The zuvembie is an undead creature who has traded its mortal
life for power over nature, wild creatures, and the weak-willed. In life, most
zuvembies were likely druids, shamans, witches, adepts, hedge wizards, or
mystically minded rangers—people on the outskirts who fit in better with nature
even before they were wronged by human society. But anyone with a thirst for vengeance who has made the
right preparations might undergo the transformation. No longer able to speak, zuvembies are all the more
disturbing for their silence and their silent power over the animal world.
Witch doctors protect
their nonmagical neighbors from the hexes and curses of witches. But when a newly established temple to
Teelar brought hospital-trained clerics to shaman Asos’s village, the witched
doctor saw his client base fell to almost nothing. Embittered at his loss of status, he underwent the zuvembie
transformation and now haunts his former neighbors and the hospital grounds.
Zuvembies often
develop symbiotic relationships with local carnivorous plants and other
hazards. A zuvembie in Tev dwells
in the shade of a yellow musk creeper, where the combined effect of its corpse
call and the plant’s pollen are particularly hard to resist. And in Hollyhock, a zuvembie serves the
half-fiend dryad that charmed him and
then took his life.
Messenger pigeons are
essential to Carmenport’s economy.
That makes breeders easy prey for local toughs and organized gangs. When Old Michael had his territory, his
birds, and finally his home stolen by the Dullahar brothers, the despondent man
turned to desperate measures to regain the birds he loved and exact a measure
of vengeance. Now the Dullahar
brothers are in hiding and Carmenport’s birds, bats, snakes, and even its feral
dogs are Old Michael’s to command.
—Pathfinder Bestiary 3
289
The zuvembie was created by Robert E. Howard in his short
story "Pigeons from Hell," published in Weird Tales in 1938.
(I know this because a blurb in the Undead
Slayer’s Handbook told me so!
“Yes, I’ve read a poem. Try
not to faint.”) Wikipedia has some
interesting notes about how the literary origins of the term allowed publishers
to work around Comics Code Authority BS.
Also, the Tzitzimitl and Vouivre entries are now up. Good luck pronouncing either.
One of my readers left a comment I want to tackle:
I
really like your adventure seeds. The hints of possible worlds and settings you
give are extremely creative, but I fear that (judging by the posts on Paizo's
own message board) they're going to be wasted on some players. The point of
Dungeons & Dragons has always been to make up your own stuff, but there’s a
scary number of Pathfinder players who seem to want to be told what to do.
Notice that we're getting a Numeria book next month – not that Numeria isn't
awesome, but if you can't make your own story out of "Conan vs.
robots," a book isn't going to help you.
Obviously I appreciate the kind words—thank you, truly!—and
obviously there’s a lot I want to disagree with in this comment, particularly
the divide between D&D players and Pathfinder players. Not that that’s anything we haven't
heard before; 1e players used to say that about 2e players all the time, and
Greyhawk fans tossed it at Forgotten Realms fans.
I’d need to see a profundity of evidence before I’d ever believe that “a
scary number of Pathfinder players […] want to be told what to do.”
Keep in mind every GM has their interests and their
strengths. There are tons of
reasons a GM would lust after a Numeria book. I’m a pretty prolific idea generator, but I am not a stats
guy. If you want to save me the
work of trying to figure out robots on the fly, I will buy that book. Plus, creating your own setting and stats and adventures takes time—time a lot of GMs (especially the ones with families) don't have.
And I also love
setting books. I literally have every
Pathfinder setting book, and am actively seeking out the few 3.5 setting
books I don't have, as well as a few choice gems from third-party publishers
and my favorite 2e settings like Planescape, Dark Sun, and Spelljammer. (Heck, I just shelled out for a battered
Midgard Campaign Setting book, despite a mixed track record with Kobold
Press products and despite a to-read pile that is literally so high I won't get
to it till 2015 if I’m lucky. Plus
I’ve barely cracked Razor Coast.) So why would I settle for just my take on Conan vs. robots when I can
have my take, Expedition to the Barrier
Peaks, the sheens from Dragon #258
(a landmark issue that single-handedly brought me back to Dragon during college), and
Numeria? Four settings are way
better than one.
Also, if there’s one thing the Golarion authors are good at
doing it’s synthesis. Any setting can pick and choose
favorite elements from fantasy, sci-fi, and myth. The Golarion setting’s secret sauce has always been picking
the best elements and (this is the hard part) recombining them in interesting
ways. For instance: Turning the
typical RPG land of Faerie into the life-infused First World suddenly explains
why trolls that regenerate and the trolls from Billy Goats Gruff can be one and
the same. That’s a deft move right
there, and Paizo does that kind of thing all the time. So I have faith that their Conan vs. robots will be worth
it. If a Pathfinder fan is enough
of a fan to be on the Paizo message boards, he or she probably feels the same.
So you can love published/official works and still be an advocate
for creating your own settings and DIY GMing.
BUT. But.
Let’s suppose the reader’s thesis is 100% accurate. My blog may be “wasted on some
players”…but some is not all. The
rest will appreciate it, and that’s enough for me.
Plus, if you want to more Pathfinder GMs to be
do-it-yourselfers, you have to model good DIY behavior. That’s what this blog tries to do. Growing up, I got
to see lots of examples of “The book says elves are like this, but I want them to be like this!” and they blew my mind. Now I’m paying it forward. It’s my turn to blow some other kid’s
mind, if I’m lucky and I work hard enough.
And, on that fitting note, let us say goodbye to the letter
Z. We have completed our first
trip through the alphabet. A whole
new journey beckons, and I hope you’ll stay with us for the voyage.
Tomorrow, dear readers, we fish up the abaia.
I strongly disagree with the commentator! I almost never run Golarion, but not only do I buy the setting books (eagerly awaiting the Numeria book! and Occult Mysteries? Wow!) but I pick up the Adventure Paths too! While the bestiaries frequently end up having the last year and a half's AP monsters, not all make the cut and I need all the monsters I can get!
ReplyDeletePlus Science Fantasy is integral to the D&D hobby, I earnestly try to divorce my campaigns from the Tolkien-derivatives expectations of my players, to stress the Mieville and Vance and Howard stuff! So I urge my brother and sister Dungeon Masters/Game Masters/Story Tellers to give the Paizo material another shake! You never know when you find another good idea/seed for your own homebrew campaign!
Good luck on your To-Read pile, mine is a series of piles that move around my abode in various states of partial-reads.