Gnome – d20 Diaries

Faiths of Golarion

Faiths of Golarion Cover Hey everyone! Thanks for stopping by. Today we’re taking a look between the the covers of the latest ‘gods’ book: Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Faiths of Golarion! Although I’ll be mentioning what’s in this book and talking about my favourite parts, this is not meant to replace the book itself. The opposite, in fact! It’s meant to let you know what’s inside so you can decide for yourself whether this is a book that will be of use to you. For me? Definitely! Curious what’s inside? Read on!

Featuring cover art by Igor Grechanyi that showcases the gods Gruhastha, Hei Feng, and Nivi Rhombodazzle, this soft cover book is 64 pages in length. Other contributing artists include Gislaine Avila, Emanuele Desiati, Vlada Hladkova, Sandra Posada, Luca Sotgiu, and Vicky Yarova. Contributing authors include Kate Baker, John Compton, Adam Daigle, Crystal Frasier, Ron Lundeen, Liane Merciel, Michael Sayre, and Owen K.C. Stephens.

Like the many god and faith themed books before it, this book takes an up close look at a variety of faiths, talking about the gods and goddesses, their faith, church, priests, worshippers, holy texts, holidays, aphorisms, planar allies, and so on. It also features information on their alignment, domains, subdomains, favoured weapons, centres of worship, paladin and anitpaladin codes (if there is one), obediences, and boons (usable by those who take the deific obedience feat, or take levels in the exalted, evangelist, or sentinel prestige classes from Inner Sea Gods). There’s plenty of awesome art in this book, with each faith discussed having four images: one of the deity, one of the holy symbol, one of a worshipper, and one action shot of the deity.

Faiths of Golarion - Faiths There are ten faiths discussed in this book. Each is a lesser detailed but very important faith. This includes a few racial faiths — the halfling goddess Chaldira Zuzaristan, the gnome goddess Nivi Rhombodazzle, the elf god Ketephys, and the dwarf god Magrim. It also includes information on deities from other regions of Golarion such as the Tien gods Hei Feng, Shizuru, and Tsukiyo, as well as the anadi goddess Grandmother Spider who is popular in the Shackles and Sodden Lands, the Vudrani god Gruhastha who is popular in Vudra, and the Razatlani goddess Kazutal who is popular in Arcadia. Each of these faiths is incredibly important to their respective cultures and I’m thrilled to see them get some of the attention they deserve. Information on the racial deities, especially, I feel was long overdue. Before sitting down to read this book I was most excited for further information on Ketephys, Shizuru, and Tsukiyo. All of the entries were great, but after reading I was most inspired to make worshippers of Grandmother Spider, Kazutal, and Tsukiyo.

So who, exactly, are these deities?

So glad you asked!

Chaldira Zuzaristan is a brash and reckless halfling demigoddess of battle, luck, and mischief. She fights against oppressors, tyrants, and injustice, trusting in her luck and companions to see her through. A bit of a thieving troublemaker, but not malicious, Chaldira is good friends with the goddess Desna, who shares her love of travel. One of my favourite parts of the article on Chaldira is her eccentric planar allies, particularly her herald The Button Fellow.

Chaldira Zuzaristan

Grandmother Spider is a cunning goddess of twilight, illusions, family, and weaving. Created by the gods as a tool be used alongside her brother, Achaekek, Grandmother Spider was tasked with weaving the world and the destiny of the mortals in it. But she rebelled against the gods and wove a new destiny for herself, granting herself free will and divinity. She’s a trickster, teacher, and folk hero. I particularly enjoyed reading about her relationships with the other gods — she once stole Asmodeus’ keys and enjoys teasing her brother Achaekek. Who doesn’t want to irritate the assassin of the gods?! Haha. I also adore all the art in this section!

Gruhastha is the vudrani god of peace, understanding, and self-improvement. Once Irori’s nephew he sought to record his knowledge for the world. Upon completing his perfect book, the Azvadeva Pujila, he became the divine embodiment of that holy text. Now Gruhasta seeks to enlighten the world so that one day it will be so perfect it becomes one with Nirvana. Interesting!

Hei Feng is a wild and unpredictable tengu god who is very popular in Tian Xia. A moody god of the sea, storms, thunder, and wind, he is always accompanied by his four companions, the Counts of Lightning, Rain, Thunder, and Wind. Drunken, boisterous, and easily angered, Hei Feng is a dangerous deity. As one of the most popular Tian gods I’m happy to see he got some attention. Turned out Hei Feng is my son’s favourite god in the book.

Kazutal is a deity I didn’t know much about, but wow! She is awesome! Haha. Also known as Mother Jaguar, she’s a war goddess whose focus changed over the Age of Darkness, when community and togetherness became integral for survival. Now a goddess of war, family, togetherness, community, liberty, and safety, she promotes a love of your neighbours, family, and friends. This love should be spoken of plainly and without shame, for its these bonds of love that cause neighbours to have the courage to stand up and protect one another. It’s love that makes communities strong. Those who don’t show love of others are considered cowards. Which is awesome! I really enjoyed reading about her faith’s take on love, and the evolution of her religion. I also adore the art in this section! It’s amazing!

Kazutal, illustrated by Vlada Hladkova. Art courtesy of Paizo inc.

Kazutal Priest, illustrated by Vlada Hladkova. Art courtesy of Paizo Inc.

Ketephys is the calm, stoic elven god of hunting, the moon, and the forest. He’s a god of archery, and urges his followers to respect nature, replace what they take, and never waste. This is one of the gods I was most excited to see included in Faiths of Golarion, as the elven deities were among those created back when Pathfinder didn’t have it’s own rules, and I feel like I’ve been waiting forever for further details on them. There are some details, of course. A paragraph or two throughout the various Paizo products, but I wanted more. I would have been happy to see details on any of them, but I’m particularly pleased to see its Ketephys.

Ketephys Worshipper — A worshipper of Ketephys planting a garden.

Magrim is another deity that’s been around since the beginning of Pathfinder but lacked much information. The dwarven god of death, fate, tradition, and the underworld, he’s fair, unflinching, and unwavering. Magrim considers Pharasma a respected elder, and is often tasked by her to repair damaged spirits that enter the Boneyard. I really enjoyed learning how Magrim fit alongside Pharasma, and his role in the dwarven afterlife.

Nivi Rhombodazzle is about as different as Magrim as you can get. This gnome gambler fled underground to escape her many angry creditors and ended up becoming the first of the svirfneblin after she traded a rare gem to Torag in exchange for divinity. Talk about a deal! Nivi’s an impulsive daredevil addicted to the thrill of a wager. She urges others to test their skill, push their luck, and experience the best life has to offer. And when luck turns against you and you’re in a lot of debt? Run, of course! Best of luck! Haha. She’s a tricky, thieving little thing whose faith is said to hold the key to staving off the Bleaching.

Hei Feng proves to be a poor loser in this art featuring Gruhastha, Hei Feng, and Nivi Rhombodazzle. Illustrated by Vicky Yarova. Art courtesy of Paizo Inc.

Shizuru is another of the gods I was most interested in reading about. This draconic Tien goddess is also known as the Empress of Heaven, and is the main deity of the Tien pantheon. A goddess of honour, swordplay, the sun, and ones ancestors, she’s incredibly popular among the people of Tian Xia and players of Pathfinder. I particularly enjoyed reading about her relationship with Tsukiyo, her lover who died and came back to life changed.

Which brings us to Tsukiyo, the final deity in Faiths of Golarion. Killed by his own jealous brother, Tsukiyo was the beloved of Shizuru. But his lover couldn’t accept his death and she ordered Qi Zhong, god of medicine and healing, to bring his back to life. It worked, but Tsukiyo came back changed. Now quiet, contemplative, and possessing an uncommon outlook, he is god of the moon, spirits, and outsiders. He teaches that no matter a person’s perceived flaws and oddities, all are a whole person deserving of respect. This applies to those society shuns, deems insane, are disabled, or those suffering from mental illness. I absolutely love what they did with Tsukiyo. Delightful from start to finish.

Tsukiyo, illustrated by Sandra Posada. Art courtesy of Paizo Inc.

A priestess of Tsukiyo.

Which brings us to the end of Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Faiths of Golarion! If you’re a fan of learning about the many deities of Golarion (like I am) I highly recommend picking up this book!

Enjoy!

Jessica

Pathfinder Society Scenarios: The Daughters’ Due and Corpses in Kalsgard

Today we’re going to take a look at two of the most recent Pathfinder 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 then I recommend clicking on a different article. Whether you intend to use these scenarios in home games of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, sanctioned scenarios for use with the Pathfinder Society Organized Play, or just want to read a nifty new adventure, we’ve got you covered! So let’s get cracking!

10-18 - The Daughters' Due Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-18: The Daughters’ Due is a Tier 5-9 adventure written by Thurston Hillman. It begins in the Blakros Museum and quickly moves to Shadow Absalom. In addition to the Core Rulebook it includes content from the Advanced Player’s Guide, Ultimate Equipment, and Ultimate Wilderness. It features creatures from Bestiary, Bestiary 2, and Bestiary 5 (although all of the necessary stat blocks are included within the scenario). It utilizes Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Carnival, and Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Slum Quarter, and a half-page custom map that will look very familiar to some players. For more information on the Shadow Plane check out The Inner Sea World Guide and Planar Adventures, and for more information on Shadow Absalom check out Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Distant Realms.

Daughter's Due - Chalos Visanda - Illustration by Leonardo Santanna — Chalos Visanda from #10-18: The Daughters’ Due. Illustration by Leonardo Santanna. Art courtesy of Paizo Inc.

This adventure tasks the PCs with investigating four missing relics from the Blakros Museum which it’s curator, Nigel Aldain, insists were destroyed or stolen by Pathfinders during their many missions within the Blakros Museum over the years. His boss, Lady Hamaria Blakros, has invited the PCs to her museum to investigate or refute these claims. After this quick mystery the PCs can give their report to Hamaria and even pass judgement on Nigel himself — a turn of events that I’m sure many players will take a perverse joy in. Haha. From there the PCs head into Shadow Absalom, to track down the missing relics and retrieve them from the true thieves. PCs who have played in any of the Blakros-themed Pathfinder Society Scenarios over the years (there’s lots!) will find this mission more relevant and entertaining than those who haven’t. It’s particularly closely tied to the events of Pathfinder Society Scenario #2–11: The Penumbral Accords. PCs who have the “Acquainted with Aslynn” boon from Pathfinder Society #5-09: The Traitor’s Lodge and #7-09: The Blakros Connection have a chance to have a slightly different experience than players who haven’t, although its minor.

Start to finish, this scenario was an absolute joy! The investigations in the beginning of the scenario are interesting. There’s a wide variety of fun social encounters and quirky characters to interact with. The battles were challenging and dynamic, with one of them having the potential to be avoided with clever skill use. Best of all, this scenario includes multiple ways in which the PCs can make important decisions which will come to influence the Pathfinder Society in the future. Overall, I thought this was an excellent scenario that’s going to be a ton of fun to play. It brings the Blakros/Onyx Alliance storyline to a nice ‘conclusion’ for First Edition, which is clearly going to be picked up again in Second Edition. I can’t wait to see where it goes from here!

