Charles Plemons' Blog

Game summary for December 29, 2018, Small Adventures campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Small Timers. Session included: Elsbeth Blackburn (Half-Elf Druid played by Maddy Smalling), Reth Steelarm (Half-Orc Fighter/Rogue played by Luke Smalling), Ricktar Bloodaxe (Orc Unchained Barbarian played by Noah Smalling), and Valetin Krupova (Halfling Paladin played by Jared Smalling). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team figured out the stairs were occupied by a haunt, and they sought to put the spirit to rest.  The haunt again tried to shove them down the stairs but failed.  At the bottom, the discovered a broken skeleton and surmised the haunt was this individual.  They also found a door that they eventually got open to reveal a holding cell with scratch marks all over the walls.  Ricktar entered and was attacked by two walcofinded pirates!  The hungry undead tried to eat him, but the team was able to destroy them and perform a burial for the haunt’s bones as well.

They again tried to get through the door cursed with the black spot but to no avail.  Elsbeth then turned into a raven and scouted the Mermaid’s Lament once again.  Should could see a glow and skeleton in the captain’s quarters, so she landed by the door and turned into a rat.  Behind her, three putrescent shamblers rose up and attacked!

The team tried to rush across the gangplank but were stalled by the nauseating creatures.  Elsbeth was badly hurt and squeezed under the door to try and find safety.  Instead, she found the skeletal champion of the pirate captain!  It attacked with twin short swords and cut her down.  Valetin and his dog jumped the gap from land to the ship and engaged.  Reth and Gretchen were dumped into the sea when an exploding shambler destroyed the plank!  Ricktar jumped across too, and the fray was frantic.  Valetin summoned celestial apes to attack the captain, but he kept cutting them down with ease.  Finally, the team cleared the top deck and saved Elsbeth’s life.  Searching the captain and his quarters, they found his magical armor and swords, a crossbow, an everburning torch, a magical ring, some expendable magic items, a concertina, and a key.

The group then opened the hold and found it partially flooded.  Ricktar jumped in and found it inhabited by a giant jellyfish!

Game summary for August 11, 2018, Small Adventures campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Small Timers. Session included: Elsbeth Blackburn (Half-Elf Druid played by Maddy Smalling), Goshik Trakar (Elf Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple played by Jack Smalling), Reth Steelarm (Half-Orc Fighter/Rogue played by Luke Smalling), Ricktar Bloodaxe (Orc Unchained Barbarian played by Noah Smalling), and Valetin Krupova (Halfling Paladin played by Jared Smalling). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team bashed open the doors into the pirate lair and moved inside.  They were quickly attacked by three reeking putrescent shamblers.  The creatures carried a fast-acting plague of horrific proportions in their claws.  Several of the party were infected, but the shamblers were quickly brought down.  Some antiplague and potion of remove disease resolved the infections.

The group explored the chamber a bit and decided to investigate the ship.  They learned more shamblers lurked on the vessel, so they started checking out doors around the chamber.  There was a large stone door with a lock they were unable to pick.  In trying, though, Goshik was cursed with the black spot!

The party looked around and found a pit filled with undead dogs!  On the floor in the back lay an old key.  Goshik hit them with a fireball and then flew out over the pit and was suddenly snagged by a jumping dog!  It pulled him to the floor and the pack tore into him.  His allies jumped in to save him and found themselves under attack as well.  Valetin summoned a celestial ape to aid his allies and then jumped in astride his dog.  The group took down the dogs and then healed their wounds.

With key in hand, they went to the stone door and found the key was not to it!  Frustrated, they went to another door and found a winding stairwell.  Suddenly, a ghostly pirate appeared and tried to shove Reth down the stairs!

