Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 3, Session 5

[Days 6 to 20 – Rest of the river trip, ending with arrival at Sirathu.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened September 12, 2022.]

[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

Marativy – female ratfolk 8th level Ninja

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

Roscuro – male ratfolk 8th level Monk

Swamprover – female grippli 7th level Wizard

Hrefna – female changeling 7th level Omdura

Via Roll20

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

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 6

The Ratpack loaded back up on the Lucky Jenny, the gnomish magical paddleboat they had hired, and left Wartle on the Yondabakari River.  During the day’s travel, Hrefna cast Commune to gather some information on our quest.  We learned were two important things as a result.  First, that there were multiple entrances to the location containing the relic shard we sought.  Second, Leroux, the assassin and kidnapper who had taken our friend Winston, was in Kaer Maga.

Day 7

The Lucky Jenny continued upstream on the river and Hrefna cast Commune again to gather more information.  Hrefna started narrowing down which districts in Kaer Maga had an entrance to the dungeon we needed.  She also verified we would not be attacked by a monster while crossing Lake Syrantula in a couple days.

Day 8

The Lucky Jenny continued upstream on the river and Hrefna cast Commune again to gather more information.  Hrefna finished learning which districts had dungeon entrances we might need and gained some additional information about those guarding the entrances.  It was a mixed bag of information and left us with more questions.

Day 9

Morning

The Lucky Jenny continued upstream on the river and Hrefna cast Commune again to gather more information.  Hrefna learned that Leroux was not searching for the shard, the person who hired Leroux is, but they are not in Kaer Maga.  She also learned that the Ratpack was not under observation nor was the shard that could spy on Marativy’s shard in the hands of anyone collecting the shards.  Some additional experimentation taught the group that the spell Nondetection was not strong enough to block the ability of the shards to see the next shard in the chain.  [Some of this information was learned on later days, but the GM did an info dump here to speed things up.]

Afternoon

The Lucky Jenny arrived at Whistledown, a town where the Yondabakari River exited Lake Syrantula.  The Ratpack pooled what knowledge they had on Whistledown:

• It has the largest gnome population per capita of anywhere.
• Major land and water trade routes cross here.
• The houses are decorated with wind-whistles that sound when the wind blows, making the town very musical.
• The town is the source of quality musical instruments.

Several members of the Ratpack did some shopping.  Gridik picked up a rare rare 1st edition tome, signed by the author, for a mere 25 gold coins.  Unfortunately, he did not find any of the spells he was looking for but Templeton purchased a bag of holding.

For dinner, the Ratpack met at Thagon’s Rest, a quality inn that served the best food in town.  It was sized for gnomes, halflings, and ratfolk (size Small races), so after eating Ariphi and Hrefna retired to the Azure Cup, which was sized for humans.

Day 10

The Ratpack re-embarked on the Lucky Jenny and set sail across lake Syrantula.

Day 15

The Luck Jenny arrived at Melfash, on the far side of lake Syrantula, where the Yondabakari River entered the lake.  Melfash was built on stilts on the lake and had numerous water wheels powering various workshops.  It was also the beginning of territory claimed by Korvosa, so the more restrictive laws of Korvosa were now in force.  The stop here was brief before continuing up the Yondabakari River.

Day 17

Late Morning

The Lucky Jenny arrived at the town [maybe large village] of Abken.  The town was surrounded by wooden walls due to the monsters wandering the plains to the north.  The Ratpack asked the gate guards about the town, Gridik asking if a wizard lived in town.  He was told that a wizard, Jorsh, did live in town “in the two-story building.”

Gridik, Zitch, and Swamprover went into town to speak with the wizard.  Jorsh turned out to be affable and was willing to trade spells he knew for spells he didn’t know.  Gridik was able to trade a copy of Tiny Hut for a copy of both Make Whole and Warding Weapon.  The copy session took 4 hours to complete.

Meanwhile, Roscuro, Marativy, Hrefna, and Ariphi bought lunch and then spent the afternoon in a tavern drinking, swapping stories with the locals.

6:00 PM

The Ratpack left Abken just as the town gates were being closed for the night and re-boarded the Luck Jenny.

Day 20

The Lucky Jenny arrived at Sirathu at the base of the Storval Rise, upon which sat Kaer Maga.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[The daily descriptions got skimpy at the end as we ran out of time in the session.  We wanted to conclude the river trip this session so we could get on with the adventure.  That said, having the wizards check each town for shops or fellow wizards to swap spells with was something I enjoyed doing.  It makes wizards feel like part of a society rather than individual mad scientists.]

