Hell’s Vengeance Adventure Path Preview & Cheliax

In February, the new six part Hell’s Vengeance Adventure Path is launching, starting with The Hellfire Compact, a Pathfinder adventure for 1st-level characters set in the infernal Cheliax. In this AP, players take on the roles of evil mercenary characters in the diabolical empire of Cheliax. If you and your players are looking for an evil campaign, here’s you chance.

About Adventure Paths

For anyone not familiar with adventure paths, each month you get “a new installment of a 6-part series of interconnected quests that together create a fully developed plot of sweeping scale and epic challenges. In each volume of the Pathfinder Adventure Path, you’ll meet nuanced characters, visit fantastical locations, face deadly foes, and learn ever more about nefarious plots and an incredible world forged by some of the most popular authors and artists in fantasy gaming. What’s more, each Adventure Path also comes complete with new monsters, detailed supplementary chapters on important topics and locations, and fiction in the Pathfinder’s Journal—everything you need to make your campaign rich, detailed, and engaging.”

Hell’s Vengeance Adventure Path

Here’s a summary for the first 5 books.

• The Hellfire Compact (Feb 2016): The Hell’s Vengeance Adventure Path begins with “The Hellfire Compact,” an exciting new adventure in which the players take the roles of evil characters in the diabolical empire of Cheliax! A paladin of Iomedae and knight-errant of the Glorious Reclamation comes to the town of Longacre, inspiring the citizens to join the uprising against the Thrice-Damned House of Thrune. First as amoral mercenaries, then as retainers of the wicked archbaron of Longacre, the evil adventurers must move quickly to put down the uprising and keep the town from falling to the knights’ rebellion.
• Wrath of Thrune (March 2016): Longacre remains in Thrune’s hands, but the knights of the Glorious Reclamation have conquered the town of Kantaria, where their goddess Iomedae once ruled as a mortal. Your villainous adventurers, now official agents of House Thrune, must retake the town, which is a holy site to the knights. Can your evil characters earn greater infamy and prestige for themselves by issuing the Glorious Reclamation a serious defeat in their greatest territorial gain so far, or will the rebellion continue unchecked across Cheliax?
• The Inferno Gate (April 2016): The Thrice-Damned House of Thrune wants to seal the Inferno Gate, an uncontrolled portal to Hell, and the nefarious player characters are tapped to accomplish the task. To perform the required ritual, they must acquire key components held by a hellspawn thieves’ guild and the Hellknight Order of the Pike, as well as battle angelic foes and the knights of the Glorious Reclamation. But before they can complete the ritual, the characters face betrayal at the hands of one of their closest allies. Will the villains defeat this traitor in their midst and close the gate to Hell—or better yet, make a deal with a devil for control of the portal—or will they become sacrifices to the Inferno Gate?
• For Queen & Empire (May 2016): Her Infernal Majestrix Queen Abrogail II of Cheliax summons her agents to the city of Egorian to address the current crisis with the Glorious Reclamation. Arriving in the imperial capital, the adventurers find themselves swept up in the cutthroat politics of the imperial court. To impress the queen and secure a royal audience, the wicked characters must scour Egorian to root out and eradicate a secret organization that works to free halfling slaves. But to truly earn Queen Abrogail’s trust, the adventurers must perform a sacrifice for the queen to renew Thrune’s contract with Hell, and there are many—both within the court and without—that wish to see Thrune dethroned.
• Scourge of the Godclaw (June 2016): Now bound to Queen Abrogail by infernal contracts, the villainous adventurers are given the task of destroying the Glorious Reclamation’s headquarters in the former citadel of the Hellknight Order of the Godclaw, where they face a gold dragon that was once an ally of Iomedae herself! With the dragon defeated and the citadel secured, the vile characters must perform an evil ritual, using the dragon’s head to craft a legendary weapon capable of defeating the Glorious Reclamation’s army of valorous knights.

Cheliax the Setting

Infernal Cheliax (pronounced CHEL-ee-ax) remains one of the most powerful nations in the Inner Sea region, it pales in comparison to its former Imperial glory. After much turmoil and civil war, the Cheliax of today appears to suffer from extreme diabolism and a tyranny… preventing it from achieving its full potential. But to the powerful inside its borders believe that Asmodeus and Hell serve Cheliax and will grant it the power necessary to return to greatness once again.

It might be a good idea to pick up Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Cheliax, The Infernal Empire, if you are going to run this Adventure Path. If you like idea of running an adventure in an infernal setting and your’re interested in an urban set adventure… you might check out the past Adventure Path Hell’s Rebels (which I ran most of a couple of years ago when I needed an urban campaign)

FROM PAIZO on Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Cheliax, The Infernal Empire:

Cheliax is the diabolical setting of the thrilling Hell’s Rebels and Hell’s Vengeance Adventure Paths, making this comprehensive sourcebook a perfect supplement for either campaign. Within these pages, you’ll find:

• An overview of Cheliax’s government, foreign relations, society, and history—including details House Thrune wants forgotten forever.
• An extensive gazetteer of the entire nation, offering more than 80 entries on such people and places as Brastlewark and its wily gnomes, the xenophobic strix of Devil’s Perch, Kintargo and its rebellious citizens, and majestic Egorian’s imperial sycophants.
• A breakdown of Chelish noble titles and the country’s social hierarchies.
• Nearly a dozen new adventure sites ripe for intrigue and exploration, from a magical city ruined in the aftermath of Aroden’s death to an isolated island where House Thrune secretly creates fiendish supersoldiers.
• Six hellish new monsters, plus random encounter tables, a template for creating fiend-infused golems, and much more!

The book “is intended for use with the Pathfinder campaign setting, but can be easily adapted to any fantasy world”. I’m going to be running a new D&D campaign set in the world of the D&D 4e’s Nentir Vale and this book might be handy for ideas in developing the fallen Tiefling empire of Bael Turath in that world.