Ok, there’s one week left until the first Chesapeake Pathfinder game. I’ve been going over the rules, getting nickel and dimed on miniatures, and starting to formulate flavor text. Everything’s going pretty good but I have some house rule clarifications. Nothing major though, I actually think these will make things easier.

Please make your sheet on DNDsheets so I can look it over and make challenges for you.

Players:

– Bob: Valeria, Aasimar Cleric

– Jack: Gunnar Halftroll, Half-Orc Hunter

– Steven: Elorin Hawklight, Human Rogue

– Eric: Grifflebore Stuzen, Human Paladin

– Enoch: Shania Casa , Changeling Witch

House Rules:

– Identifying scrolls and potions – I’m going to use what I call ‘Nethack rules’ on these. You’ll find a potion with a different color/taste/smell or a scroll with an inscription of <RANDOM NONSENSE WORD OR PHRASE>, and once you identify it (using the normal methods) as a scroll of, say, cure light wounds, then any further scrolls of cure light wounds (even ones with +X enchantments) will be automatically identified.

It won’t tell you whether something’s cursed though, so watch out. This isn’t much of an issue in this dungeon though.

– Divine vs. Arcane scrolls – There’s a rule in the book that in order to read a scroll without a check, you need to fulfill these criteria:

1. You have to be the correct type of caster (Arcane or Divine) corresponding to the scroll.

2. You have to have the spell on your class list.

3. You have to have the minimum ability score.

4. You have to be at the minimum caster level for the spell (or else you make some easy check like DC = caster level needed + 1)/

I’m going to discard rule 1. There’s really one room in this dungeon where they specify one scroll as being divine and one as arcane, but  none of the other scrolls in the entire dungeon are identified as such. Rather than label some scrolls as arcane, some as divine, and some as both, all scrolls are going to be arcane/divine.

– Announcing Checks/Looting a Room – Pretty much I’ll give you most of the checks except for Perception in most cases. If you want to search the room for treasure, you’ll have to say you want to search it and I’ll probably have you roll a Perception check.

The Players:

Enoch P. as David Davis, Crown Prosecutor
Eric S. as Doctor Nikodemus Prosper, German Paleontologist
David K. as Doctor Rowan Legume, Renowned Psychologist
Justin H. as Genevieve “Gigi” Genovese, American Socialite by day and Con-Artist all the time

Notable People:

Talbot Estus – writer of “Carcosa”, an adaptation of “The King in Yellow” for English audiences; loaned investigators The King in Yellow and Der Wanderer durch den See.
Jean Hewart – an attractive young dilettante, acted in “Carcosa.” Daughter of Lord Hewart, the Lord Chief Justice of England. Befriended by Gigi.
Walter Paige – a handsome but sickly young man who acted in “Carcosa”, he’s an art student at University College London.
Dr. Charles Highsmith – superintendent at St. Agnes’ Asylum for the Deranged in Weobley, Herefordshire. Contacted Dr. Legume with a request for assistance determining whether a rather unusual patient of his, one Mr. Alexander Roby, should be recommended for release.
Alexander Roby – he and his brother, Grahame Roby, are the only surviving members of the Roby family following the brutal murder of their father and sister. Claims to be their murderer, though he was found in another room soon after the murders, which were committed in such a way that Alexander was eliminated as a suspect.
Mark Evans – orderly at the asylum who snuck Roby writing implements in exchange for future favors from the powerful Roby family. Was chastised and ceased.
Price – orderly at the asylum who escorts the investigators around the grounds, to both Roby and Harriwell’s cells.
Lucius Harriwell – fat mental patient in the cell next to Alexander Roby’s. Blamed for the horrible murder of an orderly, Cuthbert Yates.
Cuthbert Yates – orderly murdered about a year earlier. Seemed to be an unprovoked, senseless attack. Enough blood covered the room for two men, and there were two blood types found at the scene, though none of the other staff at St. Agnes’ were wounded in any way following the attack.
Grahame Roby – brother of Alexander, and a prominent merchant banker. In a meeting with Mr. Davis, showed himself to be a blunt and uncompromising man, wholly convinced of his brother’s insanity and willing to make the necessary calls to ensure that Roby remains at St. Agnes’. Suggested David speak with Inspector Stephens if he wished to know more of Alexander.

The Story Thus Far…

Summary:  Our heroes meet up for the first time in a small town called Kassen in the country of Nirmathas.  Everybody except one are outsiders to the town.  In the past, the founder of the town, Ekat Kassen, protected the town from being destroyed by a group of mercenaries lead by a man named Asar Vergas.  In the final battle, Ekat managed to kill Asar but was mortally wounded in the process.  In honor of his sacrifice, the townsfolk buried him in an ancient crypt as well as the invader himself, Asar.  They placed an eternal flame above Kassen’s final resting place, so that all who visited might find warmth in the wilderness.  From then on, every year, the town celebrated the founding of their town by making a pilgrimage to the crypt.  There, they would light their lantern from the flame and bring it back to town.

