The Heroes of Varisia are reeling in the aftermath of their first foray into the Shimmering Veils, the wing of Runeforge dedicated to the sin of Pride and its associated Thassilonian school of magic, Illusion. Yuzo is dead, Jinkatsyu collapses into unconsciousness, and the other three are concerned that more duplicates could emerge from the mirrors at any time. When Kang hears spellcasting in the distance, he, Ava, and Erik decide an immediate retreat is called for; but when they carry Yuzo and Jinks with them to where the portal out of Runeforge should be, all they find is a blank brick wall! Kang tries to blow it open with an alchemical explosive, but barely chips it, and Erik’s experimentation with the hidden lever in the Abjurant Halls of Envy has no effect. As Ava starts to panic, the three heroes settle on a plan. They’ll hide Yuzo and Jinkatsyu in the rubble in that wing and continue searching for a way out.
The three return to the mirrored hallway. Advancing carefully to where the T-junction turns left and right, Erik closes his eyes, reaches around the corner with his pistol, and fires. His bullet shatters the mirror to the left just a doppelganger was beginning to form, and it dissipates instantly. But another duplicate emerges from the mirror down the corridor to the right, and opens fire! But although it shouts repeatedly that it’s the real Erik, its aim is terrible and a cascade of bullets and bombs destroys it quickly. Erik shoots the mirror it came from, and the threat of the duplicate adventurers is contained.
Ava suggests checking on the companions they left behind, but Kang insists they’re fine. He urges the trio to press on, proclaiming confidence that there’s nothing here he can’t handle. Indeed, he even takes point, boldly striding forward into an immense cathedral with mirrored walls, immense chandeliers, and a massive decorative peacock atop a dais in the center. Six identical human men are present, standing in a row. Each is immaculately dressed with shoulder-length blond hair, and they move and speak in perfect unison: “The master is in his study—he is not to be disturbed,” they say in Thassilonian. “Please keep your screaming to a minimum while you are punished for daring to venture this close to his magnificence.”
Kang moves to hurl a bomb at them, but all six snap their fingers and disappear from view. Instants later, a barrage of magical attacks begin from the invisible figures, all perfectly coordinated. Erik barely survives cascade after cascade of magic missiles, Ava shakes off a series of mental attacks, and all three heroes are blasted by fireballs. The adventurers dodge in and out of cover and return fire, with Erik’s supernatural ability to see invisible creatures allowing him to direct Kang on where to lob bombs for maximum effect. Ava darts back and forth to keep her allies alive until the unusual happens: the party’s healer is herself brought down! Erik grabs his grippli ally and gets to cover, shouting that they’ll have to make a run for it. But Kang is insistent: “the fight is not over yet—we can still win. I can still win!” he shouts. Erik forces a healing potion down Ava’s throat to bring her back to consciousness, and she expends her most powerful magicks to heal herself and her allies. But the situation is truly dire, as Ava is low on spells, Kang is almost out of bombs, Erik is almost out of bullets, and the coordinated attacks of the invisible wizards continue to pour in. The adventurers make one last assault and somehow manage to win through, as their opponents have also exhausted their most powerful magical attacks. Curiously, their foes melt into puddles of snow when they die, confirming speculation that they were something far different than mere humans.
A search of the cathedral-like chamber reveals a secret door behind one mirrored-panel, and beyond it lies a cozy study full of scrolls and books. In a far corner, slumped in a chair, is the body of a man wearing rich robes and a cloak made of peacock feathers. An elegant mirror is clutched in his hand, and a book and quill sit on the table before him. It looks as if he died only moments ago, and, curiously, he looks identical to the six wizards the adventurers just battled. Kang’s familiarity with Thassilonian script allows him to skim the book on the table, and he discovers it’s the journal of a wizard named Vraxeris. The journal makes several references to Karzoug, the Runelord of Greed, as “quickening” (returning) before Vraxeris’ own master, Xanderghul; of how weapons empowered with enhancement and illusion magic could be turned against Karzoug; how Karzoug’s stronghold stands atop a peak called Mhar Massif; how a mystical circle in the Halls of Wrath might allow escape from Runeforge; and much more. Kang realizes he’s only glimpsed the beginning of what the journal has to offer, and that a careful reading could provide additional insight. Meanwhile, Erik finds several spellbooks full of illusion spells.
The Heroes of Varisia have come one step closer in their epic quest. But now, trapped in Runeforge and with no easy way out, will they be able to overcome the threats that remain within while their resources dwindle?
Jinkatsyu's player was unable for this session, hence his being unconscious for the duration. I think Yuzo's player must have been as well, because even with a dead PC I would have found something for them to do.
I loved the encounter against the six coordinating invisible wizards. We had to play it out a bit like Battleship with coordinates when the PCs tried to guess what squares they were in. I don't think I've ever had six enemies with so much magical firepower all able to bring it to bear in such a focussed way. It was an impressive display of artillery until they started running out of the good spells.
Kang's player did a great job with the role-playing, putting his character's affinity with pride to the max!
Kang, immersed in Vraxeris’ journal, decides to stay behind in the dead wizard’s study while his allies Ava and Erik go to check on Jinkatsyu. They find the previously-unconscious adventurer confused and just starting to wake up in the spot where his friends hid him. Ava explains what happened with the battle against the six duplicate Vraxerises. The trio decide to see if the portal is open yet, in the hopes that it was the evil spellcasters who caused it to close. However, they find it just as sealed as before. Ava continues to express her dismay that they may be stuck in Runeforge forever, but she calms down enough to perform the difficult magical ritual to bring Yuzo back to life. The gillman is proud to consider the point that if someone had to kill him, at least it was his own glorious self! The adventurers barricade the entry to the Shimmering Veils of Pride and manage to rest, unmolested, for several hours.
[4 Pharast 4708]
In the “morning” (a difficult concept in a demiplane that knows neither day nor night), the others awaken to realize that Kang hasn’t yet gone to sleep, and is in fact strutting around in Vraxeris’ cloak of peacock feathers muttering to himself about the “Lord of Shimmering Veils.” Realizing he won’t be much use in his distracted state, the others leave him to his own devices and continue their explorations. The location where the portal out of Runeforge should be remains just a brick wall. Yuzo hammers at it repeatedly and punches through several inches of stone before giving up. The adventurers decide to explore the wing of Runeforge known as the Iron Cages of Lust, only to find that an invisible magical force field bars their way. Ava tries to dispel it, but her magicks aren’t powerful enough.
The four adventurers decide to try the wing of Runeforge that lays behind the statute of the Runelord of Gluttony. They advance without impediment until they reach a circular, domed chamber with a set of double-doors at the far side. The walls are decorated with a half-score of grinning skulls, each gripping what appears to be bits of flesh in their teeth. Concerned that there may be a pit trap or some other nefarious hazard in the chamber, the adventurers tie a rope around Yuzo’s waist and send him in to explore. He smashes one of the skulls with his warhammer just to see what will happen, and is taken aback when a secret door slides open behind it with an animated Thassilonian mummy ready to spring out! The others rush in to give Yuzo aid, but more and more secret niches are revealed, each concealing another undead horror. The adventurers’ teamwork is impressive, but the battle is a near thing with Ava finding herself temporarily paralyzed before Erik manages to drag her to safety. After the battle, Ava’s magic reveals a disturbing fact: Yuzo has contracted the strange mixture of disease and curse known as mummy rot!
As Ava prays for guidance on how to cure the condition and Yuzo starts to panick, Jinkatsyu passes the time by smashing the remainder of the skulls—little realizing that someone (or something) has been sent to investigate the disturbance in the outer room of the so-called Ravenous Crypts of Gluttony. A lithe, incredibly fast humanoid, obviously undead, sprints into the room and attacks! Only Erik has kept his wits about him in such a dangerous resting place, and he’s able to open fire. But in return, he becomes the creature’s target and finds his abdomen torn open by long, dirty claws. Jinkatsyu joins the battle and lands some skilful thrusts with his rapier until one goes awry and the blade gets stuck in his own ally’s armor! Fortunately, Yuzo’s brawn and Ava’s ability to channel divine energies to hurt the creature are enough to squeeze out a victory.
The bruised and battered adventurers immediately retreat back to the Shimmering Veils of Pride. Erik, upset with the battle and Kang’s frustrating insistence on studying Vraxeris’ journal, gets into an altercation with the alchemist that almost results in bloodshed. Back in a secure setting, Ava is able to cast the necessary combination of spells to remove the mummy rot from Yuzo. Afterwards, the adventurers realize they haven’t fully searched this wing of Runeforge—several rooms past the study remain behind unopened doors. One such room holds an uncanny sight: almost 200 identical looking dead bodies, neatly stacked, all looking exactly like an elderly Vraxeris! But the final room poses actual danger, as six horned demons seem to revive from a state of suspended animation to howl, shriek, and charge forward to do battle.
The exploration of Runeforge continues. The battle against the undead in the Halls of Gluttony were pretty tough, and (if I remember correctly), the PCs didn't end up going back. I liked the bit in Shimmering Veils of Pride with the hundreds of corpses of Vraxeris' clones--what a creepy room to enter!
This was the one time in the whole campaign that my prep had fallen behind the PCs' progress, and that's why there was the force wall barring the way to the Iron Cages of Lust. With the complexity of high-level characters and antagonists, I thought it was just too risky (in terms of the possibility of me making mistakes) to try to wing it--and as we'll see soon, the encounters there are pretty involved. I think I at least made the force wall seem like a part of the AP instead of GM intervention.
A howling cacophony fills the air as the enraged winged furies spring to attack. But Yuzo and Jinkatsyu move quickly and cleverly rush into the room so their opponents have little space to maneuver. At first the creatures, whom Kang identifies as succubus demons, rely on their sharp talons and rage. But as the battle wears on, they turn to a vile bag of tracks, like charm and suggestion spells. Jinkatsyu finds himself suddenly falling madly in love with one of the succubi and leaning in for a kiss. Ava wades into the fray and teleports Jinkatsyu to seeming safely, but the succubus can teleport as well and follows! As the kitsune’s lips touch those of the demon, some of his very lifeforce is drained away! Meanwhile, Yuzo continues slashing with his sword, Erik faces the succubi in hand-to-hand combat in order to conserve his last handful of bullets, and Kang starts hurling bombs of magical force.
The battle spills out into the hallway adjacent to the chamber. Suddenly the others realize that Yuzo has been left alone with a single succubus! Falling prey to the demon’s mental manipulations, Yuzo happily follows the succubus into bed and is soon reduced to a desiccated husk! The other adventurers win the battle and destroy all the succubi (who, oddly, melt into piles of snow), but not even Ava’s powerful array of magicks can return the gillman to life. There are far worse ways to die, but the loss of Yuzo is a major blow to a party trapped within the demiplane of Runeforge.
After the harrowing battle, the adventurers once again barricade the doors to Vraxeris’ study. They rest for several hours, though the utter lack of a day/night cycle within Runeforge makes it hard to tell duration. Kang spends much of the time continuing his translations of Vraxeris’ work and learns a secret which he keeps to himself: with enough effort (and the assistant of an arcanist), he could develop an improved version of the clone spell Vraxeris used and, potentially, achieve true immortality!
[5 Pharast 4708]
When everyone is fully rested, Kang drinks an elixir that allows him to see magical auras and identify magical items. He realizes that the headband that Vraxeris wore increases one’s intelligence dramatically. Kang puts it on, and suddenly a host of new alchemical insights spring fully-formed into his mind! And when the others continue speculating about how they might be able to escape Runeforge, Kang recalls a pertinent detail in Vraxeris’ journal: the mention of a “master circle” in the Halls of Wrath that one could use to leave the demiplane. After he shares this information, the others press for an expedition to that wing. Kang, however, is quite reluctant to leave and abandon the fantastic library and other resources in the Shimmering Veils of Pride that are suitable only for a genius like himself. Jinkatsyu and Erik manage to lure the tiefling away, however, by dangling the hope of even more amazing discoveries in the other wings of the complex. Although Ava follows the others, she grows increasingly nauseated as the foursome pass through the central hub and then venture deeper into the Halls of Wrath.
The corridor leading into the wing is made of polished marble, and opens into a massive, brightly lit chamber. The upper portion of the far wall is entirely covered in a mural of an armored woman with crimson hair holding a burning ranseur and riding on the back of a massive dragon. On a square outcropping that juts out of the far wall, the adventurers see a twelve-foot-tall iron statue gripping a enormous bow in its metal fists. Behind the outcropping is a passageway, but for now the Heroes of Varisia have to deal with the threat before them, as there’s no doubt that the “statue” is really some kind of iron golem! A distant alarm that echoes through the stonework begins to ring as Jinkatsyu starts racing across the chamber, but before he can even get close, he’s struck by several “arrows” of fire launched by the golem’s obviously-enchanted bow. The fusillade is powerful enough that the injured kitsune is forced to flatten himself on the ground, but he doesn’t have to wait long for help. Kang, although perhaps a hundred feet or more away from the golem, draws a strange device that allows him to launch his bombs incredible distances! In less than twenty seconds, the alchemist has reduced a seemingly invincible guardian to melted slag! But Kang takes no visible pleasure from his success, having fallen into a state of ennui after leaving Vraxeris’ library.
After the adventurers ascend to the top of the outcropping, they see that the tunnel behind it leads to a chamber with two engraved circles on the ground that surround large runes. One of the runes is red, while the other is blue. Kang has no difficulty identifying them as teleportation circles, explaining that the red circle sends the user somewhere, while the blue circle is where someone using a different circle would arrive. Excitement builds in the group as speculation mounts that this circle may be the way out of Runeforge. But the conversation drops into stunned silence as Kang off-handedly remarks that the group has been scried ever since the battle against the golem began . . .
Yuzo's player went permanently AWOL just before this session, so having the PC get drained and killed by the succubus seemed like a fast and easy way to resolve in-game what happened to the character.
Erik was really starting to run low on ammunition, an effect of being trapped in Runeforge that I hadn't really thought about it.
The trivial defeat of the golem was another reason I'm not a fan of the alchemist class in Pathfinder. Normally, golems are difficult to defeat because they have a good AC, a lot of DR, and they're completely immune to all but a few particular spells. But alchemist bombs target Touch AC, by-pass DR (because they're not "weapons"), and work perfectly fine against golems or creatures with spell-resistance because they're not "spells" (even if they are "magical"). In theory, an alchemist only gets a limited number of bombs per day, but it's very rare that a character runs out of them in a normal day's adventuring. Add in their splash effects and all the discoveries that give them even more versatility, and bombs are just the best thing ever.
After having battled into the Halls of Wrath, the adventurers decide to retreat when they realize they’re being magically scried. When they reach the central hub of Runeforge, from which the other wings radiate outward like spokes from a wheel, they notice something has changed: a slim scroll tube has been propped up against the statue depicting the Runelord of Gluttony. Kang translates the scroll from Thassilonian: it’s a request for a “truce and conversation” from someone named Azaven. From reading Vraxeris’ journals, Kang knows that Azaven is a powerful necromancer quick to seize the bodies of the deceased for his vile experiments. The Heroes of Varisia decide that a potential ally, or at least a source of information, could be quite useful—but they’re also prepared for a trap.
A figure soon emerges from the hallway behind the statue: a man of dry, leathery flesh that none can doubt is one of the walking dead! A crown is set on his brow, and he holds in one hand a staff made of bone with the Thassilonian rune for gluttony (and necromancy) burned into it. Flanking this figure, who must be Azaven, are a pair of wispy, barely visible shadowy creatures that drift over the floor. Jinkatsyu’s heart begins to beat quickly as fear becomes visible on his face, but the other adventurers manage to put on a brave face. “A lich!” Kang whispers to his allies.
The “conversation” doesn’t go well. Azaven is imperious, asking many questions but offering little. He seems agitated and dismissive in turn, and soon offers the adventurers a ludicrous bargain: if they turn over one of their number to him, he’ll let the rest live! They refuse, of course, and Azaven departs quickly, proclaiming that the “truce” is over and that all of the newcomers will soon become fodder for his “studies.”
When the lich and his shadows have moved out of earshot, Kang says it’s urgent that the group escape Runeforge quickly before Azaven comes after them. Ava suggests heading straight for the Halls of Wrath again and trying to find the escape route mentioned in Vraxeris’ journal, but Erik says leaving without having created a weapon strong enough to defeat Karzoug would be a mistake. Kang studies the Runeforge pool carefully, and with his newly-expanded intellect and study of Vraxeris’ journal, proclaims that he could use the pool to make a weapon particularly useful against transmuters like Karzoug. But, he would need one of “Delvahine’s toys” permeated with raw enchantment magic from the wing of Runeforge known as the Iron Cages of Lust.
Fearing an attack by Azaven, the adventurers move quickly down the necessary corridor. Unlike the last time they were here, Ava’s magic is strong enough to overcome the invisible wall of force that blocked access. The long corridor leads to a grand, opulent chamber that can only be described as a cathedral to lasciviousness itself. Thick pillars carved with the likeness of a beautiful nude woman support a ninety-foot-high domed ceiling, the surface of which depicts creatures engaged in all manner of carnal acts. At the centre of the massive chamber is a pavilion of opaque silk sheets, but around the sides of the room are several delicate-looking cages. One cage, to the left of the entrance, contains a man who seems to be barely clinging to life; but he’s not allowed to recover in peace, as he’s being tormented by four strikingly gorgeous women with horned brows, taloned feet, and batlike wings!
The adventurers decide it would be foolhardy to try to negotiate with such creatures. They instead seize the advantage of surprise, with Kang opening the assault by hurling a bomb of magical explosive force. The winged creatures, alu-demons, shriek with delight to see new prey to torment. They launch into the air and begin teasing and mocking the adventurers’ appearance and sexuality while simultaneously trying to use their demonic powers to compel them to submit. The heroes are quick to trade punches (verbally and physically) and soon carry the field. Kang talks to the man in the cage, but it’s clear that countless years of mental torment have reduced him to a state that’s barely human.
Closer inspection of the pavilion shows an entrance on one side, but with five immobile, obviously-entranced stone giants standing on guard. Erik mutters that he’s down to just one bullet, and suggests seeing if there’s a back entrance. It turns out there’s not, but that doesn’t stop the adventurers from trying to make one. Jinkatsyu tries to stab a hole with his enchanted rapier, but the fabric of the pavilion wall doesn’t tear at all! Kang inspects it and realizes it’s a special material made from the silk of behemoth spiders. He says he can blast his way, but it certainly won’t be subtle. It takes three of his best explosives to open a passageway.
As the smoke from the explosives clears, a chamber whose floor is covered with blankets, pillows, and sheets heaped on the floor can be seen. Dozens of exotic bejewelled toys are strewn about the room, many with a salaciously obvious purpose. But two silent, motionless figures stand in corners of the room—strange figures that look something like emaciated children with clawed hands. Jinkatsyu remembers their kind instantly from the fight outside Mokmurian’s library: the so-called “shining children”. Loud moaning can be heard from somewhere else in the pavilion as the adventurers quickly confer about what to do. Kang grabs the occasionally-mobile tumor that’s always attached to him somewhere and whispers to it. It crawls, slug-like, into the boudoir and retrieves one of the bejewelled toys. But its presence in the chamber they were set to guard does not go unnoticed, and the shining children suddenly erupt in bright, white hot light! Jinkatsyu is blinded instantly, but still guards the torn passageway as the shining children send blast after blast of burning light his way. Ava moves into position to heal his blindness and succeeds, but at the cost of becoming blinded herself!
