Order of the Amber Die—The Azlant Odyssey, Part 5

Saturday, July 21, 2018

It’s been a while since we’ve heard from our friends at the Order of the Amber Die, but they’re still at it! There were some scheduling complications and their tackling of Doomsday Dawn for the playtest, but they’ve recently finished their marathon of Pathfinder Adventure Path #125: Tower of the Drowned Dead and sent me their report. I also got a chance to talk with GM Adam Smith at Gen Con a couple of weeks ago, and he let me know that they have more amazing things to share with us once they wrap up the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path—so stay tuned! Also, keep in mind that this blog contains spoilers for the adventure and Adventure Path, so be careful if you’re playing this one!

If you are new to our work, for the past several years the Order has been completing projects for the Paizo blog. Our most recent work, The Azlant Odyssey, started in 2017—paused to complete the Pathfinder Playtest—and is now nearing its conclusion with volumes five and six of the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path! For those looking to refresh themselves on the campaign, here are the first four parts:

The Azlant Odyssey Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

We have been to the semi-finals of an Adventure Path plenty of times before, but what worried our party about part five of this particular AP was what we knew about our goal. The information we gathered told us that inside the Alabaster Trident, a massive tower built during the age of thriving Azlant, resided a lich who had spent the last few 10,000 years creating a legion of undead abominations. In our chase to stop a veiled master from securing a weapon of catastrophic power, we had to go to the Alabaster Trident and seek out this lich. The tower sank along with Azlant; therefore, we expected to face many levels of undead in a submerged dungeon-crawl, and there was no guarantee we would find air within. There wasn't a single one of us that didn't fear ending up like the lich's name, "Auberon the Drowned."

This marathon also carried with it some out-of-game emphasis for us, as it would mark our 150th published adventure completed since the founding of the Order in 1987. With such an occasion on hand, we'd have a full house with extra live-NPCs throughout. Our talented rookie, Robert Pontious, flew in from Rhode Island with his hair and beard dyed grey to match his role as Ezren. Author and former Paizo intern Savannah Broadway arrived from Seattle to attend her first marathon since The Strange Aeons Experiment; she would take the role of Aoinse, an awakened clockwork servant of Amaznen.

To add to the immersion of this multi-day dive into a submerged tower, our GM turned down the air-conditioning to a cool 63 degrees, and we kept the lights low in the areas that were not lit. Most significantly though, the master craftsmanship of Black Bard Studios took this marathon to new heights, by creating an entire scale model of the Alabaster Trident that stood about 8 feet high! Room-for-room and level-for-level, it was an accurate 3D model which allowed us to perfectly experience this adventure's spatial challenges. Further, as we explored the tower throughout the course of the marathon, we removed each level and kept it on display as a constant reminder of the architectural layout of the tower.

• Adventure: Pathfinder Adventure Path #125: Tower of the Drowned Dead
• Marathon Length: 80 hours, 5min
• Session Hours: 49hrs, 50min

Highlights From "Tower of the Drowned Dead"

• We faced plenty of clockworks in the tower, even a nightmarish gargantuan clockwork infused with the soul of a kraken—and there was no way in the nine layers of Hell we were fighting it. Instead, we scouted the level and brought down the wall closest to the stairway it was guarding. We just needed Valeros (an aquanaut) and Koloshkora (locathah ranger) to go base-to-base with it for a couple of rounds while the rest of us swam past. No worries though, we had aquatic life insurance in the form of freedom of movement.
• Beneath the Alabaster Trident was a level known as the "Vaults," a secluded place of horror and torture. The master of the Vaults, an aboleth nosferatu sorcerer, calmly explained that it must destroy our party to save us from an undead fate similar to itself. A round-one sunbeam from Kyra ended the fight in twelve seconds—lights out.
• Keen senses were vital when trying to stay one step ahead of Auberon, who knew early on that we were inside his home. Our Player Captain, Matt Hardin, managed to get Koloshkora to touch a 68 Perception at just 12th level. Mark it down.
• If you thought the author would keep you in one place the whole time, welcome to the Omen Dominion: a timeless demiplane that predated even the Alabaster Trident. We went from spending forty-five session hours underwater, to being surrounded by the lively sounds of a forest. It was here that we got to choose the ending we wanted and decided to engage in our first-ever negotiations with a lich.

The Odyssey

Handling the challenges involved with submerged dungeon-crawling was definitely one of the tougher experiences we've faced as adventurers over the decades. This is OAD though, and we were ready for it with a strong playbook and spell stack: slipstream, life bubble, ride the waves, and greater longstrider were key factors in our win. Actually, between our apparatus of the crab and an Elven folding boat we came across (which we boldly rechristened as the Even Deeper), we're traversing ancient Azlant in style!

Character Deaths

• Author Ron Lundeen is no stranger to putting our characters down. Heck, in our playthrough of Dreams of the Yellow King, Ron's animate dream killed one of his own prominent NPCs. He's always fair though. This time a banshee wailed and Ezren missed his save.
• It's quite possible that no creature strikes more fear into the hearts of Order members than a shining child. Apparently, an aquatic shining child does exist, and it's called a pelagic child. They are sometimes encountered in pairs, or even two pairs as happened in this adventure. It didn't take long for the Amber Die to deliver a critical hit with a searing ray, which removed Aoinse from our roster. Adam Daigle bears some responsibility for the cruelty of pelagic children as well, so the author and managing developer could kindly apologize to our party (and Mikko Kallio) for permanently destroying our beloved clockwork priestess.

Best Quote From Marathon 5

(watching Nieran, our Mordant Spire elf ally, surpass 500 damage while clearing a scrag nest in the top levels of the tower)

Ezren: "..."

Kyra: "..."

Valeros: "..."

Nieran: "What? It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Not that humans could do it."

Current Situation

We cut a deal with Auberon for information, and now we're headed back to the undersea city of Talasantri to drop off the daughter of one of our merfolk friends. After that, we'll check on the colony of Talmandor's Bounty for a quick resupply and to make sure things are in good shape before we head to the location of a secret Azlanti facility called the Compass. We learned that this facility stores several (yes, several) doomsday devices, and we expect it to be at least partially underwater. Our equipment is solid, our spell selections are on point, and party coherency is at its peak. Yeah, let's get a little cockier than we were in the previous blog: This is the best position we've had when staring down the final volume of any Adventure Path. Veiled masters, you're not in control anymore.

More Content

For character builds, questions about The Azlant Odyssey, additional content and more, see our thread on the Paizo messageboards.

Follow Order of the Amber Die on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube!

Keep your eyes peeled for part six once the group gets some rest. If you've missed the first four installments, check them out here:

Order of the Amber Die—The Azlant Odyssey, Part 1
Order of the Amber Die—The Azlant Odyssey, Part 2
Order of the Amber Die—The Azlant Odyssey, Part 3
Order of the Amber Die—The Azlant Odyssey, Part 4

Adam Daigle and the Order of the Amber Die

Invasions and Explorations

Friday, July 27, 2018

I'm very happy to announce that we have completed sanctioning for both the Ironfang Invasion and Ruins of Azlant Adventure Paths! Before saying anything further about these adventures, I'd like to thank my fellow developers Luis Loza and Eleanor Ferron for their assistance in doing the vast majority of the work on sanctioning Ironfang Invasion so that we could have it ready to go alongside Ruins of Azlant for a double-dose of new sanctioned content.

The Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path pits the PCs against a fearsome hobgoblin army known as the Ironfang Legion. Many of the boons Luis and Eleanor wrote for this militant adventure tie into building a militia to fight back against the Legion, recruiting NPCs to your cause and gaining a suite of thematic abilities suitable for any warleader. Don't worry though, the boons from these Chronicles are still going to be useful and effective if you decide to play in campaign mode and apply them to a different character who never sallied forth against the Legion!

Ruins of Azlant will take you to colonies and ancient "ruins." The Chronicle sheets and boons reflect the Azlanti connection, offering everything from allies on and near the island of Ancorato to extremely rare ioun stones! Once again, while the boons provided by these Chronicle sheets are written to help enhance your characters' connections to the story and setting, they'll still be powerful and useful in their own right if you decide to apply them to another character after completing the Adventure Path. You can locate the sanctioning documents from the individualIronfang Invasion and Ruins of Azlant product pages and Additional Resources.

With the Ironfang Invasion and Ruins of Azlant sanctioning wrapped and ready for your perusal, we've got a few much-sought-after modules that are primed for our next round of sanctioning releases. Until then, happy gaming, everyone!

Michael Sayre
Developer

Order of the Amber Die—The Azlant Odyssey, Part 4

Saturday, July 21, 2018

The folks from Order of the Amber Die are back again! Get ready to dive into adventure with a new report from their latest marathon session running through Pathfinder Adventure Path #124: City in the Deep! Be forewarned, though! There are spoilers aplenty in this report. (Maybe just look at the awesome pictures if you're playing through this.)

Going into volume four of the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path, we had a couple of pieces of information about what lay ahead; these included following a lead about a veiled master, and knowing that we were headed to the underwater city of Talasantri. We originally scheduled our usual four-day run, but during play we endeared ourselves to the city and adjusted our schedules to make this a slow-burning marathon of nearly a week, culminating with fireworks and food on the 4th of July!

To create immersion for our visit to an underwater city, we surrounded our play area with a 360-degree panorama of undersea scenes matching the coral streets of Talasantri (including a merfolk evocative of many we'd encounter). To capture the effect of jellyfish lanterns lighting the city, we employed string lights of appropriate colors, along with sparkling underwater lighting effects from our local Halloween store. As we toured establishments in the city, we were enraptured by music from Aquasonic, played completely underwater. Lastly, our tabletop itself glimmered with the craftsmanship of both Blue Table Painting and Black Bard Studios, who helped bring Talasantri to life for us.

• Adventure: Pathfinder Adventure Path #124: City in the Deep
• Marathon Length: 125 hours, 50min
• Session Hours: 60hrs, 15min

Highlights From "City in the Deep"

• Our biggest concern was how it was going to play out being underwater for so long. Matt, a veteran of the Order and our "Player Captain Emeritus," supervised the party's toolkit for underwater adventuring. He made it so that we were able to enjoy our time in the deep without having to stress too much about the lack of air, cold temperatures, and pressure damage. Spells like endure elements, water breathing, waterproof, and ride the waves (combined with a rod of metamagic extend) were easy enough to keep track of. At the same time, certain items ensured that we had backup measures: pearl of the sirens, necklace of adaptation, apparatus of the crab, and pressure pills (from the Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Aquatic Adventures sourcebook.
• Our list of friends and alliances continued to grow. Nieran Codali, a Mordant Spire elf rescued from the bottom of The Flooded Cathedral, considered it essential to accompany us after he saw that three of our four iconics were human; since, as he explained to Merisiel openly, the humans were certain to fail. Though he sometimes refers to us as "the bastards of Azlant" and talks about our humans in the third person, we wouldn't have survived the final battle without him.
• While exploring the island of Blood Lily Cay in search of an ancient weapon, we spotted a ruined temple through the foliage. Facing its divine guardian/broken soul coatl turned into a 26-round combat worthy of any World Cup elimination match. Unfortunately, our first "own goal" of the campaign also occurred, when Kyra cast a mass cure light wounds in an attempt to damage the creature she assumed was undead (without successfully identifying it). Instead, she healed the coatl at a crucial moment, ensuring we'd have to retreat in defeat.
• Some BIG creatures live under the waves, and we're starting to meet them. The best God of War boss fights couldn't hold a candle to watching Valeros go into melee alone against a gargantuan dire shark, and later a colossal shipwrecker crab. The aquanaut beat them both.

The Odyssey

Talasantri looked unlike anywhere we'd ever been, and yet much of the city functioned like plenty of places we had been. We shopped, got invited to parties, became caught up in local intrigues, and the relationships we built ended up being more important to our success than any treasure we found. We had to pick our friends wisely though, and there were certainly options: aristocratic merfolk, proud aquatic elves, shady cecaelias, and plenty more. Kyra's ability to hit a DC 52 Diplomacy check certainly came in useful, but most citizens were indifferent to surface folk, so Dan still had to roleplay his way into positions to use it. Ezren even fell for a merfolk who styled herself as the "Arcanic Researcher" of the city, and was invited to view her collection of rare magic items (a visit he wouldn't discuss with us). We're keeping the large map we printed of Talasantri, and we'll be going back in this campaign—or another.

Character Deaths

• Merisiel was able to corner a deep merfolk sorcerer after minutes of chasing his multiple castings of dimension door. Facing only the elf, the merfolk cast defensively and gambled on a disintegrate. From just a foot away, he reached out a finger toward the rogue—natural 20. The critical hit was almost inevitable, and Merisiel's saving throw was a tragic natural 1. So 26d6 became 52d6, and our GM wanted to roll it all at once. We scoured the house for d6s, and everyone pitched in some of their own. Total damage? 192. The single highest amount of damage ever delivered by a spell in OAD history.
• When draugr are protecting a shrine of Dagon with keen greataxes, Power Attack, and times 3 critical multipliers, some PCs are going to wind up face down. Kyra took 57 points of damage in three hits, and Merisiel took 106 points of damage in two hits. At least they went out together.
• An out-of-water excursion threw off some adventuring routines we had established, and we stumbled into two ambushes by the aptly named Blood Lilies. Koloshkora and Ezren found out through experience that the plants were highly poisonous, too.

Best Quote From Marathon 4

(While crossing the ocean floor at 20 ft. speed.)

Valeros: "Can't this thing go any faster?"

Merisiel: "Not with the old man driving."

Ezren: "This is maximum speed, thank you."

Current Situation

We've discovered that our quarry, the veiled master named Ochymua, seeks a weapon with the power to devastate Golarion. For assistance, it seems Ochymua contacted an ancient lich named Auberon the Drowned—which means now we seek this same lich. Armed with two aberration bane weapons and a ranger with a +6 favored enemy bonus, we're locked and loaded as we head into part five of this Adventure Path. We have three words for all alghollthu who oppose us: BRING IT ON.

