[Day 34 to 40 – Hrefna hears things; the Delve begins]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened December 26, 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 8th level Wizard
Winston – male ratfolk 8th level Gunslinger
Via Roll20
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 8th level Summoner (Synthesist)
NPCs
Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 6th level Wizard (Invoker)
Hrefna – female changeling 7th level Omdura
Ariphi – female tiefling 7th level Rogue
Autumn
Day 34
Still waiting on Zitch to finish enchanting Marativy’s belt, the rest of the Ratpack went about their business in Kaer Maga. Gridik used up the last of the scribing supplies he and Swamprover brought from Magnimar scribing scrolls of Spontaneous Immolation and Nondetection for Swamprover. Swamprover fed them to her familiar, adding to the spells Snek contained [as a Familiar Adept Swamprover stores her spells in Snek].
While walking around town, Hrefna heard a hauntingly beautiful melody coming from nowhere. Quickly casting See Invisible, Hrefna was able to catch glimpses of another fox-like humanoid. Being the only fox-like humanoid she knew of, Hrefna gave chase to the other but lost them in the Hospice district.
Day 35
Gridik starts learning gunsmithing from Winston during the day and Ignan from Koif’a [the half-orc wizard who is a member of the Spire]. Gridik was only able to do this due to the ring of sustenance he wears, which reduces his need to sleep to two hours.
Day 38
While walking around in Downmarket, Hrefna again hears the hauntingly beautiful melody from nowhere. Not wanting to tip off the other fox-person, Hrefna used her Silent Spell feat to cast See Invisible and then Bluff to look around without seeming to be looking around. She has some success. She sees others on the street can hear the music but not see the source based on their confused expressions and their looking around for the source. Hrefna located the source, the fox-like humanoid hanging from a piece of architecture and playing a golden flute.
Hrefna acrobatically bounced up the side of the building to get even with the other fox-like being, but this drew attention and the person dexterously flipped to achieve the roof and ran off. Hrefna pursued and caught up to the fox-like being when they stopped to wait for Hrefna. They talked a little, but the fox-like being gave no direct answers and then took off again. Hrefna lost them on the rooftops.
Day 39
Zitch completed his work on Marativy’s Belt of Incredible Dexterity [+6].
Day 40
The Ratpack left the Grange in Downmarket and made their way to the Therassic Spire in Cavalcade, avoiding Bis district and any of the construct sentries scattered in the other districts.
At the Spire, Marativy set to picking the lock on the front door and succeeded on her first attempt. [Much better roll this time.] Entering the foyer, the Ratpack found Elaneiros waiting for them. He led them up the stairs to the left and onto the lift.
The group took the lift down, below the first floor, passing one basement level before stopping at a second basement level. The entrance here had an adamantine gate with a very fancy lock that Elaneiros unlocked. Once the entire group had stepped through the gate to the Restricted Library, Elaneiros re-locked the gate behind them.
The room contained many books and some locked cases. There were two doors on the left and right walls and Elaneiros led the Ratpack to one of the doors on the left wall. This was the secure device storage and had shelves with a small number of items on display. Elaneiros stepped over to a blank wall and said a magic word, causing part of the wall to slide aside, revealing a sloped passage leading down. Elaneiros explained that the passage led down to the Thassilonian Workshop with no side passages. When the grouped returned and opened this door, Elaneiros and the others wizards of the Spire would be alerted and meet them at the gate.
The Ratpack descended the sloped passage for some time, descending quite a ways. The passage suddenly ended, but Zitch spotted a secret door at the dead end. Marativy checked the secret door for traps and then opened it.
The room beyond was twenty feet square with a door on the far [east] wall. The only two things in the room were a wooden chair on the center of the west wall, just south of the secret door, and a purple blob that floated in the center of the room, pulsing slightly.
Zitch and Swamprover looked at the blob from the secret doorway, attempting to identify what it was. Neither recognized it at all.
Zitch cast Heroism on Roscuro, Marativy, and Winston. Roscuro then stepped into the room to see what would happen. The blob spoke at Roscuro in a language he did not know. Marativy identified it as Thassilonian and she translated its words to be “Please state your query”. Roscuro shrugged and asked in Common where the shard was located. The blob transformed into the Rune of Weakness and the effect of that rune filled the room. Roscuro felt the magical power but was not swayed [he made his save, barely].
