Wraithguard's Curse of the Crimson Throne


Campaign Journals


I'll lay this out real quick before I start actually posting anything that happens. We have had one session, so not a whole lot.

GM- First time GM. He has played in a few campaigns, but he wanted to give GMing a shot after watching tons of Critical Role.

PCs-
(me) Vigilante (Warlock)
Elementalist (Electrokinetic)
Incanter
Legendary Rogue

No real frontliner. A friend might want to join in though, and since he is completely new to Pathfinder, he might be a great candidate to show Path of War.

The Leg. Rogue is definitely suited for melee combat and a decent amount of social skills. He has invested in Disable Device and some signature rogue abilities.

The Elementalist is definitely focused on area denial and ranged combat. He warned us he wouldn't be very effective until level 4 or so.

The Incanter has a beefy summons and Destruction sphere stuff. Picked up Crystal Blast to hold enemies down.

I am trying to do something odd with my Vigilante. Reach weapon to focus on some Energy Blade usage while utilizing Darkness to create difficult terrain to trigger plenty of AOOs and slow people down. Not sure exactly how well it will work, but being able to make Mystic Bolts to throw all the time is helpful as a backup.

Other than the mechanical stuff, the GM is hoping that me and the other long time player/GM can help coax the other two into RPing.

As is easily seen, we are utilizing Spheres of Power heavily this time, heck, I'm even converting Clerics into Sphere Casters. My creations honestly scare me. x4 crit with an always keen scythe is easily possible and quite deadly.

Oh well, back tomorrow to post something about the first session we had yesterday.


I'll break these posts in two parts: Gameplay and Journal. I'll include points of learning for the new GM in Gameplay as well.

Gameplay:
Started off with everyone heading to the fortune tellers house. *Someone quickly interacted with the food and drink but no Will Save was given to disbelieve. This only became a learning point since he mentioned the elaborate illusion earlier and mentioned interacting with it. Live and learn.* Information was received and we headed to an inn nearby. From there we made plans to meet up tomorrow before dawn. The Rogue did some ground level surveillance but didn't really get much information. He did watch a lot of kids head inside during the course of the night, but didn't really get anything else out of it. The Vigilante paid a local fisherman to go on a little trip by the fishery and scoped out the back side and the broken boat.

We met up at the inn, discussed our scouting and decided the best idea would be to sneak around the fishery to the back side and check out the boat. We easily dispatched the spiders, and due to a nice Time sphere Haste buff I was able to kill two in one turn with alternating blows between Mystic Bolt at melee and a longspear thrust. The Rogue was able to take care of the others handily with a thrown dagger. After a quick search we found the entrance to the lower level dock and made our way to the lower level door. Picking the lock failed, so we had to force the door with a crowbar. *The rogue rolled a Nat 20 on the check and ruled that since we used too much force it ruined our attempt to sneak in. After the session he said that that was a mistake, you shouldn't be penalized for succeeding exceptionally.* Next we moved into the room and had the gator attack the rogue, no initiative rolled, and it would have killed him. *The rogue's player and I both asked what he attacked for. We saw it, so it shouldn't have surprised us. The GM apologized several times and said that he didn't know if it should happen or not. He then mentioned two other things, normally the gator isn't aggressive until Lamm shoots him, so he conveyed the wrong message about it and had it get aggressive before provoked.*

That over with, the first and only real combat of the night begins. Lamm busts out the door, screams some crap at us and throws down. The Rogue, rolling amazing for initiative again closes distance with Lamm. The Elementalist heads around the other way to pin him in. The Incanter summons the Black Knight to pull out his spear and engage the gator. The Vigilante engages the gator with his spear and tries to hit him with an Energy Blade and misses. The gator fails to land a bite and Lamm shoots me for a few damage, no worry.