10-19 - Corpses in Kalsgard Pathfinder Society Scenario #10-19: Corpses in Kalsgard is a Tier 5-9 Adventure written by Alex Riggs. It begins in Iceferry but primarily takes place in Kalsgard, a major city in the Land of the Linnorm Kings. For more information on these locations check out The Inner Sea World Guide, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Lands of the Linnorm Kings and Pathfinder Adventure Path 50: Night of Frozen Shadows (Jade Regent 2 of 6). In addition to the Core Rulebook, Corpses in Kalsgard includes content from the Advanced Class Guide and Advanced Player’s Guide. It features creatures and monster templates from Bestiary, Horror Adventures, and Pathfinder Adventure Path 81: Shifting Sands (Mummy’s Mask 3 of 6) (although all of the necessary stat blocks are included within the scenario). It utilizes the Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: City Streets, Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Necropolis, Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Thieves’ Guild, and a custom full-page map. This mission is of particular importance to gnomes, followers of Nivi Rhombodazzle, and any characters who have an interest ensuring the dead are treated with respect, and deaths are properly investigated.

Corpses in Kalsgard - ElluxShost - Illustration by Hannah Boving — Ellux Shost, one of the gnomes PCs will have a chance to interact with during their investigation. Illustration by Hannah Boving. Art courtesy of Paizo Inc.

This adventure tasks the PCs with investigating a series of deaths in Kalsgard, all of which occurred in gnomes and were attributed to the Bleaching. Of course, the local priestess of Nivi Rhombodazzle, Quil Tabberdash refutes these claims. Venture-Captain Bjersig Torrsen and his husky Mahki dispatch the PCs to Kalsgard to meet up with Quil and get to the bottom of this mystery! PCs will have a chance to quickly check out a series of crime scenes, dead bodies, and petition neighbours and witnesses for information. As the mystery unravels the PCs will have a chance to follow two different avenues of inquiry with each resulting in a different encounter and event. To make matters even more exciting this is all happening on a backdrop of political turmoil in Kalsgard, and canny PCs can even pick up clues that this mission has a connection to an organization and Adventure Path I’ll leave unnamed. This scenario is a great little mystery that should move at a rapid pace. There’s lots of fun NPCs to interact with. Most are brief witness statements, but Quil is an absolute delight. I’ll leave the other NPCs and villains unmentioned to help prevent too many spoilers, but I will say I enjoyed them all. There’s quite a few fights in this one (although one will be excluded depending on your PCs actions), but it’s the final encounter that will likely prove most challenging. Particularly as the composition of the fight depends upon your PCs actions throughout the scenario. This means that some groups will find it difficult and others… less so. Although this could prove problematic, I think it’s a nice change of pace. I’d be interested to see how this plays out at game tables throughout the Organized Play Community. Overall I thought this was a fun and quirky murder mystery that made an effort to shake things up a bit. I particularly enjoyed that the PCs actions can alter the events and battles in this scenario. I give it four out of five stars.

Thanks for joining us today! We’ll see you again soon!

Jessica

Preparing for Adventure

For Valentine’s Day my seven-year old son received the D&D Starter Set. He was pretty proud of this turn of events, as it marked the very first d20 product he has ever personally owned. He has some hand-me-down books, of course. And he reads my books all the time, but this one? This one was HIS.

D&D Starter Set and the dice that come with it.

Dice from the D&D Starter Set

Contents of the D&D Starter Set

We opened it up and he ogled the beautiful blue dice it came with, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the swirling colours. He owns a good deal of dice, but this set is one of his favourite. They look great, and they’re really easy to read. We pulled out the Starter Set Rulebook and the adventure it came with, flipping through both to look at the pictures. And then he got to the loose papers.

Contents of the D&D Starter Set

Pre-generated characters from the D&D Starter Set

“What are these, Mom? Boss stats or something?”

I explained they were pre-generated characters.

“Why would I need those?”

“They’re for new players, dear. So you can just open the box, grab a character, and play.”

He looked at me like he’d been insulted. “I think I can handle making my own.”

I laughed. “You’ve never played D&D before.”

Another look like he’d been insulted. “I’ll learn.”

He settled into his bed and read through the little booklets and soon came to three realizations. First: Most of the information in the books was stuff he already knew. Second: There was no information on how to make his own characters. And third: I would DM for him. It was just more fun that way.

I pulled down our D&D Player’s Handbook and opened it up. We settled onto the couch together but, as my son soon pointed out, he could do it himself. Not long afterwards he announced. “I’m going to be an really old dragonborn rogue named Old Sorewing. His clan was destroyed, but he saved all the kids from the clan and brought them with him to Neverwinter. That’s the city that the adventure starts in, Mom. His old clan was called the Dogbone Fliers. But he made the dragonborn whelps his new clan. They are called the Fishgut Clan, cause they survive on fish they scavenge from the ocean. They live in the sewers, and abandoned buildings and stuff. And Old Sorewing robs and steals to support his whelps. He’s their leader, you know. But, one day he paid a guy named Gundren Rockseeker with fake coins — that’s the guy who hires us in the adventure by the way. And he got caught. And Gundren said that if Old Sorewing didn’t do a job for him he would send the cops after his whelps! And Old Sorewing doesn’t want that! His Clan is his flaw. So he is going to do a job for Gundren. Now find me a character sheet, Mom. And write all that down for me.”

“And here I thought you could do it yourself,” I replied.

“MOM,” my son huffed. “Fine. Get me a pencil, too. And an eraser! I will need one of those.”

D&D Player’s Handbook

Old Sorewing the Dragonborn

A few minutes later we were settled at the table, working on his character sheet. My son was surprised at how quick and easy making a character was. He’s used to playing Pathfinder, so in comparison making a D&D character is easy. Sure enough, he stuck with his plan. He made an old dragonborn with white scales who was graying in places. He has a white dragon as his draconic ancestry and can breathe out a cone of cold. He wears fake wings on his back, and a fake tail (to make him look like a real scary dragon!). He chose the criminal background, and took the gear packages that came with his class and background. Old Sorewing is incredibly smart, charismatic, and dextrous, with Strength and Constitution both tied for his lowest stats. He’s trained in Deception, Intimidation, Perception, Persuasion, Sleight of Hand, and Stealth. He fights with a rapier and a shortbow. My son filled in his sheet, draw a picture of his character, and explained his background, flaws, and traits again, so I could write it all down for him.

“Is that it?” he asked.

“Yup, that’s all.”

“That was easy. I like that. But I also kind of don’t. There weren’t many… choices. To make me different from other rogues.”

“Dear, I promise you, Old Sorewing is very different from other rogues. He’s going to be great.”

“Yeah, but only cause of his story and stuff. Don’t I get a feat at least?”

“Nope. No feats. Although you can choose to take one at higher levels instead of increasing an ability score, if you want. You don’t need to worry about that now, though. In a few levels you’ll get to make some more choices for your rogue. That’ll make you feel more unique.”

“Well, alright…” he said, still uneasy with how easy it had been.

“You do have one more job, though, dear,” I pointed out. “Convince your father and sister to make their own characters.”

My son grinned and was off. Convincing my daughter to make a new character is the easiest thing in the world.

“Hey, come make a — ” my son started. But before he had even finished his sentence my daughter cut him off.

She raced to the table shouting, “I heard! I want to make a goblin named Zig who is a bard and wants to help people! I’ll shout, ‘ZIG HELP!’ all the time!” She laughed and leaned over to whisper to me. “I got that idea from the character Zig from that Pathfinder Society Scenario we are playing, Mom. Zig is the BEST!” (Zig is from PFS #10-06: Treason’s Chains)

I laughed and whispered. “I know. We’re all playing it together, remember? But goblins aren’t a playable race in D&D.”

“Well, fine. I’ll be a gnome then. Now get the dice!”

Making Zig!

My daughter had a ton of fun making her new character. In the end she decided to make a Forest Gnome Bard Entertainer. Charisma was her best stat, with Dexterity, Constitution, and Intelligence all a close second. Her Wisdom was low, and her Strength was even worse. She chose to be proficient in the mandolin, harmonica, piano, and flute. For skills she chose Animal Handling (of course!), Acrobatics, Performance, Nature, and Survival. For cantrips she selected dancing lights and message (along with minor illusion, which she gets for being a forest gnome). Her first level spells were animal friendship, feather fall, healing word, and speak with animals. She loves the idea of the ritual spells! From there she started filling out her background. She decided that Zig was trained by the fey as a bard and is the youngest bard in gnomish history. She has a pet rabbit named Ziggy, that she loves very much. In fact, the rabbit is the only family she has. What happened to the rest? Tragedy, of course! One day when she was very young, Zig’s grandfather was attacked by a werewolf and barely escaped with his life! Unfortunately, he became a werewolf the next full moon and ate everyone in her whole family! Zig only escaped with the help of her fairy friends! To this day, Zig is terrified of lycanthropes of all kinds (a trait she shares with my daughter).

“But, all that sad stuff is a secret, Mom!” my daughter explained, “Because she doesn’t want to talk about it!”

Fair.

With a bit more work, my daughter decided that Zig loved animals more than anything. She sings songs about animals, in the hopes she can make her audience love them as much as she does. She also sings to animals, which is one of her favourite things to do. If an animal is in danger, Zig will selflessly hurl herself in the way (“Zig save!”) and if she finds out an animal is abused she’ll sneak back later to free it (“Zig free!”). And, of course, Zig loves to help. In fact, she even tries to help when she’s horrible at it. (“Zig help!”).

“I am SO EXCITED!” my daughter shrieked as we finished up her character.

“Me too,” I replied. “She’s going to be a lot of fun.”

My husband was next. He whipped up a half-elf paladin of Kord named Argo Grey. Raised by the priests at the church of Kord in Neverwinter, Argo had a thorough education, but always had a hard time focusing. He was constantly daydreaming of adventure and glory. Although pious, Argo wasn’t meant for book learning. He was meant for sports! He became a competitive athlete, but to this day he needs to stop and reference his holy book whenever he’s asked to recite a prayer or perform a ceremony. As the only half-elf in the church, Argo covered his ears with a bandana, to hide his heritage as a way to better fit in with his peers. It became habit, and he still passes himself off as a human whenever possible. Tying his character into the upcoming adventure, he decided that Argo was once mentored by Sildar Hallwinter, a man who was acting as a guard for Gundren.

Strength, Constitution, and Charisma are all Argo’s highest ability scores, with Dexterity a distant second, average Wisdom, and poor Intelligence. He fights with a longsword and javelins, and wears sturdy chain mail and a shield. He chose the acolyte background, and ended up proficient in Athletics, Insight, Medicine, Perception, Persuasion, and Religion. Like my son, my husband was a little disheartened at the lack of extra options at level one. Although he likes the simplicity and ease with which you can create characters, he also likes making decisions. There wasn’t all that much to fiddle with at level one. Still, he was excited to give Argo a whirl, and looks forward to selecting a fighting style and sacred oath at later levels.

Creating Argo Grey, the half-elf paladin of Kord.

Creating Eldeth Darkvein, the creepy dwarf warlock.

Which left me. Shockingly we had no major arcane caster, which is a role I never get to fill at home, so I decided immediately to take the opportunity to make one. I was going to make a sorceress, but frankly, as a fan of the many different bloodlines available in Pathfinder, having only two options for sorcerer bloodlines wasn’t cutting it for me. Wizards are always fun, but I decided to make a Warlock. It’s not something I’ve made before and I enjoy playing a creepy weirdo now and then. And her race? Dwarf, obviously! It’s one of my favourite races.

