Whatever helps you sleep at night...
My son was discussing one of his new characters. "Steal? Good sir, I never steal. Once you've killed them, it's called looting the bodies."
Whatever helps you sleep at night...
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Rescue Heroes to the ... Rescue!
Following the fight with the geier, Othello returns to his perch in the rafters to observe the town of Kelmarane. As dusk fell, Othello saw a group of gnolls carrying torches and a bound prisoner; they seemed to be headed towards a collapsed shanty at the edge of the pesh fields. The party made a decision on the spot to try to rescue this prisoner. Othello knew he had to get there fast and so he used the fiery speed that he inherited from his genie grandfather. Only Sandy could keep up with his fleet feet! It was only a couple miles to intercept the gnolls and Othello got there in within a few minutes.
When Othello arrived with Sandy, he saw that the gnolls had dropped the prisoner and run off. Since I had set up a combat field using my Dungeon tiles (it looked quite nice in my opinion), the players knew there would be a big encounter. S1 said he wanted his character to race past the prisoner, grab him, and drag him out of thr pesh fields. Unfortunately, I had to remind S1 that Othello is only about 3 feet tall and the prisoner is maybe 6', and Othello has the lowest strength in the party. S1 then said he would toss the prisoner over Sandy and she could pull him to safety. Again, I said that wasn't going to happen. So, Othello quickly shook the prisoner. "Are you okay? let's get you out of here." The prisoner lifted his head in despair: "Save yourself, the gnolls have already called their pet." Othello noticed that he could feel shudders through the dirt he was standing on. S1 noticed that the map had boulders on it, so he had Othello help the prisoner to climb onto a boulder. The rest of the party arrived at the same time and Othello yelled out to climb onto a nearby boulder. Shortly afterwards, the ground opened up like a giant sinkhole and a titanic worm reared up. It was a dust digger, sort of a cross between the monster in Tremors and a Bantha. Unfortunately (for the DM) this turned out to be a short fight. Jasmine was able to shoot it from her vantage point and Ibrahim moved to protect Othello, Sandy, and the prisoner. Othello fired a scorching ray down its throat. The dust digger moved and used its reach to attack Sandy. Since the monster could only reach Sandy using diagonal squares, it was debatable whether the monster was really within range; therefore, I only allowed it to use one of its 5 attacks. This one tentacle lash barely missed Sandy, and that was all she wrote. Sandy got in her flurry of kitty attacks, and on the next turn Jasmine shot and Ibrahim hit the dust digger. The worm had had enough and turned to burrow away. Ibrahim rolled a critical hit as an attack-of-opportunity and smashed its wee brain in. I had hoped that the worm would at least get to eat somebody... The party returned to the monastery with the newly-released prisoner, whose name was Oxvard and a fellow member of the Iron Lions of Cheliax along with the guy tortured to death earlier in the day. Since the party members had no questions to ask this man, who had been held prisoner in the town they had been hired to liberate (!?!), everyone went to bed. And then I pulled a trick I've been holding back for quite a while... Claiming the Monastery Katie has become the Moldspeaker, meaning that the spirit of the genie-fighter Vardishal lives on in her. When she wields her legendary weapon Tempest, memories from Vardishal flood her mind and she experiences dissociative personality. The rest of us wonder if she is hallucinating from eating some bad mold...
At the end of the last adventure, Katie became the Moldspeaker. She told the other PCs about her possession by the spirit of Vardishal. Everyone was very accepting of her new identity, being a very liberal and enlightened group, although we all had slightly different reactions, Jasmine said that it was gross that Katie was part boy now, which was not very inclusive of her. Ibrahim fell to his knees and asked Vardishal to forgive him for not recognizing his holiness; Katie said it was all cool. Othello said that Saint Vardishal was a slime, so Ibrahim excommunicated him on the spot. Also, there would be services each Sunday. Jasmine asked Katie if it was okay if we all lived in her house, since the monastery was raised in her honor. Katie said she figured that was okay.
