Whir of Wings, Clash of Steel!

The tosculi are alien beings, operating under a shared consciousness and hostile to all but their hive-mates. Their cities are run with a ruthless efficiency and ruled by fearsome queens; any who do not conform are destroyed or driven out. Known as the Hiveless, these outcasts attempt to thrive in a world where they are feared and reviled, making their way as best they can.

You are one of these outcasts—the Hiveless. Now you must make your way in a chaotic world that fears and reviles you.

Advanced Races: Tosculi gives you everything you need to play as a tosculi PC in the Southlands, or any setting. This 14-page sourcebook includes:

• Tosculi racial traits, with gliding wings, hardened carapace and latent hive mind
• War-Warper and Hivemaster racial archetypes
• 9 tosculi feats, including Skittering Offense, Stinging Flurry, Wasp’s Rend, and Wing Fan
• New magic items and equipment, including Abdominal Spike, Blinding Powder, Hivebomb, and Rod of the Hive Mind.

That werehyena won’t be laughing so hard after you’ve stabbed it in the chest with your ovipositor. Get Advanced Races: Tosculi today at the Kobold Store or DriveThruRPG and join the Hiveless in search of adventure!

The post Pathfinder RPG Advanced Races: Tosculi Now Available appeared first on Kobold Press.

The features of this humanoid-headed bird are those of your deceased brother-in-arms.

According to the Coffin Texts of Nuria-Natal, the Ba is the ensemble that makes an individual unique and is one of the five aspects of the human soul with the Ren, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Ib. The Nurians believe that the Ba of a person still lives after the individual dies and that it can manifest as an incorporeal human-headed bird that leaves the tomb to reunite with the Ka in the afterlife. However, individuals who thinks that their earthly missions aren’t completed yet sometimes transcende this condition and turn into a corporeal manifestation of their former personality known as the ba-bird, a native outsider that possesses the head of the deceased person but the body of a bird of prey of a stature that matches the person’s size. The Coffin Texts also mentioned that this peculiar occurrence eats, drinks, and can even reproduce.

Ba-Bird CR 6

XP 2,400
CG Medium Outsider Rogue 4 (former human, native)
    Init +3; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +18

Defense
    AC 19, touch 17, flat-footed 15 (+3 Dex, +3 deflection, +1 dodge, +2 natural)
    hp 37 (4d10+12)
    Fort +4, Ref +7, Will +4 (+4 racial bonus against poison)
Defensive Abilities evasion, trapfinding, trap sense +1, uncanny dodge
DR 5/magic; Immune disease; Resist acid 10, cold 10, electricity 10; SR 17

Offense
    Speed 30 ft.; fly 60 ft. (good)
    Melee 2 talon +6 (1d4)
Special Attacks sneak attack 2d6

Statistics
    Str 11, Dex 17, Con 16, Int 15, Wis 17, Cha 17
    Base Atk +3; CMB +3; CMD 16
    Feats Dodge, Weapon Finesse
    Skills Acrobatics +3, Appraise +9, Bluff +9, Diplomacy +3, Disable Device +10, Escape Artist +10, Fly +7, Intimidate +3, Knowledge (dungeoneering) +9, Knowledge (local) +9, Knowledge (planes) +10, Knowledge (religion) +10, Linguistics +9, Perception +18, Sense Motive +18, Stealth +10
    Languages Auran, Common, Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Gnoll, Southern
    SQ rogue talents (bleeding attack, fast stealth)

Ecology
    Environment any (warm desert, hills and mountains)
    Organization solitary
    Treasure standard

Creating a Ba-Bird

“Ba-bird” is an acquired template that can be added to any living corporeal creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature). A ba-bird retains all the base creature’s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

CR: Same as the base creature + 2.

Alignment: Any.

Type: The creature’s type changes to outsider (native). Do not recalculate BAB, saves, or skill ranks.

Senses: A ba-bird gains darkvision 60 ft. If the creature already had darkvision, it gains darkvision 120 ft. instead.

Armor Class: A ba-bird has a +2 natural armor bonus or the base creature’s natural armor bonus, whichever is better. A ba-bird also gains a deflection bonus equal to its Charisma bonus. A ba-bird is proficient only with light armor but cannot use shields.

Hit Dice: Change all of the creature’s racial Hit Dice to d10s. All Hit Dice derived from class levels remain unchanged. As corporeal native outsiders, ba-birds use their Constitution modifiers to determine bonus hit points.

