Carrion Crown Adventure Path – Game Session – 035

Game summary for November 26, 2013, Carrion Crown Adventure Path campaign, Broken Moon adventure; PCs included Caerwen (elf monk), Dario Malavasi (human oracle), Gnok Thatek (dwarf monk), and Tigris Inebriavi (elf magus), accompanied by NPC companion Nyssa Pagonis (human cleric).

Dario healed one of the werewolves after binding it in hopes of speaking with it.  It awoke and immediately transformed into hybrid form and burst its restraints.  The party quickly put it down and continued toward the Stairs of the Moon.

At the Stairs, the team saw four werewolves atop a colonnade launching crossbow bolts at a pair of dire wolves.  The dire wolves fled back toward the forest edge after getting hit with some of the silvered bolts.  The team hoped to speak with the dire wolves and moved toward them.  The wolves shifted into massive hybrid forms standing around thirteen feet tall.  When the party approached, the werewolves pivoted and charged.  Caerwen and Tigris took several blows, and the magus decided to unleash a fireball on the werewolves!  The monks, with their ki-enhanced fists, tore into the lycanthropes.  Dario attempted to speak with them and was ignored.  Tigris then cast scorching ray and the monks finished off the werewolves.

With werewolf howls closing in from all sides, the team sprinted toward the Stairs of the Moon.  The werewolves atop took aim at them but then instead fired at the Vollensag werewolves charging on their heels.  The Vollensag quickly turned back as the party made it into the ground floor of the temple.  Within, they discovered a mysterious vilkacis who possessed Gnok!  Fortunately, the team had some silver items and was able to drive the spirit out.  Using silver, the team was able to discorporate the spirit.

The group then followed a trail of blood and found the corpse of a slain cultist of the Whispering Way.  On her person they discovered a map marking several locations around Ustalav, including a spot they did not recognize out in Ardeal.  They continued looking around and found a secret room with a pit and several scrolls, one of which contained a communion ritual that must be conducted in this very temple and would allow communication with the deity Desna!

Carrion Crown Adventure Path – Game Session – 034

Game summary for November 21, 2013, Carrion Crown Adventure Path campaign, Broken Moon adventure; PCs included Caerwen (elf monk), Dario Malavasi (human oracle), and Tigris Inebriavi (elf magus), accompanied by NPC companion Nyssa Pagonis (human cleric).

The party sought Estovion and found him in one of the main areas of the lodge with the guests.  The group moved upstairs, and Dario picked the lock to the lodge wing Estovion claimed as his own.  They searched some books and found an entry about an item called the Dust Moth and learned the Stairs of the Moon was once a temple to Desna.  They also went up into Estovion’s private study and found his journal.  Within they learned Estovion had grudgingly arranged the meeting between Auren Vrood of the Whispering Way and Mathus Mordrinacht of the Shudderwood werewolves.  They also learned Kvalca Sain had been killed and her heart stolen!

The group decided they needed to get to the Stairs of the Moon.  Early in the morning, they went and found Delgros who agreed to lead them to the stairs.  About half a mile away, the team settled down for a short rest and a meal.  While there, a pair of raging werewolves burst from the pines and attacked!  Massive brutes, they stood nearly 13 feet tall!  Dario attempted to talk them down, but the fury and bloodlust coursing through their veins seemed to win out.  The two tore into the party with blade and tooth, and Delgros was slain.  Caerwen’s monk ki allowed him to land powerful, deadly blows.  Tigris switched to a silver dagger after landing a brow gasher which hampered his enemy.  Caerwen took quite a beating, but Nyssa helped him ride out the punishment and deal out retribution.  Soon, the werewolves were all defeated on the ground!

Harm Incorporated – Ruins of Undermountain – Game Session – 001

Game summary for November 16, 2013, Ruins of Undermountain campaign; PCs included Boran Gibbs (human cleric), Kalil Bakran (human sorcerer), Paddy Brandywine (halfling bard [archaeologist]), and Rumbald Shieldcracker (dwarf ranger [dungeon rover]).

The Harm Incorporated team went down a flight of stairs and found four skeletal champions moving to attack.  The team cut down the first undead, but the other three hung back in another hallway.  Kalil launched a fireball while the rest of the team moved in.  Rumbald nearly fell into a pit trap but caught his balance just in time!  The group mopped up the champions very quickly and then dropped a rib bone with a light spell into the pit.  They found a dead adventurer at the bottom and lowered Paddy down on a rope to retrieve his backpack.  The mighty Rumbald lowered the rope and hauled the halfling back up.  They found several magic items and coins within.

From here, the team went to a large green door and picked the lock.  On the other side, they found a massive room filled with broken furniture and a group of ogres and minotaurs!  Rumbald hates minotaurs, so he charged in and ended up flanked by the ogres!  He took some heavy shots while the team moved in.  Several were hit hard, and Paddy cast good hope to make the team better fighters!  Kalil unleashed another fireball and used his fire ray attack.  The fighting was intense, forcing Boran to channel positive energy to heal the team.  Kalil used his scorching ray, and the team slowly took down each of the giant creatures.  The group then discovered some treasure on the body of a slain dwarven adventurer.

