The Chronicles of a Rookie GM on the Playground, or, Preschoolers in Sandpoint


Campaign Journals


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My husband and I have almost fifty years of gaming between us.
Now we have small beings who are too clever for their own good and are tired of sitting off to the sidelines when we play.
So I bought the Pathfinder Beginners Box as a surprise for my husband's birthday in September and started running the three of them through it together.

We are using the four iconic pre-generated characters.
My 5 1/2 year old daughter is Kyra. She already has massive cosplay nerd tendencies, so so I found her a sheer teal shawl with a gold border and embroidery that she could wrap around her head and shoulders.
My not-quite-four year old son is Valeros. He thinks he's being typecast.
The two of them roleplay naturally, even having side conversations in character, and address me politely as Game Master.
Which is endearing and mildly creepifying.
My husband plays Ezren. I bought him a tiny red moleskine journal to use as a spellbook and he keeps all his game notes in it.
I run Merisiel as an NPC, but I've crit-fumbled her so many times with THE SINGLE MOST UNLUCKY SET OF CHESSEX DICE EVER that I'm contemplating not letting my daughter heal her next time.
Except it's fun running her as a disaffected goth Elf teenager with a Valley Girl accent.
To get the game started, I went to Daiso, the Japanese dollar store, and bought the kids each a little silk dice bag, a set of colored markers to draw on the battle map, and a plastic bubble sword and a toy breastplate for my son.
To draw them into the roleplaying world, I dug up a bunch of toy plastic pirate doubloons and glass vase weights for gold/gem loot drops and filled some airline mini-bottles with different colors of water for potions (with strict instructions that opening them would end the game). And different colors/patterns of chopsticks for wand spells.

They finished the Beginners Box.
They killed Black Fang by accident. (Valeros charged in, all brave and dumb like a farm-boy battlewagon) and double-critted on the first round. And then it was all downhill from there.

Next we went off to Pigtongue's Farm, killed the Ogre and his boar, and made the farm our base of operations until (if ever) the rightful owner should reappear. We've cleaned it all up for them and Valeros has replanted the crops and even dug irrigation channels from the nearby river. Kyra built a small shrine to Sarenrae and has been praying and training and busily de-ogre-ing the farmhouse and surroundings. Ezren built a workshop in the toolshed out back and has been grumpy but affable and suggested that Boar manure is not just a superb crop fertilizer, but may have special alchemical properties that would render it useful in combat. Research is ongoing. And pungent. Merisiel sighed theatrically, rolled her eyes, and went off into Mosswood to see how many different furred mammals could be found there to make into jerky or pemmican for trail rations.

And then came a crow with a message in a copper cylinder on its leg, summoning us back to Sandpoint to follow the Orc Invasion adventure at beginnerboxadventures.com . Random encounters with a Troglodyte in the Mountains and a Boggard in the Brinestump Marsh, and then the big battle, where Merisiel's *two* critical fumbles almost got everyone killed and served to keep Kyra occupied until her help was needed to keep Valeros from dying instead of Merisiel from dying. That was fun
.
In retrospect, perhaps I shouldn't have listened to the voice in my head that said, "Oh, they're so close to Level 3. Just throw two more Boars in there so they can level up after they get done with this mission."

It took hours. I didn't get dinner on the table until 9:23.
Good GM, Bad Mom.
But my son thought it was the funniest thing in the world that he got dropped three times by the orc boss and his sister had to keep healing him (thank goodness we got her a wand of cure moderate before we set out). He kept laughing.

So I snagged an out-of-print set of the Beginners Box Heroes minis on Ebay to surprise them with for our next session.

Which I haven't planned yet.


Dot

Scarab Sages

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That sounds awesome!! Glad your kids are enjoying it so much! My 6yr old and I have a 5E game on pause right now. He doesan't really ahve the attention span for it yet. We'll see.

Enjoy!


Starfinder Charter Superscriber

That's a great story! Sounds like you have the makings of a great young gaming group there.


NOTE:
I am keeping this journal because I need a convenient place to not lose any details about what has happened in the campaign. Most readers will probably find the level of detail and explanations boring as heck. I'm a first-time GM and I'm doing it this way to keep my brain organized.
So, sorry-not-sorry.


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We wrap up the Orc Invasion. When I built the formulas into my campaign spreadsheet to automatically tally and divide the current XP and populate them into the character sheets, I realized that we were down 1,180 points from level 3. So I put a javelin trap at the entrance to each of the orc tents. The kids are too little to understand that this is ludicrous and when my husband asked, “Why don’t you just make a GM call and say, “You’re all level 3 now, congratulations?” To which I said, “mumble mumble vague mumble math cheating did I mention I’m lawful shut up.”
So there were javelin traps. On tents. Which the rogue handily noticed, made sarcastic comments about, safely sprang, and got the party leveled.
We go back to Sandpoint with all the loots and the body of the Orc Boss. We go see Mayor Kendra. We give her the message written in Orcish that was in the belt pouch of the Orc Boss. She sends a runner for a wizard who can read Orcish to translate it. He arrives.
Ezren asks, “What does it say?”
I realize I hadn't decided what I would tell the party yet. I look down at the two options on the sheet in front of me, and I see
"Maybe it’s not a message from the orc chieftain, but instead it’s orders from a rogue wizard who was recently banished from Sandpoint for practicing necromancy…one who promises that he will use his knowledge of the area (and an army of the undead) to help the orcs to once and for all destroy the town?"
So I decide, "Hey, yeah, that looks cool," and I run with it.
My Kindergartener asks, "What's necromancy?"
I explain, gently.
My almost-four-year-old says, "Cool! Let's kill it!"
My husband does the Snoopy eyebrows look he does when he feels I've made a reckless decision.
I try to punt, but I'm feeling panicked and my brain and my mouth are on different wavelengths. I ramble on a bit about how Sherriff Hemlock is going to send a squad to scout out the wizard's camp with a couple of mages from Turondarok Academy and report back in a few days' time, and sent the party on yet another random ancillary module to continue to boost up a bit.
The party levels up. Ezren buys a bunch of spells, because there’s nothing my husband loves more than to have more spells than he can ever conceivably use. Except maybe Rush.
I can’t understand either one.
Valeros shrugs and goes off to train with the soldiers at the garrison until Ezren is ready. Kyra hangs out at the cathedral and does clericky stuff. Ezren is ready.

THE RANDOM ANCILLARY MODULE TO BOOST UP A BIT:
Green Hag’s Revenge, also from beginnerboxadventures.com

The party [blah blah blah exposition that gets them into the middle of Brinestump Marsh]
Goblin lemmings.
A stampede of goblin lemmings appear out of the swamp mist, running like an Earth Elemental is on them. One of them trips and falls and is trodden on some of the others in their haste to get away. Kyra successfully gets it to talk to her. Not a lot of sense out of a panicked goblin, but the party understands that the goblins found what they thought was a deserted old cabin in the swamp, tried to go in, and a big green scary with claws attacked them, killed a couple of them, then set a big clay mud mossy to crush them, chase them, make them run.
As if on cue, there is a great roar.
As the last goblin wets himself and flees, Kyra casts Bless on the party and Divine Favor on herself.
The Earth Elemental came roaring through the swamp.
Valeros power-attacked with his flaming longsword for 19, cutting his damage by a little more than half.
Kyra attacked with a natural 20 and did only three damage.
Poor kid. She’s been watching her brother crit right and left and deal tons of damage while she just almost always misses because, well, she’s Kyra, and the first time she rolls a natural 20, it’s against a creature who is immune to crits.
Ezren climbs a tree and, (after we had had an argument during naptime about “How stupid is it that a wizard has a bonded object that has to be in his hand all the time and he just throws it away? Can I have a different bonded object?” and I’d given him a ration about playing the character as written and said “please just use the ability at least once per game and see what happens”) uses Hand of the Apprentice. And misses.
Merisiel shoots an arrow into it and inexplicably does more damage than Kyra does with a scimitar on her this-is-not-a-crit-but-it-should-have-been. Because sometimes life isn’t fair.
The Earth Elemental raises his giant muddy fist and tries to bring it down on top of Kyra. And misses.
Valeros power-attacks with his flaming longsword again. The big guy drops.

We follow his big footprints through the swamp. It’s not hard. Valeros has the lead.
It’s a DC8 perception check to spot the quicksand before you fall into it.
Valeros! Valeros! He’s our man! If HE can’t fall in, NO ONE can!
Thankfully, he makes his DC15 swim check and starts moving through the quicksand while Ezren offers a rope and Kyra throws it to Valeros and gets him out.

Valeros starts to take point again. (What actually happens is that my son says, “Okay, let’s go!” And rolls his d20 into the tray, looks down and says, “Uh oh, two…”) My husband raises his eyebrows at me. I tell my son, “I didn’t say you should roll anything yet. Merisiel pushes rudely in front of you and says, “I think I should take point for a while. You go guard the wizard’s six.” So Valeros is sent to the back of the line, but at least we skirt the rest of the quicksand.

We follow the trail and arrive at the Green Hag’s cabin. The door to her cabin is open and we can see her standing in front of a pot on the fire, stirring goblin stew. We discuss the options and decide to try to make a surprise attack with ranged weapons while she’s still cooking. Kyra casts Bless again and uses her Pearl of 1st Power to re-cast Divine Favor. Ezren casts Mage Armor. All of the rolls check out and the Hag biffs her perception.
The Surprise! round begins. Merisiel sneak-attacks with her bow for 10, Valeros shoots his bow as well for 4. Kyra casts Spiritual Weapon but blows her attack roll. Ezren attempts to range touch with Scorching Ray and misses as well. (Seriously! How should those two miss?)
Round 1: Merisiel crits her bow attack and Valeros hits with his short bow for full damage. The hag is now down an additional 20.
Kyra’s second attack with her Spiritual Weapon is more successful and she hits for 8. The hag is now down to 16 points (out of 58).
Ezren uses his arcane bond with his staff to attempt Scorching Ray again. And again misses.
The Green Hag turns invisible, moves to the square in front of Merisiel, and attacks her. Merisiel takes 6 points of damage plus weakness and blows her Fort save. She takes a five foot step back, tries to shoot, and misses. Valeros switches weapons, power-attacks with his flaming longsword, and the Hag drops.
Ezren attempts to detect magic on her body.
Merisiel goes into the cabin first to check for traps, rolls a one, throws the lid of the trapped chest open with a confident flourish, and sends an electricity arc through her body. She makes her Reflex save and takes only 7 points. Valeros is right behind her in the doorway but is still carrying the Energy Heart we got in Black Fang’s dungeon, so that absorbs 10 points of electricity damage and he only takes 4. Ezren and Kyra are standing on either side of Valeros and are not hit.
The chest contains 1600 gold, plus the three items from the three major treasure rolls from the Hag. I did the magic items by the book and ended up with a wand of fireball and a potion of sanctuary. The third item just said “masterwork weapon”, but there was no percentile chart for that on the page, so I decided to make it a longbow, because an elf rogue needs a decent bow, not just a short bow she scavenged from a goblin corpse. We wrap the hag’s body in a mossy blanket we pull from her bunk and tie her across the back of one of the horses. Ezren gathers up the various spell components and alchemical ingredients on the Hag’s table to sell for 300 more gold.
And called it a night.


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Thanks to a bunch of awesome folks over on the Deep6FaWtL thread, I'm busily trying to write my first module about the banished necromancer and his army of undead and orcs, "The Sorcerer's Apprentice". I am trying to get it ready to run by Friday evening, which, since this is the single biggest week of the year on our school calendar and I'm already getting about four and a half hours of sleep a night, is a mindbogglingly brilliant idea.


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lisamarlene wrote:

NOTE:

I am keeping this journal because I need a convenient place to not lose any details about what has happened in the campaign. Most readers will probably find the level of detail and explanations boring as heck. I'm a first-time GM and I'm doing it this way to keep my brain organized.
So, sorry-not-sorry.

Hey, I did it for my Crimson Throne game with the kids and people LOVED it!


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dotting, 'cause this is fun to read. Good luck on your games!


dot


When the party returned from Brinestump after sorting out the Green Hag, they rested for the night at the Rusty Dragon. There was hearty carousing in the common room. Ale was quaffed and stories were told late into the night. The next morning, they met with Mayor Deverin and Sheriff Hemlock. The Sheriff reports that his squad returned to the orc’s camp and then traced the orc’s path back south toward the Mushfens east of Magnimar.
Just north of the Yondabakari River, they encountered a second orc raiding party. (Three more orcs and a second orc boss.) They dealt with them handily. In the belt pouch of that orc boss was a second message from the young necromancer Kersiel, exhorting them to find what happened to the other orcs (Kersiel was convinced they had abandoned him as either “cowardly” or “traitors”, he didn’t seem certain which), and asking them to find and recruit new orcs to join them, promising unrivaled spoils after they ransacked Sandpoint. The tone of the note was desperate and a little deranged. The note ends, “The Skeleton Squad impatiently awaits the return of their orc captains at Penglog-Llwyd.” (Yes, I looked up "Greyskull" in Welsh because I thought it would sound cool. Shut up.)

Mayor Deverin reports that, between the student records Ilsorai Gandethus looked up in the Turandarok archives and what local news Shalelu had heard in her wanderings, they were able to piece together more of Kersiel's history. After being expelled from Turandarok Academy for being caught in the headmaster’s study in the middle of the night with books a student shouldn’t have, drawing in chalk on the floor, he had apparently wandered for a time, searching for a new teacher to apprentice himself to, until he came to the tower of Penglog-Llwyd. The tower had been the home of Dynddrwg, an evil necromancer long known for his dark experiments. When Kersiel arrived, however, he found Dynddrwg little more than a dusty skeleton on the floor, long dead. Taking this as a sign that he himself was Dynddrwg’s logical successor, he put the skull on the desk, kept the robes and the hat, and tossed the rest of the bones into the supply bin in the dungeon. Unfortunately, Dynddrwg’s spellbooks were transcribed in a secret language of Dynddrwg’s own devising, and his handwriting was uncommonly bad.

Exposition, exposition, blah blah exposition. You can see where this is going.

The party heads south in the direction of the Mushfens with one of the Sheriff's men leading them. They make camp. They set watches. Every single random encounter roll results in an uneventful trip. (I had planned a few randoms, but took too long in the exposition part and the kids were getting bored, so I had them roll and pretended that the rolls mattered, but skipped over this section.)

They arrive at Penglog-Llwyd. (No, I don't get tired of saying or typing that.) I show them a picture of Knock Castle in Scotland.
( https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Knock_Castle_1.JPG )
Then, as they stealthily take a peek, I play the Silly Symphonies Skeleton Dance cartoon.

The camp is in chaos. None of the orcs have returned, and they were supposed to be in charge of the undead. Of all the skeletons in the camp, some of his skeletal warriors, whom he meant to give mastery of longsword, were instead cursed with mastery of longwords… but since skeletons cannot speak, they gesticulate wildly, their mandibles flapping up and down, but no sound coming out. Some are dancing (they were bards, not fighters, whom the wizard dug up by mistake). Others were so bored that they set up a bowling lane with a box of random femurs and are bowling with their heads. There are twelve skeletons and four zombies trying to herd them.

As Valeros and Merisiel move up, one of the zombies tries to intercept them. Valeros gets an attack of opportunity and the zombie vaporizes.
Two of the bowlers attempt to lob their heads at the PC's (I figured 1d4 plus bite damage on a crit), but they both miss and end up wandering aimlessly about, looking for their heads.
Ezren focuses on the zombies, using magic missiles and Hand of the Apprentice. Kyra simply wipes skeletons off the board by channeling positive energy. (My daughter loves doing this.) It takes her two whole rounds to wipe them out.

When we stopped for the night, there were one zombie and one skeleton left out of the original 16 bad guys on the ground level, and the party had opened the doors to the keep and were starting up the stairs to the wizard's tower.

The plan for tonight: when the party arrives in the tower room, they will find Emo Boy ugly-sobbing into his pillow. Unless he totally biffs his perception check, as soon as they enter, he will round on them in fury and attack, probably with Scorching Ray...

(Note: Emo Necromancer is meant to be played as a cross between Terry Pratchett's "Eric" and Kylo Ren. Neither of which is as yet a familiar character to my children, except that they've seen "the Duck Sith" on posters.)


So this is my problem: either under-preparing, and not knowing what to do when my players ask me questions, and then fumbling with answers, looking them up, and boring everyone to tears while I flip pages in books... OR, overpreparing and spending more time in exposition and storytelling than in actual gameplay, choices, and combat, and boring everyone to tears while I ramble on and on and on.


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lisamarlene wrote:
So this is my problem: either under-preparing, and not knowing what to do when my players ask me questions, and then fumbling with answers, looking them up, and boring everyone to tears while I flip pages in books... OR, overpreparing and spending more time in exposition and storytelling than in actual gameplay, choices, and combat, and boring everyone to tears while I ramble on and on and on.

Welcome to the wonderful world of GM'ing!

Different groups want different things, and it takes a while to get a "feel" for a group.

My small group thinks the best sessions are the ones that last 8 hours without a single die roll: It's all roleplaying with the NPCs, interacting with the world, and generally doing "full immersion" shopping and social interactions.

Yet if I tried that with my Crimson Throne game, one player would dominate all such interactions, and the other 5 would probably go off to see a movie or play miniature golf, because watching one person do all that is no fun at all.

The kids' group is an interesting mix -- they LOVE puzzle-solving, but they insist on rolling dice, so it's all about making sure they have complementary skills and don't step on each others' toes. (Aid Another? That's for sissies!) They love the stories and the social interactions -- as long as they get to roll dice to prove how good they are at it.

It sounds like you're balancing it well -- if the kids are acting bored, throw in some die rolling so they feel active. If Dad is acting bored, throw in some random storyline so he feels engaged.

GMs: The New Age social coordinators!


