What do you think?
Rate this book
Pathfinder Adventure Path #148
Pathfinder Adventure Path: Fires of the Haunted City (Age of Ashes 4 of 6) [P2]
The Age of Ashes Adventure Path continues! The Scarlet Triad has turned their attention to a ruined dwarven city, where they seek an alliance with sinister gray dwarves and a powerful dragon. The heroes use their ring of portals to travel to this distant region, where they must earn the trust of several dwarven guilds before the Scarlet Triad can array their forces and bring about a fiery doom of slavery and undeath to an entire city!
Age of Ashes is the first Adventure Path using the brand new rules for the Pathfinder RPG. This fourth adventure is for 12th-level characters, and also includes a gazetteer of the dwarven city of Kovlar, a discussion of the evil dwarven god of toil―Droskar, and a wealth of new rules options for player characters to discover, along with more than half a dozen new monsters!
Each monthly full-color softcover Pathfinder Adventure Path volume contains an in-depth adventure scenario, stats for several new monsters, and support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the world’s oldest fantasy RPG.
Age of Ashes is the first Adventure Path using the brand new rules for the Pathfinder RPG. This fourth adventure is for 12th-level characters, and also includes a gazetteer of the dwarven city of Kovlar, a discussion of the evil dwarven god of toil―Droskar, and a wealth of new rules options for player characters to discover, along with more than half a dozen new monsters!
Each monthly full-color softcover Pathfinder Adventure Path volume contains an in-depth adventure scenario, stats for several new monsters, and support articles meant to give Game Masters additional material to expand their campaign. Pathfinder Adventure Path volumes use the Open Game License and work with both the Pathfinder RPG and the world’s oldest fantasy RPG.
96 pages, Paperback
Published October 29, 2019
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
July 23, 2021
Understanding that these Adventure Paths have limited options for variation in order to keep a party of adventurers within the confines of the adventure being presented, I found this to be a pretty good adventure with a lot of potential for some good, expanded play. Without going into too much of the back story of the adventures leading up to this one, the party will find themselves in an ancient Dwarven city that is actually made up of two parts- the larger undead filled portion of Saggorak and the smaller non-undead Dwarven-controlled portion of Kovlar. Not wanting to spoil the details, the characters will basically have to navigate the politic landscape of Kovlar and conduct investigations into both Kovlar and Saggorak in order to thwart the enemy’s plans.
I think the tragic history of Saggorak/Kovlar is good, and I might incorporate its premise to some extend in my homebrew campaign world. The political maneuvering that can take place both in Kovlar and Saggorak were a good idea and I think it helps in breaking up the adventure action into more than just combat. The new creatures and magical items weren’t too bad and the notable NPCs described were nice, though I wish (particularly regarding the enemy NPCs) there were more encounters to help develop their characters to the player characters and set the stage for the ultimate combat showdown to come other than just provide a lot of good backstory mainly for the GM to know (and maybe use if they create and/or modify some encounters) but won’t really matter because they are just basically boss enemies for the characters to take on. Ultimately, we know this is the end goal, but I felt dedicating some initial non-combat encounters with them would have been beneficial. There are some weak parts of the adventure that are loosely or poorly explained (like the point of the Duergar presence) and a lack of a map for Saggorak.
I think the tragic history of Saggorak/Kovlar is good, and I might incorporate its premise to some extend in my homebrew campaign world. The political maneuvering that can take place both in Kovlar and Saggorak were a good idea and I think it helps in breaking up the adventure action into more than just combat. The new creatures and magical items weren’t too bad and the notable NPCs described were nice, though I wish (particularly regarding the enemy NPCs) there were more encounters to help develop their characters to the player characters and set the stage for the ultimate combat showdown to come other than just provide a lot of good backstory mainly for the GM to know (and maybe use if they create and/or modify some encounters) but won’t really matter because they are just basically boss enemies for the characters to take on. Ultimately, we know this is the end goal, but I felt dedicating some initial non-combat encounters with them would have been beneficial. There are some weak parts of the adventure that are loosely or poorly explained (like the point of the Duergar presence) and a lack of a map for Saggorak.
