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This is an attempt at paying homage to this thread that helped me prepare for running this module, because I had kept it bookmarked for a looooong time.
I’ve dreamt of running The House on Hook Street as a GM for a few years now, the book sitting in my shelf, but life kept getting in the way, and my Pathfinder group eventually drifted apart (physically, as in different cities)
Now I have taken the opportunity to present this awesome adventure to a group of my colleagues. Two of them are complete newcomers to tabletop RPGs in general, and the two others have some small experience as players in DnD 5E.
I have thus decided to run The House on Hook Street, adapted for 5E. (“Boo, hiss”, I know ; but it was easier for player recruitment, and for me as a GM who hadn’t played Pathfinder for years). My goal is to respect the story, events and atmosphere of the module as best I can, and introduce my players to what makes Golarion unique, even if that means re-skinning most monsters.
I’ve also decided to change the “spider” motif into a “snake” motif, because I own a lot of hand-painted serpent-themed miniatures that I wanted to use/showcase, and no spider-themed ones. I hope Mr Hodge (author of the module) forgives me for this liberty I took…
So without further ado…
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Presentation of the PCs
Other than proposing that some PCs come from Bridgefront as the module suggests, I had very few restrictions for PC creation. The premise given was that the group already knew each other, being an adventuring party coming back to Korvosa.
Felaël : male elf wizard (transmuter) with the sage background. The player was very interested in the “forlorn elf” concept and wanted to be an orphan, whose parents had died accidentally in Korvosa, to explain why he was raised by humans. I thought this wouldn’t really work with Korvosa having an elven district, so I suggested his parents had died in Riddleport instead. His interest in transmutation (that also came from the player) gives me an opportunity to introduce future hooks for Karzoug’s legacy, Thassilon, etc.
Arya : female human rogue (swashbuckler) with the criminal (thief) background. As I did not have time to discuss her background with her player, she took me by surprise during the presentations in the first session… The original story went that Arya was born in Bridgefront to a very poor family, so poor that she was sold into slavery, along with one of her brothers. She escaped and resorted to thievery, eventually joining the party. She is on a personal quest to find her missing brother.
Of course, the player didn’t know that slavery is illegal in Korvosa. Also, since my opening featured the party returning to Korvosa after their “off-screen” previous adventures, the “missing brother” thread made little sense : why would Arya leave the city to go adventuring for a few years, then return to the city where she was initially, then keep searching for her lost brother there ? I didn’t say anything, but took mental note to re-work Arya’s background with her player before the next session.
Jean-Charles : male half-elf paladin with the oath of redemption and the soldier background. Once a soldier assigned to protect a village, he grew disgusted with the pointless bloodshed between the monster tribes and his unit. Opting for diplomacy instead of violence, he succeeded in halting attacks against the village, which led to him becoming a paladin. I suggested Sarenrae as the obvious choice for worship, but Jean-Charles’ player preferred to commit to the cause of Good and not to any particular deity. He nonetheless included a vision from Sarenrae in his background, that the character chose to ignore because he “hadn’t heard of this lady” (low Intelligence and no proficiency in Religion…)
(if anyone understands the reference of the “nice to everyone” character being called Jean-Charles, you gain 5 internet points)
Gus : male halfling ranger (swarmkeeper) with the sailor background. His father was a boat captain living in Bridgefront, who died and his mother had to re-marry. Hating his new step-dad, Gus left home early and initially got work on the halfling boats of Korvosa, dreaming of one day buying back his father’s ship (which gave me a nice hook to bring the PC’s back to Bridgefront after their “off-screen” adventures). The player asked if the swarmkeeper concept was too cartoonish for the game ; I thought about the Korvosan house drakes and we settled on that as his swarm (I even suggested that he had learned his ranger spells from them).
First Session
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Introduction
Back from their recent (undefined) adventures that brought them to level 6, the PCs arrived in Korvosa, with Gus having gained enough money to buy back half his father’s boat from his step-dad (his mother had promised to give him her half once he was back.) After the obligatory overview of Korvosa and Bridgefront by the GM, the PCs made their way to see Gus’ mom, who owned a small apartment building in Bridgefront. There, they were hit with the news that dear old step-dad had died in the Blood veil plague a few years back, and with an undelivered perishable cargo, mom couldn’t prevent the ship from being seized by creditors. Gus now had to find twice the amount of money anticipated !
(I struggled for a while to find a reason why they had enough money to decide to return home, but not enough money to just buy the ship right away and leave… Fortunately the players just rolled with it. Maybe I overthought it…)
After some pleasantries that allowed some roleplaying and some exposition, and Gus’ mom mentioning that she was always tired / not sleeping well “like everyone in Bridgefront these days”, it was time for some action !
The Bayside horror
As they were discussing supper, the PCs suddenly heard the whistles of Korvosan guards calling for back-up, just outside. Rushing to help, they saw the guards thrown back by the dream-spawn creature and decided to intervene. I used stats for an Air Elemental with cold damage, but kept close to the original description (with tentacles of fog to match the miniature). I even had a separate miniature for the corpse, which led to Arya wasting an arrow on it. The rogue swiftly climbed the building to fire from above and stayed out of reach. The players got a bit scared when the three other PCs were caught by a whirlwind attack, and lamented their lack of magic weapons, but they were in no real danger. After a few rounds, Gus casting Faerie Fire, then Felaël unleashing Scorching Rays, finished the monster.
In the aftermath, the players roleplayed their discussion with the guards and their inspection of the corpse, and got the invitation to see Drune the next morning. Felaël correctly identified the creature as a “dream-spawn” but spectacularly failed his Arcana check to remember his lessons about the Plane of Dreams.
The first night
As they went to sleep in Gus’ mother’s home, Jean-Charles’ player decided to keep watch over the mother and sleep in her room, unknowingly giving her his bonus to saving throws, but depriving his companions of his protective aura. I had the players, being beginners, all roll their saving throws openly ; Gus failed. In addition, I had decided to secretly roll the 10% chance of lucid dreaming for each PC, then roll another 10 % chance of a deadly dream for all those in non-lucid dreams. Surprise, Jean-Charles had a lucid dream, which he spent wandering around Bridgefront to find the house and see if he could “see himself asleep”. Felaël heard some baying hounds and came face-to-face with fleeing dreamers ; Arya walked by an alley where monstrous limbs emerged from the ground (foreshadowing for a re-skinned Fever Dream alley), and poor Gus heard a hag’s sinister laugher before having a vision of the Dreamstone and waking up to 3d6 psychic damage, no regained spells and no healing. (It was then that I realized 5E’s Dream spell is meaner that Pathfinder’s Nightmare...)
The first day
Of course, the players couldn’t resist discussing their weird dreams at breakfast with each other and with Gus’ mother (I really should find her a name…), and caught on to the fact that the common feature was being stuck in Bridgefront. They then headed to see Drune, who explained the situation with the corpse, offered exposition on shiver and the mysterious deaths, and presented his offer. (I later realized that I had not stressed the “find where Frell died” cue enough… but we’ll get to that). One player thought of a possible link between the dream-spawn’s cold attack and the name “shiver”, which I thought was a neat, while unplanned, red-herring. Arya asked for help locating her brother, to which Drune replied that there is a “missing person” office she could go to, but that "being in his good graces would make things more efficient".