More Content

For character builds, questions about The Azlant Odyssey, additional content and more, see our thread on the Paizo messageboards.

Follow Order of the Amber Die on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube!

Keep your eyes peeled for part five once the group gets some rest. If you've missed the first three installments, check them out here:

Order of the Amber Die—The Azlant Odyssey, Part 1
Order of the Amber Die—The Azlant Odyssey, Part 2
Order of the Amber Die—The Azlant Odyssey, Part 3

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

Order of the Amber Die—The Azlant Odyssey, Part 3

Saturday, May 18, 2018

Those Adventure Path marathoners from the Order of the Amber Die are back again with a report from their play through of Pathfinder Adventure Path #123: The Flooded Cathedral! If you've missed the first two installments, check them out here: Part 1 and Part 2. As usual, there be spoilers! Read the following at your own risk!

By the third volume of an Adventure Path, we have usually acquired a pretty definitive feel for the locale and some of the themes of a particular AP. The Flooded Cathedral became the adventure where we really felt like we were deep in the ruins of Azlant in the most literal sense. Remains of the empire were everywhere, and we got to explore the most awe-inspiring structure yet: a massive cathedral so time-worn that it was now partially lost to the waters. We couldn't stop to gawk too long though, for we were in a race against time to recover dozens of kidnapped colonists from the machinations of their new aboleth master!

To enhance immersion, we decided to focus on the feel of submerged dungeon crawling. Black curtains blocked out light from the room, with illumination provided by lava lamps possessing underwater hues, and a strobe light was used for the parts of the cathedral where the lighting was malfunctioning. Elsewhere on the islands of Azlant, Black Scrolls Games helped us bring the landscape to life with their outdoor map tiles.

• Adventure: Pathfinder Adventure Path #123: The Flooded Cathedral
• Marathon Length: 107 hours, 15 minutes
• Session Hours: 57 hours, 10 minutes

Highlights from "The Flooded Cathedral"

• One of the most unsettling parts of adventuring in ancient Azlant involved encountering former inhabitants of an age gone by. Wraiths known as hollows—spirits whose pride kept them from fleeing Earthfall—inhabited an area of the island where the trees and soil were left still blackened from the cataclysm. They paced us for hours, until the darkness provided by some ruins allowed them the chance to strike, hoping to sap our precious egos.
• The treasures of Azlant are as enticing as its lore, and we couldn't resist braving s a shiver of great white sharks to explore the Hall of the Heroine, which contained a statue of the Azlanti heroine Savith. In our very own sword-in-the-stone moment, only a human had the strength to wrest the sword of Savith from her grasp, and this glowing aberration-bane keen longsword became single greatest factor in our defeat of Onthooth, the aboleth in the final encounter.
• The outer temple grounds contained a breathtaking 100-foot-tall statue of Amaznen that had crashed to the ground long ago. Before our scholars could satiate the pages of their logs, a tough fight began, possessed of wave-by-wave action against ugothol defenders. What increased the complexity was the combination of three lanes of engagement, and that each wave of faceless stalkers was armed differently, including the dreaded mutilators, who hit the hardest. We won it decidedly, by making sure they couldn't break our line: two of us held the left side on the smashed head of the statue, two held the right amongst some crumbling walls, two scampered up onto the statue itself, and the last provided air support in the form of lightning bolts.
• Intensity peaked as high as the volume of Hans Zimmer's "Supermarine" when we faced off against one of the first ulat-kini ever created. To take things up another notch, we should add that we were we far from air, a retinue accompanied it, and this immense creature carried an equally large crossbow of the crab. Our GM shocked us a couple of times by using the reposition combat maneuver to place us in the path of a malfunctioning electrical altar. This win went to Valeros's aquanaut abilities and Ezren's aqueous orb spell.

The Odyssey

Author Mikko Kallio gifted us with one of the most interactive and unique dungeon crawling experiences we've ever come across. Not only did a submerged ruin provide its own challenges, but also there were several objectives to be accomplished within the cathedral, and these stood alongside our main goal. Aoinse, the awakened clockwork servant and former cleric of Amaznen, became our friend and guide throughout the delve—she won't be forgotten. True to any Odyssey, the treasures have been equally epic, as it took more than thirty years of playing this game to finally come across an apparatus of the crab!

Character Deaths

• Merisiel paid for her curiosity when she approached a perfectly intact table standing alone inside a broken tower. She'll tell you it was the magical haversack resting upon the table that she couldn't resist. Karnax, the mimic with slayer levels, showed his delight in having visitors to the island by surprising the rogue, studying his target, and finishing her in two hits before the party could act.
• While attempting to turn the temple's power generators on, we found ourselves in a fierce encounter with lightning elementals where every square of movement mattered. Unfortunately, our party roster included a locathah with a 10 foot movement, Kyra with a 20 foot movement, and a hobbled clockwork companion in tow. Kyra sacrificed herself to help the rest escape, but not before we lost Oorka the strix as well.
• As we explored a haunted sacristy, Valeros fell victim to a murderous command effect and tried to claim the spoils for himself. It didn't help that the fighter was being played by Erick, who has more blood on his hands from other PCs than anyone in the Order. With a stellar critical hit of 73 points of damage, he added Koloshkora to his list.

Best Quote From Marathon 3

(Following an encounter with chaos beasts, our wizard suffered from a Wisdom score of 4.)

Ezren: Excellent hit Marissa, watch out for the other elemental!

Merisiel: It's Merisiel...

Ezren: Nice throw Melanie, behind you!

Merisiel (dodges): It's Merisiel, old man.

Ezren: Sorry Maria, I won't make that mistake again!

Current Situation

We managed to defeat the aboleth and recover the colonists (mostly) intact. Through diplomacy and action, our network of friends and alliances among the current inhabitants of ancient Azlant now includes: Mordant Spire elves, wyrwoods, locathah, strix, and even some clockwork compatriots. We were able to raise our companions from the dead, and things look good as we prepare to spend what looks like an extended amount of time underwater. Equipped with our newly reconstructed apparatus of the crab, we're ready to set out across the ocean toward the next destination in our odyssey: the underwater city of Talasantri!

More Content

For character builds, questions about The Azlant Odyssey, additional content and more, see our thread on the paizo.com messageboards!

Follow Order of the Amber Die on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube!

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

Order of the Amber Die—The Azlant Odyssey, Part 2

Monday, January 29, 2018

Those Adventure Path marathoners from the Order of the Amber Die are back again with a report from their play through of Pathfinder Adventure Path #122: Into the Shattered Continent! As usual, there be spoilers! Read the following at your own risk!

In our first marathon of The Azlant Odyssey, we got off to the finest start in any of our projects for the Paizo Blog: we discovered an ample amount of treasure, held party deaths to a zero count, and acquired enough allies to put together a solid team for any challenge that might present itself. For this second marathon, we wanted to capitalize on our early gains by significantly developing the colony of Talmandor's Bounty while exploring the island around it, and "Into the Shattered Continent" offered exactly that.