And just as things look dire, the situation gets even worse: the moaning stops and seconds later a new figure makes an appearance: Delvahine, the mistress of the Iron Cages of Lust herself!
I'm glad the PCs got to do at least a little role-playing in Runeforge through the appearance of Azaven. There's actually a lot of intrigue going on between the different wings of the place, and I've read in the forums that some groups get really involved in it. Others go systematically and slaughter everything. My group stayed pretty focus on their--getting a weapon to defeat Karzoug and getting out fast.
The "Iron Cages of Lust" was one of those things I was very careful how I presented, especially because there was only one female player at the table and a bunch of guys. I think everyone handled it maturely though. I thought Kang's idea of using his detachable tumor familiar (alchemists are weird!) to steal the needed item was really clever. But sometimes the best laid plans come down to one Stealth check vs one Perception check, and this time it didn't pan out.
[5 Pharast 4708 continued]
Having detected an intrusion into her pavilion, the mistress of the Iron Cages of Lust, a succubus named Delvahine, confronts the adventurers, angry at the unannounced interruption. Her contingent of stone giant manservants, contacted via telepathy, begin to steadily (and loudly) march toward the rear of the tents where the Heroes of Varisia find themselves still facing a pair of the so-called “shining children.” Jinkatsyu, his blindness healed by Ava’s magical intervention, fights his way through both of the alien presences until he’s face to face with Delvahine herself! But an array of illusory duplicates stymie his further attacks, while she manages to entangle Kang with her whip! The succubus then bombards the adventurers with an onslaught of spells designed to break their wills, realizing only gradually that Ava had previously cast powerful abjuration magicks to protect them against just such an eventuality. The battle is at a stalemate, but as the stone giants get closer and closer, Ava starts to panic before teleporting herself and her companions away to comparable safety in the Shimmering Veils of Pride.
The others complain that they were on the verge of winning, and heated discussion is had about what to do next. Eventually, the group settles on Kang’s proposal to immediately use the bejewelled toy stolen from Delvahine’s pavilion to try to craft a weapon of the kind written about in Vraxeris’ journal: a so-called dominant weapon that could be the key to defeating the Runelord of Greed, Karzoug. The quartet return to Runeforge’s central hub, where Kang again examines the pool of prismatic liquid. The master alchemist first immerses a broken shard of glass from the Shimmering Veils of Pride, infused for thousands of years with raw illusion magic, and then Delvahine’s toy, an object long-instilled with the power of enchantment. The central pool turns a golden color and wisps of energy writhe up out of the pool to caress the adventurers, before Kang nods at Jinkatsyu and plunges the kitsune’s rapier into the waters. In a blinding flash of light, esoteric Thassilonian runes are etched onto the blade’s surface in a sign that the procedure has been successful.
But someone has taken notice. Another beam of golden light bursts from the pool to bathe the statue of Karzoug, and it animates as a towering stone golem! The adventurers hear the same voice they heard issuing from Mokmurian’s mouth in the last seconds of the stone giant’s life: “You, again. Your optimism is admirable but foolhardy. Your weapons will never reach Xin-Shalast. Your fate is death, here in Runeforge.” Jinkatsyu grabs the rapier from Kang’s hands and charges the golem, plunging the blade into its hardened stone body with incredible ease. The others scatter, with Kang hurling explosives with great precision. But the statue survives the initial onslaught and strikes back, slamming fists the size of boulders into Jinkatsyu with blows so powerful they can’t be deflected. With every bruising strike, the kitsune’s flesh begins to turn grey and harden until, just as Kang shouts to flee and Erik fires his last bullet, Jinkatsyu is shattered into dozens of pieces of stone! With incredible bravery, Ava leaps between the golem’s tree-trunk sized legs to grab a piece of the shattered stone, hoping it can be used to magically resurrect her ally. The survivors intend to retreat down a narrow corridor, hoping the massive animated statue can’t follow, but a final bomb hurled in desperation by Kang blasts the golem’s legs out from under it, and it ceases movement except for intoning a few last words: “This . . . this is not the last . . . come then, heroes. Seek me atop Mhar Massif, if you value life so poorly. You should be honoured—the first fools to be executed under the banner of Shalast in ten thousand . . . “
Worried that the sound of the battle may draw other residents of Runeforge to the hub, the adventurers quickly gather the stone remnants of Jinkatsyu’s body and decide it’s time to escape. Under the false impression that the teleportation circle they saw earlier in the Halls of Wrath would provide a quick escape, they hurriedly run down into that wing. But their previous retreat has given time for reinforcements to set up battle lines, and this time the adventurers find a hardened position. Ranks of human warriors wearing armor and wielding greatswords, and in front of them, the monstrous creatures known as sinspawn wielding massive axes. On the parapet where the iron golem previously stood is now a determined warrior-woman flanked by her bodyguard, a towering eighteen-foot-tall four-armed demon! Knowing they could never survive a frontal assault, the adventurers rely on magick and speed to bypass the defenders through teleportation magic! But when they land on the teleportation circle behind the parapet, it doesn’t take them to the material plane but another section of the Halls of Wrath.
The demon, dispatched to chase them, is hot on their heels as they run for their lives towards another teleportation circle in a side chamber. This one takes them to another chamber with a quickly-dispelled wall of black smoke, beyond which is a large avenue of crimson stone pillars supporting ceiling arches that seem to be made out of fire. Engraved on the floor of the center of this room is a huge seven-pointed star made of silver, and Kang instantly knows that this is the “master circle” that could provide escape. But the demon, just seconds behind the fleeing adventurers, uses its Abyssal magicks to reverse the gravity in the room, sending Ava “dropping” towards the burning ceiling! Kang uses his dragonfly wings to retrieve her and get her back to the master circle where she casts a spell to open the portal out of Runeforge. The implacable demon teleports into their midst just as the adventurers jump through, and it claws at Erik, missing by a hair’s breadth. It gives an enraged howl, frustrated that its quarry have escaped to a place it cannot follow.
The Heroes of Varisia find themselves tumbling out onto the snowy slopes of Rimeskull. Their harrowing experience in Runeforge has provided additional insights into Karzoug’s location and a weapon to help defeat him, but the knowledge was hard-gained. Another chapter in their epic story closes, and the final one begins.
This session contained two of my favorite scenes in the AP. First, the players were visibly surprised when that enormous statue came to life and plonked down a Huge-sized miniature on the table in front of them. Second, that breathless escape in the Halls of Wrath was thrilling and could easily have gone catastrophically bad with just one wrong turn or a bad die roll. I was proud and impressed with them for making it out that way.
This scenario was thus the end of Part V. Up next, the beginning of the end!
Having narrowly escaped Runeforge with their lives, the Heroes of Varisia discuss what to do next. The consensus is to return to Sandpoint, so Ava teleports the entire group in front of the Rusty Dragon. Once inside though, they find out that proprietor Ameiko Kaijitsu had made arrangements with them to stay at the White Deer Inn the next time they were in town—it seems that Kang’s alchemical experiments have pushed the Rusty Dragon’s cleaning staff’s patience to the breaking point! The adventurers dutifully troop to the White Deer, a grand affair with rooms overlooking the Varisian Gulf to the north. Kang immediately starts setting up his alchemy lab. The three adventurers discuss plans to visit Magnimar in the morning to see about having Jinkatsyu returned to flesh (and life), while Erik asks whether the material the group took from Runeforge (flasks of the prismatic liquid from the central pool and mirror shards from the Shimmering Veils of Pride) could be combined with an item radiating enchantment magic from outside Runeforge to forge another dominant weapon (his firearm). The usually-confident Kang is forced to admit he just doesn’t know, but says unbridled experimentation is the key to new discoveries.
[6 Pharast 4708]
Ava tries to teleport the adventurers to the Black Shield tavern in Magnimar, forgetting that the establishment was closed down by the authorities for customs tax evasion. Fortunately, the trio appear at another tavern in Dockway named the Pesky Mermaid. The sound of barking from within and a quick glimpse through the window reveals that dogs are quite welcome inside. But the adventurers don’t have time for drinks or socialising, and they stay focussed on scouring the city for a magic-user powerful enough to take the first step in restoring Jinkatsyu to life. It takes a few hours to narrow down leads, but in time the adventurers are given directions to the Stone of Seers, the city’s most esteemed school of wizardry. The school has an air of elitism and the adventurers’ plebeian backgrounds do them no favours. But money speaks, and with the school in the midst of a planned expansion, the head of the Stone of Seers is persuaded, for a sizable donation, to cast the necessary spells to return the stone segments of Jinkatsyu’s body to flesh. Once done, Ava immediately prays to Sinashakti and channels divine power to restore the kitsune to life.
Having completed their most important task, the adventurers return to Sandpoint via magic. In the Sandpoint Cathedral’s storeroom/shrine to Sinashakti, Ava expresses prayers of gratitude while the others fill Jinkatsyu in on what happened since the massive statue of Karzoug animated and stomped him to death. Jinkatsyu expresses interest in returning to Runeforge and slaying the dangerous creatures and villains inside before they escape to wreak havoc on the world, but Erik expresses confidence that they’re trapped inside. Jinkatsyu, however, raises the possibility of Karzoug freeing them. The argument remains unsettled as the adventurers run some other errands in Sandpoint and teleport back to Magnimar in the same day!
The adventurers sell thousands and thousands of gold pieces worth of equipment salvaged from their adventures in Jorgenfist and Runeforge, with their fundraising interrupted only by a military parade (in which Lord-Mayor Grobaras receives credit for “leading the crack team that repulsed the giant invasion in the north”), the appearance of a strange, floating object the size of a house made out of fabric and bearing an advertisement for “Nisk Tander’s Emporium of Alchemical Delights” (which Kang almost attacks), and an attempted robbery by members of the Bloody Knuckles gang (the battle ends quickly and with the ruffians much the worse for the attempt). That evening, the adventurers find a new inn, the Blasted Ferret (notable for the presence of a tombstone in the center of the common room!) and bed down for the night.
Having survived the trials of Runeforge, the Heroes of Varisia have certainly earned the right to enjoy the fruits of civilisation. But something is stirring far to the northeast; will the adventurers arrive in time to stop it?
This was one of those sessions necessary in a long campaign where the PCs heal up, sell their loot, and resupply. I always try to have some little dramatic incidents or subplots to advance, and use random encounter tables to keep the PCs on their toes.
The adventurers wake to a clear, cold day in Magnimar and plan another round of shopping and errands: Erik manufactures dozens of bullets for his firearm, Kang purchases a shirt made from finely-woven mithral links, and Jinkatsyu buys a magical pink blouse and a “lucky horseshoe.” But it’s Ava who makes the most interesting discovery. She passes an alleyway and sees several members of the Bloody Knuckles gang lying on the ground, battered into unconsciousness. In their midst is the prone form of a young girl slowly stirring, her fists covered in blood. Ava rushes to the girl and casts a healing spell before helping the stranger to her feet. The girl has a strange demeanour and talks little, but says her name is Morgiana and explains she’s been in Magnimar by herself ever since leaving her family’s farm near Sandpoint. Ava decides the girl needs protection, and escorts her back to the Blasted Ferret inn.
While Morgiana is in the bath, Ava explains to the others what happened. There’s grumbling about “bringing home strays,” but just as Morgiana emerges from the other room, excitement can be heard in the corridor outside. It seems the tombstone in the common room of the Blasted Ferret is no affectation: the former owner of the inn really is buried in a grave under the floorboards, and every so often his spirit manifests and harmlessly goes through the motions of serving customers! The adventurers get caught up in the spectacle, but just minutes later the adoring crowd is stunned into submission as a burly dwarf throws open the doors and proclaims that, in the name of Pharasma, the earthbound spirit must be banished to its eternal fate. The inn’s patrons, many who came just to see the apparition, get angry, and it looks like violence is imminent. Ava cleverly forestalls bloodshed by erecting a magical cone of silence around the dwarf, so that his ritual of banishment can have no effect. The zealous worshipper of the Lady of Graves stalks out in a huff, shaking his fist.
Back up in their room, the others confront Ava about apparently promising Morgiana that she could travel with them. Kang gives a forthright, but admittedly condescending lecture to the girl about the dangers that the Heroes of Varisia intend to face (while staying vague on the details of their quest). Morgiana captures everyone’s attention, and instantly sways their views, by revealing a surprising secret: she’s actually a hobgoblin! Her appearance as a little human girl is aided by a magical cap. However, she wasn’t lying about her (adopted) parents living on a farm outside Sandpoint, and says they found her orphaned at a young age and took her in, showing her only kindness and love. But now that she’s become a teenager, she wants to see more of the world than Sandpoint has to offer—thus, her journey to Magnimar and eventual run-in with the Bloody Knuckles. Any lingering suspicions that she might be a spy or plant are put to rest when Erik uses divination magicks to discern that Morgiana holds no malice towards them in her heart.
[8 Pharast 4708]
A frustrating day is spent in Magnimar. Kang faces anti-tiefling prejudice when trying to purchase the formula for a potion to see invisible creatures, Erik and Morgiana find the catalogue system of the Founder’s Archive too bewildering to locate anything on Mhar Massif (the legendary mountain said to be the site of Xin-Shalast), and, in the middle of the night, everyone’s sleep is interrupted by the return of the Pharasmin and a botched banishment ritual that turns the otherwise-peaceful spirit into a malevolent threat to all around it! Kang is forced to vanquish the spirit with an explosive made from pure force, and, when members of the local watch arrive to investigate, Jinkatsyu tries to have the Pharasmin arrested only to see them take the dwarf’s side.
[9 Pharast 4708]
The adventurers split into two groups for another day in Magnimar. Given false information about the location of a scribe specializing in scrolls of arcane magic, Kang, Jinkatsyu, and Erik find themselves in a quiet area of the docks—quiet because of the presence of a sargassum fiend nearby! The massive conglomeration of animated vegetable matter exudes hallucinogenic pheromones to draw prey to it, and both Kang and Erik approach within reach. But it proves no match for the three experienced adventurers and soon its inert mass begins to sink beneath the waves. Kang, however, suspects that organs containing the hallucinogenic musk might be salvageable, and he dives into the water after them. He emerges with four small bulbs, and even concocts a method to preserve them.
Fate has brought the Heroes of Varisia another member, but no prophecy in this Age of Lost Omens can foretell whether it will be enough to triumph over the challenges ahead.
With Yuzo's player gone for good, it was time to introduce a new player to keep us at five. Enter the final new PC in the campaign, Morgiana. As we'll see, Morgiana used a hat of disguise to disguise herself as a child or a gnome, but was actually a hobgoblin. The character specialised in combat maneuvers and could sometimes do some impressive things, but also proved to be something of a liability when push came to shove.
The bit with the ghost in the tavern stemmed from a random roll on a special table (I think from the GameMastery Guide) and then improv from there.
Who'd have guessed that the new player to PF1e, asked to make a level 15 character with no idea what's happening in the game(no plot information beyond the players guide, no information about monsters encountered recently or guide as to the sort of characters that fit the game at this level) would make a character who could be seen as a 'liability'
Especially when the DM, around that time, declared that all current characters were the last characters for each of those PCs. So there was no chance for him to adjust the character based on actual information to make someone of use to the party and interest to the story.
And the way you worded that commentary does really read like you only had Yuzo's player and Morgiana's player around because you had a number of seats you wanted filled.
Just thought I'd chime in, since I usually remain very quiet regarding this thread.
Signed,
Xeveg, Nedrin, Eugeni, Artemis, Salma, and Erik
[9 Pharast 4708 continued]
In Magnimar, the Heroes of Varisia continue their preparations for the final stage of their epic quest. As Ava makes contact with local cultists of Sinashakti, the others reunite at their inn. Erik and Jinkatsyu present the philtre of love they purchased as an ingredient to make another dominant weapon using the other materials smuggled out of Runeforge, but Kang tells them it would be useless. Only a powerful magical item strongly imbued with the essence of enchantment could be combined with the mirror shards from the wing of illusion to create a weapon opposed to Karzoug’s speciality, transmutation. Jinkatsyu urges the group to return to Runeforge to cleanse the place, but Kang notes the adventurers barely escaped alive last time. Meanwhile, Morgiana watches the proceedings, completely unaware of what’s going on.
[10 Pharast 4708]
In the morning, the adventurers spend several thousand gold pieces on a rod sufficiently imbued with magical energies to serve as the catalyst for a Runeforged weapon. Using a common washbasin, Kang uses a vial of the prismatic liquid from the central Runeforge pool, drops in a sprinkling of mirror shards, and then carefully immerses the rod. Instantly, golden glowing tendrils of energy arise, and Erik holds out his Alkenstar-made firearm for immersion in the liquid. When it is withdrawn, eldritch runes cover the barrel, and everything else in the basin is gone.
The adventurers decide their tasks in Magnimar have come to an end. Once Ava returns, she teleports the group to Sandpoint. A few more errands are completed in town. With Morgiana still in the form of a little girl, there’s much confusion to be had in the shops and inns (and among the populace generally) as to why adventurers engaged on such a dangerous task “have taken in an orphan.” Morgiana’s refusal to act or speak like a child causes further confusion, as does the lack of coordination among the group on what to call her in public (as Morgiana doesn’t want anyone to connect her childlike persona to the hobgoblin known to live on an outlying farm). The authorities are nearly called in to intervene on multiple occasions, but some fast talking and the trust the group has earned are enough to avoid formal inquiries.
During their day in Sandpoint, the group hears that Brodert Quink and Veznutt Parooh have been looking for them. The adventurers find the pair in Parooh’s map shop. Brodert explains that ever since returning from Jorgenfist he’s been continuing his research, as promised, on Xin-Shalast. He says he’s been corresponding with sages and scholars all across Varisia, and has finally struck gold during an exchange with the author of a noted cyclopedia on the foreboding Kodar Mountains, the so-called “Roof of the World” (where the legendary peak of Mhar Massif and it’s crown, Xin-Shalast, were said to lie during the time of Thassilon). The author, Cevil “Redwing” Charm, sent Brodert a letter:
---------------------------------------------
Saluations, Mr. Quink!
Thank you again for the kind words. It’s always a pleasure to speak with readers of my work, especially those well read and civilized enough to know of my writing beyond Eidolon. Alas, I was unable to procure a copy of the early draft from my personal files. It would seem that it has gone the way of so much of my early work, lost forever to the gulfs of time and narrow-minded publishers unable to grasp the import of a young Pathfinder’s work.
Fortunately, my mind is as quick now as it was in those early days of my explorations of your fantastic homeland. I recall the evening I first heard the story of Xin-Shalast, while seated on a log in a Varisian camp, sharing ruby mead with an enchanting young woman. Ah, but that’s a story for other times.
I was intrigued by the tale, though. All peoples have tales of “cities of gold”, yet with Xin-Shalast, the Varisians had no tradition of explorers seeking it. They viewed the place as one of evil, a place to be feared and forsaken. As far as I could tell, none of your indigenous people ever sought out the ruins before the advent of Chelish rule. But there was mention, come to think of it, of two dwarven brothers. Vekker, I think their names were. Claimed to have found the route to Xin-Shalast and convinced several tradesmen in Janderhoff to support and supply their plan to establish a base of operations in the low Kodar Mountains along the Kazaron. Their vanishing into the Kodars bankrupted all but one of their investors, I hear, and even today, the Vekker name is generally accompanied by a litany of rousing dwarven profanity when it comes up in ‘Hoffian taverns.
