Ratpack – Session 26

[Day 20, and exploration, continues.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened May 18, 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 4th level Ninja

Roscuro – male ratfolk 4th level Monk

Zitch Grimreaper – male 4th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Winston – male ratfolk 4th level Gunslinger

Via Roll20

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 4th level Summoner (Synthesist)

NPCs

Auto – a clockwork servant fixated on Winston

Day 20, Morning

Zitch identified the creatures the ratfolk were facing as failed sinspawn, but the rest of the group referred to them as “fleshbags” due to the way their flesh hung from them.  Winston had Auto participate in the fight and it was surprisingly effective.  [At one point I commented that “the machine servant is attacking the meatbag” for those who remember AK-47 in KOTOR.]  The failed sinspawn were still tough and there were five of them.  Midway through the fight Roscuro took a huge hit [nearly half his hit points], and Zitch had to use his healing hex or the next hit might have killed Roscuro [the failed sinspawn were doing between 9 and 12 points of damage a hit].  Near the end of the fight Auto had to stop attacking and initial self-repairs from the multiple hits it took despite Roscuro and Templeton repeatedly using their bodyguard feats to boost his armor class.  Eventually Winston killed the last one and the fight ended.

After some healing was done, the Ratpack searched the room, the tables, and the cages, finding nothing of value.  The door at the end of this area opened on a short southeast passage with a door at the far end.  That door opened to a 20x30-foot room with a passage out in the far, southeastern corner.  The passage had a portcullis blocking it, but the windlass for the portcullis was in the room, to the passage's left, on the east wall.  A [non-animated] skeleton in burned half-plate armor was slumped on the windlass.  The body was examined and the victim appeared to have died from being on fire sometime in the past.  Looking beyond the portcullis the passage was short and almost immediately turned north.  Was this a shortcut or back entrance to the center of the labyrinth?

The half-plate armor was a broken masterwork that could be repaired, so it was removed from the victim and placed in the loot sack.  Roscuro pulled out some oil and oiled the portcullis and the windlass to reduce the noise they would make when opened and Zitch placed a ward on Marativy to protect her.  Roscuro then turned the windlass, opening the portcullis to let Marativy explore ahead.

Marativy advanced to the corner as quietly as she could [which was extremely quiet].  Peering around the corner, she saw that the passage went another ten feet before turning east and connecting to the circular labyrinth.  The arc of the walls and the inscribed metal plates on the floor, ceiling, and walls being confirmation.  She returned to the waiting group and explained what she saw.  Keen on neither hellhounds nor labyrinths in general, the ratfolk decided that a back entrance would be the best way to explore the labyrinth.  But rather than everyone go, the quietest and the fastest would go – Marativy and Templeton.

As a precaution, the portcullis was lowered to a height of four feet [ratfolk height] so that it could be closed faster if something chased Marativy and Templeton out of the labyrinth.  Marativy and Templeton advanced around the corner and entered the labyrinth.  The path they followed went 30 feet and then turned back.  Marativy and Templeton paused.  Templeton cast whisper to report back and ask if they should proceed.  Before he could get a response, a hell hound rounded the far corner of the passage and saw them.  Marativy and Templeton immediately ran back to the rest of the group.  When they cleared the portcullis, Marativy told Roscuro to close the portcullis immediately.  He did so, and it closed just as the hell hound turned the corner!

The Ratpack retreated out of the room to the preceding corridor to discuss their options.  After a short conversation, the group decided to use the portcullis to enable attacking the hell hound with ranged weapons, hopefully beyond the range of its breath weapon.

The ratfolk re-entered the room with the portcullis and windlass, where the hell hound was snuffling on the other side of the portcullis.  Unfortunately for the ratfolk, the hell hound was ready for them [prepared action].  With a howl and a whoosh, the hell hound released a cone of flame from its maw that burned several of the ratfolk [my notes don’t specify who exactly, but I think Roscuro was hit].  Marativy and Winston returned the attack, both hitting, Marativy significantly.  Recovering the initiative [now that the hell hound's prepared action was used], the ratfolk continued the attack.  Winston hit with a duo of rapid shots from his musket.  [That sentence only makes sense in terms of D&D.  In real life there is no way he could have fires a single musket twice inside of a 6-second combat round.]  Bloodied, the hell hound yelped and fled back into the labyrinth.

