carrdrivesyou
2015-10-25, 01:19 AM
So I recently started reading some of the campaign journals and decided to keep one of my own for a game I am in. It's a custom world Pathfinder game, starting at level 1.
Male Human Investigator (Empiricist Archetype) – My character. Built for crossbow combat, extract buffing, and skill-monkey. I DM more than I play, but I know the score.
Background: Formerly a noble, had a family dispute and left home for better things.
Female Elf Wizard (Conjurer) – An experience role-playing friend of mine. In character, nobody knows what she really is, but have noticed that she hates sunlight, and wears a heavy cloak at all times. Out of character, only me and the DM know what she is.
Background: Also a former noble, but ostracized because, well…VAMPIRE.
Female Gnome Druid – Newbie to roleplaying, but absolutely brilliant in and out of character. Not sure if she has a build yet or not, but for now is playing the role of healer. Has a Roc animal companion.
Background: Forest Enthusiast and is out to see the world.
Male Human Barbarian – Also a newbie to role-playing but is catching on quickly. Doesn’t really know the rules, and so went with something that wasn’t going to die in one hit, but also isn’t Mr. Mundane. DM doesn’t mind the more experienced players coaching the newbies, so that’s cool.
We all meet up in a local library to sign up for a local contract. Turns out there are two kinds: a normal “mercenary” type (protect ye olde city), and a specialist contract (go here, do special stuff, and come back). We end up signing the specialist contracts, which are air-tight. The contracts aren’t too bad. We sign and get shipped by boat to her island (the size of Greenland), along with the muscle head mercs, and about two dozen skilled workers, mostly craftspeople. Our characters get to know each other during the three day boat ride. We get greeted by a haggard dwarf that leads us to Jarl Wyrmslayer. WE immediately notice that the locale is…strange. Not like weird buildings or anything, just empty. The town is set up for 5000 or so, but only has slightly more than 1000. The guards look like farm boys thrown into well-made armor. No experience at all. Things aren’t adding up.
Good news: We keep what we find, get paid 50 gold up front and another 450 on the back end. She is willing to give us any equipment we need for our trip.
Bad news: We have to turn in “relics” and magic items found to the Jarl, for her to choose what she wants from the pile and we get to keep what she doesn’t want.
Extra Bad News: The Jarl is named Jarl Wyrmslayer, for her deed of slaying and elder green dragon BY HERSELF! Her keeping said beastie’s skull on her wall is quite the intimidation factor for a bunch of level 1 PCs. Also, she and her apparent henchmen are all half-orcs.
Extra Extra Bad News: Since her slaying of the dragon, the hordes of orcs and goblins under her control have run rampant across the island, killing everything in her path; Hence the hiring of all the mercs. Now things are making more sense.
Extra Extra Extra Bad News: This town doesn’t have a wall; not even a presentable fence. The town stops and the tree line begins. In the event of an attack on the town, it likely won’t last long.
We get put into “war canoes” and sent on our first assignment. Go to the ruin of a city built by a long dead race of giant humanoids. Gain access to the single “pillar” that remains, report back. We have three days.
During the trip down the shoreline, I managed to get seasick, along with the wizard (didn’t think Vamps could cross water or get sick???). We end up leaving breakfast in the water behind us and make landfall on the beachhead. The team secures their gear, and head west towards the tower. The terrain is harsh, making progress slow. Where there used to be marble roads, redwood sized trees have grown up, and shattering the marble and leaving jagged edges sticking up everywhere. Massive roots block entire paths, forcing the team to either climb under, over, or around them. The gnome’s Roc has to keep above the treeline while we travel but can swoop in if needed. After several hours, the team decides to take a break, and catch their breath. During their break, the gnome continues her usual antics, finding herself in a hole for her trouble, much to even her surprise. The team takes a look and helps her out. The hole leads to a tunnel that leads both toward and away from their tower destination. Nixing the idea of having to stay in a cramped tunnel for miles, the team agrees, much to my behest, to continue overland. At the end of the first day, they decide as a team to camp for the night. We set up a watch: me first, followed by the wizard, the barbarian, and the gnome last.
DM: Victor, make a Perception check for your watch.
Me: 19.
DM: The barbarian snores. Your watch ends. Meara, same thing.
Elf: 29.
