I kicked off 6 projects this week at the Dayjob and so I'm super busy getting all the administrivia stuff done and in order so the writers can do their jobs. This week's installment will be a couple days late.
Gotta run!
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Tuesday, February 16, 2021
Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 3
[End of Day 31 and Day 32. A sighting during the night, then hunting for a way in.]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened January 11, 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
Via Roll20
Marativy – female ratfolk 5th level Ninja
Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 5th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar
Roscuro – male ratfolk 5th level Monk
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 5th level Summoner (Synthesist)
Swamprover – female grippli 4th level Wizard
Winston – male ratfolk 5th level Gunslinger
NPCs
Auto – a clockwork servant fixated on Winston [whom we totally forgot about until Session 6]
Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 1st 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 31, Expedition Day 1
3rd Watch
Templeton and Zitch were on the final watch of the night when Zitch noticed an unusual light fluttering around south of the campsite at the feet of the Lady's Light. The light seemed similar to a firefly but larger. It did not approach the camp nor look hostile, so Zitch just made note of where it was fluttering and stopped paying it any extra attention.
Day 32 – Expedition Day 2
Morning
When the sun was up and the others were awake, Zitch reported what he’d seen and where and several in the expedition made note of it. After an excellent breakfast cooked by Mel, the Ratpack started looking for an entrance to whatever subterranean structures were on the Lady's Cape. The group spread out and performed a visual search of the statue at ground level and found nothing. Templeton flew around the 200-foot statue in an upward spiral, looking for entrances. The only entrances he located were small square openings at the end of the scepter the statue held, which allowed light out from the source inside.
Marativy inspected the cliff face below the statue by securing a rope and slowly repelling her way down, working her way back and forth. The group had seen illusion-covered openings back inside The Crow and Marativy wanted to check for them here. Unfortunately, none were found.
While Marativy was investigating the cliffside, Swamprover cast Detect Secret Doors and circled the base of the statue, but found none. When Marativy finished her search of the cliff, Swamprover used Detect Magic and climbed over the cliff to see if she found anything. She too struck out. Finally, Swamprover climbed up on the statue itself to investigate the openings Templeton had found. Being a grippli, she was small enough to crawl into an opening at the top end of the statue’s scepter. This provided her access to 30-foot by 30-foot by 30-foot chamber filled mostly with a glowing sphere of bright light. The chamber only held the sphere and had no exits into the statue. Swamprover nearly blinded herself by casting Detect Magic in the chamber with the light sphere, but once she turned away and her eyes adjusted, she found no other magic or magic residues. Disappointed, she exited the chamber and climbed back to the base of the statue to report her findings.
Lacking a better idea for the moment, Roscuro took a shovel and walked over to where Zitch had seen the floating light. He located a burned spot on the ground and started digging there. He cleared out a 2-foot deep, 3-foot diameter pit and found nothing but dirt. Before committing to a serious dig, Roscuro decided to hold off and try some other options first.
Templeton cast a Temporary Evolution spell and gave his eidolon [and by extension, himself] water breathing. He then went down into the waters around the end of the cape, investigating the cliff facings below the water line. He started his search on the lagoon side and got half way done before a pack of reefclaws noticed him and started moving in. He quickly resurfaced and reported back to the group.
Mid-morning
Having struck out on finding any easy entrances, the group decided to experiment using the imaging functions of the shards they had. A person holding the shard could concentrate and would be shown a snapshot of the vicinity the next shard was in. Marativy’s shard showed where Templeton was when she concentrated. Templeton’s shard showed the 200-foot statue. To get a feel for how large an area was shown and how accurate the readings were, the group set out some stone markers to help align the two visions. This took about two hours to do. While it did not turn up any clues as to how to get into the dungeon, it did clarify what their pursuer would see when looking at Marativy through the Gluttony shard.
Templeton decided that the reefclaws had lost interest by now and resumed his underwater survey, this time concentrating on the ocean side of the cape. He discovered the water was much deeper on this side. He found some openings in the underwater cliff sides, but further investigation proved them to be abandoned animal lairs and not entrances. When he completed his survey and returned, the group took a break for lunch.
After Lunch
During lunch, the group discussed gaining the previous shard. Marativy noted that the entrance to the interior of the Crow was only possible after a wall was broken through. The same might be necessary here. That would not show up as a secret door to Swamprover’s spell but would provide access if they found a similar thing.
