Dr. Roblognik's Shut Up and Jam

Hi everyone!

Good session, even though we didn’t get through as much as I like. Limiting the game to 5 hours was a good idea, I felt a lot less exhausted.

Here’s what happened in the story:

While staying at the Highside Stacks, the party received letters from Dreng and Kormiggon Sussworth describing the mission from the Pathfinder Guild: spearhead a relief effort with the Church of Pharasma and re-establish communication with Mayor Heggiry, the main Pathfinder contact in Carrion Hill. The party made their way to the Church and accepted the quest.

The next morning, a wagon train of three wagons and horses was brought to the northeast gate of Kaer Maga. Driving the wagons was Brother Gallo, an animal trainer, embalmer, and midwife of the Pharasman Church. In addition, a mute woman veiled in black–incidentally, the one who bankrolled the wagon train–requested passage on the relief effort. Secretly, she passed a message to Valeria indicating that she was actually Esme Varisi, the intelligent undead from the Godsmouth Ossuary. A map and shipping manifest were provided for the group, along with instructions to meet an Urgir escort at a toll bridge in the Hold of Belkzen.

For the first few days out of Kaer Maga, the trip was uneventful. At sunset on the third day however, the party found the wreckage of a wagon along with the corpse of a Pharasman priest, along with smoke billowing over the cliff. Gunnar and Elorin scouted ahead and found that the smoke was coming from a camp of 3 Ogrekin and a warg. Unfortunately, the warg detected the two, and a battle broke out.

Gunnar was savaged by the warg, but the danger from the ogrekin was lessened by Shania’s Slumber Hex and Valeria’s Hold Person spell. Elorin managed to deliver a coup de grace one ogrekin, and the rest of the attacking group were dispatched without a problem. In the ogrekin camp, the group managed to find a valuable artifact: an illuminated manuscript of the Bones Land in a Spiral, the holy book of the Church of Pharasma. Brother Gallo identified it as an artifact in the Church at Carrion Hill. Grifflebore, along with Gallo, buried the body of the priest and performed final rites.

The party made its way to the toll bridge, where Elorin used the orders he was given by the Pathfinder Guild to secure passage across the Hold from the escort, Captain Urghosh of the Empty Hand. With the escort of 11 Orc archers, the party made its way to the ferry past Gallowspire without any trouble, and from there the group traveled to outside the Carrion Hill walls. The party noticed that the sky was unusually dark.

Outside the walls, the group was met by a Crow, one of the remaining guardsmen of Carrion Hill. The Crow, shocked that Pathfinders had actually arrived, gave them directions to Mayor Heggiry’s manor. The wagon train rolled down the deserted and ruined main street towards the manor, but just as the group was about to reach the manor, four Juju zombies attacked!

Grifflebore attempted to annihilate one of the zombies with a Radiant Charge, but it dodged out of the way at the last second, leaving a sizable hole in the side of an abandoned building. During the battle, a wall of smoke advanced from the south along with an ominous bell tolling. Despite the danger and resilience of the semi-intelligent zombies, the group was able to defeat them thanks mainly to the powerful energy of Sarenrae channeled by Valeria.

As the last of the zombies was blasted by positive energy, the bell tolled twice more, and the wall of smoke coalesced into a wraith named Tol’Thun the Twice-Living, Thrice-Damned! Gunnar ran towards the manor, and an Abbess of Sarenrae blessed his weapon to attack the incorporeal monster. As the wraith flew around the battlefield draining the party members’ strength, Shania cleverly cast Burning Gaze on her raven familiar and executed a tandem spell attack.

After a long battle, the party emerged victorious and rolled on towards the manor. There, they found that the remaining refugees of the town have all gathered here after a long internal siege by evil forces. The party met Mayor Heggiry and Abbess Almestra, one of the few remaining practicing clerics in Carrion Hill. Tarrig, a cobbler in town, was pressed to present his eyewitness account of the massive abomination that started the horror.