Speed: Unless the base creature flies better, the ba-bird flies at twice the base creature’s land speed (good maneuverability).

Defensive Abilities: A ba-bird gains immunity to disease; +4 racial bonus on saves vs. poison; acid, cold, and electricity resist 10; DR 5/magic (if HD 11 or less) or 10/magic (if HD 12 or more); and SR equal to CR + 11 (maximum 35).

Melee Attack: A ba-bird has two talon attacks that it can use once per round as natural weapons. A ba-bird always fights solely with its natural weapons.

Damage: A ba-bird’s talon attack deals damage according to its size.

Abilities: Wis +2, Cha +2.

Skills: Ba-birds have a +8 racial bonus on Knowledge (planes), Knowledge (religion), Perception, and Sense Motive checks. A ba-bird always treats Diplomacy, Fly, Intimidate, Knowledge (planes), Knowledge (religion), Perception, and Sense Motive as class skills. Otherwise, skills are the same as the base creature.

Spells: A ba-bird that was a spellcaster in his previous existence gains Eschew Materials and Natural Spell as bonus feats even if it doesn’t meet the prerequisites.

(This post is Product Identity.)

The post Monster Monday: Ba-Bird appeared first on Kobold Press.

Southlands is an exciting new campaign sourcebook for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, featuring stunning art, maps, and adventure hooks. We asked Southlands artist Fred Fields to walk us through the creation of the title page art…

You created a beautiful new piece for the Southlands book. Can you talk a little about your working process in general and how you approached this piece specifically? Also, I have it on good authority that a self-portrait might be lurking in the piece?

Well it all starts with the art suggestion. This one was pretty straightforward. A robber inside a tomb opens a sarcophagus and in the process has brought to life a statue of Bastet along with her wrath. I spend an hour or two doing image searches for all the elements: a tomb, Bastet, torches, weapons and so on. I do a lot of doodles/thumbnail sketches. In the case of this illustration, it was mostly to come up with the general composition and placement of all the elements.

Since the lighting from the torch was the only light source, I wanted to see what it would look like. I built a small, three-walled diorama out of Styrofoam, wooden dowels, foam board, and Super Sculpey. On the lid of the sarcophagus, I sculpted a lion-headed human. I knew it wouldn’t be seen directly but I knew it would add to the illustration. I took reference shots of the tomb diorama and then I took reference shots of my wife as Bastet (which she has requested never to be shown) and shots of me as the tomb robber. I tried shooting photos of my cat for Bastet’s head. She is a comfortable cat so I wasn’t getting the look I wanted. I found several aggressive cat faces online and combined them to come up with Bastet’s crazy face. For the tomb robber, I used one of the dowel rods previously used in the tomb and clamped a light bulb onto the tomb — and I had an instant torch.

I sketched up the tomb, Bastet, and the tomb robber separately. I scanned each and combined them in Photoshop. I like doing it that way so that I can move the elements around until I like the placement. Once I get the drawing the way I like it, I enlarge it and have it printed out to the size I will paint it. I attach it directly to illustration board and start painting.

Some of the film soundtracks I listened to while working on the Southlands project were Stargate – David Arnold, Passion – Peter Gabriel, Blackhawk Down – Hans Zimmer.

You’ve had a long and illustrious career. What were your first professional jobs as an artist? How did you get into doing fantasy and RPG art?

I did a couple of illustration jobs while I was in art school, but my first job was with Leo Burnett Advertising in Chicago. I did marker comps for print ads and TV commercial storyboards. At night I was painting fantasy-themed paintings. I wasn’t even sure why. I just wanted to. At some point I began sending out art samples and eventually picked up a couple of magazine assignments. I think that’s where the fork in the road was.

You worked as a staff artist at TSR, and your art has appeared in products like Dragon magazine, the Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft, Magic: The Gathering, and, of course, Al-Qadim. What was it like working at TSR in general and on the Al-Qadim line in particular?

I look back on my time at TSR fondly. The work was good, the friends were good, and I learned a lot. Al Qadim was fun. I’d been working on Forgotten Realms for such a long time, it was nice to have a new genre to work in.

Can you talk a bit about your recent work?

I worked in video games for about 5 1/2 – 6 years. I was doing all digital concept work. I still painted in the evenings. I’ve never stopped painting (ever). I’ve just, within the last year or so, gotten back into gaming art illustration. It’s like finding your favorite jacket in the back of the closet and realizing how comfortable it still is.

