GM_Coreyllon's page

I am sorry for not posting in a while. Unfortunately, I am running into a lack of bandwidth between work and other demands and I do not believe that I will have the ability to continue to run this game. I currently plan to ask Paizo to switch control of the game over to Sir Andreas so that you can look for a new person to run the game. I am not the first person running, and I hope to not be the last. Happy gaming!

Melianse shrugs in her pool and says, "Unlike these buffoons, I am not going to try and harm anyone. They will be well cared for until my trees are replaced. There is another Fae, a Dryad to the northwest of where we are. She would likely be able to assist in fixing my home if you sought her out."

Corax is turning red, "Replace...full....bloody...grown...trees! That is absurd. She is attacking bloody humans! Stop talking to this bloody crazy Fae and help us remove her for the good of the Greenbelt!"

It is apparent that you have convinced Melianse to negotiate. Corax seems less interested in negotiating still.

The Nixie shakes her head haughtily at Corax and tells Sir Andreas, "My name is Melianse, and I am not the one trying to pick a fight. These trees have been here for over two hundred years and deserved a better fate then being some grubby peasant's slop table. These men had no right to just come and chop them down around my home. I will not release these men until my trees are fully replaced and these men are ready to leave."

Corax does not seem to take your statement well, "We are just bloodly hardworking men. This bloody fey is the one causing all the trouble. The bloody Greenbelt needs logs and we aim to bloody well see they get them. Ain't many places with such fine logs as this and an easy way to get them back to the Greenbelt. Stop talking to her, and help us get rid of the bloody Fae!"

The man shakes his head at you talking to the nixie first and says, "There is no talking to that bloody fae. My name is Corax, perhaps you could help us stop her. We are just here to do the work needed by the people in the bloody Greenbelt and this fae attacked us. It's bloody hard for a decent man to make a living with these bloody fairies in the woods."

The Nixie calmly tells the man, "I asked you politely to leave and you threatened to hang me from a tree to drip dry. So no, you brought this on yourself and I am not going to just free these men."

The two look like they will continue to escalate their bickering and one of the charmed men moves slightly to keep himself between your group and the fae.

The group follows the river further into the forest and enters lands that they have not yet explored. You begin by searching west of the river and find little of note before turning and fording the river to search what lies east of Skunk River.

As you continue your exploration, the river makes a sharp bend widening into a deep pool dotted with lily pads and fringed with waving reeds. Several freshly felled trees lie beside their stumps on the shore of the pool, their crowns dangling in the water among fading tendrils of mist.

Standing by the felled trees, seven men stand glaring at two men who stand by the water's edge. All of the men are dressed in the garb common to loggers in the forest. A woman's head with blue tinted skin and bright green hair bobs in the water 20 ft from shore.

As soon as you are visible, the man who was standing in front of the larger group seems to grow more exited and starts waving you over.

You are about 50-60 ft away when you pass through a more dense part of the forest and come upon the scene above. If you have Knowledge- Nature, you can give me a roll and let me know what type of info you want to know about the creature bobbing in the water.

The group gathers their horses and continues on their way.

Are we still following the planned path?

"We may stop by at some point, but I haven't come this far to sleep in a bed now. As for a potential business venture. We are not looking for partners now. If we find something that we think you need to know to protect your townsfolk, we can try and get word to you for cost." Jubilost says in reply.

The boats lost on the Tuskwater sounds like a mission that was given to you by a fisherman.

The gnomes get the camp together and soon you find yourself around a fire so that those of you who took a swim can warm up as the food is handed out.

As you eat, Jubilost shares the locations with you.

The first one he points out after you tell him what you looking for is in the southeast side of the Tuskwater (H20). There he discusses a hard to find path that leads through some weeds down into a secluded area of the lake. His group did not spend much time down there as there were no signs of dwarfs but plenty of signs of destruction. Several shattered boats jutted out from the lake. Jubilost says, "Whatever did that must have been giant...or really strong." But he is a gnome so...

The second place he points out is a section of the Greenbelt where the Little Sellen River and the Godrin river are relatively close to each other (I21). In that area, he describes another hard to find path that led back to a lair. Orufix talks about seeing stag prints in the ground, but says that they were too big and far apart to be any normal stag. Sinfiz snuck forward and saw a lair of some monster but no sign of the creature, but there were signs of what was left of it's prey. As he was sneaking away, he thought he heard the cries of a woman of some sort, but the group did not opt to investigate further.

