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+~~NOTOC~~
 ====== Pantheon Rising Player's Guide ======
+//**A Tale of Smoke, Gears, and the Spark of Ascension**//
-===== A Tale of Smoke, Gears, and the Spark of Ascension =====
+== HOW TO USE THIS PLAYER’S GUIDE ==
+Welcome to Alkenstar! You’re about to step into a story where smoke‑choked streets and clockwork wonders hide more than just outlaw gangs and corrupt lawbringers. The alleys, rooftops, and rivers of Alkenstar hum with industry — and something stranger no engineer will admit to.
-==== HOW TO USE THIS PLAYER’S GUIDE ====
+In the **Pantheon Rising** Adventure Path, you’ll create a 1st‑level character branded as an outlaw — rightly or wrongly — and cast your lot with a crew of renegades determined to turn the tables on the powers that ruined you. You’ll need to defeat clockwork creatures, collect fantastic firearms, and navigate industrial dungeons, magical wilds, and myriad social spheres. And every so often, along the way, you might glimpse a technology or fragment of knowledge that feels *older* and *vaster* than anything in the City of Smog’s workshops.
-Welcome to Alkenstar! Here the alleys hide more than lawmen and rogues — they conceal the first sparks of a machine‑born destiny that could change Golarion forever.
+Whether your future holds a tidy fortune, a bullet‑scarred grave, or the keys to something far greater than a gunslinger’s reputation will be up to you.
-In this campaign for Pathfinder Second Edition, you’ll create a 1st-level character and take on the role
-of an outlaw in a steam-powered metropolis. To get revenge on the villains who ruined you, you’ll need to defeat clockwork creatures, collect fantastic firearms, and navigate industrial dungeons, magical wilds, and myriad social spheres. If this sounds exciting, you’ve found the right Adventure Path!
 To play in this campaign, all you need is the Pathfinder Core Rulebook and a character sheet. With the permission of your Game Master (GM), you can also use other Pathfinder Second Edition books and accessories to further customize your character. While not required to enjoy Pantheon Rising, Guns & Gears is an especially useful supplement to have on hand, as it contains a number of character options and rules elements specifically designed for characters in Alkenstar, the industrial metropolis at the start of this Adventure Path.
 This Player’s Guide is organized into the following sections:
-  * Alkenstar, City of Smog: An overview of the industrial metropolis in which your story begins.
+  * [[pg_alkenstar|Alkenstar, City of Smog]]: An overview of the industrial metropolis in which your story begins.
-  * Your Character: Important background details and inspiring lore to consider before creating your character.
+  * [[pg_character|Your Character]]: Important background details and inspiring lore to consider before creating your character.
-  * Character Suggestions: Additional guidance, practical advice, and specific tips for creating a character tailored specifically for Pantheon Rising.
+  * [[pg_suggestions|Character Suggestions]]: Additional guidance, practical advice, and specific tips for creating a character tailored specifically for Pantheon Rising, including a [[character_options|Suggested Character Options Table]].
+  * [[pg_backgrounds|New Backgrounds]]: New backgrounds introduced for this AP.
-==== ALKENSTAR, CITY OF SMOG ====
-In the heart of the war-torn Mana Wastes, a metropolis of industry, innovation, and intrigue awaits travelers hardy enough to make the journey. Beneath the towering gaze of brass spires and stone fortresses, amid a tangle of oil-slicked streets and soot-stained alleys, human inventors and their clockwork creations walk beside mutated gnoll
-scavengers, bronze-masked religious zealots, and fire-fleshed geniekin merchants. Many spend their days toiling without respite in grimy workshops or smoky factories. Others patrol the cobblestone streets for their fortunes, one hand firmly on their holstered sidearms, ready to confront a rival gang or runaway bounty. All the while, pistons, gears, and cogs within every machine and building turn as steadily as the hands of a clock, all maintaining the mechanical rhythm of a settlement that never truly sleeps. This is Alkenstar, the City of Smog.
-Whether your character is Alkenstar-born, a first- or second-generation immigrant, or a total newcomer, it’s worthwhile to master some of the City of Smog’s basic nomenclature. The following is some basic information about Alkenstar known to most locals and visitors alike.
-=== Places of Note ===
-Alkenstar is a large city in an arid desert environment built atop the edge of the 400-foot-tall Hellfallen Cliffs. Formidable stone walls protect the city on all sides from wasteland raiders. The easiest way into the city is via the steady-flowing Ustradi River, which naturally bisects Alkenstar.
-In the center of the city is Alken Falls, a massive waterfall set several hundred yards back from the rest of the Hellfallen Cliffs to the north. Thousands of vessels traverse Alken Falls each year by way of the Screw, a technological marvel that can raise or lower multiple ships at a time from one end of the falls to the other.
-The wealthy districts and neighborhoods south of the Ustradi are referred to as Skyside, whereas the polluted, industrial quarters to the north are collectively known as Smokeside. Within these two major regions, the city is further subdivided into loosely defined wards.
-  * Smokeside is home to the quaint inventors’ neighborhood of Steamhaven, peaceful Ustradi Heights, and lively Ferrous Quarter.