Once lunch was finished, the Ratpack broke up into teams and started rapping on the statue and its base, looking for a spot that sounded hollow. After an hour of this, they found nothing to indicate a thin wall or any kind of hollow space.
Roscuro was getting frustrated. He decided that maybe the half-orc in the shack might have some useful information. Templeton, Marativy, and Swamprover flew over there using a new evolution of Templeton’s eidolon [he picked up Flight as an evolution for the eidolon at 5th level]. Roscuro returned to the hole he had started digging earlier and resumed digging – the physical exertion would help dispel the frustration he was feeling.
Templeton landed near the bridge to the island the half-orc was on. He announced he would play the part of a companion animal and let Swamprover and Marativy do the talking. This would give some element of surprise if something went terribly awry.
The three walked across the wooden bridge and announced their presence. The half-orc came out of the shack near the campfire and invited them to come closer. Her name was Maroux and she lived here. The talked with Maroux, who offered to share information over the stew she was fixing, but she needed some specific seaweed to complete it. If the adventurers would go over and harvest some and sit and eat with her, she’d be willing to share her knowledge about the locals and local going ons. Swamprover asked where the seaweed could be found and how much did Maroux need? The location was a submerged shipwreck just the other side of the neighboring large island and she needed about 3 grippli armloads.
Marativy and Swamprover climbed onto Templeton’s back and the trio flew north, to the far side of the neighboring island. Once there, they could see the submerged wreck in the clear waters with seaweed growing on its deck. After some discussion they decided to use the Mage Hand spell to harvest the seaweed without going into the water. Swamprover cast Mage Hand and used it to move a knife down into the water to cut the seaweed free. Templeton cast the same spell to gather the seaweed Swamprover cut free. It would take several passes to gather enough seaweed and on the second pass, the trio could see skeletons stirring on the submerged ship. On the third pass, the skeletons were at the surface and shooting bolts at Templeton. One of the skeletons hit Templeton, dropping the protective ward Zitch had cast on him. However, the trio had enough of the seaweed and could leave before the more skeletons arose.
Back at the campsite, Roscuro had widened the hole he was digging and dug down to nearly ten feet when he uncovered a chest. The chest was heavily deteriorated from being buried. Inside were several small bags of coins totaling 77 gold pieces in value. As he was counting the coins back in camp, Zitch felt the protective ward on Templeton drop. He told Roscuro immediately. The two assumed that the half-orc had attacked Templeton and the others. Unfortunately, there was no way to communicate with the trio and confirm this. Neither Roscuro nor Zitch were keen on the choice but they decided to wait an hour for the trio to return before setting off on revenge.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[Still playing with everyone online for this session. The issue we run into is periodically someone’s Wi-Fi signal strength drops and they lose connectivity. Not entirely certain how much it the Wi-Fi and how much is Roll20. It might be a little bit of both. This is one of the reasons I prefer face-to-face gaming. That said, having the entire group online seems better than a mix.]
Ratpack
Book 1:
…
Book 2:
Tuesday, February 9, 2021
Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 2
[Day 30. A ship is hired, the opposition is hinted at, and the expedition starts.]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened January 4, 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
Via Roll20
Marativy – female ratfolk 5th level Ninja
Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 5th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar
Roscuro – male ratfolk 5th level Monk
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 5th level Summoner (Synthesist)
Swamprover – female grippli 4th level Wizard
Winston – male ratfolk 5th level Gunslinger
NPCs
Auto – a clockwork servant fixated on Winston [whom we totally forgot about until Session 6]
Gridik – male blue kobold 1st level Wizard (Invoker)
Mel – male halfling Cook (Expert of unknown level)
Alice – female halfling Bodyguard (Warrior of unknown level)
Flo’ – female gnome Bodyguard (Warrior of unknown level)
[NOTE: At some point in our expedition planning, we discovered how expensive buying a ship’s boat was going to be and changed out plan to hiking the peninsula under the influence of Communal Ant Haul and Nature’s Paths. This would allow us to arrive at our proposed camp site in half a day instead of a full day without the major expense of the boats. We hoped that the first expedition would be profitable enough that buying the boats would be realistic. This happened during Session 1, but I neglected to note it.]
