Hello everyone. I’ve returned from a lengthy lay-off, and am attempting to resurrect something resembling my old Pathfinder game. I have one player from my last campaign and four new players I've never rolled with before. The game will be held only monthly, and we've just started in March. I hope to have the first game's post up sometime later this week.
This campaign will consist of four parts. I’ve composed a very brief and rough outline below of what I’m expecting to include in the campaign. As things often change, I have no idea how much of this will come off as planned, but I'm leaning towards the following:
Part 1: a homebrew adventure “the Goblin Wars,” starting at 4th level to 7th level, the characters will be wading through a war-torn landscape of goblin/dwarf confrontations, looking to find a cache of hidden gold.
Part 2: 7th to 10th level, the 2nd ed Ravenloft adventure Hour of the Knife (using Pathfinder rules), followed by some adventure yet to be determined, and then conclude with a homebrew that I’ll call the “Styes 3” (nods to Richard Pett).
Part 3: 11th level to 13th level: Feast of Dust, a new Pathfinder module written by Nick Logue.
Part 4: And Lastly, I will either conclude with a homebrew adventure I’ll call “Legacy of Worms” which is based off of the Age of Worms adventure path, which I ran ten years ago; OR Maure Castle.
All the characters are starting at 4th level. Most players (one notable exception) are already hitting me up to use every Paizo book in existence...
The players and their characters for the first game session were (note the characters nick names are mine, and not what the players call their characters):
Bates the Rogue #9: Is being played by the player of Bates from many past games I've done campaign threads for on these boards. The player is the same, the class (rogue) is the same, and the feeble attempts at survival are the same. He just isn't playing a skulk anymore. I'm starting him at #9 because I think his character bought the farm about eight times in the last Tomb of Horrors and 2014 campaigns I ran the character in. I didn't count to be exact though. I will confess that I did NOT waste his character in our first session, because he was beaten into unconsciousness in the first big encounter, and charmed throughout the second... I thought I'd spare him till next week.
Patsy the Useless Bard: I didn't even bother attacking him during the 1st session because he was largely inconsequential to what happened, that there was no reason to go after him. In the rare moment when he did hit an opponent, he did about 3 hp of damage per hit. Before the game ended, the player of Patsy started playing another character (see Presto below) along with Patsy who actually did a few worthwhile things.
Chef the Gnome Alchemist and his riding dog Fido. An interesting character, but his bark is worse than his bite...
Da' Fighter the Fighter: fairly capable, but was beaten like a red-headed step child all afternoon.
Doc the Cleric: he has a high AC, and is a healing machine.
Presto the Wizard, came in during the final encounter when the player's other character Patsy the bard simply wasn't accomplishing anything worth while.
I look forward to corresponding with you delightful gents that I’ve previously met during campaign journals past, and new posters as well. Regards, KGM
I have been a total slacker on posting since the initial post above. The group has played twice. In the first game session there were TWO (2) character fatalities. The characters started the campaign trying to help their town/village which is on the frontier on the brink of a goblin/dwarf war. An important caravan with supplies for the character’s town was waylaid by goblin invaders, and the PCs opted to go after them. The PCs arrived at the layer of local menace where they found their caravan wagons outside being ransacked by a dozen goblins. The PCs wasted all of the goblins without incident. The group then went into the lair of Louie, the Troll Chef Magnifique and his ogre henchman Frankie. The PCs dispatched some more goblins and then got to the Troll’s lair. Long story short for the sake of time and simplicity, the PCs played smart, but the PC meat shield Bob the Fighter got critically hit and dispatched by Frankie the Ogre Henchman (casualty #1), before finally beating Louie the Troll Chef into tomato paste. Frankie opted to surrender, and the PCs strangely accepted and let Frankie go. The PCs then took on the goblin leader Smitty and his mystery friend (who happened to be a greater barghest). The PCs made short work of Captain Smitty, the goblin leader, but Mr. Barghest greased Bob the Fighter #2 (casualty #2) before fighting the PCs to a stand still. I thought I’d save the Barghest for later instead of finishing the fight to the bitter end there, and Barghest Dimension Door’d out. The PCs then went back to town and did their usual thing.
In the second game session, there were Zero character demises (please accept my apologies). The group was sent to the ruins of Brookmere to disrupt a meeting wherein a representative of the goblin king was trying to bribe a tribe of gnolls and another tribe of goblin-like ogres, called "maugres," to join his war effort against the dwarven lands. The PCs first fought with an advanced Mimic (CR 5). The mimic at one point had three characters glued to him, and it appeared that a TPK might be possible, but the last character dropped the mimic to two hit points, at which time he surrendered. The PCs gained the mimic as a guard dog for their yet-to-be-found or built headquarters. The PCs then missed an advanced Owlbear that I had hopes would carve them up, and eventually stumbled on the main threat of the day, an advanced ghoul (ghast) Rogue 6/Fighter 1. At one point, the ghast had three of the four characters present paralyzed. The characters played very smart, at times running around the room so that the ghast could only charge after them and get one attack out of its usual three (owing to his paralysis attacks). Eventually, I couldn’t get an ample opportunity to try to coup’ de gras any characters, and the group wore the ghast down. Full props to the players for their brains and good sense.
The PCs then get the big encounter, taking on multiple gnolls including the chieftain and the gnoll henchman; as well as the goblin king’s ambassador and his elite goblin hit squad all at once. The PCs again did wonderfully, and wasted the gnoll chieftain, all the gnolls (except for the gnoll Henchman), and all the goblins save for the ambassador, whom they beat unconscious. The PCs avoided the ogres, figuring (correctly) that by removing the ambassador, that they really didn’t need to bother with the ogres anymore. They elected to let the gnoll henchman leave. Quite the humanitarians this group...
That concluded the second session.
The third session is coming up later this month (July). The characters will be attempting to help fight against the goblin war effort by assisting in getting a peace treaty between the orcs and dwarves signed. The PCs will be sent to help safeguard the orc monarch and ensure that the treaty gets signed. The PCs will be protecting the orc prince against multiple assassins who are all gunning for him (the Von Trap Family Slashers, Moose & Rocco: the Hammer Brothers & others). When I imagined this scenario, it had the feel of the movie ‘Smoking Aces.’ I just wasn't sure where to set the adventure.
In a nod to 'Old School' gaming, I opted to set the adventure in a 'historic location.' While the intent of the dwarves & orcs was to hold the peace conference in a safe & secure castle or manor, the orcs, dwarves, assassins and PCs all show up/get misdirected to the wrong manor house. In this case, TEGEL MANOR to be exact :O
We'll start Tegel Manor some time later this month. Sorry for the delay in posts. I will attempt to get posts up sooner given the classic adventure that is Tegel Manor, and its potential for absolute repeated character annihilation. ~KGM