Game summary for March 10, 2018, Small Adventures campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Small Timers. Session included: Elsbeth Blackburn (Half-Elf Druid played by Maddy Smalling), Goshik Trakar (Elf Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple played by Jack Smalling), Reth Steelarm (Half-Orc Fighter/Rogue played by Luke Smalling), Ricktar Bloodaxe (Orc Unchained Barbarian played by Noah Smalling), and Valetin Krupova (Halfling Paladin played by Jared Smalling). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team was accosted in the night by a pair of massive saltwater merrow!  The sea ogres swam up and snatched Reth and held him underwater.  Valetin rode closer to hurl alchemist’s fire, but he too was snatched up and held underwater.  Goshik cast a fireball that hit a merrow, Gretchen, and the boat!  Elsbeth used call lightning to blast the other merrow, and Ricktar entered a rage and hurled himself off the boat!  He sank his axe into the merrow’s chest and plunged into the water.  Meanwhile, Valetin called a celestial shark to his side to maul the merrow trying to drown him.  Reth managed to slay the merrow with his punching dagger, and Elsbeth killed the other with her spells.  After the battle, Elsbeth repaired damage to the Victory using her warp wood spell.

The next day, the team arrived at the island and rowed ashore.  The Captain agreed to wait for them for two days.  Along the beach, a chuul burst out of the sand and paralyzed Goshik.  It began eating the sorcerer while the team trudged through the sand trying to rescue him.  The team hit the creature with everything they had, and finally Ricktar’s mighty axe chopped it.

The group followed the map to a stairwell in the cliffside, and they discovered it extremely slippery!  Several of the party fell off and hurt themselves crashing down to the ground.  Elsbeth used wild shape to fly up and look in the cave.  She waited for the rest of the team at the entrance.  Suddenly, horrible moans erupted from the cave as two cloakers attacked!  The team used fly spells and potions to get up the stairs quickly.  Valetin summoned a celestial ape while Reth was engulfed by a cloaker and thrashed about!  They discovered the cloakers were vampiric and draining blood!  Elsbeth accidentally brought a flame strike down on top of the entire party, burning them all.  However, that turned the tide of the battle, and soon the team took down both cloakers and entered the cave!

Game summary for December 16, 2017, Small Adventures campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Small Timers. Session included: Elsbeth Blackburn (Half-Elf Druid played by Maddy Smalling), Goshik Trakar (Elf Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple played by Jack Smalling), Kyras Sonata (Afflicted Werewolf Half-Elf Monk/Rogue played by Noah Smalling), Reth Steelarm (Half-Orc Fighter/Rogue played by Luke Smalling), and Valetin Krupova (Halfling Paladin played by Jared Smalling). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Venture-Captain Jalden Krenshar sent the Small Timers to the criminal city of Riddleport to seek a sextant hidden in the pirate haven of Bloodhull.  They believed the sextant had a secret compartment holding a map and journal fragments.  A pirate had read part of the journal before losing it in a card game.  He claimed the map led to a lost chest that could contain books from long-lost Thassilon.

The team rowed boats out to Bloodhull, and Elsbeth wild shaped into a rat to look around.  She was spotted by two Hook Crooks pirates who decided a rat would make a fine meal.  They gave chase, but she slipped into another room through a hole in the wall.  While several of the pirates got stirred up looking all over for the rat, Elsbeth found the sextant (and the map!) in a chest.  She wild shaped into a raven and flew off with it to reunite with the team.

The party then hired Captain Jioti Frank of the Victory to sail them to the island on the map.  The first night out, a full moon rose over the calm sea.  As the light shone down, one of the new crew members transformed into a wereshark!  Much to their horror, Kyras also transformed… into a werewolf!  They recalled him getting bit by a werewolf the previous month!

Elsbeth bravely took her wolf and went toe-to-toe with the wereshark while the rest of the team focused on Kyras.  Their former friend tore into Goshik and Reth until Valetin used smite evil and hammered him with divine power.  Gretchen climbed the stairs behind Elsbeth and began enhancing her abilities with spells like heroism and bull’s strength.  The team decided against trying to cure Kyras of his affliction.  Instead, they killed him.  Meanwhile, Elsbeth defeated the wereshark!

The team did not have time immediately to mourn the loss of their friend, because in the fray, Goshik accidentally set the sails on fire!  As the blaze roared, Valetin communed with this deity and managed to summon an elemental of water to put out the flames!