The party told Almah that the monastery was ready to be lived in, but didn't share the whole "Katie ate a slime mold and now has superpowers" part of the story. Almah chose to move into the library with Garavel, with rotating guards to stand watch. The camel drivers took over the kitchen; Jasmine and Othello were envious, but Almah is paying them to be heroes, not cooks. Dashki claimed the room with the gold filigree in the walls and the statue of St. Vardishal. Father Vastoran setup shop in the undercrypt where he could do alchemical research in peace and the mercenaries wanted the cleaned out tower where the stirges had their nest. Everyone wanted a room with an intact roof, which didn't leave a lot of choices for the PCs. Almah said that she wanted them in the dormitory so they could be close enough to help in an emergency. This room had intact beds and roofs so it was acceptable to the group. Around midnight that night a strange howling rose up from the ruined city of Kelmarane; after a minute, an answering call came faintly back from the direction of Pale Mountain. Dashki the gnoll expert said it was the call of the Carrion King, and his minions were singing of their obedience to him. It made everyone a little nervous. Becoming the Moldspeaker The continuing adventures of our hapless heroes, who stumble into all kinds of unpleasantness while being tasked to clear out the old monastery. The players were forewarned that something lurks in the monastery which will change their characters forever!
At the conclusion of our last heroic episode, the PCs had slain the pugwampi king and cleared the pugwampi nest. Now it was time to investigate the rest of the monastery ruins. The heroes find an overgrown courtyard in the center of the monastery, but decide not to crawl around in the tangles. Instead they walk around the courtyard, admiring the bas-relief artwork. With a little local-history knowledge and some religious background, they are able to get the gist of it. There was a great hero, which was identified as Vardishal from his statue and shrine. He vanquished some evil and then remained to guard the area. Somehow he died, but his spirit remained tied to the land. A religious order was founded after some religious wanderers encountered his spirit. The monastery was built at the site of his apparition and each successive abbot received visions from him. There is space for new carvings, but none were completed after the devastating attack during the Battle of Kelmerane.
Not being terribly interested in history lessons, the party moved on to a ruined octagonal tower. The floor was crusted with blood, feces, and rot; here at last was something they could sink their teeth into! The tower was inhabited by bloodsucking insects the size of falcons (known to your typical Minnesotan as "mosquitoes"). Othello used ghost sound to make the sound of fire burning, which really got the critters riled up. One managed to land on Ibrahim's neck and began sucking blood. Jasmine fired her bow at the bloodsucker but cleverly managed to shoot Ibrahim instead (and really, we all know that couldn't have ended any other way...) Ibrahim beat himself repeatedly with a mace and gooshed the sucker. Meanwhile Sandy had sunk her claws into another and as being dragged around the room in the air. Eventually, all of the bugs were killed. The party decided to clean the romm up a bit, so Ibrahim borrowed the magic warhammer from the party loot and bashed a hole in the stone wall. Then he and Katie cast create water and flushed out the room.. There was some assorted coins and trinkets buried in the filth. After leaving the tower, the heroes found a small room next t the tower with gold filigree decorating the walls. Othello wanted to scrape it off to make some money, but everyone thought better of it. A statue of St. Vardishal stood in the corner of the room, with palms outstretched and facing up. Jasmine thought maybe he wanted some money. Katie, Jasmine, and Othello dropped a copper coin in each hand. Nothing happened. Ibrahim said that maybe St. Vardishal wanted a more valuable offering but everyone decided we didn't care that much and moved on. Securing the Monastery Since last game, the heroes have been asked to set up a base of operations in a ruined monastery. Being both competent and expendable, the heroes are sent alone to see what dangers may have taken up residence in the partially collapsed building and root them out. This part of the adventure required a lot of combat and less roleplaying, so it is spread out over many game sessions.
The heroes entered the dilapidated building through the monastery's nave. Dust and sand have blown into the hallway and plant life has begun to invade the rock floors. The group sees two alcoves positioned to each side of the chapel. Both contain shrines to a Saint Vardishal; Ibrahim recognizes the character as a minor addition to the religion of Sarenrae and isn't really acknowledged outside of the nation of Katapesh. Sandy wanders around this part of the building and finds a beetle to munch on. There is a crunch, then little buggy legs fall to the floor while Sandy chews contentedly.
