This session sees us again without our cleric, who is piloted by the GM.
In attendance are;
Thaddeus Whisperheart: Gnome Trickster
Tiberius: Human Paladin of Sarenrae
Susan: Human Universalist Wizard
Kumak Morudall: Half-Orc Bloodrager
The group awake later than normal to a much more subtle smell of breakfast. The morning spread comparatively meager to the usual fare. The halfling cook apologizes profusely that Ameiko has not risen yet to help so she is running later than normal. Tiberius, immediately concerned for his proclaimed love shoots up to check on her when Sheriff Hemlock steps inside. He tells the party that all this goblin activity has him concerned and he wants to deputize the lot of them for the moment while he makes for Magnimar to plead for additional men.
The group is agreeable the terms of coin paid per day and access to garrison equipment. Newly minted as a deputy, Tiberius checks Ameiko's room and finds it empty. Alerting the group that their host may be missing invites jeers that she may have fled to be rid of Tiberius's advances, but they agree to look into it regardless. Kumak searches her room and finds a diary with scribbles beyond the usual scribbles people write and hands it to Susan. Susan decodes it and finds that it mentions Amieko was to meet her brother last night. Shalelu had left a note informing that she was going to scout out the local goblin tribes to see if they posed an immediate threat. With none of the party having much in the way of tracking skills they split up to ask about, Kumak proudly displaying his badge to everyone, Thaddeus ordering a guard to spend his time making a fabulous cloak for his gnome officer, Tiberius fretting, Susan rolling her eyes, and Villister forgotten at the Rusty Dragon.
Multiple avenues of searching leads them either to the Kaijitsu manor or the glassworks to speak with Amieko's father. Since they are already in town and the glassworks is operating the party elects to start there. The doors to the glassworks are all locked and all the windows have heavy blinds pulled. Thaddeus starts fiddling with the lock to the main door while Kumak moves around one side of the building to search for another entrance, Susan moves to the other side to meet in the middle, Tiberius runs forward along with Kumak and finding another locked door the Paladin pushes his shoulder into it and rips one of the stout doors off its hinges. Kumak shrugs and steps over the debris joining the human inside. Tiberius hears noise to the right and investigates there while Kumak splits to the left and opens a door revealing some sort of storage room. Thaddeus manages to pick the lock to the main door and entering a deserted front foyer filled with fancy glass works proceeds to "accidentally" knock several over. Tiberius opening the right door is greeted with the sight of 8 or so goblins smashing bits of glass, chewing on body parts and the grisly sight of the corpse of Ameiko's father covered in now cured glass. Calling out for aid Tiberius stands in the doorway and spends the next 30 seconds trading blows with goblins, the goblins unable to penetrate his steel armor and Tiberius unable to make significant headway in their numbers. Kumak is unable to join the fray as Tiberius refuses to make an advance into the room
"Git your pansy steel covered arse up in there so I can 'it em"
Thaddeus hears a commotion through some doors and investigating finds himself on the opposite end of the room from Tiberius and Kumak. Seeing 3 goblins in easy striking distance the gnome chooses to close the door and brace up against it. The fight is disjointed and drawn out. Tiberius finally moves enough to allow Kumak into the room and the Bloodrager squashes 2 goblins in quick succession.
"Please I've killed 3 to your 2"
The Paladin quips but the final goblin darts through Thaddeus's door and down the hall, Kumak gives chase, with his longer gait expecting to easily close the distance but the goblin manages to stay ahead and doubles back to where Kumak entered the glassworks and down some stairs. Kumak chases after and Susan spying this follows with Thaddeus. Tiberius decides to stay above and begins searching through the remainder of the building while Villister follows him admonishing him for looting the place while his allies are still taking the fight to the enemy. Chasing the goblin through worked tunnels, Kumak finds himself about to enter a T junction, sensing a trap the Bloodrager realizes he is alone, far from his allies, and in danger of being surrounded so he backs up and hides in a nearby closet hoping to catch his enemy unawares. Kumak hears movement but nothing crosses his eye-line. That is until Thaddeus runs past and enters the T junction, finding himself flanked by a goblin and elf man. The goblin and Elf land a few blows on Thaddeus who moves puts a hit into the goblin. Kumak moves to join the fray and drops the goblin leaving only the Elf man, who takes one look at his situation and in a series of leaps, slides and twists manages to zip over Thaddeus and past Kumak running down the hallway. Kumak roars and sprints after him but the elf is far faster than seemed possible and even at his top speed Kumak fails to so much as catch sight of him again. Susan inspects the other side of the T junction and finds the beaten but very much alive form of Ameiko. Tiberius is pleased to see the object of his affection will recover and Villister volunteers to remain and tend to her injuries while the party explores ahead. With Tiberius in the lead he hopes.
