Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 34

[Day 62 – The Hidden Shrine of Nocticula]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened September 13, 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

Via Roll20

Marativy – female ratfolk 6th level Ninja

Hrefna – female changeling 5th level Omdura

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

Roscuro – male ratfolk 6th level Monk

Swamprover – female grippli 5th level Wizard

Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 6th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

NPCs

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

Ariphi – female tiefling 5th level Rogue

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 62 (Continued)

Hrefna and Zitch cast spells to heal and restore Roscuro from the effects of the poison gas.  The perfume closet was nothing but glass shards at this point, but Roscuro asked Zitch to use the wand of detect secret doors to see if there were any secret doors in that room or the crooked passage to it.  The cave giantess had told the Ratpack that there were two things behind the secret door that brought them here and the Ratpack had only found one.

Zitch used the wand.  There were no secret doors or compartments in the perfume closet, but there was a secret door in the passage leading to it, right where the passage seemed to go around something.  Roscuro opened the secret door and found a fancy room that was clearly a shrine.  There was an altar at the far end of the room with some objects on it and the ceiling was a mass of dark fog.

Roscuro, Marativy, and Swamprover entered the shrine.  Marativy and Roscuro stopped just inside the door so Marativy could search for traps, but Swamprover walked all the way in, nearly making it to the altar before the dark fog on the ceiling dripped down and deposited four shadow dogs with long, whip-like, tails in the room, two of which were between Swamprover and the only exit!

The two dogs between Swamprover and the door attacked and hit Roscuro and Templeton [who was in the doorway, Marativy having concealed herself was not a valid target].  One of the other two attacked Swamprover [missed] and the last one howled, causing panic in Templeton, Ariphi, Hrefna, and Marativy!  Hrefna turned and fled, followed immediately by Marativy.  Swamprover defensively cast Burning Hands, catching two of the shadow dogs in the arc of flames.  Templeton fled while Zitch cast Protective Luck on Roscuro and then moved to a better position in the hallway outside the shrine.  Gridik cast Magic Missile on one of the dogs and then stepped for a better line of fire.  Roscuro, not wanting to abandon Swamprover to the shadow dogs [although he had to think about it a bit], unleashed a flurry of blows on the shadow dog that attacked him, landing one blow and hitting only shadow with another.  [The shadow mastiffs have a displacement effect due to partially being shadow and all hits have a 50% chance to pass through shadows and do no damage.]

Three of the dogs attacked Roscuro.  Thanks to Zitch’s Protective Luck only one blow landed, a tail attack from the third dog that failed to trip Roscuro.  Swamprover was not as lucky and was both tripped by the fourth dog and bit.  Hrefna and Marativy continued to flee, but gradually came to their senses [the panic wore off after two rounds].  Swamprover got up from the floor acrobatically, avoiding an attack of opportunity from the dog standing over her, and climbed the wall to get away from the dog.  Templeton fled again, gradually coming to his senses, but he was now all the way back at the kitchen area.  Zitch re-added the Protective Luck to Roscuro and cackled to maintain it.  Ariphi fled again, gradually coming to her senses.  Gridik, in perfect position, used the bond with his ring [his magic focus] to cast Fire Breath, burning all three of the dogs attacking Roscuro, killing one of them.  Roscuro flurried again, again landing a single solid hit.

Two of the remaining dogs attacked Roscuro, getting hits in despite the Protective Luck.  The third dog attacked Swamprover and bit the grippli, who was not quite high enough to avoid attacks yet.  Hrefna, once again in control of herself, ran all the way back to the fight, trusting that nothing would attack her along the way.  [Run provided 4x movement but at the cost of a big hit to armor class.]  Marativy headed back to the fight but at a more cautious pace.  In the shrine, Swamprover cast a Lightning Bolt at the dog attacking her and edged a bit higher on the wall.  Templeton flew back to the fight as fast as he could, arriving back just behind Hrefna.  Zitch took a five-foot step to Roscuro and cast Cure Moderate Wounds as Roscuro was now heavily injured.  Zitch then cackled to maintain the Protective Luck.  Ariphi ran back to the fight, passing up Marativy on the way.  Gridik released another breath of fire, scorching the two dogs attacking Roscuro.  [Fire Breath allows the caster to breathe fire in a 15-foot cone three times, each time rolling fewer dice.]  Roscuro flurried again, landing a single blow, but it was enough to drop that dog.

