Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for July 30, 2019, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Baknarla (Adlet Shaman Ranger played by Shane Bradley), Erris (Arctic Elf Bloodrager played by Casey Scruggs), Keravno (Aasimar Fighter played by Peyton Harmon), and Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team entered the mound and found a shrine with a massive stone hippopotamus idol holding a gigantic axe.  The group started to leave the room, and the idol stood up and spit a glacial ooze onto Magnus!  It then lumbered forward and started dealing unbelievably powerful slashes with the axe!  It nearly cut Keravno in twain!  Erris used flash forward to hit the construct and found his sword quite effective.  Baknarla went to assist Magnus and was also savaged by the hippo idol’s axe.  Some of the group were temporarily charmed by the idol, but they kept snapping out of the effect.  The ooze was defeated after Magnus dragged himself free.  Meanwhile the group surrounded the idol and cut it down with their magical weapons.  It crashed down, and the group found and claimed several valuable items.

Game summary for July 23, 2019, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Erris (Arctic Elf Bloodrager played by Casey Scruggs), Keravno (Aasimar Fighter played by Peyton Harmon), and Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team set out across the frigid steppe and occasionally heard a howl in the distance.  They found some huge tracks, perhaps belonging to elephants or something of similar size. 

After a while, the team came upon an enormous earthen mound with a cave-like entrance flanked by weather-worn statues and massive ivory tusks.  As they approached, they were attacked by four taiga giants armed with bows mounted upon giant baluchiterium!  Magnus hit all of them with fire storm and set most on fire!  Most of them frantically tried to put out the flames as the party closed in.  The giants unleashed a volley of arrows, but the party quickly cut down some of the giants!  The enraged mounts trampled over the party.  Erris and Keravno torn into the foes with mighty weapons while Magnus pummeled them with spell after spell.  One of the giants savaged Magnus with arrows, but the team was able to cut down all the creatures before he was critically injured. 

The team investigated outside and found lots of tracks.  They also spotted what they determined to be a wendigo flying through the air with a captive Winter Guardsman!  They disappeared over the top of the mound, and the man presumably met a quick demise. 

Game summary for July 9, 2019, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Baknarla (Adlet Shaman Ranger played by Shane Bradley), Deska Starseeker (Half-Elf Druid played by Kaliegh Averdick), Erris (Arctic Elf Bloodrager played by Casey Scruggs), Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon), and Tarik (Human Bard played by Andrew Renfrow). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team placed the 12 hearts of the crone queens into the tea pot and found themselves whisked to Vigliv’s tree where they unlocked another layer of Baba Yaga’s prison.  They were infused with yet more power from the Queen of Witches and gifted with a thread of fate from the norn allowing them to slightly alter their own fate once. 

They set off to a canyon with a portal to the Witch Queen’s Kurgan, her inner sanctum and stronghold.  She warned them she had trapped the Infernal Crocodile as a guardian, so the team enhanced their abilities with magic before moving into the area.  The half-fiend crocodile rose up into the air and hit the team with horrid wilting!  It then activated smite good and charged Deska!  The team tried to maneuver closer and found several of the spells of limited effect.  They did land some successful spells like searing light and holy smite, but some of their other attack spells like flame strike and slow faltered.  The crocodile snatched up Deska into its maw to swallow her, but she wild shaped into a mammoth!  The crocodile dropped her but then ravaged her unconscious with savage bite and tail attacks. 

The team started landing some really heavy blows bolstered by magic and Tarik’s sonic enhancement.  All of the bonuses added up as too much for the monstrosity to withstand, and it was slain before it could swallow down Tarik! 

The team then went through the portal and found themselves on a frozen steppe under an oppressive sky.  Somewhere off in the distance is the kurgan and their final showdown. 

Game summary for July 2, 2019, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Alfbern Winterbloom (Half-Elf Inquisitor played by Preston Harmon), Keravno (Aasimar Fighter played by Peyton Harmon), Koloth Kruge (Centaur Ranger played by Parker Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon), and Tarik (Human Bard played by Andrew Renfrow). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team tried to open the double doors before them and triggered a frosty trap that blasted them with frigid magical cold.  Beyond the doors was a large chamber lined with fourteen thrones, the ninth and fourteenth empty.  The rest were occupied by the twitching corpses of long dead ice queens.  Some were little more than blind husks feebly trembling with a mockery of undead life.  Four, however, sprang out of the chairs howling in anger as they sensed the presence of Baba Yaga!  The team was slow to enter the room and found themselves divided by a wall of ice!  The queens started unleashing cone of cold and polar ray to devastating effect.

Tarik was able to dispel the wall, and the team crept in only to be divided again by another wall of ice.  The remaining queens unleashed spells and energy-draining melee attacks on the isolated party members.  Keravno, Alfbern, and Koloth tried to bring the fight to the queens, but they suffered greatly for their efforts.  Once again, Tarik dispelled the wall, and Magnus slipped a maximized flame strike in on the queens.  Alfbern used his inquisitor bane ability to deal some damage while Koloth found himself hit with several energy drain attacks.  Yet again, the queens divided the party with a wall of ice, and Tarik once again dispelled it.

Koloth found himself encased in ice while Magnus and Keravno pounded away with fiery spells and whirling hammer.  A fourth wall of ice divided the team, and Tarik failed to dispel it.  However, Magnus succeeded.  The queens pummeled the team with cone of cold and polar ray with the occasional crushing despair.  Alfbern died under one of the queen’s flurry of staff attacks due to the devastating energy drain, and his bear companion died soon thereafter.  Magnus started two of the foes on fire with fire storm, which caused them to run around and falter in some of their magic. 

Tarik was able to hasten the party, and Keravno’s hammer was enhanced with Greta’s baneweapon.  His thrown hammer brought down a queen while Magnus’ fire brought down another.  Greta freed Koloth from the ice, and several party members provided some healing to their allies.  The combined fire and hammer continued to wear away, and eventually the last two were slain! 

As the last crone queen died, Baba Yaga instructed the party to cut out the hearts of all twelve queens in order to steep a tea!  The team went around and collected all the hearts and then spotted a tea set on a table in the back of the room.