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We wrapped up the adventure a few days ago, but I haven't had time to post.
One word: ANTICLIMACTIC.
Kyra and Valeros went through the door first, he wanted to rush up and attack, metagame conversation about why he should let the cleric go first, she cast "Hold Person", Emo Boy biffed his saving throw.
Then the remaining skeleton and zombie came through the door following us and Valeros got to whack on undead, so he was happy.
Ezren stripped Emo Wizard down to his skivvies, determined which articles were magical, emptied his pockets, dressed him again and tied him up.
As the Hold Person wore off, Emo Wizard started going on about how the PC's would be sorry, his orcs were going to come back and...
Ezren said, "Um, no, about that..."
The wizard wouldn't shut up and was really annoying, so Ezren gagged him.
They went through his stuff, took the spellbook and the skull and the creepy hat of command undead (that the PC's never got to use for its intended fun purpose, boo) and some minor loot and set off for Sandpoint.


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My son has already declared that he doesn't like the set of plain red dice that came with the Beginner Box and wants some shiny blue ones with red numbers. Happily, G.O.B. had exactly the right set of Chessex Gemini, so they're awaiting Birthday paper and ribbon at the bottom of my sweater drawer. You know, because you only turn four once.


Due to insane work schedules and early bedtimes for small people, it took two (very short) gaming sessions to roleplay returning to Sandpoint with the captive emo wizardling, have Mayor Kendra give the party a collective pat on the back and a card for Two Knights Brewery with the words "OK - Kendra" written on the reverse, for the Varisian bard and dancer to approach the party during a break between sets at the brewery to ask for assistance (they were camped out at the place where the Thistle River crosses between Nettlewood and Mosswood and something came in the night and stole three horses and a roving halfling bard who was visiting their camp, and in the morning they followed their tracks into the Tors), to return with the Varisians back to their camp, stay the night and go with them in the morning to the gap in the Tors where they had followed the tracks.
The first wave of attack was four giant ants, because I try to stay away from human or mostly human antagonists as much as possible. There were bite attacks, and grabbed conditions to deal with, and learning how to take a five-foot-step back to continue to use a ranged weapon (my daughter did get this eventually).
Then they healed up and continued on their way, and the NPC worthless elf rogue once again biffed her trap sense perception roll, and the party came very close to tumbling into a camouflaged pit trap. Except they also blew the perception roll that told them there were three troglodytes hiding around the next bend, and the trogs rushed out to make a surprise attack, *also* missed their perception roll, and the first two fell into the pit themselves. (It wasn't their pit.) One was killed outright, one was left with only three hit points, and one remained to be verrrrry slowly killed by a party who couldn't roll decent damage all of a sudden. I thought about roleplaying him getting upset that he was being toyed with, but (a) I don't think trogs are really that smart, and (b) it would have gone over the kids' heads.
The third wave of the battle is going to be a manticore in its lair with the bodies of the Varisian horses and a cowering halfling bard still uneaten. (I thought a grateful, rescued, slightly mad bard would make a good NPC addition to teach the kids about what bards do, since the bard class isn't included in the Beginner Box. And it would amuse me.)
And, hey, now the party is at 4th level.
I'm nixing the idea of Rise of the Runelords. It's just too dark and creepy for the ages of my players. We're going to do the local hero thing, minor adventures around the hinterlands for awhile.


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When I asked about "kids' adventures", everyone told me to check out Legacy of Fire. It's collecting dust on my shelf, so if you want to check it out, I happen to know you'll be over on Saturday...

...oh...and speaking of which...I'm assuming ribs are OK?


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NobodysHome wrote:

When I asked about "kids' adventures", everyone told me to check out Legacy of Fire. It's collecting dust on my shelf, so if you want to check it out, I happen to know you'll be over on Saturday...

...oh...and speaking of which...I'm assuming ribs are OK?

I'd love to have a look at that!

And, OHDEARGODYES.


After sorting out the giant ants and troglodytes in the Tors last session, we returned this evening and began with perception checks. Ezren and Kyra could smell something feral and unusual, and knew that it wasn't a good smell, but couldn't figure it out.
Valeros checked his armpits to see if Axe Body Spray just doesn't cut it for an adventurer.
Merisiel, finally proving herself useful, turned whiter than usual, because she smelled big big cat and heard the rustle of wings, so was able to whisper "Manticore" just as it leapt from its cave to attack the party.
And rolled four on initiative.
Kyra attacked with her spiritual weapon, standing well back for the moment, assuming she would need to be able to heal up Valeros as soon as he did something brave and stupid and turned into kitty chow.
Valeros rushed in with his flaming longsword, buffed as much as Kyra could buff him, and rolled a 1 and a 2 on his 1d8+6+1d6. Great attack, 9 points. Merisiel shot with her longbow and did exactly 1 point.
Ezren unleashed a fireball at a point just far enough behind the Manticore to not barbecue Valeros and did 21 points of damage.
The manticore attacked the Sandpoint Guard NPC I had with the party to be a meat shield in the Necromancer fight a few weeks ago (I hadn't been able to make him go away yet.)
Round 2: Kyra misses, Valeros crits. 2d8+12+1d6=25 points of damage and a dead winged kitty.
Merisiel found the trap in the cave entrance. Useful Merisiel.
The party went into the cave and discovered three chewed up Varisian horses, a mountain of discarded gnawed bones, some treasure (50gp, 80gp gems/etc., and a Wand of Web). As well as the roving halfling bard, delirious in a corner, who turns out to be none other than their old friend Lem. Lem takes their presence as proof that he is actually dead, and so are they, and it takes some healing and positive energy channeling from Kyra to bring him to his senses again. (This also heals the random NPC, more or less.)
They return to the Varisian camp. The Varisians are disappointed that they were not able to save the horses. Merisiel snarks that perhaps rather than waste so much time going all the way into Sandpoint and singing and dancing in a tavern in order to attract the attention of likely adventurers and bring them back, they could have gone in and fought the Manticore on their own, and died themselves, and...
...and this is where Lem jumps in, as a good halfling does, with more songs to distract everyone from ill feeling. A final round of warmed spiced ale is passed around the fire and the adventurers are sent off to bed in bunks in one of the wagons.
(I told the kids the Varisian ladies and their wagons looked like this:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/7c/eb/5e/7ceb5ea06defa1929ae003d5 0562d658.jpg )

The next morning, they woke up quite late. Round about elevenses. To discover that the caravan was moving, and they were somewhere along the edge of the Ember Lake. (They had started traveling at dawn. Ezren rolled *really* well on his knowledge local and geography rolls.) Lem is walking alongside their wagon and sees them looking out the window, says that he hasn't been able to persuade the Varisians of the need to stop for second breakfast, but he *has* been able to convince them to use a samovar for coffee instead of tea and brings hot coffee and provisions and exposition.
As Ezren foams at the mouth about being "kidnapped" and their horses "conscripted to pull Varisian wagons", Lem smiles and admits it was his idea. When Ezren asks why, he says, "It was funnier this way." But they're on their way to Galduria, which mollifies Ezren somewhat.
When they arrive, Lem gets the leader of the Varisian band to pull into the courtyard of the Twilight Academy, which he does, and then proceeds to have an argument with Ezren about whether the party owe the Varisians for their travel in a pullman car, or whether the Varisians owe the party for slaying the Manticore, and what should become of the party's horses.


Edit: Did I forget to mention that Lem had suggested to the Varisians that they put a particularly strong sleeping potion in that final cup of warm spiced ale?


Day One of Red-Lining:
Poor Ezren. He really thought we were in Galduria so he could apply to the Academy.
Since it is evening when the party arrives, and Ezren identifies himself as a prospective student ready to take the entrance examinations, they are permitted to stay in guest quarters at the Academy. Over dinner, the Dean informs the travelers that, whether or not Ezren's application is successful, he is grateful to have experienced adventurers on hand, however briefly, after the recent unpleasantness. He tells them about a some trouble a month or so back with undead, a missing cleric, the armed robbery of a necromancer... he tells you that everything seems to be more or less back to normal, but many of the faculty are uneasy. Particularly the botanists, for some reason.
So, of course, after dinner, our heroes trot over to the Botany wing.
And since I hadn't expected or planned for this, I played them as harmless, unhelpful, research mages, a little stoned and a little paranoid because they're not used to adventurers coming into their lab late at night and asking random questions.
[SERIOUSLY! HOW MANY TIMES DO I HAVE TO SAY, "WHY DON'T YOU TRY SENSING THEIR MOTIVES?]
Finally the party leaves the grad students alone and go to bed. During the early morning, Kyra and Valeros both find them waking up at random hours and staring out at the mist over the forest in the moonlight.
[No, it's not evil. It's pretty. Go back to bed.]
In the morning, Kyra finishes her morning prayers and preparing her spells and goes and knocks on the boys' door. She suggests a morning walk. Valeros says they need lunch first. Lem puts in that they haven't had first breakfast or second breakfast, both of which need to happen before lunch, and Ezren suggest that they raid the kitchen and take breakfast with them in their pockets.
So they walk through the big trees in the cool morning mist.
And after a lovely stroll, they come to an immense tree with a split at the base big enough to stand in, something like this:
https://media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/02/d5/c8/5b/giant-forest.jp g
[No, this isn't anyone I know, I got it with a google image search.]
I suggest to Valeros that, "Wouldn't it be really awesome to have a picture of all of you standing in the tree? I bet if you asked Lem, he would sketch it for you. Go on, grab Meri and Kyra and ask Ezren to come stand with you in the tree."
So Valeros says, "Hey, yeah, that's cool!" and Kyra goes along with it.
[I fully expected Ezren to resist, so I was all set to encourage Valeros to just run up and grab Ezren in a bear hug and pull him into the picture, but, no, after all that preparation, he just shrugged and said okay. Darn it.]
And the Irminsul portal activates, and they fall to the ground, only the ground and the air are suddenly warmer, and drier, and there is grass underneath them, and when they look around, the redwoods have been replaced by gnarled oaks.
Ezren realizes that the sun is significantly higher in the sky, as if it were an hour later. He wonders whether they have traveled in time or traveled east.
They wander a bit until they can see the surrounding scenery (i.e. more than just trees) and Valeros realizes to his alarm that he recognizes the peaks and landscape in the distance, and that they are in the Arthfell Forest. So, good thing it's mid-morning and not, oh, nightfall.
He reckons the quickest and best way to get away from Arthfell is to go south and a little west, and after about an hour or so of determined marching, they come across a logging crew. Turns out they were on the southern border of the forest. The crew is impressed that anyone was traveling through Arthfell Forest on foot. They offer the party a ride on their lumber wagon to Almas in the hopes of getting some good stories out of the deal. Valeros tells them about Black Fang, but is vague about where the story actually happened. He doesn't mention the tree portal. (None of the other party members speak Taldane.)
They arrive at the Almas quay late in the evening. The dockworkers start unloading the logs and putting them on a ship.


