[Deal in place, the Ratpack start searching The Crow for the next shard.]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened February 17, 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 2nd level Ninja
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 3rd level Summoner (Synthesist)
Roscuro – male ratfolk 3rd level Monk
Zitch Grimreaper – male 3rd level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar
NPCd
Winston – male 2nd level Gunslinger
Day 10
Morning
Zitch provided Roscuro medical care and healing herbs, allowing Roscuro to get over the case of Filth Fever he contracted searching the Privy room at The Crow for secret doors [back in Session 12]. Luckily the case was mild.
The Ratpack retrieved their rented boat and rowed out to The Crow to start searching for the second shard of the Shattered Star. After tying up the rented boat in the landing chamber inside the pylon, the group made their way up and through the stairs and chambers inside the pylon to the large room with rows of pillars. Roscuro called out to announce the groups presence. Sasha, one of the wererats that are part of the Tower Girls padded out of the shadows in her dire rat form. She pantomimed for the ratfolk to follow her up the long corkscrew stairs to the first guard room [we learned later there were several guard rooms].
In the guard room she transformed back to human form and talked with the ratfolk. Roscuro asked if Jade had accepted the siege castle as meeting the terms of the deal allowing the Ratpack to search the pylon. Sasha asked why Roscuro had not used the rat figurine to verify that. Roscuro didn’t have a good answer so he pulled the figurine out and made use of it. When it returned with Jade’s reply that the siege castle was acceptable, it also returned with a ceramic token that would prove the Ratpack had permission to search the Tower Girls’ current lair.
Saying goodbye to Sasha so she could resume her sentry duties, the Ratpack started their search for the shard, using Detect Magic as well as physically searching. There were two passages out of the guard room and the Ratpack took the one east, knowing the one south eventually led to Jade’s meeting room on a lower floor. The thinking was to be thorough and search each floor.
The passage east led to two barracks the Tower Girls used for those on guard duty. Finding now secret doors nor any overwhelming magic auras, the Ratpack left this dead end and returned to the guard room. The passage south led to another guard room, lit by a lone lantern. An alcove hid a closed secret door that the Ratpack had passed through previously to negotiate with Jade. After a few moments Marativy worked out how to open the secret door and the Ratpack passed through it.
The chamber beyond was as large as the two guard rooms combined, with two diagonal walls that seemed to funnel visitors to the passage out. An alcove on the south wall held a pedestal that once had a statue on it but was now empty. The Ratpack were convinced there was a secret passage somewhere in this oddly shaped room and spent an hour searching it in detail. They found none. Roscuro was certain that the diagonal walls concealed something, but was not ready to disassemble them, yet, so the Ratpack moved on.
The next room was the top of the exceedingly tall entry chamber. Far below the ratfolk could see where their rented boat was moored, just over 200 feet below. The Tower Girls [or someone else in the past] had rigged up a suspended walkway that lead through the center of the room and then off to the left, where there was another passage. Out of thoroughness, Templeton was asked to wallwalk on the eastern wall and check for secret passages. Nothing was expected, so it was a surprise when he found something. It also appeared to be trapped, so he came back to assist Marativy getting over to it.
Marativy tied herself off to Templeton and attempted to ride on him [in his foo dog form] over to the secret compartment. She slipped on the way, but the rope held! Rather than climb back up to Templeton, she told him to just wallwalk over above it so she dangled at the secret compartment. This worked and Marativy disabled the trap. Inside the secret compartment was a metal coffer. Marativy verified it was not trapped and then removed it, placing it in a sack. She then checked the compartment for secret compartments inside it, but fond nothing. She then had Templeton carry her back over to the entrance where the rest of the Ratpack were waiting.
Marativy carefully checked the coffer before opening it. Inside was a pouch containing blue-colored salt that detected as magical to Zitch, but he could not identify it. It was placed back into the coffer and then the coffer was placed into Roscuro’s handy haversack for later investigation.
The Ratpack then walked across the suspended walkway to continue searching for the shard. The next room the Ratpack discovered was thirty feet square with murals of priests placing bodies in caskets on the walls. A search of the room turned up nothing, so the ratfolk continued moving. Past this room was a long corridor with sepulchers carved into the walls. The sepulchers were clearly previously searched, but out of completeness the Ratpack searched them. This was worthwhile as they discovered a pendant in a hidden pocket in the final sepulcher that had been previously overlooked. Zitch estimated its value at 300 gold coin, so completeness paid off.
The next room had a tripwire that Roscuro triggered. It rang some bells and two Tower Girl guards came running. Roscuro held up the ceramic token and apologized to them. That room was then searched, but it turned up nothing worthwhile. In the passage past it was a demon-faced fountain where the two Tower Girl guards were sitting. They explained it was the primary fresh water source for the Tower Girls. Zitch looked it over and determined its functioning, which he shared with the rest over an impromptu lunch break.
The demon face was magicked to create water. The basin was magicked to destroy water in it at a rate that was slow enough that it never overran with water but also never ran dry. This was an incredibly wasteful amount of magic on the part of the Rune Lords. The group discussed what would happen if a plank was placed to divert the water from the demon face to the floor. Would it eventually produce enough water to flood the world? Not an experiment we wanted to try.
After our lunch, we continued north. The Ratpack followed a side passage to a mostly collapsed room. The collapse was real [we checked], but while exploring the room they found a crate with some antiques in it. Roscuro activated the rat statuette to ask Jade if the items in the crate were for sale or counted as something found [found things sold provided a bigger percentage for the Ratpack]. Jade’s response identified the items and stated they were to be sold. As the crate was a bit bulky, the Ratpack decided to leave it here and pick it up on the way out. Roscuro also had Zitch mark this room on the group’s map for later excavation.
The Ratpack backtracked and returned to the main corridor. It ended in stairs down to a lower floor. The Ratpack descended the stairs, searching as they went. The stairs ended at a large room obviously set up for defense. There were sturdy wooden tables on their sides as barricades defenders could hide behind and attack invaders coming down the stairs. The Ratpack were very pleased to have made a deal with the Tower Girls and not had to fight their way down here.
A metal statue of a woman in Thassilonian dress, wielding a ranseur was in one corner. There was a name plate in Thassilonian that none of the Ratpack could read, so Roscuro took a rubbing of the plate to ask Frederick about later.
Exploring north the Ratpack found an empty room with a window facing west, looking out on the bay. Next was another empty room, then a room converted into a donkey rat corral [their pets we later learned] where they met the donkey rat wrangler, Karissa. The items being used as food and water troughs for the donkey rats were items of Thassilonian make. Roscuro asked about them and Karissa said they had been handy at the time but were likely to be left behind when the gang moved. Roscuro said they might be valuable and the Ratpack could get a good price for them to be split with the Tower Girls, so yes, please, leave them out where they can be found after the move. After the donkey rat corral was another barracks with a few Tower Girls hanging out. Roscuro showed the ceramic token and the ratfolk quickly searched the room, pointedly ignoring the personal property of the Tower Girls.
The group backtracked to the defensive room and took the east exit. This led to a series of food storerooms. Two donkey rats were nibbling on a food sack and Templeton herded them out of the room and back to the donkey rat corral. The first two food storerooms had no secret passages, but the third and empty room in the series did. It opened to a 10 foot by 10 foot room. The east wall had a fresco of a red-haired woman with a ranseur stabbing a demon-handed man who leaked black smoke instead of blood. This jogged Marativy’s newly acquired history knowledge [side effect of the ioun stone in the shard she carries]. She recognized the scene as showing Alaznist killing Thybides, the Runelord of Wrath before her. This helped identify the metal statue in the defensive room as being of Alaznist, the last Runelord of Wrath. This made the fresco very valuable as there are almost no known images of Thybides in existance.
The Ratpack searched the small room for secret doors and discovered that the south wall was actually an illusion and instead it opened onto the tall shaft of the entry chamber. Sticking they heads through the illusion and looking up, they could see the suspended walkway. Far below them was the water where their boat was still tied up.
It was starting to get late in the day [and in the real world], so the Ratpack closed the secret door to this room and headed to their boat. They stopped long enough to pick up the small crate of antiques along the way. Once back on shore, the Ratpack took the crate over to Frederick’s warehouse and made use of the warehouse protocol to drop it off for later appraisal. They were confident he would want to but the items inside. [Spoilers, so I’m not detailing them – sorry.]
Day 11
Zitch prepared the Identify spell and cast it on the blue salt. It turned out to be Abjurance Salt. It would block evil or summoned creatures from crossing it if poured out in a line or a circle around the user. There was enough of it for a circle with a five-foot diameter or a fifteen-foot line. Zitch did warn that effected creatures could still make ranged attacks across it, it only stopped them from physically crossing it.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[As commented above, the deal the Ratpack made with the Tower Girls saved us from a lot of combat and grief. I’m very glad that the Other GM does not run opponents as killing machines. Being able to negotiate deals when we want and can is much more interesting.]
