|
Session One
This is a campaign journal for Rise of the Runelords, converted to Pathfinder Beta/Final (when available). I’m running this with five players, one familiar with Pathfinder, two familiar with 3.5, and two who have never played beyond 2nd edition. We additionally use the Vitality/Wounds rules (my version has floated through these boards several times) and rolls 3d6 for Ability & Skill Checks.
We used Pathfinder point buy (15) and the Rise of the Runelord bonus feats for Varisia—the characters are as follows:
Morrigan: A young female, with a large family in the farmlands south east of Sandpoint. Talented with a scythe and able to grow to a tremendous size for brief periods of time—unsure of what other potential she may have, but willing to travel with Beth (see below) to find out. Is traveling to Sandpoint to see the Festival and check in on her black sheep cousin, Gryn Baerl, at the request of her aunt. Human Psychic Warrior 1 (Full Attack Bonus and d10s added to balance against fighter's gain in power), Country Born
Beth: A young human female, acolyte of the mysterious Rune Goddess Irori; out of Magnimar, traveling to gather knowledge on recent local history, as well as understanding the meaning behind the ancient Thassilonian monuments. “Discovered” Morrigan during her travels and convinced the farmer to visit the world and seek her true potential. Is on way to Sandpoint to record events of the Festival and make contact with an estranged member of her order in town. Human Cleric {Irori} 1, City Born [Magnimar]
Dario: Young dandy and swordsman, mentee of the Korvosan swordmaster Vencarlo Orinsi; seeking the wider world as Korvosan king’s health fails and city’s politics become all the more intolerable. Passes thorugh several towns, including Turtleback Ferry and Sandpoint on way to Magnimar to see passage to the further world. Human Swashbuckler 1, City Born [Korvosa]
Emyrelda: Alluring arcanist, specializing in illusions and enchantments, serving as information seeker and broker at behest of Vencarlo Orinsi; raised by Varisian half-brothers and sisters, adopted worship of Calistria and secretly seeks recompense for pain suffered by the native Varisians. Accompanies Dario on his journeying away from Korvosa durings its time of troubles. Half-elf Beguiler 1, Vairisian Tattoo
Engelberg: Grizzled watchman of Sandpoint; served town for decades and has become Sheriff Hemlock’s de facto lieutenant after the former Sheriff’s slaying at the hands of the Chopper. Has made numerous contributions to the Sandpoint Cathedral fund, fueled mostly by earnings by drinking from Norah’s tank at the Hagfish. Taciturn and observant, works to keep his young partner, Gryn Baerl, from getting in too much trouble. Dwarf fighter 1, Home is Where the Heart Is {Free ranks in Knowledge (local-Sandpoint) equal to his level, +1 morale bonus to attacks, damage rolls, and saves when fighting in Sandpoint}
The party makes their respective entrances into Sandpoint, meeting around a game of Silver Three-Dragon Ante at the Rusty Dragon, dealt by Gryn Baerl (GM NPC). After a few rounds, group agrees to reconvene at Festival for further company.
Following day, Beth finds the estranged monk, Enderaki Tobyn, has passed on, but his daughter Sabyl has followed his footsteps—secures good relationship with the young, lonely monk. Group carouses over mugs of mead and ale, arguing over their respective gambling prowesses—enjoys speeches by town leaders, rise to the challenge when goblins attack during the evening invocation.
First set of goblins, 4 in number, are quickly subdued by the powerful, nonlethal sweeps of Morrigan’s scythe, Emyrelda’s color spray and daze spells {unlimited cantrips is quite potent}, and the sweeping axe and rapier of Engel and Dario. Beth and Morrigan bind the wounds of their foes, looking for future interrogation opportunities. Few injuries sustained and quickly repaired by Beth’s Channel Positive Energy.
{Player prepared no combat spells for the Festival, but enjoyed converting to cure when needed}
The second set of foes, four goblins with torches and the warchanter, prove similarly unprepared for the capable adventurers. Emyrelda’s second color spray disables three goblins and the other party members set out to subdue the rest—Morrigan pursues the fleeing warchanter and savages her with a brutal critical from the scythe.
The group continues on, barely scratched, to save the forlorn nobleman, Aldern Foxglove. Morrigan grows to 9’ in height and charges the commando and goblin dog—hurts the commando badly with one swipe but is similarly savaged by the enemy pair, suffers allergies from the bite. Beguiler uses her last 1st level spell to sleep all but one goblin warrior, and party keeps them locked even as they attempt to rouse one another—commando is dazed four rounds in a row, keeping Morrigan hale as Beth patches her wounds mid-combat.
