Sorry for the delay in the next post but the real world has contrived to keep me busy enough I haven't been able to type it up. I should post it this week but I cannot be more specific than that as things are still keeping me busy.
Wednesday, February 26, 2025
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 4, Sessions 4 to 5
[Day 1 through Day 4 – Getting There and Scouting]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E role-playing game. Game sessions happen once a week. These sessions happened March 11 and March 18, 2024, respectively.]
[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 10th level Ninja
Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 10th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar
Roscuro – male ratfolk 10th level Monk
Swamprover – female grippli 10th level Wizard
Winston – male ratfolk 10th level Gunslinger
Via Roll20
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 10th level Summoner (Synthesist)
NPCs
Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 8th level Wizard (Invoker)
Hrefna – female changeling 8th level Omdura
Ariphi – female tiefling 8th level Rogue
Day 1
Morning
Riddleport
Over breakfast, the group discussed what questions Hrefna should ask with her Commune spell and came up with a list that felt reasonable. [I don’t have the questions asked nor responses, but Hrefna’s player does and maybe will bot them in the comments. Hint, hint!] There was also discussion about how to get to Windsong Abbey. Zitch, Swamprover, and Templeton now had access to Teleportation and it was decided to try teleporting to Sandpoint and then taking a carriage from there. As none of the group had been to Windsong Abbey before, this mitigated a lot of dangers with teleporting to a new location.
After breakfast, Gridik and Swamprover tracked down and bought 1000gp each of scroll scribing supplies and packed those to take on the expedition.
The group retreated to their room at the inn and there Zitch cast Guiding Star, which would make it safe[er] for him to teleport back to the room as he could not teleport everyone at once. He then cast Teleport, teleporting himself, Swamprover, Winston, and Marativy. They arrived safely in the vicinity of Sandpoint.
Zitch then teleported Swamprover and himself back to the room in the inn. There, Zitch teleported himself, Hrefna, Ariphi, and Templeton. They arrived safely where Winston and Marativy were waiting.
Next Swamprover cast Teleport, teleporting herself, Roscuro, and Gridik. A mishap happened, lightly injuring the group and dropping them near Galduria, 150 miles east-northeast of Windsong Abbey. This exposed another issue where the separated team had no way to communicate directly with the others.
Swamprover tried again and this time successfully teleported the group to Sandpoint.
Out of teleportation spells, the group settled in to Sandpoint until the next morning. Swamprover took the time to scribe Dimension Door for Gridik [using 350gp of scribing supplies] while Gridik scribed Detect Scrying for Swamprover [using the same amount of supplies]. They then swapped scroll. Gridik copied over Dimension Door into his second spellbook [Storm and Stress] while Swamprover fed the scroll of Detect Scrying to her familiar, Snek, who acted as her spellbook.
Day 2
Sandpoint
In the morning, Zitch cast Conjure Carriage twice, which provided the capacity to move the entire group of 9 adventurers [as long as either Marativy or Roscuro rode on the roof]. The trip was 40 miles long [and most of the day] and along the way the adventurers saw a herd of rhinoceri. [Random encounter tables have weird entries for this area.]
The weather was windy when the spells ended and the group searched for a campsite outside. Zitch cast Secure Shelter in the selected location and watches were set.
- 1st Watch: Winston, Swamprover, Hrefna
- 2nd Watch: Marativy, Roscuro, Ariphi
- 3rd Watch: Templeton, Zitch, Gridik
Day 3
Nearing Windsong Abbey
The day dawned cloudy. The group marched until Noon, getting closer to the Abbey but not yet in sight of it. While looking for a place to stop and eat lunch, they found the wreckage of a caravan of carts.
Being suspicious, the group first observed for any signs this was an ambush. Once satisfied it wasn’t one, Roscuro and Marativy moved in to investigate the carts. They found corpses, dead for a couple of weeks at least. The caravan appeared to fleeing the area of the Abbey, heading south. Under one of the carts they located a secret compartment. Marativy verified it was not trapped and unlocked it. Inside was a small wooden box that contained a cloth bag of gemstones [totaling 8000gp in value] and a sealed envelope. The seal suggested a Korvosan family.
