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This'll be the second campaign log I'm doing, my Rise of the Runelords one being over here: [link]
The players of that Campaign will be the same four as the ones in this one.
The PCs:
Korrigren "Ironpaw" Vel - Male Middle-Aged LG Dwarven Cleric (of Torag)(Forgemaster) 1
(Played by the player of Lulu from my Rise of the Runelords campaign. Considering the player proved herself a surprisingly effective strategist and leader in that campaign, Korrigren was crafted specifically with the role of party leader in mind. The old dwarf's beard is going gray and one of his hands has been severed and long-since replaced, but he's not quite cut out for retirement yet.)
Mei Kellis - Female CN Ifrit Sorcerer (Elemental [Fire] Bloodline)(Wishcrafter) 1
(Played by the player of Zaru from my Rise of the Runelords campaign, Mei is the hotheaded twin sister of Mado, and was built to be a straightforwards blaster, plain and simple compared to the mishmash of multiclassing the player did with his other character. Her language is vulgar to the point that I will probably never be able to quote her. Mei looks like a pretty bald human girl in her late teens to early twenties until she gets stirred to emotions of rage or excitement, at which point her head bursts into a flaming ribbon of 'hair'.)
Mado Kellis - Male NG Undine Druid (Undine Adept) 1, & Rin - Female Giant Weasel Animal Companion
(Played by the player of Atali from my Rise of the Runelords campaign, Mado is the slightly-more-level-headed twin brother of Mei. He was designed by the player to try something different from her reckless barbarian in the other campaign, and because the player instantly fell in love with the giant weasel and wanted one as an animal companion. Mado is blue-skinned and obviously inhuman compared to his sister, who only stands out slightly when not on fire. Mado is likely to pay the consequences of being blue at some point in the adventure. We'll see.)
Vynn Sammit - Female LN Human Osiriani Wizard 1
(Played by the player of Uriel from my Rise of the Runelords campaign, Vynn seemed oddly familiar to me, and we've already joked that she's an evil opposite to the barbarian/sorcerer Atali from the other campaign. Vynn's a young wizard with an unfortunate fascination with the infernal, and the phenomenon known as blackfire. Her arcane school is conjuration with the infernal binder subschool, and her opposition schools are divination and evocation. While she's not evil she's unlikey to fit in among regular society as such interests grow, and so an adventuring party of accepting individuals may turn out to be the best place for her. Vynn's ancestry shows in her dark skin and her dark hair, which she chopped short for summer just prior to the start of the campaign.
Part 0: Small-Town Heroes:
The town of Heldren was relatively peaceful before the first snowflake of summer touched down in the Border Wood. Heldren was a quiet place and was doing its best to welcome a new arrival in a friendly fashion.
Brother Korrigren “Ironpaw” Vel—though he’d not yet been granted that epithet—had come to visit a friend, a friend who had long ago turned him from the path of drunken fistfighting in taverns through her cold hard logic. Now though, the dwarf had heard alarming news of his old friend researching the infernal, and had come to visit young Vynn Sammit out of concern. The young wizard hadn’t intended to turn him towards the path of Torag all those years ago with her facts, and now he didn’t intend to turn her to anything with his faith, but perhaps fate would work something out. Korrigren knew what it was like to be exiled from his home, his original home among the dwarves where he’d been a notorious troublemaker, and he didn’t want his young friend to face the same. Her Osiriani heritage already made her something of an oddity in town after all.
But while Korrigren visited Vynn, it was twin siblings Mei and Mado Kellis who happened upon the snow, and the Ifrit girl and Undine boy rushed from the woods with eager and worrying declarations of going back in to find the source of the winter. Friends and family managed to delay the two considerably, but the arrival of a wounded mercenary from the woods with news of a captive noblewoman only spurred the fiery girl’s spirit, and local hunter Dryden Kepp’s claim of having seen a giant white weasel even larger than Mado’s lifelong companion, the giant weasel Rin, pushed the boy to action. The two were confident in the spellcasting powers they’d practiced with each other… or quite often against each other, and seemed set on going. It was of course something of a relief then when the responsible middle-aged dwarf declared he would accompany them, and when Korrigren opted to drag his old friend Vynn from her studies to come with them as well the group was complete, and ready to make their way into the unknown.