The last place is a ruined tower on Candlemere (I18). The gnomes mark it on the map for you and warn you that the island is covered by thick brambles and stinging nettles that can poison you if you are not careful. They went to the tower hoping to find dwarven runes, but found other markings they were unfamiliar with. The whole place was apparently spooky and both Yosnan and Powor shudder at the thought of the tower. The group did not stay long, but as they were trying to get back through the nettles, they saw a light dancing through the castle that seemed to be like what you tell them about the Lizardfolk "god". Iangim and Jubilost both claim to have seen the lights at other times when their small caravan was camped near the lake and they had a view of the island. Whether it's the same light or there are multiple, they do not know.

All three areas are shown on the map.

One other thing. Before you left Old Beldane she showed you a mushroom and called it Black Rattlecap. She offered you 100 gp for each batch of Black Rattlecap you could bring her. They put this mission on a different page then her whole encounter for some reason I do not understand, so we will just retcon it and say you were asked for it before you left in case it comes up at some point.

Sounds good. Do we have a second for that?

Most of what you know they already are aware of. I will add a third option for the Hydra as that is something of note that they would be interested in.

He will start providing information, but the question is what type of information are you looking for? Are you looking for what is probably most dangerous to the settlers? Are you looking for hints on how to get to the special missions you have for this book (IE. Snapjaw stopping fishers), or do you have specific regions (The island on Candlemere lake, or some other specific zone(s)), or new information on river crossings or similar useful infrastructure that you want me to provide information on? I can also just pick three and say that is what he provides if you want.

"Hmm...we can start and see how many sites you know of. Do you wish to start with those that might pose the biggest threat to the area or are you looking for a specific section of the Greenbelt?" Jubilost asks.

Which site do you offer up first?

Jubilost nods and says, "This information was gained by taking great risks and we have a great deal of expenses tied into them with limited current returns."

"Hmm...we think there are some dwarven ruins around here that we are searching for. We haven't found them yet, but I have some ideas. We have located some other items that might be of interest if you are just trying to make the area nicer for the occasional trapper or farmer. I could possibly share some of my maps if you were to assist in the business expenses it took to make them." Jubilost says.

So this is the place where Jubilost asks for what I think is an outrageous amount of money for information. So I am going to reduce it considerably and for every 100 gp or an equal exchange of information he will add something to your maps until he has expended all of his information. You have two places (Lizardfolk village and the Mad Hermit's tree) that you know of that he does not. He has seven locations marked that you do not know, although two of them you kind of have an idea about but he can provide more information on the area. You could of course turn him down and just have the fun of exploring all on your own if you wish! :D

Jubilost cocks his head to the side and looks at you and asks, "What are you out here looking for?"

Jubilost looks up and nods, "We have been searching the southern part of the Greenbelt, and making maps of what we find as we go."

Jubilost calms down at Sir Andreas' kind words and he says, "I am sorry, I appreciate your help. We were attacked but moments ago and I was concerned our entire expedition would be destroyed by some bad luck from dealing with those foul kobolds. Bilyur and Yosnan are right, let us thank you with some food before we part ways."

Several of the gnomes are swarming over the wagon to see if anything was washed away in the river. Jubilost joins them and pulls out a leather map case that he opens and begins thumbing through. It appears the case was waterproof.

I think I gave you the wrong about of ponies. They actually have a team of 6 ponies to pull their wagon.

You find out that the gnomes names are Jubilost Narthropple, Sinfiz Swiftmask, Oruxif Starkdiggles, Powor Wildfern, Warfan Twistreach, Bilyur Togglewander, Yosnan Oplosir, Iangim Dumborodas, Yoslin Tilbatinon, Vorjin Dabblaben.

The Gnome on the hill starts sputtering at your group as several of the others cheer you on. Two Gnomes try and pull as well!

Str: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20

Str: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21

With the two burly gnomes digging their heels in, the group surges backwards and pulls the wagon and Albert back up onto the beach and out of the surging waters.

The Gnome on the hill comes down and says, "What! We had everything taken care of!" as he sputters at your group.

One of the two Gnomes who had joined on the rope pull holds his knees as he pants and says, "Leave off Jubilost, we owe them thanks not recriminations!"

The other Gnome nods and says "I agree, I say we offer them thanks and a place at our fire tonight to warm up since several of them went for a swim." The other Gnomes chime in that they wish to offer you a meal and a place at the fire tonight while their apparent leader, Jubilost, seems less happy with your presence.

The module suggests a course of action. If you have something different you want to try, then you can absolutely try it. But the rope is not going to hold for long.

The cart and their supplies are about to get swept away. The rope can allow multiple people to add their strength to try and get it out. Unfortunately for the gnomes at a certain point, if it is not pulled to safety, it will get swept away.

Duzz, give another handle animals to get the ponies to swim to shore.

Albert will be able to tie off the rope as best he can this turn. Feel free to start making some strength checks if you want to try and pull the cart back to the shore.

Duzz manages to undo the two ponies with little issue as Albert grabs one end of the rope and with strong strokes, swims out to the cart.

It will take a turn for Albert to attach the rope. Then you guys can begin trying to pull the cart to shore. For ease of this, whoever has the highest will be the primary and the rest can just aid. You can get up to +8 from Aid actions.

Round 3

The group rushes forward and Duzz successfully swims out to the cart.

The gnomes jump in surprise and look at you concerned as you race up among them. The gnome up on the hill calls out, "Hey...."

Round 2 What do you do?

As I stated above, every square created by 4 blocks is a single 5 ft square which is why your horses take up 16 squares and you all take up 4 squares. The map was set up so that Sir Andreas was 30 ft from Saoirse as stated in your orders when you were sneaking up the hill.

Outside of the water, there is no difficult terrain here.

It appears that people did not understand that. So go ahead and correct your movement. You can go right over the hill and get to the beach and even people not a horse should be close or on the beach if you double move.

As Saoirse and Duzz reach the top of the small rise and look down they see a group of nine panicked gnomes on a beach with a tenth gnome standing on a hill across from them as he yells orders to them. From where you are, this appears to have been the site of a recent battle, and many of the gnomes look injured to one extent or another.

The reason for the panic and yelling is also quite apparent, and does not seem to be because of whatever caused their recent injuries. Instead, as you glance out over the river, and you see a cart with two ponies in the river currently caught up on a rock not far from the shore. The waters of this part of the river are moving swiftly and it appears that the cart and animals will be swept away at any moment!

The map is the Northrupple Expedition map and the link should be at the top and under my name heading. When you get to the map you will see that a small or medium icon is covering 4 sections of the grid instead of one. This is on purpose. There is no map for this so I had to make do with what I could come up with and so I just used the grid on Paint and it did not alter well so I just went with this. This is probably not an actual combat, so the lines are just to indicate how far you can go in a single turn. The hill is not steep on any of the sides even if it looks like it would be steep or impossible to get your horses through an area of dry land. The water is a flowing river, but the area immediately off the beach is somewhat sheltered. If you wish to try and help the gnomes, time is of the essence, so we are going to go into rounds. There is no enemy so everyone can their full turn as we go through however much time remains before the cart and ponies are swept away.

If you wish to try and save the gnomes' cart, you need to first make a DC 10 swim check to reach the ponies and cart. Then you think you will need to calm and unhitch the ponies to get them to shore and to stop tugging on the stuck cart. Once that is done you can attempt to get a rope onto the cart and then as a group pull it to shore. Which may not be easy. If you have something else you wish to try, let me know. For now, what do you do?

Round 1!

I am going to give it one more day for people to say if they stay on their mounts or not and to see if anyone stays behind versus heading to see what is happening.

So Saoirse dismounts and tries to stealth up to the top of the small hill in front of you. Do others follow suit or do you stay mounted as you move forward towards whatever is happening?

Looking at their current location when the group finishes scouting the area, the decision is made to head up to the river and follow it along into the next unexplored region. As you move along the river, everyone but Albert who is busy scanning the water for any magical auras, hears what sounds like a group of creatures shrieking in a high pitched, gutteral language that no one seems to understand on the other side of a hill in front of you.

So technically, I have you up in G18. I am not sure if this was area was not supposed to be viewed in the first book, but it has an event that you might never see if you don't return to it. So I am having you hit it as you pass through to the next unexplored area as it is entirely possible your route never heads back through here again.

I am not.

Rillka goes into the tree and spend a few minutes searching the area and finds a box under the leaves.

Inside the box is two potions, 164 silver pieces, 31 gold pieces and a tarnished silver locket holding a faded portrait of a young woman wrapped in cloth.

The group continues to explore the area and no additional threats appear as Rillka finishes off her map. It takes four days to complete the exploration. So you find yourself on the tenth day out of Sturmulme and it is time to pick which direction you wish to go!

You are at the corner that touches G17 and H17. I believe the plan is to continue on to G17. Can I get a quick confirmation on that. Or do you want to change your plans and do something else?

Just glancing around has not turned up anything in the messy area. Does anyone else want to try and do a more thorough search? Or would you like to move on with your exploration?

Does anyone want to do anything at the Oak tree?

