[Day 45 – Three Deaths]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game. Game sessions happen once a week. This session happened May 22, 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
[This is the session we realized that the CON Drain the wraiths did back on the roof should have had FORT Saves associated with them. The Other GM was looking at the wraith stat block, which did not mention saves, and not the creature description, which specifically mentioned them. Interestingly, attacks with poison list their save DC but other attack types, like Drain, do not in the Pathfinder SRD, so he did not believe there was a save until we asked. Once he found the listing of the saves and their DC, he allowed us to retroactively make the saves. Everyone but Winston made the saves, adjusted their maximum hit points back to full, and play started.]
Having shot off the apex of the domed ceiling to the back room of the Black Keep, the Ratpack entered the back room. It was clearly a vault as it was lined with a layer of adamantium, but the only thing it contained was a biomechanical obelisk that appeared to anchor the Dark Forest pocket dimension.
Marativy and Zitch examined the vault door for traps so the Ratpack could exit the vault and face the Dark Rider. It is well they checked the door as it was trapped. Marativy disabled the trap and announced the door was ready to be opened.
The Ratpack prepared for the fight by casting several spells. Zitch cast Remove Fear on himself, Hrefna, and Marativy [those with the lowest WILL saves]. Templeton cast Protection from Evil on Swamprover and Roscuro. Zitch then took the time to place Protective Luck on the entire group, one at a time, while cackling to maintain them all. During this time Marativy activated five shadow clones and Winston cast Named Bullet. Winston then prepared to immediately shoot the Black Rider once the door was open [but not with the Named Bullet]. Hrefna activated her aura [+2 to saves for allies].
Marativy then opened the door.
Several things happened at once. Winston rapid fired at the Dark Rider, who was across the room from the vault door, hitting several times but not as effectively as he had hoped [the Dark Rider had DR that Winston’s attacks did not bypass]. At the same time, the Dark Rider’s fear aura flowed over the front two ranks of adventurers with fear taking hold in the hearts of Ariphi and Winston [the two who failed their saves]. Finally, the Dark Rider threw a decapitated head [its prepared action], which exploded in the center of the Ratpack, heavily injuring many, notably Ariphi and Gridik.
Winston rapid-fired his musket [a phrase that still feels wrong to type], hitting the Dark Rider twice, before falling back from fear. Marativy advanced to the Dark Rider’s horse per the plan and hit, but did no damage [the horse had its own DR]. The Dark Rider threw all of its attacks from a whip made of a spinal column at Marativy, missing once and eliminating two of her shadow clones. Then the horse did a stomp, eliminating another shadow clone. Roscuro advanced and attempted a Stunning Fist on the horse, which it [just] resisted. Zitch cackled to maintain Protective Luck on everyone and then cast Remove Fear on Winston and Ariphi, suppressing the fear they were suffering. Swamprover advanced to a better line of sight and cast Lightning Bolt at the Dark Rider, piercing his spell resistance and hitting him, although he avoided the full brunt of the attack [made his Reflex save]. Hrefna cast Cure Moderate Wounds on Ariphi, who was heavily injured from the explosion. Ariphi then advanced into the side of room with the Dark Rider and drank her last potion of Cure Moderate Wounds. Templeton cast Haste on most of the Ratpack [Winston was out of range] and then advanced on the Dark Rider. Fish attempted to advance on the Dark Rider, entered the fear aura, thought better of it, and retreating to the far back of the vault. Gridik cast Dragon Breath at the Dark Rider, spewing a line of acid that fizzled against the Riders spell resistance. Gridik then shuffled into a protected corner as he was near unconsciousness from the previous explosion [down to 4 hit points]. Suddenly the biomechanical pillar in the vault activated, the three devas screaming horrifically and mostly healed the wounds on the Dark Rider.
