Charles Plemons' Blog

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…

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!

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.

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.

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.

Game summary for April 24, 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), Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick), and Yelnoth the Dark (Winterborn Triaxian Sorcerer played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team sat down and played cards with the Coffin Man and found he was willing to gamble knowledge.  For each hand they one, the party could ask a question.  For each they lost, he asked a question.  The team discovered that Baba Yaga had been lured to this planet and entrapped by her son, the “Mad Monk” Grigori Rasputin.  She came because he had been murdered, yet he did not die.  He managed to somehow use magic and technology to imprison her.  They learned he and his army have taken over a small town in this frozen landscape.  The Coffin Man warned Rasputin’s army possesses terrible and deadly technology.  Finally, they sufficiently befriended the Coffin Man, and he agreed to let them pass.  He gifted them with a trove of magic to help rescue his “cousin” Baba Yaga.

The group emerged from the hut into a wintery land with a burned out village at the bottom of a hill.  As the team descended the hill, they came upon strange metal discs buried in the ground.  Several in the group accidentally stepped upon these discs, and they exploded!  The explosions alerted strange men in the village below.  They pointed long sticks at the party, and sharp sounds erupted.  The snow burst up in tufts as whizzing projectiles hurtled all around.  Then, a THUMP! sound shook the air, and a strange oblong object arced through the sky and fell among the team.  When it landed, it exploded!  Showered in snow, stone, and shrapnel, the team began to try and close in.  Tulvur charged through a minefield, hitting several on his way.  Shatha flew over the field to land beside him.  Greta and Deska dropped flame strikes on the burned buildings sheltering the masses of soldiers.  Yelnoth came around behind the group using teleport.  Baknarla was concerned about a large metal wheeled contraption nearby and pummeled it with ice storm.  She also dropped a sleet storm over the enemy troops.  Yelnoth blasted away with fire, Shatha breathed cold, and Tulvur waded in with sword swinging.  Finally, all the troops lay dead, and the team collected a couple odd contraptions.

Game summary for April 17, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Kenwrec Battleglaive (Kobold Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Human 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.

The team discovered a pair of bogeymen in the candy room, and a nasty battle ensued!  One of the bogeymen used phantasmal killer on Magnus, and his heart gave out.  The noble cleric dropped dead from fright!  Svala recognized the fey and their weaknesses.  He entered a rage and used his dwarven axe to good effect.  Greta picked up Magnus’ fallen sword, knowing from Svala, that its heavy enchantment would damage the fey.  Yelnoth attempted a lightning bolt, but it failed to overcome spell resistance; however, his wall of fire was effective.  Kenwrec struggled to deal damage with his axe, but its flaming quality was somewhat effective.  Before moving on, Magnus was reincarnated into a female trollkin!

The team then climbed up the chimney and found themselves in a room filled with skulls with flickering flames in the eyes.  Whiskey barrels were scattered about the room, and a doll lay on a table.  They noticed the skulls were whispering “Vasilisa” over and over.  The group found the doll was nailed to crossed boards and had been bashed, gouged, and abused.  Suddenly, the doll moved and muttered.  Yelnoth cast communal tongues, and they realized the doll was begging for help.  They realized it looked oddly malnourished, so they fed her.  They used magic and determined the nails were trapped and would cause something horrific to happen with the skulls.  They tried smashing a skull, and nothing bad happened, so Magnus cast protection from energy (fire) and then painstakingly smashed every single skull.  Afterward, they freed the doll and healed it with mending.  They learned this was Vasilisa’s doll long ago, but it may have been trapped and tormented here by Baba Yaga for hundreds of years.

