Pathfinder Game 58 - 12/12/2025 - Revenge of the Trash
Written by David Green
We started, back in the arena, facing a big monster emerging from the pile of garbage. Somehow Oakwood went first and the Shanrigo Behemoth went last. (Bizzarro world.) He made it his Hunted Prey, turned on Thermal Nimbus and missed its 29 AC with an 11. TerStegan turned on his aura and moved around to get flanking. That was 3 actions but he used Sudden Charge so he got one swing. And he hit exactly. (Because it was made up of multiple monsters, it couldn’t be flanked.) He did 21 but 10 points of the slashing damage was resisted. Briscoe had no one to heal so he didn’t know what to do. He cast Enlarge on TerStegan and missed with his trident. (At least it didn’t have reactions.) Clarisa did a 3 action Force Barrage. That did 37 all of which applied once the GM targeted it for him. It took 6 fire damage from the aura and then slapped Clarisa with reach. It had a +23 attack so it could only miss on a 1. It did 21 and then grabbed her with ease. And then squeezed her for a Fort 27 save. She missed that and took 18 plus 1d6 persistent bled. And that squeeze healed it some.
Oakwood missed with a 2-action melee fire blast and then raised his shield. TerStegan demoralize it for Frightened 1. He hit exactly, due to the frightened, however the bonus damage from the enlarge was the same type as his stance so that didn’t stack. He did 25, 10 of which bounced. And then missed. Briscoe couldn’t possibly pry Clarisa free so he used his Tempest Surge. That did half damage for 15. And then Doctor’s Visit for 32 on her. Clarisa didn’t like her chances to Escape. She channeled her inner Jon and went outside the box. She asked if she cast Pest Form and became tiny, could she slip through its huge claws. He got a Brian deal. If she agreed to take 2 more dice of persistent damage, she could do it. But first she had to make a flat check to cast while grappled, which she did. She successfully slipped through and then moved away and reverted to her normal form. And the deal got worse in that the 3d6 persistant stayed. And then it went again. It felt like Russian Roulette. Who would be destroyed this round? It was Briscoe. It rolled a 1. And then crit with an 18. That did 38 and 2d6 and Enfeebled 1. And then it missed.
Oakwood did First Aid on Briscoe to treat the critical bleed. And then rolled a 20 and did 21 points of fire damage. TerStegan missed and missed again. And cast Shield. Briscoe gave Oakwood Guidance and did a 2 action DR first aid on Clarisa to get rid of the bleed. That medicine roll was a 1 so he used his hero point out of embarrassment. Clarisa did her last 3rd level Forced Barrage. That did 38 that couldn’t miss or be resisted. Can’t be beat. It went last. It crit Oakwood for 55 and 2d6. It then shoved him past the portcullis we pried open last time. And slammed it shut.
Oakwood cast Sure Strike and missed a two-action ranged EB with a 1 and a 10. And took some bleed. TerStegan used a hero point to do 5 and then missed twice. Briscoe cast Tempest Surge again. Half for 13. That dropped it. It then released a 5-foot emanation of yuck. Fort 29 save. Briscoe failed but TerStegan rolled a 20. That did 40 and Briscoe dropped. Brian ended the encounter but he kept us on the turns to watch us miss some rolls. Oakwood did Herbs on Briscoe to get him conscious and then bled again. And then failed an athletics roll to raise the gate. Enlarged TerStegan missed the gate roll 3 times. Oakwood then did First Aid to get rid of his bleed and aided TerStegan. He rolled a 2. And then a 13 which succeeded.
Brian gave us a 50/50 chance and the rune was broken. Oakwood did Herbs on himself but Briscoe refused to do Ward Medic in this garbage area. TerStegan started searching the pile and made a Fort save against the disgust. Briscoe wanted to help but did BFM on himself first. He missed that save and was forced to refuse to participate. And then argued about it for 15 minutes and was allowed to search while vomiting. Oakwood jetted over to the other side of the arena to look for the stuff in the corners we saw before. The first was hide armor of some kind. The other corner no longer had anything. A half hour later, Brian declared the search pointless. At this point, TerStegan realized the Researcher that had been watching us was in a chamber we hadn’t been in. So, healing became important again and we spent 10 minutes while Briscoe did Ward Medic. TerStegan navigated the fog of war and we ended up back in the bar. The patrons were still there but mostly ignored us. From there was a door into the viewing area.
We opened the door and the party die split. It went first and was tipped off to our hostile intentions because we had rolled initiative. It moved up, applied venom to its weapon and using reach, attacked TerStegan. And missed with an 11. Hidden in the shadows behind the door, a Dreshkan emerged and attacked. It used its claw and hit TerStegan. That did 9. It then stepped in front of the door. And rolled a 20 for 21 more. TerStegan had to save against the voices in his head. DC 21 Will save. He saved and was immune for a minute. He attacked the Dreshkan and hit with a 5. But only did 14. And then hit again for 23. Another Dreshkan emerged from the other side of the door and attacked. It missed and moved to share a square. And missed with a claw. Briscoe made his Will save and then complained about his poor Druid options. He cast Hydraulic Push on the big guy and missed. He used a hero point and hit. That knocked it back 5 feet and did 13. Oakwood missed the Will save and was Confused. He was forced to attack the unharmed Dreshkan. He crit for 28 and then missed. Clarisa used TK on the one she could see. It got -1 for cover but she still hit. The big guy took 15. She cast Shield.
The big guy stepped up and attacked with reach. And missed twice. The Dreshkan did a cone needle attack. Three of us took all of 15 and Briscoe took half. TerStegan crit with 6 to spare. That did 48 and destroyed it. Its buddy took 17 from the sweep. He then hit that one for 19. And hit again for 23 and it dropped. 107 in one round. Briscoe cast Slow on the big guy and it missed the save for Slowed 1. He then crit with his trident for 25. Oakwood was confused again and he attacked TerStegan. He missed with a couple 3s. Clarisa did TK again and missed. And cast Shield again. One of the card players shoved Clarisa from behind. And then closed the door. We were making too much noise, evidently. Since she couldn’t share Briscoe’s square and there was nowhere for anyone to do, the GM declared her prone.
The big guy opened a side door and ran away. TerStegan followed it into a hallway with 7 doors. Those doors were smaller than normal and didn’t reach the floor. He missed and hit. That did 25. Before Briscoe could go, the door at the end of the hall opened and something vaguely undead looking said, “Why should I help you researcher?” in common. And closed the door. Briscoe targeted the big guy with Frostbite. It saved easily for 4. Oakwood ran up, got reach and hit for 17. And then missed. Clarisa stood up and moved. But that left her with one action so she couldn’t attack. The big guy managed to go again. Still slowed. It stepped away from TerStegan and ran down the hall. TerStegan followed and attacked. He crit for 44 and dropped him by 43. That other guy was hiding and now had a large body on it. TerStegan stepped up to engage it.
Murschen attacked from hidden and got his sneak attack dice. He did a Flurry on TerStegan. The first was a crit for 39. The next for 19 and that dropped him. He then charged up to Oakwood and threw a star at the lever the GM had been trying to get us to flip. He rolled a 38 on athletics and hit. That opened 4 doors with a ghast behind each. And they stunk. Briscoe needed a Fort 18 save and made it. He couldn’t get pass the guy to get to TerStegan. He cast a AOE heal to get all of us except TerStegan plus the undead. Murschen was not undead so he healed too. He was a Monk. The undead saved, crit saved and two fails. It was 12 on the dice. Oakwood could reach TerStegan with a 30-foot ranged Dash of Herbs. And then turned on his fire aura now that he wasn’t confused. Clarisa critically made her Fort save as did Oakwood retroactively. She stepped up and used Flurry of Claws. That hit a Ghast and missed the monk. A Ghast attacked Brisco. The claw missed but the bite hit. It was 9 points plus a Fort save which he made. Another Ghast stepped up and attacked Oakwood. The bite hit for 13 and he made two Fort saves. The claw missed. The next Ghast tried the same but both attacks missed.
At the top of the next round, the last Ghast attacked Brisco. He took 11, saved against the fever but missed the paralysis. But since it had the incapacitation tag and we were twice their level, that fail stepped up to a save. TerStegan stood up, picked up his axe and walked into the fight. The monk attempted to Tumble Through. TerStegan hit him with a reaction for moving. (His AC was 29.) That was 24 points. He needed 3 successes to get past 3 players and missed the first one. And missed on his second try. He gave up and did a flurry on TerStegan. That crit for 47. (He had an attack of +22.) He then crit Oakwood for 30. Briscoe started with another Fort save which he made. He then cast another Heal. All the Ghast failed the save. It was 23 points. Oakwood saved and then missed 3 times with rolls no higher than a 6 against a low level Ghast. Clarisa did a 4th level Blazing Bolt. She missed the Monk and used a hero point and hit. That did 25. The next bolt missed a Ghast and the last bolt killed one. A Ghast attacked Briscoe and did 10. He saved. It hit again for 8 and he saved again. And hit again for 8 and he still didn’t roll a 1. But the damage was adding up.
The last Ghast died from the fire aura. TerStegan couldn’t stand or pick up his axe without taking a reaction attack and this monk crits nearly every time. He crawled one square away, picked up his axe and stood up. The monk hit Oakwood for 16 and then missed. He failed to tumble through. (And he had a very good acrobatics roll.) And then hit Oakwood for 14 more. Briscoe did a ranged heal on TerStegan that did 40. And then did DV on Oakwood for 32. Oakwood cast a Protector Tree next to him and then hit the monk for 15. He figured this guy couldn’t miss but didn’t do a lot of damage so the tree was a good idea. Clarisa did another Blazing Bolt. He hit the monk for 21 and took out the last Ghast. And then retroactively she missed a Fort save and then heroically made it. And then she ignored Briscoe’s pleas to close the door and cast a useless Shield. TerStegan stepped up and hit for 17. His second attack missed. The monk went next. He entered a stance that upped his damage dice among other things. He crit Oakwood for 37 and then missed. But the tree took all the 37. And then we swung on TerStegan and missed. Briscoe cast Tempest Surge and the monk saved for 12. Oakwood tried to talk to him as a free action but used up his allotted words for a free action. He replaced his tree with one behind TerStegan figuring Oakwood had the healer behind him. And then hit for 17. Clarisa did TK but missed. She then closed the door.
TerStegan missed and then heroically hit. That did 22. He then missed but only by one. Oakwood used his reaction focus point Guidance to make that a hit. That did 15. And he rolled a 20 to crit on his last action for 47. But somehow, he stood. However, on his turn, he dropped from the fire aura. The GM was most displeased for our actions. Murder hoboing a neutral dungeon denizen. He taunted us for a while and will continue to do so till the end of time. The monk did attack first, knocking out TerStegan and opened the doors of the undead but evidently, he was a guy we weren’t supposed to kill. He did have a victory brand on his forehead that we could now see now that it didn’t cost us an action to notice. He had some mundane weapons. And a +1 striking hand wraps. The hide armor turned out to be ghoul hide armor. That gave +1 saves against ghouls and curses. Briscoe considered it but it would reduce his AC by 1. That’s limited use vs constant use and not worth it. The doors went to chambers that had massage tables. And the last door led to a sauna. Victor’s area? We decided to leave the dungeon, rest up and attack the next level fresh. As usual, the casters had burned through their highest-level spells first. The barkeep banned us for fighting. We sold the loot except the resistant armor which went into Briscoe’s bag for later conversion. That netted us each 42 gold.
Pathfinder Game 57 - 12/05/2025 - Putting Hydras Down, Again.
Written by David Green
After a short debate, we sold the two “evil” items from last time. The thinking being, if they fall into the hands of an evil sort, they weren’t that useful anyway. Those plus some glaives and the party stuff Clarisa had left over in her bag of holding netted everyone 2 platinum and 8 gold. After going round and round and starting and interrupting, we accomplished some stuff. We cast a ritual to create 3 permanent unseen servants for the house. Once we figured out who had the 3 skills needed. But in order to make a DC 19 check 3 times, it took 2 hero points. But that turned into a crit so we got 6 minions. TerStegan bought his Killer’s Belt from Wren. Clarisa bought some rituals for her spell book. And transcribed them. (And then undid all that when Dan reread the PE2 ritual rules.) Wren gave them a Consecrate ritual to ward off future undead armies. However, in addition to another 3 skill rolls, it needed to be 3 people of the same religion. That went round and round but we eventually decided that Oakwood and Brisco worshiped the Nature god. So, we reached out to the town Druid to help. But again, we needed a hero point to make the DC 17s and again that became a crit. That covered some of the nearby swamp as well. During the 3 days on that ritual, TerStegan earned some cash and Xeelie did repairs on the cabin. Clarisa and Oakwood repaid Xeelie 10 each for the Consecrate components. Briscoe refused on general principles. We weren’t sure what those were but he was adamant about it. TerStegan said to add it to his tab. And then Xeelie bought some more scrolls including a healing one Oakwood paid for.
We decided to finish off the Hydras and started at the main spiral staircase. Briscoe had memorized a Water Breathing spell and cast it on everyone. We moved into the room, hoping to get a round or two of long-range fire while TerStegan made a bunch of noise. Briscoe felt some sort of connection to the natural world in the area. TerStegan drank his Swim speed potion and cast Bless. And then used his Musical Accompaniment cantrip. We rolled initiative. TerStegan was first but nothing had happened yet. Xeelie cast Conduction Weapon on his axe. Oakwood turned on his Nimbus and fired a fire arrow into the middle of the water. There was nothing to target but he rolled a 16 and hit about where he wanted to. But nothing stirred. Briscoe sensed Earth Elemental magic behind us. Great. A Sod Hound emerged from the wall. It looked at us. Those with expert levels in Arcana and Occult noticed that it had energy shackles on its legs. Another human-like creature then emerged. Also, with shackles. And then another Hound. And another. That one took damage from the Thermal Nimbus and thus were identified as “foes”. TerStegan re-entered the order and tried an Occult check. And rolled a 1. He then tried an Intimidation, rolled poorly but succeeded. And did the same to a Hound. The Living Landside said something but we didn’t speak its elemental language. Clarisa didn’t want to start a fight and cast Deep Breath and Shield. And stepped back a bit.
Xeelie was too far forward to see the elementals so she moved to get line of sight and then rolled a Lore roll. She learned that the shackles were keeping them on this plane. Given the time and material (gems from the earth) she might be able to free them. But no one had any gems. Oakwood suggested Xeelie use her Thaumaturge power. Namely, having odd bits and pieces of stuff to Exploit Weakness on creatures. Like gems on the shackles? The GM bought it. After a Diplomacy roll, she managed to approach. We dropped out of combat and let her do her thing. And then Hound pulled 6 gems out of a stone crevasse. But the ritual would take 4 hours. Brian gave us a bone (a poison bone, it turned out) and told us the hydras were gone. No one was feeding them so they left? But again, rituals needed skill checks from multiple people. The DC was 23 and the backup rolls needed to be a critical success to help or the main roll took a -4. So Xeelie would have to do it alone. TerStegan used his swim speed and water breathing to start searching the water. Oakwood went with him. Briscoe stayed with the elementals to help keep them calm. Clarisa did nothing. It was a big area to search. Around the bend, on the land, behind some debris, a hydra looked up.
The Hydra went first and looked hungry. It moved a bit and did a focus assault on TerStegan. All 5 heads at a +18. Thankfully(?) the extra heads only did extra damage and not extra attacks. The crit did 62 points on 12d6+14. The next hydra moved up onto the land but was out of movement. Briscoe moved to get line of sight and then tossed a trident at long range. And somehow hit for 8 points. TerStegan feared he was facing 5x2 opportunity attacks with reach. So, he decided to fight rather than run. He did his stance and crit it. That did 49. And then he hit for 14. Xeelie ran up behind Briscoe and did her Lore check. And then drew her starknife. Clarisa moved up but she could barely target it. But it turned out she only had 1 action left so she cast Shield. Oakwood was in a pickle. If he swam to get onto the land, it would trigger reactions. And if he fought without a swim speed, he’d take minuses. So, he Channeled his elements, did his Thermal Nimbus and used Burning Jet that doesn’t trigger reactions and got onto land.
