Archives of Nethys, an online database for official Pathfinder and Starfinder content and rules, recently announced the launch of their new website: 2e.aonprd.com! This new site will be dedicated to Pathfinder Second Edition and will launch on August 1st, 2019, at 7:00 am (Pacific Time). That’s right! It’s coming out the same day that Pathfinder Second Edition launches in print!
Exciting news!
Through the Archives of Nethys players around the world will have all the rules and characters options for Pathfinder Second Edition at their fingertips, online and free. I am absolutely ecstatic! I know cost is a huge factor to consider when deciding whether I’ll be able to give Pathfinder Second Edition a try. Seeing that barrier removed is amazing.
Last year I shared my family’s experiences creating their first Starfinder characters. We had a lot of fun making a kooky crew, and tried them out a bit before deciding they would join the Starfinder Society. There were some changes that needed to be made. Tucker was a halfling, which would have to change, but otherwise the transition went smoothly. Then we sat down and played Into the Unknown. Life got busy. We moved on to play Starfinder Scenario #1-03: Yesteryear’s Truth, which was great fun (for details check out this blog post).
But, my kids have WAY too many characters and not enough focus.
I’m a fan of creating a character and playing them through consistently right to the end. I want to play them every week. I want them to accomplish something amazing over the course of a long campaign. And when their story is done I want to know what happened to them. Did they retire? Get married? Ascend to godhood? Go insane? When their story’s complete I’m ready to make a new character and start all over again.
But, my kids? My kids love making new characters. They like hopping from story to story. But they also don’t like letting characters go. They want to play them all at the same time. There’s tons of them. An unattainable goal if I ever heard one! Haha.
In short? We rarely have time to take our Wayfinders for a spin.
The other day my daughter informed me that she wanted to create her own adventure. This isn’t the first time. She’s GMed for us before and brutally slaughtered us all. It’s partly because she doesn’t have much experience determining appropriate CRs, but it’s also because she’s incredibly lucky. Too lucky. It’s great when she’s a fellow PC but when she’s the GM? Look out! Monsters have awesome aim, enemies are so stealthy they might as well be invisible, and no opponent ever fails a saving throw. It’s not that she’s cheating! We don’t use GM screens in my house so we can all see her rolls, and I help her every step of the way. She’s just that damned lucky.
So when she said she wanted to GM something everyone groaned.
She looked so sad.
“Oh, no! She’s going to kill us again!” my son wailed.
“Be nice!” I scolded my son. Then I whispered to my husband, “She totally is…”
But, I smiled at my daughter and said, “That sounds exciting. Let’s do it.” Because it is exciting. Of course I want my kids to want to imagine, create, and GM.
So my daughter and I went to my room and peered at my bookshelf. Making a one-shot would mean everyone would create more characters, which we didn’t really have time for at the moment, so I suggested she create a mini adventure for Starfinder. Our Wayfinders were in the middle of a journey through the Drift from the radioactive planet Elytrio to Absalom Station. The timing couldn’t be better!
But, they were SFS characters… We decided to play the entire scenario off the books, using the stats for our characters but leaving our actual SFS characters entirely untouched. And while we were at it? Tucker might as well be a halfling again (in appearance).
My daughter thought about the Drift a bit, pulled down the Alien Archive, and got browsing. She stopped on creatures she took a liking to and we chatted about them, brainstorming ideas together. Some she liked and some she didn’t. She wrote down notes in her little Pokemon notebook. When she hit the end of the book she narrowed down her ideas and made some more notes and drawings. An hour later we were picking out miniatures and prepping the table. It was game time!
I started off the session by reminding everyone what we were up to. Where we’d been, where we were going, and who we were with.
Our crew consists of four Starfinder Agents that belong to the Wayfinders Faction. Hoponisa (Hops for short), is a ysoki technomancer from the dark side of Verces who loves to dance. She’s on a mission to find herself the ‘perfect mate’ and is handy both in the pilot’s chair, the engineering bay, and at a computer console. She has a robot rabbit dubbed ‘Snowball’ who is a glorified computer with some minor mobility that she crafted herself, then wrapped in fuzzy faux fur for ultimate cuddle-ability. It’s also her spell cache. Hops has been a Starfinder for a long time and is the person who recruited the rest of the crew into the Starfinder Society (before that they were mercenaries who did work for the Starfinders on a regular basis). Together, the gang travels the Vast, deploying drift beacons for credits at the behest of the Wayfinders. After discovering new planets, collecting data on their environments, and deploying drift beacons, the group prepares a report on the planet for the Wayfinders, which allows the spacefaring faction to better prepare proper Starfinder teams for further exploration on these locations.
Hops and the crew of the Pegasus Class ship, Infinity, have gone on plenty of missions together. Led by their Captain Aya, a wise, enigmatic kasatha mystic who believes that every life is precious, they’ve charted planets and discovered new places. Their roles on the starship change a lot, with the rest of the crew rotating between pilot, engineer, science officer, and gunner as the mood strikes them. Aya and Hops are joined by Tucker Aetherfoot, a ysoki (originally a halfling) operative with the daredevil speciality who’s nimble, acrobatic, and full of boundless energy. He wears a t-shirt with a shirren design on it (to represent his long-time friendship with the shirren Vishkesh), and wears a racing helmet with a rose-tinted visor and stylized mouse ears on the side (which was given to him by Hops as a birthday gift). Tucker’s insatiably curious, and runs a blog in his spare time about his experiences exploring the Vast. He’s a devout Desnan from Absalom Station, prone to dancing when he’s idle too long. …Even in the middle of a mission. Lastly, there’s Vishkesh, a shirren mechanic with a little flying spy drone named Rijin. Rijin is trained to help Vishkesh with repairing starships, and is also outfitted with a flare thrower. He’s a chipper little thing, with a bubbly artificial personality. Vishkesh has a fondness to caring for (and rescuing) larval shirren, and currently has a dozen dangling off of him in their protective canisters at all times. Vishkesh is the proud owner of a pig stuffed animal — a rare creature he’s never seen in in the flesh! He’s also from Absalom Station, and is a long time friend of Tucker’s. Vishkesh worships Hylax.
When they joined the Starfinders the crew of Infinity decided they needed a helping hand. They hired two rookies to assist them and round out their crew: Gizdara, a half-orc technomancer who’s a whiz with computers, and Diggs Drifthopper, a burly ‘rabbitfolk’ whose planet was conquered by the Vesk years ago. Diggs was forced into the military, but was recently allowed his freedom and was looking for work. He’s good with a gun, but not much else (which he can’t use in SFS play, as a non-combatant hireling, haha). Still, my daughter insisted on hiring him because he was destined to be Hops’ mate. (Uhhh… Okay? Haha). Diggs’ job is mostly to watch the ship while we’re away from it.
There’s one other person on their ship at the moment: the Membrane Ghibrani Klarima who they were bringing from her home planet of Elytrio to join the Starfinder Society. For now she was a passenger, but the group was teaching her everything they could of the universe as they travelled the Drift.
The crew of Infinity soars through the Drift!
With the recap out of the way my daughter took over, explaining that we had been in the Drift for a few weeks. All of a sudden the alarm blared and there was a strange flash of red light nearing the ship. LAVA!
Wait, what? How could there be lava in space?
My daughter gleefully asked for a Computers check from our Science Officer — Vishkesh at the moment — revealing that a piece of the Elemental Plane of Fire had been torn off and stranded in the Drift (quite recently by the look of it)! We were about to do some more research on this phenomenon when there was a burst of light. Lava and powerful heat blasts from the shard of the Plane of Fire was flying at our ship! Our pilot, Hops (which I was running on behalf of my daughter since she was GMing), flew like a pro, dodging lava balls, and super heated waves of energy. But a few moments later Vishkesh identified that our air lock had been opened. Something was on the ship!
We turned for the elevator only have it DING pleasantly.