To avoid an exposition dump, I kept the death vignettes vague, with Drune pretexting that “the paperwork was late”, but mentioning that they could ask guards about the corpses they had found. Which they did on the way out, learning about the “hungry dead” vignette from a guard at the door. They asked about who the victims were and where they lived, got the confirmation from the guard that they were known addicts, and inspected the one address they got (from which they learned nothing new). Walking around Bridgefront, they asked me if they saw addicts or people who looked intoxicated ; I said no. At the time, I said so because it was too early in the day ; I had momentarily forgotten about shiver dens… (GM fail #2)
They then decided to follow Ma Gus’ suggestion to hang out at a local restaurant / tavern for the rest of the day, to gather information from the locals. They seemed to forget about Frell, instead focusing their questions on shiver and people’s dreams. They were able to discern the estimated size of the dreamscape by figuring out where the people having “Bridgefront dreams” were living and sleeping. Trying to think epidemiologically, they asked where people got their water… So of course I had to feed them the “poisoned well” rumour (which another client indirectly cast into doubt, since he got his water elsewhere but still suffered from the dreams).
Night Market Fountain (so soon ?!)
With their first day in Bridgefront coming to a close, the PCs decided to head for the Night Market to check on the well. After debating casting Detect Magic in public (and deciding against), and realizing that Detect Poison (that the paladin could prepare the next morning) could also detect drugs, they decided to take a sample of the water for later. A successful Perception check had them find the hidden compartment with broken vials, that the rogue quickly identified as a cache for dropping off contraband. The players decided that their plan would be to keep watch over the well that night… With the hour being late (both in-game and in the real world), I decided to end the session.
Closing thoughts
Inwardly, I was panicking a bit at that point. If the PCs watched the well all night, they would see the “tunnel runner” cultist refill the shiver cache. Then they could find Greeley’s hideout, and it wouldn’t make sense for the cult to have prepared their ambush so soon ! Worse still, what if they attacked the hideout just after finding it ? Without having visited Rook’s Roost, Fever Dream alley, the Oneiromancer…
As soon as I got home after the game, I thought long and hard about how to get things back on track, and I re-read the shiver dealing operation in detail. No matter how things went, I figured I could avoid the PCs finding the lair too soon, and make sure the cult’s ambush happened. And if they did find the lair before completing the rest of the investigation, I could always resort to sowing doubt before they attacked ; “are you sure you’re going after the right dealer ?”.
(Note : at time of posting this, Session #2 has already happened, but I haven't had the time to write it down)
Interlude : adjusting Arya’s background
After discussing with Arya’s player the following days, I proposed some changes. (I’m curious to hear how Golarion experts would have handled it…) It also gave me an idea for what the party’s previous off-screen adventure was, as well as a possible hook for a next one. As slavery is illegal in Korvosa, she was sold to underground slavers, who moved her by ship to Kintargo to the south. She was able to escape, but unable to return home at first ; she survived by stealing and joined a thieving gang.
When she could eventually leave Kintargo, she returned home to learn that her brother had left as an adventurer, on the trail of “Karzoug’s laboratory”. With the rediscovery of Xin-Shalast in recent years, she traveled there to find him. (I was inspired by the section in the Lost Cities of Golarion book). This explained the party’s formation (especially the presence of the transmuter wizard). Unfortunately, she learned that her brother had never come to Xin-Shalast (Shattered Star players can guess where he really went… wink, wink). So now she’s back to square one in Korvosa.
Session 2
The second night : surveilling the well
After a brief summary of the investigation so far, the PCs went ahead with their plan to keep watch over the Night Market Fountain. The rogue and ranger climbed into the Shingles and found a good hiding spot with a clear view of the marketplace, while the wizard and the paladin, less stealth-qualified, waited in a nearby alley, out of sight but within shouting distance. They figured that one of each pair would stay awake for the first half the night, then switch roles ; and the whole party could get their long rest later during the day. I randomly rolled the time when the tunnel-runner cultist would show up ; he came during the first watch, so the rogue and the paladin were awake.
The rogue caught sight of the hooded figure heading directly toward the well, fiddling briefly with the hidden compartment, and then leaving swiftly. I had decided that the cultist would not be heading straight to Greeley’s Den, but rather to one of the other secret entrances to the Old Wall tunnel. Arya decided to wake her ranger companion but stay silent, instead sending Gus to get the others. She then followed the cultist by staying on the rooftops. I used a scatter die (with an arrow) to randomly decide which way the cultist was going versus which way the other PCs were waiting, and it ended up being close enough for the three PCs to reach the marketplace before Arya was out of sight. I had the players roll a bunch of skill checks (Gus climbing down in a hurry, Arya navigating the Shingles and trying to get the others’ attention without sound), which they all passed. The wizard (or was it the ranger ?) also cast Pass without trace to make sure Jean-Charles’ noisy full plate didn’t give them away.
The players again surprised me by deciding NOT to catch up to their quarry, but rather following the cultist from a safe distance. The tunnel-runner reached a derelict apartment room and went in. After some hesitation, the PCs decided to barge in… and found nothing except tracks in the dust leading to the back wall. Sure to find a secret door leading into the Old Wall, the PCs excitedly looked for one… and only found deep cracks, “not even wide enough for the halfling to squeeze through”.
Here, my conversion to 5E was actually helpful in making sure the cultist escaped without leading the PCs to the Hook Street House too early. I’m using Sandy Petersen’s Cthulhu Mythos supplement, and the cultist has an ability to polymorph into an aberration… I had him polymorph into a choker to reach the secret tunnel, which made thematic sense as I had introduced chokers last session when discussing Old Korvosa and the Shingles.
Taken aback, the PCs debated what to do next. Arya ran back to the well, inspected the secret cache and found shiver vials. The group decided to resume their watch until morning as per the original plan, to see if anyone else might come and get the shiver, but keep one vial for analysis. However, no one else came during their watch (I figured vialmen get one dose at a time for their customers during the day).
I then retrospectively had the players roll for their dreams during their short, separate sleep (I didn’t do it earlier to avoid breaking the chase sequence). Felaël saw a magical duel between cultists wearing different-coloured robes ; I used the “alley full of claws” sequence again (because I was sure the players had forgotten about that foreshadowing) ; and one lucid-dreaming PC found another PC while looking for the well, helping the players realize that the dream-world is shared.
The second morning : Rook’s Roost
Following their nightly watch, the PCs decided to head home for a real long rest, but take a slight detour on the way to check on the derelict apartment building where the cultist vanished. I took the opportunity of the alternate route to make them pass in front of Rook’s Roost and have them notice the pig pen. I hope the railroading was subtle enough (probably not), but I had them remember the “hogslop” clue, and had Arya’s criminal background justify her recognizing the drug den for what it was.