He wasn’t able to provide many details beside the symbol (a gate) the monster painted with the guardsman’s carcass, the man that was eaten by the creature (a person known as Old Man Marshan), and the creature’s apparent large-size and invisibility. Mayor Heggiry answered the party’s questions, and beseeched them to investigate the building that Tarrig mentioned in his account. He offered the remaining portion of the city’s treasury, 1000 gold pieces, and 500 gold pieces from his personal fortune on top of the reward from the Pathfinder Guild.

The party agreed, and the Mayor gave them an assortment of invisibility-nullifying and recovery items.

Here’s the important loot from the module:

– scrolls from the relief effort

– an illuminated manuscript of The Bones Land in a Spiral

– 4 masterwork short swords

Along with items from the Mayor:

– 2 potions of Lesser Restoration (a red potion that tastes like watered-down cherry juice)

– a scroll of Lesser Invisibility (a scroll with the inscription OOBAKEEP)

– 2 potions of Cure Moderate Wounds (a yellow potion that tastes strongly of lemon)

– a scroll of Invisibility Purge (a scroll with the inscription EGNIBSIVNI)

– a dose of Dust of Appearance (a bag of purple dust)

–

Yikes, has it been 4 months?

This update is long overdue, but this’ll be fairly short, since most of the session was taken up with combat.

Session Summary:

In the previous module part, the party managed to slay Wymund Pratt, a lower level Shadow Lodge operative who was being controlled by someone in town, and his retinue. After waiting some time in the Starry Night Inn, the group was summoned by the Duskwardens, Besel Ardoc, and Dakar of the Commerce League in a rare alliance.

They give the party a key piece of secret information: the leader of the Shadow Lodge of Kaer Maga is a man named Kormiggon Sussworth, a former Pathfinder renowned as the “Wolfslayer.” In addition, Captain Alphonse reveals that the Duskwardens received an anonymous note requesting a meeting at the Meatmarket to reveal more Shadow Lodge-related information.

Ardoc, Alphonse, and Dakar give the party the quest to stop the Shadow Lodge once and for all for the reward of 2000 gold pieces. However, Dakar’s operative gives the party another choice: bring Dakar Sussworth’s head and get 4000 gold pieces instead.

With only the note in hand, the party goes to the Meatmarket. After a while eating pillbugs and sugar skulls, someone recognizes Gunnar, and a group of Shadow Lodge operatives–led by a gnome named Mickey Ticklefeet–attack. The party manages to slay the group with the time-honored method of “hitting them extremely hard.” One of the operatives has a key with a strange insignia, so the group travels to the Duskwarden barracks to discern its meaning.

There, the Duskwardens explain that the key is for an abandoned prison called The Temple. Also, the short-handed Duskwardens request the group’s help with a Duskwarden operative that has gone missing while investigating a cult in town. Between the two quests, the party decides to investigate the cult first.

Using the last notes of the Duskwarden as a guide, the group is guided to an old court house within the walls of Kaer Maga where a group of drow calling themselves the Cult of the Skinsaw  have taken refuge. The cult apparently abducts people from out of Kaer Maga’s alleys and “judges” them in a show trial before they are executed by an entity called “The Bailiff.”

The group manages to fight their way through the courthouse, and defeat the inquisitor behind the cult and her anti-paladin cohort, saving the town of Kaer Maga from one of the two threats and nabbing a sweet shortsword in the process.

Extra Character Sheets:

Lahng, Eyeland, Ayeziti – level 1 drow fighters, “Peace Officers” of the court

Jynn, Tahnic – level 2 drow rogues, “Warrant Servers” of the court

(DNDsheets lost my character sheet for Adkov, the level 3 priest/”Docket Keeper”)

Adjudicator Izeret – level 5 drow Vengeance Inquisitor

Volruska the Spider Knight – level 5 drow Anti-Paladin

Significant Loot:

Masterwork Short Sword of Allying (a short sword with a 3-man phalanx engraved on the blade)

Hey everyone,

Hope everyone had a good time rollin’ bones in City of Perfect Strangers. I had a good time running it and City of Strangers 2 looks better I think. I’m not too enthusiastic as to how the module ends though, so I’m going to punch it up a bit. Before I go into the plot summary, here’s some of the prep materials and other extra stuff. The next Pathfinder game will probably be February 9th.

