Starving, thirsty creatures tend to head downhill. In the desert, down is bad. (Of course, thanks to giant lacewings, up ain’t so great either.)
A ruined coliseum may no longer host blood sports, but it can still be deadly. An ant lion has turned the arena sands into a subtle bowl, claiming local animals and would-be archeologists alike.
A portal to a desert planet is said to lie twenty miles to the west, “Inside the ant lion’s mouth.” Given that the territory is rife with giant ant lions, picking the right mouth is liable to be a treacherous endeavor.
Girtablilus hunt giant lacewings as a right of passage, as well as to feed their scorpion pets. An adventuring party interrupting their hunt (even if the “interruption” is self-defense against the flying giant adult ant lion) is likely to be accused of violating their traditions. This is a death sentence to the religious scorpion folk.
—Pathfinder Bonus Bestiary 5 & Bestiary 3 17
This weekend I saw John Carter and finished James Sutter’s Distant Worlds. The former is quite fun, making Disney’s mishandling of it (“Let’s take Mars out of the name so no one knows it’s sci-fi! And make the preview look like a cowboy movie!”) even sadder. Go see it, because it needs the help.
Sutter’s Distant Worlds does the thing that Paizo does so well—it checks the boxes of real world/folklore/fantasy conventions (“We need a jungle planet. And a red planet. And one for the Lovecraft baddies. And space whales…), yet twists them just enough that they stay fresh (placing the elven home of Sovyrian on another planet is definitely not aping Tolkien’s Valinor). I’ve seen a few complaints online about lack of crunch and/or spelljamming, but to that I say bah—it’s a great read, and most of the crunch you can handle yourself. Get it.
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