To enhance immersion, we brought the beach to us by utilizing AdventureScents to make the room smell like a sandy coast. We also engaged several live-NPCs to play the roles of colonists and other indigenous inhabitants of ancient Azlant, complete with a locathah mask that stared back at us the entire time. Lastly, our GM assembled a collection of images to project on the wall that matched locations we'd be visiting, as well as a soundtrack that included hours of waves crashing against the shore.

This adventure was divided into three parts, with the first being one of the largest sandboxes we've ever come across in 145 published adventures that we’ve played. So massive, in fact, that we pushed our GM near the limit and broke our record for the longest single marathon in Order of the Amber Die history!

• Adventure: Pathfinder Adventure Path #122: Into the Shattered Continent
• Marathon Length: 119 hours, 45 minutes
• Session Hours: 68 hours, 10 minutes

Highlights from Into the Shattered Continent:

• The marathon opened with shock and betrayal. Having accidentally chosen to bring two dominated colonists into our midst at the end of "The Lost Outpost", they turned against the colony in the downtime between adventures. Orchestrating a surprise raid by skum, the traitors targeted our spellcasters and caught nearly all of them alone or off-guard. Two of the colony's respected priests were slain, but we fought off the assault with aid from a couple of celedons, whom afterwards insisted on teaching all present how the goddess Acavna (not the party) had granted us a successful defense of the colony.
• Searching the ruins of Azlant has turned up much in the way of Pathfinder Society lore, and through opportunity three of us are now members (Ezren, Kyra, and Lyra). Alright, we'll stop holding back. We got to follow in the footsteps of an expedition from the first EVER Pathfinder Chronicles! And there's more...
• The island of Ancorato is not an easy place to traverse, and it literally bled us: blood-sucking stirges, a blood-obsessed sea hag, blood-draining ugothols, a blood-siphoning shark, blood-feeding plants, blood-drinking chupacabras, blood-frenzied sahuagin, blood-empowered vampiric mists, and an evil gillman cleric with the blood subdomain. Lesser restoration, please?
• In the final encounter, we faced our second betrayal when our closest friend and confidant, Carver Hastings, turned into a faceless stalker who had long ago replaced him. Worse, his allies—also former friends but now stalkers—tried to burn us alive in the colony's government building. All but Ezren escaped out of the windows, when Valeros decided to eschew safety by kicking down the front doors and going back in after the old man. With Kyra's air bubble to protect him from smoke inhalation, the fighter waded into the flames to save our wizard, and gave us one of the best slow-motion rescues of any campaign.
• The Amber Die itself got behind this adventure and dished out some pain, with nine natural 20s that left some heroes facedown. We dodged the die when it mattered most, though!

The Odyssey

Author Robert Brookes referred to this adventure as "a sandbox of exploration and discovery," and its myriad encounters perfectly expanded the feel of our continuing odyssey. While survival was the premier skill for volume one, diplomacy became the focus skill of volume two. We entreated a water naga for aid, stopped a witch hunt, quelled a hunger strike, bartered with locathah, counseled a larcenous teenager, forged an alliance with indigenous creatures, intervened when tensions rose among colonists, solved a kidnapping, comforted a blind cyclops, and traded magic items with a paguroida.

Character Deaths

While we don't have any iconic character deaths to report, we did want to devote this section to a colonist whom we had come to know and respect. Anya Sandstrider accompanied us on several excursions, where she taught us how to better spot danger, discover tracks, and even hunt boar. Our mistake was taking our friend out of her element on our deepest dive yet: a reef swarming with sahuagin and sharks. When we were surrounded by hammerheads and the future was murky, it was her spear and timely calm animals that gave us a momentary lifeline. Ezren fired off a buoyancy spell and we shot for the surface, but it wasn't until we reached air that we realized Anya wasn't with us anymore.

Best Quote From Marathon 2

Adam (GM): Alright guys, welcome to marathon two of The Azlant Odyssey. Kyra, make a Fort save or die, coup de grace.
Kyra (nervously): Ummm...ummm...ummm...24?
Adam (GM): You survive. Twelve damage. You awaken from a normal night's sleep to see a skum standing over you, with its trident in your gut and blood spilling out onto the sheets. Roll initiative.

Current Situation

We managed to thoroughly scout the island, discover generous Azlanti lore, and fend off an attack from within by an enemy we know very little about. Despite repeated betrayals from old friends, we couldn't have made it through this adventure without our newfound allies: a locathah ranger named Koloshkora, and a young strix oracle called Oorka. Our party now has the ability to draw on playmakers that excel in specific environments, with the locathah leading underwater, and the strix aiding overland. Our next move is to figure out who or what has been guiding the repeated attempts to subvert our colony—and eliminate them.

More Content

For character builds, questions about The Azlant Odyssey, additional content and more, see our thread here on the Paizo forums.

Follow Order of the Amber Die on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube.

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

The (Not Quite) World of Ruin

Tuesday, January 23, 2018

This month sees the epic* conclusion to the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path. Subscribers have already got their hands on digital copies of Pathfinder Adventure Path #126: Beyond the Veiled Past and print copies are soon to follow. As the author for "Beyond the Veiled Past," I'm thrilled to see this adventure finally getting out into the wild... because I've been holding onto some secrets.

After our glorious Managing Developer, Adam Daigle, assembled the Ruins of Azlant writing team, all of us writers began conspiring together. As the author of the final adventure, I ended up with the challenging task of ensuring that various plots established earlier in the adventure path came to a suitably climactic conclusion. Ever a fan of traditional RPG video games, I've always had a soft spot for the "searching for friends" moment; a portion of the story where the PCs end up doing a montage journey to places they've visited in earlier adventures. I worked close with a lot of fellow authors, especially those handling the earlier adventures, to weave in some strong connections between past events and the end of the campaign. So, expect to see a lot of familiar faces and vistas in the opening act of this adventure!

Azlant was (and still is) a very crazy place. Researching all the written Azlanti lore in Paizo products was one of the more fun projects prior to writing the adventure. Myself and other authors would banter back and forth about some random revelation we had discovered in a sourcebook about the Azlanti or their alghollthu foes. Chats were alight with things like "They literally created new races" to "They colonized other solar systems!" (turns out that last one might have some ramifications.) Getting a chance to play with alghollthu and Azlanti toys in a high-level setting turned out to be really rewarding, and led to the creation of some pretty ridiculous inventions and NPCs.

In my mind, it's not a good adventure if you can't sneak in a few setting references. Whether it be inserting a reference to an NPC who led the invasion of your developer's pet continent or putting in a named version of a monster you wrote for a previous adventure path backmatter, being the author has its perks. While "Beyond the Veiled Past" is laden with new revelations and further hints for ongoing campaign setting mysteries, I'd have to say that there's one reference that stands above the rest. As someone with strong ties to Paizo's Organized Play program, I've always had a strong interest in the Pathfinder Society organization. With this adventure, I had the opportunity to answer a question about one of the more mysterious elements of the Pathfinder Society's leadership: what's up with the Decemvirate Helms? Turns out, these artifact level helmets had a completely different role in ancient Azlant. You'll need to read (or play) this adventure to find out what!

