Best Served Cold [RPG]

Marcov Draeven

NO-SPOILERS

Best Served Cold is a free, four-part series of fiction in the Pathfinder Tales line (found here) set in the River Kingdoms area of Golarion.  It's a dark tale of murder and vengeance featuring an unlikely but fascinating protagonist.  I recommend it if you're in the mood for grim rather than traditional "heroic" fantasy.

SPOILERS

Marco Draevan, one of the two main characters in the story, is a man haunted (quite physically) by the ghosts of those he was responsible for killing during a battle years ago.  The description of Marco, constantly talking to and being tormented by phantasmal forces, is unlike any other character I've seen before, and is done quite well.  He would make a fascinating PC if a player were given some artistic license.  The story, about several towns being overrun by bandits and undead ostensibly driven by a priest of Calistria, is quite effective as building tension.  This is not a story where everyone finds a happy ending, but that makes it no less interesting.  Best Served Cold serves as a successful audition as far as I'm concerned for its author, Ari Marmell, to be given a novel.