Game summary for November 18, 2017, Small Adventures campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Small Timers. Session included: Elsbeth Blackburn (Half-Elf Druid played by Maddy Smalling), Goshik Trakar (Elf Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple played by Jack Smalling), Kyras Sonata (Half-Elf Monk/Rogue played by Noah Smalling), Reth Steelarm (Half-Orc Fighter/Rogue played by Luke Smalling), and Valetin Krupova (Halfling Paladin played by Jared Smalling). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

The team advanced into Pilvi’s tower and discovered an armory.  The group noticed a suit of articulated armor in time to avoid a surprise!  It attacked with its axe, and its chest cavity opened to reveal an auto-loading crossbow!  It attacked Kyras with the axe and shot a volley at Valetin.  Kyras dented the armor with his fists, and Valetin pelted it with sling bullets.  Elsbeth and Gretchen began casting enhancement spells such as bull’s strength, barkskin, and bless.  Goshik used magic missile while Reth moved up and utilized his punching dagger.  In short order, the team brought the automatron down.  Searching the area, they found several weapons and one of particular interest for their halfling paladin, a +1 air outsider-bane longsword!

In the next room they found a pair of large lightning elementals who rushed forward to target party members using metal weapons or wearing metal armor.  It seemed to attract the creatures and make them more accurate in their attacks.  Valetin discovered his new sword was particularly effective against these creatures, and the team quickly took them down.  Under a loose flagstone they discovered a stormward amulet.  Next, they explored the water closet.  There was nothing of interest.

Down another flight of steps, the team found a great library.  They explored a bit and turned up a formula for a long-lost spell called elemental surge.  They also found some glowing panpipes.  After some extensive study and examination, they unlocked the secrets of the pipes.  They transport the person playing them, and everyone touching him, to a location within the tower, the summoning chamber.  If played from within the summoning chamber it returns you to the library.

The group explored a bedroom and triggered a ruptured harmony trap on the wardrobe!  This caused Gretchen and Reth to attack the party!  Reth nearly killed Goshik, and Gretchen tried to finish the job.  Then, inexplicably, she healed him with magic.  The group figured out the discord came and went, and they used tanglefoot bags to glue Gretchen and Reth in place until the enchantment passed.  In the wardrobe, they recovered a robe of useful items.

Finally, the team played the pipes and entered the summoning chamber.  They discovered a half-fiend djinni trapped within!  It hit the team with unholy blight, and a second half-fiend djinni, previously cloaked by invisibility appeared.  Gretchen cast blessing of fervor, and Elsbeth cast bull’s strength on Valetin.  Goshik unleashed a fireball and then blinded one of the djinn with blindness/deafness.  The group thought things had fallen apart when another djinn appeared, but they soon figured out this one was a mere illusion.  Bolstered by his new magical sword and his paladin smite, Valetin led the way in vanquishing the twisted creatures.

With the tower cleared, the team was able to recover Pilvi’s spellbook, On Bluster.  They found it filled with wind and weather spells including three long-lost spells:  aspect of the four winds, thunderbolt, and wresting wind.  The group realized they can now use the tower as a base of operations utilizing the pipes, but now they have to figure out a way to get down from the flying tower!

Game summary for August 19, 2017, Small Adventures campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Small Timers. Session included: Elsbeth Blackburn (Half-Elf Druid played by Maddy Smalling), Goshik Trakar (Elf Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple played by Jack Smalling), Kyras Sonata (Half-Elf Monk/Rogue played by Noah Smalling), and Reth Steelarm (Half-Orc Fighter/Rogue played by Luke Smalling). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Tower to the Sky adventure, part 2.

