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From our Games We Play blog.
Session 1: Sandpoint
Being the first session, I decide that it was important to let the kids explore Sandpoint and get some idea over the general surroundings before launching them into an adventure.
"Okay guys, this is part of the land you're in. See this town? That's Sandpoint, the only and most important town in the area. This whole place used to belong to a kingdom, but many years ago, monsters attacked the kingdom and the people had to leave. Now, people are starting to come back to this land because there is valuable stuff here, like precious metals and jewels in the mountains, and wood in the forests. The only safe way in is by ship, so that's why Sandpoint is an important port. There's an old road called the Lost Coast Road that passes through the town and leads to these little farms out in the country. However there're still monsters around, which is why adventurers like yourselves are welcome here to help get rid of them."
"Before we start, you guys should introduce your characters. What's and who is your character, Jo?"
My 9 year old daughter Josephine, or Jojo for short, had copied the Elf Rogue character stats that came with the Beginners Box with some minor changes. "My character is an Elf and I grew up in an orphanage. I learnt how to play pranks and stuff there, especially on the person in charge who is like Miss Hannigan from Annie. The best trick was when I put a bucket of water on top of a door and it splashed down on Miss Hannigan when she came through. Anyway, one day they told me that it was time to leave the orphanage because I was old enough. I really wanted to travel, so I went to the harbour and found work on a ship. For some time, that ship became like my new home; they taught me my skills on the ship. Then I found out that the people on the ship were actually a group like the Avengers and they wanted me to go to Sandpoint to find out why all the monsters are attacking the place. So I'm here like on a spy mission for them."
"Interesting! Is your character named Jojo as well?"
"No, but I haven't decided what her name is yet."
"Hmm.. okay. How about you, Evan? What's your character?"
My 7 year old son Evan brandishes his character sheet, complete with self-drawn portrait. "My character is a fighter named Sharpblade. He's a human, but he was brought up by elves. Then one day, one million goblins, one thousand goblin bosses and five ogres came and destroyed five of the elf kingdoms. I escaped to the sixth elf kingdom on a horse, and just as I arrived, I was attacked by ninjas who put me in a prison cell where I died."
"Well, that was a very short adventure for your character, Ev..."
"Wait! Not finished yet! The cell where they put me had this magic liquid stuff on the floor, and they used this to turn me into... a skeleton!"
"So your character is a SKELETON?"
"Uh huh. And he has this red jewel on his forehead. The ninjas then sent me here to work for them."
Needless to say, I had some concerns over Evan's choice of character. "Well, normally skeletons are like evil robots - they are mindless creatures, Ev." Some inspiration struck. "Maybe that red jewel allows you to think like when you were still human."
"Yah, it's like it's got my spirit stuff in it."
"Okay, one problem, Ev, is if people see you walking around in the town, they're all going to panic and destroy you. I think you will have to wear a cloak and hood to hide your skull and bones. Anyway, you both arrive in Sandpoint on the same ship and soon you are in the harbour-side. It is very busy with lots of people carrying goods and transporting cargo."
"Is there a battleship? Like in Pearl Harbour?"
"Yes, but this is olden times, so the battleship is made out of wood, and has sails, and lots of cannons along the side. There is one parked out at sea - it's too big to get in, so little boats are going to and from the ship, probably bringing supplies for its next voyage."
"Anyway, you both see a man dressed in official clothes calling in a loud voice, 'Newcomers to Sandpoint? Newcomers to Sandpoint!?" He spots you two and comes over, "Are you two new to Sandpoint?"
"Yes, we are new here," says Jojo.
"Great, if you are looking for work, there lots to do depending on what you are capable of. You can help transport cargo, or go out to chop trees, or if you are adventurers, you can find work at the Rusty Dragon tavern. If you go there, say hello to Ameiko the owner." I explained that a tavern was like a cafe with a bar where adventurers tend to hang out and rest. Some even have rooms where you can sleep in. Jojo reminds me that her nameless elf doesn't need to sleep, and Evan doubts his skeleton does either.
They make their way to the Rusty Dragon tavern. "You both enter the tavern which has a huge dragons head made out of metal hanging over the front door. It's so rusty and it looks like it will fall on someone one day. There are tables in the center of the large room, and a long bar along the side. The place is filled with people talking and drinking. You both seat yourselves at an empty table and observe the rest of the people. There's a table where a group of elf wizards are sitting, and a table of humans and dwarves, all decked out in armour. You soon notice that everyone is glancing at the both of you, and the look they give you sort of says, "hah, new comers. Let's see how long these guys will last."
"There is a guy dressed in a uniform going from table to table. He eventually makes it to you guys and says, 'Welcome to Sandpoint. I see you both are new. Do you have any questions about the place?"
Jojo asks, "I want to know where the monsters are."
The uniformed guy replies, "Monsters? They're outside the town. The best person to ask about monsters is Shalelu the elf. She's a huntress who used to work for us, the town guards, but she preferred to work alone, so she goes out by herself to patrol the area." I show them a picture of Shalelu from the Game Master guide.
Jojo nods approvingly. "I like her already."
"She normally goes out for a few days before coming back, but we haven't seen her for a week now. Perhaps you guys can go look for her? She was patrolling the eastern road."
Evan speaks up. "I reach forward and say to him, 'Give me all your money and stuff!"
I blink. "A town guard is like a police officer, Evan. You want to rob a police officer?!? I don't think that's a good idea, Ev."
Evan doesn't seem too happy but he backs down. "Didn't know he was a police officer."
Jojo thanks the town guard and he moves off.
"Another person arrives at your table. She looks like the owner of the tavern, 'Welcome to the Rusty Dragon, kids! First time drinks are on the house!"
Jojo shrugs. "I don't drink. And neither does Evan."
"Cause I'm a skeleton," supplies Evan.
"There is something for everyone here in the Rusty Dragon. How about fruit juice?"
Jojo accepts the fruit juice, while Evan attempts to drink his, resulting in a large puddle on his seat. Ameiko chuckles to Jojo, "I think your friend just wet himself!"
Amidst the laughter, Evan stands up indignantly. "I'm going to pull back my hood and open my cloak to show that I'm a skeleton!"
"You're going to do that in the middle of a tavern full of seasoned adventurers who have probably killed hundreds of skeletons?!?"
"Uh huh."
"Okay. Sharpblade stands up and pulls back his hood to reveal his skull. The whole tavern fall silent and everyone stares at him. Nobody reaches for their weapons though."
Jojo says. "Uh, I get ready my sword."
"Everything is silent for 5 seconds, then Ameiko recovers from her shock, and looks around angrily at the crowd, 'Okay, whose skeleton is this? I told you guys, no pranks with skeletons in my tavern! Someone own up by the time I count to three, otherwise this skeleton is getting dismantled!"
Nobody says anything.
"One! Two!"
Just before she reaches three, a hand waves from the back of the room. Sorry! That's my skeleton! Sorry for the joke!" An old wizard who was sitting by himself in the corner that you didn't notice makes his way towards Evan. When he gets close, he whispers to Evan, "Play along if you want to live."
Evan decides to play along and walk like a clumsy automaton while following the old wizard who is apologising profusely as they leave the tavern. Jojo follows them cautiously in secret as she doesn't trust this wizard very much.
The wizard leads them down a nearby alleyway, and to a small townhouse. He ushers Sharpblade inside and just before he closes the door, he calls out to Jojo, "You might as well come in too. No point hanging around out there."
Jojo decides to come in too and the wizard closes the door. "Whew! That was close! Those guys would have decimated you for sure!" He introduces himself. "My name is Fastidus. I'm a wizard researcher, so I don't really fight monsters and stuff. But anyway," he glances over at Sharpblade. "You are a thinking skeleton, aren't you? That's fascinating! I recognise that gem you have on your forehead! I have a book downstairs that has a diagram just like that! I never thought I'd see one in real life!"
Jojo introduces herself and explains that she's here to find out why the monsters are attacking the town.
Fastidus listens and nods. "Well, the monsters are attacking because... well, they're monsters! Monsters always try to attack settlements like these! There is no logical reason why they do it, unless there is some evil controlling their attacks! And anyway, this town isn't the first settlement to try to stay in this land. Did you know that Sandpoint is built over the ruins of a previous town? Yes, under us, there are tunnels and secret passageways that no one really wants to know about. I could tell you more, but unfortunately, my laboratory in the cellar downstairs is.. um.. unavailable."
The kids ask Fastidus to elaborate, so he does. "Well, just yesterday, I was down in my lab, and I heard a scuttle sound and a hiss. I knew there was a monster in the room, so I fled the room and locked the door. I haven't been down there since."
After some discussion, the kids decide to check out the lab for Fastidus. The old wizard pulls open a trapdoor in the middle of the room which reveals a spiral stairway going down. With their weapons at ready, the kids descend the stairway and come to a wooden door at the bottom. The door is glowing slightly with magic.
Fastidus calls out from above,"Oh! I almost forgot! I magically locked the door! To unlock it, just say the magic password 'Fatguts!'" He hesitates. "Um, or was it 'Ratguts'? One of the two anyway. Be careful because if you say the wrong password, that will trigger the fire trap."
"You tell us this now?" exclaims Jojo.
"So now what?" I ask. "Fatguts or Ratguts?"
The kids decide on Ratguts. I roll a d6 to determine 50-50 chance of success. "It works! The door stops glowing and you can open it."
I sketch out a small oval-shaped cellar room with a large table full of alchemy vials and bottles in the middle, some bookshelves along the walls, a cauldron in the corner, and a large bookcase at the far end. "You can't see what's behind the bookcase," I inform them.
The kids cautiously enter the cellar room together. I call for a Perception skill check, which Jojo succeeds. "You spot a strange thing on the floor in front of you. It looks like an insect leg... that's about the length of your arm!"
"Is it broken off, or chewed off?" Evan asked intently.
"Uh, broken off.. I think."
The kids survey the lab apparatus on the table before carefully moving towards the bookcase. "You both reach the side of the bookcase and peer around it. You see what looks like a large crack in the wall, big enough for a dog to get through." I draw streaks in front of the crack. "And you also see lots and lots of spider webs in front of it."
"Giant Spider!" they both exclaim.
"Perception roll!" I order, and they both roll and succeed. "You spot something at the corner of your eye, and you both turn around just in time to see a Giant Spider crawling out from under the table! It smashes glass vials and bottles as it climbs on the tabletop, hissing like this - Sssssss! You also notice that one of its legs is missing!"
We all make our Initiative rolls, and Evan gets to go first. "I smash it with my war hammer!" Evan rolls a hit and scores maximum damage!
"You step forward and smash your war hammer down into the Spider's back! Yellow ichor splurts everywhere and the spider hisses even louder in anger!"
Jojo goes next and throws her dagger. She rolls a hit, even with the -4 penalty for a ranged attack on an opponent next to an ally, and does 3 damage. "I get extra sneak attack damage," she reminds me and she rolls a 6 on the d6.
"Jojo throws the dagger, and you can almost see it fly in slow motion, spinning on its side as it actually passes through Sharpblade's ribcage and thunks into the spider's head! The spider gives out a last shrieking hiss and dies on the table!"
Fastidus pokes his head around the door. "You got it? Thank goodness! Now help me clean up this mess, and I'll see if I can find that book!"
Adventure notes:
The Beginners Box comes with a wonderful setting for a town called Sandpoint which I hope the kids will make their home base. It's tempting to start on the Black Fang adventure straight away, but I decided that we should explore the town a bit more to get a feel of the place. I planned that they should meet someone at the tavern to give them their first adventure, and Evan's skeleton-flashing stunt sort of way-laid those plans, so I hurriedly came up with Fastidus to save their skins.
This session took us almost 2 hours, and it was getting late by the time they got to Fastidus's house, and I wanted to throw in at least one short fight scene before finishing up, so the Giant Spider was a perfect fit. It would have been interesting if the Spider actually got to snare one of them in its web, but the dice were hot that night for the kids, so it never even got to use it. Still, it was an exciting end, and a great start for the kids on their Pathfinder adventure.
Your son is obviously extremely intelligent and has not inherited the inglorious mindset that undead=evil and skeletons=mindless. Skeletons are not inherently evil robots... They are bones. That is all. Go Sharpblade.
So glad to see you and yours enjoying this most excellent pastime. More power to you all. And sentient skeletons.
Your son is obviously extremely intelligent and has not inherited the inglorious mindset that undead=evil and skeletons=mindless. Skeletons are not inherently evil robots... They are bones. That is all. Go Sharpblade.
So glad to see you and yours enjoying this most excellent pastime. More power to you all. And sentient skeletons.
Thanks. Not sure about "extremely intelligent", but Evan is certainly smart enough to surprise his dad with his decisions! ;)
I'm actually re-posting our sessions in here because I like this paizo site, and think it's an amazing resource. I've already posted up about nine sessions so far in our blog, and it's a pity that I can't seem to post images in here, because some of the pics I took of our fight scenarios are pretty cool.
Just wanted to say loved reading this session. It also lead me to your blog where I read all the rest. You have a really fun writing style and your games sound like a lot of fun. Please keep it up!
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From our Games We Play blog.
Characters:
(Yet to be named), Elven Rogue (played by Jojo, 9yo)
Sharpblade, Skeleton (Human) Fighter (played by Evan, 7yo)
Session 2: The Lost Coast Road
Fastidus is delighted to have access to his laboratory back, and is already starting to putter around with a large tome from one of his shelves. The kids decide to patch up the crack in the wall, just in case more nasty critters crawl through. While they fix up the wall, Fastidus reads out excitedly from the tome. "See here?" He points to a diagram of a gem which looks identical to the gem on Sharpblade's skull. "This is written in a long-forgotten, ancient language, and I only can read parts of it, but this says that the gem can trap spirits! I think this is why Sharpblade can still think and reason, unlike a normal mindless skeleton..."
Jojo looks at Evan thoughtfully. "Hmm.. I wonder what happens if I smash that gem..."