Check out the gallery below!

Anything else you’d like to share with folks?

You can see more of my work at and you can like me on Facebook at Fred Fields Art.

Thanks, Fred!!!!

Thanks, Kobold guys!

As art director for Kobold Press, Marc Radle is delighted to work with both new talent and established veterans on the Southlands Campaign Setting book, which raises the bar for art, layout and design in Pathfinder Roleplaying Game supplements.

The post Interview with Southlands Artist Fred Fields appeared first on Kobold Press.

As part of the production work involved with the Southlands project, Anna Meyer created some excellent maps! You can read about (and see) her process in this two-part interview!

When did you decide to become a cartographer, and why did you make this choice?

I’ve always had a fondness for maps since I was a kid, and it was one many aspects that made me interested in RPGs in the first place. Cartography specializing in fictional worlds plays on three of my biggest passions: gaming, landscape photography, and watching landscapes from the air. Maps fill a small but important part of the roleplaying experience, and I see my job to try to make as much of that part as possible. I want to make maps that are inspirational and functional, and to help both players and GMs improve their gaming experience. Just like rule systems and settings differ a lot to accommodate different genres, play styles and themes, the same goes for maps. Some maps need to be very informative, while others should inspire and set the tone of things.

The challenge of trying to balance the usefulness and beauty of maps for RPG settings is what drives my work. Very much like a game designer tries to improve and come up with new games and rules to make gaming better, I try to do the same with the maps.

Please tell us a little about your work style and technique. Do you start with hand sketches first and then progress to digital?

My style differs a bit from what has been the norm in the RPG industry. Elaborate maps are often true works of art painted either the traditional way or digitally or a combination of old and new. My approach is closer to what is the norm in computer games and the movies—it’s almost completely digital. I create a 3-D computer model of the landscape in question: a blend of fractals, textures, colors, symbols, and text. About half of my work is procedural, meaning it is a kind of programming to try and find the right fractals and how to blend them. The other half is traditionally artistic: paint textures, fractals, blending colors, and things like text and symbols.

The tools I use are an assortment of 2-D and 3-D programs. My 3-D tools are World Machine, Vue, Sketchup, Blender, and a few other small programs for various special needs. I use 3-D tools for terrain and object creation and to render the images used for the final map. The more traditional 2-D tools I use are Adobe’s Creative Suite, and most used are Photoshop and Illustrator. I use Photoshop to create color patterns and then blend them together into textures used to color my 3-D terrain, then again to edit and touch-up the rendered images. I use Illustrator to create symbols and text, and to merge all the parts together to form the final map.

I usually start by drawing a very simple map showing the coastlines and a few scribbles here and there for hills, mountains, and lakes. Then I add text snippets of details from the written material like “Evil Kingdom,” “harsh desert,” “prosperous farmland,” “rich mining,” and “pirate coast.” In a fantasy world, all sorts of things that we are not used to in the real world should affect the landscape, so I try to make that into the final map. This part was done in close cooperation with the others of the Southland team with Skype calls and lots of text drafts sent back and forth.

When I have a rough idea of the size and scope of the project, I start creating my “canvas,” meaning I take the rough coastlines from the paper and recreate them in World Machine as a base to work from.

The next step is to try to find the sight look and feel of the landscape, and for the Southlands project that meant many different types of landscapes. Since it is loosely based on Africa, that is where I started. Satellite images and nature shows of Africa were on the agenda as I tested fractal combinations, color, and texture blends to try to find an expression that I felt was right.

This is a fun and creative part of my job that I could spend forever with if I had time, but results are needed so a few days to a week might have to make due. Next on the agenda is to make the terrain work together. Pulp fantasy is full of deep jungles, dry deserts, and tall mountains, but to create a continent you need to make them work together. Trying to create the boring middle ground, and fill those vast plains and large expanses that great fantasy is full of, is what is often makes or breaks a good map, in my opinion. So this aspect needs to be taken as seriously as the iconic parts!

Now when the building blocks and basic settings are in place, its time to work on the terrain features. Coastlines, rivers, lakes, hills, mountains, and much more needs to be placed. This is very much a “play with fractals” to try and find what generates the desired result, and sometimes things come up by accident. Very much like evolution but with me being the one to decide what will survive and what needs to go. As a cartographer, you get to play God in your own virtual world, which is mostly fun but at times both tedious and frustrating.

Watch for the second part Friday! You can also see the final maps in the Southlands Campaign Setting.

