistocrat and played them. Still, info aside, these guys have some awesome player options. First up is a new psychic discipline: Superiority, which focuses on the Kalistocrats absolute confidence in themselves, disdain for touching the unworthy, and their greed. The Magical Hoarder ability is particularly cool! I definitely recommend checking this one out if you’re going to make anyone who’s particularly proud or self-centred. It’s pretty awesome! There’s also three new spells, fastidiousness (which keeps you perpetually clean), hallucinatory decor (which lets you change the way things appear so they meet your high standards), and unflappable mein (which tries to stop others from touching you, and can harm them if they try). I’m not going to lie, my next bard is definitely taking fastidiousness! Haha.

A mask worn by followers of Razmir, the Living God.

Following the self-centred Kalistocrats is a guy who takes ‘self-centred’ to a whole new level: Razmir, the Living God. Now, I love to hate these guys. In everything I’ve seen Razmirans used, they’re the villain. The wonderful modules Masks of the Living God and City of Golden Death are particularly good examples of this. But, that doesn’t mean that’s all these cultists are. An entire nation worships Razmir, and most of those people are just trying to get by. They’re normal. So, I love that this is an article that aimed at them. We get some information about Razmir himself, reasons that outsiders might say he’s not a ‘real’ god but a charlatan, reasons that believers refute those claims, and reasonings behind Razmir’s teachings. There’s information on a priest’s role, and Razmir’s interactions with other religions. All of this was really helpful, and I feel like it gave me a much better understanding for them as a group. I definitely want to make a worshipper of Razmir now, which isn’t something I’ve never wanted to do before. After all this information we get to an archetype for the ninja. Yeah, when does that ever happen, right? Well, wait no longer! This ninja archetype is called Mask of the Living God, and it’s pretty awesome. Of course, it’s also intrinsically tied to the Razmiran faith, so it’s not very adaptable. After this there’s four new arcanist exploits, my favourite of which is Mending Flesh, and a single greater exploit which is pretty nifty, Convert Wand. All of the arcanist options are worth a read.

Next we have the philosophy of Sangpotshi, which is the concept that our souls are reincarnated after death into a form based upon our deeds and worthiness from our previous lives, until we eventually achieve the honour of breaking the cycle and resting in Pharasama’s Boneyard. It’s a mix of the concepts of reincarnation, karma and fate, all rolled into one. This philosophy is incredibly prevalent in Tian Xia, and is compatible with many different religions. Most of the information presented on it involves the role of a believer to the, and their relationships with other religions. There’s a spiritualist archetype up for offer, called the Seeker of Enlightenment, which I thought I would like more than I did. I think my favourite ability it offered was Words of the Past, which lets you cast comprehend languages at will as a spell-like ability. There’s also some options for vigilantes, including two social talents and three vigilante talents. My favourites were Ancestral Enlightenment, Magical Familiarity and Weapon Familiarity.

Which brings us to the Shoanti Shamanic Traditions. Now, as mentioned, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Shoanti peoples and their culture. But, I’ve also read a lot about them already. So, as much as I was hoping there’d be new information on them for me to drool over, I wasn’t sure what I’d be getting. Unfortunately, I didn’t find any new information about their traditions in this volume. However, for those of use who don’t own the original Curse of the Crimson Throne Adventure Path, The Inner Sea World Guide, or Varisia, Birthplace of Legends, this is a great way to explore the awesomeness that is the Shoanti. The character options were quite exciting, though. The Totem Channeler is a fun looking skald archetype, while the faith trait Aspect of the Quah, allows hunters to replace one of their animal aspects with a new aspect related to a Shoanti’s quah (tribe). Shiny!

The last discipline we’re looking at in this book is Tamashigo, which is a philosophy that teaches that every part of nature has a soul and a spirit, and that these spirits must be treated with honour and respect, for their whims shape the world. This is most common in Tian Xia (which is where it is known as Tamashigo), but this philosophy can also be found in many other cultures of the Inner Sea, from Kellid tribes, to the Shoanti Quahs, and beyond. Much like Sangpotshi, this philosophy is compatible with nearly any religion, and can be used for characters of a variety of faiths. After this there’s a cool Samurai archetype, called the Ward Speaker, which honours the kami (more information on Kami can be found in Bestiary 3 or the Jade Regent Adventure Path). There are also two new bardic masterpieces, which are neat. I especially like Kaminari Drums, which allows percussionists to call lightning down from the sky.