Hooray! We're in Katapesh!
Last night's session was all about the sound bites.
I reminded them that they had just arrived in Augustana (Yes, Augustana, NOT Almas) on the lumber wagon late at night and they are tired and their bottoms are sore.
Valeros: Ugh. Where can I get some ale?
Me: Are you asking the GM, or one of the stevedores on the docks?
Valeros: Those guys. Hey! Where can I get some ale?
[They laugh and clap him on the back and send him down the quay to Brandy's Tavern. "You'll like her place," they say. "She's a fine girl."
[Kids shrug. Husband rolls his eyes.]
They get ale, and the local stew, and rooms for the night.
In the morning, Kyra pipes up with:
"I wake up at dawn and perform my assassins."
Me: [pause. pause more.] Do you mean orisons?
Kyra: Yeah. That.
The street vendors begin to crowd the quay, forming the quayside market. There are women with baskets of baked goods, and fruit, and there is at least one coffee vendor, and... well, really, that's all that matters.
Kyra tries to wake up Merisiel. Merisiel rolls over and pulls the pillow over her head. Kyra thumps the wall to get Valeros and Ezren's attention. She tells them about the market, then shouts, "Merisiel doesn't want to get up!" Valeros shouts back, "Okay, I'll come help get her up!"
Merisiel gets up. They go out, and get hot cheese rolls and fruit and coffee. Then they go to the ship where the lumber they rode in on was being loaded the previous night. It's leaving this very morning, they can let you have passage for 25gp each. They're bound for Absalom.
Ezren: Is there another ship?
Me: There is another trading ship taking grain further south. It's a two-week voyage, they can give you passage for 50gp each.
Kyra helpfully reminds Ezren of all the reasons he can's go to Absalom.
He tries to argue with her. She is persuasive.
Ezren suggests to Kyra that she offer their services as guards to the first mate of the Katapesh ship.
He says they already have guards. Ezren suggests the first mate look at them closely and ask himself whether Larry, Daryl and Daryl look to be in quite the same league. Without blinking or looking at him, the first mate picks up a belaying pin and throws it sideways at Valeros. Valeros draws his flaming longsword and incinerates the belaying pin in midair.
They are hired. Ezren and Valeros will bunk with the crew, but the ladies get their own room. (There is persuasive bargaining.)
After a few days, one of the Daryls approaches Ezren during the evening watch. He has his daily ration of grog in his hand and is itching for a fight. He says, "And what can a wizard do as a guard that a good honest man can't?"
Kyra taps the man on the shoulder and says, very sweetly, "Wand of Fireballs?"
Ezren casts a cantrip to make the man's tankard light up. He screams like a girl and drops it. Ezren offers him his own daily ration.
A few more days go by without incident.
Valeros overhears two sailors on the deck making inappropriate remarks about Kyra and Merisiel.
Me: What do you do?
Valeros: I go up to them and say, "I see you are forgetting your manners. I am going to walk away from you now."
[dear god I love my son.]
After the laughter dies down, I have him roll an intimidate check, just because he likes to roll, and he rolls as high as that answer deserved.
The sailors agree that, yes, they were, in fact, forgetting their manners and will remember them in future.
The ship arrives at Sothis in Osirion without further incident.
Merisiel and Valeros stay on board to guard the ship and Kyra and Ezren go into the bazaar for a shopping trip. Kyra buys new clothes (she'd left all of hers in Galduria), a headscarf for Merisiel for the desert, and two folded Damascus steel daggers. Ezren buys them all a desert tent, some new bedrolls, and crossbow bolts. They go back to the ship. Kyra surprises Merisiel with the gifts. Merisiel squeals "How pretty!" and holds up the daggers. Then she says, "And the scarf is nice, too."
The ship travels on to Katapesh.
Ezren stands the crew two rounds in the nearest sailor's tavern, and when it becomes clear he will not buy them more than that, they leave in search of other entertainment. The party is approached by Garaval, who says that he understands they were serving as guards on the ship that just arrived, and yet it seems they are not returning with it. Do they have plans here in Katapesh, or are they willing to accept work for his mistress, the noble princess Almah, who is in need of trustworthy and brave adventurers?
Adventure. Payment. Princess. Yeah, they're in.

Scarab Sages

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lisamarlene wrote:
So this is my problem: either under-preparing, and not knowing what to do when my players ask me questions, and then fumbling with answers, looking them up, and boring everyone to tears while I flip pages in books... OR, overpreparing and spending more time in exposition and storytelling than in actual gameplay, choices, and combat, and boring everyone to tears while I ramble on and on and on.

Hi Lisa Marlene...great job of DM'ing (as far as I can tell) and storytelling so far! Thanks for sharing.

My .02, you can't be over prepared, more prep is always good, and if you don't use it all, it can be recycled for use in a later session. As you said when you were underprepared, you didn't have the info to answer questions. So if you have prepared a ton of stuff, just use it to answer questions, no need to ramble on about background and such unless they seek out the info.

Sounds like the kids are having fun, my 6 yr old is on and off about D&D on paper, but loves adventure computer games.

Enjoy!


My new bete-noir as a GM: accents. I tried and tried to come up with an appropriate Katapeshi accent (or at least something vaguely Lawrence of Arabia-ish) and it just. was. not. happening. At one point, my husband turns to me and says, "So, Dashki is Russian, then?"

ahem.

Day One of Legacy of Fire
I bought the Pathfinder Paper Minis for Book One. Five bucks!

The party arrives with Garaval at the Sultan's Claw just in time to see the fortune-teller's wagon up in flames and caravan guards rushing around to put it out. Perception checks were all excellent. Kyra immediately rushes over to help Father Zantoran heal the wounded firefighters (Rebuke Death and a Cure Mod brings the dying NPC from -6 to +10), then goes to help round up the animals.
Valeros, meanwhile, sizes up the bucket brigade, looks at the big drinking water barrel, and says, "Ezren! I could lift that!"
Ezren looks at me and says, "So, is this the caravan's only supply of water for the week? Where do they get the rest of their water from?"
[I'm looking madly through the book. I find nothing.]
"You don't know and no one can stop to answer questions right now. You just rode a whole week through the desert on camel."
Ezren looks at Valeros. "We can't waste their only supply of water; that wagon is done for anyway. We either need to pull it out of the way or use something else. How about scooping up sand in your massive shield and smothering the fire with that?"
Valeros does what Ezren suggests and rolls a number of fabulous strength checks in succession; clearly the brand new dice really are a win. Then he does the same for the charred remains of the tree.
Almah invites them to sit in her tent and suggests that they don't look half so much like the lackwits Garaval usually hires to help her, and they may serve her well in her mission to clear the monastery of Sarenrae for her base of operations and then restore the village of Kelmarane... but first, she needs to know how the fire started and who she can or cannot trust. "Find out for me; then we will talk."
Ezren starts to try to bargain over rate of pay with her at this point.
I have to argue with him that this would be a very bad idea.
It takes a while.
He relents. The party investigates the site and interviews the entire camp, person by person. (Everyone but Dashki: "It was Dashki! He's a bad egg!" Dashki: "Was pugwampis!") [This was where the "Russian" comment came in.]
[Bad accent number two: while interviewing Haldah the camel driver's wife, she came out as Edie McClurg. More than a little Minnesota-ish. Whoopsydaisy.]
[This was also when I discovered the real reason you don't start a module for first-level characters with fourth-level PC's: I don't pay much attention to the spells my husband has managed to assemble in Ezren's spell book because he's scrupulously honest, even if he is a scrupulously honest minimaxer from hell. Which is why I didn't discover until they were about to interview Dashki for the second time that he had "Read Thoughts". And, as he coached Kyra in what to ask while she interviewed Dashki on behalf of the party so he could do the spellcasting, I had to work hard to figure out what to say so that I (a) didn't lie, (b) didn't give all the secrets away, and (c) didn't frighten them off the adventure. What the party now knows, or thinks they know, is that Dashki knows which gnoll tribe inhabits Kelmarane, believes the party and most of the caravan will meet their demise there, but believes it is his mission and his duty to go. (Managed to evade the "why" of that one.) Also, yes, he is very much enamored of Almah and hates Garaval. And they know that Dashki isn't telling them everything about his past and it is even bloodier and darker than he has told them, but he isn't saying why.]
We left with Valeros begging Almah to be allowed to go off into the desert to look for poor Haldah's goat Rombard because she's worried and he wants to make her not worried.