The hydra regenerated 15 points and then hit TerStegan for 32. That knocked him out. And then picked up his body in one of its mouths. The other one hit Oakwood for 30 and then bit him for 13. Briscoe cast Fleet Step and then charged up near Oakwood. Xeelie moved up with two move actions to get near TerStegan. Unfortunately, with reach it got reactions to that movement. It used 3 heads for 3 attacks. All missed. She then cast a spell and the other two heads got to use their reactions. Two hits for 18 and 18. But none were crits so she cast Life Boost on TerStegan. Clarisa could now do her Force Barrage on the uninjured one. She did 34 points. Oakwood did Hunt Prey for the extra d8. And then missed with reach fire. And then used a hero point to do 20.
TerStegan got the Life Boost. He drew his hatchet and attacked, still in its jaws. He did 20 and it lost a head. That dropped him back into the water. A 10-foot drop into water does 5 points of damage in this system. He attacked again and hit for 14. That Hydra grew two heads and did a focused attack on TerStegan with 6 heads. That did 34 and took him out. And it picked him again. He dropped another axe. The other one shoved Xeelie with ease and moved her back 5 feet. And then attacked Xeelie but missed due to the -5 MAP. Briscoe moved up and was crit as a reaction for 34. And then did BFM on Xeelie but that reactive crit interrupted that action. That only did 30 so he was still up. After much consideration, he stabbed with his trident so he wouldn’t be killed by yet another reaction. And missed. And missed again. Xeelie took a 5-foot step back, and threw her knife. She missed and then hit for 17 points. Clarisa moved up and engaged in a lengthy discussion about line on sight, line of effect and spell ranges. And eventually decided to do a Fireball, getting the Hydras and TerStegan. They save for 20 and TerStegan took it all, stepping closer to death. Oakwood then missed with a 1 and then missed with a 4.
TerStegan came to again from the Fast Healing. Paul noticed drawing a weapon was a manipulate action and would cause a reaction. So, he bit the head that held him. And missed. He used a hero and barely hit. That did 13 and it dropped. He fell 10 feet again and took 5 points. He swam 15 feet down and grabbed his axes. Briscoe did BFM on himself for 36, Oakwood for 32 and Xeelie for 36. Xeelie moved to the pile of debris and started searching. One of the regenerating Hydras got up and attacked Oakwood. (Somehow BTO missed that they had been regenerating?) That did 30 points. Clarisa moved up and did a 2nd level Force Barrage. One hit for each Hydra. Oakwood targeted the both of them with a Flying Flame. That dropped the one that was up and the other one went down a Dying level. He then tried a Recall Knowledge to figure out how to kill them. And rolled a 1.
The 6-headed Hydra stood up and hit Xeelie for 28. TerStegan was too deep to attack it so he had to swim up. He did get flanking from Xeelie. Using his hatchet, he missed and missed again. Briscoe shot them both with a Blazing Bolt. He hit the dead one and then missed with a trident. Xeelie did her Recall Knowledge to figure out how to kill these things once and for all. On a 26 she learned that they would regenerate as long as they had heads. But don’t they regrow heads? Brian forced him to use another action to make another roll. We have to chop the heads off with slashing and cauterize the neck with fire. How much fire? On her 3rd action, she barely hit the one that was up. That was 15. Clarisa cast a Floating Flame and put it over the necks of the down one. The 5-headed one popped up but Brian gave up on the combat. Because they were dead, Foundry was a nightmare about targeting and the effort wasn’t worth his amusement of watching us flounder about. Kill, slice and burn would have been a challenge but we’d do it eventually.
Briscoe bandaged TerStegan and Oakwood hit him with Herbs. And then Herbs for the rest. Xeelie and Briscoe searched the land and the rest swam and searched the drain lair. There was a skeleton in armor and miscellaneous gear. Oakwood made a raft from generated elemental wood to make transporting it all back to land easier. Briscoe couldn’t stand being left out and swam up too. However the weapons were too rusty to be of value. So, after all that effort, one suit of scale mail. At least it was very valuable +1 resilient armor. It would take 8th level to transfer it to a better armor type for us before we could wear it. TerStegan could wear it now but he didn’t want to lose 2 points of AC. So, we’ll store it. And work out who gets it when it comes up. Oakwood cut open the Hydras and found nothing while Xeelie attempted the ritual to return the elementals. But we couldn’t make that roll until we had one more distraction. The GM said the moss in the area was very nice. Briscoe rolled a 1 and then heroically rolled a 20. It was tasty moss. He harvested some to take back to our swamp. Xeelie rolled a 20 and the earth elementals went home. She got crystal sense for a week for her efforts. The ritual took 4 hours so we healed up and will head down to the fiends. But first, there was talk of retrieving the magic glaive we used to escape the arena. It was broken but maybe the runes were salvageable. Brian couldn’t wait, mainly because he won’t be here next week. So, we zoomed down, were placed into the arena and were attacked by a huge garbage monster. And the glaive was gone. We’ll start there.
Pathfinder Game 56 - 11/28/2025 - A Mothers Sacrifice
Written by David Green
Ollie, Periwinkle and Bell were added to the tracker. About in the middle. Brisco started a new round and did another AOE 3rd level Heal. Once again, in a target rich environment, he got lots of them plus TerStegan and Clarisa. 24 undead monsters. But first he had to make a Fort save or have his lungs fill with Bog Mummy rot water. He missed it and used a hero point to save. The description sounded really bad. He rolled 10 on the Heal. Below average again but he cleared out lots of hordes. 370 points total but the Bog Mummy boss was unimpressed. The large mummy hit TerStegan for 11. And missed Brisco with reach and then missed again. Next was the distant Zombie Lord. It moved up, targeted Clarisa upstairs and hit with a spell. She missed the save, used a hero point and saved for half. Only 5. A Skeleton Champion hit Xeelie for 7. TerStegan first saved against the Bog Mummy. He then crit it and did 36. Plus 8 to the large mummy next to it. And hit again for 22 and then again for 23. The riderless horse on Oakwood took 1 from the fire and then hit for 8. Oakwood used his Reactive Shield to block its second attack. Clarisa shot a 3rd level Fireball at the Zombie Lord, Zombie Brute plus 4 hordes. The hordes were destroyed. Brian insisted the house make a save as well which it did.
Upstairs, another Champion attacked Xeelie and crit. That did 18. It then missed and hit with a 20. That wasn’t a crit but it did 11 and dropped her. However, her mother then appeared through a stitch in time. She used a Martyr spell. Xeelie only took 9 instead and now had 1 hit point. Her mother took the remaining 2 and they both got Wounded 1. She stayed but her time magic brought a demon dog with her. It flew over and attacked Wren for 23. Two Skeletal Hordes came up the stairs and engaged Clarisa. Thankfully, their attack took 2 actions and they didn’t have them. And then two more moved and did the same. Olli was next. He flew out of the barn and to the front of the house. He did his Wing Flash on the horses, the Knight and Oakwood. Oakwood saved and was off guard until the end of his next turn. The horses got the same plus lost an action. The Knight crit saved for nothing. Xeelie was next. Wren told her to flee and she’d take care of it. Xeelie closed a door to delay the dog and a Champion. She then ran out on the balcony and then cast Life Boost on herself. She then took 6 points from the bleed and went down again. But saved against the Bleed. The Life Boost doesn’t help until the start of her next turn. Periwinkle told us that the bosses were the key. Yeah, we know. She cast Holy Light on the Knight and did 42. Half fire and half spirit so it actually took 32. And then moved up next to Oakwood and the Knight. And cast a Heal on Oakwood. That gave him 10 on 3d8. But she had an aura going so it actually did 16. Plus, damage to the undead.
The Bog Mummy hit TerStegan for 11. He missed the save and then saved with a hero point. And then it missed twice. The Zombie Brute came around to the front and took 6 points of fire. The Skeleton Mage targeted Clarisa with a Chilling Darkness spell. That just missed due to her Shield spell. Oakwood thanked Periwinkle for her help and then used Burning Jet to get up on the balcony, leaving her behind. “Sorry.” He was facing 4 foes while flat-footed. He then shot the Knight with vitality but only for 4. The Knight then attacked Periwinkle and crit. She took 42 and went out. It attacked the raptor and crit for 38. And then finished it off with its 3rd attack. A Zombie Brute moved up to TerStegan. Next were Mummy Hordes but there were only two left. They attacked TerStegan. He missed a save and used a hero point. And then succeeded for 5. And then the Zombie Hordes of which there were plenty because they were too slow to be in the AOEs. Some surrounded Wren and some surrounded Clarisa. And more at the back door moved up on TerStegan and Brisco. At the end of the round, Oakwood’s sister showed up and hit the middle of the order.
Brisco considered a cone attack spell but the targeting wasn’t very good. So, he cast his last 3rd level Heal. He rolled 12 this time and took out a couple more hordes. But the Bog Mummy finally went down. As we suspected, all of the mummies went down with him. Unfortunately, there was only one left. But Brisco and TerStegan got 12 back as well. Next was the Zombie Lord. It moved up and targeted Clarisa, still in the window. She saved for Frightened 1. A Champion attacked Wren and hit exactly. She took 11. And then it missed twice more. TerStegan did a Sudden Charge against the Zombie Lord. Nothing on his path had a Reactive Strike. He hit for 25. And then again for 23. The Skeletal Horse ran over to Olli and did 8. And then 11. Clarisa was surrounded so if she cast, she’d face 4 Reactive Strikes. She successfully Tumbled Past and got outside. She upcast a Blazing Bolt to 4th. She did 35 to the Zombie Lord and the Skeletal Mage. That dropped the Lord and all the Zombies. That was good because there were a lot of those still on the board. Wren was still up. She cast Fey Disappearance to go invisible however it had the manipulate tag. A Champion hit but didn’t crit. She took 7. The other one did the same for 11. She then moved, cast Time Jump which allowed her to move twice more. That got her out of the house to the back. (DR-I found it amusing that her mother teleported in to save Xeeli and then she snuck out the back door and locked her mother in with the undead horde. It made sense and she was told to do it by her mother, but the optics were less than heroic.)
The Champion didn’t know where she went but it knew where Clarisa went. It moved to her but missed. The Hound used scent to surmise which way Wren went and ended up next to TerStegan in the backyard. Somehow it still had an action and hit TerStegan for 25. The remaining Skeleton Hordes were upstairs. They went after Clarisa and some went around to the front. Olli did a 5-foot step and flew up to the second floor to safety. Xeelie Fast Healed for 8. Still prone and unarmed, she cast a 3 action Heal spell. That got the Knight and its horse plus Bell and Periwinkle and Oakwood and herself. And rolled 3. But that at least got Bell and Periwinkle awake. Doriana charged the Knight and did a Flurry of Blows with the Inner Upheaval. She hit and did 20. And hit again for 21. (Monks look great when they roll 18 and 19.) The Skeleton Mage cast Chilling Darkness on Clarisa. It hit and did 14. And then foolishly moved closer to TerStegan. Oakwood jumped back down, took advantage of the flanking from his sister and finished off the Knight. Some more skeletons went down but some were controlled by the Mage. He then used BFM on himself with his last action. Periwinkle stood up, flew up 10 feet and did Lay on Hands on Xeelie.
Brisco ran up to TerStegan and did Doctor Visit BFM on him. That did 30. And then climbed up to be near Clarisa. But also near a Champion. Another Champion moved up from inside the house but missed him. TerStegan had to make a save against Hound first. He did and took 9. He charged the Skeleton Mage and crit. That did 55 and destroyed him. That took out the rest of the undead. He tried to Demoralize the Hound with his last action but despite his critting on the roll, it was immune. Clarisa’s only target was the Hound. So, she did her last Force Barrage for 35. Wren cast some funky time-based NPC spells but the Hound saved. It then made her make a save on its turn. She crit failed but TerStegan did his Counter Performance to make it a fail for 18. And then it moved to her and critted her for 42. That dropped her, obviously. And then returned to whence it came.
Wren was helped and then left. We had a meeting. The other group had gone down a level and ran into 5 fiends in the dining room. 4 Barbazus and 1 Drier. Amica was captured and their rogue was hiding nearby. 5 fiends is a tough ask made harder without a long rest. We debated. It was argued that other than being tortured for the time it would take to rest, she wasn’t not going anywhere. And there’s no point in going to rescue her if we die doing it. But ultimately the two girls said that if we didn’t leave right now, they’d go into town to gather guards and head back in. So that meant more death to townspeople. So, we had to go. Brisco was unhappy about it, being down most of his spells. We refocused, healed up and left. And Brian threw us into the dungeon.
We started in the empty dining room. There was a door, a room, a secret door and lastly the soul sucking table room ahead of us. Brisco cast Splash on TerStegan. TerStegan drank a potion to give him Fast Heal 3 and opened the door. Periwinkle deferred. Xeelie opened the next door and saw a Barbazu. They rolled too high on their initiative and missed their turn. Then she did her Lore thing. She rolled a 33 but already knew everything. But now she got her extra damage on them. She tried to distract them but didn’t speak their language. Oakwood cast Blur on himself and turned on his damage field but cold this time. Periwinkle turned on her Halo for extra healing. Doriana charged in and attacked the only devil visible. She hit twice for 26. And then a Trip attempt. She did it with a 19 despite the -10 MAP. Clarisa moved into the room and there were 2 other devils. She cast TK and hit for 27.
Brisco now had a target rich environment. He charged in next to Clarisa. He cast his focus spell and did 25. That took a devil out. (It did not resist the electrical damage for future reference.) The Drier moved so it could see Doriana and hit her with a barbed net. That made her Clumsy and 10 feet less mobile. And tried the same on Brisco but rolled a 1. TerStegan charged in and headed to the devil in front of the boss. He chose a route to avoid reactions however they had reach so he still got attacked. One hit for 14 plus 1d6 bleed. And the guy he was charging got an attack because of closing on a guy with reach. But he missed. After all that, TerStegan crit for 42. He then took 5 more and failed to roll a 20 to stop the bleeding. A devil moved to get flanking on TerStegan but closed the door instead. And then missed Doriana. The next devil moved and closed the other door. And then hit Clarisa for 20 plus the bleed. The last one attacked TerStegan. He hit for 19 plus the bleed. (Thankfully they don’t stack.) It then missed with a beard attack. Xeelie spent an action opening the door. She had flanking with Clarisa. She hit for 19. And then missed. Oakwood didn’t want to try to tumble past the devil so he used Weapon Infusion to get reach. He crit for 18 cold and missed. Periwinkle cast a spell on a devil but it saved for half so 12 became 1. But she moved it out of the doorway. Doriana attacked the one guarding the door to TerStegan. She tried to Demoralize, rolled a 19 and got Frightened 1. And then a flurry. She crit for 22 and then missed. Somehow her Champion archetype gets her holy damage. Lastly, she tried to Trip but failed. Clarisa took a step and hit for 11. It didn’t have a reaction available. And then took 6 and didn’t save against the bleed.
Brisco hit for 9 with a 5d4 frost but it saved for half. And the missed with a trident. The boss hit TerStegan with a net. It switched to its trident and missed. TerStegan attacked the devil and crit. That did 28 and killed it. He then stepped up and attacked the boss. And missed. And then took 2. The devil on Doriana went next. It missed her and missed again. And then took a step. The other devil stepped to get flanking on Brisco but rolled a 2. And then missed again. Xeelie moved into the room but it took a reaction. That hit for 18 plus the bleed. She was surprised to find the secret door to TerStegan and the boss closed. She had to alter her plan and killed a Devil instead. And then attacked the other one in the room and did 13. And then bled. Oakwood moved in but stopped short to avoid the reach reaction. He crit with reach cold and then hit and finished it off. That was the last devil in the room. Periwinkle ran into the room but didn’t know how to open the closed secret door. She cast a heal. Doriana waited for Clarisa to open the secret door. She moved, opened it and cast Sheild. Now Doriana went. She moved into the torture room, staying on the edge to avoid the damage field. She hit and then crit. That did 47. And a free Trip from the hook rune. That was a critical fail so she fell prone.
