GM's Initial Campaign Notes:
Finally, after quite a considerable length of time, have finally managed to pull together a group to run a full Pathfinder campaign. I have been itching to do this since Paizo first started putting out campaign info about Golarion. I'm rather smitten with the setting, and the high quality of design and flavor in this wonderful world. In particular, I have wanted to run a campaign based out of Absalom since I first picked up the Guide to Absalom. Every single paragraph seems to suggest an adventure hook, and I have longed to put it to good use. This, paired with the Inner Sea World Guide, are the basis for the campaign. I'm quite liberal about stealing encounters and stat blocks from other places, as you'll see, but the campaign is purely driven by the characters, and their interactions with the world and the hooks provided. I'm also looking at this as an opportunity, over the course of the campaign, to clear out some of the massive stacks of 3.5 adventure materials I've purchased over the years but never used, depending on where the campaign wanders.
Some of the basic mechanical decisions for the campaign -- The players have their choice of either "(4d6, drop lowest) x 6, arrange as desired" or Epic Point Build. All PFSRD standard is acceptable, and anything published by Paizo is default acceptable (provided GM has access to the material, not a problem so far). No third party stuff allowed. The GM reserves the right to impose House Rules, but none are in effect at this time. No non-standard races. No alignment restrictions were imposed, but no one chose an explicitly evil alignment, so that never became an issue. The campaign will be played without the use of minis or battlemats. Players, and more specifically characters are responsible for their own mapping, and mapping ceases the moment combat or other actiony/tense situation occurs, or the characters simply fail to posses quill, ink and parchment (that's right kids, we're doing this old school). Finally, the campaign is using the slow XP track, to really take our time and soak up the atmosphere.
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Character Introductions:
Gallows: Katapeshi half-orc Inquisitor of Saranrae. Born to an orc mother, Gallows was raised among the savage humanoid tribes of Katapesh, learning early that cruelty and violence were coin of the realm. Then one day a burning vision of Saranrae led him to forsake his ways and convert. He joined the church and eventually realized his aptitude with applied cruelty was a tool that even the Dawnflower had need of on occasion, and joined the ranks of the inquisitors. He has been completing his acolyte training at the Temple of the Shining Star in Absalom, just prior to the start of the campaign.
Gaspar: Varisian human "carpenter/stonemason/wheelright/locksmith/dockhand" (rogue). Raised in an extended Varisian family by his meme Esmerelda, Gaspar and his clan plied their "trade" in and around Korvosa, carefully avoiding the harsh arm of Korvosan law, and the cruel machinations of the Sczarni. His uncle Shemmi was an adventurer who eventually settled in Absalom in Beldrin's Bluff. Shemmi was there durring the earthquake, and the tumultuous time after, and even served as a juror on a bizarre trial before the district was abandoned altogether. He died a few years back, and Gaspar, having finally come of age, has been sent to ensure that any outstanding affairs Shemmi may have had are taken care of, and ultimately find his own fortune. He has just arrived in Absalom.
Kerrethel Shoanti half-elf sorcerer (half-elven mother, Shoanti father). Raised by his parents in Kaer Maga, Kerrethel lived the mostly uneventful life his parents were hoping to give him when they retired from adventuring and settled down to start a family. Eventually he began showing signs of Arcane ability and draconic heritage. Wanting to give him the best training they could give him, his parents scraped together every loose coin they could find and packed him off to the Arcanimirum in Absalom. They had imagined their fortune would cover his tuition, room and board, but Kerrethel discovered to his horror that it barely covered the cost of books. After considerable wrangling, he managed to snatch a work study waiver, only to find himself practically a slave to the third-term student to whom he'd been assigned. Kerrethel has been in Absalom for a number of months, but has seen little of the city beyond the walls of his classrooms and dorm.