Evan ignores her. "I want to look at armour. And then go find a battle ground and fight monsters."
The kids decide to check out the shops in town, so after perusing the town map, they make a stop over at Sheva's Armoury. After polling the kids for suggestions, Sheva turns out to be a replica of the shop-keeper from Frozen complete with Scandivanian accent. "Hoo hoo! Big summer blowout! Very pleased to meet some new customers! You would be interested in some weapons or armour of my own making, yah?"
The kids check out the shop, and are both disappointed to find that everything cool costs way more than what they currently have. Evan lingers over a +1 Glamoured Half Plate which can change its appearance to any sort of clothing or armour, while Jojo tries on a shadow-enchanted Studded leather that makes her vanish effortlessly into the shade.
"Do you put things aside for people?" she asks as she reluctantly returns it.
Sheva waves his hands. "Oh no, I normally do not, but for you, I will make special note in my list, yah?"
"Maybe you guys should try earning some gold from adventures?" I advised, hoping to get then out of town. The kids discuss their options; Jojo wants to go out to find the Elven huntress Shalelu who's supposed to be out on patrol, while Evan wants to explore the ruined lighthouse in Sandpoint marked on the map as the Old Light. Eventually, they agree to stop by the lighthouse on their way out of the town.
Fastidus meets them in the street. "Thank goodness I managed to catch you before you left! Here are some potions I made for you." He hands Jojo a potion of Cure Light Wounds and a potion of Feather Fall. "Unfortunately, I have nothing that Sharpblade might use. A skeleton can't drink potions, after all."
Evan looks shocked. "I can't WHAT?!?"
I grin at him, somewhat evilly. "You're a skeleton. Although you're immune to cold and poison and stuff, you can't drink anything which means no potions. I mean, where's all the liquid going to go? It'll just pass straight through and wet the floor!"
"But how am I going to heal up and stuff?"
"You'll just have to find some other way."
"But... DAAAD!"
"Haha," voices Jojo as she writes down her new potions.
The kids arrive at the Old Light. "You see ruins of what must have been a huge tower at the top of a cliff. You expect to see no one here, but you're surprised to see a group of townsfolk gathered around something. Do you want to approach them?"
Jojo and Evan approach together. One of the townsfolk notices Sharpblade and greets Jojo. "Hello there. Nice skeleton you have with you,"
Jojo shakes her head. "First off, he's not my skeleton - I'm just here to keep him out of trouble. Secondly, I'm here to find Shalelu - do you know where she is?"
The townsman doesn't know where Shalelu is. Meanwhile, the rest of the townsfolk are gathered around what seems to be a hole in the ground.
"Did a monster make that hole?" asks Evan eagerly.
"Oh, no. A boy fell into this hole this morning and we just got him out. He's over at the temple now for healing. We're trying to work out how to fill up this hole. It seems to be a room under the lighthouse ruins. Could be dangerous things down there, so we're not too keen to go down there ourselves."
The kids discuss this and decide to leave the hole. "We want to go out of town and find Shalelu," said Jojo. "We might come back to explore this later."
So the two adventurers leave town. I draw a close up of the road map for them. "You travel out of town following the road. You're on the Lost Coast Road, a road built a long time ago during the old kingdom days. At first there's quite a number of people of the road, with wagons and horses and such, but as you get further away from town, you see fewer and fewer people."
"Because people who leave town... don't.. come.. back! Dun dun duuun!" Jojo breaks out into evil laughter.
I push on. "About 3 hours out, you come to a strange sight. You see in the distance, a caravan hitched to two horses. The caravan and horses are not moving - it's just parked on the road. Near the caravan is the edge of the forest. Do you want to go closer?"
They decide to approach the caravan. Cautiously. "As you get closer, you hear someone calling out in the forest,'Gaffi!? Gaffi, where are you!?"
"I'll go into the forest towards the voice," says Jojo.
"Well, I'm going to check out the caravan," declares Evan.
Jojo enters the forest and finds a small boy aged about nine who is calling out for Gaffi. She introduces herself to the boy, who looks a bit frightened, but tells her that he's looking for a man named Gaffi who isn't his father, but looks after him. They live in the caravan and stopped on the road because Gaffi needed to relieve himself in the forest. "That was an hour ago, and he hasn't come back," says the boy in tears.
Meanwhile, Evan is checking out the caravan. "You see that the caravan is weathered and well-travelled. The two horses pay you no heed, and there is a small platform at the back of the caravan where you can step up and enter through the back door."
Evan climbs into the caravan, checks out the little stove and kitchen and bunk beds. "Okay, I'm going to... climb into the drivers seat, and drive this caravan away!" he chortles.
"You sit in the drivers seat, and take the reins, and go 'Heeyah!'... but the horses don't move! You try several times, and the horses just look back disinterestedly at you."
In the forest, Jojo learns the boy's name as Bilbi and she spots a trail going further into the forest. Following the trail, she comes across a little stream, and sees a man lying face-down on the bank, next to a large rock.
"I approach very slowly, and watch that suspicious-looking rock," she instructs. Jojo gets close and reaches the man. He is still alive, but unconscious. There is a bloody gash on the side of his head.
"You can try to wake him with a Heal skill check," I tell her. Jojo tries but fails to wake the man who Bilbi confirms is Gaffi. She decides to carry him back to the caravan.
Meanwhile, Evan has gotten off the drivers seat and is trying to move the horses by scaring them. But even with him standing right in front of the horses and shouting menacingly, the horses refuse to move. He's convinced that these must be the bravest horses he's ever seen.
Jojo carrying Gaffi, and Bilbi come out of the forest to witness Sharpblade in front of the horses shouting at them. "What on earth are you doing...?"
Just then, the ground starts to shake, and a huge mound of earth rises out in between Jojo and Evan. "A towering figure rises out of the ground made out of rock and patches of moss and twigs! You see.. THIS!" I show them a picture of an Earth Elemental from the Game Masters guide.
"Upon seeing the Earth Elemental, the horses rear up in panic, and dash forward - right where Evan is standing in shock!"
Evan throws himself aside with a successful Reflex save. "Wait! As the horses go by, I want to jump on them and ride away with them!"
"Okay, it's a tough jump, but make an Acrobatics skill check." Evan rolls and fails the skill check. "You jump high in order to land on the passing horse - but the horse moves by too fast and you miss and slam into the side of the caravan instead! You land on the ground, sprawled on your back!"
We all make our initiative rolls, and Jojo moves first, followed by Evan and then the Earth Elemental. Jojo launches a sneak attack with her rapier, only to have it glance harmlessly against the elemental's rocky leg in a shower of sparks. Evan gets up and says determinedly,"I'm going to run after the caravan and jump in through the back door."
With a dazzling display of acrobatics, Evan lunges after the fleeing caravan and hurls himself in through the back door to land inside the caravan.
"The earth elemental turns its head with a grinding growl and moves after the largest thing it sees - which is the caravan! With a dive underground, the elemental swims through the earth like a fish through water, rapidly gaining on the caravan!"
"DAAAD!!"
Momentarily out of danger, Jojo decides to try to wake Gaffi again. She succeeds her Heal skill check and Gaffi opens his eyes. "Where am I?" Gaffi explains that the last thing he remembers is going into the forest and peeing against a large rock before something smashes into the side of his head.
"Ohhhh no," groans Jojo as she puts the facts together.
Evan sees the elemental gaining on the caravan and throws his war hammer at it, which misses just as the elemental dives into the earth again. He desperately starts throwing anything he can find at it, and soon pots, pans, and ducky underwear all start flying out of the back of the caravan, some hitting the elemental as it continues its relentless pursuit.
"I'm going to give you one more turn before the elemental catches up with you," I tell Evan.
"Cut the horses loose and jump off the caravan!" suggests Jojo.
"Can I jump on the horses, and then cut them loose?" Evan asks.
"Well, you'll have to make an Acrobatics skill check to do that. And if you miss, it could get real bad because you might land on the ground and get run over by the caravan."
Evan thinks a bit. "I'm going to take the reins... and turn the caravan!" He makes a Riding skill check, and succeeds!
"The caravan swerves dangerously on two wheels as you make a mad turn, and then you're racing past the elemental which is going the other way! The elemental growls in surprise and turns around to give chase!"
Jojo stares in shock as she sees the caravan racing back straight towards her. "I push Gaffi and Bilbi into the forest and tell them to hide. And this is probably going to get me killed, but I'll wait for the caravan to pass and then stand right in the way of the elemental, hold up my hand and say, 'STOP!'"
Gaffi and Bilbi hurry into the forest as the caravan with Evan driving it speeds past. Jojo steps up in front of the charging elemental and yells STOP! Incredibly, the elemental stops in front of her and draws itself up menacingly over her.
Jojo clears her throat. "Um.. I know that you're mad because that stupid guy peed on you - I don't want to know where! But it was an accident, umm.. so if you let us leave, we'll umm.. forget this ever happened!"
I get her to make a Diplomacy skill check and she barely makes it. "The earth elemental growls at you, but at least you can see it is less mad than before. Make a Perception check." Jojo does and succeeds. "You see a wet patch just over and under its left eye."
Evan blanches. "Eww! It got pee in its eye! No wonder it's so mad! It probably stings!"
Jojo raises her hands. "If you come with me, I'll help you wash it off in the stream." Another successful Diplomacy roll later, she's leading the elemental off into the forest.
Gaffi turns to Evan who manages to bring the caravan back. "I don't know who you guys are, but you're both crazy!"
He offers them a ride back into town, and so they do.
Adventure Notes:
I find it entertaining to let the kids decide what some of the NPCs look like - that shopkeeper from Frozen was a great suggestion, along with accent and silly dialogue. I've always found it important to give PCs some sort of financial goal to work towards, and am pretty sure the Glamoured Half-Plate and Shadowed Studded Leather are lodged in their heads for now.
After chucking numerous plot hooks at the kids, they finally take one and it certainly turned out interesting. Gaffi and Bilbi will probably some in useful in future sessions as normal townsfolk. Meanwhile, that hole in the ground is just waiting to be explored.
I didn't know exactly what would happen with the Earth Elemental - the kids would have probably been able to take it on if they worked together (or at worst, let it destroy the caravan while they escape with Gaffi and Bilbi), and the diplomatic ending came as a pleasant surprise to me. Jojo is ecstatic that she managed to 'befriend' an earth elemental, and she hasn't stopped talking about going out to visit it again one day.
Momentarily out of danger, Jojo decides to try to wake Gaffi again. She succeeds her Heal skill check and Gaffi opens his eyes. "Where am I?" Gaffi explains that the last thing he remembers is going into the forest and peeing against a large rock before something smashes into the side of his head.
Haha, that is brilliant. :D
It sounds like your children have really taken to Pathfinder. Reading this makes me want to give it a go with my kids, but I'm a bit concerned the youngest might find it to complicated (they are 7 & 12). Also, my wife would not be best pleased if I turned her beloved little girl into a roleplayer. :p
What would you have done if they had fought the elemental and looked like they were going to lose?
It sounds like your children have really taken to Pathfinder. Reading this makes me want to give it a go with my kids, but I'm a bit concerned the youngest might find it to complicated (they are 7 & 12). Also, my wife would not be best pleased if I turned her beloved little girl into a roleplayer. :p
What would you have done if they had fought the elemental and looked like they were going to lose?
I encourage you to give it a go with your kids. Evan is 7 himself, and the key here is to get them to have fun. The character sheets, skills, combat rules and dice rolling is really secondary - I find that the kids are already natural role players.
With the elemental, it would have just been satisfied to destroy the caravan and leave. It was really just after petty revenge. Turned out better than expected though! Another reason to let your kids surprise you with their actions and ideas! ;-)
From our Games We Play blog:
Characters:
(Yet to be named), Elven Rogue (played by Jojo, 9yo)
Sharpblade, Skeleton (Human) Fighter (played by Evan, 7yo)
Adventure Notes:
Last Monday evening, I came home to a very bizarre experience. The kids had finished their weekly homework and were excited to play Pathfinder.
"But homework isn't due till Friday!" I said somewhat surprised.
"Yeah, but we did it all this afternoon, so can we pleeeease play RPG!?"
What more was there to do but to eat dinner and get ready for Session 3.
Session 3: The Festival of Sarenrae
"Gaffi brings you all back to Sandpoint, and he thanks you both again for saving them from that angry Earth Elemtental. 'We don't have much, but here's something I want you to have.' He passes you a gold ring. You can see a slight glow of magic on it. 'We found it some days ago in an old cave, and it's obviously magical, but I think you'll find more use for it than Bilbi or me.'"
"Cool!" says Evan. "I'll put it on!"
"Uh, I don't think that's a good idea," says Jojo. "It might be an evil ring, like in the Hobbit or something. I think we should just sell it."
"Well, it's usually a good idea to find out what it is first before you sell it," I suggest. "I mean, someone might buy it from you for 10 gold, and then later find out that the ring is worth 1000 gold, and you'll lose out."
"Well, I'm putting it on," insists Evan.
I nod. "Okay, Sharpblade puts on the ring, and there's a slight magical tingle, and nothing else. You don't feel any different. Maybe you should find someone to help you identify what this ring is."
By now the answer was obvious. The kids go off and visit Fastidus who examines the ring under a large magnifying glass that is attached to his cellar table by some hinged contraption. "There seems to be some tiny writing just there," mutters the wizard. He puts on a pair of glasses with multiple lenses over one side. "It's a tiny rune that says... 'Jump'."
Sharpblade puts the ring back on. "Hmm.. I'll jump." He jumps... and makes a spectacular hole in the cellar ceiling when the Ring of Jumping activates and launches him 10 feet up. I inform the kids that the ring is worth about 2500 gold, and the kids argue a bit about whether they should keep it or sell it, but in the end, they decide to sell it and split the gold as it was the fairer option.
After updating their character sheets with their newly gained wealth, the kids decide to stay the night over at Fastidus's house. Jojo's elven rogue rests cross-legged on a floor rug, while Evan attempts unsuccessfully to convert his skeleton into a bed. Fastidus lounges on a large, rug-covered chair with his staff leaning against it, which apparently is where he normally sleeps. We all agree that this must be very bad for his back.
Jojo tells with Fastidus all about the earth elemental she befriended in the last session. "And after I washed out its eye, I was like,'Friends?' with my hand out, and it went 'Huh!' and just sank straight into the ground! And I was like, 'Um.. I think that went well!' I wish I could talk to it, and other nature creatures."
Fastidus nods sleepily. "I heard about someone out in the forest who can do that. He can speak to animals and stuff. Maybe he can teach you how to do that." He drifts off to sleep before Jojo can ask him more.
The next morning, they can hear sounds of a crowd outside. Jojo goes to open the door and peer out while Evan checks to see if Fastidus is still asleep. "He's asleep? Good! I'm going to take his staff and..."
Jojo opens the door and the noise wakes Fastidus up. "Eh? Oh, good morning Sharpblade! You got my staff? Thanks! What's all that racket?" They look outside and see people chattering loudly as they make their way up the street towards the Sandpoint Cathedral. "Oh, I forgot about that," yawns Fastidus. "It's the Festival of Sarenrae the Sun goddess today. It's an off day so all the shops are closed. But there's a lot of things to see at the Festival."
Soon, the kids are following the crowd to a large area in front of the cathedral. "There's people everywhere, and stalls selling food and trinkets. There's a crowd watching a group of dwarves parading around a long, metal dragon on poles. You overhear someone saying that the dragons on parade are to commemorate the time when the followers of Sarenrae defeated a horde of evil dragons in an epic battle. At the end of the day, the fake dragons will be destroyed as part of the ceremony."
"In fact," I muse. "There's even a contest at the end of the day to determine which is the best fake dragon. The winning team gets 1000 gold."
While the kids ponder this, they see another group, this time a group of elves, all raising their arms to cast an illusionary dragon in the air above them. Their dragon is all beauty and colour, graceful and animated.
"Elves? Yay! I know whose team I'm joining!" declares Jojo, and she goes off to join the elves. I remind her that she can't cast spells herself, but she insists on joining in with the arm-raising alongside the other elves.
"Meanwhile, Evan, you see another large crowd down by the bay. As you go closer, you see a strange event - a long wooden platform is floating out in the bay, and there are two fighters on the platform. A wizard standing on the water like it was solid ground raises his hands and announces "Begin!", and the two fighters close in on each other with their weapons. You can see that the fighters are both protected by some sort of shimmering magic field which sparks every time their weapons clash against it. Soon, one of the fighters is knocked off the platform and splashes into the water amidst cheers from the crowd. You hear someone say that this is a contest, with the prize being 1000 gold!"
The smile on Evan's face is the definition of delight. "I'm joining this contest! I call out to the wizard on the water, 'Hey, fatso! I'm joining in!'"
"That's rude," says Jojo. "And the wizard's not fat!"
"Actually, he is," I improvise. "He's probably the fattest wizard you've seen wearing robes and boots standing on the water." The kids laugh.
Thankfully, the fat wizard doesn't appear to hear Sharpblade, and someone helps Sharpblade sign up for the contest. Meanwhile, Jojo is still parading around with the elves when one of them, the leader, waves her over. "It's so nice to see that you're a big supporter for our team," he purrs.
"Yeap, go elf team! Woooo!" Jojo waves her arms in the air.
The elf smiles. "Yes, but I can see you're more of the sneaky type, rather than the spell-casting type. But you can still be a big help to us." The elf points at the dwarf team who are still parading noisily with their metal dragon. "You see those ugly dwarves? Well, I've heard that they've got a surprise lined up for the final judging. Apparently, their dragon is going to come alive and flap its wings, and breathe fire up into the air!"
The elf lowers his voice. "Which is where you come in. See this?" He shows Jojo something that looks like a metal coin. "This sticks to metal like a magnet. If you can stick this on the dwarves' dragon, their dragon won't work when it comes time for judging!"
Jojo hesitates for a while before nodding. "Uh.. yeah! Sure thing!" She takes the coin from elf and runs off. "I need to find Fastidus!" she pants, and she makes her way to Fastidus's house.
Back at the bay Sharpblade's first fight is just about to start. I start off with an announcer's voice but the kids insist that the fat wizard sounds like Sour Bill from Wreck-it Ralph.
So I speak as slow and low as possible in an extremely boring fashion. "And in the next fight, we have... Sharpblade versus... Erik the Guard." With an elaborate wave with both hands, the fat wizard teleports Sharpblade and Erik to the wooden platform out in the bay. "Begin!"
Sharpblade wins initiative, and lands a glancing blow on Erik, showering the platform with sparks from the guard's magical field. I roll for Erik's attack and roll a lousy 5. "Erik lunges forward with a piercing thrust and stabs right through where a stomach would normally be... but of course, Sharpblade the skeleton doesn't have a stomach! The crowd goes Oooo! And then cheer when Sharpblade isn't damaged!"
Sharpblade scores another well placed hit on Erik's side, the magic field sparking to absorb the blow. Amazingly, I roll another 5 for Erik. I gabble like a sports commentator, "And it looks like Erik couldn't believe that his first attack didn't have any effect, and tries the same thing again! Oooo - it looks like he's not the brightest guard in the garrison!"
"He must be new at this," comments Jojo off-handedly.
Evan rolls another hit and uses his Power Attack feat to score 6 damage, bringing Erik's HPs down to zero. "Sharpblade does a back-hand swing and smashes Erik right off the platform! Erik flies through the air and belly-flops into the bay waters! The crowd goes wild and people are chanting, 'Sharp Blade! Sharp Blade!'"
Meanwhile, Jojo arrives back at Fastidus's house only to find that the old wizard is not in. "Of course, he's in the festival!" She groans as she makes her way back to the cathedral.
I tell Jojo, "Just then, you bump into someone. Or rather, someone bumps into you. Someone really short. You look down and see a dwarf staring up at you."
"Uh, hi! What do you want?" asks Jojo, slightly nervous.
The dwarf stabs a finger at her. "You! I've seen you! You were part of that elf dragon team!"
"Yeah, so what?"
The dwarf leans closer. "I know you! You're the sneaky type! You're not one of them snooty elf magic casters! Do you know that they've won this dragon parade contest for 3 years in a row now!? Stuck up, arrogant twerps! But this year, you can help us win this parade!"
Jojo shifts uncomfortably. "Uh, yeah? How?"
The dwarf hands Jojo a red gem. "Put this into the pocket of the lead elf. It'll make the illusion fail when it's time to judge! And when we win, we'll give you 200 gold from the prize money!"
Jojo accepts the gem. "Mom, what am I going to do!?" she wails to my wife who is listening in nearby.
My wife looks up from her knitting. "At least the dwarves are offering you something, while the elves are offering nothing at all!"
Sharpblade's next fight is soon up. Sour Bill announces the fight. "And now we have Sharpblade versus... The Iron Hammer!"
The crowd collectively gasps, and Evan looks slightly worried. Sour Bill teleports both the combatants onto the wooden platform. I hold up the GM guide. "You see a well armoured dwarf standing on the other end of the platform. He takes out his war hammer and twirls it mightily in the air like this - whoosh-whoosh!"
"Begin!" calls out the fat wizard, and the two combatants close in. Evan wins initiative and lands a glancing blow on the dwarf. The dwarf replies with a strong swing that grazes Sharpblade's side. Over the next few rounds, we both roll a series of misses before I finally roll a hit and cause maximum damage. "Those rolls were Sharpblade and the Iron Hammer striking and parrying with each other's weapons, but then the Iron Hammer catches Sharpblade on a mighty crunch that causes him to slip off the platform and into the water! The Iron Hammer wins!"
The crowd goes wild as Sharpblade staggers underwater back up to shore. When he gets out of the water, there is a shimmer of light, and the Iron Hammer teleports in nearby. The dwarf claps Sharpblade on the shoulder and booms out, "Well fought, lad! You had me worried there for a second! When I next go adventuring, I will remember to call you along!" Evan looks slightly mollified.
"So what are you going to do, Jo?" I ask. "Whose team are you going to help?"
"Um, I'm going to find the contest judge and ask him if I could help him judge the contest."
I shake my head. "The contest judge turns out to be a skinny man with a long nose. He says in a nasally voice, 'No!'"
Jojo finally makes up her mind. "Then I'm going to go to the elf team, and I tell the elf leader to put the gem into his pocket for good luck. And then, I'm going to go to the dwarves and stick the coin on their dragon. If anyone asks, I'll say it's for luck!"
"You're going to sabotage BOTH of them?"
"Uh huh. And then I'm going to make myself real hard to find!"
So Jojo does both the deeds and then makes her way to the bayside to find Sharpblade. "Just as you arrive at the bayside, you spot Bilbi in the crowd. The boy is glad to see you, but when he sees how troubled you look, he asks what's wrong."
Jojo explains what she'd done to the boy who frowns thoughtfully. "So," he says. "There's two teams? And both teams are going to lose?"
"Uh huh."
The boy brightens up. "Then why don't we make up our own dragon, and win the contest?"
Evan laughs. "Oh, yeah! I like that idea!"
Jojo frets. "But both teams will kill me if they see me!"
It takes some coaxing from Evan and Bilbi, but Jojo eventually agrees to help build a fake dragon and parade it, as long as she does so unobtrusively. I tell the kids,"I'll give you guys a few minutes to draw what your dragon looks like!"
As the kids pore over their drawing, I give a running commentary on what's happening in the parade. "The dwarves bring their dragon close to the elf dragon, and it lashes out a metal tail through the illusion! The illusion stammers, but the elves manage to maintain their illusionary dragon and glare at the dwarves!"
"Later, the elves bring their dragon close to the dwarves dragon, and the illusionary dragon lifts a leg and pees over the dwarves dragon! The crowd laughs at the sight!"
The kids finish their drawing and parade it to me.
"The crowd laughs at the sight of your dragon made out of junk with wings of tattered sail cloth! But you guys manage to get it ready in time for the contest!"
The contest judge calls for the dragons to be presented. The kids present their dragon first and decide to announce their dragon as 'The Golden Claw'. They earn a few generous claps. Then the elves present their beautiful illusionary dragon.
I ask the kids for a good name for the elven dragon and they oblige. "The elf leader calls out, 'Behold! The Shimmer and Shine!' The crowd gasps as the dragon glows brighter and brighter! Then, suddenly, it fades and vanishes altogether! The elves look shocked and perplexed while someone from the crowd calls out, 'More like Shimmer and Fade!'"
Next are the dwarves. Their dragon lifts up majestically and flaps its wings! The dragon raises its head skyward and opens its mouth... but only smoke comes out! Then the whole dragon begins to rattle and shake, and the whole thing disintegrates into pieces!
Jojo stares at the wreckage, aghast. "I thought that the coin was going to stop it from working, not destroy it completely!"
"Wait!" The elf leader calls out angrily, holding up the red ruby. "We were sabotaged!" And then the dwarf leader finds the coin and holds that up too. "Look at this! We were sabotaged too!"
They present the offending items to contest judge who examines at them. "So, this dwarven Disruption Gem sabotaged your illusion, and this elven enchanted Jinxed Coin ruined your dragon? I think it's clear what happened here. You're both disqualified from this contest for cheating! The winner of the dragon parade is The Golden Claw!"
The crowd cheers and I award the kids some experience points for great role playing. They decide to split the contest prize money 3 ways - 300 gold for them each, with Bilbi taking 400 gold because it was his idea.
Adventure Notes:
Okay, I admit performing some slight social experimentation there with Jojo. The whole dragon parade plot was completely improvised on the spot, and I was partly curious to see what Jojo would do. I was expecting her to make at least one group of future enemies, and was surprised when she made not one, but two groups of future enemies! I was so astonished that I forgot to ask her to make some Bluff rolls when she was placing those items on the teams' dragons.
Ironically, the less friendly Sharpblade actually makes one friend out of his contest. I struggled to think of a name for the dwarf, but then decided why bother? and went with The Iron Hammer. I think he'll invite the kids into a future adventure.
Other potential plot hooks from this session - a man talking to animals in the woods, enraged groups of elves and dwarves.
And Erik the Guard who really sucks.
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This is a joy to read. Thank you for sharing this wonderful tale. Though I would like to muse something, children already love stories and playing pretend, so Roleplaying games come more naturally to them than some adults. I find it so fascinating that many people lose that quality to just enjoy the story.
From our Games We Play blog:
Characters:
Lexi, Elven Rogue (played by Jojo, 9yo)
Sharpblade, Skeleton (Human) Fighter (played by Evan, 7yo)
Jojo finally decides on a name for her elven rogue - Lexi. She is busy writing the name into her character sheet while I set the scene. "The next day, everything goes back to normal in Sandpoint. The shops are open again, and there are busy crowds everywhere."
"Is the fighting contest still on?" asks Evan eagerly.
"No, that was only for the Festival. No fighting contests on today."
Somewhat disappointed, Sharpblade decides to take a stroll to the Rusty Dragon Tavern. Nobody barely pays him any notice as he walks into the tavern; word has probably gotten out that he was some skeleton controlled by the wizard Fastidus.
"As you enter the place, Ameiko the tavern owner stands in front of you and whispers, 'Fastidus? Can you hear me from here!?'"
Evan frowns. "What's she doing?"
"I think she thinks you're a skeleton who is controlled by Fastidus. Like a remote control robot," I supply.
Evan looks indignant. "Well, I'm not! I tell her that I'm a real skeleton and not controlled by anyone!"
Despite telling Ameiko that he is not controlled by Fastidus, the tavern owner brushes his comments aside. "Listen, you old mule! You told me to tell you if any of them turn up in here, and this morning a group of them did. So there you go, consider yourself informed." The tavern owner goes off back to serving customers at a nearby table.