Autumn
Day 30, Noon
The Ratpack met at the Blue Rodent, including our newest member, Swamprover. We briefed Marativy on our plans for the expedition and she updated us on what she had learned while investigating Frederick’s kidnapping. While she had few clues as to where he might be, she had learned that all of the gluttony related Thassilonian artifacts Frederick had were what was stolen. This suggested that someone might have the shard related to gluttony. [I just thought of another possibility, but we didn’t when we were playing, so I’ll keep it to myself for now.] This sparked a thought for Roscuro. He had Marativy pull out her drawing of the completed Sihedron with the colors showing. Plotting the two shards the Ratpack already had [Pride and Greed], a pattern of how the shards were linked was determined. The shard the Ratpack was looking for would most likely be the shard for Lust. Working the pattern backward, the shard pointing to Pride would be the shard for Gluttony! This suggested that the owner of the Gluttony shard might be actively looking for the Ratpack. [In hindsight, I don’t think so, but it does indicate another faction is actively looking for shards.]
The Ratpack went to Heidmarch Manor, the Pathfinder Society lodge in Magnimar, and reported in to Venture-Captain Sheila Heidmarch, co-head of the lodge. She provided the group with the Ioun Stone that would nullify the curse on the Lust shard, a pink and green sphere that made its user more charismatic. After a short discussion, it was assigned to Templeton. [Swamprover made a solid case for assigning it to her, but the ratfolk were not yet ready to share out critical magic items to someone who had just joined the group and had not proven themselves.]
Templeton and Swamprover went to speak with Sabriyya Kalmeralm about hiring a ship. Marativy shadowed the two for their security and her curiosity. After asking people wearing Sabriyya’s colors in Dockway for directions, the trio ended up at the Kalmeralm merchant house. At first they were told Sabriyya was busy, but when they mentioned they were with the Pathfinder Society, the sales rep went and conferred with others in the back office. When he returned, he told Templeton and Swamprover that she would see them now. They were escorted to her office and announced. Marativy broke in through a window and found an adjacent room to secretly listen in from.
Sabriyya was interested in establishing a trade enclave in the Mushfens to trade with the local boggart and troglodyte clans for medicinal herbs that grow in the swamp. She agrees to provide transportation for the groups expedition in exchange for negotiating a meeting between some of the local tribes and representatives of her merchant house. This seems very reasonable [and inexpensive], so Templeton agreed to the deal. As all were ready to start, it was further agreed that the ship would sail the next day and the Ratpack needed to be at a specific dock and berth at dawn the next day. Templeton accepted this and left. Marativy was able to leave the merchant house unobserved. [Ninjas gotta ninja.]
Templeton met back up with the rest of the Ratpack and explained the deal. All agreed it was reasonable. Roscuro went to his suppliers and told them exactly where to deliver the expedition’s supplies.
Day 31 – Expedition Day 1
Pre-Dawn
The Ratpack and the other members of their expedition arrived at the designated dock and berth. There was the ship, Fortune Found, with Captain Bennett Kalmeralm [human male] waiting for them. Introductions were made and everything and everyone was loaded aboard the ship. The ship set sail just as the sun was breaking the horizon.
11:00 AM
After five hours of sailing across the bay, the Fortune Found arrived just north of the Lady’s Cape. The 200-foot statue of the Runelord was clearly visible to the south east, as were the waves indicating the shoals and reefs that encircled the cape. While the ship’s boat was being loaded with the expedition’s supplies, Roscuro asked the captain to borrow his spyglass. Curious, the captain asked why Roscuro wanted it. Roscuro explained that the map the ratfolk had was vague about the placement of the shoals and he wanted to see if there were any gaps the ratfolk could steer a small boat through on later expeditions. The captain accepted this and lent Roscuro the spyglass so Roscuro could look. The captain also informed Roscuro that there were known gaps in the shoals large enough for small boats to get through, but reefclaws and other monsters able to sink boats small enough for the gaps laired amongst the shoals. Roscuro remembered Templeton’s story of fighting a couple reefclaws when retrieving the sea ghoul’s treasure [near the end of Book 1 of the adventure path] and decided he wanted nothing to do with them here. Very unfortunate.
Looking through the spyglass at the peninsula to the south, Roscuro noticed smoke rising from one of the islands at the base of the peninsula, possibly the eastern end of the larger island. The amount of smoke was small, suggesting a campfire of some sort. Roscuro made note of it in his journal – the Ratpack would need to walk past the area on their way in and see what it was.
Noon
It took two trips to get all the supplies and expedition members to shore. Once there, Roscuro confirmed with the first mate that this spot is where the ratfolk and company would meet the Fortune Found in eight days. Swamprover cast Communal Ant Haul twice on the four strongest members of the group, allowing them to carry the bulk of the supplies without being more than lightly encumbered. Zitch cast Nature’s Paths multiple times to allow faster travel and the group set out.