As the doors opened Captain Aya ordered Hops, Diggs, and Gizdara to remain at their posts. Gizadara took over as Science Officer while Diggs took on the role of gunner and blasted through the hunks of rock flying at our ship. Vishkesh, Rijin, Aya, and Tucker leapt to their feet — too late!
A trio of fire elementals roared off the lift and slammed into the kasathan captain — the nearest target.
“The elementals are so angry! They must be lost and confused!” my son (Vishkesh) pointed out. Unfortunately, his understanding did little to calm the creatures. The fire elementals tore into Aya and scored multiple critical hits — curse my daughter’s luck! Haha. My kashathan mystic went down before she even had a turn.
Captain down!
“Sorry, Mom!” my daughter said a little guiltily.
“It’s alright, baby. Aya will be fine.”
The battle continued, and wow was it a tough one! The fire elementals tore into Tucker while Aya slowly recovered on the ground with her SP. By the time she rejoined the fight her healing magic was sorely needed! Tucker was hanging on by a thread and Vishkesh was in big trouble! Not long afterwards the group rallied and took down the last of the exceptionally lucky elementals. But not before Tucker suffered some luck of his own — bad luck!
A critical fail for poor Tucker!
With the fire elementals defeated Vishkesh hurried to the airlock to get it locked down while Aya healed the wounds of her crew. Hops flew us out of the range of the planar anomaly and the journey returned to normal.
For a time…
Not much further away we came upon a strange group of asteroids that looked like they were all part of some kind of large complex — a metallic castle of some sort. It was clearly another broken planar shard torn from another world and deposited in the Drift by Drift Travel. Hesitantly, the group scanned the planar wreckage and detected signs of life. Not wanting to leave anyone stranded in the Drift, Aya ordered the ship to investigate the asteroids.
They flew past chunks of reddish rock, through space strewn with shards of glittering metal. Suddenly they saw a ship! It looked like a hunk of junk cobbled together from — well, junk! They turned on the comms to hail the ship only to be fired upon!
Battle stations!
Hops sailed the ship through space, dodging meteors and make-shift torpedoes, Vishkesh boosted the ships guns, Tucker fired upon the enemy, and Aya encouraged her crew. Although the battle shouldn’t have been challenging, it was — once again my daughter’s good luck conspired to destroy us.
Suddenly Vishkesh noticed incoming projectiles from somewhere other than the ship! One of the chunks of broken castle was inhabited! They fired cannons at the Infinity. Cannons that held… goblins in weird globs of goo! The goblin bombs splattered against the hull of Infinity! Unfortunately for the goblins our ship’s shields were too tough for them to penetrate! Most splattered on impact like giant bugs! But, armed as they were with sharp implements and hacking kits, it’s likely the goblins would have attempted to breach the hull or hack into the air locks to gain entry had our shields been depleted.
Suddenly a voice crackled over the intercom. “AHA! You smart-heads are good! You foil our goo-guns good! But we goblin pirates! Goblins attack and goblins snack! Or…. goblins want to snack! We hungry! Hand over your food and we let you go!”
Image discovered on Pinterest and chosen to represent Snowball in my home game. Art by Canadian artist DaCosta! under the studio name Chocolate Soop. Click here to check out their website.
Aya sighed in a rare show of impatience. “All lives are precious…” It sounded like she was reminding herself of this, instead of teaching the others as was typical. “We came here to lend aid to any stranded in the Drift. Surrender, Goblin Pirates, and we will forgive your attack. We have food to spare and tools to repair your Drift Engines. …If you have any.”
The goblin pirate laughed. “AHA! We win! We no shoot and you give us food! Yes! Come! Come to our home and give us many many food!”
“…” Aya decided it was best not to argue with a goblin. “Yes. Exactly. We’re coming in for a landing.” Looking at Hops she ordered. “Hops, take us down.”
“Yes, Captain!”
The gang flew their ship to the strange broken castle and landed — as best as they could. Floated nearby was a better description. After a space walk, Aya, Vishkesh, Tucker, and Rijin set out to meet the goblins. They were greeted by a snivelling, friendly little goblin — not the goblin pirate from before — and given a tour. The castle was hollow and without gravity except around its outer walls. Along these outside walls were small rooms that had both air and gravity — an anomaly the goblins couldn’t quite explain. Up near the broken ceiling (and any holes in the walls) there was a massive makeshift net — to prevent any goblins from accidentally drifting off into space.
On the tour the group discovered that the goblins weren’t just hungry, they were completely out of food! No wonder they had attacked!
But, the goblin had a plan. “Oh, you look so fat and not starving! Oh! Yum! Uh… Yum to your food! Not yum to you!” The goblin laughed, but Tucker was a little nervous. “We have much money to give you! Yes! Lots of shinies! Came here to steal shinies from castle, but ship broke! And shinies not good to eat! Nope! We have tried!” the goblin nodded. “Our King has shinies! You go see him and kill him and take them! And his pet! Must kill it too! Very smart it is. Smarter than King I think!” The goblin nods. “Then you take shinies and give us many many food! Yes! YES! Good plan! See?”
Image discovered on Pinterest to represent Rijin in our home game. Art by Jessica Madorran. Check out her website for more information.
“Did some of you want to come with us?” Vishkesh asked.
Tucker groaned. “Oh, I don’t like that plan…”
The goblins around all cheered. “Yes! Oh, give us ride! But first take shinies! You take for food! And if you not want we take it and use it to buy more food when you get to… where you go! Me not care! Me want FOOD!”
With a sigh the group headed up to bargain with the King. “All lives are precious,” Aya reminded everyone. “This need not come to a fight.
Unfortunately, Aya was wrong. It did come down to a fight. The quartet faced off against the goblin king and his (definitely smarter than him) tashtari pet. For once my daughter’s luck didn’t trump our own and we made quick work of the angry pair. With the shinies and a ton of goblins in tow, the group reboarded the Infinity for the longest, most irritating trip they would ever endure.
Words of wisdom: Never let a pack of starving goblins on your space ship!
Our family had a lot of fun playing my daughter’s Starfinder adventure. Best of all? My daughter was happy she didn’t kill everyone. (Yay!)
It’s been a while since we talked about my family’s current home campaign, Shackled City. We haven’t stopped playing — far from it. But we’ve been so busy lately it’s hard to find the time to play anything at all, let alone write about it. So while I have a free moment let me welcome you back to Cauldron, home of the The Shackled City Adventure Path!
When we last left off our heroic musicians had finally returned home to Cauldron. They had saved a lot of people and brought down an underground slave ring, but they were ill at ease. Someone else knew about the slavers and had done nothing. Who were they? And what about the people they had failed to save? The people who were sold to unknown parties before our heroes were even hired to find them… Were they gone forever? Could four kooky members of an up and coming band possibly brave the Darklands to track them down? No! Surely they couldn’t do anything so foolish! ….Or could they…?
The Shackled City Adventure Path is available for purchase in its entirety here. The first volume, Life’s Bazaar, is available for purchase here.
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 the gnomish enclave of 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 through 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. A co-workers of hers, Griffin Malek, was one of the recently abducted people, so she was 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 one day be published in the upcoming Realms of Atrothia: Primary Expansion by Sunburst Games. Rabbity recently ‘befriended’ (she thinks) a vicious howler named Prickles. What could go wrong?!
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 was determined to rescue the missing citizens of Cauldron. Aeris is my character for the Shackled City Adventure Path.
The jungle city of Cauldron, located in the bowl of a dormant volcano.
The members of Dinorabbit and their newly liberated Cauldronites arrived in Cauldron to little fanfare. They brought the people they had freed from slavery to the Church of Abadar — the group who had hired them to find four missing orphans — and spoke with it’s current leader, Jenya Urikas. The authorities were called and the group had just enough time to ask about Terrem Karatys, one of the four children they had been tasked to save. Terrem had been free by our heroes only a few moments before a monstrous beholder had appeared and stole him away again. They admitted their failings to the Priestess, who looked confused.