In the stead of enclosing a copy of the early, complete draft of my work, though, please find a signed copy of Eidolon with this missive. I trust it will look quite handsome on your shelf.
In good health,
Redwing
--------------------------
Brodert says his own research confirms that Silas and Karivek Vedder did indeed abscond with a fair amount of investors’ money into the mountains and never returned; the common theory is that their “discovery of Xin-Shalast” was simply a clever con, but those who knew the Vekkers personally held them in high esteem. He says that if they did indeed discover Xin-Shalast, it would make sense for them to keep its location a secret until they could return with proof. He speculates that if there are any clues as to the whereabouts of the fabled city, they might just lie within the Vekkers’ base of operations—their mining camp on the banks of the Kazaron. As Brodert finishes speaking, Veznutt Parooh pulls out a well-worn map of northern Varisia and shows the adventurers how the Kazaron River flows down from an unknown source in the northeast Kodar Mountain range until it reaches the northern border of the Cinderlands and begins flowing west. Both Brodert and Veznutt make separate appeals to be included on the adventurers’ journey to the Kodars, but both are politely rebuffed. Erik gives Brodert the remaining mirror fragments from Runeforge as a gesture of goodwill, and the sage is quite interested in studying them.
It’s near sunset when the meeting with Brodert and Veznutt draws to a close. Morgiana leads the others into Sandpoint’s southern hinterlands. There, on a small farm, she introduces everyone to her adopted mother, Derriandra. Derriandra is friendly and invites everyone to stay the night, but privately she expresses her concern to Morgiana that the youth has fallen in with a bad crowd! But teenage rebellion has struck Morgiana deeply, and she insists she can’t stay on the farm her whole life. Later that night, the others ask Morgiana to reconsider as well, asking why she would leave a good home and a good family. Their words fall on deaf ears.
[11 Pharast 4708]
The adventurers pass the day in errands, helping out around the farm, and discussing what the next step of their journey should be.
Overnight, Kang’s alchemical experiments in the barn somehow attract several swarms of rats. He dispatches them in seconds with his hurled explosives and gets back to work, paying little attention that he’s woken up everyone nearby and cracked the walls of the barn!
[12 Pharast 4708]
Morgiana’s father, Calast, tells the teenager that her friends need to leave. The man is angrily chopping firewood with an axe, and glares at Kang when the tiefling appears to make peace. Later, Derriandra explains that her husband isn’t really so angry about the barn, which is rarely used, but that the adventurers “are taking his little girl away with them.” Once again, the adventurers speak with Morgiana and encourage her to stay, but the surly teen says she told her parents she was leaving months ago and doesn’t care what they think. Indeed, Morgiana says, their lives may be better with her gone. But Kang is having none of it—he says he said the same thing to his father before leaving home, and regretted it. He insists that Morgiana and least say good-bye to her parents, and she reluctantly does so, receiving warm embraces in return.
The adventurers settle on their next destination: the deceased dragon Longtooth’s cave near Jorgenfist!
There was some excellent role-playing with the farm scenes, and I was impressed by seeing a whole different (but believable) side of Kang--the prodigal son, unable to return.
In Sandpoint, the Heroes of Varisia prepare to execute their plan to fund their expedition to Xin-Shalast by raiding the dragon Longtooth’s treasure horde near Jorgenfist. Ava casts her teleportation spell and . . . nothing happens! She realizes that knowing its rough location, without a description, isn’t sufficient for the spell to work. Undeterred, the adventurers decide to teleport to the “Deathweb Cave” that served as their temporary hideout for many days during their previous adventure in Jorgenfist. But due to limitations of magic, Ava can’t teleport everyone, and so Kang volunteers to leave his aberrant, tumor-like “familiar” in Brodert Quink’s custody again. The group find Brodert at Veznutt Parooh’s map shop. In order to avoid the suspicion caused on her earlier visit to Sandpoint, Morgiana uses her hat of disguise to take the form of an elderly gnome and is introduced by Jinkatsyu as an old friend named “Jinkles Blubbington.” But Veznutt knows Jinkatsyu is lying, and is vexed by the deception. In order to make it up to him, the group promise Veznutt that, on the morrow, they’ll take him to Jorgenfist so he can map the area. He’s delighted by the opportunity.
With everything ready, Ava tries her spell again, and this time the group arrive in the Deathweb Cave. It clearly hasn’t been occupied since they left it. With the aid of Kang’s magical flying elixirs, the adventures reach the top of the cliff and begin scouting for the location of Longtooth’s cave. A pair of rocs, nesting high up in a spire of the fortress, notice what looks like small flying prey and swoop to attack. The adventurers respond with a vicious array of attacks. But the violence has been for nought: Longtooth’s cave was emptied by the stone giants soon after they heard of his death in Sandpoint, and only a few scattered coins remain. Although disappointed, the adventurers decide to try to make the most of their time in Jorgenfist and fly into the catacombs beneath the fortress and into the Therassic Library. There, with the help of Erik and the clockwork librarian, Kang confirms that Xin-Shalast is said to sit atop Mhar Massif, a legendary peak (“The Ceiling of the World”) found at the headwaters of the sacred River Avah—a river which most scholars believe to have been destroyed during the great cataclysm known as Earthfall. Disturbingly, Mhar Massif is also said to serve as the bridge to strange realms beyond Golarion, with the entire area infused with dangerous eldritch magic.
[13 Pharast 4708]
The adventurers teleport back to Sandpoint. Veznutt is asked about the River Avah, but the skilled cartographer exclaims that he’s never heard of it. The adventurers fulfil their promise and teleport the gnome to Jorgenfist, and he instantly begins exploring every nook and cranny. Veznutt announces his plan to stay in the region for several weeks.
[14 Pharast 4708]
The adventurers assemble in the common room of the White Deer to discuss what to do next. Although they know the rough location of the Vekkers’ cabin, Ava doesn’t have enough detail to teleport the group directly there. Kang suggests the next best option would be teleporting to a predominantly orc city nearby called Urglin. He’s able to describe a temple to Rovagug there in sufficient detail, and says it would only be a couple of days on foot from Urglin to the banks of the Kazaron.
[15 Pharast 4708]
The adventurers make final preparations for what could be a long absence from Sandpoint. Kang says farewell to his familiar and Jinkatsyu unsuccessfully tries to stifle the rumours of his womanizing. A final stop at The Feathered Serpent results in Vorvashali Voon successfully using guilt to persuade Kang to purchase an expensive version of a bag of holding. Finally, everything is ready and Ava casts the teleportation spell for Urglin.
And the group arrive in the midst of a brutal civil war! Arrows, crossbow bolts, and fire spells rain down all around the adventurers as they find themselves occupying a key chokepoint between the two sides. Everyone scrambles for safety, and Ava manages to use a short-range teleportation spell to help her allies escape. They regroup in a seemingly-abandoned section of the city and then head for the closest exit to the west. But despite the fighting in the interior, the gates haven’t been left unguarded—a pair of orcs riding massive mounts that seem to be some sort of primeval mix of bison and rhinoceros charge the group. Kang tries to talk, but the orcs are far more interested in bloodshed than words. Morgiana distinguishes herself by skilfully disarming the riders of their lances, and the experienced adventurers prevail and rush out the western gates before more defenders can arrive.
But outside the city, the barren wasteland known as the Cinderlands stretch for miles in every direction. Have they escaped the frying pan and into the fire?
I have no idea where the sudden idea to go after Longtooth's hoard came from--my guess would be someone looking over old recaps or reading previous chapters of the AP. Given that it had been a while in-game since Longtooth was slain in Sandpoint at the beginning of Chapter 4 (and that survivors of the raid would have reported the dragon's death), I thought it inevitable that the hoard would have already been looted. A classic snooze and lose situation.
I like situations where the players have to plan their own route with lots of different possibilities. Urglin was an interesting surprise, and I had to think on my feet (furiously Googling the city in the middle of the session!). I thought the idea of arriving in the middle of an orc civil war would be exciting and improvised the rest.
"I have no idea where the sudden idea to go after Longtooth's hoard came from"
You ask us to RP and then don't actually pay attention to the course of an RP that brings up information about a dead dragon? nice
"my guess would be someone looking over old recaps or reading previous chapters of the AP"
It's acusations like this that eventually made me give up giving you any feedback at all in sessions. You seemed unwilling to believe we could come up with stuff on our own.
"I thought it inevitable that the hoard would have already been looted. A classic snooze and lose situation."
to quote yourself in another thread:
"many adventuring parties do not ruthlessly collect and sell every piece of available loot, and thus their wealth will eventually fall below Wealth by Level"
so which is it? snooze you lose? or take everything?
[15 Pharast 4708 continued]
Having barely escaped a civil war in Urglin, the adventurers find themselves in the rocky wasteland called the Cinderlands. Known to be inhabited only by orcs, Shoanti, and the occasional predator, few cross the Cinderlands if they have any choice in the matter. The adventurers immediately begin heading north, but the powerful gusts of winds are enough to knock Ava off her feet repeatedly. Finally, Morgiana picks up the grippli cleric and carries her. The adventurers pass by occasional plant-life of a kind they’ve never seen before, but for the most part the terrain is inhospitable and featureless. After several hours’ hard marching to put some distance between themselves and Urgin, the adventurers set up a campsite. Unlike the others, Morgiana has not adventured in northern climes and finds the cold getting to her.
[16 Pharast 4708]
Another day’s long march ends near sunset with the group reaching the river Kazavon at a point where it stretches off to the north and to the east. Ava magically conjures stone into the shape of a rough bunker. That night, Jinkatsyu is on watch while the others are sleeping and he hears a strange clacking sound coming from the outside of the stone wall. He rushes out to investigate and sees a monstrous scorpion as large as a horse! Quick as a flash, his rapier darts into the creature’s unarmoured underbelly. Kang reacts quickly as well, and rather than alert everyone for miles by hurling an explosive, he takes aim with his rarely-used longbow and scores a perfect bullseye, killing the scorpion instantly. The master alchemist hurries to see if he can recover a sample of its poison, but he’s not used to the messy fieldwork involved in harvesting poison from recently diseased creatures and accidentally spills the venom all over the ground.
[17 Pharast 4708]
After consulting one another, the adventurers decide to follow the eastern branch of the river. Barely an hour after sunset, as they rest in another conjured bunker, the Heroes of Varisia feel the ground trembling. They dart out of the bunker and look for the source of the disturbance, only discover it was literally right under them! A massive worm covered in purple chitinous plates and with a fanged maw perhaps 20 feet in diameter emerges from the ground to swallow the bunker whole before turning its attention to smaller prey. As a barrage of attacks rain down upon it, it darts down to bite Erik, but the aasimar slips out of its mouth thanks to a protective spell cleverly cast by Ava. Even a creature as dangerous as the legendary purple worm cannot long resist the Heroes of Varisia, and it succumbs to their onslaught. After it's dead, Erik takes the lead in trying to obtain poison from this carcass—but he too fails, and ends up getting himself poisoned in the process! Once again, Ava steps in to put things right.
[18 Pharast 4708]
Another day’s journey passes uneventfully. Along the river banks, tall grasses grow, marking the northern border of the Cinderlands. Before dawn, the adventurers find themselves in a scuffle with a roc, but thanks to everyone (save Jinkatsyu) having the ability to fly or fall great distances safely, no one is seriously hurt.
[19 Pharast 4708]
The adventurers continue travelling east, and at sunset reach the point where the river turns north towards a mountain range in the distance.
[20 Pharast 4708]
The adventurers begin travelling into the foothills, gradually rising in elevation.
A session devoted exclusively to wilderness travel. I appreciate the AP's foresight in having random encounter tables devoted to each chapter, as the battles help keep things interesting (and provide some extra XP in case the PCs didn't go to every scripted encounter). I used the poison harvesting rules from the then-new Ultimate Wilderness. Ava's become pretty fond of the stone shape spell at this point, and I imagine there are dozens of these little bunkers now strewn across northern Varisia :)
[20 Pharast 4708 continued]
The adventurers’ journey to find the mining camp of the Vekker Brothers, dwarves who disappeared decades ago, continues. Although the journey won’t be easy, the Vekkers’ claims to have discovered the path to Xin-Shalast is the best lead the Heroes of Varisia have found. Having teleported to Urglin, crossed the Cinderlands, and found the Kazaron River, the adventurers camp in the foothills of the Kodar Mountains.
That night, Erik and Jinkatsyu are on watch when they suddenly realize that someone is watching them! A muscular giant with dark grey skin and fiery red hair, dressed in furs and carrying a spear, stands like a statue and silently gazes upon them. The two sentinels awake their companions, and Kang remembers reading an old entry in a Pathfinder’s log about encountering so-called taiga giants: nomadic hunters and gatherers who have a strong spiritual connection to their ancestors and to the land. Kang addresses it in the Giant language, as does Morgiana. The two adventurers receive only curt replies, indicating that the taiga giant perceives that the adventurers have intruded into its tribe’s territory. The adventurers ask for permission to traverse the land, but Kang’s arrogance does the negotiations no favour, and the giant makes it clear that the adventurers must turn back or face violence. To avert hostilities, Ava uses minor teleportation magic to carry everyone several hundred feet away.
[21 Pharast 4708]
The party continues marching, with Morgiana and Jinkatsyu finding it difficult to keep up through the harsh terrain and thinning air. But magic keeps them from flagging, and by nightfall the adventurers reach a point where the river splits into an eastern and a western branch. A quick spell allows Ava to ask Veznutt Parooh which branch to take, and they receive an answer: the eastern.
[22 Pharast 4708]
At midday, the party’s progress is halted by the appearance of another taiga giant in their path. Whether it’s the same one or a different one, they can’t tell. The giant solemnly calls upon the travellers to turn back, lest they incur the wrath of a malevolent spirit that haunts the area ahead. According to the giant, the evil spirit flies on the wind, howls in the night, feasts on the flesh of all living things, and turns kin against kin. In the Giant tongue, the spirit’s name is synonymous with a dread curse . . . “wendigo”!
But the group has come too far to turn back now, despite the ominous portent of what lies ahead. Ava again uses spellcraft to teleport the group past the taiga giant. The group follows the Kazaron for a few more miles, and then they spy their goal: the Vekkers’ cabin. Sitting in a low valley, the cabin is perched on the edge of a 60’ high cliff, with a small shed at the base of the cliff connected to the cabin via an enclosed wooden shaft. The profusion of lichens growing on its timber walls make it clear the cabin is decades old, but it still looks sturdy—dwarves craft things to last. Near the shed at the bottom of the cliff is a pile of fine black sand underneath a chute, and, apart from a dead, sagging pine tree, the whole area is devoid of plant life. Even from a distance, the cabin has the look of a place long abandoned. As the rugged adventurers take in the sight, they hear, for the first time, an awful, uncanny keening carried on the wind.
The adventurers waste no time in descending to the valley. The door to the lower shed is burst open, and most of the adventurers go inside, with Morgiana watching the perimeter outside. Much of what the adventurers see is what they expected: a plank floor, rusted mining tools, decaying garments, and dust everywhere. Erik pokes his face through a curtain and is startled to see a figure hunched over in the corner of the room! It looks like a balding dwarf with gold dust thick in his beard, stuffing fistfuls of the stuff into his mouth! “You!” he shouts at Erik—“You have to try this . . . It’s so delicious!” Erik feels an unnatural urge to join the dwarf, but he snaps out of it and shakes his head to clear his vision. The dwarf and the pile of gold dust are gone. Instead, there’s only a pile of black sand next to the chute that projects through the wall to another pile, outside.
Morgiana suddenly comes inside, pulling the door shut behind her. She explains that a blizzard is moving in on the cabin at an incredible pace! Meanwhile, Kang identifies the black dust as containing high concentrations of arsenic, and warns everyone to be careful around it. Alerted by Erik’s experience that the cabin is probably haunted, the adventurers decide to climb the stairs quickly and hope there are clues about the brothers’ discovery of Xin-Shalast in the portion of the structure that lies at the top of the cliff. But once they near the top, the stairs suddenly tip over to the side! The cunning dwarven trap sends Morgiana plummeting almost fifty feet to the bottom of the shaft, though the others manage to grab handholds and hang on. But the danger isn’t over, as a chain and bucket is animated by dark energies to become a lethal weapon! Ava channels the light of Sinashakti to drive the evil spirits away, and the chain goes limp.
The upper portion of the cabin contains a bunkroom, a small living area, storage closets, and more. From the personal items still present, it’s clear that the place was not abandoned with foresight. As the search continues, disturbing visions and feelings infiltrate the minds of the adventurers: hunger pangs as if on the brink of starvation, mild paranoia that the others have become cannibals, and more. Using a magical ring that allows her to see through walls, Morgiana discerns that in one room is a pile of bones. As the storm begins raging in full force outside and the whistling of the wind carries through the cabin, the adventurers decide they have no choice: they’re going to have to enter the room and investigate.
Having found this forlorn cabin in windswept mountains far from civilization, will the Heroes of Varisia survive the terrors that await and discover the path to legendary Xin-Shalast? Or do the warnings of the taiga giants and the unearthly keening foretell a far worse fate?
The taiga giants were just a random encounter, but they actually ended up being pretty important. In this session, they give the warning about the wendigo and help establish a feeling of dread, and in later sessions they take on even greater importance. Kang's attempt at diplomacy failed miserably, as the player intentionally kept the arrogant character from being good at social skills--a nice touch.
We start to see some of the effects of altitude and cold weather come into play, but Ava had the spell resources to keep the party moving. Without her, they would have had to invest in some magical items to proceed, I think.
We get the first taste of the haunts in the Vekkers' cabin. I thought this part of the adventure path told a good, creepy story and I was really happy with how it turned out in gameplay.
The Heroes of Varisia continue their exploration of the Vekker Brothers’ haunted cabin, hoping to find clues as to the whereabouts of the legendary city of Xin-Shalast. Kang uses a couple of vials of liquid fire to burn a hole through the wall of a chamber containing a mound of dwarven bones. The master alchemist then enters to examine the bones, only to find that some of them appear to be wearing his own equipment! An instant later, Kang believes himself surrounded by a whirling storm of shadowy forms as the cannibalized dead arise to gnaw at his flesh. He stumbles out of the room, alive but bleeding from mysterious wounds.
Just as he returns, a strange knocking sound starts to echo through the cabin, seemingly to come from the lower entrance. The adventurers huddle near the top of the shaft, taking up defensive positions, but are startled when the entire cabin seems to groan and shake! The hammering sounds continue as spectral images of starving dwarves can be seen flittering about. Jinkatsyu is suddenly possessed by an overwhelming hunger for sentient flesh, and tries to kill Ava with his rapier! She makes a run for it and is badly hurt, but buys enough time to channel divine power to drive the haunted remnants away. Jinkatsyu returns to his senses, having been spared the torment of actually feeding on an ally, but it’s clear the detrimental effects of the possession remain.
Morgiana opens the door to check on the blizzard and is startled to see a single ghostly dwarf manifest. His facial features are curiously indistinct, and although he speaks, his lips barely move: “You . . . you are alive? You do not hunger? Ah . . . this is what I sense in your blood. Greed. You seek the City of Greed. You should abandon your quest, lest you end up like me. Cold. Dead. Eaten. But I suspect you cannot be swayed. Know then that I know the way to Xin-Shalast. I can show you the way, but only if you bring me my brother. He died on a ledge in the mountains a mile’s walk north from this cabin. I can feel his soul out there, still hungry, still insane. Bring his bones to me so that I might reconcile with him. Once he is at rest, I will show you the way so that I might rest as well . . .” The vision fades, and Morgiana rushes back inside to share what she’s seen with her teammates.
Although Jinkatsyu argues that the group shouldn’t rest in such a cursed place, the others are insistent that it’s safer inside than out in the blizzard. They fortify the bunkroom and everyone tries to sleep. Jinkatsyu, however, tosses and turns as terrible nightmares of feasting on Ava’s flesh wreaks havoc on his state of mind. Strangely enough, Ava has a corresponding dream—of being Jinkatsyu’s victim.
[23 Pharast 4708]
Morning finds Jinkatsyu sweaty and bedraggled, having gained little rest. Ava shares the contents of her dream, saying it’s best to have everything out in the open. Jinkatsyu says he’s dangerous and can’t trust himself, but Ava promises that the fiend in their nightmares is not the real Jinkatsyu.
The group set off through the rocky, snowy terrain, glad that the previous day’s blizzard has subsided. Erik spots an old, disused trail that matches the ghost’s directions. Even a mile’s journey across the treacherous landscape takes much of the morning, though Morgiana’s harness of magical wings allows her to soar effortlessly above the others. Following the trail requires ascending a difficult cliff face, and more magicks are brought to bear to get everyone to the top. Although natural wilderness competence is often lacking in the Heroes of Varisia, sheer magical power allows them to overcome most obstacles.
The trail ends at an uneven shelf of rubble and rocks covered with ice and packed snow. A thin fog hovers just above the ground, but the adventurers notice the tops of about a dozen gravestones protruding out of the mist. Kang’s excellent vision allows him to spot the remnants of an old fire pit, and, laying near it, a corpse frozen solid and preserved by the cold mountain air: broken and mangled as if it had fallen from a great height, its legs end in charred, blackened stumps.
But before further investigation is possible, everyone can feel a great rumbling underneath them. Instants later, a huge, gaping maw pushes its way out of the packed snow, followed by a tubular body almost 35 feet long, exhaling a punishing gust of freezing cold! And somehow things get worse, as almost simultaneously, a spectral image arises from the frozen body on the ground, its ghostly mouth filled with fangs that drip streamers of blood that fade away to mist before striking the ground! The first creature, known in the north as a frost worm, almost cuts Jinkatsyu in half with a terrible bite before tossing him aside like a rag doll. It breathes out a storm of hail that nearly batters Erik to death. But the adventurers rally and focus all their efforts on the worm, killing it only to pay a terrible price: in its death throes, the worm literally explodes and levels everything around it. Although Jinkatsyu somehow manages to dive for cover and Erik and Morgiana endure the blast, Ava and Kang are killed instantly.
And the ghostly presence of Karivek Vekker still lusts for flesh! It attacks Erik, and only through the superhuman efforts of the aasimar and his surviving allies is the ghost temporarily dissipated. But now that they’re at their weakest, a final horror emerges: the clouds darken, the wind begins swirling with hints of a new blizzard, and the keening of the wendigo cuts through the mountains like a knife.
Only during the first assault on the Kreeg Clanhold in Hook Mountain has this epic quest to stop Karzoug been so close to utter failure—will the remaining heroes yet find a way to survive?
Swashbucklers have few weaknesses, but low Will saves can be one of them. This session we see Jinks possessed, and things get dark! Some really good role-playing by both his and Ava's players though.
The ghost plot (needing the bones to be returned in exchange for info on Xin-Shalast) was a bit trite in my opinion.
That exploding worm was a real shock! And it was amazing the survivors managed to fend off the ghost that ambushed them afterwards. Things got really dire, and I was pleasantly surprised it didn't end in a TPK.
[23 Pharast 4708 continued]
Disaster has struck the Heroes of Varisia! Two of their group are dead, killed by the explosive death throes of a frost worm. And now, swirling winds, heavy snow, and an unearthly keening presage the coming of the wendigo! The survivors—Erik, Jinkatsyu, and Morgiana—rush back towards the comparative safety of the Vekkers’ cabin. But before they get far, they see two massive shapes in front of them, looming out of the blizzard. The desperate adventurers know they’re not capable of surviving another fight, and decide to try to dodge past them. But as they get closer, a booming voice calls out in the Giant tongue—a language that Morgiana happens to speak—and the menacing shapes resolve into a pair of taiga giants: a younger female named Cirdassa and an imposing shaman named Tanaq Mammoth-Eater. Tanaq explains in his stilted way that his tribe’s ancestral spirits have foreseen the coming of the wendigo on this day, and that there is a chance it can be destroyed forever. There’s little chance for conversation, however, as the wendigo keens again—and this time, it’s so close that panic sets in and the adventurers flee headlong for the cabin.
They’re lucky to find their way through the harsh terrain and limited visibility, and duck inside just as the wendigo is ready to set upon them. The roof suddenly falls in as a hideous shape with the head of a feral elk and legs that end in blackened, burnt stumps crashes through. The flying creature sweeps Erik into its claws and hurtles up into the sky, releasing him from great height! But Erik’s angelic wings allow him to glide down to safety. Back on the ground, Tanaq calls out a challenge, but the wendigo ignores him, crashing through another part of the roof to land next to Jinkatsyu. But instead of attacking, the wendigo only stares deeply into the kitsune’s tortured soul and delivers a promise from mind to mind: “You are me.” Too large to fit into the cabin, Tanaq jumps onto the roof and stabs down into the hole created by the wendigo, striking deeply with his enchanted spear. The other giant, Cirdassa, tries to get an angle from the doorway, and with the adventurers joining in, they seem to have it surrounded! It claws and bites in a vicious fury before suddenly turning into mist and floating away on the winds.
The sudden winter storm quickly dissipates. Tanaq, who barely survived the onslaught of the wendigo’s attacks, takes one look at Jinkatsyu and says “The wendigo has marked him with its curse—he will be dead by dawn with the creature unslain—and it will not return once driven away.” Jinkatsyu, exhausted from lack of sleep and another gruelling battle, takes the news bitterly and isolates himself from the others. Erik asks the taiga giants if they can help return the deceased Kang and Ava to life. Tanaq says that their valiant souls deserve a return to mortal life, but that the journey back from the beyond may find them in a new shell. Erik opines that Kang certainly wouldn’t want to be anything other than what he was, but that Ava probably wouldn’t mind. Tanaq says the ritual can be conducted at the new day’s dawning. He and Cirdassa disappear into the distant treeline to commune with the spirits, while the others rest after their day’s ordeal.
For Jinkatsyu, it is the longest, darkest night of his life. The fate that awaits him should he succumb to the curse is one far worse than death—as he’ll become a monstrous thing akin to the wendigo, constantly hungering for sentient flesh. But Morgiana and Erik offer no comfort, callously trading routine quips with each other as their companion is left locked in a storage room. Somehow, though, the swashbuckler finds the inner fortitude to survive for one more day. But he knows that, without a miracle, it will be his last.
[24 Pharast 4708]
The adventurers wake with headaches, nausea, and fatigue. Without Ava’s or Kang’s magicks, the mountain altitude has taken its toll overnight. The survivors stumble out into the cold to meet with the taiga giants, camped nearby. After a lengthy ritual, Tanaq calls upon the spirit world to return Ava’s soul for another journey in the mortal realm. Her deceased grippi body seems to melt and reform into that of a living half-elf, and Ava is back!
The cleric of Sinashakti is stunned by everything that’s happened since the battle against the frost worm. Not only are there giants around, the wendigo has been permanently dispatched, and Kang is deceased—but she herself is suddenly taller and with unwebbed fingers! Before she has time to compose herself, Erik tells her about Jinkatsyu’s curse and asks her to remove it. She calls upon her divine magicks, but the curse of the wendigo is just too strong. But, there is something else she can do: bring Kang back to life! The tiefling returns to life in a spray of vomit. After some initial confusion over Ava’s new form (and an off-the-cuff remark that “slimy skin was Ava’s whole personality”), he promises to make it up to her.
Later that day, as the group prepare for a return visit to the isolated mountain shelf to the north where the bones of Karivek Vekker lie, Tanaq gets Erik’s attention. The giant says he has performed a ritual divination and the future is clear: Jinkatsyu will succumb to the wendigo’s curse at midnight. The giant suggests Erik and his friends kill him first, and spare Jinkatsyu and everyone else the horror of an irreversible transformation into a cannibalistic spirit of pure evil. But magic and money are always cause for optimism, and the adventurers instead decide to see if Magnimar might offer a cure for what ails Jinkatsyu . . .
This was a really exciting, dark session with the desperate return to the cabin, the wendigo crashing through the roof, and Jinks honestly getting *this* close to dying and turning into a wendigo. Not everyone in the group was on the same page with the role-playing, but overall I was happy with how the session turned out.
Cirdassa and Tanaq Mammoth-Eater were the temporary replacements for Ava's and Kang's players. I wanted them to be able to participate in the session while waiting to see if their regular PCs could be brought back to life. Cirdassa was a "stock" taiga giant from the Bestiary, but Tanaq Mammoth-Eater was from Giants Revisited. He was a level 10 druid with a really cool magic spear, and (although I didn't pick him for this reason) had the ability to cast reincarnation. I had Ava's player roll on an expanded table of possibilities to see what Ava would come back to life as, but it ended up on a pretty mundane result--half-elf. That's dice!
[24 Pharast 4708 continued]
Ava decides to try one final spell before giving up completely on her own ability to remove the dread wendigo curse that has taken a deep hold on Jinkatsyu, With a fervent prayer to Sinashakti, she throws wave after wave of divine energy into the swashbuckling kitsune. The curse resists almost as if it were sentient, and for a moment, Jinkatsyu’s fate teeters on a knife’s edge . . . but Ava’s will is strong enough to overcome the curse, and she tears it out of Jinkatsyu by its roots! Although freed from its malign influence, the kitsune is drained and exhausted by the ordeal. Kang mixes a powerful, foul-tasting restorative for him. The adventurers decide to rest for the night. Ava explains that she’d still like to teleport to Magnimar sometime the next day in order to buy some clothes and armor that fit her new body.
[25 Pharast 4708]
The heroes spend the morning traversing the rough trail to the wide ledge where the bones of Karivek Vekker remain, still frozen to the earth. It takes some effort to break it free of the ice, but the body is successfully transported back to the cabin. Once taken to the part of the cabin at the bottom of the cliff-face where Morgiana first encountered the spirit of Silas Vekker, the ghostly figures of both brothers manifest again in a strange, spiritual struggle! Unsure of whether or how to intervene, the adventurers wait and watch.
Jinkatsyu decides to get started in digging a grave for Karivek’s body, but has the awful luck to pick a spot under the decayed pine tree that stands nearby. But the tree is far more than it seems—once a treant, it died decades ago from the arsenic polluting the soil, only to persist as an undead creature—a Horror Tree! Its roots lash out at Jinkatsyu, crushing him while sending filaments of strange fungus through his bloodstream. But Kang hurls an explosive right into the monster’s gaping maw, and blows it apart from within! Jinkatsyu regains his footing and finishes off the remnants of the abomination with his rapier.
After almost ten minutes of struggle, the ghost of Karivek Vekker suddenly sighs and stops struggling. The spectral ghost’s teeth return to normal and his feet grow back before the entire apparition fades away into nothingness. The ghost of Silas Vekker turns to face the Heroes of Varisia and speaks, fading away more and more with each word: “You have saved my brother. You have saved me. I would reward you by simply taking the path to Xin-Shalast with me into the beyond, yet I sense that you would still harbor a desire to see those golden ruins. Very well. Look to the pages of my ledger for the way, and may Torag watch over you in the darkness to come.” As the spirit fades away forever, several parchment pages manifest in thin air and float lazily to the ground. Kang examines this carefully and explains to the others that they must continue heading north, following the Kazaron River until it branches, then follow the western branch to the end. There, they must fast and wait for a night with a full moon, and then (this part is maddeningly vague) the path to Xin-Shalast shall be made clear. With some hours of daylight still to burn, and a promise from the taiga giants to escort them out of their territory, the adventurers decide to leave the tragedy of the Vekker Brothers and the wendigo behind, and get started on the next leg of their journey.
[26 Pharast 4708]
The journey north is difficult, even with the giants choosing the easiest way forward through the trackless mountains. Jagged rock, slippery ice, steep ascents, and a general lack of mountain-climbing training or gear bedevils the adventurers, and they make only slow progress. But, hour after hour, they forge ahead, and soon reach the edges of the giant’s territory. As thanks for their aide, and as a makeshift celebration of how far the adventurers have come, Ava magically conjures a feast fit for a king’s coronation. At sunset, the giants give their solemn farewells, and are not seen again.
[27 Pharast 4708]
With the guidance of the giants no longer available, the adventurers make even slower progress than before, sometimes spending hours just to scale a few hundred feet of cliff-face. Pessimism starts to set in. Ava continues to conjure stone bunkers for the group to rest in each night. On this night though, she sets her bunker at the base of a tall outcropping that just happens to be the roost of a massive, roc-sized avian called (in a translation from the original Shoanti) a “thunderbird.” Bolts of lightning and heavy winds surround the thunderbird, forcing the adventurers to flee their original campsite and set up another one several hundred yards away.
[28 Pharast 4708]
In the morning, Ava thinks deeply about the vast array of magicks she can draw upon to speed the group’s journey towards Xin-Shalast, and realizes that one in particular will make the trip a trivial thing: by turning everyone lighter than air, they can float along magical winds at tremendous speeds! No longer need they be hampered by difficult terrain or limited visibility. An experiment with the spell proves incredibly successful, as the adventurers cover more distance in a single hour than would have with days of laborious climbing through the rugged Kodar range. The western branch of the Kazaron terminates in a vast, icy swamp. As the adventurers get closer to it, both Kang and Ava feel an uncanny sense of dislocation, as if they’re venturing into an area only loosed moored to the material plane. The group decide to retreat outside the swamp and set up camp for the night.
The DC to break the wendigo's hold on Jinkatsyu was very high, but Ava persisted with multiple castings of the necessary spell until she finally made it.
I thought the ghosts' spiritual struggle was a bit cheesy and fell flat, and there really wasn't much for the PCs to do besides watch.
I was wondering when or if that horror tree would ever get triggered!
Ava discovering wind-walking sped up this portion of the chapter dramatically. I just don't know how groups without high-level full casters would make it through the extreme terrain and weather hazards. It would definitely take a lot of preparation and patience!
[28 Pharast 4708]
Having ventured as far north as the Fen of the Icemists, the adventurers change their minds about camping. They instead decide to make one final trip to Magnimar for provisions and magical armaments before proceeding to Xin-Shalast. When they magically jump to the city, however, they find a strange tenseness in the citizenry. Many shops have a “No Gold” sign, whilst here and there on the streets is a lifelike gold statue. The adventurers see members of the city watch and priests of the church of Abadar examining the statues, and quickly discern that a terrible fright has gripped the city. A small percentage of gold coins have been infected with a magical curse that turns anyone who touches them into a statue! Learning that those coins are revealed to be stamped with Sihedrons, the adventurers can only surmise that Karzoug’s plans are accelerating: by making currency dangerous, the Runelord of Greed has weakened one of Varisia’s most important cities by bringing trade to a veritable halt!
Fortunately, for present purposes, the adventures have enough platinum coins and gems to make the purchases they’re most concerned about. That night, after Morgiana’s dazzling displays of prowess scares away another attempting mugging by the Bloody Knuckles gang, the adventurers sit down at the Blasted Ferret and begin drinking heavily. Conversation turns to what each member of the group will do once they’ve defeated Karzoug. Kang announces his intention to settle down and set up a school for advanced alchemical studies, and Ava suggests she could attend so she could learn how to read! Erik speculates about joining the Pathfinder Society and taking on evil tyrants, while Morgiana ruminates about visiting the City at the Center of the World (Absalom) someday and living in a place where hobgoblins like herself aren’t frowned upon. For his part, Jinkatsyu says he still hasn’t forgiven or forgotten the hag who murdered his parents.
As the night wears on and the wine cups are emptied and refilled, the talk turns more maudlin. What if they don’t survive the attack on Karzoug? Ava says she’d like to be buried in Sandpoint, because that’s where she met all of her friends. Morgiana asks to be cremated and buried on her family’s farm. Instead of talking about the future, Kang reveals a secret he’s never shared before: born in the Darklands, he learned alchemy from his father before the man was executed by the so-called “dark elves” during a time of turmoil and war. Kang admits to having dabbled in poisons and pesh, and, while enslaved by the “drow”, having conducted nefarious flesh-warping experiments on living creatures for them.
When the bartender announces last call, the Heroes of Varisia toast to hope. In the morning they may be embarrassed by the intimacies they’ve shared, but they’ll have a stronger bond than ever before.
[29 Pharast 4708]
Kang distributes his disgusting but effective hangover cure. The adventurers spend the day on errands. Occasional plumes of smoke can be seen from distant parts of the city, and reports of isolated looting start to spread.
[30 Pharast 4708]
Having started fasting the night before (so as to meet the cryptic conditions in the Vekkers’ journal about finding the hidden path to Xin-Shalast), everyone wakes up hungry. Rumours of a (failed) attempt on the Lord-Mayor’s life spread like wildfire, and soon after, soldiers from the Arvensoar place the city under martial law. Gossip holds that Korvosa and Riddleport are suffering from problems of their own, leaving people to wonder what’s happening to Varisia. The adventurers debate whether it’s safer to stay in Magnimar or spend time in the wilderness, and the latter view wins out. After teleporting everyone back to the Kodars, Ava helps them withstand a blizzard by creating another stone bunker.
[31 Pharast 4708]
Another morning sees the adventurers suffering from extreme hunger pains.
The cursed gold coins spreading throughout Magnimar were something I came up with to make the "shopping trip" more interesting. I wanted to show that Karzoug's agents were accelerating their plans, and the theme seemed to fit the Runelord of Greed perfectly.
Some great role-playing in the tavern scenes. I try to occasionally prompt topics that the players wouldn't perhaps naturally have their PCs discuss by saying something like "As you finish your meal, talk turns to what you'll do after Karzoug's defeat", etc. It's not something that always works, but with some good role-players at the table, it can really add to character depth.
[31 Pharast 4708 continued]
The adventurers endure a long night, painful night of tedium and rumbling bellies. Morgiana uses some bits of metal and gearwork to craft a homemade beartrap!
[1 Gozran 4708]
Through Ava’s magic, the adventurers turn into gossamer figures lighter than the winds and hurl themselves further north until they reach a point labelled on a few sages’ maps as “The Fen of the Icemists.” The partially-frozen wetland is constantly swathed in damp fog, with the ground a treacherous landscape of bogs obscured by thin icy crusts. The group choose poorly on where to return to their normal corporeal forms, and crack through the crust, sinking into the freezing cold muddy waters! Jinkatsyu and Erik are able to climb out quickly, while Kang’s mosquito wings allow him to shoot out like a Tien firework. But Morgiana plummets helplessly deeper and deeper, and only with Ava’s quick thinking and amazing magicks that bend time and space do both escape.
