Reign of Winter — Game Session — 068

Game summary for May 29, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Baknarla (Adlet Shaman played by Shane Bradley), Deska Starseeker (Half-Elf Druid played by Kaliegh Averdick), Kenwrec Battleglaive (Kobold Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Dwarf Cleric played by Chris Harmon), and Yelnoth the Dark (Winterborn Triaxian Sorcerer played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

First, the party walked up to one of the towers allegedly housing a world anchor.  The guards asked what they wanted, and eventually they walked away.

The team decided to explore the prison barracks.  Inside, they found thirty prisons chained to beds and seemingly insane.  One man, Oleg, spoke with them thinking at first they were soldiers.  They revealed their illusionary disguises and talked to him about joining their cause.  They examined the prisoners and became convinced the Brothers Three are vampires feeding on these people. For some reason, they believed they could starve out three vampires among a camp filled with hundreds of soldiers by murdering the defenseless captives.  Yelnoth blasted a horrendous fiery spell across half the room, brutally slaying several prisoners and setting a conflagration to consume the rest.  The group then ran out of the barracks.

The guards in the tower outside the barracks demanded to know what they were doing.  Deska began hollering back, but since she didn’t speak Russian, they got suspicious and opened fire.  Several of the party were hit by numerous bullets before Baknarla dropped a fog cloud and allowed the team to slip away.  Soldiers came running from all around as the team carefully tried to look inconspicuous in their disguises.  Half-a-dozen headless Cossacks thundered past, and the group decided it was a good time to explore the Cossack camp.

Inside the camp, the group found a hideous rotting goat with a lantern hanging about its neck.  Yelnoth cast true seeing and realized a soul was trapped in the lantern.  The group moved forward and were washed in the lantern’s light which broke Magnus’ nerve.  The goat then charged and injured Kenwrec.  The team swarmed around and killed it.  They then smashed the lantern, propped the goat up on a stick, and cast light on the lantern fragments before fleeing back into the camp.

Next, the group walked through the inner gate and approached the bear barn…

Reign of Winter — Game Session — 067

Game summary for May 22, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: All Might (Human Warpriest played by Andrew Renfrow), Baknarla (Adlet Shaman played by Shane Bradley), Kenwrec Battleglaive (Kobold Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Dwarf Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Svala Alehorn (Orc Unchained Barbarian played by Todd Hughes), and Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team summoned Zilvazaraat the Mercane and purchased hats of disguise.  They also collected gas masks from the defeated soldiers.  Kenwrec was able to drive the vehicle, and the team was able to get past the gate.  They then began walking around the complex under disguise.  They walked by a spring and encountered a nude faerie woman who tried to get them to come closer to her.  The group, pretending to be soldiers, claimed to be on patrol and left.  They roamed a bit following the map the captured soldier had sketched.  They slipped into the surgery area and found it inhabited by an interlocutor kyton!  It tried to kill them and add them to its growing body, but the team cut it down.

Exploring the horrific hospital, they found two teenagers in the closet!  The girl seemed confused and a bit crazy.  The boy continued trying to comfort her.  They learned the girl is Anastasia and the boy is Alexei, the heirs to the throne of the Russian Empire!  The girl went back and forth from believing Rasputin is her friend or enemy, and Alexei continued assuring her Rasputin was a friend who brought her back from death.  Anastasia kept saying someone had dragged her into a basement and shot her, although the team could find no sign of injury.  Finally, the team convinced the kids to continue hiding in the closet until they return.

The group then investigated the brewery and found it taken over by a family of zemlemer trackers, Russian yetis!  A short but violent skirmish ensued.  Baknarla summoned an ice elemental, All Might blasted down with a flame strike.  The team took down the yetis and extinguished the now burning building using the melting elemental!

Reign of Winter — Game Session — 066

Game summary for May 15, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Baknarla (Adlet Shaman played by Shane Bradley), Kenwrec Battleglaive (Kobold Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Dwarf Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Svala Alehorn (Orc Unchained Barbarian played by Todd Hughes), and Yelnoth the Dark (Winterborn Triaxian Sorcerer played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Baknarla used wind walk to approach the complex and was driven back under a hail of machinegun fire.  She was badly wounded, but the team was able to heal her.  Baknarla then used commune with nature to get some more information about the complex.  They decided to try and capture some soldiers and use their uniforms to get inside.  They waited and ambushed two jeeps full of soldiers and used blasts of cold to try and kill them.  Several threw grenades, and they opened fire on Yelnoth.  Kenwrec used his sap to bash one soldier unconscious.  Greta took several severe hits from bayonets before unleashing a blast of negative energy that dropped several of the soldiers dead in their tracks.  The team soon overwhelmed the remaining soldier and forced the two prisoners to drive the jeeps to the Dancing Hut.  They took the bodies, and Shatha used his cold breath and wings to cover their tracks.