“Oh? You didn’t save Terrem? Well, he is here safe and sound. He arrived on our doorstep before any others.” She counted out the coins she owed the group for saving three of the four children and handed it to them with a smile. “A pleasure doing business with you.”
My family was more than a little confused. Why would a beholder go to the trouble of stealing an orphaned kid that they had saved from slavery just to bring the kid home? And this beholder… He wasn’t the only one interested in Terrem. The Last Laugh Thieve’s Guild also wanted the boy. In fact, they had gone as far as tasking the orphanage’s janitor, Patch, with keeping an eye on him. Strange… Our heroes tried to speak with Terrem, but the boy would say nothing.
Suddenly the town guard arrived and everyone — victims, heroes, and even some priests — were brought to the Garrison for questioning. The PCs were interviewed over and over by the authorities. The guards looked for holes in their story. Incongruities that might show they had something to do with the kidnappings… They were lectured on the legality and dangers of vigilanteism. Informed that the entirety of Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress were off limits — it was an active crime scene, after all. The poor musicians were so busy they barely had a moment to stop and breathe. After a few days they received one last warning from Terseon Skellerang, Captain of Cauldron’s city watch, and were sent on their way.
On the way out they ran into Krylscar Endercott, a town guard who was among those that had been abducted from his home by dark folk and then saved by Dinorabbit. Although he was badly wounded when they found him, he grinned at the sight of them and asked for a blade. The stubborn fool was a big help in getting everyone home safe. They chatted with him a bit, and bid him farewell.
Upon re-entering the city for the first time in days they were shocked to discover that although their deeds were well known, their identities were not. A heinous crime! While Aeris returned to work at her locksmith shop, the rest of the band spent some time spreading word of their triumphs and of an upcoming performance — which they had yet to schedule. The next few days were marked with frivolities — writing, practising, performing, rumourmongering, and so on. Falco took these responsibilities very seriously, intent on milking their newfound fame for all it was worth.
Rabbity discovered that Griffin, the friend she had worked so hard to save, was out of a job. He had been replaced as bartender and was now stuck waiting tables. Also, Rabbity had been fired. She hadn’t been into work in nearly a week and left no word as to why, so that wasn’t too much of a surprise. Still, my daughter was a little insulted. She also worried about her pet howler, Prickles, who was currently locked inside the Malachite Fortress, hopefully not killing (or being killed by) the investigating city guards. Deciding they needed to sneak into Jzadirune and save him before he got into trouble, Rabbity concocted a plan. She looked into the people who they hadn’t saved and picked out one whose home was close to Jzadirune — 52 Ash Avenue, the home of skinner Rikaldo Veskar. Rikaldo had a tiny, blood-stained, stinky home that had been abandoned 37 nights. Knowing that he had been sold to unknown buyers in the Darklands and wouldn’t be returning, my daughter set out to purchase the building from the city. She sought guidance from her friend Ruphus Laro at the Church of Abadar and determined the steps to take to buy the building. It cost more than she had, but she managed to convince the group it was important. They pooled their money and bought the house. Then Rabbity asked Falco to start using his stone shape spells to tunnel out a passage from their new junky home to Jzadirune. With some luck and planning they’d be able to get to Prickles before he killed anyone. Hopefully….
Mick was equally busy. He spent a lot of time trying to figure out how he could legally get his hands on Jzadirune. Deciding he needed help he sought professional guidance from the Church of Abadar, just as Rabbity had. With their legal advice he put together a plan to legally acquire the underground complex. And so he set out to track down the original ownership paperwork, and the living descendants of Jzadirune’s founders. There weren’t many of them. Only six. So Mick set out to barter with them over ownership, in the hopes they would turn it over to him. Hopefully, when all is said and done, he could legally claim the property from the city.
Aeris spent her time working, patrolling the town, and looking for a sign that matched the mysterious Kingfisher symbol they had discovered on a letter written to the slaver Kazmojen. She discovered nothing.
There was plenty the group did together, as well. They visited the orphanage, Church of Abadar, and all the other people they had saved, double checking they were safe, healthy, and reintegrating back into society. Patch was fine and back at work. Apparently he had managed to keep his affiliations with the Last Laugh Thieve’s Guild a secret. The orphans were a little traumatized — all except for Terrem who seemed unconcerned over the entire ordeal.
Krylscar had returned home to find his parents hadn’t even been looking for him. Turns out they thought he had robbed them and fled the city — the jerks! He was trying to find himself a new place to live, but not having any luck. At work everyone treats him like a weirdo and he’s angry that they never saved him. In fact, he was generally an angry guy. Still, he had friends. He remained close with his pal Griffin, and often showed up to hang out with the members of Dinorabbit. They knew he wasn’t some shifty loser. They knew he was a good guy. (My family really grew to like this guy! Haha).
Jasper and Jeneer had gone back to work like nothing had happened. Jasper teaches math at Bluecrater Academy, and Jeneer is a jeweller’s apprentice. The group saw Maple, a suspected member of the Alleybashers gang, on the streets from time to time, but she never stayed to chat. And Coryston Pike, the retired adventurer, made it home, but hadn’t been seen around town since.
But, not everyone had recovered. Sondor (the dwarven cartwright), Deven Myrlzal (a teenage human lamplighter), and Irruth Mercadi (a chandler), were all traumatized by their experiences. They wouldn’t talk. They just sat still, scared, and sad. Currently they were at the Church of Abadar, but they would need to head home soon. As Priestess Jenya Urikas plainly pointed out, the Church of Abadar was not in the business of charity.
When the group discovered that Keygan Ghelve had been arrested they went to visit him. My kids were a little upset about his fate. Did he really deserve to be arrested? Out of fear he had helped the kidnappers and slavers, but he had also fought alongside our heroes to free them again. Of course, he had done that only because the group had forced him to… In time they realized that Keygan’s fate was out of their hands. Instead they offered to take care of his rat familiar, Starbrow, and his home. It took some bargaining and a signed contract, but Keygan agreed to transfer ownership of his home and locksmith shop to the members of Dinorabbit on the condition they took care of Starbrow, they did not sell any of his paintings or his grandfather clock, and they didn’t bring their meddlesome pets into his home. When he was released from prison, ownership of his home and shop would revert to Keygan. Keygan was grateful, and they began to feel a little better about this whole ordeal.
In time they discovered a vandalism problem in Cauldron. Someone had been painting words on buildings in goblin. Things like “Murrd wrote this!” “Snurk smells like dung!” and “Drakthar has bat ears!” Luckily, Mick could speak goblin and was pretty sure the culprits were a gang of goblins. Which was absurd! Everyone knew no goblins lived in Cauldron! Determined to prove he wasn’t crazy, the group stayed up late a few nights, attempting to catch the vandals red-handed. Although they came close, the only thing they managed to earn was a scolding from the guards for suspicious behaviour. Whoops!
One day the group received a summons from the Mayor’s Office. They hurried over and were told that the mayor — Lord Mayor Severen Navalant — wanted to host a ceremony in honour of their deeds. Although it was clear he was hoping to use their newfound celebrity status to bolster the public’s opinion of him, the band didn’t mind. They wanted to do the same to him, after all. Together they made some plans and the party was scheduled, with Dinorabbit making a headlining performance. The Mayor also asked about their experiences under Cauldron and their opinions on what should be done about Jzadirune, the Malachite Fortress, and the passages to the Darklands. Mick took this opportunity to share his plans to acquire full ownership of Jzadirune while Rabbity petitioned for her ‘beloved’ new pet Prickles to be returned to her at once! The Mayor smiled and assured them he would take it under advisement. The group was skeptical he would, but had little choice but to accept him at his word.