The team traveled to the moonlit clearing to search for the four-leaf clover.  While searching, a werewolf pack came charging to the attack!  The lycanthropes had a number of wolves with them as well, and the pack closed ground as Goshik hurled a fireball into their midst.  The party pulled forth silver daggers and met the beasts in a brutal battle in the shimmering moonlight.  Elsbeth called down blasts of lightning from the sky as her own wolf tripped an enemy wolf to the ground.  Reth and Kyras engaged in vicious close-quarters fighting, and Kyras suffered a nasty bite from one of the werewolves.  Eventually the team took down the pack, retrieved the packlord’s heart and a four-leaf clover for the mysterious Oz.  They returned to his cabin and woke him up which greatly annoyed him.  He slammed his door in their faces.  The next morning they tried again, and Oz was more receptive.  He placed the heart in a box and then brewed some kind of tea with the clover.  He then agreed to give them the information they needed.  He directed them to the top of Rutger’s Climb in two days’ time and warned a clan of pegataurs would likely try to stop them from attaining the tower.

Sure enough, after a rough ascent, the team found themselves nearly at the peak when accosted by a trio of pegataurs!  The winged centaurs fired arrows in the fierce winds to moderate effect.  The team tried to fire back, but the wind was too strong.  The pegataurs swept in, dropping their bows and drawing swords to charge in.  Elsbeth stepped right in front of one, and he crashed into her!  Both took damage from the impact.  The team split in half, leaving their henchman priestess, Gretchen, alone.  A pegataur attacked her, and she defended with her sword.  Kyras and Elsbeth took on one pegataur and took him down while Goshik and Reth took down another.  The team then closed in and defeated the third.  Just in time, they ascended the mountain and made the leap up onto Pilvi’s magical inverted tower!

Atop (below?) the tower, the team found a trapdoor.  When they tried to open it, a magical glyph flared to life and summoned a huge air elemental!  The monster buffeted the team with its mighty fists.  Goshik unleashed a fireball as Kyras tried to punch his way through the trapdoor.  Reth and Elsbeth tried throwing alchemist’s fire, and Gretchen began healing and enhancing the party with her magic and urging them to fight for their lives!  Kyras continued trying to open the door as the rest of the team took the fight to the elemental.  Reth began to devastate it with his magical dagger while Goshik’s fire and Elsbeth’s lightning landing one-two punches over and over.  Inspired, Kyras abandoned the door and moved into the fray.  Finally, Reth managed to slay the creature, dismissing it back to its own plane!

Game summary for July 29, 2017, Small Adventures campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Small Timers. Session included: Goshik Trakar (Elf Sorcerer/Dragon Disciple played by Jack Smalling), Kyras Sonata (Half-Elf Monk/Rogue played by Noah Smalling), Reth Steelarm (Half-Orc Fighter/Rogue played by Luke Smalling), and Valetin Krupova (Halfling Paladin played by Jared Smalling). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

Tower to the Sky adventure, part 1.

The party signed on for another quest on behest of Venture-Captain Jalden Krenshar of the Pathfinder Society.  They set out to the nation of Andoran and the Darkmoon Woods hoping to find out a way to get onto the cloud tower of elementalist Samir Pilvi.  Allegedly, this tower had flipped upside down and was protected by buffeting magical winds.  However, every so many years from the proper mountain top, you could leap up onto the tower.  The party was told to seek a hermit named Oz who supposedly knows which mountain the team needs to climb.

The team traveled to Andoran and headed toward the logging community of Falcon’s Hollow.  Along the way, they were ambushed by a hunting wyvern!  It poisoned Kyras and hurt him badly, but an antitoxin gave him the edge he needed to survive the injury.  Goshik hit the creature with a fireball, and Valetin hit it with a magical frost sling stone.  The wyvern landed and engaged Valetin in close melee.  Reth charged in and cut it down with his punching dagger!

The party then came across an abandoned lumber mill.  A man shouted out to warn them of some kind of sawdust creature that had just killed his friend!  He then tried to flee but fell down and impaled his leg on a rusty gaff!  Sure enough, a cloud of sawdust rose up and approached him!  The team surged across the bridge to save him.  Valetin summoned a celestial worker ant from the heavens, and it began fighting the sawdust slough.  A hurled vial of alchemist’s fire burned the entity badly.  Kyras was eventually able to bring it down, and then he quickly provided first aid to the man using his healer’s satchel.  The man, Koljek, told them he was from Falcon’s Hollow and had come out here seeking anything he could salvage from the ruins with his friend Noren.  Noren did not survive the sawdust.  The party helped the man bury his friend, and they found several treasures in the weeds, remnants from previous victims.