[There was a month between this session and the previous one for a mix of reasons, not the least I contracted my second case of Covid at the end of August, despite being vaccinated with two boosters.  I contracted it from my wife, who caught it at a business social.  This time around it was much worse than the first time I had it and I missed two days of work and went light on work another three days.  It was conveniently a slow period in my schedule and I work from home, so I could doze in my chair and eat soup.  I did have to put off all my plans for the Labor Day weekend and a dinner with the neighbors we had scheduled to avoid infecting others.]

Ratpack

Book 1: Shards of Sin Landing Page – Links to all Book 1 sessions

Book 2: Curse of the Lady’s Light Landing Page – Links to all Book 2 sessions

Book 3: The Asylum Stone Landing Page – Links to all Book 3 sessions

Last Session: Session 4

Next Session: Session 6

Happy Thanksgiving!

So the Day Job was super busy last week and I never had time to write up the next session notes for the Shattered Star campaign.  This week is busy as I only have two work days, them my mom is coming to visit for Thanksgiving.  Then I'm having Second Thanksgiving with another family that are close friends on Friday and play board games all day.  Saturday is "Try to catch up on released movies" Day and Sunday I have a once a month campaign I play in.

So clearly, there will not be any session notes posted typed up and posted until next week.  My apologies for the delay.  I expected to skip this week, but did not expect the rush of work last week to materialize.

Happy Thanksgiving for those in the States!  Sorry for the delay to everyone else.

Later!

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 3, Session 4

[Day 4 and 5 – Conclusion of the fight with the lesher and rescued villagers evacuated.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened August 15, 2022.]

[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

Marativy – female ratfolk 8th level Ninja

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

Roscuro – male ratfolk 8th level Monk

Swamprover – female grippli 7th level Wizard

Hrefna – female changeling 7th level Omdura

Via Roll20

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

Autumn

Day 4 (Continued mid-fight)

The crow swarm followed Swamprover out of Caylen’s home and into the street, where it flowed over the grippli, Zitch, and Hrefna.  Swamprover reversed course and ducked back into the house, slamming the door shut behind her.  Two of the wolves moved to attack Templeton, but both failed to land hits on him.  One wolf moved and attacked Marativy successfully and the last wolf attacked Zitch [my notes do not indicate if the attack was successful].  The lesher attacked and easily hit Roscuro despite the monk’s ki defense but it failed to infect Roscuro with a plant parasite.  Blinded by the swarm, Zitch flew straight up to get out of the swarm.  Hrefna was also blinded and again failed to break free from the roots holding her in place.  Roscuro stepped to a point where he could attack two of the wolves and the lesher, renewed his ki defense, and unleashed a flurry of blows.  One blow killed a wolf, one seriously wounded the other, and the two of the final three attacks landed solidly on the lesher.  Marativy stepped to Roscuro’s space and did a full attack on the lesher, hitting twice with flanking sneak attacks [as ratfolk, both Marativy and Roscuro have Swarming, which provides flanking if we both attack the same target (among other things)].  Templeton grabbed Hrefna and ripped her out of the roots before flying over to the lesher.  This triggered multiple attacks [of opportunity] from the wolves, all of which missed.  Hrefna stepped away from the others to avoid becoming an enticing target for the crow swarm.

The crow swarm moved over Templeton, Roscuro, Marativy, and the lesher.  Safe inside Caylen’s house, Swamprover started searching the rooms for any sign of Caylen or his wife, finding Caylen on his bed, covered in plantlife.  The remaining three wolves, bleeding from wounds inflicted by Templeton, attacked Templeton, Hrefna, and Roscuro, but only the one attacking Hrefna hit.  The lesher stepped back and then unleashed its root growth attack, encompassing Marativy, Roscuro, Hrefna, and the wolves in the conic area of the attack.  No one was immobilized this time, but Marativy and Hrefna still took damage and all three remaining wolves were killed.  Zitch flew a little closer to Hrefna, placed Protective Luck on her, and cackled to maintain it and the other castings still active.  Roscuro stepped out of the crow swarm and attempted to use the Suggestion power of the Shard of Lust.  It failed entirely [lesher are immune to mind effects].  Marativy stepped in a different direction out of the swarm and attacked the lesher for some damage.  Templeton was blinded by the crow swarm and had trouble finding his way out.  Hrefna moved to a safer position and cast cure moderate wounds on herself.

