Pantheon Press

As we've mentioned before, we'll be at NYC's the Compleat Strategist tomorrow afternoon for our big official introduction of Nobis. And while you're there, you can participate in the Competition of the Spirit, the annual tournament that pits fencers from all regions against one another. Choose a fencer from our list of pregens and go a couple of rounds against another fencer of our choice. Will you be victorious or will you suffer a humiliating defeat? You won't know unless you show up!

If you're a user of NYC's mass transit system, the lines will be a little weird this weekend, so give yourself some extra time to get there.

As we mentioned last week, our next book, Adversaries Almanac will be available on our store in the next few weeks. To pique your curiosity, we present an excerpt from the entry on "Emperor" Naron, a twisted sewer dweller who calls the vermin there his subjects. With art courtesy of Jesse Cutler. Enjoy!

EMPEROR NARON
The Naron family was blessed. Vodon Naron, head of the household and husband to Jelina Naron, was a very successful local politician. Many a district prospered under his fair representation. Jelina, daughter of a very influential shipping guild family, was an accomplished poet and artist whose works sold for not a tiny sum of money. When they were married their families rejoiced. What a great success this union would be! Truly their future was bright! They had three children all within a year of each other and all boys: Jerro, Piotr and Lorin. Jerro grew very tall and strong and aspired to be part of the military. Piotr was very smart and had a fierce curiosity for all things written. Then there was Lorin. He was...quiet. Lorin had no special skills or even had any ambitions to pursue any sort of career. Although his parents were very successful and his brothers were all coming along, Lorin never truly excelled. He was just not a part of the success of the Naron family. He seemed to choose not to succeed even when given every opportunity to do so. His parents and brothers were very disappointed in him. They told him so almost every day.

His studies were average at best. He had no desire to spend much time with any friends and it took monumental effort just to get him to speak to even his own family. But there were some things he did spend time with. When his family was hosting a garden party on their estate Lorin was often found in his family’s cellar feeding the rats, millipedes, and other vermin. After the family took a day trip to visit relatives, Lorin showed up at the coach dirty, stained, and smelling of dirt. This childhood phase became more and more of an obsession. Eventually he took to sneaking into the cellar to sleep, leaving the comfort of his opulent bedroom for the cold, musty dampness of the place he felt the most comfortable.

His brothers would tease him incessantly. They and their friends would sometimes find him outside under a tree petting and talking to an insect. When Lorin saw them coming he shooed the creature away and just sat there huddled with his arms wrapped around his knees as the taunts, punches, and pokes came. Eventually they would get bored and leave him. When he would return home, his mother naturally chided him for his being dirty and again banished him to his room after he got a painful scrubbing from her. Then the lecture from his father came. Again. As it always did. Speaking of success and how blessed he and his mother were and how his brothers showed great promise.

One day, things changed for Lorin and not in a very good way. As he was at a picnic with his family and relatives, he walked away from their spot and found a good-sized snail slowly inching across the roots of a large tree. He had a piece of bread with him that he crushed and moistened in a puddle nearby and placed it near the snail to see if he would perhaps enjoy eating it. Lorin sat near the creature against the tree to watch it. It was slow but it eventually reached the bread that was laid in its path and it slowly oozed onto it. Lorin, happy that his new friend was eating, relaxed and started to drift off to sleep in the cool shade of the tree. He was not asleep long when he awoke to a crunch. His brother Jerro stood over him, smiling. Piotr was not far behind, laughing so hard he was doubled over. Jerro lifted his foot and Lorin saw the crushed snail. Its greenish gray insides dripping down the root of the tree. Jerro quickly wiped his shoe on Lorin’s jacket as he sat in shocked despair. “Here is your friend, Lorin. You can keep him close to your heart, now.” Lorin looked down at the dripping ooze on his jacket then at the crunched snail shell, then at his cruel brothers laughing at him. Lorin, for the first time ever, stood up for himself. He launched furiously at Jerro, taking him off his guard and knocking him back onto the ground. Lorin punched and throttled his older brother with a fierceness no one ever though him capable. Piotr, shocked, tried to pull him off but Lorin would not be budged. As Jerro screamed, Piotr ran to tell the family. His father ran over and pulled Lorin off of his crying bloodied brother.