Brisco ran in, still enjoying the Tailwind from the last fight. He tried to trip the boss with a Tangle Vine but it missed. Their Rogue, Chartreuse Scribbles was in the room but Invisible. She threw a club and did 10. And became visible. The boss missed TerStegan but then hit. That did 28. Evidently it did extra because of the net. And then missed again. TerStegan hit for 25 and then missed. He used a card that made the miss a hit. It took 22. His 3rd attack missed but he used hero point to hit. That did another 19 and that finally dropped the boss. TerStegan unlocked Amica with Otari’s key and she was grateful. (His lock pick upgraded again. Unfettered movement, once a day.) No treasure here as the devil’s equipment turned to dust. We did earn, retroactively, Bagpipes of Turmoil and Banner of Despair from the earlier fight. Neither are useful to us and might be too evil to sell. We stopped there with plans of playing next week. We’ll certainly go back to the cabin and ger a long rest. Then repair the damage and do that selling and buying we were planning to do before we were attacked by an undead army.
Pathfinder Game 55 - 11/21/2025 - The Sea of Undead
Written by David Green
We leveled up however the GM would not let us start the selling and buying until an upcoming encounter was resolved. The sun was setting and we could see smoke at the front of the house as we approached. Xeelie elsewhere since she exited the dungeon a different way. The GM put us in initiative order to keep things, well, orderly. We moved up and around the house as we could. It turned out it was the rival gang including Oakwood’s sister and Xeelie’s half-sister. Periwinkle and her riding raptor were there as well as our house dragonette Ollie. They were sitting around a big fire in front of our house. Evidently, they had been adventuring in the Gauntlight in their spare time. (Except Ollie.) And had stopped by on their way. The GM then proceeded to mock us about treasures they picked up that we missed. Evidently, they had gotten as far as the undead library level and were planning on heading back in this evening. We warned them about the dangers but couldn’t really stop them. They left.
That night… A deep blue light started shinning in the late night. Brisco noticed but pretty much ignored it as he went about his early morning day. The Gauntlight was lit and it was pointed directly at our house. I guess something had noticed our efforts. Since we rescued the dwarf that powered the burst last time, we concluded it must have a new power source. It wasn’t a big leap to think it could be some recent lower-level adventurers, in over their heads. TerStegan also woke up. As he pissed over his balcony, he noticed Skeleton and Mummy hordes approaching. They rolled initiative and Brisco went first. He tried to wake up the rest by banging around in the kitchen. Oakwood and Xeelie missed a perception check to notice but Clarisa heard them. TerStegan used his new spell to don his armor with a snap. Somehow, he pissed with one hand on his battle axe. He entered his stance and cast Bless. Clarisa awoke, got up and headed towards TerStegan but the doors slowed her down. Oakwood missed a 15 flat roll to wake up but Xeelie made it. Luckily, she rolled poorly for initiative and got to go this round. But the skeletons went first.
The house was being approached on 3 sides. Xeelie grabbed her lantern and stood up. She crossed over and opened Oakwood’s door. He barely made a 10 flat check. He rolled low and went. He stood up, opened the door to the balcony and used Cat Fall to get down to the skeletons. He was hoping to stop them from entering the front door but there were way too many of them. Brisco ran out the back door and found mummy hordes advancing. And large mummies behind them. He decided fire was the way to go and cast Blazing Bolt on two of them. He crit them both for 28 and killed them. TerStegan took 5 points of damage from jumping down as well. He then crit one for 39 points and killed it. And then killed another one. He could see more coming. Clarisa used Arc on Lightning on the two remaining on TerStegan. Both took double damage and killed them despite 5 of it bouncing. More skeletons moved up. Two of the ones on Oakwood headed into the house but two attacked him. He critically saved for none. Xeelie was still upstairs but could target some of the ones on Oakwood. Neither dropped from an AOE. Oakwood channeled on his elements, turned on the Thermal Nimbus and hit 4 with the Flying Flame. They all missed their saves but he only rolled 8 (on 4d6) for damage and some of that was resisted. So, none of them dropped. He was quickly falling behind. Those in front saw 4 Skeleton Champions on horseback behind the horde. The zombies and mummies moved up. There were two large mummies at the back there as well.
Brisco used his 4th level Heal to blast 11 mummies and skeletons. But rolled 11 on 4d8. Only the 4 that crit failed were destroyed. He was the only one at the back of the house (west) and they were up on him. A Skeleton Champion charged TerStegan on his horse but crit missed twice. TerStegan ran through the gate, jumped a fence with crit Athletics roll and talked his way into using a Sudden Charge. He crit one for 48 and killed another one with the collateral damage on the west side to support Brisco. A big zombie moved up to engage him. Clarisa did a heightened level 4 Fireball on the skeletons at the front (east). 45 points and most crit failed the save. She killed 8 of them plus the champion and his horse. 800 points but most was overkill. She then moved back into the house to help at the back. Two of the skeletons on Oakwood died from his fire aura but two that were heading for the north door came back to him. Two from the north (and there were more where they came from) went into the house via the unguarded north door, ran upstairs and engaged Clarisa. She took a few. Xeelie ran over to help her since she was still upstairs as well. She dropped one after doing a Recall. A Champion rode up and used its banner to unleash a burst of void energy. But Oakwood made his Fort save which became a crit save for none. It then used a lance for 18. Oakwood hit it twice with vitality damage. And still more monsters got added to the tracker. And they seemed to becoming tougher. Of concern was a Bog Mummy that looked scary. Plus, a Skelton Mage, Skeleton Knight and Zombie Lord. 4 horde types, 4 tough guy types and 4 bosses.
Brisco did another AOE heal on 15 of them plus TerStegan and himself. But he only rolled 9. Four skeletons that were wounded and crit failed were dropped. A large mummy went next. He missed with a reach fist and then missed again. The Skeleton Mage fired a burst, centered on Brisco. He saved but TerStegan did not. He took all of 13. The undead took none since it was void damage. The Champion to the north ran into the house and ran up the stairs. He had one action left and attacked Clarisa and missed. TerStegan attacked the large mummy and crit. But 46 points wasn’t enough. He had to use a second swing to finish it off. And then moved up. Clarisa tried to move to the north door but took a Reactive Swing. But it missed. She moved and opened a door. A Champion ran in and up. A couple of skeleton damage took aura damage and then missed Oakwood. A couple more ran past him and into the house. Some more attacked Xeelie upstairs. She crit missed the save for 30 points and 2d6 bleed. Xeelie blasted two hordes and one champion with an acid blast. The Champion saved for half and the others took all 15 and were dropped. She did Recall on the Champion with her last action.
The skeleton horse missed Oakwood. The Champion missed and missed and missed. Nothing above a 5. The Bog Mummy charged TerStegan and punched him. He missed with a 2. It had a cloud of cold spirits around him and a glowing choker. A Zombie Brute moved up slowly. The Skeleton Mage somehow targeted TerStegan from across the battlefield. With +2 for cover he crit for 42. Oakwood used Flying Flame to hit the 4 around him, dropping all but the horse. And then hit the horse. However, the Skeleton Knight then charged him. It hit with his lance for 19. And hit again for another 13. A Zombie Brute moved somewhere. A Mummy Horde hit Brisco for 7 and gave him Frighten 1. Two Mummy Hordes attack TerStegan. He crit saved for none and failed for 5. The zombies mostly stormed into the house through the unprotected north door. We stopped there. Everyone was surrounded and the house was invaded. Most were down to half hit points and we were split into 3 groups so Brisco’s super Battlefield Medicine isn’t going to save most of us. Bosses were attacking and we haven’t cleared out the hordes or minions yet. Maybe the bosses are controlling the hordes so if we drop them, hordes will drop? It’s not looking good for our heroes, not to mention the house which was taking a beating as well. And even if we survive, we’ll have to go save the junior adventurers without a rest.
Brisco was the first hero to go, as usual. His first inclination was to do Battlefield Medicine on TerStegan. However, because the monster had him in his tentacles, that was going to be tough. He cast his Tempest Surge spell and took a Reactive Strike. That hurt but it didn’t crit so the spell still went off. Brisco then had to make a 26 Will save against its evilness and rolled a 20. The monster missed its save and took the full 16. He then put Guidance on TerStegan to aid any future rolls. Even though he was still unconscious. Xeelie went next. She did her Lore thing and learned it had no weaknesses nor resistances. She then charged past it but was 5 feet short of getting flanking and cast Fast Healing on TerStegan. Clarisa did her last 3rd level Missile Barrage for 39. Oakwood turned on his Thermal Nimbus, moved in and crit with a fiery axe for 28. TerStegan became conscious from the Fast Healing, drew his backup hand axe since his main axe was back where he initially fell and attacked with the +1 from Guidance. He hit for a sad 11. And hit again for 12 and killed it.
We searched the room and found nothing. We healed up and refocused. Somehow that took 20 minutes of arguing. The door to the south opened to a long hallway that ended with another door. However, about half way down, we were attacked by a devil (Barbazu) with a floating shield and floating glaive. It went first. It missed with two glaive attacks and then crit with its beard. TerStegan missed the Fort save and was diseased. TerStegan turned on his stance and missed twice. Clarisa was still in the old room so she had to move up. She tried a Daze since its range was 60 feet and the devil critically failed its save. It took 10 and lost one action. Brisco moved up and did his doctor visit on TerStegan and healed him 31. Xeelie ran up and enchanted TerStegan’s axe with Conductive Weapon. Before Oakwood got to go last, a small flying devil entered the encounter. But it was invisible. It summoned a large rat swarm on top of the 3 heroes up front. They had to make a 17 Reflex. They took minimal damage but Xeelie missed save. We figured she was diseased as well. The floating glaive disappeared and reappeared behind Clarisa. But missed. Oakwood turned on his Thermal Nimbus, moved up to get the rats in it (and give fire resistance to his friends) and then missed the devil with a ranged attack.
Retroactively, the two flying devils became visible after taking their hostile actions. They were attached to the shield and glaive. The big guy missed TerStegan and then crit with his beard again. He rolled a 1 on that disease save and was Enfeebled 1. He hit for 29. And then missed and then crit the rats. That was for 56 which instantly killed the whole swarm. And then the follow through sweep did 13 plus 6 electrical to the main devil. Clarisa moved further into the hallway, fleeing her devil. She then turned and hit it for 13 from TK. 5 of which, bounced. Brisco cast Heal on TerStegan and gave him 42. And then stepped back. Xeelie did her Lore on the devil and got the same info as last time. She then moved up to get flanking with TerStegan and missed with a 2. One flying guy dropped the shield, flew up and attacked Xeelie with flanking. It hit and did 8. And then missed. The other one dropped his glaive and caught up to Clarisa. It hit for 16. She a rolled a 1 on her DC20 Fort save but used her hero point. And made it. For its last action, it threw a flask at Oakwood. That hit for 5 acid which was also persistent. (2d6+2) Oakwood charge it. He hit for a net 3 and then took 8 more acid damage.
The big guy charged to target Xeelie and hit her for 24. Plus, that 1d6 infernal persistent bleed. And then shifted her out of her reach. And missed with its reach glaive. And then used his beard and hit TerStegan yet again. For a normal hit of 10. TerStegan hit him back for 19. And again for 14. He tried to Demoralize him but didn’t roll anywhere high enough. Clarisa moved closer to the big guy who was “near death” and used an Electric Arc between it and one of the flying guys. Both saved for half. It was only 5 but at least they didn’t resist any of it. Brisco did the same but only one took half and the other took none. He then healed Xeelie for a bunch. The resulting Reactive Strike missed him. Xeelie stepped to get within range and hit with a hero point. That did 16 which was 11 which was enough to drop it. She did Recall Knowledge on the flying guy. It had the same “default devil stuff” as the other one. The one flying guy took a 5-foot step and disappeared. We assume, turned invisible and flew off. The other did the same. Oakwood had low odds to Seek it so he emptied his water skin and got rid of the persistent acid instead.
Paul stepped away and was skipped. Clarisa cast a AOE heal but it was only 1st level so it was only 4 points. Brisco used his keen Halfling eyes to Seek the invisible devil. He rolled a blind roll. He did not find anything, despite his bonuses. He used a hero point and this time was confident there was nothing in his Seek area. He then used Administer First Aid on Xeelie. The DC was only 20, the same as the flat check, so he made that with no problem. Non bleeding Xeelie then picked up the shield and then moved north to pick up the glaive. He noticed the flying guys in that room and saw them fly away. Quickly. (We then figured they were using Dimension Door to get around.) Brian wanted to end the encounter but Oakwood had one last power to use at the bottom of the order. The Dash of Herbs allows a save against disease. Because Brian didn’t want to do the bookkeeping, he just said it worked and people saved. It shouldn’t have been that easy but we said thank you and moved on. The glaive was +1 and the shield was cold iron. We almost quit for the night but Paul returned so we thought we’d finish off the last two doors. We opened the door. In there was a torturous room. The equipment rack was missing the equipment the devils were using. It was otherwise unremarkable. TerStegan remember the clue from Dr. Whatshisname and went to the lose floor tile. In there were 5 potions and another letter. The letter was from Dr. Quagmire. More delusional ramblings of barely useful stuff. Mostly about devils and how they were reasonable, dangerous, and deadly. One vial was Portal paint and the rest were Skeptic potions. And nothing else.
The last door of the night lead into the arena. The room was large as was the description. Once again, there were tempting words about treasures in the pile of garbage to entice (trick) us into entering. The Cheerer Man was still there, watching. TerStegan went in and started searching. The rest followed. Someone shoved Brisco into the room and the door locked behind us. The arena started up and Brian read the usual text about how we have no choices. We had to fight Belcora’s champion, Caliddo Haruvex. He promised us 10k gold if we won. We assumed that would never happen so it must be a “runaway” challenge in order to get a draw. (Metagaming) Xeelie, who was detecting magic, felt the doors were magically locked behind us. The doors to the north were protected by formidable portcullises. The main viewing area was 40 feet up the shear walls. In the 3 corners were items we thought might hold the key to our escape. The closest one had a fine silky powder in it which Brisco picked up on his turn. The golem said that if Clarisa went with it to serve Belcora, he’d let the rest of us live. (The GM attached Clarisa’s back story to Belcora.) She tried to stall it by pretending to negotiate with him. “Tell me more about this fabulous job opportunity.” She rolled a 19, used a hero point and got a 27.
Oakwood activated his dashing bracelet to move 35 for a minute. And moved up 70, seeing one of those aberrations, watching and taking notes from the gallery. He was heading for the chain shirt in the far corner but was reminded of the hand crossbow Xeelie’s mother had given us. And the Climbing Bolt that would go up 50 feet. TerStegan moved to a portcullis and pulled out the Otari key. Xeelie examined the pouch but Identify is an encounter activity. I.e. took too long. She did her Lore on the golem first and rolled poorly. She used a hero point and rolled a 20. It is undead and had many immunities but no weaknesses. It was a Grave Knight. Generally, very high up on the food chain. High AC. He passed that on to us which the Grave Knight overheard. That did not help Clarisa’s bluffing. She then rolled on the dust. She thought it was just garbage, left here over the years. (I.e. more enticements to get us in here.) Brisco stayed near Clarisa to support her deception. Clarisa had to move closer to it to appear cooperative but she could move inefficiently. Two actions of movement and one to convince him. She only got a 23 this time and it decided she was lying. Brisco tried to support her but needed a 20 on the die. His RP tale moved it down to an 18 but he still rolled a 20. That bought us another round.
Oakwood, giving up on the chain shirt, moved into a corner to get some cover. He pulled out the crossbow and fired at the helpless ceiling. And rolled a 1. He used a hero point and rolled a 4 which became a 14 which was enough to get a critical success. Because he was against the wall, it would be easier to climb up with foot holds. The Grave Knight only moved up another move thanks to the actions Clarisa and Brisco had used to stall it. TerStegan wanted to use his Lifting Belt which would lift 8 bulk as if it was nothing. However, there are mechanisms to overcome so it wasn’t simply a weight issue. So, he used the Knock feature on Otari’s key (+4) and had to make a Force Open Athletics check. But he didn’t have a crowbar which gave him a -2. Brian made him a Jon deal. 20 gp to “happen” to have a 5 sp crowbar to avoid the -2. Which he reluctantly took but then Xeelie suggested he use the newly acquired +1 glaive to pry it up. New deal. Use the glaive but it would be ruined. He needed get a 25 and got a 25. That was all his actions but it was wedged opened. Xeelie was next. She cast Loose Time’s Arrow. That gave everyone a Quicken action to step or stride on their next turn. She then moved up the stairs behind the portcullis.
