Status Update - 3 Day Power Outage

 Lots has happened, but little that I wanted to happen.

A storm blew through north Houston Wednesday last week, and knocked out power to 250k households.  My wife and I stayed in the house that night as CenterPoint claimed power would be restored by 2:00 AM.  It was uncomfortable but bearable.  When we awoke in the morning still without power, we packed up stuff to do and vacated the house and stayed at a restaurant with Wi-Fi and (some) AC until 3:00 PM.  At that point we knew that power was going to be out for at least another day, so we headed to the other side of Houston where a friend took us in.

I worked remotely Friday, but that evening we drove back to our house to pick up more clothes and food from our pantry to take back with us.  We expected to be at our friend's through the weekend and we could not really afford to eat out for every meal.  Besides, by this point we knew the contents of our refrigerator and stand-up freezer were spoiled or spoiling and we would need to replace everything.  I also went upstairs to get some books and it was well over 100 degrees up there - I was panting heavily when I came back down.

Late Saturday afternoon we received word from one of our neighbors that they had power again.  Another friend drove by that night and sent of a photo showing out porch lights were on, confirming power.  We did not drive back that night as we needed to let the AC cool the house, something that would take hours.  The other reason was that we had moved a scheduled game on Sunday from our house to the place we were staying (our host was one of the players).

Sunday, after the game, the other players helped load up our car and we headed back home.  When we got there, the house had cooled off but we could tell it was not done doing so.  Neither of us went upstairs to check.  By the end of Sunday almost everyone had power back in our neighborhood.  The only exceptions were people out of town who had trees down that CenterPoint needs removed.

Monday we spent clearing out the refrigerator and part of the freezer of spoiled food.  We stopped when our two trash cans were full and dragged them out to the corner for pickup on Wednesday (today) morning.  I hope the trash guys did not hurt themselves.

On the plus side, our insurance has a rider for food lost due to power outage and approved our claim.  It won't replace everything, but it will get us back to being functional in the kitchen.  A roof inspector will come around later this week to check our roof.  There shouldn't be any damage, but better safe than sorry.

Here are some pictures from down the street the next morning.

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 3, Session 37

[Day 45 – Conclusions]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened June 12, 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

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)

Marativy – female ratfolk 9th level Ninja

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 concludes

“Oh!  Hello my friends,” Malaghast greeted the Ratpack from behind the statue of the Dark Rider in the final room of the Black Keep.  Many in the Ratpack were not really motivated to attack Malaghast.  He’d been polite and had helped the group, within the bounds of his compulsions.  Roscuro started asking questions of Malaghast, trying to find a non-combat way around getting the shard.

Malaghast did not have the shard on him, but he allowed that he was standing in front of its hiding place.  Unfortunately, he was bound by magical contract to defend both the shard and the obelisk.  After a fruitless discussion about loopholes and possible work-arounds, the final option seemed to be to break the contract.  Unfortunately, Malaghast did not have a copy of the contract, which made it very difficult for him to work out how to circumvent it.

Roscuro did not believe for a second that the Runelord of Greed nor the Dark Rider did not keep a copy somewhere nearby, so the group asked about places Malaghast was prohibited from going, thinking that would be a likely place to keep a copy of the contract.  The only place Malaghast was prohibited from entering was the vault with the obelisk.  Zitch, Swamprover, and Marativy went to investigate the obelisk more closely now that time was not critical.  They found that the obelisk was covered in Infernal runes, which none of them could read.  They returned and reported this.  Templeton stated he could cast Comprehend Languages to translate it, so he went and did so.  The resulting text was a cypher with no immediate meaning.  Swamprover, Winston, and Hrefna worked together to solve the cypher.  

An Hour Later 

Swamprover, Winston, and Hrefna announced that they had solved the cypher and the runes were, in fact, the contract.  Further, additional scrutiny showed that the contract was magically distinct from the obelisk’s function of anchoring the pocket dimension, so the contract could be physically or magically broken without causing the pocket dimension to collapse.