Sandy chases another beetle into the chapel, then drops to he haunches, sniffs the air, and whines. Othello bravely sticks his head into the chapel and looks around. Yes, there is that notable fragrance of hyena-butt indicating that pugwampi are near. The party enters the wrecked chapel and investigates. There are marble pews, some cracked or broken. The stone floor is scorched in places, and in other nooks and crannies there is a dirty remnant of red carpeting. Finally, someone looks up. Suspended from the rafters is a nest made of gnoll skulls strung together with cords and lined with rotten carpet and hide. There is a tittering as the unseen gremlins make their presence known. Pugwampi! Rescuing Rombard
To begin the day's session, the heroes searched around the encampment for tracks leading away from the fire. Katie is an excellent survivalist in the desert and quickly found some goat tracks. Jasmine botched her tracking roll and managed to ruin another set of tracks by tiny feet (D1 is renowned for botching skill rolls, especially her attempts to move silently or hide in the shadows). I got out a desert canyon map and the heroes followed the canyon, occasionally distracted by the hooting of a desert owl, the slithering sound of a sidewinder, or the clatter of falling stones. Finally they hear a crying sound in the distance. Katie uses her knowledge of nature to perfectly identify it as the call of a black-and-white Katapeshi goat. Up ahead, past a patch of cactus, they see Rombard tied to a stake. Also, the cactus is known as Dragon-tooth cactus, implying that this will be painful. The party took one step forward, trying to slip through the cactus needles. Unfortunately, 2 heroes fell off balance and knocked everyone over into the cactus. How unlucky! Then, trying to stand up, everyone poked themselves with more needles. Too bad! Everyone took another step, trying to avoid the needles, but the cacti were in the way. Rats! Another step forward, more stumbling into cactus plants. Finally the heroes took another tumble in front of Rombard. How could they be so clumsy? Katie cast Speak with Animals so that she could calm down Rombard, who was bleating and prancing into the brush. Katie had 1 minute to speak with Rombard before the spell wore off. She asked who had tied him down, and the goat said it was a little rat-dog-man. He was on the cliff watching. Katie said not to be scared and they would help Rombard. Meanwhile, Ibrahim tried to move next to the goat to do some healing. Unfortunately, the loose rock at the edge of the cliff gave way and he fell down at the very edge. How unfortunate! Katie tried to point out where the monster was hiding, but no one else could make their perception rolls. Othello tried to cast Light on the area Katie pointed to but it was accidentally cast on a spotted owl which flew away. Eventually they were able to perceive a small dog headed, rat-sized man pointing and laughing in the shadows of the moonlight. meanwhile, Ibrahim was lying on the ground, afraid to try and stand up. Katie and Jasmine filled the skies with arrows but dust kept getting in their eyes. Finally a lucky shot speared the monster, which rolled to the ground and twitched a few times. Othello tied a rope to Ibrahim so that when he unluckily fell off the cliff he wouldn't fall to his death. When everyone stopped making their unluck rolls they realized the monster was dead. Of course, they still had to work their way back through the cactus patch... The heroes returned to Almah with the missing goat and the pincushioned pugwampi. "Huh, I guess Dashki was telling the truth. I would have felt bad if I'd executed him out of hand..." Dashki claimed the pugwampi corpse as his own. The party was prepared to fight over it, but Dashki said he was almost executed for it so he deserved it more. He made a noose for the body and hung it from his walking stick. "Who's unlucky now?" he cackled as he walked away. Almah said that the current encampment was too exposed if even a lousy pugwampi could find them and cause so much trouble. Her plan was to find the ruined monastery between the camp and Kelmarane, make sure there were no threats inside its walls, then move ina nd use it as a base of operations. She also found out that Garavel had never officially hired the heroes, so she offered them 20 gp each for their services (plus burial expenses if the need arose!)