Overall though, Ruins of Azlant is really about one thing: the alghollthu and Azlanti conflict. Such was the power of these two great empires, that even millennia after their war's cataclysmic conclusion, the echoes of their conflict can potentially reshape the world. Along with the adventure I had the pleasure of writing, the backmatter articles in this adventure go on to give GMs the ability to take their campaign, even new campaigns, "beyond the veiled past" and into modern Golarion. Exploring the ruins of Azlant was just the beginning; now it's up to the players to stop the veiled masters.

Thurston Hillman
Starfinder Society Developer

*I choose my words carefully. If the PCs aren't equally as careful, that last encounter goes well into the epic CR range. But don't blame me, I was just writing to spec; you can blame Adam for the [REDACTED].

These Are a Few of Our Favorite Things (of 2017)

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

This past year has been a big wild ride. We launched Starfinder to great success, had a busy Gen Con watching the book fly off the shelves, and put out some amazing books that aren't set in space. We've even had some changes in our line-up, with changing job titles and responsibilities that helped a number of us take a step up. 2017 has been full of excitement (and a little chaos, but what creative endeavor doesn't have at least a little chaos?). It's been a busy year for everyone here at Paizo, and I wanted to give the developers and designers a chance to talk about some of the projects they've worked on this year that they've enjoyed working on the most. Being a creator can be rough sometimes, and it's important to feel pride about the things you've helped make.

*Any developer or designer not included in this blog was far too busy to contribute to this blog I sprung on them. Sorry folks!

Logan Bonner (Designer)
Most of my stuff that came out in 2017 feels like I worked on it a million years ago. I had a big hand in the underlying math and class design of Starfinder, and it was so much fun going into deep design and play with foundational concepts in a way we rarely get to do with the more established Pathfinder. I also worked up the monster creation rules, based on work I initially did for Pathfinder Unchained, during the Starfinder Core Rulebook creation process. Seeing them make their way to the public in Alien Archive was exciting! And speaking of exciting, the highlight of the year was seeing Starfinder fly off the shelves at its Gen Con launch. I was there Thursday morning, went on my scheduled break, and when I came back, it was gone! Mind-blowing!

Jason Bulmahn (Director of Game Design)
2017 has been a truly exciting year in the game design mines... but as with most years, the things I have been working on have yet to even be announced! So, here is to 2018 and all of the amazing things I am looking forward to sharing with all of you in the coming months!

John Compton (Organized Play Lead Developer)
Although its copyright date shows 2016, Pathfinder Adventure Path #113: What Grows Within ended up hitting shelves in 2017, marking not only the first Adventure Path volume of the year but also the first one I wrote. It was a great experience and a great opportunity to create some really weird characters (including Hoshbagh) and present desperate PCs with desperate situations. The process also prepared me for writing the second volume of the Starfinder Adventure Path, Temple of the Twelve, which let me draw on my archaeology training to invent a host of academics—both qualified and absurd—and a lost culture on a hitherto undocumented continent.

On the organized play front, I'm proud of helping Thurston Hillman get the Starfinder Society program up and running, especially in the changes we incorporated into the Guide (like the new approach to boons) and the plans we've set in motion for more than a year of great adventures. In the meantime, Pathfinder Society's been creating great adventures and accomplishing big things. In 2017 we wrapped up the Season 8 plotline, culminating in the excellent Pathfinder Society Scenario #8–25: Unleashing the Untouchable that has ramifications across the inner planes.

Adam Daigle (Managing Developer)
I had a hand in thirteen books that came out in 2017, by either being the developer for the whole book or pitching in on a book with another development lead. (I had a lighter hand in a whole bunch more, but those contributions aren't terribly noteworthy and are frankly quite boring.) Of all of these, I'd have to say that the one thing I'm most proud of is the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path. This was the first Adventure Path where I got to fully run the show, so to speak. I got to outline the Adventure Path and form the excellent team of writers who brought it to life. Working with all of them was a developer's dream, and seeing this Adventure Path go from ideas to real books that people are playing and enjoying has been a highlight of my work year. I was also happy to get more information about my lil' fear babies, the sahkils, in Book of the Damned.

My favorite personal development over this past year has been stepping up to lead the best damn group of developers in the business. I can't wait to share some of our efforts in 2018. Onward and upward!

Thurston Hillman (Starfinder Society Developer)
As many know, this was my first year working for Paizo. I had been freelancing for Paizo for a while, but this was the year I took on the Starfinder Society Developer position and got to work on helping to build an entirely new Organized Play program (alongside Tonya, John, Linda, and several others.) It's hard to pinpoint a single "best moment” in this year, but I think I have to go with Gen Con 2017, where we officially launched the Starfinder Society Roleplaying Guild. Along with getting to see our new game in action, it was an incredible experience seeing GMs from across the world coming to help run the first games of Starfinder Society. Given how we've just announced several (but not all) of our plans for 2018, I suspect next year's PaizoCon, Origins, and Gen Con (ok, and SkålCon) will be full of new Starfinder Society stories!

Amanda Hamon Kunz (Development Coordinator)
Wow, 2017 has been busy! I've worked on a whole bunch of products, but I think the highlight for me has to be the Starfinder RPG. I really enjoyed working on some of the core system design of our new science-fantasy game as a member of the Starfinder design team; you'll see my fingerprints all over the Starfinder Core Rulebook's tactical rules, equipment, and magic chapters, as well as chunks of the character creation and setting chapters and beyond. It's very rewarding to see our game's positive reception among fans, and to be involved with so many great Paizo team members to help create it and get it out into the world. Similarly, writing the third Starfinder Adventure Path volume, Splintered Worlds, was also a huge highlight of 2017 for me. I had a ton of fun creating the creepy atmospheres and plots that pervade that adventure, from a Dead Space-inspired cultist base to macabre adventures among the undead residents of Eox. I'll avoid spoilers and stop there! Regardless, a lot happened in 2017, and it's exciting to think about what 2018 may bring.

Jason Keeley (Developer)
Of course, I am very proud about the release of Starfinder, whose popularity has surpassed all of our expectations. But while we were putting the finish touches of the Starfinder Core Rulebook, I was already up to my waist in Alien Archive, corralling most of those weird beasties and fascinating aliens. I couldn't be more excited to have worked on a roleplaying game where a party can consist of a floating jellyfish being, an albino minotaur, a humongous brain, and a lizard person that can shoot blood out of her eye! On a personal note, I am also thrilled to have written the articles on Hadregash and Cyth-V'sug that appeared in the Ironfang Invasion Adventure Path. Two different evil gods, but both so fun to write. And one of them let me indulge in writing some very gross stuff. I'll leave it to you to figure out which deity is more disgusting: the militaristic barghest or the demon lord of fungus and parasites.

