Delvers Guild – Arc 2, Session 2 – Tryouts Start

[December 9 – King's Secretary and the beginning of the Guild Tryouts, Vorgand’s first two duels.]

[This game uses the Fifth Revised Edition of the Hero System rules along with the Fantasy Hero supplement.  This session happened February 7, 2022.]

Player Characters:

Jala – human female – a person of discretion, studier of Pact Magic with a focus on shadows

Ozrel the Runeweaver – human male – Pugilist and Rune Magician

Zarek the Red – fox male – Golem-mancer

Vorgand – human female – Guildmaster and Chief Combatant for the Delvers Guild

Ricky the Astrologer – human male – Newly-minted specialist in Magic Circles and Teleportation Gates

Non-Player Characters:

Torsten, Fish, Harek – ex-bandits, now The Torchbearers for the Delvers Guild

Lars – Chamberlain of the Delvers Guild

Unit: Z0-E – Zarek’s first golem, looks like a fox made of iron

Medea Bartok – Secretary to the King

Moonday, December 9th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Morning

While attending classes at The Blooded, the Kingdom of Aegea’s military academy, Vorgand was approached by an academy messenger who informed her she had a guest in the Visitor’s Building.  Vorgand finished the exercise she was doing and then went over to the Visitor’s Building.

[The Blooded is a military academy that trains those who will be officers in the Aegean Army.  Most are children the from the nobility who are not expected to inherit the family lands, but there are also those from mercantile families and the occasional commoner who showed talent.  As those attending are not expected to be (directly) involved with politics, advancement is merit-based…mostly.  Visitors are not allowed to wander the campus for security and safety reasons and must wait at the Visitor’s Building, the public facing area of the academy.  The visitor’s building has a large entry area and then smaller private rooms for meetings.]

When Vorgand entered the meeting room she was directed to, she found it occupied my Medea Bartok, Secretary to the King and enactor of Royal Decrees, and her assistant, who Vorgand did not recognize.  Addressing Vorgand as Guildmaster, Secretary Bartok got immediately to business.  She produced the Deed for the Moon Manor and surrounding property, apologizing somewhat insincerely about the time it had taken for Vorgand’s request to claim the abandoned property to be processed.  Vorgand had filed the paperwork to claim the ruins on November 18th [Arc 1, Session 27] and the Guild had expected the process to take several months to complete.  Looking at the paperwork barely three weeks later, Vorgand noticed the date of approval under the Royal Seal was November 22nd.  That was only four days after the paperwork had been submitted and the day before the elves had arrived in the city.  Interesting.

With that bit of business complete, Secretary Bartok then stated she was aware that Vorgand’s guest for the Royal Winter Ball [Clarence] had been sent by his temple to serve in another city.  She politely asked if Vorgand had a replacement yet, adding that if not, the King had several suggestions she might choose from.  Vorgand allowed that she did not have a replacement for Clarence and was willing to see the list of candidates from the King.  Secretary Bartok handed over a page with a list of seven names:

• Victor Yakovovitch, who Vorgand recognized as an applicant to the Delvers Guild.
• Théophile Lothaire Thibault, who Vorgand vaguely recognized as part of the Thibault Family that held the Duchy of Sperrin.
• Fisk Greenling, Vorgand’s personal rival in The Blooded.
• Bellinus Dragonkiller, another Delvers Guild applicant, one Vorgand looked forward to quickly thrashing in the Guild tryouts later that same day and put in his place.
• Three other names that Vorgand did not recognize at all.

Vorgand thanked Secretary Bartok for the King’s interest in her and her guild and would sincerely consider the names on the list.  They talked some more after that, but Vorgand completely missed the subtext in the conversation.  Secretary Bartok and her assistant left shortly, having many things to still arrange for the ball and Vorgand needed to return to her training.

[There was definitely subtext in their conversation.  The King was seeking loyalty from the Delvers Guild for upcoming political conflicts, especially regarding the demands of the elves.  The names on the list were either sons of families loyal to the King who were too junior to otherwise attend the ball or scions of families whose loyalty the king was interested in attaining.]

Elsewhere, Ricky spent the morning reading out loud from one of his elven books to Jala as a method to teach her the elven language.  He read through the book on magic circles, which was a trifle academic, so there were pauses as he needed to explain some of his translations.

Ozrel spent the morning prowling the parts of the city where pugilists congregated.  He spread the word that the Delvers Guild was having an exhibition in the afternoon with the Guildmaster dueling applicants using wooden practice weapons to evaluate their skills.  He also sparred with some of the other pugilists in town to get some practice in.

Zarek spent the morning at the Guildhall testing various magic items the group had brought back from their expeditions but not identified yet.  After doing that for a couple hours, he spent the rest of the morning training Unit: Z0-E.  Before lunch he sent Z0-E out to the blacksmith he had trained under with instructions to give the blacksmith a high five.

12:30 PM

Nearly two hours after being sent out, Z0-E returned to the guildhall with the blacksmith’s reply.