Incensed, his father slapped Lorin across the face. “You have disgraced your family for the last time!” He marched everyone abruptly away, ending the picnic, and headed home. When they arrived late in the evening, the servants had already gone home. As his wife tended to the injured Jerro, Vodon was alone in his study with Lorin. He told him that he would be notifying the headmaster at the military academy that Lorin would be their newest student. He was going to send Lorin away to be taught discipline and proper behavior. Come the morning, Lorin would no longer be a burden on his family and he will be whipped into shape by the sternest tutor in the academy.

As Lorin sat there, hearing his father scream and screech about sending him away he felt oddly soothed by a feeling of cold peace. He could have sworn he could hear chittering, scratching, and squeaking. What was even odder his father heard it too and looked around. As his father peered into his fireplace the sounds got louder and louder until a wave of rats, insects and other vermin vomited forth from the fireplace. Then from cracks in the floorboards. Then bubbling up from the first floor windows. They swarmed over Lorin’s father as he screamed and slapped at them uselessly. Lorin watched as their tiny mouths tore pieces from his father’s clothes and flesh, he stared as tiny stingers and mandibles pierced his father’s flesh and injected him with venoms a thousand times. Still feeling a cold sense of calm, Lorin stood up and listened. A cacophony of buzzing and squeaking among the sounds of muffled screams emanating from the vermin-choked mouths of his entire family filled the Naron home. His mother and brothers met the same fate as his father. He smiled a wicked smile as the swarms finished their work and, as if in celebration crawled to Lorin and amassed at his feet and simultaneously buzzed, clacked, clicked and squeaked as if cheering and paying respect to their lord and master. Among the carpet of vermin were two huge dire rats who placed tokens at his feet. They were somewhat crude but were adorned with the markings of Oloren, the Blackened. He was still laughing as he left his home forever, the bloody, swollen bodies of his family left in tortured death poses.

We have written out a short compatibility document for our Campaign setting Nobis: The City States.

It is a free download so get it on your PC and start running a Nobis game with the Pathfinder RPG today!

Don't own our books yet? Well get to our online store all this month and you get 10% off all your purchases if you enter the discount code GNOLLOWEEN when you checkout!

And don't forget this coming Saturday October 10th we have our Nobis introductory event at The Compleat Strategist starting at 1 PM.

Hope to see you there!

It's been over a month since we lost our good friend and colleague Jason Amsler, and we've had some time to pick up the pieces and begin the process of continuing in his absence. Remember folks, to cherish the friends with you game with, and if you are struggling to find people with which to share this hobby we all love, there are plenty of websites out there for just such a thing! Get on it and go play!

As for Pantheon Press news, we've got a sack of it right here.

Our next product will be the Adversaries Almanac, a collection of villains of all kinds for your Nobis campaign. From lowly vermin mages to powerful blackguards, the Adversaries Almanac will be your primary source for antagonists. We will most likely publish this book as a PDF only (unless the public clamors for a hardcopy) before October is over. Keep an eye on pantheonpress.com for the final date!

Also, within the next week or so, we will put up a FREE brief conversion document to make your Nobis: The City-States book compatible with Paizo's Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. We know that Paizo's successor to 3.5 is the hottest thing around these days, and we want to make sure your Nobis books can be integrated smoothly into that system.

Looking further down the line, we have just begun putting pen to paper for our very first ALL ORIGINAL game. It's called Fortune's Fool and it uses a Tarot deck instead of dice and that's all you're going to get out of us for now.

Finally, and most importantly, the Pantheon lads are going to be at NYC's Compleat Strategist store on Saturday Oct. 10 for an official unveiling of Nobis to the public. The event starts at 1:00 p.m. There will be demos and discussions. One of our artists, Andrew DeFelice will also be on hand to showcase his talent. And if you are good, there will be pizza. So if you're in the New York City area, come on by and say hello!

Join us as Pantheon Press formally introduces The World of Nobis Campaign Setting! We'll be selling books and giving demos of the unique facets of our world. We will be at the Compleat Strategist in NYC from 1 PM to 4 PM or so so stop in to buy your copy, check out the demos, or just to say hi!

The Compleat Strategist New York City Location:
11 East 33rd Street (between Madison and Fifth Avenue)
New York, NY 10016
212-685-3880