Charles Plemons' Blog

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.

Game summary for March 13, 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 (Alseid 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 party listened to the double doors before them and heard a deep voice talking on the other side.  The group stepped back and cast a plethora of spells upon themselves and each other including staples like bless, prayer, shield of faith, mage armor, greater magic weapon, and more.  Baknarla then summoned a greater ice elemental.  Ready, the team burst into the chamber and found themselves in a long ice-covered room.  On the far end, on a 15-foot raised platform with no stairs sat Yrax and Cesseer of Ning.  It was obvious Yrax was protected by a mirror image spell.  Baknarla dropped a sleet storm on the dragon to try and blind it not realizing the dragon could see perfectly fine in those conditions and hit them back with freezing fog.

The party started to struggle getting across the icy floor.  Shatha snatched up Svala and Magnus and flew across to drop them on the platform.  As they arrived, they were hit by Yrax’s cold breath.  They survived but were a bit injured.  Baknarla hit Yrax with ice storm, but the very minor damage was healed when Magnus was forced to channel positive energy to recover himself and Svala from the breath attack.  Yrax then flew across the chamber and attacked.  His frightful presence overcame Shatha and Magnus and drove them into full panicked retreat.  He then cast displacement upon himself.

The party turned about and came running back to the dragon, but he simply flapped back up into the air and flew back into the falling sleet and disappeared.  The party began to get frustrated and meander a bit not knowing where the dragon would go next.  Yelnoth cast wall of fire into the sleet in an effort to drive the dragon out into sight.  Magnus had fled into the sleet as well and tried his divine presence ability to invoke sanctuary.  It did not work.  The dragon ripped him apart.  Meanwhile, Baknarla’s elemental got to Yrax and hit him several times.  Yelnoth summoned a fire elemental, and later was able to dispel the sleet storm.  This forced Yrax back out into the open.  He flew down among the party and hit them again with his breath weapon.

The team was able to close in around him, and several really hard hits were landed in quick succession.  Yrax found himself in a bad situation unable to fly away without getting lots of hits, so he tried to take down Baknarla.  She was staggered, and before collapsing unconscious, she drove her spear into Yrax.  He shuddered under the impact, and Greta hit him again with her axe.  Reeling from these blows, he was unable to withstand the onslaught from Svala who chopped him down!

The team did not pursue Cesseer, who true to her word, stepped away from the fight.  Instead, they spent some time getting Magnus reincarnated, this time as a Garundi human.

Game summary for March 6, 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 (Alseid 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 group found their way into the kitchen and met Yrax’s chef, an enslaved nereid named Viveka.  She was overjoyed to get to cook some flavorful food for the party.  It was not good.  In fact, it was terrible; however, she appreciated their honest assessment.  She gave them some information about Yrax, but she flat refused to scheme against him directly.  Since he owns her shawl, he can kill her on a whim.  She did tell them Yrax has a bodyguard named Cesseer they should speak with.

The group followed the nereid’s directions and found Cesseer training.  They spoke for a while with her particularly interested in the Dancing Hut.  She was able to reveal that she is honor-bound to confront those threatening Yrax.  However, if one of the party were to defeat her in single combat, she would have fulfilled that requirement and would stand aside if present when the confronted Yrax.  Baknarla agreed to fight her, and in a brutal hand-to-hand tussle, the monk was knocked out!  Deska brought her back to consciousness, and Cesseer hinted how they might find their way to Yrax.

The group returned to the throne room, and Magnus used detect magic to find a section of strange wall high up near the ceiling.  Deska used spider climb and found an illusion masking a corridor.  The team scampered up and found a long stairwell.  At the bottom they emerged onto an icy floor in a room occupied by an elder ice elemental.  The team charged in, but Tulvur found himself hit several times by the elementals brutal frigid fists.  Yelnoth unleashed a wall of fire as Deska cast flame strike.  Coupled with the flaming swords and axes several of the team carried, the elemental was weakened.  Baknarla brought it down with a nasty blow from the spear.

Game summary for February 27, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Deska Starseeker (Half-Elf Druid played by Kaliegh Averdick), Kenwrec Battleglaive (Kobold Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Alseid 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 moved up to a door, and Deska listened with her ear trumpet and heard nothing.  The team opened the door and found a library filled with dragon-sized books on history and military strategy.  Finding nothing of interest, the team went down another hallway.

The team came upon what may be an enormous audience chamber or throne room.  A raised dais held an ornate dragon nest and a human-sized throne.  Deska went up to investigate, and glass golems animated all around the room!  Yelnoth summoned another ankylosaurus to engage one of the golems, which kept it confined to one corner.  Magnus cast lead blades and went charging up the stairs to help Deska.  The druid was pressed by one of the golems, and although she used windy escape to reduce her injuries, she began to bleed.  Tulvur and Kenwrec moved into the fray while Greta cast baneweapon on Kenwrec’s axe.  Yelnoth dropped haste on several members of the team, and Shatha began to work over a golem with his glaive.  Deska cast swarm skin and became a swarm of army ants.

Yelnoth used cold spells to slow some golems, as did Shatha with his breath weapon.  Magnus ended up having to cast heal on himself after sustaining several hits.  Most of the team was bloodied by the glass golem attacks, but the team methodically bashed them into pieces and won the day.  Following the victory, Deska again climbed the stairs.  She sat in the throne and farted in it out of spite.

Game summary for January 30, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Kenwrec Battleglaive (Kobold Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Alseid 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 crept forward and found a three-way corridor and saw some kind of massive skeletal creature moving up one direction away from them.  They decided to go straight and avoid it.  They came upon a huge chamber displaying skeletal remains upon raised plinths.  Three other exits led out of the chamber.  The group advanced, and four bone golems animated.  Yelnoth was trapped in a bone cage almost immediately.  The group figured out some spells were ineffective, but Magnus was able to slow the constructs with channeled positive energy.  Greta cast bull’s strength and shield of faith on Svala.  Kenwrec, Svala, and Shatha waded into melee combat.  The golems hit hard, but having been slowed, they were greatly reduced in effectiveness.  Shatha unleashed his breath weapon, and Yelnoth summoned a fiendish ankylosaurus!  The team quickly turned the tide of the battle, and soon piles of bone lay all around.  Realizing they could use the ankylosaurus for a short time longer, the team darted after the skeletal creature they saw earlier.

The team came upon the fossil golem in another intersection.  The creature’s pincer-like skull hands dealt horrendous wounds.  Kenwrec was hit with a staggering blow of epic proportions.  Somehow, he remained standing, but he was in terrible shape.  Svala was also hit and turned partially to stone!  Yelnoth unleashed his own breath of cold air, and Shatha followed suit.  Greta cast baneweapon, granting Svala’s axe even greater enhancement against constructs.  Magnus observed the creature and made several key deductions of which he warned the entire party.  The group rallied and brought the construct down in a heap of bones.

Game summary for January 23, 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), Svala Alehorn (Orc Unchained Barbarian played by Todd Hughes), 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.

Following the death of several allies and the reincarnation of some, the team encountered a sorcerer named Yelnoth who had deserted from the Drakelands.  He soon joined the cause, and the team found a chamber with seven bodies frozen in ice.  While investigating, a roper plunged from the ceiling trying to impale Deska!  She sidestepped, and it began whipping its paralyzing strands all about.  Deska pinned it with a wall of stone, and the group swooped in and killed it.  They thawed the ice using Yelnoth’s wall of fire, and they found the body of Sarnok.  They claimed his magical items, and Baknarla agreed to help them try and slay Yrax.

The group exited the crevasse near Ivoryglass.  They disguised themselves quite well as members of the Drakelands army and allowed Yelnoth to do the talking.  They avoided several patrols and one awkward conversation with a hydra-handler.  The group found themselves standing before the doors of Ivoryglass and several armed guards.  Yelnoth stepped up and told a lie of epic proportions so convincingly, they just ushered the team right through the doors and locked the gate behind them.

A bit shocked, the group continued into the gardens of Ivoryglass where they were challenged by a half-dragon destrachan.  They decided to just ignore it.  This perplexed the creature for a bit until it finally blasted them with a cone of cold.  A fight erupted, and the team swarmed around the creature.  It took devastating shots from the party and was soon dead at their feet!

Game summary for January 18, 2018, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: Denessia Rapidarma (Dwarf Gunslinger/Paladin played by Casey Scruggs), 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 Ten-Penny Tacey (Halfling Rogue played by Shane Bradley). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team took their first steps into the Rimekeening Crevasse, a massive glacial fissure stretching down hundreds of feet.  Deep in the depths of the world, they came upon a mated pair of frostcrawlers!  The reptilian monsters leapt to defend their lair and unhatched egg.  Svala charged and killed the first with a single hit!  The rest of the team converged on the second and brought it down with only a slight injury to Magnus.  Next the team decided to try and hatch the egg and keep the monster within as a pet.  Magnus successfully hatched the egg.  The hungry creature opened its mouth for food several times.  When none was forthcoming, it blasted Magnus with lightning and tried to eat him!  The team brought the young down in moments, with only slightly more injury to Magnus.

Deeper into the fissure, they came across what Ten-Penny recognized to be a carnivorous crystal!  The fearsome entity could petrify members of the party and eat them!  It was not fully aware of them, so they tried to run past it.  This got its attention, and its subsonic hum stunned Denessia.  Most of the team ran on, leaving her behind.  Baknarla doubled back, as did Magnus.  With the benefit of blessing of fervor, the team was able to get out of the range of the crystal and outpace it, leaving it far behind.

Quite some way into the crevasse, the team noticed something burrowing beneath them.  Suddenly, a frost worm burst up and began trilling!  Several of the party swayed in fascination at the sound, doing nothing to help.  Moments later, a second frost worm arrived and blasted the party with a breath of cold.  The trilling worm was brutally hit by several members of the party.  It stopped trilling and also breathed cold.  The combined effects hit almost the entire party, and the team was in very, very poor shape.  The worms then began biting.  Kenwrec was bitten nearly in half and swallowed.

Magnus hit back with flame strike while Baknarla and Svala tried melee.  Ten-Penny was grievously injured, and Greta was able to heal some of her wounds.  Ten-Penny consumed a ditch dram to heal further and turn invisible.  Denessia then shot the first worm and killed it, cause it to explode in a shower of piercing shards and freezing air!  This blast killed Ten-Penny outright and badly injured everyone else, including Greta and Shatha.  Fortunately, both shrugged off the cold effects.

The team continued to trade powerful blows with the surviving worm, and things looked very bleak.  Finally, Denessia shot this one dead as well.  It also exploded.  The second explosion almost eliminated the entire party.  Greta, Baknarla, and Shatha held on by a thread.  Svala only survived due to her drunken rage!  Greta quickly healed her what she could.  Magnus and Denessia were slain by the second blast.  In total, four members of the party died in the epic battle!

The group fled to nurse wounds, meet up with Deska, and reincarnate those they could.  Kenwrec and Magnus came back to life in all new forms…  Denessia and Ten-Penny’s souls refused to return and went on to their final rest.

Game summary for January 2, 2018, 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 Averdick), Kenwrec Battleglaive (Kobold Slayer played by Peyton Harmon), Magnus Erlingsson (Human Cleric played by Chris Harmon), Ten-Penny Tacey (Halfling Rogue played by Shane Bradley), and Tulvur Xandersen (Troglodyte Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team tried to communicate with the wolf-like alien they encountered.  Magnus cast comprehend languages and started to understand her.   This led to finding out she can speak Triaxian, which Shatha could also speak.  Baknarla, an adlet, told them she believed them to be the “destined ones” foretold in prophecy of old.  The party agreed to go with her into a deep crevasse in search of Sarnok, an adlet hero who disappeared long ago.  She wants to prove to her tribe he existed and she found the body.  She offered to give the party his famous spear he used to kill multiple dragons.  The crevasse runs alongside Ivoryglass, so the team may be able to ascend and approach Yrax’s lair unnoticed.

The party and Baknarla the adlet set out for the crevasse.  Along the way, they ran into a herd of ice runners.  Some of the birds smelled Tulvur and headed for the party.  A furious battle followed with flame strikes, charging horses, glaive-wielding dragons, exploding pistols, swarm skin, and more.  The fighting was bloody but quick, and soon the birds were slain or driven off.

Game summary for December 26, 2017, Reign of Winter campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Phoenix Gaming Club. Session included: 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), Ten-Penny Tacey (Halfling Rogue played by Shane Bradley), and Tulvur Xandersen (Dwarf Fighter played by Taylor Averdick). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

With the siege nearly broken, Commander Pharamol asked the team to strike directly at the enemy commander, General Malesinder who was even then trying to rally the troops for one more assault.  The team contacted their mercane merchant and purchased a bunch of potions of invisibility and cast numerous enhancement spells upon themselves.  They then swooped in to attack the general.  They found her on the battlefield barking orders, they ambushed her.  It began with Tulvur trying to gracefully dive off his bonded dragonkin and instead face-planting invisibly in the snow.  He tried to make up for it by demoralizing the general, but since she could not see him, it was just odd sounds among the retreating army.  Ten-Penny bravely stepped up and fired a ­dragon-bane bolt given to her by Commander Pharamol.  Sadly, the bolt bounced of the general’s scales.  The team began to swarm in, and their dragonkin ally, Efrixes, breathed fire over the general.  Deska tried to end the fight with baleful polymorph, but it did not take.

Malesinder was close to surrounded, and she desperately tried to drive her enemies back with her icy breath.  It did tremendous damage, but the team already had the upper hand.  She was too swarmed to flee, and she went down beneath a hail of blades and spells.  There was much rejoicing at Spurhorn that evening, and the team was hailed as heroes.  They were awarded the two-headed eagle as payment.  Commander Pharamol told them about a larger army gathered at the command of a dragon named Yrax at a stronghold named Ivoryglass.  Meanwhile, the team tried to puzzle out the meaning of their remaining clues:  a hand mirror and an elephant tusk.  They finally realized they were meant to be combined in name, a looking glass and an ivory tusk…  Ivoryglass.

Several of the Dragon Legion volunteered to fly the team most of the 200 miles to Ivoryglass.  They dropped them off nearby so they could infiltrated on foot.  They came across a wolf-like adlet on the run for her life from two massive ursikkas!  The insect-like monsters had already injured her.  The team engaged and found the monsters hit with tremendous force.  Shatha and Tulvur got in trouble early.  Greta managed to slay one, but soon Tulvur lay dead on the ground.  Finally, the team won the battle and Magnus healed much of the party, including the adlet woman who was being chased.  They began trying to communicate with her as Deska reincarnated Tulvur.  The team was appalled by the sudden horrific stench that assaulted them as his body reformed…