The post Interview with Southlands Cartographer Anna Meyer, Part One appeared first on Kobold Press.

Yesterday, we posted the first part of a two-part interview with Anna Meyer, who created some gorgeous maps for the Southlands Campaign Setting! You can read about (and see) her process in the second part of this interview.

What were some of your highlights working on the Southlands maps?

The biggest thrill with a project like Southlands is to be part of a great team creating something together! To be inspired by the others’ great creativity while trying with my work to match their stories and the other content can often lead to frustration staring at unsatisfactory previews, but then there are the times when things work and the results start to appear on your screen. When you find that desert hideout long forgotten, or a stretch of coastline that stretches into the fantastic, that makes my job worth every hour of tediousness. Textures and the terrain looking the way I want is a great feeling that even after more than a decade gets me carried away at times.

How about the challenges?

The hardest decision for me is to set the limits when it comes to details and scale. In the ideal world, I would just go on and detail every nook and cranny of the whole continent in real scale. There are two big problems with that approach—the first one being time. It would take a lot of work indeed to make a continental map with every feature half a mile so in it. The other consideration is the final form of the map—in this case to be printed as a poster and in pieces on pages in the hardcover. This means that anything smaller than 25 miles or so would only be a dot on the map. So one of the shortcuts I had to take was to make some features bigger than they really are. Mountains are the most obvious example of this. A chain of mountains a hundred miles across are represented as a single range of peaks. In reality there would be several with hundreds of large and small ones. This is a standard trick in fantasy maps: terrain features are more to be seen as symbols rather than actual depictions of the terrain. To find the right balance for each project is often the toughest part of the job.

To make this even more complicated, I signed up to make one of my first city maps. For it to feel more authentic, I wanted it to be part of the terrain. So while I was working on the continent base done in real scale, I detailed the Per-Bastet area with the city details included, so I could work out what it looked like. The city chapter and layout was expertly done by Ted Reed so I didn’t want to let him down.

After I had the surrounding terrain done in real scale, I saved a copy for future use. Then I shrank everything down to around 25 percent of the real scale and worked on the rest of the continent at that reduced feature size. I use the term “feature size” to not confuse it with scale that is different; this is done to make the map look better at the scale it’s being printed. To make sure of this, I make a few test renders, each taking up to six hours or so since I work in double to four times the final resolution in case a need for detailed enlargements comes up later and to make sure things aren’t pixelated from enlargement.

If the renders look good, I send them to the others and then we work out what needs to be changed. There are always things that need to be changed, and to get another view on things is a very important part of all my mapping projects. As a person working from home, it makes it both more interesting and is a sure boost to the results. For those of you who consider a career as a freelance artist, get ready to have your work constantly critiqued. It is a vital part of your work!

Then comes a boring and tedious part of my job: waiting for renders to finish. It’s as much fun as watching paint dry, and it ties up your computer completely. To improve my efficiency, I will soon have a computer dedicated to just this task, so I can work on the fun part of symbols, text, and final touch-up.

What is your favorite map you did for Southlands . . . and why?

There is one place that became special for me: the Black Spire! Thanks to a fractal freak outcome that normally would have been filtered out, a pillar rose miles up into the sky. It looked cool so I kept it. I’m not sure if there was a Black Spire in the story that got placed there or if that part was written in afterward. But I liked how the area looked and kept on tweaking it as a side project. Now I’m trying to turn it into a detailed epic location. It became a location on the final map, which I’m proud of!

What happened to my side project, you wonder? It became one of Southland’s many forgotten stories maybe to be told some time, but there are only so many pages in a book….

With the help of a great team, a lot of hard work, and a bit of luck, a map for you to make your very own has come to life. I hope it will help you along on many adventures to come!

You can see the finished versions of these maps in the Southlands Campaign Setting!

The post Interview with Southlands Cartographer Anna Meyer, Part Two appeared first on Kobold Press.

Now available, the Southlands Bestiary brings 90+ new monsters of the hotter climes to Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Want to run a campaign in the deserts, jungles or savannas? This 120-page tome of monsters will make sure your players will have hair-raising encounters like none they’ve experienced before. Several of these creatures are brought to life by the core designers of Southlands, and many more are designed by Southlands backers.

With this full-color book of monsters you get:

• Swamp adders, sphinxes, scorpion swarms and skinbats!
• Demons, devils, dinosaurs and dragons!
• Possessed pillars and prismatic beetles!
• Genies, gremlins and golems!
• Killer cactids and clockwork tomb guardians!