The group starts following the tracks. It seemed to travel a distance from the group, mostly out of sight from where you were exploring. After about a mile of trailing along where the group had passed, the trail swings north for about a half mile and ends at a large hollow oak tree.

From the outside, you see there is a few pieces of crude furniture, a crude wooden bowl with a spoon, and a pile of dried leaves.

You take some time and bury the body with whatever ceremony you choose to add to the work.

Do you now follow the tracks?

Once you have finished securing the hide and items from the hermit, Duzz indicates that he has located the hermits tracks and points towards the northwest.

Do you want to do anything with the bodies or just leave them to the wilds?

Rillka takes some time and deftly skins the cat.

Saoirse searches the hermit's body. Beneath his rags, she finds some nice looking studded leather armor. He also has the whip and a short sword of excellent quality. On his right hand, he was wearing a ring.

Rillka and Sir Andreas can give me Knowledge Local or Perception checks. Select the one you want to roll. Perception will be more difficult.

If you want to try and track him back to where ever he came from, you need to do Survival checks instead of Perception checks.

At some point you will detect magic and the whip, armor and ring have magical auras. The short sword is just Masterwork quality.

You can give me a survival or appropriate Craft/Profession check to skin the creature. Do you want to do any other investigations?

Looking around the clearing, it is not immediately clear where the man came from. Unlike Old Beldane, you do not see any structure around you.

He went straight to dead. If you check, the cat is also dead.

Duzz moves his elk around to pin in the mad hermit. As the fighting moves away, Albert is able to control his mount and he dismounts his horse who still seems interested in bolting if given the chance. Soairse inspires the group as Rillka sends a bolt of lightning at the Mad Hermit that scorches his skin. Sir Andreas moves his horse into the brush and is aided by Duzz as both Sir Andreas and Daisy land blows on the Mad Hermit. Daisy's kick strikes the man on his temple and he crumples to the ground with his head hanging at an odd angle.

For future reference. Aid Other assists a single attack. So if Duzz were to aid Sir Andreas in 10 levels when you are getting 4+ attacks in a round, it would only aid one of those attacks. Also, for some reason I really want there to be an R in Duzz's name. I am not sure why. So sorry if you see an errant R now and again.

Initiative & Notes Bold Go!
Rillka [22/22]
Duzz [35/35]
Ser Andreas [35/43]
Albert [35/35]
Saoirse [32/32]

Light cover for attacks that go through it.

Sir Andreas moves forward as he and his horse lash out as Duzz moves to stop the madman. Unfortunatley, the wiley foe dodges everything that is coming at him. Albert continues to fight his horse as Saoirse heals Rillka further.

Rillka cries out to the surrender, but the man ignores the small halfling and prepares to slash at Sir Andreas once more. Angered at being ignored, Rillka sends another snowball, this time at the madman, and it smacks him in the face.

The man cackles through the snow as he lashes out at Sir Andreas, but the snow partially blinds him and the blade bounces off Sir Andreas' armor. He then dives over a bush and laughs as he looks for a new way to attack!

I forgot to update Rillka's healing last round. She is full now. The hermit doesn't seem rational or interested in surrendering yet. Everyone can go! The bush between him and you is difficult terrain.

Initiative & Notes Bold Go!
Rillka [22/22]
Mad Hermit [-23/??]
Duzz [35/35]
Ser Andreas [35/43]
Albert [35/35]
Saoirse [32/32]

Just to save time, if you plan to do a readied action, please put it in a spoiler so that I have it ready to go when the time rolls around if it goes off.

Saoirse casts a spell and a burst of glitter shoots out and hits the crazed man, but he seems unaffected by it beyond the glitter now adorning his ragged clothes. Duzz's mount tries to attack the large cat with a hail of attacks that all miss. He then shifts his mount back to heal Rillka. Rillka turns and sends a snowball beneath Duzz's elk and catches the puma directly to the head. The large cat is slammed backwards and then slumps unconcious on the ground. The man cries out in rage as Sir Andreas continues to attack him wtih sword and the hooves of his trusted mount. The man manages to dodge most of the attacks, but at the sight of the fallen cat, one one of the hooves strikes true.

In anger the man turns and stabs at Sir Andreas. He delivers a solid blow before stepping further away.

The cat is out of it and looks pretty dead. The guy is fighting mad!

Initiative & Notes Bold Go!
Rillka [5/22]
Mad Hermit [-8/??]
Duzz [35/35]
Ser Andreas [35/43]
Albert [35/35]
Saoirse [32/32]

Everyone go!

Someone give me orders for Albert.