1:00 PM

The Delvers Guild tryouts were held at a rented training ground on The Blooded campus [part of a series of open-air pavilions regularly rented out by the academy].  Not expecting much of a crowd, the Guild was charging a nominal fee to watch the exhibition and put Ricky at the entrance to sell tickets.  The applicants scheduled to duel Vorgand and the order they would face her were:

1. Fadeyka the Saber
2. Kettle the Pike
3. Victor Yakokovich
4. Bellinus Dragonkiller

It turned out that the group had underestimated the interest in the Delvers Guild itself amongst the citizens of the city and a moderate crowd arrived to watch the tryouts, including two bookies with a chalkboard listing the competitors and their odds.  In a show of solidarity, each member of the guild put a gold coin down on Jala for each fight and several put another gold coin down for her to sweep the fights.  Jala, literally hedging her bets, placed a silver coin on Victor Yakokovich and on Fadeyka the Saber to win.  Betting by the other observers was lively.

Fight 1: Fadeyka vs. Vorgand

Both combatants stepped into the arena inscribed on the ground, each holding a wooden practice sword.  Vorgand’s was shaped like a rapier, her preferred weapon, Fadeyka’s like a saber, her namesake.

Fadeyka had a slight edge in starting over Vorgand [they had the same Dexterity but Fadeyka won the roll-off] and charged across the dueling arena to attack.  Vorgand made use of the flexibility of her Steel Serpent training and avoided the attack [aborted to a Martial Dodge].  Fadeyka pressed her attack but could not land a blow.  Vorgand counterattacked and hit, but it was to the hand and had little effect.  Fadeyka resumed slashing at Vorgand, but Vorgand’s defense was too good.  Vorgand attempted to strike back and just missed.

Finally Fadeyka was able to land a hit to Vorgand’s chest while Vorgand’s return attack just missed.  When Fadeyka slashed again, Vorgand twisted out of the way, not wanting to chance taking another hit [aborted to Martial Dodge again].  Fadeyka decided to back up 8 meters and wait for Vorgand to approach her.  When Vorgand followed [needing to push her Running to do so] and attacked, Fadeyka dodged the attack.

Vorgand gained the initiative and put everything into her attack, landing a blow to the vitals, stunning Fadeyka.  Fadeyka had a moment to shake off being stunned, but this allowed Vorgand to land another solid blow, hitting Fadeyka on the shoulder and temporarily knocking her out.

The crowd applauded and money changed hands at the bookies.  The bookies posted revised odds, favoring Vorgand slightly more in the remaining fights.  While that was happening, Vorgand shook hands with Fadeyka [once Fadeyka woke back up] and went back to the sword stand her actual sword rested in.  She placed her hand on the sword to surreptitiously access its restorative magic.

Fight 2: Kettle vs. Vorgand

Both combatants stepped into the arena inscribed on the ground.  Vorgand held her wooden practice rapier, while Kettle held a long pole, representing the pike he normally used.

Vorgand had the edge over Kettle and decided to wait for him to approach before responding [her Dexterity was higher than his and she held her action].  Kettle approached Vorgand and then used the reach of his “pike” to attack Vorgand.  Vorgand used her better reflexes [she used her held action and rolled higher in the Dexterity roll-off] to step in and hit Kettle on the leg.  This seemed to throw Kettle off and his attack missed.  Realizing she had Kettle out-classed, Vorgand switched tactics.  She stepped in close and used her sword as leverage to flip Kettle over, dropping him to the ground.  Kettle immediately yielded the fight.

On the sidelines, Victor Yakokovitch had been observing Vorgand as she fought and gained some insight into her Steel Serpent fighting style, something that would help him greatly in the next duel, when it was his turn to face Vorgand.  [He made his Analyze Style roll by 8 and so has +2 effective Overall Combat levels against Vorgand in his next fight with her.]

End of Session

Guild Postings

[So this is the beginning of the Delvers Guild tryouts.  The first four duels are applicants that Vorgand felt were applying on their martial prowess and she wanted to see how they stacked up.  Being able to fight monsters is an important part of delving and her area of expertise.  A couple days later in-game there will be additional tryouts, split between those who want to fight with a weapon and those who prefer unarmed combat.  This will serve both an in-game purpose and an at-the-table purpose.  In-game, the PCs will get a chance to evaluate the actual fighting skill of the applicants in a relatively safe way.  At-the-table, we are getting a thorough shakedown in how combat works in the Hero System.  We play several different RPGs and most of the players only have a basic knowledge of the Hero System, so this is helping them get the details in place.  Even I have learned things about the system I missed or had forgotten and I’ve played it for over 30 years.]