With this knowledge, Roscuro returned to Malaghast to confirm that they actually had a deal – the Ratpack would nullify the contract and in return Malaghast would turn over the shard.  Malaghast asked how they were going to nullify the contract and Roscuro explained they would chisel off the runes from the obelisk until the contract was unstable and broke.  This clearly concerned Malaghast as he suggested using a magical method of nullifying the magic instead of a physical one that might also break the obelisk and wipe out the pocket dimension.  Roscuro stated he was open to suggestions on how to do so.  Malaghast said he had stored away an item that would help, but it was with other valuable items he was not willing to lose.  Roscuro recognized that Malaghast had some magic items stashed in a hidden spot and did not want to get robbed by telling the Ratpack where they were but one of the items would definitely do the job without accidentally breaking things.

The Ratpack discussed this.  Hrefna did some quick alignment checks on Malaghast, working out the bonesage was both Evil and Lawful.  Roscuro [Lawful Neutral] and Malaghast worked out the specific terms of a deal where Roscuro would go fetch the item [a scroll] with Swamprover [to find the correct scroll] without taking anything else in the hidden bookshelf.  Both agreed to the final terms and Malaghast told them where a scroll of Mage’s Disruption [a 9th level spell that would dispel any magic it targeted] was hidden away along with some other scrolls.

Roscuro and Swamprover went and retrieved the scroll, leaving the rest of the scrolls and some other magic items in the hidden set of bookshelves.  Swamprover took the scroll to the vault and cast Mage’s Disruption from the scroll successfully, nullifying the magical contract.

Back in the statue room, Malaghast opened a secret compartment in the statue and withdrew a tuning fork.  He then stepped away from the statue, stating that there was a second compartment with the shard in it.  He knew the Ratpack had secured several of the shards already and wished to observe their methodology.

Zitch started looking for traps around the statue, finding one, and then on the statue, finding the second compartment, which was also trapped.  Marativy disabled the traps and opened the compartment.  Inside was a small, locked, jewelry box.  Marativy disabled a trap inside the compartment and then told Roscuro it was safe to pick up.  Roscuro examined the box’s opening mechanism for traps and found none, so he opened it.  Inside was the Shard of Gluttony.  

Roscuro pulled out the Ioun Stone the Pathfinder’s had given the group to disable the curse on the shard and inserted it into the open slot on the shard.  Once the stone had merged with the shard, Roscuro picked up the shard, avoiding a gas trap hidden under the shard, and concentrated on the shard to find the location for the next one.

Roscuro received a vision of a coastline with a large, white lighthouse.  The light emanating from the lighthouse was rainbow hued.  There were buildings around the lighthouse, some destroyed, some repaired and in good condition.  Roscuro said nothing about what he saw.

Roscuro stashed the shard and the jewelry box and a belt pouch and announced he was satisfied that Malaghast had met the terms of their deal.  Malaghast went back to his study and started packing up the things he wished to leave with.  The Ratpack identified the Skin Harp hanging on the wall in the statue room and put it into the loot sack for resale later.  They then went over to the library next to Malaghast’s study and started packing it away for resale in Kaer Maga.  While doing so, they located a Manual of Bodily Health [+1] hidden away on one of the shelves.

Once both groups were packed, Roscuro asked if there was an item in the Keep that would allow the group to steer where the menhir would take them.  Malaghast said there was not, only the Caulborn could control the menhirs.  He did allow that the tuning fork he had taken was keyed to the Prime Material Plane and he was willing to transport the Ratpack there, but they would be limited to just their carried possessions.  The 650 pounds of adamantine they had carved off the roof of the vault was too heavy to be moved by the spell.