…and so much more, plus an introduction by Jeff Grubb, designer of the classic Al-Qadim setting. Use these strange and deadly foes in the Midgard Campaign Setting, or in any campaign of high adventure beneath the pitiless sun.

Draw your scimitar, ready your spear, and call upon whatever gods you choose, mortals: the monsters of the Southlands are here! Find it at the Kobold store, DriveThru RPG, and the Paizo store!

The post Experience the Creatures of the Southlands Bestiary appeared first on Kobold Press.

An amazingly beautiful woman with flowing dark hair leisurely walks knee-deep in the river’s muddy waters wearing a diaphanous dress that reveals her slender form. Her body is nearly transparent underneath.

An el naddaha is the daughter born from the rare union between a nereid and a janni. Although such offspring retains many characteristics of both parents, the el naddaha later develops unique talents during her lone existence that set her apart from her progenitors. The utter majority have a dark side that compels them to call men to their death, though some have been known to lend their power to a good cause when approached with caution and expensive gifts—a task better brought to a successful conclusion when undertaken by a woman.

These lethal seductresses favor cities along rivers that cross the desert and their deltas as hunting grounds. An el naddaha often invades the dreams of a potential male victim that stays near the riverbanks for many nights before luring him outside some time later. Such exercise greatly saps the willpower of her pray, rendering him compliant when they met in the flesh at last.

Even if proficient with the scimitar, shortbow, and trident, an el naddaha hardly ever puts them to use, preferring to rely on her spell-like abilities to lead males to a watery grave.

Rare is the el naddaha that can lay claim to nobility though some do. A noble el naddaha, often called sheikha, has 16 Hit Dice and gains the following spell-like abilities: 3/day—cone of cold, ice storm; 1/day—elemental swarm, greater scrying. A noble el naddaha’s caster level for her spell-like abilities is 17th. A noble el naddaha is CR 12.

El Naddaha CR 8

XP 4,800
NE Medium outsider (aquatic, native, shapechanger)
    Init +10; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; Perception +15

Defense
    AC 23, touch 21, flat-footed 16 (+6 Dex, +4 deflection, +1 dodge, +2 natural)
    hp 95 (10d10+40)
    Fort +7, Ref +13, Will +10
    Resist cold 5, fire 5
Defensive Abilities near-transparency; Immune poison; SR 19

Offense
    Speed 30 ft., swim 60 ft.
    Melee masterwork scimitar +13 (1d6+2/18–20/x2)
Ranged composite shortbow [2] +16 (1d6+2)
    Special Attacks elemental mastery, watery embrace
    Spell-Like Abilities (CL 13th, concentration +17)
Constant—detect good, detect magic
At will—glibness, hypnotism (DC 15), message, suggestion (DC 16)
3/day—control water, water breathing
1/day—dominate person (DC 18), dream, scrying (DC 17)

Statistics
    Str 14, Dex 23, Con 18, Int 15, Wis 16, Cha 19
    Base Atk +10; CMB +16 (+20 for grapple check made in water); CMD 28 (32 if without armor)
    Feats Agile Maneuvers, Dodge, Improved Initiative, Mobility, Stealthy
    Skills Bluff +14, Escape Artist +20, Knowledge (local) +15, Knowledge (nature) +15, Knowledge (planes) +15, Perception +15, Sense Motive +15, Stealth +20, Swim +20
    Languages Aquan, Celestial, Common; telepathy 100 ft.
    SQ amphibious, change shape (any elemental), first name, seductive dream, unearthly grace

Ecology
    Environment warm freshwater (river)
    Organization solitary
    Treasure standard (masterwork scimitar, composite shortbow [2], jewels, and silver mirror worth 1,000 gp for scrying spells)

Special Abilities
    Change Shape (Su) An el naddaha can assume the form of any Medium-sized elemental though such shape always remains humanoid and feminine somehow.  

    Elemental Mastery (Ex) An el naddaha gains a +2 bonus on attack and damage rolls whenever she is in contact with two distinct elements, though she generally avoids prolonged contact with fire. Thus, an el naddaha loses this advantage only when in flight or while swimming underwater. Unlike her nereid mother, the el naddaha suffers no penalty on attack and damage rolls even if her opponent is contiguous with an element or combination of elements that differ from the ones she is in contact with.

First Name (Su) When an el naddaha calls a potential victim by first name, the difficulty class for all saving throws against spells from the enchantment school increase by +2 for this subject just like if she had the feats Improved Spell Focus and Spell Focus in such cases.

