Welcome to Haranshire

Session Notes 11/8/15
by: Tomoe - Mickinzee

PCs:
Rogtar: Half-Orc Bard, Halfling raised, childlike family portrait on the banner, Mark W.
Erol: Human Arcanist, Study under Tauster with Janlith (NPC arcane user), Mark M.
Jobin: Half-Orc Paladin, Halfling adopted, Chase
Tomoe: Kitsune Rogue, Mickinzee
Ortree: Kasthas Oracle/Paladin, Deaf, Chris

Day 1:

• Rogtar sent from his village to gather aid to undercover cause of flooding
• Flooding affecting livelihood of inhabitants, unable to pay taxes, fleeing area
• Jobin (halfling sympathetic), Ortree (religiously aligned), Erol & Janlith (traveling in the same direction) join Rogtar in Baldur’s Gate
• Go to Tauster to seek advice about flooding issue and deliver magic items
• Heading east, the party stumbles upon Tomoe (appearing human) being pursued by stirges (2 on Tomoe, 6 in pursuit)
• Party intervenes defeats stirges, Tomoe out of gratitude joins party
• Rogtar apparently has a thing against insects: Blim Bumblebee (1st of many Rogtar stories)

Day 2:

• On road, attacked by unseen archers
• 5 farmers approach, claim to be allies, Jobin dubious
• 2 archers in trees, only Tomoe is able to spot them
• The farmer attack the party, archers & farmer 1 slain, one farmer 2 color sprayed,
• Leader tells the the others to retreat while he attacks, Rogtar kills fleeing farmer 3, farmer 4 escapes
• Loot: 15 GP, 2x longswords, 40x Arrows, 3x padded leather armor, 2x leather armor, 2x longbows
• Party (15 gp), Tomoe (40x Arrows)
• Farmer 2 and leader captured and interrogated
• Farmer 2 revealed leader as Carlanis
• Carlanis convinced farmers that the party was necromancers and should be killed
• Worrisome that our location was known
• When Carlanis is interrogated, he responds with silence
• Erol attempt to charm Carlanis results in Carlanis going catatonic
• Suspects alternate enchantment placed on him
• Suggested by Rogtar and Erol to take prisoners to Gerald
• Gerald suggests to put the men to work in the mines, but leaves the decision to the party
• Suggested by Erol, Jobin, and Rogtar, the farmer is released and convinced to try and find his friend who managed to flee the previous battle
• Carlanis kept with the party to mine for more information, locked up for the night
• Options to rest for the night: Bear & Mutton and Silver Crown
• Silver Crown: Seedier, better drinks
• Bear & Mutton: Nicer tavern, Janlith family owned
• Rooms for the party offered for free
• Rogtar convinced to perform, earns 10 sp

Day 3:

• The party awakens, Janlith missing from breakfast
• Erol checks with family, no information
• Tomoe checks her room, finds no sign of struggle but component pouch remaining underneath the mattress
• The party checks around town, no sign
• Gerald consulted, suggests a search party after lunch
• Result yields nothing

Day 4:

• Party decided to move on to Tormaster to meet with Tauster
• Decides to take Carlanis with the party to consult with Tauster
• Carlanis also refuses to walk as well as talk to us, Jobin has taken to carrying him around
• Hope that Janlith has made her way there, doubtful
• On the way there, stop in to see Cooper (associate of Gerald)
• No sign of Janlith, will keep an eye out, eventually organize a search
• He lets the party know that there has been Demi-human tribe movements in the Great Rockdale
• Arrives in Thormaster
• Place run down
• Gate a hole from the Uprising of the Lizardmen
• Only sturdy, well kept building is Tauster’s tower
• Party meets with Tauster
• Carlanis effect is due to some physical aspect or repeated magic
• Water from the mire is magical in nature
• Janlith hasn’t been seen

Day 5:

• Arrives in Harenshire
• Jobin convinced to tote around armfuls of halfling children
• Halflings willing to watch over Carlanis
• Rogtar threatens Carlanis with the Pumpkin Patch, bees, and riding dogs
• Surprisingly Rogtar doesn’t have an appropriately sized home, everything halfling sized

Day 6:

• Party decides to investigate mire
• Able to determine the center by the depth of water
• In center of mire large rocky outcropping
• Unknown voice threatens party not to approach, reason not helpful
• With Erol aid, Tomoe stealths forward to identify the voice belongs to a goblin
• Rogtar fascinates goblin so party’s approach goes unnoticed
• A tunnel and cave system lies in the center of outcropping
• Goblin identified as Bluehands (does not have blue hands)
• Jobin entertains by giving Bluehands blue dust
• Goblin immediately thinks it’s magic
• Strange symbol on forehead (double helix spiral)
• Offers to get goblin shaman
• Shaman appears with armed guards, then retreats into tunnel, refuses to come out, won’t allow anyone in
• Exchange occurs between Jobin and Shaman in Orc, most of party confused
• Bluehands remains behind on outcropping with party
• Allowed to rest on outcropping for the night

