[Days 45 – Discussions and Roof Wraiths]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened May 1, 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 45 continues
Having just barely failed to remove the Wall of Iron blocking their forward progress, Roscuro continued talking with the bonesage, starting with proper introductions. The bonesage’s name was Malaghast. Roscuro tried to get the parameters of Malaghast’s orders, hoping to find a loophole. Malaghast told Roscuro and Swamprover that he is not allowed to let the Ratpack any further into the keep. Roscuro asked if Malaghast could retrieve the shard the group was looking for instead. Malaghast stated he was not allowed to do that either.
Malaghast made some statements that Roscuro did not understand. Zitch activated his earring of telepathy to converse with Roscuro privately and informed Roscuro that Malaghast had stated that he was a simulacrum with conditional programming. Roscuro asked a series of questions to determine if the original Malaghast had consented to having a simulacrum made and this Malaghast stated he had – or at least that’s what he had been told.
Having reached a dead end in the conversation there, Roscuro stated that he and the lord of this keep had business to settle between them and Roscuro wanted to do so immediately. Malaghast mentally contacted the Dark Rider to inquire about this as no had asked that before. After a pause, he relayed that the Dark Rider offered to call off the whole affair with no grudges if the Ratpack left the keep now. Roscuro asked permission to step outside the room and consult with his traveling companions. Malaghast assented and Roscuro stepped out of the doorway and back to the previous room. Swamprover stayed in Malaghast’s study and discussed other topics.
During the time Roscuro and Swamprover were talking with Malaghast, Marativy snuck into an adjacent room to see what was there. It was a library with a small fae dusting the shelves. She closed the door and described the being to Zitch, who identified it as a pukwudgie. He also identified the centaur-like being Marativy had previously discovered as a nucklevee, another kind of fae but much more dangerous, being immune to disease and poison, able to see in the dark, but vulnerable to cold iron like all fae.
Roscuro, joining the rest of the Ratpack, talked the offer over with them and none of them were willing to accept the deal. They all agreed they were going to have to fight to get past Malaghast. Winston requested that Gridik cast Named Bullet on one of Winston’s remaining adamantine bullets, keyed specifically to Malaghast. Gridik saw the value of doing so and cast the spell.
Roscuro returned to Malaghast’s study and announced the group was regretfully declining the Dark Rider’s offer. Malaghast suggested that if they were not leaving and could go no further forward, perhaps they should visit the observation tower, which had a fine view of the roof and surrounding lands. Roscuro recognized that Malaghast might be suggesting a different path forward, one he was not responsible for. Roscuro and Swamprover thanked Malaghast for his time and stated they would take his advice. They left before any violence started.
The door to the tower was the last door in the ballroom the Ratpack had not explored. The door was both locked and trapped, which Marativy and Roscuro discovered when they went to open the door and a gout of flame erupted from the door. Roscuro avoided the flames but Marativy caught the edge of the gout [both made their saves, but only Roscuro has Improved Evasion and was able to avoid all the damage]. Marativy disarmed the trap and picked the lock after receiving some healing.
Beyond the door was a dusty, circular room, the lowest chamber of the tower. At the far side of the room [south] was a circular stairway rising to the upper floors. The Ratpack climbed the stairs, finding the second floor much the same. The third floor was missing its roof and was the roost of the wyverns, containing two large nests [and quite the stench]. A quick search using Detect Magic located a corpse with three magic items on it [identified by Zitch]: a set of shadow leather +1, a wand of mount [caster level 3], and a Phylactery of Channeling. The shadow leather +1 was removed and cleaned with a prestidigitation spell and then given to Marativy [whose Stealth skill bonus was now truly ridiculous]. The set of leather +1 she had been wearing went to Ariphi, who only had plain leather armor. [Magic armor resizes itself to fit the wearer, which is how leather +1 went from a size Small ratfolk to a size medium tiefling.] The wand and phylactery went into the loot bag for later sale.
The view from the wyvern roost was dark and dreary as benefitted the Dark Forest pocket dimension. The roof of the keep was 10 feet down and rose in giant steps as it went east to the conical dome over the far end. The Ratpack tied off a rope and knotted it for easy climbing down from the tower to the roof, notably for Gridik who was terrible at climbing [Climb bonus of -1].
Once on the roof, the Ratpack walked across the roof over the ballroom to the next height change. Marativy nimbly climbed up to the next roof level and tied off another rope. Roscuro simply jumped the distance while Swamprover made use of her native climb speed. Gridik started climbing the rope.
At this point, four wraiths seeped up through the ceiling to investigate the noise, catching the Ratpack by surprise. Winston, Roscuro, Templeton, and Zitch all took some level of Constitution Drain.
After recovering from the surprise, Winston shot the heck out of the wraith that attacked him, the last shot a misfire. Roscuro parceled out his flurry of blows, taking out the wraith Winston had shot and landing two more blows on a second wraith. Zitch stepped to Winston and put Protective Luck on Templeton. Swamprover identified the wraiths as wraths and warned they were immune to non-magical damage. The three remaining wraiths attacked again, landing another blow on Templeton [draining more Constitution, but see Rat Whispers below]. Hrefna activated a defensive aura [+2 AC for all allies] and saved her action. Templeton used an evolutionary surge to gain Shadow Form and then stepped to Roscuro. Marativy [already scouting the next level of roof up] made an acrobatic dive to Roscuro’s position and attacked the wraith number 2 [gaining the bonus to hit of her Outflank feat]. Gridik finished climbing the rope and cast Magic Missile at wraith number 4. Hrefna used her saved action to immediately follow Gridik up the rope. Fish water-jetted a wraith to absolutely no effect.
Winston cleared his weapon and immediately misfired again. Roscuro parceled out another flurry of blows, taking out wraith 2 and hitting wraith 3 three times. Zitch put Protective Luck on Winston and cackled to maintain the two effects in play. Swamprover cast Magic Missile at wraith 4 and hit all 5 times. That wraith moved to attack Swamprover in return and hit [Draining 5 CON in a single hit]. Wraith 3 attacked Roscuro, but thanks to bodyguard actions from Templeton and Marativy, it missed. Templeton did a full attack on wraith 3, hitting twice with his claws and rending it. Marativy stepped to Roscuro and also did a full attack [making two critical hits], killing it. Gridik cast Magic Missile at the remaining wraith and hit it four times. Hrefna moved to the remaining wraith and attacked it with her magic sword, killing it.
[At this point, most of the characters had lost Constitution from the drains, which equated to lost hit points as their Constitution bonuses were lower. We attempted to heal it with multiple castings of Lesser Restoration before realizing that Lesser Restoration only heals Stat Damage, not Stat Drain. That requires Restoration or Greater Restoration. Remember to see Rat Whispers below.]
Marativy spotted tracks indicating that the naga had traveled this way. Zitch cast See Invisible looking for foes but instead located a scrying sensor point. He cast Glitter Dust on it, hoping to blind the viewer [not likely] and outlining the point so everyone knew where it was.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[Two sessions later, Session 35, there was a ret-con on the CON Drain attacks. It turns out the Drain gets a Fortitude save, but the save is not mentioned in the stat block for the wraith, only in the power description for the monster and the Other GM was only looking at the Stat Block. When this was pointed out at the beginning of the session, we retro-actively did the saves. Most made the saves but not Winston. Poor Winston.]
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 32
Next Session: Session 34
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