The Ratpack exchanged glances and quickly agreed to pursue the wounded hell hound.  Roscuro opened the portcullis and the others pushed through.  The group followed the hell hound three layers into the labyrinth before finding the first intersection.  Off to the left appeared to be an entrance to the center of the labyrinth and Marativy snuck over to the corner to peer inside.  For her troubles, the hell hound breathed its fiery breath weapon on her.  [Luckily, for minimum damage.]  Knowing where their target was, the rest of the Ratpack advanced to attack!

The fight was short, thanks to Auto’s use of a netgun function on the hell hound and Zitch placing a hex on it that reduced the hell hound's armor class.  These efforts allowed multiple quick attacks to succeed, killing the hell hound, which popped out of existence.  It was summoned, not trapped.

The relatively small center of the labyrinth was a circular room 20 feet in diameter.  In the center was a portal to the Nine Hells and nothing else.  This was very ominous.  Not knowing how to seal the portal or even disrupt it, the ratfolk decided to use the abjuration salt found elsewhere in The Crow to put a barrier around the portal.  The magical salt was carefully poured in a circle around the portal.  Once satisfied the circle was complete, the Ratpack retraced their steps and left the labyrinth.  The portcullis was closed once everyone was back on the other side.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[A couple of fights and some disappointment that the center of the labyrinth was not also the room containing the shard we were looking for.  Using meta-knowledge and looking at our map, we were running out of room on the page to fit a room like Marativy was seeing in her visions as the location of the next shard and I had hoped we had finally found it.  I mean, we were on Sub-level 3 – we had to be close.  Right?  Right?]

Ratpack

Session 01

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 22

Session 23

Session 24

Session 25

Session 27

Ratpack – Session 25

[Day 16 ends and Templeton comes down with Devil Chills, pausing exploration 3 days until he recovers.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened May 11, 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 4th level Ninja

Roscuro – male ratfolk 4th level Monk

Zitch Grimreaper – male 4th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Winston – male ratfolk 4th level Gunslinger

Via Roll20

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 4th level Summoner (Synthesist)

NPCs

Auto – a clockwork servant fixated on Winston

Day 16, Night

The Ratfolk rested in a side room from the Common Room of the Tower Girl lair.  [Marativy and Winston leveled.]

Day 17

Templeton came down with Devil Chills [and took 3 Strength Damage from the disease].  Feeling weak and sick, he told the rest of the Ratpack he would stay and rest.  Zitch cast lesser restoration on Templeton, restoring his strength, but not removing the disease.  Winston volunteered to stay at The Crow with Templeton while the rest of the group went into town to buy supplies and sell off the tapestries.  Winston provided a shopping list of things he needed to make more ammunition for his musket.

Marativy, Zitch, and Roscuro took the tapestries to Frederick’s warehouse location and dropped them off there.  The trio then spent the day purchasing a large amount of trail rations [two weeks of rations for five people].  They also picked up supplies for Winston so Winston could manufacture 15 silver bullets, 11 alchemical cartridges, 4 cold iron bullets, and 30 shots of black powder.

The trio stopped at the bank and deposited 4800 gold coins in assorted coinage in the Ratpack’s account.  This relieved two burdens, one of weight and one of walking around Magnimar with that much coinage.

As the trio returned to The Crow with the team’s supplies, the last of the Tower Girls removed the last of their gang’s belongings, making The Crow officially the Ratpack’s lair.  To improve security now that they were the only ones in pillar, the trio closed the various secret doors in the above ground floors.  More will need to be done if the Ratpack stays much longer, but for now this would do.

Day 18

Templeton started recovering from the Devil Chills, but still suffered.  The group decided to delay exploring further and wait for Templeton to finish recovering.

Zitch spent the day learning two new spells from the “magic knowledge” book Suzerain had left.  Zitch picked up detect secret door and symbol of mirroring.  Winston spent the day making more black powder and specialty bullets.  Marativy went to the several pieces of wall art inside The Crow and made sketches of them in her journal so the Ratpack could show them to Frederick at a later time.  Roscuro, tired of not effecting devils with his attacks, went back into town and purchased a silvered, masterwork set of brass knuckles [from a vendor suggested by Marativy].  They were pricey, but would allow Roscuro’s attack to damage the things the group was now encountering.

Day 19

Templeton’s chills started abating completely and he spent the day recovering from the disease.

Roscuro and Winston went back into Magnimar to get paid for the tapestries by Frederick [and they did].  They also scouted out Magnimar for areas they could advertise for a wizard hireling.  While Zitch and Templeton were effective in their own ways, Roscuro was convinced the group needed to hire an actual wizard.  [This will be a recurring theme.]

