[Day 16 continues. The Ratpack finally explores the door Roscuro was fixated on and has some bright ideas.]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened May 4, 2020.]
[SPOILERS! If you are likely to adventure through the Shattered Star Adventure Path from Paizo, this campaign will be spoilers all the way down.]
Player Characters
Marativy – female ratfolk 3rd level Ninja
Roscuro – male ratfolk 4th level Monk
Zitch Grimreaper – male 4th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar
Via Roll20
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 4th level Summoner (Synthesist)
Winston – male ratfolk 3rd level Gunslinger
Day 16, Afternoon
[Winston’s player was late due to work, so he joined via Roll20 part way into the session.]
Having caught their breath and done some healing after driving away Lord Baz, the Ratpack searched the room they found Lord Baz in. Other than the benches, table, and [non-magical] musical instrument, there was nothing in the room. [Even the corpses of the imps and nupperibos had evaporated, leaving an oily stain and a bad odor.]
In no hurry to go back and report to the Suzerain of Little Erebus, the group of ratfolk decided to investigate the passage to the west. Marativy was able to receive a vision of the room the next shard was in and that room was circular. The room down the west passage hinted at being circular, which raised Roscuro’s hopes that their quest might be nearing its end. [Narrator Voice: It was not.]
The room at the end of the west passage was circular but was clearly not the room in Marativy’s vision. This room had two balconies with bench seating overlooking a lower, circular sand-covered floor. It was obviously a gladiator pit of sorts. There were stairs down to the pit floor and a passage out the far side heading west. Roscuro was very disappointed. [Roscuro’s spirit animal is Daffy Duck in his guise as Egyptian God of Frustration.]
Still in pursuit of the shard, the group descended the steps and exited through the west passage. It quickly turned north. Roscuro “found” a pit trap in the corridor [there wasn’t one, but a 1 while looking for traps convinced him there was one]. Despite none of the other ratfolk being able to see the “trap”, Roscuro used two spikes to wedge it in place.
After the “pit trap”, the passage entered a small 20-foot square room with a passage on the east wall. The ratfolk searched the empty room. Roscuro and Zitch were convinced there was a pattern on the north wall that signified something, but the others could not see it. [Another 1 on Perception. I retired that die for the rest of the night. In hindsight, this might be the room the hellhound came from.]
The group eventually took the passage east. They found a side passage north of stairs that went up to a door. Based on their map, the ratfolk were certain this door was the south door of the octagon room and opted to bypass it for now. The east passage eventually entered a rectangular room that contained two immense but squat pillars, one to the north and one to the south. The passage continued east and the ratfolk could see this was the western passage from the stairs to the portcullis room.
There were runes on the floor of the room with two pillars. The runes were readable by Marativy and said “Does true power lie with the one or the many?” One of the pillars had art on it depicting a single Rune Lord, probably Alaznist but it was very degraded. The other pillar had art showing many people, probably the other Rune Lords. After a short debate, Roscuro touched the pillar showing multiple people [the “many”], thinking the riddle referenced when the Rune Lords stole the Sihedron star from the previous owner. It didn’t and Roscuro suffered the effects of a bane spell. The rest of the group touched the pillar showing only Alaznist [the “one”] and received a bless. The riddle had been about ego after all. Roscuro touched the other pillar, hoping the bless would cancel out the bane. It did not because Rune Lords are jerks.
Consulting their map, the Ratpack determined that there were now on two unexplored paths: the eastern door that called to Roscuro and the southern door from the long lab. As the eastern door was much closer, the group decided to explore that way first.
Making their way through several intersections, the ratfolk made their way to the empty room with the door. Marativy checked the door for traps and found none. The door was opened and beyond was a rectangular room with 5 nupperibos and two doors out, one west and a salt-encrusted one south.. During the short fight that followed, Zitch used the wand of lightning bolt to kill two of the nupperibos in one attack, Templeton killed two with his claws and bleed effect, Marativy killed one with a sneak attack, and every attack of Roscuro’s hit but did no damage due to the nupperibos’ damage resistance.
The ratfolk searched the room and found nothing. There was a salt trail from the south door to the door the ratfolk had entered the room through. Roscuro asked Zitch what kind of devil leaves a salt trail. Zitch couldn’t think of one and speculated that there was a sea access beyond the door and something dripping walked through this way.