December 10, 2025
Despite Fires of the Haunted City likely being the best of the Age of Ashes Adventure Path to this point, I can't recommend it due to recurring issues with these products, namely:
- Lack of evocative flavor. It's become expected that nearly every location in a Pathfinder product will seem like every other due to Paizo's lack of differentiation and distinction. While the locations in Fires of the Haunted City are a bit more flavorful than those in, say, Hellknight Hill, they are still woefully lacking. For example, Dwarven characters have cheesy, cliched names and Kovlar is described in such a way that it doesn't come across as all that "dwarven", instead seeming just another town, albeit subterranean.
- Sexual and racial discrimination. Paizo has gone full "woke" mode, leading to a galling lack of verisimilitude in their products. This ties in with the first complaint (above) about every location seeming the same. If everyone, everywhere, is accepting and tolerant of everyone, then everything is uniform. If every settlement is a model of gender and ethnic balance and harmony (unless it's explicitly called out as being a matriarchy), then nothing stands out and nothing feels "real". Lack of verisimilitude, and ironically, lack of diversity.
- The current design and layout parameters for Pathfinder products contribute to the lack of flavor. Design and layout, while sleek, feels sterile and often doesn't match the tone and tenor of the product.
- The Pathfinder practice of having a group of NPCs greet the PCs (strangers, mind you) and immediately welcome them with open arms and offer them all manner of quests (at times very personal) continues. This contributes to the lack of verisimilitude, making you wonder how all of these people have ever managed to live their lives without the PCs' involvement.
- While the author of this particular product is not a bad writer, she isn't a creative one either, and lack of descriptive text becomes an issue. Paizo has a lot of very intelligent people working for them, but these MIT types tend to write in a very scientific, mathematical, sterile manner, not best suited (IMO) for fantasy adventures.
- One of the glaring differences between Pathfinder 2020 and Pathfinder 2010 is the dearth of top-notch creative (as opposed to technical) writers currently onboard. That, and the Pathfinder Creative Director biting his fingernails down to nubs and hyperventilating into a bag in fear that Paizo may accidentally publish something that, somewhere, at some point, makes someone uncomfortable. Because, as we all know, all of these adventures always need to be "safe spaces" now. This all is reflected in the quality of the products produced.
- Lack of evocative flavor. It's become expected that nearly every location in a Pathfinder product will seem like every other due to Paizo's lack of differentiation and distinction. While the locations in Fires of the Haunted City are a bit more flavorful than those in, say, Hellknight Hill, they are still woefully lacking. For example, Dwarven characters have cheesy, cliched names and Kovlar is described in such a way that it doesn't come across as all that "dwarven", instead seeming just another town, albeit subterranean.
- Sexual and racial discrimination. Paizo has gone full "woke" mode, leading to a galling lack of verisimilitude in their products. This ties in with the first complaint (above) about every location seeming the same. If everyone, everywhere, is accepting and tolerant of everyone, then everything is uniform. If every settlement is a model of gender and ethnic balance and harmony (unless it's explicitly called out as being a matriarchy), then nothing stands out and nothing feels "real". Lack of verisimilitude, and ironically, lack of diversity.
- The current design and layout parameters for Pathfinder products contribute to the lack of flavor. Design and layout, while sleek, feels sterile and often doesn't match the tone and tenor of the product.
- The Pathfinder practice of having a group of NPCs greet the PCs (strangers, mind you) and immediately welcome them with open arms and offer them all manner of quests (at times very personal) continues. This contributes to the lack of verisimilitude, making you wonder how all of these people have ever managed to live their lives without the PCs' involvement.
- While the author of this particular product is not a bad writer, she isn't a creative one either, and lack of descriptive text becomes an issue. Paizo has a lot of very intelligent people working for them, but these MIT types tend to write in a very scientific, mathematical, sterile manner, not best suited (IMO) for fantasy adventures.
- One of the glaring differences between Pathfinder 2020 and Pathfinder 2010 is the dearth of top-notch creative (as opposed to technical) writers currently onboard. That, and the Pathfinder Creative Director biting his fingernails down to nubs and hyperventilating into a bag in fear that Paizo may accidentally publish something that, somewhere, at some point, makes someone uncomfortable. Because, as we all know, all of these adventures always need to be "safe spaces" now. This all is reflected in the quality of the products produced.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews