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Characters Present: Brutus (half orc, wizard 1), Grakkok (Dwarf, Ranger 1), Ronak Shalesplitter (Dwarf, Monk 1)
Quick Character Backgrounds:
Brutus: Is a half orc wizard from Magnimar. There he served as a wizard’s apprentice. His master recently died rather mysteriously. Brutus was blamed for the death and forced to flee town. Whether or not he was actually involved or not remains uncertain, and is so far not a topic he has seemed interested in discussing. He recently arrived in Sandpoint where he was able to get work as cook at the Hagfish tavern. He has been staying at the Rusty Dragon; Ameiko Kaijitsu, the establishment’s owner, was so fascinated by meeting such a learned and well-spoken half orc that she has given him a discounted rate while staying in the town.
Ronak: Is one of the Sandpoint’s local dwarves. His family, the Shalesplitters, are a well-regarded family from Magnimar who came to town in the past couple of years to head up construction on a new temple to the gods. They have quickly established themselves as a reputable family and are known for their honor and strong work ethic. Ronak has lived in the town for the past few years.
Grakkok: He originally hales from the dwarven stronghold of Janderhoff, and worked as prospector in the Mindspin Mountains until the prospecting camp he was staying in was raided by giants and his kin slaughtered. He was not present at the time of the raid, but he returned from the delve he had been inspecting in time to see the results of the attack. He has borne a terrible hatred of giants ever since, and he swore an oath to learn the skills needed to take on such terrible foes. Ashamed to be the sole survivor of the raid, he has exiled himself from Janderhoff and taken to the road until such a time that he feels he has redeemed himself by slaying a sufficient number of giants. He hopes to hone his skills by seeing and experiencing the wider world. Grakkok is still quite green and has yet to kill a giant. He recently arrived in Sandpoint where he intended to make a short provisioning stop before moving on to other parts of Varisia. He too has been residing at the Rusty Dragon for the past couple of days.
Session #1, Part #1, Burnt Offerings, The festival
Summary: It is early fall, and the three fledgling adventurers find themselves at the Swallowtale festival in Sandpoint to celebrate the equinox as well as the completion of a new temple to the gods. The previous temple had burned down in a terrible fire a few years earlier, and at great expense the town has funded the construction of an elaborate new stone temple. The day’s festivities take place at the market outside the temple and include everything from sack races to speeches to a cooking contest from the local establishments.
The festival takes a dark turn at dusk when screams erupt from the townsfolk. Chaos breaks out, and the heroes quickly realize that goblins are raiding the town. The nasty little critters, along with some of their ratdogs are suddenly running amok all over the place. Some of them carry torches and seem intent on burning the town to the ground. The characters are among the few folk at the festival with the means of combating the creatures and they take to the task without hesitation. Grakkok promptly splits a goblin dog in half with his dwarven long axe, but is tagged with a goblin arrow a moment later and runs off after the little git. He pursues him around a building and finds the creature cowering behind a woodpile. It stabs the ranger in the throat with an arrow, leaving him pretty badly injured, but Grakkok retaliates by crushing the thing’s skull with his axe. Ronak finds a trio of goblins hiding behind a cart, and he and Brutus deal with them with ease. Ronak needs no weapon and kills goblins with his bare hands. Brutus makes use of his magic, hurling telekinetic fists, splashes of acid and even a trusty magic missile at various goblins.
After dispatching the first few goblins, Brutus and Ronak find more trouble on the other side of the market as they see another trio of goblins setting fire to a wagon full of firewood for the evening’s bonfire and burning a merchant’s tent. Ronak rushes to deal with them, but Brutus is momentarily distracted by a goblin that he is forced to put down with a colour spray spell and then finish off with his staff. Ronak finds himself outnumbered. Two goblins wield torches and their singing warchanter has a whip and dogslicer. Ronak focuses on the warchanter, but finds this goblin to be very quick and difficult to hit. The dwarf is also wounded from a couple of slashes he took in the previous scuffle, so it isn’t the best time for him to be outnumbered. Luckily father Zantos comes to his aid. The village priest is unarmed and unarmored, so he isn’t much prepared for fighting goblins, but he does heal some of Ranok’s wounds so the dwarf can fight on. Brutus arrives on the scene a few seconds later and helps out from range with his telekinetic fists, and by the time the two torch bearers are dead, Grakkok has shown up to aid Ronak with his trusty axe. Together they take down the warchanter. They notice that things have quieted down in the market. Most of the townsfolk have fled back to their homes, though a few are still about tending to the wounded. Sounds of the fighting can be heard closer to the town gate, so the three heroes make their way in that direction.
At the gates they find members of the town guard chasing off the last of the goblins. They also spot a few goblins, one of whom is riding a goblin dog, trying to kill a well-dressed nobleman. The cowering noble has no weapon and is backed up against a wagon using a piece of firewood to parry the goblin dog rider’s horsechopper. The heroes hurry to man’s aid and easily dispatch the first two goblins. The dog rider sees the angry dwarves and has the sense to flee before he gets himself killed. Grakkok and Brutus then help the guard deal with the last few goblins that were too stupid to run away, while Ronak sees to the nobleman, who thanks him profusely and introduces himself as Aldren Foxglove. Foxglove explains that he’s staying at the Rusty Dragon, which is perhaps why he looks familiar to Grakkok and Brutus. Foxglove says he would be honored to buy them drinks and a meal.
With the fighting done, the three heroes spend some making each other’s acquaintance and congratulating one another on a well fought battle. They are all sad that the townsfolk have lost their appetite for celebration, as they feel that the party has only just begun. They decide not to let it ruin their evening, so they head off to the Hagfish to eat and drink. The place is quiet that evening with most folk too distraught to have an interest in drinking, but once again this does not deter the three, and they eat and drink their fill. Grakkok attempts the challenge of drinking from Norah’s tank, but even the hearty dwarf can’t stomach the fouled water.
The next day, they find themselves having breakfast at the Rusty Dragon. Aldren Foxglove enters the common room, and he once again thanks them. He insists on paying for their breakfast and then joins them at their table. He explains that he is from Magnimar and is on business, but before he returns to the city, he would very much like to go on a boar hunt. He asks if the heroes will join him. Grakkok has no interest in hunting animals for sport, and hunting boar isn’t appealing to either Brutus or Ronak, so they turn him down. Aldren is clearly disappointed, but he says that he’ll be in town for a few more days if they change their minds. He then joins them for breakfast and promptly begins asking them more questions about themselves than they care to answer so early in the day. Some of his questions are unintentionally offensive and borderline racist. They start to grate on the nerves of the characters, particularly Brutus and Grakkok. Ranok is irriated as well, but he is well mannered and has the discipline to not to get snippy with the man.
Aldren to Brutus: “So you are a half orc who studies wizardry. That is so interesting. I didn’t realize that your kind had the intellect necessary for such demanding academic endeavors. In fact, I had heard that half orcs couldn’t even be taught how to read or write. I’m truly amazed.”
Aldren to Ranok: “Good dwarf, your fighting style fascinated me. I’m not accustomed to seeing you people fight without your trusty axes. I had no idea the stout folk could fight so well without weapons. Don’t you find your excessively short reach makes it really difficult to fight larger opponents?”
Aldren to Grakkok: “Oh sorry, did I accidently spray you with a bit of that perfume? Don’t worry, I’m sure it won’t cause you any harm. In fact, it might do you some good. I get the sense you’ve been on the road a long, long time. I realize your kind isn’t comfortable in water, but I find that a nice bath after a long journey really helps freshen me up. You should try it too.”
By the time they have finished their meal they can’t wait to get away from the fop.
Session #1, Part #2, Burnt Offerings
The Rusty Dragon caters to adventurers, and as such, it features a jobs board where individuals looking to hire adventurers can post notices. They decide to inspect the jobs board. They learn that Lord Valdemar’s daughter Rowenna has gone missing and there is a reward for her safe return. They see a wanted poster for a bandit chief named Kregan the Branded, who has been causing trouble on the road between Sandpoint and Magnimar, and they see an ad that was posted by a local farmer who has been recently driven off his farm by an ogre and wants help reclaiming his farm from the brute. When Grakkok sees the word “ogre”, his blood begins to boil. In his head he thinks that this could be his chance to fell his first giant, and he is ready to strap on his axe and head straight for the farm. Brutus and Ronak seem willing to help even though there is no reward being offered beyond the farmer being willing to give one of his “attractive” daughters to be the wife of whoever helps him.
They are readying to set out when Sherriff Hemlock enters the bar. The shoanti man approaches their table and introduces himself. He then proceeds to thank them for the help they provided against the goblins the day before. He tells them that if they don’t mind he’d like them to help him with a quick task. They agree, and he leads them to temple. On the way he explains that he is concerned that the goblins might have had help from someone inside the town in their raid because the guards found a ladder propped up against the wall that looked like it was one from in town, and it seems likely that the goblins made use of the ladder to get into Sandpoint.
At the temple they meet Father Zantus. He tells the characters that a band of goblins raided one of the small mausoleums in the bone yard behind the temple. Together father Zantus, Sheriff Hemlock and the PCs walk to the mausoleum to check it out. It is a small stone structure, only about 20’ by 20’, but the ground in front it is churned up, and Grakkok notices plenty of goblin tracks as well as a set of human sized footprints.
Ranok investigates inside the building and is immediately set on by a pair of skeletons waiting inside. One of them claws him viciously, but he destroys it with a single punch. Grakkok rushes in and cleaves the second skeleton down with his axe. Father Zantus then tends to Ranok’s injury with a healing spell. Inside the mausoleum they find one of the sarcophagi with its lid removed. This is where father Eziekial Tobyn, the former town priest who was killed in the fire when the previous temple burnt down, was buried. Strangely, his bones are missing. Ranok also finds a mysterious grey robe on the ground. Brutus examines the robe and determines that it is likely the remains of a magical item known as a robe of bones. A robe of bones is a strange necromantic item that has patches sewn on it. Each patch has an image of an undead creature like a skeleton sewn into it, and if the patch is removed and the correct command word spoken the undead can be brought forth. No patches remain on this robe, but Brutus suspects that this is where the two skeletons might have come from.
Sheriff Hemlock and Father Zantus are at a loss to guess why goblins might have wanted the bones of the father Tobyn. It all seems very strange. Grakkok decides to try to follow the tracks left by the goblins. They lead to the town wall and then end. On the other side of the wall they continue, and the PCs decide to track them. They eventually meet up with the road. The heroes follow the road for a while looking for tracks diverting off the road. Eventually they find about a dozen goblin tracks veering off in a southerly direction towards the escarpment known to the locals as Devil’s Platter. Sheriff Hemlok has a great deal of business to attend to back in town. He advises against the three of them hunting down so many goblins on their own, but leaves them to do as they please.
Session #1, Part #3, Burnt Offerings
Grakkok is eager to track the goblins and they follow them. The trail leads them to Devil’s Platter and a narrow rocky path that carves its way steeply up the platter. They decide they don’t want to risk going up it and being ambushed by goblins on their home turf, so they keep following the edge of the escarpment for a ways. Not far past the pathway they see a cave about fifty feet up. At the bottom of the escarpment, below the cave, they find the remains of several bird carcasses. Ranok recalls that the name of the tribe that is most commonly seen scavenging at Junker’s End in town is called the Birdcrunchers, and they are rumored to lair in caves along the edge of the platter.
Against the advice of his companions, Grakkok decides to climb up to the cave to check it out. He strips off his hide armour to make the climbing easier and then with only his axe on his back, he makes his way to the top. The back of the cave has a tunnel exiting it, which leads deeper into the escarpment. Grakkok is considering scouting down the tunnel when he hears something whistling a tune coming down the tunnel towards him. He decides to climb back out onto the escarpment and moves off to the side of the cave. A goblin soon appears with a bucket of waste. It spots Brutus and Ranok waiting down below. Then it squeals and throws the slop down at them. Brutus gets out of the way, but a dead gull carcass lands on Ranok’s head. The dwarven monk responds with his sling, and the stone catches the goblin right in the forehead, killing him and causing him to fall down the cliff to land at Ranok’s feet.
At this point, Grakkok returns to the little cave and lowers a rope down for Brutus and Ranok, and they climb up to join the ranger. Next they scout down the tunnel a ways and find that it opens into another cave, but when they hear a sound similar to vicious rats coming from up ahead, they decide that they don’t want to press on into what might be a lair infested with dozens of goblins and their foul pets. The trio decides to return to town and possibly come back at another time (ideally with a fourth PC in tow).
Back in Sandpoint, they make a brief report to Sheriff Hemlock and then rest for the night. The next day they set out for the farms to south. It takes some time to find which farm farmer Egan and his family is staying at, but eventually they locate him and he thanks them for coming to his aid. He explains how an ogre ran him and his family off his farm and now occupies the place. He’s not a rich man, so he has no money to offer, but he does say that each of the PCs can have one of his daughters as a bride. However, none of them are all that beautiful or of real interest to the two dwarves and the half orc.
It is late in the afternoon when they reach Egan’s farm. From the cover of a hedgerow they watch the ogre emerge from the farmhouse, go to the pigpen and kill one of the few remaining pigs. Then the beast throws the dead pig over his shoulder and takes it into the farmhouse. Once he’s inside, the heroes move in. Grakkok approaches first trying to be stealthy. However, it turns out the ogre has a pet boar, and the boar notices him approaching. It snorts and charges out of the farmhouse goring Grakkok. Grakkok backs away and then cleaves it with his axe. The blow enrages it all the more. Ranok moves up to fight the boar. Brutus completes the casting of an enlarge person spell, which he uses on Grakkok, causing the dwarf to grow to a size much more suited to taking on an ogre. Then the ogre lumbers out of the farmhouse, carrying a big wooden club. It shouts and bellows at the PCs, and Grakkok responds with a swing of his enlarged long axe that cuts deep into the ogre, making it howl in pain. Brutus unleashes a colour spray spell that briefly stuns and blinds the ogre. This gives the heroes time to take down the boar, which gores Ranok. By the time the ogre recovers the boar has been felled. It doesn’t take long for the three of them to finish the ogre, but before they do it clubs Ranok over the head, nearly killing him. He’s left unconscious on the ground but still clinging to life.
Grakkok cuts the head off the dead ogre. Then they find a cart and load Ranok in it along with the ogre head and the boar. It turns out the boar is miraculously still alive, but it too is unconscious. Grakkok wants to try to save the boar. He doesn’t like killing animals unless absolutely necessary and he feels a strange connection to the beast. With Egan’s help they haul the cart back to Egan’s brother’s farm where they surely rest for the night. This concludes the first session.
GMs Notes: Overall, I think the first session went well. One of the players couldn't attend, so we only had 3 PCs, but we should have a halfling oracle joining the party next session. I added in options for a few side quests (i.e., the ogre encounter) to open it up a little and make the adventure a little more sandboxy. I had a feeling that with a ranger in the party they would want to try to track the goblins back to their lair. That put them at the lair of the Birdcrunchers, which they might end up returning to next session.
I was a little worried about the final combat because an ogre is very dangerous for a group of 1st level PCs, but they handled themselves well (enlarge person and colour spray came in real handy), and only Ranok was nearly killed.
I'm looking forward to Session #2, which is scheduled for this Friday.
Session #2, Part #1- Burnt Offerings (Knocking about town)
Characters: Brutus (half orc, wizard 1), Grakkok (Dwarf, Ranger 1), Ronak Shalesplitter (Dwarf, Monk 1), Ria Harlech (Human, Fighter)
Having helped farmer Egan slay the ogre that drove him off his farm, the heroes awaken the next day at his Egan’s brother’s farm- well Grakkok and Brutus do; poor Ronak is still unconscious from having been clubbed in the head by the ogre the day before. In fact, based on the huge dent in his skull, farmer Egan is amazed that he’s still alive. That morning Egan hooks a horse up to his cart and offers to help take Ronak, the nearly dead boar and the ogre’s head back to Sandpoint. As they are preparing to leave they spot a woman approaching the farm. She’s clearly a warrior, as she’s wearing armor and has a longbow, waraxe and shield strapped to her back. She introduces herself as Ria Harlech, and says that she’s heard rumors that the PCs killed an ogre the day before.
They soon learn that Ria is a young widow. Her husband was a mercenary captain who took her as his wife after he raided her village back in the River Lands when she was twelve. She travelled with his mercenary company for several years, and he taught her how to fight. Eventually, after suffering a serious injury to his leg, he retired to his childhood home of Sandpoint and established a farm where he hoped to begin a family with Ria. Sadly, this past winter, they were raided by Licktoad goblins from the Brinestump marsh. They fended off the raid, but Ria’s husband was killed. Ria had little interest in farming, and when she heard word of adventurers in the area, she saw an opportunity to return to a life of adventure and battle.
Ria offers to accompany them back to Sandpoint and join them in slaying goblins; that’s good enough for Grakkok. Thus Ria joins the party, and she, Grakkok, Brutus and farmer Egan take an unconscious Ronak back to Sandpoint. When they enter town a crowd soon gathers to look at ogre head and follows them through town. Their first stop is the temple where Father Zanthus heals Ronak. They then take the boar to the Goblin Squash stables where Grakkok makes a deal with the owner to stable the boar. The owner is a retired ranger, and has an excellent rapport with animals. He believes that he can help nurse the creature back to health and is willing to do so as long as Grakkok provides it with food and gives him the ears from the ogre head to nail to his rafters along with his vast collection of goblin ears. Grakkok happily agrees to the terms.
After dropping off the boar, they take the ogre head to Sherriff Hemlock and collect a 50 gp bounty from the creature. Then they make their way towards the Rusty Dragon to celebrate with some drinks. On their way they encounter Aldren Foxglove, who seems hurt that they went “boar hunting” without him. He attempts to apologize for having offended them, but his apology merely annoys them more:
“ I get the feeling I’ve done something to offend you. If I have I’m sorry. I hope it wasn’t my comment about the short arms. I didn’t mean anything by it. I didn’t realize you people were so sensitive. You have a lot more in common with elves than I thought. Anyhow, I will be returning to Magnimar tomorrow, but if you are ever in the city you are more than welcome to pay me a visit and stay in my townhouse. I could show you around the big city and take you to all the best places to eat and drink. I guarantee you will have a splendid time.”
It is the comment about dwarves having things in common with elves that seems to really rub Grakkok and Ronak the wrong way, and it inspires Grakkok to teach Aldren a “special dwarven greeting,” which amounts to backhand across the face that sends him staggering off down the road.