Marativy and Roscuro returned to the rest of the group and reported what they found. The adventurers did not want to camp near the attack site, so scouted out another area nearby and settled down for a lunch of trail rations.
While the group was stopped, Hrefna investigated the sealed envelope. She discovered it was trapped with Explosive Runes! Hrefna handed the envelope over to Marativy to de-trap. Once Marativy had rendered the envelope safe, Hrefna opened the envelope and examined the letter therein. It was in Taldan [which turns out to be the Common Tongue in this area] and indicated the gems were a dowry for a wedding [clearly one that will never happen].
After Lunch
The adventurers continued their hike towards Windsong Abbey, getting within a 30-minute walk before they can see the Abbey on raised land adjacent to the Varisian Gulf, across an area of rolling hills. [We did not catch the “raised land” part of the description and the only external map of the Abbey does not include anything that suggests it is backed by a significant cliff. More in Rat Whispers, below.]
Winston, Roscuro, and Zitch moved closer to the Abbey to visually scout the environs while everyone else located a place to camp. Winston used his spyglass to get a better view with Roscuro taking notes and asking him to look at specific locations. Zitch cast Arcane Eye to get a closer look without having to physically approach the site.
Roscuro could see all the buildings outside the Abbey’s walls were rubble. Groups of giants could be seen scattered amongst the building, apparently on guard with handy piles of rocks to throw nearby.
Winston got a better view with his spyglass and was able to identify each group as 3 hill giants with 4 ettins mixed in. Three of these mixed groups could be seen patrolling the area. The Abbey’s wall was mostly intact but it was apparent the giants and ettins could step over the wall with little trouble. The buildings inside the wall were in better shape, but damage could be seen.
While he could not get a good view, to Winston’s eye it appeared some of the graves in the large graveyard adjacent to the Abbey had been disturbed. Winston could also see that of the two docks beside the Abbey, one was destroyed and the other heavily damaged.
Zitch placed his Arcane Eye near a collapsed portion of the southeastern corner of the Abbey itself. There, hovering in that gap, Zitch saw two qlippoths! He quickly identified them as nyogoths and relayed what he knew about them to Roscuro, who wrote that information down. [Zitch seems to know a LOT about other planar beings, particularly the unpleasant ones. Roscuro has chosen to not ask about that as good intel is good intel.]
Zitch moved his Arcane Eye past the nyogoths and examined the lighthouse tower in the center of the courtyard. It was 150 feet tall, made of white marble, and unsullied as far as Zitch could tell. The courtyard was paved with cobblestone and had a single drain grate for water removal. In a balcony where they could observe most of the courtyard were four redcaps [an unpleasant kind of fae] with crossbows in hand. They seemed to be alert. The main gates of the Abbey had clearly been bashed in during the attack and hung loosely open.
Zitch next investigated the dining hall area, accessed by a set of smashed-in doors below the redcap balcony. Inside were four ettins, one of which was wearing armor and seemed to be their leader. Up a set of stairs Zitch found a large open room with what appeared to be an undead bugbear sitting in a chair in the exact center of the room. At this point the Arcane Eye spell duration expired.
End of Session 04
Day 3, Continued
Windsong Abbey
Winston, Roscuro, and Zitch slid back behind the hill crest they had been spying from to discuss what they now knew. They decided that they needed more information, both from a casting of Commune by Hrefna and more spying by Zitch with Arcane Eye. Unfortunately, Zitch was out of castings of Arcane Eye for the day, so the trio returned back to the rest of the group.
The rest of the group had located a good campsite surrounded by the rolling hills of the area that would let them set up camp without being directly viewable from anyone in the Abbey. Zitch cast Secure Shelter while Roscuro shared the information gathered so far and plans for the next day. Hrefna cast Commune and got answers [which my notes do not contain, although I know Hrefna’s player has them – again: hint, hint].
