Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 38

[Day 64 Concludes – Aftermath of the Ballroom blitz, more Grey Maidens, then back to the surface]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened October 11, 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

Swamprover – female grippli 5th level Wizard

Roscuro – male ratfolk 7th level Monk

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 7th level Summoner (Synthesist)

Marativy – female ratfolk 7th level Ninja

Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 7th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Hrefna – female changeling 5th level Omdura

NPCs

Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 5th 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 64 (Continued)

After the conclusion of the fight with the lust sinspawn, Hrefna activated her healing aura to heal up the adventurers.  During this time Marativy and Swamprover searched the body of the fallen sinspawn.  They found three pieces of jewelry worth taking, a crown and two amulets, and the thing's polearm, a guisarme.  Zitch cast Detect Magic and found only the gisarme was magical [+1].  Marativy cut off one of the sinspawn’s hands as a trophy.  [This is the beginning of a trend Roscuro will find disturbing, although he does not realize it yet.]

Once the healing was done, Roscuro, Gridik, and Zitch headed down to the far end of the ballroom.  The ruby throne and statues of Sorshen were still there, but the raised platform where the orchestra was sitting was completely empty.  Roscuro swapped his amulet of mighty fists for his golembane scarab and used the scarab’s powers to determine none of the statues of Sorshen were golems.  Zitch and Gridik confirmed nothing in the area detected as magic.  Upon closer inspection, the ruby throne was not actually made of ruby but alchemically treated stone.  Roscuro was actually disappointed – he had grown used to the Runelords’ overwhelming amount of magic use and expected the throne to actually be ruby.

Once the "all clear" was given, the rest of the adventurers walked down to the far end of the ballroom to look around.  The stage area was lined with burgundy and gold tapestries.  Hrefna cast Detect Evil and searched the stage area, but found no evil there.  Roscuro threw rocks at the tapestries to verify they were not mimics.  Roscuro then asked Zitch to use his wand of detect secret doors on the area.  Zitch found no secret doors in the stage area, but there was one on the wall just to the south of the stage.  Marativy checked the secret door and found it was trap free, so Roscuro opened it.

Beyond the secret door was an octagonal room.  The floor was covered by a mosaic of snakes and arms and there was an oak door on the far wall.  Zitch cast Detect Magic from the doorway and discovered the room had a faint abjuration magic on it.  He then used his wand to check for secret doors and found none.  Roscuro and Marativy entered the room and walked over to the oak door.  Marativy inspected it for traps and found none.  Roscuro tried the door handle to see if the door was locked – it wasn’t.

Just as Roscuro was going to discretely pull the door open, several Grey Maidens bull-rushed into the room [one with fancier armor than the others] while archers in the area beyond the door shot at Marativy and Roscuro.  Roscuro deflected the arrow shot at him, but Marativy was hit.

A hectic melee ensued, with the Grey Maidens mixed in with the Ratpack to gain flanking on the ratfolk.  Templeton cast Haste on the Ratpack and Swamprover cast Create Pit [among other spells] in the oak doorway, effectively stopping anymore Grey Maidens from entering the room.  The Grey Maiden archers quickly learned it was pointless to shoot at Roscuro, who kept deflecting their arrows.  The Grey Maiden leader hit hard, scoring hits on Hrefna, Roscuro, Marativy, and Swamprover.  At one point in the fight Swamprover dropped to the floor and played dead to avoid being hit again and killed.

The Ratpack gradually killed the Grey Maidens in the room one by one until only their leader stood.  They then piled all their attacks on her until she dropped.  This convinced those Maidens on the other side of the pit to retreat.  The Ratpack let them.

While catching their breath, the Ratpack searched the bodies for valuables, only finding armor and weapons.  Gridik cast Detect Magic and two items on the leader and her sword and armor glowed.  While the leader’s armor was stripped off her, Hrefna raised her healing aura as most of the adventurers needed a lot of healing.

The Ratpack retreated to the ballroom and closed the secret door.  Zitch took 10 minutes to cast Secure Shelter on the stage.  The spell would last 14 hours and would give the Grey Maidens something to concentrate on rather than follow the Ratpack back to the surface.  The Ratpack then withdrew, returning to the surface.