Ratpack
Session 01
…
Session 10
Session 11
Session 12
Session 13
Session 15
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened February 17, 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 2nd level Ninja
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 3rd level Summoner (Synthesist)
Roscuro – male ratfolk 3rd level Monk
Zitch Grimreaper – male 3rd level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar
NPCd
Winston – male 2nd level Gunslinger
Day 10
Morning
Zitch provided Roscuro medical care and healing herbs, allowing Roscuro to get over the case of Filth Fever he contracted searching the Privy room at The Crow for secret doors [back in Session 12]. Luckily the case was mild.
The Ratpack retrieved their rented boat and rowed out to The Crow to start searching for the second shard of the Shattered Star. After tying up the rented boat in the landing chamber inside the pylon, the group made their way up and through the stairs and chambers inside the pylon to the large room with rows of pillars. Roscuro called out to announce the groups presence. Sasha, one of the wererats that are part of the Tower Girls padded out of the shadows in her dire rat form. She pantomimed for the ratfolk to follow her up the long corkscrew stairs to the first guard room [we learned later there were several guard rooms].
In the guard room she transformed back to human form and talked with the ratfolk. Roscuro asked if Jade had accepted the siege castle as meeting the terms of the deal allowing the Ratpack to search the pylon. Sasha asked why Roscuro had not used the rat figurine to verify that. Roscuro didn’t have a good answer so he pulled the figurine out and made use of it. When it returned with Jade’s reply that the siege castle was acceptable, it also returned with a ceramic token that would prove the Ratpack had permission to search the Tower Girls’ current lair.
Saying goodbye to Sasha so she could resume her sentry duties, the Ratpack started their search for the shard, using Detect Magic as well as physically searching. There were two passages out of the guard room and the Ratpack took the one east, knowing the one south eventually led to Jade’s meeting room on a lower floor. The thinking was to be thorough and search each floor.
The passage east led to two barracks the Tower Girls used for those on guard duty. Finding now secret doors nor any overwhelming magic auras, the Ratpack left this dead end and returned to the guard room. The passage south led to another guard room, lit by a lone lantern. An alcove hid a closed secret door that the Ratpack had passed through previously to negotiate with Jade. After a few moments Marativy worked out how to open the secret door and the Ratpack passed through it.
The chamber beyond was as large as the two guard rooms combined, with two diagonal walls that seemed to funnel visitors to the passage out. An alcove on the south wall held a pedestal that once had a statue on it but was now empty. The Ratpack were convinced there was a secret passage somewhere in this oddly shaped room and spent an hour searching it in detail. They found none. Roscuro was certain that the diagonal walls concealed something, but was not ready to disassemble them, yet, so the Ratpack moved on.
The next room was the top of the exceedingly tall entry chamber. Far below the ratfolk could see where their rented boat was moored, just over 200 feet below. The Tower Girls [or someone else in the past] had rigged up a suspended walkway that lead through the center of the room and then off to the left, where there was another passage. Out of thoroughness, Templeton was asked to wallwalk on the eastern wall and check for secret passages. Nothing was expected, so it was a surprise when he found something. It also appeared to be trapped, so he came back to assist Marativy getting over to it.
Marativy tied herself off to Templeton and attempted to ride on him [in his foo dog form] over to the secret compartment. She slipped on the way, but the rope held! Rather than climb back up to Templeton, she told him to just wallwalk over above it so she dangled at the secret compartment. This worked and Marativy disabled the trap. Inside the secret compartment was a metal coffer. Marativy verified it was not trapped and then removed it, placing it in a sack. She then checked the compartment for secret compartments inside it, but fond nothing. She then had Templeton carry her back over to the entrance where the rest of the Ratpack were waiting.
Marativy carefully checked the coffer before opening it. Inside was a pouch containing blue-colored salt that detected as magical to Zitch, but he could not identify it. It was placed back into the coffer and then the coffer was placed into Roscuro’s handy haversack for later investigation.
The Ratpack then walked across the suspended walkway to continue searching for the shard. The next room the Ratpack discovered was thirty feet square with murals of priests placing bodies in caskets on the walls. A search of the room turned up nothing, so the ratfolk continued moving. Past this room was a long corridor with sepulchers carved into the walls. The sepulchers were clearly previously searched, but out of completeness the Ratpack searched them. This was worthwhile as they discovered a pendant in a hidden pocket in the final sepulcher that had been previously overlooked. Zitch estimated its value at 300 gold coin, so completeness paid off.
