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.