Day 7:

• Shaman allows single person (Jobin) to enter and negotiate
• Shaman has strange ring that similar symbol to image on Bluehand’s forehead
  
• Convinces shaman to allow the rest of the party to enter under the condition that no one attacks (on either side)
• Party enters allowed to enter/explore cave system
• Shown underground river where ring is found
• Shaman claims Maglubiyet lead him to ring, wanted it to be excavated
• Water began after ring was removed
• Met chief of tribe
• Attempted sale of waterlogged farm equipment
• Tribe moved to mire in order to flee Smallhead tribe
• Unwilling to move from mire
• Shaman willing to part with ring for duplicate ring and “big, sharp magic”

Day 8:

• Double back to Tauster for more advice and possible magic item for trade
• Tauster identifies ring as Ring of Water Elemental Command
• Believe if ring is removed from location, issue would resolve
• Has a resource that could make a duplicate ring for the party
• Cost 100 gp (15 gp from party funds, 17 gp per member)
• No magic item that would fit for trade with the goblin
• Tauster has informed the party that Cooper has sent word that he is gathering a search for Janlith
• Meet Cooper at his farm, start search
• Cross the river, meet with a druid(?) (accompanied by 2 wolves)
• Woman informs that she seen a boy turn into a werebear, concerned for well being of boy and those around him
• Cooper identifies the boy as Maxim
• Genetic from mother’s side, father doesn’t know
• Urges non-lethal damage, capture with nets
• On last shift, Tomoe and wolves on watch, orcs attack, bearing shields with this unknown device
  
• 6 heavy armored with axes, 3 archers, 1 shield & longsword
• Loot: 20 GP, 6x scale mail, 5x shield, 3 longbows, silver longsword, magic shield (to be identified), gold brooch with red gems (value 1250 gp)
• Party (20 gp, brooch, silver longsword, magic shield)

BONUS

The Ramblings of Jobin

DM NOTES 

We'll use Pathfinder's Medium Exp Track, so 5k for lv 3.

8 Stirges - 200 EXP

5 "farmers", 2 "pointy stick shooters", a wild Carlanis - 275 EXP

Negotiating your way into nice new goblin home - 150 EXP 
10 orcs in the night - 200 EXP

RESOURCES

Map of Haranshire

 

Map of Milborne

Map of Thurmaster

NPC and Location Glossary

Area: Haranshire
Towns: Milborne, Thurmaster, Harlaton
Seat of Government: Parlfray's Keep
Tauster: Evoker of Thurmaster
Jelennith: Apprentice of Tauster
Kuiper: Ranger of Haranshire
Shiraz: Ranger of Haranshire
Garyld: Ranger of Haranshire
Oleanne: Druid, with wolves Barlen and Arshir
Darius Carman: Owner of portions of Haranshire
Count Parlfray: Owner of the rest, local leader
Squire Lintern: Parlfray's rep. in Thurmaster

DnDerp Reborn WIP

This is Faerun, you live here. I've highlighted the area you guys are going to be focused on.

It is the Year of Wild Magic - 1372. The empire of Shadow has recently reemerged to your northeast and reestablished its borders after being lost in the Plane of Shadow for hundreds of years. You've also heard tell of a new, progressive kingdom of orcs and other demihumans being founded in the north, the first of its kind.

The most significant cities nearby are Baldur's Gate to the west, and Waterdeep to the north-west.  Amn, to your south, is in the second year of a war with the Sothillisian empire to their east (not marked - near Brost).

Populations are primarily human, with some halflings, gnomes, and dwarves mixed in. Elves are uncommon, but not necessarily unwelcome in most lands nearby. Half-orcs are less common, and viewed with suspicion, but you're pretty confident you won't be lynched. Kasatha are completely unheard of, you don't even know what I'm talking about.

It is autumn, late October, with weather similar to ours with a bit higher highs and a bit lower lows.

The Party:

Mark W. as Rogtar, Half-Orc bard of Shelyn, flagbearer and banjo-plucker

Chris as OrTree, Kasatha cleric/paladin hospitaler of Torm, deaf - or at least ignoring you

Mark M. as Erol, Human arcanist of Iomadae, fiery temper, fiery hands

Chase as Mr. Pants on Head without a name, Half-Orc paladin of Yondalla

Mickinzee as a mysterious person from Kara-Tur, arriving via the mythical email system


Plot and hook info to come as I get the last bit of character info in!

Be the Wardstone, Queen Galfrey, Medals? I don't need no stinking medals.

Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 9-18

A week has passed since we cleared the Garrison out. A demon hasn't been spotted in three days, it certainly seems like they've vacated the city entirely. Thus, it is rather surprising that Queen Galfrey declared martial law upon arriving in the city earlier today, I guess these human leaders need to feel important? Though I'm not actually sure she is human despite appearances, Aravashniel assures me she has been ruler of Mendev for well over 100 years. Our presence has been requested at the freshly cleaned Garrison for a meeting with her in a few hours. I suspect we are in for more excitement.

