PFS: The Midnight Mirror (Inactive)

Game Master R D

Tan'ia was so distracted by the hellhound's demise that she misses with her firebolt.

The rest of the party is up!

"Why did tomato blush!" Harrow bellows as he plunges the dagger into the tentacles. "Because it saw the salad dressing! Now die, giant veggie!!!"

bane dagger +1, challenge, studied target, bless, flank: 1d20 + 6 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 6 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 2 = 291d4 + 6 + 1 + 1 + 2d6 ⇒ (2) + 6 + 1 + 1 + (6, 5) = 21

Harrow strikes true! Before he plunges the shard into the creature, it sways and groans--as though Harrow's attempt at humor physically pained it. ;-P Then, the cavalier drives the mirror deep, deep, deep into the heart of the heart, bringing and end to it.

Combat over! Nicely done, everyone!

Sadly, now the hard part begins.

This shadow realm that the heart held together quickly falls apart!

Round 1

Random Effect: 1d10 ⇒ 9

Crap! Sorry, guys...

How many?: 1d3 ⇒ 1 Where?: 1d4 ⇒ 1

A shadow appears from the melting walls of this plane of existence. It materializes right next to Mareck. As it finds its bearings, the party may act.

The shadow is the black square on the map. You know that you have to make it back to the basement room where you entered. From there, you can escape. But, there's a shadow blocking your way...

The whole party is up, then the shadow will act. Selter may want to drag Sithiss' unconscious body out of here.

Looks like we have two alternatives: 1) try to run out before it can react...not sure what it does, but doesn't sound good. 2) try to bust a hole in a different wall. I can't remember how hard it was for us to stab our way through this wall, but I could try to stab our way through a wall (east) closer to the stairs. I'm not sure if the rest of the walls are the same thing as what we cut open to come in. Votes?

bane dagger to cut other wall open, if people vote this way: 1d20 + 4 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 4 + 6 = 241d4 + 6 + 2d6 ⇒ (1) + 6 + (1, 3) = 11

Is the shadow in a surprise round, in which it cannot act? or will it take an AoO if I cast or otherwise provoke?

I vote for full run away.

Is this a summoned creature? Does Mareq recognize the effects of a summoning?

Knowledge(arcana): 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (17) + 7 = 24

Depending upon the GM's answers, Mareq will either withdraw or use his SLA to summon a hellhound and then move 30ft away.

GM, if this is a summoned creature, Mareq will cast Prot Evil on himself from his wand. I can cast it on everybody else, but that will take time. Which we likely do not have.

No surprise round. This is the first round of combat.

This being has not been summoned. It is a shadow; but this entire plane is made of shadow.

Mareck, as a summoner, has just realized that this entire plane--the floors, the walls, the ceiling, the furniture, perhaps even the air you breathe--is potentially dangerous to you.

Oh, and it's all falling down around your ears. Literally. :)

Seeing everything falling around him, Harrow yells "We gotta get outta here!!! RUUUUUNNNN!!!"

The half-orc takes the lead, running as fast as he can.

Double move toward the stairs.

Seeing everything falling around him, Harrow yells "We gotta get outta here!!! RUUUUUNNNN!!!"

The half-orc takes the lead, running as fast as he can.

Double move toward the stairs.

Through the shadow? If I understand correctly, the shadow is blocking the entrance/exit to this room. I hope the hell hound I've summoned will draw an AoO and allow the rest of us to move through.

Mareq steps back five feet from the shadow and summons another hellhound.

The same rip in the fabric of reality appears, with an awful, unheard, shredding sound. A hellhound leaps from the plains of Avernus into the Shadow plane behind the shadow. It immediately attacks.

Breath weapon RefDC 16: 2d6 ⇒ (4, 4) = 8

After breathing, it steps around the shadow, moving so as to draw its attention.

Move ten feet, within striking range of an AoO.

It's difficult to say if we have to run through the shadow, since we didn't really have a "door" in the north wall. If I can go around it, I will, but otherwise, I guess I don't see a choice.

This game has been brutal enough on you guys. Yes, you can get around the shadow. :)

This game has been brutal enough on you guys. Yes, you can get around the shadow. :)

LOL!

Yay! Double move then toward the stairs (Down to G2).

OK. The party opts to get out as quickly as possible, leaving the hellhound and the shadow locked in a dance of death that neither will escape.

Once you have left the heart room and are in the hallway...
Random Effect: 1d10 ⇒ 10
Seriously, the dice want to kill you...
It becomes supernaturally dark. This darkness cannot be illuminated in any way--not even with Daylight. This forces the party to move at half speed whilst the shadow realm continues to collapse.

Eventually, they all make it to the stairs together, when...
Random Effect: 1d10 ⇒ 7
The party notices no effect... I don't know if that's worse than seeing something. LOL! :)

The party makes it to room G2:
Random Effect: 1d10 ⇒ 1
This room ceases to exist. You are immediately forced into the next available space.

The party enters room G1:
Random Effect: 1d10 ⇒ 7
And you finally make it out of the mirror. Whew!

You land back on Golarion in the room with the mirror. The Baron is there, looking at you all expectantly.

"What happened? Why are you bruised. Why are you carrying an unconscious snake?"

Harrow collapses on the floor, still holding the shard of the mirror he had used to stab the heart.

"We find big manor that look like this one, only not the same. Everything shadowy. We find lots of shadow people...some attack us and we kill them. We find shadow Baron bad guy. He attack us, and we kill him. He tell us we not escape if we not know how. We find heart of shadow manor...like big evil salad that attack us and almost kill us few times. Then when we kill it, all shadow house start falling down on us..." Harrow adds, then looks to the others for any more details they want to add.