After a minute, the blob reset to a sphere. Roscuro asked Marativy to swap places and ask the blob where the Chamber of the Black Menhir was located. Once they switched, Marativy asked the question. This time the blob changed into the Rune of Fear. Marativy was not impressed [she made her save by a lot].
Realizing this was a waste of time, Roscuro decided they should just bypass this room. He walked across the room and opened the door on the eastern wall. Beyond was a corridor. He waved the rest of the Ratpack to follow and he entered the corridor.
A short way down [we use Roll20 for the map and we are now on a different map, so I cannot get the exact distances – sorry] were two doors, facing each other. Weeping could be heard from behind the northern door, the southern door was silent. Marativy quietly checked both doors for traps and found both to be safe and unlocked.
After a quick set of hand gestures with Roscuro, Marativy opened the door on the south wall. The rectangular room had three beings standing motionless at the far end, wrapped in chains. Hanging from the ceiling was a lattice of hundreds of hooked chains. Marativy quietly closed the door.
A quick huddle discussion and the group decided to leave these rooms alone for the moment and press on down the corridor. Marativy locked both doors, just to be safe. The corridor turned left but arched to the right until it became a parallel passage to the first stretch. Ahead the Ratpack could see two doors on the southern wall at some distance from each other and a single door on the north wall. At the far end of the corridor it made a left turn.
The first door was the closer of the two on the southern wall. After verifying it was not trapped, Marativy opened it. The room beyond was circular and 30-40 feet across with a large contraption in the center. The corners where the walls met the floor and ceiling were smoothed over and rounded. On the walls was a very realistic mural showing a view of Kaer Maga from a point somewhere above the city. The contraption had a central pillar holding a a bright yellow orb. Branching from the central pillar were eleven curved arms, at the end of which was an orb, each of a different color. Adjacent to the contraption was a low pedestal and a lever. There were two cracks in the wall, one on the eastern curve and one on the western curve.
After looking at it for a moment, Zitch recognized it as an orrery, a mechanical model of the worlds around Golarion. The large central orb represented the sun and the other eleven orbs were the planets that orbited the sun. Golarion was the third one out. Zitch also realized that the orrery showed the current locations of all the planets. Further, the “mural” was magical and seemed to show Kaer Maga as it was now.
Looking at the pedestal, it had a mechanism built into it that showed the current date in the Thassilonian calendar. The Ratpack believed that by setting a date on the pedestal and pulling the lever, the device would change, showing the locations of the planets on that date and might even show what Kaer Maga looked like then. [Yes, we have all watched Avatar: The Last Airbender.] Curious to see something no one else living had, Roscuro picked a date 7000 years in the past: Earthfall. He then pulled the lever.
The orrery started rotating in reverse, going slowly at first but gradually picking up more and more speed. The mural on the walls showed the same viewpoint over Kaer Maga but moved backwards in time, new construction disappearing and older buildings reappearing. The Ratpack watched with great interest…until the orrery started making groaning noises and shuddering. Roscuro warned everyone not a monk to evacuate the room immediately. All but Roscuro, Zitch and Winston left the room. As the machine continued to spin out of control, eyes appeared at the cracks in the walls, bulging out, and growling could be heard.
Suddenly the contraption blew apart, sending shrapnel and globes flying out from the center of the room. Roscuro safely evaded the flying debris [made his Reflex save and had Evasion], Winston avoided most of it [made his Reflex save for half damage], but Zitch caught the full brunt of the exploding orrery.
From out in the corridor, both ahead of the group and behind came the unearthly baying of hounds!
Zitch identified the creatures as Hounds of Tindalos, warning they were immune to mind effects, could teleport through corners, and were able to rip things apart with just a look. Hrefna raised her healing aura and the Ratpack reorganized to face the hounds. Templeton, able to see the earlier doors announced that the chain guys were attempting to force their way through the door and into the corridor.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[Learning Gunsmithing and Ignan was part of Gridik leveling up (spent skill points on Gunsmithing and Linguistics).]
[I’ve played Call of Cthulhu, so I knew what Hounds of Tindalos are and what kind of trouble they would cause us. I also recognized the chain devils from their description as there were a favorite monster to put in the higher level modules in the Bandit Kingdoms for Living Greyhawk, which I played in and wrote some of the lower level modules for. I do my best to not bring in knowledge my character would not have, but I was not looking forward to this fight.]
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 17
Next Session: Session 19
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