Bugbears for Breakfast: Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 18

Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 18

[Days 39 to 47 – Back in Magnimar, taking care of business.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened May 10, 2021, with some supplemental info that was retconned on May 17, 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 6th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Roscuro – male ratfolk 6th level Monk

Swamprover – female grippli 5th level Wizard

Marativy – female ratfolk 6th level Ninja

Via Roll20

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 6th level Summoner (Synthesist)

Winston – male ratfolk 6th level Gunslinger

NPCs

Auto – a clockwork servant fixated on Winston

Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 3rd level Wizard (Invoker)

Autumn

Day 39

Morning

The Ratpack dispersed to accomplish different objectives. Templeton and Marativy rented a cart and took the broken statuary, rubbings, and drawings from the expedition to the group’s art patron, Ayavah. They had to knock on Avayah’s door for a while before they got her attention. Templeton made a presentation of the recovered items, but Avayah was not particularly interested in the statuary [which was odd to us as artists are usually very interested in examples of their craft and Avayah is a sculptor – we chalked it up to poor writing on the adventures part]. It didn’t look good for a big payday until Marativy showed Avayah the rubbings from the Big Red Door. Avayah was exceedingly interested in those, nearly snatching them out of Marativy’s hands. She took all the rubbings and the drawings and gave Templeton a bag with 500 gold coins in it before walking back into her home, muttering over the rubbings.

Swamprover went to speak to Sabriyya Kalmeralm, the head of the merchant house that provided the ship transportation to and from the Lady’s Light. Sabriyya was in a meeting, but her assistant said she would be available just after lunch. Swamprover made the appointment and then left. She located a place to eat and has a leisurely meal before retuning for the appointment. Swamprover reported that the troglodyte tribe was willing to discuss trade, but the boggard tribe was hostile to outsiders. Sabriyya was pleased to hear at least one of the tribes was open to talks. She inquired when the Ratpack would be returning to the area and Swamprover admitted she did not know, but it might be a week or more. Sabriyya told Swamprover she had a ship she could hold in port for up to a week but the next boat after that would not be available for nearly a month. Swamprover thanked her and told Sabriyya that a message would be sent in a day or two once plans were finalized. She spent the rest of the afternoon tracking down a scroll of Fireball and purchased it.

Roscuro spent some time seeing to Helanda [defector from the rogue Queen’s Guard unit at the dungeon] and Gnaeus [freed from servitude to the being posing as the runelord in the dungeon] before they left to follow their own pursuits. Roscuro provided Helanda a letter of introduction to the Tower Girls and instructions on how to get to them. Then Roscuro had a spa day, getting properly clean for the first time in a week and having his traveling clothes laundered.

After Gridik was paid for his contract [200 gp], Winston hired him to craft a Pouch of Abundant Ammunition. Winston purchased a scroll of Abundant Ammunition and gave it to Gridik along with money to cover crafting expenses and payment for services. Gridik transcribed the spell to his spellbook. Gridik would start work on the pouch the next day once he had it memorized. [It is a first level spell and Gridik had his full complement memorized already.]

[I have no notes as to what Zitch was up to on this day.]

Evening

The Ratpack met for dinner at the Blue Rodent and shared what they had been up to during the day. They discussed how long they would be staying in town and came to the conclusion that they needed to find out what, if anything, the Pathfinder Society had learned about Frederick’s kidnapping before they should decide. Winston requested the group stay in Magnimar at least a week so he can upgrade his musket. The Ratpack agreed to stay in town for at least a week.

Day 40

Winston started working on an upgrade to his musket. He will finish working on it at the end of Day 47.

Gridik spent the day crafting the Pouch of Abundant Ammunition for Winston. Gridik will pocket 360 gp as his fee, plus he now has the spell in his spellbook. All-in-all, a good deal for the kobold Invoker.

Roscuro, Swamprover, Zitch, and Templeton walked over to Heidmarch Manor, the Magnimar lodge of the Pathfinder Society to find out what has been learned by the Society. They entered the manor, which appeared to be empty at the time. Roscuro knocked on the door to Sheila’s office [Captain of the lodge and owner of the manor]. Instead of the door opening or Sheila calling out “Enter!”, the ratfolk heard footsteps upstairs approaching the stairs. The half-elf Koriah, either second in command or Sheila’s assistant [which would amount to the same thing] came down the steps and greeted the Ratpack. She escorted the Ratpack into Sheila’s office so they could talk privately.

Koriah told the ratfolk that Sheila was out on Society business but she left notes as to what the Society had learned so far. An organized group in the city had been hired to kidnap Frederick, the Night Scales. Marativy had heard of the Night Scales and shared that they are rivals to the Sczarni crime syndicates and specialize in kidnapping, trafficking, and assassination. This matched what Sheila had in her notes. Unfortunately, that was all the information Sheila left in her notes.

Roscuro reported where the group was with tracking down the Shards. He discussed the fake Runelord living in the dungeon under Lady’s Light and why he was certain that she was a fake. He also talked about the viable Clone of the actual Runelord the group found in a sarcophagus and his unease with the knowledge that the actual Runelord might still be alive somewhere. He allowed that he was working on a plan to destroy the clone, but the magics on it made most hazardous if not deadly.

Finally, Roscuro asked if the Society might have a way to sell the statuary remains the group had retrieved from the dungeon. Koriah asked to see the statuary and the group adjourned to where the cart was parked. Koriah told the ratfolk the Society should be able to find a buyer for the broken statuary, but it might take some time. The Ratpack was fine with that [as they didn’t want to keep lugging it around]. The statuary was unloaded and the ratfolk left.

Noon

Back at the Blue Rodent, the group decided that they would take the week off to pursue individual projects and then start looking for Frederick themselves. This would also let the false runelord flail about for a week in reaction to Gnaeus being liberated and the hag being killed. Perhaps security might start relaxing again by the time the group returned to the dungeon.

The loot from the expedition to the Lady’s Light was divided up and paid out. Each member of the Ratpack got a share worth 518 gp.

Afternoon

Swamprover spent the afternoon and early evening crafting ink from the hag blood harvested back in the dungeon. She ended up with one vial of ink suitable for scribing magic scrolls.

Day 41

Gridik and Roscuro contributed money to Swamprover so she could scribe a scroll of Fire Breath for Gridik as part of an arrangement they made back at the dungeon. [Gridkik paid 50 gp and Roscuro contributed 25 gp.] At the end of the day Swamprover gave Gridik the freshly scribed scroll.

Gridik spent time that night transcribing the scroll to his spellbook, finally adding a second level Invocation spell to it. [As an invoker, he gets a bonus casting of an invocation spell for each spell level and he had no invocation spells for second level until now.]