After some extensive discussion [the adventurers did NOT want to leave behind the adamantium], the Ratpack accepted his offer.  Guaranteed transport to their home plane was better than a roll of the dice with the menhir.  Zitch went and reclaimed his mirror, which dumped the body of the Dark Rider onto the floor as the Mirror Hideaway spell was broken.  He observed that the body was clearly healing again.

Malaghast cast his spell and everyone appeared in a grassy plain.  The sudden sunlight after two days in the Dark Forest’s perpetual twilight was blinding at first, but their eyes quickly adjusted.  Templeton flew Winston up into the air to look around and try to get an idea where they were.  The grassy plain was between two rivers, with a road to the south and a town southeast of their position.  Far to the south was a forest.

Winston worked out that the town was likely Ravenmoor and the forest  the Churlwood, placing them nearly 300 miles west of Kaer Maga, but only a hundred or so miles east of Riddleport.  Roscuro thanked Malaghast for transporting the group back and the bonesage teleported away.

Once certain Malaghast was gone, Roscuro told the Ratpack what he had seen for the location of the next shard.  Several of the adventurers immediately recognized the lighthouse as Windsong Abbey, 150 to 200 miles southwest of their current location.

The Ratpack discussed their options.  They wanted to get back to Kaer Maga to report back to the wizards of the Therassic Spire [and get paid for retrieving the body of the naga, Selasny].  They also wanted to have Gridik and Ariphi raised as soon as possible.  The direct route to Kaer Maga would take them through the Sanos Forest, full of fae, and the Ashwood, full of ghosts and werewolves.  Not inviting.

The group instead decided to walk to Riddleport, get their companions raised, and then see what travel options they had there.  They would also need to decide if they wanted to get the next shard at Windsong Abbey first and then go to Kaer Maga or vice versa, but that discussion could wait.

The Ratpack headed towards the road to their south as it led to Riddleport.  

Late Afternoon

Having arrived at the road, the tired adventurers located a good place to camp.  Zitch cast Secure Shelter so they could safely sleep.  [Also so the group could level up.]

End of Session

End of Book 3

Rat Whispers

[Surprise!  The Other GM and Marativy were able to attend remotely and we wrapped up Book 3 of the adventure path.  We rushed a little so we could wrap things up in a single session and not draw it out.  This frustrated some of the players, particularly Swamprover’s player who wanted to interact with Malaghast more, but we were on a schedule.]

[Now that Book 3 is complete, we are putting that campaign on hold for a while to allow the new parents time to adjust to having a newborn.  Clone GM 1 will run a single adventure for D&D 5E for somewhere between 2 and 4 sessions.  We had a character-building session on June 5, but didn’t have enough of the books so we were continually passing what books we had back and forth, making the process much longer.  That has now been fixed.  All players are supposed to have complete characters by next Monday (June 19) so we can do character background links and start play.  That will be the first session I document for that adventure.]

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 36

Book Complete

Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 3, Session 36

[Day 45 – Mopping Up]

[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E roleplaying game.  Game sessions happen once a week.  This session happened May 29, 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

Marativy and Roscuro were both holding grudges against the Dark Rider and continued hitting it, even though it was inert.  They were encouraged in this by the obelisk continually trying to heal up the Dark Rider, even though he was dead-dead.  Roscuro picked up the Rider’s hand axe and used that to chop off parts to foil the regeneration.  Marativy claimed the bone flail.  Between hits, Swamprover started removing the Rider’s armor.

Winston and Zitch searched the room the fight took place in.  They each located a secret door, one on the north wall, the other on the south wall.  They both checked for traps, both announcing the secret door they were investigating was trapped.  Marativy swapped out with Hrefna on abusing the body of the Rider so Marativy could disable the traps.  Investigating the south secret door first, she determined the trap triggers a Dismissal spell, sending anyone triggering it back to their home plane [80% of the time, otherwise to a random plane].  Marativy then disabled the trap.  The north door was the same kind of trap and she disabled it as well.  She then returned to periodically slashing the Rider’s body.