The crow swarm moved back over Templeton and Marativy.  Swamprover, noticing that Hrefna’s healing aura had moved, moved back into it as she was still seriously wounded from the swarms.  The lesher stepped over to Roscuro and hit him once.  Zitch cast snowball at the swarm and continued to cackle.  Roscuro performed a flurry of blows, starting with the very depleted swam of crows, dispersing the swarm on his third hit.  He attempted to land his final attack on the lesher but missed.  Marativy stepped to flank the lesher with Hrefna, but failed to hit.  Templeton performed a full attack on the lesher and hit it twice.  Hrefna followed with a full attack on the lesher [my notes do not indicate if she hit but the fact that the lesher attacked her in the next round suggests she did].

Swamprover opened the door to Caylen’s house, calling out she has located Caylen.  The lesher attacked Hrefna twice, hitting once.  Zitch flew into the house to cast lesser restoration on Caylen [and avoid having the lesher manifest there when we kill it].  Roscuro focused his ki on an extra attack and unleashed a flurry of blows on the lesher, killing it with the third hit.  The lesher exploded in response, flinging out parasites as shrapnel.  Hrefna and Templeton were both hit and infected by parasites.

Marativy cut the parasite out of Templeton’s eidolon while Roscuro assisted Hrefna in pulling out the one infecting her.  In the house, Zitch cast lesser restoration on Caylen and then immediately placed a healing hex on him.  The parasite ripped its way out of Caylen and attempted to flee out of the house, where the rest of the Ratpack piled attacks on it until it was paste.

After catching their breath, the Ratpack split up into two teams and searched the other houses to locate and rescue infected villagers.  They saved 8 more villagers , but another one died from the damage done when the parasite ripped out of them [it rolled more damage than we rolled healing].  All nine of the rescued villagers were still asleep.  Zitch cast detect magic and could tell the sleep was magically induced but waning.

After a quick discussion of options, Zitch cast secure shelter and the Ratpack encamped inside with the sleeping villagers.  Hrefna also cast alarm around the shelter and the Ratpack stood regular watches through the night.

Day 5

Morning

The villagers woke up in the morning and were very hungry and confused.  The Ratpack explained the situation and then raided the village for food and spices to cook a large but simple breakfast.  While everyone was eating, the Ratpack questioned the villagers about what they remembered.  They “the sleep” apparently started about a week ago and there were nearly 50 villagers still missing.

The Ratpack discussed options.  They wanted to pursue the lesher wherever it re-established itself, but none of them were trackers or had much wilderness expertise.  Additionally, leaving the villagers here was too dangerous as the lesher or its minions could return at any time and kill them all.  They conferred with the villagers and decided to take the villagers back to Wortle as soon as possible.

Once the villagers finished eating and felt they had some strength, they spent some time collecting food and belongings for the relocation to Wortle.

Noon

Zitch cast conjure carriage twice, providing enough capacity to move everyone back to Wortle.  Everyone loaded up and the carriages left Brannock.

5:00 PM

The Ratpack, mostly riding on top of the carriages, heard the sounds of dire ape hunting calls in the brush.  With everyone a little more alert, Zitch had the carriages continue south to Wortle.

8:00 PM

The two carriages arrived at Wortle.

The Ratpack immediately turned the rescued villagers over to the authorities, explaining the fate of Brannock.  This took some time.

9:00 PM

Roscuro walked Cayden’s mother’s home and reported to Seline that her son was alive and over at the town hall with the other refugees from Brannock.  Roscuro explained the full situation to Seline truthfully and honestly.  Seline thanked him and went into another room to get a small box, which she handed to Roscuro as the promised reward.  Roscuro offered to escort her to Caylen at the town hall and she accepted.  There was a bittersweet reunion between them at Caylen’s wife was among those missing.

11:00 PM

Back at the ship, Roscuro finally opened the box Seline had given him.  Inside was the promised heirloom belt plus a note and a small leather pouch.  The note was from Seline and explained that she had told others with missing family in Brannock about Roscuro’s group going to Brannock to find out what happened.  They had put together a small collection of coins as a thank you.  Inside the pouch was 200 gold coins.  Roscuro immediately put the coins into the party fund.

Roscuro had Zitch check the belt for magic as it seemed to be in suspiciously good condition.  Zitch confirmed it was magical and was in fact a Belt of Dexterity [+2].  Roscuro took off the Belt of Dexterity [+2] he was wearing and put on Seline’s belt.  Marativy asked about the other belt and Roscuro gave it to her.