[At this point, Winston’s player popped up on Roll20 and we brought him up to speed.]
Concerned that the salt-encrusted southern door might actually flood the room or something equally disastrous, the group decided to explore the eastern door first. This door was swollen in place and would not open normally. The group took their time carefully prying the door apart, ready to flee immediately if water started pouring through. Instead, beyond the door was a barricade made of furniture and boxes.
Peering through and around the barricade, the group could see a single lemure cowering in the far corner. Roscuro and Winston attempted to speak with it, invoking Suzerain’s name. This caused the lemure to cower more. As it feared the ratfolk, Winston told it to stay here and the ratfolk went to look at the salt-encrusted door.
Marativy checked the salt-encrusted door for traps and found none. The door opened with some effort. Beyond was a room containing stairs down into water. In the east wall was another door. There was also a salt trail from the stairs to the door the ratfolk had just opened. The ratfolk investigated the stairs in the water and discovered that magic was keeping the water from flooding the room. Looking into the water, it seemed that the stairs led to an exit into the bay.
After some discussion, the ratfolk decided to investigate the door on the east wall first. On the other side of that door was a round room with a spiral staircase in the center going up. Zitch cast detect magic, but none was detected. After a search of the room turned up nothing, Roscuro cautiously went up the spiral staircase.
The staircase ended in a pyramidal room made from three walls of force. As the walls were transparent, Roscuro could see out into the waters of the bay on the other side. Roscuro called down the stairs for the rest of the Ratpack to come up and see. The view was impressive. Zitch noticed a sunken wreck on the floor of the bay nearby and Templeton volunteered he had a spell that would allow him to breathe underwater for a time. After some discussion, it was decided that Templeton would go down the stairs into the water and swim over to explore the sunken ship.
Templeton and Marativy went back down to the sea stairs, Templeton to use them, Marativy to make sure Templeton could get back in. Templeton swam out and explored the sunken ship while Roscuro, Winston, and Zitch watched from the pyramidal room. In one of the cabins he found a chest with the letters “L.B.” carved into it. Inside the chest was a sack of coins, which Templeton left. The name of the ship was the Liza Jane. After finishing his search, Templeton returned and recounted what he found. Zitch recalled that the Liza Jane was a ship that sank three years earlier after side-swiping The Crow. Roscuro advocated not retrieving any loot from the ship now as they would have to split the value with the Tower Girls. The rest agreed.
Looking at their map again while Templeton dried off, the group realized they had skipped checking a room near where they fought Lord Baz – the door next to the fountain in the north passage. The ratfolk headed there next, taking the long way around through the arena room to avoid making noise with the portcullis. Inside where two lemure who reacted positively when Suzerain’s name was given.
The Ratpack led the two lemure to Suzerain’s room [I didn’t note the exact path, sorry]. There Roscuro turned over the lemure but explained they had failed to kill Lord Baz – he teleported away. Surprisingly, Suzerain was pleased with this and considered the contract complete. He directed the ratfolk to a small pile in the corner, which turned out to be a sack of 5000 gold coins and a spell book, the promised magic knowledge. Suzerain then took the two lemure and left…somehow, never turning visible. Perhaps he had been a Zebub as well?
While Templeton and Zitch looked over the spell book, Roscuro was thinking and had an idea about the green crystal key Marativy had found in the fountain. He led the group to the storage room and compared the green crystal key to the windup keyhole on the clockwork servant and the key fit. After some discussion, Winston was chosen to wind it up and activate the servant. Once activated, the servant asked, “What is your directive?” Winston replied with, “Follow us.” From that point on, the servant stayed within ten feet of Winston.
The adventurers next went to the southern door in the long lab and opened it. Beyond was a passage to a 4-way intersection at the end of which was another door and a side passage west. Tired and low on spells, the Ratpack decided a whole new area of the sub-level was too much to take on now. The group closed the door and headed back up to the Common Room up on the first level.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[We got a lot done this session, but it was running late, so we needed to wrap it up. Marativy and Winston earned enough experience points to make 4th level this session and returning to the Common Room to rest would let them level their characters. Plus, the characters were running low on food and had a good deal of loot to sell or deposit in the bank.]
Ratpack
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