What follows is three sessions' worth, spread over two weeks. I was in the middle of parent-teacher conferences at school and a bunch of other stuff.
Almah wants the PC’s to go into the desert to look for pugwumpis now. Ezren wants to sleep to replenish his spells first and and go looking for them at first light. Valeros wants to go now. He’s worried about the goat. Ezren tells him the goat is probably already dinner. Kyra’s player gasps in horror.
Dashki tells the players, “Pugwumpis are night creatures. You want to find pugwumpis, you don’t go at first light.”
Ezren’s player tries to protest some more, The GM reminds him that this is typically a first-level character module and he will probably be fine.
They track the goat and the pugwumpis easily through the desert. They find Rombard in the cactus thicket. Merisiel makes her way through and frees him. Rombard tries to dash out of the thicket, takes damage from the spines, and falls unconscious. Kyra heals him and he dashes off toward the camp. The pugwumpi attacks and Valeros dispatches it a little too thoroughly. There is still enough left to take to Almah.
She tries to offer the PC’s 200gp each for the adventure. Kyra successfully bargains it up to 500.
They start off for the monastery around 10 the next morning so that Ezren can sleep in, they get a few potions from Father Zastoran, and head for the monastery.
They enter through a hole in the wall of the nave and walk up toward the chapel. Ezren’s knowledge:religion checks are good enough to recognize the figures in the bas reliefs. They approach the chapel. As Ezren is sitting in a pew working on his map, his perception enables him to see all the figures moving in the fabric nest above him in the choir loft. He pokes Valeros, who is sitting next to him, and they start discussing it, forgetting how easily sound travels (and echoes) in a cavernous stone building. Kyra hears them from across the room and joins in. The pugwumpis hear their whispers and prepare to attack. One climbs down the gnoll-head chandelier and gets into position. Ezren spots him and uses Hand of the Apprentice to make his staff fly up and whack him off the chandelier, against the wall with a squishy thud, and fall. Merisiel shoots another one (successfully, through the fabric) with her bow.
[Note: Whenever you see characters shooting up into the fabric nest, assume that the GM is, in fact, accounting for the added difficulty.]
Ezren tries to use Hand of the Apprentice again and misses. Valeros tries to shoot one but does minimal damage. One of the pugwumpis shoots Val, but does pugwumpi damage. Val is annoyed. Kyra shoots and misses. Then, in rapid succession, Merisiel, Ezren and Valeros each kill one. The last remaining pugwumpi tries to drop on Ezren with his dagger but misses his AC and splats on the floor.
Merisiel shinnies up the gnoll-head chandelier, finds the garnet.
Kyra has discovered what the pugwumpis have done to the altar and to Sarenrae’s holy text and is disgusted/incensed/outraged/saddened. She vows to come back and clean and reconsecrate it as soon as she is able and prays. Ezren and Valeros, meanwhile, are digging through the pews for loose coin.
Merisiel is continuing to examine the nest from her higher vantage point. She both hears whispers and sees movement. She makes hand signals to communicate with Valeros and Ezren. Valeros shoots and misses. Merisiel shoots something and hits. Ezren shoots his crossbow and one pugwumpi drops. An arrow comes out of the nest and hits Ezren. Kyra has figured out what is going on and shoots as well. She hits something for 6. An arrow comes out of the nest and hits Kyra.
Valeros shoots again, minimal damage. Merisiel shoots something and hears its little gremliny death gurgle. Ezren shoots and misses. Kyra shoots again for another 6 points. Another arrow flies at Kyra but misses her. Valeros shoots and misses. Merisiel shoots one more time and hears a more impressive gremliny death gurgle. She climbs up into the nest to explore. For once, she makes all of her rolls: perception, climb, acrobatics. And does well. She finds a ring of featherfall and a phylactery of faithfulness under the pugwumpi king’s sad little throne. She sees Kelmarane through the broken window. She climbs down.
They go through the nearest doorway into the cloisters and follow them around in a square. Ezren does an astounding job of identifying most of the characters and situations in the cloister mural and tells as much of the story of the Templars, Nefeshti and Jhavhul as he is able.
[Note: the very next day, we happened to be at the big Episcopal cathedral in San Francisco for a funeral, so the kids got to see *all* the architecture they were hearing about in the adventure. The cloisters around the courtyard, the side chapels off of the nave, the murals depicting the history of the building, all of it. And, wow, were they excited. Except for instead of killing a giant creepy vulture in the courtyard, they just chased pigeons.]
Yeah, the big creepy vulture. Getting there.
As they looked out into the overgrown tangle of the courtyard, and arguing whether or not it was even navigable, Merisiel scrambled up the wall and spotted the Geier nest in the middle of it and also noted the most likely path. Ezren remarked that one good fireball could probably clear out most of the tangled greenery and also deal handily with the geier. I look at my daughter and said, “You know that odd little box Merisiel found that Ezren identified as a Phylactery? And Ezren told you that if anyone put it on, it would tell them whether what they were thinking about doing was a good idea or not? Kyra might want to get it out and suggest to Ezren that he put it on and think about his plans again.
Kyra obediently rummaged in her belt pouch, drew out the phylactery, handed it to Ezren, and said, “Why don’t you think about it one more time, just to be sure.”
Ezren tried it on. I said, “You really don’t think it’s such a good idea all of a sudden.”
My son said, “Hey, let me try.” Ezren handed Valeros the box. Valeros tried it on and said, “Now what?”
I said, “Just look out at that tangle and think of the geier nest in the middle and think of Ezren fireballing it all.”
Valeros: “Okay, now what?”
Me: “You don’t see what the big deal is. Why not just go ahead?”
Kyra frowned and said, “May I please try?”
Valeros, “Oh, sure! Here you go!”
Kyra tries on the phylactery.
Me: “You really think it’s a bad idea.”
[My husband is now studying every player’s alignment/deity combination and trying to work out a rationale.]
Eventually, Valeros decides he really wants to try to use his flaming longsword like a machete to cut through the tangle of brush up to the geier’s nest. The geier promptly bites him for 8 points damage. He swings, hits, and takes away ⅓ of the geier’s hit points in return. An arrow from Merisiel, a Scorching Ray from Ezren, and an attack with Spiritual Weapon from Kyra, and the fight is over. They find three geier eggs in the nest, worth 50 gp each (hence their reactions with the phylactery: Ezren wouldn’t destroy anything worth money; Kyra wouldn’t want to harm the eggs.)
And this was where we stopped.


At Grandma's house over spring break, two separate sessions.
Gaming at Grandma's is weird. The table is small, there's a ton of noise from the random defective pets, and Grandma is watching and shaking her head dismissively, so I didn't take good notes and didn't feel great about the sessions.