The ranger easily spotted the red scrap of fabric in the pig pen, and sent one of his house drakes (as “mage hand”) to retrieve it. He then went in and found Frell’s signet ring, which the wizard correctly identified. The party decided to get into the shiver den, despite the early hour, to ask about how to buy shiver and to inquire about their finds. They talked to the bouncer, paid the entry fee (they did have a dose of shiver), and got in, where they asked to buy more shiver but got told that shiver dens don’t deal directly. Gus then asked to see the owner and tried to pressure him with what he had found outside ; Sharoosh confirmed Frell being his customer and dying while intoxicated, but denied any illegal activity and shiver sale. He then directed the PCs toward Frell’s companions.
The second day : Fever Dream alley
The party went to sleep during the day at Ma Gus’ house, which gave me the opportunity for more dreams ! Felaël visibly failed his saving throw while Jean-Charles, being a paladin, rolled ridiculously high. However, my secret rolls indicated that the paladin and the rogue suffered deadly dreams that night. I decided to make the players question their guesses about what those saving throws meant, and add even MORE foreshadowing. I had Felaël encounter a lady in a funeral dress (Mme Carrington) who took him by the hand and “the rest of the dream was vague but felt safe”. He woke up to a shocking vision of the Dreamstone, but without the expected damage that Gus had suffered the day before. Arya and Jean-Charles were both picked up by flying serpentine creature and dropped to their death, waking up to one level of exhaustion.
With their second day of investigation almost already over, the party wasted no time proceeding as planned. Felaël used Detect magic on the shiver vial and a sample of the well’s water, while Jean-Charles prepared and used Detect poison to verify that the well did not contain any shiver. Afterward, the party headed to Fever Dream alley.
After failing to get information from the addicts, the PCs were beset by their first dream haunt. Monstrous limbs erupted from the ground and attempted to immobilize everyone (to represent the Web spell), while two swarms of mobile, clawed hands went on the offensive (again, the change from spiders was an excuse to use miniatures of "ghoul claws emerging from the ground” I had made years ago). The swarms really had trouble landing hits, and the PCs ground them down. After the battle, I had Felaël “understand” how dream haunts work in game terms, so that the PCs could react to the next ones. The grateful addicts told them everything they wanted, so the group gained multiple clues and leads to follow, including Frell’s traceable loot, Greeley’s name and use of the Night Market as his selling ground, and Mme Carrington’s name and refusal to buy the occult book.
Closing thoughts
Whew, I think I managed to bring things back on track and check off all the foreshadowing I had planned for the dreams in one session ! I still haven’t introduced Sally (not counting her cackling in a dream in session one, which could have meant nothing), but I have a plan for that next session.
Session 3
Since a long time had passed in real life between sessions, and my newbie players are not used to taking notes, I started the session with a quick recap of “the story so far”, sprinkled with the foreshadowing elements and clues they had learned.
The second evening : Return to Night Market Fountain
The PCs wasted no time putting the information freshly discovered in Fever Dream alley to good use. Arya wanted to use her “criminal contact” background ability to look for an information broker to direct the group to Mme Carrington, so they went back to the Night Market to find one such informer. After buying the address, they asked if they could buy intel on shiver dealers and/or the Brotherhood cultists. The information broker agreed to investigate for them and asked them to meet him the next day at noon.
Afterwards, I directed the PCs attention to a scene unfolding nearby where a vendor was surrounded by a growing crowd. I role-played the seller as a Varisian conman looking to profit from the situation, blaming the nightmare plague on “that old hag Sally” (which gave me the opportunity to introduce her as a figure of local legend), and selling trinkets for supposed protection. After some discussion with the seller, Felaël rolled a high enough Arcana check to know that a Night Hag couldn’t haunt everyone at once by herself. He also realized that the objects for sale (Shoanti dreamcatchers, gremlin warding bells, silver holy symbols of Desna) would be useless, but this reminded him of their lack of silvered weapons to use against such a foe. (Only time will tell if the players will follow up on that disguised tip…)
The group then stayed in Night Market to watch over the well during “business hours”, where they noticed the “vialmen” retrieving shiver from the cache and giving them to customers. They couldn’t, however, spot the hidden “coinboys” in the crowd since they couldn’t see in advance who the customers would be. At the end of the evening, when the market died down, they followed one of the “vialmen”, who went back home. They burst in and menaced him into talking. He revealed that he got paid anonymously once a month and couldn’t direct them to Greeley’s lair, as he was part of Barvasi’s crew before the prudent Greeley took over. Jean-Charles intimidated him into promising to be there the next morning to show them who the “coinboys” were (which gave me a plausible justification for the cult preparing their ambush, mwahaha).
The third night
When the PCs went to bed that night, everyone passed their saving throw and nobody had a lucid dream, but Jean-Charles was randomly designated to die in his dream. I had him rescued by Madame Carrington’s dream form, who then brought him to her sanctuary to meet her “Dream Couatl” ally (replacing the Baku ; again, because miniature available). A tip for the GMs : there is a wonderful illustration, found in both the Strange Aeons Player’s Guide p.8 and Rule of Fear p. 19, that is perfect for Carrington’s dream self. The other PCs’ dreams featured the conman, whose claim he was “free from these nightmares” was thus proven false, as well as “creepy little girls dissecting a dog”, to foreshadow the hag’s “children”.
The third morning : Madame Carrington’s Oneiromancy
The group went to see Mme Carrington. After some negotiation to keep their weapons, they were let in and recognized the lady from their dreams. This led to a good role-play encounter, with some much needed information about the plane of dreams, the dreamscape, the concept of lucid dreaming and the addict deaths. They promised to work together at night to guide dream wanderers and each other toward the couatl’s sanctuary, and Mme Carrington offered her object reading ability for later.
The third day : Breakwater Pier
The PCs went back to the Night Market, only to realize that their “vialman” was nowhere to be seen. (I had him warn Barvasi’s band then lie low.) However the information broker was true to his word, showing up at noon with intel that Brotherhood members were seen hanging out at Breakwater Pier. The group immediately headed there. When the fake cultists barricaded themselves in the shack, the group went forward onto the pier, with Arya climbing on top of the shack and Jean-Charles shouldering through the door while the other two hung back.
The hydrodaemon then sprung the ambush, summoning the water elemental in the water just beside Gus, then using Control water to flood the pier and shack. This led to a long but very cinematic and interesting fight. The paladin seemingly wasted an action to try to spot the source of the Control water effect, but a very lucky Perception check led to the discovery of the hydrodaemon lurking shoulders deep in the water near the next pier. Felaël immediately followed this discovery with a Fireball that not even improved cover from the water could help the daemon avoid. The elemental engulfed the paladin and the rogue on top of the shack, but instead of trying to break out, the paladin attacked the elemental from inside, scoring a critical hit and adding a divine smite for staggering damage !
