Introduction

As I was scribing my trip to the Veduran Forest, there was a knock on my door. “As the Dawn, you are welcomed. Please enter.” I called, closing my tome and setting down my quill. The door opened and a Pathfinder initiate dressed in a gray smock entered. Prarvel or something was his name, I’d seen him around the Grand Lodge of Absalom but never spoken to him. “Pardon the interruption m’lady, but Venture-Captain Hestram bid me to summon you.”

From the private quarters to the meeting hall is only a few minutes stroll across the grounds of the Grand Lodge, headquarters of the Pathfinder Society. Indeed the Lodge in Absalom is the grandest in all of Golarion, a hub of Society activity as well as initiate training. A meeting with a Venture-Captain is not uncommon, but to be summoned alone certainly was interesting. Having known Venture-Captain Hestram a number of years, and trained under him while here at the Lodge I knew him to be a man of seriousness and dedication to the Pathfinders. As I entered the meeting hall, he was speaking to a young Osirion who recently completed the Confirmation and become a fully commissioned Pathfinder. “Go to the docks and see that the Korvosan captain will be ready come daybreak.”  Hestram was telling the Osirion, he looked to me and said “Ah Kuduro, excellent! Let me introduce you to Brother Asim. Brother Asim meet Kuduro al-Lazuri Daughter of the Dawn.” We both nodded a greeting to each other. Asim said “A pleasure, m’lady. If you’ll both please excuse me” with a half bow and was gone.

“Kuduro,” Venture-Captain Hestram began, “we’ve received a disturbing report from the Lodge in the Osirion capital, Sothis. Senior Pathfinder Colm Safan made a wonderful discovery in the ancient Osirion libraries, after many years of research. He’s uncovered the location of the Ravenous Sphinx, believed to be the resting place of the wizard-priest Mektep-Han. Colm set out months ago with a caravan and a work crew but he’s gone missing.” Colm was a Pathfinder scholar of great renown; many of the ancient Osirion texts we studied were found or translated by him.  Hestram continued, “It seems that the Sphinx is indeed hungry and perhaps it’s appetite has claimed one of ours. You have shown great skill during your last two missions, helping to secure a new Lodge in Taldor at the Railford Distillery and returning the Lore Stone from the Veduran Forest. Beyond your skill you’ve also shown leadership, and thus the Ten have chosen you to lead a group of newly Confirmed Pathfinders to discover what fate has befallen Safan. Anything else you learn about the Sphinx will aid in the Society’s understanding of ancient Osirion. When you arrive in Sothis speak with Venture-Captain Norden Balentiir at the Lodge, he will be able to provide you with maps and local contacts to get your team underway. The Dawn will break the night.” Hestram opens his hands palm up toward me.

“Of course Venture-Captain. It is my honor to be chosen by the Ten for such a mission. By the Light and the Truth we will find Pathfinder Safan.” I said. “What of my companions Sakell and Jozen?”

“It is the will of the Ten that the others travel a different path, one which will take them into Qadira.” Hestram said, knowing my discomfort talking about my homeland.

“Yes Venture-Captain,” I could feel my anger rising quickly even at the mention of Qadira. “It probably would be best if I did not travel…there.” A flashback raced to the surface of my memory. The horses. The blood. The sword. The flames. “It seems we will each be having our own kind of fun in the desert. Asim will be part of my team and we will leave with the Dawnflower’s blessing?”

“Indeed Daughter of the Dawn, that is correct.” Hestram smiled. “The rest of your team is comprised of a pair of half-orc half-brothers, if you can fathom such a thing. Havok, a barbarian and Sharanam, a holy man. Talathel is an elven scout whose talents you may find useful, and Lia the light-fingered. Her skills will likely be of the most use if even half of what we know about ancient Osirion burial customs are to be believed! They have already been instructed to assemble at the docks in the morning.”

“I will make my preparations then.” With a head nod I turn and take my leave.

I have thought about starting to run Organized Play events myself, but I believe ultimately that I will find the rails as a DM too much of a hindrance rather than a boon. So instead I started doing my research for creating my own homebrew game. I have laid out the story arc in my mind’s eye and started thinking about the individual adventures which will comprise it. I have also been thinking about running the games at a local game shop and making it slightly more ‘open’ to outside players. This seems like a nice space to share information about the genesis of this game as well as details from the adventures themselves.

Without further preamble I present…

Slaves of the Mwangi

The Mwangi Expanse is a relatively misunderstood and uncharted area within Golarion. Filled with jungles, mountains, beasts of all kinds and the tribes of Mwangi, there is little in the way of organized government or society as most from the Inner Sea region would understand it. The players will begin their journey in Kalabuto in Sargava, a former colony of the Empire of Cheliax. Kalabuto is a town on the verge of a full rebellion from Baron Utilinus. The underclass of Kalabuto is almost entirely made up of the Mwangi tribesmen and under the sway of Mzali and it’s Child-God ruler Walkena they will soon cast off their oppressors. This is the backdrop for a meeting of Chelish Binders known as the Sons of Dziak.