Day 20

With Templeton fully recovered from his illness, the Ratpack once again descended in to The Crow’s sub-levels.  The group paused on Sub-level 2 to fill their waterskins from the healing water basin before continuing down to Sub-level 3.

From the octagon room on Sub-level 3, the group went south and descended the stairs behind the southern door.  At the bottom of the stairs they turned east, stopping at the room with two enormous pillars.  The entire group took turns touching the pillar showing “the one”, but only Winston received the bless effect.  Apparently, it only gave out the enchantment once to each person.

As their goal was to investigate the passages south of the long lab room, the ratfolk went east and then south to the fireball trap room.  Templeton summoned a cat and sent it across the room, where it triggered the fireball trap and vanished.  The ratfolk scurried across the room afterward before the trap could reset.  [NOTE: I do not personally advocate using cats as trap bait, but ratfolk have other feelings on the subject.]

In the long lab room, several members of the group realized that the bridge in the mural was clearly the Irespan, suggesting the mural showed the other end of the Irespan, somewhere far to the northwest.  Also, the mural showed some form of dungeon under the mountain, which the group also decided they should make a sketch of before finally leaving this place.  Just, not now.

After opening the southern door, the group cautiously advanced to the first intersection and looked both east and west.  The passages both angled slightly south of true east.  The passage west seemed to go into some sort of natural stone area.  The passage east ended at a door.  The group went east.  The door had a sign in Thassilonian that Marativy could read.  It read, “Experiment in Progress.”  What experiment could still be running after 7000 years?

Marativy picked the lock and opened the door.  The group saw a corridor that arced like the outer ring of a circular maze.  The walls, floors, and ceilings were covered with metallic plates with some form of conjuration runes inscribed on them.  This was promising, as the room Marativy saw when holding onto her shard and focusing on the next shard's location was circular.  Maybe it was at the center of the maze?

To try and determine what the metal plates did, Winston threw a piece of stone into the passage.  It noisily bounced of the metal plates on the floor…and then the ratfolk heard a howl and the sound of a creature running towards them!  The howl was that of a hellhound and the door was quickly pulled shut.  Marativy was able to relock the door just as the hellhound slammed into it from the other side.  [The players have had bad experiences with hellhounds in the past.]

The group retreated back to the intersection.  Not inclined to explore a more cave-like area, the ratfolk went south to the door and passage corner.  The corner the passage took was only 10 feet and there was a door on the south wall where the passage ended.  Using the old “left-hand rule” standby, the group decided to explore the eastern door first.  The door was unlocked, with a 20-foot square room beyond it.  There was another door in the far corner of this room with a sign.  This sign read “Do not leave the cages open.”

After a short debate, the door was opened.  The room beyond extended to the southeast.  It had several wooden lab tables with cages on them.  Some of the cages were ruined and five fleshy semi-creatures turned to face the party: failed sinspawn!

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[Most of this session was the shopping, selling off of loot, and Templeton dealing with the disease he picked up fighting some of the creatures the previous session.  Most of the PCs had to make saves – he was the only one who failed the roll and contracted the disease.  I was pleased that Roscuro made his save this time.]

[We’ve played Session 18 of the Delvers Guild campaign at this point and I’ve typed up the session notes.  I’ve hemmed and hawed about when to post the Delvers Guild material and I’ve decided to wait until I’ve posted all the Ratpack material first.  I will keep up with posting the Ratpack stuff on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  I have 7 more sessions after this one, so the Delvers Guild will start posting September 22 by my count.  I’ll keep posting two sessions a week until I’m down to a buffer of two session.  At that point I’ll go back to posting session notes once a week.  That should be in early October.  I want to keep the buffer as November and December are normally rough on the gaming schedule with a couple missed games being the norm.  With the pandemic going on, who knows how things will play out, so having a buffer seems wise.]

[One last thing: Day 20 lasts seemingly forever – 6 sessions total including this one.  Be warned.]

Ratpack

Session 01

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 22

Session 23

Session 24

Session 26

Ratpack – Session 24

[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

Session 01

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 22

Session 23

Session 25

Ratpack – Session 23

[Wrap up Day 15 and then on to Day 16.  The Ratpack finds Lord Baz.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened April 27, 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 15

[We picked up some activities it would have taken too much time to do at the end of the previous session.]

While Winston was crafting silver bullet in the Common Room, Zitch healed him up.  Zitch also took time to cast identify on the wand from the tapestry.  It was a wand of lesser restoration with 17 charges remaining.

Marativy and Templeton made a trek down to the magic fountain on Sub-level 2 [its waters a combined cure light wounds and lesser restoration, once a day].  Templeton was still down some Dexterity from the imp fight and wanted to use the healing waters to fix that instead of the non-recoverable wand charges.  They were careful to avoid the spider-webbed side passage and the kitchen area that the group had not cleared out.  This allowed them to make the trek and return without any combat with Templeton completely healed and restored.

At this point the Tower Girls were nearly don packing and moving out of The Crow, the Irespan pillar they had been using as a place to hide.  They were happy to have a safer place to rebuild from that was not out on the bay.  They expected to be completely out of The Crow by the 17th.

Day 16

Healed and rested, the Ratpack descended again into The Crow’s sub-levels.  They stopped by the healing fountain on Sub-level 2 to fill their spare waterskins from the basin and then continued their descent to Sub-level 3.

They entered the level through the octagon room, exiting it to the east.  At the nupperibo room, they descended the first set of stairs to the lower half of Sub-level 3.  As they passed the unexplored western passage on their way to the next set of stairs down, Winston heard a snuffling noise from down the side passage.  The group paused, but could not see anything down that passage, so they shrugged and descended the second set of stairs to the pillar and portcullis room.

[You might notice my description of this section is a little more precise this time.  I found I have a photo of the map our mapper drew and no longer have to rely on my sometimes sketchy notes and sketchier memory.]

In the pillar room, Roscuro pulled out a vial of oil and started oiling the portcullis.  Winston and Templeton kept an eye on the stairs up, in case the snuffling thing made an appearance.  Once Roscuro had oiled the portcullis, he inserted the brass crank into the Sihedron rune on the pillar and opened the portcullis.  The oil kept the raising portcullis from being painfully noisy, but it was not quiet either.

Distracted by the noise from the portcullis, neither Templeton nor Winston immediately noticed the hellhound quietly pad its way down the steps, drawn by the noise.  Just as the noise from the portcullis stopped, the growling hellhound was noticed.  It breathed out its fire-breath attack, catching Templeton, Winston, and Roscuro in the 10-foot cone of flame.  Warned by the growling, Roscuro was able to evade the flames entirely with a twisting leap [made his saving throw and has the Evasion feat, so no damage taken].  Winston was able to shrug off much of the flames [made his save for half damage], but Templeton took the full brunt of the attack [failed his save].  During the quick fight that followed, Roscuro made his first ki strike and Templeton struck the killing blow on the hellhound, which seemed fitting.  After the fight, Roscuro asked Winston to skin the hellhound for later use.  The group waited for Winston to take the time to do this, spiking the portcullis open and removing the brass crank while they waited.

Once the hellhound was skinned, the group went through the portcullis.  The door leading to the four-way intersection was closed, which was definitely not how the ratfolk had left it.  The group opened the door, but no devils of any kind suddenly appeared.  The group sighed in relief.

Examining the intersection, the north way ended in 10 feet at the fountain with a door on the east wall.  The south way was like-wise short with a single door, also on the east wall.  The west passage went 30 feet and then entered into a room at what appeared to be a balcony.  Consulting their map, the ratfolk realized the X for Lord Baz was just beyond the doorway to the south.  Winston and Marativy checked the door for traps and found none.  Marativy picked the lock and opened the door.

Beyond was a 20’ by 30’ room containing a low table flanked by two benches.  There was a stringed musical instrument leaning against the table and nothing else.  Roscuro entered the room and picked up the musical instrument.  The group started hearing laughter from multiple invisible sources in the room.  Zitch cast glitter dust for the first time, filling all but the back five feet of the room with the effect, outlining two invisible and flying creatures.  A third creature, somewhere in the back of the room and just outside of the spell effect summoned a swarm of bats on top of Winston and Templeton in the doorway.

Roscuro attacked one of the invisible imps, striking a perfect blow [critical hit for maximum damage].  Marativy entered the room, moving to Roscuro and killed the wounded imp.  Templeton moved into the room to flank the second imp, which triggered an attack of opportunity for the unknown third creature.  It summoned another swarm of bats, dropping the invisibility spell on itself as a result.  Zitch was able to identify it to the group as a Zebub, another kind of minor devil with similar resistances and immunities as the imps.  Zitch used the wand of lightning bolt to fry the first swarm of bats and hit Lord Baz [the Zebub].