Noises are heard coming from the floor above so the rogue pulls out the crowbar and jams it into the door handle to prevent enemies from coming down the suspected spot for some stairs. Turns out it was just a room, oh well. The Elementalist hits Lamm with an Electric Blast, but it doesn't do much damage. The BK misses the attack on the gator but the Vigilante connects with Energy Blade and rolls near max damage, taking it down. The BK is ordered to guard the door while the rest of us focus on Lamm. Lamm proves completely ineffectual with his dagger, much the same as the Elementalist.

Blue comes charging in and is promptly skewered by the BK. A series of misses from everyone except the Rogue quickly finishes the round.

Next comes Giggles. He charges the BK and is promptly met with a Braced AoO, which fells him in one hit thanks to near max damage. The children follow up but the Bk is ordered to hold his ground. That round the Vigilante connects with another Energy Blade attack from the Longspear and kills Lamm, pushing the spear into the wall and letting Lamm sputter and die.

Next round the BK is ordered to withdraw and two failed Diplo checks later by the Incanter and Rogue still leaves the freaked out children trying to stab us. The Vigilante rolls high on Diplomacy and gets the kids to see Lamm's body slumped against the far wall. The kids swarm past us and we hear a splash from outside. We find one of the other enforcers in the water being attacked by a shark and the other up on the dock. The BK absorbs some acid splashes from a wand while we make short work of both of them and the shark (it was going to eat our loot).

Lessons learned: rules savvy GMs turned players are a great asset. A new GM is awesome to watch learn the game. Energy Blade is a good use at early levels. Summons can be great force multipliers, especially when they brace for a charge.


Now for the journal.

Journal of Maselo Durante:

(The evening before the raid on Lamm's hideout)
It's been years since my sister was murdered by Lamm's thugs and until today I never thought I would have a chance at getting revenge. Sure, I masquerade as "Wildcard" most evenings and slap a thug or two around but actually getting my hands on Lamm, that would be a dream come true.

Today, Nivi must have felt generous, since some mysterious fortuneteller, that somehow knew about my better half, contacted not only me, but a group of people, all with the intent of bringing Lamm down. Sure, she wants us to get her complete Harrow Deck back, but I think she wants revenge for a murder as much as I do. The group will meet at an inn nearby the fishery before the raid, but I need to scope the place out. Klive mentioned he would do the same. Hopefully we don't tread the same path, I would hate to waste my time seeing the same thing.

(After scouting, getting a quick rest before the raid)
I hired a fisherman to give me a quick 'tour' of the river. We talked a bit about the fishery, and he mentioned the gator that is basically Lamm's pet. He also mentioned the sharks that swim nearby as well as that ruined boat that would never move. I did happen to spot a lower walkway leading to a door in the lower floor of the fishery, as well as a small path around the side of the building that leads to the upper dock. Hopefully the scumbags don't see this coming.

(After the raid and the riots)
Lamm is DEAD. Impaled by my own spear. The kids he practically enslaved have been given over to the Calistria's temple. It has gotta be a better life than serving that waste of flesh Lamm. We won't have to worry about his wretched dog or his enforcers either. I think the sharks and fish will be eating something other than fish guts today.

We managed to acquire as much of Lamm's worldly goods as we can, including the old woman's Harrow Deck, along with her head, and a piece of royal jewelry with an active bounty. Before we could divvy it all up though, the world went crazy. Riots in the streets, soldiers falling out of the skies, time for us to go back to our respective homes and sort this out later.

(After the visit to the palace)
We decided to check out the fortuneteller's shack since we did find her head in a box. Well, turns out it was some elaborate illusion and oddly enough she seemed rather apologetic about the whole thing... yes, she is still quite alive as some sort of spirit attached to her deck. Klive got tired of being harassed by her spirit, so it seems I'll be carrying her around for a bit. Klive decided to not bother letting the empty house go to waste, so it seems like he would settle down there.