Tiananmen Square 20 Years Ago Today

Amazing. Sad. Disturbing.

And we couldn’t even be bothered to be that upset about the 2000 election.

It’s been nearly two weeks since the series finale of Battlestar Galactica. Oh the whole I really love this show. It’s full of great characters and situations and plot and everything. It just works. The actors are great, the stories are (mostly) great. The emotion they invoke is real, and powerful.

Having said that: Ronold D. Moore, sir, you can go frack yourself.

Series fanales, must I think, suck badly. As a fan you are too emotionally wrapped up in the show to accept that it must end. You don’t want it to end, you selfishly want to keep watching it forever. There are a few things which I can/will accept with the ending of the show, however there are also things which I will not accept.

1) Starbuck. Give me a fracking break. After all that, after all the bad ass girl stuff all we get is *poof* Clearly she isn’t the same as Head 6 and Head Baltar (which we are lead to believe are some kind of Angels). After all this time and character development all we get for poor old Kara Thrace is…fracking poof? And, “It’s up to the viewer” from Mr. Moore? What the frack? You and your team of writers are paid FAR more than “it’s up to the viewer.” I, the viewer, thought you guys had your fracking stuff together and were trying to tell a coherient story…not just sort of making it up as you went. Which brings me to my next point…

2) Caprica 6. We learn through some of the flashbacks that Caprica 6 really struggles with her inner humanity right before she wipes out most of the human race…and brutally murders a baby on the street. By helping Baltar deal with his father, who he obviously doesn’t want to have to deal with…ever, she opens him up to the idea that she should give him access to the defense mainframe. Queue the annilation of the human race. I would have found it much more in character if they just left us thinking that she fracked her way to the access. I mean, it’s Giaus fracking Baltar. Stroke his ego and his cock, he’ll do it.

3) Giaus fracking Baltar. This despicable, selfish, self centered worm made it all the way to the end? Frack that! He directly caused the near extinction of the human race, and he makes it to the end? To ‘new’ Earth to help repopulate the human race?!?!?! Somehow this is part of God’s great plan to move the human race from Caprica (and surrounding) to ‘new’ Earth? At the cost of billions of lives? This doesn’t make any fracking sense.

I could go on and on. In retrospect I’m very disappointed with the way it ended. The writers never recovered from the writers strike, and anything they may have had was lost.

They should have just left us looking over nuked Earth and fade to black.

1. I Need You Tonight – ZZ Top
2. Mess With People – Ani DiFranco/Utah Phillips
3. Aero Zeppelin – Nirvana
4. Esther Be The One – ZZ Top
5. People Are Strange – The Doors
6. Karallanta (The Bare Tree) – Atmospheres: Latin Adventure
7. Scuzz Boots – Sugar Ray
8. Hips Don’t Lie – Shakira
9. With A Little Help From My Friends – The Beatles
10. Right Direction – Sugar Ray
11. Blood Makes Noise – Suzanne Vega
12. [Untitled Hidden Track] – Polygon Window
13. Solo Hago Reggae – Chilito Camacho
14. Smile – Elastica
15. Kling Klang, Klocken Slar – Ana Laan
16. I’d Die for You – Bon Jovi (there’s one from me “don’t judge me folder”!)
17. Quoth – Polygon Window
18. Sombra de Ti – Shakira
19. 100% Dundee – The Roots
20. Chorus and the Ring – R.E.M.
21. DMV – Primus (Dave, Primus overlap!)
22. Powertrip – Monster Magnet
23. Scar Tissue – Red Hot Chili Peppers
24. Wet My Bed – Stone Temple Pilots
25. It Could Be Sweet – Portishead

Oh, dance in the dark of night, Sing to the morning light.
The dark Lord rides in force tonight, And time will tell us all.

Oh, throw down your plow and hoe, Rest not to lock your homes.

Side by side we wait the might of the darkest of them all.

I hear the horses’ thunder down in the valley below,
I’m waiting for the angels of Avalon, waiting for the eastern glow.

The apples of the valley hold, The seeds of happiness,
The ground is rich from tender care, Repay, do not forget, no, no.
Dance in the dark of night, sing to the morning light.

The apples turn to brown and black, The tyrant’s face is red.

Oh war is the common cry, Pick up your swords and fly.
The sky is filled with good and bad that mortals never know.

Oh, well, the night is long, the beads of time pass slow,
Tired eyes on the sunrise, waiting for the eastern glow.

The pain of war cannot exceed the woe of aftermath,
The drums will shake the castle wall, the ringwraiths ride in black, Ride on.

Sing as you raise your bow, shoot straighter than before.
No comfort has the fire at night that lights the face so cold.

Oh dance in the dark of night, Sing to the morning light.
The magic runes are writ in gold to bring the balance back. Bring it back.

At last the sun is shining, The clouds of blue roll by,
With flames from the dragon of darkness, the sunlight blinds his eyes.

Ooh, Bring it back, Bring it back…”

WE DID IT!

That is all, carry on.