The days leading up to the festival were hectic, with even Aeris practising as much as she could. They put on a lot of other performances, both big and small. My family was happiest to earn themselves a performance at both the Cusp of Sunrise (a fancy social club that was for the nobility) and the Coy Nixie (a fancy restaurant where they first began their adventure). Before they knew it the party was upon them. Much to their surprise the mayor named them ‘Champions of Cauldron’ — a position which he later assured them had no real responsibilities to go with it — rewarded them the deed to Jzadirune, and gave them a new task: putting an end to the goblin vandals that have been irritating the town! Both shocked and pleased at this turn of events, the gang agreed. Not that they were given a choice…. Haha. After the ceremony the party began, and my family had a blast describing their performances and songs. The night ended with fireworks, and a few angry scowls from Captain Skellerang.
The next day would see them busy again. Plans had to be made for Jzadirune and Prickles had to be liberated. The Lord Mayor’s secretary informed them that the Malachite Fortress would be turned into a guard post for the Town Guard so that the entrance to the Darklands could be properly protected. This, of course, meant that they would need to have engineers remodel the entrances to both Jzadirune and the Malachite Fortress a bit. Both the members of Dinorabbit and the Town Guard had to be able to access different parts of the complex without traipsing through the others space. I handed my kids a map of Jzadirune and asked them for their ideas. They also got to make plans for the engineers to fix up some of Jzadirunes broken walls and tunnels while they were at it — courtesy of a small grant provided to them by the Mayor’s Office. A surprise my kids found very exciting! Even more exciting? The group got to visit Jzadirune and Rabbity retrieved Prickles. Happily he did not try to devour her. Yet.
By the time Dinorabbit left Jzadirune and began to walk home they were greeted by rain. More than that. It was a downpour. Fall had come to Cauldron, which meant the rains would continue for a few weeks more, at least. It was misty out. Cool and dark. There was a chilling howl on the wind — like that of a wolf. On the side of Aeris’ locksmith shop was more goblin graffiti.
“Who builds town in volcano? Stupid humans!”
The gang sighed.
Tomorrow they would need to put aside their ambitions and get to work. The had a gang of vandals to catch.
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. A copy of the premade player handouts is available from Paizo 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.
Last month Paizo announced a the launch of a liveplay campaign that will feature the new Pathfinder Second Edition ruleset! Launching on April 4th and featuring Paizo staff members, this liveplay will be our first glimpse at the newly updated Pathfinder Second Edition rules.
GMed by Paizo’s Director of Game Design, Jason Bulmahn, the liveplay is called Oblivion Oath and will air live on Paizo’s twitch stream every Thursday at Noon Pacific for one hour. Episodes will go up on Paizo’s Youtube Channel a few days later. Each week since the announcement the players have sat down with Dan Tharp, producer of the show, to describe their characters and answer questions. The final character reveal happened last week and tomorrow marks the premiere of the Oblivion Oath campaign! Oblivion Oath will continue for an indetermined length of time.
Jason Bulmahn will be joined by four lucky Paizo Staffers, Gabe Waluconis (Paizo’s Project Manager) will be playing an Iruxi (lizardfolk) rogue named Zel. Katina Davis (from Paizo’s Customer Service Team) will be playing Zel’s best friend Mykah, a gnome wizard. Sara Marie (Customer Service and Community Manager) will be playing Carina Whisperbane, a runaway dwarf Redeemer Champion of Pharasma (Champion is the new term for Paladin, which can be of any good alignment. Paladins are LG Champions, Redeemers are NG Champions, and Liberators are CG Champions). And finally, Owen K.C. Stephens (Starfinder Design Lead) will be playing Qundle, a Celestial blooded goblin sorcerer capable of using divine magic and possessing a deep love of pickles. Unlike the previous Doomsday Dawn livestream, Oblivion Oath is meant to be a character driven liveplay that features the same players and characters week after week. Although it is sure to feature spoilers about the upcoming Second Edition rules, it’s not intended to teach viewers how to play Second Edition. It’s about story, and the characters helping to drive it.
The characters of Oblivion Oath! From the left: Zel, Mykah, Carina Whisperbane, and Qundle. Illustrated by PxelSlayer. Art courtesy of Paizo Inc.
Oblivion Oath takes place in Golarion in the year 4719, which makes it concurrent with the events of the final Pathfinder First Edition Adventure Path: Tyrant’s Grasp. Oblivion’s Oath is said to feature a glimpse at that AP, but not spoilers. Instead, it will be it’s own story.
“Four unlikely heroes set sail from the port of Vellumis aboard the Sleepy Sea Cat, a slow-moving barge sailing the waters of Lake Encarthan,” Jason Bulmahn revealed on Paizo’s blog. “Packed with travelers and cargo, Captain Heliana Ironeye assures everyone of a smooth journey north to Ustalav before turning south and making for the elven port of Greengold, but tensions aboard remain high. Terrifying rumors out of the west, combined with fires throughout the city have set folk on edge, and the barge contains more than a few eager to put Lastwall behind them. In the case of our heroes, that could not be more true…”
For more information on Oblivion Oath cast and characters check out Paizo’s Twitch Stream or Youtube Channel! A list of the current episodes it at the bottom of this post. Be sure to tune it to Paizo’s Twitch Streamweekly on Thursdays at Noon Pacific to watch Oblivion Oath live! The premiere is tomorrow!
Today we’re taking a peek between the covers of Pathfinder Player Companion: Wilderness Origins! If you’ve been reading d20diaries since its beginning you’ll know that my family and I adore Ultimate Wilderness. My kids love the races introduced — particularly the adorable vine leshys — and my entire family enjoys the shifter class. In fact, each of us have at least two shifters. Needless to say we were excited to get our hands on Wilderness Origins. My husband was hoping for more shifter options, my kids were hoping for more vine leshy options, and I was… Well, I was just hoping someone in my family would find something inside the book that they’d make use of right away.
We were not disappointed.
Pathfinder Player Companion: Wilderness Origins 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 a ton of world lore or secrets inside. You’ll find archetypes, feats, traits, spells, and more! Wilderness Origins features amazing cover art by David Alvarez, which showcases the iconic shifter, Zova, engaged in battle against an earth elemental.
The inside front over of Wilderness Origins.
The front inside cover features brief information on a few plants described in the book alongside some sketches. The entire page is presented as if they were entries in a scholar’s journal, which is a nice touch. Although no important information is contained here that can’t be found later in the book, it’s nicely showcased. Plants depicted include ambrosial lotus, cleanthistle, ghostblossom, and a ghoran seed. There’s also art of a gathlain’s wing and a leaf leshy.
After this is the table of contents, the rules index, and the introduction which contains eight new regional traits themed around different terrains. Each trait is printed alongside an example background for each terrain, that emphasize how you can embrace nature and your environment. Guerilla tactics and surefooted ascent are sure to be popular, but fruit merchant and strong stomach turned out to be my favourites. Environments covered by these traits include the desert, road, forest, jungle, mountain, swamp, tundra, and coast.
Moving on from the introduction we come to six pages of new shifter options. It features a whopping nine new shifter aspects, all of which are pretty cool. The new shifter aspects are boar, crocodile, dolphin, dragonfly, electric eel, mantis, octopus, scorpion, and spider. Electric eel is my favourite, but my son LOVES the boar aspect. He immediately made a gnomish boar shifter for Pathfinder Society Organized Play and was super excited to give it a shot. Unfortunately, we suffered a TPK that weekend and poor Sid’s career was cut short. Still, my son loved the character and made a ton of use out of the boar’s minor aspect, which gives you diehard as a bonus feat.
A half-orc feyform shifter from Wilderness Origins.
After the shifter aspects are three new archetypes, dragonblood shifter, feyform shifter, and swarm shifter. They’re all pretty self-explanatory, with the dragonblood shifter allowing you to take on the aspects and forms of a variety of dragons, feyform shifter granting you some tricky defences and the ability to transform into fey beings, and swarm shifter allowing you to turn into a swarm of bugs. They’re all really cool, but dragonblood shifter turned out to be my favourite. My husband’s a big fan of the swarm shifter, though, and he’s not going to be the only one. It’s a really useful archetype which is sure to see a lot of play.