Flezmo Absalom native half-elf bard. Suave, charming, handsome and talented, Flezmo was raised by his rather well-to-do parent in the City at the Center of the World. And since the world revolves around him anyway, where else could he possibly want to be? His every whim catered to, he remained carefree, even after his father died a few years back. Having always shown a natural talent for music and song, he eventually enrolled in the White Grotto, and moved into an expensive townhouse, above a music store, just off campus in the Ivy District. A hit with fan and the ladies alike, he has reveled through his first term at the Grotto, and celebrated his graduation with an epic bender, of which many great songs will be sung.
Tomorrow: The curtain rises as the sun sets, and our players find themselves introduced under curious and deadly circumstances. Stay tuned!
Good luck with your campaign! Looking forward to your journal!
Sounds like fun :)
Apologies for the delay in posting this. It's taking longer to type these up than I hoped.
FIRST SESSION
GM's note: The first two sessions actually occurred back in December, and as such, my recollections might be a little off in places. Also of note, this is likely the one and only time during the campaign you will see me using a published module -- Nic Logue's Hangman's Noose -- more or less as written. I chose it for it's setting, and because it's a nice locked-room sandbox alternative to the typical "you're all in an inn" start to an adventure. Still, I made some significant changes, most notably removing the visions granted to players at the start. I knew my players would be able to pick too much out of it, so instead I incorporated all important points into the haunt/visions that occur as the module progresses. Also, I added a gallery level to the abandoned courthouse, mostly on a whim. I tossed in a couple of other minor changes that are related to character based long-term plot seeds. Finally, for mood inspiration, I rewatched a few of the Saw movies in the days before the first session, particularly Saw 2.
WARNING - This journal may contain spoilers for Hangman's Noose.
Wealday - 15 Pharast, 4712, sunset
Our heroes awake to find themselves inside an abandoned courtroom as the last rays of sunlight beam through the boarded up windows. The vaulted ceiling is decorated with a crumbling fresco of Iomedae holding her sword aloft, and rotting muslin covers the judges bench and evidence tables. They are seated in the jury box along with eight other people -- two human men, a human woman, a male half-orc, a crusty old male dwarf, a sickly looking gnome in motley, a female halfling, and of all things, a hobgoblin. Everyone seems to be regaining consciousness at the same time, and everyone seems to be suffering from a kind of mild hangover or residual drug effect.
Strangers to each other, as well as the others, the four heroes quickly pick up on the fact that they are the odd ones out. That somehow the other eight know each other, but not them. They manage some introductions from a few of the strangers -- The men, Sir Rekkart Col and a dandy named Killian Paltreth, the woman Patrissa Vrakes, the dwarf Tablark, the halfling Madge and the half-orc Halgrak. Flezmo recognizes the gnome as a particularly drunk and unfunny jester named Ebin, and the hobgoblin as Malgrim Hurkes, a vicious local gang leader. With a few questions, they manage to piece together that these people served on a murder jury together ten years ago. Gaspar mentions his uncle served on a jury in Beldrin's Bluff ten years ago, a fact he had only just learned earlier that day. This prompts Flezmo to mention that his father served on a jury ten years ago too. Thinking they've clued in to the mystery of why the four of them are the odd ones out, they quiz Gallows and Kerrethel only to discover that neither of them have any relatives that have ever been to Absalom that they know of.
Still, being the unknown factors in the room, they find themselves somewhat isolated from the rest of the group, who are all initially standoffish -- not that any of them seem terribly happy to see each other either. The quartet decides to stick together for the time being, and turn their attention to making their way out of the building. They give a few tugs on the boards over the windows and find them mounted securely in place. A quick examination of the judge's bench by Gaspar reveals little beyond a few coins (which he pockets). The four of them huddle and discuss their options. Flezmo's peek through the boards on the windows confirms that they are in the abandoned Precipice Quarter, inside a purportedly haunted courthouse, in a district that has been left to the ghosts, vermin and undead. While concerned and upset that they all seem to have been drugged and brought here against their will, their first priority is getting out. As they huddle, Kerrethel casts detect magic to do a scan of the room for any active dweomers or items, particularly the rather ostentatious fire opal necklace worn by Patrissa, but neither it nor anything else in the room gives off the telltale glow of magic.