Once the adventurers find solid ground, they set up camp and wait hour after hour, starving from their self-imposed fast. Then, sometime near the witching hour, everyone except Jinkatsyu notices something strange under the light of the full moon: a faintly sparkling, nearly transparent image of the River Avah continuing north from the icy fens. The ghostly river provides the adventurers a path to follow, and they travel until well past dawn—keen to see where it leads and concerned that if they sleep or eat, it may just disappear. Erik manages to assuage their concerns, however, with the clever use of a spell invented by a knightly order: it allows him to stay awake and alert for several more hours with no ill effects.
[2 Gozran 4708]
The ghostly river doesn’t disappear from sight, and the group’s magically-sped pace allows them to move through mountainous terrain faster than a horse-drawn chariot on the smoothest plain. Soon the adventurers reach a point where the phantom Avah overlaps with an ancient road paved with flat stones that have a faint sheen of gold on them—the road is a strict 100 feet wide, and looks surprisingly intact given its antiquity. The Heroes of Varisia continue hurtling along the wind until, just after dusk, they crest a bluff and look down upon their goal: the legendary city of Xin-Shalast!
The tableau defies belief: a glacial valley extends north and then turns to the west at the base of a vast mountain at the far end. Filling the valley is an ice-capped city of enormous proportions. The near end is mostly blocked by a huge fortress of smooth black stone, with multiple towers rising from its high walls. Beyond the fortress, a massive causeway of gold dominates the city as it travels down the center of the vale. Enormous towers and spires of many-colored stone pack both sides of the central thoroughfare, rising to prodigious heights, giving the illusion that the road itself is a valley. The eastern slope of the valley has been partially subsumed by an ancient volcanic flow—nearly a quarter of the city has been buried, and that section is now little more than a great mass of ice, with the jagged angles and peaks of ruined structures poking through the topmost layer here and there. But where the valley curves slightly to the west, the structures, if anything, grow even larger—becoming truly gigantic as they climb up and over the rocky spur. At the far end of the valley, the city abuts the lower slope of a truly massive peak, but the great causeway merely elevates at a steep angle and continues to climb the incline at a nearly straight line, transforming into an immense stairway. Additional buildings cling precariously to the mountain face alongside the causeway, growing even larger and more impressive as they ascend. The gigantic buildings finally give way a few thousand feet above, but the mighty road continues to wend its treacherous way to just below the mountain’s peak. There, a spired citadel looms, its size and proportions truly magnificent: yet it too, fails to summit the mountain. Instead, its topmost spires end just below the dominant face of a stern man carved into the peak of the mountain and surveying the city below.
Jinkatsyu wistfully tells the others he wishes Brodert and Veznutt were with them to take in such a breathtaking sight, but then notes he’s glad they’re safely out of the enormous danger the group is about to face. Discussion is had about whether to proceed down into the city immediately or wait until morning, and the latter view wins out. The group retreats some distance along the gold-paved road and Ava conjures a stone bunker to provide shelter from the icy cold winds that continue to howl. Thanks to her magical prowess, the members of the group barely notice the thin air at the elevation they’ve reached.
But despite the shelter, the adventurers’ rest is not a peaceful one. During his turn to stand watch, Kang picks up whiffs of a terrible stench carried on the wind. Seconds later, he discerns the cause: a foursome of vaguely humanoid creatures that have a vulture’s head, wings for arms, and wield enormous bows in their taloned feat. “Kuchrimas!” Kang shouts, recognizing the creatures as the lowest order of lamia-kin, rarely seen since the fall of Thassilon. The kuchrimas let loose with a volley of arrows and Kang is nearly knocked down, but he responds by lighting up the night with his explosive alchemical bombs! With the aid of the others in the adventuring party, the battle is over quickly. With little choice, the adventurers return to slumber, hoping the battle didn’t draw unwanted attention.
[3 Gozran 4708]
The adventurers return to their earlier vantage point, this time closely observing the fortress that seems to guard the approach to Xin-Shalast. They can see small black specks circling, and know that it will be difficult to sneak in undetected. The decision is made to scout the city while using Ava’s wind-walking magic. But although the magic turns them into cloud-like figures, it doesn’t make them invisible—and soon, the group is spotted. Several kuchrimas give chase, with Morgiana barely able to escape and rejoin the others at their stone bunker. A second furious battle takes place, with the kuchrimas using their bowcraft to fire devastating volleys at great range. The battle is long, difficult, and loud, but once again the adventurers prevail.
The adventurers have reached legendary Xin-Shalast, and found it all too real. But the hardest question lays before them: where in its cyclopean structures is Karzoug, and what does he have in store for intruders?
I liked the AP's concept that starvation is the key to seeing the magical trail to Xin-Shalast. It ties in nicely to several real-world spiritual traditions involving fasting as a method to gain insight.
Morgiana crafting beartraps was a bit of surprising fun. Although extremely heavy, they actually did come in useful a time or two.
In the Fen of the Icemists, there's a nymph druid that can be a friend or foe. But as written, she only appears if the PCs are being particularly loud or obnoxious or disrespecting her swamp, and that didn't happen.
I'm not sure if it's possible in an RPG to adequately describe the sheer wonder of seeing, for the first time, an enormous Shangri-La like lost city. I used the AP's descriptive text, which is quite good, but it can't rise to the level of an immersive novel or poem.
The combat against the kuchrimas was a good challenge for the PCs. It's actually relatively rare in published Pathfinder (and even Starfinder!) APs to have encounters where ranged weapons are crucial. I always like it when tactics and builds that work fine in dungeon-crawling have to be reassessed in other encounters.
[3 Gozran 4708 continued]
The Heroes of Varisia have reached a bluff overlooking the legendary city of Xin-Shalast, but have not yet stepped foot on its gold-paved streets. Twice, they’ve been intercepted by patrols of the vulture-men known as kuchrimas. In the aftermath of the second battle, the adventurers discuss strategy. After Ava discovers her teleportation abilities are unreliable due to the strange planar energies that surround the city, the group settles on the direct approach: a frontal assault on the guard fortress! But there will be a small twist, as the adventurers hope they can lure the defenders out so the battle can take place around fortified bunkers and walls created through Ava’s rudimentary knowledge of stone-shaping magic. Before they set the plan in motion, Ava extracts a promise from Morgiana to never split up again as she did in the previous battle.
When the attackers have completed their preparations, they approach the fortress and stop about a hundred yards from its gates. Kang strides forward and signals that he wishes to talk, and, moments later, a kuchrima flies forward while her companions take to the skies in formation. The kuchrima shouts a demand, in Thassilonian, that the intruders explain why they have come to Krak Naratha (the name of the fortress). Kang replies that they’ve come at the behest of Karzoug, but the kuchrima states that entrance to the city is permitted only to those bearing tokens of passage. Kang rejoins his allies and there’s whispered discussion of the group perhaps trying to bluff their way in using the Sihedron-marked coin found in Magnimar, but ultimately the idea is rejected. Instead, Kang announces to the kuchrima that they are not followers of the Runelord, with predictable results. The circling kuchrimas instantly let loose a volley of arrows, and first blood goes to the defenders of the city as Kang and Ava are struck.
The adventurers duck behind the stone barricades that Ava previously conjured in the middle of the grand highway and wait for the kuchrimas to draw closer so their advantage in ranged combat will be negated. But instead, one of the kuchrimas shouts “Release the herd!” and there’s a thunderous explosion from somewhere within the fortress. The gates are wrenched open, and dozens of mountain aurochs rush out, panicked and willing to trample anything in their path! Realising they can’t stand against such an onslaught, the adventurers take to the sky through various means in order to get above the sheer mass of animal flesh. The kuchrimas try to press their advantage, but they’re still no match for the sheer offensive power of Kang’s bombs and Jinkatsyu’s rapier. In a matter of minutes, the defenders of Krak Naratha are slain, and the Heroes of Varisia stand astride the fortress walls.
From their new vantage point, they can see that the wide golden highway that brought them to Xin-Shalast continues through the city until it turns into a golden staircase and begins ascending toward the peak of Mhar Massif. Not too far away, a large, seemingly temporary encampment of various types of giants can be spotted. The group decide they need a place to hide while they plan their next move, and they settle on a, long-abandoned storeroom deep in the bowels of Krak Naratha. Morgiana decides to put her newly-constructed bear trap to good use, and leaves it in the hallway outside of the storeroom covered in a fine coating of dust and debris. Inconclusive discussion is had on whether the group should attack the giant camp, try to negotiate, or avoid it altogether by taking to the back streets and alleyways of the massive city.
The afternoon stretches on until ponderous footsteps can be heard coming from above. The deep bass of the Giant tongue can be heard—it seems like a search of the fortress has been ordered! At the same time, Kang realizes that he’s being scryed! He decides to dart out of the storeroom so the others won’t be discovered, wandering through various dusty passageways until the nigh-invisible magical sensor finally disappears. As he’s returning to the storeroom, however, he hears a rock skitter behind him and realises he’s being followed! The tiefling begins to run until he hears a sharp metallic crack—Morgiana’s bear trap has sprung! And it has clamped down on the leg of a thin, unarmed humanoid with loose skin. The being lets loose a mournful howl, and says in Undercommon “Morgiv hurts! Morgiv hurts!” Kang and the others carefully release the creature from the trap, and Ava casts some minor healing magic. The stranger throws his arms around Kang in a tight, enthusiastic hug—-“Morgiv find Chosen One!” he shouts.
PCs disguising themselves as followers of Karzoug to gain entry to the city was definitely a possibility the AP contemplated, but this group tended to pursue the more direct approach.
The massive stampede of aurochs was really fun to do, even if it didn't work.
I found running Xin-Shalash very challenging. The AP did its best in providing as much information as possible about key events or locations, but there's just a ton of detail that GMs need to fill in themselves. The fortress of Krak Naratha, for example, is not mapped or detailed at all, so I had to improvise. We'll see the same phenomena in some later sessions when the PCs go to locations in which the AP gives only super brief coverage of matters that are actually quite labor-intensive to flesh out (like "swarming with a variety of spectral undead" and the like).
I liked the little twist ending. PCs usually (understandably) expect the worst, so it can be a fun surprise when something good comes out of the blue.
[3 Gozran 4708 continued]
In Xin-Shalast, the adventurers have come across a strange, dough-faced humanoid named Morgiv, one of the species called skulks. Morgiv speaks only Thassilonian, and excitedly tells Kang a tale. According to Morgiv, he’s one of a group of skulks who have lived in the tunnels under the city ever since a volcanic eruption destroyed most of the surface hundreds of generations ago. Morgiv says that his people were once enslaved by the rulers of the city, but were set free by their leader, Mesmina, who prophesied that if the tribe ever again fell victim to slavery, strangers would come to the aid of the Spared. Morgiv excitedly tells Kang that he’s the leader of the strangers that Mesmina prophesied, and that the Chosen One has been called here because the Spared are once again under the control of a despot. It seems that an invisible monster, called The Hidden Beast by Morgiv, has taken over the minds of many skulks.
The adventurers discuss whether to help. Morgiana is suspicious it could be a trap, but Ava says if the Hidden Beast really is so evil, it might be one of Karzoug’s allies. Jinkatsyu says slaves should always be set free, and Morgiv’s knowledge of the tunnels could be crucial in bypassing the giant armies on the surface. Kang is persuaded, and tells Morgiv to return tomorrow at dawn to guide the adventurers to the Hidden Beast’s cave.
As the others rest, Ava decides to practice short-range teleportation to see if she can figure out how to bypass the strange warding effect that permeates Xin-Shalast. Her first attempt works perfectly, but something very strange happens on her second try. She finds herself standing in the middle of a featureless plain that extends as far as she can see in every direction. An odd, grey-coloured river winds sluggishly through the plain. And, despite the utter lack of wind, a queer black-sailed ship moves steadily along the river. A foreboding sense of dread fills Ava, but before she can react, she finds herself back in the adventurers’ temporary hideout under the fortress that guards the approach to Xin-Shalast. She relates what happens to the others, and the best they can make of it is a wild tale that Kang once read during his studies in the Therassic Library under Jorgenfist: that Xin-Shalast is located on a place where the border between planes are thin, and that it intersects the fabled nightmare realm of Leng. But the account was written by a notorious pesh addict, and the likelihood of it being true seemed slim—until now!
Later that day, the adventurers hear the sound of giants sweeping the fortress, looking for them. Ava conceals the opening to the chamber they’re hiding in with a conjured stone wall. Although her craftsmanship doesn’t blend well with the surrounding walls, the giant walking past is distracted by something else—Morgiana’s beartrap—and doesn’t notice the hidden room.
[4 Gozran 4708]
At what must be dawn, the adventurers hear rhythmic tapping on the other side of the wall that Ava conjured. Morgiv is on the other side, and says in the fortress courtyard above there are several giants with aurochs. When Kang says his team is ready to go, Morgiv leads the group through a labyrinth of underground passages, cutting through building basements and tunnels carved from pyroclastic flows. Morgiv also disables various traps. When asked where the other Spared are, he says they’re waiting a safe distance away from The Hidden Beast. At last, after several hours’ journey, Morgiv indicates they’re nearing the evil one’s lair. Morgiv is told to wait, and the adventurers prepare for conflict against an unknown foe.
Jinkatsyu takes the lead, moving quietly and cautiously until he can peer into the cavern. The room looks like it may have once been part of some ancient basement gallery, but it’s clearly occupied, as magical lights slowly bob along the walls, casting deep shadows. The room contains a raised balcony along one wall, a pair of tunnels leading off along other walls, and, in the center, a basalt dais holding an ornate throne. Seated on the throne is a skeletal figure shrouded in musty robes bearing arcane symbols! As Jinkatsyu peers in, the skeleton sits up and begins speaking in Abyssal! The adventurers rush in to stop the skeletal wizard from casting spells, only to quickly realise it’s a fake. The real threat comes from something in the room that is, indeed, invisible and capable of casting powerful spells. In addition, a quartet of skulks who are among the living dead are in hiding and leap out at the adventurers. Morgiana is badly hurt in their attack and retreats back to where Ava is at the entrance to the cavern. Ava gives the Heroes of Varisia a fighting chance by dispelling the magical invisibility that shrouds the location of the real Hidden Beast: a swollen, slimy cephalopod with ten writhing tentacles and a hideously monstrous face and a fanged maw! Angered at her spell, the Hidden Beast responds by sending a bolt of pure lightning toward the cleric. Jinkatsyu leaps into the fray and begins slashing at the Hidden Beast’s tentacles. The sorcerous monstrosity is protected by various abjurations, however, and it seems like the dashing swashbuckling kitsune has finally met his match! Kang’s firebombs are not so easily dodged as sword thrusts, however, and the Hidden Beast eventually withers under the assault. Just when it seems like victory is at hand for the heroes, however, the monster turns into mist and seeps into thin cracks under the throne. Likewise, the vampiric skulks seep into their own hiding places once their corporeal forms seem destroyed.
Has the long, gruelling battle ended in success . . . or stalemate?
The events here play out pretty close to how they're set up in the AP: Morgiv encounters the group, begs for their help, and leads them to fight the Hidden Beast (a vampiric decapus). I think I added the "Chosen One" angle, but it just seemed too delicious to pass up since the last thing people would think about Kang is he was a prophesised savior. It led to some good role-playing.
The battle here against the Hidden Beast was really exciting and went well, with the deception of the fake skeleton particularly effective (the group hadn't had to deal with illusions very much in the AP). Alas, partially my own fault, things really get bad in the group (in real life) starting with the next session. But more on that when I cover those sessions.
[4 Gozran 4708 continued]
Somewhere deep under Xin-Shalast, the Heroes of Varisia have watched the vampiric decapus known as the Hidden Beast turn into a cloud of mist and disappear into cracks in the ground. Morgiana collapses unconscious from her wounds, but Ava is able to restore Jinkatsyu and Erik to fighting condition. Unsure of how to permanently destroy a vampire, the adventurers agree they need outside help—-from Sandpoint! Through a magical spell, they contact expert on Thassilonian history Brodert Quink. Unfortunately, Brodert knows little about vampires beyond the need to use stakes or sunlight.
The adventurers decide they can’t take the risk that the Hidden Beast will return. Ava magically reshapes the basalt base of the throne and reveals a deep hole. Jinkatsyu bravely investigates, and finds the seemingly inert body of the decapus. The swashbuckling kitsune cuts off some of its tentacles and Kang throws a fiery bomb at the body, but, as far as they can tell, the creature is well and truly dead. The decision is made, just in case, to try to seal the creature permanently in its tomb through more magical stone shaping, but Ava’s stonecrafting is poor and the results uncertain. Soon after, examination of two rings taken from the decapus’ body reveal one can turn the bearer invisible while the other (engraved with a Sihedron) holds powerful defensive magicks.
The adventurers leave the Hidden Beast’s lair and travel a short distance down a tunnel to reach Morgiv. The skulk is deliriously happy to hear the news that the Hidden Beast has been destroyed. He rushes off to gather the rest of the Spared, and Kang and the other adventurers decide to quickly check the two other tunnels leading off from the chamber. Before they can do so, however, Ava hears a strange hissing sound coming from beneath the base of the throne. Instants later, the Hidden Beast is standing there, seemingly alive and well!
Another battle begins, but this time the adventurers are better prepared and the Hidden Beast’s minions aren’t present to confuse things. The vampiric decapus is again defeated and retreats to its tomb underneath the throne. This time, Ava exhausts her magic in conjuring a crack-free buttressed dome over the entire pedestal and throne—there’s seemingly no way the decapus can escape. Until, with an astonishing bypassing of the area’s wards again teleportation, the creature somehow uses a dimension door spell to reappear back on top of the throne!
This is part two of what would become the four-part vampire decapus clusterF. It's one of those situations wherein about 20 things go wrong simultaneously. Knowledge (religion) just wasn't one of the skills the PCs were good at, so they didn't know in-character how to permanently destroy a vampire (and they were sensible in contacting Father Zantus, but he rolled low). For all her stoneshaping to do delicate things (like disguising a doorway or making something airtight), I would have Ava cast Craft (stonemason) checks, which she was understandably not great at it. The decapus should have been trapped in its coffin-hole anyway, but then rolled a freakin' natural 20 on its caster level check to get a dimension door spell to work despite the magical interference in Xin-Shalast. As we'll see next session, I later misinterpreted the scope of what counts as a "coffin" for the decapus. And on and on . . .
With its magical buffs and equipment gone, the decapus was far less of a threat but still took some time in-game to fight. I didn't realise at the time that people were getting frustrated with it. To be honest, I was surprised they wanted to spend so much time on the decapus as it's essentially an optional subplot, but I figured it just gave me more prep time for the very complicated final encounters in the adventure to come, and so didn't think too much about it. But under the surface, trouble was brewing!
[4 Gozran 4708 continued]
Although the sudden reappearance of the Hidden Beast is startling, Jinks doesn’t hesitate to jump up on the dais and stab it in the face! This time, bereft of its magical protections, the decapus proves much less of a threat and is killed easily. The adventurers discuss whether they should take the corpse of the vampiric monstrosity to the surface and expose it to the sun, but Jinks is concerned about the vampiric skulks who escaped the previous battle. What if they’re still in hiding? The decision is made to stay on guard in the chamber and rest.
But the Hidden Beast has made this entire lair its “coffin” for millennia—after about an hour, it surges back to a false mockery of life and arises! Turning quickly into a gaseous mist, it disappears into small cracks around the walls of the chamber. Kang quickly applies an alchemical glue to try to trap the Hidden Best, but there’s no way of knowing whether it will work.