I created a hill dwarf named Eldeth, who was once a soldier in the dwarven infantry. She was tasked with escorting a eccentric sage to an old ruin underground. While there she discovered a beautiful green orb, which she felt compelled to claim for her own. Unfortunately, her unit was attacked by duergar and taken captive. While imprisoned, Eldeth had strange visions. Her fellows believed she was going mad. In her dreams the orb was speaking to her, and in one particularly lucid fever dream she accepted its aid. Only it wasn’t a dream. Eldeth had been bound to the orb and it’s fiendish master. In exchange she was granted the power to escape. She returned to her people much changed. She was deathly pale, with dark black veins around her eyes, inner arms, and over her heart. Her irises had turned black, as had her once vibrant hair. They called her Eldeth Darkvein, sole survivor of the Stonton Massacre, and though they were happy she returned home, she made them uneasy. She couldn’t spar with her fellow soldiers — she was too violent. And when she bled her blood came out a thick black ooze. It wasn’t long before she was ‘honourably’ discharged, and went on ‘vacation’ to the surface. Her clan was relieved, but Eldeth had lost her purpose. All she had left was the orb, and her fiendish master, which whispered dark thoughts to her. She hated and loved it, which terrified her. Recently a dwarf she used to know, Gundren Rockseeker, offered her some simple guard work, escorting a caravan from Neverwinter to the tiny town of Phandalin, which she accepted. Few folks would give her work these days, and she needed the coin.

Constitution is Eldeth’s highest ability score, with Strength and Charisma a close second. Her Dexterity is fair, her Intelligence is average, but she’s weak-willed, with a poor Wisdom score. She’s a warlock with a fiendish patron, and the Soldier background. She gained proficiency with Arcana, Athletics, Intimidation, and Investigation, and chose to fight armoured and with her trusty battleaxe. For cantrips she selected eldritch blast (of course!) and prestidigitation. For first level spells she chose hellish rebuke and comprehend languages. Eldeth is power hungry, dour, and intimidating. Traumatized by her time as a prisoner of the duergar, Eldeth is paranoid everyone is out to get her, and terrified of being imprisoned or enslaved. She hopes to one day discover the identity of the demon she accidentally bound herself to, but hasn’t had any luck yet. When she thinks no one is looking she talks to her orb, holding it close and whispering gently.

With all our characters ready to go we sifted through our minis and each picked one out. We were ready to begin the adventure from the D&D Starter Set: Lost Mine of Phandalin. Or rather, everyone was ready but me. I still had to read the adventure.

Our heroes!

Character sheets complete!

And… we’re ready!

Thanks for joining us today! Tune in later this week for a review on the contents of the D&D Starter Set, and a campaign update on our first session playing Lost Mine of Phandelver!

Jessica

Shackled City: Part Six: Kazmojen

Welcome back to Cauldron, home of the The Shackled City Adventure Path! When we last left off our heroic musicians were investigating a series of missing person cases which recently culminated in the abduction of four children from a local orphanage. Fate led to our characters taking the rescue of these people upon themselves! They’ve tracked down the kidnappers, and discovered an underground complex run by slavers. They’ll have to work fast if they want to save their fellow citizens before they’re sold!

If none of this sounds familiar you can read this blog post, which details our characters, or continue on with this article to hear a quick summary and jump right into the action! You can also check out our previous adventures in Shackled City: Part One, Shackled City: Part Two: A Mystery!, Shackled City: Part Three: Jzadirune, Shackled City: Part Four: Enter the Malachite Fortress, and Shackled City: Part Five: This Place is the Pits!

The Shackled City Adventure Path is available for purchase in its entirety here. The first volume, Life’s Bazaar, is available for purchase here.

shackled city adventure path d20diaries — The Shackled City Adventure Path is a 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons Adventure originally printed in Dungeon Magazine by Paizo Publishing.

The Heroes

Our eccentric heroes are all members of ‘Dinorabbit,’ a musical band that changes its name frequently and was most previously known as ‘Boople Snoot.’ The band’s lead singer and song-writer is Falco Rhiavadi, a foppish noble bastard of mixed Tien descent whose father was devoured by a dragon when Falco was just a boy. A well-groomed, handsome man with an easy smile and a winning personality, Falco’s a black sheep among his family. Mechanically Falco is an oracle of life whose familiar is a jealous and demanding thrush named Ruby. Falco is played by my husband.

Mick Frimfrocket is a gnome with dark blue skin, bright pink hair that stands straight up on his head, and light blue eyes with flecks of red around his pupils. He’s energetic, bold, and loves nothing more than a good laugh! Mick acts as the band’s pianist and creative director. He’s the driving force behind the band’s constant name changes, and over-the-top performances. Mick was born in Jzadirune but was brought to the city of Cauldron to escape the Vanishing. Orphaned by the mysterious events and with few memories of those early years, Mick was raised in the Lantern Street Orphanage — the very same orphanage that recently had four children kidnpapped right from their beds! Determined to save those little scamps, Mick was very excited to take up this missing person’s case and follow it to its conclusion — particularly when he realized that it led to his one-time home. Mechanically Mick is a monk / bard (prankster) who attacks with wild kicks while playing his piano in battle. Partway through exploring Jzadirune he came into possession of a broken magical construct. He’s played by my seven-year old son.

Rabbity Castalle is a rabbitfolk waitress who works at the Tipped Tankard Tavern. A dancer and singer for the band Dinorabbit, Rabbity also has a pet panther named Panthy. She’s lucky, nimble, and quick, but a little skittish. One of her co-workers is one of the people who was recently abducted, so she’s very keen to solve this mystery and return him home. Rabbity is a hydrokineticist played by my six-year old daughter, using the rabbitfolk race. Rabbitfolk are a Pathfinder Compatible race created by my daughter (with some help) which will soon be published in the upcoming Realms of Atrothia: Primary Expansion by Sunburst Games (Kickstarter coming in February!)

The final member of our party is Aeris Caldyra, a local locksmith who was cajoled by her roommate, Rabbity, to join the band as a percussionist and set designer. With few friends to call her own, Aeris relented to the rabbitfolk’s request and is the least talented member of the band. The last worshipper of Alseta in Cauldron, with more than a few secrets and regrets, Aeris is a suli bloodrager with a chip on her shoulder. Always one to lend a hand, like her Grandfather Marzio once would have done, Aeris is determined to rescue the missing citizens of Cauldron. Aeris is my character for the Shackled City Adventure Path.

Although that’s the last of our PCs, that’s not the last of our party. The members of Dinorabbit are also travelling with a half-orc janitor named Patch! Patch is a big, stuttering, fool who works at the Lantern Street Orphanage — the very same place he was raised. Patch recently got recruited to the Last Laugh Thieve’s Guild and was asked to watch over an orphan named Terrem. Unfortunately, Terrem was kidnapped on the very evening that Patch went out to meet with with the guild. Distraught over the boy’s disappearance, Patch was pressured by Falco and Mick into helping them rescue the kids. And so, the poor one-eyed janitor finds himself heading into danger.

the team - malachite fortress — The team!

The Adventure

Our eclectic crew of musicians, janitors, and locksmiths, retraced their steps and re-entered the forge. Our heroes had battled enemy hobgoblins and goblins here two sessions ago in an effort to free three citizens of Cauldron who had been labouring here. With the battle won they sent their travelling companion, Keygan Ghelve, off with the freed prisoners. It was his job to bring them back up to the city and see them safely to the Church of Adabar.

In the time since they had taken down dozens of hobgoblin guards, but knew there could be more. Seeing nothing amiss Mick headed over to the door they had yet to peek through. He listened against it but couldn’t make out anything. Opening the door led to a large dining room lined with benches and tables. It was empty at the moment, but stray dishes on the tabletop and a distant murmuring told them that enemies were not far away. The group quickly did a sweep of the room, listening at all the various doors. Three were silent, one sounded like a kitchen, and the last was very noisy. My family discussed their options. Noise might mean trouble, but the kitchen probably mean someone banging on a loud pot which could sound an alarm. And silence meant…

They weren’t sure.

Curious, my kids decided they should check out the quiet room first. They found a threadbare living room that slept at least three people, a pantry, and a larder. Nothing of interest. They moved towards the kitchen, when suddenly Panthy prickled up her ears. She wandered over to the noisy door and growled….

getting ready for game night - shackled city - malachite fortress — Game night!

“What is it, Panthy?” Rabbity asked. “You hear something?” Rabbity pricked her ears around. “I think… I think I hear a kid crying!”

“Well hurry up!” Mick exclaimed.

“Wait!” Falco proclaimed. He whispered something to his bird.

Ruby tweeted back melodically.

Mick drank a few defensive potions, Aeris drew her sword and Patch worried. When they were prepared, Falco quietly cracked open the door and peeked inside.

The room very large, with a raised stage in the back topped by three iron posts. Chains dangled from the top of the posts, ending at the manacled hands of three children. The kids from the orphanage! On the steps stood a strange figure in ill-fitting armour who looked like a mix between a dwarf and a troll. He clutched a fourth child by a chain around its neck and waved the kids face in front of another figure, this one a soft-looking gnomish fellow with blue skin, orange hair, and massive glasses.

“He’s good!” The troll-man bellowed.

“Oh, I don’t know about that Kazmojen!” the gnome-like creature argued. “I agreed I’d pay fifty gold for each child, but this one… This one is defective! There’s something about him I just can’t put my finger on.”

“Nonsense!” Kazmojen argued. “He’s got… spirit! Yes! Break him and he work harder than others. Forty-five!”

The gnome shook his head. “Oh, much too much work… And he spits!”

As if to punctuate this point the child spit in the gnome-like creature’s face. “I bite too!” he grinned.

Kazmojen yanked the child around by the chains clamped tight around his neck. Behind them a strange beast shifted. The quills that coated its back shook back and forth at the movement. The beast stretched its quadrupedal form and growled. It looked like some sort of quilled dog monster. A very large quilled dog monster.

While the trio argued over the cost of the kids, four other hobgoblins guarded the chamber. Two at a pair of double doors, one at a door across the room, and one at the door that Falco was peeking through.

“That’s Terrem they’re f-f-fighting over!” Patch whispered.

“The child that the Last Laugh Thieve’s Guild wanted you to protect?” Min asked back.

Patch nodded with worry.

“Ruby!” Falco whispered. “Do the thing!”

The bird fluttered into the room, chirping insults loudly in it’s sweet little voice. “HEY UGLY, OVER HERE!”

As the various ugly enemies turned to look at the offending bird, Rabbity shoved an invisibility potion in Panthy’s mouth with a clever grin. Then she pushed the door open hard so it smacked the hobgoblin on the other side in the back of the head. Rabbity clamped a hand over her mouth and giggled. Then she crouched down and whispered into the ear — she hoped — of her invisible panther.

Patch was too worried over the children — Terrem in particular — to wait any longer. He hurried into the room pointed at the people talking and stammered, “L-l-let the children g-g-go!”

Panthy slunk away from Rabbity — although what the panther was doing was a mystery. Mick stepped casually into the room and whistled a little tune. Then he made a funny face at the hobgoblin guard near the door. The guard let out a laugh. Then a giggle. With a confused look on his face he started laughing at the top of his lungs, then fell to the ground and laughed some more. Mick gave the hobgoblin a wink and casually stepped over him and into the room.

Aeris dashed into the room and held her sword out at the two slavers. “Leave the children or die!”

Falco stepped into the room and whacked the laughing hobgoblin in the head with his fine walking stick. Meanwhile, Ruby continued to taunt the hobgoblins. Rabbity managed to send a blast of water at another hobgoblin before the tall figure — Kazmojen — let out a loud laugh. He pointed at Patch. “You can’t have those three,” he said with a gesture at the crying chilling chained to the posts. “Them bought already. But you can have the biter. Forty-five gold!” Then he turned his hideous face on Aeris and pointed at her. “Kill.”