Before they can get much further the hobgoblin announces that he's not waiting for anybody else to leave and marches for the exit. The others follow after, and get slammed with a vision as they trigger a haunt entering the grand lobby of the decaying courthouse. The large clock along the opposite wall, depicting Asmodeus and his minions tormenting the souls of the wicked, springs to life chiming and screeching as the hands on its face spin and twirl, hammering at the sanity of all present with visions of strangulation and murder by axe. Just as the howling cacophony and choking visions seem to be overwhelming, they end. A few people, including Kerrethel and Flezmo, are slightly worse for wear with ringing headaches, but no one else is harmed.
Seeing the boarded up great oak double doors at the front of the great hall, Gaspar and Gallows head over to it to try and get it open. They take a few hacks and pries at it with their weapons (though no one is will to misuse them too badly) to no avail. Even calling Sir Rekkart and the dwarf over doesn't get them any further purchase. They try to talk the hobgoblin into helping too, but he tells them to go rot in the Abyss, he's finding his own way out, and marches off toward the other end of the hall. Since no one is particularly fond of him, no one pays too much attention when Malgrim enters the judge's private chambers of the courtroom across the hall.
When the door slams shut behind him, and screams of terror followed by sounds of choking and strangulation come from the other side, they start to pay attention. Everyone rushes over to the chamber door to find it wedged shut. They start a coordinated effort to try and break the door down when the sounds of struggle from the other side come to and end with a sickening crunch, and the door pops open on its own a moment later. They find the hobgoblin dead on the floor on the other side, strangled by his own spiked chain belt, with a look of terror frozen on his face.
As they examine the body, a creaking sound from behind the desk catches their attention. A skeletal wolf hound, once the beloved pet of the judge who used these chambers, rises to defend its territory. One brief fight later and the skeletal hound again lies dead, allowing the heroes to search the room. They find a note written by the dead judge and never sent, accusing the other judge in the courthouse -- the one who presided over the murder trial in question -- of conspiring with unknown others to frame an innocent man for the crime. The man convicted and hung for the crime was the courthouse executioner, Jarbin Mord. The victims had been his lovely young Varisian wife, and their young son, both dismembered with an axe.
The heroes realize the haunting and the frame up are connected, and the ghost has brought them all here for vengeance. Gallows and Gaspar examine the floor of the great hall and discover multiple drag marks in the dust, indicating someone had dragged the rest of them here, and may be hiding among them. This prompts a more thorough grilling of their fellow captives. Under questioning, the half-orc confesses to having been coerced into voting guilty by the now dead hobgoblin. The dwarf too admits to having been intimidated by the hobgoblin, though he confesses he'd found much of the evidence persuasive at the time.
Their suspicions turn to Sir Rekkart, a paladin of Iomedae. When questioned, he becomes defensive, insisting he sent a guilty man to the noose. But when they try to pry details out of him, asking him what he found so persuasive, his memory becomes hazy and he's unable to recall any details. When the heroes point out his amnesia is rather convenient, he scoffs at the insinuation against his character, and tells them to examine the evidence for themselves if they like, as it still rests on a table back in the courtroom where they awoke.
When the heroes venture over to the evidence to examine it, a chunk of the fresco above breaks loose from the ceiling. It smashes through the evidence, causing the heroes to dive for cover, and sending the dusty, blood-encrusted axe flying across the courtroom to imbed itself blade-first into the wall behind the jury box. After that, they decide they're getting out of the courthouse one way or another.
First they check the judges chambers for this courtroom, once occupied by a man named Silman Trabe. As they search the room, moldering law books fly off the shelves where they'd lain for a decade and fling themselves at the heads of those in the room. Flezmo and Gallows take a bit of a battering, but the damage is limited to superficial bruises.
