[Day 66 Continues – Payout, Payback, and the Fall of (the) Hydra!]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened November 22, 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
Roscuro – male ratfolk 7th level Monk
Hrefna – female changeling 6th level Omdura
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
Not Attending this Session
Swamprover – female grippli 6th level Wizard
NPCs
Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 5th level Wizard (Invoker)
Ariphi – female tiefling 6th 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)
Oriana – female human Captain of the Grey Maidens (temporary ally)
Autumn
Day 66
Early Afternoon
Having defeated the alu-demon posing as Sorshen, Runelord of Lust, the Ratpack had to wait out the effects of the Confusion spells she had cast upon them. This involved judicious use of Roscuro’s Stunning Fist attack and keeping those under the spell’s effect away from each other. Oriana was relieved of her sword again, this time permanently. Roscuro apologized to Marativy for doubting her.
Once the confusion effects wore off and Hrefna’s healing aura healed those injured, the Ratpack set to the serious task of looting. The alu-demon’s boots and a ring detected as magical when Zitch checked. They were quickly removed and stuffed into the loot sack for later identification. The pieces of armor strewn about the room matched the description Gnaeus gave of his personal armor, so the group gathered it up and packed it away to return to Gnaeus later, if they ever saw him again.
As the shard the Ratpack was not in this room [its magical signature being too bright to hide from Detect Magic], the Ratpack investigated the southern snake sigil. Marativy and Roscuro stepped onto the snake pattern on the floor and were teleported to another chamber.
This chamber was creepy. It had a lower ceiling than any other room they had encountered and the walls were a pinkish substance like wet, pink clay. There was the continual sound of exhalation by some immense beast. Many items were on shelves, but Roscuro searched for just one, the Shard of Lust. He found it sitting alone on a shelf. Roscuro pulled out the ioun stone given to the Ratpack by Sheila Heidmarch, Guild-Captain of the Magnimar branch of the Pathfinder Society. He carefully inserted the stone into the notch in the shard until the two merged with a click. Now [relatively] safe to handle, Roscuro picked up the shard and stuffed it into a pouch. [Incidentally, the shard grants +2 Charisma (from the ioun stone), the ability to cast Suggestion at 25th level 1/day, +2 to saves versus Enchantment, and +4 to Initiative.]
By this point the rest of the Ratpack had arrived in the low room. Zitch cast Detect Magic again and anything that detected as magic was efficiently stored away in various loot sacks for later identification. In addition to the magic items, the group also packed away 12 tourmalines, 6 black pearls, 2 large sapphires, a variety of knick-knacks from across thousands of years, a pile of spell books, and some normal books on a variety of topics.
Once all the loot was packed away, the group started to make their way out of the dungeon.
An Hour Later
Having hiked down and up stairs, teleported, and rowed across two subterranean lakes, the Ratpack returned to the big Red Metal Door at the first landing beach. Not wanting to return to this dungeon ever again, they took the time to collect rubbings of those panels on the door they had yet collect.
While this was going on, Roscuro and Templeton went to the sarcophagus at the entrance to the dungeon to verify the clone was still there. Templeton had some concerns that maybe the alu-demon actually was Sorshen and killing her had sent her soul to the clone and Roscuro wanted to take the lid to sell. With some trepidation, they removed the lid from the sarcophagus. Inside was Sorshen’s clone, still unconscious, still in stasis, and still trapped with a massive Phantasmal Killer spell.
Suddenly, Roscuro had an idea.
In the hag’s caves on the lower dungeon level, Marativy had claimed a magic set of gloves that allowed her to remove magical traps and this was a doozy of a magical trap. A trap that had nearly killed Roscuro twice. Revenge was at hand! With a feral grin, Roscuro quickly went down the hall where Marativy was wrapping up the rubbings effort. He asked her if she was up to removing a the magical trap from the sarcophagus and gaining access to the loot inside. After a very short pause while she remembered all the valuable jewelry the clone was wearing, Marativy agreed to give it a try. Oriana was surprised to learn of the clone’s existence and very concerned at some of the implications therein. The Ratpack, having worried over those same implications a month ago were somewhat blasé at this point.