The daemon struck back against the PCs, who had become clustered, with a Fear spell that sent all of them running away except the ranger (yes, even the paladin with sky-high saves ! ) We then had a short discussion : does the “safest available route” to flee from a fiend in the water include jumping in the water to get away, if running on the pier would bring you closer to it ? I ruled that I would roll randomly for each PC to see if their panicked mind thought they could outswim their foe. Jean-Charles and Felaël jumped in the water while Arya took a dash on the pier. Meanwhile, Gus kept the offensive going with a barrage a magic stones from his sling, only to be rewarded with Blindness. Even then, he managed to hit the daemon with a lucky blind shot (does the sharpshooter feat really ignore 3/4 cover even if you’re blind ? why not…), and the wizard recovered from his fear behind the pier’s posts just in time to finish the fiend with Magic missiles.
Just then, Arya came face to face with the mob of addicts at the end of the pier… Quickly turning around, she rallied with her companions and they peppered the advancing rabble with ranged attacks. Gus dealt insane damage by using his sling with Sharpshooter, which I described as the stone making multiple ricochets in the mob to break ribs and bruise legs. The battered addicts gave up and one of them surrendered, offering to identify a “coinboy” for the PCs. I had city guards show up (there was, after all, a fireball thrown nearby) and suggest that the PCs should give Drune an update. Not wanting to waste time or lose their prisoner, the PCs used a magic Paper bird (cool little 5E wondrous item) to send a report to Drune, and received his reply : they had his approval for an attack on Greeley’s hideout, now (or next session…) within their grasp !
Session 4
Greeley’s den
After a quick recap, the group wasted no time going back to the Night Market, staying at the periphery and having their prisoner identify a “coinboy” for them. After some observation, they followed the “coinboy” to Greeley’s hideout. Arya was able to glimpse the cult’s secret hand sign when the door was opened for their quarry.
The party paused to formulate a plan of action. The wizard and the ranger hid in the rogue’s bag of holding, then the paladin and the rogue knocked on the door, pretending to have “important information for Greeley about the ambush”. Thanks to a good Deception roll from Arya combined with the secret sign, the dealer at the door let the two PC’s into the courtyard. However, the command to leave their weapons to the thugs before climbing the stairs put a wrench in the plan… The paladin tried to intimidate his way through, which only led to the dealers grasping their weapons. Jean-Charles then said “fine, I’ll just put my sword in this bag” and let the other PCs out.
The ensuing fight was pretty one sided, with the dealers consistently failing to hit any of the PCs, even when attacking with advantage using the Help action. The spiral staircase made for an interesting set piece. While the four thugs from the courtyard were quickly dispatched, two of the dealers from inside the den stepped out, fired a few arrows then retreated inside. The paladin burst through the door, shrugging off most attacks with his shield. Greeley spurred his henchmen on to “serve Mog-Lathar who had promised them eternal life”.
There was a hilarious scene when Arya, who had climbed the courtyard wall, decided to shoot at a dealer through the door, then jump from the wall to the staircase. With 5E’s rules of splitting movement, the decision was made to fire the arrow while in mid-air, for “coolness factor”… Felaël’s player even suggested casting a cantrip to add a background explosion. Arya’s player then proceeded to roll a 1 for the attack… But oh no, she had used a D12 by mistake ! She rolled a D20 this time… another natural 1 ! With laughter all around the table, her “cool jumping shot” ended up in Gus’s back, who was in the way, dealing almost as much damage as most dealers had so far.
Going back to serious business, the group finished all the dealers save one and ganged up on Greeley. Close to death and panicking, the cult deacon polymorphed into a choker and escaped through the barred window thanks to compression. This allowed the players to understand how the cultist had escaped them in session 2 and disappeared into the Old Wall. After a quick “how do we get him alive” discussion, the wizard fired magic missiles through the window, one at a time, to be able to stop once Greeley was back in human form. He succeeded… which unfortunately meant that without a climb speed, the cult deacon fell to his death on the pavement below. The last dealer promptly surrendered.
The end of the session was a bit rushed because one player had to leave. The party found the secret door and the trap, collected the evidence and the treasure, and found a holy symbol on Greeley’s corpse. The captive dealer explained the relationship between Barvasi’s Band and the Brotherhood, then led them to the entrance of the tunnel. I fast-forwarded to the group meeting with Drune and being tasked with bringing down the cult. Felaël did some off-screen research but could not find any deity, demon prince or any other semi-divine being by the name “Mog-Lathar”.
I concluded the session with the PCs gaining a level, even though I had initially planned to wait until they had navigated the tunnels to give them their level while saying “welcome... to the House on Hook Street”. Oh well, there’s always next session…
Session 5
Old Wall tunnel
It’s crazy how changing a little detail in an adventure can lead to unexpected turns. For miniature purposes, I had replaced the goliath spiders in the tunnel with giant vampire bats. Of course, I also had to change the vermin repellant found at the door ; I opted for gourds of animal blood (meant to distract the bats ; so I was keeping the intention of “this encounter can be bypassed without combat”).
The players really focused on the “animal blood” element, which turned into a red herring. After a good night’s sleep (to reinforce their attachment to the couatl and its protection), the group set forth. They inquired about missing animals in the neighbourhood to Drune and the local guards, and asked Maynard and Carrington if they knew about magic rituals using blood. They even went shopping for black pudding to bring with them along with the gourds of blood, and one player feared that they would have to drink the blood at some point…
The PCs started their exploration of the tunnel, easily following the cultists’ tracks. They eventually found a discarded gourd of blood, and their paranoia kicked in. They were initially afraid to keep going, or even touch it ! They soon discovered that it was only an empty gourd with puncture wounds, and kept moving. They were then ambushed by two giant bats, who unsuccessfully tried to bite the paladin. The other PCs threw their gourds of blood to draw the creatures away, and the group fled.
Hook Street exploration (part 1)
They reached The House on Hook Street (™), and the portcullis’ lock was no match for the rogue’s skill. Instead of trying to lift the gate, the wizard and the ranger each sent a Mage hand to use the winch. The group identified and bypassed the summoning trap, and decided to disguise themselves as cultists, even pausing to adjust a robe’s length for the halfling (someone had brought scissors !).
The PCs tried the easy door first and were confronted by the cult deacons in the hallway. The group tried to pretend they also were members of the cult ; three PCs rolled really well for their deception, but poor Felaël rolled catastrophically low. A deacon verbally stopped them, getting suspicious from the elf visibly shaking and remembering that there were no elves in the cult… Gus tried to bluff that the elf was actually his prisoner, that he had had to disguise to “bring to the boss”, and tried to hurry down the corridor away from the deacons. The cultist replied “nice try, the boss isn’t that way”, and fighting broke out.
The group made short work of the deacons, with the ranger trapping them in flammable webbing before the wizard blasted them with fire damage and the other two PCs unleashed their melee attacks. The cultists did however manage to scare the players with two simultaneous Shatter spells, with the wizard failing one save and the damage rolled being really high for that spell.