During our downtime, we were able to completely recover from our wounds and sold off the copious amount of magical goodies we liberated from evil. Quendnys has also been of great assistance in turning that cash into more useable gear and Pax's new Amulet of Mighty Fists-cum-Tentacles should be a big boost for +1 to hit/dmg on her four attacks.

Irabeth refused our attempt to return her sword we had located in the Garrison. Apparently, it had been her father's and she had sold it some time previously for Annevia's sex-change magic. She claims the sword is "bad-luck", (maybe just memories of Annevia?) but my detect magic disagrees and I'm fine taking it. (+1 Evil Outsider Bane Longsword)

http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Galfrey

Galfrey is...interesting. Forceful and intelligent, I can see how these humans have managed to survive so close to the Worldwound with her in charge. Turns out breaking the wardstone had very far reaching effects indeed. They're all broken now, and our group is now the new "wardstone". I don't see any choice but to continue until the Worldwound is closed or we die. I am sure that the demonic commanders are planning to exploit the exposed borders of the lands of men. Should they fall, my own home will face even greater danger. Best to cut the head of the beast off now, but they are so very powerful and we are so few...

At Galfrey's request, we have all officially joined the freshly instituted 5th Mendevian Crusade as Knights of Mendev. As Knights, we were rewarded for our efforts at the Garrison with medals of recognition and a pile of coin.

• Medal of Righteous Agility- Kesh - for slaying a demon before it had a chance to act.
• Medal of Righteous Clarity- Kesh + Ralan - for recovering information of value to the crusade.
• Medal of Righteous Command- Ralan - for convincing the First Descendants to join the cause.
• Medal of Righteous Valor- Sitzva - for applying the finishing blow to a powerful demon.

(OOC) Lol achievements! Medals give minor bonuses to a save/maneuver and can be activated for +2 to a stat for 1 minute. Kinda meh, but fun.

The medals were just buttering us up for our next mission though. The demons are already on the move and are launching an assault on the Southern outposts. Specifically, the maralith Aponavicius, recently led a march out of the occupied citadel Drezen to the north, leaving unguarded a powerful artifact that could turn the tides. The artifact, a crimson banner known as the Sword of Valor, is capable of denying the teleportation abilities of our demonic foes and would be of great aid in securing Kenabres against future incursion. Galfrey has ordered us to lead a small force of hand-picked, loyal paladins of Iomedae into the Worldwound to liberate Drezen and secure the Sword.

Accompanying us will be:

©Paizo

• Aravashniel, the blinded conjurer we saved during the initial attack and a Riftwarden. Now not blind thanks to Galfrey.

http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Irabeth_Tirabade

• Irabeth, as de-facto commander of our army

  

  ©Paramount_Pictures

• Aron, our highly-skilled guide and a siege engineer

  

  ©Paramount_Pictures

• Sociel, a cleric specializing in healing and divination

  

  ©Paramount_Pictures

• Nurah, a bard with knowledge of Drezen and the citadel

We spend the rest of the day planning our route with Aron and figure the march at approximately 160 miles to Drezen. Our force of 100-odd paladins can travel 36-miles a day and we'll be moving through demon territory, so some delays are anticipated.

Our first waypoint is Valis' Gift, a village recently engulfed by the Wound approximately one day away. The sky takes on an ominous red glow that grows more menacing with every step we take on the cracked clay that was once fertile farmlands. The few streams we find steam with demonic acid and we dare not let the horses drink.

We arrive at the Gift tired, thirsty, and not at all surprised that is has been razed to the ground. Clearly, the demons destroyed all they could in the area around Kenabres during the attack. We take an hour to search the ruins and locate a few underground food caches, but no survivors. Irabeth arranges the army into squads to keep watch as we rest that evening and we make it through the night without interruption.

Irabeth calls a halt fifteen minutes before reaching Vilareth Ford the next day to tell us that scouts have sighted a force of Tieflings ahead. We decide to take the the opportunity to ambush them by luring them away with a small portion of our forces. It, uh, works, and the armies clash with us having a major advantage.

(OOC) Okay, things are going to get a little awkward here. While the AP provided rules for managing these army fights as a separate mini-game, we all agreed it wasn't very well done and we'd just skip them entirely. Basically, it led to one person making all the decisions and making a few simple choices each fight to add/subtract modifiers for regular combat rolls. Our DM handwaved these and just had us engage the command center during each battle guerrilla style. While I would've liked the opportunity to actually use our army in an intelligent manner (and particularly augment them with our buffs and area effect abilities) this was not allowed to keep things simple. Shrug. Major problem here is that the fights don't make a whole lot of sense, so, take continuity with a grain of salt when anything dealing with the army is considered.

