[Day 35 concludes. Continue fight with glass golem and find the porn hall.]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened March 22, 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
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
Marativy – female ratfolk 5th level Ninja
Via Roll20
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 5th level Summoner (Synthesist)
Winston – male ratfolk 5th level Gunslinger
NPCs
Auto – a clockwork servant fixated on Winston
Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 2nd 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 35, Expedition Day 5
[Immediately after healing Swamprover at the end of last session]
Concerned that the glass golem would recover from the damage Winston inflicted on it if left alone, the Ratpack decided to eliminate the threat by taking it out now. Winston was to initiate the fight by shooting the glass golem, making it approach the readied group of adventurers. He misfired on his first shot. Zitch placed his ward on Roscuro and Gridik cast Mage Armor on Roscuro, doing their best to protect him from the golem’s attacks for the fight.
After quickly blowing out his musket [using a grit point, IIRC], Winston rapid fired and hit the golem both times, triggering the golem into attacking. Zitch put Protective Luck on Roscuro and then he and Gridik backed away from the edge of the beach. The golem charged across the water and attacked Winston. Its movements refracted the light from the glowing motes into a flashing radiance that blinded several of the ratfolk. Roscuro performed a flurry of blows [including spending a Ki point for an extra attack] but missed all three times. Marativy was able to score a hit on the golem but her wakizashi just slid across its surface [she failed to overcome its DR]. Templeton cast Haste on the adventurers.
Winston stepped back 5 feet and used a point of grit to rapid fire three times, hitting the golem all three times to great effect. Roscuro realized the golem was heavily injured [successful Perception roll] and called for the entire group to keep attacking. Zitch stepped over to Winston and used the wand of cure light wounds on him. Gridik, aware that the golem’s spell resistance would bounce any of his spells, did his best to stay out of its reach and not die. The golem advanced on Winston and attacked him, slashing him once. Roscuro used his final Ki point for a fourth attack, but only hit once for minimal damage. Marativy critically hit with her wakizashi, damaging the golem. Swamprover cast Bear’s Endurance on Winston, providing him a boost of health [and temporary hit points].
Winston stepped away from the golem again and misfired when he tried to shoot it. Zitch matched Winston’s step and used the wand to cast cure light wounds on him again. Gridik had heroic thoughts about casting a spell at the golem but seeing the amount of damage the thing was inflicting on Winston thought better of it. The golem changed targets to Roscuro, attacking him twice. Templeton and Marativy both bodyguarded Roscuro, so the golem only hit once, bloodying the monk with that single blow. [We estimate that Roscuro would have died if the second attack had landed.] Roscuro, bleeding heavily from the wound [rolled maximum on the bleed], flurried again, hitting once. Marativy attacked the cracked glass golem, hitting it where the cracks intersected [she rolled a crit] and shattered it [her damage killed it].
Zitch immediately stepped over to Roscuro and used six charges from the wand of cure light wounds on him, healing him most of the way up. Zitch then used the wand on Winston.
After catching their breath from the close fight [both Roscuro and Winston had been within one hit of dying], the Ratpack took a moment to investigate the two graves on the beach. The grave markers were shields bearing the heraldry of the Grey Maidens. This tracked with what Maroux had told the group.
The group then returned to the small boats and went to investigate the large pedestal the glass golem had been standing on. It was covered in Thassilonian writing. The writing explained that the pedestal was a teleportation waystation powered by the glass golem. By destroying the glass golem, the group had rendered the waystation inert. To say Roscuro was vexed about this revelation is to understate the matter. [The Other GM said the look on my face was priceless.] The writings further explained that displaying the symbol of the Runelord of Lust would allow use of the teleportation system. Sigh.
With that path forward closed off, the group returned to the beach and explored through the doorway at the back of the beach. The door led to a hall covered with murals. The murals depicted many different humanoid creatures having sex with a variety of extraplanar beings, mostly demons. The room was well lit with chandeliers and there was a passage exiting the room to the south. The murals appeared to continue along that passage. The room was immediately dubbed “Porn Hall” by the ratfolk.
Suspecting a secret door might be concealed by the artwork, the group investigated the murals. None were found, but Zitch realized that some of the figures in the mural were posed to form letters, providing the name of the artist: Amivadeus Yasrin. Zitch also had the distinct impression that the artist did not approve of the subject matter as the overall effect of the art suggested moral rot and decay, not a glorification of lust.
With no hidden doorways located, the group followed the passage to the south with Marativy scouting ahead with great stealth. The passage immediately turned to the right and the artwork rapidly tapered off, first to partially painted figures, then sketches, then blank wall. It appeared that the murals were intended to continue, but the artist was stopped from completing the work. Following the passage around another corner, the group paused when Marativy indicated she found something past the next corner. Roscuro advanced to see what she had found.
The passage joined a wider hall with a wrought iron fence across it where it opened into a chamber. In the chamber were several sarcophagi and a human-looking person with grey skin and long white hair. Marativy was feeling slightly surly as person on the other side of the fence had spotted her easily while she was sneaking. She told Roscuro the person was likely a dhampir, a human-vampire hybrid, but with a lifespan too short to be an original inhabitant of the dungeon.
The dhampir was surprisingly chatty as long as neither Marativy nor Roscuro attempted to open the gate in the fence or otherwise bypass the fence. His name was Gnaeus and he was charged with guarding this gate. He was only allowed to let pass those who knew the password. Roscuro introduced himself and Marativy and chatted with Gnaeus a bit, attempting to glean some useful information and what limits there were on Gnaeus’ politeness. After a couple of minutes of conversation Roscuro decided it was time for he and Marativy to leave, while the conversation was still polite. They said their goodbyes to Gnaeus and returned to the rest of the adventuring party.
Blocked forward until they could work out the password, the group decided it was time to return to the surface.
First Watch
During the first watch that night, Swamprover and Winston observed some humanoids to the south at some distance. The humanoids did not seem to be aware of the ratfolk camp, so Swamprover and Winston only observed them. Whatever the humanoids were doing, they were interrupted when a swamp giant wandered up and started to pursue them to the south, away from the camp. Swamprover and Winston shared this information with the next watch, but the rest of the night passed quietly.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[Gridik leveled again with the experience from this session. The rules grant a wizard two free spells when they level and I chose Bull’s Strength and See Invisibility, thinking he could learn Fire Breath from Swamprover. Unfortunately, Swamprover is a Familiar Adept and does not have a standard spellbook but uses her familiar (a tiny viper named Snek) as her spellbook. This is incompatible with standard wizards when it comes to sharing known spells. On the plus side, Swamprover and Zitch can share spells as they both use their familiars as their spellbooks. The downside is that Gridik is missing his bonus second level evocation spell until we return to Magnimar and he can either find a standard wizard to share spells with or buys a scroll with the desired spell on it for 150 gp.]
Ratpack
Book 1:
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Book 2:
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