[Day 44 – Fear takes its toll and the Ratpack holes up]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened April 17, 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 7th level Wizard (Invoker)
Hrefna – female changeling 7th level Omdura
Ariphi – female tiefling 7th level Rogue
Fish – male grodaire, actual name is Hummlgau
Autumn
Day 44 continues
[Resuming mid-fight but catching the first action of the round from last session.]
Marativy attacked the now perfectly outlined shadow mastiff in the doorway, hitting it twice and killing it. The shadow mastiffs repositioned themselves. Two mastiffs advanced but were caught up in the Black Tentacles, one reached Marativy but failed to hit due to her being bodyguarded by Templeton and Roscuro, and the last mastiff climbed out of the tentacles and onto one of the tables, howling. This was too much for Marativy, who panicked [failed her Will save while the others made theirs]. Roscuro released a flurry of blows on the one that attacked Marativy [hitting 5 time], killing it. Winston moved up to Templeton, leaping onto the foo dog’s back, and then his musket misfired! Templeton held his action, waiting for any shadow mastiff’s to get within range so he could shred it. Hrefna used Barbed Chains on the howling mastiff. Zitch, recognizing Marativy was ready to bolt out of the keep and not wanting her to flee alone, used Strangling Hair to try and grab her with his beard. He failed to grapple her, so he repositioned himself in her way by the door back to the stables.
Marativy bolted, fleeing the fight. She ran right past Zitch, who successfully tripped her [using his Attack of Opportunity]. One of the entangled mastiffs broke free of the tentacles and advanced on the Ratpack, triggering Templeton’s saved action. Templeton hit the mastiff five times, killing it. The last mobile mastiff retreated to the far end of the table it was on and stopped there, surrounded by tentacles but in the shadows again. Roscuro stepped into the tentacles to reach the last held mastiff, taking damage from the flailing tentacles [10], but inflicting much more on the mastiff [30]. Winston cleared his musket and readied a Leg Shot on Marativy for when she next stood up, again, hoping to keep here with the group and not blindly fleeing through the Dark Forest. Templeton flew over to the mastiff on the table to attack it, hitting twice and missing twice due to the shadowy nature of the mastiff, causing it to bleed. Winston had to work to stay on Templeton’s back, but did so [made a Riding check]. Hrefna advanced to the doorway so the Daylight effect from her Halflite Charm covered all the mastiffs and then cast Cure Moderate Wounds on Roscuro, who was looking battered. Zitch successfully used his Strangling Hair to hold Marativy. The tentacles held Roscuro and the trapped mastiff, thrashing them and mostly undoing Hrefna’s healing spell. The doors at the back of the room opened and a headless set of armor riding a black steed stood in the doorway.
Marativy thrashed in Zitch’s hold but was held fast [to her player’s relief]. The held mastiff clawed Roscuro heavily while the mastiff on the table failed to hit Templeton. Roscuro unleashed a flurry of blows on the held mastiff and killed it. The Dark Rider emitted an aura of fear, panicking Winston but not Templeton. It then threw a head at Templeton, which exploded mightily [41 points of damage]! Winston fled, making his way through the field of tentacles with his fear-borne urgency. Templeton shredded the remaining mastiff and then dropped the Black Tentacles spell [at the Other GM’s prompting I might add]. Hrefna changed her aura from a healing aura to one that bolstered the group’s chutzpah [+2 to all saves] and then walked back to the door to the door to the stables. Zitch continued to hold the panicked Marativy.
Marativy again failed to break free and flee. Roscuro, unsure of how dangerous the dark rider might be and with only himself and Templeton still in the fight, called for the Ratpack to retreat. He moved back to where the others were by the stable door and waited for the rider to attack. The dark rider obliged, charging through Templeton and all the way into the ballroom, past the cluster of adventurers by the stable door. The attack on Templeton was formidable [60+ points of damage] and caused Templeton to fear. Roscuro was able to make several attacks on the rider as he rode by [one readied attack and 3 attacks of opportunity] but only landed one hit [bad rolls]. Hrefna also took a swing but missed. Winston fled out of the keep to the stables. Templeton boosted his flight capabilities with an Evolutionary Surge and made it all the way into the stables. Hrefna attempted to identify what the dark rider was and drew a blank before leaving through the stables. Zitch made a last ditch attack on the rider by casting Baleful Polymorph but the thing was too stout for that [made all its saves]. Zitch took the hint and left, releasing Marativy.