We met back up at the tavern, thankfully it hadn't been burned down. Divvied up the loot and went to a merchant that ran a traveling shop. That is what it sounded like at least. This must have been the craziest shop I have ever seen. Any type of armor, weapon, item, magical doodad... this guy had it all. Not sure how he managed to fit it all in that one shop, must be the same sort of magic that causes one of those Bags of Holding to work the way it does. I'll leave it to the more academically inclined to figure that out. He had an odd way of talking, and way of dealing with angry customers, but he seems like the best way to get anything I'll need to survive this term of conscription... that's right, conscription.

Never thought I would get to meet the Queen. To say the reception was icy would be an understatement. Crossbows were trained on us the whole time. The only time they weren't is when one of the queen's personal guards was with us. She terrifies me just being next to her. Fairly sure she could have killed us all before I could have turn tail to run. We presented the brooch to her, she handed it to the queen, we received a wonderful reward, some empty praise, and then I'm fairly sure we were conscripted. Oh well, I'll just keep my close friend solving the problems until I need to reveal my double life.

Oddly enough, some crazed beggar came screaming out of nowhere at us and started rambling about dreams and whatnot. Klive knocked him out and left a few gold for him. Oddly charitable.

(scribbled notes on companions)
Klive - Shiver user, former palace guard? (He mumbled something about being in the palace before during our visit), shows a slight hesitance to associate too closely with magic users.
Magnus-Calistrian, taken in by the temple, former Lamm's Lamb? (He knew an awful lot about that fishery, especially the other guys inside) Do NOT get on his bad side, he mutilated Lamm's body after I killed him. Talk about convictions.
Garth-Former scholar, framed by Lamm. Straight forward enough, hopefully he doesn't know the guy that I won my spellbook from, that would be awkward. (Tiefling, very noticable)


Another weekend, another session. Had a ton of fun and other than the first very frustrating combat, it was very good time. We once again did something unexpected. So, first off, Gameplay.

Gameplay:

Travelling to the outpost we encountered a group of imps. Despite solids hits from my energy blade enhanced long spear attacks, the darned DR and Fast Healing made our efforts almost pointless. Once the house drakes joined the fight, we made our exit. (The GM noted that this event isn't unknown, and common a few times a year, and he should have told us about the signature weakness, silver, before we left the shop. Even a silver dagger would have made the fight much easier to deal with.) Met the captain and got the first job, which we took with much greater preparation than he thought we would.

Gathered information about the job successfully. Staked the place out and investigated the locks. No issue and we found out how many guys hang around. Concocted a plan to lure some guys away to take care of the now deceased "Giggles", we figured we would get a few laughs out of splitting them up and ambushing them when they got back. They saw through my peasant disguise, but because I dressed up as one, left all my equipment behind and dirtied myself up, it didn't reveal squat about the ruse. Off they went that night on a wild goose chase.

Broke in, knocked out the two guards, one nearly died from a max damage roll. Failed a diplomacy check against the primary target but after a tough fight, he gave up. We pressed him for more information, but he proved uncooperative, so Klive knocked him completely out. GM waived the fight against the returning enemies, they obviously didn't stand a chance in an ambush.

Searched the premises thoroughly. Found the hiding spot for the money and the sewer. We found the human remains in the sewer but no one is skilled enough to identify the stuff in the meat lockers. Either way, we took all the loot we could find and brought them back completely bound. Got the reward, received some healing from a cleric, and said we would return tomorrow for another job.

Returned the next day, met the special contact and some extra help (A prospective player wanted to join in after for watching for a bit.) and after some witty banter we left for Eel's End. A damned drunk accosted us, which we easily knocked out once his angry duel took a lethal turn we he pulled out a sword to kill the Rogue. (GM realized he should have had us meet this guy before we met the contact, would have made things more interesting.) Either way, I dropped the Vigilante identity for the social persona to play up the gambling playboy angle. We went to the gambling hall to check the place out and the GM explained 'knivesies' or however you spell it. After seeing that we checked out the main ship to check on the primary contact. Given this party's morals, we didn't really care too much with anything we saw or heard except for the imprisoned house drake and the fact the Paladin was super twitchy the whole time. Hell, he didn't even know if he could count us as allies here.