DM: 29!? You hear the stars shining, but you do not notice anything out of the ordinary. Gordon, you’re next.
G: 17.
DM: You hear a piercing scream from behind you. The scream wakes all of you up. Roll Initiative.
I won’t go into a play-by-play, But basically a pair of dire rats had been chasing a goblin through the woods and finally caught and killed their quarry. After extreme prejudice with crossbows, a summoned snake, a magic missile, and the barbarian’s warhammer, the rats lasted two rounds. Flawless victory. I even got First Blood! :D
Turns out the goblin was carrying a few silver coins (Gordon snagged them without telling us) and a very crudely drawn map. The map looked like something next to what we assumed was a river.
Me: A map leading to the goblin camp?
G: Don’t care, I’m tired.
Elf: Possibly.
Gnome: I hate goblins.
We went back to sleep until morning.
We finally arrived at our destination of the pillar we were sent to get into around 10 in the morning. The area around the pillar is mostly clear, save for some scrub brush, so I take 20 and spend an hour searching the pillar for a secret entrance or something of the sort. After not finding anything, Gordon swings on it with his hammer, to be rewarded with aching wrists for his trouble. Turns out the pillar is a solid piece of cut stone. We search the immediate area. Oddly enough it was Gordon that found what looked like a sewer grate leading beneath the structure. I smack a sunrod, hand it to Gordon, and we head on in.
The tunnel we found ourselves in lead in the four cardinal directions, north leading towards the tower. We head north and come to the end of the tunnel, finding that it opens into a much larger room, with vaulted ceilings. We can hear wings flapping inside. We all ready our weapons and send Gordon charging into the center of the room, warhammer in one hand, sunrod in the other. He nearly runs into a vargouille, a pile of dusty corpses beneath it.
DM: Athcn dm. Athcn dm.
Me: What?
DM: Does anyone speak abyssal?
Us: No.
Elf: I speak daemon.
DM: You think the thing is saying: “Find it.” Roll initiative.
This fight is a bit harder, but we still don’t take a point of damage. At one point, Gordon solos one while we take on the other. (There were two). The second one paralyzes me as the first dies, leaving me out of the rest of the fight. After the fight, I brew a Cure light wounds extract, just in case. Gordon searches the corpses (pocketing another few coins without sharing, the Bast***) and we find some strange things on the floor. A hollow horn with some sort of powder, some iron spheres, and a dozen metallic coins, not made of gold, silver, copper, or platinum.
Me: Craft alchemy to identify the items?
DM: Sure.
Me: 18.
DM: You have no idea.
The other odd thing we found was some sort of lock in the floor. A three pronged key was needed.
Me: I attempt to pick the lock.
DM: Roll it.
Me: 29 with my inspiration die.
DM: You fail.
Turns out that even taking 20 on the thing wouldn’t succeed; Our DM’s way of telling us it’s a quest hook. We move on. We head down the other paths of the tunnels. South and west end up as caved in dead ends.
East led us down a few hours of empty tunnel. Towards the end of the tunnel, we hear what sounds like drums and screaming. We leave Gordon to watch our escape route and the rest of us sneak up to the edge and look out. Below out tunnel perch we see the goblin camp. Problem is, they are mid-party, along with 4 burly orcs and likely another inside the tent they have set up on the river front. They have about a dozen human women (likely slaves) tied up to stakes in the ground near the river. Two orcs guard them while six goblins and two orcs dance around a fire. Screaming can be heard from inside the tent. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going on. We back away from the edge and discuss what we can do here.
Gnome: We are going to kill those filthy creatures.
Me: If we attack while they are alert and awake, in force, we will be massacred.
Elf: I agree on both counts.
Gordon: As long as they have something good to eat.
Gnome: I hate goblins AND orcs.
We agree to wait until nightfall to attack. Turns out it’s a full moon that night, and we can sort of see. Meara and Melangell have no issue seeing with their darkvision, and Gordon and I making due with moonlight and the remnants of a dying bonfire. I give Gordon my light crossbow to cover our butts, and we spring into action. We go full “special military group.”
