Tuesday, November 16, 2021

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



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