We got an audience with the boss after the rogue greased a palm and we walked up to the top level. We nearly passed the highest level diplomacy check with some aid-another rolls, but came up a little short. We started with a bribe of 500 to keep 500 for ourselves and he said he wouldn't mind watching a game of 'knivesies'. The party hesitated a bunch, and since the game is rather brutish I thought of just forgoing the opportunity. I gave it a quick thought and realized how to break the rules to win quickly.

Game started: Initiative, burned a Harrow point for a reroll, got a 19 (22 total). Easily beat the thug and spent my first turn bending down to lift up a single gold coin. The thug dashed forward to grab the knife and just as he retrieves it to try and murder me, I kick some gold off the table. Game ends, 1 gp to 0. Leaves a stunned crowd and a stupefied thug holding the knife that is having a hard time realizing he just lost to an unarmored dandy. My party gathers up the winnings and the boss is inspired by the unorthodox method to retrieve the evidence we seek.

Report back to the captain in record time without a single scratch and she offhandedly mentions that she regrets that there wasn't any problems there. (The GM prepared that as a whole dungeon and we walked out without a scratch and all the objectives completed.) We mentioned that given her comments that we would be unavailable for a day. She can use her imagination for what.

We ended there since that was about ending time and the limit of the GM's preparation.


Journal of Maselo Durante:

(Night before the raid on Eel's End)
Better get to this now before I end up getting myself killed.

We made it to the outpost and reported in. The captain doesn't seem too bad, little uptight but I guess staying up 3 days in a row will do that to ya. She informed us about some of these lousy guards that didn't just head home when the riots broke out, who could blame some folks for that, but they decided to spread a bit of anarchy while they were at it. The rest of the group seemed interested in quelling further dissent, so we eagerly accepted the job and vowed to bring them back alive, after all, she offered more money for that. The guards were also happy to lend us some chains to bring them back in. Nice chaps.

Making our way to the neighborhood was a mess. A whole swarm of imps ambushed us, and not a one of us had a silvered weapon. I was poisoned really bad, and by the time we made our escape I'm sure I was more full of venom than blood. We made a quick stop at Garth's sister's shop. She sold us some potions that cleaned that garbage right out of us. We chatted briefly and my best guess is that Garth must be well over 80 if that was his sister. Wonder how long ago it was that Lamm screwed him over, could have looked a damn sight different after that many years.

The neighborhood wasn't too far away after that, and we quickly set to gathering info. We found out about the special service they offered and decided to give the place a little once over at night, just to see what we could see. Klive handled the locks magnificently and peaked around a bit. He found 4 guys in the front area and decided it might be a good idea to try and split them up. We thought of creating some sort of distraction, but Magnus had a brilliant idea; call them out to take care of someone a little ways away and then make out entrance.

I decided to try out my disguise making abilities. Found some moth-eaten clothes, adopted a bit of a stutter, and tried my best to look cowardly. I asked them about their special cuts and he took me to a back room to discuss the job. It was a quick chat, and I'm sure he saw through the ruse, but between the gold and my slovenly appearance, he went right along. Best part of this, I told them to go take down "Giggles", always good to get another laugh at that sadistic bastards expense. I left and meandered my way back to the tavern and after a quick change of clothes I settled down to a game of dice with the locals. It was a convenient way to pass the time and after the guys left for the special job I pushed my winnings back into the table and bade them a good night. it occurs to me now I should have kept the coin since it did start a small scuffle, but I was more focused on the task at hand.

We made our way back to the shop without a problem, cracked the lock, but in our haste we forgot to check the back room. We headed up the stairs and walked right in on a card game between 2 of the boys. Klive got to work trying to knock one out with a sap, but I got a little overzealous and nearly killed one with a spear thrust.
We patched him up after we knocked his buddy out.