Roscuro set a path around the lagoon enclosed by the cape and attendant islands. Roscuro wanted to take the slightly longer way in rather than island hopping for two reasons: first, no swimming, and second, he wanted to know who or what lived on the cape while the group was healthy. Injured from dungeon delving and carrying loot on the way out would be a poor way to meet any locals.
1:00 PM
After getting to the base of the cape from their landing point, the Ratpack could see the thin line of smoke was from the smaller of the two islands at the mouth of the lagoon. A rickety wooden bridge connected the island to the cape and their planned path would take them right by it. Not wanting to get slowed down [the spells on the group were only good for 4 hours – the estimated time it would take to get to the campsite], Roscuro redirected the group south around a small forest. He also asked Marativy to go scout the island and see who or what was there. Templeton volunteered to follow her at a distance incase she needed backup. This was a risk as he carried most of the food supplies, so Roscuro emphasized no contact if at all possible.
Marativy ghosted over to the wooden bridge and climbed across in the understructure. Templeton stayed on the cape, realizing his weight would cause the bridge to make noise. The island was ringed by tall sand dunes with the campfire smoke coming from within that ring. Marativy peeked over the crest of one of the dunes and saw a ramshackle hut with a campfire going in front of it. A half-orc was tending to a pot of something on the fire. Marativy stayed in position long enough to be satisfied the half-orc was likely alone and then retreated. Rather than chase the rest of the expedition around the small forest, she and Templeton took the shorter path along the shore, taking effort to not be visible to the half-orc’s camp. When they met back up with the rest of the group, she reported what she had seen. Roscuro thanked her and made note of the findings in his journal.
The expedition continued to follow the shoreline of the lagoon until they came across a cove full of sleeping crocodiles. Looking at their map, the group could bypass the crocodiles and stick to the shoreline, but that would put them between some hills and the shore, which might be exposed and limiting in options if anything attacked. They decided to cut straight south between the hills and a small lake on the cape until they reached Slug Creek, a slow but wide river that ran most of the length of the cape. There they smelled a horrid stench, wafting in from some place east of them. Roscuro made note of it, suspecting troglodytes might be the source.
Shortly after 2:00 PM
The expedition followed the river to where it went by a large tidal area. The tide was going out, exposing a half-mile long stretch of wet sand. [Please don't @ me on the weird geography - I know and there is nothing I can do about it.] Roscuro made note of when the time and what the tide was doing. One of the group’s planned escape routes from the Lady’s Light involved the long sand bar/island on the opposite side of the bay that would be covered during high tide. It would be good to have some idea of when the tides happened.
The expedition continued past the tidal area, careful to stay above the high-tide mark. Just past the three hour mark, at a narrow area where the cape started to curve back towards the mainland, the group spotted a large group of giant frogs, sunning themselves. The frogs seemed well fed and took no notice of the expedition, so the group left them alone and pressed on.
4:00 PM
Just before the Communal Ant Haul spells faded out, the expedition arrived at the Lady’s Light, the 200-foot statue of the Runelord of Lust. The statue was carved from basalt and set on a massive slab of stone, apparently carved out of it. The statue held high a scepter, the top of which contained a bright light source. A quick scout of the area provided an adequate spot to camp near the base of the statue. The tents and supplies were unpacked and set up and watches were established for the night. It was decided that the two camp guards would not stand night watch as they would be guarding the camp during the day while the adventurers were [hopefully] exploring the dungeon.
Once they found the entrance.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[We skipped a week and everyone attended remotely this session and the next two because I was exposed to Covid19 by a friend who came over to boardgame…without mentioning his doctor had sent him to have a Covid test due to a cough and the result had not returned yet. He tested positive. I tested positive but no one else exposed did, so we were lucky in that regard. I was lucky in that my case of Covid was fairly mild. He was asymptomatic the entire time and only ever had a cough, a common set of circumstances for this disease. Several positive tests later, he has finally tested negative. I haven’t been re-tested yet, but it has been four weeks since I last had symptoms. My plan is to get a test this week (Feb. 1-5) so I have a negative result on record. This will allow me to get the vaccine and not worry about catching Covid a second time.]
[It became necessary to work out what time of year it was in game and the Other GM set it as Autumn. We still don’t have a month, but at least we know what season it is supposed to be.]
