[The Ratpack decides “it was a boring conversation anyway”.]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened March 9, 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
Winston – male 2nd level Gunslinger
Day 12
Late afternoon
Having reached a verbal dead end while negotiating with the increasingly aggravating mites, Winston shot one of them with his musket, exploding the mite. [He rolled a crit, confirmed it, and then rolled maximum damage for a total of 40 points of damage to something that only had 4.] This started a full on fight between the Ratpack and the [now] 8 mites and their 4 giant spider pets.
During the combat, Marativy was bitten by a spider and poisoned by its venom and lost 2 points of Strength. The rest of the Ratpack took minor wounds but the combination of Protective Luck from Zitch and Roscuro and Templeton using their Bodyguard skills [from the feat each took at 3rd level] meant the mites and spiders missed more than they hit.
After the combat the chamber was searched and nothing of value was discovered. Winston was able to extract three doses of spider venom from the spider corpses for Marativy to use at her discretion. 41 Tiny darts were also recovered. Marativy drank the group’s last Potion of Lesser Restoration to recover the Strength lost from the spider bite. Templeton also cast Lesser Rejuvenate Eidolon to heal up the damage his eidolon took in the fight.
The ratfolk took the western passage out of the room and found a set of stairs down to another sub-surface level. How deep does this dungeon go? Rather than start exploring another dungeon level, the Ratpack decided to try attacking the Large spider beyond the secret passage [see Session 16]. Templeton had an idea to save the ratfolk – he would summon fire elementals and send them in to fight the spider first. By the time the spider dealt with them, it would be much wounded and the ratfolk could follow up and kill it. [Narrator: It did not work out this way.]
When the ratfolk arrived at the widened part of the hallway where the secret passage was, Templeton dismissed his eidolon and summoned two fire elementals. While Templeton was doing this, Roscuro opened the first secret door and went down the 20-foot passage so he could open the second secret door for the fire elementals. Zitch put Protective luck on them and Templeton ordered them down the passage to attack the Large spider.
[NOTE: we messed up here – Summoners can summon multiple elementals as a class power but can only have one active at a time. We missed that limitation until most of the way through the fight. The Other GM let it ride rather than rewind the fight, mostly because it made little difference - small elementals are really weak.]
Roscuro opened the second secret door and let the fire elementals into the next room. The Large spider was on the wall above the secret door and attacked immediately, taking out one of the elementals in a single blow. Roscuro called back to Templeton and told him to start summoning more fire elementals quickly. As the fight progressed, first Roscuro and then Marativy and Winston stepped into the room and started fighting the Large spider directly, flanked by mostly ineffective fire elementals. The spider hit hard and by the end of the fight Roscuro was down to 2 hit points and Templeton had sent and lost 6 fire elementals. [The monster took over 50 points of damage to kill and we still haven’t properly identified it.]
Zitch cast Cure Moderate Wounds on Roscuro which barely got him unbloodied [definition: at half hit points, a convention borrowed from D&D 4E]. Winston poisoned himself trying to extract the poison glands from the thing and drank one of the anti-toxin potions the group had to avoid the effects. Meanwhile, the rest of the group searched the area. They discovered two secret doors: one in the immediate area that connected to the giant ant nest and another at the top of the stairs up that connected to the crypt room.
Somewhat bloodied by the fight, the Ratpack took the stairs down the spider thing was guarding. These steps went down to a lower chamber with pillars and two alcoves. In one was a silver statue of a sphinx, in the other was the Mite King, sitting on a throne made from an upside down ogre skull. The Mite King asked if the Ratpack were the adventurers he had sent for. Roscuro immediately said “yes”. The Mite King was pleased and explained that he needed help finding his favorite spider, which had a pouch on its leg, offering a diamond as big as his fist in payment. [This would not be a very large diamond.]
The Ratpack thought back to all the spiders they had just killed and did not recall any of them having a pouch on any of their legs. The group talked with the Mite King, at first not certain they were not just going to kill him, but then hoping to get some information about what might be in the next level down. After a bit of directed discussion, the Ratpack convinced the Mite King that someone from the lower level had kidnapped his pet spider. The Mite King offered a second diamond for finding them and “making them pay.” Roscuro decided he could work with that and agreed to the deal, shaking on it with the Mite King. The Ratpack left the Mite King.
Rather than go investigate the next sub-level with minimal resources, the Ratpack went back up to the Tower Girls’ common room and arranged to sleep there for the night. [It was late, and we needed to wrap up the game for the evening.]
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[I realized as I started writing this blog entry that I had not updated the “played on” date for the last couple of session notes, so I went back and fixed them. My process is to open the previous blog entry, Save As under the new session number, delete the previous body text, and then update things that need to be updated. This keeps the constant material consistent (like PC names and classes) from blog entry to blog entry.]
[We’ve been meeting face-to-face, but recently Templeton’s player needed to switch to remote play due to work (he works at a hospital). We are using Roll20 for a virtual tabletop and Discord for audio. The Other GM’s laptop has good audio and microphone, so he can hear us and we can hear him. We may have to switch to all remote play if/when gatherings become forbidden entirely, so this has been a good testbed.]