With all the commotion we made I'm not sure why the boss didn't come out to assist, but he calmly waited for us to open the door. Talk about having a heart of stone. We tried to talk him down, but he insisted on throwing down. It took quite a bit of clever maneuvering and aid from the Black Knight, but we managed to beat him up enough that he eventually surrendered.

We tied him up to the chair in his room and politely questioned him, but he wasn't very helpful, so Klive knocked him out. We waited around a bit for the other two thugs to return, a little upset about being duped, and then quite a bit less conscious. We found a cart out back and tossed them all in after securing them with the chains we picked up from the outpost.

Given the success of the mission, we thought of heading back quickly, but thought better of it. I think we all thought the same thing; "where does all the money from their special jobs go?" Well, we found that hole under the trough stuffed full of coins. We picked our way through the other rooms one at a time and one of the chaps thought he saw something down in the sewer. Wonderful... the sewer.

We hoisted off the lid and I handed my spear off to Garth to hold. I hopped in and was immediately accosted by some overgrown crawdads. Little critters cut me up good but Klive jumped in and we killed them fairly quickly. Klive climbed back up after the threat was over and I dug into the sewer looking for what Garth thought he saw. Right there in a crack in the wall I found a rather fancy ring and a finger... a human finger. Klive saw me toss the finger away and he nearly got sick. As I was about to climb up, he told me to get that finger, and that he figured those extra jobs along with the free meat they give out was actually human meat.

Well, we carted the whole lot back to the outpost and when their ringleader woke up on the way, we asked about the finger and the special jobs. Either this guy has the best poker face on Golarion, or he was clueless about what his henchmen were doing on the side. Either way, the guard captain wasn't very happy to hear about it all.

We happily received our pay, some free healing, and headed out with the instructions to return tomorrow to meet a special guest. After that scuffle in the sewer I never thought I would be able to get clean. Well, the pay from that job did let me afford a good silver spear so I can deal with those darned imps.

Now we get to, today. We met the head trainer for one of the most prestigious self defense schools in the city. He originally came off as a bit aloof, but he seems to be fairly down to earth. Considering the drunk we met shortly after we parted ways, I'm a bit unsure of his character though, something about stealing away this former Lieutenant's girl or some such rambling, and I hope I get a chance to find out some dirt on him. We also met a new member of our band, a moral compass, a Paladin.

The captain gave us our next job, which we completed quickly and efficiently, perhaps too efficiently. We walked into Eel's End, the gambling hall which I know very well, and went to go meet the boss. It required a few greased palms, but we got in without a problem. Davargo's room was full of sycophants and idiots and a trapdoor. I think the Paladin detected something fairly nasty down there, but he didn't get much else from it since his concentration was cut.

Davargo was preoccupied when we entered but quickly focused on us entirely. We inquired about the information that he may or may not have. He ensured us that he had some very good dirt on Derevain, so we made an offer of 500 gold. This didn't impress him too much, so we tried to ingratiate ourselves with him, which he offhandedly mentioned a game of 'knivesies'. The party was rather hesitant to challenge one of the thugs, but I rose to the challenge. I hadn't ever played before, but I knew the rules rather well from spectating many times. I knew the rules perhaps a little too well.

We marched off to the gambling hall, they tied our arms and set the knife in the middle. The bets were made and I think the thug thought he won some prize since an unarmed dandy was going to try and beat him in a game. Well, the match started and I bent to grab a single gold coin. The thug pulled the knife from the table and as he did, I kicked a gold coin off the table. Winners aren't the fastest or the strongest, but the most clever. The match ended, the thug stared at me stupidly, I swear his brains must be no better than sewage. The other onlookers didn't quite know what to make of it until I hopped off the table, started gathering up the coins and flicked the coin I had picked up at him.

I thought Davargo would either kill us quickly or love it. Thankfully, he loved it. He went off to his room and retrieved the letters and when he returned he told his minions that they should try and be a little more clever. We did mention the housedrake we saw in a cage, and he mentioned an absurd price for it. This rubbed me the wrong way. Those critters saved me from imps and they are as smart as some people. They should be free, not some overblown thief's possession. Well, we couldn't very well start fighting now, especially if I was going to maintain my cover.

