Pathfinder Adventure Path #145: Hellknight Hill (Age of Ashes 1 of 6)

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Pathfinder Adventure Path #145: Hellknight Hill (Age of Ashes 1 of 6)
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Dawn of a New Age

Fires burn atop the ruined citadel on Hellknight Hill, sending plumes of red smoke into the air that could be a call for help. Within the old keep, strange invaders from a distant land, mysterious long-lost ruins, and the machinations of a shadowy organization await discovery. Something dire is building toward an apocalyptic event, and it falls to your characters to stop the end before it begins. The Age of Ashes Adventure Path begins with "Hellknight Hill"—a complete adventure for 1st- to 4th-level characters.

ISBN: 978-1-64078-173-3

"Age of Ashes" is sanctioned for use in Pathfinder Society Organized Play. The rules for running this Adventure and Chronicle sheet are available as a free download (761 kb zip/PDF).

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Fantasy Grounds Virtual Tabletop
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscription.

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Lantern Lodge Customer Service & Community Manager

5 people marked this as a favorite.

Copies from paizo.com have been shipping out to folks with our July New Release shipping. We've expanded the window a bit for this release to try to get preordered and subscriber copies shipped in time for the launch. I know people are very excited to see these books and I’d like to quick remind folks to be respectful when posting about getting your copy earlier than others, and when asking people if they can share info from copies folks have already received.

Posting snippets and discussing them is fine. Typing up really long chunks of text or taking pictures of every page is excessive. We want people to have fun and be excited, but we also want to be respectful of folks who own or support FLGSs, or plan to pick up their copies at Gen Con and do not have the potential for getting a copy early.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I got the book. It's kinda "meh", just steadily descending through multiple floors of one big dungeon.

I got a real Shattered Star vibe from skimming the adventure, which isn't great....


What's in the backmatter articles?


I am not a fan of how npc stat blocks are presented, it's hard to tell what role they're supposed to have.

I'm also not a fan of the new tool box format, everything seems clustered together in a big clump.

The adventure itself and the campaign in general look fun, a good start!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Xenocrat wrote:
What's in the backmatter articles?

There's an article on Breechill, then the adventurers toolkit section contains an adventure timeline, outline of future books in the AP, three main NPCs, a few new monsters and magical items.

I guess I was hoping for something on par with Burnt Offerings, but this ain't it.

Dark Archive

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
mikeawmids wrote:

I got the book. It's kinda "meh", just steadily descending through multiple floors of one big dungeon.

I got a real Shattered Star vibe from skimming the adventure, which isn't great....

Well sounds great to me in sense that Shattered Star is underrated AP :p Seriously, its kinda weird how it gets flack for being dungeon crawling ap when its one with lot of roleplaying stuff in the dungeons


Could you tell us what the monsters are?

Please & thank you.

Carry on,

--C.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

I really like the new format, especially the adventure toolkit section. Allows Paizo to customise what they include to suit each adventure rather than sticking to a set format. They also seem to be using sidebars to fit in extra info too.

I'm also thoroughly impressed my books (including CRB and Bestiary) got to me in the UK today when they only shipped last week. Well done Paizo! Good work!

Paizo Employee Creative Director

7 people marked this as a favorite.

The format of the Adventure Path is still being developed but by the end of Age of Ashes the new look will be pretty close to what we're going with. (Same thing happened when we launched the whole thing back with Rise of the Runelords... ).

Dark Archive

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Got my copy and wow this is a really huge disapoinment. story is not great not a fan of the layout and the art ranges wildly from good to really bad and the plot sypnosis have let me really uninterested in this Ap and pretty much ruined a character I've been waiting a long time to get more information on.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Kevin Mack wrote:
Got my copy and wow this is a really huge disapoinment. story is not great not a fan of the layout and the art ranges wildly from good to really bad and the plot sypnosis have let me really uninterested in this Ap and pretty much ruined a character I've been waiting a long time to get more information on.

Considering the specific way you wrote last one, I take it ye hadn't read the shop blurb for final book yet?

Dark Archive

CorvusMask wrote:
Kevin Mack wrote:
Got my copy and wow this is a really huge disapoinment. story is not great not a fan of the layout and the art ranges wildly from good to really bad and the plot sypnosis have let me really uninterested in this Ap and pretty much ruined a character I've been waiting a long time to get more information on.
Considering the specific way you wrote last one, I take it ye hadn't read the shop blurb for final book yet?