Evan doesn't know what to make of it, so in the end, he decides to go see what Lexi is up to.
Jojo is determined to go chase after the rumour that there is someone in a nearby forest who can talk to animals. "Maybe he can teach me how to talk to animals too!" She plumbs Fastidus for more details, and the old wizard tells her that the rumours come from Egan's Wood, almost a few days away on foot.
Evan gets an idea. "I know! Maybe we can ask Gaffy and Bilbi if we can ride their caravan to the wood!"
We all think it's a great idea, and I tell the kids that Gaffy and Bilbi are happy to bring them to Egan's Wood, so soon the caravan is making its merry way down south along the Lost Coast Road.
"It's a peaceful drive, and in the distance, you can see plenty of farms and fields on this side of Sandpoint. Only when you get closer to the Brinestump Marsh do the farms start thinning out. It's a dangerous place, those marshlands, with plenty of nasty creatures living in it, so most people avoid it. But your journey takes to inland and soon, you arrive at an old abandoned farm next to what has to be Egan's Wood.”
The group gets out for a stretch. Jojo is eager to start searching the woods, so Lexi makes her way into the trees while Sharpblade hangs around the caravan.
“He’s probably waiting to see if he can drive off with it,” remarks Jojo.
The elf wanders around the woods, making sure that she does not lose track of her way back to the caravan. “These woods are quite large. You’re not exactly sure where to start, so you wander around the trees, keeping a sharp look out for anything strange or dangerous.”
Meanwhile, Sharpblade is back at the caravan, rummaging through its contents. “Did you say that there were metal things in here? Didn’t I throw something metal at that Earth Elemental?”
“Uh, metal cooking pots?” I offer.
“Hmm..” he says before continuing with his rummaging.
I have no idea what he has in mind, so I decide to distract him. “Remember I said that this farm is abandoned? Well, there’s an old, deserted farm house here, next to the fields of overgrown weeds.”
He looks up. “A farm house? Why didn’t you say so?” Sharpblade strolls up the deserted farm house.
“There’s a front porch, and the front door is all boarded up.”
“Smash it with my war hammer.”
It takes only two blows to completely decimate the door and the skeleton steps into the house. “It’s dark in here; the windows have been all boarded up too. Aside from the wooden bits and junk on the floor, you don’t see anything of interest. There’s another door here on the side, probably leading to a side-room.”
Evan hesitates a bit, and then decides to forgo opening this door and goes back to the caravan to resume his rummaging. I suppose he wants to wait for Lexi to get back before exploring on.
Jojo is still in the woods searching. “After several hours, you don’t meet anyone. The sky is getting dark, so you decide to head back to the caravan, when suddenly, there is a rustle in the bushes in front of you! Something’s heading your way!”
Jojo decides to stand firm, throwing dagger at ready. “Out of the bushes in front of you burst out… a wolf! It stares at you with a panting snarl!”
“Does it have red eyes?” asks Evan intently.
“Well, I suppose if it was dark, it might be red.”
“Uh oh.” Lexi throws the dagger and it misses the wolf as it lunges… right past the startled elf and into the bushes behind her! “The wolf soon bounds off, and then you hear more rustling from the bushes in front of you!”
By now, the kids have figured out that something is chasing the wolf, but Jojo decides to stand firm again, this time with her rapier out. “Crashing out of the bushes, you see… two goblins! They are holding a net between them. They see you and shriek angrily and one of them charges towards you with its short sword! The other notches an arrow in its short bow!”
The fight is short, but furious. Lexi dodges the wild swings from the sword-wielding goblin before impaling it with her rapier. Meanwhile, the other goblin proves to be an excellent shot at hitting the sky. It grunts irritably as it bends to retrieve its arrow for the second time.
“I ignore that goblin and run after the wolf! I want to see where it lives!” The elf turns and runs after where the wolf went.
“You run into the bushes, and you can glimpse the wolf bounding away in the distance. But soon, you lose sight of it.” There is no sign of that other goblin either. Jojo is disappointed, but makes her way back to the caravan.
By the time she gets back, night had fallen. Gaffi has set up a campfire next to the caravan, and soon they are all sitting next to the fire eating dinner (except for Sharpblade, of course). Gaffi listens to Jojo’s run-in with the goblins and shakes his head, “Odd. Goblins usually stay closer to the mountains to the east and tend not to stray this far.”
Just then, Bilbi points at the farm house. “Hey! I think I see a light in there!”
Sure enough, in the darkness, they can all see a faint blue glow coming from the side-room window of the farm house. Both Lexi and Sharpblade walk up to the farm house to investigate and enter through the front doorway which Sharpblade had smashed earlier.
“You see a faint blue glow coming from under the door that leads to the side-room.”
“Smash it!”
“You sure, Ev? You don’t want to carefully check the door first?”
“Nope, smash it!”
Sharpblade smashes open the door with his warhammer and the two adventurers stride into the room.
“You see what looks like a blue glowing oval shape hovering above the floor like this.” I motion with my hands. “There is a thrum of magic in the air!”
“Oh, it’s just a portal,” says Evan dismissively. “Jump into it.”
“Hmm.. you really sure?” I was impressed how reckless Evan seemed tonight. And he was dead right about it being a portal too.
“Yeah,” cautions Jojo. “It could be a wisp or something.”
“No, it’s a portal,” insists Evan. Sharpblade takes a running leap towards the blue oval portal and smashes into an invisible barrier in front of it. He crashes on his back, and there is a blue flash as an image of a rune highlights itself over the portal. The rune image gradually fades away.
“That was cool!” the kids exclaim. “Do it again!”
The adventurers repeatedly bounce themselves off the invisible barrier surrounding the blue portal like some kind of vertical trampoline. Eventually, I tell them. “Just then, a cloud covers the moon outside, and the portal disappears. But by now, you’ve memorised this rune and you make your way back to the caravan.”
The kids ask Gaffi if he knows what the rune is, but he just shakes his head. “Don’t know much about runes and the like. But I do know that long ago, these lands were ruled by powerful wizard warriors who called themselves Runelords. This might be one of their runes.”
Jojo shakes her head. “Runelords? Warrior wizards? Why can’t you tell us this stuff beforehand?”
The rest of the night passes uneventfully, and the next day, the two adventurers are back in the forest searching for any trace of the mysterious animal-conversing person, or goblins.
“After some time, you both catch the smell of something really bad in the air. Like someone cooking dirty socks or something. It’s coming from a clearing up ahead.” The two adventurers cautiously approach the clearing and see a group of five goblins sitting around a cook-fire. There are nets on the ground next to them. I sketch out the layout of the clearing and pin-point the location of Lexi and Sharpblade with a triangle and a square.
“Oooo! Can I be the triangle!? I want to be the triangle!” pleads Evan.
“Uh. Yeah, sure, you can be the triangle.”
“Yayy!”
“Listen in to see if we can find out more about them,” suggests Jojo.
I explain that goblin tongue is not easy to make out, full of grunts and snarls, but they manage to recognise a few phrases. “You work out that their leader’s name is Hork, and he rides a large wolf. You also hear that he wants to marry a White Lady.”
“Hmm… a White Lady.” murmurs Jojo thoughtfully.
“Make a perception roll!” I order. The kids both roll abysmal numbers 2 and 3. “You are both so intent on listening in to the goblins that you do not notice a rustle in the bushes behind you until a goblin scout steps out of them! You both stare at each other in surprise before the goblin yells, ‘Intrudah!!! Intrudah!!!’”
The goblins in the clearing grab their weapons and rush towards the noise. The goblin scout attacks Lexi but clumsily stabs a tree with its short sword. Sharpblade draws his axe and bursts into the clearing to attack the advancing goblins. The fight takes several rounds, and Lexi manages to dispatch the goblin scout with her rapier. Sharpblade, however, has a streak of really bad luck with missed attacks and the goblins getting through his tough armour and scoring a couple of critcal hits to boot. Although he manages to dispatch one of them, in the end, he collapses due to the sheer number of goblins bearing him down.
“Sharpblade collapses and about three goblins pounce on top of him! One of them tries to pull his skull off with its hands!”
“Daaaad! Am I dead?”
“Not yet, but you’re out of the fight.”
Lexi’s rapier is a blurry flash as she fights off two goblins at once and manages to bring them down one after the other. When the other three goblins crawling over Sharpblade see her finish off their fellow goblins, they immediately rush to attack her. With a series of well executed attacks, the elf dispatches two of the goblins in as many rounds, and points her blade menacingly at the last one who looks increasingly terrified by the rapier-wielding rogue.
“Tell me what you goblins are doing here in this forest!” she demands angrily.
The goblin blubbers. “We outcasts from Black Fang! We here catch wolves! To ride! Like our great leader Hork!”
“Oh! Black Fang!” says Evan. He points at the campaign map. “From this place here called Black Fang’s Dungeon!”
“What are you going to do with the goblin?” I ask curiously.
Jojo shrugs. “He’s small, right? I’ll carry him back to the caravan.” As Lexi bends to pick up the goblin, the nasty creature shrieks and bites her arm.
As the enraged elf wrestles the creature off, I exclaim, “You suddenly see a few creatures appear from out of the bushes! It’s more of those wolves! The goblin sees the wolves and shrieks in fear and jumps off to run into the opposite direction. The wolves bound past you both to give chase.”
“Just great!” says Jojo. “Now we’ll have to chase them again!”
Sharpblade gets up but just before they start to leave, a voice calls out from the trees. “Ho there, strangers!” A bearded man dressed in patched-up clothes steps into the clearing.
The adventurers introduce themselves to the newcomer. “And we’re looking for a man who can talk to animals.” finishes Jojo.
The bearded man considers this, and then laughs. “Well, I’ve got good news and bad news for you. The good news is that you’ve probably found who you’re looking for. My name is Egan and these are my woods. And I’m most likely the person who people are talking about. The bad news though, is that I don’t really talk to animals. I’m friends with the wolves, and they respect me just as I respect them. But we don’t really.. talk.”
Jojo looks disappointed even when Egan invites them back to his dwelling to rest. After a short walk, they arrive at a large tree stump. “When this was a living tree, the tree must have been simply enormous! Now all that’s left is the base of its trunk which is about 30 feet wide. It has been hollowed out and covered to make Egan’s home.” They enter the dwelling and find it modestly outfitted. Egan starts preparing a meal for them and talks to them about the recent goblin incursion in the woods. “They started turning up some weeks back, and they’ve been trying to catch wolves since!”
The adventurers tell Egan what they have learnt about the goblins. “And we heard that their leader Hork wants to marry a White Lady.”
Egan thinks a bit. “Hmm.. a White Lady. Perhaps it has something to do with that ruined temple in these woods.” He explains that there is an old ruined temple here that has a white statue of a lady. The adventurers agree to investigate it after their rest.
So later on, the adventurers find themselves following Egan’s directions towards where the ruined temple ought to be. “You both walk for about a couple of hours through the woods, and soon come to what seems to be an old marble road! But it’s really cracked and ruined, with roots and grass growing through it.”
Evan attempts to pry some of the marble off the road, but it is so brittle that it breaks to bits. They both follow the road and eventually come to a building partly hidden in the trees.
“This must be the ruined temple Egan told you about. It’s basically a raised marble platform with columns all around. Vines and grass have grown all over it, and half the roof has caved in.” The two adventurers walk up to the temple. “There seems to be nobody here. But just as you approach the main entrance of the temple, there is a thrum of magic in the air, and suddenly, a beautiful lady appears in front of you!”
“Um. Is she white-looking?” queries Jojo.
“Why, yes. She is wearing a white gown, and has pale skin. She is extremely beautiful and tall and graceful with blonde hair. However, she also has a haughty look that gives her a prideful appearance. Sort of like an evil Delta Goodrem.”
Jojo considers this. “I think Kylie Minogue is prettier.”
The White Lady raises her hands slightly in welcome. “Greetings mortals. Welcome to the temple of the Great Xanderghul, the Runelord of Pride. Pilgrims such as yourselves should give praise to the Great Xanderghul, and the mighty runelord might bestow a reward to you.” She seems to wait for a response.
Jojo clears her throat. “Uh, hi, we’re here to find out why the goblin leader wants to marry you.”
“The White Lady does not respond,” I say. “She just stands there, as if waiting.”
“Well, I’m smashing her with my warhammer!” declares Evan. Sharpblade steps forward to deliver a mighty blow to the White Lady. His warhammer goes right through the Lady as if she was not there and smashes the floor. The Lady shimmers a bit, and then disappears.
“Just great!” says Jojo exasperatedly. The two adventurers search the small ruined temple, but find nothing of interest nor any trace of the White Lady.
“You guys finish searching the temple when you both hear the sounds of a group approaching the temple along the marble road!” Sharpblade immediately hides behind one of the pillars while Lexi springs out into the trees to hide in the shadows. From the road, a group of six goblins turn up. “One of them is a largish-looking goblin riding a wolf! This must be Hork, the goblin boss. The goblins grumble amongst themselves until Hork dismounts and clouts one of them behind the head.”
Hork makes his way to the front of the temple and immediately, the White Lady appears. She raises her hands in welcome. “Greetings mortals. Welcome to the temple of the Great Xanderghul, the Runelord of Pride. Pilgrims such as yourselves should give praise to the Great Xanderghul, and the mighty runelord might bestow a reward to you.”
Hork gets down on one knee and calls out, “Beautiful White Lady! Lady more beautiful than.. than.. flower! Why you no marry Hork? Hork kill anyone who harm White Lady!” He goes on for a bit, but the White Lady makes no response. Eventually, she shimmers and disappears. One of the goblins scratches his head and says, “Maybe she no like your smell, Hork.” which immediately earns him a pummeling from the goblin boss.
After some discussion, the kids both figure it out. “The White Lady is a hologram! And Hork thinks she’s real!”
“In a fantasy world, holograms are called illusions,” I correct them. “And yes, I don’t think Hork realises that she’s not real.” I frown. “Uh oh. You remember Hork’s wolf? You spot it sniffing the air suspiciously, and it starts coming towards where Lexi is hiding!”
