Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Darklands Revisited (PFRPG)

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Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Darklands Revisited (PFRPG)
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Terrors from Below

Beneath the Inner Sea region stretches a vast network of echoing caverns, serpentine tunnels, and subterranean lakes, their lightless reaches haunted by creatures too strange for most surface dwellers to imagine. This underground world is known as the Darklands, and to those brave enough to venture into its shadows, it offers incomparable treasures and mind-warping dangers. Delve into the secrets of this subterranean realm's residents with details on their ecologies, societies, campaign roles, and more.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Darklands Revisited provides everything you need to hunt or befriend the denizens of the depths, including creatures such as:

  • Demon-worshiping drow and their ceaselessly scheming houses.
  • Gray-skinned duergar slavers, shunned by all other dwarves for their worship of an evil god.
  • Gugs, the four-armed giants of the Dreamlands' tunnels.
  • Intellect devourers, who remove victims' brains and wear their bodies.
  • Munavris, albino psychics who fight against evil in the deepest depths of the Darklands.
  • Degenerate morlocks, who hunt humans even as they worship them.
  • Wormlike neothelids, plotting to bring their fell gods to Golarion.
  • Troglodytes, the fallen scions of a vast reptilian empire.
  • Vampiric, daemon-crafted urdefhans, eager to spread death and pain.
  • Fungal vegepygmies and the carnivorous mold that births them.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Darklands Revisited is intended for use with the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can easily be adapted to any fantasy world.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-819-9

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Interesting, Well-written Overviews of 10 Monsters

4/5

I’m not saying I’m preparing to run a major new campaign that will feature a descent below Golarion’s surface, but if I were, I’d find Darklands Revisited very useful. This book, a 64-page full-color softcover in the Pathfinder Campaign Setting line, features a series of entries on ten different monsters that one is likely to encounter there. Each of the six-page-long entries starts with a bit of in-game flavour text from Pathfinder Society explorer Koriah Azmeren before discussing the monster’s ecology, society, campaign role, treasure, and Golarion-specific themes. Each entry also features a full-page stat block and artwork for a single named NPC of that race. I particularly like the little sidebars like “Five Facts about . . .” The monsters covered in the book are drow, duergar, gugs, intellect devourers, morlocks, munavri, neothelid, troglodytes, urdefhans, and vegepygmies.

The strong cover art is reproduced as the inside back cover sans text. The inside front cover has a quick one-sentence summary of each of the ten monsters. There’s also a two-page-long introduction that does pretty much the same thing but while talking more about their mythic or literary inspirations, though it also includes a paragraph on each of the three distinct layers of the Darklands (I’d suggest getting Into the Darklands for substantive overviews of them). I’d label the interior art fairly weak.

Okay, on to the monsters!

• The drow entry is solid. It’s hard to see much if any difference between drow on Golarion and drow in the Forgotten Realms. I liked the suggestions for the role they could play in different campaigns, and there’s a sidebar (and alternate racial trait) on half-drow. The custom NPC is a mysterious drow slave-trader named The Surface Caller. A multiclass sorcerer/swashbuckler, she could be a good hook if the PCs are trying to rescue a slave (or get captured and sold themselves).

• I really learned a lot from the entry on duergar. The entry emphasises their slaving culture, and makes a persuasive connection between their racial abilities and ancestral devotion to Droskar. The Pathfinder novel Forge of Ashes is good on this topic as well, and features some of the locations discussed in this entry, like The Long Walk. The custom NPC is a duergar warpriest named Almara Kazaar; she’s fine but doesn’t really stand out as particularly interesting.

• Despite their amazingly scary appearance, gugs are a monster type I’ve hardly ever used and never really thought of as more than mindless killers. The entry is really interesting, though little of it could really be discoverable or impactful on PCs encountering them. The custom NPC is Uchurah, a gug cult leader with a couple of barbarian levels. He’d be good as a boss figure if the GM wanted to introduce gugs.

• Intellect devourers fill some of the void left by the inability of Paizo to use illithids. They’re creepy as heck, as they crawl through your mouth while you’re asleep and eat your brain! The entry showcases an interesting extraterrestial origin for them and the original premise that they take over humanoid bodies so that they can experience emotions that are otherwise foreign to them. A pirate captain for a custom intellect devourer NPC is a crazy idea, but it works—and that’s one pirate ship I wouldn’t want to encounter on the high seas.