Roscuro and Marativy moved together to attack Baz, both hitting to good effect.  Baz backed into a corner, away from Roscuro and Marativy, and gated in 4 nupperibos.  Zitch used another charge from the wand of lightning bolt, killing one nupperibo and tagging Baz again.  Roscuro stepped up to Baz and performed a flurry of blows, doing only a little damage due to Baz’s damage resistance.  Marativy followed Roscuro and stabbed Baz with the silver dagger while Templeton landed a hit with his claws, causing Baz to start bleeding.  Stuck in a corner and surrounded, Baz cast greater teleport and escaped to somewhere else.

Once Baz was gone, the ratfolk quickly mopped up the nupperibos and the last imp.  When the room was cleared of enemies, all of the ratfolk but Roscuro drank the healing magic water in their waterskins.  Zitch cast his healing hex on Marativy and Winston to finish their healing.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[Not much to say here.  With two fights, the session didn’t cover a lot of new ground, but Lord Baz was driven away.  We would have rather killed the Zebub instead.  Now we don’t know when he’ll show up again to cause trouble.  It would not surprise me to learn that the adventure was written to guarantee he escaped so he could be used as a recurring villain.  We won’t find out for a while.]

Ratpack

Session 01

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 22

Session 24

Ratpack – Session 22

[Day 14 continues and ends.  Having entered a contract with the Suzerain of Little Erebus, the Ratpack go looking for Lord Baz, whoever that is.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened April 20, 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 3rd level Monk

Winston – male ratfolk 3rd level Gunslinger

Via Roll20

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 3rd level Summoner (Synthesist)

Played by a 2D Standup Poster

Zitch Grimreaper – male 3rd level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Day 14 (Resumes in Clockwork servant room)

Hoping that this side quest would be short, the Ratpack left the storage room containing, among other things, an unwound clockwork servant and backtracked down the stairs to the long lab room.  The X showing where Lord Baz could be found was just north of the long lab room, down at the eastern end of the room.  The best and luckiest path would be some form of secret passage from the long lab to Lord Baz, so the Ratpack spent time searching the relevant area for secret doors.  Sadly, there were none and that effort was wasted.

This meant the group would have to backtrack further.  At the fireball trap room, Templeton summoned a giant rat and ordered it to cross the room, which triggered the fireball trap.  The adventurers rushed across the room before the trap could reset, feeling slightly guilty for sending a fellow rat to its unsummoning like that.  Templeton decided to only summon cats for this purpose hereafter.

The group backtracked to an earlier intersection, one they had not explored on their way in.  South from that a side passage led west while the main passage descended steps to a lower part of this sub-level.  The hallway to the west passed through a room and continued, probably connecting to the southern door of the octagon room.  Looking down the stairs to the south, the ratfolk could see a room containing a pillar with the Sihedron Rune on it.  This seemed most promising and relevant and happened to lead towards where Lord Baz was, so the group cautiously descended the stairs.

The room at the bottom of the stairs had an alcove one the west and east walls.  The alcoves each had a tapestry blocking further view.  The tapestries both had the same image, a mountain whose top was carved into the face of a stern-looking woman with a bridge crossing the sea in front of it.  The pillar indeed had the Sihedron Rune on it and the rune had a hole in the center where something could slot into it.  There was also a passage on the west wall, south of the alcove, that was blocked by a metal portcullis.

[Tapestries in alcoves apparently are now very triggering for some of the other players as a result of events back in the Barrowmaze Campaign.  More than once ghouls were hiding behind the tapestries and in one case this led to a TPK (see Book 1: The Motley Crew of the Barrowmaze Using ACKS campaign notes for details).  In another case, the tapestries were mimics.  Paranoia was now running high amongst the players at this point.  Being the GM for Barrowmaze, I was entertained by this.]

With an exaggerated sense of caution, the ratfolk investigated the tapestries, using pole arms taken in their explorations to poke and move aside the tapestries.  There was nothing but wall behind both tapestries.  Zitch cast detect magic and discovered that something magical was hidden inside the rod weighting down the western tapestry.  Unscrewing the end revealed a magic wand.  The tapestries were taken down, rolled up, and set at the top of the stairs up for easy pickup on the way out.

Feeling somewhat safer now that the tapestries had been dealt with, the pillar was investigated.  The Sihedron Rune was in color, with each point a different color or metallic shade.  The color of the shard that Marativy carried exactly matched one of the seven points.  Marativy carefully copied the complete rune in her notebook, making note of the colors and their order.

