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Axinian
2014-12-15, 03:56 PM
NIIIIIIIIiiiiiIIIIGGGGHHHHTS!!! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqElJnsUvtE&t=0m15s)

*ahem*

Hey it’s been a while since I’ve done one of these! The Rising Star campaign is technically still going, but on a short hiatus, and the journal is way behind it anyway. I might catch up someday, but for right now, I want to chronicle the new campaign we’re doing!

To fend off the bitter winter cold (and to have an excuse to make endless Aladdin references) I decided to run and Arabian Nights themed campaign! Deserts! Thieves! Genies! All that kind of thing! Yes, I’m aware of the Legacy of Fire adventure path. I don’t like it. I’m gonna do my own thing.

The game is Pathfinder, the setting: here, in the nation of Inbaq (http://www.primeadventuring.com/). Most of the world details will be explained as a I go along since there are not many that are relevant.

Given the legendary nature and feel of an arabian nights sort of setting, this campaign will be my first to incorporate mythic tiers! The players just hit Mythic Rank 1 and will probably hit rank 5. They started at level 6 and will likely end at level 10.

---

The cast is an ... interesting one. There’s some scheduling issues so a couple of the players are gonna be rotating out, but we’re already planning ahead for that.

Variel - NG Desert-Runner Elf Magus 6 (Spelldancer) - Variel is a serious but well-meaning elf with considerable experience in spells, swordplay, and desert survival. He’s actually going for a slightly unconventional Magus, treating it more like a fighter with casting back up. He has an adamantine glaive to attack with reach and uses my not-sucky version of Whirlwind Attack (see the site above) to have some AoE damage. He primarily uses spellstrike to deliver spells with reach, but sometimes whips out his sword-cane to use spell combat.

Safisa - CN Kitsune Swashbuckler 6 - A jovial but duplicitous kitsune, Safisa is an accomplished thief and con artist (which actually turns out to be ideal for the first part of this campaign). She uses the Finesse Fighter feat (see site above) and a high dex to become a whirling dervish of parries and ripostes. Pretty standard swashbuckler in combat, but makes a good party face otherwise, as she is able to get along with just about anyone.

Kalun, the Fist of Calamity - CN Ifrit Brawler 6 (Snakebite Striker) - A reckless and battlehungry brawler, Kalun, the self-titled “Fist of Calamity,” is always the first into the fray. No really, always. The player (with my blessing) took the time to optimize the crap out of his initiative to make sure he always has sneak attack. He has a high dex, and Finesse Fighter to take advantage of it. He is also a somewhat dirty fighter, often using feints to get in more precise strikes. His character is ... straightforward. He hates authority, likes to hit things, and takes matters slightly less seriously than he maybe ought to :P

Turel - CN Aasimar Bard 6 (Sandman?) - Turel is also an accomplished thief and con artist! He uses his bardic abilities and magic to neutralize any threats and uses his great skill in stealth to move unseen. He is sly, and has a keen intellect and a significant body of knowledge that he uses to great effect. He started this session as the Sandman archetype, but quickly decided he wanted to change that when he realized you can’t really use fascinate in combat. I’m allowing it. This character’s player will have to leave after the next session.

Icarus - CG Angel-Blooded Aasimar Oracle 6 (Solar mystery) - Icarus is a kind soul who wishes only to see people free from tyranny. He casts devastating fire spells, but can also hold his own in melee with the best of them. He took the deaf curse, which was enough of a drawback to be relevant, but not enough to be crippling. Unfortunately this character’s player will not be here beyond the first session.


Mmm. Look at all those Chaotic Neutrals. Isn’t it beautiful? Actually this group is surprisingly good at playing CN, even when it’s Chaotic Reckless (like Kalun :p). Doesn't mean there will not be shenanigans.

As you can see we have three solid members and two who will have to leave the group at some point. This is fine, I have ideas how to get them out.

Next session, another player will be joining hopefully to stay in the whole time. They are currently slated to be a Psion, which would work just fine.

---

Each of these skilled adventures as received a summons to meet the Sultan of Inbaq, Murad the Magnificent, himself! He apparently has a job of great importance to the nation for them, one uniquely suited to their specific talents.


The write up of the first session comes later today. Oh the chaos...

Axinian
2014-12-16, 07:17 PM
Session 1, Part 1: Who Ambushes the Ambushers?