[Some of you might notice that the Guild is getting some very preferential treatment by the King.  There are political reasons for this.  Vladik the Gamesman took over the throne barely 6 months ago in-game and was not part of the original line of succession, so he is shoring up his support where he can.  A new guild that owes him will help if he needs to call a meeting of the Estates (part of the subtext Vorgand missed this session).  Additionally, delvers are known to come back from expeditions with lots of loot that can be taxed or gets spent locally, meaning the locals can easily pay their taxes, adding to the royal treasury two ways.  Finally, the King is sharp and realizes that the Guild is probably the reason the elves have returned to the city, even if the elves are not aware of it yet.  This gives the King a useful pawn when dealing with the elves, who are a bit overbearing in court.  If things go too sour, the King can sacrifice the Guild to placate the elves and avoid an invasion, but he’d rather not do that without extreme need.]

Delvers Guild

Guild Organizational Outline

Arc 1

Arc 1 Landing Page – Links to all Arc 1 sessions

Arc 2

Arc 2 Landing Page – Links to all Arc 2 sessions, as they post

Last Session: Arc 2, Session 1

Next Session: Arc 2, Session 3 [Not Yet Typed Up]

Delvers Guild – Arc 2, Session 1 – Quietly doing business

[December 1 through December 8 – The Delvers lay low and learn what they can about the sudden Elf presence in Aegea City.]

[This game uses the Fifth Revised Edition of the Hero System rules along with the Fantasy Hero supplement.  This session happened January 10, 2022.]

Player Characters:

Jala – human female – a person of discretion, studier of Pact Magic with a focus on shadows

Ricky the Astrologer – human male – Newly-minted specialist in Magic Circles and Teleportation Gates

Zarek the Red – fox male – Golemancer

Vorgand – human female – Guildmaster and Chief Combatant for the Delvers Guild

Ozrel – human male – Pugilist and Rune Magician

Exiting, Stage Left

Nick Stalwart – human male – Taking a Stalwart Family ship to track down his lost younger brother, Les, somewhere in the eastern Opal Sea.

Clarence – human male – Freshly promoted to Journeyman status and sent to visit obscure temples by the senior clergy [who were not envious of his growing status and Staff of Creation at all, really]

Non-Player Characters:

Torsten, Fish, Harek – ex-bandits, now The Torchbearers for the Delvers Guild

Konrad Moonclub – Stalwart family factor in Little Wytheford

Orm Oxdriver – driver of the guild’s over-sized, double-decker vardo

Lars – Chamberlain of the Delvers Guild Guildhall

Ferragus – Seller of fine antiquities

[Clarence’s player was not happy with his character due to his limited understanding of the Hero System rules when we started the campaign, so he switched to a new character, Ozrel.  We ret-conned that Ozrel has always been one of the guild’s founding members, but for various reasons has always stayed in town.  He is now available for expedition work – just in time for the Guild to stay in town.]

[Nick’s player needed to drop one of the many games he was involved in and the Monday Night group was the one that provided the greatest return on time, letting him do other RL things he needed to take care of.  He might re-join when some of his other, longer-standing campaigns wrap up.  As I’m reaching my own maximum capacity for games I can be involved in and still have time for non-gaming stuff, I totally sympathize with him on this.]

Sunday, December 1st, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Ricky completed the week-long job of inscribing and inlaying a magic circle in the ruins under Moon Manor.  He then cleared away the debris and started casting the lengthy spell to connect this magic circle with its twin in the Delvers Guild guildhall basement.

Once the ritual was complete, Ricky initiated the gate by placing one of the Key Tokens in the appropriate place on a small stand that was part of the magic circle.  This caused a phantom arch of stones to appear, outlined in a cold blue light.  Through the arch he could see the basement of the guildhall…

Meanwhile, in the guildhall, Vorgand was approached by Lars, the chamberlain, who urgently reported that something strange was happening in the basement.  Vorgand and the Guild Founders present [the other PCs] went down to see what was happening, concerned the elves were making a move against them.  What they found instead was a phantom arch of stones, outlined in a cold blue light, standing in the magic circle Ricky had inscribed in one of the basement side rooms.  As they arrived at the door, Ricky stepped through the arch from the Moon Manor side, slightly surprised to see the rest of the group there and ready for battle.

Ricky explained that the gate was now functional and handed a Key Token to each of the founding members present, with three extra tokens left over.  [One each would have gone to Clarence and Nick, while the third was for the next person authorized to use the gate, whoever that turned out to be.]  Ricky then explained how the others could activate the gate.  They each did so, to verify the tokens all worked.

Vorgand then brought Ricky up to speed with the current situation in the city.  The tension caused by the elves suddenly returning to the city, claiming ownership of several pieces of property and one of the Guild Docks, and generally stationing small groups at major intersections in the city had lessened over the last week.  The deeds of ownership the elves presented were over 500 years old and the Kingdom of Aegea was only 350 years old, meaning the Court took the position that they were not under any obligation to honor deeds issued prior to the founding of the kingdom.  The elves argued, rather elegantly, that this was the first they had heard of the Kingdom of Aegea and they were willing to recognize the kingdom, surely the kingdom would be willing to recognize their prior claims.  The fact of this discussion reassured the people of the city that an actual war was not going to happen.  That said, small teams of elves [2-3 elves each] were still “coincidentally loitering” at key intersections in the city, even though they were not heavily armed nor wore visible armor.