At Kang’s prompting, the group leaves the lair of the Hidden Beast and explores some of the other tunnels in the area. In one area, they’re attacked by a strange one-eyed creature with lengthy tentacles that stick to Jinkatsyu’s skin and drain him of his strength. After a lengthy battle, the creature tries to surrender and shows the intellectual and linguistic ability to communicate! But it’s too late, as one of Kang’s delayed-fuse bombs explodes and incinerates the creature. With Jinkatsyu and Morgiana badly wounded in the confrontation, the group retreats and rests for the night.
[5 Gozran 4708]
In the morning, Kang drinks a magical concoction allowing him to send his mind vast distances. Although he intends to contact Father Zantus back in Sandpoint to ask the priest what he knows about vampires, the telepathic projection is somehow redirected by the strange planar magicks around Xin-Shalast! Kang finds himself in brief mental contact with bizarre monstrous spider-like beings who tell him “stop the lens, stop the denizens” before the link is broken. Kang’s previous research in the Therassic Library comes in useful once again, allowing him to realise these creatures are so-called Leng Spiders, an other-dimensional race locked into an eternal war with the bipedal but still inhuman “Denizens of Leng.” However, the reference to a “lens” remains cryptic. Kang’s mental projection is able to continue on and engage with Father Zantus, but unfortunately the man knows only general information about vampires and not the specifics the group needs to know in order to permanently destroy one.
Soon after Kang’s mind returns to his body and he shares with the others what he learned, Morgiv and his band of skulks known as the Spared arrive. Morgiv takes the news that the Hidden Beast may still be alive gracefully, and says he knows the Chosen One (meaning Kang) will succeed in destroying the evil once and for all. The skulk leads his people away to a safer area after giving the party a tapping code they can use on the rock walls of the subterranean area to communicate with them across surprising distances.
The Heroes of Varisia return to the Hidden Beast’s lair, but all seems quiet. Exploration of a side tunnel leads to an ancient shrine devoted to the Spared’s original saviour, Mesmina. On one wall is a crudely-painted depiction of the Chosen One that will someday free the people from a future enslavement—and the figure does look a great deal like Kang! It’s clear the Spared haven’t been able to visit this shrine ever since the Hidden Beast emerged, and some of the group’s magical treasures remain. Among them are several elixirs designed to allow one to survive the extreme altitudes here on the world’s roof. Kang is outraged to realise the composition is identical to Nisk Tander’s so-called “Elixir of the Peaks”, and suspects the devious amateur must have some sort of connection to Xin-Shalast. In yet another bizarre moment, Jinks casually says “So, the meddlers have returned. Perhaps this age is not so feeble after all. Didn’t I crush this one into pebbles?” The kitsune denies he said anything of the sort when confronted by his allies.
The adventurers return to the lair of the Hidden Beast, determined to finish the creature off once and for all. Morgiana cleverly uses her magical ring to see through the first several inches of rock along the walls of the chamber, and finds the hidden niches where the decapus and his turned skulks are resting. The adventurers discuss plans to force them out and finish the job.
This was the third session in the "Hidden Beast Saga." I think the roper was from a random encounter table, but it was pretty nasty because it had some sort of ability damage or drain effect. I liked the bit of foreshadowing that Kang's arch-nemesis, Nisk Tander, had a connection to Xin Shalast.
[5 Gozran 4708 continued]
In the lair of the Hidden Beast, the adventurers discuss and finally settle on a plan of how to defeat the vampiric decapus and its minions. As the others stand ready, Ava stoneshapes a “window” into the underground niches where the creatures are hiding. She gets ready to step out of the way so the others can move in, but the decapus moves to quickly and wraps her up in its tentacles! As it starts to drain her life away, she desperately tries to dimension door away—but the strange magicks permeating Xin-Shalast instead shunt her to the nightmare realm of Leng! The uncanny, robed humanoid creatures there speak to Ava, but their words are cryptic and confusing—especially for someone raised in the
Mushfens! They seem to want to enlist Ava in some sort of plot or agreement in exchange for helping her escape her current predicament, but her intuition tells her she can’t trust these creatures and she refuses. When she appears back in the Hidden Beast’s lair, she’s still trapped by the decapus as if no time has passed! Fortunately, Jinkatsyu’s swordplay and Kang’s bombs are enough to once again neutralize their foes. And this time, the adventurers know to stake the vampires properly and solve the problem of the Hidden Beast permanently.
This is the shortest recap of the campaign, in part because 3/5ths of the group walked out partway through! I was completely unaware of the frustration that had been building over the decapus, and it almost derailed the campaign completely. The only fortuitous thing was that this session was scheduled as the last one before several weeks' break over the holidays, and I was able to do damage control and get everyone back into the fold and keep it going afterwards. Still, it was clear there were two factions within the players, hard feelings that didn't go away, and a lack of trust on both sides. In something like 20 years of GMing, I had never seen anything like it, and it definitely affected the rest of the campaign even though we were able to make it to the end. I learned just how precarious long campaigns are, how I wasn't as popular of a GM as I imagined, not to take any game for granted, and that it's a good idea to develop multiple options for gaming in case one falls through.
[5 Gozran 4708 continued]
Following the utter destruction of the Hidden Beast and its minions, the Spared’s reverence for Kang grows even more. “The Chosen One has fulfilled the prophecy!” shouts Morgiv. Now utterly devoted to serving the adventurers in any way they can, the Spared eagerly agree when asked to guide the group to the northern sections of the city through underground tunnels.
Night and day have little meaning while underground, but the sun is at its peak when the Heroes of Varisia and the Spared emerge from the tunnels. This section of the city is largely covered by a dark mass of gritty ice to form a landscape of blasted terrain and occasional ruins projecting up at odd angles. When asked, Morgiv says he knows little of this area or the more intact sections of the city to the north and west. On his rare expeditions here, however, he claims to have seen a blue dragon and white-furred “two-leggeds” that the group infer are probably yeti. Morgiv even points out an immense dome he says the yeti reside in. The cyclopean architecture of the area around it seems fitting considering the dozens of giants that are in full view on the streets! Many of the giants seem to be travelling between a fortress of glossy black volcanic glass and a crude camp with oversized tents and shelters. With Morgiv’s aid, the adventurers stay out of sight as they travel narrow backstreets full of rubble to survey more of the area. One massive landmark seems to have been an arena of some sort, but its sheer size and crystal towers make it the perhaps the greatest architectural feat in all of Xin-Shalast. Less impressive, only in comparison, is a massive open-air hippodrome of some sort—but much of the southeastern portion of this structure has fallen into ruin and is covered by dense undergrowth.
The sun begins to set following this initial exploration and a decision is made to camp for the night in one of many abandoned buildings. Kang tells the Spared that it’s too dangerous for them to stay with him and the other adventurers, but they refuse to leave—they want to stay and help the Chosen One! Eventually, a compromise is reached and all but a handful of the Spared return to their underground homes while the remainder scatter themselves nearby on the surface to help watch for approaching dangers.
[6 Gozran 4708]
Just a few scant hours after midnight, loud hooting and howling awakens the adventurers—the Spared have spotted a patrol of hill giants approaching the campsite! The guttural voice of a giant can be heard shouting to his friends: “There they are, the ones we’ve been looking for! Get ‘em!” The giants burst into the building and, although they present no real risk to the experienced adventurers, Kang realises he’s being scryed during the battle. While dispatching a hill giant with his rapier, Jinkatsyu suddenly says, bizarrely, “Now let us see if you are ready to face the least of my apprentice’s underlings.” A towering insectile monstrosity teleports in to take advantage of the adventurers’ distraction. But Kang reacts quickly, identifying it as an ice devil and hurling a force bomb to knock the thing to the ground. Jinkatasyu springs in to attack, but something about the devil is too much for the kitsune’s frail mind—he runs away, terrified! With crucial seconds to recover, the ice devil gets to its feet and tries to open a portal to Hell to call forth devilish allies, but none come to its aid. More of Kang’s bombs arrive in quick succession, devastating the ice devil and leaving it a blasted corpse on the ground. As the remaining hill giants are quickly defeated, Jinkatsyu recovers from his fright. Ava notices something strange, however—the ice devil’s ruined corpse seems to be repairing itself! She calls down divine fire from Sinashakti to incinerate the corpse completely.
But the adventurers’ penchant for showy displays of power—gunshots, explosive bombs, and column of divine fire, among other things—cannot go unnoticed even in a sparsely-populated city the size of Xin-Shalast. Barely an hour after the fight against the hill giants and the ice devil assassin, more giants arrive. But these giants are different—almost eighteen feet tall with powder-blue skin, their finely-chiseled faces show no expression as they arrive floating in the air! With utter dispassion, one of them announces “Intruders. You have arrived without permission. You must return with us to Shalaria for interrogation” The adventurers try to negotiate with the cloud giants but receive only impassive stares in response. The adventurers aren’t eager for another fight, especially with creatures that Erik can discern aren’t evil. Through secret signals, the adventurers decide to scatter and reunite at the hippodrome they spied earlier. The plan appears to work, as the cloud giants are nowhere to be seen an hour later when the group set up another camp near the dense vegetation that has overtaken the ruined structure. But luck is far from the adventurers’ side, as they quickly realise: the vegetation is moving to envelop them!
I think I've mentioned in previous commentaries how challenging it was to run Xin-Shalast given how enormous the city was but how little detail is provided about many locations. I improvised where I could, but didn't have the energy to populate the areas with tons of foes or detail.
The hill giants were a random encounter, but the ice devil assassin was a scripted event (it's supposed to attack when the PCs are occupied fighting other foes). But apart showcasing Jinks' low Will save, the devil went down like a punk and really showed just how tough the group was at this stage in the campaign. Still, more proof that the PCs were being scryed upon by Karzoug, who was taking the opportunity to study their weapons and tactics.
I'm not sure where I got the idea to role-play the cloud giants as dispassionate creatures, but at least it was something different.
[6 Gozran 4708]
Having camped at the edge of a massive hippodrome that has fallen into ruin and been overtaken by vegetation, the Heroes of Varisia awake to realize that the plant life has somehow moved towards them! Vines dripping some sort of acid wrap around Erik and Morgiana, causing intense burns. Ava manages to get Erik free through spellcraft, while Jinkatsyu cuts Morgiana free. Kang realises the vegetation is some sort of living jungle that can’t be killed, only evaded. The adventurers retreat in the face of the slow-moving doom.
Later that day, in a new camp set up nearby, Erik realises the group is being watched—by an invisible stone giant! When challenged, the giant becomes visible and says his name is Gyukak. He says the presence of the adventurers has become known to the authorities in Xin-Shalast, but that he wants to help them. Gyukak is candid that is motives are self-interested in nature: he is the leader of a rebel contingent of giants who want to escape the domination of those in charge. He wants the adventurers to create a distraction by attacking a target of great significance so that, in the chaos, he and his small band will be able to slip away. Gyukak suggests three possibilities: 1) an assassination attempt on Khalib, a powerful wizard who is Karzoug’s apprentice and the go-between his master and the rune giants who run the fortress named Shahlaria; 2) an attack on Ghlorfaex, a blue dragon who occupies a building near the fortress and who is known as an ally to the occupiers; 3) or a flat attempt to climb the golden stairs that lead to the Pinnacle of Avarice, Karzoug’s mountain-top palace. The adventurers are rightly sceptical and suspect a trap, so Gyukak tries to sweeten the offer, promising them knowledge about the “weakness they do not know they have on Mhar Massif” in exchange. Rather than make any promises at the moment, the adventurers decide to consider the proposal and tell Gyukak to return the next day.
[7 Gozran 4708]
Over breakfast, the adventurers discuss Gyukak’s approach. Ava remains suspicious of the stone giant, and wonders aloud how he found them—she says perhaps it is Gyukak who has been doing all of the scrying of the party over recent weeks! Erik, on the other hand, wants to trust him, saying that followers of Milani the Everbloom are tasked with freeing people from slavery. Jinkatsyu is keen to take on the dragon Ghlorfaex, while Kang suggests the direct approach: scaling the mountain and taking the fight to Karzoug! But the others worry that Ghlorfaex, Khalib, and others could attack during the ascent when the adventurers would be at their most vulnerable.
A decision still hasn’t been reached when Gyukak returns, and the stone giant is pressed with many more questions. He explains that the fortress of Shahlaria is ruled by the largest and most powerful of giant-kind—those bearing the rune of Karzoug himelf! These “rune giants” can magically compel other giants into their service, and they’ve used their powers to force the leaders of various giant tribes throughout the Kodar Mountains into rallying to Karzoug’s banner. Khalib, Karzoug’s apprentice, delivers messages from his master to the rune giants in Shahlaria. Gyukak says Khalib usually comes and goes in a way no one can discern, but that he’ll definitely be at the highest tower of Shahlaria at twilight tomorrow to greet the impending arrival of a ship that flies through the skies! He says the strange black vessel appears out of a bright hole in the sky, but doesn’t know who sails it or what cargo it contains. He explains to the adventurers where Shahlaria, Ghlorfaex’s lair, and the golden stairs are in relation to their current campsite.
After hearing all of this, the group reach a consensus to form an alliance with Gyukak. They tell him they’ll create a distraction and just need to decide which one. Upon their oath, he proffers the information they desperately need about their unknown weakness. He explains that the higher reaches of Mhar Massif, the mountain that looms over Xin-Shalast and contains Karzoug’s citadel, is protected by a magical dome of some kind. Any who pass into the dome without bearing one of Karzoug’s tokens—usually a ring—suffer terrible pains and soon die. With that foreboding message, he says he’ll return at dawn each day until the adventurers have formulated a plan of attack to create the distraction he and his giants need to escape.
Once Gyukak is gone, the adventurers discuss what to do, though the frequent scrying they’ve suffered makes them justifiably paranoid that they could be playing right into the hands of their foes! Nonetheless, a plan is necessary. Jinkatsyu suggests killing Khalib and commandeering the flying ship and taking it directly to Karzoug’s citadel, but admits he has no idea how to sail such a vessel. Erik suggests tackling each step in order: first Khalib, then the dragon, and then the steps. His views seem to sway the others, and they agree to scout Shahlaria after lunch. Noticeably, Morgiana doesn’t eat—the hobgoblin has remembered that today is Currentseve, a holiday for those who worship Gozreh, and fasting is a way to lend spiritual energy to others. When asked, she explains some of her beliefs. As they’re finishing the meal, someone observes that Morgiv and the skulks haven’t been around recently—Ava suggests that perhaps they’ve returned to the underground tunnels they’re most comfortable in.
The party crosses the city. Although it’s broad daylight, the shadows cast by the colossal architecture all around them makes it easy to stay out of sight. Following Gyukak’s directions, they soon reach the ponderous fortress he called Shahlaria. Situated on a low rise overlooking the northern edge of a neighbourhood, the fortress features incredibly thick walls, wide towers, and gates that must be more than sixty feet tall. Several types of giants pass in and out of the gate, but the one that catches the adventurers’ attention as they watch from hiding is simply the largest and most imposing giant they have ever seen: a forty-foot tall behemoth with skin that is black and pitted like roughly cast iron, but etched with glowing red runes. “A rune giant,” Kang whispers. Jinkatsyu whispers back “I saw one of them—well, a corpse of one—at Hook Mountain!” The adventurers watch the rune giant stop in front of the gate and begin yelling at a band of stone giants who seem to almost cower at his words. Suddenly, however, with no warning at all, Jinkatsyu jumps out of hiding and inexplicably shouts at the top of his lungs “There are the cursed giants! Attack!”
Jinkatsyu looks horrified and taken aback by his words, but it’s too late! The rune giant furrows its brow and begins literally walking on the air, quite quickly, in the party’s direction. Instinctively, the heroes run for it, but Morgiana is a step slower than the others. Using its powers of magical compulsion, the rune giant says simply “You. Sit. Stay.” and Morgiana does! Ava sees what has happened and heroically turns around. She somehow manages to dispel the incredibly-powerful compulsion with her own spell, giving Morgiana the chance to escape. “Curious.” says the giant, impassively.
The adventurers run back to the ruined hippodrome at top speed. Kang punches a wall and glares at Jinkatsyu. “Dammit Jinks, what in Hell is wrong with you!” The kitsune looks confused and abashed, and suggests maybe he should be gagged—he can’t understand why he’s been saying strange things he can barely remember. Kang observes that, so far at least, the lack of control is only for brief periods, but that if someone—including Karzoug—is in Jinkatsyu’s head, their every move could be known in advance. Ava notes that Jinkatsyu does seem very susceptible to outside mental control, citing the curse of the wendigo that nearly brought him to murder and cannibalism. Various theories of who is taking over Jinkatsyu’s body, and how, are floated. Some suspicion falls on the strange Sihedron-marked rings that Jinkatsyu and Erik wear, but the observation is made that Erik hasn’t been affected.
With no answer to the dilemma forthcoming, the adventurers return to discussing the possibilities of attacking Karzoug’s apprentice and, possibly, an airship!
Gyukak is one of the very few non-hostile NPCs in Xin-Shalast. His appearance worked really well I thought in giving the group some essential background on what was going on (such as the rune giants and especially the occluding field) and where to focus their energies (gaining the rings necessary to survive the occluding field). The PCs never discovered Gyukak wasn't actually a stone giant, and most of his "giant rebellion" occurred off-screen anyway.
A potential assassination attempt against Khalib wasn't written into the AP, and I don't remember exactly why I included it as a possibility. I think I wanted to establish the link between Karzoug's palace at the top of the mountain and what was happening in the city below, and also Khalib a few moments in the spotlight since otherwise he'd be just another battle in the palace. It would also be good, I thought, to give the PCs some experience in fighting a high level wizard.
For Shahlaria, I just had to rely on the AP's very sketchy description and the PC's imagination, as there was no feasible way for me create a massive giant-sized fortress from whole cloth and then get it down on grid paper.
The idea of Karzoug temporarily possessing a party member to distract or endanger them is written into the AP, though of course I had to pick particularly inopportune moments.
[8 Gozran 4708]
After further planning and preparations at their campsite, the Heroes of Varisia put their plan to assassinate Karzoug’s apprentice into motion. Using various spells to turn themselves invisible and gaseous in form, they start flying towards the tallest tower of the massive fortress Shahlaria. Just as the sun begins to dip below the horizon, a massive circle of light appears in the sky above the fortress and a strange black sailing ship emerges and begins slowly flying toward the tower as well—a ship that Ava recognises from her bizarre experiences in the Dreamlands of Leng! Seconds later, a figure becomes visible on the tower—a tall, robed man holding a staff topped with a jagged chunk of crystal. This is surely Khalib! The adventurers’ timing is crucial, as their plan depends on defeating Khalib before the ship docks at the tower and more threats emerge. Fortunately, the agreement with Gyukak seems to have worked, as some sort of disruption in the streets below has drawn the attention of the fortress’ giants.