The brass crank from the storage room was tested in the hole at the center of the rune and it fit in smoothly.  The rest of the group backed out to the stairs while Roscuro turned the crank.  The rune itself turned with the crank.  After turning the crank 180°, the black rune was now pointing up and the crank would turn no further and would not pull out of the pillar.  The portcullis started moving at that point, making a great deal of noise as the ungreased metal gate ground along its metal track, up into the ceiling.

Not wanting to get trapped beyond the portcullis, the ratfolk hammered spikes into place in the track, wedging the portcullis open.  Roscuro then turned the brass crank back to its starting position.  The spikes held the portcullis open and allowed Roscuro to remove the brass crank from the pillar.

Beyond the portcullis was a 30-foot corridor that ended in a door.  Listening at the door, Marativy reported the sound of flowing water.  The door was opened, revealing a four-way intersection.  Two Nupperibos suddenly appeared in the intersection and attacked.  Winston quickly shot and killed one with his musket, only to have two imps, previously invisible, sting him with their tails, revealing their presence.

In the ensuing fight, the imps proved to be tough opponents, especially with their quick healing ability, making them primary targets.  Roscuro was hit several times by the imps’ tails, taking damage from the stinger and losing mobility [Dexterity] from the poison.  Templeton was able to kill one of the imps due to the bleed effect of his claws and Roscuro attempted his stunning fist attack for the first time.  Unfortunately, the imp was able to resist the effect [it just made its save, which was closer than I thought the attack would get].  The second Nupperibo died at some point and Marativy finally killed the second imp.

Winston took the time to harvest imp poison from their tails for Marativy to use on her weapons.  Roscuro drank his portion of the healing water to minimal effect [only received 2 hit points and one point of Dexterity back].  Marativy took the time Winston spent harvesting the imp poison to explore a fountain just to the north, the sound of the running water.  In the fountain basin she found a green crystal key.

Out of much of their healing, and with wounds all around, the group decided Lord Baz could wait.  It was time to return to the surface.  The group went back to the pillar room.  They removed the iron spikes holding up the portcullis, letting it close.  They picked up the rolled up tapestries on their way out, eventually returning to the common room of the Tower Girls on the first floor of The Crow, the Irespan support they were currently exploring.  After conferring with the Tower Girls, the ratfolk set their bedrolls out in a side room and rested.

Day 15

The ratfolk spent the day in the Tower Girls common room resting and recovering from their injuries.  Winston spent the day crafting more silver bullets, as fighting more devils like the Nupperibos and imps seemed likely.  The Tower Girls continued packing their belongings and moving them out for shipment to the siege castle outside of Magnimar.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[Zitch’s player could not make the game, but was also our healer, so the GM allowed us to access Zitch for healing but nothing else.  A fair compromise while the party was still in the dungeon.]

[Roscuro, Zitch and Templeton all leveled after the rest and are now 4th level.  They gained the XP necessary to level the previous session, but could not level until they rested.]

Ratpack

Session 01

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 23

Ratpack – Session 21

[I (finally) resume chronicling the adventures of the Ratpack, a group of ratfolk on the Shattered Star Adventure Path.  It’s been a while, so you may need to go back and reread Session 20 to get caught up.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened April 13, 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 3rd level Monk

Zitch Grimreaper – male 3rd level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Via Roll20

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 3rd level Summoner (Synthesist)

Winston – male ratfolk 3rd level Gunslinger

Day 14 (Resumes)

The Ratpack descended the stairs from the Nupperibo room [the room they killed two of the least of devils in] to a lower part of Sub-level 3.  These stairs led to a small network of intersections.  We went east one intersection [we looked around more, but my notes are a bit sketchy here].  The group looked down a passage to the south and could see another room at the edge of their darkvision.  To the east immediately was another room, so the group decided to look there first.  That room was empty except for a door in the east wall.  Despite the door calling strongly to Roscuro, the group followed the passage south from the previous intersection.  [I kept saying the word "door" when I meant the passage south here, so we decided that Roscuro was oddly drawn to the door.  In hindsight, there was good in-game reason for this but we wouldn't discover that for another several sessions.]