Second Watch, that night
Marativy, Roscuro, and Ariphi observed a flight of wyverns flying over the area, apparently hunting. Not wanting to get into a fight and tip off anyone in the Abbey the adventurers were here, Roscuro asked Marativy to use the Major Image power of the shard she carried to hide the campsite. She did so very successfully and the wyverns eventually passed on.
Day 4
Gridik cast Nondetection on Zitch and Winston, to hide Zitch from anyone who might notice his Arcane Eye and attempt to spy back and on Winston who had concerns Leroux might be actively looking for him. [I seem to recall this was a result of one of the Commune questions, but I’m not 100% on that and my notes don’t say. Past me really needed to take better notes.]
Marativy, Winston, Roscuro, and Zitch made their way back to their scouting location. Zitch cast Arcane Eye. Zitch scouted around the outside of the Abbey structure, which took a second casting to complete due to the time limitations. This provided a rough map of the Abbey and the sate of its structures. Once his circumnavigation of the Abbey was complete, he sent his sensor down the drain grate in the courtyard and located a series of underground rooms [which his player mapped, but I did not].
The adventurers discussed the new information and decided it would be worthwhile to use a third casting of Arcane Eye to scout the interiors of the structure. Doing this Zitch discovered that the “guest house” part of the structure was a burnt out husk, three stories tall. In the kitchen area adjacent to the dining hall, Zitch found a large quantity of viscera, probably of human origin, and what might have been a very large haggis made not of sheep, but people.
Zitch attempted to cast Detect Magic through the Arcane Eye [one of a small number of spells allowed to be cast through the Eye, all of which have a chance of failure]. The casting was successful and the “haggis” detected as magical...before it detonated, spawning another nyogoth! The nyogoth detected the Arcane Eye’s sensor and cast Dispel Magic on it, ending the spell and any scouting for the day.
Back at Camp
Gridik scribed a scroll of Fly for Swamprover while she scribed a scroll of Lesser Globe of Invulnerability. They then swapped scrolls and added them to their respective spellbooks.
End of Session 05
Rat Whispers
[One of the things this book of the Adventure Path needed was a map of the area around the Abbey so players could plan their attack. The only exterior map was a small thumbnail that provided a small reference for the GM. That thumbnail completely failed to convey that the Abbey was on raised ground with a steep cliff behind it. So when we later learn there is a window 30 feet down the cliff side that was obscured by a stone lip from the water below, we were very confused. The thumbnail looks like there is maybe 5-10 feet down to the water behind the completely level area the Abbey and village occupy.]
[As far as I can tell, the PCs are expected to assault the Abbey directly and storm their way in or maybe smash the cliff-side window. Both of these options are dumb: the frontal assault is against too many giants and likely to end in a TPK and the window leads to who-knows-what, which is also likely to end with a TPK. I’ll have more to say about the writing of this book as we get further in.]
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
Book 4: Beyond the Doomsday Door – Links to all Book 4 sessions
Last Sessions: Book 4, Sessions 1-3
Next Sessions: Book 4, Sessions 6 and 7
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Ratpack – Shattered Star Book 4, Sessions 1 to 3
[Day 105 – Book 3 Wrap-up]
[This game uses the Pathfinder 1E role-playing game. Game sessions happen once a week. These sessions happened February 19, February 26, and March 4, 2024, respectively.]
[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 10th level Ninja
Zitch Grimreaper – male ratfolk 10th level Witch with a donkey rat (capybara) familiar
Roscuro – male ratfolk 10th level Monk
Swamprover – female grippli 10th level Wizard
Winston – male ratfolk 10th level Gunslinger
Via Roll20
Templeton von Trapp – male ratfolk 10th level Summoner (Synthesist)
NPCs
Gridik Stormstride – male blue kobold 8th level Wizard (Invoker)
Hrefna – female changeling 8th level Omdura
Ariphi – female tiefling 8th level Rogue
Mel Sharples – male halfling Cook (Expert of unknown level)
Alice Hyatt – female halfling Bodyguard (Warrior of unknown level)
Flo’ Castleberry – female gnome Bodyguard (Warrior of unknown level)
Winter
Day ???