After Dinner

Back on the surface and after another fine meal cooked by Mel, the Ratpack discussed their options.  There was much interest in going after the pyrohydra now, but also staying on task and dealing with the Grey Maidens.  Zitch pointed out there was a chance they could catch the Grey Maidens waiting in ambush on the secure shelter and the Ratpack could ambush them instead.  There was a finite window on that as the spell would eventually end and the Grey Maidens would realize the adventurers were not inside it.  The group eventually decided to do both.  They would go raid the pyrohydra’s lair early in the morning and then use the tunnel in the back of the lair to access the dungeon, arriving before the spell expired.

During this conversation Swamprover scribed a scroll of Snow Ball for Gridik.  Gridik then transcribed the spell into his spellbook [the Storm Compendium].  In the morning he would memorize several castings to target the hydra as heads were cut off to keep them from growing back.

Zitch identified the magic items taken from the Grey Maiden leader as a +1 longsword and +1 full plate armor.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[The fight was quite the hurly-burly and Swamprover went down to single digit hit points when she decided to play dead.  Her casting Create Pit completely tipped the balance of the fight to favor the Ratpack.  The Grey Maiden leader was doing enough damage that two hits had a chance of killing any one of the adventurers.  It was a challenging combat run well by the Other GM.]

[Sorry for this being a bit late.  Last minute rush of meeting project milestones before the holiday made the last couple days very busy.  The next several days will be very busy as well, but with family and friends so much better.  Saturday I’m hosting a board game get together and if I remember to take pictures, I’ll post them next week as a bonus blog entry.  I expect to get in at least one game of Milton Bradley’s Shogun (now called Samurai Swords).  It’s been ages since I last got in a game of it.]

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 34

Session 35

Session 36

Session 37

Session 39

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 37

[Day 64 – The Inner Sanctum and…a Grand Ball?]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened October 4, 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

Swamprover – female grippli 5th level Wizard

Roscuro – male ratfolk 7th level Monk

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 7th level Summoner (Synthesist)

Marativy – female ratfolk 7th level Ninja

Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 7th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

Hrefna – female changeling 5th level Omdura

NPCs

Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 5th 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 64 (Continued)

The Ratpack recalled the information Mochtau had given them about the possible location of the shard.  [In truth, this is when we actually asked the Other GM for the info as we had all forgotten about it last session.]  Mochtau had told the Ratpack that Sorshen spent most of her time in a room accessed through a teleporter.  The teleporter was through the Inner Sanctum and up some stairs.  Mochtau didn’t know the details as the area was too small for her to move through.

The chamber the Ratpack was in had two exits: a corridor to the south that almost immediately turned west and a corridor to the west that contained a set of stairs.  Hoping these stairs were the ones they were looking for, the adventurers quietly made their way up them.

There were a set of double doors at the top of the stairs, beyond which could be heard a party.  After Marativy verified the doors were not trapped, Roscuro quietly opened one of the doors just enough so he and Marativy could sneak through.  The doors opened onto a balcony overlooking a grand ballroom where a party was in full swing.

The ballroom was vey large and over 120 feet long.  The pillars supporting the 30-foot-high, curved ceiling were carved to look like tree trunks.  The ceiling was carved to look like a thick tree canopy that provided peeks at an illusory night sky.  Most of the floor was covered by a rich orange rug with streaks of gold in it.  An orchestra sat and played at the far end of the ballroom on a stage that was separated from the room by four large statues of Sorshen.  On the ballroom floor, flanked by the center two statues was a throne carved from a single piece of ruby, upon which sat Sorshen herself!  The ballroom was full of people chatting and dancing while wearing masquerade-style masks.  The single exit was a doorway on the southern wall nearer to the balcony end of the long room rather than the stage end.

Roscuro doubted any of this was real, but his eyes continued to show the scene.  [Roscuro failed his Will Save to disbelieve the illusion, which caused the Ward on him to drop, alerting Zitch that something had happened to Roscuro.]  Roscuro and Marativy returned through the double doors to the rest of the Ratpack and reported what they had seen.  Zitch asked what had gone wrong as the Ward had dropped.  This gave Roscuro pause and reinforced his belief that the party was an illusion.  Swamprover cast Detect Magic and stepped forward and through the double doors to look.

Swamprover saw that the lighting of the room from the “night sky” was illusion.  The people nearest the balcony were real and not enchanted, but she did not have the range with the Detect Magic spell to see if Sorshen or the orchestra were illusions or not.  She returned to the top of the stairs and reported what she had detected.  The fact that all those people were real was both surprising and disturbing.  It suggested “Sorshen” had many more people at her disposal than expected.