Aldern is enthralled by three PCs (all Charisma 12), and flirts with both Beth and Emyralda while admiring Dario’s incredible swordsmanship. Invites party for an excursion—group Sense Motives his fascination with the trio, and the troubles he’s suffered with his Magnimar business, but generally like him.
Group enjoys being local heroes—Sheriff Hemlock updates Engel on graverobbing and compromised security, which he passes on to the group. Dario is convinced to attend to Shayliss Vinder’s “rat problem”, Emyralda follows and works to delay Vin Vinder’s return to the shop, allowing Dario and the half-dressed Shayliss to arrange a cover story (swooning) that barely fools the suspicious father and lets the heroes avoid a sticky social situation.
When Amele Barret shows at the Rusty Dragon (PCs place to stay, aside from Engel at the barracks), they quickly mount an early-morning expedition to the home. They enter with stealth and are struck by the total silence of the home—they surround and infiltrate the bedroom where they find the dead father—Engel is assaulted by the crazed Gresgurt (commando) and fends him off with back-row assistance from the group. They are made solemn by the savagery of the goblin and the civilian casualty they could not prevent.
Group joins Aldern on boar hunt—Beth’s stance on Love vs. Lust dissaudes further advances from the noble, who continues to split his focus between flirtation toward Emyrelda and shameless admiration and questioning of Dario’s heroics, gambling ability, and attractiveness to women. Emyrelda fells the boar, garnering furthering praise from Aldern.
Group meets whith Shalelu and discusses serving as short-term defenders for the town (Engel planned on always remaining, but Dario and Emyrelda had considered departing back onto their travels.) Shalelu advises the group to reinforce the notion that no goblins will threaten Sandpoint by setting up an ambush at the Sandpoint Junkery for Seven Tooth scavengers on the following night. Group makes plans, unaware of the rousing spirit of Chopper that haunts the nearby isle…..
|
|
Session Two
The party completes their preparations for the ambush, scouting out the site and re-arranging piles of junk to provide sufficient cover for the less stealthy members to hide in. They also convinced Savah, the local armorer, to lend them back the masterwork horsechoppers they had sold her to provide suitable bait for the incoming goblins-she permits it with a down payment of several gold.
They also scavenge up several heaps of oiled rags left from smithy work and array them in the sands east of the cove; they hope to light a distracting blaze with an alchemist fire if goblins attempt to flee. Emyrelda was to serve as ambush leader, launching an attack with a color spray when enemies drew near the bait.
Finally, preparations made, they wait until dark, hiding beneath the junk, and wait for goblins to approach. Due to the high stealth of the three sneaks (goblin rogues), Em was not able to pinpoint their locations as they infiltrated the ambush site—their lone goblin warrior lackey, saddled with a crude sledge for transporting goods, stood oblivious amongst the junk heaps.
Taking a chance, Em launched her spell from cover, ensnaring the warrior and revealing two nearby sneaks, both whom made their saves. The rest of the party rose from their hiding spots to confront the goblins—a bloody battle ensued, as the beguiler failed to launch her dancing lights as planned and the darkened night left Morrigan blind and unprepared for several sneak attacks—as the fight raged against the very nimble rogues, the party failed to notice the sudden death of the unconscious warrior, nor the subsequent accumulation of leather and metal scraps on its body.
Over the next five rounds, the group beat down the goblins, Em’s sleep[/] spells helping to drop the rest—one by one, the helpless foes died to an unseen force. Finally, as the party released their untouched foes no longer breathed, a large mass of driftwood rolled into the combat arena with blinding speed. A whirl of sharpened bits of junk rose into the air and sliced at the trunk, eliciting a multitude of wooden birdlike forms in mere seconds. Simultaneously, the goblin corpses jerked to their feet, the leather and linen bindings jerking them about as marionettes as metallic shards bound to their hands and limbs.
Engel, the dwarven warrior, recognized the avian symbol of Jarvis Stoot, the infamous and deceased Chopper of Sandpoint, and assaulted the effigy with his waraxe—his blow was rebuffed by its hardness and it lashed at his body with powerful limbs, the birds clawing his beard and face. The corpse puppets likewise thrashed at the warrior from all sides, sometimes piercing his steely defenses.