Morning
Somewhere on a road to Riddleport with several dead companions (Gridik and Ariphi) and a need for coin, the Ratpack hunkered down and went over the loot in their possession and discussed next steps.
The consensus was to split the group, with Templeton optimizing his eidolon for flying speed and taking Gridik and Ariphi back to Kaer Maga to be raised by the wizards of the Therassic Spire, who clearly owed the group, plus to grab one of the constructs from the Ardoc family and take back to Morgamer Pugg in Magnimar. Riding along will be Zitch and Winston [Team: Speed-run]. The trio would take the loot the party wanted to sell as Kaer Maga would be the best place to sell most of it. The remainder of the group (Marativy, Roscuro, Swamprover, and Hrefna [Team: Slow-walk] would walk west to Riddleport and wait there.
11:00 PM
Templeton and his team arrived at Kaer Maga, Templeton exhausted from the effort. Templeton flew them into the city itself, landing near The Grange. Zitch cast Lesser Restoration to remove Templeton’s exhaustion. The trio entered The Grange and asked for rooms. There they found out 2 months had passed since the Ratpack entered the Dark Forest [back in Book 3].
[This makes it Day 105 in the Book 3 count of days.]
The trio got a room to sleep in. Before sleeping, they tracked down Mel, Alice, and Flo’, discovering that the three had opened a small diner in town and preferred to remain in the city. Templeton, Zitch, and Winston wished them the best.
[The rest of this session and most of Session 2 will follow Team: Speed-run to establish how much time the other team has at their disposal.]
Day 106
The trio had breakfast at The Grange and made preparations for the day. Templeton configured his eidolon into what he called its combat/diplomacy form [my notes don’t say what this entails].
The trio then went to the Therassic Spire and met with Elaneiros, the head wizard there. Templeton reported what had happened in the Dark Forest [Book 3, Sessions 26-37]. Elaneiros then paid the trio for the work done and the information given, plus the bounty for retrieving the head of Selasny, the last of Elaneiros’ agents to be retrieved from the Dark Forest.
After that, Templeton displayed the loot items the group had retrieved and offered them to Elaneiros for purchase or first refusal [per the team's contract]. Both tried hard to fail in the negotiations [they both rolled a 1 on their Diplomacy check], but Templeton failed the least and Elaneiros paid 32,000 gp for the items he bought, 10,000gp of it in two, 5000gp diamonds [which were necessary to raise Gridik and Ariphi].
Winston borrowed Ariphi’s cloak of disguise in case Leroux was still hunting for him. The trio then went over to the Tarheel Promenade and found Gadka’s Magical Oddities, where they sold two more items for 16,000gp. In the Promenade they located a Bloat Mage and sold the [magical] Jar of Leaches to the mage for 4950gp. They walked over to Ankar-Te and located the Temple to the Child Goddess to sell the Skinharp to for 14,750gp.
Finally they went the Temple of Pharasma in Oriat to get Gridik and Ariphi raised. When asked if the trio were supplying the material components for 2 castings of Raise Dead, Templeton offered the use of his ring of blood money. The priest politely declined. Templeton then offered up the two diamonds and Gridik and Ariphi were raised by the temple [both received 2 Negative Levels as a result]. Templeton also sold the temple a phylactery of positive channeling for 10,750gp for a net gain of 750gp at the temple.
End of Session 01
Day 107
In the morning, Zitch cast Restoration on Gridik and Ariphi [removing 1 negative level from each]. Once that was done, the 5 adventurers planned their construct heist. The plan was to grab one of the small spybot constructs, have Zitch cast Force Quiet on the construct, and then Gridik cast Invisibility Sphere on the group. Templeton would then fly the group out of Kaer Maga at maximum speed to avoid pursuit.