Ratpack
Session 01
…
Session 10
Session 11
Session 12
Session 13
Session 14
Session 15
Session 16
Session 18
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened March 9, 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
Winston – male 2nd level Gunslinger
Day 12
Late afternoon
Having reached a verbal dead end while negotiating with the increasingly aggravating mites, Winston shot one of them with his musket, exploding the mite. [He rolled a crit, confirmed it, and then rolled maximum damage for a total of 40 points of damage to something that only had 4.] This started a full on fight between the Ratpack and the [now] 8 mites and their 4 giant spider pets.
During the combat, Marativy was bitten by a spider and poisoned by its venom and lost 2 points of Strength. The rest of the Ratpack took minor wounds but the combination of Protective Luck from Zitch and Roscuro and Templeton using their Bodyguard skills [from the feat each took at 3rd level] meant the mites and spiders missed more than they hit.
After the combat the chamber was searched and nothing of value was discovered. Winston was able to extract three doses of spider venom from the spider corpses for Marativy to use at her discretion. 41 Tiny darts were also recovered. Marativy drank the group’s last Potion of Lesser Restoration to recover the Strength lost from the spider bite. Templeton also cast Lesser Rejuvenate Eidolon to heal up the damage his eidolon took in the fight.
The ratfolk took the western passage out of the room and found a set of stairs down to another sub-surface level. How deep does this dungeon go? Rather than start exploring another dungeon level, the Ratpack decided to try attacking the Large spider beyond the secret passage [see Session 16]. Templeton had an idea to save the ratfolk – he would summon fire elementals and send them in to fight the spider first. By the time the spider dealt with them, it would be much wounded and the ratfolk could follow up and kill it. [Narrator: It did not work out this way.]
When the ratfolk arrived at the widened part of the hallway where the secret passage was, Templeton dismissed his eidolon and summoned two fire elementals. While Templeton was doing this, Roscuro opened the first secret door and went down the 20-foot passage so he could open the second secret door for the fire elementals. Zitch put Protective luck on them and Templeton ordered them down the passage to attack the Large spider.
[NOTE: we messed up here – Summoners can summon multiple elementals as a class power but can only have one active at a time. We missed that limitation until most of the way through the fight. The Other GM let it ride rather than rewind the fight, mostly because it made little difference - small elementals are really weak.]
Roscuro opened the second secret door and let the fire elementals into the next room. The Large spider was on the wall above the secret door and attacked immediately, taking out one of the elementals in a single blow. Roscuro called back to Templeton and told him to start summoning more fire elementals quickly. As the fight progressed, first Roscuro and then Marativy and Winston stepped into the room and started fighting the Large spider directly, flanked by mostly ineffective fire elementals. The spider hit hard and by the end of the fight Roscuro was down to 2 hit points and Templeton had sent and lost 6 fire elementals. [The monster took over 50 points of damage to kill and we still haven’t properly identified it.]
Zitch cast Cure Moderate Wounds on Roscuro which barely got him unbloodied [definition: at half hit points, a convention borrowed from D&D 4E]. Winston poisoned himself trying to extract the poison glands from the thing and drank one of the anti-toxin potions the group had to avoid the effects. Meanwhile, the rest of the group searched the area. They discovered two secret doors: one in the immediate area that connected to the giant ant nest and another at the top of the stairs up that connected to the crypt room.
Somewhat bloodied by the fight, the Ratpack took the stairs down the spider thing was guarding. These steps went down to a lower chamber with pillars and two alcoves. In one was a silver statue of a sphinx, in the other was the Mite King, sitting on a throne made from an upside down ogre skull. The Mite King asked if the Ratpack were the adventurers he had sent for. Roscuro immediately said “yes”. The Mite King was pleased and explained that he needed help finding his favorite spider, which had a pouch on its leg, offering a diamond as big as his fist in payment. [This would not be a very large diamond.]
The Ratpack thought back to all the spiders they had just killed and did not recall any of them having a pouch on any of their legs. The group talked with the Mite King, at first not certain they were not just going to kill him, but then hoping to get some information about what might be in the next level down. After a bit of directed discussion, the Ratpack convinced the Mite King that someone from the lower level had kidnapped his pet spider. The Mite King offered a second diamond for finding them and “making them pay.” Roscuro decided he could work with that and agreed to the deal, shaking on it with the Mite King. The Ratpack left the Mite King.
Rather than go investigate the next sub-level with minimal resources, the Ratpack went back up to the Tower Girls’ common room and arranged to sleep there for the night. [It was late, and we needed to wrap up the game for the evening.]
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[I realized as I started writing this blog entry that I had not updated the “played on” date for the last couple of session notes, so I went back and fixed them. My process is to open the previous blog entry, Save As under the new session number, delete the previous body text, and then update things that need to be updated. This keeps the constant material consistent (like PC names and classes) from blog entry to blog entry.]
[We’ve been meeting face-to-face, but recently Templeton’s player needed to switch to remote play due to work (he works at a hospital). We are using Roll20 for a virtual tabletop and Discord for audio. The Other GM’s laptop has good audio and microphone, so he can hear us and we can hear him. We may have to switch to all remote play if/when gatherings become forbidden entirely, so this has been a good testbed.]
Ratpack
Session 01
…
Session 10
Session 11
Session 12
Session 13
Session 14
Session 15
Session 16
Session 18
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