Part 1: Damsel in Distress
The Willowbark Apothecary, currently sheltering injured mercenary Yuln Oerstag was the first stop on the group’s foray towards the forest, and from Yuln they learned a fair bit of interesting—if incomplete information. Though none of the group were entirely sure of the nature of the ‘winter-touched’ and the ‘white witches’, they now had names to go on. When he learned they would be making their way towards the forest to face the enemies he’d been bested by, Yuln offered his sword—if not his sword-arm—on top of his previous information. The Ulfen warrior found himself declined however, and stared in somewhat-worried amazement when the group informed him that none among them knew how to properly wield a sword. The man muttered words of concern under his breath as they ignored his attempts to convince them to back out after that, and it was towards the forest they went.
Yuln’s trail was messy, and easy to follow as the summery landscape around them got colder and colder, and it was on the edge of the snow-line where they found the remains of noblewoman Lady Argentea’s caravan. The weasel Rin sniffed along ahead of the group as the way was otherwise led by Korrigren, and when the animal stopped outside the door of the one good carriage remaining and hissed defensively at it the others knew well-enough to be concerned.
A quick listen (and sniff) at the carriage doors revealed moaning and the scent of rotten flesh, and confirmed what Yuln had told them. There was more at work here than common bandits, unless bandits were creating zombies all of a sudden.
A spear was currently wedged into the carriage door handles to keep the undead inside, but a quick discussion resulted in unanimous agreement that it couldn’t be allowed to remain. These zombies needed to be take care of before someone who lacked magic and allies stumbled upon them, and so a plan was quickly formed. A rope was tied to one end of the spear, and the four retreated as far from the doors as they could, the three younger adventurers loading crossbows and sling while the older dwarf, who lacked a weapon that could strike at range, and would have trouble wielding one with the prosthetic clamp that replaced his one missing hand, held the rope.
Korrigren pulled, sending the spear-bolt sailing free and inviting a pair of zombies dressed in bloody guard uniforms to come spilling out. The kids opened fire as the undead slowly advanced, and by the time the monsters had caught up with Korrigren, they were both filled with projectiles. Against the strategy they’d developed, Mado drew his scythe at that and charged in to the dwarf’s aid alongside Rin, slashing a large chunk out of one zombie while the dwarf disintegrated the other with Torag’s holy power. The zombie that stayed standing took a nasty bite out of poor Korrigren after that, but was quickly mauled by Rin and torn to bits, and the dwarf expended a bit more of his healing magic on himself.
The remains here confirmed it. This place had been the site of a massacre, and a deliberate one, at that. Lady Argentea’s signet ring was uncovered in the wreckage of the zombies’ carriage, and the body of what appeared to be the captain of her guards was found frozen into a statue, several bits of him having since been lopped off as well. The group paused to thaw the corpse within the ice statue and give him a quick burial in a shallow grave—the most they could afford under the time constraints of rescuing Lady Argentea—handled by Korrigren. The man’s equipment on the other hand didn’t enter the ground with him, and with a few spells to clean off the blood and warm the metal to a comfortable summery temperature, his breastplate and weapon were added to the group’s arsenal. Hopefully they would serve well in continuing his missing of ensuring the safety of the lady.
Ahead lay a snowy trail, the rut of someone having been dragged and the prints of a fair number of feet freshly apparent, so much so that a child could have tracked them.
And so into the snow they went, shivering in their summer clothes…
Why'd they go into the snowy region in their summer clothes? Tsk. Silly adventurers!
They had no winter clothes and meticulously spent every copper they had in the process of character creation, leaving them without even a single gold piece among them with which to buy winter clothing. XD
I take it they rolled for beginning gold? ;) I might reinstitute that rule seeing my groups never seem to spend all their starting gold. But then, I also tend to start them at 2nd level so they don't drop dread right off. ^^;;
This sounds like fun. And it makes me tempted to pick up this adventure pack; it already sounds interesting (and I rather like Paizo's inclusion of Baba Yaga in their gaming world, and thus like that area of Golorian). They should give you swag for this free advertising you provide. ;)
They didn't roll for their starting wealth. We went by averages.
They bought tons of neat mundane equipment. That's where a lot of their cash went, to be honest. That, and crossbows. Crossbows are expensive at character creation.
By the way, thank you. Your depiction of this adventure helped convince me to put my own Pathfinder group through it; I'd been rather unenthusiastic about adapting Night Below to Pathfinder (or rather putting the group through it - I've run it twice before) and a combination of the Winter Portal (giving me a way to send the party to this world) and the obvious enthusiasm of your group helped sell me on it. :)
I hope both this game and your Runelords campaign are going well. :)
Part 2: Winter Wonderland
Not far into the snowy region, the group stopped to examine what appeared to be a dropped treasure chest in the snow. Despite urgings from Korrigren to proceed with caution, the impulsive Mei ran ahead to the box and wrenched it out of the snow, stumbling from its weight as she did and inadvertently saving herself from the spike of a swinging log trap! The log, fortunately, stopped just short of the others.