The group moved down the hall to the sarcophagus. After a moment of mental preparation, Marativy went to work on the trap, eventually safely disarming it. Marativy and Roscuro quickly and efficiently removed the jewelry from the unconscious clone [a necklace, a set of earrings, 7 rings, and an anklet]. Then a long discussion of what to do with the clone ensued.
While the Ratpack could probably make some serious coin selling the clone to one of their patrons, all were uncomfortable with the idea that some of their patrons might actually try to revive the clone or use it to track down the runelord herself [or use it other, unsavory, ways]. The best path was to kill the clone and dispose of the body. While the Ratpack had slain many foes, all of those deaths happened as a result of combat where the other party was actively trying to kill them. None of the adventurers were comfortable with just knifing the unconscious and defenseless clone. That said, the clone could not be allowed to continue to exist.
The group decided to take the clone with them and continue the discussion on the way back to camp. For security, the clone was tied up and then tied to Templeton’s back for transport.
Roughly 5:00 PM
After two hours of travel through the deep caves under the lagoon, the adventurers arrived back at the troglodyte caves. They passed through those caves, pausing to say hello to their allies. Once back at camp, Templeton and Roscuro prepared to implement the method of disposing of the clone the group had settled on: feeding it to the crocodiles in the lagoon.
With Roscuro riding him and the clone still tied to his back, Templeton flew off in the direction the adventurers had seen the crocodiles on their first expedition to the Lady’s Light. It took a little time to locate the bask of crocodiles. Once located, Roscuro untied the clone from Templeton and they air-dropped the clone near the crocodiles. After a bit the crocodiles investigated the body and started eating it, causing a minor feeding swarm. Templeton and Roscuro flew away a bit so they could observe the swarm but not the details. They stayed until the crocodiles were done eating and then left, satisfied that the clone was destroyed. [And no longer hungry.]
Back at camp, Zitch, Swamprover, and Gridik started going through the magic items retrieved and identifying them. Some of the items were apportioned out to those who could use or needed them [e.g., boots of haste to Roscuro, boots of springing and striding to Marativy, and so forth] and some were immediately consigned to be sold for coin [e.g., the goggles of night, which provide darkvision, something not necessary for a party that all has nightvision naturally]. The remaining items were discussed, and most were kept in common for later use, like the immovable rod.
Roscuro took a moment to concentrate on the shard of lust [which he ended up being the keeper of]. He received a vision of a great walled city, the walls in the shape of giant skeletons. Part of the city wall had been destroyed in the past and rebuilt with a shanty town. Roscuro had no idea what city it was, but after he described what he saw, Marativy identified it as Kaer Maga.
7:00 PM
After dinner [where Templeton and Roscuro ate lightly], the group discussed going to kill the hydra that night. The spellcasters felt they had enough spells left to do the job, including healing magic. In fact, due to the known immunities of the alu-demon, their most powerful attack spells had not been used. With this information, the hunt was on.
8:00 PM
The group approached the hydra lair as directly as they could. Marativy looked for signs of any hydra activity and was of the opinion that it had not yet returned to its lair for the night. She and Hrefna advanced on the cave entrance so Hrefna could cast Alarm on it. The rest of the group, significantly less stealthy, stayed back to wait and watch.
They did not have to wait long.
While Marativy and Hrefna were near the hydra lair, the hydra itself approached from behind the rest of the party. Zitch spotted it sneaking up on the group and alerted the others. Templeton and Roscuro moved to be between the hydra and the rest of the party and then the fight was on!
Templeton cast Minor Evolution to gain immunity to fire. Zitch gave Protective Luck to Roscuro and cackled. The hydra pounced at Templeton, attacking him with the range its long necks allowed many times but only biting him once. Roscuro instructed Gridik to cast Lightning Bolt at the hydra first, then Cat’s Grace on him. He then drew his crossbow and loaded it. Marativy gave up on subtlety for a bit and ran to get closer to the fight. Gridik cast Lightning Bolt, hitting the hydra but not as effectively as he hoped [it made its save and took only half damage]. Hrefna activated her Divine Weapon and then started the long trek back to where the fight was happening.
