Session Write-ups: Pathfinder - Behind enemy lines

[Jamie]

Session 1

Player Characters (Parallel Universe A*)

Simon G - Kerias, Half-elven cleric of Pharasma the Lady of Graves
Vince - Sandford Tyrell Abraham, Human urban skirmisher ranger
Simon C - Peck, Halfling summoner
Jason - Manius, Human Fighter
Eric - An as yet unnamed elven evoker wizard.


We first meet our brave heroes, who have recently joined the freedom fighters of Nirmathas, as they were enjoying their first day patrolling the border with Molthune, Nirmathas' neighbour to the South.  The jack-booted tyrants of Molthune have long held ambitions to reclaim Nirmathas and bring their cruel oppression to bear on the free-spirited people of the forest.  In the past seven years, there have been nine invasions from the South.  All have been repelled, but none without cost.

It was on that fateful, but ever-so drizzly, first day of patrolling, that the Molthune armies marched into Nirmathas for the tenth time in eight years.   The sky above pulsed with the passage of siege ammunition, while the earth shook with their terrible impact.  Our brave heroes quickly took shelter in a small bothy to plan their next move.  But before a word could be shared, the roof collapsed as a siege stone crashed into it.  Everything went black...

...the next thing they could recall was the warm glow of healing magics... then blackness... then being lifted onto a cart.... rain falling on their heads and hay being stuffed around them...  blackness.... A bump as the cart hit a stone... blackness....  a jolt as the cart stops and then restarts.  Smoother than before.  Must be a road...blackness...  The stars can now be seen. The rain has stopped... A bump as the cart goes off the road again... blackness...

The party awaken to find themselves in a glade in a wood.  A big black ox is eating hay from the back of a cart.  The woodland surrounding the glade looks impenetrable with plant growth.  In the middle of the clearing is a makeshift shrine to Erastil, god of hunting and farming, which is flanked by four plots of ploughed land.  All the plots have long shoots growing, which is surprising given that it is early spring.

As the party rise they are greeted by a bearded man in his late fifties.  He introduces himself as Artok, cleric of Erastil, and informs the heroes that he has dragooned them into forming the latest Nirmathas resistance cell.  He informs our heroes that they are behind enemy lines, deep into Mothune territory and are "two hill sides" South of the border.

The players are given a range of options to begin resistance activies:

1) Improve Base - the woods they are in are less than ideal and the cell would be easily found if someone was looking for them.  Artok suggested two alternative sites.

2) Improve public relations - the success of the cell will dependent on how popular they are with the local people.  Artok suggested clearing out a local Kobold threat (also near a base site), fighting bandits (near the other base site), dealing with corrupt officials or ending the reign of a local crime lord.

3) Alpha Strike - There are some easy military targets.  A recruiting party, with recruiting gold, has began touring the border area now that the battlelines have been pushed North.  Raw recruits will be coming up from the south, probably escorting wages and supplies.

4) Beta Strike - If a bridge to the North could be crippled it would have a major affect on the war.  There is a nearby supply station (Blacksmith, Stables and Cartwright) which would cause major problems if taken out.

5) Non-military targets -  The armoury in the nearby town of Worthorn contains the largest supply of weaponry around.  Worthorn also has a large store of foodstuffs.

6) Fact-finding - Artok's knowledge is limited and simply exploring would give useful intel.  Alos, the cell could use some contacts.

7) Recruitment - Brave as the heroes are the cell is going to want to recruit people.

8) Treasure hunting - A bit more of a gamble, but useful items may be found through good old treasure hunting.  Artok saw a crypt on the way to the woods from which he felt dark energies.  Just over the border is Deadeye's Haunt, once holy to Erastil now accursed, it holds many lost treasures.

Our heroes considered their options and, to Artok's disgust, opted for treasure hunting.  It was a split decision three to two against with the cleric Kerias swinging the vote due to his devout desire to purge the crypt of the (presumed) undead forces that dwell within.  Artok begrudgingly gave them directions to the hamlet of Rain's End and told them the crypt lay just beyond.

XP for session: none

*To deal with the inevitable ebb and flow of players we are adopting a "Parallel Universe rule" which comes into effect whenever the player party changes:  The entire adventure shifts into a parallel universe where the additional players/missing players have always/never been in the party. XP is still for those who turn up. Deal with it.

[Jamie]

Session 2

Player Characters (Parallel Universe B - minus Eric plus Chris)

Simon G - Kerias, Half-elven cleric of Pharasma the Lady of Graves
Vince - Sandford Tyrell Abraham, Human urban skirmisher ranger
Simon C - Peck, Halfling summoner
Jason - Manius, Human Fighter
Chris Dat - Rambull, Half-orc armoured hulk barbarian

Our heroes head North up the road.  The country side here is mostly fields and are being ploughed although the lands by the road do not appear to be being worked today.  At various times along the way, the players think they see a scarecrow moving in the distance.  There are many scarecrows.  As they reach a rise in the road, they can see that down to where there is a junction heading east presumably towards the Hamlet of Rain's End.

In the distance coming over the next rise, about half-a-mile north of the junction, our heroes spot a horse and rider travelling towards them.  Kerias and Rambull dive behind the dry stone walls that bordered the road.   Sandford, Peck and Manius strode forwards purposefully.  As the rider approached they saw he wore the colours of an imperial messenger.   Once the rider got closer, he levelled his crossbow cautiously at the party and approached with a look of suspicion.  This was all the provocation Sandford needed to let loose an arrow.  It missed.  The imperial messenger returned fire and also missed. Sandford dived behind a dry stone wall.   Manius lets loose an arrow, misses and joins Sandford behind the wall.

Peck adopts a different approach, riding his eidolon, he leaps over the opposite wall and races around the messenger.  The messenger spotting this obvious flank, spurs his horse over the wall and charges Peck.  He misses and races past.  Manius and Sandford fire at the Eidolon.  Only Sandford connects, but not enough to kill.  Peck's eidolon, seemingly making the decisions for itself, pounces onto the messenger doing little damage.   The rider strikes back, but again fails to connect.   His horse on the other hand hurts the eidolon pretty badly. Peck gets the heck out of there.