• For morlocks, I think it’d be really interesting to play up the theme of them being the devolved remnants of destroyed civilizations. There’s some real pathos there. They also don’t need to necessarily be hostile, though if the GM is looking for real hordes of enemies, morlocks can come out in the hundreds and hundreds. The custom NPC is Eudranis, a cleric of Lamashtu, and he’d work well as a boss figure.

• I have to confess I’ve never heard of munavris before. They’re unique as a generally good-aligned Darklands race. An island-dwelling culture in the Sightless Sea, munavris could be a welcome refuge for PCs lost deep underground. They’re really interesting, and I’d certainly like to learn more about them. The custom NPC is a psychic swashbuckler named Captain Ignisco.

• Neothelids make for good villainous masterminds in a campaign, deviously moving pawns around in tangled plots that the PCs have to unravel. Gigantic worms, they spawn other creatures called seugathi that travel to the surface on bizarre, sometimes inexplicable missions—which can be great adventure hooks to lure PCs into the Darklands to discover what’s going on. The custom NPC is Thath-Malal, a young neothelid under Tian Xia.

• Troglodytes stink! The entry has good detail on them, and it’s interesting that they can be bargained with for safe passage or even hired as bodyguards in the Darklands. Although found in all three layers of the Darklands, they apparently only have one real city (far below the Mierani forest). The custom NPC operates on the surface, however, and has 7 levels of the hunter class.

• I personally think urdefhans are by far the creepiest monster in the book. Bred from the depravity of daemonic minds, they seek out other species to end their lives in as painful a manner as possible. The custom NPC leads a rare cult that raids surface cities.

• Vegepygmies (plants with humanoid-like shells) are kind of goofy in my opinion, but they do constitute useful low-danger threats for PCs venturing into the uppermost layer of the Darklands. I think the real danger is russet mold, and the entry has a nice sidebar on its variations. I appreciated the little reference to The Tangle in Xin-Shalast—-that was something I could have integrated into a certain AP. The custom NPC is actually a new monster variant called a “Thorny”—a type of vegepygmy hound.

And that’s the book. Overall, it’s certainly fit for purpose for readers interested in learning more about the dangers of the deep dark.


Darklands Done Well

4/5

Another entry in the "Revisited" series, "Darklands Revisited" deals with all the dark, scary things that live underground in the depths. "Revisited" gives a nice sampling of each race, but doesn't go as in depth as the ecology articles. The series is a great read for players and GMs, giving a nice intro to the featured entries especially for new players. There are entries for a number of humanoids, and some creatures less/more than human, so let's take a look at the entries.

Drow: Who can have an underground book without the drow? As a species done and redone, how does Golarion's take on the dark elves measure up? The drow of Golarion have a new and intriguing history involving their departure from classic elves, which strikes a great balance between the familiar FR drow history and new material. This history also explains in flavour the reason for their mechanical stat changes from surface elves and works very well. The drow are also given demonic patrons, which is an interesting development, as the race is LE and demons are CE. The drow of Golarion practice a new and terrifying science, fleshwarping, which is an interesting blend of science and magic which supports both CE and LE and magic alchemy. No mention of the divine is made in fleshwarping, which I feel is a lost opportunity to tie the race to its unusual demonic patrons. The drow stat block shows a new dual classed character, although it would've been cool to have a matron statted up. The campaign role gives excellent suggestions for low to high level parties and each level shows off a different aspect of the versatile drow.

Duergar: dark dwarves, these guys feed off Paizo's unique spin on dwarven history. Like drow, they are blessed by an evil god, and they really feel like a race beholden to Droskar with his worship and priesthood showing up in many of their cultural aspects. Although drow and duergar are both slavers, slavery in both cultures is very different. The duergar are suggested for low to mid level parties due to their location in the darklands. A great, flavourful entry.

Gugs present as a mixture of humanoid and monster culture and physiology. Despite their interesting alien origin, the rest of this entry was rather uninteresting.

Intellect devourers are Paizo's answer to mind flayers. And they are an excellent retort. They are very much a horror trope that fans of the Mythos will love. This is a race with a unique and full background, which makes them at home in both PF and SF. Again an enslaving race, slavery is very different in intellect devourer culture than it is from other darklands species. Treasures consider the unique physiology of the species. Ilvarandin is only briefly mentioned as are locations in space.

Morlocks are yet another race that fled into the underground to escape Earthfall, but their original race was human. The locations section was interesting, but otherwise this was another underwhelming entry.