With the doors cleared of traps, Templeton opened the south secret door.  Doing so filled the room with a humming sound.  The room was full of biomechanical machinery that seemed to be tied into the obelisk.  Zitch looked it over.  He announced he was not certain if breaking this equipment would break the anchoring effect of the obelisk on the pocket dimension or the regeneration effect the obelisk had on the Rider or both.

Starting to get bored with periodically attacking the body of the Rider, Roscuro kicked it down the stairs and into the next room, to see if the regeneration effect was limited to that room.  The regeneration effect continued, suggesting that as long as the body was in the pocket dimension, it would regenerate.  Swamprover resumed removing the Rider’s armor, now in the eating hall [where the PCs fought and killed the shadow mastiffs a couple sessions back].

Templeton next checked the north secret door and found more biomechanical machinery.  This machinery included the body of the naga Selasny.  The wizards of the Therassic Spire would still pay a bounty for the retrieval of her body.  The Ratpack discussed how much they might need to bring back to claim the bounty.  They decided that all of it was probably the correct answer.  Roscuro pulled out the remaining two body bags of holding.  Gridik and Ariphi were wrapped up and placed in one of the body bags and Selasny was placed into the other.  Swamprover finished stripping the armor off the Rider’s corpse and cast Detect Magic.  The Rider’s armor [plate +2], hand axe [+2] and spine flail [+2 with additional powers when wielded by a dulahand like the Rider] were all magical.  Zitch identified the specific magics and the armor was put in the loot bag.

There was a discussion about what might happen if they plugged the body of the Dark Rider into the machinery.  The Ratpack decided they did not have enough information or even the proper know-how to do it, so they didn’t.  Those members of the Ratpack not involved with doing things to the Rider’s corpse resumed searching the rooms.

Templeton suggested that maybe putting the Rider’s corpse into a bag of holding might stop the regeneration as the interior was its own pocket dimension.  Roscuro was concerned about what would happen if that did not work, not wanting to have to fight the Rider a second time and they could not see the results of placing the corpse in the bag until possibly too late.  Zitch offered a test: he would cast Mirror Hideaway and they could move the body into that and go in and check it, unlike a bag of holding.  This sounded good, so Roscuro told Zitch to do it.

Zitch pulled out a mirror [I believe he carries one specifically for this spell] and set it up.  He then cast the spell.  Marativy and Roscuro moved the body into the now enchanted mirror and observed that the regeneration had stopped.  They decided to leave the body there as the spell would last 9 hours, providing plenty of time to finish searching the keep for the shard and any other loot.

With the Rider’s body stored and no longer regenerating, the Ratpack searched the eating hall.  There was a viewing area with large windows in the southeast corner.  Instead of outside the keep, the windows showed a barren landscape with the ruins of an ancient city and a black sky, despite there being daylight.  The Ratpack theorized that the view was of Eox, where Malaghast the bonesage was from.  It matched the description of the world the bonesage’s were supposed to be from.  Roscuro investigated trying to exit the keep through the windows [thinking maybe the shard was on Eox], but he could not reach past the window frame.  There was the possibility it was just an image and not a passage to another world.  With two other doors to search in the eating hall, Roscuro let it go for later.

The Ratpack opened the door on the south wall.  The room beyond was a large bath set into the floor that took up almost the entire 20- by 30-foot room.  The water in the bath was black and opaque.  Zitch cast Detect Magic and noted there was something in the bath that radiated moderate conjuring magic.  No one wanted to step into water they could not see through, so Hrefna grabbed a chair from the eating room and dipped it into the water to test the depth.  The near end had steps under the water’s surface.  Hrefna went around to the side of the bath and kept testing the depth.  At the end of the steps the water was deeper that the chair was tall with Hrefna holding onto the very top of the chair.

That’s when the monsters attacked!

Four skeletal things with long, whip-like tongues rose out of the water, surprising the Ratpack, and attacked Hrefna.  One hit Hrefna with its tongue and paralyzed her.