“Does it have red eyes?” asks Evan.
“Oh yes,” I supply. “Definitely.”
Jojo thinks a bit. “Okay, um. I’m going to try to befriend the wolf.”
I look at her. “I must warn you, this is an extremely dangerous wolf that’s been trained by Hork to be his mount. I don’t know if you can befriend it, Jo.”
“Well, at least give me one try.”
I sigh. “Roll then.” Jojo rolls and comes up with a 6. “I don’t think that’s enough to befriend anything, let alone a savage wolf! Hork’s wolf spots you, and immediately starts snarling at you! The rest of the goblins draw their weapons!”
Sharpblade lunges out from his hiding place and hurls his axe at a surprised Hork. Unfortunately, the axe just misses and flies off into the trees. The skeleton draws his warhammer and goes head-to-head with the goblin boss. “Hork is using a longsword which is way too big for him. He swings it clumsily but powerfully, and his blow glances off your armour!” Another two goblins fire off arrows from their shortbows which ping off the skeleton’s tough armour.
Lexi slashes her rapier at Hork’s wolf and scores a hit on its snout. Enraged, the wolf lunges at her. I roll a natural 20 for the wolf. “A critical hit! Hork’s wolf mauls into you, and you collapse under the beast!”
“Aaagh, brought down by my own weakness for animals!” laments Jojo.
Sharpblade fends off more attacks by Hork and manages to score a few minor hits. However, by now, the rest of the goblins are coming up to surround the skeleton. “It looks like they are all going to surround and attack you! Just before they do, a piercing wolf howl breaks the air!”
Out from the trees, wolves race out and attack the remaining goblins! One of them is particularly large and can stand on two hind legs. “Is that Egan?” guesses Jojo.
“Well, it’s a wolf that is standing like a man and it looks like this.” I show them the picture from the DM guide.
“Oh, it’s a werewolf,” reads Jojo from the title. “Why didn’t you just say it’s a werewolf?”
If it is Egan, he was hardly recognisable now, having turned into a werewolf. The werewolf and Hork’s wolf tear into each other in a brutal fight.
In the midst of it all, the illusion of the White Lady appears again with her greeting to pilgrims. No one pays it any attention as wolves and goblins fight, sometimes stumbling right through her. Sharpblade and Hork exchange blows until Evan finally rolls a natural 20. “A critical hit! Isn’t it, dad? I rolled a critical hit!”
“You sure did.” I hand him a d8. “With the warhammer, that means that you roll this 3 times and add it all up for damage.” Evan does his three rolls, with both kids adding up the damage as he goes along.
“You land a spectacular smashing hit on Hork. The goblin boss flies up into the air and crashes into the half-broken ceiling of the temple before falling to the ground! The rest of the ceiling tumbles and crashes on top of the goblin boss. I think he’s very dead now.”
With their leader gone, the rest of the goblins fall into disarray and the wolves dispatch them with no problems. Lexi gets up, all bloodied from her mauling, and watches as Egan the werewolf tears into Hork’s wolf and kills it. The werewolf stares at her with blood-crazy eyes and then bounds off into the forest, the rest of the wolves following close behind.
Adventure Notes:
We played this adventure on-and-off over about three mini-sessions. I admit being over-confident that the kids could deal with hordes of goblins given Sharpblade’s high AC, but as the fight in the clearing shows, it all really depends on the luck of the die. I've no idea why so many critical hits were rolled this adventure, but anyway, now both kids are more aware of what critical hits are and can do.
I was more careful with the final encounter, and even then Lexi went down when the wolf mauled her to bits with a single critical bite. The rescue by the Egan and the wolves, of course, was planned, but at least Evan managed to redeem himself in his fight with Hork.
This time round, I borrowed some adventure material from the free Pathfinder adventure downloads from the Paizo site. I rather liked the idea of a goblin boss being smitten by an illusionary recording!
By now, both kids have earned enough XPs to level up, so in the next session, I’ll detail how the kids levelled up their characters to Level 2, with some interesting choices for Jojo’s character.
Plot hooks from this session: Fastidus waiting for some people to turn up at the Rusty Dragon. A hovering portal in an abandoned farmhouse protected by a rune shield. Egan the werewolf. And the first mention of the Runelords and Black Fang.
Aww, this is really sweet to read. Kids have such great imaginations, unfettered by the rules!
From our Games We Play blog:
Characters:
Lexi, Elven Rogue (played by Jojo, 9yo)
Sharpblade, Skeleton (Human) Fighter (played by Evan, 7yo)
Session 5: The Rune Portal
“Well, the good news is that you guys have earned enough Experience points to level up to Level 2! Hooray!” We all cheer, and then Jojo happily informs me that she does not know what ‘level up’ means in Pathfinder. I explain that it means that their characters are now tougher and better at what they do.
Evan was up first, so I hand him a d10. “Roll this and add 1. This will be the number of Hitpoints you gain from the level up.”
Evan takes the die and rolls 0. He immediately snatches it up again. “Uh, can I roll that again?”
I explain to him that 0 on a d10 is actually 10, the highest number you could roll on a d10. He looks dubious, but wisely accepts my explanation, and adds up his new Hitpoint total to 22.
After adjusting his Fortitude and Reflex saves, we get to Feats. Here, I skim through the list of potential new Feats he can gain, which, as a warrior, is quite extensive. We consider choosing Weapon Focus on his war hammer (his current Weapon Focus is on his axe) when I go, “Hmm.. see this feat here called Cleave?” I briefly self-read the description from the GM guide. “It means, um.. that if you attack and hit an opponent, you.. get an extra attack to hit another opponent next to the first one. And you get +2 on these attacks, but also -2 on your AC.”
Evan looks at me blankly until Jojo pipes up. “It means you can hit two bad guys at the same time. Like this.” She demonstrates with a cleaving motion and a Pow! Pow! sound effect.
“Cool!” He writes it down on his character sheet.
Next is Jojo. I’ve been thinking about her character progression, and now that we are several sessions in, I realise that she’s playing less like a Rogue and more like a Ranger or a Druid. And there were a number of times she’s asked me about how she might find and tame animals.
I explain this to Jojo and add, “The Beginner’s Box only comes with a Wizard, Warrior, Rogue and Cleric, but you know what? We can look up the Ranger class on the web, and rather than starting over with a Ranger, I think it makes sense if Lexi multi-classes into it! That’ll make you a Ranger-Rogue, and you can gain a bunch of new class features too.”
So for the next 20 minutes, we scour through the online Paizo Pathfinder reference document to learn more about the Ranger class, and soon Jojo is writing in her new Ranger class features. She is particularly delighted to have Wild Empathy which allows her to tame, or at least calm, animals.
“It also says here that you can select a Favored Enemy which gives you a bonus when fighting or dealing with that type of creature.” We go through the list of creature types, and for a while there, Jojo entertains the thought of taking Favored Enemy (Undead) and beating up Sharpblade. In the end though, she settles on Favored Enemy (Goblinoid) which makes sense given the number of goblins she’d dispatched in the last adventure.
And so, with their characters updated with new statistical goodness, the kids launch into the next session.
Adventure notes:
I think it’s great that the Pathfinder Core Reference document is available in the Paizo site, and it really helps enhance the whole Pathfinder experience. The Beginners Box is a great way to get into the game, and there is so much free online content for Pathfinder (or its compatible predecessor D&D 3.5). Hooray for the internet.
* * * * *
“The injuries Lexi sustained during her fight with Hork’s wolf are pretty bad. After the wolves and Egan have disappeared, you guys decide to head back to Egan’s house to rest. However, just as you are leaving, you notice something in the ruined temple. Now that the rest of the ceiling has caved in, there is a rune carved into one of the pillars that you’ve not noticed till now.”
The adventurers take a closer look at the rune. “You both recognize this rune! It’s the same as the one you’ve seen at that portal in the farm house!” They take note of it and head back to Egan’s house. The bearded man, however, is not in.
“He’s probably out running around with his wolf friends,” says Jojo.
They rest in the house, and the next morning, they still see no sign of Egan. I suggest that if they are going continue to resting in the house, they should go get Gaffi and Bilbi to come as well, so Sharpblade goes off to fetch them. They hide the caravan under some shady trees and cut branches before heading back to the house where Lexi is resting.
“Lexi is recovering, but slowly. The wounds that wolf gave her are still bleeding quite badly.” Gaffi helps Lexi wash it out, while Bilbi and Sharpblade explore the rest of the house, from the vegetable and herb patch in the backyard to the surrounding trees.
“Just about midday, you all suddenly hear a voice calling from outside. ‘Hello, the house! Is anyone in?’” The adventurers look outside, and see a strange little man no taller than a human’s waist. He is dressed in greens, has a longbow on his back, with worn leather boots. There is a bright smile on his face. “’Ah! You must be the guests that Egan told me about! He came to me last night and asked that I look in on you all to check if you’re alright!’”
I explain to the kids that this man is a halfling, similar to a hobbit from The Hobbit. The halfling introduces himself as Traxander BirdSpotter, and tells them to call him Trax for short.
“Or how about Bird?” queries Jojo.
“Or Spotty?” asks Evan.
“Those are okay too, but I think he prefers to be called Trax,” I reply.
After Trax comes in, it is immediately apparent that he knows his way around the house. He gets a pot of tea boiling, checks out Lexi’s wounds and tut-tuts to himself. He goes to the backyard and selects some herbs, pounds them together into a paste and spreads it on Lexi’s wounds. The elf immediately feels better, and the halfling offers to put the rest of the healing herbs into a little container for her to carry.
It is also immediately apparent that this halfling cannot quite stop chattering. A simple question of, ‘How do you know Egan?’ leads to an hour-long regaling of how the bearded man had rescued him from a nest of angry forest spiders.
Jojo asks him about Egan and the wolves, and he relates to them about how Black Fang goblins are known to capture wolves for riding, although usually not this far west. There is apparently a fortified training camp somewhere in the hills near Black Fang where wolves and other unfortunate creatures are cruelly trained to be goblin mounts. Being a werewolf bonded to the wolves of the forest, Egan was adamant not to let any of his pack suffer such a fate.
“Ah, yes, very, very sad about Egan’s werewolf condition. He doesn’t like to talk about it, and I felt that it was impolite to ask, don’t you agree?” He has observed that Egan tends to disappear for days at a time after each transformation, and has hidden dwellings all over the forest.
“I think he talks too much,” grumbles Evan while Jojo makes a chatterbox motion with her hand.
“Hmm.. yes, he is quite a chatterbox. Oh, I forgot about Pippi!”
“Who’s Pippi?”
The next morning, the adventurers find Trax outside the house, calling ‘Pippi! Pippi!’ into the bushes. There is a rustling, and out of the bushes appears a large and fairly tubby ferret.
“He’s got a pet ferret!? Cool!”
Pippi is a very bright female ferret who would shamelessly do anything for a food reward. She is intensely curious and checks out each of her new friends with interest. With Sharpblade, she is delighted to discover that he is almost completely hollow inside his armour, being bones and all, and she starts hoarding things inside, much to the kids’ amusement.
Trax incessantly dotes on his animal companion, and in return, Pippi completely ignores him unless he has some food.
After a few peaceful days, Bilbi comes up with an idea. “Hey, you know that White Lady at the temple? I wonder what will happen if someone actually gave praise to the Runelord Xanderghul. Didn’t she say something about a reward?”
The boy is adamant to give it a go, so the two adventurers and the boy go visit the ruined temple again. “Soon, you arrive at the temple. There is no sign of dead goblins anywhere. You suppose that there are other creatures in the forest which feed on dead goblins.”
Bilbi walks up to the temple, and the White Lady appears. After her greeting, he clears his throat and says, “I think Runelord Xandergul is, uh.. really great!”. The White Lady shakes her head in response and says, “Your praise is insufficient, mortal.” She disappears with a shimmer.
By now, the kids are hankering to go next. Evan gets up and starts a whole singing and dance routine to the tune of ‘Everything is awesome!’ from the Lego Movie, changing the words to ‘Xanderghul is awesome!’ instead. I tell him to roll for a Bluff check (with some bonuses for good effort) but unfortunately, he too does not make it.
Jojo goes next. “Oh, runelord Xanderghul! You are great, and mighty and there is no other runelord like you!”. She rolls a success on her Bluff check. Immediately, the White Lady smiles at her, and disappears with a shimmer. In her place, there is a smooth round stone with a rune on it. She collects it and writes ‘Rune stone’ in her character sheet.
“Oh! Let’s see if this rune stone helps us to get through that portal!” exclaims Evan excitedly.
With much anticipation, the adventurers travel to the old abandoned farm house and wait in the side-room for night to fall. Sure enough, when the first rays of the moon light up the room, there is a thrum of magic, and the portal appears.
“Okay, uh… I’ll throw the rune stone at the portal,” says Jojo. The elf throws the rune stone and the stone passes through the barrier and disappears into the portal. Nothing else happens. “Ohhh, right. Maybe I should have walked through the portal while holding the rune stone!”
Sharpblade tries to run into the portal again, and keeps bouncing off the barrier until the portal finally disappears when a cloud covers the moon.
“Well,” says Bilbi. “At least we know how to get more rune stones, yeah?”
The next morning sees the three of them back at the ruined temple. “Bilbi has prepared something more eloquent this time, and after his speech, the White Lady smiles and the boy is rewarded with a rune stone of his own.”
Lexi does another worthy praise and earns a rune stone too. Sharpblade tries another song and dance, but he still earns nothing for all his efforts. Bilbi says to Sharpblade, “Hey, trade you my rune stone for 20 gold?” Sharpblade agrees and soon is one rune stone richer and 20 gold poorer.
That night back at the farm house, the three of them wait for the portal to appear, which it does. “Okay, who’s going to go in first?” I ask. Sharpblade doesn’t even hesitate, and he plunges through the portal. Jojo is a bit more cautious and takes my suggestion to tie a rope around her waist and secure the other end of the rope to the doorway of the room. She then jumps through the portal.