Ezren, who is still working on his map of the monastery, wants to explore the rooms at the western (possibly; what’s in the book and what’s on the map are different, which is weird) end before going back past the cloisters to the block of rooms near the entrance, so we begin with the Chapter House.
They examine the guano on the floor, and Ezren and Valeros immediately suspect that the eight stone gargoyles on the walls are actually monsters and only pretending to be inanimate. They spend a certain amount of time thinking about this in the anteroom. Then they ask Merisiel to peek in and stealth/percept. She spots the stirges in the rafters with something like a 26. Hooray! They get a surprise round.
Valeros hits one for 4 (it drops to the ground, dead) with a bow shot and Ezren sends a Magic Missile. Kyra and Merisiel both miss. The only one who hits in round 1 is Ezren, with a crossbow bolt. The remaining two both attack Merisiel, and one of the stirges drains her for a point of Con. Valeros pokes it with his sword (carefully) and it dies. Ezren whacks the other one out of the air with his staff like Babe Ruth, and the fight is over. They give Merisiel the potion of Lesser Restoration and move on to the small shrine. They notice the grooves on the floor under the statue. Valeros wants to go explore immediately. Ezren explains the wisdom of clearing one level entirely before moving on to the next level. He then looks at the map he’s been drawing and says, “So, about this secret room on the other side…”
Me: “Did you peek?”
Ezren’s player, offended: “NO! There’s just this random extra space where there isn’t anything, and that means secret room.”
They find it. It’s empty.
They go down the long dark corridor to the hallway between the library, deanery, kitchen, refectory, and dorms.
They peek into the library, ascertain that there are no bad guys there, and move on. Ezren and Valeros start discussing strategy loudly in the hallway, attracting the attention of the baboons in the deanery, who rush out to attack. Valeros drops the first one, Kyra drops the second one with an arrow, Merisiel wounds the third with an arrow, and Ezren blasts them all with Color Spray, leaving them unconscious, blinded and stunned for five rounds. The two living-but-colorsprayed baboons are securely tied up and placed on beds in the Deanery.
The pugwumpis in the kitchen, meanwhile, have heard the commotion, so when Valeros charges through the door, all three get a surprise round to shoot arrows at him. Only one hits, and only does one point of damage.
Valeros misses, the first pugwumpi misses, and the next pugwumpi hits Valeros for two more points. Ezren uses Hand of the Apprentice to bat that particular pugwumpi across the room. It dies. Kyra misses. Merisiel crit fumbles, spilling the entire contents of her quiver. The next pugwumpi *also* crit fumbles, entangling himself in his bow. Valeros shoots the non-entangled pugwumpi and kills it. Ezren kills the entangled pugwumpi with a crossbow bolt.
The party decides not to search the kitchen. They check out the refectory. They go through the dormitory. Merisiel finally rolls ridiculously high and actually spots the spider in the tower. With a surprise round, Valeros, Merisiel, and Ezren all get bow shots. Valeros misses, Merisiel gets in 3 points of damage and Ezren 7. The spider drops to the floor with a sickening thud and lurches unsteadily after them as they retreat into the dormitory. Valeros gets one more shot. Dead spidey.
The party clears the rest of the rooms and returns to the shrine of Varisial in A12. Valeros moves the statue with one hand like Fezzik and the party goes down to the crypts. They go through the crypts methodically and find lots of stuff (+1 mace, +1 dagger, masterwork leather armor, and a small teak box with the holy symbol of Sarenrae containing a wooden holy symbol of Sarenrae on a silver chain and a fully charged Brooch of Shielding). Ezren took the dagger, Kyra took the Sarenrae symbol and brooch, and we left the mace and armor together where we could collect them later, and prepared to go into the final room.


Really? Haven’t typed up any encounters for a month? Bugger.

The Cliff Notes version:

The final encounter in the crypt below the monastery was too easy. The party buffed up, assuming they were in for a rough battle, killed the two slime molds in one round, returned to the camp at Sultan’s Claw, informed Princess Almah that the monastery had been cleared. We all return and take occupation. Almah gives the party orders to begin to clear Kelmarane.

The party goes to scout Kelmarane. On the way, Merisiel successfully perceives the movement of the dust digger underneath them and they are able to run like hell to avoid it. They scout out the town from the southern border, find out what the outer patrol pattern is, and returns to report, skirting the dust digger’s lair. They report back to Almah and are roundly chastised by her. They return to the pesh field and make short work of the dust digger, thanks to a handy fireball and some well-aimed arrows.

The PC’s return to Kelmarane. As they lie on the rise, scanning the town for signs of movement, my son asks, “Hey, what are those things that Luke [Skywalker] uses? Mackerel binoculars?”
GM: “Macro-binoculars, sweetie; a mackerel is a fish.”
My daughter: “Why is he holding fish up to his face? Eeeww.”

The PC’s decide to go along the outer edge of the village toward the river. The party sends the useless elf rogue to scout ahead. The useless elf rogue blows her perception check and Kezurkian makes his, and leaps out to strike at the elf. He misses. Everyone misses in the first round, actually, except for Kyra casts “Hold Person” on the schir, which binds him for four rounds and prevents him from calling out. The party dispatches him before the four rounds are up and continues on along the path towards:

The Giant Mamba.
The mamba was fun. The party again sends the useless elf rogue to scout ahead. The useless elf rogue blows her stealth roll and the mamba makes his perception check. Merisiel makes her perception check. She whispers, “Val, I’m in trou…” and the snake attacks her, taking a third of her hit points plus six points of Constitution damage.
Valeros power attacks and crits. One strike and the mamba is dead.
[Bonus: My son keeps forgetting the word and calling it a giant manga. I envision a snake with sparkly, heart shaped scales and very large eyes.]
Merisiel insists on pressing on to the other side of the river as they had originally planned, because once the denizens of Kelmarane discover the dead schir and the dead manga, they will step up their defenses and possibly trace the party back to the monastery and attack, so might as well do what we can now. Kyra performs a cure light wounds spell and gives her a lesser restoration potion, which only returns 1 point of Con.
Ezren gives Merisiel a potion of delay poison, then takes the head and puts it in his bag of holding. They proceed. Everybody makes their swim checks.

As they are listening and checking for traps around the old mill (b6), they hear a hoarse whisper from the direction of the tannery (b7). Undrella and the PC’s sniff each other out, are very careful and diplomatic, and when she says, “If you bring me the head of the Giant Mamba, I will give you…” and Ezren replies with, “Oh, you mean this?” and pulls it out of his bag, well, things go very well. She gives them lots of useful intel and an alliance is made. The party returns to the monastery to report to Almah.

The adventurers arrive back at the monastery and report to Almah and Garaval. Almah calls for Hadrah to bring tea. Which she does, along with some fabulous date/nut/honey sweets. Because Hadrah.
The PC’s report what happened on their first sortie. They discuss Dashki’s report of his visit to the Three Jaws gnolls.
Merisiel is taken to the lab, now occupied by Father Zastoran, the cleric. Zastoran, aided by Kyra, performs two Lesser Restorations, fully restoring Merisiel’s remaining five points of Con damage. Zastoran and Kyra feel a surge of some presence flow up through Merisiel’s body and her eyes fly open in alarm. She calls for someone to bring her a shovel and races up the stairs to the cloister courtyard and digs until she finds an old dagger. Ezren recognizes it as the dagger of Vardishal. When Merisiel unsheathes it, patches of mold appear to spread up her forearm.


That evening, as the PC’s are in their bunks, a guard knocks on their door and asks them to come quickly. They gear up and go with him. He takes them to the guard post at the monastery wall, facing north toward the pesh fields. A group of four gnolls has brought a prisoner (human), to the place in the pesh fields where the dust digger had been, and are alternately stomping on the ground to attract the creature and jabbing the prisoner with their spears whenever they are bored. (Guess they didn’t get the memo about the dust digger being dead.) The party successfully stealths around a wide circle until they are between the gnolls and Kelmarane, and then begin to attack. There is a lot of fighting. Finally one gnoll is left alive. He grabs the prisoner and holds the point of his spear at the man’s throat, growling, “Let me go!”
Ezren calls out, “Surrender!”
The gnoll repeats, “Let me go!”
Kyra attempts to Hold Person and the gnoll makes his will save.
Merisiel says, “You had your chance to surrender,” and throws a dagger, and misses spectacularly, as usual.
Ezren crits the gnoll with a crossbow bolt to the head.
Kyra channels positive energy and heals the wounded PC’s and the prisoner. They take him back to the monastery and hand him over to Father Zastoran. As Father Zastoran is tending to him, he tells the PC’s that his name is Oxvard and he was part of a group called the Lions of Senara, who came to Kelmarane seeking the treasure they had heard tales of, but were no match for the gnolls, who kept them captive and were feeding them to the monsters at random. He says the rest of the group are dead except for one, the bard Felliped, who escaped and may still be hiding somewhere in Kelmarane.
Father Zastoran shoos everyone away and says that Oxvard needs to rest.
The next morning, the PC’s check on Oxvard again. Father Zastoran reports that, while his body is healed, his mind will take some time to recover and not to bother him.
The party heads back to Kelmarane. This time, they begin with the Peryton in the old mill. For once, Merisiel makes beautiful stealth and perception checks (enough to figure that it’s been about an hour since the patrol last passed by, which means they have about two hours before it comes around again) to guide the party around the outskirts of the village to the river. She and Kyra do well enough on their swimming to assist Val, who doesn’t. They ford the river and go up to the door of the mill. Ezren casts light on a small object to shine in front of them so the Peryton cannot cast a shadow over them so easily, as well as mage armor, true strike, and shield. Kyra casts bless and diving favor. Merisiel shoots an arrow into the peryton from the door and then moves aside to let the others in. The peryton springs at Merisiel to attack her but misses its gore attack. Kyra and Val miss and move. (Val moves to the peryton’s rear so that he can provide flanking for Merisiel.) Ezren hits with a crossbow bolt. Merisiel strikes, flanked, with her rapier. The peryton again attempts to attack her and again misses her AC. Kyra hits. Valeros crit-fumbles, bending his longsword against the wall. Or something. It’s pretty badly damaged. Val pouts.
Merisiel hits again, still flanked. Dead peryton. The party searches until they find a +1 longsword and a ring of jumping.
The cross the bridge and search the wharfmaster’s manor (empty) and the stables (terrified NPC). As Meri enters the stables, a rusty spear comes flying at her head and judders into the door frame. Turns out it missed her by one shakened condition modifier. As the bard realizes that he’s just thrown away his only weapon and missed, and there are four potential sources of serious bodily harm standing in front of him (it hasn’t yet occurred to him that they might be friendly), he wets himself and sinks to a ball on the stable floor. Kyra crosses over to him, speaks words of blessing, and channels positive energy to heal as much of the damage to his body and soul as she can in the moment. Ezren calls Felliped by name and tells him that Oxvard lives and is safe and asked them to find him. Felliped is heartened by the news and agrees to join them. Merisiel gives Felliped food, Ezren gives him water, and Val gives him ale. They go through the (empty) inn together and prepare to fight Bonegrinder. They circle around the building in position. Kyra casts Divine Favor on herself. Bonegrinder is waiting for them when they come around the corner, charges and gores Merisiel for 16 points. Kyra casts Spiritual Weapon and misses her first strike. Merisiel gets a small hit in with her rapier (2). Valeros does 12 points of longsword damage. Felliped is too scared to get into the fight directly but casts Summon Monster I to summon an eagle that attacks the boar for 2. Ezren casts Burning Hands for 3. Bonegrinder is down to 33 of 52 at the end of the first round. He gores Valeros for 14 points. Kyra and Merisiel both miss. Valeros crits with his longsword for 22. Felliped’s eagle attacks again for 3, and a crossbow bolt from Ezren does the same. Bonegrinder is down to 5 at the end of round 2. It attacks Valeros again for 13 more points (Valeros is now down to 15.) Kyra and Merisiel both miss again. Valeros does 9 more points with his longsword which takes Bonegrinder to -4.
Kyra channels positive energy twice, healing Merisiel and Felliped to full and Valeros to 34 out of 42.
Reckoning by how much time has elapsed since they arrived back in Kelmarane, they figure they have about half an hour until the patrol returns to this area, so figure they might check out the Guildhall and hide there while they wait for the patrol and then deal with them.


