Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for September 26, 2013, Carrion Crown Adventure Path campaign, Trial of the Beast adventure; PCs included Annoc Zantar (human barbarian), Gnok Thatek (dwarf monk), and Irnadette Steelsoul (elan psion), accompanied by NPC companion Heidi Loenhardt (human cleric).

The party entered the double doors to another building in the Schloss Caromarc complex.  Within they discovered a bizarre collection of preserved monsters and animals.  In one room they found a pair of sarcophagi, and Gnok began poking around.  He discovered one of the sarcophagi was a mimic!  Annoc charged in and injured the creature, but it swung a pseudopod at him and glued itself to his chest!  Gnok then punched it and found himself glued to the aberration as well.  As the party pummeled the mimic to death, a mummy emerged from the other sarcophagus and paralyzed Annoc with fear.

The mummy moved forward and backhanded the helpless barbarian.  Still glued to the dead mimic, Gnok struggled to fight the mummy and was soon cursed with mummy rot!  Irnadette used fire psionics to damage the mummy while Heidi channeled positive energy to heal injuries.  Annoc snapped out of his stupor and sliced off the mimic appendage to make himself more mobile.  The team battered the undead creature, and Irnadette blasted it out off of its feet with more fire.

The group then looked around and discovered a secret door leading upstairs.  The team went up and found a room of chests and crates.  Annoc blasted one of the chests apart using a ring of the ram found on the mummy and found two shrieking medusa heads within!  The horrendous creatures screamed and attacked!  The party soon defeated the monsters but turned around to see an enormous blind monster emerge from the doorway tethered to a trio of homunculi!

Game summary for September 19, 2013, Carrion Crown Adventure Path campaign, Trial of the Beast adventure; PCs included Amras Amandill (half-elf inquisitor), Dinendal Ironbow (elf ranger), Gnok Thatek (dwarf monk), and Irnadette Steelsoul (elan psion), accompanied by NPC companion Heidi Loenhardt (human cleric).

The team decided to rest in the seemingly secure manor house and were rejoined by Amras and Dinendal.  The group the returned to the alchemy workshop and examined the rope bridge.  They tied a rope around Gnok’s waist, and he strode out onto the bridge and promptly fell off.  After smacking into the cliff, they hauled him back up.  This time, he tried to crawl across the bridge and made it halfway across before a trap triggered and summoned an erinyes devil!  The black-feathered Hellspawn unleashed arrows at Gnok and Amras as the monk scrambled to get back to cover.  Dinendal hit her with an arrow or two as she flew back and forth over the bridge firing.

As she crossed over the bridge for the third time, Gnok stunned everyone by summoning his reserves of ki and hurling himself 45 feet through the air to slam into and grapple the astounded devil!  They slammed into the bridge, and because Gnok was still tethered to the rope Amras was working, Amras hauled in the rope.  He intended to drag the pair across the bridge, but instead they fell off!  Holding tight and spinning the devil around, Gnok succeeded in slamming her against the wall, cushioning his own impact.  He then wrapped her up in an amazing grapple and pinned her while spinning on the end of the rope.  As Amras painfully hauled them up foot by foot, Dinendal fired arrow after arrow into the devil.

The team hauled the grappled pair onto the platform where they began pummeling the devil.  She struggled desperately to activate greater teleport but was unable to maintain her concentration.  Soon, the party defeated her, sending her back into Hell in a puff of brimstone and smoke.

Afterward, the team carefully crossed the bridge.

Game summary for September 5, 2013, Carrion Crown Adventure Path campaign, Trial of the Beast adventure; PCs included Gnok Thatek (dwarf monk), and Irnadette Steelsoul (elan psion), accompanied by NPC companion Heidi Loenhardt (human cleric).

The party opened the doors and raced across the arched bridge dodging crossbow bolts from the troll in the tower.  They discovered a door with a bell and rang it.  A porthole opened, but no one was on the other side.  Soon thereafter the port closed.  The party determined to open the door because the trolls were coming down from the tower.  Irnadette used a breach power to unlock the door and triggered a trap summoning a huge air elemental!  It buffeted the party as the trolls stepped out onto the bridge.  The team slipped through the unlocked door as the elemental transformed into a whirling tornado and tore into the approaching trolls!

Things were not safe inside the manor proper, however.  A mechanical form crawled out from beneath the stairs, its twin scythe-arms swiping at the party!  The group locked the front door while Irnadette used sonic attacks against the construct.  Gnok went toe-to-toe but could only dent the monstrosity.  Heidi channeled positive energy to heal the wicked blade wounds.  In the end, it was Irnadette’s powerful psionics that brought the creature down.

The team then explored the rest of the main house.  They found several trappings of wealth but no real sign of current occupants.  They discovered a secret passage in the dining hall leading to a rear exit.  Opening the door, they found a 3-foot-narrow stone bridge stretching out over a plunging waterfall hundreds of feet below.  Across the bridge stood another stone building with a wooden door.  The group moved across the perilous bridge and entered the room.  Inside they found a damaged alchemy workshop with a portion of the wall and floor missing.  Outside a missing doorway the remnants of a fallen stone bridge were instead spanned by a swinging rope bridge.

As the team moved about the rubble, a trio of insectoid rust monsters emerged and attacked!  They focused on Heidi’s gleaming magical chainmail and damaged it with their rusting touch!  Gnok and Irnadette fell in around her to fend off the ravenous metal-eaters.  The team killed two of the creatures, but the third slipped through to menace Heidi yet again!  Gnok grappled the creature, heaved it up upon his shoulders and ran to the edge of the rope bridge.  The squirming bug thrashed wildly and nearly broke free, but the monk’s training proved too good!  He hurled the rust monster over the side, and it plunged hundreds of feet to its death in the waterfall below.