The Ratpack backtracked, satisfied this was not the set of stairs they were looking for.  They took the southern passage from the Inner Sanctum room, expecting it to lead to kitchens or some other cluster of rooms supporting the party.  Instead, they found a single corridor leading to the side entrance to the ballroom.

The Ratpack paused and discussed the situation.  Something strange was going on here.  They decided they did not have enough information to puzzle this out.  Not wanting to face the crowd all at once, the adventurers retreated again and headed back up to the balcony to try and get more information.  Ariphi and Hrefna formed a rearguard at the top of the stairs.

This time they were spotted.

Sorshen had the music stop and she called out the Ratpack’s presence to the assemblage.  She invited the Ratpack to join the ball.  A tall man dressed in green and gold loudly agreed.  He appeared to be Karzoug, the Runelord of Greed.  Swamprover promptly cast Fireball into the mass of people.  When it detonated, all the people disappeared.  Two 4-foot tall bestial humanoids [dretches] instead appeared on the balcony with the Ratpack.  [I’m going to detail this fight as some interesting things happened.]

Swamprover, wanting nothing to do with melee combat, withdrew from the dretches by climbing over the edge of the balcony and then underneath it.  Marativy used her ki to make her invisible, stepped over to a dretch and then slashed it.  Zitch identified the dretches as such to the group.  Roscuro stepped and flurried into the dretches, killing both.  Hrefna advanced onto the balcony to get a better view of what was going on.  Gridik cast See Invisible upon himself and moved up to see if there was anything invisible – he spotted an invisible creature, some form of sinspawn flying near the ceiling.  The creature summoned two more dretches, but Zitch quickly reacted, unleashing Conjuration Foil [a reaction spell cast during another’s action], forcing the two dretch to appear on the floor of the ballroom instead of up on the balcony.  One of the dretch cast Stinking Cloud on the balcony – it was not the worst thing the Ratpack had ever smelled [all the adventurers made their saves].

Swamprover attempted to climb along the underside of the balcony but slipped on the smooth and polished marble surface.  From the floor of the ballroom she cast Magic Missile and killed one of the dretches.  Marativy waited on Roscuro.  Zitch cackled [to maintain Protective Luck on a party member, but my notes don’t say who], activated his Flight hex, and flew over 5 feet. Roscuro jumped off the balcony, using one of the pillars supporting the roof to slow his fall, and landed next to the remaining dretch, punching it.  Marativy moved now, following Roscuro to the floor but accidentally hitting Roscuro instead of the dretch with her wakizashi [she fumbled her attack].  Hrefna retreated from the stinking cloud on the balcony to the stairs.  Ariphi, still on the stairs, waited for other attackers to appear.  Gridik jumped off the balcony to escape the stinking cloud and cast Feather Fall to drop safely to the floor.  The remaining dretch hit Roscuro [almost as hard as Marativy had].  The invisible sinspawn summoned three spider demons, dropping them on the ballroom floor amongst the adventurers there.  One of the spider demons attacked Marativy and missed, one webbed Roscuro [who was adjacent to it], and one hit Gridik.  Templeton flew out over the ballroom floor and then cast Haste, catching most of the adventurers in the area of effect [I think he only missed Swamprover and Gridik].

Swamprover cast Magic Missile at the remaining dretch and killed it, then she stood up.  Zitch flew up out of the stinking cloud and put Protective Luck on Roscuro.  Roscuro flurried on the adjacent spider demon and hit it multiple times, bloodying it.  Marativy attacked the same spider demon and finished it off.  Hrefna ran through the stinking cloud and leapt onto Templeton’s back.  Ariphi moved through the stinking cloud, hopped the balcony bannister, and hung there with a ready weapon [she was out of actions due to distance moved, but was outside of the stinking cloud].  Gridik stepped away from the spider demon attacking him and hit it with Magic Missile, defeating its spell resistance – he also called out the presence of the invisible sinspawn and its location.  The invisible sinspawn cast Lightning Bolt, catching Ariphi, Hrefna, and Templeton with it.  Ariphi was knocked unconscious and then fell 20 feet to the floor.  The spider demon on Gridik stepped over to the retreating kobold and hit him again while the other one attacked Marativy and missed due to Roscuro bodyguarding her.  Templeton flew over to the now-visible sinspawn and clawed at it, getting in a hit.