Although that brings us to the last of the disciplines explored in Disciple’s Doctrine, this isn’t the end of the book. There’s a little bit left: a chapter called Tools of the Faith, which features three pages of mundane and magical equipment for characters to purchase, followed by two occult rituals. I particularly enjoyed the Godstar, and the Lantern of the Four Elements. The Echo of Divinity’s Promise was also cool, but too expensive. As for the occult rituals, check out the Song of the Kami’s Gift!

And that brings us to the end of Disciple’s Doctrine. This was a really good book, and I rather enjoyed it. My favourite entries were on the Concordance of Elements, The Cults of the Failed, the Hellknights of the Godclaw, and Razmir the Living God. As for character options, it’s the elemental monk archetype, the superiority psychic discipline, the arcanist exploits, and the hellknight litanies that I’m going to make the most use of.

Have your own copy of Disciple’s Doctrine? Let us know your favourite parts in the comments!

Jessica

May New Releases

Well, another month has come and gone, which means there’s a whole bunch of new and awesome products coming out from Paizo. But first, it should be noted that today’s your last day to pre-order physical copies of the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook, Pathfinder Playtest Adventure: Doomsday Dawn, and the Flip-mat multipack. If you intend to pick up a copy of any of them, now’s your last chance. Free copies of the PDF will be available in late August.

Two new Pathfinder Society Scenarios were recently released, Scenario #9-18: Scourge of the Farheavens is a tier 1-5 scenario that sends the players all the way to Iobaria, which promises to be a blast. This is definitely the scenario I’m most excited for, and I hope to pick it up soon. The second PFS release is Scenario #9-19: Clash in the Kaimuko Wood, is a tier 5-9 scenario that takes place on the border of Kwanlai and Tianjing in Tian Xia. Involving abyssal corruption, this adventure continues events in Scenario #9-12: Shrine of the Sacred Tempest, and directly contributes to the ongoing storyline of the Silver Crusades.

Near the end of May there’ll be two more scenarios for us to sink our teeth into. Scenario #9-20: Fury of the Final Blade is a tier 7-11 scenario that sees the Liberty’s Edge faction leader, Colson Maldris, up to some shifty underhanded shenanigans, involving Andoran’s corrupt elite, the Grey Gardeners of Galt, and the soul-trapping guillotines they’re known for. Turning to the Pathfinders for aid Maldris set out to lay the groundwork for a rescue plan–only to end up captured himself. This awesome-sounding scenario leaves the fate of Colson Maldris in your players hands, and directly affects the Liberty’s Edge faction’s ongoing plot. Finally, we have Scenario #9-21: In the Grandmaster’s Name, which is a tier 3-7 adventure that lets your players pose as intercepted agents of Grandmaster Torch, and perform some underhanded espionage in Druma. I don’t know about you, but I’m super excited for this mission, as my whole family loves the Grandmaster (or rather, some love him, and some love to hate him!).

There’s two new awesome pawn collections coming out soon, the Ruins of Azlanti Pawn Collection, which contains just over 100 pawns from the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path (including minis from Part One: The Lost Outpost, Part Two: Into the Shattered Continent , Part Three:: The Flooded Cathedral, Part Four: City in the Deep, Part Five: Tower of the Drowned Dead and Part Six: Beyond the Veiled Past). The second is the Starfinder Pact Worlds Pawn Collection, which features over 200 pawns, including creatures and starships. As I’ve recently come to own Pact Worlds, I can assure you these pawns have a ton of cool artwork. I can’t wait to see how they look.

Pathfinder Adventure Path: War for the Crown Part 4 of 6: City in the Lion’s Eye

The very intriguing War for the Crown Adventure Path continues this month with Part Four: City in the Lion’s Eye. Previous releases include Part One: Crownfall, Part Two: Songbird, Scion, Saboteur, and Part Three: Twilight Child. We’ve talked plenty on d20diaries about the War for the Crown, so if you’d like to learn more, click away: Preview: War for the Crown, Paizo New Releases, War for the Crown: Player’s Guide and April Blooms and d20 News.

