Pantheon Rising Player's Guide

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.

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.
• 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

In the days immediately preceding the beginning of this Adventure Path, your character received word of lucrative job opportunity. Apparently, a mysterious job broker is looking for a party of outlaws to rob a bank called the Gold Tank Reserve in Ferrous Quarter.

The employer is Foebe Dunsmith, a tavern proprietor and barkeep much beloved by the rough and rowdy clientele of her storied watering hole, the Bullet & Barrel Saloon. Dunsmith’s promised payment for the heist might be tantalizing, depending on how hard up your character is. More importantly, though, is the fact that the Gold Tank is owned by none other than Ambrost Mugland, and some of the gold that flows through it eventually finds its ways into the pockets of Anjelique Loveless and her league of crooked shieldmarshals.

With the goal of hitting your nemesis where it hurts most—the coin purse—you’ve decided to take up Dunsmith on her job offer. To pull off such an audacious stunt, you’ll be working alongside a handful of other outlaws who also bear grudges against Mugland or Loveless. If you’ve any hopes of succeeding at all, you’ll need to befriend these fellow felons and coordinate your tactics, at least until you’ve gotten your sweet revenge.

Though you’re free to create any kind of character you like for the Pantheon Rising Adventure Path, the following suggestions are designed to help you make a character well suited for this campaign. These suggestions are summarized on the Suggested Character Options Table, which lists character options from strongly recommended to not recommended.

Alkenstar is home to a wide variety of ancestries and ethnicities, though the majority of its inhabitants are humans, particularly ethnic Garundi closely descended from Nexian and Gebbite immigrants. Since the city’s founding over a century ago, plenty of other diverse peoples have found their footing here, including Mwangi from west of the Barrier Peaks or south of Geb, Keleshites from as near as Katapesh or Qadira or as far as Kelesh, and Vudrani from Jalmeray or elsewhere across the Obari Ocean.

Dwarves are the city’s second-most populous ancestry, many hailing from the nearby Sky Citadel of Dongun Hold. It was Dongun dwarves who supplied the first firearms to Ancil Alkenstar’s burgeoning community of technologists and magic-weary refugees. Today, Dongun dwarves continue to be regarded as among the best gunsmiths and explosives engineers in the world.

Jaric halflings and Vourinoi elves are far from unknown in Alkenstar—Ambrost Mugland and Anjelique Loveless are only two of the most famous examples, respectively. Roughly as common as these are kholo and geniekin, the latter of which are perhaps more common than usual in Alkenstar due, in part, to the mysterious effects of mana storms on mortal bloodlines.

Finally, a notable number of Gebbite dhampirs and Nexian fleshwarps—comprising a combination of temporary visitors, traveling adventurers, and full-blown expatriates—also call the City of Smog home. Perhaps more than any other ancestries, these individuals are uniquely suited to Alkenstar’s industrial environment; hazardous pollutants and smog are of less concern to undead, and fleshwarps too often boast anatomies that lessen the severity of environmental dangers.

For more details on these ancestries and others that call Alkenstar home, see the Pathfinder Lost Omens Ancestry Guide.

Alkenstar is the Inner Sea’s preeminent hub of technological and industrial innovation. In the City of Smog, the quickest way to gain power, prestige, or profit is to invent something that other people want; this holds as true for adventurers as it does for aristocrats and common folk. Because scientific experimentation and progress are keystones of daily life in Alkenstar, alchemists and inventors (Pathfinder Guns & Gears ) do extremely well as a general rule. Whether by mixing rare reagents collected from the Mana Wastes or by tinkering with the literal tons of scrap that fill Alkenstar’s junkyards, there are countless opportunities for old-time residents and newcomers alike to practice the skills necessary to become accomplished in either of these fields.

The same can be said for the gunslinger class (Guns & Gears), which is probably more common in Alkenstar than in any other corner of the Inner Sea region. Alkenstar’s proximity to Dongun Hold —the birthplace of black powder—means that firearms aren’t just easily accessible, but practically commonplace. Mercenaries, monster slayers, bounty hunters, and criminals all might call themselves gunslingers, though only a few ever exhibit the true grit necessary to make it to the big leagues. The most talented shootists and desperados command a high price as guns-for-hire or swiftly rise through the ranks of organizations such as the shieldmarshals, making the gunslinger class a natural fit for this campaign.

For the full rules on gunslingers and inventors, see Pathfinder Guns & Gears.

Beyond these three thematically suitable classes— alchemists, gunslingers, and inventors—characters of any class well-suited for urban adventuring can hope to succeed in the Pantheon Rising Adventure Path. Investigators and rogues can uncover countless mysteries and hidden treasures on the streets of the City of Smog, and swashbucklers and bards can likewise find opportunities for escapades and entertainment at every turn.