We open with our party being ushered in to the lavish study of the the Sultan. They are treated to expensive refreshments while the surprisingly jovial sovereign briefs them on what he has planned:

A group of bandits known as the Golden Band (aka the Forty Thieves, though there’s now more than forty) has been a terror to the desert nation for at least a century. The group often vanishes for long periods, but then resurfaces to raid and plunder. The group has never been caught.

The Golden Band has resurfaced once again, and this time it has been hitting some... unusual targets. They have been specifically stealing magical artifacts, but none of them have been especially powerful or valuable. The only two items taken of significant note are a magical scarab amulet (or rather, half of one, no one knows what it does when put back together), and an ancient tablet bearing one of the Prophecies of Scheherazade (a djinni oracle from 1,000 years ago whose prophecies have largely faded into legend). Given that the thieves have had opportunities to obtain greater and more conventional wealth, and the specific nature of these objects, this makes the Sultan suspicious. The Golden Band is obviously planning something more than grand larceny, and it can’t be good.

The job he puts forward is twofold:

1) Infiltrate the group to find out what the thieves are planning and stop it, returning the stolen items if possible.

2) End the threat of the Golden Band from within, or at least leave them open to destruction. Since the thieves are somehow able to avoid any confrontation with the Sultan’s regular forces.

Given the group’s talents for deception and infiltration, they are ideal agents to pull this off. Case in point, both Safisa and Turel have been discretely pocketing the obviously valuable pieces of silverware offered to them, unbeknownst to the Sultan and each other. When the subject of payment arises, the number gets their attention.

The sultan is offering them 20,000 GP... each, as well as free reign over any loot they acquire along the way, provided they return the requested artifacts. He is also offering good camels and supplies for desert travel.

Once they pick their jaws back up, everyone in the party has the same thought: “How do I get some of that up front?”

After some light hearted haggling, the Sultan also offers them 1,000 GP each for the purpose of buying additional supplies for the mission. He does want them to succeed after all, and such sums are an exceedingly small price to pay.
The group takes some time to get equipped for desert travel (endure elements scrolls are the name of the game here), and after some more haggling RP to get better prices, they head off into the dunes towards a location marked by the sultan.

As a side note, I don’t think I’ve ever had the appraise skill actually come up in a game, but now they are already using it to great effect, at least in haggling :P

The sultan directed them to a spot several days to the east that is within the wide radius of an area that he thinks the Golden Band might be in. There is another small-time bandit group in the area encroaching on the Band’s turf. He suspects that defeating them as an offering of good faith should be enough to get the Band’s attention.

It isn’t long before the party spots a small group of wagons along the trail, and some good Perception checks reveal a small group of creatures moving stealthily nearer to it.

The group doesn’t hesitate, they shout a warning to the wagons and immediately try to close the gap. Kalun charges in first because of his stupid high initiative and starts throwing punches at any thief that gets near him. Variel readily lets himself get mobbed and happily starts Whirlwind Attacking. Icarus provides support spells, but he too has a reach weapon (longhammer) and the bandits have a difficult time putting pressure on him. Safisa fills the skirmisher role and is readily dashing to and fro, happily accepting AoOs so she can parry/riposte them. She does a lot of her damage when it isn’t even her turn :P Turel doesn’t have a great first outing, as his player realized his abilities aren’t what he thought they were. He throws out some Ear-Piercing Screams, but mostly attacks with his scimitar. He’ll get his moment of awesome later.

One of the bandits turns out to be a Jackalwere, a burly humanoid Jackal, with a gaze that causes people to fall asleep! Fortunately, the only one to succumb is Kalun, and he is woken up a couple rounds later. Some clever maneuvering ends up reversing the situation, with the party surrounding the bandits! The fight is a bit tougher than the party was expecting, but it is only a couple criticals that put them in real danger. They pretty thoroughly rout the group.

It appears there is one more ambush to be had however, as many figures crest the dunes around the party, effectively surrounding them. They are clad in widely varying desert garb, except they all bear a golden sash across their torsos. It seems the Golden Band has already taken notice (the wagons were a trap the band set for the other bandits, but when the party showed they decided to watch and see what happens). Three figures step forward from the crowd and are quite clearly the leaders. First is a hulking oread that looks to be a sort of unarmed fighter. They later learn his name is Kassim, and he is a stern and incredibly suspicious sort. The second is a woman garbed in, frankly, excessive amounts of silk and satin and jewelry. She will come to be known as Cleopatra, and she perpetually has a look of mild bemusement on her face. The third, and clear leader, is lean human in heavy cloaks and a face mask (which they learn he never takes off). This is the self-proclaimed King of Thieves, and he addresses the party with a tone of amused curiosity. They note that his voice and stature are rather boyish, and he is likely rather young.