At the Rusty Dragon, Ameiko, the owner, offers Brutus a part time job as a chef in exchange for free room and board and under the condition that he quits working at the Hagfish since his seafood gumbo has been taking away her business. Ameiko shows Brutus the kitchen and he is quite impressed, particularly by her collection of exotic Tian spices. He agrees to her offer.
While Brutus is getting the tour of the kitchen, Ameiko’s father Lonjiku storms into the inn demanding to see his daughter. He almost immediately gets into a verbal argument with Ronak, but before it can get too heated Ameiko emerges from the kitchen to break things up. At this point her father demands that she leave with him for Magnimar, and this ultimatum initiates an argument between the two them in Minkanin that ends with Lonjiku trying to drag her out of the inn and her hitting him over the head with a soup ladle and sending him on his way.
Afterwards Ronak asks if she’s okay, and she explains that everything is fine and that her father doesn’t approve of her lifestyle, which is that of a former adventurer who opened an inn. He was threatening to leave her out of the will and disown her if she didn’t go with him to Magnimar to get away from the goblin danger. His threats have shaken her up a little, but she’s clearly a strong-willed, independent young woman who can take care of herself.
They rest the night, and next morning while the four adventurers are eating breakfast at the Rusty Dragon they are approached by Sherriff Hemlock. He tells them that the elf ranger Shalelu has just arrived in town and is meeting with the mayor and council. He thinks they might wish to attend in order to meet her and potentially learn more of the goblin threat. They take him up on his offer and head for the town hall. There they meet Mayor Deverin, Shalelu and few of the town’s other most affluent folk.
Shalelu is able to brief them on the goblin tribes of the region. There are five tribes in the area and members of all five tribes were involved in the raid, suggesting that a powerful individual was able to unite them. The fact that the raid was quite possibly a distraction to steal of the bones of the town’s former high priest is odd and in her opinion and suggests that whoever is behind the raid is not a goblin. She also theorizes that the Mosswood goblins and the Thistletop goblins are the two tribes with the most clout and thus most likely to be able to organize a large scale raid on the town. Ranok and his companions offer to accompany Shalelu in investigating some of the tribal lairs, but she says that she prefers to work alone- at least for the time being.
After Shalelu finishes provideing her take on the situation, Sherriff Hemlock tells them that he plans to take some men to Magnimar where he hopes to garner some help from the city and return with reinforcements to bolster the town guard. While he’s gone he asks that the heroes stay close to town to ease the anxious town’s folk and to be on hand if there is another attack. They are willing to help, but are interested in earning an income as well. He agrees to pay each of them 5 gp a day to be around town until he returns, and that is enough to convince them to stick around.
Session #2, Part #2- Burnt Offerings (The Glassworks)
A couple of mornings after the Sherriff departs town Brutus is up early working in the kitchen of the Rusty Dragon. Strangely Ameiko is nowhere to be found, and she is always up early. Bethana the halfling maid is most concerned, and upon investigating her room she discovers a note. The note is to Ameiko from her estranged half brother Tsuto. It is written in Minkain. Luckily Bethana has learned the language from Ameiko, and she translates it while Brutus scribes. They learn that Tsuto wanted to meet with his sister at their father’s glassworks at midnight the night before. Apparently Tsuto had news he wanted to share with his sister regarding Lonjiku being involved with the goblin raid. It seems that Ameiko had gone to the meeting but not returned.
Bethana tells Brutus a bit about Tsuto. He’s not Lonjiku’s real son. He’s a half elf bastard that was the result of Ameiko’s mother having an affair with an elven man; Lonjiku was enraged by this, and he had the child put in the Turandok academy- the local boarding school/orphanage. He forbade Ameiko or his wife from having anything to do with the boy. Five years ago, around the same time the old temple burnt down, Ameiko’s mother fell from the balcony of the family manor, which overlooks the sea. The fall killed her. Lonjiku claims that it was suicide, but many folk, including Bethana, suspect he murdered her for the dishonor she caused him.
Brutus then gathers his companions, and they decide to head over to the glassworks to investigate. They find the glassworks closed, but plumes of smoke still waft up from the chimneys of the glass furnaces. A local is knocking on the front door when they arrive, and they learn that he was to pick up several vases for his daughter’s wedding. He is most annoyed the shop is closed. Grakkok and Ronak break down the door. They discover that the front shop area has been vandalized, and from deeper in the building they can hear the sounds of high-pitched giggling. Grakkok knows goblins when he hears them, and he readies his crossbow. Ronak sends the local yokel to go fetch the guard. Then Grakkok, Ronak, Brutus and Ria head in.
In the main workshop area they discover eight goblins being goblins. The heroes don’t hesitate and they attack. Ria and Ronak rush in first. Ria charges into battle with her dwarven waraxe and shield, and she promptly cleaves a goblin nearly in half. Ronak moves in unarmed, fighting effectively with his bare hands. Grakkok climbs up onto a large worktable and starts firing crossbow bolts. Brutus stays near an exit, and after protecting himself with mage armor he starts hurling bolts of telekinetic force at the goblins. Ronak suffers some injuries from the goblins’ dog slicers and Ria takes a minor wound, but the small, poorly equipped goblins are over matched. Soon five are dead, and the other three are fleeing. The adventurers pursue them, and as they move through the workshop, they see Lonjiku. He’s sitting in a chair, bound with rope but dead. Molten glass has been poured over his head, making for a grisly murder scene. They have no time to examine the body closely, and they follow the goblins into the basement.
At the bottom of the stairs, Grakkok, who is leading the way with his axe drawn, is attacked by a vicious goblin dog. It doesn’t take him long to kill the giant rodent, and while he does so the rest of group moves into the halls after the goblins. The goblins are panicked and shouting, “Tsuto, Tsuto, Tsuto!” This results in the half elf emerging from his chambers. He reeks of alcohol, but that doesn’t stop him from being able to fight. He and Ronak face off while Ria and Brutus take down the remaining three goblins. Ronak holds his own briefly, but Tsuto is a similarly trained in lethal unarmed combat techniques, and he is more experienced than Ronak. It isn’t long before he brings the already wounded dwarf into unconsciousness with a flurry of blows. Grakkok, Brutus and Ria then close in on the half elf and his final remaining goblin ally. Brutus, who up until this point had not been overly useful in battle, casts a colour spray spell that he had been saving up. It blinds and stuns both the goblin and Tsuto. This spell turns the odds in the party’s favour and Grakkok and Ria are able to bring him down with non-lethal damage. They take him alive and use a healing potion they find on his person to restore Ronak back to consciousness.
The town guard arrives shortly after Tsuto is bound, and after Ronak breaks his hands, he is hauled off to the barracks to be tossed in a cell so that he can be properly interrogated. The heroes investigate the remainder of the basement. They find a storeroom that has been converted into a make shift prison, and in it they find Ameiko. She is unharmed, but explains that Tsuto had murdered their father. He wanted her to join with him and his goblin allies, and when she refused he turned on her and took her as a captive.
Besides rescuing Ameiko they find some valuables on Tsuto including a ring of protection and a journal that provides them with some insights about what is going on. They learn that Tsuto had become involved with a woman who was the daughter of father Tobyn- the village’s former high priest. Apparently she is a follower of Lamastu, the demon queen/goddess of monsters and monstrous births. She has some sort of “celestial taint” she is trying to remove, and she believes that she can rid herself of this “taint” by undergoing a demonic transformation. Her plan is to make sacrifices to Lamastu in exchange for being transformed into some sort of demonic creature. She has already sacrificed the bones of her father on the altar, and this sacrifice has granted her a demonic arm. Her next step seems to be to slaughter and burn the town of Sandpoint in Lamastu’s name, which she hopes will allow her to complete the transformation.
From what they can gather from lewd sketches and entries in the journal, Tsuto’s lover was quite attractive, and he was trying to convince her not go through with the transformation, though he had no issue with her laying waste to Sandpoint, as it was the home of his hated step father- the man Tsuto believes murdered his mother. He hasn’t had any success turning her away from her obsession, and he seems to have come to terms with her going through with the transformation. He also has not given up on their relationship, and he prays that she will be transformed into a succubus, as he’s heard that they are physically attractive demons.
In addition, they learn some other useful facts in the journal. It seems that Tsuto’s lover is investigating some lower chambers in the goblin’s lair at a place called Thistletop in hopes of releasing a being called Malfeskor, which she thinks will be a useful ally in the upcoming attack on Sandpoint. There is debate between Tsuto and a goblin chief named Ripnugget on how best to attack the town. Tsutu seems to favor using the smuggler’s tunnels below the glassworks and allying with a creature called Erlyium who apparently has a lair within these tunnels. Ripnugget wants to lead a more frontal assault.
Upon learning of smugglers tunnels below the glassworks, they decide to do some more investigating. It doesn’t take them long to find the entrance to the tunnels. By this time there are more guards swarming about the scene of Lonjiku’s murder and collecting a statement from Ameiko. Ranok convinces them to build a temporary barricade to the tunnel’s entrance and post guards at it. The heroes then leave the glassworks and head to the temple to talk to father Zanthus and get Ranok properly healed.
From father Zanthus, they learn that father Tobyn did have a “daughter.” The girl’s name was Nualia. She wasn’t his true daughter though; she was a foundling, and though Zanthus only came to Sandpoint after the temple burned down and father Tobyn died, it is his understanding that she was an aasimar. Her celestial heritage resulted in her being something of an oddity and outcast in the town. Her unearthly beauty made it hard to lead a normal life, and she was often subject to strange requests- like townsfolk wanting locks of her hair to use in herbal remedies. She lived at the former temple with father Tobyn, and it is believed that she died in the fire when the temple burned down. It now seems that she lived.
With Ronak healed, they decide to return to the glassworks. The guards have just finished the barricade. Ronak immediately orders them to take it down, so that they can investigate the tunnels.
awesome. Keep em coming! It's really fun learning how other group deal with things :)
Thanks. I still have part #3 of session #2 to come. This campaign runs more or less once every two weeks, so that's about how often I'll be updating. I alternating between running sessions of this campaign with my Age of Worms campaign, which I also have a journal going for.
Session #2, Part #3- Burnt Offerings (The Smugglers Tunnels and Ancient Catacombs- aka KOed Dwarves)
Ronak, Grakkok and Brutus all have darkvision. Ria, the only human in the group, doesn’t, but instead of lighting a torch, she follows them blindly into the tunnels, hanging onto Brutus’ robe. The tunnel leads to a small sea cave that is carved into the bluff that Sandpoint is built on, providing an exit. A treacherous path winds down to a small rocky beach. The adventurers assume that the goblins must have used this cave as a means of getting into the smugglers’ tunnel and the glassworks.
However, when exploring the tunnel they find another tunnel branching off of it well before it ends. It appears that this side tunnel was once bricked shut, but someone has smashed through the wall, allowing access to it once again. They make their way in. Initially Ria waits at the entrance. Grakkok takes the lead, scouting ahead. To the right of the tunnel it opens into a small cave, but continues beyond it. Grakkok stealthily moves up to peer into the cave, and catches a waft of a foul vinegar smell. Looking in the dwarf spots a pale, hideous, hunched, hairless humanoid creature shuffling towards them with three fingered hands that end in claws. It somewhat resembles a ghoul, but its lower jaw separates in half in horrific manner that resemble mandibles.
Grakkok doesn’t know what it is, but he doesn’t wait to find out. He brings his axe down on the aberration and nearly kills it. It fights back with its teeth and claws, but Ronak rushes up to help him finish it before it can cause any real damage to the ranger.
Grakkok and Ronak continue to scout the side tunnel, and soon discover a place where it has broken through into another underground complex- one with an ancient and elaborate architecture. Brutus is brought in, and he identifies it as Thassilonian. He explains that Thassilon is a fallen and near mythical empire that was divided into kingdoms that were ruled by tyrannical sorcerous kings known as the Runelords. Little is known about this lost empire, but Thassilonian ruins can be found throughout Varisia. In fact, Brutus believes that the structure that the locals refer to as the “Old Light”, which dominates Sandpoint’s skyline, may be a Thassilonian ruin.
This piques their interest, and Grakkok enters the newly discovered chambers. After briefly following a hall, he comes to a room that features a life-sized statue made of red stone that depicts an attractive but hateful looking woman in flowing robes and an elaborate headdress wielding a ranseur. The ranseur is a real weapon that is separate from the statue. Brutus examines it with a detect magic spell, and though it only radiates a mild preservative enchantment, it is finely crafted and probably of significant value to a collector. There is some debate about who will try to remove it from the statue. Finally Ria volunteers under the condition that she will keep half the money it sells for. The rest of the party backs well away, waiting for her to trigger some hideous trap, but nothing happens and she smiles happily as she frees the weapon.
Further exploration leads them to a larger chamber that looks as though it was once a prison room of some sort, for it has a score of cells lining its perimeter. It features a wooden balcony with stairs leading down into it and a causeway leading off the balcony that connects it to another hallway. Based on Brutus’ estimates the wood is thousands of years old and should have long ago crumbled to dust, but the entire complex is suffused with the same preservative enchantment that was protecting the ranseur, and instead of turning to dust the wood has petrified.
Grakkok investigates. He cautiously descends the stairs from the balcony to the floor of the room and moves towards one of the cells to look inside. As he does so, two more creatures, similar to the one he previously fought, burst out from hiding under the balcony and attack him. Ronak leaps off the stairs to his aid, while Brutus tosses a torch into the room so Ria can see. She takes advantage of the light to fire her bow from the balcony. The fighting is fierce and Grakkok soon falls to the thing’s claws and snapping mandibles. The dwarves manage to kill one of the aberrations, but the other one keeps Ranok on the defensive. The dwarven monk does his best to fend it off and lead it away from Grakkok so that Brutus can get down to him and attempt to administer the ranger a potion. Meanwhile Ria keeps firing arrows at it. Unfortunately, she’s not a great archer, and she’s trying to avoid hitting Ranok, making it that much more challenging to target the thing. A couple of arrows wound it, but none hit anything vital.
Ronak’s efforts to draw the remaining fiend away from Grakkok work, and Brutus is able to get to his ally. Upon inspecting the wounded dwarf, he realizes that the hearty ranger has stabilized for the time being, but is likely too wounded for even a healing potion to get him back on his feet. As Brutus is examining him, Ronak succumbs to a bite wound from its mandibles and falls unconscious. The creature is terribly wounded and full of rage, but the dwarven half of the party is nearly dead. It sees Brutus and surges towards the wizard who rushes up the stairs onto the balcony. Before it can get to him the half orc hits it with a well-placed acid splash spell (a critical hit for … wait for it … 2 damage!!). It plods on, but just before it attacks the nearly defenseless wizard Ria slays it with a final arrow. Brutus then takes the potion he was going to feed to Grakkok and administers it to Ranok. The monk regains consciousness, and they pick up Grakkok and withdraw from the dungeon, returning to the glassworks, thus concluding the session.
Thanks Carb!
GMs Notes for Session #2
I had a lot of fun running this session. The low level combats are quick, but still dangerous, which is nice. No deaths yet, but poor Ranok has been KOed 3 times in 2 sessions, and Grakkok has now gone down once as well, so some close calls.
Tsuto is a pretty dangerous opponent for level #1 characters, but spells like sleep and colour spray can one shot him, and Brutus pulled that off; otherwise he might have been a real problem for the heroes.
The Sinspawn were also fairly dangerous- at least 2 at a time, but I'm not sure that they really warrant a CR 3 rating. I'd probably give them CR 2.
The characters earned enough xp to level up at the end of the session (on the fast track). The players are rolling for everything with this batch of characters (attributes, hp etc.), and they all got lucky and rolled quite a bit above average with their level two hp rolls, so they'll be a little more hearty for next session.
It looks like our 3rd Session of this campaign will happen tomorrow evening. I'm looking forward to it.
Tonight was an eventful session. It looks like I have a couple of additions to make to the RotRL obituaries page. Journal to come.
Session #3, Part #1- Burnt Offerings (some business in town)
Characters: Ronak (Dwarf, Monk 2), Brutus (Half Orc, Wizard 2), Ria (Human, Fighter 2), Gorrak (Dwarf, Ranger 2), Oswald (Halfling, Oracle 2)
Ronak, Brutus and Ria leave the ancient catacombs below Sandpoint with an unconscious Gorrak slung over Ronak’s broad shoulder. When they exit the Glassworks they find that a large crowd of townsfolk has gathered, wanting to know what’s been happening. Rumors have been flying wildly around town about the day’s events, and few folk seem to know what is really going on. Ranok’s mother, Preya, emerges from the crowd and starts fawning over her son, most concerned about his health. For the life of her, she can’t figure out why he’s taken up a life of adventure instead of following in the family trade and working as a stonemason. To make matters worse in her mind, he doesn’t even wear armor or carry an axe. She tries to lure him home with offers of stew and biscuits, but he refuses, motioning to his unconscious dwarven companion and indicating that he must get him to the temple for healing before he dies.
Before they reach the temple they are interrupted by two more individuals who want to talk to them. One is the mayor, Kendra Deverin, she is on her way to the Glassworks to see the damage, but wants to debrief with the adventurers at the town hall in an hour. Finally, the local sage Brobert Quink is in the crowd when they emerge, and he approaches them expressing an interesting in the ranseur Ria is carrying that caught his eye. He realizes it isn’t a good time, but he invites them to stop by his home so that he can examine it, and potentially purchase it from them.
At the temple father Zantus shakes his head a little to see another dwarf at the steps that is on the verge of death. Ronak points out that this time it wasn’t him. Zantus graciously casts a couple of healing spells on Gorrak, bringing him back to consciousness. He then inquires about the events of the day, and introduces them to an old friend of his, a halfling named Oswald Goodfellow. Goodfellow is an oracle and a recent arrival from Magnimar. He is in search of some stalwart companions to heal. Zantus encourages them to take him on (more like insists) since they clearly need regular medical attention.
Next, with Oswald in tow, they go to city hall and meet with Kendra and Titus Scarnetti. Ronak and Brutus go into great detail about all the day’s events, and Kendra makes Titus take notes, which obviously angers the man. There is a debate about what should be done next. Titus is of the opinion that the catacombs should be sealed off, but Kendra, Brutus and Ronak think that they should explore them properly first and find out what threats might be lurking under their town. In the end Kendra has the final say, and since the heroes seem to be volunteering to go back into the dungeon, she gives them the go ahead to explore it further and report their findings back to her.