The group rallied behind their comrade, Morrigan and Dario attacking the less fortified puppets as Em aided Engel’s attacks against the effigy. Beth’s knowledge of the divine and undead enabled her to detect the essence of negative energy powering these animated objects (fueled by the roused hatred of the serial killer) and began unleashing bursts of positive energy to snap the “strings.”
Although Engel was pushed to the brink of serious wounds, the party was able to fell all of the animated objects and again lay Chopper’s madness to rest. Although none of the goblins survived to report the ambush (as was the original plan), the group nevertheless deemed the evening a success, especially after they discovered numerous masterwork and high-quality weapons and armor on the goblin’s sledge, including a glowing crystal designed to fit a masterwork weapon’s hilt.
{GM Notes: I added the encounter with the 3 goblin rogues/1 warrior, followed by 1 Medium animated object and 4 small objects for two reasons: First, we are following the Pathfinder medium experience progression and the group needed some extra encounters to keep them on track. Second, the group’s wealth progression was severely lacking following the Festival, so this provided me an opportunity to customize some mundane gear to bring them up to speed.}
On the following day, the group alerted Father Zanthus of their encounter at the cove and continued to recover from their wounds—Ameiko’s halfling maidservant served them breakfast, explaining her mistress was out for the day and would likely return in the late evening.
Dario recalled an earlier lead he had wished to pursue—the ownership of the wagons which brought a group of goblins to ambush the Festival—and set out right away. Hemlock’s second-in-command directed him & Emyrelda to the wagons, which were to be disposed of in the near future. Exploring the interior of the wagons, they found them bedecked with goblin graffiti, all drawings of course, and were intrigued by a particular set of carvings—these showed the goblins being directed by a “longshanks” to conceal themselves in a wagon, after which he pulled the wagon (under the “clear” guidance of the artist) through the city gates. Figuring there were elements of truth to this illustrated “power fantasy,” the pair discerned that the longshanks was well-dressed and had long ears, marking him as elven or half-elven (like Em).
Asking around the town, they realized there were few young, male elves or half-elves to be found, but caught a clue that one such individual had been seen, albeit rarely, around Ameiko Kaijitusu’s Rusty Dragon Inn a few years back and, more importantly, made have been a ward of the Tundarok Academy for Sandpoint’s orphaned children.
Continuing their inquiry, Dario and Emyrelda visited the Academy’s wizardly owner and headmaster and struck off a fine conversation about their exploits, as well as his long-past days of adventuring. Over several hours of chatting and a bottle of wine, they learned that a young man, named Tsuto, had been a ward of the Academy up to a few years past, having left to seek his fortunes—he had been quiet, resourceful, and quite the acrobat by the headmaster’s reckoning, but he could see no reason why the young man would have anything against the town. As they left, the master also recalled that Tsuto room & board has been fully covered by a private, anonymous donor, since his earliest childhood and up to around the point he had departed—the donations had ceased without warning at that time.
More knowledgeable, but uncertain of what to make of this new information, the pair rejoined the party at the Rusty Dragon, still overseen by the weary maid, and retired for the evening.
The next morning, the group sought breakfast and found the taproom a flurry of motion—guests were waiting for overdue breakfast and the maidservant frantically dashed about trying to appease them. Pulling her aside for a moment, the group realized that Ameiko, for the first time ever, had not prepared the breakfast as promised and had not returned the evening prior; the maid promised to say more, but was clearly overwhelmed by the task at hand. The group volunteered to help serve breakfast and privately sat down with her as they ate their own.
She explained that Ameiko’s room was empty, bed unused, and that a note in a variant form of Common had lain crumpled on her floor. Em and Beth began to decipher the note, with the aid of [i]comprehend languages and discerned that Ameiko had a brother, named Tsuto, who suspected their father (Lonjiku Kaijitsu, owner of the Kaijitsu Glassworks) had a hand in the goblin raid and invited her to talk at the Glassworks the evening prior. The maid revealed that Tsuto was an illegitimate son of Atsui, Ameiko’s mother and Lonjitsu’s wife, and that the boy was aware of his heritage—he and Ameiko had fought years ago but had since reconciled and spoke infrequently since Tsuto had departed Sandpoint.
The group, sensing the connections building, headed off to the Glassworks immediately. Finding it locked up and windows curtained, they set out to find a way in—Engel eventually consented to Emyrelda using her talents to unlock the loading bay door, while Beth and Morrigan convinced onlookers to move along. Entering the Glassworks, the party found it silent, aside from the chittering shrieks of goblins at play! They rushed into the furnace room, finding it an abattoir of charred limbs and shattered glassware—eight warriors capered about, some with empty bottles in hand while others cavorted with tongs slathered in molten glass. Beyond the horde, a humanoid figure, entombed in thick, wavy layers of glass, sat beneath the atrium skylights.
