Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for August 1, 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), 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 continued down the hallway past the wooden figures and discovered a long ascending stairway.  They climbed to the top and found a locked door.  Tulvur hit it with a hammer, which elicited a response from inside demanding who was out there.  The team conversed, and eventually an old crone opened the door.  Behind her the stars shone overhead, and wind blew through dead corn stalks in a large field.  All around lay dead ravens.  She warned them, “The cancer grows in the womb of the Crone.  To face the Curse of Eons, you must have time on your side.”  She also warned them she felt they are too young and should come back later.  She gave them a key and shut the door on them.

The group backtracked and explored another side passageway.  They came upon a frightening scene where numerous creatures were vivisected and on display in some kind of mad laboratory.  A trio of misshapen forlarren with multiple arms prepared poisoned blowgun darts as the team approached.  Behind them, the demonic half-satyr they had been seeking rose up on bat-like wings!  The forlarren ascended the walls using spider climb and bombarded the team with poisoned darts!  The fiend unleashed an unholy blight and later summoned a fiendish boar to harass the party spellcasters.  All Might blessed the party and rode into the fracas.  Tulvur moved in to put pressure on one side as Greta broke toward the other.  Denessia started shooting opportune targets with her pistol as Ten-Penny moved to try setting up flanks.

The team at first struggled, but All Might came charging in on his horse and leapt into the air to impale the fiend with his cold iron lance!  The fiend charged down upon him trying to smite but found that tactic ineffective!  The fiend activated a fear effect that drove several of the team into retreat!  The rest of the team rallied, though and closed in.  Denessia unleashed her own smite and shot him between the horns and eyes, dropping him dead.  Denessia tried to capitalize and turn on the forlarren, but her pistol exploded in her hands!  Deska hit a climbing forlarren with a whip of spiders!  The team was able to close up ranks and slay the last of the misshapen beasts.

Game summary for July 25, 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 (Orc 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 realized with so many of their number blinded, they were in serious trouble.  They figured the giants were unlikely to come back into the nymph’s chamber since two had been slain here and thought maybe other things would avoid her as well.  So, Deska cast hide campsite, and the team rested.  All Might and Magnus were able to prepare five remove blindness/deafness spells and restore the party to normal health!

The group headed back the way they came seeking a side passage still in search of the demon creature.  They found a set of quartz runes in the floor beside a table.  On the table sat a bowl filled with wildflowers and four wooden statues.  Deska recognized the poses of the figures from the first room they entered, so she sent her magical owl back to observe and report telepathically what it saw.  The group arranged the figures in the same order but failed to do anything with the flowers.  This triggered a magical trap causing the four figures to grow to 3 feet in height and animate as wood golems!  The creatures attacked with fist and splittered blasts.  The team learned the hard way they were resistant to magic and non-adamantine weapons.  In the small hallways, the team struggled to get a lot of enemies engaged at once.  Several of the team wisely hurled alchemist’s fire among the wooden creatures.  Ten-Penny made an amazing acrobatic roll down the hallway but fumbled along the way.  She took a beating and eventually had to flee.  Magnus was able to keep the team going with channeled positive energy as Tulvur, Kenwrec, and Svala jockeyed to get into some kind of striking position.  The creatures pressed in, and Kenwrec kept landing killing blows, eventually destroying all four of the menaces!

Moments later a gorgeous woman with heterochromatic eyes appeared suddenly in the hallway.  She smiled and spoke with the team at length.  She did not reveal much about herself, but she indicated she was a servant of Baba Yaga.  She warned the group the frost giants, centaur, and demons were all aligned and ahead of the team in the complex.  Right before disappearing, she handed Deska a small metal key.

Game summary for July 11, 2017, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: All Might (Human Warpriest played by Andrew Renfrow), 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), and Tulvur Xandersen (Dwarf Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team confronted Caigreal about her lack of involvement with the fight against the lurkers in light, and she claimed to be scared.  They did not buy that excuse and pressed harder.  Tulvur stepped up and threatened to murder her, and she broke down saying she lied and had no real combat ability but was afraid they were going to leave her behind.  The team continued to act more aggressively and erratic, and she fled screaming into the cave begging for help.  The team let her go.