-  * In Skyside, one can attend swanky aristocratic galas in the Capital District, peruse the many marketplaces of Auburn District, or head to Pilot’s Square to pay for passage aboard an airship or dirigible bound for major ports along the eastern Garundi coastline.
-  * A few city districts defy categorization into either Skyside or Smokeside, including Hellside—a shantytown that literally hangs from the side of the cliffs overlooking Alken Falls—and the monster-infested ruins of Ironside Quarter along the city’s far western wall.
-Alkenstar’s major institutions include Alkenstar Castle (from which the city’s elected politicians hold
-court), the Temple of Brigh (overseen by the highly influential priests of the goddess of clockwork),
-and Blythir College (the city’s only major magical academy and a hub of higher learning). Of course,
-as in any city, Alkenstar’s most important cultural movements occur among its people, not its leaders.
-In the sky-scraping towers of Graeson’s Fingers in the Capital District or upscale establishments like the
-Longhorn Lounge, socialites mingle and make deals behind closed doors at ritzy soirees and gaudy galas,
-whose electric luxuries are made possible only by the skilled engineers at the Tinwound Hydroforge.
-All the while, criminals both organized and independent haunt Alkenstar’s alleyways, sewers, and seedy taverns like the Hotfoot Hippodrome, where untold quantities of illicit wealth are pushed through the city like so much lifeblood. At popular saloons like the Barrel & Bullet Saloon, impoverished factory hands and honest laborers hold court from the fortress of a taproom table and wielding only a mug of watery ale.
-Beyond the city’s walls lie the Mana Wastes—a turbulent, craggy desert irrevocably altered by centuries of magical warfare from the neighboring, wizard-ruled nations of Nex and Geb. Emigrants from either country are common in Alkenstar. Many such expatriates are wanted by talented spellcasters, and so they come to Alkenstar to exploit the region’s strange ambient effects on magic and hide from their aggressors. Others are spellcasters themselves who
-wish to experiment with their craft in the heart of the Mana Wastes.
-Two geographical regions occupy most of the Mana Wastes: east of Alkenstar to the Obari Ocean is the arid, storm–wracked Spellscar Desert. On the city’s other side is the Western Ravage, a craggy badland which spans the many miles between Alkenstar and the Barrier Peaks.
-Just 50 miles west of Alkenstar is the Gunworks, a sturdy outpost of innovative metallurgists, ambitious
-gunsmiths, and seasoned wasteland rangers. Here, a massive cannon called the Maw of Rovagug protects the city from roving bandits and violent monsters.
-Closer to Alkenstar proper is the dwarven Sky Citadel of Dongun Hold. It was from the inventors and alchemists of Dongun Hold that the settlers of Alkenstar first learned the secrets of black powder and firearm technology.As a result of the settlements’ decades of comingling, many Dongun dwarves can be found within Alkenstar’s walls.
-=== Notable Personas ===
-Though the city’s rulers prefer to believe that their laws and norms make Alkenstar a safe, orderly place to live, the truth is that power of all kinds—monetary, social, alchemical—swaps hands as a matter of course.
-Most of Alkenstar’s citizenry can be divided into either the working class or the aristocratic elite. The
-former labor ceaselessly to produce goods, services, and wealth, while the latter live to consume these resources. Alkenstar’s best-known aristocrat is also the city’s leader, the popular and savvy Grand Duchess Trietta Ricia. Beyond politicians, the aristocratic class also consists of the city’s money movers and power brokers, including notorious financiers like Ambrost Mugland and infamous iron-fisted shieldmarshals like Deputy Anjelique Loveless.
-Lower on the social ladder but no less impactful are charismatic rumormongers disguised as humble workers, including the Bullet & Barrel Saloon’s own shotgun-toting barkeep, Foebe Dunsmith.
-Beyond humans, dwarves, and other beings of flesh and blood, Alkenstar is home to a diverse and populous class of clockwork servants. Incapable of thought, feeling, or even (in most cases) any sensation at all, these mechanical drones serve their creators diligently and without question. Private companies and well-off individuals build or buy their own clockworks to perform repetitive labor, private security, or miscellaneous errands. Likewise,
-clockworks commissioned by the Grand Duchy fill less-desirable civil roles—trash collecting, late guard shifts, road maintenance—so that working-class laborers can keep their heads down and focus on the job at hand. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, clockwork inventors wage their own shadow wars and arms races to devise ever more impressive clockwork creations.
-In addition to inventors, Alkenstar is home to creators of nearly every stripe, particularly alchemists and gunsmiths. Among this class of tinkers and scholars, technological news and rumors of new innovations spread at the speed of sound— often literally, considering the booming explosions that can be heard from workshops and factories at nearly every hour of the day. For example, recently, an eccentric alchemist named Vashon Gattlebee
-stunned onlookers at his ill-fated exhibition at Blythir College, where he showed off a devastating new explosive called pyronite. The pyronite incident, as the exhibition has become known, sent shock waves throughout Alkenstar’s
-scientific community, with nearly every metallurgist, engineer, and researcher speculating upon the implications of this dramatic new weapon.