Before long, the team arrived at Falcon’s Hollow and met the Sheriff.  He told them how to find the old hermit, Oz.  The group also went to the local temple of Iomedae to hire a cleric to help them in the endeavors.  They agreed to hire on a young woman named Gretchen Silverhand.

The party traveled to meet Oz and found him an interesting character.  He is perhaps a halfling who lives in an old shack under a rainbow.  He sat on his porch blowing smoke rings while the team tried to convince him to aid them.  Mostly, they annoyed him.  Finally, he agreed to tell them which mountain if they agreed to the following terms:  1) pay him 500 gp, 2) retrieve his lost chest from a cave filled with black-furred creatures, 3) bring him a four-leaf clover picked under the light of the full moon in a nearby meadow, 4) bring him the heart of the werewolf packlord.  The party agreed and set out in haste to the cave.

Much to their chagrin, the team discovered the black-furred creatures were giant skunks!  The stinky monsters put up a vicious fight and sprayed musk all over the team.  After a while, the team was able to defeat them and recover the chest.  They returned it to Oz who opened it with glee.  He unpacked a carefully padded tea set and made himself some tea.

Game summary for June 10, 2017, Small Adventures campaign, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, for Small Timers. Session included: Elsbeth Blackburn (Half-Elf Druid played by Maddy Smalling), Kylar Van Bane (Human Sorcerer played by Jack Smalling), Kyras Sonata (Half-Elf Monk/Rogue played by Noah Smalling), Reth Steelarm (Half-Orc Fighter/Rogue played by Luke Smalling), and Valetin Krupova (Halfling Paladin played by Jared Smalling). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

J1: Entombed with the Pharaohs adventure, part 3.

The team found themselves trapped in the weight room for a while and was able to make camp and rest.  They tried a number of things to escape, but it was Valetin’s eagle eye which eventually spotted a release lever that allowed them to reunite with Kylar in the hallway by raising the barrier wall.

The group took the golem-powered elevator up to the final floor of the pyramid and discovered a room filled with an equation.  One of the hieroglyphs morphed every so often in some kind of countdown.  The team surmised it had been counting down for thousands of years and would reach zero in just a few more years!

The team then discovered a room with a telescope, and looking through found an encircled rune!  Reth went past them and found a sarcophagus.  He hurled a dagger at it, breaking the seal!  The Pharaoh of Numbers came pouring out as a black mass of ghostly numerical digits.  It began violently attacking the party, even forcing itself down Valetin’s mouth and nose and clawing him from within!  Valetin used smite evil, Elsbeth became an air elemental and flanked it, and Kylar unleashed a barrage of scorching rays.  Kyras and Reth moved in and struck repeatedly.  Finally, the creature was slain.

However, a secret door opened, and the pharaoh who they lost track of on the floor below emerged!  She hit the team with a lightning bolt and then belted Valetin with magic missiles.  The paladin once again used smite evil while Elsbeth wisely flew over to flanking position.  The party closed in and took her down.

The team ransacked the room and collected all the treasures.  They then went into the secret alcove and down a ladder into the last pharaoh’s tomb.  It was there Kylar saw the last encircled rune he had yet to view, and he transformed painfully into a mummy!  He immediately used spider climb to scale the walls and protect himself with mage armor.  The team began trying to hit him with everything they could.  He launched a fireball in their midst, burning several of his former allies badly, but he caught himself in the blast as well.  He died in a fiery conflagration and plummeted to the ground.

Saddened by the loss, the team looted his corpse.

The team fled the pyramid and found much of their treasure turned to worthless lead!  They dumped the junk and climbed on their camels.  Not far out, they discovered Paracount Justilar was almost atop them.  The team began fleeing through the desert using their various talents to distance themselves from their pursuers.  Neferet began slowing them down, and they discovered she was a traitor loyal to the Paracount!  However, Valetin was able to convince her to change loyalties for a share of the treasure!  They escaped the Paracount, returned to the city of Sothis, and there made good on their debts.  The Small Timers then arranged travel out of Osirion and returned to Jalden Krenshar of the Pathfinder Society and turned over several antiquities to the order.

