|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'm going to try to keep a game log here. Hopefully, it will keep our history coherent in my brain and if it helps someone else GM'ing the AP then that's just icing.
Bit of background for readers, I have a small group; it's just me and two players. To shore up weak links my two players are gestalt. Ymir is a Winter Witch/Evoker Wizard. He's a member of the Pathfinder Society that has headed into Taldor to investigate the tales of strange wintry effects. Tholomin is a black-blooded Oracle of Bones/ Sacred Necromancer (from Zombie Sky Press). He has a big hulking monster a la Frankenstein. He's a disowned son of a noble turned traveling physician. He's plying his trade in town.
The story opened with a descriptive "cinematic." Camera overhead sweeping over the frozen wastes of Irissen, moving south and east into warmer lands but flying over or past pockets of unseasonable cold. I did this to give the players a a sense of the scope of the problem once they find the winter portal in Taldor. Hopefully they'll connect the dots and realize that they're everywhere.
Rather than wait around for the PC's to discover rumor's about Yuln and considering that one was a doctor and would certainly have already treated and spoken to him, I had him stumble into the town square when both PC's were there.
The PC's hustled off to the massacre site. Cleverly, they immediately split the party. Ymir went to check out the wrecked carriage and Tholomin went to the one that he would soon find stuffed with zombies. You know what is not challenging to an Oracle of Bones with the Undead Servitude revelation? Zombies. One Channel later and he had two obedient and friendly zombies.
Our necromancer is not one to take risks when he has perfectly good dead things to do it for him. He ordered a zombie to check the buried chest and casually watched a log send the zombie flying Ewok style. Thanks to its DR, the zombie got right back up with only a few large pieces of wood jutting from its rotting flesh. It didn't seem to bother the zombie so Tholomin decided to leave the shards of wood there rather than get his hands yucky.
As the snows in the Borderwood deepened, Tholomin had a zombie and his monster walk in front to break the snow a bit for the living bodies behind. A zombie was incapacitated and dragged under a snow bank by the Tatzylwyrm (I used a suggestion in the GM thread to have it burrow in deep snow rather than climb) but not before the monster landed a critical hit on the wyrm severely injuring it. It settled it's future meal under the snows and went out for more, pouncing on the monster who casually caved in its skull.
We only had a couple hours to play so that was it for the first session. Ymir is somewhat uncomfortable with Tholomin's necromancy and a nifty philosophical debate on the merits of (possibly) evil things being done for the greater good was fun. However, while I think that might be fun in the beginning I don't think I want it to be a running theme. I'd rather they were friends as well as allies and not constantly debating or bickering about tactics or use of necromancy. Ymir's player brought it up before I even had a chance to, which was good. Hopefully, he'll find an organic way to make the character come to terms with it. If not, I think having Nadya take Tholomin's side will help. She'd raise a thousand dead if it would have saved her daughter, Thora, and I don't think she'd be afraid to say so.
Between work and kids we only get to play every other week for the most part so tune in in two weeks (if you care) for a full session. I suspect we'll get though the lodge and maybe even the winter portal then.
|
|
First full session last night. Got a solid four or five hours in and it was quite productive!
After killing the Tatzylwyrm, Tholomin decided to slice off a couple chunks of its meat, which Ymir kindly warmed up with Prestidigitation. It was a good idea, since without the small bonus on his next roll against the cold weather, Tholomin would have been fatigued.
The pair carried on following the bandit's tracks. They were so focused on those tracks they didn't even notice the dead crows hanging from tree branches until they were hit by several tiny arrows! Since there were only to PC's I decided against opening with color spray as that seemed like a good way to TPK. I decided to have the pixies hold back their powerful magic until they felt really threatened. Unfortunately, for the pixies, Ymir released his own color spray dropping two of them, one of which became a zombie snack. The last fled.
The remaining unconscious pixie woke up when Tholomin pinned its wings to the zombie's back with its own little arrows. He wouldn't give any more information than that his boss Izoze had ordered him here. Frustrated, Tholomin killed him. Ymir was pretty upset by the wanton cruelty and told Tholomin to rein in his behavior. Tholomin, decided to do just that, which made the rest of the day pretty odd.
The group found the talking elk interesting and told it everything except for their classes, birthdays, and first crushes. They never saw the Atomie hiding on its back. Although they caught it in a few lies and half truths, it was always fairly innocuous stuff and nothing that moved them to violence. When the elk, or rather its hidden rider, was unable to convince them that no kidnapped ladies had passed through and that the wintery weather was perfectly natural, it walked off into the forest to report to Izoze.
It seems like, as with a number of other groups snowmen with signs saying "go away" screams trap. Once detect magic showed abjuration and evocation on the snowman they decided to go around. They crossed further north; I gave them highs or lows on whether there would be weak patches here like at the crossing but the won that roll. They did not win the roll to see if the ice elementals would come across on their patrol. They were pretty nasty almost taking out Ymir and Tholomin's monster before one was shattered and the other heated to a gentle mist.