Meanwhile the rider charges at Manius, misses yet again, and races past Sandford.  Manius charges after him, drawing his Guisarme, jumps over a wall and just reaches the messenger... and runs him through.  The last thing the messenger sees is Peck's eidolon leaping upon him - teeth a claws tearing at his neck and forcing him from his saddle.

Rambull, who has been running all the way from behind the wall some way to the South, finally bursts onto the scene to find Sandford and Manius going through one of the saddlebags and and reading letters from soldiers to their families.  They contain little of interest.  Peck is atop his eidolon while it feasts on the face of the corpse.   Rambull searches the dead body of the messenger and finds a sealed letter in a breast pocket.  Sandford quickly opens the letter and finds it contains very bad poetry.  He immediately realises this is a cipher and that the letter probably contains vital information, but it is beyond of his skill to immediately decipher it.

Kerias arrives, sees the dead body and demands that the body is buried with full ceremonies.  He and Sandford take time to do this, while the remainder of the part divvy up the loot.  (Kerias and Sandford receive a hero point each for this selfless action).

The party reach the junction and head East where a sign post points to Rain's End.  The travel along the track, noting that it is largely unused except for the tracks of one group of a half-a-dozen men who went east the previous day and then returned some hours later.  The party camp and Sandford burns the letters from the front (causing a loss of enemy morale - well done).  Rambull defaces the breastplate he acquired from the messenger in an attempt to remove the emblems upon it and so hide its origins .

Our heroes arrive at Rain's End the following morning.  They are greeted by two little girls who are swinging on the gates to the gardens of their respective homes.  Quite pretty homes they are too with two stories made with stone and timber all with gardens and conjoined by a pleasant cobbled courtyard with a magnificent maple tree in the centre.  The girls introduce themselves as Maisy Brennan and Kashina Müller.  They creep out our heroes.  Eventually Maisy calls for her father Tybald Brennan.  He is very friendly, but is keen for our heroes to leave.

Instead they invite themselves to second breakfast.  Tybald, not wanting to seem uncourteous, welcomes our heroes into his home where his wife Gertrude cooks up breakfast.  The family are loud and rambunctious.  Our heroes enquire about the crypt and offer to end the nearby evil.  Tybald says nothing about the crypt and looks confused at the suggestion of evil.

The charming family scene is suddenly quietened when a woman with dusky skin enters the kitchen.  She wears a white robe brought into the waist with a black rope, a typical religious garb but she bares no symbols.   With her is the eldest son of the Brennan family, Frederick Brennan, who is dressed in armour and carrying a sword.  He greets his father coldly.

The women introduces herself as Akina Hirkoshek and joins the party for breakfast.  The Brennan family are subdued and quiet while they finish their meal.  The party ask about the crypt, but get no information from the tight lipped Akina.  Once the meal is ended Akina and Frederick politely but firmly escort our heroes out of the hamlet.  As the players leave they notice another warrior and acolyte join Akina and Frederick, and the four watch as the heroes head back down the track and out of sight.

XP for session: 130 xp each

[Jamie]

Session 3

Player Characters (Parallel Universe C - plus Doug)

Simon G - Kerias, Half-elven cleric of Pharasma the Lady of Graves
Vince - Sandford Tyrell Abraham, Human urban skirmisher ranger
Simon C - Peck, Halfling summoner
Jason - Manius, Human Fighter
Chris Dat - Rambull, Half-orc armoured hulk barbarian
Doug - Krocus, Human rogue

Now out of sight the hamlet of Rain's End, our heroes ponder their next move.  They decide to sneak around the village.  They debate going back to the road and looping around to the Crypt from the North. Sandford pointed put that this would force them to cut across a lot of country, in a very suspicious manner, within view of the enemy forts.  Kerias suggests waiting until the cover of night.  However, they collectively decide to not waste time and decide to circle the village using what cover they can find.

The ranger Sandford leads the way, using his expertise to help the others find good cover.  They take to his instruction well except for Rambull the armoured hulk whose discipline with armour has rendered him less stealthy than his brethren barbarians.  He very much stands out. Quick thinking from Sandford and Manius ensure Rambull's sneaky passage, but at the cost of time as Rambull has to crawl his way while wearing a blanket.

Three hours later, after a journey that should have taken only sixty minutes, our intrepid heroes have circled the village and are at the foot of the northern two hillocks, between which the crypt is said to lie.  The hills here are steep and scree laden. Sandford tells the party that there is clear signs of quarrying and the impassable slope and scree are seemingly man-made.  Our heroes find an opening in the hillside.  A narrow passage cut into the hillside with steps leading down and around.  The gully can only take one person at a time and so the heroes enter in single file with the barbarian and fighter first and second.  The ranger and rogue taking the rear.

The narrow stair leads down, levels out and turns to the left.  Then steps lead up, possibly following some contour of the geometry, winds for a while and the steps lead down again.   All the way the passage is narrow with sheer sides of cut rock.  Wise Kerias keeps a keen eye looking up, fearful that the party is sitting ducks to an attack from above, but no attack comes.  The passage leads into a small corrie with steep scree sides.  Filling almost all the space is a large circular crypt made of the same grey stone that was quarried from the hill.  Kerias notes that it is lacking any religious symbols.  The gap between the crypt and the slope is filled with a putrid marsh. Rambull who is at the front looks round the crypt to see at least two sheep festering in the foetid water.  As he does so he hears ghostly whispers warning him to turn around and leave this place.  Most of the rest of the party hear them too.  They are unperturbed.

The rogue Krocus examines the front of the crypt and finds a keyhole to the entrance.  The way is locked, but that is no obstacle to a lock picker like Krocus.  The door is stiff and takes the collective strength of Manius and Rambull to open. There is a gasp of air as the door is opened.