Finally, the only good race to dwell underground, the new and exciting Munavris. Introducing psychic powers to the darklands, the Munavris were only recently introduced before the printing of "Darklands Revisited", making them a blank canvas. The entry for this race doesn't disappoint its new fans, and they are a much more interesting evolution of humans than the morlocks.

All in all, most of the races have excellent entries, which more than make up for the few underwhelming entries. None of the entries are terrible, and even the underwhelming races have some nuggets of awesome in their entries. If you want a nice read or some inspiration for your next campaign, you could do worse than this.


Solid for Spelunking

5/5

A pretty handy volume for anyone intent on using the Darklands of Golarion- the fleshing out of the Munavri is particularly welcome, but in general, just about every creature examined here benefits from the improved going-over. I especially liked the overview of Duergar society, and all of the creatures presented here got at least a little bit of cultural detailing to make them more flavorful.

I'm a fan of the "Revisited" series in general, so this was a nifty thing to find in my FLGS today.

To go with the 5 stars, two caveats-

1. Some of the Drow material felt a bit redundant- although not scrambling from the Advanced Race Guide to Inner Sea Races to old volumes of Second Darkness will be appreciated.

2. I don't think ANYONE can get me fired up about using Urdefhans. However, if you're fond of 'em, there is some excellent material here.


I've always loved this region...

5/5

The underground world has always been an allure to me. The 'wilderness' is always more dangerous, and the creatures are like something the animals of Australia would have nightmares about. The longest campaign I was ever a part of from my 3.0/3.5 days, about half of it took place in the 'underdark'.

The Darklands of Golarion are very interesting. There's some traditional stuff there (Drow and Duergar) and they're societies are given a little more info here, and even provides some interesting plot ideas for players interacting with these races, and reminding us why they're so terrible.

I really, REALLY like the addition of more detailed information of species in the Darklands that actually have what some would consider a form of 'society'. Morlocks, Gugs and Intellect Devourers to name a few.

The addition of the Munavri is awesome to me. The Darklands have always been a desperate place, but the closest things we've had to a 'good' species down there are Svirfneblin, and they're more like 'leave us alone' not evil. I LOVE the albino, psychic, Darklands-sea-traversing swasbucklers! My only downside is they're way too good for play in some games, but I guess they have to be powerful to do what they do, where they do it! :)

I mentioned the Gug earlier, they and the Neothelid give the 'dark tapestry' love to the Darklands, and honestly, it's cool. The more detailed on how Neothelids are more than just big magic worms, and have a semblance of a hierarchy and society is really cool.

Finally, I love the emphasis on use of the Occult stuff. That's something I felt wasn't done as well before Pathfinder; including new concepts into an existing setting.

I'd love to see a Darklands focussed AP, or even an anniversary/updated Second Darkness!

Definitely a great acquisition.


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Community Manager

Announced! Product image and description are not final and subject to change.

Contributor

Oh, OH!

Dark Archive

Hah, awesome! I mentioned wanting something along these lines recently.


Sweet! More info on this topic will be awesome! I love me some darklands!

Contributor

Awesome :)


Now this is what I've been waiting for!


'Bout time we returned to the Darklands. I'm looking forward to this one just for the urdefhan. And the seugathi. And the troglodytes. And, well, I guess all of it.


Ah awesome, finally some Darklands material.

Albeit, I really hope this isn't just an article about races. I hope it also details some interesting locales and realms.


5 people marked this as a favorite.

YES the revisited series LIVES AGAIN!!!

sorry this is my favorite campaign setting series, and I always thought a Darklands-themed book made obvious sense. I think the books that take a different angle than just a creature type generally come out better, so I have high hopes for this book.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I hope we get a section on the Munavis.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

So any chance of a Devils Revisited?


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Awesome!


It has been awhile since the last revisited book.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Deserk wrote:

Ah awesome, finally some Darklands material.

Albeit, I really hope this isn't just an article about races. I hope it also details some interesting locales and realms.

Agreed . . . but with that said, I wouldn't mind seeing the Darklands inhabitants (especially the playable ones) fleshed out some more.

KaiserBruno wrote:
So any chance of a Devils Revisited?