Vorgand gave the mithril set of magic earrings to Ricky to wear and listen in on the elves using magic earrings to stay in communication across the city.  [Ricky understands Elven, Vorgand does not.]  Jala asked Ricky to teach her Elven and he agreed to do so when she had time.

Zarek started the lengthy process of crafting a fox out of iron.  It will take him the week to finish.

Cromsday, December 5th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Rather than staying at the guildhall, Jala instead spent several days locating the concealed observation points the elves had set up across the city, up on the rooftops where they normally would not be easy to find nor observe.  Jala’s spell for peering through shadows gave her an edge here.  The concealed observation points contained food stores, a barrel or two of crossbow bolts, and magical crossbows.  Jala was unable to determine what kind of magic was on the crossbows.  To counter the elf observation points, Jala started recruiting street kids to form an information network, paying good coin when they brought her information she sought.

At the guildhall, Lars continued supervising work to refurbish the guildhall’s exterior.  The front door had already been replaced with a new, stout door with a high-quality lock on it.  The large warehouse doors were chained closed with new chains and padlocks, both greatly increasing the security of the Guildhall.  The location of the Guildhall deep in the Student’s Quarter meant that none of the elven observation teams had direct eyes on the Guildhall.  All the Guild Founders agreed they would like that to continue for as long as possible.

Ricky had spent the last several days listening to the sporadic communication between the elves via magic earrings.  It helped greatly that the elves assumed no one could listen in on their communications and were therefor lax at communications security.  On this day he overheard one of the roving teams of elves report they had located the source of many of the recent elven antique sales, the shop of Ferragus, the guild’s ally and intermediary for the sale of elven artifacts and antiques.  They advocated an evaluation team question the shop’s owner about any recent source of antiquities.  Ricky immediately reported this information to Vorgand via courier.

Vorgand had spent the last several days attending lectures at The Blooded, the kingdom’s military academy where she was a student.  At the military academy she heard talk from other students boasting about having genuine elven antiquities on display, a hot new trend amongst the elite.  When Vorgand received Ricky’s warning, she immediately headed over to Ferragus’s shop.

While waiting for Ferragus to finish with some other clients, she observes another new trend – the inclusion of elven articles of clothing or accessories into one’s outfits.  Most items worn by the other patrons of the shop were recent copies, unlike the sash and sword Vorgand wore openly [perhaps unwisely].  With this new clothing trend, she felt she would not stand out as much.

Once Ferragus was available, they talked elliptically about the elven antiquities they had been trading in.  Ferragus reported interest was up and he had sold most of the items the Guild had brought to him so far.  Vorgand assured him they had more to sell, but he should expect a group of elves to visit him in the next couple of days and ask questions about his sources.  Both agreed it would be easier to answer questions if there wasn’t a fresh shipment of elven items in the shop, despite the active market for them right now.  Ferragus agreed to send a message to the Guildhall after the elves have been and gone, after which the Guild would send over a shipment of objects d’art and some books.  Vorgand then bought a random item of jewelry from Ferragus as cover for her visit [in case she was being followed already] and left.

Evening

The Guild Founders met after dinner at The Library to drink and discuss business.  It was clear that the elves were searching for the source of elven antiquities in the city.  Jala brought up the possibility of spreading out where the Guild sold its finds.  After discussion, the group decided that the fewer people who knew the Guild was the source, the fewer opportunities there would be for someone to sell the Guild out to the elves.

Freysday, December 6th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Vorgand, Ricky, and Ozrel spend the day ferrying things to sell to Ferragus from the Moon to the Guildhall via the portal under the Moon Manor and Ricky’s new gate.  They moved 12 objects d’art and some of the books retrieved from the base on the Moon.

While passing through the dungeon under the Moon Manor Ruins, Vorgand went up to the surface to talk with the Torchbearers to see if they needed any supplies.  Torsten suggested they add a door to the old chapel they were housing in so they will have a more direct access to the tower being used as a storage room.  He needed a door, some timber for a frame, carpenter’s tools, and, if possible, some additional fresh food.  With winter having arrived, hunting around the manor has become poor and they had to eat one of the goats and a couple chickens.  Vorgand agreed to all of it and told them the supplies would be dropped off the next day.  Once back at the Guildhall, Vorgand passed the list of supplies to Lars and asked that he arrange for the supplies the next morning.

Yggsday, December 7th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Morning

Lars spent part of the morning purchasing the supplies requested by the Torchbearers.  As it was well know that the Guild was in the process of restoring/upgrading the previously abandoned building that was now the Guildhall, this raised no suspicions at all.  Once he had all the supplies delivered to the Guildhall, Vorgand and Ozrel delivered them to the Torchbearers via Ricky’s Gate.

