[Day 49 – Skirmish with the Unknown Mage explodes.]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened June 28, 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
Winston – male ratfolk 6th level Gunslinger
Via Roll20
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 6th level Summoner (Synthesist)
Autumn
Day 49
Round 6 of the combat!
The unknown mage was no longer in view, the Ratpack were fairly certain that the two images of him to the south were illusion. Marativy started running the rooves of the buildings to get to the images and verify that was what they were. Zitch actively looked around for some sign of the unknown mage. Templeton waited for the unknown mage to do something and Winston climbed onto Templeton’s back to ride against the mage with Templeton. Swamprover swung down into the building the mage had been on top of and started searching. Roscuro followed so they could search faster.
The unknown mage cast a spell on Winton, but this would not be noticeable until too late. Marativy leapt across a street, landing next to one of the images on an adjacent building. She swung on it and it immediately dispersed. Zitch flew nearer to Marativy and healed the damage she had taken earlier in the fight with a Healing Hex. Winston, dominated by the mage, turned while sitting on Templeton’s back and rapid fired his musket at Zitch, catching Zitch by surprise and shot him repeatedly [one of the hits was a critical success]. Templeton, alarmed at Winston’s actions, immediately grappled the gunslinger, but it was too late, the damage had been done. Inside the building Swamprover and Roscuro heard the shots, but assumed that Winston was shooting at the mage, so they continued their search, hoping to find Frederick. The found stairs down and up into the attic [they were on the third floor], which seemed promising.
While the unknown mage did something the adventurers could not see, Zitch bled out from his wounds and died. [Zitch had a 15 Constitution and Winston’s attack took him to -14 hit points. The roll to stabilize and not die has a -1 per point below 0, so the roll for Zitch had a -14, meaning that Zitch’s player had to roll a natural 20 to not bleed out. He didn’t, not even getting close, so Zitch lost another hit point. Having negative hit points equal to the character’s Constitution is when death happens and Zitch died.] Marativy, realizing Zitch was dead, continued her search, hoping to find either the mage or Frederick. Winston, with no orders, remained passive in Templeton’s grip. Templeton called for help while keeping Winston pinned. Swamprover, hearing Templeton, went to a nearby window and climbed back onto the roof, finding Templeton pinning Winston. She called out for Roscuro to “get up here in a hurry,” so he did. He asked Winston what had happened and Winston, in an eerily calm voice said, “The guy said to kill Zitch, so I had to.” Roscuro looked around and spotted movement in a courtyard to the north, sandwiched between some buildings to the north. He quietly shared this information with Templeton and Swamprover.
To the south, Marativy was investigating a building and heard some muffled noise, so she went inside, doing her best to not be seen [which she is REALLY good at]. Templeton, on Roscuro's suggestion, dragged Winston south across the peak of the roof and potentially out of the mage’s line of sight. Winston passively let him. Swamprover cast Web at the courtyard, filling much of it with sticky strands. Roscuro leapt across a street [monks have crazy jump capabilities at 6th level, plus Templeton's Haste spell was still in effect] and ran along the roof to try and get a better view into the courtyard. He spotted the mage moving in the courtyard, but stepped on some of the sticky strands of the Web spell.
The mage, which Roscuro could now see matched the description of Leruu, cast some spell and retreated into the courtyard’s building. Marativy continued her exploration to the south, locating a concealed door under some stairs. Templeton continued to pin the unresisting Winston. Swamprover ignited the webs in the courtyard [I didn’t make note of exactly how she did it]. Roscuro extracted himself from the stick webs, and then jumped past the webbing to the roof of the building Leruu was in, peering down on the far side, waiting for Leruu to exit the building.
Leruu instead cast Dimension Door [Roscuro has seen that spell a lot recently and now recognizes it] to exit the building to…somewhere. To the south, Marativy discovered a trap on the concealed door and started disarming it. It was an Exploding Rune, detonated, and caught her in the explosion. Templeton took Winston’s musket away from him and then resumed pinning the gunslinger. Swamprover started casting Rain of Frogs at where she thought the mage was located. Roscuro looked hard for any evidence of the Leruu’s location, but could not locate the mage.
Leruu did something the adventurers could not see. In the south, behind the now exploded door was a small chamber with ladder descending into a dug-out cellar. Exploring quickly, Marativy found a person in a hood tied up to a chair. She removed the hood – it was Frederick! Templeton continued to pin the placid Winston. Swamprover finished casting Rain of Frogs, dropping a swarm of frogs in the now empty courtyard and then snuck away. Roscuro ran back across the roves to where Templeton and Winston were hiding.
Down at the teleportation gate, the black tentacles spell expired. The mage mentally sent Winston new orders: “The frog must die!” To the south, underground, Marativy did a quick check to verify Frederick was actually Frederick and not another illusion and then freed him with her wakizashi. Back on the roof, Winston received his new orders and immediately set to breaking free from Templeton’s pin. He did so, and in response, Templeton grabbed Winston’s musket and flew away with it, over to a nearby well. Swamprover returned to the hiding place and cast Force Bolt at Winston, who was staring at her with intent. Roscuro attempted to land a Stunning Fist on Winston but failed. [Stunning Fist should be a touch attack and needs a higher save DC to make it useful - this was only the third time I ever had Roscuro try to use it because it is generally a waste of time.]
Leruu sent his flying sword to attack Roscuro, nearly cutting the monk in half. Roscuro called for a retreat to the teleportation circle in response. Marativy used her shard to create an image of Frederick still tied up and the explosion having never happened and the she and Frederick climbed the ladder up to the ground floor. Winston, without his musket but filled with a need to kill Swamprover, pulled a vial of alchemist’s fire and threw it at the grippli, hitting her and splashing Roscuro. Templeton used the musket as a scoop, filling its barrel with mud and rocks before dumping it in the well. Swamprover fled to the teleportation gate. Roscuro ran to the gate by a round-about path, picking up Zitch’s corpse along the way and jumping off the edge of the three-story structure, landing safely on the portal. [Sixth-level monks don’t fear long drops to the ground due to their 30 feet of Slow Fall.]
Leruu withdrew the flying sword, possibly because he could no longer see his targets. Marativy and Frederick ran out into the street, conveniently near Templeton, who Marativy flagged down. Winston pulled out another vial of alchemist’s fire and moved to the roof edge to get a view of his target, Swamprover. Templeton flew through Marativy and Frederick, scooping them up on the way to the teleportation portal, just managing to reach it before Swamprover activated it, teleporting everyone there back to the basement in Magnimar.
Roscuro set down Zitch’s corpse, and passed out the witch’s cure moderate wounds potions to Swamprover, Marativy, and himself as all three were seriously wounded. Roscuro also quaffed his personal potion of cure light wounds. This healed the group most of the way up, but not completely.
The group put together a hasty plan to try and retrieve Winston: Templeton would cast Invisibility and Mage Armor on himself and one other, sneak back through the portal, and they would quickly look for Winston to grab and drag back here.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[High-level mind control spells are terrible for stealing player agency, especially during a side quest. Leruu seemed to be particularly vicious about it. We definitely felt ambushed by it.]
Ratpack
Book 1:
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Book 2:
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