In addition to my many other interests, I'm an avid role-player. We play Pathfinder, which is essentially Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 but cleaned up nicely. Our campaign takes place in Hawkhaven, which is my original campaign world from the late 1970's, now cleaned up, converted to Pathfinder rules, oh, yeah, and the timeline gets advanced over 2,000 years, effectively limiting my ability to trot out my old characters and inflict them on the players.
We meet once a month at our place, and we have a huge group. This is our third Hawkhaven campaign, creatively called "Fame and Fortune". It's geared to be more of a traditional, straightforward "old school" type of campaign, with a big old dungeon inexplicably loaded with monsters and treasure.
Here's the roster for that first game. It's important to note that we also had two people who couldn't make it. It's a big roster, sure, but as time goes on and people get schedule conflicts, it starts to work out that about 2/3 of the active players can actually make it to any given session.
Roster
Haru (Augie)- Male
Human Nihoni Cleric of Amaterasu
Miranda Morden (Carol)- Female
Human Rogue
Captain Frank
Longbeard
(Chappy)- Male Human Rogue (Pirate);
Plin Forestwatcher(Chris)- Male Gnome
Alchemist
Eara McElwyn(Colleen)- Female
Half-Elf Oracle
Caelma Silvertree (Dibs)- Male Elven Wizard
Takeo (H)- Male Human
Nihoni Samurai; he’s a Ronin
Stanton (James)- Male Human
Sorcerer
Hanabe (Jason)- Female
Human Nihoni Ninja; she has a metal arm
Ashton (John)- Male Human
Ranger
Gabriel (Kevin)- Male Human
Paladin
Ratchtagg (Seth)- Male
Half-Orc Fighter; travels with a mule named Claude and a mangy dog named
Mumma-dog
Goram Deepseeker (Warren)- Male
Dwarf Cleric of Dumathoin; He’s a Forgemaster
And here's the actual recap!
Chapter
One: The Troll, The Troll, The Troll is on Fire
March 25th-26th,
316 PE (June 22nd, 2013)
Roll Call: Goram
Deepseeker , Captain Frank Longbeard, Haru, Ashton, Stanton, Ratchtagg, Plin Forestwatcher,
Hanabe, Takeo, Gabriel, Miranda, Eara, Caelma
It’s
Kingdom Day! This is the day that all four of the human nations are celebrating
the official day that marks their independence from the Valgarion Empire. Thuringia
holds an Octoberfest type celebration, Aguitania holds chivalric tournaments
and grand parties, Calabria has operas, masquerade balls and art exhibitions,
while Ardrovin has the typical country fair/competitive games, jousting and
archery tournaments. Each kingdom’s celebration runs for about four days.
Thirteen
strangers who attended Ardrovin's observance decide at the conclusion of the
holiday to travel together for safety,
heading south to The Paths of Fate, an inn located at the crossroads of all
four kingdoms, a strip of territory claimed by no one. This group is
accompanied by five Calabrian young clergy of Duma (good god of freedom), who
are initiates in the Order of St. Barea (patron saint of healers), and are
traveling to a nearby chapter house.
While
traveling along the road that leads out of Ardrovin, the group hears a clash of
arms and decides to investigate. They come upon a group of orcs on worg mounts
harassing a merchant wagon. The party sees one injured unconscious man and one
hopelessly overmatched merchant desperately swinging a stick. The group springs
into action.
Caelma
calls the orcs out in their own language and casts Enlarge Person on Ratchtagg.
Eara casts Divine Favor on herself and readies her bow, Stanton casts Magic
Missile on one orc, Haru casts Bless on the group, and the rest of the party
advances into combat.
Caelma
casts Gravity Bow and lands a shot with his longbow on the leader. Miranda advances
on the leader’s mount and hamstrings the wolf, damaging it and slowing it down.
Frank moves in to hit the leader and downs him, but the wolf remains standing.
Takeo moves in but misses badly while Gabriel lands one blow on an undamaged
orc. The orcs counterattack. One badly misses Miranda but a wolf hits her hard.
Another orc gets a critical hit on Hanabe and he falls unconscious to the
ground. The wolf fumbles trying to hit Takeo and he counterattacks and kills
the beast. The wolf attacking Gabriel throws his rider from his back and
Gabriel gets an attack that damages the fumbled wolf. Plin advances to help
Hanabe and throws an alchemical bomb at the group of orcs that are still riding
on wolves, causing some general harm, havoc, and a nifty explosion. Eara moves
up and casts Stabilize to stop Hanabe from bleeding out. Haru moves up and
selectively channels to heal only his comrades.