That would be timely, given the current AP and the next one (unless Princes of Darkness already did as much as can ever be done on this). And after that, a Damons Revisited (and they need an AP, too), and then a Demons Revisited (by this time it will have been long enough after Wrath of the Righteous for a refresher to be timely) -- these being sugject to the analogous constraint to that of Devils Revisited, of course. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to have a fleshing out on some of the other Outsiders . . . although in the case of Kytons, at least, you might have to use different terminology . . . .

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I've some interest. Hope druegar and/or svirfneblin get an entry.


I doubt svirfneblin will be in this since it says 10 "notorious" Darkland races.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
UnArcaneElection wrote:

[

That would be timely, given the current AP and the next one (unless Princes of Darkness already did as much as can ever be done on this). And after that, a Damons Revisited (and they need an AP, too), and then a Demons Revisited (by this time it will have been long enough after Wrath of the Righteous for a refresher to be timely) -- these being sugject to the analogous constraint to that of Devils Revisited, of course. Of course, it wouldn't hurt to have a fleshing out on some of the other Outsiders . . . although in the case of Kytons, at least, you might have to use different terminology . . . .

Demons Revisited already exists...it was released before Wrath of the Righteous.


2 people marked this as a favorite.

So Blood of Shadows and this both come out in February. I'm sensing a theme.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Dragon78 wrote:
I doubt svirfneblin will be in this since it says 10 "notorious" Darkland races.

Fair point, but one could hope :P


It would still be fun to guess what else will be in there. We know that we are getting Drow, Troglodytes, Urdefhan, and Seugathi. I would say the remaining six could be Deugar, Serpentfolk, Neothelid, Aboleth, Intellect Devourer, and Darkfolk.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I'm all for Darkfolk. Wonder if they'll give us a new/reprinted fleshwarp for the drow entry?

Editor-in-Chief

8 people marked this as a favorite.
Deserk wrote:

Ah awesome, finally some Darklands material.

Albeit, I really hope this isn't just an article about races. I hope it also details some interesting locales and realms.

Like the past "monsters revisited" books, the focus will be on ecology-style write-ups of the creatures included, typically with details on society, a new rules option or two, and a useful statblock.

New locations might be mentioned, but are not a focus of this product.

Editor-in-Chief

10 people marked this as a favorite.
KaiserBruno wrote:
So any chance of a Devils Revisited?

Shhh.


Nice. VERY nice!

Note to Faerun-philes: The Darklands, not the Underdark. Get it? This is Golarion, after all.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

I am just happy to see another revisited book.


Pathfinder Lost Omens, Rulebook Subscriber

Oh my, very pleased to see this


hooray!


Curse you, Paizo golems! I could have used this six months ago!

Ah well. At least I'll get to enjoy it in February. And hey, most of the stuff I made up for my campaign will probably still be "semi-accurate".


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure, Adventure Path, Starfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

Excellent! It's good to see the Revisisted line return, it is one of my favourites.

Shadow Lodge

Geologist-gamer here is hoping this one helps in some of the directions that James Jacobs and I geeked out about at GenCon a few years ago...


I am definitely interested in this. I kind of hope it will have something on dark folk and derro but I am sure it will be good none the less.


Kodyax wrote:
I am definitely interested in this. I kind of hope it will have something on dark folk and derro but I am sure it will be good none the less.

Thought you might be interested to know that Derro have already been in a revisited book.

Here's the link: Classic Horrors Revisited

(^_')=b

Dark Archive

I wonder if Vegepygmies might A) be in it and B) get a new origin, now that the 'created by callous peeps to eat, and even after they turned out to be sentient, callous peeps kept eating them' origin has been poached by the Ghoran.

Liberty's Edge

Set wrote:
I wonder if Vegepygmies might A) be in it and B) get a new origin, now that the 'created by callous peeps to eat, and even after they turned out to be sentient, callous peeps kept eating them' origin has been poached by the Ghoran.

Yeah, I've seen several contradictory things on Golarion Vegepygmy history in different texts. Thus, some kind of 'official' cleanup on their back-story would be useful.

Dark Archive

CBDunkerson wrote:
Set wrote:
I wonder if Vegepygmies might A) be in it and B) get a new origin, now that the 'created by callous peeps to eat, and even after they turned out to be sentient, callous peeps kept eating them' origin has been poached by the Ghoran.
Yeah, I've seen several contradictory things on Golarion Vegepygmy history in different texts. Thus, some kind of 'official' cleanup on their back-story would be useful.