Every few years, they would task outside adventurers to make the pilgrimage instead.  The quest was relatively simple at first but soon grew elaborate as the townsfolk start setting up simple traps and puzzles for the adventurers to overcome.  This year would have been no different from the other years.  As the adventurers ventured forth to the crypt, they slowly began to realize that something has gone terribly wrong.  As they reached the crypt, they found slaughtered horses outside and dead human bodies instead.  They were, then, forced into battle with the undead.  After the battle, they explored the crypt, avoiding traps (i.e. nearly getting killed by walking foolishly into them) and solving puzzles (no light or detect magic spells from the casters come onnnnnn).  They eventually stumbled into Roldare, one of the surviving members of the group that went ahead to prepare the crypt with booby traps.  He explains that the group was attacked two days ago by skeletons and his sister was taken by a skeleton in ancient mail armor.  He pleads with them to rescue her and the group agrees.

After navigating the two-story crypt, they finally arrived to the resting place of the awakened Asar.  They win the battle and secured Rolgare’s sister.  They lit the lantern given to them by the mayor and as they do that, the spirit of Kassen rises from his slumber and thanks the party members for a job well done.  There, the party finds out what really happened in the crypt and Kassen’s relationship with Asar.  Asar and Kassen used to be comrades in arms.  One day, they managed to acquire a great deal of treasure from an ancient vault.  They sealed the ancient vault up and the only way to open it is to combine three amulets together.  The amulets were split between Asar, Kassen, and an elven sorceress named Iramine and they all parted ways.  Asar, who felt cheated out of his share of the treasure, attacked the town that Kassen founded.  There, they killed themselves and the townsfolk buried them in the crypt.  Three months ago, a group of thieves broke into the sarcophaguses containing Asar and Ekat’s bodies.  They only stole the amulets from their bodies and, as a result, stirred the spirit of Asar.  After Kassen told his story, he granted each hero a boon and parts ways.

The heroes returned back to Kassen to deliver the sad news.  The celebration turns into a memorial of all the fallen townsfolk.  During the celebration, Cygar approaches the party and introduces himself as a Pathfinder.  He tells them that he has an idea of which group was responsible and offers them a job to get to the bottom of this.  The party accepts and they begin preparations to depart for Tamran, the capital city of Nirmathas.  Cygar pays a barge to take them down the river into the town.  There, they meet up with his associate, Renigar Lacklan.  He gives them some information about the cult of Razmiran and confirms that a group of them traveled north some time ago.  Reginar, concerned about the cult’s influence on the town, informs them to start gathering information on the cult.  They will return at a later time in order to plan their next action.  The group decided that the best way to gain information was to join the cult itself.

After spending a bit of time observing the faithful and their “good works”, the party attended a recruitment meeting at the Ranger’s Lament, a tavern that’s across the street from the tavern.  The entire group gets drugged and everybody wakes up in a cell.  From there, they performed a variety of ceremonies before becoming full fledge members of the cult.  The party was forced to take on missions that ranged from being tedious and mundane to downright criminal.  As they complete their tasks, they began to understand the inner workings of the cult and later on, one of the party members escapes in order to attend the scheduled meeting with Reginar.  Reginar comes to the conclusion that they must destroy the threat the cult represents before it gets out of hand.  He orders them to sneak inside the personal chambers of the high priest and steal any incriminating documents or ledgers so that the town officials can drive the cult away from Tamran.  He wants to get the information by any means possible as the time for subtlety is over.

Important Characters:
Ekat Kassen – Famous crusader and fortune seeker.  The founder of the town of Kassen.  Used to be allied with Asar and Iramine until they split off after acquiring a great deal of treasure from an ancient treasure vault.  He used to have an amulet that matched with three other amulet pieces that would open the vault.  Died after Asar mortally wounded him in battle.

Asar Vergas – An old companion of Ekat who went his separate ways after splitting the treasure acquired from the ancient treasure vault.  Was killed by Ekat after Asar tried to raid the town of Kassen but not before mortally wounding Ekat.  Used to have the 2nd amulet piece that opened the way to the treasure vault.

Iramine  – The mysterious elven maiden who held the 3rd piece of the amulet.

Cygar Anravis – Mysterious member of the Pathfinder society who tries to find adventurers worthy enough to join his cause.  He sends the party off to Tamran.

Captain Welren – Captain of the barge.  Loves fishes.

Reginar Lacklan – The pathfinder associate who resides in Tamran.  Gives the group vital information regarding the cult of Razmir and gives them a quest to find any incriminating evidence against the cult.

The Cult of Razmir – The faithful who worships the living god, Razmir.  They aim to corrupt the people and the government of Tamran and to increase the power of Razmir.

Egarthis – The current leader of the temple and the first high ranking leader the party members meet.  Responsible for overseeing the ceremonies.

Krant – A brutish priest who is second in command.  He is responsible for overseeing the group and making sure they complete their tasks effectively.  He also enjoys a little bloodsport as he forces the group to fight amongst each other.

Evlar – A homeless acolyte who joins the cult at the same time the party does.  His father beats him.

Krox – Doesn’t feel that Nirmathas is big enough to contain him.

Arise blog, come and serve your masters