No I had read it and my point stands


Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

Ooh, I love the full page art on page two. Is that going to be a thing going forward?


Correction: The NPCs in the toolbox section seem to be missing the line with their class and level, the NPCs in the adventure itself has them, which helps.

Dark Archive

3 people marked this as a favorite.

If this is a giant dungeon crawl with no roleplaying opportunities the people i play with won't likely play Second Edition beyond the "Plaguestone" module.

Is Breechill at least presented in an interesting way?
What is it's population and how long is the article?

Thank you.


Breachill article is 8 pages, about 1,300 people, no official stat block or anything for the town.

It's not all just combat and dungeon crawling.


Some of the creatures featured in the adventure toolbox.

Anadi (three separate stat blocks creature 2-6)
Doorwarden (creature 5) construct
Emperor Bird (2) a bird
Grauladon (2) looks like a dragon crocodile hybrid
Graveshell (1) looks like something
Hellcrown (1) tiny hellknight undead
Tixitog (3) an aberration that looks like an aberration.


3 people marked this as a favorite.

Anadi?

Are those the spiderfolk from southern Garund mentioned in the Grandmother Spider article (P1 book)?

--C.

<edit> Thanks for the list of Monsters!


8 people marked this as a favorite.
Psiphyre wrote:

Anadi?

Are those the spiderfolk from southern Garund mentioned in the Grandmother Spider article (P1 book)?

--C.

<edit> Thanks for the list of Monsters!

Yes, yes they are.

And they are amazing.

Starts obligatory petition to give them their own ancestry.


2 people marked this as a favorite.
captain yesterday wrote:
Psiphyre wrote:

Anadi?

Are those the spiderfolk from southern Garund mentioned in the Grandmother Spider article? <snip>

Yes, yes they are.

And they are amazing.

Starts obligatory petition to give them their own ancestry.

(^ emphasis mine)

\(^o^)/

I'd so sign up for that petition!!

:D

Carry on,

--C.

<edit>
PS. Thanks again!

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

So are Anadi spider spiders or like humans with multiple arms?

Also, has there EVER been Paizo AP part that is purely combat without roleplaying? Seriously, I can't think of any, even in Giantslayer <_<

Paizo Employee Creative Director

12 people marked this as a favorite.

There's a relatively large amount of roleplaying in this adventure. I think Amanda did an incredible job presenting not just a really fun dungeon to explore, but coming up with a LARGE number of fun NPCs to interract with, both in the dungeon itself and in town. It's going to be serving in the background as the PCs' home town after all, and I think Breachill will do fine. We'll be putting 2 town NPC capsules in the inside cover of every volume too to continue building up the locals as well.

Dark Archive

James Jacobs wrote:
There's a relatively large amount of roleplaying in this adventure. I think Amanda did an incredible job presenting not just a really fun dungeon to explore, but coming up with a LARGE number of fun NPCs to interract with, both in the dungeon itself and in town. It's going to be serving in the background as the PCs' home town after all, and I think Breachill will do fine. We'll be putting 2 town NPC capsules in the inside cover of every volume too to continue building up the locals as well.

Thank you (and Captain Yesterday) for putting my fears to rest.

That is a great idea to flesh out the town with the 2 NPCs per book.

1. Are settlement stat blocks no longer a thing in SE?

2. Is there a map of Breechill with a good resolution?
I have forgotten, if there will be a Players Guide or not, sorry.
I know that Paizo hasn't announced yet if there will be a "Map Folio" product going forward & wouldn't expect one before march 2020 (product pages are currently created including february 20).

Thank you for your time! :-)


6 people marked this as a favorite.
CorvusMask wrote:

So are Anadi spider spiders or like humans with multiple arms?

Also, has there EVER been Paizo AP part that is purely combat without roleplaying? Seriously, I can't think of any, even in Giantslayer <_<

The picture in the book they look a bit like shirren with a spider theme, but they're shape shifters so they can change between a hybrid, spider or human (so as to not freak out the squares) form.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
captain yesterday wrote:
CorvusMask wrote:

So are Anadi spider spiders or like humans with multiple arms?