The dog-beast let out a loud howl and took a few paces forward.

“Now, now, Kazmojen. Kill HER you mean! Yes? Not kill me! Certainly not!” The little gnomish fellow hurried up the steps to the back of the room and hid behind an iron post.

Finally the hobgoblins leapt into action. One tried to shoot down the irritating bird, while the others moved to attack Patch. He took a few heavy blows and already looked near death! The battle had barely even started! Clutching his daggers tightly Patch fought back against the hobgoblins, with Mick soon joining him.

facing off against kazmojen — The epic battle against Kazmojen, Prickles, and his minions! My daughter can be seen calculating the results of her rolls on the flip-mat.

Aeris swung her blade at Kazmojen, but struck only his sturdy armour. Seeing her outnumbered, Falco hurried over and placed a hex on the leader, lowering his AC. Suddenly Panthy leapt upon Kazmojen, biting, and clawing, and tearing! His armour deflected most of the blows, but Panthy’s teeth tore a hole in the back of his leg. Kazmojen roared in pain and anger, while Rabbity laugh.

Kazmojen pointed at the Panthy. “Prickles, KILL.”

Prickles looked from Aeris to Panthy, trying to decide which looked most tasty. Apparently deciding the panther was the winner, the dog-beast turned on Panthy.

“NO!” Rabbity exclaimed. She raced closer to the dog-beast, pointed at Kazmojen, and shouted, “KILL, Prickles! KILL MASTER!”

Kazmojen scowled at the rabbitfolk. Meanwhile, Prickles turned to consider this predicament. After a few moments he bit Kazmojen! The troll-man roared in outrage and swung his axe at Rabbity, but the nimble little kineticist dodged backwards. Taking advantage of his distraction Terrem yanked his chain away from Kazmojen’s grasp and made a break for it, running across the hall an out of the main doors.

“I’m out of here!”the strange gnomish fellow exclaimed. Then he, too, turned and fled. One of the guards fled with him.

The battle raged on. Mick and Patch took down the hobgoblin guards with daggers and wild kicks. Falco kept up his hexes, lowering Kazmojen’s defences and foiling his aim. Rabbity shot water blasts at Kazmojen from afar, while Aeris fought him in melee with her sword. It was a tough fight! Patch went down halfway through and, with no time to go heal the poor fellow, all they could do was hope he would survive. Kazmojen turned most of his attention to Aeris, nearly knocking her unconscious multiple times. If not for Falco’s constant healing near the end of the fight she would have died.

A short while after Terrem fled they heard his scream. A deep, gravelly voice told him “YOU SHOULD NOT BE HERE, TERREM KARATYS.”

Mick dashed over to the main doors and whipped them open, hurrying off to help Terrem. He caught a glimpse of a massive floating head, covered with eyestalks and a huge central eye.

A beholder!

“COME TERREM! I SHALL RETURN YOU TO YOUR HOME.”

There was a sudden flicker of magic, and the beholder and Terrem both vanished.

“B… Be… BEHOLDER!” Mick stammered in shock. “He… Kid… OH, NO!”

By the time Mick rejoined the fight, Kazmojen had fallen and Prickles was eating him.

Exhausted and bleeding from dozens of wounds, Aeris dropped her sword and fell to her knees. Falco and Mick quickly gave her and Patch what healing they could. They drank the rest of their potion reserves and searched the room in the hopes of finding more. Aeris freed the children, while Patch gave them all hugs.

“Terrem?” Falco asked Mick.

Mick shook his head. “Kidnapped by a beholder,” he whispered.

“What? Why would — Huh?” After a moment of shock Falco shook his head and hurried over to the other exit. He peered through the door and saw a bridge, but no signs of the gnome.

“We have to hurry and follow that weaselly guy! He might be about to leave with some slaves.” Mick urged.

Falco walked over to the children. “What’s that way?” he asked them.

Most were too scared to reply, but one of the children, a dwarven boy named Deakon, found his voice. “Cells! That’s where they kept us! Over the bridge and through the door. There’s a whole hallway lined with cells. I… I don’t know how many had people in them, but at least some did. I could hear them.”

Falco thanked Deakon, then beckoned Patch over. “We need to hurry and free everyone else. Patch, you’re in charge of the children. Wait here and wait for my signal. When its safe you can cross the bridge after us. We’ll keep it up as we explore, all right? Hopefully we can keep you guys safe, but if not, it’s up to you to flee with the kids. Get them back to the church.”

Patch nodded with a look of determination in his eye. He tried to stammer out an affirmation, but couldn’t find the words. Instead he nodded again. Then he kept Deakon and the two silent girls close.

Rabbity stood over the quilled dog. “Can we keep him?” she asked the others.

Aeris shook her head. “Rabbity, that’s… that’s not a dog. You can’t keep it as a pet. It’s a howler. They’re foul creature from the Abyss that feed on fear.”

Rabbity shook her head. “What? Nonsense! We’re going to be the best of friends! Aren’t we, Prickles?”

Prickles looked at Rabbity a moment. He growled… then stopped. He stretched his legs and back, and growled.

“We can’t keep it Rabbity,” Aeris repeated. “In fact, we should probably kill it.”

“Nuh-uh! He’s my friend! And he’s coming with us.” Rabbity hopped on top of Panthy, adjusted her saddle, and loped off towards the door and bridge.

Prickles watched the rabbitfolk go. Then he looked long and hard at Aeris with eyes that showed far more intelligence than a normal animal. He growled at her.

Aeris adjusted her stance and clutched her blade tightly. Howlers were fierce opponents…

Prickles growled some more, then snorted in derision. It turned from her and followed Rabbity out onto the bridge.

“Well, shit.” Aeris remarked.

And so, having ‘befriended’ a howler, Rabbity, Mick, Aeris, and Falco continue hurried across the bridge, intent on saving what people they could.

As I packed up our gear and calculated experience, my daughter grinned. “Prickles is going to be my best friend.”

I tried to explain just how horrible a howler was. Even pulled out its picture.

My daughter just grinned. “Aww, cutie!”

“It’s not cute at all,” I retorted.

“Yes, it is! And we will be best friends! And Panthy, too!”

Faced with her chipper smile, I laughed. If she wanted to try to befriend a howler, I wouldn’t stop her. It had been raised to be a guard dog. And Rabbity was both great with animals, and diplomatic. Perhaps she could control it. But, control wouldn’t keep a howler alive or content. They lived to sow terror, and kill.

Rabbity would have her hands full.

How could it go wrong?! Right?

Wish her luck!

Jessica

life's bazaar d20diaries shackled city beholder — Life’s Bazaar is the first adventure in the Shackled City Adventure Path.

Behind the Screen

The Shackled City Adventure Path is a difficult to get your hands on adventure path published in eleven separate Dungeon Magazines, or available in hardcover from Amazon here or from Paizo Publishing’s website here. The first adventure, Life’s Bazaar is available in Dungeon Magazine #97 from Paizo Publishing’s website here.

Despite being a 3.5 Dungeons and Dragons Adventure Path, we’re running this campaign with Pathfinder (both the campaign setting and the ruleset). Our characters utilize content from many sources, some of which are listed below.

The shaman and the bloodrager classes, as well as the bloodrager archetype spelleater, can all be found in the Advanced Class Guide. The urban bloodrager archetype can be found in Heroes of the Streets. The Kineticist class can be found in Occult Adventures. The monk and bard are base classes found in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Core Rulebook (or in a convenient travel-sized edition: Core Rulebook (Pocket Edition) while the prankster archetype for bards can be found in the Advanced Race Guide.

Pathfinder Playtest Scenarios: Reviews

Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook Today we’re going to look at Pathfinder PLAYTEST Society Scenarios and tell you what we thought. Currently, there are three of them available as a free download on Paizo’s website, so if you don’t have them yet you might as well pick them up! Each scenario is replayable. You may create your own characters for the intended tier (either created as level one for a tier one scenario, or created as level five for a tier five scenario). Unlike regular Pathfinder Society Scenarios, you do not need to earn enough XP to reach higher levels for the Playtest. If you don’t want to make your own characters, you can also head over to Paizo’s website and download the Pregenerated Pathfinder Playtest characters. All you’ll need to run these three scenarios (other than your characters) is the Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook and the scenarios themselves. Each scenario is intended for groups of FOUR players (unlike regular PFS Scenarios which are intended for six) although each contains easy ways to scale up encounters for larger groups. 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. Once you’re done playing or GMing any one of these scenarios, be sure to head over to Paizo’s website and fill out a survey about your experiences. This will be used by the Paizo team to make the Pathfinder Playtest the best that it can be.

So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Pathfinder Playetst Society Scenario 1 Rose Street Revenge Pathfinder Playtest Scenario #1: Rose Street Revenge is a Tier 1 adventure written by Leo Glass, Thurston Hillman, Joe Pasini, and Linda Zayas-Palmer. It includes three short quests which can be played in any order, followed by a fourth quest which can only be played after completing at least one of the first three quests. Each quest should run between 40-60 minutes in length. Each quest you complete before heading onto the final quest will give you an advantage in the final encounter, so I highly recommend completing all three before heading to the final quest. Plus, it’s just more fun that way. The entire adventure takes place Absalom, although each quest is set in a different neighbourhood. Neighbourhoods featured include the Docks, Puddles, Precipice and the Sewers. For more information on Absalom you can check out Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Absalom and the Inner Sea World Guide. Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin begins the adventure by explaining that there’s serial killer on the prowl stalking the recently liberated slaves of Absalom! The killer’s actions have been sensationalized by locals and they’re now known as the ‘Rose Street Killer.’ The latest victim is a Pathfinder, and so Ambrus is sending your PCs out to investigate. He gives the group some fun player hand-outs, each of which contains a different lead. Then he sends you on your way. There’s time to rest between investigating each lead, which is nice for a change. Also, it should be noted that this entire scenario makes excellent use of sidebars to relay important aspects of the rules in a way that’s helpful, easy to understand, and is NOT overwhelming. It’s wonderfully done.

The first quest in Rose Street Revenge is entitled ‘Snippets‘ and is written by Joe Pasini. In this quest you’re tasked with investigating the Bloody Barbers, a thieve’s guild known for robbery, smuggling and murder. If they’re not guilty, they’re likely to know details about the murders, as they’re very well-informed. If you can find them, of course. This quest utilizes Pathfinder Flip-Mat Classics: City Streets and takes place in the Docks district. It was enjoyable, and had an interesting surprise which I’ll refrain from mentioning. It allows players to make use of a wide array of skills in order to obtain information on the Bloody Barbers (WAY more than I imagined would be helpful) which is really nice to see. Surprisingly, this quest can be accomplished without violence (although most groups are likely to get into a fight). I quite enjoyed it.

The second quest in Rose Street Revenge is entitled ‘Dragons‘ and is written by Thurston Hillman. In it you are to meet with a liaison from the ‘Sewer Dragons’ kobold tribe (longstanding allies of the Pathfinder Society). Your job is to find out if the killer has been utilizing the sewer systems — which is the territory of the Sewer Dragons. The liaison offers to give you whatever help they can as long as you help them oust a rival kobold tribe (the Dragon Sharks) that is encroaching upon their territory! You get to head into the sewers and fight alongside your kobold allies against the enemy. This scenario is a LOT of fun. It is filled with wonderful social interactions (particularly with Fazgyn!). I adored Fazgyn’s lessons on trapfinding which are not only funny and entertaining, but also serve double duty as teaching players how traps work in the Pathfinder Playtest. It also gives a nice introduction to Exploration mode, and helps showcase the importance of the Sneak and Search exploration methods. This quest makes use of the Pathfinder Map Pack: Sewer System. It was my favourite of the four quests.