Swamprover stepped over to Ariphi and, using Stabilize, stabilized Ariphi [Stabilize available as a spell-like ability through her Green-Blooded trait].  Zitch identified the sinspawn as such to the group and cackled to maintain the Protective Luck on Roscuro.  Roscuro told Marativy to help Gridik and flurried on the spider demon, killing it.  Marativy turned invisible, moved to flank the spider demon attacking Gridik, and killed it with her attack.  Hrefna, on Templeton’s back, did a Full Attack on the sinspawn and hit twice, discharging the spell stored in her sword into it as well.  Ariphi remained unconscious but did not bleed to death thanks to Swamprover’s help.  Gridik cast Lightning Bolt at the sinspawn, only to discover it was immune to lightning.  The sinspawn clawed and bit at Templeton successfully, sickening Templeton.  Templeton returned the savagery and clawed it multiple times, causing it to bleed.

Swamprover moved for a better line of sight and cast Snow Ball at the sinspawn, hitting it solidly.  Zitch placed Protective Luck on Templeton and cackled to maintain the castings still active.  Roscuro escaped the webbing he was in and stepped out of the affected area.  Marativy used her ki to turn invisible, ran up the side of a pillar, and slashed the sinspawn with a surprise attack before safely floating back down to the floor [due to her ring of feather fall].  Hrefna attacked the sinspawn with Divine Touch, damaging it.  Gridik cast Force Bolt and hit the sinspawn.  The sinspawn bled from Templeton’s earlier attack while floating away before casting Lightning Bolt on Hrefna and Templeton.  This time Templeton evaded the spell but Hrefna took a glancing blow [made her save for half damage].  Templeton floated over to the sinspawn and then shredded it, killing it.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[That fight had several firsts, most notable was the use of Conjuration Foil, which pushed the dretches away from the PCs and down to the lower floor instead of amongst the PCs.  That changed the nature of the fight and allowed the PCs to gain the upper hand.  Swamprover’s trait, Green-Blooded, finally came into play and saved Ariphi’s life and Gridik finally used his Arcane Bond with his ring to cast Feather Fall, something planned since the NPC was built.]

[We wrapped up after the fight as it was getting late.  We did healing and looting the next session.]

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 34

Session 35

Session 36

Session 38

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 36

[Day 63 and 64 – Scribing a scroll, trading with a giantess, and an oops!]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened September 27, 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

Swamprover – female grippli 5th level Wizard

Roscuro – male ratfolk 6th level Monk

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

Marativy – female ratfolk 6th level Ninja

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

Hrefna – female changeling 5th level Omdura

NPCs

Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 4th 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 63

The Ratpack spent the day in camp so Gridik could learn Lightning Bolt from Swamprover and so Zitch could craft a wand of detect secret door.  The real delay was Swamprover needing to scribe the spell on a scroll before Gridik could then copy it over to his spellbook.  [Swamprover is a Familiar Adept, meaning her viper familiar, Snek, is also her spellbook.  Zitch is in a similar situation with his donkeyrat familiar, so while the two of them can swap spells easily, we have to use a scroll intermediary to get spells between them and Gridik.]

Day 64

Morning

After another fine breakfast cooked by Mel, Roscuro pulled out the bottle he retrieved from the perfume closet.  There was writing imprinted on the bottle, but not in a language any of the Ratpack could read.  A rubbing was taken of the writing for later translation back in Magnimar.  After that the group geared up and started the hike back to the dungeon.

11:00-ish

Down in the dungeon, in the Room of Grey Flame, Roscuro asked Zitch if he had completely checked the room for secret doors.  Zitch hadn’t as the spell had run out after he learned how to open the secret door in the western side chamber.  With no time pressure and Zitch having a wand full of charges now, Roscuro suggested he complete his survey, including the hallway with all the bedrooms, just to be complete.

Zitch activated the wand and finished his survey of the Room of Grey Flame, finding no secret doors.  However, the scan of the hidden hallway turned up a secret door at the far end that the Ratpack had missed the last time they investigated it.  Beyond it was another bedroom with a much larger and more ornate bed and a door on the north wall.

The Ratpack discussed whether to explore further this way or continue on to Mochtau’s throne and provide her the requested bottle.  The group decided to go see the giantess first [Roscuro was concerned the bottle might get broken in a fight].  They reversed course and went across the Room of Grey Flame to the stairs down to the foot-kiss teleportation mural [see Session 30 for details].  Before teleporting, Gridik, Zitch, and Templeton all cast Mage Armor on themselves.