Also, has there EVER been Paizo AP part that is purely combat without roleplaying? Seriously, I can't think of any, even in Giantslayer <_<

The picture in the book they look a bit like shirren with a spider theme, but they're shape shifters so they can change between a hybrid, spider or human (so as to not freak out the squares) form.

Nice!

Scarab Sages

Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, PF Special Edition Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Superscriber
Marco Massoudi wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
There's a relatively large amount of roleplaying in this adventure. I think Amanda did an incredible job presenting not just a really fun dungeon to explore, but coming up with a LARGE number of fun NPCs to interract with, both in the dungeon itself and in town. It's going to be serving in the background as the PCs' home town after all, and I think Breachill will do fine. We'll be putting 2 town NPC capsules in the inside cover of every volume too to continue building up the locals as well.

Thank you (and Captain Yesterday) for putting my fears to rest.

That is a great idea to flesh out the town with the 2 NPCs per book.

1. Are settlement stat blocks no longer a thing in SE?

2. Is there a map of Breechill with a good resolution?
I have forgotten, if there will be a Players Guide or not, sorry.
I know that Paizo hasn't announced yet if there will be a "Map Folio" product going forward & wouldn't expect one before march 2020 (product pages are currently created including february 20).

Thank you for your time! :-)

Player's guide has been confirmed, but there is no announced ETA as yet.


Pathfinder Adventure Path, Lost Omens, Pathfinder Accessories, Rulebook Subscriber; Pathfinder Battles Case Subscriber

Need to release a living map folio with the first adventure path so we can print out the maps of the dungeons and locations.... Add to the PDF as each new adventure gets released in the path and have a physical copy at the end for those who want it....

These maps are fantastic, but trying to find a way to make them looks this good on the table is daunting.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Marco Massoudi wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
There's a relatively large amount of roleplaying in this adventure. I think Amanda did an incredible job presenting not just a really fun dungeon to explore, but coming up with a LARGE number of fun NPCs to interract with, both in the dungeon itself and in town. It's going to be serving in the background as the PCs' home town after all, and I think Breachill will do fine. We'll be putting 2 town NPC capsules in the inside cover of every volume too to continue building up the locals as well.

Thank you (and Captain Yesterday) for putting my fears to rest.

That is a great idea to flesh out the town with the 2 NPCs per book.

1. Are settlement stat blocks no longer a thing in SE?

2. Is there a map of Breechill with a good resolution?
I have forgotten, if there will be a Players Guide or not, sorry.
I know that Paizo hasn't announced yet if there will be a "Map Folio" product going forward & wouldn't expect one before march 2020 (product pages are currently created including february 20).

Thank you for your time! :-)

1) We'll get to settlement stat blocks eventually but as of the time of workng on this adventure we hadn't figured out how to do them in 2nd edition. Later volumes will have some settlement stat block experiments, but until the Game Mastery Guide is done we won't have a final look for them.

2) The map of Breachill will be in the PDF and in the player's guide. Dunno what you count as "good resolution" though, so you'll have to wait a few weeks to find out there I guess.


8 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber

The adventure is far from "meh" in my opinion. The town is also nicely detailed, and I love the extensive background article for the full adventure path in the toolbox.

Liberty's Edge

I'm still waiting for my copy to come in the mail, but I'm a bit perplexed that the .pdf isn't available for download while the .pdf for Midwives to Death is. Midwives is being shipped with this adventure. Is there a reason the .pdf for this one isn't available yet?

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Saurstalk wrote:
I'm still waiting for my copy to come in the mail, but I'm a bit perplexed that the .pdf isn't available for download while the .pdf for Midwives to Death is. Midwives is being shipped with this adventure. Is there a reason the .pdf for this one isn't available yet?

2e PDFs will be released on August 1st.


8 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber

I'm going to voice my approval of this adventure. It is well written with MANY opportunities to negotiate and avoid combat outright. I infer from the design that it is a "return to basics" to start with, just like they did with Burnt Offerings: a small town or village to use as a base and resupply area, with taverns and inns that has a nearby ruined fortress with a dungeon underneath full of traps, monsters, secrets, and treasures for the adventurers to explore and plunder.