The group moved back down the hallway and entered an enormous room filled with cracked bones, straw, and hair balls.  Within, a white chimera paced about!  Paddy and Rumbald moved in to form a front line while Kalil slipped in behind.  The chimera pounced and also unleashed a blast of icy cold!  The creature fought valiantly but was no match for the combined might of the party.  Paddy then cast detect secret doors and found a door to the north!  On the other side, they discovered a chest full of treasure!

Finally, the team went through the last door they knew of.  Without was a tangled mess of hallways and trails of slime.  Four massive flail snails glided about and attacked trying to eat the party!  Rumbald, Paddy, and Boran all charged in and attacked while Kalil unleashed a lightning bolt.  As the snails were defeated one by one, Kalil also discovered the snails’ shells somehow protected them from some kinds of magic.  Within a few moments, though, the team was victorious and had survived their first few encounters within Undermountain!

Carrion Crown Adventure Path – Game Session – 033

Game summary for November 14, 2013, Carrion Crown Adventure Path campaign, Broken Moon adventure; PCs included Caerwen (elf monk), Dario Malavasi (human oracle), Gnok Thatek (dwarf monk), and Tigris Inebriavi (elf magus), accompanied by NPC companion Nyssa Pagonis (human cleric).

The party mingled at dinner and met a number of nobles and other guests.  They had a discussion with Cilas Graydon, Margrave of Sturnidae, and learned he was friends with Echtmoor Dravin, the young man they found dead in the weaverworm’s lair.  They agreed to help him recover the body.  They spoke briefly with Markiza Welgory and her huntsman, Ostovach.

They later followed Madame Ivanja outside and learned she resides in a tower outside the main house and sells information and entertainment.  When asked out on the lawn about the Whispering Way, she excused herself and went into her tower.  The team then noticed Quiene Steymor in the stable and spoke with her.  She indicated she stabled horses for a strange group of visitors who sounds suspiciously like Whispering Way cultists.  She indicated they had met in Madame Ivanja’s tower.

The team then questioned Belik who, after a bit of intimidation, admitted he had let some visitors in to see Madame Ivanja some days earlier.  The group asked Estovion about the visitors, and he clearly knew nothing about it.  They then knocked on Ivanja’s door and was allowed entrance by one of her Qadiran guards.  Ivanja seemed much more affable within her tower, and they purchased an hour of time with her “employee,” Niama.  Niama was smoking some kind of herb when they met her, and she described the men she had danced for before a strange meeting between the men and a silver-haired woodsman.  She mentioned they had said something about the “Stairs of the Moon” and a packlord’s heart as she was going out the door.

The team left Ivanja’s and pondered their next move.  Estovion had mentioned doing some writing when they last saw him, and Ivanja had stated he writes a lot of things down.  Perhaps they would find a way to investigate his private study?

Carrion Crown Adventure Path – Game Session – 032

Game summary for November 7, 2013, Carrion Crown Adventure Path campaign, Broken Moon adventure; PCs included Caerwen (elf monk), Dario Malavasi (human oracle), Gnok Thatek (dwarf monk), and Tigris Inebriavi (elf magus), accompanied by NPC companion Nyssa Pagonis (human cleric).

The party traveled on toward Ascanor Lodge and came across a dead man tied to a tree with a large silver knife stabbed through his heart.  As the group approached, Tigris triggered a tripwire that unleashed a volley silvered crossbow bolts into the party!  After nursing their wounds, they investigated the body and found its mouth filled with wolfsbane.  They cut the body down and laid it beside a tree.  Then covered it in some branches.  And then left.

The team made camp and spent a relatively uneventful evening in the Shudderwood.  They pressed on through the next day and arrived at Ascanor Lodge shortly before dawn.  They were denied entry based on the letter from Count Caromarc and the bloody invitation and turned away.  However, around the same time, a nobleman emerged eager for a werewolf hunt.  He invited the party to join in, and they all set out into the evening.

The team came upon a slain deer carcass Delgros the huntsman had discovered, which is what led Duristan (the nobleman) to want to investigate.  It was currently being consumed by a trio of dire boars!  The great pigs jealously guarded their meal by charging the party!  A quick battle ensued, and the boars were slain with only a few gores.  The group discovered great claw marks on the stag corpse.  Duristan decided to set werewolf traps and spend the night, but Delgros returned to the Lodge.

Later in the evening, while Duristan served brandy and talked about daring hunts and acts of bravery, the team heard some of the hired guards scream in the darkness.  They found two men slain by a towering, slavering werewolf standing over twelve feet tall!  The massive beast roared a challenge and demanded the party leave its territory.  It gave them a message to deliver to “whomever sent them” as a second enormous werewolf appeared from the darkness.  Howls erupted all around, and Duristan bolted.

The party fled after Duristan and found all the guards murdered.  They got on their horses and returned to Ascanor Lodge and followed Duristan in.  Within, they were introduced to Estovion Lozarov, warden of Ascanor.  He offered the use of the library and had Belik the porter show them to their rooms.  The team did some research in the library to discover several clues about the Shudderwood werewolves and then cleaned up for dinner.