Clarisa realized the Knight wasn’t buying it any more so she ran up the stairs and on to the map, one level above. Brisco did the same. Oakwood used his Burning Jet to get up 25 feet, then used Assurance to climb the rest on the rope. And then used the Quicken to move again. He was still holding the rope since he couldn’t spare the action to try to pull it free. Unfortunately, the Knight went next and TerStegan was still in there. But it couldn’t quite get to him so he summoned a flying phantom steed instead. TerStegan moved on to the other map. Xeelie moved to be even with the back rank and cast Bless with her last 2 actions. That new map was at the grand hallway that led to the circular stairs up and down. Clarisa delayed until after Oakwood, not sure what to do. Oakwood gave the rope to Brisco and then grabbed Clarisa and Jetted to the upper hallway. He was heading for the exit asap. Brisco made a crazy Acro roll to get up there and ran past the other two. Clarisa pulled a rope out and tossed it over the edge. It went next. It flew 60 but lost some movement gaining altitude. It still got over us. (Any hopes that it wouldn’t leave the arena were dashed.) TerStegan zipped up the rope in one action and picked up Clarisa. He then used his Helmet to stride twice which got them at the portcullis. Xeelie ran to the circular stairway instead with the intent of heading to the teleportation circle.
Oakwood triple moved, slid under the portcullis we had jammed open and got into the exit tunnel we had cleared out. At this point, the chronicler went to bed. He assumes once everyone slipped under the portcullis and/or got out of the dungeon, the Knight turned back. And Xeelie managed to find her own way through the teleportation circle network. I think the only things left on level 6 are the Hydras and the treasure hoard of the water demon that almost killed us a couple times ago. And the arena of course but that guy had just proven to be unfair so hopefully we can avoid that.
Pathfinder Game 53 - 11/07/2025 - Poking Into Shadows
Written by David Green
They were down Oakwood and Xeelie but decided to press forward until they hit a fight where it was clear the smaller group was in over their heads. They crushed a group of Ice Cubes (frozen Gelatinous Cubes). They smeared a pair of Ochre Jellies. That was a bit of a slog since they were immune to most normal attacks. TerStehgen insisted Clarissa pick up all the crap from that encounter since it could net the group 10s of silver pieces each. FYI: Clarissa has about 10 Bulk worth of miscellaneous “group” stuff in her bag. In the last encounter, they were quickly in over their heads. It went like this:
Round 1 -
The hidden monster stayed hidden and prepared an attack once a PC came into reach.
Briscoe spotted the hidden monster.
TerStehgen ran forward, did some damage and took maybe 20HP from a single attack (and made a DC26 Will save).
Clarissa did maybe 35HP with Force Barrage.
Round 2 -
The monster Critically Hit TerStehgen who made a critical save (making him immune to that portion of the attack going forward).
And then the monster hit a second time and down went the Fighter.
They stopped there. Assuming we add one or more characters next time, they will roll initiative and get slotted into the combat based on that. They are at 27 in the order with the monster having just gone, so don’t roll too high or you’ll miss the round. Can Oakwood or Xeelie save the day? Or more likely, distract the monster long enough for Brisco to heal TerStegan so that he can save the day.
The GM expects the survivors to make 7th level at the end of the next game as this level of the dungeon is almost complete. So, start planning.
Pathfinder Game 52 - 10/10/2025 - The Coolest Item We Couldn't Keep
Written by David Green
We decided to deliver the head to the mummy in hopes of getting the pass key to the saw traps. That way, we could finish off that level. Just being in his presence caused everyone to have Frighten 1 with no save. He gave us the pass phrase to turn it off for 1 minute. He went back to preparing to leave so hopefully he’s stuck in a loop like a lot of the noncombat NPCs down here and won’t ever leave. We went back to the gladiator lounge and into the mural room. Unfortunately, Zara was still in there and she gave us a hard time. We decided to just go around a different way rather than deal with her. Through the kitchen area. We hurried through the area, chanting the phrase. The first room was empty. The next was locked. Xeelie was eager to search the bones but we weren’t sure how long this trap worked. Oakwood argued we could search after the rest of the party got out of that room. He checked his keys and Brian decided it shouldn’t have been locked in the first place. That room looked like a blood-stained office. We searched and the only thing we found was another alchemist lab but it was another 5 bulk. However, Clarisa’s bag could hold 25 so she had plenty of room. Xeelie went back into the saw room to search the bones. However, a search took 10 minutes. A minute later, a saw blade shot out and did 12 points of damage. There were also 3 glue bombs. TerStegan took one and the others went into the party stash to be sold. And there was a door going back down to level 6.
Xeelie wanted to try disabling the traps. But it was a DC26 thievery check, once for each of the 6 blades. She and TerStegan and Oakwood jumped in the room and tried to disable them. TerStegan and Oakwood critically failed and were attacked. Oakwood was missed but TerStegan was critted. He started swinging and missing. He crit failed again and was crit again. Xeelie crit failed, used a hero point and succeeded. Oakwood failed and was crit. TerStegan finally hit it but most of it bounced. He tried, crit failed and was crit. We ended up in initiative order. Xeelie failed, the saw attacked Oakwood for another crit, Oakwood stepped out of the room with his 15 hit points and cast a Protector Tree. Clarisa deferred. TerStegan disabled the last one. Oakwood did a round of healing. While we waited for 10-minute, we searched the bones and found nothing but bones. A complete waste of time. Through peep holes in the walls, we did get to see the other fighting group in their rooms so Xeelie did her lore thing on the undead demon thing. That took 10 minutes so we healed again. All told, it was 30 minutes of recovery time.
We went down the newly found stairs which emptied to the south end of the viewing area of the operating room. There was a door down on this end which TerStegan opened. In there was a bunch of broken wooden furniture. There was also an eerie full-length mirror. TerStegan suggested that a mirror shouldn’t work without light so proposed using his darkvision to search the room. He stepped in, closed the door and looked around a bit. He looked at the mirror to prove he had no reflection and saw a distorted TerStegan. He won initiative and with his remaining action, tried to make a thievery check to cover it. He failed. It missed and then hit for 29. And then a fort save which he missed for Drained 1. It had a +19 attack. Xeelie steeped in, saw two reflections, was crit hit for 55 and missed a Fort save for Drained 1. And successfully covered the mirror. And fled. The trap was bested. We spent more time healing. TerStegan and Xeelie wanted to take it back to the cabin. Oakwood and Brisco were against it. Clarisa voted for chaos so we took it. They had visions of using it to guard the house or vex our foes or something. We needed a night’s rest to reset the Drained so we headed back home.
That night, Clarisa was attacked by the mirror in the bathroom. Evidently the cursed mirror had infected our cabin mirrors. It critically hit her for 53 points. She made the Fort save at least. She left the room after much confusion about the map. Xeelie made a lore roll and thought a religion roll could exercise it. It was a haunt, not a trap or a monster. Brisco had the highest religion skill but was obstructive on general principles. “You three brought it in here, why is this my problem.” But we talked him into it so we could move on with our lives. Xeelie aided for a +2 with a 20. Brisco rolled a crappy 10, used a hero point and rolled a crit for a double crit. And we cleansed the cabin and got a poor quality, full-length mirror for TerStegan for our efforts.
We got a long rest and recovered from the Drained. And then started making items since Xeelie currently existed. TerStegan tried to get a job. But first, he went to Wren to buy a Lifting Belt and scroll of Sure Strike for Xeelie. Xeelie made Goggles of the Night for herself and Clarisa but she was a bit short of cash. She sold some fancy bottles. We sold the alchemist lab. And argued about the second lab. We all agreed that we put it into Clarisa’s bag of holding except Brian so we lost that argument. TerStegan got a job at the Crow’s Cast, used a hero point and rolled great. That only got him the job however. On the earning roll, he rolled poorly for a 20. That got him not much. Oakwood went out with the lumber crews, made a diplomacy roll and made some popularity points with them. That got him 7 silver pieces. Brisco switched his Druid Crown to leaves mode and wandered about outside of town. He was looking for the accountants, assuming they got away. The not dead one was currently in custody, battling in the courts. The vampire one had been killed, right? He looked for the guys they had hired but they were gone. Xeelie gave Oakwood her Bracelet of Dashing rather than make a second one. We spent one extra day to transfer the striking rune to TerStegan’s backup backup hand axe.
We went back into the Gauntlight through the back door. Oakwood said he was trying to obscure our tracks into it. We didn’t want anyone wandering in. We came down at the tavern and headed over to where the keys we picked up from Jafaki would open a door we couldn’t get through before. However, we ran into some more monsters at the spiral staircase. We fought here a couple games ago but evidently there was traffic coming up. Two Dreshkan (electric spider bugs) and two Barbazu (devil minitours). Brisco considered using a Blazing Bolt but there were too many walls in the way to target enough of them. He moved up and cast Electric Arc, hitting two. They saved for half for 3. The electric bug guy took none. One Barbazu took a step, used his reach glaive and attacked TerStegan. He crit, of course, for 42 plus 2d6 bleed. As a free action it moved him 10 feet and attacked with his beard. And missed despite no MAP. Xeelie did a 2-action heal on TerStegan for 25. And then cast Life Boost on him. The next Barbazu charged up and attacked Xeelie with a reach weapon through the doorway. It missed and then used his beard to attack TerStegan and missed. TerStegan got fast healing and cast Bless. He attacked the Dreshkan to the south to try to get rid of the flanking. He crit for 29. And the Barbazu took 7 from the sweeping crit. TerStegan took 13 from the bleed and missed the flat check. That was a 20 DC so he needed a nat 20 to recover without aid.
Another Dreshkan moved up, climbed onto the ceiling and over TerStegan to get past the glut of monsters around TerStegan. TerStegan crit with his rection and did 26. He did more sweep damage to the same one. Xeelie noticed it was averting its gaze. The last one hit TerStegan once for merely 12 and closed the door. Oakwood was screwed by the closed door just like last time. He turned on his damage aura, using cold instead of fire because of the devils. And then stepped and opened the door. Clarisa was going to do her missiles but Brian made him update his character to get the new and improved focus spell for an arcane dragon sorcerer. She used that instead and hit one and crit another. That did 17 and 16. Some of it bounced off the devil. And the last Dreshkan went. It was definitely avoiding looking at the rest of the party. It was allowed to share a space with another of its kind. He tried to close the door against Oakwood’s athletics. And beat it easily with a 17+12. It shot something at TerStegan and missed. Brisco was faced with a closed door again. He moved up, opened the door, and moved in.
A devil cast Dimension Door, unafraid of TerStegan’s used up reaction and appeared behind Clarisa. It hit for 25 plus 1d6 bleed. And then moved her 5 feet away from aid. Xeelie at least had an open door. She moved through Brisco and between two monsters. A tight fit but Brian allowed it. She did her lore on the bug and learned that they had had no weaknesses or resistances. She got flanking and hit. And did 16. A devil hit TerStegan because of the flanking and did 19. He moved him 5 feet and he fell down the pit 40 feet. Brian made it make an athletics roll to get over the railing. It did that with ease. And TerStegan had no reaction to Grab an Edge. That was 20 points of falling damage. And then it crit Xeelie for 23 with its beard. She made a Fort save. Meanwhile, down below, TerStegan started prone. He stood up in a red stone chamber with ominous doors at each compass point. There was another devil ordering 4 blobs to the north but they didn’t notice him. Or didn’t care. He fled up the stairs. Rather than calculate how far it was up, Brian decided it would take a couple of turns. And then he took 7 points from the bleed. A bug took 3 frost, and was still dazzled by our lights. It missed Xeelie 3 times even with flanking. They were definitely less dangerous. The next one was also still dazzled. It did a 30-foot cone Needle Spray. It hit Oakwood and Xeelie but also two of his pals. Only Oakwood missed his save for 11. Oakwood considered using his AOE but could only get two of them so he attacked instead. He missed but hit with the second and took one out. And made the devil near Clarisa his prey.
Clarisa took a step to avoid its reaction but it had reach. It hit her but missed the crit by 1. So, her spell went off and she missed with both claws. She used a hero point and hit a devil for 21, 5 of which bounced. She gave herself +1 AC from her blood line effect. And then took 5 from the bleed. The bottom bug did a Needle Spray on Brisco and Clarisa and they both saved for 9. Brisco stepped 5 feet to target both bugs with a Blazing Bolt. The devil missed with its reaction. They both took 14 fire. The devil behind Clarisa went next. He reached Clarisa and did 24. It pulled her towards her but she was already out. It then moved near Oakwood and took 3 frost damage. With flanking he hit for 18 plus the bleed. Xeelie attacked the bug she had flanked and crit for 33. She hit again for 19 and dropped it. For her third action, she did lore on a devil and rolled a crit success. It was weak to Holy, immune to fire, resistant to all physical and poison. A devil missed Xeelie with a 1. He switched targets to Brisco, rolled a 2 and finally hit with its beard on its last action. He took 10. He made his Fort save. TerStegan kept running. He healed for 6 and then took 6 bleeding. The last bug crawled on the ceiling and dropped in the middle of everything to get and give flanking. It crit Xeelie with a claw for 8 points. It hit Oakwood for 8. Oakwood did Herbs on Clarisa at range. And then hit a bug for 14. He took 6 bleed but 3 was resisted by his Aeon stone.
Brisco did battle medicine of 29 on Xeelie and then failed on Oakwood. He used a hero point and did 28. And then took another step and critically failed on Clarisa. He used a hobbit luck and gave her 32. 89 points of healing and 3 steps in one round. Clarisa woke up. She did a 3-action barrage without bothering to stand up, hitting the further but more injured devil. 44 points and killed it. And then she bled a little. The last devil took 3 frost and hit Oakwood for a meager 11. It then cast Dimension Door to get to the floor of the pit. We argued that he couldn’t possibly see down that far from where it was. Brian assumed he could fall the rest without issue. It was after 1AM and he was trying to finish up. However, Xeelie could see down the hole from where she was at the railing and pulled out her starknife. But she was at long range for it. She rolled a 1 and used a hero point. She crit with a nat 20. She did 31, it resisted none and took some bleed from the crit specialization. She then rolled another nat 20 and crit again. That was 32 and killed it. That last bug was declared dead. Brian assumed we would save the bleeding and healed up. We stopped there. Reeling from another “random encounter” that lasted 3 rounds.
Brian healed us up at our cabin. Since no one had any pressing business and Xeelie was not there to do any crafting projects, we decided to go back to the Gauntlight. However, when we exited the front door, we found a basket with a note. It was from Wrin. “The stars tell me you may need this soon. Return it when done.” It was a hand crossbow but it wasn’t magical or remarkable that we could tell. It probably should have gone to Xeelie but she didn’t exist at the moment. So, we gave it to Oakwood since he had the next highest Dex. The only magic bolt we had was the climbing bolt in the party stash so he got that too. We came in at the back entrance and plotted a path back to one of the ways down. We decided to go by way of the mold trap and talk to the mummy. We discussed burning away that mold since Brisco was not there to object. But we were wary of starting a fire in a dungeon. We were reminded that we had made a Nature roll at some point and learned that as long as we didn’t stay in the room more than a minute, we’d be okay. So, we decided to live and let live. We gave the head to mummy from Clarisa’s sleeves. She was asked to make a Deception roll, rolled well but not well enough. This was the wrong head. We asked for a means to identify the right head but he was unhelpful. We were going to kill them all anyway. We went around through the gladiator lounge and down into the surgery room we almost died in last time.
