I adore Paizo’s Adventure Paths. They’re a huge timesaver for busy GMs, and not just those who want to run a long pre-written campaign! You can easily pull out interesting scenarios from the APs. All it takes is rubbing off a few serial numbers and you can slot them into your custom campaign with no one the wiser. I’ve written about this for other APs, and now, after a years-long campaign, it’s time for me to give Ruins of Azlant the same treatment.
There's hella spoilers after this point, so if you want to actually be a player in this campaign, I'd close this tab. Seriously.
Book 1
The Lost Colony
This scenario kicks off the events of the AP, with the players finding a colony that’s been inexplicably and recently abandoned. In order to investigate the scene, the group has to clear out of some monsters that have wandered in, avoid traps left behind, and use their little grey cells to collect clues. It’s a good place to put your own hooks, since there’s multiple places where players can stumble upon personal journals or artifacts.
One warning: Rescuing the villagers in the AP happens much later at a much higher level. If you or your players would prefer a more tidy resolution, you’ll need to DIY one. In the AP, the villagers were taken via combination of ambushes and creatures using dominate. In the book, it’s aberrant creatures, but I think the fey would work just as well.
Shellcracker caves
This is a tidy one-session cave system. It’s a partially aquatic environment with creatures to match, which might be novel for some players. It even has a mini-boss that can be fought or parlayed with (or, if your players are like mine, they’ll opt to do both).
The Choker Mystery
In this scenario, villagers are reporting being attacked in the night by someone (or something) that tries to choke them to death. While savvy players might catch on to what the culprit is immediately, newer players will have a chance to learn about some Pathfinder lore. Due to the nature of the attacks, PCs will have to investigate rather than charging in, which will give the skill monkeys a chance to shine.
The scenario leads eventually to a small dungeon that can be cleared out in one session, though this comes with a caveat: The crysmals nearly killed one of our PCs, so handle them with care.
Research Station
If your players enjoy a bit of deep lore, this is an interesting find to put in their path. Long deserted, this building is a research outpost originally run by the Azlanti, pre-Earthfall. While what the players can find is tightly tied to the plot of Ruins of Azlant, they can also be fun for any PC who might be curious about the distant past. It could be something the party stumbles onto during a wilderness journey, or it could be commissioned by an archeologist who isn’t hearty enough to brave it on their own. There’s also a spot to drop your own plot hooks for furthering your own campaign in the form of a recording gem.
While there’s a number of skill checks to make, some creatures have also taken up residence, giving everyone in the party something to do.
Book 2
Much of this book deals with AP specific plot, so there aren’t as many big set pieces to steal. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing, though!
Nal-Shakar
This compact dungeon was formerly an Azlanti observatory. It’s brimming with traps and a variety of creatures, which can be fun for players to deal with over a session. The main baddie is a sea hag who could easily serve as a hook for players, because you know how hags love to cause trouble for locals.
If you use this location, I would move the haunt from C1 to here. The players can witness Earthfall! What horrifying fun!
Koloshkora
Koloshkora is a young, curious, Locathah ranger who acts as a go-between for the players and the larger aquatic trading posts they can’t access yet. She quickly became a group favorite, and from what I’ve read, many groups adopted her into their troop permanently. If you want to open up the way for aquatic adventures, she’s a great choice, since she can move over both land and water (though she’s slower on land, so consider giving her some fast boots and a feat or two).
Book 3
Into the Storm
If you plan on taking your group out to sea, book three offers quite a few things you could pull into your own campaign. The first, appropriately enough, is a skill challenge and fight set on a small boat during a crazy storm. As someone who has put players on boats and then started throwing things at them before, let me tell you, this can be a lot of fun. Just… look up the rules for drowning first. Trust me.
Island exploration
There’s also the exploration of a small island, which can easily fill multiple sessions. There’s lots of places to not only pick fights, but also to use oft-ignored survival skills, and even a few social situations. If you have a ranger or druid in your group, this could be their place to shine. And, like the other books, there’s a haunt that gives the players a first-hand view of Earthfall, which can be fun for the lore nerds.
As for the hooks, the players could simply run across the island while out and about, if you don’t want to go back to the “Pathfinders being patrons” well too often. Then again, have players ever complained about an organization paying them too often?