The team interrogated the soldiers and found out a lot of information.  From observing the prisoners, they deduced they are somehow magically dominated or compelled.  The team confirmed they are in a far-off land called Russia.  They learned the monastery was recently consumed in a blaze of purple light, but by the grace of God it returns to its former glory from time-to-time.  They learned of four World Anchors in the towers built by Viktor Miloslav, a hunchbacked inventor with a prosthetic leg.  He apparently disappeared after being dragged before Rasputin and several chaplains (called the Brothers Three) and some strange goat with a lantern.  They learned the camp is built through an old cemetery, and there is a strange little girl who seems to lurk around there.  The group learned the correct gestures and passphrase to get passed the gate, so the team plans to walk right in wearing stolen uniforms.

Reign of Winter — Game Session — 065

Game summary for May 8, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Baknarla (Adlet Shaman played by Shane Bradley), Kenwrec Battleglaive (Kobold Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Dwarf Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Svala Alehorn (Orc Unchained Barbarian played by Todd Hughes), and Yelnoth the Dark (Winterborn Triaxian Sorcerer played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

After defeating the fiery corpse orgy, the team noticed the Dancing Hut was agitated and went crashing through the woods in a swathe of destruction.  The group quickly followed and found a large expanse of area devoid of trees.  Across the way stood a huge compound and some kind of ruined monastery.  Two strange metal hulking contraptions rolled up, and everyone except Magnus hid.  The things unleashed a barrage of gunfire upon Magnus.  He then tried to jump on one and instead got run over.  Baknarla then got run over.  And then, Kenwrec and Greta.  Greta hit one with a flame strike, and Yelnoth teleported inside one and blasted it apart with a flurry of icy spells.  Svala hurled a grenade, which damaged the other and mulched Magnus’ corpse.  Svala then charged in and used her magical axe to rip apart the other.

The group fled into the “safety” of the Dancing Hut and spoke with the Coffin Man some more.  They reincarnated Magnus (into a female dwarf), and he used some magic to study his surroundings more.  He realized this world, Earth as called by the Coffin Man, is mostly magic dead.  However, this structure is overflowing with dangerous stolen power funneled in from somewhere else.  The team speculates it must come from Baba Yaga’s Thrice-Tenth Kingdom, a faerie land of dark power.  The group also realized the Dancing Hut seems somehow warded from entry and that Rasputin’s guards are not attacking the Hut.

Reign of Winter — Game Session — 064

Game summary for May 1, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Alfbern Winterbloom (Half-Elf Inquisitor played by Preston Harmon), Baknarla (Adlet Shaman played by Shane Bradley), Kenwrec Battleglaive (Kobold Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Koloth Kruge (Centaur Ranger played by Parker Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Trollkin Cleric played by Chris Harmon), and Svala Alehorn (Orc Unchained Barbarian played by Todd Hughes). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Baknarla provided the team with more cover using a fog cloud over the metal contraption.  The group moved across the street to investigate a large fire as the machine began shelling their former position.  The team noticed a bearded black-garbed man standing by the fire.  As they approached, they realized the flames were burning a large pile of corpses!  They spoke with the man, who could speak thickly accented Common, and realized it was Grigori Rasputin!  He warned them they are too late, that he will soon control Baba Yaga’s Thrice-Tenth Kingdom.  The group talked a while and finally decided to attack.  Baknarla summoned a heard of ice elementals!  However, they discovered this was merely an illusion or projection of Rasputin.  They tried to rush passed and go up the road, but he spoke some mystic word of command, and the team was unable to move from their location.  Only Baknarla avoided the effect.  Then, a fiery orgy of corpses rose up from the burning pile and attacked!  The animated monstrosity tore into the team, particularly Baknarla.  The group struggled, mostly unable to advance, so spells were hurled and arrows fired.  It took some time, but finally the group wore it down, and Shatha’s cold breath weakened it enough for Baknarla to kill it with her spear.

The image of Rasputin faded away as he warned he would see them soon.