The third quest in Rose Street Revenge is entitled ‘Puddles‘ and is written by Linda Zayas-Palmer. It takes place in the Puddles District and tasks your PCs with asking the Muckruckers (volunteer guards for the Puddles) for information, and following up on what they tell you. This quest has some fun social interactions, and wonderful artwork for a Muckrucker named Ziraya Al-Shurati. It has by far the most clues to the true murderer’s identity and involves the most ‘crime scene’ investigation, which is great fun. However, in an effort not to spoil the mystery’s details, I won’t be saying much more than that. It utilizes Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Haunted House.

The fourth quest in Rose Street Revenge is entitled ‘Haven‘ and is written by Leo Glass. It takes place in the Precipice Quarter (which was previously known as Beldrin’s Bluff). This is the finale of the adventure, and tasks the PCs with investigating an old safe house that the victims all used at one time or another. I’ll refrain from mentioning much more than that so that I don’t spoil the mystery’s end, but I will say that it was great fun, and certainly not what I expected! This quest utilizes Pathfinder: Map Pack: Ruined Village.

Overall, I really enjoyed Rose Street Revenge. It’s a great introduction to the Pathfinder Playest system and was a lot of fun. I give it four out of five stars and highly recommend it as the first Pathfinder Playtest adventure that groups should give a try (yes, I recommend it over Pathfinder Playtest Adventure: Doomsday Dawn).

Pathfinder Playtest Society Scenario 2 Raiders of Shrieking Peak Pathfinder Playtest Scenario #2: Raiders of Shrieking Peak is a Tier 5 adventure written by Luis Loza. As previously mentioned, you do not need to earn enough XP to reach level five. Instead, you need only create your characters at level five. This scenario takes place on the Isle of Kortos. It begins in Absalom, moves quickly to Diobel, and from there heads out into the wilderness. For more information on Absalom, Diobel and the Isle of Kortos check out Pathfinder Chronicles: Guide to Absalom, Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Towns of the Inner Sea, and the Inner Sea World Guide. This scenario utilizes the Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Classics: Battlefield, Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Classics: Woodlands (twice) and a custom map.

A Pathfinder Agent by the name of Inisa Araali was secretly carrying an Iomedean relic by caravan from Diobel to Absalom when she was attacked. She sent Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin a very cryptic note about the encounter, and then went off to find the relic herself. Knowing that she’ll need help he sends you to find the survivors of the caravan in Diobel, who are shacked up in a Pathfinder safe house (although he doesn’t know which one). You’ll need to find the safe house, check on the people, find out all you can about the caravan’s intended route and the attack, track down the robbers (and hopefully Inisa), retrieve the relic and get it back to Absalom. This scenario introduces secret rolls, which is necessary for knowledge and gather information checks because a critical fail on the check will result in your players uncovering false information. It’s best, of course, if your players don’t know whether the information they’ve received is false or not. That said, secret rolls can easily bog down a game (particularly if it’s heavy on the knowledge checks like this one is at the start), so proceed with this method of rolling with caution. As mentioned, this scenario begins with a bit of investigation. I really like how thorough the Recall Knowledge and Gather Information results are set up (especially the false information for a critical fail). That said, there are no pre-made PCs to interact with during this part of the investigation (which is something I always enjoy), so that’s a bit of a let down. Such embellishments will have to be up to the GM. Social encounters with the caravan survivors are helpful, but not particularly memorable. Overall, I felt that the events in Diobel fell flat. From there the mission moves on and becomes quite combat and exploration heavy. It pits you against some nice classic enemies, inculding harpies, minotaurs, and ghouls, which I really enjoyed. I particularly liked the ghoul statistics. I also really enjoyed the interactions with the minotaurs. Overall, this is the Pathfinder Playtest Scenario I liked least. I give it three out of five stars.

Pathfinder Playtest Society Scenario 3 Arclord's Envy Pathfinder Playtest Scenario #3: Arclord’s Envy is a Tier 5 adventure written by Liz Liddell. It takes place in Quantium, capital of Nex. For more information on Nex be sure to check out the Inner Sea World Guide. This scenario utilizes the Pathfinder Map-Pack: Village Sites, Pathfinder Flip-Mat: Bigger Village, and a custom map. It features gnomish Venture-Captain Sebnet Sanserkoht who is officially my favourite V.C. EVER. She’s awesome. In this scenario you’re tasked with investigating the murder of an Arclord of Nex, and determining who should be given a recently discovered book written by Nex himself, which the Arclord was likely killed for.

Sebnet Sanserkoht gnome — Venture-Captain Sebnet Sanserkoht of Quantium’s Pathfinder Lodge.

This scenario did a really nice job of showcasing little bits of life in Quantium right from the start, with the many overly magical effects present in the local Pathfinder Lodge, right through to the golems walking the streets, and the strange politics of the city. It made use of a ton of rare races including ifrits, oreads, shabti, mercane, and even an invisible stalker you get to chat up at a party. It was awesome. The scenario itself begins with an interesting investigation. I particularly enjoyed retrieving the victim’s corpse from the foot of a massive patrol golem — without drawing the golem’s attention! I think this part would be a lot of fun at a table. That said, I do have one issue with the investigation. At one part you notice scorch marks on a wall which the scenario says you can identify as coming from a certain spell with the ‘Identify Magic’ use of Arcana. Except Identify Magic takes an HOUR (unless you have a special ability that shortens it to ten minutes). Now, that’s not to say that it’s not doable. I suppose some groups might spend an hour looking at a few scorch marks on a wall when there’s a lot of other stuff to go check out, but I wouldn’t. It’s just another use of the ‘Identify Magic’ skill use that feels way too long and time consuming. It’s one of my pet peeves of the Pathfinder Playtest rules, and I sincerely hope they shorten the time it requires by the time Pathfinder Second Edition comes around next year. Of course, this is a nitpick of mine regarding the rules, not the scenario itself. Moving on from the investigation there’s some fun social encounters, and some awesome character art (particularly for Ngasi!). The culprit you’re supposed to unmask is variable, which changes the clues that can lead you to them. That’s a nice option for a scenario that’s supposed to be repayable. I wouldn’t say there’s a LOT of potential culprits, but it’s certainly not static. The final encounter is quite complex, and includes different tactics and available spells depending on which Arclord ends up being your enemy, It’s going to be quite a climatic battle, I think. Overall, I thought the scenario was fresh, fun, and in a great location. I give it four out of five stars.

And that’s all for today! I hope you enjoyed checking out these scenarios with me. I know I enjoyed reading them. I’m quite excited to run my kids through the ‘Rose Street Revenge’ when we have a chance.

Until next time,

Jessica

SaveSave

Character Focus: Doomsday Dawn

With the release of Pathfinder Playtest Rulebook, we’re more than a little busy around my house. I took some time to learn the new rules and play around with the character creation process. I made myself three different characters to use via play-by-post. One is a gnomish bard by the name of Amberly Tam, a musical Pathfinder who will have the pleasure of playing through the three PFS Playtest Scenarios. The second is a half-elven esoteric scion alchemist who desperately longs to be a member of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye, like her father and grandfather before her. Her name is Neferet Velaketra, and she’s going to be playing through Doomsday Dawn. My final character is a dwarven mind quake survivor cleric who worships the goddess Desna. Her name is Joliryn Starsoul, and she’s more than a little… controversial among her kin. In addition to loving the open sky, a desperate desire to take flight and travel the stars, and her devotion to Desna, Joliryn has unwavering faith that her ancestor’s Quest for Sky is incomplete! After all, they still live underground. And really, when it comes down to it, surely they’re meant to be among the stars! (She’s more than a little eccentric!). Joliryn is also going to be playing through Doomsday Dawn.

Once I had the hang of making characters I took the time to teach my family, by walking them through making their first character. And that is the topic of our blog today.

My family has every intention of playing through Pathfinder Playtest Adventure: Doomsday Dawn and all three (eventually all four) of the Pathfinder Playtest Society Scenarios. That means we’re going to be using and testing a lot of characters. But, the first adventure we knew we would be playing was Doomsday Dawn. So with out digital copies of the Playtest Rulebook and Doomsday Dawn in hand, we got to work.

My daughter went first. She had been the most excited for the new rules. She sat beside me while it downloaded literally bouncing in glee. Unfortunately, we had download problems, so as we watched the estimated download time got from 2 minutes, to ten minutes, to four hours, to a day and a half, I told her to go on and play. The download didn’t actually take that long. I tried a bunch of different things, fiddled with it for an hour, and eventually it decided that really, the download would only take another hour. Still, that’s a brutal download time! Especially since it can download for most people in under a minute. Painful! When it finally worked my daughter was right beside me asking to see all the new pictures. Therefore, she got the honour of first character choice.

Deciding a race was easy. She was tempted to make a gnome, but a moment later saw the goblin entry and she was sold. She adores playing goblins. In fact, she has a goblin fighter who rules a tribe known as the ‘Smartheads.’ (You be smart or you be dead!) Admittedly allowing her to GM the goblin characters once on the way to school sent our run of We Be Goblins so far off track we never bothered trying to get it back on the road. Instead we revel in its absurdity.

So, a goblin she would be! Named Samantha! But what kind? She picked out the ‘rough rider’ ancestry feat, which gave her the ‘ride’ feat, and a +1 bonus on Nature checks made to handle goblin dogs or wolves. She decided that she would purchase a pet goblin dog, and learn to ride it into battle! She decided to be chaotic good, and that she had blue skin. Therefore she would name her goblin dog ‘Bloois.’ She would have to pick the goblin renegade background, of course. That granted her the quick repair feat and Criminal Lore as a trained skill. But what class? She glanced at only a few before she decided on being an alchemist. She finalized her ability scores and ended up with Str 10 / Dex 16 / Con 12 / Int 16 / Wis 12 / Cha 12. Happy with that, she applied her class. She had great fun ticking off all the little ‘trained’ boxes, particularly in regard to her skills. She chose to be trained in acrobatics, crafting, medicine, nature, and survival. In addition to gaining ‘advanced alchemy,’ and ‘studied resonance,’ she also got a formula book, in which she chose to learn the formulas for minor elixir of life, acid, cheetah’s elixir, and tanglefoot bags. Then we had to pick out her alchemist feat. We started to read through them, but the moment we hit ‘Alchemical Familiar’ (which is the first feat, by the way) she shrieked:

“THAT’S IT! I WILL MAKE A RABBIT FROM MY ALCHEMY! IT WILL BE NAMED BLOO-EY!”

She was very excited. And so Samantha, Blooey and Bloois would set out into the world of… shopping!

She bought a gauntlet — which would allow her to keep her hands free for both controlling her mount and crafting alchemical substances in a fight. She also bought a blowgun and some darts to go with it. She’d need alchemist’s tools, of course, and riding tack for her goblin dog. Necessities like a backpack, belt pouch, bedroll, rope, tent and so on. She also invested in a lot of caltrops, which she was determined to have fun with. Lastly, she bought a chain shirt. She was good to go.