We quickly left and returned to the captain. She sounded surprised and disappointed. Surprised we were back so quickly with some wonderful information, but sad that no ruckus was reported. I think we all had the same idea because we all mentioned that we would be preoccupied for the next day or two.

Which brings me to now. Time to prepare for the assault on Eel's End.


Getting a little behind on this, time to catch up

Gameplay:

We headed back to Eel's End to deal with Davargo. We figured the best time would be during the day, when most of this areas inhabitants are sleeping. Bribed the guards at the front, the rogue snuck up the rigging to knock out the other guys that were sleeping. We also bothered to loot them, why not? After that we walked into Davargo's room and while he managed to get a few words out the rogue and I just launched attacks; forget talking to him.

The rogue got one of the cronies while I went directly for Davargo. All of the cronies tried to flee but only one made it out. He eventually brought one of the still conscious guards to come and join the fight. Davargo took a shot at me since I shot at him but on the Paladin's turn Davargo went down to one well placed critical with a battleaxe. The guard in the back was taken down quickly. We explored the rest of the place; the nest full of spiders and ettercap, the shark in the bilge, all that fun stuff, but it was taken care of rather handily. No deaths, recovered the rest of the bribe money, and took a few lumps from it all, but not much.

We returned to Cressida and she has the next job all ready for us, time to track down the scapegoat for the royal scandal. We head to the neighborhood and prevent a mob from lynching some poor noble by knocking them all out. We get to the supposed apartment and it is surrounded by the poor gals neighbors. The neighbors shout an alarm after the rogue jumps right into the situation and flubs a Bluff check. We hustle up the stairs, break down the door and begin the chase scene.

(Learning point: New GMs should be sure to spend plenty of time familiarizing themselves with special rule sets. Also, before altering a non-standard encounter, give some thought as to how it will exclude players from the experience.)

The rogue managed to catch up to her, but couldn't quite grapple her. I got within one square but a flubbed Bluff roll sealed our fate. Despite our best efforts, Trinia escaped.

(After the session I talked with the GM about this encounter and together we went over the rules for it. To say it was handled improperly is accurate, though at the time I was a little upset with how it went. With the way it was handled, it should have just been skipped. If it had been handled correctly, it might have gone differently. Oh well)

Well, we returned to Cressida, reported the bad news and were told to come back in tomorrow. Like good little helpers we get back to meet Thousand-Bones and Cressida talking. We are quickly given the job of tracking down a missing person, well, missing body. We head to the grave and find a trail leading to a catacombs. This quickly leads into a dungeon crawl.

Skeletons big and small posed little threat. A big angry otyugh, not much of a threat either. Some deformed ogrekin, not much of a problem either. Flesh Golem, that got a few good licks on us but not too much. The worst was the undead snake things that nearly everyone kept failing saves on. If it wasn't for the Paladin and the GM rolling terribly we might have had a death or two. Head a little deeper and we find the necromancer in charge of this twisted place and take him out fairly easily. (GM didn't quite play his tactics to the fullest, oh well, I'll get a chance for my creations to kill us at some point.) Bonus points: we even got to destroy Lamm again. So much fun.

Well, we come back to the Citadel with the body we needed. We head back to Cressida and she asks us to attend the execution of Trinia whom had been captured by the Hellknights. We show up dressed in our normal adventuring clothes, not in social persona, I want to keep that away from all this mess. I had been contemplating ways to get Trinia out of there without getting us both killed but never came up with a good idea. Blackjack appears to rescue Trinia, I shoot the executioner with an energized mystic bolt to knock him out and the two make their escape while the queen retreats to the castle with her large amount of grey maidens.

The next day we get a letter from Orisini and head to his place... Cressida did not really care to be treated as a secretary, though she was as confused by it as we were. Showed at Orisini's place, and he showed us to Trinia which had been dropped off by Blackjack. I gave her the Sleeves of Many Garments to help disguise her in town and we set off on making a legitimate easy escape. We bought a cart, food and booze, borrowed a horse from Orisini and set off to take her to the inn out of town.