What follows is, again, about three sessions' worth. I'm teaching summer school and I'm busy.

The party enters the empty Guildhall and looks around.The decide that Felliped will accidentally let the gnolls see him outside, then run into the Guildhall to “escape” them and cower behind the party, while Merisiel (who was hiding just around the corner)enters the building behind the patrol and slam the doors behind her (bonus: now the rogue is flanking!) while the party lets loose with their surprise round.
And it works! Felliped is ideal bait, and the four hyenas and two gnolls chase him in without thinking. Ezren lobs a fireball which toasts the two gnolls. The hyenas make their reflex save and are down to 5hp each. Valeros: swing and a miss. Merisiel closes the door behind her and flanks. Kyra attacks H2 with her spiritual weapon and misses. Valeros stabs the first hyena and kills it. The second hyena lunges at him with a bite attack, but snaps ineffectually at the air. The third hyena also rushes at Valeros and bites him, doing some damage but missing his trip attack. The fourth does the same to Meri. Ezren shoots the hyena attacking Val. The crossbow bolt kills it. Merisiel stabs the one that bit her. It is badly wounded, but still alive. Kyra misses again. Val stabs the second hyena and kills it, the fourth tries to bite Meri again but gnashes his teeth against the air and Ezren puts it out of its torment with a final crossbow bolt. Ezren collects his bolts and they return to the monastery to heal up and have dinner. They decide to put some work into scrubbing and restoring the chapel that evening. It feels good. Really good. Sitting around the fire that evening, Ezren has a chat with the Princess and she agrees to hold by any agreements the party makes with Undrella and the traders as long as they prove themselves to be true to their words.
The next morning, the party prepares for the assault on the Battle Market. They breakfast early and set off for Kelmarane at first light. They want to catch the denizens of the village at their most exhausted and unsuspecting. Using the key Undrella gave them, they enter through the locked side door next to the guard rooms and cells. They deal with the two guards in short order (Meri throws a dagger at the first one, Val crits the second one, and Ezren finishes the first one with a crossbow bolt. They never had a chance to shout. Pathetic, really.)... and go down the row of empty cells. Felliped recovers his gear. When they reach Haleen’s chamber, she greets them and says she heard them deal with the gnolls. She asks them their business in the Battle Market. When they tell her their aim is to clear it and defeat Kardswann, she tells them, “No one deserves it more richly,” and tells them her story and of her time in Kelmarane. She offers to ally with them to defeat Hurvank and Kardswann. There is much sense-motiving. They agree to ally with her.
Haleen suggests they begin by taking out Hurvank the Strangler and his three bugbear toadies in the tavern, and then go upstairs to deal with the remaining gnolls before ascending to the third level to take out Kardswann. They agree. And then they buff up: Ezren casts Mage Armor and False Life, Kyra casts Divine Favor.
They enter the tavern. Hurvank and the bugbears are drinking at a table at the far end and don’t see them, but Kurellak, the cowardly gnoll bartender, does. He ducks behind the counter and stays there. The few smugglers see what is about to happen and make themselves scarce. Meri tries to stealth and sneak attack with a bow shot and… misses. The arrow whistles over Hurvank’s head and thuds into the far wall *and he doesn’t notice*. Valeros and Felliped make their arrow shots, Ezren misses, and Haleen just closes distance. Kyra tries out her new spell, Searing Light. Merisiel hits Hurvank with a bow shot, Val misses, and Ezren lobs a fireball. All four miss their reflex saves. Kardswann bellows something mean and threatening.
The party goes up to the second level and rushes into the second-floor guard room seconds behind Jank, the goblin jester, who has gone up another way and is excitedly attempting to warn the guard. He sees Valeros, squeals, and dives underneath the table.
[NOTE: This fight was fun because I was trying *not* to GM with my laptop open, forgot that I hadn’t written down the stats for gnolls in my notebook, tried to look it up quickly on my phone, and accidentally threw a couple of 27hp Gnoll Bruisers at them instead of the 11hp snivelling gnoll guards the AP calls for… which was great, considering the party’s current stats. They needed a decent fight.]
The gnolls both throw their javelins at Val and miss. He shoots the first one and then moves back to let Haleen in. She closes distance and stabs the same gnoll. Merisiel moves to the far corner of the room and shoots the first gnoll again, then Kyra comes in and attacks it with her spiritual weapon. She hits for a change! The gnoll is having a very bad day. Felliped shoots from the doorway and misses, then Ezren fires a crossbow bolt at the other gnoll, because let them *both* have bad days. The first gnoll strikes at Haleen with his club and misses. The second one throws a javelin at Ezren, but it thuds harmlessly into the doorframe.
Valeros leaps up onto the table and slashes the second gnoll with his longsword. Jank squeals from underneath the table. Haleen stabs the first gnoll again and kills it. Merisiel, Kyra, and Felliped all miss in quick succession, and then Ezren and Valeros team up to finish off the second gnoll. Jank tries to run for the door, but Haleen stabs the creature with her rapier. She sees the look of shock on Kyra’s face and says, “Just because it is small and wearing a charming outfit does not mean it isn’t evil. This creature got the end it deserved. If you would like to discuss the matter further, we may do so after we finish our work here today.”
Kyra nods and they go up the stairs into the third floor guard headquarters. The guards had heard the commotion below and throw the big table onto its side as cover as the party enters the room.
Valeros moves to the right side of the room and kills Gnoll 4 with one shot (I had discovered the line in the book about 11 hit points by this time). Haleen move to the left side and crit-kills Gnoll 1 with her rapier. Gnolls 2 and 3 attack Haleen and Val respectively with their bite attacks and both miss, tripping over the bodies of their fallen comrades. Merisiel shoots Gnoll 2. Kyra misses. Felliped and Ezren both shoot Gnoll 2 and the last hit kills it. Valeros steps in and double-crits the last gnoll. 26 points on one strike. Ezren looks at the door to his left and asks, “What’s in here?”
Haleen says, “More guard quarters.”
“More guards?” Ezren asks?
Haleen shrugs. “Let’s see,” she says. She takes a five-foot step and opens the door. There is a gnoll standing their with his hand outstretched toward the doorknob. He hits her with his club. She stabs him, and Merisiel shoots him with her bow.
Haleen says, “Room’s empty.”
Kyra opens the door to the other guard room. The final gnoll is in a similar position. She swings her scimitar at him and misses. Felliped shoots and misses. Ezren shoots it with a crossbow bolt, and then Valeros crosses the room and kills it.