That evening they pay a visit Brobert Quink at his home. He examines the ranseur they acquired from the statue, and explains that he believes that it is a genuine Thassilonian artifact, and he believes it is a replica of a weapon wielded by one of the ancient Runelords. He is most interested in the catacombs they discovered, and would like to see them for himself, but not until they are safe. Finally, discussion turns to other Thassilonian ruins, such as the Old Light. Quink explains that he believes that Old Light was in fact a weapon that hurled magical fire from the top of it, not a lighthouse.
In the night when they are sleeping they are awakened to a horrifying baying sound that threatens to overwhelm them with supernatural fear. They head out into the streets and soon find that nearly the whole town was affected. They also discover there was a murder, and outside the Fatman’s Feedbag they find folk have gathered around the body of a man known in town as Clive the Juggler. Clive’s throat has been torn out and his arms are missing. According to a witness, Clive was attacked by a pair of flying, demonic hounds that swooped out the sky, tore him to shreds and left him dead on the street. The hounds flew off, and it was their baying sound that caused fear through the town. Based on the description Brutus suspects that the creatures might have been a type of outsider known as Yeth Hounds.
Session #3, Part #2- Burnt Offerings (Return to the Catacombs- PCs vs. Erylium round #1)
The next day the five heroes return to the catacombs. In the first cave area, they are assaulted by another one of the strange ghoul-like creatures they had previously encountered in the complex and a hulking, mutated goblin with three arms. The goblin fights with a weapon in each hand, and is a bit of a beast in combat. Brutus tries to take the pair out quick with a colour spray spell, but it has no effect on either of them. They have to fight them the old fashioned way. Ronak, Gorrak and Ria engage the fiends in melee, while Brutus stays back and hurls his telekinetic fists. Oswald makes use of his slingstaff, and offers up healing as needed. The fight doesn’t last long, and the heroes bring down their enemies with relative ease. Ronak takes the most injuries when he is mauled by the “ghoul,” but Oswald gives him the healing he needs to be able to press on.
Gorrak scouts the way, and they further explore the catacombs. It isn’t long before they discover a chapel type room featuring an altar formed from a single block of black stone. As Gorrak, Brutus and Ria are inspecting the room another one of the “ghouls” sneaks up behind Oswald, who is still in the hallway. It bites him from behind with its mandibles. Luckily Ronak comes to his rescue, hurling him out of harm’s way and stepping in front of the halfing to fend off the aberration. Gorrak hurries to join Ronak, and takes up position behind him, using the reach of his dwarven long axe to still be able to attack his enemy. Gorrak cleaves its skull open before it off before it can inflict further harm on the party.
Examining the room and the altar, Brutus believes it to be dedicated to Lamashtu- the demon goddess of monsters. A small basin filled with foul water has been carved into the top of the altar, and he recalls that such waters are said to be able to cause horrible mutations. He speculates that this might have been the reason that the goblin they had encountered earlier was mutated. As a transmuter, mutation is a topic of great interest to Brutus. He is tempted to drink from the waters, but common sense wins out, and he resists the urge. In addition, while he’s pondering the prospect, Oswald makes himself busy over flowing and diluting the basin with create water spells, removing the option of consuming the vile liquid.
The Chapel has a pair of stone double doors at one end that opens into a much larger cathedral like room with a 30’ high ceiling. At the far end of the room is a large, raised pulpit that features a strange, triangular shaped pool of bubbling orange liquid. Before the pulpit, in the center of the room, is a circular pool of water that has a circle of iron spikes with human skulls impaled on them emerging from it. The room is freezing cold. Gorrak boldly enters. As he does so, he hears a cackling voice screech at him, “Infidel, how dare you invade my holy sanctum!” He can’t see the source of the voice, but it sounds as though it is coming from the air above the triangular pool. Then he sees what appears to be blood dripping out of the air. It falls into the pool; the pool bubbles intensely, and another of the “ghouls” emerges from its waters. Then the pool’s orange glow diminishes. Next he hears chanting in a foul tongue that he doesn’t understand. Ria hurries into the room to help Gorrak. Brutus and Oswald hang back in the chapel, while Ronak takes up position in the doorway. The “ghoul” lopes down a set of stairs from the pulpit and makes its way towards Gorrak.
The dwarf suddenly feels a magical effect wash over him, and he becomes frozen in place. This causes his enemy to turn visible. The heroes see a tiny, flying demoness hovering above the orange pool. Oswald and Brutus try to target her with ranged attacks, but have little luck, for she is tiny, quick, and seems to be resistant to their common weapons. She then attempts another spell. Ria is overcome with a sudden urge to hurl her axe into the pool of water, but she resists the command, and instead drops her shield and axe and readies her bow. Gorrak manages to overcome his paralysis and intercepts the “ghoul.”
The demon begins casting another spell. This time Oswald and Brutus attempt to disrupt her casting with their attacks. They almost succeed, but she manages to complete the spell and summon a demonic rat into the fight. Gorrak deals with both the aberration and the rat while the others ready more attacks to try to disrupt the demon’s spells. However she doesn’t cast a spell this time. Instead she cuts her wrist with her little dagger and drips more blood into the pool, bringing forth another spawn. She receives a barrage of missiles in retaliation, but most either miss her or have very limited effect. Furthermore, the few minor wounds she has received appear to be healing with unnatural speed.
The fight then takes a turn for the worse. Gorrak, who has been fairing well against her minions, suddenly succumbs to a sleep hex she curses him with. He falls to the ground, and her newest spawn immediately steps up to him and bites out his throat!
Ria and Ronak finish off the spawn to avenge their fallen companion, but there is little anyone in the party can do to harm the flying demoness. She attempts a couple of more slumber hexes, but they are all resisted. She then realizes that she is also running out of combat options. She has no interest in fighting the heroes up close, so she turns invisible and flees the room. Brutus has prepared a colour spray spell, and is in front of the doors waiting for her to come out. He blasts her with the spell, but she resists its effects and flies past him, disappearing down the tunnel.
Session #3, Part #3- Burnt Offerings (PCs vs Erylium round #2 and the Vargouille's Kiss)
There is much discussion about what should be done next. Eventually it is decided that they will leave Grakkok’s body in the cathedral for the time being and further explore the catacombs. They make their way back to the room that they had previously discovered, which contained the statue of the female Runelord. They then follow a series of short stone stairs up. The stairs end at a landing and a door. Ronak and Ria open the door and finds a 15’ diameter circular room with a 5’ diameter pool of water in the middle of it. On the opposite side of the room is another door. The room is inhabited by a horrific, flying fiend. It looks like a monstrous flying head with bat like wings emerging from where its ears should be. It shrieks and bites Ronak, wounding him slightly. Ria and Ronak strike back nearly killing it. Then it lets out a horrid shriek that leaves Oswald temporarily paralyzed. It moves in to “kiss” Oswald, and as it does so Ria and Ronak cut it down.
Unbeknownst to the party, the little, winged demoness has been following them, and she is lurking behind them, cloaked with invisibility magic. While they are distracted by the vargouille (which is what the flying head is known as), she summons a fiendish, giant frog that appears behind Brutus, who is standing on the stairs outside the room. It attacks him from behind and snaps him up in its jaws. Ronak and Ria come to his aid, helping him pull free of the frog’s grasp (aid other actions), and the half orc flees into the room behind the monk and the fighter. However this leaves a paralyzed halfling before the hulking, demonic frog, and it takes the opportunity to try to eat him (coup de grace). It doesn’t much seem to like halfing and spits his badly chewed body out (the player had two hero chips to save him after he failed his Fort save against the coup de grace). Ranok and Ria then slay the frog. The demoness curses and hurls a dagger, causing minimal damage, but it makes her visible. They note that the dagger has an enchantment that causes it to magically return to her.
She then tries to make herself invisible once more, but fails to concentrate well enough to do so. She flutters back down the stairs with Ria and Ronak in pursuit. Brutus picks up the unconscious halfing and carries him down the stairs behind them. The monk and the fighter do their best to knock the little demon out of the air and get a hold of her, but she soon manages to turn herself invisible again and escape.
With Garrok dead and Oswald unconscious, the heroes decide to leave the dreadful place. They retrieve Garrok’s body, and soon they find themselves back at the temple where father Zantus heals Oswald.
That afternoon Oswald realizes that he has become infected with some sort of disease. His hair starts falling out, and his ears become leathery and pointed. Brutus isn’t sure what is wrong, but suspects it has something to do with the vargouille’s “kiss.” They go to Brodert Quink, and he is able to tell them that he’s no expert on such creatures, but he’s heard that they can infect their victims so that they too will eventually be transformed into the horrors. When the curse/disease reaches its conclusion the victim’s head will look like a vargouille and will rip itself free of the body, completing the transformation. Oswald is suitably horrified at this prospect. Quink doesn’t know how to cure the disease, so they immediately head back to the temple and explain their problem to father Zantus.
Unfortunately, Zantus is not an overly experienced priest, although in his forties, he was merely an acolyte at the temple before father Tobyn died. He took on the role as the head priest at the temple because he was well liked by the townsfolk, gave good sermons, and there was no else in town better for the job of tending the temple. He’s never encountered anyone with such an affliction before. He suggests a removed disease spell, but he isn’t capable of performing such a miracle. However, the temple does have a remove disease scroll. He tries to use it on Oswald, but there is no guarantee that such magic will work. Sadly, the spell fails to heal the halfing (who is out of hero points). The disease continues to progress, and Oswald convinces Ronak to put him out of his misery. They take him among the ancient standing stones in the open courtyard in the center of the temple. There Father Zantus says a final prayer to the gods, and Ronak snaps his neck. They burn his body to ensure that whatever evil has infected him can’t still complete its dread work. Thus ends this rather grisly session.
Session #3, GM's Notes
As has been mentioned in other threads, Erylium is a nasty little critter for a group of 2nd level characters- unless they are prepared for her. She doesn't do a lot of damage, but if she can down a PC or two with sleep hexes and then get her minions (either sinspawn or summoned monsters) in place for a coup de grace- look out.
I wasn't really expecting the Vargouille to infect anyone to the point where the character would actually face having their head pop off and fly away. However, it's a pretty awesome way to die. Sadly, Oswald chose suicide over that.
Oswald died in his very first session of play. I felt a little bad for the player, but he's the type of guy who takes character death in a stride, so it was no big deal for him. He hadn't exactly formed a close bond with Oswald yet.
I think Gorrak's player was just starting to get into his dwarf ranger, and I spent a lot of time painting the Harsk mini for him to use, so that death was a bit more tragic, especially since he went from pretty much full hp to dead thanks to the coup de grace. Hopefully, they didn't get too discouraged.
Needless to say, they are plotting revenge on Erylium and making plans to get some nets and possibly tanglefoot bags. Brutus just levelled up to 3rd and added Glitterdust to his spell book, so they should be good to go for next session.
It looks like our next session will be tomorrow. Yay!
Since we lost two characters in the last session we have two replacements joining the ranks. It looks like one will be a Shoanti Barbarian, and the other will be a Gnome Bard.
Session #4, Part #1- Burnt Offerings (Fresh Meat, A boat ride to Thistletop)
Characters: Ronak (Dwarf, Monk 3), Brutus (Half Orc, Wizard/transmuter 3), Ria (Human, Fighter 3), Tonzay (Gnome, Bard 3), Chochok (human/shoanti, Barbarian 3)
One autumn afternoon Tonzay and Chochok find themselves on the Lost Coast road heading northeast from Magnimar with no real destination in mind. There they encounter Sheriff Belor Hemlock and his men on horseback heading hurriedly towards Magnimar. A parlay takes place, and though Chockok is somewhat belligerent, his charismatic gnome companion manages to keep the conversation friendly. They learn from Hemlock that he and his men are seeking reinforcements from Magnimar to bolster the town of Sandpoint’s defenses against a potential major goblin raid. He encourages them to go to Sandpoint and meet with Mayor Kendra Deverrin, as she can likely find a use for their skills. He also directs them to the Rusty Dragon Inn and band of adventurers that has been operating out of the place as potential trustworthy allies to be had.
That evening the tired duo wanders into Sandpoint and makes their way to the Rusty Dragon, and there Tonzay entertains the locals with his wildly comedic tales. In the middle of one such story, Ronak, Brutus and Ria stagger into the inn. They have just finished the last rites for Grakkok and Oswald and are weary from a most terrible day (see session #3). They immediately walk straight to the bar and order Ameiko’s stiffest drink, where they toast their dead companions and take a shot for each of them.
Ameiko mutters something about Brutus and his allies being two companions short, and Chochok overhears her. He and Tonzay decide to go introduce themselves, and they learn more about the woes facing Sandpoint. Ronak and Brutus reluctantly fill the pair in on recent events, and the gnome and the Shoanti volunteer their services in exchange for a share of any treasure they accumulate while adventuring.
They rest for the night, but once again the town is terrorized by the frightful baying of yeth hounds flying overhead. Few folk get a good night’s rest. The next morning, the adventurers head straight to town hall to meet with Mayor Deverrin, Titus Scarnetti, and Ethram Valdemar. They recount what happened in the catacombs the day before, and there is a discussion about what to do next. Although Ronak very much wants to return the catacombs and kill the little demon that caused them so much trouble, he figures it is more prudent to start investigating Thistletop. Mayor Deverrin offers to have her men do their best to seal off access to the smugglers tunnels so that the demon will hopefully remain trapped in the catacombs, and Titus along with his son Artus offers to accompany them in a fishing boat to scout out Thistletop from the water.
A few hours later, Titus, Artus, an old seaman named Captain Helkin, Ronak, Brutus, Ria, Chochok, and Tonzay all set sail in one of the town’s larger fishing boats. It is a single masted vessel that could hold up to ten men with ease. They sail along the coast for a few miles with Captain Helkin regaling them with tall tales of sharknados and other strangeness. Eventually they round a bend in the coast and set their eyes on Thistletop. The stone island that sits some 60’ off the shore does have an uncanny resemblance to a bald head, and Brutus surmises that it is in fact an ancient Thassilonian megalith, possibly the remains of some larger statue. A wooden stockade is perched on the top of it, and a crude, wood and rope suspension bridge connects the island with the thicket-covered top of the escarpment on the mainland. They don’t see any goblins on watch duty, so Captain Helkin is ordered to bring the boat closer. They discuss having Chochok climb Thistletop from the water.
The shoanti is eager to prove himself, and he boldly leaps into the water with all his gear on. Despite its weight, his powerful arms and legs and carry him through the crashing surf towards the island. He is nearing its base when suddenly something bites his lower leg. Knowing he stands little chance of being able to fight it in the water, he swims as fast as he can to the island and pulls himself out of the water. He clings to the wet rock at the base of the island, which is essentially a sheer cliff. The bloody surf crashes around his ankles. The wound on his leg throbs with pain and continues to bleed profusely.
His allies in the boat see that something is wrong, and the start readying ranged weapons while Titus’s boy Artus helps Ria start putting on her armor, and Titus and Captain Helkin try to guide the boat closer to the island. Brutus casts a magic missile that hits the creature even though it’s in the water and hard to see. A second later they glimpse it briefly when it leaps from the water and again bites Chochok. The thing resembles a combination between a shark and a seal. Its fangs again bite him agin, but he somehow stays clinging to the escarpment. He then tries to climb up higher to get away from it, but with his injured leg, he doesn’t make any progress. It leaps out at him again; this time his allies are ready. Brutus tags it with a well-placed shot from his crossbow, and Tonzay grazes it with his bow as well. Chochok manages to kick it away with his uninjured leg, and it falls back into the water. The attacks from the heroes seem to drive it away, for after that there is no more sign of the monster.
Captain Helkin manages to get the boat up to Chochok, and the severely wounded shoanti all but falls into the boat. Tonzay then aids him with healing magic. The scouting mission turned raid is not off to a good start. Titus asks if they wish to press on or return to Sandpoint. The heroes aren’t deterred by the setback, and they decide to continue with the mission.
According to the text the Bunyip spends most of its time in its lair. I told he player to roll a d20 and not roll a 1. If a 1 came up I had decided the bunyip was out and about and would happen upon the barbarian. Guess what the player rolled?
Session #4, Part #2- Burnt Offerings (Raid on Thistletop- chief Ripnugget's rampage)
In an effort to redeem himself, Chochok scales up the sheer cliff of the island. At the top he takes cover among the bushes and nettles growing in the shadow of stockade. There he ties a rope to a rock and tosses it down so that his companions can climb up. Soon the party has all managed the 80’ climb up, leaving Titus, Artus and Captain Helkin in the boat below. Titus has agreed to give them a few hours to scout things out and do what they can to track down and slay the yeth hounds.
Tonzay does some scouting. The gnome moves to the base of the closest of the two watchtowers that are attached to the stockade. Nearby he finds a gate that marks the main entrance. Four goblins with horsechoppas mounted on goblin dogs patrol an open patch of earth in front of the gate. There is no sign of any goblins up in either of the watchtowers. Tonzay motions for his companions to move to the base of the tower. Unfortunately they make some noise moving through the nettles and bushes. The noise draws the attention of the goblin guards, but the guards don’t have a clear line of sight through the bushes. The adventurers try to be still and stay out of sight, though they aren’t entirely successful. One of the goblins catches a glimpse of them and starts pointing and shouting. Chochok grunts and sizes up the watchtower. He ties the rope around his waist, and staying out of the line of sight of the goblins he scales the tower wall. As he nears the top he hears the calls of goblins in the tower. They had been distracted with what passes for a goblin card game, but they seem to have heard him coming up. He sneers, and with a mighty pull of his arms he vaults himself over the wall to land in the tower. Unfortunately, he goes plummeting into the stairwell. The three goblins are shocked to see the massive Shoanti crest the side of their watchtower, but the shock almost immediately turns to maniacal laughter as they see him tumble down the stairs (Chochok’s rough start continues!).
Tonzay decides that a distraction is in order, so he begins whispering the words to a spell, and as subtly as he can, he casts a silent image on the far end of the suspension bridge that connects to the island near the gate. Several illusionary figures manifest on the bridge. They appear as stealthy looking, cloaked rogues trying to sneak across the bridge. The goblins seem convinced they are real, at least for the moment. One of them looks a little perplexed regarding the bridge, but then he dismounts his dog and moves to one of the posts that helps to suspend it. He starts untying a rope and then one side of the bridge falls to the side. Tonzay tries to react to this by manipulating the illusion to show the rogues clinging to the bridge, dangling above the water. Unfortunately the lack of sound to go with his illusion make it significantly less convincing than it might otherwise be. Yet the goblins still seem to think that invaders are dangling from the bridge.
