Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for June 11, 2019, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Deska Starseeker (Half-Elf Druid played by Kaliegh Averdick), Erris (Arctic Elf Bloodrager played by Casey Scruggs), Iguruzu Koshin (Human Monk played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Human 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 moved to engage the baying Nessian warhounds and found themselves caught in multiple overlapping blasts of flaming breath!  Several of the team were protected from fire, but some were not and were hurt very, very badly.  Shatha breathed cold back upon the hounds while the group engaged with blade and spell.  Deska conjured a whip of spiders while Koshi, Magnus, and Tulvur engaged in melee.  Svala was caught in the back but made devastating use of her sharding axe to hit the dogs from afar.  In minutes the team had eliminated the dogs and searched the room. 

The group moved down the corridor and found a massive chamber with a flowing river of magma at the bottom of a chasm.  Across the divide was a ten-foot stone wall behind which stood over half-a-dozen fiendish fire giants!  They unleashed a barrage of heated stones at the team.  Koshi hurled one of the Russian grenades among them.  The giants puzzled over it briefly and deduced it was probably dangerous, so they threw it over the wall down into the magma!  Erris used telekinetic charge to hurl Greta into the fray!  She tore into the giants, her most hated of foes.  Tulvur mounted Shatha, and they soared across the chasm breathing ice and swinging about with blades. 

Magnus and Deska began a barrage of devastating spells including maximized flame strike and call lightning storm.  Erris entangled several giants with black tentacles, which allowed Greta, Tulvur, and Shatha to thin their ranks.  Koshi, a monk of no small measure, decided to leap the chasm and join the battle as well.  At the last moment he stumbled and plunged into chasm!  He belly-flopped into the magma.  Erris dove down after him with his winged boots, but Koshi’s body was completely consumed by the fiery flow.  The group finished fighting the giants and spent a few moments lamenting the loss of their companion. 

Game summary for June 4, 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 rested from their fight with the dybbuk and spelled up with a barrage of magic such as mass bull’s strength, protection from energy, resist energy, haste, and lead blades.  They then swooped down the sinkhole to confront whatever was down there.  They found their exploring had roused two crag linnorms and one breathed magma upon the team!  Fortunately, their magical protections held.  The two dragons flew over and began tearing into the team with venomous teeth.  Erris proved impervious to the poison, but he did end up grappled! 

The group unleashed fury upon the first linnorm and brought it down quickly, freeing Erris.  He used his sword, magically turned to cold iron, to slay the beast!  The team braced themselves as the death curse washed over Erris with no immediately noticeable effect.  Tarik tried to cast a spell and was bitten by the other linnorm.  Its horrific venom coursed through his veins, burning out his life force by the second!  He staggered back and feared himself slain.  Magnus was grappled and unable to assist, but Greta slipped out of the dragon’s reach and healed the bard. 

Deska took the form of a crystal dragon and blasted the linnorm with a cone of sonic energy!  Baknarla and Erris waded in with spear and sword landing blow after blow.  The team found their spelling up paid dividend after dividend, and the final dragon was no match for their combined might. 

After the fight, the team nursed their wounds and searched the area.  They discovered a fortune in a treasure horde and equipment from slain adventurers.  They then went through some doors and heard barking.  Following the noise, they discovered a kenneled filled with massive flaming dogs the size of horses!  The canines howled and bayed as they charged. 

Game summary for May 7, 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), and Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The ghostly dybbuk dominated Tulvur and turned him against the party!  He immediately began attacking Erris.  Deska hit the spirit with flame strike but found it of limited effect.  Baknarla began blinking and moved in.  The dybbuk tried to possess her while Deska polymorphed Tulvur into a rabbit.  Shatha ran him down and stuffed him into a saddlebag. 

Greta cast baneweapon on Baknarla’s spear.  The dybbuk then possessed Erris and began self-inflicting wounds!  Deska kept him/her from running away by casting wall of stone.  Greta then drove out the possession with protection from good.  Erris unleashed a barrage of magic missiles while Baknarla hammered away with her spear.  Eventually, the spear drove home and killed the spirit!

The team searched the area and found several magical items.  They also realized the area was a loop and they only had the sinkhole as an option to progress.  The group decided to hole up and make camp to prepare. 

Game summary for April 30, 2019, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: 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 Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team looked around and found what appeared to be some kind of exploration staging area filled with ropes, packs, food, and more.  The supplies were fresh and marked with stamps from Irrisen.  The group found a ledge leading down into a smoke-filled cavern.  Deska wild shaped into a bat and found the chamber quite large.  She then summoned giant eagles to fly them down into the cavern.  The group donned gas masks they found in Russia and explored. 

Emerging from the dark smoke came a glowing plasma ooze!  The creature blasted plasma rays into the team with painful effect.  Tulvur charged forward and split the ooze in half with his sword!  The group began hammering it with magic and summoned monsters.  The oozes grappled some of the team and tried to engulf them, but they could not withstand the combined attacks of the team.  The group then found a partially digested dwarf and recovered his equipment and an eversmoking bottle. 

The team explored more and found a sinkhole with ropes leading down.  Deska sent down her owl and found two badly burned corpses.  A single “hoot” causes large creatures in the darkness to growl and slither, and the owl retreated.  The team examined all the footprints and found that another individual had gone down the rope but came back up and climbed up a ledge. 

Calling her eagles back, Deska got the team up the ledge.  They went around the corner and found desiccated corpses stacked neatly.  In the center of the room, a Viking-looking man sat on the ground holding a bloody dagger.  He had slit his own throat and let the blood pool in his lap.  His dead eyes stared out at them.  Tulvur approached, and a shrieking, ghostly woman came rushing out of the corpses!  Her hands were crimson red and twitching like a mad puppeteer. 