The party was pretty exhausted by this point and it was nearing dark but they decided to push on. A good perception roll heard the quarreling bandits ahead but for whatever reason the group decided that they weren't stealthy enough to even bother trying and just walked right up. I punished them by starting them a good distance away giving them a tough slog through the snow while getting shot at the whole time. Eventually, the party closed the distance, though, and all three bandits got dropped despite their best efforts. But Ymir didn't want the two that survived being killed and stabilized them both and had Tholomin heal one to be questioned. The bandit freely told them that the rest of his crew was up at the lodge and that they'd kill them all. He told them that Rhokar was a "great necromancer" and they were dead men. He also told the group that he was a dead man if he led them up there himself and steadfastly refused to do so. The group decided to build a fire and rest here. Overnight, I had one of the bandit survivors succumb to his wounds and the cold to see how it would affect Ymir. He took it in stride but did his best to ensure that the other bandit would be alive when he got back from the Sentinel Lodge.
With a zombie once again leading the way and just awful perception, the group never saw the trip line for the crossbow trap until the zombie sprouted a bolt and the pots and pans clattered their way to the porch. The bandits were now alerted and watched the party through the shuttered windows of the lodge, making rude gestures and seeing what they would do. The party gamely continued around the back of the house and came to the door, they opened it and were greeted by a flurry of arrows from the bandits waiting within. The bandits were, however, helpfully bunched together like morons and and fell unconscious once color sprayed. The party was nice enough to tie them up and stuff them in one of the empty bedrooms.
Ten-Penny Tacey had followed the brief exchange and knew the score so she was calmly sitting drinking tea when the PC's entered the kitchen. She was upfront and honest and just wanted to get out of there with her skin intact. They let her. They even let her recover her things from the chest in her bedroom before heading out. Weird. When they came back out of Tacey's room, they spotted a head ducking back into the cracked door of the sickroom. They went to the door and calmly negotiated a surrender. I'm not kidding. Tholomin took their short swords and told them if they left the room they'd die for it.
Then it was up the stairs. Invisibly, Rhokar had already come down them. Upstairs, Tholomin managed to wrest control of the Frost Skeletons from Rhokar's power and add them to his own menagerie of walking dead things. While Tholomin searched the storeroom upstairs, Ymir decided to go back downstairs, coming face to face with the mob of fast zombies the Rhokar had made from the unconscious bandits tied up. Ymir passed his save against Hold Person but couldn't avoid one of the zombies who nearly killed him. He wisely withdrew back up the stairs. Tholomin directed his new Frost Skeletons to hold the stairs and, healed Ymir. Ymir asked that Tholomin's monster help him out of the window. Both Frost Skeletons died against the zombie onslaught but Tholomin managed to wrest control of two from Rhokar and between the skeletons and himself dispatch the other three. Tholomin's monster scooped up Ymir and helped him out of the window by jumping out himself. It may be mindless but it gets the job done. Ymir smiled at Rhokar through the window and color sprayed him. Finally showing that his compassion has its limits, Ymir beat the unconscious man to death with his staff he was so angry that Rhokar had slaughtered the tied up bandits. He became...upset by his own violence against a helpless foe and walked off to gather his thoughts. Ymir check out the bridge but didn't have anything near a good enough perception check to see Izoze and didn't try to cross. Tholomin looted the building, rescued Lady Argenta, and decided to keep Vrixx in his cage and take him with. Tholomin left his normal slow zombie behind with order to wait for him and with whispered orders to kill the sick men inside. Yikes.
It was a really weird way to play through the Lodge. The sick bandits were really confused by the mercy of the PC's and went along with it rather than die for nothing. Of course, they didn't know that Tholomin was going to try to kill them anyway.
I think the talking stag will show up at the ambush event later along with the pixie that fled earlier but I'll have to see how the CR works out. It might be better to have Izoze, the atomie, elk, and pixie ambush them when they come back to the bridge. Maybe I'll see how many sick bandits can survive a zombie attack and throw them in, too.
|
|
Our heroes were celebrated by the town of Heldren and thanked profusely for their heroic heroism. After a night of drinking and recounting their exploits, they woke up near midday and went shopping. Ymir got a pearl of power and Tholomin upgraded to a +1 chain shirt. He also bought an enormous tent because he thought it would be fancy. He's a posh little ponce.
Lady Argenta had left them a letter, thanking them again and adding that she recalled a strange voice, not one of the bandits, saying that they were preparing a replacement for her. She didn't know what they might mean by that but thought they should know. The PC's discussed the various ways that she might be convincingly replaced deciding that illusion was too easy to pierce and a simulacrum could work. Dopplegangers were not considered. Leaving a shop they caught sight of a familiar face. Ten Penny Tacey was in town "acquiring" some traveling money. The PC's caught up to her and told her that they'd left her name out of everything and never mentioned her to the town. She was surprised by their generosity and willingly told them about Izoze's regular visits to Rokhar. While the PC's bookishly debated the extraplanar origins of mephits (I know right?), Ten Penny hightailed it. Next it was time to talk to Vrixx. They removed the cloth cover from his cage and questioned him. He told the PC's that giving them information would be "as much as my sliver is worth," referring to the sliver of ice in his heart. Eventually he decided that he'd do his best to answer three questions if they would let him go after. They didn't really get anything useful out of him but let him go anyway. By this time it was already early afternoon and they waited an extra day before carrying on.
