DM Zyren's Heart of Runes (Inactive)

Game Master Zyrenity

Adventure Path Rise of the Runelords - Strange incidents in Sandpoint: a goblin raid, shadows of the past, a serial killer...what other perils do the brave Sandpoint Saviours have to master?


Party:

Heavy Harry - Half Orc Rogue / Thug / Cavalier

XP:
23.000

Ailetha Aurcalam - Changeling Bard

XP:
25.000

Karlan Bladetwist - Human Paladin

XP:
25.000

Celestra Zomesco - Aasimar Cleric

XP:
25.000

Alana Wayworth - Half Elf / Sorcerer

XP:
25.000

Marek Ironblood - Tiefling / Magus

XP:
25.000

Places:

Sandpoint - A small town at the Varisian Gulf
Map of Sandpoint
Sandpoint Hinterlands
Map of ancient Thassillon
Thistletop

Handouts

Parchment in Ameiko's room

Dramatis Personae:

Allies

Kendra Deverin - Head of Deverin family and mayor of Sandpoint
Belor Hemlock - Sheriff of Sandpoint / Shoanti origin
Father Abstalar Zantus - Desna Priest of the new Cathedral of Sandpoint
Ameiko Kaijitsu - Proprietor of the Rusty Dragon
Bethana - Ameiko's right hand
Naffer Vosk - Former criminal, now Gravedigger in Sandpoint
Brodert Quink - Exceptional Sage
Aldern Foxglove - Noble from Magnimar
Shalelu Andosana - Elven Scout and Ranger
Halmer Grobaras - Lord mayor of Magnimar
Media - the mayor's assistant
Prof. Bluebelly - expert on Thassilonian history

Deceased or missing

Ezekiel Tobyn - Former priest of Desna, died during the late Unpleasentness
Nualia Tobyn - Ezekiel's adopted child
Rogor Caresby - Former caretaker of foxglove Manor, maybe turned into a ghoul.
Tsuto Kaijitsu - Ameiko's half-brother who killed their father and was behind the goblin attack, commited suicide in Sandpoint prison.

Others

Jubrayl Vhiski - Proprietor of the Fatman's Feedbag
Garridan Viskalai - Proprietor of the White Deer and brother of the sheriff
The Vinders (Ven Vinder, Solsta Vinder and their daughters Shayliss and Katrine) - they own the general store.
Orik Vancaskerkin - One of Nualia's mercenaries
Ripnugget - Chief of the Thistletop Goblins (killed by the party)
Skinsaw Man - aka his Lordship - Leader of the Ghoul pack

Enemies

Gogmurt - Shaman of the Thistletop Goblins
Lyrie Akenja - Mercenary of Nualia
Xanesha - Mistress of the Skinsaw Cult

Journal:

30th of Arodus 4706

- The party members arrived in Sandpoint.

1st of Rova 4706 - Swallowtail Festival

- Heavy Harry intimidates a band of Varisian thugs at the marketplace.
- The party members meet.
- The Swallowtail Festival begins as a joyful fair.
- Kanyk and Harry take part in an armwrestling contest.
- After all speeches have ended, the consecration of the cathedral was interrupted by a goblin attack!
- The party was able to fend off the goblin attack and rescued Aldern Foxglove from a goblin commando.

2nd of Rova 4706

- Aldern pays the group 500 gp for rescuing him.
- The party meets the sheriff at the garrison to interrogate a captured goblin.
- The party finds out that the bones of Ezekiel Tobyn have been stolen by the goblins. He and his daughter Nualia died in a fire during the Late Unpleasentness.

6th of Rova4706

- Aldern, Harry, Kanyk, Nieve and Karlan go on a boar hunt in Tickwood.

9th of Rova 4706

- Aldern left Sandpoint.
- Harry has a nice intermezzo with Shayliss Vinder, which ends rather abruptly.
- Gerlick tries to get the permission to make Chopper's Isle his own.
- Kanyk investigates the strange behaviour of the Barrett's dog.

10th of Rova 4706

- Too late the party finds out that Petal, the Barretts dog has scented a goblin hiding in the wardrobe of the boy. Alergast Barrett was killed during the night before Kanyk was able to stop the little monster.

13th of Rova 4706

- Bethana alarms the party about her fears that Ameiko might have been abducted by her brother Tsuto.
- The Sandpoint Saviours race to the glassworks and find out that Tsuto has killed Lonjiku Kaijitsu and his workers.
- They are able to defeat Ameiko's evil brother and rescue her.
- Tsutos journal is full of strange fantasies about Nualia as a succubus and a gigantic goblin army attacking Sandpoint.
- Gerlick leaves the party.
- The party decides to investigate the tunnels below the glassworks Tsuto mentioned. They are accompanied by Emil, a kobold bard.
- Within the tunnels they find a very old systems of corridors, much older than Sandpoint.
- Here they encounter strange monstrous creatures.
- Especially a strange goblin mutant, who might be a follower of Lamashtu is a shocking apparition.
- At the heart of the dungeon the party findy a strange cathedral, here they're attacked by a quasit and some sinspawns.
- Soon the quasit and his minions are dead. The strange pool of translucent lava also stops boiling and the party finds an ancient mosaic map.