Afternoon

Ricky started getting more systematic with his eavesdropping on the elven communications [he decided to use Deduction to work out how many elves there were in the city].  With Jala’s help he placed the locations of the surveillance points the elves were using on a map and worked out the code names assigned to each location.  Ricky worked out there were 21 teams working 7 observation points in the city, 2 at ground level, making use of convenient shops and cafes, and the other 5 concealed away on the rooftops.  Another 6 teams patrolled the city, observing the people or specific shops.  Jala reported what she had found inside their outposts earlier in the week.  When she decided to look inside their ship now, but discovered she was blocked from doing so by a ward of some sort.

Yggsday, December 7th, 1st year of the reign of King Vladik the Gamesman

Zarek, having spent the last week crafting a fox out of iron, spent six hours using his recently learned golemancy skills to animate it.  At the end of the arduous process he succeeded and the iron fox animated.  To test it out, he had it deliver a message to the blacksmith who taught him his ironwork skills.  Three hours later, the iron fox returned with the blacksmith’s surprised response.

Afternoon

Late in the afternoon, Vorgand received a message from Ferragus that simply stated, “Well that was interesting.”  It also indicated that the next delivery time should be 8:00 PM, Sunday, at his back gate.

End of Session

Guild Postings

[The Delvers Guild campaign resumes!  We eased into the campaign with this session for a couple reasons, not the least of which was me being not entirely ready to start running.  That said, we got a lot done and started things off with a small dose of paranoia.]

[I'm doing something differently with the links to other sessions.  Rather than add new links each session, I'm going to have the link to the last session, the next session, the Guild Organizational Outline, and links to the landing pages for each campaign arc.  This will reduce the number of links I need to incorporate each post to no more than 5 links and speed up the posting process.  Let me know what you think.]

Delvers Guild

Guild Organizational Outline

Arc 1

Landing Page

Arc2

Landing Page

Last Session – See Arc 1, Session 33, accessible through the landing page

Next Session [Not Yet Typed Up]

The Delvers Guild Campaign - Arc 2

This landing page provides links to the sessions that comprise the second [more or less] story arc of the Delvers Guild campaign.  I will add links here as sessions are posted to the blog.

A link to Arc 1: Foundation is provided so you can quickly go back to Arc 1 and read up on the first campaign arc.  At the bottom is a link to the Creature Catalog, links to monsters I stat out for the campaign.  I might do a Dramatis Personae page for the NPCs in the campaign, but I haven't decided yet.  The comments section of this page would be a good place to indicate interest. [Hint, hint.]

Arc 1: Foundation - The first 33 sessions of the campaign, forming a more or less complete story arc, from the guild's first expedition to the return of elves to Agea City after a 500 year absence.

Arc 2

Session 1 - Quietly Doing Business 

Session 2 - Tryouts Start

Session 3 - Tryouts continue and a revelation

Session 4 - Discussions and a delivery

Session 5 - Interviews, Classes, and Second Round of Exhibition Fights

Session 6 - Exhibition Fights 4 through 7

Session 7, Part 1 and Part 2 - Fights 8 and 9, plus a Bonus Fight 

Session 8 - Roles and Responsibilities

Session 9 - R and R Wrap-up and back to the Stone Halls

Session 10 - 10 Skulls Exploding

Session 11 - Elves, F*ck Yeah!

Session 12 - More Looting!

Session 13 - Two More Crypts Looted and Lids Stashed

Session 14 - Last Crypts

Session 15 - Divvying Spoils and Preparing for the Ball

Session 16 - The Royal Winter Ball

Session 17 – Meanwhile, Back at the Guildhall...

Companion Pages

Creature Catalog - a compilation of links to the Creature Catalog blog entries for the Delvers Guild campaign.

The Delvers Guild Campaign - Arc 1: Foundation

This landing page provides links to all 33 sessions that comprised the first [more or less] story arc of the Delvers Guild campaign, including the two character creation sessions.

Eventually I will compile the session notes into a book format like I did for the Barrowmaze in Adventurer, Conqueror, King System (BACKS), links to which are in the Downloads side panel to the right.  When I do, I will post a link on this page as well.

Finally, at the bottom of this page is a link to the Arc 2 landing page, where I will be posting links for each session of Arc 2 [currently unnamed] and the Creature Catalog, links to the monsters I stated out for the campaign.

Arc 1 Session Links

Session A, Character Creation Part 1

Session B, Character Creation Part 2

Session 01 - Moon Manor Ruins

Session 02 - Aftermath, Prank, and the Slump

Session 03, Part 1

Session 03, Part 2

Session 04 - Lump and Shades

Session 05 - Water

Session 06 - Fun Guys

Session 07 - The Elf

Session 08 - An Unexpected Passage

Session 09 - Land Boat

Session 10 - Fun Guys, Redux

Session 11 - The Agreement, The Moon, The Hand

Session 12 - Explorations for Earrings

Session 13 - Burning Down the House

Session 14 - Vines and Pyramid

Session 15 - Fight of the Blue Skeletons

Session 16 - Expedition Wrap-up

Session 17 - Welcome Back!

Session 18 - Gate Exploration and Testing!