But as the adventurers see Khalib, so does Khalib see them—for the Thassilonian’s glowing eyes are not fooled by simple tricks like invisibility. The battle begins with the adventurers still hundreds of feet away and trying to emerge from their gaseous forms so they can do battle with spell and blade. Khalib taunts his enemies, his words mostly lost on the wind, before unleashing powerful magic designed to strip the meddlers’ of their primary means of healing and spellcasting, Ava. A thin green ray of light springs forth from Khalib’s finger and arcs towards Ava, only to somehow reflect off a magical shield and return directly towards the wizard! Khalib screams as his body instantly disintegrates into a pile of dust! Ava’s abjuration has turned the wizard’s potent magic against its caster! The ebullient heroes race to the tower, gather Khalib’s assortment of enchanted paraphernalia, and race away before the black ship can arrive.
The adventurers celebrate their surprisingly easy success at their campsite. Ava gives thanks to Sinashakti, while Kang identifies one of Khalib’s rings as another of the set the heroes will need to survive the occluding field around the Pinnacle of Avarice. With three of the rings in the group’s possession and five members in the adventuring company, the decision is made to strike the lair of the blue dragon Ghlorafaex in the morning. But for tonight, a great victory has been won!
[9 Gozran 4708]
In the morning, the adventurers steel themselves for another battle against one of Karzoug’s most powerful minions. As they make their way towards where Gyukak told them the dragon had his lair, Jinkatsyu suddenly begins speaking strangely again: “My apprentice failed to awaken me at the appointed time millennia ago. You have thus done me a favor in separating the wheat from the chaff. I have prepared a reward for your service to the Runelord of Avarice. Behold my gratitude!” But Karzoug’s “gifts” are gut-wrenching: Morgiv and the other skulks who aided the adventurers have been murdered and turned into golden statues! Ava is devastated and determined to attack Karzoug immediately, but the others hold her back with a reminder that rashness will only play into the arch-wizard’s plans.
The adventurers pass through an area of the city that was obviously a religious district: although now long-abandoned, intact temples and shrines to obscure Thassilonian deities, gods of the giants, demon lords and archdevils, and even Desna still stand. Built in a plethora of styles, shapes, and materials, they only have two things in common: multiple towers and prodigious dimensions.
Soon, they reach a building that was clearly devastated by the pyroclastic flow that destroyed much of the city millennia ago. Enough of it still stands to serve as the lair of a fearsome blue dragon. The adventurers try to approach stealthily, but, to no avail. A booming voice comes from within the building: “Those of you who seek to sneak upon me have failed. If you are envoys of Karzoug, you have chosen the wrong path and must depart. If you are not, prepare to meet your doom.” Kang tries to trick the dragon into thinking the adventurers are indeed emissaries of Karzoug, but the tiefling is a much better alchemist than he is a liar—Ghlorofaex sees right through the deception and roars in anger. The ensuing battle is one that bards’ tales are made of, but in the end, both the dragon and Morgiana lie dead in the midst of a smoking ruin. Fortunately, the adventurers have something that the dragon does not—a powerful cleric capable of bringing the dead back to life!
Having defeated two of Karzoug’s most powerful servants in as many days, the Heroes of Varisia are ever closer to the time when they can make a final assault on the Runelord himself.
The sudden disintegration of Khalib in the first round of combat was quite the surprise to everyone, and pretty funny in retrospect. What happened was that Ava had spell turning on, and the spell bounced back, got through the wizard's defenses, and he rolled a natural 1 on the saving throw. I remembered a few days after the session that disintegrate in Pathfinder isn't an automatic death even on a failed save--it just does a ton of damage, and Khalib probably could have actually survived it. But that's okay. To me, it's a good example that the mistakes I make as GM help the party as often as they hurt them.
The battle against the dragon wasn't really very hard for the group, and Morgiana's death was mostly caused by rushing in without the same sort of armor class that a character like Jinkatsyu had.
In retrospect, I think having Karzoug turn Morgiv and the other skulks into gold statues was a bit of a jerk move on my part. My thought process at the time was that it would really make the PCs hate Karzoug, and tie off a subplot with the skulks that had pretty much run its course. But I think now it was probably unnecessary and furthered the RPG trope that any NPC the PCs befriend will become kidnapped or murdered to fuel the plot.
[9 Gozran 4708 continued]
Although the fight against the blue dragon Ghlorofaex is over, the drama hasn’t stopped. In the aftermath of the battle, as the resurrected Morgiana puts on the beast’s Sihedron ring, an uncharacteristically angry Ava tells everyone to stop what they’re doing because the group needs to have a talk. Ava rounds on Morgiana for rushing recklessly into the battle and getting herself killed. Ava says such a tactic might work for someone like Jinkatsyu, but Morgiana needs to stick to her own strengths, play more of a support role, and keep her distance from foes who pack such a punch. Ava explains that, although she can bring party members back from the dead, it’s a draining and expensive ritual that uses their dwindling resources. Erik and Jinkatsyu agree with Ava, and Morgiana apologises, explaining that she wasn’t really thinking. The group agree that the enemies in Xin-Shalast have obviously been informed about the adventurers’ favourite tactics and are trying to exploit their weaknesses. Better strategic planning will be necessary to keep their foes off-balance.
To that end, the adventurers discuss the best way to secure a fifth Sihedron ring so that every member of the group will be protected by the dangerous occluding field that they’ve been told surrounds the Pinnacle of Avarice, Karzoug’s sanctum near the peak of Mhar Massif. The consensus is that attacking the rune giant master of Shahlaria is the best approach, and the adventurers discuss ways to limit the rune giant’s ability to dominate minds while wearing it down from a safe distance before closing. While the conversation proceeds, Kang is shovelling coins from the dragon’s hoard into his bag of holding. Suddenly having been overloaded, the magical bag implodes and sucks all of its contents into an unfathomable planar void! If the Runelord of Greed were watching, the delicious irony would not be lost on him.
The adventurers decide to camp inside Ghlorofaex’s former lair. Jinkatsyu decides to gag himself to prevent any attempts by Karzoug to alert nearby patrols to their location.
[10 Gozran 4708]
In the morning, the others smell the results of Morgiana’s attempt to take seriously a previously minor-hobby: alchemy! Unlike the terrible smells that emanate from Kang’s brews, Morgiana’s have a delicious scent and flavour—though they’re far, far weaker. Kang tells Morgiana that if she makes it out of Xin-Shalast alive, she can join the Academy of Alchemy that the tiefling plans to open—in fact, due to their shared background as comrades-in-arms, he’ll even offer her a 2 ½ % discount on tuition!
The Heroes of Varisia make their approach to the massive fortress of Shahlaria under the cover of invisibility and while flying. From a great distance, they see a tiny brown speck floating with the wind above the fortress. A quartet of cloud giants levitate into the air towards the speck, and, when they descend, it’s clear they’re holding a carriage-sized object of some sort. It looks like a large, woven basket connected by thick ropes to a tear-drop shaped canvas bag filled with air! The cloud giants gently lower the basket onto the roof of the fortress, where a rune giant waits. Weak-kneed and stumbling, four normal-sized individuals emerge from the basket—and three of them are from Sandpoint! The stunned adventurers recognise arrogant nobleman Titus Scarnetti, dung collector Gorvi, and self-proclaimed “master alchemist” Nisk Tander. Kang recognises the fourth figure—a dwarf inventor named Bartol Ehrdrick he once met back in Magnimar. The four newcomers are led down a staircase into the fortress’ interior by the rune giant.
The adventurers fly quickly to the scene, and are soon spotted by the cloud giant sentries. Two of the defenders are felled quickly, but the other two conjure thick fields of fog to slow down the assault. In the midst of the battle, the rune giant returns to the rooftop! Kang hurls one of his patented explosives at the strange contraption the newcomers arrived in, and it explodes with unexpected intensity, burning Morgiana badly. The rune giant targets a foe who rarely receives the brunt of enemy attacks—Ava! But Jinkatsyu and the others intervene, and Erik fires a tightly-packed cluster of bullets in its chest that finally drops the truly gargantuan foe. The rooftop shutters under its weight. The surviving cloud giants, freed from the rune giant's mental domination, flee the battle.
A hard-fought battle has led to victory, but only after a crack has been revealed in the adventurers’ alliance. And a new mystery has emerged: what in the heavens are three residents of Sandpoint doing in Xin-Shalast?
I think Ava's assertiveness was a combination of in-character and out-of-character frustration. Although the group was prepared and brought a lot of diamond dust with them to Xin-Shalast for raise dead and restoration spells, there was a limit--and getting more would have been tremendously difficult given the teleportation-blocking field around the city.
The group knows that Karzoug and his minions have been watching and seeing their strengths and weaknesses.
The overloaded bag of holding situation was a frustrating one for Kang's player, but is well-established in my campaigns. My theory has always been that if you have a magic item, you need to keep in mind the restrictions as well as the benefits they bring.
The hot air balloon was a creation of the dwarven inventor from the back matter of one of the comics. The reason I had it appear was that I wanted to explain Nisk Tander's connection to Xin-Shalast--how he was able to produce "Nisk Tander's elixir of the peaks" while Kang couldn't (a long-running subplot). It gave Kang a chance to resolve his rivalry with Nisk, Ava a chance to resolve her issues with Titus Scarnetti, and an explanation for the "alternate dimension" the PCs encountered where Sandpoint was a Runelord military garrison with Titus in command and Gorvi as his chief enforcer. Finally, I wanted a last reminder for the PCs of Sandpoint and what they're fighting for. I think the idea actually tied in a lot of storylines really well, and provided some excellent role-playing opportunities in what would otherwise just have been an escalating series of combats.
[10 Gozran 4708]
Having achieved their goal of defeating a rune giant in order to secure the final Sihedron ring needed to survive the occluding field that surrounds the Spires of Avarice, the adventurers find themselves faced with a difficult decision. They could leave now, or investigate the surprising arrival of three residents of Sandpoint above a strange flying device piloted by a dwarf from Magnimar! The adventurers’ curiosity, plus an opportunity to confront longstanding enemies like Titus Scarnetti and Nisk Tander, are enough to drive them toward the second option. Moving from the rooftop of Shahlaria into its interior is like descending into chaos: freed from the rune giant’s magical domination, giant battles giant for control of the fortress—or simply escape!
The building-shaking riots provide an excellent distraction for the adventurers’ search, and soon they discover their quarry: the new arrivals have hidden themselves in large barrels in a mess hall. An angry verbal confrontation ensues. Nisk Tander pompously challenges Kang to a special duel involving who can create the most toxic poison, but the master alchemist refuses. Ignoring Nisk for the moment, the group focuses on Titus Scarnetti and how he has made Ava’s life in Sandpoint a living hell while apparently conspiring to some degree with Karzoug’s army for a leadership position in the new order to come. In a shocking turn, the adventurers “sentence” Scarnetti to death, and Jinkatsyu stabs the older man in the heart, killing him instantly!
The impromptu trial continues. The adventurers decide that Bartol, the dwarf inventor from Magnimar, should be set free—he wasn’t part of any evil plot, but merely providing transportation. Gorvi, cowering the whole time, says he was only acting as Titus’ bodyguard, and isn’t fussed that the man is dead. Returning to Nisk, the adventurers demand to know why he was coming to Xin-Shalast. The alchemist boasts that he entered into an arrangement with Karzoug’s apprentice, Khalib: in exchange for the formula (and rare ingredients) on how to make a so-called “elixir of the peaks”, Nisk would spread around the cursed gold coins that wreaked so much havoc in Magnimar recently. After Nisk offers Kang a 7% stake in a new joint enterprise, the adventurers are outraged by how much blood their captive has on his hands. Morgiana breaks Nisk’s arm, and the alchemist passes out from the pain! The adventurers discuss what to do with the unconscious man. Erik says it’s not right to kill someone in cold blood, but Ava and Kang say the man has untold innocent lives to answer for. They decide to make Gorvi carry Nisk for the time being as they figure out what to do with him. For now, they need to get out of Shahlaria before any of the giants notice their presence!
Fortunately, the giants are too busy fighting each other to spare any attention for the adventurers. The Heroes of Varisia escape Shahlaria and, with Gorvi and Nisk in tow, make their way back to their temporary campsite in the rubble of an ancient coliseum. After manacling Nisk to a pillar, the adventurers decide to let Gorvi leave. The half-orc is happy to avoid the adventurers’ wrath, and heads out into the city, hoping to find Bartok and perhaps a way home. When Nisk is brought to consciousness with some smelling salts, the alchemist demands to be set free, stating that he’s being falsely imprisoned and that any alleged crimes he’s committed need to be dealt with by the authorities in the appropriate jurisdiction: Magnimar! Nisk says that anything he’s done has just been in pursuit of business and that he was promised a meeting with Karzoug once the arch-wizard (who will soon rule the continent anyway) gets freed from imprisonment. After threats from Jinkatsyu and Morgiana, Nisk tells Kang that he needs to “get his minions under control.”
The adventurers move away from the bound prisoner to discuss what to do with him. Knowing that Nisk can only survive at this extreme altitude until his magical elixir wears off, Kang and Ava suggest just letting the man die. Erik, however, says that Nisk is their prisoner, and that they have a responsibility to deal with him as such. Jinkatsyu says they should get a written confession and then set the “businessman” free to walk back to Magnimar on his own! But Ava worries he might find allies somewhere in Xin-Shalast he could manipulate into helping him. A temporary consensus is reached that perhaps some of the giants allied to Gyukak, the leader of the rebellion, could take Nisk Tander off their hands. But when the adventurers return to Shahlaria, they see open warfare in the streets as rune giants loyal to Karzoug launch a counterattack. Clearly, now is not the time to get involved in such a mess. The adventurers return to the campsite, Jinkatsyu knocks Nisk out cold to keep him quiet, Ava casts a life bubble spell on him to keep him alive, and everyone beds down for the night.
[11 Gozran 4708]
Snow starts to fall before dawn. The adventurers decide that the time has come to make the ascent up Mhar Massif and bring the battle to Karzoug once and for all. Through Ava’s powerful magic, the adventurers (with Nisk in tow) assume a windlike form and begin following the golden highway that runs through the city. The road becomes extremely steep as it continues up the mountain’s slope, and eventually becomes completely vertical with steps carved into its surface almost like a tower. The adventurers glide past towers built directly into the side of the mountain, protruding from the rock face. Clearly of a higher quality than even that elsewhere in the city, the buildings become more opulent and impressive as the group moves higher and higher.
A journey that would normally take at least a half-day’s arduous climb is accomplished in minutes. But as they near the end of the journey, three immense purple spiders, larger than woolly mammoths even, suddenly appear out of thin air about fifty feet up the slope! They have hideously bloated bodies but still move with an odd grace despite having an uneven number of legs—7, 9, and 11, respectively! Everyone hears voices in their heads, but this is no normal telepathy. The spiders somehow communicate by drawing upon memories of people the adventurers knew before coming to Xin-Shalast, such as Sister Giulia, Brodert Quink, Sister Celia, Vorvashali Voon, and even the Skinsaw Man! But although the voices are recognisable, the strange diction of the creatures is confounding: “Our enemies, those from Leng who play at aping your vexingly symmetrical appearances, have returned to this world to honor an alliance with the recrudescent lord. Those who appear as your unpleasing forms but are not must be destroyed. They reside in the edifice above. There they endeavour the manufacture of a device the recrudescent lord has sought completion of since before his inter-statial hibernation. It must be destroyed. You are wanted/ordered to submit/comply with instructions/demands.” Ava realises these creatures must also be from the nightmarish realm of Leng she has briefly passed through on multiple occasions. The adventurers discern that the Leng Spiders want a machine, now under construction by the so-called Denizens of Leng, to be destroyed. The heroes agree to a truce to conserve their strength, despite knowing that the Leng Spiders are likely not trustworthy.
The remainder of the ascent requires the group to pass through a field of invisible force that seems to almost push against them. Realising this must be the occlusion field, and that the Sihedron rings will protect them, the adventurers push on. But no one notes that Nisk Tander, still being dragged along, doesn’t have such protection! He manages to survive the first pulse of wracking, blinding pain, but just barely. After hearing him beg for help, the group relents and takes him just below the occlusion field, where they manacle him to one of the many empty structures in the area.
Ahead lies the massive tower that must be the Pinnacle of Avarice. As the group begin the final stretch of their journey, they discuss what they’ll do should they succeed in vanquishing the Runelord of Greed. Erik says he’d join the Pathfinder Society with the goal of helping those in need. Kang announces his imminent retirement from adventuring, and his plans to open an Acadamae of Alchemy. Jinkatsyu says he would return to Kaer Maga and revisit those who looked after him—after a brief detour to Hook Mountain to stab the hag-witch in the heart! Morgiana ruminates about going to Absalom and becoming a merchant. Ava says she would keep up the good fight, as there’s more evil in the world than just Karzoug.
After an epic quest spanning months of time, thousands of miles of distance, untold bloodshed, and victory and tragedy in equal measure, the Heroes of Varisia have arrived at their last obstacle before their final showdown with Karzoug. Whether they succeed or fail, they’ve already achieved what most would have thought impossible.
---------------------------------------------------------
Some heavy role-playing in this scenario! It's really fun (and challenging) to run this sort of session as a GM, because I had no idea how it was going to play out. The "trials" of the new arrivals revealed a lot about the PCs in some surprising ways. Although Erik stuck up for a more traditional notion of due process, the others were happy playing judge, jury, and executioner.
I didn't have interior maps of Shahlaria, so most of the running around was handled purely cinematically and hand-waved that there was so much inter-giant conflict going on that a handful of human-sized figures wouldn't be noticed. I probably should have had an encounter or two nonetheless.
We really are getting to the beginning of the end in this session, as the PCs climb to the Pinnacles of Avarice. I was particularly proud of the idea of having the Leng spiders' telepathy take the form of voices of people the PCs interacted with back in Sandpoint. It was a last hurrah for me to use use accents and vocal mannerisms I had spent a lot of time constructing.
At last, the Heroes of Varisia have arrived at the Pinnacle of Avarice. The immense tower stands over 2,000 feet tall, topping out respectfully just below the carved face of Karzoug himself at the mountain’s peak. The structure soars like a cavernous silo, supported by an intricate internal architectural wonder of dozens of stone flying buttresses and arches. The adventurers proceed through one of the hundreds of 50’-tall arches around the base, and enter into a huge, circular room. There, a 200’ diameter polished stone circle sits on the floor, surrounded by 16 immense pillars that rise up like the legs of a spider to support a central column that itself extends to the very top of the structure.
Following a spiralling ramp that wraps around the outer circumference of the central column like an immense screw, the adventurers eventually find themselves in an oddly shaped room with a massive pair of golden double doors to the north. Intricate carvings on the walls evoke Xin-Shalast in its heyday, while the highly polish floor consists of a checkerboard pattern of gold and black tiles. But the chamber is not unguarded! A quartet of cloud giants stand at the ready, all branded on the forehead with the infamous Sihedron. The battle begins! Jinkatsyu and Morgiana rush into the fray, with the former stabbing one of the giants in the kneecap and the latter somehow managing to disarm another! But the giants’ response is fierce, as one smashes Jinkatsyu so hard the kitsune goes flying and slams into Morgiana! Ava begins furiously channelling healing magic to keep her allies standing while Kang and Erik attack from the rear ranks. But the giants survive the initial onslaught and bellow to sound the alarm that intruders have breached the fortress!