Also in the shifter chapter are thirteen new favoured class options, seven new feats (be sure to check out chimeric aspect, greater weapon shift, and raking claws), and my favourite new option for shifters: alternate natural attacks. Each shifter aspect currently released (new and old) has a list of alternate attack forms they can select in place of claw attacks. Bears have a bite attack, for example, while boars have a gore and a hoof. Any time you activate your shifter claws you can choose to take an alternate natural attack from your animal aspect options in place of one of your claw attacks. This changes the damage type and the way your natural attacks look, but otherwise functions as the shifter’s regular claw attacks. It’s a really nice option I’m happy to see available.
Up next are two pages on each of the races introduced in Ultimate Wilderness — gathlain, ghoran, and vine leshy. The new gathlain options include five alternate race traits (arborealvitality, feyresilience, and whimsicaloutlook are my favourites), seven new feats (mighty boughs and strength of wood are my favourites), and one new archetype. Sworn of the Eldest is a Charisma-based inquisitor archetype that I really enjoyed. Particularly the magic of the Eldest ability, which swaps out teamwork feats for some extra spells and spells per day.
Ghoran options include four alternate race traits (check out intoxicating aroma and magicalabsorption), three feats (I love spell mirror), two new spells (pinecone bomb and woodland rune), and the new ninja archetype petal ninja, which lets you transform into a cloud of flower petals.
Vine leshy verdivant. Illustration by Nathanael James. Art courtesy of Paizo Inc.
Vine Leshy options include four alternate race traits (lashvine and writhing eye are awesome!), four new feats (we like bounteous body best), and the cavalier archetype verdivant. This turned out to be both my kids’ favourite archetype — which came as no surprise since they both love vine leshys. The verdivant archetype lets you to have a plant mount, and enables you create effloresces, which are explosive plant growths that can be used a number of times per day and have some cool effects. While one might form a wall of vines to prevent attacks of opportunity, others can make you walk on air, or even give you and your allies fast healing. Effloresce replaces the cavalier’s banner and tactician abilities.
Up next in Wilderness Origins are two pages themed around flowers. It starts by introducing four new magical plants, ambrosial lotus, cleanthistle, ghostblossom, and gravebane petals. All four are surprisingly useful, but I think I like the cleanthistle best. It’s a great plant to add into my family game of Iron Gods. There’s also five awesome new witch hexes. I honestly had a hard time picking my favourite. My daughter loves leshy summoning, my son loves verdant familiar, and heralding bloom is going to be really useful for some characters. In the end its the floating lotus and iceplant hexes I’m most likely to use. Floating lotus conjures a flower that you can stand on to walk over water or gain a bonus on jump checks while Iceplant makes the witch and her familiar’s flesh harden, granting them a natural armour bonus and and the effects of endure elements. Finally, there’s a new alchemist archetype in this section: perfumer. This alchemist creates atomized perfumes in place of potions, an can distill pheromones that augment your Charisma, diplomacy, and bluff checks in place of mutagens. Very cool!
The next two pages are entitled Wardens of the Wild and involve kami. There’s a new kami eidolon subtype for unchained summoners, ward aspects for hunters to make use of, and the new spiritualist archetype ward spiritualist. This archetype allows a spiritualist to purposesly seek out a kami to bond with, and grants them a ward implement which can either be an object or their own body. With their ward implement they can gain occultist focus powers. They can also merge their kami with their implement to empower their implement in battle. I’m a huge fan of both spiritualists and occultists, so I’m totally biased to love this archetype. Haha.
Scorpion familiar. Illustration by Beatrice Pelagatti. Art courtesy of Paizo Inc.
The next four pages are packed full of options for our animalistic pals — animal companions, familiars, and mounts. It starts with two animal companion archetypes: apex species (which gives your companion benefits in certain terrains) and unexpected intellectual (which makes a vermin companion more intelligent). Then there’s three familiar archetypes: occult messenger, the super creepy parasite, and arcane amplifier (my personal favourite) which grants your familiar the ability to use some metamagic feats on touch spells they deliver. Following these are seven feats which can be taken by animal companions, familiars, and their owners. Three are relevant to familiars, three to animal companions, and one is relevant to both. I really like the animal companion feats curious companion and friendly face, but it was two familiar feats that turned out to be my favourite. Changeling familiar gives any familiar capable of changing shape the ability to transform into a child or teenager of their master’s race, while spark of the uncanny gives your familiar the ability to speak. Awesome! (My kids are absurdly excited for this one!) A few levels later you can swap it out for improved familiar. Next up are descriptions of five breeds of mounts along with a trait for each of them (these traits count towards their master’s total number of traits). Finally, there’s an expanded companion list for cavaliers paladins, and rangers.
The following two pages talk about the totem spirits of the Shoanti, with nine new totem rage powers geared at members of the Lyrune-Quah (moon clan), Shundar-Quah (spire clan), and any ancestor-revering character. There’s also a new shaman spirit, tribe.
Wilderness Magic is up next, with five new arcanist exploits, three disaster themed spells, and the psychic archetype Magaambyan telepath, which blends druidic magic and wilderness themed powers with the psychic. Wild stride and wooden flesh are my favourite arcanist exploits, while flash flood — a sixth level spell on the druid, shaman, and sorcerer/wizard spell list — is my favourite spell.
The iconic kineticist Yoon riding a fire steed.
Similar to magic, the following two pages are all about elemental power — specifically fire. First up is the flame steed spell, which conjures a mount made of fire. Continuing this theme is a new archetype, the cinderlands adept, a fire-based kineticist that gains a loyal mount and is based on the Burn Riders of the Sklar-Quah (sun clan). Finally, there are eight new kineticist talents — one form infusion (elemental trap) and seven utility talents. My favourites included fire corridor and the fire steed tree. I’m a huge fan of both the Shoanti and kineticists, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover these new options.
By now there’s only a few pages left. Two pages of character options themed around the sea and sky. It starts with two more archetypes — a very interesting paladin archetype called champion of the cascade and esoteric starseeker, a psychic archetype based around Golarion’s constellations. Following this are two very cool (and disconcerting) oracle curses that have to do with decay: putrid and scourge. Finally, there’s three new ki powers: floating breath, racing current, and zephyr blow.
And that’s it! The end of Pathfinder Player Companion: Wilderness Origins! My whole family loves this player companion. It contains a lot of fun options for all our favourite parts of Ultimate Wilderness — shifters, gathlain, ghoran, and vine leshys — and pays some loving attention to the many different pets you can acquire. It’s rare that we get to make in-game use of a d20 book right after reading it, but this one immediately inspired us to create something new. It was well worth the investment for my family.
Thanks for joining us today! I hope you enjoyed taking a peek behind the covers of Wilderness Origins.
One of the play-by-post campaigns I am lucky enough to take part in is run by the wonderful GM Zek on Paizo’s messageboards. The campaign is called the Mantisbane Pact, and it takes place in Golarion, the world of Pathfinder. Mantisbane Pact involves an alliance of powerful monarchs and rightful rulers who come together to destroy the Red Mantis Assassins and their god, Achaekek. Our players would act as their agents, travel to Ilizmagorti (a city firmly in the grasp of the Red Mantis Assassins), and work to bring the entire organization crumbling down.
A few weeks ago I shared a short story I wrote as part of the application process to get to play in the Mantisbane Pact. In it we met my character, a smart-ass, jaded slayer named Kilarra Calvennis. Throughout the course of this campaign the GM and players have had the opportunity to write a variety other vignettes and flashbacks, often from the perspective of our shaman, who can view moments from the past by using the Akashic Record.
Today I’m sharing with you a flashback from Kilarra’s life I wrote when our shaman (Talia) attempted to discover why Kilarra was out of prison, despite being sentenced to life in jail for patricide. After today it will be available on the d20 Stories section on our website. Enjoy!
