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Ruins of Azlant #3
Pathfinder Adventure Path #123: The Flooded Cathedral
Down in the Flood
As the adventurers work to track down the missing colonists, the trail leads to a nearby island. There, they discover the submerged ruins of a cathedral dedicated to a now-dead god; the site has become a lair of an ichthyic monster and its cunning minions. The adventurers must fight their way through flooded chambers and vicious monsters to rescue the kidnapped colonists and learn of a greater threat to the region—and to humanity as a whole.
This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path continues the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path and includes:
- "The Flooded Cathedral," a Pathfinder adventure for 7th-level characters, by Mikko Kallio.
- A double-sized article exploring the divine beings worshiped in ancient Azlant, by Adam Daigle.
- An under-the-hood look at the ancient world’s marvelous clockwork creations, by Mikko Kallio.
- A bestiary of terrifying monsters and fantastic creations, by John Compton, Kalervo Oikarinen, and David Schwartz.
Cover art by Setiawan Lie
As the adventurers work to track down the missing colonists, the trail leads to a nearby island. There, they discover the submerged ruins of a cathedral dedicated to a now-dead god; the site has become a lair of an ichthyic monster and its cunning minions. The adventurers must fight their way through flooded chambers and vicious monsters to rescue the kidnapped colonists and learn of a greater threat to the region—and to humanity as a whole.
This volume of Pathfinder Adventure Path continues the Ruins of Azlant Adventure Path and includes:
- "The Flooded Cathedral," a Pathfinder adventure for 7th-level characters, by Mikko Kallio.
- A double-sized article exploring the divine beings worshiped in ancient Azlant, by Adam Daigle.
- An under-the-hood look at the ancient world’s marvelous clockwork creations, by Mikko Kallio.
- A bestiary of terrifying monsters and fantastic creations, by John Compton, Kalervo Oikarinen, and David Schwartz.
Cover art by Setiawan Lie
- GenresRole Playing Games
92 pages, Paperback
First published October 18, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 28, 2024
The adventure left a bit conflicted.
It has some very good and fun elements in the later parts of the scenario. My players loved the Flooded Cathedral and interacting with its inhabitants and (ancient) elements. It is a bit odd things survived for that long, but that is a fairly normal trope in many a RPG so fine. Magic.
On the other hand, the first parts were either a bit complicated (and which my players completely circumvented by capturing the culprits from the previous volume alive for questioning) or unnecessary. The assumption is that the players need to search for the main baddies lair, but even if that is the case, the most basic first search attempt would let the characters find it since its location is in one of the first spots an explorer would look. Which is fine if there are no level expectations, but I would have much preferred more space for the lair itself.
Anyway, the adventure provided me with what I expected/needed and the Flooded Cathedral itself was very fun, so 3 stars.
It has some very good and fun elements in the later parts of the scenario. My players loved the Flooded Cathedral and interacting with its inhabitants and (ancient) elements. It is a bit odd things survived for that long, but that is a fairly normal trope in many a RPG so fine. Magic.
On the other hand, the first parts were either a bit complicated (and which my players completely circumvented by capturing the culprits from the previous volume alive for questioning) or unnecessary. The assumption is that the players need to search for the main baddies lair, but even if that is the case, the most basic first search attempt would let the characters find it since its location is in one of the first spots an explorer would look. Which is fine if there are no level expectations, but I would have much preferred more space for the lair itself.
Anyway, the adventure provided me with what I expected/needed and the Flooded Cathedral itself was very fun, so 3 stars.
June 16, 2020
The story is awesome but some of the clarity is missing from certain combat scenes.
December 10, 2025
The Flooded Cathedral could have been a great adventure. It has all the necessary ingredients there for the taking. But the execution is flawed.
Fresh off uncovering the faceless stalkers' incompetent plot to impersonate and kidnap colonists, the PCs must search for clues as to where the stalkers fled. This provides some rudimentary role-playing opportunities for the party as they piece together the path of the stalkers to an adjacent island. In transit, the party's boat is wracked by a storm. Once on the new island, they search until uncovering a flooded cathedral where the stalkers dwell. Then, down they go...
Sounds good, right? Problem is, most of the encounters are very basic, and many of the opponents just seem out of place. There is no sense of place or verisimilitude until the party reaches the cathedral. Moreover, there are some downright silly creatures encountered.
Once at the cathedral, one of the main issues in this AP so far rises to the fore - Azlant was destroyed 10,000 years ago in a direct hit from Earthfall, yet much of the Azlanti ruins the PCs come across are in amazingly good shape. It seems like the AP director thought about this for a minute and then just decided to handwave it. The rationale is that "preservative magic" keeps things in tip-top shape...except when it doesn't. It just comes off as one big plot contrivance and reduces immersion.
What reduces immersion even more is the manner in which some amazing Azlanti lore is communicated to the players - for example, finding 10,000 year old books in an Azlanti library, really?