Meanwhile, Ronak grabs hold of the rope that was trailing behind Chochok (and still tied to the shoanti) when he climbed the tower. The dwarf then scales the tower, while Chochok gets to his feet and draws his earthbreaker. He stalks back up the rickety, wooden stairs to the top of the tower. The goblins at the top are so busy laughing that they don’t at first realize the danger they are in. Their laughter subsides when the barbarian shatters the skull of one of them with his earth breaker. They become even more worried when Ronak vaults over the ledge of the tower, clearing the stairwell and landing among them. A brief skirmish ensues. The two goblins land a couple of lucky slashes with their dogslicers, but they are far overmatched by the barbarian and the dwarf. It isn’t long before these goblins are dead, and the rest of the heroes have climbed up into the tower.
With the tower taken, the adventurers then start firing their bows down at the goblins and their mounts down below, but they only kill one before the goblins retreat into the stockade and start trying to raise the alarm. The characters rush down the stairs of the watchtower. At the bottom they find a room with two doors leading out. Ronak moves up to one and listens. He hears the muffled sounds of goblins gleefully screaming like vile children at play. From beyond the second door come the sounds of the goblin riders entering the stockade and shouting about “longshank invaders.” Chochok kicks that door open, and he and Ria rush to intercept the dog mounted riders.
The warrior woman and the shoanti barbarian hurry down a narrow hall to a larger room where they intercept a pair of the dog mounted guards. Unfortunately a third goblin disappears through a set of doors, heading deeper into the stockade. The goblins fight fiercely from their mounts. Ria is well protected by her shield and heavier armor, but Chockok is not so heavily armored and soon is dripping blood from several wounds, which include bites from the dogs and slashes from goblin weapons. Tonzay supports the two warriors with inspiring tales and precision shots from his bow.
Meanwhile, Ronak and Brutus go through the other door and enter a short hallway that leads to yet another door. Ronak cautiously pushes it slightly open and peaks into a large throne room beyond. There he sees trio of goblins fighting in a mock battle against illusionary human townsfolk. The source of the illusion appears to a nearby goblin warchanter. Sitting on a wooden throne at one end of the room is a well-armored goblin wearing a crown. Beside him is a pet giant gecko with a saddle on it. Presumably this goblin is Warchief Ripnugget, one of the goblin heroes mentioned by Shalelu at a council meeting a few days prior. He is obviously quite amused by the spectacle, but his amusement turns to concern and rage when one of the goblin guards bursts into his throne room on his dog blathering about intruders. The chief chugs a potion and mounts his gecko. He orders his guards to go help slay the intruders, and his warchanter takes up singing the “goblin song” to inspire the warriors.
Ronak and Brutus make a bold choice and burst into the throne room. Chief Ripnugget snarls and spurs his mount forward. He charges Ronak, slashing the monk with his dogslicer while his giant gecko bites at him. Brutus moves to the throne and casts a scorching ray spell that incinerates the warchanter, putting an end to any inspiration he might offer his troops.
The goblin reinforcements arrive to help take on Ria and Chochok. They concentrate their efforts on the barbarian since he is more wounded and less protected. He goes into his rage. He and Ria kill a few of the goblins and their dogs, but the quick little goblins dodge a number of his blows, and it isn’t long before he’s bleeding from numerous bites and cuts. Suddenly he crashes to the ground. Ria does her best to defend his fallen body so that Tonzay can move in and cast his final cure spell on him, but though the healing magic stabilizes him, it isn’t enough to revive him.
Chief Ripnugget and Ronak fight one on one in the throne room. Ronak focuses on first killing his gecko mount, a task the dwarf succeeds at with relative ease. Ripnugget manages a relatively graceful dismount of his dead lizard, and is thoroughly enraged at the dwarf for him killing his mount. He slashes and hacks at Ronak, swearing vengeance. The dwarf finds the goblin chief to be surprisingly skilled fighter, and after sustaining several wounds he realizes he’s overmatched. Brutus tries to help, but Ripnugget calls back two of his guards to deal with the wizard. As he is out of useful combat spells, he withdraws from the throne room, and heads back into the hall that leads to the watchtower, leading two of Ripnugget’s guards after him. Luckily Brutus is well protected with shield, mage armor and cat’s grace spells. The goblins can’t seem to land a hit on him, and he hurls telekinetic fists back at them as he withdraws, soon killing one.
Ria and Tonzay hear a wounded Ronak calling for help, and they rush to the throne room to aid the dwarf. They are pursued by a remaining goblin commando and a couple of goblin dogs. By the time they arrive Ronak is already badly wounded, and both Ria and Tonzay have sustained a few wounds as well. The chief then cuts Ronak down, and the dwarf falls unconscious. Ria hacks at him with her waraxe, but he parries most of her attacks. Tonzay tries to fend off a goblin dog, but suffers some nasty bite wounds and is left grievously wounded. The fight is not going well for the heroes. They do manage to kill the remaining dogs and goblin commando, and Brutus slays one of the goblins chasing him, but by the time they accomplish this Ria and Tonazy are both horribly wounded. Brutus returns to the throne room to try to help, and he arrives in time to see Ripnugget cut down Ria and then Tonzay in quick succession. Only Brutus remains. Luckily for Brutus he has yet to take a wound. Ripnugget and his final commando turn their full attention on Brutus, determined to finish the last of the intruders. In part this fits into the wizard’s plan, for he does not want them to start slitting throats of companions that might still live. Furthermore, he noticed that several of the dead goblins have potions hanging from their belts. His plan is contingent on some of these potions being healing potions.
The next several moments consist of a harrowing chase through the stockade. Brutus reaches a goblin corpse and grabs a potion. Ripnugget and his surviving minion shriek and slash at him, but fail to penetrate his arcane defenses. The half orc gets to Chochok first and pours the potion down his throat, praying that his hunch is right. The potion works and revives the barbarian. Brutus fends off Ripnugget, while the shoanti drinks another potion from a nearby goblin body, giving him even more healing. Brutus next feeds Ria a scavenged potion, but Brutus’s luck finally runs out and his sustains some serious injuries from Ripnugget, yet his sacrifice does its job. The furious barbarian gets to his feat and crushes Ripnugget’s only remaining ally with his earthbreaker. Then the hulking warrior turns on Ripnugget, landing another blow. Ripnugget rolls with it, and stays alive, but the goblin chief is now badly wounded and has both Ria and Chochok facing him. But in the end, it is Brutus that drops the chief with an acid splash cantrip.
The heroes gather all the potions they can and feed them to Ranok and Tonzay allowing them to regain consciousness. The adventurers aren’t in good health, but miraculously they are all alive.
GMs Notes
I've started to get some comments from my players- "This campaign makes Age of Worms look like a cakewalk"
Thistletop is tough. Chief Ripnugget was a beast. This session was a hair's breath from a TPK. Brutus had some chance of escaping, but the rest were in serious trouble (though players had some hero chips to spend). I threw them a bit of a bone when I hinted that they had noticed some potions on the dead goblins (which were listed in their equipment, so that wasn't fudged) and suggested that Brutus try to get his companions back in action.
I also missed a lot of attacks with Ripnugget against Brutus- granted Brutus had a 22 AC with his Cat's Grace, Shield, and Mage Armor spells, so I needed a 12 or better to hit, but I couldn't seem to roll higher than a 10 a with him against the wizard.
A TPK might have been the death knell for this campaign since there were two character deaths the last session, so I was actually pleased that they all survived the session. I'm not sure how next session's going to work out, as there's still plenty of danger to be had in the area.
Overall, it was fun session with lots of laughs.
Our next session is scheduled for tomorrow. I'm hoping to wrap up Burnt Offerings in the next session. We'll see how this one goes. They want to press on, but at the same time they are pretty spent on resources, so it may be difficult to finish dealing with the challenges of Thistletop without first going back to town to rest (or find a defensible place to hole up in Thistletop, which could be challenging).
Session #5- Burnt Offerings (Getting into trouble at Thistletop)
Characters: Ronak (dwarf, monk 3), Brutus (half orc, wizard 3), Chochok (shoanti, barbarian 3), Tonzay (gnome, bard 3), Ria (human, fighter 3)
Having just finished a most harrowing battle against Chief Ripnugget and his goblins, the heroes hastily drink scavenged healing potions, which heal the worst of their injuries. They next decide to conduct a more thorough search of the some of the rooms in the stockade that they have not yet investigated. Ronak and Brutus do most of this searching, while Ria, Chochok and Tonzay remain in the throne room and connecting hall, keeping watch.
They haven’t been searching long before a few more goblins ambush Ria. They seem to have come from the second watchtower, and they manage to get a few shots off at Ria from their bows before she and Cochok rush them and hack them down. Tonzay aids them with some archery. During this brief skirmish they spot another couple of goblins come up to investigate from a staircase that leads down into some sort of level below the stockade. However those goblins scurry back down the stairs, and for the moment neither Ria nor Chochok are interested in following them.
The rest of the party quickly comes to join them. The two humans point out the stairs that they saw the goblins go down, but they all agree that they aren’t in good enough shape to be venturing down into some sort of dungeon complex. Ronak decides to try to contain the goblins down below. He pours oil down the stairs to grease them and then keeps watch on them in case any goblins try to come up. Meanwhile, Ria and Brutus go up to the top of the watchtower the three goblins came from. They find it empty, but they realize they have a good vantage point for looking down into the courtyard below where they can see four goblin dogs barking away, presumably riled up by the sounds of combat and the smells of battle. Brutus uses his crossbow and Ria gets out her longbow. Together they start shooting the goblin dogs down below. The dogs are penned in and have no way to defend themselves against the archers. Soon all four of the mangy curs are dead.
With the dogs taken care of, Ronak and Brutus continue their search of the stockade. Chockok takes up guard duty at the top of the stairs, eager to smash some goblin skulls with his earthbreaker. Ronak discovers the chief’s bedchambers connecting to the throne room, and under Ripnugget’s pillow he finds a silver “holy” symbol of the demon goddess Lamashtu set with garnets in the eyes. In addition, the adventurers find a goblin armory, a common sleeping room, and a couple of food storage areas.
At this point, the final portion of the upper complex left to be searched is only easily accessible by crossing through the courtyard to a door on the far side. Brutus, Ria and Ronak venture out into the courtyard to investigate, but before they get far the door on the far side opens up. A platinum haired, aasimar woman with a gleaming sword and one demonic arm strides into the yard. Presumably this is Nualia. She is accompanied by a few goblins, two yeth hounds, a well-armored human male, and a female, human wizard. The goblins rush up to attack Brutus and Ria, while Nualia orders the human warrior to go after Ronak. The goblins land a couple of lucky strikes on Ria with their dogslicers, and the human cleaves Ronak with his bastard sword. The hounds take to the air, but are clearly highly agitated by being out in the daylight; the female wizard casts a mirror image spell on herself.
The adventurers know they aren’t in condition to handle so many dangerous enemies. Ria and Brutus retreat back into the stockade through one set of doors, while Ronak is forced to flee back through another door. In both cases they manage to bar their respective doors to keep their enemies from coming after them with any ease. Chochok notes goblins coming up the stairs. Luckily, the little gits are slowed by the oil that Ronak slicked the stairs with. The heroes rendezvous in the main entrance to the stockade. By this time, Tonzay has gone out the front gate and is at the rope suspension bridge, which is still connected with the mainland, but dangles down sideways from when the goblins cut it after being tricked by one of the gnome’s illusions (see session #4).
Escaping the island looks difficult, Tonzay has a plan. He calls for everyone to join him at the bridge. He has already started cutting the ropes that hold it to the island, and he envisions everyone hanging onto the bridge, swinging down with it towards the cliff on the mainland, and then jumping off at last moment to land in the sea. From there they will swim to Titus, Artus and Captain Helakin, who are hopefully still waiting in the boat somewhere below. The plan seems risky at best, but there doesn’t appear to be many other options.
Session #5, Part #2, Burnt Offerings (Escape from Thistletop)
As Tonzay starts cutting the ropes, a goblin archer takes up position on the far side of the bridge and starts firing arrows at him. Ria and Brutus rush outside to join Tonzay, and Chochok soon joins them. The yeth hounds come flying down and attack, trying to stay within the shadows of the stockade wall. Ria and Cho intercept the demon dogs and hold them off. Ronak takes out a couple of goblins coming up the stairs and then tumbles through the doors between the dogs to join his companions. Chochok lands a solid blow on one of the dogs with his earth-breaker. He causes it enough pain that it unleashes its supernatural, fear-inducing howl. The terrifying sound affects everyone in the stockade, but only Brutus and Chochok are overcome by terror. Chochok drops his sacred earthbreaker and flees to the bridge. Brutus panics and races to it as well. Then Ronak joins them, but Ria isn’t so fortunate. The demon dogs swarm her before she can withdraw. Meanwhile a large bugbear has emerged from the stairs along with a couple of more goblins. He orders one of them to open the door to the yard to let Nualia and her minions in. In a moment enemies will overwhelm the adventurers. Already injured by the hounds, and knowing that the only way the rest of them stand a chance of escaping is if she sacrifices herself, Ria shouts at Tonzay to cut the rope. Then she turns her full attention to the dogs and starts hacking away at them. Her axe doesn’t seem as effective as it should be, but she still causes one of the dogs some serious injuries.
Tonzay, doesn’t want to leave her behind, but a panicked Chochok jumping onto the bridge snaps the partially severed ropes. The entire bridge goes swinging down towards the mainland with Ronak, Tonzay, Chochok and Brutus all clinging to it. Timing when to jump is challenging, yet all but the panicked barbarian manage. At the last second they leap and land crash painfully into the water. Chochok doesn’t let go, and swings right into the cliffside. The impact causes him substantial injury and results in him letting go of the bridge and falling into the water and rocks some twenty feet below him. He is barley conscious after the fall (at 0 hp), but he manages to drag himself up onto a rock.
Ronak spots the boat, waves his arms and shouts to Titus. Then he starts swimming towards it. Tonzay sees that Chochok is in trouble and swims towards his friend. The little gnome isn’t a strong swimmer, and he has his clothes and gear weighing him down, as well as the surf to contend with. Despite these obstacles he manages to get to the shoanti. The impact seems to have made the barbarian forget about the panic he was feeling, and he looks at his companion and rasps, “Can you heal me one more time little brother?”
The gnome musters a smile and says, “You’ve sucked the healing out of me like a cum guzzling prostitute, but don’t worry I can cover you one more time.” Then he pulls out a potion and hands it to the barbarian. Unfortunately some of it spills, and Chochok doesn’t get the healing he’d hoped for (snake eyes on his roll for the potion- only 5 hp back). At least he’s conscious for the moment, though he knows that as soon as his adrenaline surge wears off, he’ll likely pass out. He sees the boat, and sees Ronak swimming to it. Tonzay clings to his back, and the big man starts swimming the pair for it as well.
Brutus finds himself in the water and still in a state of utter panic. He starts swimming, but there is no logic behind his actions; he doesn’t even realize he is trying to swim away from the boat.
Back up at the stockade, Ria’s valiant last stand comes to an end when she succumbs to the deadly jaws of the hounds. Nualia and her minions arrive a second later, and assess the situation. She orders her yeth hounds to attack the boat. Under normal circumstance the monsters would never go out into daylight, but these hounds were gifted to her by Lamashtu as servants, and they are bound by the divine will of the demon goddess to do as Nualia commands. One of them momentarily resists and makes itself busy feasting on Ria’s face. The other one leaps off the cliff and flies down to the boat. Titus Scarnetti sees the hound coming. Fear courses through him, but he musters the courage to draw his blade and defend the bow. The beast lands before him and savages him. He does his best to fend it off with his blade, but it is not a creature of this world, and his mundane weapon has limited effect against it.
Up above, the bugbear and the warrior both sheath their weapons and draw and string their bows. They then take up position to fire down on those below. Nualia doesn’t have a bow with her, so can’t participate, but she seems content to watch the show. Lyrie, her hired wizard, draws a wand and fires a magic missile at Titus.
Titus fights bravely but doesn’t last long. The second hound soon joins its kin, and between the magic missiles, the arrows and the two hounds biting at him, Titus soon falls back into the boat, a dead bloody mess. All the while his son and Captain Helkin keep rowing towards Ronak and Chochok. Ronak reaches the boat first and uses his muscular arms to vault himself in to stand beside Titus. He arrives just in time to see the man have his throat torn out by one of the dogs. Using his near mystical unarmed combat skills, Ronak damages the wounded hound enough to send it retreating back to the stockade. Arrows fly at the dwarf and magic missiles hammer him; the second hound snarls and bites.
As Chochok swims for the boat with Tonzay clinging to his back, Tonzay spurs him on, encouraging him with promises of prostitutes aplenty when they get back to Sandpoint. The shoanti swims all the harder, but the gnome’s words come to a sudden end when the bugbear sets his sights on him. The brute draws his mighty composite long bow and fires a couple of shots that plunge deep into the gnome’s back. Chochok feels his companion go limp, but he uses one hand to make sure the gnome stays on him. He finally reaches the boat and tosses Tonzay in. Then he pulls himself in and passes out (he was on his last round of rage, and when it ended he dropped into negative hp). With Chochok and Tonzay in, Helkin orders Artus to start rowing out to sea, while Ronak fights off the yeth hound.
Artus and Helkin’s rowing soon move the boat out of the line of sight of Nualia and her minions. Only the yeth hound remains a threat. Then Ronak falls to dog’s attacks, but not before causing it some pain. Now Titus is dead; Ronak, Tonzay, and Chochok are all in the boat, unconscious and dying- the situation is dire. The hound surges toward Artus and Captain Helkin. Helkin leaps overboard, but Artus fends the thing off with his sword. He lands a lucky strike that wounds it again. The demon dog is now horribly injured and about to tear Artus apart. Then the adventurers catch a break; the sun comes out from behind a cloud; its rays shine down on the otherworldly fiend, and it recoils. It takes to the air and flies back to Nualia where it seeks shelter in the stockade to lick its wounds.
Brutus has been all but neglected during these past few moments. He keeps swimming madly, until finally the supernatural panic abates. With his senses returning he realizes that he’s been swimming away from the boat, but he also sees he has no chance of getting to it. Glancing around, he spots some rocks abutting the nearby mainland shore. He swims for the rocks and hides amongst them. Nualia and her henchmen have been so busy concentrating on the action near the boat that they haven’t paid attention to the foundering half orc. As the boat disappears from their sight and the wounded hound returns, they begin scanning for the wizard. At first it looks like he might go unnoticed. Then the bugbear spots him among the rocks. Brutus does his best to play dead. Still, the big goblinoid draws back his mighty bow, and he fires a shot at him just to make sure. Luckily for Brutus the arrow skips off one of the rocks. Nualia’s pet wizard then targets him with a round from her wand of magic missiles. The force missile is unerring in its accuracy. It causes him pain, but he does his best not to react and maintain the façade that he’s already dead. Whether or not they are convinced is uncertain, but Nualia and her allies return to the stockade, leaving the wounded wizard alone among the rocks with only the surf and the gulls to keep him company.
A wounded Artus helps Captain Helkin back into the boat. They raise the single sail, and make their way back to Sandpoint with their cargo of bodies. They arrive just as the sun is setting. Ronak, Chochok, and Tonzay have all miraculously survived the journey. They are taken to the temple and brought to father Zantus where once again he and his acolytes tend to their wounds.
Brutus watches as the boat sails off around a point and disappears from sight. When he is certain that no archers are waiting, he moves out from among the rocks, and using the base of the cliff for support, drags himself through the water in the direction of Sandpoint. He doesn’t get far before exhaustion sets in. Up ahead he sees a large rock protruding from the water that looks as though it might offer him a place to shelter and hide. He manages to climb it and finds a spot where he won’t be visible from Thistletop; there he settles in and uses prestidigitation magic to dry his clothes. He passes the night alone on the rock. He awakens the next morning, cold, injured, hungry, thirsty and tired. His thirst for life is strong, and he summons the will to continue his journey. Eventually he reaches a place where the cliffs are much lower, and he is able to climb up to the mainland. From there he follows the coastline back to Sandpoint. He arrives that evening and collapses as soon as he passes through the town gate. The locals take him to the Rusty Dragon, and he awakens the next day in his chambers with Ameiko watching over him.
I couldn't really justify Nualia and her gang just hanging out down below once they became aware that invaders had been slaughtering her goblin allies up above. I was actually a little surprised that the PCs decided to press their luck and stick around given how beat up they were. Brutus was really the only character/player in the party that wanted to leave right away.
Ria's loss was sad (since I was the one who created her and was levelling her up), but she was a "communal PC", basically a simple to run PC that was somewhat passed around the table- like the village bicycle. She probably would have tried to get away if she could have, but she got kind of boxed in by the yeth hounds, and it would have been pretty tricky for her to get away, so the players reluctantly decided to sacrifice her to aid their escape. She may be replaced somewhere down the road, but they will be finishing this adventure with 4 PCs.
The final confrontation with Nualia will be likely be posted this evening.
Session #5, part #4- Burnt Offerings (Final confrontation with Nualia)
Characters: Ronak (dwarf, monk 4), Brutus (half orc, wizard 4), Chochok (human, barbarian 4), Tonzay (Gnome, Bard 4)
Over the course of the next couple of days, the heroes recover from their ill-fated foray to Thistletop. Despite all of them nearly being slaughtered and Ria’s death, they wish to return and finish the job they started. Chockok has suffered a great shame in losing his earthbreaker, and is chomping at the bit to got back and reclaim it. Fortunately, he is able to find a temporary replacement. Tonzay takes some time to research more on the nature of the yeth hounds, and he learns that they are vulnerable to silver weapons. They meet with Mayor Deverin and give their full report on what happened. Tonzay convinces her to use money from the town’s coffers to pay to have their weapons silvered, so that they can slay the hounds. Brutus uses his time to engage in some spell research, and he masters the spider climb spell. In addition, he scribes several spider climb scrolls, so that the heroes will more easily be able to scale Thistletop during their next foray. Finally, Mayor Deverin purchases healing potions for the heroes, and father Zantus donates a healing wand.
Once again they travel to Thistletop in a fishing boat, and once again they decide to stage their raid during the day. This time they see that there are goblins in the watchtowers, and they are more attentive than they were before. The goblins see them coming and sound a horn. The adventurers don’t seem to care that the goblins know they are coming. They sail right up to the base of Thistletop whereupon Brutus uses his scrolls to cast a spider climb spell on each of his companions. Then Ronak, Chochok, Brutus and Tonzay all scuttle up the side of strange, stone island. When they crest the top they find the goblins are waiting. Five of them have taken up position on the peak of the stockade’s roof, and they fire their bows down at them. Ronak, Brutus and Tonzay all sustain minor injuries, but they move straight to the stockade and spider climb up the walls. Ronak leads the attack, and in seconds they have reached the goblins on the roof. It doesn’t take long to dispatch the little buggers. Things are quiet after this, so they make their way down the stairs of the largest watchtower, entering the stockade. The only opposition they encounter is a couple of vicious goblin dogs, which Chochok obliterates with his newly acquired earthbreaker.
The stockade seems deserted, so they set to finish their exploration of it. Chochok is eager to kill, and quickly becomes annoyed by the amount of doors he finds in the place. Out of frustration he bellows, “Curse these infernal doors! Every time I smash one two more take its place!” Eventually his door opening leads them to a second set of stairs descending down.
In the yard they discover an outbuilding. Its door has been boarded over, and they can hear what sounds like a large animal inside. They decide to investigate, so Chochok pries the boards off, and they open the battered wooden doors. Inside they find an injured and neglected warhorse. It must have once been a magnificent creature, but the goblins have not been good to it. It snorts and paws the ground with a heavy hoof. Tonzay cautiously approaches, doing his best to sooth the angry horse. He fails to calm it, and the stallion rears up and tries to crush his skull. The little gnome manages to dodge aside. Then he casts a healing spell and touches the horse; the healing magic washes over the creature and instantly calms it. Tonzay pulls out an apple and feeds it to the beast; then he gives it some water and leads it out into the yard. Beyond that there is little they can do for it at the moment. Thus, they head back into the stockade and make their way to the first set of stairs they had found inside. They then head down into the dungeon below.
The stairs lead to a rectangular room lit by a single lantern. Goblin sleeping mats cover the floor, and some half dozen wooden doors exit the room. Chochok curses as he sees all the doors. He readies his earthbreaker and starts smashing. The first one opens into a hallway. The second one opens into a room where they see several female goblins trying to hide among the ratty furs and blankets covering the floor. Brutus, who speaks goblin, starts an interrogation, while Chochok stands behind him, looking menacing with his earthbreaker. Brutus asks about the complex and where the doors lead. He translates for the others, and they learn that one door leads to a place inhabited by some sort of tentacle monster that the goblins avoid. They find another opens into the goblin nursery, and another will take them to chapel of Lamashtu. This is where the goblin wives think Nualia and her minions currently awaiting the heroes. Brutus isn’t entirely certain if the pathetic little creatures are being truthful, but he decides to believe them and show them mercy. He tells them to hide under the blankets and not come out.
The adventurers set out down the hall to the chapel. Ahead and to their left they spot a set of stone double doors. The doors are carved with relief images of terrible monsters clawing their way out of the bellies of shocked pregnant women. Tonzay recognizes the images as being typical of Lamashtu cults, and he assumes that the chapel must be beyond the doors. Brutus then casts a detect magic spell. The doors themselves don’t radiate magic, but he senses magic auras beyond the doors. They cast spells on themselves and ready for battle. Then Chochok kicks in the door, and they storm into the room.
The spacious room before them clearly is a chapel to Lamashtu. It features a black stone altar at the far end, behind which stands a stone statue depicting the three-eyed, jackal headed demon goddess. In each of her taloned hands she holds a kukri that burns with heatless magical flames. Nualia and her minions are waiting. She stands, fully armored and ready for battle with her warrior bodyguard, Lyrie her pet wizard, the bugbear, and her two yeth hounds. Her eyes blaze with unholy fury. She gives a nod, and the hounds and her bodyguard rush forward to kill the heroes.
Chochok and Ronak form the front line, while Tonzay and Brutus hang back behind them. Chochok feels the anger simmering inside him grow into a wild rage when he sees the bugbear wielding his lost earthbreaker. Orik the mercenary and the hounds are quickest to take action, and they engage Chochok and Ronak. Orik is well armed; he wears sturdy banded armor and bears a heavy shield and a bastard sword. Chockok is not well armored, and it isn’t long before he’s sustained several nasty wounds from the hounds and Orik’s blade. However, both the shoanti and the dwarf have silvered weapons giving them an edge against the demon dogs.
Brutus casts a web spell in the back half of the chapel. Its sticky strands trap Nualia, the bugbear and Lyrie. The bugbear snarls and tries to use brute strength to wade through the sticky mess, but he doesn’t get far. Nualia slashes away at it with her sword and demonic clawed arm, but she too only manages to move a few feet before becoming mired. Lyrie doesn’t both trying to move in the webbing; she knows she will just get entangled all the more, and at least right now her hands are free for spell casting. Thus she casts a shatter spell, hoping to destroy Chockok’s earthbreaker. Sadly it fails to have any real effect on the weapon.
For his part, Tonzay uses his skills as a bard to inspire his allies, but after that he becomes bogged down with using healing spells on the raging barbarian who seems to take one wound after another. Ronak and Chochok fight well. Ronak uses his silvered kama, while Chockok is a raging beast with his earthbreaker. They first concentrate on the warrior, and soon bring him down, despite his potent armor and heavy shield. They then turn their attention to the yeth hounds, which prove much easier to land telling blows on.
Nualia snarls in anger at her inability to escape the webbing and join the battle. She shouts and curses at Lyrie to do something about it. Lryie does not like being spoken to with so little respect and her mood turns all the more sour; then smiles as she casts a burning hands spell. The flames obliterate all the webbing before her and set fire to the remainder of the sticky strands. The burning webbing sears both Nualia and the bugbear, but it also frees them. Lyrie smiles as she sees Nualia and the bugbear scorched by the burning webbing. Nualia doesn’t notice the wizard’s glee, and she rushes forward to aid her hounds. At the same time Brutus boldly moves through the room, and just before the bugbear can take action, he casts a colour spray spell that blasts it and Lyrie. Lyrie shields her eyes and avoids its effects, but the bugbear is stunned and blinded. He drops the earthbreaker and stumbles about.
Nualia seethes with unholy power, and she fights fiercely with her sword and claw, but the shoanti lands a few nasty strikes with his great hammer. She and one of her dogs flank Chochok, and they soon bring the hulking barbarian down, leaving him bleeding out on the stone tile floor.
Ronak and Brutus finish off one of the hounds, causing it melt away into ichor. Lryie sees that the heroes are holding their own, and she decides to escape while she can. She makes a run for a side door. Brutus considers going after her, but knows Ronak will need help dealing with Nualia and her final dog. Tonzay tries to keep Chochok alive while Ronak concentrates on killing Nualia. With Chochok down, Nualia turns her attention on the dwarf and lands a couple of nasty slashes. Yet the dwarf is determined to put her down, and finally he does just that. This leaves only her last hound, and the bugbear, but he is still stunned.
The yeth hound howls when it sees his mistress collapse. Supernatural fear washes over the heroes, but only Brutus succumbs to it. The half orc abandons the party and goes running out the same side door that the wizard fled through.
Ronak and Tonzay then slay the final hound, which only leaves the bugbear. Ronak kicks away the earthbreaker and manages to land a couple of strikes on the brute before the bugbear comes to his senses. He draws a flail, and faces off against Ronak. The bugbear manages to thump the dwarf with the flail leaving the monk badly hurt, but in the end Ronak prevails, and the bugbear is killed.
The battle ends. Miraculously all the heroes have survived. Brutus returns, having recovered from his panic. Tonzay uses the healing wand to revive Chochok and then heal Ronak and himself. They look about the chapel at the carnage that has been wrought and consider what to do next.
Yep.
It was a tough fight. At the start I thought it might have been TPK material (2 CR 3 hounds, 3 CR 3 NPCs, and 1 CR 5 NPC against four 4th level characters). However, web and colour spray can both be real game changers. They kept Nualia and Bruthazmus out of the fight long enough for the PCs to deal with a few of the other villains, which probably saved them.
Session #5, GM Notes
What can I say? Yet another really challenging session. I was surprised there was only 1 character death. The session had TPK written all over it.
The escape from Thistletop was really fun to watch play out. I had no idea how exactly it was going to end. I probably cut the characters a bit of slack on it, but overall I think I ran it fairly and kept it challenging.
I was probably more surprised that they managed the fight with Nualia without any casualties and only one character KOed. Good on them. Everyone made fun contributions, though I felt a bit bad for Tonzay who was forced into the role of being Chochok's personal healing b!&#*.
Hopefully we'll wrap this adventure up next session, which should be this coming Friday. After that this campaign will go an hold for a few weeks while I run the next adventure for my Age of Worms campaign.
Session #6, Burnt Offerings (Thistletop- The lower level)
Characters Present: Ronak (Dwarf, Monk 4), Tonzay (Gnome, Bard 4), Chochok (Shoanti, Barbarian 4), Brutus (Half Orc, Wizard 4)
NPC guest stars: Bori Ulmirson(Human, Cleric 2/Fighter 1), Sir Benedict (Human, Fighter 3)
After having killed Nualia and her minions, the heroes heal their wounds and loot the corpses. They then set about completing their exploration of the area. Connected to the temple room they find a dungeon with several small cells. The cells are mostly empty, but they do find two prisoners that they rescue. Both are human men. One is an Ulfen warrior priest of Gorum named Bori Ulmirson, and the other is a Hellknight armiger named Sir Benedict Peneghast. After Tonzay heals them with his wand, they spend some time speaking with the two men and learn that they were helping to guard a small merchant caravan that had been attacked by goblins on the road several days earlier. They are the only two remaining prisoners, as the rest were sacrificed to Lamashtu. Chochok and Sir Benedict exchange some harsh words with one another, for the Hellknights have long been enemies of the shoanti, but Tonzay works hard to deescalate the situation and prevent the shoanti from killing Sir Benedict. Both Bori and Sir Benedict are grateful for being rescued and offer their services to the heroes as payment. The two men are given gear from Nualia’s dead henchmen to wear until the pair can find their equipment.
The band continues their search, and they find some crudely carved chambers that have been sealed off by the goblins. These rooms prove to be the lair of a nasty horror that resembles a multi-eyed squid. A brief fight ensues, but the heroes slay it with relative ease. Only Chochok is injured by the creature’s stinger, which injects him with a vile poison that seeks to liquefy his internal organs. This leaves the poor barbarian vomiting, looking pale and having a terrible pain in his stomach, and much to the shoanti’s chagrin it is the Hellknight that lands the killing blow on the fiend.
The section of the ruins that was the creature’s lair has little of value to be found, but it does feature a large opening to the outside. It is a 60’ drop from the opening to the water below, and the opening itself is concealed by hanging vegetation that makes it difficult to see from the outside. Looking out, they see the fishing boat waiting for them down below. They call down to Captain Helkin and make it clear that they are okay but plan to do some more exploring.
Next they find a hallway lined with the bedrooms of Nualia and her henchmen. Here they locate Ria’s gear, as well as the gear of Sir Benedict, Bori and several hundred gold (much of the gold had belonged to Ria).
Finally, the adventurers discover a war room and a laboratory area with a hidden set of stairs that leads down to a deeper level of the complex. They decide they want to explore down below, but first they opt to try to rest. They call down to the boat and ask Captain Helkin to sail back to Sandpoint and return for them the next day, ideally with a barge they can put a horse on. After that they check on Sir Benedict’s stallion, Shadowmist, which they had previously freed. They find it is still roaming the yard of the stockade. While they are topside they notice that the goblins have severed the ropes to the bridge that connects Thistletop with the mainland. Thus there is no easy way for them to get to the mainland, but there is also no easy way for any goblin reinforcements to come after them. Sir Benedict spends some time tending to his steed, and then they return to the dungeon level to hole up for the night.
The rest of the day and night passes uneventfully. The next morning Chochok is still feeling the ill effects of the tentamort poison. Fortunately, he is still able to walk and fight. Captain Helkin returns with his fishing boat and small crew of men. They have a barge in tow that has a railing around it and is well suited for holding a horse. At Sir Benedict’s request they decide to try to get Shadowmist down to the barge before doing any exploring. The Hellknight leads the horse down into the dungeon, and they take it to the opening in the cliff side. Captain Helkin expertly pilots the boat so that it is in close to the island, and the barge is lined up below the opening. Then Brutus casts a featherfall spell on the horse just as Sir Benedicts coaxes it to leap out the opening. The horse floats safely down the waiting barge and lands softly, causing only minor damage to one of the railings that its rear legs get caught up on.
Ronak convinces Helkin to try to wait for them another couple of hours, while they explore below. Next the adventurers descend the stone stairs into the deeper level of the complex. This level has a different architectural style compared to the one above. It more carefully and expertly constructed, and it appears much older. The entire place radiates an aura of transmutation magic that Brutus notes is similar to the magic in place in the complex below the glassworks. The entire level is slanted to the west, and Brutus starts to become more certain that the island is in the head of an ancient Thassilonian statue. He suspects that the slanting floor might be a result of how the head came to rest after it was separated from the body that it presumably once was affixed to. There are enough similarities between the architecture in the columns, door lintels and ceiling styles to suggest the place is a thousands year old Thassilonian ruin similar to the complex under the glassworks. The level seems similar in size to the one above, but her there is no sign of any Lamashtu related iconography. Instead they find several statues depicting a stern looking man in robes holding a book and a glaive. Brutus and Tonzay both guess that this is an image of another one of the so-called “Runelords,” but beyond this they know little.
One of the first major rooms they come across features a number of oddities that were likely brought down by Nualia. Among them are several notes regarding her efforts to cleanse her celestial blood by making sacrifices to Lamashtu. The notes also talk about her attempts to commune with and locate a being she refers to as the “Whispering One,” who she believes is trapped in the island. Brutus suspects that the Whispering One, and the entity called Malfeskor, which was mentioned in Tsuto’s journals might be the same being.
Soon they come across an odd L shaped hallway. Against one of the end walls is a strange column that runs floor to ceiling and appears to be made entirely of gold coins. Tonzay analyzes the column with a detect magic spell and realizes that the column radiates illusion magic. Ronak investigates it more closely. The illusion is too potent for him to see through. However, by closing his eyes and feeling the column with his hands, he is able to discern that the column is not made from coins, but rather stone. He also realizes that the column has a dozen small slots carved into it.
After prodding the slots with a chisel and finding they are empty, it dawns on Ronak that the slots are about a perfect size for inserting a coin. On a hunch he puts a gold coin in one of the slots. The coin fits well, but it immediately vanishes. Nothing else happens, but it gives Ronak and idea. The men each take two coins, and at the same time they crowd around the pillar and insert their coins, filling all the slots. The coins all disappear, but in addition, the pillar suddenly sinks into the ground revealing an opening in the wall that leads to a series of previously hidden rooms. There are no signs to indicate that Nualia or anyone else has set foot in these rooms for thousands of years. Carefully they move in to investigate.
In this area they discover three rooms. One features a ghostly image of the Rune Lord sitting on a throne speaking words in a language that has long since vanished from use. The image is some sort of illusion, and it repeats the same phrase and gestures over and over, as if it were running on a loop- a second chamber features stone tables covered with surgical tools that have somehow survived the ages more or less intact. Among these tools they find a key to open a third door. This door accesses a prison type room. The room has a magically fueled fire burning in a shallow oval shaped pit that dominates the center of the chamber. More importantly, a hulking monstrosity that looks like a combination between a massive wolf and a goblin is imprisoned in the chamber. It snarls and glares viciously at the heroes. Ronak and Sir Benedict form a front line to keep it from escaping. It then casts a spell that causes it to rapidly “blink” in and out of reality. It leaps forward ready to tear the dwarf and the Hellknight to shreds.
Sir Benedict quickly discovers that the wounds he inflicts on it with his sword seem to healing almost instantly. However, Ronak’s magically charged fists cause it much pain, and result in the monster focusing its attacks on the monk.
Bori casts an enlarge person on Chochok, and Tonzay imbues Ronak with a heroism spell. Brutus casts a web spell that fills the prison room. The web instantly bursts into flame, making it useless for holding the monster, but the flames cause it damage. Seeing this, Brutus follows the web spell up with a scorching ray that causes it even more pain.
When Bori realizes Sir Benedict’s weapon is of little use against the fiend, he casts a magic weapon spell on Chochok’s hammer. The shoanti is eager for a fight. He sees that Ronak is already quite injured, so in his enlarged form he charges past his friend and bull rushes the creature, pushing it back into the fire pit. It yowls in pain from the flames and gnashes and bites at the barbarian, leaving him horribly wounded after only a single round of attacks. Tonzay moves in and starts healing Ronak. By this time it too is quite hurt, and Chochok is able to send it back to whatever netherworld it came from with a crushing blow to the skull from his enlarged and enchanted earthbreaker.
With this dangerous foe defeated, Bori and Tonzay finish healing Ronak and Chochok. They then search the prison room. Ronak discovers a secret alcove that contains a small silver strong box, warded with necromantic magic. They carefully drag the chest out of the alcove with a grappling hook attached to one of the handles. Then Ronak throws the rope and grappling hook over the top of the open door to the room, and attaches the hook under the lip of chest’s lid. He pulls on the rope and pops the lid off. There is a chilling flash of foul necromantic magic, but because he was not in contact with the lid it causes him no arm. Inside the small chest is a single ring featuring the image of a ram’s head. The heroes discover that it is magical and likely quite potent.
Finally they return to the L shaped hall and open the final set of doors they have thus far discovered. These doors lead into a forgotten crypt that appears empty. Tonzay, wanting to scan the place with a detect magic spell, enters first. Unfortunately for the gnome the crypt turns out to haunted by a trio of incorporeal undead. The shadows ambush him, floating out from the sarcophagi and trying to drain his strength. The quick little gnome dodges their shadowy hands and retreats back into the hall. Ronak moves in, channeling mystical energies through his fists to harm them. Chochok, draws Nualia’s magical bastard sword and joins the fight, while Brutus blasts them with his recently acquired wand of magic missiles. The fight is quick, and the heroes have soon destroyed the undead. Chochok suffers strength drain from a couple of the shadows, but he’s the only one to take any injuries.
After defeating the shadows, they conduct a search of the crypt, but find nothing of value. At this point, they decide it is time to return to Sandpoint, so they use ropes to lower themselves and their treasure down to the Captain Helkin’s fishing boat, and they sail back to Sandpoint, returning as heroes.
Session #6, GMs Notes
Since the characters dealt with Nualia last session, this was sort of a wrap up session. There weren't many enemies left to deal with, and the ones that were left weren't much of a threat to the town.
They handled themselves well in the fight against Malfeskor. He had the potential to drop a character from full hp to unconscious in a single round if he hit with all three attacks, but he never managed to do so.
Once again Chochok got the worst of each combat encounter. He was the only one harmed by the tentamort; he was nearly dropped by Malfeskor, and he was the only one strength drained by the shadows. However, the gods smiled on him, and he lived.
The party has basically finished Burnt Offerings. The only thing they really have left to do is go back into the Catacombs beneath the glassworks and deal with the quasit, which shouldn't be too difficult now that they are forth level and are prepared for her.
We're going to take a break from this campaign for a few weeks to play some more Age of Worms. We'll probably be back at this in late September or early October.
Oh yeah, it should be noted that Chochok has not completed his quest to kill the "sealshark," that he tangled with back in Session #4. I guess I'll need to work an opportunity in to the next game session.
Due to some scheduling, it looks like we'll be playing another session of this campaign today!
Session #7, The Skinshaw Murders, early investigations
Characters: Ronak (Dwarf, Monk 4), Brutus (Half Orc, Wizard 4), Tonzay (Gnome, Bard 4), Chochok (Human, Barbarian 4), Korvak (Half Orc, Cleric 4)
After returning victorious from their expedition to Thistletop the heroes spend several days in Sandpoint resting and recovering from their adventure. During this downtime Sherriff Hemlock returns from Magnimar with a score of soldiers that he managed to recruit to help protect the town from the threat posed by the goblins. Of course, upon arriving he learns that the heroes have seemingly neutralized the threat of the goblin tribes uniting and attacking Sandpoint. Still, the soldiers decide to take a few days to patrol the countryside and send a message to any goblins they can find.
The soldiers are accompanied by a half orc mercenary/battle cleric by the name of Korvak. Korvak spends some time talking with Sheriff Hemlock and learning of the recent troubles that have befallen the town. From his conversations he hears of Sandpoint’s newest local heroes who played a critical role in thwarting the threat posed by Nualia and her minions. He also learns of some Thassilonian catacombs that were discovered under the glassworks, which still contain a vile little demon that might present a danger to the town. Mayor Deverin is offering a 200gp bounty for the destruction of the demon.
Korvak decides to seek out the so-called “heroes of Sandpoint,” and he finds them at the Rusty Dragon Inn. There he makes his introductions and learns that they are planning to venture back into the catacombs below the town to settle a score with the demon that they blame for the death of two of their companions. He offers his service to the heroes, hoping to obtain a portion of the bounty.
Chochok and Bori spend the night drinking, as they have done every night since their return to town. He is too hungover to venture down into any ruins the next day, so it is Brutus, Ronak, Tonzay and Korvak that venture into the catacombs with the intent of killing the demon and destroying the runewell. They head straight for the cathedral room, and it doesn’t take long to locate the little fiend. As soon as they step into the cavernous chamber a pair of sinspawn emerge from the two small storerooms that flank the room. They immediately attack with clawed hands and snapping mandible like jaws. At the same time, the adventurers hear the tiny demon cackling from in the air above the strange triangular pool that might well be the runewell. She can’t be seen so presumably she’s invisible.
Ronak and Korvak move to intercept the sinspawn. Brutus, casts a web that fills the back of the cathedral, hoping to trap the demon. The demoness manages to avoid getting caught up in the webbing, and deftly flies her way through the mesh of sticky strands to emerge safely and cast a sleep hex at Brutus. Luckily the half orc is able to fight it off and follows up with Glitterdust spell to ensure she won’t easily go invisible anytime soon. Tonzay aids Ronak and Korvak with his bardic inspiration, and heals Ronak after he is brutally bitten and clawed by one of the sinspawn. The dwarf and the half orc cleric soon take down the two aberrations, leaving only the flying demon.
Unfortunately, they have no easy way to get her out of the air, though Ronak did bring a net. He attempts to throw it over her, but he’s not proficient with using such a device, and she is able to dodge it. In retaliation, she attempts a hold person spell on him. Ronak resists the spell, but as he feels his limbs trying to seize up he gets an idea. He decides to pretend the spell succeeded, hoping to lure her in close. She falls for his bluff, and thinking him helpless, swoops in, unable to resist her urge to slit his throat. As she gets within reach he suddenly reaches out and grapples her. The pair struggle for several seconds as he fights to hold onto her, while she desperately thrashes about trying to escape. Tonzay and Korvak both move in with their blades and start slashing at her. However, her demonic physiology makes her resistant to their weapons, and it takes them several attacks to cause her significant damage. To make matters worse, she heals her wounds at an uncanny speed. Brutus attempts to aid them with a scorching ray and shocking grasp spell. To his frustration she is resistant to fire and entirely immune to electrical damage.
Finally, the horribly wounded little demon struggles free of Ronak’s grasp; she flies for the doors hoping to escape. Brutus shuts one side of the double doors, but no one gets the second one closed in time and she darts out into the hall. The heroes are right behind her, Ronak slams a fist into her that sends her tumbling to the ground, and then Korvak moves in and cleaves her with his falchion. She melts away into a pile of foul black ichor, leaving behind only her dagger and gold tiara. There is much rejoicing.
The next order of business is to deal with the runewell. Korvak has spent time studying ancient Thassilonian cuneiform, and he deciphers much of the script covering the walls of the cathedral chamber. He learns that the well is able to absorb soul energy from wrathful souls, and then by dripping blood into the pool the runewell can fabricate the aberrations known as sinspawn. They determine that there is still wrathful energy in the pool, so they decide to attempt to expend it all. In order to do this they dump a bit of the demon ichor into the pool, which causes the well to produce a sinspawn. They are expecting this and are standing with weapons ready; as it emerges from the well they hack it to death. They repeat this process a couple of more times, until the waters in runewell are still and no longer appear to contain any soul energy.
With their goals accomplished they consider exploring the remainder of the catacombs, but they choose instead to return to the surface and report their accomplishments to Sheriff Hemlock and Mayor Deverin. Mayor Deverin decides that she will recruit Ronak’s dwarven kin to collapse the cathedral chamber and bury the runewell.
That evening they return to the Rusty Dragon to eat, drink and rest. Their intention is to finish their exploration of the catacombs the next day. Unfortunately their plans are disrupted the next morning when a local comes barging into the common room shouting about a murder at the sawmill.
At the sawmill they find that a crowd has already gathered. Several guards are preventing anyone from going in. They find Sheriff Hemlock, and he is eager to speak with them. He explains that a note was discovered at the crime scene, and it had Ronak’s name on it. The notes says:
“I do as you command, master!
Your Lordship”
The sheriff doesn’t suspect that Ronak has anything to do with the murders, but he certainly wonders how it is the murderer knows who he is, and why he chose to implicate Ronak in the murder.
There are two murder victims. The first is the mill manager, a man named Banny Harker. The second is a young woman named Lucy Vinder who he was apparently having a semi-secret romance with. Sheriff Hemlock escorts them into the mill to investigate the murder scene. They find Lucy Vinder with her head impaled on the mill saw. Banny Harker is hung from the wall on hooks that once held tools. Both victims are missing their lower jawbone. Banny is shirtless, and a strange symbol has been carved into his flesh. It depicts the same Thassilonian seven-pointed star symbol that is inscribed into Nualia’s amulet. This is particularly disconcerting to Brutus since he has taken to wearing the magical amulet.
The adventurers immediately start searching for clues. They find evidence of a clawed hand having inflicted serious wounds on Banny Harker and having grabbed Lucy’s throat. There is a lingering stench of carrion clinging to the bodies, but is not from the bodies themselves. They also note wet, muddy footprints leading down the stairs and out to the pier. The footprints extend to the end of the pier, suggesting that the killer entered and exited the murder scene from the river.
Sheriff Hemlock also informs the characters that there was another set of murders two days earlier. Murders that the sheriff has been trying to keep quiet, so as not to cause undo panic amongst the already distraught citizens of Sandpoint. The three men that were killed were local con men. Unsavory reprobates that the sheriff had had dealings with in the past and had almost decided to run out of town on more than one occasion. They were discovered when a patrol of guards were riding on the coast rode south of the town. The guards were assaulted by a wild-eyed man that was frothing at the mouth. He had emerged from an abandoned barn beside Cougar Creek. They subdued the man, and identified his a Gryst Sevilla, a varisian thug known to frequent the Fatman’s Feedbag. In the barn they discovered the three murder victims. Each of the three men was missing his lower jawbone and had the seven-pointed star etched in his chest. Another note was discovered at this crime scene:
“A deal has come about that I need capital for, it involves property and gold, and though I am not at liberty to tell you the exact details, it will make us all rich. Come to Bradley’s Barn on Cougar Creek tonight. We can meet there to discuss our futures.
Your Lordship”
Sheriff Hemlock found that Sevilla was too crazed to interrogate, so he had him Habe’s Sanitarium. He hoped that the physician at the facility, one Erin Habe, would be able to help the man regain his faculties so that he might be able to give some information about the murders. Hemlock has not yet had a chance to return to the Sanitarium to see if Sevilla has made any progress.
The characters decide to go to the barracks to see the bodies of the three men. They find their deaths look like they were similar to that of Banny Harker’s, and in all probability were the victims of the same killer.
They also speak with a man named Ibor Thorn, a man employed at the mill who was the first one to discover Banny and Lucy’s bodies. Thorn has little to offer them, but he is able to tell them that Banny was involved in secretly skimming money from the mill’s operation and altering the accounting records to hide his embezzlement. This leads to characters to start theorizing about the connection between the types of individuals that have been murdered.
Ronak wonders if they have anything to do with an attempt by someone to refuel the runewell with wrathful souls, so they return to the catacombs, but seen no evidence that the runewell has harvested any more soul energy.
While down in the catacombs they decide to finish exploring them. They find no other dangers, but they do discover a few more odd rooms. The most interesting one is spherical in shape and contains an antigravity effect. Several objects are discovered floating haplessly about the room, including a wand of shocking grasp. They also uncover a couple of spiral staircases- one leading up and another leading down. Both are blocked by collapsed rubble, making further exploration impossible without powerful magic or extensive excavation work. Upon completing their search of the catacombs they report that they appear to be clear to the mayor so that she can go about sending in workers to collapse the ceiling in the cathedral chamber and properly seal access to the complex.
The next order of business for the adventurers is to pay a visit to Habe’s sanitarium and try to see if they can learn anything from Grayst Sevilla about the murders. The sanitarium is a few miles outside of town. It is a three-story building that sits in the shadow of the Ashen Rise. Erin Habe greets them, but isn’t eager to let them talk to the patient due to his precarious mental state and because he is afflicted with a terrible disease of some sort. After explaining that they are investigating more murders on behalf of the sheriff, he reluctantly agrees to take them up to Sevilla’s cell. They find the main restrained by a straight jacket and in poor health. He’s clearly in the advanced stages of a disease, and Korvak believes it to be ghoul fever. His eyes are milky, his skin is scabrous, and his hair is falling out in large clumps. He mutters incoherently, and Habe explains that he has had little success trying to help him. The physician suspects he will die in a day or two. Strangely when the man sets eyes on Ronak, he suddenly becomes lucid. He spouts a few sentences to Ronak that all present are sure hold important clues. His words are as follows: “He said that the bodies you are finding are signs and portents; that when he is done you shall be remembered forever and the Misgivings shall be your throne!”
Beyond these words they get little out of him. Though they do learn that “the master” goes by more than one name. Another one being- “The Skinshaw Man.”
There is little that can be done for Sevilla without more potent magic than they have access to, so they decide to kill him and burn his body, saving him from becoming an undead. With that grisly business taken care of, they return to town to ponder their next move.
Session #7, GM Notes
So we had a new player join the campaign, hence the presence of Korvak. Chochok's player was absent, so he did a lot of off screen drinking.
We've been rolling abilities for this campaign (4d6 drop the lowest). The new player rolled his attributes at the table in front of us, and rolled probably the best set of stats I've seen rolled- 14, 14, 16, 16, 18, 8
I'm not sure what point buy that would end up being, but he's a lucky duck. Hopefully the other players aren't too jealous.
The session was high on investigation and low on combat, but that was a nice change of pace for me, given the nastiness of the first adventure. I'm looking forward to running the next phase of this adventure.
I ran session #8 last night. Journal to come- find out what happens when the characters decide to explore Foxglove manor from the top down and go straight to the room with Iesha the revenant.
Session #8, Part #1, The Skinshaw Murders (Walking Scarecrows)
Characters: Tonzay (Gnome, Bard 5), Ronak (Dwarf, Monk 5), Chochok (Human, Barbarian 5), Brutus (Half Orc, Wizard 5), Korvak (Half Orc, Cleric 5).
Journal: The adventurers return to Sandpoint from the Sanitarium with the intent of having a hot meal, good night’s rest, and learning what a place called “The Misgivings” might be referring to. At the Rusty Dragon they find Chochok recovering from his multiday drinking binge. While eating dinner, Ronak asks Ameiko if she’s ever heard of the Misgivings. She explains to him that the place is another name for Foxglove Manor, a place that is said to be haunted, and was constructed by the Foxglove family some 80 years ago, before Sandpoint was founded. Ronak and Brutus recall having met Aldern Foxglove, the nobleman who had been staying at the Rusty Dragon. Ameiko confirms that Aldern is the current heir to the estate and in the past year he has been attempting to have the place repaired, but he has been having difficulty hiring workers because the locals fear it is haunted. It is her impression that he gave up and went back to Magnimar. Amieko suggests that they speak with Madame Mvashti if they want to learn more since she is an expert on Sandpoint’s history.
The next morning they head to her manor, which is in town beside the theatre. Her grand daughter Kora answers the door, and Kora says that Madame Mvashti is expecting them. She leads them to a sitting room where they find the wizened old Varisian woman waiting for them, sitting in a chair sipping tea by the hearth. She seems to know exactly why they are there and what they want. She provides them with a much more detailed history of Foxglove manor:
“It was one of the first manors founded along the Lost Coast. It was founded by a man named Vorel Foxglove a merchant prince from Magnimar. I recall meeting him long ago and thinking that he was a dark souled man who stunk of foul magic. He and his family lived there for 20 years before the entire family perished from disease. It was after this event that it first gained a reputation for being haunted.