Kesh manages to locate what appears to be their command center after we send him up as an invisible, tethered, levitating cat balloon. We skirt the armies clashing and Haste our way in.

Our speed gets us across the field undetected and Katsa levitates Pax and I up the walls of the small camp while Ralan approaches a gap nearby on foot. Upon surmounting the wall, I quickly spot and identify a brimorak demon standing motionless. I realize he is likely telepathically commanding the army of Tieflings.

http://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Brimorak

These nasty little jerks are surprisingly strong and capable of various sorts of fiery, area effect badness. Fortunately, he is in charge range and we do the obvious. Pax connects, but I miss. Fiery blood showers out of the claw wounds and burns Pax. Must've missed that bit in my studies. Sorry Pax!

Three ghasts emerge from nearby tents as the rest of the party joins the battle. Ralan quickly slays one with a charge and Katsa burns both a ghast and the brimorak I am engaged with. Kesh lands a few shots, Sitzva's holy ray goes awry and the brimorak teleports away. An uninjured one appears on the ledge of a small building and launches a fireball, hitting all of us for significant damage. We finish off the ghasts and Ralan gets a levitate boosty from Katsa to ascend the building and rip the little blue bugger apart. The one we damaged earlier reappears, fireballs 3/5 of us, then meets the same end as Katsa helps Pax and I climb up for a lethal charge across the rooftops.

Our army finishes the now leader-less mob up quickly, suffering only 1 casualty. We search the camp thoroughly and find ten survivors from the Ford garrison that had been being used a playthings for the occupying demons. They agree to join us and seek retribution. We take a well deserved rest for the remainder of the day and will set out for Keeper's Canyon on the morrow.

Mythic, Charging, Flying, Mounted Combat and You

Before getting into our adventures during book 2 of "Wrath of the Righteous" I'm going to delve a bit into some mechanical issues that have been cropping up. Why? Because I like game mechanics, that's why. I like poking them, and prodding them, and shaping them to my needs. This is one of the first "D&D" groups I've been in that has had sufficient leveling-up+mythic options to provide the granularity I really enjoy in builds. I'm starting to have concerns about power level/over-optimization, but for right now I'm going to ride this for all it's worth.

(Spoiler) I'll be discussing elements of Autec's build that come into play later in the campaign. Here is the character sheet.

My DM has two relevant "houserules" because mounted combat, as written, is a half non-working, half confusing mess. While searching will get you *many* discussions of the issues, here is a good one: Mounted Charging in Pathfinder

1. When mounted, Pax acts on my initiative and I choose which order things happen during the turn. This is a tricky one, but saves time/confusion and 90% of the time I'd be delaying whichever character rolled better initiative to sync them up anyway.

2. Feats and mythic abilities relating to charging are considered to affect both myself and Pax if mounted. This is primarily relevant for Improved Overrun and the Burst Through path ability addressed below. This is a very gray area of the rules.

Here is the relevant rules text for what I'm looking at - all from the handy, dandy d20pfsrd.

Beast's Fury - Guardian's Call Ability - As a swift action, you can expend one use of mythic power to imbue your animal companion, cohort, eidolon, familiar, or bonded mount with some of your mythic power. As an immediate action, that creature can move up to its speed and make an attack with one of its natural weapons. When making this attack, the creature rolls twice and takes the higher result. Any damage dealt by this attack bypasses all damage reduction. A creature affected by this ability can take these actions in addition to any others that it takes during its turn.

Burst Through - Guardian Path Ability - Whenever you charge, you can move through squares containing allies and opponents almost as if they were not obstructing your charge. You can move through squares containing allies freely, but you must succeed at an overrun combat maneuver check for each opponent that obstructs your path to the target of your charge. If the result of the check exceeds the opponent's CMD, you may move through the opponent's square and continue toward the target without provoking an attack of opportunity from that opponent. If you fail any of these combat maneuver checks, your movement ends in the square before that opponent, but you may resolve the charge attack against the foe that stopped you.

Ride-by Attack - Feat - When you are mounted and use the charge action, you may move and attack as if with a standard charge and then move again (continuing the straight line of the charge). Your total movement for the round can't exceed double your mounted speed. You and your mount do not provoke an attack of opportunity from the opponent that you attack.

Wheeling Charge - Feat - When you are mounted and use the charge action, your mount can make one turn of up to 90 degrees as part of the move, as long as each part of the move is at least 10 feet. You may make an attack during any part of this move. Your total movement for the round can’t exceed double your mounted speed. Allied creatures do not impede your charge, though you cannot attack from or end your move in an ally’s space. 

Amazing Initiative - Tier 2 Mythic Ability - At 2nd tier, you gain a bonus on initiative checks equal to your mythic tier. In addition, as a free action on your turn, you can expend one use of mythic power to take an additional standard action during that turn. This additional standard action can't be used to cast a spell. You can't gain an extra action in this way more than once per round.