Session 19 - The Desert Ruins

Session 20 - Hunting Skeletons

Session 21 - Lightning in the Desert

Session 22 - Return to "Burning Hell"

Session 23 - Between Expeditions

Session 24 - Applicants and Treasure

Session 25 - To the Moon!

Guild Organizational Outline

Session 26 - Underwater Ruins and Planning

Session 27 - Lift Check and Then Back to the City

Session 28 - Black Gem Skeletons!

Session 29 - Upstairs then Downstairs

Session 30 - The Moon Boat and The Blue Sun

Session 31 - The Portal of Stones

Session 32 - Runaway and Tomb

Session 33 - Last Looks and then...Elves?

Companion Pages

Creature Catalog - a compilation of links to the Creature Catalog blog entries for the Delvers Guild campaign.

Arc 2 - The landing page for the Arc 2 session of the campaign.

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 48

[Day 68 – Return to Magnimar, selling of the loot, and payment of shares.]

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

Roscuro – male ratfolk 8th level Monk

Hrefna – female changeling 7th level Omdura

Swamprover – female grippli 7th level Wizard

Marativy – female ratfolk 8th level Ninja

Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 8th level Summoner (Synthesist)

Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 8th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar

NPCs

Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 6th level Wizard (Invoker)

Ariphi – female tiefling 7th 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 68

Morning

The Ratpack packed up their campsite, having finished their second [and final] expedition to the Lady’s Light and the dungeons underneath.  They said their goodbyes to their troglodyte friends in the nearby caves and to the merchants from House Kalmeralm negotiating with the troglodytes for a trade enclave.  Then, with castings of Mass Ant Haul and Nature's Path, the Ratpack and company hauled their loot and remaining supplies to the pick-up point just north of the peninsula.

Noon

The Ratpack met up with the Fortune Found and spent some time loading their loot, remaining supplies, and themselves aboard the ship.  Once complete, the ship set sail along the stretch of coast separating the peninsula from Magnimar.

During this trip, Hrefna cast Comprehend Languages and read the book taken from the room with the marble slabs [see last session].  It was titled Dreams and Desires and explored the link between enchantment magic and dreams.  After a quick skim of the book, Hrefna shared what she learned with the rest of the Ratpack.

Late Afternoon

The Fortune Found docked at Magnimar and the Ratpack paid Mel and his bodyguards.  The adventures then loaded up a hired cart on the dock with the crates of loot from the ship.  They drove the cart up into the Naos District, to Frederick’s shop.  On the way, Roscuro opined, “Wish we knew an artificer.  They’d pay a lot for the golem heads.”  Marativy asked, “You mean like the Golemworks in town?”  Roscuro had never heard of the Golemworks before and after Marativy and Zitch explained what it was, the group decided to sell the wreckage of the Thassilonian Sentinels to the Golemworks instead of Frederick, expecting to get a better price.

At Frederick’s shop, Frederick greeted the group warmly and they hauled out all the items recovered from the Lady’s Light for Frederick to look over.  Over tea, Roscuro answered Frederick’s questions about the items and discussed what other objects remained in the dungeon while Frederick and his assistant cataloged the items.  Frederick even looked over the wreckage of the sentinel heads, but agreed that the Golemworks would pay a better price than he could for them.

Frederick finally announced that he would pay the adventurers 43,000 gp for the collection of items, which was significantly more than he had available and it would take some time to realize the full value of the items in cash.  The Ratpack negotiated for three rings of sustenance now and 15,500 gp in cash once the items sold, deposited in their account at the bank.  Frederick drew up the contract and everyone signed it.

As part of the conversation during the evaluation, Roscuro had mentioned the goblin trader they had run into and the group’s interest in a flying carpet.  Frederick mentioned that he knew of a seller with a flying carpet and could set up a meeting in a couple days.  Roscuro was interested in talking and at least learning what one would cost and asked Frederick to arrange the meeting.  [Note: We never got around to this meeting, mostly because we looked up the costs of flying carpets and they were prohibitive.  We assumed that's what we learned at the meeting and let it go.]

With the exchange complete, the Ratpack headed to the Alabaster District and Heidmarch Manor, the Pathfinder Society lodge of Magnimar.  There they sold the Orb of Consumption [as the adventurers believed they would be least likely to use the thing] and the hydra head [as a trophy - this was a good idea as it got us significant prestige in the Society].  As it was approaching evening and they still had one more stop, the Ratpack arranged to give the full report on their expedition the next day.

They then hurried the much lightened cart over to the Golemworks in the Capital District, right at the edge of the Irespan.  The Ratpack showed the wreckage of the two sentinel heads they had retrieved and the large collection of parts from the exploded third head.  The Ratpack conceded that the heads would have been worth more intact and were happy to accept 750 gp for the lot.

