Pathfinder Delves into the Darklands With ‘Vaultlines’ Adventure Path

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Paizo is heading deep underground, with the TTRPG publisher recently releasing the Pathfinder Vaultlines Adventure Path, a new campaign that sends characters deep into the subterranean realm beneath Golarion known as the Darklands. The PF2E-compatible book is one of the rare APs designed for higher-tier play, taking characters from Level 11 to 20.

The book was released on November 4, 2026, and is available now in hardcover and PDF from your local game store, Paizo, Noble Knight, DriveThruRPG and Amazon.

Below, we grab a torch and delve into all the details on Pathfinder’s long-awaited return to the darkness below.

What’s included in the Vaultlines Adventure Path?

Vaultlines is a 256-page Adventure Path book for the remastered Pathfinder Second Edition. As a GM-only supplement, the book includes:

• Campaign Overview: An introduction to the campaign for the GM.
• Adventure Path: The primary campaing is broken into 10 chapters totalling around 180 pages and includes GM advice on what to do when the AP ends.
• A gazetter of Lattiskar: A guide to the Darklands city where the campaign begins.
• Darklands Dangers: A list of hazards and threats of the Darklands.
• Adventure Toolbox: Which includes 15 monster stat blocks and 5 primary NPCs.

It’s worth noting that Vaultlines is part of Paizo’s new Adventure Path format. Last year, Paizo announced it was ending its long-running line of monthly softcover Adventure Paths and replacing them with quarterly books, beginning with Hellbreakers and Hell’s Destiny.

What is the Vaultlines Adventure Path about?

*** MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD ***

Vaultlines kicks off with the player characters in chains. The party are prisoners being transported to Lattiskar, a sprawling city on the banks of an underground lake ruled by Ayindilar Elves. Their ultimate destination however is Shiv: a prison carved from a massive stalagmite in the harbor that’s infamous for fleshwarping (a process that reshapes both mind and body). Before they arrive, however, something strikes.

Strange new ley lines, dubbed vaultlines, are appearing throughout the Darklands. They hit with the force of lightning, bore through miles of solid rock and destroy anything in their path, and when they recede, they leave behind magic that warps flesh and stone. In the chaos of the first strike, the PCs win their freedom and set out to find the source of the vaultlines before they tear the entire Darklands apart.

Along the way, the party will journey from claustrophobic tunnels to jungle-filled hidden worlds, making friends and enemies among the secretive ayindilar elves of Lattiskar, the imperious serpentfolk of Sverenagati and the vaults of Orv built by the ancient, alien xiomorns. Behind it all lies a mystery set in motion more than 10,000 years ago, long before humanity rose on Golarion, and if the PCs succeed, they may even learn to harness the power of the vaultlines for themselves.

*** END OF SPOILERS ***

What’s in the Vaultlines Player’s Guide?

Paizo has released a free Vaultlines Player’s Guide written by Bill Fischer. Since the campaign starts at 11th level with no built-in lead-in from lower levels, the guide is designed to help players build higher-tier characters suited to the Darklands. It includes:

• An introduction to the Darklands: A spoiler-free primer on the three layers of the Darklands and the people who live there.
• Character suggestions: Strongly recommended ancestries include fleshwarp, fungus leshy, ratfolk and surki, while cleric, psychic, sorcerer and wizard are the strongly recommended classes.
• Six new backgrounds: Fleshwarp Researcher, Hardened Criminal, Ley Seeker, Overburn Emissary, Prisoner of War and Reincarnated Sekmin.
• Starting gear: Players can take a lump sum of 3,200 gp or a fixed selection of items.

Players can either create a group of strangers who’ve each been imprisoned for their own reasons or bring an existing party that ended up in the underground city of Lattiskar after a failed adventure.

How much is the Vaultlines Adventure Path?

The standard hardcover retails for $79.99 USD (not including shipping), while the PDF retails for $39.99 USD from both Paizo and DriveThruRPG. A limited Special Edition hardcover, bound in purple faux leather with purple and green metallic deboss cover elements and a ribbon bookmark, is also available for $99.99 USD.

When was the Vaultlines Adventure Path released?

Vaultlines released in print and PDF on November 4, 2026. Notably, fans with a Pathfinder Adventure Path subscription received the book several weeks earlier, as Paizo rolled existing subscriptions over to the new quarterly release format.

What are the Darklands in Pathfinder lore?

The Darklands are a vast network of tunnels and caverns that stretch beneath Golarion’s surface. They’re divided into three layers:

• Nar-Voth: The shallowest layer, usually less than half a mile below the surface. It’s largely untamed wilderness with a few minor settlements and some areas open directly onto the surface world.
• Sekamina: Enormous caverns typically a mile or more underground, some of which are large enough to hold entire cities. The layer is named after the sekmins (serpentfolk).
• Orv: The deepest layer, made up of sealed vaults that contain entire hidden worlds. Few travelers who venture into Orv ever return.

The Darklands have been part of Pathfinder since its earliest days, featuring heavily in the Second Darkness Adventure Path in 2008 and the Darklands Revisited sourcebook in 2016, both of which were released for Pathfinder First Edition. (Paizo has confirmed Vaultlines is an entirely new story and not a remake of Second Darkness.)

The region has, however, changed significantly since the Pathfinder Remaster in 2023. That’s due to the fact tha the Darklands were highly dependent on the OGL (the official license from Wizards of the Coast that allows publishers to use certain D&D creatures and terms). As such, Paizo retroactively removed the drow from Golarion’s history as part of its move to the ORC license. The serpentfolk have since taken over as the region’s major villains, while the ayindilar elves (descendants of elves who fled into the Darklands after Earthfall) fill a very different, less villainous role. Other OGL-era creatures were also renamed. For example, duergar becoming hryngar. Outside of a short article in the Sky King’s Tomb Adventure Path, Vaultlines marks Paizo’s first real chance to explore the Darklands in depth (no pun intended) in the PF2E Remaster era.

Final thoughts

High-level Adventure Paths are always a bit of a rarity, and Darklands fans have been waiting a long time for Paizo to properly revisit Golarion’s underworld. Vaultlines delivers both in one book, with a premise that’s a great excuse to throw some epic underground threats at your players. Whether it can live up to the legacy of classic Darklands adventures, however, remains to be seen.

You can pick up Vaultlines now in hardcover and PDF from your local game store, Paizo, Noble Knight, DriveThruRPG and Amazon.