The next room had a tripwire that Roscuro triggered. It rang some bells and two Tower Girl guards came running. Roscuro held up the ceramic token and apologized to them. That room was then searched, but it turned up nothing worthwhile. In the passage past it was a demon-faced fountain where the two Tower Girl guards were sitting. They explained it was the primary fresh water source for the Tower Girls. Zitch looked it over and determined its functioning, which he shared with the rest over an impromptu lunch break.
The demon face was magicked to create water. The basin was magicked to destroy water in it at a rate that was slow enough that it never overran with water but also never ran dry. This was an incredibly wasteful amount of magic on the part of the Rune Lords. The group discussed what would happen if a plank was placed to divert the water from the demon face to the floor. Would it eventually produce enough water to flood the world? Not an experiment we wanted to try.
After our lunch, we continued north. The Ratpack followed a side passage to a mostly collapsed room. The collapse was real [we checked], but while exploring the room they found a crate with some antiques in it. Roscuro activated the rat statuette to ask Jade if the items in the crate were for sale or counted as something found [found things sold provided a bigger percentage for the Ratpack]. Jade’s response identified the items and stated they were to be sold. As the crate was a bit bulky, the Ratpack decided to leave it here and pick it up on the way out. Roscuro also had Zitch mark this room on the group’s map for later excavation.
The Ratpack backtracked and returned to the main corridor. It ended in stairs down to a lower floor. The Ratpack descended the stairs, searching as they went. The stairs ended at a large room obviously set up for defense. There were sturdy wooden tables on their sides as barricades defenders could hide behind and attack invaders coming down the stairs. The Ratpack were very pleased to have made a deal with the Tower Girls and not had to fight their way down here.
A metal statue of a woman in Thassilonian dress, wielding a ranseur was in one corner. There was a name plate in Thassilonian that none of the Ratpack could read, so Roscuro took a rubbing of the plate to ask Frederick about later.
Exploring north the Ratpack found an empty room with a window facing west, looking out on the bay. Next was another empty room, then a room converted into a donkey rat corral [their pets we later learned] where they met the donkey rat wrangler, Karissa. The items being used as food and water troughs for the donkey rats were items of Thassilonian make. Roscuro asked about them and Karissa said they had been handy at the time but were likely to be left behind when the gang moved. Roscuro said they might be valuable and the Ratpack could get a good price for them to be split with the Tower Girls, so yes, please, leave them out where they can be found after the move. After the donkey rat corral was another barracks with a few Tower Girls hanging out. Roscuro showed the ceramic token and the ratfolk quickly searched the room, pointedly ignoring the personal property of the Tower Girls.
The group backtracked to the defensive room and took the east exit. This led to a series of food storerooms. Two donkey rats were nibbling on a food sack and Templeton herded them out of the room and back to the donkey rat corral. The first two food storerooms had no secret passages, but the third and empty room in the series did. It opened to a 10 foot by 10 foot room. The east wall had a fresco of a red-haired woman with a ranseur stabbing a demon-handed man who leaked black smoke instead of blood. This jogged Marativy’s newly acquired history knowledge [side effect of the ioun stone in the shard she carries]. She recognized the scene as showing Alaznist killing Thybides, the Runelord of Wrath before her. This helped identify the metal statue in the defensive room as being of Alaznist, the last Runelord of Wrath. This made the fresco very valuable as there are almost no known images of Thybides in existance.
The Ratpack searched the small room for secret doors and discovered that the south wall was actually an illusion and instead it opened onto the tall shaft of the entry chamber. Sticking they heads through the illusion and looking up, they could see the suspended walkway. Far below them was the water where their boat was still tied up.
It was starting to get late in the day [and in the real world], so the Ratpack closed the secret door to this room and headed to their boat. They stopped long enough to pick up the small crate of antiques along the way. Once back on shore, the Ratpack took the crate over to Frederick’s warehouse and made use of the warehouse protocol to drop it off for later appraisal. They were confident he would want to but the items inside. [Spoilers, so I’m not detailing them – sorry.]
Day 11
Zitch prepared the Identify spell and cast it on the blue salt. It turned out to be Abjurance Salt. It would block evil or summoned creatures from crossing it if poured out in a line or a circle around the user. There was enough of it for a circle with a five-foot diameter or a fifteen-foot line. Zitch did warn that effected creatures could still make ranged attacks across it, it only stopped them from physically crossing it.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[As commented above, the deal the Ratpack made with the Tower Girls saved us from a lot of combat and grief. I’m very glad that the Other GM does not run opponents as killing machines. Being able to negotiate deals when we want and can is much more interesting.]
Ratpack
Session 01
…
Session 10
Session 11
Session 12
Session 13
Session 15
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