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I am not in any way dissatisfied with the quality of the product. I just find I am not getting the use out of them that I had expected. Please CONTINUE my Pathfinder subscription. I am very happy with Pathfinder, and our gaming group intends to continue using the adventure paths for our campaigns.
So, there's a new Dungeon adventure up on the WOTC site. I'm sure glad they aren't charging for content yet. This lvl 20 adventure features a decent eater egg for Greyhawk grognards, but not much else. I just finished skimming through it, and as far as I can tell, it's one 'dungeon', a bunch of combat encounters (over half of which seem to be against solitary opponent), and a few random traps. There's absolutely no social encounters, set pieces, or anything that made me go 'wow, epic!'
The text goes on to give about a page of background on the story. In short, an elder evil has been loosed upon the world and good ol' Tharizdun is set to be freed from his prison. Only the heroic actions of the PCs can stop the END OF THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT. Epic enough plot. However, the adventure itself feels like one of the dungeons my friends and I cobbled together on graph paper and loose-leaf when we were 11. Stock a random map with encounter after encounter of big, nasty looking monsters and set the players loose. I haven't played that kind of D&D for 20+ years. It doesn't help that the work makes overuse of templated, obscure creatures from MM4 & MM5. There's even an opponent with class levels from a ToB (Book of 9 Swords?) class. There's a sidebar with the maneuvers information, but someone forgot to include the crunchy bits for the stances. Typical WOTC hack editing at its finest. I'm still withholding judgment on 4E, but this digital initiative has now completely lost me. Only two of the five adventures would be something I'd consider buying if I had to pay for them. (Logue's, and Marmell's Innsmouth rip-off)
The party today:
The missing members:
We played for about 6 ½ hours, and everyone considered the first session a great kick-off to the AP. Interaction at dinner with Lavinia lasted over an hour, with the players bantering back and forth, making Bluff checks to impress the young heiress with their ‘prowess’ (most of which she saw through with her Sense Motive but was too polite to call them on), and generally getting a feel for the characters. Tulio and Dane sparked up a friendly rivalry when Dane, noticing Tulio attempting to woo the noblewoman, spilled Tulio’s wine goblet on him through Prestidigitation. However, if Lavinia has any interest in any of them beyond an employer-employee relationship, it will probably end up being the Aasimar, with his exotic, other-worldly looks. Darius, as the son of a wealthy merchant family of long-standing may have an outside shot, but so far he hasn’t made any advances in that manner. The party went to a tavern near Dock 5 immediately following dinner, and sought to gather some information about The Blue Nixie, Soller Vark and his crew. One of the dockworkers, a human female(?) with a 5 o’clock shadow took an interest in Galvin, and gave the party some useful information about the ship and its recent occupants. From there, they headed to the dock itself, where they found the ship moored to the float away from the dock itself. An old fisherman loaned out his rowboat for 10gp, and another 10gp bought his silence, as the party was worried about the legality of their actions. Rowing well out from the dock, the party circled around and came in from the dark side of the harbor, tying off the rowboat to the anchor chain on that side. They managed to get the first person on board before the alarm was raised, and had four of the five party members boarded before a defense was truly organized. The party made short work of Vark and his crew, when both Galek and Dane dispatched the guard on the quarter deck, and caught the first person out the door with attacks from above. Vark managed to get out, and wound Dane before a mighty swipe from Galek’s chain sent him fleeing overboard, giving the cry to ‘Burn them all.’ Tulio and Galvin quickly sent the rest of the crew fleeing. Poor Darius ran into some great Will saves vs. a sleep spell, and was beginning to feel useless. Smoke began rising from the hold, and a woman’s scream was heard, followed by the keening of a strange beast. Tulio, ever the lady’s man, leapt down the ladder to the hold, and found the rhagodessa the hard way. Dane followed with an impressive tumbling feat, landing in a square next to Tulio. Two rounds later, and both lay in their respective squares, and the rhagodessa looked like it would be feasting well. A celestial badger, summoned by Galvin, distracted the spider-beast long enough for Darius to cast two color sprays, angled down into the hold from above. The rhagodessa made both saves, and was about to rip into the badger, when a third color spray ended its rampage. Galek connected with two swings of his chain, and the stunned beastie slumped, unmoving. Remembering that his friends in Zelkarune’s Horns are always paying well for exotic animals to fight in the arena, Galek convinced Galvin to stabilize the beast after he had tended to their downed comrades. Darius searched the captain’s cabin, finding the missing platinum and the signet ring. Lugging their friends’ unconscious bodies, they returned to Lavinia to report their success. She provided their payment, some potions to heal the fallen, and allowed them to rest in the manor overnight. The next morning, she offered them a more permanent job with her estate, and asked them to accompany her to the vault. They breezed through this section, with the quick-thinking Darius telling Lavinia to present her signet to the Iron Cobra after a single round of combat. A bit of searching later, and they were in the inner vault, where Dane quickly grasped the significance of the creatures’ eyes, and Darius figured out the rotating central pillar. The players were careful not to confuse player knowledge with character knowledge, but the high Knowledge skills of certain party members allowed them to quickly ascertain the correct number of eyes for each line on the parchment. Many theories were tossed around about why many of the chests were empty, but no one thought to ask the clerk if anyone had accessed the vault recently. Lavinia took her leave of the group, after paying them their 100gp retainers, and gave them the rest of the day off to go shopping. After some discussion, they decided to pool their shares, and purchase a fully-charged wand of cure light wounds. This was a very wise decision, and quite possibly saved them from a TPK below Parrot Island. The next day, Lavinia tasked the party with finding her missing brother. She explained their estrangement, and the strange way Vanthus had been acting before he left the manor. The party split up, with each member gathering information in his own district. Dane, from Shadowshore, was the only one with any success, and was soon forking over gold to a greedy dwarven boat merchant who eagerly told him all he knew about Penkus’ and Vanthus’ recent exploits. On his way back to rendezvous with his party, he was approached by a shady-looking half-elf who offered to lead Dane and his companions right to Vanthus for some coin. Dane arranged a meeting later that night at a familiar tavern, and they met and agreed on terms. They met the following morning and bought a used row-boat from It Still Floats, rowing over to Parrot Island. Following the half-elf, they arrived at the trap door, and descended, after Galek threatened to remove the half-elf’s spleen if he left the island without them. Shortly after descending, the half-elf’s body landed on Dane, a knife in his back, and Vanthus’ taunting began. A lucky crossbow bolt fired by Galvin clipped Vanthus in the shoulder, and he cut the rope, backing away from the opening. The door closed and the boulders were rolled over it, entombing our fearless heroes. They explored the entryway, and had just entered the smuggling chamber when the first group of zombies broke through the double doors on the far end of the long hallway. A successful turning attempt by Galvin sent these cowering into a corner, and Tulio, Dane, and Galek followed to finish them off. Darius, knowing his enchantments and illusions useless versus the walking dead, decided to examine the body floating in the room, and disturbed a nest of monstrous crabs, which angrily scuttled out to defend their food supply. He quickly turned the other direction, fleeing back into the hall, with the crabs in pursuit. Galek broke off his attempts to destroy the zombies to fight this new menace, and a sleep spell from Darius put 3 of the crabs to sleep. Coup de grace’s followed, and the crab threat was neutralized, just as a second pair of zombies burst through the northwestern door of the room in which they were fighting. Another successful turning, and the new zombies were now fleeing back the way they came. The first trio were almost dispatched, when another pair broke through the eastern doors. These were turned as well, and the party looked to mop up, when a third trio approached. The party noticed that one of these was not like the others, wearing rusting chainmail, and a golden pendant which Tulio recognized as a holy symbol. These three resisted Galvin’s final turning attempt, and a fierce melee ensued. It was quickly apparent that the chainmail wearing creature was intelligent, as it hurled blasphemies and curses at them between spellcasting. Tulio was struck by the beast’s powerful fists, and then went down under the bite of a zombie. Galek followed, with another zombie latching onto his flesh with its oversized maw. Galvin attempted to heal the two while Dane swung his cutlass at the feasting zombies. He managed to keep them alive, but little beyond that. His new armor protected him from the ineffectual swipes made by the undead cleric, and he suddenly remembered his wand could be used as an offensive, as well as defensive weapon. Wielding it against the zombies, he gave Dane the assistance necessary to save the lives of the two fallen comrades. They managed to defeat the huecuva and heal their friends back to consciousness, just before the turning effect wore off the other zombies. The one pair was much closer, cowering in the northwestern room, and made it back to the party quickly. This was fortunate, as the party had time to finish them off before turning to deal with the final pair. Those also, were dispatched quickly, and the next few moments were tense, with the party expecting another assault at any time. They explored the rest of the underground tunnels, finding old Penkus’ corpse. While the others were arguing whether or not to loot him (Galvin’s heal check told them he died of some horrible disease), Darius’ keen elven senses detected a secret door. He opened it, finding the pirate’s long-hidden stash. Tulio overcame his aversion and stripped Penkus of his note and his remaining wealth, and the party began searching for a way out. Tulio found the tunnel in the tide pool, but was unable to make much progress against the strong currents. The over-muscled Galek removed his chainmail, and made the long swim up the tunnel, into the harbor above. He retraced the party’s steps on the island, and was able to open the hatch, tying his soaking wet rope to the hook and freeing his friends. They returned to Lavinia with Penkus’ dying words in hand, and broke her the sad truth about her brother. She modified her initial request, asking that they bring him to justice, and that failing give him a merciful death. The party retired to the guest quarters, and in the morning, Tulio found himself feverish, and weakened, suffering from a disease contracted from the huecuva. Lavinia graciously offered to provide a potion of remove disease for him, and this was delivered and administered. At this point, we ended the first session, and experience was awarded. The party was awarded experience, and all but the aasimar (with a level adjustment) advanced to level 2. All agreed it was a great start to what should prove a very interesting campaign. |