The dog near Roscuro decided Gridik was a bigger threat and stepped over to attack the kobold, successfully biting and tripping him.  The other dog turned away from out-of-range Swamprover and attacked Roscuro, getting in a bite.  Hrefna, back in the fight, used a divine touch effect to damage the shadow dog attacking Gridik.  Marativy used ki to speed her step and arrived in Roscuro’s space, also attacking the dog on Gridik but missing.  Swamprover, from her position up on the wall, cast Snow Ball at the dog attacking Roscuro, but only hit shadow.  Templeton attacked the dog on Gridik with all his attacks, hitting twice and killing the dog.  Zitch placed an Evil Eye of the last dog and cackled.  Ariphi attempted to acrobatically get past the dog to flank it, failed, and then missed with her attack.  This turned out to be convenient as Gridik released his last use of Fire Breath from the floor and killed the last shadow dog.

Zitch placed his healing hex on Swamprover and Gridik, healing Gridik completely.  Hrefna cast Cure Moderate Wounds on Roscuro, healing him the rest of the way.  Zitch then used his wand of cure light wounds to finish healing up Swamprover.

In the meantime, Marativy checked the room for any further traps and found none.  Behind the blood-stain altar was a mural of Nocticula with her arms out from her sides with a globe of darkness hovering above the upturned palms.  Zitch identified this as Nocticula back when she was still a demonlord.  Marativy discovered there were words behind the black globes.  The left orb concealed a list of those consigned to the Lady’s Light with only one name left, Ashamintallu.  The right orb concealed words that said, “Those who would seek my inner sanctum need only speak my artist’s name.”  On the altar were a silver scroll tube, a symbol of a seven-pointed crown with thorny vines, a curved blade, a blood-stained gold cup, a bronze incense burner, and some incense.

While Marativy and Roscuro puzzled over the riddle, Gridik cast Locate Object to try and find the shard.  He received no answer, so it was not within the range of the spell.

Marativy said aloud, “Amivadeus Yasrin,” the name of the artist who painted Porn Hall, and disappeared in a flash of light!

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[The senior members of the adventuring group received enough experience during this session to finally level.  Unfortunately, they still need to make it back to camp alive and rest overnight before getting the level.  With Marativy suddenly being teleported deeper into the dungeon, that is not as straight forward as we’d like.]

[Our entire group is now playing remotely via Roll20 as the Other GM is in training for his new job and doesn’t get home until just before game time.  As he needs to eat dinner before the game, it is more convenient for him to go home and run the game from there than stop for dinner, get to my place, and eat while running the game or delaying start until 30 minutes later.  This more or less works, although anytime we have connectivity issues we lose 10-15 minutes getting everyone back to the point where they can be heard.  Part of that issue is Roll20 and part is due to the Wi-Fi issues.  This will last until mid-November and we all look forward to it ending.  The downside is that when it ends, the Other GM will get his actual work assignment and it is quite possible he will be assigned to another city or even state.  We’ll deal with that when it happens, but we are all hoping he gets a slot here in the Houston area.]

Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

…

Session 32 – Conclusion

Book 2:

Session 1

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

…

Session 30

Session 31

Session 32

Session 33

Session 35

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 33

[Day 62 – Against the Grey Maidens or The Grippli Has a Fireball Oops!]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened September 6, 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)

Hrefna – female changeling 5th level Omdura

NPCs

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

Ariphi – female tiefling 5th level Rogue

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 62

Morning

The Ratpack started the day with another superb breakfast prepared by Mel.  The group discussed plans on going after the vial Mochtau requested.  There were a large number of unknowns about breaking into the barracks of the Grey Maidens, finding their bathhouse area (hopefully unnoticed), and then locating a secret door therein.  Actually, locating the secret door would be the easiest thing, but accessing the bathhouse of an all-woman mercenary group without a fight was going to be very challenging.  Roscuro was banking on the fact that not all of the Grey Maidens were charmed by “Sorshen” or at least not all the time and maybe some negotiations might be possible.

After breakfast the adventurers geared up and walked over to the troglodyte caves.  Inside the caves, the Ratpack checked in with Sulgesh, their leader [thanks to the Ratpack; see Book 2, Session 7, for details].  Roscuro told Sulgesh the snappy-bitey-pinchy bugs were recovering and the adventurers had killed some new big bugs.  Sulgesh thanked the group for the warning and said goodbye as the group took the passage to the deeper caves.

Two Hours Later

After making their way through the narrow tunnels to the underground entrance to the dungeon under the Lady’s Light and entering the dungeon, the adventurers were once again in the water filled cavern with the heptagon plinth the glass golem once stood on [destroyed by the Ratpack in Book 2, Session 12].  The heptagon was still emanating an ominous hum, so the adventurers avoided it.

To get to the lower level of the dungeon, they went to the teleportation mural and kissed its feet, which teleported them down to the lower caverns.  They piled into the waiting boats and rowed across this cavern to the adjacent cavern that had the compulsion field.  They were alert for any aquatic monsters and to keep those who succumbed to the compulsion field from jumping into the water.

At the grotto that was the dumping area for the compulsion field, Marativy went to work on the secret door that led to the Grey Maiden barracks area.  Using the magic gloves recovered from the sea hag [Book 2, Session 15], she was able to disarm the Alarm spell on the secret door [which kept the Mass Hold Person spell it was attached to from going off as well].

Beyond the secret door was a cooking area with rough stone walls and a fire, a big pot, and some chopping tables.  No one was in the room at the time, so the Ratpack quietly entered the room.  On the far side of the room was a red metal door.  The panels of this door showed Sorshen performing various sex acts with a range of humanoids.

Roscuro predicted the panel to open the door would be the one with Sorshen having sex with the succubus as she seemed to have a thing for them.  Zitch used the wand of detect secret doors to see if there were any other hidden exits.  There were none, but, surprisingly, the red metal door detected as a secret door and after concentrating on it, Zitch was able to determine that the panel that opened the “secret” door was the one depicting Sorshen having sex with the succubus.

The group readied for whatever was on the other side of the door and Roscuro pressed the panel.  The door split in tow and retracted into the wall [like all the red metal doors had].  On the other side was a dining/ready room with a long eating table around which were sitting eight surprised Grey Maidens.  There were three doors on the north and south walls and a large door on the far wall.  The Grey Maidens stood and pointed their swords at the group of adventurers standing in the doorway.

Roscuro decided to try diplomacy and called out, “Halinda says ‘hello!’” as a greeting.  This caused the Grey Maidens to pause for a second before replying.  As they started to reply, Swamprover cast a Fireball into the room, centered on the Grey Maidens, where it exploded.

Marativy advanced into the room to attack, but it was unclear if she was attacking or merely threatening one of the Grey Maidens [she rolled abysmally].  Hrefna attempted to bluff that the fireball was a test to de-escalate the situation.  The Grey Maidens might have bought her words until Templeton loudly stated, “We are willing to discuss the terms of your surrender.”  At this point the Grey Maidens attacked the Ratpack and the fight started in earnest.

The Ratpack overwhelmed the Grey Maidens fairly quickly [the fight only lasted three rounds], killing them.  Afterwards, Roscuro turned to Swamprover and asked, “What was that?”  Swamprover shrugged and said it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The Ratpack quickly searched the room and the bodies, finding two potions of cure light wounds and a bag of gold coins [472gp].  The six side doors each led to a sleeping area with bunkbeds and chests of spare clothes.  Roscuro waited at the far door for the others to check the side rooms and then reassemble before opening it.  As he opened it, five more Grey Maidens attacked from what turned out to be the bathhouse.  This fight was shorter with the same result.  The bathhouse had another door on the far end.

While the bodies were moved aside, Hrefna produced a healing aura that healed the Ratpack to full health.  Zitch then used his wand to locate the secret door on the right [southern] wall, incidentally verifying there were no other secret doors.  Roscuro opened the secret door, behind which was a corridor.  Roscuro led the entire group into the corridor and then called for the secret door to be closed.  This would hide the Ratpack from any avenging Grey Maidens that might show up, at least for a little while.

The corridor turned right, then left, then left again, and finally right before ending at a set of double doors.  Marativy checked the doors and found no traps on them.  The rest of the Ratpack backed up and then Roscuro and Marativy opened the doors.  An overwhelming flood of vapors flowed out of the small room beyond.  Marativy started babbling, having lost her wits [failed a Fortitude save].  Roscuro was able to keep his wits and led her back to the rest of the group where the vapors were not as thick.  Marativy had no idea what was happening and attacked Roscuro, thinking he was an enemy [for 8 points of damage!].

Once out of the thickest part of the vapors, Marativy regained her wits and apologized for attacking Roscuro.  Roscuro accepted and said he would go retrieve the needed vial.  He tied a cloth across his muzzle to filter the air some and Zitch and Hrefna cast protective magics on him.

Roscuro went back into the storage room, the thick vapors stinging his eyes.  There were several pedestals with vials of various sizes and shapes on them.  A glass orb hung by a golden chain from the high ceiling, a golden light emanating from the contents of the vial.  Roscuro located the large vial Mochtau had described – it was sitting by itself on a pedestal.  Unfortunately, when Roscuro picked it up, it triggered a trap!  The globe of liquid hanging from the chain burst, shattering several adjacent vials which started filling the room with a gaseous poison.  At the same time, the doors slammed shut and locked!

Roscuro put the vial that was his goal into his handy haversack to protect it and free up his hands.  He called out for help and started attacking the door hinges to little effect.  The rest of the Ratpack came to Roscuro’s aid.  [Someone whose name I neglected to write down] worked at getting the doors open, but it took a couple of tries.  Gridik called out for Roscuro to get as far off the floor as he could.  Roscuro did this by leaping up to the golden chain and climbing it to the top.  This got him out of the worst of the poison gas, but it was still slowly killing him [he failed a Fortitude save and lost points of Constitution].  When the doors were force open a bit, Gridik cast Fire Breath and filled the lower half of the room with flames.  This caused an explosion that burned off the poison gas but also shattered all of the glass vials in the room, burning off untold wealth in rare scents.

Roscuro unhooked the gold chain from the ceiling and safely dropped down to the floor.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[I’m kind of glad the Other GM never told us how much treasure we destroyed in the perfume closet.  I suspect it was not an inconsequential amount.]

Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

…

Session 32 – Conclusion

Book 2:

Session 1

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

…

Session 30

Session 31

Session 32

Session 34

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 32

[Day 61 – Back to the surface for dinner and evening watches.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened August 16, 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)

Hrefna – female changeling 5th level Omdura

NPCs

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

Ariphi – female tiefling 5th level Rogue

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 61

Afternoon

The Ratpack discussed their options.  It was some time in the afternoon, but they were not certain when, being underground.  They were standing on a stone ledge/landing, just outside the throne room of Mochtau, the queen of the cave giants, a bound servant [slave] of the Runelord of Lust.  They had made a deal with Mochtau to recover a vial from a hidden storage area in exchange for guidance on the location of the shard of the Shattered Star they were hunting.

The group felt they might be able to take on another fight, but nothing as large as the rest of the Grey Maidens, whose barracks they needed to travel through to get to the hidden storage area.  They decided that now would be a good time to return to their camp on the surface, before they became exhausted enough to be easy pickings for whoever or whatever they might run across on the way up.

Before leaving the lake-filled cavern they were in, Templeton and Zitch flew up to the nearby waterfall to see if it provided access to yet another section of the dungeon.  Closer inspection suggested this was another source of water from the elemental plane of water.  This was the second water source in the underground complex the group had discovered, with no outflow.  Why hadn’t the entire place filled over the last 7000 years?

Templeton and Zitch flew around the cavern edge to see if they had simply missed an outflow.  What Zitch saw instead was a line of runes that went completely around the immense cavern, just at the water level.  These runes were very similar to those found on a Thassilonian fountain back in Magnimar the group had found that destroyed any water that crossed them.  The entire cave complex was a giant fountain, magically importing water from the elemental planes and then simply destroying any surplus!  This was a gross display of magical power and something the Ratpack was starting to expect from anything the Runelords had a hand in.

Curiosity satisfied [for lack of a better term], the Ratpack climbed back into the boats and rowed through the tunnel that connected this lake-filled cavern with the next one.  The next one had a compulsion field covering it that forced those falling under its power to ignore the tunnel the adventurers were in and swim to the shore of a nearby cave [and be eaten by any monsters in the water along the way].  The adventurers had discovered this trap when they first entered this cavern by descending down the waterfall that connected it with yet another lake-filled cavern upstream.

At the edge of the compulsion field, the adventurers worked out a plan to get back to the upper cavern [and the way out].  Templeton would receive Zitch’s Ward to bolster his defenses against the compulsion field [+2 to WILL save].  Then he would carry the adventurers two at a time and fly up the waterfall passage to the upper cavern, depositing them on the sandy beach in front of Porn Hall.

The first two Templeton carried were Hrefna and Swamprover.  Templeton flew as quickly as he could through the compulsion field and then up the waterfall channel, arriving at the sandy beach before either of his riders succumbed to the field.  Templeton flew back down to the waiting adventurers.

The second group were Gridik and Ariphi riding Templeton while Zitch flew along side.  Gridik succumbed to the field as they flew through it and attempted to jump off of Templeton.  Ariphi noticed this and grabbed the kobold before he got away.  Unfortunately, this distraction led to Ariphi succumbing to the compulsion field.  Zitch and Templeton noticed things were happening.  Zitch grabbed Ariphi as she leapt free and Templeton swooped down to catch Gridik by the collar.  They flew up the waterfall passage and deposited Gridik and Ariphi there, tying them up until the compulsion relented.  Templeton flew back down to where Roscuro and Marativy waited.

Marativy was very concerned she would not be able to resist the compulsion field and asked Roscuro to tie her up before they flew through it.  He did so.  On the flight through the field, Marativy did succumb early and was able to escape from the ropes, but Roscuro grabbed her and held on until they reached the upper cavern.  Marativy had to be re-tied up until the compulsion eventually wore off.

Once the entire group was clear of the compulsion to swim down the waterfall to the lower cavern, Gridik and Templeton went upstream to the next beach where boats would be.  They brought these boats back to the sandy beach on the upper lake.  While they did this, Roscuro and Marativy went through Porn Hall to Gnaeus’ old room and retrieved the broken automaton heads, packing them in Marativy’s box of holding.  When they returned, the boats were ready and the entire group poled the boats back to the first beach.

An Hour or So Later

Working their way through the narrow caves that connected the dungeon to the surface, the adventurers arrived at the nexus cave [where several tunnels met] and discovered some of the bitey-pinchy-bugs had grown large feeding on the corpses of the previous giant bugs.  After a short fight, the adventures had reasserted their position as top of the heap, killing the six larger bugs.  Hrefna was bitten and poisoned during the fight and Roscuro got bug guts all over himself.  Gridik helped Roscuro clean up with Prestidigitation and Zitch helped Hrefna with the wand of lesser restoration.  Marativy harvested two of the claws as trophies.

An Hour and a Half After That

The Ratpack returned to their camp on the surface.  Mel, their hired halfling cook, reported dinner was nearly ready, so the group quickly cleaned up from the expedition.  The meal was excellent and drew several envious stares from the adjacent merchant camp.

Third Watch

Late in the night, Zitch, Templeton, and Gridik were on watch and observed some bright lights moving around in the swampy areas south of camp.  Zitch identified them as “blindheims” that hunted their prey by blinding it with bright light they emitted from their eyes.  Word was passed around the two camps to reduce any noise further.  After a long while the blindheims finished whatever they were doing and left the area, heading further south towards the river.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[Gridik and Hrefna had enough experience points to level, Hrefna thanks to the bugs fought on the way back.  We suspect the Other GM ran that encounter to provide the needed experience.  No complaints on our end if that is what happened.]

Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

…

Session 32 – Conclusion

Book 2:

Session 1

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

…

Session 30

Session 31

Session 33

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 31

[Day 61 – Team Teleport reports, crossing the Lake of Ghouls, and speaking to the Queen of Giants.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened August 16, 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)

Hrefna – female changeling 5th level Omdura

NPCs

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

Ariphi – female tiefling 5th level Rogue

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 61

Early Afternoon

Team Teleport, consisting of Templeton, Roscuro, Marativy, and Hrefna, were on a stone jetty that reached out into the furthest of the underground caverns the Ratpack had discovered under the Lady’s Light, a monumental statue of the Runelord of Lust, Sorshen.  Templeton recognized the cavern as the one beyond the compulsion field he had investigated alone before being attacked by the undead giant bats.  As a result, the group was quiet to avoid attracting any other guardians in this cavern.  Templeton reported that there was another landing across the lake with a red metal door.

Zitch, with the rest of the Ratpack in the stairs from the Chamber of Grey Flame, made use of his earrings of telepathic communication to speak with Roscuro and find out where the teleporting mural sent them.  Roscuro reported that it led to the cavern the compulsion field was hiding and both Team Teleport and the landing area were safe.  The rest of the Ratpack made use of the teleportation and shortly the Ratpack was reunited.

While there were three boats available, the Ratpack decided to use only two.  Roscuro, Marativy, and Gridik were in the first boat with Roscuro rowing.  Swamprover, Hrefna, and Ariphi were in the second boat with Hrefna rowing.  Zitch rode on Templeton’s back as Templeton flew.  Concerned about being attacked by a spellcaster, the two rowboats kept a 30-foot distance from each other as they rowed across the lake.

At the mid-point, the arms of unknown creatures reached up out of the water and grabbed the sides of the boats, preparatory to flipping the boats!

Swamprover used her tongue to deliver a Shocking Grasp spell to one of the attackers, instantly regretting it due to the taste.  Zitch cast Protective Luck on Marativy.  Roscuro performed a flurry of blows, only one of which landed effectively.  The things under the water attacked, flipping the first boat and dumping Roscuro, Marativy, and Gridik into the water.  Back on the second boat, Ariphi struck one of the things while Hrefna killed another.  Templeton flew back to the swamped first boat and dropped the end of a rope for Roscuro, Marativy, and Gridik.  Gridik grabbed onto the rope but was unable to climb out of the water [failed a climb check, which was not surprising as he had a modifier of -1 to the roll].  Marativy, in the water, grabbed the rope and slashed at one of the attackers, injuring it but not killing it.  It was now obvious that the attackers were aquatic ghouls, which lent a sense of urgency to those in the water.

Swamprover cast Force Bolt at one of the aquatic ghouls, wounding it.  Zitch put Protective Luck on  Gridik and cackled.  Roscuro grabbed the rope Templeton was dangling before throwing a punch and missing one of the aquatic ghouls.  More of the aquatic ghouls arrived and joined in the attack.  Gridik was attacked, but missed due to a combination of Protective Luck and bodyguard actions from Roscuro and Marativy.  Roscuro was attacked, but they missed due to bodyguard actions from Marativy.  Unfortunately, Marativy was hit once, despite the Protective Luck and a bodyguard action from Roscuro.  Luckily, Marativy was able to shrug off the paralytic effect of the strike [made her save].  At the second rowboat, the increased number of attackers were able to flip the boat.  Ariphi continued her attack on one of the ghouls.  Hrefna climbed onto the flipped rowboat and cast Spiritual Weapon.  Templeton flew ahead to the stone landing the group was attempting to get to, dragging the rope behind him with Roscuro, Marativy, and Gridik all clinging to it.  He was able to get them adjacent to the landing.  Gridik climbed up onto the landing and cast Magic Missile at the ghouls attacking the second boat.  Marativy joined Gridik on the landing, drawing her bow and shooting an arrow to no effect.