Rob McCreary (Creative Director, Starfinder)
This past year was all about Starfinder for me, most notably the Starfinder Core Rulebook. But I'm especially happy with Incident at Absalom Station, the adventure I wrote for the Dead Suns Adventure Path. Besides kicking off the Starfinder Adventure Path, Incident at Absalom Station was also the very first adventure published for Starfinder. The project presented a number of challenges, not the least of which was the fact that we didn't have the final Starfinder rules when I started writing it! But that didn't stop me, and it did give me the chance to bring one particular monster from Pathfinder to Starfinder—the akata, which I've loved ever since it first appeared back in Pathfinder Adventure Path #14: Children of the Void. I also had a lot of fun designing the PCs' first starship, the Sunrise Maiden, which is the Starfinder iconic characters' ship too. I've really enjoyed hearing about people's experiences running and playing the adventure on the messageboards, and can't wait to see how people respond to the rest of the adventures in the Dead Suns campaign!

Joe Pasini (Developer)
In the first few months of this year, I was a contract editor for Paizo, hustling with a fantastic group of people to get Starfinder, a brand new RPG, out the door. Now, as the year comes to a close, I'm a developer for that same RPG, and I couldn't be more proud of the collective effort (including my small part) that it took to bring this game to the world.

In the summer and fall, I got to work with Adam Daigle, Crystal Frasier, and Amanda Hamon Kunz (listed alphabetically, because I'll always be an editor at heart) to put out a couple rad Player Companions (Antihero's Handbook and People of the Wastes) and the back matter of the first volumes of the War for the Crown Adventure Path. Learning at the feet of such titans of the industry was enlightening, humbling—and frickin' awesome.

Here's to an epic 2018!

Owen K.C. Stephens (Starfinder Design Lead)
It likely comes as no surprise that the thing I am proudest of that I worked on in 2017 is Starfinder. My work on the Starfinder Core Rulebook was mostly done in 2016, though some of that work bled into the early weeks of this year, but I'm not even talking about just the rulebooks. With Starfinder, I have gotten to be on the ground floor of a new RPG line again, and that comes with a lot of work beyond the rulebooks. I have enjoyed being part of planning a universe, and expanding it to new places, brainstorming new concepts and new adventures, discussing which of the things we don't have yet we want (and which we don't), and when and how to present them. I'm part of a brilliant team that's setting the tone and course for a brand new venture, and I am proud of both the work we've done and what we have in the pipeline.

Linda Zayas-Palmer (Developer)
I'm bad at picking favorites, so I won't pick just one. I'm pumped about Season 9 of Pathfinder Society, the Year of Factions' Favor, and proud of the work I put into building the overarching story. After seeing the reception to several scenarios, especially Pathfinder Society Scenario #9-02: A Case of Missing Persons, I'm looking forward to seeing what people think of the ways these plots in unfold later in the season. Another fun project I worked on this year was a pair of flexible Pathfinder Adventure Card Guild adventures, #4–P1: Murder in the Marketplace and #4–P2: Dangerous Cargo. I play the ACG almost every week, and there's something amazing about watching my friends have fun with something I wrote. And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention my first published race: the vine leshy from Ultimate Wilderness. More leshys makes for a better game.

Mark Seifter (Designer)
"The math is going to be completely different, but also it needs to be fully compatible with all the Pathfinder monsters." Doing both of those things in Starfinder seemed like a tall order, so one of my absolutely coolest moments was when I plugged all the required constraints together, working alongside Logan, and tweaked all the variables along until finally…it clicked! I found an arrangement that would allow the brand new combat math, no longer balanced around making attacks at –10 or –15 at higher levels, to mesh directly with numbers right out of the table in the back of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Bestiary. There was literally a single path to victory, a ray of light in the sea of numbers. I was able to lay it out, and sure enough, Starfinder characters have math that interacts completely smoothly with the numbers on Pathfinder foes, while retaining a combat dynamic all their own!

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

Order of the Amber Die—The Azlant Odyssey, Part 1

Saturday, December 16, 2017

The Order of the Amber Die is back with another marathon run through an Adventure Path, and this time they've picked the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path. I'm not going to spend too much time introducing this blog, but I do want to warn readers that there are some spoilers in here. If you're a player or just want to be surprised when you read The Lost Outpost, read at your own risk!

In case you're new to our projects or what Order of the Amber Die is all about, here's a quick summary: We play the longest sessions in the industry, we've been through a couple of lifetime's worth of published adventures, and we like to push the envelope of gaming as far as it can go—and then some.

During the Adventure Path seminar at Gen Con 50, Managing Developer Adam Daigle said Paizo had waited ten long years to release an Azlant-themed AP, and despite not having much of a break after The Strange Aeons Experiment, we couldn't resist the call to play it. Further, if Paizo waited this long to unveil Azlant, we needed to match the significance with something equally monumental: We would take our game on-location. Just as we started off “The Lost Outpost” with our characters approaching a beach, we put nine members of the Order from different parts of the country into a New Jersey beach house for many days of straight gaming. With this much immersion, the long weekend was bound to end up like an episode of Survivor or Jersey Shore-gone-Pathfinder, so we filmed portions of the escapade—and yes, we even did confessionals.

Session Stats

• Adventure: Pathfinder Adventure Path #121: The Lost Outpost
• Marathon Length: 113 hours
• Session Hours: 51hrs, 15min

We like to give each of our projects a spin or focus, and for The Azlant Odyssey we'll be highlighting the setting and atmosphere throughout. Submerged ruins, forgotten islands, lore lost for millennia—it's too exciting not to detail it as we explore. To prepare for the launch of this project, the four core players were assigned homework: to study the Pathfinder comics and master their iconic characters. Finally, with such a large number of colonists available for role-playing opportunities, our GM tapped four additional members of the Order for live-NPC roles throughout the marathon.

Highlights From The Lost Outpost

• Our characters arrived on the beach to find the colony of Talmandor's Bounty deserted and the first wave of colonists missing. During our subsequent search, a distressed poltergeist sent our characters sprinting for the water quite a few times. Our GM ruled that since our characters were running from the grass to the waterline, we should leave our dice and make the mad dash across the sand ourselves. Harder than it seemed!
• Intermingling with the colonists and their elaborate backgrounds kept us right on track with reality TV, as we had two separate love triangles running: Anya Sandstrider the stoic Shoanti ranger with a crush on Harcourt Carrolby, the arrogant well-to-do, who was in turn the enemy of Leutin Calewick, the hefty blacksmith with a thing for Anya. That's all aside from the usual Kyra and Merisiel flame, where Ramona Avandth, the expedition's capable facilitator, added in some tension with Kyra while refuting the advances of Antona Sedgewick—one of the colony's most prominent soldiers. Can you follow all that drama?
• A self-controlled defense mechanism of ancient Azlant stalked the island, leaving ominous tracks that built fear in us until the confrontation finally occurred. It consisted of thousands of tiny spheres that could emit spikes and even knock you to the ground. Merisiel, our relic raider, had studied its path on the island carefully, and enabled us to exploit its weakness: it couldn't climb most objects.
• During an incident involving quicksand, Valeros the aquanaut pulled off his best rendition of Baywatch as he ran to the rescue and dove in with his swim speed, while we sweated round-by-round watching the drowning colonist. Even Merisiel was impressed.
• Author Jim Groves never let us get comfortable with the island or our mission, as this adventure tested a wide array of tabletop RPG skills: social combat from Ultimate Intrigue, roleplaying, investigation, traditional combat, underwater combat, linguistics, and even a player's ability to adapt to a new mechanic: "soft initiative." If the rest of the Adventure Path is anything like The Lost Outpost in this regard, we're going to find out what we're made of.
• Class was in session when we came across two celedons who wanted nothing more than to teach us about their goddess, Acavna. The academics in our group grabbed a bench and started taking notes, until our teachers casually mentioned that instruction would take years to complete—and that we couldn't leave until it was over. We brainstormed ways to cut class, but we were terrified about getting disciplined by the eternal guardians.