After the fight, the PCs stopped to listen for movement but rolled quite low, which allowed me to decide later how the librarians would react. The group then decided to go back into the first room and try the stuck door. Funnily, the high-Str paladin failed to ram the door open by rolling a 1, then the nimble rogue succeeded by rolling a ridiculously high number. Seeing the room with the broken floor, the group tried peering down into the lower level. I had replaced the “webs and spiders” with “overgrown lianas/plants and snakes” ; and Chittersnap was now a lizardman witch doctor brewing the shiver for the cult. The PCs spotted the snakes in the foliage but not the sneaky Chittersnap.
The haunt triggered, but was quickly shut down by the ranger using Magic stones. I still described the manifestation but without effect, to allow for clues and foreshadowing. The group pondered their next move, then decided to try molotov cocktails ! Going back to the minibar in the hallway, they grabbed the cheap alcohol and threw flaming bottles down into the snake-filled jungle !
Cursing vocally, Chittersnap spent the first round of combat putting out the fire, while the most agressive snakes went on the offensive as a swarm. The PCs waited for them and effortlessly slaughtered them, then Gus cast Faery fire down into the jungle to pinpoint Chittersnap. The poor creature utterly failed to be a challenge, missing with its only attempt at attacking, then being Commanded by the paladin to approach and being swarmed with lethal PC attacks.
Closing thoughts
I am starting to feel that the PCs are succeeding a little too well in combat… Or maybe that’s just the GM’s life, to see “supposedly cool” creatures / characters underperform due to bad luck or good tactics… Oh well. As long as the players have fun !
I still haven’t used the two librarians of the upper level, who are now clearly aware of the PCs’ intrusion. I plan to use them as ambushers / reinforcements during a combat next session (exact combat to be determined, depending on the PCs’ actions)
Session 6
Hook Street exploration (part 2)
This session felt like a true “dungeon crawl” in the best way, with the players deciding to explore the second level thoroughly before working their way down. The PCs figured out from the floor plan that two doors they had identified led to the same room (the library), so they decided to split up for a two-pronged blind “assault” on that room.
Of course, the two invisible librarians shadowing the group couldn’t pass up such an opportunity, and ambushed Arya and Gus in the hall while the two others were away. The PCs fought back, with the ranger killing one opponent by maneuvering him into his own Moonbeam, and the other librarian being cut down by the paladin and wizard rushing back to help.
Afterwards, the group paused to take apart the door from the library that was boarded up, discovering it led outside to a ruined balcony, but taking the opportunity to understand their position in the neighbourhood. Heading back inside, they moved on to the larder. Jean-Charles spotted the trap in the ladder in time, and Arya disabled it before the PCs climbed up into the room above.
I had replaced the spider-eater with a griffon, figuring that it made sense for a “bird of prey” to hunt escaped snakes, thus keeping the same role of a tamed guardian/hunter magical beast. The PCs found a large bird-like nest with an egg, and regurgitated pellets of snake bones, moments before the enraged griffon swept back inside to attack. The party knocked the beast unconscious, then debated what to do with it and its egg. Deeming it too dangerous to be left in a crowded neighbourhood (as it had been trained to kill), they decided to “euthanize” it, but kept the egg.
The group moved on to Myra’s bedroom, where the paladin succumbed to the haunt and fell asleep face first on the bed. He was immediately awoken by Gus, and was able to refrain from fleeing from Nahum’s brief vision. Looting the room gave the players interesting elements to ponder, including the locket with Myra and Nahum’s faces, their names and relationship, the payment retained from Barvasi for “the book” (which one player remembered), and the cult’s membership list (which another player spontaneously proposed to bring to “the police”, hehe).
The group moved back down to the first level through the staircase, surprising the dealers at the base of the stairs. Two of the thugs were cut down before the haunt even triggered, and the two others dropped their weapons and surrendered as the paladin shut down the haunt. The dealers offered info in exchange for their freedom, but mentioned that they had never crossed into the temple because it was “dangerous for them as non-members of the cult” (which I thought was a good enough clue).
Moving back to exploration, Arya was able to identify the former temple of Desna with a lucky Religion check. As they crossed, Jean-Charles was attacked and wounded by the invisible stalker. The players thought about the “cult membership” clause, but since they were still disguised as cultists with holy symbols displayed, and didn’t think to try the secret hand sign, they abandoned that reflexion and decided to fight instead. A quick Faery fire by Gus levelled the playing field by granting visibility and advantage, and the stalker was vaporized by a critical-hit-sneak-attack arrow plus four Scorching rays.
The group decided to keep the mysterious stairs in the stage for later, and moved on to the vial station. Quick reflexes on Felaël’s part allowed him to shoot a fireball into the room before the two groups could collide, which put the cultists on the wrong foot for the rest of the (brief) fight. Finding the corpse closet, the PCs were puzzled by the one with a different message, but thankfully didn’t lose too much time over it. With health and spells running low for the PCs, and time being late for the players, we decided to take a long rest "in both worlds". The group decided to retreat back to the griffon’s nest, figuring it was the easiest room to secure.
Closing thoughts
I felt this was a really fun dungeon crawling session, with a lot of short but different fights, and interesting exposition through the rooms themselves and the dialogue with the dealers. I’m really looking forward to the next one !
Session 7
Hook street exploration, completed
The session started with a quick recap of what the group had discovered so far inside the House on Hook Street. Afterwards, I had the group plan their long rest inside enemy territory, including “night watch turns”. Even though I had no plan of springing an attack on them, I felt the experience is a classic of tabletop RPGs and I faked some rolls behind my screen to add some stress. Their sleep went well, but I emphasized the urge they felt in their dreams to reach the sanctuary, being chased by howls and evil laughs.
The group decided to finish exploring the first level before venturing underground. They found the sacrificial victims in the game room, who they questioned after cleansing their poison with the paladin’s “lay on hands”. After learning all they could, they directed the hostages to the nearest exit they knew (without bothering to accompany them). Upon recognizing Nahum on the portrait, Gus decided on a whim to cut the canvas and stash the rolled-up painting in his pack. The group moved on to the foyer, where I decided to remove the monster (I knew we would be short on time this session, and I felt this fight didn’t really add to the story).
To my relief, the group decided to explore the stone stairs under the Desnan temple before using the elevator. When the dream haunt triggered, I modified the visions slightly to give the players a better chance of understanding the dreamstone : the image followed the meteor fragment through space, then as it passed through two successive dimensional portals and crashed into a mountain, then as it was transported by monks, and finally sealed deep into the shaft. As the vision ended, the ranger fell into the shaft, giving the wizard the opportunity to use the Feather Fall spell he had kept prepared from day one. Felaël’s player correctly deduced that the meteor must have acquired dangerous magical properties by passing through dimensions and had to be sealed away to keep its emanations contained ; and that its release must be responsible for the dream troubles. I had him roll an Arcana check and confirmed that his theory “made a lot of sense” (ie, it was spot on). I took the opportunity to give a little Golarion lore exposition about Earthfall, the Starstone and Aroden (although I totally blanked on Absalom’s name, shame on me).