    Near-Transparency (Su) Whenever an el naddaha is touching water, her body becomes almost transparent, providing her with a measure of concealment (30% miss chance). This effect ceases as soon as the el naddaha is no longer in contact with a source of water.

Seductive Dreams (Su) An el naddaha can invade the dreams of a male humanoid that she previously scryed upon successfully by way of a dream spell.

    Unearthly Grace (Su) An el naddaha adds her Charisma bonus as a deflection bonus to her Armor Class and CMD if she wears no armor.

Watery Embrace (Ex) An el naddaha that attempts to grapple a foe while she’s partly or fully immersed gets a +4 circumstance bonus on her CMB and doesn’t provoke an attack of opportunity in such cases.

(This post is Product Identity.)

The post Monster Monday: El Naddaha appeared first on Kobold Press.

Many cultures exist across the broad and varied landscape of the Southlands, from the god-kings of Nuria Natal to the demon sorcerers of Kush, to the Ankole Priests of Terrotu or the War Diviners of Morreg. With so many civilizations to choose from, we decided to give you a smattering of magical offerings from several regions.

A Word of Power of the Abandoned Lands

In the Southlands’ distant past, the ancient titan empire of Glorious Umbuso performed feats of magic unrivaled to the current day. To the titans, magic was not an equation bringing together gestures and components, it was a living force expressed through primal utterances. Although their civilization fell into ruin, precious fragments of their lore can still be found scattered throughout ruins and looted by scavengers who don’t always realize what they have discovered. This is a sample of one of the words of power utilized by the titans at the height of their civilization.

Severed Tendon

Level bard 1, cleric/oracle 1, druid 1, inquisitor 1, magus 1, ranger 1, sorcerer/wizard 1, witch 1 (transmutation)

Words of Power Selected inverted dash

Caster Level Required 1st

Range close (25 ft. + 5 ft./ 2 levels)

Target one creature in range

Duration 1 round/level

Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes

With a word, you impede a creature’s movement and reduce their base land speed by 30 ft. (5 ft. minimum) for the duration of this utterance.

Construction: 0-level target word; 1st-level effect word modified by a 1st-level meta word; CL 1 required for a 1st-level utterance.

Blood Magic from Nangui

The demon sorcerers of Kush do not shy away from awful magics which rend and wound their enemies in gory or vicious ways. One popular spell is the bloodknife eruption, used against massed groups, or slow-moving, heavily armored targets. It is particularly dreaded by the Narumbeki legions, and in old stories of campaigning Omphayan armies. However, it is also extremely effective against clouds of raiding Tosculi hunters, and so arcanists from across the Southlands have risked the dangers of Kush to acquire the spell from the grim libraries of sultry Nangui.

Bloodknife Eruption

School necromancy; Level magus 4, sorcerer/wizard 4, theurge 4

Casting Time standard action

Components V, S

Range close (25 ft + 5 ft. 2/levels)

Effect ray and 20-ft radius burst; see text

Duration instantaneous

Saving Throw see text; Spell Resistance yes

A ray of crimson energy strikes a foe, and that creature’s blood erupts outward to injure nearby creatures. The caster must succeed at a ranged touch attack with the ray to deal damage to the main target. The ray deals 1d6 hp damage/level (maximum 10d6). When struck, the target’s blood detonates outward in a 20-ft. radius burst, inflicting half the damage inflicted on the initial target on all creatures in the burst. The initial target is not affected by this burst. A successful save halves the damage caused by the secondary effect of this spell, but no saving throw reduces the ray’s initial damage.

Wondrous Items of Dominion of the Wind Lords

In the windswept dunes and rocky tableaus of the Dominion, magics which speed travel or ease the harshness of the environment are greatly valued, whether they are flying carpets or spells to conjure lush oases. Enemies and rivals are everywhere, and an agent, spy, or assassin must be quite canny to evade the mystic defenses of their foes. This often means subtlety and deception must be employed to gain victory or even a momentary upper hand. The following device, the Assassin’s Flight, is an example of an item used in the intrigues and plots as numerous as the ripples in the sands, where even the tools themselves can become the focus of conflicts between emirs.

Assassin’s Flight

Aura moderate transmutation; CL 10th

Slot —; Price 55,000 gp; Weight 8 lbs.