Ratpack
Book 1:
…
Book 2:
Thursday, February 4, 2021
Delvers Guild – Creature Catalog – Fungi Workers
[The results of things a magical research lab left to grow in a moist, partially flooded environment. The workers do things and make things.]
Fungi Workers
What first appeared as a giant toadstool has two arms and
its trunk splits to form legs – concealed eyes open near the cap and it slowly
moves toward you…
|
Val |
Char |
Cost |
Roll |
Notes |
|
|
14 |
STR |
0 |
12- |
Lift: 100 kg 2 ½ d6 |
|
|
15 |
DEX |
0 |
12- |
OCV: 5 DCV: 5 |
|
|
15 |
CON |
0 |
12- |
|
|
|
10 |
BOD |
0 |
11- |
|
|
|
11 |
INT |
0 |
11- |
PER Roll: 14- |
|
|
14 |
EGO |
0 |
12- |
EGO Roll: 12- ECV: 5 |
|
|
15 |
PRE |
0 |
11- |
PRE Attack: 3d6 |
|
|
10 |
COM |
0 |
11- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
10 |
PD |
0 |
|
Total: 10 (3
rPD) |
|
|
6 |
ED |
0 |
|
Total: 6 (3
rPD) |
|
|
2 |
SPD |
0 |
|
Phases: 6 ,
12 |
|
|
6 |
REC |
0 |
|
|
|
|
30 |
END |
0 |
|
|
|
|
30 |
STUN |
0 |
|
Total
Characteristics Cost: 58 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Movement |
Running: |
6”/12” |
|||
|
|
Leaping: |
2.5”/5” |
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Cost |
Powers |
END |
|||
|
9 |
Alertness: +3 PER with all Sense Groups |
0 |
|||
|
|
Fungal Traits |
|
|||
|
5 |
Nightvision |
0 |
|||
|
23 |
Life
Support (Immunity All terrestrial
poisons and chemical warfare agents; Immunity: All terrestrial diseases and
biowarfare agents; Sleeping: Character does not sleep) |
0 |
|||
|
3 |
Damage
Resistance (3 PD/3 ED) |
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|||
|
94 |
Spores: Multipower, 75-point reserve, all slots
Reduced Endurance (1/2 END; +1/4) (94 Active Points) |
|
|||
|
3 |
1) Distress Spores: Telepathy 10d6 (Alien class of minds) (50
Active Points); Limited Power Max. Range = 18 hexes (-1/2) |
2 |
|||
|
1 |
2) Reproductive Spores: Summon 4 50-point Myconid Junior Workers
(20 Active Points); Limited Power: Requires dead host creature (-2) |
1 |
|||
|
3 |
3) Pacification Spores: Mind Control 10d6 (Human class of minds),
Area Of Effect (One Hex; +1/2) (75 Active Points); Limited Power One command
only "Be Passive" (-1), Limited Power Max. Range = 6 hexes (-1/2) |
3 |
|||
|
3 |
4) Pacification Spores: Mind Control 10d6 (Animal class of minds),
Area Of Effect (One Hex; +1/2) (75 Active Points); Limited Power One command
only "Be Passive" (-1), Limited Power Max. Range = 6 hexes (-1/2) |
3 |
|||
|
|
|
|
|||
|
Cost |
Skills and
Talents |
Roll |
|||
|
0 |
Everyfungus
Skills |
8- |
|||
|
7 |
PS: Fungal
Farmer |
16- |
|||
|
4 |
PS: Fungal
Builder |
13- |
|||
|
3 |
Deduction |
11- |
|||
|
7 |
Survival |
13- |
|||
|
4 |
Combat
Lavels: +4 with Pacification Spores |
|
|||
|
3 |
Ambidexterity |
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|||
|
Total
Powers and Skills Cost: |
172 |
||||
|
Total
Cost: |
230 |
||||
|
|
|||||
|
Pts |
Disadvantages |
||||
|
15 |
Distinctive
Features: Fungoid lifeform - giant toadstool (Not
Concealable; Noticed and Recognizable; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses) |
||||
|
20 |
Physical
Limitation: Mute (All the Time;
Greatly Impairing) |
||||
|
15 |
Psychological
Limitation: Defend the Circle (Common;
Strong) |
||||
|
105 |
Monster Bonus |
||||
|
|
|
||||
Combat Tactics:
Their preferred attack is their pacification spores, though they can perform a slam attack if forced into melee.