King: I admit, I was not expecting anyone else to show up! You seem pretty strong. What brings a group like you out here?

Safisa: We’re looking to join actually :)

King: Ah! New recruits! We could use some of those! Though I’ve gotta say, we usually don’t get... erm... applicants this way. Why do you want to join.

Safisa: Because we’re tired of following the rules. We want to take what we want, and you guys are the best at that!

The sentiment is echoed amongst the other party members, and isn’t entirely untrue to most of them. (Icarus, later: I’m starting to think we might just abandon our job and hang with the Forty Thieves :P )

Kassim: I don’t trust them, sir. We should just kill them right now.

King: Ah, come on! Let’s let them take The Test at least! Come on, follow us!

The party moves into the group of thieves and follows the King’s lead. They get along with most of them quite well, since their world views genuinely mesh quite well, and it seems that the infiltration is going smoothly...


This first session is taking a rather long time, since I forgot it was actually kind of lore-heavy. I'm workin' on it :P

Axinian
2014-12-17, 06:52 PM
Session 1, Part 2: Like A Benny Hill Chase, but Deadlier

The lair of the Golden Band is an old temple built into a rocky outcropping in the desert, which is then covered by a powerful illusion. The temple is ancient and most of its identifying markers have been worn off. The thieves have turned the place into their hangout and have lots of loot and cushions and things all over the place for them to relax on. Given that the group isn’t fitting in quite well, the grunts are forthcoming with information. Talking with some of them reveals some things:

1) The King of Thieves is a relatively new arrival and he is the reason behind the group’s resurgence. He is quite strong, but is in general a very happy and amiable person, so he hasn’t needed to exert his influence by force often. He always wears the mask and heavy robes. No one knows what he looks like.

2) Any rules the thieves have are more like guidelines than real rules. Essentially, if you try to leave the group, or try to screw over the other members, you’re dead. Not many rules other than that. Sometimes the King needs to decide whether an offense has actually taken place. There are not many rules, but breaking them usually results in death.

3) It’s a not so hidden secret that the King and Cleopatra (the woman in satins) are lovers, and the thieves often joke about how that works when he doesn’t take off his disguise ever :P

Turel knows some things about history and religion, and decides to try to identify what the temple was dedicated to. He determines that it was built not to honor any god or demon, but rather Scheherazade, the ancient djinni oracle I mentioned. Such temples were meant to enshrine her prophecies, which were supposedly always accurate (at least according to legend).

Speaking of prophecies, the stolen tablet is in plain view in the center of the temple! It bears the following prophecy:

Those who have lost shall indeed regain
When the Golden City rises from the brine again
Within is a treasure carved with an ancient chant
And to you a resurrection it shall grant

Upon the dusk of the thousand first day
A stone beast will arrive where the beacon once lay
From its belly a cleansing fire shall spew
Swallow thine pride, lest it consume you

And it looks like there was once more, but it has been worn off or destroyed.

The King invites them into his chambers. From within his cloak he produces the stolen Scarab amulet piece. He explains to them that he has located the other half of the amulet. While he would normally plan an operation himself, he’s decided that retrieving it would be a good test of the group’s thieving skills. Variel is able to discretely detect magic, and some spellcraft checks indicate that the amulet radiates strong divination magic, and may in fact serve as a guide or map to something else. Perhaps the thieves are seeking some greater treasure?

The groups naturally agrees to undertake the task, and sets off soon after. The amulet is in the possession of a noble called Lord Garu. He has a sort of away house in a coastal town to the east, but is currently not home. The group will infiltrate the mansion by night when the master isn’t home.

Scoping out the situation reveals that the mansion has a domed roof and is surrounded by a 20 foot stone wall. Along the top of the wall patrols two groups of well-equipped mercenaries. After timing out the guards’ patrol route, Turel takes Variels grappling hook (his player always buys a grappling hook, come hell or high water), and silently scales the wall to the other side. The other side of the wall contains a lush garden, and Turel needs to use invisibility when his landing in the plants catches the attention of one of the guards. He silently and invisibly advances to the barred main gate, and veeeerrry slowly unbars it, allowing the rest of the group to enter quickly, aided by Icarus’s Silence spell.