-=== Magic In Alkenstar ===
-The City of Smog has a reputation for favoring
-technological innovations over supernatural ones.
-This is partially as a result of the city’s origins; the
-expatriates who emigrated from the nations of Nex
-and Geb to found Alkenstar were mostly renegades
-and exiles. They eschewed the strong magical
-traditions of their wizard-ruled homelands in favor of
-different approaches to common societal problems.
-The emergence of black powder technology from
-nearby Dongun Hold only exacerbated newcomers’
-preference for alchemy and machines over wands
-and spellbooks.
-Another reason for Alkenstar’s relative dearth of
-spellcasters comes from its climate: the Mana Wastes
-are infamous for the devastating magical siroccos that
-regularly sweep across the desert—“mana storms,”
-in the local parlance. When a mana storm rolls in,
-spells and magical powers are much more likely to
-go awry, so wise spellcasters sheathe their wands
-and travelers run for cover. During such storms, a
-well-aimed fireball is just as likely to hit its mark as
-warp into a spear of ice that backfires on its caster.
-Thankfully, the walls around the city of Alkenstar
-protect those inside the settlement proper from the
-worst effects of mana storms. Local forecasts called
-whispersheets also offer reliable predictions for times
-of day when magic might not function as intended.
-In the Pantheon Rising Adventure Path,
-magic is assumed, by default, to function reliably
-and as described in the Pathfinder Core Rulebook.
-This means that you can play as a sorcerer, witch,
-or any other spellcaster without fear of being at a disadvantage. The rare mana storm might complicate
-matters once or twice during the campaign, but your characters will be made aware of these events well
-in advance, giving you plenty of time to prepare for situations that could dramatically impact your character’s abilities.
-That said, your GM might have other ideas in mind, particularly if the rest of the group is interested
-in playing a campaign where magic is relatively rare. If you plan to play a spellcaster class, make sure you
-and your GM are on the same page regarding mana storms, whispersheets, and what effect (if any) these elements might have on your adventures.
-==== YOUR CHARACTER ====
-In the Pantheon Rising Adventure Path, you and your friends assume the roles of wanted criminals who must operate outside the law to earn their fortunes and freedom. Your ultimate goal is twofold: clear your name, and also seek revenge against the villain responsible for your ruined reputation.
-Read on to learn more about the implications of your outlaw status, the nemeses responsible for your infamy, and the upcoming job that promises to help you get revenge.
-=== Outlawed ===
-At the beginning of this Adventure Path, your
-character is presumed to be an outlaw—a notorious
-roughneck, wanted renegade, or wrongly accused
-runaway—currently at large and charged by the
-city of Alkenstar with breaking one, two, or a dozen
-laws. The crime of which you’ve been accused might
-be petty (such as trespassing, picking pockets, or
-breaking and entering), or it might be grand (high
-treason, prison break, or murder), or it might land
-somewhere between these two extremes. You might
-have committed the crime with full knowledge of
-your misdeed, or perhaps you believed you were in
-the right or had no other option. Maybe you didn’t
-do anything wrong at all, and the entire matter is
-a grave understanding or a setup. Whatever the
-specifics, you’ve caught the attention of Alkenstar’s
-organized guard force, the shieldmarshals.
-Now, to retain your freedom and eventually
-clear your name, you’ll need to stay one step ahead
-of the law by operating outside of it. This means
-that you must disguise yourself before appearing
-in public, you’d do well to avoid drawing undue
-attention toward yourself, and any allies you have are either wanted criminals as well or aid you only
-after thinking long and hard about whether to do
-so. No one in polite society dares to be seen by
-your side, and your opportunities for honest work
-are slim to none.
-How did you get yourself in this predicament? The
-specific details of your alleged wrongdoing are up
-to you to decide. For some inspiration and potential
-ideas to help you build your character’s backstory,
-see the new backgrounds starting on page 11. These
-backgrounds also provide you with an important
-hook: the name of the betrayer responsible for your
-newly acquired criminal reputation.
-=== Gunmetal Grudge ===
-Even if your character’s misdeeds were bound to catch up to them, the bulk of the blame for your character’s ill fame rests firmly on the shoulders of one of two infamous Alkenstar villains: the notoriously corrupt Deputy Shieldmarshal Anjelique Loveless or the infamous business mogul Ambrost Mugland. The backgrounds on page 11 are designed specifically to explain your character’s grudge against either Loveless or Mugland, but you can pick either villain as your sworn nemesis and tailor the reasons for your character’s vendetta however you like.
-Whichever of these wretches wronged your character, it’s an open secret in Alkenstar that Loveless and Mugland are in league with one another, each using their particular realm of influence to scratch the other’s back. Though this
-makes them nearly impervious to the forces of law and order—few with the power to do so are brave enough to take the pair to task—their alliance is useful because it expands your character's pool of potential allies. After all, there's a famous saying in Alkenstar: "A bullet for my enemy aims as true in any gun.”
-=== The Heist ===