The surviving branch of the Foxgloves in Magnimar shunned the place for some forty years until a man named Travers Foxglove moved back in with his wife Cyralie and had the place repaired. They had a four children- three girls and a boy. But after they had been living there for several years there was a fire that burnt down the servants building. Cyralie’s body was found burnt and dashed on the rocks below the cliffs behind the house, and Travers was found dead in his bedroom, seemingly killed by his own hand. The children were still alive, but they were sent away to be raised by relatives in Korvosa. The place was abandoned once again and remained so for 13 years. During this time a man named Rogors Craesby cared for the place; presumably relatives of Travers hired him. In fact the place is still cared for by Craesby. He’s a retired Innkeeper, a violent man who can handle himself in a fight. He lost an ear in a bar fight a while back. He lives here in Sandpoint and goes to the manor a few times each week to make minor repairs and check for squatters. If you are looking for him he can often be found drinking at the Hagfish.
About a year ago Aldren returned to Sandpoint, now grown up, with the intent of fixing the place up. I hear he has been having trouble hiring workers. Some eight months ago he gave shelter to some of my Varisian Kin in the manor during a storm. He met my great niece Iesha, and the two of them were married a week later. I’ve heard he’s quite protective of her. I also heard that he ran into some financial troubles and grew frustrated with the slow progress being made on repairing the manor. One of his workers died mysteriously, which halted progress altogether. It is my understanding he moved back to Magnimar a few months ago, though he was in town for the Swallowtail festival, but sadly Iesha wasn’t with him.”
The heroes listen intently to her story. Korvak even takes the initiative to record some notes. After completing her tale, she looks intently at Ronak and offers to tell his fortune. The dwarf agrees, and she casts her bones into a bowl. She examines the bones intently, and says the following:
“I see a man. No, wait it is not a man. Not anymore. He has become infected. It has made him into something else, something far more terrible and evil. He is filled with madness, anger, frustration, bitterness, and hunger. He does not know you well. Yet, he admires you, and he envies you. You helped him, but you spurned him. Now you have become the object of his obsession. He is very dangerous and has been all but consumed by madness, and in his madness he wants to make you suffer and hurt. Yet he is as much a servant as anything else- a servant of a greater, darker power. If you do not stop him there will be much suffering and death.”
After the reading Madame Mvashti appears exhausted. She asks that Kora escort her to her room to rest. As she is leaving, Tonzay flirts with her briefly saying, “If only you were ten years younger.”
This inspires a smile in the old woman, and brings out a randy side of her. As Kora helps her up the stairs, she cackles to herself and mutters about never having had a gnome before. Kora tries with all her will to tune her out as she begins rambling about some of her past sexual escapades.
The adventurers next head off to meet with Sherriff Hemlock. As they make their way to the barracks Ronak and Brutus speculate that perhaps the murderer is Aldern Foxglove. Upon meeting with Hemlock they fill the shoanti in on the progress of their investigation and their plan to pay a visit to Foxglove manor. Just as they are about to leave, a farmer from one of the outlying farms arrives in a panicked state. His name is Farmer Grump, and he bursts into a tirade about “walking scarecrows terrorizing the farms in the night.” Once Hemlock gets him calmed down, they find out that the “walking scarecrows” are mostly likely undead. Korvak speculates they might be ghouls, and wishes he had prayed for some remove paralysis or cure disease spells. According to farmer Grump the source of the ghouls is a farmstead south of the Soggy River near the Whisperwood called the Hanbey farm. The night before a band of the farm folk went to confront the ghouls. The ghouls were fierce foes and killed several farmers. The surviving men were forced to flee.
Chochok is eager to go destroy some ghouls, and volunteers to help farmer Grump. Sheriff Hemlock offers to send four guards with them, which they decide would be a good idea. After getting some directions, they set out for the Hanbey farm with the guards.
They reach the farm late in the afternoon. As they approach, they discover several “scarecrows” that are actually farm folk recently transformed into ghouls or in the advanced stages of ghoul fever. There is little they can do to help them, so they put them out of their misery.
When they reach the farm proper they see that it consists of a large barn and a farmhouse. Korvak orders the guards to fan out and stand ready with crossbows in case any of the ghouls try to flee. The heroes decide to approach the farmhouse first. Chochok investigates a side window. It looks into a sleeping room that has several palettes on the floor. A door exits the room, likely opening into a common room, and from that room the gnome hears shuffling sounds. A horrible carrion odor pervades the home. Cho lifts Tonzay up and sends him quietly through the window, while Ronak and Korvak and Brutus make their way to the front door. Ronak takes the lead; he kicks the door in and is immediately set on by a pair of ghouls.
The fighting escalates quickly as another seven ghouls emerge from the barn. Four of the band head for the farmhouse, while the others go after the guards. By this time Chochok has bashed a large enough hole around the window that he has been able to climb into the house to help a wounded Ronak. Tonzay readies his bow and fires out the window at the ghouls closing on the guards. Brutus casts a fly spell and takes to the air. He helps defend the guards by hurling scorching rays and magic missile spells down at the ghouls.
Korvak provides healing for Ronak who works with Chochok to slay the ghouls in the farmhouse. One of the two ghouls proves tougher than the other, but once the two undead are dealt with, they then turn their attention on the reinforcements. The heroes manage to successful resist the ghouls’ paralysis ability on a number of occasions. They are soon victorious, and they even manage to keep all the guards alive. Ronak suffers the most extensive wounds during the fight, but Korvak and Chochok also take minor injuries, while Brutus and Tonzay are unscathed.
After the fighting ends they do some investigation. In the farmhouse they discover that there is another murder victim- one that again bears the Sihedron rune and is missing his lower jaw. Furthermore he is carrying yet another note for Ronak that reads:
“You let them all die! Their lives could have been spared but your foolishness doomed them all! Just as let my dog die on that goblin’s blade, I let them die on my own!
Your lordship"
They also find that one of the ghouls in the farmhouse had been missing an ear and has a key around his neck. Korvak assumes that this may well be Craesby, the groundskeeper of Foxglove Manor. It seems probable that the key may be for the manor- almost as though it were an invitation for the characters to come to the Misgivings to confront Aldern.
Next they burn the ghouls and check the barn. Other than carcasses of dead farm animals and human victims the place has little of note. Since Foxglove manor is not far from the farm, and it is nearly dark, they decide to spend the night in the hayloft despite the stench. The next morning they send the guards back to Sandpoint to report what happened while they head directly for Foxglove Manor.
Session #8, Part #2, The Skinshaw Murders- Foxglove Manor
As they follow the lonely trail to Foxglove Manor they notice that they are being watched by crows sitting in the lonely, gnarled trees that dot the surrounding moor. Ronak notes that there seems to be something not right about the birds, and Korvak realizes that they are actually undead.
The key to doors that they found in Hanbey farmhouse works, and the adventurers enter the manor. Tonzay notes that the entire structure of the home radiates a powerful aura of necromantic magic. They spend a little time poking about on the main floor. Chochok finds his way into what once was a music room. After slamming his earthbreaker down on the grand piano, an old varisian tune suddenly starts to echo through the room, and he feels compelled to dance about. In his mind he has a beautiful Varisian woman as a dance partner, but as his dance with her continues he watches terrible bruises form around her neck and her body decays and dies.
Tonzay sees that his friend has come under some kind of magical compulsion, and he uses his bardic countersong powers to help Chochok fight it. The barbarian’s will overcomes the magic, and he recovers his senses, but he feels strangely weak and tired afterwards. Ronak and Korvak decide that it would be best to search the place from the top down, so they lead the party up to the attic to being their search.
The first room they try to enter is locked, but they manage to force their way in. Inside this chamber they find some moldering old furniture and a woman lying face down on the ground in front of a large mirror. She’s moaning and clawing at the floor. Her face is concealed by her tangled mop of black hair. Cautiously, Ronak approaches her. When she looks up at him, he sees that she appears to be already dead. Her skin is parched and pale; her tongue hangs out of her mouth, and her neck is dark with bruises. She was clearly once a varisian of great beauty. She babbles something about wanting to kill Aldern and continues to claw away at the floor.
Ronak senses that something is holding her back, so on a hunch he turns the mirror away from her. Suddenly she leaps to her feet and bolts for the door. Korvak tries to block her, but she pushes her way past him. Tonzay and Chochok are out in the hall, but they make no effort to stop her, as she seems determined to hunt down the being they are looking for.
The adventurers hurry after her, she leads them down into the basement of the house. They follow her into what must have once been an arcane laboratory. Here they fall victim to another magical compulsion. As they enter they are overwhelmed by a vision that shows a man involved in terrible necromantic experiments that involve unlocking dark magical secrets. At the end of the vision he drinks a potion and collapses to ground, only to rise again, possibly as a lich. Tonzay and Ronak both come to believe that they are each the wife of this man, and they are consumed by concern that this terrible being is going to hurt their children. The gnome and the dwarf turn and run, heading for the stairs and the bedrooms above with a single-minded drive to save their babies. Chochok, Brutus, and Korvak are forced to decide between trying to help their companions or pursuing the undead woman. They choose to go help their friends. Unfortunately, Roank and Tonzay can’t be reasoned with, and it requires force to subdue them. Tonzay is easy enough to grab hold of and pin, but Ronak is a significant challenge, and when it comes to unarmed combat, he’s more than a match for anyone in the party. The shoanti puts himself between Ronak and the stairs, forcing the monk to fight his way through the dwarf. The best he can do is slow him down. However, the delay is long enough for Korvak to cast a create water spell on him, dowsing him and causing him to regain his senses. Tonzay requires a few slaps across the face to force him to regain his senses.
The heroes return to the laboratory, and this time no foul magic affects them. They pick up the trail of the undead woman and find it leads to a spiral staircase that descends into the earth itself, leading the heroes to a cave network below the manor. In the distant darkness they can hear the revenant screaming for Aldern. They follow the sound of her voice, making their way through caves and tunnels. Before they get far they are set on by pack of ghouls.
A deadly melee ensues, and to make matter worse a group of goblin ghasts joins the fighting shortly after they engage the ghouls. Soon both Chochok and Ronak find themselves paralyzed and on the verge of being devoured by the hungry undead. Luckily, Korvak has a remove paralysis spell prepared, and he saves them. However, he does so at the expense of channeling radiant energy against the ghouls that are swarming him, which leaves him vulnerable. They tear into him, and nearly kill him. Fortunately, his companions are able to lend him aid, and in the end they destroy the majority of the pack. Some of the goblin ghasts escape down the tunnel they entered from. The heroes plan to follow, for this is the direction from which they can hear the angry howls of the revenant, but they need healing first, so they must take a short rest before pressing on.
Session #8, GMs Notes
I really like this adventure. I think Richard Pett did a great job of writing a mystery adventure, but also an awesome haunted house scenario for the game. The manor itself doesn't have many combat encounters- at least not until you get into the cave below, but the haunts in the various rooms are really fun, and have great opportunity for mayhem and rping. They also do an excellent job of unveiling the tragic history of the house. Adventures like this are tough to do well, but I think he really pulled it off, so Kudos to Mr. Pett.
Of course my players decide to go for a top down search, and just happen to start with the room that Iesha the Revenant is trapped in. This pretty much sends an investigation of the house into a tail spin as they pursue her through the house and fast track to the caves below, but sometimes that's the way things go.
I'm looking forward to seeing how they move forward next session. They may or may not choose to explore the remainder of the manor.
It should be noted that this journal is now caught up. Our next session of RotRL is slotted for November 1st, as I'm in the process of finishing up a one shot adventure of Shadowrun 5e.
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 32
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I really like this adventure too - I've ran it twice now and played it once, each time different. The haunts are creepy, the fights brutal - all those little ghasts and ghouls almost wiped us out (mind you, we had trouble with the crows too :-D ).
Great fun all round, I'm looking forward to the next instalment already (of both your journals)
Session #9, Skinshaw Murders
Characters: Brutus (Half Orc, Wizard 5), Kovak (Half Orc, Cleric 5), Chochok (Shoanti human, Barbarian 5), Ronak (Dwarf, Monk 5), Tonzay (Gnome, Bard 5)
Having survived the assault of the ghoul pack in the caves below Foxglove manor, the heroes continue their exploration. They follow the tunnel that the surviving goblin ghasts had fled down, and though they find no sign of the little fiends, they do come to a cave with battered down stone door set into one of its walls. Lying on the ground among the shattered remains of the door are two corpses. One is Iesha’s, the other one belongs to a ghoulish looking man that, based on his clothing, the characters suspect was once Aldern Foxglove. From the looks of things the two of them destroyed one another. Beyond the remains of the door is another room that might have once been a wizard’s laboratory. It features a large, old wooden table, a gore stained, leather backed armchair and a smaller table laden with platters of rotten food. One wall is covered with repugnant, foul smelling fungi. The center of the fungi patch is vaguely shaped like a man. A shattered puzzle box sits on the ground in front of the fungi. Cautiously they move in to investigate. No one is eager to start touching the contents of the room, so Tonzay and Brutus make use of mage hand spells to investigate some of the smaller objects.
On the table Tonzay discovers a note that was written to Aldern by an individual named Xanesha. Its contents suggest that she was responsible for his undead transformation, and that she gave him a list of “greedy souls” that she wanted him to “harvest” in Sandpoint for her master. Xanesha seems to be affiliated with a group called the Brothers of the Seven that operates out of Magnimar.
They also find a portrait of Iesha leaning against the old lab table. The portrait is in good condition and is well painted. They decide that they will give it to Madame Mvashti since she is Iesha’s great, great aunt and seemed to have a fondness for her. Brutus determines that the fungus stinks of necromantic magic, and he decides to burn the patch with a torch using mage hand. The fungus eventually burns, releasing a stinking, black, oily smoke. It takes time, but finally he has managed to burn all the fungi off the wall. Ronak notes that by the time he is done the fungi is already showing signs of growing back. Interestingly, while burning it away, a chime falls out of it and lands on the ground. Brutus later identifies it as a chime of opening.
While this is going on Kovak collects the pieces of the puzzle box, which he suspects might be the remains of lich’s phylactery. They also loot Aldern’s body, as it contains two magical rings, magic leather armor, an enchanted war razor and a magical mask.
After all this is complete they debate about whether they should further explore the manor or leave and return to Sandpoint. They opt to further explore the cave network, and they find one final cave. Brutus, who has grown impatient with the dilly-dallying of his companions, takes up the lead on investigating the cave. The half orc wizard enters the cavern and finds it strewn with bones and carcasses, many of them human. At the back of the cave he spots a horrid, bat-like creature that looks big enough to bring down a horse. It snarls and surges forward, sinking its teeth into his neck and shoulder before he can get a spell off. Blood gushes from the wound, and Brutus feels his limbs trying to seize up. He resists and forces his legs to move, withdrawing behind Kovak and then retreating from the cave. Kovak now stands before the beast, and he hurls a ray of searing light at the bat-thing, but just as he fires its wing strikes forward and knocks his arm to the side, causing the ray to deflect harmlessly off the wall of the cave. At this point Kovak is blocking the narrow entrance into the thing’s lair, and the rest of the party, who are standing in the adjoining cavern, aren’t really sure what is going on. He falls back into the connecting cave to stand beside his companions. This is the same cave that houses the stairs that join the caverns to the manor above. The bat moves forward to pursue him. It then spots the rest of the group readying themselves to attack. It lets go a horrible screech. The dread noise washes over the heroes, and it stuns all of them except for Brutus. The thing charges the closest stunned target, which is Kovak. It savagely bites the cleric, nearly killing him (critical hit for 40+ damage). He falls to the ground, blood spurting from a gaping wound in his neck. His orc ferocity keeps him conscious, but he is still reeling from the thing’s terrifying screeching and can’t concentrate to heal himself. Brutus sees that his companions are floundering about being utterly useless. He considers retreating up the stairs and leaving them to their fate. Instead he takes cover behind the spiral staircase that drops down from above into the center of this entry cave. He next launches a ray of scorching fire that blasts the thing and burns away at the mattered fur of its flank. Ronak and Tonzay regain their composure quickest, and before it can turn on Brutus, Ronak moves up to the thing and hammers at it with his powerful fists. Tonzay rushes to Kovak’s aid and casts a healing spell on him, while Brutus blasts it with a barrage of magic missiles. It turns on Ronak and starts biting at him next. Chochok and Kovak are still stunned and can do nothing to help their companions. Ronak sustains a nasty bite wound, but he keeps it busy long enough for Brutus to bring it down with a final magic missile bombardment.
They realize after the fight that the bat thing was also an undead monstrosity. Next the adventurers proceed to search its lair but find nothing of value. They head back up the stairs and into the manor, making their way straight for the front doors. They step outside and find that it is late in the afternoon. It is windy and cold, and the sky is overcast. Outside they see that the burned out servants quarters is covered with thousands of crows. The crows watch them silently with smoldering dead eyes. The heroes follow the forlorn path from the cursed house back towards the Lost Coast Road, all the while keeping an eye on the crows, which in turn continue to watch them. The adventurers are a mere few hundred feet from the house when the crows take to the sky in a giant murder and swarm towards them.
Brutus retreats toward the house, and a smaller murder breaks off from the large one to pursue him. In seconds, Chochok, Kovak, Ronak and Tonzay have thousands of undead crows swarming about them, pecking off bits of their flesh. They do what they can to defend themselves, but the sheer numbers of crows make such efforts futile. Ronak punches several of them from the sky, but this hardly begins to deal with the numbers he is facing. Tonzay desperately draws his blade and tries to swat them away. The horrors of the past couple of days seem to have taken a toll on Chochok, and he abandons his friends and makes a run for the house. Then Kovak comes to the rescue. The cleric channels his divine fury and unleashes a surge of radiant power. It instantly incinerates nearly all of the crows swarming them, and their ashen husks rain down from the sky. Ronak moves to help Brutus, who is still being swarmed. He plunges into the cloud of undead crows; his hands move with breath taking speed, knocking crow after crow out of the sky. They fight back, tearing more flesh from the dwarf with their sharp beaks. Kovak stalks forward towards this final swarm. Once again he channels his divine power, obliterating the last of the crows. There is much relief from the adventurers as they look about at the smoldering bird carcasses that carpet the ground. Healing is administered, and then they hurry along the path back to the road.
It is after dark when the battered adventurers finally drag themselves into Sandpoint. They head straight for the Rusty Dragon and for their beds. The next morning they are met in common room while eating breakfast by Sherriff Hemlock. They debrief on their most recent mission, and he is pleased and relieved that the murderer has seemingly been dealt with. However, he is most concerned that Aldern appears to have been the agent of darker power.