The chamber within is dark with no light coming in other than from the entrance they have just made.   Manius lights his lantern.  Within, the octagonal chamber has no religious symbols, but a sarcophagus lies in the centre and seven wall seals indicate that people are buried here. There are no other exits. Krocus searches for traps and finds six magical traps and with arcane assistance from Peck, he disables them.  In so doing so he finds that the spells would have been released from six of the seven wall seals.  Suspicious of the the seventh seal Manius, Krocus and Kerias examine it but all they can see is the inscription "Herein lies Martha Brennan. May she rest it peace."

Rambull lifts and pushes off the top of the sarcophagus.  Within is a dusty skeleton and a few rags. Rambull notices that under the bottom end of the skeleton there is a four foot by four foot slab of stone.  It looks like a way down if it can be opened.  Kerias says a prayer to Pharasma and channels positive energy into the inanimate skeleton.  After which, The party try to pry the slab open, but to no use.  Manius takes a look at the slab and with his understanding of engineering deduces that it is in fact a stone block at least four feet deep and only by finding the release mechanism can the party open it.

Meanwhile, Sandford is still outside the crypt keeping watch.  The flies are making a tasty meal of him.  Suddenly he is beset upon by stirges, small magical insects that love blood.  He kills one, without hurt, and quickly retreats to within the sarcophagus, closing the door behind him.  Sandford looks at the stone block and then the seventh seal.  Through his knowledge of Dungeoneering he realises that the seal is really made of a clay and gravel mix and is in fact not acting as a seal at all.  He deftly removes the fake cover stone to find a large lever in the space beyond.  Pulling the lever causes the stone block to drop and slide diagonally downwards creating a 10 foot deep vertical shaft.

Kerias lowers the lantern on a rope down the shaft.  Beneath the 10 foot shaft is another chamber a further 10 foot deep.  It looks damp down there and the party cannot at this angle see the walls.   The lantern is deposited on the wet floor and Rambull wraps the rope around Peck and lowers him down.  Alas disaster strikes as Rambull fails to keep a good grip on the rope and slips.  Peck's descent is surprisingly rapid, but the halfling was nimble enough to land without damage.    Unfortunately, he is caught by surprise by the four skeletons which were lurking in the corners of the room.  They charge peck, ripping at him with their claws.  Peck's eidolon deftly leaps down the hole to defend its master.  Unfortunately its attacks fail and it is torn apart by the skeletons.  The skeletons then return their attention to peck and nearly kill him.  At this point the party pull him back up the hole and some quick healing from Kerias saves his life.

The party then decide to lower Kerias, this time with all the party on the rope and with the rope secured so to have a maximum length of 12 foot.  Suspended eight foot in the air and at least a foot beyond the reach of the skeletons, Kerias repeatedly channels positive energy until the skeletons are no more.

Our heroes all climb down into the chamber.  It has no exits.  Except for one small area, the walls have grating coming up to knee height.  Sandford notices that the floor water is now an inch deep and rising.  Water is seeping in, through the grating, from the marsh outside.  Some mechanism has been activated for this to happen because the chamber was previously drained.  The walls show evidence of markings indicating previous water levels.

Kerias finds a secret door in the wall where the grating is absent.  Krocus finds the keyhole but is unable to pick the lock.  Sandford attempts the pick and is successful.  Water spills into a narrow corridor heading north.  The party head along the corridor, Rambull again at the front.  Sandford loiters behind to try and figure out the water mechanism, but is unsuccessful and so catches up.  The corridor turns sharply right and steep stairs climb about ten feet.  The corridor widens and turns left and stairs climbs another 10 feet.  A wooden double door awaits the party at the top.  Sandford and Krocus observe that the maximum water level appears to be at the second step from the top, approximately the same altitude as the original chamber.

The double doors are unlocked and untrapped.  Within is a massive chamber with single doors leading West and East and a double door to the North.  In the centre of the room is a large dais whereon sits an altar.  The walls are decorated with symbols and writings.  Hopefully our heroes will have time enough to explore, but as water fills the way out behind them, they know the clock is ticking.

XP for session: 290 xp each

[Jamie]

Session 4

Player Characters (Parallel Universe D - Minus Chris & Doug, Plus Jeremy)

Simon G - Kerias, Half-elven cleric of Pharasma the Lady of Graves
Vince - Sandford Tyrell Abraham, Human urban skirmisher ranger
Simon C - Peck, Halfling summoner
Jason - Manius, Human Fighter
Jeremy - Zora, Human Wizard

Behind the altar is a plinth on which sits a large sculpture of a half black / half white Mask.  Kerias instantly recognises this as a symbol of the Nethys, God of Magic.  On the altar itself are four gold coated candlesticks and one large bowl of silver and gold which is decorated with obsidian and irregular pearl.  Kerias is able deduce from the altar that this is a shrine venerating the Evil aspect of Nethys.  Nethys, while technically a neutral god, is known to be mad with a personality torn between benevolent creation and brutal destruction.  Despite the Evil nature of the altar, Kerias' sense of pantheonistic veneration causes him to advise the party against looting the room.  This is not well received.

Kerias and Zora attempt to decipher the symbols and writings on the wall.  Kerias notices that the language is similar to Necril which he is familiar with, but he cannot translate the writing.  Zora, a linguist, is also unable to translate, but deduces from Kerias comments that the language must be Ancient Osiriani.

Meanwhile the rest of the party, led by Sandford, examine the three doors and search for traps.   They find none.  Sandford opens each door.  Behind the doors to the West and East are identical looking 20 by 5 foot corridors that end with a door.  The double doors to the north open to a landing followed by stairs leading down for about 20 feet and flatten out at another set of double doors.

The party argue about the treasure being left and whether they should even have come here.  Irritated Sandford declares that he is heading North.  The party follow him, with Peck lagging a little behind.  With tempers high they forgot to check for traps and, with a ominous click, a pit trap opens at the bottom of the stair.  Sandford and Manius fall in.  The stairs before the pit turn into a slide and Kerias and Zora lose their footing but narrowly avoid falling in.