Winston immediately rapid-fired his musket, destroying the thing that paralyzed Hrefna.  Roscuro grabbed Hrefna and hauled her out of the bath and back into the eating room with the rest of the Ratpack, moving past Marativy in the doorway.  The creatures waded out of the bath and attacked Marativy, damaging and paralyzing her.  Templeton moved to get a line of sight into the room and cast Black Tentacles, filling the bath with rubbery black tentacles that the creatures avoided with ease [Templeton rolled very low on his grapple check].  Swamprover moved up onto one of the eating tables so she could see over Templeton and lobbed a Fireball into the bath, damaging the three remaining creatures.  Marativy was paralyzed and could do nothing.  Zitch cast Cure Moderate Wounds on Marativy to at least heal the damage the creatures had done to her.  Fish finally showed up and raised the water level in the room to drown the undead things.  It was not at all effective and the Ratpack yelled at him to stop.

Winston rapid-fired again, hitting one of the creatures twice before his musket misfired.  Roscuro grabbed Marativy and pulled her away from the doorway, but she suffered an opportunistic attack from one of the things before he got her to safety.  The creatures then advanced and attacked Roscuro, damaging and paralyzing him.  Templeton advanced and pulled Roscuro out of the way.  Swamprover cast Create Pit, catching one of the creatures in the pit; one jumped forward to escape, the last jumped back into the bath.  Zitch put Protective Luck on Templeton and then cackled to maintain it.  Fish used his waterspout to push the one creature in the room with the Ratpack back into the pit.  Hrefna regained her ability to move, immediately activating her healing aura and casting Barbed Chains on the remaining mobile creature.

Winston rapid-fired on the remaining mobile creature and killed it.  Roscuro was paralyzed but benefitted from the healing aura [Fast Heal 3].  The creatures in the pit climbed out and advanced.  Templeton poured all his attacks into the lagging creature, hitting multiple times.  Swamprover cast Magic Missile at the leading creature and hit.  Zitch placed his ward on Templeton, backed away 5 feet, and cackled.  Fish missed entirely and backed away.  Hrefna attempted an attack and flubbed it.

Winston stepped back 5 feet and shot at the leading creature, critically hitting before misfiring.  Roscuro was still paralyzed but benefitted from the healing aura again.  The lead creature advanced on Winston and slammed him but did not paralyze him.  The lagging creature did the same to Templeton but succeeded in paralyzing the summoner.  Templeton was paralyzed, but made use of the healing aura.  Swamprover defensively cast Arc Lightning on the two creatures who were neatly lined up for her, destroying the lead creature.  Marativy regained her ability to move and poured all of her attacks into the remaining creature, killing it.

After the fight, Zitch was able to identify the creatures as mohrgs, a type of undead that still had their viscera and a long tongue.

Fish was asked to lower the water in the bath while the group waited for those paralyzed to recover.  Zitch located a club down at the bottom of the stairs and to one side.  Roscuro, now mobile again, stepped down and retrieved it.  Hrefna and Winston aided Zitch in identifying the club as a club +1 undead bane of disruption.  Roscuro stepped into the mirror and tested it on the Dark Rider’s corpse.  It messed up the corpse satisfactorily.

There was one final door in the eating hall on the north wall.  The Ratpack assembled in front of the door while Marativy verified there were no traps.  Marativy opened the door.  The room beyond was similar in size to the bath, but contained three things: a statue of the Dark Rider in the center of the room, a harp made from the corpse of a small humanoid hanging on a side wall, and Malaghast, who was standing near the statue.

“Oh!  Hello my friends,” Malaghast greeted the Ratpack.

End of Session

Rat Whispers

[As mentioned in my recent status update, this game is now on hold due to the Other GM and Marativy's player being new parents.  There will likely be a Session 37 to finally finish Book 3, but we have no idea when it will happen.  The Other GM is optimistic and thinks he can run it soon, but the rest of us think a month or two might be more realistic based on how much time a newborn requires from their parents.  We’ll see how it plays out.]