The passage reached a small room containing a stone statue of Alaznist holding a metal ranseur in a battle ready pose and then continued south, into the darkness.  Zitch cast detect magic and the ranseur the statue held radiated a faint aura but nothing else did.  Roscuro investigated the statue, careful not to step in front of it, and determined that the metal ranseur was part of the stone statue and could not be removed without breaking the statue.  Not wanting to damage something they planed to sell to Frederick, the ratfolk were stumped.  They discussed the situation and thought maybe the statue pointed at the location of a secret door or something.  Roscuro investigated the section of wall the ranseur pointed at for anything unusual…and triggered the fireball trap on the ranseur.

After the fireball burst, filling the room with fire and scorching Roscuro, Winston, and Marativy, the group quickly stepped past it before the trap reset.  In the passage on the other side of the room the group paused for some healing.  Zitch used his healing hex on Roscuro, Winston, and Marativy and cast cure light wounds on Roscuro and Winston.

The Ratpack followed the passage south to a corner and then west, discovering a long chamber that was clearly a ruined magical lab.  There were tables on the south wall and broken glass everywhere.  The north wall was covered with a mural showing a mountain carved into a human woman’s face.  In front of the mountain was an immense bridge with demonic forces marching across it, as if emerging from the mountain.  There were two exits to the long chamber, a passage of stairs up on the far end and a door on the far end of the south wall.

After verifying the room contained nothing salvageable, the group decided to follow the passage of stairs west.  At the top of the stairs, the group estimated they were now back at the same depth as when they entered the octagon room on this sub-level.  The western passage went a short ways and turned north.  There were two passages on the east wall and a door on the west wall with the passage itself continued north into the darkness.

Marativy quietly moved forward to investigate the side passages.  They both went ten feet and entered different ends of the same room.  Inside were two blob-ish creatures with heads and arms but no distinct legs.  They did not notice Marativy, who returned stealthily to the rest of the adventuring group.  After describing what she saw, Zitch recognized the creatures as lemures, a lesser form of devil, and expounded upon their strengths and vulnerabilities [Zitch really seemed to know all about devils and demons based on his Knowledge checks].  The important part was they were vulnerable to silver and we had a single silver dagger.

Deciding to attack the creatures, the group sent Marativy and Roscuro in first as the stealthiest to use swarm tactics [two ratfolk may fight together in the same 5’ square and count as flanking if they attack the same target] with some back-stabbing on Marativy’s part [Ninja!].

This was not Marativy’s finest hour.  She dropped the silver dagger on her first attack attempt [critical fumble] and then dropped it again when Roscuro picked it up and handed it back to her [a second critical fumble].  Luckily, the lemure were ineffectual and could not land a blow on either ratfolk.  The rest of the group advanced and everyone attacked, dispatching both lemure before they could attempt a second round of attacks.

Searching the room afterwards, the Ratpack decided that it had once been an alchemical lab, but everything was now smashed.  Nothing of value was found after a thorough search.

The group decided to continue north along the passage and not open a second door on the west wall on the theory that opening doors only led to trouble.  The passage north ended at a large square room [30x30’] with a passage out in the far corner on the east wall.  There was a glowing circle on the floor with two small fire elementals orbiting the space inside the circle.  The elementals took no notice of the adventurers at the entry.  The group debated whether to fight the elementals or not.  Based on their map, the passage out most likely led back to the octagon room and the stairs up and this would be a shorter and safer route back to the surface.

Rather than just attack, they decided to get the elemental’s attention and see what the elementals did.  If they could be reasoned with, the Ratpack was fine with that.  Roscuro stepped into the room and whistled loudly to get their attention.  The elementals immediately moved to attack.  Winston shot one of the elementals twice with his musket, killing it.  Roscuro stepped up and punched the other elemental, killing it with one blow [critical hit!]…and getting burned by its fire aura.  Roscuro had Zitch use the wand of cure light wounds to heal up his burns but was very enthused about the result of the combat otherwise.

The group backtracked at this point, returning to the second door on the west wall they had ignored.  Beyond the door was a short passage that led to a small rectangular room with a chain curtain on the south wall.  In the room were two lemure who were immediately hostile.  Winston and Marativy quickly killed them.  A search of the room found nothing of value and no magic.

Marativy checked the chain curtain for traps and found none, so the group parted the curtain and found another, smaller chamber that appeared empty.  The walls had writing on them, covering every surface.  The language appeared to be Infernal but none of the ratfolk could read it.  A voice addressed the group in a couple of languages until it tried Common and invited the ratfolk in.