Swamprover attempted to climb onto the overturned second rowboat, but was successfully attacked by a ghoul [she invoked an attack of opportunity from the ghoul], landing paralyzed atop the boat.  Her familiar, Snek, cast a Ray of Frost at the offending ghoul.  Zitch cackled to maintain the various Protective Lucks he had cast and held onto Templeton.  Roscuro climbed out of the water onto the adjacent landing and readied his crossbow.  The aquatic ghouls swarmed the second boat, but due to luck on the adventurers part, only landed one blow and Hrefna shrugged off the paralysis effect from the hit [made her save].  Ariphi climbed onto the overturned boat and then slashed at her foe, finally killing it.  Hrefna attacked another wounded ghoul multiple times and with Spiritual Weapon, killing it.  Templeton flew back to boat 2 for another air rescue.  Gridik asked Roscuro for advice on targets and was told to aim for the left one.  He did so, hitting it squarely with a Force Bolt.  Marativy fired another arrow from her bow, but the waterlogged missile went far off target [she rolled really low to hit, again].

Swamprover remained paralyzed on the overturned boat, her familiar doing its best to keep her from sliding off.  Zitch cast Protective Luck on Templeton and cackled.  Roscuro shot a ghoul with his crossbow and reloaded.  The remaining aquatic ghouls attacked those on the second boat, fortunately with little effect.  Ariphi slashed another ghoul, with Hrefna striking and killing that target and wounding another.  Templeton arrived at the second boat and hovered over it, dangling the rope for the adventurers.  Gridik plinked the same ghoul with another Force Bolt while Marativy missed again with her bow.

Zitch cast Protective Luck on Hrefna and cackled [I'm skipping Swamprover at this point as she remains paralyzed until after the fight].  Roscuro fired his crossbow again but missed due to the ghoul being partially submerged.  He cursed quietly as he reloaded.  The two remaining ghouls attacked and missed hitting the desperate adventurers.  Ariphi grabbed the dangling rope and swung at a ghoul, missing the ghoul.  Hrefna concentrated all of her attacks on the same ghoul and killed it, leaving only one ghoul active.  Templeton flew up, lifting only Ariphi, and flew back towards the landing.  Gridik barely hit the last ghoul with a Force Bolt [minimal damage] while Marativy missed yet again with her bow.

Zitch cast Protective Luck on Ariphi as the only valid target and cackled.  Roscuro missed the last ghoul and reloaded.  The ghoul missed hitting Hrefna.  While Ariphi held onto the rope, Hrefna focused all of her attacks on the remaining ghoul, critically hitting it with her last attack and killing it.

Templeton dropped Ariphi and Zitch off at the stone landing with the others.  Roscuro packed up his crossbow and rode back to the second boat with Templeton so they could rescue Hrefna and Swamprover.  Roscuro used the rope to tie off the boat so it could be dragged to the landing and hauled out of the water.  Roscuro then did the same with the first rowboat and the oars plus any arrows or bolts that were floating in the water.  Eventually Swamprover was able to move again.  Zitch used the wand of cure light wounds to heal up the little damage taken from the ghouls.

While that was going on, Marativy investigated the red metal door.  It was quite large and decorated with one-foot square panels that also formed a mosaic.  The individual panels showed Sorshen dominating a variety of monsters while the overall mosaic portrayed all the monsters bowing to the Runelord.  Marativy started pushing on the individual panels to no effect until she pressed on the one showing a cave giant.  When she pressed on that one, Thassilonian words appeared in light, saying “…and so do the mighty architects serve eternal.”  The door opened.

Beyond the door was an immense hallway with plain pillars supporting the high ceiling.  Murals on the walls showed giants performing sex acts with humans.  [Roscuro was getting very tired of this theme.]  Zitch cast his ward and Heroism on Roscuro.  Gridik cast Cat’s Grace on Roscuro.  Then a voice boomed out of the darkness: “Who dares enter my hall?”

Roscuro was the most diplomatic he had ever been in his life.  He asked permission to approach and when it was granted, he did so, with the rest of the Ratpack following at various distances behind.  The hall widened to form a larger chamber where four giant lizards sat, watching the group approach but making no hostile actions.  At this point Roscuro paused, because he did not want to have the giant lizards behind him and the unknown person in front of him.  When told to approach closer, Roscuro replied, “Your pets are so large and I am so small, I am frozen with fear and can approach no closer.”