I taught her how to add up all of her modifiers and what ‘trained,’ ‘untrained’ and so on meant for her stats, and she got right to work filling out all the rest of the sheet by herself. She did an awesome job! Honestly, she probably learned and understood the character creation process better than anyone else I’ve taught so far. She’s six, so that’s more than a little impressive. Haha.

We settled in to make her familiars stats in finished in under five minutes. It was super simple! Honestly, the rules for familiars were so streamlined, but adaptable, that it was a joy. Great job, Paizo! I approve!

And we were done! All told, Making Samantha, Blooey and Bloois took about two hours from start to finish, with gear taking about a third of that.

As I moved on to help her brother with his character she drew me a picture of her character and their pets, and then a wonderful little sign. I’ve taken a picture of it so I could share it with all of you.

We Be (Good) Goblins

Safe to say she’s excited about the inclusion of goblins as a core race.

She’s not the only one. My son’s just as excited but, since his sister already snagged goblins, he decided to go with his favourite race: the eccentric gnome.

My son’s gnome is named Zan. He’s a neutral good druid with a deep love for nature. My son is a budding environmentalist, so he took great care acting out his love of nature, the environment and animals the entire time that we played. He even hopped up from his chair to chant out his spells and wave his arms around like a leaf on the wind. For his ancestry feat he chose ‘animal accomplice,’ which lets him befriend an animal as a familiar. He choose a tiny badger and named him ‘Badger.’ Not only does Badger speak and understand druidic, he can also fly. My son is overjoyed. He finalized his ability scores as Str 8 / Dex 12 / Con 14 / Int 12 / Wis 18 / Cha 14.

As a druid he’s a primal spellcaster. He’s a prepared caster, so for our first adventure he chose to prepare the cantrips disrupt undead, produce flame, stabilize, and tanglefoot. For level one spells he chose to prepare heal and heal. Solid choices! And boy, oh boy, did we end up really needing those heal spells! Such a lifesaver. That said, produce flame turned out to be his go-to attack method of choice. He loved it.

As a druid, Zan has wild empathy, and also got to join a druidic order. My son had a tough time deciding between the Animal and Leaf orders. In the end, he went with Leaf. This granted him an anathema, and training in diplomacy. He gained a spell pool with a single spell power: goodberry. Which was AWESOME. He loved it. We loved it. It was great. He also got the druid feat: ‘Leshy Familiar.’ He was thrilled. But that raised the question: can you have more than one familiar? it was possible, clearly. My son had done it accidentally. But was it allowed? It states under animal companion that you can only have one, but it does not say that under familiar. Familiar’s have the minion trait, so we read up on that, but it didn’t limit it to one, either. After a great deal of digging we turned up nothing that forbade it, so I let him make a vine leshy and away we went. He gave his vine fleshy the ability to fly, climb, and speak and understand druidic. My son was positively thrilled. Literally over the moon.

He chose to be trained in crafting, medicine, nature, survival, and thievery, and then got to work buying his gear. In addition to standard adventuring supplies he invested in a sickle, leather armour, primal focus, artisan’s tools, thieve’s tools, and a basic crafting book which would allow him to make any mundane gear during his downtime. It was very important to my son that his druid be self-sufficient!

Then we rolled up his familiars — again, a simple process — and he was done. Zan, Badger and Leshy were ready to their adventures!

Overall, it took my son about the same amount of time to make his character as it did my daughter. He caught on about as fast as his sister, but where she gleefully ticked off the boxes and did her own math, he complained until his little sister finished filling out the math for him. Cheeky thing. Haha.

Finally, it was time to help out my husband. Knowing we were sorely lacking a melee combatant, he decided to make a dwarf by the name of Toran Goldbrew. He’s a strong fellow, with final ability scores of Str 18 / Dex 14 / Con 14 / Int 12 / Wis 12 / Cha 8. Sadly that meant his resonance would be a big old zero. Haha. Fortunately, he had nothing to spend resonance on anyway, so it worked out alright for him.

As a dwarf Toran gained the unburdened ability and one ancestry feat. My husband wavered between a few of them, but ended up choosing weapon familiarity so he could wield a dwarven waraxe. He chose the background ‘Pathfinder Hopeful’ which granted him the feat ‘extra lore.’ That left him trained in Pathfinder Lore and Sports Lore! Haha. Toran’s a blast.

So what class would Toran be? Barbarian, of course! This granted him the ‘rage’ ability (which you can use an unlimited number of time per day, by the way), a totem, and a class feat. He loved the idea of barbarian totems and ended up having a tough time choosing one. In the end he went with the giant totem, which gave him the snazzy ‘titan mauler’ ability. This lets him use a large weapon in battle (among other things). This also determines his anathema — which is turning down a challenge of strength, in case you’re curious. For his barbarian feat he chose ‘sudden charge,’ which is a two action ability that lets him take two move actions and a strike! Very handy!

When it came time to choose his trained skills he decided upon acrobatics, athletics, crafting and intimidation. Along with his large dwarven waraxe — which once belonged to his ancestor who they say was a dwarf ‘larger than life’ — Toran purchased darts and a breastplate. In addition to basic adventuring gear he bought a grappling hook, and artisan’s tools. Then it was time to fill in all the final math on his sheet. Switching to the new method turned out to be confusing for him, but as I tried to explain it my daughter cut me off.

“No, Mom! I will teach Dad!”

And she did.

It was absolutely adorable.

With our characters made we set out to play Doomsday Dawn. Unfortunately, Toran Goldbrew didn’t survive. There was a perfect point to have him brought back to life, though, which we took advantage of (Praise Pharasma!) But, with his character technically dead and being remade for the next time he’s used, my husband decided to make some changes. He’s no longer have the giant totem. Instead, he would use the spirit totem. Death proved a little traumatizing.

Sounds fair.

Overall, we had a great time making our characters. The creation system was easy to use and allowed for a lot of customization. My husband particularly liked the ancestry traits, and that each class offers different paths of specialization. My daughter was thrilled to see goblins as a core race. And my son? Familiars! He loves them.

I hope you enjoyed taking a peek into the creation processes of my family’s first Pathfinder Playtest Characters. We certainly had fun making them

Have you made characters of your own? Let me know about them in the comments!

Until then!

Jessica

Character Focus: The Tangletops

Hello everyone!

We just finished up a wonderfully busy long weekend! In addition to celebrating Canada Day, playing The Shackled City Adventure Path, and Heroscapes, we also celebrated my wedding anniversary. After nine years of marriage and eleven years together, my husband and I couldn’t be happier. Wow, it’s passed in a flash! Curious what I got for my anniversary? Jewelry, flowers, something romantic? Nope! Something way better! My husband and kids got me The Shannara Chronicles: Season 1 (which is awesome so far), the Iron Gods Dice Set, and a the Pathfinder Battles: Iconic Heroes Set 5. Can you say ‘spoiled’? As for my husband, my kids and I picked him up a Magic The Gathering Fat Pack for Dominaria! There were all kinds of goodies in there! I’m curious to see what he makes from it.

But, enough about my family. Today we’re going to talk about another family: the Tangletops!

Who?

So glad you asked!

During the recent OutPost convention my children made their second Pathfinder Society characters. My husband didn’t. He wasn’t sure how much he would enjoy play-by-post gaming, so he waited. But, AFTER OutPost? Ah! He wanted more. My husband made a total of three characters after that, two of which he really enjoys, and one of which he decided needs some work. One of the ones that really clicked was a strange gnome by the name of Toban Tangletop.

Toban is an experienced gnome with an eclectic past. He’s travelled the world, and tried his hand at nearly everything he could. In time, he came to worship Shelyn, the goddess of art, beauty and love. He also developed a complete and total obsession… with food. Toban became a chef who creates art through fantastic meals. He drew on his vast experiences to make fusion food, drawing on traditions throughout Golarion. Toban is always looking for rare ingredients and new recipes. Toban enjoys cooking for friends and strangers alike. He is not shy and is prone to approaching strangers and cooking them a meal unlike any other! Toban is adventurous in his cooking and willing to try new exotic foods. Because of this Toban has developed a strong stomach. Every meal and tasty treat he creates is a holy communion with his goddess, Shelyn.

Toban is short even for a gnome. He is barely over 3 feet tall and weighs 37 pounds. Toban has a rather large bottom lip that flaps when he speaks. He has black hair and a wildly long moustache. When Toban is in thought he often taps a finger on the bottom of his lip which makes a popping sound. He wears flamboyant leather clothes and a spectacularly over-the-top tophat which clashes with the rest of his clothes. He carries his cooking supplies with him wherever he goes.

PZO1115_500 — Read more about inquisitors, as well as five other base classes, in the Advanced Player’s Guide.

Mechanically, Toban is a gnome inquisitor of Shelyn who works for the Grand Lodge Faction. He selected the protection domain. He uses his divinely gifted magic to heal wounds, and understand foreign languages. He’s quite old, but uses his vast experience of the world to his advantage, so he chose ‘breadth of experience’ as his first feat, which is honestly one that we LOVE in my household. To better represent his adventuresome eating habits he took ‘resilient’ as a trait. He also took ‘weathered emissary’ to help him in learning new languages.

Toban’s a knowledgable fellow, and an amazing chef. But, he strongly cares about using fresh ingredients, so he’s also good at perception and survival. Although he tries to make friends, his eccentricity can sometimes get in the way.

In battle, Toban always to gives humanoids a chance to surrender and repent, believing that death ends all chances for that person to create beauty. A tragedy! When forced into battle he uses a fine glaive, or his cooking knife. He can also hurl globs of acid at his enemies. He carries acid vials, holy water, and smokesticks, wears studded leather armour. He also carries plenty of healing scrolls, and recently picked up a healing wand. His wayfinder hangs around his neck, while his backpack is overflowing with cooking equipment.

So far, Toban has completed a single scenario: #5-08: The Confirmation. He’s currently working his way through #7-10: The Consortium Compact, alongside “Scaredy’ Sir Lansle Eine, Lady Naysha, and a few other colourful characters.

But, perhaps the strangest thing about Toban, is his family.

My daughter had the chance to play alongside Toban during his confirmation with her character, Lady Naysha. She thought he was hilarious! A day or so earlier she had been begging me to let her make a third Pathfinder Society character so she could play more play-by-posts, and I had relented. She’d been stewing over character ideas for days. She was pretty sure she wanted to play someone who could be a melee character, which is a role my daughter very, very, VERY rarely tries to fill. Fighter? Barbarian? Monk? She couldn’t decide.

That night we watched some Bleach on Netflix and my daughter saw Ururu fight for the first time. No idea what I’m talking about? You can see a short video of it on youtube here.

My daughter thought it was amazing.

“Mom! That little girl is just like me!”

She held up her tiny little fists and showed me her ‘fighting stance.’ Then threw a little punch that would flatten a fly — if my daughter had better aim — but not much else. When she tries to punch my daughter also lets out a little squeak of effort, which makes her ‘fierce’ attempts at battle the cutest and funniest thing you’ll see. It should be noted, she’s the same proportions as Ururu, tall and skinny with slender little arms and tiny fists.

“I’m just a little girl, Mom. But, I am pretty strong you know!”

She threw a few more punches accompanied by some squeaks.

I smiled.

After the episode was over my daughter announced quite proudly that she had figured out what she was going to make. It would be a little girl fighter, just like her and Ururu. A little girl who fought with her fists and was a monk. Except she wasn’t a girl! She was a girl gnome! She would be Toban’s sister, and she would act like a shy, scared little girl. Until battle! Then she’d say something like ‘Please don’t hurt me! I am just a little girl’ before punching them in the stomach really hard! “She is not a weak little girl, Mom! She is strong! And also a big LIAR! She will try to trick people all the time!”