Also, update your DNDSheets pretty quickly if you can, because I sometimes use the new skills/spells you get to write the challenges.

First, here’s the loot list:

– several potions of Cure Light Wounds
– scroll of Sleep (2) (scroll with the inscription TGHIN TGHIN)
– scroll of Mage Armor
– Ring of Protection +1 (a gold ring embedded with a single emerald)
– potion of Cure Moderate Wounds (2) (a bubbly yellow potion that tastes like lemon)
– scroll of Dimensional Door (scroll with the inscription DOA DOA)
– scroll of Silence (scroll with the inscription TEIUQ)
– Cloak of Resistance +1
– +1 chain shirt
– Cloak of the Hedge Wizard (Enchantment) (a green cloak made of gossamer)
– Robe of Infinite Twine (a coarse robe made of burlap-looking material)
– scroll of Searing Light (a scroll with the inscription ERIALOS)
– Aegis of Recovery (a small spherical pendant made of rose quartz)
– Ioun Torch (a small obsidian octahedron)

Two things about this list:

1) I actually kind of forgot how many CLW potions there were total. Since there are so many and it might be a little broken for everyone to have a lot of them, you can sell them back for full price, rather than for the normal half price.

2) The only thing that’s been claimed so far is the chain shirt (which was going to Bob’s cleric) so feel free to claim stuff on Facebook or whatever. The shirt was listed as ‘+1 chain shirt’ in the equipment list for Wymund, so I’m not sure if that means it’s magic (i.e. armor check penalty goes down by 1 and AC goes up by 1), or just masterwork (armor check penalty goes down by 1 only).

Second, here are the challenges:

I had a few that I made on the fly to replace some of the ones that were impossible to get in this session. I think I’ll probably stick with this setup in future modules (5 for each of you, 15 for the party).

Third, here are the custom character sheets I made for Fulgach and Bessie:

Fulgach the Disturber of Bones, level 5 Cleric of Urgathoa

Bessie the Animated Auroch Skeleton, minion of Fulgach

Finally, here’s the encounter/plot summary:

The party left off investigating the whereabouts of a famous Kaer Magan golem maker named Besel Ardoc. Besel is the head of the prestigious Ardoc family, and he seemed to be connected to the goons that were guarding the murdered Collgardie’s house. Through investigating and talking to various citizens of Kaer Maga, they found out that he liked to drink, he never travelled without six iron golems surrounding him at all times, he liked to drink in the Downmarket, he drank at a pub called the Augur’s Entrails, and he talks to the proprietor right after the pub opened.

As the party tried to stealthily tail Ardoc, they soon realized that this was unnecessary. A clearly confused and inebriated (and well-guarded) Besel Ardoc introduced himself to the group and had a conversation involving Collgardie and the mysterious Shadow Lodge that was seemingly behind Collgardie’s murder. The party learned that he was hired as a middleman by someone named Dakar of the Commerce League to guard Collgardie’s house in case some of the murderers came back. Ardoc then subcontracted out the guarding to a group of hired goons. When the party asked where they could talk to Dakar, all they got was a laugh and a promise that Ardoc would contact a friend of a friend of a friend etc. to arrange a meeting.

Going back to the Starry Night Inn, the party was greeted by five burly thugs and a short man named Upton who introduced himself as an ambassador or emissary of sorts to Dakar. Dakar is a very secretive man, he explained, so certain measures were needed to ensure his privacy if the party actually wanted to talk to him. To that end, he had the party wear a set of bags enchanted with a Silence spell, and made them endure a long wagon ride to Dakar’s private residence.