Seconds later, the massive golden doors burst open and a dreaded rune giant enters! Erik fires a tightly-packed fusillade of bullets into the giant’s chest, but suffers a vicious slash from the foe’s truly massive greatsword in response. Jinkatsyu darts in and manages to finish off the rune giant, but the battle is far from over. A ten-ton hideous mound of shuddering, pustule-encrusted flesh with a gaping maw slithers into the chamber as, with every passing second, more and more defenders arrive to repulse the attackers! The very presence of the creature, a so-called hungerer, is enough to sicken the adventurers. Morgiana nearly dies from its attack, but Ava manages to breathe life back into him—only to have the hungerer bite the hapless hobgoblin again and this time, she stays dead. It’s clear the defenders have been instructed to attack the heroes’ weakest members. And then another hungerer arrives! In the chaotic mess, Jinkatsyu finds himself surrounded by two hungerers, a rune giant, and two cloud giants!
The adventurers start to retreat down the ramp but then decide to stand their ground. Kang’s alchemical bombs destroy the hungerers and Erik manages to down the rune giant, thus freeing the cloud giants from mental enslavement! But the victory is short-lived as, some minutes into the battle, a final force responds to the alarm: a beautiful, expressionless woman wielding one of the legendary Seven Swords of Sin! This could only be one of Karzoug’s foremost generals, Viorian Dekanti. And she’s not alone, as a storm giant serves as her bodyguard! Somehow, the adventurers draw upon the last of their strength and manage to prevail. Taking Morgiana’s corpse with them, they retreat back down the ramp and find an empty structure nearby to rest and heal.
[12 Gozran 4708]
In the morning, Ava successfully summons Morgiana’s spirit from the Boneyards so that she can fight again. When the party leaves their shelter, they realise they never checked on Nisk Tander after leaving him manacled outside the occlusion field. They find the self-serving alchemist quite dead from some mix of hypothermia and oxygen deprivation. Kang chuckles at the sight, and the adventurers agree that the world is better off with Nisk Tander dead.
The adventurers return to the Pinnacle of Avarice. After climbing the ramp, they discover that the bodies of the slain have been removed. But guardians still remain--some clearly returned to life from the prior day’s slaughter! Morgiana reaches death’s door again, but is brought back just in time by Ava. The battle is another furious one, but this time the adventurers win handily.
Having secured a foothold on the Pinnacle of Avarice, the Heroes of Varisia are poised to push forward into the heart of Karzoug’s fortress.
Just like at Fort Rannick and many other occasions, the group just went with the frontal approach here at the final dungeon, fighting off wave after wave of reinforcements as the alarm sounded. They even did one of their trademark "kinda half retreat but stick around long enough to somehow win" maneuvers! Crazy, but impressive. They did pay a price with Morgiana going down repeatedly and using up some precious spells and material components to get back up. It's clear that Karzoug's forces were willing to fight a war of attrition and knew who the most vulnerable members of the group were.
Poor Nisk! Everyone, including me, completely forgot about him given all the action. But I always play these things straight, and perhaps freezing to death atop one of Golarion's highest peaks was a fitting end for the character.
[12 Gozran 4708 continued]
As the adventurers finish a brief rest, they realise that Morgiana is missing! Clearly affected by her recent cascade of deaths and resurrections, the young hobgoblin has slipped away back down the mountain, leaving only a note saying that the group has no chance against Karzoug’s forces and that the rest of the party should flee as well. Jinkatsyu remains adamant however, stating that the group has come too far to turn back now. The others agree.
Having secured the entrance to the Pinnacle of Avarice through multiple bloody battles, the adventurers are able to push deeper into the fortress. One corridor leads to a dazzling chamber awash in golden light—every bit of the wall, floor, and ceiling is covered in gems and gold! A veritable carpet of rubies forms a throne that seems to make the rest of the chamber’s extravagance pale in comparison. However, the room is unoccupied and the adventurers decide to push on.
At what turns out to be a dead end, Erik’s supernaturally-enhanced senses notice a spot where the walls between the planes seems thin. Before he can take any precautions, a slightly transparent image of Karzoug manifests and speaks! “And so the fools have found me. I must applaud your tenacity. You are much more persistent than the worms I thought you to be. You are more like hungry maggots in your endless squirming and writhing to get to the death that awaits you at the core of your fate. Let me show you a mere taste of the power you face.” But before the image can actually cast a spell, Jinkatsyu stabs it with his Runeforged blade and shatters the image!
Later in their search, the Heroes of Varisia find a massive room containing a pair of outrageously-sized beds—each over forty feet long! Clearly the resting point for rune giants, though none are present during the adventurers’ search. Other chambers clearly belong to the lamias, the Hungerers, and other foes that were dispatched during the rolling battles near the entrance. But another part of the fortress is guarded by a completely new danger: a gaunt fiend with the face of a hideous fish and a body consisting of lanky limbs and writhing tendrils! It seems to drain the very soul-stuff from Jinkatsyu while appearing in and out of the Material Plane so rapidly that it evades most attacks. But Ava casts a spell to lock it in place, and Erik and Jinkatsyu are able to finally finish it off. The adventurers decide another withdrawal and rest are in order. As they go to leave, Karzoug cannot resist taking over Jinkatsyu’s persona one final time: “Yes, flee, worms. Already I have broken your company. I afford you one more sally, as I tire of this game.”
The Heroes of Varisia decide they can’t afford to tarry, and instead should press on with their explorations of the massive fortress. One route leads them to a potential godsend: a planetar angel! But the divinely-inspired being seems unable to communicate and, through emphatic gestures, warns the adventurers not to enter the room it is in. Erik is able to establish a non-verbal rapport with the angel and discerns that it has been bound by Karzoug’s apprentice to guard this place and must attack all who enter. The adventurers decide that, come morning, they’ll see if they have the magical wherewithal to free the angel from its magical bondage.
The group continues exploring, with Erik and Jinkatsyu scouting ahead. The two adventurers see a pair of double doors, their faces covered with tens of thousands of tiny runes carved in an eerie, spidery script that seems to writhe and move around. The kitsune and the aasimar find themselves somehow sucked into the door and into a nightmarish maze! Eventually the two escape the phantasmagorical labyrinth and find themselves in an equally bizarre chamber. The plain stone walls of the long room are lined by a variety of tables, boxes, crates, and cylinders—some made of stone, but others of metal. Strange winding cables protrude from some to connect to others, and all of the clutter seems to focus upon a large metal framework constructed at one end of the room, where strange currents of energy dance and shimmer within a ring of stone. The currents occasionally coalesce into images—such as a massive city of towers and gigantic monuments set in a mountain valley at the foot of a huge peak. Xin-Shalast, as it would appear from above! But the city beyond the energy curtain is different than what the Heroes of Varisia experienced: its towers and buildings are ablaze with light both magical and mundane and the great central road and surrounding streets teem with tens of thousands of giants and humanoids of all descriptions. The sounds and even the smells of this strange metropolis waft through the image—an image that is seems more and more like a window to the past. And surrounding the strange device are a dozen, vaguely human shaped beings wearing twitching yellow robes, turbans and veils. They completely ignore Jinkatsyu and Erik, and instead do various tasks to manipulate the device and consoles around it. Erik realises that this must be what the so-called “Leng spiders” were talking about!
Meanwhile, Kang and Ava devise a plan to communicate with their allies through a magical spell of sending. The two decide to take the risk of entering the maze as well, and although what they see is quite confronting, they eventually escape it and emerge next to Jinkatsyu and Erik. The four discuss what to do. Kang is unable to make any sense of what the machines are for. Jinkatsyu says that if these “Denizens of Leng” are doing Karzoug’s will, then he wants to stop them—and uphold the agreement with the spiders. Ava, however, says it could be incredibly dangerous to start a battle in a room of magically-powered equipment with an unknown purpose. The conversation continues as, all the while, the Denizens of Leng continue their mysterious work.
Morgiana's player left the game after the previous session, so I thought it made the most sense to have the character leave as well.
I really liked the Leng experiment concept. The PCs didn't know exactly what the Denizens of Leng were doing, and whether stopping it would be a good or a bad thing. The truth is that the Denizens were *outwardly* working on a way to bring an army of giants from ancient Thassilon into the present, but *secretly* building a trap that would ensnare Karzoug the moment he left his pocket demi-plane (in order to serve their own grand machinations). We'll see what the PCs choose in the next session.
At this point (and putting the Denizens' trap to one side), Karzoug has the raw power to escape his pocket demi-plane whenever he wishes. He gained a huge amount of magical power from the destruction of Turtleback Ferry whose residents were marked with the Sihedron Rune, not to mention the scores of giants the PCs had killed. However, he knows the PCs are coming for him and he's content to watch and wait so he can fight them in his domain.
[12 Gozran 4708 continued]
As they watch the bizarre Denizens of Leng continue to perfect the strange machinery that seems to open a window to the past, the Heroes of Varisia discuss what to do. Speculating that they’re working on behalf of Karzoug, the adventurers decide to attack. Ava starts things off with a spell that creates total silence, creating perfect cover for Kang to hurl a bomb into the Denizens’ midst. The adventurers are heavily outnumbered, however, and quickly surrounded. The fighting is intense, and every time one of the Denizens is seemingly slain, their bodies liquefy and disappear—leaving only robes behind! The humming and sparking of the machinery seems to intensify as the battle goes on until it reaches a point that Kang thinks it’s going to overload and potentially explode! The adventurers retreat toward the rear of the chamber and Ava conjures a thin stone wall to act as shielding—but instead of an explosion, something potentially worse happens. A terrifying thing from beyond time has emerged from the chronal energies manipulated by the Denizens. The creature is vaguely shaped like a hound, but its feet end in large razor-sharp talons and its enormous maw is filled with weirdly transparent teeth. It easily breaks through Ava’s conjured barrier and attacks. But the adventurers stand firm, and destroy the abomination with little harm to themselves.
Later, the adventurers decide to try to free the angel they encountered previously from the spell that compels it to defend the chamber it is in. But the binding spell is too strong. After leaving the Pinnacle and setting up camp outside, the group make their final plans for battling Karzoug—for tomorrow, they plan to confront the Runelord of Greed!
[13 Gozran 4708]
The fateful day begins auspiciously. Ava’s fervent prayers to Sinashakti are answered, and her new attempt to free the bound angel works! The angel, now able to speak, gives her name as Ayruzi and vows to assist the group in defeating Karzoug. With such a powerful ally at their side, the adventures progress quickly through the remaining chambers of the Pinnacle. In one large chamber they find a twenty-foot-tall golden statue of Karzoug with its hands posed as if it were holding something. The chamber also contains a golden sarcophagus, and perhaps most meaningfully, a massive pair of double doors that shimmer behind a hazy screen of magical energy. The adventurers know they’ve found the innermost layer of Karzoug’s defences—and one of those defences takes the form of a truly enormous Shemhazian demon! The forces of Nirvana and the Abyss come to blows as Ayruzi leaps into the fray with her flaming greatsword. Although Erik is knocked unconscious in the fighting, the demon is finally slain.
With a powerful new ally at their side, the adventurers are veritably knocking at Karzoug’s door. But the Runelord has been studying their tactics for weeks. Which side will emerge victorious? The answer is imminent.
The penultimate session! The PCs are certainly as powerful as the AP expects (probably more so), as they made quick work of some crazy-tough opponents like the creature emerging from the Leng portal and a CR16 Shemhazian Demon. Freeing the angel was another coup, as it'd offer them even more help in the big final battle the next session. Interestingly, the players (perhaps with some foreknowledge) chose the longest route through the Pinnacle of Avarice--a different turn could have seen them at the final battle a couple of sessions ago!
[13 Gozran 4708 continued]
Following the battle against the massive shemhazian demon, Kang and the angel Ayruzi work together quickly to heal Erik. A search of the chamber shows that the twenty-foot-long sarcophagus is empty. The adventurers turn their attention to the magical screen of golden energies that bar further progress. Various options are considered, but sometimes the simplest is best--Jinkatsyu’s runeforged blade disrupts the force field entirely!
Beyond lies the chamber of a powerful magical artefact called the anima focus. The slowly rotating, thirty-foot-diameter sphere of gold is the magical link between the Material Plane and the runewell in Karzoug’s personal demiplane. Through the anima focus, soul energies from those slain bearing the Runelord’s mark are transmitted directly to him. This chamber, crucial to Karzoug’s successful return, is not unguarded, however: standing in the air about thirty feet off the ground is a creature whose upper torso is that of a comely woman, while her lower half is that of a lion; and flanking her are a pair of cloud giants! The leonine creature doesn’t expect victory, but instead works to weaken the Heroes of Varisia so that her master will prevail in the battle to come. When Jinkatsyu rushes into battle, he’s quickly overwhelmed with magic and the giants shatter as much of his equipment as they can. But just before the foes can decapitate him, Erik saves the kitsune’s life with a perfectly placed fusillade of bullets. As the last guardians fall, the angel Ayruzi uses more divine energies to heal Jinkatsyu while Ava prepares more spells to repair the kitsune’s broken gear. Kang analyses the anima focus and determines how it can be used to travel to the place where its energies are being sent.
The time has come. Having made their final preparations, the adventurers enter the portal in unison and arrive in the Eye of Avarice. They find themselves standing on a stone platform barely a hundred feet above a sea of pure fire. Behind them, a rippling window overlooks the city of Xin-Shalast, while before them, at the very center of the demiplane, is a circular pool of molten gold: Karzoug’s runewell, through which the power of the souls slain under his mark have collected for the past five years. It appears to be fully charged. Mounted above the runewell on an articulated adamantine frame is a large lens of green crystal with the Thassilonian runes for transmutation and greed inscribed upon its surface: the soul lens through which the greed in souls who were marked with the Sihedron was extracted and pooled into the runewell below.
On each of the chamber’s side balconies is a storm giant, poised for battle, while opposite the runewell and soul lens stands a gargantuan rune giant! At the far end of the chamber is an extravagant throne, surrounded by walls with countless books and workspaces. A blue dragon has its tail looped around the throne and is sitting before the throne’s inhabitant like a loyal pet. And relaxing on the throne itself, casually holding a wand with a flaming glaive leaning nearby, is the ultimate target of the adventurers’ quest: Karzoug the Claimer himself. He nods, and says matter-of-factly: “I have waited 10,000 years for this, and now the time for words has passed. Let the current age test its mettle against the greatest wizard of Thassilon. Victory and annihilation await—but which, to whom?”
The adventurers barely have time to blink before Karzoug is suddenly surrounded with multiple layers of magical protections, including a sphere of prismatic force. The living relic of ancient Thassilon stopped time itself to ensure his defences would be in place! The battle begins in earnest, with the heroes’ angelic ally engaging the closest storm giant, Jinkatsyu charging the rune giant that bars the path to Karzoug, Kang hurling bombs left and right, and Erik defending Ava as the cleric attempts to shatter some of the Runelord’s abjurations while avoiding the blue dragon that launches into the air with instructions to kill her specifically! The adventurers withstand the Runelord’s initial onslaught of destructive magicks and strike back. Jinkatsyu and Kang work together to topple the rune giant, and then the alchemist hurls his bombs to deadly effect, along with Erik’s pistol, to send the blue dragon plummeting to its death!
But Ayruzi finds single combat against one of the storm much harder than expected—the two trade blow after blow but surprisingly it’s the angel that falls first! The inexplicable defeat is a sign of things to come. Clearly, Karzoug has been watching the Heroes of Varisia, analysing their strengths and weaknesses, and has tailored a battle plan to emerge victorious. Kang’s every-reliable bombs of magical force seem to have no effect on the Runelord, and Erik’s bullets veer away just before striking him. When Jinkatsyu finally gets close enough to strike, a mere gesture from Karzoug teleports the runeforged-blade from the swashbuckler’s very hand! The Runelord retreats back into his prismatic sphere with the sword, and Jinkatsyu—already badly hurt and lacking a replacement weapon—decides to follow! For a moment the nearly-suicidal act appears like it might work, as the kitsune successfully survives the initial layers of the sphere. But fate is not kind this day, and the heroic swordsman dies as poison wracks his body.
The Runelord draws upon his magical reserves to unleash more devastating magic with incredible speed. Erik succumbs to a magically-created replica of the wail of the legendary banshee, and dies instantly. Seeing her companions fall, Ava prays for a miracle and tries to disintegrate Karzoug where he stands, but the Runelord resists the spell! Kang desperately tries to avoid the still-standing storm giants while thinking of a plan, but even his genius cannot stave off the coming defeat. Karzoug teleports to Ava’s side, and says, almost wistfully, “Without you, the others would have fallen long before reaching Xin-Shalast. You should feel no shame, and I take no pleasure, in this.” And with those words, he first changes Ava into a small amphibian before locking her in a temporal stasis forever! And then there was one. Karzoug tells Kang that he has led the group well, and could find a place as a lieutenant in his armies--if he kneels and swear loyalty. But Kang refuses, knowing that although the cause is lost, he still retains one thing: his freedom. The master alchemist steps off the platform and embraces his fate as he falls into the lake of fire below.
And thus ends The Rise of the Runelords. The Heroes of Varisia have failed. Despite their valiant efforts, Karzoug emerges from the Eye of Avarice confident in his power. Within months, his newly-gathered armies will take control of central Varisia. And by year’s end, the independent city-states of Magnimar, Riddleport, and Korvosa must band together or fall to the might of the Empire of New Thassilon. Yet the valor of the fallen heroes has not been in vain—word of their epic quest has spread, from stopping a goblin raid during Sandpoint’s Swallowtail Festival to slaying Xanesha atop a burning clocktower in Magnimar to launching a frontal attack on the Kreeg ogres at Fort Rannick to stopping a giant invasion at its source in Jorgenfist. Others are inspired to take up the fight in their name. The feats of the Heroes of Varisia may have passed into legend, but who can say what their shared sacrifice might bring?
Well, this was it--after 120+ sessions, three years of real-time, countless hours of preparation, a lot of highs and some real lows, the final battle with Karzoug the Claimer, Runelord of Greed. My greatest hope was that the PCs would win but not without an epic, memorable battle. If that didn't happen, I was hoping they would win even if it was in the almost-comical "one bad saving throw" like with Mokmurian. I knew the most disappointing outcome for everyone at the table would be a defeat. And that's what happened.
A post-mortem could identify a lot of things that went wrong for the group. The angel should have been more than a match for a storm giant, but struggled a surprising amount and was defeated. The PCs knew Karzoug had been watching and preparing for them, but they didn't adjust their favourite tactics or have good back-up plans when favored attacks didn't work. A real chance to catch Karzoug outside his prismatic sphere and turn the tide occurred but unfortunately *just* slipped through their fingers. It's one of those battles that you can replay in your head and see all sorts of plausible outcomes if a die roll here or there had gone a little different. Alas, in the end, the PCs didn't really even come close.
I had had the players write out two sets of epilogues for their characters (one version if they won, and one version if they lost) and I read those out after the session. I also read some nominated highlights from the campaign ("funniest moment" "most exciting battle", etc.) and gave out some mementoes like gaming bags, and, for the two players who had been in the campaign since the very beginning, sihedron amulets. Still, it was a real downer and two of the players left after without saying a word.
As for me, I've now moved on to Curse of the Crimson Throne with a whole new crew (we're at the halfway point in the AP). I've included the events from Rise of the Runelords into my campaign--Turtleback is still destroyed, Karzoug's armies of giants are taking over more and more territory, and the PCs are about to come into direct conflict with some advance scouting parties in the Cinderlands.
Overall, it was a great campaign and I'll always have a lot of great memories from it. I do wish it had ended on a better note--but you can't have exhilarating victories without simultaneously having the risk of a disappointing defeat.