Call to Action - Level 2 Golden Lion Maneuver (STD action) - With a mighty blow, the disciple aids an ally by providing an opening in combat to move by an opponent. The initiator makes a melee attack, inflicting an additional 2d6 points of damage and granting an adjacent ally an immediate move action.

Improved Overrun - Pax Feat -  You do not provoke an attack of opportunity when performing an overrun combat maneuver. In addition, you receive a +2 bonus on checks made to overrun a foe. You also receive a +2 bonus to your Combat Maneuver Defense whenever an opponent tries to overrun you. Targets of your overrun attempt may not chose to avoid you.

Okay, so, that's a lot to digest. Take a second. Then give your buddy a second, then take another second, then maybe give another buddy another second. Zip around the battlefield like a Jack Russell Terrier on speed. Repeat next round. Gross. While MP intensive, these abilities all combine to create an action filled "nova" that is brutally effective, relatively safe, and incredibly confusing.

So what does it actually do?

• Barring very tight quarters or movement reductions, no one is safe from a charge. I can generally maneuver Pax into a position where a charge is viable through Beast's Fury and Wheeling Charge.

• Piggy-backing on the above, I can prone a lot of smaller adversaries by finding a good line to my actual charge targets. Action economy through the roof here - knocking down a mook or three takes up effectively half their turn at no action cost to me. Charging combatants are typically very strong vs. one BBEG (big bad evil guy), but weak if the charge misses/they get attacked by all the dorks standing around afterward. Now this is no longer a problem.

• The "nova" itself. Ideal circumstances I get to start by Beast's Furying Pax into a good position and dropping a quick (double rolled, DR piercing) bite on whatever is closest. Then we get to charge thru that guy and anyone else in the way to our target. Thanks to reach, I get to stab it before Pax finishes her charge/pounce. If the 3x damage lance mounted charge doesn't finish the target Pax gets to launch her four attacks (bite, claw, claw, gore) as well. Then, I burn an MP for Amazing Initiative to take another standard - Call to Action. If that hits, Pax gets another move action to get us the heck out of full-attack range.

Problems and common sense issues? Ugh, yea, a lot of 'em.

What happens if my charge kills the target before Pax connects with her charge? Does she still get an attack? On what? Where? Adjacent? Or potentially on other stuff I Beast's Fury/Call to Action her close enough to during the turn?

What happens if my Burst Through charge fails to overrun a target? Do I get an attack with my lance even though it is a reach weapon? Can I make an attack against an alternative, actually in range target? What if I fail the first overrun on an adjacent target? Do I get no charge/no attack? Does the attack include +2 atk -2 ac for charging even though I never moved?

How in the heck does all this work while flying? For that matter, how does ANYTHING mounted work while flying?

Honestly, I don't have good answers for these things, and my DM just looks at me cross-eyed when considering all these ridiculous corner cases.

Next week I'll take a look at possible answers to some of these questions from a design standpoint and pick up with our meeting Queen Galifray in the ruins of Kenabres.

Gotta Kill 'Em All: Learning about New Kinds of Demons the Exciting Way, Power Overwhelming

Assault on the Grey Garrison Part 2

Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 9

I'm growing tired of dretch and the foul clouds they summon. I've asked Sitzva if he possesses any magic capable of rendering them tolerable, but nothing back thus far. I only mention this because moving up the stairs to the second floor of the Garrison proved quite difficult after Pax sprayed them down. Ugh.

Fortunately, everyone was in reasonably good health and weathered the volley of tiefling crossbow fire upon opening the door at the top just fine. The 10 ft. wide hallways and wide doorways end up costing them dearly in the brief scuffle as Pax and I have no trouble maneuvering. Learning to cast Reduce Person was a good decision and we easily pierce deep into their formation. Ralan followed up with a charge and Kesh with some well placed shots to end the battle quickly.

We set off in a random direction, having no idea where the wardstone fragment may be. We first find and cleanse what appears to be a map/logistics planning room of some sort. Cultists of Baphomet are waiting to greet us with glaives, but Katsa hyponotizes them long enough for our volley to end their scheming. We quickly jam all the relevant looking papers into our bags and press on.

Too fast, perhaps, as a trapped door fireballs both the party and our ranger complement. We should really not all stand in a clump in tiny hallways. Doors are hard! And so is our luck, as the room doesn't even contain anything more exciting than an already emptied strongbox and some barrels of water.

The next room at first appears to contain nothing but gnawed upon humanoid remains and dirty straw, but we are quickly greeted by a peryton. The massive stag-headed bird of evil struck hard from above, diving and swooping back out of reach before we could retaliate. A tanglefoot bag brought the beast down in a tangle of dark feathers and we ended its thrashings in a round. Ralan's smite ability to pierce the damage resistance of our foes is, literally, a god-send.