“For a while, you see nothing but darkness. Then your eyes adjust but you don’t see much more. Lexi lets out a breath, and bubbles come out of her mouth. You are both underwater!”
“Hah! I don’t need to hold my breath because I don’t need to breathe!” declares Evan. Sharpblade looks around and sees that they have appeared in the midst of some ruined archways. The surface of the water is high above, and it must be night-time because he can see the moonlight shining down. Schools of fish swim by, and there is wavy seaweed everywhere.
“Hmm.. it looks like more ruins. Maybe another temple?” says Evan.
“Do I see the first rune stone I threw in?” asks Jojo. The elf spots the rune stone lying in front of the portal and picks it up. “Well, I’m swimming back through the portal before I drown!” says Jojo. The elf turns back to the portal and starts making her way towards it.
“Before you go, both of you make a perception roll,” I request. Evan rolls well. “Sharpblade suddenly notices something large and dark swim past outside the archways.”
“How large?”
“About as big as a whale?”
Jojo considers herself an expert on all creatures maritime. “What sort of whale? A killer whale, or a blue whale?”
“Um.. a blue whale?”
Lexi does not deviate and swims through the portal. She gets through and splashes out into the farmhouse side-room, much to the relief of Bilbi who is waiting there.
Sharpblade, on the other hand, steps out closer to the archway to take a better look. “You stand in the middle of the archway and try to look out to see if you can spot what it is. Suddenly, out of the murky darkness, you see it swimming straight at you!” The skeleton catches a glimpse of rows of long sharp teeth and a pair of milky white eyes. “It looks almost like the face of an angler fish!” The kids certainly remember the angler fish from Finding Nemo.
“Dad, I’m a skeleton, right? So if this thing eats me, I won’t die, right? I can just slice my way out of its tummy!”
“Hmm.. well. It’s true that you won’t die. But you might get crushed in the creature’s jaws, and then all that’s left of you in the creature’s tummy is just your skull. That’ll probably be the end of your adventures as Sharpblade, stuck forever in some monster’s belly!”
Evan wisely decides to turn and sprint back to the portal.
“You’re underwater, so your movements are really slow, like this!” I demonstrate with my arms. “As you go, you see that whatever it is, it has swum up and over the archway. You look up and see a long body with fins swimming over you before it disappears into the darkness again.”
“How does its tail fin work?” asks Jojo. “Up and down, or from side to side?”
“Side to side. By the way, Lexi notices a cloud coming to cover the moon outside!”
“Hurry, Evan! The portal is going to close!”
“Aaahh!” exclaims Evan. The skeleton almost makes it back through the portal when I tell him, “You suddenly spot something half-buried in the mucky ground next to the portal! It looks like the lid of a treasure chest!”
“Leave it! I’m going through the portal!”
“Really? I reckon you have a couple of turns or so. You don’t want to try taking the chest?”
Evan is adamant. “No way! I’m leaving right now!” Nothing persuades him otherwise, even when I describe a curious skull carving on the lid. In the end, the skeleton makes it through the portal.
“Sharpblade steps out of the portal, and water gushes out of the holes and chinks of his armour, making him look like some kind of weird fountain statue. There is a flopping sound inside his armour, and Sharpblade has to spill out some fish on the floor.”
The adventurers are about to tell Bilbi where they have been when there is a sudden BASH! from the blue portal. They watch as a few more bashes shakes the portal before it shimmers and disappears.
“I think something big was trying to get through the portal, but it couldn’t because it didn’t have a rune stone.” I tell the kids. The kids discuss what sort of creature that might have been. Jojo has already concluded that it must have been a giant eel, perhaps a Moray. Evan thinks that it’s just some monster that Dad made up.
I make some suggestions on how they can explore the underwater ruins next time. Perhaps a water-breathing potion? We all decide that perhaps it’s time to return to Sandpoint to pick one up.
Adventure Notes:
My initial thoughts of the portal were to have it lead to some place dangerous where the kids pick up a valuable artifact and then leave before it gets too dangerous. The underwater ruins and large swimming monster fit that mold, but unfortunately, I might have scared them both too much to even attempt to pick up some treasure on the way out. Next time I’ll show them the treasure first, get them invested into getting it out, and then introduce some danger.
The hazards of mixing GMing and child psychology.
Plot hooks: A skull-marked treasure chest underwater beyond the Rune Portal. A goblin training camp turning wolves into mounts.
From our Games We Play blog:
Characters:
Lexi, Elven Rogue (played by Jojo, 9yo)
Sharpblade, Skeleton (Human) Fighter (played by Evan, 7yo)
Pippi the ferret is not pleased to find that her new hiding place inside Sharpblade’s armour is now not only damp with seawater, but also reeking with yucky seaweed. The ferret ejects herself out of the neck of Sharpblade’s armour and scoots off into the bushes to sulk. The adventurers, Gaffi and Bilbi bid Trax the halfling goodbye and leave Egan’s Wood in Gaffi’s caravan, travelling north back to Sandpoint.
“The next day, you guys arrive back in Sandpoint. You’ve been away for almost a week, and in some way, you are glad to be back. Sandpoint has become like a home for you both.” As the caravan wheels in through the southern gate, they spot Fastidus the wizard coming towards them from down the street. The old wizard waves them over, “Phew! There you all are! Thank goodness you’re both back in time! When you left, some of my friends arrived in Sandpoint, and I wanted to introduce you to them, but you’d already gone. Thankfully, they’re still here. Come along with me and I’ll introduce you both.”
So Sharpblade and Lexi climb off the caravan and follow the old wizard who leads them to The Rusty Dragon where apparently, Fastidus’s friends are staying. Hardly anyone pays them any attention as the three of them enter the place. Fastidus brings them to a nearby table where three other people are sitting. “You see a serious-looking woman dressed in dark armour. Beside her, eating a large roast pig to himself, is a big warrior who looks like a half-orc! And on her other side, with his nose buried in a book, is a small gnome.” Fastidus makes the introductions. By this time, I’d not made up their names, so I poll the kids for some good names. We eventually establish that the woman is Skye Ironblade, and the big half-orc is Bulk, and the gnome is Puddlebug. I show the kids what Skye looks like from the GM Guide.
Skye nods at them. “Fastidus has told us about you both. We are good friends of Fastidus, and he has recommended the both of you to join the Pathfinder Society.”
“Daaad,” says Jojo. “That’s the name of the whole game.”
“Yes,” I reply mysteriously.
Skye continues to explain that the Pathfinders are a society of explorers, whose whole aim is to explore and report about strange and new places. Joining the society gives members access to knowledge of interesting places to visit, as well as safe houses throughout the land.
Jojo crosses her arms. “I’m not joining anything unless I get paid and there’re animals included!”
“Joining the Pathfinders gives you more than just gold, Jojo,” I tell her. “It gives you information about interesting places which you can explore. And that’s worth more than gold sometimes.”
“Ooo! Can I find out about where interesting animals live?”
“Uh, yeah sure.”
“Hmm.. okay, I’ll join! How about you, Evan?”
Just before Evan answers, I tell him, “Sharpblade, you are about to answer, when suddenly, you see a vision! In your mind, you see three ninjas who you immediately recognise as the ninjas who captured you when you were human, and turned you into a skeleton! One of them speaks, ‘Sharpblade, you will infiltrate the Pathfinders as one of their members.’ Then the vision disappears!”
“What does ‘infiltrate’ mean?”
“It means, ‘pretend to join’. Like you join, but you’re really working for someone else. Like a spy.”
“Cool!” Evan is all excited over the prospect of becoming a spy. “I’m, ahem, joining the Pathfinders!”
Bulk snorts with laughter. “One does not simply join the Pathfinders! You need to be invited to join, and sometimes you need to go through training at one of our camps before you are made into a member of the Pathfinder Society!”
Evan raises his hand. “I’d like some free training!”
Skye looks at them both. “Having a recommendation from Fastidus is very good indeed. But we’ll need time to observe you both before anything is decided about joining the Pathfinders.” She turns to Fastidus. “Meanwhile, I believe that Fastidus has something he’d like us to investigate.”
The old wizard mutters and produces a tome from somewhere. He lays it on the table. “This is a historical recording of a nearby kingdom from long, long, long, long ago. The kingdom is no longer around, but it was a kingdom of giants!”
“Ooo! Giants? Really?”
Fastidus frowns. “Or they could have been ogres. Not sure really, but the writings seem to indicate that they were pretty big. Anyway, they were a fierce kingdom and kept attacking all the neighbouring lands. However, what’s strange is that they always left this city alone. Well, not Sandpoint, but the city which used to be here before Sandpoint.”
Jojo looks interested. “Hmm. Why would they do that?”
“Ahah! According to this, they were afraid of something here they called “The Tall Flame”. I think the Tall Flame mentioned here is really the Old Light!”
“Why would they be afraid of a lighthouse? Maybe they didn’t like light? Like vampires?”
“Well, no one knows. But I bet that if we go down into that hole that was recently discovered in the Old Light ruins, we might be able to find out!”
And at this point, my wife comes up to do her knitting on the couch, and the kids plead with her to join in our Pathfinder game. In the end, she chooses the pre-generated cleric character from the Beginner Box named Kyra. “I like her background story,” she comments. “It says she became a cleric to help others!”
It takes some time to work out how to insert her into the story, but we finally decide that Kyra was sitting at a nearby table, and overhears Fastidus talking about the Old Light. She comes over to introduce herself as a cleric of Sarenrae, a healer and destroyer of all things undead. Mummy eyes Evan cautiously, “And I’m not too sure about this skeleton here!”
Before things get out of hand, I get Skye to declare that it is a good idea to have a cleric along, so soon, the whole party of six is heading off to the recently discovered hole in the ruins of the Old Light.
“By this time, the guardsmen of Sandpoint have placed a wooden hatch over the hole, and they’ve posted two guards here who seem to be sleeping on the job. They wake up pretty abruptly when Skye clears her throat. Soon, they are lifting the wooden hatch and feeding a rope ladder down into the hole.” I get the kids to decide who should go first, and they let the two big fighters go down to ‘secure the area’. Bulk climbs down, followed by Sharpblade.
“At the bottom of the rope ladder, Bulk and Sharpblade find themselves in a corridor that curves around from north to south. You don’t see anything dangerous here.”
The kids randomly decide to go south. “As you follow the corridor, Puddlebug the gnome is marking off sections of the corridor and making some calculations under his breath. He then says excitedly that if this corridor ran around the base of the original tower, then it is possible that the tower was um… really, really tall.”
The kids, however, are not interested in the gnome’s architectural conjectures. “All your little people talk too much, dad.”
Eventually, the group comes to a dead end. There is a cave-in blocking the way. “But you also see a tunnel leading off the side of the corridor. Unlike the rest of the corridor which is made from smooth stone, the sides of this tunnel is rough, like something clawed its way through.”
The adventurers decide that the two fighters should enter the tunnel first, when I slyly announce, “The tunnel is much too small for Bulk to get into. And Sharpblade can just barely fit. Skye says that she will stay with Bulk while the others should go through the tunnel to check out what’s in it.” I catch the kids staring at me suspiciously. “What? Do you think I'm trying to split you guys up?”
After some alterations, Sharpblade leads the way into the tunnel, followed by Lexi, Puddlebug and Mummy’s cleric Kyra. “The tunnel twists a bit, and then widens out into a large cave. You can’t see the other end of the cave, but you do see some curious-looking mounds near to where you are.”
Instead of drawing out the cave, I decide to use the grid map from the Beginner Box. I sketch out the cave using a dry-erase marker, and decide against using the mini stand-up figurines (I imagined figurines scattering around everywhere as the kids move them), and instead mark out which squares the adventurers are occupying. Jojo insists that her character should be represented by a paw print which only she can draw. With the blue marker.
Sharpblade approaches one of the mounds to investigate it. “The mound is about two feet high, and made out of some old gooey grey substance.”
“I step on it and squish it!”
Figures. Sharpblade steps on a mound and it breaks apart, spilling little bones of small animals out. “Ooo! More bones!” The skeleton tries to stick the bones into his own body, hoping to increase his size.
I assure him that it won’t work, and continue, “The old gooey grey substance is pretty sticky. Like… webs.”
The kids look at each other. “SPIDERS!”
At that moment, sticky grey webbing shoots out from the ceiling and I roll a d4 to randomly decide who it hits. It hits Puddlebug, and the gnome is immobilised with sticky webbing! “A giant spider is scuttling along the ceiling of the cave, followed by another one!” The foremost spider attacks Sharpblade from above, and misses. The other spider drops down on the ground and attacks Kyra. The cleric trades blows with the creature, but does not manage to score a hit.
On her turn, Lexi rushes over to Puddlebug and attempts to free him from the webbing. I order Jojo to do a Strength roll, and she rolls a natural 20. “Lexi sees that although the webbing is tight, it’s all just being held together by a single strand! She slices the strand and the webbing falls off Puddlebug!” Freed from the webbing, the gnome pulls out a flask from his pack and throws it, just in time to hit yet another spider running towards them from out of the shadows. The flask bursts into flames upon impact, and the spider shrieks and runs away on fire.
Sharpblade ignores the spider which attacked him, and heads off to stomp on another mound. Kyra the cleric trades missed blows once again with her spider until Lexi sneaks up behind it and back-stabs it while it is distracted. The spider shrieks and dies.
Despite her spider kill, Jojo decides to make her way back to the tunnel exit. “We’re just here to investigate,” she reasons with us. “I think we should go back and tell Skye about the spiders.” Puddlebug follows her, and after a while so does Kyra and Sharpblade, who is disappointed that he didn’t find any treasure in the mounds.
“As you leave, you glance back to see the spider on fire running to the back of the cave. The fire lights up the cave, and you see more mounds, more spiders, and hanging on the back wall, you see a large mother spider which looks twice the size of the other spiders! You feel somewhat relieved that you left when you did.”