While the chest itself proved empty, Mei’s decision to wrench it free from the snow had revealed the spoils beneath it, and so—this time after Mado had carefully examined these treasures for any sign of a double-layered trap—they gathered up the once-buried weapons and armor to take with them. Though they could use very little, selling such items would prove useful in providing a little bit of cash.
The trap that had guarded some of their first spoils of this winter landscape was nothing compared to the guardian of the path ahead however. They’d faced undead, several of them for the first time in their lives, not a few moments ago and yet certainly none of them were prepared for the dragon. It was a small dragon to be sure, but the creature that lunged from the snowdrifts towards Mei caught them off guard. Vynn found herself at a safe enough distance to step back and fire a crossbow bolt at it as it appeared, but missed her crucial first-shot, and while Mei managed to scorch it with a small elemental ray of fire, such was hardly enough to fell the monster before it attacked!
The dragon leapt upon Mei, tearing into her with its teeth while somehow managing to fail at holding her in any real grip, though the damage had been done. The girl slipped free of the monster’s attempted hold on her and gasped at how much a single serious attack had hurt her, while Korrigren, Mado, and Rei tore the dragon apart, finishing it off before it could deal further damage.
The strangest creature of the snow—at least in their initial forays—however was a peculiar talking elk with whom the group paused to swap stories. The creature seemed friendly enough, and so they told it all about who they were, why they were here, and even of some of their capabilities.
Little did they know what they were really doing…
Hee! Oh they are SO trusting! My suspicion is my group will prove entirely too paranoid for that encounter to end with them telling the truth to it! :)
Alas for my musings for paranoid PCs! Perhaps because I jokingly call this my "Skyrim" campaign, or their love of Narnia... but the group gleefully and willingly told the "magic elk" EVERYTHING. I'd rolled a critical failure for the bluff check... but no one thought to act remotely suspicious so no dice.
I even had the GMPC Paladin acting suspicious to throw them a bone... and the "shifty rogue" scolded him for being so rude and then told the elk that Martin was a Paladin. In short, Ted will know everything he needs to effectively fight the PCs, including who the spellcasters are and who the warriors are.
Then they blithely walked into the next encounter and nearly got squished by the Ice Elementals (of which I made Medium-sized Elementals and added a third, seeing my group is between 3rd and 5th level).
They finally started getting their act together and are acting more with it... well, except for sending the ranger in ahead to scout, who promptly tripped over the tripwire and alerted the entire lodge that something was out there... and THEN she rolled a 3 to hit the broadside of the building with alchemists fire, meaning she didn't even have a fire to distract the bandits with. The game ended just then so it'll be interesting to see what happens next in a couple of weeks....
BTW, I hope you are able to get your notes back from your broken computer. I'd love to see more about this group. :)
School's finished, exams are finished, computer is good! Finally we all have time to play again!
Part 3: Catching Up
Crossing Wishbone creek felt like a boundary crossed to the adventurers, and clearly they weren’t the only ones who’d seen the location as such. After carefully locating a number of patches of thin ice through prods of Mado’s weapon and navigating around them, the group were reprimanded by a talking snowman who insulted them for ignoring literal warning signs on the road and proceeding this far. When the snowman demanded they turn back, the group decided on simply switching to a new plan of action instead. Someone had clearly trapped this area with enough magical ability to make a snowman talk, and so the group backtracked in a wide circle around the snowman before continuing on their way. The plan didn’t seem to result in any issues, which was reassuring. They were even able to hook a hanging corpse close to the snowman with Mado’s scythe without disturbing any magics on the snow sculpture, and gathered the weapons and money it held, as well as giving it a quick burial before moving along.
Beyond the creek and the snowman, they finally caught up with the ones they’d been pursuing! A trio of bandit men stood in a triangle arguing loudly about their shares of loot! They had precious little time to argue though, as Vynn caught the group off-guard and made short work of things with a blast of rainbow light that knocked them out.
When the bandits awoke soon after, they were bound and at the mercy of their captors. The heroes questioned them quickly about the nature of their headquarters, their leader, and their crimes, and received some very interesting half-bragged answers in response. Apparently the bandits had captured the High Sentinel Lodge up with the help of some newly-met fey allies, and their leader—a necromancer, apparently, named Rohkar Cindren—was currently stationed there with some of the other bandits. From the sound of things any otherworldly allies the bandit group had gathered were further ahead, and so would (hopefully) be unable to help in the battle to reclaim Lady Argentea.
Welcome back, Gluttony! :) Glad your computer is fixed!