My daughter then showed us a demonstration of her character’s fighting style, which involves some fine little punches and a lot of squeaking.

Very proud of herself, we pulled out the rulebooks and got to work.

PZO1110 — Monks can be found in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Core Rulebook, along withall the rules you need to play Pathfinder!

She decided that her character would be named Rosie. Rosie Tangletop. She would be Toban’s sister. Even though she is a gnome, she looks like a little girl. She has brown hair done up in pig tails, big brown eyes and a big happy smile. She wears a little pink cotton dress, stretchy little shorts, and comfy shoes. She keeps her eyebrows trimmed to better help her blend in with human children. She’s tall for a gnome and very slender and frail looking. She acts shy and meek. She would be a monk, of course.

After some reading and planning, she decided that Rosie carries no weapons at all. Instead, she gave her ‘throw anything’ as her monk bonus feat. She also invested in some vials of acid and a holy water. For her regular feat she ended up settling on weapon focus (unarmed strike). Rosie’s good at physical skills — acrobatics, climb, and stealth — as well as bluff. She’s hoping to invest in disguise at her next level up, but couldn’t afford to from the start. Why? Well, Rosie would use those skills to become trained in Handle Animal and Profession Cook!

Rosie picked up a love of cooking from her brother and, even though she doesn’t worship Shelyn (or any god for that matter), she is a well-trained chef who makes artistic culinary creations. She’s prone to making the food she’s served ‘better’ by pulling out her cooking tools and ingredients at the dinner table and spontaneously making a custom sauce to enhance the meals she’s been served. Then she cleans up and shares her additions with everyone else present.

As for handle animal? My daughter loves rabbits. She decided that Rosie had a pet rabbit that she purchased from an animal breeder and fellow Pathfinder, Bunny Paras. Rosie named the rabbit Lily, and keeps her in a familiar satchel when on missions. She took the trait ‘animal friend’ which gives Rosie a bonus on will saves as long as she keeps her rabbit nearby, and made handle animal a class skill.

Rosie also took the trait ‘loyalty’ and the alternate race trait ‘vivacious’ which helps her recover faster at the expense of the gnome spell-like abilities.

All in all, Rosie Tangletop is a sneaky little thing. She looks meek, but she packs quite a punch. She’s currently working her way through Scenario #6-10: The Wounded Wisp. She’s has great fun cooking in the middle of the Wounded Wisp — which earned her a job offer as a chef. She also was one of the only people who managed to harm the choker they faced in the cellar. Archers and melee fighters missed, and there was poor little Rosie, squeaking in ‘fear’ at the back of the group. She picked a wine bottle off the shelf, and tossed it, sending it end over end towards the monster, past companions, and down the hall. And scored a critical hit! Which dealt MAX damage. My daughter has never laughed so hard after an attack roll in her life. She was absolutely thrilled with herself. Rosie’s bottle tossing saved the day. She’s also shadow-boxed with an illusion, followed clues, solved mysteries and discovered secret chambers. All without having to break her ‘child’ persona. She’s had an absolute blast, and her first adventure’s not even over yet!

With the announcement of Gameday VII on play-by-post, my family and I have been trying to finagle our way into some scenarios together. One of the ones I managed to get them into involved the three of them. Having already played the scenario in question I had to sit this one out. My husband chose to be Toban. My daughter clapped her hands in glee and chose Rosie! This would mark their first scenario where the brother and sister duo would be on the same mission.

And my son?

“Sign me up with a Tangletop, Mom!”

“You don’t have a Tangletop, dear,” I reminded him.

“I will make one.” He assured me.

So we signed him up and he’s been plotting ever since.

images — Read more about Shelyn and the other gods of Golarion in Inner Sea Gods!

He knew he would be a gnome — “A fun, happy one, Mom!” Shortly after he decided that Toban would be his big brother, and Rosie would be his twin sister. His character desperately wanted to be like his big brother, Toban. He tried to be a chef, but he was horrible at it! He does worship Shelyn, though.

With a bit more thought, my son decided he would be a painter who fought with an iron brush. He would be a bard, and when he casts spells he draws through the air with his paintbrush, while describing what he’s making. After a bit more thought, he decided he would instead be a skald. He’d never made one of those before. We did a bit more digging and he settled on being an urban skald.

With those decisions made we got down to work. He decided to name his gnome artist Jastrokan Tangletop. He would be a member of the Sovereign Court. He gave up a few of his gnomish racial traits to take ‘eternal hope’ which allows him to reroll a critical fail once a day, and gives him a bonus on saving throws against fear and despair. For spells he chose comprehend languages and silent image. He wanted the ability to understand anyone, and to make his paintings come to life! For cantrips he chose detect magic, resistance, sift and spark. For his trait he chose ‘simple disciple,’ which gives him a bonus on profession (painter), and unswaying love, which gives him a bonus on saving throws against charms and compulsions. As a skald he gains scribe scroll, which is replaced by extra performance for PFS play. For his other feat he selected prodigy, which makes him better at profession (painter) and perform (oratory). His archetype gives him ‘controlled inspired rage’ instead of the basic ‘inspired rage’ raging song the skalds get, which he’s quite excited about. With a whopping 12 rounds/day of music at his disposal, he’s thrilled to get to start instructionally painting his way through battle. It’s going to be hilarious!

When it came time to buy his gear, Jastrokan went a little overboard. He purchased a whopping 10 iron brushes for battle, two alchemists fire and a holy water. His other combat gear includes leather armour, and a buckler. He bought plenty of painting supplies, of course, and a spell component pouch. In addition to some standard gear (like backpack and a bedroll) he bought a pet songbird (a thrush), and a familiar satchel to keep him in.

With his character complete, my son and I got to work writing his backstory. Here’s what he had to say:

Jastrokan was born and raised in Sandpoint, with his parents and his twin sister, Rosie. Their older brother was a famous travelling chef. Rosie and Jastrokan always wanted to be just like their big brother, Toban, so they tried to cook, too! Rosie was great, but Jastrokan was terrible! And his food tasted gross! Instead, he painted pictures of his sister’s tasty food for signs. He realized he was pretty good at it! He started painting other things, and soon became a really good artist. He started worshipping Shelyn.

PZO1129_500 — You can find the skald, as well as nine other base classes, in the Advanced Class Guide!

Eventually he got bored. He started to travel, and paint all kinds of things. His favourite things to paint were places and things that people hadn’t seen for a long time. Ancient ruins, dangerous monsters, hard to reach wild places, and magical relics! What fun!

A while ago his parents died, so the Tangletop family had a reunion in Absalom. Jastrokan was sad, but was also happy to see his brother and sister. He found out Toban worked at a local church of Shelyn, and that both Toban and Rosie were Pathfinders. Jastrokan missed seeing them, and he did love seeing new things… So he joined up, too!

Jastrokan is a chipper little golden-eyed gnome with a wide, smiling face framed all around by fluffy red hair. He takes great pride in his appearance, and keeps his hair and beard will brushed. He wears a white button up shirt and two vests — one blue (worn buttoned up) and one orange (worn open). His pants are black and around his neck is a little blue ascot. On his feet are good sturdy walking shoes. He wears a backpack that is bulging with gear, and carries a whole bunch of paint brushes sticking out of his pockets and belt. His fingers are stained by different colours of paint. On one of his arms is a wooden buckler that has been painted with a beautiful picture of a sunset and birds. He also wears a satchel, from which peeks a colourful little songbird.

Jastrokan is kind, adventurous, and very curious. He is bold and bright!

With Jastrokan created and ready for adventure, the Tangletops are complete. At least until my daughter decides I should make a Tangletop of my own, I suppose… Haha. So where are the Tangletop’s off to first? They’re signed up to play Scenario #6-01: Trial by Machine in session two of the Gameday VII convention. Although, if I can find another game for them to play in session one, they might sneak an extra game in before hand!

I hope you had a great weekend, and you enjoyed taking a peek at the Tangletops. If you haven’t signed up for any Gameday VII games, and you’d like to, I recommend doing so soon. Games are filling up fast!

Best of luck,

Jessica

Dice Gift — Take a look at these bad boys! I love my new dice!

Legacy of the First World

Hello, hello! Welcome! Today we’re going to take a look at one of my favourite soft cover releases of the past year: Pathfinder Player Companion: Legacy of the First World! If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you’ll know that my daughter is already using some of the awesome character options found inside this little gem, with her Pathfinder Society character, Lady Naysha. Admittedly, I’m super jealous.

Legacy of the First World is a soft cover book that is 32 pages in length. 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 First World hidden inside, or details on the plane itself. For that kind of information you’ll have to pick up Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The First World, Realm of the Fey, or the soon to be released Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Planar Adventures. Legacy of the First World features amazing cover art by Kiki Moch Rizky, which showcases the iconic druid, Lini, and the iconic hunter Adowyn, engaged in battle against a grodair!

The front inside cover features brief information on all nine of the Eldest: gods of the First World who are often worshipped by fey and fey-blooded or fey-touched humanoids. Each entry includes their name, title, holy symbol, alignment, domains, favoured weapons, and the pages where related information and character options can be found. Curious who the Eldest are? Fear not! We’ll get into that later!

PZO9480 After this we’ve got the table of contents, the rules index, and the introduction. Here we find five new regional traits, each themed around places on the material plane where fey are common. Curious which locations? The Darkmoon Wood, Grungir Forest, Irrisen, Uringen, and a caravan known as the Witchmarket. ‘Fey Mediator (Grungir Forest)’ is a solid trait, but I think that ‘Voices of Solid Things (Witchmarket)’ turned out to be my favourite! This allows you to select either Appraise, Craft, Disable Device, or Spellcraft. In addition to making that a class skill, you can apply your Charisma modifier on those checks instead of Intelligence/Dexterity. Neat!

Moving on from the introduction we come to a pair of pages entitled ‘Fey Origins’ that deal with characters who have a touch of the fey in their bloodlines. Each of the core races has ideas for how fey-touched members of that race might look or act, and an alternate racial trait. After this there are three story feats which can be taken by any race. Although the human, half-orc, and half-elf alternate racial traits are very cool, its the one for elves that turned out to be my favourite. ‘Fey-sighted’ grants your elf detect magic as a constant ability, and replaces ‘elven magic.’ So cool! As for story feats? Check out ‘Fascinated by the Mundane’ for a really fun character concept!

Wait! That can’t be all that gnomes get in this book? Is it? Just a trait? Nope! It’s not. The next few pages focus on two races intrinsically tied to the First World: gnomes and gathlain. Up first? Gnomes! First up, rules for playing a bleaching, followed by two feats that can be taken by bleachlings. Finally! Past that we come to a quirky alchemist archetype called the ‘First World Innovator’ which lets you mix a bit of primal reagents into your alchemical creations (bombs, extracts, potions or mutagens) which will alter them in a random way. I highly recommend giving this one a read, because I loved it. Following the archetype itself are a trio of discoveries that let you create a fey-themed mutagen, which are pretty nifty. After that we come to two new alchemical creations: the chroma grenade, which dazzles enemies and makes them susceptible to illusions, and the vine tube, which spouts fast growing vines. These vinescan either grow along the ground to make difficult terrain, or can be molding by a skilled craftsman into basic tools and furniture which last for ten minutes. An interesting alternative to carrying around a bunch of heavy tools! The final little treat on the section on gnomes? It contains my favourite artwork in the book! A blue and orange haired little alchemist surrounded by very natural-looking components, crafting up some kind of glowing brew. I’m feeling it.