Once that room is cleared, Gaspar opens the door to the courtroom across the hall to check it out, and disturbs a large flock of undead crows roosting in the room. He slams the door shut as the swarms take flight, content to let them batter uselessly against the other side of the door. For what would not be the last time that evening, Kerrethel shouts at Gaspar to, "Stop opening things!"
Finding a locked iron door leading to another wing of the courthouse, Gaspar manages to get it open, claiming, "My uncle used to be a locksmith." The door leads to a hallway with two more doors down the left side, and boarded up windows along the right. The first door leads to a cage around the old public stocks. With a quick look from the doorway, Gaspar can see there's no way out through here, even as he can taste the evening breeze and and see tantalizing freedom on the other side of the bars.
The next door down the hall leads to the gallows, a sinister room suffused with an unnatural darkness. Tablark the dwarf proclaims himself unafraid of the dead and heads into the room. As he steps in, a horrible rattling sounds from the darkest corner. A dead man, his head lolling at a sickening angle, steps from the darkness, and the dwarf and the paladin gasp, recognizing this specter as the supposed murder, Jarbin Mord. Mord points a skeletal finger at Tablark and tells him the time has come to pay for his crime. Wailing in terror and guilt, Tablark claws his own eyes out to make the horrible sight go away. As Sir Rekkart and the rest of the party charge into the room to defend the dwarf, Mord simply vanishes through the floor. Before venturing any further, they carry the maimed dwarf back to the courtroom and lay him out to rest. Patrissa, Halgrak, Ebin and Killian agree to stay behind and tend the dwarf. Sir Rekkart and Madge decide to continue looking for a way out with the party.
The group heads back to finish exploring the wing of the courthouse. Checking the gallows room again, the unnatural darkness is gone, as is the specter of Jarbin Mord. At the end of the hall are the holding cells, a few other closed rooms, and a spiral stairway down. Gaspar gives the cells a thorough examination ("I have a brother who's a housing inspector.") and finds a note carved under one of the bunks. It is from Mord, the night before his execution ten years ago, pleading for his only friend, a man named Sveth, to help him take vengeance.
The party speculates that maybe it was Sveth that betrayed him, maybe it was he who killed Mord's wife. They also begin to speculate that Sveth is among them somehow, and question the paladin again about his identity and memory. Even though he betrays no hint of lies, the party are still not entirely convinced of his trustworthiness, nor are they pleased with his continued inability to recall specifics of the trial or what he found so compelling about the evidence.
Despite their dissatisfaction, they elect to continue with Sir Rekkart's presence among them, better to keep an eye on him. They enter one of the closed rooms and find a windowless courthouse "interrogation" chamber, with an iron maiden, and confessional chair and rack, among other tools for punishment, and the extraction of testimony. As they enter the room, some haunt grabs Gallows and yanks him into the confessional chair, tightening down the straps. As the rest of the party rush to free him, a ghastly wearing priestly robes and armor erupts from the iron maiden. The party puts the ghast down quickly, though there are a few close calls with the ghast's touch.
Examining the ghasts outfit and effects, Flezmo realizes this is one of the members of a party that tried to enter the courthouse and cleanse it about five years ago, only to have it go horribly wrong. The only survivor of the expedition was a fighter and captain in the First Guard, who emerged from the abandoned district completely mad and carrying the severed head of his lover, the party sorcerer, in a lantern. No details of the events of that night were ever uncovered. Flezmo relates these events to the rest of the party, and Gallows collects some of the priests effects to bring back to the Temple of the Shining Star.
They collect some weapons and other treasures from the room and head for the stairs down to the basement. Below ground, they find a small hallway with a door on either side. On the left, they find a records room, semi flooded. They wade in to see if they can find anything that might shed some light on their predicament, and encounter a pair of giant aquatic centipedes that have taken up residence in the derelict building. After destroying the creatures and recovering some pertinent records, they retreat out of the room.