The Sunken Temple
This book also features a sunken temple! Because this is half above and half below water, the players will need to have their water breathing and movement sorted out. As always, there’s a wide variety of encounters, including a fun NPC the players can pick up. There’s a clockwork servant who is not only still functional, but extremely friendly, and adept at fixing and creating items. Buff or debuff her as you want, but if your group is hurting for someone in the skills arena, she could fill in nicely.
There’s also a laboratory connected to this map where the players can rescue a large group of people, which makes for a nice hook.
Book 4
Talisantri
It’s time for underwater drama! But seriously, most of the rest of this AP is underwater. Do not break these out until the players have fully sorted out not drowning, and moving around without swim checks.
The drama is centered around an underwater city: Talisantri. It could serve merely as a place for the players to stock up, but they could easily be drug into the some local politics and social battlegrounds. It even includes a very nice dinner party that goes perfectly and no one is poisoned or murdered or anything. It’s a great place to put your own MacGuffin by handing it over to the oracle who acts as the leader of the city. Another potential hook is having the players act as guides for a caravan that stops in town long enough for them to get caught up in its sideplots.
Blood Lily Cay
If you’d prefer to stay on dry land, Blood Lily Cay is probably a better option. Rumors point to an island that houses a legendary weapon, and few players can resist the call of awesome treasure. The island is filled with interesting (and deadly) flora and fauna, as well as some interesting lore about the original owner of the weapon.
The Safehouse
Finally, a smaller, though still interesting, encounter is the safehouse. Someone got kidnapped, and the party has been tasked with rescuing them. The layout makes for an interesting fight, especially if your party is full of people who love to open doors without checking them first. In the AP, the kidnappee has already been moved to another location, but if you don’t want to drag that plot out, you could easily have them there, complicating the battleground.
Book 5
IT’S MEGADUNGEON TIME!
Almost every PF1 AP has a megadungeon, and Ruins of Azlant is no exception. In this case, the megadungeon takes up the entire book, so if your players are craving for something to really dig into for a few levels, you could easily use this part of the AP wholesale. It even comes with a few hooks that are independent of the overarching plot of Ruins of Azlant: Some evil dude is making trouble for the local merfolk, and they need some heroes to go get their people back and kick this dude to the curb.
There’s a nice variety to the levels, with some being more run down than others, and different camps under the BBEG setting different tones for the fights. There’s also some fun NPCs to interact with as they descend (a little automaton fish was a group favorite when I ran this). It also has an interesting layout, forcing players to go up and down to move forward, so it’s not as simple as ‘find the steps down’. There’s also some neat places for lore drops, where the party can see into the past (a theme in this AP) to when the Azlanti were around.
The only caveat is that this dungeon is almost completely underwater, so the players should have their water breathing and swim speed sorted out before attempting it.
Book 6
Usually, by Book 6 of an AP, there’s less to grab. Surprisingly, Ruins of Azlant still has a bunch of stuff you can rip out and use in your campaign without a ton of modifications.
Winds of War
First, is dealing with some gathering armies. An alghollthu army is gathering on the shores of a small island, and probably up to no good. Maybe the players are brought in by someone they already know, or maybe they stumble onto the situation and realize they’re the only heroes in hailing range. If they leave it be, who knows what this army will do? This extensive scenario involves gaining some allies, disabling parts of the army, beating down others, and basically putting them into such a state of disarray that they go back to wherever they came from.
The Compass
The Compass is a high level dungeon with an interesting design: It’s constantly turning, so teleporting into it is impossible. It was built during the time of the Azlanti, and even has some of their old allies bouncing around. There’s some interesting allies the group can pick up along the way, some of whom may end up betraying the group a bit later on. There’s also a trap that could turn one of the players on the others, which can be fun, or a complete bloodbath. Overall, The Compass has some super neat tech, and could make for a nice base for high level players who want a castle without having to pay taxes…
Final thoughts
I absolutely loved running Ruins of Azlant as written, and I was able to do so with almost no tweaks (not always a given with pre-written adventures). I think most groups could have a great time running it as is. But I also think that, even if your group prefers to put together their own campaigns, there’s lots that could be pulled from Ruins without committing to the full save-the-world-in-swim-fins plot.