[The player characters did not face these in combat as these hid in the lab the fungi used as their home. The fungi that the PCs faced were the Fungi Brutes, bred for defense of the lab.]
Creature Catalog – Collection of creatures from the Delvers Guild campaign
Tuesday, February 2, 2021
Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 1
[Day 23. Start of Book 2 of the adventure path, which is spent planning the first expedition and interviewing potential wizard hirelings.]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened December 21, 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
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 [New!]
Via Roll20
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 5th level Summoner (Synthesist)
Winston – male ratfolk 5th level Gunslinger
Not Appearing This Week
Marativy – female ratfolk 5th level Ninja
NPCs
Auto – a clockwork servant fixated on Winston [whom we totally forgot about until Session 6]
Day 23
The Ratpack found themselves sitting in Heidmarch Manor, the Pathfinder Society lodge in Magnimar. They were planning their next steps. The next shard of the Shattered Star artifact was located in the vicinity of the Lady’s Light, a 200-foot tall statue located on the end of a peninsula in the south-westernmost reaches of Varisia's Mushfens, approximately 50 miles from the city of Magnimar as the crow flies. The enormous statue was of the Rune Lord of Lust and the light it supported acted as a lighthouse for shipping in the area. In attendance were Roscuro, Zitch, Templeton, and Winston. Marativy was independently investigating the kidnapping of Frederick, the Ratpack’s patron [and occasional fence I suspect].
The Ratpack did research in the Pathfinder Society’s library and found some minimal information about the Lady’s Light and the peninsula it is on, including a rough map of the peninsula. Travel time to the peninsula varied based on means of travel: walking through the Mushfens would take 4 days [plus dealing with troglodytes and boggarts], using a small boat to navigate the rivers there would take 6 days due to the indirect path [plus dealing with any hostiles on the way], but passage on a ship heading there would only take half a day to get to a safe drop off point and then another day of walking to get to the actual site.
The best plan seemed to be to hire a ship to get there, row some boats to get the site, camp there for a week, and then return. The amount of supplies would be manageable and the group would not have to hire a lot of porters or multiple boats. The Ratpack presented this plan to Venture-Captain Sheila to see if they had missed anything. She recommended that the group speak with Sabriyya Kalmeralm, head of a Magnimar merchant house and friendly with the Society. Sheila further suggested the group speak with the artist Ayavah, who has an interest in things the group may find under the Lady’s Light. With much to accomplish, the Ratpack split up to work on the different things that need doing. They agreed to meet again at the Blue Rodent each evening to report and make adjustments to their preparations if necessary.
Templeton went to meet with the artist Ayavah to see if he could get her to finance the expedition or at least to find out what the Ratpack should bring back to her for purchase. Ayavah was known around Magnimar for carving risqué statues, most recently of entwined succubi, that were small but very detailed. Templeton located her residence in The Harpy, one of the pillars of the Irespan [distressingly close to the “shit house” where the Ratpack secured their first shard – see Shattered Star, Book 1, Session 9 ]. Templeton, in his foo-dog form, presented himself as a minion of others to Ayavah. When he mentioned that the group was going to explore the Lady’s Light, Ayavah became very interested. Very interested. She stated she was interested in any statuary of Sorshen, the Runelord of Lust, and would pay very well for them or any other related statuary. To seal the deal, she gave Templeton a magic coin for his “masters”. This turned out to be a Whispering Coin. After speaking with Ayavah, Templeton caught up with Winston and the two spent the rest of the week crafting alchemist fire and tanglefoot bags.
Roscuro secured a table at The Staff and The Book, a tavern in the Dockway district, to work out the logistics of the expedition and interview wizards for hire. [Roscuro had been seeding any magic schools or academies with hiring ads for the last week.] Roscuro planned for the expedition to take a day to get to the Lady’s Light, a week searching for an entrance to whatever dungeon was there, and then a day to get back to Magnimar with whatever treasure they could find. If he purchased two weeks of supplies, that would be enough for the expedition and walking back to Magnimar if something went wrong with the ship. He wanted a cook for the expedition as he was not certain any of the Ratpack could actually prepare food and he wanted to get real food and not iron rations. To keep the cook safe, two bodyguards needed to be hired. This worked out to a cost of 140 gp for food, water, and hirelings.
Roscuro ended up interviewing four actual wizards [which included two sorcerers] over the week and several more fake wizards looking for an easy gig. The fake wizards made excuses to leave once they learned the job was going out into the Mushfens and not to become a “house wizard”.