While last month brought us the delightfully dark Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Nidal, Land of Shadows, this month brings us a Player Companion that looks like it’s handy for everyone. Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Ancients, looks like it’s going to focus on both unlocking the powers of your own ancestry, and on the remnants of ancient civilizations. I’m particularly curious about the Azlanti ioun kineticist archetype, and the Jistkan artificers. But, we’ll have to wait to find out more.

There’s two new Pocket Editions out: Ultimate Magic and Bestiary 4; and a whopping four play-mats. Two of the Play-mats are brand new: Starfinder Flip-mat: Starship: Sunrise Maiden, and Pathfinder Flip-mat: Carnival. The other two are reprints from the Pathfinder Flip-mat Classics line: Darklands and Battlefield. Both are popular mats which are pretty heavily used in Pathfinder Society Scenarios.

PZO9490 — Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of the Ancients

But, the most exciting new release? The Jungle of Despair pre-painted plastic minis! Like the rest of the randomized Pathfinder Battles minis, they come in four-figure boosters (with one large and three medium minis inside). You can also buy a brick (which is eight booster boxes) or a case (which contains four bricks).

Whatever you’re interested in, there’s a lot of neat stuff coming out this month. Far more than I could indulge in, that’s for sure! It’s the two pawn collections that I’m most interested in getting my hands on. That and the Scourge of the Farheavens PFS scenario. What about you? What are you most excited for from Paizo’s upcoming products? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Jessica

New Starfinder Society Scenarios: Ashes of Discovery & On the Trail of History

Today we’re going to take a look at the two most recent Starfinder Society Scenarios that are currently available for purchase, and let you know we thought. Although you’ll find references to events in each that I liked or disliked, and comments about specific characters, these scenarios are not explored in detail. It’s not my intention to spoil the events in these scenarios, or give summaries and full reviews, but to share my opinions and provide recommendations. That said, if you want to avoid even minor spoilers I recommend you check out a different article. Whether you intend to use them in home games of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, sanctioned scenarios for use with the Starfinder Society Organized Play, or just want to read a nifty new adventure, we’ve got you covered! So sit back, and get ready to explore the Pact Worlds!

Scenario # 1-12: Ashes of Discovery is a Tier 1-4 adventure which takes place on an abandoned outpost in Near Space. It has the repeatable tag and features starship combat. As a repeatable scenario, this adventure can be played once with every character (as opposed to once per player), which is AWESOME and makes it easier to get some much needed experience for low level characters. In addition, it features randomized mechanical and story elements, which means that each time you play it will be slightly (or very) different. These randomized elements include what special abilities the enemies have, the atmosphere of the planet, attitudes and cultural quirks of the locals, what corporation the colony once belonged to, and much, much more. I was super impressed with how completely these randomized elements could change the scenario. I fully intend to play this one through with every character I ever make for SFS play. The only difficulty? With a scenario this randomized it’s really up to the GM to sell the environments, characters, and atmosphere. With a GM not willing to put their all into running this delightful scenario, it could fall flat.

So what’s this scenario about? Recently a corporation discovered records of a long abandoned outpost they haven’t had contact with in centuries. They’ve hired to Starfinders to head on down to the planet–cleverly named Colony-753–and have a look see. Your Starfinder will get to explore an unknown planet, deal with hazards and wildlife, befriend the locals and survive a bit of wild weather. Basically, this scenario is a wonderful example of what being a Starfinder is all about! It features Guidance, an AI created from the memories and knowledge of previous Starfinders. Unlike the other repeatable scenario (#1-01: The Commencement, which also happens to be Guidance’s first appearance), this one really lived up to my expectations. It was wonderful. Overall, I highly recommend Ashes of Discovery. I give it five out of five stars.

sfs 1-12 - ashes of discovery - besmaran whelp — Besmaran whelp from SFS #1-12: Ashes of Discovery. Art courtesy of Paizo Inc.

