[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
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