Jessica
Release
Its dark.
Cold.
Talia feels like she’s laying on something hard and rough. A stone floor?
There’s sounds. Women crying, wailing voices, a distant scream of pain. Breathing close by — Kilarra perhaps — it’s hard to tell in the dark.
Time passes. There’s the sound of something falling to the ground and tumbling around. It sounds like a dice, but it’s likely a stone. There’s a bit of a slapping sound, then a scraping, as if whoever dropped it was picking it back up.
It falls again. Slap. Scrape. Silence.
It falls again. Slap. Scrape. Silence.
In the distance the crying continues. Different voices, the same sounds. A sigh, a scream, denials, and tears.
“Please! I’m innocent!” someone can be heard to call above the din. A young woman by the sounds of it. “I didn’t kill him!”
Nearby someone scoffs. Talia recognizes it as Kilarra. “No one cares,” she mutters under her breath.
“Yeah, I’m innocent, too!” a different voice calls out. It’s deeper, and clearly mocking the crying woman. “I didn’t kill nobody!” The voice breaks out into a cackling laugh.
The young woman devolves into sobs.
The stone falls. Slap. Scrape. Silence.
Eventually something changes. There’s a lightening of the room. It’s subtle at first, but soon becomes light enough to see vague shapes.
Kilarra’s pale and thin. Her lip is cut and swollen, and a poorly healing wound on her face is clearly going to become the familiar scar she bears to this day. Kilarra lays on her back in a bare, stone cell, staring up at the ceiling. She fiddles with a tiny dice in her fingers, dropping it on the floor, covering it, and picking it back up again. Her other fingers tug on the hem of her ‘dress.’ She wears a filthy sack with a few holes cut in it for her arms and head that looks like it once held potatoes. The fabric’s rough and little bugs scurry around amongst it’s loose fibres.
Behind her is a wall of bars. Outside there are other cells, filled with women of varying ages. Some cry, some speak to themselves, but most sit in resigned silence. The other woman across the hall wears pants and a shirt, has a pallet of hay, a blanket, and a chamber pot — luxuries Kilarra’s cell does not possess.
The world continues to brighten. The walls turn red and the flickering of an open flame can be heard. The light suddenly spills into Kilarra’s cell, and stops.
From her place on the floor Kilarra raises an eyebrow. She rolls onto her stomach, pushes herself up to standing and stalks over to the bars. She grabs hold of them, her knuckles bloody and bruised, and leans her face up against the bars.
Outside her cell is a man in shining armour. He holds a torch in one hand, and a bag in the other. Kilarra’s eyes drift to his belt where she sees a keyring and an empty scabbard — the sword is nowhere to be seen. She smirks, apparently finding that funny.
As Kilarra grabs hold of the bars the guard — a young man, really — steps back quickly. He’s jumpy and nervous.
“You forgot your sword, kid,” Kilarra remarks with a curled lip. “Better go get it before the warden finds out. Don’t worry, I’ll wait. I’ve got nowhere else to be.”
The man shifts uncomfortably, then straightens himself. “It’s not lost. I — “
Kilarra chuckles then nods at the package. “You bring me a gift?”
The young guard clears his throat. “Step back,” he orders.
Kilarra smirks and takes a few steps back. She leans against a nearby wall and crosses her arms. The man steps closer, pauses, and looks at her, then quickly shoves the bag between the bars and steps back.
“You finally returning my chamber pot?” she asks.
“What? No, its…”
As the guard stutters Kilarra opens the bag and pulls out a blouse. She scoffs in disgust and shoves it back in the bag. “What’s the matter? Warden tire of his other whores?” She tosses the bag on the floor. “Tell him I bite. Hard.”
The fresh-faced guard looks confused for a moment, either unsure what Kilarra’s talking about or unsure why she’s angry. “No, it’s… You’re free.”
Kilarra scoffs aloud. “Free. Seriously?” She scoffs again and shakes her head.
The man nods. “By order of the Warden, you’re to be set free.”
“Why?” she asks skeptically.
“Good behaviour.”
Kilarra bursts out laughing.
The guard shifts uncomfortably. “Could you… put on your clothes? You can’t go outside like that. It’s unseemly.”
Kilarra’s laughter fades to silence. She watches the guard for a moment, wary and on edge. Eventually she takes off the rough sack and tosses it to the ground, then empties the bag out and starts getting dressed. There’s a blouse, pants, boots — familiar looking clothes Talia’s seen Kilarra wear every day.
The guard blushes and turns around, giving her privacy — an act which causes her to let out another cackling laugh.
“This place is going to eat you alive, kid.” She laughs some more, then approaches the bars. “Ready.”
The guard unlocks the cell. “Follow me.”
The flag of Taldor. Image courtesy of Paizo Inc.
Kilarra slips out behind him, following the guard down the hall. His torch illuminates the cells they pass — some of which are as spartan as Kilarra’s, but most of which have hay, pallets, chairs, simple beds, blankets, one even has a flickering candle and a pile of books. The prisoners are all female of varying ages, some cry, some beg, but most simply watch with tired, hopeless eyes. A few of the prisoners give Kilarra a nod as she goes. A few others step back in fear.
At the end of the hall is a pair of barred doors flanked by armoured guards. Above them is a massive painting of Grand Prince Stavian the third. Words underneath it read: A crime against the empire is a crime against yourself. Repent, Obey, Serve.
Unlike the guard walking with Kilarra, these men are hardened and unafraid. They each draw their swords at her approach. One sports a broken nose and a missing front tooth. He snarls at the sight of her.
She smirks. “Love the new look.”
“Listen up, you bit—“
Kilarra’s laughter drowns out the man’s words as the young guard quickly unlocks the door and ushers Kilarra through it.
They travel through more corridors and gates, up stairs and through a few checkpoints. Wherever Kilarra was being held, it was a long ways underground. The sort of place where the prisoners are never expected to leave alive.
As they travel the halls get lighter, and the torch is left behind. Kilarra squints into the dim light as if she were looking into the sun. In time they reach a large room. One final gate blocks the way to the prison’s main hall. One final gate to freedom.
A rotund man wearing nobleman’s finery and a deep sneer scowls at her. “I don’t know what strings you’ve pulled, but it won’t last.”
Kilarra smirks. “Hello, Warden. Fancy seeing you here.”
“You’re a degenerate!” the man spits. “You may be free now, but you’ll be back. Scum like you always comes back.”
“Aww,” she replies with a sarcastic pout. “I’ll miss you too.”
The warden stands seething in front of the gate. He takes a deep breath, nods at the guards, and clenches his fists. As the guards unlock the doors he speaks in a grand voice. “Kilarra Calvennis. In the name of Grand Prince Stavian the third, long may he rule, you are hereby released for… good behaviour…” he spits at Kilarra’s feet then straightens himself. He waves his arms through the air, clearly deciding she’s not worth reciting the rest of the words. “I hereby release you. Now go, before I arrest you for loitering.”
Kilarra strides out of the gate, hurries through the waiting room and bursts out of the doors onto the busy streets of Oparra. She squints into the sun and takes a deep breath. Slowly, a smile spread across her scarred face.
“Kilarra Calvennis?” a voice calls out.
Blinded by the sun, Kilarra’s smile slips. A fleeting look of panic crosses her face. A moment later it’s replaced by a look of determination.
“Who wants to know?” she calls back.
But before the voice can reply the vision blurs and fades, leaving Talia back in her own body.
Want to read more about Kilarra? Be on the look out for more vignettes and flashbacks in the coming weeks!
March is here, and with a bunch of new Pathfinder and Starfinder products. Considering the awesome releases last month — including the launch of two new Adventure Paths with Starfinder’s Firestarters (Dawn of Flame 1 of 6) and Pathfinder’s final first edition Adventure Path: The Dead Roads (Tyrant’s Grasp 1 of 6) — this month has a lot of live up to!
