[The Ratpack: out of the shithouse, into…another street fight?.]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened January 13, 2020.]
[SPOILERS! If you are likely to adventure through the Shattered Star Adventure Path from Paizo, this campaign will contain a lot of spoilers.]
Player Characters
Marativy – female ratfolk 1st level Ninja
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 2nd level Summoner (Synthesist)
Roscuro – male ratfolk 2nd level Monk
Zitch Grimreaper – male 2nd level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar
Winston – male 1st level Gunslinger
Day 6
Immediately after Session 9
Satisfied that the shit-flinging goblins were not going to sneak up behind the group, Roscuro joined the rest of the Ratpack up in the rafters of the building’s attic space. He climbed Marativy’s knotted rope up through the room’s missing ceiling. The Ratpack could see that the ceiling was also missing from the next and final room of the building. Creeping forward, they peeked in on the final room.
Like the last three rooms of this miserable building, the fourth room was missing most of its floor and the space below was a noisome mess of sewage from the upper city. A single sewer tunnel led out one wall, under the streets of Underbridge, most likely to the nearby sea. On the far side of the room, in what can only be described as a “fancy chair” was Natalia! She quickly noticed the Ratpack and started an honest-to-gods villain monologue about taking over the Tower Girls and then the city and blah, blah, blah. She was clearly insane with delusions of grandeur.
Roscuro interrupted her part way throught the monologue, stating “We don’t care. We’re here to verify you are alive as you missed your meeting with Sheila.” Slightly taken aback by this statement, she ordered the Ratpack to leave immediately. Roscuro called a group huddle of the Ratpack to determine if they needed to do anything about Natalia or just leave and report back to Sheila. Before anything was said, Natalia yelled, “That’s not leaving,” and called out orders in Goblin and two shit-goblins came out of hiding in the sewer tunnel and started flinging shitballs at the ratfolk. Roscuro’s joy knew definite bounds.
Natalia cast a Grease spell on the rafters where the Ratpack was huddled. Marativy stepped out of the area, drawing her wakizashi. Winston and Roscuro didn’t bother, both shooting at the goblins. Winston killed his, but Roscuro’s crossbow wasn’t enough to kill the goblin in one shot [only did 4 points of damage]. The goblin returned the favor to Roscuro, squarely hitting him with a shitball, sickening the ratfolk [again – I could just not make a save against these]. Templeton advanced on the goblin, approaching from above [because of the Grease spell, the goblin ended up being just out of attack range after a Move action].
Natalia cast Charm Person on Marativy, who failed her save. Concerned because her friends were fighting, Marativy dropped to the ground right next to Natalia and started talking to her, trying to de-escalate the fight. Roscuro winged the remaining goblin [failing to kill it because of the -2 to all rolls from the sickened condition]. The goblin flung another shitball at Roscuro, hitting him again [no extra effect other than doing 1 hit point of damage to the still wounded Roscuro]. Winston reloaded and Templeton switched targets to attack Natalia, missing with a claw attack.
Winston [ now reloaded] shot and killed the remaining goblin. Natalia decided to leave through the sewer tunnel. She hopped down into the sewage and moved past Templeton who landed several attacks of opportunity on her [he has the Combat Reflexes feat]. Once in the sewer tunnel, Natalia pulls out a thing made of red metal and sprayed flames into the room, setting a barrier of flames between the adventurers and herself! Marativy leapt into the tunnel to follow her friend, missed the landing, but climbed out of the sewage and into the tunnel next to Natalia. Templeton attempted to follow but was blocked getting out of the flames by Natalia and Marativy being in the way. Oddly, he did not burn and realized the flames were illusions. He called this information out to the others.
Winston, his shot blocked by Templeton’s Foo Dog form, moved to a better position and readied to shoot Natalia if he got a line of sight on her. Natalia pointed the piece of red metal at Templeton and cast Charm Person on him, successfully charming him. Marativy, ever the greedy, decided that the red metal thing was escalating things and needed to be sidelined. She grabbed it out of Natalia’s hand [successful disarm]…and was immediately possessed by it [this was not immediately obvious to the other PCs]. Natalia suddenly looked around very confused. When the charmed Templeton asked her what the plan was, she asked, “Have we met?”
Bleeding from Templeton’s attack [which she did not remember], she drank a healing potion and asked what was going on. Marativy led Natalia out of the tunnel back into the room, announcing that she was suddenly her old self with no memory of what was going on. This ended hostilities.