The unknown person made a noise and the giant lizards moved back, clearing a path for Roscuro.  Recognizing as good a deal as he was likely to get, Roscuro moved forward again.  When he cleared the last pillar, he stopped again.  Ahead the hall ended in a raised are with an immense throne on it.  Sitting on the throne was a cave giantess holding an immense axe.  She appeared surprised when she saw Roscuro – apparently Ratfolk was not what she was expecting.

Roscuro and the giantess talked.  Roscuro was very polite and when asked what tribute he might have, he offered up the soul gem.  This impressed the giantess, who gave her name as Mochtau.  She took the gem and asked what Roscuro was doing here.  Roscuro explained he and his group had been tasked with locating a shard of metal.  Roscuro described the shard without explaining what the shard actually was.  She offered to give some assistance to its location if Roscuro and his group would retrieve something for her.  Hoping to shorten the search for the shard, Roscuro was willing to make a deal.  Plus, the group of adventurers were starting to get low on resources and he was not certain they could pull of a fight with the giantess and her pets.

The deal was to go to the barracks of the Grey Maidens and access a secret door in their bath house.  The secret passage led to two things, a storage closet for perfumes and aromas and a shrine to the demon lord Nocticula.  The item Mochtau wanted was in the closet.  It was a vial of liquid that she described to Roscuro.  The shrine intrigued Roscuro as the groups art patron seemed to have an interest in Nocticula, so anything there would likely pay well if presented to her.  He agreed to the deal with Mochtau and they shook on it.

The Ratpack quietly left the hall, not wanting to talk where Mochtau might overhear them.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[The encounter with the giantess was the first time Roscuro’s voice was honestly respectful and diplomatic.  Normally his words out of my mouth are cynical and borderline caustic, but not this time.  I have no idea what inspired me that session, but his words were perfect for the scene.  I’ve experienced this effect when writing stories in the past, where what appears when I’m typing seems to be writing itself, but this is the first time its happened while roleplaying.]

[Templeton’s player and I had discussed the rope airlift tactic before, trying to work out a tactic that would allow him to airlift the entire group at once.  We thought about him holding a pole in the foo dog mouth but a rope with knots seemed to be the best option as it could be stored easier.  It was nice to see it finally come into play.]

Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

…

Session 32 – Conclusion

Book 2:

Session 1

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

…

Session 30

Session 32

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 30

[Day 61 – Chamber of Grey Flame, the dorms, and dead ends?]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened August 9, 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

Hrefna – female changeling 5th level Omdura

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

NPCs

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

Ariphi – female tiefling 5th level Rogue

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 61

Late-Morning

Somewhat recovered from the fight with the incubus and the two goat-headed demons, the Ratpack investigated the pair of double doors that were the only way out of the room they were in.  The scanty knowledge shared by Helanda [way back Book 2, Session 16] stated that the next room was the Chamber of Grey Flame, so called because in the center of the chamber was a large grey flame.  It was also the last room the Grey Maidens saw before “Sorshen” arrived and dominated/charmed the entire group.

Marativy checked the door for traps.  She found none but noticed that the door was noticeably warm to the touch.  With no detected traps, Roscuro opened the doors.

The chamber beyond was octagonal with a thirty-foot domed ceiling.  The walls and floors were all polished marble like the rest of the dungeon rooms and corridors.  The center of the chamber was raised with a ball of grey flame floating in the center of the room.  There was a set of doors on the eastern wall and an open doorway on the south and western walls.  The air had a noticeable heat shimmer to it, but no heat radiated out of the chamber.  Hrefna activated a Resist Elements (Heat) aura [might be “Fire”, I’m not certain] to allow the group of adventurers to traverse the chamber safely.

When they entered the room, the adventurers immediately noticed it was warm and humid in the chamber but not actually painful [very similar to a Houston summer where both the temperature and the humidity are in the upper 90s (F and %, respectively)].  The adventurers moved clockwise around the outer edge of the room to the set of doors.  They could see the open doorways to the south and west led to side rooms as they moved around the main chamber.

Roscuro, ever curious and willing to take a risk, moved closer to the center of the room for a better look at the ball of grey flame, stepping up onto the raised part of the floor.  This provoked the grey flame to spark up and five motes escaped from it.  The motes rapidly grew into floating orbs of flesh, each with a maw full of row after row of mismatched teeth!

Zitch quickly identified them as cacodaemons and started running down their defenses.  Their defenses were were vulnerable to silver and good-aligned weapons, which brought a smile to Roscuro as he prepared to punch the tiny globes with his silver knuckles.  Zitch also shared that more powerful daemons used cacodaemons to transform souls into soul gems and the cacodaemons might have soul gems in their guts.  Weird.