Pathfinder Society Scenarios released at the end of this month include #10-16: What the Helms Hide (a set of four quests for Tier 1-5 written by Calder CaDavid, Lysle Kapp, Kendra Leigh Speedling, and Nate Wright) and #10-17: On Sevefinger’s Sails (a Tier 7-11 scenario that takes place in the Gloomspires and is written by Tom Phillips).
Starfinder Society Scenarios released at the end of this month include #1-34: Heart of the Foe (a Tier 3-6 scenario written by Nicholas Wasko which continues the Scoured Stars storyline and involves the history of the menacing jinsil) and #1-35: Rasheen’s Riches (a Tier 5-8 scenario written by Mara Lynn Butler that has the Faction (Acquisitives) tag).
One final thing to mention, last month marked the release of the massive Mists of Akuma campaign: Trade War. You can expect to see a review of this political-Eastern Fantasy–noir-steampunk adventure for 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons in the coming week.
Paizo Inc. has announced the launch of the second edition of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game on August 1st, 2019! With over nine releases in August and more to come the following month, Pathfinder Second Edition is scheduled to launch with a BANG!
“The launch slate provides everything you need to set out on a world of limitless fantasy adventure,” said Paizo Publisher Erik Mona. “With more than 20 years of active development and playtest feedback from more than 125,000 gamers, the new Pathfinder rules are easy to learn and exciting to master. We can’t wait to see the diverse and deeply customized characters the RPG community will create!”
Pathfinder Second Edition is releasing three major hardcover rulebooks right from the start: Core Rulebook, Bestiary, and Lost Omens World Guide. The Core Rulebook is THE BOOK. The one you need no matter who you are and what role you take at a gaming table. Packed full of all the rules players and Game Masters need to play Pathfinder Second Edition, create characters, and run games, the Core Rulebook is a must have. Said to contain streamlined rules and intuitive presentation, Pathfinder Second Edition features the same deep character customizations we all love, allowing for unique characters and boundless creativity. Weighing in at an impressive 640 pages, the Core Rulebook contains game rules, advice, characters options, treasure, and more. There’s six ancestries to choose from (elf, dwarf, gnome, goblin, halfling, and human, as well as the variant human half-elf and half-orc), twelve classes (alchemist, barbarian, bard, champion, cleric, druid, fighter, monk, ranger, rogue, sorcerer, and wizard), thirty backgrounds (such as apprentice, bartender, and soldier), and hundred of spells, feats, and other character options. The hardcover will sell for $59.99 American, while the deluxe hardcover (bound in faux leather with metallic deboss cover elements and a bound-in ribbon bookmark) will sell for $79.99 American.
Bestiary is packed with around 400 monsters spread over 360 pages. This means that not every monster will get its own page and artwork, although there’s said to be full-colour illustrations on nearly every page. While statistics will fill the pages, sidebars are going to contain lore. In Bestiary you’ll also find the always handy Universal Monster Rules, guidelines for awarding treasure, and a variety of monster lists sorted by different qualities (like level, type, and rarity). Many of the creatures in the Bestiary will be familiar, but new creatures are also included (like the “living-nightmare nilith and the three-headed mutoli”). The hardcover Bestiary will sell for $49.99 while the Deluxe Hardcover will sell for $69.99 (bound in faux leather with metallic deboss cover elements and a bound-in ribbon bookmark).
Lost Omens World Guide is basically the new Inner Sea World Guide, with ‘Lost Omens’ being the new name for the Golarion campaign setting. This 136-page hardcover book sorts the Inner Sea into ten regions, and talks about each one. ‘The Saga Lands,’ for example, is a region which encompasses the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, Varisia, New Thassilon, Irrisen, and the Realm of the Mammoth Lords. Each region also contains backgrounds and archetypes thematically tied to the region. Finally, the Lost Omens World Guide contains a giant, two-sided, fully-detailed, poster map of Golarion. Let me repeat that: of Golarion, not the Inner Sea. Awesome! Want to know more about Tian Xia, Casmaron, and other areas outside the Inner Sea? You’ll have to wait — but hopefully not for too long. Lost Omens World Guide is the first book in the Pathfinder World Guide line, which will continue to release region specific books (like those currently in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting line) in a larger, hardcover format, to allow for greater exploration of the world of Golarion. Lost Omens World Guide is $36.99.
In addition to important rulebooks, Paizo is releasing two print adventures: Hellknight Hill, and The Fall of Plaguestone.
Age of Ashes is a six-part, monthly adventure path that begins with book one: Hellknight Hill. Said to contain “continent-spanning conflict against cultists, slavers, and a fiery draconic devastation that could unleash an Age of Ashes upon the world,” this is sure to be an exciting campaign! Set in Isger, Hellknight Hill begins when your PCs investigate mysterious fires which burn atop “the towers of a nearby citadel long ago abandoned by an order of Hellknights.” Written by Amanda Hamon for first level characters, Hellknight Hill will also contain a gazetteer on the town of Breechill (the starting location for this campaign), a GM guide Age of Ashes, new magic items, and over six new monsters. Hellknight Hill (and presumably all the follow-up adventure path volumes) will sell for $24.99.
The Fall of Plaguestone is a 64-page standalone adventure for first-level characters written by Paizo Director of Game Design Jason Bulmahn. Beginning with the PCs attempting to solve the murder of a friend, this adventure soon spirals out of control with the “discovery of forbidden alchemy, mutant animals, and a nearby forest rotting away due to a mysterious blight.” Ominous! The Fall of Plaguestone features wilderness exploration, dungeon encounters, and urban mystery. In addition to the adventure itself, The Fall of Plaguestone (and every Pathfinder Adventure to follow) includes new monsters, treasures, and player options. The Fall of Plaguestone is $24.99. Launching alongside this adventure is Pathfinder Flip-Mat: The Fall of Plaguestone which depicts the “hillside hideout of an evil alchemist.” The Flip-Mat measures 24″ x 30″ unfolded, 8″ x 10″ folded, and can handle dry erase, wet erase, and permanent marker. It costs $14.99.
Paizo is partnering with the awesome folks over at Dwarven Forge to release a deluxe set of pieces which will allow you to create encounter areas from The Fall of Plaguestone! Which is amazing, by the way. If you haven’t seen any of the Dwarven Forge terrain you should definitely check it out. They make gorgeous 3D terrain and map components, although be warned: it’s expensive!
Finally, Paizo is releasing five other accessories for Second Edition. First up? A GM screen! Featuring beautiful artwork on one side and handy charts, tables, and information on the other side, these high-quality screens are really useful. Available in a landscape style with art by Ekaterina Burmak, or in a portrait style with art of the Iconics by Wayne Reynolds, GM Screens are $19.99.
Up next? Pathfinder Combat Pad, which is basically a double-sided, magnetic, dry and wet erase board that functions as an initiative tracker. It comes with two sheets of magnets, which break down into 13 blue player character magnets, 13 red enemy magnets, 9 green NPC magnets, two round arrows, two turn arrows, and two next round magnets. Pathfinder Combat Pad sells for $24.99.
Pathfinder Character Sheet Pack is a set of class-specific, double sided, black and white character sheets. This set contains one character sheet for each of the twelve classes, as well as extra sheets for equipment and spells. The character sheets come in a folder and costs $14.99.
Pathfinder Combat Pad
Pathfinder Character Sheet Pack
Pathfinder Condition Card Deck
Finally, my favourite of the accessories, Pathfinder Condition Card Deck! I adore condition cards. I use them all the time in both Pathfinder and Starfinder, so I’m thrilled that they’re releasing a set for Pathfinder Second Edition right out of the gate. This 110 card deck of full-colour cards contains details and rules on the many Conditions in Pathfinder Second Edition, with the most common conditions having multiple cards. Pathfinder Condition Card Deck costs $22.99.
In addition to these awesome products, the Pathfinder Society Organized Play program will release two scenarios and a short quest every month!