That is the basic dungeon/town setup of old. Starting off with Second Edition that makes sense. Of course this is Pathfinder: there are REASONS behind each monster and plotting villain's presence and actions in the module that make sense. There is a plot and a story arc for the PCs.

Altogether, I'm impressed with what they have done here (though I miss the forewords of the APs before Return of the Runelords). I was especially impressed with the reveal of the overall plot in detail at the back beyond just the summary of the former first volumes of APs. It really put the whole of the campaign into focus and made clear the role of the first adventure in it.

I do agree with Captain Yesterday's assertion that the toolbox is "clustered together in a big clump." While the information there was great, organizationally it is clumsy at best. That needs to be worked on, IMHO.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber; Pathfinder Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber
Marco Massoudi wrote:
If this is a giant dungeon crawl with no roleplaying opportunities the people i play with won't likely play Second Edition beyond the "Plaguestone" module.

My group is fairly dungeon-averse as well. Or at least beyond a certain size.


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

I only took a quick flip threw havent read to much but it seemed solid from what i've seen. Just happy for good goblin npcs,the one in the book is great and i love her


3 people marked this as a favorite.

The new formatting is really ugly.

This looks like a 4e book or a videogame manual with random font-size changes, and sometimes the font itself is different?

I really can't underscore how much the stat blocks in particular look like PF trading card excerpts stuck into the middle of pages. I don't follow the PF card game for a reason. While I generally like the APs, having such a large portion of them look like cheap Dragon Age RPG knock-offs or something makes me less interested in seeing more.

Contributor

I’m really liking the looks of this AP’s plot, and I like the more robust campaign overview!

Dark Archive

Ageron wrote:
Marco Massoudi wrote:
If this is a giant dungeon crawl with no roleplaying opportunities the people i play with won't likely play Second Edition beyond the "Plaguestone" module.
My group is fairly dungeon-averse as well. Or at least beyond a certain size.

Yes, smaller Dungeons with up to 3 battles in direct succession are okay, but not more.

We have multiple people who are playing over 30 years and prefer a mix of roleplaying and fighting instead of mindless slaughter in one room after the other.
The story needs to be good and that is only possible to a certain limit inside artificial subterranean areas.

Personally i try to make things as diverse as possible, especially with the locations. Players like open air locations best, but large natural caverns combined with some worked features are good too.

We had a poll recently and dungeons are the most unpopular location to the point that three people don't want to play in a campaign where dungeon have more than a few rooms.

It has reached the point where you don't get xp for just killing monsters, it has to be for a purpose.

Dark Archive

4 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber
Marco Massoudi wrote:
Ageron wrote:
Marco Massoudi wrote:
If this is a giant dungeon crawl with no roleplaying opportunities the people i play with won't likely play Second Edition beyond the "Plaguestone" module.
My group is fairly dungeon-averse as well. Or at least beyond a certain size.

Yes, smaller Dungeons with up to 3 battles in direct succession are okay, but not more.

We have multiple people who are playing over 30 years and prefer a mix of roleplaying and fighting instead of mindless slaughter in one room after the other.
The story needs to be good and that is only possible to a certain limit inside artificial subterranean areas.

Personally i try to make things as diverse as possible, especially with the locations. Players like open air locations best, but large natural caverns combined with some worked features are good too.

We had a poll recently and dungeons are the most unpopular location to the point that three people don't want to play in a campaign where dungeon have more than a few rooms.

It has reached the point where you don't get xp for just killing monsters, it has to be for a purpose.

I can't think of any module or AP I played or run from Paizo that includes dungeon where only reason you visit it is to find treasure though .-. I think that is more of old school D&D trope


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
xeose4 wrote:

The new formatting is really ugly.

This looks like a 4e book or a videogame manual with random font-size changes, and sometimes the font itself is different?

I really can't underscore how much the stat blocks in particular look like PF trading card excerpts stuck into the middle of pages. I don't follow the PF card game for a reason. While I generally like the APs, having such a large portion of them look like cheap Dragon Age RPG knock-offs or something makes me less interested in seeing more.

Are you aware that the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game has nothing to do with trading cards, or collectible cards in any way?

And I don't know of any "PF trading cards" that look anything like the new stat blocks, could you perhaps enlighten me?