Meara goes left and sneaks into the tent, getting the two poor girls inside out of the chieftain’s tent. I go right and start coup-de-gracing orcs with my heavy crossbow, using in between rounds to reload. Melangell goes up the middle with her dagger, coup-de-gracing goblins with her dagger. It goes great, until round three when the gnome rolls a NAT 1 and falls into the fire. She screams and everyone is now wide awake. The tally sits at 3 goblins and two orcs dead. The chieftain (a 4th level full orc fighter), two orc warriors, and 3 goblins remain. We tried. Meara gets into position, blocking the tunnel with Gordon, the gnome puts out the fire, I reload my crossbow. Time to fight.
So the fight goes like this: the chief charges Meara but has some difficulty hitting her, and when he does, he rolls enough to get through her DR by 5 (15 total!), but that is gone next round from her fast healing 5. That hit would’ve leveled anyone else in the party. The gnome uses obscuring mist to give me and her (in the middle of the field) some cover, then calls her Roc. I reload, pop out of the mist, aim at an orc, and hear a disappointing snap.
Me: I shoot the orc. *Rolls NAT 1*
DM: Your crossbow line snaps.
Me: ****!
The slugfest near our tunnel escape continues, Meara using a Magic missile and her acid dart ability to take out some goblins. The gnome thankfully doesn’t take too much damage and is able to heal herself and let her Roc handle the goblins swarming her. The orc I had aimed at charges me and misses. I run through the mist, taking the AoO from the orc who charged me, and yell at Gordon to throw me my other crossbow. He does, I reload.
Slugfest continues, Meara starts to lay into the Chieftain.
Me: I shoot the Chieftain. *Rolls NAT 1*
DM: Your crossbow line snaps.
Me: What am I supposed to use now?! Harsh language?!
Table: *dies laughing form alien reference*
Seriously, we make a lot of movie references in this session.
The slugfest with the chief continues and the two remaining goblins run off. The gnome stays away from the Big strong orc, Gordon switches weapons, I contemplate what kind of replacement character I would like. I was about to settle on a Kobold rogue when Meara finally lands the killing blow on the chieftain.
Leaving it there for the night:
So now we have about a dozen human women slaves and a bunch of bodies to loot. I have no weapons and we have 12 hours to make an all day trip back to the coastline to meet up with our ride out of here. It was getting late so we called it for the night.
I will update with the next session after it happens. Probably mid-November. Let me know what you guys think!!
Male Human Investigator (Empiricist Archetype) – My character. Built for crossbow combat, extract buffing, and skill-monkey. I DM more than I play, but I know the score.
Background: Formerly a noble, had a family dispute and left home for better things.
Female Elf Wizard (Conjurer) – An experience role-playing friend of mine. In character, nobody knows what she really is, but have noticed that she hates sunlight, and wears a heavy cloak at all times. Out of character, only me and the DM know what she is.
Background: Also a former noble, but ostracized because, well…VAMPIRE.
Female Gnome Druid – Newbie to roleplaying, but absolutely brilliant in and out of character. Not sure if she has a build yet or not, but for now is playing the role of healer. Has a Roc animal companion.
Background: Forest Enthusiast and is out to see the world.
Male Human Barbarian – Also a newbie to role-playing but is catching on quickly. Doesn’t really know the rules, and so went with something that wasn’t going to die in one hit, but also isn’t Mr. Mundane. DM doesn’t mind the more experienced players coaching the newbies, so that’s cool.
We all meet up in a local library to sign up for a local contract. Turns out there are two kinds: a normal “mercenary” type (protect ye olde city), and a specialist contract (go here, do special stuff, and come back). We end up signing the specialist contracts, which are air-tight. The contracts aren’t too bad. We sign and get shipped by boat to her island (the size of Greenland), along with the muscle head mercs, and about two dozen skilled workers, mostly craftspeople. Our characters get to know each other during the three day boat ride. We get greeted by a haggard dwarf that leads us to Jarl Wyrmslayer. WE immediately notice that the locale is…strange. Not like weird buildings or anything, just empty. The town is set up for 5000 or so, but only has slightly more than 1000. The guards look like farm boys thrown into well-made armor. No experience at all. Things aren’t adding up.
Good news: We keep what we find, get paid 50 gold up front and another 450 on the back end. She is willing to give us any equipment we need for our trip.
Bad news: We have to turn in “relics” and magic items found to the Jarl, for her to choose what she wants from the pile and we get to keep what she doesn’t want.