The group then used the elevator, fully aware that they were heading towards the remaining members of the cult. They met the guardian of the corridor, which I had replaced with an animated statue, and tried to avoid confrontation by pretending to be members of the cult. Gus’ player shouted “hail Mog-Lathar” and half-jokingly mimicked the secret hand sign, which turned out to be the right move ! The statue stepped back into the wall and allowed them to reach the entrance to the presbytery. Hearing chanting through the door, Felaël was almost ready to blindly throw a fireball into the room. He decided to first take a peek inside by slightly opening the door, and I threw a wrench in his plan by describing the cultists as rabble wearing low-quality robes, including women and a few children. The group took in the scenery, including the domed ceiling and the fossilized Mog-Lathar, surrounded by praying worshippers, treasures and a dead sacrifice.
Showdown with Myra
For the confrontation with the cult, I really feel I got the best of both worlds, as I wanted the PCs to have the opportunity to parley with Myra but also really wanted to run a “boss fight”. The group was eventually spotted and invited in, where they had a verbal joust with Myra and learned about the excommunicates and the Clavis Somnus. The PCs seemed ready to accept a truce with the cult in exchange for the silver key and the opportunity to bring the fight to the excommunicates, until Myra asked for them to swear fealty to Mog-Lathar. The “key now, fealty later” option was refused, and Myra informed them that Mog-Lathar would require the sacrifice of one of the PCs to accept their allegiance. The group asked the rest of the cultists what they had had to sacrifice ; Myra angrily cut in that she had sacrificed “the love of her life” to her god. Gus took the hint in stride, got Nahum’s portrait from his gear and presented it to Myra, taunting her : “would he be proud of you ? ”. This signalled the end of negotiations and the beginning of hostilities…
The fight was significantly more difficult than what the players had faced so far. The rogue and the ranger wasted their first turn being hypnotized by the rabble, while the others were surprised by Myra’s high AC and successes on saves (advantage again magic goes a long way). Some of the players’ good ideas unfortunately failed, such as using Command on Myra to draw her away from her flock or Polymorphing her into a snail to remove her temporarily from the fight to deal with the cultists.
The final moments of the fight made for a satisfying conclusion. Felaël got the perfect opportunity to cast a Fireball at Myra, who was hiding inside part of her flock, badly wounded from paladin smites. The only problem was said paladin would also be caught in the blast and also had very few hit points left, courtesy of ghostly serpentine Spirit Guardians. Jean-Charles yelled “do it ! “, and the wizard obliged. The damage rolled was very high and finished off the rabble and Myra, despite her successful save. The paladin also succeeded on his saving throw, but even half the damage was enough to kill him… until I remembered (and reminded the player) that his Shield Master feat allowed him to avoid ALL the damage ! Players doing a high-five over the table is a cool feeling indeed.
The dying Myra threw the silver key at the paladin in a desperate plea to let her and her remaining flock leave. Arya rushed to her side to force her to explain what the key opened, but before Myra could answer, the idol awoke… With ominous background music, I described Myra’s power leaving her and flowing back to the fossilized Mog-Lathar, who called her a traitor in my best “death metal” voice. I then revealed a huge miniature and placed it on the table… before calling the end of the session because of time constraints. Fortunately, next session should be soon !
Session 8
The idols awakens
I think my description of Mog-Lathar animating menacingly might have been a little too good… The group’s opening reaction was to plan their retreat ! Granted, some of them were quite wounded… Fortunately for me who secretly wanted them to fight, at least a little, Arya opted for a fighting retreat and engaged the idol to buy time for her companions. I emphasized the effectiveness of her sneak attacks, describing how they were tearing away the idol’s animating magic (portrayed as an illusory shell of scales over the fossilized skeletal snake, so I could use a non-skeletal miniature).
Felaël tried a Hideous laughter spell, but Mog-Lathar made its save and just laughed menacingly. Jean-Charles got hit by an attack and went down (first KO of the campaign), so Gus had to feed him a potion. Arya also tanked a few hits (uncanny dodge in 5E is really good), but failed a save and started turning to stone. This really was the “well, can’t run away now” moment for the party, who went on the offensive. A combo of Web + fire damage spell (can’t remember which) proved effective, and some Magic missiles brought the idol down to 1 HP. Gus delivered the killing blow with his sling, using a billiards ball that Jean-Charles had randomly picked up in the gaming room. (players...)
With the water rising fast, the group ran away, and with one last look behind them, saw Nahum’s portrait floating over Myra’s corpse. How poetic... I then paused the game to allow the players to level up.
Darkness falls
After leaving Hook Street, the party went report to Drune in person and told him all about the submerged idol and their suspicions versus the excommunicates. The magistrate thanked them for their efforts, promised to establish a security perimeter around the House and payed for the cult’s membership rolls. He down-played their lead about the excommunicates as “something a guilty cultist would invent to redirect suspicions”.
The following night, Gus randomly got a lucid dream, which I used to bring back the character of the information broker from the Breakwater Pier ambush. In his dream, the ranger found the broker (whom I named Timothy) trapped under a collapsed/gnawing house, asking for help while howls were getting closer. Timothy claimed he didn’t know about the ambush, and Gus agreed to free him. In the morning, I used the character of Gus’ mother to remind the players of Sally, who killed the mom in a non-lucid dream.
The following day was spent as downtime, with Felaël copying new spells into his spellbook, Arya selling most of their loot thanks to her criminal contacts, and Jean-Charles using his soldier background to sell the griffon egg to the Sable Company. Gus searched for Timothy in the waking world and asked him to inquire about recent suspicious deaths and about Barvasi (the players remembered the “gold retained for stolen book” clue).
At the end of the day, the group met with Madame Carrington and held a séance with the Clavis Somnus to experience the visions lingering on the key. (I had a cool musical background planned but forgot to start it.) The visions cemented the importance of finding Barvasi and the tome in the players’ minds.
The following night, Arya failed her saving throw, which allowed me to stress that she was OK “thanks to the couatl’s sanctuary”. The group met Timothy in the morning, learning about a few nocturnal deaths, including the Varisian conman from session 3, despite him not being a known shiver user. The words “nobody escapes Sally” carved in his back served as a call-back to his con. Timothy promised them an arranged meeting with Barvasi the next morning, and the group spent the rest of the day shopping for potions (but not silvered weapons…)
Return to Roost
In the morning, Timothy met the party, visibly irritated, and led them to Rook’s Roost. There they found Barvasi and some thugs, including the ones they had allowed to escape Hook Street, with their throats ripped open. The pool of blood soon animated and attacked as a dreamspawn ; I used a miniature identical to the first dreamspawn from session 1 but painted blood-red instead of fog-white. After dispatching the monster without too much trouble, the group learned from Sharoosh that Barvasi had decided to cut all ties with the cult and had left to sell the book somewhere in town before his fateful death. Timothy was charged with inquiring about this transaction, and this concluded the session.