Caelma uses
his bonded item to retrieve Enlarge Person and casts it on Gabriel, who then
moves up and slays one of the orcs. Ashton takes a shot at another orc and kills
it. A few other party members advance to attack but miss. The orcs decide to
retreat and run for the hills, though by doing so they suffer attacks from
several party members. Miranda lands a blow on one fresh wolf. Frank misses a
trip attempt on another wolf. Takeo and Gabriel gang up on a retreating wolf
and kill it. Eara misses with a longbow shot while Hanabe comes to and gets her
bearings. Haru moves up once again and catches more allies in a healing burst.
Being an
elf, Caelma doesn’t want to let the orcs get away, and presses the attack,
moving up to take another shot, wounding an orc. Miranda runs after an orc and
crits it with a sneak attack. Frank then charges in, swinging an oar, but
misses. Takeo kills an orc. Clearly outmatched, the surviving riderless wolves
decide to run full out, despite suffering attacks of opportunity from many of
the party members. Although a few blows connect, the retreating wolves manage
to get two hundred feet away from the party, and break into a full-out run,
successfully fleeing the scene.
The group
comes back together and begins to make sense of the mess at the caravan. The
conscious leader of the caravan introduces himself as Delmin Borgar, while the
initiates of Saint Barea tend to everyone’s wounds. He and his compatriot are
from the Lundarian Free Lands and are members of a merchant guild. When the
orcs intercepted the caravan, the mercenaries hired to guard the caravan turned
tail and ran off.
Eventually,
a small group of Ardrovanian soldiers ride up (conveniently, after the fight is
over!) and check up on the merchants. They agree, along with the clerics of
Duma, to continue with the slower-moving caravan, freeing up the party to go on
its way. However, before they leave, Delmin beckons the group aside for a
moment in private.
Delmin tells
the group of a lost underground complex created on a whim by an insane wizard
who then proceeded to fill it with all manner of fell creatures, and scattered
his fabulous fortune within the subterranean structure. Delmin is willing to
pass along the approximate location of the complex if the party agrees to cut
him and his partner in for 10% of the treasure, eliciting binding promises that
the party will honor the bargain.
As a joke,
Caelma lays claim to any boat inside the complex, as a dig at Frank. Frank
takes exception to this and insults Caelma, who retaliates by casting Grease on
him, but he makes his save. Caelma, his temper now out of control, hits Frank
with a Telekinetic Fist, which knocks him back. Frank charges and scuffs Caelma
with the blunt end of his oar before the party decides to separate them. The
two of them calm down. Delmin decides to help out the party even more by giving
them some items from his caravan, items he would have given the mercenaries
after they arrived safely at their destination. The party splits up the items
and continues on their way.
A couple of
hours down the trail the group is stopped by ten highwaymen. Before the leader
can finish his monologue (“Stand and deliver, and all that!”), the paladin and
samurai simply up and charge the man. At this point, the leader calls out to
release the troll and all Hell breaks loose.
Frank moves
up to the troll and throws a bottle at it. Ashton takes out his Oathbow and
swears to slay the troll and hits with a called shot to the troll’s leg. Haru
moves up towards the troll and his keepers and uses the Gem of Brightness to try
to blind the troll, but it resists. Ratchtagg charges in and his dog Mum
watches his back as he lands a blow on one highwayman. Hanabe charges the bandit
leader and makes a sneak attack on him.
Gabriel,
wielding two weapons, lands a critical hit with his bastard sword and a regular
hit with his longsword. Caelma moves to advance and uses his Telekinetic Fist
to punch the leader into next week, knocking him unconscious. Eara attempts a Diplomacy
check to get the highwaymen to surrender, but they reply confidently that they
still can prevail, as they have a fully operational death troll. Plin runs up
and lobs a fire bomb at the troll and his keepers, damaging the group, setting
the troll on fire, and coming up with the recap title.
The highwaymen spring into action, landing one
blow on Miranda, one blow on Hanabe, two hits (one of which is a critical hit)
on Takeo, and one shot on Plin, while the troll horribly misses Frank and
stumbles, giving him a free shot which he takes full advantage of. Takeo lands
one hit on a rogue. Goram hurls his new warhammer at his racial foe, the troll,
landing a terrible blow on him. The hammer then returns to his hand.
Frank insults
the troll but fails to faze him. Ashton attempts to finish off his foe and does
so with a shot of his Oathbow. Haru moves into range and uses the Gem of
Brightness to blind four out of five of his targets. Gabriel gets into
attacking range and lands a hit. Miranda makes a sneak attack. Caelma moves up
and casts Color Spray on two enemies and is able to stun one of them. Eara
shoots wide of the highwayman that refused her offer of mercy.
The
highwaymen that decided against surrender suddenly change their tune and lay
down their arms. The group begins to tie them up and Frank decides to question
one of them, using his spiked chains as incentive. They get the location of the
bandits’ camp from one of the prisoners and find it a quarter mile from the
road. They set up camp, loot the bandits’ treasure, and turn the highwaymen
over to the Ardrovanian soldiers who eventually come down the road. The party
then rests for the night uninterrupted.