For more information on Pathfinder Second Edition, it’s products, and to preorder, head over to PathfinderSecondEdition.com
I can’t wait to see how Pathfinder Second Edition turns out! (Now, if only I had the funds to buy some of it…). What are you most excited for about Pathfinder Second Edition? Let me know in the comments.
Jessica
UPDATE: Pathfinder Second Edition is now out! Click here for more information!
Paizo announces a brand new liveplay campaign that will feature the new Pathfinder Second Edition ruleset! Launching on April 4th and featuring Paizo staff members, this liveplay will be our first glimpse at the newly updated Pathfinder Second Edition rules. Exciting stuff!
GMed by Paizo’s Director of Game Design, Jason Bulmahn, the liveplay is called Oblivion Oath and will air live on Paizo’s twitch stream every Thursday at Noon Pacific for one hour. Episodes will go up on Paizo’s Youtube channel a few days later. Each week between now and launch players will take to the stream to describe their characters and answer questions, culminating in the premiere episode on April 4th. Oblivion Oath will continue for an indetermined length of time.
Jason Bulmahn will be joined by four lucky Paizo Staffers, Gabe Waluconis (Paizo’s Project Manager), Katina Davis (from Paizo’s Customer Service Team), Sara Marie (Customer Service and Community Manager), and Owen K.C. Stephens (Starfinder Design Lead). Unlike the previous Doomsday Dawn livestream, Oblivion Oath is meant to be a character driven liveplay that features the same players and characters week after week. Although it is sure to feature spoilers about the upcoming Second Edition rules, it’s not intended to teach viewers how to play Second Edition. It’s about story, and the characters helping to drive it.
Oblivion Oath takes place in Golarion in the year 4719, which makes it concurrent with the events of the final Pathfinder First Edition Adventure Path: Tyrant’s Grasp. Oblivion’s Oath is said to feature a glimpse at that AP, but not spoilers. Instead, it will be it’s own story. Oblivion’s Oath is set in the port city of Vellumis in Lastwall and begins with our (as yet unknown) PCs determined to gain passage on a barge out of the city. The barge in question, Sleepy Seacat, is scheduled to make it’s way clockwise around Lake Encarthan, heading for Caliphas (and skipping Razmiran).
And from there?
We’ll have to wait and see.
For more information on the Oblivion Oath Liveplay tune in to Paizo’s Twitch Stream weekly on Thursdays at Noon Pacific! We’ll see you there!
Paizo is celebrating 10 years of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game with Humble Bundle! For under twenty dollars you can get over five hundred dollars worth of Pathfinder PDFs, with part of the proceeds going to charity.
Awesome, right?
Right!
What is a Humble Bundle?
Humble Bundle is a distribution platform that sells ebooks, games, software, and other digital content. Consumers pay what they want, and then get to select how that money is distributed between the content creators, charity, Humble Partners (affiliates), and Humble Bundle. In many cases the Humble Bundle has tiers, where different amounts of money can get you even more product. In any case, Humble Bundles provide a lot of value for your money, and contribute to a worthy cause. According to their website, the Humble community has over 12 million customers throughout the world, and has contributed over 144 million dollars to charity. For more information on Humble and to see what other products they have up for offer, check out their website.
Pathfinder’s 10 Year Anniversary Humble Bundle
The Pathfinder 10th Anniversary Humble Bundle contains a ton of awesome digital PDFs split across four tiers of rewards. Each tier provides you with a digital key which can be entered on Paizo’s website, to download your purchased products.
By paying one dollar (American) or more you get a digital copy of 10 RPG books and a free trial of Pathfinder Online. Books included are the Core Rulebook, Beginner Box, Bestiary, Game Mastery Guide, and the Player Character Folio — literally everything you need to get playing Pathfinder! There’s also four adventures in this bundle, each of which features goblins: We Be Goblins, We Be Goblins, Too!, We Be Goblins Free, and We B4 Goblins. Finally, it includes a the Player’s Guide to the Shattered Star Adventure Path, a really fun campaign that takes place in Varisia.
By paying eight dollars or more you can get your hands on all of the previously mentioned product, plus nine more books: The Advanced Player’s Guide, Advanced Class Guide, NPC Codex, Monster Codex, Villain Codex, Inner Sea World Guide, Goblins of Golarion, and the first two volumes of the Shattered Star Adventure Path: Shards of Sin and Curse of the Lady’s Light (as well as interactive maps for both volumes).
By paying fifteen dollars or more you get all of the previously mentioned product, plus thirteen more books, including the Advanced Race Guide, Ultimate Campaign, Ultimate Combat, Ultimate Equipment, Ultimate Intrigue, Ultimate Magic, Bestiary 2, Bestiary 3, Inner Sea Gods, Magnimar City of Monuments, Varisia Birthplace of Legends, and the third and fourth volume of the Shattered Star Adventure Path: The Asylum Stone and Beyond the Doomsday Door (and their associated interactive maps)!
Finally, by paying eighteen dollars or more you get all of the previously mentioned product, plus a whopping eighteen more books! These include Occult Adventures (one of my personal favourites), Inner Sea Races, Mythic Adventures, Pathfinder Unchained, Strategy Guide, Bestiary 4, Bestiary 5, Dwarves of Golarion, Elves of Golarion, Gnomes of Golarion, Halflings of Golarion, Humans of Golarion, Kobolds of Golarion, Orcs of Golarion, the final two volumes of the Shattered Star Adventure Path: Into the Nightmare Rift and the Dead Heart of Xin (and their maps), and the Shattered Star Poster Map Folio. Finally, you get the Core Rulebook for the Starfinder RPG!
That’s a crazy value! Seriously. I bought it immediately. Haha.
At the moment of writing this over 10,000 people have purchased bundles, and the numbers just keep on climbing. If you want to get your hands on the Pathfinder 10th Anniversary Humble Bundle, you’ve only got 12 more days to do so. This offer ends on March 5th.
while tashtari are from 
and 
or from Paizo Publishing’s website 
. The urban bloodrager archetype can be found in 
. The Kineticist class can be found in 
. The monk and bard are base classes found in the 
(or in a convenient travel-sized edition: 
.
Ready to get wild?
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 a ton of world lore or secrets inside. You’ll find archetypes, feats, traits, spells, and more! Wilderness Origins features amazing cover art by David Alvarez, which showcases the iconic shifter, Zova, engaged in battle against an earth elemental.
— shifters, gathlain, ghoran, and vine leshys — and pays some loving attention to the many different pets you can acquire. It’s rare that we get to make in-game use of a d20 book right after reading it, but this one immediately inspired us to create something new. It was well worth the investment for my family.
and explore Golarion for yourself! For more information on Taldor you can also check out 
.
and Pathfinder’s final first edition Adventure Path: 
— this month has a lot of live up to!
is a 64-page standalone adventure for first-level characters written by Paizo Director of Game Design Jason Bulmahn. Beginning with the PCs attempting to solve the murder of a friend, this adventure soon spirals out of control with the “discovery of forbidden alchemy, mutant animals, and a nearby forest rotting away due to a mysterious blight.” Ominous! The Fall of Plaguestone features wilderness exploration, dungeon encounters, and urban mystery. In addition to the adventure itself, The Fall of Plaguestone (and every Pathfinder Adventure to follow) includes new monsters, treasures, and player options. The Fall of Plaguestone is $24.99. Launching alongside this adventure is Pathfinder Flip-Mat: The Fall of Plaguestone which depicts the “hillside hideout of an evil alchemist.” The Flip-Mat measures 24″ x 30″ unfolded, 8″ x 10″ folded, and can handle dry erase, wet erase, and permanent marker. It costs $14.99.
Paizo is celebrating 10 years of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game with Humble Bundle! For under twenty dollars you can get over five hundred dollars worth of Pathfinder PDFs, with part of the proceeds going to charity.
d20 Diaries 