A little sore from the fall, but otherwise alive, Sandford and Manius consider how to get out of the pit.  Manius pulls out rope, pitons and a hammer from his backpack.  Sandford leads the way as they carefully climb out.  Kerias and Zora support each other to climb up the steep slope.  They start out well, but Zora loses her footing and falls into the pit, lands badly and is knocked unconscious.   Sandford finishes climbing out of the pit and throws Kerias the rope.  Kerias climbs into the pit to heal Zora.

Sandford is first out of the pit and is standing on the thin strip of floor between the double door and the pit.  He decides to enter the room beyond the double door.  Within is a 25 foot by 25 foot room.  Around the walls are display cabinets made of wood and glass.  Inside the cabinets are many items.  One cabinet has rings.  Another folded clothing.  Another necklaces.  And so on - although there are no weapons or sets of armour.   In the middle of the room is a table with four chairs and on the table is a wand.

Sandford barely has time to take this in when the shadows in the corners of the room coalesce into three black ethereal wraith-like things.  They move to attack Sandford.  When there blows connect instead of damage they sap his strength.  Manius enters the room and fights the shadows.  Sandford edges around them while fighting them.  Peck, who has been standing on the landing all this time summons an eagle to fight the Shadows which flies over the open pit and attacks.   Sandford and Manius at first struggle to hit the shadows, when they do the blows pass through the incorporeal creatures.  When they finally connect they realise that the shadows are immune to their non-magical damage.  In that moment they realise they cannot win this fight.

Meanwhile, Peck goes back to the altar room and takes all the treasure.

By this point, Kerias has climbed out of the pit.   Filled with religious fervour he tries to join the fight, but Manius and Peck's eagle block the way into the room.  Looking about he notices runic markings on the floor just beyond the doorway.  He recognises the markings as warding designed to hold back undead.  He alerts Manius and Sandford and tells them to leave the room.   Sandford at this point has manoeuvred behind the shadows and has to acrobatically role around the shadows and out the door.  Manius then leaves the room.

Kerias at this point, his zealotry at its peak, enters the room and casts curative touch spells on the undead.  Which does damage them but not enough to kill.  Now out of healing spells, Kerias leaves the room.    The Shadows, deprived of prey, move back to the corners and appear to dissipate into the darkness.  Kerias uses the rope to cross back over the pit, but he slips and falls.  He is rescued.

Sandford searches the landing and, with the assistance of Zora, finds a secret compartment which contains the reseting lever for the pit trap and an off switch.  With the route to the Shadows room now hazard free.  Zora walks up to the open door with a plan to repeatedly cast Disrupt Undead at the shadows.  He throws a lantern into the corner of the room in order to flush them out.  But alas it is unsuccessful and he cannot see the undead to target them.

Peck casts the spell Mage Hand to get the wand from the table.  Examining the wand he notices that it is half-black and half-white with the symbol of an open book carved into the base.  Peck then uses his mage hand to get one of the rings from the display cabinets.  As soon as it enters his possession he is compelled to take off all his clothes.   This he does to everyone's confusion.  He casts mage hand again to get another ring.  As soon as this ring comes into his possession his constitution is damaged.  He is then compelled to drop the new ring.  He then decides to drop the first ring and puts on his clothes, leaving the two rings there on the floor in front of the open doors wherein lies shadows.

XP for session: 120 xp each

[Jamie]

Session 5

Player Characters (Parallel Universe E - Plus Chris, Chris & Doug)

Simon G - Kerias, Half-elven cleric of Pharasma the Lady of Graves
Vince - Sandford Tyrell Abraham, Human urban skirmisher ranger
Simon C - Peck, Halfling summoner
Jason - Manius, Human Fighter
Jeremy - Zora, Human Wizard
Chris Dat - Rambull, Half-orc armoured hulk barbarian
Doug - Krocus, Human rogue
Chris 2 - Pip, Halfling bard

Our brave heroes gather in the altar room to discuss their next move.  Zora and Pip unsuccessfully attempt to identify the wand that Peck had acquired.  Kerias, sore and drained of power, says that he needs to rest and commune with his goddess.  The other magic-users agree and they bed down.  Rambull keeps a watch, while Krocus and Sandford (and briefly Peck until he gets bored and goes to sleep) use a rope and grappling hook to reacquire the lantern from the shadows room.  After numerous failed attempts, they manage to drag the lantern back to the threshold.  It is refilled with oil and relit.

Rambull, Krocus and Sandford keep watch.  Two hours into their watch, they hear the sound of a lone voice singing (badly) coming from behind the door at the end of the Eastern corridor.  Then a different voice shouts "Oh.. shut up".  There is a murmur of multiple voices and then the same voice shouts "I said SHUT UP!".  Then there is silence.

Alerted and mildly alarmed by this noise, Sandford and Krocus decide to sneak down the East corridor to investigate.  Unfortunately, they forget to check the corridor for traps and Sandford steps on a pressure plate that causes a swing axe to slice through both the urban ranger and the rogue just behind him.  

"Somebody's out there" came a voice from behind the door.  "I'm so lonely" came a different voice.  Then another murmour of voices which is quickly ended by a "I SAID SHU...". Abruptly the sound ceases.

Sandford checks the door and the rest of the corridor for traps. The swinging axe appears to be the only trap.  Lit only from behind by the dim light of the lantern resting on the dais, Sandford can only see darkness through the keyhole.  Sandford and Krocus return to the altar room and ask Rambull to look through the keyhole in the hope that his half-orc darkvision will enable him to see into the room.  Rambull agrees and heads East.  Meanwhile, the other two check the West corridor for traps.  They find another swinging axe trap and disable it. Rambull can indeed see through the keyhole into the room beyond.  He can only see part of the back wall and can make out a table in the middle of the room.  On the table he sees a wand and a pair of gauntlets.  The back wall is filled with shelves and pigeon holes holding weapons, bits of armour and the occasional piece of jewellery or clothing.  All three return to the altar room to share their findings.

