Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 17

[Day 37 and 38.  Raid on the boggard village to save troglodyte captives and the return to Magnimar.  But mostly the raid.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened May 3, 2021.]

[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

Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 5th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Roscuro – male ratfolk 5th level Monk

Swamprover – female grippli 4th level Wizard

Marativy – female ratfolk 5th level Ninja


Via Roll20

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 5th level Summoner (Synthesist)

Winston – male ratfolk 5th level Gunslinger


NPCs

Auto – a clockwork servant fixated on Winston

Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 3rd level Wizard (Invoker)

Mel Sharples  – male halfling Cook (Expert of unknown level)

Alice Hyatt – female halfling Bodyguard (Warrior of unknown level)

Flo’ Castleberry – female gnome Bodyguard (Warrior of unknown level)



Autumn

Day 37, Expedition Day 7

~7:00 PM, After Sunset

While Zitch and Templeton were trekking back into the dungeon to see if Gnaeus wanted rescuing [end of Session 16], Roscuro, Winston, Marativy, and Swamprover headed to the boggard village to rescue two remaining troglodyte captives.  Once in the area, they set a rendezvous point in case things went wrong.  The plan was for Swamprover to use Flaming Sphere to light the boggard shaman’s hut on fire and then some others near it on the west side of the village.  As boggards would come out to fight the fire, first Roscuro [with his light crossbow], then Winston [with his musket] would snipe them.  This would draw all attention to the southwest of the village, allowing Marativy to start searching for troglodyte captives in the huts to the northeast with minimal chance of being seen.  With the rough plan in place they then made their separate ways to the boggard village.

At the boggard village they set up around it.  Roscuro and Winston took position in some cover to the south of the village, about 70 feet outside the camp.  Roscuro had three flasks of oil with fuses set out, plus a torch and his flint and tinder.  Swamprover was to the west of the village with a pond of water between her and the village.  Marativy was to the north east of the village.

The plan started well.  It took two rounds for the Flaming Sphere to light the shaman’s roof but only one round each on two others before the spell expired.  Boggards exited the shaman’s hut once it was on fire to see what the noise was.  Roscuro sniped the first one, and this is where things started going awry.  It turns out, boggards have a lot of hit points and the light crossbow does a maximum of 6 points of damage [size small version].  So Roscuro’s shot hit, but rather than kill the boggard, it merely alerted the boggards they were under attack!

While Swamprover was moving the Flaming Sphere to light as many huts as she could, Winston and Roscuro shot at boggards, concentrating fire until one was dead before moving on to the next.  With all the distraction to the south and west, Marativy easily snuck into the eastern edge of the village and started searching for captives to free by peeking into the huts.

The boggards sounded a general alarm and guards quickly donned armor and rushed to their posts, including three who stationed themselves on the northern approach to the village.  This complicated Marativy’s search slightly as she had to avoid the guards as they exited huts.  Luckily, this is what she is best at.

Winston and Swamprover started targeting boggards trying to get water to put out the fires [Swamprover with Force Bolts].  Roscuro shot at targets of opportunity.  In the middle of this chaos, the boggard shaman exited her hut and cast Wind Wall across the southern approach to the village.  Guards on that side of the village took up position just inside the wall of winds.  Recognizing the spell, Roscuro stopped shooting and held his fire, waiting for a boggard guard to step past the protection of the Wind Wall.  Winston attempted to shoot the shaman through the Wind Wall, but the magic blew every shot off target.  [The player was not certain his shots counted for the effect of the Wind Wall but after three shots were all blown away, he had to concede they did.]

The shaman healed the wounded boggard guards while Roscuro lit his readied torch and Winston learned he could not hit things beyond the Wind Wall.  A group of boggard guards moved into position to snipe at Roscuro and Winston with short bows from the eastern part of the village, not covered by the Wind Wall.  Roscuro plucked one of the arrows from the air and the other missed.  Roscuro returned fire but missed.  Marativy continued her search of huts for captives, eased by all the huts now being empty of guards.

The boggards guards to the south charged Roscuro and Winston.  [The Other GM made a mistake here.  Boggards only have 20 feet of movement on ground and he had them charge 50 feet.  I think he mistook their 30 feet of swimming as their normal move.]  Guards around the shaman started throwing javelins at Swamprover, tired of her plinking them with Force Bolts.  One of them hit [for 7 points of damage].  Winston stepped away from the boggard guards near him and rapid fired on one of the boggards, blowing its head completely apart [the second hit was a critical for 44 points of damage, twice the boggard’s total hit points].  The shaman dropped the Wind Wall and summoned several giant toads near Winston and Roscuro.

Marativy, finished searching the huts on the east side of the village, crossed the trail dividing the village, and started searching the huts on the west side.  The first hut she checked had an unconscious troglodyte captive in it!  Roscuro grabbed and lit a readied flask of oil, tossing it at one of the summoned toads.  The fire bomb caught one of the boggards in the area of effect and set him on fire while the toad shrugged half the effect [it made a Reflex save, but the guard did not].  Guards around the shaman threw javelins at Swamprover again, one hitting [for 8 points of damage].  Winston stepped away from the guards threatening him and rapid fired, killing another guard.  The remaining guard [not on fire] advanced on Winston to attack while the one on fire attempted to put himself out.  Both failed at their actions.  The toads attacked with their tongues.  One hit Roscuro but failed to reel the ratfolk monk in [it failed the Grapple check].  The shaman, satisfied with things to the south of the village, turned her attention to Swamprover and cast her own Flame Sphere on top of the grippli wizard.  Swamprover side-stepped the sphere easily [she made her Reflex save for no damage].

Marativy carried the troglodyte captive out of the hut and hid him in some tall reeds in the village so she could search some more.  Swamprover, injured and about out of spells, moved north to put some cover and distance between her and the shaman.  [She moved twice, which put her at the northwest corner of the village and near where Marativy was searching.]  Roscuro scooped up the remaining two vials of oil [now lit due to the burst from the first one] and threw one at another toad, spreading the flames between the ratfolk and the village and burning toads and guards in the process.  The boggards threw javelins at Winston and Roscuro.  They missed Winston and Roscuro deflected the only one that got near him [he did not grab it as he had his crossbow in one hand and a lit vial of oil in the other].  Winston backed away again and shot and killed the last guard on him.  The shaman moved the flaming sphere to Roscuro, who side-stepped it.  The toads attempted to grapple with their tongues again, two missing Roscuro, but the third grabbed Winston.

With the guards on the north edge of the village now looking back to the south to see what was going on, Marativy no longer felt it was safe to leave the unconscious troglodyte alone.  She picked him up again and took him with her to continue her search.  Swamprover entered the village to search as well, but was noticed by the guards who shot at her with their short bows, getting hit once.  Roscuro stepped back and threw his last flaming oil into the open mouth of the toad grabbing Winston with its tongue, convincing the toad to let go of Winston as its mouth became an inferno.  Guards in the village threw javelins at Roscuro again, who caught one and threw it back, hitting, but was hit by a second one.  Winston shot the toad with the burning mouth once and withdrew.  The burning mouth toad died from the flames, popping out of existence [as summoned creatures do when they die or the spell expires].  The other two attempted to grab Roscuro with their tongues and missed.  The shaman moved the flaming sphere back onto Roscuro, but the monk avoided it with ease again.

At this point the adventurers decided it was time to leave.  Winston and Roscuro retreated south before arcing east to the agreed upon rendezvous point.  Swamprover quickly fled to the northwest before circling around to the north to the rendezvous point.  Marativy dragged her rescued troglodyte outside of the camp unobserved and found a hiding spot to pause and watch the aftermath of the attack.  She hoped the boggards might check on their captives, giving her an idea where the last captive might be.

Much to Marativy’s dismay, the boggards instead focused on putting out the fires.  After that, they started searching the area, so Marativy shouldered the captive and slowly made her way to the rendezvous point.  [I should mention that Marativy has the lowest strength of the group with an actual penalty to Strength checks.]

Near Midnight

Marativy arrived at the rendezvous point with the rescued troglodyte.  Winston checked the troglodyte and pronounced him suffering from malnourishment and Filth Fever, but not dying.  The four adventures then made their way back to their camp, arriving well after when Templeton and Zitch returned with Gnaeus.   Swamprover complained about her injuries and Zitch healed her up.  Everyone quickly went to sleep afterwards.


Day 38, Expedition Day 8

Morning

Rested and newly invigorated [everyone finally leveled], the group had breakfast and started packing up the camp.  Zitch cast a new spell available to him, Cure Disease, on the troglodyte, curing the troglodyte of his Filth Fever.  Winston and Zitch walked the troglodyte back to the troglodyte caves and told Sulgesh the group was leaving the area for a while but would be back.

By the time Winston and Zitch returned from the troglodyte cave, the camp was packed.  The group hefted their loot and remaining supplies and walked to the pickup point.

Noon

The group arrived at the meeting point for pickup.  The Fortune Found was just arriving and after a short period all were aboard, including Gnaeus and Helanda.  The ship weighed anchor and turned north, arriving at Magnimar just before sunset.

End of Session


Rat Whispers

[This raid lasted much longer than expected and took up the whole session.  We hand-waved getting back to the ship and the trip back to Magnimar so we could make up some time and start there next session.  As a result, some opportunities to roleplay with the NPCs was missed and Gnaeus just wanders off once we get to Magnimar, seemingly ignored.  We were able to at least get Helanda pointed to the Tower Girls.  Even if she decides to not join the gang, it made for a more positive separation of ways.  I like separating from NPCs in a way that makes them more inclined to think positively about the PCs – you never know when allies will be needed later.]

[This was the first time I was able to made much use of Roscuro's ability to deflect or snatch missiles and I was very pleased with it.  I wish monks could use up attacks of opportunity to deflect more than one missile per round, but the rules are what they are.]


Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

Session 32 – Conclusion


Book 2:

Session 1

Session 10

Session 11

Session 12

Session 13

Session 14

Session 15

Session 16


Session 18



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