After talking with Natalia a bit, it was clear she has no memory of the last four days nor the red metal device. She also did not have it on her person, which confused all the ratfolk [except Marativy, who failed to mention that she now had it]. The rest of the ratfolk suspected it fell in the sewage and had no interest in looking for it.
Wanting to avoid any city guard that might be waiting at the entrance to the building, Zitch and Roscuro begin prying wall planks out of the back wall. Marativy found a small crate of loot. Zitch went over to cast Detect Magic on the crate to see if anything was magical. He was nearly blinded and stunned by an item radiating overwhelming magic…in Marativy’s pocket. She confessed to having the red metal item and pulled it out of her pocket to show people. Winston immediately shot it out of her had [successful ranged disarm attempt]. Being closest, Marativy was able to pick it up again before anyone else could get to it.
Upon seeing it, portions of Natalia’s memory returned. While Marativy decided to climb a chimney-like structure to the roof to see where it went, Natalia quickly pulled together the rest of the ratfolk and explained what the red metal thing was. She explained that it was part of a Star of Thassilon, it has a huge curse on it, and causes a case of Big Ego on whoever holds it. If the group attempts to tell Marativy to do anything or act like she’s not in charge, Marativy will become hostile.
When Marativy returned, Roscuro asks her if she was ready to go to the Pathfinder Society lodge and get paid. Marativy was very ready to get paid and agreed the Ratpack should follow her there. When the group climbed out the new back exit of the building, a voice from above calls out, “Leave the girl and you can all walk away.” It is the Tower Girls looking for Natalia.
Roscuro talked with them and learned they don’t actually want Natalia, they want the red metal shard. Marativy used the shard's illusion power and sleight of hand to fake throwing the shard back into the building and into the pool of sewage that is the floor. The Tower Girls attack the group anyways for “showing disrespect.”
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[Not much to comment on other than we are starting to get tired of the number of attacks this adventure has that use Touch AC. Also, the other side getting the drop on us every time.]
[Incidentally, the blog’s 10 year anniversary is coming up in March. Haven’t decided what I’m going to do to observe its passing that yet.]
Ratpack
Session 01
Session 02
Session 03
Session 04
Session 05
Session 06
Session 07
Session 08
Session 09
Session 11
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened January 13, 2020.]
[SPOILERS! If you are likely to adventure through the Shattered Star Adventure Path from Paizo, this campaign will contain a lot of spoilers.]
Player Characters
Marativy – female ratfolk 1st level Ninja
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 2nd level Summoner (Synthesist)
Roscuro – male ratfolk 2nd level Monk
Zitch Grimreaper – male 2nd level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar
Winston – male 1st level Gunslinger
Day 6
Immediately after Session 9
Satisfied that the shit-flinging goblins were not going to sneak up behind the group, Roscuro joined the rest of the Ratpack up in the rafters of the building’s attic space. He climbed Marativy’s knotted rope up through the room’s missing ceiling. The Ratpack could see that the ceiling was also missing from the next and final room of the building. Creeping forward, they peeked in on the final room.
Like the last three rooms of this miserable building, the fourth room was missing most of its floor and the space below was a noisome mess of sewage from the upper city. A single sewer tunnel led out one wall, under the streets of Underbridge, most likely to the nearby sea. On the far side of the room, in what can only be described as a “fancy chair” was Natalia! She quickly noticed the Ratpack and started an honest-to-gods villain monologue about taking over the Tower Girls and then the city and blah, blah, blah. She was clearly insane with delusions of grandeur.
Roscuro interrupted her part way throught the monologue, stating “We don’t care. We’re here to verify you are alive as you missed your meeting with Sheila.” Slightly taken aback by this statement, she ordered the Ratpack to leave immediately. Roscuro called a group huddle of the Ratpack to determine if they needed to do anything about Natalia or just leave and report back to Sheila. Before anything was said, Natalia yelled, “That’s not leaving,” and called out orders in Goblin and two shit-goblins came out of hiding in the sewer tunnel and started flinging shitballs at the ratfolk. Roscuro’s joy knew definite bounds.
Natalia cast a Grease spell on the rafters where the Ratpack was huddled. Marativy stepped out of the area, drawing her wakizashi. Winston and Roscuro didn’t bother, both shooting at the goblins. Winston killed his, but Roscuro’s crossbow wasn’t enough to kill the goblin in one shot [only did 4 points of damage]. The goblin returned the favor to Roscuro, squarely hitting him with a shitball, sickening the ratfolk [again – I could just not make a save against these]. Templeton advanced on the goblin, approaching from above [because of the Grease spell, the goblin ended up being just out of attack range after a Move action].