Sandford and Krocus decide to open the door to check the room.   Sandford is concerned that there are prisoners or captives who have been making the noises.  Sandford opens the door stealthily, but is unable to see much more due to lack of light.  Meanwhile Rambull decides to wake people and starts with Kerias.  Krocus goes back to Rambull to ask him to explore further just as Kerias awakes and grumpily demands to know what is going on.  Rambull does not answer and moves to the threshold of the Eastern room to look further, leaving Krocus to pacify the irate cleric.   As Krocus explains about the voices, there is a loud cry of "Bollocks!"  that comes from the East room.  Having been told that the door East is open, Kerias checks for wardings similar to the shadows room but finds none.  Rambull is able to see that the room is 25 foot by 25 foot. The back wall is entirely filled with shelving.  The wall to the right is crowded with dummies wearing suits of armour.  The Wall to the left has weapon racks filled with weapons and a couple more armour wearing dummies.  There are no prisoners. Krocus closes the door and all four return to the altar room.

There is an angry exchange where Kerias berates the other three for exploring and waking him.  The remaining three disagree vehemently and defend their actions.  With no immediate threat present and no innocents to save, Krocus returns to his slumbers.  The other three maintain their watch.

Four hours into the watch, their ears pop.  The water from the skeletons room has now risen high enough to air seal the crypt and is lapping at the bottom of the wider stairs to the South.  Two hours later the water has reached the highest water marked point.  The party are now in an airtight tomb and, in order to go back, need to swim underwater down a flight of stairs, round a corner, down another flight of stairs, around another corner, down a corridor, across a room and up a 10 foot shaft.  

The party rest for twelve hours (8 hours after air is sealed) in total.  After Kerias channels energy to heal people, most of the party go look in the arms and armour room with Rambull and Sandford opting to keep a watch in the Altar room.  As soon as the door is opened, Peck pushes past everyone and jumps onto the table.  He looks at the wand.  It is identical to the one he found in the North room and so he leaves it, because he has one already.  Krocus examines the shelves.  While he is looking he hears a voice in his head which at the same time seems to be coming from a evil-looking black mace with red veining.  The voice is one of a smoky voiced seductress who in a libido inflaming tone begs Krocus to pick her (the mace) up.  Zora casts detect magic.  Everything in the room is magical, with a myriad of auras of every conceivable colour and some incredibly strong and others just a faint glimmer.

From the North-West corner of the room there is a cry of "bollocks!" seemingly coming from a weapon rack.  And the whole party turns to look.  
And then things go terribly wrong...

Peck jumps down from the table and picks up one of the pieces of jewellery - a necklace.  He dies instantly from energy drain.   Everyone is looking the wrong way.  The necklace clasps itself around his neck and the body of Peck stands up.  It grabs the evil mace.

Then, from a weapons rack in the North-East corner, a warning is yelled by a suddenly glowing scimitar emblazoned with symbols of the healer goddess Sarenrae, "Look out the halfling's turned evil!  And the gauntlets are going to kill you!".  The party turn to see Evil Peck advancing on Krocus with the mace raised high and the gauntlets have gone from the table.  Kerias realises Peck's corpse is undead and animated in a manner similar to a wight.  Evil Peck hits Krocus with the mace which suddenly pulses with negative energy.  Krocus hits the floor dying. Zora takes one look at this and flees the room. Kerias channels positive energy hurting Evil Peck, but not enough to destroy him and alerts the party to his undead nature.   The helpful Scimitar glows golden and suddenly Krocus is awake and unharmed.  This does not last as the gauntlets, magically animated, leap out from the walls they have climbed.  One of them punches Krocus in the side of the face while he is prone on the floor.  The other narrowly misses Manius.  Manius tries to stab at the gauntlet but it is too small and nimble.

In the other room Sandford hears the commotion and rolls his eyes.  He takes up a position on the dais which gives him enough height to shoot into the room.  Unfortunately, while he has a clear shot at Peck, he is unaware of the halfling's new undead and evil nature. He delays his shot waiting for a target.  Krocus gets up, and goes to pick up the Scimitar.  He pauses as it screams "Don't touch me!".  Disconcerted, he backs into the corner.  A savage looking orc double axe next to him says "Pick me and we'll kill them together!  Blood will spill this day! Think of the glory! Think of carnage! Pick me up!  And we will be mighty!"  The Scimitar chimes in "Don't listen to him! They're all Evil!  Except for me!". Krocus opts to not listen to the bloodthirsty double-axe and instead fends off the gauntlet attacking him. Pip follows Zora's example and flees the room, screaming to the onlooking Rambull and Sandford that Peck has turned evil.  With no small amount of schadenfreude, Sandford enjoys finally getting to shoot the halfling - albeit for little damage.  Rambull bravely advances towards the room.

Evil Peck strikes Kerias, wounding him to the cusp of consciousness.  Zora moves to the doorway and casts disrupt undead on the gauntlet attacking Manius.  Sadly it has no effect because the gauntlet is a magical construct and not undead.  Kerias is faced with three choices. 1) move to safety.  2) Heal himself (and maybe also move to safety).   3) Channel energy at Evil Peck again and fall over dying.  True to form he goes for option 3.  His channelling is not enough  to destroy Evil Peck.  The Gauntlets continue their assaults on Krocus and Manius.  Sandford fires at Evil Peck, but misses.  Krocus uses the weapon rack to leap and tumble from the corner to stand on the table and in so doing so escape the animated gauntlet attacking him.  Manius, under assault from both Evil Peck and an animated gauntlet, bravely picks up Krocus (Hero point Manius!) and carries him to the relative safety of the altar room.  Pip stops running and starts to sing a song of courage in the style of a wild highlander, even donning woad on his face to enhance the performance.  Rambull steps into the East room and strikes at the nearby gauntlet.