The doll was able to tell them of another exit from the room, below the barrels.  The group descended and found a skeletal creature sitting at a chair dealing cards.  It claimed to be Baba Yaga’s cousin…

Game summary for March 27, 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 (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick), and Yelnoth the Dark (Winterborn Triaxian Sorcerer played by Casey Scruggs). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team climbed into the old wardrobe and found it led to a dark passageway.  They emerged into a dark chamber with a single flickering candle.  Several of the team noticed their shadows detach and animate!  Kenwrec recognized these as shadow demons, and the creatures slipped through the cracks around the door and fled, whispering bits and pieces of information about the party as they went.  The group unlocked the heavily barred door through which the demons fled and then thought better of it and re-barred the door.  They went back through the wardrobe and cut through the vines in the other room into a sunlit dilapidated hut.

Deska looked out the window and saw a spidery creature approaching.  Baknarla went into the room and suddenly disappeared, but her equipment did not!  As it all clattered to the ground, Deska noticed Baknarla was now out in the woods with the spider!  Deska shattered the glass which caused an explosion, and suddenly Baknarla and the spider, a derghodaemon, were among the team!  The daemon was a brutal fighter, devastating the party with its rending claws.  Yelnoth tried to hit it with a disintegrate spell as the daemon’s maddening clicking drove several of the party insane.  The spell failed against its spell resistance, but it used greater teleport to appear beside the sorcerer!  Deska unleashed a barrage with sunbeam, and Kenwrec, Greta, and Tulvur closed in and battered a way.  Finally, Shatha landed a colossal critical hit, slaying the creature!

The group then continued exploring and found themselves back in the candy room!  Baknarla and Kenwrec were overcome by a compulsion to begin eating the candy, and then both began cowering in fear!

Game summary for March 20, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Alfbern Winterbloom (Half-Elf Inquisitor played by Preston Harmon), All Might (Human Warpriest played by Andrew Renfrow), 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 (Human 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.

The team searched Yrax’s throne room and found numerous healing items.  Baknarla then wind walked past the iron doors and unlocked Yrax’s treasury from the inside.  The party found a wealth almost beyond imagination.  After looking around, they found Viveka’s shawl as well as a bearskin.  The bearskin was odd because Yelnoth and Shatha were able to confirm there are no bears on Triaxus.  The group returned Viveka’s shawl and freed the nereid from captivity.  She told them a bit about the remaining inhabitants of Ivoryglass including a diplomatic guest.  The group went to talk to him.

The party found themselves standing before a massive 10-legged kokogiak!  The bear-like monstrosity spoke with them and was fairly pleased that Yrax was dead.  After some negotiation, they traded an 850-lb. chunk of adamantine for safe passage back through the Drakelands armies and out of the vicinity of Ivoryglass.

The team made it back to the Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga, and they threw the bearskin into the cauldron.  They tried to throw the two-headed eagle into the bubbling brew, but it resisted.  Svala got hold of it and slammed it bodily into the stew, which activated the hut.

The team found themselves in a room full of old birdcages occupied by dead or dying fae-like creatures.  Magnus cast comprehend languages and could understand their mutterings but could not speak with them.  They heard several strange utterances:

“From distant world to distant world, at last now we come home.”

“Many huts for many tales, but all begin here.  Vasilisa and her little doll.  Hungry children and a house of gingerbread.  Little Otik.  The forsaken son, come to claim his birthright.”

“Grandmother’s breadcrumb’s , all snatched up.  What little birds pecked them up?”

They opened a door and found a gingerbread room filled with furniture made of sweets.  Baknarla went in to look out the window and ended up eating part of the room.  She began screaming in fear before finally being lassoed and dragged out.  Once in the original room, the team slammed the door, while she threw up rotting maggot-covered material.  Next, the group climbed up the chimney and found themselves in a wooded room.

In this overgrown area, they encountered “Little Otik”, a massively overgrown mandragora that desperately pleaded to be fed.  It revealed itself a child of Baba Yaga and talked about its brother and sister recently feeding it a goat.  It then got fixated on goats and assumed All Might’s horse and Alfbern’s bear were funny looking goats.  It begged to get to eat them.  It threw a tantrum.  It cried.  It shouted.  Finally, it shrieked and attacked the party alongside a number of assassin vines!  The team fought hard, and soon Little Otik lay dead and destroyed.