Closing thoughts
Despite the initial “will they flee from Mog-Lathar” hesitation, this session went pretty much as planned. I had decided to bring back the information broker to make it easier for me to direct the players to each event of this chapter, which has worked so far. At the end of the session, I realized that I had forgotten to have the PCs do some inquiry about Mog-Lathar’s true nature after witnessing him, so I retrospectively fed them the information about what an idol was, through “off-screen” research and discussion with Carrington.
I also gave the players some homework : I asked them to choose the magic item “of their dreams” for a future session. Really, how often do you get to ask your players what magic item to put in the next dungeon for them, while making sense in the story ?
Session 9
Great heights
After sending the information broker Timothy on his errand to find more about the mysterious book sold by Barvasi, the paladin realized he had the Locate Object spell prepared… Looking up the rules, the players asked if “seen in a psychic vision” counted as “seen up close”. I said sure, and measuring the map, told the players the spell’s range covered the whole neighbourhood. The party headed to the center of Bridgefront then cast the spell, which lead them toward the book dealers’ avenue… and Timothy racing back towards them.
He lead them toward the death scene in front of the Winding Way bookstore. During the investigation scene and the interaction with the guards, the players (mostly Felaël) rolled 4 natural 20’s in a row ! They quickly realized things were not as simple as the guards tried to make them, including the fact that the corpse was not colour-drained (a hint that danger had come to the waking world). Arya noticed the daughter Avigail lurking in the bookstore’s threshold and approached her, offering support. Once the guards had left, she invited the party in, thankful for their interest in the truth.
They spotted claw marks on the floor, but couldn’t find the book they were looking for. The wizard cast Detect Magic and used it to spot the veiled book thanks to its faint illusion aura, and a high Investigation roll allowed him to remove the magic bookmark and reveal its true content. I described Felaël as getting lost in his study of the book, basically sitting down with it while the others debated where to go to read their new acquisition.
After learning about most of the plot and the necessity of studying the ritual to reach the Plane of Dreams, the group debated what to do. The paladin offered Avigail a griffon feather (as a token to use Locate Object on if necessary), while the rogue mused about sponsoring the orphan (like herself) as a future rogue. In the end, they accompanied Avigail to her aunt’s house, away from Bridgefront.
Assassin (and) hound
Suitably spooked, the group decided to all sleep in Ma Gus’ room from now on. (The players having refused to find her a name, she will forever be known as Ma Gus). The party spent the following days learning the ritual ; mostly Felaël, but Arya took the lead for one day so he could copy a scroll found in the Paginarum Lethargica. I randomly rolled to decide which night the Hound of Tindalos would strike. In my version, I removed the excommunicated cultist accompanying the hound (I prefer considering the excommunicates trapped in the Dreamscape, as it makes more sense to me) and replaced him with a Yeth Hound (that the characters have seen, but not fought, in their dreams).
I described their dreams as growing more oppressive, fleeing to the sanctuary while being chased by hounds, heretics, and a bothersome raven pecking at Jean-Charles’ head. Said raven is actually Nahum’s familiar ; I figured Nahum, having seen the paladin during a dream haunt in session 6, would send him to collect some hair so the Hound of Tindalos could track the party.
On the third night, the party was abruptly awoken by Arya’s Sword of Warning (previously found on Greeley’s corpse). I randomly determined which characters would open their eyes face to face with a Hound. During the fight, the players quickly realized that they were vulnerable without their armors, and that they had never bothered to buy silver weapons… (I gave the Hound of Tindalos resistance bypassed by silver to match the Yeth Hound and the upcoming Night Hag). At least Gus’ swarm of Korvosan house drakes has tiny silver claws !
Arya ended up doubly scared thanks to a howl and a Phantasmal killer, running to the corner of the room and lamenting not having her bow on her to fight back. I allowed her to throw a dagger, as I figured a prudent rogue wouldn’t sleep without at least one. Jean-Charles was frightened by the Yeth Hound and too far away to strike, so in return he Commanded it to grovel (“Down, boy !”) to delay its attacks. After rallying, he ran back and decapitated the beast with a double smite (“one for each head”, as I was using the miniature of a two-headed wolfhound).
Meanwhile, the Hound of Tindalos was brought down with a combination of Faerie Fire, sneak attacks, Scorching Rays and one last shot by the ranger, just in time before the Hound could escape with Angled Entry.
The party went back to sleep (in armor, this time) and reached the dream sanctuary, only to find it empty except for blood and one of the Couatl’s torn wings. Spooked by the absence of corpses, the group woke up and ran to Mme Carrington’s place. They met Maynard at the door, who said he had some bad news… And the session ended on that cliffhanger !
Closing thoughts
I really thought I would have the time to run Carrington’s misfortunes this session, but time flies when you’re having fun, I guess !
Session 10
Carrington’s misfortunes
Before we jumped back into action, I asked the players for their characters’ perception and insight scores, so I could secretly roll for Maynard’s ambush (with advantage, because of the circumstances) and at least pretend that they had a chance to see it coming. I played some sad / ominous music as I described the scene, and the characters walked right into the trap. Jean-Charles and Arya were caught by the puff of soporific pollen (ruled as essence of ether), and Jean-Charles fell asleep. Even though Arya immediately used her action to wake him up, this allowed me to described the cool dreamscape visions involving Nahum and Sally.
Simultaneously, Maynard launched his assault and tried to backstab the poor, defenceless wizard… only to roll a natural 1, which I described as an inner turmoil / trying to fight off his mental enslavement. Things went from bad to worse for the poor Maynard. Thanks to good tactical thinking by the ranger, who used his Crusher feat to reposition the carnivorous plant and the involuntary traitor, Maynard became the target of the plant’s attacks, and ended up grappled, prone, and slowed. He was effectively neutralized for the rest of the fight, while the party ganged up on the plant.
Afterwards, the players tried to figure out how to wake Mme Carrington up, to no avail. Once they understood that they were not in a rush, they interrogated Maynard, and trusted him enough to free him. They concluded that their only option was to keep studying the ritual to bring the fight to the hag in the dreamscape.
Into the darkened city
The party spent the following days finishing their study, with a natural 20 granting them two days of progress in one. However, with the fall of the sanctuary, the players quickly realized how vulnerable they were at night, with Felael failing his saving throw 2 nights in a row. They also spent one day shopping (and finally thought of acquiring silver weapons !).
When the ritual was learned, I handed the players its rules, printed on homemade fake parchment paper (that I was quite proud of). The players requested Maynard’s help as a secondary caster, and with appropriate ambiance music and description, the ritual was a success !
