Game summary for May 30, 2017, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: All Might (Human Warpriest played by Andrew Renfrow), Denessia Rapidarma (Dwarf Gunslinger/Paladin played by Casey Scruggs), Deska Starseeker (Half-Elf Druid played by Kaliegh Belda), Kenwrec Battleglaive (Dwarf Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Svala Alehorn (Dwarf Unchained Barbarian played by Todd Hughes), Ten-Penny Tacey (Half-Orc Rogue played by Shane Bradley), and Tulvur Xandersen (Dwarf Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.
The team found the third raven seer, Moc, and heard his riddle. They proceeded to find a massive fiendish dire boar that smote Tulvur and gave the team a brutal fight. The team struggled against the creature and its defenses: damage reduction against non-good weapons, spell resistance, and energy resistances. It badly injured several of the party. Denessia suffered an embarrassing setback when her magical pistol exploded in her hands! Fortunately, only she was injured by the blast. Eventually, Svala was able to lay the Beast of Gelglast low. The group then realized the answer to Moc’s riddle were the boar’s tusks. He presented them with the third amulet and another clue. The team now had three sets of clues, one from each Liar Seer:
Moc’s amulet with the Iobarian rune for “dragon”:
This amulet holds only one of the three clues you seek. It reveals the first ingredient for Baba Yaga’s kettle. Look for this key where time catches up to us all.
Look for the Mother when the moon is full!
Rozum’s amulet with the Iobarian rune for “gold”:
You have taken upon yourselves a great burden, for that which you desire, the changeling holds. Know this as well—you will find the Crone only when the moon wanes.
Tryva’s amulet with the Iobarian rune for “Artrosa”:
So be it. Seek now the sisters three who are one: Mother, Maiden, Crone. But know that the Maiden is elusive, and may only be caught with the waxing moon.
With the riddles solved, the group was able to see through some of the illusions and realized the hallway was a large twisting loop. Upon returning to the main hut room, they found double doors they did not notice previously across the hall. Perhaps they had been hidden by the same illusions distorting the hallway? On the other side of the doors, they found a room filled with all kinds of things they didn’t have time to fully explore. They spoke for a time with a man named Ratibor the Bold, a barbarian warlord enslaved by Baba Yaga to kill anyone other than her who enters the Dancing Hut’s front door. Since the party entered the room from the hallway, he was not compelled to fight them. He was able to reveal some secrets of the Dancing Hut to them such as that it gains a new configuration for each location it travels. When it goes, the other rooms are still in existence “somewhere” just unavailable to the people piloting the hut. He told them he had only seen Baba Yaga and Zorka recently. He also revealed to them they could re-enter the library using the index. Finally, they learned he might could be freed from enslavement (and thus not have to try and kill them when they return) if they use Baba Yaga’s cookbook which he saw her carrying the last time she went into Iobaria but did not return with it.
The group went out the front door and discovered a frost giant guarding the entrance! Unable to exit and help them, and a bit amused by the welcome the team received in his harsh homeland, Ratibor shut the door behind them. If the party died at the hands of the giants, he would not be forced to murder them all later. The team traded blows with the giant as other giants came rushing through the forest. Several of the party took devastating blows, and things were starting to look bleak. However, after a few moments the Dancing Hut animated and attacked a giant! Svala landed a deathblow and felled a giant as well. The team regrouped and readied to engage as more giants came crashing through the snowy wood!
Journal Entry 3
We came to yet another door. Deska led the way through and was greeted by another raven with another riddle. In the adjacent chamber, a boar was waiting. I tried shooting it, but my damn gun jammed and exploded. Svala, the dwarf Barbarian, put it down shortly, thankfully.
Deska removed the boar’s tusks and presented them to the raven as the riddle’s solution. As a reward, we were given a third amulet, this one with “Dragon” inscribed on it (or so I was told, since I can’t read Iobarian).
“Look for the mother when the moon is full” the raven spoke as it disappeared. Yet another riddle of sorts that I can’t make sense of.
When we exited the raven’s room, the magic over the area had worn off, allowing us to realize the hallways looped into each other. We returned to the hut’s hallway. Deska noticed a door opposite the hut’s door.
We entered the room and were met by a man quite surprised to see us. He spoke Iobarian to us at first, but after we gave our greetings in our various tongues, a couple of the party were able to find a shared language in Draconic. The man tells us we are in the hut, in Iobaria, and that the hut also exists simultaneously in Irrisen (and I presume other places–Baba Yaga has some serious magical powers).
The man tells us we can exit but that he will not allow us to re-enter, and will fight us until death (his or our’s). He also tells us the index contains a picture of the library in Irrisen and that we can place the picture on a wall in the hut to make a door to the library appear. We do such and look up info on the mountain range.
We exit the hut. An ice giant is waiting and calls for reinforcement when he sees us. And I don’t have a (working) weapon.