The Odyssey

Sand, seagulls, and the smell of salt water completely immersed us in even the most nominal role-playing encounters. We also wanted to emphasize the role of sunlight in island survival, so as a group we decided to get up before dawn every day and begin playing with the sun's rays streaming in. So far, Ruins of Azlant is clearly more than just "the underwater AP." Survival has been the most important skill—used more often than swim—and both the exploration and discovery aspects of our Odyssey left our lore-delvers with plenty of knowledge checks throughout.

Character Deaths

None! We'll leave the credit to the preparatory underwater grid-training sessions run by our Player Captain.

Best Quote From Marathon 1

Valeros (needlessly shouting): Madam, your colony is clear!
Ramona Avandth: How much has this man had to drink?
Valeros: I've been drinking all day.
Ramona (to the party): Is this true?
Ezren: Yes, he has been drinking all day, but he can be trusted.

Current Situation

We managed to scout some of the island, but many questions remain about why the former colonists disappeared. We did rescue and return the original expedition leader, Rayland Arkley, and another colonist that we hope can provide more answers in the coming days. Between adventures, we'll be taking the author's suggestion of utilizing the downtime rules from Ultimate Campaign as we attempt to rebuild the colony of Talmandor's Bounty.

More Content

For character builds, questions about The Azlant Odyssey, additional content and more, see our thread [Link: http://paizo.com/threads/rzs2unce?The-Azlant-Odyssey] on the Paizo messageboards.

Follow Order of the Amber Die on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or YouTube.

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

Faith in Azlant

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Subscribers have already started thumbing through their copies of the third installment of the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path as they arrived in the mail, and one of the first things I saw people talking about was the article on the gods of ancient Azlant. I'll talk a little more about that in a bit, but for now here's a look at some of the other exciting things in Pathfinder Adventure Path #123: The Flooded Cathedral.

Up until this point in the Adventure Path, the PCs have had to deal with only a few encounter locations that are submerged, but this one takes the water wings off and drops the adventurers into the deep end in—you guessed it—a flooded cathedral. Don't get scared off yet! The entire cathedral isn't flooded, and not all of the adventure takes place in that one location. This adventure reveals some of the secrets of Azlant as the heroes explore a temple of Amaznen on an island near Ancorato. While inside they get to see some of the amazing wonders engineered by that dead god's priesthood like clockwork winding stations, seismic power generators, intelligent clockworks, and an analytical engine.

This volume also contains an article about clockworks, which talks about their origin and places they are more common on Golarion. It also includes a number of new augmentations for clockwork creatures to keep them fresh in your games, including ioun memory nodes, which grant clockwork creatures a measure of sentience.

Illustrations by Hugh Pindur and Will O'Brien

I also got the chance to explore religion in ancient Azlant with a full pantheon of gods commonly worshiped during the height of the empire. With the utter destruction of Azlant, it's a wonder that any knowledge of these gods carried through to the current age. That many did is a testament to faith. Some of these gods are familiar faces that were worshiped slightly differently over 10,000 years ago, while others deities in the article are new and mostly unknown to the Inner Sea and current day Golarion. In this article you can learn about how Shelyn was depicted as being in mourning after her brother left for places unknown, and how Pharasmins during the height of Azlant still trusted in prophesy.

Some people who've already read this article have commented that the details on Nurgal don't exactly add up to what's mentioned in Pathfinder RPG Book of the Damned. Much of this is due to the focus of the pantheon article, where I was focusing on how things were close to the end of the Azlanti Empire. The ancient origin of Nurgal as presented in Book of the Damned happened long before the empire's collapse, and frankly an expansive origin story for that demon lord deserves to be in the Book of the Damned where it has more space than a single column in an Adventure Path.

Gods of Ancient Azlant

Deity	AL	Areas of Concern	Domains	Favored Weapon
Abadar	LN	Cities, merchants, wealth	Earth, Law, Nobility, Protection, Travel	Light crossbow
Acavna	CN	Companionship, defensive battle, the moon	Chaos, Darkness, Protection, Repose, War	Spear
Achaekek	LE	Monsters, murder, natural disasters	Death, Evil, Law, Trickery, War	Sawtooth sabre
Aesocar	LG	Creation of life, health, medicine	Artifice, Good, Healing, Law, Protection	Mancatcher
Amaznen	LN	Invention, magic, secret knowledge	Artifice, Knowledge, Law, Magic, Protection	Light hammer
Desna	CG	Dreams, luck, stars, travelers	Chaos, Good, Liberation, Luck, Travel	Starknife
Elion	CG	Colonization, discovery, exploration	Chaos, Community, Good, Travel, Weather	Longbow
Gozreh	N	Nature, the sea, weather	Air, Animal, Plant, Water, Weather	Trident
Groetus	CN	Empty places, oblivion, ruins	Chaos, Darkness, Destruction, Madness, Void	Heavy flail
Jaidi	NG	Agriculture, hard work, self-sufficiency	Animal, Glory, Good, Plant, Sun	Scythe
Lissala	LN	Duty, fate, reward for service, runes	Knowledge, Law, Nobility, Rune	Whip
Myr	LG	Charity, lineage, physical perfection	Glory, Good, Law, Nobility, Strength	Longsword
Nurgal	CE	Deserts, senseless warfare, the sun	Chaos, Evil, Fire, Sun	Heavy mace
Onos	N	Elements, embassies, extraplanar travel	Air, Earth, Fire, Travel, Water	Chakram
Pharasma	N	Birth, death, fate, prophecy	Death, Healing, Knowledge, Repose, Water	Dagger
Scal	NE	Annihilation, catharsis, purity	Destruction, Earth, Evil, Liberation, Void	Meteor hammer
Shelyn	NG	Art, beauty, love, music	Air, Charm, Good, Luck, Protection	Dagger
Sicva	LE	Domination, invasive species, oppression	Animal, Evil, Law, Nobility, Strength	Lasso
Ulon	NE	Conspiracy, isolation, manipulation	Charm, Community, Evil, Knowledge, Trickery	Hand crossbow
Zura	CE	Blood, cannibalism, vampires	Chaos, Death, Evil, Madness	Rapier

I hope everyone's been enjoying the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path. There's still more to come!

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

Sorting Through the Ruins

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

In short time, subscribers will be getting their monthly packages sent out containing Pathfinder Adventure Path #123: The Flooded Cathedral, but we haven't talked about Pathfinder Adventure Path #122: Into the Shattered Continent yet! So, here's my chance.

