[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
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