I could be making this up, but I *think* there might be vegepygmies on Castrovel (mentioned in Distant Worlds), which makes it possible that the Drow claiming to have created them have actually *re*created them, or summoned them, based on racial legends / memories of having encountered them on the old planet.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

More background material for Drow would be a real good thing.


I'm dying to get this! Feb can't get here soon enough!

Dark Archive

It says in the temporary description text that it contains info about 10 races and mentions:

1. Drow
2. Troglodyte
3. Urdefhan
4. Seugathi

So what are the other 6?

5. Duergar (easily the most iconic underdark race after the drow)

6. Serpentfolk (having had vast imperiums in the past of which great cities remain)

7. Dark Folk/Caligni

8. Aboleth

9. That new 0-HD race from Bestiary 5.

10. ?


Svirfneblin!

Everyone forgets the deep smurfs.


My copy of Bestiary 5 finally arrives this week so I will have that to read in reference to some of what will hopefully go into this. I know I can't get enough material for both dark folk and derro for my tastes but in my own campaign I have special reasons for this.


Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Could potentially cover ratfolk too, which are noted to be in the Darklands over in Tian Xia, even have their own empire, Diguo-Dashu.

It would also be cool if they gave some coverage to Queen Frilogarma and her Court of Ether.

Serpentfolk, skum, derro, duergar, ghouls, svirfneblin, morlocks, gugs, ropers, neothelids, dark folk, and intellect devourers seem like possibilities too. Maybe fungus queens?

Dark Archive

Luthorne wrote:

Could potentially cover ratfolk too, which are noted to be in the Darklands over in Tian Xia, even have their own empire, Diguo-Dashu.

It would also be cool if they gave some coverage to Queen Frilogarma and her Court of Ether.

Serpentfolk, skum, derro, duergar, ghouls, svirfneblin, morlocks, gugs, ropers, neothelids, dark folk, and intellect devourers seem like possibilities too. Maybe fungus queens?

You are probably right about the morlocks and i am definetly wrong about the neothelids as they got a write-up in this months "Occult Realms".

We had an Ecology of the scum article in Adventure Path # 98 and as they are only the servants of the Aboleth it is unlikely that they get their own chapter.

The Derro were detailed in "Classic Horrors Revisited" - so they are out too.

I think Ghouls may have been in "Undead Revisited" - but even if not they are not a main Darkland exclusive race.

Svirfneblin are probably out too because they are not evil adversaries.

I think Paizo will eventually do Gugs in a "Mythos Revisited" book together with Hounds of Tindalos, Cthonians, Mi-Go and other Lovecraft Beasties in time for the "Strange Aeons" Adventure Path.

Ropers have no society so they are out too.

That leaves Duergar, Serpentfolk, Morlocks, Dark Folk and Intellect Devourers on which i agree.
Also Aboleths...


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I would love to see a lot more crunch-&-fluff on the Morlocks of Pathfinder.

I believe it was James Jacobs who commented on these forums that the Morlock race was Paizo's attempt to de-emphasize the more WotC-associated Grimlock race. And to also create more brand uniqueness-&-separation of the Darklands away from WotC's Underdark.

I'm good with that ... even though I was a huge Grimlock fan back in the 3.5 days. So as a result, I would certainly welcome seeing more Morlock material. As the basic premise of the race (degenerate mutated human-like beasts who thrive & prowl in the depths of the Endless Night) fills a unique and interest niche in the game.

Lantern Lodge RPG Superstar 2014 Top 4

1 person marked this as a favorite.
zergtitan wrote:
I hope we get a section on the Munavis.

Hope is a powerful thing :)


Eric Hinkle wrote:
'Bout time we returned to the Darklands. I'm looking forward to this one just for the urdefhan. And the seugathi. And the troglodytes. And, well, I guess all of it.

Have you Raging Swan's Ancient Empires: Troglodytes? They also have a few more trog products


I can't for them to update the art and product description.


Do we know when the cover image will be updated?


Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscriber

They might not be 'notorious' but I still really hope for material on svirfneblin...also duergar (and they ARE notorious).

Dark Archive

Jace Concorkill wrote:
Do we know when the cover image will be updated?

Normaly it should happen next week (28th - 31st).

But with some people in well deserved holiday it could take longer.

At the latest we should have it on the 4th of january (US time) but i hope and think earlier.

RPG Superstar Season 9 Top 4, RPG Superstar 2015 Top 32

How did I miss this announcement?

Welcome back, Monsters Revisited. I've missed you so very much.

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