Game summary for April 22, 2017, Small Adventures campaign, for Small Timers. Session included: Elsbeth Blackburn (Half-Elf Druid played by Maddy Smalling), Kylar Van Bane (Human Sorcerer played by Jack Smalling), Kyras Sonata (Half-Elf Monk/Rogue played by Noah Smalling), Reth Steelarm (Half-Orc Fighter/Rogue played by Luke Smalling), and Valetin Krupova (Halfling Paladin played by Jared Smalling). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

J1: Entombed with the Pharaohs adventure, part 2.

Following the battle with the embalmed entrails, the team found a “safe” corner of the pyramid to make came and nurse their wounds.  The next morning the group decided to descend to the lower floor to explore.  They discovered a room filled with gold coins and wealth too great to count.  Elsbeth used wild shape to assume owl form and flew up onto a wall to look around.  To her horror, she discovered the room from up above makes the shape of the encircled rune of the desert!  She shifted back to human form and yelled back her findings to her companions.  Behind her, a mummified blue dragon emerged from the coins and blasted her with its electricity breath weapon!  It then flew up on the wall with her and bit her savagely!  She wild shaped into a raven and fled at top speed!

The team had a moment of panic as people ran up and down the halls trying to figure out if they fight or flee.  Kylar hurled a fireball into the room and injured the monster.  Neferet stood seemingly dumbfounded at the door muttering to herself.  Valetin charged in activating his smite evil ability!  He was unable to reach the dragon, so he hurled his sword, but it fell well short.  Reth followed him in and hurled a dagger just as inaccurately.  The dragon jumped down and mauled Valetin, but he was able to smite it with sling stones!  Elsbeth lit it up with flaming sphere while Kylar unleashed scorching ray.  Much to their dismay, the team discovered the mummified dragon had an encircled rune of the desert inscribed on its chest, exposing most of them to another portion of the curse.  Finally, Reth ran up the dragon’s back and drove his dagger through its skull, ending its reign of terror.

The team decided to stuff everything they had with gold, go and make charcoal rubbings of the history room above for the Pathfinder Society, and then flee the pyramid with a fortune.  Much to their chagrin, they discovered some sort of curse prevented them from going beyond the runes reading “Point of no return.”  Valetin studied a while and deduced that defeating all the pharaohs would break the curse and allow them to leave.

The group returned to the treasure room and cautiously opened the stone sarcophagus they had found.  Within they discovered a desiccated body.  Afraid, they poked it with sticks.  When it didn’t move, they burned it to ash.  They then found a secret compartment filled with puzzle pieces.  One was another rune, but the other they believed overcame this pharaoh’s part of the locking curse.

The group rode up the golem “elevator” to the third floor.  They found illusions showing life in ancient Osirion as if they were windows looking out at the people around the pyramid.  The team entered a room with a floating glowing sarcophagus.  About halfway into the room, the team ran into some sort of barrier or wall.  The sarcophagus opened, and an oddly beautiful mummy emerged.  She began speaking to them in Ancient Osirion but quickly grew bored even with Neferet translating.  She opened a secret door and sat down on a large throne as a cat-headed panthereon golem entered the room!  She threw a level, and suddenly the entrance collapsed trapping most of the team in the room but Kylar on the outside in the hallway!  They found the floor was now on a counter balance, and the golem dragged weights out of alcoves onto the floor which caused his side of the room to sink down and the party’s side to raise toward the ceiling!  The group realized with enough weight, it would crush them alongside the old brown bloodstains on the ceiling.  They discovered weights in alcoves on their side, and a frantic race ensued with each side pulling weights down onto the floor.  The floors went back and forth until the mummy tried to “tip the scales.”  She summoned an earth elemental!  The heavy creature gave a significant advantage, but the team still held their own pretty well.  After a while, the elemental dissipated back to its own plane, and the sudden shift in weight caused the golem’s side of the platform to fly upward and smash into the ceiling, destroying it!  However, the team is currently trapped between the rocky floor before them and the fallen slab behind them.

