[Day 37 continues. A hag and her fuathan.]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened April 19, 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
Via Roll20
Marativy – female ratfolk 5th level Ninja
Winston – male ratfolk 5th level Gunslinger
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 5th level Summoner (Synthesist)
NPCs
Auto – a clockwork servant fixated on Winston
Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 3rd 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 37, Expedition Day 7
Noon(-ish)
Templeton cast Restore Eidolon on his eidolon after the fights with the ghoul-bats [last session]. This is the only way his eidolon recovers health and it is still down 50% from full health [the main reason he retreated when fighting the ghoul-bats on his own]. While Winston skilled the dead giant eel [also killed last session], the rest of the group looked around the beach some [having nothing else to do]. The group found footprints in the sand that they had not made, suggesting others had been here. The footprints clustered near where the boats landed and did not lead into the two tunnels from the beach. Odd.
Templeton was game to make another try at flying down the other passage from the main cavern. This time he made it all the way to the end, where the passage opened to another lake area. He found two docks and another waterfall down to deeper depths of caves. One of the docks had three boats tied up to it, but he saw no people. He returned to the rest of the Ratpack and explained what he found, sketching the locations in the sand. Marativy copied the information to the map she was drawing in her art book.
The Ratpack discussed which way to go next. There were two tunnels at the beach and getting past the compulsion field to the other passage would be difficult and time consuming. There was also the possibility that the tunnels eventually connected with the other lake area. This was convincing enough that the group decided to check the tunnels first.
However, before that, Marativy and Zitch performed a careful search of the beach area, specifically checking for secret doors. Marativy found one, disturbingly close to where the boats were and where the compulsion field pushed people. She carefully inspected the secret door and determined it was trapped with an Alarm spell and a Mass Hold Person spell. This led to more conversation and the group concluded that the spells were too high in capability for anyone to avoid the effects, plus Marativy had no method of disarming the spells.
While this conversation was happening, Winston spied a gremlin-type creature hiding in the southern tunnel from the beach. He alerted the group and the creature retreated, but not before Zitch saw it [he has a very high Perception bonus]. Zitch identified the creature as a Fuath, a water-based fae. He explained they were susceptible to cold iron, resistant to mind effects [so his hexes would not work on the thing], malignant, and could cast Sleep. Not wanting a creature like that lurking behind them, the Ratpack decided to pursue the creature.
The tunnel went south and then turned westerly. As the ratfolk advanced, they discovered the tunnel opened on another pool with an island at the center. On the island was a sea hag torturing a human woman tied to a stake. The sea hag was not aware of the group yet. Zitch quietly warned the group that hags have witch-like powers, being the source of those powers.
Not liking what the sea hag was doing, Marativy and Roscuro quietly advanced to a closer range and shot the hag, Marativy with her short bow, Roscuro with his crossbow. Zitch put Protective Luck on Winston, who advanced [noisily] and fired his musket at the hag. Gridik cast Bull’s Strength on Roscuro. Swamprover cast Acid Arrow at the hag. The hag used her Evil Eye on Marativy and six fuathan [plural of fuath] emerged from the water of the pool.
During the fight, Roscuro used his High Jump special ability to leap across the pool to the island, landing next to the hag. This [and Roscuro's failed attempts at attacking her] distracted the hag long enough for Winston to shoot her dead. The rest of the group concentrated on killing the fuathan, which happened rapidly. [I didn’t take enough notes here to give a round-by-round retelling and really, it turned out to be a short but intense fight.]
After the fight, Templeton flew Zitch and Winston over to the island so they could perform healing on the human woman. Winston determined she was near death, so Zitch used his Wand of Cure Light Wounds to remove her from death’s door. She was still unconscious, but we could safely move her now.
There were two adjoining caves to this one and Templeton flew into them to see what was there. The cave to the west was the hag’s lair. Templeton searched it, including casting Detect Magic. In the hags bedding, along with severed humanoid arms showing signs of gnawing, were a magic wand and a pair of magic gloves. Templeton retrieved those and took them back to the rest of the group for later identification.
The eastern cave was the lair of the fuathan and mostly water. Floating in the water were the bloated corpses of three human women. This cave had a tunnel out that quickly led back to the beach through the eastern tunnel there. Templeton found no magic in the fuathan’s lair and returned to report his findings. In the meantime, Zitch checked the hag’s equipment for magic and both the longspear and the bone necklace it wore were magical.
After Templeton’s report, the group suspected all the women were one-time members of the Queen’s Guard, who they knew were exploring the caves as well. The unconscious woman was untied from the stake and taken back to the beach. The three dead bodies were pulled from the water in the fuathan lair and buried in the sand on the beach.
While that was happening, Zitch identified the magic items.
• The longspear was a +1 keen longspear that infects those hit with Filth Fever.
• The bone necklace was a Death Balm Talisman.
• The wand was a Wand of Dimension Door with 4 charges left.
• The gloves allowed the wearer to disable magical traps [created by the Other GM].
With the bodies buried, the group decided it was time to return to camp. The total time for the trip was three hours, but the human woman woke up an hour into the trip.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[We met face-to-face again. The Other GM received a negative result on his Covid test so it was safe to do so. Marativy's player had a work meeting and so was late to show. She decided to go home and call in from there.]
[I missed indicating Gridik has leveled twice prior to this session. Leveling happens a lot faster for lower level characters adventuring with higher level characters. The amount of experience a 5th level character needs to get to 6th level (8,000 on the Medium track) is enough to get a 1st level character most of the way to 4th level. Gridik is close enough to 4th level he can just about taste it.]
Ratpack
Book 1:
…
Book 2:
…
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