Inspired by the bard's singing, a buckler hanging from one of the dummies starts to sing also. The emblem of a lyre on its front dances cheerily along.  Unfortunately the buckler's singing (recognisable as the singing from earlier) clashes horribly with the bard's song and, to make matters worse, is rather flat.

Evil Peck and the two gauntlets attack Rambull, but he holds them at bay.  Meanwhile, Krocus makes his escape.  Zora keeps casting a ray to disrupt undead, but repeatedly fails to hit Evil Peck.  Sandford now unable to see either Evil Peck or the Gauntlets goes to help Manius with Kerias.  Through his arts as a healer, Sandford brings Kerias back round to consciousness and Kerias channels energy to heal himself and those around.  Pip meanwhile dons a kilt.

Kerias is again grumpy.  Sandford, sickened by his ingratitude, resolves to end this farce and pulls out sword and shield and charges forward yelling at everybody to move back to the altar room.  As he advances, Zora finally connects with a disrupt undead spell and Evil Peck drops to the floor.  The mace drops next to him and the necklace falls from his neck.  Almost immediatley the mace starts to whisper its seductive promises directly into the mind of Rambull, who is somewhat perturbed.  Rambull picks up Pecks body (Yes a hero point for Rambull as well!) and heads back to the altar room.

Our brave heroes start to retreat up the corridor as Sandford advances.  Unfortunately, they are not quick enough to stop the gauntlets from entering the corridor.  Sandford keeps them at bay until his exit is clear and he withdraws.  As soon as he enters the Altar room he slams the door shut holding the handle.  The gauntlets try to open the door, but even their combined strength is pitiful.  Sandford is able to keep the door closed while he reverse picks the lock and locks the door.  Through the keyhole he can see the gauntlets return to their places on the table.

XP for session:  175 xp each (Even for the late Peck, but note that Peck gets no more XP until (if?) he is brought to life)

[Jamie]

Session 6

Player Characters (Parallel Universe F - Minus Chris, Chris 2, Doug & Vince)

Simon G - Kerias, Half-elven cleric of Pharasma the Lady of Graves
Simon C - Peck, Halfling summoner
Jason - Manius, Human Fighter
Jeremy - Zora, Human Wizard

Our brave heroes stop for a moment and think.  Realising that the animated gauntlets lack physical strength, they hatch a plan to confine the gauntlets in a sack or bag.  They opt for using the deceased Peck's backpack and find the valuables from the altar in it.  Kerias is affronted, but is talked down from immediately returning the items.  Manius rushes into the arms & armour room and stashes the gauntlets into the bag.  They do not activate until 10 seconds after they are firmly secured in the backpack.

The party approach the helpful intelligent sword with Saranae symbols on the hilt. The sword resurrects Peck (minus 1 hero point).  The sword, who's name is Emalliandra, tells the party that they are in "The Crypt of the Cursed" (at which point the intelligent items all rattle and spookily intone "THE CRYPT OF THE CURSED!" - they do this every time, much to the anger of Emalliandra).  Emalliandra tells our heroes that the Crypt of the Cursed (THE CRYPT OF THE CURSED!) is a repository for cursed (CURSED!) items.  It is run by the church of Nethys, God of Magic, and was built hundreds of years ago when the area was politically stable.  The church were religiously opposed to destroying the cursed items, but did wanted them secured far from the church's centre in Orision.

Emalliandra, realising our heroes are worshippers of Nethys, requests that they seal the crypt.  Emalliandra explains that in recent years a dark faction within the church has taken control of the Crypt of the Cursed (THE CRYPT OF THE CURSED! *rattle* *rattle*) and instead of simply securing the cursed (CURSED!  "Stop it!") items they have been studying them and trying to work out how to replicate their effects.  Effects which are often far more deadly than  the crafter is usually capable.  She warns the player that the current warden, called Akina Hirkoshek lives in the nearby hamlet and is a "very horrible person".  The party remember having met Akina during breakfast with the the Brennans.

Our heroes agree to seal the crypt, in return Emalliandra helps them out.  First, Emalliandra tells the players how the water mechanism works.  The lever in the first room which that opened the shaft beneath the sarcophagus is also the lever which opens the sluice gates that lets in the water.  In order to drain the water, someone needs to pull the lever which also closes the shaft. Once the water is drained, the lever should be pulled again to open the shaft and let people out.

Second, Emalliandra advises them that they can make use of some of the cursed (CURSED!) items, as long as our heroes don't mind some downsides.  The two wands that the players have seen on tables are wands of identify, given that the players know that all the items are cursed, they should use the wands to identify the items and their curses (CURSED! "Really!  I didn't actually say cursed" "CURSED!" "Sigh" *rattle rattle*) and if they can't work out the cur... c-word then leave the item alone.  

Zora uses the first wand to identify weapons in the arms and armour room.  She discovers the following useful-ish  items:

- Small mithral shirt +1 (actually -1 and Curse - cannot be removed)
- Breast Plate +1 (actually +1 natural armour.  Hunger - wearer must eat twice as much food per day)
- Halberd +1 (Delusion - no enchantment bonus, BUT still counts as magical for overcoming immunities)
- Longsword +1 (Actually Frost,  +1d6 Frost damage, no enchantment bonus, BUT still counts as magical for overcoming immunities)
- Silver Dagger of Merciful (Merciful quality limited to when it is a full moon)

Our heroes then head back to the altar room and down the west corridor to look for a room that Emalliandra has told them is the potions, dusts and scrolls room.  They go past a disabled trap that no one in this parallel dimension is capable of disabling - how odd.  At the end of the corridor is a door which they open.  Inside is a 25 foot by 25 foot room with wooden pigeon holes lining each wall from floor to ceiling.  About a quarter of The pigeon holes are filled with scrolls, pouches and potions.   The vast majority each has a skull in them.  In the centre of the room is a table with two alchemist kits and a lot of rare & expensive ingredients.