Evening

After returning the rented cart, the Ratpack went to the Blue Rodent in Underbridge and rented a private room for a celebration and to officially split the shares for the expedition.  A full share worked out to be 10,743 (including coin, gems, and the value received from sold loot), with Swamprover and Roscuro taking 8243 gp and a ring of sustenance each.  [Roscuro took a ring on Gridik’s behalf, planning to trade it to the kobold wizard for a crafted magic item, ensuring all the Ratpack’s spellcasters would have one.]  Third shares paid out to Gridik and Ariphi and were 3580 gp.  Hrefna took 1080 gp and the last ring of sustenance as her third of a share payment.

Days 69 through 99

The Ratpack made a full report to the Pathfinder Society and received much Fame and Prestige as a result.  They spent the next month in Magnimar crafting magic items, gathering new spells and gear, and otherwise preparing for the next leg of their journey.

Hrefna got involved with monster fighting in Magnimar’s arena and turned a small profit at it.

End of Session

End of Book 2

Rat Whispers

[This is the last session report for Book 2 of the Shattered Star Adventure Path.  There was a Session 49, but it was all the magic item crafting and shopping for spells and supplies, so I lumped it in here.  We did all that “now” so we wouldn’t need to remember what we were planning to do when we resume the Adventure Path.  That won’t be for a while as we have switched back to the Delvers Guild campaign to give The Other GM time to work up Book 3.  He, like the rest of us, was not impressed with some of the writing in this book and wants time to re-write sections of the next book that are clunky when involving a party that is mostly size Small and all have darkvision.  He also had concerns we were out-leveling the books, which I disagree with, but he’s the GM.  We’ll see how it goes.]

Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

…

Session 32 – Conclusion

Book 2:

Session 1

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

…

Session 30

…

Session 40

Session 41

Session 42

Session 43

Session 44

Session 45

Session 46

Session 47

The Delvers Guild, Arc 2

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 2, Session 47

[Day 67 Concludes – Clearing the dungeon, Part 3, Beyond the Bedrooms]

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

Roscuro – male ratfolk 7th level Monk

Hrefna – female changeling 6th level Omdura

Swamprover – female grippli 6th level Wizard

Marativy – female ratfolk 7th level Ninja

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

Via Roll20

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

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)

Autumn

Day 67 (Continued)

Having cleared out the lower dungeon level under the Lady’s Light and still having time in the day, the Ratpack made their way back up to the upper dungeon level, returning to the Hall of Grey Flame.  There they lit a torch off the grey flame and placed it into the torch holder on the western wall, thus opening the secret door to the Hall of Bedrooms.

They made their way down the Hall of Bedrooms to the secret door at the end and opened that secret door [using means my notes nor memory explain] to the Big Bed Room.  The octagonal room was how the group left it, the unusually large bed stripped of its luxurious sheets.  The adventurers arranged themselves around the door on the north wall, hoping to find more than a closet.  Marativy checked the door for traps and found none, but it was locked.  She unlocked it and Roscuro opened the door.

Beyond the door was octagonal like the Big Bed Room, but there were four marble benches evenly spaced about the room with a single door on the north wall.  The floor was a mosaic of chips that formed a starburst and there were faded erotic frescos on the walls.  The mosaic radiated a moderate enchantment when checked.  Zitch and Swamprover noted that the figures on the walls were doing magic, but in a sexual way.  Roscuro rolled his eyes.

Roscuro went to step into the room and Zitch offered to cast his Ward on Roscuro.  Roscuro waited for him to do so and then entered the room.  Suspicious of the starburst mosaic, Roscuro walked clockwise around the edge of the room, walking on the marble benches as necessary.  When he safely made it to the door on the north wall, Marativy followed, hopping bench-to-bench.

While standing in front of the north door, Roscuro asked Zitch to use his wand to detect secret doors.  Zitch did so and found none.  As the door on the north wall was the only way forward, Roscuro gestured for Marativy to investigate it for traps and locks.  After checking the door thoroughly, Marativy stated it was safe and had no lock.  Roscuro opened the door.

Beyond this door was a small 10-foot by 10-foot room with three other doors, one on each wall.  In the center was a 5-foot diameter pool of clear water.  Not trusting the situation, Roscuro asked for one of the spellcasters to come up and cast Detect Magic.  Swamprover stepped forward, following Roscuro’s path around the starburst mosaic.  Once Detect Magic was cast, she stated the pool was magical, radiating a moderate abjuration magic.  Roscuro stepped into the small room.  When nothing happened, he signaled it was safe for the rest of the group to follow.

Swamprover and Gridik investigated the pool of water and worked out that it had a Dispel Magic effect on it.  While they did this, Marativy checked the three doors out of this room for traps and locks.  After 30 minutes, she reported none of the doors were trapped, but the east door was locked.  Following the “Left-Hand Rule”, Roscuro opened the door on the left [west] to see what was beyond it.

This octagonal room was clearly a laboratory of some sort.  The stone counters lining the walls were covered with glasswork and ceramic containers of various shapes and sizes.  A large corroded urn sat conspicuously in the center of the counter on the west wall.  A quick Detect Magic identified that some of the containers, or at least their contents, were magical.  Swamprover, Zitch, Gridik, and Hrefna entered the room to investigate further and see if they could identify what the various magical substances were.