The group proceeded through a door and down a hallway.  They came upon a strange room filled with large stone menhirs and illuminated skulls swaying from chains.  Two gutted frost giants were splayed across two of the menhirs.  In the center of the room, bathing in their blood, was a debased nymph.  Her horrific blinding beauty struck several of the party blind as she attacked.  Deska wisely summoned a constrictor snake and a trio of fire elementals to try and keep pressure on her.  The nymph summoned an air elemental to pummel the team.  She then dropped a flame strike on the flanks of the team.  Deska’s summoned creatures were unable to really injure the nymph, but they severely curtailed her mobility and gave flanking opportunities for Kenwrec and All Might.  Magnus and All Might both discovered spiritual weapon spells were highly effective in the fight.  Greta and Magnus found themselves forced into healing allies due to the vicious air elemental.

Kenwrec accidentally provoked an attack of opportunity and was slashed by the nymph.  Her debilitating touch weakened him, and she focused several more attacks on him, rendering him unconscious.  She then used a coup de grace to slaughter him!  She then used dimension door to appear closer to the team, forcing even more to try and resist her blinding beauty.  Magnus quite astutely fled back out of range and continued to hurl spells while Deska caught the nymph in a tanglefoot bag!  The team swarmed in, and finally Tulvur was able to land a deathblow with his adamantine warhammer.

The team, gathered Kenwrec’s remains and brought them to blind Deska.  She cast reincarnate, and the proud dwarf returned to life… as an orc!

Game summary for July 4, 2017, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Denessia Rapidarma (Dwarf Gunslinger/Paladin played by Casey Scruggs), Deska Starseeker (Half-Elf Druid played by Kaliegh Belda), 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 went down the tunnel and heard some shouting down the way.  However, they also found a stone door and decided to explore it instead.  They went down a hallway and found a large room filled with growing fungus.  Deska noticed a horned man hiding behind a mound.  She alerted her allies just in time as the man took to the air on bat-like wings and a terrible tendriculos surged upward and attacked!  The man, with his goat legs, hooves, and ram horns, used a suggestion to tempt Deska to move toward him.  He tried to charm her but failed all the while make horrific suggestive comments.  The plant creature snatched up and swallowed Denessia, however she was able to blast her way out with her pistol.  Tulvur was also snatched up and swallowed.  The tendriculos snatched Denessia back up off the ground to try and eat her again!  Greta and Deska tried to kill the flying man, but he proved resistant to weapons, spells, fire, and more.  Greta started hurting him with channeled negative energy.  Finally, Deska hit the tendriculos with a flame strike revealing its vulnerability to fire.  Denessia’s flaming bullets ripped into it as well.  Before long, that creature lay in a smoldering heap.  Deska spit poison at the flying man, but he just laughed.  He managed to charm Ten-Penny, and she grappled Denessia!  The group managed to injure him enough to flee down a hallway, the group used a scroll of dispel magic to remove the charm from their half-orc ally.  They nursed their wounds and took off down the hallway.

They came upon another really weird chamber divided into sections by wooden frames with beaded cloth stretched between them like walls.  Inside they found a brunette woman named Caigreal.  She told them she had been walking through the forest and suddenly appeared in the caves.  She seemed scared and even dropped her staff when they surprised her.  Deska talked to her for a while but could sense no deception.  Denessia was unable to detect evil upon her, although Greta still registers moderately so.  The group invited Caigreal to accompany them but warned she would have to fend for herself in battle.

The party went through a closed door through which Caigreal claimed the flying man had fled.  They found a room filled with dazzling light emanating from a six-inch hole in the floor.  Deska moved in to throw a blanket over it and was struck blind.  The party began to get injured by unseen assailants harming them with small sharp blades.  The team flailed about for a few moments as the whatever it was continued to wound them.  Deska plopped down on top of the shining hole, and in the dimmed light four light fairies appeared!  They used magic to blind two more party members and slashed viciously with their blades.  They could not withstand the onslaught of the team, however.  Greta dealt sheer angry damage with her axe, but Tulvur was particularly effective with the cold iron of Icebiter.

Finally, the group killed their assailants and recovered a magical gem from the hole in the floor.  Unfortunately, three of their part remained blind!