Scenario #1-13: On the Trail of History is a Tier 3-6 adventure which takes place on an unchartered planet in the Vast known as Icefront, or Izalraan to the natives. It has the Faction (Second Seekers [Luwazi Elsebo] scenario tag and features starship combat. In addition to being of great importance to the Second Seekers (Luwazi Elsebo) faction, this scenario also contributes to the ongoing year of the Scoured Stars storyline. Following a lead discovered in Scenario #1-11: In Pursuit of the Scoured Past, First Seeker Elsebo sends the Starfinders on an expedition to a planet that could have a connection to the Scoured Stars incident. Tasked with finding out whatever they can about the planet, and a relic believed to have landed there, the group must deal with a strange environment, and dangerous locals. Unlike similar scenarios, this adventure features a whole lot more than you’d expect, the mysterious introduction of what’s sure to be an important part of the Scoured Stars plot line, and some delightful moral dilemmas. Those of you who have played through #1-05: The First Mandate, will find that one of your boons might earn you an extra hint or two. Overall, this was an awesome scenario, that was very different from those that have come before. I give it five out of five stars.

sfs 1-13 - on the trail of history - jinsul ship — A mysterious ship… Art courtesy of Paizo Inc.

starfinder society agent — A Starfinder Society Agent from the Starfinder Society Guild Guide. Art Courtesy of Paizo Inc.

And that’s all for today! Thanks for joining us on our exploration of the wonderful new scenario’s available this month. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about them as much as I have. Both scenarios look like a ton of fun, and I can’t wait until I have a chance to run them for my family, or play them myself. My son’s been super curious about the mystery of the Scoured Stars incident, so I can’t wait to tell him about what’s waiting for him down the line.

Until next time,

Jessica

Space Rabbits and Radioactive Robots

Just the other day we took a look inside the covers of the Starfinder Roleplaying Game: Alien Archive. I shared some of my favourite creatures, spoke about what the book contains, and touched on the easy and adaptable monster and NPC creation process. My children and I tested out the creation system, and today, we’re going to share what they made in order to emphasize just how fun and easy it is.

Now, it should be noted, that my children are young. My daughter turned six last month, while my son turned seven last month. This means that if they can do it, you can do it.

Now, where to start?

The first step is the concept and CR. My daughter immediately decided to make a colossal rabbit which flies through space, firing laser beams from her eyes, breathing fire from her nose, and feeding off the electrical energy of space storms, starships, asteroids, and even other living beings. It’s quite big and strong, so she’s hoping to make it a CR 10 or so. And my son? He made radioactive robots! As their creators and their societies were destroyed by nuclear war, some of the robots survived the devastation. Damaged from the blast and the centuries that have passed since, these robots have broken chassis, exposed wiring, and scratched and dented frames. Their solar panels no longer work, but they absorbed a huge amount of radiation, and function on nuclear power, instead. He’s aiming for a lower powered monster, making it CR 3.

The next step is to choose the creature’s array, which is its role in combat. Although my daughter strongly debated changing around her concept to make her space rabbits spellcasters, in the end she stuck to her original concept, and made her space rabbits a combatant. My son chose the same. Once you know your array you check out the associated charts and get all of your statistics for the creature. We wrote these down, and got ready for the next step: selecting a creature type. My daughter’s space rabbits were going to be magical beasts, and didn’t need a subtype. This means they’ll be getting dark vision, low-light vision, +2 to Fortitude and Reflex saving throws, and +1 on attack rolls. Meanwhile, my son’s radioactive robots were going to be constructs, which grants his monster a -2 to all its saving throws, a +1 to its attack rolls, and some snazzy traits including darkvision and construct traits. They would also have the technological subtype, which didn’t add any new abilities.

The next step is adding a class graft, which neither of my children’s creations needed. Skipping this step meant we would next be adding any any other templates they desired, which they also both decided against.

The next step they found the most fun: selecting special abilities and your creature’s attack forms. Their array and CR will determine how many abilities they can choose. In addition, some abilities are free. It should also be noted that this number is a guideline, and can be altered as necessary to make your monster concept come to life. The special abilities you can select include things like feats, universal monster abilities, and statistic increases. You can also select abilities that show up in other stat blocks.

So what did they choose? Well, our space rabbits already have darkvision and low-light vision from being a magical beast, but my daughter was very intrigued with the idea of giving them blindsight (voltage), which would allow them to detect and see electrical fields to a range of 60 feet. If she did choose to add this, it would count as one special ability. Attacks are necessary to the creature, so the natural attacks it would receive (a piercing bite and laser beam eyes) would be free of charge. Other free abilities creatures receive is anything that they require to survive in their environments. For our space rabbits this means they need immunity to cold and a vacuum, as well as the no breath ability. Because of her CR she’d get a third immunity, so my daughter chose electricity.