Reading through the records, they discover that Mord had been the executioner for the Beldrin's Bluff courthouse right up until his trial, conviction and execution for the murder of his wife and son. Not only that, butthat he had presided over the trial and execution for Madge's father for murder. When confronted about it, she confesses that she voted guilty out of revenge for her father's execution mere weeks earlier. When the party mentions that it seems highly unusual for her to have served on the jury, she tells them any number of things were unusual about the case, but it was all swept under the rug in the panic and chaos of the days after the quake that destroyed the district.
They venture into the room across the hall to find a morgue, and several zombies of the convicted who rise to attack. One of the zombies happens to be Madge's father and he beacons to her. Overcome by grief, she runs to him, not noticing or caring about his now undead state. Gaspar dives in after her, deftly dodging zombie attacks and grabbing the halfling, shielding her from harm. In a brutal fight, they manage to put down the zombies, but not without sustaining some serious injuries. Gaspar, Kerrethel and Flezmo are all hovering near unconsciousness. They brave a couple of unidentified potions they found earlier. Kerrethel is unhealed, but his lingering headache from the clock-visions earlier dissipates. Gallows draws on his divine blessings from Saranrae and heals Flezmo from some of his injuries. Gaspar drinks another potion and finds his wounds healed completely. They tend to Kerrethel as best they can, but are unable to do more than dress his wounds.
Having cleared the basement, they head back upstairs to examine the rest of the courthouse. The only remaining room off the great hall is the jury deliberation room, which also offers no windows. They head up past the gallery level to the floors above. Ascending to the third floor, they first enter a barrister's lounge and are again assaulted by visions. This time the visions are of the sentencing. Judge Trabe reads out the sentence of death as the jury and gallery look on. Among the jury, certain members are smirking, notably the hobgoblin, the gnome, and Patrissa, the woman with the fire opal necklace. Searching the room further, they find a jar of formaldehyde with what appear to be half-orc toes floating in them. Leaving the jar behind, they press on.
The lounge has two doors, one halfway down one wall and the other in the far opposite corner. Also at the far end of the room is another set of stairs, leading up. The party elects to explore the door at the far end, finding a narrow hallway indicating another room to their right. They proceed down the hall and find a narrow stair up at the corner of the building. Realizing they must be under the belfry they head up to see if that offers a way out.
Entering the belfry they realize they are quite high up, and will have difficulty climbing down, especially with the wounded dwarf. While they take a moment to examine their surroundings, they hear a scrabbling on the roof of the tower. They draw their weapons as a pair of ghoulish, humanoid stirges descend and attack. They put an end to the abominations, and head back downstairs.
Having spied what appeared to be a small apartment above the lounge, they head back down to find that room. Ascending the stairs up from the lounge, they enter a small family apartment in extreme disarray, never having been cleaned up after the violence that occurred here. As they enter, they are assaulted once again by visions, this time of a beautiful young Varisian woman sitting in this room knitting a scarf when a tall dark figure enters the room. In the vision, the woman challenges the intruder, seeming to recognize him. He grabs her to assault her and she gouges his face deeply with a knitting needle. The attacker picks up an axe and hacks her to bits. He finishes as the young boy enters, wondering what's going on. He too falls to the axe. Despite the totality of the visions, they are unable to see the attackers face.
As the visions fade, an insane child's giggle and a horrified woman's moan fill the air as two shadows rise from the darkness and threaten the party. Before they can attack however, Jarbin Mord himself arrives and addresses the party, calling the shadows to rest. He bids the heroes find the true murderer and put his soul to rest before sunrise or all here will die.
Sir Rekkart leaps forward, brandishing a torch and shouting at the specter, "Back, foul thing. None more shall fall to your lies if I have anything to say about it!"
Mord ignores him, fading through the floor again, along with the shades of his wife and son, proclaiming, "Find the real killer."
That's the first session. I should have the second and third sessions posted over the next few days. Our forth session is tentatively scheduled for next week.