City of Alkenstar Inconsistencies

[DiceKnights]

I was super excited to start up a second adventure path, with Abomination Vaults being packed with information making it super easy to run.

But wow, there is so little information in the adventure path and players guide about the City of Alkenstar. I tracked down a copy of Wardens of the Reborn Forge, and also found some stuff on the pathfinder wiki page, but it's all so inconsistent.

The district of Steamhaven up and moved to another part of town between publications, a second bridge was built right next to the old one. Tinwound Hydroplant moved from where the river entered the city to the top of the Alken falls, which would probably be a better spot if there was a landmass to support it.

Hellside in the previous publication was built on the smokeside cliff adjacent to the alken falls so they could take advantage hawking their wares to the ships using the screw, now its just on the Northern Cliffs.

According to the wiki the town of Martel should be directly below the Norther cliffs as it says it actually connects to the city above through two immensely tall towers (kinda cool) but seems to have disappeared now.

I'm sure there is more stuff, but for an adventure that spends a lot of time in the City there sure are a lot of unanswered questions.

I wasn't really in the Pathfinder 1st ed scene.
Is Pathfinder 2 just a complete reset of the earlier material?
Wondering what other people did for their Alkenstar setting.

[NecisVenator]

DiceKnights wrote:

I was super excited to start up a second adventure path, with Abomination Vaults being packed with information making it super easy to run.

But wow, there is so little information in the adventure path and players guide about the City of Alkenstar. I tracked down a copy of Wardens of the Reborn Forge, and also found some stuff on the pathfinder wiki page, but it's all so inconsistent.

The district of Steamhaven up and moved to another part of town between publications, a second bridge was built right next to the old one. Tinwound Hydroplant moved from where the river entered the city to the top of the Alken falls, which would probably be a better spot if there was a landmass to support it.

Hellside in the previous publication was built on the smokeside cliff adjacent to the alken falls so they could take advantage hawking their wares to the ships using the screw, now its just on the Northern Cliffs.

According to the wiki the town of Martel should be directly below the Norther cliffs as it says it actually connects to the city above through two immensely tall towers (kinda cool) but seems to have disappeared now.

I'm sure there is more stuff, but for an adventure that spends a lot of time in the City there sure are a lot of unanswered questions.

I wasn't really in the Pathfinder 1st ed scene.
Is Pathfinder 2 just a complete reset of the earlier material?
Wondering what other people did for their Alkenstar setting.

I really hope this AP has or gets an Errata or reprint that corrects these Map issues & Alkenstar lore inconsistencies... I was really tempted to pick it up as I adapt from 1st Ed & might get a chance to run PF again, but in a low magic/clockwork setting. I love that it is 3 parts as well. Keeping my eye on Outlaws of Alkenstar, hoping it gets the fixes it needs to be run better.

[Virellius]

So, Hellside is actually still in the wall. It's depicted in the inner cover of volume 1 of this AP and you go there as part of the climax.

2e is NOT a reset of 1e lore. Alkenstar and the Mana Wastes are just a huge, out of character for the company, gaping hole in consistency for some weird reason.

[King Jetsam I]

I'm so glad that I'm not the only one having issues with the text and map inconsistencies. It's driving me crazy. I am very new to PF as a whole and I like the story of Outlaws but it's hard to run in certain areas. So the tent looking things on the boardwalk platforms in Hellside don't exist? There are entry "holes" behind those? I will be running this scene when our group plays again after Easter and I'm trying to wrap my head around it. We play online over discord so I'm going to TotM'd it. I don't really understand what the "screw" looks like. IIRC, part of the lower platforms get wet from river spray and the boardwalks there have algae growing on it... Any help here would be appreciated!

[Lucio]

King Jetsam I wrote:

...I don't really understand what the "screw" looks like. IIRC, part of the lower platforms get wet from river spray and the boardwalks there have algae growing on it... Any help here would be appreciated!

To my mind, the Screw is literally that, a giant Archimedes screw that rotates to move water up and down the height of the falls at an angle, carrying boats with it.

Have done some calculations with the help of ChatGPT 40, and it suggests a screw a 25ft radius, at an angle of 30 degrees, would protrude about 693ft from the cliff, resulting in an 800ft journey for a boat into a lock at the top. Using locks on both sides, you can load the screw with boats coming up and down at the same time.

Mind you, I have my own inconsistency between Punks in a Powder Keg, and Guns & Gear, as to where exactly is the Gunworks situated? One describes it as being in the heart of the town, the other 50 miles away. If it's 50 miles away, how does the Maw of Rovagug actually help protect the city when the mana wastes are in the other direction. Wondering if that some of the complications come from the City being called Alkenstar and the area of the City-state being called the same.

[Perses13]

Its 50 miles out of town. The Gunworks is featured much more prominently in the Smoking Gun and gets a backmatter article there, so I highly recommend going with that as your main source.

The Mana Wastes is actually the entire region Alkenstar is in, so the Gunworks and the Great Maw of Rovagug protect Alkenstar from threats in the western parts of the Mana Wastes like the giants of the Western Range.