For all of Alkenstar’s emphasis on technological novelties and progress, it’s sometimes hard to beat a well-placed punch or a masterfully executed sword swing. The fearsome threat of monsters encroaching from the Mana Wastes makes adventurous martial experts of all stripes—such as fighters, monks, and barbarians—always in high demand.

On the spiritual side of things, clerics, champions, and other pious adventurers might strongly consider Brigh, the Whisper in Bronze and patron goddess of clockwork inventors, as their deity. The Temple of Brigh in Alkenstar is the largest organized church dedicated to the Bronze Lady in the Inner Sea region. Ever-orderly Abadar is also a popular deity with Alkenstar’s most cosmopolitan believers.At the other extreme, comfort-eschewing wasteland wanderers vastly prefer the age-old wisdom of the divine hunter, Erastil. Finally, many Dongun dwarves pay stalwart homage to Torag, Father of Dwarvenkind, and honor him with creative spins on ancient traditions.

Because of the surrounding region’s unique climate—magic-warping mana storms are relatively common outside the city’s walls—druids, wizards, summoners, and sorcerers don’t flock to Alkenstar as a rule, but they aren’t necessarily unknown either. The few arcane spellcasters who intentionally travel to Alkenstar often do so in the hopes of attending Blythir College, the city’s only official academy of magic. Sorcerers and druids are more likely to dwell on the city’s outskirts, where they can better tap into the mysterious powers of so-called wellspring magic (Pathfinder Secrets of Magic 248).

Many spellcasters living in the City of Smog are exiles from Geb or Nex, where they likely first gained their penchant for ancient necromantic secrets or universal arcane truths, respectively. Witches, magi, and oracles similarly travel to the Mana Wastes for their own mysterious reasons, and their unorthodox relationship with esoterica makes them perhaps a bit more common in the weird and wild Mana Wastes.

Owing to its cosmopolitan cultural makeup, the Grand Duchy of Alkenstar’s official language is Common (Taldane), though the high population of dwarves (especially dwarves from Dongun Hold) makes Dwarven nearly as ubiquitous. The most successful merchants and travelers also take it upon themselves to learn Kelish, a language commonly spoken in nearby nations like Geb, Nex, and Katapesh.

In the wastelands beyond Alkenstar’s walls, roving bandits, violent mutated giants, and horrific monsters tend to speak Kholo, Jotun, Aklo, or a pidgin of all three. Those who deal with evildoers could do far worse than to practice one of these tongues as well.

Alkenstar is a city of inventors and makers; thus, virtually everyone has at least a bit of training in the Crafting skill, which is useful not just for making and repairing things, but also identifying the many different kinds of clockwork creatures that roam the city. By the same token, anyone who expects to be fighting or evading clockworks and their masters would do well to study Thievery as a means of disabling devices.

Even for those with supernatural means of avoiding arrest, prowess in Athletics or Acrobatics can often spell the difference between capture and escape. Likewise, silver-tongued outlaws can benefit greatly from expertise in social skills like Deception, Diplomacy, Intimidation, or Society. Although Performance can be useful for creating diversions, a knack for Religion might be even more practical in a settlement whose predominant church—the Temple of Brigh—functions like an essential cog in daily goings-on. Of course, when all else fails, there’s always pure and simple Stealth, an invaluable addition to any outlaw’s skill repertoire.

Although Nature and Survival are of minimal use in Alkenstar proper, the outskirts of the city are rife with animals and environmental dangers, making naturalists and survivalists useful in certain situations. While Medicine and Occultism are always useful skills to have on hand, neither will open any special doors in this campaign.

Among the subcategories of the Lore skill, Alkenstar Lore, Brigh Lore, and Engineering Lore are highly relevant throughout this Adventure Path.

Suitable feats include any that complement your character concept and/or play into the above skills. As an outlaw, your character might particularly benefit from feats that could help you survive on the outskirts of proper society or without the assistance of the law. Likewise, because Alkenstar’s architecture is so tightly packed together, feats that increase mobility in close quarters will typically be more useful than those which require a Large animal companion or mount to enjoy. The Suggested Character Options Table includes lists of specific feats to consider for your character.

Though you can choose any common background for your character (including the ones starting on page 60 of the Core Rulebook; the criminal background is particularly appropriate), the following new backgrounds are designed specifically for the Pantheon Rising Adventure Path. You can use these backgrounds to inspire personality traits and details that tie your character to Alkenstar.

Additionally, each of the following backgrounds includes a reason for your character to seek revenge against one of two villains who wronged you: the nefarious mogul Ambrost Mugland or the corrupt shieldmarshal Anjelique Loveless.