On the way there we were attacked by a Manticore which caused the horse to panic but with Trinia's aid we were able to defeat the Manticore. It got in quite a few good volleys at us, but when that ended it dived at me and a lucky crit from my longspear finished it off. This is when the party also realized that the only ranged attacks we had were close range destructive blasts, mystic bolts, and throwing daggers.

We noticed a likely lair for the Manticore, looted the few trinkets it had, and got Trinia to the inn. We dropped her off with my character promising to send her letters every now and then. I let her keep the magic item since she seemed to enjoy it much more than me.

We headed back to town the next day and upon entering heard about the ship that was sunk. We decided to head off the potential letters from Cressida and decided to visit her. Oddly enough there was really nothing to be done so we managed to convince her to go drinking and get away from all the paperwork.

The party splits here. Paladin and rogue go off with a guard to help a sick family member, myself, the tiefling and Calistrian stay with Cressida which we barely managed to bluff that nothing was wrong. Not sure what happened with the other party but I do know that the only one to go walking out of the bar on their own power was the tea drinking tiefling. The rest of us were in different states of drunkenness by the time the others returned.


Journal of Maselo Durante:

(Night after Trinia's escape)

Once again, a night with a lot on my mind.

Eel's End was simple to clear out. Most thugs were too cowardly, easily bought, or just a pushover. That Paladin did one heck of a number to Davargo though. One hit and he nearly decapitated the man. We freed the house-drake in the cage and he opted to hang around Klive's house. He did have some creepy spiders below that trap door, some real nasty Dream Spiders. No wonder he has an easy time making Shiver. We explored every end of that place looking for extra gold and while we had a few good finds in Davargo's office, the rest of the place was empty. I did learn my lesson from last time though, this time I carried my spear with me when I jumped down into a place to poke around. Good thing to, this time a shark came to get me. He didn't get close enough to do any damage though.

I thought the rest of the day would be pleasant and relaxing but then these rumors of an accused assassin of the king in town intrigued me. The group of us all met at Cressida's office and she had the latest information for us. This poor girl, both in fate and finance, was the former painter. She has been accused and has everyone from the town guard to the Hellknights looking for her.

Our next job was to secure her and bring her back into the protective custody of the town guard. Well, that was what the job was, but if I had it my way she would be out of the city and miles away by the time Cressida found out. I trust Cressida, but not her superiors.

We made our way to the neighborhood known as the Shingles as quick as we could. We prevented a lynching of some noble too stupid to know that walking around dressed as a noble will get you lynched. Oh well, those peasants I knocked out probably deserved it. Finding her house wasn't a problem, but getting past her neighbors was difficult. They shouted for her to run when the rogue's big mouth landed him in trouble.

We scrambled up the stairs, broke down her door and got out onto the rooftops. She was a long ways off and she managed to get away despite our best efforts. We made sure to thank her neighbors for likely getting her killed by some Hellknight. We returned to Cressida with the bad news but asked us to return tomorrow. She has some other important things for us to do it seems.

(Night after the Catacombs)

Like the obedient little helpers we are, we head back to Cressida which is in the middle of a meeting with a Shoanti chieftain. I had met Shoanti before in trading with my father, but this was far from friendly. He was nearly in a rage and demanding that someone find his son's body so that it may be given its last rites. We entered to save Cressida further suffering and it turns out we were exactly who she was waiting to see. We were tasked with finding Thousand-Bones' son's body. We knew he had been killed in the riots and his body was disposed in a mass grave. We had a lead about where this was along with a description of the body.

It just occurs to me that adventurers really do see all the best places... sewer under a butcher's shop, catacomb filled with necromancer's pets... why would anyone sane take this job.