The group makes its way back to where Skye and Bulk are waiting, and Lexi describes the spider den to Skye. The woman nods and says that they did a good job scouting out the spider den, and perhaps later they should get a group sent down to clear the den out. Meanwhile, she orders Bulk and Sharpblade to lift some of the rubble from the cave-in to cover the tunnel entrance to prevent the spiders from coming out.
Adventure Notes:
Skye, Bulk and Puddlebug are, of course, the Pathfinders whom the tavern owner Ameiko wanted to tell Fastidus about a couple of sessions back. Most of the adventures from the Paizo site seems to involve the adventurers investigating something for the Pathfinders, so I thought they’d be a good lead-in for future adventures.
This is the first time Mummy has played a proper RPG, and unfortunately, she proved to be quite bad at rolling hits, although the kids did assure her that she was playing a part in distracting the spider so that Jojo could backstab it.
This is also the first time I’ve used the square grid map to run a battle scene. The good thing is that it does make it easier to see how things can be flanked and stuff, but it does turn the game into a square-counting affair to see how far things are, and how many squares can one move, etc. I think I’ll go back to using the simpler notepad sketches, even without the distance calculations, as it keeps things more flexible in terms of narrative. As Joss Whedon once replied to the question of how fast does the Serenity go, “The ship goes as fast as the story requires.”
Plot hooks: Clearing the spider’s den, first mention of the Pathfinders, and Sharpblade the ninja spy.
From our Games We Play blog:
Adventure Notes:
I’m beginning to find that a good session length with the kids is about one Encounter. Almost a week goes by before we finally continue the adventure, and we played this session just 45 minutes before bed-time.
Characters in this session:
Kyra, Human Cleric of Sarenrae (played by Mummy)
Lexi, Elven Ranger-Rogue (played by Jojo)
Sharpblade, Skeleton (Human) Fighter (played by Evan)
Skye Ironblade, Human Paladin? (NPC)
Bulk, Half-orc Fighter (NPC)
Puddlebug, Gnome Alchemist? (NPC)
As the party turns back up the curved corridor, Puddlebug gabs excitedly about what he thinks might be the particular species of Giant Spider they’ve just encountered. “Perhaps a Giant Gray; they’re pretty common in this area. If I recall, their dens tend to have several exits, so we might still be seeing them around, unless of course, they are molting, in which case-”
Skye suddenly stops the party with a raised fist. She listens intently for something, and then says in a low voice, “Did anyone hear that? I think we’re being followed.” I get the kids to do Perception rolls, but no one hears anything.
“We just came from a dead-end,” points out Bulk. “Maybe a spider got out and is now tailing us?”
After several minutes, Skye motions for the party to continue, but now everyone is wary over what the woman might have heard. The party passes under the entrance hole and heads north up the corridor. “The corridor curves north, and then you come to an iron door set into the wall on the side of the corridor. The corridor continues onwards into the dark.”
Mummy and the kids discuss which way to go, and they decide to try opening the door first. “The door is rusted all over, and appears to be locked. If only there was a rogue around who can pick this lock...”
Jojo sighs and takes the d20 I pass to her. I spend almost a minute scouring her character sheet for a ‘Lock picking’ skill, only to realise that it’s now called ‘Disable Device’. Shows you how long since I last GMed.
Jojo rolls the d20, but she fails at the lock picking, I mean, device disabling. “The lock is much too damaged with rust. You don’t manage to unlock it.”
It looks like the only way to get this door open is to break it down, and so everyone decides that Sharpblade and Bulk should ram the door down together. Evan rolls the d20, and groans when it turns up as a 1. “Both Sharpblade and Bulk charge at the door, and then accidentally trip over each others’ feet and crash clumsily into the wall on the side of the door!” We all laugh at Evan’s expense.
Skye informs them to stop clowning around when Puddlebug announces that he can hear something approaching down the northern corridor. “It must be attracted by the noise!” he says.
I turn to Mummy. “You detect evil approaching,” I tell her. “Most likely something undead.”
Evan says excitedly to Jojo, “Maybe it’s.. a skeleton!” The kids have asked me several times before what might happen if Sharpblade encounters another skeleton.
I shrug. “Could be just a zombie.”
Everyone arranges themselves with the fighters in front. I ask Evan what he wants to do and he announces that he’s going up the corridor to see what it is. “You sure? Leaving everyone behind and going by yourself might not be a good idea, Ev.”
Nothing persuades him otherwise, and so Sharpblade marches up the corridor. “You can definitely hear the tap-tap footsteps of something walking towards you. And when you get close enough, you see what it is. It’s a skeleton!”
Evan cheers, “Yayy!”.
I put down the GM guide. “I suppose we’ll now find out what happens when Sharpblade meets another skeleton. This skeleton is wearing old rusty armour and brandishes a broken scimitar.”
Evan says, “I wait for it to come closer!”
The skeleton lurches towards Sharpblade, and I roll a d20 and it comes up 17. “The skeleton reaches Sharpblade, and then walks right past him!”
“Woo hoo-oo! I’m INVISIBLE!” The kids are thrilled that Sharpblade seems undetectable by other skeletons. Sharpblade further demonstrates this by shoving the skeleton from behind. The undead creature stumbles but manages to resume its ponderous walk towards the rest of the party.
“Sharpblade, you hear more sounds up the corridor, and you turn to see two more skeletons walking towards you!” Sharpblade goes up to meet them, and I roll the d20 twice. 6 and 2. Hmm. “These skeletons snarl when they see you, and raise their scimitars to attack!”
Meanwhile, the first skeleton reaches the rest of the party, and Mummy decides to try out her Channel Energy ability which heals living creatures and destroys undead ones. She rolls a d6 and gets a 1. “You raise your holy symbol, and a bright flare lances out and hits the skeleton. Bits of it rapidly decays, but the skeleton is still standing!”
Lexi attacks the skeleton with her rapier, only to have the damage ignored by the creature’s damage reduction. “You need to use one of these,” calls out Bulk as he hefts his large mace. The half-orc smashes into the skeleton, and bits of bone fly everywhere.
Back with Sharpblade, the skeletons’ attacks glance off his armour. Evan, however, is still determined to test out his ‘undetectability’. He pushes at one, only to have it strike against him in response. I hold up the d20 and tell him, “Why do you think I’m rolling this whenever you meet a skeleton? Perhaps it’s because some skeletons can detect you, and some skeletons can’t!” Evan gets the point and finally draws his warhammer out to attack.
Mummy’s cleric doesn’t seem to be having much luck (or faith, depending on how you look at it) with her Channel Energy blasts. It takes another three blasts before the first skeleton disintegrates into a bony pile. The rest of the party comes up to engage the other two skeletons fighting Sharpblade. After several rounds of combat, the skeletons finally succumb to the last shot from the cleric’s Channel Energy blast.
“Kyra detects that there are more skeletons up ahead, but they aren’t moving. They’ve probably not detected you guys yet.”
Sharpblade is keen to go meet them, but the others vote to retreat back to the iron door. It’s close to bed-time now, but everyone decides to at least see what’s on the other side of the door before finishing the session.
Sharpblade and Bulk smash the door down successfully. “The other side of the door reveals a strange room. It has walls curving up into the ceiling, and is slightly rectangular. On the other end of the room, you see another iron door similar to the one you just broke down. The whole floor of this room, however, is a large rusty iron grate. Just a few feet under the grate, you can see that it’s all flooded with water. The water is too murky to see through.” I also describe that the iron grate floor looks quite unstable, and draw a hole near the middle of the room where it looks like the iron bars have given way.
Adventure Notes:
This encounter was supposed to be the cleric’s defining moment, but I must say that Channel Energy is pretty weak given that it only does 1d6 damage, and the skeletons get a saving throw for half damage. It would have been funny if Mummy caught Sharpblade in her blast, but as it was, he was mostly out of the way.
Also, by now I realise that I’ve got a problem. Evan is playing a skeleton character, and I’m fine with him having the traits of a regular skeleton, such as poison immunity, functioning underwater, etc. However, so far, I’ve completely overlooked the damage reduction that skeletons have against non-bludgeoning weapons.
On one hand, I want to let his character function as closely as possible to a regular skeleton. On the other hand, a lot of CR1-3 creatures are going to have a tough time against that damage reduction, and I don’t want to make it too much like a cake-walk for him.
So how would you handle a skeleton player character?
Plot hooks: Something’s following us, Skeleton group huddle?
Great summaries. I really enjoy the story so far. As for your DR problem, I would probably just reduce the damage against him by a few points per die of damage unless it would normally bypass the DR.
Thanks, I have a lot of fun journalling these too. Too bad I can't upload any of our map images, but I suppose one can always see them in our blog.
From our Games We Play blog:
Characters in this session:
Kyra, Human Cleric of Sarenrae (played by Mummy, NPC in this session)
Lexi, Elven Ranger-Rogue (played by Jojo)
Sharpblade, Skeleton (Human) Fighter (played by Evan)
Skye Ironblade, Human Paladin? (NPC)
Bulk, Half-orc Fighter (NPC)
Puddlebug, Gnome Alchemist? (NPC)
Session 8: Under the Old Light (Part 3)
It has become a habit to start off each of our sessions with me asking the kids, “Does anyone remember what happened last session?” I find it helps jog the kids’ memories on where they are and what were they doing. This time round, I’m impressed by Jojo who not only remembers the last session’s details, but also what the strange room looked like, which she draws out on another notepad.
“That’s right,” I nod. “So, who wants to go in first?”
Mummy isn’t playing in this session tonight, and I've told her that I’ll put her character on “auto-pilot”. The kids decide among themselves that the lightest character should go in first, and so Puddlebug the gnome steps cautiously into the room. He makes an observation, “Hmm.. there is rust all over this iron grate, except for over here where the door is. In fact, it looks like there’s a trail of less rusty bars going all the way to the hole.” Stepping lightly, he makes it all the way to the other end of the room.
Lexi is next, and so the elven rogue steps in. After a few Reflex rolls, I tell Jojo, “The rusty iron grate squeals alarmingly under your foot, but it seems to hold your weight. You carefully make your way across the room.” I order Jojo to make a Perception roll. “You notice something shifting under the water! It’s a dark shape that is fairly roundish, almost like a sting-ray!”
Jojo and Evan argue a bit over what it might be. Evan’s first thought is that it’s a Reefclaw from the GM Guide (he reckons that a cross between an eel (possibly electric) and lobster must be fearsome indeed) while Jojo thinks that it’s a real sting-ray, and perhaps she can tame it to become her animal companion. In the end, they decide to throw something into the water. Jojo takes her rope out, tosses one end to Sharpblade, and lowers the other end into the dark murky waters.
“The end of the rope slips into the water, and you can see a dark shape moving towards it. Suddenly, something grips the rope and starts pulling it down!” The elven rogue and skeleton pull up with all their might, and I order a Strength roll. “You pull and pull, and something breaks the surface of the water, clinging on the rope! It’s some kind of grey, blob-like creature!”
Both the kids go, “Ewwww!”
The rope then snaps, and the creature sinks down into the water once again. The end of the rope has been eaten through by acid. Puddlebug shouts a warning from across the room, “It’s a Gray Ooze! I’d recognise one anywhere!”
“That thing can live underwater?” asks Jojo, somewhat surprised.
“Sure, it can,” I respond airily. “It doesn’t need to breathe, right?”
Evan then surprises me by solving the riddle of the hole in the middle of the room. “I know! The ooze must have come through the door, and its acid ate away the rust, leaving a trail! Then it got to the middle of the room, and fell through because it melted a hole into the iron grate!”
That boy could have been raised in a dungeon, I muse to myself. I let them read a bit about the ooze from the GM Guide, and they are intimidated enough by its acid attack that they decide to leave the trapped creature alone.
Lexi makes it to the iron door and rolls well on her Disable Device skill to pick the lock. “This iron door doesn’t seem as badly rusted as the first one. The iron lock opens with a satisfying clank.” The elf pushes the door open and goes through.
Kyra and Skye come over the iron grate floor easily enough. Evan makes good rolls on the d20 for Reflex checks, and so Sharpblade treads carefully across with no problems.
Bulk, however, looks uneasy as the iron grate complains loudly with his every step. I roll a d20, and say, “Bulk makes his way carefully across, but then an iron bar snaps under his foot, and his foot goes down, dangling just above the water! The ooze in the water goes crazy as it tries to reach him, splashing waves everywhere, but in the end, the half-orc manages to extract his stuck foot, and makes it to the other end.”
The kids breath a sigh of relief, and the adventurers pass through the iron door. They troop down a short corridor, which leads to a huge cavern-like room. The room must have once been round, but a massive cave-in has covered half of the room with rubble. “You also notice hundreds and hundreds of fiery lights flying around, like fire-flies. One of the lights flies near, and you see that it is a beetle about the size of a watermelon! It has two fiery red dots on its outer shell that glow like embers. Puddlebug identifies it as a Fire Beetle.”
The gnome explains that Fire Beetles are mostly harmless, and are sometimes kept in little lantern-like cages by miners as a source of light. They are attracted to hot things, so this colony must have found a heat source somewhere here. Perhaps in that pit half-covered by rubble in the room.
Lexi and Sharpblade make their way to the pit. The floor of this room slants like a funnel towards the pit. The fire beetles are clustered in greater numbers here, and I tell them that they can see something glowing inside the pit. The pit is fairly shallow, so Lexi climbs down.
“You see glowing rocks embedded in the sides of the pit, like ore. The fire beetles seem attracted to these.” Jojo asks me what ‘ore’ is, and Evan reminds her that they’ve seen plenty of them in Minecraft.
Jojo decides to take some of the ore, and she scrapes out a chunk of it. Sharpblade is more interested in the fire beetles, and tries to pick some of those up.
I tell them, “Just then, there is a rumble, and parts of the rubble gives way!” A large arm thrusts out of the rubble, and a large stone creature pulls itself out of the rubble. I show the kids the picture of an Animated Statue.