Game summary for April 23, 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), and Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team entered the kitchen and were attacked by an animated furnace!  Magnus swiftly protected the party against fire just in time for him and Baknarla to be snatched up and stuffed in the oven!  The party took several hard hits but quickly dismantled the stove.  They saw some kind of female spirit drift out into another room. 

They gave chase and found a nine-headed jotund troll arguing with itself!  It seemed confused by their presence, and the party tried to talk to it.  It got more and more agitated until it charged!  The team defeated it and saw the same spirit drift out of it into another room.  The group looked around for a bit, and the troll sat up, healing from its injuries!  They were able to talk to him a bit and then went through the door looking for the spirit.  Instead, they found a closet.  They rapped about with Baba Yaga’s broom, and suddenly the floor disappeared!  They plunged into darkness and found themselves in a frigid cave.

Baba Yaga warned them that the former queens of Irrisen were nearby and likely very angry.  The party advanced and were attacked by a massive elder ice elemental!  It dealt tremendous damage with punishing blows, but the team rallied around and took it down fairly quickly. 

Game summary for March 26, 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), Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon), and Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team entered the cave and were swallowed by the frost worm!  They were whisked through the portal into a thick old-growth forest before a wooden cottage.  Smoke wafted from the chimney, and using her wolf senses, Deska could detect the smell of cooking stew. 

The group approached and found a trail of breadcrumbs leading to the door.  Beside the door, Deska discovered Baba Yaga’s besom, an artifact level item!  The group entered the building and were soon attacked by living mannequins shaped like chess pieces.  The team suffered several solid blows, but he most concerning attacks came from the splintered effect of the creatures where they explosively launched shards of wood in all directions.  This damaged the team pretty severely, but magical healing stemmed the flow of blood.  The group engaged violently and reduced the figures to piles of broken wood.  The team searched the room and found several valuable carvings.

Next the team opened a door and found a large furnace oven with some cookies and stew.  An open child-sized cage hung over the oven.  The cookies were all missing a bite, and they discovered a note inviting them to eat a cookie and make themselves at home…

Game summary for March 19, 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 Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

With instruction from Baba Yaga, the team plunged the athame into the khala’s corpse and imbued it with Baba Yaga’s death.  They then submerged in the pool and emerged back at Vigliv’s tree.  They used the athame to open another level of the doll and were imbued with more of the Witch Queen’s power. 

They then learned they must seek Baba Yaga’s life, which is protected by her daughters.  However, Baba Yaga warned that Elvanna will have made precautions to prevent them from retrieving it.  She guided them toward a cave and warned them that within they must be swallowed by a massive worm to activate the portal! 

On the way up the to the cave they were ambushed by four bone devils!  They divided the party with a wall of ice and began clawing and stabbing with their poisonous tails.  The devils landed several blows but overall were pretty ineffective against the team’s armor.  After vanquishing them, the party ascended to the landing before the cave and found an illusion masking a pair of advanced ice devils!

The larger, nastier devils overlapped cones of cold across the team and tore into them with barbed spears.  They led the party to divide into two groups and hammered away with spells and melee.  Their spell resistance thwarted several attacks, and their regeneration allowed them to recover from several attacks.  The devils were mostly a nuisance instead of a true threat, though, as the team quickly wore them down and vanquished them both. 

Game summary for March 12, 2019, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: 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), Tarik (Human Bard played by Andrew Renfrow), and Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Erris cast haste on the party and moved into the room with the khala dragon where it immediately hit him with a polar ray!  It then moved around behind a pair of pillars for cover.  Deska moved in and hit the dragon with a quickened flame strike and finger of death!  Tulvur tried to sneak in and hide behind a pillar for a surprise attack.  Meanwhile, Magnus cast quickened lead blades while Greta cast baneweapon on his sword.  Shatha came and swung his glaive between the pillars.  Magnus came in and charged the dragon!  Erris and Tulvur ended up getting staggered by the dragon’s critical hits, and Erris was grappled!  Tarik enhanced several of the team members with his bardic abilities and spells and granted them the ability to deal sonic damage which began to add up as blows landed.  Erris slipped free, and the khala flew over to engage Deska who had polymorphed into a crystal dragon! 

Once there, it breathed a line of cold hitting several of the team but they avoided being encased in the dragon’s ice.  Tarik then cut off the battlefield with a wall of force, and Deska tried to summon a herd of elephants but wound up grappled.  The party swarmed in and landed numerous blows, but the khala dropped a cold-based incendiary cloud on top of them all and flew to the other side of the room with Deska.  She broke the grapple by wild shaping into a mammoth!  Greta was in position to land lots of blows and Magnus was able to hit it with a flame strike and slay the beast! 

Game summary for February 12, 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 Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Good to her word, the Queen took the party to the witch tree, which they promptly discovered to be a quickwood!  The tree tried to eat them, but the team rallied surprisingly quickly and chopped the tree down in just a few moments. 

Deska shifted into dire wolf shape, and with the assistance of some others, dug up the grave beneath the tree.  Within, they found a witch-doll golem that animated and attacked!  It dealt some devastating injuries with its needles, but it too proved no match for the team.  Within the golem, they found a metal coffer.  Baknarla failed to pick the lock, so Tulvur studied it to determine its weak points.  Deska then chomped it with her wolf teeth and burst it open!  Baba Yaga’s athame fell to the ground, and the team retrieved it. 

They were then led by Baba Yaga to a cave and encountered carnivorous crystals!  The razor-edged creatures dealt several serious injuries, especially to Magnus who was nearly sliced in half.  The group realized the crystals are slow, so they fled down a hallway and sealed it with a wall of stone.  They continued down the hallway into a larger cavern with a pool of water.  There, they discovered a three-headed dragon!