There was an alcove with the spider web that we walked past last time but this time it “looked odd”. TerStegan put his hand through it and found it and the wall behind it was an illusion. Behind it was another teleportation circle matching the one the gladiators had come through a level above. Beyond that were double doors south into a hallway. And then double doors to the south and west. TerStegan failed to pick the lock to the south. DC 30. None of Oakwood's keys worked. The west doors lead to the arena floor and didn’t loop around. Nothing but the Cheery Man was in the arena. We decided to bash the locked doors down. Oakwood rolled a 24 to give TerStegan a plus one and he rolled a 28. But it didn’t open. Multiple rolls failed to achieve a 30 needed. Finally, after ~10 tires he did it. The lock was forced but the door was still substantial. Behind it was an experimental/alchemist lab. There were body parts on the wall and a screaming Morlock head. And Jafaki, the very head we sought. He was another large aberration. Despite all the noise we made, he was working too hard to notice us. This was our opportunity to avoid a combat with 3 players. We closed the door and debated. TerStegan was for fighting. Since we knew it was coming, we could spell up for a change. We decided to go for it.
Bless, Thermal Nimbus and Haste on TerStegan were cast. We opened the door and he was waiting for us, floating 20 feet up. It had a +19 initiative, of course. Brisco showed up just in time but despite the fact that we opened the door, it went first. It cast Phantasmic Killer at TerStegan who saved. And then threw a Bottle of Lightning. That hit for 17 plus 6 splash for Oakwood and Clarisa. Brisco moved up and used his Druid Crown to cast Enlarge on TerStegan. That should solve the flying problem, at least for him. As TerStegan moved in, a Drider dropped from the ceiling and attacked with its glaive. With a readied action. (TerStegan was off guard because he didn’t see him.) He did hit for 12 plus poison. He failed that save for 6 and stupefied 1. TerStegan continued to charge but had to save against a Mind Fog aura as well. He missed that and used a hero point to save. And after all that, he missed. And then missed again. The Drider then got his actual turn. It attacked with a fang and hit for 15 and gave TerStegan another poison. He crit saved against it and was unaffected. It then stepped up into Oakwood’s aura and did a ranged attack. That triggered a reactive strike from TerStegan due to his enlarged reach. He hit for 28. The range attack missed Oakwood. Clarisa was next. She did a Force Barrage on the big thing for 39. Oakwood did hunted prey on the Drider and crit with a 20 for 35.
Jafaki was next at the top of the order. He moved on the ceiling but TerStegan had already reacted. And cast Confusion on TerStegan who missed his will save of 26. This one had a one-minute duration. Sort of. Brisco wanted to move through the Drider, willing to take an opportunity attack, to get to TerStegan. But this is Pathfinder so he had to Tumble Through. He failed that acro roll, used Hafling Luck, and failed again. On his next action, he succeeded. He then did Doctor’s Visit to move around behind TerStegan and did Battle Medicine for 35. Next was confused TerStegan who was commanded with a reaction by Jafaki to attack Brisco. Shimota protested to no avail. “You can’t do that!” At least he got a Will save to fight it off. And failed that. He only hit, for 23. And then hit again for 25. And then hit again for another 16. And then took a hasted confused step back. He then failed against the poison for 3 damage which gave him a flat check against the confusion which he made. The Drider hit TerStegan with a ranged web and immobilized him against the wall. And then tried the same on Oakwood who used his reactive shield to be missed. And then closed the door. Clarisa had no targets so she delayed her action.
DG complained that he had abandoned 6 plans, waiting for his turn to act. Oakwood took a 5-foot step, opened the door, wished he had two actions to aid Brisco or TerStegan and missed with a one action attack. But with the door open, Clarisa reentered the initiative order and fired a barrage at the Drider. That did 13, putting it near death. Jafaki cast confusion back on TerStegan who failed the save. And then used a “quick consumption” ability to take a potion with his last action. Elixer of Life. Shimota protested to no avail. “You can’t do that!” Brisco charged the beasts while doing a Doctor’s Visit on himself. That got him away from the confused but stuck TerStegan. He critted his Medicine roll for 34 points back. And cast Tempest Surge on the Drider. But he missed a confusion save from the aura first. He used a hero point to save. The Drider crit saved for no damage. Bummer. However, on its turn, it was killed by the fire aura. TerStegan failed to resist Jafaki’s order. He threw his hand axe at Brisco and did 14 and then another 16. And then used his hasted action and missed. And then crit failed against the poison again but for only 2 points. But missed the flat check this time. Oakwood wanted to target Jafaki and TerStegan with a Flying Flame but had to move under Jafaki to reach them both. (After much discussion and trigonometry about the distance.) He saved for half of 6 and TerStegan took it all. Hardly worth the discussion time. However, TerStegan got another flat check and snapped out of the confusion. Clarisa moved into the room and did a level one barrage. Saving against the confusion first retroactively. She did 10. At least that moved it to injured.
Jafaki went next. He made some sort of concerned plea in a language no one understood. He cast confusion on Clarisa but she saved. Her mind is tougher than the fighter. And then he tossed a lightning flask at Brisco and missed. But the splash damage still went but only for 2 points. Brisco moved back towards TerStegan and away from the monster. And did a Doctor’s Visit on TerStegan to treat his Stupefied. He made his roll so reduced it by 1 level to level 1. That at least helped his confusion save. He wanted to throw his trident but the fact that it was still flying put it at an extra range increment so he gave Clarisa Guidance instead. TerStegan missed his athletics roll to get free from the web. He made the second roll and charged Jafaki. But it was out of his reach so he threw his axe instead. And did 10 points. Oakwood missed the confusion aura save and then saved with a hero point. He shot straight up and missed. And then raise his shield. Clarisa fired her last full Barrage at it and did 36.
It went again. It drank a potion, making him concealed in mist. He moved down and took 5 points of fire aura damage. And missed TerStegan with his rapier. That was infused with high level poison. Brisco cast Tempest Surge on it. He had to beat the flat check, 3 instead of 5 because he’s a halfling. It saved for half and took 12. And then gave TerStegan guidance. TerStegan was now in range of it. He dropped his hand axe, gripped his big axe and started attacking. He made the flat check and hit for 16. And took him out.
Oakwood did a round of Dash of Herbs while we sort through the loot. They had a bunch of stuff. Oakwood took the keys. He tried to disconnect the screaming head and failed. That unleashed a ball of green energy that flew around the bodies and flew off to parts unknown. We rolled great on the identifications despite Xeelie’s absence. But half way through, Brian just gave us the rest. There was a lot of bulk and he wanted to distribute it. But DG pointed out that if we split it up, we’d have to unsplit it to sell it eventually. We decided to take anything useful, leave the rest in the stash and assume it sold in order to speed up the bookkeeping. It still took some time. The rapier was a +1 striking. Brian stripped the striking part and gave that to TerStegan and left the rest in the stash for selling. The composite longbow was +1 but it was sold. There was another crafter’s eye piece that Oakwood took. Two doses of antiplague potions. A wand of peaceful rest which we sold. Divine spell that stops bodies from becoming undead. A wand of force barrage, rank 1 that we forced Clarisa to take. Wyvern poison. Elixir of Life. Mist Form. The big item was an Expanded Alchemist’s Lab. +1 to crafting rolls. I don’t know if it stacks with the eye piece. We assumed it was sleeved or will be hauled on our next trip home. All totaled was almost 400 gold including stuff we already had in the stash. It was distributed and we stopped there.
Pathfinder Game 50 - 09/26/2025- Sarglagon what?
Written by David Green
We started with no Brisco or Xeelie. The door opened into a viewing hallway with more of that clear stone between us and the operating area, 5 feet below. Brian put us into encounter mode even though we had yet to see any foes. One foe had a +19 initiative, always a bad sign. A large Destrachan. There was also a Seugathi Researcher which forced a DC21 Will save. The dreaded Confused. Clarisa went first and missed that save. She then crit Oakwood with TK projectile for 16. And then punch at him and missed. The effect would expire at the end of her turn but until you saved, we’d be saving again if still in the area. And unknown thing went next and did an unknown thing. On Oakwood’s turn, he rolled a 3 and was confused as well. The GM made him use one blast and then 2 punches against Clarisa. All of which thankfully missed. Then the Destrachan moved up and bit TerStegan for 24 points. TerStegan rolled a 3 for his save as well but he used a hero point to critically save. He turned on his aura and missed with a 2. He then used Snap Out of It on Clarisa and she saved against her confusion. So, they were immune for a minute.
Clarisa blasted the big monster with missiles for almost 50, barely injuring it. The previously unseen researcher moved up behind the hit point buffer and with reach, did an envenom strike on TerStegan. And missed. Oakwood made his save, turned on his aura and hit the big thing with two fire attacks for 22. On its turn, it took 5 points for the fire aura and did a sonic blast which TerStegan countered with his performance. He rolled a 28 for a successful save. (The DC was a 25 reflex.) So, we all took half of 29. And then it bit TerStegan for 21. Brisco showed up but rolled too high for initiative so went after TerStegan at the top of the next round. TerStegan cast Bless and then crit the big thing for 39.
Brisco was too far away for the mind fog but since we were fighting in a hallway, it was a challenge to get to TerStegan. He cast a Heal at range for 37. And threw his trident and hit for 9. Clarisa finished it off with a TK projectile and then cast Shield. The researcher stepped forward and missed TerStegan twice. Oakwood designated it as his prey and then missed with a 2-action fire spear. TerStegan crit for 34 and then hit for 19. Brisco made the confusion save with ease and cast splash on TerStegan. And then did 11 with his trident. Clarisa finished this one off as well. Oakwood healed everyone poorly and Brisco treated him. TerStegan took its head but we weren’t 100% sure if this was the guy the mummy wanted. It did have a magic wand. Clarisa tried to identify it but failed. TerStegan succeeded with the same roll because it was an occult spell so the DC was slightly lower for him. It was a Status spell. It wasn’t much use to us but worth 160 gold so we’ll sell it. Those two attempts took time so Oakwood topped everyone off.
We shoved the bodies aside and moved into a room. There was a wall full of glyphs similar to the ones we’d seen before that control the stone walls. These were set “off” to allow passage. Oakwood tried his wall but it was solid. But over nearer the glyphs, it was off. There were ladders attached to the wall going down. TerStegan went down and looked about. There were crystals that Oakwood examined but he rolled crap for crafting so any potential value was unknown. At the furthest end were the stairs up that we came down and then fled a couple games ago. Because Brian kept mentioning it, TerStegan checked out the drain. There was water in it and he was able to move the drain cover aside. The water was deep. TerStegan used his grappling hook to search around. He did see some glowing mushrooms and could see it opened up into a bigger area. At the hydra lake area level? After much discussion, Oakwood went in with his bottle of air and a rope around him. He went straight down and looked around. It was certainly attached to the lake and this section was a bit deeper. It looked like a lair. But it would take 10 minutes to do a full search and he could hold his breath for 9 rounds. With the bottle of air, he could do it but it seemed complex. Plus, the hydras were still alive so it didn’t seem wise to stay down too long.
He decided to come up at which point a Sarglagon attacked. Devilish underwater aberration? Evidently, it made its perception roll for the round or two he was down there. Oakwood rolled a 25 for initiative but its stealth roll was much higher. He needed to make a DC 26 Fort which he missed. He used a hero point and succeeded only because of the +10. He was sickened 1 from water magically appearing in his lungs. It then critically hit for 40. (It had a +20 attack.) And then a DC 26 Fort for poison which he missed. That’s clumsy 1 and poisoned starting at stage 1. Thankfully it didn’t have a tentacle grab power sort of thing to pull him under. Brisco moved once to get down to the same level. But Oakwood was still several feet down in the drain and it would take another action to drop prone to reach him. He simply didn’t have the actions to do battle medicine. So, he used Aid to help TerStegan pull him out with the rope. He made the 15 roll with a 6.
But Oakwood was next. After checking to see when the poison got worse, it hit him with an aura. He critically failed that, used a new hero point and merely failed with a 1. Encumbered. I.e really heavy. He used Burning Jet to leap 40 feet without evoking reactions. However, because he was threading through the drain hole, he had to make a targeting Acrobatics roll. On which he finally rolled double digits. And ended up not quite as far as he hoped but got out of the aura. And then wretched and saved against the sickened. And then saved against the poison at the end, reducing it to stage 0. TerStegan replaced the grate for an action but there wasn’t really anything locking it down. And then he grabbed Brisco and moved away. Clarisa moved down the stairs and put a Floating Flame on top of the grate in case it came up.
We took a breath but the 64-dollar question was could it follow through the drain. It was large but slimy. And perhaps deterred by Oakwood’s Flame Jet and Clarisa’s Flame Sphere. Brisco did battle medicine on Oakwood for 30 and then climbed up the stairs. TerStegan moved up and prepared to turn on the walls. But Clarisa was still down there. She moved up and sustained her Flame on the grate just in case. On its turn, it appeared at the secret door we came in. Evidently it had a fly speed and could slither through hallways despite its large size. It was later revealed it had a Dimension Door spell that it has used to help cover the distance. It crit Brisco with a tentacle for 38 and he failed the poison save for Poisoned 1, Clumsy 1 and 8 more points. On its third attack, it only hit with a fang for 33 and took him out. Full to out in a round.
Oakwood took a 5-foot step, got into its aura and crit failed a Will save with a 2. He was encumbered again, this time for 3 rounds regardless of proximity. He picked up Brisco but that weight made him encumbered which in this aura meant he couldn’t move. So, he dropped his shield as a free action and got under the limit. Then used Qi Rush to step 5 and move 15 away from it. (-10 move from the crit fail.) He assumed it had reactive strikes since it seemed to have everything else. TerStegan turned on his aura, moved, swung, and missed. Clarisa used her last 3rd level missiles and barely dented it for 37. Brisco then rolled a 1 for his dying check and went to Dying 3. He could have use his last hero point to reroll but saved it for when he died. But he still had to make the poison save. He missed that and was dead from that damage at Dying 4. He used that hero point to cheat death and reset to unconscious. The GM allowed that to also save against the poison and it to reset his conditions.
And then suddenly it was its turn again. It hit but didn’t crit TerStegan for 28. And then hit again for 21. And he crit failed his poison save for another 11. And its last attack hit due to the clumsy condition and he took 18. (That’s 78 in one round for those keeping score. Plus, multiple conditions.) Oakwood did battle medicine on Brisco for 19 and put up a Timber Sentinel next to TerStegan. TerStegan had already saved against the aura. He missed his attack and had no hero points. But Brian thought we were due two hero points. (Things were intense and no one was watching the clock.) So, Oakwood and Clarisa got one. He hit with his second attack for 13 and cast Shield. And then failed his poison save at the end of his round and dropped. Clarisa considered many options including swapping cards since she had 3 hero points to burn. She did a recall knowledge and missed. And used a hero point to succeed. And learned it was immune to fire, being a devil and vulnerable to Holy which no one had. So, she didn’t cast a wand fireball as she had planned. She cast missiles, swapped Oakwood card to heighten it one level to 3rd and did 38. Brisco crawled 5 feet and cast ranged heal on TerStegan for 42.
It cast a spell. TerStegan stopped pretending to be out but missed with his opportunity attack. (Since he dropped his axe when he went out, it was only a bite.) It fired a line of water. Brisco, TerStegan and Oakwood somehow saved for half for 14. Since it knew TerStegan was alive, it bit him with a crit. He took 56 less 30 from the tree and barely stayed up. (Although still prone.) Oakwood healed TerStegan for 15 and then hit it for 8, 5 of which bounced. Clarisa did a 2nd level missile for 17. Brisco stood up, moved to TerStegan and did his doctor’s visitation for 27. And then did a treat poison, granting him a +2 on his next save against the poison. TerStegan grabbed his axe, stood up and attacked. And missed with a 6. And used his hero point and hit. He did 27 and killed it. 3 rounds of terror. He then missed the poison save again and took 16. Luckily the poison wore off in 3 rounds so we assumed he’d live with us patching him. Brian assumed we’d live to get back to the cabin via the rear entrance. It had nothing in its pockets but we assume anything it had was back at its lair under the water. And we were worried about a couple of measly hydras. Yikes.