The next morning they headed back into the forest and made their way to the High Sentinel Lodge. A good perception check from Ymir warned them of the ambush before the Atomie and Elk from earlier, Izoze, a Sprite, and Vrixx(!) rushed them their hiding place in the stable. Between magic and muscle, all of the enemies were defeated except Izoze who flew away after seeing his ambush crumble around him. Tholomin quickly checked the Lodge finding the sick bandits all dead but his zombie in turn felled by the ambushers before the PC's arrived.
The PC's carried on bit before three frost sketons rose from snowbanks and attacked. One of Tholomin's fast zombies was re-killed, Ymir blasted a skeleton to pieces with a max damage magic missile and then Tholomin predictably brought the remaining two under his control bringing his undead servant army back to full strength.
They found the mutilated corpse of the weasel hunter and questioned whether such a thing as a giant weasel might even be found in these parts but the journal they found was fairly convincing, not to mention to corpse.
I decided to skip the encounter with the evil pine trees. Although they're interesting monsters and I really enjoyed reading about them, I didn't really feel like it added much to the story. It was already quite clear that things were coming into Taldor from somewhere else and I didn't need to hammer it home.
When I brought out the big map for the Watchful Hut, the PC's were set on edge. They though traps would be everywhere. When they found not a trap but a weeping translucent girl, they didn't know what to expect. What I didn't expect was for Tholomin to be so moved by her plight, considering his unabashed use of the undead. He was, though, and followed her asking questions when he could and found out her name and that her soul was trapped. Moving forward they hit the Haunt and Tholomin was panicked by it. After running off at full speed for three rounds, he came back three rounds later solidly pissed by having been overcome, not to mention what he'd seen of Thora's fate in the visions caused by the Haunt. Against Ymir's urging, Tholomin marched straight into the small hut. Disappointingly, I never got to use her abilities to make the place seem haunted. Tholomin picked her right up and she never got a chance to cast anything. Because of Ymir's background from the Lands of the Linnorm Kings, I gave him a chance to succeed in knowledge checks relating to watchful huts and Irisseni Mirror Sight and he succeeded at both. He realized he was likely being watched but it took them forever to realize that the only other thing I specifically mentioned, the jewel in the eye that wasn't mirrored, was likely the prison for Thora's soul. Tholomin reacted immediately to the idea and shattered the eye even as the doll, knowing it's danger reached out to attack him. They burned the hut to the ground and were rewarded with a soft sigh and an end to the unceasing wind screeching through the ice boulders as the haunt was destroyed.
Not long after leaving the watchful hut, the giant weasel ambushed them, striking at the rear of the party, which happened to be a fast zombie. That thing is MEAN. It nearly took the zombie's head clean off with its first bite. The PC's beat the thing down. We ran into a bit of a conundrum with sculpt corpse and lesser animate dead. I ruled that he could make it medium with sculpt corpse and apply the young template to the resulting zombie but I'm not sure that's right. I'll be asking around in the rules forum.
They camped that night in Tholomin's big tent with one frost skeleton in the tent with them and the other animated dead outside on guard. Izoze and the air elemental, Squald, attacked at midnight. Squald kicked up snow, preventing Izoze from being seen as he crept up to the tent and let loose with his breath weapon. But seeing as it was guarded by a co-opted frost skeleton and Ymir has cold resistance of his own, only Tholomin was hurt. Tholomin quickly called for the rest of his guardian undead and Ymir lazily sent a color spray at Izoze without even getting up. Tholomin's undead wrapped up Squald and Ymir was already asleep by the time Tholomin got back.
The next day they set out again and eventually found themselves in the densely swirling snow of the winter portal. Hommelstaub saw them coming and alerted the rest of the camp with his thunderstone. The sprites attacked but were quickly driven off. Hommelstaub retreated to the portal itself to ambush the PC's with Teb Knotten the moss troll. Tholomin lost one of his frost skeletons to the pit trap in an igloo. After investigating everything, they went to the portal. The atomie, Hommelstaub, grinned and pointed behind him as the tree they were next to morphed into the twisted shape of a moss troll.
A tough fight to be sure but the PC's managed and looted the troll. Tholomin was pleased when the enormous spear re-sized to fit him and they took Knotten's key and unlocked the lockbox they'd taken from his cave enjoying the pile of loot inside. They were examining the winter portal when a flash of light and a fresh burst of even colder air signaled the arrival of the Black Rider. Grievously wounded and hacking up blood, he told the PC's that Baba Yaga had been betrayed by Elvanna and that the great old witch had foreseen the danger and left a trail of breadcrumbs that could be found by her riders. However, the other two were dead and he was not far behind them. He granted them his mantle, Tholomin finding a Plague Doctor's mask attached to his belt and Ymir a lock of a frost giant's beard in his hand. The mantle would also compel them forward. Into the winter portal and off to Irissen.