Kardswann and Ugruk, Xulthos, and the Start of Book Two
The party rolls initiative and prepares to enter Kardswann’s reviewing area. I remind them that, with what Undrella has already told them and what Haleen is able to add, that Ugruk, Kardswann’s number two, will be on the balcony with him. Ugruk uses a flindbar, and his modus operandi is to disarm his opponent with it and then kick their weapon off the balcony.
My son interrupts. “He’s gonna knock my sword out of my hands with THAT and then kick it off the balcony?!?” he asks, pointing at Ugruk’s picture.
“Well, he’s certainly going to try.”
“Okay, well then, I rush at him and I push HIM off the balcony.”
“You had the highest initiative. Is that your declared action?”
“YES.” [Rolls his d20. Rolls absurdly high. Meanwhile, I’m desperately googling “Pathfinder Flind CMD”, because it’s not in the stat box in the AP book. Ah. CMD 17. Yeah, no.]
“It works! You successfully bull rush the Flind. He wasn’t expecting it at all and the look of shock on his face is the last thing you see as he goes flying over the balcony to the arena below, taking…” [rolls] “16 points of damage.”
My son does a happy victory dance in his chair, grinning from ear to ear. So what if I will later discover that I forgot the attack of opportunity. This was the best use of bull rush EVER, it was completely his own idea, it worked, and it made him very, very happy.
“Meanwhile, Kardswann is standing there with his greataxe in his hand, just waiting for one of you to come at him. He growls menacingly and grins.”
Ezren tries to Grease Kardswann’s axe. It fails.
Kyra casts Hold Person, and miraculously, Kardswann’s will save fails by a whole bunch.
Merisiel and Kyra both attempt diplomacy, but fail spectacularly at it. So the PC’s have a quick conference, agree to knock him down to negative hit points, have Kyra stabilize him, make sure he’s securely trussed just in case, and then try to go sort out the demon that’s holding Kardswann in thrall. And that’s what they do.
With Kardswann stabilized at -3 and hog-tied, Felliped leans over the balcony and hits Ugruk with a critical bow shot, effectively stapling his head to the arena floor. Then Valeros, Ezren and Felliped dash back to the Monastery to inform Princess Almah of the proceedings and ask her if she just maybe has something resembling an interdict key about her. They return a short time later with the key, as well as two Pactmaster guards who are under orders from the Princess to stay with Kardswann while the PC’s are in the crypt, and if he so much as flutters an eyelash, to dispatch him.
The PC’s go first to the churchyard to confront Halruun, the possessed and zombified priest. They sort him out in one round (Valeros uses his Undead Bane Mace, Kyra channels positive energy, and Haleen and Felliped assist.) Led by Kyra, the PC’s kneel around the statue of Sarenrae in the churchyard, and because they had all helped to scrub and cleanse the altar back in the monastery after the pugwumpis had defiled it, they now feel her blessing come upon them, which, hey, is kinda useful just about now.
They head into the crypt.
They go through the first room, and Ezren uses knock to open the door to the main crypt. Kyra decides that she needs to go back and get Halruun’s body and inter him here and asks Merisiel for help. They handle it quickly. The others are a bit baffled but have learned not to argue with Kyra when she sets her mind on something. They explore the crypt and the reliquary, agree that looting these areas would be *bad*, and return to the first room. There’s a well and a gong. They bang the gong. Two Fire Elementals appear. These take two rounds to dispatch. (Well, one and a half, anyway.) After dealing with them, Ezren checks the well and realizes that, at some point, the false bottom disappeared. They tie Valeros’s standard rope around the top of the well to use as an anchor, and then tie Felliped’s longer silk rope to that to drop down. They all climb down easily, and make it to the passageway, where they are confronted with a rusted portcullis. Valeros tries to lift it and fails. Ezren tries and also fails. Felliped says, “Hey, guys, can I give it a try?” and rolls a natural 20.
The adventurers head down the passageway. Valeros completely fails to notice the first Coffer Corpse, which is okay, because it biffs its attack on him. A blow from an undead bane mace and a rapier strike dispatch it quickly. The second Coffer Corpse damages Haleen, and because of the party’s positioning in the corridor, there are two rounds of missed shots and frustrated noises before Val finally drops it. The third one is dispatched quickly.

In addition to Sarenrae’s blessing, Ezren casts Haste, and Kyra, Divine Favor and Prayer.
They enter the room, and Ezren immediately fires a Wand of Web at the figure at the far end of the chamber. Which (a) works beautifully, and (b) turns out to have been a really. bad. idea. Because all of the PC’s *not* affected by the Hypnotic Pattern… can’t hit a thing. And at the end of the round, Xulthos re-casts it. Ezren Fireballs the web, which is the first thing anyone does that actually harms Xulthos, and has the added benefit of pulling everyone out of their hypnotic stupor. Everyone hits! Everyone does damage! Except Xulthos, who screws up his bite attack on Haleen. Poor Xulthos. Ezren pulls a boar out of his bag of tricks, and the boar and Valeros finish off Xulthos in round three.
And that was that. They returned to heal a no-longer-possessed-but-horror-stricken-Kardswann and then break the triumphant news of their victory to the Princess.
The Princess and her retinue take control of Kelmarane, pay the PC’s for their service, name them Knight Protectors of Kelmarane, and…
...a year passes…
...during which Merisiel explores her Moldspeaker powers…
...during which Ezren gains Almah and Garavel’s absolute trust, assisting them in the administration of Kelmarane, and doing a little trade and study on the side…
...during which Kyra is made the Abbot-Protector of the local Sarenraen community…
...during which Valeros works to rebuild the ruined structures, and discovers a suit of magical plate armor stashed away under a fallen stone wall as if hidden there deliberately, and also gets his sword repaired…

...and then one day, by crazy happenstance a year to the day after the defeat of Xulthos, a pompous dickbag in an inexplicably Assyrian-looking beard wanders into town, claiming to be a prophet of Sarenrae and demanding to speak the heroes who liberated the village from the gnolls.
The PC’s and the Princess enter the tavern in the battle market, and Merisiel (the Moldspeaker) and Ezren roll ridiculously high perception checks. Which inspires Ezren to (a) cast Detect Magic, and (b) ask, “Would you like to remove your disguise yourself, or shall I do it for you?”
Zayifiid drops his disguise, taunts the PC’s with a final challenge to defeat the Carrion King in the House of the Beast before he comes to Kelmarane to destroy them, and vanishes.
So the PC’s prepare to leave the following morning for Pale Mountain.
It’s only a two-and-a-half day slog through the mountains, in hostile territory populated by Lots of Creatures Who Do Not Feel Kindly Disposed Toward Them, under the desert sun. What a frolic!
But, after a year of spinning their wheels in Kelmarane, not entirely unwelcome.
Valeros promptly leaps into the lead, rolling his d20 before he even knows what he is rolling for, and… hey… excellent roll for… uh… SURVIVAL! Yeah, that’s it.
Prompting the others to make reference to Marcus “Got lost in his own museum?” Brody at the end of Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: “Wait, wasn’t Val the guy who took point and then fell into quicksand, and then almost fell into it again as soon as we dragged him out?”
The first day passes uneventfully. They make camp after dinner, and set watches: Ezren and Kyra first, Haleen and Merisiel second, and Valeros third. During the third watch, as Valeros is flicking his dagger idly at the dirt at the edge of the firelight, he hears a rustle. There are two venomous snakes. Val has a flaming longsword. He one-shots the first one. The second one strikes, blunts its fangs on his greaves; he strikes at it again but he misses; it strikes again at the other shin and again blunts its fangs on metal. Val one-shots the second snake. Then he skins the snakes, saving the skins, and roasts the meat over the fire for breakfast. Because snakeburgers.
[It’s what my dad told me White Castle sliders were, when I was a kid. And that’s why they were so small. And I believed him.]
The second day again passes without incident. Although the PC’s have no way of knowing that in the middle of the afternoon, they were observed by a Salamander who decided not to attack them at the time, but track them and wait. And so it bided its time until after ⅗ of them had gone to bed.
Unfortunately for the Salamander, Ezren was on his game, and incredibly perceptive.
He warned Kyra in time to be useful; too bad she chose not to heed his advice but to use a spiritual weapon spell instead. She hits it for ten and does no damage.
Ezren shouts for Val to wake up and shake a tail feather. Val hears and decides, on balance, to *not* try to put on his armor before going out of his tent, but only grab his sword and shield. He rushes out of the tent swinging and hits the salamander before it tail-slaps him, burning him and grappling him. Ezren and Kyra both hurt it; Val escapes the grapple and swings, but it tail-slaps Val again, grappling him once more.
And so it goes, for seven rounds. Val would have done better if the salamander hadn’t been, you know, IMMUNE TO FIRE, but you can’t have everything.
[Side note: do you know how frustrating it is, trying to convince a random treasure-generating online bot to produce *non-flammable* treasure? No scrolls, no wands, nothing made of wood, paper, or parchment. Potions are iffy. On the fourth try, it offered a Minor Circlet of Blasting, which lets the bearer cast one burst of Searing Light per day.
Kyra heals Val and Haleen that night before going to bed, and the third day passes without incident. The party reaches the House of the Beast mid-afternoon.


I never kept a formal journal for our adventures in Book 2 of Legacy of Fire, the House of the Beast, because this book (even expurgated) gave my children nightmares and I felt guilty about running it. Then I ran a few sessions of a homebrew Ankh Morpork City Watch campaign, but I started it off with a murder mystery where the corpse was human, and Hermione couldn't deal. Which is funny, because she dealt with all the death in the first four Harry Potter books just fine, but apparently death in books and movies is one thing, and role-playing investigating a murder in a game is something else entirely.

So now we've started a "just the underwater bits" Ruins of Azlant campaign, and if you're interested, my campaign journal can be found HERE.

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