Leaving the gnomes behind we get into a pair of pages about gathlain. This section doesn’t contain any race-specific archetypes (for those you’ll need to check out Pathfinder RPG: Ultimate Wilderness), instead it features five alternate race traits, eight new favoured class options, and four new feats. For race traits be sure to check out ‘bower born’ and ‘sticky tendrils,’ and for feats take a peek at the very quirky ‘strange yield,’ which lets you pull a single fruit off of your wings a day that acts as a random potion.

After the various racial options in this book, we move on to the ways in which the First World has affected the material plane. The first two pages include the fey-touched template, a new oracle curse and mystery, and a bard archetype called the First World Minstrel. Although the First World Minstrel’s ability to pass on the ill luck of a pugwampi to your enemies is absolutely delightful, if I recommend only one thing from this book it would be the new oracle mystery: whimsy. It’s just… awesome. Flavourful, fun, and useful. I’d use it in a heartbeat. Unfortunately for me, (and very fortunate for my daughter), right before I could make a character with it, my daughter did. She beat me to it! And she did it so… perfectly. I just can’t compete. And so, for the forseeable future, I’ll refrain from making one of my own… At least until I can think of a concept completely different than my six-year old daughter’s…. For those of you who don’t have that issue, be sure to check out our favourite revelation: ‘whimsical prank!’ Other gems include ‘assumed form,’ ‘flicker,’ ‘whimsical step,’ and ‘woodland caprice.’

So good.

Seriously. Check it out.

But with a flip of the page we leave the whimsy behind to delve into two pages of character options which revolve around the harm fey can cause. First up are four alternate racial traits which focus around locations tainted by evil fey: Darkblight, Tanglebriar, and the Upper Korir River. I’d recommend giving the human trait, ‘imposter-wary‘ a read. Although it forces you to put your bonus skill point into sense motive at every level, it also grants you a bonus on saves against illusions. A great trade if you want to make a suspicious character. After this we get to a new hunter archetype that focuses on killing fey, the cleverly named ‘Feykiller.’ This archetype swaps out a few of the animal focus options for different ones, allows your animal companions attacks to bypass DR/cold iron, grants you a bonus against illusions and enchantments or, if they were cast by fey, makes you immune to such effects. Very cool! Lastly, this section gives us three new spells, my favourite of which is ‘iron spine.’ And yes, it does exactly what it sounds like it does. Ouch…

Every page after this point in Legacy of the First World is dedicated to one of the Eldest. First, it gives us a paragraph or two on the Eldest themselves, followed by new archetypes, class options, spells and gear which are related to that god or their teachings. Interesting, right?

First up: Count Ranalc, the Traitor. Eldest of betrayal, exile and shadows. This shifty fellow provides us with my husband’s very favourite part of the book: an archetype for slayers called ‘Ankou’s Shadow.‘ This awesome archetype gives you the ability to make shadow duplicates of yourself which function as mirror image and last until destroyed. As you level up you can command your duplicates to perform other actions, and you gain access to more duplicates. Oh, and you can see invisibility as a swift action for a minute per level per day. Sweet! He’d better get around to making one soon, or I will. Haha! After this is another interesting archetype, the ‘Shadow Scion‘ for rogues.

PZO9298 — For more information on the First World, check out Pathfinder Campaign Setting: The First World, Realm of the Fey

The Green Mother, also called the Feasting Flower, is the Eldest of carnivorous plants, intrigue, and seduction. Yikes! The pages focusing on her give us the ‘Grasping Vine‘ archetype for shamans, which shuffles up some spell options, allows you to speak with plants, gives you the ability to use plant shape, and even turns your familiar into a creature made of leaves and thorny vines. I think you could make a really cool shaman with this archetype. It’s very thematic, but also very… accessible. By that I mean: lots of different character concepts ranging throughout Golarion can make use of this archetype. Not just followers of the Green Mother, or characters from the First World. It’s easy to use. The second archetype up for offer here is much more of a niche, and focuses on The Green Mother’s seduction aspect. It’s the ‘Seducer’ archetype for witch! Their last ability, ‘Garden of Delight,’ just… Wow. I’m… a little surprised that saw print. I’m not sure why it surprised me so much. It shouldn’t. But, I’m certainly not letting my kids play this archetype! No way! That complaint aside, the archetype’s still not really my cup tea. Still, if you want to be a charming enchanter/enchantress style character, this is a really good option. Past the archetypes there are two new witch hexes up for offer and one new shaman hex. My favourite is the shaman hex ‘silkstring snare.’ Lastly, there’s three new spells. My favourite is ‘thirsting entanglement,‘ which is like a soul draining entangle spell, but the others are solid debuffs which should see use in play.

Up next is Imbrex, the Twins, Eldest of endings, statues and — you guessed it — twins. His two pages are almost entirely dedicated to summoners. It features an archetype, a new eidolon subtype, and three evolutions. After that there’s four teamwork feats. Usually, this would be a bit of bummer for me. I don’t often play summoners, even though I enjoy them, and dedicating so much space to only one class is a little unfortunate. But… it’s such an awesome archetype! SO COOL! The ‘Twinned Summoner’ has an eidolon that looks just like him (excluding any nifty evolutions). They also learn teamwork feats, which their eidolon can also automatically use. Think of the possibilities! It’s just… awesome! The moment my husband read it he looked at me and said. “Oh, this is interesting. You would be good with this archetype.” “But not you?” I asked. “No. Too much work. I’d get confused.” We laughed. Later I read through it, and you know what? I agreed. I could rock this archetype! Hahaha. The evolutions are brief, but useful — particularly ‘shared evolution‘ and ‘extra feat.‘ For teamwork feat be sure to check out ‘improved precise strike‘ and ‘spell synergy.’

Taking centre stage next is the Lantern King, also known as the Laughing Lie. He’s the Eldest of laughter, mischief, and transformation. Chances are when you think ‘fey’ you think of the attributes this guy has. He’s a prankster, and a shapeshifter. An agent of chaos with infinite forms. The character options include one archetype, the ‘Fey Prankster’ for bards, and two bloodlines that are both entitled ‘shapechanger.’ One is for bloodragers and the other for sorcerers. Both were really cool, but my favourite turned out to the the bloodrager bloodline. I’m not sure why I liked it so much, as the sorcerer bloodline was really solid, but hey! That’s how it goes sometimes.

Up next is an Eldest who is about as far from a jolly prankster as you can get: The Lost Prince. Also known as the Melancholy Lord, he’s the Eldest of forgotten things, sadness and solitude. This dour, brooding fellow has provided us with the ‘hermit‘ archetype for oracles, which is closely tied to the ‘reclusive‘ oracle curse. There’s also a ‘sorrow‘ themed psychic discipline, and a new type of feats which give you an advantage when no allies are nearby. I highly suggest giving the ‘hermit’ a thorough read, because their abilities are very, very cool. Particularly their base revelation, ‘Recluse’s Stride.’ For feats, be sure to check out ‘Centered Spell,’ which is a new metamagic feat which allows you to exclude yourself and your familiar from your instantaneous spells without increasing the spell level. Who doesn’t want to put themselves in the middle of a fireball once in a while? Right?

The next featured Eldest is Magdh, The Three, Eldest of complexity, fate, and triplets. Let me admit, up front, that I am a huge fan of this goddess. She’s my favourite in the book, by far! Unfortunately, none of the character options in her section wowed me. Now, maybe it’s just me. The three spells are interesting and useful. The monk archetype, ‘Nornkith‘, allows your monk to run off of Charisma instead of Wisdom, which is awesome, but… I wasn’t thrilled by anything. There are also three new items up for offer, my favourite of which was ‘charm of the thriceborn.’ I’d be very interested to hear what others thought about the options in Magdh’s section, so if you’ve given the book a read be sure to let me know in the comments below.

Next up is Ng, the Hooded, Eldest of the seasons, secrets, and wanderers. Under his section you’ll find a new cavalier archetype, the ‘Hooded Knight,’ who has a fey-touched mount, gains benefits when traveling on roads, and at higher levels can use dimension door or teleport. There’s also a new cavalier order, the ‘Order of the Blossom,’ which sounds… interesting. Although it’s got some cool abilities, including gaining sneak attack and some minor enchantments, one of the edicts forces you to always accept a fey’s request for aid — which could be very troublesome for obvious reasons. Thankfully, blighted or corrupted fey are excluded from this, and he must instead destroy them. Still… It could be rough! Best ensure you have an understanding GM before selecting it! The final options in Ng’s section are three new items which involve secrecy. Be sure to check out the ‘whispering gloves,’ and the ‘clandestine horseshoes’! The ‘hood of privacy‘ is awesome, but very expensive. Definitely an investment.

Following Ng’s secrecy is an interesting Eldest who cares nothing for subtlety: Ragadahn, The Water Lord, Eldest of linnorms, oceans, and spirals. He’s a brutish creature who counts all the oceans of the First World as his territory. He expects fealty, and respect, but little else. There’s two new archetypes in his section, The ‘Deepwater Rager‘ for barbarians, and the ‘Serpent Herald’ for skalds. Despite the name, the ‘Deepwater Rager’ isn’t actually an underwater combatant. I highly recommend giving it a read, because their abilities ‘Spiraling Charge’ and ‘Disorienting Grapple‘ and both very cool! There’s also three new rage powers in this section of the book (check out ‘Master of the Deep,’ which lets you command aquatic creatures), and two bardic masterpieces, both of which are cool. ‘Ragadahn’s raqs beledi’ is a dance that allows you and your companions to squeeze into tight spaces without trouble, while ‘Ragadahn’s spiral ascent’ allows you to make a whirlwind which can whisk your companions to higher ground. Intriguing!

Finally, we come to the last Eldest in the book — which is also the last page of the book —Shyka, The Many, Eldest of entropy, reincarnation, and time. Now, time related concepts are both very cool, and very difficult to work with in a d20 system. So, although I went into these pages with high hopes — hopes made higher by the awesome wizard artwork in this section — I was wary I might be let down. This section contains a single archetype, and four new spells. The archetype is called the ‘Chronomancer,’ and is for wizards. They gives up the arcane bond class feature, as well as most of their bonus feats, to gain a reservoir of energy they can use to alter time. At low levels they can use it to improve an ally’s initiative, or saving throws, and to immediately re-prepare failed spells (either due to a failed concentration check, a passed save on behalf of your enemies, spell resistance or other immunities, and so on) as if they had not been cast. Cool, right? At higher levels they can use it to cast haste on their allies or trigger contingencies. At level twenty they can even summon a version of himself from an parallel timeline at the moment of his death. The alternate you only lasts for a minute, but it’s one heck of a final gambit! He even comes with your gear! I was SO pleasantly surprised with this archetype! If you’re even remotely interested you should give it a gander. As for the spells? Very cool! Particularly ‘temporal divergence!’ Definitely read it!

And that’s it! We’ve reached the back cover, and Legacy of the First World has come to an end. I hope seeing a bit of what’s inside has helped you decide whether this is a book you want to invest in. And if you’ve read through it already, be sure to let us know what your favourite options were in the comments! Still want more fey-inspired goodness? Be sure to pick up the newest Wayfinder fanzine, Wayfinder 18: Fey and the First World, which is a free download on Paizo’s website.

Enjoy!

Jessica

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