Into the Darklands [RPG]

In the official Pathfinder campaign setting of Golarion, the vast subterranean reaches of ancient empires and degenerate monsters is called the Darklands (i.e., the Underdark for those of you who played a lot of D&D).  Into the Darklands, published in 2008, was one of the early entries in Paizo's line of campaign setting books for Golarion--so early that it predates the actual Pathfinder RPG and instead references 3.5-specific rules elements (including psionics!).  It's a 64-page full-colour softcover book that is really well-written, flavourful, and useful for a GM planning to set any adventures in the area.

The artwork, frankly, is a mixed bag: there's a cartoonishly busty Drow on the otherwise-solid cover, and the interior art ranges from fantastic to mediocre.  The inside back-cover reproduces the cover art, while the inside front-cover is an extensive wandering monster table with columns for the three different "layers" of the Darklands (something I'll talk about in a moment).  As with too many wandering monster tables, I think I'd find it useless because it includes such a vast range of CRs on the same table--if your chance of running into a few fire beetles is the same as your chance of running into a purple worm, there's going to be a lot of short-lived adventuring parties!  On the other hand, I really liked the several maps that show how the surface world overlays various entrances and different areas of the Darklands.

The interior of the book is separated into five parts.

The first part, "Exploring the Darklands", takes up 16 pages and provides a good overview.  It explains that Golarion's Darklands are best thought of as having three "layers," with the shallowest layer (Nar-Voth) less dangerous than the middle layer (Sekamina) and the rarely-visited and mysterious deepest layer (Orv).  Connections between the layers are rare, and most surface-world expeditions to the Darklands go no further than Nar-Voth.  Still, the layers, in a "horizontal" sense, can be as large as continents, so there's plenty of exploration to be done!  After a brief list of common languages and terminology, the section spends several pages summarizing (with one-paragraph each) known points of entry to the Darklands.  This part will be quite important for GMs, and the amount of flavour provided even in the capsule descriptions makes just getting into the Darklands seem like an exciting adventure in itself.  I particularly liked the "Dread Dungeons" (a political prison in Galt that extends so far down that it reaches Nar-Voth), the Pit of Gormuz (an important site from a world-lore perspective as it ties in Rovagug, the Tarrasque, and more), and the Shadow Caverns (an important aspect of what's happening in Nidal).  Next up is a section on hazards, including mundane dangers like getting stuck or lost, as well as more exotic threats like toxic fungi and radiation.  This part is excellent, as it provides a wealth of detail to make travel in the Darklands really come alive--everything from travel time through different types of tunnels to dealing with bad air to navigating in total darkness (with a doubling of random encounter chances if the PCs use light sources!).  Players will quickly realize they have far more than just monsters to worry about in a Darklands-based adventure.

The second part of the book covers Nar-Voth (the upper layer) in about 12 pages.  There's an interesting, and coherent backstory to the Darklands that ties into other important aspects of Golarion history, including Earthfall, the Quest for the Sky, etc.  The most common denizens of Nar-Voth (Derro, Duergar, Troglodytes, and Vegepygmies) each receive several paragraphs of description.  Derro are still creepy as heck, but I was most surprised to read how something that seems really stupid like Vegepygmies can be given a surprisingly interesting backstory.  There's also a couple of paragraphs each on other denizens of the layer: Dark Folk, Grimlocks, Gremlins, and Mongrelmen.  The section concludes with several pages describing notable locations in Nar-Voth, and a useful map shows where these places are both from a Darklands perspective and from a surface perspective.  There's some creative writing here, with my favorite location being the Court of Ether (an inverted-pyramid hanging from the ceiling full of dark fey!).

The middle of the book fittingly details the middle layer of the Darklands, Sekamina (14 pages).  This can be summed up as the most "civilized" layer, as it's home to empires of Drow, surprisingly organized cities of ghouls, and more.  The Drow are described in ways very similar to how they are in the Forgotten Realms, and I think there are some links provided to the Second Darkness AP.  The stuff about ghouls was fascinating, and I could imagine some excellent adventures using their cities as a location.  Other important races to receive focussed-coverage are Skum and Svirfneblin, with about a paragraph each devoted to driders, gugs, morlocks, ropers, Serpentfolk, and Seugathi.  There's a really interesting mix of cultures and creatures in Sekamina, and lots of potential for a wide variety of stories taking advantage of the relationships and tensions between them.  As with the previous section, this one ends with several pages detailing particular locations on the layer.  Most are interesting, but I would have liked to see some adventure-hook ideas to help GMs provide reasons for PCs to visit them.

Orv, the lowest layer, is covered in ten pages.  I thought this was the most original and interesting take on the Darklands.  Orv is known, even to most inhabitants of Nar-Voth and Sekamina, only by legend.  It consists of a series of immense chambers, some as large as surface nations, called Vaults--and they're full of different environments that could never plausibly exist through mundane means.  Thus, they're thought to be almost terrariums of a sort, built by the mysterious and now-absent Vault Keepers.  The only widespread inhabitants of Orv today are a scary race called urdefhans (detailed further in the next part of the book), but particular Vaults are home to creatures like neothelids, intellect devourers, and aboleths.  There's even a "Lost World"-style Vault full of prehistoric creatures and dinosaurs.  Orv is a strange and dangerous place, and perhaps a good alternative to plane-hopping for high-level groups of PCs who outmatch most things on the surface world.

The last section of the book is a bestiary.  Five different creatures each receive a full two-page spread: Morlocks, Serpentfolk, Seugathi, Urdefhan, and Vemerak.  All of the entries are well-written and the creatures fill a useful role from a GM's perspective.  Because they each get a two-page spread, there's plenty of room to discuss the ecology of the creatures and detail a host of special abilities.

In sum, I would say the book is excellent and almost indispensable for adventures set in the Darklands.  It's also one of those RPG books that can be read just for pleasure even if there aren't any particular games on the horizon planned.