Pathfinder Game 49 - 09/19/2025 - Battle of the Bands
Written by David Green
We started with a Battle of the Bands in the tavern that had no business exiting down here. I.e. a skill challenge. Oakwood used acrobatics, rolled a 7 for an 18 and lost. Brisco used his Wildsong (nature) augmented with a summon animal for a +1, rolled a 10 for a 25 and a win. Clarisa breathed fire with a focus spell to use intimidation, rolled a 14 for a 26 and a win. TerStegan finished with performance with musical accompaniment cantrip for +1, rolled an 8 for a 24. That was a tie but it went to us. Lastly was a group roll with a +3 for the 3 individual successes. TerStegan rolled that for us, rolled a 15, got a 32 for a win. But he wanted better so he used a hero point and rolled a 4 (14) for a 31 and a win. No cash prize. Nothing gained. The band left the stage to their room behind. We talked to a Morlock barmaid. She was eager to “go under the knife” and be upgraded like the Female Drider bouncer. Evidently, they were all waiting for the call. The drink options were poor after 500 years. Unfortunately, only TerStegan could speak undercommon so the rest of us were sidelined. He tried to get directions to the head surgeon but they were pretty convoluted. But truthfully, we were going to go into every door eventually so it really didn’t matter.
The closest door was where the band went. It had some stage props and another door. The band was in this room, smoking some stuff. TerStegan talked to them a bit but they had nothing useful to say other than don’t piss off the Drider. The next door was into the band’s dining room. Another door lead back to the bar and to another door. That door led to a room with no doors, some sort of office. And an unknown creature. She spoke 3 unknown languages until she got to undercommon. She offered to hire us as the new band when TerStegan told her we beat the current band. She fired them on the spot but TerStegan talked her into keeping them since we had better things to do. She then said the audience over, get out. So, we left.
We were back to the tavern. We went through a door behind the bar that led into the kitchen. The bartender was annoyed but didn’t do anything. There were 3 people, chained in alcoves. One was an unconscious drow, obviously beaten. The deep gnome looked okay and the 3rd was a human woman with a missing hand and hanging from a hook. We shut the door before we started talking to them. The drow said he was waiting to be transformed. He had been captured from his drow land, deeper underground. TerStegan tried to get more information on where and what that was but didn’t get anything. I suspect the module left that undefined. I.e. it was “elsewhere.” He was going to try to pick their locks with Xeelie missing but Oakwood’s key to the cabin was similar enough to work. The drow thought he could find his way out if we took him to the central spiral staircase. The gnome was evasive about his home but took the same deal. TerStegan asked them to put in a good word for us in their homeland in case we ever ended up there. They promised to take the human with them since she was pretty out of it. We did pick up a jar of deadly nightshade mushrooms in that room, assuming it was worth something.
There was one last door into a pantry. However, it was full of yellow mold. DC 26 Fort. TerStegan crit failed that for drained 2 and 4 points of damage. Brisco tried a treat poison on him and rolled a medicine check. He succeeded and gave him a +2 on his next save which was next round. He got a success and dropped one stage. Brisco’s next roll was a failure but not a critical failure. However, TerStegan crit failed the next save and took 16. Brisco gave him an antivemon potion for +1, missed a medicine, used a hero point and did a crit success. That all gave him a +5 but he still failed and stayed at drained 3. The next time he rolled well but the spores expired after 6 rounds anyway. But there might be treasure in there so we kept at it. Brisco went and talked to the spores but could only manage a 15 diplomacy roll. But the GM made him open the door first so he had to make a save. And now he was poisoned. He stepped in to do a quick search since it couldn’t get worse? He spotted a potion and grabbed it. His next save was a crit fail, stage 3 and took 11. He tried to treat poison but failed. He missed that save and took 21. Oakwood gave him his antivemon potion and he eventually got better. Oakwood did his healing thing and then Brisco did treat wounds on both as well. It took a total of 30 minutes to get them both back up. And probably more wall clock than that. The potion turned out to be a moderate healing potion but since we used two potions in getting it, it was probably a net loss.
The next door led into another teleportation room that was being used as a store room. TerStegan and Clarisa were experts in the needed skills. She made the roll but he did not so it was not activated. Another hour used up. Oakwood convinced them that we really didn’t need to fix this one right now. We moved on. We went through the bar and out the main double doors. No one objected to the freed prisoners coming with us. That led to a short hallway that then went to a long hallway. That led to the room Clarisa fell down into. But that finally got to the spiral stairway. However, we ran into a couple guards. The large Seugathi guard went first. It moved up and used its reach longsword on TerStegan. But it licked it first to add poison to it. And crit with 20. 22 points plus another Fort save. He crit saved that. Brisco started within the range of the Pitiful Moan but made his Will save. He moved into the stairway and did Rousing Splash on TerStegan across the gap. TerStegan made that Will save as well. But he was in another aura and made that one too. He turned on his aura, stepped forward and attacked the large thing. And did a mere 15. Oakwood turned on his aura, moved up but not close enough and crit with a blast. But sleepy DG accidently did vitality damage so he did none.
Clarisa moved up and missed with a TK Projectile. I think she was the only one to miss a save for sickened 1. The small guard missed TerStegan with a claw. It tried to push past him but failed. And missed again. The big one acrobatically managed to slide past TerStegan to get flanking. Although he did take damage from Oakwood’s fire. He then crit because of the flanking and TerStegan took another 21. TerStegan made that save. And it missed on its last attack. Brisco saved and used Electric Arc. One crit made and on crit missed. And then missed with his trident. TerStegan attacked the small one to remove the flanking advantage and crit. He did 33 and killed it. It exploded and did acid to most of us. We all saved but the big one did not. So, we took none. TerStegan then swept over to the big one and did 21. Oakwood hit for 18 and then missed. Clarisa had to move a bit to get a shot. She did the TK thing and hit this time. It was only 9 but it was enough to drop it. TerStegan got some healing and we sent the prisoners on their way down the stairs.
On the other side of the stairs was a door. That led to a T. To the north we thought it went to a viewing area to see the hydras. To the south, was a room with two alcoves and a door across. That door was more of an image of a door with no handle. We were suspicious. We spiked the entry door open. The alcoves had key holes. A round hole for a round key that we found earlier. Oakwood turned the key and the north door closed, despite our spikes. But turning it, the other way opened it again. The other alcove had 4 key holes and we didn’t have that key. Evidently it would take a master thievery and 4 high DC successes to pick it. So, a dead end. We went around the other way through more hydra viewing hallways. That ended in a wall that looked an awful lot like it should be a door. It took some rolls but we found the hidden pressure plate eventually. We think the surgeon guy the mummy wants us to kill is just around the corner. Another boss battle in a 10 by 20 room. Next time.
Pathfinder Game 48 - 09/12/2025 - Don't Look!
Written by David Green
Once we got going, we entered the dungeon via the Pirate’s Hideout entrance we had dug out last time. We were stopped at the door by 3 bounty hunters. They were looking for the werewolf Druid we had killed some while back. We noted their wanted poster quoted a 1000 gp reward whereas we only got 300. Evidently the prices were better if you were a member of the guild. They eyed TerStegan with suspicion, thinking he looked a bit furry. He told them the tale of how we fought the werewolf and that convinced them. It was a bunch of conversation that amounted to not much. TerStegan asked if they had any other bounties but they weren’t going to give away their business. Eventually, they just left. So much for our hidden entrance that was instantly found.
We then headed to the secret door to the south of one of the old guard rooms. It was a dusty bedroom, maybe for the head guard. The only thing that ended up amounting to anything was a foot locker. It had a hat, pouch, and a book. Clarisa tried to read aura on the book but it fell apart in her hands. Dan missed a thievery roll that Clarisa was so untrained in, he didn’t know such a skill existed. There was a debate as to why she’d have to handle it in the first place but we lost. It was ruled too destroyed to use the first level Mending spell. From the scraps, it had had some crafting formulas so only Xeelie really cared. The pouch has 25 gp worth of green gems. Xeelie failed to identify the hat but took some extra time and succeeded on her second try. It was a Hat of Disguise (greater) worth 340 gp. Xeelie already had a Scarf of Disguise but the hat gave you unlimited uses per day. That’s probably needed for any serious infiltration. But like a lot of these sorts of deception things, it is hard to use in a group. I think the plan is to sell it.
The next door lead to a long corridor downish to the back of another secret door. That opened to a walkway/viewing area around the battle arena. The Cheery Man was still there but no one was fighting. On the west end of the arena was a huge pile of rotting garbage. We moved in, ignoring the Cheery Man, and up to another secret door. It was a stone window up a bit. With a boost, it was a one-way window that we couldn’t see through. According to the mummy’s map, there was a viewing area behind it. Past the Cheery Man we could see broken stone statues although the giant spider one looked okay. TerStegan asked if anyone had a stone to flesh spell. Just in case. No one did. We decided to avoid the Cheery Man and the statues but when he called out, TerStegan walked up and started talking to him. “We were afraid you’d make us fight.” “Make you? No. But you might want to turn around.” There were 3 Basilisks. So much for avoiding the stone spider statue.
The first one attacked TerStegan with a bite and rolled a 1. And tried again and crit with a 20 for 30 points. Brisco went next. At the start of his turn, the basilisk used its reaction to turn him to stone a bit. Slowed 1 on a failed Fort save. He did his doctor visitation on TerStegan for 25. And threw his trident for 16. Xeelie was next but a basilisk reacted on her first. TerStegan used his Counter Performance to use his Performance roll but both rolls would have succeeded. She cast Loose Time’s Arrow, quickening all but distant Clarisa. And did her knowledge thing and crit succeeded. Unfortunately, it had no weaknesses. Clarisa was too far away to be slowed, hit the injured one with Magic Missiles for 22 points. The second basilisk did a petrifying gaze (not the glancing reaction) on TerStegan. He made the 22 Fort save. And moved away a bit. And did its reaction on TerStegan’s turn. He missed the save for slowed 1. He started his aura and attacked the damaged one. He crit for 45. Overkilling it, likely. He then moved with the quicken. The last basilisk hit the flanked TerStegan for 9 and did its gaze on Xeelie. She failed for Slowed 1. Oakwood didn’t get glanced because he was around the corner at the start of his turn. He turned on his damage field, quickened moved, missed with a 6 and missed with a 3.
Slowed Brisco did Rousing Splash on someone for temp hit points. Slowed Xeeile did her knowledge thing and hit for 18. Clarisa moved up and did the Avert Gaze action to give her +2 on the Fort save. A basilisk did a gaze on TerStegan and he saved. And then tried a bite and missed. TerStegan had flanking with Oakwood and crit for 35. And rolled a 1 on the next attack. The other basilisk tried to gaze TerStegan but Xeeile did a reaction first. (Her class’s reactive attack include concentrate as a trigger.) And crit killed it. Oakwood double moved to get flanking again and then missed. After he saved on the glance. Brisco cast Tangle Vine to limit its movement by 10 fearing it might flee? Clarisa used a missile barrage on it. The basilisk got one more turn, gazing at TerStegan. But Xeelie got her reaction back and attacked first. TerStegan saved and Xeelie did 17. On its last action, it bit for 9. TerStegan hit with a 4 and did 27, finishing it off.
We had more conversations with the Cheery Man. He was trying to talk us into fighting. He had a variety of options. Groups, single, various difficulty levels. He offered 200 gp for the group for a group fight. Cash whore TerStegan was tempted. It took a while but we finally pried everyone away from him. During all that, Oakwood healed the wounded with his Dash of Herbs. We wandered around the level and got to an unopened door. It was a room with old bottles and surgical equipment. Oakwood upgraded his healing kit. Brisco searched and found a round key which Oakwood added to his key ring. We refocused while Xeelie failed to repair a push cart found in there. We had a retro-active discussion on the possible value of basilisk body parts. They had no value but the blood of a recently killed one could be used to reverse those being recently petrified. But we had avoided that but it was good to know.
We moved down a hallway to more double doors that led into the viewing room we had assumed from the window. It looked like a dining room that had been thrashed. And there were a couple of ghosts, wearing old fashionable noble clothes. They were throwing stuff at each other. We could see that stone window and some glyphs used to control it? The ghosts were ignoring us. Xeelie tried a roll to figure out what they needed but Brian put us into combat first. They were “naturally invisible.” Oakwood rolled a 20 Society to try to figure out their problem. They said “they were trapped in the arena.” Brisco deferred his turn. Xeelie rolled her esoteric lore and got a 26. “There’s no path to escape.” Brian was hoping for all the answers but obviously the GM was just giving clues. Brisco jumped into the initiative and tried to talk to them. He offered to show them the way out but they were not being reasonable. Stuck in their curse. Some of us thought the runes might be the key so Brisco moved to them. They went next and attacked. One did a TK Storm AOE but missed on all 3 attack rolls. It then it threw a cup and missed. The next one tried to Fear Clarisa but she saved. And then hit Xeelie for 17. TerStegan missed the invisible one but the fear attack made the other one visible and he hit that one for 12. Clarisa tried her Vitality Lash but it saved for half damage. At least it worked.
Oakwood turned on his fire damage stance, moved pass them and missed a sad Occult roll on the glyphs. Xeelie crit the visible one for 46. And hit again for 18. 13, actually since it had 5 points of resistance. Brisco had a 1 Arcane skill but rolled a nat 20 to figure out the glyphs. He then spent 2 actions opening the window. And as a free action, he mentioned it to them. And they flew off. Oakwood topped off Xeelie’s hit points and we searched the room, looking for anything of value. Xeelie found the magic window wall. Brisco found a small metal box, dented and locked. It was jammed so he gave it to our thief to open. Xeelie failed but she heard something rattling around in it. She used the Knock spell on the skeleton key and tried again. A 30 opened it to find a ring. It had a small skull on it, chewing on something. Clarisa knew that was the symbol of Nimbeloff. Xeelie tried to identify it. It was a Ring of Wizardry. That’s +1 to Arcana rolls and two extra 1st level arcane spells a day. A pricey 7th level object. Clarisa was the obvious choice but Dan didn’t see any value in two extra 1st level spells. He hardly ever used 1st level spells and never ran out of them. The current version of Xeelie could cast arcane spells so she took it. Extra 1st level spells are more useful to a part time caster. Now if it did primal or occult spells, it would have been a different character wanting it.
The remaining door led down through some rubble to the next level. That led into a tavern with live music. That letter we found mentioned music briefly. I think we’re done with the 5th level until we complete the mummy’s task and get the pass key to the saw traps. So it’s pick your poison on the 6th level hard foes. We’ll probably start at the tavern since no one immediately attacked us. Plus, I’m sure TerStegan is eager to use his Performance skill.
Pathfinder Game 47 - 08/29/2025 - Fair Competition
Written by Daniel Ruth
Credence tumbled through Oakwood’s square making him flat-footed and hit him for 35. Plus, bleed damage but he already had double bleed damage from the crit last round so this one didn’t count. Oakwood then crit missed him, made the caster his Hunted Prey and raised his shield in hopes he could survive another hit. And took 7 bleed damage. TerStegan ran back down the stairs and attacked Credence on top of the cage. And missed. The GM had Brisco draw his wand of healing and heal Oakwood for 20. Xeelie cast fast healing on Oakwood and critically failed his recall knowledge on Credence. Evidently, as a unique creature, his target was rolling a 20. Without that recall, her damage is much reduced so she pulled out a scroll instead of attacking. Clarisa was still outside but not fleeing. She spotted a guard squadron, preparing to help? The GM was jokingly vague about what they were and confused Dan to no end. She moved into the room and cast Arc of Lightning on both accountants but rolled crap damage. We then heard Longsaddle ordering guards to guard the entrances.
Cryde cast Darkness but it had the manipulate action so TerStegan got a free swing. And missed with a 4. She got some cover from the bars but it didn’t matter. That spell easily overcame Xeelie’s lantern light and knocked it out. Evidently TerStegan’s darkvision can see through it with a flat check. Her dragon had darkvision as well but missed its flat check. A goon squad appeared upstairs but couldn’t see anything. They tried a group Seek and failed. Credence didn’t have darkvision so he jumped off the cage blindly. And then blindly ran out of darkness with ease. And crit Clarisa for 46 points. 14d6+12. And double bleed. Two more goon squads moved. The one by the door attacked Credence. They critically missed their reflex attack and did nothing. Oakwood made his flat check and then missed his attack on Cryde. He used a hero point and rolled a 4 which became a 14 which hit. A two-action fire blast plus his fire weakness and the hunted prey damage and the dread marshal. TerStegan hit Cryde for some after casting Bless. Longsaddle charged into the room.