After breakfast they pay a visit to Madame Mvashti. They give her the portrait of Iesha and tell old varisian about her tragic fate. They ask if she has ever heard of the Brothers Seven, and the crone recalls that they are a highly exclusive social club for Magnimar’s Elite.
It appears that Magnimar is their next destination, so they spend the day making preparations. They purchase a horse and a pony at the Goblin Squash stables and the town donates a wagon and feed. That night Ronak takes a final meal at his family home and informs his parents that he is heading for Magnimar to further investigate the murders. His mother again encourages him to wear armor and carry an axe if he insists on continuing with such dangerous exploits, but the monk of course refuses. Early the next morning they leave Sandpoint uncertain when they will return but leaving as heroes with the gratitude of the townsfolk and its mayor.
The first day of their journey passes uneventfully. As dusk approaches they near a well known varisian campsite that features a shrine to Desna. They spot trouble up ahead. A group of three varisian covered wagons is surrounded by a gang of over a dozen bandits. Many of the bandits have bows trained on the varisians who are clustered in the center. The leader of the bandits is an imposing man with a helm that looks like a stag’s skull, complete with antlers. It seems that the bandits are in the process of robbing the varisians, and they have yet to notice the approaching adventurers.
Ronak, Chochok and Brutus hurry into a copse of trees that runs parallel to the road. Kovak stays on his wagon and urges the horse forward. Tonzay accompanies him on his newly acquired pony. At the same time their companions move with stealth through the trees. Brutus takes to the sky with a fly spell, darting among the treetops and doing his best to stay hidden.
The bandits soon take note of Kovak and Tonzay, but they don’t seem to notice the others sneaking through the woods. The “Staglord” turns to address the half orc and the gnome, informing them that they are intruding. Tonzay tries to diffuse the tension of the situation by cracking a few jokes. The staglord is not amused by his humor, but several of his men find start laughing, invoking stern glares from their leader. The Staglord raises his bow, and gives them the opportunity to be on their way if they hand over their valuables. Kovak isn’t impressed and tries to lure the Staglord into a bout of single combat. The bandit leader refuses to be baited and instead looses an arrow that plunges into Kovak’s shoulder. The cleric responds with a ray of searing light that the Staglord avoids, and the bandit lord puts to more arrows into the cleric. Kovak falls back into the wagon, barely alive. Tonzay takes action and casts a spell that causes the Staglord to break into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. His minions stare at him with confusion, not used to seeing the violent man express such mirth. Chochok and Ronak burst out of the trees to confront the bandits, while Brutus blasts the Staglord with a scorching ray spell. Tonzay’s enchantment is so strong that even watching his own flesh burn seems funny to the Staglord.
A mounted bandit spurs its horse towards Chochok, and he slashes at the shoanti with his sword. Chochok evades the sword slash and takes a mighty swing with his earthbreaker. It catches the bandit in the chest, collapsing it and sending him flying off his mount. Ronak rushes towards the closest archer, and the archer fires an arrow at the oncoming dwarf. The arrow is on target, but Ronak suddenly bats it out of the air. The archer nearly drops his bow in surprise, having never seen such a feat. He has little time to contemplate it, for Ronak is suddenly upon him planting an iron strong fist into his face. A second mounted bandit charges Tonzay; the little gnome scampers away and casts another Hideous Laughter spell. The oncoming bandit succumbs to the enchantment and finds himself laughing so hard that he falls off his horse.
In the wagon, Kovak yanks an arrow from his stomach and casts a healing spell on himself. Once he has tended to the worst of his wounds he gets out of the wagon and moves towards the bandits. By this time, four bandits armed with swords have surrounded Tonzay and are slashing at the nimble, little gnome. Chochok is rushing to his aid, while Ronak fights off a couple of other bandits. Brutus stays in the air and hurls barrages of magic missiles, primarily targeting the Staglord. The Staglord continues to roll about on the ground laughing despite his injuries. Several other bandits remain, but they have their bows trained on the varisians and are hesitant to turn their attention on the characters, as they fear the varisians will take action and join the fight.
Kovak and Chochok take down the bandits attacking Tonzay, and the fight appears to be going well all things considered. Then one of the archers calls out to them, threatening to shoot a young varisian girl if they don’t drop their weapons and surrender. The heroes hesitate, but Kovak responds by giving him a chance to retreat or face a slow, painful death. The man looks at the half orc, and he sees his ferocity. He isn’t at all convinced that the savage half orc war priest would care if he shot the girl. He nods to his compatriots, and they lower their bows and flee into the wilderness. Kovak and Chochok then walk up to the Staglord who is still laughing manically. He attempts to roll away from their swings, but fails. Chochok’s earthbreaker crashes down on the man’s chest and a mighty swing from Kovak’s falchions cuts off one of his legs, leaving him dead on the ground, finally silent.
With the battle over, they loot the dead, loading the gear into their wagon. They then approach the fearful varisians. Thus ends the sessions.
Session #9, GMs notes
Not a lot to say about this one. The skaveling was a tougher encounter than expected. A lone CR 5 monster against at level 5 party is usually pretty easy, but it stunned pretty much the whole party with its screech and landed a crit with its bite. If it had actually paralyzed anyone with its bite there probably would have been a casualty.
The carrion swarms were easy thanks to the cleric.
They missed out on exploring the majority of Foxglove Manor, which has some pretty fun encounters, but they had little to gain in exploring it further. That's the way things go sometimes. I'm always happy to see the story moving forward, so it didn't bother me.
The bandit encounter was home-brew (I needed to give them some extra xp since they missed out on a bunch in the manor), and of course the Staglord is a villain that I borrowed from the Kingmaker AP. I had the mini for him which I had painted up, so I figured I might as well use it. Sadly he didn't get to do all that much since he was incapacitated by his low will save. He nearly killed the cleric though, so I was pleased about that.
Next session should see them tromping about Magnimar, and anyone familiar with the AP knows that there is plenty of trouble to get into there, so it should be entertaining.
Session #10, Skinshaw murders, Investigations in Magnimar
Characters: Brutus (Half Orc, Wizard 6), Kovak (Half Orc, Cleric 6), Chochok (Human, Barbarian 6), Ronak (Dwarf, Monk 6), Tonzay (Gnome, Bard 6)
Having just rescued a group of varisians on the road from a gang of bandits, the heroes join them in making camp for the night. That evening, they eat, sing, dance and talk with the varisians. The heroes learn that there is a bounty in Magnimar for the Staglord, so they put his head in a sack to bring it with them. They also learn that there has been a series of murders plaguing Magnimar that are much like the ones they encountered in Sandpoint.
The next day they travel the remainder of the distance to Magnimar. They arrive late in the afternoon, and their first stop is the mighty fortress tower known as the Arvensoar where they plan to collect the 1500gp bounty for the head of the Staglord. The death of the Staglord is hailed as great news, especially in light of the suffering the city is enduring at the hands of the murders. Consequently they are brought before Ismeir Odinburge, the Lord of the Tower, and he personally thanks them and gives them the payment for the bounty. While talking with Odinburge they explain their business in Magnimar and share their theories on the murders, including the involvement of the Brothers of the Seven. They even show him the note they recovered from beneath Foxglove manor. Odinburge tells them that the Brothers of the Seven is a fairly large and exclusive social club in the city. It has a number of members among the city’s elite. Though rumor has it that there is a much smaller and even more secretive inner circle to the club. Odinburge claims that he is not a member himself, and thus knows little about the inner workings of the society. He does encourage them to be cautious investigating the organization since so many of the city’s wealthy and influential are members. He also explains that the Captain of the Watch, Acacia Uriana is in charge of the dealing with the case of the “Star Murders.” She in turn is reporting to one of the city magistrates, Justice Ironbriar. Ronak inquires whether Ironbriar is a member of the brothers, but Odinburge isn’t sure. He doesn’t think so since Ironbriar is an elf, and as far as he knows only humans are members of the brothers. He does tell them that Captain Acacia will want to hear about their findings, and they should report to her as soon as possible. Unfortunately, she is currently taking care of business elsewhere in the city and isn’t at the Arvensoar. Finally, they request that Odinburge have a guard escort them to the Foxglove townhouse so that they can investigate it for more clues. He agrees, and they set out for the townhouse despite being weary from their long day of travelling.
A watchman named Tomas becomes their guide, and he takes them to the Foxglove residence, which is in the wealthy district of the Naos, not that far from the Arvensoar. They find that the townhouse has been boarded up, but the larger key that they found below the manor serves to open the front doors, so they head inside. It takes a good amount of time to search the place, and they find that it has already been ransacked. Clearly others have been here looking for something; yet on the third floor they find a hidden cubby in the fireplace mantle, and in this cubby they uncover a large stash of platinum coins and several documents. One is an accounting ledger that makes mention of monthly payments to fund “Iesha’s trip to Absalom,” which were being delivered to the Seven’s Sawmill. The other is a deed to Foxglove manor. The deed makes it clear that the Brothers Seven helped to fund the construction of the mansion, meaning that Vorel Foxglove must have had ties to the brotherhood. The deed also mentions the Brother’s Sawmill. By the time they have finished searching the townhouse it is getting late, so they decide they will spend the night in the place. They thank Tomas for his assistance, and he leaves to report back to his superiors at the Arvensoar.
A couple hours later, as they are getting settled for the night, there is a knock at the door. They discover that Captain Acacia and six members of the watch have come to pay them a visit. The adventurers proceed to make introductions and spend much time telling their story of their investigations in Sandpoint and going through the evidence they have collected thus far. At first Acacia is very hesitant to accept the notion that the Brothers of the Seven would have anything to do with the murders. She even mentions that Justice Ironbriar is a member of the order, a member that she believes is in the inner circle. By the time they are done explaining their theories she has become convinced that they are on to something. However, she is not willing to make any accusations against a Magistrate without further proof. She says that she will start to discretely follow up on some of their leads and search for records regarding the ownership of the Seven’s Sawmill to see if she can learn the names of any other members of the inner circle. The six members of the watch that are with her are all witnesses to the conversation, and she makes them swear that they will not speak a word of anything that has been discussed. The only complication with their diplomatic efforts comes from Chochok. The shoanti finds the attractive and charismatic young captain quite fetching, and he can’t help but make some rather boorish comments to her (I believe the term “sweet t%&~” was used more than once). His advances are quickly stifled when Ronak pipes up, “I hear your performance in bed is like your performance in combat. You drop your hammer and fall asleep! (Zing)” Acacia is impressed with the barbarian, and she threatens to cut out his tongue if he makes another lewd comment; this shuts him up for a couple of moments. Yet despite her threats, Chochok can’t help but notice her admiring his muscular physique, and he thinks that he sees a spark of desire in her eyes. Kovak tries to salvage the good will they are rapidly losing by apologizing on Cho’s behalf, and Tonzay cracks a couple of jokes to lighten the mood. Brutus remains in one of the nearby rooms studying his spellbook, though he can’t help but overhear some of the comments, and he finds himself cringing and questioning why he ever joined up with this group of adventurers. Soon after Acacia and her guards depart, and the Heroes of Sandpoint, as they have begun to call themselves (much to Kovak’s chagrin), rest for the night.
The next day they head for the Dockway district’s famous Bazaar of Sails- the largest free market in all of Varisia. They spend most of the day in the bazaar selling off loot and making purchases, giving Captain Acacia some time to conduct her own investigations. That night they take up residence at an Inn called the Sunken Anchor. Tonzay performs his standup comedy routine on the stage telling more tales of his infamous uncle. They also spend time speaking with the establishment’s owner- Belan the Stout, asking him more about the murders. He’s tells them that murders have taken place throughout the city including in the wealthy districts of the summit. The victims seem to be well to do merchants and nobles, and though he doesn’t particularly care for such folk, their deaths have hurt business, for the wealthy have become much more hesitant to venture out and spend their coin.
The night passes uneventfully, and the next morning they decide to head back to the Arvensoar to see if Captain Acacia has learned anything useful. On their way Kovak watches to see if anyone is following them, as he suspects that Acacia or possibly their enemies might have placed a tail on them. However, he doesn’t notice anything suspicious. Tonzay pays close attention to what the folk on the streets are gossiping about. Not far from the inn he hears two men talking excitedly and loudly about another murder. This one occurred in the Alabaster district during the night, and they claim the victim was Justice Ironbriar himself. This comes as a shock to the heroes, though Ronak speculates the brotherhood might have learned that Ironbriar was being investigated and decided to take him out rather than risk him being captured and talking. They decide to abort their trip to the Arvensoar and head straight for the Alabaster district to visit the murder scene.
When they arrive at Ironbriar’s home they find that a large group of gawkers have gathered. At least a dozen guards are on the scene, and they are busy containing the onlookers. A body is on the ground in front of the front doors, but it has blanket covering it. Captain Acacia is at the scene, and she soon spots the heroes pushing their way through the crowd. She seems glad to see them, and she asks that they follow her into the house. They learn that the body out front was Ironbriar’s valet, and that he was not killed ritualistically. However, Ironbriar was, and his body is in the dining room. Kovak wants to inspect it and asks Acacia if one of the four guards that have accompanied them inside can remove the blanket. The guard does so, and Kovak can see that the victim appears to be a dead elf (from the pointed ears), presumably Ironbriar. His face is a strange looking mess and there is a Sihedron symbol cut into the chest. Suddenly Ironbriar bolts up, groans and starts to get to his feet. At the same time, Tonzay and Brutus, who are standing in the back, hear movement behind them. They turn their heads just in time to see a hulking figure swinging a massive scythe in their direction. It cleaves Brutus across the back, cutting him deeply. The hulking figure has burlap sack over his head and wears a crumpled, pointed hat that makes him resembled an oversized and utterly terrifying scarecrow. The thing’s body looks like it is made of a combination of human and animal parts all stitched together.
Combat ensues. As the “scarecrow” brings up its scythe to attack again, Brutus and Tonzay lunge through the nearest door, escaping into the kitchen. It manages to catch Tonzay with a swing of its weapon as he retreats, leaving the gnome badly injured. Ronak leaps up onto the dining room table to attack Ironbriar with his fists, and Kovak and Chochok draw their weapons. To the dwarf’s surprise his fist sinks into Ironbriar’s chest. It is malleable, and the sternum bone that he had been planning to shatter isn’t there. The blow stills seems to cause the thing pain, but not as much as it should have. Clearly his opponent is not human. Acacia draws her own sword, but instead of attacking Ironbriar she swings at Ronak. The two closest guards also ready their weapons and turn their attention towards the adventurers.
The Heroes of Sandpoint know they are in trouble. It appears that they have been lured into an ambush. The scythe wielding golem is a terrible foe, and they realize that if they are going to survive they need to escape the cramped confines of the house. In the kitchen Brutus fires a scorching ray into the dining room that sears Acacia as she attacks Ronak. The half orc then smashes out a window, preparing to escape. Kovak rushes in to join him and clambers out. The scarecrow moves in front of the door to the kitchen, cutting off Ronak and Chockok from the rest of the party. It cannot swing its scythe through the kitchen doorway, so it reaches in with a bulging arm to grab at Tonzay, who is in the midst of trying to heal himself with a newly acquired wand. The quick little gnomes scampers away from the thing’s grasp and hurries for the window.
In the dining room, Chochok charges the back door overrunning one of the guards that is defending it. He goes crashing through and bursts outside. After that he raises his earthbreaker and starts smashing away at the two guards. Ronak engages Acacia, and discovers that like Ironbriar she too has strangely malleable flesh. Realizing she isn’t human and having a golem moving to help her, he decides to fights his way outside to stand beside the shoanti. By this time Kovak, Brutus and Tonzay have all made it out the window. Brutus casts a web spell into the house that clogs the place up with sticky webbing and slows down their enemies. The golem has the easiest time getting out of the webbing, as the hulking thing just pushes his way through. It squeezes through the door into the kitchen and reaches out the window to grab at Kovak. Luckily it can’t get ahold of the half orc. Acacia, Ironbriar and the guards struggle in the webbing. Only Ironbriar manages to get free, and he comes after Ronak and Chockok. The dwarf and the shoanti are able to bring him down, and at the same time Brutus hurls as fireball into the house, burning Acacia and the guards. The fireball causes the webbing to burst into flame, which inflicts even more damage and serves to set the house on fire. The golem seems immune to magic however, and it takes no damage from the fireball. With the webbing gone Acacia can move again, and she disappears into another section of the house while the scarecrow moves to the back doors to fight Ronak and Chochok. Kovak provides support with healing spells. Tonzay tells a new story about his uncle. He remains outside but positions himself so that he has a clear line of sight in the back doors. Next he readies his bow to start shooting at the construct. There is little Brutus can do against the golem, so he casts a haste spell on his allies and draws his crossbow.
Fighting against the golem is fierce. The thing concentrates on killing Ronak and causes him some terrible wounds that would have killed him if Kovak weren’t beside him to provide him with healing. Both Ronak and Chochok move with incredible speed thanks to the haste spell, and they land some crushing strikes against their enemy. Chochok’s raging power attacks with his earthbreaker are particularly devastating to the golem. It turns its attention on the shoanti and makes its own power attacks. Its scythe cuts two grievous slashes into the barbarian’s chest, and the shoanti falls to the ground dead. Tonzay screams. Ronak snarls and hammers it with flurry of blows that finally brings it down.
With the golem vanquished the fighting ends, but situation is a complete mess. Chochok is dead, and the house is on fire. Ironbriar is also dead, but it appears that he was a shape shifter of some sort. Captain Acacia has disappeared, and it seems probable that she too was a shape shifter. Two of the guards have been killed and the other two have been taken alive after being burned by Brutus’s magic. These two guards had been near the front doors for the duration of the fighting, and they didn’t attack the heroes (though they didn’t help them either), so Kovak heals their wounds, and they start to question the pair. The guards claim that they have no ties to any of the madness that occurred, and they seem as confused as the heroes. They say that they noticed Acacia had been acting strange all morning, leaving the heroes to wonder if she was recently replaced by the shapeshifter. There are many questions to be asked and answered, but there is also a fire to deal with and panic spreading through the district. The session ends at this point with the heroes left wondering what is going on.
Session #10, GM Notes
So this session went a little off the rails (for those of you that are familiar with the adventure), but I think we can wrap up the adventure next session.
Poor Chochok, I liked Chochok and spent a long time painting his mini for Cho's player, which will now go into the coffin drawer where all the dead PC minis end up. What can I say, the scarecrow is a nasty opponent, but just wait until they meet Xanesha- more potential character deaths next session.