"Harrow think we do deed...Harrow think we done."

"That's what you think!" The baron cackles as his features become more alien. Oh, no! He's a "heart" monster, too!

The party is up!

Just kidding! Totally kidding! :-) You are done! Congrats, one and all for surviving the Midnight Mirror!

Rofl...you had me going for a second...Harrow almost passed out! Yay! That was SUPER tough!

Thanks. :-) And that you all for sticking through the game. It was rough going for me around the time when I had those three+ weeks of unplanned travel. I wanted to post a bit more flavorful stuff, but I was simply wiped out for a while.

I've reported the results online. Your characters should have this module already credited on Paizo.com! I'll work on getting your chronicle sheets done, soon.

Mareq nods in agreement. "We have certainly done the deed."

Weren't we supposed to rescue some people? Or am I mixing up PFS adventures into this?

You found out that both the baron's brothers are dead. Nobody to rescue there. You could have tried to rescue the boy. But, given that the world was falling apart, it's all good! :)

Your chronicle sheets have been posted. Thank you all for playing! :)

Awesome! Thanks so much for running that! Is there a scenario recap of anything? Fletchlings and humans, living happily together? Baron and wife happy and we take a report back to family? Thanks!!! :)

Concluding the Adventure
The PCs must defeat the Heart in order to escape the House of Night, but once they do, any living creatures within the midnight mirror (as well as any treasure or equipment native to the Material Plane) are ejected into the basement of Boroi Manor. So, I guess you saved the boy--even without intending to.

If Nicasor is among those freed from the realm, he immediately attempts to murder Stepan for reneging on their agreement. If he has surviving followers, he organizes them and foments a revolt against any who oppress his kind in Nidal. If Nicasor is dead, any surviving fetchlings put their ideals of revolution behind hem, thankful to be free of their imprisonment and lacking a strong leader to guide them. They move to Shade Row or elsewhere in Nidal to make new lives for themselves.

With the mirror destroyed, the seeping of shadow essence (and the tallowthroat taint it carried) stops, and over the years, Karpad sees fewer fetchlings born to its human population. Within a few days, new cases of tallowthroat stop appearing. Racial tensions in Karpad wane, though fetchlings are still forced to live in Shade Row rather than Karpad proper.

Should the truth of Stepan’s murder of his brothers and involvement in the spread of tallowthroat and the abductions be made public, the town turns its rage toward him and demands justice. If the party wishes to install Sorin (the boy) as ruler of Karpad, they must deal with resistance from both Stepan and Anya, the townsfolk’s mistrust of fetchlings, and the boy’s own youth.

Awesome, thanks! I think we better just stick to our original mission of finding out what happened to Anya. There are a lot of politics involved! But hopefully the Baron decides to be a better ruler now. Thanks for running the next part! I love these continuous adventures...feels a lot more like a tabletop group than just a quick PFS game. :) Also, just realized you are Ziusudra in the Godsmouth game. Oh. My. Goodness...your characters crack me up so much! :)

Yeah. Anya's lack of communication was simply because messengers refused to go to Karpad. You'd think that a rich, noble family could afford a Sending or something--rather than the expense of funding a Pathfinder expedition! But, then we wouldn't have had an adventure. LOL!

Re: Ziusudra... Thx! He's a lot of fun. When I play him at my local lodge, I use cards and pretend that they're the Golarion/Pathfinder Society equivalent of baseball cards. I pretend that all the other players are in my deck.

When another player does something, um, inadvisable, then I mutter something under my breath like "Well, that card isn't very likely to become a collectors item," and I push it off to the side with a disappointed look on my face.

When another player does something awesome, I pretend to haggle with a different player to buy all of his copies of the awesome player's card. "But, but, but: I need the mint condition ones!"

That's not super easy to do in play-by-post because of the risk of derailing the thread. At least, it's not easy for me to do.

I really admire Hrothdane's characters. We've played with him a few times before. Among my faves are Dolph and Sir Darcy.

And I've mentioned to you before how much I dig Harrow. I wish he had more opportunities to use Cryp. :-D

Yeah, it's kind of hard to role play some character traits. I have a few of my characters that a are a lot better fleshed out in my mind than on the boards.

Personally, I think it's hard to sidetrack a thread with extra RP...you can go back and say something that you said a few minutes ago and then get on with your currently pending action, so things don't necessarily need to be in order. I very much look forward to getting to know Ziusudra. I also quite miss Misforstatt and Uncle Hubbub! Maybe we'll meet up again. :)

I have played a few games with Hrothdane, and you are right...very good RP. But I have to say that Mareck's stuff is right up there with the best I've seen...love the extra touches!

Heh...Cryp is a good pet for Harrow, though he's kind of going a different direction from mounted combat in the end.

I have played a few games with Hrothdane, and you are right...very good RP. But I have to say that Mareck's stuff is right up there with the best I've seen...love the extra touches!

Thanks, Harrow! I loved Harrow's dialogue and the Ragathiel allegience. Very cool RP.

As for Mareq, he leveled and gained 2nd level spells, which means... Final Sacrifice. Heh heh. Whenever his hated eidolon/father reaches uselessness/low HP, BAM! He'll blow him up in a fiery sacrifice, damaging all the nearby opponents. Mwuah hahaha!

LOL, Mareck!

Love it! Nice. :)