Tiberius makes comments towards the lightly armored half-orc and questions why he hasn't gone ahead instead of waiting for the fully mailed paladin. To which Kumak responds,
"Your'e right, I'm done waiting on you"
Advancing down the other tunnel Kumak encounters 2 creatures he has never seen before that give an inhuman scream and charge,whatever they are, 40 pounds of steel swung by 300 pounds of half orc muscle stops one dead in its tracks. Tiberius, Susan and Thaddeus arrive moments later and the 3 of them bring the other down.
"Going that way, your'e welcome to come or not" Kumak says nodding straight ahead. Thaddeus looks to the other 2, shrugs and follows while Tiberius and Susan choose to explore an off shoot to the cavern that gives way to more worked stone, Susan sends her owl to follow Kumak and Thaddeus with directions that she will communicate with them via the owl as best she can. Kumak and Thaddeus find themselves entering into a worked stone room with exits to the 4 cardinal points. In the center of the room is a statue of a woman bearing both a beautiful and monstrous visage. Clutched in her hands is a spectacular Ranseur that is as much a work of art as it is functional weapon. Steadying himself for the statue to attack Kumak wrenches the weapon free from the statues grasp, waits, but no attack comes. Looking to Tiny Nuggets and asking which direction he feels they should take they notice Susan's owl, who has started making concerned hoots and flapping not towards the direction they entered but the tunnel to the right of it. Resigning themselves to the task, Kumak and Tiny Nuggets follow the path until it branches, seeing signs of recent footfalls they deduce Tiberius and Susan came this way and follow.
The group rejoins in a room with some sort of raised dais and altar, with a door leading further in. Pressing on together they find a second set of doors and past that a room of some kind of importance. There is a water well in the center constantly generating a slow trickle, a pair of stairs flanking the walls that lead to a raised portion that overlooks the well and something else atop the dais. Kumak advances up the steps, Earthbreaker ready while Tiberius moves along the lower section. Thaddeus and Susan begin inspecting the room when they hear a small voice chanting. Some sort of hell dog appears below and attacks Tiberius while a small creature moves towards the object on the dais and drips some of its own blood into it, spawning more of those unknown creatures which Susan identifies as Sin Spawn. Tiberius takes a blast of hell fire and a viscous bite from the dog. Thaddeus faces off against the Sin Spawn while Kumak is magically held in place.Susan adds her arcane might and archery where she can but the tide moves against them when the creature summons another devil to the fight. Kumak finally shakes the magic and in one swing sends the creature back to whence it came. Tiberius heals himself as best he can while Thaddeus is taking blow after blow from the Sin Spawn. With a final swing of his sword Tiberius slays the devil dog and with that the door opens admitting Villister and Amieko. Kumak screams to close the door as he does not want to allow another foe to escape and between the now 6 of them the make short work of the Sin Spawn and hold the door. However the creature which had demonstrated the ability to turn invisible through the fight dives for the pool of water and vanishes beneath. Thaddeus distraught that it got away is reminded by Kumak that there is a good chance it remains. Diving into the water was a misdirect and it merely turned invisible and is simply waiting for its moment to escape. The group try to figure out how to locate it, Kumak reaches into his pack and offers up his 5 pound bag of flour when Villister reminds Tiberius that as a Paladin he can detect evil around himself to locate it. Doing so eventually gives Tiberius a bead on it and combined with his Smite the group manages to capture shortly interrogate and kill the creature. Claiming its magical dagger and small treasures for themselves.
Thoughts;
I'm trying to step back and allow the paladin to play his way but I think he would prefer a Fighter. Making snide comments that the guy with a 15 AC, 13 if he rages needs to step up his front line game while you cower behind your 20 AC just don't land. I keep telling myself that he's joking but then I'm reminded that he keeps fighting against going upfront and putting that AC to use for the party. Having literally encountered this exact thing already ( a 20's AC character refusing to step into the fray) I am adamant that I will not make the same mistake twice. Then I had allowed the other PC to take all the AC boosting items under the pretense that they would use them for the party. This time I plan on making a case for myself for every Ring of Protection or Amulet of Natural Armor we find.
GM was upset that I stopped before entering the T junction. Thinks that my character wouldn't have stopped. I pointed out that I have average Wis low Int. No book smarts but street smarts. He disagrees. I'm taking it under advisement but I think he was just upset I spotted his trap when a 40ft move speed bloodrager cant close the gap with a 30ft speed goblin. On that note talking later GM mentioned that I didn't catch the Elf because he was a level 3 Monk who used Ki to increase his speed. I pointed out Monks don't get Ki until level 4, he asked if I wanted to retcon some things but I said no. Monks get 40ft move speed at level 3 so he would have been keeping pace with me at best and I was raging at the time so I was on a timer. We would arrive at the same end point with only cosmetic changes in the journey.
GM mentioned that we will probably level up to 3 mid next session. I'm going to recommend Craft Wondrous Item to our Wizard, this is her first campaign and she finds herself with very little to do most combats. If we sell that dagger we picked up its about 1,250 gp each and I don't mind lending her my share so she can bang out 5 level 1 Pearls of power to give her repeated Magic Missiles or something, if she doesn't use them in combat then they will help with our Clerics healing
No comments:
Post a Comment