Bearing no mercy for the wretches, the party cut them down with swiftness, blades and sleep spells felling them where they stood—even with flying bottles and searing molten glass, the group suffered little harm—and preventing any from escaping.
The group surveyed the first floor in a matter of minutes, ascertaining that none of the laborers had survived the goblin attack and that the glassy prison contained the body of Lonjiku. Finding Ameiko and Tsuto nowhere on the first floor, they descended to the lower levels.
In the narrow halls of the basement, they found ancient rubble and a fusion of new and old construction—as they exited a large storeroom, a flicker of motion caught Em’s eye; leading the party, searching for traps, she was left exposed as Tsuto stepped into the corridor and let fly with an arrow they slammed through her shoulder, tearing open an artery.
Teetering on the edge of unconsciousness, she let fly with a color spray that left him unafflicted and ended with her collapsing to the floor. The narrow passage made it difficult for a counterattack, though Engel rushed ahead to swing and miss the nimble half-elf, while Dario sought the rear passage and Beth struggled to Em’s side. Still in melee, Tsuto attempted to fire a strange arrow—green-shafted and ending with a thick glass bulb—but fumbled the shot, causing it to land at his feet. As it hit the floor, it exploded in a geyser of green acid, washing over the surprised Engel and Tsuto and nearly slaying the unconscious Emyrelda.
{Notes: We use Vitality/Wound, and Em was left disabled at 0 Wound from Tsuto’s sneak attack shot, so her spell knocked her unconscious. The fountainhead arrow is aimed at a square, so we decided the natural 1 meant he dropped it into his own square, where he promptly failed his Reflex save. It also left Em at -12 Wd, which forced a Fort save 12 to survive—she barely made it and would certainly have died from the damage of the next round}.
Seeing the peril as the acid geyser continued to pulse, Engel dragged Em to safety where Beth’s Healing touch (1d4 Wd per touch) could begin to restore her. Tsuto had fled down the passage and swift Morrigan followed him into a tiny office, its rear occupied by a desk flipped forward for cover.
Morrigan found Tsuto a particularly hard foe to catch, especially as he somersaulted backward from his scythe, flipping over the desk in a backflip. He was soon cornered by Engel, Morrigan, and Dario, but none could harm him as his shortbow continued to whittle at their life—a black crystal in the bow flashed as he landed hits and seemed to restore him.
In the end, the party fought bravely for 11 rounds as Tsuto tumbled through the corridors, his arrows nearly felling Dario, and only as he began to find an escape route, did a lucky shot from the swashbuckler stun him and allow the vengeful Morrigan to knock him out with a blow from her stout bludgeon (One-handed sap).
Finding respite, the group discovered a bound and unconscious Ameiko, whom they freed and restored with healing, as well as a passageway that they surmised was an old sumggler’s tunnel.
They drug Tsuto to the garrison, Engel using his influence to have him shackled in a single cell, and rested for the evening. The next day, having bribed his warden (Engel’s friend and Morrigan’s cousin), Gryn Baerl, with silvers for Three-Dragon Ante, they interrogated Tsuto, using fear and [i]charm person[/] from Em, and found him a gold mine of information that, coupled with his journal, revealed the organization of a much greater goblin raid, orchestrated by the Thistletop goblin leader, Ripnugget, as well as the (presumed dead) Nualia of Sandpoint who sought the sacrifice of the entire town! Tsuto worked hard to convince the group that Nualia was misguided, but was willing to report on the tactics and equipment of her minions, Lyrie, Orik, and Bruthazamus, as well as their hideout beneath Thistletop. The group also learned of a “quasit and her minions” beneath the Glassworks and were all the more unsettled by this local threat.
Deeming the Thistletop goblins to be a challenge too great for the five of them, they began making plans for an exploration of the old tunnels beneath the Glassworks.
{GM Notes: I changed Tsuto into a 5th level rogue, but maintained the Improved Unarmed Srike and Deflect Arrows feats—the former helped him make numerous AoO as the group attempted to surround him in the tunnels. His 3d6 sneak attack and Bleed nearly killed Em, but his lowered damage after that kept him a reasonably challenging, but not abusive, CR 3).