Once teleported to the lower level, they rowed the boats across the underground lake, carefully staying together in case anything attacked.  Nothing did and they made it to the landing for Mochtau’s throne room safely.

After opening the red metal door, Roscuro called out for permission to approach and was granted it.  He and Swamprover walked down the hall with Marativy and Templeton following stealthily.  Again the giant lizard pets part to allow Roscuro and Swamprover to approach the throne area.  Mochtau and Roscuro talked a bit until Mochtau asked if he had the vial.  Roscuro pulled the bottle out of his handy haversack and presented it, hoping it was the bottle she wanted as all the rest were shattered.  Mochtau stepped forward and took the vial from Roscuro, gazed at it for a bit, then laughed while throwing it at the throne she had sat upon for over 7000 years.  The bottle shattered when it his and the formerly dark hall lit up with light.  The giant lizard pets transformed into other cave giants [very nude cave giants who proceeded to stretch and flex].

Mochtau seemed very pleased.  She asked Roscuro his name and he told her.  She went over to the chests lining the back wall and retrieved a sack that jingled.  She handed Roscuro the bag of gold coins and thanked him for his service.  [We forgot that the actual payment was supposed to be a lead to the location of the shard the Ratpack was looking for.  Next session we ret-con-ed the exchange of information to happen here.]

Mochtau had questions about the surface conditions in the area.  Apparently, she and her people used to own all the surrounding land.  Roscuro showed her the map and pointed out where the troglodyte cave was and asked her to treat them well as they were allies.  He pointed out the boggard camp and said they were jerks and had no ties to Roscuro and his group.  Swamprover brought up the merchants and Roscuro suggested they might be willing to make deals.  Eventually the Ratpack said their goodbyes and left.

The Ratpack took the rowboats around to the other cave and the entrance to the Grey Maiden barracks.  There Roscuro went through the bag Mochtau had given him.  It was full of gold and platinum coins of a mint none of the Ratpack recognized.  [Total value in coins of 2500gp.]  There was also an amulet in among the coins that Roscuro somehow missed [rolled a 1 on Perception] but everyone else noticed.  Zitch verified it was magic and identified it as an Amulet of Mighty Fists [+1].  Roscuro claimed it as his fists were his primary means of fighting and the rest of the group concurred.  [Roscuro had to take off his Golembane Scarab as it occupies the same “space” as the amulet and he needed the amulet’s effects more than the scarab’s.]

Once done investigating the reward, the Ratpack decided to go investigate the barracks area fully.  The Grey Maiden barracks room was clean and the bodies missing, but the table still showed signs of the fireball cast on it two days ago.  This led to speculation that the cleaning magic on everything was based on Prestidigitation and not Mend.  The bath house area was also clean so the Ratpack decided to investigate the next room in depth.

This room was the receiving end of the teleportation area in the Inner Sanctum.  Zitch used his wand to determine the room had no secret doors.  Detect Magic revealed the statues had divination magic on them and the three large gold squares set between them had transmutation magic.  This suggested the squares could teleport a person somewhere in the dungeon.  Not wanting to push their luck with a blind teleport, the Ratpack decided to try the door at the far end of the room instead.

Marativy examined the door and pronounced it trap free.  Hrefna went to open the door but it was stuck and would not open.  Templeton stepped up to assist Hrefna in opening the door.  Their combined strength was much more than was necessary and this opened the door suddenly.  Templeton was able to catch himself but Hrefna didn’t and was propelled by inertia into the next room, where a sloping floor surrounded a large and deep pit.  Hrefna was not able to catch herself on the slope and slipped into the pit – right onto a massive green slime!

Zitch and Templeton immediately flew into the room to assist Hrefna.  To avoid getting any of the green slime on them, they lowered a rope into the pit to help Hrefna climb out.  Hrefna was heavily wounded by the green slime [she’d taken 5 of her 10 points of Constitution in damage in the first round].  After scraping the slime off her [and several items in the process], Lesser Restoration was cast multiple times to fix the damage.  The Ratpack closed that door behind them, leaving the dungeon’s trash pit to itself.

The Ratpack went to the Hidden Shrine and said the words necessary to teleport to the Inner Sanctum.

[We stopped early here as we were experiencing networking issues and people kept dropping the audio.]

