[Day 49 – The raid to get Frederick back begins.]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened June 14, 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
Autumn
Day 49
~1:00 PM
After receiving information on Frederick’s kidnapper in the form of a single-use Ioun Stone, the Ratpack decided to go to the Pathfinder Society Lodge for two reasons. The first was that it was relatively nearby and the second is that it would be more private than their regular table at the Blue Rodent.
Arriving at the Lodge, the Ratpack found the place apparently empty. Roscuro politely knocked on the door to Sheila’s office, but received no response. The Ratpack started checking other doors, looking for a small room with chairs they could sit in and talk. The first room was a large dining room with seats for nearly 20 people. This was clearly unnecessary for the 5 ratfolk and single grippli. The next room was more to their needs, but also contained Sheila, sewing up a wound on her left arm with supplies from a healer’s kit. Roscuro apologized for interrupting and asked if there was a small conference room the Ratpack could use. Sheila, somewhat nonplused, directed the group upstairs, second door on the left. Roscuro thanked her and closed the door behind him. [I honestly just now thought “maybe we should have offered to heal her with magic?” Then again, Roscuro is LN and she seemed to have it under control, so maybe not. He has a very focused mindset and I tend to get wrapped up in it during play.]
Upstairs, the Ratpack found a small room with a table and chairs with some mostly empty bookshelves on the walls. The group made themselves as comfortable as they could [human-style chairs] and Swamprover shared the knowledge she had been given [the Info Dump].
The Info Dump:
- The kidnapper was a male elf named Leruu.
- He is a mage of power [able to cast 5th level spells]
- He is a contractor for the Night Scales, specializing in kidnappings and assassinations
- He hires small teams for each job, never repeat-using any of them
- He has a safehouse in Ordellia
- This is the location Leon told the group about [Session 20]
- It is known to have a teleportation portal
- He moves around frequently
- He favors the Enchantment, Evocation, and Conjuration schools of magic.
- The Wreckwash Blades attempted to scry Frederick’s location and were blocked, so Frederick is being kept in a shielded location or is on another plane.
- Frederick does business in Magnimar, Korvosa, and Kaer Maga, so whoever had him kidnapped is likely to be from one of those cities. The Night Scales have branches here in Magnimar and in Kaer Maga, which might be suggestive.
Roscuro felt that this was a respectable amount of information for less than a day of gathering on a dangerous and powerful assassin.
The Ratpack then discussed how they wanted to raid Leruu’s safehouse in Ordellia. Marativy was willing to go in alone, but Roscuro suggested smoking the mage and any henchmen out might be the safer pass. After a short discussion on tactics and creating a rough plan of attack, the group left the lodge and headed to Ordellia, making a small side trip to an alchemist’s shop on the way so Roscuro could pick up 2 flasks of acid, 2 tindertwigs, and 5 smokesticks.
~3:00
The Ratpack quietly encircled the Leruu’s safehouse. It was a single-story residence made of wood and appeared to be abandoned. Based on Marativy’s earlier scouting mission [again, Session 20], the group knew it wasn’t. Roscuro snuck up to the back wall of the free-standing structure and applied his first bottle of acid to the wall. He did not get the bottle even and a lot spilled out, failing to burn all the way through [I rolled a 3 on a d20 to apply it correctly]. This was why Roscuro bought two vials in the first place. He applied the second vial successfully, burning a hole through the wall large enough for a smokestick. Roscuro then used a tindertwig to light a torch, from which he lit the first smoke stick and shoved it through the hole in the wall. He repeated these actions four more times, shoving all 5 lit smokesticks into the building. Roscuro then withdrew to the roof of a nearby building where Winston and Swamprover were waiting, so he could see more of the situation.
Roscuro expected the 5 smokesticks to fill the interior with smoke, driving the inhabitants out, for fresh air if nothing else. Instead, not much happened. After a minute Marativy snuck into the building through the concealed door on the front [the actual front door being a noise alarm trap].
Marativy found the interior empty of people and smoke. There were three interior doors, which Marativy investigated. Each door led to a room. The second door opened to a room full of smoke, which billowed out into the rest of the building. Searching around as the smoke dissipated, Marativy located a secret door to stairs down in the floor of the main room.
Roscuro, concerned that nothing was happening, sent Swamprover around to the front of the building to see what was happening and report back. Swamprover was seen running around to the front by the Templeton and Zitch, which alerted them. Swamprover entered the building through the open concealed door. Looking around she did not initially see Marativy studying the open secret door. The opening was full of darkness that they should have been able to see through. Using a lit torch and her wayfinder, Marativy did science and determined that there was magical darkness in the stairwell. The light function of the wayfinder was strong enough to cancel out the magical darkness, which allowed them to see the stairs clearly [the entire party has Darkvision].
Marativy went down the stairs with her wayfinder active. The stairs were 30 feet long and the middle 10 feet were sticky. With a slight sneer on her face, Marativy leapt past the sticky section, landing gracefully at the foot of the stairs…right on a pressure plate that activated a paralytic gas trap. Marativy [failed her save and] was paralyzed in place by the large gas cloud. Swamprover, who received a lesser dose, was not paralyzed [she made her save] but had no intention of walking into the gas cloud.
When Marativy was paralyzed, Zitch’s Ward on her dropped, alerting Zitch that she was probably in danger. He hopped onto Templeton’s back and Templeton flew them into the house. This alerted Roscuro and Winston that something was up. Roscuro ran around to the front of the house while Winston held position in case guards or Leruu showed up.
Inside, Roscuro handed over to Zitch the Earrings of Telepathic Communication as Zitch had pierced ears while Roscuro did not. Zitch put the earrings on and Roscuro asked him to establish communication with Winston, so he could warn them if anyone outside starts walking up, and then with Marativy, to find out what happened. When Zitch contacted Marativy, she was still cursing. A lot. But eventually she realized Zitch was there and she explained what happened.
Swamprover identified the poison gas as a derivative of jelly fish poison. After a quick consultation with Winston [through Zitch], she stated it should disperse soon, but might have some lingering after effects. Impatient, Roscuro stopped waiting and went down the stairs. He leapt past the sticky section and landed beyond Marativy, safely. His immense fortitude kept him from succumbing to the gas. [Monks have really good saving throws.] He took up a defensive position next to Marativy and waited for the gas to disperse.
Around an immediate corner from the bottom of the stairs was a magical lab/storage room. Once the gas dispersed enough, the rest of the group came down the stairs, avoiding the sticky section. Swamprover and Zitch both cast Detect Magic and looked over the room. Both announced nothing magical was in view. Marativy gradually regained her mobility [losing only 1 point of Constitution from the poison] and started searching the room for traps, which took thirty minutes.
While Marativy was slowly clearing the room of traps, the rest of the group started looking around. Roscuro searched a desk, finding paper, ink, and writing implements, which he took. Swamprover was investigating a crate on the floor that Marativy warned had a sticky top. The crate turned out to be a mimic, attacking Swamprover with surprise! It took a big bite out of the grippli [12 points of damage].
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[Turns out a sticky top was a warning that it was a mimic, not an actual trap. The players were not entirely satisfied with this answer, but you play the hand you’re dealt. Smart readers might notice something we missed until it was too late.]
Ratpack
Book 1:
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Book 2:
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