14th of Rova 4706

- The party meets Brodert Quink, the sheriff and Shalelu at the Rusty Dragon.
- They are told that they must have found a runewell, an ancoinet device used in the wars of the Runelords.
- The sheriff and Shalelu propose a direct assault on the Thistletop Shrine where they suspect Nualia is hiding, while a large army of goblins is gathering to destroy Sandpoint.
- On their way to the shrine, the party meets Deoric of Hornbach, a wounded knight, whose steed, Shadowmist was robbed by the goblins.
- Following their tracks, the party reaches Thistletop.
- There they enter a labyrinth of corridors entirely made of briars.
- After fighting some goblins and two bunyips the party encounters the goblin shaman of the tribe and tries to make him believe they were mercenaries working for Tsuto.
- Inside the statue's head the party meets Orik Vancaskerkin, a mercenary from Riddleport, who surrenders and offers to help them. He draws a map for them and explains that Nualia has other mercenaries working for her.
- The party is also able to bind Lyrie, another of Nualia's lieutenants.
- They advance deeper and depper into the strange Thassillonian dungeon.
- Ailetha reaches Sandpoint and tries to help the sheriff in spying on the Sczarni.

15th of Rova 4706

- In the depths of the dungeon the party is able to find and kill Nualia and her bugbear lieutenant Bruthazmus. They also find the key to the door Nualia was unable to open.
- In Sandpoint Ailetha is able to trick Jubrayl and make him believe Belor and Kaye are not a couple.

16th of Rova 4706

- The party is able to kill also Warchief Ripnugget and persuade the goblins to leave Thistletop.
- Deep inside the dungeon they find more treasures, battle a giant crab and meet Perdition, a gnomish sorcerer who joins them.
- In Sandpoint Ailetha finds out more and more about the history of the town.

Break: 17th of Rova to 16th of Lamashan

- The party return to Sandpoint and celebrations ensue. Perdition and Ailetha join the party and all become parts of the Sandpoint community.

17th of Lamashan

- A gruesome case of murder shocks the town.
- Banny Harker and Katrine Vinder have been murdererd in the lumbermill by a killer who was gruesome and used the seven pointed star as his mark.
- A man named Ibor Thorn found the bodies and Kanyk and Harry find tracks of a bare feeted man.
- The party finds out that some kind of intelligent undead must have murdered the couple.
- There is another set of murders that were committed some days before. Some local swindlers were killed by probably the same crature as the people in the mill.
- A lone survivor - Greyst Sevilla - has witnessed the events and is now in the Sandpoint asylum.

17th and 18th of Lamashan

- Farmer Grump turns up in the city and reports that his brother's farm was overrun by a horde of ghouls.
- Quickly the party decides to head there and indeed, they find a pack of ghouls and another letter for Harry.
- One of the ghouls might have been Rogor Caresby and when they find the key to the Misgivings in his belongings, they decide to venture to the old manor.

19th of Lamashan

- The party reaches the manor and the burned outbuildings.
- Inside they soon find that they are trapped and the house is entirely haunted.
- After making it through several haunts alive and investigating nearly the whole manor, the party concludes that old Voral Foxglove is the source of some old curse.
- This curse has also forced Aldern to strange his wife.
- When they find Iesha's ghost they release her and follow her into the basement.
- More ghouls wait here, but the party fights through them and unravels another piece of the house's mysterious history.
- In the basement they find a hole that leads down into tunnels that must date back to Thassilonian times.
- Down in the tunnels they at last meet the Skinsaw Man - Aldern's vicious new persona.
- They are able to kill the monster in a hard fight and find some keys on him.

20th of Lamashan

- Back in Sandpoint they find out that the Skinsaw Brotherhood is a cult of Norgorber. The party muses that they might have a cell in Magnimar to which Aldern belonged.

20-23rd of Lamashan

- In Magnimar the party finds out that the keys belonged to Aldern's townhouse. Here they are ambushed by a band of doppelgangers.
- After a hard fight they are able to extract information from the last surviving doppleganger. He tells the party of the Seven's Sawmill, the meeting place of the cult.

24th of Lamashan

- At the sawmill the party encounters the whole Skinsaw Brotherhood cult. They have murdered lots of people from the financial district and the underworld - all very greedy characters. They thought they had sacrificed their victims to Norgrober but Aliteha rather thinks that they had been killed to fuel the power of the Runelord of Greed Karzoug.
- The leader of the cultists Justice Ironbriar tells the party of the Shadowclock where his mistress Xanesha has her lair.

25th of Lamashan

- With the help of the Magnimarian special agent Kessan, the party enters the Shadowclock and confronts Xanesha. Shocked by the revelation that she is some kind of super-powerful lamia, the party is content when the monster flees.

26th of Lamashan

- Lord mayor Grobaras invites the party to his manor where he makes them a nice offer: helping Magnimar for a nice sum of gold.
- The task is to find out what happened to a group of rangers of the order of the black arrow at Fort Rannick. To find that out, the party has to travel to Turtleback Ferry as small hamlet north east of Magnimar,

27th of Lamashan

- Karlan buys provisions while Celestra and Ailetha visit the Irespan and have an enlightening talk with Prof. Bluebelly and Harry has his very personal adventures...

28th of Lamashan

- Departure to Turtleback Ferry.

30th of Lamashan

- After two days of riding the party reaches the outskirts of Sandpoint.