We next come upon a room containing three human-headed abyssal flies, seemingly being used as couriers by their demonic keepers. They engage us by spitting thin streams of acid while blanketing the room with darkness. We retaliate with a wand of daylight and three arrows thud into each one as our rangers let loose. They fall shortly thereafter and we gather a few, hopefully important, documents.

Kesh unlocks the next door in the hallway for us and we move cautiously into a thoroughly burned out library. As we enter, a halberd wielding goatman shimmers into existence and gores Pax. Sitzva identifies it as a Schir type demon and warns us away from its poisoned weapon. Unable to get clear shots into the room, our rangers shuffle around while we lay into the thing. It delivers some nasty strikes to Ralan, Sitzva, and I before our combined might brings it down. We expend some Wand of Cure Moderate Wound charges before breaking down the door across the hallway.

An alabaster basin filled with entrails fills most of the next room and six human zombies fill the rest. We let them come at us single file through the small doorway and take our time carefully slashing them up with no damage to our side. We continue through the fetid room and find a set of stairs leading downward, past the first floor and into some sort of basement. Peering around the corner, Kesh spots a bat-winged minotaur wielding a greataxe and seemingly unaware of our presence. Seemingly overcome with rage at the desecration of this once holy place, Ralan charges in and trades massive blows with the towering brute. After a third blow from the enormous axe he nearly falls, but calls upon the blessing of Iomedae and manages to close some of his gaping wounds. I Haste a good portion of the party, Katsa unleashes a dazzling Burst of Radiance, and Kesh leads the ranger squad in a furious volley-loosing 4 arrows in six seconds. Sitzva forces healing energies into our flagging paladin and we rally, dropping the minotaur just in time for me to Open/Close the now unguarded door.

Inside, a scythe-wielding, tattooed elf woman glows with the fell, enhancing magic the minotaur was buying her time to put in place. Behind her, a large metal cage contains what must be our goal, the wardstone shard. Fortunately, with our Haste still active, she poses no threat and doesn't land a blow before being grappled by Pax and swiftly pin-cushioned.

The party takes a moment to rest and recover as Katsa and I discuss what to do about the shard. Not knowing what will happen, I volunteer Pax to whap it with the Rod of Cancellation and everyone else leaves the room. What a trooper she is, always willing to potentially explode for the, ah, more mortal members of the party. While that doesn't happen, something else even more unexpected does.

In a massive rush we are all shunted mentally through time and space, viewing the lifetime of the wardstone system in mere seconds. Simultaneously, we become aware of a malign presence that we *know* is the demon-witch, Areelu Vorlesh. She casually snuffs the lives of our mongrelmen rangers but is unable to bring the same fate upon us. As the golden light swirls around the room it suffuses our bodies, bolstering us with burning, holy power. That same power overcomes the corrupting influence of Vorlesh's magic and lashes back at her furiously, scourging the flesh from her bones and the membranes from her bat-like wings. The ruined witch manages to sever her connection with the failing wardstones and teleports herself to safety, but not before creating a portal through which five Babau demon's emerge.

Enhanced beyond mortal means by the wardstone's energy, we annihilate the assassin demons with nary a scratch. While the rush of power swiftly fades, I sense that we have changed forever and are truly in the hands of fate now.

(OOC) With the defeat of the Garrison we are now Mythic Tier 1. For those unfamiliar with this additional system, each tier we are granted a Mythic path ability depending on our chosen path. I went with Guardian for the ability to spend a mythic point (we have 5/day) to give Pax an immediate move+attack. I also got the path ability Burst Through which lets me charge through allies and overrun enemies to get at a charge target. Mythic points can also be spent to Surge, adding 1d6 to any d20 roll.

Due to various activities performed while assaulting the Garrison (primarily Ralan's obsessive shrine cleanliness) we are granted a vision of Iomedae and her blessings as we embrace our Mythic destinies. This blessing takes the form of a permanent +5 hp, +2 to a skill of our choice (UMD for me), and a bonus feat (Spirited Charge). This feat also marks the true beginning of my build, granting 3x damage on a mounted charge with a lance. While Pax won't be large enough to ride full-time for another few levels, my Enlarge Person (Pax) and Reduce Person (myself) spells allow me to be mounted with a high uptime and incredible mobility. Let the rocket-tag begin.

Also, my apologies for the lack of updates - we're back on schedule and I've got a back-log to get to work writing up. Expect more very soon!

The long awaited mission: How to Clean Shrines the Iomedaen way

Assault on the Grey Garrison Part 1 

Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 9

After obtaining healing from the resident crusader clerics we passed an uneventful night in our quarters in Defender's Heart. We were awoken shortly after dawn the next morning with a request for our presence from Irabeth. The last evening had proven very fruitful for her scouts and she wished to discuss our aid in an important mission.