Which brings us to our second special ability! Space rabbits would get a breath weapon which shoots out a super heated blast of energy–fired from their nose, of course! She also contemplated taking the swallow whole ability, but was undecided. This would be their third ability, if she chose to select it. And lastly, they’d need a supernatural fly speed so that they can move around in space. Luckily, movement speeds (within reason) are also free. That left her with three abilities. Her chart suggested having two, but, as mentioned, you can go over within reason (or under, for that matter). There was one other ability my daughter thought they needed: the ability to land upon and leave planets safely. After all, how could they escape a planet’s gravity with only a 60 ft. move speed…? We left my daughter to mull this over, and moved on to help my son.

PZO7109 — Starfinder Roleplaying Game: Alien Archive 2, due out in October,is currently available for preorder!

So what did our radioactive robots need? Well, unlike the rabbits, they didn’t need any special abilities to survive in their environment, nor did they need a fancy move speed. Just walking was fine. As a construct, they would already have plenty of immunities and snazzy traits, so he didn’t want to add to that. The robot’s natural attacks would be a slam attack. Originally this would have done bludgeoning damage, but my son adores the idea of them broken and crackling with electricity, so he decided it does bludgeoning and electricity damage. He also gave it the arc critical ability. To represent that the robots are already broken open and damaged, he gave them a weakness: vulnerable to critical hits. The first special ability he knew he wanted to give them was an aura of radiation. Due to their minor CR, it would only be low level radiation, which he thought was a little disappointing–especially since they would be found on a radiated planet and the PCs would likely already have their armour’s environmental protections up (which would make them immune to low levels of radiation). We decided to revisit the radiation levels later, and continue on with planning. For their ranged attack, he decided that they would shoot out a beam of their internal nuclear energy–an attack against EAC which would deal fire damage. He wants them to explode upon destruction, so we gave them the self-destruct special ability, but we were torn on whether to make it deal fire or electricity damage–fire to represent their minor nuclear explosion, and electricity to represent their sparking, glitching exposed wiring. In the end we decided to make it deal fire. There was one other thing he wanted to make his robots do: spark with electricity when touched in melee combat. We decided that this would do only minor damage, just a single zap of damage to anyone touching them with a manufactured or natural melee attack. And that was it! He was happy.

From there we chose which skills each creature would be best with, a simple step which was over in a flash. Then you select spells and spell-like ability–if your monster has a spell casting class graft or a special ability which grants them casting. Neither of our creatures did, so all that was left was to put it together and check it over.

So how did it turn out? Take a peek for yourself.

GALACTIC RABBIT

CR 10 XP 9,600
N Colossal magical beast
Init +5; Senses blindsense (electicity) 60 ft., darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +24

DEFENSE HP 165
EAC 23; KAC 25
Fort +14; Ref +14; Will +9
Immune cold, electricity, vacuum

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft. (Su, good); thermal flight (speed 6; maneuverability good (turn 1))
Melee bite +21 (2d8+18 P plus swallow whole)
Ranged eye lasers +19 (3d4+10 F)
Offensive Abilities breath weapon (70 ft. cone, 11d6 F, DC 17, usable every 1d4 rounds), swallow whole (1d6+15 F, EAC 23, KAC 21, 41 HP)
Space 30 ft.; Reach 20 ft.

STATISTICS
Str +8; Dex +5; Con +3; Int –2; Wis +2; Cha +0
Skills Acrobatics +24, Intimidate +19, Survival +19
Languages Sylvan (can’t speak any language)
Other Abilities no breath, thermal flight

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Eye Lasers (Ex): Galactic rabbits can fire laser beams from their eyes at a range of 120 feet. Despite having two eyes, both laser beams must be directed at the same target, and function as a single attack.