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[It wasn’t until a couple days later that I thought we should have asked the cave giants how they were going to exit the dungeon.  They are too large to take the tunnels the PCs were using to gain access and we could really use a shorter way to get to the dungeon.  The tunnels took 2 hours each way, so we lost a lot of day getting to the dungeon.  Missed opportunity.]

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 34

Session 35

Session 37

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 35

[Day 62 – First look at the Inner Sanctum]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened September 20, 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

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

Roscuro – male ratfolk 6th level Monk

Hrefna – female changeling 5th level Omdura

Swamprover – female grippli 5th level Wizard

Marativy – female ratfolk 6th level Ninja

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

NPCs

Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 4th 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)

Marativy had just disappeared in a flash of light from the hidden shrine to Nocticula the Ratpack had discovered in a secret area off the Grey Maidens’ bathhouse.  Not certain that all had heard what Marativy had said to cause the teleportation, Hrefna wrote down “Amivadeus Yasrin” on a scrap of paper and set the paper down on the shrine’s altar.  Pointing to the scrap of paper, Hrefna said, “She said, ‘Amivadeus Yasrin’.”  This caused Hrefna to also teleport to an unknown location.

Roscuro asked Zitch to use the earrings of telepathy on him before saying the words and teleporting to where Marativy and Hrefna were.  Both were fighting a group of sinspawn and for some reason a giant image of Nocticula was also fighting some of the sinspawn!  [Marativy had used the Major Image power of the shard in her possession to attempt to cower the sinspawn and it had not gone well.  Incidentally, lust sinspawn are disturbing, being the definition of “monster porn”.]  Roscuro quickly relayed the situation to Zitch so he could tell the rest of the Ratpack the situation.  The rest of the Ratpack joined Marativy, Hrefna, and Roscuro in the inner sanctum and the fight against the sinspawn, which wrapped up the fight fairly quickly.

The room they were in was spacious with two large alcoves, north and east, that those teleporting in were randomly split between.  There was a corridor in the south wall and stairs up in the west wall.  There were some benches made of solid pieces of obsidian that looked both valuable and too heavy to move plus a thick rug covering most of the floor.

The first order of business was to try and find a way back to a part of the dungeon the Ratpack knew.  Roscuro stepped back into the eastern alcove [the one he had arrived in] and said the words that had teleported him here.  Nothing happened.  Zitch cast Detect Magic and looked around.  The northern alcove had magic.  He started concentrating on that to identify what kind of magic, but Roscuro, slightly impatient, stepped into the alcove to say the words.  Before he had time to say anything, he teleported to another room, one he had not seen before.

The room he arrived in was long, more of a hall, with black marble statues of Sorshen down the center and large gold squares on the floor.  It was quite tacky in appearance.  There were doors at either end of “Gaudy Hall” and Roscuro checked the one at the west end first.  It opened to the Grey Maidens’ bathhouse, being the eastern door of that room.  Roscuro used the still extant telepathic link with Zitch to explain where he was and that it was safe for everyone to teleport through.

Once everyone was in Gaudy Hall, there was some cursory investigation of the hall and discussion about whether to return to the Inner Sanctum or return to camp to rest.  The consensus was that the group was running low on resources and returning to camp would seem to be a wise choice.

The group made their way out of the dungeon.  On the way through the tunnels to the surface, the group spotted some ochre jellies in a side passage and decided they wanted nothing to do with them.

Late Afternoon

The Ratpack returned to camp and cleaned up.  Mel prepared an excellent dinner.

Third Watch

In the early hours of the morning, Zitch, Gridik, and Templeton were on watch and noticed some light flashing to the east.  It appeared to be flames of some sort.  Zitch and Gridik consulted and thought the lights appeared to be from a Burning Hands spell.  Whatever was causing the lights never got closer to the camp, so they did not raise an alarm.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[Several characters leveled after the night’s rest: Marativy, Roscuro, Templeton, Zitch, and Gridik.  This was one of the factors in the group deciding to return to camp.  I also seem to have missed updating Gridik’s level a couple sessions ago.  He turned 4th level at the end of Session 32 and will be 5th level next session (Session 36).]

[I’m not detailing the combats anymore unless something cool/significant happens, particularly the short, unimportant fights.  This might make for some short session summaries when several short combats take up most of the session and I apologize if that happens.  I will detail the fight when we get to the story boss for this book.]

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 34

Session 36