Dark Archive

3 people marked this as a favorite.

I'm not a fan of the new layout myself I feel it wastes a fair bit of space in the volume (Mostly the chapter opening sections with there short synopsis sidebars which overall adds about a page of white space to the volume may not seem like much but if that holds up for the entire ap thats six pages or so about the length of an entire support article.)

Silver Crusade

xeose4 wrote:
While I generally like the APs, having such a large portion of them look like cheap Dragon Age RPG knock-offs or something makes me less interested in seeing more.

I'm curious what this means.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
Rysky wrote:
xeose4 wrote:
While I generally like the APs, having such a large portion of them look like cheap Dragon Age RPG knock-offs or something makes me less interested in seeing more.
I'm curious what this means.

I have no idea as the stat blocks look almost identical to how they were in the Playtest, just more colorful (the trait boxes are varying colors - alignment is green, size is blue, etc). Maybe because the action symbols have changed slightly?

Dark Archive

6 people marked this as a favorite.
Ageron wrote:
Marco Massoudi wrote:
If this is a giant dungeon crawl with no roleplaying opportunities the people i play with won't likely play Second Edition beyond the "Plaguestone" module.
My group is fairly dungeon-averse as well. Or at least beyond a certain size.

While there are a few "dungeon" sections of this, each one has opportunities for good RP, and none of them are sprawling. There's also enough variety in flavor/architecture of the encounter areas that it feels varied to me, at least reading it.

Really liked the NPCs in this. They are interesting and their roles in the adventure are thoughtfully presented.


1 person marked this as a favorite.
James Jacobs wrote:
1) We'll get to settlement stat blocks eventually but as of the time of workng on this adventure we hadn't figured out how to do them in 2nd edition. Later volumes will have some settlement stat block experiments, but until the Game Mastery Guide is done we won't have a final look for them.

Wait, what? I thought we already have complete rules regarding settlement stat blocks. I thing the rules presented in GameMastery Guide seem decent and perfect enough to be used in Second Edition without further change.

Paizo Employee Creative Director

5 people marked this as a favorite.
Aenigma wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
1) We'll get to settlement stat blocks eventually but as of the time of workng on this adventure we hadn't figured out how to do them in 2nd edition. Later volumes will have some settlement stat block experiments, but until the Game Mastery Guide is done we won't have a final look for them.
Wait, what? I thought we already have complete rules regarding settlement stat blocks. I thing the rules presented in GameMastery Guide seem decent and perfect enough to be used in Second Edition without further change.

I pushed for their inclusion or something like it in the core rules but there wasn't room. I believe that something like it should be coming in the upcoming book, as I mentioned above... but we'll see.

But the more folks who let us know and let the design team know and let the publisher know you want these stat blocks in the game for cities, the better the chance will be that they'll come back.


Pathfinder Maps, Pathfinder Accessories Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber; Starfinder Charter Superscriber
Aenigma wrote:
James Jacobs wrote:
1) We'll get to settlement stat blocks eventually but as of the time of workng on this adventure we hadn't figured out how to do them in 2nd edition. Later volumes will have some settlement stat block experiments, but until the Game Mastery Guide is done we won't have a final look for them.
Wait, what? I thought we already have complete rules regarding settlement stat blocks. I thing the rules presented in GameMastery Guide seem decent and perfect enough to be used in Second Edition without further change.

Those rules include skill modifiers, which probably have to be reworked a bit since modifiers in general follow a different scale in the new system. The new silver-based economy also night require some reworking of certain numbers in these rules.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Sigh. Does that mean those settlement stat blocks published under First Edition will be obsolete and thus cannot be used?

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Aenigma wrote:
Sigh. Does that mean those settlement stat blocks published under First Edition will be obsolete and thus cannot be used?

Depends on the settlement. Most names and population numbers should be good for a lot, but anything mechanics involved will have to update.

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Starfinder Roleplaying Game Subscriber

Not really sure this is right place for expressing that I did like settlement statblocks outside few strange things like Port Peril apparently not having any tengu population?

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
CorvusMask wrote:
Not really sure this is right place for expressing that I did like settlement statblocks outside few strange things like Port Peril apparently not having any tengu population?

Were Tengu a thing yet?

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