Templeton closed the distance between him and the hydra and attacked multiple times, twice critically! Zitch moved closer to the fight and continued to cackle [maintaining the Protective Luck on Roscuro]. Templeton’s wounds on the hydra bled, but its regeneration closed the wounds and stopped the bleeding. Three of the hydra heads bit at Templeton while two breathed flame over him. One of the bites landed and, thanks to the Minor Evolution spell, Templeton was immune to the flames. Roscuro delayed doing anything until after Gridik cast Cat’s Grace on him. Marativy slowed down once she was within attack range of the hydra and concealed her position so she could close the distance unobserved. Gridik cast Cat’s Grace on Roscuro who then closed with the hydra and threw a punch, which missed. [Roscuro initially planned to stand back and shoot the hydra, but he did not have the feat that allows him to shoot into melee combat and Templeton rushing forbade shooting.] Hrefna ran forward some more and activated an aura that assisted the adventurers in combat [+2 to hit].
Templeton stepped a little to the side to let others flank the hydra and then attacked with all of his claws, hitting twice and causing the hydra to bleed some more. Zitch, now close enough, put Protective Luck on Templeton and cackled to maintain the effect on both Templeton and Roscuro. The hydra bled some before its regeneration closed the wounds. Three of its heads bit at Templeton while two breathed fire at Roscuro. All the bites missed and Roscuro evaded the flames [made his save and had the Evade feat, which reduces saved attacks to zero damage]. Marativy advanced to the rear of the hydra to flank it, stabbing it in a vital spot [sneak attack damage]. Gridik moved to get a better angle [one without fellow adventurers in it] and cast Lightning Bolt again, hitting it solidly. Roscuro threw a flurry of blows and hit all three times [first time this happened in the campaign]! Hrefna activated Divine Might and then charged the hydra. The hydra got in a solid attack of opportunity on Hrefna before she exploded the hydra with divine power. [She did 29d6 damage for 120 points in one hit.]
Roscuro stepped over to Gridik and politely asked Gridik to cast Prestidigitation to clean the exploded hydra viscera off of him. [It never ends!] Gridik kindly did so [not wanting his boss to smell like hydra carcass the rest of the night.] After being magically cleaned, Roscuro asked Marativy and Ariphi to remove one of the hydra fangs from the corpse as a trophy. Hrefna removed an entire head from the corpse as her trophy and Marativy claimed a claw as hers. Zitch cut into the corpse and removed its flame sack, which he claimed would make a good reagent. Marativy also harvested two units of hydra blood for the crafting of potions.
After all the claiming of trophies and harvesting parts was done, Gridik and Zitch cast Prestidigitation on everyone to get them clean. The group then returned to camp and settled in for the night.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[We suspect the Alu-demon was Ashamintallu, the last name remaining on the list of those Sorshen consigned to the Lady’s Light (see Session 34). This made her the guardian and power source for the light. Hope killing her has no unexpected consequences.]
[Roscuro had been designing all sorts of Rube Goldberg devices in his head to eliminate Sorshen’s clone. Partially because a living Runelord would be a terrible thing and partially because nearly being killed by the trap twice left him with a grudge and a sense of a job left unfinished. I had nearly forgotten about it due to the months between when the characters first interacted with it and this play session, but Marativy’s player asked if we were still planning to take the sarcophagus lid to sell and that reminded me of the clone.]
[Killing the hydra was really just harvesting experience points. Templeton’s player was concerned another group (like the cave giants) might kill it before we got to it and deprive us of the experience points. At the rate that we are outleveling the Adventure Path, I don’t feel it was an issue, but who am I to deny another player their fun?]
Ratpack
Book 1:
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Book 2:
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