As the characters stepped through the threshold, I added a homebrewed scene to add some links to the players’ backstories and the “dream” magic items they had requested. As the characters walked through a dark tunnel to pass into the dreamscape, they saw the goddess Desna, who wordlessly let them pass and encouraged them to move forward. After that, each character had a different bief encounter. Felael met the ghosts of his wizard parents, who smiled proudly at him. Arya saw her missing brother, now older, walking away but telling her to stay hopeful. Gus met his house drake swarm, who embraced him and accompanied him into the dreamscape. Jean-Charles came face to face with the Archangel Ragathiel, who saluted him and urged him forward (part of my plans to adjust Jean-Charles’ source of holy power ; since he doesn’t really act like a “Redemption” paladin and rejected Sarenrae, but I don’t want to punish the player, who still acts like a good, if agressive, paladin)
Return to the House on Hook Street
Once in the dreamscape, the players decided to first check on the ruined sanctuary, then headed to the Hook Street house. Perched on the sinister tree was Nahum’s familiar, who turned into a raven and flew inside. I had intended this as a “moment to remind them of the raven who stole hairs from the paladin”, but the players took this as “try to kill the raven before he warns his master”. Oops ! Fortunately for my plans, a natural 1 on a sling attack broke a window and, with some secret HP buff, allowed the familiar to escape (and showcase the house repairing itself). The tree revealed itself as a monster and attacked, but the wizard had the Blight spell prepared (ouch). The paladin finished the monstrous plant with an axe critical hit (inspired by Pathfinder 2E, I gave him extra bonus damage, because “axe vs tree”…)
With the house seemingly on alert, the players tried to avoid just walking through the front doors, and climbed onto the balcony. But as they chose another door on the second floor, that door morphed into the main double doors of the front porch… I love that this was actually expected and planned in the book.
The next encounter inside was partly homebrewed / adjusted. In the foyer, an excommunicate disguised as a Korvosan guard pretended to be stuck in a Black tentacles spell, which was actually a Major image. This was to draw attention away from a guardian statue, so the construct could catch the characters unaware with its breath weapon. However, the players were still very suspicious of the whole set-up. The statue barely had time to open its mouth before the characters won initiative and destroyed it before it could attack. The excommunicate revealed itself and attacked, then retreated to the middle of his illusion spell. There was a whole round were almost everyone missed, as none of the melee combatants risked going into the “tentacles”. The cultist used Mirror image, which were promptly destroyed by Magic missiles from the wizard. Once his concentration on the tentacles was broken, the cultist was quickly brought down by a paladin smite followed by a sneak attack and a point-blank elixir of fire-breath from the rogue. For the loot, I had fun describing the riches of the room being made of worthless dream-stuff, but including a real painting by Salvatore Scream (Korvosan artist from the Curse of the Crimson Throne AP) as treasure.
After the fight, the characters noticed that the door to the right had disappeared, so they headed left, to the game room. They had a discussion / exchange of threats with Nahum through his painting, then faced the onslaught of magical music with everyone succeeding on their saves. I chose this moment to have Sally attack them with Magic missiles from the room they had just left. Arya returned fire but dealt little damage, and Felael used Slow to prevent the hag from retreating, to no avail. Touching her heartstone, Sally faded imto the ethereal plane, leaving the players worried about resting in the house.
Finally, Gus discovered the “magic item of his dreams” in the game room. One of his drakes drew his attention to a tapestry of the word “pack brother” in Halfling ; woven through the tapestry was a magic sling.
Closing thoughts
I’m quite pleased with the players’ reaction to the ritual and dream passage. I think I nailed the “unstable elements of dreams” aspect of the house exploration. The ambushes from Maynard and the excommunicate didn’t go as planned, but were still fun encounters. And once again, I realized after the game that I had forgotten about the background music I had chosen for exploration… But at least I can bring it back for the next game !
Session 11
Return to the House on Hook Street, part 2
Similar to session 6, this session was a dungeon crawl through and through. Opening the door to the smoking lounge, the players were wary of the haze and briefly hesitated before entering. They had a quick chat with the emaciated, stoned cultists. I had the PC’s hear the creature trapped in the closet, but forgot to mention the Korvosan guard in the real world. The paladin failed his Wisdom save when a cultist “suggested” he try some shiver… Felaël tried to stop him by tripping him, but rolled a natural 1, so I ruled that the wizard himself was knocked into the smoking apparatus and fell onto a cultist, triggering the “last breath that turns into a smoke monster”.
After the fight, the party wanted to rest but they also didn’t want to keep whoever was calling for help from the closet waiting. Felaël’s player even remembered the “I’m not supposed to be here” clue from the real world. Opening the door, they were attacked by the animated corpse pile. The wizard and the rogue were both grappled through the doorframe, so the paladin could’t reach the monster. Instead, Jean-Charles tried to yank a friend away, so I allowed him an Athletics check (basically, breaking a grapple for someone else). After a faerie fire by Gus, Arya landed a crit for insane damage. After the fight, the paladin found a bloody butcher’s bib (5E magic item) that ignited and turned into a cape with a flaming wing design when he approached. Everybody failed their Religion check for its significance, but Gus’ player remembered Ragathiel’s description from last session.
After a short rest, the party found “MaGus” cowering in the alchemy lab. Of course, this was the hag, who promptly hexed Gus and faded away into the ethereal plane, just to be annoying. Looting the alchemy lab, Felaël found a powerful grimoire, marked with the elvish letter for his (undisclosed) last name. He quickly identified it as his parents’ spellbook, and requested another short rest to attune to it.
Moving on to the temple, the party confronted the hag’s “children”. While Jean-Charles “the cowardly paladin” was frozen in fear (this is turning into a running gag), the wizard got a perfect opportunity to deal heavy damage with a well-placed fireball. One of the daemons ran to get help from the zombie, while the paladin, recovering from his fear, cut down two daemons in one turn. Without slowing, Arya acrobatically jumped onto the stage and finished the zombie.
Going back to the foyer for the missing door, the party discovered the phantasmagoria theatre, which I have replaced with a “sun room” because of available accessories. Seeing the excommunicate, the wizard quickly went on the offensive, but the “glass shardstorm” (monster created by the shattering windows to replace the phantasmagorical summon in my game) was quicker. While hard to hit, it was eventually brought down. The ranger got a good opportunity to showcase his new “two-bird” sling, and finished the shardstorm while bouncing the stone to also hit the excommunicate. On the verge of death after a good sneak attack, said excommunicate managed to survive a following attack from the rogue and the paladin’s fury. Not pressing his luck, the excommunicate retreated (with 3 hit points left !)
After the fight, the party focused their attention on the spyglass in the middle of the sunroom, trying to spot MaGus’ house. (Why ? Players…) When Arya passed in front of a decorative mirror, her reflection’s mask fell from the mirror into the room. She tried it on, removing her own mask in front of her companions for the first time, and discovered it was a magic mask (with the same properties as the magic cloak her player had asked for) that turned invisible when worn. I gave Arya’s player two “out-of-character” options : either Arya’s scars faded away with the mask, or they remained unhidden. She chose to have the scars visible.
Closing thoughts
The players said they appreciated all the “dream-like” elements of the session, such as the vanishing door and the changed lighting and perspective from the sun room. The excommunicate successfully escaping leaves me with a wild card for the rest of the exploration ; since I have no precise idea when to bring him back, I’ll have to make sure I don’t forget about him if a good opportunity presents itself.