Swamprover identified one of the concoctions as highly explosive and dangerously unstable.  She called out a warning to the others.  Zitch identified one of the vials as containing a potion of displacement, which he carefully stored away.  Gridik identified an elixir of love, which Roscuro asked him to store for later sale.  Hrefna's concoction was another dangerously unstable liquid which exploded in her face when she attempted to move it.  The explosion covered the entire room, injuring those in the room and shattering all the other pieces of glassware and ceramics, including the corroded urn, and caused a chain reaction as two more unstable liquids exploded [including the one Swamprover had safely identified].  Hrefna activated her healing aura while two blobs escaped the corroded urn [and the Other GM asked us to roll for initiative].

Swamprover identified the blobs as grey oozes and shared that they were immune to cold and fire, took no sneak attack or precision damage, and were acidic against inorganic materials, like weapons.  The fight against the two grey oozes was short but noisy due to Swamprover and Gridik both casting Lightning Bolt in the small room.  Marativy got in the killing blow on the first ooze and Roscuro on the second.

Once the fight was over, those injured made use of Hrefna’s healing aura to recover from the explosions.  Hrefna had to cast cure light wounds on Gridik to finish healing the kobold from the damage.

The next door opened was the north door.  Beyond this was another octagonal room.  This room had six marble slabs with attached manacles, draped with white sheets.  Next to each slab was a metal bookstand, one of which still held a book.  Detect Magic said nothing was magical beyond some pages in the book.  Marativy carefully investigated the book, discovering the magical pages were scrolls tucked into the book.  The first was a scroll of Dream, the second a scroll of Mind Fog, and the third a symbol of sleep, which triggered.  Marativy was the only one to succumb to the power of the symbol [the rest of us made our Will saves].

Roscuro picked up Marativy and took her back to the big bed to sleep off the effects of the trap, staying there to guard her.  Zitch checked the book and found it was written in Diabolic, which no one in the group could read.  [Kind of surprising, actually.]

Ariphi stepped up and and picked the lock on the eastern door once the rest of the group was ready.  Hrefna opened the door.  Beyond was a final octagonal room, this one with a domed ceiling and a complex design painted on the floor in several different colors.  There was broken furniture scattered around the room, including a bookstand from which partially held a large black tome against the far wall.

The book and the circle both detected as magical with the circle seemingly in mid-conjuration.  The adventurers discussed whether they wanted to enter this room or not.  Once they decided they wanted the black book, it became a question of who would try to retrieve it.  Templeton volunteered to fly in and get the book.  This seemed safest and was approved.

Templeton flew around the edge of the room, avoiding the circle on the floor until he got to the book.  This apparently triggered the completion of the conjuration and a worm-like monster with a hideous face of eyes and hooked jaws appeared, wielding a wand and a sword in its twin tentacle tails.  Zitch immediately invoked Conjuration Foil, which damaged the creature but failed to shift it.  An aura of madness rolled off the monster, confusing Templeton, Ariphi, and Gridik!

The fight that followed was tough.  The monster caused confusion and could control those who were confused, setting Ariphi to attack Swamprover.  The aura continued to roll out from the monster, causing all in the room and the small chamber outside to work to maintain their sanity [had to make a Will save every round, which not everyone made].  Hrefna was able to get a massive attack in at the start, but after that it was a slow progress of those adventures in control of their wits making attack after attack.  Templeton was able to regain control over himself for a while.  His attacks did little to the creature, but did cause it to start bleeding before he once again became confused.  Gridik punched himself to little effect.  Swamprover gradually pushed Gridik out of the aura of madness and into the lab.  Once Gridik could think clearly, he climbed up on a worktable and cast Lightning Bolt back into the conjuration room.

Ultimately, it was the bleed damage inflicted by Templeton that finally killed the thing.

Once the monster was dead and the adventurers were in control of their minds again, healing was done.  The black book was packed away and the wand and sword were taken from the dead creature.

Deciding they had pushed their luck far enough and with no other areas to explore, the Ratpack exited the dungeon, taking the sleeping Marativy with them.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[The monster at the end was a fiendish seugathi, for those interested.  In less cramped quarters, I think the group could have taken it with less trouble, but the things Aura of Madness filled the room and the adjacent room, leaving no way to get out of the area of effect and still attack the thing.  Luckily, the Other GM missed the part where it had Fast Heal 5, so the Bleed from Templeton’s one successful attack kept going.  A very tough fight and we would have left the dungeon at this point, even if there had been more to explore.  I’m very glad we didn’t face this on the first expedition when we were lower in level, it would have been a TPK.]

[It was running late when the fight finished, so we wrapped up quickly.  After resting the night, most of the characters leveled.]

Ratpack

Book 1:

Session 01 – Start

…

Session 32 – Conclusion

Book 2:

Session 1

…

Session 10

…

Session 20

…

Session 30

…

Session 40

Session 41

Session 42

Session 43

Session 44

Session 45

Session 46

Session 48