The Sultan's Claw
Jared, Sofie, and Garcom were having dinner at an inn to discuss the latest dangers facing their home city of Sandpoint. Jared had called his friends together to see if they wanted to form an adventuring party to investigate. Jared was a new wizard, armed with a few spells and his arcane dagger (named Fetch, for its way of returning to his hand). Sophie was the new cleric of Desna, assigned to serve at the Great Temple of Sandpoint. Garcom was a half-orc ranger, armed with unusual weapons called "orc-claws" from the homeland of his father. Jared opened the conversation: "Friends, I'm sure you're aware of the disappearances around town, just livestock for now but surely there will be a neighbor or merchant eventually. The mayor is offering 1000 gp to whoever can stop the depredations. The only clue is this black fang left behind." At this point, the Unknown (an elven rogue who favored a light crossbow to make up for her lack of strength in using her dagger) left her stealthy position by the bar and knocked over a barmaid. "Wow, we totally didn't see you there before. You're very sneaky; would you like to join our adventuring group?" "Yes," said the Unknown, "but you should know I have a weak bladder; sometimes you punch me and I pee on the floor." [I really don't remember how that came up in conversation, but it did and it was memorable, so there you go]. The adventuring party decided to investigate a cave north of town that historically had been a home for monsters to see if Black Fang might be there. The party approached the cave but couldn't see inside because of a hanging curtain of moss. While the party debated how to get through a curtain of moss safely, 2 very drunk goblins emerged and made the life-changing decision to attack the party. Their lives ended quickly. [I think Jared's dagger was very effective at killing goblins]. The party entered the goblin's room, which smelled like smelly goblins. The Unknown successfully picked a lock on a treasure chest while everyone stood back or hid. There was some gold, a ruby, a masterwork dagger, and a healing potion. Afterwards, they searched the filthy straw mats and found a key. it smelled like goblin butt, so only Garcom would keep it. There was also a dead lizard, which the Unknown kept for good luck; the party named him Mr. Dead. The party moved into another room that had a beautiful glowing fountain. Sophie discovered that it was a fountain holy to her god, Desna, and they could drop some coins in for good luck. The party put in 10 gp. Garcom wanted to wash the goblin butt smell off the key, put Sophie decided that Desna would not want goblin butt in her beautiful fountain. Everybody took a drink and received a blessing from Desna. The party agreed to go back to the drunk goblin den and use their ale jug to store some holy water [it was generally agreed that goblin ale residue was not as offensive as goblin butt]. Garcom and Jared next entered a room lit by a strange red glow. The red glow came from a large jewel on an altar, surrounded by statues. One of the statues announced "Enter with humility and live!" Garcom dropped down to his hands and knees to approach, and then the statues belched flame across the room. Jared was not ready and was toasted thoroughly. Jared did not want to go back in the room after his brush with death, so the Unknown went in. She managed to sneak in, steal the jewel, and found a charred goblin corpse with 1000 gp on it. The glowing red jewel was both valuable and provided protection against fire. The party was tired, sore, and needed to rest so everyone took a food break and then continued. They walked along the edge of the fire trap room and found a room full of spider webs. It was dark, so the Unknown ran back to the goblin den and used their beds to make torches of straw. So now the party smelled like burning goblin butt. This webbed room did, in fact, have a giant spider. The party was surprised and Sophie was poisoned by spider venom. After the spider was killed, Garcom searched the room and found a mummified goblin in spider silk. There was a wand of magic missiles, a toy dragon, and a wizard's hat. Garcom pulled the hat off the mummified goblin and stuck it on Jared. Jared tried to retaliate by punching Garcom but fumbled and knocked himself out, and then had amnesia. Sophie threw up and then everyone decided to go back to the holy fountain for some rest. After waking up in the holy fountain room, everyone takes another drink for Desna's blessings. They walked through the spider room and to a corridor with a pillar. No one could decipher the writings so they moved on. The next room had a pool of water and there was an island on the other side. Garcom could see something metallic reflecting their torch light, so he decided to swim across. Jared didn't know how to swim but figured if a half-orc could do it then swimming must not be too hard. Jared and Garcom had to fight a giant crab creature, with Sophie and the Unknown using range attacks only. Garcom crits with his orc claws, so we said he ripped out the monster's heart and ate it. Jared declined the honor. Garcom managed to find a potion of levitate, a potion of invisibility, and a Dragonbane sword. The next room was very important because it was where King Fatmouth held court. The Unknown decided that she would sneak into the room and investigate. She fumbled her sneak roll, and started a running gag where fumbling the sneak roll indicated passing gas. So the Unknown farted in King Fatmouth's throne room while trying to hide. Sophie ran up and made an amazing Diplomacy roll to change Fatmouth from hostile to friendly. They offered up some Elven wine from the Unknown's stash and the goblins were very happy. Garcom had the dragon toy from the mummified goblin; it turned out that the corpse was that of Fatmouth's sister, who stole the toy. He was so pleased to have his toy back that he offered the adventurer's the pick of his treasure, and they took a wand of Cure Light Wounds. [King Fatmouth is now a running gag too and is involved somehow in every adventure.]