And then Dave showed up and everything came to a halt while we tried to get him up to speed. The situation was complicated. After much deliberation, he chose to avoid the uncertainty of the darkness, shot Credence and missed with a 2. And then climbed down into a lit square. Xeelie turned on her lantern as a free action and thankfully canceled the darkness. She cast Benediction. (10 foot aura for +1 AC for her and her allies, sustained) And then jumped down. The downstairs goons moved into the room and attacked Cryde. And she saved for half. Clarisa tried to unloaded a full barrage of magic missiles on Credence but it had a manipulate trait so he dropped her instead with a reaction. Another crit, of course. Cryde took the fire damage but healed 5 from something else. She took a step back and cast Enthrall. TerStegan used his Counter Performance reaction. He rolled a 2, used a hero point and rolled a 14. So that gave everyone a 29 save, making us save against its effects. And since it was save or die, it did nothing. (A turning point, to be sure.) Her dragon spit ink on TerStegan and Xeelie, covering them in ink. TerStegan was blinded for missing the save but Xeelie was simply annoyed. Credence flew over and strategized on Oakwood. He did 30 from a “mere” hit without the sneak attack dice. And then he hit Xeelie for 18. And now she was bleeding too.
The upstairs goons shot at Credence but it was AOE volley that included Brisco. But he crit saved for none. The bolts bounced off Credence. The outside goons targeted Credence and did enough to squeak some damage in. Oakwood hit Cryde with a reach fire spear and dropped her. He then raised his shield, took more bleed damage and finally saved against it. Blind TerStegan missed his flat check against Credence. He rolled a 1 on a survival for spatial awareness and lost two actions bumping into furniture. Longsaddle had to maneuver around the traffic and the counter and got one attack on him. And hit for 20 and he took 15. Brisco cast a ranged heightened heal on down Clarisa and did 39. And then used doctor’s visitation to move and do BFM on Oakwood for 26. Xeelie did her knowledge thing and missed but that’s as good as success for her. She hit for 8 and did a 5-foot step away from Credence. The downstairs goons moved to reach range and attacked. He critically saved and took nothing.
Prone but conscious Clarisa stood up and cast Daze on him. He failed his save and took 8. He took some fire damage and took a 5-foot step. And flew out the upstairs window, leaving us in the dust. The two goon squads did nothing much. Oakwood moved twice to get outside and tried to spot him. He rolled another 1 and used a hero point for a decent 21. He did not see him but was thinking he must have done something tricky. Invisible, on the roof, doubled back. With two moves to get out of the building, he had to be close. TerStegan ran upstairs and didn’t see him near the window he exited. Longsaddle ran out the back door. Brisco used his Root Reading cantrip to Seek him? He rolled a good perception and got the trees telling him he’s on the building. Probably better than he should have expected. Meanwhile Xeelie unlocked the cell door with the intent of relocking it once she got inside. The faking Cryde cast Time Jump as a prepared reaction that gave her two extra actions. So, she flew through Xeelie and was gone as well. So sad.
Everyone was disappointed with that conclusion. After all that planning, having them on the ropes, etc. The GM wasn’t that happy either so he threw us a bone and started a skill challenge. Can we “catch them” in a skill-based chase? Clarisa used her Revealing Light spell and made an Arcana roll. Oakwood used his Burning Jet to get on the roof. He surprised them with a 20 on the die for two successes. TerStegan climbed up as well and used Intimidation. He rolled a 33 and succeeded. Brisco couldn’t come up with a plausible way to get up there so he went with Xeelie. Xeelie used her Otari Lore to go where she thought they would be based on her knowledge of the town. And Clarisa went with them. Xeelie rolled poorly and used a hero point and rolled a 20. So, we kicked ass on the skill challenge. 6 successes with no failures and one hero point used. We decided that TerStegan’s taunting caused them to come back around to finish us off. Or perhaps they were momentarily regrouping on the roof, figuring they had a round or two.
We re-rolled initiative. Ironically, the two characters that actually got on the roof, went last. But more importantly, some of us went before them. Xeelie tried to do her recall thing and crit failed again. Her target was 36. They discussed and Brian let him get his bonus damage without gaining any actual knowledge at a lower DC. Xeelie missed by one, use a hero point and hit by four. And did 12 to Cryde. That took her out again. And then cast Shield. Brisco used his Tempest Surge and took out Credence. Our luck certainly turned from all those early misses. We stripped them down to their under clothes, tied them up and kept them tethered until their fly ended. A search got Brisco a crap Medicine check. Another heroic skill point was used and got us the realization that Cryde was a “recent” “day walker” vampire. Which explained how she recovered in the cell. We turned them over to Longsaddle. I think the vampire was staked but we’re not sure what happens to the other. Not our problem any more, I guess. Yea! We were given the fancy sword cane as our reward. +1 striking and wounding. The wounding is a 10th level effect so we can’t transfer it but could use it. It’s an agile and finesse weapon but the two martials liked what they currently had better. So, we sold it for 50 gold each when the miscellaneous loot was included. We stopped there. After a week off it’ll be back to the dungeon to pick our poison. Seems like we’ve got several “unbeatable foes” to choose from. Good thing we’re 6th now.
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Pathfinder Game 46 - 08/22/2025 - Guarding Democracy
Written by David Green
We leveled up to 6th. On to the game. The town elders show up with some guards. They wanted to assess our power level to decide if the town guards would be able to help in the upcoming confrontation with the agents of the Kartos Consortium. They had 6 guards and TerStegan said he could take them all on by himself. He took them out in two rounds with multiple crits and they never touched him with multiple critical failures. So, they will stay out of the way. Then Carmine stepped into the ring and they fought to a critical laden draw. We had 2-3 days of downtime. TerStegan tried to get work at the upscale Crow’s Cache to earn some extra Income. He missed his roll so they had nothing available. He bought his full plate and transferred his current +1 rune for which he borrowed money from Clarisa. The Rowdy Rockfish was eager to have him since we saved their son. He rolled great and got 5 silvers plus 5 more the next day. And then he went back to Crow’s Cache the last day and earned 2 gold. Oakwood picked up his +1 hand wraps from Amecia. He planted some more trees in the surrounding area and searched for hidden armies. And then guarded the ballot place on election day. Clarisa translated some of the spells that we’ve gathered into her spell book. Xeelie built a booby-trapped ballot box. Oakwood failed to Aid her but she rolled a 20. She then built magic items for herself and TerStegan. She worked with Amecia and told her about them being half-sisters. They buried the hatchet and bonded over blaming their parents for not telling them. Last was Briscoe. He searched the guard barracks, looking for breeches already in place. He intimated the guards about being tree lovers or he’d sick TerStegan on them while he was at it.
So, then we transitioned into planning for the night. Xeelie would hide under the counter. Her familiar would be up on the counter. Brisco wanted to use his “turn into a shrubbery” power to guard the front door. TerStegan would patrol around outside. Oakwood would hide upstairs overlooking the lower level and the windows. Clarisa would hide in a cabinet on the lower level. At the end of the day, Xeelie switched the ballot box as planned. She noticed the hinges were not quite right once they were besides each other. (I.e. she missed that first hidden roll.) And tossed her flour in the holding cell. TerStegan was randomly at the south side of the building on his rounds when things started happening. A tiny gold dragon-like familiar(?) flew in a window, past an alert Oakwood and landed on the railing above the holding cell. Xeelie didn’t notice anything but she didn’t have any line of sight up that high. Briscoe noticed a pane of glass hovering (invisible person) by the same window and some sort of gold creature climbing in. He chose to raise the alarm. He figured breaking and entering was a sufficient crime.
He saw a black figure drop down from the same area. They hit the ground and ran into the bushes across the street. Oakwood stepped over the railing, onto the cage and grabbed the familiar with a 30. And then turned on his powers. TerStegan came around the corner but couldn’t see anything. Brisco ran across the street, after the figure. Unfortunately, that put him off the map which complicated things. When he got close to it, it looked more blobish than man. A roll identified it as an illusion. He yelled that at TerStegan. He looked around for the caster but didn’t see anyone. Xeelie heard someone on the cell (Oakwood). A hidden perception rolled revealed nothing. Or nothing had happened. Clarisa heard the yelling as well but inside the cabinet, her line of sight was limited to a sliver. She could see Oakwood acting but chose to stay hidden. Next, the GM did stuff that we were unable to perceive. Briscoe’s illusion disappeared, likely no longer being sustained. Xeelie and Oakwood took an Arc of Lightning, failing saves of DC 26. But it was only 7 points. It came from somewhere on the top level but we still couldn’t see them. But the window was now open. The dragon broke free but with only one action, it didn’t go anywhere.
Oakwood failed on a Seek action and then used his Flying Flame since AOEs don’t need to be targeted. Something was hit for some fire damage but not illuminated since that’s too useful to get for free. TerStegan ran up and opened the front door. He couldn’t see the foe but didn’t have any actions left anyway once he turned on his stance. Briscoe ran up to the building, rolled a 1 and didn’t climb it. Xeelie stood up, cast fast healing on herself and did a Seek on the lower level but found nothing. Clarisa stood up, jumped on the counter and did a Seek of the south balcony. We had to roll a great perception and guess right so our odds were poor bordering on hopeless. “Thankfully”, Cryde became visible and cast a Fear. Oakwood succeeded, Xeelie failed and Clarisa and TerStegan critically failed. TerStegan used a hero point to avoid the fleeing condition and got a critical success. Credence became visible, Devised a Stratagem and attacked Oakwood. He crit for 32 plus 2d6 bleed. Oakwood turned on the Thermal Nimbus and did Battlefield medicine on himself. And then took 6 more bleed damage.
TerStegan wanted to superleap across the room and up to the balcony but he couldn’t do it with Jump or Leap. After much discussion. So, he used his helm to get an extra Stride, went through the door and most of the way up the stairs. Briscoe managed to climb up through the window and up to the balcony level. Xeelie crit failed her Lore roll, gave up on her attack and moved towards the stairs. Clarisa had to flee out the door. Cryde cast Dimension Door and ended up down below in the cell. She did reenter Oakwood’s fire aura so took more damage. She examined the box and identified the defect. We stopped there at Credence’s turn. Most players had spent their rounds moving and seeking so we’ve barely touched them. However, only Oakwood has taken any serious damage. So, after 2 rounds, it’s pretty much a draw. The turning point will be if we can counter whatever spells they have left when they decide to flee again. As we’ve seen, we can’t do much against Fly, Dimension Door and Invisibility.
Pathfinder Game 45 - 08/15/2025 - Um, Not that Way.
Written by David Green
It was a night of dead ends and unbeatable foes. Xeelie snapped into existence and was forced to make a save from the Shrinking Trap we had passed through last time. She critically failed and she became tiny. There was still no guidance as to what that meant, rule-wise, however we thought her reach became 0 which was more of an issue for a melee character. She switched to her less effective star knife. And then the teleporter activated and a bunch of battered creatures appeared. A redheaded woman with a great axe and a plague doctor each carrying two halves of a body. Plus, a crawling hand and one of those Bounders and a bat demon. They had the symbol for “winner” floating on their forehand in a language that only Xeelie knew. That body looked like one of those adventures we met on level one so long ago. TerStegan did a Warfare roll and didn’t get much of anything. Xeelie rolled on the bat thing and identified it as the result of a necromancy ritual. Giant ghoul bat. And that it would be an even match for one of us. So maybe as a whole, they’d be a tough fight for us but we agreed we wanted to defer that fight as long as possible. They moved into the dorm area we hadn’t explored yet. So, we avoided that.
Soon after, another group came through. The losers. The rest of that adventuring party. They had gotten transported down here by the Grinning Man to fight and could not get past the barrier to get back out. We told them we had recently removed the barrier. And then asked them about the winners in case we had to fight them. Giant axe is obvious. Bat is a ghoul. Tough and probably undead. It had a bone chilling screech. The Plague Doctor was a healer and probably a necromancer. The hand just did damage and we had seen a Bounder. Evidently surrender is an option however the victors get a boon. In this case, the body of their friend. Which will probably be turned into another ghoul? They would be losers for 24 hours. We told them there was a path to the exit. They wanted to leave but were afraid the Grinning Man would not allow it. They were going to take a rest and then try it. They headed to the dorm area we had already explored.
TerStegan started talking about sending Xeelie into the saw trap room. But then Zara and her riding dog came up the stairs. She was pleased to see more competitors and asked if we were going to fight. We begged off for now, due to the fact that we were still shrunk. She was a spectator and not a fighter. She went into the mural room and closed the secret door. Evidently that’s where she slept. We had already learned we couldn’t defeat her. So that was another unbeatable dead end. The last door led to stairs down. The other stairs down lead to double doors and presumably to the arena. We didn’t want to go there so we chose the door. That door also went down. Is down the next level? That ended in a big room. There was a large creature chomping on the crystal shards. And big dangerous worm thing with a wand that seemed to be ordering it around. We rolled initiative and fled in order. The beast was large and the stairs, small. But the GM insisted we play it out. It had a sonic attack that sickened on a save and stunned and deafened if you failed. Xeelie failed and used her one remaining action to identify it. Then Clarisa grabbed her and we all fled. Not that way! We guessed that was the 6th level and wanted to face it as 6th level characters.
We recovered and headed to the shrinking room since everywhere else was death. Xeelie thought the shrinking would not be cumulative but would likely extend the duration. But we tried to limit our time in the room regardless. One of the doors was locked. TerStegan bashed the door and it was another teleportation circle chamber. On the normal network. He and Xeelie tried to activate it with a 10-minute ritual. Neither succeeded on their roll. And evidently were Stupefied 1 for 24 hours. That’s minus 1 on Int plus a flat roll to cast a spell. But they were mostly melee guys. They tried again and failed again. The Stupefy didn’t stack but did make their rolls one harder. One more try. Failed again. Use hero points and succeeded. It would be working for d6 days. That gobbled up some time for them and us. The next door was spiked closed. The GM said it would take minutes to remove them. At least Oakwood had the right tool with his climbing kit. He assumed Xeelie was right and stayed in the room. The trap didn’t go off again. Xeelie, seeing that it was safe, searched. However, the shrinking duration ran out while we worked on the spikes. We got big and then we got shrunk again. Eventually Xeelie realized it was triggered by weight. I.e. M but not S or T. It was needlessly complicated and time consuming since it didn’t really impact anything.
After all that, it was a single room. It had more runes on the floor and walls. Ruined furniture and a mummy. “Who are you?”, in a language only Xeelie spoke (DR-I think this was Necril. Clarissa speaks it too but by the time I looked it up it didn't matter any more). Chaffekim. Xeelie thought the runes were “boosting” its power? It switched to common. “What’s going on? Was Belcora still in charge?” We told him she’d been dead 500 years but power was rising and we were trying to stop it. He called her a fool. Evidently, he was providing an army for her back in the day. We asked what he would do, now that we freed him. Return to Oserum where he’s from. But if we were to perform a service for him, he’d reward us. He wanted Jafarkey or the imp Zuk, killed and proof brought. He described them and the main one sounded like the same species as the thing we fled from not long ago. Evidently there are a bunch of them on the next level.
For our reward, he’d provide the password for the blade trap which he built and a map of this level. But the foes were on level 6 so a map wouldn’t do us much good then. TerStegan said that we’d get to level 6 faster if he gave us a map of level 5 first. He tore a page out of a book and sketched a map on it. The page had a Freedom of Movement (level 4) from a spell book on it. We asked about the Grinning Man and the arena and he knew nothing about it. We could have spent all night questioning him but he said he had things to prepare and closed the door on us. Our best guess, he went afoul of Belcora, was imprisoned and used his spell knowledge to turn himself into a mummy in order to survive. I.e. unbeatable again. I doubt we want to release a mummy to walk the land but I’m not sure we can do much about it.
Somewhere in here, the adventure party showed up, asking about the exit. We hadn’t had a chance to discuss as a group, whether we wanted to reveal to them about the teleportation circles. They said,”what’s in that room?” Brisco said, “what room?” Xeelie said, “you mean the one with the teleportation circle we just fixed? Help yourself.” So, they left. Whether they actually got out, I guess we’ll find out. Back past the mold room, we found a kitchen. The map pointed us to a secret door. That corridor had bones similar to the saw room. That trap is big and had 3 entrances into it, according to the map. Even with a map, this place was very maze-like mainly because there were crisscrossing levels within the same level.