Thermal Flight (Su): Galactic rabbits can use the thermal energy stored in their stomachs to achieve incredible bursts of speed for a short time. This enables them to land upon and take off from planets without difficulty, and reach speeds equivalent to that of a spaceship. A galactic rabbit cannot activate thermal flight if they have used their breath weapon within four rounds. Once activated, the galactic rabbit gains shields as if it were a starship (20 shields, split evenly between its four quadrants), and a fly speed of 6 hexes (good maneuverability). This flight speed lasts for a number of minutes equal to the galactic rabbits CR (10 minutes for adult galactic rabbits). After activating thermal flight, galactic rabbits no longer have enough thermal energy to utilize their breath weapon, or thermal flight for 24 hours.

ECOLOGY
Environment space
Organization solitary, pair, or herd (2 galactic rabbits with 2–6 galactic bunnies)

GALACTIC BUNNY
CR 4 XP 1,200
N Large magical beast
Init +5; Senses blindsense (electicity) 60 ft., darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +15

DEFENSE HP 50
EAC 16; KAC 18
Fort +8; Ref +8; Will +3
Immune cold, electricity, vacuum

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft., fly 40 ft. (Su, average); thermal flight (speed 4; maneuverability average (turn 2))
Melee bite +12 (1d6+9 P plus swallow whole)
Ranged eye lasers +9 (1d4+4 F)
Offensive Abilities breath weapon (40 ft. cone, 5d6 F, DC 13, usable every 1d4 rounds), swallow whole (1d4 F, EAC 16, KAC 14, 12 HP)
Space 10 ft.; Reach 5 ft.

STATISTICS
Str +5; Dex +3; Con +1; Int –2; Wis +0; Cha +0
Skills Acrobatics +15, Intimidate +10, Survival +10
Languages Sylvan (can’t speak any language)
Other Abilities no breath, thermal flight

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Eye Lasers (Ex): Galactic bunnies can fire laser beams from their eyes at a range of 90 feet. Despite having two eyes, both laser beams must be directed at the same target, and function as a single attack.

Thermal Flight (Su): Galactic bunnies can use the thermal energy stored in their stomachs to achieve incredible bursts of speed for a short time. This enables them to land upon and take off from planets without difficulty, and reach speeds equivalent to that of a spaceship. A galactic bunny cannot activate thermal flight if they have used their breath weapon within four rounds. Once activated, the galactic bunny gains shields as if it were a starship (4 shields, split evenly between its four quadrants), and a fly speed of 4 hexes (average maneuverability). This flight speed lasts for a number of minutes equal to the galactic bunnies CR (4 minutes for galactic bunnies). After activating thermal flight, galactic bunnies no longer have enough thermal energy to utilize their breath weapon, or thermal flight for 24 hours.

ECOLOGY
Environment space
Organization solitary, litter (2-6), or herd (2 galactic rabbits with 2–6 galactic bunnies)

Galactic rabbits look surprisingly like their mundane counterparts—on a much large scale. Although capable of flying through any environment, galactic rabbits prefer to live in the void of space. They survive on electrical energy, and are capable of seeing it from great distances. They can devour any sources with electrical fields, including electrical devices, starships, satellites, asteroids, and even other lifeforms. They can also absorb it directly from space storms. Electricity is digested and stored as thermal energy in their stomachs. This thermal energy can be released in a superheated exhalation shot from their constantly twitching nose, or used to power extreme bursts of speed.

Although quite rare, galactic rabbits can wreak havoc on technologically advanced planets and starships and are often attacked with extreme prejudice when spotted. Because of their modest intelligence, Xenowardens often befriend galactic rabbits. In most cases, this is to protect them, or raise them as companions, while more violent xenowardens use them as a weapon against their enemies, releasing them upon corporate satellites, and exploitive colonies.

It is unknown how galactic rabbits came into being, although their ability to understand the language of the fey makes most scholars suggest that they are a beings of the fabled First World, or perhaps the result of fey experimentation upon the galactic rabbit’s mundane cousins. Whatever the case, galactic rabbits are here to stay, and are capable of procreating incredibly rapidly. Their offspring, galactic bunnies, are capable of living alone after only two months, and are full grown within a year. Galactic rabbits live for centuries, and can go for extended periods of time without feeding. They are capable of birthing two litters of young a year, if given even electrical currents to feed off of. Although this can easily overrun a planet, the galactic rabbit’s fondness for space means that this is rarely a problem. Even a horde of well-fed galactic rabbits cannot overpopulate the infinite solar systems.

