[Day 40 – Lurkers and Wasps]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened January 9, 2023.]
[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 9th level Ninja
Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 9th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar
Roscuro – male ratfolk 9th level Monk
Swamprover – female grippli 9th level Wizard
Winston – male ratfolk 9th level Gunslinger
Via Roll20
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 9th 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 40 (continued)
Having released an unknown number of Lurkers in the Light from the latest room opened, many of the Ratpack were caught by surprise. Zitch advised the Lurkers were fae that needed to sacrifice a victim in order to return to the Faewilde. He then cast Baneful Polymorph, getting past a Lurker’s spell resistance, turning it into a newt. Marativy saw this and raced back down the corridor to kill it, suffering several attacks of opportunity along the way. [This also identified the total number of Lurkers at six, minus the one she killed.]
Winston rapid fired, killing one of the Lurkers and injuring another. Zitch took a 5 foot step away from the Lurker in his space [Lurkers are Tiny and must enter a square to attack] and cast Adhesive Spittle on himself [something he’s wanted to do for a while]. He spat and just tagged the Lurker, sticking it in place [for 6 rounds]. One of the remaining lurkers flew down the corridor, attempting to flee while calling out something in Aklo, a language none of the Ratpack spoke. Hrefna raised an aura [reduce enemies AC, I think] and then cast See Invisible. Swamprover cast Magic Missile at the lurkers, hitting with all 5 missiles [not guaranteed due to their Spell Resistance]. Marativy focused her ki to move faster and chased down the fleeing Lurker, slashing at it and discovering Lurkers also have Damage Resistance. Gridik announced he had a terrible plan but was blind and needed help targeting. Roscuro moved to the kobold and steered him with one hand on each shoulder. Gridik then cast Dragon Breath [cone of fire] at the trailing group of Lurkers. This blast unfortunately included Templeton and Hrefna as well. Templeton evaded the blast but Hrefna took the full brunt of it, bloodying the changeling. The trailing group of Lurkers, still airborne, advanced, attacking Gridik, Hrefna, and Templeton [with a critical hit]. Templeton attacked back with all of his claws and a bite.
Winston rapid fired at the Lurker attacking Gridik, killing it. Zitch put Protective Luck on Hrefna and cackled to prolong it. The fleeing Lurker attempted to cast Teleport, but Zitch recognized the spell and got off Conjuration Foil, shunting it into a wall, killing it. Hrefna, severely injured, changed her aura to a healing aura [Fast Healing 3] and attempted to defensively cast Cure Moderate Wounds on herself. Unfortunately, the Lurker attacking her in her space spoiled the casting and it failed. Swamprover then unwisely cast Shout, attempting to kill the remaining two Lurkers. Instead the Grippli killed Hrefna, injured and deafened Gridik and Roscuro, and only injured the remaining Lurkers. Marativy and Ariphi closed with the remaining Lurkers but could not get in attacks. The last two Lurkers cast Teleport and teleported away…somewhere.
Roscuro quickly placed Hrefna’s body into one of the body bags of holding [a bag of holding with Quiet Repose on anything inside it] given to the group to retrieve the bodies of the previous group of explorers. The Ratpack then pulled back to the orrery room to lick their wounds.
Templeton came out of synthesis with his eidolon so he could summon another Azata Bralani to heal the group. She nearly completely healed Zitch [still down 2 hit points] and healed Roscuro in full. Zitch cast Cure Light Wounds on himself to finish his healing. Templeton then merged with his eidolon again before casting Cure Light Wounds on Marativy, healing her in full. [Templeton is physically very weak and sickly when not merged with his eidolon (STR, CON, and DEX are all below 9), so he stays merged as much as possible, which grants him access to the eidolon’s superior stats. We refer to it as his "super suit".]
With the group healed up they decided to investigate the door on the southern side of the orrery. This door opened to a small workshop of some sort. The eastern wall was covered with a “papery honeycomb”. There were two dead bodies against the far wall, a halfling and a human that matched the descriptions of two of the adventurers the Ratpack were to rescue. A second door could just be seen on the far end of the eastern wall, just past the papery honeycomb.
The Ratpack expected the papery honeycomb was a giant wasp nest and decided to act as such until proven otherwise. The rest of the group stayed in the orrery while Marativy and Roscuro snuck into the workshop, each with a body bag of holding at the ready. Once at the bodies, Marativy started to bag the halfling body when lumps appeared under its flesh and a wasp swarm erupted from it! Winston immediately fired upon the swarm, the noise of his musket discharging awakening a second swarm from the papery honeycomb, filling Marativy and Roscuro’s exit. Both swarms had a reddish tint, suggesting they were something more than normal wasps. Swamprover cast Burning Hands on the closer swarm to no effect! Gridik cast his last Dragon Breath spell for the day, choosing a cone of cold. The blast filled the room, fully damaging both swarms but not killing either. Marativy was able to dodge half of the blast and Roscuro completely evaded it [Ninja’s don’t get Evasion as a feat until they are much higher in level].
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[Swamprover’s player got a lot of flack for casting Shout after the player running Hrefna stated Hrefna was very wounded. She’s developed a mild reputation for catching party members in area of effect attacks, particularly Templeton. This will come to a head a couple more sessions down the line. I believe that after this session Swamprover’s player started being a little more careful about spell placement, but she does love casting all the big attack spells.]
[For my own part, I tend to play characters who have Evasion and good saves or pick up DR versus the party’s favored attacks (usually fire), so I’m a little more blasé about getting caught in friendly fire like this, especially if the friendly fire successfully takes out enemies. The spell wouldn’t have been an issue if Hrefna had made the save for half damage or Swamprover had killed the last two Lurkers, especially as the reason Hrefna was down so many hit points was because of Gridik doing exactly the same thing the round before.]
[I should also point out that Swamprover’s player is my wife, so I may have some bias here.]
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 19
Next Session: Session 21
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