We went down a hallway to a bridge across a grand north/south hallway. That hallway lead to the arena? That hallway had a star mosaic on the ceiling. A skill roll indicated the stars were from the perspective of a different planet. Impressive but not very useful. Far to the south, we could see statues of various fleshwarp creatures. Most of them were broken and melted. Mouthers and abominations. TerStegan tried to get more information but it was too far away. We could see the Grinning Man, sitting on his throne. TerStegan was still headed for the guard room mentioned in the letter since it said something about an exit. Oakwood and Clarisa, being in the back, noticed the Grinning Man noticing us. Another unbeatable foe. We went across another bridge that ended at a portcullis. And double doors behind it. Some of the bars were melted and twisted such that a small person could slip through it. And as luck would have it, we were all currently small or tiny. It was still a DC 18 acrobatics roll which isn’t trivial, especially if you didn’t happen to have that skill. Tiny Xeelie slip past with ease examined the locks on the doors. We could see arrow slits but no one was shooting. Oakwood made it through on two tries. Since there was only room for two between the bars and the doors, they opened the door so that we could move more through. That revealed a room with more doors.
And a Greater Shadow emerged and attacked. It had a +20 Stealth and went first. It hit Oakwood for 17. Then stole his shadow and gave Enfeebled 2. (STR drain.) That created a new shadow called Oakwood’s Shadow. It then hid in Xeelie’s tiny shadow. It was now Concealed which meant a flat check of 5 to hit it. But Xeelie’s lantern made it a 4. Clarissa cast Revealing Light in the area. It succeeded as did Oakwood but Xeelie failed. That meant Dazzled for 2 rounds or 1 minute but canceled concealments. So, it was not concealed but everything was concealed to them. Brisco missed with Ray of Frost and then missed with his trident. TerStegan faced a Acro 18 or an Ath 30 roll. He used his helmet for a +2. Only got a 23. He used a hero and failed again. And then he used Acrobatics and made it. GM let him move into the room since the thing was hiding and not resisting. Xeelie moved to get flanking and then rolled her knowledge thing and rolled a 20. It was resistant 10 to everything except force, ghost touch or vitality. And then she missed. And missed again. Oakwood crit but remembered he was Dazzled, rolled a 2 on that check and lost it. And tried to attack Oakwood’s shadow and missed.
It went again. It hit TerStegan, stole his shadow and created another shadow spawn. And missed Oakwood for its last action. But it was Dazzled, so retroactively it missed that flat check and none of that happened. Clarisa did a Full Force Barrage and finally hurt it. Brisco did Vitality Lash and it saved for half damage. He wanted to throw his trident again but it was pointed out that he could not go through the portcullis. So, he cast Guidance on Oakwood instead. Oakwood’s shadow walked through the portcullis and attacked Clarisa in the back rank since she was the one doing damage. And it missed twice. TerStegan pulled out his Ghost Touched hatchet and attacked. (It was debatable whether he’d do more with his great axe, taking the minus -10 to damage but if you got it, might as well use it.) He hit for 9, but it took it all. Xeelie attacked and made the flat check. But then she missed and then missed again. And again. Oakwood made his flat check and missed and made it and missed. It went and did something. Clarisa felt “marked for death” whatever that meant. And then it fled through the north door. However, TerStegan got a Reactive Strike and crit for 18. And that dropped it. GM assumed its spawn died too.
The north door was to another room. A guard room but no guards. Nothing worth anything on the empty weapon racks. Another door, another empty room. Arrow slits here and there. The south door did the same. The mummy’s map indicated a secret door down there. Brisco looked but didn’t find it. TerStegan tried and found it. It’s helpful to have a map. Meanwhile Xeelie attempted a crafting roll to hold the portcullis open. And failed due to the still present Stupefy. That secret door led to double doors which led to a long hallway. 100 feet down the tunnel was collapsed. The GM said it would take hours to clear. Although the tiny might be able to get by. Since the letter indicated there might be an exit/entrance, we dug. It led to the smuggler’s den. That’s 10 minutes from our house. How the elevations work out, we’re not sure. And the fact that this circumvented the whole gather items to remove the barrier thing, we’ll ignore. We stopped there. We’re fine on hit points and not down too many spells since we can’t seem to find much we can fight. But the conditions are adding up. Although some had expired. We might try to finish off the level before sunset or just head home. The re-election is 3 days away. From the map, there are 4 rooms yet to have visited. Plus, the arena? Brian declared us 6th via email so hopefully that’ll help.
Pathfinder Game 44 - 08/01/2025 - Dinner For Two
Written by David Green
We awoke in our beds at the clubhouse after a long rest. At breakfast, we started the same debate we had the previous morning. To hang around town and prepare for the (re)election while Xeelie built magic items or go back to the Gauntlight. But that was cut short by a knock on the door. It was the town elders including mayoral candidates Osef and Carmine. They wanted to consult with us about the election. Evidently Carmine had agreed to withdraw from the contest. He had never intended these sorts of tactics. He was just taking advice (and money) but didn’t fully realize what was happening. Despite the lack of hard evidence, they were now convinced the accountants aiding him were under the employ of the Kartos Consortium and they meant harm to the town. They were looking for ideas on how to catch them so that they can arrest them? I’m not sure what happens to them if caught. It’s not like Otari has a prison. Execute them? Send them packing? Away, we were pulled back into this mess.
Some ideas were bandied about. None of them were very hopeful. Mostly TerStegan came up with a plan of sorts. Carmine can act as a double agent to try to get them to tell him their new plans. It was pointed out that they didn’t include him in the old plans but perhaps if he said something along the lines of “I didn’t realize you guys were prepared to use such tactics. I’m all in. What’s next?” It seemed obvious to us that if we took no new measures, they’d be suspicious and were not likely to try again for the ballot box. However, Osef said that it would take a unanimous vote from the council to deviate from town tradition and that’s not likely to happen. Along those lines, Carmine will tell them our plan was to count the votes the day of the election but that he could stop that vote and put them back in the guard house overnight. With extra guards. (I.e. some of us.) If they tell him they have a new plan, we counter that. If they go for the box again, we’ll put a paint bomb in it and they’ll be marked. Caught red handed. Of course, if we catch these two, that still doesn’t tie them back to Kartos but I guess first things first. While they pulled it together, we were told (by the GM) to go back to work on the Gauntlight. Xeelie did get Carmine to agree to have his daughter work on our magic item transfers. It doesn’t actually save anything, having Xeelie doing them so it doesn’t cost us anything to have Amica do them. That way, we can push that forward without leaving Xeelie in Otari.
Brian wanted to know where we would be entering the current level. That prompted a discussion on fixing the portals. It turns out, reactivating dead portals takes no money. Just an hour of time and some skill rolls. So, we turned on the one on level one, near the swamp dragon lair. (The one on level zero was broken and would require money and acquiring a more difficult ritual.) Xeelie made an Arcana roll and TerStegan made an Occult roll. That turned it on for 1-6 days. Next, we went to level 3 in the library area. That ghoul we didn’t kill was busy repairing books and shelves and such. Along with some of the other left alone creatures. Oakwood asked if he needed anything since he was kind enough not to give us any trouble. He needed paper, ink and such. He had piles of books ready. Each 1 Bulk was worth 5 gold pieces. And now that we had extra portable holes, we could haul some away. (So much for helping him.) We repaired that portal and since one of them rolled a critical success, it would be activated indefinitely. We then proceeded to level 4, next to the dining room.
It was here that Brian sprung his trap. (We should have been suspicious when he cared which way we were coming.) We saw an undead thing in the form of Volluk Azrinae. We had already faced a version of Volluk in this room and almost died so we were not thrilled to have to face him again. But this was a different form. First of all, its stats were jacked up as usual to face a whole party. Each round, it got a reaction to cast a Deathly Gaze which Drained. 1 on a stiff Fort save and 2 on a failed. That gives -1 to Con stuff including a level’s worth of hit points off the top. TerStegan and Xeelie were soon afflicted. Once “gazed” it had another attack that did damage and put the Doom condition on them. That meant you were one or more steps closer to death. And to add insult, it was against that depleted Fort save. Plus, a fist attack, high AC and saves etc. Xeelie’s attempts to identify it kept bouncing. It didn’t do a ton of damage so the real worry was the threat of character death. Once again, Brisco showed up in time to start healing people. Oakwood hit above average and Clarisa used a full load of Magic Missiles. On its 3rd round, Clarisa actually saved against that gaze. Thankfully Oakwood, who’s primary stat is Con, did not get targeted. So as often is the case, we were afraid for our lives in rounds 1 and 2 and it was dead by round 4.
Evidently it was a remnant of the original monster. According to the rules, Drained and Doom take a long rest per level to recover and they were down 3 and 4. However Brian said that this “depends on the monster”. So, we spent a couple hours mending the teleportation circle. One of them rolled a critical success so it was up permanently. Evidently, they recovered a level per hour (or was it two). We healed up and decided to press on since this was the first fight of the day. (I’m not sure why we didn’t wait some more hours for them to fully recover.) We hadn’t found the circle on the current 5th level but we hadn’t seen much of it yet. We went down to that level and down a hallway and came to a door. Xeelie was prepared to pick it but Oakwood used the copper key we got last time. It was a storeroom full of organs in jars and limbs wrapped in paper. There were some medical instruments but they weren’t worth anything. What there was was two weapon racks with a “gnarled stick” on each. One was identified as a Wand of Summon Animal, level 2. There was much discussion on what kind of animal a level 1 animal was. Answer, not much and certainly not worth a 3-action cast and an action to sustain. Brisco took it but I think it will be sold. The identify on the other wand failed so it was stowed for another try later.
The next room had two pits in the center plus three more in alcoves on the far wall. There was a stone throne with two levers. And two creatures. They were abomination sort of things with frog legs and multiple tongues. Their stats were comparable to ours which was good but it was their special attacks that were the issue. One went first. It leapt onto Xeelie, tossed her 5 feet on a stiff Reflex save and threw her down the pit. She got a Grab an Edge Reflex save which she made. It then hit her with a trip attack which dislodged her but then failed to toss her into its mouth. Good news, she fell 55 feet down, taking 22 points. When the second one went, it did the same to TerStegan except he missed the Edge and just fell. And before anyone could go, the party was split. That’s never a good thing however most of the healing was up and most of the damage dealing was below. So that became two fights as Brian switched from map to map.
Above, when they could finally go, they used movement to back away from the pits and get into the hallway. Thankfully, they didn’t have reactive strikes. The monsters were still hitting and tripping but 5 feet or 10 feet on a crit wasn’t going to get them down the holes. Thankfully those attacks suffered from MAP. Neither side did a lot of damage. Certainly not the TerStegan’s 30-50. Once they got Injured, they backed away too and started using a ranged acid spit attack. Those hurt more and did persistent acid damage which are always trouble. Oakwood got good use out of his Aeon stone again and his shield, acting as the hit point buffer. They finished them off right about the time the other half got back up. Meanwhile TerStegan and Xeelie landed in an underground lake. They actually landed on two slumbering Hydras. TerStegan got to the shore as did Xeelie. She cast Fast Healing on him. We could see the curve of the Gauntlight Tower but the stone was transparent. As if this was an observation area. Probably so that they could watch people tossed down the pits be torn apart by hydras. Thankful, the first Hydra rolled a 1 on its perception and didn’t notice them. It snapped at the second, assuming it woke it up. The second spotted the fleeing teens but snapped at the first. All that gave our heroes a couple round head start and they made it to an exit around the corner. From there, it was up the spiral stairs and back to the rest of the party.
We stopped there. Brian chose not to do any healing or refocusing or repairing. So, we’ll start there next time. A new dungeon level but the same constant fight for our lives. It’s not easy, saving the world.
Pathfinder Game 43 - 07/25/2025 - Watch That Last Step
Written by David Green
We were still in the circular staircase room at the start of level 5 and chose the door to the east. In there was a big room full of chains, similar to the torture room we found the level above. There was a rusty looking grate over a pit in the center of the first area. And another chain fiend standing there. There was discussion about trying to fight her from the hallway and avoid the room of chains (i.e. at range) but TerStegan would have none of that. We moved in. Xeelie came in saying “Hello” and TerStegan came in saying “We killed your sister, prepare to die.” Sort of mixed messages. We rolled initiative and she started attacking us with the various chains in the room. She could pretty much attack anything she could see in there. She had the usual Fear effect, forcing everyone to make a Will save or be Frightened 1 or 2. She also got an opportunity attack on anything that moved (but only once a round). And 3 actions with a high attack value but at least she suffered from MAP. TerStegan charged in and she fell back into the corner. Xeelie moved up and did her evaluation thing. It was resistant to most everything but vulnerable to silver and holy. (Holy, not vitality.)
When Clarisa moved in, she plotted her path across the grate. BTO squawked in surprise and was accused of meta gaming. So, Clarisa went ahead and fell 40 down to the next level, taking 20. Oakwood threw her a rope on his turn but it took all 3 actions to fish it out and toss it. She then spent 3 actions climbing and he spent 3 actions pulling her up the rest of the way. The net effect was that it was TerStegan and Xeelie alone for the first 2 rounds. They got battered. On the second round, TerStegan was crit with a chain and took lots of damage plus 2d6 persistent bleed damage. And he was grappled (no movement actions and flat-footed) and impaled (can’t recover from the persistent damage). That was one action for her. She beat on Xeelie with the rest. So, when Brisco showed up, TerStegan was almost out and Xeeile is badly injured. Once he did his usual “I’m running away”, he charged forward and did his battle medicine. But that and Xeelie’s fast healing wasn’t enough to keep him up.
From there, it was a scramble. We tried to keep him alive and he tried to fight from the ground. Xeelie used a healing scroll and Brisco used both of his day’s battle medicine on him. The other two joined the effort. Oakwood’s new Aeon stone bounced the persistent damage on him. Clarisa tried her vitality lash, discovering that holy was not the same as vitality. By the way, the fiend also had fast healing 10, However, any round that Xeeile hit it with her silver starknife, it didn’t get it. After a few more rounds, our numbers won out but we were beat pretty good. Oakwood started handing out Fresh Produce and Brisco did his Treat Wounds. We searched and found nothing. Clarisa said that the pit led to another hallway with more doors so we figured we’d get to it when we got to the next level.
There were double doors to the north that lead to 3 cells. Each had a pile of garbage and filth but nothing was moving. We started to search and someone spotted the gleam of copper under the center pile. Oakwood used his Mage Hand to pull it free and awakened 3 undead blob things. He turned on his fire damage and took a shot at one. Xeelie said these were resistant to slashing and piercing and vulnerable to vitality. Did they have a fear effect? I can’t recall. They did a flesh slap or a bone shard range attack. They had no trouble passing through the bars. They also had an engulf power but Brian was unable to land it. After a couple rounds, we finished them off. We searched and found nothing but the copper key. Our only treasure of the night. We ate more fruit and went to the double doors to the south.
This seemed to be an examination room or maybe a morgue. There were 3 tables and various scary equipment hanging from the ceiling. There was one body on the furthest table. Brian sort of forced the action, having Clarisa check under the sheet. It was a carved up Morlock body from which a Specter emerged. This was similar to the monster we fought in the Otari crypt and pretty mad about being chopped up in its past life. It had a fear zone and was resistant to everything but vitality and ghost touch. Thankful, our bright lights made it Clumsy 2. TerStegan started swinging while the rest of us moved up. He took advantage of Clarisa standing there to get flanking. Xeelie attacked and then Oakwood got flanking from her. However, then BTO logged off and Oakwood’s flanking ceased to exist. And then Clarisa fled, stopping TerStegan’s flanking. But then he moved around and finished it off with a 58 point crit. Again, no treasure or anything of interest. This level, at least so far, has been much emptier. It was late so we stopped there. There was a debate about returning home for a long rest or pressing on. The casters won out and we went home. That’ll reset the battle medicine and TerStegan’s Bless as well. Xeelie is eager to make magic items for people and people are eager to get them so we may stay in town a few days. That’ll allow us to protect the next election although I think it is still 5-6 days away.
