What do you think?
Rate this book
Ruins of Azlant #2
Pathfinder Adventure Path #122: Into the Shattered Continent
Island Intrigue
After working to secure their settlement on a surviving fragment of the lost continent of Azlant, the adventurers aid the colony by exploring the rest of the island to search for resources and look for potential dangers. Soon they learn of a sea hag whose attempts to revive the powerful oracular powers of the Azlanti threaten the island's inhabitants. But an even greater peril confronts them as they begin to notice that some people in the settlement are acting strangely—a haunting echo of the clues left behind after the original settlers vanished. Sinister forces are at work in the colony, and the adventurers must uncover a menacing threat to the settlement before they become the next victims of a vile plot.
This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path continues the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path and includes:
- "Into the Shattered Continent," a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 4th-level characters, by Robert Brookes.
- A gazetteer providing a look at some of the history, interesting denizens, and points of interest in the region where this story unfolds, by Adam Daigle.
- A collection of rare magical treasures from ancient Azlant, by Ron Lundeen.
- A bestiary full of monsters that inhabit the islands, by Ayla Arthur, Robert Brookes, Lucas J.W. Johnson, Robin Loutzenhiser, and Mark Moreland.
Cover art by Setiawan Lie
After working to secure their settlement on a surviving fragment of the lost continent of Azlant, the adventurers aid the colony by exploring the rest of the island to search for resources and look for potential dangers. Soon they learn of a sea hag whose attempts to revive the powerful oracular powers of the Azlanti threaten the island's inhabitants. But an even greater peril confronts them as they begin to notice that some people in the settlement are acting strangely—a haunting echo of the clues left behind after the original settlers vanished. Sinister forces are at work in the colony, and the adventurers must uncover a menacing threat to the settlement before they become the next victims of a vile plot.
This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path continues the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path and includes:
- "Into the Shattered Continent," a Pathfinder RPG adventure for 4th-level characters, by Robert Brookes.
- A gazetteer providing a look at some of the history, interesting denizens, and points of interest in the region where this story unfolds, by Adam Daigle.
- A collection of rare magical treasures from ancient Azlant, by Ron Lundeen.
- A bestiary full of monsters that inhabit the islands, by Ayla Arthur, Robert Brookes, Lucas J.W. Johnson, Robin Loutzenhiser, and Mark Moreland.
Cover art by Setiawan Lie
- GenresRole Playing Games
92 pages, Paperback
First published September 20, 2017
2 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 17, 2023
Exploring an island for hidden dangers for settlers, antiques of value to the sponsors and dealing with troubles in ones base of operation. All in the day's work for a group of adventurers. Most encounters are fights, but I was not looking for much social interaction. My players enjoyed it well enough and while I did need to make some modifications to prevent them from rushing to the end a bit too early, unlike part 1 of the series I used most of it. I did lower the number of intelligent races/factions in the area a bit, but that more one of personal taste.
Having said that, I can see a DM struggling with the events taking place in the background. My players never dug too deep into it, and triggering the final events earlier is not bad from a story perspective, but it does mean the characters are likely to rush of towards part 3 way too early. My players kind of immediately guessed what was going on, and considering two of the friendly groups on the island are well aware of were the main villain of part 3 can be found, I was just glad my players never bothered going there.
I am also not a fan of the maps, too simple and many are too small especially in those places were there is going to be a fight. I am not expecting each fight to be set in an highly interactive environment, but 5 feet wide spiral staircases or rooms that can barely contain all adventurers and monsters at the same time just don't work. Again, not something unique to this adventure, but still something I wished was paid more attention to.
So, all in all, a decent adventure that I liked running, but if you run it as part of the whole series, you might need to plan carefully and make some changes to what the various people know or how they react.
Having said that, I can see a DM struggling with the events taking place in the background. My players never dug too deep into it, and triggering the final events earlier is not bad from a story perspective, but it does mean the characters are likely to rush of towards part 3 way too early. My players kind of immediately guessed what was going on, and considering two of the friendly groups on the island are well aware of were the main villain of part 3 can be found, I was just glad my players never bothered going there.
I am also not a fan of the maps, too simple and many are too small especially in those places were there is going to be a fight. I am not expecting each fight to be set in an highly interactive environment, but 5 feet wide spiral staircases or rooms that can barely contain all adventurers and monsters at the same time just don't work. Again, not something unique to this adventure, but still something I wished was paid more attention to.
So, all in all, a decent adventure that I liked running, but if you run it as part of the whole series, you might need to plan carefully and make some changes to what the various people know or how they react.
December 10, 2025
Starts off strong, then fades.