Extra Bad News: The Jarl is named Jarl Wyrmslayer, for her deed of slaying and elder green dragon BY HERSELF! Her keeping said beastie’s skull on her wall is quite the intimidation factor for a bunch of level 1 PCs. Also, she and her apparent henchmen are all half-orcs.
Extra Extra Bad News: Since her slaying of the dragon, the hordes of orcs and goblins under her control have run rampant across the island, killing everything in her path; Hence the hiring of all the mercs. Now things are making more sense.
Extra Extra Extra Bad News: This town doesn’t have a wall; not even a presentable fence. The town stops and the tree line begins. In the event of an attack on the town, it likely won’t last long.
We get put into “war canoes” and sent on our first assignment. Go to the ruin of a city built by a long dead race of giant humanoids. Gain access to the single “pillar” that remains, report back. We have three days.
During the trip down the shoreline, I managed to get seasick, along with the wizard (didn’t think Vamps could cross water or get sick???). We end up leaving breakfast in the water behind us and make landfall on the beachhead. The team secures their gear, and head west towards the tower. The terrain is harsh, making progress slow. Where there used to be marble roads, redwood sized trees have grown up, and shattering the marble and leaving jagged edges sticking up everywhere. Massive roots block entire paths, forcing the team to either climb under, over, or around them. The gnome’s Roc has to keep above the treeline while we travel but can swoop in if needed. After several hours, the team decides to take a break, and catch their breath. During their break, the gnome continues her usual antics, finding herself in a hole for her trouble, much to even her surprise. The team takes a look and helps her out. The hole leads to a tunnel that leads both toward and away from their tower destination. Nixing the idea of having to stay in a cramped tunnel for miles, the team agrees, much to my behest, to continue overland. At the end of the first day, they decide as a team to camp for the night. We set up a watch: me first, followed by the wizard, the barbarian, and the gnome last.
DM: Victor, make a Perception check for your watch.
Me: 19.
DM: The barbarian snores. Your watch ends. Meara, same thing.
Elf: 29.
DM: 29!? You hear the stars shining, but you do not notice anything out of the ordinary. Gordon, you’re next.
G: 17.
DM: You hear a piercing scream from behind you. The scream wakes all of you up. Roll Initiative.
I won’t go into a play-by-play, But basically a pair of dire rats had been chasing a goblin through the woods and finally caught and killed their quarry. After extreme prejudice with crossbows, a summoned snake, a magic missile, and the barbarian’s warhammer, the rats lasted two rounds. Flawless victory. I even got First Blood! :D
Turns out the goblin was carrying a few silver coins (Gordon snagged them without telling us) and a very crudely drawn map. The map looked like something next to what we assumed was a river.
Me: A map leading to the goblin camp?
G: Don’t care, I’m tired.
Elf: Possibly.
Gnome: I hate goblins.
We went back to sleep until morning.
We finally arrived at our destination of the pillar we were sent to get into around 10 in the morning. The area around the pillar is mostly clear, save for some scrub brush, so I take 20 and spend an hour searching the pillar for a secret entrance or something of the sort. After not finding anything, Gordon swings on it with his hammer, to be rewarded with aching wrists for his trouble. Turns out the pillar is a solid piece of cut stone. We search the immediate area. Oddly enough it was Gordon that found what looked like a sewer grate leading beneath the structure. I smack a sunrod, hand it to Gordon, and we head on in.
The tunnel we found ourselves in lead in the four cardinal directions, north leading towards the tower. We head north and come to the end of the tunnel, finding that it opens into a much larger room, with vaulted ceilings. We can hear wings flapping inside. We all ready our weapons and send Gordon charging into the center of the room, warhammer in one hand, sunrod in the other. He nearly runs into a vargouille, a pile of dusty corpses beneath it.
DM: Athcn dm. Athcn dm.
Me: What?
DM: Does anyone speak abyssal?
Us: No.
Elf: I speak daemon.
DM: You think the thing is saying: “Find it.” Roll initiative.
This fight is a bit harder, but we still don’t take a point of damage. At one point, Gordon solos one while we take on the other. (There were two). The second one paralyzes me as the first dies, leaving me out of the rest of the fight. After the fight, I brew a Cure light wounds extract, just in case. Gordon searches the corpses (pocketing another few coins without sharing, the Bast***) and we find some strange things on the floor. A hollow horn with some sort of powder, some iron spheres, and a dozen metallic coins, not made of gold, silver, copper, or platinum.