The most potent of the wizards Roscuro interviewed was Swamprover, a grippli wizard dressed as a swashbuckler with large floppy hat [well, large for a grippli] and a rapier. Roscuro was dubious at first, not certain at first if the talking frog-person was a wizard or a familiar, but Swamprover cast several spells during the interview and was able to make her sword fly across the room to the dartboard and then return to her hand. She also spoke Thassilonian and Boggart [not that Roscuro could verify this and he only speaks two languages: Common and Bad Common]. Roscuro thought she would make a good addition to the Ratpack and asked her to return [he needed permission to bring her in for a full share].
Swamprover [Not Shown: Tiny snake familiar, Snek]
Source: "Grippli Fencer" by Jenna Drummond Illustration at jendart.com
NOTE: The Pinterest version of this art removed the artists signature - Shame On Them!
The two sorcerers were Zel’jka, a half-orc woman with a fey bloodline specializing in enchantment magic, and Vanran "Van" Greyward, a halfling woman with a shadow bloodline. Both had skill [were third level each], but they were both attempting to avoid trouble, rather than enthusiastically join an expedition. Instead of offering them positions, Roscuro put them in contact with each other and provided both with a letter of introduction to the Tower Girls, now headquartered in the siege tower one day away from Magnimar, and a map of how to get there. He felt they might fit in better there.
He also interviewed Gridik Stormstride, a blue kobold evoker. Despite being a novice [first level], Gridik was able to cast multiple force bolts and Magic Missile twice a day, something Roscuro thought would be very handy. Gridik also spoke a wide selection of languages, including Thassilonian and Ancient Osiriani. Roscuro wanted Gridik on the expedition but wasn’t certain whether to offer a share or a flat rate. As Gridik was not part of the local wizard guild [hence his need for work], they settled on a fee of 25 gp per day for a minimum of nine days, 25 gp up front. That would pay Gridik 225 gp for the expedition, which might beat a full share if the group did not find much on the first expedition, but Roscuro had confidence that the group would find much to sell from a Thassilonian-era dungeon.
Gridik Stormstride
Source: "Bleureagaurd Brookvale Commission" by Harseik on DeviantArt
[My notes don’t say what Zitch was up to during this week, so I’m leaving a placeholder here for him until the player tells me.]
Day 24
After conferring with the rest of the Ratpack, Roscuro offered Swamprover a place on the team for a full share of whatever the expedition realizes. She accepted the deal [and a new PC joined the group].
Day 28
Roscuro located and hired a cook for the expedition and two guards to keep an eye on the camp and the cook while the Ratpack delved the dungeon. The cook was a halfling culinary expert named Mel. The two bodyguards were a halfling and a gnome set of warriors named Flo’ and Alice. They knew Mel and had worked together before, which seemed ideal to Roscuro. They will each be paid 3 sp per day to stay in camp. Roscuro is willing to pay hazard money to Flo’ and Alice is anything attacks the camp.
Day 29
Roscuro spent the day purchasing and arranging delivery of supplies for the expedition. This included 14 days worth of real food for 10 people, 3 large tents, cooking gear [pots, pans, and portable cooking surfaces] for Mel, and some other miscellaneous gear.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[So we’ve resumed the Shattered Star Adventure Path for reasons explained elsewhere. As a result of the Delvers Guild campaign, we picked up a player we didn’t have in Book 1 of the adventure path. We needed a straight up wizard, so this worked out well. The Other GM started Swamprover at 4th level as that is the official starting level for Book 2 of the adventure path. There was some discussion about that, but that was the Other GMs ruling, so we abide.]
[The majority of this session was remembering where we were and what we’d been doing, followed by planning our expedition with the limited information we had available. The Other GM provided a map of the peninsula for us to peruse.]
[I plan on Roscuro taking the Leadership feat as soon as he qualifies and taking on Gridik as his Cohort. I built Gridik and Van a couple days before the game session so the Other GM had NPCs available for Roscuro’s hiring campaign. It had the benefits of providing potential hirelings with the skills and abilities we wanted/needed and saved the Other GM some work. Roscuro was specifically looking for low-level casters so I made them the lowest level I could and still meet our requirements, which were: A) had darkvision, B) were a wizard or sorcerer, and C) were preferably under 4 ft in height.]
Ratpack
Book 1:
…
Book 2:
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