Oh well, we find the grave but not body and just a bunch of small footprints leading to a catacombs. Great, now some kids wandered into the crypts where there is likely some body snatching freak. Normal sized skeletons, creepy but weak; skeleton of what was an owl bear. What the hell is an owl bear anyways and why would someone have the bones for it in the catacombs. What the hell is this world coming to. Next I find out it isn't some children that got into here but a bunch of... I don't know... little crazy gray men. What are they, sick halflings? Next up was those dancing snake bastards. If it wasn't for the Paladin and the Black Knight we would have probably died in there. A big walking corpse that hit as hard as an ogre, not my favorite thing to fight since it seems nearly immune to magic. I'll need to figure out a trick to beat that for the future. Also, how in Abadar's Bank did that ogre get into here. This place is barely big enough for normal people but here is this mutated bastard in the middle of the place? We did run into an Otyugh, which actually seemed normal given the other stuff here. I couldn't wait to get back out into some sense of normalcy and after we found the architect behind this mess we did.

Oh, I nearly forgot to mention that we did rescue some townspeople from the lair of that ogre. Oh, I forgot to mention, that body we were sent to look for; it was in pieces. I think the rest of them might be a little afraid of me after I cut an otyugh in half looking for the limbs and cut the head off the golem with a dagger. Oh well, a job is a job.

We get back to Cressida later that night with the pieces, she will have to deal with that twitching torso. We also dropped off the necromancer, though I'm not sure what good it will do. All I know is that there isn't enough water in the world to make me feel clean now.

(Night after Trinia's execution)

Cressida asked us to head to the execution to provide crowd control. She also wanted us to come since the nobility in attendance would like to see the group that had been making a name for themselves. I'm not entirely sure I like that my secret identity is so well known now, but I guess that is what it has come to. A thousand times I had played out the events here in my head to try and find some way to rescue this poor girl. Each time ended poorly; death or imprisonment.

Much to my relief, Blackjack appeared (I wonder where he's been hiding for so long) and nearly disabled the executioner. The headsman pulled back for a blow but I ended that quick enough. With a quick rapier salute he vanished and we had a crowd to quell. The queen vanished and all I could hope is that not too many people noticed that it was me that knocked the executioner out. I guess I'll live with it either way.

(Night at Trots)

A new first happened today, Cressida had a note to give us that was intended for us and not her. Hah! Guard Captain acting as a secretary, hilarious.

Well, that Ven Carlo wanted to chat with us, and about what we have no idea. His house was definitely being used to hide someone or something. Boarded up, locked, curtains drawn. He was either being paranoid, or something was up. He quickly showed us to Trinia's room, confirming our suspicions, and asked us to escort her out of the city. Klive tried to get some money out of Ven Carlo while the rest of us thought of a good plan.

Simple, out the front gate, disguise her as a farmer and we could be acting as guards. Not glamorous but convincing. Getting out this way was very simple, we enjoyed some booze, and when we got past the gates we talked about our exploits the last few days with Trinia. She seemed particularly happy about the gift I gave her, I figured she would enjoy it more than I would get use from it.

Our merriment was broken though when a Manticore appeared and began to rain spines down on us. I proceeded to shoot bolts at it while the rest of the group spread out and took cover. The horse bolted but Magnus stayed with him, good thinking. Trinia began singing, which at first seemed ridiculous but it definitely made all of us feel more ready to deal with the beast. It circled slowly, lobbed a few more spines and then wheeled to dive at me. It flew right at me but impaled itself on my longspear. The poor thing was bent terribly but I was able to extricate myself from the beast's carcass.

Magnus remembered something useful about where these beasts typically dwell and we decided to check the abandoned mill in the distance. It had a few trinkets, nothing to get really excited about, but Trinia was loving the adventure. Sadly it came to an end when we got to Trots... our contact met us and Trinia was promised safe haven away from the city. We decided to stay the night and I assured I Trinia I would send her letters about our continuing adventures. She seems to enjoy this so much, maybe I'll see about getting a more permanent way for her to tag along with us.

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