The party decides against entering the front door, and works their way around the side of the house, soon encountering a servant’s entrance. However, as they approach, Icarus really blows a stealth check. He is still silenced, but ends up failing to conceal himself in a meaningful way and the guards start sounding the alarm. Variel thinks fast and starts using dancing lights, ghost sound, and some bluff checks in order to throw the guards off their tail as they enter the house.

They find themselves in a storage room, but can hear the rousing of guards in the next room over! The quickly leave through the third door in the room and find themselves in a narrow hallway with many doors that will soon be revealed to be the currently empty servants’ quarters. Icarus throws a flaming sphere in front of the door to buy themselves some breathing room. It doesn’t buy much though, as one of the three guards that soon pursues them is an Azer, a dwarf-like creature composed of elemental fire. The other two are a human and orc, but they prove to be well equipped and well trained.

Most of the group has explored the rooms and moved to the end of the hallway (discovering hints for disarming some traps later on that will end up not using) and have opted to just move further into the house in an attempt to lose their pursuers. Kalun has other ideas though, and charges the three mercenaries head-on... alone! The rest of the group shakes their collective heads and moves on.

Over the course of many, many rounds, and amidst so many things going on in the rest of the mansion, Kalun proceeds to actually hold the line! The hallway is very narrow and provides a nice chokepoint, allowing only two of them the engage in melee at first and only one as Kalun slowly moves back into the hall. The humanoid mercs, though, are skilled with bows, and are filling the hallway with arrow shafts. Kalun can deal a fair amount of damage, but still takes forever to take out the azer and the first merc. With some wise withdrawals and some lucky crits, he manages to take out two of them. He tries to lure the remaining one into a side room to finish him off (he’s sucking on fumes for health at this point) but the merc runs off to eventually bring his friends to their location. Kalun finally decides to flee and rejoin the party.

MEANWHILE...

The group is slowly but surely scouting the rest of the house. Variel explores the first floor, but fortunately ends up just discovering a bunch of store rooms instead of running into any of the enemies on this floor. He does discover a secret door leading outside and finds that one side of the mansion is very much overgrown with vines a trellises. He decides to climb up to the roof (which has very little room on account of it having many domes), using more dancing lights to protect his ascent.

Turel remains invisible throughout all of this and is slowly scouting out the second floor of the mansion, leaving doors open behind him so that the rest of the group can follow. He elects not to fight any enemies he encounters, either retreating or sneaking past them.

Safisa moves more quickly, exploring the winding hallways of the second floor. She enters into an astrarium containing many freaky bound outsiders... and promptly retreats. Going down a different hallway, several of the art object and trophies on the walls to reveal themselves to be snake-like rakshasas capable of disguise themselves as small objects. Safisa has little trouble with them, and is able to parry and riposte most of their attacks, often killing them on their own turns :P Icarus arrives to help, but gets infected by the creatures’ poison. Icarus has low wisdom to begin with, and the poison deals Wisdom damage, which very nearly renders the oracle catatonic before this is all over.

The upstairs group eventually finds a kitchen, which has been occupied by a group of advanced HD Al’Mi-raj (magical teleporting unicorn rabbits... ayup). The rabbits just happened to be there, they had teleported in looking for food. The rabbits attack anyone who enters the room, but aren’t aggressive enough to pursue, so Turel just sneaks by them and Icarus and Safisa just move through their territory as quickly as possible. They are glad that they didn’t stay to fight, since the rabbits hit distressingly hard :0 On the other side of the deadly rabbits is an art gallery full of very valuable paintings. Safisa immediately singles out the most impressive, most expensive one and starts cutting it from its frame to stuff in her bag of holding.

Meanwhile still, Varius has made his way along the roof and swung down through a window into a library. Unfortunately, library floor is trapped with magical electricity, and Variel makes a mad dash for the first door he sees... and finds himself in the art gallery with the others!

Kalun is now finally beating a retreat... but along the way asks me if he encounters any lamp oil... I mentally sigh and inform him that yes, there are a couple lamps with oil in them. He promptly takes it and spills it all over the stairs up behind him, and setting it alight. I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting the house to be set on fire at some point :P Fortunately the fire doesn’t spread that fast, and it prevents the guards from following them up the stairs effectively. That done, Kalun makes a mad dash to catch up with the rest of the party.