Illustrations by Roberto Pitturru

In Into the Shattered Continent the PCs continue to explore their new island home after dealing with some of the issues in the previous adventure. This adventure takes the PCs across the island of Ancorato and to one of the neighboring islands as the heroes makes sure that there aren't any more threats to the new colony.

Of course there are more threats, but the PCs also meet some friendly inhabitants that can help make their stay on the island much more pleasant. The adventurers come across these people as they explore the island and find relics of a lost empire, specifically some of the items they used, such as an ioun gauntlet, or places they inhabited, such as a ruined observatory.

Illustrations by Valeria Lutfullina

During the course of the PCs' survey of the island, they are asked to check out a few particular locations—spots that a certain early pathfinder who penned volume 1 of the Pathfinder Chronicles might have visited. If they make it through all of that, the PCs can tackle the end of this adventure in a blaze of glory!

Illustration by Sandra Posada

In addition to the adventure, this volume of the Pathfinder Adventure Path also includes an 8-page article about the region where this campaign takes place, including some other points of interest that a GM could incorporate into this campaign. There's also a look at seven magic items and artifacts left over from broken Azlant that a GM could seed into the adventure for PCs to find.

Keep your eyes on this blog in a week or so when I give some teasers about what's in The Flooded Cathedral and go into some more detail about the gods of ancient Azlant!

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

Your Guide to Adventure!

Thursday, August 3, 2017

Getting ready for an expedition to the lost continent of Azlant to lend a hand at founding a colony across the ocean, you've packed your bags, said goodbye to friends and loved ones, and forwarded your mail, but what else do you need? Right! A map would be handy. In this case, you need to pick up the Ruins of Azlant Player's Guide—your map to creating an exciting and engaging character!

As the first volume of the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path starts hitting store shelves and subscriber mailboxes, I know many of you are eager to get started with this Adventure Path. Pick up this guide to learn more about the upcoming campaign and get some suggestions for making characters that fit the themes of this Adventure Path and are able to handle its challenges. This free download get you ready for adventure on a remote island and introduces you to some of the other settlers who also joined an expedition to a wild and untamed land.

Don't wait! Download the Ruins of Azlant Player's Guide now!

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

Now Taking Applications for an Expedition to Azlant

Thursday, July 27, 2017

Today on the blog I want to talk about Starfinder. Just kidding, I'm here to talk about a Golarion that's still around and some of the things that shaped it thousands of years in its past. I'm here to talk about Azlanti long before they had a star empire. More specifically, I'm here to talk about the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path that drops this August at GenCon.

The Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path takes place in the Arcadian Ocean in a small cluster of islands hundreds of miles west of the Inner Sea region where the continent of Azlant once stood over 10,000 years ago—before the alghollthu drew meteors from the vacuum of space in an attempt to wipe humanity from the face of Golarion. While most of what was Azlant was shattered and sunk beneath the waves, scattered islands poke above the surface, and some ruins of the ancient civilization remain nearly as they were thousands of years ago. Some islands host an abundance of life that has reclaimed the surviving pieces of the broken continent.

In this Adventure Path, the PCs are part of an expedition to establish a colony called Talmandor's Bounty on an island named Ancorato. This endeavor is a partnership between the nation of Andoran and the Bountiful Venture Company, an Andoren finance company based out of Almas. The company spread the word of the expedition far and wide looking for the best of what the Inner Sea could offer to take part in this groundbreaking venture. Those who answered the call sat for interviews where they explained what they could bring to a fledgling colony to help it not only survive but thrive. Among these hopefuls are the heroes of this tale—your characters. Leadership in the Bountiful Venture Company found something special about the skills and talents of each of the PCs in their vetting process, and selected them to join the second wave of colonists headed for Talmandor's Bounty to bring more supplies and double the population of the colony.

Illustrations by Valeria Lutfullina, Mirco Paganessi, David Franco, and Roberto Pitturru

The campaign begins with the PCs, and other eager colonists, standing on the deck of the Peregrine, the ship that brought them from the port in Almas to their new home. As the ship enters a wide bay and tacks toward the nascent Talmandor's Bounty, something doesn't seem right. The chimneys of the buildings tucked behind a partially built palisade give off no smoke. Peering through a spyglass reveals that no one walks among the wood and stone houses, and as the ship draws closer, the settlement is utterly silent. Something has happened to the first group of colonists.

If you want to find out what happened to the colonists and explore the lore of ancient Azlant, apply now* to the Bountiful Venture Company and see the wonders of a new world reclaimed from cataclysm!

During the course of this Adventure Path you get a glimpse into how some people dealt with the final days of the Azlanti Empire and a chance to see how some parts of Azlanti society worked. Just some of the articles in this Adventure Path include an ecology of the Azlanti's greatest enemy, a look at the gods that the Azlanti worshiped, a gazetteer of the region as it stands today, information on the Mordant Spire, other secrets of Azlant, and much more. The Adventure Path bestiary includes monsters native to the region, weird animals and plants you could find there, and a few newly discovered additions to the alghollthu family.

*Applications available** by pre-ordering, subscribing, hitting up paizo.com on August 17, or swinging by your local game and hobby store.
**Applications are totally fictional. Books are real. Reading is good for you.

Adam Daigle
Managing Developer

Look Into the Unknown

Friday, August 5, 2016

While our compliment of awesome Gen Con-bound comrades are steering the Paizo booth, running games, and working various panels, the Paizo skeleton-crew is continuing to assist customers, get packages out the door, and bringing you new content on paizo.com.

But, before everyone hopped on a plane, Adam Daigle sent over a few Pathfinder Adventure Path previews that I get to share with you all! In just a short time, the Strange Aeons Adventure Path will release. Until we get into the finer details that will be featured later this month on the blog, here's a sampling of art that is featured in the first volumes:

Illustrations by Michal Ivan and Damien Mammoliti

Illustrations by Damien Mammoliti, Crystal Sully, Caio Maciel Monteiro, Ramon Puasa Jr., and Kremena Chipilova

If you've been tracking #paizoatgencon, or following us on social media, you might have caught that we unveiled some pretty awesome images of the upcoming Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcover (and the limited edition version—details to come after Gen Con). Check 'em out!

Adam also just announced the Adventure Path following the Ironfang Invasion in this afternoon's Adventure Path panel. Look out for the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path starting next summer! In Ruins of Azlant, PCs join an expedition to the shattered remains of old Azlant, explore its mysteries and dangers, and face a veiled master who wants to get its tentacles on an Azlanti doomsday device. Titles include (but are subject to change before release):

Spoilers!

• Pathfinder Adventure Path #121: The Lost Outpost by Jim Groves
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #122: Into the Shattered Continent by Robert Brookes
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #123: The Flooded Cathedral by Mikko Kallio
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #124: City in the Deep by Amber E. Scott
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #125: Tower of the Drowned Dead by Ron Lundeen
• Pathfinder Adventure Path #126: Beyond the Veiled Past by Thurston Hillman

More information about Strange Aeons, the Curse of the Crimson Throne hardcover, and Ruins of Azlant to come as we get closer to their release dates!

Chris Lambertz
Community & Digital Content Director