Essentially, the demons had managed to locate a shard of the shattered wardstone and were intending to corrupt its purpose through a ritual being enacted in the Grey Garrison, a former crusader base of operations across town. Irabeth requested that we infiltrate the Garrison and destroy the shard through the use of a rod of cancellation provided by Quednis, the leader of the Riftwardens library. To assist our attack, she would divide her remaining crusader forces around town and launch simultaneous attacks on key demon holdings far from the Garrison in an attempt to lure them out. While extremely dangerous, our growing reputation as demon slayers and friends of the crusade demands our aid.

Before leaving, Lann of the Mongrelfolk/First Descendants offers us the services of a squad of six rangers to aid in our assault and we readily agree to take them on. After hearing of our mission, Aravashniel also offers us a cache of Riftwarden equipment scavenged from the remains of the library. I picked an exquisite cold iron lance from the pile and we were able to secure enough cold iron arrows for the newly expanded party.

The Garrison lies 400 feet or so ahead of us. Fortunately, we managed to avoid the eyes of any demonic patrols on the way here and seem to have the drop on them. Ahead of us, the building looms, solid and imposing. There is one, small, boarded window that we are able to see, but quickly dismiss it as a viable entry point for our force of 12. Two figures stand to either side of the large front doors, even this far away Kesh is able to identify them as animated corpses. Our assault begins with a full volley by the party. Our new ranger allies acquit themselves well and the corpses fall unmoving well before closing to melee. We spend a moment readying our weapons, buffing (Enlarge Person, Mage Armor and Shield for Pax), and, with a prayer to Eadro, we approach the doors.

Pax is the first one through the door and takes a surprise crossbow volley from the pack of tiefling rogues lurking in the shadows of the entry hall. Our initiative is terrible, giving them a second full round of sneak attack boosted crossbow shots on my poor octopus. Fortunately, with my new level four AC evolution, mage armor, and shield, Pax is up to 28 AC and doesn't just keel over dead. This was a *really* rough start to our assault and I'm pretty sure if any other PC had been the first through that door we'd have started down a man.

The tieflings are no match for our martial fury and go down quickly once we push into melee combat. Our damage output is very high, but we're overall lacking in area of effect capability. The entry to the Garrison is strewn with filth and the leavings of the now, also messy, tieflings. Ralan identifies the next, also filth filled, room as a shrine to Iomedae and, after seeming to suffer some sort of religious seizure, refuses to continue the assault while the shrine is desecrated by tiefling offal. He sets to work scrubbing and washing while the rest of us shrug and press onward. (Ralan was out this session and this was an in-character / tongue in cheek way of occupying him while we proceeded with the session. That is would turn out to have extremely positive repercussions for our party amuses me greatly.)

Pax leads the way, barreling into the next room and we startle a pair of Abracondilu demons enacting a puppet show with the severed head of a crusader as the puppet. They don't appreciate our interruption, but seem suitably receptive to our cold iron criticism of the performance. One bites a ranger, but tis but a scratch.

Continuing our blitz, we clump a bit too much around the next door and everyone suffers a nasty hit from the alchemist bomb that comes sailing out as we open it. Pax rushes in to give the bomb hurler a big tentacle-y hug and I go roll around to stop being on fire. A few more tieflings materialize from behind the statues lining the hallway we are fighting in and rush to clog things up. Due to her Large size, Pax manages to keep hold of the alch for a few rounds as we meat grinder our way through the tiefling mooks, but he finally slips the leash and resumes wrecking our rangers and Katsa with bombs. Fred sets up a triage outside the room and a number of us retreat, on fire, while Pax continues flailing at the alchemist. Finally, the dice fall my way and Pax fells the alchemist in a flurry of claws. We have a healing party and Sitzva helps considerably with a number of positive energy channels.

Quickly searching the alchemist's quarters turns up a fine wooden sword case radiating magic. We throw it in the loot sack and, remembering the duration of our fleeting buffs, head upstairs.

Death of a friend, Irabeth at last, how to walk into traps

Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 7

Annevia is dead. Her home was a trap.

Things started out well on the journey across town to her place. Well, in that no one died when we were ambushed by a cat-like howler demon near our destination. While the beast was clever in its maneuvering amongst the rooftops, it posed no real danger once we had a clear line of attack. Kesh continues to prove his worth with an increasing number of well-placed arrows and Katsa seems to be taking pride in showing off her newly enhanced magic missile spell to our foes. My own mastery over Pax's form continues to grow as well, just recently I learned how to augment her physical strength. I'm thinking about adding a horn...

Annevia's home seemed undamaged from outside and she quickly headed in, shouting Irabeth's name. We followed, less loudly. The home was modest, but tastefully furnished. Unsurprisingly, Irabeth wasn't just waiting around for us. She (this note couldn't be fake!) had, however, left Annevia a message to come join her at the Defender's Heart, a rallying point for the survivors across town. I'm guessing reading the message was some sort of trigger, as, with a soft "pop" of displaced air, we were assaulted by two lesser devils, ugly little blobs of flesh known as lemures.