DESCRIPTION

Although this rug is expertly woven, the pattern is humble and nondescript. It functions as a 5-ft.-by-5-ft. carpet of flying, but when commanded as a swift action it transforms into a simple cloth garment such as a turban, sash, or veil. A second swift command returns it to carpet form. While in garment form it is indistinguishable from a mundane item. Anyone examining it with divination effects must succeed on a DC 21 caster level check to determine anything about its magical properties. True seeing reveals the item’s true form without a check.

CONSTRUCTION

Requirements Craft Wondrous Item, fabricate, nondetection, overland flight; Cost 27,500 gp

You can add more magic and more Southlands to your campaign by acquiring the Southlands Campaign Setting.

The post Southlands Magic: A Preview appeared first on Kobold Press.

As soon as this yellow-bellied sea snake emerges from the river, it releases an ear-splitting yell.

Ilomba     CR 5

XP 1,600
Any evil alignment (same as proprietor) Medium Construct
    Init +6; Senses darkvision 60 ft.; low-light vision, scent; Perception +13

Defense
    AC 15, touch 12, flat-footed 13 (+2 Dex, +3 natural)
    hp 55 (6d10+20)
    Fort +1, Ref +3, Will +3
Defensive Abilities construct traits
    Weaknesses cold-blooded union

Offense
    Speed 20 ft., climb 20 ft., swim 40 ft.
    Melee bite +8 (1d6 plus poison)
    Spell-Like Abilities (CL 8th, concentration +10)
At will—true strike
3/day—shatter (DC 11)
1/day—shout (DC 13)

Statistics
    Str 11, Dex 14, Con —, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8
    Base Atk +6; CMB +6; CMD 18 (can’t be tripped)
    Feats Athletic, Improved Initiative, Weapon Finesse
    Skills Acrobatics +14, Climb +16, Perception +13, Stealth +14, Swim +16; Racial Modifiers +8 Acrobatics, +4 Perception, +4 Stealth; modifies Climb and Swim with Dexterity
    Languages same as proprietor (can’t speak), telepathic link
    SQ snake in the grass

Ecology
    Environment any
    Organization solitary
    Treasure none

Special Abilities
Cold-Blooded Union (Su) An ilomba and its proprietor are intimately linked, and the death of either construct or master automatically means that both subjects die.

Poison (Ex) Bite—injury; save Fort DC 15; frequency 1/minute for 6 rounds; effect 1d3 Con; cure 1 save. The save DC is Constitution-based and includes a +2 racial bonus.

Telepathic Link (Su) An ilomba cannot speak, but the process of creating one links it telepathically with its creator. An ilomba knows what its master knows and can convey to him or her everything it sees and hears, out to a distance of 1,500 feet.

Snake in the Grass (Su) Even if an ilomba is a construct, it retains all the characteristics of a normal snake, including its feats, racial modifiers, skills, and capacity to produce venom. The skills of an ilomba are considered class skills as if it were still an animal.

Construction

An ilomba is created from a freshly killed coral reef snake or sea snake whose body is immersed in a mixture of ash, brine, myrrh, and one pint of the creator’s own blood. These materials cost 50 gp. The body is animated through an extended magical ritual that requires a specially prepared laboratory or workroom, similar to an alchemist’s laboratory, which costs an additional 1,000 gp. If the creator is personally animating the creature’s body, the creation and ritual can be performed together. An ilomba with more than 6 Hit Dice can be created, but each additional Hit Die adds +2,000 gp to the cost to create.

The person whose blood is used to form an ilomba’s body becomes its master; it is possible for one person to give blood for the creation, another to add the base material, and another to magically animate it as a minion for the one who provided the blood. Creating an ilomba is considered as an evil act and those who partake in such ritual see their alignment shifts one-step toward evil. This modification in alignment occurs only once even if more ilombas are created afterward.

Ilomba
    CL 8th; Price 2,900 gp
Construction
Requirements Craft Construct shatter, shout, true strike; Skill Craft (leather) DC 20; Cost 1,450 gp.

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In the cool streets and blazing bazaars, the word is out: a great treasure has gone missing in the Everlasting City of the Cat, and some very ambitious people have set their sights on it. Many paws and claws are out, and everyone is sniffing around for something rich and strange.

It’s an odd time for a catfolk thief and a gnoll merchant to make very tempting offers to strangers in town. Or, perhaps it’s not odd at all. Get caught up in the hunt with Cat and Mouse by Richard Pett, the acclaimed Paizo adventure path author!