Zora casts detect undead and is unsurprised that the all of skulls caught by the spell register. She then decides to blast a skull with Disrupt undead which destroys a skull. but angers the rest which fly from the pigeon holes and form a swarm of evil flying clattering craniums.  Acting quickly, Kerias channels energy and a lot of skulls explode, but not enough to stop the swarm.  He then decides to rush past everybody and put himself into harm's way.  Having repeatedly declined to heal himself after his near death experience at the hands of Evil Peck, Kerias is still heavily wounded.  The skull swarm swarms him and the many biting teeth chomp on him.  Once more, Kerias is down and dying.

Zora tries disrupting dead and quickly realises the ray spell is not the most efficient way to take on the swarm.  Manius instead goes on a smashing spree and destroys the swarm.  The party are able to stablise, but are unable to revive, Kerias.  

They decide to take him back to Emalliandra.  Manius has to recapture the gauntlets, which the party had released when they left the room.  This time they decide to keep the gauntlets. The sword heals all of them of their wounds and announces that it is now out of healing.   They return to the potions, scrolls and dusts room wherein they loot the kits and ingredients.  Using the first wand of Identify they find the following useful-ish items:

- Potion of Barkskin (actually a Potion of Poison)
- Decanter of Endless Water (actually a Flask of Curses)
- Dust of Appearance (actually a Dust of Sneezing and Coughing)

The first wand then runs out of charge.

Our brave heroes now decide to tackle the shadows in the North room.  Armed with magical weapons and with channel energy and disrupt undead spells at the ready, they make short work of the twilight terrors.  The are able to find the following useful-ish items before the second wand runs out:

- Ring of Featherfall (actually a Ring of Clumsiness)
- Ring of Protection +1 (Jealous - only functions if no other magic items carried)
- Ring of Sustenance (Delusion. No effect - but wearer absolutely believes it works)
- Ring of Swimming (Causes hair to change colour each time it is worn. Peck now has orange har)
- Bracers of Armour +1 (only works out of water - how much out of water is unclear)
- Boots of Elvenkind (Wearer must be within 10 ft of an elf or half-elf to work.  Cannot be worn by an elf or half-elf)
- Headress of Waterbreathing and Swimming (wearer must be naked for item to work  - apart from headress and hand held items)

With the a water breathing item in their possession, our brave heroes decide to tackle the water trap to the south.  Manius strips down, dons the headress and with halberd in hand braves the fetid water.  His strong fortitude protects him from any diseases in the water and he swims back to the skeleton room.  

In the water filled room he is set upon by a Varisian Hagfish, a tiny fish which emits a cloud of slime to strike from hiding.  Manius wisely opts not to face the fish head on, but withdraws back down the corridor and lets the fish come to him.  The long reach of his thrusting halberd means that he many opportunities to attack the fish as he retreats, eventually spearing the creature.

Manius swims up the shaft into the sarcophagus room, wherein he pulls the lever which begins the draining of the water.  Six hours later the room is sufficiently drained for Zora to be sure that her new bracers will be functioning.   Zora is the first to try climbing up to the rope, she falls and hurts badly herself.  Instead they decide to have strong Manius lift them up one-by-one. Eventually, the party rejoin with Manius in the Sarcophagus and as promised to Emalliandra.  They break the lever mechanism and seal the crypt.  They then decide to head for home...

...However as they open the crypt door two arrows neatly take of Manius' head.  From above they hear the voice of Akina Hirkoshek, "You infidels!  You will die this day!".  Our heroes hearts sink as they realise the innevitablity of the impending evil monologue and big fight.


XP - Simon G, Jason & Jeremy = 450 xp;  
XP - Simon C = 300 xp (no xp for gauntlets)
Bonus XP - Chris 2, Doug & Vince = 450 xp
XP - Chris Dat (past session gauntlets) = 150 xp

*Note: If I have made errors (and I probably have) PM me rather than posting.  Just for tidiness sake.

[Jamie]

Session 7

Player Characters (Parallel Universe G - Plus Chris & Vince)

Simon G - Kerias, Half-elven cleric of Pharasma the Lady of Graves
Vince - Sandford Tyrell Abraham, Human urban skirmisher ranger
Simon C - Peck, Halfling summoner
Jason - Manius, Human Fighter
Jeremy - Zora, Human Wizard
Chris Dat - Rambull, Half-orc armoured hulk barbarian

NB - I'm going to try to write shorter summaries from now on.  At most, only a couple of players have been reading these and I have received no comment about the lack of update which suggests little demand for them. So for expediency I'll be brief.


Akina and her three disciples are positioned atop the scree-covered slope that surrounds the corrie wherein the crypt resides. Akina tells the party that she has called for reinforcements who will be teleporting here soon.  She says it will be easier to explain what has happened with the party dead first, but if the party want to wait it out she fine with that too.

Sandford takes up a defensive position at the crypt door and tries to cover the exit of the party. He is hampered by the stirges coming from the marsh and the cover and fire tactics of Akina's group. The party don't realise they should be exiting and Peck keeps summoning his furious eagle which blocks the way as it fights stirges.

The party eventually get underway heading up the narrow gully.  Along the way they are hit by Akina's group using missile weapons, alchemists fire, smoke sticks and Channel Negative Energy.  Rambull rushes ahead and takes a lot of punishment.  At the end of the gully they are stopped by the two warriors.  Frederick Brennan with a shield and longsword, the other with a long spear.  They attempt to hold back the party, they are quickly dealt with and left unconscious but stable.

At the mouth of the gully, the party see that there are rope and wood steps that have been rolled down the slope.  They begin to climb to find Akina and her last disciple, an acolyte, at the top of the hill.  The party are attacked with sleep spells and channel negative energy, but eventually enter close combat - first with the acolyte while Zora pins down Akina with magic spells and finally Manius skrikes down Akina.

Kerias performs a coup de grâce on both Akina and the acolyte believing them to be evil.  On coming down the cliff, he sees Sandford is about to similarly kill the two warriors.  Kerias tells Sandford to not kill them because they are likely not evil.  Sandford disagrees and performs the coup de grâce on both.  Kerias is outraged and vows never to heal Sandford again.  Kerias receives a warning in his soul that such a vow is contrary to the teachings of his faith and that he is starting to stray into Lawful Good territory which is not acceptable to his true neutral god.

