[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:
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