This was startling for two reasons: 1. Similarly to demons, devils are capable of summoning more devils. 2. These two were clearly summoned, which likely means we're under attack by something we can't see.

We shred the two lemures in a flash of cold iron and tentacles just in time to meet the next wave of summoned creatures, three abyssal beetles about the size of my head. Pax isn't necessary to clean these up and I send her flailing through the room, hoping to bump into our mysterious summoner. This maneuver causes our assailant to cease summoning speed bumps and start summoning fireballs, a much more threatening strategy. I catch a glimpse of him as his aggressive spell breaks his invisibility; a medium sized orc in red scaled armor.

The orc's first blast is a tactical disaster and catches all of us except Kesh. Annevia goes down immediately, dead or dying, the rest of us not far off. Ralan manages to knock him down, but our flailing doesn't manage to disrupt his casting. The last I remember is Pax's screech and waves of light bearing me into darkness.

I survived, as did the rest of the party, though it was a very close call. Calling upon his holy healing powers, Ralan managed to weather the blasts while the rest of us were knocked out. Weakened and floorbound, the sorcerer was no match for his righteous fury. Kesh may have done something as well, but this is the story I got from Ralan.

A quick round of healing potions later, we're all back on our appendages and, after a few moments of discussion, decide to take both bodies to Irabeth if she still lives. Eadro smiles on our path and we don't run into anything on our short trip to the Heart.

The large structure was once a tavern, but has been converted into the impromptu headquarters of the remaining crusaders. We flag down a guard who brings Irabeth to us, an armored half-orc female. She catches sight of the bodies we carry and stumbled, but quickly regains control of herself before asking us what has happened and who we are.

Ralan fills her in on where we've been, our information on the cultists, and the death of Annevia. She is clearly saddened by the news, but stoic nonetheless, and excited to hear of our knowledge of the cultists movements. She tells us she will send a contingent to speak to the "First Descendants" under the city, and thanks us for providing a useful ally to the cause.

She also tells us that she had arrested the orc we killed, Vagor, years ago. Apparently he had slipped out of jail during the confusion and was waiting in ambush at her home. Some people can really hold a grudge.

Irabeth wastes no time in accepting us into the cause and enlists our aid to investigate the three cultist safeholds we had identified in Staunton Vale's letter to Hosila. A crusader cleric heals our burns from the fight with Vagor and we decide to head out immediately to the Topaz Solution, the first hideout.

Approaching the building, an apothecaries store, Sitzva casts a spell that allows him to scan the surface thoughts of those around him and sweeps the first floor. The only people inside turn out to be a trio of scavenging mercenaries with a small sack of magical goodies they'd dug out of the ruins. Sensing that our need would be the greater, I trick them into handing the mix of potions, bolts, and scrolls over or risk becoming demonically tainted. My ruse succeeds, but the kitty gets caught with his paw in the cookie jar when he tries to lift some of their coinage as well. Fortunately, it doesn't come to blows and they scoot.

After some searching, we locate a hidden basement filled with magically altered plants and a work area. I summon up a water elemental and instruct him to physically sweep the area for traps before we descend. This works out very well, as the cultists had, in fact, left two nasty surprises for us, somehow knowing that we would be coming. The first is some sort of magical fog that fills the area and causes all sorts of unpleasantness for the few of us that catch a whiff. The second is that one of the plants animates into a blood-thirsty and inhumanly strong mandragora. Ralan and Sitzva don't seem to mind the fog and engage the plant-baby-thing in close range. They suffer considerably from its blood-draining bite, but manage to bring it down.

We find a snarkily insulting message from the cultists after clearing the area. Glad they've got a sense of humor about their impending demise. Ralan scoops up the numerous Iomedaean holy symbols they seemingly left for us to find. With darkness falling, we decide to head back to the Heart and rest before investigating the next hideout.




Campaign Log of Autec the Landbound, Day 8

Our next stop is a tower nearby, once used as a guard post by the crusaders. Sensing the structure is inhabited by cultists this time, we manage to bluff our way inside to speak to the leader using Terendelev's scales. Ralan demonstrates surprising self control by continuing our charade and convincing the cultist leader that we were member of another group reporting our patrol of the city. He tells us of the current plans of the demon lord Minago to finish the destruction of Kenabres through the use of a piece of the sundered ward stone. Ralan thanks him by taking firm hold of his robes as the rest of us ram home our weapons. He goes down without a whimper and we secure the large pile of loot the cultists have been collecting. Katsa also makes sure we take a large, magical, brass bull's head mounted on the wall, as it is quite valuable to the right types.

We slay the remaining cultists on our way out and rush to tell Irabeth of the impending threat to Kenabres. As I write this, Irabeth is meeting with her scouts and advisers to determine our course of action. I suspect we will all be involved, but, for now, we can rest.