Marativy immediately fled. Last member of the Ratpack in the ballroom, Roscuro saluted the rider and said, “Another time.” He then stepped into the stables, pulling the door closed behind him. Roscuro heard the dark rider state he would track Roscuro down, soon, using Roscuro’s name [this was an ability of the dark rider called Death’s Calling]. Winston, recognizing he could flee faster if riding Templeton, hopped onto the foo dog’s back. Templeton blazed out of the keep. Hrefna, Zitch, and (eventually) Roscuro followed, hustling to keep up with their fleeing friends.
Elsewhere
Swamprover, Fish, Gridik, and Ariphi were fleeing through the Dark Forest as a result of the fear caused by the shadow mastiff’s original howl. After some time, the fear wore off and they were able to pause to catch their breath and gather their wits. They decided to head to the menhir and wait for the others. Ariphi stated she knew the way, but the others should be alert as there were things in the forest watching them. Gridik used two Pearls of Power to recharge See Invisible and Magic Missile. Swamprover used hers to recharge Web. Then the group moved out and were almost immediately attacked by skeletons in the trees shooting bows.
Swamprover cast Web, tangling up the two on the left side and then advanced. Gridik cast Magic Missile on the closest of the four on the right, damaging it heavily. Ariphi finished it off with a thrown dagger and both advanced. The skeletons shot their bows at Swamprover and Gridik, hitting each wizard once. One of the skeletons in the Web broke free. Fish used a waterjet to knock one of the skeletons out of the tree it was in, killing it.
Swamprover cast Magic Missile at the newly freed skeleton and continued moving. Gridik just moved quickly [double moved]. Ariphi threw another dagger and then moved. One of the remaining skeletons hit Fish, who water-jetted it out of the tree, killing it.
The adventurers moved on, quickly getting complete cover from the trees and outdistancing the skeletons.
An hour later they arrived at the menhir and started analyzing it to see if they could get it to take them home.
Back with the Trailing Group
Once Marativy stopped running in panic, along with Templeton and Winston, the group paused long enough to do some healing. Zitch contacted Swamprover using his telepathic earring and learned that group was making its way to the menhir.
Once this group was mobile again, they ran into a group of 4 skeleton archers and a zombie troll, armed with a spear. The undead troll complicated the fight, but luckily Hrefna identified it and had some holy water to stop it from regenerating once the Marativy and Roscuro took it down. Winston shot the skeletons one after another, destroying them with one shot each.
Zitch looted the undead troll’s body and found 7 gems in a pouch at its waist.
The group continued on and eventually arrived at the menhir. There the wizards announced they could activate the menhir but not control where it would take the group. Some form of steering mechanism was needed that they did not have and there were probably tens of places they might end up, probably all Runelord ruins or hideaways.
The group discussed their options. After much discussion, they decided it was marginally safer to find a place to hole up and rest here than making a blind jump through the menhir. Searching the area they located a small cave along the edge of the forest. Gridik cast Tiny Hut inside the cave to make it comfortable and all but Ariphi and Winston went to sleep.
[The plan was that those with Rings of Sustenance would go on guard after getting their needed two hours of sleep while those without rings would keep sleeping. Not optimal, but the best we could do at the time.]
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[So the Dark Rider was the 5th encounter in a row once we started trying to enter the keep, and that was after two other encounters since arriving in the Dark Forest. We were low on resources (spells and ki) and most of our characters were injured to some extent, so when the Dark Rider appeared, we felt we had pushed our luck as far as we could go.]
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 30
Next Session: Session 32
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