All this took many, many, rounds, and yes, it had to be handled in combat rounds since they were in combat the whole time (oftentimes 2 or 3 combats). It took the majority of this session and the group honestly thought they were screwed and would never meet up again. Drama queens :P

It is at this time that Safisa finishes cutting the painting loose... and behind it is a hidden door! The party can’t believe their luck and make the reasonable assumption that the amulet is behind that door. It leads to an old stairwell that leads down past the first floor and well into the foundation of the mansion. It lets out into a chamber in a very similar style to the temple in which the Golden Band makes their lair. There’s even a copy of the prophecy tablet at the far end, in which is embedded the other half of the scarab amulet!

Naturally, such a place is not without guardians. Soon after entering all the dust and sand from ages past swirls about and coalesces into three figures. Two are humanoid figures composed entirely of pale sand: Salt Elementals. The third is a large humanoid figure that appears to be made entirely of lapis lazuli and bears tattoos made of gold leaf. It bears two katars as weapons and stands with a regal bearing. It is a shaitan, and earth genie.

Shaitain: In the name of Scheherazade, halt! Who trespasses upon this place after such long centuries?

Kalun interjects before the people who are... more skilled at bluffing can.

Kalun: Oh, we’re just the janitors! Have you seen how filthy this place is? Look at all the dust!

Shaitain: Do not defile this place with lies and poor humor! Only those touched by Destiny may enter here!

Kalun tries in vain the bluff the Shaitan down, but the rest of party resigns themselves to a fight for the amulet. Turel turns invisible while Kalun and Safisa charge the genie. Variel and Icarus try to uses the their reach weapons to limit the mobility of the salt elementals.

Things start to go poorly right off the bat, as the shaitain launches a quickened glitterdust that blinds Kalun... and he utterly fails to save against it at any point, and he ends up getting like 9 or 10 rolls. The salt elementals are nasty, they have an aura of dessication, dealing damage just by being close, and their attacks cause salt poisoning, making people make a lot of saves against being sickened. Not only this, but all the enemies turned out to bear mythic power, allowing them to hit harder, and for the the shaitain to take two turns per round. It’s full attacks hurt a lot, and it has a ton of spell-like abilities, so that party starts to feel overwhelmed right away. The shaitain soon casts transmute rock to mud, turn 2/3 of the floor into mud that severely hampers movement and attacks. The frontliners immediately retreat to the safe area, with only Safisa staying behind to face the genie.

Meanwhile, however, Turel is still invisible and slowly, slowly making his way towards the amulet. When he gets closes he rushes in and snatches it from the stone tablet. This helps turn the tide, since the creatures’ mythic abilities were tied to the artifact. Removing it strips them of their mythic abilities, lowering their defenses, depriving the shaitan of its extra turn, and effectively dealing around 30 damage to all of them! The shaitan knows he’s there now though, and uses quickened glitterdust + regular glitterdust to make sure he hits him with it. The bard is fortunately not blinded, but gets the hell out of dodge now that he can’t be invisible anymore.

Things are a bit more evenly matched now, and the salt elementals start taking a lot more damage. The shaitain makes a ceiling-high Wall of Stone around Variel and a salt elemental, trapping the magus in with the creature. Variel’s glaive is adamantine though, and he’s able to break through. He takes a lot of damage in the process, however, and uses his magus abilities to get a temporary fly speed and lodges himself between the two walls at the top of the stone chimney, where he proceeds to start chugging healing potions for a few turns. Icarus gets of a pair of Murderous Command spells on the other salt elemental, causing it to attack its companion, and then the shaitan. This puts it in range of Safisa, who uses up the last of her panache points to finish it off. Kalun manages to land all three of his brawler’s flurry attacks on the remaining elemental despite the blinded miss chance and sends it crumpling back into the dust that it is.

Now only the Shaitain remains, but things are still not looking outstanding. The genie renders Safisa, and then Kalun, unconscious with its nasty full attacks. Icarus steps up and smashes the shaitain with a nasty longhammer critical, and Variel rushes in to deliver another critical that finally takes down the genie.

As the shaitain guardian dissolves into sand, it says “This prophecy was never meant to be fulfilled...” And with that, the stone tablet shatters, unleashing a burst of energy throughout the room, and suffusing the party with a new and strange power.

The party stands victorious, having obtained the amulet and their first mythic tier! However, they are still in the bottom of a mansion swarming with guards that’s possibly on fire. Escape is going to be tricky.

But that’s a tale for next time...


So that’s the first session! Despite things going absolutely insane with all the frantic running around the house, the party somehow managed to pull through. They’re still settling in both in character and out, especially with a couple of them not going to be here soon. They seem to enjoy the Golden Band though. Hopefully they end up liking mythic :)