Natalia cast Charm Person on Marativy, who failed her save. Concerned because her friends were fighting, Marativy dropped to the ground right next to Natalia and started talking to her, trying to de-escalate the fight. Roscuro winged the remaining goblin [failing to kill it because of the -2 to all rolls from the sickened condition]. The goblin flung another shitball at Roscuro, hitting him again [no extra effect other than doing 1 hit point of damage to the still wounded Roscuro]. Winston reloaded and Templeton switched targets to attack Natalia, missing with a claw attack.
Winston [ now reloaded] shot and killed the remaining goblin. Natalia decided to leave through the sewer tunnel. She hopped down into the sewage and moved past Templeton who landed several attacks of opportunity on her [he has the Combat Reflexes feat]. Once in the sewer tunnel, Natalia pulls out a thing made of red metal and sprayed flames into the room, setting a barrier of flames between the adventurers and herself! Marativy leapt into the tunnel to follow her friend, missed the landing, but climbed out of the sewage and into the tunnel next to Natalia. Templeton attempted to follow but was blocked getting out of the flames by Natalia and Marativy being in the way. Oddly, he did not burn and realized the flames were illusions. He called this information out to the others.
Winston, his shot blocked by Templeton’s Foo Dog form, moved to a better position and readied to shoot Natalia if he got a line of sight on her. Natalia pointed the piece of red metal at Templeton and cast Charm Person on him, successfully charming him. Marativy, ever the greedy, decided that the red metal thing was escalating things and needed to be sidelined. She grabbed it out of Natalia’s hand [successful disarm]…and was immediately possessed by it [this was not immediately obvious to the other PCs]. Natalia suddenly looked around very confused. When the charmed Templeton asked her what the plan was, she asked, “Have we met?”
Bleeding from Templeton’s attack [which she did not remember], she drank a healing potion and asked what was going on. Marativy led Natalia out of the tunnel back into the room, announcing that she was suddenly her old self with no memory of what was going on. This ended hostilities.
After talking with Natalia a bit, it was clear she has no memory of the last four days nor the red metal device. She also did not have it on her person, which confused all the ratfolk [except Marativy, who failed to mention that she now had it]. The rest of the ratfolk suspected it fell in the sewage and had no interest in looking for it.
Wanting to avoid any city guard that might be waiting at the entrance to the building, Zitch and Roscuro begin prying wall planks out of the back wall. Marativy found a small crate of loot. Zitch went over to cast Detect Magic on the crate to see if anything was magical. He was nearly blinded and stunned by an item radiating overwhelming magic…in Marativy’s pocket. She confessed to having the red metal item and pulled it out of her pocket to show people. Winston immediately shot it out of her had [successful ranged disarm attempt]. Being closest, Marativy was able to pick it up again before anyone else could get to it.
Upon seeing it, portions of Natalia’s memory returned. While Marativy decided to climb a chimney-like structure to the roof to see where it went, Natalia quickly pulled together the rest of the ratfolk and explained what the red metal thing was. She explained that it was part of a Star of Thassilon, it has a huge curse on it, and causes a case of Big Ego on whoever holds it. If the group attempts to tell Marativy to do anything or act like she’s not in charge, Marativy will become hostile.
When Marativy returned, Roscuro asks her if she was ready to go to the Pathfinder Society lodge and get paid. Marativy was very ready to get paid and agreed the Ratpack should follow her there. When the group climbed out the new back exit of the building, a voice from above calls out, “Leave the girl and you can all walk away.” It is the Tower Girls looking for Natalia.
Roscuro talked with them and learned they don’t actually want Natalia, they want the red metal shard. Marativy used the shard's illusion power and sleight of hand to fake throwing the shard back into the building and into the pool of sewage that is the floor. The Tower Girls attack the group anyways for “showing disrespect.”
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[Not much to comment on other than we are starting to get tired of the number of attacks this adventure has that use Touch AC. Also, the other side getting the drop on us every time.]
[Incidentally, the blog’s 10 year anniversary is coming up in March. Haven’t decided what I’m going to do to observe its passing that yet.]
Ratpack
Session 01
Session 02
Session 03
Session 04
Session 05
Session 06
Session 07
Session 08
Session 09
Session 11
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