There are rumours that a galactic rabbit exists deep in the Vast, so large it can devour an entire planet, and swallow the largest of starships whole. These rumours are unsubstantiated, and no reliable source has ever reported or proven such claims.

Radioactive Robot (Patrol Class)
CR 3 XP 800
N Medium construct (technological)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +8
Aura radiation (15 ft., DC 13)

DEFENSE HP 40
EAC 14; KAC 16
Fort +3; Ref +3; Will +1
Immunities construct immunities, electrified exterior
Weaknesses vulnerable to critical hits

OFFENSE
Speed 20 ft.
Melee slam +12 (1d6+7 B & E; critical arc 1d4)
Ranged nuclear beam +9 (1d4+3 F; critical burn 1d4)
Offensive Abilities self-destruct (1d6+3 F, DC 12)

STATISTICS
Str +4; Dex +2; Con —; Int —; Wis +1; Cha +0
Skills Athletics +8
Languages One local language (can’t speak any language)
Other Abilities mindless, unliving

SPECIAL ABILITIES
Aura of Radiation (Ex)
Due to the devastation of nuclear war or extremely radioactive environments, radioactive robots have absorbed extreme levels of radiation, and have evolved the ability to produce, store and redirect this energy without being harmed by it. A radioactive robot emanates low radiation out to 15 feet.

Electrified Exterior (Ex)
Radioactive robots are broken and damaged, and spark with electricity. Making physical contact with a radioactive robot can cause electrocution. Any creature that succeeds on a melee attack against a radioactive robot with a manufactured or natural weapon—even if this attack does not harm the radioactive robot—takes 1 electricity damage.

Self-destruct (Ex)
A radioactive robot is highly unstable and self-destructs when it is reduced to 0 HP, dealing an amount of fire damage equal to 1d6 + the robot’s CR to all creatures in a 10-foot-radius burst. A creature can attempt a Reflex saving throw to reduce this damage by half. This ability destroys any technological components that could have been salvaged from the radioactive robot.

Radioactive Robot (Enforcer Class)
CR 7 XP 3,200
N Large construct (technological)
Init +2; Senses darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision; Perception +14
Aura radiation (30 ft., DC 17)

DEFENSE HP 105
EAC 19; KAC 21
Fort +7; Ref +7; Will +4
Immunities construct immunities, electrified exterior
Weaknesses vulnerable to critical hits

OFFENSE
Speed 30 ft.
Melee slam +18 (2d6+12 B & E; critical arc 1d6)
Ranged nuclear beam +15 (2d6+7 F; critical burn 1d6)
Offensive Abilities self-destruct (1d6+7 F, DC 15)

STATISTICS
Str +5; Dex +4; Con —; Int —; Wis +2; Cha +0
Skills Athletics +14
Languages One local language (can’t speak any language)
Other Abilities mindless, unliving

ECOLOGY
Environment any environment with high levels of radiation
Organization solitary, pair, unit (3-4 radioactive robots attempting to complete a similar objective)

Radioactive robots are found in places where nuclear war or high levels of radiation have destroyed technologically advanced societies. The few robots who survive such destruction are battered and broken—sparking with electricity form their exposed, tattered wiring and circuitry. These robots have absorbed the radiation around them, and use it to power themselves. Mindless and glitching they wander aimlessly, sometimes attempting to continue their original purposes, and other times corrupted to the point of senseless violence. They never wander far from their radioactive environments.

Radioactive robots can be found in localized areas of devastation, like the ruins of exploded nuclear reactors, or the wreckage of crashed starships that were once powered by nuclear engines. They can also be found in large swaths of territories that have high radiation levels, like the desert wastes of a planet destroyed by nuclear war, or natural phenomenon. They are a common sight on the ghibrani homeworld of Elytrio, which was devastated by thermonuclear war, and Jasterax, a planet in the Vast wracked with fierce storms of radioactive rain.

I hope you enjoyed reading about our creations as much as we enjoyed making them. My kids and I had a blast, and they couldn’t be more proud with what they’ve developed.

Have any creations you’d like to share with us? Let us know in the comments!

See you soon,

Jessica (and kids)

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