An hour later
The adventurers walked through The Warrens to access Bis district. There was a heavy security construct presence at the border between the two districts. Winston asked a passerby what was going on. He was told that the heavy security was due to an attack on the Ardoc family compound two months ago followed by ongoing hostilities from the trolls of the Augur Temple [see Book 3 for details].
The adventurers worked their way through Bis, looking for a spy construct that was all alone. The best they could find was one construct only being observed by a single companion construct. Checking out the area around this (mostly) solo construct, they located an unobserved spot 60 feet from their target. They waited there (all but Templeton inside Templeton’s lucky barrel, attached to his back) for a lull in the crowds in the street and then launched their ambush.
Winston cast Mudball on the target construct, blinding it. Zitch cast Force Quiet to silence their target, then the group checked if the target’s observer had noticed.
It had.
The guard construct launched a net at the adventurers but missed entirely. Gridik cast Nondetection at the target, so it could not be tracked but the spell failed to take. Templeton flew at the target at such speed that Gridik lost his footing and was tumped back into the depths of the lucky barrel. Templeton grabbed the construct, stuffing it in his bag of holding. He then flew towards The Barrens to escape from the city. By the time Gridik regained his feet and cast Invisibility Sphere, the group was over The Barrens. [There might have been a flying battle here, but my notes don't say and my memory is hazy.] Outside the city, Templeton flew south, following the river to where the Runtash River joined it, hoping to set a false trail towards Korvosa. At the confluence of rivers Templeton turned west and flew towards Magnimar.
Evening
Templeton reached the town of Wartle on the Yondabakari River. There Zitch cast Lesser Restoration to remove Templeton’s exhaustion. They contemplated flying on to Magnimar, but realized they would arrive late at night and the city’s security might ask them questions they did not want to answer. The found the inn in Wartle and rested for the night.
[We did some activity with the other team, but overspent on time and had to do a ret-con next session, so I’m skipping it here.]
End of Session 02
Day 108
In the morning, Gridik successfully cast Nondetection on the captured construct and returned it to the bag of holding. After breakfast, the group of 5 adventurers flew on to Magnimar, arriving early in the afternoon.
Their first stop was to Morgamer Pugg’s shop to drop off the requested construct. Morgamer was down in the basement again, behind a door with Silence cast upon it to block out the sounds from the basement workshop. He was spooked at first by the adventurers until they reminded him he had hired them to grab an Ardoc construct. They turned over the construct and were given the promised bag of coins. They politely left as Morgamer started examining the construct.
Their next stop was to see Frederick at his shop. There they offered Frederick an ornate box recovered from the Thassilonian workshop under Kaer Maga. While Frederick evaluated the box, the adventurers borrowed a side room to discretely count the coin Morgamer had paid them. It turned out to be 6000gp, which seemed reasonable. Once he’d evaluated the box, Frederick purchased it from the group for 2750gp.
After some pleasantries, the group left Frederick’s shop and went over to the Pathfinder Society Lodge. They discovered the hydra heads they had turned over to the Society the last time they were here mounted with a ferocious snarl on each head. They requested to meet with Sheila, the Lodge Captain.
In her office, they gave a report of their expedition to Kaer Maga and the Dark Forest. They announced that the group had secured the Shard of Gluttony (currently with Roscuro on his way to Riddleport) and that the next shard’s location was Windsong Abbey. Shelia told them that her research suggested the next shard would be the Shard of Envy and she handed over a dusty rose prism Ioun Stone as the counter for that shard’s curse. She also relayed that Windsong Abbey was reportedly under attack. A witness, a Varisian peddler named Pilla Linuveshi, was currently in Sandpoint and the group should stop by there to get first-hand information. Additionally, the Temple of Desna had posted a bounty for the liberation of Windsong Abbey from the forces there. She also offered to send a message to Roscuro to update him. Templeton agreed to the message and said the group would investigate the attack and lift it if they could.