Game summary for April 1, 2017, Small Adventures campaign, for Small Timers. Session included: Elsbeth Blackburn (Half-Elf Druid played by Maddy Smalling), Kylar Van Bane (Human Sorcerer played by Jack Smalling), Kyras Sonata (Half-Elf Monk/Rogue played by Noah Smalling), Reth Steelarm (Half-Orc Fighter/Rogue played by Luke Smalling), and Valetin Krupova (Halfling Paladin played by Jared Smalling). Game Master for this session was Charles Plemons.

J1: Entombed with the Pharaohs adventure, part 1.

The team was sent to Osirion on behalf of Jalden Krenshar of the Pathfinder Society to meet with the Mithral Scarab.  This contact allegedly could provide information about the lost pyramid of the Four Pharaohs of the Ascension.  They arranged a signal they would use to identify themselves to the Mithral Scarab at the Sothis city auction.  The group bid on numerous items related to the pharaohs and interacted with several other patrons of the auction.  They met the nefarious Paracount Julistar and got in some bidding wars with him.  They also met a halfling and half-orc they did not realize was in league with the Paracount.  In need of a translator, they hired on Neferet Anu, a local woman able to read Ancient Osirion.  At last, they met up with the Mithral Scarab.

The Scarab led them to a crazy man wearing a blindfold who told them all about his failed foray into the pyramid of the Four Pharaohs approximately 50 years before.  He warned them of the curse of the encircled runes which turned his former ally into a mummy!  To avoid ever seeing the last rune, he has lived with a blindfold ever since.  He gave them enough information to get started on their quest by seeking the funeral mask of the pharaohs which could call back the pyramid from another plane of existence.  During the conversation, they found the halfling spying on them on behalf of the Paracount!  They let him go and followed him back and learned a bit more about his operation and his plan to steal the mask!

The team discovered the mask was in the museum, but in speaking with the curator they learned it was a fake!  The team made friends with him and learned the location of the real mask with the rich businessman, the Crook Bearer.  The team went to meet with him and bargained with him to use the mask in exchange for a cut of the treasure.  He sent them with five armed thugs… er… guards, to protect his interests.  They then went back to the curator and arranged with him to let the Paracount steal the fake mask so they could follow him.

The team waited until nightfall and watched the heist from afar.  They trailed the group outside the city where they had a group of camels ready to go.  The Paracount better examined the mask and learned it was a fake!  Enraged, he threw it into the sand and led his group back into Sothis.  The characters trailed him and enacted a brave heist to break into his home and steal his star charts showing the location of the pyramids right out of his lap while he dozed!  The group then ran out and stole all the camels as well.

Along the way through the desert, the group got into a fight with a hieracosphinx.  The beast temporarily deafened Kylar, but otherwise the team beat the creature soundly.  After a few days travel, they found the pyramid location and used the mask to call back the pyramid of the Four Pharaohs!  Kylar used his slippers of spider climb to scale the pyramid and drop a rope down for the others.  The group scrambled up and entered the tomb.  Down the hallway they found runes saying “point of no return.”

Further in, the group fought a mummy that tried to kill them!  The team used fiery magic and brute force to cut it down.  Deeper in, the party found a room filled with hieroglyphs, and they learned numerous stories about the pharaohs, many of which were quite disturbing.  They also found a strange “elevator” operated by some kind of stone automaton that could scale the walls of the pyramid.

In a large chamber, the team found 56 wax-sealed jars.  From within one, they could detect magic.  Elsbeth and Kylar melted the seal and unleashed swarms of embalmed organs!  The horrible bits of flesh and sinew tried to choke, claw, and gag the party to death.  Elsbeth used cure moderate wounds like a weapon and dealt great damage.  In a moment of desperation, Kylar unleashed a fireball that hit the entire party but also burned to death all the organs.  As the smoke cleared, the team realized they had been freed of the monsters.  They heard a ring hit the ground, and to their horror, some of the party saw one of the encircled runes!

Still, the rest of the pyramid beckoned begging to be explored.