Marativy then asked Zitch what he needed to increase the enchantment on it as she had been saving up for a very powerful version.  They discussed it and Zitch agreed she had enough gold to buy the supplies…if they could find a source to buy them from.

Midnight

Before going to bed, Roscuro took the time to pen a letter to Sheila Heidmarch [Captain of the Pathfinder Society in Magnimar].  In the letter he detailed what had happened at Brannock.  He suggested that the Magnimar government might request adventurers to finish the job against the lesher but the Ratpack was continuing on with its original mission.  He enclosed a drawing of the lesher that Marativy had made into the letter.  In the morning he would find a ship heading downriver to Magnimar and pay to have the letter delivered.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[The players had a much bigger conversation on what to do next after learning there were 50 missing villagers than I included in the write-up.  We wanted to find them but had to admit we were completely unprepared for such an endeavor.  We had none of the necessary ranger skills, plus we had 9 survivors that were barely strong enough to stand, let alone tramp through the forest with us or defend themselves in the ruined village if we left them there and they were attacked.  We eventually settled for a guaranteed rescue of 9 villagers.]

Ratpack

Book 1: Shards of Sin Landing Page – Links to all Book 1 sessions

Book 2: Curse of the Lady’s Light Landing Page – Links to all Book 2 sessions

Book 3: The Asylum Stone Landing Page – Links to all Book 3 sessions

Last Session: Session 3

Next Session: Session 5

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 3, Session 3

[Day 4 – Fighting the leshen and its allies.]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened August 8, 2022.]

[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

Marativy – female ratfolk 8th level Ninja

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

Roscuro – male ratfolk 8th level Monk

Swamprover – female grippli 7th level Wizard

Hrefna – female changeling 7th level Omdura

Via Roll20

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

Autumn

Day 4 (Continued)

Standing in the door of the mayor’s house of Brannock, the adventurers looked around the plant covered village square.  Just off the square, down the main street, Roscuro spotted a home matching the description of Caylen’s house, the house he had accepted a request to check in on.  Unfortunately, the direct path from the mayor’s front door to the front door of Caylen’s house went under the branches of the full-sized oak growing out of the village well.

Roscuro, being of a suspicious bent, looked for an alternate route that did not go under the unnatural tree, concerned the tree might attack [they were facing a hostile plant creature in the process of attacking the village].  If the Ratpack hugged the front of the mayor’s house south, crossed a small side lane, and then followed a low stone fence to the street the house was on, they could then hop the fence and sprint across the street to the house.  Roscuro outlined this plan to the rest of the Ratpack and the mayor before the group headed out.

At first things looked good.  The group made their way in a double line with the crows just watching them move.  As Roscuro and Marativy reached the end of the stone fence, all the birds took wing and formed into a huge swarm that attacked!

The swarm rolled over Roscuro, Marativy, Swamprover, and Hrefna.  Swamprover held her composure through the pecking and scratching of the swarm and cast Shout, knocking a very small number of the birds out of the air.  Swamprover then ran to the front door of Caylen’s house, exiting the swarm.  Zitch flew from his position near the back of the line around the swarm and joined Swamprover at Caylen’s door.  He then put Protective Luck on Roscuro.  Hrefna, standing taller than Swamprover, was blinded by the swarming crows and, after activating her Purify aura [+3 to saves], staggered out of the swarm by following the stone wall.  Roscuro activated his Boots of Haste, stepped a little to the south, and then unleashed a flurry of blows on the swarm of birds, knocking several out of the air [rolled multiple hits and good damage, but halved versus swarms as not area of effect].  Marativy followed Roscuro’s lead, stepped to the same space and performed a full attack routine with her weapons, but only hit once.  Templeton pounced into the swarm and attacked with all of his claws, killing several birds [also halved as not area of effect].

Compounding the bad news, a second swarm of crows formed up as more of the birds poured into the village square.  This second swarm moved over Swamprover and Zitch, at the front door of Caylen’s house.  Swamprover stepped into Caylen’s house, turned, and cast Lightning Bolt, hitting both swarms of crows.  Zitch drew his wand of Lightning Bolt [using the last charge] and hit both swarms [although the original swarm made its save].  Hrefna, currently outside the swarms, cast inflict light wounds and touched the now seriously depleted original swarm, causing a couple birds to squawk and die [max damage, but halved as not area of effect].  Roscuro focused his ki for an extra attack in his flurry of blows, hitting 5 of 6 times, two of which were critical hits, heavily depleting the swarm of crows.  He then took a step out of the swarm's area.  Marativy followed Roscuro out of the swarm and performed another full attack, killing the last of the crows in the original swarm.  Templeton moved to the edge of the remaining swarm and attacked it [my notes don’t say if he hit or not].