Winston fired his Named Bullet as a Dead Shot, hitting the Dark Rider. Marativy put all of her attacks into the Rider’s horse, hitting twice and bloodying the horse [with Roscuro there she could Backstab due to the Swarming trait Ratfolk have, so she did much more damage]. The Dark Rider did not like this at all, drew a hand axe and attacked Marativy six times [!], taking out her last shadow clone and hitting her once each with the axe [20 hit points] and the whip [19 hit points]. The Rider’s horse then stomped her [14 hit points]. Roscuro attacked the horse with a flurry of blows, hitting it 5 times, once critically, which triggered an additional attack from Marativy that also hit. Zitch attempted Baleful Polymorph on the Dark Rider, but the Rider resisted the effort [made his save]. Swamprover cast Magic Missile at the Dark Rider and hit with all five. Hrefna healed Marativy [restored 20 hit points] and invoked Divine Might on the Dark Rider [which provided bonuses to her attacking the Dark Rider]. Ariphi advanced on the Dark Rider and attempted a feint that failed. Templeton attacked the horse with all of his attacks and killed it. In response the horse exploded doing varying amounts of damage to all in the room. Back in the vault, Gridik moved over to Zitch and requested some healing [this turned out to be a mistake]. The obelisk howled again and healed some of the Rider’s wounds.
Winston waited. Marativy took advantage of the pause in attacks and re-invoked her shadow clones, getting six of them this time. The Dark Rider stood from his fallen horse, reached into his bag, pulled out the head of Selasny the Naga, and flung it into the center of the adventurers where it exploded. The explosion damaged Hrefna and Templeton, knocked out Marativy and Ariphi, and killed Gridik [who would have been safe if he had stayed in the corner]. Winston fired a startling shot at the Dark Rider, making the Rider flat-footed. Roscuro stepped to the Rider and unleashed a flurry of angry blows on the Rider, hitting four times. Zitch stepped to see the Rider and attempted Baleful Polymorph again but failed. Swamprover moved back to the doorway for cover and cast Magic Missile at the Dark Rider, hitting again with all 5 missiles. Hrefna cast Cure Moderate Wounds on Marativy, reviving her and then switched her aura to healing [Fast Heal 3 to all allies]. Ariphi healed but remained unconscious. Templeton stepped over to Roscuro to swarm and attacked the Dark Rider with all his attacks, hitting four times and rending with two of his claws. Fish continued to cower and the obelisk healed the Rider again.
Awake again, Marativy kipped up, stepped adjacent to Dark Rider where she could swarm with Templeton [he was Large, so two people could swarm with him] and attacked the Dark Rider mightily [a total of 90 points of damage over three hits]. In response, the Dark Rider stepped over to the unconscious Ariphi and cut her head off with his axe before attacking Marativy with the rest of his attacks. One of his attacks hit the real Marativy and knocked her unconscious again. Meanwhile Ariphi’s head disappeared and the Rider’s bag suddenly had another head in it. Winston rapidly fired at the Rider, hitting all three times. Roscuro threw another flurry of blows, hitting three times, once critically. Zitch then advanced and cast Lightning Bolt at the Dark Rider, killing the fiend! Hrefna then cast Cure Moderate Wounds on Marativy, reviving her.
End of Session
Rat Whispers
[We skipped a week as a storm blew through earlier in the day on the 15th and blew down some trees, knocking out power to our neighborhood for four hours. Oddly enough, there was rain again on the day this session happened that made the power blink a couple times during the afternoon, but it never went out for more than a couple seconds, so we played. May is Monsoon Month for Houston. June 1 is the beginning of Hurricane Season. Joy.]
[So the three deaths were Gridik, Ariphi, and the Dark Rider (maybe). We stopped as soon as the Dark Rider dropped as we were running late and folks had to work the next day. On one hand I feel the death of Ariphi was gratuitous on the Other GM’s part. He could easily have decided that the Dark Rider had another head in the bag and not killed Ariphi. On the other hand, the Rider was Lawful Evil and the Other GM had set the number of heads available before the battle and stuck with that. It was entirely in character for the Rider to do what he did, but that doesn’t make us hate the Rider any less. Jerk-face.]
[Marativy’s shadow clones were easily the MVP of this session. Without them Marativy would have died in the fight, even with the Protective Luck from Zitch. If she had dropped, either Roscuro or Templeton would have been the focus of the Rider’s attacks and that person likely would have dropped as well before the others took the Rider down. We still would have won, but more of us would have been dead.]
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 34
Next Session: Session 36
No comments:
Post a Comment