The author also seems to have forgotten that the bottom half of the cathedral is...umm...flooded (psst, check the name of the adventure), and descriptions are given as if things are NOT completely submerged in water. There are no reminders or inclusion of rules for adventuring and combat under water. Ancient, complex machinery still functions despite being completely submerged in water. Dangerous underwater creatures live right next to one another in perfect harmony, until the moment the PCs show up. If being underwater makes no difference, why even have this adventure set under water? This kind of lack of attention to detail reduces immersion and engrossment in what would otherwise be a nice setting.
The final, climactic encounter with the aboleth could have been amazing, but the writer reduces him to giving a banal evil speech to the PCs. What should be, for all intents and purposes, an alien mind the party is facing comes off sounding like any other mundane human villain.
Post-victory, the PCs rescue colonists and a Mordant Spire elf. These elves are sworn enemies of the aboleth, but when this elf learns that a veiled master is behind all of this, he tells the PCs to go kill it and sends them to an underwater city that the elves are allied with. So, instead of thanking the PCs for the information and doing it themselves, the elves send total strangers against their sworn enemies? Uh-huh...right...
Additionally, the skum inhabitants of the cathedral are said to have discovered it millenia ago. So in all those thousands of years, they never discovered any of the treasure just sitting around waiting for the PCs? *rolls eyes*
It's also pretty silly that the Skum leader, who's thousands of years old, is a 6th level barbarian, but if he survives the battle with the PCs, he'll gain five additional levels (in a matter of weeks) by the time he faces them again.
If I plan on including elements of this adventure for my campaign, I'll have to do a LOT of work to incorporate the good stuff here without having my players rolling their eyes or scratching their heads at the things that just don't make sense.
As usual for Paizo, the gender discrimination is present, with all personal pronouns defaulting to the female for some reason. Are all of Paizo's players now female? (-1 star)
This is a bad adventure. Lack of attention to detail is glaring. What saves this from being a 1 star is that there is some great Azlant lore in the book and the old Azlanti pantheon of deities is outlined as well.
Fresh off uncovering the faceless stalkers' incompetent plot to impersonate and kidnap colonists, the PCs must search for clues as to where the stalkers fled. This provides some rudimentary role-playing opportunities for the party as they piece together the path of the stalkers to an adjacent island. In transit, the party's boat is wracked by a storm. Once on the new island, they search until uncovering a flooded cathedral where the stalkers dwell. Then, down they go...
Sounds good, right? Problem is, most of the encounters are very basic, and many of the opponents just seem out of place. There is no sense of place or verisimilitude until the party reaches the cathedral. Moreover, there are some downright silly creatures encountered.
Once at the cathedral, one of the main issues in this AP so far rises to the fore - Azlant was destroyed 10,000 years ago in a direct hit from Earthfall, yet much of the Azlanti ruins the PCs come across are in amazingly good shape. It seems like the AP director thought about this for a minute and then just decided to handwave it. The rationale is that "preservative magic" keeps things in tip-top shape...except when it doesn't. It just comes off as one big plot contrivance and reduces immersion.
What reduces immersion even more is the manner in which some amazing Azlanti lore is communicated to the players - for example, finding 10,000 year old books in an Azlanti library, really?
The author also seems to have forgotten that the bottom half of the cathedral is...umm...flooded (psst, check the name of the adventure), and descriptions are given as if things are NOT completely submerged in water. There are no reminders or inclusion of rules for adventuring and combat under water. Ancient, complex machinery still functions despite being completely submerged in water. Dangerous underwater creatures live right next to one another in perfect harmony, until the moment the PCs show up. If being underwater makes no difference, why even have this adventure set under water? This kind of lack of attention to detail reduces immersion and engrossment in what would otherwise be a nice setting.
The final, climactic encounter with the aboleth could have been amazing, but the writer reduces him to giving a banal evil speech to the PCs. What should be, for all intents and purposes, an alien mind the party is facing comes off sounding like any other mundane human villain.
Post-victory, the PCs rescue colonists and a Mordant Spire elf. These elves are sworn enemies of the aboleth, but when this elf learns that a veiled master is behind all of this, he tells the PCs to go kill it and sends them to an underwater city that the elves are allied with. So, instead of thanking the PCs for the information and doing it themselves, the elves send total strangers against their sworn enemies? Uh-huh...right...
Additionally, the skum inhabitants of the cathedral are said to have discovered it millenia ago. So in all those thousands of years, they never discovered any of the treasure just sitting around waiting for the PCs? *rolls eyes*
It's also pretty silly that the Skum leader, who's thousands of years old, is a 6th level barbarian, but if he survives the battle with the PCs, he'll gain five additional levels (in a matter of weeks) by the time he faces them again.
If I plan on including elements of this adventure for my campaign, I'll have to do a LOT of work to incorporate the good stuff here without having my players rolling their eyes or scratching their heads at the things that just don't make sense.
As usual for Paizo, the gender discrimination is present, with all personal pronouns defaulting to the female for some reason. Are all of Paizo's players now female? (-1 star)
This is a bad adventure. Lack of attention to detail is glaring. What saves this from being a 1 star is that there is some great Azlant lore in the book and the old Azlanti pantheon of deities is outlined as well.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews