Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for January 1, 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), and Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team had an audience with Queen Esmyra of the maftets and agreed to help her defend her city against invading nuckelavees in return for her taking them to the tree under which Baba Yaga’s death is allegedly buried.  The Queen was supposed to offer herself as sacrifice to the nuckelavees to spare her people, but the party used that as an ambush on four of the monsters.  The creatures unleashed horrible diseased breath weapons that harmed several of the party.  However, Shatha breathed cold upon them, and Magnus’ holy aura struck two blind.  Deska and Magnus converted weapons to cold iron using magic.  Tulvur slashed away with Icebiter, and Deska called down divine fire to devastate the creatures and then finished some off with fire snake.  In a few short moments, the creatures were killed.  Deska’s scouting owl overheard several nuckelavees in the water give the order to invade.  The team then tried to convince the Queen to take them to the tree right away, but she refused saying she would only do so once her city was safe.  The group reluctantly decided to help but seriously considered abandoning them to their fate.  They divided the citizens between the two buildings and kept the owl patrolling.

Game summary for December 27, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Deska Starseeker (Half-Elf Druid played by Kaliegh Averdick), Iguruzu Koshin (Human Monk played by Peyton Harmon), and Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The party went into a pool in the back of the cave and activated a portal leading to a small islet in a massive ocean.  Deska cast eagle aerie, and the team rode on eagles for six hours heading West at the direction of Baba Yaga.  As the sun started to set, they spotted a great golden city on a heavily-wooded island.  A half-dozen maftets swooped in demanding something of the party in a language they did not understand.  Magnus cast communal tongues and learned they were being told the island is off limits.

Moments later a fearsome popobala swooped in and its fear aura drove most of the maftet away.  Deska hit it with a quickened flame strike and then blinded it with sunbeam.  Magnus then protected the team with holy aura while Koshi drank a potion of fly.  The blind popobala faltered and dropped in elevation.  Koshi leaped off his eagle and charged in midair to hit and the grapple the monster!  Both plunged into the ocean!  Deska then wild shaped into a great white shark and dove in after them!  She swallowed both.  Koshi—grappling, drowning, and being digested by Deska—continued to constrict the drowning popobala and squeezed the life right out of it.  He was then expelled by Deska.

Game summary for December 18, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Erris (Arctic Elf Bloodrager played by Casey Scruggs), Iguruzu Koshin (Human Monk played by Peyton Harmon), and Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Greta lopped off Mametqul’s head, and they placed the head and crown in the cabinet causing a portal to open.  Going through, they found themselves back at the pool by Vigliv’s tree!  They were suddenly urged to submerge the head and crown in the pool.  Doing so, the matryoshka doll once again opened further.  Suddenly, the team could distantly hear Baba Yaga speaking telepathically in their heads!  They also surged with additional power, becoming either more resistant to physical damage or spells.  Vigliv emerged and tasked them with finding Baba Yaga’s death, which she mystically bound into an athame, hid in the chest of a corpse, and buried under an oak tree on Buyan island.  Baba Yaga then told them how to find their way to Buyan.  Magnus then asked Vigliv how to get to Buyan.  Vigliv pointed the direction Baba Yaga told them.

The group ascended the cliffside pathway and found four gugs and a gug savant!  The slavering creatures loped forward to attack.  The creatures tore into the party with rending claws and vicious bites.  The gug savant hit them with unholy blight.  Erris hastened the party and Magnus unleashed a prayer.  The gugs badly wounded several of the team, but the party landed a series of great attacks too.  Then, Magnus blasted two with a maximized flame strike.  Erris cast displacement on Magnus after he suffered a beating.  Koshi mixed ranged and melee attacks to great effect, and Erris charged into the fray to protect Greta who was staggered by the gugs.  The gug savant made the battlefield a challenge with spike stones and transmute rock to mud.

The fighting was intense, with horrible wounds inflicted on either side, but with Magnus’ clerical talents, the team avoided severe injury.  Finally, all were defeated, and the team found several valuable treasures and Baba Yaga’s mortar and pestle!

Game summary for December 4, 2018, 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), Iguruzu Koshin (Human Monk 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 party hid themselves in the treasure room and rested.  They then flew back to Mametqul’s tent, and he beckoned them in.  After entering the tent they were attacked by him and his six companions who revealed themselves as pairaka and shira div!  One of the shira hit the party with waves of fatigue.  Spells and blades began to fly as the two sides tore into one another.  One of the pairaka charmed Erris and convinced him to leave the tent.  Deska discovered the div were all immune to fire when her fire snake failed to harm them.  Then, Mametqul hit Deska with a devastating disintegrate spell!  She survived but was badly injured.  Koshi grappled one of the pairaka who attempted to inflict him with disease, but his monk resistances shrugged it off.

Deska then unleashed the cauldron of overwhelming allies and summoned three frost giants and a purple worm!  Magnus cast holy smite and lead blades and waded in.  Tulvur and Shatha landed numerous tremendously powerful strikes, wearing away at defenses.  Baknarla’s hatred of evil outsiders made her particularly effective against the monsters.

After a short but horrific battle, the tent was torn to shreds and all the divs slain.

Game summary for November 27, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: 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.

While waiting for the wall of force to drop, Magnus cast disrupting weapon.  The team then charged out and killed the two baykoks still standing around watching them.  They went into the next room and found a holding cell where it appears people had been tortured in the past.  Next, they looked out a window overlooking a massive chamber.  They realized it was a throne room, and in the throne sat an ice-encased skeletal figure!  The group jumped or rappelled down the ten feet to the floor which awakened Queen Bremagyr!  She came rushing forward firing a polar ray into Magnus, and the team charged to meet her.

The team landed several blows and were amazed by the Queen’s resilience against their attacks.  She then ripped into the team cause several to burst into blightfire!  As the mystic fires burned, the Queen recovered from her injuries!  Shatha was devastated by the fires and driven to the back.  Tulvur stood his ground by suffered grievous wounds that would have felled a lesser troglodyte.  Deska used the cauldron of overwhelming allies to fill the room with large and huge fire elementals!  She and Magnus then fired off numerous flame strikes, some of which were dispelled by the Queen’s spell resistance.  Tulvur’s sword, Icebiter, proved effective due to its flaming properties.

The Queen’s frigid cold aura continued to harm the elementals, but there were so many they landed enough blows to keep her moving back.  Soon several of the team were suffering from blightfire, and their life force flowed freely into the Queen!  Magnus channeled positive energy and blasted her after he identified her as a winter wight.  Then, Tulvur critically hit her with Icebiter, which rocked her backwards.  Deska finished her off with a beautifully-timed fire snake!

The group nursed some wounds and claimed her crown.  Deska noticed it was just a cheap trinket though, so they searched in earnest and found a hidden chamber overhead.  Within lay a fortune in gold, jewels, and magic!  Amidst the items, they found the real crown, and Deska put it on her head.  She immediately received a vision of her holding up Mametqul’s head with the crown upon it, and she placed it upon a shelf in the cabinet in the back of his tent.

Game summary for November 13, 2018, 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), 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 party moved around and opened another door leading to a short stairway.  At the top, a quartet of baykoks awaited and attacked!  Baknarla was struck and paralyzed and dragged out of the way by Greta.  Magnus cast a maximized flame strike up the stairs and hurt the enemy badly.  Erris tried to acrobatically charge up the stairs but didn’t quite succeed.  The baykoks unleashed volleys of arrows into him while Erris began inspiring the team.  A second flame strike helped put an end to that encounter.

Once up the stairs, the team searched the room and found a burlap sack full of loot beneath a loose flagstone.  They chose one of the two doors and found a room filled with mud and muck.  Baknarla nudged it, and three omox demons rose up to attack!  At the same time, half a dozen baykoks came up behind them!  Tarik walled off the baykoks with a wall of force while Baknarla and Erris moved into the room with the demons.  The demons filled the room with acid fog, which inhibited vision, movement, and dealt acid damage.

Magnus tried to cast blade barrier through the wall of force and ended up with the blades on his own side!  Slashed badly by his own spell, he had to fall back.  Tarik began dispelling the fog, but the demons kept bringing it back.  One omox tried to suffocate Erris but was slain by Baknarla.  Greta frantically began healing party members.  Magnus cast prayer on the party and moved in.  A combination of various acid resisting spells helped turn the tide and allowed the team to vanquish the demons!

Game summary for November 6, 2018, 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), Tarik (Human Bard played by Andrew Renfrow), and Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team entered a large vaulted room filled with horrid fleshy lemure devils toiling away to help a red-skinned pit hag cage swarms of hellwasps.  The devils oozed toward the doors as the party appeared, and the hag began using magic to open the hellwasp cages.  Baknarla hurled a grenade into the room, but by the time it exploded, many of the devils were pressed into the doorway and out of harm’s way.  The hag hurled a fireball out the door and hit everyone.  The hellwasps began flying about stinging anyone and everyone, including the devils.  The pain of the stings caused some of the team to become nauseous from pain, and Shatha was injected with a powerful poison.

The group found the lemures easy targets, but their numbers kept the party from advancing effectively.  Shatha breathed ice, Greta cast cone of cold, and Deska unleashed a barrage of flame strikes.  Both sides activated walls of fire to divide the battlefield into what became a raging inferno.  Fortunately, several of the party warded themselves with resist energy.  Erris got caught up in a couple of swarms, which slowed his advance.  Tarik hit the hag, and several allies, with a shout.  It successfully deafened the hag but also Baknarla!  Tulvur and Erris found their weapon attacks against the hellwasps completely ineffective.  Baknarla kept pressure on the hag, driving her slowly back.  She hit most of the team with waves of fatigue and then affected Tarik with crushing despair.  The poor bard also got nauseated and poisoned by hellwasps.  The team continued making progress, though.  Then, Shatha succumbed to poison and fell over paralyzed!  Tarik stumbled about close to doing the same.  The hag was struck down, and the swarms were either destroyed or driven off.  Finally, as the team stood in a heap of stinking lemure flesh, Baknarla’s grenades exploded due to her standing in the wall of fire!  Several of the team were blasted with concussive force.  However, the group was able to recover their wits and use some restorative ointment to remove poison from Shatha and Tarik.

Game summary for October 23, 2018, 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), 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.

The team quickly healed themselves and rushed into the room once again.  The baykoks had gone back up to the balcony, and the team found themselves under fire.  Deska summoned a triceratops and four woolly rhinoceroses into the fray!  Svala unleashed a barrage a sharded axes while Tarik used spider climb to ascend to the balcony.  Tulvur and Shatha flew about and unleashed carnage with Icebiter and Shatha’s frosty breath weapon!  Baknarla rushed in and hit several of the creatures with a grenade scavenged from the Russian soldiers days before.  Magnus took to the air using air step and brought his blade to bear against the undead.  The combined carnage of the rampaging herd of dinosaurs and rhinos and the onslaught brought by the team was too much for the baykoks, especially after several turned on each other thanks to Tarik’s song of discord.  In a few moments, the team defeated them and then fortified the area and used magic to hide a campsite within.

Game summary for October 16, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Erris (Arctic Elf Bloodrager played by Casey Scruggs), Iguruzu Koshin (Human Monk played by Peyton 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 baykoks in the chamber unleashed a barrage of arrows at Magnus, injuring him badly.  Erris scooped up Deska’s bones into his backpack.  Koshi was paralyzed by a baykok arrow and fell into the water.  Tarik inspired greatness and cast song of discord on a group of baykoks, causing them to fall into battle with one another!  Soon the warsworn and baykoks were fighting among themselves.  Magnus fell unconscious from arrows, and Greta carried him out.  Erris then slammed the doors shut.

Greta revived Magnus who then healed himself.  The team layered buff spells like haste and good hope while the baykoks and warsworn finished fighting.  The warsworn then trampled the party.  The last baykok was cut down out of the sky while Koshi hit the warsworn with a fireball and Tarik hit with shout.  Greta put a baneweapon on Magnus’ sword.  He then charged the warsworn and killed it!  The team then used a scroll to remove the negative levels from Greta before planning to get back into the fortress to face the other 10 baykoks.

Game summary for October 9, 2018, 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), 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 rushed the fortress, and Magnus flew up to the gate house where he was attacked by an Abyssal retriever!  He proceeded to critically hit it with his holy sword!  Several of the team flew up, including Tulvur and Shatha, with Svala carried in the dragon’s claws.  Svala was dropped on the roof where he finished off the retriever!

The team saw the flooded inner courtyard and floating bodies.  They flew over to a landing and were attacked from behind by a massive warsworn, a conglomeration of dead bodies into one mass!  The monster began beating Greta and draining levels.  Baknarla dropped a sleet storm on it so the team could slip through the doors and get away.  Tulvur spurred Shatha into the air, and they charged blindly into the sleet where they eventually crashed into the wall!  Koshi tried to punch down the doors, which rang out like a bell.

The team began throwing themselves against the door trying to break free the rust.  Deska assumed swarm skin and skittered in as a swarm of army ants and began breaking free rust.  The team struggled and struggled against the door as Greta continued getting hit.  The noise brought the attention of four flying baykoks!  The creatures swooped in to attack as Magnus crashed through the doors carrying Greta.  He looked up at the balcony and found nearly a dozen more baykoks pointing their bows down at them!