This Pathfinder Roleplaying Game adventure for 1st-level characters is a perfect introduction to the Southlands campaign setting, and it fits neatly into any desert city where cats are sacred and rats are cautious and sly.

(A poster map of the city of Per-Bastet is also available via DriveThruCards.)

You can *ahem* purchase your copy of Cat and Mouse via our Kobold Press store, Paizo, DriveThruRPG, and Amazon.com.

The post Let’s Play a Game of Cat and Mouse, Shall We? appeared first on Kobold Press.

What Lives in the Tomb? Wondrous, Dangerous Things! Tomb of Tiberesh is an adventure for the Southlands Campaign Setting for five or six 2nd-level characters and uses the 5th Edition rules. It is easily adapted to any fantasy desert campaign. Just outside Per-Bastet, in the kingdom of Nuria Natal, lie the newly discovered remains of …

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Cartography by Anna Meyer

The Mbazha Mountains serve as the spine between the arid Crescent Desert and the plains of Narumbeki, and this range holds untapped wealth and wondrous secrets. Rumors speak of the fell magics of the Skin Stealer gnolls (Southlands, p. 93) or the glittering riches of the Diamond Caverns (Southlands, p. 152). Those who attempt to explore this region seldom return, and even the vaunted Narumbeki Legions find their advances into the region continually blocked by the Mbazha’s chief denizen: The Balalkeni (“Children of Balal”).

Flying atop dire eagles, dire hawks, and even gargantuan rocs, the goblins of the Balalkeni mercilessly descend from their mountain peak aeries to snatch up anyone foolish enough to wander into their territory. Though most tend to be druids or rangers, the Balakeni themselves appear much like their dust goblin cousins of the midlands (Midgard Bestiary, p.55; but change the alignment to lawful neutral). Led by Tin-Balal, the ancient cypress treant who sheltered the goblins from the rise of the Green Walker, the Balalkeni fight to the death to keep their lands unspoiled by the hands of other mortals or the corruption of the Living Jungle of Kush. This viewpoint has brought the Balalkeni into conflict with the Narumbeki Legions just as often as it has seen the two sides working together. As yet, the difficulty in uprooting the fierce goblins has held Narumbeki expansion into the Mbazha Mountains at bay.

The seven highest peaks of the Mbazha Mountains (and their corresponding Balalkeni aeries) are as follows:

Ombori (31,768 ft.)
Kavarit (31,528 ft.)
Barogha (29,832 ft.)
Moniri (27,837 ft.)
Ronori (27,837 ft.)
Adrar (26,925 ft.)
Keroi (26,797 ft.)

Smaller than their neighbors to the south, the Fassili Mountains strike off from the Mbazha like a dry, withered branch. Called “the Gray Peaks” by both travelers and Narumbeki alike, this area contains living creatures that shun the Fassili as a cursed place. This desolate region once hosted two different societies, and still does, after a fashion. Nestled on the slopes and in valleys, the curious can easily spot what appear to be picturesque towns and small cities, but guides quickly warn would-be explorers against investigating. The countless jinnborn ghosts roam streets of these places, their memories mostly obliterated and their souls heavy with both frustration and sadness. At least a dozen haunted communities exist in the Fassili, and none have yet given up the secrets of their death. Whatever obliterated their nation lingered and waited, striking down the second group that occupied the mountains.

From deep underground, the seven clans of dwarves arrived at some point in the past and established cantons. They raised iron towers to mark each settlement’s entrance and then dug into the earth with a furious passion. Unfortunately for them, they suffered a similar fate as the jinnborn; where the jinnborn became ghosts, the dwarves kept their bodies, creating enormous groups of mining zombies. These poor creatures simply dig, amassing more gems and ore to sit in waiting galleries. They repel invaders with a living passion, but those few who have penetrated the cantons report vicious and well-manned defenses, guarded by even more undead dwarves. A large number of small homesteads created by either race and scattered throughout the mountains appear to have suffered the same fate, leaving most to think the Fassili an evil and wicked land, while a few suspect a wizard or even a dragonne is responsible.

For more Southlands gaming fun, please do check out the Southlands Campaign Setting.

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Southlands Bestiary Hero Lab files are waiting to fill your world with over 90 new monsters, perfect for adventures in sprawling jungles and desert empires. From sphinx and swamp adders to genies and golems, the Southlands Bestiary is an indispensable companion to the Southlands Campaign Setting. Pick up the Southlands Bestiary Hero Lab package today …

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