[As a result, we’ve started building characters for the 5E one-shot being run by Winton’s player, now designated Clone GM 1 (an inside joke).  Clone GM 1 is running a published 5E adventure from a compilation of adventures and has had trouble answering what the adventure is about as all the published blurbs apparently include spoilers.  Another case of we’ll see how it goes.  The next blog entries will be next week and include a character summary for the 5E game followed by session notes for Session 1.]

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 35

Next Session: Session 37

Status Update - Newest Gamer Arrives on Game Day!

This past Saturday, The Other GM and Marativy's player became parents!  Marativy's player delivered their son just before 6:00 PM Houston time.  Mother and son are both healthy by all reports, so Congratulations to them!

The child was not expected for another week, so this is throwing askew campaign plans.  Saturday was supposed to be the next Adventures in the Green session, but we switched to board games.  We were supposed to play the final session for Shattered Star Book 3 tonight (Monday) before transitioning to a 5E one-shot (meaning one adventure that we expect to take 4-5 sessions to play), followed my me starting a new campaign for a while.  This was to let the new parents acclimate to having a child and those demands on their time and life while the rest of us did something different until they can return.  This whole process has now been moved up, so we are working to adapt.

I have one more session to type up for Shattered Star Book 3 (Session 36) and that will appear later this week.  I have no idea when session 37 might happen or if we will hand wave it, but I expect it will be a month or two before that gets resolved.

Tonight, we are doing character creation for the new campaign.  What I know at this point:

• Our characters will be 6th level
• We are using D&D 5E
• It will be an urban environment

I expect to learn more at tonight's session.

This also starts a countdown timer for me to have a new campaign in place.  I've chosen to revive an old campaign world after shaking things up a bit.  I'll be using HERO System, Fifth Edition, and the Fantasy Hero subset of rules.  I ran a campaign in a home-brewed world for over 12 years that has lain fallow for, um, 14 years or so?  I've always wanted to return to that world but never had a "campaign idea" to start a campaign there.  I recently decided I don't actually need a full campaign idea to start as that's not how I did it originally.  I started the world by borrowing it from a friend.  

I hankered to run a fantasy campaign and some friends and I were hanging out and bored one day and asked me to run something, so I said sure.  I needed some place to start and had a map a friend drew for a short campaign he ran to fill some time [I wasn't in the campaign but others I know were].  I took his continent map and general back ground and stole a city idea from another friend's campaign [which he "borrowed" from a fantasy novel] as a place to base three foot-loose adventurers.  I came up with a loose premise and we started.  The adventures for the next decade were the results of things the players did in game mixing with a back story I created as the campaign progressed.  The campaign ended after I ran out of ideas on what to do next.  The longest running PCs had doubled their point values by then [HERO System is a point-buy system for characters, not a level-based system] so were truly formidable.  Formidable enough that I was having trouble coming up with things to throw at them that wouldn't also level a city block.  We still tell fond stories about things that happened in that campaign, so I've always wanted to go back and I've finally found a way.

I'm advancing the timeline 30 to 40 years, dropping in an inland sea that didn't used to be there [whose source is a campaign mystery], and placing the new campaign on the shores of the Sudden Sea, hundreds of miles away from the city-state the original campaign centered on.  The Sudden Sea is at most 10 years old [I might make it younger - still working on this]  and covers lands that used to be the heart of an alliance that broke away from Imperial rule during the Horde Wars [still working on a better name for that] when the Emperor left them to fend for themselves while he protected his personal lands.  The Sea is unexpectedly deep and everyone is nervous about whether or not it will start expanding again, but in the meantime, new naval trade routes are needed and there are refugees everywhere and tensions about other powers looking to annex new territory while the Alliance is busy dealing with this crisis.

That's it for now.  More later!