The voice introduced itself as the Suzerain of Little Erebus and asked the ratfolk to do a job for it.  A pretender to his throne, calling itself Lord Baz, has stolen Suzerain’s two favorite lemure.  Suzerain asked the ratfolk to drive away or kill Lord Baz and rescue his two favorite lemure.  Suzerain also threatened to kill all the ratfolk if they didn’t take the job.  Terms were then negotiated.  If the ratfolk did what Suzerain asked, he would supply the metal shard they were looking for, plus “magical knowledge”.  If Suzerain did not have the actual shard, he would pay the ratfolk 5000 gp plus the “magical knowledge”.  The Ratpack agreed to these terms and Suzerain caused an X to appear on the ratfolk’s map, showing where Lord Baz could be found.  It was in an area not yet explored.

[At this point, I was fairly certain we were dealing with an imp, but if it could get us the Shard we were looking for, Roscuro was willing to take the short cut.  The other players agreed.  SPOILER: We were very wrong.]

Once back in the main passage and reasonably certain Suzerain was not amongst them, the ratfolk quickly consulted with each other.  No one liked the “do this job or I’ll kill you” aspect and all agreed this was likely a “Mite King” situation [see Session 17] and we were likely to kill Suzerain after he paid us, especially if he tried to skip out on the payment.  [Nope – no lawful good characters amongst this group.]

The group headed south to check the other door in this hallway.  The door was jammed, so brute force was used to knock the door in.  The room on the other side was some sort of storage closet, apparently full of junk.  A search of the room turned up a set of smithy tools, a brass crank with pearl inlay, and a clockwork servant!  The brass crank did not fit the keyhole of the servant and the servant was about 600 pounds, making it difficult to move.  The ratfolk decided to leave it here.  It’s great weight made it unlikely anyone else would make off with it and when it became necessary they could improvise a sled from the broken door and Templeton could drag it.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[So, that break was longer than planned, but I did get my OD&D clone RPG written and edited to a point where I feel comfortable sharing it (see the Downloads sidebar for Adventures in the Green, Draft B).]

[At this point in real time, we’ve reached Session 32 and finished Book 1 of the Shattered Star Adventure Path, so I have another 11 or so session notes to write up and post.  I will work to get as many typed up next week as I can as the company I am contracted to is closing for a week.  I have some work that still must be done, but a lot more leeway in how I spend the rest of my time.  I'll post two a week if I can until I catch up.]

[In the meantime, we are switching back to playing in the Delvers Guild campaign.  Book 1 of the Shattered Star AP was supposed to be a short break so I could get ahead in my map creation for Delvers Guild.  This did not happen in two ways – it took much longer to finish Book 1 and I did not get much done on the maps.  That said, the break from GM duties was really what I needed and I got that.]

[Also?  Not a huge fan of the new Blogger interface.  So if the formatting of the blog seems different now?  That's why.]

Ratpack

Session 01

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 22

Ratpack Returns August 11

 Just a heads up that the next installment of the Ratpack session notes will appear Tuesday, August 11, at 7:00 AM Houston time.  I'm aiming for two posts a week starting then until I catch up with my normal posting schedule.  At that point we are done with Book 1 of the Shattered Star Adventure Path and switch back to the Delvers Guild campaign using the HERO System.

Thank you for reading!

Adventures in the Green, Draft B

This page provides links to Draft B of Adventures in the Green, my clone of the OD&D rules.

1. Book I: Characters
2. Book II: Conflicts
3. Book III: Campaigns

Draft A was never made public - it was more a mirror of Greyharp's Single Volume Edition.  In Draft A I was working to get all the original content sorted out and used the SVE as a sort of checklist.  The goal was to go through the original booklets and stripmine the content, sorting it into a ready outline.  This helped locate obscure rules that should not have been obscure and things that were never explained until later errata.

In Draft B I reorganized the material for better flow and to even out the page counts of the three booklets.  I also rewrote sections for clarity and consistency in presentation.  Draft B is the first version I'm willing to show others and is the version being play-tested in 2020.  There are still gaps in the rules and as I run across them I'm filling them in.

Known gaps as of August 2, 2020:

• There are no rules for healing other than magic healing.
• There are no rules for time to swap out weapons in combat.
• There are no rules for time to ready a new shield in combat (assuming use of Shields Shall Be Splintered).

I imagine there will be a few more, but hopefully not many.  Please post here to let me know if you discover any other gaps or errors so I can fix them.

The next revision I will likely place on DriveThruRPG as Pay What You Want.  It will have art where all the placeholder material is and be as polished as I can get it.

Later!