Game summary for June 27, 2017, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: 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, rested from their encounter with the demons, continued through the forest toward Artrosa.  Along the way, they encountered a frightening cold rider fey astride a great boreal elk!  The creature dropped an ice storm on the party, but they retaliated with searing light and flame strike accompanied by arrows and bullets!  Kenwrec made it to the creature most quickly and suffered several bad injuries from its frosty glaive.  Most of the team got free of the ice storm and closed in.  Denessia aimed her pistol and shot it right between the eyes as Greta cut the elk out from under it.  The team looted the corpse, and Magnus questioned it with speak with dead.  They learned the fey was following the demons that had come from the frost giant camp further north.

After a few days’ travel, the team arrived at Artrosa.  Deska sent her serpentine owl figurine up to scout and discovered the Maiden statue had an entrance at the top surrounded by bones and a large tree.  She then used the power of the figurine to bring forth a giant owl, and she turned into a giant vulture.  Between them, they were able to ferry the party to the top as Erdija bade her farewells and returned to the centaur camp.

Atop the Maiden, they discovered a powerful witch tree with a disemboweled centaur in its clutches.  The tree demanded a sacrifice to pass.  The team spoke with it for a bit and finally revealed themselves to be Black Riders.  The tree reluctantly offered them a chance to solve a riddle to avoid a bloody sacrifice.  The team listened to the riddle and debated for a while until they collectively figured out the answer!  The disappointed tree allowed them safe passage and warned them half-a-dozen giants and a hammer-wielding centaur had gone in a day ahead of them.

The team progressed and heard two deep female voices arguing in some kind of broken mishmash of Giant, Goblin, and Orc languages.  They were discussing if they should have let the giants, escorted by the hag, to pass.  They thought maybe they should kill them on their way out.  The team entered the room and tried to talk to them in Common.  They learned the voices came from one creature, a female ettin!  She did not understand Common, so she opted to try and kill them.  She put an evil eye on Kenwrec and then forced him into deep slumber.  Svala charged and landed some good hits while Denessia opened fire.  Clever Ten-Penny moved for a flank as Tulvur strode up into the fight.  Deska hit the ettin with a flame strike, but she partially avoided it.  Greta kicked Kenwrec hard in the ribs to awaken him.  Magnus cast blessing of fervor on much of his team to bolster their abilities.  This greatly increased their effectiveness, and the team flanked and slaughtered the ettin with a barrage of rapier stabs, axe blows, and bullets.

Game summary for June 13, 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), 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 won over the support of Korak Kaag of the centaurs.  He told them what he knew about Artrosa, that it allegedly had rooms inside and the doors in the heads appeared only during certain moon phases.  He agreed to send a scout, Erdija, with them to Artrosa.  First, she took them to the centaur city of Vurnirn where they picked up a few resources.

The team headed north through the forest until evening and made camp.  They setup their pavilion and used Deska’s serpentine owl to stand guard.  Deska was awakened to the owl urgently alerting her to danger!  A trio of andrazku demons thundered out of the snow to accost the team.  Greta blessed the party, and Erdija ran out of the tent firing arrows.  Deska dropped a flame strike on one of the demons as the team scrambled out to engage.  One of the andrazku activated righteous might and doubled its size!  All Might and one of the demons began a brutal exchange as Greta and Tulvur fought another.  The third ripped its way into the tent and attacked Deska.  Ten-Penny flanked the one fighting All Might but soon found herself ravaged by the demon’s mutilating gouge.  Tulvur was able to land mighty shots with Icebiter, but the demon was able to devastate him as well.  Tulvur cut down one demon but found the enlarged demon too much to handle.  Denessia opened fire on the demon before her gun misfired and broke.  Deska failed to affect a demon with flame strike but did knock one prone allowing Erdija to kill it with her bow.  Tulvur tried to flee, but the demon teleported to cut him off and tried to murder him!  Denessia saved his life with channeled energy that also healed the demon.  All Might charged around and pressed in on the demon alongside Greta and a revitalized Ten-Penny.  Deska summoned a pack of hyenas and a wolverine which succeeded in surrounding the demon and pulling it off its feet.  At last, Greta landed a critical blow with her axe to slay the creature.

The team nursed their wounds, searched the bodies, and scouted the area.  Erdija determined the demons came from the north as a group from the general direction of Artrosa.  All Might was curious how Abyssal demons arrived on this plane to begin with and if this were a mere chance encounter.  The team patched their tent and resumed their rest, sleeping until dawn.