It was too late to fly out to Sandpoint and get there before the sun set, so the group took care of some business in Magnimar. Gridik went to the Temple of Desna to ask about the bounty and if they could provide any maps of the Abbey. He learned the bounty would be paid in the form of divine spell castings or items. He made note of this. Unfortunately, the only map available [or that they were willing to sell a kobold] was a general map of the area around the abbey.
Zitch tracked down a scroll of Teleportation and relayed this to Gridik, who purchased the inks necessary to copy the spell into his spell book, despite not being able to cast it yet. [This would be important later.] He spent the night doing so.
Day 109
Templeton flew Zitch, Winston, Gridik, and Ariphi east-northeast from Magnimar to Sandpoint. At the only inn in Sandpoint, in the common room, they found Pilla telling her story to anyone who would buy her a drink. [The adventurers learned she was continuously telling the story, starting over when interrupted or once she reached the end, but my notes don’t say how they learned this.]
When Pilla started again, the adventurers listened in and learned:
- The abbey is partially collapsed.
- The lighthouse is one of the buildings still intact.
- She found a small cap on the ground, red with blood.
- A hill giant threw a boulder at her at that point and she fled for her life.
- She saw many hill giants when she fled.
Having learned all they could from Pilla, the adventurers left Sandpoint and flew towards Riddleport.
Early Afternoon
Marativy, Roscuro, Swamprover, and Hrefna arrived at Riddleport after walking for 4 days with minimal supplies. Despite this, they took the time to find a good inn, the Rusty Anchor. There they rented two luxury rooms for a week. The luxury rooms came with hot baths and hot breakfasts, of which the hot baths rated most urgent for the weary travelers. They had meals delivered while they bathed and were mostly restored by the time Templeton, Zitch, Winston, Gridik, and Ariphi arrived in town early that evening. Zitch used his earrings of telepathy to locate the other group and they shared information and food.
Day 110
In the morning, the treasure was tallied and shares were paid out. A full share equaled 9670gp [paid to Marativy, Zitch, Roscuro, Winston, Swamprover, and Templeton], and a half share worth 4835gp [paid to Gridik, Hrefna, and Ariphi], with Party Fund getting a full share and the remainder of 5gp.
The group decided that Riddleport was a good place to resupply and do some crafting. Gridik was able to track down and purchase a scroll of Fireball [finally!] and a scroll of Mad Monkey. He also crafted a pair of magic boots for Winston that double the wearer's movement. Roscuro contributed 3000gp to the purchase of a Selective Metamagic Rod for Swamprover [so there would never again be a “friendly fire” issue]. Additionally, enough time passed by that Gridik and Ariphi were able to have Restoration cast upon themselves again, removing their last negative levels.
End of Session 03
Rat Whispers
[This wrapped up all the between books things that were properly the end of Book 3. It had been eight months since we finished Book 3 and this allowed us to remember what our characters could do. We, except for those on Team: Slow-walk. We just waited for the other team to finish their thing.]
[Next session will properly be Day 1 of the counting of Book 4. At the time I’m typing this, our next session will be Session 37 on Day 12. That’s not a typo: Day Twelve! This book has multiple action-packed days that take several sessions per day to play through. Be warned.]
[One final thing. For this Book, the Other GM decided he wanted to try milestone leveling and not Experience Points. In hindsight, I'm not certain this worked out well. I think we need to do a post-mortem once the Book is complete and discuss it.]
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
Book 4: Beyond the Doomsday Door – Links to all Book 4 sessions
Last Session: Book 3, Session 37
Next Sessions: Book 4, Sessions 4 and 5
Shattered Star - Book 4: Beyond the Doomsday Door
Landing page for the Session Notes for Book 4 of the Shattered Star adventure path. The Other GM has modified this book, possibly significantly, so comparisons to the published material may vary.
Sessions 1 to 3 - Book 3 Wrap-up
Sessions 4 and 5 - Getting There and Scouting
Sessions 6 and 7 - Ambushing Giants
Sessions 8 and 9 - Ambushes
Session 10-1 and 10-2 - Raiding the Giants
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