Art is a mixed bag, with some hits and many amateurish, cartoonish misses. As well, the decisions about what to illustrate are questionable. This is a recurring issue, IMO, for Paizo. There are some amazingly described locations in this module that are just begging to be illustrated. Instead, the vast majority of illustrations are of people and creatures (many of whom are already illustrated in the bestiaries, etc.).
Part 1:
Robert Brooks needs to get more work from Paizo. He's easily one of their best writers. Here, he's crafted a believable, lived-in corner of Golarion and imbued it with a true sense of place. Side-quests and locations were generally believable and it's clear Robert paid attention to details (having ancient clockwork creatures left behind rust and calcify).
Paizo's unfortunate politically-correct gender activism is present here, with all the strixes described that the party can encounter being female, and the leader, and only described locathah being female. (-1 star)
As well, having the locathah act as a magical marketplace, somehow aware of the market value of items on the mainland, for the PCs comes off as forced and lessens verisimilitude.
Side quests lose steam after the first couple, degrading into scenarios that could exist on any coastline or island. What's lost is the sense of place, of uniqueness, of exploration of the ancient past of a ruined empire. Too bad.
Maps are present for most side-quests but are conspicuously and inconveniently absent for others, despite having lettered and numbered locations.
Part 2:
This is a missed opportunity. The setting of a (somehow) still-standing Azlant observatory in a dormant volcano crater has potential, and there is some neat lore about its occupants and ancient Azlant. However, as with many Paizo settings, this degrades into simply going room-to-room fighting opponents. That's ok, I suppose, if the adversaries are interesting and flavorful. Here, they are not. Again, these opponents could appear anywhere, and have nothing to do with Azlant. Part 2 was a letdown.
Part 3:
The main plot so far of these first two adventures centers around faceless stalkers impersonating colonists. The stalkers come off as nearly completely incompetent and this plot as a whole is boring and uninspired IMO.
The NPCs outlined in the back are throwaways, and Azlant Gazetteer is a mixed bag. While the history, climate, and geography are all very well done, the additional Points of Interest are of mixed quality . Some are flavorful and high quality, but many others seem like spaghetti thrown against the wall, not seeming to have been crafted specifically for the Ruins of Azlant.
The Magic of Azlant section is fine, but more of a missed opportunity. It seems like the author was trying too hard in this section.
The bestiary is ok, but contains some pretty silly creatures and was a missed opportunity.
All-in-all, a decent PF module. Could have been better, could have been worse.
Art is a mixed bag, with some hits and many amateurish, cartoonish misses. As well, the decisions about what to illustrate are questionable. This is a recurring issue, IMO, for Paizo. There are some amazingly described locations in this module that are just begging to be illustrated. Instead, the vast majority of illustrations are of people and creatures (many of whom are already illustrated in the bestiaries, etc.).
Part 1:
Robert Brooks needs to get more work from Paizo. He's easily one of their best writers. Here, he's crafted a believable, lived-in corner of Golarion and imbued it with a true sense of place. Side-quests and locations were generally believable and it's clear Robert paid attention to details (having ancient clockwork creatures left behind rust and calcify).
Paizo's unfortunate politically-correct gender activism is present here, with all the strixes described that the party can encounter being female, and the leader, and only described locathah being female. (-1 star)
As well, having the locathah act as a magical marketplace, somehow aware of the market value of items on the mainland, for the PCs comes off as forced and lessens verisimilitude.
Side quests lose steam after the first couple, degrading into scenarios that could exist on any coastline or island. What's lost is the sense of place, of uniqueness, of exploration of the ancient past of a ruined empire. Too bad.
Maps are present for most side-quests but are conspicuously and inconveniently absent for others, despite having lettered and numbered locations.
Part 2:
This is a missed opportunity. The setting of a (somehow) still-standing Azlant observatory in a dormant volcano crater has potential, and there is some neat lore about its occupants and ancient Azlant. However, as with many Paizo settings, this degrades into simply going room-to-room fighting opponents. That's ok, I suppose, if the adversaries are interesting and flavorful. Here, they are not. Again, these opponents could appear anywhere, and have nothing to do with Azlant. Part 2 was a letdown.
Part 3:
The main plot so far of these first two adventures centers around faceless stalkers impersonating colonists. The stalkers come off as nearly completely incompetent and this plot as a whole is boring and uninspired IMO.
The NPCs outlined in the back are throwaways, and Azlant Gazetteer is a mixed bag. While the history, climate, and geography are all very well done, the additional Points of Interest are of mixed quality . Some are flavorful and high quality, but many others seem like spaghetti thrown against the wall, not seeming to have been crafted specifically for the Ruins of Azlant.
The Magic of Azlant section is fine, but more of a missed opportunity. It seems like the author was trying too hard in this section.
The bestiary is ok, but contains some pretty silly creatures and was a missed opportunity.
All-in-all, a decent PF module. Could have been better, could have been worse.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews