This is a synopsis of the second session my group played of Burnt Offerings. We played once about 2 months ago and things sort of sputtered, but we picked it back up again. We can only play every three weeks, so I figured I'd write a recap, which would allow the players to refresh their memories before the next session. The synopsis will contain spoliers.
Alistair, Atwin, Fasi, and Zoey find themselves accompanying the noble Aldern Foxglove into the Tickwoods to hunt boar. During the entire trip Foxglove seems to be paying an inordinate amount of attention to Zoey. After a short horse ride from Sandpoint to the woods, Aldern sends his manservents into the woods to rustle up a boar for the party to 'hunt'. All but Fasi decline to assist in the hunt. In a few moments the manservents are making a commotion and the underbrush is rustling with the movement of a large boar. Fasi readies herself, and as the boar charges her she deftly side steps and brings her mace down into the boar's skull. Foxglove finishes the job with his sword, and the party mounts up. Foxglove decides he will give the boar to Ameiko, the inn keeper at the Rusty Dragon, and order a feast be prepared. The party rides back to the Rusty Dragon with Aldern Foxglove questioning Zoey for the duration of the ride.
Ameiko prepares a fine meal, and the party enjoys a night of food and drink. Throughout the evening Alistair keeps hearing his name popping up amoung various groups of young women in the Rusty Dragon. The next morning as Alistair, Atwin, and Fasi finishes breakfast a young woman interrupts the party and requests that Alistair accompany her to her father's shop where she has seen a large rat in the basement. Alistair agrees to help the women and goes on his way. Zoey seeing Alistair leave with the women decides to follow them from a distance, but before long Alistair notices Zoey and calls out to her. They have a short conversation, and Alistair continues on with the young woman who has introduced herself to Alistair as Shayliss Vinder the daughter of local merchant Ven Vinder. They arrive at the Sandpoint General Store, and Shayliss rushes Alistair downstairs where she assures him the evil rats are lurking. However, as soon as they are both in the basement Shayliss rips of her bodice and attempts to maneuver Alistair towards a bed in the corner of the basement. Fortunately for Alistair, he hears someone coming down the stairs and quickly moves away from Shayliss claiming that he wants nothing to do with her. Ven Vinder clomps down the stairs and demands to know what is going on. Alistair proclaims that he was merely trying to help Shayliss with her rat problem. Ven proclaims that he has no rats in his store and that Alistair should probably be on his way. As Alistair leaves he receives an angry stare from the spurned Shayliss.
Back at the Rusty Dragon, Fasi decides to see if Ameiko has heard any strange rumors. Ameiko thinks for a second then mentions that she heard some of the town guard talking about a grave site being desecrated during the goblin raid and that some remains had been stolen. Fasi decides to go talk to the town Sheriff Belor Hemlock. Atwin overhearing the conversation decides to investigate the graveyard. At the graveyard Atwin finds that a grave has been disturbed and the remains of one Ezakien Tobyn have been taken. He can’t place the name, but, upon questioning Belor, he finds out that Ezakien was the former cleric in charge of the temple that had burned down, which prompted the construction of the new temple that had just been consecrated. Through more questions he learns that Ezakien’s daughter Nualia also perished in the fire, but her remains were never found.
During this time Zoey has decided to take a walk along the beach. In her travels she notices a cave dug into the side of the cliffs. After a challenging climb she makes it to the cave and notices that it is littered with makeshift goblin beds and food scraps. She searches around for a bit but finds nothing of interest, so she returns to town to tell the others of what she has found.
With a hunch that Nualia may not have died in the fire Atwin returns to the Rusty Dragon to see if he can find out any information about her. He questions Ameiko who tells him that Nualia had an unnatural beauty that got her teased and ostracized by the local children. From her few run ins with Nualia, Amekio thought Nualia was a nice enough person. Alistair tracks Atwin down and the two head back to the Sheriffs to warn him that Nualia may be behind the goblin attacks. The sheriff will hear none of their arguments though. He insist Nualia died in the fire a long time ago, and if she had come back to town her alien beauty would have been recognized immediately. Unable to get any results with the sheriff, the two decide to head over to the town hall to talk with the mayor.
While this is happening Fasi has made her way to The Hagfish, a local watering hole, where she is greeted as a hero and bought many drinks. She is offered a chance to drink from Norah’s tank. Norah is a hagfish who lives in a murky tank at the inn. For a silver anyone can attempt to drink a tankard of the tank’s water. If the water stays down, she can claim the bag of silver consisting of all the silver procured from previously failed attempts. With one look at the tank Fasi declines. As Fasi imbibes, she can’t resist her thief nature and decides to relive some of the patrons of their coin. With deft hands she manages to steal some coppers. Unfortunately for her, the patrons who frequent the Hagfish are not of the rich persuasion. On her way home Fasi decides to press her luck a little more. She runs into Ven Vinder and attempts to relieve him of his coin purse. Ven notices the drunken thief’s clumsy attempts, but Fasi manages to smooth talk her way out of trouble and heads back to the Rusty Dragon.
Atwin and Alistair find Mayor Kendra Deverin at work at the town hall. They ask her about the town’s previous cleric’s death. They also ask her if she can tell the guards to be on the lookout for a strangely beautiful woman. The Mayor replies that the two will have to talk with the Sheriff about matters concerning the town guard.
Atwin and Alistair leave the Mayor’s and run into Zoey on their way back to the Sheriffs. She tells them about the cave she found down by the beach. The three go talk to the sheriff and he is indeed surprised by the events. He tells them that he will send the town guard to examine the cave. Atwin attempts to inform the sheriff that Nualia may be behind the attacks, but the sheriff is shocked the Atwin would suggest something like that. The sheriff asks if Atwin has any proof and Atwin can produce nothing concrete. Without proof the sheriff asks Atwin to not bring the subject up again. He then assures the party that he is capable of handling things and tells them he is expecting a visitor, and he will send for them when he knows more.
A few days pass and as the party is dining in the Rusty Dragon one night a distraught woman rushes to their table. Her name is Amele Barett, her son is with her and she is almost in tears. Apparently a goblin had been hiding in her son’s room since the raid. Her and her husband had been ignoring the child’s cries as silly nightmares, but tonight there dog Pettel gave a high pitch yelp and the boy started to scream. Alergast, her husband, rushed into the room to find a goblin attempting to eat the child’s arm. Amele grabbed her son Aeren and rushed to the inn in hopes that the heroes could help her and Alergast. The party rushes to the Barett house, and they send Amele and her son to get the town guard. They enter the child’s room to see Alergast lying on the floor, his upper body inside the closet. Upon close inspection it is obvious that Alergast is dead. Zoey pulls the man’s body away from the closet and as it moves they see the gruesome details. His face has been chewed off and most of his upper body has large bite marks in it. No sooner do they get the body out of the closet then a rabid goblin jumps out and attacks them from a hole in the bottom of the closet. The party quickly dispatches the goblin. They attempt to break the news to Amele, but there is no easy way to tell her and the woman breaks down.
The group is furious that the sheriff did not find the goblin, even after their warning, and march to the town barracks to question him. He is not there, apparently he has gone home for the evening. They find the sheriff’s house and tell him about the horrible news. The sheriff is distraught and promises to look harder. The party suggests that the guard use dogs to try and find any more goblins. The sheriff promises them he will do better but informs them he will handle the job himself. He tells them an unofficial member of the town guard has sent word that she will be bringing a report to him tomorrow and that he wants the party to talk with her. They agree and go home for the night.
The next day the party is called to meet with the sheriff and Shalelu Andosana. Andosana is introduced as a ranger who helps keep the local goblin population at bay. Shalelu tells the group that goblin activity has increased in the last month and seems to be organized, something for which goblins are not known for. She relates a few tales of goblin activity to the group. The sheriff announces that he is going to take a few men to Magnimar, the closest city, and attempt to get some reinforcements for the town guard. He asks the party if they could watch over the town while he is away. They agree to watch the town, and Shalelu invites them all to the Rusty Dragon where she can ask them about the fight with the goblins and perhaps share some of her knowledge with them.
At the Rusty Dragon Shalelu listens as the party tells her of the attack and then she tells them what she knows about the local goblin tribes and their leaders. She declines the party’s help as she moves faster on her own, but she mentions that the party will be needed in the town. With their conversation over the party relaxes at the Rusty Dragon for the rest of the day.
The next morning everyone is interrupted by frantic knocking on their room doors. Everyone but Zoey goes to investigate. They find a small halfing out in the hall. Her name is Bethana Corwin, she is a maid at the Rusty Dragon. She arrived this morning to find that Ameiko had not made breakfast for the first time she can remember. She went to Ameiko’s room only to find her bed unslept in and a crumpled note beside it. The party reads the note and finds out that Tsuto, Ameiko’s brother, has returned to town and wants to talk with her privately at the family’s glassworks. The note mentions something about their father being responsible for the goblin attacks. Bethana informs the group that Tsuto is something of an outcast. He is half elven, but neither of his parents are elves. The old man Lonjiku was furious with his wife when Tsuto was born, and he paid the boy no attention. Lonjiku’s wife died years ago and Tsuto accused Lonjiku of killing her, soon after he left and has not been heard from since.
The group rushes down to the Sandpoint Glassworks and attempts to enter from the delivery doors, where Tsuto had instructed Ameiko to enter by on the note. They find the doors locked, but Fasi quickly solves that problem. However her first attempt does not succeed and raises the attention of a local townsperson. After some quick talk Fasi convinces the man that they will go talk to Lonjiku before entering the glassworks illegally. The man walks off, and after feigning their departure the party returns to enter the glass works.
Inside the group can hear the roaring of the glassworks furnaces. Atwin picks up some high pitched, maniacal laughter coming from the other side of some doors. Fasi decides to investigate some of the other rooms, and the others enter the room from where the goblin voices can be heard. The goblins are in the furnace room. They are butchering what is left of the glasswork’s employees and covering the body parts with molten glass, in an attempt to mimic what appears to be a man seated in a center alcove encased in glass. Fasi returns to the group and they launch their attack. Without much trouble, they kill most of the goblins, at which point the goblins recognize the party as the people who stopped the first attack, and the goblins start to run. The party manages to kill most of the goblins but one gets away.
They follow the goblin down a set of stairs into a basement storage area. Fasi explores around a corner and is about to open a door when another door beside her is opened. Out steps an injured goblin and a very angry half-elf. Fasi dispatches the goblin and tumbles around the half-elf. Atwin closes on the half-elf blocking his escape in the narrow hallway. After some attempts to knock the half-elf out, as he fails over and over to dodge around the party and escape, Fasi decides to end his life. She hits him with her mace he falls to the ground. Before he can die Atwin casts stabilize on him. Revived the half-elf flails madly from the ground to no effect. Alistair pins him to the ground and Atwin ties him up.
While Fasi, Atwin, and Alistair were busy fighting the half-elf, Zoey circled around the other side of the chamber and began exploring the various rooms. She eventually finds Ameiko locked up and badly injured. Zoey sets her free and Atwin heals the party, including Ameiko and the half-elf. Ameiko curses her brother Tsuto and slaps him accusing him of loosing his goblins on her. She explains that Tsuto offered to take her with him, and he said that she would not want to be in the town much longer. Ameiko insulted him, and he flew into a rage. Upon searching the room that Tsuto came from Fasi finds a note book. It has many maps, one of which shows the details of the goblin raid that the party had stopped a week ago. The journal also contains many more maps depicting goblin raids with over 200 goblins, but none of them seem to been circled as the earlier raid was. The note book also contains many entries detailing Tsuto’s involvement with his lover who seems to be in charge of this goblin activity. The entries mention that his lover has burned her father’s bones, and Atwin is once more assured that Nualia is indeed behind this entire unpleastness.
This is a synopsis of the second session my group played of Burnt Offerings. We played once about 2 months ago and things sort of sputtered, but we picked it back up again. We can only play every three weeks, so I figured I'd write a recap, which would allow the players to refresh their memories before the next session. The synopsis will contain spoliers.
Liam I also am using the pathfinder rule set and everyone is enjoying it. What has you experience been? My group found the
Liam I also am using the pathfinder rule set and everyone is enjoying it. What has you experience been? My group found the ** spoiler omitted **
Do you mean
The Zombies that are stuck in the pits in side the Catacombs of Wrath? If so, we haven't gotten there yet, but I doubt my cleric will be disapointed as he has never playerd D&D before, Pahtfinder is his first experience with a pen and paper roleplaying game. I'll make sure I pay attention to his reaction though. If you weren't talking about the zombies, what encounter were you refering to?
Liam I also am using the pathfinder rule set and everyone is enjoying it. What has you experience been? My group found the ** spoiler omitted **Do you mean
** spoiler omitted **
Negative, I mean
Walter thats in book 2 he is still in book 1
Walter thats in book 2 he is still in book 1
I guess you're correct I have no idea why I was thinking it was in RotRL. My bad!