Much like the previous campaign I ran, I have asked my group if they would be interested in writing character journals for the RoW campaign that we are currently underway.
As before, character posts are optional, but bribes of special re rolls will be granted for players contributing.
Link to previous Campaign Journals.
Summary of story so far:
While on a pilgrimage to Zimar, the Cleric of Gozreh, Elsbeth, stumbled upon a man unconcious in the road, suffering from what appeared to be frostbite. She loaded him up onto her mule, and carted him to the nearby town of Heldren for help. Passing the village Armoury, Apothecary, and Temple, she stops outside the tavern, where she drags the unconscious man inside after shoving him off the mule. Sybbl (Fighter and Guinevere (Ranger) come over and help her bring the man to the armouries, while Morgana (alchemist) fetches the town priest and Zasha (witch) the wise woman. After dropping him off, they all make their way to the Silver Stoat tavern, where they have a few drinks. After a bit, they are summoned to the Armouries to speak with the now conscious man, Yuln, who informs them that the caravan he was guarding was attacked and Lady Argentea was kidnapped by bandits. he asks them to rescue her, giving his cold iron longsword to Sybbl.
The party spent the night in Heldren, split between the Silver Stoat and Sybbls rented house. They awoke early the next morning and made their way to the site of the destroyed carriage. While investigating, Morgana removed a spear jammed in the handles of one carriage, releasing the 2 zombies that had been left inside. After a much longer than expected battle, the group defeated the zombies and continued exploring. Guinevere found some Jewelry, which Zasha was much too keen to see, and Guinevere hid it from her. The group took what they could off the bodies, including the armour and sword from the frozen guard captain.
Following the tracks into the forest, Sybbl finds a chest, and triggers a trap opening it, sending a log rolling out of the trees. Shortly after, the group was ambushed by a small, dragon-like creature that burrowed through the snow, popping up and grabbing onto Morgana. They stab it to death, eventually, and continue on. They make their way to a clearing, where a majestic Elk beckons them in, offering them sanctuary and respite from the cold. As the group approaches it, they see another man (Tiedrix, Bard) who seemed to have been talking to the elk when they arrived. while talking, Syblls sword shrunk suddenly, as did Elsbeth, and then the stabbing started. The party fought the atomie and the elk desperately, eventually managing to plead with it to let them live. In exchange, it demanded they leave the forest and never return. They continued into the forest.
After finding a copse of trees with dead crows hanging from the branches, the party decided that this would be a good place to rest. As they hunkered around the fire for the night, none of them saw the sprites moving about, getting into position, until it was too late. They sprung out of the shadows, blinding and stunning Tiedrix and Sybbl before Morgana managed to catch and kill one of them. In an act of rage and revenge, one of the sprites stabbed Sybbl repeatedly, in the face, killing her. The remaining 2 sprites disappeared into the forest. The party divided up Sybbls possesions, then put her body on the fire. They continued deeper into the woods.
Member of the High Lodge, Alistair (Warpriest, Sybbls replacement) was out communing with his god (Milani?) near the river when he saw a group coming from the other side. he hid in the bushes as they get yelled at by a snow man, but when Guinevere attempts to cross the river and is attacked by an elemental from below, he rushes onto the ice, slipping and falling and almost sliding through a hole in the ice. As the party whittles down one elemental, the other shoves Alistair into the water, where he catches hypothermia. It is a group effort to haul him out, but they continue on the way, finding a corpse in the snow where Alistair was hiding. No one seems to care. He offers to lead them to his lodge, and they agree.
Arriving at the lodge, Alistair immediately notices that something isn't right. He races forward, tripping the crossbow trap and nearly falling, but presses forward. While bandits shoot arrows out the windows, Zasha (now a barbarian) slices through a window, and climbs inside, taking a couple arrows but slicing things up in the meantime. the others follow, while Guinevere continues shooting from outside. Zasha tries to chase a fleeing bandit, only to get stabbed from behind by Ten Penny. She returns the hit, and Ten Penny drops her weapons and surrenders just as 2 Frost Skeletons appear from the stairwell. They take down Alistair, and while Ten penny throws a tanglefoot bag at the skeleton, Zasha picks Alistair up to try to move him out of the way, but is herself knocked out by one of the skeletons. Meanwhile, all the dead bandits begin to rise, Morgana is paralyzed, and Guinevere runs screaming in fear out into the snow. While Tiedrix is trying to fend off Rohkar, Elsbeth moves to help Zasha and Alistair, and instead feels compelled to murder Alistair. Ten Penny moves over to flank Rohkar, gets a good backstab in on him, and he surrenders. the party searches the lodge, finding Lady Argentea (Paladin, Alistairs replacement) in the cellar, some clues and other items, loots Alistairs body, frees Vrixx the Pixie, and poorly ties up then locks Rohkar in the cellar, without searching him or removing any of his gear. Somehow, he escapes in the night.
They head back to Heldren, report to the mayor, and are taking some time to do some research and shopping in town.
After reading through another GMs Campaign thread (UseplanB), I decided to approach my crew to see if they'd be interested in doing something similar. Unfortunately, we've just completed Book 2, so we have some catching up to do, and there may be some missing details in the first bit.
This is from memory, and after losing the first copy, is going to be significantly shorter.
Session numbers may not be 100% correct either, but will hopefully be better documented from now on.
As in UseplanBs journal, character posts are optional, but bribes of special re rolls will be granted for players contributing.
And for the story so far, spoilered so it doesn't look like a bajillion words
Chapter 1
Session 1:
Swallowtail festival
Session 1 was with 2 new players, Sarah the Sorceress and the half orc Bard I am going to call Clerg. Mostly making characters.
Session 1 started off with the two seperately enjoying the festival. after listening to Father Zantus give his speech shrieks were heard in the distance, and a yelp sounded from near where Sarah and Clerg had been standing, as a couple of goblins hidden under a wagon jumped a stray dog, slitting its throat. The two fought the goblins off, Sarah using a mirror to attempt to blind one, then trying to lasso another with a length of rope, while Clerg attacked with his whip. Near the middle of the battle, they were almost ambushed by a goblin leaping off the roof of a nearby building, but he missed and broke his neck when he hit the ground. Clerg then tied up one of the Goblins for questioning.
Session 2:
Swallowtail part 2
Clerg took the goblin into a nearby building to be "questioned". He was never seen again (Player lost his character sheet)
Sarah, following the sounds of battle, made her way to a wagon covered with several goblins. Here she joined with Ragnar (Fighter), Rothgar (Fighter), and Agronox (Oracle). Nurr (Ninja) hid in the shadows and just watched the fighting.
This fight was going fairly poorly, until Sherrif Hemlock ran through, striking down a goblin as he passed by, turning the tide for the group of heroes. Nurr continued to watch. The party polished off these goblins, then heard a scream coming from near the Rusty Dragon. They rushed over to find Aldern Foxglove, his dog dead, slain by the Goblins. The party handily defeated these two, rescuing Foxglove, who gratefully promised a reward. The party then introduced themselves to eachother (except Nurr, who was still hiding) and split up to find lodgings for the night. After describing all the inns in town, they all went to the Rusty Dragon.
Session 3:
Glassworks
The next morning, as the party is having breakfast, they are approached by Nurr. “Hi, I’m Nurr. I’m a ninja” is the actual quote. The party kind of ignores him, then Foxglove barges in, inviting them on a boar hunt. Nurr follows despite not being invited.
When they find the boar, they dismount, and Sarah smashes the boar with a mace, because magic is for suckers.
They return with the boar to the Rusty Dragon and have a feast.
Later, Rothgar is lured into the basement by Shayliss, then chased out by Ven Vinder. Nurr is stopped in the street by a woman with a baby and a child. She is yelling for help, because a goblin ran into their closet. Her husband chased it, but has not come out. Nurr goes in to investigate, finding the dead husband. While turning the body over, a goblin jumps out and attacks him. Frightened, Nurr drops his katana and runs away, eventually finding Sarah and Ragnar. Covered in blood, Nurr asks Sarah if she would fetch his katana for him, it would seem he forgot it somewhere. She agrees, and her and Ragnar head to the house. Outside, the goblin is latched onto the woman, stabbing downwards as people around panic. Sarah smashes the goblin with her mace, but it is too late for the baby. She goes inside and finds the katana, then takes it to the Red Dog Smithy to try to sell it, but is turned away after being told the weapon is too recognizable and obviously stolen. She then hides the katana under her bed. When Nurr asks her about his sword, she successfully bluffs and says she’s never seen it.
The party wakes the next morning and meets downstairs for breakfast. After waiting for some time with no service, they check the kitchen to find the crying halfling with a letter to Ameiko. Outraged at the delay in their breakfast, the group storms the Glassworks, breaking through the front door and slaughtering the goblins with in. The party heads to the basement (looting the open safe on the way) to try and track the goblins, while (Ragnar or Nurr, can’t remember) stays behind and throws all the bodies (worker and goblin) into the furnace.
Meanwhile, Dwarven cleric Gronad has made his way to town, late for the Swallowtail festival. He hears rumors of heroes in town, and wishes to assist them in the goblin smashing. He makes his way to the Glassworks, goes in through the BACK door, through the furnace room that shows no signs of conflict, and into the basement. He arrives just as the open the door to find Tsuto. Tsuto punches Agronox in the throat, dropping him unconscious, then tumbles away around a corner. The party splits up and starts looking for him. Someone hears a door latch click, and they head to the room where they find Tsuto has slit Ameikos throat. A couple of rounds of combat ensue, and Tsuto dances past the group and makes a break down the tunnel. Gronad steps in to heal Ameiko. The party decide not to pursue, instead guarding the passage while they get Ameiko out and some guards in to post a watch.
Session 4:
Catacombs of Wrath
The party rests up, then heads down to investigate the tunnels. One heads to the beach, where they find many goblin tracks and signs of boats. Sarah runs back to the inn, retrieves Nurrs katana, and returns it to him, saying that she found it on her way back. Nobody believes her. They explore the other tunnel, with Ragnar in the lead. They encounter the first Sinspawn, Nurr identifies it, but does not tell anyone. Ragnar is struck with wrath. Then Rothgar fumbles and hits him with an arrow. Then Sarah fumbles and hits him with an acid splash. Good times. The party pauses at the statue, and briefly argues over who is going to take the ranseur. They explore the remaining tunnels, finding the room with the floating items (they did not take the bird) and fighting the mutant. The mutant took Agronox down again, and Gronad fell in a zombie pit. Then he climbed out, and fell in another one. Then he climbed out… and decided the zombies weren’t worth the effort. They found the pool with the Vargouille and Gronad drank the water. They found the altar outside the temple, and Gronad drank the water. He immediately started vomiting for several minutes. The party enganged the quasit with 2 players missing (their characters were watching the tunnels), Agronox was killed in the fight, Rothgar was brought to negatives (and accidently summoned his eidolon, which he believes to be the spirit of his brother, thus unlocking his Summoner powers), Gronad was… vomiting. Nurr was hiding in a corner (feared). I gave Ragnar and Sarah Perception checks to hear the combat, and rolled 50% to see which would join… in the end Ragnar ran into the room and decapitated the quasit in a single strike. The party then made their way out of the catacombs, and tried to sell the dress, and when no one would buy the dress covered in blood, they threw it away. Ragnar then decided he hated the party, for being jerks and hitting him in the back, and left to pursue a life of fishing, eventually getting capsized by a fiendish dire lobster, never to be seen again. (He lost his character sheet #2)
Session 5-6:
Godsmouth Heresy
I didn’t think the party was up to Thistletop yet, so I added in The Godsmouth Heresy.
Gobber the barbarian, sole survivor of a Black Arrow Patrol ambushed by Ogres, came to Sandpoint to try to redeem himself in the eyes of his fallen comrades. He spoke to the sheriff, who told him about a crypt that seemed to have been robbed during the raid. He joins, the group as extra muscle, and they begin exploring the crypt of Father Tobyn. The party finds a hidden door partially open, and follow it down into an old temple complex. They make their way through the complex, while Nurr gleefull loots the “Treasure” and an “obviously magical sword” that no one else seems to notice. They find some Thassilionion runes and writings that Nurr manages to partially decipher, but doesn’t tell anyone. After a couple of encounters, the party rests for the night. During the night, Gobber wanders off to relieve himself and falls into a pit, never to be seen again (He lost his character sheet #3) The party continues exploring, finding the human cleric/treasure hunter Maximo cowering in a crypt, having abandoned his comrade to a different type of sinspawn. They find the small tunnel dug with goblin-made tools that leads out to the beach. Seeing this, they deduce that the goblins stole the body, but then decide they don’t really care and continue exploring the complex. The eventually find a mad alchemist and his corpse bride. After defeating the alchemist, Maximo takes the zombie under his protection and is keeping her in his inn room. He also contracts Ghoul fever at some point, and doesn’t tell anyone.
Session 7-8:
Thistletop
Sherriff Hemlock asks the party to take care of the city while he leaves for Magnimar to get reinforcements. The party buries Agronox, then spends a night recupertating, and heads of to Thistletop the next morning, without telling anyone. They charge in to the group of goblin refugees, who try desperately to surrender/flee, but are all slaughtered. They then decide to explore the Howling Hole. While Rothgar and Sarah are lowered in, Gogmurt and Tangletooth attack from the nettles, nearly killing Gronad before Maximo and Nurr kill the cat. Gogmurt retreats back to his lair. Meanwhile, Rothgar and Sarah are fighting the Bunyip. Both are almost killed before the bunyip goes belly up. I don’t think they broke the bridge, but I feel like someone almost fell? They managed to sneak through most of the upper layer of thistletop and kill the goblins, however Maximo got knocked out by the horse. The group, not wanting to lose their progress, holed up in a tower for the night, while the goblins fortified the chieftans room. Maximo has his ghoul fever tick and dies during the night, rising as a ghoul (His first ACTUAL character death, after which he stopped coming). Sarah uses a charge from her Wand of Control Undead on him, and they have a new trapspringer. Sarah agrees to parlay with Ripnugget, who lays it on pretty thick concerning the slaughtering of unarmed refugees. The party is just starting to feel guilty when a couple of goblins jump down out of the ceiling and attack her. A heated battle follows, but Ripnugget is quickly killed. Rothgar claims his dogslicer. The party heads downstairs to find the bugbear consorting with some goblin ladies. The goblins cower as the party overwhels the bugbear, and flee up the stairs shortly after. The party looks down a passageway that appears to be a bunch of rooms, but decides to go the other way. They enter the temple and fight the Yeth hounds in a fairly simple battle. I believer Nurr is the only one who got affected by the fear, and ended up huddling in a room upstairs with the goblin harem. They then found Lyrie and took her down with ease. Down on the third level, Rothgar is able to find and disarm the trap (apparently Nurr the ninja did not take either of these skills), and the party encounters Nualia in her research room. The fight is hard, with several people including Ghoul Maximo going down in the negatives, but they eventually prevail. Rothgar claims the bastard sword, Gronad claims the breastplate. I try to explain to him it is designed for a woman, he does not mind. I show him the picture…. he still wears it. The mental image is horrifying.
They continue exploring, dispatching the shadows with ease (mostly because I forgot that normal weapons can’t hurt them) and then finding the giant hermit crab when Nurr decides to go diving for treasure. A round later, he is almost squeezed in half, as the rest of the party wails on the crab. Still, they press on, finding the hidden door and learning the mechanism. Going through, they immediately open the door to the south, and start to explore the room. Mal makes himself known. Gronad and Nurr move in to attack, while Rothgar and Sarah attack from range. Mal Charms Rothgar, who punches Sarah unconscious and nearly kills Nurr with an arrow before snapping out of his trance, yelling for everyone to leave the room, and pulling the doors shut. The party attempts a hastey retreat, only to be stopped on the second floor by Orik and Tsuto. Someone (Rothgar?) announces that Nualia is dead and demands surrender, at which point Tsuto goes into a rage. Initiatives are rolled, Orik goes first, and stabs Tsuto in the back (literally), killing him. He says he’s glad to finally be done with these people, that the pay was not worth the job, and the party decides to let him go free. They then return to Sandpoint, bloody and battered, terrifying the townspeople that another goblin raid is coming. They all go to bed.
Session 9:
Downtime
The players spend a couple days of downtime in Sandpoint. Rothgar goes on a couple dates with Savah between shifts training as a sailor, Sarah rents a corner of the clothing store to start a jewelry selling business, Gronad works out a bunch, and Nurr has a vault installed in his hovel, and exchanges all his coins for the copper coins that the party has collected, then puts them in his vault. Hemlock returns to town.