Once there, Dakar quickly asked the party what they wanted. When they replied they wanted information about the Shadow Lodge, Dakar replied that he knew where one of the (supposed?) leaders was hiding, but that he’d require a favor later despite the fact the party seemed to be helping him out. He explained that one of the leaders, a man named Wymund Pratt, was hiding in the abandoned and condemned Naderi Theater. Armed with this new information, the thugs put the bags back on the party members’ heads and took them back to the Inn.

The next morning, the group snuck into the alley leading to the theater, and got ambushed by a group of  armed and angry goblins and a human sorceress named Vadoma. Shania put Vadoma to sleep with a hex, and the rest of the party started to fight the goblins. Eventually, after a pitched battle that involved such highlights as Gunnar atomizing a goblin with an arrow and Grifflebore slamming another goblin on the head so hard the goblin shrunk two inches in height, the party won. They captured Vadoma alive, and brought her back to the Duskwardens for interrogation. Then, they headed back to the alley.

After having Valeria (fresh off completing a quest to find dangerous goblin artifacts) patch up the group, Gunnar and Elorin made their way down a junk-filled, deserted, trap-laden alleyway aptly called Trap Alley. Elorin took a glaive trap to the face, but then managed to disable an arrow trap and a swinging axe trap with relative ease with his new thieves’ loupe. Gunnar and Elorin soon made their way to the front of the entrance to the theater, but they found that the way was blocked by a robed man named Fulgach, his two goblin cohorts, and his powerful minion: the animated skeleton of a full-grown auroch bull.

The party soon found themselves in another heated battle. The goblins, clearly afraid of Fulgach, beat a hasty retreat. Fulgach busted out with a powerful Visions of Hell spell that the party managed to shake off. Elorin charged at Fulgach with both swords drawn,  Grifflebore attacked the skeleton, and Gunnar tried to pepper Fulgach with the arrows he gained from the amateur halfling fletcher he helped. With one mighty swing, Grifflebore managed to obliterate the skeleton, causing the already powerful Fulgach to channel the dark energy of Urgathoa to blast the party. Valeria and Shania were able to provide healing and divine guidance, though, and the party managed to survive.

They unlocked the front door of the theater with a key dropped by Fulgach, but they soon found that they were expected. A scroll of Alarm alerted Wymund to their presence, giving him enough time to summon three powerful wolves to help him take down the group. Wymund taunted them a bit, and then started to cast spells of his own. The large space of the dilapidated theater made the initial combat phase difficult, as Wymund’s spells (like Glitterdust) had a large range and the party was almost a hundred feet away. The wolves also stymied a frontal attack; Elorin tried to attack Wymund head-on and was ravaged and knocked unconscious almost immediately from a sustained assault by the wolves.

Eventually, the group closed the distance, and even though Wymund tried desperately to survive by using an Invisibility spell and a sneak attack, the group knocked him out. Unfortunately, as Wymund blacked out he hit his head hard on one of the seats in the theater, killing him and preventing the party from launching a full-scale interrogation. The party did managed to find a sheet with a number of cities and code names listed on it, along with a collection of magical items Wymund was buying to start his assault on the genuine Pathfinder guild.

The party now finds itself back where they started, the Starry Night Inn, awaiting news from Besel, the Duskwardens, and the Commerce League. There are also rumors that there’s a new threat in Kaer Maga that the Duskwardens are keen to see eradicated.

So, that’s it for right now. Be sure to leave more feedback about this session if you can and update your sheets with all your new skills and stuff.

Well, well, well, it looks like we’re finally going to get a chance to finish up the first section ofCity of Strangers. Not much I needed to reiterate, except I did want to do something I forgot to do earlier: post the character sheets of the monsters from the sidequests.

Enoch (Shania) – Undead Guards

Eric (Grifflebore) – Tallow Boy Bernard

Jack (Gunnar) – Galgus the Mutant Rat

See you this weekend!