“This statue is huge! Lexi barely is taller than its knee! The statue looks down at all of you, and demands in a grating voice, ‘Grrnk-ankh-zzffnaargh-gok!’”
The kids asks me to repeat what the statue said, and so I do. Jojo decides that perhaps it’s asking for the chunk of ore back, so she holds the ore out towards the statue. However, the statue is not appeased, and lifts a threatening fist. Lexi barely manages to dodge out of the way before the fist smashes the spot where she was standing.
The rest of the party explodes into action, with Bulk smashing into the statue with his mace, Kyra with her scimitar, and Skye with her sword. Sharpblade hits it with his warhammer, but hardly dents the creature.
“This statue is extremely tough and seems hard to damage! Evan, your attack barely scratches it!” Lexi manages to duck behind it, and sneak attacks it by sticking her rapier into a knee joint, causing a small explosion of sparks.
I randomly roll to see who the statue attacks. The creature grabs Skye in a crushing grip, shaking her like a ragged doll before tossing her across the room into a heap of rubble. The woman gets up, her arm bent in an odd angle. “Retreat!” she orders.
The rest of the party complies, and soon, everyone has made their way back to the short corridor. The statue is too large to follow them, and bends its head to glare angrily at them.
Skye decides that they have explored enough under the Old Light, and so the party makes it back to the hole in the middle of the curved corridor. They go up the rope ladder, and are greeted by the two guardsmen at the top who seem extremely nervous. When Skye questions them, they say, “Just now, we thought we heard you all coming up the rope ladder, and so we called down to see if everything was alright. And then, this black creature with long, ropey arms sprang out of the hole and before we could stop it, it fled off into the night!”
Adventure Notes:
I noticed only at the last moment that the Animated Statue had a Hardness ability of 8, which means that any damage dealt to it is reduced by 8. That effectively ruled out most of the kids’ current weapons, unless they were lucky enough to score critical hits, or if Jojo got in more of her sneak attacks. Nevertheless, I decided to forgo the safe “The NPCs defeat the creature for you.” routine, and save the Animated Statue as a future challenge for the kids.
Note to self - the kids really should upgrade their weapons. And get into battles which they don’t need to retreat from.
Plot hooks: Glowing Ore, Angry Animated Statue, Black escaped creature with ropey arms
And the Ooze. I think I’ll name it Oscar.
From our Games We Play blog:
Characters in this session:
Lexi, Elven Ranger-Rogue (played by Jojo)
Sharpblade, Skeleton (Human) Fighter (played by Evan)
Adventure Notes:
Okay, I’m getting behind with the session reports. The kids and I play about one or two sessions per week, and if I’m putting out one session report per week (and skipping some weeks), it sort of makes sense that I’ll get further and further behind :-p Will try to keep you all updated though.
Session 9 - Night Intruder
Several things happen immediately after the adventurers come out from the tunnels under the Old Light. First, Bulk the Half-orc brings Skye to the Temple of Sarenrae to have her arm looked at as it was pretty banged up after her encounter with the Animated Statue. I conveniently make Kyra follow them as Mummy isn’t playing in this session.
Puddlebug the gnome tells the kids that he’ll meet them at the Rusty Dragon Inn tomorrow morning and heads off elsewhere. The kids bring the sample of the glowing ore to Fastidus who eagerly takes it down to his basement laboratory and shuts himself in. He obviously does not want to be disturbed.
What do you want to do? is usually a risky question to ask the kids, but I ask it anyway, “So guys, what do you want to do now? Wait till morning and meet up with Puddlebug?”
Evan speaks up first, “I want to blow up a house! Is that Yoo-hoo guy who runs the armour shop still open?”
This was definitely a new turn of events. I cautiously query Evan, “Why do you want to blow up the armour shop, Ev?”
“Because I want to be EVIL!”
Jojo rolls her eyes. “You can’t be EVIL because the game allows you to be Chaotic Neutral at worst, and we’re already that! There’s no setting for EVIL!”
“Well, Dad said that we can do anything in this game, and I want to become evil!”
I ponder a bit. “Well, Evan, it’s true that you can do anything in this game. But you can’t blow up the armour shop because it’s not open right now.”
Evan is somewhat disappointed, but the kids decide to wait till morning and meet up with Puddlebug at the Rusty Dragon Inn before deciding what to do next.
So the next morning, the adventurers arrive at the Rusty Dragon Inn to find Puddlebug already there, along with Bulk and Skye who looks a lot better after her visit to the Temple. The serious woman nods at Lexi and Sharpblade before speaking, “We’ve already briefed the mayor about our findings under the Old Light, and some groups will be organised to be sent down to deal with the spider den and the skeletons. That animated statue though, is a real problem.”
Jojo says, “The statue was trying to say something before it attacked us. Maybe we should find out what it was saying.”
Skye nods. “Yes, that might give us some clue on how to deal with that creature. Puddlebug has already started trying to decipher what language that statue was speaking in.” The woman motions to Bulk. “Bulk and I, unfortunately, are unable to stay to help solve this puzzle. We have been called elsewhere by the Pathfinder Society. However, Puddlebug has some news to share.”
The small gnome beams at the adventurers. “I’ve decided to stay in Sandpoint, and open a shop! And I’d like the two of you to be my very first customers! Free, of course!”
The kids are immediately interested. “What sort of shop are you opening?” asks Evan.
“Well, I’m an accomplished Artificer, which means that I can enchant items to make them magical! For you two, I’ll enchant an item of yours for free!”
“What sort of enchantments?” asks Jojo. “Can you do fire magic? Or electric?”
“Both,” says the gnome, somewhat smugly. “If you want, I can enchant those throwing daggers of yours with fire or electric!”
Jojo agonises over which enchantment she’d prefer until I tell her why not enchant some of her daggers with fire, and some with electric. So, soon enough, Lexi is the proud owner of four Flaming Daggers, and four Shock Daggers. She is concerned that the Flaming Daggers would set fire to her backpack when stored, but I explain to her that the magic daggers look normal and only flame up (or electrify) when she is about to use them.
Evan says that he wants his Half-Plate armour to be enchanted, and asks Puddlebug what sort of other enchantments can he do, and the gnome explains that he can do all sorts, depending on what ingredients he has on hand. “In fact,” he says, “You can tell me what sort of enchantments you’d like to have, and I can tell you what ingredients you’ll need to provide to me so that I can do it. It’s a bit like cooking, really.”
Jojo exclaims, “Ooo! What ingredients do you need to make an enchantment which can allows us to understand all creatures, including animals!? That’ll be awesome! And we’d be able to understand what that statue is saying too!”
I tell her that Puddlebug will come back to her with that one. Meanwhile, I'm straining to think up some interesting enchantments for Evan’s armour when I suddenly get a great idea. I open the GM Guide to the Minor Scrolls Randomiser table, and hand Evan the percentile dice. “Roll these three times, and I’ll look up this table to see what sort of enchantments Puddlebug can give to you.”
Evan rolls 89% and I check the table. “Oh, this is good - Puddlebug can enchant your armour with Invisibility! Basically, your armour can turn you invisible once per day for about 5 minutes.”
Evan thinks about it and shakes his head. “Nah, I want something cooler.” He rolls again and gets 15%.
I check the table. “Ah hah! You’d love this one - Cause Fear! Basically, Puddlebug can put a skull symbol on your armour, causing an opponent to quake with fear! Pretty awesome, eh?” I glance up and am surprised to see the kids looking quite unimpressed.
“Sharpblade is ALREADY a skeleton, dad,” points out Jojo. “If he wants to scare anyone, he can just pull his helmet off!”
Ah, right. “Okay, one last roll,” I say. Evan rolls 50% and I look it up. “Magic Missle? From an armour? Hmm…” Some inspiration takes hold. “Puddlebug can put this glowing stone on your chest-plate. And once per day, it can shoot out three Magic Missles which hits up to three opponents. Or all on the same one. You get to decide.”
Evan stares at me. “You mean, I get to shoot out a chest beam? Like Iron Man?”
“Uh. Well. Um. Yeah.”
“I’LL TAKE IT!”
I tell Evan that he needs to come up with a command word to activate the Magic Missles, and of course, he comes up with ‘Jarvis, Active Magic Missles’.
Puddlebug tells the adventurers that he can have the armour enchantment done by later that afternoon, so Lexi and Sharpblade hang around the Rusty Dragon Inn to wait. “While waiting at the inn, you listen to the other patrons talking. Apparently, the talk of the town is all about the strange happenings that occurred last night. It seems that something has been seen prowling the rooftops at night. Something black with long arms has been trying to get into people’s homes.
“And it seems that the creature has been targeting the homes of magic-users. You know Sour Bill, the fat wizard with the water-walking boots who was the judge at the Festival’s fighting contest? He lives in a house (that’s really shaped like a tower, because, you know, wizards like towers), and something tried to break in from the roof. Fortunately, Sour Bill’s got magical home defenses that scared the creature off. And a visiting magic-user who’s staying at this very inn says that she was woken up in the middle of the night by something trying to get in through her window on the second floor. Thankfully, she cast a spell and it ran off.”
“Interesting,” says Evan. The kids realise that this is the same creature that escaped the Old Light in the previous session.
Being the fairly railroady GM tonight, I poke in a few more details. “You guys think about the only wizard you know, Fastidus, working all alone at home. Hopefully, nothing will happen to him.” I leave it at that, satisfied that the train will arrive.
Jojo waves her hand. “Fastidus? Oh, he’ll be fine. He works in the basement after all. And this thing is trying to get in through the roof.”
Evan tosses a suggestion. “Maybe, we can get Fastidus on to the roof. So that the thing can come and try to get him.”
“Oh, good thinking! And then we can trap it, or kill it!”
I stare at the kids, quite uncertain over what I’d just heard. “You mean,.. you kids want to use Fastidus as BAIT?”
The kids nod enthusiastically.
“Okay, well, how are you going to get Fastidus on the roof? You know he’s really busy in the basement.”
Jojo thinks a bit. “I’ll go down and ask him if he can help us find our lost cat on the roof.”
And so the dastardly plan is hatched, which I suppose is in line with two Chaotic Neutral characters. After the adventurers pick up Sharpblade's new enchanted armour from Puddlebug, they arrive back at Fastidus’s house. Jojo convinces the old wizard to help come up to the roof to look for a lost cat, one named ‘Black, Long-armed Thing’. One Bluff check later, the tale works exceedingly well, as apparently, the wizard is a cat-lover, and soon the old wizard is wandering around the roof of his house calling out, “Black, Long-armed Thing! Where are you!?” in the middle of the night, much to the annoyance of his neighbours.
“Thankfully, the roof of Fastidus’s house is quite flat, and easy to walk around. There’s a chimney here, and the roofs of neighbouring houses. This is the street in front of the house, and the roof of the house across the street. You know, it’s a whole new world up here on the roof-tops. Sort of like that scene on the roof in Mary Poppins.”
Jojo decides to hide next to the chimney, while Evan patrols the street below with a ladder. I get them to roll Perception checks. “For some time, nothing happens, aside from shouts from the neighbours to be quiet. Then, Lexi notices something move on the rooftop of the house on the opposite side of the street.” I give her one chance to warn Sharpblade about what she’s spotted, but Lexi opts to keep hiding instead.
“Suddenly, a black thing launches itself off the roof, over the street, to land on Fastidus’s house! You see that it is a short ugly creature, with long tentacle-like arms which end with flat fingers with little hooks! The creature snaps out one of its arms at Fastidus, and wraps its hand around the old wizard’s throat!” I show the kids a picture of the creature which I’d read up on from the Paizo site.
I explain that this creature is called a Choker, a predator that lives in tunnels and dungeons waiting to catch unwary adventurers with its long arms. “In fact, it particularly likes to catch magic-users, which is why it has those long arms. It tries to choke the magic-user before he can even say any magic words to cast spells!”
Jojo nods. “That’s so clever! I’M THROWING MY FIRE DAGGER AT IT!” She rolls to hit, and misses badly. The creature must have spotted the flaming dagger hurtling towards it, and ducks its head out of the way in time.
Sharpblade is running to Fastidus’s house and placing his ladder against the roof. He climbs up in time to see the Choker fling out its other arm towards Lexi, wrapping its finger hooks around the elf’s arm. “Jarvis, actviate Magic Missles!” he commands, and three brilliant blue bolts surge out from his chest-plate and smashes into the black creature from behind. The choker bellows in rage, badly injured.
Lexi tries to stab the choker’s hand wrapped around her arm with her other hand, but in the struggle, only the flat of the blade glances the creature, barely damaging it. Sharpblade swings his warhammer at it, but smashes the roof instead.
Finally, Lexi manages to stab the creature’s hand with her flaming dagger. “The flame erupts from your blade, and races up the choker’s arm! The choker lets go of both its victims, and soon the whole creature is on fire! With a screaming wail, the choker collapses into a charred heap on the roof!”
Jojo is impressed. “Wow, I really like these fire daggers!”
Fastidus gets up, coughing badly, and tells Lexi that he’s found her cat, and that he’ll be down in his basement. The old wizard disappears back down into his house.
Adventure Notes:
On hindsight, I think most of us have used NPCs as trap-springers or mine-prodders before, regardless of alignment, so I suppose I can hardly blame the kids for using Fastidus as bait. Still, it was amusing to see them come up with the idea, and I ditched the original plan of them saving Fastidus from the choker breaking into his home.
Not sure why Evan wants to become an Evil character. Probably influenced by all that Sith stuff he's been watching.
The kids will probably get hooked into getting spell ingredients for Puddlebug in order to enchant more of their stuff. That's a great lead-in for more future adventures.
And I'm quite impressed over how rolling for random magic items works so well to jog some creative juices. I'm normally leery of randomly generated items and encounters. I'll have to do this more often. Do you do the same in your campaigns?
Plot hooks: What was that animated statue saying? Glowing Ore.