Aware that reinforcements are teleporting in, the party rush back over the fields to the road and get some distance from Rain's End. Just before they lose sight of Rain's end they see a dozen figures teleport in mid-air and fly down to the hamlet.  About fifteen minutes later, they hear terrible screams.  They don't stick around to find out what cause them.

They get back to the camp and tell Irtok what happened.  Sandford gives Irtok the encrypted missives.  Irtok heals up the party and discusses next actions with them.  The party decide to take out the recruiting party which is currently to the North-East.  The route to catch the recruiters will take our heroes North to the bridge and the East along the river.  Since they will be near the bridge, the party also decide to scout out the bridge and if possible destroy it.

XP for session:  300 xp each
XP for completing adventure for Doug and Chris 2: 100 xp each

[Jamie]

Session 8

Player Characters (Back to Parallel Universe D - Minus Chris)

Simon G - Kerias, Half-elven cleric of Pharasma the Lady of Graves
Vince - Sandford Tyrell Abraham, Human urban skirmisher ranger
Simon C - Peck, Halfling summoner
Jason – Manius, Human Fighter
Jeremy - Zora, Human Wizard

It is fourth day of the resistance. Our heroes awake and Irtok provides them with breakfast and rations.  In just 3 days, the priest of the god of farming has transformed the glade into a bountiful garden. He tells Sandford that he has deciphered the missives and revels that they are from a Commander Jacobs of the 1st army.    The missives contain orders to a heavy artillery train currently heading North.  Intercepting the missives will certainly cause the artillery train to be delayed in reaching their ultimate destination.  However, a greater opportunity is revealed in the missives.  The artillery train will cross the bridge to the North in two days time.  If our heroes can take down the bridge before the artillery crosses, then that will severely delay their deployment.    An even better option would be to take out the bridge while the artillery is crossing, destroying two targets with one blow.

Our heroes resolve to head to the bridge with all haste, so that Manius, who has knowledge of engineering, can assess how best to take destroy it.  Irtok gives the party a scroll of silence which he suggests may help them in their attempts at espionage.  Our heroes return to the road and head North.  They ignore the right turn to rain's end and continue to follow the main road up hill.

Over the top of the rise, the party see a small covered cart being pulled by two oxen.  Driving the cart is a lone figure dressed as a pedler.  As the cart approaches the party notice a few incongruities.  The driver is an elf and medium sized.  The cart he is driving is noticeably designed for small-sized  people.  Additionally the wide-brimmed pedler's hat that the elf is wearing is too small for him.  The party hail him suspiciously, except for Kerias who has jumped behind a wall and is hiding.

After a brief conversation, where both sides treat the other with polite suspicion, Zora decides that elf is up to no good and needs to be taken down.  She starts to cast a spell.  Unfortunately, the elf reads her intention and suddenly throwing knives appear in each of his hands.  He skilfully and sneakily throws them at the wizard.  Zora goes down.  The party attack.  The elf quickly retreats into the cart.  Peck rides his Eidolon while it climbs a top the cart.  Manius enters the cart to see the elf jump out of the back.  Peck from his vantage point sees the elf run up the road and jump behind a dry stone wall.

Peck's eidolon gives chase and pounces on the elf as he tries to sneak away.  The elf is gored to death.  Inside the tent, Manius finds two gnomes gagged and bound.  Releasing them, the party discover that the Elf is the notorious outlaw Lewindar and that there is a bounty on his head in both Molthune and Nirmathas.  The two gnomes introduce themselves as Bastager and Besh, who are husband and wife respectively and come from a community of Gnomes who live in the town of Lectscroft to the South.   They are thankful to our heroes and offer any support they or their family can provide.  The party ask the gnomes to hand in the head of Lewinder and collect the reward for them.

The party trade with the gnomes.  Manius asks about materials to take down the bridge and is pleased to find that the gnomes have suitable supplies.  However, these include heavy and bulky items such as barrels of quicklime which are hard to transport and conceal by foot.   After some persuading, the party convinces gnomes to come with them.  This has the added advantage of providing extra cover as our heroes can convincingly look like a peddling party. The party change into peasants gear, apart from Sandford who convincingly can pass as a bowyer. 

They set off with the gnomes' cart in tow.  Upon reaching the top of the rise they can see down into the flat river valley.  Cutting across valley is the River Krait, a medium-sized slow moving river which flows West to East until it reaches the village Elmstein where it bends North-East to join the great Lake Encarthan.  The bridge in directly to the North.  It is made of stone with covered stone sentry post at each corner.  A road runs along-side the south side of the river.  Across the bridge the road splits heading North West towards the beginnings of Fangwood Forest and North East to a Molthunian Fort.  A patrolled track runs parallel to the North side of the river.  The land to the south of the river is very fertile, but due to  the unstable political situation, it is used to farm cattle.

The players also observe that the river is used for spear fishing when three barges filled with men with tridents and nets pass under the bridge.

As our heroes approach they are stopped by the two soldiers each occupying one of the sentry posts.  After some questions, and the sexual harrasment of Zora by one of soldiers identified by his comrade as Private Hans, the party are allowed to continue on their way towards Elmstein following the south-side road East.

As the pass by the bridge, Manius tries to get a look.  The bridge is made of stone and has two arches with a stone base in the water.  Manius obsevers that the bridge appears to not have had any recent repairs and if there is a weak spot it will be at the base in the water.   However he needs to get closer to examine it.   Maybe they could get one of those barges they saw earlier.

The party round the corner which would put them out of sight of the bridge.  In the road, round the corner, they are faced by a large angry bull with a ring round his nose from which hangs a frayed rope.  A bull has gotten lose from the next field!  Unfortunatley for our heroes they haven't changed out of their peasant clothes yet...

XP for session:  300 xp each
Bonus XP - for Chris, Chris 2 and Doug:  300 xp