Me: Craft alchemy to identify the items?
DM: Sure.
Me: 18.
DM: You have no idea.
The other odd thing we found was some sort of lock in the floor. A three pronged key was needed.
Me: I attempt to pick the lock.
DM: Roll it.
Me: 29 with my inspiration die.
DM: You fail.
Turns out that even taking 20 on the thing wouldn’t succeed; Our DM’s way of telling us it’s a quest hook. We move on. We head down the other paths of the tunnels. South and west end up as caved in dead ends.
East led us down a few hours of empty tunnel. Towards the end of the tunnel, we hear what sounds like drums and screaming. We leave Gordon to watch our escape route and the rest of us sneak up to the edge and look out. Below out tunnel perch we see the goblin camp. Problem is, they are mid-party, along with 4 burly orcs and likely another inside the tent they have set up on the river front. They have about a dozen human women (likely slaves) tied up to stakes in the ground near the river. Two orcs guard them while six goblins and two orcs dance around a fire. Screaming can be heard from inside the tent. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out what’s going on. We back away from the edge and discuss what we can do here.
Gnome: We are going to kill those filthy creatures.
Me: If we attack while they are alert and awake, in force, we will be massacred.
Elf: I agree on both counts.
Gordon: As long as they have something good to eat.
Gnome: I hate goblins AND orcs.
We agree to wait until nightfall to attack. Turns out it’s a full moon that night, and we can sort of see. Meara and Melangell have no issue seeing with their darkvision, and Gordon and I making due with moonlight and the remnants of a dying bonfire. I give Gordon my light crossbow to cover our butts, and we spring into action. We go full “special military group.”
Meara goes left and sneaks into the tent, getting the two poor girls inside out of the chieftain’s tent. I go right and start coup-de-gracing orcs with my heavy crossbow, using in between rounds to reload. Melangell goes up the middle with her dagger, coup-de-gracing goblins with her dagger. It goes great, until round three when the gnome rolls a NAT 1 and falls into the fire. She screams and everyone is now wide awake. The tally sits at 3 goblins and two orcs dead. The chieftain (a 4th level full orc fighter), two orc warriors, and 3 goblins remain. We tried. Meara gets into position, blocking the tunnel with Gordon, the gnome puts out the fire, I reload my crossbow. Time to fight.
So the fight goes like this: the chief charges Meara but has some difficulty hitting her, and when he does, he rolls enough to get through her DR by 5 (15 total!), but that is gone next round from her fast healing 5. That hit would’ve leveled anyone else in the party. The gnome uses obscuring mist to give me and her (in the middle of the field) some cover, then calls her Roc. I reload, pop out of the mist, aim at an orc, and hear a disappointing snap.
Me: I shoot the orc. *Rolls NAT 1*
DM: Your crossbow line snaps.
Me: ****!
The slugfest near our tunnel escape continues, Meara using a Magic missile and her acid dart ability to take out some goblins. The gnome thankfully doesn’t take too much damage and is able to heal herself and let her Roc handle the goblins swarming her. The orc I had aimed at charges me and misses. I run through the mist, taking the AoO from the orc who charged me, and yell at Gordon to throw me my other crossbow. He does, I reload.
Slugfest continues, Meara starts to lay into the Chieftain.
Me: I shoot the Chieftain. *Rolls NAT 1*
DM: Your crossbow line snaps.
Me: What am I supposed to use now?! Harsh language?!
Table: *dies laughing form alien reference*
Seriously, we make a lot of movie references in this session.
The slugfest with the chief continues and the two remaining goblins run off. The gnome stays away from the Big strong orc, Gordon switches weapons, I contemplate what kind of replacement character I would like. I was about to settle on a Kobold rogue when Meara finally lands the killing blow on the chieftain.
Leaving it there for the night:
So now we have about a dozen human women slaves and a bunch of bodies to loot. I have no weapons and we have 12 hours to make an all day trip back to the coastline to meet up with our ride out of here. It was getting late so we called it for the night.
I will update with the next session after it happens. Probably mid-November. Let me know what you guys think!!