The morning
of March 26th comes and the group rides for the day uneventfully and
reaches the Paths of Fate Inn. The group enters the large inn and finds it to
be a bustling gathering place for people from all over the northeastern portion
of the continent, as well as exotic places across the sea.
Caelma sets
up a dining room for the group and retires there for a couple of hours to
scribe a scroll. Miranda chats it up with a pair of Calabrians who greet her
with open arms. Gabriel gravitates towards a group of worshipers of Adonai, his
patron god. Eara meets with an Alborian
Bard named Merry Mack who starts to exchange flirtatious pleasantries. Haru
speaks with a Tengu (raven-folk) and his catfolk companion, the latter in
stylish boots, floppy hat with a feather in it, and a rapier by his side.
Frank talks
to a man with an eye patch mainly because Frank has an eye patch. The man turns
out to be from Norgheim (Norse), and worships Odin. Frank is inspired by the
man’s demeanor and decides to follow Odin as well. Goram ends up in a staring
contest with a member of the Order of Sepulcher. The anti-paladin doesn’t appreciate
what he sees as the dwarf’s lack of respect, but before the situation comes to
blows (and through all this, the dwarf refused to back down, of course!), the crisis
is diffused with some honeyed words from Eara.
At this
point in the evening, a bard/herald named Barvil takes the stage on behalf of
the free lands of Lundar. He exalts the values of uniting the Lundarian Kingdom
once again and calling those to move out the remnants of the Valgarion Empire
from the former kingdom. The herald announces that a new warlord is coming, a
man of might who has the blood of the ancient Lundarian kings in his veins, and
who will unite the nobles and lords into a grand kingdom once more. The
clientele is disappointed overall, since they were in the mood to hear bardic
music, not a paid political announcement.
This
attracts the attention of many of the party members, including Caelma who stops
working on his scroll to see what all the commotion is about. Plin ends up
moving towards a group of gnomes known as the Dogriders led by Desi Diamonduster,
Paladin of Garl Glittergold. Caelma also joins up with the group and suggests
some magical music to move the “performer” along. Plin recommends a
laxative. The music option prevails and
Merry Mack takes the stage to tell the great story of Shadowport and the Four
Heroes as well as the story of the New King of Albor.
The group
retires to the private dining room and are eventually met with a knock at the
door. The newcomer is a male human sorcerer named Feldor who was impressed with
the way the group handled themselves out there with some of the patrons. He has
a job for the party, who he keenly realizes are wet behind the ears and could
use some seasoning. He looks to hire the group to find the Calvera Sangreal, a relic
that empowers necromantic spells.
Many in the
party look reluctant when the word "necromantic" is said, but Feldor
reminds them that necromantic spells also include things like raising the dead
and such, and can actually be used for good. The Calvera is a neutral tool,
with no inherent morality or ethics attached to it. The group cautiously agrees
to the task.
The grail is located in a large abandoned graveyard
that lies to the southeast. The group will be paid 500 gp each for their
services plus whatever they find in their travels. The group ends up
negotiating with Feldor and is able to secure mounts for those who initially
couldn’t afford them.
Later in
the evening, Ratchtagg the half-orc checks on his mount (Claude the mule) but once
in the stable, his attention is caught by a Nelmarine merchant wagon parked
there. He does a little bit of investigation and realizes that the wagon contains
slaves, meaning the Nelmarine merchants are in fact slavers. Ratchtagg comes
back to the inn and brings this information to the group’s attention.
The group
ends up debating whether or not to intercede on behalf of the slaves. Gabriel
is greatly opposed to the plan on the grounds that the party is raw and
inexperienced, and Takeo, Miranda, and Plin agree. As far as they are
concerned, the half-dozen tough-looking guards that accompany the
Nelmarine merchants would be too much to
handle. The rest of the group, especially Ratchtagg, argue that they should at
least look into the situation and see if there's some way to free the slaves.
Miranda decides this is a good time to go to turn in for the night.
Time to
split the party! Yay!
Eara gets
some information from a drunken slave merchant, who tells her very that they
are traveling the next day towards the south to sell their slaves. Outside,
Hanabe, Ashton, Frank, and Caelma investigate the barn. Hanabe notices 12 dinner bowls, as well as two
guards watching over the slave wagon. Ok, so 12 slaves are in the wagon then.
As Caelma
casts Sending in order to get caught up on any info Eara managed to get, Frank
decides to stumble into the stable, acting drunk and smelling of booze, and that’s
when the guards begin to unsheathe their swords. Caelma hurries inside and acts
as if Frank is his servant boy. In the ensuing conversation, Caelma shows that
his prowess is in magic and casts Light, which he holds in such a way that it shines
enough light inside the wagon so that his sharp elven vision can see a couple
of humans inside the wagon. At this point, Caelma decides to move out of there
with Frank in retreat, and regroup for the night.
And that's
where we ended....
