Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for August 27, 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), Keravno (Aasimar Fighter played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Svala Alehorn (Orc Unchained Barbarian played by Todd Hughes), Tarik (Human Bard played by Andrew Renfrow), and Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

In the exciting conclusion to the campaign, the team found themselves bolstered by the arrival of the rest of their companions.  Meanwhile, another demodand arrived through the mirror gate.  The creatures focused most of their attacks on the two animated statues trapped on their side of the blade barrier.  The demodands hampered the party with a number of acid fog spells.  Elvanna continued to swing for the fences by casting mass suffocation that nearly killed Greta and Keravno.  The team launched spell after spell at their foes and began really weakening the elementals and demodands.  Svala hurled shard axes through the barrier with devastating effect.  The fog continued dealing annoying acid damage across the board.

Elvanna blasted Deska with a destruction spell, and it would have succeeded but for her thread of fate from Vigliv!  The curse upon Elvanna prevented her from acting several times, and Deska clipped her with a clashing rocks spell that knocked her to the ground.

A demodand dispelled the blade barrier, and the team advanced, cutting down elementals and outsiders alike.  Surrounded, Elvanna found herself confused once more by the curse and unable to really defend.  Baknarla reared back and hurled her spear, impaling the queen and slaying her!  Deska then took the nesting doll and rolled it in the blood, which freed Baba Yaga!

The Queen of Witches ended the magic imposing winter upon the world of Golarion and then shattered the mirror gate.  Next, she restored Erris to life and began granting boons to her champions.  To Deska, she granted the services of a mighty dragon.  Tulvur was restored from his troglodyte form to dwarven form.  To Baknarla, she was given passage back to her tribe on her native planet.  Svala was cured of the demon of alcoholism and became just a rager, not a drunken rager.  Tarik was granted that his bardic stories would be collected and spread around the universe, effectively making his memory immortal.  Keravno was granted the services of great and powerful serpent.  And finally, to Magnus, Baba Yaga officiated at his marriage to Greta and the Queen of Witches granted a special blessing upon their unborn child. 

Before returning the group to Golarion, she offered each the change to serve as one of her riders for 100 years, and three, Deska, Erris, and Tarik took up her mantle.  They were suffused with fey magic and prepared for a new series of unbelievable adventures in service to the Queen of Witches. 

Game summary for August 20, 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), Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Svala Alehorn (Orc Unchained Barbarian played by Todd Hughes), and Tarik (Human Bard played by Andrew Renfrow). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team continued down a corridor and found a large set of double stone doors.  Upon investigating them, they triggered a symbol of vulnerability that afflicted the entire party with massive penalties.  Beyond the doors they discovered Queen Elvanna surrounded by a pair of slimy demodands and three elder ice elementals! 

Elvanna cast mass hold person on the party while one of the demodands dropped an acid cloud on them.  Erris emerged from the fog and was surrounded and devastated by the guardians.  Tarik used bardic performance to enhance the team and then dispelled the acid fog.  Keravno and Svala began advancing as Greta cast enhancements upon Svala’s axe. 

Magnus divided the battlefield with a well-placed blade barrier.  Elvanna blasted the party with chain lightning while the demodands and elementals ripped Erris to pieces by dragging him through the barrier and slaughtering him.  The demodands tried and failed to dispel the blade barrier allowing Keravno time to destroy one of the elementals. 

Baba Yaga was able to infuse Erris’ soul into the two stone idols near Elvanna and animate them!  He was able to control them as shield guardians and found they contained powerful curses cast by the Queen of Witches!  Queen Elvanna fell victim to a mighty curse causing her confusion as the team began to advance.  Svala slew a demodand, and the team rallied as Magnus channeled positive energy.

Will they be able to take down the Queen before she recovers her wits or her minions rip more party members to shreds?

Game summary for August 13, 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), Keravno (Aasimar Fighter played by Peyton Harmon), 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 rounded a corner and were attacked by four taotieh!  The animated cat statues pounced and slashed the team with deadly claws, but a number of spells and attacks later, and the creatures were defeated.  In the rubble, they discovered an instant fortress! 

The group moved down the hallway and heard a horrific howl.  The wendigo had arrived!  Several of the party cowered in fear, but Baknarla ran up the slope and attacked!  The wendigo ripped into her with fang and claw and began ripping off strips of flesh!  Baknarla was dragged back down the hallway while the team found several of their spells failing against its spell resistance.  The group began to get frustrated until Tulvur and Keravno’s cold iron weapons proved effective.  Magnus healed Baknarla while Deska hit the wendigo with a finger of death!  Erris recovered from his fear and joined the fray, and the team pressed in.  The wendigo would have been far more deadly but for Magnus’ communal resist energy.  It was unable to slay Baknarla, and the team advanced and cut it down!

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. 

Game summary for June 25, 2019, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Erris (Arctic Elf Bloodrager played by Casey Scruggs), Svala Alehorn (Orc Unchained Barbarian played by Todd Hughes), and Tarik (Human Bard played by Andrew Renfrow). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team continued past the fire giant chamber and found a horrific room like a scene from the Nine Hells with the screams of the damned filling the air and moving images of devils torturing souls lining the walls.  They watched a handmaiden devil slay a woman as they entered.  Her companions, half a dozen erinyes moved to attack!  Tarik cast a wall of force to divide the room, but the devils used teleport to move around it.  Arrows flew into the bard as Erris and Svala ripped into the devils appearing all around them.  Tarik then cast fool’s forbiddance and confused several of the creatures. 

With their leader partially out of the fight, the rest of the devils were hard pressed under the onslaught of Svala and Erris.  Desperate, they summoned bearded devils into the room, but they also fell victim to the fool’s forbiddance!  The devils could not rally and fell one-by-one to the party. 

After mopping up the devils, the team searched the room and gathered some equipment.  They then opened the double doors and found an enraged frost giant that cut Svala with a devastating axe blow!  Greta went berserk but had to tumble past the giant to get into the fight in the tight corridor.  The team landed several heavy hits, but it was finally Greta’s axe that brought the monster down!

Beyond the giant, the team found rime covered doors emblazoned with a symbol of a hut on chicken legs surmounted with a crown of icicles. 

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.