The remaining swarm followed Swamprover into the house.  Swamprover stepped deeper into the house and cast Lightning Bolt again, killing many crows.

Then the pack of wolves arrived.

Three of the wolves were able to reach members of the Ratpack and they attacked Marativy, Hrefna, and Zitch, missing only Zitch.  Zitch took this as a cue to fly up and out of their reach.  The adjacent wolf was able to land a devastating attack of opportunity on Zitch as the ratfolk flew away [critical hit for most of Zitch’s remaining hit points].  Zitch placed Protective Luck on Hrefna, who was surrounded by wolves.  Hrefna switched her aura to her Healing aura [Fast Heal 3] before focusing all of her Divine Might on one of the wolves.  Roscuro stepped over to the wolf Hrefna had just hit and performed a flurry of blows on it, killing it.  Marativy moved to support Hrefna and attacked the next wolf but fumbled her sword, dropped it!  Templeton pounced, attacking both the swarm of crows and one of the wolves, barely hitting some crow and missing the wolf.

The crow swarm followed Swamprover deeper into Caylen’s home.  Swamprover, bloodied from the numerous small wounds healed a small bit [less than the damage taken this round], stepped towards the front door and cast Lightning Bolt again, thinning out the swarm some.  The remaining four wolves advanced and attacked.  Of the multiple targets, they hit Roscuro and Marativy, just missing Hrefna due to Marativy’s bodyguard action.  Zitch placed Protective Luck back on Roscuro [the original casting had faded] and flew a small bit away from the crow swarm.  Hrefna attacked and killed the wolf attacking her.  Roscuro moved to Marativy’s position, avoiding 4 attacks of opportunity, and hit the wolf that attacked Marativy.  Marativy retrieved her sword acrobatically, attacked and killed the wolf Roscuro had hit, took a step to attack another wolf [allowed as part of a full attack routine], but missed.  Templeton pounced behind the line of attacking wolves and spread his attacks among the wolves, hoping to cause as many as possible to bleed - killing one and causing two others to start bleeding.

Then the lesher arrived, the huge plant creature towering above the ratfolk and their allies!

The swarm of crows continued their pursuit of Swamprover who was running low on hit points.  Swamprover stepped to the front door and cast Shout again, killing a number of the birds in the swarm.  The wolves, directed by the lesher, moved and attacked Templeton twice, Roscuro once, and Hrefna once.  Templeton and Hrefna were both hit for large hits [12 and 15 hit points, respectively].  The lesher then advanced and used a root growth attack over a 30-foot cone, which immobilized and injured Hrefna [for another 19 points of damage] and injured Swamprover, Marativy, and Templeton [these three made their save so half damage and not immobilized], failing to do the same to Roscuro [made his save and had Evasion, so no damage].  Zitch, still flying, swooped down to the barely standing Hrefna and placed a Healing Hex on her [healing 15 points of damage].  Hrefna then attempted to break free of the roots, but found them too strong.  Roscuro stepped over to the lesher, focused his ki on defense, and then performed a flurry of blows on the lesher, hitting three times [for a total of 32 points of damage].  Marativy stepped to Roscuro's space and attacked the lesher, critically hitting it and triggering an attack of opportunity by Roscuro.  Roscuro hit for low damage [only 7 points this time].  Templeton attacked the wolves before flying up and over them to Hrefna in order to bodyguard the omdura.

[Fight paused due to time]

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[So this session was a big messy fight and we were starting to get very worried about a TPK.  Both Hrefna and Swamprover were very low on hit points (Swamprover was in single digits) and all the monsters seemed to be able to hit at will.  Our morale recovers by the next session.]

[In hindsight, the Other GM wasn’t running the crow swarms correctly and they should not have been as dangerous as they were.  He had people take damage if they started their turn in a swarm and swarms should only do damage at the end of their move.  Swarms (of bird-sized animals) take half damage from piercing and slashing weapons, but monk attacks are considered blunt weapons and so not subject to the half damage.  Swarms moving onto a target or past enemies provoke attacks of opportunity, so we should have received many more swings at the swarms.]

Ratpack

Book 1: Shards of Sin Landing Page – Links to all Book 1 sessions 

Book 2: Curse of the Lady’s Light Landing Page – Links to all Book 2 sessions

Book 3: The Asylum Stone Landing Page – Links to all Book 3 sessions 

Last Session: Session 2

Next Session: Session 4