The Ratpack quickly defeated the cacodaemons with Roscuro taking the only damage from the monsters.  The last cacodaemon attempted to escape by turning invisible, but Templeton had clawed it so it left a trail of “blood” as it bled out.  This allowed Gridik to work out its location and kill it with a Magic Missile spell.  That was the only cacodaemon that the Ratpack was able to harvest a soul gem from [having broken the rest in the process of killing the monsters].  Zitch cast Cure Light Wounds to heal up Roscuro, who claimed the soul gem for safe keeping.

With no other threats, the adventurers returned to the pair of doors on the east wall.  Beyond it was a set of stairs going down to a landing.  The landing was a dead end but had a mural of Sorshen.  There was text in Thassilonian that read, “Kneel before me and show devotion to enter my domain.”

This seemed dubious to the ratfolk.  Roscuro suggested Zitch use the wand of detect secret doors to see if there was a hidden door [the wand had 12 charges left at this point, so it was a conserved resource].  Zitch found no secret door, so he used the duration of the spell to check the stairwell and the two side chambers off the Chamber of Grey Flame.  In the western side chamber he located a secret door on the west wall.  While Zitch did this, Swamprover and Gridik used Detect Magic on the mural at the bottom of the stairs and found a magical transmutation aura on the mural.  They suspected it was some form of teleportation and led to another part of the dungeon.

Faced with a secret door or teleportation to an unknown location, the Ratpack decided to investigate the secret door first.  After some experimentation, the adventurers worked out that the secret door needed a torch lit from the grey flame set in a torch holder on the wall with the secret door.

Beyond the secret door was a long hallway with ten doors at even intervals along it, five to each side.  Investigating further, all but one had text on them that read, “Thou wouldst enter, then thou must touch.”  Instead of that text, the first door on the right read, “Thou wouldst enter to enjoy the company of the Runelord herself?  Then thou must touch.”  This door had a thin rime of ice upon it – clearly a trap of some sort.

Ignoring the trapped door for the moment, the other nine rooms were investigated first.  Opening the door involved touching the door.  These rooms turned out to be bedrooms.  Each had a single, large bed with luxurious sheets, all in excellent condition.  The Ratpack quickly set to stripping the beds of their sheets and packing them away as loot.  In the process, a single golden hairclip was found.  It was non-magical but likely to be valuable [worth 600gp].

Having looted the other nine rooms [as much as they could without carrying the heavy beds themselves], the Ratpack turned its attention back to the tenth door.  Swamprover and Gridik investigated the door for what kind of magic it housed.  They found an aura of invocation – clearly a trap.

Not wanting to leave anything potentially behind or a path not taken, Roscuro decided he would open the door.  The rest of the adventures retreated to the side chamber and waited at the secret door there.  Gridik stood at the doorway to the Chamber of Grey Flame in case anything attempted to sneak up on the group.  Roscuro then touched the trapped door to see if it opened.  Instead, the door released a very large ice explosion!  Roscuro was able to avoid the effects of the trap [made his Reflex save and had Evasion], but everyone else but Gridik, who was outside the area of effect, took cold damage to one extent or another.  Hrefna immediately activated her healing aura and restored the group to good health.  The door with the trap was a false door.

Done with this side area, the adventurers returned to the potential teleport mural.  The group assembled a Team Teleport to try and trigger the magic while the rest of the group stayed at a safe distance.  Team Teleport consisted of Templeton, Marativy, Roscuro, and Hrefna.  Team Teleport first displayed the Lust rune, which was supposed to trigger the teleportation magic of the glass golem.  It did nothing.  They then prostrated themselves in front of the mural per the text.  This did nothing, but allowed them to notice the feet of the mural showed wear.  Perhaps “showing devotion” involved kissing the feet?  Humans were weird, so they gave that a try and it worked, teleporting each person from Team Teleport individually.

Those teleported arrived on a stone jetty sticking out into a lake in a large underground cavern with a waterfall nearby.  Templeton recognized the area as the cavern beyond the compulsion field where he initially found the undead giant bats.  There were three boats tied up to the jetty.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[This was pretty much as stated without much else to say.]

[I’m recovering from my health issue.  I’ll be making a major change to my diet for a while to lose some weight, basically dropping all carbs from my diet.  As carbs make up a huge part of my diet (they are cheap and filling) I need to see a nutritionist to work out a new diet that won’t be boring or repetitive.  Whatever I end up eating, it will probably double our current grocery bill because it is expensive to eat healthy in the US.  Sigh.]

Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

…

Session 32 – Conclusion

Book 2:

Session 1

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

Session 21

Session 22

Session 23

Session 24

Session 25

Session 26

Session 27

Session 28

Session 29

Session 31