. At the edge of the throne room was a rough wall that led to a cavern higher up, The Unknown used her excellent climbing skills to get to the top and then threw down a rope for everyone else to climb. At the top was a haunted crypt, where some animated skeletons lay in wait. They were difficult to fight because Jared's dagger and the Unknown's crossbow bolts went right through them. Garcom hit a skeleton hard enough to decapitate it; the PCs heard the skull bounce down the cavern wall with a thump, thump, thump,... "eeek!" said King Fatmouth in a very high pitched voice, The party enjoyed that so much that when the the skeletons were defeated they sent the skulls over the edge one-by-one to hear it again. The PCs finally came to the end of the dungeon. The PCs knew that there would be a big-bad evil guy (BBEG) at the end so they gave the Unknown the invisibility potion to drink and told her to scout the room. She quaffed the potion to become invisible and entered the lair to discover a young black dragon snoozing on a pile of treasure. Another untimely fart almost ruined the reconnaissance [Now, dragons have notoriously sensitive perception, so I checked to see if the dragon would perceive the invisible Unknown. Unfortunately, the Unknown fumbled her sneak, but since she was invisible she might still pull it off since Invisibility gives +15 to stealth. The dragon rolled a very low perception, so the rule was that the Unknown farted and then the dragon farted too and rolled over, so the chamber smelled terrible and no one was discovered.] The Unknown made her harrowing escape back to the party and explained the situation. The party made a plan for attacking the dragon and decided on a charging, distractions, and flanking since invisibly sneaking was barely good enough to avoid detection and having everyone else sneak just wouldn't work. With some very lucky rolls, the party managed to avoid the worst of the dragon's acid breath, but poor Garcom simply could not hit the dragon. So, the dragon decided to fly into the air over Garcom and attack the Unknown, who as the only one successfully dealing damage with her crossbow. Just as the dragon flew over Garcom, he provoked an attack of opportunity and Garcom managed to crit with the Dragon bane sword for half the dragon's life. Now the dragon was in bad shape and he knew it. The dragon decided to flee, took another attack of opportunity from Garcom, and got hit again! [Garcom hardly ever hits anything, but when he does it's pretty devastating]. The barely alive black dragon hovers at the mouth of the cavern, calling out "Curse you and your meddling friends! Someday, I'll get even with you for this!" The party tried to get some parting shots in but no one could catch him monologuing so the dragon got away. The dragon hoard left behind was quite decent for 1st level characters and the party scoured the caverns for dragon scales, fungus, rocks, and anything else they thought they could sell for a profit. The kids characters all leveled up and they were very excited about playing. Since then we have played a new session every single Saturday. I made a quest for them to go on, and when the characters finish the quest we will start the Adventure Path "Legacy of Fire."
It's been too hot to paint lately (easily 110 degrees in the afternoon) so I, S1, D1, and D2 have been playing Pathfinder on Saturday afternoons. I'll try to write an adventure summary for each session.
My wife looked at this abomination and declared it perfectly hideous. Thanks Hon! It's a Flying Polyp, a member of the subterranean species that ultimately drove the Great Race to extinction (but not before switching minds with a race of intelligent beetles in the far future... bummer for those guys, dude). My main complaint is that, having grown up with Sandy Petersen's Field Guides, I don't find this sculpt to be gross enough. I think that a Flying Polyp should look like the inside of a dermoid cyst (look it up under teratomas... one of the more bizarre things I learned in my residency). Each one of the polyp's eyes is different. The yellow one with the huge pupil is my favorite; I think it looks like it is beginning to peer over its own mound of flesh to see a tasty appetizer. The green cats-eye and the one with a cross for a pupil were fun too. The magenta bumps are skin growths or tumors (polyps on a polyp - get it?) The dark blue-on-black makes me think of old comics trying to show black-on-black. It's the sort of coloring you;d see on Batman or the Dark Horse run of Aliens. It limited my palette but has a very dark appearance. if I weren't trying to link it thematically to the Crawling Chaos faction, I would have used a gross skin color. |
AuthorI am a father of five who is currently working as a medical physicist at [a nice place]. I have a Ph.D. in particle physics and I like games. Archives
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